"Are you going to hand it over like a good boy, or do I really need to spill more innocent blood?"

I stared past the giant purple alien man, eyes wide and unbelieving as I took in the sight of my first dead body lying on the ground behind him. My breath hitched in my chest as I felt the scalding burn from the necklace in my pocket. I couldn't take my eyes off of the blood pooling on the ground just a few yards away from me.

"Well?" Thanos growled, a taunting look on his towering face. I flicked my gaze once more from the body to his gleaming eyes and felt myself back away slowly. I prepared to shove my hand into my pocket to retrieve what the Mad Titan wanted.

"A-Alright…" I managed to whisper, holding one hand out in front of me to ward off the large Infinity Gauntlet wielding five glowing stones aimed right at me. Thanos didn't lower his glowing fist, but a triumphant look twisted his mouth upward.

"I always assumed this stone would prove to be the most challenging to get. Funny how you're choosing to make it easy for me." He murmured, watching my shaking hand as I moved it toward my jeans pocket slowly. I hesitated as I heard his comment, trying not to let the confusion show too obviously on my face. I shook myself inwardly and felt my hand close over an empty space in my pocket, the burning sensation from the stone now gone.

"I…"

Thanos raised his chin in a smug smirk, once more clenching the gauntlet in a grating sound of metal against metal.

"Time's up…"

The last thing in my vision was a bright flash of green, emanating from the Mad Titan himself.

Maybe I should back up to the beginning of my troubles to clear things up a bit. My name is Alexander Richards. I'm eighteen and a senior at the Midtown School of Science and Technology. Everything seemed to start while I was on the bus to a field trip one morning, minding my own business while me and my best friend, Daniel Yates were busy antagonizing the two junior girls in the seat in front of us.

"Tina?" Dan said, twirling his finger in the long blonde hair of the girl on the left. She shook her head, shielding her face from both of us as she noticeably glanced at her friend beside her. I leaned forward over the dark haired, ponytailed girl on the right in front of me crossing my arms on the back of their leather bus seat.

"Jennifer?" I guessed, whispering the name in her ear. She jerked forward in surprise, a fit of giggles erupting from her bright pink lips, clearly painted with cheap lipgloss.

"No, but close." She said after her giggle fit had allowed her to answer. Dan still continued to play with the blonde haired girl's hair as her face turned a bright shade of red.

"You're blushing…Georgia?" Dan tried again. The girl gently shooed his hand away, running her own fingers through her long hair as a wide smile spread across her face.

"Nope." She answered lightly. Dan made a show of smacking the back of the seat in defeat.

"Jillian?" I asked hopefully. The dark haired girl in front of me slowly turned around, a surprised look on her face.

"He got you, Jill!" The girl beside her squealed, shoving her friend's shoulder playfully as I smiled in my victory. Jillian pursed her lips and shoved the blonde girl in return, crossing her arms in mock annoyance.

"I'm Alex." I said, offering Jillian my hand enticingly over the back of the bus seat. She took it after a moment, spinning around to sit on her knees to face me.

"I know." She said, her voice soft as her face lit up in a deep blush.

"And you're…Linda…?" Dan said, still staring the blonde girl down over the seat.

"Eww…no!" She laughed, shaking her head. Dan slumped forward, hitting his head on the seat as he tried once more to come up with another guess at her name.

"We're all gonna die!"

I squinted past Jillian who immediately whipped her head around, nearly smacking me in the face with her dark ponytail. I could see the underclassman who had shouted as he leaned his head out of the open bus window. Screams of surprise and confusion broke out on the bus as the driver immediately started to shout everybody back to their seats.

"What's the matter with you kids? Haven't you ever seen a spaceship before?!" He finally called back, to the ignorance of the kids all rushing to the side of the bus to get a better view of the giant hovering circle over the skyline of the city. Jillian was standing in her seat now, halfway leaning out her window to look at the spinning ship in the sky. I grabbed her waist to keep her from flying out the window just as the bus jerked to the side. I looked to the other side of the bus to see if a car or something had shoved us nearly off the road. Instead, I got a full view of Spiderman leaping away from our bus, shooting webs randomly to make his way to the flying spaceship across town.

"Did you see that?!" I shouted over the continuing exclamations about the sudden danger of the city. Jillian's eyes were wild as she looked in the direction I was pointing before she shook her head fearfully and turned back to look out the window. The bus seemed to speed up as traffic piled in from all sides, people eager to get back to the city to make sure their families were alright, and some plowing the other way having turned around to retreat.

"What is that thing?!" Dan cried out, having pushed past me to get at the window better. I was looking in the direction I'd seen Spiderman disappear, imagining I could still see him swinging from lamppost to lamppost hurrying to reach the danger.

"Somebody call the Avengers!" A girl shrieked, causing other kids to scream their agreement. The bus driver swerved onto the exit ramp leaving horns blaring around them, having nearly been run off the road by the rampant traffic. I tightly gripped the seat in front of me, as Jillian and the unnamed blonde girl hugged each other in tears.

"Hold on, kids!" The old man shouted as he skidded to a halt facing more stopped traffic as the ramp led into the busy streets of town where distressed people were running out of nearby buildings and cars crashed into the sidewalks to avoid them. As soon as the bus stopped, kids leapt out of their seats and towards the door of the bus, prying it open before the driver could even pull the lever to automatically open it.

"Alex, come on!" Dan cried out, grabbing the strap of my backpack and pulling me to my feet and out of my shocked paralysis. Jillian and her friend were already halfway down the sidewalk by the time Dan and I exited the bus, and I realized that literally no one on the streets knew where they were even running. The giant spaceship was nearing closer and closer to the ground now, almost touching the tops of the towering buildings lining the street, spreading dust and debris in the air and making it difficult to see. The only assurance I had of Dan's presence beside me was his firm grip still on the strap over my shoulder.

"What do we do?! Shouldn't we find cover or something?!" I shouted, shielding myself with my arms as a screaming woman ran into me, nearly knocking me off my feet before she continued to flee in the other direction.

"Look out!" Dan shouted, pulling me around the corner of a building as a nearby lamppost fell down as a result of a car spinning out of control into its base. We both ran down the next street, this one nearly empty of people, but equally littered with abandoned cars. We were nearly right underneath the giant circular spaceship, and I looked straight up at the bottom of it, Dan trying to drag me forward.

"Dan, we've gotta get back!" I shouted at my friend as a bright beam shot down from the undercarriage of the alien ship. I immediately pulled us both out of harm's way and ducked behind a car as the beam hit the road behind us with a deafening boom that shook the ground.

Dan and I sat crouched behind the car, breathing heavily as adrenaline pulsed through our veins. Silence filled the street, everything suddenly unmoving around us. Afraid to even breathe, I just stared at my friend for a long time, waiting for the moment that we would both die.

"Hear me, and rejoice…" An odd voice said from behind us. I threw a panicked look over my shoulder and scooted closer out of sight, still not seeing the source of the voice. "You are about to die by the hands of the children of Thanos…"

"Oh my God…" I hissed fearfully, cringing before the impact I expected would happen any second now. Daniel was crawling away from me, wanting to see the source of the threatening voice. He suddenly stopped, straightening slightly and turning to tap me on the arm.

"Alex…look!" He said hopefully, pulling me forward.

"I'm sorry, Earth is closed today! You'd better pack it up, and get out of here…"

I stared past the hood of the wrecked car we hid behind, hardly believing what I was seeing in front of me.

"That's…that's Tony Stark!" I hissed, shaking Dan in disbelief. "And…and Doctor Strange!"

"And Bruce Banner!" Dan nodded knowingly and slowly pointed out who and what the assembled heroes were facing. Just a few yards away from us, their backs thankfully turned to the cowering kids behind them, were a couple of the strangest looking beings I had ever seen. There was a large hulking one with what looked like a dangerously heavy axe and a shorter, skinnier one who was doing the talking for the pair of them.

"Stonekeeper!" The thinner alien called. Doctor Strange nodded, acknowledging the alien's attention. "Does this chattering animal speak for you?"

"Certainly not, I speak for myself." Doctor Strange stepped forward decisively conjuring up glowing golden discs over his fists as he spoke. My eyes widened in surprise as I realized what was about to go down just a few yards from us. "You're trespassing in this city and on this planet."

"He means get lost Squidward!" Tony Stark called as an afterthought when neither of the threatening aliens made a move. Dan arched his neck a little higher to see what the smaller alien really looked like to cause Tony to name him after one of the characters of the most annoying show on Earth.

"Get down, or they'll see us!" I hissed, dragging him backward as the larger alien made a shuffling move in preparation for their battle. The big guy growled a warning and slammed his weapon into the ground, causing the car Dan and I were hiding behind to rock violently.

"Alex, look he's going to turn into the Hulk!" Dan said once we had regained our balance behind the car. Dan was on his knees, peering through the side window of the car to see the big alien guy stalking menacingly over to the four men down the street. I looked where my friend was pointing and could see indeed that Dr. Banner looked like he was trying to flex his muscles, turning a light shade a green.

"Woah…" I said in surprise as the ordinary sized man seemed to grow slightly larger and then shrink back to his normal size. After a moment, I squinted seeing that Tony Stark was tapping his own thigh agitatedly as he waited for his fellow Avenger to turn into his alter-ego.

"I don't think it's working…" Dann said, ducking a little lower to remain out of sight, but still wanting to see the action down the street. That's when I noticed that the talkative alien with the other worldly accent was still right in front of us, watching his giant alien buddy trudge over to the waiting heroes.

"Dan, we've gotta move!" I said quickly, pulling him away from the wrecked car. "We're too close to this!"

"Alex, wait!" Dan protested as an explosion of sorts sounded from where the few heroes were. I looked up quickly as Dan and I shuffled away from our hiding spot, seeing that Tony Stark had been replaced by Iron Man, his gleaming metal suit shining in the afternoon sunlight. The big alien, even angrier than before shook itself and once more ran at the waiting group.

"Run!" I said as Iron Man fired at the big guy once more. Dan didn't argue this time, weaving over the debris and between the cars as we scrambled for another hiding place. We were interrupted by another loud boom as the giant alien was thrown into the car we had just been hiding behind a moment before.

For a few seconds there was nothing but the sound of grating metal as the alien skidded to a stop and tore through the road, collecting a few cars along the way. I pulled Dan around the corner of the nearest building just as the few trees along the sidewalk were suddenly yanked out of their places in the ground. My head jerked around wildly to find the source of the flying trees and I spotted the other thinner alien moving his fingers, causing the trees to fly towards the heroes with his movement.

"Telekinesis!" Dan breathed, impressed. I shook my head, refusing to be excited about this battle we were both witnessing. I watched in disbelief as Doctor Strange set up a floating car for Iron Man to blast towards the other waiting alien and held my breath in anticipation as it flew speedily towards him. With a casual wave of his hand, the car split in two, just barely missing the thinner alien.

Iron Man shot himself towards the still standing alien and was suddenly thrown backwards as the giant alien had regained his composure. He propelled a huge chain that propelled him all the way down the block towards the park nearby.

Doctor Strange still stood alongside his other magical friend, creating large glowing portals that sent the thinner alien's flying bricks right back to him. Dan pulled me back around the corner of the building as the debris shot into car windshields and the sides of the building we were hiding behind.

"We're going to die here!" Dan suddenly exclaimed, fear causing his voice to squeak. I whirled around in surprise as I could see Doctor Strange fly past the alleyway, his red cape catching my eye.

"The Avengers are here, they're gonna take care of this! We are not gonna die…"

I once more leaned out of the alley to see where the cloaked hero had gone. My eyes widened as I caught the sight of him hanging upside down from the building right above us, the pale, thinner alien floating right in front of him and reaching for something around his neck. The bricks were formed over the magician's body, encasing him in a tight grip.

"Okay…yeah, we might." I relented before leaping back as the alien guy yanked Doctor Strange roughly out of the bricks and threw him angrily to the street below, just a few feet from where Dan and I were hiding. Doctor Strange landed with a pained grunt before pulling himself up and motioning with his hands across his chest, the golden necklace around his neck starting to glow an otherworldly shade of green. I stared in awe as magical green bands of light appeared around his wrists, rotating with the pulses of energy the man was conjuring as he kept his eyes trained on the alien above him. Suddenly his gaze flicked thoughtfully back down and I froze as I felt his eyes land on me. I blinked in surprise and then hurriedly ducked back into the alley while Dan still looked eagerly around the side of the building like he hadn't noticed the magician's astonished stare.

"Kid, I need you to do something for me."

I nearly jumped a foot in the air as a hasty, but commanding voice suddenly spoke up from behind me. I spun around quickly and was nearly nose to nose with the red cloaked magician. Taking a step back, my heart rate still peaking, I cleared my throat.

"Uh…y-yeah?" I finally managed much to the man's torn expression. I glanced past him and could see that Dan still had his back to me, looking around the corner of the building. Doctor Strange didn't even look at my friend as he rolled his eyes and quickly explained.

"He's fine, I just froze everything for a few minutes." He said dismissively. I narrowed my eyes in confusion, looking around at the eerie silence that had once been filled with the sounds of battle.

"If you froze time, then why am I not…?"

"I'm taking it as a sign of confirmation that I'm about to make the right decision." Strange said, as he made an odd assortment of hand gestures, the glowing necklace on his chest twisting and turning mechanically along with his movements.

"What are you doing?" I asked as I stared in awe at the man whose face was etched with deep concentration. He suddenly closed his fist over the pendent, and yanked it forward violently as the green glow dimmed. His eyes latched onto my face seriously as he moved his closed fist toward me. I felt myself hurriedly reach up to take whatever he was going to offer me, noticing that the necklace on his chest had lost its green glow and was in the shape of a closed golden eye.

"Take this, and keep it safe. We're not going to win this battle on Earth today." Doctor Strange said, his gaze wavering slightly as he placed his fist in my open palm. His other hand reached for my other hand, closing my fingers together over the object tightly before he released it to me. My fists radiated with warmth and I chanced a peek between my thumb and pointer finger to find that he had given me a smaller copy of the necklace he wore.

"Uh…thanks…but…what do you want me to do with this?" I asked dumbly as the magician looked around at the still unmoving surroundings as if he were listening for something.

"Make sure no bad guys get ahold of it. That shouldn't be too hard." He said drily. He turned towards the wall that Dan and I had our backs pressed against and made a circular motion with his right hand. Suddenly the wall opened up into a golden glowing portal, the other side revealing what appeared to be one of the fanciest old houses that I'd ever seen. Before I could react, Strange shoved me forward.

"Wait, I'm not so sure you're actually making the right decision here!" I protested, my feet inches from the portal. The man paused, raising an eyebrow at me to continue. When I didn't, he rolled his eyes and grabbed Dan's elbow.

"I'll keep in touch with you the whole time, Alexander. You won't be alone. Wong will be along shortly to make sure you and your friend are comfortable. Now, go!" The magician said, shoving both me and Dan who quickly unfroze as the portal closed around us. And with that, we both collapsed on the old wood floor of the fancy house, an overwhelming silence all around us.