//------------------------------// // Chapter 169 – As Long as One Stands // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 169 Upstate New York The Ruins 6:07 p.m. While Clint held Natasha and the Hawk scaled the walls on his grappling hook, Tempest Shadow simply levitated herself with her own magic to escape the lower levels of the facility. They finally reached the outside world and trembled beside it as a rippling earthquake washed across the facility’s remains. Clint and Natasha had just exited the tunnel and joined Tempest outside the carnage when the golden light flew over their heads, all three Avengers turning skywards to witness Captain Marvel being thrown violently into the side of the destroyed facility. Rubble and cement rained down from the impact she made, Carol grunting as she flew off and returned to the battle currently unfolding several meters beyond where Clint, Natasha, and Tempest stood. They followed her trail of light, gaping in awe when they saw it all unfold. Carol returned and engaged the Mad Titan with his back turned, his focus centered on the Sentinel of Liberty himself wielding what Barton and Romanoff could hardly even fathom. In Steve Rogers’ grasp, he held Thor’s own hammer and arguably fought with it even better than the God of Thunder ever could. Not only the fact that he was worthy, not only the fact that Carol managed to find the others and Thanos, but just witnessing Captain America actually beating Thanos down and winning… that alone was remarkable. There was also the fact that it was indeed Thanos that had found them. Clint gripped onto the gauntlet all the tighter. He brought his expression low, spotting the unicorn spinning to the duo Avengers and jamming her steel-plated hoof in his direction. To what he held. Tempest had to shout over Danvers’ furious cries and rippling photon blasts, saying, “Stay here and out of harm’s way! Keep the gauntlet hidden!” Tempest turned away, observing the devastating battle unfolding just several meters away. The wind tugged at her spiked mane, her expression pale and grave after seeing Thanos catch Carol’s glowing fist and launch the Captain into a mountain of rubble. The familiar cry was nearly drowned out by Thanos’ roars, Tempest spinning her neck back to meet the Widow it came from. “What are you gonna do?!” In the distance, Captain America rose from the dirt, shield held in front of him, hammer gripped behind him, and one Titan turning away from Danvers and onto him. Steve charged. Thanos picked up his blade. Tempest eyed Clint and Natasha and breathed out. “Help my friends.” They made no further retort. They stepped back and hid behind the pillars of concrete, rubble, rebar, and ruin. They stayed away from the fight. They stayed away from the conflict. Ultimately, they kept the gauntlet and the six Infinity Stones safe from harm or any other wandering eyes. With that out of the way, Tempest was free to do what she had proclaimed. The unicorn charged across the debris, hopping, sliding, galloping, and reaching her intended target with a devastating magical blast from her curved horn. Thanos was blindsided by it. With his focus centered on Rogers, the blast of magic struck his side and knocked him off his feet. Thanos flew to the far left, crashing and rolling and sliding across the dirt as the magic continued to pelt into him. He grunted and roared as he crashed, finally planting his feet back and slowing himself to a halt. He turned his shoulder and blocked the magic striking him with his armor. The magic was so bright and so blinding that Thanos kept his eyes narrowed, teeth grit, and palm outstretched to further block out the harmful rays. He wasn’t able to see the unicorn the magic came from before her hoof met his face. Tempest Shadow galloped forward as she kept on the magic, leaping in the air and driving her hind leg’s hoof across Thanos’ face in a fierce and quick buck. He grunted at that, voice ragged and wet with blood. She even managed to earn a spittle of violet from the Titan as she landed and spun to face him. Thanos raised his eyes to her, grew a terrifying glare, and bellowed. He ripped his blade forward, stabbing its end where the unicorn stood. He impaled nothing but dirt where she vanished from. As Thanos rose, he pulled his blade from the earth and spun to meet the flash of light behind him. There, Tempest appeared, the unicorn glaring dead at him as her horn began to glow an otherworldly blue. The Asgardian runes shimmered across her vibranium/Uru horn. Thanos almost failed to see Captain America rushing forward behind her, the First Avenger grunting as he chucked Mjølnir straight for the Titan. Thanos dodged to the right, the hammer zooming past him, and turned back to Steve with his sword leading him. He responded to Rogers’ actions and threw his blade, the doubled swords twirling and crying as they ripped through the air and nearly decapitated Tempest. The unicorn rushed ahead and slid underneath the blades. Steve wasn’t so fortunate and raised his shield in a last-ditch effort to defend himself. The force of the blades striking him launched the Captain several meters further back. His sword returned to him, Thanos catching the center of the blades and bringing one end down on the unicorn. Tempest caught the sword with her magical aura, struggling beneath it as Thanos laid on the pressure. Carol grunted as she caught Thanos with his back turned and landed on top of him, her arm wrapped around his throat and constricting his flow of oxygen. Thanos gasped and pulled his left arm free from his sword, grasping Carol’s forearm and trying to pry her free. With the pressure eased on the sword, Tempest snarled and flung her head to the side. Her magic pushed Thanos’ right arm aside and his blade with him, leaving the Titan free and defenseless. Carol increased her hold around his neck. Tempest fired two consecutive magical beams onto the Titan’s chest, each one more devastating than the last and making Thanos stumble backwards. She galloped forward, slid with her hind leg leading and ramming the steel into Thanos’ sternum. Thanos cried out at that strike, Danvers using his scream and constricting his throat with her forearm, completely cutting off his air passage. Her entire forearm and body glowed a violent gold, eyes illuminating that same, raw power. Seeing the unicorn’s eyes shimmer a similar form of raw energy—only hers a bright blue similar to her magic—Thanos could tell she was charging herself up for an even stronger spell than before. With his blurring and fading vision, Thanos used the last of it to solidify where Tempest stood. He raised his blade, and with a powerful roar, slammed its side across the unicorn’s body. Carol gasped, the golden light leaving her eyes and only fear consuming them when she watched Tempest fly across the battleground and crash through a slab of erected concrete, body vanishing within the rubble. She didn’t have a moment to properly react when Thanos reached back and grabbed a fistful of her hair, yanking her forward and slamming her into the earth. He didn’t even waste a second to take in that desperate breath of oxygen, the Titan screaming as he pulled his sword in the air and rammed it straight downwards, straight towards Captain Marvel’s heart. Seeing the blade, Carol reacted quickly and caught it between her gloved-hands. The aura of gold swarming her limbs and sounding off under that cosmic growl kept her stable for a moment, but Thanos only increased the pressure by adding his remaining strength and his own weight onto the blade. A few inches separated its end from her chest, Carol’s eyes casting the tip a rapid glance before she turned that glare up to Thanos. He met hers and didn’t turn away, barring his teeth and missing the shield impacting his forehead. Without a helmet to protect him any longer, Thanos stumbled back from the force of the shield striking his head. He looked up to see that shield return to Captain America as he sprinted directly at the Mad Titan. Captain Marvel rolled back to her feet, rising quickly and sprinting alongside Rogers. Steve shot out his right hand, Thanos unable to see the hammer flying for the back of his shoulder. It struck him and sent a flurry of sparks and grunts from Thanos’ person, causing him to hunch forward and knock his guard completely off balance. The two captains took advantage. Catching Mjølnir in his right hand, Steve was the first to meet the Titan as he reared back and drove his shield into Thanos’ face. The force of the hit sent Thanos careening towards Danvers, who leaped in the air and slammed her glowing fist across his cheekbone. He was sent back to face Rogers, who already had his hammer back and ready to meet Thanos once again. Mjølnir was bashed against the Titan’s opposite cheek. Forced back to Danvers, Thanos met her photon-fueled boot as she spun in mid-air and kicked Thanos across his head. He was sent to Steve, Captain America replying with his own kick to the Titan’s face. A furious volley of grunts, cries, bellows, and screams emanated from both Steve and Carol, the impact of their weapons and fists and boots onto the Mad Titan resounding and corroding the very air. Thanos’ own roars of pain and anger were numb compared to the captains’, the advantage they held over him granting the Avengers that much-needed push. Thanos caught Steve’s right hand that wielded Mjølnir, both he and Rogers meeting stares. It was an advantage that did not last. Forcing the Captain’s hand, Thanos drove Mjølnir with a devastating ferocity right across Carol Danvers’ forehead. The impact earned a yelp of pain from Carol, the woman being thrown violently through the air. Her limbs and body were like a rag doll as she spun, eventually crashing right through a mountain of rubble and disappearing within its collapse on top of her. Steve cried out for Carol, forced to focus on the Titan with his arm still held by an iron grip. Thanos punched it. He punched his arm and used Steve’s own strength to launch Mjølnir clear across the ruins and vanish within the smoke and rubble. Without the weapon of the gods, the majority of the Captain’s strength had been stripped. Thanos didn’t waste another second and took full advantage. Grasping Steve’s shoulder, Thanos pulled him and launched Captain America into a spire of concrete. Impacting the rubble back-first, Steve grunted and shot his eyes wide open. He rolled to the side once Thanos’ blade swung downwards for his head. Even with his helmet, the sword would have easily torn through and earned a guaranteed kill shot. Spinning and moving from the rubble, Steve faced Thanos but was unable to fully block the sword swung for him. It struck his shield, various sparks dancing off and nearly knocking Rogers off his feet. He held his ground, however, even when Thanos reared back and stabbed low at his legs. The sword sliced clean across Steve’s inner thigh, drawing blood and earning a cry from the Captain. Steve stumbled back with every strike from that point onward, the Mad Titan earning his push and taking his kill. He held his sword high into the air, bringing it down with terrifying speed right onto Captain America’s shield. The vibranium split and cracked, the sound that Steve never thought he would ever hear from his shield crying out upon the Uru blade’s impact. His eyes were wide with shock, staring to the blade embedded in his shield and quickly back up to the Titan. Thanos grunted as he ripped his sword free, taking a chunk of the Captain’s shield with him. The following blows he dealt to Rogers were all blocked by the star-spangled shield, the red, white, and blue cracking and shattering upon every strike, every slam, every crushing blow and every staggering bash. Each one that Thanos inflicted took a piece of the shield away, the Mad Titan relentless and unforgiving in his pursuit. He swung from the right, pushing Steve in the opposite direction upon impact. Thanos roared as he pulled back with his sword fully intended for Steve’s head, yet he just continued to hold his cracking shield, raised it once more as the blade bounced off just mere inches from the Captain’s head. No more. Thanos had enough and slammed his sword against the same area on the shield again and again and again. The last hit knocked Steve Rogers to the dirt. He fell at long last, Thanos’ blade resting at his side and the Titan taking in that much-needed breath. Steve could only stare to his shield, shell-shocked to see the top half of it completely fractured and gone. Simply gone and shattered into various fragments around him. Captain America breathed and gasped, finally forcing his eyes away from the impossible and facing the inevitable. Thanos gave one last bellowing cry as he swung his sword forward and launched Rogers clear across the battlefield ahead of him. He flew for several yards, eventually crashing and skidding across the ruins and debris until he rolled and came to a halt on his back. Steve tried to roll to his side. He tried to turn and get back to his feet to keep up the fight in their most desperate hour. Only… he couldn’t. He gave it his all and it still wasn’t enough. The fire in his heart was gone, the strength in his spirit demoralized and broken alongside his body. Alongside his symbol. He fell back and lay on the dirt, slowly closing his eyes and breathing. Breathing. Even that hurt. Everything hurt. His heart thumped in his ringing eardrums, singing in chorus alongside his breaths as Steve Rogers lay upon the shattered battleground. His eyelids slowly fluttered open, witnessing the evening sunlight fading against the horizon and the sickness of the smoke taking what remaining light there was. Darkness fell and evil rose to claim it. Evil rose while the last remnant of the Avengers did nothing to stop it. He simply lay in his own blood and ruin, ragged breath and broken body discarded and defeated. The coolness of the pain and of death’s grasp was calling to him, and as he had done many times before in his long, long lifetime… Steve Rogers slowly succumbed to it… and accepted it. No… Steve closed his eyes. Not yet… He gritted his bloody teeth. Get up. Just one more time, get up. With a grunt of effort, he managed to roll over to his side, his fractured shield impacting the dirt in front of him and kicking up that dust and ash that he lay beside. It surrounded him, all the destruction and desolation of his new life laying around him and being all that remained of the Avengers’ legacy. The facility burned to his far left, the Helicarrier crumbling and crashing, bringing the rest of the building’s remains with it. It all fell and burned. All of it was dead. Steve breathed. The voice lifted his eyes ahead. Thanos stood alone several yards away and amongst the devastation. A thin wasteland of dust and ash filled the area between him and the last Avenger. Scanning such wastes, observing all that stood before him, Thanos turned back to Steve Rogers and spoke to him. A deep, calming voice that told Steve, “In all my years of conquest… violence… slaughter… it was never personal.” Rogers looked away, pushing himself with another painful wave of effort flushing through his body in order to rise to his hands and knees. As he slowly rose, Thanos continued to speak, each word reverberating across the battlefield and impacting Steve harder and harder, threatening to push him back down. But he never fell back down. He never gave in. He continued to rise. Thanos continued to speak, casting his eyes to planet Equus on the opposite horizon momentarily. He turned back and stared only to the first and last Avenger. “But I’ll let you know… after I kill you… I’m going to burn these stubborn… annoying little planets to cinders. And every life… will know who failed to save them, cry out to them, and beg for mercy. Hope. Salvation. Find none. I hope you know that now, know what you’ve lost.” Steve turned towards that voice, met those eyes, and stared at Thanos. The Mad Titan smiled. “Now… you’ll know me.” The eight Chitauri Command Centers finally entered Earth’s atmosphere, filling the skies with their presence and covering the earth below under a terrifying veil of blackness. Their battle horns cried out amongst the ruins, the massive warships unleashing dozens of Outrider Dropships and hundreds upon thousands of Chitauri into the skies and upon the earth. The dropships impacted the grounds behind Thanos, spewing up mountains of dirt and rubble. Starships and chariots flew forth from the Command Centers in hundreds of droves, bringing with them various more Leviathans that roared and slithered towards the awaiting battlefield. Even Sanctuary II released an army numbering in the thousands. Their armies consisted of similar starships, chariots, and Leviathans, but also released the full armada of the Sakaaran forces. Their Necrocrafts joined the skies alongside the Chitauri. As the dropships opened, not only did the Outriders spew forth from them, but Chitauri tanks, Gorillas, foot soldiers, commanders, and Elite stormed free and entered the battlefield. The Chitauri Gorillas roared as their chains were pulled free and they stomped onto the battlegrounds. The Chitauri Elite strode forth from the dropships and tanks, armored in plated gold and brandishing slick capes, blue visors, spears, and shields. Outriders charged from their dropships, numbering in the hundreds as waves upon waves rushed forth and halted behind their lord. But that wasn’t all. As if the odds hadn’t already seemed insurmountable, from five particularly large dropships—much larger than the other dozen—they opened their faces to reveal a terror unlike any other within Thanos’ armada. The towering dropships split open like eggs, unveiling five Chitauri Titans and unleashing them upon the world. Thanos had finally released some of his most horrifying creations into battle after years of experimentation and testing, the Mad Titan smirking when he felt their feet and claws send tremors across the landscapes. Having been created mere years after the Second Snap, the Chitauri Titans were by far the most monstrous beings in Thanos’ army. The Titans were colossal in size, multi-legged and armed terrain walkers, similar to the Leviathans but much larger than the beasts swimming above their heads. Much, much larger. Some walked bipedally. Some crawled on four claws. They all towered over the armies beneath them, the five Titans bellowing their alien roars to the heavens and to the earth. Sakaaran troops joined the Chitauri covering said earth, from one end of the battlefield to the other. Several miles of vast, open landscapes covered in less than a minute. They all halted in an instant. And Steve Rogers just stared at it. Until he couldn’t any longer and faced away, faced the dirt, and pushed himself up anyway. Despite the bellowing cries against the wind, despite the thundering tremors of the alien armies storming his home and standing against him, despite it all… he got up. With a hissing grunt, he raised his feet and planted each boot onto flat and solid ground. His armies, his achievements, everything he had and proudly wielded stood at the ready behind him. Thanos felt the pressuring weight of his armies fill the heavens and the earth, so much so that it would have brought entire nations to their knees. An overwhelming showing of force and terror that cleansed planets did nothing for the Avenger. Thanos watched him with a waning expression of admiration, the Titan turning away and sighing pitifully. He had done it. Steve Rogers may have stumbled, may have trembled, may have wanted to give in, but in the end he stood. In the end, he got up. His breaths were all that joined him under the shadows of an alien empire. Despite that desperate thought, Steve knew he wasn’t alone. He gazed down to his left, and despite the sickening gash of red across his forearm, despite his symbol shattered before his very eyes, Steve Rogers reached for his broken shield’s strap… and tightened it. Captain America gave a ferocious grunt, but nonetheless glared ahead. Glared to the armies that only continued to grow. Glared to it all with nothing but his will, strength, courage, and humanity keeping him alive. His gritted and bleeding teeth were hidden underneath his dirt-covered lips as he maintained his breathing, his tear-filled eyes staring to the opposition. Staring to the other side of the world standing against him. Dozens of Leviathans roared as they slithered closer and closer to him. Thousands of chariots, starships, and Necrocrafts infested the skies. Five Chitauri Titans stomped closer and shook the world beneath their feet, all turning their heads to the lone soldier and waiting. The eight Chitauri Command Centers and Sanctuary II glared down at him from above and cast their shadows across the wasteland. Thanos stood with his armies waiting behind him, staring only to the Avenger shuffling towards them. It was only him. Just Captain America taking his stand and limping their way. One last act of defiance from the unruly. Steve didn’t know what he was truly doing. Not really. But with no one else taking that stand that they desperately needed, with no one else able to rise against tyranny, Steve took the weight upon himself and walked. He stared them down and did not turn away from the overwhelming forces. Him against an army. A bleeding, broken, husk of a man left to stand for the Avengers, the human race, and the universe itself. There was no one else. He didn’t complain. He didn’t turn away. He walked. With a limp in his step and a broken shield to his name, Captain America stared to his death sentence with a bold and silent declaration to his foes: A declaration of resistance. They were hardly shaken by it. Steve walked anyway. He walked and stared to his foes with his winded expression, but remained standing. Remained who he was until the bitter end. Faced the enemy and told them he would not surrender. He would stand against them. He would walk forward and face them to his last, dying breath. Even if he walked alone. The static in his ear stopped him. Then… the voice that followed took his breath away. “… you read me?” Steve stared to his broken shield, to the dirt and dust flowing by his boots and the wind carrying it away. He breathed heavily, dried blood painted on his face and cheeks. He wondered if he was only hearing things, if it was his wounded mind trying to convince that someone was talking to him. The voice came back, fully clear from the static in the comms and calling to Steve by his title. “Cap, it’s Sam, can you hear me?” Offering its own name in tandem. Steve’s heart seemed to slow, so faint that he could no longer hear it in his ears. Instead, it was replaced by the echoing of that familiar voice, a voice he had not heard in five years and desperately needed to hear one more time. Just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming it. Slowly raising his right hand, Steve placed his finger against the comms in his ear, his breathing growing heavier, eyes burning brighter, and heart fully leaping when he caught the sound of sparks behind him. Saw the orange glow shimmer across the earth. And heard that bold voice of Sam Wilson call to him… “On your left.”