Please Don't Hand Me Things

Some time later, she awoke on the battlefield. What had been a desolate wasteland restored into a lush, verdant field, with a building in the distance bearing a large A. 

Everything still hurt. Waking hadn’t changed that, and if anything she thought it hurt worse because she had to endure it on a more prolonged basis while awake. Her right arm in particular. It was as like a dream. She was there, fighting, and then wasn’t. And then there was a portal that opened up and all she had to do was walk through it to have a second chance to make things right. 

Peggy had worked like a machine in hopes of finding Natasha in the melee. To fight side by side, or back to back as they had many times, using the tricks Natasha had taught her and her own blunt strength against all comers.

Though she wanted to get up, it hurt to move. Peggy’s back felt like every muscle had been pressed to the limits, which struck her as odd as she hadn’t been in battle nearly long enough for it. A few feet away she saw the gauntlet laying in the grass only she couldn’t bring herself even to roll over and head towards it.

People were all standing around her. It was terribly unnerving. Peggy almost felt as though she were to be conscious at her own funeral.

“I’m alive,” she croaked out finally, trying to fix her gaze on any one face. The one she saw first in the crowd was one that was not familiar, yet he wore the signature armour of the Iron Man.

“Tony?” she asked. 

Her voice was left raspy, and her mouth dry from all that had transpired. 

She tried again to sit up and failed miserably, falling limply on the ground again. “I think… I hope we’re done with that bastard, now, because I’m not sure if I can do… whatever that was… again.”

“Yeah that’s me,” Tony said when this absolutely ripped woman with a British accent addressed him. He knew Strange coming back with the restoration could bring in some interesting reinforcements, but he hadn’t clocked her to be the kind to make the sacrifice play, especially when it was gonna steal his thunder.

“Alright let’s give our Thanos eradicating hero some room. I think the woman who saved the universe deserves some breathing room,” Tony said to the gathering crowd of heroes

The rain of fire from above had stopped when the flash, which Peggy now knew to have been brought by some manner of enhanced woman had flown through its entire hulking size, taking the weapon systems offline.

Grateful for the reprieve it offered, she continued to head towards Thanos. If any of the Children of Thanos got the gauntlet, they’d take it to him, ergo he remained the most important target on the field.

Her shield flew and ricocheted off of multiple targets before returning to her hand and being tossed again. The process repeated itself multiple times.

Peggy blew through what seemed like an endless supply of Chitauri warriors. Armour plates fell around her like rain as a woman on a flying horse of all things stuck another blade into ships that undulated through the air like fish through the water. 

The woman who now flew on a cascade of light flew right towards Thanos, who was now within range of her shield, which she flung one more time to distract him, only he failed to deviate from his course. An energy blast was emitted his general direction. It was enough to slow his progress, and gave Peggy a chance to rise to her feet again, closing once more on Thanos. 

He turned and flung his blade at what seemed to be a cubicle structure, or some sort of alley in the back of a van of all things, and before the blade struck true, the van blew half the field to Kingdom come. The concussive blast sent the carrier of the gauntlet in a different direction from her prize.

Her shield was already returned to her back and this time she swung her blade a nanosecond after Tony had been flung clear. She was soon pleased to see Thor seconding her in this battle which would settle things one way or another.

After she took her blows, a man came to land on Thanos’ back.  Tony could be seen also helping to forestall his progress in his quest for the gauntlet. His helmet with the hint of an A at the front, and his face caked with mud, Peggy knew him for a friendly if nothing else.

They tried to bring the blade Thor wielded into the heart of the mad Titan.

Peggy scrambled for the gauntlet, determined to set everything to rights. The only way to get rid of him was to take the gauntlet up herself.

Energy surged through her body, and it was suddenly hard to focus as the glove molded itself to her hands which were so much smaller than the previous wearer. 

Her life flashed before her eyes. Playing with the sword she’d stolen from her brother. Learning how to put a knife between a man’s ribs in Scotland. Bashing Nazis in Berlin. The near kiss with Specialist Rogers… and in her head, she whispered that she would be coming soon.

The gauntlet finished tightening around her forearm and she snapped her fingers. Thanos and all those who’d come with him reduced to dust. The mud and gore of the battlefield having disappeared, being replaced with the lush green of the countryside which had surrounded the Avengers’ headquarters. Headquarters restored. Thanos sent back to wherever he’d come from with everyone he’d brought with him.

Peggy fell forward and the gauntlet fell free of her grasp.

Everything hurt.

And then everything went dark.

“Friday, your targeting is phenomenal, you’re really improving as a Markswoman. I could do this All day.....Don’t tell Rogers I said that.”

your secret’s safe with me , Mr. Stark. 

Tony followe4d the trail of the Gauntlet as it was passed between various people keeping it out of Thanos’ reach. He surmised that if this younger Mad Titan got ahold of it, he could simply take the stones from the Gauntlet since it was made of stark Tech to fit on Banner’s hand. No matter what, Thanos wouldn’t get a second chance to empty the Universe for his dumbass plan.

The pressure was put on Thanos by tony, hell even Thor got into the fray with the big guy and it looked like they were almost in the clear when there was a massive energy spike nearby.

Tony turned his head to see the person with the British shield holding the Gauntlet in her hand and snapping just as Thanos would.

Before his eyes, Tony watched Thanos and his forces disappear, just as his friends and comrades had done 5 years ago. He looked back to see the person who had done the deed collapse. tony landed next to her now that the fighting was coming to an end, “Friday...who the hell is this...this hero?”

DNA matches records of Margaret ‘Peggy’ Carter, but with the same serum that is part of Captain Rogers’ DNA.

“Well....shit.”

🍅  :    how does my muse feel about plastic  /  cosmetic surgeries   &   procedures?  is it something they have done or would do?  do they mind if others do it?  

The rumble of thunder and the call of lightning to multiple points was not a distraction, though she idly wondered if there were someone else worthy on the field of battle along with Thor. 

She slammed her body through those who would get between her and her target. Body armour collided and the shield was used as a battering ram. The sword cut down swaths of enemy combatants as the crossed that awful battlefield until she’d come upon Proxima. The horned woman stood over a fallen combatant preparing to deal a death blow when Peggy collided with her.

The two exchanged blows. Using every bit of the dirty pool she’d been taught, Peggy fought not for her life, but for everyone else’s. Blow after blow landed. Strike and parry, strike and parry. Over and over the pair were locked in mortal combat when Peggy managed to get one final blow in, cutting down the deadly warrior with one very powerful shear through her leg.

Blood spurted everywhere. The femoral artery, she knew, was hit. The woman would bleed out in seconds, and Peggy was content to let her bleed out and move on to bigger game. This deadly enemy was now effectively removed from the fight. It was enough.

Ordinance rained down from the ship above until she saw a flash of light come from the sky and run through it, deactivating the guns even as the ship remained safely aloft.

A boy fell from the sky holding the gauntlet, and Peggy saw the flash go to him. His mask removed, he looked like a child. Though her first inclination was to save him, she knew she’d never get there in time.

Mercifully, the flash was a friendly and an entire troop of others joined her there.

The gauntlet would survive a little longer.

Peggy turned and made for Thanos’ position, sending her shield flying forward with all the strength she could muster. 

“Friday remind me to give you a raise and to optimize your software, because you’re outperforming your pay grade right now,” Tony said. He too was working at optimal efficiency, but the AI’s guidance and targeting systems were giving him no shortage of targets to aim at and shoot .

making a note in your to do list, Mr Stark.

Thanos’ army was nothing short of that. They were incredibly tenacious, and considering they were from the year 2014, they were freshly pissed at Tony’s actions over the battle of New York. They also weren’t prepared for the jump in tech Tony had been able to make in the 11 years since that battle. If not for their Numbers, Tony could’ve taken this battle solo, but even his current gen arc reactor would run out of juice with the firepower he had.

Mr. stark, the gauntlet with all 6 stone is being kept out of Thanos’ reach.

tony located and changed his vector to pursue the Gauntlet as well. Those stones were in his tech and no Mad Titan would ever wipe the universe using stark Tech.

“Friday, what’s that projectile?”

Vibranium shield. several decades old. Designed with the colors of Britain.