AVENGE THE FALLEN | AN ENDGAME READER INSERT STORY

part one

You took your earbuds out. "Uh, Dad!" you half shouted.

He looked at you, then turned. You jogged forward to catch up. A portal had opened up, and your dad pushed Pepper back. He held a hand out to you, warning you to keep your distance.

But blue tendrils were already starting to swirl around your fingers.

A man stepped out of the portal. And the man was dressed as what you could only describe as a wizard.

"Tony Stark," he said confidently and seriously, "I am Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me. Oh, and congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

"I'm sorry, are you giving out tickets to something?" your dad asked.

"We need your help," Stephen Strange said. "And it's not overselling it to say that the fate of our universe is at stake."

"And who's we?"

Someone stepped out from behind him. And your breath hitched in your throat.

"Bruce," you and your dad said in unison.

"Hey, Tony. Pepper." His hair was grey. He stumbled forward, clumsily. His eyes were wide. He looked to you. "Wow, you really grew up there, kid."

You smiled, then shook your head. "How... where... where have you been?" Tears threatened to come into your eyes.

Bruce fell forward and hugged Tony. You noticed how your dad was suddenly looking at the odd wizard, and that he was listening.

                           ***

You sat on the sofa with your dad as the second wizard, a man named Wong, explained exactly what was coming. A Titan by the name of Thanos, attempted to harvest every infinity stone in existence.

You felt your father stiffen at the mention of them.

"Tell me his name again."

"Thanos," Bruce said. "He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants. I was there, okay? He already has the Space stone." He pointed at you. "You have that power inside you, you know how much you can do with it alone."

"Yes," you whispered.

Stephen narrowed his eyes. "You hold the power of the space stone?" he asked.

Your eyes shifted to his. You nodded once.

"Extraordinary," he mused.

"But he wipes out half the population," Bruce continued. "He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that was him."

"This is it," Tony whispered. He nodded. "What's our timeline?"

"No telling. He already has the Power and Space stones. That makes him the most powerful species in the universe. If he gets his hands on all six stones, Tony..."

"He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of," Stephen said.

"Did you seriously just say hitherto undreamt of?" Tony replied.

"Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?" His cloak slapped your father's hand.

Your father turned around. "I'm going to allow that," he said. "If Thanos needs all six, why can't we just stick this one down the garbage disposal?"

"No can do," Stephen said.

"We swore to protect the Time stone with our lives," Wong said.

"And I swore off dairy, but then Ben and Jerry's named a flavor after me, so..."

As the two started to bicker, you grew annoyed.

You rolled your eyes and got off the sofa. "Dad, just stop," you said. "We need all the information we can get about this guy and threatening the man giving it isn't the best idea of yours."

"Our oath to protect the Time stone cannot change," Stephen said.

This started the bickering again. Defeated, you walked off, arms crossed at your chest. You stared at a bookshelf, not really seeing what was there.

Your father was catching Bruce up on where everyone was and wasn't, and then you felt... uneasy.

You looked around. Everyone was still talking.

As the hairs on your arms stood, you interrupted with, "Dad?"

He stopped talking and looked at you.

"Do you feel that?" you asked.

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Strange.

"Do you hear that?" There was a distant rumbling. Tremors were now under your feet.

Tony swallowed. "Say, Doc, you wouldn't happen to be movimg your hair right now, would you?"

"Not at the moment, no," he said.

Your dad approached the doors. You were right behind him, tendrils of blue at your fingers again. He opened the doors quickly.

People were running, shouting, rushing. Wind carried papers and dirt and things, making outside grey. And you and your father stepped outside first.

You and Tony went the opposite way of where everyone was rushing. Someone tripped and fell. He picked her up.

"You okay?" he shouted over the noise.

She ran off, screaming as a car nearly wrecked into you. Your dad snatched your hand and gripped tight. He slipped his glasses on with his left hand and barked for Bruce and Wong to help the man in the car.

"FRIDAY, what am I look at?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, I'm working on it!"

"You might want to put that Time stone in your back pocket, Doc," he yelled to Stephen, who was trailing behind.

"We might want to use it!"

Like a small child, you did not let go of your dad. Rounding a corner, you saw a giant ring. A ship of some kind.

Something you might see in the beginning of the ending of the world.

"Dad," you said.

"Got your suit ready?" was all he asked.

"Always," you said.

He nodded once. "Just like I taught you."

And he let go of your hand as the three of you moved towards approach the menacing, looming ship.

Towards the end of the world.