The Soulmate Initiative: Book 2

16. A dead star

LOCATION: NIDAVELLIR

Rocket is flying himself and Tasia, to the star, Tasia is on top of the ship, holding a thick rope connected "I don't think you get the scientifics here. These rings are gigantic. You wanna get them moving, you're gonna need something a lot bigger to yank 'em loose." Tasia jumps onto one of the rings "Leave that to me." "Leave it to you!? Girly, you're in space. All you got is a rope and a-" Rocket yells as the small ship starts moving very quickly. Below, Tasia is swinging the rope around with her Asgardian strength. When the ship has enough momentum, Tasia tosses it and holds on tight "FIRE THE ENGINES!" Rocket does as he's told and Tasia lands on the ring further around, she uses the ship and the rings like she's water skiing. Until she gets to the edge, then she digs her feet in and holds tight "More power, rabbit!" The rings slowly start moving into position around them and the star encasing opens up. Eitri smiles "Well done, girl." Tasia climbs up to the ship and peers in at Rocket, she points to the star "That's Nidavellir." The machine powers up and it looks as all is going well, until it suddenly powers down. Eitri sighs "Damn it." Rocket asks "'Damn it'? What's 'damn it'?" "The mechanism is crippled." Tasia asks "What?" "With the iris closed, I can't heat the metal." "How long will it take to heat it?" "A few minutes, maybe more. Why?" "I'm gonna hold it open." "That's suicide." "So is facing Thanos without that axe."

Tasia jumps down and into position "Allfathers, give me strength." Eitri asks "You understand, girl? You're about to take the full force of a star. It'll kill you." "Only if I die." "Yes. That's what killing you means." Tasia puts on a determined face, takes a deep breath and grabs onto a piece of metal on each side of her, which usually automatically move, but she has to do it instead. They're stiff and heavy, she strains and as she pulls on them, the containment behind her begins to open. She yells as she holds the mechanism open, the star starting to burn her. It works, the star starts the process "Hold it! Hold it, Tasia!" Eitri gets to work, he watches the metal start to melt, waiting for just the right moment.

LOCATION: WAKANDA

An alarm starts beeping and Okoye opens a device "Something's entered the atmosphere."

Suzanne, standing outside the lab building, sees something bearing down on them "Hey, Cap, we got a situation here." It hits a dome shield covering Wakanda, and is destroyed. Beside Suzanne, Anna looks up in amazement "God, I love this place." Rhodey, who's in her War Machine suit that's had an Avengers upgrade and paint job of dark blue and silver, says "Yeah, don't start celebrating yet, guys. We got more incoming outside the dome." Planting themselves into the ground outside the dome are huge metal towers. Vision sits up "It is too late. We need to destroy the stone now." As he gets off the table, Nian turns on him "Vision, get your ass back on the table." T'Challa starts walking out of the room "We will hold them off." Stacey turns to Warren "Warren, as soon as that stone's out of his head, you blow it to hell." "I will." T'Challa continues walking, Stacey, Nian and Regina now following "Engage all defences."

Groups of warriors are in small vehicles, flying towards the border, Nian asks through coms "How we looking, Regina?" Regina is very unsteady on her feet. She's inside Ashley's Hulk sized suit, painted dark green and gold. She's running along with the vehicles "Yeah, I think I'm getting the hang of it." She suddenly flies up and forwards a bit and screams, as she tries to control it. She lands shakily on her feet and keeps running "Wow! This is amazing! It's like being Hulk without actually-" She doesn't see a rock, until she's tripped over it, but she gets back up "I'm okay. I'm okay." Rhodey and Suzanne are flying along together "I've got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line." Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight walk up to the border, having come from one of the metal towers. All the warriors line up in their tribes, the Avengers standing with the Kingsguard and T'Challa, who shakes hands with M'Baku "Thank you for standing with us." He responds in his own language.

Proxima pulls out her sword and runs it along the barrier, it crackles, but doesn't go through. King T'Challa, Stacey and Nian approach the barrier, and Nian asks Proxima "Where's your other friend?" "You will pay for his life with yours. Thanos will have that stone." Stacey responds "That's not gonna happen." Then T'Challa speaks "You are in Wakandq now. Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood." "We have blood to spare." Proxima grunts and thrusts her sword in the air. The towers shift and the trio jog back to the others. Anna asks Stacey "They surrender?" "Not exactly." Aliens snarl as they charge out of the towers, there are thousands of them... Anna stares wide-eyed "What the hell?" Nian watches carefully "Looks like we pissed her off." Creatures are trying to get through the barrier, clawing at it and dying. Okoye states "They're killing themselves." Some start to get through, but the barrier cuts them to pieces before they're fully through.