In Your Eyes // Steve Rogers

Insect Lessons

A purple glow broke through the debris. With a shriek, Thanos had pushed the remnants of the building into the sky. He collected it in a red light as it floated in the air, then it suddenly turned into a swarm of birds that was directed to pursue Tony ruthlessly.

Thanos watched Tony fly from the birds, naive enough to think there were only two attackers on Titan.

Peter and I closed in. I ran through a portal, remaining a short distance away, while Peter swung up close and personal to fire webs into Thanos' eyes.

I flicked my arm out to create a green disc encircling the middle of my hand. I shook it into my hold and tossed it, aimed poorly, but it did its mission of hitting Thanos. It bounced off his chest armor, only leaving a scorching mark. It disappeared.

Thanos had growled at the pain my discs had shot through his stomach, simultaneously annoyed by the sticky substance of Peter's webbing. He worked to pull it from his eyes.

Meanwhile, Drax jumped into battle. He slid past Thanos on his knees and sliced a dagger cleanly against the back of Thanos' calf.

I stepped forward cautiously, continuing to throw discs at Thanos. My aim improved the closer I got, though I remained weary in distance. Everything about him screamed strength; one blow from him and I'd be useless to the well-being of the Universe. In my many tosses, I managed to slice his right arm. He didn't bleed, but he cried out in pain. It burned him.

He recovered fast in a split second of Drax, Peter, and I not delivering blows. He ripped the webbing successfully from his eye, just in time to begin a defensive fight against Strange and Drax. He easily kicked Drax in the stomach, sending him flying backwards.

When Thanos saw me running for him, he shot a blast of blue energy at me. I panicked and propelled myself into the air to avoid it.

Thanos grunted when Strange smacked him with a conjured whip. He grabbed the whip when Strange threw it again, he shoved it forward, pulling Strange with it, and punched him. Strange blocked the punch with his Mandalas, the force of the punch still sending him backwards. The cape caught him from falling.

I lit up my fists with green and pushed off from the ground, landing and hitting the ground with my fists. I watched my green wisps crack and uproot the ground until it reached where Thanos stood. He wobbled off balance,
and while I was rolling around the floor to dodge bursts of blue energy he was shooting at me, Strange helped Quill bounce above Thanos' head and attach a grenade to his back.

"Boom!" said Peter, holding up his middle finger. He jumped backwards through a portal opened by Strange.

I didn't have enough time to portal jump. I held up a shield to block the blast from the grenade, crouched on the ground still.

"Don't let him close his fist," ordered Strange to his Cloak. It flew from his back and wrapped itself around the Gauntlet.

I went for the Gauntlet. Thanos caught the disc I tossed at him, forgetting they burned, and he screamed. As he stared at the scorch mark on his hand, Strange took the chance to send Peter through portals to attack.

"Magic!" shouted Peter, flying in through a portal. He hit Thanos clean across the face and disappeared.

He had Thanos spinning to anticipation. "More magic! Magic with a kick!"

Thanos grabbed Peter by the neck when he flew out of a portal and shoved him to the ground. It cracked underneath the sheet weight at which Peter dropped.

"Insect!" shouted Thanos. He threw Peter at Strange.

He ripped off the Cloak and turned to find me again, as I had been narrowly avoiding his sight purposely. I surprised him with how close I had gotten. I lit up my fist and punched for him, he held up the Gauntlet in protection, and when my glowing fist hit it, both of us blew apart from one another.

Fortunately, we were mighty enough to stay on our feet. I was smitten with the damage I'd done, the power a simple punch had done, and I corrected, "Arachnid."

Annoyed, Thanos tried to absorb the energy my punch had exerted and throw it back at me. It didn't work. He let out a grand yell in anticipation of it, but ended looking at the Gauntlet in surprise.

"Clara, get out!" I heard Tony yell.

I dove through a portal in the ground. When I resurfaced, I waved helplessly at smoke from Tony's fired missiles at Thanos. I watched Thanos retaliate by swirling up the fire with the Gauntlet and roared as he directed it back at Tony.

Strange, Peter, and I fell into step beside each other.

"He couldn't do that with my energy," I noted to them.

"Keep using it then," prompted Strange.

"Planned on it," I sighed. I looked to Peter. "Together?"

"You got it," agreed Peter.

Peter and I ran at Thanos together. I opened a portal while I ran for Peter to run through, dropping him at an angle at Thanos. He attached a web to the Gauntlet and pulled our foe forward, off balance.

I slid through a portal on Thanos' other side, throwing a disc at the back of his calf. He fell into his knee in pain. He tugged Peter by his attachment web and swung his body into my own, knocking us to the ground. Peter and I rolled to a stop beside each other.

I lifted my head from the ground to check on Peter. I noticed he was breathing, just taking a second to recoup, but I noticed more closely a fast approaching blob in the distance. It was an incoming ship, aimed directly at all of us.

"Pete, get up," I said quickly, shoving my hand into his side.

"Two seconds," he begged.

"Peter!" I screeched hurriedly.

There was no time; the ship wasn't slowing down. Peter and I had coincidentally been thrown relatively close to a cliff. He had only raised his head from the ground, startled by my scream. I rolled on top of him and threw him off the cliff, then rolled off myself.

I swallowed Peter and I through a portal before we could fall too far. We landed roughly on the ground again, back by the stairs Strange had begun the fight by. It was, coincidentally, where the others had retreated back to, as well.

Fire surrounded the spot where our bodies once lay. We watched a blue woman leap out of the crashed ship and throw herself into a fight with Thanos, who had just gotten hit by a spaceship and brushed off the rubble like it was a flick on the wrist.

"Are you kidding?" I breathed, astonished.

The blue girl screamed, "You should've killed me!"

"Would've been a waste of parts!" screamed Thanos.

I sighed. We watched them fight. I looked to Quill. "So who's this now?"

"Nebula, she's Gamora's sister, and his daughter," explained Quill.

"Hates him?"

"Yep."

I nodded. "Good enough for me."