The Beginning of the End (Allyson)

Chapter 8

              He looked around the ruins of his old home, scanning the dust and remains of structures. He almost looked lost, as though he didn't know why he was here.

        Or maybe he sensed the rest of us, and knew some sort of attack was incoming. I wouldn't be surprised, considering he'd known we were coming to retrieve half of the Reality Stone.

        "Oh, yeah." Thanos' eyes rested on Strange as he sat among the ruins, appearing completely unfazed by the Titan's presence. "You're much more of a Thanos."

        "I take it the Maw is dead." His voice rumbled through the silence, seeming to to cut through the landscape. Strange barely nodded, and I tensed as Thanos began to advance toward him. "This day extracts a heavy toll. Still, he accomplished his mission."

        "You may regret that." Strange's threat was vague, but still held a weight to it. "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts." My eyes quickly flashed to Peter, who had a smirk on his face.

        "And where do you think he brought you?" Strange paused for a moment.

        "Let me guess. Your home?" Thanos chuckled and set his foot down on a structure, giving him a slight elevation over Strange.

        "It was." He closed his fist and the red stone on his gauntlet flashed. The broken, orange environment was slowly swept away, replaced by a beautiful and prosperous society complete with lush grasses and plants and technologically advanced structures. The star-like structures now hovered in the air, appearing to be ships, or maybe floating homes. "And it was beautiful. Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution."

        "Genocide."

        "But random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike." His plan sounded more like homocide than genocide, but still wrong, nonetheless. "They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." The illusion of the Reality Stone faded away, putting us right back into the wasteland.

        "Congratulations, you're a prophet," Strange deadpanned.

        "I'm a survivor."

        "Who murdered trillions."

        "With all six stones, I could simply snap my fingers." He demonstrated with his bare hand, so nothing would happen before he meant it to. "They would all cease to exist. I call that... mercy." Thanos spoke as though he heard nothing wrong.

        Strange got up, taking a determined stance. I took a deep breath as he stepped closer to the large, intimidating figure without fear.

        "I'd finally rest..." Thanos continued, "and watch the sun rise on a grateful universe. The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

        "I think you'll find our will equal to yours." Strange moved his hands about to summon the disk-like weapons he clearly preferred to use. Confusion warped Thanos' expression as he looked up, snapped away from his delusion of victory.

        "'Our?'"

        Peter and I shrugged before taking that as the cue, springing up but waiting for the chance to attack. Thanos lifted his gaze to the sky to see Tony pushing a large piece of one of the broken ships toward his head, barreling it down on him. I could have sworn I saw a flash of purple light before it crashed down, appearing to completely crush him.

        "Piece of cake, Quill." I nearly scoffed at Tony's confidence. Did he seriously think this was over?

        "Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off."

        Peter activated his mask and followed behind Tony as he flew around the other side of the piece he'd just dropped. As he stopped to hover in the air, a bright flash of purple completely decimated the large pieces of metal, sending them flying in all directions before suspending them in air. Thanos let out a loud scream, and as he closed his fist, a bright, red flash turned the metal into bats that pushed Tony back into the wreckage. Almost immediately, Peter Parker swung out from his place up above and shot a bit of webbing into Thanos' eyes. He had to hesitate for a moment to try and pull the sticky solution off of his face, allowing Drax to slide on his knees to slash one of his knives against the armor on his calves. Thanos yanked the white webbing off his eyes as Strange teleported himself closer to him. He summoned some sort of weapon- made out of the same energy as everything else he had- and blocked an incoming punch from Thanos as Drax attempted to strike him again.

        Just as he kicked back the two of them, Peter activated the rocket boosters on his shoes and launched himself toward Thanos, shooting at him with his blasters. I stretched my arm out and grabbed onto a piece of junk to bring myself closer, and Strange summoned those disks he used as shields to fall beneath my footsteps. I bounded my way over to Thanos and attached an detonating paralyzer onto his back. Quick as that happened, I did a flip and landed, whipping around and sticking my middle finger in the air.

        "Boom!" I dipped down into a portal Strange created.

        "Don't let him close his fist." Strange's cloak flew from his back and wrapped itself around Thanos' hand with the gauntlet. As he struggled to get it off, Strange summoned another set of portals, allowing Peter Parker to fly through and land a couple hits.

        "Magic," he cried excitedly. "More magic. Magic with a kick. Magic with a--"

        Thanos grabbed Peter Parker by the neck and slammed him against the ground.

        "Insect," he growled, before lifting Peter Parker up and throwing him at Strange, sending them both tumbling down. He ripped the cloak from his hand, only to be immediately met with frequent bursts of explosions. With a cry, he lifted and closed his fist, and the fires around him began to swirl, spiraling into the gauntlet before he closed his fist to shoot it back out, aiming for Tony as he attempted to fly away. Thankfully, the shot missed, and ended up knocking down the propeller of a giant jet engine. Peter Parker jumped down and shot out a web, sticking it to the gauntlet and swinging around in an attempt to pull it off, but Thanos managed to grab and throw him yet again. Suddenly, the propeller came skidding across the ground and slammed straight into Thanos, somehow barely phasing him.

        A figure suddenly jumped down and kicked Thanos in the back of the head before standing in front of him, pulling out their weapon. Her blue and purple head glistened under the light of Titan's sun, and I breathed a sigh of relief. She'd finally arrived.

        Thanos smirked down at her, as though amused by her sudden appearance, before allowing it to fall into a grimace.

        "Well, well."

        "You should've killed me," Nebula snarled.

        "It would've been a waste of parts!"

        Nebula screamed and kicked him in the face, swinging her blade wildly back and forth in an attempt to strike him. She released it from her hand and allowed it to spin around his head, just barely missing his neck before returning to her like a boomerang.

        "Where's Gamora?"

        He smacked her into a pile of debris, and in the split second he had his fist raised, Strange summoned a bunch of tendrils and wrapped them around the gauntlet before beginning to pull. He resisted against the force, until Drax slid on the ground and kicked the Titan's foot out from underneath him. Peter took to the air and fired another electric paralyzer onto the ground. The fingers of lightning took hold of Thanos' other arm, causing him to cry out in anguish as Peter Parker wrapped a web completely around his body. Tony landed and sprinted over to Thanos, wrapping his hands around the golden item and beginning to pull. Strange summoned a portal over Thanos' head, allowing Mantis to drop down and land on his shoulders. She placed her hands on each side of his head as he thrashed and screamed, trying to break free from everyone's control. He protested for a moment longer, then a cloudiness settled into his pupils, and the screaming settled into quieted grunts.