Epilogue

"You useless hunk of junk!" Thanos roared. Titanium was on her knees before his throne, head down with shame. Hijinx, Nebula, and two guards stood behind her. The guards had brought the shaking Titanium in from outside and Nebula had helped them with the unconscious Hijinx. Now they all stood before Thanos' throne awaiting what would happen.

"I'm sorry for my failure sir, truly, but if you'll allow me to explain-" Titanium's plea was cut off by Thanos raging anger.

"Explain? You want to explain?" Thanos gave a curt laugh. "You think I'm going to just sit up here and listen to you attempt to explain why you could not defeat three young and untrained elementals? Well you're wrong girl! You told me that you could beat them and you failed." Titanium lowered her head down even more, her gaze trained directly on the ground. "I hate failures." Thanos hissed. "I was told that you could beat anyone you fought, whether they made you weaker or stronger. That was a lie too apparently!" Thanos smashed his fist into the armrest of his chair. "I will deal with you soon."

Thanos then looked to Hijinx and Nebula. "What were you two doing with Inferno and Tsunami?" His tone was calmer but still deadly as a snake waiting to pounce.

"My lord Thanos," Hijinx began with a bow. "Nebula and I were attempting to extract information from them, to find the whereabouts of the Infinity Stone. I would guess that finding it would be of your highest priority." Hijinx glanced at Thanos to see his expression. Thanos appeared as a blank slate.

"Did you find anything?" Thanos rumbled. Hijinx turned to Nebula who stood like a statue, her gaze staring over Thanos shoulder. Hijinx turned back to Thanos and shook his head.

"We discovered nothing my lord." Hijinx backed out of his bow and stood next to Nebula yet again. "But I do have a proposition for you." Hijinx motioned to Titanium. "Allow me to have a go at this scrap metal here and make some necessary repairs." Hijinx smiled that trademark malicious grin. "I bet you'll be pleased with the results." Thanos pondered this for a minute before nodding his head.

"Permission granted Hijinx." Thanos watched as the two guards grabbed Titanium off the floor and walked out, Hijinx and Nebula trailing behind them. "Nebula, stay." Thanos ordered. Nebula paused at the door before turning back to Thanos. She made no move to approach him anymore.

"Yes father?" She asked.

"I want you to keep an eye on that scientist boy." Thanos ordered. "I don't want anyone getting the bright idea that they can double cross the great and powerful Thanos."

Nebula bit back a remark about Gamora double crossing the 'Great and Powerful Thanos' and instead gave a small bow of acknowledgement. "I will do my best father." Then Nebula turned and left and followed Hijinx back to the washed out lab.

The blood on the table was dried and the walls were still dripping with water. Small puddles resided in corners and only 5 out of the 7 lights overhead were still lit. One buzzed and crackled faintly, that slight hissing and popping the only noise in the otherwise quiet room. Hijinx ran his hand over an arm restraint, his fingernails picking at the dried blood remaining there from the Terrain girl.

"What are you really planning?" Nebula asked Hijinx. He looked up from his absentminded state and seemed to look right through her. "Hijinx, I'm willing to betray Thanos for you and your crazy science pets, I think I deserve some sort of explanation as to what your plans are. It's not hard to see that Plan A failed, and I don't believe that you would ever go into a mind game with the Mad Titan unless you had a couple hundred backup plans."

Before Hijinx could answer Titanium lifted her gaze from the floor and stared Hijinx in the eyes. "You're planning to play a game with the most powerful being in the universe and you choose the three most powerful entities to lose and the least powerful one to present as your token? Are you insane or just plain dumb!" Titanium tried to step towards Hijinx but the guards held her back.

"I'm neither dear girl." Hijinx ran his hand down Titanium's cheek. "I just have had a few setbacks." The Hijinx addressed Nebula. "Your loyalty to me is greatly appreciated Daughter of Thanos, I do believe we will do great work together. I do not, at the moment, have anything solidly set down for what to do next. I didn't anticipate the Guardians of the Galaxy getting involved with this matter."

Nebula scoffed. "They get involved in everything Thanos related. Now that they know that a mad scientist and Thanos are both after the powerful creatures in their protection the Nova Core will get involved. That was a Nova officer with them anyway so now we have an even bigger obstacle. Of course that also provides us with more cover as Thanos will be preoccupied with keeping the Nova Core out of our business."

"Then it's time to start phase two of my plan." Hijinx pulled up a com as Nebula glared daggers at his back for his rudeness of not letting her in on the phases of his plan. A crackly voice answered Hijinx's call. "Dr. Shar'tugo," Hijinx greeted. "I need you to begin phase two of my plan. Now I know that I don't have the exact whereabouts of the Reality Stone but I'm sure that will only delay us slightly, right?" The person on the other end just grunted. "Wonderful!" Hijinx clapped his hands. "Then we'll begin as soon as Titanium here is all in ship shape." The call ended.

As the guards strapped Titanium onto the table Nebula stood off in the corner and watched, memories flickering through her head of all the times she had been in Titanium's spot. All the time it had been Thanos and his men over her with tools and fluids instead of someone with kindness in his heart. Sure Hijinx could be a pain in the ass most of the time and he always talked in riddles, but deep down Nebula could see a good person just wanting to do right by his people. Her joining him in his mad quest for redemption; involving elements, Terrain girls, Infinity Stones, and the fate of the whole universe; was a suicide mission from the start. It wasn't like she could just back out now though, she had already helped him out so much that whatever happened was on her. Nebula would just have to wait it out until she took her last breath or Hijinx's plan worked.

"So what are you planning to do?" Titanium asked as Hijinx tested the tools to make sure they weren't damaged. "Since I'm your lab rat you might as well tell me. It's not like Thanos would believe a failure anyway."

"My plan is complex and confusing, even to my own scientific mind. Many variables, many unknowns, many things that could change, next to zero constants. Luck and fate will be on my side, as will four very amazing elements." Hijinx finished testing his tools and leaned over to look right at Titanium. "Because you see darling, I'm not here to play games with Thanos, oh no, that would be far too immature." Hijinx snickered a little as though he were imagining the thought. Finally he composed himself although his eyes were still lit up with bemusement. When he spoke his voice was hard and cold, a total change from the happy scientist from mere seconds earlier. His words still sent chills down Nebula's spine just as the day he had first said them to her.

"No, I'm not here for children's games. I am here to wage a war against Thanos."

So that's the end of book 1! How did you all like it? I hope you liked it cause things are going to get messy fast! I'm already starting on Book 2 and I hope to publish the first chapter before school lets out. I might not update much over the summer but I'll get faster by the fall most likely. Oh and by the way, Book 2 will be called "Elemental Girls Book 2 - Fury of Inferno" so that's a dead giveaway as to who we might focus on. (Personally Alexi is my favorite, who's yours?) Anyway, hope you enjoyed the story, please don't be scared to leave a review! I'll update this book with a sneak peek before I publish Book 2, so look forward to that! -Rocket