Infinity Era

by JDPrime22


Chapter 183 – Legacy

183

The Battle of Earth

7:01 p.m.

Captain Marvel froze in mid-flight, hovering in place and watching as the Fortress utterly decimated the earth and skies.

It’s repulsor cannons filled the air with resounding power, transferring that power with each blast that ripped apart entire landscapes and whatever form of life was caught under its light. Shock waves washed across the battlefield as the Fortress’ bombardment proceeded. In the midst of its onslaught, a flurry of cannon fire hit the hull of the Fortress, but fell short when the warship’s shields protected it from any external attack. The War Horse’s cannons were hopelessly useless against it.

And with Sanctuary II destroyed and lying in the river, all that remained to stand against Ultron’s dominance was the lead airship of the Equestrian Grand Fleet. The Fortress fired upon both it and the helpless lives below.

Carol watched in mixtures of horror and hesitation as those repulsor blasts tore across the skies and neared the War Horse. Several blasts managed to eviscerate the hull of the airship, the unicorns’ magic shielding only able to block so much before they began to falter. The auras around the airship crumbled with each blast, the War Horse caught between retreating and engaging. With her enhanced hearing, Carol could catch every shred of chaos unfolding on the deck of the War Horse.

“Captain Spitfire, we need to evacuate to the escape crafts! The War Horse is lost!”

“No, we can do this! Concentrate fire on their cannons!”

“Nothing we do can get through their shielding!”

“There has to be another way!”

Carol believed that. With all of Ultron’s tricks, strengths, and might, she had still bested him once. He wasn’t unstoppable. Through all that armor, there had to be chink. There had to be another way. Gazing slowly back to the Fortress, Carol’s inflamed eyes narrowed slowly to the various openings on the ship, where hundreds upon hundreds of Ultron Sentinels continuously flowed free and out into the battle. Carol flew closer, just a few dozen more feet closer.

She saw as the golden Sentinels phased through the Fortress’ shielding with each body.

She raised a curious brow, that brow slowly morphing into a glare. Her body grew brighter, igniting fully with pulsating cosmic energy until every inch of her—from her limbs to her face—were enveloped under a shield of gold. Her hair flowed wildly. Her hands tightened into burning fists. Carol Danvers’ eyes shimmered like stars and Captain Marvel reached Binary.

At the speed of light, she blasted forth directly for the Fortress and rammed herself, fist-first, through the warship’s opening, its shields, and completely burned through anything in-between. Ultron Sentinels were evaporated into red-hot fragments of ash as her scourge of light washed past them, the radiating waves of energy that burst forth from her body as hot as the surface of the sun. The Ultron Sentinels could not stop her. The defensive shields of the Fortress simply disintegrated as she tore through them. The docking bay, which held thousands of more Sentinels ready for deployment, was destroyed simply by her flying through it. It exploded.

Anything caught between her and her stream of light back into the outside world exploded.

In a flash of light, each end of the Fortress burst forth with flames and metal raining outwards. Bubbles of pure fire and destruction exploded out like a volcano on each end. The repulsor lights of the mighty Fortress—what kept the ship stable and airborne—flickered on and off, from death to life, as the rest of the ship erupted and crumbled.

Carol Danvers stopped on a dime, spinning around to witness her actions unfold in the grandest, brightest, and most devastating way imaginable. The horrific sounds of failing machines of war and the rippling explosions that consumed them shot out across all the battlefield, for miles and causing every eye to turn to its destruction. Fire and metal rained down like ash and snow, massive fragments and repulsor cannons of the Fortress breaking off and falling to a devastating crash below.

Through it all, Carol made sure she punched her way through what she could have assumed was the shield generator. From what she saw, Carol assumed right.

The brightened shields on the exterior of the Fortress flickered similarly to the repulsors, except the shields were the ones that darkened for good. As the defenses shattered and evaporated, the Fortress was left unguarded. Fires continue to rage across its surface as several dozen more blistering eruptions broke free from its hull. It was damaged. It was weakened.

It was vulnerable.

Seeing the devastating rock across the surface of Ultron’s Fortress, Spitfire twisted back to the ponies handling the guns and shouted, “Now’s our chance! Open fire!”

Each cannon was loaded. Each and every single available and functional cannon atop and within the War Horse spun accordingly, locked on with the burning husk of the Fortress, and followed through with their captain’s order. They fired. They fired again and again and again. The air burned with smoke and fire and cannon balls shot forth with devastating speed and force. The War Horse flew by the behemoth of a warship, unloading and unleashing everything it possibly had for one last strike. The rest of the Grand Fleet followed, the smaller airships circling the Fortress and firing away.

With each impact, the hull of the Fortress only continued to break apart and explode. The repulsor cannons had no hope of charging up in time with their internal systems destroyed upon Carol’s actions. Each cannon surrounding the edges of the Fortress were targeted and destroyed in a bombardment of fury and fire. Ultron Sentinels that survived, that tried to escape the crumbling Fortress, were shot out of the sky continuously and instantaneously. The Fortress had nothing left to defend itself. It simply hovered in place, nowhere to run, as the Equestrian Grand Fleet shot it right out of the sky.

And brought it the earth.

An equally-powerful explosion that mirrored Carol’s first impact infected and devoured the Fortress from the inside-out. The War Horse and the Grand Fleet ceased its bombardment just in time to see that explosion ripple throughout the warship’s exterior. The Fortress gave off its final horn before the repulsors beneath it started to give in. All systems upon Ultron’s ship slowly died, the Fortress tilting and the inhabitants upon every other airship cheering triumphantly.

The Fortress’ flaming hull filled Spitfire’s eyes as the army atop her ship’s deck cheered and hugged one another. Even Spitfire couldn’t help but let her defenses fall down and a victorious smile reach her lips. Just a second of a distraction was all that was needed to become vulnerable, and they suffered for it.

Beneath them, through the smoke, dust, and ashes that clouded the earth, the last Chitauri Titan burst forth from it and roared its terrifying war cry. Its remaining limbs that hadn’t been blown off from the War Horse’s bombardment upon it earlier grasped and captured the entire airship.

Ponies flailed and screamed as the War Horse rocked and teetered uncontrollably. The Titan’s massive claws gripped the edges of the ship, eventually bringing the War Horse further down to the awaiting battlegrounds. Once the Chitauri’s feet hit the earth, it brought the War Horse with it, holding out the massive airship and growing to the inhabitants atop its deck. Spitfire backed away slowly, each and every life behind her captured under the shadow of the Chitauri Titan.

Only, it wasn’t the Titan’s shadow.

Spitfire was the only pony to realize that and tilted her eyes further skyward.

Beyond the Titan’s head, the flaming remains of the Fortress descended upon them with no hope of stopping. No hope of yielding. Its shadow fell over them and only continued to grow larger, darker, and heavier the longer Spitfire did nothing. The Chitauri opened its maw, the rows of jagged teeth unveiled and nearing the War Horse.

It never saw the Fortress. Spitfire gazed into its mouth and spun violently back to the cannons.

FIRE!”

They loaded in the last cannon ball at that exact second, firing within the next. Spitfire’s ears grew deaf to the following events, first from the cannon fire directly over her head. Then, from the explosive impact against the Titan’s maw and the reverberating cries that escaped the beast’s throat. Then, the engines ignited to their peak, crying out and pushing the War Horse free from the Chitauri’s weakened grasp. The Titan stumbled backwards with its mouth aflame, turning and watching as the airship made its hasty escape. It cried to them, roared in mixtures of hatred and agony.

Then, the rumbling cry of the Fortress’ horn filled the air. The last Chitauri Titan slowly twisted its head back to it, only had a second to see the burning warship before its shadows enveloped the beast in total darkness. It crashed upon the Titan, the beast’s roars getting cut in half and silencing it for good.

Finally, like Spitfire, nearly every eardrum on the battlefield went numb when the Fortress struck the ground.

The first event to come from it was the shock wave. One grander and mightier than any other that had filled the battlefield prior. It washed across the shattered landscapes and through the legions of Ultron Sentinels, Avengers, and Chitauri forces locked in heated battle. All life was deafened, thrown back, and utterly breathless as the mountain of fire and metal erupted into a blistering fireball of otherworldly proportions. The Sentinels gazed silently to the eruption, every single robotic eye latching to the Fortress’ destruction and catching every second of it.

And from his many eyes, Ultron saw every available angle of his ship burned away. He was momentarily frozen in battle, casting his personal gaze to the remnants of his Fortress and staring longingly, almost painfully. Almost in disbelief.

All six of his eyes shot up to the streak of light in the skies. He narrowed each one to her alone.

Captain Marvel paused in mid-air, hovering high above the smoldering ruins of Ultron’s Fortress. She gave it a lingering stare, quickly turning aside and focusing on the growling engines of the War Horse trembling past her. From its deck, she could both see and hear the ponies cheering and waving to her. Spitfire, especially, offered Danvers a nod and a salute.

She shouted, “Thanks for the assist, Captain!”

Carol smiled back, offering her own salute. “Excellent finish there, Captain! You let me know if you need any more help!”

Surprisingly enough, Spitfire shook her head, hoof pointing back to the eight Chitauri Command Centers hanging off in the distance. Carol followed the direction of her hoof, spotting the Command Centers and letting her jaw fall because of that.

She turned back, met her eyes as Spitfire shouted, “We got it handled from here! You go save the universe!”

Carol wanted to linger still, even going so far as to shoot out her hand in a weakened attempt to stop them, to let them know they didn’t need to go it alone any longer. Yet she was stunned into silence, watching as the skies around her were filled with the remaining airships within the might and power of the Equestrian Grand Fleet. Grubber led his own battalion of battleships to the clouds up high. They all turned their noses skywards, with the War Horse leading them all into the heart of the Chitauri armies. The eight Command Centers hovered above Carol’s line of sight, Captain Spitfire jamming out her hoof in every direction possible and screaming out orders.

“All forces, mount up and full steam ahead! Cannons at the ready, Pegasi in the air, and unicorns prep every offensive spell you got! Let’s show these freaks what happens when you mess with the Equestrian Empire!”

A resounding battle cry filled the remainder of the Grand Fleet, every available airship launched to the skies and the War Horse driving them headlong into the reinforcing waves of Chitauri. The sky was blistered with rocketing explosions in mere seconds, and as the Equestrian Grand Fleet engaged the Command Centers, Carol finally let herself believe in them to finish their job and forced her eyes away.

Back down to the earth to see Ultron and Thanos killing each other.

As for Ultron, he was finally able to pull his focus away from his destroyed Fortress—as well as the Quantum Tunnel and the only means of returning to his time—and force his efforts onto what truly mattered now. With his time machine destroyed, he could not return to his time, and there was very little reason to anymore. The Infinity Stones were brought together in the current timeline he was in. If he could simply acquire the gauntlet that held the Stones, he could reshape the universe to fit his will, something he had yet to achieve in his time.

With one tragedy came a blessing. The loss of his Fortress was not something to mourn, but to relinquish. A greater opportunity was birthed and he focused solely on it.

Yet there was one more who continued to stand in his path, one who sought a similar destiny.

Thanos ripped his blade from the ground, twirling it wickedly before he began to sprint towards Ultron. The AI narrowed his glares onto the Mad Titan, slowly hovering from the shattered earth with all six arms rising forth and ripping mounds of rock from their place. He hurled them at Thanos, who managed to dodge each one and narrow that distance between himself and the robot.

Ultron made it easier for him. He shot forth from the air and collided with the Titan, ramming his forearms against Thanos’ blade and pushing the Dark Lord several feet backwards. Locked there, Thanos tightened his jaw and glared into the AI’s eyes. Ultron’s expression was unreadable, unyielding, dead and merciless. He raised a claw, the fingertips glowing a hellish red. Thanos’ eyes widened.

Before he could fire the concussion blast into the Titan’s skull, Thanos ripped his blade to the side and caught Ultron’s arm with it. The concussion blast struck the earth and missed Thanos by several feet, Ultron twisting back to him and watching as Thanos slowly backed away. Falling to the earth, Ultron rushed forward and slashed, punched, and fired at the Mad Titan again and again. With each strike, Thanos blocked, sparks flying with each impact of the vibranium claws against the Uru sword.

Ultron reared forward, the tips of his claws glowing harshly as he drove his palm towards Thanos’ chest. The Titan dodged to the side, grabbing Ultron’s extended forearm and locking with the AI there. The two grumbled and growled as their divine strengths tried to overcome the other’s. Thanos kept his jaw tight, his muscles tighter, as his eyes slowly rose to meet Ultron’s.

He saw as the AI’s eyes flickered back and forth across Thanos’ body, noting the sickening wound on his right shoulder, the violet blood seeping out of his cracked armor, and the strained, broken, and utterly breathless expression grip the Titan’s features.

“You’re wounded beyond repair,” Ultron growled, arms still grasping and locked with Thanos’ own. He spat, “What could this possibly be worth to you other than absolute power?”

With that pain and exhaustion gripping his mind, Thanos snarled, then screamed, “Everything!”

In one fell swoop, Thanos slipped his grasp around Ultron’s wrist and yanked back. Yanked hard, and ripped the upper right arm of the AI clean from its electrically-modified socket. Ultron gasped and stepped back, free of the Titan’s grasp and free to gaze to his right arms. Only two remained, the upper right limb pulled free and only a few spurts of red electricity coursing across the socket. As he rapidly shifted his astounded gaze back to the Titan, he only had a second to react and even that wasn’t enough time for him, not in his shaken state.

Ramming the edge of his sword across Ultron’s face, Thanos succeeded in pushing back against the AI. Ultron spun as he flew, eventually planting his feet downward and crashing across the gravel. His claws grated against the rock, but soon he had halted, soon he was rising forth once again and facing down the Mad Titan. Thanos breathed. Sneered and breathed. He tossed the limb aside.

Ultron watched as his arm hit the dirt, gazing back to Thanos and growling, “It matters little. Your resilience, your drive… matters even less. Not even you can hope to stop—”

His voice faltered when he felt the blade pierce the back of his head. Ultron hunched forward, reared back, and pulled the blade free to observe it. He spotted the Asgardian runes painting the edges of the dagger, eyes slowly widening to the sight of it. His vision was quickly enveloped in a bright blue and yellow cloak, the slash of a second dagger across his head, and the sudden disappearance of the knife from his claw. Ultron gazed from his open palm and to the cloaked figure rolling in front of him.

The God of Mischief rose to one knee, twirling both blades and jamming them outwards.

“I’m sorry,” Loki said with a devilish grin, “did I interrupt anything?”

Thanos roared.

Within seconds, the two consecutively charged the lone Odinson, but Loki was prepared. He spun around, viciously hurling one of his blades for the Mad Titan. Thanos blocked it with his sword, rearing back and slicing low at the wretched Asgardian. He rolled out of the way just in time, between Thanos’ legs and safely on the opposite side.

Ultron swung his claws for Thanos’ head, the Titan ducking and spinning towards him instantly. He drove his blade downwards across Ultron’s face. The AI barely managed to block it with his raised forearms, deflecting Thanos’ concurrent strikes and responding by sending a brutal concussion blast into his armored chest. The Titan was shot back from that blast, allowing Ultron to bring his attention onto the God of Mischief.

He turned towards Loki and raised his arms to block the blades thrown his way. Loki seemed to carry an infinite amount, each dagger simply materializing into thin air within his grasp. He tossed each dagger towards the approaching AI, Ultron succeeding in deflecting each one and reaching Loki within seconds. The god jammed his next dagger straight for Ultron’s throat, but he caught his forearm and twisted it until the Asgardian started to growl in agony. Ultron growled backed, his remaining right claws all powering up for a guaranteed killing blow.

He didn’t turn around in time when Thanos appeared and slammed the edge of his sword across Ultron’s body. The demented AI went flying to the side, crashing through various piles of destroyed Chitauri starships and Leviathans. Loki was sent tumbling back to the dirt, rising quickly to his feet and turning from the robotic menace and then to Thanos.

Unfortunately, Loki was not able to bring forth a dagger to strike. Thanos held his blade high and drove it straight down, directly through Loki’s chest and impaling him against the rocky earth.

The God of Mischief gasped his last, eyes bugging out of his sockets as he held the massive sword and followed it up to the large, violet hands that gripped it. And Thanos, in that moment of triumph, sent a wicked smile down to the wretched god. He was finally free of Loki’s treachery. The God of Mischief stood impaled beneath him and there was nothing more he could—

Loki sent an even more wicked smile back. Moments before vanishing in a green haze.

Thanos’ blade was clean. Nothing and no one graced it. Just as Thanos’ expression began to crumble, a second haze of green appeared behind him and landed on his back. From it, Loki Odinson latched himself onto the Titan and drove his blade into Thanos’ wounded shoulder.

Thanos howled in pain, spurts of blood rising forth and painting Loki’s palm in it. The God of Mischief held in, further driving his dagger into the Titan and breathing in every inch of Thanos’ torment. However, as he expected, it didn’t last long. Thanos gripped the back of Loki’s head and tossed the god clear across the valley. Loki screamed as he was thrown, his body vanishing through the smoke and crashing several seconds later upon various mounds of rubble and dirt.

Wanting nothing more than to see Loki’s mutilated corpse beneath his boot, Thanos realized he had greater ends to his means. He pulled the blade free from his shoulder, and staring to it, realized how weak and wounded he had become. He would not last longer constantly trifling with meager forces. Before his body and mind gave in, he needed to finish what he started and fast.

Yet Ultron was faster, breaking through the rubble he had crashed through and making his way directly for the Nano Gauntlet. He flew completely over Thanos, no longer paying the Titan any heed and seeking only to strip Thanos of his sole purpose. Snarling at that, Thanos pushed the pain into the deepest, darkest pits of his mind and sprinted on.

Just as Ultron crushed the earth beneath him, he bent forward and nearly had his claws around the gauntlet before he was interrupted. He felt himself being yanked back, already rapidly spinning to see Thanos grasping his cloak and pulling harshly at it. The AI roared, slicing at the Mad Titan and drawing both sparks and blood with his vibranium claws. Thanos felt the claws slice both his chest and chin, but he refused to release him. He yanked back even harder, forcing Ultron to face him head-on.

Perfect.

Ripping his cloak free from Thanos’ grasp, Ultron continued to pelt the Titan with punches and slashes, firing off a few concussion blasts that went nowhere when Thanos raised his blade to block them. Ultron remained persistent, pressing harder and faster on the Dark Lord with no hope of relenting. Just when Ultron drove his middle left arm forward, Thanos blocked it and with a twirl of his Double-Edged Sword, sliced the left arm clean from the rest.

Unlike the others, that arm was attached to Ultron’s body, not by spurts of electricity, but by his own metallic skin. The Uru had sliced cleanly through it, and Ultron simply stood there trying to understand if that was even possible. Even when he had perfected his greatest self, Ultron realized that even he had no idea what was truly possible. He was so dumbstruck that it allowed Thanos to take full advantage and capitalize.

He punched the AI across the face, rolling over Ultron’s shoulder and taking a handful of his red cloak once again. Only that time, he did not falter and he did not hesitate. He landed on both feet and tossed Ultron with every ounce of his strength, and with a deafening roar, watched the robotic menace fly. He ripped the cloak in doing so, the Mad Titan seeing Ultron’s flailing body crash through a minotaur airship. The AI crashed directly into the massive warship’s engines, igniting a greater flame and bringing its entirety down to the earth in a rippling explosion.

Not a second was wasted. Thanos spun around and ran for the gauntlet. He reached it the same second Tony Stark had.

Iron Man sprinted forth in his Mark 45, crashing against the Mad Titan and pushing him away from the Infinity Stones. Even if it was by inches, it was all worth it. His slight disruption ended slower than he expected, Thanos finally retaliating and ramming his elbow across Stark’s face. Tony yelped as the Titan’s hardened bone impacted his armored forehead, earning a painful clang and launching Tony into the dirt.

Thanos cast him a quick glare before he focused back to the gauntlet, bending down and feeling his fingers grace its metallic surface. That was as close as he was able to get, Thanos backing off to dodge the swing of Thor’s Stormbreaker and the following swipes from the mighty Mjølnir. Thor swung for the Titan’s head every single time, only getting as close as the armor near Thanos’ neck and scraping off some sparks from his axe. He tossed the hammer for his head instead, Thanos ducking and rearing forward for the God of Thunder. Thor just grabbed the gauntlet when he felt Thanos’ palm on his shoulder yanking him back.

He spun around just in time to see Luna rain down the might of Asgard.

Princess Luna descended from the clouds, giving cry with the Royal Canterlot Voice and slamming Mjølnir on the back of Thanos’ head. The Titan cried out and fell to his knee, lifting his eyes just quick enough to see Luna roll forward, spin around, and launch Mjølnir directly past him. He caught sight of the hammer missing him by inches, turning to it and seeing it fly into the grasp of none other than Captain America. Rogers caught the hammer in his left palm, falling quickly and slamming the head of the weapon across Thanos’ cheekbone.

And as Thanos spat blood, as Steve rolled in front of him, they met each other’s eyes and simultaneously watched the hammer fly free from Rogers’ palm and into Thanos’ chest. The impact launched Thanos onto his back, the Titan crumbling with a thundering crash. It was nothing compared to the rippling thunder above, Thanos opening his eyes and seeing the Princess of the Sun scream in her descent from above. Mjølnir was struck with various bolts of lightning in her magical grasp. Thanos’ eyes widened.

At the last second, he rolled free and dodged the hammer from striking him dead in the heart, which would have earned a guaranteed kill had Thanos remained. Moving quickly, Thanos rammed his palm around Celestia’s throat and choke-slammed her into the dirt. Mjølnir fell free from her magical grasp, Thanos proceeding to launch her for the cluster of other Avengers in his vicinity. Celestia cried as her body was flung free, striking nothing but dirt and rock as Thor, Steve, and Luna dodged just in time.

Princess Luna was the first, firing a bolt of magic onto Thanos’ left shoulder and disorienting the Titan. Captain America came just as quickly, slamming the sharpened edge of his shattered shield against Thanos’ right thigh and knocking the Titan down to his knee. Thanos raised his head and arm just in time when Thor rammed Stormbreaker towards his chest. He caught the axe by its handle, bolts of electricity striking against Thanos’ body and head. Regardless, he held strong, holding against the might of the God of Thunder.

He had lost his sword long ago, the blade abandoned near some random rubble from what Thanos could see in the corner of his vision. He realized quickly how desperately he needed it in his current situation. Thor shot out his Uru left hand, retrieving Mjølnir and spinning the hammer rapidly onto the axe’s handle. The added weight increased the pressure of the axe, inch by inch, centimeter by centimeter, growing nearer to Thanos’ chest. Thor’s eye was as brightened as the heavenly storms, the god screaming into his face.

As if his endeavors couldn’t possibly get any worse, Captain America and Princess Luna leaped forward and latched themselves onto Thanos’ back. Steve wrapped his right palm around Stormbreaker’s handle while Luna strangled Thanos with her forelegs. Her magic also enveloped the axe, adding her own strength to Thor and Steve’s. Stormbreaker was pushed further and further, the sharpened end cracking through the armor and reaching the skin beneath. Thanos growled and strained against the overwhelming weight against him. He felt the axe break his skin.

He thought fast.

He acted faster.

Punching the head of the axe with his left fist, Thanos managed to knock it away before the Avengers could have driven it into him. He slammed his forehead against Thor’s, disorienting the god long enough to drive his boot into his chest. Thor flew back and crashed with Stormbreaker trailing him, the axe crashing off elsewhere and Thanos reaching back for the two remaining Avengers latched onto him. He caught Luna by her mane and slammed her into the earth in front of him, kicking the princess before she even had the time to rise back up. He did the same with Captain America, grabbing him by the back of his head and throwing him to the dirt. Thanos rolled on top of him, delivering a savage punch into Steve’s face and sending him into a black wave.

Scrambling on his hands and knees like a weakened beggar, Thanos could feel his heart practically beating out of his chest when he finally reached the gauntlet. It was cathartic. It almost didn’t feel real when his hands graced the glove. He didn’t waste another second. He couldn’t.

Slipping his right hand into the Nano Gauntlet, Thanos felt an instantaneous wave of power and agony flush across his forearm, his limb, and even onto the right side of his entire body. He howled and cried out to the heavens above, unable to contain the rushing waves of torment infecting his veins in a rainbow of streams. The six Infinity Stones growled and sparked to life upon the face of the gauntlet, Thanos holding his right hand high to the heavens and screaming through every agonizing second.

He brought his middle finger to his thumb. Pressed it.

Then, through blurred, teary eyes, he saw as the red haze of psionic energy consumed his entire forearm and pried his fingers apart. The Stones cooled down, Thanos gazing in awestruck confusion as his limb was forcefully brought down. His eyes flicked forward, widening at the sight of the Scarlet Witch with her palms outstretched, energy encasing each finger and forcing that energy onto him.

Suddenly, flying high, bright, and straight past Wanda’s head, Captain Marvel descended quickly and slammed her foot across Thanos’ face. He crumbled to one knee, Thanos crying out and turning his blurring vision onto Carol Danvers. The woman hovered in mid-air several meters behind him, tightening her fists and blasting off for another swooping strike. Thanos waited. His glare worsened as Carol only grew closer. He waited until the very last second, his strength breaking through Wanda’s own and the Nano Gauntlet forming a tight fist. Wanda gritted her teeth.

Just as Carol reached the Titan, Thanos screamed and drove his fist directly into her face. Captain Marvel shot back like a bullet from the strike, giving Thanos enough time to focus back on Maximoff. The Scarlet Witch cursed herself for letting Thanos break free of her grasp. She would not allow it again.

Planting her feet forward, Wanda slammed her palms directly towards Thanos and released every ounce of energy she had left. The red haze utterly consumed Thanos from head to toe, raising the Mad Titan from the cracking earth and several mounds of rock that rested near him. Wanda’s eyes were enveloped in that similar haze of crimson, the Witch ripping away and prying at Thanos’ remaining shreds of armor.

Cringing at the overwhelming pressure tearing at his arms, legs, body, and being, Thanos looked to the skies and winced at the sight of his Sanctuary II gone, the last image of it being dead in the river and burning away. With no other hope for support from his armies, Thanos had to rely solely on himself to survive from that point on. As he had before. Slowly glaring over to his right arm, he managed just enough strength to tilt his forearm to face him, all six Infinity Stones shimmering in his eyes and begging for release. Thanos grunted and cried, unleashing that cry as he forced every last molecule of his very being just to point his right hand forward.

It took even more than that to crush his hand into a fist, but it worked. It paid off.

A pulsating tear of reality shot forth from the Power Stone, that bolt of violet energy striking the ground and throwing Wanda off her feet. She was flung back, crashing off elsewhere and unable to hold onto Thanos any longer. As she landed and rolled, Wanda eventually came to a rest on her chest, pressing both palms onto the dirt in some vain attempt to rise back up. Her arms trembled. Her lungs quaked. Her mind faded and one of the last things she saw before the wave of unconsciousness consumed her was the Mad Titan stomping forth.

She lifted her eyes and stared to him, unmoving, unable to breathe, and gazing in awestruck terror as Thanos held the gauntlet out to her. Pressed his middle finger to his thumb to her. Glared solely to her and roared out as that power flowed.

He almost snapped. He nearly did. Carol Danvers grunted as she caught the gauntlet and crashed in front of him.

Wanda passed out at that, unable to hold on a second longer.

And with that, Captain Marvel was all that was left, the only Avenger left standing to face the Titan and stop him from killing the universe. Her palms gripped the fingers of the Nano Gauntlet, preventing him from connecting them, preventing him from fulfilling his final solution. Thanos stared hatefully to the woman beneath him. Carol glared right on back. Pulsating waves of cosmic energy flowed from her body like she was raging furnace, giving her every ounce of strength she needed to stand against him. Thanos saw her efforts with a growing sense of disdain, seeking to end her pathetic attempt at retribution by focusing his efforts on two Stones. Just two. It was all he needed to best her.

The Space and Power Stones ignited, their conjoined pulse of energy washing into Carol’s limbs and earning a sickening cry of pain from Captain Marvel. Thanos watched with mild delight to see her crumble, watched as her body trembled beneath her and slowly fell to her knees. He pushed on, adding the pressure and ensuring she fell just as she did before. He coiled his right hand into a fist, but then quickly realized… he couldn’t. His smile slowly melted away.

It melted under the piercing heat of her rising glare.

She pressed her foot into the ground. Then, the other. Thanos’ breathing grew more rapid, eyes continuously growing in that static shock of disbelief striking his heart, mind, and understanding. She pushed back. Against the forces of space and power itself, she pushed back. Her body glowed brighter as her Binary overcame it. Her glare grew fiercer as she rose taller to meet him fully.

Carol Danvers overcame it. She overcame.

Thanos was rendered utterly speechless.

In that fire, in that power, she met his eyes and declared, “I’m more than just a Stone.”

From that, Thanos had no answer. It was only until she rose higher and pushed him to his knees did he find that answer. It was right in front of him. Her fist burned brighter than the sun, Thanos grimacing against it and flicking his eyes to the purple gem illuminating against the face of the gauntlet. He reacted solely on instinct and raw luck, using his own naked fingers to pry the Power Stone from the glove, hold it in the palm of his hand, and clench it into a fist.

Carol’s eyes widened. She didn’t even have time to gasp. Thanos screamed in pain as he drove his power-fueled fist directly into her heart.

The resulting shock wave sent a pulse of cosmic power throughout the immediate vicinity. A stream of violet rays shot forth from Thanos’ fist, trailing Captain Marvel as she flew faster, faster, and faster to a devastating crash several miles in the distance.

Silence settled and Thanos breathed.

Upon one knee, Thanos slowly allowed those ragged intakes of air to soothe his battered body and soul. Violet blood dripped slowly from his being, from multiple wounds, and all burned numb against the Mad Titan’s skin. All he could feel was the seething pain shooting forth from his left palm, prompting Thanos’ attention onto it. He raised his left hand, shakily opened his fingers and gazed to the purple light burning hellishly within.

The Power Stone remained in the center of his palm, with several sickening cracks infecting his hand and slowly consuming the rest of his forearm. Thanos winced at that, allowing his fingers to cautiously grip the purple gem and bring it back to the gauntlet where it belonged, where it can join the remaining five Infinity Stones once again.

Ultron had other plans.

He tackled Thanos with as much speed and ferocity as his enhanced body could allowed, grappling with the Mad Titan in mid-air and eventually gaining that much-needed advantage. Ultron grasped Thanos by his throat, rearing back and driving him directly into the shattered earth. He dragged the Titan for several yards, eventually releasing him. Ultron shot up in the air, shooting back down just as quickly and planting his feet into the Titan’s armored chest.

Thanos raised the gauntlet to stop him, but watched in growing shock and despair as Ultron’s claws shot forward and grasped his right arm, bending his forearm so he couldn’t close his hand into a fist. He couldn’t use the Stones. Thanos bellowed at that, even losing his voice when Ultron’s multitude of claws grasped his throat, too.

The Titan struggled to breathe, to move, to do anything other than gaze into the red glare of the demented AI abomination. And he was, truly, an abomination. He seemed like a machine, just a cluster of wires and metal. Yet his eyes held several leagues of a greater hell that Thanos had only seen once before, a gaze he never wanted to see again. In Ultron’s six eyes, he saw the blistering red fires of the greatest stars, the eyes of a serpent. The eyes of a god. Ultron slowly narrowed that distance between them, their faces mere inches apart, eyes boring deeply into the other’s. Thanos was forced nowhere else but onto him, forced to hear every wretched vibration of his voice echo around him.

Ultron said, “No matter what universe, what timeline… you will always fall before me, Thanos. You… will always be a failure. Face your true destiny, your legacy bound to dirt!”

Then, before Thanos could react accordingly, Ultron shot his middle right hand forward and grabbed it. He grabbed the Power Stone and ripped it right from Thanos’ hands.

A resulting pulse of chaos burst forth and launched Thanos back for several more feet. The Titan pushed himself from that dirt, rising to his knee and seeing the tornado of violet energy swarming Ultron until he could no longer see the AI within it. Until Ultron was completely consumed and the raw strength of the Power Stone flowed outwards and spread its madness across the atmosphere. And yet through it all, once the tornado of fire ceased and the energy of the Power Stone reverted back to the gem, Ultron was still standing.

He held the Power Stone in his right fist and screamed as its rippling energy devoured his arm.

Ultron held that fist to the heavens, metallic jaws unhinged as the red in his eyes was mixed with the invasive purple. Every red vein, every inch of himself was momentarily consumed in the wave of violet, the abomination’s screams reverberating across the battlefield, into the skies, and for all the universe to hear. It continued for several seconds, his terrible shrieks sounding otherworldly, demonic, so similar to what Thanos had heard once before. And the Mad Titan was breathless to it, shocked beyond understanding, as he gazed to Ultron and watched as he brought his fist back down.

And gazed to it, slowly unfurling his claws and observing the purple power gem. Then, he chuckled. Ultron, the beast, whatever he truly was… chuckled. “Only now… do you understand… what I am capable of. Only now do you see what destiny has truly wrought. You… are nothing. Your fight… is nothing. The powers of this world will kneel to me once more! And you will not see the end of this day!”

Ultron raised his fist high, the violet cracks consuming it and the AI howling to the whole inhabited Earth.

“Know the power of the Titan of Wind!”

He tightened his fist. The Power Stone was unleashed.

Wars raging beyond and around them momentarily ceased as the entire world trembled. From the armies of the Avengers, the inhabitants of Equus, the Chitauri, and the Ultron Sentinels, every body stumbled as the earth quaked beneath them. From those quakes, the earth unveiled its terror. Entire masses of land were ripped free from the earth, each one ranging from various sizes. From landscapes to the size of mountains, the shards of the world hovered higher and higher for as long as Ultron held the Power Stone, roared to every doomed life, and rose with it.

Thanos witnessed the battlefield shatter and rise, his mind working on overdrive and his senses off the charts. He tried to turn his focus onto what mattered, but always fell away to see and hear every wretched sound that came from the crumbling planet. Finally, through that sheer willpower—the only true strength he had left—Thanos’ eyes broke through the lumbering masses of rock and earth and spotted the robotic terror hovering within the cataclysm’s center.

He ran.

Through tattered landscapes, leaping from mountain to mountain, Thanos ran and ensured that Ultron would not succeed and steal what was rightfully his. Ultron seemed to catch onto Thanos’ intentions, spotting the Titan growing nearer and narrowing his red and violet glare to him. He fired numerous concussion blasts mixed with the energy of the Power Stone, those streams of fire blasting forth and tearing through anything between him and Thanos.

With a clench of his right fist, Thanos unleashed the power of the five Infinity Stones to ensure he alone survived.

The concussion blasts zoomed past him and struck the mounds of rock he leaped from, causing each mountain to erupt into a blistering shock wave of violet and fire. He used the Reality Stone to turn Ultron’s blasts into bubbles when they managed to reach. Seething at that, Ultron pried mountains of pure rock right out of the air and hurled them at the Titan. From that, seeing the overwhelming shadow of the mountains flung at him, Thanos clenched his fist and used the Time Stone to slow it all down. With an extra boost from the Space Stone, Thanos was scaling the mountain and rushing forth to meet Ultron on the other side.

Ultron screeched a demonic cry at that, unleashing everything he and everything he was capable of, from every concussion blast from his remaining arms, eyes, and mouth. The Power Stone gave him strength, too much of it, as the blasts shot forth and tore through the rising mounds of the world, but not one beam striking Thanos. From portal to portal, Thanos teleported using the Space Stone, growing that much closer to the AI and severing that distance. He tackled Ultron out of the air.

As they came to a thundering crash back to the ground, each being rose and engaged one another. Ultron tried to slash at him, tried to blast him, tried anything he could possibly manage with his limb turning into a blistering inferno of violet energy and quickly consuming the rest of his person. Thanos, more stabilized, froze Ultron where he was with the Mind Stone. The AI paused, claws rising up to clutch his skull as that irresistible force infected his mind. Just when he thought it couldn’t get any worse, Thanos twisted his forearm and ignited the power of the Soul Stone.

Ultron was ripped from the earth, his chest arched high, his body convulsing and roars of agony flushing free from the AI. Thanos glared to the rising robot, his right fist clenching harder and harder and the Soul Stone burning even brighter. The Titan bellowed as he slowly pried at the AI’s pure essence, quite literally ripping the soul straight out of him. And free did the soul come, flowing out from Ultron’s chest and billowing high above the robotic abomination to unveil only a higher, mightier, and more terrifying abomination. One Thanos had seen long ago.

From Ultron’s remaining being, Thanos ripped the spirit of Typhon right from him. The beast Thanos saw was not some false name or title. He gazed upon the dark shadow, the unholy red eyes, and the titanic dragon he knew only as Set. The Elder God’s soul cried out to the skies with each towering wing, with all seven heads, before the anomaly, the spirit, all of it faded away. Vaporized into thin air.

It was gone. It was finished. With that, Thanos ignited the Space Stone and yanked Ultron right out of the air and into his awaiting grasp.

Clutching Ultron by his throat, Thanos glared hatefully to the AI and observed how broken he had become. How drained he seemed of that power Thanos ripped from him. All that was left was just him, just the program stuck inside a metal containment. Thanos narrowed his eyes, flared his nostrils, and crushed his right hand into a fist. All five Infinity Stones ignited.

But not before he growled to Ultron, “This… is how you end. This… is your legacy.”

The rainbow of colors devoured Ultron. And just as the AI began to react to it, just as his screams assaulted Thanos’ ears, he was gone, combusted into a blistering eruption of energy, metal, and fire when Thanos closed his fist. From the destroyed body, Thanos bent down and caught the Power Stone before it could hit the earth.

As for the earth, it instantly settled with the death of Ultron’s body. Mountains of rock and landscapes hovered momentarily before they all dropped, crashing against the rest of the world and killing anything unfortunate to be caught under their shadows. Chaos and madness spread fast across the battlefield, but Thanos paid it no heed. He gazed only to the Power Stone infecting his left palm.

Slowly, painfully, he clutched the Stone with his fingers and raised it over the face of the Nano Gauntlet. Releasing that burning agony, Thanos placed the Power Stone back into its place, directly beneath the middle finger of the gauntlet. That familiar rushing wave of universal energy flowed through his body, consumed his arm in a rainbow of electrified veins, and the Mad Titan groaning and crying as that power flowed and fused with him.

It finally settled. Thanos gazed softly to the Nano Gauntlet, to the Infinity Stones, and breathed again. Mere moments before he lost that breath when the magical bolt blasted him in the back. Thanos hunched forward, grunted to that strike, and spun around to meet his assailant head-on.

Assailants.

Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy with their Elements of Harmony burned just as bright as the Infinity Stones.