Portals
Yankee Stadium
Steve glanced up as the huge tongue of flame from Castle's escape spurted from the box. His current opponent did not. It was a hulking brute that appeared to have had a third arm grafted to the back of its right shoulder blade, or whatever its race used in its stead. The effect was to look like a twisted cross between a scorpion's stinger and a gorilla's arm. Not a pleasing sight, whether it was being leveled in your direction or not.
Had it not been for a flash of movement in Steve's peripheral vision, that momentary distraction would have proven fatal. As it was, he was barely able to get his shield up to block the incoming strike, and there wasn't enough time to brace against the hit. The impact sent him staggering a couple of steps, giving his opponent an advantage. Well, another advantage. One it didn't even have to think about taking.
It followed up on its first attack with a sideways swipe that tore the shield from his glove. Steve dove away from its next attack. He rolled to the side and tried to recall his shield, but nothing happened. A quick glance at his forearm showed that the sending unit had been damaged.
He rolled away from another strike, more on instinct than anything else, glancing around for any inspiration that might adjust his current circumstances. The field had thinned somewhat of Thanos's children; their broken bodies dotted the field, spilling every color of blood (and several inorganic fluids) onto the battlefield. Not that he and his allies weren't still outnumbered by an incredible amount, but the odds were improving.
He couldn't be sure, but he thought all of his people were still alive. Sadly, none were close enough to help him. The aerial unit was doing what it could, but it was spread pretty thin. That their opponents had shown a distinct tendency to hurl whatever they could find (including parts of their comrades, fallen or not) at their airborne harassers wasn't making that job any easier.
Despite his pessimism regarding the lack of available help, as that lumbering brute advanced on him yet again, Quill flew down and peppered it in the back with his improved blasters.
It turned to face its new enemy. As it did so it scooped up the pitcher's plate and hurled it at Quill like a discus thrower. Quill switched his pistols to the shiny new force setting and shot the plate, reversing its direction. But the creature continued the return motion of its throw and batted the plate back.
Sadly, that was as far as their game of hand-plate went; by that point the improvised projectile was moving too fast for Quill to have time to acquire the target and fire. Without his armor jacket, the flying piece of rubber that could at one time have been called a base plate would have sliced right through his torso. As it was, it merely sent him into a tumbling flight with a trajectory that quite literally took him out of the ballpark.
Steve used the diversion to readjust his position slightly around the behemoth creature. A glimmer of a plan had begun to form in his brain. He wasn't sure how effective it would turn out to be; it's biggest selling point was that it was his only plan.
As the brute turned its sinister glare back on him, he took a step back and to the right. He dodged right of its next attack. It growled in frustration and launched a flurry of swipes in his direction. Cap continued dodging. It was almost like a strange form of dance. Back, back and to the right, left, back, but always moving him closer to the edge of the open space they were fighting in. Always making it appear that he was going for his shield.
He figured there had to be a reason why this lumbering monstrosity was being given so much room by its allies. His entire plan hinged on the idea that it had a history of causing collateral damage. Considering its size, it would not be a history of minor collateral damage. If he could just get it to hit one of its allies it might buy him enough time to retrieve his shield.
The downside of this plan was that he was deliberately flanking himself with enemies. If they should show a greater understanding of teamwork than they had so far let on, he would only be making his situation worse. But, when there is no choice only a fool refuses chance.
That didn't mean he couldn't improve his odds though. So, as he made that final dive to the edge of their little ring he straightened up and looked the brobdingnagian nightmare in the eye. Then he held his right arm out straight, palm up. His fingers bent to the vertical, returned flat, and bent again. He doubted his opponent had ever heard of Bruce Lee, but it clearly got the gist of that particular gesture.
It blinked, as if it couldn't believe he'd had the temerity to egg it on. Then it bellowed. Then it charged. Steve sized up the oncoming multilimbed freight train bearing down on him, looking for the best way to not be just another flattened penny. But it seemed to have anticipated that strategy. Its arms were both set away from its body like scoops, ready to catch him if he attempted to dive to either side. Its upper arm was clearly in a position to pound him flat.
Steve took three steps back and one to the right. The thing adjusted its charge. He took another step back, placing himself well within the threatened area of another of Thanos's goons. He itched to look back and check on it, but refrained from doing so. He couldn't afford to risk letting the juggernaut bearing down on him in on his plan. He just had to hope that it was still dealing with something on its opposite side, and trust in his other senses to warn him if that changed.
Time seemed to slow. Half of Cap's mind was focused behind him. The other half was gauging the speed of the oncoming freight train, the rhythm of its steps, the sway of its arms, the hungry glint of its face.
It had crossed half the distance between them when Cap felt the creature behind him begin to turn, no doubt sensing the same danger he was focusing on. By then it was too late. Cap took one more step back. It adjusted again and he sprung forward, sliding between its churning legs. Its upper arm came down, just barely missing his body.
The impact of that massive arm hitting the ground lifted it up, making it impossible for it to adjust its vector before slamming through its nominal ally. Cap bolted across the field to where his shield had fallen. Behind him he could hear the sounds of the two tangled minions fighting.
He almost made it before a sudden feeling made him duck. Half a heartbeat later, the smaller of the two minions came sailing over his head. It missed him by inches. But what it did not miss was Cap's goal. In fact, it impacted the ground directly in front of the shield, sending it flying into the general melee.
Cap stood slowly, eyes locked on the last place he'd seen his shield. He knew he had to move. He could sense Freight Train moving in behind him. Live Ammo was getting up in front of him. No doubt they would sandwich him first, then work out their own grievance.
He turned ninety degrees in order to keep the two of them within his peripheral vision and thought hard. But the best plan he could come up with was very akin to the one that had just failed; keep dodging their blows and hope they hit each other. The biggest downside to that being he had to actually avoid the attacks of two flanking enemies long enough for them to do significant damage to themselves. It was not a good plan. It was simply the best plan he had available.
They'd gotten to within a couple of meters of him when a voice shouted his name from somewhere behind him. Cap turned just enough to see an object flying through the air and grinned.
It was only after he caught said object that he realized that it had not been his shield flying at him; it had been Thor's hammer. He spared one precious moment in realization that he was actually holding it, then turned and backhand swung it into the face of Live Ammo. The minion flew backwards as he turned to Freight Train. He threw the returning hammer at its face, half expecting it to ignore his recall command. But it came back to his hand immediately. He was beginning to see what Thor loved about it.
Only momentarily stunned, Freight Train punched at him with its upper arm. Steve sidestepped and swung the hammer into that massive arm, crushing its last joint. Then he threw the hammer at its face again, catching its return.
The thing swiped at him with one of those massive arms. He tossed the hammer up before ducking under the blow. Thor flew through the air, caught the hammer and swung it against Freight Train's jaw. It staggered backwards as Thor landed besides Cap.
Live Ammo picked itself up and joined Freight Train. The two sides stared at each other for a moment. Then they charged. Thor and Cap danced between the larger creature's blows, passing the hammer back and forth as needed. Thor let his mortal friend use the mythical hammer most of the fight, relying on his own strength and durability. After a few blows another voice popped out of the crowd.
"Hey, did anyone lose a medieval blocky thingy?" Spiderman asked just before launching himself over the two. He hurled the shield to bounce off of both minion's faces before heading towards Cap.
"Thanks," Cap said before tossing the hammer back to Thor. The two minions exchanged a worried glance, which was all the invitation the two Avengers needed to continue the attack. The fight did not last much longer.
Thor and Cap exchanged a glance as the last one fell. "Shall we finish it then?" Thor asked.
"Let's," Cap replied.
They charged straight for Thanos's position, mowing through the enemies in their way. They swapped places as smoothly as if they were two parts of a single machine. They exchanged gear as needed. One moment they would carry their own equipment. Then they'd switch. Sometimes, one would have both.
Thanos watched the approaching duo with mild amusement spread across his face. It was almost like the look a parent might make as they watch their child try to fit a triangle into a square slot.
He let them get to within three meters, then rose out of his hovering throne. He reached behind himself and grabbed it with one arm, swinging the advanced chair in a high arc that ended with Thor's position. Or, his position at the beginning of the maneuver; not one for being crushed by a madman's chair, Thor dodged to the side.
Thanos expected the maneuver. In fact, he'd have had a better chance at hitting Thor if he'd aimed the chair's center at him. But instead he'd aimed it to the right, ensuring that Thor and Cap would dodge away from each other. He capitulated quickly, taking one giant step forward and snatching Thor out of his roll and flinging him off into the distance. His trajectory landed him in one of the buildings surrounding the ball park.
Thanos paid no attention to Thor's flight, instead turning to focus on Cap. He stopped the super soldier's wild swing of Mjolnir with what appeared to be pathetic ease. His right hand shot out, wrapping itself around Cap's torso and lifting him off of the ground. With no leverage, Cap couldn't even struggle. He tried another swing, easily blocked. Then the hammer flew off into the distance. Thanos brought him up to eye level, as if examining an interesting specimen.
"So much wasted effort," he observed calmly, almost pityingly. "You strive to earn the respect of these people, without ever grasping their fleeting, simple nature. You refuse to see that they will always fear you. You fight for them, attempting an acceptance that will never come, for you have not the will to control them. And so, you fight alone."
Steve opened his mouth to respond, but a gunshot interrupted his retort. Not that that sound was in any way unusual in the current environment, but this one was clearly from a .50 pistol. What's more, it pierced Thanos's right wrist, forcing him to drop his suspended opponent.
Both turned to the source of that gunshot just as the stadium lights activated, revealing that source to be one Nicholas Joseph Fury, standing in the aisle. His voice rang out over the thunking sounds of further light activations, and for a moment, it was as if the entire battle stopped.
"Now, mother fucker," he said "who said they were alone?" And as he asked that simple, vulgar question, the columns on his sides erupted with the soldiers that had just taken those positions. As they rose, those at their sides rose, creating what is probably the most awe-inspiring wave in the history of same. Despite the dire circumstances, Steve found himself following that wave around the stadium.
It was not an American wave, despite being on American soil. When those on the first rows rose, they began pushing flags over the sides: the American Flag, the Chinese Flag, the Japanese Flag, Russian, Pakistani, Indian. On and on it went until the stadium's walls were covered with the flags of nations. And more, often than not, the flags of nations with shared enmity were placed next to one another. Over twenty thousand allied soldiers revealed themselves, and every one of them had a weapon pointed at the invaders.
And, out of the bullpens and doors came the remaining army of Wakanda, forming a defensive perimeter around the field. Members of the Border Tribe were spread evenly amongst them. T'Challa searched Okoye out of that crowd, eyes watering with pride for his people. She caught his look, giving only a slight nod; a gesture he quickly returned.
As the wave continued around the stadium another voice, from the opposite side of Fury spoke up. "No, it's true," Secretary Ross said in a booming voice as he slowly descended the opposing aisle. "We often compete against each other. And . . . sometimes, we might just take it too far," he added, turning an apologetic look on Cap. "You're all pardoned by the way," he added before looking back at Thanos. "But it has helped each of us to know our strengths and weaknesses. It has helped us strive to excel, to become better than we were. And it has helped us become stronger, both individually and as a whole, so that when some purple gorilla with a skin condition decides to come stomping around, well we know exactly what we're capable of."
>>
Deadpool and Falcon listened to Ross from where they'd ended up. "Not a bad speech for a pedantic blow hard," Wade commented.
"Ah, the General's not that bad," Falcon replied.
"Actually, I was talking about the writer," Deadpool corrected.
"Wait, you know the General's speech writer?" Falcon asked. He never got an answer.
>>
"So," Fury continued, taking up the conversation "we'll give you this one opportunity to surrender and leave our planet. Or we'll show you just how deep the anthill you've kicked over truly is. Oh," he added as an afterthought "you can leave the gauntlet."
Thanos glared back at Fury's hubris. He started to point out how this minor annoyance of a change made no difference, but was interrupted by a crackle from the gauntlet. Everyone turned one eye on the metal glove, noting that the five stones embedded within seemed to be glowing brighter than before. In addition, there seemed to be a lightshow erupting between the stones. Each was sending small flashes, like little sparks, of its color to the others in what appeared to be a random order.
Thanos looked from the gauntlet back to Fury. The Rancor that had filled his countenance a moment earlier turned to an evil grin. "I must respectfully decline your offer," he said, holding his left arm towards Fury, palm up. A bolt of lightning leapt from it towards the aging spy. Fury tried to dodge to the side, but the bolt caught him in the leg. He yelled in pain, falling to the ground, still smoldering.
Ross spared one concerned look for his friend before giving a single two-word command. "Open up!" he barked. The entire stadium opened fire on the field. It was not one long cacophony of fire, but thousands of single shots and controlled bursts of fire. These people were some of the best in the world, marksman every one of them.
Thanos glared into that storm of metal and issued his own two-word command. "Kill them," he growled. Half of his 'children' broke from their fight to charge the field's walls. The Border Tribe took one pace away from the Wakandan line, now familiar shield blankets raised. Its army lowered their spears in anticipation of the coming wave.
Thor landed next to Cap just as Widow, T'Challa, Bucky, and Jarvis collapsed on his position. The Asgardian king took one look at the field and said 'This is not good."
"How do you mean?" T'Challa asked. "The field has thinned."
"I see what you mean," Cap replied as the wave met the wall. It seemed that several of Thanos's children were able to completely ignore the barriers the shield blankets threw up. Others simply overpowered the bearers, despite the fact that the shields were locked together.
This was the exception rather than the rule, but it did put enemies in the Wakandan line where they could reap havoc. That line quickly collapsed around the breaches, attempting to contain them. The Army stabbed at the breachers, but were caught off guard when their targets continued the assault amid multiple stab wounds. The soldiers in the bottom rows did what they could, but many of them were pulled from their positions.
T'Challa watched the carnage for a moment. "Okoye?" he asked worriedly holding his beaded wrist up to his mouth.
Okoye's strained voice came through one of the beads. "We are holding them," she grunted.
"They're not going to hold," Widow said quietly.
"Okoye will hold," T'Challa replied firmly.
"No, she's right," Jarvis replied. "Their tactics indicate a familiarity with having the force advantage on their side."
"They need someone who's used to fighting outside her weight class," Steve replied as he and Thor turned to Widow.
"Wait, me?" she asked in surprise. Neither of them said anything. After a moment, T'Challa detached one of the beads on his wrist and handed it to her. "You will need this," he said.
The device spoke as it changed hands. "We don't need her," Okoye's voice stated in grunted tones.
"Okoye, you will follow her commands as if they were my own," T'Challa replied firmly. There was a slight pause before the Wakandan general acceded.
"Great, but I still need to get there," Widow replied, eyeing the wall of enemies between her and her allies. No one said anything. Then Thor held his hammer out.
Widow glanced at it and started to shake her head, but something in Thor's eyes halted the motion. They locked eyes for a moment; it was as if he was somehow lending his faith in her to her. Then, without taking her eyes off of him, she reached out and grabbed the hammer's handle. Thor released it. It remained.
"So how do I-uhn," Widow started before the hammer drug her across the field.
"She did say she already knew if she was worthy," Steve quipped.
Widow managed to hold onto the handle as she smashed through the inner circle, landing directly in front of Okoye. She reflexively hammered one of the minions raking at the general before turning around and snapping orders.
"Do not try to match forces," she bellowed as she sidestepped an attack. "Dodge, deflect, use your enemy's momentum against them," she said. Those orders were the first lessons when learning to fight, but overconfidence often blocks those early lessons. And the Wakandans had had good reason to be overconfident for centuries. She continued snapping orders and suggestions while fighting.
>>
Meanwhile, Thanos had been dealing with a different type of obstacle, in the form of one red suited psychotically eclectic Wade Wilson.
"I've seen better sparks when my dick touches the bedrail," Deadpool commented.
"Oh really?" Thanos asked before sending another lightning bolt his way. The bolt launched Deadpool backwards to tumble on the ground behind him. He was still smoldering as he stood back up.
"Okay, that one felt more like a taser," he commented as he brushed at the burn marks in his suit. "But not a good one, kind of bug zapper like," he added.
Thanos frowned before remembering exactly what he was dealing with. He stomped menacingly over to the jester and sent a fist slamming down to crush him. Deadpool dodged to the side, his neutronium katanas' impossibly sharp edges lashing out at that arm. The blades bit into his armor, but did not completely penetrate it. Thanos glanced at the marks made and launched an all-out offensive.
Deadpool dodged and slashed, a small part of him enjoying how prolonging the battle irked his opponent all the more. Most of the time his blades did no real damage, but occasionally he found a chink in Thanos's armor.
After one of these particularly lucky strikes Thanos stopped to glare at the smaller man. Deadpool stared back, appearing completely unfazed. Then he spoke.
"Does your entire race look like that or did you make a conscious choice to have your scrotum stapled to your chin?" he asked.
Thanos sneered in response. Suddenly Deadpool found he couldn't move. It was as if he were locked in an invisible coffin. He looked up to see Banner falling out of the sky and grinned just before Thanos's massive fist crushed him flat.
Thanos turned back around and caught Banner, raising him back to his former height. Then he held the gauntlet out. A two-dimensional doorway opened up even as Widow was hurtling towards the wall. More of Thanos's minions came pouring out.
>>
"So much for that thinning field," Thor said, stomping over to the new doorway. He summoned up a massive lightning bolt that fried the line of troops, leading back through the doorway itself. He had hoped it would collapse the passage entirely, but it remained unaffected.
Thor gasped as a wave of exhaustion hit him. He stumbled momentarily as if he'd used his own life force to power that lightning bolt.
"Hello brother," Loki said from his side. Thor whipped around to see Loki standing calmly at his side. There was barely time for Thor's delight at seeing his brother to cross his face before Loki stabbed him in the gut.
Thor backhanded his brother, sending him sprawling to the ground. He stomped after him saying "Do we really have to do this again brother?"
"Of course we do," Loki replied, picking himself up from the ground to face his brother.
Thor stopped just out of arms reach. "We should be working together against Thanos. Brother, please," Thor implored.
"What; like last time?" Loki replied venomously. "When I got captured?"
"Brother-" Thor started, but Loki wasn't done.
"That's how it always goes," Loki growled. "You get the easy path. I get the hard one."
"Loki," Thor said "if I could have taken your place, I would have. Believe that."
Loki straightened up at that. The rancor seemed to leave his face as he considered that. "You know, I believe you would have," he said. Then he threw a trio of daggers at Thor.
>>
As that sibling rivalry took place, Cap, Jarvis, Bucky, T'Challa, and Drax took places in a semi-circle about Thanos's portal, preparing for the second wave. They managed to do surprisingly well for a short time. Thanos's minions were forced to come through the gate single file, allowing them to team up to kill them before the next could emerge. They were helped by the aerial unit when possible, but the flyers were forced to expend more and more time defending them from the enemies already present.
Tony landed behind Cap to intercept one such enemy. He caught a swinging appendage, breaking it at the joint. Then his shoulder rockets fired into its body. He used his center chest arc to fling it away, right into one of its compatriots. Then the rockets exploded, killing it and stunning its landing pad. Tony blasted off again.
Thanos watched the maneuver with growing irritation. As Tony took to the air, he held the gauntlet out again, this time manifesting a wormhole emitting a massive gravitational pull directly in the tinker's path. Tony was almost sucked in before he could reorient to blast against its pull. But even then, he found himself slowly backing into the orifice.
"Metal man," Thanos said. "You depend on your technology too much. Let's see how well you do on a world without any."
For once, Tony passed on the snappy comeback. He tried angling his vector to escape its diameter, but found that he lost too much ground. If he had to guess, he'd have said Thanos had made the field around the wormhole's perimeter stronger; it was the kind of thing the sadistic monster would do.
"Friday, increase thruster output to one hundred fifteen percent," he said as he searched frantically for a way out of his current fix. The increased power had halted his backwards progress, but it did not solve his predicament. He could increase his power output further, but he risked burning out emitters. Even at this setting he didn't have long before he'd start damaging them. These settings were for short bursts of power, not sustained output.
He wasn’t the only person trying to free himself either; Wanda tried to pull him out, but she couldn't seem to get a grip on his suit. She tried collapsing the wormhole, but it was simply too powerful. And the little bit she was able to do seemed to intensify the hole's pull.
Lang tried to reach him, but Black Dwarf grabbed him and hurled him against the infield wall.
"Next suit gets grappling hooks," Tony muttered.
"There is no guarantee that grappling hooks would hold in this soil," Friday replied.
"Tunneling grappling hooks then," Tony amended.
"Captain," T'Challa said indicating Tony's current situation. Cap turned from the door to see his friend thrusting from the portal for all he was worth. He could see sparks starting to erupt from the suit's overworked repulsors.
"Tony!" he yelled, tearing off after his friend. He dodged one minion, used another as a ramp and jumped towards his friend. He twisted in the air, turning his shield back the way he'd come. He released the energy it had absorbed from all the impacts of the fight.
A light purple beam shot out of the shield, hitting Thanos dead in the face. It propelled Cap into Tony with such force that the tinker was knocked clear of the wormhole. Tony tried to grab for Steve, in hopes of dragging him along, but he missed. Newton's 3rd law took effect, halting the soldier's movement. He fell into the hole meant for Tony.
Tony crashed to the ground and twisted to look at the last place he'd seen his friend. The turn was just in time to see Cap's shield fly back out of the hole, hit the still dazed Thanos in the face, and ricochet into Bucky's hands. The two friends of a friend looked at each other, then charged Thanos.
Tony was half way there when a familiar portal opened up, emitting one Doctor Steven Strange.
"He has the Mind Stone," Friday whispered. Tony did a double take. Strange was delivering the last infinity stone. It seemed unthinkable, but there was no other explanation for his appearance.
There was a moment's battle within him, his need for vengeance fighting his need to do the job. In the end that battle was irrelevant; he knew what Steve would tell him to do if he could. He altered his thrust to try and stop Strange.
Bucky's attempt at vengeance went little better. The loss of some of their air support, and then Cap, had been enough to allow the minions coming through the portal to start stacking up. The blocking team was forced to retreat, moving steadily away from Bucky's goal.
>>
Nor were those two the only ones on the field so affected. Nebula watched Steve disappear down the rabbit hole and something inside of her twisted. It wasn't that she loved Steve Rogers. She didn’t. But he was the only person who'd ever truly seen her. And he'd accepted her. He’d seemed to admire what he saw.
Now he was gone. And she found that, for the first time in as long as she could remember, she was filled with rage. Her survival, even Gamora's survival were suddenly meaningless.
She attacked Corvus Glaive with a blistering assault of strikes not even he could completely defend against. He was able to pick and choose, blocking all of the dangerous attacks and taking the minor ones in stride. But Nebula kept him so busy on the defense that Gamora was able to get a massive blow in against the back of his head with her tonfa.
As he reeled from that blow Nebula stabbed the spear formerly owned by Glaive's wife directly into his chest. She stabbed him three more times in quick succession before charging away from him towards Thanos. Glaive looked down, stunned, at the four enlarging holes in his chest before they ate his torso completely away.
"Nebula!" Gamora yelled after her sister, but the Luphoid continued her mad charge. Gamora made to follow her but stopped and turned to what was left of Glaive. She turned to snatch up the meter and a half long upper section of Glaive's glaive and made a quick survey of the battlefield. There was no point in her keeping it; Thanos never provided his 'family' with something that could harm him, and there was no doubt in her mind as to where Nebula was headed. But that didn't mean one of her friends couldn't use it.
Of all her allies, it was quickly apparent that the one in most dire need of something that could pierce almost anything was Antman. It would be little more than a knife in his oversized hand, but it would still help. She considered hurling the broken weapon at him, but she wasn't entire sure he could catch it by the haft.
"Peter!" she yelled unnecessarily loudly, considering they were all on comms.
"What?" Quill asked, heading her direction.
"Get this to Scott!" she called out in a more normal tone, tossing the half glaive into the air.
Peter took one look to where Lang was fighting Dwarf. It was clear that the engineer was starting to run on fumes. Dwarf seemed perfectly ready for round five. "Right," he said, catching the spear and making off in that direction. Gamora raced after her sister.
Quill glanced backwards just in time to see Gamora crash into the barrier of minions between the two sisters and Thanos. He had to admit, they worked well together; he estimated it would only take them a minute or more to make contact.
He revised that estimate when he saw Thanos heading towards them. Part of him wanted to help, but even his upgraded blasters had shown little in the way of effectiveness against The Mad Titan. Knowing that did nothing to quell that part of him that wanted to double back though.
He turned forward to where Lang was fighting. The electrical engineer had little time left; he'd be dead already if Tony and Rocket hadn't upgraded his suit's primitive leather armor with the impact absorbing weave his own clothes were made of. But that weave had had some hard miles put on it in a very short time. It was scratched and ripped in numerous places.
Quill looked back at Gamora again. The urge to turn back swelled again as he saw Thanos reach their line. He fought it down. The weapon he was delivering would help Antman far more than he could help them. Beyond that, the sisters probably had a better chance of holding out longer than Lang did; they at least knew their opponent intimately. He had to trust that they knew what they were doing. Quill sighed, turning back towards his goal once again, and increased speed.
He turned just in time to see a portal of golden fire open up in front of him. He tried to veer off, but it was impossible to counter the momentum he'd already gained in that fraction of a second. He braced himself as he passed through, expecting to end up in a volcano, or perhaps splatting against a cliff. His suit could protect him from the former, unless he was actually submerged. Whether it could do so against the latter was in question, considering current velocity.
Instead, he found himself on the opposite side of the stadium from his goal. He started off again, ignoring the itch to go faster. He wasn't sure what had caused the portal. By the color, it wasn't an effect of the space stone. It wasn't in any dossier on Thanos he'd ever seen, under the heading 'super-annoying abilities'. Besides, Thanos was still enjoying the sister on sister action.
Nor could Quill imagine Thanos ever giving one of his subordinates such a powerful ability. He took off again, hoping that whoever had created the portal would be unable to do it again, either due to slow recharge or the chaotic nature of combat. Still, he fought the itch to go to max power on his boot jets. He made it half way to Lang before being portaled again. This time it had formed so close to him that he'd only caught a piece of the ring of fire in his peripheral vision. There was no way he could have dodged it.
He hovered back at his starting point considering his options. He could see what was about to happen: he would traverse that same distance an infinite number of times. Going slower had actually helped whomever was creating them. His eyes roamed to Antman and Black Dwarf. Lang was not doing well. He needed the glaive head in Peter's hands, and soon.
He considered throwing the glaive but there were so many things wrong with that plan: One: he probably couldn't throw it that distance, even considering his height over the target. Two: what if Dwarf managed to retrieve it first? Three: what if he hit Antman? He could shoot it with a repulsor blast, but that would create an uncontrolled, and highly dangerous, projectile.
He thought about handing it off to someone else, but no one was more maneuverable in the air than he was. A shell game would take too long to set up.
No, he had to be the delivery boy. With a shrug he blasted off again, this time running his jets even further passed their red line than initially. He juked about in as random an evasive path as he could manage.
He'd made it half the distance to his goal, evading several portals, when he spotted their probable cause; the late arriving wizard floating over the battlefield. Every time he held his hands and arms in a certain position a new portal would appear. He considered shooting him. Even if he conjured more portals to divert the bolts, it would still keep him occupied. The problem with that plan was that Ironman had just flown in the way. Why he wasn't attacking the mystic was beyond Quill, but he'd settle for the distraction.
>>
Meanwhile, T'Challa, Jarvis, and Bucky found themselves being pushed further and further from the blue portal Thanos had summoned. Even after Brunnhilde had joined them they simply didn't have the damage dealing capability to kill Thanos's reinforcements as fast as they could come through.
Ross saw it too, while sprinting around the back of the lower deck, trying to reach Fury. He pulled a radio from his pocket without slowing. "Blocks twenty-seven, through thirty-six," he gasped as loudly as he could "redirect fire, to the portal." He repeated the order twice more, until he saw it taking effect.
The redirected fire helped. For a short time, it appeared it would make the difference. Then a massive monster that didn't even look as though it should be able to fit within the portal's dimensions shouldered through. It soaked up an immense amount of fire as more minions began spilling out behind it. The quartet of fighters found themselves being pushed backwards again.
Spiderman appeared, webbing the creature down as fast as he could. At first, he tried webbing them to the ground, but that just ended with the creature trailed by web streamers. Next, he tried webbing it to its allies. Said allies found themselves going on a ride.
The Scarlet Witch joined that fight as well. She couldn't actually stop the creature, such was its power, but she was able to slow its movements. That allowed Peter to begin tying it up with his webs. Brunnhilde stepped in, delivering several precise stabs with her neutronium Long Cinquedea, killing it. But, by that point, the damage had been done. There were too many minions spread out. They could no longer concentrate their efforts on a handful as they came through. The enemy beachhead continued extending itself, pushing them back.
>>
Tony saw what was happening in his rear view and pushed the urge to reverse course down. As much as he knew they needed him, this was their goal. They were all expendable. All that mattered was getting The Mind Stone off planet. He continued on, mentally blocking out a portion of his calendar for the guilt he knew that decision would create. He put it right next to letting Steve fall into that portal.
Unlike the rest of their allies, he'd known immediately where those portals were originating; he'd seen them before. It had confirmed his worst fear: Strange was working with Thanos. It seemed unthinkable. Tony had never considered himself one who understood people in general, but he thought he understood Strange well enough to know he wouldn't help kill half of the universe.
After the first portal he'd increased speed, trying to get to the sorcerer, to stop him if he must. Although their previous encounter did not exactly fill him with confidence on that score. That confrontation was put on hold as Tony discovered that Strange wasn't using his portals solely to stop the delivery boy.
One opened directly in front of him, sending him above his starting point. Tony tried again without hesitation. But this time he used a combination of anticipatory evasive maneuvers and dumb missiles. Between his evasive maneuvers, the distractions he kept lobbing at his tormentor, and Quill he was able to make it to the wizard.
Tony braked as he neared his target. Strange switched from teleportation circles to conjured arcane shields attached to the front of his fists.
"Strange, what the hell are you doing?" Tony demanded.
"What has to be done," the sorcerer said, mingling determination and regret in his voice. There was also something about his eyes that wasn't quite right. Tony couldn't put his finger on it, but something about his gaze was . . . off.
"Done for who?" Tony asked, dodging a projectile lobbed from below.
"Perhaps you've heard of this thing called the multiverse," Strange replied.
"I can show you the math," Tony replied quizzically.
"Oh, then you know all about Dormammu, The Eater of Worlds," Strange replied sarcastically, continuing to cast spells. Tony chose to ignore it. Not one spell had actually hurt any of his allies, just inhibited their attacks. He could tell that Strange was on some sort of fence. He just didn't know which.
"I must have missed that equation," Tony replied.
"It's a being," Strange explained with just a touch of condescension in his voice "who seeks dominion over all universes. It's made many plays for Earth over the years, and as soon as it unravels the mystery of time it will do so again. Unless someone with enough power stops him."
"Ah, so sacrifice half a universe to save the Earth, is that it?" Tony asked. Strange nodded. "You know, I never pictured you traveling the Mengele path," Tony observed.
Strange jerked as if Tony had backhanded him with a gauntlet. He turned to look directly at Tony. As his head turned Tony saw a small device sitting in Strange's right ear. "This is nothing like that," Strange insisted.
"Really?" Tony said slowly "you both sacrifice people to take the easy route to your goals." This time Strange looked as if Tony had jabbed him right in the nose. He opened his mouth to protest, but that protest died, unvoiced. Strange knew he was right. He knew he was right. But suddenly he wasn't sure why. And suddenly it seemed hard to think.
Before he could work through the implications of that there was an explosion of light from below them. The communicator in Strange's ear came to life. Friday tapped into it so Tony could hear a voice on the other end say "It is time." Strange's hesitation seemed to vanish as he cast yet another portal, this one directly in front of him. The amulet on his chest seemed to unlock itself, and the yellow jewel within launched itself into it.
Tony looked from the portal to the amulet. His chest arc fired a pulse at Strange. The wizard was able to take the brunt of it on one of his shields, but the blast still sent him tumbling backwards. Tony then turned to rocket back down to where he knew The Mind Stone had gone. Unfortunately, another portal opened, sending him back to Strange.
His face twisted in the exact same frustrated look Quill had presented. There was no way for him to get to Thanos, not that he knew what he'd do if did, so long as Strange didn't allow it. Instead he turned viciously on the sorcerer. If he couldn't help with Thanos, he could at least keep Strange focused solely on him. He just hoped he didn't have to kill him.
>>
As that battle of wills played out, another was playing out below. Thanos met Nebula and Gamora, crashing through the wall of his defenders they'd been contending with. The two sisters flanked him by unspoken consent, forcing him to divide his attention. They did quite well at first, far better than any other duo had ever fared versus The Mad Titan.
While unlikely that Proxima Midnight's spear could kill him, it was clear from Thanos's efforts to avoid its business end that it would at least cause him a great deal of pain. It was strong enough to deflect Thanos's blows, and Nebula also found it useful in dodging his attacks, using it as a lever to move herself out of the path of destruction. Occasionally the sheer unexpectedness of such a maneuver afforded her the opportunity of a counterattack, but those openings were few and far between.
Despite Thanos's avoidance of the spear she still found herself being pushed on the defensive more and more. Had it not been for Gamora, she would most likely have been ground under Thanos's boot after the first few blows. Yet her sister's blows with the neutronium tonfa rained down on any open location. They even managed to dent his armor in a few places.
And every time he turned to deal with that nuisance, Nebula would be there, hitting him in a chink in his armor, or tripping him with the spear, or simply knocking his attack off target. Often that last would give Gamora a clear shot at him.
By the third such instance Thanos had seen the pattern; he feinted at Gamora, turning a crushing downward blow on Nebula as she advanced. But he was not the only one thinking in chess terms. Nebula ground the butt of the spear in the ground and leapt into the air, pivoting on its axis. The maneuver moved her just out of the line of crush. She spun in the air, lashing out with the spear to catch him a grazing blow in the cheek. He bellowed in pain, backhanding her out of the air. Despite the blow, Nebula was able to retain control of the spear. She flipped through the air and stabbed it into one of Thanos's minions, using their disintegrating body to soften her landing. Gamora backed off as well, hopeful that the spear would work on him.
At first it looked like it would. The mere scratch imparted to him seemed to grow, almost encompassing that entire massive cheek. But then Thanos's face tightened in concentration and the deterioration reversed course, eventually disappearing entirely. He touched his cheek where the wound had been with the back of one hand.
"I am disappointed, Nebula," he said as that addressed got back to her feet. "You still play this childish game." Then he turned to pounce on Gamora, snatching her out of the air. Nebula howled as she charged him, spear held out in front of her.
Thanos grinned and spiked Gamora behind him. She bounced twice before coming to rest. She struggled to get back to her feet, but found herself to injured to do so. She needed those few moments for her genetic improvements and nanites to repair the damage.
As she watched, Thanos snatched Nebula out of her charge with one hand, grabbing that pesky spear with the other.
Nebula made a futile attempt to regain the spear. Thanos moved it until she and it were flanking him. He then brought her up to his face, watching hers in anticipation. Without looking at the spear, he pressed on the it with nothing more than his thumb. After a moment the spear snapped, releasing a wave light along with a deafening crack.
The light blinded anyone looking in that direction that wasn't protected. Nebula's processors damped it quickly, but she still had the after shadows of that burst playing along her vision. While she struggled with that Thanos turned to a figure lurking in the background of the fight. The pale looking creature with white hair and blue eyes nodded before turning his attention to Strange. He held up a communicator and spoke three simple words into it.
Nebula's vision cleared to see Thanos's now empty right hand reaching towards a ring of fire. A moment later a small yellow object zipped through it, landing in his waiting hand. She barely had time to identify it before it's yellow light flared up. "Nebula," he said, voice dripping with anticipation "kill Gamora."
Nebula's eyes began to cloud. But then, they cleared again. For all its power, the Mind Stone could only affect flesh. Nebula was but half of that, and Thanos no longer had control over the computerized portions of her mind.
As her eyes cleared Nebula glared at Thanos, at what he'd just attempted. For the second time that day her rage burned away even her fear. A thousand responses crossed her mind, but in the end, she settled on the worst. She spat directly into Thanos's bulbous eyes.
Thanos growled in anger, throwing Nebula to the floor. Then he twisted around, catching Gamora just as she'd started to rise. "Gamora," he said, in that same tone "kill Nebula."
Gamora knew what was happening. She fought against the command. She fought against the dissolution of her will with everything she had. But there was no cerebral implant to help her. She had no rock, no anchor to ground to.
Thanos held her just long enough be sure his will would be obeyed before setting her down, like a wind-up murder bot pointed at her sister. Thanos materialized a sword out of the aether and handed it to Gamora. Gamora took it, before turning a cold gaze on Nebula. Thanos stepped back expectantly and socketed The Mind Stone.
"Gamora," Nebula pleaded, heart sinking. Gamora paid it no heed, advancing on her sister. Nebula retreated slowly, realizing that she was not prepared for this fight. She could not fight Gamora, let alone kill her. She just couldn't. The fact that Gamora wasn't even home at the moment, that there was something else that just didn't care in her body, was irrelevant.
Nebula dodged the first thrust, frantically searching for a solution that didn't leave one of them dead. She'd heard that a good hit on the head could clear the stone's control. She figured that was why Thanos had given Gamora a sword. Gamora was the best sword fighter in the family; getting close enough to administer a cognitive reboot would be problematic at best. Nebula's only saving grace was that the sword was made of ordinary material. Nebula continued backing off, dodging and blocking Gamora's attacks with her left hand, waiting for an opening.
>>
From where she watched, Mantis had no trouble seeing Stephen Strange appear through a ring of fire, unlike most of her compatriots. But unlike those few who'd caught his arrival, she was able to see a second ring of fire appear down on ground level, smack dab in the middle of Thanos's forces. She saw the pale figure with white hair emerge from it and wondered how this obvious alien had allied itself to Strange.
It wasn't until she saw that figure glance to Strange and issue a command via communicator, all at Thanos's unspoken order, that she realized his significance. She'd never seen Ebony Maw, but the others had regaled her of his accomplishments in getting them to turn on each other in the caverns below Ahl Agullo. And his reputation for twisting people's minds was quite well known.
She considered using her communicator to warn everyone, but what could any of them do? The only one of them that could possibly have the powerset that could counter Maw's silver tongue was already under his control. Killing him would not lift his hold on Strange; the most insidious part of how he operated was that he convinced his victims that whatever he suggested was the best course of action for them as well.
Her heart fell as she realized there was one person who could release Strange from his control. She gazed out at the battlefield fearfully. She didn't want to go out there. She wasn't a warrior. She had no special skillset to help her cut a way to her goal. She'd gotten surprisingly good at avoiding attacks in the last month. In fact, she actually had the record for longest battle against most of the team simply because she focused on avoiding being hit. But that alone wouldn't get her through that gauntlet.
Yet, she was the only person who could stop this, stop him. Drax's comments from weeks ago came back to her, reminding her that sometimes it was not about the ends, but the effort. She pulled the communicator off of her belt and activated it.
"Drax," she said "I'm coming out."
"No, you are not," Drax gasped in between blows against the waves of Thanos's reinforcements.
"I have to," Mantis replied. "Ebony Maw is here."
Drax paused for a moment as the implications of that statement hit him. "I'll take care of him," he stated, searching for the new high priority target.
"No, you can't kill him" Mantis replied as she stepped out of the tunnel.
"What else do you do with bad people?" Drax asked, sounding confused.
Mantis considered explaining her plan, but knowing Drax, he wouldn't have seen the value. "Just get me to him," she said instead before dodging a minion that had the bad misfortune to get in the middle of the fight between the two Asgardians.
Drax caught the miss and scowled. She reminded him so much of his little sister. And, just like that little sister, when her mind was made up nothing was going to stop her. His only choice was to let her die, or kill their target after escorting her.
"I'm on my way," he said, turning to drive through the enemies between the two of them.
>>
The Nova Prime surveyed the battle plot before her uncertainly. None of her ships had escaped damage, but neither were any of them more than lightly bruised. The same could not be said for their Shi'ar, and Kree 'allies' though. Many of their ships had already been driven out of action. Others were severely damaged.
It wasn't just the Nova Corp's superior shields that contributed to that imbalance, she knew. Shi'ar ships, while less well defended, were unmatched in maneuverability. They also had some of the best ship to ship weapons in the galaxy.
Even so, it was the Kree bombardment vessels that had proved to be the greatest threat to The Sanctuary Two. Their ship to ground weapons didn't always hit. Indeed, half of those fired had had to be detonated as they passed their massive target. But when they hit, they did massive amounts of damage. But the ships were also slow, relying on heavy armor instead of regenerative shielding to protect their vessels.
The Sanctuary Two had targeted them accordingly. She couldn't lose those ships; not only were they doing the most damage to Thanos's vessel, but they were also integral to their failsafe measure. She had the means to provide those ships with some protection, but it meant weakening her own forces. Worse, she would be ordering her own people to die in the defense of a long time enemy. A long-time enemy that might just use their depletion to its own advantage the moment the current threat was dealt with.
She was still trying to determine the best course when the scanning section reported. "Thanos has socketed the final stone," the young tech stated loudly, seemingly unaware of the somber effect his statement had on the rest of the bridge.
Rael just nodded. "Captain, start the clock," she ordered.
"Yes Ma'am," the captain of the ship said. "Start the clock," he echoed. "Communications, inform our allies. In six minutes and thirty seconds . . . we will enact our failsafe instructions," he finished, mouth twisting in disgust. Their Kree 'allies' might not have ever had a problem with bombing civilian populations, but Nova Corp had never resorted to such barbaric measures. It was something to be reviled and avoided, not enacted. The knowledge that they had no choice was little comfort.
Irani Rael watched the captain's face for just a moment before coming to a decision. "Captain," she said quietly, "there's one other thing." The captain listened to the orders with which he was presented with an increasingly stony disposition. For a moment she thought he would argue with them, but in the end, he gave a curt nod before turning to snap more orders. The Nova Prime watched the battle plot as her orders were carried out and hoped she'd made the right call.
>>
The Kree Accuser Indig-O was also watching that same plot, from her command ship. She'd come to the same conclusion as to the fate of her fleet as The Nova Prime had, but she saw no way out. A part of her wanted very badly to blame her nominal allies for not aiding her ships as they took the brunt of their shared adversary's attacks, even as another part pointed out that she would most likely have done the same in their places.
"Accuser," the captain of the ship called out "we must withdraw."
Indig-O considered the statement; in truth she found it very tempting to abandon the allies that had clearly abandoned them. In any normal battle she'd probably have done so already. But this wasn't a normal battle. The stakes were far higher here than in any border dispute.
"Negative," she said with a shake of the head.
"Ma'am," the captain argued "half of our ships have been destroyed. Of the remainder, only The Eclipsed Arum is more than fifty percent functional."
Indig-O bit back a hot retort. She was not used to subordinates questioning her orders. She normally refused to repeat them. On a good day she'd have had him removed for such impudence. On a bad day she'd probably have crushed him like an empty beverage container and taken over command of the ship herself. But she could see agreement with his suggestion echoed all over the bridge.
She took one breath before replying. "Captain, I am aware of your concerns," she said thinly, making sure everyone was aware of her effort. "This is not a normal situation. If Thanos wins, we all lose. We will continue the engagement." The captain looked as if he were about to argue, but a stony stare made him think better of it.
He'd barely turned back to the front of the ship when the sensor tech reported. "Captain four Nova squadrons have broken formation."
"Cowards," the captain sneered. Indig-O chose to overlook the hypocrisy of that evaluation even as she wondered at its accuracy. Degrading one's enemies was a common mistake in war; it led to underestimating their capabilities. She'd fought Nova too often to believe they would run after the trifling damage they'd received.
"Destination?" she asked.
"Accuser, they appear to be heading towards our lines," the grizzled old tech reported.
"Are we betrayed?" the ship's second officer asked worriedly. Indig-O ignored it, though she considered it a far more likely explanation than cowardice. Still, it made little sense to her. Granted, her version of sense often differed from other people's.
"Lock weapons," the Captain ordered.
"Belay that," Indig-O barked. "Classification?" she asked. In response the holo-imager in front of her sprang to life, showing silhouettes of the ships along with all known data. She didn't need any of it to recognize a Nova Barrier Squadron when she saw it. One squadron was comprised of eight to twelve Barrier Ships plus attached escorts.
The Barrier ships were specialized cruiser sized units that could project a powerful unidirectional shield. That shield could be linked with the fields from other Barrier Ships to create a powerful and incredibly adaptable defensive field around anything they deemed in need. Nova routinely used them to succor damaged ships, allowing them to continue fighting. Often a Nova captain would shunt their shield power to their weapons when behind that wall of protection. A barrier ship carried no offensive weapons whatsoever, yet had been the deciding factor in far too many engagements for her taste.
The entire bridge was silent as those vessels turned their unshielded backs to her forces, creating that very wall that had defied the Kree so many times between them and their enemy. The squadron's escorts fanned out in a defensive pattern designed to intercept fighters and missiles.
"About time," the Captain muttered as the Accuser's thoughts of a few moments prior came back to her. She wanted to believe that she would have done the same. She was forced to admit that she most likely would not have. One thing was certain: the captain would not have, whatever his statement might have suggested.
"Scanning," she said a bit harsher than planned "ensure you gather as much data about those ships as you can." In truth she doubted they'd learn anything useful from them. They'd amassed plenty of data on those ships, even from this angle. They knew what they did. They just didn't understand how they did it. Still, the order left her feeling a bit dirty. But whatever she felt about it, she had her duty to the Kree Empire.