stark, peter parker

vi. hey, what the fuck was that?

dakota watched as quill measured the planet's tilt. " the heck happened to this planet?" he asked. "it's eight degrees off its axis. gravitational pull is all over the place."

"yeah, we got one advantage." tony said, ignoring him. "he's coming to us. we'll use it." he thought for a moment. "all right, i have a plan. or at least the beginnings of one. it's pretty simple. we draw him in, pin him down, get what we need. definitely don't wanna dance with this guy. we just want the gauntlet."

dakota nodded from next to him, turning at the sound of drax yawning.

"are you yawning?" tony asked, not used to the disrespect. "in the middle of this, while i'm breaking it down? huh? did you hear what i said?"

drax shook his head. "i stopped listening after you said, 'we need a plan.'"

tony nodded. "okay, mr. clean is on his own page."

quill turned to him. "see, 'not winging it' isn't really what they do."

"uh, what exactly is it that they do?" peter asked.

mantis, almost as fiercely as a kitten, piped in. "kick names, take ass."

dakota nodded. "right, okay."

tony sighed, unable to believe that he was going to die surrounded by idiots. "right, just get over here, please. mr. lord, can you get your folks to circle up?"

"'mr. lord.'"quill chuckled. "star-lord is fine."

tony ignored him. "we gotta coalesce. 'cause if all we come at him with is a plucky attitude..."

quill held a hand up. "dude, don't call us plucky. we don't know what it means. alright, we're optimistic, yes. i like your plan. except it sucks, so let me do the plan, and that way it might be really good."

drax nodded. "tell him about the dance-off to save the universe."

tony turned to him. "what dance-off?"

quill shook his head. "it's not a... it's not... it's nothing."

peter furrowed a brow. "like in footloose, the movie?"

he nodded excitedly. "exactly like footloose. is it still the greatest movie in history?"

peter shook his head. "it never was." he and dakota said in unison.

"they just made a remake of it." kodie informed quill, who gasped.

"does it have kevin bacon?"

"no, actually, it-"

tony turned to the two teenagers. "don't encourage this, alright? we're getting no help from flash gordon here."

"flash gordon?" quill asked. "by the way, that's a compliment. don't forget, i'm half human." he pointed to peter and the two starks. "so that 50% of me that's stupid? that's 100% you."

"your math is blowing my mind." tony replied.

mantis interrupted. "excuse me, but... does your friend often do that?"

they all turned to see strange sitting cross-legged, floating slightly above the ground. the time stone was glowing brightly on his neck, green vapor-like energy flowing from it. the cloak of levitation flew behind him, almost as if the stone was creating a breeze around him. his eyes were closed, and his head jerked rapidly from side to side, as if he was looking for something.

"uh.. not that we know of, no." dakota said, following her father over to the man.

when tony put a hand on his shoulder, strange snapped out of his trance, falling forward and letting out a small cry. "you're back," tony assured him, "you're alright."

dakota knelt down, concerned. "hey, what the fuck was that?"

strange looked up, panting. "i went forward in time to view alternate futures. to see all the possible outcomes of the coming conflict."

"how many did you see?" quill asked.

"14,000,605."

tony looked down at him. "how many did we win?"

strangle looked at him intently for a moment, pausing before giving him an answer.

"one."