Chapter 214: CHAPTER 209
The battle outside raged on while taking on a new turn with the new arrival of the not-so-mysterious mysterious allies.
From the inside of the tall building, Wanda spectated the battle happening kilometers with a sense of relief filling her as all this meant the danger to Vision was decreasing by the second.
In the middle of the room was Shuri trying to disconnect the Mind Stone from Vision's circuits and prevent a thorough shutting down or rebooting of the organic android that somehow was capable of human emotions and more.
Amidst her work, the Mind Stone started shining dangerously which immediately made Shuri step away from it and alerted Wanda who immediately came to her lover's side in a bid to soothe whatever pain he was feeling.
"He's here." Vision said as his eyes started darting around the room, seemingly looking for someone only the stone could sense.
Shuri armed herself with a pair of gauntlets while the guards around held their spears and formed a circular formation around their princess. Wanda's hands and eyes were covered in a red glow as she stood in front of Shuri and Vision as she was the strongest here as Vision was severely injured.
!!!
She immediately turned around intending to fire her hex but was rooted to the spot as she saw a man with his hands above Vision's head. He had completely bypassed her senses and all the sensors in the room.
"I have to admit, it actually is brilliant work how you managed to make the stone so… compactable. The only thing stopping you from being a true being is your lack of a soul. The Mind Stone gave you sentience but that's just it. A machine that can think for itself and understand human emotions.. Hmm."
Wanda's face paled while Shuri's lit up in alarm at the intruder but before she could do anything, Wanda attacked… only for her attack to fizzle out into nothingness.
She tried and tried again but the man just didn't pay her any attention and continued observing the frozen Vision before he stopped. "Got it!"
Under the alarmed faces of everyone, he held the Mind Stone and yanked it out of the middle of Vision's head making the android go pale black but before Wanda could vent her rage and despair in anyway, the tiny particles that had flown away due to the Mind Stone dislodgement rearranged themselves in a complex way that seemed to go against the scientific wonder that Vision was.
Having reconstructed the hole that he had put in Vision's head so that it was as smooth as a normal one without the room for the Infinity Stone, he tapped the forehead twice and Vision gasped for breath before tumbling off the table on which he laid.
RUMBLE!
…
Draul looked through the windows and he could see the cascade of blue and white lightning wrecking ultimate destruction throughout the battlefield.
Thor had joined the battle.
He turned around and all he saw were weapons leveled against him in a bid to look threatening which only resulted in an eye roll.
Thanos was yet to make his entrance and he had already made sure of the fact that all his abilities were working. Even now he could feel his connection to his universe being as strong as ever as if he were in it.
"Who are you?" Wanda asked with a tad bit less hostility which was all attributed to the fact that Vision was alive and well.
"Me? Well, I'm a nobody. At least not anyone you need to worry about." He waved his hands offhandedly to dissuade them of their fears but they still did not let down their guard, not that he particularly cared if they did. "I've already gotten what I came for so I'll soon be on my merry way." He showed them the glowing Mind Stone between his fingers, holding an Infinity Stone as if it was an ordinary pebble.
"Why the stone? What do you need an Infinity Stone for?" Wanda asked defensively, holding a particular bond with the stone that had given her the powers she had and also one that gave life to her beloved.
"Well, let's just say; my goals are beyond your understanding." Was all the man said and turned his back to them while continuing watching the war raging outside in the battlefields.
Vision communicated with the telecommunication unit inside his head with the other frantic members of the Avengers who had been worried about his well-being when Shuri had reported that someone had invaded their labs.
…
"… Are you Thanos?"
The question made Draul chuckle lightly as if the very notion of it being stupid. "Do I look like a 'Thanos'?" He asked back.
He could hear Captain America through the wavelengths telling Wanda not to engage since he was likely a part of the new ally group that just appeared out of nowhere.
"What are you?" Vision asked while moving a few inches closer to the man who since the beginning had paid them no attention. "The Stone. It reacted to you more violently than anything I've ever seen it do, not even against the threat of Thanos. Why so?"
"Let's just say I'm an enigma and leave it like that and the stones and I have a little bit of history together. Looks like time's almost up." Before they could even analyze all what he said, the man in question disappeared as if he was never there to begin with, leaving them for the new arrival that was on its way.
"Captain.. He's here." Was all Vision needed to tell Captain America for him to strap his shield tighter against his hands and signaled the others to be on alert.
…
"Wait what?!!" Not just Yelena but even Ororo and Nat were surprised when they finally managed to pressure Nat's doppelganger to reveal who her crush was. It was all due to Yelena's fault since Nat was pretty sure that her doppelganger would've never told her something private like this if it was just the two of them.
"Why!!" Yelena groaned and before the Black Widow could say anything, she zapped to her front and held her shoulders and proceeded to shake her. "Why him? I mean there's Bucky there and there's also that falcon guy, why go for the Hulk?!"
The Black Widow for her part smiled as she saw how carefree her sister's doppelganger could be even in the midst of an invasion. It was as if what they were fighting didn't worry her in the least. 'Maybe it actually doesn't.'
She turned to Natasha who was firing our magic spells and using more abilities than she could count. "You did good, you know. What I would have given for my Yelena to be like this but I guess life just isn't fair to everyone.
– Guys keep your focus sharp. He's coming. –
At Cap's words, all of them focused their attention on the battlefield since it was now quite obvious that someone could just teleport in.
And as if to answer their found worries, a blue smokey portal opened up in the middle of the battlefield which caused both sides to come to a temporary standstill as he walked out.
Thanos – The Mad Titan.
He walked out to the portal in all his purple glory, a gauntlet embedded with five jewels worn on one hand while his other was naked.
The first to rush at him was the Black Panther, but a mere man with his fists could not face Thanos.
His body slowed down to a crawl as he jumped at Thanos only to have the purple titan slam his gauntleted fist straight against the head of the man and have his body sailing through the air from whence he came.
Following him was the huge suited armor of Bruce Banner but his fate was the same as the Panther. He fazed right through Thanos and plummeted straight to the ground as the gravity suddenly increased over a hundred fold, slowly crushing the frail man within.
Practically seeing the inevitable loss the Avengers were starting to face, Yelena alongside Steve were the first to act from Draul's entourage.
Running faster than any craft on Earth along with Steve's instant warping, they reached Thanos in the fraction of a second, sending a punch towards the titan who had not been able to predict what was going to happen next.
BOOOM!
The ground cratered at two different spots; the spot the punches had impacted Thanos and the spot on which he had landed.
Thanos got up with a growl and the gauntlet blazed up purple and blue hue as Bucky appeared before him which prompted the titan to punch at him and send cracks all over the space between them… alas, this was Bucky.
The number of times both Draul and Steve had pulled a move like this on him was too numerous to count. It was essentially their most basic form of attack against him since he was pretty much impervious to most things.
His fist shone a void black and met with Thanos' which resulted in the titan losing the second exchange.
They had fought a Hell Lord, they had seen the way Dormammu threw worlds and eviscerated them as if they were tennis balls – if you wanted them to feel true apprehension, the least you could do was come with ALL six stones.
"What's up big guy? Cat got your tongue?" Bucky teased but his face betrayed no amusement.
"Earthlings… I will admit that this day has given me more surprise than I've had for the majority of my life and no small amount comes from this… tiny planet." Thanos wiped the blood off his healed lips and looked at it with a grimace. He would admit that he had thought they couldn't pose him more threat than the sorcerer had but it seems as if he was gravely mistaken. "I wonder, what do you fight for? For hope? For revenge? Or maybe to stop the happenstance of an inevitable constant? Why fight for all these yet you refuse to do the same against fairness?"
"Is that supposed to mean something?" Steve asked as his form blurred into materialization next to Bucky, while Yelena appeared in a spark of white lightning.
"It is. It means only I am the fair judge." This time the Space and Time Stone were lit in the gauntlet alongside the Power Stone as purple energy blasts was shot out from it. Yelena ran while the two with the strongest physique stood their ground in the face of an attack their instinct told them they couldn't dodge.
CRACKLE! BOOOM!
Thanos was forced to disregard the fate of his two opponents as he braced himself at the white and blue lightning-clad axe that was sailing towards him.
The axe coming straight towards him was brimming with such divinity that made him think of the time he had to run away from Zeus' wrath to keep his life.
Drawing all the power from the Infinity Stones that he could muster, he shot it as a beam towards the axe in hopes of stopping it but it just cut right through it like a knife through water, tearing into his chest with the same ease.
Before Thanos could as much as let out a grunt, the connection he felt with the vast amount of power the gauntlet gave him was immediately cut off.
Confused, he looked only to have his face contort in incomprehension as he saw a bleeding stomp of a hand with a man holding the gauntlet while removing the stump that was buried within it.
"… N-no…"
"Thanos! I promised you that you will pay for what you did." Thor descended and was quite surprised at the man casually holding the gauntlet of the mad titan in his hands but the man just waved off his worries and pointed at the grunting Thanos that still had an axe lodged inside his body.
"Word of advice; you should go for the head." Was all the man said as he took a step back and let Thor focus back on his most hated enemy.
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