"Quill, you will never be in the front line fighting Thanos." Tony said.
"Who are you? Do you know me? John told you about me?" Peter asked as he was confused why this guy with a mustache spoke to him first.
"I don't know you but I have seen what you have done in another parallel universe." Tony replied indicating the fight where they were almost close to defeating Thanos but his momentary anger destroyed everything. Even though Strange said that this was the only way, Tony being a believer that he himself controls his destiny called it bull.
This was the reason why Tony's first words were to take Peter out of the way.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Quill asked as he felt vindicated that he was targeted by an unknown person the moment he came to the Ring. He actually wanted to hold his gun at the forehead of Tony but he also knew that John was present here and even the Teen Titans. Their power levels weren't something he could match against.
"It's not supposed to mean anything. We thank you for your call. Don't listen to Tony, he can be a pain in the ass." Steve said as he went to greet them. He got glared at by many of the members.
"What? I am pretty sure of what you saw and many of you hold the same prejudice." Tony said.
"That world that is that world. This is our world. Nothing is the same here." Victor said.
"Fine.. Fine.. " Tony mumbled.
"John, you have quite an amazing place to say. I have never seen such a place ever in my life in all my years of cosmic travel." Rocket said.
"Yeah. We are lucky to have this Ring. You must have played Halo." John said.
"I am Groot."
"Yeah. This Ring is from the Halo world." John replied.
"Damn. I should move here to live." Rocket said.
"Come in. We can discuss the battle strategy in the Hall." Wayne said as he invited the Guardians of the Galaxy inside the Hall of Justice. The Guardians of the Galaxy were surprised that there were so many people among the members of the so-called Avengers.
And they have seen some of them before but many were new faces. All took their seats and introduced themselves properly to each other. And then the discussion commenced on how to face him.
They would need to evacuate a part of Mars as their battle will be held there. Gamora informed them that they had 3 week to get ready for the battle. As they have discussed before, they finally decided to keep the space stone and make a fake stronghold in Mars away from the public.
Umbrella would be responsible for fast construction of the stronghold while the Kages will give some ninjas as fake protection. If everything goes as planned, then Thanos will take the bait.
Tony first proposed using normal robots for this, but Shikamaru refused saying that would be too much of a sham to be believed by Thanos. They needed to make this stronghold as real as possible. So they had to bring real people in. After a proper discussion and thinning out the details, Tony called Pepper to make construction.
Pepper was confused by this sudden plan, Tony didn't give her an explanation and just told her to execute. He didn't want to make her nervous, saying that there would be a war soon.
The Guardians of the Galaxy stayed over at the Ring. The Guardians of Oa were informed about Thanos. So the Guardians ordered the return of all Lanterns, but this must be done in a hidden manner.
John was sure that Thanos must have noticed the emergence of Green lanterns so he would definitely keep an eye at it. So the Lanterns needed to be back in a stealth manner.
John was excited about the battle. All his cards would be on the table and the people of the universe would get to know of him and his works. That was all he cared about. John needed a boost of fan values. And this battle would be enough for all the people to know of John's works.
Though it might launch Earth into an interstellar era, he didn't care anymore. Black Winter was coming and now even Knull loomed over his head. He needed to be as ready as possible.
John was sure that Thanos would lose. But before the battle he would need some answers from him. The eternals. His brother. His actual motivation in killing half the universe.
Soon in Mars the work started and Umbrella was able to make a huge building with underground facilities. Umbrella made the installation as real as possible for a stronghold. All the technological facilities were used as much as possible to make it fast and leave no traces that the stronghold was made recently.
The ninjas joined in as fake security. Everything looked set and now all they had to do is wait.
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