The viewers watch as the four movie characters walked outside of the Sanctum. They are greeted with chaos as the civilians ran away from the giant ship. Tony walks against the crowd and asks FRIDAY what is happening.
"FRIDAY?" Tony questions out load. "Why would I be using an incomplete backup?"
"You make backups of your AIs?" Steve looked at Tony.
"Maybe? Sort of? Not really?"
After Tony calls back to Stephen to pocket the Time Stone with the Doctor saying that they might want to use it, the movie cuts to Peter in the bus. He looks up as he feels his Spider-Sense warning him of the spaceship.
"Uh, ok, what? Why's the kid being shown?" Clint asked. "Sorry, but you don't look like someone who could help all that much."
Peter glared at the archer. "Excuse me—"
"Well he's here now, with us in this theatre, so he must have some relevance to what's happening," Tony interrupted.
Natasha blinked in surprise at the outburst but didn't say anything, again, unconsciously saving it away for later.
Peter then asks Ned to cause a distraction. He does and Peter opens a bus window with one of his web shooters. As he pulls himself out, the movie quickly cuts to Stan Lee's cameo.
"Woah. I didn't expect them to put anyone else into… what's it called? Cyro-something," Steve commented out loud.
"Nah, he's the one told me off when I accidentally webbed someone to their car. Never knew he was a bus driver though."
T'Challa looked at the screen thoughtfully. "He does look like someone I saw briefly once in Korea."
"He does look a little familiar… Though that could've been a coincidence," Strange mentions.
Rocket then pipes up with his own contribution. "You're right wizard, he does look familiar."
"Freaky…" Clint muttered.
The three spies, however, memorised the driver's face, filing it away to find out more later.
Just before the next scene, Peter swings out of the bus. Clint asks Peter what he was going to do, again, but the teenager didn't answer. The next scene shows Tony ordering FRIDAY to order an evacuation of the area. A cold feeling runs down the spines of the viewers as Cull Obsidian and Ebony Maw exit the spaceship.
Maw starts monologuing, with Tony interrupting him.
"Stonekeeper," Ebony turns his head slightly to Strange, who moves his head slightly to show that he is listening. "Does this chattering animal speak for you?"
A couple of people laughed or snorted quietly.
"Certainly not, I speak for myself." Strange and Wong move forward, both creating shields. "You're trespassing in this city and on this planet."
"Well that's noble of you," Tony mumbled.
Maw gets bored and sends Cull Obsidian to fight. The alien grunts and moves forward. Some of the lesser experienced people present felt their mouths go dry while everyone else just went cold. If Thanos could do what he did earlier, then surely he would only have the best of fighters.
Tony then asks Banner if he could bring the Hulk out. Bruce tries, but only a bit of green rides up his neck and even then the effort is strained.
"This is weird…" Natasha muttered.
"And it doesn't make any sense," Clint softly added. "I always thought Hulk wanted to get out as much as possible."
As the scene continued, Bruce started to get uneasy. Why wouldn't Hulk come out? At the start of the movie, Hulk had seemed—well, not eager, but he definitely hadn't been afraid.
It was probably because Thanos bet him, was the only conclusion the viewers could come to.
Realizing that with each passing second that Cull is getting closer and Hulk isn't coming out, Tony gently pushes Bruce off the side. He asks Wong to keep an eye on the scientist and walks up to the alien. Tony taps his arc reactor twice and the nanotech suit quickly covers his body. The Avengers are impressed by the suit while the others almost shrug it off as no big deal.
Tony turned to Shuri. "Just out of curiosity, you wouldn't happen to know how long it takes to create nanotech from scratch?"
The Wakandan shrugged. "I guess it's dependent on the metal—and in my case, your experience with it. For example, if you have no experience working with vibranium, then it could take decades but because you're used to working with other metals, a year, maybe?"
"Either way," Bruce added, his confusion on Hulk not appearing in his voice. ", it's impressive."
Onscreen-Tony blocks Cull's attack and then blasts him away with four sonic blasters. Cull is thrown back to Ebony Maw, who just waves his hand to the side, causing the larger alien to crash into the debris.
As this happens, with Bruce asking where that attack had come from, Shuri jumped up and yelled.
"You managed to create a weaponised nanotech suit?!" T'Challa pulled her back into her seat. "And without vibranium too."
"What? According to SHIELD files, he created the first Iron Man suit while trapped in a cave," Natasha off-handily mentions.
Out of the corner of Peter's eye-sight, he saw Tony shift uncomfortably and mumbled something about consequences but he didn't ask. Stephen and T'Challa shared a look, debating whether or not to tell them about SHIELD and HYDRA.
Tony then gets caught off-guard as Ebony Maw quickly lifts his finger to uproot him. The telekinetic alien then picks up to fallen trees, sending them towards the wizards and Bruce. Wong moves in front, creating a shield while Strange portals Bruce and half a car to a park.
"Careful," Natasha mumbled.
Because he was directly behind Natasha, Stephen caught this. "He was getting in the way and serving no purpose."
The spy glared at him, but Strange ignored her.
Soon, Tony is knocked to the same park as Banner. He takes a brief moment to ask Banner what the status is with bringing out the Hulk.
"I'm trying. He won't come out."
"But why wouldn't he want to come out?" Clint mused, voicing the thoughts of the others.
Cull then bursts through the building of a wall, swinging his weapon towards the two. As Tony then engages in a fight with the grey alien, Bruce is continuing to try and bring out Hulk.
"Come on Hulk! What are you doing to me?" He then starts lapping himself. "Come out! Come out! Come out!"
Half of Hulk's face then shows up screaming "No!".
All the viewers looked at the screen in shock. Hulk didn't want to come out? At this time of crisis?
The movie then cut back to the Cull vs Iron Man fight. No matter what Tony throws at him, the attacks don't even scratch the alien. After having enough, he swings his axe at Tony. A sharp intake of breath is taken before the axe is stopped. Spider-Man's face popped up from behind it.
"Hey man. What's up, Mr. Stark?"
Everyone's head whipped towards Peter, who just sunk into his chair as they—actually, just the Avengers—started talking at once.
"What the hell?" (Clint.)
"A young child should not be helping with this sort of matter," Thor boomed, causing a few people to jump. He had been oddly quiet…
"Actually, come to think about it… Tony? Care to explain?" Natasha asked, being the only one to catch Peter's "Mister Stark".
"I have no clue on who this kid is!" Tony defended himself.
T'Challa just gave the teenager a look of curiosity. "This explains so much…" He then paused, noticing that the attention had been turned to him. "There may be a better time to explain."
Peter then quickly explains where he came from and asks Tony why Cull was there. Tony explains how they came to "steal a necklace from a wizard".
Stephen face-palmed. "We're not wizards."
"There's more than one of you?" Fury asked incredulously.
Stephen just smacked his head again.
As Spider-Man and Iron Man continue to fight Cull Obsidian, the movie cuts away to show how Stephen and Wong are doing against Ebony Maw. Wong is taken out of the fight as Maw releases the pressure of a fire hydrant onto him. A few minutes of continued fighting ensues between Strange and Maw. Viewer-Strange prays that his movie-future-self doesn't mess up as that version is trapped within bricks from a building.
The doctor then gets released from the binding but Maw telekinetically commands cables to wrap around his body.
"You'll find removing a dead man's spell troublesome," Stephen barely gasps out.
Peter squeezed his eyes shut for a second.
"You'll only wish you were dead," the alien threatens.
Useless threats. Strange thinks.
The cables tightened, cutting off most Stephen's air. Although Maw had lifted the ground so that he could take him, the Cloak of Levitation pulled its master free. As they flew past Iron Man and Spider-Man, Tony orders Peter to go get Stephen. He does, but Maw sends a sheet of metal to knock the teenager off-course.
"Not cool," Peter muttered at the same time as his movie counterpart.
"Seriously? You just shrugged that metal off like it was nothing," Clint said.
After a short chase, Peter finally webs Stephen away but a blue beam of light appears and takes the two humans, alien and cloak follow them up. Peter, however, does try to stop it from happening by gripping on a nearby pole.
The spies turn to Peter and again, it's Clint who voices their thoughts.
"How strong are you?"
"Um… I don't know. There was this one time when I had to lift a building that'd fallen on top of me."
Fury raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything further.
Peter reports to Tony what is happening but Tony is still busy fighting Cull Obsidian. The alien goes in to attack a snared Tony but a portal is opened at the last second. Cull landed face first into a snow and icy tundra but shook it off. He then jumped back through the portal but Wong closed it off. Bruce kicked the severed arm away.
"That's disgusting," Shuri says.
Tony managed to get free, hastily thanked Wong and chased after the departing spaceship. The camera then cuts and shows Peter clinging onto the side as his life depends on it.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Tony whips his head around to face Peter. "You're only a kid!"
"When we get out of here, and if I'm accidentally sent back to 2016, I'm talking Stark out of this," T'Challa said.
Tony orders FRIDAY to give him a boost and orders her to unlock 17-A.
"What is 17-A?" Steve asks.
"How should we know?" Clint says.
"Even I don't know," Peter pipes up. "Though… Now that I think about it, I think I might know."
As the Iron Spider capsule is ejected from the upstate Compound wall, the movie briefly shows the Avengers Compound. Tony pulled a face at this.
"Really? We use boring, flat buildings in the future?"
"At least it seems more inconspicuous then a massive tower," Fury fired back.
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with my—"
"Tony," Fury interrupted. "There's a massive Avengers logo on the outside. That's a beacon for trouble."
"May I also be the one who brings up that because of your tower, that's what Loki used to bring the Chitauri?" Natasha adds.
Tony says nothing and the two teenagers present snicker.
"Round one goes to the spies," Shuri announces.
As the movie resumes, the suit is shown heading straight towards the ship. Peter is slowly climbing the side of the ship and the viewers notice the sky getting darker with each passing second. Tony tries to convince him to get down but Peter rebuttals it. Peter then pulls his mask off and is gasping. "I can't breathe…" is barely audible.
The viewers couldn't help but tense up as Peter fell from the side of the ship. Surely the teenager would get himself killed…
But they all let out the breath they weren't aware they were holding when the Iron Spider suit attached itself to Peter. The teenager is instantly able to breathe again and regains his hold onto the side and stands up.
"Holy shit, kid. I'm going to make sure you're never in this sort of situation," Tony said.
Tony then orders FRIDAY to send Peter back. She complies and a parachute is opened up.
"Oh come on!" Peter yelled at the same time as his onscreen counterpart.
The movie then changes to Tony cutting inside of the ship. He enters with FRIDAY telling him that Pepper was calling. He accepts the call and a voiceover from Pepper is asking him if he was alright. Soon she's trying to convince herself that Tony was not on the ship. But as the seconds pass, static grows into the call.
The viewers could hear the static. And they couldn't help the small bit of worry settle into them. Considering that this was a movie, there were at least two hours left. What could possibly happen in that amount of time?
Tony notices the increasing static and asks if she's still there. What Pepper says next soon gets drowned out by static. FRIDAY confirms that the call had been lost and is soon disconnected as well.
The look at Onscreen-Tony gives cannot be deciphered by any of viewers. All Tony could think of was when he the nuke through the wormhole… But then, he had called her, Pepper didn't answer and he still got out fine. (That all depended on which perspective you looked at.)
But with what been shown so far, I don't think I'm coming back was what went through the genius's mind. Similar thoughts went through the others.
The movie then showed the outside of the ship. It pans to the side, showing Peter hanging onto a web attached to it. He pulls himself inside a closing hatch and makes a comment on how he should have stayed on the bus.
"Yes, you should have," Tony and Stephen mutter at the same time.
"By the way," Clint speaks up, drowning out the last two. "Are you unkillable or something?"
"I don't know. Am I?" Peter asked no one in particular.
The movie then cut back to New York, with Bruce picking up the long-ago discarded flip phone. He picked it up and noticed Wong leaving through a portal.
"Where you going?" He asks.
"The Time Stone's been taken," Wong explains. "The Sanctum remains unguarded. What will you do?"
Everyone turned to face the sorcerer, some with looks of disbelief etched onto their faces.
"The fate of the universe is at stake and your friend can't help?" Fury asked.
Stephen put his fingers to his temples and rubbed them before explaining why Wong had said what he said. "There are three sanctums that have immense power. If all three are gone, unimaginable threats can come. Back in 2016, two fell and the third—the one shown in this movie—was damaged enough that it briefly opened the world up to the Dark Dimension."
T'Challa, Shuri and Peter looked at him.
"That… never happened," Peter said.
"Let's just say that we sorcerers have a way of covering our tracks. Unlike a certain other group of people."
Back to the movie, Wong nods slightly and closes the portal. Banner blows some dust off the phone and as the call is connecting, upbeat 70s music begins to play. The screen cuts to space, with the words "space" displayed onscreen and capitalised.
"Wow, thanks for the hint whoever made this movie. We'd be lost without the location card," Tony sarcastically said.
It then cut to the back of Quill's head who is dancing along to Rubberband Man. The camera pans around the ship showing each of the Guardians.
"Wait," Peter said, holding up a hand. "First of all, who are they? And second, you're from space? That's so cool!"
"Technically, I'm from Earth and was taken as a child. Don't know where Rocket's from though," Quill quickly cleared up. "And the first one was Drax, then Gamora and behind Rocket is Groot."
"And before you get confused, the only words Groot can say are "I", "am" and "Groot". Specifically in that order," Rocket added. He noticed that Groot was a teenager, and couldn't help but feel a bit happier.
Onscreen-Rocket asks no one in particular why they were doing what they were doing. Gamora explained that they were answering a distress signal, which resulted in a somewhat more relaxed atmosphere to become tense once again. The only problem? They were too late for the distress signal…
The Guardians talk about getting paid (which Gamora reminds them that getting paid isn't the point) and stealing the ship.
"Really? You're answering a distress signal and are thinking about stealing from them?" Steve asked, not being able to help a bit of anger in his tone.
"Calm down. Our movie-selves probably just think it's a group of defenceless VIPs or something. We'd take something, no matter what we came across," Rocket says.
At that moment during the movie, Gamora gave Quill a look of disbelief before he shook his head.
"Seriously?" Rocket muttered.
The movie then cut to Mantis, who told the Guardians that they were arriving where the Statesmen had been.
"Who's she?" Peter asked. "You didn't mention her before."
Meanwhile, the two present Guardians scrunched their faces up, not knowing who it was.
Onscreen-Quill reminded the Guardians that the mission might be dangerous. It cuts to Groot, who is playing a game. Quill tells him to put it away but Groot tells him something that only two of the viewers understand.
"You really need to teach your tree better manners," Thor said, surprising everyone.
"Wait, you understood him?" Rocket and Quill ask at the same time.
Thor just shrugged in response. "It's not that hard to learn. See, even your film version knows what he's saying."
Sure enough, Quill scolded Groot before slowing the Benatar. It comes to a halt and displays the destruction of the Statesmen across the entirety of the screen. A small gasp falls from some of the viewers, not expecting to see so much destruction (though they did wonder why they were shocked). The movie cuts to back inside the ship and pans down, looking through the window. Bruce shifts uncomfortably while Peter squeezes his eyes shut again as an Asgardian drifts past.
The movie quickly cut to just behind Gamora and the music instantly tipped the non-Guardians off.
"She knows something the rest of you don't…" Shuri said.
Rocket mentions how they weren't going to get paid when an Asgardian body hit the front window of the ship. The sudden thump caused some people to jump slightly. However, they are once again tensed as they recognise it as Thor.
"Please don't be dead," Peter muttered, the "please" to go on longer.
A sigh of relief is released from our Earth-based heroes as Thor's eye open. But it quickly cuts away to him being dumped on a table inside the ship, unconscious.
"At least you're not dead," Stephen said.
"Wait, what? The magic man doesn't just speak in cryptic words and sarcasm?" Tony said, feigning shock. Everyone just rolled their eyes.
"Why are you making such a big deal over… Thor, is it?" Rocket asked, genuinely interested but still sounding sarcastic.
"Future King of Asgard, one of the Nine Realms?" Thor clarified.
"If you're a future king, why were your people on a refugee ship?" Rocket asks again.
An awkward silence fell upon the group of people while the movie continued to play. Quill glared at Rocket and then looked back to concentrate on the film.
"How the hell is this dude still alive?" Quill asked.
"Space-Man has a point," Tony spoke up. "How are you still alive?"
Thor shrugged, ignoring the heaviness he felt. "Asgardian bodies are different to mortal ones."
"He is not a dude. You're a dude. This… This is a man," Drax said, not realizing the insult.
"Ouch. Quill, you need some ice?" Shuri asked.
"No… Why would I need ice?" Quill asked, looking around confused. Shuri and Peter just snicker at his cluelessness.
The insults continue, with both Quills looking extremely confused (though the viewer was trying to work out what Shuri meant by needing ice). Mantis, ignoring the others, put a hand on Thor's head.
"He is anxious, angry. He feels tremendous loss and guilt…" Mantis said, before taking her hand off.
"Ok… That wasn't weird, like, at all," Clint said.
Quill then asks Mantis to wake Thor up. She does, with Thor violently jumping off the table, thinking he was still on the Statesmen. As he gasps for breath, asking who the Guardians were, the audience could see Thor's face much clearer than at the start, thus noticing that one eye had an eyepatch.
But before they could comment on it, the movie cut to Gamora speaking.
"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal."
"She knows Thanos!?" Was pretty much what every shouted.
"How? And why?" Clint asked.
"That's pretty much the same question," T'Challa said.
"To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre."
"That's horrible…" Peter said.
"Understatement of the year," Shuri said.
"If he gets all six Infinity Stones he can do it with the snap of his fingers like this," Gamora snapped her fingers in emphasis.
"That explains so much," Bruce said.
"Wait," Peter paused the movie. "If Thanos sent Loki to attack Earth, and if he succeeded, does that mean…?"
No one answered but they all knew, deep down what Peter was going to say next.
"You seem to know a great deal about Thanos," Thor off-handily said.
"Gamora is the daughter of Thanos," Drax cleared up.
And once again, everyone lost it. It took a few minutes for them to calm down as some (like Clint and… well, just Clint) had gotten up from their seats. Once they'd calm down, the movie continued.
Onscreen-Thor had the same reaction as the audience, but Quill cleared it up by saying that Thanos was actually her stepfather and attempted to stop an oncoming fight. Thor faced Gamora, who was perfectly ready for some sort attack, but it never came. Instead, Thor placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Families can be tough. Before my father died, he told me that I had a half-sister that he imprisoned in Hel."
The audience was surprised at this, before picking up on what he'd just said.
Thor felt a weight suddenly rest in him as he realized something: He'd lost his mother and father and saw his friend and brother killed right in front of him. Soon, he'd be the only one left. And since his father had died, at the moment in time during the film, he would be the king of Asgard.
Steve recognised this, having faced a somewhat similar situation to this. But nowhere near as close.
"And then she returned home and stabbed me in the eye, so, I had to kill her."
"Thor, you have one messed up family," Tony announced.
Quill stepped forward, pushing Gamora to the side. He tried to one-up Thor by talking about how he had to kill his father but he "… Came out with both my eyes." During that, the movie briefly showed Rocket sighing and rolling his eyes, which the audience didn't notice as they did the same thing.
Thor, who had been given some sort of food, lifted his spoon up and mentioned how he needed a hammer, not a spoon.
"By the way, where is your hammer?" Clint asked.
Onscreen-Thor walked through the ship and stopped outside an electronic lock. He tried to guess the passcode but was interrupted by Rocket, asking what he was doing. Thor told the Guardians that he was taking their pod but Quill stepped in.
"No you're not," he said, making his voice deeper.
Each audience member pulled a face, except for Quill.
"Are you… Are you making your voice deeper?" Shuri asked.
"Looks like someone's jealous," Peter said, in a singsong voice.
The two movie counterparts continued arguing about the voice change Quill made. Thor then understood how Tony felt earlier when he heard some people snickering, but unlike Tony, Thor didn't threaten anyone.
"Enough! We need to stop Thanos, which means we need to find out where he's going next," Gamora interrupted.
"Thank you!" Natasha and Rocket called out at once.
Thor told the Guardians that Thanos would be going to Knowhere. Quill, back in his normal voice, expressed his dislike for the planet and then noticed that Thor was taking their food.
"Excuse me, that's our food."
Tony turned to Thor. "You are aware a human is there? They'll need at least some food to survive."
Quill nodded in agreement.
Gamora asked why Thanos would go to Knowhere with Thor answering that the Reality Stone was there with the Collector. Viewer-Quill was about to mention how stupid that plan was but his movie counterpart beat him to it. Gamora then asked how he knew Thanos wouldn't go for any of the other stones.
"There are six Stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week when he decimated Xandar. He stole the Space Stone from me when he destroyed my ship and slaughtered half my people."
Quill and Rocket felt the mood drop when that was told. So defeating Ronan was all for nothing… They thought.
Thor, on the other hand, felt a small glimmer of hope as not all the Asgardians had been killed.
"The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth, they're with the Avengers."
"The Avengers?" Quill asked, confused.
"You knew the Time Stone was on Earth the whole time?" Fury asked.
"At the moment, no, I did not know that," Thor clarified.
"And Quill, how long have you been away from Earth?" Natasha asked.
"Well, I did say earlier I'd been taken when I was a kid so… Twenty or so years, maybe?"
Thor then talked about how no one had seen the Soul Stone for centuries. The camera lingered on Gamora. The way the music muffled Thor for a bit, once again tipped the audience off but more so the two Guardians.
If she knows where it is, why would she not tell us? Quill thought.
She then announced where they would have to go; Knowhere. But Thor shut her down by saying they had to go to Niðavellir.
"Nidave-what?" Peter said, messing up the pronunciation.
Rocket stood up and talked about how he wanted to go there. Viewer-Quill let out a snort when the movie-Thor called Rocket a rabbit and the rest of the Earth-based heroes couldn't help a small, good-natured eye roll at the mix up of animal species. Thor and Rocket just looked at them, confused.
"Thanks for considering me the captain," Rocket then said after Thor's movie counterpart made that mistake.
Quill's counterpart pointed out that he, in fact, was the captain, but everyone ignored him. Rocket led Thor to the extra pod while Quill tried to stop them.
"Wait, what kinda weapon are we talkin' about here?"
"Yeah, what type of weapon are you talking about?" Clint said, once again voicing everyone's thoughts.
"The Thanos-killing kind."
"Ah," Clint said.
But Gamora interjected by saying how they had to go to Knowhere. Rocket offered the solution; Him, Groot and Thor would go to Niðavellir while Quill, Gamora, Drax and Mantis would go to Knowhere. That was agreed, and soon Team Niðavellir ejected the pod and took off for their destination.
"Let's just hope it goes according to—"T'Challa started, but was soon interrupted by a small chorus of "The fuck?" as the next scene started to play.
A/N: Aww, thanks to those... Three people that have reviewed XD (But still, thank you). Otherwise, thank you for favouriting and/or following. In all honesty, if you're like me and don't really know what to put in a review, that's fine—Knowing that people at least are interested is really good.
And for all those who read the first version, yay! We're finally in original material! Fun fact: I actually hated Chapter 3 (aka the stuff in the first half) of the last one but because of the Endgame trailer, this turned into one of my favourite chapters.
In other news, you may have noticed that I combined two scenes. Unless I feel as though the next scene doesn't really fit or I can't be bothered, from now on, each chapter will have two scenes. And between today and next... Tuesday (?), I'll be posting as many chapters as I can, though that might be only one other chapter.