Hero Association Online Part 7
Ebony Maw watched Tony for a few seconds.
His expression only seemed to grow more unpleasant the longer he looked at Tony and Pietro standing in front of him, watching him with amusement.
"If it were not for the fact that we need to collect the Stones, this planet would have been destroyed without us ever needing to enter its atmosphere," he said while looking at the buildings around him. "Your attempts to defend them are futile."
"Looks to me like we're still giving you trouble anyway," Tony replied instantly.
Ebony Maw didn't respond to that.
He seemed completely fed up already.
He simply raised one hand and the entire street began to tremble.
The already destroyed cars lifted into the air, along with the surrounding debris left behind by their battle. Even traffic lights and underground cables were ripped out.
Chunks of concrete began tearing themselves from the buildings as if they were about to collapse on top of them.
Pietro stopped smiling for a moment when he saw that, looking upward in surprise.
"I think your words annoyed him quite a bit," he said.
"Yeah. I'm starting to reach that conclusion too," Tony replied while looking at the same thing Pietro was.
Thousands of objects began floating around Ebony Maw like a storm while he gently moved both hands through the air.
Until he stopped them.
And with that motion, every single floating object stopped as well.
Then Ebony pointed both hands toward Tony and Pietro.
And everything suspended by his power shot directly at them.
Tony activated his thrusters immediately.
And Pietro disappeared in a silver flash.
The street began to be torn apart as debris, cars, and everything else rained down like total destruction.
Even one or two buildings couldn't withstand it for long.
"Nicolás!" Tony shouted while dodging debris, zigzagging through the air while Pietro parkoured around at a speed faster than sound.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" came through the transmitter while, several kilometers away, the flying motorcycle turned through the air.
Nicolás had his eye pressed against the scope of his rifle, observing all the destruction the alien was causing.
And when the crosshairs settled over Ebony Maw's head, Nicolás adjusted a dial on his weapon, setting it to maximum.
Then, without much hesitation, he pulled the trigger.
An electrical crack shot from the rifle and a flash of light moved so fast it seemed to scorch the very oxygen around it.
It was a coin accelerated by electromagnetism to the point that it may have broken the sound barrier several times over.
It crossed several kilometers in barely a second.
Ebony Maw couldn't even hear the shot.
But thanks to his many years as a member of the Black Order, giving him that much experience, his instincts forced him to move his head to the side just in time.
The coin, capable of destroying everything in its path, ripped past him.
Instantly, a hole appeared, tearing away one of his ears and part of his shoulder.
"Arghhh!" Ebony Maw roared for a moment while the smell of his own burned flesh assaulted his nose.
Then he raised his hand, pointing toward the dozens of kilometers separating him from Nicolás.
But before he could even do anything, Pietro appeared behind him.
He had used the debris as stepping stones, jumping across it at incredible speed and reaching Ebony's altitude without being noticed.
And he kicked him in the back.
Or at least that's what it looked like, because his leg moved so fast it appeared as nothing more than a blur.
The impact sent Ebony Maw flying directly toward Tony.
Who was waiting for him with a mechanical fist that had transformed into a sort of hammer thanks to nanotechnology.
And with a thruster behind it to increase the impact, Tony punched Thanos's son directly in the face, sending him flying back into the sky.
But Ebony Maw instantly moved his hands, stopping his body in midair.
Then he thrust his palms toward Pietro, who was using the debris to jump toward him.
And all of it flew toward Pietro, trying to trap him inside a cocoon of stone.
But before it could capture him, a silver bullet shot through the air at high speed, striking him and saving him yet again.
"I'd like to politely ask you to stop doing that," Pietro said into the transmitter so Nicolás could hear him, since it was the second time Nicolás had hit him with that bullet from such a ridiculous distance, and it really hurt a lot more than he had expected.
"Sorry, didn't hear you. Did you say something?" Nicolás asked.
But Pietro didn't repeat himself because he hit the ground and vanished in a flash, getting away from that spot as Ebony Maw launched the stone sphere that had formed around him.
At the same time, Tony charged his laser weapons and fired at Ebony Maw without a second thought.
While all of this was happening, Peter was moving away from the battlefield, getting closer to where Nicolás was.
Though Nicolás was approaching, he was doing it slowly since he was providing support to Tony and Pietro.
"Maybe at this point we're finally out of danger," Peter said while swinging through the city with the unconscious doctor on his back.
But the moment he finished saying that—
His spider-sense exploded.
As if someone had activated an alarm inside his head.
An alarm far stronger than anything he had ever felt before.
And on reflex, he muttered:
"...oh no."
…
Hundreds of kilometers away.
At the X-Mansion.
Charles Xavier opened his eyes.
Jean Grey, who was guarding one of the Hero Association's bases, did too.
Emma Frost, at another base, slowly raised her head as well.
The three of them, and perhaps many other telepaths or people with psychic abilities, looked in exactly the same direction.
New York.
Where chaos was unfolding.
Because they had just felt something.
Even Wanda, who was fighting Proxima Midnight, couldn't help being distracted for a moment.
Because something, or rather someone else, had arrived.
...
Peter kept swinging.
His spider-sense was still completely out of control.
And then he saw her.
A female figure.
Floating calmly in the air.
Completely white eyes.
White clothing with a cape behind her and a hood that completely concealed her head.
Bluish skin.
And an outfit that fit her figure perfectly.
The worst part was that, even being from another species, she was incredibly beautiful.
She looked at Peter with a calm smile and eyes that made him feel a chill run down his spine for a moment.
The woman didn't even seem to pay him much attention.
Her gaze passed over him and stopped only on Strange.
Peter swallowed.
Even though the woman still hadn't spoken a single word, for some reason his spider-sense was screaming at him with everything it had to run.
"...Mr. Stark," Peter said, his voice sounding far less confident than usual. "We have another problem."
Ebony Maw stopped fighting for a moment and looked in the same direction where that figure had appeared.
And a smile spread wider across his face.
One that made both Tony and Pietro genuinely feel disgusted when they saw it.
"Now you're doomed," Ebony Maw said with that same smile.
Tony raised an eyebrow at that, wondering why this guy had suddenly become so confident.
Then Peter's voice came through the communicator.
"Would you hand me the wizard, dear?"
"Right away," Peter's voice answered instantly.
Tony's eyes widened.
He looked toward Peter and saw the young spider hero literally handing Strange over without the slightest hesitation.
"Kid, what are you doing?" Tony couldn't help asking, completely confused by what he was seeing.
But Peter didn't answer.
Or rather, he seemed not to have heard him.
His face was completely expressionless as he extended the unconscious Strange toward the strange woman.
Who smiled calmly.
As if this were the most normal thing in the world.
"Peter," Tony said again, this time in a much more serious tone.
And still Peter didn't respond.
Pietro, who had also seen the scene, widened his eyes.
"That doesn't look good."
"Thanks for the analysis," Tony replied.
Then the woman finally took Strange into her arms.
And for the first time, she spoke.
"What a kind child."
Her voice wasn't loud.
Nor threatening.
It was soft.
Soft enough to create a strange feeling.
As if every word wanted to remain inside the head of whoever heard it.