Across the Stars 🕷 Peter Parker [3]

eight

Peter

The plan seemed simple enough. Thanos showed up, they fought, they got the gauntlet from him and stopped him from using it to wipe out half of the universe. Simple in theory, a bit more difficult in execution.

Peter was nervous. This was his first real fight as an Avenger. And he wasn't even on Earth. He was on some random alien planet, waiting for an insane alien to show up and fight to save the universe. Literally, the universe. It was all a bit much to take in at once.

Mr Stark had been helpful. He coached Peter through it all, and warned him not to get too close if he could help it. "This is the fight of our lives, kid." Mr Stark had told him. "We can't afford to screw this one up."

With a puffed out chest and as much bravery as he could muster, Peter nodded firmly. "I won't let you down, Mr Stark." He promised. He wouldn't. This was something that he couldn't afford to lose. If Mr Stark needed him, then Peter was going to do everything in his power to ensure that they won today.

Now all he had to do was wait for Doctor Strange's signal. He was going to be the one to confront Thanos when he first arrived. Peter was hiding behind one of the massive rocks, just waiting.

When he arrived, he arrived in a puff of smoke and dust. Peter assumed he was able to use one of the infinity stones to travel across vast distances in space. That was the only logical reason he could think of, anyway. Then again, the Infinity Stones didn't really fit Peter's idea of 'logic,' that had all flown out the window of that space donut when he left Earth's atmosphere.

Doctor Strange was distracting Thanos at first, making small talk with him, waiting for their chance to strike. It was Doctor Strange that Thanos was looking for, so it didn't take too much to distract the giant purple guy.

"Oh yeah," Doctor Strange said as the alien approached him. "You're much more of a Thanos."

"I take it that Maw is dead." Thanos said.

Maw? Did he mean Squidward? A part of Peter flinched at the idea that he had helped bring about someone's death, but the other part told him that it had been necessary... that Maw was a really bad guy and that he had been willing to torture Doctor Strange to get the time stone from him.

Doctor Strange simply nodded in response.

"This day extracts a heavy toll." Thanos began to walk closer to the wizard (though, Doctor Strange had corrected both Peter and Mr Stark and said he was a sorcerer and not a wizard, but they sounded essentially the same to Peter). "Still, he accomplished his mission."

Peter watched from his hiding spot as Doctor Strange glanced down at his necklace and then back up. Right, keeping the necklace as far away from Thanos as possible... how many of the stones did Thanos even have?

"You may regret that," the doctor replied. "He brought you face to face with a Master of the Mystic Arts."

"And where do you think he brought you?" Thanos asked.

Peter quietly climbed up a piece of forgotten spaceship and peeked around the edge, down at the exchange happening below him. He knew that Doctor Strange hadn't given the signal yet, but part of him wanted to just jump on Thanos right then and take the gauntlet.

He wondered how mad Mr Stark would be at him if he tied that?

"Let me guess, your home?" Doctor Strange replied.

"It was," Thanos answered. He lifted his gauntlet hand and one of the stones glowed red. The scenery around them changed from a dying wasteland to a thriving planet, with more of Thanos' kind.