𝐀𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐀𝐑 - MCU

VII. THE SACRIFICE PLAY

VII. THE SACRIFICE PLAY
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Barely a moment was all Luna needed to raise her arms. Her power was back and stronger than ever. Allowing the power to flood back in, she could sense the tremors of incoming explosions. She sensed everything, the entire building around her—it was all stone and concrete and metal. It all came from the earth, and the earth was under her command. As the floor gave out beneath them, they tumbled to the ground, concrete chunks, metal bars and all sorts of furniture coming after them.

Luna sensed the earth coming closer and closer, and held out her arms as her feet hit the ground. The building stopped falling instantaneously, held up purely by Luna's strength. For a moment, all was quiet. She couldn't hear anyone, just the Avengers compound settling into ruin. And then, panic erupted over the comms.

"Mayday, Mayday, does anybody copy?" Rhodey yelled, a loud rushing sound in the background. "We're on the lower level. It's flooding!"

Static filled the channel. Luna grunted, sweat dripping from her forehead. Her head snapped to the ground as the dirt rustled, an arm sticking out, soon followed by the beat-up body of Clint.

"Clint!" she exclaimed through gritted teeth. "You hurt?"

"Ah!" he grunted, a hand on his back. "My back's stiff, and I've got a few scratches... Nothing life-threatening. Get us out of here?"

She tried to lift her arms, to push the building off her, but she was out of shape. She stumbled, her powers giving away for a second, the building rushing down again, before she put them up again. Her knee hit the ground, her arms beginning to ache. She breathed in deeply, closing her eyes. When she opened them, they glowed a bright white. Effortlessly, she pushed the building off her, revealing the murky twilight sky. She looked for the comfort of the moon, but found it blocked by a massive, alien spaceship.

"We are drowning! Does anybody copy? Mayday!" Rhodey repeated.

"Avatar, copy! Where are you?" Luna replied, out of breath as she let the avatar state retreat.

"I—I don't know. Underground somewhere!"

"Okay, stay where you are. I'll come find you!"

"Luna!" Clint shouted. He held up their infinity gauntlet, each stone still firmly in place. "What do we do with this?"

Luna sighed, rolling her shoulders. Pointing up to the spaceship, she said, "Keep it out of their hands. You got it?"

He nodded firmly. "You got the others still trapped?"

She nodded back and turned around, using the air to lift herself above the ground. She could feel the water, it was everywhere; in the sewers beneath her, in the clouds above her. Water rushing reached her ears, and she followed the sound.

"Rhodey?" she yelled. "Bruce?"

"Here!" a muffled voice came from beneath her.

Luna balled her hands into fists and one by one lifted the rubble off of them, throwing it to the side. As quickly as she could, she dug out her team. Rhodey, Bruce and Rocket stared at her as light flooded back into their eyes. The water that was rushing in from the lake next to the compound stopped as Luna flicked her hand.

She was just about the help them out, when a beam of blue light appeared from the spaceship, racing to the ground. The silhouette of a large, bulky figure began appearing, and, as the light retreated, Thanos stood in its place, his golden armor gleaming and his double-bladed sword at his side.

Rage rose in her chest, and within seconds she stood at the edge of the newly-created ruins, ready for a rematch. To her shock, Nebula walked up to her father and, though they couldn't hear their conversation, they seemed familiar with each other. Thanos then buried the tip of his blade into the dirt, hanging his helmet from the other end. From within, Thor, Ironman, and Captain America joined her, watching the ruined landscape ahead of them.

"What has he been doing?" Tony asked her.

Luna shook her head, at a loss. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing." She looked up again, at the space ship that stretched across the entire horizon, blocking the view that once was beautiful.

"Where are the stones?" Cap asked.

"Last I saw, with Clint somewhere under all this," she replied, gesturing to the ruins.

"All I need to know is he doesn't have them," Tony said, nodding ahead to Thanos, who was now seated on a block of concrete.

Through gritted teeth, Cap said, "So, we keep it that way."

"You know it's a trap, right?" Thor spoke.

"Yeah," Tony said through his exhaustion. "I don't much care."

"Good... Just as long as we're all in agreement."