Mutated Thanos Self-Destructs?

"Roar!"

Pain turned Variant Thanos's eyes blood-red. While he was still in midair, the Time Stone began to glow.

"Not a chance!"

The next instant, Lin Yi appeared in a flash of blue light. He clamped one hand around the arm bearing the Time Stone and drove his other fist forward with a sonic boom.

Lin Yi's current abilities couldn't match the mobility of the Space Stone. He still had to turn when he flew; the Space Stone let him move wherever he pleased.

With the Space Stone's help, he could cut Variant Thanos's reaction time so sharply that he could no longer use the Time Stone at his leisure.

More blows began landing on Thanos. Purple-black blood sprayed, and his wounds mounted faster.

But forcing the stones' energy into explosive attacks left Lin Yi suffering brief side effects and gaps in his assault. Variant Thanos kept using those openings to reverse time. Though he was often interrupted, the fight fell back into a stalemate.

"Where the hell are you, Carol?" Lin Yi had waited ages without seeing her.

"Coming, coming!" Brilliant golden light streaked in from afar and slammed into Thanos from the side.

Carol had finally arrived. In Binary mode, she hammered at Variant Thanos's hideous head.

Under attack from both of them, Variant Thanos struggled to defend himself. Before long, he left an opening.

"Pry out the stone!" Lin Yi seized his chance and darted forward, his fingers closing like steel pincers around the Time Stone on Thanos's arm.

"Carol!"

Carol understood at once. Her glow brightened as she copied Lin Yi and pinned Variant Thanos's other arm. Then she locked her legs around his neck, freed one hand, and began prying at the Power Stone.

Her fingers punched through the stone's energy barrier and dug deep into Variant Thanos's arm. Agony tore a roar from him.

"Come off!" Lin Yi put his entire strength into a savage pull with his right hand.

Riiip!

With a sickening sound, Lin Yi tore the glowing green Time Stone free, along with a small chunk of flesh mutated by its energy.

There was no time to fit it into the gauntlet. Lin Yi immediately moved to help Carol remove the Power Stone.

But losing the Time Stone seemed to alarm Variant Thanos. He threw back his head and roared again. The Power Stone flared, and purple energy surged through his entire body. An indescribable force burst between the three of them, sending Lin Yi and Carol flying before they could react.

"Roar!"

Variant Thanos was completely engulfed in purple light, roaring in pain. As the Power Stone poured energy into him, his body swelled abruptly. The spikes along his back jutted farther out. Flesh split across his body, dazzling purple light shining through the cracks as though energy had replaced all his blood.

"He's completely lost it!" Carol sat up. Her glow flickered, then she dropped out of Binary mode and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Lin Yi was in no better shape. Pain throbbed all over his body, and his scalp prickled. His instincts were warning him that the monster before him was growing more dangerous by the second.

"He's using the Power Stone at full strength. His body is getting tougher by the second," Tony said over the comms.

"But look at his muscles. He can't withstand the Power Stone's full power! Lin, don't fight him head-on. Stall him as long as you can, and the backlash will kill him!"

"I've found the Reality Stone. I'll get it as fast as I can!"

Lin Yi looked over. Just as Tony had said, Variant Thanos's muscles were twisting unnaturally and twitching now and then.

His swollen body didn't look like muscle growth, either. It looked as though he'd been inflated by force.

"Can you hold him off? I don't think I've got much left..." Carol limped over to Lin Yi, dragging one leg.

She was in a sorry state. Who would have thought Captain Marvel could be beaten this badly?

Wasn't she supposed to be capable of flying faster than light? Did the real universe not follow the story's rules exactly, or had something else gone wrong?

Forget it. That didn't matter.

Lin Yi fitted the Time Stone into the gauntlet and slowly flew toward Variant Thanos.

"I'll be fine. Take a breather!"

He really would be fine. With the Time Stone in hand, he could hold Variant Thanos off. And according to Tony, Variant Thanos wouldn't survive the side effects for long anyway.

Once the Power Stone's energy pushed him past his limit, Lin Yi probably wouldn't even need to make The Snap. The monster would finish himself off.

So Lin Yi stopped engaging Variant Thanos head-on. Instead, he bombarded him with energy while keeping his distance.

That kept the monster focused on him and bought time.

Variant Thanos really was mindless. Just as Tony had predicted, the cracks across his body widened with every passing moment. More and more purple energy poured out, making him look like a balloon about to burst.

On some uninhabited planet, letting him explode would have been fine. But this was Blue Star. The Power Stone alone held enough destructive force to destroy a planet.

Lin Yi didn't dare imagine what would happen if it exploded here. So even as he kept his distance, he watched Variant Thanos closely, waiting for the instant he could no longer hold on.

Second by second, Variant Thanos continued to swell.

"Found it!" Tony shouted. Then he shot out of the battlefield and flew toward Lin Yi at top speed.

"It's up to you!" Reaching Lin Yi, Tony pried the Mind Stone from his own reactor and handed it over with the Reality Stone.

There was no time to discuss who should make The Snap. Lin Yi was their best choice!

"Leave it to me!" Lin Yi drew a deep breath and gathered all his focus.

By the time he turned around, five Infinity Stones were set in the Nano Gauntlet!

"Estimated time to threshold: thirty seconds." F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice came calmly through the comms, as it always did. She had been monitoring the changes in Thanos's energy.

His energy intake had gone from racing upward to slowing almost to a stop. From that, she calculated that thirty seconds remained before he reached the threshold.

Lin Yi raised the gauntlet. The five stones gleamed, and a flash of red light filled the sky with a dozen copies of him.

Variant Thanos, who had been chasing him, froze in place. The bodies created by the Reality Stone made it impossible for him to tell which Lin Yi was real.

But he didn't care. After only an instant's hesitation, he charged the nearest "Lin Yi."

"Estimated time to threshold: ten seconds."

The real Lin Yi hid among the "duplicates," keeping just enough distance from Thanos. His gaze stayed fixed on the last stone in Thanos's arm.

"Estimated time to threshold: five seconds."

Variant Thanos's furious attacks began to lose their precision. The Power Stone's energy had slipped out of control and was still pouring into him. Unable to think, Variant Thanos had no idea what to do but keep attacking.

Three seconds remained. Variant Thanos suddenly stopped in midair, as if someone had hit pause. The cracks in his body widened sharply, and blinding purple light shot into the sky.

Two seconds remained. The real Lin Yi moved. A sharp blade formed at each fingertip of the Nano Gauntlet, infused with the energy of all five Infinity Stones.

One second remained. Variant Thanos shone like a purple sun, drawing every eye on the battlefield.

The countdown reached zero. Thanos let out one last roar, finally unable to contain the surging energy. Great sections of his body shattered. The purple light turned pure white, and a terrifying premonition seized everyone present.

An inexplicable certainty of impending destruction washed over them—the only thing a living creature could sense in the face of annihilation.

Light flooded the battlefield. A deafening explosion followed.

Then came the shock wave, sweeping away everything in its path.

"SIR, wake up!"

Tony didn't know how much time had passed before his muddled thoughts slowly returned. F.R.I.D.A.Y. kept calling to him amid the blare of alarms.

"Ugh..."

Tony pushed himself up, pain shooting through his body. Inside his visor, readouts marked every injury.

He saw the Avengers and the alien monsters around him beginning to get up, and relief washed over him. He'd thought Lin Yi had failed and he would never see Morgan again.

"What happened?" Tony struggled to his feet and looked toward the center of the battlefield. Variant Thanos was nowhere to be seen. Only Lin Yi stood there.

"Sir, Mr. Lin removed the Power Stone at the last moment. The explosion came only from Variant Thanos's own energy. Mr. Lin used the Infinity Stones to cancel out the portion of energy that escaped his control."