Bab 1767: 43
Chapter 43: Ten Thousand Fists
Summary:
The Final Battle.
In which Thanos' armies meet the Iron Legion, and it's the beginning of the end.
Notes:
Chapter-specific warnings: the usual [unreliable narrator because nobody's omniscient, canon-typical violence and mental health issues, mild profanity of the 'what the fuck' and 'oh shit' variety, wildly AU take on Infinity Stones, etc] with an emphasis on canon-typical violence and hints of codependence.
Oh, and crack. Because we're near the end, and there's a lot of crackiness in this version of the fic and remember this was planned out before Ragnarok hit theaters because this is probably going to require at least some suspension of disbelief.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Thanos cut off his transmission with a sneer as the Iron Legion took to the skies, and Tony sat down hard and let himself reel for a moment because holy shit he had just talked with the guy behind every one of his nightmares since New York—
"You just can't help it, can you?" Strange asked conversationally out of nowhere, and it was only thanks to the weeks of having him pop up and offer cryptic commentary that kept Tony from falling out of his chair.
"Can't help what?" He asked as he turned his head, abruptly exhausted and fishing around for an energy bar before Extremis started eating into his reserves. That's exactly what he needed, passing out right after telling a genocidal maniac where to stick it.
Strange looked disconcertingly amused as he passed over a bag of trail mix and replied, "Oh, you'll understand soon enough."
Well. That wasn't ominous at all.
Tony eyed him suspiciously for a moment, before he mentally shrugged. For all Strange seemed to get a kick out of seeing Tony going about his day, he was still their resident expert on magic and if he was okay with whatever was going on, then Tony didn't need to worry too much about it.
Shaking his head, Tony turned back to the monitors. They were about evenly split between JOCASTA's data on the Iron Legion and the World Security Council's reactions to the wave of robots who even now were fighting in earnest against the behemoths sitting just beyond the energy shield.
And— okay, here's the thing: intellectually, Tony knew the Iron Legion was pretty big. [There's a reason R&D had jokingly referred to it as a robot army, and why Tony had a snappy retort ready for Thanos' boasts.]
Intellectually, he knew that the technology that went into it was the same as his suit— and goodness knew how just much he pulled his punches whenever he used it, how instinctive it was for him to modulate his repulsors each and every time Iron Man entered the fray.
Intellectually, he knew JOCASTA was capable of serious damage— it's why he took great pains with making her morality code as nuanced as possible, why did his level best to ensure that something capable of such great power would only ever use it for the future of mankind.
...even so, it was still equal parts jarring and awe-inspiring, seeing the Iron Legion take to the skies from the safety of the communications center, mere dots in comparison to the looming shadows that made up Thanos' armies but carrying Tony's hopes and fears with them nonetheless.
JOCASTA thoughtfully provided them all with a livestream of Iron Legion's cameras to keep them updated on the situation beyond the Iron Dome, and more than one Council member blanched as they got a good view of just what they were facing.
Meanwhile, Strange had— wait a minute.
"Is that— are you kidding me Strange."
The man looked remarkably unruffled for how dire the situation was, leaning back in his chair and eating popcorn like they were watching a movie instead of the fate of their world being determined even as they spoke.
…then again, Strange was seeing this as an outside party, not as the guy who'd burned the midnight oil more times than he could count trying to make something capable of standing up to the worst the universe had to offer.
Tony didn't know what Strange was seeing, or the Council.
Maybe the pale faces on some of them were the result of seeing the same technology that went into his and Rhodey's suits now being used to its fullest potential. Maybe it was the explosions happening in zero gravity, or the way his AI teamed up to get a Legionnaire to reactivate VERONICA, who then went on to tear through Chitauri with the same caliber of firepower that had once stopped a rampaging Hulk in his tracks.
Maybe it was how none of it even mattered, because no matter how hard JOCASTA hit, it didn't so much as put a dent in Thanos' forces.
...yeah, that was probably it.
Leviathan after Leviathan would get taken out, only for another three to take its place. More than one Legionnaire straight-up exploded due to overheating, as the rate of repulsor fire and laser use exceeded safety tolerances in conditions that had never been tested before.
It was a war of the worlds— a war to protect their world, and they were at a stalemate.
They were safe, for now.
Safe for as long as the Iron Legion and the energy shield both held, as long as JOCASTA could fight.
So why was Strange so amused?
Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, leaned back in his chair and finished off his second bag of popcorn. He considered pulling out another, but knowing how high-strung Stark was right now?
Hmm.
Well— no, wait, no. Stark insisted on being oblivious to the entire situation, but there was a difference between petty revenge and just being a jerk. Stark's reactions were entertaining enough to make up for the headache he always got after dealing with him, but this moment was actually pretty important in most other timelines so it was understandable that he was so stressed out right now.
...except Stephen wasn't dealing with those timelines, he was dealing with the one where Tony Stark had somehow fallen ass-backwards into the definition of comic book supervillainry.
Minions? Check.
Robot army? Check, even if Stark insisted it was an inside joke that they were called that.
Evil AI? Check and gods were they lucky that this was the one where JARVIS' semblance of morality was firmly centered around an idiot with good intentions because things might not have ended well otherwise.
The world didn't know what kind of bullet they'd dodged— although that, at least, was changing.
Looking at the way another Council member twitched as yet another Leviathan was taken down in an impressive display of firepower by a deceptively fragile-looking robot, he mentally snorted.
Yep. Definitely changing. If anyone had underestimated Iron Man before, they most certainly weren't now.
Eh. Whatever, wasn't like it mattered.
This moment in other timelines was one of desperation, of despair and regret as everyone discovered just what kind of force a Destroyer of Worlds brought to bear.
Here, however, they got a shitty B-movie's worth of robots vs. aliens footage and honestly?
Stephen was going to make the most of it.
Right, time for another bag of popcorn. They'd be here for a while, might as well take the chance to kick back and relax while he had it.
The Mad Titan wasn't going to switch things up until he got bored, anyway.
The fighting went on for a week.
On Earth, no one could really see what was going on with the naked eye— but Thanos' forces blocked out the sun where the fighting was especially thick, and the light of the Iron Dome gave everything past it a pale blue tint.
People were still encouraged to carry on with their everyday lives, regardless of the battle going on above them.
Suffice it is to say, that...didn't really go over well.
Both the press and social media were having a field day, not that Tony had the time to know about the particulars beyond FRIDAY doing something to his accounts. JOCASTA quickly got a Twitter account of her own, though, because PR thought it'd be a good way to prevent the public from panicking, and from the looks of it was skyrocketing in terms of popularity. Well, beyond the "the one doing all the heavy lifting for planetary protection" thing, anyway.
The Council hadn't been pleased by that. Something about clearance or whatever— up until Tony helpfully reminded the Council who'd footed the bill for JOCASTA and the Iron Legion and all related tech and research over the past decade. That shut them up.
It both helped and didn't help that she had terrible taste and had chosen SWORD's insignia as her icon. If Tony had the headspace to worry about something other than the literal invading alien army, he might have been more than irritated by it.
As it was, Strange had a slightly exasperated look on his face whenever he saw him, but whether that was because of him or Strange's waving his amulet-thing around more than usual was anyone's guess. If not for the doctor being their resident expert on magic, Tony would've probably lost his temper sometime around the seventh bag of popcorn, or the way he'd taken to referring to their communications center as the "War Room"— and that Thor had immediately latched onto that term did not help at all.
Under other circumstances, Tony might have been able to let himself be amused by it. By the way Peter had arrived an hour after the Skype chat from hell, and then the way most of the members of the new Avengers Initiative just...showed up in his communications center afterwards because sure, he was okay with working with them, but...weren't there supposed to be proper channels and protocols for this sort of thing? Officer Hill had been very specific when briefing him on the current chain of command and how this was supposed to work, it's why he had Captain Danvers' number on speed-dial and everything.
Look, what he's getting at is this: nowhere in the rule book was 'move into the unaffiliated consultant's communications center', okay? Tony was sure of it. "Consolidation of resources" and "keeping an eye on the situation" or no.
...even if Hank Pym's face when his daughter showed up with a bike helmet under her arm and a suspiciously-bulky backpack more than made up for the way she, Danvers, and Peter had commandeered the break room across the hall.
And then Thor took to joining them, and Vision, and Tony suspected he might've spotted Banner once or twice but he pointedly tried to ignore their antics because dammit this was an emergency situation, not a sleepover.
Prince T'Challa had been polite enough to just show up in the day, then head back to wherever Wakandans slept when on business calls abroad. Even if he looked suspiciously wistful when he saw the pile of blankets in the corner, but nope, not thinking about it.
Strange, at least, just portaled in and out and didn't spend the night. That Tony noticed, anyway.
Then again, he was kind of busy coordinating with JARVIS and JOCASTA and the Council and the UN, so. Whether or not Strange was also taking part in the sleepovers the Avengers were having wasn't exactly a priority, alright? The guy was enough of a menace as it was. Especially when Strange absconded with Vision for a few hours muttering something about Wakanda, only to come back with Vision's Mind Stone shining even brighter than usual and the knowledge that they apparently now could remove it from his forehead if necessary.
And through it all, the battle continued to rage above them.
One week.
The broadcast still caught everyone off-guard, somehow.
"You had the choice to surrender and join me, but chose the path of Asgard. How...poetic."
Thanos' sneer took up every screen Tony could spare from the fighting. Out of the corner of his eye, Thor clenched his fists and the sky abruptly darkened, before Strange and Banner pulled the god of thunder to the corridor outside and started talking in hushed voices. Around them, the clouds gave the rumble of an oncoming storm, but Tony found he couldn't tear his eyes from the genocidal maniac who was still monologuing.
"You should feel honored. It is not often I find I need the use of my full power."
Thanos brought his fist up, revealing the tackiest gauntlet Tony had ever seen: a gaudy monstrosity of gold, with three gems already slotted in place and glowing. The other three spaces weren't lost on him, though.
Huh.
The Tacky Glove of Doom, which probably had a fancy name but not one Tony was interested in learning about.
"I am inevitable." Boasted the Destroyer of Worlds as he made a fist, and Tony felt Extremis kick into high drive as the transmission cut off.
JOCASTA immediately switched to nearby Legionnaires' cameras, showing Thanos hovering over the Iron Dome, moving to strike at it with what was apparently the full power of three 'Infinity Stones'.
Strange had apparently ducked back into the room when he hadn't been looking, but he just drew a sharp breath as he recognized what was going on, because—
This was it, wasn't it.
This was what had ended Asgard, when Thanos had stopped playing around and used the Infinity Stones in his command. Tony and Strange shared a look and braced for the worst, Tony with one hand on his phone and Strange gripping his amulet with a white-knuckled grip as they both looked at the moment that would make or break this timeline.
Onscreen, furious magenta clashed against arc-reactor blue and emerald, Power and Reality against the full force of Space and Time, emitting a brilliant light as irresistible force met immovable object before the display cut off as the Legionnaire was presumably caught by the deflected blast.
JOCASTA switched to the nearest camera instantly, and Tony felt his breath catch as he saw the Iron Dome rippled against the tremendous surge of power that washed over it for a few, brief, terrifying seconds—
It held.
"Oh, thank god," he heard someone in the room murmur, and he couldn't help but agree with the sentiment if not the actual words because the power to annihilate their planet had been countered even if the scare had probably taken a few years off his life—
Wait, no. Shit, the shockwave.
"JOCASTA, report." Tony heard himself say faintly as he sat down hard.
"The Iron Legion has been offlined, and several dozen unaffiliated satellites have been disintegrated. Only data available is from networked satellite sensors. No nearby life signs detected for three regions beyond the Dome." JOCASTA reported, and Tony felt his blood turn to ice. Again.
Without the Iron Legion… he wasn't sure how long they could hold out. The energy shield was great, was clearly capable of holding back the worst Thanos has to offer, but without it they were still at a stalemate and sans offensive capabilities.
But before he could get too worked up, JARVIS spoke up in his earpiece. His voice was incongruously calm to the chaos in the war room communications center, and sounded the most robotic Tony had heard in years.
"Second wave, initializing."
In the distance, he could hear another deep rumble, as if Thor had decided to summon a supercell after all—
And then the sky.
Went.
Dark.
"Son of a—" Tony barely heard someone in the room hiss over the ringing in his ears, and he didn't blame them one bit as he looked out the window.
That distant rumble hadn't been a rumble. It'd been the sound of repulsor after repulsor firing, all at once, and it was a good thing he was already sitting down for this because he felt lightheaded for a moment.
The Iron Legion was supposed to be the bulk of it. He'd designed it with that in mind, it's why he'd been so careful with JOCASTA's morality coding.
This, though?
This was—
"JARVIS? Explain." He gestured vaguely, but he knew J would understand because... how?
"This is the second wave, sir. Featuring technology still in testing or otherwise still in beta, which is the delineation between the Legionnaires approved safe for public use and... not."
"JARVIS, that is not an acceptable answer." He hated himself for having to say it, but—
This was unreal. This 'second wave' outnumbered the actual Iron Legion by a margin that would have been hilarious in any other context, because this?
The Iron Legion had been big, before.
This, however? Was nothing less than a behemoth, and fully deserved the title 'robot army' and how had he missed it?!
JARVIS was completely shameless as he spoke up in his earpiece. "A backup plan, sir. One that has been manufactured with experimental technology since the original Iron Legion whenever there were enough resources to afford doing so, with the express goal of creating something adequate for your protection."
Another non-answer, but good information nonetheless because that gave him a hint of a timeline and Tony didn't know how to feel about the fact that he'd apparently had something like this in the wings for what sounded like the better part of a decade.
He scrubbed a hand over his face as he noticed the chaos in the war room communications center, and the way everyone was looking at him and he wasn't going to be able to cover for JARVIS' sentience this time because this was way too big for him to hand-wave away as just another protocol.
Well, shit.
Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair as Stark tried to explain away the goddamn robot army in his back pocket, and didn't know if he wanted to drink tea or something much, much stronger.
"—econd wave, which is meant to be a last resort in case the main body of the Iron Legion was destroyed—"
"Main body?" Captain Danvers raised an eyebrow, unamused and doing a very good job at hiding just how unsettled she'd been by the spectacle. "What we saw before was nowhere near the main body, Stark."
"Cleared for public use, Captain. This is...a lot more experimental."
"Oh?" This time it was Hope van Dyne who frowned, and one look had Stark trying to look like he wasn't flying by the seat of his pants, and if Stephen hadn't seen him at three in the morning hammering out battle plans, he might have even believed it.
"It's all in beta, van Dyne, we're not sure just how it'd behave outside of controlled settings."
"Can you give us an example?" He asked just for the hell of it, and Stark scowled to hide the brief flash of panic.
"Well, you see…"
Onscreen, the first of this new Iron Legion finally made it past the energy shield, to show the first of what would be many surprises.
"...nanotech is one." Stark finished lamely, as if they couldn't see the way some of the robots merged, while others descended on the scrap metal and repurposed it for their own use.
He looked hunted as he stood before them, and Stephen felt vindicated for the migraine he'd had earlier on while researching options even further.
Unfortunately, however, it'd take more than that for Stark to get a clue about his place in the universe. Pity. He'd have made a killing in the betting pool otherwise.
Still.
As entertaining as seeing Stark flail about was, there were still a few things that needed to be taken care of.
"We need to go get that Gauntlet." He finally cut in as Stark frantically tried to find a good explanation for why these new Legionnaires were capable of disintegrating organic material with an answer that didn't feature his infamous R&D department.
"Why?" T'Challa asked with a stolid look, as if he hadn't been also silently laughing at Stark not a few seconds beforehand.
For the first time in weeks, Stephen let himself dwell on the hope and light that had been one of the only timelines that hadn't ended in tragedy. Maybe it showed in his eyes, because suddenly the room's atmosphere shifted from slight amusement to something far more serious even before he spoke.
"Because if we get the Infinity Gauntlet, we win. We get it, and it's all over."
Notes:
Unreliable narrator instances:
—Tony's self-awareness has yet to return and so he's missing some things. The new Avengers not only had a sleepover, but a betting pool that included [but wasn't limited to]: was Tony faking it or was he genuinely oblivious on the world domination thing, when he'd figure it out/finally admit it, and what kind of reaction he'd have if so. Also, how the rest of the world's seeing this mess [what with the whole 'boss fight is between guy who took over the world vs. the guy who wants to destroy it' thing]. Incidentally, can anyone tell when he basically took it over? It was actually a while back, but here hints show through with the way he was able to strong-arm the World Security Council into going 'hey maybe preventing public panic by giving this a Twitter account isn't a bad idea'. [Otherwise, the Council would've gone 'no that should be a super secret thing they don't need to know' which...is something I'm not inclined to poke at].
—Dr. Stephen Strange ran out of fucks to give sometime between the millionth time he died [in Dr. Strange] and the billionth time he watched a reality die [Chapter 41, when he was looking at options]. He still cares, and has his priorities in place! It's just...he may or may not be having a bit too much fun with how he's going about saving the world [e.g. laughing at Tony].
—yes, JARVIS just outed himself and his robot army. No, he doesn't care that the world knows now. Yes, said robot army's been in the making since Chapter 1 and has only grown exponentially in the time since. No, there is absolutely nothing concerning about this, why do you ask? [aka be afraid. Be very, very afraid. Especially because JARVIS created it solely to protect Tony and at this point Tony has about as much chill as JARVIS does when it comes to the safety of his AI.]
—couldn't really fit this one in-story explicitly, but was very important: Dr. Jane Foster's research and experience with the Reality Stone was integral to countering it, just fyi. It was 3 v. 3, but still.
———————
So.
Shit happens. Sometimes, a lot of shit happens in a very short period of time, and suddenly you're screaming at smoke detectors at two in the goddamn morning after a scare straight out of the movies and some footage suddenly feels 100% more realistic than it looked in theaters. Fun times. If my writing's kinda wonky, I blame that. On top of other rl bull, but that didn't help either.
Oh, also: nearing the end, and even more crack incoming. Don't expect seriousness.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone