179
The Battle of Earth
6:41 p.m.
Captain Celaeno and her band of parrot pirates tried to fly away. They did everything in their power to keep the gauntlet and the Infinity Stones away from Thanos. Even as it was thrown to them, even as Celaeno leaned off the edge of the airship and managed to capture the glove by mere inches, even as the nearby battle shifted its focus onto them, they persevered.
They flew.
And Thanos gave chase.
The Mad Titan spouted various orders to his Chitauri on the battlefield, to his forces in the skies. The most prominent and most important one being: “Bring down that airship!”
He screamed that with his blade jutted to the air, to the airship flown by a brave band of pirates and somehow escaping his grasp. That airship slipped into the clouds and smoke, trailed shortly by various chariots and Necrocrafts. Their outer hull was breached within seconds, the laser blasts being more than strong enough to tear through the steel and wood. With their ship tilting and trembling, Captain Celaeno gripped the steering wheel and cast her eyes across the skies before and around her.
The battalion of Chitauri and Sakaarans flew before her, sweeping across the clouds and back towards them for another dive-bomb. Celaeno grimaced, then tightened her expression and tossed the Nano Gauntlet over to her left. To Squabble who barely managed to acquire it, claws fumbling over the large glove. The parrot’s cross-eyed expression gazed to the Infinity Stones, turning back to his captain with a curious look.
She gripped the steering wheel with both claws then, glaring ahead to the oncoming wave of aliens. She growled, “Squabble, keep it safe.”
The parrot held the gauntlet beneath his armpit, saluting with a solid, “Bwah!”
Though she would probably regret that decision later, Celaeno nonetheless focused on the problem at hand. She shot her free claw over to starboard side, shouting, “Get on those cannons and wait for my signal!”
Mullet and Lix Spittle nodded, stumbling over to the two cannons placed on the right of the ship. Celaeno turned rapidly to the opposite direction, to the two cannons resting on port. Jamming her other claw to Boyle and Squabble, she shouted, “You two, on port! And get ready!”
“Aye aye, Cap!” Boyle responded, he and Squabble rushing over and grasping the cannons. All four parrots loaded in the cannon balls, gripped the mighty cannons, and grasped the fuses. Mullet, Lix Spittle, Boyle, and Squabble all turned to see the approaching swarm of Chitauri and Sakaarans near them with each passing second. They all felt their eyes slowly being drawn back to their captain.
“Eyes forward!” Celaeno ordered. “On my go!”
All four pirates slowly faced forward, obeyed their captain, and narrowed their eyes. Their claws and feathers tightened around the fuses of each cannon, the air screaming as the Necrocrafts and chariots cut the distance and reached their airship for a second and final sweep. One that would deal the killing blow to them and their power in the skies. Just as the ships glowed mixtures of blue and green for their respective laser cannons, just as they reached the airship, Captain Celaeno gave her order.
“Fire!”
The Chitauri and Sakaarans never even got a shot off.
Four resounding blasts from the airship’s cannons fired at once, each cannon striking the ships and blowing them to smithereens. Their flaming husks spun out of control and crashed to the distant earth beneath them. Various cheers rang out across the deck, the pirates howling with conjoined roars and shaking their fists and hooks in the air. Celaeno even managed a short exhale, a tiny grin gripping her beak. It instantly died when the explosion consumed the exhaust ports of the airship.
As if a bomb had gone off, the exhaust ports of the ship exploded and sent the airship teetering through the sky. Each pirate stumbled and fell, only Celaeno managing to grasp onto her steering wheel and hang on. Hearing the scream tear across the skies, Celaeno lifted her head and saw it. Watched as the trio of Chitauri starships soared past them and disappeared within the clouds. They returned just as fast, too fast for her to react, and dive-bombed the balloon.
Another explosion gripped the airship, that time from above. With their two sources of flight destroyed, the airship gave a creaking and moaning cry before plummeting. Fire and cinders consumed the airship’s hull and balloon, reaching the deck and spreading the flames.
“We’re on fire, captain!” Lix Spittle screamed, trying desperately to grab onto anything that might save her life. She eventually grasped the ship’s railing, gazing in mixtures of shock and horror to the rapidly approaching ground. “We’re going down!”
Celaeno tried to maintain control of the ship, but it was no use. She was simply turning it left and right, unable to stop its inevitable crash. Thinking fast, Celaeno shot her talon out to the parrot on her left and shouted, “Squabble, you ensure that glove reaches our allies!”
“Celaeno, what are you talking abo—?!” Mullet tried to shout, but couldn’t. Tried to turn to his captain, but hadn’t. He could only face the earth, feel the blood drain from his face, and his breath leave him. The clouds had dispersed. The smoke had dissipated. The ground came faster than they knew.
“Hang onto something!” Captain Celaeno ordered.
They did. They tried. The airship struck the earth with resounding force. Earth and rock split as they tore across the ground, ripping through various battalions of Thanos’ ground forces. The airship burned and fell apart in its crash through the dirt, skidding further and further until it struck a Chitauri tank, where it careened and rolled before finally coming to a thundering end. The pirates fell out from the crash, landing on the dirt harshly. Painfully. But alive. Squabble was among those pirates, trying to fly as he was flung from the airship. He failed and crashed and rolled on the dirt.
He skidded for several yards, face in the ground, until he finally came to a stop. The airship burned behind him, the ravaged earth consumed with war in the distance, a war that was only nearing his position. Groaning, the parrot pirate lifted his head and shook it, his cross-eyed expression centering on the shadow standing before him. The head of the shadow tilted, the antennae tilting with it.
Squabble moaned, holding out his claws and the Nano Gauntlet that rested upon them.
The torch was passed onto Mantis, into the arms of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Finally bursting through the fire and smoke, Thanos cast the destroyed airship a quick once-over before his eyes settled ahead. He saw with rage in his eyes as the gauntlet was handed over to Mantis, the alien woman returning to her fellow Guardians with the Infinity Stones in her grasp. Thanos roared at that, sprinting ahead with his sword in hand, murder radiating off of his person. The Guardians spun around, seeing the Mad Titan raging their way with no intent to stop.
They had no intent to run.
Peter Quill activated his mask, the red eyes burning through the smoke as Star-Lord led the charge. Rocket, Groot, Drax, Nebula, Yondu, Kraglin, and Howard the Duck stampeded behind him, leaving Mantis behind to protect the gauntlet. Thanos reared back in mid-sprint, tossing his sword onward in an attempt to decapitate all who stood before him.
They all either ducked or scattered from the blade. Quill slid underneath it, the sword ripping at the air as it spun viciously across the sky and back into Thanos’ hand. Star-Lord shot out his Quad Blasters before that, firing madly at the Titan and getting several shots on him. His armor blocked most of the hits, Thanos reaching out for his blade and catching it shortly. Star-Lord caught flight and soared past Thanos, firing from above while Groot, Nebula, and Drax attacked from below.
Thanos could only block so many of Quill’s shots before his focus was brought elsewhere, onto the three advancing Guardians attacking him with overwhelming force. Drax attacked with his knee leading the charge, striking Thanos in the abdomen and pushing him backwards. His knives sliced at every exposed area Drax could find, the Destroyer unhinged and attacking Thanos with every ounce of pent-up rage and aggression he felt towards him. Nebula and Groot shared the same boat as Drax, delivering devastating punches and kicks across Thanos’ face and body. Rocket, Kraglin, and Howard fired from the distance with their individual firearms.
Catching Groot’s fist, Thanos threw the Guardian at the others in the distance, knocking Rocket, Kraglin, and Howard off their feet and scattering them across the dirt. The majority of the laser fire had ceased, giving the Titan a better sense of clarity to his surroundings. He blocked Drax’s swipes with his armored forearms and retaliated by ramming one of those forearms across Drax’s head, swinging at Nebula with his sword and seeing her dodge his strikes. Quill continued to fire from above. Yondu slid to a stop and whistled.
Nebula jammed her Electroshock Baton into Thanos’ side, earning a grunt of shock from her father as the electricity coursed across his armor. He glared to her, reaching for the Luphomoid. Star-Lord charged up and fired from above with both Quad Blasters, blowing a hole where she stabbed in Thanos’ armor. Thanos screamed at that, clutching Nebula by her arm, spinning around, and throwing his daughter for Quill. The two Guardians crashed into one another, their bodies falling and disappearing in the smoke and dust.
Thanos graced the wound on his left side, grimacing at the sight of the burnt skin unveiled through his melted armor. He didn’t stare forever when he heard the sound of a sharp whistle grow louder and louder. He raised his eyes to it, only having a split second to react to the stream of red tearing across the battlefield and reach his forehead.
A split second where he reacted perfectly.
He caught the Yaka Arrow mere inches from his head. From a guaranteed kill shot right between the eyes. Yondu’s own widened in shock.
That shock only amplified when Thanos snapped the arrow, wheeling towards Udonta and snarling. He kicked Yondu and focused ahead, away from the distractions he dealt with and onto what truly mattered. Mantis caught his eyes center on her, the Guardian clutching the gauntlet and running as fast as her legs could carry her in the opposite direction. Thanos gave chase. He ran after Mantis and caught up rather quickly, punched her aside and knocked the gauntlet out of her hands.
As Mantis’ body flew and tumbled across the dirt unmoving, Thanos turned rapidly to the gauntlet that was flung from her grasp. It crashed against the earth, sliding until it came to a dead stop several yards away from him. The Infinity Stones glimmered under the dying light of the sun, the glove shimmering against the orange fires that surrounded the distance. Once more, Thanos made another mad dash for his destiny, reaching it with just one more step to go.
Drax tackled him out of the way. Once more, just mere inches away.
Already pushed to his limit, Thanos was ready to end the feeble Guardian’s attempts once and for all. He raised his sword to do so, but nearly lost his breath in a millisecond of shock. In that single millisecond, Thanos felt a piercing pain in his left side. The Titan gazed down to it, seeing the knife embedded in his previous wound. Drax stabbed Thanos in his exposed side.
And he met the Titan’s shock with a glare, growling, “For Ovette… For Kamaria!” He rammed the blade in deeper.
Drawing a flow of blood and a cry from Thanos, Drax was already rearing back with his second knife, ready to end the Titan once and for all. Thanos elbowed him in the face, disorienting Drax long enough for him to grab his head and fling him aside. As the Guardian flew off and crashed in the distance, Thanos reached downward—and with a wincing pang of effort—pulled out the knife. His violet blood was a slight blur in his vision, Thanos shaking it all away and focusing.
The pain was temporary. It would all be over soon. Just a little while longer.
When his vision returned to him, all that he saw was the gauntlet. All he saw were the Stones. His body cried out, but his mind and his will overpowered even his physical prowess. He tossed the bloody knife away and ran for the gauntlet, which was blown away by an invisible force.
Thanos stared to the cracked earth where the gauntlet once laid, feeling his strength slowly dwindling, his patience running thin, and his rage only continuing to fester. He could not take it much longer. With every attempt to reach the Stones, it was always pulled further and further away, a seemingly never-ending struggle. His bones ached. His mind quaked. What little strength he had left kept him standing, kept the sword in his hand, kept the remaining fight in his spirit. There was not much of it left. He weakly stared to the gauntlet flying and disappearing through the chaos.
That invisible force finally showed itself. It finally descended from the sky and overshadowed even the Dark Lord. With his remaining strength, Thanos looked up.
Hovering there, a familiar face and goatee glared down at the Mad Titan. The flowing cape, the dark uniform, and the radiating power from his presence alone made Thanos groan. Nonetheless, his expression morphed into a fierce snarl, Thanos rising high and forcing himself to stand his ground. He stood before him, and Graviton, like the others, would fall all the same.
Glenn Talbot shared a similar mindset. Thanos, like his alien armies, would fall before him.
All the same.
“Remember me?” Talbot asked under that ferocious glare, his voice dropping several octaves into a darkened essence of power, that Gravitonium flowing through his veins empowering his voice and making him sound otherworldly. All-powerful and unstoppable.
Thanos merely rolled his shoulder, twirling his blade and groaning, “Unfortunately.”
Talbot smirked.
Neither hesitated any longer. They charged one another with only one intent in mind.
Both felt that intent as they collided, Talbot crashing against the earth and launching that gust of unseen power onto the Titan. Thanos stumbled back from that push, but nonetheless pushed on and charged Talbot. He swung at him with his blade and fist in tandem, Graviton managing to block several of Thanos’ strikes just with his forearms. His armored gauntlets kept him safe, sparks flying from the Uru blade slicing against Talbot’s armor. Snarling and barring his teeth, Thanos struck Talbot in the side of the head with his fist, and shockingly enough, Glenn stumbled from the hit. Spinning his sword, Thanos sneered and reared back with his weapon, swinging down with rapid and deadly precision.
The blade stopped. Suddenly and abruptly. The air the sword sliced at was also deafened, as if all meaning of reality had suddenly vanished and Thanos was trapped in an entirely other world. He was frozen where he stood, unable to move and unable to look anywhere else… except to him.
Glenn Talbot slowly raised his eyes, his glare, and met Thanos’ with even more of a murderous fire melting in his expression. The Double-Edged Sword was stuck in an invisible grasp, frozen mere inches from Talbot’s neck. Then, to the Titan’s shock, the sword began to crack. Small veins spread across the Uru, the most durable metal in the universe breaking down just by one man’s stare. Shaken and dumbfounded, Thanos then felt himself slowly being raised from the earth against his will. That same force held him, lifted him, all through the stare of one man.
That same man shot out his hand, and Thanos convulsed in mixtures of pain and distress. His body thrashed as his spine bent backwards at an awkward angle. Though nothing broke—yet—Thanos managed to grit his teeth and turn his narrowed glare back down to the earth. Meeting his. Graviton crushed his hand into a fist.
Instantaneously, the golden plates of armor covering Thanos’ body were ripped and peeled away. Crushed like tinfoil. Thanos growled and screamed as that force began to crush him the same way Talbot’s hand crushed into a fist. It was his armor that crumbled inward, ensuring to Thanos that it would not hold for much longer. He would not hold for much longer.
Desperately running out of options, Thanos’ adrenaline-fueled mind shot back to his last fail-safe, his last trick up his sleeve. In case all else failed on the battlefront, he had one last resort to turn to when all seemed lost. He did not know what would truly happen, if his troops would survive or not. It didn’t matter. None of it would in the grander scheme.
Only he needed to live.
So, he screamed, “Rain fire!”
The order was caught by numerous Elite ears, sent to the ferocious battle station glaring down from the clouds, and ultimately enacted only through the will of the Dark Lord. From Sanctuary II, the mighty wings of the warship opened to unveil several dozen energy cannons. Those cannons charged quickly and fired down to the battlefield, to everything and everyone they could find. None were safe. None were spared.
The first blasts of the bombardment were swift and terrible, like the killing blow of a blade or a bullet to the head. Utterly powerful in their descent and especially in their impact. The blue bolts of energy struck the earth with resounding force and power, decimating anything caught in-between. Anything. Ravager warships, Equestrian airships, Chitauri, Leviathans, and Necrocrafts were all destroyed in blistering blue and red explosions. Bubbles of fire, cinder, and metal shot out with every reverberating shock wave, consuming the battlefield and knocking its combatants to the ground.
As dozens of warriors were silenced from single blasts of energy from above, the Masters of the Mystic Arts saw to it to combat the bombardment with defensive shields. An army of sorcerers led by Wong created numerous shields above their heads, dozens of various other Asgardians, Equestrians, and Avengers taking cover beneath them. Even various unicorns protected themselves and others with their own magical shields. The armies of Ponyville civilians, EEA sorcerers, and countless others wielded magic to protect their Equus brothers and sisters of different races. They took their stand and shot their horns to the sky to create domes of pure magic. Sanctuary II’s cannons continued to strike at them, cracking numerous shields in its unrelenting assault.
Even the War Horse was protected. While the skies were definitely not the safest place to be in the moment of overwhelming bombardment, the Equestrian Grand Fleet defended themselves to the best of their abilities. Many airships were taken down, but the few that managed to react in time, they survived. They persevered. The unicorns atop the deck of the War Horse, atop Grubber’s airship, all shot their horns to the sky and created conjoined magical shields above the ships. Many other airships joined them, the blasts incinerated against the magical shields. Many other airships were not so lucky.
Upon the rippled and shattered earth, the bombardment was relentless and unforgiving. Leviathans were torn to shreds, their final cries howling out before their bodies plummeted to a fiery death. The remaining Chitauri Titans shielded themselves against the blasts, miraculously managing to survive long enough. As for the Avengers, those who were unable to reach a shield in time were blown aside, knocked back, and lost within the warzone of utter madness. Talbot was thrown back from the cannon fire, releasing his grasp around the Mad Titan. Twilight grabbed onto Spike and held on for dear life as the nearby blasts threw them around. War Machine grasped onto Banner’s shoulder, failing to hold onto him and losing the Hulk within the dust and fire. Rocket clutched onto Groot as both Guardians fell, the raccoon screaming as the blasts surrounded and zeroed in on them.
And then it stopped. It just stopped.
All was silent.
It was so quiet that everyone who survived could hear themselves breathing.
Every life—from Avenger to Equestrian, Asgardian to Chitauri, Wakandan to Sakaaran—every single life that managed to survive picked themselves off the earth and stared in the same direction. For just a moment, just a moment to breathe, the war had ceased. The sorcerers cut off their magic and rose from the dust on the earth. The magic that shielded the remaining airships in the sky vanished, the War Horse’s inhabitants turning appropriately to the source of the assault, to where it had all silenced.
Even Thanos rose up and stared to his warship, confusion gripping his features.
Suddenly, every single cannon on Sanctuary II turned. They disregarded Thanos’ order and fired straight ahead, directly into the distant storm clouds and vanishing within that darkness. To Thanos’ growing perplexity, he pondered as to why Sanctuary II would do so when he ordered a rain fire onto the battlefield. His orders could only be overruled if the warship detected a greater threat.
Thanos felt the breath he had managed to acquire quickly leave his lungs. His eyes slowly enlarged, head tilting to the west and staring in frozen silence. More energy blasts into the darkness.
The onslaught continued for seconds on end, until someone finally managed to question it.
“Homer, what am I lookin’ at?” Stark asked. The Iron Man slowly rose from the ground alongside his allies, gazing to the direction of the bombardment and seeing nothing within the storm, nothing that the blasts could actually direct to and impact. There was simply nothing there.
By his own vision, there was nothing there.
From the all-seeing eyes of Tony Stark’s AI, he saw it all from the satellites in space. He examined it from the airwaves, the interdimensional essence flowing through the atmosphere and finally ceasing. He saw it all and his voice was utterly shaken when he spoke those words. When Homer answered his creator’s question.
“Sir… something just exited the Quantum Realm.”
Only Tony Stark heard that. Only he received that clarification and was still disturbed when it emerged out of the clouds. Soon enough, everyone and every life turned to the clouds and saw it for themselves. When its shadow fell over them, they too fell within that darkness, utterly consumed in it. When they heard that horn flow from it, only Sunset Shimmer quivered and gazed in terror.
When Ultron’s Fortress exited the clouds, the endgame had completely changed.