I Need A Hero Vol. 4 {Peter Quill}

nineteen

Everyone had returned to the present day. They all looked around to see the recovered stones.

"Did we get them all?" Bruce asked.

"You telling me this'll actually work?" Rhodey said.

"I hope so" Helena added. There was a pause. Everyone realised that they were short a person. "Where's Natasha?" Clint was silent. That told them what they needed to know. Sadness had overtaken everyone, and Bruce fell to his knees and hit the ground in grief.

~

While the Avengers were having their own meeting, the Guardians were having one of their own.

"So, I guess this is it" Helena remarked.

"We're gonna bring everyone back" Meredith said. She almost couldn't believe her own words. Everyone had noticed how Nebula and Gwen were being awfully quiet. They were both standing with Phantom, who still had the collar around her neck. "You three are being awfully quiet? Is everything okay?"

"Y-yes" Gwen stuttered nervously. She looked down at her hands and twiddled her fingers. "Just anxious about bringing everyone back, is all" Meredith narrowed her eyes at her mother. Something about her was off.

"I have to say I'm impressed" Phantom spoke.

"You are?" Rocket interjected.

"Oh, yes. I didn't think you would actually do it. I'm quite looking forward to seeing the outcome. I'm hoping it will be rather....eventful" There was something rather off putting about the way Phantom smiled as she said that.

"We'll have a celebration back on Kosmo once this is over. Our Avenger friends shall be the guests of honor. For without them, we wouldn't have made it this far" Xavier proclaimed.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea" Kamomile agreed. He then noticed that Gwen was looking at him strangely. It was with a look of guilt. "My lady Gwen, is everything alright?"

"Yes" she sighed. She received side glances from both Nebula and Phantom. "I'm fine"

~

In the Avengers lab, Tony was carefully placing the stones on a gauntlet he made while Bruce and Rocket were watching. With nervous precision, he managed to place all the stones on the gauntlet.

"Boom!" Rocket made Tony and Bruce jump. Rocket laughed but neither Tony or Bruce found it funny. Tony gave Rocket a look that had 'murder' written all over it. Once the gauntlet was finished, everyone gathered in a room. Well, everyone except for Gwen, Nebula, and Phantom, but nobody seemed to notice. They were all nervous about the outcome of their snap.

"All right. The glove's ready. Question is, who's gonna snap their freaking fingers?" Rocket asked.

Meredith raised her hand, making everyone look at her. "I'll do it. I have Celestial blood. It's not like it would kill me"

"No!" Helena protested. "We're not risking it! If you do end up dying, your mother would go insane"

"I'll do it" Thor offered, stepping forward.

"Excuse me?" Scott questioned.

"It's okay" Everyone agreed that letting Thor do it was a bad idea.

"Wait, wait, wait, Thor, just wait. We haven't decided who's gonna put that on yet" Steve said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. What, were you just sitting around waiting for the right opportunity?"

"We should at least discuss it?" Scott suggested.

"Look, us sitting here staring at that thing is not gonna bring everybody back. I'm the strongest Avenger, okay? So this responsibility falls upon me. It's my duty."

"It's not that..." Tony was hushed by Thor.

"It's... stop it! Just let me" Thor began tearing up. "Just let me do it. Just let me do something good. Something great."

"Look...It's not just the fact that that glove is channeling enough energy to light up a continent, I'm telling you you're in no condition"

"What do you think is coursing through my veins right now?"

"Cheez Whiz?" Rhodey remarked.

"Lightning"

"Lightning won't help you, pal" Bruce spoke up. "It's gotta be me. You saw what those stones did to Thanos. It almost killed him. None of you could survive"

"How do we know you will?" Steve questioned.

"We don't. But the radiation's mostly gamma. It's like...I was made for this"

~

It was time. Bruce was about to put on the gauntlet and snap his fingers, which would hopefully bring everyone who was snapped away back home.

"Good to go, yeah?" Tony asked.

"Let's do it" Bruce affirmed.

"You remember... everyone Thanos snapped away five years ago and just bringing them back to now, today. Don't change anything from the last five years" Bruce nodded. Everyone got ready and suited up. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., do me a favor and activate Protocol 8" The entire facility went on lockdown.

"Everybody comes home" Bruce put on the gauntlet. He grunted in pain when the power surge began to overwhelm him.

"Take it off! Take it off!" Thor urged.

"No, wait. Bruce, are you okay?" Steve asked.

"Talk to me, Banner" Tony said.

"I'm okay. I'm okay" Bruce assured. He had managed to fight off all the pain that the gauntlet was causing him. He snapped his fingers. Afterwards, he fainted and the gauntlet slid off of his arm. Clint kicked it away.

"Don't move him" Tony kneeled beside Bruce, and began to cool off his arm.

"Did it work?"

"Worth a shot. It's over. It's okay." Thor said. Scott walked over to the windows when he noticed the plants and birds outside. Clint could hear his phone ringing. When he went to go answer it, he saw that it was his wife, Laura, calling.

"Guys, I think it worked" Scott said, a wide smile on his face.

Meredith smiled at what he said. "Mom, did you hear that? It worked" She began looking around the room and finally noticed that her mother was missing. "Mom?"

The base was suddenly blown to bits when a missile had struck. What no one realized is that when Nebula and Gwen came back, it wasn't the Nebula and Gwen they knew. It was 2014 Nebula impersonating her future self, and 2014 Kamomile was forced to masquerade as Gwen. Phantom had revealed the Avengers' plan to 2014 Thanos, when Nebula and Gwen had been captured. So, with her help, Nebula and Kamomile (though he did it reluctantly) had brought Thanos to the future.