Chapter 5
As Ebony Maw, Peter, and Cull Obsidian reappeared on the surface of the planet, Peter took a moment to look at their surroundings. Trash flew all over the area, cars were abandoned in the road or crashed into buildings and light posts, a few buildings were crumbling, and Peter even noticed a few fires. Seriously, humans panic at the second something strange and different approaches? What if they had been friendly? I mean, they weren't, but still.
He shifted his gaze back towards what was in front of them and what Ebony and Cull were both staring at. Four humans had emerged in front of them. One of them had a glowing, upside-down triangle on his chest. This man also wore a pair of glasses and had a goatee. Iron Man, his mind recalled from research. Another man, who also had a goatee, wore a red cape that appeared to move on its own and had orange circles encircling his arms. Peter could also spot an amulet in the shape of an eye that glowed green around his neck. Perhaps the time stone was housed there? The third man appeared to be Asian and had the same orange circles on his wrist. The last man looked like a regular man, but Peter could see a faint resemblance to someone he had met. Who, he couldn't quite tell.
Then, Maw started and Peter audibly groaned. He could actually voice how he felt since father was not here. Cull gave him a questioning look before focusing back on Ebony.
"Hear me and rejoice," Ebony began. "You are about to die at the hands of the children of Thanos." At this, Cull hoisted his axe, preparing to attack.
The humans looked more annoyed than anything, Iron Man even crossed his arms. Then Ebony continued.
"Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing to-" He was cut off by Iron Man and Peter could have hugged that man. You know, if he weren't here to kill him and take the time stone.
"I'm sorry, Earth is closed today," Iron Man said. Peter snickered. He liked this man's sass. He looked over at Ebony, whose hands were touching fingertip to fingertip. His expression conveyed annoyance, but he didn't seem too bothered by the interruption. "You better pack it up and get out of here," Iron Man continued.
Peter took his chance to offer his own comeback. "If Earth is closed today, then why was there no closed sign in the atmosphere? I mean really, we come all this way and they say they're closed! Might as well head back then!" He said, crossing his arms in a mock pout. None of the humans in front of him looked amused, neither did Cull or Ebony who only glanced in his direction to glare at him. Tough crowd.
Ebony Maw turned his attention to the other man with a goatee, the one wearing the red cape. "Stone-Keeper," He said. This confirmed Peter's suspicion that the glowing eye around his neck was, in fact, the time stone. "Does this chattering animal speak for you?" He asked, gesturing towards Iron Man.
Peter uncrossed his arms, but maintained his position above the ground, held by his additional legs. He knew that Ebony knew who Iron Man was. Perhaps he didn't recognize him without the armor? Or, and more likely, he didn't care.
"Certainly not, I speak for myself," the stone-keeper said, activating his orange circles again. Huh, Peter hadn't even realized that the man had deactivated it. He glanced over and sure enough, the asian man had too, but quickly reactivated it as the stone-keeper continued. "You are trespassing in this city and on this planet."
"He means get lost squidward!" Iron Man said and Peter actually laughed at that one. He had seen enough clips of SpongeBob SquarePants to understand that reference and now he was wondering how he hadn't thought of that one before. Of course, he was ignored, as usual.
"He exhausts me," Squid- er- Ebony Maw stated, turning to look at both Cull and Peter. Cull responded in another language that Peter didn't feel like taking the time to translate in his mind. "Bring me the stone," He finished.
"Hey, you want a piece?" Iron Man asks, slightly tilting his head towards the man who seemed familiar before. The man looked rather nervous, actually. As if something was wrong. "No, not really, but when do I ever get what I want?" The man asked.
"Yeah, that's right," Iron Man said with a slightly cocky tone. "Good to have ya, buddy."
Peter watched the man. He tilted his head in confusion when the man turned slightly green around the neck. Other than that though, it seemed like he was trying too hard to do something. Perhaps the man was sick and he turned green because he was nauseous? Was he trying to poop? He was concentrating way too hard on something, that's for sure.
As the man continued trying to do… something, Cull had begun to walk their way. He swung his axe into a nearby car. Always with the dramatics, Peter thought with an eye roll. He began to walk towards the group as well, his additional legs puncturing into nearby cars and road debris. Huh, Cull may not have been trying to be dramatic after all.
"Where's your guy?" Iron Man asked, slightly panicked.
"I don't know, we've been sort of having a thing," The man replied, his neck no longer green. He also wasn't concentrating on whatever it was before either.
"There's no time for a thing," Iron Man said, grabbing the man's shirt. "That's the thing right there," he said, gesturing at Cull Obsidian as he continued to advance. Peter was slightly annoyed at their ignorance of himself, but he supposed that Cull did look like the larger threat between the two of them.
The man tried again, throwing his head back and causing his neck to form a darker shade of green than before. Peter's eyes narrowed as he inspected the color. It kind of reminded him of that 'Hulk' creature from back on the Asgardian ship. That creature had been sent away, but Peter hadn't had a second thought about where the creature could have ended up. Then again, what he was looking at was clearly a human and that creature had been no human. Although, this planet was known for harboring many types of creatures. Meta-humans, super-humans, magically-inclined-humans, Peter had even heard rumors that some Kree were living on Earth.
All of the humans were now looking at Iron Man in confusion and slight panic, they had clearly been expecting that man to do something extraordinary. "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards," Iron Man said. The man started to apologize profusely, but it was clear that whatever was expected of him was not going to be happening. Iron Man asked the asian man to keep an eye on the other man while he faced Cull heading his way. The asian man nodded in confirmation.
Cull started to speed up and Iron Man pulled a few strings on the jacket he was wearing before tapping the triangle on his chest. Suddenly, his iconic red and gold armor (although this seemed more sleek and modern) started to spread across his body before lifting a shield to block Cull's axe.
"So awesome," Peter whispered to himself. He launched himself onto the wall of one of the buildings. He saw the stone-keeper move his hands towards Peter, but made no move to do anything other than keep an eye on him. Perhaps he was waiting for Peter to attack first?
He was startled out of his staring match as Cull was launched backwards towards Ebony, who easily deflected him to the side with his telekinesis. Iron Man then turned to the unknown man to explain to him that it was nanotechnology. As if that was something new and advanced. Peter had mastered nanotechnology years ago. Eh, it was still awesome to see the Iron Man in action.
Iron Man was suddenly launched into the air by Ebony Maw. Ebony then lifted trees from the ground and launched them at the group. Peter took that as his cue to start his own attack while the stone-keeper was distracted. The stone-keeper opened a portal under the unknown man, who Peter thought he heard referred to as 'Banner', and dropped him through it. The asian man summoned a large, temporary and protective shield while they did so.
Peter crawled around it and launched himself at the stone-keeper. He launched his fists at the man from different angles, trying to find a spot that he wasn't immediately blocked from hitting by the man's orange-encased hands. Peter used his extra legs to encase the man, preventing him from moving.
He was then grabbed and thrown back towards Ebony, who swatted him to the side much like he had done with Cull. Peter growled and looked up, noticing it was Iron Man who had done so. Iron Man then threw a car at Ebony, who easily sliced it in half without moving an inch.
Peter got back up and started running at the group of men again, who were arguing about needing to get the stone to safety. He was aware of Iron Man trying to attack Ebony behind him. How could he not? Debris was flying everywhere.
Peter launched himself into the air right before making contact with the stone-keeper and asian man. He jammed his legs down at the men, attempting to impale or at least nick one of them. They both managed to deflect his legs, but Peter was able to punch the stone-keeper in the face while he was distracted.
Peter noticed that Cull had re-entered the fight when the extension of his axe went sailing by him, the Iron Man in its grasp. He was a little annoyed that Cull had almost hit him, but he knew that Cull had been aiming for Iron Man, not him.
Peter was brought out of his thoughts by a strike from the asian man, who managed to recover from the near-hit quicker than he had. An orange whip was wrapped around his wrist. He snarled behind the mask and shot some web at his face, causing him to lose concentration enough for the whip to vanish.
Hearing the sound of brick hitting the road, Peter turned back to see Ebony Maw making stakes out of bricks. He launched himself into the air before he could be hit, but he noticed that the asian man had recovered. Both he and the stone-keeper had opened portals, one intaking the stakes and the other launching them back out. Ebony managed to avoid all but one, which struck him in the head. Peter could visibly tell how angry he got.
He launched the asian man into a car behind him, knocking him unconscious. He looked back at the stone-keeper who had managed to wrap another orange whip around Ebony. Peter threw himself at the stone-keeper, kicking him onto the ground and causing him to release Ebony before he could do anything to him. Ebony flew over to them and wrapped the stone-keeper in broken chunks of asphalt before gloating. Peter rolled his eyes at Ebony's over-confidence.
Ebony then attempted to grab the amulet from the stone-keeper's neck, which burned him. Peter could have slapped him. Did he really think that someone with the nickname 'stone-keeper' wouldn't have some kind of protection against people simply taking it off?
"It's a little spell, but quite unbreakable," the stone-keeper said, much to Ebony's annoyance.
"We'll see about that," Peter stated, walking over himself and gently lifting the amulet with one of his legs. It wasn't organic, surely it wouldn't be deflected by whatever spell was holding it there?
He was wrong, the moment he attempted to remove it with said leg, the leg was blasted away from the stone-keeper. Not quite with enough force to physically move Peter, but enough for his leg to wrench at his back slightly. He winced, but it wasn't visible through the mask.
"I'll take it off your corpse!" Ebony proclaimed, lifting the stone-keeper out of the asphalt and throwing him a good distance away. The man even hit a few cars.
The stone-keeper was quite resilient though, he managed to get right back up without a second of hesitation. His wrists turned green and the eye opened. It was clear that he was about to attack, but before Peter could do anything about it, roots emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around the stone-keeper. The eye closed again as the spell was cancelled. Peter looked up to see Ebony floating with his wrist outreached. He was clearly the one to restrain the stone-keeper.
"I could have done that with my webs!" He snarled at Ebony who only looked at him and smirked.
"Yet, you did not," Ebony stated before turning back to the stone-keeper.
"You may find removing a dead-man's spell… troublesome," the stone-keeper gasped out as the vines tightened around his neck.
"You'll only wish you were dead," Ebony responded, tightening the vines further. The stone-keeper closed his eyes and passed out, hitting a car as he fell to the ground.
Ebony smirked and lifted the concrete surrounding the stone-keeper. He started to head back towards the ship when the stone-keeper was suddenly launched away, most likely by his cape.
Peter dashed after them, using his web to keep up with their speed. Ebony dashed after them as well, using a small tornado of concrete debris to keep himself afloat. He attempted to grab the man with light posts, but only managed to grab the cape. Right before the man could hit the ground, Peter grabbed the man with his webs. He wrapped the man in webbing, making sure to keep his head free and the layer thin for easy removal, as Ebony caught up to them.
Ebony Maw sent a glare at Peter which clearly conveyed 'I could have done that'. Peter smirked back under the mask and thought, yet you did not.
"Alright, let's go then," Peter stated, hoisting the man over his shoulder. Ebony nodded and a blue beam of light appeared around them, lifting them back to the ship. Neither of them noticed the sentient red cape trailing behind them.
So I got carried away. I'm not very good with fight scenes, but I hope you enjoy it anyways. This is the second part to the last chapter. As usual, please leave a comment, heart, and follow the story! My motivation thrives off other's satisfaction
