"Everyone who needs it has the oxygen masks incorporated, yes?" Tony spoke a little over the general sound quietness of the group. "If you don't and are running out if air, choke louder and I may be able to send you a spare. The air of this planet is breathable right now, but we don't know how things will turn out later. Now, giving the center of attention to Dee for the final instructions before show time."

They made it onto the planet.

Tuun was spreading on all sides of their horizon and Thanos' base too a miniature structure just over the warmer rock on the hill they posted themselves into. Camouflage on the Milano was achieved through telepathic waves and the same blockage was now concealing this mad-brave group. It was part of Charles' duty on the team and for that, he was about to remain silent, wired into his portable Cerebro.

Daisy stared at that round helmet through which she could not see her father's face and with her arms crossed at her chest, looked towards Erik too, "Is the prototype really safe?"

"Your dad knows what he's doing," Erik reassured, holding beside him his very own helmet which he would disregard were it not for Daisy's previous warnings. Thanos had a telepath by his side too and while Charles was to map the base and give them some reports as a side hustle to their camouflage on Tuun, he ought to remain too little so the other telepath does not notice the presence.

"Right," Daisy gave Charles one more glance before taking a deep breath and facing the rest of the team. She looked at people who genuinely trusted her enough to follow her plans into deep space, against a conglomerate of alien races. Their faces, their input that day, Daisy could never forget from there on.

"Well, this is it," she addressed her team. "We are officially at war and thankfully, our enemy doesn't know yet that we are fighting back. Dad," she motioned back at Charles, "will be mapping the enemy's base and telling us what we're really up against but the plan is easy: kill Thanos and destroy the facility."

An agreement passed through the team in nods and hums and just a bit invigorated, Daisy continued. "Thanos is after the Infinity Stones and assuming he has quite a few already and we have one with us, we must have two people at all times with Sol." After a scan of the crowd, Bucky, Peter Quill and Kitty raised their hands.

"Actually," Daisy stopped at Peter after nodding towards the other two, "I will need you on the ship and in the air in case after we blow that place up, they are still fighting back. Kurt, you will take Rocket and Groot inside the base and they will follow Charles directions to place explosives in docking areas, around the enemy spacecrafts. For the rest of the facility, Erik and I will be tuning in to its structure, finding weak points and at the signal, we will take it down over who's inside. Then-"

"Thanos is not here," Charles voice came mechanically from under his helmet.

That was the first reason for everyone to panic and at leasr half of those present to throw Loki a suspicious glare. To that, he raised his hands and almost shielded himself behind Thor's arm, "Maybe he's gone for a walk! If we make enough noise here, he'll sure be back. Everyone else is here, right?"

Hopeful, a bit more than the other gazes, Loki stared at Charles for answers. They all looked at the middle of the blue X spread over the black oval he used for a helmet, imagining that would be where his eyes were at. Charles' eyes were closed, scanning intently whatever he could grasp while being careful not to leave unmasking traces.

"The rest of the Black Order is here."

Daisy sighed the most relieved.

"Can't you just see in one of their heads where Thanos went and when is he coming back?" Peter Maximoff asked, while continously fixing his goggles. He received a generous slap on his back from Logan.

"We are trying to be discreet here, kid."

"Exactly," Erik agreed, immediately silencing whatever snarky comment Peter wanted to deliver. "We need to remain a secret until we want to be seen."

"If Thanos is not here, then we can still keep all our advantages," Daisy noted. "We decimate his army and wait for him to return."

"We just have to be careful no one sounds the alarm then," Bucky Barnes added.

"And I suppose the rest of us are here in case anyone survives the first wave of explosions, right?" Scott Summers punctuated the conclusion.

"We are fighting against mercenaries bred for war and destruction," Gamora interfered when she felt there was the slightest bit of hesitation being passed through the group when it came to the violence they were about to commence. "They will show us no mercy because they have shown none to their past victims either."

"If anything moves out of the wrecks, we kill them," Daist concluded. There were still many variables at hand, apart from having to wait for Thanos to get back from whatever trip he was on, just another unknown detail on the list of worries. Dr. Strange had to be back with Jean too, before Thanos arrives or timely when, because though on the road, Daist had some time to get used to lacking telepathy and feeling instead her other stored DNA getting lit as beacons, she doubted her power will be enough to take that brute down, even with help from strong people like Erik and Thor.

The Phoenix Force was however something else entirely. Thanos feared that one so of course, that was the whole idea behind the plan to kill him.

Daisy had to reassure herself everything will go according to plan, because from the second Rocket and Groot were sent in the base, they were placed in the hands of fate.

"Oh, I really hope Rocket and Groot won't get distracted by anything in there," Sol sighed out loud, raising the worry levels of the group once more.

None of them knew that while Earth's attack squad was on Tuun, Thanos arrived on Earth with Nebula. Daisy's telepathic abilities have been stretched and now hurt like an overworked muscles and Charles' prototype portable Cerebro could only do so much. Lightyears away from them, across the universe, breaking news were fresh onto New York's headlines...

"Alien Invasion: AGAIN? First contact already initiated downtown."

"You will move no further," Wong's voice boomed across the street while his hands raised arcane spells around the titans and his android daughter. However, the sight of three infinity stones already on that gauntlet have done to Wong what many odd circumstances beside Dr. Strange never could: he was frightened.

Thanos made an impulsive choice by coming to Earth. He has gathered enough information to lay waste of it already, but he was waiting for the right time, when all the stone's location have been revealed to him. The possibility of failure in his plan was no longer something he could handle rationally after the Soul Stone mocked him such; he was planning on plucking the stones from the ashes of Earth, just to have this nasty planet, the very core example of his cause, destroyed and off his list of worries.

"Your magic does not surprise me," Thanos raised his covered hand and tightened it into a fist, lighting such the purple of the Power Stone. A beam of that chaotic force clashed into the containment spell of the sorcerer and shattered it within a second, blasting its way right towards Wong. "Is this the best Earth can muster?"

Taunting, Thanos watched how in absence of any other choices available on a short notice, Wong pushed all his power and might into a shield with which he braced for the impact with the beam of pure energy. Its purple flames were burning through the thickness of the circular spell and pushing him back across the street they landed on. Every civilian has ran off a little after the arrival of the round unknown object above them.

Thanos tightened his fist further and with steps forward, the amount of energy Wong had to hold back doubled, then tripled... Sweat mixed on his skin with little patches of burns, for some of the violet flames have breached his shield.

A swish through the air passed by their side and a web wrapped around Nebula's hands, then around her, by the swing of a fast red dressed thing. Thanos was distracted, trying to notice that human fight his daughter.

Nebula activated the electric shocks on her new blades but Spider-Man held tightly onto the web and proudly realized it held on nicely without even reaching him. "Sorry, alien, I already won against a lightning bender once. Do you have some other natures perhaps?"

Thanos' senses alerted him too late of a third presence. He looked back down at Wong and saw beside him a woman. Where Wong's spells were orange, hers were white and that bright light hit Thanos across the face.

The first hit was to push him back and give Wong room to breathe from that attack which ceased. The second attack was a thrown blast of energy to daze the alien the best she could. The third was intercepted by Thanos with the blue hue of the Space Stone, swallowing the energy thrown and sending it back through the glow of the Reality Stone.

Spikes were created into the soil, springing out and coming for the sorcerers. Spider-Man's job on this fast announced mission to get the alien's under control was to secure the Nebula, however, once he got closer to try and figure out if she did have a turn off button, her head tried to hit him. The dodge was enough of a room for her to bend forward and use her incorporated blades and lasers to cut out of the webs.

"Sierra, I didn't know you-" Wong tried to mention how he never really thought she advanced so much in her studies to surprise him with a form of magic he never witnessed before outside of theorized textbooks.

She didn't let him finish because as Thano's attack came closer, there was little room for talk. Sierra pushed Wong out of the way and the flattened her palms forward. They met the reality warping perimeter coming fast and the process was reversed, returning to just simple, unscratched pavement.

Behind his illusion, Thanos was simply attacking stronger and Sierra was only now seeing him come down on her with a punch. She felt the gauntlet's metal knuckles hit the side of her head and her knees buckled. Though regretful of her kind decision of not getting her cloak out of its box for this, she felt enough danger in her fast beating heart to remember her training with the other Strange on spot.

Her left hand formed a bright white circle and became a support for her not to fall over. Meanwhile, her right hand came up and hit Thanos' chin with a tunnel of light. His gauntlet tried to hit her again. Stabilized, Sierra stood taller and used her left hand's spell for defense, redirecting the hit away from her.

The blue of the Space Stone shined and blocks of concrete from the buildings around began to crumble. "Wong!" Sierra shouted, having to take a few steps back from the Mad Titan.

"On it!" Wong announced, gathering his strength once more and forming barriers on both sides of the street, pushing the collapsing buildings back in place, the best he could against the gravitational pull of the Space Stone.

"Who are you?" Thanos shouted enraged when he threw the blast of a black hole at Sierra and the darkness was vanquished entirely by bright white light formed between her hands.

She did not answer. She simply lowered her guard because not even a second later, a golden flaming punch raised the dust and buried Thanos in a crater in the ground. Danny Rand raised and hurried beside Sierra while she joined Wong in reconstructing the damaged buildings as fast as possible.

A strong hand helped Spider-Man too with the very combat-educated alien lady. Luke Cage and Peter Parker both were a bit of a match for Nebula and she found herself incapacitated quickly.

"I thought you said you'll wait for me," Danny frowned at Sierra, just now catching her breath. It's been some time since she felt power like Thanos' go against her own.

"Wong was in danger," she explained with a little smile.

"The flight's not over," Wong let them know. They might have reconstructed the buildings, but Thanos was shifting to get up from the crater. Danny and Sierra discussed over Daisy's initiative and they were just about to head for Wong and let him know they should join the team and help against Thanos. Luckily for them, they were still on Earth when trouble came for them.

"I thought Daisy had this covered," Danny noted to Sierra, taking his stance between her and Wong, towards the gauntlet hand reaching and grabbing on the edge of the crater.

Daisy was waiting, anxious as the others, in the same spot, for Rocket and Groot to call that they have finished planting the explosives. Her and Erik have been holding a grip on all metallic structures inside, some rock layers on her side too. Finally, Charles touched Kurt's hands and he flashes twice, bringing Rocket and Groot out of the place. The raccoon held a remote explosive.

"Whenever you are ready," he noted towards Daisy. She nodded at her father and replaced her hand on contact with the ground.

Daisy breathed in and held her breath for a moment. Releasing it, she opened her eyes to a yellow glow, "Now."

Rocket pressed the button. Erik and Daisy tore apart the materials they have been focusing on.

Half the facility blew into the air while the other half sunk into the ground, swallowed whole.

"Brace for impact!" Steve gritted his teeth, seeing the shockwave raise the dust and come for their hidden spot. Storm stepped forward and guided the winds into passing around them.

"Visual, Quill?" Tony spoke into the coms connected in their oxygen masks which he had plenty of time developing on the way there. Peter Quill's camouflage on Milano deactivated with the explosion and now he hovered visibly in the sky, overlooking the field of dust.

"No visual yet," he answered. "I don't know if anything could survive that though."

Charles gasped from inside his helmet.

"What is it, Professor?" Logan immediately stiffened his posture beside the wheelchair.

Charles gripped the armrests of his wheelchair and leant forward, "The telepath they have has been hiding an entire sector from us."

"What?" Thor stepped forward. Daisy gritted her teeth.

"I can see it now," Charles' knuckles whitened, "it's a whole army hidden there."

"They knew we were coming," Loki gasped in disbelief.

"That's impossible!" Daisy exclaimed back.

From across the field the ground seemed to tremor under the rapid hits of several feet or hands.

"Hold on," Peter Quill's voice came through the comms with a bad signal. The interference blocked the rest of his message and a blast from a plasma cannon burned his entire left wing off.

"No!" Sol activated her translucent form and like a supernova in speed she flew into the falling ship and out of it, with Quill in her arms. They materialized back on the ground safely, were it not for the wreck threatening to fall over them.

Erik raised his hand and kicked the ship aside, keeping only Stark's baggage to lower it on the ground. Tony was already wearing his favorite suit, but he had plenty more toys in that container, all of which they could use right then.

Daisy's palm gently pushed the tall rock they have been hiding behind. Turning to dust, blown into wind, they witnessed the army running from the dust, led by four more prominent figures. Four from the Black Order survived and their first waves has proved to be far less of a success than they have planned.

Logan pulled out his claws, Erik pushed on his head his helmet, Gamora unclipped her sword and Rocket took out the gun he kept from Sol. Thor's hands played with lightning and Storm's too, Tony flew above them and Captain America tightened his shield over his arm. Peter Maximoff was ready for a run into the beast-like aliens, Scott's hand hovered on the side of his glasses. Everyone was ready for battle and Daisy too.

A little deja-vu crept into her senses when she called the strongest elements around her and placed them around herself in an armoured attire. There was no words worth saying and there was no other group of people she'd better wish to fight alongside with just then.

They must have thought to so little of a group as small as them, but the war was starting and the dice have been thrown.

"Any battle strategy?" Sam asked, his wings extended.

Daisy was decisive, the flip in her mind has already switched away from the games and negotiation manners. "Aim to kill the Black Order first."

author's note:   AND SO IT BEGINSSS

How do we like this Act so far?? Is the first phase of TOW building up to a satisfactory conclusion??