54

Chapter 54: And It Begins

Notes:

Sup! I watched Infinity War again for you guys. I was reminded of how much I hate it with every fiber of my being. Its bad guys. But in this chapter unfortunately there is a lot of dialogue from said movie, or at least in mirror of that film even if the further you get the less closely it follows the movie. Fear not, this is the only chapter in this whole damn fic where I actually use proper dialogue from the movie. I hate doing that. But in this case needed.

Chapter Text

Tony jogged lightly besides Pepper. "So I've been thinking, we should get married. I mean we're talking kid. Seems like the thing to do."

"Oh we should, should we?" Pepper did that thing that was a head nod and shake at the same time she did when fond and exasperated. It was one of his favorite looks on her face. "Is this a proposal?"

He bounced slightly as they stepped to the side off the path in the park. "It could be? Think about it, us, brilliant baby we make, its older siblings babysit."

"Hmm...sounds nice." Pepper raised a brow. "Already making reservations?"

Tony sensed the trap there, thank god for having daughters who were happy to inform him when he was about to stick his foot in it. "Of course not, I hear planning weddings is a thing brides like to do."

"Oh is it?" Pepper sighed. "Tony are you sure this isn't some getting your affairs in order in case Thanos wins?" She tapped at the arch reactor attached to his chest. "If you really wanted the future you say you do you wouldn't be wearing this 100% of the time. You wouldn't be making new suits all day long."

He used his arms as he talked. "It's for us, protection for if something happens. And you've met the spawn."

"And I love you for how involved you are with your kids." Pepper laid a hand on his shoulder.

He loved this woman, and leaving her alone with Darcy would have her agreeing to marry him. Probably. Either way he was winning. Tony pulled her to him, kissing her reverently. She was his person after all.

Tony was not happy at the sound of something right next to them. He turned, gently pushing Pepper a step behind him, as literal golden portal opened up and a fucking wizard stepped out.

The wizard spoke like he should be taken seriously. "Tony Stark, I'm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me."

"I'm sorry, you giving tickets or something. Cause I already have a witch. Not interested in making that a matched set."

Weird wizard man didn't even have the decency to look insulted, put out or even affected. "We need your help. Look, it's not overselling to say that the fate of the universe is at stake."

"The fate of the universe is always at stake." Tony waved off. He paused. "And who's 'we'?"

There was movement on the other side of the portal. And then Bruce shuffled out. "Hey, Tony."

"Bruce." Tony glanced at Pepper. Clearly they'd both noticed the man looked like shit.

Bruce's voice was weaker than he remembered it as he spoke. "Pepper."

"Hi?" Pepper was trying to communicate something to Tony. It was good she didn't have heels on or she'd have stepped on his toes with them.

Tony took a step forward, partially out of concern and partially out of self preservation. "You ok?"

Bruce stepped forward, straight into him. Tony froze as he was hugged. They were not hugging friends, this wasn't something they did. But he wasn't an idiot. He knew how bad it had to be for Bruce to be this traumatized. Because that's what this was, trauma. "Uh...ok buddy." He patted his friend's back. Fuck.

Tony waved at the magic light show. "Right, we know about the Infinity Stones. Asgardians were informative. Also we have one. We have a whole plan involving them. Are you saying you've just had the Time one this whole time? Cause that would have been nice to know."

"I'm its protector." Wizard Strange looked like he was confused. "You are taking this surprisingly well? Do you understand who Thanos is?"

Tony felt smug as he raised a brow. "Asgardians in my tower. Did you miss the Spidervid, that broadcast to the planet that we're going to be invaded? The Mind Stone is hiding in a multinational military trap designed to turn aliens into mincemeat. It's the biggest news story other than Scarletquake. Do you not get reception to any news channel? Is it against your magic religion?"

"We get the news just fine." The other wizard, Wong, replied.

Tony stared at him. "Really, not talking to you crazier wizard. Did you rescue him from the mountains?" Actually not a mention of the stereotypical asian monk of magic martial arts or whatever. Growth. Or healthy fear of his daughters. He liked to think both.

"Tony!" Bruce interrupted. "We don't have time for this. He has the Power and Space Stones. That makes him the strongest creature in the whole universe. If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony…"

"He can destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of." Strange finished.

Tony leaned against a cauldron thing. "Two things. One, did you just say "hitherto undreamt of"? And two why don't you just bop off to Russia where the army and half the Avengers are and make our trap for the Mad Titan twice as tempting?"

"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" Strange glared pointedly at where Tony was leaning against a cauldron.

He glanced at the cauldron. "Is that what this is?" Tony shook himself out of it. "The point is we're already getting ready for Thanos. An update to the timeline of when to expect him would be nice. So why don't you skedaddle to go further bait the trap. You can protect your magic rock while freezing your magic fingers off. A bunch of angry Russians, Americans, Canadians, Wakandians, French, Chinese and a half dozen other nationalities all united by their agreed on distrust of Romanoff. And they can unleash that angst in the form of bullets at the aliens."

"Tony, guns won't stop him." Bruce looked genuinely distraught.

Tony awkwardly patted his friend on the shoulder. "Half the Avengers are there. The rest of us are one science portal away from joining in. Not to mention the actually terrifying bombs." He looked at the wizards. "So go, fly away on your broomsticks or whatever. Join the team, just do it before you bring the alien invasion to New York instead of bumfuck nowhere Siberia."

"The army can't stop him. Asgard couldn't stop him. Thor, Loki, Hulk, all of them couldn't stop him." Bruce's arms moved with his conviction and helplessness. "We need more than the army."

Tony paused as he noticed the wizard's hair moving. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be moving your hair would you?"

Eyes moving to the fluttering lock of hair, Strange's demeanor shifted ever so slightly. "Not at the moment, no."

They all looked up through the giant hole blown in the ceiling. Tony felt like he'd swallowed a rock as he saw the debris flying in the sky above the hole. It was like a magnetic updraft was being created. Ignoring everyone else, Tony made his way straight out the door. As he reached the street he took in the chaos.

Civilians running and screaming, traffic was a snarled mess of horns, abandoned vehicles and minor accidents creating a gridlock that would take days to fix. An unnatural wind blowing down the street. A woman nearly crashed into him as she fell to the ground. Tony automatically helped the woman to her feet. "You okay?"

She didn't answer just booking it the moment her feet were back under her. Not that he could blame her.

Tony slid his sunglasses onto his face. "FRIDAY, what am I looking at?"

-Not sure, I'm working on it.-

Tony glanced over his shoulder at Strange. "Hey! You might wanna put that Time Stone in your back pocket Doc!"

"I might want to use it." Strange replied, magical thingamabobs lighting up around his arms. If Tony's daughter wasn't dating a witch he might have said more about it. It was still tempting.

Turning the corner at the intersection Tony could see the huge circular ship floating just over the street. He winced, oh that had a recipe of bad all over it. Especially if his kids decided to punch it. The hum of alien mechanics holding the ship aloft filled the street. It looked like that timetable of 'soon' just became 'now'. "FRIDAY, evac anyone south of 43rd Street, notify first responders."

-Will do.-

Strange moved, his arms doing something nonsensical and then a great gust of orange tinted magic swept upwards, calming the wind from the ship.

Tony gave the man an amused look. He didn't particularly have time to say much though as a beam of light hit the street...well, here came the evil aliens.

////

Bruce was having an objectively terrible day. Possibly the worst of his entire life, it was right up there with the first few weeks as Hulk. He swallowed, his mouth dry as the alien disciples of Thanos beamed onto the street. The wheedling madness of the outspoken disciple was audible in its voice. "Hear me, and rejoice. You are about to die at the hands of the Children of Thanos. Be thankful, that your meaningless lives are now contributing to-"

Tony, because of course he did, interrupted the psychopathic alien. "I'm sorry, Earth is closed today! You better pack it up and get outta here."

If the alien had a human nose he'd have been looking down it at them. He actually ignored Tony, looking at Dr Strange pointedly. His hands clasped before him. "Stonekeeper...Does this chattering animal speak for you?"

"Certainly not. I speak for myself. But you're trespassing in this city and on this planet." Magic lit up around Dr Strange's arms. It should have been comforting to hear these two powerful men standing strong in the face of the Children of Thanos. Having seen the devastation the Children brought it wasn't comforting to Bruce.

"It means get lost Squidward!" Tony was clearly irritated at being ignored.

The Child of Thanos's eyes seemed to stare into the distance. "He exhausts me."

The large, hulking Child of Thanos, in sleek armor with a lethal looking hammer spoke. It was inhuman and Bruce hadn't the faintest idea what it meant.

"Bring me the Stone." The articulate Child commanded.

Bruce twitched as that awful hammer dropped to the ground and the hulking alien began to move forward.

"Banner, you want a piece?" Tony's voice was tight with tension.

He felt a shiver of terror seeing the Children who had ripped the fleet apart. "No, not really. But when do I ever get what I want?" Bruce ignored whatever Tony said next, just focusing on forcing out the Hulk. Usually there was a thin membrane, barely keeping the rage and ever fighting presence just waiting to break through. It was just giving in, stopping the fight to hold control and letting the inevitable happen.

This time though...nothing happened. The Hulk felt like a cold bur of indigestion curled in on itself. Bruce fought and dragged, desperately trying to pull it out, he felt it, and then it snapped back into him, leaving him painfully vulnerable and not green.

"Been a while. Good to have you, buddy." Tony called.

Bruce panted. "I just...I need to concentrate here for one second." He didn't care that he was talking to himself. He needed the Hulk before whatever that awful creature coming for them got there. "Come on, come on, man."

"Where's your guy?" Tony had the slightest tension of 'hurry up' in his voice.

Bruce would have run his hands through his hair in sheer frustration if he hadn't been so terrified. "I don't know! We've sorta been having a thing."

"There's no time for a thing or my daughter is going to break doctor's orders to come punch it. I will get yelled at if she tears her stitches." Tony actually sounded alarmed under his bravado.

"I know there's no time!" Bruce's face scrunched up and his head snapped to Tony. "Daughter?!"

"It's been a minute since we caught up." Tony's voice changed pitch. "That's the thing right there! Let's go, catch up later."

Bruce really tried to force Hulk out of the dark corner he was curled up in. Nothing happened.

"Dude, you're embarrassing me in front of the wizards." Tony muttered at him.

Bruce felt shame curling inside of him. "Tony, I'm sorry." He felt at a loss of words. "Either I can't or he won't…"

"It's okay. I'll just have to handle it." Tony glanced at Wong. "Keep an eye on him. Thank you."

Wong gave the slightest of nods. "I have him."

Bruce swore, and then watched...well Tony'd been busy. Holy shit. And then it was chaos till Dr Strange was turning to him. "Dr Banner, if your green friend won't be joining us…" And then dumped him through a portal, Bruce's back hitting the soft ground of a park. Bruce blinked at the change in location. He was not used to that.

He could still hear the sounds of the fight. And just over the tops of the buildings he could see the light from magic, and the occasional Ironsuit blast. Bruce scrambled to his feet. He was barely up when Tony came flying through an apartment building. And skidding to a halt in a furrow made by the force of the suit. It was the tree he slammed into that actually stopped him.

"Tony, are you ok?" Bruce rushed to his friend. He couldn't lose another. "How we doing? Good? Bad?" Please let it be good, he couldn't survive more of his friends dying in front of him.

Tony's voice came out mechanical through the suit, the sarcasm was still audible regardless. "Really, really good. Do you plan on helping out?"

"I'm trying. He won't come out." Bruce felt like pulling his hair out. How did people without Hulks survive these things without heart attacks from the stress?

And then the massive hammer wielding Child of Thanos was there and it was chaos again.

Bruce wondered if he could bruise if Hulk didn't come out? He didn't wonder for long as he ducked out of the way of an energy beam. His chest ached like he had some cracked ribs from where Tony had tossed him.

He began to slap himself. "Come on Hulk! What are you doing to me?" Bruce winced from the pain, it'd been so long since he'd been able to feel normal pain without Hulk coming out. "Come out! Come out! Come out!"

Hulk roared, poking out ever so slightly. "Noooooooo!"

Bruce collapsed back into the wreckage that had been a tree. Huh….so that's where the tree had gotten to. He stared at the sky. "What do you mean 'no'!?"

Tony was knocked into the ground hard. The creature raised its hammer for another hit. One that would almost certainly do real damage to the suit and the man inside. Bruce felt his throat closing in panic. And then the hammer stopped abruptly.

A figure in a red and blue suit stood between Ironman and the alien. He was holding the hammer, had physically caught it like it was nothing. "Hey guys. What's up Poprocks?"

"Shouldn't you be on your field trip to MoMA? Your aunt is going to kill me?" Tony replied as he righted himself.

The suited stranger's large white eyes looked at the alien. "What's this guy's problem?" His question trailed off into a yelp as he was snagged and then chucked to the side by the Child of Thanos.

Then the air itself shook and a figure in a black suit came crashing down on top of the Child of Thanos with a Boom! The ground cratered beneath them. The Child's chest physically caved in. It's innards leaking out like paste as the newest arrival pulled their fist out of its chest. The figure was clearly a woman now that she was standing and not a descending blur of furry. "What's the situation?"

"DON'T PUNCH THE SPACESHIP!" Tony flew over, his mask snapping up. "Are you ok to fight? Did you pull any stitches?"

The woman raised a brow. "I'm fine. What's the situation Poprocks?"

Tony's face twitched, but he straightened. "Toothpaste there is from space." He gestured to the very, very dead Child of Thanos. "He came here to steal a necklace with an Infinity Stone in it from a wizard." Tony pointed at the ship. "If you quake the spaceship it will explode and take half the neighborhood."

Bruce opened and shut his mouth as he mouthed the word 'Poprocks'. He also was horrified by the idea of someone with enough power to be able to take down the entire space ship with a single punch...as well as the fact she'd just crushed a Child of Thanos like a bug. Sure there was the element of surprise. But still…

"Got it, Wanda and Pietro were headed for the magic." The woman in black turned towards the street that had just lit up bright red. "I think they're good." She turned back to Tony. "What's the plan?"

Tony's entire helmet folded away from his head. "We need a locating signal on that ship. Your sister can run a test with her clean energy nuke replacements once it's out of orbit."

"Got it!" The guy in the spider? suit, leapt up, shot actual spider webbing and then went flying off towards the ship.

Tony huffed. "Children."

"So second Infinity Stone on earth?" The woman dragged the conversation back on point.

He gave a sharp nod. "Apparently earth has wizards with time powers. A wizard we are going to bundle up and send straight to Russia as soon as that spaceship is gone."

"Right." The woman glanced at the street that was very much no longer lit with bright red light. "Shall we?"

Tony smirked, but waived her towards Bruce. "Offspring this is Bruce, Avenger, part time mean green rage machine. Though apparently he's having performance issues today. Bruce, this is my daughter Quake."

"You have a daughter?" Bruce's voice was rather strangled. His brain had quite frankly stalled out around the time the creature he was terrified of was stomped into paste by a person in a Spidersuit and this Quake.

Quake's grin was eerily familiar. "Nice to meet you. Have to say that's too bad about the performance issues. I was looking forward to meeting the Hulk."

"Uh…" Bruce was actually unsure if that would be safe or not….His eyes flickered to the crater and then back to Quake. "You're Tony's daughter?"

She laughed, but nodded. "Yup, old man here had some condom fails in his lifetime. So it's not just me. The kid who was just here is Spiderman and he's Tony's as well as our older sister who is in the tower."

Tony looked positively smug as his helmet reformed over his head. "I've got the best kids naturally."

"Naturally." Quake replied dryly. "Come on, I believe we have a wizard to gift wrap for Russia and a spaceship to send back home."

"I...I wasn't gone that long?" Bruce stumbled along as they started walking back towards the street where it'd all started. "Did you know before?"

Tony's suit propulsores turned on, causing him to hover slightly. His apparent daughter easily hooking her arm around his shoulders to hang on. "I didn't know I had spawn when you left. But you know me, should have assumed." He grabbed Bruce by the back of the jacket like a misbehaving kitten and flew them all over to the scene of what looked like a fight that had ended as decisively as theirs.

Standing there with her arms crossed was Wanda from Sokovia. She was apparently arguing with Dr Strange. Eating popsicles that had come from somewhere, was Pietro and Wong. Apparently they were ok with watching said argument. At the feet of the wizard and witch was the decapitated body of the magical Child of Thanos.

Bruce was boggled, he knew he'd be having nightmares about that particular Child of Thanos for the rest of his life. But there he was. Dead. Very, very dead. "What is happening?"

"You get used to it." Quake offered unhelpfully before unhooking her arm from around Tony's shoulders and dropping to the ground. She loped across the street to Wanda and kissed her cheek. "So you're the wizard? Did you not get the news everyone was preparing for Thanos? Cause magical support other than Wanda here would have been nice to know about."

Dr Strange raised an eyebrow. "Ah, so I've been informed. I wasn't aware there was a mailing list."

"I hear we have cookies." Quake grinned, ignoring the way Wanda was fondly rolling her eyes. "So magic Infinity Stone. Why's it on earth?"

Dr Strange sighed. "Because we're the protectors of this reality and have been entrusted with its care."

Tony cut in as he landed, letting Bruce drop to the ground as well. His face mask slid up. He looked pointedly at where the spaceship was flying away, the Spiderperson perched on top of a nearby roof. "Thoughts on aggressive defence?"

"Well, when you ask nicely." Dr Strange replied dryly.

Tony grinned. "Excellent, so thoughts on our new timetable?"

////

Darcy felt slightly like cackling. She high fived Bucky, she'd trained him well. "Let's hope this at least gives Thanos a very bad day."

"I'm sure a spaceship blowing up when it lands will be a net negative." Jane replied from where she was inputting new data as they tracked the course the ship was moving with their new instruments. "We're going to need deep space relay stations."

Darcy frowned. "That's so going to take some inter-galaxy political negotiation." She groaned. "Have we lost it yet?"

"It just made a jump." Jane frowned as she switched machines. "And I think the jump just set off your bomb."

Darcy grabbed the screen and dragged it towards her. "Fuck, you're right. So shitty portals upset the stasis of the arch-bombs. Less of a bad day than planned, oh well. He still lost a ship."

"And two assets." Bucky pointed out, because he was the best.

Darcy nodded sagely. "Yeah, I'm real glad Daisy's my sister and Wanda's not a bad guy cause uh...supes scary."

Bucky opened his mouth, likely to point out some depressing method of neutralizing either or both of them. He wisely closed it. But his expression said his thoughts had been murder and he'd realized the mistake mentioning that would be.

Darcy patted him on the shoulder in acknowledgment of him not saying anything. "Did we get any readings on what they're using for their portals?"

"Same as the Chronicoms." Jane's voice was full of disgust as she went off on a tangent of how unsafe and horrifying their portal technology was.