We're in the Endgame Now | Endgame [2]

Chapter 6

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"It's been 23 days since Thanos came to Earth," said Rhodey.

Holograms displayed faces of the teams' "fallen" comrades on the round table in the common room; Stephen Strange, Bucky Barnes, Sam Wilson, Erik Selvig, Wanda, Hope van Dyne, Scott Lang, and many more she recognized from the years.

  "World governments are in pieces. Um, the parts that are still working .  .  ." Natasha took a deep breath, " .  .  . are trying to take a census and it looks like he did .  .  ." Irina couldn't take her eyes off the holograms. "He did exactly what he said he was gonna do." Peter Parker popped up, and she looked at her wheel-chaired father. An IV stand attached to the back of it, fluids pumping into his system. Tony looked away from Peter's hologram, and Irina's heart sunk. "Thanos wiped out .  .  . 50 percent of all living creatures."

  Irina, her father and uncle, Nat, Steve, Thor, the woman that had returned Tony and Rocket's friend back, known as Danvers —according to Steve—, and Rocket himself were gathered around the room, while the intimidating blue, black-eyed woman named Nebula, was no where to be found.

  A hologram of Yelena appeared, and Irene's breath hitched. Three weeks she had been preparing herself for the day Lane's face popped up, and still .  .  . Irene wasn't ready. She looked away, unable to look any longer.

  "Where is he now? Where?" her father asked, and Yelena's picture faded into

  "We don't know," Steve answered, arms folded as he leaned on one of the other tables. "He just, opened a portal and walked through."

  Tony rolled his wheelchair back-n-forth as he sighed. He stopped, looked at Thor, and asked, "What's wrong with him?"

  Thor was across the room by the workshop on a bench against the wall. Arms on his thighs, a stoic expression and hands clamped together that moved about in frustration. "Oh, he's pissed," Rocket said. "He thinks he failed. Which, of course he did .  .  . but there's a lot of that going around, ain't there?"

  "Honestly, at this exact moment, I thought you were a Build-A-Bear," Irina's sarcastic father said.

  "Maybe I am."

  "Didn't you have one, Irene?" His off topic, one-sided conversation made her sigh and muttered an airy "dad". "No no. I'm serious. His name was—oh, what was his name .  .  ." Tony made weird movements with his hands and made odd faces, genuinely in deep thought. "Uhh .  .  . come on." He snapped his fingers to a nonexistent beat, "It was .  .  ."

  "Dad," Irene called, sharper than the previous time, and he looked up at her.

  "We've been hunting Thanos for three weeks now," Cap said, looking at Iron Man. "Deep space scans .  .  . satellites, and we got nothing."

  "Ah!" Tony snapped his fingers once more and pointed at Irina. "I remember. You named 'em Daniels after you broke into my liquor cabinet."

  Irene exhaled loudly and shook her head. She remembered Danny the Bear. Poor dude is at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, thanks to Killian.

  "Tony," Steve called, "you fought him."

  "Who told you that? I didn't fight him. No, he wiped my face with a planet while the Bleecker Street magician gave away the store," he said. "That's what happened. There was no fight, 'cause he's not beatable."