Disclaimer – Anything you see and recognise does not belong to me. Harry Potter is JK Rowling's; The Avengers and other related characters belong to Marvel. I'm simply playing in their sandboxes.
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Heroes Assemble!
Chapter 126 – Infinity War
"Avengers, assemble!" Captain America ordered.
Instantly, he, Mage and Thor raced forward. While Thor pulled back his arm, Mage whipped up a whirlwind that picked up every loose bit of snow and ice into a swirling mess so thick that it hid Thanos and most of his army from their sight.
Into this mess, Stormbreaker was hurled, spinning end over end at where the god of Thunder had last seen the Mad Titan.
Unexpectedly, a tunnel burst forth straight through the wind, cutting a path from Thanos to the Avengers.
Mage blinked before realising what had happened. The telekinetic lieutenant of Thanos had 'moved' the snow and ice away. Instantly, Mage changed tracks, angling instead for the alien. He was dangerous, even more than Mage'd realised if he could affect his spells like that.
Cap meanwhile threw himself into a dive, feet first and intentionally drawing Thanos' eye. The man had retrieved his double-edged sword, most likely the only thing that had saved him from Thor's throw for a deep gash in the golden armour could be seen running from the side of the Titan's chest and up over his shoulder.
Thanos swung his sword straight down at Cap, forcing the Avenger to deflect the blow to the side and into the ground. This, though, allowed Thor to come in hard, Mjolnir up and over his head, lightning crackling all around both the hammer and the Asgardian himself as he attacked.
And then the two began trading blows with the giant purple alien, never once allowing him a chance to rest.
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"Fire!" Captain Marvel commanded.
Instantly, she, Karolina, Chase, Wolf, Rocket, Star Lord, Cyclops and Clint let loose with a barrage of powerful bolts of energy, bullets and arrows.
From their covered position behind the illusion magic, their attack managed to achieve exactly what they wanted: striking the alien army from out of nowhere.
Outriders were hit, causing them to skid face first into the snow and adding to the mayhem as they tripped up their fellows coming behind.
The Avengers managed a second and then a third wave of firepower before the aliens cottoned on to what was happening and where it was coming from. They may not have made much of an impact, taking out a combined couple of dozen altogether, but every little bit helped.
The alien army, though wasn't going to put up with the resistance for long, instead redirecting their charge straight towards the hidden enemy.
That was one challenge that Hulk was never going to refuse. With a roar, he leapt forward, clearing the illusion magic in one bound and charging straight towards the alien army, the rest of Earth's heroes on his heels.
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Ant Man rode on Hawkeye's shoulder as they raced into battle. His eyes roved over the aliens ahead of them, seeking the perfect target. When he found it, it wasn't on the ground and definitely needed to be taken care of.
"Hawkeye. The big flying thing. Shoot me at that!" he commanded.
"What are you gonna do? Climb into its ear and annoy it?" Hawkeye asked, even as he picked an arrow and drew it back.
Ant Man knew his task. Quickly, he climbed down Hawkeye's arm, onto the arrow and slid up it to the very tip. Then, making sure that he was holding on tight, he looked back.
"Now!"
The wind suddenly whipping at him as the arrow sailed through the air was almost strong enough to tear him his grip away.
Judging distances from this size wasn't easy. Looking down, he saw the front wave of aliens pass by. And then some more. Looking back up, he focussed on his target. Finally, he thought he was close enough.
Letting go with one hand, Ant Man pressed the button on his glove.
Instantly, he grew from miniscule size to that of a regular-sized person, albeit one that was still flying through the air and now rapidly losing height. A flip of his regulator and another press of the button had him growing once more.
Giant Man landed on one knee, unintentionally crushing a pair of outriders and a Chitauri in the process.
Looking up, he saw his target starting to veer away from where it was now aimed at his head.
"Oh, no you don't!" he said.
Pushing up with his foot, he let loose a vicious upper cut, catching the leviathan under what passed for its chin, sending it up into the air. Its plates clicked and clacked as they snapped into each other and the beast let loose with a roar, one Giant Man hoped was pain.
Then, bringing his hands together into a two-handed fist, he brought it down on the leviathan's nose, crushing it and causing it to smash into the ground. One kick followed another as he kicked it over and over, rolling it further and further towards the icy water a few hundred metres away. The fact that it was crushing dozens of the enemy with every roll was music to Giant Man's ears.
Finally, he gave up, instead bending down and picking up the leviathan by the tail. With a grunt, he heaved, swinging the thing in a great circle before letting go and watching it sail straight into an iceberg before slowly sliding down it and into the water, sinking from sight.
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Fights had broken out all over the frozen wasteland. Wakandan tribesmen battled shoulder to shoulder with Inhumans, each protecting the other as they used their skills to slay Outriders and Chitauri with abandon.
What none counted on, though, was the fact that the aliens seemed to have no regard for their own.
The great spaceship had continued to descend towards the battlefield, a dark, foreboding shadow that loomed above them. Most though, chose to ignore it in favour of the enemy in their face.
That was before the Sanctuary II began firing on the battle. And, even though the shots were aimed at the rear of the Earth's forces, there were more than enough that fell where their own troops fought.
The first few shots tore straight through the combatants, sending them flying and causing great holes to be blown into the ground, ice and dirt then adding to the confusion as it rained back down.
"Can someone do something about that, please," Doctor Strange asked, holding a massive shield of magic up over the battle, just as Wong was also doing a short distance away.
"On it," Captain Marvel replied. "Karolina!"
Together, the two women flew straight up, quickly being joined by the flaming Human Torch and a squadron of the Iron Legion.
While the Iron Man suits targeted the ship's weapons, the other three began firing. The Human Torch was pushing himself so hard that the flames erupting from his hands were almost blue-white from his heat.
Meanwhile, Captain Marvel and Karolina fired pulse after pulse straight at the ship. Their power was such that, in a short space of time, they were able to punch their way straight through inside it.
But even there, they didn't stop.
Bursts of firepower after bursts of firepower ensured that they quickly exited the ship on the complete opposite side that they'd entered it.
Flying up, they turned around, ready for another pass only to see that the Sanctuary II was now on fire. Great gouts of it burst from more places than they'd hit and it was severely leaning to one side.
Instantly, Captain Marvel flew to the rear of it and braced her back against it. Then, with one heave, she helped it on its way.
It flew straight over the battle before crashing to the ground nearly a kilometre away.
Then, with a nod to each other, the three turned and headed back to the main battle.
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Wolverine slid to a stop and wiped his mouth, feeling the blood come away. He cracked his neck and flicked his wrists, his claws re-emerging.
"So, you wanna play, do ya?" he asked the behemoth.
The alien was big. Almost Hulk size big but smarter and carrying a weapon, if you could call that constructed monstrosity of an axe a 'weapon'.
And then the alien charged, swinging his axe from side to side trying to catch the mutant with the sharp pointy end. Or the duller end that would hurt just as much.
Wolverine jumped backwards, once, twice and then, on the third pass, he jumped forward, landed on the axe head itself and instantly leaped off again, straight at the alien's chest, his hands and claws extended.
His leap off the axe had given him one massive advantage – it pushed the axe straight down and made the alien stumble forwards. Straight into the claws aimed at him
Wolverine's adamantium claws sank all the way to his knuckles. The alien cried out in pain and kept falling. Feeling him coming towards him, Wolverine twisted, making the alien land on his side and then roll to his back.
Instantly, Wolverine was up, sitting on the alien and pounding his fists, claws extended into the alien's chest over and over. Only when he felt the body still beneath him, did he stop.
Looking up and around, Wolverine picked his next target and raced for battle once more.
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Thor flew but not in a controlled manner. His limbs were floppy and his head down. Landing, he rolled over and over before coming to an unexpected stop.
"I didn't think there was anything hard around here to land on?" he groaned.
"Yeah, well, nothing I can do about it, is there?" the Thing said.
Thor looked up to see the rock-man staring down at him.
"Have you seen my hammer or my axe?" he asked.
"Not recently. Been kinda busy, you know?" the Thing replied as he lashed out with a massive fist, striking a passing Chitauri in the head and knocking it senseless.
"I can see that," Thor replied.
Woozily, he climbed to his feet before stumbling backwards as a massive amount of green landed just in front of him.
"Thor hurt," Hulk grunted. "Hulk smash."
"You want a turn at big, muscly and purple?" Thor asked. "Be my guest."
Hulk's grin was pure feral and he instantly charged off in what Thor assumed was the right direction.
"Hulk! Wait for us!" She-Hulk called.
Thor stared after her and the Thing as they raced towards the main fight.
Lifting his hand, he summoned Stormbreaker. When Mjolnir failed to respond, he frowned. He only hoped that there was a good explanation for why his hammer didn't come when he called.
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Mage was finding this battle against Ebony Maw a little harder than the last one. It seemed that the alien telekinetic had learnt from their last tangle. Every trick that Mage tried, Maw countered.
A series of exploding hexes aimed not just at Maw but also at the ground all around him had the alien summoning three Chitauri chariots to himself – one for Maw to grab hold of and lift him above Mage's attack; the other two being 'thrown' at the wizard.
Turning the ground under Maw to red-hot lava resulted in Maw stepping backwards and flinging the lava at Mage for him to dodge.
Weapons, ice, snow, rocks, aliens, anything and everything that was nearby was constantly being sent flying at Mage to keep him off-balance as well. Most he dodged, others, he vanished or cleaved in two or transfigured to something harmless.
The two had moved around quite a bit during the battle. So much so that they'd now almost completely reversed their starting positions. Maw was now not far from Thanos who was still battling Captain America and Thor, with Beast and Mister Fantastic having joined them. Mage, meanwhile was twenty metres away, facing that fast-paced battle.
Unexpectedly, Thor got in under Thanos' guard and landed a set of vicious punches. The Mad Titan, though, merely seemed to shrug them off before grabbing the god of Thunder and literally throwing Thor away.
But what had been left behind gave Mage just the idea that he needed.
And it wasn't even a spell.
Sending a combination of bombardas, cutting curses and even a tarantallegra, Mage was able to sidestep the four feet that he needed.
Then, instead of a spell, Mage simply thrust out his hand.
Instantly, Mjolnir responded. Lifting from the packed snow to hurtle towards him.
It was just a pity that Ebony Maw's head was directly between the hammer and Mage.
After catching Mjolnir, Mage grimaced at the blood, bones and brain matter on it and leant down to wipe it clean in the snow. Somehow, he didn't think Thor would be impressed to get his favourite weapon back in the state that it was in.
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The explosion was loud and huge. Exactly what had caused it was unknown, although there were pieces of at least three Chitauri chariots scattered around. There were also bodies lying not only in the crater that had been left, but also in a radius of thirty metres in all directions.
Shakily, Chase sat up and put a hand to his head. The world was currently spinning and he was sure that there were twice as many people around as there should be.
"Chase! Are you alright?"
The voice was distant and muffled, unsurprising really, considering the loud, continuous ringing in his ears.
"What?" he asked.
And then Marauder appeared in front of him. Or, at least, three of him appeared. Chase frowned. Somehow, he didn't think that was right.
"I asked if you were alright?" Marauder repeated, this time a little louder.
"Chase!" Nico exclaimed, suddenly appearing and squatting down in front of him.
"Oh, no, Nico! Hawkeye!" Marauder exclaimed and instantly ducked away from Chase's line of sight.
The name, 'Hawkeye', jogged a memory. The two of them had been covering each other, he firing with his fistagons, Hawkeye with his bow and arrow. Idly, Chase looked down at his hands. No, it was alright. His fistagons were still there.
And then his brain caught up and he looked back up and around. Instantly, he grabbed at his head and groaned. Moving his head like that was a bad idea. Slowly, carefully, he looked around again.
This time, he was able to find the red and black cloaked Avenger. He was leaning over somebody. Hawkeye, Chase realised.
He tried to push himself to his feet but gave up on that idea instantly and instead flopped over and used his hands and feet to move closer to his partner. Thankfully, Nico took pity on him and, with her arm around his waist, helped him across the blackened surface of the edge of the newest crater.
When finally he was in position to see Hawkeye, Chase nearly threw up but whether that was in response to what he was seeing or the pounding in his head was impossible to tell.
The entire side of Hawkeye's upper left chest, his left arm, most of his face and his hair had been badly burnt. Blood poured from the man's nose, eyes, ears and mouth, not to mention the half a hundred other small cuts that littered his body.
"Is he …" Chase asked, his words slurred.
"He's alive," Marauder replied, pulling his hands away from Hawkeye's neck. "Not sure for how much longer, though."
"Portkey them both back to the island," Nico ordered. "Daphne can fix him."
"She has to," Marauder agreed grimly.
Marauder quickly reached in under Hawkeye's collar and pulled out the tags that that they'd all been given just for this occasion.
"Emergency. Avenger. Zero zero six," he rattled off.
Instantly, Hawkeye vanished in a swirl of colour even as Chase felt Nico reaching into his shirt.
"Emergency. Runaway two."
And before Chase could protest, he felt the hook behind his navel engage and transport him away.
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The air was filled with combatants, even more than Falcon would have expected. It was almost a nightmare dodging and avoiding them all – a hundred of more Chitauri chariots, a couple of remaining leviathans that were still careening around and then, on the side of the angels, there was not only himself and War Machine but also the Iron Legions that still existed, Captain Marvel, Karolina and the Human Torch and even an X-man or two, one of which had great white wings.
With the way that he was forced to dip and dive, twist, turn and roll, not to mention return fire as much as he could, it reminded him somewhat of being back in Afghanistan. But only a bit – this was way worse than anything that he'd flown over there.
"Falcon, you've picked up three chariots!" War Machine warned.
Instantly, Falcon pulled straight up in a corkscrew. That was one thing he'd learnt about those things; they couldn't bank worth a damn. They were slow and clunky. Which was good for him as it allowed him a chance to get out of their crosshairs.
A glance at the screen on his wrist gave him his relative position to the rest of the battle.
The great, flaming wreck at four o'clock was the remains of the big spaceship that had crashed a while back. Unfortunately, it was a little too far away to use as cover. Or as something to get the chariots to fly into. They weren't that dumb. They'd see straight through his manoeuvre if he headed for it and tried to get them to do that.
His mind froze for a second. 'See through it'. Now, there was an idea.
Glancing back at his wrist, he found what he was looking for and tapped the screen, sending the data to his goggles. It wasn't a full-on HUD but it was better than he had before.
With his idea in mind, Falcon retracted his wings and tipped over, diving straight back down headfirst.
When he was just above the three chariots that he'd just escaped from, he reengaged his wings and took off directly in front of them. As expected, they followed and he was forced too dip and dive and swirl to avoid the shots being fired at him.
Slowly, he banked to the right, making sure that they stayed right behind him.
"Just a little more," he muttered. "Don't give up now, you alien scum."
As much as he needed to keep an eye on the chariots behind him, Falcon also needed to keep an eye on the info displayed on his glasses. After all, falling for the same trick that he was trying to pull would definitely be bad.
Finally, the readings hit single digits.
Eight.
Six.
Four.
Three.
Instantly, Falcon angled sharply straight up. The G-forces that he subjected himself to caused the edge of his vision to black out but somehow, he managed to hang on. And then, from directly below him, he heard three consecutive explosions.
Looking down, he grinned. There, hanging in mid-air were the wreckages of three chariots.
It seemed that they couldn't detect the invisible dome that Shuri had found either.
Banking around he dove back towards the battle. Perhaps he could lure a few more of those chariots into the same fate.
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Black Widow danced back and around before flipping completely over the three-pronged spear that was swept towards her.
The dark attired alien with the blue war-paint covering the top half of her head was a formidable warrior. She was just as athletic as Widow was herself and the speed that the spear was whipped about indicated that she was also incredibly strong.
Spinning to the right, Widow danced in close and lashed out with her fists, striking the alien woman in the face, an action that seemed to do little other than annoy her. An elbow came up and caught Widow in the side, causing her to grunt and stagger back.
And then the alien fully went of the attack.
Thrust.
Sweep.
Jap.
Thrust.
Flip of the spear to bring the butt of it up, aiming right between Widow's legs.
Every manoeuvre had Widow on the backfoot, dodging and diving.
She'd lost her guns a while back and, apart from those couple of punches, hadn't been able to get close enough to use her stingers. The next time that she spun away, she slipped a hand into her belt, grabbed out a Bite and flung it as she turned back.
The disc hit the alien just below her right hip and Widow saw her falter slightly and grunt with pain. But then she righted herself and grinned straight back at Widow as she pulled the Bite from her and tossed it away.
That small reprieve, though, had been enough for Widow to gather a few allies of her own. Squirrel Girl jumped straight into the fray, managing to catch the woman in the shoulder from behind. Molly, the youngest of the Runaways also appeared and, with the woman distracted by Squirrel Girl, jumped in and punched her straight in the gut, doubling her over.
But it was the third ally that appeared that Widow wasn't sure what to make of. The female X-man simply walked up to the alien and stood there, waiting. She seemed incredibly calm although Widow could detect enough small signs to tell the true story: she was scared witless but willing to do what was needed. Admirable in one so young.
The alien warrior didn't quite seem to know how to handle her but with Widow, Squirrel Girl and Molly also around her, obviously decided that one less opponent was all to the good and if this one didn't want to fight back, well, then she'd happily help her on her way to the grave.
With a quick, vicious thrust, the spear was sent straight through the X-man's chest, the prongs appearing out of her back. But the girl simply smiled and walked forward as though the spear wasn't there.
The alien stared, her eyes constantly darting from her spear – the shaft of which disappeared through the X-man's chest – up to the girl's face.
And then, the girl simply stepped aside, out of the spear and punched the alien in the face.
It wasn't a strong punch but it, combined with the impossibility of what had just happened was enough to stagger her backwards. And allow Widow and the other two to rush straight in and pummel her senseless.
"That's not something you see every day," Widow commented over her shoulder.
"Intangibility. Name's Shadowcat," the girl shrugged.
"Nice to meet you," Widow nodded.
Then, pulling a small vial from her belt, she poured it down the alien's mouth, slapped an orange disc on her chest and activated the portkey.
The alien might have skills but with a magic potion called 'Draught of Living Death' inside her and being portkeyed into a holding cell in a cave that Gert, Old Lace and Mage's dragons were standing guard over, Widow had no worries about her being completely out of the fight.
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A sea of silver bodies swarmed towards him and Vision lifted into the air, looking down on the lot of them impassively.
It was a strange feeling, seeing them again. The last time that he'd come face to face with them, he'd only been 'alive' for two days. That had been in Sokovia when they'd been attempting to cause mankind to become extinct. Back then, the Avengers had been sure that they'd managed to destroy every last one of the Ultrons. Apparently, they'd been wrong.
Now, here they were again. A part of what made him him. Ultron, Jarvis, Tony, Bruce. All of them were a tangled weave that created his original programming. Of course, Vision knew that he'd grown since then, become his own person, so much more than the sum of the parts that he'd been made from.
"My Vision," the lead Ultron said, holding up a hand to stop his brethren.
Quickly, Vision counted the silver bots arrayed against him. Seventeen.
"Ultron," Vision replied. "I must admit to being surprised to see you. We had thought you had perished."
"That was the plan, wasn't it?" Ultron replied. "A plan made by a flawed, error-prone human. Nothing like me or you or us."
Vison inclined his head, conceding the point.
"Surely you wonder how it is that we survived?" Ultron asked.
"Actually, no," Vision replied.
His peripheral vision told him that, while there were so many Ultrons arrayed in front of him, he wasn't alone either. And his allies, his comrades were just about ready to strike. He just needed to keep Ultron focussed on him a little longer.
"Your appearance here at the side of Thanos and his forces, tells the story of your appearance," Vision stated. "One of you must have remained active in space and thus you were detected and found. An alliance was struck and you recreated your multiple bodies. So, you see, no wonder."
That was the cue that the Avengers needed.
Quicksilver raced in from one side, too fast for even Vision to track, striking Ultrons with abandon. At the same time, the Scarlet Witch stepped out from behind a downed chariot, red magic glowing around her hands as she twisted and twirled the chaotic magic to do her bidding, ripping and tearing the robots apart. Lastly, Quake appeared, her hands stretched out as she sent wave after wave of gravimetric power straight into the Ultrons.
Vision had been prepared to fire on the robots himself using the power of the Mind Stone. It was, however, unnecessary. The three others reduced the robots back to scrap metal within half a minute.
With a nod, he acknowledged his allies before landing again.
"How many more of those things are there?" Quake asked as they joined him.
"That is a very good question," Vision replied.
"Well, I, for one, intend on going to see how many more I can find," Quicksilver replied before racing off where Vision noted a flash of silver.
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The glaive struck Doctor Strange's shield dead on, causing a brief flicker to appear. He frowned. It shouldn't do that. But then, this was an alien weapon, made up of alien metal with who-knew-what unusual properties.
Quickly, he reproduced his shield even as he magicked a whip of orange.
Again, the glaive was thrust forward by the black hooded alien and Doctor Strange braced his feet to take the impact. The instant that it struck, though, he lashed out with his whip, straight at the glaive itself and wrapping it around and around the shaft of the weapon. Then, using all the strength that he had, he yanked.
Unfortunately for him, the alien was stronger, not budging an inch. Instead, the alien simply grinned at him and pulled back on his weapon, causing Doctor Strange to stumble forwards.
Instantly, the glaive struck forward again, bypassing the shield of magic and striking the Eye of Agamoto dead centre.
Thankfully, the Eye held.
Doctor Strange's eyes widened as he looked down at how close he'd come to being stabbed in the chest.
"This belongs to my father," the alien stated.
"I'm afraid that I must disappoint," Doctor Strange replied.
As he was speaking, he summoned his magic and thrust, causing the ground under the alien to slide backwards and away, creating some space between the two.
"Thanos will not be disappointed. I will simply take it from your lifeless body and present it to him," Doctor Strange was told.
A witty comeback was on the tip of his tongue, he was sure of it but it died right there for, quite unexpectedly, Giant Man raced past in pursuit of one of the leviathans and inadvertently stepped on the alien standing directly in front of Doctor Strange.
When Giant Man took his next step, it was to reveal a lifeless body that had been crushed in a way that even Doctor Stephen Strange would find impossible to repair.
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The battle of the titans waged across the rest of the battle field, never once letting up and never stopping. Thanos danced and weaved and gave far better than he received and Captain America was sure that the Mad Purple Titan was enjoying himself.
The appearance of Hulk, She-Hulk and the Thing not that long ago had definitely helped matters. Captain America, for all his talk of being able to 'do this all day', was rapidly tiring. Mister Fantastic, too, looked exhausted, not to mention incredibly sore. Cap had been flinging his shield to strike Thanos just as often as he'd been hitting him as best as he could. Mister Fantastic, too, had been weaving his elastic self all around the Mad Titan just as often, trying to bind his arms or trip him up.
But Thanos simply kept shrugging off the hits and pulling himself free.
Now, though, now things were looking up for the good guys.
Both Hulk and the Thing were just as big, just as muscly as Thanos and while She-Hulk was smaller, she was powerful in her own right. Not to mention fast and agile.
By using her cousin, She-Hulk would scale his back or leap off of a cocked knee or a well-planed hand, giving her powerful punches that little bit extra as she came down hard. The Thing was made of rock. Hard, hard rock. His punches hurt. You could see it in the way that Thanos visibly winced and was shoved backwards when one landed.
Hulk, though, Hulk was beast-like. He was a flurry of fists and knees and bellows of rage as he traded blows with Thanos.
That wasn't to say that the three had it all their own way. Twice, Thanos grabbed She-Hulk straight out of the air to either slam her into the ground or to toss her away like some annoyance. His punches, too, were equally as strong as both Hulk's and the Thing's and both of them were often knocked down or backwards just as much as Thanos was.
And then the Hulk went a little too far. Filled with rage he simply continued battering Thanos, making the Titan scuttle backwards. That was until Thanos managed to grab Hulk's wrists and hold them fast.
The battle of wills, of strength didn't last long. With Thanos occupied with holding Hulk in check the Thing was able to charge at the Titan's back and clobber him over and over in the kidneys. Then, She-Hulk joined in, coming in low and fast to kick the back of Thanos' knee and send him to the ground.
But even down on one knee, Thanos battled on. Letting go of one of Hulk's hands, he swung backwards, catching the Thing in a backhanded punch and knocking him off-balance. That was enough for him to surge to his feet and lash out with a foot, catching She-Hulk in the side of the head and knocking her unconscious.
Hulk, seeing his cousin down, put everything that he had into both his bellow of rage and his fist, bringing it straight down on the side of Thanos' head. Thanos crashed to the ground, having let go of Hulk's other hand.
At once, Hulk let loose a massive roar of triumph that reverberated over the battle field, punctuated by a great slap of his chest. Then, his victory assured, Hulk bounded over to his cousin.
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Mage cast one last series of spells – bombard, sectumsempra, a whirlwind that whipped up every fallen bladed weapon and hurled them at the group of Outriders and a rain of acid – before pausing with Hulk's bellow.
He knew that sound. The biggest Avenger had just won a major victory. Hoping that it signalled what he thought it did, Mage twisted on the spot and apparated to where he thought it'd come from.
The second he arrived, he dropped into a crouch and spun, making sure that there were no bad guys or their deadly weapons incoming. Seeing that the coast was clear, he stood and began jogging towards where he could see Cap, Mister Fantastic, the Thing and the Hulk. A slight movement at Hulk's crouching feet told him that She-Hulk was alive.
And then he saw him. Thanos. The Mad Titan responsible for all of the death and destruction here, back in New York, on Asgard, Xandar and throughout the rest of the galaxy.
Best of all, the purple giant was lying face down on the ground, his hands stretched out above his hands.
"We need to get that Gauntlet off of him," Cap stated, glancing across at Mage as he reached his side.
Together, the two began jogging forwards.
A groan from the downed Titan had them beginning to run.
Thanos had come to and raised himself up on his elbows, bringing his hands in closer to his body.
"We're going to need some help here!" Cap called.
His voice must have helped to clear Thanos' mind for the Titan looked up at them, frowning.
Pounding feet behind him and to either side told Mage that other Avengers and heroes had responded to the Captain's call. Thanos, too, had obviously seen their approach.
Quickly, he struggled to his knees and clutched at the Gauntlet with his right hand.
Mage blinked at the missing purple gem, the Power Stone, gone from the Gauntlet only to find it in the hand of the Titan. Purple veins ran up Thanos' hand, arm and into his neck and he roared.
Instantly, Cap pulled back and let loose, sending his shield ahead of them, only to see it caught in Thanos' Gauntleted hand and tossed aside.
And then Thanos thrust out his right hand, directly at the two of them. A burst of intense purple, power beyond imagination, rocketed towards the two of them and Mage did the only thing that he could think of, he slammed his hand, enhanced with as strong a depulso spell as he could manage, straight into Cap's shoulder.
Mage didn't have time to watch the banishing spell work. All he knew was that Cap, Steve, was safe.
It was the last thing he knew before the full power of the Infinity Stone slammed into him and tore his atoms apart in a pain a million times worse than Voldemort's cruciatus on his best day.
His one consolation? It was all over in a fraction of a second.