CHAPTER 10 - Too Slow
The removal spell was much easier to learn than creating the arrows. Loki explained it was because Clint had learned to manipulate his magic and concentrate on the spell itself. There were many more spells that Loki wanted to teach Clint, but he needed to give the archer time. Magic use was a very complicated artwork of time and power. If Loki tried to rush Clint, there was a chance the archer would burn out. But if Loki went too slow, Clint may not want to learn more or his magic would stall out.
"So, you gonna teach him anything cooler than the arrow trick... Cause that's getting old," Rocket asked as Clint and Loki set about training again. Clint turned and growled at the raccoon.
"If you wanna see some more, learn magic yourself," the archer snarled. Loki sighed as Clint then decided he was done and just walked away. The trickster frowned, turning to Rocket.
"Thank you for giving him the two steps back," the Lie-smith muttered before turning and walking away. Rocket frowned.
"What? What did I say?"
Time passed by oddly for everyone after that. It was only supposed to be a week or so before they arrived at Earth but they just kept going. At first, no one seemed to notice. But as supplies once again dwindled, they all knew something was going on. They just didn't know what.
"Is it just me or do we seem to be either not going anywhere or trapped in some type of endless cycle?" Clint asked when checking over the food left in the kitchen. They had gotten now to some of the worse tasting (but extremely cheap) bits of food. Everyone was getting miserable.
"The charts say we're on track... But the jumps don't seem to be landing right," Quill replied, loading up one of the interfaces that sat on the kitchen table. Clint sighed, used to things like that from Tony. Gamora shifted closer to look at the chart as well while Loki rolled his eyes. "We seem to be delayed by at least another week at this speed."
"Well, what are we going to do about supplies? We are not going to last the next few days," Gamora pointed out even as Drax came in and grabbed a rather large helping of food. As he walked past Gamora, she stole some out of his arms. Thankfully, Drax either didn't care or was willing to share cause he just kept on walking. Clint glanced to Loki.
"Can't you magic us up some food?" he wondered. Loki shook his head.
"When I do things like that on Midgard and on Asgard, I am technically transporting the item from another place to where I want it to be. Out here, there really isn't anything close for me to latch onto," Loki described. Clint huffed.
"Unhelpful," Quill muttered but didn't seem all that angered with Loki, just upset about the situation.
"Are we near any safe planet?" Loki asked. Quill looked over the charts before wincing. "What?"
"Uh... Yeah, we can go to Xandar," Quill mumbled. "It's about a jump away."
"What's wrong with Xandar?" Clint questioned as Rocket jumped into the room and up on the table.
"What isn't wrong with Xandar is the better question," Rocket corrected.
"Nova Corps has their headquarters on Xandar," Gamora answered.
"And we want to avoid Nova Corps?" Clint continued, his own chill running up his back. The longer Loki and he had stayed out here with the guardians, the more they learned how little the Corps actually did and why many disliked the group. Gamora, Quill and Rocket nodded. It had been explained once or twice that Nova Corps had an agreement with various different groups. Themselves included.
"We may have a somewhat rocky truce with them. We generally stay out of their hair and they stay out of ours. Going to Xandar, even for supplies can potentiality lead to some issues," Rocket replied. "Unless we have a criminal on board and we wish to trade."
"Or you need help," Loki mumbled under his breath. Thankfully only Clint heard and the archer made no move to respond to it.
"Issues or they're better at catching you stealing?" Clint retorted but not arguing the fact that going to Xandar wasn't going to be nice for any of them. Rocket looked to Clint in surprise.
"What?" the raccoon wondered as innocent as can be. Clint crossed his arms and leveled a look at Rocket that dared the raccoon to try and argue with him. One of the reasons the archer was in this whole mess with magic was thanks to Rocket pissing off the Sovereign. And no one was gonna let that one die.
"He's got you pegged," Quill chuckled. Rocket frowned but said nothing in reply.
"If we go to Xandar, what if only Mantis, Clint and I go for supplies? I know enough about safe food items, pricing and items we may need for it not to bother us," Loki mentioned. Gamora shook her head.
"They aren't tracking us by seeing us in person. Every ship gives off a distinctly unique code that one can trace or track when nearby. And Nova Corps tends to track ours a lot around Xandar," Gamora stated.
"So, there isn't anywhere else we can go?" Clint inquired, moving to look at the chart even though he didn't understand what he was looking at.
"Not that we'd be able to reach before supplies ran out," Quill countered.
"How long would it take after supplies ran out?" Loki inquired. Quill glanced at Rocket who sometimes was a better judge on things like that.
"If we could go our normal speed to the next jump, we'd be at Xandar in maybe an hour or so. At this pace that we seem to be going, at least two days to get there. A day after we run out of food," Rocket informed. That didn't seem too bad but then again, it could get worse before it gets better. Best to maybe not risk chancing anything.
"Can we back track to a planet?" Clint tried.
"No. We are quite literally stuck with only Xandar in our reach," Gamora explained. Clint looked back to Loki.
"My magic can only extend so far. I believe we would be on Xandar's watch before we could get close enough for me to try anything," Loki said before Clint could even ask.
"What if you two combined magic?" Rocket asked. Loki glanced at Clint before shaking his head.
"No. Any other magic user would help me, but if Clint helped we'd be shortening our range," Loki answered. Clint winced, moving to stand by the wall nearing the exit to the bunks. It had only been within the past day or so that Loki had started teaching Clint how to stop his magic from collecting outside sources.
"Why?" Rocket muttered.
"Clint's magic will absorb anything I send out. Even if he tries to help," Loki described.
"What if Clint casts the spell and you provide the magic?" Quill suggested. Clint grimaced, looking away from the group.
"The spell needed is one that takes years to master. It's too complicated for Clint at this moment," Loki pointed out. Clint frowned but refused to comment. It wasn't like he was likely going to need whatever spell Loki was talking about. So, he wasn't sure he actually wanted to learn it... Complicated or not. And the fact that everyone keeps bringing up his magic wasn't sitting well with the archer. Thankfully Loki tended to control those situations.
"So, we're stuck going to Xandar and begging for them to give us supplies. Nice," Quill groaned.
"I'll adjust course," Rocket informed, jumping off the table to go to the cockpit even as he muttered about getting killed and no units to collect. After that, Clint and Loki headed to the hall they normally practiced in. Loki had just recently taken their range time into showing Clint how to adjust his arrows into ones he typically used in the field. Nearing an hour later, Rocket gave a call out through the ship's speakers.
"Guys, we're almost at Xandar," the raccoon called out his tone as surprised as everyone felt. Loki and Clint frowned. Hadn't they said it'd take two days? The whole group converged on the cockpit, except Groot who had taken to playing his video game in his room after Quill and Rocket had told him to get off it one too many times.
"Our speed increased?" Quill wondered, moving to sit in his normal seat.
"No. Guess whatever was holding us let go," Rocket countered.
"Could it be possible that something doesn't want us to go to Earth?" Gamora inquired, looking to Loki as if the trickster would have the answer.
"It is possible, but why? Why would they delay Clint and I from returning?" Loki replied seriously thinking about it. It made no sense, they had... "Gamora, does Thanos have reach to bother us here?"
"I... No, but his Black Order might," Gamora answered, turning to look at Loki.
"So, wait, you think Thanos is trying to stop us-" Clint started.
"No, me," Loki interrupted with a shake of his head. He was the one making this worse for the archer. Clint would need to have to travel on his own. "Thanos 'gifted' me the Mind Stone, or Scepter, with the promise of returning with the Tesseract, or Space Stone. If I failed..."
"You would be punished with a punishment far worse than death," Gamora finished, knowing the ways Thanos worked well. Loki nodded.
"Could Nova Corps actually help us?" Clint asked, his face twisted into a grimace. It was clear that no one wanted a thing to do with Nova Corps.
"Not if I go along. If I got off the ship on any planet, likely you would be able to return home," Loki explained. "Thanos will not allow me to go."
"So, what, Thanos is scared of Earth?" Quill inquired.
"No. He will eventually have to go to Earth. There are currently at least three stones from each set of Infinity Stones," Loki described not even really thinking about what he was giving away.
"Sets? There is only one, right?" Gamora argued.
"One would think that yes, but we have recently discovered that there is a secondary weaker set that was created to counteract the first set and confuse any potential collectors from getting the correct set," Loki informed.
"So, what stones are on that planet?" Rocket wondered.
"There are currently two Mind Stones, a Reality Stone, two Space Stones and one Time Stone," Loki answered before inwardly slapping his forehead. How could he have been so stupid? The Tesseract wasn't still on Earth. He was carrying the stone in his pocket dimension. Mentally cussing, Loki looked to the archer beside him. If Clint had not been attacked by Ego, the archer would have been safe enough to have traveled with the Tesseract. But, the way Clint was now. The archer was in even worse shape then when they were first sent to space. If the Tesseract was used on the archer, there was no telling if Clint would try and absorb that power. It was too big of a risk at this moment. Clint frowned at the list of stones that Loki had mentioned. He knew there were two Mind Stones, one with Vision and one now locked up with Tony. The Reality Stone was hidden in a secret location of Pietro's and Clint's own choice. A Space Stone was with Cooper and a Time Stone was with Dr. Strange. Wasn't the Tesseract with Thor? "We also know that one Soul Stone was left on Niflheim and I believe there was mention of it's copy on Vormir."
Gamora winced. "That's what I heard as well."
"Thor also gave a Reality Stone, called the Aether to Taneleer Tivan, on Knowhere," Loki added.
"We gave the Orb to Nova Corps. Ronin said it was the Power Stone," Quill stated. Loki frowned.
"That means we know of the pieces for one complete set if they match up. The remaining that we are missing is at least the Time Stone and Power Stone. And that's if the stones match. We could have the Power Stone from the weaker set but the Power Stone that goes with the stronger set is still out there," Loki summarized.
"Well, ain't that fine and dandy," Quill muttered.
"Milano, turn back now and excessive force will not be required," a voice came through on the cockpit speakers. The group jumped in surprise. No one realized they had gotten that close. Clint raised and eyebrow and glanced at Loki. 'Excessive force' the archer wondered. Loki sighed. This was not going well.
"Whoa, whoa. We are just coming for some supplies, we are running low and you are the closest planet we could reach," Quill replied, rushing to call up the image of who was speaking to them. A holoscreen popped up in front of them with an unknown face but dressed in the Nova Corps outfit.
"We require you to stop from coming closer," the officer retorted.
"We need supplies," Gamora called. The officer shook his head.
"You will not be getting them from here," the officer flat out stated. Loki leaned forward. Even if the Nova Corps had an issue with the guardians, there was no way they should be able to refuse support.
"We implore you as a traveler in space with little supplies to allow us to collect items enough to get us to another planet and then we shall be on our way," Loki tried. The officer hesitated at that. After a moment, the view screen vanished and the group tensed. Carefully, Loki casted a few protection spells all over the ship. It may not help but it was worth a shot. Clint glanced at the trickster quickly before trying his best to ignore it and not absorb any of the magic. While the spell hadn't been done personally on the archer, Clint did have a small chance of draining the spell. Loki shifted closer to Clint and softly muttered the way to ignore the magic. It took nearly five minutes before a familiar face popped up.
"Dey!" Quill happily called.
"Star-Prince," Dey replied in a way that made a chill run down Clint's spine. Quill frowned as Loki turned to look at the archer.
"Star-Lord," Quill muttered under his breath. Noting Loki's gaze, Clint just shook his head. He wasn't willing to talk about it right now.
"We have warned you not to come here without a bounty," Dey responded, ignoring Quill.
"I know, I know. But, we're in a bit of a bind. We just need a bit of food and water and then we'll be on our way to restock at a different planet," Quill informed.
"Quill, it's better if you just turn around. There is another planet within two jumps from here. You can deal with that," Dey stated. Quill winced making Dey's eyes narrow. "What aren't you telling me?"
"We've been having issues with traveling to our current destination. Our ship has been going at a much slower pace than we expected. And our jumps have not been landing correctly. We fear that traveling to the next planet may take longer than a few hours," Gamora implored. Dey frowned, looking down at something below the screen. Sighing, he looked back up.
"I'll escort you there. If your ship can't make it before supplies run out, I will rush ahead and transport supplies back to you," Dey suggested.
"We thank you for whatever help you can give," Loki answered before anyone could argue. Dey nodded before cutting out his feed. Thirty minutes later, a Nova Corps ship came from Xandar and headed to the Milano. As it started to pass, Rocket turned the ship to follow. Thankfully, the planet that everyone had been talking about was indeed on their way to Earth. At the first jump, Dey led the way but when the Milano traveled through after, they landed without Dey on the other side.
"What just happened?" Clint questioned, looking at the area as if Dey would suddenly appear. Gamora sat down in her seat and started calling up some of her systems to try and send out a message to the Nova Corps officer.
"Where are we?" Quill grunted, pulling up his own systems.
"Looks like we back tracked four jumps. But how the flarg did we do that?" Rocket called.
"I do not believe the Black Order has the power to do this," Loki grumbled, looking to Gamora who simply frowned. She really didn't want to let him know that it was possible if Thanos was working with the right person. But, if it wasn't Thanos blocking them... Who could it be? A moment later, a ship appeared from the jump point behind them.
"What happened?" Dey cried as soon as their communications connected. "How did you back track like this?"
"We don't know," Quill retorted. Dey huffed. "Look, we need supplies."
"I'll jump back and get some things. Stay here," Dey ordered. Quill nodded. As soon as Dey vanished, Clint looked to the others.
"So... I guess this seriously isn't normal," he stated.
"The jumps are wormholes that are set to go from point A to point B. Somehow, when we go into point A, we are ending up in point C or something," Gamora mumbled pulling up the logs of their jumps. With it all laid out now, everyone could see. For every six jumps that they did to reach Earth, they'd suddenly hit back by anywhere from one jump to five jumps. And while they never did get off track. It was just they seemed to have lost time.
"That makes no sense," Clint hissed as Dey re-arrived, a larger ship following him.
"Let's get this supply run over," Dey ordered. Nodding, Quill, Gamora and Rocket all headed off to get the coupling area ready for the transfer.
"Well, this has been fun," Clint grumbled before turning back and heading to the what was now deemed the 'practice hall.' Loki had set up a 'training' experience that was meant to challenge Clint's ability to quickly create arrows and to try and use a multitude of arrows he'd normally get in an Avenger's battle. He was maybe a half hour into it when Mantis came up to him.
"You are practicing?" Mantis wondered. Clint nodded, not even letting her phase him even though he was still uncomfortable in her presence. Mantis tilted her head and watched Clint for a little while. Slowly, she began to get bored so she turned to look at Clint. He was deep in concentration and hardly seemed to notice her anymore. With a curious look, Mantis lifted her hand and moved to place it on Clint's skin. That must have sent off warning bells in Clint's mind because a second before she made contact, Clint leaped away from her.
"Don't," he snapped. Mantis frowned.
"I was merely curious," Mantis apologized. Clint shook his head.
"Either way, just don't," he hissed before turning and walking off. Mantis tilted her head in curious before wondering if she should follow. In the end, she decided to walk away.
With the new supplies packed away, the Milano restarted it's journey to Earth. And like before, the jumps were consistently being messed with. In an attempt to counteract it, Gamora plotted a course that would zig zag them across space but still draw them closer to Earth. For a while it worked but, if they ever passed over a jump that they'd need to hit Earth, they'd be knocked off course.
"This is ridiculous, just return me to Xandar," Loki hissed. It had taken them nearly two weeks before they re-arrived back in the Xandar zone. This time, Nova Corps didn't give them any issues. In fact, they were just as curious and confused as the guardians but were less willing to help. Even Dey gave them an issue, saying they should just stop at every jump to get supplies.
"No. I'm not gonna leave you out here," Clint growled. Loki nearly opened his mouth to mention the Tesseract in his possession but then stopped. Clint wouldn't be able to handle the force needed to travel to Earth. "We'll figure something out."
"Not sure how we can plan for this if time keeps happening," Rocket muttered under his breath. Clint turned and glared at him. Rocket sighed. "Look, I ain't trying to dispute you on this but. If we keep getting delayed, we may be planet hopping rather than jumping and that's if we don't get slowed down even more by doin' that."
"What if we change our destination to Niflheim, or one of the other Nine Realms? That way it isn't Earth but we have ways to get back?" Clint suggested, looking to Loki for help. Loki looked at the map and sighed. He reached forward to point to various areas on the map.
"Alfheim, Vanaheim, Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, Muspelheim, Nidavellir, Niflheim," Loki said, pointing to various places around the map. Right in the middle was what Clint could figured to be Earth's solar system. Damn, they were a far ways away. "All of them are too close to Midgard for Thanos, or whoever, not to see what we are doing, some even further away than Midgard. It is too close."
"Okay..." Clint grumbled.
"If we keep going this pace, we ain't gonna make it in general. We don't have unlimited funds to just keep getting supplies," Rocket pointed out. Clint frowned before sharply looking at Loki and then back to the guardians.
"Bring us back to Knowhere," he said. The group turned to him stunned. "Cosmo... He mentioned he could get us home."
"Correction, he said he could get you home," Loki stated. Clint winced. "But, it would be a better course of action to return there. We know about how long that should take and I doubt Thanos would slow us down."
"We can try it," Gamora responded, looking to Quill and Rocket. "I don't see how it could get worse than this. We already noticed that when we headed to Xandar that the slowing of the ship stopped. If Thanos thinks we've given up, he should allow us free journey."
"And if that don't work, we'll ditch the problem," Rocket added, glancing over to Loki as he said so. Clint sighed deeply, not wanting to argue that point anymore. He really didn't want to leave Loki on any planet and he'd fight anyone who actually tried it. It was unfair to the trickster. Loki had been abandoned enough in his life and Clint knew exactly how that felt. With their choice made, the guardians turned the Milano around and headed off to Knowhere. It should only take them about a day and a half.
Yeah, I know. I missed yesterday. Sorry. Got a bit down in the dumps so I didn't do much of anything.
Darius has been doing well. This week has been a tough week for us. Hubby had a lot of late night shifts which none of us are used to. Because of that, I was the one who had to put Darius to bed. One night, he spelt with me in my bed. NEVER AGAIN! I woke up so tired and sore that no matter how much the poor kiddo cries, I ain't doing it unless there is a bigger bed and hubby is on the other side. Meaning, a King sized bed rather than the Queen we have now. So, I've had to promise Darius that 'Daddy will come join you when he gets back.' And hubby has been great in doing that for me. Story time has become fun. Out of all the normal stories that hubby reads to Darius, Darius tends to pick the longest one for me. And not just the longest one... It's one where I have to sing songs... Thank goodness I don't mind doing that. Baby Jason seems to be okay. Haven't seen much of him this week as his parents have either been in their room or out of the house. When I do see him, he usually is upset cause he wants a bottle or is happy and smiling and playing or getting packed up in his car seat to leave.