(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 40 - Battling Forces

 Chapter 40 - Battling Forces

Summary: The battle begins. The trio vs. the Titan. Carol vs. Cull. Avengers vs. the Black Order.

Tony waited for his opening as Thor, his body and hammer circled with lightning, met Thanos. The titan raised his gloved arm, the purple stone glowing as he closed his fist. A moment later the sound of two metal objects colliding filled the air and even Tony felt the shockwave created from said collision.

The shockwave was enough to send the god of thunder a couple of steps away while the titan held his ground.

That was when the Hulk reached the enemy and tried to send a punch toward him. But Thanos ducked under the punch and sent one of his own with his bare hand.

Now usually Hulk would fight with pure aggression, throwing punch after punch and absorbing any hit that was lucky enough to land on him. But the Hulk had grown in his time in space and learned to adapt his fighting style, so far, he never had a reason to change his tactics as there was no one that could actually cause him damage even if they could evade his punches.

But the fight against Cull seemed to open the green creature's eyes, and he now recognized there are some beings as strong as him and using his usual tactic is a sure way to defeat. So he adapted, instead of taking Thanos's punch and preparing his next one, Hulk swept his arm in the air to block the purple punch and send one of his own toward the titan's gut.

The punch hit the target and sent it back a single step, but due to him wearing armor all the damage he received was a small dent in the metal. Thanos looked at the Hulk with a new expression.

Was he pleased? Tony had a hard time believing it until the titan spoke, "I assumed you were a mindless monster, a powerful one, but one who lives on instincts alone, the same as Cull. But now I see, there is a mind inside of that massive physique, and you do know how to utilize it. This fight might be more entertaining than I expected it to be."

Hulk roared at the titan and responded with his usual angry voice, "Hulk smash purple guy."

Thanos closed his gloved fist, the purple stone glowing again. He smirked and said, "Perhaps if we fought on equal terms, you would have a chance. Unfortunately for you, today I will not allow anyone to stop me." With that he sent a punch toward the Hulk with such speed the anger machine could not move out of the way in time.

Once the fist hit green skin a purple shockwave sent the Hulk flying through the air to land a few meters away from where he was a moment ago.

Tony finally saw his chance. Once Thanos sent the punch toward the Hulk he was so focused on that attack that Tony had time to send a couple of full-powered energy blasts to the titan's face and he hit him at the same time the Hulk landed on the ground.

Thanos's face turned away from the attack, smoke coming off the spot where his attack landed, and a groan left the titan's lips.

Tony had to bite back a groan of his own when the eggplant turned his head back, a smile on his face and not a mark from Tony's attack.

Thanos seemed to look into Tony's eyes even through the helmet hiding his face and said, "Always the clever one Stark. This is why you are my only true rival. You are but a simple human, and look at yourself now..."

Tony had no idea where the titan was trying to get as he seemed to refer to their current situation, but what he said next shocked Tony a little, "You have risen to fight amongst the mightiest in the universe with nothing but the power you created on your own."

It was odd, but Tony knew his words were genuine and he never felt so recognized before. Here was a being trying to portray himself as a god, and he put Tony on the same stage as his equal.

Tony didn't think he deserved it, he didn't upgrade one armor after another to gain more power so he could claim to be the most powerful or claim he could defeat most of the forces out there.

No, he did it for one reason. From the corner of his eye he noticed Thor moving for his next attack, so he tried to distract Thanos by narrowing his eyes and retorting, "I was never trying to be as powerful as you, all I ever wanted is to protect the world, to give the people in it the chance to be better. And that's what I fight for today, with everything that I have."

Before Thanos could reply Mjolnir crashed into his helmet sending it flying and making the titan stumble, Thor then raised his hammer to the sky and called down a massive bolt of lightning that he aimed at Thanos.

Thanos's lips curled into a frown, and he aimed his fist, with glowing purple stone, toward the lightning. A purple energy blast left his fist and crashed with the lightning. Thor was sent back through the air until he was stopped by the boulder.

The Hulk was crouching to the ground trying to stay in his place while Tony had to put both his hands behind his back and use his thrusters to not be sent flying. Even Thanos had to take a couple of steps back from the force in the air.

Tony had to act now while he was disoriented. He morphed one of his hands into an axe with energy blades and bent his knees. He was about to use the thrusters in his feet to send himself at the titan when a familiar voice screamed at the top of his lungs, "Thanos I am here to defeat you, like a true hero!"

Before Tony could understand what was going on Rogers ran past him and straight at the titan. Thanos didn't even bother to move as Rogers sent his most powerful punch enhanced with the vibranium shield created for him by the support department.

Thanks to the height difference the punch collided with the armor covering the waist of the giant grape. Of course, all Rogers managed to do was scratch the armor Thanos was wearing thanks to the material of his shield, the force of the punch itself didn't even seem to register with Thanos.

The titan looked at Tony, actually insulted as he asked with an offended tone, "Stark, is this ant with you?"

Tony sighed heavily and shook his head in exasperation. It seemed to satisfy Thanos as the titan used his bare hand to simply swipe away at the ex-American idol like one would do to a fly.

Just before the hit connected and sent Rogers flying toward the coastline the oaf screamed, "I am the real hero! You will lose to me!"

When Rogers landed on the ground with a big 'thud' Thanos responded to his declaration with a casual voice, "You are nothing but an insignificant insect like countless before you."

Tony decided to use this moment of the titan's distraction and launched himself at Thanos, axe arm raised high in preparation to bring it down for an attack.

---

Carol took off straight toward Cull charging a glowing punch and hitting the monster straight at his shoulder.

The monster's skin seemed to be too hard for any real damage to be caused by her attack, but the force of it did cause him to stumble and stop.

Cull grunted and raised his weapon above his head with a single hand and tried to swipe it at Carol. But she was quicker and smaller, so she just flew around the hit to avoid it and used the time to send an energy blast of her powers at Cull.

The monster didn't seem to be affected by it more than by the punch, causing Carol to frown. Usually, she wouldn't have fought this kind of threat level alone, she would have liked to have the Hulk, Tony, Rhodes or even Stephen at her side right now.

But the plan was clear. Tony with the help of the Hulk and Thor are fighting Thanos head on, a scary thought Carol was trying very hard to push away right now. While all of them have to deal with the army Thanos brought with him.

While it was obvious the Black Order would lead the Chitauri and Outriders in a full-scale attack, they did hope that the generals wouldn't join them during the first wave. Something that wasn't their plan either it seems until Proxima was ticked off.

Proxima was fighting Val at the moment, and it looks like her spear was giving the Asgardian warrior some troubles.

While Corvus was engaged in a battle with Daredevil. And while the devil of Hell's Kitchen is more than capable of countering Corvus's agility and speed in battle, the alien seemed to be light on his feet and a master of hiding his presence, making it difficult for Daredevil to track him using his senses even when Corvus was attacking from the front.

All the while she and Cull seemed to be stuck in some kind of an impasse. Her punches and blasts weren't powerful enough to do any damage to the alien Hulk, she could still make sure he would stay in place.

On the other hand Cull was a slow and heavy hitter, with Carol's smaller frame and speed she was easily outflying each of his attacks. It looked like this battle would be decided by whose stamina would hold longer.

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Tony's in her head said 'Stamina issues Starburst? What have we been training for?' It was almost enough to make her laugh out loud, but instead it remotivated her to keep fighting.

She used her speed to catch some distance from the large alien before turning right around and using full output of her powers to body slam Cull in his gut.

Cull lost his ground and fell butt first on the ground doubling in pain while holding his stomach, this attack obviously was enough to cause some serious damage to the monster.

Unfortunately, these moves take a lot out of Carol too and she needed to catch her breath for a moment. She decided to use the opportunity to check out how the others were faring.

Maw seemed to learn his lesson from the last fight and right now he was floating behind his army's defensive line, content with observing and not interfering as was their original plan probably.

What was odd for Carol was the fact he didn't even try to rein in his supposed team, quite the opposite in fact he seemed to be happy seeing them having trouble handling a single human.

And it was true the other two seemed to be locked in the same impasse as Carol herself found herself with Cull. In their case both Val and Daredevil seemed to realize the pattern of their opponents and began to use it against them. But the aliens' enhanced stamina and strength gives them a small advantage in return.

Other team members kept fighting the Chitauri. She caught a glance of Rhodey helping Strange bring down a leviathan. Luke and Iron Fist were taking on another one. While the Guardians were taking out whole legions of Chitauri from the air.

There were the random soldiers who just seemed to drop dead without any apparent reason and Carol could only assume it was the work of Wasp and Ant-Man.

Loki sent waves of magic to hold back reinforcements from the rest of the team. She watched as Barnes was at his side shooting down any approaching hostile that wanted to take down the god.

The Falcon was in the air shooting out any Chitauri in range while trying to cover Romanoff and Barton, who seemed to decide if one trick worked the last time it would again. Unfortunately for them their tactics are not as useful as they were then. Both of them were still taking out some of the enemy soldiers but it was noticeably less than in the videos she saw.

Everything seemed to be fine, she noticed Cull getting back up and took one final deep breath in preparation for another round with the alien Hulk, so she was surprised when a scream came out from their left, "You monster will be defeated by Captain America!"

"Rogers, stop! You are breaking formation, and you are not strong enough to..." Carol was very annoyed and tried to make the blonde oaf see some sort of reason.

The flag-wearing man didn't seem to be fazed by her warning and cut her off, "I will show the world who the greatest hero is, because heroes always...AGHH!"

Before Rogers could finish his bullshit line Cull swung his weapon in full power, sending the oaf flying so high he landed on the smaller island, dazed and unmoving. All Cull did in reaction was grunt in annoyance himself.

Carol was about to attack when Maw's voice echoed in the air, "It will be enough!" All the enemy soldiers on the battlefield froze and began to back down toward the defensive lines, so Maw spoke again, "It's time to crush the insignificant scum, full force prepare to advance, they don't have the numbers to save themselves."

The last was said with a sneer on Maw's face and when Rhodes retorted she got a small number of chills going down her spine, "Are you sure of it? Strange."

Stephen gave a single nod and began to dramatically float above the battlefield making a circle motion with his arms.

Soon one portal was opened, out of it stepped the Wakandan army, led by General Okoye and Princess Shuri.

Another one opened allowing SHIELD's agents to come out, some on foot, others in vehicles, there were even a few quinjets coming out. Led by Mack and May.

A third opened to show the Nova Corps ships passing through.

The fourth one allowed many sorcerers to pass through, all led by Wong himself.

Another one opened to reveal Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Iron Legacy, Kate Bishop and America Chavez as well as a few other HQ employees. Tony is going to have a good long rant about it once he hears.

Many portals kept opening, ships and beings from all around the world and universe joined the fight against the mad titan, all having the courage to act thanks to one man who sent a message a couple of weeks ago, Iron Man.

Stephen raised an eyebrow at Rhodey and asked, "Is that all of them?"

Wong overheard him and grumbled out loud, "What, you wanted more?!"

Maw looked in shock at the newly gathered force opposing his own as it grew to unprecedented proportions.

Rhodey turned toward the floating alien with a smug smile on his face and mocked, "I think we will be the ones doing the crushing here today."

Phase two complete. Time to get ready for Phase three.