What if The Watcher chose differently?
In a blinding flash of purple five strangers had found themselves transported to a place that had the faintest edge of familiarity to all them except one. “Pietro?” A female’s voice asked and a man replied “Wanda?” every looking to see who had been talking and what they saw was a women dressed in an odd looking crimson dress hugging a man who was wearing track gear and had messy silver hair.
Another woman spoke but she sounded younger and more self-assured than the other “So what’s the job?” She asked and everyone turned to voice a voice they had all heard before “You have all been chosen to serve a higher purpose than had been intended for you. A multiversal threat known as Ultron threatens the verse existence of all that lives in every universe as he seeks to destroy all life in a pursuit of peace.” The watcher explains as they all take a second to process what he had said.
The first to respond in anyway was the man carrying an ancient looking cracked hammer “You should probably lead with introductions before jumping into the whole multiverse crap.” He said “Speaking of I’m Peter Quill, by the way.” He says showing a forced smile as he looked at the group. “Guess we’re doing this then.” The man with the metal arms says as he attaches a shield to the back of his vest. “My name is James Barnes but you can call me Bucky.” Bucky says giving a single nod to the others “Wait you’re alive?!” The self-assured girl askes pulling her hood down “Do I know you?” Bucky askes to which the girl answers “It’s me, Kate!” Kate frantically says.
It takes a second for it to click in Bucky’s mind but the name is familiar “Kate…Kate…Wait a second Kate Bishop?” He quirks a brow “Yeah it’s me but last I saw you, you were dead but you have his shield.” Kate exclaims before toning down until her voice became confused at the realisation “Long stories, kid. Let’s save them for another time.” He says before Pietro speaks up “You said ‘Multiversal’ I don’t understand.” The speedster expresses before another stranger appears behind the bar.
She was dressed in strange garments that looked like something a monk would wear but she gave an explanation of what the multiverse was “What you know as your universes is just one drop in a well of infinite possibilities. Each just a fraction unique from another or perhaps the differences are drastic.” She waves her hand and the image of a space like area appears before being joined by a bright blue line “You may have thought that in your vast universe you were one of kind.” She says before the line branches into various paths.
“For the most part these universe remain self-contained and unaware of each other but what happens when a figure of near infinite intelligence gets his hands on all six of the infinity stones?” She asks before the image changes of that to a world in ruins before travelling out to reveal that it wasn’t just one world but all worlds. “That figure is a threat we have named infinity Ultron and of course some of you are familiar with his prior form.” The woman said looking at the twins.
The exchange a glance “I wouldn’t exact say familiar and I’m going to assume that in whatever universe that this one comes from we failed to defeat him.” Pietro assumes “Yes, when we stopped him from taking over Vision’s body we then stopped him in Sokovia.” Wanda added with a confused expression to which the strangely dressed woman commented again “Like we said, this Ultron isn’t from your universe. The one that he is from is one where he managed to successfully upload his mind into a synthetic body. Following that Thanos arrived after Ultron’s destruction of earth but he had the other five infinity stones.” The woman has a worried look.
She composes herself with a sigh “What matters is that we have all got a part to play in bringing him down and we’re only ones that can. No one of us is more or less important than others. Ultron is going to try and stop us but we won’t let him.” She said as her lips turned up in a confident smile. “What did you say your name was again?” Peter asked “It’s Mystic Marvel but if it’s all the same we can stick to Kamala Kahn.” Kamala answered leaning on the bar “Jeez Kamala the last time I saw you, you were fighting off giant Kree robots.” Kate tilted her head.
Kamala just laughed it off “Sounds like your version of me is a fighter.” Kamala says “She was. She really brought the team together.” Kate sombrely reveals before taking a seat on a nearby leather couch. Bucky then proceeds to speak up “I appreciate the little walk down memory lane with this place but we can’t just walk over to him and ask him stop.” He points out.
The others make various noises of agreement except Peter who makes another point “If he has all six then why doesn’t he just snap us out of existence or you know everyone he doesn’t like.” Quill questions “We believe the only reason that he has failed to use the combined power of the stones is the risk it would pose to his physical form. Even someone as powerful as Ultron is not immune to the effects those items possess.” The watcher explains when Wanda speaks up “It was difficult but I have destroyed one of the stones before. If we separate one from the body and I destroy then we could severely cripple his capabilities.” She suggests.
“Even if we get close enough to remove one of the stones we wouldn’t even know which to choose.” Peter says “Nobody can touch the power stone without being torn inside out by it, it took four of us just to hold it for a few seconds.” He says flipping the hammer over to distract himself from the memory. “As well as that the time stone itself cannot be physically touched in the first place so grabbing it from his chest would prove difficult.” Kamala realises.
Kate comes to a realisation “What about the soul stone? I mean it was mentioned in a long since abandoned AIM project but there it was said that Monica found some old space texts of a stone that gave the wielder the ability to amplify other powers which she was harvesting plenty of.” Kate suggests when it goes quiet again moments before Wanda suggests something she never thought she’d have to do again.
She thought back to her time with Vision and how all that ended when she destroyed the mind stone only for it to be undone by Thanos who just rewound the moment to take It anyway. “If the true body of Ultron is that of Vision then we could disable it by destroying the mind stone. You would just have to keep him in place long enough for me to do so.” She plans.
Bucky then puts a hand on his belt “That’s an objective not a plan. We first to bring him down and keep him grounded long enough for you to attempt that. Before that we need to bring him to us and keep him guessing. A single mistake could ruin everything.” Bucky explains “Great pep talk and everything but I think I should make the plan so then it’s actually good.” Quill interrupts clearing his throat.
He steps in front of Bucky “I’m great at getting people’s attention so I can bring him to us but them someone is going to have to distract him while I grab the soul stone. I’ll say you two can cover that Kamala and Kate.” He assigns and the two nod “Before that the rest of you head to another point and after we get the soul stone we come to you and get the jump on him.” Peter explains before giving the final steps “Once we surprise him we get him down and keep him down until Wanda can destroy each of the stones. Once that’s done we can all go home and pretend this never happened.” Quill places a hand on his hip and leans the hammer on his shoulder “So any questions?” He asks.
The others don’t ask anything “Not really. I think we should get this over with.” Pietro complains impenitently when Kate comments “As far as plans go I’ll admit that I’ve heard worse.” She shrugs her shoulders. The watcher tells them what to do next, “Once you are all ready, you will need to step through that door but once you do my ability to intervene will be limited.” He warns.
They all look at each other and wordlessly nod before they all stepped through it one by one to find themselves placed on a quite alien looking planets which to most was a whole new experience but for Quill it was just another to add to the list. “I don’t see him here.” Pietro stares out into the distant wasteland “That’s because this is where we get his attention while the rest of you head back to this universe’s earth.” Kamla reasons before casting a series of spells that appeared as orange circles around the ledge they were stood on.
As this happens Wanda effortlessly conjures a fire to illuminate the area “We all need to be very careful.” She says before looking at the three that would be helping Quill “We will see you on the other side.” She adds before opening a crimson coloured star shaped portal. Wanda, her brother and Bucky stepped through. “Well before anything else happens, here comes a non-compliant protection spell.” Kamala says before quickly flicking her hands around as each of the team members were surrounded by a golden glow as the outline of enchanted armour appeared around them.
“The hell!?” Bucky exclaims.
“What the?” Kate questions.
“This is new.” Peter comments.
The sorceress then proceeds to give the others a look that could only be interpreted as ‘Now or never, people.’ And to which Quill recalls Mjolnir back to his hand from where he had put it down next to the fire. “Guess we’re doing this.” He says before putting all his aggression and focus into summoning a storm that he’d only seen on planets with half destroyed atmospheres. Once the steel grey clouds were formed he then proceeded to funnel all the lighting into Mjolnir with enough power that, out of the sight of the others, his eyes had been over taken by a bright blue as electricity flowed from them.
The display of power was booming and loud, flashy enough to be considered an risk to eyesight but they all knew that it had worked in drawing Ultron’s attention when they heard both a distant yet intimately close voice speaks in a neutral tone “So there is life in this universe after all.” Ultron said before in the distance a glowing fragmented portal appeared “Alright people, part one of the plan.” Kate shouts drawing her bow as Quill held the glowing Mjolnir is a combat stance with one of his element guns in the other.
Kamla hold two small magic barriers in her hands “Brace yourselves!” She shouts as Ultron raises a hand as small coloured lights illuminate on his chest before the mountain face erupts and collapses beneath sending all of the falling to the floor. Ultron arrogantly believed that he had killed them only to be proven wrong when as he turned to exit to another universe and continue his work, he was stopped when he heard the humans speak once more.
They were surrounded by an orange-golden glow that quickly faded “Jeez, whatever that was it works well.” Quill whistles “yeah but we still have the issue of that.” Kate points before firing a hail of quantum charged arrows that Kamala effortlessly duplicated turning the three arrows into thirty. They each exploded in a cascade of purple demolition and gave Quill the cover he needed. Peter used a mix of his powers thanks to Mjolnir and the jump kit attached to his boots to fly around to the back of Ultron.
The sentient robot quickly glanced over his shoulder before throwing the ravager forwards and back to the others were as he was quickly pulled up by Kate and Kamala opened another portal above Ultron as various figure fell all around the murder Bot. Quill activated his visor to see what was happening and was yet to see the fact that ever since picking up the hammer his visor had the addition of silver wings. “Zombies. Gotta say that’s unique.” He tilts his head before hopping through the portal behind them as Kate and Kamala herself followed as well.
Once they were all through and the portal was closed, they quickly stumbled upon the others “Did you get it?” Bucky asks with the shield on his normal arm as the metal one held a hand out “Like Yondu said ‘Never doubt sticky fingers.’.” Peter answers before opening his hand to reveal the brightly lit up yellow stone before throwing it over to soldier turned assassin turned into just a super soldier. Yet before Bucky could catch it a bike quickly sped past and the stone was caught in mid-air by the rider who turned to face them with a gun drawn.
Each of the group, that Peter had mentally named The Guardians Of The Multiverse because that only made sense, had responded the same Kate raised her bow and arrow whilst Wanda and Kamala summoned some form of magic as Peter aim his own gun and Pietro just stood with his eyebrow raised wondering when he should just step in and get the stone back in less the blink of an eye.
The rider had short, shoulder length ginger hair and wore what looked like a ripped jumpsuit that faded blue lines and a salvaged shoulder pad “Who the hell are you people?” She asked glaring at each of them before seeing the twins “You two!” She exclaimed her frown turned to a near snarl “Natasha?” Bucky asks lowering the shield as his expression softened but she continues to look at the twins with nothing but disdain “Natasha Romanov, you might not now me but I know you. You’re an Avenger but before that you a spy for the KGB. You mothers name is Melina and Your father’s name was Alexia. Where I’m from, you are one of the two people I trust to watch my six.” Bucky says putting his arms up slowly.
Natasha contemplated what to do before lowering the gun with smirk “We must’ve been close.” She says “More than you know.” Bucky agrees but before the conversation can continue they are interrupted by a gateway opening and they all stand alarmed once again.
“You humans are usually much easier to kill and now you have something that belongs to me.” Ultron comments before slowly floating down with a piercing red gaze.
Bucky assumes the role of command “Alright people, this is what we were chosen for. Just remember the plan and keep him down.” He shouts before the all run towards the near all powerful figure. A silver blur quickly sped past them all and Pietro managed to land a series of small hits only for them to be near in vain as Ultron blast him away with the power stone. Bucky throws the shield and as it flies back he manages to a kick to send it back to Ultron again with high velocity. The attack makes the robot flinch.
Knocked ever so slightly of balance, Wanda seized the chance to launch a ball of crimson energy at the villain as Kate ran to the side before shooting smokescreen arrows into the floor to obscure Ultron’s sight. Peter uses the charge from earlier and sends the prior collected lightning towards Ultron in a bright display. Whilst the happens Kamala summons the earlier protection spell for those who hadn’t received it earlier except for one small alteration from the rest.
She then launched razers made from sparks and all these attacks begin to have more and more of an effect on the threat as it starts to return an offense by gathering large chunks of debris with the space stone and turning them into something stronger than diamond before throwing them towards Wanda, Bucky and Kate.
At this Kamala uses her polymorphic abilities to catch two of them before summoning a pink-purple third limb to catch the last one and throw them back. Bucky focuses on Ultron’s legs and aim to keep the being off balance white Black Widow does the same with a similar shield, one that had just red and white and something about it was vaguely familiar to he had seen before but the memory was buried beneath years of programming.
Ultron then fired a series of lasers that were the mixed powers of the stones from his hands as he aims them at Quill who threw the hammer at Ultron he effortlessly evaded it with a tilt of his head. “You might want to try that again.” Ultron deadpans summoning a vortex of energy and trying to ensnare the guardians into it but Pietro was able to move everyone out of the way quickly before running back to Ultron and landing a hit to the AI’s face with made him stumble back.
Without a word between them the guardians managed to coordinate their next move. When Ultron steps back a second, Peter calls Mjolnir back which causes the robot to lurch itself forward when the hammer collides with the back of the robot’s head before Nat and Bucky time their charges at Ultron’s legs perfectly and cause Ultron to fall forward before he is flipping onto his back by a spell from Wanda.
Kamala sees her window and starts the incapacitation spell as a large golden circle appeared in the centre before four others appeared at the limbs as chains appeared. Bucky, Quill, Kate and Pietro each grabbed a hold of one before pulling tightly on them with various grunts of strain and effort. Wanda seized her chance to destroy the stones and flew over before firing a beam of dark red energy at the chest of Ultron where four of the stones were and as a s resulting shifting one hand to the head of Ultron and firing another beam of crimson magic.
They are all nearly blinding by the beaming lights as they continue to try and hold the chains in place under the strain of Ultron’s resistance. “Keep going!” Bucky shouts as the lights grow brighter and the sounds lounder until eventually there’s nothing.
It’s like someone just paused the conflict.
“I’m honestly surprised. After being told that each universe was unique from the others I would’ve thought that you would realise that the infinity stones are a fraction unique as well.” Ultron’s amusement is clearly audible “Know let me show you what they are truly capable of.” He warns before emerging from the rubble with all the stones back in their place. “Shit.” Nat realises that she had dropped it when attacking with the Red Guardian’s Shield.
They had all expected Ultron to use all the stone at once to decimate the planet or snap the out of existence of something of equal threat and magnitude but instead of that there was only the glow of all the stones lighting up. “Brace yourselves!” Bucky commanded but a second later as a beam of power slashed through them. It was followed by explosions along its path that could easily decimate cities yet when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, Ultron was astounded to see that Guardians hadn’t been moved.
Instead they all had some form of protection. “It really does work.” Pietro laughs. “What? How? I can destroy galaxies with a thought! WHY WON’T YOU DIE?!” Ultron shouts once again summoning all the stones and instead creating a burst of energy large enough to consume any galaxy that was close enough and surely that would be enough to kill these damned humans.
His anger only grew when he saw green begin to overlap the destruction as it all reversed back into place. At the sight of this, Ultron returned to the battle and realised something “It’s you.” He muttered looking at Kamala “I kill you and the rest fall.” Ultron then raised a hand and channelled the power stone into near unstoppable waves of lethality. They washed over and wore through the spell that Kamala had granted. Even bucky how held his shield up and dug into the ground with his vibranium arm was struggling to stay in place until eventually he, Kate and Natasha were all flung back to be shortly followed by Peter and Pietro, leaving Kamala vulnerable.
Until eventually Wanda flew down and summoned a chaos magic barrier. Ultron seemed to speak in a clear voice even through the sounds of the conflicting powers and magic. “You know, in my universe you helped me see to end. You helped to me to complete my Vision.” Ultron informed at the name of her fallen partner, Wanda’s magic faltered until it eventually shattered all together. “For that I am grateful but you are just another example of the human race being unable to evolve. Too caught up in their past and unable to see towards the greater future.” The robot continued to monologue whilst being unaware of what the others were planning.
Kamala is still trying to recover from using the time stone of such a grand scale until suddenly a silver blur returns. “You talk to much.” Pietro remarks before punching Ultron various times at almost imperceptible speeds. The AI tries to fight back but each of its various attacks miss as the speedsters moves around him with enough prowess that he manages to narrowly avoid each of the stones’ efforts.
Away from this the rest of the team had started to form a plan. Natasha had been launched near her bike and so near the quiver she had recovered from Clint when he sacrificed himself for her escape. Within the quiver was an arrow laced with what remained of HYDRA. “Listen up.” She say to the others as they each recovered from the impact. “We’re listening.” Peter quips calling Mjolnir back as Kate and Bucky struggled back to their feet.
Natasha explains the plan. “Silver boy has given us the distraction we need and now all we need is a clear target, that on you arm guy and I’m trusting you to take the shot with this.” She says giving the arrow to Kate who inspects it curiously. “I know Clint liked to experimental but what actually is this?” She asks “It’s an arrow with the mother of all viruses. Infect him with it and he goes down permanently.” Nat answers and Kate takes a hold of the arrow with determination.
“And me?” Quill asks removing the dirt of the silver chest plate “Simple. We need a second distraction.” Widow smirks “Of course, well let’s get to it then.” He agrees abruptly flying off in a flash of electricity. As he did that Black Widow picked up bike as her and Kate sat on it “Watch my six?” Bucky asked preparing to leave “Get us that target and you got it.” Nat responds with a smile as Bucky runs up the rubble and debris of a nearby building whilst the other do the same for the current building but with the bike.
As the rest of the team scatter Quill once again finds himself facing down Ultron except he chooses a different method of distraction. “Hey computer brain! Answer me this: What happens when I take this hammer, channel that storm and then shove it up your ass!?” He asks before funnelling the lighting once again and launching a blast of it at Ultron. The effect was instant as he moved back in a mid-air stumble. Before he could recover someone had jumped on the Robot’s back.
Bucky proceeded to use the vibranium arm to rip the mask upwards leaving Ultron’s eye exposed to the rapidly approaching arrow “This was for you Clint.” Kate whispered as she released the string and everyone watched the green tinted arrow fly through the sky with rapt attention until eventually it shattered the weak spot that was Vision’s eyes and the effect was immediate as there was a rupture of black and green energy as Ultron fell limp in the air before falling out of it completely and crashing onto the floor.
Everyone looked at one another “Did…did we do it?” Pietro asked “I think.” Quill answered sitting down and sighing. “It doesn’t feel over.” Bucky glances around trying understand why he still felt in danger. Kate and Natasha quickly came jogging from where the bike had landed or more accurately crashed. “I can’t believe we did it.” Kate pants as Natasha pats her on the back “You did good, kid.” She compliments.
Yet when nobody is looking Wanda approaches the fallen body of Ultron and inspects the glinting gems. To her it feels like they are calling for a new wielder and she is too happy to oblige. She lifts them with her magic as well as the armour before appearing as the true Scarlett Witch before the others. “With these stones we could each make our universes whatever we desire.” She says as the others begin to get into their battle stances again.
“Peter, you could have your mother back. You and Thor could live in peace.” Quill glares at her.
“James, you and Steve could be reunited.” Bucky pulls the straps of his shield tighter.
“Katherine and Natasha, you could restore your worlds.” They both am their weapons at her.
Pietro moves slowly towards her. “Stop this, sister. This isn’t the right thing to do.” He tries to say but Wanda snaps at him “You are not my brother. He died in Sokovia. Just like I did.” She says but they all stop when Vision stands but this time with an almost horror-esque face in his stomach. “Oh no, will be taking those back.” The body says but the voice is different as he reaches out to steal back the stones while Wanda fights it with her own attempts to keep the stones for herself.
An epiphany suddenly comes to kamala as she suddenly realises what they needed to do all along. “We were never supposed to win. We were sent to remove the stones from the body.” She says before summoning all the magic she could to trap the two of them fighting over the stones in both a loop and a micro sized pocked dimension.
It nearly killed her as she used the time stone and all of the dark magic that he she could summon until eventually everything faded out and they guardians found themselves back in the bar. “What was that?” Bucky asks after everyone is still unsure of what even happened. “You did what you were needed to do. You each played a part in saving the multiverse and in doing so each universe owes you a debt but they will not know what you did.” The watcher says “That’s it? Honestly I was expecting some more but I’m happy it’s over.” Quill says leaning heavily on the bar “Dude, don’t jinx it.” Kate complains sitting on the couch.
“At least it’s over and we get to go home now.” Bucky says inspecting his reflection in the shield before once more attacking it to his back. “You do.” The watcher confirms “Once you step through that door you will return to the exact moment you were taken and your universes will continue as if nothing had changed. “What about my sister? Why isn’t she here?” Pietro asked “I’m sorry to say it but she was the next multiversal threat and we used this chance to defeat both her and Ultron.” The Watcher answers.
Pietro contemplates the idea “I get it.” He agrees with a small nod. As he does the door opens with a blinding path almost like what people describe in near death experiences but that didn’t apply for Quill when he technically died for a few minutes. “It’s been good knowing you guys.” Kate waves before taking a deep sigh and returning to her world to set things straight and save it with a little trip through time. “Guess it’s time to teach Stark his lesson.” Pietro remarks walking into the door. Bucky nods to himself before giving Nat a small smile and returning to his world.
Quill goes to leave as well but hesitates a few steps from leaving “You have a question. Ask it.” The Watcher allows and Quill does so “You said that the multiverse was infinite so I was wondering…is there a world where my mom is alive…one where she’s happy.” Quill asks quietly “Yes there is.” The Watcher confirms before showing an image of a world where Peter was never abducted by Yondu as well as one where she never got cancer.
In the image Peter and his mom were celebrating his 16th birthday and they were on the farm as Peter caught her eating a small piece of the Pac-Man themed cake. The image nearly made him cry but instead he smiled at the Watcher instead with a small “Thank you.” Before returning to his world which left The Watcher, Kamala and Black Widow as the last ones.
The ginger haired women looked at the other two “I’m not going back to my world. There’s nothing left there for me.” Natasha says ready to pounce if he objected to her “Well the door was more of a metaphor anyway.” Before with a wave of her hand the two found themselves stood aboard the helicarrier “You sent us to another world.” She observed the chaos and quickly spotted that it looked like Loki’s invasion of new York again but instead of the Chitari it was the actual warriors of Asgard.
“This world lost their widow.” The Watcher mentions “I’m always cleaning up after these guys.” She says before quickly joining the fight as she kicks Loki to side and quickly puts him under the effect of his own staff. “Try that on for size.” She says before looking at Fury “You’re not my Natasha but something tell me you have her spirit.” The director said with a smirk.
Back in the world between the universes Kamala held the geometric orb as the Watcher reappeared “Someone has to make the sacrifice of watching over these two.” The large figure said “I know what I have to do. My family and world were prepared for me to longer be around a long time ago and now I have nothing but time.” Kamala responded inspecting the cube again and seeing the continued effort to steal the stones from one another.
“Besides I have nothing but time.” She says as the green stone illuminates faintly “When the pocket dimension cracks we will need to summon the Guardians again.” She adds knowing that eventually one of the two would win the struggle. “They’ll be ready or the whole multiverse might be in danger.” The Watcher explains.
“No pressure.” Kamala remarks placing the orb on a shelf-like unit where it was joined by many more like it. This had happened numerous times and would continue to happen many more. The multiverse will always have new threats to face but it was always have those who are ready to face the odds and put their lives on the line to protect it.
The lives of infinite amounts of people depended on it.
-End-