Age Of Miracles | Pietro Maximoff

Chapter Forty-Three: Destiny Still Arrives

Music is "The Way" by Zack Hemsey.

Picture is the Black Order over the Iron-Man helmet.

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"I know what it's like to lose, to feel so desperately that you're right, yet to fail all the same. Dread it. Run from it. Destiny still arrives."

- Thanos

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CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

I find Wong battling a hoard of outriders on the corner of Morris Street and Trinity Place in Lower Manhattan. He stands alone, on the street corner in front of a school, protecting the high-schoolers as they escape to the buses outside. His magical barrier is barely holding the dozen or more outriders, all of which would gladly take off his head with a single bite.

I hear one of them whisper to the others, "Bring him to Thanos...Bring him to Thanos..."

I swoop in, using my powers to incinerate half of them. The other half I take out with the Gauntlet once I land on the ground. I aim my right fist at each of them, and they in turn crumble into ash, screaming for mercy.

I have none today.

Wong drops his barrier, sighing in relief and wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Thank you," he says, breathing heavily.

I nod in reply, seeing the last of the teachers and students escape the building into the buses. "I've been flying all over the city looking for you."

"I've been pinned down here for the last five minutes."

"I need your help," I tell him. "Stephen said you hid the Soul Stone somewhere he couldn't find it. Only you know where it is. I need you to tell me where it is. I think Thanos is trying to find it. I need to get there before he does."

Wong nods. "I'll take you. You don't have magic, and only a sorcerer can get there."

"Lead the way."

Wong uses his sling ring to open a portal to a snowy wasteland. We walk through, and my teeth start to chatter as soon as the frigid temperature hits my skin. I warm myself up by using my powers, much like I do in space. "Where are we?" I ask Wong over the sound of a nearby storm. Snow falls heavily all around us, and I suspect that a blizzard is not far off. We're standing on the side of a mountain, and a pretty large one at that.

"The Himalayas," Wong responds. "Not far from Kathmandu, where Stephen and I were trained by the Ancient One so many years ago. This is one of the most secluded and protected areas in the world--secluded from people and protected by sorcerers."

"Sorcerers protect the Himalayas?" I ask. "Why?"

"It's part of our training grounds," Wong replies, looking around for something. "It's never the Yeti that hikers and conspiracy theorists see. It's usually a sorcerer who has to alter their memories to protect our sacred training grounds. I admit, maybe changing their memories to a large, hairy monster wasn't the smartest idea."

Wong casts a spell, and a red line forms across the white mountain. It leads us along the side. I hover above the small pathway that stands between the mountain and the thousand-foot drop into oblivion. Wong hikes with certainty, following his spell to the top of the mountain.

On the small, ten square foot area that is the top of the mountain, the red line from Wong's spell runs out. It stops over the pointed tip of the mountain. "Where is the Soul Stone?" I ask, worried.