"Just… let me see if I got this straight."
"Sure"
"There's a guy out there, as large as an entire planet?"
"Yes."
"And he wants to eat the universe?"
"Indeed."
"And if he ever gets his hands on Peter Quill, that snot-nosed little kid that Yondu picked up when he broke the Code, then this Ego will eat the entire universe?"
"Correct."
"So you want me to get the word out that Peter should get his ass over to you, so you can keep him, and the rest of the entire universe, safe from getting eaten?"
"That would be very much appreciated, yes."
For a moment, silence falls between me and Stallone, as he studies my face, the both of us ignoring the noise of the bar around us with practised ease.
Then he gives out a scoffing laugh as he shakes his head, before raising his glass to his lips and downing the purple liquid in a single gulp, slamming the empty glass on the table with a grimace and a grunt.
"See, here's the part where your master plan falls apart." he drawls, glancing at me from the corner of his eye.
"Oh, how so?" I ask neutrally as I lean back into my own chair, meeting his searching gaze with a relaxed one of my own.
"Seems to me there's a much easier solution to this Ego-problem we're all apparently dealing with: we kill the Terran."
I almost stiffen, before I manage to regain control of myself (whatever the hell is in these drinks, I'm definitely starting to feel their effects by now if my control is wavering already) all the while keeping my smooth composure.
"Seems rather harsh to me. There's no need to kill Peter. He'd be safe with me, I can guarantee it."
Stakar straightens a bit, stabbing his finger towards me, his expression stern.
"We'd all be safer if that brat is dead, I guarantee it. No Peter, no Celestial to power Ego when he wants to eat the universe."
The annoying part is, he's right. With Peter dead, Ego's plan is almost sure to fail. I'm not sure if there are currently any more Celestial-hybrids out there in the universe and if there are, how many are capable of supporting the Expansion.
Probably not many, and hopefully none at all.
Even so, killing Peter would set Ego's plan back by a few decades if none of the other kids are full-grown yet. By the time he has found a suitable replacement, I'm probably powerful enough to simply crack his core in half and kill him.
Still, Peter is more useful to me alive than dead. Sure, if I'm just after his DNA, then I could just kill him and get a blood sample after. But if I truly want to crack the secrets of the Celestials based off off Ego's Seed back in Othrys, then I need a live specimen to experiment with.
Even if said specimen is only half-Celestial.
Convincing Stakar to contact Peter for me instead of just putting out a hit on the man would've gone a lot smoother if he hadn't had that annoying energy field surrounding his own mind. Then again, a weak-minded individual was highly unlikely to become the leader of a Galaxy-wide pirate organization.
Unlucky, but to be expected, I suppose.
Still, the Mind Stone is one of the Universe's six most powerful objects: natural resistance or no, Stakar will submit to my will.
Drawing on the power of the Infinity Stone in my helmet, I push my fledgeling telepathic tendrils out towards Stakar's mind. I can't just bulldoze my way through his defences though. Not only might that leave him comatose (and thus, useless to me), but it might also affect the rest of the bar.
And that's not even taking into account any possible crew members with telepathic abilities of their own.
No, subtlety is key here.
I lean forwards as my mind snakes around Stallone's thoughts, the image of Kaa coiling himself around Mowgli briefly flashing through my mind before I push the errant thought away and fully focus on the task at hand.
Even as I increase the pressure on the Italian Stallion's mind, my voice comes out, soft and urgent, with me pouring every single bit of charisma that I have into it.
"Come now, Stakar. Are you truly that cold? Do you truly not care anymore about your friends? Your family?"
Stallone's eyelids briefly droop, before he blinks his eyes a few times, quickly focusing back on me again (with some difficulty, but his mind blames the alcohol instead of me).
"Peter Quill ain't no family of mine, son."
"Perhaps. But Yondu Undonta is."
Stakar's stiffens, before looking at me in anger.
Good.
His emotions weaken his mental defences.
"That man sure as hell ain't my family anymore! You mention that Oath-breaker to me again, and I'll make sure it's the last thing you'll ever do." the Ravager Captain growls out, but I press on with thoughts and words.
"Maybe you thought that, once. Before I told you what I know. Yondu broke the most sacred code of the Ravagers, that much is true. But he is not the monster that you have made him out to be in your mind for all these years. When you were clinging to your hate, wallowing in your grief, Yondu changed. He took that little boy, destined for an immortal life as a fucking battery and he raised him as his own. Every single day for nearly thirty years, Yondu has tried to be the best father that he can be. Every single day, he has tried to wash off the sin he committed when he was only a boy himself. And every single time time he was rebuffed, everytime the Ravagers spat on his crew, his family, he simply bore the pain, all the while hoping that someday, you would understand. That someday, you'd just give him a chance!"
"A chance? A chance?! We all gave him a chance when I took him from the Kree slave pits! I gave him a chance when I made him captain when he was still just a kid! I didn't just give him a chance! I gave him everything! And he threw it all away! He broke our hearts!" Stakar roars with genuine anguish in his voice.
If it weren't for the noise-dampening field (a neat bit of Wakandan reverse-engineered tech that Radcliffe had come up with) that I had put in place when Stakar and I started talking business (which had gotten me a glance from Bill, but not much else), then the rest of the bar certainly would've been alerted by the raised voice of the Ravager Captain.
Thankfully, due to the dim lighting in our booth, and with Stakar sitting with his back to the main room, nobody noticed the pirate leader's volatile reaction. With his mental shields unstable, I draw on more power from the Mind Stone and press in even deeper into his thoughts, even as I keep talking.
"Ah yes. The slave pits. Have you really never made the connection, Stakar? His own parents sold him to the Kree. Where other people grow up in homes, with family and jobs, Yondu grew up in a cage, with only death and blood for company. And then you raise him up from the sands, point him to the stars, and tell this broken youth to make his heroes proud. What did you think would happen, Stakar? To you, child slavery is an abomination, and many in the Galaxy would agree with you. But to Yondu? To him, it was simply his childhood. His entire view of how the Galaxy works was crystalized in that single moment that his own parents looked him right in his eyes, while stranger clamped him in irons and whipped his back. And you shattered it all over again when you threw him out of the only family that he has ever known. But with that little boy from Terra, he has slowly been picking up the pieces, trying to fit them together again. It is a long way from perfect, but it has been thirty years in the making, and to be honest: Peter could've done a lot worse in the father department. Since his actual father wants to use him as a fucking battery. And you want to kill him?! Peter has never done anything to you! And what about Yondu?! You say he broke your heart, what the hell do you think you'll do to him when you take his family away from him again! A man can only take so much, Stakar Ogord. Are you really so cruel that you wish to push your own son over the edge as well?"
Am I laying it on thick?
Yes.
Is it working though?
Hell yes.
As Stakar looks away for a moment as he tries to stop sweating through his eyes (because a man like Stallone does not cry), I know I've won, and with a small smile I push a large tankard of booze his way, which he is quick to accept.
As he recollects himself, his mental defences restore themselves, and my mental tendrils slowly unleash their deathgrip over his thoughts, leaving lingering impressions in their wake as I slowly remove them, like fishing hooks from a catch.
Stakar is mine now, even if he himself does not know it.
"I'll get in contact with Yondu's faction. Not ready to forgive him… but perhaps… talking could work. I'll make sure he'll send Peter your way. He's still exiled, but I lead the Ravagers. He'll listen, whether he wants to or not. As for Rocket and his pal Groot, I'll have someone send a message to them. If they show for the job, that's their business and your problem. The pay's good though, so don't worry. They'll show."
Rubbing his forehead with a hand as he lets out a deep sigh, Stakar quickly downs the rest of his drink before he flags down a passing waitress, causing me to quickly shut down the silencing field.
After placing his order, Stakar takes out the alien equivalent of an I-Pad, quickly sending a couple of messages to his people, before he throws the datapad on the table, looking towards me with a closed off expression.
"There, it's done. Now get the hell out of my bar. I've got a lot to think about."
Having swayed Stakar to my side using my superb negotiating skills (and by cheating with a primordial piece of force in my helmet), Bill and I quickly make our way to Xandar's library. Our steps are slightly uneven, but considering we have been drinking an entire crew of elite space pirates under the table for the past four hours or so, that's to be expected.
Actually, how the hell does Bill get drunk? I'm not sure he even has a stomach.
Let alone a liver.
Considering it'd be rude to ask (I think), I drop the line of thought concerning my allies internal digestive system, and instead look up at the library.
And up.
And up.
Holy shit, this thing is huge.
We're smack dab in the centre of Xandar's main city, a few of the surrounding buildings looking familiar from when I saw them during Ronan's invasion in the first GotG movie. But then I was looking at them from the comfort of my couch, viewing them through a screen, in a scene that took place a few kilometers above ground.
Standing in front of them… it felt as if I was surrounded by mountains made of polished steel and shining glass.
I realized that, even should Stark Industries and Titan Solutions team up to rebuild Manhattan, it would still take about a century or two before we could equal the masterpieces of what Galactic architecture had to offer.
Finding Sterns in the library was a bit of a challenge due to the sheer size of the building (it's size and style reminded me starkly of Earth's largest building, the New Century Global Center in China… only enlarged by a factor of twenty or so). Locating my friend was further complicated by said friend not answering my calls for the first three times, which was apparently because he had been far too absorbed in his reading to hear his communicator go off, as he hurriedly told me when he finally did pick up.
Walking to one of the top floors of the building, I spot Sterns in his concealing cloak sitting at a translucent desk, surrounded by holographic screen and cases of what seem to be futuristic enormous floppies.
"Oh hey guys, you're back early! Couldn't find a terminal or something?"
For a moment, I simply stare at Sterns' doofy grin, before slowly speaking up.
"Sterns… we've been gone for nearly five hours…"
The egghead merely laughs, bringing up a small screen displaying a digital clock as he does, before his chuckles slowly die off.
"Michael, don't be silly, it's just been… five… hours… damn."
"Time flies when you're having fun, I suppose. You got what we need?" I wave his worries away as I lean against the desk he has been working at, getting an enthusiastic nod from the scientist.
"Coordinates to just about every single civilization known to the Galactic community, as well as several uninhabited systems of interest. Galactic standards of communication, transportation and agricultural technology, most of it on the same, or higher, level that Othrys is capable of producing. Several scientific theories that would probably win me a Nobel Prize in half a dozen categories back on Earth. Yeah, I'd say I got what we need." Sterns says with a grin, getting a smile from me.
"Morag?" I ask.
"Got it's coordinates, the history of its people, as well as the material make-up of every single planet within that stellar system."
Before I can answer, Bill cuts in, his voice deadly serious.
"And my people? Have you found anything?"
Sterns hesitates for a moment, before giving a slow nod.
"Not much, but yes. Most of it you probably already know: the history of your people, as well as the destruction of Korbin at the hands of Surtur. The Nova Empire classified your species' situation as a crisis of intergalactic importance and interspecies concern, but other than urging their members and allies to give you aid, they couldn't do much else. The Kree War picked up again around that time, and they're still in the thick of it right now, though there are rumours of peace talks. Anyway, there are various reports of humanitarian aid being sent to your fleet, but no species was willing to give you a permanent residence out of fear of Muspelheim retaliating now that Nova protection couldn't be guaranteed. There's not much after that, except for a report of a spatial anomaly around two years ago, which is probably what seperated you from your fleet and sent you to Sakaar."
Immediately, my mind catches on the timescale, a growing suspicion quickly forming as I turn over the timeline of the MCU in my head.
"Sterns. When would this have happened in terms of the Earth Calendar?"
"Uhm, hang on, let me do the math for a sec… around the end of May, or very early June, 2011. Why do you ask?" Sterns quickly replies, looking at me with a questioning expression, one which is mirrored by Bill.
"Because, on June 2nd, 2011… Thor Odinson shattered the Bifrost, and with it the Asgardian mode of interstellar transportation, while it was still in contact with Jotunheim. If he hadn't done so, the entire planet would've bursted apart… all that energy probably had to go somewhere…" I trail off, as I look towards Bill, who has gone completely still.
For a moment, neither Sterns or I speak up, allowing Bill to quietly deal with this new information.
"I thought they were my allies." Bill says, his tone completely flat, even as his mind steadily turns into an inferno of rage.
"Everybody knows of the tale how Odin led the attack on Muspelheim, crippling the demon Surtur at great cost to his people. It has been told both to caution hubris, as well as to celebrate the glory of battle, and the blow dealt to a great evil. When Surtur's armies descended upon Korbin... when my homeworld was set aflame… Odin, of all people, would've understood our need… our desperation… our fury. It is why I tried to reach Asgard with the fleet. We were so close… too close, apparently. I thought of them as allies…" Bill trails off, his raging hatred tempered by crushing disappointment.
I step up beside him, laying my hand on his shoulder as I look deep into his eyes, pouring every single bit of my conviction into my voice.
"Listen to me, Bill. You may have lost the Asgardians as allies, but do not despair. We are your allies. We won't seperate you from your people and throw you into hell, no! We will find your people, I will bring you peace! I swear!"
As I feel my Chi flare up through my entire body, as reality shifts itself around me, I realize that, as a magically powerful entity, I really should take more care to watch what I say.
Because I'm pretty sure I just accidentally made an Oath.
I have no idea what an Oath exactly entails, or what the consequences are for breaking it, but just by slightly flexing my will against the magical matrix that I can now feel tethered to my soul tells me that I don't want to find out.
Shit.
Not that I didn't mean what I said to Bill, but I really didn't want an Oath binding me to my promise. I mostly said it to keep him firmly on my side by driving a wedge between him and Asgard, I didn't intend to perform a Harry Potter crossover on accident.
I need to consult Pangborn and maybe the Ancient One (depending on her mood) when I get back to Earth.
"Thanks Michael. You can let go now."
Realizing belatedly that I have been keeping a hold of the Korbinite Champion all the while that I had been musing, I let out a small cough as I return my arms to my side.
Bill doesn't seem to care though, a thoughtful expression coming to his artificial face.
"It certainly does not feel as if I've merely spent two years on Sakaar though. I know that the Grandmaster said time flows differently, but I had not expected there'd be such a difference. I've only been gone for two years?"
Slowly, the hatred and despair from before are replaced by something new and tentative.
"There is still hope for my people!"
Sterns expression, however, is enough to crush his newly formed elation.
"Isn't there?" he desperately asks, and all that Sterns can do is shake his head.
My friend shifts in his seat, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times, before he sighs and simply hands Bill a screen. I read along by looking over the Champions shoulder, and-
Oh.
Oh shit.
"Bill, I'm-" Sterns starts, but before he can continue Bill crushes the screen in between trembling hands, letting it fall to the floor as he turns on his heel and stalks out of the library without a single word, his feet slightly denting the floor underneath him with the force of his steps.
I can't blame him though, as I look at the myriad of screens that Sterns still has opened on his desk, my eyes easily picking out a similar article to the one that the scientist has just shown Bill.
ALERT: KORBINITE FLEET LAST SEEN IN THE VICINITY OF SANCTUARY. NO FURTHER CONTACT RECEIVED. THANOS ACTIVITY SUSPECTED. CAUTION! AREA OFF-LIMITS! AVOID THE AREA AT ALL COSTS! ALL CONTACT WITH THE KORBINITES HAS CEASED, SPECIES SUSPECTED TO BE EXTINCT.
"I'm sorry, Bill." Sterns sadly finishes, and I can't quite keep myself from sharing the sentiment.
The rest of the week that we spent on Xandar was mostly done in silence. Bill was understandably taciturn, and Sterns and I decided to give the cyborg the space he needed. Maybe I could've used the Mind Stone to influence him for the better, but I was loathe to mess with the emotionally distressed Champion.
I figured that as long as his body kept functioning at peak efficiency, I'd leave his mind be.
Finally, after three days spent sightseeing, reading up on various alien civilisations and trying to make sense of the Galactic levels of technology, I was finally contacted by Stakar through a private message.
The fact that the captain himself contacted me instead of having one of his lieutenants do it was a very good sign: it showed that my mental hooks were still present in his innermost thoughts.
As for the message itself, it was… succinct. In that it was only two sentences.
"They're here. Star's Hall, Room 35-CC, in two hours."
Star's Hall was comparable to a community centre, crossed with a truly humongous mall. Next to various food-courts, theaters and retail shops, there were various conference rooms that could be rented for a certain amount of time. Wanting to have the initiative during my meeting with half of the Guardians of the Galaxy, I made sure that my company and I were there an hour beforehand.
Which was somewhat overzealous, I discovered almost two hours later, when neither a raccoon, nor a tree, nor a hybrid Celestial had walked into the room yet (when exactly did my life turn from a mad scramble for survival into the set-up for a bad punchline?).
I was starting to think that Stakar had set me up, when I heard a commotion just outside the door.
Shooting Sterns and Bill a confused look (and only getting shrugs in return), I rose from my seat at the head of the long table and approached the door with a few great strides, throwing it open with a quick pull.
"Get off off me, you rat!"
"Calling me a rat, are you?! Thief!"
"Why you little &*^%!"
"Oh yeah?! Well your mother is #$$^&!"
"You take that BACK!"
"NEVER!"
"SHUT IT!"
At my roar, which rattled the walls and made the floor shake, Peter Quill and Rocket Racoon look up at me with wide eyes. Peter is lying on his back on the ground, with Rocket standing on his chest, holding Peter's shirt in one balled fist, while the other is raised to punch the Terran in the face. Peter has grabbed Rocket by one of his ears and his tail, and both are looking rather scruffy.
"What. The. Hell." I seethe through clenched teeth, making both Guardians blanch (though it's kinda hard to tell with Rocket due to his fur), before they let go of each other, quickly scrambling to their feet.
"He started it!" "He started it!" they cry out simultaneously.
"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it!"
For a moment, human and racoon look up at me with petulant expressions.
"Now shut the hell up and take a seat at the table."
"Oh yeah? If you're gonna be all rude, then why should I listen to you, huh?" Rocket asks, Peter nodding along.
"Money."
"... Fair enough."
As I step back into the room, allowing Rocket and Peter to pass me, a shadow falls over me. Turning to look, I'm faced with the first being a head taller than I am ever since my first transformation back in my storage shed all those years ago.
"I am Groot." a deep bass rumbled out of the amalgam of moss and wood that's towering over me with a friendly smile.
"Hello Groot. I'm Michael." I say with a smile of my own, extending my hand.
Groot moves to take it, before his eyes widen and he quickly pulls back his own hand. For a moment I'm confused, before I realize that Groot, being made of plants, probably doesn't appreciate shaking hands with an Extremis individual.
My confusion returns tenfold however, when Groot makes a protesting noise when I step away from him to give him some space. Turning back to him, I see him step in place, wringing his hands as he looks from me to my hand and back to me again.
Honestly, he looks like a kid that really wants to pet something that they find simultaneously awesome as well as scary.
That, or he needs to pee.
"I am Groot."
"I'm sorry, I don't-"
"He's asking if you can put the bad fire away, and bring the good warmth instead." Sterns speaks up, drawing confused looks from every single person in the room.
"What? I did a lot of reading and Xandar's library has a renowned section on linguistics." the scientist says with a small cough.
"Well, clearly you need to go read some more, 'cause that didn't make a lot of sense, did it?" Rocket laughs, before looking at his friend.
"C'mon buddy, you can tell me."
"I am Groot."
"... yeah no, all I got was nonsense too."
While Sterns and Rocket start arguing (with faint interjections from Groot, who seems to want everyone to play nice, while Bill just seems faintly amused by the whole thing) I instead mull over Groot's words as I look at my hand.
Wait…
"It's not nonsense." I speak up, halting the conversation between Rocket and Sterns (if you could even call it that).
"Groot, come here please? I'm going to bring the good warmth now, okay? Don't be scared."
"I am Groot." the tree says happily, stepping closer to me, his big eyes fixed on my hand.
I clench it, calling on the life-force coursing through my veins and summon my Meteor Fist, the golden glow of my flesh illuminating the conference room. Ever since I enhanced myself with Extremis, it's been hard to gauge temperatures, so I don't really feel a difference between the heat that I'm putting out right now compared to when I light my hand up solely with Extremis.
Groot seems totally fine with it though, stepping even closer to me. Slowly, he raises his own hands, and then gently clasps them around my fist, hiding the golden Chi glow from view, brief glimmers peeking out from between his gnarled fingers.
The moment that he makes contact with my skin, I can feel my Chi start seeping into him, like rainfall over a drought. As my very life-energy is being drawn into Groot, I start getting impressions, which grow increasingly stronger the longer the sentient tree keeps contact with me, causing me to quickly close my eyes.
The impressions are… like nothing that I've ever experienced, or could have ever imagined. A whole different sensation of the passage of time. The way the surroundings registrate with wholly unfamiliar senses. Even parts of the body that I've taken for granted are examined and compared to an alternative. It's only now that I realize just how much of the mammalian body is focused solely around the digestion of food. But this… living just off light and water alone…
"Is this… how you see the world?" I ask in awe.
"I am Groot." the tree responds happily, causing me to open my eyes and-
"What."
I can only stare in numb shock at the sentient plant in front of me… which is absolutely covered in bright yellow sunflowers and vibrant green moss.
For a moment, silence falls over the conference room, the only sound the happy humming from Groot as he keeps a hold of my Meteor Fist with a dopey smile on his face, before it's broken by the incredulous voice of Rocket.
"Well. He never did that before."
After making sure that Groot was in fact still healthy (he seemed to be better than healthy, actually, with my chi apparently having had some kind of rejuvenating effect on his unique physiology), we got down to business.
While Rocket was somewhat cagey at the prospect of working for me, the combination of Groot's fondness for me and the huge amount of money I was offering just for sticking around eventually swayed him.
This was why I wanted to recruit these two specifically. Sure, there were tons of other mercenaries in the universe if I just wanted the extra muscle, but these two I knew not to stab me in the back, while still contributing to the overall firepower of Othrys (though I would have to make sure Rocket doesn't steal batteries or something else of value unless I approve it).
It wasn't much reward, considering I already employed people who could do much the same that these two could, but considering there was literally no risk, I was more than happy with the deal.
Peter however…
"I'm not going back there."
The finality in his tone immediately kills the lighter mood that had begun to form when Rocket and Groot officially joined Titan Solutions. Looking from the Celestial-hybrid to the alien duo, I talk to Sterns, though my eyes remain fixed on Quill.
"Sam? Why don't you take our new friends here for a tour of Star's Hall. With their advance payments in their accounts, there should be a nice souvenir somewhere around here."
Recognizing the order for what it was, the three stand up and leave the room (though Groot seems reluctant to be separated from me). From the corner of my eye, I can see Bill catch my gaze with a questioning look on his face. I give him a tiny nod, getting an equally subtle one in return, and without a word, the cyborg stands up and leaves the room. Of course, what I do know and Peter doesn't, is that Bill hasn't left the premises entirely, but is simply standing guard right outside.
Considering what I might have to reveal to Peter, I prefer to speak to him in private without any chance of being disturbed.
"Why not? The pay is good-"
"I don't give a shit about the pay!"
"You're a Ravager. All you care about is the pay." I point out dryly, causing Peter to slightly sputter, before he fixes me with an angry glare.
"There's not enough Units in the Galaxy to make me go back."
Even as I look him in the eye, I flex my telepathy, drawing power from the Mind Stone as I send tendrils of pure thought towards Peter's mind-
'Wait, what?'
Once again, I gather my will and send it towards Peter-
'What the hell?'
Both times, the energy of the Mind Stone seeped into Peter's mind like a wet sponge, leaving my earlier anacondas of thought and willpower to shrivel up to resemble noodles instead. My telepathy was still very new and still developing. It was only by piggybacking off the power of the Mind Stone that I had been able to overwhelm another's mind.
But Peter's mind… it drank the Cosmic energy like an exhausted camel at a watering hole.
Damn, if a half-Celestial being was already capable of absorbing such levels of powers that easily… no wonder they were one of the few races that could wield the Infinity Stones.
The power of the Celestial-gene at work… the very thing that hundreds before Peter had lacked, causing them to burn up into skeletons, but which had granted Peter immortality.
This…. this was the next stage in my evolution.
Withdrawing my telepathy (my own skills weren't trained enough yet to subsume another sentient's will just yet anyways), I instead lean forwards in my seat, expertly hiding my hunger from view.
"I understand your aversion, Peter. I can imagine that the memories of our home-planet aren't the happiest ones. I understand that. But don't tell me that there isn't some part of you that cannot help but wonder. What happened to the world after you left? Intellectually, you know it hasn't been standing still, but what could it possibly be now? Perhaps you've had some vague ideas, no doubt influenced by the alien worlds around you, but I'm pretty sure Sterns and I have thrown those phantasms out the window. Do you not care at all what happened to your home, Peter?"
The half-Celestial hasn't stormed out of the room yet, so there's that at least, but I can tell that I haven't convinced him yet.
Time to use an ace.
"Don't you want to visit your mother's grave at least once?"
That gets a reaction. Too bad it wasn't the one that I was looking for.
"You ever mention my mother again, and I'll blow your head off." Peter hisses through clenched teeth, before he stands up so rapidly his seat clatters to the floor.
As he starts walking to the door, I reveal my other ace.
"Since we're on the topic of your mother: don't you want to know who killed her?"
Huh.
Would you look at that.
He kept his word: he did try to shoot my head off.
The moment the sound of his gun firing rings throughout the room, Bill has bursted through the door, leaving it a crumpled wreck as he tackles Peter to the ground, pinning his arm holding the gun to the ground with one hand, and raises a fist to reduce the human's head to a pulp.
"Bill, don't! It's fine, he barely scratched me." I quickly speak up, my deep voice rumbling through the room, causing Bill to shoot me a questioning look and Peter to shoot me a baffled one.
Standing tall from my seat, waving away the slight smoke coming off my skin which is rapidly healing some slight singes, I stalk towards the pinned Peter, who has given up struggling against the iron hold of Beta-Ray Bill, and is instead glaring at me with a mixture of fear and anger.
"Don't you dare use my mom to get at me. I already know how she died, asshole, so you can't use her-"
"You don't."
"... What?" Peter asks confused, craning his neck as I keep walking to the large windows looking out over the plaza of Star's Hall (For the Damaged Coda involuntarily starts playing in my mind).
"You think you know how your mother died. And perhaps that is even true. After all I'm not disputing how she died: we both know it was due to a brain tumor. No, I'm disputing why she died."
"Disputing why my mom died?" Peter says with a shaky laugh, completely ignoring Bill now, his watery eyes solely fixed on me.
"She died, because the universe sucks. Because it doesn't care! Because it's not fair, when the greatest woman ever-!"
"Is murdered. You're right. That isn't fair. It isn't fair at all."
"What…?" Peter asks in a tiny voice, and as I glance away from the windows, looking over my shoulder, I don't see a full-grown space outlaw.
I see a little boy, crying as his mother utters her last words.
"Your mother was murdered, Peter. She always told you that your father was an angel. Composed of pure light, she'd tell you. She was more right than she ever even knew."
"What the hell are you saying?"
"Your father is an alien, Peter. A member of an ancient, and powerful race. Your father might just be the last one left. And when he came to Earth, he came to lay the foundation for a plan that would see it destroyed. Instead, he fell in love. He didn't plan for it, but it happened nonetheless. And when he had a choice between his Plan, or your mother…"
I turn away from the small child in order to gaze out the window again, my voice low and sombre.
"... he chose poorly."
For a moment, there's no sound other than Bill getting to his feet and helping Peter to his.
"What did he do?" Peter seethes, making the corner of my mouth quirk upwards.
"He planted a tumor, right inside her brain. For if she lived, then his love for her would keep him from ever fulfilling his Plan. He'd rather mourn the woman he loved and destroy the Universe, than dare to let himself love. To live, to grow old, and to die."
"What's his name?" Peter asks, and instead of the earlier seething tone, his voice is now completely flat, void of any emotion whatsoever.
Instead of a burning anger, there just remains a freezing hatred.
Turning to face him fully, I take two great strides, until I'm towering over him.
"Ego." I simply say, I don't need my telepathic powers to know that the name of his father will forever be burned into Peter's mind.
"Where can I find him?"
"I don't know." I admit, but before Peter can lash out, I continue, my voice still low and calm, raising a palm in a placating gesture.
"But, stick with me… and we'll find out."
And with that, I lower my hand, offering it to the half-Celestial. Peter hesitates for only the barest of moments, before his small hand grabs my enormous one.
As we shake on it, I use a considerable amount of willpower to keep the serious expression fixed on my face, instead of the menacing grin that's threatening to break through instead.
With Peter acquired, I'm one step closer to Godhood.
With all the people that I wanted to collect acquired (I really want to visit Nidavellir, but I currently don't have the right leverage to commission what I need from them, and I already know that what I'll ask from them requires a lot of leverage indeed) we waste no time piling into Oliver.
Despite the increased number of people, Oliver's cabin fits us all comfortably, the Space Stone in his engine, combined with Sterns fledgling mastery of the Quantum Realm meaning that there's plenty of elbow room for everyone (though Groot insists on poking me).
Once again we leave Xandar's planet and stellar system completely stealthed, which means that we have to wait yet another nine hours before we can jump towards Morag.
During that time, we all got to talking and swapping stories, slowly getting to know each other better. Most of it was pretty generic, up until the point that Rocket got into a fight with Beta-Ray Bill (Rocket had steadily been picking fights with each of us, with the exception of Groot of course).
While it started out relatively innocently, with Rocket slinging some snarky insults and Bill barely reacting to them, things really heated up when Rocket insulted Bill's augmentations. Considering that Bill had willingly giving up his body and had his soul transferred to an experimental android platform in a last ditch effort to save his people (an effort that had apparently failed) Bill understandably took those comments rather poorly.
That led to an epic shouting match that lasted nearly an hour. While it started with the two hurling insults at each other, it eventually boiled down to the way the two of them dealt with the changes made to their bodies.
Bill had been a volunteer trying to save his people: he saw his new body as a great honor and a mark of his people's trust in him.
Rocket didn't even know what he had been before he had been pulled apart and reassembled, and he had a gnawing, soul-crushing suspicion that the reason for that was that he simply hadn't been intelligent enough to even have any such kind of self-awareness before.
He despised the scientists that made him, but realized that there wasn't anything for him to go back to, to cling to or to long for.
The argument got quite heated and emotional, and when it finally came to a close (with Bill shouting in Rocket's face that it were his augmentations, so it was up to him what he did with them and who he chose to be) Rocket denied having ever had the conversation in the first place.
Nobody failed to notice that afterwards, the only ones that Rocket wasn't acting antagonizing towards were Groot and Bill.
It simply left me thinking that I really ought to get Bill and Nebula in a room together sometime.
After the nine hours were finally over and we were a safe distance away from Xandar's scanners, Sterns exited the Boom Tube, immediately grabbing the "Go Fast"-lever (as it was now called since Peter put a Post-It with those words on it) and slamming it forwards.
Our world turned into an endless 1-dimensional tunnel, and a complicated unit of time later, we slammed back into real Space again, the stormy world of Morag far beneath us.
It was the work of mere minutes for Sterns to find the Temple Vault where the Power Stone was housed, and fifteen minutes later, Oliver touched down in front of the steps leading up to the main hall, handling the massive amounts of turbulence with ease.
We quickly filed out of the van, the rest of the group behind me as I lead the way, the opening sequence of GotG firmly in my mind.
Ascending the cracked and weathered steps, we entered the ruined hall of the Temple Vault, my crew mates looking around with expressions ranging from awe (Sterns) to boredom (Rocket). Crossing the hall is done in moments, since we don't waste time dancing and barely even bother with the Orloni (I actually crush a few by accident in my haste to get to the Power Stone). When we come to the chasm with the large monsters at the bottom, Peter and I quickly fly across, Bill jumps across, Sterns extends his robotic arms and walks across and Groot picks up Rocket, grows his legs to several times their normal length, after which he simply steps over the chasm as well (after which he immediately goes back to poking me again).
Within moments we've arrived at the heavy locked doors leading to the room with the Power Stone. Too eager to contain myself, I don't bother with the enormous double doors at the entrance, simply punching them straight off their hinges instead, sending the great slabs of stone and metal flying into the room.
It takes a few seconds before I hear my crewmates start walking again.
We slowly crowd around the pillar holding the Orb contained, the white glow of its containment field throwing our faces in stark contrast.
"So… now what?" Rocket asks laconically, though I easily pick up his thoughts (they involve explosions. Big ones).
"Stand back please."
Even before I've finished speaking, I see that the others have already stacked up near the entrance. At my confused look, Sterns gives a sheepish grin.
"Well, not to be hurtful or anything, but you can be quite… destructive, if you put your mind to it. So, if you suggest clearing some space, then we are all too happy to accomodate you."
"I'm not that bad! I'm pretty sure Rocket is way worse!" I say indignantly.
"The Grandmaster's Palace." Bill replies dryly.
"... Touché."
"Wait, what happened with whose Palace?" I hear Peter ask, Sterns answering in a casual tone.
"Oh, Michael destroyed a city."
"Part of a city!" I shout, before turning my back on the by-play, instead focusing on the prize in front of me.
Holding out my hand to the side, in a move mimicking Yoda I summon my Harpe, enlarging it back to its full size right as it smacks into my hand. The end result is suspiciously similar to what Loki and Hela do whenever they summon blades out of nowhere.
I light up my hand with Extremis and Chi, causing the runes along the Berserker Staff to glow up in unison as well, the entire Vibranium-Chitauri alloy blade coming to live with a golden glow as well.
Harnessing the rage that comes with wielding the Berserker's Staff, I relish in the increase in strength as I draw back my scythe. Then, with one quick swipe, I cut through the stone pillar connected to the top part of the field. At the end of my swing, I perform a quick flourish with the scythe, spinning it a few times, before pulling it back into a return swing that cleaves through the bottom part of the pillar like a lightsaber trough butter.
This was how I actually brought down the Grandmaster's Palace. By feeding the Harpe my Chi, using my telekinetic link with it to spin it above my head until it was a disk of glowing energy, and then enlarging it with Pym Particles.
Took down the base of the Palace with an ease that would've made Rocket green with envy.
For a moment, nothing happens, the red glowing cuts in the stone giving off steam as I stare intently at the white energy field. Then I hear something spark inside the pillar and go an odd sort of 'clunk!'... and the whole damn thing explodes in my face.
The force of the blast pushes me back to my companions just outside the room, my boots scraping over the weathered stone floor as I keep up my shield, which I had summoned and enlarged in the nick of time.
Not that the blast would've really harmed me, given my physical capabilities and the Aurelion Armor, but it would be somewhat embarrassing to get knocked flat on my ass just as I was about to obtain one of the most powerful weapons in the universe.
As I straighten from my guarded stance, ignoring the steam coming off my scatheless shield, I glance at my crew, some of which are looking at me with wide eyes as the smoke slowly clears and the heat dies down.
"I meant to do that."
With those words, I stalk back into the room again, an enormous grin showing on my face when I spot the Orb lying amidst the rubble of its former prison. Shrinking and holstering my Harpe, but keeping my Aegis out I quickly pick up the Orb, before twisting it with all my might.
It takes quite a lot of effort. but I don't want to use Chi just yet. It's somewhat difficult to accurately gauge the strength of the Kree, so I'm not sure how I stack up compared to them, especially their elite.
However, Ronan was able to break this with his bare hands, so I should be able to.
And with a splintering noise, the Orb is crushed within my hands, filling me with satisfaction, not only at the prize hidden inside, but also at the knowledge that I easily stand on equal footing to the best the Kree have to offer.
Briefly, apprehension fills me as I look from the purple glowing Power Stone to Peter. I don't particularly feel much for parts of my body crumbling away into nothingness underneath the might of the Power Stone.
Still, between Peter, Bill and Groot, they should have enough power to share the strain long enough for me to let go of the Stone again.
Realizing that I'm stalling, I take a deep breath, engulf my hand in Chi as a sort of buffer, and grab the Power Stone.
The sheer amount of pressure and pain that slam into every single fiber of my being is simply impossible to put into words. You need to actually be dying, be ripped apart on a cellular level, to understand what the consequences are of holding an object of literal infinite power.
The moment that my hand closes around the Power Stone, I sink to my knees as I clench my teeth so hard that a few of them crack. I try my best not to cry out as I seek deep within my own body, trying to bear the strain of all the power rampaging through my body.
Guiding Chi to every single cell in my body helps alleviate the pressure, and I slowly start fighting back against the tsunami of power, using my skills at mediation, Chi techniques and the feedback provided by the Hearth-Shaped Herb to regain control of my body cell by cell.
Slowly, I straighten, my fist clenched tight around the Stone as my veins and eyes glow a bright purple. I keep fighting the power that threatens to overwhelm me, beating it down into submission again and again, continuously wrestling it down for control.
However, I quickly reach a stalemate. My body is no longer breaking apart, and is actually healing the damage the Power Stone has inflicted. But this fight inside my body is taking all of my concentration, I can barely even move, let alone answer the worried shouts of the rest of the crew.
Tuning them out, I realize that for all my power, I'm still not on the level of Thanos where I can handle bare-skin contact with the Infinity Stones with ease.
Thankfully, I don't need to.
With a roar (amplified by the Power Stone coursing through my body, it nearly brings down the entire roof on our head) I raise my shield and slam the Stone in the centre of it, right in the recess that I had Elliot Randolph and Melvin Potter make.
The entire shield pulses with the purple energy of the Power Stone, before it slowly settles.
Just like with the Mind Stone in my helmet, I can still feel the energy of the Power Stone pressing in on me, but it's no longer as all-consuming before, or with the same magnitude.
This is manageable.
Letting out a deep sigh as my posture slumps, I slowly begin to chuckle, my hoarse voice steadily increasing in volume until I'm full on cackling. Slowly, I come down from my power-induced high (literally, in this case), before turning towards the others with an enormous grin on my face, the purple gem in my shield pulsing brightly.
"Three down. Three to go."
Fun Fact: Vin Diesel receives special and secretive scripts that reveal what Groot actually says, with all the "I am Groot"s translated into English. The only persons who know what Groot says everytime he speaks are Gunn and Diesel (and some of the writers, presumably). Diesel also does the "I am Groot" lines in most of the dub versions of the Guardian movies.
AN: Remember when I said that this would only be out somewhere later this week? Yeah, about that, I combined Red Bull with a Low-Fi Playlist on Spotify and then I couldn't stop writing. Now it's 3AM, my fingers are sore, and I have classes today… Cheers!
Huge amount of thanks to all of my Patrons! Shaman95, Ijustlovereadin, Daniel Dorfmann, Sam, Carn Krauss, ReaperScythe, Thordur Hrafn, Kahn, Ryan Lahey, Vu, Roman Krupkin, thanks so much for your support! Stay Awesome!