Chapter 367: The Infinity War

26th April 2015, New York City

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

"General Maximoff, you're awake. Just in time. The council is ready for you. We followed your instructions. The deadline is almost up, but we have a few concerns."

"Brief me as quickly as you can," Wanda responded automatically.

"Emma Frost is concerned about the fact that we're putting mutants on the frontlines. She doesn't want to risk her people," the Dora Milaje answered.

Wanda nodded, "tell her that only the Brutes and physically resilient mutants are in the front line. Have Clairvoyant and Doormaker coordinate with an appropriate mutant with a Thinker ability to blast their way through portals. If it's too much, coordinate with the Sorcerer Supreme to assign noncombatant sorcerers to make portals for them too. Also tell them to have a medical bay ready with healers, and portals, to avoid as many casualties as possible."

The Wakandan warrior nodded, "Very well, General."

It continued like this all morning, with requests being made through Alfred to process, and given to her by the Dora Milaje assigned to Wanda. She was so busy that she didn't even have time to be nervous anymore. Things continued like this, until finally, she got a message from Tony Stark, "We have a huge fleet of ships appearing right on top of the planet. One of the battleships is coming this way."

Wanda nodded and addressed the entire council at once, "It's time. Thanos is here. We are the defendants of humanity. It's time for us to Assemble."

If it had been any other occasion, Wanda would have been proud of herself and her mother. The army behind her was the culmination of their efforts to unite humanity. It was the first step of really making Earth into a single entity. It was a shame that the magical world didn't seem to be receptive. But Jasmine had a point, it wasn't the right time to unveil them. The world had enough issues with mutants being around, wizards would just complicate things even further.

Yet, for all the suffering, all the death and misery, Wanda couldn't help but think that it was worth it. Right behind her stood the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, an entire army of mutants, the entire Wakandan military, and an entire Doombots army thanks to Victor Von Doom. Everyone was pitching in but for all that this was a cause to celebrate, the mood was somber.

This was it, the battle that Jasmine was preparing for. She was fighting her own battle, her own impossible enemy, and it was time for Wanda to step up.

Wanda ignored the spaceships floating around the Wakandan forcefields and started addressing her allies.

(Tony Stark POV)

When Tony had gotten a message from Maximoff and Grey again, he knew something was up. These women did not contact him without a crisis on the horizon, but he didn't expect this. The aliens were coming back, and now, the little advantages that they had, that allowed them to win last time, were gone. An entire fleet was coming, without being bottlenecked by a single portal, and that just didn't look good.

They had more warning this time, they had plans. Warnings were sent out to every major government they could get a hold of. They didn't know where the aliens were going to hit, but they were luring them with what they came for to have the battle on their terms. And it seemed to have worked. The entire fleet seemed to converge towards the hidden city of Wakanda – don't get him started on the technology here. To think that there was a mountain of vibranium available that they just wouldn't share, or even sell.

The entire city was moved to Genosha, which also happened to be some sort of secret country. Honestly, how many of those were there? Thor and Asgard seemed to be nowhere to be found, and that was already bad news, but the amount of preparation being made was impressive. Maximoff, or most probably the Morrigan, had been preparing for this for years, at least.

"Jarv. Status report."

His faithful AI responded, "The battleship seems to be stationed in the upper atmosphere, probably for orbital bombardment. It's deploying smaller ships filled with Chitauri and some kind of biologically engineered mindless soldiers towards Wakanda. Tony could see them, floating in front of the forcefield that protected Wakanda from outsiders.

He nodded to himself and just before he could speak, Maximoff turned and looked at them, "I know that most of you don't like each other. The citizens of Wakanda are unhappy that we're using their capital for this battle, and I am sorry, but this was the place that would give humanity the best chance of surviving. I know that some of you have fought before, as enemies, or maybe as rivals. We have different ideas of what the world should look like, or how it should be run, but if there's anything we can agree on, it's that humanity must survive. We are not fighting because we want to win, or because we want to add a new achievement to our long lists. We're not doing this because we want to beat someone, or because we hate someone, or because we want to blame someone. It's not because it's fun. God knows it's not because it's easy. It's not even because we know that we'll win, because there's a good chance that we won't. We're fighting because it is right, because by doing this, our people can survive and thrive. We will suffer, we will see dark and dangerous things, because the rest of the world shouldn't. We are doing this to be kind. If we turn our backs, if we run away, good people will die. And it's not just random people, your friends, your families are in danger. If we stand and fight, we have a good chance at saving them, at giving them hope to live. We fight for hope, not just for each of us, but for our entire species. I don't know if we'll win, but I will stand my ground and fight, even if it kills me. Now, if you ask me, protecting my people is something worth dying for. What do you think?"

The woman's voice had reverberated throughout the entirety of Wakanda. For a minute, everyone stood silent as they heard the woman's speech. And just like that, the entire place roared in approval.

The woman had a slight smile on her face, "So, tell me, are you going to let these outsiders come to our planet, to massacre our people?"

The entire place shook with the loud, "NO!" that everyone yelled. Tony found that he was cheering with them too.

"Good, now everyone, you know your posts. I want everyone to give their all. If these aliens think that we're just some defenseless planet, then they have another thing coming."

The place shook, and portals started appearing taking everyone to their assigned posts. Of course, it was then that the invasion actually started, with a bang, literally. The ships that had lowered themselves from the main one, started to fire without warning at the city. The forcefield held against the strikes, but Tony could see that it would not hold indefinitely. Then the ships had begun sending down monsters and an army of Chitauri down to the surface, that attacked the forcefield as well.

Maximoff looked unperturbed before yelling, "Blasters, you're up."

Before he could ask what was happening, thousands of portals appeared just above the spaceships, and the armed soldiers, and from them, different bolts of energy blasted away at them. Some of them were blasts of fire, some of them were blasts of energy. Slowly but surely, half of the ships had fallen, and most of the ground forces were wiped out. Unfortunately, the other ships had activated some sort of shielding, but that was enough to give Tony a little hope. Everyone else's spirit was also lifted as well. This was proof that they still stood a chance.

Or at least, they would have if it wasn't for the giants that started to fall from the ships. They were followed by some sort of slimes that seemed to eat everything they could touch, that and the seemingly endless troops of Chitauri and monsters, things didn't really look good.

Maximoff seemed hesitant for a second before yelling out, "Fire the Etherion Cannon on the Ship that's still full of troops. Try to get as many other ships as you can."

Another portal appeared right next to the ship hovering higher than the rest, this time dwarfing the previous portals in size. From it, a giant beam of white energy just struck the ship and easily overwhelmed its defenses. Tony couldn't see the impact because of the light, but when it cleared up, the ship, alongside two others, were simply not there. There wasn't any wreckage, or destruction, the blast was so strong that the ships had been disintegrated entirely.

The entire battlefield froze for a moment. They definitely didn't expect something like this from them. Tony definitely didn't know that Maximoff had that kind of fire power behind her, outside her frankly ridiculous powers, that is.

She spoke up loudly, "The cannon will need to recharge for a bit. We need to press on our advantage."

While the blasters portals continued to rain down on the attackers, the giants seemed unaffected and they were actively protecting the slimes, who started eating the forcefield somehow.

Maximoff spoke up once more, "Doormaker, put a portal to a volcano above them."

Immediately, the portal appeared in front of them, and tons of lava covered the attackers, burning them alive. The screams were harrowing, but Tony didn't feel any pity for them.

Jarvis started to speak up, "Sir, the battleship released another wave of ships towards this location."

Tony nodded and looked at Wanda, "You just bought us a couple of minutes. Do you think you could do the thing with the lava again?"

She shook her head, "No, it could destabilize the forcefield. We need to open up a section to make a bottleneck again, and I could risk hitting our own troops with the lava."

The Prince of Wakanda, or the Black Panther spoke up, "Are you sure about that?"

She shook her head, "We won't be able to survive against what are obviously troops engineered for forcefield sieges. The slimes can somehow dissolve the shield, and the giants will continue to protect them. A fight on our terms and from one side is just easier to handle."

As if the prove her point, the moment the new wave of ships started to arrive, even with the blasters raining out on them, the slimes were able to make a temporary breach in the forcefield and go through. They were killed immediately by a wave of Maximoff's hand, but her point was made.

And so, while whittling down their numbers with the blasters, and as more and more stragglers started to break into the city Wanda nodded to herself, "Alright, I'm opening a section of the forcefield soon. By the way, remember the briefing, if you see any children of Thanos, or the Mad Titan himself, call it in immediately, and Doormaker will send the appropriate opponent to your location to fight them."

Ah, yes, the Children of Thanos. His prized lieutenants that are utterly devoted to him and his cause. Not that the Mad Titan wouldn't kill them in a heartbeat if it helped him achieve his goal. They were dangerous and had a tricky range of powers, which was why the Scarlet Witch had designated a list of people that should engage each one.

Maximoff then continued her orders, "alright, open section fourteen."

Immediately, the forcefield started to open up like a door, and an entire army of Chitauri and monsters started to flow in, ready to kill them all. And well, the defenders of humanity did what they were supposed to against these impossible odds. They charged.