The White Phoenix 9: An Avengers: Infinity War Fanfiction

Chapter 2: Thanos Is Coming

New York City, 2018.

One minute, Tony Stark and Pepper Potts were walking through the park.

The next, there was a short, soft sound next to them.

And a portal opened.

'Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Steven Strange,' said the Master of the Mystic Arts to Tony and Pepper. 'I need you to come with me. Oh, uh, congratulations on the wedding, by the way.' The two of them stood shocked at the man now standing before them.

'I'm sorry, are you giving out tickets or something?' Tony replied snappishly.

'We need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake.'

'And who's we?' Just then Bruce Banner emerged from behind the sorcerer.

'Hey, Tony.'

'Bruce.'

'Pepper,' he shyly acknowledged.

'Hi,' she replied. Walking up to him, Bruce threw his arms around him desperately. Tony, not knowing what to feel, put his arms around him too.

In the Sanctum Sanctorum...

An image projected up in front of the sorcerers, Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.

'From the dawn of the universe, there was nothing,' Wong, Strange's assistant, was saying. 'Then, boom! The Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These Infinity Stones each control an essential aspect of existence.' From where they were projected, as each one began to light up, Strange began to name them.

'Space,' and the blue one lit up. 'Reality,' and the red one lit up. 'Power,' and the purple one lit up. 'Soul,' and the orange one lit up. 'Mind,' and the yellow one lit up. 'Time.' Turning to the necklace looped around his neck, he opened it. The green glow of the Time Stone was there, inside the necklace, glowing strongly.

'Tell me his name again,' Tony asked.

'Thanos,' Bruce replied, walking towards him. 'He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Loki. The attack on New York. That's him.'

'This is it... What's our timeline?'

'No telling. He has the Power and Space stones, that already makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands, on all six stones, Tony...'

'He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamed of,' Strange spoke. Tony, walking over to the other side of the room, leaned against a bronze cauldron, stretching his legs as if he was going to go for a run.

'Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamed of'?'

'Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?' Strange interjected, his Cloak of Levitation flicking Tony sharply on the arm. He turned, mildly offended.

'I'm going to allow that. If Thanos needs all six, then why don't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?'

'No can do,' Strange spoke, with a calm but firm edge to his voice.

'We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone. With our lives,' Wong spoke up.

'And I swore off dairy, but then, Ben & Jerry's named a flavor after me, so...'

'Stark Raving Hazelnuts,' Strange spoke, almost as if it was a foul taste in his mouth and almost perturbed that they would be talking about ice-cream when the fate of the universe was at stake.

'It's not bad,' Tony protested.

'A bit chalky,' Strange spoke, clearly meant to be a insult.

'A Hunka-Hulka Burning Fudge is our favourite,' Wong piped up.

'That's a thing?' Banner spoke.

'Whatever. Point is: things change.'

'Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change. This stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos.'

'And still, conversely, it may also be his best chance against us,' Tony replied.

'Well, if we don't do our jobs.'

'And what is your job exactly, besides making balloon animals?' Tony asked condescendingly. Strange was entirely calm as he matched stare for stare.

'Protecting your reality, douchebag.'

'Okay, guys, could we table this discussion for now?' Banner spoke, coming in between the two. 'The fact is that we have this stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him now.'

'Yeah... that's the thing,' Tony said, walking off from the three.

'What do you mean?' Banner asked.

'Two weeks ago, Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline.'

'Tony... you lost another super-bot?' Banner asked with shock walking towards him.

'I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving.'

'Who could find Vision then?' Strange asked.

'Shit,' Tony said quietly. Then, still looking away from them, he spoke. 'Probably Steve Rogers.'

'Oh, great,' Strange said, exasperated.

'Maybe, but...' Tony began to say, then shook his head.

'Call him,' Banner urged.

'It's not that easy. God, we haven't caught up in a spell, have we?'

'No.'

'The Avengers broke up. We're toast.' Surprised, Banner spoke again.

'Broke up? Like a band? Like the Beatles?'

'Cap and I fell out hard. We're not on speaking terms.' Coming close to him, Banner spoke, nearly pleading.

'Tony, listen to me. Thor's gone. Thanos is coming. It doesn't matter who you're talking to or not.' Stark pulled the flip phone out of his pocket that Steve had mailed him. Just before he opened it, there was a rumbling noise. Tony looked to Strange with a strange concern in his eyes.