The Duel
SMASH
The barrier shattered.
“John, conjure up another one!” yelled Zari, fending off the AO’s attacks with a blizzard.
“Wish I could, love, but I’m drained.” replied John, stopping a bit from chanting spells of Hell and throwing it at the AO. “ Duat akat Malif…”
“We need a plan!” yelled Nora, zapping magic towards the AO. “If we continue on like this, we’ll get flattened and lose the Time Stone!”
The AO has been wounded slightly, but she was mostly ok and deflecting the team’s attacks with ease.
“Fine. I’ll try and conjure up another one. You mates owe me one.” grumbled John, chanting again.
“Lif Aken, Ka, Ren, Ba, Ib, Sheut. Lif Aken Ma'at. Duat Aken, Ka, Ren, Ba, Ib, Sheut. Duat Aken Ma'at… Lif Aken, Ka, Ren, Ba, Ib, Sheut. Lif Aken Ma'at. Duat Aken, Ka, Ren, Ba, Ib, Sheut. Duat Aken Ma'at…” chanted John, and per usual, a barrier appeared, but this time, it muffled the attacks thrown at them.
“A little perk.” smirked John. “Now what?”
“We need to distract her.” interjected Nora. “My dad does it all the time (may he rest in peace). He asked his minions to do something as a diversion while he gets what he wants without interruptions. He played that with Oliver, and it worked.”
“So HOW the fuck do we distract her?” mumbled Zari, getting frustrated.
CRACK
“The barrier’s crumbling, quick, how?” said John, panicking.
“Nora you let off the smoke you use to disorient people and we’ll do the rest.” said Amaya with an air of finality.
SMASH
The barrier crumbled.
“I can't conjure up another one, I’m too drained. Nora, NOW!” yelled John.
WHOOSH
A gust of wind blew through them and smoke appeared out of nowhere, and quickly surrounded the AO.
The AO looked around. The smoke was purple, thick, glistening. Impossible to see through. She tried to repel it, but it just kept on coming. She breathed some of them in, and coughed. Suddenly she could see again. She was in the Sanctuary.
“Strange.” she thought. “ Wasn’t I on the roof just now?”
Suddenly, impact hit her. She looked around and didn’t see her attackers. She was frustrated and started lashing out blindly.
“Ugh.”
Her spell collided with someone. She lashed out in that direction again but didn’t hit anything.
She was now scratched, bit, bruised all over and now she has a bruised spleen.
Outside of the AO’s hallucination, the Time Stone Team was giving it everything they’ve got. John chanted spells, Zari threw hail, Amaya had the ashes of bears, lions, leopards, tigers helping her, and Nora was still spilling the hallucinative smoke, controlling it so that the spaces her friends were in were smoke and hallucination free.
In the hallucination, the AO is struggling to fight back. It was pretty hard when she couldn't see her attackers. She got a few blows landed in, but that was not enough to crumble the team. They continued fighting with more spirit than at the start of the duel.
Finally, she gave in. She couldn’t deal with the attacks much longer. If she continued, she could die. She fell to the ground, passing out.
A moment later, four faces swam in front of her.
“Is she okay?” asked one with a red watch.
“I infused life force into her. She should be okay…” said one with blonde hair.
The AO sat up, giving herself a headache.
The Time Stone team were surrounding her, peering. And immediately retreated a distance away when she suddenly sat up.
“You okay?” asked Amaya, worried. She wouldn’t want to anger a person who is practically a god. She had gotten a taste of that, and she didn’t like it.
To her surprise, the AO wasn’t angry. She smiled faintly.
“You have proven that you work together, and listen to each other and rise to be a better version of yourself. I had made a mistake of giving the Stone to an unworthy person, who nearly destroyed the world and I have lived with that burden ever since. So I have to test the people who want the Time Stone. I have to see that if they’re worthy. Your little team is worthy, so I give it to you.“ she dropped the smile and her expression became grave. “Be warned. If you don’t place the Stone back to where it belongs, disaster will erupt. You have been warned. Now off you go.” Then the AO went back to meditating.
BLIP, BLIP, BLIP
A beacon was activated.
SNAP
Thanos woke up with a start. He had been feeling weird, and having weird dreams.
“Time flux incoming, time flux incoming, time flux incoming... “ said an automated voice. Thanos rushed to the control room.
“WHAT’S GOING ON?” he roared, angry that he got interrupted in his “beauty” sleep.
“My lord..” said a commander, pointing to the hovering screen in the middle of the room.
The screen showed that they are now branched off into an alternate timeline.
“In the original timeline, you destroy half of the Earth’s population. Now you don’t, and your Infinity Gauntlet is of no use now. I think this is the work of the so-called Avengers..” said the commander, and instantly cowered into a corner
“GET ME TO EARTH!” hollered Thanos, furious. “I WILL DEAL WITH THOSE PESKY AVENGERS MYSELF!”
“Yes sir… SET A COURSE FOR EARTH!” yelled the commander, getting into position.