Fitz turned to his partner as they entered the open, empty warehouse space. "This is where they want to have the morning meeting?" he asked, confused. "It doesn't look like they've done anything in this room since they built the place." Simmons chewed on her index finger's fingernail, clearly distracted. It didn't take long for Fitz to realize that his comment was going unanswered. "Jemma?"

Jemma jumped at the mention of her name. "What?" she gasped.

"Are you OK?" Fitz asked. He gently placed his hand on his partner's back, his concern for her well-being overriding all other thoughts. "You seem like you're a million miles away."

Jemma forced herself to take her nearly gnawed-off fingernails away from her mouth. She put her hands behind her back, lacing her fingers together to keep herself from fidgeting. "I'm fine," she insisted.

While Castle's arrival didn't take Fitz' mind away from his concern for his partner, the Guardian did change the room within seconds of his entrance. Gone was the stark, empty, echoing warehouse space. In its place was a u-shaped conference table. Most of the Earth-born beings filed in quietly and sat down at one of the rolling chairs that surrounded the table. Rocket, though, hopped up on the table and sat cross-legged in the center of the table. "So," he announced to no one in particular, "who the hell's in charge of this shit-show?"

"I am," Fallon announced to the group. Everyone watched as the director crossed the length of the room, circling around the table until he came face-to-face with the talking raccoon. "Is that a problem, mister...Rocket?"

Rocket and half the beings in the room swallowed nervously when Fallon's eyes flashed with a bright orange light. The other half of the room casually covered their mouths, trying and failing to suppress their smiles and snickers.

Satisfied that he now had every being's full attention, Fallon stood up to his full height and began the meeting. "First things first. How are you feeling, Doc?"

"I'm fine," Henry replied. "Thank you for asking."

"Really?" asked Alexis. "Even with...?"

"The numbers are there, in the back of my mind," Henry explained. "On an endless, repeating loop. It's a nagging distraction, but it's not causing me any great physical harm."

"Can you travel?" asked Fallon.

Henry's eyes widened as he considered the implications of Fallon's question. "You want me to..."

"If you're up to it," Fallon replied. "Until now we've had to risk bringing the stone to the carrier."

Henry picked up on Fallon's train of thought. "But since I'm up and about..."

"It would definitely be much easier to bring you to the stone than for us to have to bring the stone to you," agreed Esposito.

"And then what?" argued Fandral. "Are you proposing to bring the stone of power back to Midgard and bring *three* infinity stones together on this defenseless backwater of a planet?!"

Ryan poured peace into the room to counter the wave of anger that followed Fandral's comment. Quill spoke up once the rage receded. "The Asgardian's got a point, I think. When I was a kid, humans didn't want to believe that aliens existed, let alone that they were out there and gunning for a fight. So unless something's happened around here that you guys haven't told me..."

The entire room erupted into simultaneous conversations as everyone seemed to want to fill in each other's informational gaps all at once. Finally the loud roar of a tiger silenced the crowd. "All right!" exclaimed Fallon. Once he was satisfied that all eyes were on him, the director turned to his spirit-brother. "I read in the SHIELD files that you guys were working on planetary protection systems when the HYDRA coup happened. Did any of them pan out?"

Coulson shook his head. "Anything that came anywhere close to working was powered by the Tesseract."

Disappointed, Fallon turned to Stark. "You working on anything?"

"Nothing that's gone beyond the planning stages," Stark replied. "But if you want..."

"I have an idea."

All eyes immediately turned to Ward. "*You* have an idea?" asked May, clearly skeptical.

Ward ignored the resistance he was hearing in the voice of his former teammate. "Master Mùshī's ability to focus and magnify abilities," he asked Fallon, "does that only work for the Guardians, or can he help anyone who's 'flipped'?"

"Your shield?" asked Ryan.

Ward nodded. "I *think* I can protect the warehouse on my own, but I'd like to see if I can protect at least the city. With your help, of course."

Gamorra was unimpressed. "You think that this 'shield' of yours can protect the stones from an army with the power that Thanos possesses?"

Ward simply smiled.

The energy in the room changed a heartbeat later. "Babe, is that *you*?" Skye asked, wide-eyed.

Ryan, Jim and Beckett seemed to share the carrier's question. "Your shield is what's causing this?"

"Causing *what*?" asked May.

"I can't hear anything past the boundaries of the warehouse," Skye replied.

"Neither can I," agreed Beckett. Jim and Ryan nodded their heads as well.

Thor was shocked by what he was hearing. "You cannot hear *any* thoughts?" he asked Skye.

"Not beyond the boundaries of the warehouse," Skye replied.

"It's like we've suddenly been encased in our own little bubble," agreed Beckett.

Thor slumped back in his chair, shaking his head with amazement. "To contain the power of a stone in such a way..."

That was all that Fallon needed to hear. "Master Mùshī, I would appreciate it if you would work with Mister Ward. See how far we can push our luck."

"Of course," agreed Ryan. He connected with Ward's mind. Wanna try now?

Ward nodded, opening his mind to push the shield out as far as he dared. I feel you, he told Ryan. Ward tugged on the connection with the Guardian, using the extra energy and focus to extend the shield out an extra mile in each direction.

Skye smiled. "It's working," she declared. "I hear more people now."

"Then this makes the trip to Xandar even more urgent," said Beckett. "If he can access Master Mùshī's power, imagine what he can do with Doc's energies at his disposal."

"Add the power stone to that and Ward just might be able to project a planetary shield," Esposito agreed.

"You guys can pull the shield back now," Fallon suggested to Ryan and Ward. "Save your energy and focus for when we really need it." The director turned to Esposito. "Is that going to be any time soon? Do we know?"

Henry smiled as Esposito nodded, the immortal's mind rapidly adjusting to the prospect of what he was agreeing to. "Then I suppose we should get going..."

Ryan and Banner both noticed the waves of hesitation pouring off of the God of Thunder and his fellow Asgardians. "Something on your mind, Thor?" asked Banner.

Thor nodded, his mind clearly torn. "Jane has seen where Loki is holding my father," he told the group. "And while I fully understand the need to collect and protect the stones and their carriers..."

Fallon cut Thor off with a raised hand. "Where is your father, Thor?"

Thor turned to Castle. "They are on the moon where we imprisoned Loki after he last attempted to ascend to rule over Midgard."

"Well, at least we know the terrain, then," said Castle.

"Master Sìfāng," asked Thor, "would you be willing..."

"I would be happy to help rescue your father," Castle replied. "After all, I owe you one for last time." The wizard then turned to Esposito to confirm that he could make good on his offer. "As long as I'm not needed to help retrieve the power stone?"

Esposito shook his head. "As far as I can see, there's not danger to the stone right now."

"Then we'll send a small delegation to Xandar," Fallon declared. "Cap, Crusher, and Mister Quill, I'd like you three to be the ones to accompany Doc to the planet. Thor, feel free to request the assistance of anyone who is not going to Xandar or working on the protection of the stones."

"Thank you, director," said Thor.

The matter settled, Fallon wrapped up the meeting. "Good luck, everyone. Keep me posted."

#

"Thank you for coming, Gamora."

The green-skinned alien smiled shyly at Quill's expression of gratitude. "Well, we cannot have you creating an inter-planetary incident by saying the wrong thing to Nova Prime, can we?"

Quill blushed at Gamora's comment. "Yeah, that sounds like me."

Gamora's comment tore Alexis' attenion away from studying every little detail of the alien world around her. "Who's this Nova Prime?"

"The leader of the Xandarian people," Gamora replied.

"She's roughly equivalent to the US president..." added Quill.

Alexis smiled at that. "A female president, huh? Cool."

Cap studied the composition of the group around him. "Is Nova Prime going to be willing to help us with this? If I were in her shoes, I don't know if I'd be willing to just hand over the power stone to a bunch of strangers."

"She's a smart woman," Quill replied. "If you explain the situation to her she'll help us. And if she's heard about what happened on Asgard you may not even need to explain that much."

The group reached the doors of the Xandarian parliament building. Alexis gawked at the height of the structure that would have been considered 'modern architecture' on Earth. The all-glass look of the building, though, meant that the structure would have been next to impossible to ever build on their home planet. "How did this building stay standing?" asked Alexis. "It seems to be the only one..."

"That glass is a lot stronger than glass on Earth," explained Quill. The group found their progress stopped at thick glass doors by a company of half a dozen heavily armed soldiers. Quill opened his mouth to try and charm his way past the entrance, but switched gears when he spotted a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. "DENARIAN!" he called out. "DENARIAN DAY!"

Denarian Day turned his head when he heard his name called...and immediately wished that he hadn't. "Quill," he greeted the thief with a deeply frustrated sigh, "what are you doing here? Who're your new friends?"

"We need to speak to Nova Prime," Gamora replied. "It is important."

Denarian Day eyed both thieves warily. "Important?"

Esposito maneuvered himself until he could get close enough to Denarian Day to make contact. Once he made that contact, though, the Guardian took over the conversation. "The Kree Emperor is sending the elite guard to destroy you while you're still rebuilding from Ronan's attack. They'll be here within the hour."