Heroes Never Die

The Strange Planet

~Chapter 21~

Hadley was silent as she looked around.

"You okay?"

"I'm on another planet Tony... It's a lot to process" she said

Tony chuckled and nodded, looking over at Quill who looked down at a strange device

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

"My guess.." Hadley said, "Thanos"

Tony nodded "Yeah, we got one advantage. He's coming to us. We'll use it." He said, "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 need the gauntlet-"

Tony cut himself off when he saw Drax yawn

"Are you yawning? In the middle of this while I'm breaking it down?" Tony asked, "did you hear what I said?"

"I stopped listening when you said we need a plan" Drax admitted

Tony huffed "Alright Mr. Clean is on his own page" he said, turning to Quill

"Yeah... See not winging it isn't really what they do..." Quill said

"Uh.. what exactly do they do?" Peter asked

"Kick names, take ass" Mantis said

"That's right" Drax said

"That's not... Um... Okay.." Hadley mumbled, looking at Tony

Tony stood there, a look of annoyance and hopelessness on his face before he sighed

"Alright... Just get over here... Please" he said slowly, "Mr. Lord can you get your folks to circle up?"

Quill smiled "Mr. Lord... Star-Lord is fine" he said, gesturing to his team to come closer

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

Quill interrupted "Dude, don't call us plucky. We don't know what is means." He said, "Alright, we're optimistic, yes. I like your plan. Except it sucks, so let me do the plans, and that way it might be really good."

Tony glared at him and looked at Hadley quietly

Hadley sighed and shook her head

"I don't know" she mumbled

"Tell him about the dance off to save the universe" Drax said

"Dance off?" Hadley said in disbelief

"What dance off?" Tony asked

"It's nothing.." Quill said, smirking lightly

"Like in Footloose..?" Peter asked, "the movie?"

"Exactly like Footloose!" Quill said with a smile, "is it still the greatest movie in history?"

"It... Never was" Peter said, Quill frowned

"Don't encourage this alright?" Tony said to Peter, "we're getting no help from Flash Gordon here"

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

"Your math is... Blowing my mind right now" Tony said sarcastically

"Where'd you go to college? University of Stupid Shit?" Hadley asked, crossing her arms

"Very funny. I didn't go to college" Quill replied like that was an accomplishment

"Well" Hadley said, looking at Tony, "That explains a lot"

"Um... Excuse me?" Mantis said, grabbing your attention, "Does your friend often do... That?"

Hadley and Tony looked at her in confusion as she pointed to Strange

Strange sat a little away from them on a rock, his legs crossed and his hands up in the air, the time stone floated between them as his head jerked rapidly like a horror movie

"Uh.." Hadley looked at Tony

"Strange..? We alright..?" Tony asked cautiously

Strange seemed to snap out of it after a moment, letting out a small cry.

"You're back, you're alright, hi" Tony said

"Hey.. what was that?" Peter asked, looking at Strange in concern

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

"How many did you see?" Quill asked

"14,000,605." Strange replied

"Wow... That's uh... That's a lot" Hadley said

Tony looked at her then Strange, "How many did we win?"

Strange paused a while before answering

"One."