Twenty-One - Showdown
Avengers Facility Ruins, Upstate New York - Earth
2023
Both sides charged, coming to meet in the middle, both with full force.
A battlefield was no place for any kind of reunion, but this may have been the greatest reunion of all.
"Please tell me you have at least one more trick up your sleeve," Kat said.
"Always," Stephen promised.
Bucky jumped in, knocking Karen out of the way of some enemy soldiers charging at her from behind. Not even the charging enemy army could stop her from throwing her arms around her boyfriend and giving him a crushing hug right there in the middle of the battle.
"Gamora - I thought I'd lost you-" Quill reached out to cup her face, unaware that she was not the same Gamora he knew from his timeline.
She reached up and ripped his hand away, before kneeing him and kicking him down. "Don't touch me!" Quill crumbled to the ground. "This is the one, seriously?" she cried, staring down at the fallen Quill in disbelief, meaning that he of all people would be the one she fell in love with according to her sister, who nodded, looking skeptical also.
"Your choices were him, or a tree," Nebula informed her. "He also dances."
"I like him already," commented Adonia.
"Hey! What do you want me to do with this damn thing?!" Clint charged through the battlefield, their Gauntlet under his arm.
"Get those Stones as far away as possible!" Cap cried.
"No!" protested Bruce. "We need to get them back where they came from."
"Bruce is right, we cannot risk creating any alternate timelines or realities," agreed Kat. "That could cause even more of a problem." However, based on the problem they were currently facing there in that moment, this seemed rather unlikely, impossible even.
"No way to get 'em back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel," Tony informed.
"Hold on!" cried Scott. "That wasn't our only time machine-" He withdrew a keychain from his belt and pressed a button on it. A trumpeting horn sound carried across the field.
"Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?" Cap called.
"Yes!" said Valkyrie from where she soared above them on the back of her pegasus. "But you're not going to like where it's parked..." It was pretty much at the very centre of the battlefield, surrounded by utter chaos.
"Scott, how long do you need to get that thing working?" asked Tony.
"Uh, maybe ten minutes."
"Get it started. We'll get the Stones to you," Cap promised.
"We're on it, Cap," responded Wasp, joining Scott. They shrunk down and flew off together.
Tony landed before Stephen. "Hey, you said one out of fourteen-million we'd win, yeah?"
"Fourteen-million, six hundred and five, actually."
"Yeah, yeah. Tell me this is it."
"If I tell you what happens, it won't happen."
Tony sighed at the Doctor's annoyingly persistent crypticism. "You'd better be right."
Stephen said nothing.
"Uh, we got a problem here!" yelled Clint. "A big problem."
"Bigger than we already have?!"
"They've noticed we found the Gauntlet."
"Clint!" T'Challa landed beside him, blasting some of Thanos's army away with his suit's purple kinetic energy, courtesy of his sister. He held out his hands. "Give it to me."
Clint passed the precious Gauntlet along and T'Challa charged through the battlefield, which began to ignite with flames as he ran.
"You look like you could use a clear path," Kalyna called to him.
"Thank you, My Love. And nice suit."
"Thanks. Courtesy of Lady Infinity."
Thanos caught sight of T'Challa with the Gauntlet. But before he could step in his path, in a flash and burst of red, Wanda landed between them. "You took everything from me," she hissed at the Titan.
"I don't even know who you are," Thanos spat back.
A ghost of a smirk fell across the young witch's lips. "You will." Her eyes became fully red and that same energy ignited everything around them.
With Wanda providing a very good distraction, using her powers to send large clumps of rubble firing at Thanos between blasts of red energy itself, T'Challa took off again before passing the Gauntlet to Peter who swung by.
"Karen - activate instant kill!"
"Huh?" called Karen from where she stood nearby with Sam and Bucky, zapping enemy soldiers.
"Sorry, not you - my A.I.!"
A.I. Karen did as requested and the eyes of Peter's suit also went red, the suit's spikes fending off the enemy creatures.
Wanda was proving a fierce foe against the Mad Titan - so much so he ordered their ships from above to open fire upon the battlefield, including upon his own army.
Wong and the other Masters threw up an energy shield above them, but it didn't protect them from every blast.
"I got this! I got this - I don't got this," cried Peter, who was being piled on by creatures and surrounded by blasts from above. "Help! Somebody help!"
"Hey Queens - heads up!" Cap launched Mjolnir and Peter caught its handle with a string of webbing as it flew by - he now flying behind it, attached to the hammer with one hand, and the Gauntlet in the other.
"Hey, I got you kid." Pepper swooped in and tossed him up onto the back of Valkyrie's pegasus.
"Hey, nice to meet you," Peter tried to introduce himself to the Asgardian warrior. But instead of answering, she urged the pegasus to swoop sharply downward, causing the now startled Peter to cry out. "OH MY GOD!"
When they were low enough to the ground, Peter slipped off the pegasus's back, almost losing hold of the Gauntlet and narrowly catching it as he did so.
"Nice catch, Pete." Kass landed nearby.
"Thanks, Ms. Konstantin - whoa!"
Both were knocked back - as well as several others - as the blasts from the hovering enemy ships intensified. The shooting was at full force now.
But, suddenly, it just stopped - and the guns pointed skyward and began shooting into the air with that same full force.
"What the hell is this?!" cried Sam. Just seconds ago they had been fired upon, but now were they in the clear?
"F.R.I.D.A.Y. what are they firing at?"
"Something just entered the upper atmosphere."
Something came into view - what looked like a ball of fire, glowing gold and blue - which struck right through the largest of the ships, ripping it to shreds.
There was only one person with power like that.
Carol.
"WHOOOO! YEAH! GO CAROL! YEAH!" Nora's cheers could be heard from the far end of the field. "WOO!"
"Danvers, we need an assist here," Cap reported.
"On my way, Captain. And I brought some backup with me."
"Who?"
Techno music filled the air.
"It's my birthday! It's my birthday!"
Haha, I think we all know who that is! ;) Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed as always! :)
