The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

3. Babe, you're embarrassing me

LOCATION: NEW YORK

The bifrost sends Hulk all the way to Earth, towards New York and most specifically, to someone who Heimdall knows can help. In the Sanctum, Doctor Stephen Strange sighs "Seriously, you don't have any money?" "Attachment to the material is detachment from the spiritual." "I'll tell the guys at the deli. Maybe they'll make you a metaphysical ham on rye." He is wearing civilian clothes and walking down a staircase with Wong, his colleague. Wong searches through a pocket "Oh, wait, wait, wait. I think I have 200." "Dollars?" "Rupees." "Which is?" "Uh, buck and a half." Strange sighs again "What do you want?" "I wouldn't say no to a tuna melt." Suddenly the bifrost breaks through their ceiling and down through the staircase they've barely finished walking down. They quickly run to the hole in the staircase, Strange's blue robe and red cape forming around him. Regina groans, her skin slowly fading from green, she speaks still in Hulk's voice, her eyes also still green "Thanos is coming." The green continues to fade and her eyes return to brown as she whispers "He's coming." Strange and Wong look at each other in confusion "Who?" 

Suzanne and Ashley are out walking with 4 year old Maria holding Ashley's left hand, 2 year old Braden holding Ashley's right hand, 1 year old Joseph and 5 month old Lucy being pushed in a double buggy by Suzanne. Both adults are wearing disguises. All of a sudden, a portal opens up in front of them and Doctor Strange steps out "Ashley Stark. Suzanne Wilson." They stop walking "I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me." Ashley asks "I'm sorry, are you giving out tickets to something?" "We need your help. It's not overselling it to say that the fate of the universe is at stake." Suzanne asks "And who's 'we'?" Regina, now fully clothed, walks through the portal and stumbles towards the group, her eyes filled with shock as she sees not only two soulmates who she didn't know if she'd ever see again, but also three more children than when she was home last "Hey…" Ashley blinks a few times "Regina." Ashley let's go of her children's hands and pulls Regina into a hug. They're so in shock, not knowing what's been going on with Regina the past 3 years. After Ashley finally let's go of her, Suzanne gets to hug her, then Maria wraps her arms around one of her legs. Regina gets down on her knees to take a better look at her, she asks, a little unsure "Maria?" She nods and smiles brightly, then hugs her "Mommy!" She stands up with her in her arms, really not wanting to let go. Ashley quickly introduces her to the rest of their shared children, but Regina doesn't try to hug them, wanting to wait for them to get comfortable around her first.

The group head to the Sanctum together, where things are explained. Wong begins, showing imagery in front of them, to help them understand "At the dawn of the universe, there was nothing. Then boom! The big bang sent 6 elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe. These infinity stones each control an essential aspect of existence." Strange indicates to the blue one "Space." Then the red "Reality." The purple one "Power." Next the orange "Soul." Lastly the yellow "Mind." And then he opens the necklace he's wearing, revealing a green stone "And Time." 

Ashley looks to Regina "Tell me his name again." "Thanos. He's a plague, Ashley. He invades planets. He takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population. He sent Lavina, the attack on New York, that was him." "This is it. What's our timeliness?" "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 6 stones..." Strange completes the sentence "He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of." Ashley does what she usually does when she's scared, she says something either stupid, funny or sarcastic "Did you seriously just say, 'hitherto undreamt of'? If Thanos needs all 6, why not stick this one down a garbage disposal?" She points to the one Strange has "No can do." Wong looks offended "We swore an oath to protect the Time stone with our lives." Ashley shrugs "And I swore off dairy, but then Ben & Jerry's named a flavour after me. So-" Strange nods "Stark Raving Hazelnuts." "Not bad." "A bit chalky." Wong joins in "A Hunk Of Hulk Of Burning Fudge is our favourite." Regina looks mortified "That's a thing?" Ashley brings things back around "Point is, things change." "Our oath to protect the Time stone cannot change. And this stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos." "Yeah, so conversely, it may also be his best chance against us." "Well, if we don't do our jobs." "What is your job exactly? Besides making balloon animals." "Protecting your reality." Suzanne cuts in "Okay, could we table this discussion right now? The fact is, we have this stone. We know where it is. Vision has the Mind stone, we know where that is. We need to go home and talk to the others about this." Ashley nods "Let's go home." 

They hear a distant rumbling, their hair starts to move in the breeze, they all look up at the whole in the ceiling and hear more noises. They walk out the front door to see people running and screaming, all in the same direction, horns honking, and they can feel a wind picking up. Ashley turns to Suzanne "Stay here with the kids, don't let them out of your sight. And call the others, warn them about Vision." Suzanne nods and gets them all into another room, while the rest of them head outside. They have to help a few people along the way and Ashley asks Friday, her AI "Friday what am I looking at?" "I'm not sure. I'm working on it." Ashley points to Strange "Hey! You might wanna put that Time stone in your back pocket, Doc!" "Might wanna use it." Sirens are wailing, the wind has picked up incredibly and people are still running, now abandoning their cars. They walk out onto another street to see what all the commotion is about, hovering above the street and buildings, is a spaceship, shaped like a donut and so much taller than everything around it.

On a bus, Peter Parker notices something is going on. He looks out of the window, to see the spaceship. He then gets his best friend Ned's attention "Ned, hey. I need you to cause a distraction." "Holy shit. WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE! THERE'S A SPACESHIP!" All the students start panicking and hurrying to the window, so Peter gets out of a window and gets his Spiderman costume on. He swings his way towards the spaceship.

Ashley stares in wonder "Friday, evac anyone south of 43rd Street. Notify first responders." "Will do." The only people still out on the street are Strange, Wong, Regina and Ashley. They watch as the ship teleports Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian down onto the street ahead of them. They approach them and Ebony speaks "Hear me and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children Of Thanos-" The larger alien, says something in an alien language "-Be thankful that your meaningless lives are now contributing-" Ashley interrupts "Im sorry, Earth is closed today. You better pack it up and get outta here." "Stonekeeper." Ebony and Strange look directly at each other "Does this chattering animal speak for you?" "Certainly not. I speak for myself." He pulls up his magical defences "You're trespassing in this city and on this planet." Wong pulls up his defences too and Ashley shouts an insult "He means get lost, Squidward!" Ebony comments to Cull "He exhausts me. Bring me the stone." Cull replies in his alien language and starts walking forward. Ashley looks to his soulmate "Gina, you want a piece?" "Mmm, no. Not really. But when do I ever get what I want?" "That's right." Regina tries to get Hulk out, but she doesn't want to "It's been a while. It's gonna be good to have you, babe." "Okay, shh. Let me just… I need to concentrate here for a second." She strains "Come on, come on." Ashley looks to her with concern, there's green creeping up her neck, but she's not transforming "Where's your girl?" Regina sighs and all the green immediately disappears "I don't know. We've sorta been having a thing." "It's no time for a thing." "I know." "That's the thing right there. Let's go." Cull speaks in his own language again as he stomps closer, the ground shaking beneath his feet. Strange gives Ashley a worried look, as Regina tries again with Hulk, but the green doesn't go past her chin "Babe, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards." "Ashley, I'm sorry. Either I can't or she won't." "It's okay. Hey, stand down." She holds Regina's shoulders a moment and looks to Wong "Keep an eye on her. Thank you." "I have her." Regina steps to Wong's side "Damn it."