Sign of the Times

10

TITAN

Doctor Strange helped Tony, now de-helmeted, to his feet; they were both panting a little from the exertion of arrival.

Tony asked Doctor Strange, "You all right?" He panted. "That was close. I owe you one."

Spider-Man descended from above in classically spider-like fashion and said, "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."

Tony pointed at Peter. "I don't wanna hear another single pop culture out of you for the rest of the trip. You understand?"

"I'm trying to say that... something is coming."

A grenade rolled into view, and Peter, Doctor Strange and Tony got thrown well back when it fired its energy pulse. Star-Lord, Drax and Mantis appeared in the doorway.

Drax yelled, "THANOS!!!!" He flung a blade at Doctor Strange, who neatly deflected it with a mystical shield, and in return sent the Cloak of Levitation at Drax's face, half-smothering him and threw him to the floor. Star-Lord and Iron Man had a brief dogfight until a magnetic disc pinned Iron Man face-first to a structure.

Peter crawled backwards frantically from an anxious-looking Mantis as he cried, "AH! WHOAWHOAWHOAWHOAWHOA! PLEASE DON'T PUT YOUR EGGS IN ME!"

Spider-Man shot a web at Mantis in a panic, pinning arms to her body just before Star-Lord flew at him feet-first, kicking him away.

"Stay down, clown!" Quill ordered.

Star-Lord couldn't quite counter spider reflexes at first; he fired at Spider-Man, who extended his spider legs and leapt away, but an electric-like cord wrapped around Spider-Man and his six new legs when he tried to attack, sending him rolling across the deck.

Drax, struggling with the Cloak of Levitation, said, "Die, blanket of death!"

Iron Man pulled free of the magnet; the Cloak pulled free of Drax as soon as Iron Man had a bead on his opponent and a foot on his torso.

Star-Lord had Spider-Man in a head-lock, gun pointed at the boy's head.

Doctor Strange had a mystical shield of golden energy up, and stood ready at the third point of the triangle. Mantis had struggled to her feet behind Star-Lord, still covered with webbing.

"Everybody, stay where you are, chill the F out!" Quill ordered as he powered off his helmet and aimed at Tony. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where's Gamora?"

Tony de-helmeted and retorted, "Yeah, I'll do you one better. Who's Gamora?"

"I'll do you one better," Drax challenged. "Why is Gamora?"

"Tell me where the girl is, or I swear to you, I'm gonna French-fry this little freak," Quill said.

"Let's do it!" Tony shot back. "You shoot my guy, I blast him. Let's go!" He extended his nano-tech cannon, looking uncannily like an electric shark about to eat Drax's face.

"Do it, Quill!" Drax yelled. "I can take it."

"No, he can't take it!" Mantis cried.

Doctor Strange, completely deadpan agreed, "She's right. You can't."

"Oh yeah?" Quill said. "You don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine, I'll kill all three of you and beat it out of Thanos myself!" He said to Spider-Man, "Starting with you!"

"Wait, what. Thanos?" He tried to inject clarity and sanity into the situation. "All right, let me ask you this one time: What master do you serve?"

"What master do I serve? What am I supposed to say? "Jesus"?"