Chapter 21.
This is the twenty-first chapter, and the start of Avengers Endgame!
Hope you enjoy it. Summer holidays started (here in the UK), by the way! Awesome movie, by the way.
Over 20 days later…
Mark sat down on a black sofa chair, looking towards the floor, holding an empty glass in his left paw, a bottle on the table in front of him. He had never really been much of a drinker, but he had found the bottle earlier, and, in grief, he had been drinking some of it. He had found his parents grave in his old home town, saw that the large gravestone had their names and his name too, except his date of death wasn't known, as he was believed to be dead, and had broken into more tears on the spot. He was hoping the Guardians, if any of them survived, were all right. He then heard faint rumbling sounds, looked upwards, and felt a pang of hope. "Maybe she's found them." He thought in his head, referring to their new ally, Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, who used to live on Earth like him, but spent years out in space, having gained extraordinary powers. She's only returned due to a distress signal sent by an ally of hers who'd turned to dust, or "Snapped". He placed the glass on the table, got up on his find paws and followed some of the Avengers outside, seeing Danvers carrying the Benatar down to the ground. He watched as the ramp opened, hoping to see some of the Guardians, but only saw Nebula (he'd ask her how she gotten into the situation later) and a man whom he recognised as Tony Stark, aka, Iron Man. He saw Rogers run up to him, but he barely heard their conversion, his mind instead focused on one thing: The Guardians were gone! Except for Rocket, almost everyone that was dear to him was gone! He moved slowly after Rocket, who came up to Nebula, who was sitting on the ramp. Mark sat on the ramp step Rocket and Nebula sat on, moved his left paw towards Rocket, who moved his right hand up towards his pw and they met, and held each other, as Mark let out a sniffle.
A few minutes later, they were gathered in side he building. Mark sat on a chair on Rocket's right. "It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth." Rhodes said, as holographic pictures of the Avenger's allies on Earth appeared one by one. "World governments are in pieces, and the parts that are still working are trying to take a census. And it looks like he did… he did exactly what he was going to do. Thanos wiped out…50% of all living creatures." Romanoff added sadly. "Where's he now? Where?" Stark asked, looking at Rogers. "We don't know. He just opened a portal, and walked through." Rogers answered. "What's wrong with him?" Stark asked, pointing a Thor, who had been moping around silently ever since Africa. "Oh, he's pissed. He thinks he failed. Which, of course, he did, but you know, there's a lot of that stuff going around, ain't there." Rocket answered, Mark nodding, Stark staring at them in a shocked way. "Honestly, until this exact second, I thought you were a build-a-bear and a Dog manque." "Maybe we are." Rocket said back, though Mark gave Stark a very angry look. "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now. Deep space scans… and satellites and we got nothing." Rogers explained. "Yeah, me and Rocket had been trying to help, but since we lacked our best equipment, which is on the ship, even we didn't pick anything up." Mark added. "Tony, you fought him." Rogers spoke. "Who told you that? You're a fighter. Oh, he wet my face with a planet, while the Bleaker Street magician gave away the store. That's what happened. There's no fight." Stark replied sarcastically. "Did he give you any clues? Any Coordinates? Anything?" Rogers asked, Stark, puffing in response. "I saw this coming a few years back. I had a vision. I didn't want to believe it. Thought I was dreaming." Stark said. "Tony, I'm gonna need you to focus." Rogers said, just before Stark began talking. "And I needed you. As in past tense, that trumps what you need. It's too late, buddy. Sorry. You know what I need? I need a shave." He said as he got up on his feet. "And I believe I remember telling, all youse… alive and otherwise, that what we need was a suit of armour around the world. Remember that? Whether it impacted our precious freedoms or not. That's what we needed." Stark said angrily. "Well, it didn't work out, did it?" Rogers asked back. "I said we'd lose. You said, "We'll do that together, too". And guess what, Cap? We lost. And you weren't even there. But that's what we do, right? Our best work after the fact. We're the "Avengers", We're the "Avengers", not the "Pre-vengers", rigth?" Stark added, Mark getting bored. "Okay? You've made your point. Just sit down okay?" Rhodes asked, standing in front of Tony. "No, no. She's great, by the way. Your new blood. Bunch of tired old mules. I got nothing for you, Cap. I got no coordinates, no clues, no strategies, no options, zero, zip, nada. No trust, liar." Stark said, before he tore of the glowing blue device, he had on his chest off with his left hand and placed it in Roger's right hand. "Here, take this. You find him, you put that on. You hide." Stark spoke before he fell on the floor. Some of the others gathered around him, but he said he was fine, before he then fainted.
A few minutes later, Stark had been placed in a medical bed to rest. Mark followed some of Avengers into another room. "Bruce gave him a sedative. He's probably gonna be out for the rest of the day." Rhodes told them. "You guys take care of him, and I'll bring him a Xorrian elixir when I get back." Danvers said to them, before she started to walk out of the room. "Where are you going?" Rogers asked. "To kill Thanos." Danvers replied. "Hey. You know, we usually work as a team here and, uh, between you and I, morale's a little fragile." Romanoff replied, which made Danvers stop and look at her. Mark stood on Rhodes right. "We realise up there is more your territory, but this is our fight, too." Rogers said to her. "You even know where he is?" Rhodes asked. "I know people who might." Carol said, before Mark then cleared his throat, which made everyone look at him. "So do i. Her. She knows more about Thanos than any of us." Mark said to them, pointing at Nebula, who stood a distance away. "I can tell you where Thanos is." Nebula said to them. A minute later, they were all gathered in another room. Mark stood in front of table Rocket was standing on, standing parallel to him. "Thanos spent a lot of time trying to perfect me. And when he worked, he talked about his Great Plan. Even disassembled, I wanted to please him. I'd ask him where would we go once his plan was complete? And his answer was always the same. "To the Garden."" Nebula explained to them. "That's cute. Thanos has a retirement plan." Rhodes said sarcastically. "So, where is he?" Rogers asked. But nobody had an answer. "Garden… garden… wait a minute. Rocket. Didn't we pick something up a few days ago?" Mark asked and looked at Rocket, which made everyone look at him, as Rocket pulled up a hologram of Earth. "The moment Thanos snapped his fingers, Earth became the starting point of a surge of cosmic energy the likes of which no one has ever seen before." Mark explained to them, as the hologram showed blue beams of energy emitting from Earth. "Then, two days ago, we detected the same energy reading… on this planet." Mark added as the hologram changed to show an alien planet, where the same energy beams emitted from the planet. "The planets unnamed, unpopulated, but inhabitable. Good atmosphere, soil, it's basically… a garden." Mark continued in realisation. "Thanos is there." Nebula spoke. "He used the stones again." Romanoff added. "Hey, hey, hey. We'd be going in shorthanded, you know?" Bruce Banner, whom Mark was familiar with as the Incredible Hulk, asked. "Look, he still has the stones, so…" "So let's get him. We use them to bring everyone back." Danvers spoke. "Just like that?" Banner asked. "Yeah. Just like that." Rogers replied. "Even if there is a small chance that we can undo this, I mean, we owe it to everyone whose not in this room to try." Romanoff said. "If we do this, how do we know its gonna end any differently than it did before?" Banner asked in concern. "Because before, you didn't have me." Danver's said. "Hey, new girl. everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?" Rhodes asked. "Yeah, even me, Rocket and the Guardians didn't know about you." Mark said, looking at her. "There are a lot of other planets and galaxies in the universe. And unfortunately, they didn't have you guys." Danvers answered, which Mark thought was fair. Mark then saw Thor walked over to Danvers, who turned around to look at him, as he then held up his left hand and Stormbreaker came to him. "I like this one." He said, staring at her. "Let's go get this son of a bitch." Rogers said, the decision made.
And with that, the Avengers suited themselves up and boarded the repaired Benatar. Mark sat in a rigged-up chair that was raised and seatbelts fastened, behind Nebula. "Okay, who here hasn't been to space?" He Rocket ask. "Why?" He heard Rogers asked, then heard Danvers chuckle. "You better not throw up on my ship." Rocket replied. "It's our ship, Rocket. And, for those who havent, it's a short journey, though, you may want to hold on your seats." Mark spoke to them from where he was, his Dog face pointing upwards as he spoke, having seen the information on Nebula's console. He then moved his Dog head down to face forwards again "Approaching jump in three, two, one." Nebula announced, before the ship then jumped and zoomed through space. Mark didn't jolt or hold onto his seat as he'd gotten used to it. After a few seconds, the jump ended and the ship arrived at the planet. Danvers quickly got out and hovered in front of the ship. "I'll head down for a recon." Danvers explained, before she then flew down to the planet. Mark heard the over Avengers talking but drown it out as he unfastened his seatbelts, confident he'd be able to get back some of what he lost. "No satellites. No ships. No armies. No ground defences of any kind. It's just him." Danvers explained as she stopped in front of the viewport. "Then that's enough." Mark heard Nebula say. And with that, they moved the ship down to the planet's surface, Danvers, Banner in the red suit of armour he was in Africa on, and Rhodes and Thor went ahead. And when Mark, Rocket, Rogers and Romanoff arrived at the house he was at, the others were holding Thanos, whom Mark noticed had a lot of scars and burns down his left-hand side, and that Thor had chopped his hand with the gauntlet off (he had heard Thanos scream just before they arrived). He followed Rocket over to the gauntlet, which he then noticed was all dented up, as he moved to Rocket's left side, in front of him, parallel to the gauntlet, looked downwards at said it as Rocket rolled it over. But what he then saw sent fear down his spine: The stones were gone! He looked up at Rogers, as did Rocket. "Oh no." Rocket spoke softly. "Their gone." Mark added softly, as he watched Rogers and Romanoff stared at it. They looked at each other, then at Thanos. Mark then turned his head to face Thanos.
"Where are they?" Rogers asked him, but didn't answer. "Answer the question." Danvers ordered, holding Thanos's neck with her arm. "The universe required correction. After that, the stone's purpose... beyond temptation." Thanos answered. "YOU MURDERED TRILLIONS!" Banner roared, before he shoved Thanos onto his back on the ground. "You should be grateful." Thanos spoke, just before Banner punched him in the face. Mark scoffed, as the Titan was completely wrong. "Where are the stones?" Romanoff asked. "Gone. Reduced to atoms." Thanos replied. "You used them two days ago!" Banner shouted at him. "I used the stones to destroy the stones. It nearly killed me. But the work is done. It always will be. I am… inevitable." Thanos answered. "We have to tear this place apart He-he has to be lying!" Rhodes spoke worriedly, then Nebula spoke, and Mark turned his head to look at her. "My father is many things. A liar is not one of them." She spoke. Mark then looked back at Thanos. "Ah. Thank you, daughter. Perhaps I treated you too harshly." He said to her. A second later, Thor then brandished Stormbreaker and chopped Thanos's head completely off! The rest of his body fell on the floor. Mark's eyes gaped open at the sight. "What?" Bruce asked, he and the others clearly as shocked as Mark. "What did you do?" Rocket asked, the wordings of the question reminding him of Africa. "I went for the head." Thor replied, before he turned to walk outside. Mark closed his eyes and fell on his knees again, contemplating the moment. They come to the planet for nothing! They couldn't bring everybody back, and even though, he still had his pal Rocket, he felt alone. Almost everyone he loved was gone! And he had no idea what he was going to do now.
And that's the twenty-first chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. Took a bit of an effort to write. So they can't get everybody back! Poor Avengers and Mark. And the stones being destroyed really thickened the plot, because if they had found them, it would have been FAR TOO EASY! What happens 5 years later? What will Mark be like? You'll see in the next chapter, which'll be out soon. Please review.