(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 20 – Sidetracks or Main Issues

Chapter 20 – Sidetracks or Main Issues

Summary: The meeting go on and the Rouges have some hard truths pointed out to them.

More than just the Rogues were confused by the last two words. It was Matt, wearing his full Daredevil costume to hide his true identity from the Rogues, who asked in a curious tone, tilting his head toward Carol’s direction, “Infinity Stones?”

Across from him, Stephen took it upon himself to answer. The screen in front of everyone now showed a video of the magic show Wong created to accompany the explanation the first time. “In the beginning, there was nothing. And then, boom, through the virgin universe, six elemental stones were scattered. Each of them represents and controls an aspect of the new universe. Reality.” A video of Thor’s fight with the Dark Elves in London appeared. “Mind.” There was a 3D video of Loki’s scepter before it changed into Vision’s head. “Power.” A metallic, alien-looking orb showed up on the screen courtesy of the Guardians. “Space.” A video of the Tesseract filled the screen. “Soul.” A glowing orange stone was shown on everyone’s screen. Then Strange made his usual odd hand motions, and his necklace opened up to reveal a glowing green stone. “And Time.”

After Stephen closed the necklace, Hope spoke first, “Okay. So whoever holds one of them can do whatever the hell they want, and if they have all of them, they’re basically a god.”

Rhodey, Carol, and Stephen nodded their heads in agreement.

“So I guess we’re worried because someone is looking for them and not for anything good,” Sharon commented with a heavy sigh.

Quill took it upon himself to inform the others, “His name is Thanos. And he is the worst.”

Gamora rolled her eyes at the childish description before she began speaking in a serious and heavy tone. “For as long as I knew him, Thanos always had a single goal: to balance all life in the universe.” At the confused looks of everyone, she elaborated, “Thanos believes the universe is overpopulated and will soon run out of resources. He travels from planet to planet, killing half the life there before moving on to the next.”

There was a gasp from behind Tony, and he turned to see the pale face of Shuri. The young genius looked horrified as she said in a breathy voice, “If he has all the stones, he’ll be able to destroy half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers.”

“Indeed,” confirmed Gamora. All the other people in the room had a look of dread on their faces as they realized the gravity of the situation.

Barton snorted and dismissively said, “Well, we’ll just have to kick his ass, just like we kicked Loki’s.”

The other Rogues seemed to agree with his opinion but were soon silenced when Nebula scoffed and said, without any emotion, “All of you together don’t stand a chance against him even without a stone in his possession. Not to mention his army, which is headed by his four generals—the Black Order. Each of the four members could kill all six of you without breaking a sweat.”

“We faced his army before and won,” Romanoff pointed out.

The Guardians burst out laughing, and Carol did too. Rhodey, Nick, Coulson, and Price scoffed at the arrogance. The rest were somewhere in between, while Tony chose not to react.

Rogers, Romanoff, and Barton looked offended, and the archer screamed, “What is it?!”

“I am Groot,” the apparently teenaged tree said, and once again Tony found himself wishing he or Friday could understand him.

Rocket laughed even harder and screamed, “You’re right, Groot! What a bunch of idiots!”

Gamora shook her head at her teammates’ behavior before speaking in a deadly serious tone. “What you faced was a scouting party. I’d say about five percent of them managed to cross the portal before it was closed.”

This shocked the three original members of the Rogues, but they weren’t done yet because Phil spoke next. “And considering the minimal contribution your team had during that fight, I wouldn’t go around gloating.”

Once again, the three ex-Avengers looked offended, so Phil decided to drive the knife deeper. “The Black Widow managed to kill a couple dozen aliens at best, and spent the rest of the fight trying to get out the information on how to close the portal. While I grant you that was important during that event, it will be moot during this one as the enemy arrives with his ships this time.”

Romanoff’s eyes twitched at not being able to counter the argument.

Phil went on, looking at Barton. “You spent most of the time on top of a building, shooting down some small aliens, which again was useful at the moment. But then you also jumped out of a falling building without a plan for landing. If Tony wasn’t around to notice and catch you, you would have died.”

Barton’s face was red, but Phil had already moved on to Rogers. “And you—yes, you fought a lot of aliens and did a not-so-bad job protecting civilians, but you kept getting distracted by shouting orders while not knowing where your teammates were or what they were doing. You were fighting in a fixed point on the ground, yet you kept shouting orders as if you had the full view of the entire battlefield.”

Rogers looked honestly shocked that someone questioned his leadership skills.

Phil turned his stare back to Barton with a sneer and said, “And Mr. Barton, you claimed that YOU defeated Loki when in reality none of your team even got close to that. Romanoff thought she outsmarted him while the man was caged, only to find out he was toying with her—letting her believe he was actually a prisoner and allowing her to reach the conclusion he wanted to further his plans. All you did was his work until Romanoff freed you, and the next time you saw him was when he was already defeated. Rogers was the only one to actually trade punches with him, and he lost. Badly. Only Tony’s intervention stopped Rogers from being completely humiliated by Loki.”

Now all three of them had red faces—part embarrassment and part anger. But Phil just kept talking, delivering his final point. “On the other hand, Tony managed to stall him long enough for the team to arrive and even got a shot in before joining all of you. Thor fought him until Loki was forced to retreat, and the Hulk simply defeated him.”

Then Rhodey spoke. “And like Director Coulson mentioned, all three of you only managed to deal with the simple foot soldiers—you were completely useless against the leviathans.”

“And you didn’t win that day. Not even close,” Nebula commented in her usual emotionless, raspy voice. “Even with the green monster and the Asgardian prince at your side, you were about to lose with the forces Thanos was going to send toward you.”

Gamora gave a simple nod before giving an intense look toward Tony and saying, “You won thanks to Iron Man’s genius move. He was the first to counter Thanos, completely dismantling his next step and destroying not a small part of his army with a single blow.”

“Stark?!” Maximoff scoffed. “Of course he would. He’s a murderer who can only create things that kill and destroy.”

Tony flinched, but then he felt a strong grip on his shoulder. He looked to his right and saw Jess glaring at Maximoff with pure hatred while keeping her hand on his shoulder.

Matt, leaning back in his chair and starting to think, asked the room, “Now that I think about it, Thanos knows for certain Earth has two stones thanks to his invasion and maybe even knows about the third. Considering the Guardians informed us that our planet is considered technologically primitive, it means we should be an open buffet to Thanos, so why is it taking him so long to come here?”

Gamora pointed at Tony, simply saying, “He is the reason.”

Tony began shifting uncomfortably in his seat when everyone began staring at him. Some with worry, others in wonder, and a few (the kids) with awe.

Wilson seemed to gather all the Rogues’ questions into one and asked simply, “Why Stark?”

Gamora gave a deep sigh before explaining, “Tony Stark was the first to defeat Thanos. And he did so in one move. After that, Thanos did his research on Earth and Tony. Thanos declared that coming after Earth would mean looking for a fight with Iron Man, and he considers that equal to courting death itself. He refuses to risk an encounter with Tony before he’s in possession of at least two Infinity Stones to ensure his victory.”

“Wait, so this alien overlord is so afraid of Iron Man that he won’t attack us until he has not one but two of those ultimate power stones?” came the young voice of Spider-Man. Tony turned to look at the kid, and even behind the mask, Tony could see the look of worship on his face. “You are so awesome, Mr. Stark!” Underoos had to go ahead and add that with admiration coloring his tone. But as Tony looked around the group, he found that they shared Peter’s sentiment—even Shuri had stars in her eyes!

Tony just slumped back in his seat, a heavy sigh leaving his lips. He could hear the muffled snickers of Strange and T’Challa.

Hope, with a smirk on her face, pointed out, “Wait until Holly and Lila hear it. I promise there’ll be a shrine for their ‘Invincible Uncle Tony.’”

Tony felt all the color drain from his face, especially when he heard Scott mumbling, “Not a bad idea—maybe I should help them.”

Tony knew Scott began to over-admire him after Tony gave him a second chance with the Avengers and as an engineer in the Earth Defense Program, but that was going way too overboard.

Tony had to change the subject quickly. “We should talk about what we do next. That’s why we’re here, no?”

Carol tried to hide a smirk, but Tony saw it. After a short moment, she nodded and said firmly, “Right. There are already rough plans in the works.”

Rhodey gave a short nod and commented, “First, we have the Time Stone.”

“Which will remain in my and the Order’s protection,” Stephen immediately said in a firm tone.

Rhodey nodded shortly before answering in an equally firm tone, “We agree with you on that. Your Order has proven very competent for the task. But remember, if we require your help with the Black Order before you leave for the battlefield, leave the stone with Wong at your fancy remote temple.”

“It’s not a temple…” grumbled the former neurosurgeon, but he nodded his agreement nonetheless.

Carol nodded in satisfaction before speaking again. “The Tesseract is in good hands and beyond the enemy’s scanners.”

Rhodey finished the list, “Which leaves us with the Mind Stone.”

The Rogues all locked their gaze on where Vision was sitting calmly.

But Shuri stood up and said in her usual know-it-all tone of voice, “With the help of Spider-Man, Iron Legacy, Mr. Lang, and the information from Tony a few months ago, we successfully removed the Mind Stone from Vision. I must admit it was one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do. If not for the help of my friends and Tony, it would have taken me years to—”

A cough from her older brother stopped her rambling, and she sat down with a small pout on her face. Spider-Man immediately began to consult her.

T’Challa shook his head in amusement before he grew serious and said, “Since the successful operation, the stone has been held in secure containment in Wakanda.”

Maximoff jumped from her chair and screeched, “You removed his stone?! He will die, Stark, and you call yourself his father? I’m not surprised—you’d even kill your kid for power like the stone’s.”

Everyone gave the crazy woman a blank stare, but before Tony spoke, Luke’s deep voice beat him. “Yo. You do see the orange metal British dude sitting right there, right?”

Before Tony could stop any of them, Kamala was the first to yell, “Hey, don’t insult Uncle Tony like that. He loves us kids, and he’s an awesome dad and uncle!”

Tony hid his blush behind his hands, but that made him miss the opportunity to stop Harley from saying his piece. “And just so you know, before Tony even considered removing the stone, he made sure Vision would survive it and created a new power source for him that replicates most of the abilities he had with the stone in him.”

Finally, Shuri snapped at the witch, but Tony had to give it to her—she was the one who had to endure the woman’s presence in her country until now. “And what kind of crazy are you spouting after my brother clearly said the stone has been safe in Wakanda since the moment it was removed? So what are you blaming Tony for?!”

Maximoff looked like she was about to send a wave of her powers toward the Young Avengers. Barton looked outraged that they spoke like that to his dear little Wanda. Romanoff didn’t seem to care. Wilson and Barnes seemed like they agreed with the kids.

Rogers looked at them in disappointment and was about to open his mouth, but Vision spoke first in his calm voice, “As everyone can see, I am still here, and I can assure all of you that I am in no immediate danger as a result of the stone’s removal. Father’s alternative source is working according to expectations, and I am already proficient in using my remaining abilities with the Stark alternative source. Father made sure to explain everything to me so I would not use it in the wrong way. As such, rest assured, Ms. Maximoff’s accusations are entirely baseless.”

Everyone looked much more relaxed at the news—except for Maximoff, Barton, and Rogers, who looked like they were about to keep arguing about the situation. Tony needed a new subject and fast.

Tony leaned in. “The plan we came up with is our best chance at winning the first battle but endangers us in the overall war. And so we will require complete agreement from the team to move forward with it.”

There were nods of agreement all around. Some, of course, knew the plan while others didn’t.

Daisy spoke for the first time in the meeting, stopping herself from causing an accidental earthquake while in the same room as Rogers and Romanoff. “Well, let’s hear it, shell-head.”