Merry Christmas everyone! I hope this chapter makes up for the crappy updates I've been doing lately, and I really look forward to what input ya'll have for me after reading this! I've been working on it as much as I've been able to the past week and I've spent two hours here tonight editing it before posting and going to bed this Christmas Eve. So please enjoy and have a great holiday! :)
Wong and I emerged out into the upper hallway of the Sanctum and immediately I could feel the unsettling silence that hung throughout the entire building. We walked purposefully down the hall and towards the staircase that would lead us down to where I assumed Thanos waited. There were no bodies scattered among the wreckage of the downstairs foyer like I'd expected, but I did see traces of newer scuffles since I'd last been down on the lower level of the mansion. Wong had told me not to show any visible signs of aggression such as conjuring up my shields or magical weapons so that we wouldn't be obliterated as soon as we confronted Thanos head on, but I still kept my mental guard up as we descended the stairs.
"…Where are they?" I asked under my breath as Wong and I stepped down onto the first floor of the Sanctum. I looked around distrustfully at the seemingly empty room, my heart hammering in anticipation. Wong too looked around at the wreckage sadly.
"The fight was carried to the training room." He said quietly, pointing towards the hallway where I had reversed Time to retrieve Proxima Midnight and take her up to the secret passageway. As the two of us made our way slowly towards the repaired doorway, I kept a mental eye in each direction, scanning for any sign of movement or noise.
"The training room was kinda destroyed…" I commented, remembering the explosion I had caused when I'd thrown Corvus Glaive's weapon up through the ceiling. The damage that Corvus Glaive had done while trying to escape from Dan's snake staff was also a factor in my memory as I stepped over the shattered and broken cases that had once housed powerful, magical artifacts and weapons. I longed to reach into the closest one and grab something to protect us, but I followed Wong's advice and continued walking in obedient silence.
"Daniel and Peter then had everyone lead Thanos to the kitchen in the hopes that the beast from the refrigerator would have the same result as it did with Corvus Glaive…" Wong said ironically. I looked at his hard expression as we continued briskly down the hall, reading that my friends' ideas had clearly not gone according to their plan.
As we came upon the doorway that led into the ruined kitchen, my heart leapt into my throat at the chaos that had presumably ensued there. Through the dimly lit kitchen, I could see that the refrigerator door was still open, but the tentacles that had lastly been flailing and reaching for Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive were no longer moving. The giant, ugly octopus-like tentacles were frozen against the ground, glowing with a pulsing purple hue. They twitched as if in pain as the glow flickered, lighting up the darkening room.
"Ah, I see you've finally decided to join us."
My gaze was torn away from the quieted tentacles on the ground as I looked for the source of the gravelly, yet calm speaker. On the other side of the room where the large dining room table had once stood was a small cluster of people, Dan and Peter among them. A huge figure stepped in front of them, blocking them from my eyesight. Five glowing Stones lit up his battle-scarred face, revealing only a small wound in the side of his cheek that was covered in dried purple blood.
"…Thanos." I whispered in realization, stepping into the room with Wong right beside me. The giant hulking man smiled even wider and bowed his head in a sickeningly sarcastic greeting.
"Alexander Richards. The one who Strange tried to prevent me from finding." Thanos said, lowering his glowing fist as he saw that we entered the room unarmed. "I must admit, in the small bit of time you were able to be trained, you seem to have learned quite a lot."
"Enough to defeat your children." I said sourly, glancing down at the unmoving tentacles as Wong and I walked slowly past them in our approach to Thanos. I tried to focus on keeping my voice as tauntingly calm as his and when I lifted my gaze back to him, the large purple man's eyes gleamed with dark amusement.
"Apparently." He murmured absently. The loss of the vicious 'children' he had instilled to do his bidding seemed to hardly affect him and that caused me to worry even more as he seemed to have no heart or clear conscience whatsoever. He looked to Wong who was standing stoically by my side, obviously on my defensive.
"That's…quite the rock collection you've got going there." I said, nodding at the glowing powerful Infinity Stones embedded in the gauntlet on Thanos' left hand. He didn't bat an eye as his smirk tilted up slightly further with his cold amusement.
"And you have the last one I've been looking for." His low voice said, getting right to the point. My hopeful mask nearly fell and I had to consciously hold myself from reaching for the pocket at my side where I could feel the steady burn of the Time Stone.
"Yeah." I said quietly, looking the large purple man up and down slowly as if trying to size him up. Clearly this wasn't going to be an easy evasion. I glanced past him to where Dan and Peter and a few other sorcerers were standing fearfully against the back wall of the kitchen near the double doors. Thanos seemed to notice my thoughtful processing of the situation because he also cast a curious glance back at my friends and newfound colleagues.
"Let's make a deal here, Alex. You give me the Stone…"
"No." I said nonchalantly under my breath. The man whipped his bald head back in my direction and titled it to the side in surprise as he finished his proposition.
"…Or one by one I'll kill your friends all right here in front of you."
"That won't happen." I said seriously, clenching and unclenching my hands into fists restlessly by my sides. Thanos's dark eyes narrowed down at me as he caught my gaze drifting back and forth between the huge villain and the small group of people behind him.
"Oh?"
"Because if you kill them, I won't give you the Stone." I said stupidly, still managing to hold my steady way of speaking to the murderous Titan. He closed his eyes and chuckled to himself lightly. When he opened them again, I had moved my gaze to Dan who was staring at me solemnly by the double doors. My friend nodded at the closed doors, and I took that to indicate that Thanos had some power over them that prevented the trapped sorcerers from attempting to escape that way. I snapped my attention back to the huge towering man in front of me as he turned back in my direction.
"You don't have the room to negotiate, boy." Thanos growled, taking a step closer to me. Wong stiffened by my side and I forced myself to stand my ground. I blinked and took a deep breath as I prepared for what would happen next.
"Actually…I think I might." I said uncertainly. When the madman's gaze didn't move or signal any sign of question, I awkwardly continued. "You see…the Stone that Doctor Strange gave to me…was a decoy."
"Really?" Thanos' voice spoke after a few seconds. His expression still didn't change and his voice had no trace of a question in it at all. He obviously didn't believe me and over his shoulder I could see Dan looking puzzled and thoughtful as I shrugged up at Thanos nonchalantly.
"Yeah. This whole time he had me thinking that it was the real deal. Scared the hell out of me the past few days and when I finally started to come to terms with the idea that I was supposed to be devoting the rest of my life to protecting this Time Stone thing if something happened to Strange, I figured out that it was all a hoax," I explained. I could feel Wong's tension easing beside me as Thanos seemed to stiffen slightly ahead of us.
"What do you think made Strange choose you out of literally anyone else on this pitiful planet to have this decoy then?" Thanos asked, tilting his head to the other side as he clearly processed my words. I looked over to Dan and Peter who shrugged and then I even glanced over at Wong who was frowning at me deeply with that expression he had held the very first day we'd met and he had resented the very idea that Thanos was describing.
"We've asked the same question, man. Even suggested the idea that there should be several decoys scattered around the Earth in the off chance that it would prove to be even harder for you to find the Stone." Dan said softly from behind the huge hulking man. Thanos didn't move as he continued to stare me down as if he could see through me.
"Because I wouldn't believe any of them." Thanos said lowly, more to himself than to anyone else. I smiled uncomfortably and gestured a hand out to him, nodding in agreement.
"Exactly. And then you wouldn't have destroyed the real one." I said simply, adding a lighthearted laugh at the end.
"Which is what you did." Peter added. Thanos frowned angrily and my laugh transitioned into a soft chuckle as I cleared my throat.
"So you're telling me that I, myself, destroyed the real Time Stone." Thanos stated quietly, his dark eyes no longer all-knowing and glimmering with a shadow of doubt. Wong and I didn't move and with my gaze focused solely on the Titan in front of me, I could vaguely see Dan and Peter's uncertain gaze from the corner of my eye.
"I'm saying, I don't know. When I found out that this Stone that he gave me was, you know, a fake…I just assumed that Strange had wanted me to think that I had the real one. Because, as we've been learning…belief is power." I explained slowly. Thanos regarded me carefully for a moment before he shifted his large booted feet to gain the higher ground again.
"If I destroyed the Time Stone on my home planet…" Thanos began, flicking his gaze to the ruined dining room floor at his feet. "I'm fairly certain that I would've known."
I kept my hesitant gaze trained on the big purple villain as he shuffled closer to me. I was afraid that if I moved to step back or show my genuine fear of the man, my illusion would fall. So I stood and waited for him to continue his slow, intimidating speech.
"You see…" Thanos raised his golden left fist up, his eyes glittering with the colorful glows from the Stones in his Gauntlet. "With the power wielded between these five Stones…I can see through your lies. I know that the real Time Stone is here because this power – far stronger than your belief, mind you – allows me to sense its presence."
With a flick of my wrist, the double of me standing next to Wong ran head-on towards Thanos while the real me appeared by Dan's side. I fumbled with the doorknob as Thanos growled out an enraged battle cry and suddenly the door in front of me lit up with an eerie purple glow. A rumble quickly followed and I whirled around once I'd realized that the doorknobs were useless to see that the large tentacles from the fridge were now once more in motion – this time directed by the Mad Titan himself.
Wong was nowhere to be seen, having presumably dodged the reanimated tentacles that flailed nearly all the way across the kitchen and dining room. The handful of sorcerers around us put up their shields to block the untamed fridge monster and I looked up hurriedly to see that, indeed, Wong was running along the high ceiling of the kitchen in our direction. The double of me somehow rolled and dodged beneath Thanos's swings and punches, but the large villain seemed to be diverting the attacking tentacles away from himself and the illusion of me that fought him.
"Can one of you make a portal out of here?" I asked one of the sorcerers impatiently, finally giving up on escaping through the dining room's double doors. A red haired man shook his head breathlessly and I noticed a huge burn in the front of his robes from an injury he had sustained during the earlier battle against Thanos.
"He's somehow controlling the area and preventing us from leaving. The plan was to use us as leverage until he got to you and the Stone." The man hurriedly explained, through several winces of pain.
I gritted my teeth and threw a frustrated glance over my shoulder to where my double had conjured up a glowing machete like I had seen Wong use against me earlier. I sent out of wave of energy that would seem like it had come from the double as he struck foward at the Mad Titan. Thanos easily sidestepped the double's attack, clearly not fooled by my illusion. The huge man whirled around, unwavering and his maddened gaze fell directly on the real me by the doors, even though I was surrounded by the remaining sorcerers.
"You forget…I've already put up with Strange's magic tricks and defeated him, what makes you think your attempts will prove any different?"
"It probably won't, that's what's so tricky." I muttered, loud enough so he could hear my frustrated remark. He sneered at me through the wall of sorcerers and as he moved to approach us, a flash of golden mandala shields held him back.
"You shouldn't have come back…we've got this Alex, just get the Stone out of here!" Dan hissed, pressing his back towards me as he held his own giant golden shield among the other few sorcerers blocking Thanos' path.
"Wong told me that Thanos was guarding you guys. I wasn't going to not come back for you…" I muttered, rolling my eyes nonchalantly while trying to hide the fact that I had been genuinely worried sick over my best friend and newfound underclassman/superhero friend. "Think you can really hold them off while I try to bust through this door?"
"No, it doesn't look like we can –" Peter protested, his voice strained as he held onto two strings of webbing that he had shot into the ceiling. He braced his feet against the interior of one of the larger mandala shields nearest to Thanos and his body seemed to tremble under the strain as the glowing power from the large villain's Gauntlet pressed against the other sides of the combined wall of shields. As soon as Peter uttered the words, Thanos directed one of the huge tentacles groping from the fridge to slam into the very shield that Peter was helping to hold. The golden glow flickered dangerously and Peter had just enough time to fall to the floor before the shield disappeared for good. The unfortunate sorcerer that had struggled to keep the shield substantial was left dazed for a millisecond too long and he was instantly seized by the tentacle under Thanos' control.
"Hold on, I'm coming!" Dan shouted over the poor man's frightened screams. Being the closest one to the entrapped man, Dan dove forward letting his shield down to try and reach for the man slowly being dragged back towards the fridge past Thanos.
"Dan!" I exclaimed, throwing myself after him as he ran right into the path of yet another tentacle that had snaked its way by the other side of Thanos. Peter was on his feet once more and he shot a web straight for Dan's back to yank him back towards us. Missing its mark of completely crushing my best friend, the huge tentacle still slammed downward with a crunching thud on my friend's lower body when Peter's super strength couldn't move Dan out of the way fast enough.
There were no words to express the agony Dan felt as it seemed that nearly every bone in both of his legs were shattered with the weight of the huge, destructive monster from the fridge. I darted forward past Thanos, seeing that my double was still standing stupidly and forgotten just a few paces away from the large villain. I shot a wave of golden energy at the tentacle still latched onto Dan's legs, hearing his pain-induced screams reach ear-splitting volumes before I finally managed to make the fridge monster retreat.
"Victor!" Wong's voice ordered and our teacher then suddenly appeared by the side of the man who was almost completely absorbed in the tentacles closest to the fridge. Thanos turned curiously away from me where I stood between him and Dan while Peter hurried to try and protect Dan from the other side nearest the fridge.
"Wong, the kids!"
The entrapped man had almost reached the destination that the tentacles had intended for him and I looked up to see that Wong held the man's bloodied hand in a last moment's reassurance. I felt my chest tighten as I could see the physical torment on Wong's usually serene face when he gave a final squeeze to the other sorcerer's hand and let him go. Wong turned immediately in my direction, his furious eyes landing first on Dan, Peter and I where we stood closest to Thanos. I had my golden dagger-tipped shields raised towards the huge purple man, who seemed only intent on watching the numerous scenes playing out in front of him. I turned back to him hurriedly as Thanos' large booted feet shifted a hesitant step closer, his eyes still trained on Wong.
"Loss is always preventable." Thanos murmured with what sounded like either genuine sorrow, or really good acting.
Wong shook his head slowly and I could see his fury building as his hands moved with lightning speed from where he stood back by the open fridge. The giant tentacles retreated recklessly into the large open kitchen appliance and the heavy door slammed shut with an echoing thud in the now-silent room.
"If we prevent you from accomplishing your goal, then there will be no losses."
Wong drew his hands together in expert practice and conjured up a large glowing disc that spun in midair before him. Almost like a portal, it twirled and sparked but no other destination emerged through its center. I caught Wong's side glance and nodded curtly as he signaled that he would keep Thanos occupied while I should tend to Dan. As soon as I turned around, one of the sorcerers, a red haired girl in her mid-twenties darted into place with a shield, putting herself between Thanos and me and my friend.
"I will stop at nothing until I get what I want." Thanos responded, and I could almost physically feel his dark gaze on me as he was forced to assumingly deal with Wong first before getting back to me.
"We know."
I stopped right over Dan and looked back towards Wong as an unfamiliar voice spoke from behind him. My eyes widened by what I saw there.
A whole group of people, some familiar and some not, suddenly appeared one by one as they each entered the kitchen from the doorway. Among them I recognized Bruce Banner, bruised and battered but definitely angry enough to produce the Hulk should he have been able to. Another one that I spotted among them was Rhodey, with his War Machine suit looking even more damaged than it had the first time I'd seen him. A bleached-blonde woman in a skin-tight black outfit stood just beside Bruce along with a masked man in a dark-armored suit designed to look like a panther. There was a clatter of booming footsteps as a very huge man, this one obviously recognizable to anyone as the God of Thunder, emerged from the hallway hefting a ridiculously large axe over one shoulder.
"Enough with the chitchat Rogers…let's finish this." Thor's deep and clearly agitated voice boomed as he threw a brief glance to the man who had spoken. The one nearest to Wong clenched his bearded jaw angrily as he stared levelly at Thanos who had stopped in his advances toward Wong. The man was in a dark navy suit and upon a further glance I noticed the indention where a bright star had previously been. Captain America.
"Yeah, we weren't done with you yet, Baldy." A gruff voice called from directly behind Thor. The Thunder God shifted only slightly and I caught a glimpse of a literal raccoon standing on its hind legs with a very large gun primed in its paws.
"I am Groot." A wooden creature spoke up, sliding itself through the door right beside the raccoon. One final man followed them in, this one possessing an entire metal left arm. My mouth gaped open at the assortment of heroes that filled the room, and my heart began to swell with excitement and a little bit of confidence that maybe our situation wouldn't be as hopeless as I'd dreaded.
"You couldn't defeat me before…do you all honestly think that the rest of you will survive this round?" Thanos said and I could see that his biting words caused a few of the Avengers to stiffen as some hidden meaning took hold of them. Thanos glanced down longingly at the Gauntlet over his left hand and I could see the larger Stone that was embedded on the back of the Gauntlet pulsed with a bright yellow glow. "Ripping the Mind Stone out of your friend's head didn't cause any of you to feel some realization at how dire the need for this is?"
"Wanda realized something. That she wanted to kill you even more." The blonde woman said lowly, her eyebrows pinched low over her stern gaze. Thanos' eyes gleamed amusedly at her.
"And she paid the price for her attempts. I've told you – I'll stop at nothing to finish this." Thanos said simply. I had no idea who Wanda was, but I imagined that she must have been the one who Bruce and Wong had been referring to before about the one person being close to the android with the Mind Stone in his head.
"You're repeating yourself." Thor said, his eyes almost glowing with his fury. Dan made a gasping sob at my feet and I hurriedly knelt down by his side, throwing Thanos a warning glance before I turned away from him. I caught Wong's eye and I could see that the golden disc he wielded had stopped flipping and now rested at his chest level. As I knelt down by Dan who was looking very pale and bleary eyed, Wong clasped his hands together and psychically mashed the glowing disc flat.
"How about we don't speak at all? That will save everyone the trouble and confusion of having to listen to you babble on and on about how 'this is your destiny' and that 'you're more powerful than all of us combined?' " Peter suggested sarcastically from where he stood by Dan's side across from me. I could see that he was almost if not even more excited than I was about having a bunch of the Avengers sharing the room with us.
Wong smirked at Peter's outburst and nodded at me to signal that I should tend to Dan who had once more let out a pained cry as he tried to shift his weight on the ground. The sorcerer then flicked his wrist forward and the flat disc that I had up until now thought was just a distraction from the Avengers' entrance, shot across the kitchen and through the dining room towards Thanos.
"Dan…Daniel…" I said as gently as I could when I had joined Peter by my best friend's side. Dan's hand gripped for mine tightly and I cringed as my gaze drifted to his crushed legs. There was no visible sign of blood but that made his injuries seem even worse to me.
"Alex…" He said, his gasping voice hoarse from the cries he had erupted with upon being nearly flattened by the huge fridge monster's limb. I looked at my friend with tears in my eyes, suddenly scared as our situation was finally falling into place. I could see his steady gaze through the shining pain in his eyes and I felt a shiver run through me as his expression seemed to look so final.
"It's alright, Dan…the Avengers are here to help us, see?" I asked gently, trying to take his mind off of the immense pain that wracked his body. Dan glanced briefly past me at the group of people suddenly rushing past Wong. Thanos had intercepted Wong's flying disc that had been intended to decapitate the huge purple alien and tossed it back with equal speed, causing Thor to leap forward and slam his axe into the conjured disc to dissolve it.
"Yeah…" Dan breathed weakly as his eyes seemed to glaze over with the pain. I shook his shoulder to get him to focus his dwindling attention back to me, my heart racing with fear.
"Alex, what can you do?" Peter whispered quickly, his mask gone and his kid-like face creased with worry as he kept tearing his gaze away from me and clearly itching to be in on the action. I imagined I looked the same way as I glanced back up to the skirmish going on between the Avengers and Thanos. The big man seemed to be toying with them, as if waiting for us to have our moment over in the corner for some reason. I narrowed my eyes as Captain America and the blonde woman dove to avoid a glowing purple mound of wall that erupted out of the opposite side of the kitchen. The last few sorcerers worked to hold what part of the ceiling tried to cave in on them and the other Avengers as Thor seemed to fly across the wide room to Thanos whose Gauntlet was glowing a different color for each attack he tried to deflect or dish out.
"Hang on Dan…I'm going to fix it…" I said as I reached for the Time Stone in my pocket, looking hesitantly back down to the disfigured lumps that were his legs jutting out in odd directions beneath the fabric of his robes. Dan's eyes widened fearfully and his hand gripped my wrist even tighter as he shook his head in a panic.
"No…Alex…please –"
"Boys, look out!" The girl who stood over us shouted suddenly, flashing her shield as wide as it would go to cover us. I flexed my hand that wasn't holding onto Dan and shot a burst of golden energy that diminished the mass of wall that had been thrown our way. Peter shot a cluster of webbing against the wall behind us that attached firmly to the floor just by Dan's feet. The largest hunk of wall that got past both me and the girl in front of us rebounded in Peter's web and flew back towards where Thanos was swatting War Machine aside. His strength sent the poor man crashing into the doors where the sorcerers were attempting to aid in the Avengers' attacks. Dan didn't even blink at the interference and that worried me as Peter and I exchanged slightly relieved looks once the immediate danger was cleared from our corner.
"I'm gonna help you, Dan. Just brace yourself…this might hurt as it rewinds…" I said uncertainly as I retrieved the Time Stone from my pocket and moved to stand up.
"What?! No –"
Dan's eyes widened once more as he continued to protest but I peeled his death grip from around my wrist carefully. Dan struggled to move but cried out painfully as I glanced up at Thanos who currently had Thor pinned against the wall, the head of the Thunder God's axe held tightly in the villain's Gauntlet-covered hand. Thanos' gaze drifted over to me curiously as he almost effortlessly caused Thor to release his hold on his weapon and tossed the angered demigod aside into the already ruined counter.
Back against the double doors, Peter and I huddled over Dan protectively and the woman who still managed to stand between us and the ensuing battle braced herself for Thanos' approach. Seeing the direction that the giant villain was now headed, the Black Panther-suited man leapt forward onto Thanos' back, digging the claws of his suit into the purple man's bared shoulder. Thanos cried out more in surprise than from the pain that the man intended to cause and turned around, occupied only long enough to throw the figure from him alongside where Thor was collecting himself amid the rubble of the kitchen floor. Before Thanos could turn back to us, I had decided that I would hurry to reverse the damage done to my friend's legs and quickly join the battle.
"Alex, hurry – they need help…" Peter said, flicking his mask into existence and hiding his fearful expression. Dan had one hand clamped firmly around Spiderman's wrist and his other reaching to grasp for mine as well. I once more moved to stand up and perform the summoning to open the Time Stone but before I could fully stand, a figure slammed into me, shoving me back down into a crouch beside my friends.
"This is what he wants, Alex. You can't reveal the Time Stone to him." Bruce Banner's voice muttered quickly in my ear. I looked up to him and could see that his face was streaked with blood and bruises from the first battle that they had just seemingly come from. I cringed as his words made sense to my nerve-wracked mind and I looked back down to see that Dan was staring hopefully up to Bruce as he had figured out what my friend had been trying to tell me.
"Then what do we do? We can't move him like this!" I argued, looking back at the scientist where he crouched by my side.
"A portal?" Peter suggested quietly, shrugging as if the idea was obvious. I rolled my eyes, trying to hide my panic behind my agitation.
"Thanos is somehow preventing us from being able to conjure portals in here. Otherwise these other sorcerers would've tried that by now." I explained crestfallenly.
"Then our objective is to try and sneak by this whole thing going on…" Bruce suggested quickly, nodding toward the battle going on between Thanos and Captain America. The bearded man was slicing his shields, both somehow attached to his forearms, towards the purple villain in a way that caused him to continue spinning to dodge the man's persistent attacks. That technique clearly didn't last long though, because Thanos feigned another dodge and when Captain America leapt to the side for his next swipe, Thanos planted an earth-shattering kick in the smaller man's midsection that sent him flying back in our direction.
"Woah!" I exclaimed as the woman standing guard over us let down her shield so that Cap had a few more yards to slow down before he slammed forcefully into the wall just beside us. Bruce's gaze instantly flicked back to the scene in front of us and he pushed me down and into Peter as something small went crashing straight into the doors directly behind us.
"I am Groot!" A concerned voice shouted across the room. I looked hurriedly up towards the hero that had cried out and could see the thin tree guy running clumsily through the fighting area near the space where the dining table had once stood. The blonde woman, Thor and the Black Panther were forced to hesitate as the wooden humanoid figure ran in our direction before they dashed back towards Thanos, weapons cutting through the air in a blur.
"Ugh…Groot?!" A gruff voice said from the splintered door. I turned and could see the raccoon was crumpled against the bottom of the door on the floor, grunting as he tried to move back into a sitting position. The tree figure looked only briefly at Dan, Peter, Bruce and I as he knelt down next to the raccoon.
"I am Groot." He said in a soft, consoling voice. I gave Bruce a confused look as that seemed to be the only phrase that the creature behind us could say. The raccoon seemed to understand him well enough though because he patted the tree's hand with one of his small paws to reassure him that he was alright.
"Alex…" Dan said, taking my attention back once more. I looked at him, noticing that his eyes were closed even though his pained gasping breaths were still hitching in his chest.
"You're gonna be okay, we're trying to figure something out so we can get you out of here." I said gently, patting my friend's shoulder reassuringly as the raccoon and tree talked quietly just a few feet away. Captain America had moved himself over to Bruce and he seemed to be thinking of a plan as well.
"Kid…" The bearded hero said, singling me out before I could say anything else to Dan. "He's after you. I hate to say this…but the focus is to get you out of here before we do anything else."
I looked up at Captain America in weary realization. I threw a worried glance back down at Dan who was squinting up at me through tear-filled eyes. My friend nodded up at me once, urging me to leave him for what felt like the third time in the past five minutes.
"He's going easy on us right now. But that makes me think that it's because you're in here with the last remaining Stone. For some reason he must think you're going to factor in to his plans to get it." Cap said thoughtfully, nodding up to where Thanos was bucking wildly in the center of the room as he attempted to shake off the blonde woman's tightening arms from around his neck. The Black Panther had Thanos' legs in an equally strong grip, and I could clearly see that the knife-like claws in his hands were digging firmly into the Titan's calves to cause the villain to limit his movements to avoid the claws sinking in deeper.
"So…what? We're just going to walk outta here?" I asked Cap uncertainly. Thor was standing directly in front of Thanos, tapping his axe warning in his hands and eyeing the wall of the kitchen. Wong stood furthest from the group, seeming to be keeping an eye on the fridge in case Thanos tried to use the huge monster inside it against the Avengers.
"No." Bruce answered me before the other Avenger could. The scientist nodded toward Peter whose eyes widened in surprise. "He is."
I blinked at Peter whose gaze drifted from Bruce to Captain America before landing slowly back on me. I unsurely began to move my hand to where the Time Stone still rested in the pocket of my robes but Bruce gently set his hand on my forearm as he stared at Peter.
"We're going to perform a body swap." Bruce said quietly, glancing quickly up as Thanos let out a protesting growl. The tree man, Groot, had angrily climbed to his feet and rushed at Thanos where the others were holding him. His arm-like limbs stretched quickly and eerily out towards the hulking villain and began to wrap methodically around his torso and struggling arms.
"We're going to do a what?!" I exclaimed at the same time as Peter. I narrowed my eyes at Bruce suspiciously as Captain America also seemed a little confused.
"What do you mean?" The bearded hero asked, intrigued. Bruce nodded over to Wong who seemed to sense that we were planning something tricky and within the practiced magic that he had tried to teach us.
"It should be pretty simple to do…" Bruce began to explain. He was silenced by Wong as the sorcerer shot a strip of red glowing tendrils towards Thanos, binding his hands into fists together in front of him. Upon seeing that Wong's glowing magic had formed into a makeshift pair of handcuffs around the Titan's huge hands, Peter stood up briefly and shot a thick wad of webbing from his wrist straight into Thanos' face, with such a force that the man was nearly shoved off of his feet. The blonde woman that had up until this moment been latched on to Thanos' back, leapt off with expert speed to allow him to fall.
"What you are thinking of doing could prove to be more complicated than you may be imagining…" Wong said, suddenly joining our small group at the back of the dining room/kitchen. His arms were crossed thoughtfully as he read the thoughtful glances between Cap and Bruce.
"Well, we're just going to have to risk it." Captain America stated firmly. Peter and I were left staring awkwardly in dumbfounded silence between the adults as they tried to piece together our plan.