The street was already ruined - buildings smashed, debris littering the street. The odd circular ship loomed overhead, and below it some twenty feet away stood two of what Tony could only assume were the Black Order, somehow much uglier in person than Wong had managed to convey in the library - especially the smaller one with pale, inhuman face, which Tony thought he recognized. Ebony Mouth? His taught, preaching voice rang out across the street.
"Today, you have been given a great honor. Not only may you die, but you may first give Thanos the Stone that will aid in his great cause."
"Listen, we're real flattered by your generous offer," Tony said dryly, raising his voice to carry across the distance, "But you can tell your boss this planet is protected and the Stone's not going anywhere."
The pale, inhuman face regarded him for a moment, unamused, before turning pointedly to Strange. "Does the insolent metal box speak for you?"
Strange stepped forward, brushing past Tony. He did something with his hands and the bands of spells circling them flared brighter, giving off a few sparks. "I speak for myself. However, on this occasion we seem to be in agreement. The Stone stays with us."
Ebony Maw sighed as if in genuine disappointment, and then spoke in a somewhat bored tone to the huge, scaly humanoid figure standing beside it. "Kill them."
The giant grinned in a horrifying display of fangs and started toward them, letting the axe in its hand drag across the ground to the sound of shredding concrete.
"Bruce," Tony said without looking away, "This might be a good time."
"About that..."
His tone beat out the misshapen giant in the Alarming Developments category, and Tony turned. "What?"
"That's not really... going to work out. I can't actually..."
Tony was keenly aware of Strange watching in vaguely derisive disbelief. Just what I needed.
Bruce deflated a little. "I'm sorry, Tony."
For a moment it occurred to him to wonder exactly what had happened to the scientist in the many months he had been gone. "Hey, don't worry about it. Wong, can you get him out of here?"
Wong gave a single nod. Tony thought Bruce might have started to protest, but by then the portal had already appeared, swallowed him, and vanished again.
"Alright," Tony said, turning back to the giant taking its time coming at them and holding up his hands, repulsors powering up with a whine. Thank god the mask made it easier to pretend that hadn't been weirdly embarrassing. "Guess it's just us."
The words had barely left his mouth when everything sprang into motion at once. The giant leapt suddenly, swinging the axe in a vicious arc. At the same moment a tree lying uprooted by the side of the road lurched toward them. Tony whirled and hit it with a beam of energy that nearly vaporized it, only to see no one behind it. What the hell? He turned in a wild circle, searching for his assailant, until his eyes came to rest on Ebony Maw. He was still twenty feet away, hands raised in a suspiciously good approximation of telekinesis.
"That's definitely cheating!" Tony shouted, just as movement flashed out of the very corner of his field of vision. The giant. Tony pushed off from the ground and into the air, lunging in front of Strange before the axe could hit the burning orange shield seared into the air above him. A blast from both repulsors sent the creature staggering back. Tony could feel the anger radiating off the sorcerer without even turning. He dropped gracefully back down to the ground a few feet from Strange but didn't let his eyes leave the fight.
Strange spoke through gritted teeth. "What are you doing, Stark?"
"I told you, if you're not going to put the Stone somewhere safe, you're a liability!" The last word came out sharply as he whirled toward a car lurching toward them from the side of the road and cut it neatly in half with an energy beam.
Strange let his shoulder hit Tony as he stepped forward, pushing him off balance. The fiery threads of light fused together into a glowing rope in his hands, and he gave it a vicious lash. The giant snarled in pain as the whip wrapped around it, sizzling where it touched flesh. Strange gave it a sharp tug that sent the creature stumbling into a building to their left and then rounded on Tony. His pale blue eyes burned nearly as bright as the fiery orange whip in his hands, which he looked about ready to use on Tony.
"Get out of my way, Stark!" he snapped.
Tony was getting the strong impression it didn't pay to get on the sorcerer's bad side, but the feeble voice of caution was no match for his stubbornness. "No can do, Doc." A quick burst of the thrusters propelled him in front of Strange just a volley of glass shards shot towards him. Tony held up an arm and the nanoparticles reformed into a shield a second before the glass crashed into it, shattering. That telekinetic squid was getting damned irritating. He straightened, the shield immediately resorbing, and took a step forward, but before he could raise his hand to aim a repulsor blast to take care of it, orange light flared to life around him and he was stepping through a portal. The view of the street ahead of him was replaced abruptly with sky, and gravity gave a disorienting lurch. He had barely enough time to realize he was falling before he hit the ground, hard. The drop couldn't have been more than ten feet, but the impact drove the breath out of him in a rush. Twenty feet away he saw Strange at the epicenter of a storm of debris, glowing spells and incantations wreathed around him. Damn it, Strange.
Tony surged into the air, closing the gap quickly, and crashed into Strange, knocking him out of the way as a huge spike of earth and concrete came at him from the left. Strange swore in a language Tony was pretty sure was not English, and they both turned as Wong, concentrating on the giant, was caught unaware. The spike crashed into him, sending him flying back several feet to land unconscious near the edge of the street. Strange shot Tony an accusatory glare like it was his fault.
The magician picked himself up and spun to face Tony, turning his back completely on the battle. "Damn it, I can handle the Stone!"
"Not for you to decide," Tony countered sharply, refusing to take a step back. His voice was getting louder, edging towards a shout. "If you refuse to keep it out of harm's way, I intend to make damn sure it stays safe. I am not about to let you lose that -"
The world blurred as something hit him hard from the side. The impact carried him off his feet, pain shooting through his ribcage as he flew backwards through the air, colliding hard with the ground just moments later. Red warning icons flashed across the screen.
"Alright, boss?" Friday's voice said inside the helmet. If Tony had been able to concentrate more he would have said she almost sounded concerned.
He coughed and forced his throat to work. "Yeah, great," he said hoarsely, but he couldn't quite convince his limbs to get him off the ground. Across the street, Strange had lost the upper hand. Ebony Maw looked on from mere feet away while the magician struggled futilely against steel cables that twisted and wound around him, snake-like, slowly constricting.
"Move," Tony said aloud, not sure whether he was talking to the suit or himself, but before he could pull himself together he felt the ground reverberate with heavy footsteps and the giant loomed over him, raising the huge axe over one shoulder. No time to move. No time to do anything but feel the bright, panicky jolt of adrenaline before the axe was shredding the air in a vicious arc toward him.
And then there was a blur of blue and red, and he wasn't crushed.
Also Spiderman was standing above him, straining slightly under the weight of the axe.
"Hey Mr. Stark!" Peter chirped, in exactly the same upbeat, slightly high-pitched voice Tony remembered. "You alright?"
"Kid?" Tony said, bewildered. "Where'd you come from?"
"School field trip! What's up with these guys?"
The giant yanked back the hammer, sending Peter stumbling forward a few steps. Before it could take another swing, the kid shot a well-aimed faceful of web fluid that caught it directly across the eyes. The creature roared, staggering back.
Tony dragged himself to his feet, wincing. "They're here for a time rock that might destroy all life on the planet. Actually, all life in the universe. The wizard's got it."
"That wizard?"
Tony followed his gaze to see Ebony Maw, along with Strange, unconscious and beat-up with the same vindictive metal cables holding him to a slab of concrete, vanishing in a transmat beam. It was only at the last minute and with a considerable expenditure of will that he stopped himself swearing in front of the kid.
Tony looked up at the ship, plan B already taking shape in his mind. "Friday, how're we doing?"
"76% power."
"Alright," Tony said, fragments of ideas coming together quickly and haphazardly into something usable if less than the most brilliant thing he'd ever done. He turned to Peter. "Kid, thanks for the help back there. You should get back home."
"What?" The eyes of his mask went wide and dismayed, and Tony couldn't help but feel a twinge as he thought that for all his powers and high tech gadgetry, he suddenly looked like a disappointed kid instead of a superhero. "I can help!"
"I think this is a little beyond the neighborhood level," Tony pointed out, but Peter looked so deflated that he wished he could take it back. "This is way too dangerous for you," he added more gently. "Your aunt would kill me."
"But they're going to kill the entire universe if we don't get the Stone back, right?"
"Half, actually," Tony corrected, but Peter kept going.
"I want to do something with these powers. If I stay here and you guys can't fix everything and something bad happens, I'll know I could have helped. I could have made a difference." He was still wearing the mask, but the red and blue and black no longer registered for Tony - he could only see Peter Parker. "This power means I can help people, and that means I have to help people. Even if it's dangerous."
Tony stared at the kid in front of him and wondered if he would ever be that good. If he would ever deserve the suit like that. Some deep part of him already knew the answer, but with Peter looking at him like that, with the hope and conviction and responsibility shining in the white eyes of the mask, he wanted to try.
Tony glanced at the ship, which was starting to move away from the city, and then turned back to the kid with a sigh. "Your aunt is going to kill me."