In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Landing on Titan

Tony and I examined the dashboard. We were closing in on ground, fast, which called for action promptly.

"I don't think we've got a self park function," I said.

"Kid, get your hand in here, we're gonna have to land this," said Tony quickly. He found a lever off to the side of the cockpit. He helped Peter stick his hand into it then did the same with another lever on the opposite side.

"This was made for one big guy so we gotta move at the same time," said Tony.

Peter nodded and looked to the window, gasping slightly. "Uhhh, might wanna then turn. Turn, turn!"

I grabbed onto the dashboard for balance. Peter and Tony tried to move in sync to steer the ship off course of debris from buildings or other ships. It didn't work entirely— we crashed into the sharp point of a landed ship and ripped our own flying vessels in half. Strange jumped in front of us to create a protective box around our bodies.

A jolt of the bottom of the ship hitting the pavement sent Strange and I tumbling down.
After some time of sliding, the ship came to a stop, broken, but intact enough in the cockpit to not make a difference to us. It was clear, however, I would need to be the one taking us home.

Tony offered hands to both Strange and I. I nodded in gratitude and dusted off my clothes.

"You all right?" asked Strange.

"That was close," admitted Tony.

"I owe you one," said Strange.

I looked around. "Where's Peter?"

Peter entered upside down on a web. "Let me just say— if aliens end up implanting eggs in my chest and I end up eating one of you, I'm sorry."

"I don't want another single Pop Culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip, do you understand?" asked Tony irritably pointing his finger.

"I'm trying to say that something is coming," explained Peter.

A silver ball rolled in the center of where Strange, Tony, Peter, and I stood. Peter shot a web that attached on my back and thrusted me back, it then exploded, and both of us shot backwards from the explosion.

Over the ringing in my ears, I heard knives clash Stephen's Mandalas. He was in a fight. I didn't hear Tony resurface from the blast.

I heard Peter scream and I shot my head up, blinking through the spots in my vision to see him crawling backwards, shrieking, "Please don't put your eggs in me!"

I crawled to my feet and ran after the woman closing in on Peter. I was inches away from tackling her but was suddenly shoved off the bridge by a flying man with rocket boosters. I managed to fall through a portal and throw myself back onto the bridge, though by then, Peter and the Alien Woman had vanished.

Minor explosions were going off in the ceiling as Tony and Rocket Booster Man flew throughout the destroyed ship. I heard the sound of Peter's webbing attaching and detaching, I saw his body flinging throughout the smoke above to aid Tony.

On the ground level, I looked to where I didn't hear Strange fighting. He lost his Cloak, which I then saw wrapped around a man's head. I saw the Alien Lady approaching behind him, her antennas lit up bright, and her hands reaching for Strange's head. I hopped through a portal behind her and grabbed her around the neck, lighting up my hand with green and holding it near her head.

Strange lit up his Mandala's. Rocket Booster grabbed Peter from the ground, having thrown a device at him that disabled his suit, and held his gun to his head; Tony placed a foot on the the shirtless, grey and red man's chest and held a lit up hand at his face. The Cloak previously strangling him flew back to Strange.

"Everybody stay where you are, chill the eff out!" yelled Rocket Booster. Holding onto Peter, he clinked his wrist against his neck, causing his mask to materialize back into a small circle behind his ears. He readied his gun once more, directed at Tony this time. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

"Yeah, I'll do you one better," said Tony, letting his mask fall as well. "Who's Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better!" shouted the man underneath Tony's gun. "Why is Gamora?"

"Tell me where she is or I swear I'll fry this little freak!" yelled Rocket Booster.

"Let's do it! You shoot my guy, I'll shoot yours, let's go!" shouted Tony, igniting a bigger gun from his arm and shoving it in his victims face.

"Do it, Quill! I can take it!"

"No, he can't take it!" cried the Bug Lady in my arm.

"She's right. He can't," said Strange. He lowered his Mandalas, keeping them powered, but not ready to attack.

"Oh, yeah? You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine. I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself!" shouted Rocket Booster.

"What? W-Wha- all right let me ask you this one time: what master do you serve?" asked Strange.

"'What master do I serve?'" repeated Rocket Booster, his face scrunched. "What am I supposed to say, Jesus?"

Tony looked at us and back. "You're from Earth."

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri," corrected the man.

"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit, so what are you fighting us for?" asked Tony.

Peter tried to look at the man holding him. Timidly, he asked, "So, you're not with Thanos?"

"With Thanos? No, I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl. Wait, who are you?" he asked.

"We're the Avengers, man," said Peter. When the man's grip loosened, he let his mask fall.

"You're the ones Thor told us about!" yelled the Bug Lady excitedly.

I dropped my hands from around her. Cautiously, we all circled around each other, still hesitant to trust but gaining it, slowly, united against a common enemy.

"You know Thor?" I asked.

"Yeah. Tall guy. Not that good looking," Said Rocket Booster.

I furrowed my brow, but nodded. "Okay then. Where is he now?

"Niðavellir. He told us some story about how his sister broke his hammer and now he has to forge a new weapon so two of our own went with him," he explained.

"Well is he coming here?" I asked hurriedly. "Thor's the only one that actually might have a chance against Thanos."

"Is there nothing he can't do?" grumbled Rocket Booster. He shook his head. "I'm not sure."

I sighed. I looked at each one of the people in this circle, then extended my hand to the man who was clearly their leader. He shook it.

"Peter Quill," he said.

"Clara Blake," I introduced. "As long as we're together on Titan, we're gonna need each other. So, this is Tony, Peter, and Strange."

"It is," mused Quill.

"Dr. Stephen Strange, she means," corrected Strange hastily."

"Oh."

The Bug Lady folded her hands together. "I am Mantis."

"Drax," said the other man.

I nodded. "As long as we're on Titan together, we're going to need each other to fight Thanos. Agreed?"

"Agreed," chorused the group.