Chapter | Twenty-Nine

A year for Chloe in New York seemed like nothing as it passed by in a blur. Adrien and herself got settled in rather quickly in her apartment, almost as quickly as Marinette moved her things out to make room for Chloe, Adrien and Nino. Chloe would admit, this past year Marinette had grown more as a person and as her friend she was proud to watch Marinette grow more sure of herself. Nino dubbed her as the mini version of Stephen Strange, but the important part was that she was happy.

Often times she would come over the apartment with Peter, baked good in hand and a smile on her face. If Chloe was honest, she'd never seen her friend so sickeningly content. Not even in Paris, and she knew it was because of Peter Parker. Somewhere in the awkward boy, Marinette had found her other half. They have had multiple game nights, including Ned who often teamed up with Nino. Now those two were two peas in a pod, and Chloe would never let anyone tell her otherwise.

Adrien though, he surpassed the high school GED exam, thanks to Tony Stark helping him along the way and was now enrolled at Columbia University. Chloe would have to give it to Adrien, he was excelling at all his classes. Chloe herself was taking a few classes in business, wanting to get her degree. At first she wanted to take on Style Queen, but the name was already tainted because of her father. No, she would build her own empire and hell it might not even be about fashion. She was still exploring her options.

The morning was peaceful, and Chloe did what she did every morning. She sat at her table with a cup of coffee in hand as she looked over her phone. That was until the whole building shook, and in the distance she heard Adrien curse and fall in the shower. Frowning, the blonde stood from her spot in the table to look out over the window.

Smoke and destruction was what she saw, and a ship? An alien ship?

"Adrien, I think the alien came back!" Chloe yelled, her fingers already finding Marinette's contact name and getting voicemail. The same with Peter's.

Plagg flew next to her, "Ahhh aliens."

"Do you think the guardian is out there?" Pollen asks.

Plagg had almost as hard of a time with the loss of Tikki like Marinette, if anything he took it harder. He missed his other half, they did spend many millenia together. It was the first year in his existence he spent without Tikki, but he was trying. Marinette always brought him cheese, but he knew she felt guilty as much as he missed Tikki. He never wanted to make Marinette feel guilt, but a part of him did blame her.

"No doubt." Plagg says, green eyes watching the ship. "Anything that threatens the balance is her business, this is one of those things."

"Shouldn't we be helping?" Pollen asks, looking at the kwami of destruction.

Plagg's eyes narrowed, "Do you feel the power in the air?"

As he said that, a portal opened in the restroom and Adrien once again yelled. "Nino!?"

"Dude why are you naked!?"

"Why are you in my shower!?"

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"Yo idiots!" Chloe called again, "Did you not hear me when I said alien spaceship?!"

Nino shook his head and walked out the restroom while Adrien scampered to get dressed, rushing out behind Nino with his hair as a mess. His green eyes followed the other's attention span, and he gaped at the space ship.

"Please don't tell me she's on that." Adrien muttered, shaking his head.

"No, last she was fighting in the streets with Stephen, Wong and Tony against two aliens." Nino says, a frown on his face. "Bruce Banner came back today, and apparently this bad dude named Thanos wants the Infinity Stone. Right now they are after Stephen."

Chloe frowned, "After the infinity stones? Do we even want to introduce the miraculous to these people? Why are we sitting her when we should be helping?"

Plagg was the one to answer, "In this case I believe it's best we wait until needed. We don't need these invaders knowing the true origin of the stones and have them come after you."

"Marinette is out there fighting Plagg." Adrien argued, shaking his head. "I can't leave her to do that alone."

"She's using her abilities, that's the difference." Plagg says, not budging. "The last thing we need is to draw attention the the miraculous. The one thing stronger than the infamy stones. You know how to fight, but not against aliens."

"Plagg-"

Nino frowned, "You can't hold it against Marinette forever about Tikki. Tikki would want you to get along."

"She would have given the world cookies if she could have." Plagg snapped, "This isn't the mess for the miraculous to be involved in. Marinette may be guardian, but she is also basically an Avenger. None of you are."

"I'm part of the mystic arts." Nino reminds.

Plagg frowned, "Realistically in case we need to haul Marinette in. A person like her, with those abilities around people like Stephen or Tony? No doubt they already thought of a means to control her if needed. People fear people like Marinette."

"That's not fair." Adrien told his kwami, "She never had control of anything that's happening. Tikki made her choice, and that was for Marinette to live on. Maybe it's time to respect that choice and continue living for Tikki."

Plagg stared hard at his holder and sighed, "Still doesn't chance my opinion of having the miraculous not be part of this fight. Not unless absolutely necessary."

"And that's fair." Nino nodded, "Understandable."

Chloe sits back down and sighs feeling useless, "Fifteen Marinette goes on the ship."

"Yeah she's totally going on the ship." Nino agrees.


This exact situation was one of Tony's nightmares brought to life. After the attack in New York with Loki, it was safe to say his view on life changed. He wanted to protect his home from the outsiders, where the unknown was vast and that alone was terrifying. He'd nearly died before, and as much as he hated it he would do what he needed to do again if that meant that the others were safe.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders." Tony barks his orders to F.R.I.D.A.Y, who responded with a will do as Stephen made his hand gestures and sent a large blast towards the ship heading for them slowly.

Marinette stood next to Wong, who stood four feet behind Stephen. She watched as his blast made the ship stand still, and like those damn pop culture movie Peter loved so dearly, a blue beam strikes down on the ground. Slowly the dust did clear, and there stood a taller bulky thing and a slimmer thing.

Aliens, Marinette reminded herself. She was still grasping that there was other beings in the galaxy beyond Earth. She wasn't concerned with them though, because like Tony her duty was to this world, to Earth and making sure it was protected.

"Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to-"

"I'm sorry, Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here." Tony cuts Ebony Maw off, ignoring the annoyed look on the alien's face. Yeah, Tony was annoyed too. There was already enough damage and. a fight hadn't even broke out yet. This was inevitably about to get worse.

Ebony Maw looked directing at Stephen, "Stone keeper, does this chattering animal speak for you?"

Marinette almost snickered, knowing that did nothing for Tony's ego but at mentioning the stone her eyes did narrow on Ebony Maw. Feeling a shift in the air, the alien glanced at Marinette, intrigued by the energy she had. It seemed familiar, yet not at the same time but she was not his agenda. However, the Stone keeper was.

"Certainly not. I speak for myself, but you're trespassing in this city and on this planet." Stephen's voice was as serious as ever, stepping forward and reading his hands for battle and for the sake of the stone. Wong was right behind him, so naturally Marinette readied herself too.

"It means get lost Squidward!" Tony yelled, and Marinette wished she could throw something at him because right now was not the time to agitate the enemy further.

"He exhausts me. Bring me the Stone." Ebony Maw tells the other alien by his side, who dragged his huge hammer in the ground and began to advance on the group.

Tony didn't look away, "Banner, you want a piece?"

"No, not really, but when do I ever get what I want?" Bruce, he just wanted a break but yeah that clearly wasn't in the picture at all for the time being. It was one crisis after an other, and quite frankly he needed a vacation after this.

"That's right." Tony muttered as Bruce takes a deep breath and readies himself to release the Hulk. Yet the Hulk was refusing to come out, Bruce felt him push back and in turn the most that turned green was just on Bruce's neck. "Been a while. Good to have you, buddy."

Bruce grunted lightly, "I just… I need to concentrate here for one second. Come on, come on, man."

Marinette's hands engulfed in a golden glow, her eyes following how the Black Drawf hit cars the closer he got. More importantly, she watched his hammer while the men looked at Bruce as if he were one of the aliens. She could feel the balance within Bruce, and it was not even with Hulk. There was fear somewhere rooted in him deep, and she knew it wasn't Bruce's fear. If the Hulk was scared, then they may just be in over their heads.

"Where's your guy?" Tony asks his long time friend.

"I don't know. We've sort been havin' a thing." Bruce sighs, he was exasperate.

Tony almost looked like a coach pep talking his team, " There's no time for a thing."

"I know." Bruce quipped back as Tony patted his back.

" That's the thing right there. Let's go." Tony encourages as Bruce lets out a grunt, trying again to release the Hulk, and failing to again. Tony shared a look the Stephen and could feel both Marinette's and Wong's eyes on them too. "Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards."

The defeat is loud and clear in Bruce's eyes as he fails to bring the Hulk out again, "Tony, I'm sorry. Either I can't or he won't-"

"Hey it's okay, stand down." Tony tells him, then he looks back at Wong and Marinette and makes a head jerking movement towards the Bruce. "Keep an eye on him."

"I have him." Wong says, looking at Marinette. "You help Stephen keep the Stone safe."

Marinette nodded curtly, understanding her part she needed to play. She shifted on her feet as Black Dward approached them. In the distance she hears the familiar sound of Tony's Iron Man suit, and it molds his body perfectly as he removes his glasses. He's nearly toe to toe with Black Dwarf as the alien swings his axe hammer thing, which Tony deflects quickly using a shield from his suit. Raising his arms out after punching the bulky alien, he called on his nano-tech and blasted the alien back down the street towards his ugly friend. Yet Ebony Maw waved his hand and the bulky alien flew to the side and crashed into a car instead.

"Where'd that come from?" Bruce called, never seeing Tony's Iron Man suit do that before.

"It's nano-tech. You like it? A little somet-" Tony is cut off as he's hurled up through the sky by Ebony Maw, who also sends trees hurling towards them.

Wong is quick to summon a shield, while Marinette steps forwards using her power to turn the trees towards the sides- the stumps flying past them with ease. Her eyes narrowed on Ebony Maw, two can play this game. She raised a car up with her own magic with ease, sending it hurling at the alien- and like she anticipated his deflected it.

He just couldn't deflect the one she raised on his right, sending it flying into his side and in turn sent him crashing through the building. She could feel eyes on her, and glancing back at Bruce she shrugged. She's been training, no real fights so this would be interesting.

" Dr. Banner, if the rest of your green friend won't be joining us…" Stephen opened a portal, where Bruce was teleported to the park. The last thing he saw as the portal closed was Tony flying back into the fight and Wong deflecting again.

Marinette was right next to Wong, using her power to throw cars at the aliens. She was still trying to figure out how to do this, looking around her surroundings in a way she used to do as Ladybug. Yet this time she wasn't shown what she could do, no she had to make some very fast choices. Which was good because as soon as Wong's shield broke a car was thrown at them.

"Is this what we're doing now, Squidward!?" Marinette yelled, copying his trick of slicing a car in half.

"You gotta get that stone outta here. Now." Tony hisses at Stephen, how merely glanced him an annoyed look.

"It stays with me." Stephen wasn't about to run in fear, because at the same time this was his city, his home, his planet. He would do his best.

"Exactly. Bye." Tony's mask of his suit slid back into place as he took off flying towards Ebony Maw.

Marinette winced seeing Ebony Maw using his own abilities to put obstacles in front of Tony, who dodged them. yet he wasn't able to dodge the metal Black Dwarf hurled his way, sending him flying into a building and into the park rather hard, stopping when he hit the tree trunk to come to a stop. Conveniently, Bruce was right there running up to him and asking if he was okay.

"Tony, you okay? How we doing? Good? bad?" Bruce wished he was more useful, but right now he would only be more in the way how things were going with Hulk.

"Really, really good. Really good" Tony looked up at Bruce from under the mask, " Do you plan on helping out?"

Bruce's only answer for him was, "I'm trying. He won't come out."

Apparently the Black Dwarf's target was Tony, because he came hurtling out of the building that he threw Iron Man through moments before with a roar. If that was a battle cry, it was an ugly one. It didn't take long for his eyes to find his target, in fact it took even shorter time to throw his hammer at both Tony and Bruce.

"Hammer." Tony called, pushing Bruce of the way with the help of his suit thrusters to push him up to fly. He was also quick enough to shoot on of the energy beams at Black Dwarf, but it deflected off the alien's shield and sliced down a few trees.

Bruce decided to try again, hunkering down under one of the fallen trees and began to hit himself. Any other day, he might have been called crazy but he needed Hulk to come out, and he needed him to come out now. "Come on, Hulk. What are you doing to me? Come out! Come out! Come out!"

Half of Bruce's face turned into the Hulk, who struggled to stay out of the fight. "NO!"

"What do you mean, no?" Bruce's voice held disbelief. That wasn't what Hulk was saying on Sakaar while he was living his best life there.

Tony is trying his best to ward off Black Dwarf, but realistically this alien was huge and strong. He was a match for the Hulk, for sure, but Tony could only land so many hits and dodge so many in return. Which was proven true as he shot some mini missiles at the alien, but in the sake of giving back he was strike down by the hammer. His mind knew he had to react fast, move to dodge the next blow that was sure to come and sure to cause a lot of damage, but in never came.

Looking at what stopped the incoming blow was none other than Peter Parker, who stood there blocking the hammer with his super strength in his Spider-Man glory. The relief that flooded through Tony was almost as great and the stress that spiked up in him as well. This was a kid, and yeah as much as they needed all the help they could get, Peter was a kid. He felt the same with Marinette, but unlike Peter- Marinette wasn't his student. He could only reach her so much in that stubborn mind of hers.

"Hey, man." Peter greeted the huge alien, then glanced back over his shoulder as he pushed back on the hammer. "What's up, Mr. Stark?"

"Kid, where'd you come from?" Tony asks, knowing that Peter wasn't in the city today and was rather quick on the scene now.

"A field trip to Moma." Peter replied, but the last part was dragged out as Black Dwarf grabbed Peter by his side and threw him away across the park near the water-fountain. Getting up, he shot some webs to quickly make way back into the fight. "What is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?"

"He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from the wizard." Tony shoots at the alien with his blasters, honestly giving all his might into the fight as Peter used his webs and tried to land hits. Only he was caught a few more times and thrown a few more times before it clicked in his head who the wizard could be from and who was with him today.

"Where's Marinette?" Peter yelled, wrapping webs around Black Dwarf's ankles and pulling hard.

Tony could only hope he didn't loss focus, "She's with said wizard, protecting said necklace. She's safe kid. Focus!"

Back in the streets of New York, Marinette watched as Maw used his own abilities to levitate the fallen bricks and shape it into pointy stone stakes to send at Wong and Strange, who in turn opened portals to send back towards Maw. The few that were sent at her, she waved her hand and watched as they fell to dust.

Maw, on the other hand took notice of how easily the human girl deflected his attack without a portal or anything of sorts. He couldn't dwell on it too long as he moved a car to protect himself from the on coming attack. Yet he didn't notice the curious look in Marinette's eyes as she mimicked his movement by levitating a brick herself and reshaping it to her will into the same point. Using her hand, she watched as the pointy brick moved at ease with her will. She practiced control a lot more than her powers, and so curiosity killed the cat.

Using her power, she pulled her arm back like she would throw a dart and launched it forward. She watched as the spike moved fast that Maw could anticipate as he recovered from the last attack, and satisfaction brought the cat back as the spike hit Maw on the head, creating a cut. Anger was on Maw's face, hand reaching out towards a fire hydrant that busted open at his will and knocked Wong back into rubble and a car, rending him unconscious.

Stephen used the mystic arts to try to lasso Maw, but it back fired as he fired forward to fight Maw but instead is knocked back into a building by said alien, brick entrapping him due to the alien's abilities.

"Your powers are quaint. You must be popular with children." Maw says, almost glancing back towards Marinette but remembers his mission. He goes to grab the amulet holding the Time Stone, jerking his hand back when it burns his hand instead.

"It's a simple spell but quite unbreakable." The cockiness in his voice almost hand Marinette rolling her eyes where she stood in the event Stephen needed help getting out.

Maw seethes, "Then I'll take it off your corpse."

Maw pulls Stephen away from the building with both hands, turning him around to throw back onto the ground. Marinette yells his name, eyes narrowing at Maw just as several wires leap out of the ground and wrapping different parts of Stephens's body to keep him anchor to the floor. One cord slithered up, slowly tightening around his neck.

"You'll find that removing a dead man's spell quite troublesome." Marinette hisses, throwing a car at Maw while trying to loosen the cords from Stephen's neck.

"You aren't quite human, are you?" Maw inquires, finally casting her a glance. "I sense something similar in you, something powerful. Yet not intriguing enough. Though, I can promise that he will wish he were dead."

Marinette's anger spikes as Stephen falls unconscious, breaking her mentor free from his binding so the Cloak of Levitation could fly Stephen away. Just as Maw yells at the fact his objective was getting away, Marinette pulled the alien towards her.

"How about picking on someone your own size?" Marinette quipped, and the sad part was that she was in fact shorter than an alien. She would never be taller than anyone full grown.

Maw was annoyed at this point, but got even more annoyed when the little human girl threw him into a building. He didn't have time for this. Using his own abilities, he swung Marinette back into the building- which she hit her head rather hard. In that moment she saw stars, she swore she did.

"Kid, there's the wizard. Get on it!" Tony yells as Stephen whizzes past them in the air, alien in tow.

"On it!" Peter yells, swinging away to follow Stephen and not think too much in where Marinette could be. As he swings his way through Manhattan, he doesn't have time to dodge the billboard Maw throws at him. It causes Peter to hit the ground for a moment before he got up and resumed following Stephen and Maw. "Not cool!"

Maw bends light posts to catch Stephen as he flies through the air, yet he only manages to snag the cloak and sends the man flying towards the ground. Peter was quicker, using a web to catch Stephen because he became a wizard pancake against the pavement. Yeah, what Peter didn't expect was the blue beam to appear from the sky and beam Stephen up. He gripped onto the light post like a life line with one hand while trying to hold onto the web Stephen was attached to with the other. Maw simply broke the lamp post.

"Mr. Stark? I'm being beamed up!" Peter yelled.

Marinette groaned softly, standing up to look for Stephen. What she did expect was the ship beaming both Stephen and Peter up into their ship, she would forever see and recognize that red and blue suit anywhere. "Peter!"

"Hang on kid." Tony calls, moving to dodge Black Dwarf as he jumped towards him. Only a portal appeared and sent the alien somewhere else. Turning to look at his savior, Tony find Wong looking done with the world. "Wong, you're invited to my wedding." With that Tony began his flight towards the large ship.

In the park Marinette finds Wong, who wore a worried expression on his face. Blood was dripping down her forehead, yet the worry in her eyes was identical to Wong's. "I don't know what to do."

Wong looked at her, eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

"I feel a shift." Marinette admits softly, "Stephen told me my purpose, the prophecy of the Enchantress. Humanity is delicate, like a star it can only burn so bright before it burns out."

"You feel the smoke?" Wong asks.

Marinette nodded, "There's a weight in my chest. A pressure. I need to get on that ship so I can ensure the balance doesn't change. Thanos can't have the time stone. The balance can't tip."

Wong looked at the ship, unsure of what to do what she was asking. "A portal, there? That's a long distance."

"I need you to focus on Stephen, I need to get to him." Marinette pleaded, "I trust you to do this a lot more than Nino, but if you won't he will."

"That will get you killed." Wong shook his head, "He has a lot more training ahead."

"Then please."

"What if you don't come back?" Wong questions, "Have you thought about that? Stephen wouldn't want you to chase after him."

"He would tell me I have a duty." Marinette's voice is stern, sure. "His protection is part of the duty, to ensure said duty's protection. I need you to get me on that ship. Please Wong."

"Okay, okay fine. What will I tell Nino?"

Marinette sighed softly, "That I'm sorry. Just tell them the truth."

Tony was flying to catch up with the ship, "Give me a little juice, F.R.I.D.A.Y." His feet thrusters turned inward and morphed together to form a larger one. His eyes set on Peter, who gripped the ship tightly as they only flew higher. "Unlock 17-A. Pete, you gotta let go. I'm gonna catch you."

"But you said save the wizard!" Peter responds back, gasping for air while doing so and pulling off his mask. He was also actively ignoring how high up he was getting from the earth ground. "I can't breathe!"

"You're too high up, you're running out of air."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Peter mostly said it to himself, nodding as he agreed with Tony. It was short lived though as all air seemed to leave his lungs and it was lights out for him. Peter's grip slipped from it's hold on the ship, free falling him down but it was only for three seconds. The pod, 17-A as Tony called it, reached Peter and attached itself to him. In mere moments his suit became what was dubbed as the Iron Spider suit.

Gasping awake, Peter lands on the bottom of the ship being able to breathe. "Mr. Stark it smells like a new car in here!"

"Happy tails, kid. F.R.I.D.A.Y, send him home. Tony's order was put into motion as a large parachute extended from Peter's new suit and once again sent him flying back to Earth.

"Oh come on!" Peter yelled.

Tony doesn't pay mind to peter, having faith his AI would get the teen back to safety on the ground. Without a stress factor, Tony boards the ship and tries to make his way towards the main bay where Stephen was with the Time Stone.

" Boss, incoming call from Miss Potts." F.R.I.D.A.Y informs Tony.

Tony sighed softly, already knowing how this conversation would go. Not even four hours ago was he trying to convince Pepper to have kids, or at least a kid with him. It was funny, how Tony never really wanted kids until he met Peter. Sure he thought about it, but the young hero sparked this side of Tony he never knew he had himself. Then came Marinette, and other teens. Yet Pepper wanted him done with the Iron Man suit, and he just couldn't take that risk- not yet. He had been right, non surprise there.

"Tony? Oh, my God. Are you all right? What's going on?" Pepper's worried tone caused his heart to clench.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just think we might have to push our 8:30 res." Tony tried to keep the conversation light, normal.

"Why?"

Tony couldn't help but look around the ship where he stood, "Just 'cause I'll… probably not make it back for awhile."

Pepper was silent for a long moment, and then there was the desperate plea in her voice. "Tell me you're not on that ship."

"Yeah." Tony trailed off.

" God, no. Please tell me you're not on that ship." Pepper repeated again, but this time the worry was clear as day.

" Honey, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I don't know what to say." Tony wished he could rationalize it, but he couldn't. He also couldn't rationalize standing by as alien hit again, and this time took the wizard with an infinity stone and had no intentions of using it for good. It was almost as bad as the Paris situation, but worse.

Yet of course as he thought of that, a painfully familiar portal opened up next to Tony. He couldn't"t even continue his thought pattern as Marinette jumped through, her eyes looking back and nodding at who he pursued was Wong as the portal snapped closed.

"Come back here, Tony. I swear to God…"

"Pep.."Tony sighed, because they both knew he couldn't.

" Come back here right now! Come back!"

Pepper's cries were cut short as F.R.I.D.A.Y informed him that they lost connection with her. Not only that but all connection they had not minutes ago. Tony tried not to focus on that, but looked at the teen in front of him who had pure determination in her eyes as she looked over to find Stephen.

"Kid you can't be here."Tony tells her, but he knows it's beyond reason at this point. He can't send her back down to earth ground.

"Yeah, well I can't go back either. I can't let the Time Stone fall into the wrong hands." Marinette says, waving her hand and creating another portal. This time Peter fell through it from where he was holding onto the ship outside still.

"Oh my God. I should have stayed on the bus." Peter breathed, not realizing he fell through a portal.

"You should've." Both Tony's and Marinette's voice startle him.


Meanwhile, in deep space Thor said farewell to some morons, took their pod and pet raccoon, and was off to Nivadellir to make a Thanos killing weapon.


Ahhh here we are! Thank you again for all the support on this story! Please check out my MLB one-shot I posted Sacrifice.

I appreciate all the support on this story. With the MLB gang, who do we want interactions with?

Thank you again for all the support on this story, home you enjoyed ❤️