Chapter 18.

This is the eighteenth chapter. Hope you enjoy it. I originally planned a little chapter in between, but changed my mind.

Avengers Infinity War starts now!

4 Years later…

Mark, roughly 22, and the Guardians flew in their new ship, the Benatar, through the midst of Space. These past few years had been good for him and the others. Still, they had a few issues and quarrels then and there, but they were still all family. Plus, he'd maintained his friendship with Rocket, who had helped him a lot, and Mark had helped him become more mature. Mark sat in one of the two rear chairs behind Mantis and Groot, who has now grown in an adolescent teenager. Currently, Quill was singing along to some catchy music on a new music player Kraglin (who had gone back to the Ravagers after having an accident with his arrow and Drax's neck) had given him after the Battle with Ego. "Sing it, Drax!" He said, but Mark heard as he tapped his left index finger which rested left arm rest, Drax snoring. "Why are we doing this again?" Rocket asked, as if he was an idiot. "It's a distress signal, Rocket. Someone could be dying." Gamora answered. "I get that. But why are we doing it?" Rocket asked. "Because we're nice. And maybe whoever it is will give us a little Cheddar cheese for our effort." Quill said, Mark seeing him do a little money gesture with his left hand. "Which isn't the point." Gamora said to him immediately. "Which isn't the point. I mean, if he doesn't pony up…" Quill began to say. "We take his ship." Drax spoke. "Exactly!" Rocket agreed. "Bingo!" Quill added. "All right." Rocket added, before Mark saw Quill nod his head slightly and shake his hand towards Gamora. "We are arriving." Mantis spoke "All right, Guardians, don't forget this might be dangerous, so let's put on our mean faces." Quill spoke to the others. Mark then looked leftwards at Groot, who was playing with a small compact version of some old 1980s Arcade game. "Groot, quit playing on Quill's portable arcade game and focus here." Mark said sternly to him, but he ignored him. "Groot, you heard him. Put that thing away. Now. He's not going to ask again. Groot." Quill said to Groot. "I am Groot." Groot said in a rude and sarcastic way. Rocket had been teaching Mark how to speak Groot, and from what he could tell, he had told Quill to shut up. "Whoa!" Quill protested. "Hey." Gamora added. "Wow." Drax added. "You got some acorns on you, kid." Quill said to him. "Ever since you got a little sap, you're a total d-hole. Keep it up, and I'm gonna smash that thing to pieces." Rocket spoke to him aggressively, pointing at him with his left index finger, as Mark looked at Quill again. "He's right, Groot. Can't believe I'm saying this, but you were easy when you were a baby. Know you're completely hopeless. You should never have taught him how to play that game, Quill." Mark said to Groot, then stared at Quill, before looking forwards.

Then the Benatar ended slowed itself down, stopping right in front of a large amount of space wreckage, and bodies. "What happened?" Mantis asked, though no one knew the answer yet. "Oh, my god." Quill spoke sadly. "Looks like we're not getting paid." Rocket said, Mark seeing him look at Quill. A moment later, a dead male body with one eye and an eye patch then landed on the viewport with a Clang, which made everyone exclaim. "Wipers! Wipers! Get it off!" Rocket cried. Suddenly, the man's left eye then opened, even in the vacuum of space! Everyone exclaimed even louder, Mark's mouth and eyes widening upon seeing it.

A few minutes later, they'd gotten the man's body inside the ship, and placed him on a table. Mark stood on Drax's right. Rocket started sniffing at him. Mark knelt down and did three sniffs with his Dog nose. "Can't smell anything distinctive." Mark thought in his head as he moved back up. "How the hell is this dude still alive?" Quill asked rhetorically. "He is not a dude. You're a dude. This… this is a man. A handsome, muscular man." Drax spoke, pointing at the man with his right-hand index finger, which made Mark smirk as he found it funny. "I'm muscular." Quill said, pointing at himself, but Mark shook his head. "How are you kidding, Quill? You're one sandwich away from fat." Rocket said back. "Yeah, right. It's true. You have put on weight." Drax added. "What?" Quill asked, as Mark looked left and upwards to see Drax point at his neck and stomach. "Gamora, do you think I'm…?" Quill started to ask but didn't finish. "You're not, Quill. Just… not exactly muscular." Mark said, which made Quill stare at him. "He is anxious. Angry. He feels tremendous loss and quilt." Mantis spoke, using her "Empathic" abilities to read the man's emotions, which made the top of her antennas glow. "It's like a pirate had a baby that was an angel." Drax said, which made Mark smirk again, as Gamora came over to them, which made Mark move rightwards to give her space, as she then started feeling his muscles. "Wow. That's a real wake up call for me. Okay. I'm gonna get a bofelx. I'm gonna commit. I'm gonna get some dumbbells." Quill replied. "You know you can't eat dumbbells, right?" Rocket asked him, joking. "It's like his muscles are made of Cotati metal fibres." Gamora spoke. "Stop massaging his muscles." Quill said to her, which made her stop. "Wake him up." Quill told Mantis, who knelt down by his head and placed her right hand on his head. "Wake." She spoke, her antennas glowing again. The man suddenly then woke up with a yell and rapidly moved off the table and took a few steps forwards. He stopped and panted as he turned around to look at them. Mark held both arms upwards straight, his paws facing forwards, in case he needed to do a paw blast. "Who the hell are you guys?" The man asked.

A few minutes later, the man, whose name was Thor, who was sitting down wearing a blanket and eating some soup, (Mark mentioning like the Viking God of Thunder, which he said he is), had told them he had encounter Thanos, Gamora's murderous adopted father, and had gained one of the "Infinity Stones", 6 stones with unimaginable power. "The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal. To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet. Massacre after massacre." Gamora explained solemnly. "Including my own." Drax added. "If he gets all 6 Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers like this." She continued, snapping her own left-hand fingers. "You seem to know a great deal about Thanos." Thor said to her. "Gamora is the daughter of Thanos." Drax spoke, which made Thor look at her. "Your father killed my brother." He said angrily, before he got up and walked over to her. "Oh, boy. Stepfather, technically. She hates him as much as you do." Quill said, hopping to diffuse the situation. "Families can be tough. Before my father died, he told me that I had a half-sister, whose was imprisoned in hell. Then she returned home and stabbed me in eye so, I had to kill her. It's life though, isn't it? Goes round and round. I feel your pain." Thor spoke to her. "I feel your pain as well, because, I mean, it's not a competition, but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother and then I had to kill my father., that was hard, probably even harder than having to kill a sister, plus I came out with both my eyes." Quill said, though it slightly bored Mark, who stood in front of Drax and Mantis. "I need a hammer, not a spoon." Thor spoke, before he went over to the small pod at the rear of the ship. "How do I open this? Some sort of, uh, a four digit code maybe. Maybe a birthdate." Thor muttered as he fiddled wit the control panel on the doors right hand side. "Uh, what are you doing?" Rocket asked him. "I'm taking your pod." Thor answered, Quill clearing his throat. "No, you're not. You will not be taking our pod today, sir." Quill spoke to him, but Mark could tell he was making his voice deeper, sort of imitating Thor. "Uh... Quill, are you making your voice deeper?" Rocket asked him. "No." Quill said, but still doing it. "You are. Your imitating the god-man. It's weird." Drax agreed. "No, I'm not." Quill spoke, but STILL doing it. "He just did it again!" Mantis gasped. "This is my voice!" Quill said, still doing it. "Not, it's not!" Mark said to him, as Thor came in front of Quill. "Are you mocking me?" He asked Quill. "Are you mocking me?" Quill repeated, still doing it deep voiced. "Stop it. You just did it again." Thor said. "He's trying to copy me." Quill said. "Enough! We need to stop Thanos! Which means, we need to find out where he's going next." Gamora said loudly, ending the pointless chatting.

"Knowhere." Thor answered, as he walked away from Quill, and Mark instantly realised where he meant, as the memories of that place came flooding back. "He must be going somewhere." Mantis spoke, since she wasn't familiar with that place. "No, no. Knowhere? It's a place. We've been there. It sucks. Excuse me, that's our food." Quill said in his normal voice, as Thor was going through the fridge. "Not anymore?" Thor replied, still going through it. "Thor, why would he go to Knowhere?" Gamora asked in concern. "Because for years, the Reality Stone's been safely stored there with a man called the Collector." Thor replied. "The Collector? As in Taneleer Tivan?" Mark asked, though he guessed that man was whom Thor was talking about. "If its with the Collector, then its not safe. Only an idiot would give that man a stone." Quill said. "Or a genius." Thor replied, still emptying the fridge. "How do you know he's not going for one of the other stones?" Gamora asked. "There are 6 stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week, when he decimated Xandar." Thor answered, which made Mark's eyes widen as they had no idea that Xandar had been attacked a week ago. "He stole the Space Stone from me, when he destroyed half my ship and slaughtered half my people. The Time and Mind Stone's are safe on Earth. Their with the Avengers." Thor continued, which rang a bell to Mark. "The Avengers? Hey, I've heard of them. They defended Earth from an alien invasion 6 years ago." Mark said, which made Quill look at him. "And you tell us this now?" He asked. "You never asked, and I never paid much attention to it. Besides, heard they went their separate ways after that." Mark shrugged. "Well, that was a while ago. Anyway, as for the Soul Stone, well, no ones ever seen it. 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." Thor continued. "Then we have to go to Knowhere now." Gamora said. "Wrong. Where we have to go is Nidavellir." Thor spoke. "That's a made-up word." Drax said.

"All words are made up." Thor said, which confused Mark, as he saw Rocket climb up onto the table. "Nidavellir is real? Seriously? I mean, that place is a legend. They make the powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the universe. I would very much like to go there please." Rocket said with a chuckle. "The rabbit is correct and clrearly the smartest among you." Thor said, which made Mark smirk again. "Rabbit?" Rocket asked. "Only Eitri the Dwarf can make the weapon I need. I presume you're the captain, sir." Thor said, looking at Rocket. "You're very perceptive." Rocket said back. "You see like a noble leader. Will you join me on my quest to Nidavellir?" Thor asked. "Let me just ask the captain. Oh, wait a second, it's me. Yeah, I'll go." Rocket said, basking in the moment. "Wonderful." Thor said as he then turned around and headed to the pod again. "Uh, except that I'm the captain." Quill spoke, before Thor told him to be "Quiet". "That's my backpack." Quill also said, before Rocket told him to "Go sit down" as if he were a child. "Look, this is my ship! And I'm not going to… wait… what kind of weapon are we talking about?" Quill asked as he followed them. "The Thanos killing kind." Thor answered as he looked at him. "Don't you think we should all have a weapon like that?" Quill asked, pointing at the other behind him. "No. You simple lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies would crumble as your minds collapsed into madness." Thor answered, as Rocket opened the doors to the pod. "Is it weird that I want to do it even more now?" Rocket asked. "A little bit." Thor replied. "If we don't go to Knowhere, and Thanos retrieves another stone, he'll be too powerful to stop." Gamora spoke, as Mark then began counting all the people on board with his right index finger. "He alreasy is." Thor spoke, before Mark finished counting.

"I got an idea. We've got 8 people and 2 ships. So how about me, Rocket, Thor, and Groot, just to get him out of your way, go to…. To get the weapon. While you guys go to Knowhere and take care of Thanos?" Mark explained, everyone looking at him. "Cool plan, Mark. We'll do it. Cool?" Rocket asked Thor. "So cool." Thor agreed before he entered the pod, as Mark started walking towards the pod. "For the record, I know that your only going with them because its where Thanos isn't." Quill said to him as he walked past him. "You know, you really shouldn't take that way to your captain's friend, Quill. Come on, Groot. Put that game down. You'll rot your brain." Rocket said, as Groot came along, still playing his game. Mark got into the pod and sat in a chair behind Rocket's chair and fastened his seatbelt. "I bid you farewell and good luck, morons. Bye." Thor said, as Mark leaned upwards to his left to jut his head out of the way of Rocket's chair. "Good luck, guys." He said, seeing Mantis wave with her left hand. Then the pods viewport closed, and the pod was then ejected downwards, Mark jolting slightly from the ejection, as they came out of the bottom of the ship, and then the engines were fired up and the group went to Nidavellir.

Amnd that's the eighteenth chapter. Hope you enjoyed it.