Infinity War (Charlotte Stark)

Ch. 6 Wakanda

We gather in the conference room and discuss what we're going to do moving forward.

"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right? And they can clearly find us. We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Bruce says.

"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families." Nat replies.

"Who's Scott?" He asks.

"Ant-Man." Steve answers.

"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man?"

"Okay, look" I say, trying to get back on track. "Thanos has the biggest army in the Universe. And he is not gonna stop until he... He gets...Vision's stone."

"Well then, we have to protect it." Nat says.

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision speaks up and we all look over to him. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something, very similar to its own signature, perhaps... Its molecular integrity could fail."

"And you, with it. We're not having this conversation." Wanda says, dismissing the thought.

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."

"That's too high a price."

"Only you, have the power to pay it." He then looks to the rest of us. "Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

"But it should. We don't trade lives, Vision." Steve tells him.

"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people." Vision steps towards Cap. "Tell me, why is this any different?"

Steve takes a breath, but before he has a chance to answer, I begin to speak.

"Because you might have a choice. Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, Bruce, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda asks, hopeful.

"She's saying that... If we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts."

"Can we do that?" Nat asks.

"Not me." Bruce says, then looks to me.

"We need to reprogram the synapses to work collectively. There's probably billions or trillions of neurons in their, and if I mess up, no more Vision."

"But can you do it?" Steve asks me.

"Not by myself, not here." I say.

"You better find someone, and somewhere fast. Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back." Rhodes tells us.

I look to Steve and I can tell he's thinking what I'm thinking. "I know somewhere."

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We all get to a quinjet, and go towards the one place we know can help us.

"Drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0." Steve tells Sam, who is piloting. He does so.

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

The Quinjet passes through a force field into Wakanda. We land outside the palace and we see Okoye, Tchalla, and a band of the Kings Guard.

"When you said we were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world...This is not what I imagined." Okoye expresses to Tchalla.

"And what did you imagine?" He asks.

"The Olympics. Maybe even a Starbucks."

We begin our descend from the ramp and Bruce turns to me and asks. "Should we bow?"

"Yeah, he's a king."

"Seems like I'm always thanking you for something." He shakes hands with T'Challa.

Bruce bows in front of him. I turn to him with a fake confused look on my face. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, we don't do that here." He dissuades with a motion of his hand. "So how big of an assault can we expect?"

We begin to walk into the palace. Bruce moves forward to answer. "Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault."

"How we looking?" I ask, referring to our army.

"You will have my King's Guard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and..." he trails off.

Walking forward toward Steve and I, we see Bucky. "A semi-stable, 100-year-old man."

Steve and him share a hug, and then he turns to hug me.

"How you been, Buck?" Steve asks.

"Uh, not bad, for the end of the world." He says with a big smile.

We go inside Shuri's lab where Vision is laid on a table, while Bruce, Shuri, and I stand over him, and the others watch. Shuri scans the stone, and studies the hologram.

"Whoa. The structure is polymorphic."

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

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

"Because I didn't think of it." Bruce states.

"I did, but I didn't have the proper tech to do it at home." I tell her. She smiles at me.

"I'm sure you both did your best."

"Can you do it?" Wanda asks, nervous.

"Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures." She then looks to TChalla. "It will take time, brother."

"How long?" Steve asks.

"As long as you can give me."

Looking at a device that just alerted her, Okoye looks up to us. "Something's entered the atmosphere."

"Hey, Cap, we got a situation here." Sam says through our comms. We all look out the window and see multiple ships fly down. The defense shield around Wakanda destroys one of the vessels entering the atmosphere.

"God, I love this place." We hear Bucky say.

"Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome." Sam informs us.

"It's too late. We need to destroy the stone now." Vision says, sitting up.

"Vision, get your ass back on the table." Nat tells him as she turns around to gather her gear.

"We will hold them off." Tchalla says to Shuri.

"Wanda, as soon as the stone's out of his head...you blow it to hell." I tell her.

"I will." She assures me.

"Evacuate the city. Engage all defense procedures." Tchalla points to Steve. "And get this man a shield."

We head to a weapons locker and I grab a large sword made out of vibranium. Steve walks up to me.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"Well the odds aren't really in our favor, but I'm going to do whatever I can to stop him."

"We will. Together."

"I sure hope so, Cap. Cause I don't know what I'm going to do if we don't."