//------------------------------// // Chapter 175 – The Van That Saved the Universe // Story: Infinity Era // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// 175 The Battle of Earth 6:27 p.m. The Mad Titan had seen entire worlds turn him against many times before. In all his years of cleansing, there was always resistance and rebellion to his efforts. There was always an opposing force that denied his gifts and sought to rid him of their world, of their people, of their way of life. Every single time, they would fail. Every single time, they would fall to the overwhelming might of the Dark Lord and his nearly limitless army. But never in his entire life had Thanos seen such an opposition. Never had the Mad Titan ever seen the entire universe come together and turn against him. It was improbable. It was practically impossible. Yet there he was, caught in the heart of a single battle the brought in nearly all ends of the universe solely against him and his legacy. Dozens came for him, of all shapes and sizes, species and races, with the intent to slay the Titan where he stood. Thanos offered them little in return, a quick slice or stab that ended their lives quicker than they anticipated. The Titan’s focus was not entirely centered on the lives trying to end his own. More so, his focus was constantly shifting, turning from one end of the battlefield to the next. His eyes scanned and searched the dirt-gray landscapes, the dust-infested air, and the smoke-lined skies. Chaos, war, and death filled it all, with no room for the Infinity Stones. Without even looking, Thanos rammed his sword behind him and impaled a charging minotaur. Ripping his bleeding blade out, Thanos paid no heed to the minotaur clutching his wound and falling dead behind him. He simply cast his eyes across the burning battlegrounds, breathing oh-so heavily. Finally asking aloud, “Where are the Stones?” One of the many Chitauri Elite that surrounded their lord sliced down on the feeble Crystal Guard before it. With the pony slain, the Elite gazed beyond and growled. It turned back to Thanos, pointing forward and shouting, “Sire!” Thanos followed the call of his Elite and turned in the direction to where it pointed. His eyes widened, his breath shortening and the Titan feeling his heart start to beat all the more rapidly. Within the slightest lull of the battle, between the twisting and thrashing bodies killing one another, there ran two Avengers. One female led them both, her pistols firing off and clearing the path for the one male. The one who held the gauntlet and the six Infinity Stones upon it. As for Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, their mission to protect the Nano Gauntlet had become more and more complicated. When it became apparent that Thanos’ forces realized they had the Stones, any Chitauri, Outrider, or Sakaaran within their vicinity dropped whatever they were doing, abandoned any fight they were engaged in, and charged the two lone Avengers. They were relentless in their pursuit, fully intending to retrieve the Infinity Stones for their master. Black Widow managed to keep the path relatively clear for them, constantly having to fire one pistol at a time, reload it, use her secondary pistol to keep up the fire, and begin again. A cycle that went on as long as she had some spare magazines on her belt. Those magazines continued to dwindle as the aliens continued to pile in front of them. Hawkeye managed to help, as well. Even with his right arm wrapped around the gauntlet, his left arm still gripped his katana, still held his Wristbow and still kept the lingering aliens off their back. But it was becoming too much. They were running deeper and deeper into the war with no clear path and only assured destruction ahead of them. Slipping between the warring bodies of Chitauri, Asgardians, and dragons, the two Avengers stumbled as the rippling explosions consumed the lands to their left and right. Clint never released his grip from the gauntlet. Natasha never stopped firing and killing the aliens in their path. They both knew it wouldn’t last, for either of them. So, it was Clint who pressed his left hand onto his comms, shouting through it, “We got the Stones! It’s gettin’ too crowded in here! Cap, what do you want us to do?!” Across the battlefield, Captain America and Star-Lord were side by side and fending off the constant droves of Outriders. Steve was sending furious kicks and punches and slashes with his broken shield that the Outriders couldn’t hope to best. On his left, Peter was firing madly with his Quad Blasters. Outriders dropped left and right, Quill turning his mask’s red eyes to his right and blowing the head off an Outrider pouncing for Steve’s blindside. Sending an appreciate nod to Quill, Rogers rushed forward and pressed his ear to his comms. “Get that gauntlet out of here! Keep it as far away from Thanos as you can!” Steve shouted in return, grunting as an Outrider jumped onto him. He held back the snapping Outrider by his fractured shield. Steve shot out his right hand, catching Mjølnir and driving its head onto the Outrider. “No!” the voice shouted behind Captain America. Spinning to face it, Steve spotted Bruce Banner grabbing a Chitauri and flinging it clear across the battlefield. The Hulk approached Rogers, stating clearly, “We need to take the Stones back where they came from!” “Back in time?!” Steve questioned. “Only time machine we had is gone!” In the midst of their shouting match over the comms, a certain Giant-Man had ceased his proceedings into battle. It all suddenly clicked in his mind when Steve mentioned the time machine. “Wait!” Giant-Man declared aloud. He shrunk back to his average human size, pulling out a pair of car keys from his suit’s pocket and staring intensely to it. “That wasn’t our only time machine.” Scott pressed on the key, and a resounding car horn and jingle echoed across the battlefield. It reached Steve Rogers, the minimal silence he was trapped in allowing the Captain to hear that familiar horn and rise up to face it. His eyes scanned the dreary landscapes before him, a maze of bodies and madness filling every square inch but unveiling no car. Frustrated, Steve yelled, “Does anyone see an ugly brown van out there?!” Flying over the Captain’s head and atop her winged stallion, Valkyrie cast her eyes down to the battle below, searching for what Steve needed. Eventually, she found it, grimacing at its location. “Yeah, but you’re not gonna like where it’s parked!” Valkyrie cried out, jamming her blade several hundred yards ahead, to where the Outriders constantly flowed down the hill and the van was trapped between the streams of aliens. Scott Lang stared up to the flying horse and the Asgardian atop of it, his eyes following her blade and spotting a glimpse of the van within the chaos. He slid into cover behind some rubble, peeking through and latching his gaze to the van alone. He was surprised for a second to hear the familiar body enlarging to his right, Scott turning to it and seeing Hope van Dyne resting beside him. Together, Ant-Man and the Wasp stared through the rubble, zeroed in on the van, and waited. Over the comms, Steve told Lang, “Scott, you think you can reach the van and open that Quantum Tunnel?” Shaking his head, Scott pursed his lips and sighed reluctantly, “Yeah, might take a while, though. And there’s still the problem with…” “One of us needing to go back in time.” They both had the same wretched thought in mind. It was there and it was very, very real, the reality that one of them was needed to take the Stones back to each specific time they were taken and somehow make it back home. With no more Pym Particles left, and with time itself moving desperately against them, all of their options were shortening by the second. They needed the Stones safe, out of Thanos’ reach, no matter the cost. Whatever it took. “Don’t worry,” Hope whispered through her comms. “We’re on it, Cap.” Scott felt all the fear and worry slowly drain away, his eyes shifting right and resting on the face he thought he would never see again. Though it was only a couple of days, it felt like five years since he had seen Hope’s beautiful eyes again. He smirked to her statement. She shared his actions, staring onto Scott and slowly growing that smirk when she realized what she called Captain America. Scott’s smirk melted into a warming smile, Lang sighing, “Ah… I love you.” Hope smiled back. “I know.” Like a dyad, the two’s masks slid over their heads and they shrunk together. The Wasp caught Ant-Man by his arm, her wings beating furiously as she took them both safely across the battle, completely unseen and intended only for the van. With the plan set in motion, all that was required of Clint and Natasha was to survive. Survive, and get the gauntlet over to the Quantum Tunnel. Thankfully for them, they checked their GPSes and noticed that Lang offered his signal to be tracked. That was what they did, locking onto Scott and making a mad dash for where he was moving towards. It seemed the entire world had turned on them at that point, countless Outriders and Chitauri swarming the two Avengers with frenzied action. Though they were already winded, Barton and Romanoff pushed even harder, sprinting until their lungs burned. And they just kept on running. Kept on fighting and holding off the aliens that tried to attack them from all sides. Clint barely dodged the Chitauri Elite trying to tackle him on his left. He rolled as did the Elite, Clint rising to his knee and firing off an arrow from his Wristbow. It struck the Elite in the center of its visor, killing the Chitauri instantly. It fell back dead, the wave of Sakaarans stampeding over its body and rushing solely towards Hawkeye. Gritting his teeth at that, Clint spun around. “Come on!” Natasha screamed, waving him forward. “Path ahead is clear—!” The Outrider pouncing the Widow on her right cut off her sentence. “Nat!” Clint shouted, quickly spinning back when he heard the roar and blocked the blade from the Sakaaran with his katana. He shot his eyes over to Romanoff, fear and adrenaline fueling his ferocity. With the Outrider snapping and clawing at every exposed area on Black Widow as it could, trying desperately to reach her throat, Natasha held it off with her twin batons. Her face contorted as the Outrider screeched and barred its teeth over her head, biting closer and closer. Shooting her glare over to Barton, she nodded him along, rearing back with her baton and striking the Outrider across the head. The Widow rolled and spun to one knee. She shouted, “Keep moving! I’ll hold them off!” He tried to argue, but found no point to it when Natasha spun furiously and drove the electrified tip of her baton into the Outrider’s mouth, straight through its skull, and killing it. Clint responded in kind, knocking the Sakaaran off of him and jamming his katana directly into the alien’s throat. He ripped his blade out and retreated. The dead Sakaaran fell at the same time Natasha collided with the crowd of aliens. She ran with her knee leading, knocking off several Sakaaran and Chitauri forces from their pursuit on the gauntlet. Rising up, she twirled her batons and glared to the oncoming wave. Clint ran. Given no other choice, Hawkeye sprinted and scrambled and nearly fell over a multitude of times just to avoid the rippling explosions, laser blasts, and aliens charging him from all angles. The biggest crowd was on his tail, a new and charging platoon of Sakaarans locked on to Barton and slowly severing the distance. Their chance was taken from them once the Chitauri Gorilla found the gauntlet. The Gorilla roared as it entered the trench, the edges surrounded by rubble, debris, and warring bodies. It tore through it all, slamming its fists onto unfortunate Sakaarans that got in its way, crushing several into the dirt, and tossing their bodies out of its path. It left only Clint and itself, the Gorilla bolting forward and nearing Barton with every tremoring footstep. Once their distance was severed, the Gorilla slammed its palm across Hawkeye’s side, a painful grunt leaving Clint as he flew and flipped through the air. Crashing painfully on the dirt and rock, Clint groaned but nonetheless held the gauntlet with all his life. He rolled over to the sound of the beast’s ferocious roars, spotting the Gorilla hop out of the trench and charge the prone Avenger. Clint’s eyes widened. The Chitauri roared in his face and raised its fists high above its head. In a blur, the Falcon swooped down and drove his metallic wings directly onto the chest of the Gorilla. Both he and the Chitauri fell back into the trench, Sam Wilson screaming as he reared back and rammed the sharpened edges of each wing tip back into the alien’s heart. Stumbling back to his feet, Clint grasped onto the gauntlet with ragged breathing joining him. He stared to Falcon, to the dead Chitauri that lay beneath him, and to the hundreds of others storming the skies and the earth and nearing their location by the second. Hawkeye felt his heart fall, that overwhelming weight and pressure of the Chitauri army slowly taking its toll on him. Slowly devouring him and what remaining strength he had left. “Clint!” Like a rejuvenating battle cry, that familiar voice called to him by name and he turned to it. Spinning around, Barton spotted the black suit rise up from the deceased Outriders and Chitauri that lay beneath it. That mask turned to Clint and faced him head-on, the purple wave of vibranium nanites washing away to reveal none other than King T’Challa. And Black Panther told him, “Give it to me.” He didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to. There was no time. Clint handed off the torch. The Black Panther made a dash for it, his enhanced speed and strength used to his advantage as he slashed, kicked, punched, and tore his way through the nonstop waves of Chitauri, Outriders, and Sakaarans. He ran and leaped off a mound of rubble, driving his foot into the face of a charging Elite. Rolling forward, T’Challa slashed low with his free hand and ripped clean through the leg of the nearest Outrider swinging for him. His vibranium claws greatly outclassed any blade or weapon the Mad Titan’s forces wielded. Even his suit was leagues ahead of the alien army. The green bolts of the Sakaaran laser rifle were merely absorbed by the Panther Habit, same for the blue bolts of the Chitauri rifles. Any Outrider that managed to get a lucky hit on him during his hardened sprint were met with nothing in response. The black suit glowed a violent purple with every foreign impact upon it. T’Challa hopped over a Sakaaran firing at him, the alien getting multiple hits on the Panther’s body. T’Challa merely dug his claws into the alien’s head and rammed it straight into the ground. He rushed on, the next wave met with the Black Panther leaping from the rock and striking the earth with a feral punch. The shock wave washed outwards in a pulse of violet energy, completely blowing away any nearby extraterrestrial infestation. Lifting his eyes, Black Panther was just about to continue onwards with his path cleared before him. Just as he rose to both feet, the Uru blade tore through the air and struck him on the side of the head. T’Challa grunted as he and the gauntlet fell. Turning towards the origin of the attack, T’Challa watched the Double-Edged Sword spin violently back and return to none other than the Mad Titan. Catching his blade and rearing it back, Thanos snarled as his eyes locked onto the Infinity Stones resting in the gauntlet, which rested on the dirt directly in front of the Panther. Nothing else stood in his way. He did nothing else but charge the lone Avenger. T’Challa slowly rose, grasping the gauntlet and preparing himself for the inevitable. To both of their surprise, a blur fell from the sky and crashed between them. It was enough to cause the Black Panther to flinch backwards and shield himself from the wave of dust that exploded out from the impact. It was enough to get the Mad Titan to yield in his pursuit, his mouth open and brow furrowed to the blur standing within the dust cloud. Once the dust settled, the raw power of the Asteroid Gloves glowed ferociously within the cloud and earned Thanos’ eyes. Those eyes rose up to meet the emerging, dull expression. The unwavering gaze. The monotone voice. The lone Earth pony standing against Thanos. Maud blinked at him, saying so very slowly, “You took Pinkie Pie away from me.” Maybe it was the tone of her voice that struck him, the absolute loss of mercy and understanding laced within the droning voice. There was an unknown and unforgivable stare burning in her eyes, something that Thanos had yet to encounter. Something that he just couldn’t fathom. A power that was beyond his understanding. A strength that he was about to face from the pony he hardly recognized. A very real and very freezing chill washed down his spine, but the Titan ignored it. Gripping his blade, Thanos mumbled, “I don’t even know who you are.” He took the first steps towards the lone mare. “Do you know me?” The next voice seemed colder, more malicious and filled with much more raw emotion than the pony could ever expel. He turned around, seeing the Scarlet Witch land behind him. As she rose, both of her palms were consumed in a haze of crimson power. Her eyes blistered a boiling red, teeth showing and the woman growling with feral intensity. Wanda Maximoff, alive and enraged, hissed, “You took… everything from me.” Before Thanos could even comprehend what she meant, he heard the crash to his left and spun to face it. Derpy Hooves fell from the sky and landed on the rubble, earning the Titan’s eyes. She bent low, glare fierce, wings outstretched, and Domino Gun charging up. On his right, a flash of magic emerged in the air, Thanos spinning and witnessing Trixie Lulamoon hovering in mid-air. Her horn was beaming with fervent magic, eyes opening to reveal two orbs of pure whiteness. Her cloak and hat danced in the magical essence she concocted, both hooves pressed firmly against one another. Thanos stopped and breathed. Tried to. He spun to the monotone voice. “That’s too bad…” Maud said. She rose up to her hind legs, her Asteroid Gloves lighting up and ripping entire boulders from their place on the earth. “For you.” In a wave of unrelenting power and speed, the three mares and the Scarlet Witch attacked the Mad Titan. First, it was Maud, the Earth pony flinging the boulders directly onto Thanos who could only barely dodge and knock them aside with his sword. The rocks managed to disorient him, granting Derpy and Trixie an opening to attack. Derpy flew in for a dive-bomb, sending a blast from her Domino Gun onto the Titan and creating—as the name suggested—several domino explosions around Thanos. Trixie glided closer, firing a single beam of magic from her horn and striking Thanos on his side. Disoriented and shaken, Thanos grunted and eventually roared as the unrelenting magic continued to pelt him. That wasn’t all. The psionic blasts from Wanda Maximoff struck Thanos’ chest, pushing the Titan further back as the Witch made her approach. With every step, she threw her hands at him and knocked Thanos further and further onto the ground. Despite that, Thanos still remained, still faced Wanda and still readied himself for her. Trixie shot out her hooves and screamed. From the earth, various black tendrils wrapped tightly around the Titan’s legs and kept him constrained. Thanos turned to that, eyes widening to see the magic wrap tighter and tighter around him, coiling against him like a hungry serpent. Regardless, he held his ground, stabbing and slicing at the black tendrils as Wanda, Derpy, and Maud went in for the kill. He held them off just the same. With Thanos dealt with, the Black Panther took the Nano Gauntlet and continued on his path towards the van. His pursuit was unchallenged, every alien foe he faced easily falling by the Panther’s might and speed. Chariots and starships started to trail him, firing at T’Challa from above and nearly knocking him off his course. The Wakandan jets zipped by and blew the chariots of the sky, chasing off the starships into the dogfight above. T’Challa was untouchable. Unstoppable. The light of the dragon fires he entered into made the gauntlet glow in his grasp, all six Stones glowing just as bright. Caught within the battle alongside his fellow dragons, Spike torched bodies upon bodies of Chitauri and Outriders. The area of the battle he was in was filled with dragons large and small, Leviathans battling above with the adult dragons and the Titan’s weaker forces engaged with the younger dragons below. There was a constant stream of fire flowing from the jaws of one dragon or another, until the immediate area was nearly consumed in flame. And within it all, Spike caught the rainbow glimmer and turned to face it. His wings kept him airborne, but his mind, his eyes, were latched to the Nano Gauntlet that Black Panther carried through the fire and flames. His gaze lowered, and his jaw with it. There was a shimmer in his eyes when Spike saw the gemstones.