With a sharp whoosh, the newcomer dropped straight into the middle of the crowd, landing so hard the air itself seemed to ripple.
Doctor Strange spotted her instantly and hurried over, cloak fluttering behind him."Captain Marvel. Took you long enough. You ready?"
The arrival was none other than Captain Marvel—the same woman who'd nearly been punched out of existence by Thanos not long ago. Now, though, she looked like a walking cosmic event. Light and shadow chased each other across her body, raw energy crackling around her like a living storm. The power rolling off her was so intense that several nearby heroes unconsciously took a step back.
No one had ever seen an entrance this… extra.
Off to the side, Tony Stark squinted at her, clearly impressed. A thought crossed his mind: Maybe I should add dramatic lighting to the armor. Blue glow? Gold trim? Workshop note for later.
Captain Marvel scanned the assembled heroes, her expression tightening almost immediately.
"…These guys?" she said flatly. "You're sending them to fight Thanos? Are they lining up to die or is this some kind of group suicide pact?"
As someone who had survived Thanos at full power—and barely at that—she knew exactly how terrifying he was. Earth's heroes might dominate local threats, but marching into deep space against Thanos with people who hadn't even touched sub-Celestial levels?
And worse—why was there an ordinary human mixed in?
Doctor Strange adjusted his grip on the Book of Vishanti and sighed, looking like a man who'd already explained this argument ten times today."We don't really have a choice," he said. "Thanos has too many ships. If we don't bring numbers, most of us won't even get close enough to see him."
Before Captain Marvel could respond, the temperature nearby suddenly spiked.
A skeleton wreathed in roaring flames, clad in a scorched leather jacket, strolled forward casually—like this was just another Tuesday night.
"Let's hurry this up," Ghost Rider growled. "If we wait much longer, I might lose my patience and start judging people."
Strange winced slightly and shot him a look."Please don't."
Ghost Rider's Judgment Eye could burn away sinful souls—brutally effective, terrifyingly absolute. Strange had brought him specifically to counter Thanos… but the problem was, that power didn't always care who was friend or foe.
A few unlucky heroes had learned that the hard way earlier.
That was why Ghost Rider had been politely—but firmly—asked to stay in his own space until things officially kicked off.
"It's about to begin," Strange said.
Captain Marvel turned her glowing gaze toward Ghost Rider, curiosity flashing across her face."…Okay," she muttered. "That's new."
In all her years flying across galaxies, she'd never seen anything quite like him.
Ghost Rider felt her stare and slowly turned his flaming skull toward her.
Passive ability detected: Judgment Eye activating.
For a brief moment, hellfire burned brighter in his eyes as he looked straight at Captain Marvel.
Then—nothing.
He frowned and pulled his gaze away.
Pride? Definitely. Arrogance? Oh, absolutely. But in her own mind, Captain Marvel had never believed she'd done anything wrong. No guilt. No regret. No sin strong enough to grab onto.
The Judgment Eye had zero effect.
That alone stunned him.
Since making his pact with Mephisto decades ago, almost no one had escaped that gaze. Captain America had been one. And now… this glowing cosmic woman made two.
Even Doctor Strange himself likely wouldn't have walked away unscathed if not for the Book of Vishanti's protection.
At Strange's signal, the surrounding heroes began to move, forming up with tense expressions and clenched fists.
He raised his voice."Everyone—listen up. We're opening the portal. Get ready."
The air hummed with anticipation.
This was it.
Just then, a sharp gasp rippled through the crowd.
"Look—what's that in the sky?"
"Whoa, what is that? It's gorgeous!"
"Is that the Northern Lights? No way… they're stunning."
Streaks of light bloomed across the heavens like falling stars, weaving together in brilliant bands of color. The sky looked as if it had been painted by a reckless god with too many crayons—and honestly, it was beautiful.
Doctor Strange spared it only a brief, indifferent glance before turning to Black Panther.
"T'Challa. Wakanda's move."
T'Challa, standing calmly to the side, nodded at once. He raised a hand and said evenly, "Shuri, activate the protective shield."
Half a world away, Shuri received the command and didn't waste a single second. Her fingers flew across the controls of Wakanda's supercomputer.
Moments later, a massive, transparent energy shield unfolded above Wakanda like an invisible dome.
That said, even Wakanda had its limits. The shield stretched roughly a thousand kilometers—enough to protect the nation, but barely a scratch on the surface of Earth's total area.
Right on cue, the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj responded to Doctor Strange's signal. Golden runes flared to life as layered spell barriers fused onto Wakanda's shield.
The energy field ballooned outward in an instant, expanding to more than ten thousand kilometers in diameter and covering an entire hemisphere of the planet.
Seconds later, the distant lights slammed into the shield.
The barrier flickered violently.
For one blinding moment, the night side of Earth lit up like midday.
Across the Americas, people jolted awake in their beds or froze mid-step in the streets, staring upward as the sky erupted in impossible light.
Doctor Strange had seen this exact moment countless times through the Time Stone, so he didn't hesitate. He clapped his hands sharply.
"Heroes! We're out of time!" he shouted. "Those lights aren't pretty—they're an attack launched by Thanos's minions!"
He continued rapidly, voice steady but urgent. "They're about eight hundred million kilometers away, using an interstellar fortress. Antiparticle ray cannons. Warp-beam cannons. The whole nightmare package."
"If we don't stop them, Wakanda and Kamar-Taj will burn themselves out within two hours. After that, Earth won't have a shield left to hide behind."
"So we go now."
Doctor Strange turned to the one-eyed, stone-faced man beside him.
Nick Fury didn't bother with words. He nodded once and motioned sharply. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents rushed forward, carefully carrying the Tesseract.
Strange took it in one hand, already tracing glowing circles through the air with the other.
The next second, a massive golden portal yawned open.
On the far side—nothing but the cold vacuum of space.
A colossal meteorite drifted there, its surface bristling with gun emplacements, launch bays, and fortified structures.
An interstellar fortress.
Before Doctor Strange could say a word, Captain Marvel ignited like a living star and shot through the portal first.
Hot on her heels came Black Bolt, Magneto, Tony Stark, Black Panther, Falcon, and the rest. Oxygen masks snapped into place as they charged through without hesitation.
Every hero Strange had recruited for this mission possessed at least superhuman physical strength.
In other words, space suits were optional.
…
Eight hundred million kilometers from Earth, Jupiter loomed—a gas giant more than a thousand times Earth's size.
Beyond its seventy-nine moons, ten interstellar fortresses hung in formation, surrounded by millions of warships.
A million vessels sounded impressive, sure—but on a cosmic scale, it was barely a rounding error. Together, they weren't even the size of a planet.
Only the ten fortresses truly counted as giants.
Inside Sanctuary II, Thanos sat motionless, eyes closed, as if resting.
Then he felt it.
A portal opening—on one of the nearby fortresses.
A burst of multicolored light followed, condensing into a blazing red flame, like a newborn star igniting in the dark.
Thanos's eyes snapped open.
Captain Marvel.
And not just one—Twin Captain Marvel.
So, it was the Celestials who had saved her last time.
Interesting.
Which god had arranged for the awakening of her twin stars?
Thanos's lips curled faintly, curiosity sparking behind his gaze.
Now the real question was simple.
Just how strong was a fully awakened Twin Captain Marvel?
.....
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