"He goes out alone," Tony agreed. "But only because he knows how to get backup to him, immediately, if he needs it."
"And because he won't let Tony go with him," Clint added. "No superhero wants his daddy hovering nearby when he's trying to save the world."
"Even when it's just Queens," Steve said.
Since the only one who had a clue about what Queens was – and even he didn't really know that much, since he'd never been to New York before just then – was Quill, the guardians simply shrugged.
"It still seems dangerous…" Gamora replied. Of course, she was thinking about the fact that someone who might be able to help take down her adoptive father's grandiose plan to destroy half the universe was risking his skin doing something as meaningless – as far as she could tell – as trying to stop muggings, or simple petty thefts. "Should he really be allowed to go out like that?"
Tony frowned, but it was Pepper who answered before he could.
"He has an inordinate sense of responsibility," she replied. "He feels that if he can do something to help someone, then he should do it. Even if it's dangerous."
"Besides," Tony said. "He's prepared. Otherwise I wouldn't let him out."
Gamora didn't look convinced, but Quill nodded his agreement.
"He – "
Before he said whatever it was he was going to say, Peter walked into the lounge, just then. The boy headed toward the tables, but glanced over at Groot, who was sitting on a sofa playing his handheld game, having become bored with the conversation long before then. Nutmeg was sitting on the top of the tree's head, calmly watching everything that was going on around him, his tail idly flicking into the young tree's line of sight only to move before Groot could brush it away.
The cloak left Stephen, immediately, and engulfed Peter in cheerful fabric, scolding him, good-naturedly, for leaving it.
"Anything interesting?" Tony asked, automatically looking his son over for any sign of injury, or anything else that might cause a concern.
"Little kid tried to take a fall off a roof-top garden while her grandmother wasn't looking."
"Is she alright?"
"Yeah. I think the grandmother was more upset, of course."
Since they were all watching him, expectantly, Peter told the story, with no embellishments and a lot of modesty. When he was finished, Drax shook his head.
"This Queen must be close by. You were not gone that long."
"It was a little kid," Peter said, not catching the Queens reference, since he hadn't been there for that part of the discussion. "No royalty, here."
"He meant Queens," Natasha said, smiling. She turned to Drax. "It's about an hour's drive south of here – depending on traffic."
Before they could get into a discussion about distances and how Peter managed to cover so much of it so quickly, Stephen spoke up.
"Tony told our guests some of your history, since you weren't here to do it. But he left out a few things that might come into play with everything that's going on with the infinity stones – and with Thanos."
"Like what?" Tony asked. "We know what Thanos wants, now," and he gestured toward Gamora. "Obviously, the Mind stone is giving us a bit of help in that by sending her looking for Peter – although I don't know why it couldn't just have passed the information on to us, itself."
"Gamora knows Thanos better than anyone," Wong pointed out. "She would be a great resource for possible tactics that he might have, or what he might do, next."
"Just like Peter's a good source for information if something happens with any of the stones," Stephen added.
Peter hesitated.
"I think he has the power stone – and I think he used it to do something terrible."
It was Quill's turn to frown.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because it's angry. I mean, I had a dream… or something similar… about one of the stones being irritated. I was talking to Tony about it the day Carol arrived…"
He looked at Tony, who nodded.
"I remember that conversation. You didn't say which stone – only that it wasn't the Mind stone or the Time stone." He looked at Danvers. "We didn't really finish that conversation, since something came up. Or someone, in this instance."
She smiled at that.
"Yeah. But I was thinking about it a bit," Peter said. "Even this morning – and have been discussing it with Alec. I think it's the power stone."
"The power stone is safe with the Nova Corps," Quill said. "Thanos can't have gotten it. They'd protect it."
"They had some heavy losses when Ronan came to Xander," Rocket reminded them. "They lost a lot of people and ships. If Thanos came looking for it with a big enough army…"
He trailed off, and shrugged.
Gamora looked at Peter.
"Why do you think it's the Power stone?"
It was Peter who shrugged, this time.
"It's not the Mind stone, not the Time stone and definitely not the Soul stone. Thor has the Space stone on Asgard, buried deep enough that I didn't feel it when we were there. That leaves the Reality stone and the Power stone. I'm not sure where they are, but I felt both of them when I was on the astral plane, and the Reality stone feels odd. I'm almost positive it's the Power stone."
"The Collector has the Reality stone," Wong said. "It was a recent acquisition of his."
"And the Space stone is in Odin's vault on Asgard," Stephen confirmed. "Had they been challenged for it, we would have heard from Thor, I'm certain."
"Yeah." Tony nodded his agreement.
"How do we know it isn't the Time stone you felt?" Gamora asked the boy, skeptically.
"Because I am the keeper of the Time stone," Strange replied, before Peter could even hesitate about revealing that. "And I'd know if it were taken."
"You do have an infinity stone on this planet?" Gamora asked, looking alarmed. "Your world is in grave danger, then."
"We have two of them," Tony told her. "The Mind stone is here, too."
"How…" she looked stunned, now.
"So we know it isn't those two," Quill said. He looked at Gamora. "We need to go to Xander."
"Why?" Carol asked.
"To check on the stone. If Thanos has it, then we need to get it away from him."
"You can't take on Thanos," Gamora said. "He's powerful, Peter," she told him. "And if he has a stone, then he's even moreso."
"I'll go," Carol told them. She looked at Tony, confidently. "I can be there and back in a couple of days, at the most – less, if I don't find any trouble on Xander."
"You can't go by yourself," Steve objected. "It's not safe."
"I can handle my own," Danvers assured him. "They won't even know I'm there."
"She's pretty remarkable," Alec said. "And just cocky enough to be interesting, too."
"She has the abilities to back it up," Peter reminded him, more interested in the way Steve had objected to Carol going anywhere alone.
Maybe there was a little Captain America, Captain Danvers romance going on? Speculation had been rampant throughout the compound, really – even though no one would come right out and ask either of them. Especially since it wasn't anyone's business but Steve and Carol's.
Tony hesitated.
"Are you sure?"
"We can go," Quill said. "It'll only take us a few days to get there, and we can see for ourselves just what-"
"A day," Danvers repeated. "I can be there in a day. Do you really want to waste extra time where it's not needed?"
"No," a voice said, speaking up from behind Peter – who had his back to the entrance to the lounge. They all turned and saw Fury had been walking up to join them. The SHIELD director was dressed in his normal black leather, his expression serious. "We need the intel and the sooner, the better. Danvers will go. And you will be our guests, here, until she gets back."
"Who died and made you the boss?" Quill asked, incredulously.
"No one needed to die for me to be the boss," Nick replied, straight-faced. "Especially when it involves common sense. There is no reason we should wait six days – three there and three back – when we can have the information we need in two."
"But…"
He ignored Gamora and turned to Danvers.
"There and back. You find out what you need to know – and you do not engage anyone. Understand?"
She smirked, clearly wanting to ask him who died and made him boss, but holding her tongue. Instead, she nodded.
"Fine." Carol stood up. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
She glanced at Steve, and then left the lounge.