╔ ——————————————— ╗
｡･:*:･ﾟCHAPTER THREE ｡･:*:･ﾟ
"crash landings"
╚ ——————————————— ╝

A FUN FACT ABOUT Grayson Moreno was that he was not a certified pilot. 

So when they began crash landing onto a mysterious planet with no known means of salvation, his output wasn't exactly optimistic. 

 "We're all gonna die!" He shouted, grabbing onto the metal arm of Tony's Iron-Man suit with the jaws of death. "And I don't even have a seatbelt!" 

  "Hush!" The man reprimanded, sticking his arm into the contraption that would have been used to steer the ship if it still had its designated driver. "Or I'll make Peter web you to the wall!" 

"That is way worse!" 

 "Come on-" Tony pointed to the other half of the makeshift steering wheel, "put your arm in that and turn the clamps so that it stays in place." 

 Grayson reluctantly obliged, feeling his blood circulation already beginning to cut off as he fitted his arm into the contraption, wincing as it turned his elbow at an odd angle. He wasn't too keen on having his arm break in a situation like this one, so he just gritted his teeth together and swallowed his grimace. "Okay, what now?"  

"This thing is designed for one big guy," Tony explained as Grayson stared down at the quick-approaching terrain, his anxiety only increasing as he nodded his head. Tony took that as a sign that he understood, so he continued; "we have to turn at the same time." 

 "Yeah, you might wanna do that now!" Peter called, his tone just as nervous as Gray's as his mask materialized over his face. Gray grunted as his did the same, pulling his arm to the side with as much force as he could muster, Tony doing the same. 

 The ship tilted at a surprisingly quick pace, but it didn't stop them from ramming into a structure that caused sparks to strike against the metal. A defeaning crash echoed in Gray's ears as they hit the ground, the force causing him to be thrown to the side, his arm ripped right out of it's holder with a sensation that did not feel too good. 

The ship shook back and forth, and Gray could hazily make out a bright orange color as Strange threw up his hands, intricate designs cast around them like some sort of shield. Gray winced as a sharp of metal grazed across his forehead, but it just glanced harmlessly off his mask. 

 As quickly as the tumult began, it stopped. For a second, Gray just sat there, his head leaning against the sharp metal walls as he tried to catch his breath. Then, he rose to his feet and stumbled over to where Peter was, his balance thrown from the landing. 

 He oustretched his hand to the boy, pulling him to his feet, "are you alright?" 

 "I'm fine," Peter shrugged as his mask disappeared from his face. He smiled sheepishly, "I've never really crash-landed onto a mysterious planet before." 

 Gray couldn't help but smile at that, "You and me both." 

 "Is everyone okay?" Tony asked, Gray approaching him as he rotated his arms around. "Nothing broken?" 

 "All in one piece," Gray shrugged, "But you could stand to take a drivers ed course." 

 "I'm sorry, who paid for your drivers ed?" 

"Hey, guys-" Peter suddenly appeared from above, hanging from a web like a literal spider, something that made Gray have the absurd urge to laugh out loud. "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something, and I eat one of you, I'm sorry." 

 Tony rolled his eyes, pointing to the boy and speaking in an annoyed tone of voice. "I don't want another single pop-culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip, understand?" 

 The boy gestured to the side, "oh, what I'm trying to say is that something's coming." 

 As if on cue, a small object rolled out so it was right between the group, and Gray didn't even have time to ask what the fuck it was, as it detonated and a sharp shock wave sent him sprawling for the second time in ten minutes. 

 He rammed right into a wall, cursing under his breath at the dull pain that shot up his spine. He jumped to his feet, his nerves on high-alert as he watched three figured enter the ship. One had a gun in his hand, and flew above the ground firing off shots that only narrowly avoided their target. A burly figure roared, rearing back his arm as if he was going to throw something else. Before he could, Gray narrowed his eyes and whipped out his hand, sending the object flying into the wall. Seconds later, a bright streak of red arched through the air and wrapped around the figure's head, earning a grunt and a loud assortment of yelling to commence. 

 Gray jumped forward, ducking under a pole and holding his hand out to the man with the guns, but before he could get a clear shot, he was tackled to the side by the big man who had managed to rid himself of Strange's weird cape.

 "Shit-" Grayson muttered, his arm twisting behind his back as the man held on tightly, his cheek pressed into the ground. 

 "I got the mutant!" A deep voice boomed, "I got the-" 

 His voice was cut off short as a piece of metal smacked him directly in the face, courtesy of Gray as he scrambled to his feet, holding his hand out towards his face with a scowl. 

The man didn't look like an alien... but he didn't exactly look human either. He was large and muscular, but his skin was ashen grey, covered with bright designs that may have been natural, or may have been tattoos. He growled, making a move to stand, but stopped when Gray willed the block of metal back to his hand, drawing over another sharp piece of scrap metal as he did so. 

 "Don't move." He warned, his voice low as he narrowed his eyes, glancing over his shoulder to see that the man with the guns had gotten a hold of Peter, holding him in a headlock with a gun pressed firmly to his head. 

 There was another imposter as well, one who looked more feminine and small, wrapped up in the distiguishable webs from the Parker boy. 

 The mask the man holding Peter was wearing melted away, revealing a completely normal face beneath. "Alright, everyone, chill the eff out! I'm only gonna ask you this one time," he began, cocking the gun. "Where is Gamora?" 

 "I'll do you one better!" Tony shot back, his repulsors aimed at the two. "Who is Gamora?" 

 "I'll do you one better!" The man beneath Gray piped up, "why is Gamora?"

 Gray pulled a face, but otherwise stayed silent as he willed the sharp metal to dip down closer to the man's face. "What even is a Gamora? That sounds like a skin disease!" 

 "No, she's a girl!" Gun-Man shouted, tightening his grip on Peter, "And you better tell me where she is or I swear to god I will french-fry this little freak." 

 "Let's do it!" Tony challenged, gesturing to Gray. "You shoot my guy and we'll skewer yours! Bring it on!" 

"Do it, Quill." The man said, his eyes narrowed in on the spike as Gray brought the other so close to his neck that it brushed the skin. "I can take it."

 The girl trapped in the webs spoke, her voice high and nervous. "No! He can't take it!"

"She's right," Strange drawled, another of his odd magical patterns suspended above his head. "You can't." 

"Oh you don't wanna tell me where she is? That's fine-" the man who's name was apparently 'Quill' smiled ruefully, "I'll kill all four of you and beat it out of Thanos myself!" He leaned closer to Peter, "Starting with you." 

 "You think highly of yourself," Gray moved one of his hands to point at Quill, clenching his fist and gently tugging the gun away from Peter's face. He caught his eye, shooting him a condescending smirk, even though his arms were beginning to grow sore. "What now, asshole?" 

 "Wait, Thanos?" Strange furrowed his eyebrows, "Alright, let me ask you this one time: what master do you serve?" 

"What master do I serve?" The man repeated incredulously as he struggled to keep a tight grip on his gun, "What am I supposed to say, Jesus?" 

 Tony blinked at him, connecting the dots as he pursed his lips. "You're from Earth." 

 "I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri."

 "Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit!" Tony pinched the bridge of his nose, looking like he was incredibly done with this conversation as he shot Gray a half-hearten glance. "What are you hassling us for?" 

Peter's voice came next, meek and quiet due to the arm around his neck, "Wait, you're not with Thanos?" 

 "With Thanos?" He repeated, "I'm here to kill Thanos, he took my girl - wait, who are you?" 

 Gray relaxed slightly, realizing that these people weren't here to murder them on sight. He flicked his wrist, the metal shards directed at the man flying away, although he kept his hand directed at his face. 

 Peter's mask came off, "We're the Avengers, man." 

 Once Quill released his hold on Peter, Gray did the same, dropping his hands down and stopping the invisible game of tug-of-war they were having on the gun. 

 The girl gasped, "you're the ones Thor told us about!" 

 "Thor?" Gray repeated, a small smile quirking at his lips at the mention of the god. (He may be a bit of a Thor fan, but would never admit it out loud.) "You guys know Thor?" 

"Yeah," Quill shrugged, "tall guy, not that good looking, needed saving." 

 Gray pulled a face at that, turning to share a  look with Peter, who had an almost identical expression of disbelief on his face. He had heard a lot of bullshit in his life, but Thor not being insanely attractive was probably the stupidest of them all. 

Strange shot him a look, his tone almost as daunting as his glare. 

 "Where is he now?" 

 ***

"This planet is so fucked." 

Gray had his arms crossed, one eyebrow raised in subtle disbelief as his dark eyes raked across the unfamiliar terrain. The planet Titan didn't resemble Earth in any way; it was all rocks and stray debris floating around in the air, and was bathed in a hazy orange glow that really wasn't helping Gray's headache. 

 "Everything's floating." Peter noted, reaching his hand up and grabbing a rock from the air. "The gravity is totally different than what we're used to." 

 Gray, struck by a sudden and incredibly stupid grin. He jumped up as high as he could, laughing slightly when the gravity propelled him upwards, landing next to Peter with a cocky smirk. "It's the worlds largest trampoline." 

 "Wait, that's so cool-" The Parker boy jumped in the air, managing to complete a full flip before he landed. He turned to look at Gray, wiggling his eyebrows teasingly as the Moreno boy rolled his eyes.  

 "Okay, show off." 

 "You brought it up, so technically-" Peter shrugged, "my talent is your fault." 

 "That doesn't even make any sense."  Gray muttered, jumping up to try and back-flip, before groaning as he was forced to land on his hands, standing up straight, "damn-it." He turned to Peter, who had a smug look on his face, pointing a finger at the boy. "Shut up, you're literally a mutant spider." 

 He threw his hands in the air, "I didn't even say anything!" 

"Okay, dumbasses, come here-" Tony walked over to the boys, putting his hands on either of their shoulders and pulling them over so he could address the group as a whole. "It's pretty simple," He said, staring at Quill as if he was going to go rogue and try to kill them all again. "We draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. Definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. We just want the gauntlet-" he turned his head, catching sight of the other two members of Quill's gang. His eyebrows shot up on his head, "are you yawning?" He demanded, having seen the big man stifle a yawn in his fist. "In the middle of this, while I'm breaking it down? Huh? Did you even hear what I said?" 

 The man shuffled on his feet, shrugging his burly shoulders. "I stopped listening after you said, 'we need a plan.'" 

Grayson leaned in, "do you want me to hit him with a space rock?" 

 Tony squinted his eyes, "not yet." He turned back to Quill, getsuring over to the two, "okay, Mister Clean is on his own page." 

 "See, 'not winging it' isn't really what they do." Quill explained, and Peter rose his hand. 

 "Uh, what exactly is it that they do?" 

 The woman responded, her abnormally large eyes widened even further, "kick names, take ass." 

 Gray blinked, not entirely sure he heard them correctly. He turned to look at Peter, but he seemed just as confused as he did, so he just shrugged and turned his attention back to his mentor. 

Tony did not look very optimstic of the groups fate, as he sighed deeply; the lines on his face seeming to deepen with his concern. "Okay, can you all just come over here? Mr. Lord can you ask your friends to circle up?" 

 Quill smiled, nodding his head. "'Mr. Lord', Star-Lord is fine." 

"How about we call you 'dipshit' and keep it consistant?" Gray snarked, crossing his arms and shooting Quill a challenging look. "Or you can just ask your friends to listen." 

 The man scowled, pbviously not too keen on the idea of having to listen to a sarcastic teen. But at the sharp look he recieved from Tony, he obliged, gesturing for his group to come closer. Tony began to speak again, his words holding a serious undertone that was rare to hear coming from Tony Stark. 

 "We gotta coalesce," he began, "'cause if we come at him with this plucky attitude-" 

 "Dude, don't call us 'plucky'. We don't know what it means." 

 "It means that you're stupid." Gray deadpanned, but this time 'Star-Lord' had no issue ignoring him. 

 "Look, we're optimistic," he began, addressing Tony soley as Gray thought of all the different ways he could get this guy to never speak again. "We like your plan, except it sucks. So let me do the plan and that way it might be really good." 

 The big-one decided to add his input, "tell him about the dance-off to save the universe." 

 Apparently that caught Tony's attention. "What dance-off?" 

 "Like in 'Footloose'?" Peter asked, and Quill nodded enthusiastically. 

 "Exactly like Footloose!" He exclaimed, "is it still the greatest movie in history?" 

 Peter shrugged, "It never was." 

 "Okay, all I've learned from this is that you're both nerds." Gray drawled, leaning his head back and clenching his jaw. "This is exactly why I hate meeting new people." 

 Tony sighed, "no, that's just because you're awkward." 

 "Hey, let me remind you-" Quill stepped closer, jutting his chin out like he was about to make an amazing point. "I'm fifty percent human. And that fifty percent of me that's stupid? That's one hundred percent of you."

 "Your math is blowing my mind." 

"Excuse me!" The bug-lady called, having to jump up and raise her voice to be heard over all of the bickering. Once she realized that she successfully gained their attention, she turned around. "But does your friend often... do that?" 

 Gray had to crane his neck to see what they were looking at, but when he saw it his confusion only doubled. It was Doctor Strange, sitting with his legs crossed - hovering an inch off the ground. A green light was emitting from his necklace and circling around his wrists, and his head was whipping around so quickly that he looked like a glitch in a video game. 

 He fell to the ground with a shout, his eyes flying open as Tony rushed over. "Hey, it's okay, you're okay." 

 Peter swallowed as he walked over to stand next to Gray. "What was that?"  

"I went forward in time to view alternate futures." He explained in a breathless tone of voice. He inhaled deeply, his gaze darting to the ground for a split second, before looking back up at Tony. "To see all of the different outcomes of the coming conflict."

 "How many did you see?" Quill asked, his eyes wide with interest as the whole group seemed to lean closer to the distressed-looking wizard. 

The man swallowed, "fourteen million six hundred-five."

 Gray took a shuffling step forward, raising his hand slightly to make himself known. "How many do we win?" He asked the question everyone was wondering, and Strange stared back at him, his eyes seeming to bore holes in his soul. 

 "One."

a/n:

omg gray is so chaotic and i already live for him and peter!! 

you guys know friends to lovers is my favorite troupe, so these two will be just that! chaotic besties to lovers <3 also i can't wait for gray to meet mj and ned because we know that the nerd squad will be amazing!

thank you for reading, and tell me what you think!