"FRIDAY, evac anyone south of 43rd Street. Notify first responders" Tony ordered as he studied the spaceship before them. The spaceship was causing one hell of a dust storm down the street and it was hard to see anything especially with Maria's hair flying in front of her face. There were a few people left darting between the abandoned cars that dotted the roads, clearly having come to a skidding stop. Maria tried to see what she was looking at but it was very difficult.
The dust storm attacked Maria everywhere, she felt the cold winds billowing through her skinny jeans, trainers and green fitted-checkered shirt. She really wished the wind would stop. Suddenly it did. Maria frowned in confusion – the spaceship was still running and spinning and yet the chaotic wind had ended. Looking around Maria sought an answer and quickly found it. Strange was stood behind her his arms outstretched. He had clearly done something, as had her father noticed. Strange winked at her dad whilst Tony turned away as an impressed smile touched his face – though he would never admit that.
Suddenly, from the spaceship a beam of blue light projected down to the ground and in that light two forms appeared. Both were larger than normal human beings but one was tall, thin and gangly whilst the other was what Maria could only describe the creature as an ogre in stature and looks, he resembled the ogres out of folk tales.
"KAREN who are they?" Maria asked as she studied them from her position beside her father.
"Searching" KAREN answered. It took mere seconds for the AI to identify the two aliens that stood several feet in front of them. "On the left is Cull Obsidian, a member of the Black Order and considered a Child of Thanos." Maria's eyes flickered over to the giant creature. It rivalled Hulk in its height and size but it had scales for skin like a reptile and tusks coming out of its mouth. Its armour was heavy and black but the huge hammer, that looked similar to a pickaxe, made Maria scared. That weapon with the creature's strength behind it would do some serious damage. "He is a savage brute who is known for taking personal pleasure in the elimination of enemies. He is one of the strongest creatures in the universe rivalling that of Thanos and he wields a chain hammer." However, KAREN had finished with her descriptions.
"On the right is Ebony Maw, a member of the Black Order and another Child of Thanos. He idolises Thanos lifting him to a level of god. He is the most loyal Child of Thanos having never failed the warlord once." That didn't sound good. Maria studied Maw. He resembled a man expect he had no nose but a flat surface between his beady eyes and mouth. He was tall and thin and was built bigger than humans. His large bony hands freaked Maria out especially. His skin was grey and wrinkled and the little white hair he had was on the back of his skull dropping to his shoulders. "He possesses telekinesis and is incredibly smart. I would be careful, Miss Stark." Telekinesis was a dangerous power to say the least. There was virtually no escape from such a power.
The five heroes stood waiting for Maw and Obsidian to move. Strange was beside Tony and Tony was beside Maria knowing he had to keep her safe.
"Hear me, and rejoice" Maw began to speak, his voice echoing across the silent street. What surprised Maria was the alien spoke English! She hadn't expected that. The two aliens were not at all surprised to see the heroes before them, were not surprised to see humans standing up to them which also intrigued Maria. "You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to -"
"I'm sorry, Earth is closed today" Tony interrupted, having heard enough of the alien's spiel. "You better pack it up and get outta here." Apparently, Tony's abrupt manner did not go well with the alien who suddenly turned his attention to Strange.
"Stonekeeper" Maw started much to Maria's confusion. He knew Strange had the stone but how? Strange hadn't opened the Eye outside and Maw had never been to Earth. Maria slowly but surely pieced the truth together. Thanos and his followers had done exactly as she had done. They had researched where the stones were, who had them and from the looks of it, earth's defenders as well. "Does this chattering animal speak for you?"
"Certainly not. I speak for myself" Strange replied walking up to meet Tony's side performing a sequence of hand gestures that suddenly brought magical shields to appear in front of his outstretched fists. "But you're trespassing in this city and on this planet." Maria heard another pair of shields appear, looking towards Wong she saw that he had mimicked Strange's actions.
"It means get lost, Squidward!" Tony called out but once again Maw saw no joy in his words. Maria frowned as she noticed Maw say something to his companion but she couldn't figure out what which placed the rest of them at a disadvantage to say the least – especially when Obsidian spoke in grunts of what could have been an alien language.
"It's rude to whisper!" Maria suddenly shouted out to her father's shock and horror. Sometimes he really wished she wasn't like him. Silence reigned as Maw locked eyes on Maria. No one moved. No one said anything but Maw's critical gaze fell upon Maria which just made her squirm. She had an uncomfortable feeling that she had just made things ultimately very bad for herself. Tony being her father shifted so that he was stood more in front of her, his stance protective. That was all Maw needed. He had figured out who she was and Maria knew he knew about the prophecy. She knew that Thanos had tasked all his children to find a human named Stark of the age of 16 and destroy her – that was what Supergiant had almost succeeded in doing all those months ago.
"Stark" he snarled, his voice loud enough to be heard.
"Voldemort" Maria replied without much thought, the alien's lack of a nose reminding the teen of the infamous fictional Dark Lord. "Voldemaw works too." Tony looked down at his daughter, trying to fight the smirk that wanted to come at the comment.
"Bring me the girl!" The comment affected the five heroes differently. Maria's eyes widened as she stepped back and internally berated herself for opening her own stupid mouth. Strange frowned at the command as he tried to decipher what was so special about Maria. Wong was just shocked. Bruce was scared for he already knew the might of Obsidian and his blood lust whilst Tony was pissed off, no one was touching his daughter.
Obsidian grunted his reply before the large alien dropped the head of his huge alien hammer to the ground causing a small shock to run across the ground. Tony stepped in front of Maria completely at the motion. Maria knew she had to leave; she was just going to be a distraction for her father. It didn't take long for the hammer to be picked up again and for Obsidian to start moving towards them, his large legs taking great strides. Maria didn't have a choice.
"Doc!" Maria shouted looking towards Strange. He automatically knew what she wanted him to do. Turning to face her he held out his hands and, using his sling ring, opened a portal behind her. Spinning around Maria saw the portal was open at a large open area, a park full of greenery. Nodding at Strange, Maria walked through. "Keep your head, dad." Her words caused Tony to look over his shoulder and see her on the other side of the portal moments before Strange closed the portal removing her from sight. As the last sparks of the portal disappeared Maria sighed heavily. This war was going to be the end of everything.
"KAREN?" Maria asked as she looked around the park she was stood in – she vaguely recognised it but it wasn't the time to debating such things. At the silence of her AI, Maria reached up and tapped her earpiece twice. "KAREN?"
"Yes, Miss Stark?" the loyal AI replied.
"Is everything ready for this Infinity War?" Maria asked, she had named the war so that people wouldn't understand what she was going on about. Maria had a lot of plans that were beginning to turn in motion, she could only pray that everything moved the way it was supposed to.
"Yes, I have ESC on standby when it is needed as well" KAREN shared. At the mention of ESC, Maria's heart sped up – it was the one part of the plan Maria feared wouldn't work, feared would fail and cause her own death.
"Thank you" Maria mumbled, shaking her head she brought herself out of her dark thoughts and focused on what had to be done. "KAREN, I need-"
"Argh!"
The sudden scream, following grunt and falling car from a horizontal sling ring portal that was a metre in the air caught Maria's attention immediately. Maria's mouth dropped open as the portal closed and she recognised Bruce on the floor beside half a taxi. Maria didn't really want to know what had split the taxi in two.
"Bruce!" Maria called as she ran to his side and helped him up on to his feet. She had no idea why Bruce had been sent through a portal. Surely, they would want Hulk helping, after all he was immensely strong. "Are you okay?"
"I think so. Why did they want you?" Bruce asked once he was steady on his feet.
"No reason" Maria replied, pushing the issue to the side there was a more important one on hand. "Why aren't you Hulk? Where's Hulk?"
"He doesn't want to fight" Bruce shrugged, a look of helpless on his face.
"What?! NOW?!" Maria shouted back. She couldn't believe it. Hulk, the creature that loved to smash had decided he was NOT going to smash. Maria was utterly confused by it all. But before she could argue anymore, she saw an awful sight. Her father was sailing through the air and crashing into the park's ground digging up the soil until he hit a tree where he finally stopped. Maria's gaze locked onto where he had come from and spotted Obsidian's hammer retreating on its chain – that was what KAREN meant by chain hammer.
"Dad!" Maria shouted as she and Bruce raced over to him. Maria dropped to the floor beside him and placed her hand on his chest.
"Tony, you okay? How we doing? Good? Bad?" Bruce asked whilst Maria frowned and slowly looked over her shoulder at Bruce with disbelief. How was her dad being pummelled into the ground them doing good?
"Really, really good. Really good. You plan on helping out?" Tony asked from his position on the ground, he was clearly giving himself a moment.
"I'm trying. He won't come out" Bruce explained in exasperation before suddenly a loud roar echoed across the park accompanied by the sounds of moving chains. Maria just had time to snap her head around to see the large Obsidian in the park and his chain hammer sailing towards her whilst the handle stayed in his hand.
"Hammer" Tony warned before he suddenly shot up using his thrusters and pushed Maria and Bruce to the floor out of harm's way, the hammer sailing over the top of them. Obsidian pulled the hammer back with a growl whilst Tony flew towards the giant in anger. That was the second time that alien had aimed for Maria.
Bruce had reached out and grabbed Maria's hands, pulling her with him as her father sent energy beams at Obsidian who had changed his hammer into a circular shield which reflected the dangerous weapon. The reflected beams were suddenly cutting through trees, sending the thankfully lighter tree branches to the ground. Unfortunately, one landed right on top of Bruce and Maria, their cries lost in the noise of Iron Man and Obsidian's fight.
Quickly the pair were able to crawl out from underneath the branches of the slim tree. Maria pulled herself out first only to find Bruce on his knees desperate and confused as he communicated with Hulk
"Come on, Hulk. What are you doing to me?" he called out before he started slapping his face. "Come out! Come out! Come out!" Suddenly, Bruce shot forward half his body turning green, showing that Hulk was still in there.
"Nooooooo!" Hulk shouted out before he retreated once more. Maria gasped as Bruce fell backwards into the branches they had just been under exhausted.
"What do you mean, "no"?!" Bruce shouted to the skies in anger. All the while Maria rolled her eyes at the spectacle.
"Of all the times to have performance issues" Maria muttered under her breath as turned to face her father and Obsidian.
To her horror she witnessed her father getting knocked out of the sky and hitting the ground hard allowing Obsidian to start to deliver a fatal blow of his hammer.
"DAD!" Maria screamed out moments before a familiar sight caused her heart to sing with relief.
"Hey, man. What's up, Mr. Stark?" Peter's voice rang out from the Spider-Man suit. He had swung in between Tony and the hammer, effortlessly catching the hammer saving her father's life. Maria had no idea where Peter had come from, she didn't even know that he had seen the spaceship but she had never been so glad before.
"Kid, where'd you come from?" Tony asked from his position on the ground.
"Field trip to MoMA" Peter answered, unfortunately focusing on Tony had given Obsidian the chance to reach out with his spare hand and throw Peter across the park.
"Oh yeah, the field trip Maria was supposed to be on" Tony muttered as he fired more energy blasts at Obsidian whilst Peter struggled to his feet and Maria watched from the side-lines at a loss of what to do. Peter and Tony were fighting Obsidian as best they could but this alien was not going down, he had great strength and a weapon of great design to boot.
"What is this guy's problem, Mr. Stark?" Peter asked, Maria hearing it through KAREN opening the frequency.
"He's from space. He came here to steal a necklace from a wizard." Tony made it short and snappy and Peter just went with it. Unfortunately, the two humans were not winning and they were getting beaten to a pulp. Maria needed to help, she needed to distract the big ogre somehow. But what could distract the guy, if she had an Infinity stone that would do the trick but she didn't have one, all she had was herself – she didn't even have her phone, she had left that in her backpack which was at the Sanctum along with her weapon. However, she didn't need anything more.
"Hey, KAREN which one's this?" Maria asked as she began running around the fighting trio. She had to be close enough to be heard but far enough away so that she could dive for cover.
"Obsidian" KAREN answered. Bruce had tried to grab Maria but she had moved too quickly and now was going to do something incredibly stupid. She was going to be bait.
"Obsidian!" she called out but the great oaf didn't hear. "Oi, you big ugly ogre!" That time the creature heard; he threw Tony to the side as his eyes connected with her. His head tilted as he studied her, he was trying to figure out who she was, why he recognised her. Well, Maria was going to help him figure that one out. "I'm Stark ... remember me now?!" That was all it took. Obsidian growled loudly before he hurled his hammer straight at her. Maria was just able to move, dive and roll back to her feet in time to avoid being slammed by the metal claw.
"Maria!" Peter and Tony screamed. If Maria was hit by that hammer even once, she was dead. She had no form of protection at all.
"FRIDAY, unlock M-3000 now!" Tony demanded as he shot towards his daughter, placing himself between her and Obsidian. Before anymore could be said Obsidian attacked Iron Man once again and Maria darted from behind her father, all the while Obsidian's eyes watched her intently, turning to attempt to get her again. Whilst Obsidian went for Maria and Maria avoided his attacks, Tony and Peter furiously fought the monster doing everything and anything they could to keep him away from Maria.
Unfortunately, one attack was far too close for comfort. Maria was racing across the grass when out of nowhere the hammer sailed in front of her causing the young girl to have to duck and roll beneath, barely missing the deadly weapon. She landed on the ground with some force and she knew her arm was going to bruise. That was apparently the last straw for her father.
"Kid, get her out of here!" Tony shouted towards Peter. He was going to die of a heart attack at this rate.
"No don't!" Maria argued back, just as Peter grabbed her with his webbing and pulled her back into his arms. "Me being here distracts Obsidian giving you a chance to actually hurt him!" Her words made sense but Tony couldn't allow it and neither could Peter.
"We are not using you as bait!" Peter retaliated as his grip on her tightened and he shot webbing to an archway beyond the park. Seeing that Peter was about to take her away, Maria squirmed and turned in his arms, cupping his face with her hands. She felt him freeze at the motion immediately, his suit's white eyes widening to their max.
"Peter's heartrate is elevated" KAREN told Maria but Maria wasn't listening.
"Peter, I have to help."
"KIDS!" Tony shouted in warning, along with Peter's spider sense, the boy was able to pull on his webbing and yank both himself and Maria out of harm's way. However, they did not get far as Obsidian threw his hammer once more and sliced through Peter's webbing causing the teens to crash and plough into the floor of the park. Peter made sure he took the brunt of the crash. Maria groaned as she shifted her weight. Whilst she hadn't landed on the hard ground, she had landed on Peter who wasn't exactly made of marshmallow. They had created a trough in the ground and were covered in mud; Maria knew she must look like a state.
Maria rolled off of Peter with a huff and got to her feet only to see her father struggling to keep Obsidian back on his own. Quite suddenly, Tony was knocked to the floor once more and Obsidian was stood over him bringing his hammer down repeatedly upon her father's Iron Man shield. Each thud shook Maria to the core. She could only imagine the damage the suit was taking and her father who was holding against the alien's strength.
Maria had to do something, looking around at the ground for anything she could use, Maria spotted a rock on the ground. She knew it would do nothing to the creature but it would get his attention. Grasping the hard piece of earth, Maria hurled it over her shoulder straight at the beast and she hit him square in the head. The rock bounced off his strong reptile like skin but it did its purpose. Obsidian's head slowly turned to look towards Maria.
Suddenly, Obsidian's arm swung around and hit Tony right on the side, sending the man flying across the park uncontrollable. In the same motion, Obsidian sent the hammer straight at Peter (who had just stood up) and hit him square in the chest. Maria watched it all happen in seconds, she even watched as Obsidian flicked his wrist in one smooth motion which caused the hammer's head to change direction after hitting Peter and swing around straight for her.
She had no time to move, to duck, to escape the oncoming weapon that was sailing at her with incredibly speed. All she could do was gasp...