Chapter 345: A-Force Assembles
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Spider-Man now had the Gauntlet in hand, surrounded by a dozen hulking, snarling alien brutes.
They circled him like starving wolves, eyes locked on the prize, closing in to tear it from his grip.
They lunged at him all at once, and within seconds he'd been buried at the bottom of a pile of alien muscle.
"I got it! I got it!"
"I can handle this!"
"Nope — nope, I can't handle this, somebody help me!"
"HELP!"
Steve spotted him almost immediately.
"Hey — Queens! Heads up!" With that, Steve hurled Mjolnir with everything he had, straight toward Spider-Man.
A flicker of pure delight crossed Peter's face at the sight of the hammer arcing toward him.
He adjusted his stance in midair, shooting a web that latched firmly onto the hammer's grip.
Riding Mjolnir's momentum, he tore free of the alien mob and broke clean out of the crowd.
From there, Spider-Man wove through the battlefield's gunfire with help from a relay of A-Force members — Valkyrie, then Pepper.
Unfortunately, Thanos's massive warship's laser batteries proved an obstacle they couldn't outrun.
Weaving through the sky, Spider-Man took a direct hit from one of the beams, sending him crashing to the ground like a kite with its string cut.
Even after being shot down, he never once forgot the mission.
He clutched the Gauntlet tight against his chest, pouring every last bit of strength into protecting it.
He knew this Gauntlet was the key to saving the entire universe — he couldn't let it fall into Thanos's hands.
He forced himself back up, still clutching the Gauntlet, and kept running toward the brown van.
But carrying the Gauntlet made him Thanos's number-one target — the warship locked onto his position, and every single laser battery aboard opened up on his location at once.
He'd barely made it a few steps before the barrage caught him again, blowing him off his feet. Even his nano-suit's headpiece was destroyed in the blast.
Before he could even catch his breath, the lasers found him a second time. The overwhelming firepower left him disoriented, too afraid to even move, smoke and dust swirling everywhere around him.
It wasn't just Spider-Man — Groot, Bucky, and others were caught in the same barrage and sent flying.
Ethan, standing right in the middle of it all, was no exception either — though he was, notably, far less rattled by it than the rest of them.
Standing at the epicenter of all this chaos, Ethan seemed almost untouched by it entirely.
He stood there like a mountain, unmoved no matter how violently the storm raged around him.
He looked up toward the massive warship overhead, a flicker of irritation crossing his face.
"God, this is getting old. Buzzing around like a fly." He muttered it under his breath, and then his body shot upward, rocketing skyward until he was level with the ship itself.
He drew a slow breath, extended his right hand, and closed his fist — just slightly.
In that instant, an unseen force seemed to ripple through the sky.
Then a colossal, spectral hand materialized out of nothing, blotting out the sun, seeming to swallow the entire sky beneath it.
The massive hand drifted slowly toward the warship, and under its crushing pressure, the vessel began to warp and buckle — like a soda can being slowly crushed in someone's fist.
As the ship deformed, the relentless laser barrage cut off all at once.
Across the battlefield, the Avengers — still scrambling for cover — froze in place, looking up at the sky in confusion.
"What in the world is going on?" Steve asked, brow furrowed, wariness thick in his voice.
He scanned the battlefield and realized the enemy's attacks had simply stopped — which unsettled him even more. Was this some new trick?
"Look up!" a voice suddenly cut through the confusion.
Everyone looked up to see the massive spectral hands slowly crushing the warship smaller and smaller, as if it might pop entirely at any second.
"My god — who is that?" someone gasped.
"It's the guy who's been dueling Thanos one-on-one!" someone else said, recognizing Ethan.
"Who even IS that guy? He's making the rest of us — who just came back to life five minutes ago — look completely useless," someone muttered.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa — is Ethan some kind of monster?" Tony stared up at the sky, thunderstruck.
Watching Ethan crush an entire warship the size of a small island with his bare hands left Tony genuinely shaken.
These people from other universes are insanely overpowered. Tony privately decided that if Ethan had ever turned out to be their enemy, they might as well have just surrendered on the spot.
He felt a fresh wave of gratitude that Ethan wasn't their enemy — and doubly grateful, all over again, that his own attempt to steal Ethan's Infinity Stones had never actually succeeded.
God only knew what might have happened if he'd actually pulled it off — there was a real chance Ethan would've crossed universes just to hunt him down for it.
And even after they'd resurrected everyone Thanos had erased, Tony had a sneaking suspicion he'd have ended up killed all over again — this time by Ethan personally.
Meanwhile, Thanos had no attention left to spare for his falling warship. All he wanted now was the Gauntlet.
"Kid. Hand it over." Thanos's voice came out cold and unyielding, his eyes fixed hungrily on Spider-Man, still sitting on the ground, Gauntlet clutched tight in both hands.
"No way!" Peter's voice shook, but his resolve didn't.
He knew exactly what would happen to the universe if this Gauntlet ever ended up in Thanos's grip.
"All by yourself? I don't have time for this." Thanos's brow furrowed with impatience, and he blurred forward in a streak of violet light, closing the distance to Spider-Man in an instant.
But just as Thanos's hand was about to close around him, a beam of golden light plunged down from the sky and sent Thanos flying with a brutal impact.
It was Captain Marvel, Carol, newly arrived — her whole body radiating gold, like a war goddess descending from the heavens.
"I've got this." Carol's voice rang out, steady and unshakable, as she planted herself between Thanos and Spider-Man, eyes burning with resolve.
"Don't worry." Wanda stepped up beside Peter, her voice soft but full of quiet strength.
"He's not alone." As Wanda's words settled, more and more women — heroes from every corner of the battlefield — began converging on the spot.
Black Panther's sister, Shuri!
The Wasp!
Pepper, suited up in armor!
Wakanda's general, Okoye!
Valkyrie!
Mantis!
Nebula!
Natasha!
And Gamora!
A-Force, assembled.
Time to team up!
They squared off against Thanos, gathered and ready for their first collective stand.
Thanos, though, barely spared them a glance. He looked up toward the sky instead, as if waiting for something.
A moment later, a figure descended slowly from above, settling in front of the assembled women — Ethan, having just finished off the warship.
"Hey, Thanos. Don't even think about running."
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