[Easily knocked aside by Ronan, Drax was not discouraged in the slightest. With a guttural roar, he charged forward again.]
[Unfortunately, sheer rage could not bridge the massive gap in their strength.]
[Ronan casually swatted him away again, sending Drax flying back even faster than he had charged.]
[Still refusing to admit defeat, Drax staggered to his feet and swung his blades wildly. Ronan sidestepped the clumsy attack and delivered a sharp blow to the back of his neck, making Drax stumble.]
[Drax spun, attempting a wide, sweeping attack, but Ronan had already anticipated the move, raising an arm to block the blow. The impact of metal on flesh sent Drax's dagger flying from his hand, leaving him disarmed.]
With gentle precision, Rocket landed the Milano on the roof of Stark Tower, immediately disengaging the cloaking field. The ship shimmered into existence out of thin air, and only then did the rooftop radar arrays finally register its presence.
"Hold your fire!" Tony commanded, his mind racing. The sudden appearance of a ship that had been completely invisible moments before was alarming, but something about its design was familiar, like a half-remembered dream. It looked like Quill's ship from the movie, but different—repaired, modified. He stayed airborne, his palm repulsors glowing ominously. "State your names and intentions! Now!"
Moments later, he was joined by Rhodey in the War Machine armor and Banner in the massive Hulkbuster. The elevator doors slid open, and Captain America emerged with his shield at the ready, flanked by Bucky and Scott Lang.
The Milano's hatch hissed open and lowered with a heavy thud. The first person to walk down the ramp was Star-Lord himself.
Seeing his face, Captain America lowered his shield slightly, a look of recognition dawning.
"Captain," Peter Quill said with a weary but confident nod. Behind him, Gamora, Rocket, and a silent, towering Groot emerged from the ship.
Tony's eyes narrowed behind his faceplate. "Quill. What are you doing on earth?"
"We came because of this," Peter said. He reached into his satchel, pulled out the Cosmic Orb, and gave it a casual toss in his hand.
The sight of the Orb containing the Power Stone sent a jolt through the Avengers. They had just watched it annihilate a man and his entire collection on screen, and now it was here, on their roof, being juggled like a common baseball.
[On the other side of the galaxy, the chase between Nebula and Gamora was still raging.]
[Star-Lord saw that the Necrocraft were closing in on Gamora's pod and barked into his comms, "Rocket! Cover Gamora! Get her to the Milano!"]
["How?" Rocket shot back. "This thing doesn't have any weapons! It's a mining pod!"]
["These pods are industrial-grade!" Star-Lord said calmly. "They're practically indestructible!"]
[Rocket still didn't get it. "That won't matter when their blasters turn us into scrap metal!"]
["You're not thinking with portals, pal!" Star-Lord prompted.]
[A wicked grin spread across Rocket's face as he finally understood. "Ohhhhh."]
[He yanked the controls, sending his yellow pod careening directly toward two Necrocraft flying side-by-side. He slammed into the first one, which then spun out of control and collided with the second. Both enemy ships crashed into a nearby structure in a fiery explosion.]
[Rocket's pod spun wildly for a moment before he regained control. A maniacal cackle echoed in his cockpit. He had discovered a new and exciting toy, and he immediately lined up his next target.]
[But this pilot wasn't a fool. Seeing the pod coming, the Necrocraft pilot opened fire.]
["Yeehaw!" Rocket roared, expertly dodging the energy blasts as he charged head-on. In a violent explosion, the Necrocraft was shattered to pieces, while Rocket's pod emerged from the fireball completely unscathed.]
[Meanwhile, Gamora was pinned down, several Necrocraft relentlessly firing on her position. She expertly weaved her pod through the metallic labyrinth of Knowhere, but she knew she couldn't keep it up for long. She needed to find a bottleneck, somewhere to slow them down.]
[Just then, Star-Lord's pod caught up to one of the pursuers. He activated the pod's industrial claws, latching them firmly onto the Necrocraft's canopy before ripping it clean off.]
[The enemy pilot looked up in shock, and before he could react, Star-Lord grabbed him and unceremoniously threw him out of the cockpit.]
["Gonna borrow this!" Peter shouted into the void.]
[He leaped from his pod into the commandeered Necrocraft, grabbing the controls just as it was about to crash. He saw Gamora fly past below, still being chased. Once she was clear, Peter opened fire, unleashing the Necrocraft's weapons and vaporizing three of her pursuers.]
[Back on the ground, a disarmed Drax swung a desperate fist at Ronan, but Ronan simply deflected the blow with his left hand before grabbing him by the throat with his right.]
[Drax punched Ronan with all his might, but the Kree Accuser didn't even flinch, as if the blow was nothing more than a tickle.]
[Summoning every ounce of his strength, Drax delivered a powerful punch to Ronan's chest that finally elicited a grunt of pain.]
[Ronan roared, his patience clearly gone. He lifted Drax into the air, spun him 360 degrees, and slammed him violently onto the ground.]
[Ronan looked down at the broken Destroyer, his voice cold and dismissive. "I don't recall killing your family. And I won't remember killing you, either."]
[He released Drax's throat and turned his back on him, leaving him for dead.]
"So," Captain America said, breaking the silence on the rooftop. "You came to Earth to ask us to safeguard the Power Stone."
"The Xandarians are terrified," Quill explained. "They don't dare hold it. Not with Thanos in play. He already has one Stone; they know he's coming for the rest."
"The Power Stone is too dangerous to keep anywhere it can be easily found," Gamora added. "Quill said you and Thanos are destined to be enemies. He said you were the only ones who might stand a chance. So we came here."
Rocket snorted, spreading his hands wide. "Frankly, I'm not impressed. That big screen you've got has laid all your cards on the table. From what we've seen, Earth's tech level is a complete joke. Unless you're hiding some serious aces up your sleeve, I'd advise you to just hand over the Stone now and save Thanos the trouble."
A smirk played on Tony's lips. "Oh, we've got a few aces. You just haven't met them yet."
He nodded to the others. Steve immediately pulled out a phone. "I'll get Wanda from Kamar-Taj."
Rhodey tapped his helmet. "I'm on with Carol."
"And I'll call our guy off-world," Tony said, producing a sleek, custom-made phone of his own.
Gamora looked at him skeptically. "You have a phone that can call across the galaxy?"
"I have a phone that can do a lot of things," Tony said proudly. "After we officially made contact with New Asgard, I had Wakanda help me build a quantum entanglement communication hub. We can talk to Thor like he's across the street." He flipped the vibranium-cased phone in his hand. "I also built him one of these so he'd stop breaking the consumer models. Or losing them. Frigga even enchanted it for him. He can summon it just like he summons Mjolnir."
Tony grinned. "The rest of us have them too, of course. Just without the fancy magic recall feature. We're not gods, after all."