"How did you do it?" asked Gravik in horror as he saw the Avengers gathered in the room.
"Didn't I tell you? Self-fulfilling pr…"
"Shut up! I don't need to listen to your nonsense," he interrupted furiously.
"Such bad temper," replied Leonardo simply, descending slowly to the ground with Wanda's help.
Steve walked up to Tony. "I hope I didn't cause you too much trouble."
Tony smiled. "You? Trouble for me? No matter how many of you there were, I beat you easily. The only thing from you that could cause me trouble was made by my father, and they couldn't copy that."
Steve smiled and hugged him tightly. "If you can still talk like that, then you're fine."
Tony quickly pulled away and turned toward Rhodes.
Rhodes lifted his mask immediately. "Tony, are you okay? That was insane… One second I was at home, and the next, I was being kidnapped by green shapeshifting aliens. I'd seen videos about reptilians, but I never thought they were real."
"Alright, too much talking. I'm glad you're alive," Tony interrupted with his usual nonchalant attitude, though in truth he was genuinely relieved to see him.
Rhodes raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like I caused you trouble."
"Yeah. Banner's still locked up because of you," Tony replied.
Rhodes's eyes widened. "Wait, Bruce? Is he okay? What did that thing do with my face?"
"You know, betrayed the team, internal chaos, that sort of thing." Tony turned to Hawkeye as if remembering something. "Speaking of which, your impostor caused quite a bit of trouble too."
Clint frowned. "About that, actually…"
Tony interrupted again. "It's fine, let's not make a drama out of things the Skrulls did." He gave him a meaningful look. "Right?"
Clint stayed silent for a few seconds before laughing softly. "Right. No need for problems over things done by Skrulls."
Meanwhile, Pietro looked at Wanda with curiosity.
"When were you replaced?"
"During the attack on the Statue of Liberty," replied Wanda indifferently.
"So… you didn't say that thing about training?"
"Training?" asked Wanda, confused.
"Nothing, never mind," said Pietro before hugging her tightly and lifting her off the ground.
In another section, Sam approached Vision. "Looks like we're the only ones they didn't miss, huh?"
"While I agree that greeting our comrades would be pleasant, I believe we still have an enemy," replied Vision in his calm, almost monotone voice.
His words were confirmed a second later. Gravik, floating in the air, glared at Tony with fury. His eyes glowed red, and he fired a pair of laser beams.
The attack never reached Tony, because Steve stepped in front with his shield.
"Let's save the greetings for later," said Steve, standing at the front of the group. "I'm guessing that's the shapeshifters' leader?"
"Skrulls," corrected Tony, "and yes, he's the leader. He's got plenty of stolen powers… including ours."
As he spoke, Tony began firing at Gravik. Weapons deployed from his back, launching lasers, missiles, and various explosives.
But nothing hit. Not because Gravik had a shield, but because his body became intangible, letting every attack pass through harmlessly.
Knowing the trick, Wanda tried to use her magic, but Gravik spread his own chaos energy, surrounding himself completely and blocking her power.
"Chaos magic?" Wanda raised an eyebrow. "Quite inferior, I must say."
"Inferior or not, if I focus all my energy on defense, there's no way you can break through," Gravik said with arrogance.
Then he used his flight to close the distance quickly and struck Steve's shield, sending him several meters back.
"And without turning green," he added with a smile before charging at his next target: Clint.
But Clint had already fired. Gravik dodged the arrows without even looking, as if his body moved by instinct, avoiding danger.
"Spider-Sense," muttered Clint before firing several more in rapid succession. "Even if you can sense danger, you can't dodge the undodgeable."
However, Gravik proved otherwise. His body moved at superhuman speed, dodging every arrow. For several seconds, he was nothing but a green blur weaving between the shots.
"It's going to be a battle of endurance," murmured Clint before turning to avoid a blow that shook the floor.
Wanda manipulated the environment to trap Gravik inside a large sphere made of various metals, but he became intangible again and slipped out easily. Arrows followed him, but he dodged them effortlessly.
Just as Gravik moved, a metallic punch came from behind. He turned instinctively, caught the attack with one hand, and countered with another straight to Bucky's chest.
Bucky spat a bit of blood and was pushed back several meters, but immediately stood again and smiled. "Is that all? Looks like not turning green has its downsides."
Gravik didn't have time to answer. A rain of explosive feathers fell on him from above, and the brief distraction allowed Pietro's supersonic charge to connect. Both moved at extreme speeds, exchanging more than ten blows before Gravik managed to strike Pietro's earlier wound. The pain made him flinch instinctively, and Gravik took the opening, knocking him out.
Before he could relish his victory, two attacks came at once, one from the front and one from behind, but Gravik's Spider-Sense reacted instantly.
The impact of Iron Man's and War Machine's fists colliding echoed throughout the room. Because of the difference in technology, Rhodes was pushed back while Tony held his ground and aimed again, this time firing bullets made of some unknown material. Not because it was truly unknown, Tony simply hadn't had time to review every function of his suit, so the projectile type had actually been selected by JARVIS, who analyzed all options and chose the optimal attack.
Stark quickly discovered they were bullets made of a material capable of absorbing kinetic energy and sound, perfect against fast enemies...and just about any other kind.
They worked perfectly. The sonic wave Gravik used to move was absorbed by the bullets and released back as an explosion from every direction, making him scream in pain for a moment before turning intangible again.
"You can keep resisting, Gravik, but in the end you'll lose," said Tony firmly.
Gravik smirked with disdain. "I will never surrender to mere humans."
At that moment, a sharp sound, like glass shattering, filled the air. His chaos magic shield cracked, pierced by a crimson spear created by Wanda.
"If you focus all your energy, then I just have to do the same," she said calmly.
"Simply…"
"You'll do it again?" interrupted Wanda. More than a dozen spears floated around her. Even if Gravik formed another shield, it would be destroyed instantly.
But even knowing that, he had no choice. If he didn't defend, he would be defeated instantly by Wanda's magic. He tried to protect himself again, but his barrier shattered immediately under the Scarlet Witch's attacks.
The excessive concentration had distracted him. By focusing on maintaining his shield, he forgot about his intangibility. And in that moment of carelessness, the rest of the team struck.
Pietro hit him at top speed, launching him through the air. Bucky and Steve followed up with combined attacks, and before Gravik could recover, the trio of fliers unleashed a barrage of projectiles that pinned him to the ground.
Vision was the one who ended the fight, repeating the same move his impostor had used earlier against Pietro, phasing through Gravik's legs and leaving him immobilized. His body began to regenerate, but slowly, too slowly to continue fighting.
The group didn't waste time celebrating. The only one who spoke was Tony.
"Did you really think you could defeat the Avengers all by yourself?"
Gravik, lying on the ground, gave a faint smile. "Even if you kill me, it doesn't matter. The Skrulls are an empire… We're all over the Earth. You can't be everywhere."
Tony smiled too. "Maybe the Skrulls have their army, but Earth has one too."
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+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
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(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)