The "G" Shield

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Space [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, he just gave this to you?" he asked Yondu incredulously, holding a small rectangular box that glowed with streaks of white and blue, something that was given to Yondu which would broadcast Yondu's current location to Ego who would then come to pick Quill up.

Apparently, Yondu had a bad feeling about delivering Petery to Quill so he never really contacted Ego about Peter and Ego too never contacted Yondu about it but the machine that Ego had given Yondu, to inform Ego about their location, still worked, and why wouldn't it, it was built by a celestial.

The weakest and possibly dumbest, least threatening celestial but a Celestial all the same. A species standing at the pinnacle of the universe, capable of matter and energy manipulation at wholesale rates.

"Ya, look, the man paid really well and while I wouldn't go so far as to say that Quill was worth that sweet sweet bounty, the weight on my conscience wasn't worth any bounty. So, if you people are going to deal with that monster of a man, be my guest. I will be far away from wherever that happens," Saying his piece, Yondu exited Milano, not meeting Quill's heavily disappointed gaze.

Well, they had all they wanted, a way to stage the final conflict, only if it were that simple. He remembered from his now spotty knowledge that Ego was traveling on a rather advanced spaceship, as an avatar, along with Mantis, when he found Quill. They then travelled to Ego's main body.

If they activated this, they would, at best, get the avatar coming to their location. They would have to somehow trick Ego into taking them all on his main body and he was unsure if that would be the right course to take because he was sure that Ego would sense the energy concentration in both himself and Thor as soon as he set his sights on both of them.

It would also not be hard for them to assume that Ego knew about Thor Odinson, the Crown Prince of Asgard but that was for later. First, they had to meet Ego or Ego's avatar and get him to reveal the location of his true body.

Now, it was possible to somehow deceive Ego into taking PEter to his main body but that would require some acting and restraint from Quil, both of which he was short of. He also had no time to waste here.

Every minute wasted on not reaching Nidavellir, Thanos got closer to having a working, Infinity Gauntlet.

"Well, we got what we wanted. When do we leave? Know any uninhabited star systems nearby?" He asked the Guardians and the only answer he received was silence as Quill rushed out of the ship, probably running after Yondu.

He sighed at that. Of Course, the main character must have his emotional moment with his father figure, dysfunctional as Yondu might have been. 

He looked at Thor, "inform me when he is ready to leave," He had something actually productive to do in the meantime.

Thor nodded, not stopping eating, even for a moment, for all the time he had been in the Milano. God, the man could eat, and not even put on a ton of weight as a result. Some Godly bullshit.

He entered the lower level and after creating a cube all around him, he floated mid air, cross legged as he took out the container in which the Power Stone was kept by Xandar. If he could get even novice level proficiency in wielding the freaking Power Stone, his power levels would skyrocket so much that even dealing with Ego single handedly would not be much of an issue.

The events in the movie might even happen because Quill knew that his father was dangerous but he didn't know Ego's role in the death of Quill's mother. That was the reason Quill would rebel against his father, disorienting Ego enough that he didn't notice the big ass bomb that was planted right next to his brain, allowing the Guardians of the Galaxy to kill the weakest Celestial ever.

Still, he wasn't keen on depending on Quill of all people for their plan to succeed, so practice with the Power Stone it is.

He pressed his finger on the container that kept the Power Stone sealed and frowned when it beeped red. That was odd, Irani Rael had assured that his bio credentials had been updated into the Master Log. he tried again and frowned harder when the same red beeping happened, only at a much faster pace.

His eyes narrowed at that. Did they actually lie to him? What was she thinking?

He didn't know and didn't care as well, he was going to use the Power Stone as a weapon on his side. It made no sense not to use such a potent weapon in his fight against Thanos, especially since Thanos was going to use them and they knew it.

He created a sharp barrier and was about to force it open when, at the last moment, the barrier fizzled.

He sighed, resigned, and frustrated as he dispelled the cube and shoved the container into his dimensional space.

"Damn that woman," he muttered to himself as he realised her game. He did tell her that Thanos was seeking all the Infinity Stones in a bid to replicate his slaughter that he was only doing one by one for now. 

But it was just his word for that. She might have given up the Power Stone because she had no way of effectively countering him. He didn't even need to hurt anyone to take the Powerwer Stone from them and that played a major part in her decision as she begrudgingly handed over the Infinity Stone to him.

But that didn't mean that she trusted him any more than Thanos, it would seem. Because if she did, she wouldn't have lied about the access. Now, he was more than sure that if he breached the container forcefully, it would act as confirmation for her that he sued Thanos just as an excuse to get the Infinity Stone from her.

And it might even backfire on him, as instead of warning her allies about Thanos and the threat he represented to the entire universe, she might broadcast that the Green Guardian from Earth, was in possession of an Infinity Stone, giving him enemies instead of allies.

"Shit," He swore once again as he realised that he was quite literally carrying just a dead weight on him, with no effective and safe way of using the Power Stone. He could have tried using the Power Stone using his barriers and see how it would interface with his powers. He had some ideas about creating makeshift vessels to house the Infinity Stone, mainly because of his power to shape his barriers and also his capacity to enchant his barriers with dimensional energy, allowing him to quite literally carve different properties on his energy barriers.

Alas, that would not be happening with the Power Stone. The powerup he could get from the Power Stone would be legendary but he wanted the support from the rest of the galaxy more. That was worth more than just one juiced up combatant.

Besides, in the worst case scenario, he could throw any caution to the wind and use the Stone with his barriers, if it looked like Thanos was going to win. If that was going to happen anyway, why would he worry about any potential injury from using an Infinity Stone?

Frustrated with one avenue to an easy powerup closed down, he headed to the upper levels. Maybe, Quill had come back and they could get out of this place.

Unfortunately, Quill hadn't returned and it was only the other guardians, along with Thor. He sighed, once again, and asked the Guardians, "Hey, is there any place, close by, where we could have a very destructive confrontation without anybody close by that could get hurt?"

"How destructive are we talking?" Rocket, the man (Raccoon?) with the right questions.

"Destructive enough to destroy the planet we are standing on," He summarily informed Rocket and there was the sound of crickets in the background as he could feel everyone's gaze on him. Rocket's eyes had widened minutely before he adopted a cool expression.

"Let me look into it," Saying so, he went to his terminal.

"What do you mean, planetary destruction? What is going to happen? Who is Ego?" Gamora asked him.

"Ego is a–"

"An asshole, my father, that is. Where is the cube?" Quill came barging into the ship, with tears streaming down his face. Apparently, the conversation did not go well with Yondu.

"Peter, what happened?" Gamora asked him but shrugged her hand off and continued searching for the communications device.

Thankfully, he had already kept it in his hands, away from Peter's grubby hands. He was going to inform that to Peter when Rocket piped up from the cockpit.

"Got it!"

He passed Peter as he saw the small planet with two moons, named SR-901, with an oxygen based atmosphere, suitable for all the people in the ship currently.

"Perfect, let's go," he ordered Rocket before turning back to the team.

"Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute, where are we going? And you don't get to order me around." Quill said as he marched up straight at him.

He really didn't have time for this.

"Rocket? Can you take us there on your own or do you need QUill's help?" 

Rocket hesitated only for a moment before shaking his head and turning back to the cockpit. Well, that was as good as an answer>

"What? Wh-" Quill's eyes rolled back into his head as he fainted at the well positioned neck chop, something that he perfected back on Earth to easily subdue multiple baselines humans without any fuss.

Gamora took hold of Quill and dragged him back to the lower levels, all the while glaring at him. Drax helped her with it. Groot only looked on from the background with no apparent opinions.

"What? He was hoping to meet his father anyway," It was actually Thor who was looking at him with judgement, strangely enough.

"You seem to have some preconceived opinions about this Peter Quill, for some reason, Green Guardian. Care to share?" Thor said as he flicked the cup of ale at him, which sparked before appearing right in front of him, still sparking with blue electricity.

He caught the mug on reflex, looking at the arcing electricity in shock and awe.

Okay, that was new.

"My Brother is not the only one with the seidr tricks," Thor smirked at him as he gestured for him to sit at the table, while the ship jerked a bit as Rocket took them on their way to the deserted planet, which was quite close by.

He sat at the table and took a swig of the ale, and immediately regretted doing so, as he had to fight the urge to spray it all on Thor.

"I have seen a possible future." He created a silencing barrier around them before telling Thor.

Thor's brows rose at that, "I didn't know that any human could perform the art of divination."

"No, it is not like divination. It is as if I was shown a singular possible future. Something that is already off the rails because of my existence but in that future, I saw Victory being in our grasp. We were about to win, if not for, if not for—"

"Quill."

He looked up at Thor who looked at him with understanding in his eyes.

Okay, just what the hell happened to Thor in the past year or so? In Asgardian terms, that was merely an afternoon nap in comparison to their lifespan. How could Thor change so much in that short time span?

"Yes." He settled on that single word, his mind working furiously as he tried to make sense of the current rendition of Thor. Becoming stronger with his lighting after reducing his dependency on Mjolnir was one thing but learning magic like that?

And becoming so much smarter, so much aware somehow, that was some anomaly but before he could properly address them, Thor responded.

"You said it yourself, Jack Sullivan of Midgard, the future you saw was only a possible one. Something that might or might not even come true. So why base your opinion of people on a future that might never come to be true," Thor said and he was really struck by the difference in Thor.

Damn, he might have to up his game. At this rate, Thor might really end up becoming the "Strongest Avenger".

So, he nodded at Thor and went back to the cockpit.

"ETA - 4 hours," Rocket bit out at him.

He sighed once again at that. He couldn't really expect anyone to like him at this point, his stupidity in letting his emotions and opinions from his past life about Quill's stupid actions ended up tainting all his interactions with the team and most likely, any chance of maintaining any cordial relationship with the team.

There was nothing he could do, at the moment. All he could do was get this Ego stuff out of his plate and head on to Asgard, oust Loki, and then to Nidavellir, in that order. They couldn't afford to confront Odin, and let him die before getting Nidavellir in order, because He was not an opponent he could take lightly, even with the new and improved Thor beside him.

He wondered how Bruce and Betty were faring back on Earth. If Bruce could get out of his morose mood, they would have another strong powerhouse in their camp.

He just hoped that his existence and his escapades across the galaxy didn't force Thanos to accelerate his plans to gather all the Infinity Stones.

If he remembered correctly, there were theories floating around in his past life that Thanos only moved to gather the Infinity Stones, in a blitz strike, to make sure that the Universe couldn't regroup and mount an effective defense, was when both the Ancient One and Odin Borson were both dead.

Both powerhouses at the pinnacle of the galaxy. Both capable of calling forth power far greater than what baseline Thanos could deal with. Both with armies at their beck and call, with extensive support systems. Both capable of hitting him right at the heart of his operations and both allied, loosely at least.

If he thought like that, it would make sense that Thanos would avoid having to clash with two uber powerful but so very obviously mortal enemies while he himself was immortal, with no hurry to complete his plan.

If he thought like that, it would indeed make more sense for Thanos to begin his crusade only when the two giants on the board were dead, something that was coming up very soon, if his memories were correct.

God, he hoped that the comic conspiracy theorists from his previous world were right. Otherwise, they might be screwed.

Royally, at that.

Word Count - 2561

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