I haven't quite figured out my plan with Spider-Man yet, so idk. I'm dealing with an overwhelming amount of characters right now XD

                            Chapter 3

  “Well isn’t this lovely.” Thor muttered sarcastically to himself. “I came here to have a week off, wish Quail a Happy Birthday, and eat some good food. Now Reed managed to get himself and his family captured, and we have to go rescue them. What a shame.”  Thor had received the message from Tony and Steve yesterday afternoon, and it had quickly ended the party. Since then everyone had been rather gloomy, Nebula especially. Then again, Nebula’s always been gloomy due to her former life with Thanos.

  “Thor! We’re approaching the Negative Zone!” Rocket called out to him. He looked out the window and, sure enough, the darkness lay in front of them. Thor had never been to the Negative Zone before, but he had heard about it from his father. Why Reed would ever want to study it was beyond him. Thor quickly shoved a last spoonful of ice cream in his mouth before getting ready for whatever was waiting for them.

  Star-Lord sat his usual seat in the front of the Benatar. He was unnerved, but he tried his best to hide the fact from his comrades. Hopefully Mantis wouldn’t catch on. Quill didn’t know why, but something about this mission didn’t seem right. A man with a cape, strong enough to take out all of the Fantastic Four at once? There was something wrong. Heck, it was probably some insane alien who wore his underwear on the outside and called it a costume. There was no need to worry…

  The Justice League had gathered again in Metropolis. Nothing had changed with the portal; it was exactly the same as it had been before. Superman, having been to the other side, stepped in first, and the others followed. They appeared on the other side, once again in the darkness. Green Lantern took out a bright light, making it easier for them to see, but the only interesting thing was the ship that had been left behind. Diana was the first to speak.

  “This place.. It’s so dark. It’s like Darkness itself decided to call this place home. Who would ever want to be here?”

  “I mean, it does go with my suit nicely.” Bruce put in. “But that’s besides the point.”

  “Let’s go investigate the ship. I might have missed something last time.” Superman said. They had just begun walking in the direction of the ship when a noise in the air caught their attention. They looked up instinctively; Diana drew her sword, and Aquaman his trident. “Cyborg, you see anything?” Cyborg scanned the sky for a couple seconds. “Yeah, I see another ship inbound. It seems to contain 10 passengers, all of them armed.”

  “Let’s be careful then, friends. We’ll see what they want before we attack. Everyone, follow my signal. Ok?” The others nodded in agreement with Superman’s words, and they stood there waiting. The ship landed about 50 feet away from the League, and for several minutes nothing happened. “Clark, I think we should go to the ship and make them open up. Why are we waiting?” Bruce asked. “We’re waiting because patience is a virtue, Bruce. Either they’ll come out when they’re ready, or they’ll leave and let us work in peace.”

  As Quill lowered the Benatar onto the surface of the dark planet, the unnerved feeling he had was magnified tenfold. Sure enough, there was a crazy guy in a cape with his underwear on the outside. There was also a rather attractive girl with a sword, a guy dressed in black, a guy who looked liked he was trying to cosplay as Poesidon, and a few others. They all looked pretty hostile, though. He looked over to Thor, who looked not frightened in the least, and Quill knew that at least had to look like he wasn’t worried. “Guardians and Company, let’s not attack right away. We need a plan first. And it’s not very often that I ask your few brain cells to do that, so let’s try to do this.”

  “Ok, here’s the plan.” Thor said. “First we try diplomacy. I’ll talk to the girl, flirt a bit, and maybe she’ll help us out. If that fails then I’ll attack her. Quill, you go for the guy in green; Drax, you go for the guy in black. Nebula, you might have a better chance with the robot dude. Everyone else, just do what you can. Sound good?”

  “Wait excuse me Thor, you can’t just take charge and tell us all what to do. Right guys?” Star-Lord looked around at the others, but nobody seemed to support him, so he dropped the argument. Thor opened up the ship and walked out, followed by the others. The 7 strangers seemed to show no surprise at their entrance, but continued to stand there. Not concerned in the least, Thor walked up to them and stood about 6 or 7 feet away from them. Being the leader (Or at least hoping that he was the leader) of the Guardians, Star-Lord came up next to him and started the talking.

  “Excuse me,” he said to the strangers, “But who exactly are you?”

  “Better question is, who are you and why are you here?” Superman responded.

  “Oh let me explain that.” Thor cut in. “Fair Lady, the one with the sword, perhaps you’ll hear me out? You see, I am Thor, the god of thunder and lightning.” he bowed. “Oh, well sorry to burst your bubble,” she said, “But the only god of thunder was my father Zeus, and he’s dead now.” Thor was confused.

  “But Zeus is alive and well, or at least he was 700 years ago when I ran into him. I was never much a fan of him, sorry to say. Oh, and don’t get me started on that upstart Hercules, thinking he’s so strong and-”

  “Diana, don’t listen to him.” Superman interrupted. “He’s trying to distract you.” Now turning towards Star-Lord, he asked again, “Who are you and why are you here?”

  “I am Star-Lord, as in the Lord of Stars, and these are my friends. We came here because some our of fellow heroes disappeared in this area. Do you happen to have seen them?”

  “As a matter of fact, I think we have seen them.” Batman said. “Was one of them a big orange rock?”

  “Exactly! How did you know about this?” Drax exclaimed.

  “Because I’m Batman!”

  “I AM GROOT!” This sudden outburst from Groot stunned Batman, who decided to not respond. Once again, Superman had to get the conversation back on track.

  “So, you’re friends with the aliens who tried to invade Metropolis?

  “Uh, no. First of all, they’re not aliens, but if you mean the people who went missing, then they are my friends. Second, I have no idea what or where Metropolis is.” Superman seemed to believe this for a moment, but something in his face changed suddenly.

 “Liar! Those friends of yours are evil, and they tried to hurt our people. That’s why I locked them, and I’ll do the same to you if you don’t leave immediately!”

  “Clark…” Diana said warningly. But it was too late. Thor and Star-Lord’s tempers were already up.

  “Do NOT call us liars!” Thor commanded angrily. He stretched out his hand, and Mjolnir came flying to him. Yondu held his arrow in his hand, Star-Lord his blasters. “So it’s a fight then?” Superman said. Thor’s answer was calling down a lightning strike upon him, though it didn’t seem to do too much damage to him. With that electrifying start, the fight began.

  “Remember the plan!” Thor yelled out to the others as the two teams met in battle. Batman knocked aside Drax’s knives and began in hand-to-hand combat with him. Drax was heavier, but he was able to defend himself bravely. Star-Lord was firing his blasters at Green Lantern, who had created first an energy shield to defend himself, and then swung a large green first at Quill. Thor didn’t have time to see anything more, because Wonder Woman threw herself at him and began attacking. He jumped back from her swinging blade, picked up a rock, and threw it at her. She just stood there and took the full force of the blow; the rock shattered into a hundred pieces. Not even fazed, she continued her attack. He blocked her next swing with Mjolnir, and pushed her away from him.Taking advantage of the opportunity, he flew at her, grabbed her, and threw her over hundred feet away; Thor then flew after her to continue their fight.

 Mantis was kinda doomed from the beginning. She ran at the person closest to her in an attempt to put them to sleep. She did manage to get onto Aquaman’s back, but he threw her off and stabbed her with his trident. Nebula was engaged in close combat with Cyborg, and their respective strengths balanced out so that they continued fighting for several minutes. Yondu and Kraglin were doing their best to take on Flash, Yondu’s arrow flying after the speedster. Yet Barry Allen was too fast for them, and quickly tied the both of them up with rope. He grabbed Yondu’s arrow while it was in the air and casually broke it in two pieces, saying, “No more magic arrow for you, blue dude.”

  “Y’all will pay for that with your lives!” Yondu cried out angrily.

  As for Superman, he was taking on Gamora, Rocket, and Groot at the same time. Gamora grabbed onto his neck and began choking him while Rocket shot his blaster and Groot attempted to entrap his feet in branches. However, their efforts were of no avail. He easily shook Gamora off, and she went flying a dozen feet away. Rocket’s blasts did nothing but bounce off his skin. He picked up Rocket and threw him into Groot, stopping both of their attacks.

  Meanwhile, Thor and Wonder Woman were both bruised and bleeding. She had knocked Mjolnir out of his hand, and he in turn had grabbed her sword and thrown it out into the distance. Now she grabbed him and threw his head against a rock.

  “Ouch!” he said to her. “You know, for a pretty lady like you, you’re a tough fighter. I could a friend like you.” She smiled slightly at that. “Just for the record, I’m only fighting you because Clark says your bad.” She dodged his punch.

  “I don’t know which one of them is Clark, but we really aren’t bad. In fact, I suspect that your friends are in fact the bad ones.” Thor replied as he rolled away from her and got back to his feet. Mjolnir flew to his hand once again. “If there’s a way that I can prove that I’m not lying, then show me.” he said to her. Several moments of silence passed between them before she spoke.

  “Fine, I’ll give you a chance.” She said, taking out the golden rope that she hadn’t used until now. “I had forgotten that I had this. Weird… Anyway, this will show if you’re telling the truth. Let me tie you up.”

  “Wait, how is tying me up going to help?”

  “Just trust me. I will be fair with you.” At last Thor gave in, and dropped Mjolnir onto the ground. He walked up to Wonder Woman, and she tied the rope around him. “Now, this will force you to tell me the truth. Who and what are you?”

  “I am Thor, King of Asgard, Odinson. I am an Avenger, I defend the universe against all threats, and I came here to rescue my friends who you took.”  Diana was stunned. So he was telling the truth after all. Quickly she undid the rope and let him go. “Wow, I haven’t met such sorcery since I battled the Enchantress!” Thor exclaimed.

  Diana did some quick thinking. “Clark won’t let you go. I know him too well; once he’s set his mind on something, it’s near impossible to stop him. Stay here, and I’ll go back and tell him you’re dead. Once we’re gone, you can make your escape. Ok?” Thor nodded. “Oh, and here’s your weapon back.” she said, casually handing him Mjolnir. She flew back to the main battle without looking back at Thor’s amazed expression.

  Thor and Wonder Woman may have worked out their differences, but the same couldn’t be said for the others. Groot was a mess, and Rocket was on the verge of unconsciousness. Nebula’s robotic arm had been ripped off by Cyborg, but he wasn’t looking too good either. Drax was trapped underneath a net, and Batman was standing above him triumphantly. As for Star-Lord, he was lying on the ground, Superman’s foot on top of his chest. But the Justice League had suffered a bit as well. Green Lantern had been wounded in the arm, and he was now bandaging it up. Aquaman was a bit dazed after he got hit in the head with the hilt of Gamora’s sword.

  “Well, Lord of Stars, or whatever you call yourself, will you surrender now?” Superman asked Quill.

  “The name’s Star-Lord, douchebag. And as to whether or not I surrender, here’s my response.” He looked straight into Superman’s eyes and proceeded to flick him off. “Very well then, you’ve made your choice.” came Clark’s reply, and with his laser vision calmly put 2 holes in Peter Quill’s body. He convulsed for a moment, and then went still.

 “Oh, Diana, you’ve returned.” he said to Wonder Woman. “Is that guy you fought dead?” She nodded. “Good job, Diana. I think he had more fight in him than any of the others. Now let’s take these others back with us. We’ll stick them in the same cell we put their friends in.”

  5 minutes later, all of the surviving Guardians were tied up together. Superman and Green Lantern stayed behind in the Negative Zone while the others took the prisoners back. The reason Clark and Hal stayed was because now they had not one, bu two ships to investigate. Hal checked the older one, and Clark the Benatar. Hal found nothing aboard that he considered useful; but Clark found several things of interest. The first was a small orange stone kept in a metal box; he broke open the box easily and decided to keep the stone for later. The second was a half-eaten tub of ice cream. As for the third object, it was a communication device. Clark opened it and saw a list of names and numbers. Tony Stark, Stephen Strange, Charles Xavier, and Taneleer Tivan were the first names to pop up, and Superman decided to select the first one. After several seconds a man appeared on the screen. Without waiting for him to speak, Superman started talking.

  “I don’t know who you are, or how many of you there are, but I will fight all of you. That reconnaissance party that got sent in? They’re all either dead or captured. It was an easy fight too. So if you think that you can just invade my home world like that, then you’ve been proven wrong. And if I ever see your face again, then I’ll have to kill you.” He switched off the screen immediately afterwards, and walked back to where Hal was waiting for him. They re-entered the portal without a backward glance, leaving the bodies of Mantis and Star-Lord behind them.  

  For the second time in the past two days, Tony Stark was stunned. This was bad. Like, really bad. Thor, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians, all gone. Whoever that man was, he was not something to be treated lightly. Tony knew what he had to do. He made a call.

  Tony Stark’s conference room was nice and cozy. In the middle there stood a large table with 7 seats around it. Stark was occupying one of the seats, and Stephen Strange another of them. Reed would have been there as well, but of course, he was gone. The remaining 4 seats were occupied by holograms of the other council members who were too far away to be physically present. Black Bolt was on Tony’s left, and farther down were Namor, Black Panther, and Charles Xavier. Together, the council members represented the vast majority of superheroes, and Stark knew that for a threat like this, he was going to need a lot of backup. He cleared his throat.

  “Gentlemen, I’m sorry I had to arrange such an unexpected meeting, but we have a situation in the Negative Zone.”     

Copyright 2019 by Jason Grace

Gosh, this was a crazy chapter to write

Because so much happened in it, that's all

Thanks!

Well I'm not going to say if anything will happen, because then it could be hinting at the plot or even give stuff away. So don't ask me any questions, because I won't answer them XD

Sorry about that, but it needed to happen. I'm a Star-Lord fan too