---

---

---

---

---

---

For a brief moment, Bonnie recalled that her best friend was British. This was probably the closest thing to a homecoming Cass had had since working with S.H.I.E.L.D. Despite being sworn to protect the planet, a majority of their problems ended up being in the United States - although there was the occasional jaunt to Eastern Europe every now and then. She followed Maria's gaze and winced slightly, taking its meaning before anyone had said a word. Sparky must have been infected. Oliver's carelessness had a body count. Matt confirmed her suspicions a moment later.

"Briefed? No. However as the Sorcerer Supreme of this dimension, I make it my business to keep a list of threats. The Black Order features chiefly. Unfortunately, I have yet to learn why they have elected to come terrorize Earth and the inhuman kingdom of Attilan," Strange answered curtly. He was keeping one eye on those he knew to be inflicted with M-Pox, Cass and Sparky. He was a magician, but he was also a doctor and he took his duties per the hippocratic oath seriously. He listened with interest as Tempest was spouting off facts about babies born on a particular night and then Tinley proposed a plan that revolved around capturing someone named Thane.

"That sounds like a great plan - but would someone mind appraising me as to who Thane is?" Strange asked.

Unfortunately, his voice was drowned out with what happened next - Flynn. Raynor found Flynn's outburst to be a little bit funny. It was largely because Flynn singled him out as coming up with a plan first - though he guessed he hadn't exactly told Flynn about his past, about the group he used to lead. He hadn't told anyone about that, not even Sparky. The Asgardian tried to keep a straight face, biting down on the inside of his cheek so that way he couldn't laugh. He had seen Flynn lose his mind so many times - especially in the erased Age of Ultron timeline - that it wasn't even shocking to him anymore. It was just comical.

Although, he did have to agree that Tinley's first plan was rash - it wasn't much of a plan at all. Her new one was better, since it gave two well divided teams and split their tasks into goals that each team could achieve. He didn't know how exactly they were going to find Thane, since Tempest and Oliver apparently hadn't managed to find a surname or an address or anything like that, but they did have a wizard in that group. Right. Strange still didn't know what was going on. "Thanos got a prophecy that his kid, Thane, is going to kill him," he explained to Strange, wishing he had popcorn. It was the most relaxed he had felt since the entire M-Pox thing started. Flynn's outburst was helping to distract him from imagining Sparky dead.

"Ah," Strange said, before motioning between Flynn and Tinley. "Is this ordinary?"

Bonnie hadn't heard Flynn's earlier comment. She had come in right before Tinley snapped at him and swore. Was she surprised to see Flynn snap at her as well, using his own curses? Not at all. Did she feel good seeing this go down? Also, not at all. It made her feel disgusted and gross, torn between her boyfriend and one of her closest friends. Neither of them was in the right here from what she could tell. They also just didn't have the time to deal with an argument breaking out. Infighting was what superhero teams did - they were S.H.I.E.L.D., they had to be better. "You both hate each other, we get it," Bonnie said bluntly, pinching her nose a bit. "Let's move on and get to work while there's still a planet to save."

The air around them rapidly began to hum, vibrating as if each constituent molecule was primed to explode. The light turned harsh, forcing Bonnie to shield her eyes and look away. Raynor stared straight on - his father was the God of Light, allowing him to bear witness as five aliens appeared.

"Greetings, Terrans," Ebony Maw, a rather Squidward Tentacles looking sort of alien said. "Rejoice, for in death you shall be saved as children of Thanos."

Four others stood by his side - Supergiant, Black Dwarf, Corvus Glaive, and Proxima Midnight.

---

---

---

---

Cassandra looked towards Sparky and gave her a slight smile, she was still feeling like complete crap but she was well enough to continue with the fight. Though the news that Sparky ended up contracting the same disease that she currently has was bad news, though she seemed to be taking it well. She nodded towards Tinley when she started to give out everyone's mission assignments which was a good plan, though she wasn't sure what actually happened while she was away and getting treated by Dr. Strange. Then Flynn suddenly snapped, feeling a little bit awkward, looking between Tinley and Flynn. She considered both of them friends to her in her opinion as well, though Cass wasn't sure why Flynn suddenly snapped.

"Yeah, kind of happens a lot." Cassandra whispered to Strange, they were a team after all and they needed to work together otherwise the whole team would end up falling apart. She was pretty sure that some people would end up getting reassigned after all of this was said and done as well. When she started to feel the ground and air around her vibrate and then a blinding light surrounded them, when it eventually stopped Cassandra stared at the five individuals that were there. One of them looking a lot like an ugly less cartoony version of Squidward from SpongeBob.

When the one who looked like Squidward spoke up, she was pretty sure that he was the Black Order's leader she looked at the five of them, she had no clue what powers they all had or what they were all capable of doing. "Yeah sorry not dying by your guys hands." Cass said as she looked at the largest one there Black Dwarf. "The big guy looks like he's the largest threat." She said to everyone, and looked over toward Strange, they needed to find Thane right away. "Can you open a portal somewhere else within the city?" She asked, Cass trusted that the distraction team could handle them for the time being. "And if any of you guys found the last name that would be really good to."

---

---

---

---

When Maria felt the ground and the air around them all started to shake and then the blinding light, Maria shielded her eyes and turned away from the source of it. When that all stopped Maria lowered her hand to see the five people who were there before them, and then one of them spoke up. "You know you really look like Squidward's really ugly cousin you know that right?" Maria said, as she took out her bow looking at Cass and nodded before pressing the button on her suit which activated its stealth function. And ran off to try and get a good vantage point, though she was mentally hitting herself when you could hear yourself moving then the enemy would obviously be able to hear her running.

Maria found a good spot and took out some explosive arrows, firing all five of them, however the volley missed her intended target groaning again to herself. Maria pulled out another five of them and shot off again, and one of them managed to hit Black Dwarf in the eye and smirked to herself when the explosion went off. She hoped that it actually did take him down, but when the smoke cleared the only thing it did was really mess up his eye. "Hey ugly ass rock troll over here!" Maria yelled, hopefully he would just target her and draw him away from the others, and buy the team finding Thane some time as well.

---

---

---

---

Again with the arguing. This group of people could barely stand each other. They were supposed to be a team. He could understand Flynn's frustrations though. Tinley's first plan did suck. At least once she had more information she was able to do more than come up with a wing-it plan. Matt could understand where both of them were coming from. But also as one of the newest members of the team it didn't feel right to be trying to keep them from yelling at each other. At least they hadn't gone to blows, that seemed to be a Raynor special.

Then a distraction showed up via a bright light. Matt winced, closing his eyes until it was safe to look again. There were five really nasty looking guys standing before them now. They declared themselves part of Thanos' army. That made things easy. Matt agreed with Cass's assessment about who looked the most like a threat. He drew his handgun and shooting him. The bullet bounced off of the guy.

Matt winced. That was a terrifying prospect. He lined up his shot of the guy's eye as Maria had. The bullet penetrated and destroyed the guy's other eye. Blood was pouring out. Matt tried to aim another shot for the same eye but it went wide.

Shielding his eyes from the bright light, Oliver had a gut feeling that, whatever was about to happen, was bad. His fears were confirmed, as the squid looking alien introduced itself and invoked Thanos's name. Knowing that these people were bad news, he came up with a rough plan of what to do: attack, and retreat back. He figured he was fast, and even though he wasn't skilled in combat, the creature didn't look that strong, especially compared to the hulkish creature standing beside him. Thinking he might be able to cut the head off the the proverbial snake, Oli backed up, and then charged him down.

Closing the distance between the two of them, Oli thought for sure he'd be able to land a solid hit, but he stopped dead as this thing caught him, and with strength that surprised Oliver, tossed him through the air like a ragdoll. A look of pure fear crossed his face as he realized, there was nothing he could do to stop this. Bracing for impact as best he could, his eyes went wide as he smacked into it, feeling at least three of his ribs break at the same time. A howl briefly escaped his lips, before dying off, as his body fell limp on the ground, unconscious.

---

---

---

---

---

Tempest almost rolled her eyes at the request. Really, if a hacker worth their salt couldn't find a person with as little information as a first name, they didn't have the skills. She got back on her computer and inputted the data again. "Thane di Angelo is his full name. Now let's find him." With a quick set of swipes and button presses, she had found the information. "Turns out our boy is currently in a category B men's prison, HM Cardiff. Gonna be difficult breaking him out of there given the clearance, but not impossible."

Tinley fought the urge to retaliate. She had to be better than him. After all, she had specifically stated that the discussion would be tabled until they sorted out everything here. Hell, she didn't even yell at him. And he decided to go off on her. She'd deal with him later, for now, they had a name and location. Before she could issue further commands, a voice sounded. She spun to see the full might of the Black Order in front of them.

Well shit.

Plans change, of course. Everyone immediately took to battle stations. Cass called out the big guy as the most dangerous and given how he manhandled Oliver that made sense, so Tinley set her sights on him first. She summoned her force fields and attempted to surge him forward. However, she miscalculated and, instead, sent him flying backwards into the wall of the castle. Well, beggars couldn't be choosers at this point.

Tempest ran forward to Oliver and started healing him. He was bloody and his ribs would be bruised, but he was no longer worse for wear. "There you go, good as new," she joked.

Tinley then targeted the squid-guy. She took out her batons, sending them forward, crashing into his skull. Once she heard the impact, she pushed the button on her bracelet and shocked him too, seeing him flail around brought some amount of pride to her. The others could handle themselves, they needed to continue taking them down if they had any hopes of finding and securing Thane.

---

---

---

---

---

---

Raynor's blood ran cold. He recognized the Black Order instantly. The line up was a little different than the one from his universe, yet they had razed and destroyed countless of planets in dozens of systems. Their reputation proceeded themselves and he did not doubt for one moment that they would be just as formidable in this universe. "Go to Helheim." His cousin was supposedly dead in this dimension, though he didn't buy it. Hel was like her father, Loki - a survivor.

Strange produced his sling ring, opening a portal in front of him to HM Prison in Cardiff. He stumbled, barely able to concentrate as Supergiant put him under a psychic assault. The Sorcerer Supreme groaned, hardly capable of resisting the commands to surrender. "Go," he grunted to the others painfully. "I don't know how much longer I can hold this." A strange sort of light was draining from Strange's mind and going into Supergiant, resembling how a dementor would feed in the Harry Potter films.

"Stop resisting," Supergiant prompted. Her eyes then flashed dangerously. "Activate the bombs."

Blood was trickling from Strange's nose and eyes. Bonnie jumped through the portal, knowing that she had been assigned to go after Thane and secure him. She knew how to fight, yet she didn't have any powers. There wasn't much she could do against the Black Order with just knives. She didn't need to know their powers and abilities in order to realize that, especially after one of them backhanded Oliver and flung him across the room like he was nothing.

Black Dwarf had taken the most hits so far of the Black Order, blood oozing from both of his eyes. He was completely blind now, yet that made him no less formidable an opponent. He heard Maria call out her taunts and he rushed in her direction, each of his steps leaving a small crater in the ground in the shape of his foot. He swung his double bladed battle axe - a weapon easily bigger than Maria herself - and missed, the blades going right over Maria's head. "Come out and fight, little girl!!!" Black Dwarf sneered.

Ebony Maw was writhing on the ground, yet managed to use his telekinesis to fling the batons off of him, allowing his impromptu shock therapy to cease. A master tactician, he had heard Tempest exclaim about Thane di Angelo and his location. Thane. His master's son. The one prophesied to kill Thanos. He was here on Terra - and it didn't take much for him to guess he would be on the other end of the portal the wizard produced. "Thanos thanks you for your service," he taunted Tempest, before diving through the portal. Raynor tried to blast him with light to stop him, but his strike missed.

Corvus Glaive smiled wickedly. The glaive he used, for which he was named, looked like it was crafted out of both gold and bone. Anyone who looked at it would come to the startling realization that it was most likely forged from the bones of someone he had defeated, someone he had murdered in brutal combat. The air around Corvus Glaive seemed to vibrate for a moment, before in a flash he dashed into the portal, following Ebony Maw and Bonnie. Like Luminous, he was graced with the gift of superspeed.

Proxima Midnight flicked her staff. It had been crafted by Thanos, created from a star that had been trapped in a quantum singularity. She stared at Raynor, judging the Asgardian to be the only worthy opponent for her there. Supergiant had the wizard battling his own mind and Black Dwarf, while blinded, was drawing most of the attention of the feeble Terrans.

"One on one?" Raynor scoffed, drawing Lyting. His grandmother, the Queen of Witches, had gifted him the dagger. It always returned to his hand.

"Such a puny weapon for a god," Proxima scoffed. She dashed forward faster than the eye could see, another speedster amongst the Black Order, and struck with her spear. Raynor blasted upwards with light, forming a makeshift shield that managed to stay her blade. He forced her spear back and Raynor stabbed at her with Lyting, yet Proxima was too quick for him. She dodged. He blasted with light again, only for Proxima Midnight to appear behind him with ease, her spear at his throat. "Do not feel sorrow, Asgardian. Your mistake was choosing such feeble allies."

Proxima Midnight thrusted her spear through Raynor's neck.

The Asgardian gasped for air, choking on his own blood. He stabbed Proxima Midnight in the gut with Lyting, before falling to the ground, struggling to hold onto life.

---

---

---

Bonnie emerged on the other side of Strange's portal. She was in the parking lot outside of an impressive prison complex. Tall fences surrounded all of the stone buildings. There were so many windows that for a brief moment, it reminded her of a residence hall at a university for undergraduates. That illusion was ruined though by the armed guards that patrolled the area and the watchtower, as well as the many signs in the parking lot reminding visitors of the rules for a Category B prison.

She spun around, hearing two others charge through the portal - Ebony Maw and Corvus Glaive. None of her teammates had come through yet. It was just her, standing between two homicidal aliens and a (innocent?) criminal named Thane, locked up somewhere in the prison behind them. She only had four knives on her, all of them designed for throwing. Her odds in this fight were not good.

But she hadn't joined S.H.I.E.L.D. expecting life to be easy.

"Stand down," Bonnie warned. She twirled two of her throwing knives, the other two still secured to the exterior of her suit.

Ebony Maw laughed. Corvus Glaive followed his lead. The two of them advanced, seeing no threat from a small, weak little Terran. "I beg your pardon, girl?" Ebony Maw asked.

"Stand down and I'll let you live," Bonnie told them. Her voice was steel. She should have been terrified out of her mind, yet she had never felt calmer. If this was how her life ended, so be it. She wasn't going to be scared. A flickering grey aura had gathered around her, unnoticed by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

"If you wish to die in the name of Thanos so dearly, then who are we to refuse your wish?" Ebony Maw asked, before nodding at Corvus. "Attend to her. I shall find Thane."

She threw a blade at Ebony Maw, aiming for his head, yet he deflected it telekinetically and the knife clattered to the ground, useless. She dashed towards Maw, doing a cartwheel and was about to kick him in the head, when she was seized from behind. Corvus Glaive had grabbed her and lifted her up into the air, his hand curled around her neck. "Goodbye, girl," he sneered, before snapping her neck.

Or at least, he tried to.

The grey aura became stronger, somehow preventing Corvus Glaive from killing Bonnie. An image flashed in her mind briefly. An olive tree with an owl sitting on the top branch, followed by a haunting voice: "I have chosen."

"Why won't you die?!" Corvus screamed.

Filled with strength she didn't know she had, Bonnie thrusted her hips up, wrapping her legs around Corvus Glaive's head. She stabbed him in the eye with her blade and he screamed in pain.

Ebony Maw just turned his head, looking at the two. "Curious..."

---

---

---

---

Matt was stunned as the fight increased. Thanos' people were terrifying. He was had to be honest with himself there. As Oliver was tossed like, Matt didn't even have a good simile for whatever it was that Oliver was like. His mind was too busy trying to assess what needed to be done. He and the group heading for Thane needed to get through the portal and Strange was in danger. The best option Matt could think of was paralyzing the woman hurting him.

Dashing to her Matt reached out and touched her, as he tried to send the energy within him that paralyzed people he struggled. He didn't use this power often. He preferred his guns. She took advantage of his slowness and reached out there was a loud crack. He screamed. This was not going well. Matt then bit down on the pain. Having a broken limb would make a lot of what he did nearly impossible.

He took a few breaths trying to keep the pain under control. They were in deep. He moved for the opening Strange was holding. At least one of them had to be on the other side. Though he doubted he could take the guy who had tossed Oliver around so easily. He shot at the Squidward looking, guy. His bullet nailed the guy in the neck, and blood started spurting out everywhere. Matt held back some vomit, from the pain. There was no way that guy could survive that shot. Matt had hit him in the carotid. He should be dead in moments. Matt made his way through the portal. This was where Thane was and only Strange could open portals.

---

---

---

---

---

Flynn was still wanting to essentially ignore Tinley's existence, and ignore any sort of orders that she's been giving. Also, considering the fact that the Black Order decided to show up and cause problems, throwing any plans out the window. That's typically how things went for the team now that he thought about it. A plan would be made, and then quite literally everything would end up going to literal hell most of the time. This sort of thing tends to happen way too often for comfort. Of course, he wasn't going to just stand idlely by as Tempest essentially said out loud what was going on and where the portal likely led to, which ended up having a few of the members going after Bonnie who went through the portal!

He ignored Raynor who was on the ground right now, and more or less did a hurdle over him as he ran through the portal after the others, just barely making it through. Flynn was lighting up with fire as he ended up going through the portal. The instant he saw what was going on with Bonnie, he was beyond confused, but he also wasn't entirely stupid. If he attacked Corvus he would risk hurting Bonnie, so he decided to flame Maw instead, and sent a blast of fire that Maw barely deflected with his telekinesis. Then he sent another flame, just barely sending it over the guy's head, before he ended up slamming a column of fire into him as he set the man on fire. "Bonnie are you okay?" he called out to her.

---

---

---

---

---

Sparky wasn't too sure what to really think about what was happening around her. The Black Order showed up, and now were wrecking havoc around the entire place, attacking people and fighting left and right. Everything was just chaos, and then she glanced over at Raynor, trying to see about checking to see what he was doing. That's when she saw him starting to fight Proxima Midnight and her blood ran cold as she saw Raynor get stabbed through the neck with Maxima's spear. Something in her somewhat snapped as she started to see red. "Stay the hell away from him!" she snapped, before she sent a bolt of lightning at Proxima before the woman seemingly dodged it.

"Damn it..." she muttered, before sending another bolt of lightning at her, but this time she noticed her seemingly absorbing the bolt like a lightning rod with her spear. So the next time she tried a different tactic, and tried to avoid the spear tip entirely, but the attack didn't do too much damage, and now she was beyond pissed. "Alright, that is IT!" she snapped as she took off into the air, a storm cloud of sorts seemingly appeared as if out of nowhere, and lightning struck her arms as she seemingly was charging up a major blast.

---

---

---

---

Cassandra was starting to feel better now, as she watched everyone starting to scramble to fight, Maria handling the biggest out of the lot of them, Raynor and Proxima both going toe to toe with each other as well. Until she watched Proxima stabbing Raynor with her spear, watching him falling to the ground. "Tend to him Tempest!" Cassandra yelled towards her, as she watched her best friend Bonnie, running through the portal Strange had made. Along with two members of the Black Order Ebony Maw and Corvus Glaive running through, she was about to run through the portal as well until she was whacked across the head really hard.

She could feel her ears ringing, and her vision spinning a little bit from the hit, groaning loudly in pain as she slowly got back up to her feet again, cracking her neck a little bit. Seeing that it was Proxima who had prevented her from trying to escape and run through the portal. She saw both Flynn and Matt running through the portal to help with Bonnie, glad that her best friend had the backup that she needed now. Seeing the spear being the biggest threat Cass quickly ran forward landing a good punch and yanked the spear out of Proxima's arms and threw it away from the two of them. "Alright then you and me, one on one."

---

---

---

---

Maria could feel the ground shaking as Black Dwarf started to run towards her seeing the massive foot prints that he left in his wake, he was a whole lot bigger than she was, as well as his massive axe. She quickly rolled out of the way from Black Dwarf's axe as it nearly had hit her. Maria remained as quiet as she could, as she took out the only distraction arrow that she had given to her back on Christmas she hadn't used it before but hoped that it would come in handy. Maria drew the arrow back and watched it go flying, landing in the ground a couple of feet away from them as Spidey Bells played loudly.

Black Dwarf seemed to be confused about it, and ran off in the opposite direction where the arrow had landed, Maria quickly ran forward taking out two explosive arrows she was going to try and stab them into his eyes. She managed to get onto his back, but Black Dwarf quickly shook her off of him, and quickly rolled onto the ground landing gracefully onto the ground. "You know you are really slow and stupid to fall for that right?" Maria said taunting him some more and tried to catch back up with the others.

Fading back into consciousness, he looked up at Tempest, and shot a smile to her, "Thanks," he coughed. He'd never been knocked out like that before, and now, with his body aching, and blood staining his clothes, he stood up, "Guess I'm really one of the team now, got knock around by a squid faced alien and everything." Immediately, he started scanning around for something he could wield to be useful in this encounter, and he quickly saw Raynor's blade, but decided that ripping a knife out of a dying man's hand would be a bad move for him, both tactically and as a matter of basic human decency. Instead, he saw something that would be a much more effective choice.

Giving another thankful nod to Tempest, he said, "I'm gonna try to save Strange, let's hope I don't end up being slammed into a wall again." And with that, he sped over to the spear, and grabbed at it, doubling over for a moment. This thing gave off some crazy kinda energy, and it was giving him the headrush of his life. Shaking his head, he continued forward, intending to disrupt Supergiant's concentration enough to free Strange. He still didn't know if he was a Skrull or not, but for the time being, he seemed to be on their side, and with the power these enemies had, he didn't care. As he approached Supergiant though, he blinked, and saw he was dead off from where she was supposed to be. Gritting his teeth, he started to run back at her, but then froze.

To Oliver, he immediately found himself submerged in water, nothing but the horizon and endless amounts of water surrounding him. Bobbing up and down in the water, he started panicking, not being able to swim, or even tread water. Freaking out, his body lashed around, trying desperately to understand what was going on, while keeping himself from drowning. None of this made sense, he had no idea what was going on, and now he was going to die. After a moment though, he figured it out, this was all so real, so much that, there was no real way to differentiate it from reality, but he knew that this creature he was fighting, was able to attack the mind, given what was happening to Strange earlier. With that, he was certain that, whatever was happening to him, it was all in his head.

---

---

---

---

---

Tempest smiled at Oli, seeing him joke around made her feel better despite the circumstances slowly going to hell. She flipped off the one guy who chided her before hopping into the portal Strange made. And soon, she was called t action again as Raynor had a spear driven through his throat, unleashing Sparky. Tempest stood and ran over to check on Raynor. He was alive still but was slowly going. She began to heal him, focusing all her energy on his body. Soon, she noticed the wounds begin to close. Before she could continue though, her eyes noticed something else. As the wound closed, Raynor's skin changed.

It began to turn green.

The wound reopened and Tempest knelt there, stunned. If that was the case then Raynor was....

Tinley wasn't surprised to see Flynn go in after Bonnie through the portal. Hell, she would have been concerned if he hadn't. Still, the plan was going to shit which just figured. Still, she needed to be there to take on Thane, but Raynor also needed help. Tinley saw Tempest run over to heal. Tinley made her way over to the portal, but Tempest shot up quickly.

"Raynor's a Skrull!"

Tinley shot back quickly. "He's what?!?" She had to be joking, but Tempest looked serious. Tinley glanced at Raynor (or was he?) and she kicked herself. "Shit! Screw it then. Focus on ensuring everyone else is healed, I'm going after the others. Strange, either come in after or close it once I'm through, we don't need anyone else following us. Everyone else, either come with or hold these guys back." And she hopped through the portal. Tempest looked back at Raynor and then backed away towards Oliver again.

---

Once through the portal, Tinley checked the surroundings. Bonnie looked a bit shaken, but Flynn was with her. A burning body was nearby with Matt seemingly taking care of it. "I missed the party then, it seems. Raynor turned out to be a Skrull. Got injured and Tempest healed him only to find that out. The mission doesn't change though, we go find Thane before the Order does."

---

---

---

---

---

Cardiff Castle...

Proxima Midnight laughed in Cass' face. She had already killed one of their team today - an Asgardian who appeared to have really been a skrull in the end. That explained why he was so weak and ineffective. His dagger had hardly even wounded her. "Because challenging me one on one worked out so well for the last," Proxima taunted. She didn't have her spear, as Cass had knocked it from her hands, and she was no less threatening for it.

Black Dwarf let out a roar of rage, hearing Maria's taunts. They thankfully provided a means for him to find her, though. He ran after her, managing not to trip over his own two feet despite being blinded. This time, when he swung his mighty axe, he hit Maria in the back. The force was so much that she went flying across the battlefield, colliding with the crumbling stone of Cardiff Castle - much like Oliver had earlier. A blow like that would have killed a normal human, yet Maria's regenerative healing factor was already piecing back together her shattered bones. She'd be back up on her feet soon enough.

Supergiant's focus was split, giving Strange the opportunity he needed to slam the portal shut. The Master of the Mystic Arts then tried to open up a sling ring portal beneath Supergiant's feet that would drop her into a volcano, only to find all of his limbs stiffen. Supergiant had sensed that Oliver was fighting back against her and she judged Strange to be the more powerful foe. Strange's eyes then turned a shade of white as Supergiant controlled his mind like a puppet.

"Mephisto! Back, demon!" Strange shouted, before throwing discs of magical energy at Tempest. They narrowly missed, whizzing over her head.

---

---

---

Strange's portal closed behind Tinley, leaving the team separated, cut into two portions. This wasn't how the plan was supposed to go. Matt, Tinley, Flynn, and Bonnie were the only ones in position to go and find Thane. They didn't have a hacker on them. They wouldn't be able to seamlessly access records if they needed to. It would be all down to luck and intuition. Ebony Maw's form shimmered and he vanished. Maybe he teleported to safety - but would he be able to live more than a few seconds wherever he appeared, thanks to his injuries?

Unfortunately, the party was far from over - Corvus Glaive was still there. "For a bunch of terrans, you're not half bad," he chuckled, blood dripping down the side of his face. Bonnie's knife was still in his eye. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agent was warily moving backwards, her other two blades drawn. She didn't dare make a sudden movement, not even to acknowledge the others and tell them she was okay. "Bring Thane to the Stonehenge by midnight and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so and the full strength of the Black Order will hunt you like dogs and raze your cities."

"No," Bonnie told him firmly. "Thane is under our protection."

His face curled into a sinister smile. Corvus Glaive moved like a blur, zipping over to one of the parked vehicles. With ease, like he was lifting a small kitten, he picked up the vehicle and threw it at the agents. It hit the ground in front of the agents, pieces of metal and bits of the truck flying like shrapnel. Matt was the lucky one - he was completely unscathed. Bonnie fell to the ground, hunks of metal embedded into her armor. Tinley and Flynn were pinned together underneath what had been the truck bed - Tinley's left leg was broken, whereas Flynn's right kneecap was shattered.

"Some protection," Corvus Glaive sneered. "You should have taken my offer." He then walked calmly into the prison, his glaive at his side. Even with one eye taken out, his depth perception wasn't that skewed - he must have had enhanced senses of some sort.

Bonnie winced, feeling underneath her shirt after removing the outer layer of armor. Several hunks of the metal had pierced her flesh, going through the armor. She took her backpack of sorts off, reaching inside carefully. She assessed the damage as best as she could. The armor had stopped it from being fatal. She wrapped her wound in gauze and tapped it as best as she was able to. It would have to be enough for now. Bonnie then carefully slid the outer layer of armor back on, trying not to disturb the bandages. "Tin? Flynn? Matt?" Bonnie asked, stumbling a bit as she looked for the others amidst the wreckage.

---

---

---

---

"I'm okay. You were badass Bonnie." Matt assessed the situation. The portal was closed. They had about half the team here. The Squidward guy had disappeared, Matt wasn't certain he had killed him. Though Flynn had helped by fricasseeing the guy. He looked at the truck that the Black order guy had thrown at them. And frowned. He didn't have a lot of time. He had a choice. Fight the guy heading into the prison, or help his friends. There was a certain irony that it was Flynn and Tinley trapped together under the truck. "Shout if you need me." Matt decided, he wasn't even certain he could help lift the truck with his wrist broken.

He took a few steps to get a clear shot of the Black order guy and hit square in the back. The bullet went cleanly through but the guy looked like he didn't even care. Matt cursed under his breath. Took another shot, this missed. But apparently the guy was pissed. He picked up a rock and threw it at Matt. Hitting him directly in the crotch. Matt went to his knees.

He hissed in some air trying to breathe past the pain. Good thing he hadn't recently transitioned. That could messed up the surgery...actually Matt wondered if it did anyway. He felt like puking. And remembered boys back in high school tapping each other and thinking they were overreacting.

---

---

---

---

---

Flynn wasn't all too sure what exactly was going on, but he wasn't at all surprised that Tinley had gone through the portal as well, though she was the last person that he wanted to be around. Of course, she didn't seem to attack anyone. Yeah, they had Ebony Maw taken care of and all, but the other guy, seriously? How the hell do you miss the other person who is clearly there! Well, it didn't really matter, as Corvus Glaive was still around and threw a freaking truck at them!

In all honesty he blamed Tinley for not even trying to do anything.

He felt a pain shoot through his leg as he found himself pinned underneath the truck bed, with his knee hurting horribly, and of course the day got worse by Tinley being stuck by him. "Not really sure how this could possibly be worse," he commented, before he started shifting the truck bed, it took him a few moments, but he finally was able to shift the truck with enough strength to allow both himself and Tinley to get out from under it. Afterwards, he dropped the truck back down and actually looked at his knee which looked to be torn up quite a bit. Just great. He heard Matt's words and assumed he was heading after Glaive, and he heard Bonnie as he started limping towards the direction of her voice. "Over here Bonnie!" he called out to her.

---

---

---

---

---

She wasn't even paying attention to the world around her anymore as a huge bolt of lightning came from her hands and slammed into Proxima with a loud crack. When the smoke cleared there was a small crater that Proxima crawled out of, before she spit blood on the ground, "Ah, a contender." Sparky wasn't sure if she should take that as a compliment or something, since typically she wasn't seen as a potential threat to anyone. It was a bit of a strange feeling, but her attention was quickly drawn away by what Tempest yelled out, and she froze.

Raynor? Was a Skrull? No, that just wasn't possible! She knew for a fact that he was Asgardian. If that wasn't him, then where the hell is he!!!!!

Her mind was racing by quickly, but she couldn't pay much attention to those words, instead she chose to use the emotions that were just waiting to burst to the surface as fuel for her attacks. Her first attack was another large bolt of lightning, but Proxima easily dodged it, and Sparky was just getting annoyed at this point. Her last attack managed to hit Proxima, making her hair stand up on end almost. "How about you shut up and just fucking stay down already!" Sparky snapped at her, but it was obvious that Tempest's words regarding Raynor bothered her. She was typically quiet, this was the most outspoken she'd ever really been even since joining SHIELD.

---

---

---

---

Cassandra looked directly at Tempest saying that Raynor was actually a skrull this entire time was really off-putting to her, which made her wonder who all on the team was actually a skrull which was the second time that they had infiltrated the team. She gave Proxima Midnight a glare, as the woman laughed at her face which made her angry now. Before hearing a large clash of lightening coming down at Proxima, looking up at Sparky who had done that and seeing the small crater that was made from it. Reminding her to not piss Sparky off, but Proxima managed to slowly crawl out of it.

Casandra eyed Raynor's knife wondering if it was actually his or just a replica made by the skrull or not, but she quickly ran towards it and quickly picked it up. She charged forward once it was in her hand stabbing Proxima in the boob, looking up at her for a moment before pulling it back out holding the knife tightly in her hand.

---

---

---

---

Maria managed to get a few feet away from Black Dwarf, before feeling a massive hit her across the back feeling a lot of pain shooting up through her entire body, letting out a loud scream as she was flung across the field and her body slamming into the crumbling walls of Cardiff Castle. Landing in a crumbled up heap, feeling like every bone in her body was shattered or broken but then they started to slowly mend themselves back together. Maria looked at her arm seeing it at an odd angle, she let out a cry in pain as she set it back into place then the pain started to go away.

Maria took a moment to inspect her suit, which was still intact letting out a sigh of relief as she turned to look at Black Dwarf there, and quickly drew out her bow and arrow again firing off ten arrows in rapid succession. Three of them missed their target but the remaining seven managed to land directly into Black Dwarf's face. Hearing the hulking alien howl in pain before landing on the ground with a thud, she wasn't sure if he was dead or not, and quickly went behind cover.

Drowning was not the way Oli was going to go, he wouldn't allow it. There was a deep, primal fear to him, at the idea of dying this way, water being forced into his lungs, choking him and exhausting his body until he had to give up. There were few worse ways to die, in his eyes, and he wouldn't let it be how he came to pass. Centering himself, Oliver let his head be subsumed by the water, holding his breath, and concentrating. This wasn't real, and he wasn't going to let this genocidal monster convince him that it was. Kicking his feet upwards, his face broke the surface of the water, and as he opened his eyes, the world cracked, revealing Cardiff to him once more.

Seething with a kind of rage he wasn't used to, he charged Supergiant, brandishing the spear and thrusting it towards the villain. Missing by a hair, he found himself side by side with her. Thinking quickly, he flipped the spear around, and thrust it backwards, sinking the tip into her gut, before ripping it back out, and speeding off. That would, hopefully, free Strange of her control, and give him the chance to turn the tide of this fight. "Somebody get rid of her before she gets in one of our heads again." He almost snarled. He wasn't used to this kind of adrenaline pumping through his body, and it showed. He was breathing heavy, and his eyes were filled with bloodlust. This woman scared him, and he wanted her to never have the chance to do that again.

---

---

---

---

---

Cardiff Castle...

The battle had turned in the Secret Warrior's favor. Black Dwarf had been beaten within an inch of his life by Maria, taking out the large berserker. Oliver had Proxima Midnight's spear and had stabbed Supergiant in the gut, breaking her control on Doctor Strange. The telepath was formidable, yet she was built like a glass cannon. She crumbled to the ground, blue blood oozing from her wound. As Corvus Glaive and Ebony Maw had gone through the portal, that left just one warrior of the Black Order standing at Cardiff Castle - Proxima Midnight.

Yet even she had sustained significant damage. Her hair was sticking up on end. Blood dripped from her boob, thanks to Cass' work with the dagger. She was capable of withstanding planetary reentry, though even that didn't mean she was unscathed from Sparky's lightning bolts.

Strange blinked, clearing his head. "I... Uh.... Thanks," he grumbled, clearly not accustomed to being saved by others. He cleared his throat. "Woman, your companions have been bested. Your only options are to flee or surrender. To surrender will place you in the justice system of this world. To flee would mean that we will hunt you down, not resting until you are brought to justice. Fighting will do nothing to delay the inevitable."

The warrior was about to rebuke Strange, when a shimmering form appeared in front of all of them. It was a hologram of sorts, depicting a man with dark purple skin, covered in scars. He was easily eight feet tall, sitting on an elegant floating golden throne. He wore elegant armor and carried a massive double bladed spear with him, resting in the crook of his arm. On one hand was a gigantic metallic glove, where a purple gem glowed.

Proxima Midnight instantly kneeled. "Thanos, my lord - I was just about to finish these pathetic terrans."

"Ebony Maw and Supergiant are dead. Black Dwarf may soon join them. Corvus Glaive is no closer to culling Thane than you. Your failings make me weep, child," Thanos, the Mad Titan, scolded.

"But my lord- "

"Words cannot help you. Return to the Sanctuary II immediately and pray to the gods that I will not reap your soul."

Proxima Midnight's eyes darted towards the agents. She then nodded, bowing her head. "Yes, Lord Thanos." She activated a small device and her form shimmered, as she, Black Dwarf, and Supergiant dematerialized, gone. Thanos' holographic image surveyed the Secret Warriors for a moment, his expression darkening as he stared at Oliver, before he too vanished.

---

---

---

Corvus Glaive stood right outside the entrance doors to the prison. Alarm bells were ringing and guards, armed with rifles, were running towards them. The member of the Black Order didn't pay them any attention, ignoring them as they aimed at everyone gathered there - Tinley, Flynn, Bonnie, and Matt included.

"PUT YOUR WEAPONS ON THE GROUND!" a guard shouted. "PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! IF YOU RESIST, WE WILL USE LETHAL FORCE!"

Bonnie mentally kicked herself. Usually, they didn't run into this sort of problem with their S.H.I.E.L.D. operations. Headquarters generally went ahead and notified the police in the area to steer clear of the fight. With all of their quick jumping around, that must not have happened today. S.H.I.E.L.D. also was a United States based operation - they were very much technically trespassing in a sovereign nation. And since they weren't as recognizable and famous as, say, the Avengers or the X-Men - they couldn't just get away with it.

"We're here to help, we're the good guys!" Bonnie shouted, not dropping her knives. She didn't want to leave herself defenseless against Corvus Glaive. Instead, she slowly pulled out her S.H.I.E.L.D. badge and raised it into the air. "We're with S.H.I.E.L.D.!" Hopefully that would be enough for the guards. They probably weren't appraised on whether or not they had the legal right to be there at the moment. Maybe they'd just assume that MI13 had cleared it already.

Corvus Glaive was not nearly as cooperative. Blessed as a speedster, the bullet wound Matt had given him was already beginning to heal and close. He dashed off in the blink of an eye, running through all of the guards with his glaive, causing bodies to litter the grounds. When he came to a stop, covered in blood, he was staring straight at Matt, ignoring the other three. "I don't like people interfering with my work. But you, boy, you've earned a warrior's death."

He ran at Matt, swinging his glaive down as he aimed to decapitate them. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Bonnie as she drew her knife and threw it, hitting the glaive. The force knocked the weapon to the side, disrupting its arc. Rather than hitting Matt, the bloodied weapon struck the ground with enough force that it became stuck. "Hey ugly, why don't you come pick on someone else!" she shouted, hoping she could distract Corvus long enough for Matt to recover.

Corvus tugged and tugged at the glaive, but it was trapped in the ground. "You asked for it, bitch," he snarled. He didn't need his glaive to kill. He dashed at super speed and punched Bonnie in the chest, sending her flying backwards. She hit bits of the truck and tumbled, until she was crumpled on the ground. Multiple gashes had appeared on her forehead and blood was flowing. Her nose looked crooked, like it had been broken.

---

---

Matt was certain he was about to die. The monstrosity that they were fighting tore through the guards like they were nothing, he mourned for them. They were innocent in this and didn't deserve to be murdered like that. His body ached and he wanted to just let the pain take over and pass out.

Their enemy stopped in front of him. He supposed he should take it as a compliment what the man said. There was something nice about being recognized by someone so powerful. Before the killing blow could be made Bonnie saved Matt's life. He owed her. Now she was being attacked. Matt drew in a deep breath and stood back up. "I'll take an honorable life." He aimed and he let four bullets hit true as possible. There was something different about the shooting he decided, he wasn't certain what, but it felt more true. It had since they had gotten back to Earth and that made Matt think about what his secondary terrigenous might have given him.

A bullet ripped through the neck, eyes, heart, and finally right through the brain. The final enemy they had to face was down, but so was Bonnie. Matt was shaking.

---

---

---

---

---

Flynn was glad that Bonnie seemed to be alright over all after that sort of explosion revolving around the truck in general. Of course, Glaive seemed to just want to kill Matt, and considering the fact that Matt seemed to be the one attacking him the most, he supposed it made some sense. However, he was not thrilled when Glaive instantly ran into Bonnie, slamming her backwards because she threw a knife that didn't even hit the guy, it just hit his weapon instead of that.

"Bonnie!" he called out instantly, and if Matt hadn't clearly taken Glaive down, he probably would have with his hands as opposed to his powers. Since the guy was really pissing him off at this point, but he was happy to see Matt essentially hit him in very fatal places, meaning the guy was probably down for the count. Flynn more or less limped over to where Bonnie was, "Bonnie? Are you okay?" he asked, more or less kneeling down next to her somewhat, checking to see if she was okay.

---

---

---

---

---

Sparky felt the electricity crackle along her arm, she was more then ready to continue beating on Proxima, but what she hadn't been expecting was Thanos himself to appear as a bit of a hologram and more or less chastise the woman who wasn't exactly a bad fighter to say the least, for essentially failing. If Sparky hadn't already been in such a bad mood, a small part of her probably would actually feel bad for Proxima. However, she was easily distracted by the fact that Proxima then proceeded to leave, as did the Thanos hologram. As the adrenaline seemed to disappear from her body, as it finally more or less really hit her what Tempest had said before.

Namely the fact that Raynor was a skrull, and wasn't actually there.

She didn't really lower herself back to the ground from the air very gracefully, more of dropping and hitting the ground, before she collapsed and instantly started crying. There was no way that she couldn't have possibly not known the truth right? No, she could not accept the fact that Raynor had been a Skrull. Not to mention the fact that she knew that he actually was an Asgardian. So that begged the question. If Raynor had been replaced with a Skrull or whatever had happened, then where was he? Her mind was just racing through the differently possibilities as she more or less ignored everyone else around her and just sat there on the ground, not really paying attention to what was going on around her at all.

That was the plus side to being in a fight, it provided an excellent distraction, but now... Now she wasn't even sure what to think anymore.

Her mind wandered to the ring on her hand, the one that Raynor had given her back at Christmas, and it made her start to wonder if that had really been him even back then. Since that one guy had turned out to be a Skrull, so who was to say that Raynor hadn't been a Skrull back then? Nothing in her head was really making any sort of sense. She actually would have preferred him to die then that, since right now, she has no idea what had happened to him, so she wouldn't have any sense of closure at all revolving around it.

"No no no no no," she kept repeating to herself over and over again, not really talking to anyone in particular as she puts her hands to her head, not able to stop her tears from coming.

---

---

---

---

Cassandra was about to go and attempt to stab Proxima Midnight again when she caught something shimmering in the corner of her eye and looked up to see Thanos himself sitting on some floating throne wearing a large gauntlet with a glowing purple gem in it. Supergiant and Black Dwarf were both taken out by the others, which made her wonder if Medusa would actually keep her word now that they had killed two of their members. Though she wasn't sure about the other two who had gone through the portal she hoped that the others were faring well on their end and finding Thane.

Eventually Proxima and the bodies of Black Dwarf and Supergiant were gone, staring at Thanos again before he disappeared again she figured that he wasn't to far if they had a quick and easy way to communicate like that. Cass turned to look at Strange. They needed to regroup and grab Thane and leave. "Could you open a portal to where the others are please?" Cassandra asked Strange, and then looked at Tempest, Oliver, Maria and Sparky feeling bad for Sparks after finding out that Raynor was actually a skrull this entire time. She really wanted to try and comfort her, but they needed to focus on finding Thane they could search for Raynor after they deal with Thanos and the terrigen mists. "We need to regroup with the others right away."

---

---

---

---

Maria stuck her head out from cover again she didn't hear anything from Black Dwarf, seeing his body on the ground still and Proxima kneeling before Thanos who shimmered slightly. Seeing that he was a hologram of some kind, and staring at Oliver for a moment before Proxima, and the two bodies of Black Dwarf and Supergiant were beamed away. She stared at what looked like a skrull body, Maria had been to focused on fighting Black Dwarf that she didn't really see how the others fared but everyone was still there and in one piece for the most part.

She started to put her bow over her back and caught up to the others, seeing Sparky having a mental breakdown she knelt down next to her and gently hugged her friend. "It'll be okay we will find him." Maria said softly to Sparky, looking over towards Cass, and nodded towards her. They needed to catch up to the others and find Thane right away as well so that Thanos wouldn't be able to get him either Maria offered Sparky her hand to help her back up.