Once again, we were in the quinjet. We were headed to Wakanda, the one place where they could remove the Infinity Stone safely.
"I hope you're right about this, Cap." Sam said from the pilot's seat. "Or we're going to land a lot faster than you want to." I braced myself as we flew through the camouflaged force field surrounding Wakanda.
It was a breathtaking sight. The city was beautiful, full of technology that I couldn't even fathom.
We landed on a large landing platform. T'Challa walked out to greet us, along with the Dora Milaje, his all-female warriors.
"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve said as he shook T'Challa's hand. Behind me, Bruce bowed awkwardly.
"What are you doing?" Rhodey asked.
"Uh, we don't to that here." T'Challa said. I looked back and saw Rhodey smirk. "So, how big of an assault can we expect." We started to walk into the main building.
"Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Bruce said. That was putting it mildly.
"How are we looking?" Natasha asked.
"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and…" T'Challa trailed off. I turned to see Bucky walking towards us, with a new and improved metal arm.
"A semi-stable 100-year-old man." Bucky said, grinning. Steve and Bucky hugged.
"How you been, Buck?" Steve asked.
"Not bad for the end of the world." Bucky replied. T'Challa led us to a lab where his sister, Shuri, was studying Vision.
"Whoa. The structure is polymorphic." She said, looking at a diagram of the Stone in Vision's head.
"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Bruce said. I honestly didn't understand a word of what they were saying.
"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri asked. We all looked at Bruce, waiting for an answer.
"Because we didn't think of it." Bruce said uncertainly.
"I'm sure you did your best." Shuri remarked.
"Can you do it?" Wanda asked, worried.
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She said. She turned to T'Challa. "It will take time, brother."
"How long?" I asked.
"As long as you can give me." Shuri replied. A small beeping noise went off, and Okoye, the leader of the Dora Milaje, flicked a bead into her palm, where a hologram showed up.
"Something's entered the atmosphere." She said.
"Hey Cap, we got a situation here." Sam said over the comm. I looked out the window to see an alien vessel slam into the force field.
More vessels fell from the sky, hitting the ground just outside the dome.
"It's too late." Vision said weakly, struggling to get off the table. "We need to destroy the Stone now."
"Vision, get your ass back on the table." I said. I lightly blasted him, and he laid back down.
"We will hold them off." T'Challa said.
"Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell." Steve said.
"I will." Wanda replied.
I walked out of the room, following the Dora Milaje. Natasha and Steve were close behind me.
"Evacuate the city. Engage all defenses." T'Challa said. He then pointed to Steve. "And get this man a shield."
We walked down to an armory to get the necessary weapons. My weapons were my blasts, but it wouldn't hurt to have some backups. I picked up a small sword and weighed it in my hand. It felt right and balanced.
I attached it to my belt, ready to pull it out if I needed to.
Steve walked up next to me. He had two twin shields on each arm.
"Pipes," He began. "This Thanos is going to show up sooner or later, and from what we've heard, brute force may not be enough."
"What are you saying?" I asked, even though I knew what he was about to ask.
"You can get inside his head, you can control him and shut him down." Steve said.
"Steve, it'll be no trouble to read his mind, but to control it?" I said. "I'm not strong enough to do that, I've never been strong enough."
"Then find the strength in you." He said. With that, he moved on to see more weapons.
It was hard enough for me to control a regular person's mind with their consent. But this… I couldn't do this.
Could I?
…
We were on transports, being shuttled to the battlefield. Natasha stood next to me, looking as calm as ever. I tried to mimic her expression, blank of emotions and worry.
Bruce ran next to us in the Hulkbuster armor, since the Hulk didn't seem to want to come out and fight.
"How we looking, Bruce?" Natasha asked. His reply came over the comm.
"Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it." Bruce said. "Wow! It's like being the Hulk without actually-" He was cut short as he promptly tripped and fell. Despite myself, I let out a small laugh.
"I'm okay." He said, standing up. "I'm okay."
"I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line." Rhodey said, flying above us. Thanos' warriors, no doubt. Steve, T'Challa, and Natasha went to the border line to greet them.
The rest of us stood on the battlefield, holding our positions. I squinted to see what was happening.
Suddenly, the vessels raised themselves out of the ground as the three of them walked back.
Thanos' alien army, the Outriders, poured out of the vessels and charged towards the barrier.
"What the hell?" Bucky muttered. Natasha took her place next to me.
"Well that went well." I said sarcastically.
"Looks like we pissed her off." She replied. The Outriders reached the force field and pushed themselves through, but they were cut in half.
"They're killing themselves." Okoye said, horrified. A few made it through the barrier, and the Kingsguard used their sonic spears to hold them back. I blasted a few, but at the long range, my blasts weren't as powerful.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some Outriders running to the other end of the barrier. They were circling behind us.
"Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there's nothing between them and Vision." Bruce said.
"Then we better keep 'em in front of us?" Steve said grimly.
"How will we do that?" I asked.
"We open the barrier." T'Challa said. He spoke into his own comm. "On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen."
"Requesting confirmation, my King." Said a female voice from Dome Control. "You said open the barrier?"
"On my signal.' T'Challa said.
"This will be the end of Wakanda." M'Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe, said.
"Then it will be the noblest ending in history." Okoye replied.
"WAKANDA FOREVER!" T'Challa yelled as the barrier opened. We ran into battle, ready to face the army.
The Battle of Wakanda had begun.