STARGIRL

twenty-one.

"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal," explained Gamora, once the man was settled with a blanket and soup, "to bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre."

"Including my own." Drax added.

Gamora continued, "If he gets all six Infinity Stones he can do it with the snap of his fingers like this."

"You seem to know a great deal about Thanos." the man commented.

Drax nodded his head in her direction, "Gamora is the daughter of Thanos."

The man looked up at her slowly and she hung her head with a sad look on her face. Eleanor hated that she would always be discriminated for that when she had betrayed him and was past believing his beliefs. "Your father killed my brother." the man said, standing up.

"Stepfather, technically, and she hates him as much as you do." Peter added. The man stopped in front of Gamora, "Families can be tough," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Before my father died, he told me that I had a half-sister that he imprisoned in Hel. And then she returned home and stabbed me in the eye. So I had to kill her," Eleanor noticed her dad glaring at the man's hand on Gamora's shoulder, "That's life though, isn't it, I guess. I feel your pain."

Peter stepped between them, "I feel you pain as well, because... I mean, it's not a competition, but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother," the man slurped his soup, "And then I had to kill my father. That was hard. Probably even harder than having to kill a sister," Eleanor rolled her eyes as Rocket sighed, "Plus, I came out with both my eyes, which was..."

The man walked away, and started to press buttons on the machine.

Rocket stood up, and walked towards the man, "Uh, what are you doing?"

"Taking your pod."

Peter cleared his throat, and stepped forward, "No, you're not," he said in a fake deep voice, "You will not be taking our pod today, sir."

"Uh... Quill, are you making your voice deeper?" Rocket questioned, looking up at him.

"No."

"You are," added Drax, "You're imitating the god-man. It's weird."

"No, I'm not! This is my voice!"

"Enough!" Gamora yelled, "We need to stop Thanos! Which means we need to find out where he's going next!"

"Knowhere." replied the man.

Mantis replied, "He must be going somewhere."

"No, no," said Peter, back in his normal voice, "Knowhere? It's a place. We've been there. It sucks."

"Thor," Gamora said, and Eleanor looked at her confused. She had missed the part where he told them what his name was, "Why would he go to Knowhere?"

"Because for years, the Reality Stone's been safely stored there with a man called the Collector."

"How do you know he's not going for any of the other stones?" asked Gamora.

"There are six stones out there," Thor explained, "Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week when he decimated Xandar..."

Eleanor's stomach fell. Her home planet had been destroyed.

"He stole the Space Stone from me when he destroyed my ship and slaughtered half my people. The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth. They're with the Avengers." explained Thor, "As for the Soul Stone, well, no one's ever seen that. No one even knows where it is. Therefore Thanos can't get it. Therefore he's going to Knowhere. Hence he'll be getting the Reality Stone. You're welcome."

"Then we have to go to Knowhere now." replied Gamora.

"Wrong!" Thor yelled, "Where we have to go is Nidavellir."

"That's a made up word!" shouted back Drax.

"All words are made up." replied Thor.

"Nidavellir is real?" Rocket asked, his eyebrows rising in shock, "Seriously? I mean, that place is a legend. They make the most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the universe," he chuckled and Thor smiled at him, "I would very much like to go there, please."

Thor walked over to the table where everybody was standing around, "The rabbit is correct and clearly the smartest among you. Only Eitri the Dwarf can make me the weapon I need," he looked down at Rocket, "I assume you're the captain, sir."

"You're very perceptive." Rocket replied.

"You seem like a noble leader," said Thor, "Will you join me on my quest to Nidavellir?"

"Let me just ask the captain. Oh, wait a second, it's me! Yeah, I'll go."

Thor smiled down at him, "Wonderful."

"Look!" Peter yelled, "This is my ship! And I'm not goin' to... Wait, what kinda weapon are we talkin' about here?"

"The Thanos-killing kind." Thor replied.

"Don't you think that we should all have a weapon like that?" Peter asked, motioning a hand to the rest of his team.

"No. You simply lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies would crumble as your minds collapsed into madness. Especially the small one there." he pointed to Eleanor, and she gave him a small smile.

"If we don't go to Knowhere," Gamora spoke up, stepping forward, "and Thanos retrieves another Stone, he'll be too powerful to stop."

"He already is." replied Thor.

"I got it figured out," said Rocket, "We got two ships and a large assortment of morons. So me and Groot will go with the pirate angel here. And the morons will go to Knowhere to try to stop Thanos. Cool? Cool."

"So cool." Thor smiled.

"For the record," commented Peter to Rocket, as he jumped down to the floor, "I know that you're only going with him because it's where Thanos isn't."

"You know, you really shouldn't talk that way to your captain, Quill. Come on, Groot. Put that game down, you'll rot your brain."

Thor was sat down and strapped in his seat, "I bid you farewell and good luck, morons. Bye." Mantis waved at him as Rocket dropped the ship into space, flying away through the floating bodies and debris.