redemption | marvel

two

"SUCH a bore," complained the white alien as he watched Cass come towards him with anger in their eyes. Ebony Maw was not one to disappoint his boss - but these earthlings were making such a fuss about the time stone.

Despite any prior disposition about Cass (or Brawler, for that matter) Strange might have had, he wordlessly agreed to the temporary teamwork. While Cass rushed head-first, he took the more thought-out route. He went to use his spells against Ebony Maw, but he easily sent them back with a wave of his hand.

Meanwhile, it was up to Brawler and Stark to fight the other alien, with the other wizard, Wong, helping while simultaneously protecting Banner, whose alter ego was not cooperating.

"Dr. Banner, if the rest of your green friend won't be joining us..." Strange trailed off, creating a portal and sending Banner to a park, away from the chaos so they could all focus on the fight.

"Gotta get that stone outta here, now," Stark said, making his way back.

"It stays with me," Strange replied firmly.

"Exactly. Bye." He flew straight towards the big alien, but one hit from his weapon and he was sent flying.

Cass rolled her eyes, pointing an accusing finger at Strange. "You're not going anywhere," she said firmly. "Not until this asshole in six feet under."

Strange scoffed. "Don't tell me what to do," he said, but did make a portal when Cass used their chains to pull Ebony Maw towards them, while Strange had him falling from the sky. The alien used his telekinesis to catch himself, landing safely on a piece of concrete.

"Brawler?" Cass called. In an instant, he was at her side, ready to fight. "I need a ride."

Without a word, Brawler picked them up and flew at full speed towards the slab the alien was riding on. While the alien throw large pieces of concrete at the two, Brawler narrowly avoided it all and dropped Cass right behind Maw. With the alien momentarily distracted by Brawler, Cass managed to kick his legs out under him and knock him off the platform. In consequence, it went falling as well with her on it.

"Shit!" Cass cursed, quickly plummeting to the floor. They threw a hand up, and from their palm came a chain that wrapped itself around the top of a light pole. They caught herself right before they could land on the road.

Ebony Maw threw a car towards Brawler, then dropped pieces of the road over him. It gave the alien the time he needed to move onto the one he wanted - Doctor Strange, keeper of the stone. With pieces from the ground, he turned them into sharp projectiles and sent them towards the two sorcerers. Both of them quickly made portals, flipping the projectiles back at the aliens. With Maw using a car to block the hits, only one actually grazing him, Wong is knocked back and knocked unconscious.

Strange, using his cape, goes to fight the alien who knocked out his friend but was slammed into the side of a building, pieces of ruble trapping him. "Your powers are quaint. You must be popular with children," Maw said. Though, when he tried to grab the stone from the necklace on Strange's neck, he was burned by a spell.

"It's a simple spell but quite unbreakable," Strange said.

"Then I'll take it off your corpse."

Cass was swinging herself over, trying to reach the alien before he could kill Strange or destroy any more of her town. She did not care about Strange, or his life. Not unless he revealed himself to be a mutant, did she think she ever would. But she needed his help to kill this alien son of a bitch. So he could not die yet.

Maw threw Strange to the ground. Several wires wrapped around different parts of the sorcerer's body, one tight around his neck, chocking him.

"You'll find...removing a dead man's spell... Troublesome," Strange managed to get out, grunting.

"You'll only wish you were dead," Maw replied as the man fell unconscious. Before Maw could grab him, the cloak of levitation grabbed Strange and flew off. "No!"

Brawler, free of the car he had been temporarily trapped under, made his way to Cass' side. "Need a lift?" he asked, flying backwards beside them teasingly.

"Either get me to that alien or get me to Strange," Cass ordered in reply.

"You got it, boss." Cass retracted her chains, and Brawler immediately caught her before she could start falling. He flew as fast as possible towards Ebony Maw, who was travelling as fast as he could after Strange. After flying through the park, they somehow picked up a small hero who went by Spider-Man.

Maw, with his powers, managed to pull Strange out from his blanket despite Spider-Man trying to help by sticking him to a pole. Maw had led them right to his ship, a tractor beam pulling Maw and Strange up. Spider-Man followed.

"Don't tell me," Brawler said. "You want to follow."

"Damn right, I do," Cass hissed, Brawler already taking them to the ship. "No one trespasses in my city, on my planet, and gets away with it."

"I thought you'd say that."

Brawler and Cass managed to slip inside unnoticed. The ship was rising up, high into the atmosphere. The two found a safe place to hide while they tried to come up with a plan. It was above, looking down on Ebony Maw and an unconscious Doctor Strange. They were soon joined by Tony Stark.

"I don't suppose either of you outlaws have a plan," Stark murmured, keeping his voice down.

"We're hardly outlaws," Cass mumbled back with a scoff. "We just operate a bit outside the law."

"Sure, X," Stark said mockingly. "No plan, I'll take it then."

"We don't have much time to think of one," Brawler said, eyes watchful as he busied his hands with tying his hair into a braid.

Below, Ebony Maw had sharp piercing weapons used for interrogation focused on Strange, ready for maximum torture. "In all the time I've served Thanos, I've never failed him. If I were to reach our rendezvous on Titan with the Time Stone still attatched to your vaguely irritating person, there would be...judgement. Give me... the stone."

Stark suddenly readies his blasters, aiming at the Cloak of Levitation who had tapped him on the shoulder.

Cass raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you were caught off-guard by a flying cape," she said lightheartedly.

Ignoring them, Stark spoke to the cape. "Wow you're a seriously loyal piece of outerwear, aren't you?"

"Yeah, uh, speaking of loyalty..." spoke up a new voice. Three heads turned towards the person in question.

"What the-"

"I know what you're gonna say."

"You should not be here."

"I was gonna go home-"

"I don't wanna hear it."

"But it was such a long way down and I just thought about you on the way-"

"And now I gotta hear it."

"-And I kinda stuck to the side of the ship. And this suit is ridiculously intuitive, by the way. So if anything, it's kinda your fault that I'm here," finished Spider-Man, unmasked.

"Ooh, wrong wording," Cass mumbled so that only Brawler could hear. Brawler snorted quietly, letting his amusement be known. Both mutants were listening to the bickering, but both had their eyes focused on Maw and Strange.

"What did you just say?" Stark demanded seriously.

"I take that back. And now I'm here in space," said the teenaged boy, whose name Cass did not know.

"Yeah. Right where I don't want you to be. This isn't Coney Island. This isn't a field trip. It's one-way ticket. You hear me? Don't pretend like you thought this through. You could not have possibly thought this through."

"No. I did think this through."

"You could not have possibly thought this through."

"It's just- You can't be a friendly neighborhood Spider – Man when there's no neighborhood." He paused. "Okay. That didn't really make any sense, but you know what I'm trying to say."

"Come on. We got a situation. See him down there? He's in trouble. What's your plan? Go."

"Um. Okay. Okay...uh...did you ever see that really old movie, Aliens?"