Chapter 26: These Aliens are getting us Knowwhere

Rescuing Strange from that acupuncture torture had been easy after the enacting the kid's plan. The hard part was yet to come. The fast thinking on Peter's part had almost made him happy that he was here. Almost. That the kid had decided to stick with him to help didn't surprise him. He had wanted Peter to go home, he had wished that he had, but he knew that wouldn't happen. The kid was right to try and place some of the blame on him. After all, he had made him an Avenger.

Peter was too loyal and brave. It was part of the reason he had become Spiderman. But even with the training he'd had for the past month or two, Tony wasn't sure how much the kid understood what was at stake. In fact he felt like he was the only one who did, or maybe Strange and Bruce. No one else could understand what Thanos was or what would happen.

His conversation with Strange had been proof of that. He knew just how much that Stone could change everything. Though that didn't mean that Tony didn't want to punch him when he said he wouldn't give it up to save Peter. It made him regret ever getting involved with the magician and inviting him into the iniative. And the man was so cocky!

How could the man not understand the whole reason he had been doing all of this, the whole reason for all of his life's work was Thanos! Strange had just been a neurosurgeon until two years ago. Tony had been having nightmares, had been planning for this day for at least six years, since the Chitauri. After the vision he received from Wanda it just got worse. He was a futurist. He'd tried to plan, but somehow it hadn't been enough. At least taking the fight away from Earth would mean less destruction. Hopefully.

Now they had crashed on an alien planet. He was just lucky he and the kid were in synch enough to steer the ship, and that they had Strange to shield them.

"That was close, I owe you one."

Then Peter descended from the ceiling on his web. "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, I'm sorry."

Tony groaned. He liked that the kid was a nerd but sometimes he took it a little too far. Did all of his battle plans have to come from movies?"I do not want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?"

"He does this a lot?" Strange asked.

"All the time," Tony said rubbing his head.

"Uh, guys. I was leading up to it but something is coming."

A moment later a grenade of some sort rolled in between their feet blasting the three of them backwards. Someone screamed Thanos's name and flung knives which Strange managed to stop with one of his shields. His cloak took off and wrapped itself around the attacker pulling him to the floor.

Tony took on the one flying with a metal mask, but when they landed he'd been magnetized with some device and pulled towards the wall. He could hear Peter pleading behind him for an alien not to plant eggs in his chest. Someone else was telling a blanket of death to die. With a groan he pulled himself off the wall and flew towards the alien detained on the floor with the cloak. When he looked over he saw that the one with the metal mask had a type of gun towards Peter head and was shouting orders.

His mask dissolved, like it was made of nano particles. He looked human but that meant nothing. Thor and Loki looked human as well. He supposed he should have gotten it earlier from the conversation that the man was indeed from earth. Small pieces of speech gave it away. 'French frying', calling someone 'his girl,' but the Jesus thing had definitely given it away.

One thing was for sure. These three people were idiots, they seemed to be perpetually confused. "Wait, who are you?"

Peter pulled back his mask once the gun was taken from his head. "We're the Avengers, man."

Even in a chokehold he had a grin on his face at that statement. The insect lady who was webbed up, which would have been funny at another time, started to jump up and down. "You're the ones Thor told us about."

"You know Thor?" Tony demanded. "Is that where he's been all this time. Last we heard Asgard was destroyed then they were attacked by Thanos."

"Yeah, we know we rescued him."

"You, rescued him?" asked Peter. "Thor?"

"Yeah. Tall guy, not that good-looking, needed saving." The human looking one answered.

Peter looked up at him in disbelief then turned to Tony with a look that said, 'Seriously?' They'd need to talk about that later, though he had to agree, Thor was ridiculously handsome. Just not as much as him.

"Where is he now?" Strange asked.

"Took one our pods and two of our teammates to get a hammer or something. He wanted to kill Thanos."

"Wait, Thor doesn't have his hammer?" Strange looked between Tony and the man.

"Bruce said it was destroyed. Not important. At least he's gonna be helping. Now, who are you people?"

"We're the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"The what?" Peter asked as he stepped back.

"Saved Xandar from Ronin the Accuser and the Kree, stopped Ego from taking over every planet, you know…"

"And you said you're looking for someone. Gammy? Gamra? Grandma?"

"Gamora," the man corrected angrily.

"She is the daughter of Thanos. Her sister Nebula told us to meet her here."

"Why on earth would you be looking for Thanos's daughters?" Strange asked as his cloak wrapped itself back around his shoulders.

"Adopted."

Tony rolled his eyes. Same excuse Thor gave for Loki. Why did this always seem to be the case? "Yeah, but why?"

"We went to save the reality stone. Thor said the Asgardians had given it to the Collector on Knowhere?"

"Nowhere?" Peter asked looking between the man and Tony confused. "How could you go Nowhere?"

"It's a place. Anyway, Thanos had already gotten it. And the power stone from Xandar. We didn't even know about that until Thor told us."

"The Nova Prime promised to protect the stone," said the gray guy on the floor.

"Yeah, but Gamra…"

"Thanos took her!" yelled the man. "Happy? He took her. Nebula said it was so he could find the soul stone. She was ready to die but he took her!"

"Alright, alright," Tony said. "Either way, we're on the same side. Stop Thanos from using the Infinity stones and save everyone. Right? Where are we and who exactly are all of you?"

"I'm Star-lord, man. Legendary outlaw and hero."

"And I'm assuming you have a real name, being from earth?" Strange said with a raised eyebrow.

"Peter. Peter Quill."

"Really? My name's Peter too. Peter Parker. I'm Spider-man."

"Why would you want to be a spider-person?" Quill asked disgusted. "From what I remember they're as gross as A'askavarrians or Chitauri."

"As whats now?" Tony asked wondering just how long this guy had been in space. At least he knew what Chitauri were. "Okay, the rest of you."

"Ooh! I am Mantis. And this is Drax the Destroyer."

"The Destroyer," Tony repeated. "Got it. Well, I'm Tony Stark. Iron-Man and this is Dr. Stephen Strange. Now again, where are we?"

"If Nebula's coordinates were right, then Titan," Quill said as he turned and started to walk rummaging in his bag.

His teammates followed him and after exchanging a glance so did the Avengers. Outside the metal from the ship wasn't the only wreckage. It was everywhere on the planet even floating in the sky. Luckily Tony had his suit to help him adjust to the gravity and the air seemed to be breathable. This other guy from earth had lived in space awhile and he seemed to be fine.

Strange was levitating as they walked with his cloak but Peter and the other insect lady seemed to be enjoying the wonky gravity. Giggles came from the lady as she bounced and Peter was experimenting with his webs and new spider legs. They weren't the only ones who had noticed the strange gravity.

Quill was toying with some device. "What the hell happened to this planet? It's eight degrees off its axis. The gravitational pull is all over the place."

"Yeah. But we got one advantage. He's coming to us."Tony's mind was reeling. At least now they had more allies. "We'll use it. All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one."

He needed to know more about what these Guardians guy could do before he had a real plan. He just hoped what they had said about saving the Galaxy wasn't just bragging. One of the things they mentioned had seemed familiar, an incident in Missouri years ago. "It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitley don't want to dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet."

A large yawn interrupted him. "Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"

The Drax guy just stared at him blankly and said he stopped listening after Tony had said they had a plan. He had the urge to facepalm. He had thought some of the people he worked with on Earth were idiots. This was…just…. And then Quill admitted it! Saying they couldn't just not wing it.

Peter stopped playing around and landed next to Tony. "What exactly is it that they do?"

The insect lady looked at him seriously and said, "Kick names, take ass."

"Yeah. That's right."

Tony and Peter just stared at them both with disbelief. Peter looked to Tony questioningly. He sighed. "All right. Just get over here please. Mr. Lord. Can you get your folks to circle up?" Great. Now he was starting to sound like the kid with the whole Mr. thing.

"Mr. Lord. Star-Lord is fine," Quill said nodding his friends over.

The conversation that followed was even worse. Quill refused to even listen to the plan and started with one of his own. Then bald guy mentioned something about a dance-off that saved the universe. Tony just really hoped that these guys had actually saved the universe, but by their talk it was starting to seem like they were more trouble than help.

Peter was looking at him questioningly as Quill proclaimed Footloose the greatest movie in history. Great. Now the kid had someone to talk old movies with. Now they would never get anything done and it seemed like they were in worse shape than before.

"Peter!"

Both Star-Lord and Spider-man looked at him. Right, space guy's name was Peter too. Tony rubbed the ridge of his nose. "I don't need you encouraging Flash Gordon here with pop culture refrences and vice versa."

"You just did it too!" Peter complained.

"Flash Gordon. By the way, that's a compliment. Don't forget, I'm half human. So that 50% of me that's stupid… that's 100 % you."

How long had this guy been in space? At least since the 80s it seemed. He couldn't be very old. But he'd also said he was only half human. Maybe he'd been born in space? His human parent had told him about the older movies and stuff? Either way it seemed like space didn't give a great education, or maybe it just depended on the planet and place. That was probably it. What ever it was, this guy and his friends didn't have it.

Mantis interrupted their conversation by pointing out Strange, who had been silent the whole time. He seemed to be meditating but he was glowing green from the Time Stone's energy and spasming.

As Tony ran over he stopped floating. While Tony managed to catch him and assured him he was okay, the others approached behind him. Peter's voice broke through. "Hey, what exactlywas that?"

"I went forward in time to view alternate futures. To see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

"That could be infinite," Tony said.

"Doesn't matter. How many of those did you see?" Star-Lord asked.

"Fourteen million six hundred and five."

Tony was already doing the math in his head before he asked the question, but with Thanos's power and the infinity stones in the mix, his math might not be as reliable as a future seen with the power of the Time Stone. "How many did we win?"

Strange met his eyes. Tony thought the man had been cold before but now he looked haunted with unimaginable pains. What he must have seen, what strength he had to do that…Tony couldn't continue his though when Strange interrupted with the dreaded answer. "One."