Destiny Arrives Read online

  Its job finished, the Sanctuary; II vanished.

  Many light-years away, the Bifrost sped past a glowing star as it carried the Hulk along its intergalactic track. Impossibly fast, it turned past a familiar-looking orbital moon and aimed itself at the blue-and-green planet below.

  A stately manor graced Bleecker Street in New York City's Greenwich Village. To the unsuspecting passersbv, it was an old Victorian building. But to a precious few, it was known by its actual name: the Sanctum Sanctorum, home to the Master of the Mystic Arts: Doctor Stephen Strange.

  "Seriously? You don't have any money?" Strange asked his fellow Master of the Mystic Arts, Wong. Both Wong and Strange were tasked with acting as guardians to the New York Sanctum.

  "Attachment to the material is detachment from the spiritual," Wong said, trailing after Strange as they descended the sweeping staircase of the Sanctum.

  "I'll tell the guys at the deli. Maybe they'll make you a metaphysical ham on rye." Strange trotted down the stairs, dressed in a gray sweatshirt and a loose black coat, hands tucked casually mto his jeans pockets.

  "Oh. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I think I have two hundred." Wong reached up and scrounged around in the inner lining pocket of his vest. He victoriously pulled out a balled-up scrap of paper money.

  "Dollars?" Strange asked, pausing for the slightest moment to entertain what he knew would turn out to be a farce. Wong unfolded the paper money and his whole body deflated.

  "Rupees."

  "Which amounts to...?" Strange's voice was clipped and annoyed.

  "Uh, a buck and a half?" Wong confessed.

  Resigned, Strange shook his head and continued down the stairs without looking back, then sighed. "What do you want?" Strange asked, and Wong brightened.

  "I wouldn't say no to a tuna melt."

  But their metaphysical debate and impending trip to the corner deli was interrupted as the rainbow of the Bifrost plowed through the massive circular window at the center of the Sanctum. Having reached its final destination, the Bifrost dissolved, leaving behind a massive hole where the central staircase once was, along with its sole passenger.

  The Cloak of Levitation had appeared as if from nowhere as Wong and Strange braced themselves against the explosion. Rising from their crouched and protected positions, Wong, Strange, and the Cloak boldly ascended what was left of the stairs. As always, running toward what most people would run from, Wong and Doctor Strange approached the crater and peered in. Shocked, they saw the Hulk, slowly transforming mto his human alter ego, Bruce Banner.

  Tattered and tousled. Banner had a panicked look in his eye. "Thanos is coming," he proclaimed, terrified. "He's coming!"

  Strange and Wong exchanged glances. Turnmg back to Banner, Doctor Strange asked a question that many before him had asked—and were shaken to their core upon hearing the answer. "Who?"

  "Slow down, slow down. I'll spell it out for you/' Tony Stark said, as he tried to catch up with Pepper Potts. The two of them were walking along the trails of Central Park in New York.

  "You're totally rambling," Pepper said, rolling her eyes. How many times had she said that to Tony? A hundred times? A thousand? Her mind reeled.

  Pepper had known Tony for years... loved him for years. This rambling genius who was the only person she could imagine spending the rest of her life with. The realization exhausted her—and then lit up even- part of her with absolute, unadulterated joy. He was perfect for her, but sometimes she didn't quite know what that said about her.

  She had always been someone who did the right thing, made the safe choice, made sure she lived a very controlled, disciplined life...until Tony walked into it. Someone who was her opposite in every possible way. She knew Tony always believed he was doing the right thing. She was also certain he'd never made a safe choice even one time in his life. And, as for Tony Stark living a controlled and disciplined life, nothing could be further from the truth.

  Pepper and Tony were different in even* way. Except one. They loved each other far beyond where either of their comfort zones were okay. That shared love had always been the real adventure in an already ridiculously dangerous existence.

  "No, I'm not," retorted Tony Stark.

  "You lost me." Pepper's and Tony's words threaded and intertwined seamlessly together. Their rhythms were so well known to each other that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began. It was clear that Tony and Pepper loved each other. But it was during times like these that it became even more obvious how much they liked each other.

  "Look, you know how you're having a dream, and in the dream you gotta pee?" Tony pled his case while wearing an all-black workout outfit, topped with a sweatshirt draped carelessly around his shoulders.

  "Yeah," Pepper said. Patient, yet moving things along.

  "Okay. And then you're like Oh my God! There's no bathrooms. What am I gonna do?'" "Right."

  "'Oh, someone's watching. I'm gonna go m my pants—"'

  Pepper cut in before Tony's dream scenario got any more unnecessarily graphic. "And then you wake up and in real life you actually have to pee."

  Tony turned and pomted a victorious fmger at Pepper, thankful to have someone listening to him who finally spoke Tony Stark. She got him. Why did that surprise him every time?

  "Yes!" Tony said, triumphant.

  "Yeah..."

  "Okay." Their words blended and moved over and across each other's as if they were performing some kmd of nimble, long-winded symphony being played at double time.

  "Everybody has that," Pepper said, laughing.

  "Right! That's the point I'm trying to make." Tony came to a stop m front of Pepper. He was breathless, but it wasn't from gomg a mile a minute—as was his usual way. This breathlessness was brought on by the enormity of the statement that he was about to say out loud for the first time. Out loud to Pepper. The woman he not so secretly couldn't believe he got to have in his life.

  He took a breath. "Apropos of that, last night I dreamed..." Tony trailed off for the tiniest of seconds. Some things can't be unsaid, and he never thought he'd be this guy, but then he met Pepper. A woman who loved him despite...well, him being him. A woman who cared about him long before he declared that he was Iron Man. A woman who had saved him as many times as he had saved the world. There were so many different ways to be a Super Hero to someone.

  And now here he was, standing in Central Park blurting out, "We had a kid."

  Pepper was quiet. So quiet. Tony pressed on. "It was so real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. What was his name?" "Right," Pepper said, nodding. Her tone was loving yet skeptical. This was often her tone when talking to Tony. "Morgan!" Tony couldn't believe he actually remembered. "Morgan." "So you woke up—"

  "Naturally." Tony was never above sliding m a joke even in conversations as serious as this. "—and thought that we were..." Pepper looked up at Tony. Her face open and kind. So gentle. "Expecting." Just one word. Tony waited. The world stood still. "Yeah," Pepper said, smiling. Tony's heart soared. "Yes?" Tony asked.

  Pepper shook her head emphatically. "No."

  "I had a dream about it. It was so real," Tony argued, as if his dreams were as incontestable as something like fact, not to mention science.

  "If you wanted to have a kid—" Pepper turned her attention to the glowing entity on Tony's chest, a miniature ARC reactor firmly planted there. She lovingly untied the sweatshirt from his shoulders, so familiar and comfortable bemg in his space. "You wouldn't have done that," she said, tapping the RT.

  Tony looked down then flashed a sheepish grin, trying to defuse the situation. "I'm glad you brought this up, 'cause it's nothing. It's just a housing unit for nanoparticles," he said, waving his hand dismissively. Pepper shook her head, patiently weathering the same speech Tony always gave when she brought up his reliance on the RT.

  "You're not helping your case, okay?" Pepper's voice was playfully sarcastic as she looked up to the heavens and away from the absolutely frustrating man she could
n't help but love—despite the fact that he acted utterly dumbfounded every time she brought up the RT's indelible presence m their lives. For such a genius, Tony Stark could be breathtakingly stupid sometimes.

  "No, this is detachable. It's not a—"

  "You don't need that." There was the Tony Stark the world knew and then there was the Tony Stark who Pepper knew. The Tony Stark who didn't need the miniature ARC reactor to make him amazing. She wondered why, even with all of his brilliance, he could not seem to figure out that one simple thing.

  "I know I had the surgery. I'm just trying to protect us... and future us-es. And that's it. Just in case there's a monster in the closet. Instead of, you know—"

  "Shirts," Pepper finished as Tony stepped closer to her. With every inch that disappeared between them, her frustration with him melted away.

  "You know me so well," Tony said, his voice soft.

  "God..." Pepper said, almost to herself.

  "You finish all my sentences."

  Pepper shook her head. This man. This hardheaded, wonderful man. "You should have shirts m your closet."

  "Yeah," Tony said wistfully. "You know what there should be? No more surprises. We're going to have a nice dinner tonight." Tony held Pepper's left hand high, the large diamond engagement ring he'd given her shining

  in the sun. "Show off this Harry Winston." Pepper laughed. He could always make her laugh. "Right? And we should have no more surprises. Ever. I should promise you—" "Yes," Pepper said, being swept away by him once again.

  "I will," he said. Tony leaned down into her for a long-overdue kiss. She closed her eyes and the world fell away as it always did when they were together, as though nothing else existed but the two of them and their love. "Thank you:" Tony whispered as she smiled, his lips still pressed against hers. "Tom* Stark."

  With a whirl, Tony and Pepper turned to see the surprise. A big surprise. Standing before them was a swirling portal, floating m midair. Inside the portal was the man who had called Tony's name. A man neither of them had ever met before. A man who reminded them that their lives would never be without surprises, despite how many times Tony promised.

  The man in the portal spoke. lTm Doctor Stephen Strange. I need you to come with me."

  Seeing Pepper's and Tony's reactions. Strange quickly realized the anxiety-producing effect his rather dramatic entrance had caused. It also dawned on him that, unless he let Tony Stark know he was an ally, this whole situation might get way bloodier. He tried to cut the tension a bit. "Oh, uh. Congratulations on the wedding, by the way."

  "I'm sorry. You giving out tickets to something?" Tony asked, his tone short, keeping himself and Pepper at a safe distance.

  "We need your help." Strange's voice was measured and serious. He held Tony's gaze as he continued. "Look, it's not overselling it to say that the fate of the universe is at stake." Tony remained unconvinced. "And who is 'we'?"

  Appearing next to Doctor Strange was a man Tony knew very well. A man he had sent away, m fact, to avoid causmg more destruction. A man he'd lost track of. A friend he had missed and mourned. Bruce Banner.

  "Hey, Tony."

  "Bruce," Tony said. His voice soft and worried. "Pepper," Bruce said, approaching the pair.

  "Hi," Pepper said. Her voice was tiny and scared at the haunted look in their dear friend's eyes.

  "You okay?" Tony asked, just as Bruce lunged into him for a hug. Tony looked to Pepper m horror as Bruce crumpled mto him. If Tony needed any further convincing, the look on Bruce's face was enough to get him to follow.

  Inside the Sanctum Sanctorum a short while later, Tony was receiving a veritable history lesson from Wong.

  "At the dawn of the universe there was nothing. Then..." Wong wove his hands as golden mystical discs formed around them. Completing the incantation, he thrust his hands forward and an image of five Stones formed out of thin air, floating m space, "...the Big Bang sent six elemental crystals hurtling across the virgin universe." The Stones spread out. "These Infinity- Stones each control an essential aspect of existence."

  Doctor Strange moved forward and pointed to each Stone individually, naming the aspects. "Space. Reality. Power. Soul. Mind." Strange turned to face Tony, revealing the Eye of Agamotto, which hung around his neck, glowing green. He crossed his arms and the Eye of Agamotto opened, revealing a glowing green Stone inside. "And Time."

  Tony felt something gnawing at the edge of his mind: something that had been there for six years. "Tell me his name again."

  Bruce stepped forward, the horrors he had witnessed aboard the Statesman m his eyes. "Thanos. He's a plague, Tony. He invades planets, he takes what he wants. He wipes out half the population." Bruce's next words confirmed to Tom- his darkest suspicions: "He sent Loki. The attack on New York, that's him."

  Instantly, ghosts that had chased Tony Stark since he flew a nuclear bomb into space to end the Chitaun invasion, when he witnessed something he shouldn't have in shadow, all became clear. Finally.

  "This is it," he whispered. A plan began to form in Tony's mind. "What's our timeline?"

  A shrug was all Bruce could offer. "No telling. He has the Power and Space Stones. That already makes him the strongest creature m the whole universe." Bruce's voice softened, as if he couldn't fathom the future. "If he gets his hands on all six Stones, Tony..."

  Doctor Strange stepped in as Tony began to pace, finally restmg his arm on an overlarge metal vase by the destroyed staircase. "He could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamed of."

  Tony gave Strange an incredulous look. He reached behind him to stretch out his hamstrings as he balanced against the vase, keeping his demeanor resolutely casual even in the face of the staggermg information he'd just been given. "Did you seriously just say 'hitherto undreamed of'?"

  Tony wasn't being cavalier, at least not intentionally. It was just...this was how he prepared and processed. If he admitted to himself how dire things were—that if Strange was correct and the fate of the universe was at stake—that meant Pepper's life was at stake. And if Pepper's life was at stake, then he was in serious danger of not being able to think straight. So, in order for him to be of any use to anyone, he had to stay calm. And that meant keeping things light. Even in a situation that was about as unfunny as it could get.

  Pointing to the large pot Tony was resting on. Doctor Strange countered, "Are you seriously leaning on the Cauldron of the Cosmos?"

  Tony gave the Cauldron the once-over. Despite his massive intellect, being a man of hard science, Tony was unfamiliar with mystical relics.

  "Is that what that is?" he asked, almost to himself. Suddenly, the hem of Doctor Strange's Cloak of Levitation rose up and smacked Tony's arm off the Cauldron.

  Tony jolted back, surprise crossing his face. He quickly covered. "I'm...going to allow that," he said, pointing to the Cloak. He walked away, mind racing as a simple solution popped into his mmd. He turned back to Strange, pointing at the necklace around the mystic's neck.

  "If Thanos needs all six, why don't we just stick this one down a garbage disposal?"

  "No can do." Strange shook his head.

  Wong offered an explanation. "We swore an oath to protect the Time Stone with our lives."

  Tony let that soak in for a moment...then dismissed it. "And I swore off dairy, but then Ben and Jerry's named a flavor after me, so—"

  "Stark Raving Hazelnuts," Strange put m.

  "Not bad," Tony challenged.

  "A bit chalky," Strange corrected, unimpressed.

  "A Hunk of Hulk of Burning Fudge is our favorite," Wong said, standing next to Bruce. "That's a thing?" Bruce asked Wong in disbelief. Tony cut in, "Whatever. Point is, things change."

  Doctor Strange was adamant in his resolve. "Our oath to protect the Time Stone cannot change." He turned his focus to the glowing emerald Eye of Agamotto hanging around his neck. "And this Stone may be the best chance we have against Thanos."

  "Yeah, so conversely, it may also be his best chance against us." T
ony dug in his heels.

  "Well, if we don't do our jobs'' Strange's voice deepened.

  "What is your job exactly? Besides making balloon animals ?" Tony shot back.

  Strange looked Tony over and let the quiet surround them. Of course, he knew the importance and value of Tony to the world at large. Sure, he'd appreciated all he'd done. But come on. It didn't mean he had to like the guy. Strange was deliberate and pointed as he spoke, his gaze never leaving Tony's.

  "Protecting your reality," Strange said without fear or hesitation.

  "Okay, guys," Bruce said, addressing them both. "Could we table this discussion right now?" Bruce stepped in between the two arguing men. A slight smile played on Strange's lips when Tony was unable to muster a comeback or have the last word. Bruce pointed to the Time Stone hanging around Strange's neck. "The fact is, we have this Stone. We know where it is. Vision is out there somewhere with the Mind Stone and we have to find him now." He had to convince Tony and Strange to stop squabbling with one another so they could come up with a better plan. Having witnessed Thanos firsthand, Bruce paled at the thought of the Titan getting his hands on any more Stones.

  "Yeah, that's the thing." Tony scratched his head, a nervous habit and a cue to Bruce that there was somethmg weighing on his mmd. "What do you mean?" Bruce asked, nervous.

  Tony tried to break the news as gently as possible. "Two weeks ago Vision turned off his transponder. He's offline."

  "What?" Bruce asked, utterly gobsmacked at how Tony could let this happen again.

  "Yeah."

  "Tony, you lost another super-bot?" Bruce feared the worst, since the last time that happened, Ultron was born. And he was partially responsible for that, a mistake he dreaded occurring again. Tony quickly sought to assuage his concern. "I didn't lose him. He's more than that. He's evolving"'

  "Who could fmd Vision then?" Doctor Strange's voice was all business as he tried to maintain focus on the matter at hand. Tony walked away from the group as the answer dawned on him. Tony cursed under his breath. Who could find Vision? The last person on Earth he wanted to face was the only option he could think of. "Probably Steve Rogers," he muttered. "Oh, great," Strange said, walking away from Tony.