"I think… it worked," Scott said, staring out at the sudden burst of gnats and midges over the lake like the world had exhaled.
FRIDAY broke in, voice razor-sharp. "Sir multiple hostiles inbound. Orbital fleet has begun firing!"
Lances of energy tore through the compound in an instant. Concrete and steel sheared away. Clint dove, clutching the gauntlet to his chest as the floor fell out from under him.
He hit a corridor, sprinting as hyena-like assault drones skittered on all fours behind him.
A dangling turbine housing dropped ahead; Clint fired, kicked off, and the housing crashed down, detonating. The blast rolled him end over end, but the drones were gone fried in the fireball.
Bootsteps. Nebula emerged from the smoke. Relief flooded Clint's face. "Take it go! They're here for the Stones!"
Nebula reached then the gauntlet whipped sideways into another hand.
"You didn't stop to ask which Nebula," a dry voice said.
Tony, Steve, and Scott burst in armor, live shield, and hammer in hand. They'd suited up the moment Nolan warned them: in this timeline, 2014-Thanos would follow them through time, using Nebula as a Trojan horse.
"Called it," Tony snapped, eyes on the impostor. He'd had FRIDAY tail Nebula since the tunnel spike and he'd been ready.
From a ragged breach, Gamora stepped out, eyes wide as she took in the wreckage and the impostor Nebula. She'd heard the plan from the other Nebula, then slipped planetside the moment Thanos ordered war.
"Father," the false Nebula said on comms, fear in her voice. "I was discovered."
"Then you know what must be done," came the cold reply.
"Leave her," Nolan said, tossing the Infinity Gauntlet to Clint. "You'll get your redemption arc in five minutes."
He splayed his fingers. Rubble peeled back like paper, tilting and sliding until a seated figure came into view amid the cratered courtyard.
Tony, Steve, and Thor landed in a triangle, the old trinity reformed iron, shield, and storm.
Nolan studied the Titan with clinical calm. "Skyfather-class biology," he murmured, "but no active skyfather aether. Half-step."
In this universe, the powerscape was… thinner. No mutants. No Knull. But essence was essence.
Thanos squinted at the unfamiliar face holding the battlefield like a chessboard.
"Another universe's Sorcerer Supreme," he rumbled. Nebula's memory had shown him the man.
Nolan smiled. "You can call me Sorcerer Supreme. Or," his gaze glittered, "Superman works too."
Thanos reacted on instinct, yanking his double-edged blade up then staggered backward under a jackhammer chain of impacts. Force crashed through the weapon, pulping purple flesh along his forearms. Blood spattered the dust.
He snarled, swung and his blade shrunk to a paperweight and blinked from his hand.
"Pym particles," Nolan said mildly.
He exhaled. An arctic front roared from nowhere, rime crawling over Thanos' armor as gale-force cold slammed into him. The Titan's eyes widened this was power beyond the usual parlor tricks.
"All batteries—fire!" Thanos barked.
The Black Order surged from behind him as gunships pierced the clouds.
"Help Nolan!" Tony shouted—
—but the ground thrummed. A wave of raw mana detonated from Nolan's heel, reality flexing. In a blink, Nolan, Thanos, the Black Order, and a swath of incoming troops blinked out, the battlefield around the Avengers suddenly, eerily empty, folded into a sealed pocket plane. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽
Steve's earpiece crackled. Stephen Strange's voice cut through the static: "Cap. On your left. We're here."
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