Sign of the Times

10

Tony, getting it, asked, "You're from Earth?"

"I'm not from Earth. I'm from Missouri."

"Yeah, that's on Earth, dip-shit; What are you hassling us for?"

Peter, sounding slightly crushed, questioned, "So, you're not with Thanos?"

Quill retorted indignantly, "With Thanos?! No! I'm here to kill Thanos. He took my girl- Wai- who are you?"

Peter de-helmeted. "We're the Avengers, man."

"Oh."

"You're the ones Thor told us about!" Mantis realized.

"You know Thor?!" Tony asked.

"Yeah," Quill replied. "Tall guy, not that good-looking," Peter gave him an incredulous look, "needed saving."

Doctor Strange paused and asked, "Where is he now?"

NIDAVELLIR

Eitri was showing Thor, Rocket and Groot the mold for Stormbreaker.

"This is the plan?" Rocket asked. "We're gonna hit him with a brick?"

"It's a mold," Eitri explained. "A king's weapon. Meant to be the greatest in Asgard. In theory, it could even summon the Bifrost."

"Did it have a name?" Thor questioned.

"Stormbreaker."

"That's a bit much," Rocket commented.

"So how do we make it?" Thor wondered.

"You'll have to restart the forge," Eitri replied. "Awaken the heart of a dying star."

"Rabbit, fire up the pod."

TITAN

The remaining Avengers and the Guardians were starting to work together. Quill was measuring the planet's tilt.

"The heck happened to this planet?" Quill wondered. "It's eight degrees off its axis. Gravitational pull is all over the place."

In the background, Mantis was jumping joyfully in a low gravity spot.

"Yeah, we got one advantage," Tony said. "He's coming to us. We'll use it. All right, I have a plan. Or at least the beginnings of one. It's pretty simple. We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the Gauntlet." Drax yawned. "Are you yawning? In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you hear what I said?"

"I stopped listening after you said, "We need a plan,"" Drax said.

Tony said to Quill, "Okay, Mr. Clean is on his own page."

"See, "not winging it" isn't really what they do," Quill told him.

"Uh, what exactly is it that they do?" Peter asked.

Mantis answered in as fierce a tone as she could muster, "Kick names, take ass."

"Yeah, that's right," Drax agreed quietly as he settled into a stance facing the remaining Avengers.

Tony paused with an expression of deep hopelessness before saying, "All right, just get over here, please. Mr. Lord, can you get your folks to circle up?"

""Mr. Lord,"" Quill repeated. "Star-Lord is fine." He motioned to Drax and Mantis.

"We gotta coalesce. 'Cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude...."

"Dude, don't call us plucky. We don't know what it means. All right, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good." Peter followed the conversation back and forth like a squash rally.