The cool spring breeze coming off the water was refreshing as Tony walked with Pepper, Bruce, and Spencer through the park. They had only been back in New York for about twelve hours now, and Tony was doing his best to enjoy every moment he had with Pepper before it inevitably came to an end. He had spent most of the morning explaining what had happened on their space misadventure and once they had returned to Earth, and, of course, all of the changes in their friends' personal lives as well. Needless to say, Pepper was less than enthused by most of the developments, but she was much more understanding than what Tony thought she'd be, given the circumstances. She knew before long, he was going to have to hunt down Stephen Strange, and that was if Thanos' forces didn't descend on them first.
So there he was, getting some light exercise with Pepper by his side, while Bruce and Spencer walked several paces behind them, talking quietly to each other. It was a good day for a brisk walk, and it was proving to be a good distraction from the looming threat. Even if Pepper wasn't listening to him.
"Slow down, slow down," he called after her. "I'm totally not kidding."
His fiancée laughed and talked over him. "You're totally rambling."
Tony spoke over her in return. "No, I'm not."
Pepper laughed again. "Lost me."
Tony sighed, deciding to try a different approach. "Look, you know how you're having a dream, and in the dream you gotta pee?"
"Yeah."
"Okay, and then you're like, 'Oh, my God, there's no bathroom, what am I gonna do? Oh! Someone's watching, I'm gonna go in my pants,'" he went on.
"Right, and then you wake up, and in real life you actually have to pee," Pepper replied. Tony could tell by the tone in her voice she didn't know where he was going with this ramble. He was getting to the point.
"Yes."
Pepper huffed. "Yeah. Everybody has that."
"Right! That's the point I'm trying to make," Tony replied as he stopped walking and stepped in front of her to continue his explanation. "Apropos of that, last night, I dreamt we had a kid. So real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. Uh, what was his name?"
Pepper nodded, seemingly understanding now what he was getting at. "Right."
Tony snapped a couple times as he thought about what her uncle's name was. And then it hit him. "Morgan!" he shouted, gesturing with his hand at the realization. "Morgan."
Pepper raised an eyebrow at him. "So you woke up, and thought we were-"
"-expecting," Tony finished her sentence.
"Yeah," Pepper muttered.
Really? He didn't believe it. "Yes?" Tony asked excitedly.
Pepper shook her head and replied quietly, "No."
Tony frowned, disappointed to say the least. "I had a dream about it; it was so real."
"Maybe it is real, but for someone else," Pepper countered before sighing. "You've been gone for months; if we were expecting, it would be pretty obvious. Plus, if you wanted to have a kid, you wouldn't have done that." She untied the sleeves of the jacket he had draped around his shoulders, revealing his chest piece before tapping it gently. "And you wouldn't have gotten involved in this... this Thanos thing."
Tony was still caught up on her first comment for a moment before he snapped out of it. "I'm glad you brought that up, because it's nothing. It's just a housing unit for nano particles," he explained. "And after we finish this ordeal with Thanos, there will be no more surprises. Ever. I promise you."
Pepper nodded, a little solemnly, but Tony hoped she understood what he was saying. "Yes."
"I will," Tony promised. After a beat, he leaned forward to kiss her in reassurance.
As Pepper kissed him back, Tony heard what he swore were sparks flying behind him. His fiancée gasped and pulled away from him abruptly, causing him to turn to look at whatever had startled her. Whatever it was had caught Bruce and Spencer off guard as well, as they were staring with wide-eyes past him and Pepper. Tony looked in the same direction as the rest of them, just in time to see a tall, slender man wearing a fancy cloak stepping out of an orange, sparking portal.
"Tony Stark. Bruce Banner. Spencer Grey. I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me," the man introduced. There was an awkward pause as everyone continued staring at him. He turned to Tony and Pepper. "Oh, and congratulations on the wedding, by the way."
Tony sighed. Looks like he didn't need to hunt down the man after all. He knew why he had been sought out, but he couldn't resist making a snarky comment anyway. "I'm sorry; you giving out tickets or something?"
"We need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say the fate of the universe is at stake," Strange continued.
"And who's we?" Tony asked, playing dumb.
Spencer cleared her throat. "I called him earlier. You know why our help is needed, Tony."
"You know we came back here to get in touch with him," Bruce added. "It wasn't hard to look his number up."
Tony bit his tongue and nodded. Of course. Back to business as usual. He glanced at Pepper, unable to hide a frown. He was hoping he would've had more time with her before things went sideways, but of course that wasn't going to happen. He'd be sure to make it up to her later.
*****
It felt like they had been at the Sanctum Santorum for an eternity already. Bruce and Spencer had been explaining the situation in more detail, the urgency plaguing their voices. Tony sat against the wall, waiting for an opportune time to add his thoughts into it. He watched attentively as Strange's associate- Wong- went into a spiel about the stones.
Wong had used some magic, displaying the universe and five of the six Infinity Stones hovering in it above them. "From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then, boom!" he explained. "The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals, hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence."
"Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind," Strange listed, each stone lighting up as he said their name. "And Time." He waved his arms in front of the medallion around his neck, and it opened to reveal a glowing emerald stone. He paused for a moment before glancing at the others. "Tell me his name again."
"Thanos. He's a plague. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him!" Bruce explained frantically. "He has the Power, Space, and Reality Stones-"
Tony snorted, interrupting him. "No thanks to Anja's charming boyfriend."
"You shut up," Spencer snapped, shooting him a glare from a few feet away. "We've already covered this."
"I'm still not wrong," Tony protested, standing up finally. "The guy carried the Space Stone around for months without any of us knowing. We all could've died, Spencer."
Spencer opened her mouth to argue, but Bruce cut her off. "Anyway... that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. And he's sending his forces here!" he went on. "If he gets his hands on all six Stones..."
"He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," Strange concluded.
Tony leaned against a nearby cauldron, stretching his arms and legs as if he was going to go on another run. "Did you seriously say 'hitherto undreamt of'?"
Strange was definitely annoyed, and sassed back, "Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"
Tony moved off of it sheepishly. "Is that what this is?" The cloak Strange was wearing reached over and smacked him. Getting assaulted by a piece of sentient fabric caught him off guard. "I'm going to allow that," he muttered before looking back at Strange. "If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?"
"No can do," Strange outright refused.
"We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone," Wong added. "With our lives."
Tony shrugged. "And I swore off dairy, but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me so..."
"Stark Raving Hazelnuts," Strange said.
"It's not bad," Tony replied.
"A bit... chalky," Strange disagreed.
Wong put his arms behind his back as he proudly proclaimed, "A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favorite."
Having been away from Earth the last few years, Bruce never found out about how each Avenger had an ice cream named after them. The confusion was all too apparent in his voice. "That's a thing?"
Spencer nodded enthusiastically beside him. "Oh yeah. It's great! All of you guys got flavors named after you! We'll have to find some for you to try."
This conversation had gotten way off track, and Tony decided it was time to get it back on the rails. "Whatever. Point is: things change."
Strange remained unswayed. "Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos."
Time for a counter argument. "And still, conversely, it may also be his best chance against us," Tony pointed out.
Strange rolled his eyes. "Well, if we don't do our jobs."
Tony's eyes narrowed. "What is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?" he asked condescendingly.
Strange was completely calm, and it was unsettling. Tony was used to getting under people's skin, and while he could tell Strange was annoyed, this was a very different reaction than what most people gave him.
Instead, the doctor retorted, "Protecting your reality, douchebag."
Ahhh, there's the insult.
Spencer burst into laughter, the joyous sound echoing throughout the Sanctum. The sound would've put a smile on Tony's face had he not been the butt of the joke.
"Okay, guys, can we table this discussion right now?" Bruce intervened. "The fact is that we have this Stone. We know where it is. We're still waiting to hear back from Steve about Vision, so who knows where he is."
Tony opened his mouth to say something, but an unusual rumbling sound made him pause. He stared at Doctor Strange for a moment, and took notice of something peculiar. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair, would you?"
Strange stared up at a forelock of his hair fluttering as if he was standing in the breeze. "Not at the moment, no."
Tony looked up towards a cracked window, and saw debris flying by outside. It had been a calm afternoon before they got to the Sanctum. Sure, there had been a slight breeze, but certainly nothing strong enough to cause things to be whipped through the air like they were now. Tony's mind began running through the list of possible scenarios, and none of them made sense. Unless...
The five of them all slowly turned and looked to the front door of the Sanctum. Even with just the small windows on the door, it was obvious something big was occurring just outside. After a few quick glances at each other, he and the others exited the Sanctum and out onto Bleecker Street. The street was in complete chaos. The wind was even worse than what it looked like inside. Litter and debris was flung as if in a vortex. The strength of the wind was enough to knock people over as they ran and screamed in terror. Traffic had become impossibly tangled, vehicles all parked and abandoned all over the street.
A few steps outside the Sanctum, a woman falls at his feet. Tony leaned over to help her up. "You okay?" he asked, just as a car crashed into a pole behind him. The woman ignored him and took off running once again. He looked around for a moment before shouting, "Help him! Wong, Doc!"
But it was Bruce who answered him, "Go! Got it!" Tony wasn't even sure his friend was replying to him. He didn't care.
He reached into his pocket and put his sunglasses on. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., what am I looking at?"
His A.I. didn't sound very confident. "Not sure, I'm working on it."
As Tony continued to head towards what everyone else was running away from, he turned and walked backwards for a moment, pointing at Strange who was not far behind him. "Hey! You may wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket, Doc!"
Strange did some motion with his arms, and suddenly they were surrounded by several orange circles. He was seemingly preparing some sort of spell. "Might want to use it."
Tony peered around the corner, and was nearly decapitated by a large piece of metal debris. After a quick pause, he made his way into the street, the mechanical hum growing louder. Once he's in the middle of the intersection, he saw the cause of the commotion. A large, circular, donut-like ship was floating over the road. This was definitely not good.
"F.R.I.D.A.Y., evac anyone south of 43rd Street; notify first responders," Tony commanded.
The A.I. merely responded, "Will do."
As Bruce, Wong, and Spencer caught up with him and Strange, the sorcerer moved his arms in a circle a few times before flinging a spell at the spaceship. Suddenly the dust and wind cleared, and all was calm on the street once again. Strange winked at Tony, and for a moment, he had to admit he was a bit amused.
At least until he looked back at the spaceship to see a blue beam of light being emitted from it. Two beings appeared on the ground at the end of the beam. Tony's heart sank.
Thanos' forces were here.
*****
Hello everyone. I apologize for the delay. It took me a bit to write the chapter for my other story, so I got a bit behind with this one as well. Once I sat down to write this though I feel like it didn't take me too long to get finished. This chapter was initially going to cover the entire New York battle, but... it was already getting long so I decided to do things a bit differently than I planned.
Hope all is well with you all. Thanks again for your patience with me. I hope I can have another chapter up soon. This next month with work will be quite busy for me, so hopefully I'm not too tired to write.
~arty_writes