Thor stared at the ship that had landed next to theirs from a distance as he, Loki, Layla, and Anja approached carefully. He hadn't seen one like it before, and that alone was enough to cause him to worry slightly. They had no idea what kind of ship Thanos would be using, so it was possible they were walking right into a trap.

He raised an arm cautiously to the side, halting the other three in their tracks as a group of beings emerged from the new ship. "Be ready to fight," he warned quietly.

Thor didn't need to see his brother's face to know Loki rolled his eyes when he replied, "Always ready."

Before anyone else could answer, their attention was drawn back to the group standing outside the ship. Thor stared at them, trying to get a read on them. They were an odd bunch. A human, a green woman, a blue gray muscular man with red scars covering his body, a small furry creature Thor hadn't seen before, a tree-like humanoid, and a woman with antennae on her head. They made for a strange group of companions, but then again, so was their group of friends. Now, were they here in peace?

"Quill, you absolute idiot!" the small furry creature yelled up at a human, lowering a weapon down to its side. "There's nothing happening here!"

"How was I supposed to know that the raids were over?" the human male asked back, exasperated. It was then he noticed Thor, Loki, Layla, and Anja standing there and called out to them. "Hey! Are there still marauders here?"

"Uh no?" Thor responded. "You're very late. I put an end to their raids many years ago."

    "Oh," the man, Quill, said. "Well, err... thanks for that. For some reason we just got some calls about it. Damn machinery... Who are you?"

    "I'm Thor, King of Asgard," he introduced, gesturing at each of them. "And this is my brother, Loki, and our consorts, Layla and Anja."

    "Consort? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Anja questioned, indignant. "We aren't a bunch of concubines."

    "He doesn't mean it like that," Loki insisted quietly, trying to calm her down.

    Thor shook his head at her, but continued his focus on the newcomers. "Who the hell are you guys?"

    Quill, whom Thor was guessing was the leader at this point, spoke up again. "I'm Peter Quill, and we're the Guardians of the Galaxy!"

    Thor barely resisted rolling his eyes. Some job they were doing. Seems like Thanos would be someone the galaxy needed guarding from. He was going to say something, but Layla spoke up first.

    "Doing a pretty shitty job of it then, since Thanos is trying to kill all of us," she sassed. "Kinda seems like a huge threat to the galaxy."

    Thor swore she was going to get them all killed one day for snarking at the wrong person. Luckily, it seemed that today was not the day.

    Quill ran a hand through his fluffy brown hair, and then rubbed the back of his neck. "Thanos? Oh." He sighed, and glanced between his crew and Thor. "I think we have a lot to talk about."

*****

    Thor had led the Guardians onto The Frigga, and introduced them to the remaining members of their crew. It was a little cramped in there now, but the sixteen of them all squeezed into the lounge as they discussed the danger that threatened the universe as they knew it. It was nice to see there were others working against Thanos, and Thor was interested in seeing what they knew.

    "The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal: To bring balance to the Universe by wiping out half of all life," the green woman, Gamora, explained as she slowly paced the room. "He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre...."

    "Including my own," the gray muscular man with the red scars, Drax, added.

    Gamora frowned. "If he gets all six Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers, like this." She snapped her fingers, the sound echoing throughout the room despite how full it was.

    It seemed strange to Thor that she knew so much about their opponent. Sure, they were all against the Mad Titan, but this seemed almost personal. He nodded from his seat. "You seem to know a great deal about Thanos."

    Drax answered for her. "Gamora... is the daughter of Thanos."

    Thor stood and strode towards Gamora a little more aggressively than he intended. This woman was his daughter? Surely that couldn't mean anything good.

    "Oh, boy. Stepfather," Quill interjected, standing and coming to take a somewhat defensive stance next to Gamora. Although it hadn't been said yet, Thor assumed they were probably an item. Why else would he be so defensive of the woman? "Technically, she hates him as much as you do."

    Thor's expression softened a bit. "Families can be tough," he announced, clapping a hand to Gamora's shoulder. "Before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister... that he imprisoned in Hel. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so... I had to kill her. It's life, isn't it, I guess. Goes round and round and... I feel your pain."

    Quill glared at Thor's hand on Gamora's shoulder, and moved around her to push between her and Thor, knocking the god's hand from her shoulder. "And I feel your pain, as well. I mean it's not a competition, but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother, then I had to kill my father. And that was hard. Probably even harder than having to kill a sister. Plus, I came out of it with both of my eyes-"

    Honestly, Thor wasn't paying the man any attention. "I need a hammer."

    Bruce sighed, rubbing his temples in frustration. "You don't need a hammer, Thor. Did you forget the rest of the battle with Hela? You beat her without a weapon."

    "The glory of battle went to his head," Loki muttered. "Like it always does."

    "What he needs is a swift kick in the ass," Tony chimed in from the other side of the room. Thor knew he was joking, but the newcomers likely didn't.

    "You have no room to talk, Metal Man," he shot back with a laugh.

    "You both need a kick, so knock it off," Anja replied, glancing between the two men as she adjusted how she was sitting on Loki's lap. She said she sat there to give everyone more room to sit, but Thor knew better. Any excuse to be closer to his brother. He also knew her patience was getting thin. "Get back on topic."

    "We need to stop Thanos," Gamora continued, trying to get the men of the room back to the situation at hand. "Which means we need to find out where he's going next."

    "Knowhere," Loki responded coolly, as Anja pulled a strand of his hair back away from his face.

    "He must be going somewhere," the woman with antennae and completely black eyes, Mantis, said, sounding thoroughly confused.

    Quill shook his head. "No. Knowhere? It's a place. We've been there. It sucks."

    Gamora rolled her eyes at Quill, but otherwise ignored him. "Loki ... why would he go to Knowhere?"

    "Because for years now, the Reality Stone has been safely stored there with a man we call the Collector," Loki explained smugly.

    Quill snorted. "If it's with the Collector, then it's not safe. Only an idiot would give that man a stone."

    "Or a genius," Thor interjected. He knew Loki would take offense to what Quill just said, since he was the one who sent the Aether to Knowhere in the first place. Granted, he was disguised as Odin at the time, but that was neither here nor there. The Guardians surely didn't know the difference. The last thing he needed was for Loki to stab this loser right now. Please no murder today.

    Gamora rolled her eyes again. It was a wonder she hadn't silenced Quill yet herself. "How do you know he's not going for one of the other Stones?"

    "There's six stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week, when he decimated Xandar. The Space Stone was either destroyed when Asgard blew up, or is floating in space. Either or," Loki elaborated. "The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth. They're with the Avengers."

    "The Avengers?" Quill asked, raising an eyebrow.

    "They're Earth's Mightiest Heroes," Thor answered.

    "Like Kevin Bacon?" Mantis asked excitedly.

    Thor thought about it for a moment before answering her. "He may be on the team. I don't know. Haven't been there in a while."

    "Uh, no," Tony interjected. "No. He's not. As the team leader, I'd know if Kevin Bacon signed up."

    "Wait a sec... Who made you team leader?" Layla questioned indignantly, turning slightly in her seat to get a better look at Tony.

    Thor decided he wasn't going to let Tony answer that. "Well, there you go. As for the Soul Stone, well, no one's ever seen that. No one even knows where it is," he continued. "Therefore, Thanos can't get it. Therefore, he's going to Knowhere. Hence, he'll be getting the Reality Stone. You're welcome."

    "Then we have to go to Knowhere now," Gamora decided.

    "Wrong!" Thor contradicted. "Where we have to go is Nivadellir."

    Drax snorted. "That's a made up word."

    Thor didn't hesitate. "All words are made up."

    Silence filled the air, as everyone seemingly realized that was a true statement. Technically he was right. All words were made up by someone.

    Rocket- the small furry creature, who he was told was something that started with an R- finally decided to interject. "Hold up, Nidavellir is real?" He paused as he climbed up onto the table in the center of the lounge. "Seriously? I mean, that place is a legend!" His voice continued to get more gleeful as he spoke. "They make the most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the Universe. I would very much like to go there, please."

    Thor smiled and looked around the room. He liked Rocket. He understood what Thor was trying to say, whereas the rest of the newcomers seemed to be lost. "The rabbit is correct, and clearly the smartest among you."

    Rocket raised an eyebrow. "Rabbit?"

    "Uh, he's a raccoon, Thor," Layla reminded. "Rabbits are something else entirely. Believe me."

    "Raccoon is too nice. Trash panda is more appropriate," Quill added.

    "Whatever. Only Eitri the dwarf king can make me the weapon I need," Thor continued. He turned to Rocket, and looked at him. "I assume you're the captain, sir?"

    Rocket folded his arms across his chest smugly. "You're very perceptive."

    "You seem like a noble leader," Thor stated. "Will you join me on my quest to Nidavellir?"

    "Lemme just ask the captain," Rocket responded. "Oh, wait a second, it's me! Yeah, I'll go."

    "Wonderful!" Thor exclaimed.

    "Except for that I'm the captain," Quill answered, moving around the humanoid-tree, Groot, so he could look at Thor better. "And I'm not goin' to... Wait, what kind of weapon are we talking about here?"

    "The Thanos killing kind," Thor announced proudly.

    "Don't you think that we should all have a weapon like that?" Quill asked, obviously annoyed.

    "No. You simply lack the strength to wield them," Thor explained calmly. "Your bodies will crumble as your minds collapse into the madness."

    "Rude," Loki snapped. "You're not the only god here." Thor shook his head at him, but ignored his brother's comment.

    "Is it weird that I wanna do it even more now?" Rocket asked, his voice still dripping with excitement.

    "A little bit. Yeah," Thor mumbled.

    Gamora sighed, her annoyance growing. "If we don't go to Knowhere and Thanos retrieves another stone, he'll be too powerful to stop."

    "He already is," Loki muttered.

    "Well, there's sixteen of us. Why don't we split up?" Brunnhilde suggested from her seat on the opposite side of the room. "Some can go to Nidavellir, some to Knowhere, and some of us can head back to Earth to set things in motion there."

    Thor thought about it for a moment. She had a good point. If they split up, they could cover more ground, get more accomplished. But at the same time, they would be a force divided. Facing Thanos with smaller numbers wouldn't go well. Not that there was any guarantee they would see him.

    "Split up? How about no?" Bruce questioned. "If this guy is so dangerous, shouldn't we stick together? Safety in numbers and all that?"

    "Jolly Green has a point," Tony agreed.

    "We have multiple things that need to be done, and a large group of us," Thor answered, ignoring his friends and their hesitation. "If we split up, we have a better chance of accomplishing those things. There's enough of us where that shouldn't be much of an issue. The group that heads to Knowhere should be the largest, I think."

    "I got it figured out. We got three ships, and a large assortment of morons," Rocket picked up. "So me, Groot, and blondie will go with the pirate-angel here, a few will go to Earth to do whatever it is you need to do there, and the rest of the morons will go to Knowhere to try and stop Thanos. Cool? Cool."

    Thor grinned, and glanced between Rocket, Groot, and Layla. His little team. "So cool."

    Quill scowled and glared at Rocket. "For the record... I know that you're only going with him because it's where Thanos isn't."

    "You know, Quill, you shouldn't talk that way to your captain," Rocket snickered, and moved closer to Thor. "As for the rest of you, you should figure out your groups."

    Brunnhilde took a long sip of ale before deciding, "I can lead a group back to New Asgard. Each group needs some able-bodied fighters in case of an emergency. I know nothing of you Guardians, so I cannot speak of your abilities, but I think it would be wise each group has an Asgardian. Thor's going to Nidavellir. That means Loki gets the Knowhere group."

    Thor watched as the little color Loki's face had drained from it. Loki would never say it out loud, not to anyone, but Thor knew his brother was terrified. The Knowhere group had the highest chance of encountering Thanos, since he would for sure have to go there to get the Aether. Thor knew whatever Thanos had done to Loki all those years ago had been nothing short of torture. Loki didn't speak of it; Thor didn't blame him. He knew Loki was dreading it, dreading the possibility of an encounter with the one being that got the better of him.

    But instead of showing weakness, Thor saw his baby brother put on a brave face. Just like he always did. "Fine," Loki said calmly. "Who else is coming with?"

    "You're not getting rid of me," Anja answered, taking Loki's hand in hers. Thor smiled a little. He was grateful for the woman. She had his brother's back, and knew she wouldn't let anything happen to him. Not that Loki wasn't beyond fully capable of defending himself. Loki got on his nerves, but he was his brother, and Thor knew life wouldn't be the same without him. Knowing someone was there to keep an eye on him when he couldn't made him feel a bit better. He owed it to their mother to keep Loki safe. Frigga would've loved Anja, he was sure of it.

    "I think the rest of the Guardians should come with you," Quill said. "That brings the man power up to six."

    "Well, I'm not letting Anja go with a bunch of strangers," Tony spoke up. "So either myself or Bruce are coming with you too."

    Bruce stood up, brushing some creases out of his purple shirt. "I can go. I've already handled Loki's sass on Sakaar, so I think I'm less likely to kill him en route. You go to Earth with Bru and Spencer."

    Tony blinked a few times. Bruce was right. Thor was shocked how well his team of Revengers had worked together against Hela, all things considered. Given what had transpired between the Hulk and Loki during the battle of New York, Thor was impressed with how well they got along then, let alone how they had been since they started this new quest. He only hoped all that worked in their favor when it came to dealing with Thanos.

    He looked around the room, mentally placing everyone with their respective teams. "Korg, Miek," Thor called out, getting the aliens' attention. "You go to Earth too. They'll need an extra set of hands."

    Korg nodded. "Will do, man."

    Thor took a deep breath. So it was settled. The group was splitting up, going on their own missions. Thor would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous about the whole ordeal. But if they were successful, they would have a weapon to kill Thanos, and an Infinity Stone in their possession. Every little victory counted towards defeating this mad man once and for all.

    "Get your bags ready everyone," he replied. "We're heading out."

*****

Hi again! I wasn't going to post again so soon, but I was excited about this one. Honestly I'm excited for everything from here on out. It's all downhill from here for quite a while, so buckle up. ;) I'm not sure when I will post the next one. I'll probably wait a little bit so I can get a few more written (not to mention I should probably work on my other two stories too; oops), and then I can possibly get back to the once a week post I was doing for a while. Fingers crossed. Life has been very good to my writing recently, so I'm pretty happy about that. We went through a week of hell with the baby not sleeping like at all, but we seemed to have that back to normal. I've actually gotten 8+ hours of sleep almost every night this week. It's a strange feeling.

Anyways, not much else to report. Hope all is well with you! As always, thanks for reading! I hope to have another update here soon. :)

~arty_writes