Tragic Hope

11

QUINJET

Sam was piloting Rhodey, Steve, Natasha, Wanda and Vision.

Steve walked up to the pilot's seat and said, "Drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0."

"I hope you're right about this Cap," Sam stated. "Or we're gonna land a lot faster than you want to."

The Quinjet passed through a camoflauge force field into Wakanda's Golden City's valley and landed at the airfield outside the palace. King T'Challa and the Dora Milaje approached to greet the arrivals.

Okoye, walking with T'Challa and a band of the Kingsguard to the landing pad, said, "When you said we were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world... this is not what I imagined."

"And what did you imagine?" T'Challa asked.

"The Olympics. Maybe even a Starbucks."

The occupants of the Quinjet disembarked, Steve and Natasha leading, followed by Bruce and Rhodey, with Vision and Wanda slowly taking up the rear.

"Should we bow?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, he's a king," Rhodey replied seriously.

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something," Steve said as he shook hands with King T'Challa.

Bruce bowed awkwardly to T'Challa before Rhodey asked in a mock shocked tone, "What are you doing?"

"Uh, we don't do that here," T'Challa told him. He dissuaded Bruce with a motion of his hand; Bruce shot Rhodey a look and was answered with a big grin. "So how big of an assault can we expect?"

The group began walking back into the administrative building.

Bruce said, "Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault."

"How we looking?" Natasha asked.

"You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." T'Challa was cut off.

Bucky and Katarina smiled as they walked toward Steve, passing some of the Kingsguard taking Vision and Wanda to another facility before he said, "A semi-stable 100-year-old-man and a semi-stable near 100-year-old woman."

The three friends shared a hug.

"How you been, Buck, Kata?" Steve asked.

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world," Bucky replied.

Katarina shrugged. "I've been surprisingly good despite potential inevitable fate."

SHURI'S LAB

Shuri scanned the Stone with her kimoyo beads while Vision laid on the examination table. She flipped her hand over and studied the hologram projected over her palm before saying, "Whoa. The structure is polymorphic."

"Right, we had to attach each neuron non-sequentially," Bruce told her.

"Why didn't you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?"

Vision looked at Bruce as if to ask the same thing before Bruce said uncertainly, "Because, we didn't think of it."

Shuri, reassuringly with a smile, replied, "I'm sure you did your best."

"Can you do it?" Wanda asked.

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She turned to T'Challa. "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" Steve asked.

"As long as you can give me."

Okoye's kimoyo beads chimed an alarm; she flicked one bead into her palm, where it projected the globe with a pulsing location marker and she said, "Something's entered the atmosphere."

OUTSIDE

Sam, Katarina and Bucky looked up at the sky.

Sam, over the Avengers' comm, said, "Hey, Cap, we got a situation here."

The defense shield over the Golden City destroyed one of the alien vessels when it slammed into the field at full attack acceleration.

"God, I love this place," Bucky and Katarina said, sharing a smile.

Rhodey, also outside, in full War Machine armor, watched three more ships burn through the sky before saying, "Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome."

The shock waves and debris from the ship landings destroyed acres of forest and boiled up against the dome.

---

The lab had an excellent view of the landing sights. Captain America and Black Panther shared a concerned look at what they'd be facing.

Vision, struggling to sit up and slide off the examination table, warned, "It's too late. We need to destroy the Stone now."

Natasha moved toward Vision and ordered, "Vision, get your ass back on the table."

"We will hold them off," T'Challa said before he, Okoye and the guards headed for the door.

Steve said, "Wanda, as soon as the Stone's out of his head... you blow it to hell."

"I will," Wanda replied.

"Evacuate the city," T'Challa ordered. "Engage all defense procedures." He stopped, turned, and pointed to Steve. "And get this man a shield."

NIDAVELLIR

Rocket was in a pod and Thor, without any environmental suit, jumped from the hull onto the ring surface with a cable in his hand attached to the post.

"I don't think you get the scientifics here," Rocket said. "These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose."

"Leave that to me," Thor told him.

"Leave that to you? Buddy, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a-"

Thor began swinging the pod around him in a circle. Rocket screamed. Thor built up speed with three good loops then slacked his grip enough to send the pod shooting straightaway from Nidavellir, trailing him behind it like a kite tail. "Fire the engines!"

Rocket shook it off and pulled the proverbial pedal to the metal. "Nnnyah!"

As the pod skimmed over the surface of the next ring out, Thor reached down and dug one hand into the surface, then both feet, finally getting a foothold against the forward motion of the pod. The ice-like accumulation around the ring axis cackled. "More... Power... Rabbit!"

Rocket accelerated while Thor flexed his biceps. Finally the rings spun free, realigning into effective configuration as the star burst back into life.

"Well done, boy," Eitri complimented.

Thor, clutching the pod's forward windows, pointed to the star and said, "That's Nivadellir!"

Rocket gazed amazed at the blazing core. An iris on the cladding around the star opened, firing pure stellar heat through the ring portals and into the forge... until the damaged mechanism failed, crumbled loose and slammed shut. The iris closed and the beam of light trailed off.

"Damn it," Eitri muttered.

""Damn it"?" Rocket repeated. "What's "damn it"?"

"The mechanism is crippled."

"What?" Thor asked.

"With the iris closed I can't heat the metal."

"How long will it take to heat?"

"A few minutes, maybe more. Why?"

Thor stood on the pod hull. "I'm gonna hold it open."

"That's suicide."

"So is facing Thanos without that ax." He leapt from the pod to the star's iris.