The barrier Pendragon had set up completely cut him off from the outside world. While he slept soundly in the hotel, S.H.I.E.L.D., which had finally realized something was seriously wrong, had more than just a headache. From the director down to Level 8 agents, practically the entire upper echelon was stressed to the point of mouth ulcers.
The once bustling commercial district was now locked down under the banner of anti terror operations, under S.H.I.E.L.D. jurisdiction. Residents from ten surrounding blocks had been forcibly evacuated.
It was not just S.H.I.E.L.D. The U.S. military moved like sharks smelling blood in the water, deploying with clean, efficient precision.
At the start, when these operations first began cutting into their interests, the big capitalists still had plenty to say about it. Yet the moment the S.H.I.E.L.D. SUVs rolled out and the army drove armored vehicles onto the streets, they all immediately fell silent.
At least Fury managed to keep a lid on things. After wrestling verbally with the top brass, he convinced them not to roll out tanks and whatever other weird experimental hardware they had lying around.
Ross, on the other hand, was still as pig headed as ever, having learned absolutely nothing from his failures with the Hulk. Fury quickly got in touch with the Avengers over in Wakanda, since those people were the real experts at handling this kind of problem.
If an army of regular humans had to face a ruthless top tier superpowered individual, it did not matter how many were sent, they would just be feeding the meat grinder.
As the old man said, only magic can fight magic.
No matter what kind of preparations the mundane side made, all of it was basically winking at a blind man.
By the time Pendragon woke up and noticed just how many people had surrounded the area, he simply teleported straight up to the flagship.
At this point, his quantum computer had already successfully cracked the ship's AI and taken over most of its systems.
As for why only most and not all, that was because the flagship was simply too enormous. Some parts still had to be run manually.
For example, that sub ship Iron Man and the others had taken, it did not even have an auto landing feature and still needed a literal handbrake.
"Hmm..."
No matter how gilded or luxurious, there was no place like your own den. The presidential suite's soft bed had been ridiculously comfortable, but since it did not really belong to him, it always felt just a little off.
Thanos was a Titan, so his personal ride had naturally been built and fitted out according to his tastes. There was no way those aesthetics would line up with Pendragon's.
If he wanted something both flashy and comfortable, he would have to remodel it.
"This ship is way too bloated. Dump all the unnecessary structures and modules."
Things like drop pods, sub craft, and all the assorted functions and modules designed so this thing could roam the stars as a terror of space, those could all go.
"Sir, we have a situation."
With a massive alien vessel parked on the edge of the atmosphere, no country on Earth with any capability at all was going to relax. Global surveillance was running twenty four seven. The military was at maximum alert.
They had no choice. Even if there was a huge technology gap, when the stakes were the survival of human civilization, the question was not whether they could win, but that they had to win.
In at least one particularly hardline country, launch systems for a certain "ultimate deterrent" were already being warmed up.
"What situation?"
The changes in Pendragon's ship were relayed to national leaders as quickly as possible. When those elite decision makers, who held the fate of the planet in their hands, saw what the instruments were picking up, their reactions were surprisingly consistent.
They all stared, doubting their own eyes, collectively stunned.
"You are sure this is not some kind of enemy trap? It crossed the stars to get all the way here, just to throw out a load of space junk?"
"Um... based on all current observations, that seems to be exactly what happened."
The intel analyst, after rechecking, still gave a firm answer.
"Recover that debris immediately. We absolutely cannot let any other nation get to it first. Also, transfer a research grant from the treasury to study that equipment."
Orders streamed from the head of state and were executed with rigid precision. Elsewhere on Earth, every nation with the means to act was essentially doing the exact same thing, playing out the same scene in parallel.
Once the ship's frame had been slimmed down, the next step was to transform the interior environment.
In Pendragon's original concept, a single Japanese style sitting room would have been enough.
Unfortunately, his imagination refused to stay in its lane.
If you already had a little Japanese style lounge, would it not be perfect to add a hot spring? And if you were going to have a hot spring, it obviously had to be outdoors. Which meant a big enough courtyard. And if you had a courtyard, then being able to see the stars from it would be... very nice...
By the time he was done, there was a massive courtyard with a large hot spring at its center, and beside it ran a small river of liquid chocolate. Next to that stood a small house constructed entirely out of sweets.
Cookie beams held up the frame. A huge cake served as the roof. Mochi layered together made a springy mattress. The windowpanes were sheets of stained sugar. Every surface was covered with pastries and desserts. Simply looking at it made your teeth ache in advance.
Thankfully, the Reality Stone could not only make a fairy tale scene real, it could also keep the Brothers Grimm from flipping their coffins over.
Trying to cram something like this into a spaceship should have been impossible, yet with Infinite Power in his hands, Pendragon could do whatever he wanted. Not only did he force it in as a "room", he even gave it its own self contained ecosystem.
In the chocolate river swam braised fish. On the ground scampered roasted rabbits and suckling pigs. The sky was full of roast chicken, duck, and geese drifting overhead, every one of them cooked to a mouthwatering golden brown.
Pendragon set the Infinity Gauntlet aside and ran toward his creation like an excited kid.
The hot spring did not even register in his field of view. The chocolate stream was divided into two layers, the upper one a flowing white chocolate, the lower one a darker cocoa.
Cupping both hands, Pendragon scooped some up. The top layer was as white as milk, silky and smooth, releasing a thick sweetness into the air.
"So sweet."
Sweet but not cloying. He licked every finger clean, then went over to gnaw on the corner of the candy house.
"Mmm, this is amazing too."
His ahoge was so moved it bent sideways, twisting into a heart shape and trembling wildly.
Boom.
The load bearing wall fractured and vanished at a rate visible to the naked eye. A tide of pastries and sweets collapsed together, burying this wall gnawing woman in sugary happiness.
Out in space, the first ones to reach the flagship were not the multinational "space salvage task forces" gearing up planetside, but Thor and Iron Man of the Avengers.
For the record, Tony had been sent back to Earth via Thor's magic.
Their goal was obviously not the modules Pendragon had tossed away, but to deal with the ship itself.