(MCU) Arcs Collide: Chapter 13 – Lack of Good Judgment

Chapter 13 – Lack of Good Judgment

Tony was frozen in place. He wished he could say it was because of the appearance of the members of the so-called Guardians, but in truth, those three words from the green lady made his brain shut down.

Rhodey quickly took command of the situation. He turned toward the group and began speaking, “Maybe introductions before you scare the crap out of us?”

The one that looked like a human and was wearing what seemed like a maroon trench coat stepped forward and began speaking dramatically, “Excuse us, we bear terrible news…”

“Is this guy serious?” asked the deep voice of Luke Cage in a deadpan manner.

“No. His name is Peter Quill, not Serious,” answered the big blue guy with huge muscles, his face showing complete sincerity.

The green woman sighed in exasperation before taking a calming breath and speaking, “I’m sorry about those two. The big guy is Drax. His people have no concepts like metaphors, sarcasm, or rhetorical questions. The dramatic guy, as you already heard, is called Peter, and he is from your planet.”

Tony couldn’t help himself and snorted, commenting jokingly, “Weren’t you far away from Kansas?”

Peter looked confused, clearly not getting Tony’s reference, which made the space human respond, “I’m from Missouri, actually. And call me Star-Lord.”

Before any of them could comment on that, the animal sitting on the shoulder of the tree snorted and shot back at the human next to it, “It’s your made-up name.”

Tony blinked twice and blurted before he could stop himself, “Holy shit. Until now, I was sure you were some kind of build-a-bear.”

Then, just to increase the shock value, the tree spoke, “I am Groot.”

Rhodey looked too shocked to respond himself, but Carol just sighed and was about to say something when the raccoon beat her to it by yelling at the tree, “I’m not a bear or a raccoon! I’m Rocket.”

The green lady tried to get everyone on track. “The one with the antennas is Mantis. The blue one is my sister Nebula, and I am Gamora. We are the Guardians of the Galaxy.”

Carol stepped forward. “I heard about you guys. You do good work, took a big load off me. I’m Captain Marvel, by the way. And this is the Avengers Tower.”

While most of the group seemed to recognize the name Captain Marvel and looked very appreciative toward Carol, the blue lady—Nebula—had her gaze fixed on Tony. She said in a hoarse, deep, and emotionless voice, “Yeah, yeah. We’re here for him.”

Tony pointed to himself, raising an eyebrow. He couldn’t resist sassing her, “Moi?”

Gamora sent her sister a tired look before she nodded at Tony and explained, “Yes. We were looking for Iron Man. The hero who managed to instill fear in the Mad Titan after thwarting his plans for the first time while destroying a good portion of his army. The suit you are currently wearing matches the description we’ve heard.”

Tony nodded calmly. He already knew that much from Carol and Loki. He looked the green lady, clearly the leader, in the eyes and asked, “My name is Tony Stark, and I am Iron Man, but you all can call me Tony. What do you need from me?”

Quill spoke first, and he was actually shuddering as he spoke, “We heard of Thanos’s attack on the Asgardians in the attempt to get the Space Stone. When we reached there, we found no evidence of a battle, but soon after we got there, we received a distress call from the Collector.”

Both Carol and Loki rolled their eyes, but it was Carol who spoke, “That asshole? Never took him to be one to ask for help.”

Loki nodded in agreement, but then his eyes widened and he said loudly with a small amount of fear in his voice, “But he has the Reality Stone!”

“Shit,” was the all-around response of the Guardians, except for the tree that, for some reason, kept saying, “I am Groot.” Then Quill took a deep breath before saying, “We thought so, and that’s why we decided it was a trap.” Quill smirked at Gamora and said, “See, babe? Told you it would be a terrible idea to go there.”

The raccoon shook his head in disbelief before he said in the same wondering tone, “Quill was right. It truly is the end of the universe.”

Quill glared at the raccoon, but it was Gamora who spoke with closed eyes and a pained look on her face. “So he has the Reality Stone and the Space Stone now.”

Loki smirked at her and said in a smug voice, “Actually…” He raised his hand again with his palm upwards, and with a green flash of light, the glowing cube appeared.

The Guardians gasped, but most of them had a happy smile on their faces. The exceptions were Nebula, who still had the same scowl on her face but her body did seem more relaxed now, and the teenage tree, who had his head in some video game.

A thought came to Tony, and with a frown, he asked the aliens across from him, “If Thanos already had the stone, why did he want you to come? Do you have another one?”

Drax, Mantis, and Rocket seemed confused too after the question, while Quill and Gamora looked uncomfortable. Finally, Nebula came out and said it, using the same flat tone, “No. But we have something just as valuable.” Her black eyes looked onto her sister.

Gamora sighed before explaining, “I’m the only one who knows the location of the Soul Stone and the means to retrieve it. He will need me to get it, and only me.” Now even Nebula looked at her sister with a blank face, so Gamora was forced to elaborate, “To get the Soul Stone, one needs to sacrifice the one they love most. A soul for a soul.”

Quill winced, but Nebula nodded in understanding and said emotionlessly, “And you were the only one he loved from all of us.”

“Sorry, who is ‘us’? And why does a maniacal tyrant love you enough to be worth the Soul Stone?” Rhodey asked.

Gamora took a deep breath in preparation before she spoke clearly, “Me and Nebula. We are his daughters.”

Tony could see the shift in the faces of the heroes at his side except Loki. Yay, dad issues club. Tony decided to speak before anything went wrong, “Let’s all remember that the sins of the father are not those of the children. Both of them are obviously against him now.”

Then Tony looked at the team from space and added, “But they have important information that I think we should tune the council in on. Let’s go down to a conference room and go on from there. Who is hungry?”

As Tony began walking toward the elevator, Friday whispered in his ears that everyone was following.

Right now, all of the Avengers that stood on the roof and the Guardians were sitting in Conference Room D. In front of them was a big screen that displayed a video chat with the Accords council.

Rhodey and Carol had just finished debriefing the representatives on everything they knew about the Guardians and their warning.

“I am sorry to ask this, but can we trust those so-called daughters of Thanos?” asked Dr. Heinrich Wagner, the German representative.

Tony was the one to answer that in a hard tone. “We can’t categorize people because of their parents. Gamora and Nebula proved on which side they were by securing the Power Stone.”

Most of the members nodded in agreement. The representative of Australia, Prof. Amelia Dawson, was the one to return everybody’s attention to the matter at hand. “Dr. Stark is correct, and we cannot afford to refuse any help at this point.”

The next to speak was Rosalind Price, the new American representative after the arrest of Ross. “It’s good that Dr. Stark’s presence keeps Thanos at bay from our planet at the moment, but Ms. Gamora, do you have any assumption on how long that will last?”

Gamora seemed to consider the matter for a moment before replying, “It will be a while. Thanos believes that coming to Terra is like courting death itself, thanks to the threat he sees in Iron Man. He will not risk it without having as much power as he can at hand. Right now, he possesses the Reality Stone. He will probably go after the Power Stone next, and he will try to look for the Soul Stone too.”

Rhodey turned from the screen to look at her before pointing out, “You said you are the only one who knows where to find it.”

Rhodey didn’t point out what it would take for Thanos to actually get the stone even if he knew where it was.

Gamora nodded before speaking again. “As far as I know, I am. But even if he finds the location, there are other protections around it that I do not believe Thanos can pass.”

Julien Dubois, the French representative, spoke next, “How much time would you assume we have before he will give up and come to our planet for the three stones here?”

Nebula was the one to answer this one before Gamora could. “I stayed with him longer and saw how his plans changed after he learned everything on Stark. He will attempt to reach the Soul Stone, but once he fails, he will come for Terra. We have about four months before he will arrive for your stones.”

“Allow us a few minutes to discuss this issue,” said Rachel MacKenzie, the Canadian representative and the head of the council.

With agreement from the Avengers, the screen went blank.

When half an hour passed without any response from the council, Tony stood up and with a clap of his hands asked the entire room, “Who wants some food while we wait?”

Tony got enthusiastic agreement from everyone, but when he started picking up the phone, another thought occurred to him. He looked at the Guardians and asked hesitantly, “Do you guys eat Earth food or do you need something else?”

When they looked at him confused, Tony shrugged a little awkwardly and elaborated, “Like, does the tree need UV lights or water instead of food? Should I bring some good trash for the raccoon or bugs for the bug lady? Does the big guy take his meat raw?”

He got personal responses from each of the parties he just addressed… insulted?

Drax was the first to speak, confusion coloring his voice. “It is very difficult to try devouring a still-moving beast.”

Mantis was next, her voice no better than Drax’s. “I am not a bug, I am Mantis. Who are those bugs you talked about?”

Of course, the tree just said, “I am Groot,” which by this point Tony was pretty sure was the only thing he could say.

Then the raccoon spoke, starting with agreeing with whatever the tree said, “Yeah, tell him, Groot. I’m no damn raccoon!”

Huh, so the tree does speak some sort of language. Good to know.

Quill stood up and tried to calm his friends before talking to Tony. “Anything you get will probably be fine.”

Probably?! So he can have a dead alien in his tower if he chooses the wrong dish. Great. Well, there is one thing that if they can’t survive, they have no reason to live for, so Tony smirked and declared, “It’s pizza then.”

Quill immediately perked up and yelled, “Hell yeah! It’s been a long time since I had a good pizza.”

When his friends looked confused at his reaction, Quill was quick to explain to them what exactly pizza was. Tony would admit it was interesting to hear Quill compare the components to alien foods.

Tony ordered enough pizza not only for all the people in the conference room but for all the teens and the ones stuck on babysitting duty. Half an hour later, the pizzas came, and everyone dug in.

It was almost three hours after the council left to discuss matters that they called the Avengers back.

When everyone was seated on both sides of the screen, Tony took notice of the worried looks a few of the representatives had while others had an outright furious look on their faces. Tony began to have a sinking feeling about that.

Rachel MacKenzie was the first to speak. “After reviewing the new information and examining the timeline as it stands now, we have reached a few decisions.” She took a deep breath and said casually, “In unanimous voice, the Earth Defense Program will receive everything it will need to move forward its completion to fit the new timeframe given to us. Do you believe it will be possible, Dr. Stark?”

Tony took a moment to take stock of the parts of the program that were already completed, such as the deep space sensors, and the ones that still required a fair amount of work, such as the city energy domes. Eventually, he gave a firm nod and said, “If SI and Wakanda will be allowed the time and resources to focus on this project, I believe it could be done, Madam Secretary.”

“That’s good,” replied the head of the council before she cleared her throat nervously and said in a falsely calm voice, “With 53 percent for the suggestion, the decision has been passed to grant the group dubbed as ‘The Rogues’ a conditional pardon…”

Tony’s blood froze, even though he had literal fire flowing through his veins now.