Steel Titan's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

The shadow filled the sky. Steel Titan counted the falling shapes and stopped. There were too many. He stood over Vulcan, breathing hard, and knew he could not win this alone. One robot he could crush. A hundred would bury him. Stark's voice crackled through the wind. "They're spreading out. They'll hit the tower and the people both." Steel Titan made his choice. He could not fight the whole fleet, so he would not try. He would hold the ground around the tower and buy time. "Get the people deeper inside," he told Stark. "I'll stand at the door." He planted his feet before the reinforced steel tower, fists raised. The first robots slammed down like hail. He caught one by the leg and swung it into two more. Metal shrieked. But behind those three came ten. He was already losing. "You need hands, big guy!" A red-and-blue shape swung down from the tower's high beams. He landed on a robot's back, punched through its neck, and flipped away before it fell. Spider-Man crouched between Steel Titan and the swarm, small and quick where the titan was slow. "Heard you had a bug problem. Figured I'd help. Get it? Bug?" He shot a line of webbing and yanked two robots into each other. Steel Titan did not know the man. But he moved like an ally, and that was enough. "Watch the tower door," Steel Titan said. Spider-Man saluted and zipped away. Hulk left Vulcan's pinned body and waded into the machines, tearing arms from bodies. For a moment the four of them held the line. Then the sky darkened further. Hundreds more dropped, thick as rain. "It's not enough!" Stark shouted. "There's too many!" A robot's blast struck Steel Titan's shoulder and dented the metal. He staggered. Spider-Man was cornered against a wall. Hulk vanished under a pile of machines. The line was breaking. Then the air split. A ring of orange sparks opened above the field, wide as the tower itself. Golden light spilled out. A man stepped from the ring, cape snapping, hands weaving glowing shapes. Doctor Stephen Strange raised both arms. The falling robots slowed, then froze, caught in shimmering circles of light. "You've been fighting the wrong war," Strange said, calm above the noise. He closed his fists. The frozen robots crumpled inward and dropped as scrap. Steel Titan straightened. The swarm above still hung, held by the wizard's spell. For the first time, the tide had turned. But Strange's eyes were not on the fleet. He looked past it, at the far edge of the sky. "The machines are not why I came," he said. "Something worse is behind them. Thanos is coming to Starium." The frozen robots shattered and rained down. The field went quiet. And in the high clouds, a new shape moved toward the planet.