"What do we have, Friday?"

"Shield power is fluctuating; they're attacking the fourth grid and overpowering the power capacities. It's going to fail."

"How long?"

"Forty-five seconds."

"Steve!" Tony didn't wait to confirm that; he didn't have the time to waste on something so unnecessary. "The west side of the shield is going to go down in less than a minute."

Rogers and T'Challa – along with the majority of the Wakandans – were close to that section of shield, and had just finished dispatching the largest and most intimidating of the attackers. A brute that had left even Steve and the king of Wakanda bloody and reeling. He didn't hesitate, though, and he didn't question Tony's intel.

"Shift to the west!" he yelled to the SHIELD and military units that he had – and letting T'Challa know where the newest danger was going to come from so the Wakandans could be ready, too. "We're about to be overrun!"

They had barely moved when the section of shield in front of them flared and then went down – although the rest of it remained intact; proving that the technology that Shuri had employed was as brilliant as the girl, herself. The creatures attacking the compound recognized the opportunity and a large portion of them shifted that direction, as well – only to be met by a wall of defenders determined not to fail.

OOOOO

Tony didn't have much time to watch. The loss of that section of the shield also opened him, Rescue and Quill up to aerial attacks, now, and they were all suddenly dodging the flying armored turtles – which were luckily slow enough to avoid, projectiles being tossed up at them by the attackers' version of surface to air guns, and flying bodies that were being thrown by what had to be magic, since Friday wasn't showing him any catapults. They were being forced to go on the defensive instead of offense, and weren't able to supply much air cover over the surging swarm of creatures pouring through the opening in the shield.

Magic bolts were being flung all around them, as well, and Friday was reporting that the Asgardian contingent had run headlong into a massive swarm of invaders and were holding their lines with the help of a magician, but they weren't going to be able to come to the assistance of the defenders any time soon – despite the almost constant flares of lightning coming from that direction; proof that Thor was definitely causing havoc in the area.

Tony was given a heads-up by Friday, turned in mid-air and caught a tree that had been flung, and then threw it toward the weird looking person that was battling Wong and Stephen in what looked like some kind of sorcerer's duel – along with a small group of similar looking creatures that were giving the magicians everything that they could handle, just then. The tree was brushed aside with a casual wave of the hand, but the distraction worked long enough to keep the alien wizard from noticing the repulse bolt that Rescue fired right behind it.

The blast hit him, and he was flung to the side – right into a red tinged spell that Wong cast – shattering the wizard's body and leaving it laying in the already charred grass of the field. There was an outcry from those underlings that had been around him, and their efforts redoubled, but the truly dangerous one didn't rise, again, and Strange thanked Tony and Pepper for the assist by throwing up a spell that knocked three of the armored turtles out of the sky and flung a wave of ground attackers back through the opening in the shield and almost shoved them down the throat of Thanos, who was standing calmly near the entrance.

The titan waved his hand, knocking the one that would have struck him out of his way, and he looked up at Stark with a scowl on his face. Without turning to look at the woman that was standing beside – and one step behind – him, he spoke.

"Nebula must have failed."

"She is unreliable."

"Send the other ships to other cities. Tell them to find the three cities with the largest populations and destroy them."

Proxima Midnight nodded, activating her communications feed to the ships that were in orbit and started relaying the orders that she'd been given.

OOOOOOOO

Carol Danvers was facing the same problem that a few of the others were when facing the swarm that was heading at a steady run south toward the city. The creatures were interspersed with guard troops and regular army units and she had to pick off individuals rather than simply wiping out large swaths with a single misty blast. It was time consuming and they didn't have a lot of time.

The military was doing a great job, fighting a valiant fight against enemies that died, no problem, but were so plentiful that they didn't seem to be making much of a dent in the advance. The swarm grew, and continued toward the city – and toward the final line in the sand that was already being reinforced and strengthened by the regular army and the remaining National Guard.

"They're going to run right through them," she said, looking over at Wanda, who was picking out groups of the creatures and destroying them with the simple tactic of raising them up several hundred feet into the air and allowing them to fall to their death. "There are too many."

"There are more coming," Wanda said, cocking her head as another thirty creatures fell to the earth with sickening thuds. "And Thanos just gave orders to his other ships to attack other cities."

Danvers didn't ask how she knew that; Steve had explained to her that the young woman was connected to the mind stone and had no problem getting into the minds of those around her – apparently that included Thanos.

"I'll take care of them," Danvers said. She looked at the approaching masses. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

"I'll be here," Maximoff assured her.

OOOOOOO

Stephen lowered his arm for just a moment, watching as the final alien wizard fell to his spell, but well aware that they were losing, despite the individual victories that were littering the battlefield. There were just too many of them. He didn't know how the mad titan had amassed such an army, but it was like fighting a swarm of cockroaches that just kept spilling out of the woodwork – and they didn't have a light to turn on to scare them away.

"Aleese is asking for help to the south," Wong told him. "She doesn't think they'll be able to stand against what's coming."

"Go," he said. "I'll stay here."

He had to be near the compound, because that's where Peter would come looking for him – if he managed to succeed in his mission. His ridiculously dangerous mission.

Wong nodded, and was gone in an instant. Strange allowed the cloak to raise him up, high enough to be at the same level as the roof of the compound so that he could look around in all directions, already looking for a new target, taking out the more dangerous creatures and leaving the earth bound ones to those who could match them.

The sorcerer supreme suddenly felt the cloak shift, turning, moving him in a different direction than he was looking. Strange glanced to the west and saw a huge, dark, cloud coming straight at the compound. To the magician, it reeked of magic – but a kind that he didn't recognize. He raised his hands, prepared to rebuff whatever this new threat was, and was suddenly engulfed in a darkness so black that the magical light he immediately brought to bear did nothing to penetrate it.

A sudden silence came over the compound. An eerie lack of noise where once there was nothing but the sound of screaming, snarling and carnage. Strange felt the cloak shift, again, and felt the heavy fabric brush his cheek, as if it were trying to reassure him. Before he could raise his hand, again, this time to call Tony and make sure he wasn't crashing into something in the dark there was a sudden light from somewhere near the roof of the compound – almost blinding after the total darkness.

The cloak moved, then, and Strange found himself propelled toward that light, and then the sorcerer felt a surge of relief go through him when he realized that the light was in the shape of a person. A slim person with a black suit on – covering him completely – and a glove of the same color on his right hand. On that glove were four stones, and that was the source of the light.

Strange came to a landing in front of him, and the mask detracted, revealing the wan and pale face of the very person that he'd been thinking about.

"Peter…"

"Hey, Stephen… Where's Natasha?"