Turning

13

"Boom!" Quill cried.

The explosion knocked Thanos to his knees and dazed him briefly.

Doctor Strange whispered to the Cloak of Levitation, "Do not let him close his fist." The Cloak swooped off Doctor Strange's shoulders and wrapped itself tightly around Thanos' armored hand, who started tugging at the unexpected wrapping.

Doctor Strange began throwing portals everywhere. Spider-Man leapt through one on Thanos' left.

"Magic!" Peter yelled, punching Thanos in the head and vanished through a portal to the lower right before reappearing above Thanos. "More magic!" He yanked Thanos' head down hard, then leapt into a portal in front of him. He leapt through another portal high and behind Thanos. "Magic with a kick!" He delivered a flying kick and fell feet-first into an exit, then appeared on his right. "Magic with a-"

Before he could finish, Thanos turned, grabbed him from the air, and threw him to the ground, hand around his neck.

"Insect!" Thanos yelled.

Thanos threw Peter at Doctor Strange, knocking them both down. Thanos finally tore the Cloak away and was then promptly surrounded by his fiery explosions as Iron Man sucked all the flame into the Gauntlet with the Power Stone and fired it in a stream at Iron Man, hitting him dead on and sent him far away, plowing through a massive fallen machine.

Spider-Man leapt from behind, more conventionally, while Thanos concentrated his fire on Iron Man, webbed the Gauntlet and dropped down in front of him, pulling hard -- but Thanos yanked on the web-line pulling the much lighter teenager towards him, and punching his way past. He tore the webbing free of the Gauntlet just in time for a small spaceship to attempt a crash-land on him.

The ship dragged Thanos along for a distance, burying him under debris. He stood just as the pilot leapt in a great arc to punch him, landing in front of him with an energy-blade at the ready.

"Well, well," Thanos said.

"You should have killed me," Nebula told him.

"It would've been a waste of parts!"

She ran at Thanos, attacking him with her sword. "Where's Gamora?!"

Thanos punched her away. Doctor Strange used the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to pinion the Gauntlet, pulling Thanos' fingers open and tried to pry the Gauntlet off his hand.

Thanos tried to pull free, as Drax slid in from right, kicking his knee and knocked him off-balance, then wrapped himself around Thanos' kneeling leg.

Star-Lord shot an electric trap onto the ground to Thanos' right, the tangle-field holding his unarmored hand.

Spider-Man swung in, webbed Thanos' chest then wrapped it around behind him, digging his Iron Spider legs into the ground to anchor himself.

Doctor Strange opened a portal straight above Thanos' right out of which dropped Mantis, landing on the Titan's shoulders, her hands on his temples. He bellowed as she tried to put him under.

Iron Man, having returned, was pulling on the Gauntlet. Doctor Strange reapplied the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to reinforce the trap's hold on Thanos' right hand, and the Cloak helped him pull. Thanos was finally subdued enough to incapacitate, not fully asleep.

Tony, while pulling, asked, "Is he under? Don't let up."

Mantis began crying as she said, "Be quick. He is very strong."

"Parker, help! Get over here!" Spider-Man dropped his web-line and hurried to help Tony with the Gauntlet. "She can't hold him much longer. Let's go."

Quill flew over to join the others, stood in front of Thanos and taunted, "I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan. Not so strong now, huh? Where is Gamora?"

"My Gamora...?"

"No, bull-shit. Where is she?"

Mantis, shocked, said, "He is in anguish."

"Good."

Mantis continued crying. "He... he mourns."

"What does this monster have to mourn?" Drax retorted.

"Gamora," Nebula answered.

Quill paused. "What?"

Nebula, realizing with horror and sadness what had happened, continued. "He took her to Vormir. He came back with the Soul Stone... but she didn't."

Tony, grasping the danger before he de-helmeted, said, "Okay, Quill, you gotta cool it right now, you understand." Quill slowly turned to Thanos and Tony shouted his pleads desperately. "Don't, don't don't engage, we've almost got this off!"

"Tell me she's lying," Quill said, becoming enraged. "Tell me you didn't do it!"

"I... had... to," Thanos replied.

While starting to tear up, Quill said quietly, "No, you didn't...! No, you didn't...!" He snapped and began pistol-whipping Thanos thrice in the face, causing Mantis to let go in pain. "No, you didn't!"

"Quill!" Tony yelled.

Iron Man leapt for Star-Lord's arm, re-helmeted and left Spider-Man to pull off the Gauntlet.

Tony, to the struggling Star-Lord, said, "Hey, stop! Stop! Hey, stop! Stop!"

"It's coming!" Peter cried. "It's coming! It's coming!" He got the fingers completely loose. "I got it! I got it...!"

Thanos woke completely, well and truly furious. He head-butted Mantis, grabbing the cuff of the Gauntlet just as it was sliding off his hand, causing Spider-Man to stumble back, then threw Mantis away off his shoulders.

Peter, seeing Mantis with far too much air under her, said, "Oh, God!" He jumped and wrapped his arms and legs around her, extending his spider legs to form a roll cage for a safe landing.

Thanos kicked Drax off his right leg and into Nebula and Star-Lord, knocking them down. He yanked on the Crimson Bands holding his right hand to throw Doctor Strange far away, and swatted away Iron Man and his repulser shots. The remaining Guardians jumped up and charged him again, but he fired a pulse of indigo energy at them that knocked the three of them completely unconscious.

Iron Man zoomed back in, his nianite arm cannon manifested, and was head-butted to the ground. Thanos looked at him for a beat, then raised the Gauntlet towards Titan's moon. Iron Man stared, aghast. Thanos used a combination of the Power and Space Stones to shatter the moon's surface, then brought the debris down on the field of battle at speed. Iron Man powered out of the way but was caught by a chunk of moon about the size of a baseball field, slamming him into the ground. The Guardians went sailing into the air from the rebound.