The "G" Shield

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Space [July 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

With a slight jerk, the ship exited FTL transport and a barren planet came into view. The sun was yellow but larger than Earth's, according to what was being displayed on the dashboard for him. It also was safe for everyone present on the ship, to breathe in the atmosphere.

The planet was strip mined and abandoned by some ancient species who somehow did so without destroying the atmosphere and even the mantle or core of the planet, leaving a mostly rocky planet but with clean enough air that even normal humans would have no trouble breathing in.

It was also at the ideal distance from their relatively larger sun, creating an ideal atmosphere for carbon based lifeforms to exist if only water existed on the planet. It was almost completely dry with lava rivers flowing through in some areas.

It was, in a way, hauntingly beautiful.

"Here, Landing Site 3-11," He pointed to the largest landmass consisting of heavy rocks, which also had some mountains and cliffs, creating a somewhat ideal space for them to fight Ego. Then again, there would be no fighting if he had any say in it.

"Fine," Rocket said, his voice frosty. He winced internally at that. The entire journey, nobody on the ship had spoken to him, save for Gamora.

Drax was silent, as was his nature but Rocket's silent treatment was telling enough, the respect or love they held for their captain. It might really have been a bad decision to knock out Quill but he was getting so annoyed, so anxious about the time they were supposedly wasting, because every second lost in getting to Nidavellir was one second too late.

He still knew that he was not wrong in hurrying here but he might have really allowed his past biases to colour his interactions and what a rookie mistake that was. Unfortunately, he held rather strong opinions about the final battle on Titan and Quill's role in almost destroying that plan.

Still, with Strange's Future predictions in play, he should have known that their losing in that manner might have also contributed to the Avengers winning in the end, 5 years later. Well, what's done is done.

After an hour into their journey, Gamora had come into the cockpit and he had explained the barebones of the plan to her and she had successfully convinced Quill about it. Still, he did not have much faith in Quill's action so he had just told them that Ego was searching for his kids for some reason and he was wary because Ego was a celestial and Celestials almost never interfered in mortal happenings, hence his extreme worry.

If Ego activated Peter's powers, it would be for the best because then, he could tell him that Ego killed Peter's mother, resulting in him going berserk and hopefully distracting Ego long enough for both him and Thor to destroy the entire planet. He was yet to discuss that part with Thor but he had a hunch that with their combined powers, destroying the surface of a small planetoid was not out of the realm of possibility.

The real target lay in the small brain that was essentially Ego, the real Ego. They had to destroy that small brain and their advantage lay in the fact that Ego had no fucking idea his weakness was already known to the other side.

"They landed on the rock, and immediately, he summoned hundreds of barriers as they zoomed away in all directions to gather information about the place,"

"Quill's fine, okay?" 

He looked to the side as Rocket kept looking ahead.

"What you did to him was not nice and that is coming from me. The dude just found out he has family and you declare that you want to take care of his father. Plus, that stunt you pulled earlier." Rocket sighed and then pushed the steering back into its housing, stood up, and looked straight at him since he was still sitting in the co-pilot's seat.

"Look, if his daddy turns out to be evil and wants to hurt Quill, ofcourse, we will defeat him but remember this, if this is just something personal, I still have many moon breakers on me and you might be Invincible in your green shell, but that dirtball you call home sure isn't," After outright threatening him, Rocket went into the lower levels, where Quill and the rest were staying.

He sighed and leaned back further into his seat, and looked up as Thor came and sat down in the pilot's seat, facing him, with a sandwich of some sort in his hand and a canned drink in another. Seriously, just how much food did they stock on the ship? And where on Earth was it going?

"So, what's the plan?" Thor asked him in between bites.

He sighed, casting a small barrier around them, creating a small subtle green glow. "Ego has to go. Period."

Thor nodded at that, not even questioning his reasoning and he was glad for that. 

"How would we do that? Celestials are beings not easily felled,"

That, he could answer. So, he informed Thor about Ego's fatal weakness and how easy it would be to reach the brain as long as Ego was sufficiently distracted and was busy protecting not just himself but also his son.

"So, Quill? There was no chance of Ego taking in Quill."

"As his son? No. As a battery? Yes,"

And that was that. Soon, the Guardians of the Galaxy came into the cockpit, with Quill looking quite determined as Gamora nodded at him, telling him that Quill understood what to do.

Well, at least he could rely on her, she was anything but unreliable.

"Let's go," He summoned the Ego summon device and flew out, with his battlesuit on. Thor followed suit with Mjolnir in his left hand, with no noticeable change visible on his body ut due to his increased sensitivity to magic and all extra dimensional energy, he could sense the vast shroud that lurked just beneath Thor's skin, empowering him to heights untold.

Damn, he really had to ask Thor what soup he drank while on his exile, to come this far in such little time. 

He held the device in his hand and was about to press the top of the box himself but then thought better of it. Instead, he gently floated it to Quill who levelled a questioning look at him.

The positioning was quite clear to him. He stood in front of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not Quill, not Gamora or Rocket or Drax or Groot individually. No, he was standing in front of the team that would have defeated Ronan, through whatever stroke of luck, killed Ego, again through happenstance, and then defeated the High Evolutionary as well. So, he was not going to underestimate them.

Thor stood right behind them, with his hands behind his back, surveying the air, as if he was a kind elder and not a Norse Warrior seeped in the blood of his enemies.

Still, it kind of hurt to see one of his favourite superhero teams stand against him, even in principle. 

"It should be you. It's your father," He answered Quill's unasked question. Plus, it might even have built in measures to detect just who was pressing the button and might sense Quill's DNA, hastening Ego's response.

Quill just nodded and then, after hesitating a moment, pressed the button. Nothing happened for a moment and he feared they had wasted all this time and effort for nothing but then, small glowing lines appeared on the box, which then began vibrating. Quill tried to hold onto the box but it floated up and began glowing a otherworldly white colour.

His senses began warning him about the heavy cosmic energy wave that settled on top of all of them.

Shit!

His eyes widened as he realised what was about to happen, his heightened senses and familiarity with portals allowing him to realise what was about to happen just a tad bit faster than everyone else.

He acted fast, turning away from the impossibly white glow in the sky, and cast a series of barriers all around the Guardians who were probably already feeling the effects, and then flew all of them to a safe distance, with him following suit. 

All of this happened in a flash so it allowed him to look at Thor who was looking straight at the cloud of light congregating in the sky, with a sparking Mjolnir in his hand, his expression unchanged, as Thor started down what was sure to be the arrival of an actual Celestial.

Damn. What a Badass.

No sooner had he taken them about a hundred meters away from their original location, with a thumping sound, the glow receded and he looked back, to see the same oval ship that Ego used in the canon timeline. The entire area around the arrival point of the ship had become a crater, blowing back everything except…

His face must have looked gobsmacked as he looked at the blue barrier that appeared in front of Thor which then flickered and dissipated, to reveal a completely unscathed Thor. Sure, he hadn't expected Thor to be damaged in any way but his shield had completely stopped the shockwave, creating a small area in the crater which was intact.

What in the fuck just happened to Thor for him to become someone like this? His mind raced at that, his mind temporarily forgetting about the fucking Celestial in the sky, as he contemplated and discarded possibilities that would have led to Thor becoming uber-Thor.

Rune King Thor? No, that Thor could no sell Ego in a flash, with no worries whatsoever.

Something else was afoot and he just hoped that it did not come back to bite them in the ass at the most inopportune time, like in the fight against Thanos.

His thoughts were halted as he let the barrier around the Guardians dissipate, watching Ego emerge from the ship, Mantis absent, which made sense since it was much earlier in the timeline for Ego to find Quill, atleast according to his knowledge.

Quill ran past him, with the rest following suit, as Ego landed at the edge of the crater, sparing the stoic faced Thor a look before floating forward. Thor casually turned around with his arms leaning on Mjolnir which was floating mid air. Damn, that looked cool.

He shook his head as he focused his senses on the confrontation happening in front of him. He had to tone down the fanboying a bit.

It was not his moment to talk with Ego. It would be best if they were taken to Ego's true body without any fuss because he did not know whom to turn to, to get the accurate address of Ego's true body. Tivan's face flashed through his mind and he sneered internally at that piece of shit.

True, the man must have known of Ego and his location as well but that man had to go. He was glad that Carina, someone who was oppressed by Tivan all her life was the one who had ended Tivan, with purple fire of all things, something about her race's unique powers being empowered by the Power Stone, something that he had on him but could not use because of stupid politics.

"O-oh. Peter, y-you look just like her. You have her eyes," 

He very heavily resisted the urge to roll his eyes at Ego's sappy bullshit as he began with the one thing that was sure to melt Peter's mind. The man gave the woman fucking Cancer, killed her, and had the gall to say sweet things to his son like that.

The cave filled with skeletons of his children flashed through his mind and he had to flex his hands to stop them from clenching as he resolved on finishing the man, the abomination in front of thim. He could not let someone like this continue to exist, even if Ego was not a threat to the universe as they knew it.

"Are you really?" Peter asked Ego, his voice breaking.

He kept a close watch on their conversation as he slowly flew to Thor's side, to not disrupt their conversation. Still, knowing that Ego was focused on Quill, he could feel his gaze not wavering from his form.

"What do you think?" He asked Thor.

Thor took a long look at Ego, who returned the look, hefted Mjolnir in his left hand, "Doable," spoke that one word and began walking towards Ego, who too took cognizance of the fact and turned partially towards them.

He followed behind Thor, his barriers lowered to their base setting, trying to protect a non threatening stance to Ego.

This was still not his main body. They needed to get to his planet.

"Greetings, Asgardian. Forgive me but I don't know your names. You feel human but that can't be true," Ego turned to them, Quill's tear streaked face in the background.

"Greetings, Ego. I am Thor and this is Green Guardian." Thor's greeting was concise to a point.

Ego's smile didn't waver at all, "Alright then. Nice to meet you, Thor. Now, as much as I would like to chat with you all, I have about 30 years to recover with my son. So, if you'll excuse me," Ego turned to Peter and he saw Gamora nudging Peter with her elbow.

Peter's eyes widened minutely in realisation before he cleared his throat, "Ahem. C-can they come? I-it's not that I don't trust you but they are my friends and they are just worried about me. Plus, with the way you arr–"

"Sure, why not?" Ego stopped Peter in his tirade and agreed with that same easy going smile as he waved his hand, creating a torrent of cosmic energy in the background as the Guardians of the Galaxy were lifted effortlessly in the air. He and Thor followed suit as they flew with Ego into the ship that was vastly bigger on the inside.

"I wasn't exactly expecting guests. When I received the signal about my son from a long abandoned planet, I expected him to be in danger. Still, we should be home soon so feel free to make yourselves comfortable. Quill?" He essentially, politely, shooed them before taking Quill to another chamber, not inviting any of them. 

Without even a jerk, the ship was already in FTL, judging by the absolute mishmash of colours that were visible from these windows.

He was keeping absolute vigil, as was Thor but he didn't think Ego would want to do anything just yet. He would try the soft sell at fist, showing Quill grandiose dreams, of father and son ruling the universe, before he would try and ramshod Quill into becoming an over glorified Cosmic battery.

Quill needed another Celestial to complete his plan and unfortunately, the rest of the Celestials had avoided him like the plague or he just simply couldn't find anyone else. There was also the possibility that he simply believed the rumours of Celestials being dead and thought of the only way to make another Celestial.

Ego was quite the incomplete and faulty Celestial, making him wonder about the way he was created.

Maybe, the way Ego was created, the sentient life sacrificed to make Ego was particularly stupid and that made Ego the way he was?

Soon.

Soon, they would be on Ego, and once Quill was sufficiently empowered, and told about the truth of his mother's demise, they would be able to destroy Ego and head back to the Nine Realms.

He was getting increasingly restless and he did not like feeling that way for any reason.

It was good that he had snagged one of the so called moonbreakers that Rocket had stashed aboard the ship, making his job much easier.

They did not have baby Groot to navigate the tight spaces that would lead to Ego's brain but they had his barriers which were equally small and also could transmit information back to him.

In less than an hour, they jumped out of FTL and a small, lush green planet greeted them.

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding.

It was show time.

Word Count - 2758

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