Believer [Peter Parker]

41 - The Fight Pt. 3

Before Thanos can counterattack again, Strange levitated and invokes the images of Ikonn, giving him arms like a Hindu deity before dozens of Dr. Strange and Hannah replications rush away, forming a circular wall around a snarling Thanos.

It took Hannah a few seconds to realize what had just happened. When she did, she knew that with duplicates of herself, she could be more useful.

Hannah created an electric ball and threw it as Thanos as Dr. Strange cast magical cords, wrapping around Thanos's torso, arms and hands; he struggled to close his gauntleted fist and used the Soul and Power Stones to discover which one of the duplicates of Dr. Strange and Hannah was the real one. The Power and Soul stone blew the duplicated away and sent the real Hannah and Dr. Strange reeling. The two stones pulled Dr. Strange and Hannah forward. Thanos grasped Dr. Strange.

"You're full of tricks, wizard," Thanos said.

"No!" Dr. Strange said as Thanos reached for the Eye of Agamotto.

Thanos snapped the Eye of Agamotto off its chain.

"Yet you never once used your greatest weapon," Thanos said, crushing the Eye with his bare hands. "A fake," Thanos discovered. Thanos threw Dr. Strange hard enough that the Sorcerer Supreme passed out when his head hits the stone.

Hannah ran to Dr. Strange to try and get him to wake up.

"Dr. Strange, come on, wake up," Hannah said.

Almost simultaneously, a red and gold device slapped into the palm of the Infinity Gauntlet, bracing the fingers open; and a red and gold Avenger made a fast and hard entrance.

"You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna lose it," Tony said.

"Stark," Thanos said.

"You know me?" Tony asked.

"I do," Thanos confirmed. "You're not the only one cursed with knowledge."

"My only curse is you," Tony said. Small rockets pop out of Tony's back and launched at Thanos

"Come on!" Thanos said.

The rockets all exploded on target, momentarily shrouding Thanos in smoke. Before it cleared, Tony piledrived into Thanos horizontally, using his single super-jet boot configuration. As he bounced off, he flipped and stuck his landed, immediately reconfiguring his boots into the ground clamped for stability and his gloves into rocket-driven battering rams, punching Thanos into a ruined wall behind him.

Thanos shock it off quickly, reached forward and tore Tony's helmet off, revealing Tony's surprised expression before the suit recovers automatically and re-forms his head protection. The Titan made use of the fractional delay and punched back hard, sending Tony sliding meters away, giving Thanos time to rip the brace device off the gauntlet. He immediately uses the Power Stone to stream furiously lambent energy at his opponent, who formed a shield to kneel behind just as instantly, getting pushed back even further by the incredible force.

Tony slid out from behind the shield, letting the angled energy push him away for a faster start, and whipped back to Thanos full thrusters; he kicked at the Titan with his left foot, turning the boot into a ground clamp at the same time to pin the gauntlet, and kept twisting while his left glove became a ram again, slamming into Thanos's face, cutting his cheek.

"All that for a drop of blood," Thanos panted.

He smiled briefly punched Tony, sending him pinwheeling, then started beating him with his fists. Tony attempted to block the blows with his forearms, but Thanos is relentless, picking him up by the helmet and blasting his midsection with the Power Stone. The gaps in nanite coverage are now gaping, as the armor began to lose the ability to recover from the intensity and extent of the damage. Tony landed hard from the Power blast, struggled to one knee and fires his right-hand repulsor at the inexorable Thanos; the beam is easily deflected by the gauntlet. He got to both feet as the suit tries to complete repairs, adding the beam from his left hand as well. Thanos walked right up to him and backhanded the incomplete helmet completely off Tony's head. He crossed his arms to block a blow from Thanos's gauntlet and has his left hand caught over his head. In desperation, he formed what's left of his right glove into a shortsword, which is also easily caught by Thanos, snapping it off clean and driving it through Iron Man's left side. The fight is over.

Thanos walks Iron Man back until he sat, and placed the gauntlet almost comfortingly on Tony's head.

"You have my respect, Stark," Thanos said. "When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive," he let go, straightened and stepped back. "I hope they remember you."

Tony was too concerned with the pain he's feeling and the blood drooling out of his mouth.

Thanos raised the gauntlet, closing his fist, all four Stones glowing.