- Against The Current, Legends Never Die

~No POV~

In the sky above the East African plains, an Avengers Quinjet is piloted by Sam Wilson. Inside sit Steve Rogers, James Rhodes, Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff and the android Vision.

Steve walks up to Sam in the pilot’s seat. “Drop to 2600, heading 0-3-0.”

“I hope you’re right about this, Cap. Or we’re gonna land a lot faster than you want to.”

The Quinjet passes through a camouflage force field into Wakanda’s Golden City. As it lands at the airfield outside the palace, King T’Challa and the Dora Milaje walk to greet them.

“When you said we were going to open Wakanda to the rest of the world this is not what I imagined,” Okoye, General of the Dora Milaje, says to T’Challa.

“And what did you imagine?” He fired back.

“The Olympics. Maybe even a Starkbucks.”

The occupants of the Quinjet disembark. Steve and Natasha lead off first, followed by Bruce and Rhodey. Wanda and Vision trail behind.

“Should we bow?” Bruce asks Rhodey.

“Yeah, he’s a king,” He replies seriously.

“Seems like I’m always thanking you for something,” Steve says as he shakes T’Challa’s hand. Beside him, Bruce bows to the king.

“What are you doing?” Rhodey tries to act shocked.

“Uh, we don’t do that here,” T’Challa dissuades Bruce with a hand motion. “So how big of an assault can we expect?”

“Uh, sir, I think you can expect quite a big assault,” Bruce replies as the group walks into the Wakanda administrative building. 

“How we looking?” Nat asks. 

“You will have my Kingsguard, the Border Tribe, the Dora Milaje, and…”

“A semi-stable, 100-year-old man,” A familiar voice says, and the small group turns to see Bucky walking towards them. He and Steve share a hug.

“How you been, Buck?”

“Uh, not bad, for the end of the world.”

--

In Shuri’s lab, the young scientist scans Vision’s stone with her kimoyo beads as he lays on the table. She flips her hand and studies the hologram projecting from her palm.

“Whoa. The structure is polymorphic.”

“Right,” Bruce explains. “We had to attach each neuron non-sequentially.”

“Why didn’t you just reprogram the synapses to work collectively?”

Vision glances at him, as if asking the same question.

“Because we didn’t think of it,” Bruce replies with uncertainty.

“I’m sure you did your best,” Shuri reassures with a smile.

“Can you do it?” Wanda questions, her voice laced with worry.

“Yes, but there are more than two trillion neurons here. One misalignment could cause a cascade of circuit failures.” Shuri turns to T’Challa. “It will take time, brother.”

“How long?” Steve asks.

“As long as you can give me.”

Okoye’s own kimoyo beads chime with an alarm. “Something’s entered the atmosphere.”

--

From their position on the ground, Sam and Bucky look up at the sky.

“Hey Cap, we got a situation here,” Sam says over the Avengers’ comms. 

An alien vessel slams at full force into the barrier, getting destroyed in the process.

“God, I love this place,” Bucky smiles.

Beside them, Rhodey stands in full War Machine armour. “Yeah, don’t start celebrating yet guys,” He starts, as three more vessels burn through the sky. “We’ve got more incoming outside the dome.”

The shock waves and debris from the other ships landing eradicates acres of forest, creating a barrier of ships against the Wakanda barrier.

--

In the lab, they have the perfect view. Steve and T’Challa look at each other with concern covering their faces. Vision struggles to sit up and begins to slide off the exam table.

“It’s too late. We need to destroy the stone now.”

Nat moves to put him back. “Vision, get your ass back on the table.”

“We will hold them off,” T’Challa says quickly as he, Okoye and the other guards move towards the door.

Steve turns to Wanda. “Wanda, as soon as the stone’s out of his head...you blow it to hell.”

“I will.”

“Evacuate the city,” T’Challa begins. “Engage all defense procedures.” He points at Steve. “And get this man a shield.”

--

Over the battlefield, carriers hover over the ground holding Nat, Steve, Bucky and a handful of Wakandan soldiers. Rhodey and Sam keep pace up in the air, Bruce running alongside in the old Hulkbuster armour. 

“How we looking, Bruce?” Nata asks.

Bruce is leaping alone, clearly delighted. “Yeah, I think I’m getting the hang of it. Wow! It’s like being the Hulk without actually-” He trips on a rock and topples, standing up after a few quick moments. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

“I got two heat signatures breaking through the tree line,” Rhodey’s voice comes over comms.

The Dora Milaje slide off the carriers and begin to work their own barrier.

“MAYEFA MA HU!” Rings over the battlefield, belonging to the Jabari warriors, led by M’Baku. “MAYEFA MA HU! MAYEFA MA HU! MAYEFA MA HU! MAYEFA MA HU!”

The Jabari warriors join the ranks of the Dora Milaje, M’Baku standing beside T’Challa.

“Thank you for standing with us,” T’Challa clasps wrists with the other leader.

“Of course, brother.”

T’Challa, Steve and Nat walk to the edge of the barrier. Cull Obsidian and Proxima Midnight stand, Proxima testing the strength of the barrier by running her sword along it.

“Where’s your other friend?” Nat asks.

“You will pay for his life with yours,” Proxima spits. “Thanos will have that stone.”

“That’s not gonna happen,” Steve quips.

“You are in Wakanda now,” T’Challa defends. “Thanos will have nothing but dust and blood.

“We…” Proxima snarls. “Have blood to spare.” The ships behind her start raising their outer hulls, hundreds of aliens running out.

T’Challa, Nat and Steve return back to the massed forces.

“Did they surrender?” Bucky questions Steve.

“Not exactly.”

T’Challa lets out a battle cry, a signal for everyone to hold fast as the aliens rush towards the barrier. On the other side, Proxima gave her own signal.

“What the hell,” Bucky says, bewildered by the amount of aliens.

“Looks like we pissed her off,” Nat replies.

Okoye stands horrified, watching as aliens bombard and squeeze limbs through the shield, only for them to be dissected. “They’re killing themselves.”

A few of the aliens manage to squeeze through, and the Border take a knee and raise their shields. Over their shoulders, the Kingsguard level their sonic spears, firing at the oncoming aliens on T’Challa’s command. Bucky fires at them using his M-249, Bruce the Hulbuster’s repulsors.

Redwings fly through the air and fire at the aliens, piloted by Sam, also in the sky. “You seen the teeth on those things?”

Rhodey flies by him, dropping mines on the heaviest sections of aliens. “Alright, back up, Sam. You're gonna get your wings singed.”

Aliens running around the force-field catch the attention of everyone.

“Cap,” Bruce starts. “If these things circle the perimeter and get in behind us, there’s nothing between them and Vision.”

“Then we better keep ‘em in front of us.”

“How do we do that?” Okoye asks T’Challa.

“We open the barrier.” He puts his comm up to his mouth. “On my signal, open North-West Section Seventeen.”

Dome Control answers nervously. “Requesting confirmation, my King. You said open the barrier?”

“On my signal.”

M’Baku turns to Okoye. “This will be the end of Wakanda.”

“Then it will be the noblest ending in history.”

On T’Challa’s command, the Border Tribesmen disengage their shields and stand, the King stepping out in front of them.

He crosses his arms in salute as his helmet closes around his head. “WAKANDA FOREVER!” He runs towards the barrier, everyone following his lead. Halfway to the barrier, he shouts “NOW!” into his comms.

The barrier opens, the aliens pouring through. Steve and T’Challa pull ahead of the rest of their companions due to their speed, leaping into the fray. 

“How much longer, Shuri?” T’Challa asks into his comms.

“We’ve barely begun, brother.”

“You might want to pick up the pace.”

All over the battlefield, huge fights are happening. Bucky goes down, fighting off aliens snapping at him. Rhodey hovers over the breach and fires into the flood of bodies, before Cull Obsidian’s hammer knocks him to the ground from the sky.

In the Hulkbuster, Bruce is dogpiled and pinned. “There’s too many of them! Aahh!”

In a moment that halts everything, a beam of rainbow light crashes down into the battle. An ax wreathed with lightning flies out of it and tears through the aliens before landing back in its owner’s hand. The light fades to reveal Thor, Groot and Rocket.

Realising who it is, Bruce opens the Hulkbuster’s helm and laughs. “AH-hahaha! You guys are so screwed now!”

“BRING ME THANOS!"