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“So.” Danny began, “I have good news and bad news. The bad news is Thanos is coming. The good news is I have an idea how to defeat him.”
“You know how I told you there were these strange influxes of ectoplasmic energy in the Ghost Zone? I asked Clockwork about it, and it turned out these influxes only happen when someone goes genocidal maniac. Me and my friends did some detective work, and…yeah. Long story short, Thanos is probably coming to Earth in a week or two. Yay.”
“The good news is the Infinity Stones are made of ectoplasm, which means they are ghost artefacts, which means we can probably negate their effects with this!”
“Probably?”
“I don’t see you having a better idea.”
“Are you sure a belt can protect us against the most powerful artefacts in the world?”
“Trust me; this is our best bet.”
“How about Vision, then? He’s powered by the Mind Stone; if he wears a Spector Deflector and it stops working on him, he’ll shut down. And we can’t reroute his systems to exclude the Mind Stone in such a short time period.”
“I have an idea for that, actually.”
“Technus? Your plan is Technus? Isn’t he your enemy?”
“Technically, he is my frenemy.”
“YOU WANT ME TO MESS WITH AN AI?”
“Please, if you do this, I promise—“
“YES!! I, TECHNUS, MASTER OF ALL THINGS TECHNOLOGICAL AND BEEPING, WILL HELP YOU REROUTE THE AI KNOWN AS VISION!! I HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO MESS WITH AN AI!!”
“How are you feeling?”
Vision touched his forehead—his Mind Stone-less forehead. “Weird.” He gave a side glance to Technus, who seemed to be vibrating with joy. “He’s…very loud.”
“So…also, there is only one Spector Deflector that has been reprogrammed to not hurt me, and I already gave it to Spidey. I can’t touch you during the battle.” Danny rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly, “I forgot to mention that earlier. Sorry ‘bout that.”
“Ever heard of this bunch of people who call themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy? They would make good allies.”
“On it.”
Peter Quill was having a perfectly normal day piloting their his ship. That was, until a glowing boy knocked on the hull of his ship. From the outside. In the void. Where nobody could breathe unless they were wearing suitable equipment. Which the boy wasn’t wearing.
Peter screamed. Loudly.
Rocket laughed at him, but also screamed when the boy phased directly into the cockpit.
He still thought Rocket had screamed louder.
Danny had made good time with the Infi-map. If there weren’t any extraordinary circumstances, he should be back on Earth within the next hour.
He knocked on the glass of the cockpit. It was only good manners to warn someone before appearing spontaneously on their ship, after all.
…opps. He had forgotten humans were supposed to wear spacesuits in space.
Surprisingly, there weren’t any extraordinary circumstances, except for nearly giving Quill and Rocket a heart attack.
But Gamora and Drax had apparently found the whole thing hilarious, so there’s that.
“By the way, can you make one more trip?” Gamora asked. “I think my sister Nebula would like to be a part of this.”
Thanos was on Vormir, with the Soul Stone nearly within grasp. Except he apparently needed to sacrifice someone he loved to get the infernal Stone.
Damnit. Where was Gamora when he needed her?
Thanos would return after sending one of his Children to track down his wayward Child.
Danny found Nebula in a torture chamber, with the guards already disabled.
“Please don’t shoot me,” he yelped, morphing his body around a shot from what looked like a gun stolen from the disabled guards, “Gamora sent me.”
That caught her interest.
Stephen could not access the Time Stone, with the Spector Deflector on. He had put it in a pocket dimension before putting the belt on, and without Phantom’s key, there was no way to retrieve it without destroying the Deflector.
That was a good thing. He could not be tempted to peer into possible futures, which may affect how he acted in the battle.
There would be no self-fulfilling prophecies today; at least not on his part.
Loki hid the Tesseract in his pocket dimension. Today he would be facing his nightmare.
These garish belts better worked.
Wanda was not wearing a Spector Deflector, since it would inhibit her powers too.
They placed her in the rear guards. She was too relieved about Vision not being a target to complain about it.
Danny hid the Mind Stone in Clockwork’s tower.
He pointedly did not think Thanos would never look for an Infinity Stone in the Ghost Zone, a realm Thanos didn’t even know existed, because that would be jinxing it.
Fury did not call Carol Danvers. She would be the backup, the secret weapon if all else failed.
Peter Parker kissed Danny before heading onto the battlefield. The plan would work. They would come out of this alive.
(But just in case.)
The purple grape was dramatic. His spaceship descended from the clouds like a giant demon.
Too bad they already knew he was coming.
Thanos snapped his fingers, expecting the Reality Stone to transform the landscape into his old broken home.
Nothing happened.
He snapped his fingers again, scowling.
There was still no reaction.
Was the Gauntlet malfunctioning?
How dare the dwarves give him a malfunctioning Gauntlet! If he hadn’t already killed all of them, he would’ve done it for this slight.
But there was nothing he could do about it now. He started his monologue.
The Power Stone lighted up. A purple force field expanded across the battlefield, with Thanos in the epicentre.
Here is what should have happened: the force field should have thrown everyone backwards, the same way standing too close to an explosion throws one backwards. Tony, the one standing the closest to Thanos, should have fallen over. He should have at least broken a few bones, and at most even died.
Here is what happened: nothing.
Tony smirked, “Surprised, bitch?”
Danny had stolen the Power Stone from Thanos. He had nowhere to hide it.
He couldn’t put it down; the Stone would destroy any container not specially made to contain it. He couldn’t hold it indefinitely, either. Purple cracks cut into his palms and bled throughout his body. He felt lightheaded and not at all put together.
He was already destabilising.
Where, where, where…
Peter landed next to him, “Are you okay?”
That was it!
Danny phased the Power Stone into Peter’s chest.
It was easy to defeat Thanos, after that. With only a Stone that didn’t work and his own natural strength to rely on, they overpowered him quickly enough.
Nebula had the pleasure of striking the killing blow.
Danny wasn’t too worried about Thanos coming back as a ghost. Even if he did, the millions of ghosts who had been his victims would take care of him.
Nebula smiled viciously, “I’ve wanted to do this for so long.”
This was the best day of her life.
Loki sighed in relief. His nightmare was finally over.
“You phased the Power Stone into Spiderman’s chest!?”
Danny crossed his arms defensively. “I panicked, okay? There weren’t any places to put it, and I was already destabilising from holding it for too long! Spiderman was the only one with a Spector Deflector that doesn’t hurt me, so I could phase it in him, and the Deflector makes sure it wouldn’t hurt him!”
“It’s fine,” Peter lied unconvincingly, “he totally warned me beforehand.”
“Yeah! It’s fine! I’ll just phase it out when you find a suitable container!”
Tony sighed. These kids would be the death of him.
Behind him, someone snickered. Tony gave them a death glare.
Danny gingerly phased the Power Stone out of Peter’s chest. He dropped it like a hot potato in the specially prepared container.
“You’re staying for observation,” Tony told Peter grumpily, “be glad if you don’t experience any side effects.”
Danny gave the two of them an apologetic look. He knew ‘under observation’ was a code word for ‘grounded’.
“They’re having a party out there.” Bruce informed Tony. “You aren’t joining?”
“Nah, Spiderling is still under medical observation. You want to hide in the labs for a while?”
Bruce glanced at Spiderman cuddling with Phantom. Phantom’s spectral tail was coiled around Spiderman’s midsection protectively, and he was staring intently at Bruce. Spiderman’s mask was loop-sided, as if he had hastily shoved it on the moment he heard Bruce coming. Bruce was not the most socially intelligent person, but even he could get the hint.
“No thanks,” he told Tony, “I’m going back up.”
The Time Stone was back in Dr Strange’s amulet, the Tesseract was under the Asgardian’s care, the Mind Stone would stay hidden in Clockworks tower, and the Reality Stone and Power Stone had been sent to the far corners of the galaxy. Where exactly, he was not privy to, if only because it was too dangerous for anyone to know the location of so many Infinity Stones.
(No one else knew exactly where he had hidden the Mind Stone, either. He had only told them it was somewhere in the vast infinity of the Ghost Zone.)
(He would always be grateful these adults trusted him so completely.)
The Guardians departed with Nebula in tow, soon after Tony finally released Peter from observation. Something in Danny’s core told him he would see them again, someday.
Everything had returned to normal—at least, it had returned to the relative normality of over two weeks ago, before he first announced what he had discovered.
After the two weeks of non-stop activities, he was finally able to relax with Sam and Tucker and Peter, where he belonged.
Danny smiled. His life was amazing.
(For once, the universe decided not to jinx him for the comment.)