With A Snap
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 47: The Doctor is In
Steve looked on as the stranger in the blue coat explained. It felt like a punch to the gut; he had felt guilty. He felt that all those who were snuffed away were on him for not stopping Thanos. Now the death toll seemed to unfold an infinite amount in an endless number of worlds. How many lives were destroyed? How many were left to suffer because of his bad call?
Steve never had a firm grasp of multiple universes theory, mostly picking up the basic idea from a movie that he saw a while ago.
"My world was hit, and I started to dig into it and found out the walls between universes had been weakened. And peeking into the other universes, I saw they were going through the same thing. It didn't take me too long to put two and two together to realize that something was happening and found a trail that led me to this Earth."
Steve measured his words, "Then why did you come here to us?"
"I managed to access this world's internet. The news told me about you. I did trace that something happened in Africa, alien ships, same alien ships your member ran up against in New York. So I decided to track you."
"Mostly because you were having trouble getting into the networks in Africa." The red-haired woman smirked.
"Only because they had some sort of shield scrambling stuff." He pouted, turning back to Steve, "Anyway, I hacked into your system and found your records on what happened and decided to speak to you."
"What do you want, then?" Natasha looked them over.
"I'd love to have my friends back," There was something sharp and bitter in his voice. "The first step would be figuring things out. Since this world sees you guys as the world's greatest heroes and you where there when it happened, I thought we might work together. Exchange some notes."
"How can we tell you're really on the up and up?" Rocket spoke up, "You just come in with your swirling portal and expect us to believe you."
"Yeah, hacking into our stuff isn't the best way to introduce yourself," Rhodey added.
"That's fair," The blue-coated man waved his hand, and the screens were suddenly filled with arcane symbols and complex scientific data. "Do you have a magic or science guy?"
"What?" Bruce tried to make heads or tails of it.
"I sort of mix science and magic; it's how I do most of my stuff."
The redhead explained, "he's basically a magical scientist."
"You make me sound like an alchemist." He shook his head, "Anyway, have it looked over and see that what I'm saying is true. Its info on the changes to reality, or the stuff I could figure out. Do the scientific method and check my results."
Bruce remembered about Tony and Strange; they were probably the only ones who could figure this out. Then Bruce looked over to the still-open portal; it was a lot like those that Strange opened up.
"I think I know a guy who might be able to figure this out, but he's kinda far away."
0000
Outside, the group waited while Rocket and this stranger looked over the coordinates of the ship.
Rocket asked, "You sure you can do this?"
"Pretty sure, the real trick is putting a seal on it. I can twist space easily enough, and the way things are, it's even easier. I just don't want to suddenly open up a hole into the vacuum and get sucked out."
He held out the control and space before him opened up.
A large portal opened up, revealing the space with the Benatar just floating there.
"The ship is stuck?" The redhead looked on, "Uh, yeah, how are we getting it through the portal?"
"Uh, rope?"
"I got it," Carol jumped into the air, her body suddenly radiating with cosmic energy.
She hovered towards the ship and then carried through the portal.
Carol put down the ship safe; the hatch opened up; a blue woman stepped out along with a man with a goatee.
"Tony!" Rhodey ran to him with Steven following close behind.
"I couldn't stop him," Steven told him ashamed.
"Neither could I." Tony told him before bitterly admitting, "I lost the kid,"
Steve could only say, "Tony, We lost."
By the ship Nebula sat on the steps, Rocket sat beside her and placed his hand on hers.
0000
Tony was not in great shape; he lost a lot of weight and was pushing through the end of the infection.
He'd pull through as Bruce ran some scans on him and kept him sedated to help him get through the worst. Rhodey was already contacting Pepper to see him.
Steve walked over to the strangers, "Thank you, it could have been a lot worse if you hadn't help."
"Happy to."
Steve realized something, "I don't think I got your names."
"Scarlett," The redhead told him.
"Alexis," The blue coat told him. "Yeah, I know it's a dumb name for a guy, my dad gave it to me."
A small chuckle escaped Steve's lips; it was the first time in days he'd crack a smile.
Steve looked at them, "If you want to help, we could use it. You tracked the effects of the snap to our universe do you think you can track the stones to find Thanos."
"He doesn't have to," Nebula walked down the hall. "I know where he is."
0000
Before them, a hologram showed a world that Nebula only called the Garden.
She explained about Thanos' retirement plan.
"No," Alexis shouted, "No."
"What?" Steve asked.
"You guys want to go fight the guy who killed half of all life with a literal snap. You didn't beat him when he only had five of those stones, what is your plan for him with all of them?"
Carol walked towards him, "They didn't have me if we can get the Gauntlet we can undo this. Get everyone back. Everyone."
Alexis hesitated, his body flinching at the idea, and he turned to Scarlett.
Her eyes softened, "If there's a chance, to get them back, to get her back then…"
Alexi's resolve quickly weakened. "Uh, I guess, I mean." He took a breath, "We only get one chance at this. If we fail and just decided to wipe us out. Then that's it, Game Over."
"So you'll do it?" Rocket asked, "Your portal is useful, one quick strike we might be able to do it."
Alexis sighed, "No, I'll make a one-way portal, something we can use to look into the world. To see when his defense is down. To see what we have to expect. We go prepared."
"Fine, sounds good." Steve agreed; it was a sound plan.
Alexis looked over the data for the coordinates and opened up a portal before them.
"What?" He whispered.
"That can't be right," Nebula looked on appalled, "You must have put the wrong coordinates."
"That what's on the screen," He pushed the remote towards Scarlett to double-check.
"They're right,"
"That cannot be the Garden," Nebula argued,
"Fine!" Alexis held the remote back to the portal, and it shimmered, he ran into it followed by Scarlett.
"What the hell?" Rocket yelled out, "You were the one who didn't want to go yet?"
The Raccoon pulled out his gun and followed.
The rest of the group gathered weapons and quickly followed.
The world was called a garden, but it was anything but that, yes, it was clear that one there was a flourishing field it was scorched now.
Peaceful hills were marked with battle scars, and dead bodies littered the ground, and fallen ships could be seen in the distance.
Above them, there was a darkened planet that had cracked part.
The nearest star was bloody red making the sky look just as red.
Scarlett shoved her hand into one of Alexis' pockets and pulled out a device, "I don't think any of us want to stay here. We've seen that kind of star before."
Carol looked up, shocked, "We have a few days, but I don't want to push it. That star isn't going to hold too long."
"Did someone beat us to the punch?" Rhodey asked.
Carol shook her head, "Not that I know. I'm sure if someone were getting people to go after Thanos, they'd have plenty of volunteers."
Rocket picked through some of the dead bodies looting some of their weapons, "I don't recognize these ships or species. I didn't even hear anything about this. I'm not even sure about this tech." He found a giant alien with a black-red suit and yanked off a glowing ring.
The ring spat out some blood that started to burn the ground. He pulled out a containment orb and placed it in it.
0000
They spent a good hour looking through everything they could find. Inside the remains of a shack, Nebula stood looking for anything that could help.
Rocket, Scarlett, Alexis, and Bruce searched through the remains of the ships for anything that might be useful, including black boxes. Rocket also picked up anything that looked like it might be worth something.
They also found a lot of dead bodies; some looked human. Some didn't. Bruce found a pepper shaker like a small tank with a dead squid thing inside.
"I think it's time we leave," Steve finally said.
"Should we do something about the dead?"
"No," Carol shook her head, "the star, its destabilizing, in a few days, it's going to explode."
"My father survived," Nebula finally said,
"I think he did," Rocket agreed reluctantly, "This kinda damage, it had to be the stones. But- here's the thing back on Earth we picked up all sorts of cosmic energy, here there is squat. Someone must have cleaned up after themselves when they left."
Thor spoke softly, "They came and attacked Thanos and were slaughtered for their effort. Realizing he could be tracked, he left and hid," Thor growled, and they were all sure they heard thunder in the distance.
0000
Scott Lang walked into the room, "Okay, what's that?"
The swirling portal that seemed to go to hell, he wasn't expecting that.
"Okay, staying away from the weird-?"
"Scott?" Steve walked out.
"Mister Captain!" Scott shouted.
Bruce walked, holding some tech; he whispered to Thor, "Whose that?"
"No idea," Thor admitted.
"Scott? Nat asked, "How did you get in? I have everything locked up."
"I didn't break-in," Scott told them. "I know how that sounds, and I have broken in here before, but- No! The Doctor let me in."
"Doctor?" Rhodey asked, "Doctor who? No one is here except Tony, and he's out."
"Uh, blonde British lady. There was also the scary-looking Mary Poppins and the handsome guy with the blue coat."
"Yo!" Alexis pass with something he was sure was a memory core.
"Is that a new fashion thing?" Scott remarked.
"Scott!" Nat cocked her gun, "no one else is supposed to be here."
0000
Scott took them to another wing where they found a group of people.
They were standing over a woman in a white suit on a table; she seemed to be in agony. A blonde woman used a silver tube device to examine her, it buzzed.
"Who are you?" Steve asked.
"Hello, I'm the Doctor and-"The Blonde woman started with a smile, but something happened.
The one woman on the table seized. She shook violently, but echoes of her suddenly appeared around her.
"Is she phasing?" Scarlett asked, "Quantum phasing shifting, it's that ghost thing."
"She's phasing between states, potential actions." Alexis Marveled at the action.
"Yes!" The Blonde woman said excitedly. "It seems she had a condition, and with all the muck up, it made it worse. She's barely hanging on."
The woman screamed.
"Let me do this," The scary Mary Poppin walked to stand by her head and put her hands by her head, "Sleep deary."
The woman's eyes closed, and she grew quiet.
"I'll do my best to hold her still, but she's still shifting, and this won't work forever."
"Scott!" The blonde asked him, "She said you brought a quantum tunnel with you."
"It's in the van," Scott admitted.
"Good, Mickey, mind helping him bring it over."
Mickey sighed, "Ah, my mechanic skills coming to use again."
"Jenny Help him out. See if you can tune the tunnel into a 5.6 oscillating phase shift."
"Right, Dad," Jenny replied.
Scott started walking away. He wanted to ask a question but didn't.
"Martha, try to keep her stable."
Martha nodded, "I saw a medical lab let me grab some things." Martha ran off to get things.
The blonde walked over to the pair. "You two seem to know a bit about quantum phasing mind giving me a hand. I think if I jerry-rigged it right, I could help our new friend stabilize with a big dose of energy, but I need to make a few pieces first."
"Okay," They both said in unison.
"What's going on?" Steve asked.
A very handsome man with a charming smile and blue coat walked over, "Yeah, sorry that's the Doctor she can get carried away sometimes. Hello, I'm Captain Jack Harkness."
0000
Steve, Nat, Rhodey, and Carol sat at the conference table, watching behind Jack through the window the rest of the work bring in a van and cobble together a machine.
Bruce was helping them, but Rocket and Nebula went to examine the things they brought from the Garden.
Jack was telling them a very familiar story.
Their world was hit hard and fast as suddenly half their population vanished.
Their world had been through many alien invasion, and most of them halted by the Doctor. The UN of their world had many contingency plans because of them, many dealing with finding the Doctor and making them the President of Earth.
When the Doctor's Daughter Arrived, they started to make some headway and find the extent of the dusting.
"Didn't expect another universe," Jack sighed, "Since the Timelords vanished, travel between universes has been all but impossible." Jack held up a silver disk with yellow marking, "It's called a Dimension Cannon, Mickey brought one back with him after he spent a few years in another universe. Then a friend Rose came with a newer version; luckily, UNIT kept both copies. The Doctor and Missy," he said with a strange tone, "were about to make it work, taking some nasty side effects out. We scanned a location in Africa, and we had to make a quick retreat after some locals were less than happy with our sudden arrival."
Natasha looked over to her screen, half expecting a message from Okoye.
"And after a little digging, we found you. Found that portal in the other room figured wait for you to come back."
Steve was the first to ask, "You just let yourselves in?"
"That's the Doctor, she programs the jump and doesn't seem to account for locked doors."
"And letting in Tick-Tac?" Rhodey asked.
"The Doctor," Jack shrugged, "She isn't great with boundaries and is generally helpful," Jack smiled to himself," That's a pretty good description of all of them." He shook his head "and can't refuse someone in need. She started to help the woman in the white suit. Scott called her Ava."
"The Ghost." Natasha whispered, "A rumor from my time in SHIELD, an assassin that could infiltrate any place to reach her targets. She was described as a figure in a strange white suit that seemed to twitch in reality."
Steve only mused out loud, "I think we might need to ask Scott some questions."
The lights in the complex all went out.
With a blast of energy, they saw Alexis blasted past the window.
Scarlett shouted, "You okay?"
"…Mostly."
"He's good; he does that all the time. Oh! You're on fire! Ah! Never mind! I'll put you out!"
0000
After a few hours, Ava slept peacefully; Missy rubbed her finger's against her temples, "She's sleeping, having a pleasant dream. Some little diddy about being a child with her father and mother."
The chest device on her suit hummed as it was now connected to the quantum tunnel that buzzed
Martha checked her pulse, "It's steady, which is saying something since an hour ago, she looked ready to split herself apart."
The Doctor smiled as she dusted off her hand; she noticed Jenny looking over the Quantum Tunnel.
"Well, I'm glad we could help." She turned to her new acquaintances, "Thanks for the help."
"Yeah, no problem," Scarlett sighed, "We've had some experience with something like this."
"You're aliens, right?" Alexis questioned the Doctor.
The Doctor looked on, bemused, "Yes, how the man you tell? I thought I came pretty human."
Missy had to stifle a laugh, and Martha and Mickey, just both, looked away, not sure how to react.
"Well, I've seen humanoid aliens before. Its just little subtle things, Plus that sonic probe doesn't like human-made."
The Doctor held out her sonic screwdriver, "It's a sonic screwdriver."
"Okay, we brought some alien tech back from an alien world. We are trying to see what happened. Want to look through it?"
"I'd love to."
0000
Steve was talking to Scott; it hit him hard too. He was supposed to meet the Pym's to help them gather something to help with Ava's condition when it happened.
The story behind her turned his stomach; Steve would have liked to believe that it was Hydra's influence in SHIELD that pushed her to be an assassin, but he couldn't be sure.
When it all went down, she was with Dr. Foster when he vanished. Scott, unable to find the Pyms, went to find Foster and found her in the worst state. Their best guess was the snap had some effects on her condition.
After making sure his daughter was safe, Scott tried to contact the Avengers. But emergency services stretched to their limits, phone networks little more than useless; he drove across the country to try and help her.
Steve did smile, for all his fault, Scott was a good man, willing to try and help a former enemy who was in need. It helped Steve, sometimes the world seemed to grow so much darker, but there was still hope.
"Cap, what do we do now?" Ant-Man asked.
"I honestly don't know," Steve was a loss, Thanos and the Stones were hidden, and in all honesty, he wasn't sure if they could beat him.
"We pull our resources," Scott suggested, "we brainstorm, figure out something, then."
"Brainstorm?"
"Yeah, The Pyms were some of the smartest people I've ever met. They came up with my shrink suit. They were barely scratching on finding a cure for Ava, and those guys together managed to stabilize her in a few hours. I got a good feeling about that."
Steve blinked, "We are stronger together, aren't we?"
"Yeah, by the way, what's with the beard? I mean, it looks great. You going for a new look?"
"I've been thinking of shaving."
0000
Rocket and Nebula had taking up a big lab and spread out all the alien tech they brought back with them.
"Well, I brought some help." Alexis greeted them.
"Yeah-"Rocket began, but the Doctor rushed passed him.
"Dalek casing!" The Doctor held up an eyestalk.
Missy grimaced, "That's… unsettling."
The Doctor looked at the group, "The creature in it, where is it?"
Rocket flinched, "It's dead, the squid did was liquified. We left it on the planet."
The Doctor was relieved.
"I take it you know this species," Nebula asked.
"Know? I've fought them; they're ruthless killers that seek to kill anything that's not Dalek. If they came here, they must have followed the same trace I did but tracked it back to the stones."
"We probably could have caught up," Missy pointed out, "If you didn't have to focus on Earth affairs."
The Doctor ignored her and took out her sonic screwdriver. The eyestalk blinked to life and projected something, "The data drive is damaged. But-"
It should be an armada of saucers, the Dalek ships; it should include countless other ships.
Rocket mused, "Must be the dust-up they had with Thanos."
There were countless alien ships and soldiers; some flew, others took to the ground; some were robots; they didn't seem to be working together more like going in the same direction.
The camera turned to a hill were tall purple man stone. His golden fist is glowing brightly with six shining lights. Thanos forced his fist into the air, struggling against its power before the footage ended.
"Yeah, that definitely seems like Thanos." Rocket commented.
0000
Steve shaved, the real tragedy in all this.
He gathered the rest of the Avengers, the remaining Guardians, Carol, Alexis and Scarlett, the Doctor and his companions, and Missy. They all gathered in the conference room.
"I have an idea," Steve began, "after sharing notes, it looks like we are all facing the same thing. I suggest we pull out resources together. We work together to get the Gauntlet and undo that mess."
Missy raised her hand, "Not to be the negative one, what do we plan on doing? What are we supposed to do? Find the big purple man and ask him nicely to hand it over? The golden glove was strong enough to wipe out half of everyone and weaken the walls between the universe as a side effect. What's to stop him from taking us all out?"
"Father is weaker," Nebula announced,
"We just saw him burn through an army," Rocket pointed out, "What part of that seems weaker?"
"On Titan, he had no problem wielding the power of the stones, he used them masterfully," It pained her to admit it, "But in the footage, we saw he struggled to use them for a moment."
Thor spoke up, "When he used the Stones - I saw it, his arm was burned."
Carol looked up, "The stones hurt him, he can't used them as well. It might slow him down; it could give us a chance to take it."
"There is another thing," Nebula added, "It's not much, but on Titan, we could slow him down; he can only activate the power of the stones when he moves his fingers."
Steve remembered how he Held back Thanos's fist in Wakanda. It didn't slow him down much, but it did halt him; he was forced not to use the stones for a moment.
"It's not much, but it's something," Steve admitted.
"We still need to track Thanos," Alexis pointed out, "and it looks like he's learned to cover his trail. Tracking a reality warper that doesn't want be found it a tricky thing."
"We get help," The Doctor suggested, "We both arrived here on our own. The Daleks came here on their own, and I'd wager a bunch of those aliens on that planet weren't locals."
"We are going to have a guest?" Rhodey followed her trail.
"We could try and take some control over the mess," Scarlett started to throw out ideas, "if we put our tech together, draw people here and try to get them to help. We might be able to find a way to track Thanos together or even find ways to stop him."
"It sounds like a plan." Tony wobbled in,
Bruce moved to help him, but Tony waved him before sitting down at an empty chair. "We need fresh blood, and we need a lot of it. "
"You want to recruit people?" Steve asked him.
"We need all the help we can get," Tony waved his hand, "FRIDAY brought me up to speed once I got up. Things have gotten so much worse," His tone was bitter, "if there is a chance to set things right, then we don't have much of choice. I'm sure there are a lot of people who think that too, and some will be coming this way. I'm just saying we make it easier for them."
0000
Steve was walking out with Carol to the courtyard. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Carol just nodded, "Yes, there isn't much I can do here. I can still go scout for any signs for Thanos. Try to help out where I can. Maybe scrounge up some people, when we do find him, we will need everyone who can fight."
Carol started to glow and hover into the air. "Make sure to call when you need me."
"We will," Steve gave a salute, "Thank you, Captain Danvers."
Carol smiled and returned the gesture, "Thank you, Captain America."
Steve stood there and watched her fly into the night sky.
0000
Rocket and Nebula did a rather quick job of fixing the ship.
Using the communication system on their Rocket managed to contact Kraglin. He noticed what happened when half the ravagers vanished.
"That son of a bitch," Kraglin spat out.
"That's one way to put it," Rocket agreed,
"And Quill and the others?"
Rocket shook his head, "Didn't make it. We're working with some Earth folks to try and find Thanos and a way to stop him. For right now spread the word, don't want any fanatics saying the Celestials are back and trying to wipe people out. Keep your head down, and if you hear anything about Thanos, let us know."
"Got it," The man with a fin in his head nodded.
"Keep out of trouble." Rocket turned off the call.
Rocket didn't waste much time and headed back into the hanger. He quickly found Nebula with the other genius working on plans.
They had a big project in mind, and the faster they finished, the better.
Author's Notes: Okay, so notes. Alexis and Scarlett are my own characters from the books I'm trying to write. As I've said, if I'm about to snap half of all fiction away, I should put mine on the chopping block too.
As much as Alexis would love to be the fist guy to track down the avengers universe, he wasn't. Skill wasn't everything it took luck too. And in fact, the Doctor did arrive earlier just stopped at Wakanda to check right where it happened. And thats after helping out on their Earth and making sure they were good, Alexis didn't have much concern in that way,
But because he did he was able to help the Avengers get Tony earlier so he wasn't so far gone when they did get him back to Earth. In the movie when Stark made his message, he said it was over 20 days on the ship. As we are we are only about over a week after the snap.
So now that Doctor who in this, I'll move onto the next chapter. Next chapter is only called Thanos. Anyway, I liked writing for Scott, let me know what you guys think. Oh, and yes I know things changed with Scott I wrote the first chapter long before ant man and the wasp so I had to make some guessed and thats were we ended up. It's AU anyway so lets keep going. Leave a review telling me what you think.
Q&A:
supergodzillasailorcosmos: Uh, well I explained who they were right above. So hope that explains it.
msmeow1968: Maybe next chapter.
Alexanderthewriter: Maybe. Probably not. I probably have well over a 100 character mentioned so be impossible to keep track of everyone.
AstralWhip: We might see them sooner or later.