Chapter 31

The remaining Guardians and Avengers are dealing with the gravitic aftermath of dumping a large chunk of the moon onto an unstable planet's surface. 

The unconscious Guardians are flying upwards uncontrollably, moon-chunks are still making fiery ballistic in-bounds, and random debris and massive rocks are floating in any possible direction. Spider-Man is well-equipped to handle this physically, even if he's freaking out emotionally.

"I got you! I got you!" Peter webs Mantis, and snags Drax, securing both of them to something not moving. "I'm sorry I can't remember anybody's names!" Peter reels in Star-Lord.

The Cloak of Levitation sets Doctor Strange down on a relatively stable outcrop as Thanos is hit by some rubble. He then extricates himself from the rubble. 

The Sorcerer Supreme makes a few passes with his hands, producing the familiar golden magic filigree circles, and slams his hands down on the rock before him, invoking the Seven Suns of Cinnibus as a lightning-like effect of immense heat jumping from rock to rock until it reaches Thanos, sending him flying- but he makes use of the erratic gravity to keep control and fire back a blast from the Power Stone.

Doctor Strange blocks the purple plume with a wall of Mirror Dimension, which he then pushes back at Thanos. It shatters around the Titan, who suctions the magic into a miniature black hole with the Space Stone, volleying it back at Doctor Strange. Just in time, Doctor Strange raises a shield and changes the dark energy into a swarm of aqua butterflies which return to their master.

Before Thanos can counterattack again, Doctor Strange levitates and invokes the Images of Ikonn, giving him arms like a Hindu deity before dozens of Strange replications rush away, forming a circular wall around a snarling Thanos. They call cast magical cords, wrapping around Thanos' torso, arms and hands; he struggles to close his gauntleted fist, and uses the Soul and Power Stones to discover the real Doctor Strange among the many copies, blowing the duplicates away and sending the singular Doctor Strange reeling. Reality and Space pull Doctor Strange forward, Thanos grasping him by the throat once in range. Doctor Strange grabs futilely at Thanos' hand.

"You're full of tricks, wizard." Thanos smirks.

Strange gasps as Thanos reaches for the Eye of Agamotto. "No!"

Thanos snaps the Eye off its chain. "Yet you never once used your greatest weapon." He crushes it in his bare hand. "A fake." He throws Doctor Strange hard enough that Doctor Strange's head hits stone and he passes out.

Almost simultaneously, a red and gold device slaps into the palm of the Infinity Gauntlet, bracing the fingers open; and a red and gold Avenger makes a fast and hard entrance.

Tony sounds just about done with the Titan. "You throw another moon at me, and I'm gonna to lose it."

"Stark." Thanos smiles.

"You know me?" Tony asks.

"I do. You're not the only one cursed with knowledge." Thanos nods.

"My only curse is you." Small rockets pop out of Iron Man's back and launch at Thanos.

"Come on!" Thanos groans.

The rockets all explode on target, momentarily shrouding Thanos in smoke. Before it clears, Iron Man pile drives into Thanos horizontally, using his single super-jet boot configuration. As he bounces off, he flips and sticks his landing, immediately re-configuring his boots into ground clamps for stability and his gloves into rocket-driven battering rams, punching Thanos into a ruined wall behind him.

Thanos shakes it off quickly, reaches forward and tears Iron Man's helmet off, revealing Tony's surprised expression before the suit recovers automatically and re-forms his head protection. The Titan makes use of the fractional delay and punches back hard, sending Iron Man sliding meters away, giving Thanos time to rip the brace device off the gauntlet. He immediately uses the Power Stone to stream furiously lambent energy at his opponent, who forms a shield to kneel behind just as instantly, getting pushed back even further by the incredible force.

Iron Man slides out from behind the shield, letting the angled energy push him away for a faster start, and whips back to Thanos full thrusters; he kicks at the Titan with his left foot, turning the boot into a ground clamp at the same time to pin the gauntlet, and keeps twisting while his left glove becomes a ram again, slamming into Thanos' face, cutting his cheek.

"All that for a drop of blood." Thanos pants. He smiles briefly punches Iron Man, sending him pinwheeling, then starts beating him with his fists. 

Tony attempts to block the blows with his forearms, but Thanos is relentless, picking him up by the helmet and blasting his midsection with the Power Stone. The gaps in nanite coverage are now gaping, as the armor loses the ability to recover from the intensity and extent of the damage. Iron Man lands hard from the Power blast, struggles to one knee and fires his right hand repulsor at the inexorable Thanos; the beam is easily deflected by the gauntlet. He gets to both feet as the suit tries to complete repairs, adding the beam from his left hand as well. 

Thanos walks right up to him, and backhands the incomplete helmet completely off Tony's head. He crosses his arms to block a blow from Thanos' gauntlet, and has his left hand caught over his head. In desperation, he forms what's left of his right glove into a short-sword, which is also easily caught by Thanos, snapping it off clean and driving it through Tony's left side. The fight is over.

Thanos walks Tony back until he sits, and places the gauntlet almost comfortingly on Tony's head, almost same way he did with Kat.

"You have my respect, Stark. When I'm done, half of humanity will still be alive." Thanos lets go, straightens and steps back. "I hope they remember you."

Tony's just a little distracted with the pain, and blood drooling out of his mouth, and compromised breathing. Thanos raises the gauntlet, closing his fist, all four Stones glowing.

Kat slowly wakes up, staring straight at the scene. "No!"

"Stop!" Strange sits up and sounding entirely damaged. "Spare his life... and I will give you the stone."

"No tricks." Doctor Strange shakes his head as Thanos points all four Stones at him instead.

"Don't...!" Tony gasps.

Doctor Strange reaches up and plucks the Time Stone out of its hiding place in the stars. He opens his hand, the scars on his fingers and their inherent trembling particularly obvious now, and the Stone floats to Thanos' bare hand. Doctor Strange watches him intently, as he takes the Stone and drops it into the thumb setting, the energy pulse making the Titan wince.

"One to go." An energy blast hits the gauntlet right in the empty Mind Stone setting, and Thanos grimaces in surprise.

Quill screams in incoherent rage, helmet up, firing with both hands and flying straight for Thanos, as the other Guardians, and Peter land nearby.

"You okay?" Peter asks, landing by Kat.

"I don't know." Kat shakily stands up, leaning on Peter.

Thanos doesn't even bother responding to the assault- he just leaves. Star-Lord flies through where Thanos had been and crashes, rolling several times

Quill stands and de-helmets. "Where is he?!"

Tony stitches up his stab wound as well as he can with his suit functions; he has no breath for answers.

Peter Quill is now fearful instead of furious. "Did we just lose?"

Tony turns to Doctor Strange, sadly, who has given the Time Stone to Thanos. "Why would you do that?"

"We're in the Endgame now." Strange shakes his head.

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