CHAPTER 4

Thanos arrives to Titan via portal, with four of the Infinity Stones on his gauntlet. He's ready to take the Time Stone from its wielder, who appears to be the only one in front of him.

"Oh, you're much more of a 'Thanos'," Strange said.

"I take it Maw is dead," Thanos said. "This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."

"You may regret that," Strange replied. "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."

"And where do you think he brought you?" Thanos asks.

"Let me guess. Your home?" Strange replied.

"It was, and it was beautiful," Thanos responded, using the Reality Stone to show Strange what Titan looked like before it was devastated. "Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, and not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

"Genocide," Strange said.

"But at random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike," Thanos said. The illusion then faded back to Titan's current state. "They called me a madman, and what I predicted came to pass."

"Congratulations, you're a prophet," Strange snarked.

"I'm a survivor," Thanos responded.

"Who wants to murder trillions," Strange added on.

"With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers, and they would all cease to exist," Thanos elaborated. "I call that… mercy."

"And then what?" Strange inquired.

"I finally rest… and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe," Thanos replied. "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

"I think… you'll find…" Strange said, whilst making a signal with his telekinetic shields in a fighting stance. "our will… equal to yours."

"Ours?" Thanos asked, only to see a chunk of wreckage plummeting towards him. It's too rapid for him to react with the Power Stone and it crushes him. It's revealed that Stark is the one that dropped the rubble on Thanos.

"Piece of cake, Quill," Stark retorted.

"Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off!" Quill chimed in, activating his helmet and flying in with blasters, ready to fight.

The wreckage on Thanos erupts in a purple hue, as he uses the Power Stone to levitate it around him whilst bellowing in rage. He then turns the fragments into a flock of bats with the Reality Stone and swarms them onto Stark. Peter swings in, webs Thanos' eyes, and kicks him in the face at the same time Drax does a knee-slide behind Thanos and tries to stab him in the tendon back of his knees.

Wade joins in with his adamantium katanas as he and Drax duel with Thanos on each side, both trying to pierce his skin. Thanos tears the web from his eyes, punches Drax into a wall and tosses Wade in the same direction, with him landing onto Drax just when he got back on his feet, causing them to both fall over.

Quill shoots Thanos from behind as Thanos uses the Power Stone to shoot balls of energy at him. Strange from behind uses his telekinetic powers to create platforms for Quill to jump onto. Quill makes it behind Thanos, able to slap a mine on his back, stick the landing, disengage his helmet, and flip the middle finger at Thanos.

"Boom!" Quill retorted and falls backwards into one of Strange's portals.

The explosion from the mine knocks Thanos to his knees in a brief daze.

"Nice one, Super Mario!" Wade complimented Quill.

Strange then whispered to his Cloak "Do not let him close his fist," and the Cloak swoops over to wrap itself tightly around Thanos' gauntlet, who struggles to remove it.

Strange then throws multiple portals around Thanos, allowing Peter to leap through them to attack Thanos.

"Magic!" Peter exclaims, punching Thanos from behind his head. "More magic!" as he yanks Thanos' head down hard, then kicks him in the stomach. "Magic with a kick!" as he delivers a flying kick in Thanos' face. "Magic with a-"

Before Peter could finish, Thanos grabs his leg midair and pins him to the ground with his hand around Peter's neck. "Maybe don't telegraph your attacks next time," Wade said to Peter, as he and Strange headed towards his direction.

"Insect!" Thanos said.

Thanos then tosses Peter at both Wade and Strange, causing them to all get knocked down. Thanos finally tears the Cloak off the gauntlet, just as Stark re-enters to bombard him with fiery explosions. Thanos uses the Power Stone to suck up all the flame into the gauntlet and then fire it in a stream at Stark with a direct hit, sending him crashing into nearby debris.

Peter leaps in from behind Thanos whilst he's distracted firing at Stark and tries to web the gauntlet off of Thanos' hand. This tug of war proves to be difficult for Peter, as the more powerful Titan yanks on the web-line, pulling Peter closer, and allowing Thanos to punch him. He tears the webbing off the gauntlet, only for then a small spaceship to arrive attempting to crash land onto him.

The ship drags Thanos for a distance, burying him under some debris. As he gets to his feet, he sees that the pilot is his adopted daughter Nebula, who jumps out of the spaceship, delivers a punch to his jaw, and lands in front of him with an energy blade ignited.

"Well, well," Thanos said.

"You should have killed me," Nebula said.

"Would've been a waste of parts!" Thanos responded.

Nebula then beats him with her energy blade, hitting him in the face a few times, as he retaliates with blocks from his gauntlet. She then shouts, "Where's Gamora!?", and Thanos punches her away.

Strange uses telekinetic cables to pinion Thanos' gauntlet and try to pry it off his hands. As Thanos tries to break free, Drax slides in from his right, kicking Thanos' knee and knocking him off-balance. Drax then wraps himself around Thanos' leg to keep him in place. Quill, who's hiding from above in floating debris, shoots an electric disc onto the ground to Thanos' right, which activates and snares Thanos' unarmored hand. Peter swings in, webbing Thanos' chest and wraps it around him, then digs his Spider legs into the ground to anchor himself. Strange opens a portal above Thanos, of which Mantis drops in landing on his shoulders. She places her hands on his temples, trying to put him under her trance as he bellows.

Stark returns to the ground and tries to pull the gauntlet off of Thanos' hand. Wade joins in with Drax, grabbing Thanos' other leg in place while resisting the urge not to subtly cop a feel. Strange reapplies telekinetic cables to reinforce the hold on Thanos' other hand, and the Cloak helps him pull. Although Thanos is subdued, he's not entirely asleep from Mantis' power.

"Is he under?" Stark asked Mantis. "Don't let up."

"Be quick," Mantis cries out, feeling Thanos' pain. "He is very strong."

"Parker, help! Get over here." Stark instructs, as Peter drops his web-line and rushes over to help Stark get the gauntlet off. "She can't hold him much longer. Let's go."

Quill flies in to join the others, standing in front of Thanos, taunting "I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh?" Quill then seriously asks Thanos "Where is Gamora?"

"My… Gamora… ?" Thanos mutters.

"No, bullshit. Where is she?" Quill asked again, clearly getting more pissed.

"He is in anguish," Mantis replies, feeling what Thanos has gone through.

"Good," Quill says.

"He… he… mourns," Mantis said.

"What does this monster have to mourn!?" Drax asks.

"Gamora," Nebula says, realizing what Thanos had to do to get the Soul Stone.

"What?" Quill asks, turning behind to Nebula.

"He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone… but she didn't." Nebula responded.

Stark, understanding how angry Quill is, deactivates his helmet and says, "Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now, you understand?"

Quill slowly turns back to Thanos, as Stark shouts "Don't, don't, don't engage, we've almost got this off!"

"Tell me she's lying," Quill asks Thanos, then enraged, yells, "ASSHOLE! Tell me you didn't do it!"

"I… had… to," Thanos mutters.

"No, you didn't… No, you didn't…" Quill quietly says, tears in his eyes. He suddenly begins pistol-whipping Thanos in the face, causing Mantis to let go in pain. "NO YOU DIDN'T!"

"Quill!" Stark, Drax & Wade exclaimed.

Starks lets go of the gauntlet, reactivates his helmet, and restraints Quill, struggling to keep him in place. "Hey, stop! Hey, stop! Stop! Hey, stop! Stop!"

"It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" Peter exclaims as he manages to get Thanos' fingers completely loose from the gauntlet. "I got it! I got it… !"

Thanos wakes up completely, now furious. He head-butts Mantis, pulls the gauntlet back onto his hand, causing Peter to stumble backwards, and then throws Mantis away off of his shoulders.

"Oh, God," Peter exclaims, as he jumps to rescue Mantis and wraps them around his Spider legs to form a roll cage for a safe landing.

Thanos kicks Drax off his right leg and into Nebula, Quill and Stark, knocking them down. He yanks on the telekinetic cables to throw Strange far away. Wade lets go of Thanos' left leg and tries one move to incapacitate the Titan: "Cock shots!" Wade pulls out his pistols and shoots multiple bullets into Thanos' groin until he's out of ammo. Thanos shakes off the bullets as if they were nothing, and looks down angrily at Wade. "You're annoying me," Thanos picks up Wade by the head.

"What we have here is a lack of communcatio-" Wade tries to plead, only to be stopped by Thanos ripping his head off of his body. "OWWWWWWWWWWW, COME ON!" Wade screams, as Thanos has his head in his right hand and his body in his left hand.

Stark zooms back in with a nanite cannon, and Thanos throws Wade's body at Stark, knocking them to the ground. Thanos raises his gauntlet towards Titan's moon, and uses both the Power and Space Stones to shatter the moon's surface and launch its debris to the planet's surface. Stark tries to fly out of the way, but gets crushed by a chunk of moon that slams him into the ground. The other heroes' bodies go sailing into the air from the rebound.

Peter uses his webs to rescue the unconscious Guardians from getting crushed by the moon chunks. "I got you! I got you! I'm sorry I can't remember anybody's names!"

Thanos climbs out the rubble, tossing Wade's head to the side. "Not cool, California raisin," Wade's head snarked.

"Quiet, mutant," Thanos told him.

Strange returned to fight, using his Magic of the Mystic Arts to try to stop Thanos, which is countered by the Reality Stone. After a bit of this magic duel of sorts, Thanos pulls Strange in closer and grasps him by the throat once in range.

"You're full of tricks wizard," Thanos said, as he reaches for Strange's necklace, the Eye of Agamotto.

"No!" Strange shouts, as Thanos snaps the Eye off its chain.

"Yet you never once used your greatest weapon," Thanos says, and crushes it in his bare hand. "A fake," Thanos tosses Strange hard enough for Strange to get hit in the head by debris and passed out. Suddenly, a red and gold device flies onto the palm of the gauntlet, prying the fingers open, with Stark flying in, being the one that sent this device.

"You throw another moon at me," Stark says, clearly devoid of patience, "and I'm gonna lose it."

"Stark," Thanos says, recognizing his voice.

"You know me?" Stark asks.

"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge," Thanos responds, knowing that Stark was the one responsible for ending Thanos' army invasion of New York back in 2012.

"My only curse is you," Stark said, launching rockets at Thanos that explode upon impact.

Stark uses the explosion to pile drive into Thanos and the two engage in combat. Slowly but surely, Thanos is able to chip away Stark's nanites bit by bit, starting with his helmet and pieces of his armor. Stark is able to punch a nanite ram into Thanos' face, cutting his cheek.

Thanos notices that he bleeds a bit and muses, "All that for a drop of blood."

They continue to fight, but Stark slowly loses nanites from the energy used for his hand beams to fire at Thanos, who's countering with the Power Stone. Stark tries to form what's left of his nanites into a sword, but Thanos catches it, snaps it off and impales Tony's in the side, ending the fight. Stark sputters some blood from his mouth, trying to breath and sits down in pain.

"You have my respect, Stark," Thanos says. "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive. I hope they remember you," Thanos then raises the gauntlet with all four stones glowing, ready to kill Stark.

"Stop!" Strange says, now conscious and sitting up. "Spare his life… and I will give you the stone."

"No tricks," Thanos says, as he points the gauntlet into Strange's direction.

"Don't…" Stark weakly says.

Strange makes the Time Stone reappear and levitates it over to Thanos. Thanos places the stone into the thumb of the gauntlet, with the energy pulse making him wince a bit. "One to go."

Quill flies in, firing both blasters at Thanos, screaming in an incoherent rage. Thanos doesn't even bother and leaves via portal. Quill lands on the ground where Thanos once was. He deactivates his helmet and angrily asks "Where is he!?"

As Tony stitches his stab wound with nanites, Wade's head looks over at Quill and quietly responds, "…gone."

"Did we just lose?" Quill fearfully asks.

"Why would you do that?" Stark sadly asks Strange.

"We're in the Endgame now," Strange responds.