Prologue, Mission: Impossible – Ethan's final objective.

Ethan's point of view

Halfway across the Atlantic Ocean, I heard the unmistakable thunk-hiss of a mission packet falling through the digi-panel.

I pressed the button and opened the doors, and the canister popped out. After carefully examining the hologram logo on it to make sure it was legit, I opened it. A screen popped up and IMF Agent 1 said,

"Your mission, Ethan, should you choose to accept it, has three parts. The first part is to go to New York City in the year 2023 and warn The Avengers of Thanos's imminent arrival – The Avengers are a team of extraordinary individuals, with either superpowers or other special characteristics.

Though primarily affiliated with the interests of the United States of America, the group's purpose is to protect global stability from intercontinental or extraterrestrial threats.

Thanos is dangerous, and he is not to be trifled with. He is in pursuit of the infinity stones, and if he locates all six and snaps his fingers, he will attain the highest level of power in the universe. Furthermore, if he does so while wearing the infinity gauntlet containing the stones, he will achieve his objective: It is imperative that this event is prevented.

Thanos plans to wipe out half of all life forms so that there will be enough resources to go around. Thanos believes that there are too many beings in the universe and the resources we have are finite. If he succeeds, half of all life forms in the Universe will cease to exist.

The Avengers intend to stop him, but they are going to need backup. The Gregoriate Council will be involved in helping to stop Thanos.

A little more background on the Avengers.

Back in 2012, the team split into three. The Winter Soldier, Falcon, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Human Torch, Mr Fantastic, The Thing, Invisible Woman and Daredevil, sided with Steve Rogers. They are known as team Captain America, or Team Cap.

War Machine, Spider-Man 1, Black panther, Professor X, Wolverine, Phoenix, Magneto, Cyclops, Beast, and Vision sided with Iron Man. They are known as Team Iron Man or Team Stark.

Thor, Loki, She-Hulk, Hulk, and Black Widow created a team of their own. They were joined by Captain Carter, Dr Strange, Variant Professor X, Variant Spider-man 2 and 3, Mr Fantastic and Iron-Heart. They are known as Team Illuminati.

The second part of your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take the team back to 2012 to instruct their counterparts on what is about to happen in the year 2023. The Gregoriate council will go with you to make sure that nothing untoward happens.

The third and final part of your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to inform both teams about the Multiverse and the 7 timelines within it that will be left within it after part 2 of your mission.

As always, should you or any of your IMF team be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This tape will self-destruct in ten seconds. Good luck, Ethan."

"SSSsssSSSsssSSSsssSSS" smoke appeared under the mission transcript, and it disintegrated in flames.

*May 30th 2018 somewhere over the Atlantic*

I was flying to New York. Yelena and I would be going on a short vacation to the Bahamas…

*May 31, 2018, New York*

I had been there for 5 hours when it suddenly felt like there was an earthquake in New York.

"What is going on?"
"An earthquake?"

"That isn't possible. New York is not directly on a fault line. Only places that sit directly on fault lines are affected by earthquakes. A fault is a split or a group of splits in rock between two blocks. Faults allow the blocks to move relative to each other. This movement may occur rapidly, in the form of an earthquake – or may occur slowly, in the form of a creep." Vision explained. He gasped,

The shaking got worse, and people started to turn to dust. Randomly, with no explanation.

"This must be it, this was what the mission was… but not everyone is turning to dust, so…"

"Ethan I…" Yelena began before she became a pile of dust…

There was an almighty crash outside and Wanda, Vision, Nat, Cap, and Sam arrived through the glass ceiling.

"What's happened?"

"I don't know"

"People started disappearing… indiscriminately, turning to piles of dust…"

"Oh no… that means that Thanos must have… done what he said he would do"

"But that would mean… that we lost"

"Wow… this is going to replace The Entity in my nightmares" I shuddered.

"What do we do?"
"We wait, we see what happens…"
"I'm afraid we need to take another course of action" said a voice.

"Metatron?"

His brown eyes lit up, and he grinned at me.

"Astute as always Mr Hunt, yes, it is I." he replied

"What are you doing here?"
"We are… backup for your mission"

"What mission?"

"Enough questions, you will learn about the mission soon enough."

"I already know what mission, but it's classified until we have our ducks in a row."

"Would someone please explain what's going on here?"
"There's no time for explanations. I will be blunt. There's trouble coming."

"AAAAAAAARGH!"

A series of what could only be described as warp pipes opened beneath us.

I landed first. I heard the unmistakable thud-grunt of the others arriving…

"Where are we?" asked a voice. I found myself face to face with Steve Rogers.

The anteroom was dimly lit. I could barely see my hand in front of my face.

"I don't know where we are"
"You will find out... momentarily" said another voice. I recognised this voice to be that of The Metatron - the voice of God.

I heard the door of a room head of us unlocking and...