The 'landing platform' in the warehouse was crowded to its limits - mostly because of the presence of one particular 'green giant'. When he realized that he was taking up the vast majority of the limited floorspace, Banner shifted back to his 'normal' form. This gave the group a small measure of comfort and relief...

Well, most of the group, anyway.

The female green-skinned thief was howling at the top of her lungs, screaming furious protests as she thrashed against her magical 'handcuffs'. Beckett frowned. "Anyone recognize what she's saying?" When the familiar faces all shook their heads, the Guardian turned to her soulmate for assistance. "Would you mind...?" Castle waved his hand casually, expanding the translation spell to the boundaries of the warehouse.

Once the group was able to understand the thief, though, Castle immediately started to wonder if the open translation spell was a mistake. "YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH!" the female screamed. "ONCE I GET OUT OF THESE BINDINGS I WILL RIP YOUR INTESTINES OUT THROUGH YOUR BOWELS AND WRAP THEM AROUND YOUR..."

A second voice, low and gravely, cried out in anger as soon as he realized he could be understood. "WHERE'S GROOT?!" he exclaimed. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY FRIEND?!"

Ryan pushed his way through the crowd until he found himself directly in front of the source of the voice...and had to kneel to look the being in the eye. "Groot?" he asked.

The raccoon's anger dissolved in the wake of the peace that Ryan was pouring into the room around them. The grief and fear the being was feeling, though, were too strong for even the Guardian to counter. "He's my best friend," Rocket cried. Memories caused the raccoon's anger to spark to life anew. "And you just left him there to be splintered into bits by Thanos' goons..."

Ryan ignored the animal's last comment, turning instead to his friends. "I think we ran into this 'Groot' in the throne room," he told Castle, projecting an image of the 'fighting tree' to the wizard as he spoke.

The being in question appeared in the last clear space on the landing platform. Rocket's anger dissolved in the wake of his relief and excitement at seeing his friend. "GROOT!" he exclaimed. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Groot smiled softly while he watched Rocket scramble up his leg and perch on his shoulder. That softness shifted to a humble respect as Groot's gaze locked on Ryan. Forgive my friends, mighty one, thought Groot. Their quest is honorable...even if their methods are not. "I am Groot," Groot declared out loud.

Rocket's gasped when Ryan simply nodded. "Wait a second," the raccoon exclaimed, "you understood that?!"

Groot frowned at his friend's inability to accept what had, to him, been obvious. "I am Groot?" he questioned.

Rocket's eyes seemed to be threatening to fall out of his head. "He can READ MINDS?! NO FRIGGIN' WAY!" Rocket bellowed. He poured his energy into forcing himself to clear his mind and re-assess his surroundings. It was only then that the raccoon felt it. "Oh God..." he choked out in a quiet gasp. Groot nodded.

Quill could no longer stand the feeling of being left out of the loop. "What?!" he exclaimed.

"Y-y-y-you know that stone we were going after on Asgard?" asked Rocket.

The nervous shock in Rocket's voice was twisting Quill's stomach into its own set of knots. "Yeah?" he asked warily.

"I...I don't think that stone's a stone anymore," Rocket declared. "I think *she's* that stone."

The attention of the room shifted from the alien thieves to the woman that the thieves were now collectively staring at. Thor made his way over to his beloved's side. "Jane?"

Jane's eyes glowed with the blue light of the Tesseract. "I'm fine, Thor!" she insisted. "I..."

Thor's concern turned to panic as Jane fainted into his arms. The Asgardian lifted Jane up...and quickly discovered that he was not the only one tending to his beloved. "She'll be okay," Ward reassured Thor. "It takes time for the body to adapt to the stone's presence..." Ward's voice trailed off as his attention shifted to the presence of the one being who was not in the room with them. "Skye says she can help. She's in the lab."

The group started to follow Thor through the hallways when a deafening clap of unnatural thunder caught everyone's attention. Quill swallowed down the nervous lump that was rising from his stomach to his throat. "That doesn't sound good," he commented.

"That sounded like the Bifröst," Thor explained, his attentions instantly divided.

"I'll take her," Cap offered, reaching out to take the unconscious woman from Thor's arms. "Go."

"Thank you," said Thor, caressing Jane's head as he finished the handoff. He then turned to Castle. "Master Sìfāng," asked Thor. "May we..."

Castle and Thor instantly disappeared.

With the distractions gone, Beckett brought everyone's attentions back to their other 'guests'. "Well, now that that's taken care of...who the hell are you guys?"

#

Thor sighed with relief when he saw who had come through the Bifröst. "My friends..." he greeted them.

Sif cut Thor off before he had the chance to speak further. "You need to come home, Thor," she insisted. "Your father..."

Thor's face fell as his memories of the battle on Asgard moved to the front of his mind. "I know," Thor grimly replied. "Loki has abducted him."

"You *know*?!" exclaimed Sif, her expression boiling with angry disbelief. "You know what has happened on Asgard, and yet your remain here..."

"There are much greater forces at play here," Thor insisted.

"Greater forces?" countered Fandral, clearly skeptical.

"Your world was invaded with one purpose," Castle declared. "Your enemy was looking for the Tesseract."

The Asgardian warriors ignored Castle almost entirely...save for the Guardian's last word. "The Tesseract?" Sif asked Thor. "Are you certain of this?"

Thor nodded. "We had to bring it to this place of sanctuary," he explained.

"Sanctuary?" argued Fandral. "On *Midgard*? Did these humans not almost destroy each other the last time the Tesseract was on this planet?"

"The situation is different now," Thor insisted. "Carriers have come forward."

Sif gasped, her familiarity with the term doing nothing to diminish her shock at its use. "You are certain of this?" When Thor nodded a second time, Sif finally started to understand why Thor made the decision that he had. "The Tesseract has become one with its Carrier."

"Aye," Thor agreed. "And I am hoping that when she awakens, she will see where Loki is holding my father."

Sif paused, forcing herself to take a moment and re-frame her concerns in the context of the new information that Thor had just given her. "You seem quite confident that it will not take long for this Carrier to awaken."

"The last one..." Castle began.

"The *last one*?!" Fandral exclaimed. "You have *two* of the stones here..."

Sif cut off her comrade before he had a chance to speak further. "How can you be so certain that the stones will be safe here?"

The instant change in her surroundings caught Sif and her fellow Asgardians entirely off guard. Her hand went to the hilt of her sword...and only left that hilt when she saw the smug expression on the face of her prince. "You know how we traveled just now."

Thor was relishing the opportunity to watch his friends' prejudices shatter before his eyes. "My father believes many things about Midgard and the humans who live here," he explained. "And most of his beliefs are, quite simply, wrong."

#

Peter Quill couldn't believe what he was hearing. "This is Earth? We're on *Earth* right now?"

The group that surrounded the five alien thieves all seemed to share the same collective expression of confusion. "Yeah..." asked Coulson. "Why?"

Quill immediately shut down. "No reason," he said.

Esposito eyed Quill with skeptical disbelief. He circled around to 'check' on Quill's bindings, letting the side of his hand brush against the side of the prisoner's wrists as he went. "Whoa..." the Guardian exclaimed, "I didn't think that actually happened..."

"What?" asked Coulson.

"Our new friend Mister Quill," Esposito explained, "was born and raised here."

"In New York?" asked Blair.

Esposito shook his head. "On *Earth*. He was abducted by aliens when he was ten."

Alexis' eyes widened in surprise. "Seriously?"

"What," Quill drolled sarcastically, "did you just read my mind or something?" His humor faded, though, when Esposito didn't immediately blow off the suggestion. "No way..."

Esposito kept his attention focused on his friends. "It gets better," he continued. "The aliens who took him? They were Kree."

"Really?" Ryan exclaimed.

The attention of the entire room was now fixated on Peter Quill...who seemed confused by the shift in attention. "Why is who took me the big deal?" asked Quill.

"A couple of Kree paid us a visit a while back," Esposito explained. "We think they might be after the stones for themselves."

Esposito's words seemed to galvanize the alien crew. "Yondu," Quill groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Do you think he might be after the stones?" the green-skinned alien asked.

"I know that stunt you pulled woulda royally pissed *me* off," Rocket agreed.

"What stunt?" asked Coulson.

Esposito filled in the blanks. "Quill and his friends here have extensive experience with the purple stone."

"The *power gem*?"

The room turned to see Thor and Castle enter the ballroom space with four Asgardian warriors. "Yeah," replied Esposito. "Yondu got wind of the gem's existence and tried to steal it for himself..."

"But I swapped the stone out for a Troll doll," Quill finally admitted.

"I can see how someone might find that a bit aggravating," said Blair.

Thor's focus was consumed by far more serious thoughts. "If this Kree thief...Yondu?" When Quill nodded, Thor pressed forward. "If Yondu finds the power gem before we do, what would he do with it?"

Quill's face drained of color as he considered his captor's hypothetical options. "If Yondu got the power gem, I guarantee that his only thought would be to sell the gem to the highest bidder."

"And the highest bidder would definitely be Thanos," added Drax.

"We cannot let Thanos get that stone," the green-skinned alien insisted.

"Or any of the other stones," Castle agreed. When the thieves and Asgardians turned to the Guardian, he continued, "this Thanos has already gone after two of the stones. We have to assume that he's looking for all of them, just like we are."

Sif studied the faces of the five theives carefully. "Who is this Thanos," she asked, "and why do you hold such fear of him?"

"Thanos is the being who attacked Asgard," Castle explained.

"The one you believe nearly destroyed my home in order to acquire the Tesseract?" asked Sif. The Asgardian's face flushed with anger when Castle nodded. "Then how do we find this being," she asked the thieves, "so that I might rip his heart from his chest with my bare hands?"

Drax smiled. "I like this Asgardian," he growled.

The sight of the smiling alien seemed to send a collective chill down the spines of every other being in the room. Beckett was the first one to regain her composure. "All right, if this Thanos is really coming after the stones, then the first thing that we have to assume is that he'll be coming after us." She turned to Banner. "Talk to DW. Whatever you guys can come up with - I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get."

"We could use a Mage," Banner requested, "and Master Xiānzhī."

"I'll help you guys," volunteered Alexis. She and Esposito turned to head toward the lab...

...And nearly ran into Fitz and Simmons, who were sprinting down the corridor themselves at what looked to be their top speeds. "All of you need to come to the lab," Simmons announced breathlessly. "Now."

"What has happened?" Thor asked, instantly consumed with worry. "Is it Jane?"

Sif gawked at Thor while Simmons shook her head. "No," she replied. "It's Doc. He collapsed when you left for Asgard. And he..."

"He hasn't woken up, but just started spouting a repeating pattern of numbers?" asked Ward.

Fitz and Simmons both nodded. "A few moments ago," Fitz declared.

"His stone must be calling to him," Ward told the group, recognizing the pattern.

"Then we should probably go see where we're headed next," agreed Ryan.

#

The five thieves were some of the last beings to enter the lab. "So," Quill asked Esposito, "you read minds?"

"More like memories," Esposito replied casually.

Quill nodded, forcing himself to take the information in stride. "And you know about...everything that happened with that..."

"Power gem, yeah," agreed Esposito.

"So..." Quill continued, trying to make the whole exchange sound casual, "I guess you could say I'm an expert..."

Esposito pushed Quill into the nearest chair, forcing the thief to sit on his magically cuffed hands. "Oh," he commented, "I wouldn't exactly call you an *expert*..." The Guardian then shifted his attention to the group as they surrounded Henry. "So where we going?"

The group seemed to share a collective expression of frustration as the all shrugged in near-unison. "No one seems to know what these numbers mean," replied Ryan.

"They're not latitude and longitude," Darcy agreed, her eyes never leaving their focus on Lanie's computer monitor. "But they're not star chart coordinates either..."

"You so sure about that?"

Every conscious being in the room turned to stare down Peter Quill. "You disagree, Mister Quill?" asked Esposito.

"So should you," Quill countered, "if you've been as deep into my head as you claim."

Esposito called up Quill's memories...and inspiration struck him almost immediately. "They're coordinates," the Guardian declared, "but not for any galaxy that humans have charted so far."

Quill awkwardly pushed himself to a standing position, stumbling clumsily as he tried to adjust his balance to compensate for his inability to use of his hands. "If you let me out of...however you've got me tied up," he offered, "I could help you figure all this out..." The bindings disappeared from around Quill's wrists. He sighed with relief, bringing his hands in front of him and rotating his wrists to return some sense of feeling to the appendages. Quill then pushed his way through the crowd until he was standing next to Lanie's workstation. "May I?" he asked.

Grateful for the chance to be taken off of the hot seat, Darcy raised her hands in surrender and stood up, pushing the chair away from the desk. "All yours," she told Quill. Quill slipped into the chair...and stared at the keyboard.

Esposito watched Quill's confusion with a smug sense of satisfaction. "Problem, Quill?" he teased.

"It's just...it's been a long time since I've had to use a computer like this," Quill admitted with a frustrated sigh.

Stark rolled his eyes at the exchange. "You know what?" he ordered Quill impatiently. "Move."

"But..." Quill protested.

"Kid," warned Stark, his tone implying no desire to argue the point. "Move. *Now.*"

Quill raised his hands in surrender as he got up from the chair, allowing Stark to take his place. Stark cracked his knuckles before curling his fingers over the keyboard. "All right, now I got to spend a solid chunk of time studying the star charts for Asgard while you guys were...away," he told the group. He punched several of the keys in front of him, pulling up the chart that Darcy had been studying earlier. "Now Darcy, correct me if I'm wrong...but these were the numbers Doctor Foster was repeating earlier? The coordinates that point to Asgard?"

"Yeah..." Darcy agreed warily, unsure of where Stark's thoughts were headed.

Stark started typing again. "All right," he continued, "now...I looked up Earth as a reference point." When a view of Earth from space came up on the monitor, Stark's typing stepped up a level in intensity. "So...if we look at Earth, Asgard and this new mystery set of coordinates at the first three numbers in a pattern sequence, then this..." The picture on the monitor swung in a wildly different direction as Stark finished his explanation. "This is the direction that Doc is pointing."

Quill's eyes widened as he recognized the section of space on the monitor screen. "Hey, Gamora," Quill called over to the back of the crowd, "this look as familiar to you as it does to me?"

The green-skinned alien pushed her way to her friend's side. The rebellion seemed to drain away from her being as she stared at the star chart on the screen. "These are the coordinates the one called Doc is pointing to?"

Stark nodded. "You know this location?"

Weakly, Gamora shook her head. "I cannot be certain that that is what this...Doc is looking for..."

"What else could it be?" Quill argued. "There's only a handful of civilized planets in that section of space, and if that's what they're looking for..."

"If what's what we're looking for?" asked Esposito.

Groot put his hand on Gamora's shoulder, simultaneously reassuring the green-skinned alien and gently holding her in place. "I...am Groot," he told her quietly.

"Groot wants you to know that he thinks that we can be trusted," Ryan translated. "But if you don't tell us, he says that he will."

Gamora sent a quick, silent prayer to her ancestors, hoping with all her might that she wasn't making a universe-destroying mistake. "Nova Prime," she finally admitted. "If your friend is looking for his stone, then to our knowledge there's only one in that region of space. It's the power gem. And it's in the custody of the Nova Corps."