(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 41 - Bleeding God

Chapter 41 - Bleeding God

Summary: Tony makes a Titan bleed, and Thanos is no longer playing.

Tony's axe met Thanos's gauntlet, his energy meeting the metal caused sparks to fill the air between Tony and the titan.

Thanos tightened his fist causing the purple light coming out of the power stone to increase before a large beam of energy shot out of it toward him.

Tony's reaction was one sharpened by years in the superhero business. His left arm came up, shield made out of nanites already forming to cover as much of Tony's body as possible. After all, Tony was aware of the power of the stones, especially that particular stone—if this energy even touched Tony he would be done for.

The energy beam slammed into his shield and began sending Tony backwards toward the boulder, his shield wasn't having too much success in blocking the attack, it was more like his shield was slowly being eaten away by the energy before it moved onto him.

So, while still trying to hold his ground Tony turned his right arm from the energy axe he formed earlier back into the usual armored hand. Using the thruster at full power and angling his hand in a way that made his palm face outwards, Tony launched himself out of the way of the energy.

In that exact moment Thor, using his hammer launched another attack at Thanos while screaming in a booming voice, "Thanos! Face me!"

Thor seemed to be trying to break through the power stone's enhancement to the titan with the pure strength of his strikes, using Mjolnir, or lightning, each one called down from the sky to land straight at Thanos.

Thor was having little success in that regard until the Hulk chose to rejoin the fight and give Thor a hand or more like a huge, green fist aimed toward Thanos's face.

Tony noticed that just like the Hulk once did, Thanos took the punch without even trying to block it. Was it usual arrogance or was he so sure of the enhancement the stones had provided him?

Tony decided it didn't matter, that was information worth filing for future use. Tony also still had to consider his second stone, the reality stone—the mad titan had yet to use it and Tony wasn't sure how to feel about it.

Suddenly there was a huge commotion on the island behind him and the three-way in front of him paused as well to look at what was going on.

What the four of them saw was Thanos's army getting ready to launch their final full assault on the very disadvantaged Avengers, until portals began to open on the Avengers' side.

More and more warriors kept stepping onto the island, ready for a fight. The sky was suddenly filled with spaceships, with all sorts of shapes and colors.

Tony knew it was coming and still was mesmerized by the sight, those spaceships... those aliens... they all came because... he asked? Because he told them he would be fighting Thanos himself to protect the universe?

When Gamora suggested the idea Tony laughed in her face, but when Carol supported the video message, he decided to give it a chance, and if he had to bet, he would have put his money on them never seeing any results out of that video. Well, it was a good thing he was rich.

Wait... was that Peter?! Kamala?! Kate?! Harley?! America?! Oh, Tony would be having some harsh words with them once he got the chance. A deep chuckle drew all the attention back toward the titan, and Tony amended in his mind, if he got the chance.

Thanos looked at Tony, "I knew you had some tricks hidden for the right moment Stark but consider me impressed."

Before Tony could respond Thor boomed at the alien warlord, "They have come here to aid in your defeat, and so it is time for you to perish mad titan."

Tony began to use his nanites and gathered as much energy as he could into a missile he was creating on his shoulder.

He watched as Thanos met Thor's hammer swing with a bare-handed punch while taking another punch from the Hulk head on.

The Hulk roared in anger and joined both his hands into one giant fist and raised his arms above his head. With another roar of fury Hulk brought the fist down at the titan's head.

Tony noticed how Thanos's eyes narrowed slightly as he used his gloved hand, with the purple light shining out of it to catch the attack from the green mountain.

With both his arms now busy Tony sent his missile toward the monster's head.

A big explosion that was accompanied by strange electrical blue clouds obscured the view of all three of them.

When the dust settled a moment later the three of them were standing in the same position they had a moment ago. None of them looked injured, not even Thanos himself.

But something did happen, so far Thanos's armor had protected him with small dents here and there. Right now, his helmet was laying in many pieces on the floor around him.

Thanos frowned and with an annoyed grunt he pulled both of his arms in a speed that caused both Thor and Hulk to lose their footing for a moment. Thanos used that to grab Thor by his leg and using the power stone throw him away in Tony's direction.

Knowing there was nothing he could do to help his friend Tony could only duck and watch as Thor hit the boulder, cracking the entire rock from the point of impact, before falling on the ground in a daze, his hammer just out of reach on the ground.

Tony looked back just in time to see the Hulk being grabbed by the throat before he was slammed toward the ground, followed by a punch from Thanos's gloved hand that released a purple shock wave and left the Hulk in the same state as Thor.

With an annoyed frown Thanos said evenly, "I had enough of you two. You have power, but it's incomparable to mine." He closed his fist and looked at Tony as he said, "Let us have our battle Stark, just you and me."

Tony didn't waste time with words, while Thanos was talking Tony formed a bunch of missiles on the back of his suit. The moment the tyrant finished speaking a dozen missiles were launched at every part of his body.

The titan smirked and raised his fist, this time it wasn't glowing purple, but red. A moment before the missiles could hit their target a red colored wave washed over them turning each missile into bubbles.

The Reality stone. Tony knew that move would force the titan to use the second stone in his possession, while Thanos looked satisfied by his work Tony used that moment to charge at the titan.

He turned his left arm into a sort of hammer and used it to punch the titan on his right cheek. That didn't seem to bother him though as a large purple fist was sent his way.

Tony ducked while at the same time turning the hammer on his arm into an energy blaster machine gun. He aimed at the same spot his hit landed a moment ago and began shooting as many energy blasts as he could land.

Thanos frowned again and with a grunt of pain he sent his purple hand toward Tony's head. Before Tony could react, the titan had his head in his grip. Tony froze for a moment, but Friday didn't. She took command of the suit and ejected the helmet.

Tony's mind rebooted once he was out of Thanos's grip and he immediately put some distance between the two.

Tony's eyes narrowed at the titan. He wanted to show off the powers of the stones against him. He only used the power stone against Thor and Hulk because he didn't see a reason to bother himself with impressing them. But with Tony he wanted to show off his full powers. Last time he used the reality stone to block his attack, which means now was time to complete his plan.

Tony launched another missiles attack at the huge grape. The titan looked amused and raised his fist, now with a glowing purple stone. Once the missiles were close enough to each other they exploded midair and combined into one large ball of fire.

Thanos made a motion with his arm and a stream of fire was heading toward Tony. He used the thrusters to jump above it, and as per his plan his landing would be right on top of the mad titan.

Thanos raised his head and was about to raise his fist again, but Tony created an energy cannon on his right hand and used full output to blast the exact same spot he kept hitting before.

Without the helmet his head turned slightly from the force of the blast, giving Tony the moment he needed.

Tony landed on top of Thanos's left arm, using his left foot to pin his gloved arm to the ground, causing the titan to crouch down so his face was on level with Tony's. Tony used the nanites to create roots from his foot into the ground, planting both his leg and the hand trapped under it in place.

Before Thanos could get back his bearings Tony pulled his entire body back and turned to the right as far as he could while turning his right arm into a hammer, but this time the hammer would be powered by the thrusters added.

Tony fired up the thrusters in full speed and his body received a whiplash from the force of his attack, luckily thanks to the extremis in his blood his body was more than capable of handling the drawback of his plan.

The hammer hit Thanos on the same spot all the other attacks Tony had been launching during their fight landed with so much force the shock wave would have sent Tony to join Thor if he wasn't planted to the ground.

When the dust around them settled Tony noticed the injury on the titan's cheek, and he wasn't the only one. Thanos raised a finger to his right cheek to wipe off the blood, before bringing the finger before his eyes.

For a very short moment Thanos looked lost, as if what he was seeing should be impossible, but then he looked at Tony with a smirk and commented mockingly, "All of that, for a drop of blood."

Tony felt his stomach sink. He hoped that with so many attacks aimed at one place the final blow would knock him out, or at the very least daze him long enough to get the gauntlet off him. Yet all he managed to do was to draw a drop of blood from him.

That was when Tony noticed the silence around him. He looked a little sideways to see every single being on the other island had their eyes locked on Thanos's face with wide eyes and surprised looks, and in some cases on Thanos's side, betrayal.

Tony knew what he had to do, no matter how dangerous pissing Thanos off was. He looked straight into the titan's eyes with a smirk of his own and said boldly, "You are not a god."

Thanos's smirk fell from his face and his eyes widened, he threw a glance toward the other island and saw the same thing Tony did, until a battle cry, filled with hope and determination filled the air and the army of the heroes moved in on the offensive.

Thanos's eyes narrowed at Tony, and he snarled before using all of his power, and probably that of the power stone as well to rip his hand out of Tony's planting, causing Tony to lose his footing.

The titan grabbed Tony's leg and stood up so he could swing Tony powerfully to the ground. Thanks to Friday forming a new helmet around his head Tony managed to avoid being killed by that, but he heard at least a few bones break and he could feel the back of his head bleeding.

Usually that would mean he was as good as dead, but again Tony felt the warmth of the extremis spreading across his body and slowly healing him.

When his vision began to clear he saw Rogers, back in the world of the living quickly going toward Mjolnir. When he reached it he grabbed the handle with both arms and began to pull upwards.

But the hammer didn't move an inch. Rogers's face turned red from how much he tried to pull the hammer up without any success.

He kept watching Rogers failing to pick up Mjolnir until Thanos was in his line of sight, a fist with both stones glowing aimed at him.

Tony couldn't move, his body was still healing. He knew that was a possibility when he insulted the titan publicly, but his words served their purpose. 'If you make a god bleed, people will cease to believe in him.' Tony proved Thanos was no god and now someone else could pick up the fight.

Thanos had a small smile on his face, one that didn't reach his eyes as he said, "You have my respect Stark. When I am done, half of life in the universe will remain. I hope they will remember you."

Tony was about to accept his fate with a smile when his fingers twitched against his will. He could see from the corner of his eye that Rogers had finally given up trying to pick up the hammer. In the same time images flew through Tony's mind.

Him with Rhodey, holding hands and promising to have each other's back forever. He and Pepper doing their usual exchange of goodbye. He and the kids all with smiles aimed toward him while he was telling them a story. And finally, he giving Carol her engagement ring.

Tony could feel new determination entering his heart. He had people to protect, loved ones he promised to come back to. A world that needed saving, no, a universe that depended on him.

He wouldn't allow himself to die! He would fight like he always did, and he would win! Thanos was right about one thing, Tony Stark was a survivor, no matter the odds.

Mjolnir tore itself away from the ground where Rogers had left it, much to the man's indignation, and rocketed in Tony's direction.

Thanos not seeing it and the hammer not slowing down caused the titan to be hit in the back of his head and stumble sideways. Meanwhile, Mjolnir landed firmly in the palm of Tony's raised arm. When did he raise his arm?

Tony could feel the power of the hammer combining with the arc reactor and the extremis in his blood to fill his body with unimaginable amounts of energy.

Tony reshaped his armor to have wings at an odd angle and pushed himself off the ground using the thrusters on his feet to float a little over Thanos's head.

When the dust settled Tony watched as Thanos looked around in confusion before he announced, "Well... Will you look at that."