Earth-A: Wakanda
After gathering their thoughts, Bucky ad Shuri brought Thor, Loki and Barry to Wakandan throne room to meet with King T'Challa, Shuri's brother. Once there, Thor begins to explain the situation.
"Thanos, an already extremely power and formidable foe, is collecting six items," He explained. "The Infinity Stones."
"What exactly are these stones?" Bucky asked.
"They are six individual entities, holding the powers of different aspects of the universe." Loki answered. "Space, Time, Reality, Mind, Soul, and Power."
"Individually, they make the wielder nearly unstoppable. Altogether, and they become basically a god." Thor added.
"Yeah, so, why exactly does Thanos want the stones?" Barry asked. "Does he just want to rule the universe? Maybe, fix the barriers holding the multiverse together?" He added, hoping he was misunderstanding Thanos.
Thor and Loki looked at each other cautiously, then Loki spoke. "He wishes to annihilate fifty-percent of all living creatures within the universe."
"Okay, so, NOT trying to save the multiverse." Barry mumbled to himself.
"He has actually been trying to do this for many years now. Going around planet by planet, killing half of the population. It is only within the past decade or so he has been after the Infinity Stones." Loki explained. "He is the one who sent me to get the Tesseract."
"New York? That was him?" T'Challa asked. Loki simply nodded in response.
"Okay, I hate to make this already terrible situation even worse, but I've got even more bad news." Barry added. Everyone turned their heads toward Barry, solemnly waiting. "My name is Barry Allen, and on my world I'm the hero known as the Flash. I come from another Earth in the multiverse."
"The multiverse!" Shuri shouted, in excitement. "I knew it was real, but none would believe me!"
"Shuri, now is not the time." T'Challa stated. "Continue, Mr. Allen."
"My friend, Cisco, he has the ability to feel across the multiverse, and open portals to the other Earths." Barry explained. "He felt that all of the Earths contained within the multiverse were rapidly getting closer and closer to each other, and that in a week at least, or three at most, the entire multiverse would collide, and collapse in on itself."
"So why exactly did you end up here, on the Asgardian ship?" Thor asked.
"Cisco felt a source of power leading him to this Earth specifically." Barry explained. "He sent me here believing that if I could find this source of power, then maybe I could use it to stop the collision of the multiverse."
"You said we have three weeks at most?" Thor asked.
"Yeah, and one at the least."
"Then we focus on stopping Thanos." Thor stated. "We only have mere days at best before he collects all of the stones. He knows where all of them are, bar maybe the Soul Stone, but no one knows where the Soul Stone is. Focus on stopping him before it is too late, then work on fixing the multiverse."
"Thor, hold on." Barry stated. "I don't think you understand how imminent this is. If Thanos wins, there would at least still be a universe left. If the multiverse collapses, there won't be anything left. Anything and everything that has ever existed, won't anymore. There won't an Earth, a universe, anything! Complete and vast emptiness!"
"We stop Thanos, then save the multiverse." Thor snapped. "Thanos already has two stones, making him the most powerful force in the universe. If he gets even one more, he will be nearly impossible to stop. There are two on Earth now, that's where we focus."
'Wait, wait, hold on." Barry said. "If one wields all six stones, they become omnipotent? All powerful?"
"Yes, pretty much." Loki answered.
"I think I know where you are going with this!" Shuri exclaimed.
"What if we knock out two birds with one stone." Barry continued. "Stop Thanos by getting the stones first, then use their power to fix the multiverse."
"Brilliant." Loki stated.
"That might just work." T'Challa added.
"Well, Mr. Allen, you seem to be on the right track." Thor stated. "As I said before, there are two stones already on Earth: The time Stone and the Mind Stone. Thanos's forces are headed to Earth now, so we don't have much time. Luckily for us, the Mind Stone is implanted in Vision's head, safe within the protection of the Avengers. I will contact Stark and Rogers, and we can plan from there."
"Yeah, uhm… about that whole Avengers thing." Bucky added. "They might have disbanded. Like, two years ago."
"And according to Tony Stark, Vision has been off the radar for a month." T'Challa stated. "No one knows where he is."
"Odin's beard!" Thor exclaimed. "This could not have happened at a worse time. Do you at least know where any of the Avengers are?"
"Well, Tony still has a giant tower in the middle of New York City." Bucky explained.
Earth-A: New York City
"I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying you've been a bit obsessed with it for the past couple of weeks." Pepper Potts stated, walking down the street in jogging clothes, with Tony Stark at her side.
"Honey, how exactly could I not be 'obsessed' with it? And I wouldn't use 'obsessed' myself. I would say…'dedicated'." Tony responded. "I mean, the kid quite literally disappeared two weeks ago with no trace. None of his friends know where he went, his Aunt is worried sick about him, and blames me for some reason."
"Maybe because you were the last person he talked to before he vanished!" Pepper exclaimed.
"Yeah, well she shouldn't blame me like she does, but whatever." Tony added. "Anyway, the point is I feel guilty. I mean, he wouldn't even really be a superhero like he is without me. And I have a weird feeling this is at least somewhat superhero related."
"Tony!" Pepper exclaimed. "I know you tend to take on a lot more responsibility than you need, but right now, for the next ten minutes, could you please ignore your superhero responsibilities so we can book this venue?"
Before Tony received a chance to respond, a large explosion could be hear from across the city. When Pepper and Tony looked up to see what had happened, they saw smoke rising from buildings, with a giant doughnut shaped spacecraft floating above the wreckage.
"Can those ten minutes of ignorance come later?" Tony asked.
"Yeah, this seems like a big deal." Pepper responded.
"You okay with booking everything without me?" Tony asked. "You know how to forge my signature if they need it." As he backed off, nano-metal begin to cover his body, forming his new Iron Man suit.
"I'll be fine." Pepper solemnly stated. "Just you do what you're best at." With that, Tony's feet lit up from his boots, and he lifted up into the air, heading toward the danger.
Above the wreckage on the street, as smoke and dust rose into the air, and citizens ran from the destruction, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian stood there, watching.
"Hear me, and rejoice." Ebony Maw proclaimed. "You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to..."
"Ok, excuse me!" A man in a blue robe and red cape shouted as he walked onto the scene. "My name is Dr. Stephen Strange, and if you are here for any reason other than peace, and I don't think you are, I'm going to have to kick you off this planet."
"So, you're the stone keeper. Sad that such a grand and powerful object is protected by the hands of a mere human." Ebony stated, with grief in his voice.
"Stone keeper." Strange muttered. "You're here for the Infinity Stone, aren't you?!"
"It took you this long to figure that out?" Ebony asked.
"Trust me when I say, you will by no means leave this planet with the stone." Strange proclaimed. "If you fight me, know that you are dealing with the Sorcerer Supreme, and that I am not alone."
A portal of orange flames opened behind Ebony and Cull Obsidian, and an oriental jumped out from within it, attacking Cull Obsidian with ropes of blazing sparks. Strange then flung himself into the air, flying straight toward Ebony Maw.
"Wong!" Strange shouted. "I will take the slender one, you take their hulk!"
Stephen grabbed onto Maw's shoulders, and the two went flying backward across the street. They tumbled throughout the air, throwing punches. Stephen formed two shields out of magic, one on each hand, and used them to beat on Ebony. In response, he levitated pieces of rubble from the street, including metal and wires, and threw them towards Strange. He used the shields to block most of them, but Ebony was able to entangle him in wires, and began to suffocate him around the neck.
"So much wasted potential. You could have gained so much power from the stone." Ebony stated, as he reached for the Eye of Agamatto, which contained the Time Stone around Stephen's neck. As he placed his hand on the Eye, however, it burned his hand severely. "Simple, but effective." He mumbled to himself. Before he could act again, he was blasted away from Strange as he was hit by a missile.
"Okay, enough fooling around!" Tony shouted, as he flew into an upright position. "Good Lord, I feel like mother right now. 'Squidward, don't take Little Stephen's toys when he's playing with them!'." He shouted in a mocking voice.
"So, the great Tony Stark does know my name." Strange muttered as he regained consciousness. "I always wondered that when I was way more into myself. And actually, cared what you did in the world."
"I seem to have missed the part where the world's greatest surgeon became a wizard." Tony stated. "When exactly did this happen?"
"When you were too caught up breaking up your little boy band from within." Strange refuted.
"Listen, there were two women on the team, so I wouldn't necessarily call it a boy band." Tony refuted.
"Whatever." Strange stated, irritated. "Hey, here's an idea: How about we focus on stopping the crazy aliens who are trying to steal a time-manipulating stone from around my neck!"
"Okay, I can do that." Tony responded. "But you are so going to have to explain to me what any of that means when we are done here."
Iron Man and Dr. Strange flew towards Ebony Maw. Tony shot missiles from the tops of his shoulders straight at Maw. Maw used his telekinetic powers to knock a few out of the way, but one flew in from behind him, blasting him onto the ground. Strange then opened a portal directly in front of him, and jumped out, hitting him in the face multiple times with his magical shield-constructs. Tony lifted his wrists, shooting two metallic clamps from them which wrapped themselves around Maw, locking him in place.
"Now tell me, who do you serve?" Dr. Strange asked.
"Did you not hear me speak earlier, Stone Keeper?" Maw replied. "We are the Children of Thanos."
"Okay, and who is Thanos?" Strange asked.
"The great savior of the universe." Maw responded.
"How is stealing rocks from planets while killing hundreds of people saving the universe?" Tony asked.
"Any people that die here and now are simply causalities. Death is the only way to salvation."
"So Thanos wants to gather the Infinity Stones." Strange continued. "Why?"
"Balance." Maw replied. Before the questioning could continue, Cull Obsidian appeared behind Tony and Strange, knocking them off to the side and breaking the clamps on Maw. A portal opened next to Stephen as Wong jumped out to his friend's side.
"Master Strange, I had trouble keeping the big one distracted." Wong stated.
"It's okay." Strange responded, with slight frustration in his voice. "We just need to keep the Stone away from them." As he said that, all of the rubble surrounding the two men rose into the air, spinning like a tornado around them. They active their shield-constructs as the rubble closed in around them.
After a moment, the rubble fell back to the ground, revealing the bodies of the two sorcerers. Strange was merely unconscious, but Wong was clearly dead, with a long, metallic pipe going through his chest.
Using his levitation abilities, Ebony Maw lifted Strange into the air, ignoring Wong's dead body. "Beam us back up to the ship immediately. We will set course for Titan, and I will work to remove the Stone from around his neck."
Cull Obsidian nodded his head in agreement. Suddenly, however, he was hit in the back of the head with a repulsor blast from Iron Man behind him.
"So, uh… I'm going to need the doctor wizard back now." Tony stated. "He's got something us Earth-folk would like to keep here."
"Fend him off, I will take the keeper to the ship." Maw stated, as a blue beam came down and lifted him up into the giant, doughnut shaped ship in the sky.
Cull Obsidian lunged himself at Tony, with him only being able to dodge the giant barely. Using the nano-technology in his armor, Tony formed a shield with one arm, and a giant blade with the other. He hit Cull Obsidian in the face, scratching one eye out. As Obsidian burst out in rage, he slammed his fist down toward Tony, cutting his right hand off in the process.
"Sorry man." Tony stated. "Really sucks when people take things you need." Without anymore thought, he flew into the sky, going straight for the ship Dr. Strange was on. After a few moments of flying, he reached the ship, climbing into the landing gear as it was being pulled in. Once inside, as viewed his location inside his helmet, realizing he was leaving Earth at an extremely fast rate.
"Well, guess now is as good a time as ever to visit space." Tony muttered to himself. "Just hope Pepper doesn't kill me for it before we get married."
The ship pulled straight out of Earth's atmosphere, going into lightspeed, course set straight for Titan.