Tony frowned.
"Aren't you supposed to be in North Carolina?"
"South Carolina," Steve corrected, and he offered Carol Danvers a chair before he took his own. "And yes. Training with special forces."
"What are you doing back so early?" Peter asked, curiously.
Clint smirked, looking at the odd group of people – and things – around the table, before turning to the boy.
"Nat had one of those heads-ups."
"What's going on?" Romanoff asked without preamble.
"Peter's causing trouble, again," Tony said. He winked at the boy, making sure he understood that he didn't mean it the way it sounded. "This time, though, apparently you're not the only one getting the message."
Peter rolled his eyes, relieved that Tony was relaxed enough to joke with him. It meant that he'd be able to keep Pepper from freaking out, too.
"The more I see of him, the more he impresses me," Alec said to the boy.
"Oh?" Natasha raised an eyebrow, but she didn't automatically go on the defensive – or the offensive. "What do you mean?"
"Have a seat, guys," Tony suggested. "It's a bit of a story, and we haven't really had a chance to hear it, ourselves."
Romanoff waited until the others had seated themselves, and then sat across from Gamora, next to Stephen. She noticed, immediately, that despite his laidback words and teasing, Tony was seated beside Peter, and Pepper had taken the other position next to him, leaving Groot to sit next to Rocket, who was watching all of the earthlings with caution.
"Something to drink?" Strange offered – again.
"Coffee for me," Tony told him, watching the newcomers, because Stephen hadn't made a move to stand up – which meant the sorcerer supreme was about to put on his own display of power and resource.
Sure enough, an instant later there was a steaming mug of coffee in front of Stark, and Stephen turned to Pepper, who shrugged.
"Hot tea."
Natasha opted for coffee, as did Steve and Clint. Carol wanted something stronger. Peter wasn't even asked; a bottle of cola appeared in front of him, and then the sorcerer turned to Gamora, who was staring – as were the others.
"I am groot?"
"It's magic," Peter told him.
"Magic isn't real," Drax objected.
A glass of an amber liquid appeared in front of him, and he frowned, reaching out and touching it.
"It's a transporter," Quill said. "Like on Star Trek."
"Believe what you want," Strange said, shrugging. He turned his attention back to Gamora. "It'll have to be something I know," he told her.
"Anything with alcohol."
A glass and a bottle of bourbon appeared, and Rocket reached for the bottle, looking at it, opening it and then smelling it before looking at Strange.
"A glass, please?"
Strange nodded and another glass made an appearance in front of the racoon.
Mantis hesitated when Strange looked at her and she shrugged, looking at Quill.
"I don't know what to ask for."
"Can you make chocolate milk?" Quill asked, looking at Stephen, hopefully.
The requested drink appeared in front of both him and Mantis and now it was the sorcerer who hesitated, looking at Groot.
"He'll have water," Rocket said.
"Seriously… I don't know how you did that, but I approve," Quill told Strange, drinking his chocolate milk down.
"So, you were mentioning why you're here…" Natasha reminded them.
"I had a vision," Gamora said. "A dream, maybe – I'm not sure that I was asleep, but I definitely saw him in my mind, and was pretty much told that he was in the middle of something extremely dangerous."
"Told by whom?" Tony asked.
She shrugged.
"I don't know. It wasn't a voice, though. It just popped into my head."
"So, like I said," Quill added. "We found out about it, and figured we'd come see what was going on and hand out the warning where we could."
"Think it was the mind stone?" Tony asked Stephen.
"It's a good guess."
Gamora frowned.
"Wait. What?"
"The mind stone is one of several ingots of power that predate the dawn of the universe," Strange told her. "They're-"
"It's an infinity stone?" Quill asked.
"Wait. Like the power stone?" Rocket asked, looking surprised.
"You've heard of them?" Stephen asked.
"We've come across one," Gamora said. "What do you know of them?"
"Plenty."
"They have one here," Mantis said, suddenly.
"She's an empath," Alec said to Peter. "Which means she can get into the emotions of the others and is probably extremely adept at understanding what she's feeling."
"Not into mine?"
"No one can get into your mind – or your feelings," the ancient sorcerer told the boy, confidently. "Between what Strange and Wong did, before me, and the protections I give you."
"Here on earth?" Quill asked, eyes wide. "Are you kidding me?"
"No." Strange took the lead in the conversation – rightfully so. "We have an infinity stone, here."
"Then your entire planet is in danger," Gamora said. "If Thanos finds out about it, he'll come looking for it, and he'll kill everyone on your planet to get it from you."
"Thanos?" Strange glanced at Tony before looking at her. "We've heard that name. Who is he?"
"Gamora's adopted father," Drax told them.
"He's a madman," she said, her expression emotionless. "He wants the stones to fulfill a self-imposed destiny."
"What?" Tony asked. "Do you know what his endgame is?"
"He thinks that he can save the universe from themselves by destroying half of the life on every world."
"What?"
Strange wasn't the only one to stare at her – including the people who had come to earth with her.
"That's insane…" Alec said, and even his normally calm mental voice was shocked.
"Could it be true?" Peter asked. "Would the stones make someone be able to do that?"
"Combined? Maybe."
Gamora was unaware of the mental conversation – as were the others around the table.
"It's all I heard as a child," she said, and her expression was now just a little bleak. "He believes that if there are half as many people, that will leave the remaining resources for those who are left. If he manages to obtain the stones, he'll use their combined power to do it."
"He's mad…"
Gamora turned to Quill, who had been the one who spoke – although every face around the table looked stunned, worried, or scared, suddenly.
"Yes." She looked at Tony. "He's already started, without the stones. When I was a child, his armies came to my world and massacred entire swaths of the population – regardless of age, or rank or gender."
"I don't get it…" Rocket said, softly.
"Her adoptive father wants to kill half the universe," Drax said, slowly, as if to explain.
The racoon scowled.
"I get that. I mean, it's nuts, of course, but I understand that there's a motivation behind it. What I don't get is what any of this has to do with Peter, here. He's just a kid, after all. What could he do to help?"
The Avengers all looked at Tony, understanding that none of them had the right to respond to that. Even more; Strange did, as well – and for the same reason. Tony looked at Pepper, but she looked at Peter, her expression suddenly extremely worried. Bolstered by Alec, Peter was able to keep his expression clear of the fear and concern that he suddenly felt.
Not for himself, but if half of the universe was at danger, that meant half of his universe was in danger. Tony or Pepper. Natasha or Stephen. Clint or Steve. Or all of them, really. There was guarantee that any of them would survive whatever this Thanos tried.
Peter didn't trust the universe to spare any of them just for him. Quite the opposite, really. He looked at Tony, and shrugged, giving the man who he knew loved him more than anything the permission to tell them.
Which would almost certainly open up a whole different can of worms.
"Peter can feel the infinity stones," Tony told them.
"All of them?" Gamora asked – looking directly at the boy.
Peter glanced at Tony, and then shrugged before turning to the others.
"The mind stone pretty much all the time; the others at one time or another. I spent a while on the Astral plane and connected with them all to a point."
"How much of a connection?" Quill asked. "Would they listen to you if you told them to tell Thanos to pack sand?"
Pepper looked scandalized, but Peter smiled, forced to shrug.
"I don't know."
"Well…" Stephen said into the silence that followed as all of them thought about the ramifications of what they were learning. "Now we know the reason for the warning, don't we? And why it was Gamora who was given this particular warning. She's the one who knows Thanos' plan and was able to warn us, as well."
"What do we do?" Pepper asked.
"We take the fight to this Thanos," Danvers answered. "Before he has a chance to kill anyone else – and definitely before he gets his hands on any of the stones."
Tony held up a hand, even before Gamora could speak up – and probably shoot the plan down.
"Look. It's late and we're all tired – or you should be. Why don't we get some sleep and take this up in the morning." He looked at the newcomers. "I assume you're not leaving tonight?"
Quill shook his head, looking at Gamora before turning to Stark.
"No. We can stick around as long as we need to."
"Good. We have guest quarters, here, unless you would rather sleep on your ship?"
"We'll sleep on our ship," Quinn told them.
"Good enough. We'll eat breakfast at 10am." He looked at his watch. "It's 2am, now." No wonder he was tired. "When you're up and about just walk through the door. My AI will let me know you're here and someone will come meet you."
"Sounds like a plan," Quill said, standing up.
Tony gestured to the SHIELD security people and they came over to show the group which exit to use.
"Keep your weapons on your ship, please," Tony added, as they all stood, impromptu meeting finished for the moment. "I don't want any misunderstandings while we're getting to know each other."
Gamora hesitated, but nodded, and looked at Drax and Rocket.
"That's fair."
"We'll see you in the morning."
The newcomers all left, and the Avengers, the sorcerer, Carol and Peter sat back down, almost silently, and Peter could practically feel them all worrying about him.
"Nothing you can do about that," Alec told him. "They're going to worry, no matter what. Go to bed. It's late and will send them all to bed, too."
"I'm going to bed," Peter said, standing up. He looked at the others and his gaze lingered on Tony and Pepper, especially. "Don't worry about all of this, okay? It's not happening any time soon – if ever."
With a final caress to his cheek, the cloak detached from Peter's shoulders to drift over to claim its spot on Stephen, who was also watching Peter.
He hugged Pepper, first, holding her for a long moment before moving to Tony. The billionaire brought Peter's hand to his jaw – more for his own comfort than the boy's, but he knew it was an important gesture to Peter, too.
"You know where to find us if you need us…"
"Yeah. Good night."
He left, and the others watched him go.
"Nothing we can do tonight, guys," Tony told them, reaching for Pepper's hand. "Get some sleep. Okay?"
They left, too, and Romanoff looked at Stephen.
"You'll be back in the morning?"
"I'm going to bring Wong, too. We'll need him, I think."
"We're going to need everyone, eventually," Clint said, looking concerned. Not surprisingly, since he had a family. "This Thanos guy needs to be stopped."