Get the Infinity Stones before Thanos does?
Everyone listened, and it seemed like a pretty good plan.
But T'Challa asked, puzzled, "Before this, just one stone was enough to draw Thanos's greed. If we gather all of them, won't he want to invade Earth even more, to take the whole set in one fell swoop?"
He was worried that all their hard work gathering the stones would just end up making a gift for Thanos.
Hearing this, Hawkeye shook his head.
"We get beaten up when we have no stones, and we'll get beaten up when we find the stones. What, did we just find them for nothing?"
"Fake Captain's" stock just kept on rising!
"Agent Barton is right." Bant nodded, acknowledging his words, then continued. "The Infinity Stones hold immensely powerful forces. Otherwise Thanos wouldn't go to such lengths trying to get his hands on them. I know most of you probably don't know that much about the stones yet. Eunice."
"Yes, sir."
Bant slid his Sky Guild badge across the table to the center. The moment Eunice replied, a dazzling display unfolded before everyone like a film documentary.
And so Bant slowly explained the stones' formation and the evolution of the universe.
"The Infinity Stones are the refined essences of six singularities that contained infinite energy before the Big Bang."
As he spoke, the images Eunice projected shifted: an immense explosion, and then six primordial stones gleaming with different colors were born one by one, shooting off in different directions across the universe.
"Time, Space, Mind, Power, Reality, and Soul." Bant named the stones one after the other. "Whosoever holds even one gains tremendous power in the domain that stone governs. And a being who holds all of them… would be worthy of being called a god in this universe."
Bant passed his hand through the projection, and under the astonished gazes of everyone there, he closed his fingers around the illusory stones.
The six gems formed an infinite loop like a Möbius strip, their energies cascading layer by layer—every stone feeding power to the next along the circuit, enabling each to unleash its full might.
"Because of their infinite energy, after being discovered, they were continuously held and used by different races and factions. The Tesseract, for example—it was left on Earth by the Asgardians, until Hydra found it."
"If the stones are so powerful, why didn't those Asgardians use it instead of leaving it on Earth?" Natasha asked, curious.
At that, everyone looked at Bant. They all knew he had a good relationship with Loki, so they figured he might know some inside story.
Bant explained.
"Because the Asgardians were so powerful they didn't need the stones."
"Asgard's peak era was thousands of years ago. Back then, Odin and his daughter waged war across the cosmos. They were far more terrifying enemies than Thanos."
"The Bifrost could take them anywhere within the Nine Realms. The Space Stone was like a chicken rib to him—valuable, but useless."
"Later, maybe Odin foresaw that the stones' power would bring catastrophe, so he placed it on Earth—what they call Midgard. It's as remote as… Delaware."
Even the handful of genuine, born-and-bred Americans in the room had to pause for a beat when they heard that name, before it dawned on them that Bant meant the state of Delaware.
"That really is pretty remote…"
Captain America facepalmed.
Remote wasn't even the word—more like nonexistent. At least before Tony kicked off the age of superheroes, Earth was basically some rural backwater in the cosmic sticks.
Once they understood the origin and power of the Tesseract, everyone grasped why the stones were so precious, and why Thanos would go to any lengths to collect them.
"So what we need to do is find the four remaining stones and bring them back. Then, we can easily handle any threat that comes," T'Challa said, gradually putting it all together.
But Bant shook his head.
"Is something wrong?"
"Two things. First, we don't have to find all the stones."
Bant explained, "Right now we have two: Space and Mind. But actually, the Time Stone is also on Earth. It's being guarded by someone else, and it's very safe in her hands."
Even if you gave Thanos ten times the nerve, there was no way he'd be taking the Time Stone from the Ancient One.
Unless she willingly handed it over.
"That means we're only competing with Thanos for three stones: Power, Soul, and Reality."
In truth, only two.
Because he had no plans to touch the Soul Stone for now.
That stone had already developed its own soul and sentience. Anyone who wanted to claim it had to first offer up the soul of the one they loved the most. On the final scale, only soul can equal soul in weight.
Of course, just because he wasn't touching it didn't mean Thanos wouldn't.
The stone falling into Thanos's hands was still a massive hidden danger. Superiority with Infinity Stones wasn't determined purely by how many you held. Just like in that "What If…" scenario, a multi-stone Thanos got one-shotted by a single-stone Ultron.
But without considering the sacrifice, leaving it alone was the best option for now.
Besides, at this point in time, Thanos still didn't know the Soul Stone's location.
Only Gamora knew it was on a planet called Vormir, keeping company with a lonely, evil soul.
The odds of Gamora telling Thanos about the Soul Stone were very low.
So from start to finish, Bant's real targets were only two:
Power and Reality.
The Reality Stone was also known as the Aether. It had been sealed away by Asgard thousands of years ago, but with the stones resonating and waking one another, all of them would soon stir. The Aether was bound to resurface very soon.
He didn't need to go over all those details with them.
"Second, even if we get all six stones, it'd still be hard to use them against every enemy. The stones' power is overwhelming. An ordinary person would be vaporized just touching them."
After saying this, Bant swept his gaze over the group and added, "And don't kid yourselves—I'm talking about all of you."
"We are not ordinary people," T'Challa objected.
"Same difference," Bant said lightly.
He wasn't looking down on anyone; it was just the truth.
Beneath the gods, all are equal.
"Alright, let's get back to how we actually locate the stones." Captain America spoke up, putting an end to that exercise in self-humiliation.
"Our first objective is the Power Stone."
Bant laid out solid intel.
He snapped his fingers, and instantly all the images dissolved like smoke, leaving only a single purple stone and an intricately patterned, gray-black orb.
"The Power Stone, also known as the Orb. It's the most widely circulated stone across the universe—plenty of people have leads on it. It's also Thanos's top pick for his next target."
"Then we'd better move fast."
"Don't worry. Although the Sky Guild can't mobilize just yet, we've already put out high-reward commissions across the cosmos. But to prevent any accidents, I've decided to assemble a small strike team to head into space as well," Bant said.
The universe was full of mercenaries who'd get things done as long as you paid. For example, Yondu and his Ravagers, or the "famous"—though hardly anyone had actually heard of him—intergalactic outlaw "Star-Lord."
He was exactly the one Bant worried about.
A man with the body of a god who fights like an ordinary mortal, the guy who literally kicked off the events of Endgame, the ultimate dad-disaster: Peter Quill.
Honestly, apart from "stupid," it was hard to find another word to describe him.
Bant was afraid that the commission he sent out from the Sky Guild might land right in Star-Lord's hands. That was why, just in case, he wanted to form a new squad to hunt down the Power Stone themselves.
Naturally, nobody had any objections to the plan.
The only questions were who would go, and when.
"Count me out," Barton raised his hand, the first to bow out. Natasha followed right after him.
The two of them were basically ordinary humans. They'd had the serum, sure, but they couldn't match Steve's sheer hardiness.
"I'm in," T'Challa said without a moment's hesitation.
He believed everything in the universe was connected, and all things were intertwined with Wakanda.
"I'm definitely in."
That was Steve Rogers.
"And you?" the old soldier asked.
He wanted to know what role Bant intended to play this time.
"Of course I'm going too," Bant said.
When it came to the Infinity Stones, Bant would be a little more hands-on. If something went wrong and the Power Stone ended up in Thanos's grasp, that would not be good news.
Aside from the three of them, whether any other Avengers joined was still up for discussion.
Bant stuck to a strictly volunteer basis.
Too many people wasn't necessarily a good thing. Some wouldn't be of any use and might even become a liability.
"So… meeting adjourned?" Natasha ventured.
"Adjourned? I'm not done yet!" Bant shot her an eye-roll. "The stones are just the first step. Don't forget our real objective in the end is still destroying Thanos."
With that, Bant waved a hand, and Eunice projected Thanos's forces.
"Thanos's reach is vast. He might have lost the last battle, but to the Chitauri, spawning a batch of cannon fodder is a matter of minutes. Not to mention, his Black Order is the true main force…"
One by one, Bant introduced Thanos's military assets to them, until the images finally settled on two aliens: one with blue skin, the other green.
"Apart from the Black Order's five generals, Thanos also has two daughters."
"Nebula and Gamora…"
—
"…And so you've returned."
Upon his void throne, Thanos leaned forward, gazing down at his two daughters, whom he had not seen for a very long time.
Nebula was trussed up like a rice dumpling, curled on the cold, jagged black rock, her eyes filled with terror as she looked up at Thanos.
"Father…"
/-\
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