In the Royal Palace of Wakanda, the atmosphere between the people gathered there was very tense.
"Vis!!" Wanda screamed and rushed at the fallen form of the organic android. Vision stood up on shaky legs while massaging his head as the migraine that came from the erratic beating stone in the middle of it wasn't doing any good for him added to the fact that he was still trying to heal himself from the fight they had the previous night.
In the same room were people that Draul was all too familiar with; Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, James Rhodes, T'Challa T'Chaka, Shuri T'Chaka, and a host of other guards of the notable Dora Milaje.
"I'm assuming that that was not s'posed to happen, was it?" Rhodes said as he saw Vision grunting while the Mind Stone in his forehead glowed brighter, not a comforting bright, but a 'bad-shit-is-about-to-happen' bright.
"It's the stone, it's reacting to something… and I think whatever it's reacting to is on its way." Bruce's words dampened the already dreary mood of the room as they were all reminded of what they had lost a few hours ago.
"Thanos?"
"…Than-" Bruce was about to affirm Natasha's words but Vision cut them off.
"Not Thanos. It's something else. Something the Mind Stone is more fearful of… and I've never felt fear from this… thing in my head." He said between breaths as he managed to stabilize himself and gave Wanda a soft reassuring smile.
"Then we better get started. We already have our hands full with Thanos. If a new variable appears, and if Vision's words are given its due credit, then this one is likely to be more stronger than Thanos…"
Steve didn't finish his words but everybody got the gist of what he was saying. "The faster we get started, the better." Was all he could say.
Vision was then laid on a table for Shuri to run her diagnosis on the living biological android.
She scanned the Mind Stone as it was the central unit of Vision's entire structure and also as it was the very reason why he was brought here in the first place.
She looked at the holographic visual of the Mind Stone and the way it was connected and let out a confused comment. "The structure is polymorphic."
Bruce, who was beside her, tried to clear out her confusion. "Right, w-we had to attach each neuron n-non-sequentially."
With the same knowing grin a child would have after pulling one over an adult, she asked in reply. "Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Bruce stomped at her question and could also give an embarrassed reason. "Because we didn't think of it?"
"I'm sure you did your best."
"Can you do it?" Wanda asked, breaking the two geeks from their sciency atmosphere.
"Yes," Shuri nodded and continued in a low and stressed voice to get her point across as much as she could, "but there are more than 2 trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She then turned to her brother, King T'Challa of Wakanda. "It'll take time brother."
"How long?" Steve asked and she replied. "As long as you can give me."
Just at that moment, beeping sounds echoed all over the room they were in, cutting off all conversations and drew their attention to the holographic projection of unidentified flying objects entering Earth's atmosphere.
…
"T-That's us?" Steve asked as they were disguised as citizens inside Wakanda with Draul's illusion while watching what was happening in the tallest building of the nation's capital.
"Blonde doesn't look that good on you, Nat. Maybe you should try mixing it if you're thinking of a hairdo." Bucky commented while struggling to keep his eyes off the older version of the redhead while the younger version was beside him and looking at him with one raised brow.
"I'm not going to lie, but that beard sure does look good on me." Steve said while rubbing his chin as if thinking on whether to grow one or wait for a few years. "The space ship above just started depositing pods down here."
And just like Steve said, they could all see the bright reddish yellow light of something piercing the atmosphere and falling towards Earth with great speeds.
Some crashed against the force field dome while the others corrected their courses and crashed just outside of it.
"I guess Thanos' invasion started without them having any way to stop it before he came to Earth. We already know where the Mind Stone is, where are the others?" Bucky asked while looking at the alternate version of himself with the Vibranium arm and a gun. He could actually picture such a scene happening in the near future where he was free of HYDRA's manipulations and was reunited with Steve. It was a good picture but it was missing a few people from making it the perfect picture.
"It seems like Wakanda will be ground zero for an alien intergalactic invasion. The losses to them will be immense." Ororo stated with a frown as she saw the warriors of Wakanda being transported to an open field in order to face the invading army.
Her worries were founded as it was just one people, only one nation, and a few outcasts that was left to battle something that should have been a united stand against Thanos.
"Well for starters, the rest four stones are with Thanos while he is also fighting to get his fifth as we currently speak and he should soon be on his way here. As for why the fight is taking place here, all I can say is circumstances." Draul said as they made their way towards where the fight was going to be happening, all while protected for the eyes of everything and everyone around them.
By the time they had made their leisure walk towards the battlefield, it had already started with animalistic aliens overpowering the Wakandans in sheer numbers.
"You guys wanna help? We're going to take away their Infinity Stones so we might as well reduce the death toll as cost." He had said while pointing at Bucky fighting an alien invasion with just a midpar special arm and a gun. "Oh and try to downplay it a bit, will ya? We don't want to be raising questions we shouldn't have to answer." And with that his presence was gone away from them.
The others looked at each other and shrugged, a little bit excited at fighting alongside versions of themselves, at least those who were present.
The first to spring into action was the quick-footed Yelena who ran forward and bisected an Outrider that was trying to spring up on the older version of Natasha.
…
Natasha froze in shock as she looked at Yelena, a very young version of Yelena, but it was Yelena nonetheless. Her eyes couldn't fool her at this point unless the enemy had some sort of illusion caster.
"Sup Nat! Surprised?" Oh she sure was but she just didn't know how to truly express it given her current situation but her guard was never down. She held her two batons tightly close to her and kept an eye out in case another person entered the battlefield. A few Dora Milaje were already aware of the situation and were already circling around the girl that looked awfully just like her sister.
"Seriously Nat? Is this how to welcome your only little sister from another universe?" Faster than any of them could react, Yelena ran around Natasha and the few Dora Milaje near her and repeated what she had done to the first Outrider.
'Super speed. Probably way faster than Pietro.'
"Y-yelena? How is this possible?" She asked but kept her distance, not one she was comfortable with but one nonetheless, away from the Yelena lookalike.
"God. Hey Bucky, I'm not really this uptight, am I?" Not just her, Captain America, the Black Panther, Bruce, Rhodes and Sam, exclaimed in surprise as they saw another Natasha seemingly step out of thin air along with two other people they knew and one they didn't.
"Y-you… how?" She exclaimed.
"Dimensional hopping, universe traveling; anything you wanna call it. We're here because someone we knew decided on an impromptu vacation." Steve said as he walked towards the region his doppelganger was fighting at with Bucky at his side. "You heard what he said – try not to overdo it."
Black Widow watched in amazement as all the Outriders that tried attacking the leisurely walking duo contorted and burst into a gore of blood and flesh.
"You guys came to help us?" She asked as she relaxed her guard a little. They were in a progressively deteriorating battlefield; they couldn't afford to cherry pick their possible allies.
"Well we came for some little pebbles of mass destruction but we figured we might just as well help out." Natasha said while giving her doppelganger a lookover and then nodding in contentment.
The only person from the group that was quiet from the beginning looked around, her blue eyes focusing on the horde of aliens that were making their way in through the little opening in the magnetic field. "I'll take care of those." She said and flew away with lightning covering her form.
"A black female white haired blue eyed Thor, huh? Now I've seen everything." Sam 'The Falcon' Wilson said as he took a breather and watched the woman pulverize everything at the bottleneck to cinders.
On the other part of the battlefield, Steve and Bucky came face to face with their doppelgangers with Steve facing Bucky's double while Bucky faced Steve's.
"Bucky."
"Steve."
"I see you didn't lose your arm, nice one." Steve's alternate said to Bucky.
"I see you grew a beard, finally." Bucky nodded at Steve and as if in sync, the four of them faced four different directions and picked their spot.
"Try to keep up, Steve."
"I'll say the same to you too, Bucky."
And with that they all ran forwards with Steve being the first to reach his targets. Coating his limbs with spatial cosmic energy, everything his fist touched was destroyed from the inside out.
Bucky on the other hand didn't have any noticeable change except for the two short Adamantium swords he held that he used to cleave clean through any Outriders that were foolish enough to come near the swinging distance of his blades.
While the others were fighting, three girls were actually having a lighthearted conversation amidst the chaos that was ensuing.
"So tell me, ~Nat, what inspired the change?" Nat asked her older doppelganger while flexing her fingers and killing Outriders by the droves.
Her double looked at her for a while, likely contemplating whether to tell her or not but seeing as how her alternate younger sister was fine and more lively, she figured there should be no problem. "A lot." She started, "Joined the Avengers a couple years back after working as an assassin for S.H.I.E.L.D because it was the only way to save my life after I deserted the… organization."
She could see the frown on the two younger girl's faces but she continued on. "Fought a mad God," they all chuckled at that, "fought a killer robot that took over the internet and wanted to destroy the world, fought against HYDRA… and finally fought against the people I had called family. I only recently knew my sister had been alive all this while so there's that.. And now I'm here fighting against an alien invasion that seeks to wipe out half the population of the universe. Who ever knew my life would turn… out… like….this?!" She huffed as she stabbed an Outrider through the throat.
Unlike how she expected, or maybe she didn't know to expect, Yelena hung her hand around her neck and drew her close. "You're now my second favorite Nat in the multiverse… and while we're at it, which of these guys do you have the hots for?"
.
.
The battle outside raged on while taking on a new turn with the new arrival of the not-so-mysterious mysterious allies.
From the inside of the tall building, Wanda spectated the battle happening kilometers with a sense of relief filling her as all this meant the danger to Vision was decreasing by the second.
In the middle of the room was Shuri trying to disconnect the Mind Stone from Vision's circuits and prevent a thorough shutting down or rebooting of the organic android that somehow was capable of human emotions and more.
Amidst her work, the Mind Stone started shining dangerously which immediately made Shuri step away from it and alerted Wanda who immediately came to her lover's side in a bid to soothe whatever pain he was feeling.
"He's here." Vision said as his eyes started darting around the room, seemingly looking for someone only the stone could sense.
Shuri armed herself with a pair of gauntlets while the guards around held their spears and formed a circular formation around their princess. Wanda's hands and eyes were covered in a red glow as she stood in front of Shuri and Vision as she was the strongest here as Vision was severely injured.
!!!
She immediately turned around intending to fire her hex but was rooted to the spot as she saw a man with his hands above Vision's head. He had completely bypassed her senses and all the sensors in the room.
"I have to admit, it actually is brilliant work how you managed to make the stone so… compactable. The only thing stopping you from being a true being is your lack of a soul. The Mind Stone gave you sentience but that's just it. A machine that can think for itself and understand human emotions.. Hmm."
Wanda's face paled while Shuri's lit up in alarm at the intruder but before she could do anything, Wanda attacked… only for her attack to fizzle out into nothingness.
She tried and tried again but the man just didn't pay her any attention and continued observing the frozen Vision before he stopped. "Got it!"
Under the alarmed faces of everyone, he held the Mind Stone and yanked it out of the middle of Vision's head making the android go pale black but before Wanda could vent her rage and despair in anyway, the tiny particles that had flown away due to the Mind Stone dislodgement rearranged themselves in a complex way that seemed to go against the scientific wonder that Vision was.
Having reconstructed the hole that he had put in Vision's head so that it was as smooth as a normal one without the room for the Infinity Stone, he tapped the forehead twice and Vision gasped for breath before tumbling off the table on which he laid.
RUMBLE!
…
Draul looked through the windows and he could see the cascade of blue and white lightning wrecking ultimate destruction throughout the battlefield.
Thor had joined the battle.
He turned around and all he saw were weapons leveled against him in a bid to look threatening which only resulted in an eye roll.
Thanos was yet to make his entrance and he had already made sure of the fact that all his abilities were working. Even now he could feel his connection to his universe being as strong as ever as if he were in it.
"Who are you?" Wanda asked with a tad bit less hostility which was all attributed to the fact that Vision was alive and well.
"Me? Well, I'm a nobody. At least not anyone you need to worry about." He waved his hands offhandedly to dissuade them of their fears but they still did not let down their guard, not that he particularly cared if they did. "I've already gotten what I came for so I'll soon be on my merry way." He showed them the glowing Mind Stone between his fingers, holding an Infinity Stone as if it was an ordinary pebble.
"Why the stone? What do you need an Infinity Stone for?" Wanda asked defensively, holding a particular bond with the stone that had given her the powers she had and also one that gave life to her beloved.
"Well, let's just say; my goals are beyond your understanding." Was all the man said and turned his back to them while continuing watching the war raging outside in the battlefields.
Vision communicated with the telecommunication unit inside his head with the other frantic members of the Avengers who had been worried about his well-being when Shuri had reported that someone had invaded their labs.
…
"… Are you Thanos?"
The question made Draul chuckle lightly as if the very notion of it being stupid. "Do I look like a 'Thanos'?" He asked back.
He could hear Captain America through the wavelengths telling Wanda not to engage since he was likely a part of the new ally group that just appeared out of nowhere.
"What are you?" Vision asked while moving a few inches closer to the man who since the beginning had paid them no attention. "The Stone. It reacted to you more violently than anything I've ever seen it do, not even against the threat of Thanos. Why so?"
"Let's just say I'm an enigma and leave it like that and the stones and I have a little bit of history together. Looks like time's almost up." Before they could even analyze all what he said, the man in question disappeared as if he was never there to begin with, leaving them for the new arrival that was on its way.
"Captain.. He's here." Was all Vision needed to tell Captain America for him to strap his shield tighter against his hands and signaled the others to be on alert.
…
"Wait what?!!" Not just Yelena but even Ororo and Nat were surprised when they finally managed to pressure Nat's doppelganger to reveal who her crush was. It was all due to Yelena's fault since Nat was pretty sure that her doppelganger would've never told her something private like this if it was just the two of them.
"Why!!" Yelena groaned and before the Black Widow could say anything, she zapped to her front and held her shoulders and proceeded to shake her. "Why him? I mean there's Bucky there and there's also that falcon guy, why go for the Hulk?!"
The Black Widow for her part smiled as she saw how carefree her sister's doppelganger could be even in the midst of an invasion. It was as if what they were fighting didn't worry her in the least. 'Maybe it actually doesn't.'
She turned to Natasha who was firing our magic spells and using more abilities than she could count. "You did good, you know. What I would have given for my Yelena to be like this but I guess life just isn't fair to everyone.
– Guys keep your focus sharp. He's coming. –
At Cap's words, all of them focused their attention on the battlefield since it was now quite obvious that someone could just teleport in.
And as if to answer their found worries, a blue smokey portal opened up in the middle of the battlefield which caused both sides to come to a temporary standstill as he walked out.
Thanos – The Mad Titan.
He walked out to the portal in all his purple glory, a gauntlet embedded with five jewels worn on one hand while his other was naked.
The first to rush at him was the Black Panther, but a mere man with his fists could not face Thanos.
His body slowed down to a crawl as he jumped at Thanos only to have the purple titan slam his gauntleted fist straight against the head of the man and have his body sailing through the air from whence he came.
Following him was the huge suited armor of Bruce Banner but his fate was the same as the Panther. He fazed right through Thanos and plummeted straight to the ground as the gravity suddenly increased over a hundred fold, slowly crushing the frail man within.
Practically seeing the inevitable loss the Avengers were starting to face, Yelena alongside Steve were the first to act from Draul's entourage.
Running faster than any craft on Earth along with Steve's instant warping, they reached Thanos in the fraction of a second, sending a punch towards the titan who had not been able to predict what was going to happen next.
BOOOM!
The ground cratered at two different spots; the spot the punches had impacted Thanos and the spot on which he had landed.
Thanos got up with a growl and the gauntlet blazed up purple and blue hue as Bucky appeared before him which prompted the titan to punch at him and send cracks all over the space between them… alas, this was Bucky.
The number of times both Draul and Steve had pulled a move like this on him was too numerous to count. It was essentially their most basic form of attack against him since he was pretty much impervious to most things.
His fist shone a void black and met with Thanos' which resulted in the titan losing the second exchange.
They had fought a Hell Lord, they had seen the way Dormammu threw worlds and eviscerated them as if they were tennis balls – if you wanted them to feel true apprehension, the least you could do was come with ALL six stones.
"What's up big guy? Cat got your tongue?" Bucky teased but his face betrayed no amusement.
"Earthlings… I will admit that this day has given me more surprise than I've had for the majority of my life and no small amount comes from this… tiny planet." Thanos wiped the blood off his healed lips and looked at it with a grimace. He would admit that he had thought they couldn't pose him more threat than the sorcerer had but it seems as if he was gravely mistaken. "I wonder, what do you fight for? For hope? For revenge? Or maybe to stop the happenstance of an inevitable constant? Why fight for all these yet you refuse to do the same against fairness?"
"Is that supposed to mean something?" Steve asked as his form blurred into materialization next to Bucky, while Yelena appeared in a spark of white lightning.
"It is. It means only I am the fair judge." This time the Space and Time Stone were lit in the gauntlet alongside the Power Stone as purple energy blasts was shot out from it. Yelena ran while the two with the strongest physique stood their ground in the face of an attack their instinct told them they couldn't dodge.
CRACKLE! BOOOM!
Thanos was forced to disregard the fate of his two opponents as he braced himself at the white and blue lightning-clad axe that was sailing towards him.
The axe coming straight towards him was brimming with such divinity that made him think of the time he had to run away from Zeus' wrath to keep his life.
Drawing all the power from the Infinity Stones that he could muster, he shot it as a beam towards the axe in hopes of stopping it but it just cut right through it like a knife through water, tearing into his chest with the same ease.
Before Thanos could as much as let out a grunt, the connection he felt with the vast amount of power the gauntlet gave him was immediately cut off.
Confused, he looked only to have his face contort in incomprehension as he saw a bleeding stomp of a hand with a man holding the gauntlet while removing the stump that was buried within it.
"… N-no…"
"Thanos! I promised you that you will pay for what you did." Thor descended and was quite surprised at the man casually holding the gauntlet of the mad titan in his hands but the man just waved off his worries and pointed at the grunting Thanos that still had an axe lodged inside his body.
"Word of advice; you should go for the head." Was all the man said as he took a step back and let Thor focus back on his most hated enemy.
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Read up to 30 chapters ahead /Draul_TheOminous.