DeCrowned!

Wanda reaches out her fingers forlornly. "Pietro..." she murmurs.

Her eyes shining with tears, she tells the others:

"A being outside this Universe who is in love with Death. He has taken the anger stone beyond the Universe. He is ... trying to prove himself worthy of Death. And with one's hand on the stone, one may see death. And those who will die. You all appeared to have died. As did I.

"I tried to seize it, but my brother pushed me away."

Her throat gets tight.

"This being, he is seeking the Valkyries next. We should contact Thor."

"How does one contact Thor?" says the Vision reasonably. "I was given to understand that he is like the thunderstorm -- he comes when he wills and none shall say him nay. Actually, he told me that."

Wanda shrugs expressively, "I do not know. In our last . . . " (squad/hit team?) ". . . group they kept very good tabs on us. I assumed you were the same. But . . . are you not of the same magic as Thor? Perhaps there is a connection. . . "

"Am I, indeed, of the same magic as Thor?" the Vision says. "Perhaps I am. What I have been told about the moment of my creation is incomplete and contradictory. Thor and I have never spoken on the subject, although I doubt he is avoiding it."

"Can I, by thinking, contact Thor directly? It's a fascinating thought, and I cannot see any reason not to try."

He stops, noticing Wanda. He has been halfway talking to himself.

"Can you?"

Wanda: "There are several possibilities. He might develop a paranoia about your contact. Or he might come in swinging his hammer. Is he prone to fits of temper? If not," she watches the Collector break through the force field,"or even if so, he might be hAndy to have atound."

VISION:

"All right, then." He places a finger to the jewel on his brow.

"Thor. THOR. This is the Vision. You are soon to be attacked by an entity from beyond the Universe. He is seeking the Valkyries."

The Vision looks mildly self-conscious.

"I've no idea if that succeeded," he admits.

JINVISIBLE GIRL

As the Collector turns to flee, but before he makes it up the stairs, Sue will put an invisible wall of force on the stairs, blocking the egress.

THUMP.

The Collector rebounds off the forcefield as though he'd run smack into a bouncy castle.

Irritably, he snaps his fingers, coating them in ethereal energy, and peels open the force field, stepping through.

Sue feels dizzy when her forcefield is disrupted.

She clings grimly to consciousness. "I can't -- can't faint now! Reed is not here to catch me, so there would be no point!"

She takes a moment to daydream about Reed catching her when she faints...

http://www.scifiwright.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Fantastic_Four_Annual_Vol_1_5_001.jpg

Storm will blink after the Collector (who had been collecting dust) in astonishment.

(Even Jove housekeeps.)

ANT-MAN

Ant Man has such a brilliant idea that he doesn't bother to explain it until it is too late.

Using a shrinky disk, he shrink Spider-Man to spider-size. Ant-Man whistles for Antonio the flying ant and places Spidey on his back.

Then explains the plan: "Okay, Spider-Man, we are going to fly over the Collector's head and you are going to web the crown off. We then will ran back, I will collect my ants, and we will get the heck out of here!"

SPIDER-MAN

Responding to Ant-Man, he says, "You know, Anty, I see nothing at all wrong with this plan. Except for one tiny thing. The Plan."

Spidey mounts the flying ant and flies toward the Collector's head. Spider-Man webs the crown.

Spider-Man thinks, "Let me see. I have the proportional strength of a spider when I am man sized, and Ant-Man has the disproportional strength of a man when he is ant-sized, so if a spider is ant sized, and by the communicative property .... are we in a communicative property state? ... I've lost track of what I was thinking... Go, Spidy! Go!"

Thwoosh! Off comes the crown. Which weighs far more than Ant-Man, Spider-Man, and Antonio combined, so it drops right to the floor, dragging the heroes with it.

CLUNK!

Once it's down, of course, Antonio can maintain lift. But it's definitely off the Collector's head ...

KATHUNK.

The Crown, lying on the edge of one of the steps of the staircase, falls down a step.

KATHUNK. KATHUNK. KATHUNK.

Antonio and his riders are jerked downward in a predictable but unsettling series of bumps.

INVISIBLE GIRL

Driving back the desire to faint as not romantically useful at this point in time, Sue places a slanted forcefield invisibly on the stair just in front of the Collector's front foot. She places a second force field right at clothe-line level for him to bump into when and if his footing fails.

THE COLLECTOR

Rushes after his crown, saying "NO! The Serpent Crown ... it's one of a kind!"

And slips, falling forward into a forcefield that clocks him in the chops.

This causes him to fall backward, onto his back, and slide down the stairs, bumping the back of his head each and every time.

And also come bearing down on Ant-Man like, well, like a colossal blue whale thumpeting down a staircase.

Oh, and Spider-Man, too. Just because.

Just before they are erased from existence, the insect-guys are saved!

A rainbow-tinted tornado explodes at the foot of the stairs, and Thor leaps through.

The Collector, one of the Elders of the Universe, is not knocked out by falling down a flight of stairs. He's actually rather ticked off, although not as psycho as the last time you saw him.

"Collector!" hails Thor. "How comest thou the brave Valkyries, who the valorous among the slain choose, to threaten?"