The "G" Shield - By IdleMuse

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Xandar [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

Well, he couldn't say that this was unexpected.

As he stood before Irani Rael, in what should be strong enough handcuffs to stop even someone like Spider Man from moving, he couldn't help but feel as if this was the consequence of his own actions.

"So, Good Morning?" He offered to Irani Rael who did not look amused at his actions, and instead made all the guards leave the room, despite their vehement protests.

As soon as the door closed, she sighed and leaned back into her seat, in apparently exhaustion.

"Tell me, Mr.Sullivan, have I or Xandar as a civilization ever offended you? You just raised a tier 5 alarm, the highest one we have, and disturbed the lives of millions of individuals on just a whim," She looked at him with oh so weary eyes.

"Believe it not, what I did today was just a precursor to what will happen soon," He shrugged, the action breaking the handcuffs as he leaned back and sat down on a sofa made up of his barriers. It was hard, yes, but it looked cool.

"What are you insinuating?" her voice lowered an octave as the pressure in the surroundings increased, with the lights dimming or rather, gathering around her, the Nova Force she housed within her body reacting to her will.

Disregarding the pressure and the unnecessary theatrics, he replied, "Well, if I had not come today, and sent my energy signature across the cosmos, for anybody who was looking, well, let's just say that very soon, you would have had a very purple problem on your hands."

Her eyes narrowed before her face went pale. She whispered, horrified, "No! Thanos.."

"Yup, the purple Scrotum is on his way, or will be on his way here, soon enough."

"For what? We have never antagonised the Mad Titan and targeting us does not seem his MO. He mostly targets weaker civilisations for his so called "culling." Targeting us would just paint an even bigger target on his back and frankly, not worth the hassle." Irani spoke rapidly even as a dashboard of sorts appeared in front of her which showcased the location of everything around their solar system.

"Well, Ms.Rael, you are forgetting one thing. A very important thing." He emphasised as he waved his hand and created a small 3D hologram of the Power Stone, only it was green because, well, it was a hardcoded thing of his powers that everything has to be green. He was "greenwashed" as it were.

Her eyes squinted as she looked at the hologram before they widened immensely as she, almost violently, tapped on the display in front of her.

Knowing that she got the message, he leaned back on his throne, well, sofa but he liked to pretend it was a throne.

"The Power Stone." He looked up as she looked at him, haggard, even more so than before.

He nodded, "Yup. He will be here for the Power Stone. He probably already knows that I am here but if that will only hasten his response or stop him in his tracks, only time will tell. BUt I can tell you one thing, Ms.Rael, you are in no condition to protect the stone, neither from Thanos, nor from me." He declared to her, knowing what it would look like.

Her eyes snapped to him, squinting dangerously, her hands lighting up in a silent gesture of power, "Is that a threat, Mr.Sullivan? Because let me tell you, the Nova Force is not afraid of you, nor of Thanos. We will fight to our last breaths,"

He waved her off, leaning back in a relaxed manner, to deliberately show her that he did not take her or her Nova Force seriously, at all.

If it was Rael in her hayday, she could have given him a serious fight and would probably have sent him packing, after a very heavy fight but he knew that her powers had waned considerably, and the Nova Force as a whole itself was a shadow of what it once was.

Come to think of it, Kree, Skrulls, Asgard, Nova Force, The Elders of the Universe, the Elder Gods of Earth, the Sorcerer Supremes, and more.

All of the above forces once held dominion over one thing or another. Now, some of them had fallen off their peak so much so that they could barely be called a shell of their true self, some had outright disappeared or split into small chunks that were barely worth mentioning, or some like the Nova Force who chose to retain a chunk of their powers in exchange for sacrificing the sheer amount of versatility and power that they once held.

It was like the universe itself had some sort of law. Empires fell and rose, some fell all the way to the bottom, some stumbled before stabilising and some rose and rose, until they left the universe completely, becoming a multiversal species, something that had only happened exactly once in the long lifespan of this universe.

Oh yeah, he had still not addressed the Nova Prime.

"Yeah, look, a single Ronan, armed with the Power Stone gave you so much trouble that I had to practically rescue you guys just so that Xandar would remain standing."

"--The only reason we had so much trouble with Ronan was because of the very thing that you are asking from us," Irani explained her reasoning and they would have been right if it was not Thanos that was gunning for something they had.

He sighed, "Let me make this very clear for you, Nova Prime. So please, think of this through the lens of Nova Prime, keeping in mind the future of Xandar. Thanos, me, and Carol Danvers, are all beings capable of individually wiping out Xandar, without any outside assistance. Thanos is not like Roanna who will require the Power Stone to do anything."

Irani's eyes turned defeated as she was confronted with the truth of the matter.

"Thanos wants the Power Stone, I can guarantee that. Now, the only reason he would come to Xandar was for the Power Stone. Besides, this is just a courtesy call. I am perfectly capable of taking the Power Stone from your grasp, or from anyone save for a select few, without much damage to myself. Trust me, I am sparing your civilisation from losing a majority of the Nova Force, including yourself, because that is what will happen should Thanos attack and you fight him with the Nova Force, something that will surely kill you, even if Thanos does not,"

He finished his tirade and waited for her response.

"We cannot give up the Power Stone for just empty assurances, Mr.Sullivan. No matter how much I want to trust you," She informed him and therein lies the crux of the matter.

"What do you need?" He straightforwardly asked her.

"For now? Answers. But in the future, I would expect you to help defend Xandar exactly once if the need arises."

Well, that was very much acceptable in his book.

"Alright, that is fine by me. What do you want to know?"

".. First of all, why does Thanos want the Infinity Stones? Even he cannot wield them without–"

And after the impromptu Q&A session, the Nova Prime was so much more agreeable, after she understood Thanos' plan to enact his culling on a universal scale, using all the six Infinity Stones, something that was still of an impossibility according to her because, even if Thanos used some sort of device that nullified most of the damage, he would still not survive because he was not a Celestial. Only the strongest of the Celestials would have any chance of wielding all six Stones and in a way, she was right.

Although, she was also aware that Thanos was completely mad and would probably not even mind dying if he got to complete his goal of culling half of the entire universe.

"I assure you, the Stones will be scattered across the cosmos, once I am sure that Thanos has breathed his last, and the same for his Black Order," He assured her after getting the Power Stone sealed in a container that, according to her, should be able to suppress the energy signature of the Power Stone completely.

Doubtful but he was not going to insult the woman to her face.

"I understand. I will warn everyone in my contacts about Thanos' dastardly plans. Thank you so much for the warning." The meaning of the words was not lost on him.

If Thanos actually moved for the Infinity Stones, all well and good, and all her allies would come together to fight Thanos but if he actually just used the Stone for his own use, well then, he might just find himself being harassed constantly by pirates, rogues, government operatives and more.

Not that it would be beyond his ability to handle, especially armed with the Power Stone but still, the threat of mutually assured destruction was pretty clear.

Now, to the matter at hand, the real reason he had come all this way.

"Do you have any idea about the whereabouts of the Guardians of the Galaxy?" He asked Irani Rael who looked completely off put by his line of questioning.

She looked confused for a moment before a familiar looking man stepped forward and whispered something into her ear, making her eyes light up in realisation.

"Ah, are you perhaps speaking about the same Guardians of the Galaxy that had their entire crime record expunged in exchange for donating the entire 4 billion units as rescue fund and the accolades they received to be part of the group that stopped Ronan until you stepped in?" Irani looked at him with a barely concealed smirk on his face.

He smiled and was about to reply but he was informed rather snidely by the person standing beside Irani Rael.

"The same group that is now wanted for the theft of multiple anulax batteries? Along with violating the agreement of not arming the ship that was given to them with experimental dangerous weapons, on top of taking rather criminal bounties, some of which resulted in millions of units in damage to Xandarian property and outposts?"

His smile fell off as the latest "exploits" of the group were made known to him.

"Damn," He muttered as the man continued to go on and on about the crimes of the Guardians of the Galaxy, the latest of which was the theft of an entire prosthetic arm from the very ship port that orbited the planet, and the arm was that of an important foreign envoy to Xandar, bringing into the question Xandar's ability to effectively protect foreign emissaries.

A scandal on literally the galactic scale.

He winced as Irani subjected him to a very pronounced smirk.

"I suppose that you guys don't really have their whereabouts then. If you did, they would be in–"

"In Handcuffs? Locked in the deepest cells with no sunlight for years? Yes, they would be."

Okay, the man was getting on his nerves for being someone who he didn't even remember, someone who probably didn't even survive the canon invasion of Ranon the Accuser.

"Mr.Sullivan, I can give you their accurate location but in exchange, you have to bring them to me, so that they can face trial for their crimes," Irani interrupted the tirade of her subordinate.

He quirked his eyebrows at her questioningly, the question clear. If her subordinate didn't know, then how did she?

"Fortunately, when Mr.Quill was scanned by our deep genetic scanners, his lineage indicated a completely alien biology, previously unknown to us, something that doesn't happen anymore. Along with the anomalous behaviour we detected of his DNA, had me personally ordering his doctors to place a deep space tracker in his body. It should be updated every hour, I can have you a very accurate location right now,"

His face split into a grin, "A chance to school my fellow human? Why not, bring it on."

Sorry Quill. He will be saved from becoming Ego's glorified battery pack but might end up in a jail cell in the end. Still, his case could be pleaded by showcasing the good deeds he did for the betterment of the universe.

Frankly speaking, Ego's plan was bound to fail, considering that there were still Celestials roaming around, and would certainly stop Ego's seed from spreading and consuming the Universe as a whole.

It was still funny and a little bit sad for him to know that Ego conspired this whole grand plan to become one with the Universe because he believed himself to be the last of the Celestials, all alone but the fact was that there were other Celestials out there, just unwilling to interact with him.

It was just that Celestials as a race were solitary beings, they had to be, considering the sheer effect they had on their surroundings. It was just that Ego did not know that and for some reason, Arishem or any other Elder Celestial did not contact the newly born Celestial for some reason, driving him mad and making Ego concoct this stupid scheme.

Unfortunately, stupid or not, he had to put a stop to it because he did not want to rely on plot armour this time.

"Thank you. I will be back with the group, to answer for their crimes. In the meantime, please be on the lookout for any abnormal activity from Thanos or his known allies or from his Black Order." He warned the group who took it very seriously and floated back into a ship, a strict loaner from the Nova Force, with the tracker details already programmed into the ship's AI.

Damn, he really had to learn how to drive a spaceship.

After all, his retirement plan hinged on sightseeing throughout the universe, after getting himself a bombshell girlfriend that is.

"ETA - 2 hours." He read the message on the screen and then had the bright idea to check on the Power Stone.

He knew that they did not dupe him because his barriers were giving him readings of immensely dense energy being outputted by the container that housed the Power Stone. It was sparse, the energy output but the density of the energy itself was off the charts.

Well, it should be, because it was a freaking Infinity Stone, he thought to himself as he did the complicated series of unlocking steps that were needed to fully unlock the container. He had no doubt that rumours of Thanos' plan would spread throughout the cosmos within 24 hours, it was just the nature of rumors.

Now, that was a net positive in his opinion because the only reason Thanos was able to blitz through every single civilization holding an Infinity Stone or the location to one, was only because of his anonymity. Nobody knew his plan to use the Stones to decimate half the universe before he had already one Infinity Stone on hand.

The news of his plans being spread throughout the cosmos will have multiple parties looking into his actions, not too deeply obviously because the Purple Scrotum was still deeply feared across the galaxy but even minor hiccups would help immensely since his next stop was going to be Nidavellir.

And he just hoped that the rumours spreading did not accelerate his assault on Nidavellir.

That would just….suck.

---

Word Count - 2619

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.

 

[IdleMuse0307]

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Xandar [June 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

His eyes blinked in order to get rid of the spots in his vision as he looked at the huge number of asteroids that filled his vision. The Jump Point was alarmingly close to a number of smaller, fast revolving asteroids, just glittering with pimped out lights.

His gaze swivelled across the view that was afforded to him through the glass that kept the vacuum at bay, and found hundreds of such asteroids, in fact, every single asteroid to have some sort of lights on it, indicating that it was being used and was inhabited.

In the distance, the red giant sun was casting a dim glow on the asteroids. The ship performed some sort of handshake with the local organisation and that led to his ship heading straight towards the biggest asteroid of them all, a circular asteroid that was filled with artificial bays on all sides, with spaceships of all walks parked around it.

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the myriad species walking around the parking bays without any oxygen masks, even though the entire thing was subjected to the cold vacuum. His unasked question was unanswered as soon as his ship went closer, to the point where he felt a small wave pass through him, and soon, he could see the thin translucent barrier littered with hexagonal blocks that probably kept the air inside.

The only question was if the air was suitable for humans or not? And what about the gravity? Any trace radiation levels? Because the sun was right there, and he did not feel any confidence in the very thin amount of atmosphere protecting them from the UV.

Not that he had any fears in that regard since he was the barrier incarnate but just something that was part of his idle curiosity.

His gaze went to the many ships that were in the process of being docked or being taken out of the docks, with most of them being bigger, much bigger than his own ship but that was not enough to make him self conscious as his barriers were more than enough to make himself larger than all the ships present in the multiple bays.

He looked at the ship being guided by the AI, and a small attendant with a single arm that came straight out of their chest, which was…odd but nothing in the vast scheme of space.

As soon as the ship docked with the bay, with a slight jerk, the engine's background noise died out and a series of notifications were displayed on the captain's dashboard.

"Reached System Mk-221, The Broker" It read and he had no freaking clue as to what it was. Most probably some obscure part of the Marvel lore that he didn't bother reading in his past life, or something that did not make it to the minds of Stan Lee and his fellow creators but existed in the universe all the same.

"Atmospheric conditions - suitable for humans and all carbon based life forms. Gravity - 1.3X of Terra"

He read through the messages and once he was confident that there was ont much he could grain through the ship anymore, he asked the ship, "Ship? The key?"

He was, ofcourse, referring to the key of the ship. A pedestrian concept on Earth, where each car was keyed to a key, pun intended, and that key allowed any person to open the car. For some reason, in the world of advanced biometrics, retinal scans, Genome Scans, and more, even the spaceship industry utilised the same tool and assigned a "key" to each spaceship.

He was utterly stupefied at the stupidity but it was the law of space and who was he to contest it?

He stepped out of the bay and took in a deep breath, and almost immediately gagged as so many smells hit him all at once, he had to reflexively cover his face in a barrier that began taking in stored air from Xandar and Earth, that he had compressed down to very minute volumes, just in case,

He could not predict if some Celestial or something attacked him out of nowhere and dumped him out of his Jump Gate, without air or a spaceship. It would be very hard for him to get air and more importantly, teleport anywhere because the normal sling rings don't do intergalactic Portals.

They need special shit for that, and unfortunately, he did not have it. Only the Sorcerer Supreme does.

It would prove that Stephen Strange, as the future Sorcerer Supreme, made the executive decision to distribute the incredibly dangerous tools to his fellow Masters just so that the final army could be gathered to create that one Last, United, Stand against Thanos, Son of A'lars.

"Welcome," He was greeted with a robotic greeting and had to sign a few things on a piece of paper that was floated to him by a robot before he could leave the bay area. Apparently, even in the vastness of space, they somehow found a way of utilising one of the rarest forms of material, wood, just for administrative purposes.

Or was the paper made of stone, which space had plenty of?

He shook his head, questions for later on, when he was not on a quest to hunt down a group that comprised of a Half Celestial, unpowered though, an empowered Racoon, a Flora colossus, a daughter of Thanos, Drax, and whatsoever they had managed to pick up along the way.

He entered the huge sprawling complex that greeted him once he exited the bays. It was nothing like he had expected it to be. The Asteroid was roughly the size of Earth's moon and it would seem like it was completely hollowed out from the inside because the sheer number of buildings and just the overall city he was seeing from his point of view looked more than it would fit even in Earth's moon.

His neck craned upwards as he walked forward, as he saw buildings dotting the ceiling of all places.

"So freaky," he muttered as he realised that this place had even used up that space, such must be the space crunch, even though he could see that the entirety of the space was not being utilised properly.

There was a raised area, right in the centre, which glinted to his eyes, even this far away, and it was just a single huge castle with no buildings on top of it as if the owner of that place just wanted his air space to be free of other buildings.

He snorted internally, as he went with the crowd, half exploring the place, half heading towards where the tracker last tracked Quill, realising that classism was prevalent even in the far reaches of space.

Good to know that Humanity was not the only species fucked up enough to come up with that vile thing.

He whistled as he tried not to gawk at aliens that held a striking resemblance to humans, save for one or two little differences. Bipedal mammals must really be common across the universe or the evolution of bipedal mammals must go through a similar path, only differing minutely in the end product, not that he believed Humans to be the end of the evolutionary path.

No, sir. That would be the height of foolishness and would also destroy his faith in the evolutionary process because beings like humans should not be the end point of an evolutionary cycle.

Not even the Inhumans, or the Mutants were the end because they were not dominant enough, neither strong nor consistent enough.

No, they needed to evolve into some super race with similar features so that Humanity doesn't nuke itself out of racism or just grow another brain to hold back all the intrusive thoughts that plague Humanity as a whole.

He snorted at the weird tangent his brain had taken and took a left turn as the hour had passed and Quill's location was updated that instant. His path led him to a bar that smelled.

He sighed and shook his head, "Figures."

The bouncer at the entrance looked at a screen that probably had something to do with the huge ass scanner installed right in front of the door, and then the other bouncer let the ribbon away when the first bouncer nodded. He pointedly avoided looking at their very tentacle-y feet that kept them upright and nodded in thanks.

Entering the bar, he was immediately assaulted by the smell of sweat, cheap booze, oil, and vomit.

Ugh, curse his enhanced senses. He immediately regretted letting the bar up to see if the establishment had any way of filtering the smell and it most definitely did not. In fact, he believed that the bar actually added to the filthy smell that pervaded most of the Docking bays, being so close to the entry points.

He was tempted to use his barriers to spread his awareness but this was a completely foreign place with no one recognising him. In a way, that hampered him because he would have to do some real damage before they took him seriously and also because he did not actually want to create a conflict.

It was just that he was so used to the automatic method that searching for the Guardians manually seemed just a chore to him. Still, he looked around the bar, bought the cheapest alcohol they had that would be palatable to a carbon based Human lifeform, and roamed the first level.

The bartender was not exactly chatty and he did not feel the need to tip him extravagant amounts of money to get something that his tracker would already find for him. According to his tracker, which should be accurate, unless this was some sort of weird prank that Irani Rael was pulling on him, was telling him that he was right where Quill was.

Hmm. Maybe, the tracker could not rack altitude changes then, which was weird because it could track Quill across space but not locate his exact height.

Shrugging at the abnormality, he slowly floated down, his feet not touching the stairs, the display of power not even drawing a sparing glance from anyone around him, which was kind of refreshing to be honest until he eventually reached the second level.

It was noticeably more crowded here, with the bartender being someone with literally flaming hair, pouring drinks after drinks which were then immediately swept away by waiting customers.

His enhanced senses could find the sound of moans, grunts, and more from the corners of the floor, and even though some of the doors that probably led to the bathrooms.

Ugh.

Taking a quick look around, he couldn't spot anyone, so he just resolved to go deeper. He had a hunch that the deeper he went, the cheaper it would be, the more crowded, the more smelly, and the more dirty it would be.

Unfortunately, he had a hunch that Quill, along with his ragtag ground would indeed be in the levels below.

So, with a long suffering sigh, he entered the level below, and the one after that, and the one after that, until eventually, he reached the lowest level, which was, thankfully, not quite what he expected it to be.

The lower he went, the more the security increased. He could actually feel the power levels of the guards the lower he went. At each level, they just looked at him and then let him pass, not stopping him at any point in time, right until he reached what felt like the final boss of the place.

That door was ornate and seemed to glow. He looked at the one bouncer who gestured at him to enter and he did.

His eyes widened as he heard a very familiar laughter in the background.

"Another!" The shout was followed by the sound of glass breaking on the ground. He had a weird sense of Deja Vu at the series of sounds.

He turned around the corner and was stilled on the spot as he saw Thor Odinson, drinking with Peter Quill and the rest as they sat all around a table, with a series of other people, who were noticeably more silent than the Crown Prince of Asgard, a fact that Thor seemed to ignore.

Thor also seemed to ignore the death glares the rest of the occupants of the floor were shooting at their table, something that seemed to unnerve the rest of the Guardians, so much so that even Rocket was silent and not quipping some underhanded insult.

Or a direct insult to someone's face, either one was Rocket's style.

His entry went unnoticed by all but the drinking Royal Asgardoian, with Peter's face showing relief at his presence.

Huh, maybe Quill was feeling threatened by the people in this palace. It might be due to the sheer number of people he could sense with his heightened senses in this place but could only see a few dozen.

Standing guard just outside the walls then, he realised.

"Ah, I had so much fun today. Thank you for escorting me here, Guardians of the Galaxy. I am glad to meet a human after so long. You know, you should meet the Avengers, they are some of the greatest *Hiccup* warriors I know," Thor told them as he was about to throw the glass as well but his barrier stopped it in time, something that drew eyes from every person in the room.

Some of them had more than a dozen eyes all at once locking on his green form.

"Hello, Thor. Nice to see you again," he said to Thor as he slid right into Quill's seat, dislodging him and dropping him on his ass.

Ah, nice to troll the Half Celestial.

Thor's eyes peered at his form before his entire being brightened and he suddenly found himself subjected to one of Prince Thor's crushing hugs, so much so that he could feel the impact on his barriers, which was startlingly rare.

"Ah, there, There," he patted Thor's back as he was lifted off the ground and shook like a ragdoll.

Stupid Clingy golden retriever of an Asgardian.

---

Word Count - 2406

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.