Saving Grace

Seventy Three

The ship has been flying itself for a while now — Tony hasn't exactly been keeping track of the time — but it finally approaches a large, red planet that looks dusty as they get closer. Peter, who had been exploring, walks up behind Tony and Strange, all three now looking through the windshield.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asks calmly.

"I think we're here," Strange replies.

Tony watches as the ground seems to get closer and closer. "I don't think this rig has a self-park function." He turns and looks at Peter as he grabs one of the two steering mechanisms, meant for one very large hand. "Get your hand into this steering gimbal." He shows Peter how to lock it in. "Close those around it."

"Okay," Peter replies, going to the other gimbal, doing as Tony says.

"You understand?"

"Yep, got it-"

Tony talks over him. "This was meant for one big guy, so we gotta to move at the same time."

"Okay, okay. Ready," Peter replies after quickly preparing himself, his mask going back up. They rapidly approach the ground, and a large, almost starfish-shaped structure threatens to hit them. "We might wanna turn," Peter says, becoming panicked when the structure gets closer. "Turn, turn, turn!"

Tony puts his suit back on with a tap on his arc reactor, needing more power to turn the gimbal. He and Peter manage it, slightly, but the bottom of the ship goes through the structure, taking damage as it does so, rattling its passengers inside. And then the top hits the structure too, shaking the whole ship. Strange casts a large shield spell around the three of them, holding it there as Peter and Tony try to steer, though it's hard to see the windshield through Strange's magic.

And then the whole ship falls apart, the donut turning into a mere half-circle. It hits the ground, running a rut deep into the dirt, all three of the passengers getting knocked over in the process, but they're unharmed thanks to Strange.

He gets up quickly and hurries to Tony, for Peter is no where in sight. He reaches a hand down. "You alright?"

"Yeah." Tony nods, letting Strange help him up. "That was close. I owe you one."

And then Peter, hanging upside down, lowers himself behind Strange and says, "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."

Tony sternly says, "I do not want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip, you understand?"

"I'm trying to say that something is coming," Peter replies, pointing behind him.

At that moment, a grenade rolls in between the three of them and explodes, knocking them all to the ground. Tony sees three people — aliens? — run on the ship. A large, bald, grey alien shouts, "Thanos!" and throws knives at Strange, who blocks them with a magic shield. His cape flies over and wraps around the alien's head, taking him to the ground.

And then another guy, one with an ugly, bug-looking mask on his face, starts flying and blasting with two guns that shoot lasers or something, and he's blasting at Tony.

Tony gets to his feet after being disoriented for a few moments (during the whole grey alien thing) and he blasts back, following the guy through the ship, even launching a small rocket at him. The guy dodges it, but it hits the part of the ship in front of him and blasts him back, right into Tony, who grabs him and throws him to the ground. He lands on his feet and laughs, pressing a button, which turns out to be a control for the magnet that he somehow attached to Tony's chest. Tony is stuck to the wall of the ship.