Nobodies POV
Quinjet where Sam is piloting with Rhodey, Steve, Natasha, Wanda, Sarah, Harley, James and Vision in the passenger seats.
Pietro didn't come along since he was no longer a fighter and stayed with Clint and his family.
Steve was walking up to the pilot's seat "Drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0." Steve says
"I hope you're right about this, Cap. Or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to." Sam says
The Quinjet passes through a camouflage force field into Wakanda's Golden City's valley and lands at the airfield outside the palace. T'Challa and the Dora Milaje approach to greet the arrivals.
Okoye was Walking with T'Challa and a band of the King's Guard to the landing pad "When you said we were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world...This is not what I imagined." Okoye says
"And what did you imagine?" T'challa ask "The Olympics. Maybe even a Starbucks." Okoye says
The occupants of the Quinjet disembark, Cap and Black Widow leading, followed by Bruce and Rhodey, with Vision, Harley, James, Sarah and Wanda slowly taking up the rear.
"Should we bow?" Bruce ask "Yeah, he's a king." Rhodes says seriously "Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." Steve says shaking hands with T'Challa.
Bruce bows awkwardly to T'Challa. "What are you doing?" Rhodes ask in mock shock.
"Uh, we don't do that here." T'challa says
He dissuades Bruce with a motion of his hand; Bruce shoots Rhodey a look, and is answered with a big grin.
"So how big of an assault can we expect?" T'challa ask
The group begins to walk back into the administrative building. "Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault." Bruce says
"How we looking?" Natasha ask "You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." t'challa says
Bucky Barnes was smiling as he walks toward Steve, passing some Kingsguard taking Vision to another facility.
"A semi-stable, 100-year-old man." Bucky says "The two friends share a hug. "How you been, Buck?" Steve ask
"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world." Bucky says.
"Dad." James calls out, Bucky looks away from Steve, eyes widening.
The two march up to each other, only to stop once face to face. Bucky laughs with tears in his eyes, hugging his son.
"Your so big." Bucky says, happiness filling his heart.
....
In Shuri's lab, Shuri scans the Stone with her kimoyo beads while Vision lies on the examination table.
She flips her hand over and studies the hologram projected over her palm.
"Whoa. The structure is polymorphic." Shuri says "Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially." Bruce says
"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?" Shuri ask
Vision looks at Bruce as if to ask the same thing.
"Because, we didn't think of it." Bruce says with uncertainly.
Shuri gives a reassuringly, with a smile "I'm sure you did your best." Shuri says
"Can you do it?" Sarah ask, worried for her adoptive brother, Vision.
"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures. [to T'Challa] It will take time, brother." Shuri says
"How long?" Steve ask "As long as you can give me." Shuri says
Okoyes kimoyo beads chime an alarm; she flicks one bead into her palm, where it projects the globe with a pulsing location marker.
"Something's entered the atmosphere." Okoye says
....
Outside.
Falcon, James and Bucky look up at the sky. Sam Wilson talks over the Avengers' comm "Hey, Cap, we got a situation here." Sam says
The defense shield over the Golden City destroys one of the alien vessels when it slams into the field at full attack acceleration.
"God, I love this place." Bucky says
James smiles at his dad, even though the situation is bad, he has his dad. James looks at Jack who was pretending to be tough.
James chuckles.
James Rhodes also outside, and now in full War Machine armor watching three more ships burn through the sky.
"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome." Rhodes says
The shock waves and debris from the ship landings destroy acres of forest and boil up against the dome. The lab has an excellent view of the landing sites.
Captain America and Black Panther look at each other in concern over the scope of what they'll be facing. Vision was struggling to sit up and slide off the exam table. Harley is at his side, helping him.
"It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now." Vision says
"Vision, get your ass back on the table." Natasha says "We will hold them off." T'challa says
He, Okoye and the guards head for the door "Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell." Steve says
"I will." Wanda says "Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures. [he stops, turns, and points at Cap] And get this man a shield." T'challa says
....
Nivadellir where Rocket is in the pod, and Thor, without any environmental suit, jumps from the hull onto the ring surface with a cable in his hand attached to the pod.
"I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose." Rocket says
"Leave that to me." Thor says "Leave that to you? Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a-" Rocket says
Thor begins to swing the pod around him in a circle. Rocket screams.
Thor builds up speed with three good loops then slacks his grip enough to send the pod shooting straight away from Nidavellir, trailing him behind it like a kite tail.
"Fire the engines!" Thor yells
Rocket shakes it off and puts the proverbial pedal to the metal "Nnnyah!" Rocket yells
The pod skims over the surface of the next ring out, Thor reaches down and digs one hand into the surface, then both feet, finally getting a foothold against the forward motion of the pod.
The ice-like accumulation around the ring axis crackles.
"MORE... POWER... RABBIT!" Thor yells
Thor commits bicep porn while Rocket accelerates for all he's worth.
Finally the rings spin free, realigning into effective configuration as the star bursts back into life.
"Well done, boy." Eitri says
Thor, clutching the pod's forward windows, points to the star "That's Nivadellir!" Thor exclaims
Rocket gazes amazed at the blazing core. An iris on the cladding around the star opens, firing pure stellar heat through the ring portals and into the forge... until the damaged mechanism fails, crumbles loose and slams shut.
The iris closes and the beam of light trails off. "Damn it." Eitri says "Damn it? What's damn it?" Rocket ask
"The mechanism is crippled." Eitri says "What?" Thor ask "With the iris closed I can't heat the metal." Eitri says "How long will it take to heat?" Thor ask
"A few minutes, maybe more. Why?" Eitri ask Thor stands up on the pod hull "I'm gonna hold it open." Thor says "That's suicide." Eitri says
"So is facing Thanos without that axe." Thor says
He leaps from the pod to the star's iris.