Destiny Arrives

by Liza Palmer

  "How we looking, Bruce?:: Black Widow asked.

  "Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it." Wearing his Hulkbuster armor, Bruce bounded across the green fields, leaping over the tops of the Wakandan warriors in their transports on the way to the front line. "Wahooo!" Bruce began to run along with the army transports. "Wow, this is amazing, man. It's like being the Hulk without actually being—■" Bruce's words were cut off as he tripped heavily over an errant rock. Okove rode past, side- eyeing Bruce's now grass-stained, squirming robotic body with disdain.

  "I'm okay." Bruce pulled chunks of dirt and grass from the suit's helmet. "I'm okay."

  "I've got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line," War Machine said, cracklmg through the radio as he and Falcon soared high over the Wakandan armies. Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian ambled up to the shield just as the Wakandan tribes got into formation.

  "Ah! Oou! Oou!" "Male faa!" "Ah! Oou! Oou!" "Male faa!"

  The Jabari chant could be heard by all as the warriors and their leader, M'Baku, exchanged proclamations, letting T'Challa know that M'Baku had answered the call to join them m the fight to save the world. "Thank you for standing with us," T'Challa said, taking M'Baku's arm in his. M'Baku looked down at T'Challa, now suited up as the Black Panther, and nodded respectfully. "Mfowethu, " M'Baku said in Xhosa. His words simply translated to. My brother.

  Marching to the edge of the barrier with Black Widow and Bruce Banner in the Hulkbuster armor. Captain America and the Black Panther faced Proxima Midnight and Cull Obsidian. Proxima ran her weapon along the shield, testmg its limits. As the barrier hummed between them, the two sides stood mere feet apart.

  "Where's your other friend?" Natasha taunted.

  "You will pay for his life with yours." Proxima turned her attention to Cap and the Black Panther. "Thanos will have that Stone." "That's not gonna happen," Steve swore.

  T'Challa's commanding voice carried across so all could hear. "You are in Wakanda now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." Proxima Midnight's smile was chilling. "We have blood to spare." She raised her weapon with a howl. "They surrender?" Bucky asked Cap as he returned to the front line. "Not exactly," Steve said with a worried shrug.

  "Tibambe!" T'Challa called to his troops. His chant simply meant. Stop! "Tibambe!" The answer came from the thousands who fought.

  "Yibambe!" T'Challa called out again. "Yibambe!" everyone answered.

  As the tribes of Wakanda, united under their king's Black Panther banner stood alongside the Avengers, they watched in horror as thousands of Outriders—a race of four-armed, eyeless, and fanged humanoid creatures —began to emerge from the enemy vessels and rage forward, coming to an infuriated stop only when they reached the outskirts of the domed barrier. They clawed savagely at the barrier, cries echoing from their gaping maws.

  "What the hell?" Bucky asked, horrified.

  "Looks like we pissed her off," Natasha growled, taking m the brutal scene.

  The Outriders continued to pour from the ships and threw themselves against the shield. They climbed on top of the bodies of their fallen and tried to force their way through the energy barrier, despite losmg limbs and dying m the process.

  Okoye stared in horror, standing by the Black Panther's side. "They're killing themselves." What she couldn't bring herself to say was that one by one, however slowly, they were breaking through Wakanda's defenses. "Vala!" T'Challa commanded, telling his troops to Lock!

  "Vala!" the troops answered. Following his command, they swept their protective capes in front of them as the Outrider onslaught advanced. "Kubo!" T'Challa yelled, telling his troops to Fire!

  "Kubo!" his troops rang back. They shot as one at the ravaging horde that threatened everything. As the Wakandan tribes' blue lasers shot across the field of battle, Bucky's weapon's bullets hit targets with brutal accuracy. Falcon soared overhead, taking in the horrific scene. An Outrider leaped up at him and Sam loosed three missiles in retaliation. Hitting all of his targets, he sailed past and called out to Rhodey. "You see the teeth on those things ?" Sam asked, now having come way too close for comfort to one of the beasts.

  "All right, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed," Rhodey warned, activating War Machine's grenades all along the barrier's perimeter.

  "Cap, if these things circle the perimeter and get m behmd us, there's nothing between them and Vision," Banner said.

  "Then we better keep em in front of us." Cap eyed the barrier.

  "How do we do that?" Okoye asked, definitely not wanting to hear the answer.

  "We open the barrier," T'Challa said somberly. Putting his finger to his ear, he radioed back to headquarters. "On my signal, open Northwest Section Seventeen." "Requesting confirmation. My Kmg. You said, open the barrier?" his contact responded. "On my signal." T'Challa's voice was calm.

  "This will be the end of Wakanda," M'Baku said, scanning the battlefield. "Then it will be the noblest ending in history," Okoye growled, steelmg herself.

  "Vula!" T'Challa commanded, the word simply meaning, open. His troops stood tall, deactivating their capes. T'Challa stepped forward. "Wakanda Forever!" he yelled, crossing his arms across his chest as his face mask closed around his determined visage.

  "Wakanda Forever!" the armies yelled as they ran toward the barrier as one unit, Captam America and the Black Panther the fastest among them. "Now!" T'Challa yelled into the radio. And the barrier opened just as he commanded.

  The two forces met with a wrenching crack. Chaos and blood rained down. Amid the snarling savagery that surrounded him: the Black Panther activated his comm: hailing his sister in the Wakandan Design Group lab. "How much longer Shuri?"

  Shuri looked to Vision on the lab table and the holographic image of the millions of neural pathways she would have to go through with surgical precision to succeed in extracting the Mind Stone.

  "I've barely begun, brother," she replied earnestly, knowing how many lives hung m the balance.

  Surveying the carnage already building up, T'Challa encouraged his sister. "You might want to pick up the pace."

  On Nidavellir, Thor stepped inside the broken iris.

  "All-Fathers, give me strength," Thor said. His voice was reverent and uncompromising. The sadness he'd felt for all he'd lost was momentarily transformed into a single-minded fixation. He needed that ax if he was going to kill Thanos. There was no other way.

  "You understand, boy? You're about to take the full force of a star. It'll kill you," Eitri warned.

  "Only if I die," Thor said, tiyring to buoy himself up in these last moments.

  "Yes. That's what k-killing you means," Eitri answered, wondering if Thor understood the magnitude of what he was about to attempt.

  Thor curled his fmgers around one side of the iris and then the other. Without hesitation, he pulled both parts together as the beam of light shone bright behmd him and then burst and raged through him, straight on through to the forge.

  The forge erupted to life. Brilliant and powerful.

  "Hold it! Hold it, Thor!" Eitri yelled as he checked the molten liquid now bubbling in the forge's once cold cauldrons. Eitri hurried over and shouldered the cauldron over, spilling the hot golden liquid mto the molds just beneath. Just as the molten liquid spread across the Stormbreaker mold, Thor lost consciousness. Burned and near death, Thor's arms still hung on either side of the iris. When he finally collapsed, the power of the beam of light surged his slack and lifeless body toward the forge. Rocket took off in the pod, desperate to catch him.

  "Oh!" Thor hit the side of the forge and rolled inside the docking bay, with Rocket close behmd. Groot watched as Thor lay on the floor, motionless. Rocket leaped out of the pod and ran over to Thor. He knelt beside him and tried to shake him awake.

  "Thor! Say somethin'. Come on. Thor, you okay?"

  Eitri pulled the Stormbreaker off its platform and it broke apart. He pounded at the mold with his useless metal hands, trying to free the ax from its restramts. Rocket cal
led out to Eitri in a desperate panic. "I think he's

  dyin'."

  "He needs the ax. Where's the handle? Tree, help me find the handle!" Eitri ran through the forge in search of Stormbreaker's handle.

  Groot looked over at Thor. At Rocket desperately trying to resuscitate the Thunder God. He thought about everything Thor had been willing to sacrifice just for the slightest chance of victory. He set down his video game and steeled himself. It was time to be a part of this team.

  Groot got up and walked over to Stormbreaker. The weapon was still glowing red from the heat and was split mto two halves. He let his branches move and thread around the hammer and the ax. With a painful grunt, Groot

  finally pulled them both together. Groot dragged Stormbreaker to him: then lifted the legendary weapon high mto the air his arm now part of the weapon. With his other arm, he split his own arm apart from the ax: grimacing in pain.

  Stormbreaker had found its handle.

  Thor's fingers twitched as the weapon hit the floor of the forge. Blue sparks arched and sparked around Stormbreaker as it lifted off the floor on its way to its new master.

  The Outriders proved to be a single-minded foe: death to their enemies at any cost. Bucky. Steve, and the Black Panther fought in a rotatmg trio, but found themselves bemg pushed back farther from the domed shield. The Outriders were undeterred by War Machine's bombs dropped from above. Black Widow and Okoye slew as many as possible, covering each other's backs. A half-dozen Outriders overcame the Hulkbuster armor blinding Banner mside.

  "There's too many of them!" Banner's voice broadcast to his fellow teammates, all of whom were experiencing the same situation smce openmg the gate. For even* hero, there were easily a thousand Outriders. They were losmg badly.

  Suddenly, the sky flashed a bright white and crackled with electricity just as a dozen bolts of lightning hit the ground. The energy from the bolts tore through a horde of Outriders, killing them instantly. From mside the flash of light, Stormbreaker burst out across the Wakandan battlefield, killing hundreds more Outriders before curling back to its master.

  Steppmg out of the smoke, with Rocket on his shoulder and flanked by Groot, was the God of Thunder himself: Thor. Blue electricity sparked and laced around Thor as his red cape unfurled behind him. Natasha and Cap looked at their old friend with relief and warmth. Thor was alive and here to help. Maybe all was not lost, after all. "You guys are so screwed now!" Banner whooped from mside the Hulkbuster.

  "Bring me Thanos!" Thor bellowed as he ran to the front line. Raising Stormbreaker, he launched himself high into the air in an explosive lightning storm. Soaring overhead, Thor's eyes glowing white, he descended onto the Outriders and began picking them off with speed and precision.

  The tide had officially turned.

  As he stepped through the teleportation portal, Thanos instantly felt there was something...off. He had been raised on Titan, and though it had been many years smce he'd been cast out, it would always be his home. Right now, his home was telling him something was awry. Looking to his left, he saw the remains of Ebony Maw's ship, and his suspicions were confirmed. He spun at the sound of a sigh behind him.

  "Oh, yeah." Doctor Stephen Strange was seated on a set of broken stairs leading nowhere, casually taking in the sight of the foe that had hunted him across the galaxy. "You're much more of a Thanos."

  Thanos gave a heavy look to the keeper of the Time Stone. "I take it that Maw is dead?" Strange nodded yes. "This day extracts a heavy toll," Thanos sighed deeply. "Still, he accomplished his mission."

  "You may regret that," Strange countered, the Eye of Agamotto glowing green in the presence of its fellow Stones. "He brought you face-to-face with the Master of the Mystic Arts."

  "And where do you think he brought you?" Thanos asked.

  Doctor Strange decided to play along. "Let me guess...your home?"

  Thanos looked around, a strange sadness crossing his face. "It was," he said. He clenched the Gauntlet and the red of the Reality Stone shone bright. Suddenly Strange and Thanos were seated in the heart of the city when it was thriving. Bright skies, ships floating, a busy metropolitan mecca.

  "And it was beautiful."

  Strange tried to cover the awe that he felt in seeing the Reality Stone in use. Instead, he focused on Thanos, who was lost in the past that once more walked about him like a ghost. "Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around." He sounded frustrated. "And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution " "Genocide." Strange did not mmce words.

  "But random," Thanos agreed, to Strangers shock. "Dispassionate. Fair to rich and poor alike. They called me a madman. And what I predicted came to pass." Thanos unflexed the Gauntlet and reality returned to Titan. "Congratulations, you're a prophet," Strange said sarcastically. "I'm a survivor."

  "Who wants to murder trillions," Strange said, going toe-to-toe with Thanos.

  "With all six Stones, I could simply snap my fingers. They would all cease to exist." He looked at Strange as if the mystic would understand his pomt of view as well. "I call that mercy."

  Strange stood up and walked toward Thanos, interested in getting as much information from him as possible. "And then what?"

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

  "I think you'll find our will equal to yours." Strange conjured up two golden protective mandalas.

  A fleeting look of surprise crossed Thanos's face. "'Our ' ?"

  On cue, Iron Man pushed a massive broken column down onto Thanos.

  "Piece of cake. Quill," Tony called out, soaring around the wreckage.

  "Yeah, if your goal was to piss him off" Quill activated his face mask and took off after Stark.

  A burst of purple energy exploded from beneath the massive broken column. Thanos howled as the Power Stone shone bright. Then with another twist of the Gauntlet, the red Reality Stone turned the broken column's rubble into a flock of bats, which he immediately commanded to attack the completely caught off-guard Iron Man.

  As Thanos watched Iron Man carried oft", both of his eyes were blinded by some land of webbing. This offered just enough time for Drax to drop in, both knives drawn, and slash Thanos at the knees.

  The combmed Guardians and Avengers attacked a shocked Thanos. Repulsor blasts, webs, magical swords and ropes, blasters, daggers, blow after blow to keep the Mad Titan off balance.

  "Boom," said Star-Lord flying overhead. Thanos looked up m time to see Quill wave goodbye, and then an explosion rocked the ground beneath the Titan.

  Strange, wieldmg a magical rope that was pulling Thanos's wrist back, ordered the Cloak of Levitation to attack as well. "Don't let him close his fist!" he ordered, and the Cloak surrounded the Infinity Gauntlet. As the heroes ganged up, they managed to bring Thanos down to one knee. A portal opened by his head and Spider-Man came flying out, fist first.

  "Magic!" he exclaimed as he hit Thanos, then vanished through another portal. A second pair of portals opened and Spidey flipped through, webbing Thanos's face and pulling as he disappeared, yelling, "More magic!" A third pair opened and Spider-Man kicked Thanos, driving him farther down. "Magic with a kick!"

  A fourth pair opened. "Magic with a—" This time Thanos was waiting for Spider-Man. He grabbed him around his neck and blasted the boy mto the ground with such force that it left a crater where his body met the unyielding earth.

  "Insect," Thanos growled as Peter squirmed beneath his iron grip. Thanos picked up the boy and hurled him directly into Strange. Thanos ripped the Cloak off his Gauntlet-covered hand just as Tony flew in with explosive force. A force Thanos's Gauntlet sucked up and then aimed right back at Iron Man. Spider-Man used his web-shooters to try to once again disable the Gauntlet, but Thanos ripped the webbing from the golden glove and sent Peter hurtling through the air in reply. As Thanos watched Peter soar, an unknown ship whizzed past Thanos, hitting him as it crash-landed.

&nbs
p; As Thanos rose to one knee. Nebula sailed over him and threw a single punch at her father's face before coming to land in front of him, her sword already drawn.

  "Well, well," he muttered, visibly impressed.

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

  Thanos barked back, "It would have been a waste of parts." Nebula struck him across the face again without hesitation. "Where's Gamora?" she demanded.

  Thanos hit Nebula with the back of his hand, sending her flying. It was time for the team to take the best shot they would get.

  In the moments that followed. Strange wrapped Thanos's Gauntleted hand in red energy ropes, pulling the fingers straight. Drax slid in and kicked Thanos, so the Titan fell to his knees. Quill electrified Thanos's other hand, so that it stretched out toward the ground. Spider-Man swung around the Titan, using his webs to lasso him in place. Tony dropped down and wrapped his hands around the Gauntlet.

  They had him, which meant it was time for the most critical part of the attack. A portal opened above Thanos's head and Mantis dropped onto his shoulders and placed her hands on his temples. He fought, but Mantis was able to establish an empathetic connection with Thanos.

  His shoulders slumped as his eyes closed.

  "Is he under? Don't let up," Iron Man ordered.

  "Be quick. He is very strong," Mantis said, straining to maintain her hold on him.

  "Parker, help. Get over here. She can't hold him much longer. Let's go." Peter fell m next to Tony and together they struggled to pull the Gauntlet off Thanos's hand.

  "Again, agam, again. I'll push on three. Go." The two pulled and tugged as they worked together.

  "Cool! Let's move," Tom- said to Peter as they felt the slightest give.

  "We gotta open his fingers to get it off," Peter said, his voice a strained grunt.

  Quill landed m front of Thanos, gloating. "I thought you'd be harder to catch. For the record, this was my plan," he boasted, walking toward him. "Not so strong now, huh?" Thanos groaned, mentally trying to break free. "Where is Gamora?" Quill demanded.

  "Mu-mu-my Ga-Gamora..." Thanos croaked out. This only angered Peter Quill more. "No lies! Where is she?"