The shadow Hunter

Chapter 50

We started to prepare or though I still didn't know the force I was preparing for but I knew it was bigger than anything I had ever faced before. I knew this time there wasn't certainty of anything. Strange stood in plain sight whilst the rest of us ducked behind rubble to hide. "Are you scared?" I asked Peter. He thought for a moment and then shook his head but I knew he was lying. "Well what ever happens, we come out of this together. Promise?" I said. "I promise." Peter said, smiling and nodding in agreement.

Thanos' arrival is a moment I'll never forget. When I saw him, I got an odd feeling in my stomach, a feeling of dread. Like I knew it was the end. He was large, tall and wide. His skin was a purple hue but the scariest thing was the gauntlet on his left fist. I saw four gleaming stones. Red, blue, purple and orange. I saw two empty slots, one for the mind stone and one for the time stone. He was so close. "I take it you killed my guy. Still he accomplished his mission." Thanos spoke as he felt Strange's presence behind him. Thanos' voice was deep and gravelly and made that feeling inside deepen. His voice filled me with fear in the same way Dreykov's had. "Where do you think we are?" He asked, turning around to face Strange, his body massive and domineering next to Strange. "let me guess, your home." Strange said. 

Thanos looked around, a small flicker of a smile at a memory and then a low growl replaced it. "It was and it was beautiful." He murmured. "And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution." Strange spat, "Genocide." But Thanos only smirked in an unnerving manner. "At random." He informed him. "It was fair to everyone, rich and poor alike." But it wasn't fair to the people who would be killed. "they called me a madman." He growled. He lifted his left fist that held the golden gauntlet and flexed his fingers, admiring the shimmering stones. "With all 6 stones, I could simply snap my fingers and they would all seize to exist." He smiled further, "I call it mercy." 

I imagined a world in which he succeeded. I remember all the times I had prayed to just simply seize to exist. I prayed now that if we couldn't stop him, I would be the one to vanish- not Peter, not Tony, not Nat or Pepper or Wanda. It was my turn. 

Then the plan started to play out. I watched as behind Thanos, Tony flew up in the air holding the remanence of a collapsed building. The building crumpled on top of Thanos and would have killed any normal being. But Thanos wasn't normal. A flash of purple light from the power stone smashed the stone to smithereens and Thanos stood angered. The rest of us dashed out from our hiding spots, charging towards Thanos. Seeing us coming, he shot another beam of purple light towards us but I reacted fast, shielding all of us, the beam bouncing off. But it took a toll. The force almost knocked me to the ground and I noticed ever time one of the stones' powers hit my shield, I weakened at a much faster rate usually. It became harder and harder to summon my shield and to hold it for as long. Peter had swung himself towards Thanos but he had caught Peter's leg and flung him across the ground. "Peter!" I yelled, running towards him. "Are you ok?" I asked him as I helped him up but before he could answer we felt the ground shake below us, almost knocking us both back down. 

Behind us another metal structure had lodged itself in the ground right where Thanos had been, who was now on the floor. From the doorway, another peculiar looking person exited. She looked like a robot. Her face completely blue apart from one singular panel of gold. At first I held out my knife defensively, thinking she was with Thanos, but suddenly she was running towards him, attacking him. "Mantis, it's time!" Starlord yelled across to her and as the robot fought Thanos, Mantis managed to get a hold of him, leaping onto his shoulders and holding his head in place. Thanos continued to fight us but quickly he slowed. Mantis could read and manipulate emotion. Whilst she put Thanos to sleep, we were meant to pull the gauntlet off of him. But with the stones Thanos was stronger, the best Mantis could do was make him drowsy. "Peter, Clara, now!" Tony yelled, beckoning us towards the gauntlet. Mantis strained to keep Thanos under her power as the rest of us tried to pull off the gauntlet. Even with all of us, it was near impossible.