The Shield of the Seraphim shattered before they could even sink through the portal and Strange had to redirect it halfway to the outskirts of the country.
Steve pushed himself and Natalia out of the way as did Tony while Hulk and Thor tanked the blasts, rocketing backwards and through the air from the impact.
Strange himself barely got out of the way as half of his cloak was burned to ashes, comforting the piece of cloth as it wiggled and sent waves of agony through its form.
"I know, I know. I'm sorry," Creating a new portal and cutting off the old one, he sent the cape through it before closing it back up.
"Okay, anyone got any experience fighting time-travelling wizards and tyrants?" Tony asked, landing on the ground and looking specifically to Strange.
The sorcerer just snorted before he spoke, "I've fought eldritch demons and universal-conquering beings. How much harder can it be?"
"Heads up! We've got an army incoming!" Natalia shouted as she rolled to her feet, Steve doing the same while rubbing his chest from where the beam had skimmed across his uniform.
Their eyes looked to the sky and watched as thousands of crimson-and-gold pods detached from Kang's gargantuan ship, impacting the ground with devastating booms that echoed one after the other.
As the dust began to settle, the Avengers and Sorcerer Supreme were treated to the sight of thousands of golden multi-legged robots climbing over each other, each lined with blue highlights and rigid, swept-black wing panels hugged close to their forms.
"Then, let's bring in our own," Tony spoke as he looked to Strange, who nodded as he took a deep breath and opened a gigantic portal.
Wong immediately stepped through with a frown, sharing a nod with Stephen as numerous other sorcerers followed. Then, more portals opened at the sides of the large one, hordes of Asgardians and the residents of Knowhere coming through them.
"Whee! You said you had a big fight coming, but I did not expect this!" Peter spoke with a somewhat nervous smirk as he flew through with Gamora, Drax, Nebula and Groot, Rocket and Mantis flying their Benatar ship through.
Another dozen portals opened in the air and the Nova Corps' ships flew through, forming a blockade in the sky as Strange opened the final portal.
The Wakandans looked surprised through the portal before they watched as their king marched through, the army and Dora Milaje soon following after as Bucky rolled his vibranium arm with a smirk.
"This day just keeps getting more and more confusing," Natalia rushed through the portal to Wakanda and towards the downed person at the back, Wanda's eyes snapping to her before she relaxed as Nat knelt beside her.
"Is.. is he...?"
"He's...stable, I think. He just pushed himself to the point that his cells were beginning to burn themselves out to keep him going," Shuri replied, a grimace on her face as Nat cupped his cheek and frowned at the dim heat coming from his form.
There was none of the static spark nor the radiant heat of his form that would make her relieved and she bit her lip as she saw how ragged his breathing was.
"Who did this?" Wanda asked softly and Nat gestured through the portal to where the sky was dyed with emerald green and azure blue streaks of light.
"The one firing the green spells."
"...I see. Will you...will you stay with him?" she asked softly and Nat nodded as Shuri did the same.
"I'm not one for battles so I'll make sure nothing happens."
"Thank you. Vis?" she asked and the synthetic human nodded as he held out his hand.
"I may not be familiar with the concept of revenge, but I understand the premise. Let us go and settle this," he replied as he levitated through the portal and Wanda took one final glance back before she stepped through.
The moment she did, the battlefield stilled as her facial features contorted into a mask of pure, unadulterated wrath. Even those not used to magic froze as a suffocating aura of deep crimson hex magic erupted from her form, fracturing the ground beneath her.
"Holy shit, that's terrifying," Wanda was uncaring for their soft whispers as she floated forward through the air and Tony recognised the look of pure rage in his eyes as he simply pointed up.
"The one in the green is who did this."
"Thank you," her voice distorted before she shot up, shattering the ground as Vision rocketed up alongside her.
"Hahahaha! She has the spirit! Come, Asgardians! Let us defend our new home!" Lightning erupted from his form leapt up into the air, riding the lightning to join Wanda and Vision as they raced towards the two conquerors.
Doom created a sigil that fragmented the energy blasts of Kang, glancing down and narrowing his eyes at the sight of Wanda's form soaring towards him.
"Insignificant," With a snap of his fingers, several layers of eldritch magic formed from his wrist and spread out in front of him as Wanda swung her arms in.
Ribbons of chaos magic snaked through the air and whipped against his barrier, Thor rising past before swinging down Stormbreaker with a roar.
The radiant, iridescent light of the Bifrost erupted from its form and slammed against the barrier as well, shattering it as Vision flew past and delivered a heavy punch that made the air vibrate.
Kang growled as he watched his foe be sent flying, immediately pointing his right fist at Wanda as she formed a barrier and blocked the beam he fired at her.
"Do not intervene, gnats!" Flicking his hand down, the central Damocles Base's hatches opened as several orbital cannons came forth, unleashing a bombardment of artillery blasts down onto them.
Wanda clapped her hands together before spreading them out, her barrier expanding with her hands and protecting the ground below from the bombardment.
However, her eyes widened as Kang formed a portal and fired a beam, Thor appearing in its path to swing Stormbreaker and split the blast in two.
That was when several miniature rockets exploded against the forcefield around Kang's suit, his eyes gliding over to where Stark was still firing missiles at him.
He was not the only one as the Nova Corps' ships all focused on him, each firing a thin, concentrated plasma beam that was swiftly absorbed into his suit.
"Enough!" With a shout and a flare of his arms, a shockwave of brilliant blue energy erupted from his form, reflecting the beams everywhere and slicing apart a significant number of their forces.
"You dared to attack my family. There will never be enough," Wanda's voice whispered in his ear as the world distorted, Kang narrowing his eyes as he found himself floating in the centre of an empty red space.
"You believe that you are the first to use Chaos Magic against me, girl?" he growled, swinging his arm out with a violent growl. A storm of violet energy erupted from his fist and tore through the crimson space, Wanda barely avoiding the beam as it whistled past her head.
Still, her fingers curled into tight claws as she tore them through the air, the very space around her twisting and following her command.
The air around Kang twisted and warped, collapsing in upon itself just as Kang created a forcefield to block the spatial implosion.
Thor decided to join in at that moment with a roar, bringing Stormbreaker down with a thunderous boom. The Bifrost exploded from the edge of the blade, tearing through the barrier and smashing into Kang's form.
However, the attack only lasted a mere moment before several green glyphs exploded against Thor's form, Wanda's eyes snapping to where Doom rose back atop a thin green hard-light platform.
"Doom...has been lenient in letting you live, but you spat it back in my face. I am done being lenient," With an intricate pattern of mudras, the clouds above twisted and parted to reveal a portal where the large barrel of a particle cannon pointed at them.
Wanda's eyes widened as Doom clapped his hands together and swung down, the cannon charging up within seconds before it blew out a gargantuan beam of emerald-green light.
Just as the beam was about to hit her, she was surprised when a portal nearly as large as the beam formed above their heads, swallowing the attack before spitting it out at the ships.
Both Kang and Doom watched as the former's three Damocles' ships were torn to shreds by the beams of light, drawing cheers from the heroes below as they fought harder against the swarm of robots.
"Do you not know to never use beams against a Master of the Mystic Arts?" Strange stood atop a Tao Mandala that helped keep him afloat, a smirk spreading across his face as Kang slowly turned to look at him.
"Doom?"
"Yes?"
"Let us postpone our battle until a later time."
"Agreed," With a snap of his fingers, the Latverian Citizen Bots turned and dove down to help Kang's Scarab Fighters. The two leaders in turn flew towards their foes, both firing plasma blasts that were deflected by Strange's shields.
Ribbons of chaos energy shot from Wanda's fingers and towards the two men, to which Doom deflected them with his own glyphs while Kang absorbed the energy.
Charging his suit back up, he fired a beam at Wanda, but Vision pulled her out of the way, Thor charging forward and swinging his axe that Doom blocked with a protective glyph.
The impact released a metallic ring that vibrated straight through the air and Doom twisted his wrist to push reflect the blast of Bifrost energy back at Thor.
Sending the Asgardian flying back, he clenched his fist as he split his barrier, slicing through the Tao Mandala Strange flung at them while Kang blocked the powerful punch from Vision.
However, as Kang went to throw another punch, his eyes widened as a hand grabbed onto his wrist, turning his head to see striking red eyes that were bloodshot staring back at him with a lopsided grin.
"Hey, did you miss me?"
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With Pietro:
"It's just like you to be a failure," I could barely hear the faint disappointed whisper of my mind as I laid on what felt like solid ground, my mind feeling fuzzy and dazed.
"You couldn't save your world and you couldn't save this one. Why did we think this was going to be any different? You're a failure. It's what you do best. You fail."
"Fuck off," I rasped, struggling and failing to move a muscle as the voice snorted.
"Make me. Oh, wait. You can't because you pushed yourself too far and now everything is going to be destroyed."
"They...they can handle it."
"You and I both know that's bullshit. This is Doom we're talking about here, a man that stole the powers of omnipotent beings!"
"Not...not this one," Even I struggled to believe my feeble excuse, hearing myself scoff at my words.
"This one, that one. Who cares? It's still Doom, the man who breaks infinity just because his ego can't fit in a single timeline."
"S-Shut...up," I tried to force my eyes open, fighting through the dense darkness that had a faint metallic taste.
"I won't. You ran across continents to save a city like the actual Monarch of Motion, but you're empty now, and while you're playing sleeping beauty, the actual heroes are struggling to take on the big threats. How long do you think they'll last without their wildcard? How long until Nat dies?"
"Nat," the name sparked at my chest as I clawed at the darkness, fighting away the fuzziness as the voice gave a sarcastic chuckle.
"Oh, look at that. A spark, but unfortunately, your tank is dry, bud. You got nothing."
"N-Nothing...is still something," Grabbing onto the darkness, I pulled, straining to tear free as I heard faint whispers.
"Wait! think... something! Pietro!..., come back!"
"Pietro, listen...voice. ...told me... stepping away...promised...island. So, don't...you can run away...love me. Please, you were the best thing...to me. Please, come back," Nat's voice got clearer and clearer as I tore, hearing the voice's ecstatic laughter as the faint voices grew louder and louder.
"Hahahahaha! Yes! We both know the best way to motivate-"
"-is to talk shit until I get to work!" I growled, grabbing at the final fuzzy sensation before waking up with a gasp. The moment I did, the world slowed to a snail's crawl, my eyes locking onto Nat's hopeful stare as I smiled.
"...Fuck, I really am my best motivator," I muttered with a grin, ignoring the burning sensation sparking around my body as my eyes locked onto the forms of Doom and Kang fighting against Wanda, Vision, Thor and Strange.
With a lunge, space itself distorted as I ran straight and up into the air, grabbing onto Kang's arm as he swung a punch at Vision.
I savoured the look of shock that appeared on his face as he turned to me, tilting my head with a lopsided grin.
"Did you miss me?" Before he could reply, my fist vibrated and punched against the forcefield around his body, clicking my tongue as I was unable to pierce through.
Yet, it was still enough to sent him hurtling towards Doom who flew out of the way right as I rushed towards him. Throwing a spinning kick, he leaned back to avoid it only for Strange to attack from behind.
His Eldritch whip wrapped around the waist of the tyrant as I swung my elbow down, cracking it against his jaw and snapping his head back.
Vision flew in from below and grabbed onto his legs, flinging him up only for Thor to slam the blade of Stormbreaker down onto his chest. Lightning spread outwards from the blow with a thunderous crack, evaporating every bit of moisture around us and sending the tyrant flying after Kang's falling form.
"Pietro!" I smiled as I hugged Wanda, ignoring the pain that came from her tight grip as Strange and Vision looked relieved.
"Hahaha! Knew that something as simple as cellular decay wouldn't kill you, silver speedster!" Thor shouted with a happy smile as he patted my back, wincing with every smack and shaking my head.
"It almost did, but I couldn't let you guys get all of the credit," As I spoke, my eyes locked onto the forms of Doom and Kang that had landed, the two villains glaring up at us as I smiled and waved back. "Also, we're not going to beat this two without devastating consequences so I have a better idea."
"Seal them?"
"Great minds think alike," Strange rolled his eyes at my words even as he nodded, levitating with his legs crossed as I cracked my back.
"Just me won't be enough, though, even with the stones."
"Wanda can help and I can too," I spoke, pointing up as he looked at me.
"You think you can make it there and back without collapsing."
"Only one way to find out," I replied and he sighed, to which I hopped from foot to foot before looking to Wanda.
"What are you planning?"
"If all goes well, a way to end this fight for good."
"Please, don't try and kill yourself again."
"Oof, that's going to be hard. I'm quite fond of killing myself," she rolled her eyes before looking down as Kang rocketed upwards. With a nod to Strange, I lunged forward and ran through the sky, going higher and higher while pulling more chi into my chaos energy.
"Come on! Feel it out again! Pushpushpushpushpush!" Rapidly hyping myself up as sparks of gold-blue electricity began to dance with the silver and blue, I took a deep breath and shot up through the atmosphere.
Space felt a lot more painful than I remembered it being as I raced through the vacuum, rushing towards the sole location visible in my line of sight.
It took me more than the ten seconds from last time to reach the Moon, immediately vibrating my form right as I felt Strange's seals on them shattering.
Bouncing through the mantle of the celestial body, I picked up the four containers and shot back to the surface, running in large loops before leaping back towards Earth.
At the same time, I popped each orb slightly open as I began to near the atmosphere, taking a deep breath before readying myself for re-entry.
Every part of my body felt like it was forced into a pressure cooker as heat and concussive force slammed into my every cell, gritting my teeth through the pain while diving back towards the destruction of Latveria.
The moment I caught sight of Doom's form smacking away Strange, I angled myself towards the sorcerer who had opened a portal in front of me and beside him.
The Time Stone was already in his grasp as I popped open the four containers, the Power, Space, Mind and Reality stones spilling free from their containers as well.
"Now, Strange!" I shouted as my speed began to sputter out, Vision catching my form right as we watched Strange pull the five Infinity stones to hover around his form.
At the same time, a third eye opened on his forehead, the iris glowing with the five colours of the stone as two arms grew from his shoulders and two more from his armpits.
The top hands made a Lotus Mudra as the centre hands made the Muladhara Mudra and the bottom hands came together to form the Vishuddha Mudra.
Arcs of multi-coloured energy danced across his body as he let out a heavy breath, staring directly at Doom and Kang whose form were frozen with the Space Stone.
The blue auras surrounding their forms pulled them together before surrounding them in a similarly coloured bubble. The air around the bubble fractured, the Mirror Dimension forming as a secondary layer as its edges were lined with the radiant green of the Time Stone.
Reality distorted with dark red streaks, the Reality Stone rewriting the laws of the bubble and flipping it inside out to where time inside would always be frozen within that one singular frame of a second.
Then, the Power and Mind Stones let off strands of violet and yellow, which wrapped around the bubble and ensured that their minds would stay frozen while making sure that the bubble could never be broken.
Wanda drifted closer to Strange while sending out slithering threads of chaos magic, ones that tied tightly around the bubble before Strange shrunk it to the size of a marble.
Tony took that time to float closer, snapping the containers back around the Infinity Stones and catching Strange as he sagged with a gasp.
"You okay there, Merlin?" he joked with a smirk as his face plate popped open, to which Strange gave a tired roll of his eyes as I chuckled.
"I'll live...and so will they," he muttered, all of us staring at the frozen space that contained the two tyrants as I smiled.
"Good. Now, let's talk about my retirement."
A/N: And we end it here~! Honestly, thought about it a lot and...I don't think I can continue this story without going into the same overpowered 'everyone dies' direction as I did with the Thor story, which is NOT what I want for this.
Therefore, I decided to just end it off here.
Anyway, next chapter: Aftermath.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until the next one...
Ba-Bye~!