C288 Spider-Man (Patreon)

Tony’s group stood surrounded by Sakaaran guards donned in their Iron Man armor, besides Gamora, of course, who had a pair of knives in hand, ready to fight without the protection of Tony’s tech unlike Pepper and Rhodes.

“Not happening.” Pepper refused the Grandmaster's request for a set of his own Iron Man armor.

“You heard the lady.” Tony nods in agreement.

“What a shame...” The Grandmaster mutters sadly as he walks back across the room to his throne. “Capture them though prioritize the armor. Feel free to kill if you have to. Just make sure my armor isn’t too damaged.”

“Yes, sir.” Topaz nods as she gestures to her men.

“Finally, the fun can begin.” Tony mutters as the guards hop into action.

Some shoot as they’re armed with projectile weaponry, while others rush forward with spears and swords, ready to cut down the Grandmaster's enemies.

Acting first, as she has the most battle experience, Gamora dashes to the oncoming guards with her knives at the ready.

As two black and brown-clad soldiers swung their swords in her direction, Gamora dropped to her knees, sliding under the blades as she stabbed her long knives into their stomachs.

“”Ugh!”” Both guards grunted in pain as she ripped the knives from them and rolled backward, barely slipping away from a spear thrust by a third guard.

And as she took some distance, Gamora climbed back up to her feet just in time to watch the two guards she stabbed fall to the ground and bleed out.

“...” Pepper watched in awe, wishing that she had the skills and fearlessness to pull off something like that.

Her only saving grace was the armor that Tony gave her. It gifts her power that she would never have otherwise and bolsters her courage in situations like this.

Without it, she would be a shivering mess, weak and afraid.

Seeing that Gamora beat them to the first kills, Tony and Rhodes jump into action as well.

Activating their armors thrusters, the two shoot off into the air and maneuver around the room, dodging hails blaster bolts in the process.

Soon enough, the two refused to hold back anymore and started their offensive.

Rhodes, being the soldier he is, preferred guns over most other weapons, so he immediately activated the turret in his suit.

Instantly, Rhodes’ armor morphed and a large turret appeared over his right shoulder.

“Opening fire!” He called out in warning to Tony and the rest.

*dududududud...*

Suddenly, a rain of sharp metal projectiles assaulted a group of Sakaaran shooters, tearing through them one by one.

And as Rhodes was demolishing the guard's backline, Tony rushes into the fray to assist Gamora, who was being swarmed by dozens of armed Sakaarans.

“Watch your back!” Tony exclaims as he fires a thruster from his palm.

*Boom!*

Just as Gamora was about to be stabbed in the back by a sneaky swordsman, Tony stepped in and launched the attacker back with a burst of bright blue energy.

“...” Gamora didn’t have the time to thank him, as she slipped under a long spear before grasping its pole and yanking it toward her.

The guard at the other end of the spear instantly came tumbling forward, which gave her the opportunity to slice his neck open.

Keeping her hold on the spear, Gamora kicked the dying Sakaaran away and used her free hand to throw it like a javelin.

“!” Pepper's eyes go wide as the pointed end of the spear came hurtling her way.

At first, she thought that Gamora was trying to kill her, but then she saw its trajectory from the HUD in her helmet.

Soon enough, the spear flew over her shoulder and pierced the chest of an armed party goer, who decided to join the fight in order to curry favor with the Grandmaster.

After all, being on the good side of a dictator is in everyone’s best interest.

Especially when no one can leave due to the wormholes blocking the way.

Seeing that she was the only one who hasn’t joined the fight, Pepper hesitantly steps forward as a large crystal-like flower appears in front of her.

Instantly, the flower lit up in a blue light before firing a single beam of energy across the room, ripping through four different guards who were unlucky enough to be lined up in a row.

(A/N: Collateral x4. Overkill *Insert Halo kill streak voice*)

Seeing that his guards were being easily slaughtered, the Grandmaster grew antsy and turned to his trusted guard, Topaz.

“Summon my champion and a few contenders. This armor is stronger than I imagined...” He whispered as he watched three of his men get decapitated by a beam of blue energy. “Call the rest of the guards as well. We may need to buy some time.”

“Yes, sir...” Topaz nods as she relays the order to one of her subordinates, who rushes off to do as he’s told.

—————————————

Landing the Warsong near the Grandmaster's tower, Peter looks down at Brunnhilde, who continued to silently glare at him from her glass prison below.

“Come on. Let’s go.” Peter says as he releases her from the cell, sending her falling to the ground outside.

“!” Acting quickly, Brunnhilde spun around midair and landed on her feet like a cat.

Following her out, Peter and Genie watched as she tried to run away while clutching at the disk in her neck.

“You’d think she would be smarter about this...” Peter muttered with a sigh as he hit the button in his hand for a third time that day.

*Tzzzzz!*

Just like the last two times, Brunnhilde’s entire body seized up as she collapsed to the ground, shaking like leaf.

“I’m starting to feel bad at this point...” Genie commented as he watched her flail around on the floor like a fish out of water.

“Really? I’m not.” Peter shrugged uncaringly.

After all, she would have done the same thing to them if she could.

If Peter wasn’t stronger than her, she would have captured him just like Thor and treated him in the same manner.

He had no doubt about it.

“Karma can be a real b*tch sometimes.” Peter commented as he waited for Brunnhilde to stand back up.

As she climbed back to her feet and glared in Peter's direction, suddenly, a bright blue light filled the sky.

Looking up, all three of them watched as a black and brown dressed Sakaaran Guard was shot out of the upper floor of the Grandmaster's palace by a familiar-looking blue repulsor beam.

“Aaaahhhh!” The Guard screamed as he fell hundreds of stories and smacked into the hard ground with a loud thud.

Peter could hear every bone in his body break as he hit the floor, dying instantly.

“It looks like they’re upstairs.” Peter nods with a smirk.

“You were right. Your friends are still alive.” Genie seemed happy for Peter.

“I told you they would be. They wouldn’t die in a lousy crash landing.” Peter replies with a shrug. ‘They’re main characters after all...’

As they were talking, a platoon of similarly dressed guards rushed passed them and disappeared into the Grandmaster's tower.

“They must be losing badly.” Peter comments as he follows them inside. “Let's go and watch the show.”

After taking a few steps, Peter stops to turn and look at Brunnhilde, who didn’t move a single inch to follow him.

“Are you going to come willingly...” Peter says as he holds up the device in his hand. “...or should I hit this button a few more times?”

“...fine.” She mutters in annoyance as she reluctantly follows after Peter and Genie.

As they step inside the tower, Peter found that the whole bottom floor was empty.

“Is it usually this deserted?” He turns to ask Brunnhilde, who shook her head side to side.

“The Grandmaster must have called all of the guards up to help combat your friends.” She reasoned.

“Makes sense.” Peter muttered as Valkyrie’s swords appeared in his outstretched hand. “Here, take this in case you have to defend yourself.”

“Does defending myself count against you as well?” She doesn’t hesitate to take her sword back.

After all, it’s the sword she was given when she became a Valkyrie, Dragonfang.

Although she may not consider herself a Valkyrie anymore, Dragonfang means more to her than any other possession.

After all, her fallen sisters gifted it to her so she would treasure it forever.

“Hmm, no.” Peter denies and ignores her bloodthirsty glare as he starts walking to the nearest elevator. “Come on.”

As they all packed into the elevator, Brunnhilde had a surmounting urge to stab Peter with the pointy end of her sword but knew it wouldn’t be worth it.

From how easily he handled her in their fight on top of the Obedience Disk in her neck, Brunnhilde understood that she didn’t have a chance.

At least not yet.

—————————————

As Tony and his group finished off the last wave of guards, they turned to the Grandmaster, who was seated on his throne with Topaz at his side as usual.

“Congratulations, you passed the test!” The Grandmaster smiles as he tries to buy time for his champion to arrive. “You win an all-expense paid trip to the Grand Arena! Aren’t you lucky?”

“Enough bullsh*t. We-” Rhodes wasn’t buying it, though he didn’t get to finish speaking as the floor began to shake slightly.

*Dun dun dun dun...*

Loud heavy footsteps pounded on the floor, shaking the penthouse as they grew closer and closer.

“Why do we have to do this? I was just getting to the good part of the movie...” A dumb-sounding voice carried into the room from the nearby hallway.

“Because helping the Grandmasters gets us one step closer to finding a way off of this garbage dump. Do you want to stay in this hellhole forever, you moron.” A much more intellectual voice responds in irritation.

“No...” The first voice responds in a sulking manner as the footsteps continue drawing closer.

Soon enough, a large figure appears in the doorway, barely fitting inside the room.

A large hulking brownish orange-skinned monster with two faces could be seen.

One face sat on top of the other. The top one was smaller than the bottom but held a much higher level of intelligence than the other.

Meanwhile, the bottom face looked curious and almost idiotic, though he seemed to be much more at ease than his scowling counterpart.

[Insert picture of Bi-Beast here]

(A/N: 1800 words :) Bi-Beasts face is on the Grandmasters Palace in the movie so I added him since Hulk isn’t the champion. The others didn’t seem that interesting so I picked him. Ares would have been cool too, but I didn’t want to add a god to the story. At least not yet.)