WAKANDA
Shuri was working steadily to complete the Mind Stone's removal; Wanda stood by tensely.
Connie and Ella watched both what was going on in the lab and outside with worried and curious expressions.
---
The Kingsguard, Borderers and Jabari had little success going against Obsidian's chained hammer -- he either sent them flying or punched them into the ground. Black Panther got free of his other sorties, leapt and used all of his collected kinetic energy behind a punch that laid Obsidian flat.
Rocket, having found a clear spot, yelled, "Come and get some, space dogs!" Another wave of Outriders headed right for the raccoon. The Winter Soldier, having come up behind Rocket, grabbed him with his arm, held him at arm's length and spun 540 degrees, firing his own M-249 at the same time. "Come on, get some, get some! Come on, get some!" The Winter Soldier dropped Rocket, who looked up at him with an impressed gleam. "How much for the gun?"
Bucky, snapping off another burst, retorted, "Not for sale."
"Okay, how much for the arm?" The Winter Soldier gave him a look and moved off. "Oh, I'll get that arm."
The tides of the battle caused Thor, using Stormbreaker to great effect, and Captain America together. They took a breather.
Steve, panting, asked, "New haircut?"
Thor grinned and replied, "Notice you've copied my beard."
Captain America nodded, wearily gesturing at his own face with a shield-covered hand. Groot skewered three Outriders with his right arm.
"By the way, this is a friend of mine. Tree." He gestured towards Groot with Stormbreaker.
Groot, in full battle snarl, yelled, "I am Groot!"
(You gonna help me or what?)
Steve, formally, but bemused, replied, "I am Steve Rogers."
In Shuri's lab, a deep rumbling could be heard. Wanda looked down on the battlefield and saw movement through the blazing forest between the troopships and the dome. When the disturbance reached the edge of the trees, it turned into vast moving mounds of earth that easily bypassed the force field and emerge -- Threshers, sets of massive, motorized spiked wheels, intended for nothing more than shredding everything in their paths.
"Fall back!" T'Challa ordered. "Fall back now!"
Wanda watched as at least one set of Threshers separated into individual wheels and started veering all over the battlefield, then looked anxiously back at Vision.
"Focus that fire on the left flank, Sam," Rhodey instructed.
"I'm doing it," Sam said and the two fliers used their firepower to crack a Thresher, but couldn't find a weak spot.
Black Widow, with her escrima sticks and Okoye with her augmented spear, had drifted together when they were suddenly in the path of a Thresher. Both women cringed at their seemingly inevitable shredding when Scarlet Witch landed in front of both of them, eyes glowing red, lifting the whole Thresher well clear of the ground. Looking behind her, the friendly forces had scattered and replaced by a charging mob of Outriders -- the perfect place to throw a Thresher. Black Widow straightened with a pleased smile, Okoye with an amazed look.
Okoye in a slightly indignant tone, asked, "Why was she up there all this time?"
The Children of Thanos helped answer the question.
"She's on the field," Proxima said. "Take it."
Glaive killed one of the guards just outside the lab, alerting Shuri to the problem. She started hastily disconnecting her equipment from Vision's systems; he gasped at the sensations. The Dora Milaje engaged Glaive but was sent skidding across the floor. Shuri finished her shutdown, grabbed one of her sonic panther-paws and fired at Glaive. The Dora attacked again, and Glaive sent both her and Shuri through the balcony railing and onto the main lab floor.
Vision was not where Glaive expected to find him. Vision was charging at him and knocked him out the window to fall quite a few meters down the face of Mount Bashenga.
"Guys, we got a Vision situation here," Sam warned, getting tackled by a leaping Outrider and grounded.
"Somebody get to Vision!" Steve yelled.
"I got him!" Bruce answered, having figured out the Hulkbuster's repulser thrusters and made a beeline for the android.
"On my way," Wanda said, getting clobbered by Proxima's pommel and rolled down into the large ditch from the Thresher before she could make a move.
Proxima jumped down next to Scarlet Witch before saying, "He'll die alone. As will you."
"She's not alone," Natasha retorted.
Okoye silently brandished her spear on the other side of Proxima and nodded at Black Widow.
"Euuyaaah!" Proxima cried, leaping for Black Widow, who had joined her sticks into a full staff. She blocked Proxima's blow with an electrical crackle while Okoye ran around the slope to also attack the front.
Glaive kicked Vision, knocking him down; as he attempted to rise again, Obsidian showed up and swung his hammer in a full arc, throwing Vision even further. He painfully started to climb to his feet again when a whooshing overhead interrupted the fight as Bruce landed the Hulkbuster between the aliens and the android. He took a defensive stance, pointing one hand's repulser at each.
"Oh no, oh no you don't," Bruce said. "This isn't going to be like New York, pal. This suit's already kicked the crap out of the Hulk-" Obsidian jumped forward, grabbing Bruce's right arm and Bruce, in reflex, grabbed Obsidian's hammer; a jet fired, taking the two of them in a random direction, to the base of a waterfall.
"Guys!" Bruce called. "Vision needs backup now!" Obsidian pulled the Hulkbuster up and kicked it in the small of the back. Trying to change into the Hulk while fighting Obsidian in the Hulkbuster armor, he said, "Hulk. Hulk, I know you like making your entrance at the last second, well, this is it, man. This is the last, last second." He extended his left protectively; Obsidian grabbed the armor's hand, chopped the shoulder joint with a relatively small ax, then did a roll over Bruce's back to leverage snapping off the Hulkbuster's whole arm. "Ahhhhh! Hulk! Hulk! Hulk!"
Bruce's face briefly became the Hulk who cried, "Noooo!"
"Oh screw you, ya big green asshole!" He turned to Obsidian. "Come on!"
He charged the alien, jumped into the air and delivered an effective punch with his remaining hand -- swat, punch, hammer -- except the final blow was caught by Obsidian, who punched back, knocking Bruce flat. Obsidian changed his left hand armor into a pointed weapon, and lunged forward to deliver a likely fatal blow, when Bruce grabbed the detached Hulkbuster arm out of the water, holding it so Obsidian impaled that instead, and slapped the controls.
"See you later, Alligator!" Bruce yelled.
The repulsers fired, taking Obsidian high into the air -- high enough to intersect the defense dome. The Hulkbuster arm dragged Obsidian against the field to grotesque destructive effect, ending in a final explosion.
"Hulk, we got a lot to figure out," Bruce told his alter ego.
Proxima alternated heavy blows between her two opponents, but all three of them ducked as a single-wheel Thresher tore overhead, the ditch sparing them most of the danger from the wheel-blades. Proxima used the distraction to kick Black Widow in the face, sending her to the ground. She grabbed Okoye by the shoulder and weapon and threw her meters away.
Simultaneously, Glaive and Vision struggled in the forest at the foot of Mount Bashenga. Glaive grasped Vision's shoulder and used the leverage to plunge his blade once more into the android's chest.
"I thought you were formidable, machine," Glaive said. "But you're dying, like any man." He yanked his blade out, and Vision collapsed. As he bent over his fallen opponent to retrieve the Stone, he was tackled by Captain America at full speed.
"Get outta here!" Steve ordered, exchanging blows with Glaive, using his arm-shields as offense as well as defense, then turned to Vision again. "GO!"
Black Widow split her staff back into a pair of sticks to block Proxima's sword blows, and finally knocked down and pinned Black Widow. Proxima triggered an arm-blade from her left-arm armor and stabbed Black Widow, who barely managed to block the blade with her crossed sticks. As the edge started to dig into Black Widow's neck, scarlet energy grabbed the alien and tossed her into the air right into the path of another passing Thresher. Dark blue blood spattered the women below. Scarlet Witch sat up, sighing with relief, her hands still shimmering.
"That was really gross," Natasha commented.
Captain America kept blocking Glaive's staff weapon using his shields, finally knocking it from the alien's hands just before he was thrown over a fallen tree and pinned, Glaive's hand at his throat. Even with his physical abilities, he was struggling until a glaive-blade pierced Glaive's chest, and was pushed all the way through. Vision raised his enemy in a perfect mirror of the first attack on him, and held him for a moment, before dropping Glaive's corpse to one side and collapsed exhaustively.
As Steve helped Vision back up, he said, "I thought I told you to go."
"We don't trade lives," Vision replied.