Gunfire and explosions echoed across the battlefield as Thanos's monstrous army clashed with the united front of the Avengers.
Bursts of color streaked through the chaos.
Tony Stark and Pepper Potts fought side by side, yellow and blue, a dazzling duo.
Thor roared through the air, summoning thunder, while a building-sized Ant-Man crushed swaths of enemies underfoot. Doctor Strange and his mystic brethren weaved spells with precision and grace.
The Avengers were powerful, but Thanos's forces were endless. You couldn't even see where the army ended.
Aside from the top-tier superheroes leading the charge, the front-line troops of the Avengers struggled to keep up. Their numbers simply couldn't match Thanos's overwhelming horde.
Elsewhere, Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch, faced Thanos head-on.
And she was furious.
Thanos had been able to handle the combined might of Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor… but against Wanda's wrath? He was utterly overwhelmed.
Realizing he was seconds from being ripped apart by sheer rage, Thanos had no choice but to call in a desperate command:
"Fire!"
BOOM! BOOM!
The Sanctuary II unleashed a barrage of artillery, devastating both friend and foe alike.
Wanda was blown back, losing her grip on Thanos.
The wizards raised shields to defend their allies, while Strange summoned all his power to hold back a tsunami caused by the collateral destruction.
Amidst the chaos, Rory gritted his teeth and crept out from his hiding spot, slowly making his way toward Thanos.
Just then, the ship's cannons shifted skyward.
A golden blur shot through the clouds, streaking toward Earth like a meteor.
Captain Marvel had arrived.
With a blinding trail of light, Carol Danvers slammed through the Sanctuary II like a divine spear, punching a hole clean through the behemoth ship.
The battlefield froze in awe.
Her arrival turned the tide. Thanos's army began to falter under renewed pressure from the Avengers' counterattack.
Carol charged toward the van holding the Quantum Tunnel, Infinity Stones in hand.
But Thanos wasn't done.
With a final desperate throw, he hurled his double-bladed sword, shattering the van and the tunnel within.
BOOM!
The shockwave sent everyone flying.
And the Nano Gauntlet?
It tumbled through the air… and landed just feet away from Rory.
"…Oh sh*t."
Rory dropped low, trying to blend into a pile of rubble.
And so, the final battle for the Infinity Gauntlet began.
Tony Stark charged first, knocked aside.
Thor and Cap followed, both sent flying. Cap didn't even get up.
Captain Marvel launched herself in again, Thanos ripped the Power Stone from the gauntlet and punched her halfway across the battlefield.
Then came Tony, glancing at Strange in the distance.
Strange raised a single finger.
Tony knew.
He launched himself forward.
Clang!
"I… am… inevitable," Thanos said coldly, looking down at the battered Tony.
Snap.
Nothing happened.
Thanos blinked.
The Infinity Stones were… gone.
Tony lifted his hand, stones glittering in his armor.
"I… am… Iron Man."
Snap.
Bang.
At that exact moment, the snap of Tony's fingers echoed across the battlefield, and Rory pulled the trigger on his M1911.
The dual sounds rang like a death knell.
As the golden light swept over the battlefield, Rory felt something shake deep within his soul. An indescribable sensation, like the entire world had shifted… but also stayed the same.
A strange dissonance, like standing in two realities at once.
"Ungh…"
Thanos staggered, turning slightly, just in time to see Rory pointing a smoking gun at him.
He took two steps forward…
And crumbled into dust.
"Mr. Stark…?"
Peter Parker stumbled toward Tony, voice trembling.
"We won… you did it… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…"
Pepper arrived, kneeling beside him, eyes shimmering with tears.
Tony's lips moved, barely a whisper. "Friday…"
"Life signs… critically low," the AI reported.
Pepper gently took his hand. "We're going to be okay, Tony. You can rest now."
His chest reactor dimmed, flickered,
And went dark.
Pepper finally broke down in sobs.
Behind her, as the others gathered in grief, Rory quietly stepped away.
He returned to the spot where Thanos had vanished… and picked something up from the dust.
A tiny syringe.
He tucked it into his pocket and slipped away, unnoticed.
Later…
"Phage Virus Trial #57: Failed."
"Hormonal proto-atoms in Thanos's blood cannot merge with human cell structures."
"Chromosome compatibility: 99%. DNA rejection response: Severe."
"New hypothesis: Re-sequence DNA to accommodate cross-species integration. Begin synthesis of Gen-3 Thanos blood sample."
Rory muttered into a recorder while adjusting his microscope.
He carefully removed the blood sample and walked toward a different workbench.
He'd once assumed Captain America's super soldier serum was some kind of booster, a miracle drug that enhanced a human body.
But Thanos's blood told a different story.
Steve Rogers wasn't boosted. He was rewritten.
If the human genome was a hard drive, then the serum wasn't an app, it was a hard reset. It forcefully overwrote everything, rewriting Steve's body on a fundamental level.
Same man. New code.
After dozens of failed trials, Rory finally confirmed this unsettling theory.
But extracting data from Thanos's genes?
Not so simple.
As a descendant of the Eternals, Thanos's DNA was far too complex, impossible to isolate or stabilize.
The best Rory could do… was compress it.
Like reducing a 10-megapixel image to 1 megapixel, same content, fuzzier details.
Rory didn't have a system cheat.
So he had to build his own.
In theory, compressing the genetic blueprint wouldn't change what it was, only how strong it was.
Maybe it'd give him one-tenth of Thanos's power. Maybe a millionth.
No one knew.
"Commencing Trial #3 of Gen-3 Blood Cultivation."
"Components: 1/2 saccharic acid, 1/5 aqueous protein and low-mass molecules, plus equal DNA recombination batch."
"Injecting into growth tank now…"
He watched the sample begin to culture, then sat down at his low-powered computer to run the next simulation.
If he had Tony Stark's tech, he could finish in seconds. But with his current gear? It'd take hours.
Meanwhile, the Avengers were just finishing Tony's funeral.
"Cap, what should we do with the Stones?" Sam Wilson, Falcon, asked gently.
With HQ destroyed and no new base established, Sam wanted to avoid future chaos by returning the Infinity Stones quickly.
Steve nodded. "Of course. They need to go back to their own timelines."
He paused.
"…Hey, has anyone seen Rory?"
"…Rory who?"
Aside from the handful who had interacted with him, the rest of the Avengers looked at each other in total confusion.
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter