(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 39 - Equal Wills

Chapter 39 - Equal Wills

Summary: Before the battle of fists comes the battle of wills: Tony vs. Thanos and the Avengers vs. the Black Order.

Tony blinked twice after the bright beam of light disappeared. Before his eyes could focus again, he heard a deep voice calling out, surprisingly without any malice in it, "Stark."

When his vision cleared, he saw a tall, muscular hulk-like man with purple skin and a chin that Tony had to hold back from commenting out loud what it reminded him of.

And if that wasn't frightening enough the monster was wearing golden armor with a golden helmet as a bonus. His right fist was bare, purple skin showing, but his left fist was covered by a golden gauntlet with two stones embedded in it. One stone was glowing red, the other purple.

Tony expected Thanos to look around the battlefield and familiarize himself with it, but instead the titan had eyes only for him.

Deciding it was time to respond, Tony allowed his usual sharp smirk to spread on his lips as he said, "And you must be Thanos, got to say your description did you too little credit. Your chin is much uglier up close."

The smile on the titan's lips didn't waver at the insult and his answer was calm, "We are both cursed by knowledge."

Tony so wanted to say something along the lines of 'my only curse is you', but instead he asked with his smirk in place, "And what knowledge would that be?"

Thanos chuckled slightly before answering simply, "The collective picture. The inevitable fate of the universe."

Tony raised an eyebrow and flatly asked, "Oh?"

Thanos kept smiling as he stated casually, "This universe is finite; its resources are finite. If nothing is done about it the overpopulation in the universe will bring its own demise."

Tony noticed the certainty Thanos spoke with, as if... With realization Tony spoke carefully, "You've seen that happening."

Thanos nodded, "My home planet. It was just like this one, a beautiful place, full of life and hope. But just like this one there were too many mouths to feed and not enough resources to do so..."

Tony could feel sympathy for the titan at that moment. Watching all members of your race, of your home starving slowly to death can't be easy. Tony knew a lot of strong people that would have snapped after something like that, himself included. "That's when I suggested a solution. But they refused," Thanos finished with a bitter tone.

Oh, doesn't matter—the titan was mad even before all of that. Tony didn't need to be a genius to guess what the solution was.

His face lost the smirk, and he commented dryly, "Oh yeah, because every leadership will jump on the opportunity to kill half its citizens. You suggested genocide."

Thanos didn't look ashamed at all, instead he casually added, "Yes. But fair, random, dispassionate."

Tony rolled his eyes and said with his usual sarcasm, "How benevolent of you."

Thanos shrugged, "They didn't heed my words, and my fears came to pass. Now my home planet is no more than a big rock floating in space."

Tony let out a mental sigh as he responded flatly, "Congratulations. You are a prophet."

Thanos shook his head before answering Tony with a piercing stare, "No. We are the same Stark. Survivors."

Tony frowned, hating to be compared to that monster without any way to counter him. Thanos took an opportunity to keep talking, "You must see that many planets like this one are heading toward the same fate as my own."

As much as Tony wanted to argue the point, it did have some merits to it. Still Tony said out loud, "So your solution is to go planet after planet to slaughter half the population there?"

Thanos's smile grew and he raised his gloved hand as he spoke, "When I have all the stones, I will be able to save the universe just like..." He snapped his finger, resulting in an echoing metal scribing sound as he finished ominously, "This. I call that mercy."

Tony snorted and quipped, "I call that crazy."

Again, Thanos didn't seem to react to the insult, instead outstretching his gloved arm out to him, "Is it crazy to wish for a perfect universe? We must not be rivals Stark, join me and together we will reshape the universe to perfection."

Tony frowned and countered dryly, "You mean help you commit mass genocide."

Thanos dropped his arm, but the expression on his face never changed, "Disappointing but expected. We are after all meant to be rivals. Both of us see the larger picture and collect our powers to achieve our vision of it. Such a shame we must stand on opposite sides of the grand scheme."

God. Tony was a drama queen he would freely admit it with no issues, but this alien was getting on his nerves with his dramatic point of view, and that was when Thanos added, "Even if I must do it alone, I will bring balance to the universe."

Ok, Tony couldn't let it go any longer, with a scowl he said, "Balance? You think you are creating balance while all you will do is destroy the universe slowly."

For the first time Thanos's smile dropped slightly so Tony pushed on, "Say you complete your goal and snap a random half of life in the universe. You will tear families apart; you will bring down governments, the people of each world will descend into anarchy, anarchy will lead to death and once everyone is dead, the universe will end as well."

Thanos immediately denied it, "I already showed my plan works, all the planets I balanced..."

Tony felt brave enough to cut the titan off, "Are gone. You never visited them, never saw the aftermath of your so-called balancing."

Thanos was silent for a long moment, before the mad titan surprised Tony, not by shouting, but by chuckling deeply before saying dramatically as ever, "As I said Stark we are the same. Both of us survived to see a new world, to see the larger picture behind it, both of us with ideals we will never compromise for. We are fated to be rivals."

Tony gritted his teeth and hissed, "You know nothing about me!"

Thanos shot back straight away, "I do. I'm cursed with knowledge just as much as you are. Who began preparation for this war? Who claimed the first victory during the opening battle for the stones? And now you have three of them, while I have two."

Tony shook his head with disgust and asked with venom, "Is there nothing you won't do in the name of your crusade?!"

Thanos's face became serious, his eyes hardened as he proclaimed, "The hardest choices require the strongest wills."

Tony returned his determined look and countered with, "I think you will find our will to protect exceeds yours to destroy."

Thanos did something resembling raising an eyebrow as he asked, "Ours?"

A moment later Hulk stepped from behind the right side of the boulder. His face already etched with fury and itching for a fight.

On the other side of the boulder stepped out Thor, wearing his Asgardian battle armor Tony was used to and holding Mjolnir up as he had seen him do many times before.

Thanos seemed satisfied with this turn of events as he spoke, "The fabled green monster and the Asgardian king." He then switched his gaze to Tony and commented, "I knew you would gather impressive allies Stark; I will admit that while I was eagerly waiting for our meeting, I hoped to face those two as well."

Thor's eyes began to glow electric blue and lightning began to gather around his hammer when he boomed with his voice, "Thanos! After all the planets you brought to ruin the time to pay has come. Here you will have nothing but dust and blood."

Thanos's smile turned into a menacing smirk, he raised his ungloved arm and snapped his bare fingers. A moment later a huge beam of light came down from the ship toward the main and large island.

When the light began to fade Tony and his two friends could see a huge army built of Chitauri, Outriders and the Black Order covering the entire eastern coastline of the land, directly across from the line of the heroes.

Then they heard Thanos's proclamation, "I brought blood to spare."

The three of them turned back to look at the titan, who was still standing alone.

Hulk grunted before pointing out, "Big grape forgot his soldiers."

Tony was always surprised how much Hulk had grown up during his time in space, the last time Tony saw him during the Ultron fiasco the Hulk could barely string a couple of words together, and now look at him.

Thanos began fixing his helmet, making sure it was in place while saying, "I will allow my army to fight yours. This battle is ours."

Then the titan smiled and declared dramatically, "Fun is not something one considers when balancing the universe." He flexed his muscles and closed his right fist in a threatening manner, the two stones in his gauntlet glowing.

His eyes shifted between Thor and Hulk as he spoke, "But this..." His eyes then landed squarely on Tony and the titan's smile grew a little as he finished, "Does put a smile on my face."

Tony allowed the nanites to form the helmet around his head while sending the final jab, "Then it will be our pleasure to wipe it off for you."

Thor let out a strong battle cry as he jumped into the air and toward Thanos, hammer raised for a strike.

The Hulk roared and ran at the titan with a punch already pulled back.

Tony formed two energy cannons on his hands and prepared a shot.

Phase one was complete, now to survive until Phase two.

---

Carol looked as someone who could only be Thanos appeared not too far away from her fiancé, and she already began to feel anxious about that part of the plan.

She wanted to be there with Tony, help him fight the monster that had starred in his nightmares for five years now. But alas, she was team leader and had a responsibility to the team first.

She tried to calm herself by saying to herself that there was a good reason for Thanos to be afraid of Tony, her fiancé is more than capable of fighting his own battles, and he has Hulk and Thor with him which should make it even easier.

Carol watched nervously from the east coastline, which was the closest to the smaller island, as Thanos began speaking and Tony kept retorting. She wasn't sure if the fact the two of them were talking for so long was a good sign or bad.

According to their plan Phase one was where Tony draws Thanos to the smaller island and keeps him busy while the generators power up. But Tony should have gotten the signal the generators were ready a couple of minutes ago, all they were waiting for now was for Thanos to bring in his army so they could lock them in.

So, what was taking the crazy purple guy so long? He seemed to be too immersed in his conversation with Tony. Until the titan finally raised his left arm and snapped his fingers.

A beam of light later and a huge army built of Chitauri and Outriders led by the four members of the Black Order appeared.

Maw again joined his hands as if he was praying before starting his speech, "Hear me and rejoice! You..."

Carol rolled her eyes and decided to channel her inner Tony. She smirked at the floating alien and snarked, "Hi Squidward, we already heard that speech don't you have any newer material?"

Maw frowned at her while she could hear T'Challa whispering into his comm to his sister so she could bring the force field online.

Cull grunted and Maw's frown turned into a scowl, then Corvus added his own piece, "They are right Maw, how many times can we listen to the same speech, it got boring dozens of planets ago."

Maw seemed to growl a little before hissing out, "Very well then..."

The floating alien trailed off when a blue energy dome began to cover both islands. The force field was high enough that none of the flight fighters would have any issues maneuvering, unfortunately that meant the enemy's Chitauri leviathans remained with the same advantage.

Maw's scowl faded into his arrogant sneer as he mocked, "Did you believe this barrier will grant you an advantage?"

Stephen shrugged and stated flatly, "Even if you kill us all, you will be trapped inside. Quite effective I believe."

Maw gritted his teeth and snarled, "Then we shall destroy your dome using your corpses."

"You can say it all you want, but you are yet to ever defeat me, or have you forgotten?" Gamora's voice filled the air as she stepped forward next to Carol.

Proxima frowned and hissed, "Traitor! How dare you stand against our father?!"

Nebula stepped next to Gamora and vocalized both of their opinions, "He is no father of ours."

Proxima lowered the tip of her spear in their direction and snarled, "If you wish to lower yourself to stand with such filth then you can die as one of them."

The fight was on, that much was obvious.

Maw raised his finger and called out, "First wave, advance."

Without another word a couple of the leviathans as well as about thousands of Chitauri broke away from the group and began attacking.

Though it seems like the Black Order was not much for being patient as Proxima immediately charged at her former sisters, with Corvus not far behind her and Cull joining them after a moment.

The entire team got ready for a fight, all of them just waiting for the signal, Carol herself was hovering a meter off the ground, glowing, fist at the ready.

Rhodey allowed the helmet to close around his head, palm out with repulsors charging as he used the speakers on his armor to call out, "Avengers... Assemble!"

Carol immediately charged at Cull with a glowing punch drawn back.

Phase one completed, now is the time to fight until it's time for phase two.