A Twist Of Marvel || Infinity War

63. Scary Stories

The Asgardians worked quickly, and a call was sent out almost immediately that the royal family was in search for the guardians of the galaxy. Odin had been very surprised when they received a response in just a few hours, as he hadn't even known these people existed the previous day. He did question why they accepted his request for them to come to Asgard so readily and with only one question: if there would be good pay. The king had no idea what Lady Swanson wanted from them, but by that point he had learned that letting her take the reins and staying out of the way could be quite beneficial, not to mention it would save him from excess stress.

Their ship arrived on the rainbow bridge in the early morning, the only warning for their arrival being the all-seeing eyes of Heimdall. Odin had servants relay the information to the Lady Swanson and her chosen companions, and afterwards stayed in the palace to enjoy his breakfast in peace. 

Naomi and Bruce had been the last to hear the news, as it had taken a while for the servants to find them. Thus, the two were sent packing out of the great hall straight toward the rainbow bridge. As they approached, Naomi could see the guardians ship landed through the mist of the early morning, and all its passengers gathered outside on the bridge. They appeared to be in an argument with Thor, Loki and Valkyrie, who had all arrived much earlier. As Naomi quickened her pace, she tugged on Bruce's arm to get him to follow. The closer she drew, the better she could hear the conversation.

"There's no job, then?"

"Well there is, I assure you, I think, but we must wait to find out."

Naomi knew the second voice to be Thor's, but the first voice was more unclear to her. She was fairly certain it had been Peter Quill, but she and Bruce were still to far and the fog was to thick for her to be sure.

"What the hell kind of crackhouse are you running here?" A third voice asked, definitely belonging to a small raccoon. "Nobody knows what the hell is going on?" Rocket asked in disbelief. 

"I beg your pardon? Your ship is landed near the threshold of a palace." Loki sneered, offended by the crude animal's words. Still, Naomi smiled a little hearing him back to his old self.

"Im so sorry, your crack-palace." Rocket retorted, and a resounding bout of laughter cut through the fog in response. The deep, full-mouthed cackling that could only come from the infamous Drax.

Naomi jogged the last few feet, the guardians finally coming into clear view. Their attention turned to her, and to the scientist that she still had a hold on. "I think I can clarify things." She smiled, elated to meet one of the funniest groups in the MCU. They look at her with a trace of suspicion, mostly provided by Gamora. Groot didn't care, he was buried in his video game as always.

"Who are you?" Mantis asked, her hands folded timidly in front of her. As always, she hovered around Drax, who as still recovering from Rocket's one-liner.

"I'm Naomi Swanson, and we have a lot to discuss." She answered, looking between all of them with a hopeful gaze. They didn't respond, although Rocket and Peter seemed to be earring u to ask about payment once again.

"She is a prophet." Thor boasted, clapping a hand onto Naomi's shoulder with a peculiar aura of pride. Naomi simply chuckled and rolled her eyes, exchanging a quick glance with Loki. They had stood next to each other throughout the exchange, slowly drifting closer without really acknowledging one another. Bruce noticed, however, as did Valkyrie. Their own shared glance promised that the two would share gossip later on.

"Hang on." Gamora spoke out, her posture straightening as her gaze darkened. "The Prophet?" A small rumble of realization rolled through the Guardians, and they all regarded her again with a new look in their eyes. Even Groot finally looked up from his game, but he still seemed bored with the proceedings so far.

"Uh, what?" Naomi asked, extremely confused. Her own group grew more serious in response, Loki closing the distance between them so their arms pressed against each other.

"The one with the scary stories?" Mantis gasped, her face a picture of childlike wonder and fear mixed into one. Naomi would have found it adorable, had she not been to perplexed by the sudden shift in the conversation.

"You've heard of Naomi?" Valkyrie questioned, raising a brow while meeting each of their gazes individually.

"Well we've heard of someone who's been going 'round preaching that the world is ending, or something." Peter shrugged, not all too concerned at the thought of a prophesied end of the world.

"Yeah, that's Naomi." Bruce said, nodding gravely. Naomi's mouth dropped open in shock, disbelief written over her features.

"I do not go around telling people the world is ending!" She exclaimed, not deeply offended but still surprised at her own friends unanimous agreement that she was the rumored doomsday preacher.

"Only a little, dear." Loki grinned, and Naomi huffed in defeat. The guardian had watched the exchange between the Asgard group in amusement, but still maintained a small amount of caution. "Anyhow," Loki said, turning toward Gamora, "how have you heard of Naomi?"

"We hear of everything in the galaxy. Nothing escapes us." Drax remarked gravely, his eyes boring into Loki's. Naomi would have been intimidated had she not known that Drax was more likely to deafen someone with his laugh than to hurt them at that point in the timeline.

"I am Groot." A mumbled, high-pitched voice came, the tree's tone sassy and biting. The other guardians cracked a smile at whatever the teen had said, though Drax gasped as though he had been deeply offended.

"That was one time!" He insisted, pointing his finger sternly at Groot, who simply didn't care and turned back to his game. Naomi wasn't sure how he was so engrossed in it, since the one glance they had gotten on screen had shown it to be a simple Defender-style video game.

"Ah, the tree is very comical." Thor grinned, laughing along with the Guardians at Groot's obvious sass to Drax. Collectively, they paused and shot Thor serious glances. Naomi saw a golden opportunity.

"You speak Groot?" She said in sync with Rocket, who whirled around to face her after the sentence was finished. But Naomi was not done.

"Yes, they taught it on Asgard. It was an elective." She said, starting out in sync with Thor, but ending the sentence alone as he caught on to what she was doing and trailed off in the middle. Naomi was pleased with herself, and Loki seemed to find it amusing enough, especially since it had quieted Thor. However, Bruce and Valkyrie seemed to be over Naomi's party trick of predicting random sentences. The Guardians were new to the concept, though, and had mixed reactions.

"She's a magician!" Mantis gasped, her eyes widening with a youthful joy. Naomi smiled at her reaction, but was sobered when she met Gamora's eyes. The green warrior was evidently not amused by the situation, and still regarded Naomi with a wariness in her posture. It reminded Naomi of the reason she ad brought them here.

"Right, well, we should probably start talking." She said, clasping her hands together in anticipation of the difficult conversation that was ahead.

"About what?" Gamora asked, her eyes narrowing. Naomi hesitated for a second, and perhaps something in her eyes gave it away, but in that moment, Gamora seemed to realize where the conversation was heading. The woman didn't start, or even look surprised at Naomi's response.

"About Thanos."