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I Can Hear the Drums
Chapter 14
Clint stood over Peter's body, holding the lamp in one hand with Loki across from him. The Frost Giant was in full regalia, complete with his ram's horn helmet, cape, and even a fake visual of his old mind staff. He poised perfectly within Peter's line of sight the minute Star-Lord roused. Clint had to fight back his laughter. He nearly shook apart with it. Both of his lips squeezed tight, wedged between his teeth with sheer determination to not give up the game. He lifted the lamp a little higher and gave Loki the go ahead.
"ATTACK!" Clint screamed. The lamp sailed through the air, hit the floor, and exploded with a crash louder than a shot gun blast. Quill shot up, Clint grabbed him by the shoulders and kicked him of the bed. Tangled in his blankets, and gyrating in confusion, Quill tried to get his bearings. Standing over him like a specter was none other than Loki Laufeyson. Peter screamed, groped around for the gun Clint had taken away from him and tripped over himself to get away. In his utter panic, he did the only logical thing that came to his mind: he found the closest window and threw himself right out of it.
Clint's mouth dropped. He looked at Loki, who dropped his persona back to the short-sleeved clothing he originally wore and watched as Quill slid right over the banister. There was a third crash as he rebounded off the awning below them and at last settled on the dust below.
"Oops." Clint said.
"He deserves it." Loki replied, unaffected. He climbed through the open window and ended up on the porch, talking as he went. "You go back down. I will meet you on the street. I fear if we do not stop him now, he may attempt to escape from this charade."
Clint snorted a little, and then burst out laughing. He had no idea Peter's reaction could be so explosive. It was a mean trick, but throwing the guy out a window hadn't exactly been part of the plan. Clint hurried outside, hoping that Loki's present wouldn't send the Guardian racing off into the night without the rest of his clothes on. At least Clint had the forethought to grab the pile on his way out.
"You couldn't just say hi like a normal person?! What the Hell, Clint?!"
Barton heard the shouting before he reached the street. He diverted temporarily to shell out some units to the barkeep for thrashing the place and went outside. A few patrons pressed in around the windows to watch the goings on.
"If you would answer that little switch known as a transceiver, you might have noticed we had attempted that!"
"You didn't have to throw me out a window!"
"I believe, you jumped out the window."
Clint arrived in the lane only to come face to face with himself. Apparently Loki thought it better to have Peter look up and see Barton standing over him rather than the adopted son of Odin. The minute the real Barton appeared, though, Quill's confusion escalated to astronomical proportions. His head whipped between the two of them in utter confusion. During one such transition, Loki returned to his true form and when Quill saw that, he screamed and threw himself against Clint. He tried to drawl the gun he did not have, because he had no pants either, and ended up pointing his finger as if it might be loaded.
Loki's brow arched. "Really?"
"There could be one really screwed up raccoon with a sniper rifle behind this finger, so you just watch your step!" Quill exclaimed.
Clint tapped his shoulder and Peter glanced over his shoulder at him. First, Barton handed over his pants. Peter put them on with one hand, the other finger-gun held steady on the Frost Giant. Next came his shirt, which he slipped on also. Clint helped feed his arms into his leather jacket, kept his gun belt, and started off for the light side of the moon. "Come on, Quill. Leave your finger on Loki if it makes you feel better."
"Clint! Hey, wait up!" Peter searched around in his pockets for whatever else Barton might have taken from him. He trotted after the archer, leaving Loki to follow behind. A few of the local bar's patrons peaked their heads out to see the commotion but none bothered to butt in. They knew well enough that when a guy went frying through a plate glass window, it was better not to pick a fight with the man responsible.
"I gave you one job, Pete, because I thought for some reason you could handle it." Clint said. He passed the center of town, left the peculiar fountain, and went straight for the brighter side of the moon. He needed some of that blue-sun heat back before he froze to death.
"Two questions, how did you get here? And why did you bring that guy?" Peter caught up with him as they crossed the town line.
Clint walked into sun for a while as he continued to hammer away at Star-Lord. "I supported you. When they said the last person who we should send after something like this is Peter Quill, I said you could handle it. I put my name to that."
"Awe, come on! Don't be like that!" Peter complained. He threw his hand back at Prism Row. "I was doing recon! That girl I was with had some good leads on Thanos' old crew and I was just about to nail it out of her."
Clint folded his arms, cocked his hip to one side and dropped his stare. "Really?" he drew out. "Nail it out of her? I'm sure that's exactly what you planned. Do you know what I've been through the last few months?" Clint turned in place, his frustration mounted to an astronomical level. He wasn't sure how he might feel seeing Star-Lord at last, but now that he did, he could hardly believe his own anger.
"I have been working! I've cleared four systems already!" Peter exclaimed. He looked over his shoulder at Loki who remained on the dark half of the moon with his arms folded. Peter hiked a thumb at him. "You do realize who that is, right?"
"Four systems means nothing when we have to go through over twelve thousand! And Loki's the only out here helping me track you down! What is so wrong with picking up your phone?"
"I worked very hard on those systems and nothing is wrong with my phone!" He pulled out his ship-to-ship mobile comm and checked the front face. He shook it a few times and turned it over in his hand. When he looked up the smile he had told the tale. "Huh, look at that. I swear it was working last night."
"Bull!" Clint said. He took a step forward body taught in aggression. Loki sailed closer should he need to separate them. "Do you have any idea how important this is! Did it ever cross your mind!" Clint grabbed the man's collar and shoved him back. Loki stepped in and put his hand forcibly on Clint's right arm but the archer refused to let go.
"This is my life! Not yours! I'm the one who is going to die if we don't figure this out and find the Infinity Gauntlet! The least you could do is actually pick up the phone when I call and not make me chase you down! Do you understand me?"
"Clint, I'm trying to do what I can. I am taking this seriously. I just—"
"Just what?! There's no excuse you can give me that's good enough." Clint growled.
Loki's grip tightened a little more. Cautiously he pulled Barton away, one finger at a time. When Clint at last pulled free, Loki spun him around and directed him back up the roadway toward Rizzo's diner. He cut his own angry glance at Star-Lord. "I have taken your keys. You cannot leave this world. And if, by some miracle, you manage to escape the atmosphere without us I will hunt you down a second time and I will not be satisfied merely dropping you from a window." Loki left those departing words in the Guardian's ears. He didn't stay to see how they struck Quill. He braved the overwhelming heat to return to Rizzo's place, the promise of fresh food tempting him.
Quill watched them for a while before deciding his best interest was not to run off. Sighing, he pulled his coat back off, hiked it over one shoulder, and trudged down the road. While this might not have been his idea of how a reunion with Clint would go, he couldn't exactly blame his friend either. Barton had enough stress on his life without Quill piling another shovel full of dirt on his headstone. He felt guilty having nothing to show for his work. And maybe Barton was right, he hadn't exactly put his whole heart into it. Seven years seemed like such a long time when the Sarhorn first showed up. The faster he found the Gauntlet, the longer he had to hold onto it. No one wanted a thing like that for too long, least of all him. It had target written all over it. The Kree, Thanos, Shi'ar, anyone with a ship, a grudge, and a mind for death would have no problem coming after the Milano to steal the Infinity Gauntlet.
Quill mounted the metal stairs that lead into the diner and yanked the door open. Clint sat in a booth with Loki beside him. Rizzo was just dropping a couple full plates in front of them. The smell reminded him of Sunday morning.
"Oh, look who they found. Take a seat, Quill, I'll set up another tab." Rizzo told him. He reached over the counter to grab a pitcher of orange juice and deposited it and a trio of glasses on the formica table. Clint thanked him as Rizzo walked away to give them a little privacy.
"The usual." Quill told the cross dresser as he dropped into the red vinyl. He poured himself a glass and chugged half of it. Across from him Clint chewed silently and didn't look far beyond the ring of maple syrup on his own plate unless he was reaching over to steal a slice of bacon. Loki moved the little plate of it closer to Clint's hand and chewed threw his own meal. It was decidedly less grandiose, but then again Rizzo didn't exactly revere Loki the way he did Barton. Quill ended up with a similar disappointment when the only thing the kitchen supplied for his own hunger was two buttered slices of toast and a jar of hot sauce. Peter looked up to complain, saw the murderous look in Rizzo's eyes, and decided against it. He forwent the peculiar hot sauce and chewed his toast gratefully.
"I'm sorry." Clint said when Rizzo left again. He sat back, having consumed four thick pieces of French toast, no less than half a cup of syrup, butter, and a quarter pound of bacon. He drained the last bit of his first glass of juice and poured himself a second.
"You have no reason to apologize to him." Loki whispered, not exactly privately.
"No, I do. That was mean what I did, and I apologize. I've been cooped up a while, Pete, and I took that, and me being hungry, out on you. I shouldn't have done that." Clint said. He set his glass down again, somewhat disappointed Rizzo hadn't spiked it with vodka, and scrubbed a hand through the long whiskers on his chin. He had to get himself a shave while they were off the ship.
"It's all right." Quill told him. "Not the first time a guy pulled me out of bed and certainly not the first time I fell out a window."
"I imagine it will not be the last, either." Loki smirked.
Peter laughed. "I hope not! Life's not worth livin' less you're havin' some fun, right? Hey, I heard Vanaheim got attacked. What happened?"
Clint nodded. "Twice now. The first caught us off guard. They destroyed almost twenty percent of the new armada. Tony's secret project's still all right, which is all that matters. Alfheimr's defending us now. The Kree tried to slip under the radar a second time, but Tony's new systems caught onto it. Bruce Hulked out and went postal on their flagship. Unfortunately, they took off with him still on board."
"The Hulk's missing?" Peter whistled, hardly believing it.
"He can take care of himself. He won't let Bruce come out until he knows they're safe, but that is the gist of it. They sent a whole fleet of Alheimr ships after them. Logan and Storm are leading the search." Clint didn't say what he wanted to; that Peter would know all of this if he'd bothered to check in more than once every three or four months. Getting upset wasn't going to help them. He was concerned about Bruce, but not overtly so. Clint and Tony once took off on a Kree ship accidentally. They were found a few hours later not too far from Earth but that didn't mean the entire team wasn't terrified about their wellbeing. The Hulk was more than prepared to handle what a Kree warrior may strike him with.
"All serious," Clint said, "tell me what you have so far."
Peter reached up, dragged a hand through the short auburn hair on his head and leaned against the window. Just outside the swirling moon sands gathered in the occasional dust devil which skipped across the landscape. Someplace beyond them the rest of the guardians were enjoying their short respite. "It's not much, Clint." Star-Lord admitted. His eyes remained fixed in that distance to prevent coming into contact with Barton's utter disappointment. That was a sadness he could not willingly face. "We found a few scatters of information. Picked up a cosmic trail near Valmore. We followed that for a while. A long while, but it bottomed out on us. It was a dead end around Felden, in the Oore system. We've jockeyed ourselves around every backwater hole since then trying to find it again, Clint, but we made it all the way here with no luck." Finally Quill faced him. "I'm sorry."
"I need Bruce's map. I'm not sure where any of those systems are," Clint admitted, trying to gloss over his disappointment. The food did help dampen the blow. Part of him, though, knew that no matter how much Peter tried to suck up to him, Star-Lord stepped into unforgivable territory. Clint wasn't sure what he expected coming all the way out in this abandoned corner of the universe. Maybe he hoped that Peter did have the Gauntlet and simply didn't want to share. Clint might not have blamed him for that. There were a number of individuals on the War Council Clint wouldn't give a shiny penny to, let alone hand over the Infinity Gauntlet.
"It's weird to think you weren't raised out here like me." Quill said.
"I might act like it, but no. I wasn't. Did that girl actually give you anything useful? Besides anything to do with physical traits?" Clint pushed his plate toward the center of their table. Taking that as a sign, Rizzo came over and removed the empty plates. He set a second one down, this one also holding a three-high stack of French toast. He winked in Clint's direction and retreated.
"You really gonna eat that?" Quill asked, already reaching for a fork.
Clint took the stack. Maybe he didn't intend to eat it at first, but if it came to between Star-Lord and him, Clint would find room and eat it himself. The more he listened to this round-about journey of Peter Quill, the more he came to terms with the very long months to come in space. He might as well take advantage of the hot meal while he had it.
"So the reality of our predicament is this: we know nothing." Loki summarized.
"When you say it like that, it makes it sound like I haven't been putting my butt on the line." Quill protested.
"You've had trouble?" Clint asked.
"Maybe not directly, but we've been running from it." The story changed. Clint held out for more alterations. It didn't take long for Quill to break. "All right, so we heard from this guy outside Byuk who said his buddy ran into some trouble from a scythe-holding wacko. Apparently the knife guy shouted something about the coming depths of darkness as the herald of Galactus. That was only two systems from us. We figured it was best to keep ahead of him. By now, I think he knows what we're after."
Systems, planets, places Clint had never heard of sent his mind spinning. This was Loki's expertise. As much as Clint had a unique relationship with someone they met almost everywhere they stopped, he had little to no understanding of the layout of the billions of star systems. Then again, he couldn't be perfect at everything. That was Tony's trait.
"There will be four such heralds." Loki confirmed. "Their usual method is to warn of the death to come. If this is not meant to occur for another six Midgardian cycles, I cannot understand why one would be seen so quickly. He feeds in a separate dimension as yet, is that not so?"
"I think that's right." Clint said. He didn't really know. He left all the outlandish theories to the science twins.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you. That's what I heard."
Clint shrugged. "All right, here's the plan. We are going to keep our ship parked here. Riz can look after it. Besides, it sticks out like a sore thumb anyway. Loki and I are hopping into the Milano with you. We are going to lay out one really big map and start crossing things off. I brought a program that Rocket can use. It inputs all the data of where the Infinity Stones have been found in the past, then it overlays those onto the Gauntlet. It should give us a good starting point."
"That all sounds very technical." Quill said.
"Tell me about it." Clint threw up his hand and flagged down Rizzo. "That all sound ok with you?" He asked. There was no surprise in assuming Rizzo had listened into the entire conversation. He might have been a friend on Earth, but that didn't mean he wasn't still a source of information. Only two of the best ears in the galaxy, and the inability to avoid listening into a conversation, made Rizzo that way. Rizzo popped out from behind the counter and grinned.
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