In Wakanda, Shuri is working steadily to complete the Mind Stone's removal. Wanda stands by tensely.
The Kingsguard, Borderers and Jabari have little success going against Cull Obsidian's chained hammer, he either sends them flying or punches them into the ground.
Black Panther gets free of his other sorties, leaps and uses all his collected kinetic energy behind a punch that lays Obsidian flat.
"Come and get some, space dogs!" Rocket yells, Another wave of Outriders heads right for the raccoon. Bucky, having come up behind Rocket, grabs him with his mechanical arm holds him at arms length and spins, firing his own gun at the same time, "Come on, get some, get some! Come on, get some!" Bucky drops Rocket, who looks
up at him with an impressed gleam, "How much for the gun?"
Bucky snaps off another burst, "Not for sale"
"Okay, how much for the arm?" Rocket asks, Bucky just gives him a look and moves, "Oh, I'll get that arm."
The tides of battle cause Thor, using Stormbreaker to great effect, and Captain America together. They take a breather, "New haircut?" Steve pants.
"Notice you've copied my beard" Thor smiles. Cap nods, wearily gesturing at his own face with a shield-covered hand. Groot skewers three Outriders with his right arm, "By the way, this is a friend of mine. Tree" he gestures towards Groot with Stormbreaker.
"I am GROOT!"
"I am Steve Rogers" Steve introduces himself.
In Shuri's lab, a deep rumbling can be heard even at their height. Wanda looks down on the battlefield, and sees movement through the blazing forest between the troopships and the dome.
When the disturbance reaches the edge of the trees, it turns into vast moving mounds of earth that easily bypass the force field and emerge, Threshers, sets of massive, motorized spiked wheels, intended for nothing more than shredding everything in their paths.
"Fall back! Fall back now!" T'Challa yells.
Wanda watches as at least one set of Threshers separates into individual wheels and starts veering all over the battlefield, and then looks anxiously back at Vision.
"Focus that fire on the left flank, Sam" Rhodey orders.
"I'm doing it" Sam replies, the two fliers use their firepower to crack a Thresher but cannot find a weak spot.
Black Widow with her escrima sticks and Okoye with her augmented spear have drifted together when they're suddenly in the path of a Thresher.
Both women cringe at their seemingly inevitable shredding when Wanda lands in front of both of them, eyes glowing red, lifting the whole Thresher well clear of the ground. Looking behind her, the friendly forces have scattered and replaced by a charging mob of Outriders, the perfect place to throw a Thresher. Black Widow straightens with a pleased smile, Okoye with an amazed look, "Why was she up there all this time?"
The Children of Thanos help answer that question, "She's on the field. Take it."
Corvus Glaive kills one of the guards just outside the lab, alerting Shuri to the problem. She starts hastily disconnecting her equipment from Vision's systems, he gasps at the sensations.
The Dora Milaje engages Glaive but is sent skidding across the floor. Shuri finishes her shutdown, grabs one of her sonic panther-paws and fires at Glaive.
The Dora attacks again, and Glaive sends both her and Shuri through the balcony railing and onto the main lab floor.
Vision is not where Corvus Glaive expects to find him. Vision is, in fact, charging at him and knocking him out the window to fall many meters down the face of Mount Bashengal.
"Guys, we got a Vision situation here" Sam tells everyone, he's tackled by a leaping Outrider and grounded.
"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve demands.
"I got him!" Bruce says, he has figured out the iron Hulk repulsor thrusters and makes a beeline for the android.
"On my way" Wanda is clobbered by Proxima pommel and rolls down into the large ditch from the Thresher before she can move.
Proxima jumps down next to Wanda, "He'll die alone. As will you."
"She's not alone" Natasha smirks.
Okoye silently brandishes her spear on the other side of Proxima and nods at Natasha. Proxima leaps for Black Widow, who has joined her sticks into a full staff. She blocks Proxima's blow with an electrical crackle while Okoye runs around the slope to also attack from the front.
Corvus Glaive kicks Vision, knocking him down, as he attempts to rise again, Cull Obsidian shows up and swings his hammer in a full arc, throwing Vision even further. He painfully starts to climb to his feet again when a whooshing overhead interrupts the fight as Bruce Banner lands the iron Hulk between the aliens and the android.
He takes a defensive stance, pointing one hand's repulsor at each, "Ohh no, oh no you don't. This isn't going to be like New York, pal. This suit's already kicked the crap out of the Hulk" Cull Obsidian jumps forward, grabs Bruce's right arm and Bruce in reflex grabs Obsidian's hammer, a jet fires, taking the two of them in a random direction, to the base of a waterfall, "Guys! Vision needs backup now!" Obsidian pulls the iron Hulk up and kicks it in the small of the back trying to change into the Hulk while fighting Cull Obsidian in the armor, "Hulk. Hulk, I know you like making your entrance at the last second, well, this is it, man. This is the last, last second." Bruce extends his left hand protectively, Obsidian grabs the armor's hand, chops the shoulder joint with a relatively small axe then does a roll over Bruce's back to leverage snapping off the Hulkbuster's whole arm, "Ahhhhh! Hulk! Hulk! HULK!"
Bruces face briefly becomes the Hulk, "NOOOO!"
"Oh, screw you, you big green asshole! I'll do it myself!" Bruce scoffs, "Come on!" He charges the alien, jumps into the air and delivers an effective punch with his remaining hand, swat, punch, hammer, except that blow is caught by Obsidian, who punches back, knocking Bruce flat.
Obsidian changes his left hand armor into a pointed weapon, and lunges forward to deliver a likely fatal blow, when Bruce grabs the detached iron hulk arm out of the water, holding it so Obsidian impales that instead, and slaps the controls, "See ya!" the repulsors fire, taking Cull Obsidian high into the air high enough, in fact, to intersect the defense dome.
The iron Hulk arm drags Obsidian against the field to grotesque destructive effect, ending in a very final explosion. "Hulk, we got a lot to figure out, pal."
Proxima Midnight alternates heavy blows between her two opponents, but all three of them duck as a single-wheel Thresher tears overhead, the ditch sparing them most of the danger from the wheel-blades.
Proxima uses the distraction to kick Black Widow in the face, sending her to the ground. She then grabs Okoye by the shoulder and weapon and throws her meters away.
Simultaneously, Corvus Glaive and Vision struggle in the forest. Glaive grasps Vision's shoulder and uses the leverage to plunge his blade once more into the androids chest, "I thought you were formidable, machine. But you're dying, like any man" he yanks his blade out, and Vision collapses.
As he bends over his fallen opponent to retrieve the Stone, he's tackled by Captain America at full speed, "Get outta here!" he exchanges blows with Glaive, using his arm-shields as offence as well as defence, then turns to Vision again, "GO!"
Natasha splits her staff back into a pair of sticks to block Proxima's swordblows, and finally knocks it from her hand. The alien takes to her bare fists instead, knocks down and pins Natasha. Proxima triggers an arm-blade from her left-arm armor, and stabs at Natasha who barely manages to block the blade with her crossed sticks.
As the edge starts to dig into Black Widow's neck anyway, Wanda grabs the alien and tosses her into the air right into the path of another passing Thresher. Dark blue blood spatters the women below. Wanda sits up, sighing with relief, her hands still shimmering.
"That was really gross" Natasha sighs.
Captain America keeps blocking Corvus Glaive's staff weapon using his shields, finally knocking it from the alien's hands just before he's thrown over a fallen tree and pinned, Glaive's hand at
his throat. Even with his physical abilities, Cap's struggling until a glaive-blade pierces Glaive's chest, and is pushed all the way through.
Vision raises his enemy in a perfect mirror of the first attack on him, and holds him for a moment, before dropping Glaive's corpse to one side and collapsing exhaustively.
Steve helps him back up, "I thought I told you to go"
"We don't trade lives, Captain" Vision says.
•
Back on Titan, The Guardians and the three Avengers are dealing with the gravitic aftermath of dumping a large chunk of moon onto an unstable planet's surface. The unconscious Guardians are flying upwards uncontrollably, moon-chunks are still making fiery ballistic inbounds, and random debris and massive rocks are floating in any possible direction.
Peter webs Mantis, "I got you! I got you!" He snags Drax, securing both of them to something, "I'm sorry I can't remember anybody's names!" He reels in Star-Lord.
The Cloak of Levitation sets Doctor Strange down on a relatively stable outcrop as Thanos extricates himself from rubble. The Sorcerer Supreme makes a few passes with his hands, producing the familiar golden magic filigree circles and slams his hands down on the rock before him, invoking the Seven Suns of Cinnibus as a lightning like effect of immense heat jumping from rock to rock until it reaches Thanos, sending him flying, but he makes use of the erratic gravity to keep control and fire back a blast from the Power Stone.
Strange blocks the purple plume with a wall of Mirror Dimension, which he then pushes back at Thanos. It shatters around the Titan, who suctions the magic into a miniature black hole with
the Space Stone, volleying it back at Strange. Just in time, Strange raises a shield and changes the dark energy into a swarm of aqua butterflies which return to their master.
Before Thanos can counterattack again, Strange levitates and invokes the Images of Ikonn, giving him arms like a Hindu diety before dozens of Strange replications rush away, forming a
circular wall around a snarling Thanos.
They call cast magical cords, wrapping around Thanos's torso, arms and hands, he struggles to close his gauntleted fist, and uses the Soul and Power
Stones to discover the real Strange among the many copies, blowing the duplicates away and sending the singular Strange reeling. Reality and Space pull Strange forward, Thanos grasping him by the throat once in range. Strange grabs futilely at Thanos's hand, "You're full of tricks, wizard."
Thanos reaches for the Eye of Agamotto, "No!"
Thanos snaps the Eye off its chain, "Yet you never once used your greatest weapon" he crushes it in his bare hand, "A fake" he throws Strange hard enough that Strange's head hits stone and he passes out.
Almost simultaneously a red and gold device slaps into the palm of the Infinity Gauntlet, bracing the fingers open, and a red and gold Avenger makes a fast and hard entrance, "You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna to lose it."
"Stark" Thanos sighs.
"You know me?" Tony questions.
"I do" Thanos replies, "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."
"My only curse is you" small rockets pop out of Iron Man's back and launch at Thanos.
"Come on!" The rockets all explode on target, momentarily shrouding Thanos in smoke. Before it clears, Iron Man piledrives into Thanos horizontally, using his single super-jet boot configuration.
As he bounces off, he flips and sticks his landing, immediately reconfiguring his boots into ground clamps for stability and his gloves into rocket-driven battering rams, punching Thanos into a ruined
wall behind him.
Thanos shakes it off quickly, reaches forward and tears Iron Man's helmet off, revealing Tony's surprised expression before the suit recovers automatically and re-forms his head protection.
The Titan makes use of the fractional delay and punches back hard, sending Iron Man sliding meters away, giving Thanos time to rip the brace device off the gauntlet. He immediately uses the Power Stone to stream furiously lambent energy at his opponent, who forms a shield to kneel behind just as instantly, getting pushed back even further by the incredible force.
Iron Man slides out from behind the shield, letting the angled energy push him away for a faster start, and whips back to Thanos full thrusters, he kicks at the Titan with his left foot, turning the boot into a ground clamp at the same time to pin the gauntlet, and keeps twisting while his left glove becomes a ram again, slamming into Thanos's face, cutting his cheek.
"All that for a drop of blood" Thanos smiles.
Olivia jumps down from a pile of rumble, "wanna different opponent ballsack?"
Thanos towards the seventeen year old, she smirks before making herself invisible. Thanos looks around, he uses the reality stone causing Olivia to appear in front of him in the position to punch.
Thanos grabs her arm and throws her onto the ground, Olivia groans, "fuck."
Thanos approaches Tony and briefly punches Iron Man, sending him pinwheeling, then starts beating him with his fists. Tony attempts to block the blows with his forearms, but Thanos is relentless, picking him up by the helmet and blasting his midsection with the Power Stone.
The gaps in nanite coverage are now gaping, as the armor loses the ability to recover from the intensity and extent of the damage. Iron Man lands hard from the Power blast, struggles to one knee and fires his right hand repulsor at the inexorable Thanos, the beam is easily deflected by the gauntlet. He gets to
both feet as the suit tries to complete repairs, adding the beam from his left hand as well.
Thanos walks right up to him, and backhands the incomplete helmet completely off Tony's head. He
crosses his arms to block a blow from Thanos' gauntlet, and has his left hand caught over his head.
In desperation, he forms what's left of his right glove into a shortsword, which is also easily caught by Thanos, snapping it off clean and driving it through Iron Man's left side. The fight is over.
Thanos walks Iron Man back until he sits, and places the gauntlet almost comfortinaly on Tony's head, "You have my respect, Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive" he lets go, straightens and steps back, "I hope they remember you."
iron Man's just a little distracted with the pain, and blood drooling out of his mouth, and compromised breathing.
Thanos raises the gauntlet, closing his fist, all four Stones glowing, "Stop!" Strange yells sitting up and sounding entirely damaged, "Spare his life and I will give you the stone."
"No tricks?" Thanos questions, Strange shakes his head as Thanos points all four Stones at him instead.
"Don't!" Tony shouts.
Strange reaches up and plucks the Time Stone out of its hiding place in the stars. He opens his hand, the scars on his fingers and their inherent trembling particularly obvious now, and the Stone floats to Thanos's bare hand.
Strange watches him intently, as he takes the Stone and drops it into the thumb setting, the energy pulse making the Titan wince, "One to go" an energy blast hits the gauntlet right in the empty Mind Stone setting, and Thanos grimaces in surprise.
Quill screams in incoherent rage, helmet up, firing with both hands and flying straight for Thanos. Thanos doesn't even bother responding to the assault he just leaves. Star-Lord flies through where Thanos had been and crashes, rolling several times.
"Where is he?!" Quill asks. Iron Man stitches up his stab wound as well as he can with his suit functions; he has no breath for answers, "Did we just lose?"
"Why would you do that?" Tony asks Strange.
"We're in the Endgame now" Strange states.
Olivia climbs over piles of rubble to search for Peter when she does he runs over to her, they both holds each other.
Peter pulls away from the hug and briefly kisses Olivia, when they pull away they both have smiles across their faces, "been along time since we did that."
"It felt necessary" Peter shrugs.
•