The "G" Shield

Disclaimer - All the owners have their respective rights. I only own the characters that came from my addled brain (don't worry, I am completely sober).

Wakanda [May 2015]

–Jack Sullivan–

"So, that's a NO, then?" He asked T'Challa who vehemently shook his head.

"Absolutely not. I mean, Baba has initiated some things and I have fast tracked them but still, we are nowhere near ready to expose our existence to the entire world. No, not this early."

Well, it was worth a try.

"But you still want to participate in the study?" He asked, just to confirm because he was sure that something as trivial as hiding their identities was not going to stop Wakanda from getting their hands on a real spaceship.

"Shuri will kill me in my sleep if I take this away from her," T'Challa grumbled and he was correct. Shuri could be scary focused if it was something related to her research.

The girl was relentless when she wanted to be.

"I assume Bruce's appointments are fast tracked and mandated, now?" he asked T'Challa whose face grew weary at the heavy emphasis he placed on the mandatory part. He made it clear last time, in no uncertain terms, that Bruce needed to get to see his shrink and while he agreed that if the sentiment came from within, it would be more effective but the problem with Bruce was that he was slipping more and more.

Even a little progress would be good, something to show him the light. He did not wish Bruce to remain in his mad scientist mode, just as a way to further isolate himself from the rest of the world.

So, he made sure that T'Challa made the shrink visits a condition for continued usage of the lab and the processing power that BRuce was using. As it turned out, encountering an entirely alien software language, Operating System, along with a logic progression that was based on the Flora and Fauna that was mutated by Vibraniuim, was not much of an obstacle for Bruce's genius as he built algorithms after algorithms and just dumped them on the central compute that Wakanda had.

It was strange actually. If need be, they could turn the entire Giant Mound into a giant heatsink, with a near 100% efficiency, making entirely absurd computers possible deep in the labs of Wakanda. THey had computers so advanced and fast that a single machine, in the Royal Labs, was responsible for sifting through all the data that Wakanda's scientists generated, along with hosting all their local intranet.

It was that absurd, and even then, somehow, Bruce managed to use their systems so much that they finally had to build another computer, after over a decade, if he was not wrong. Shuri was excited about that as well, something about T'Chaka not allowing her to build another more advanced computer until the current one was at capacity.

Bruce was a great scientist but he was a human, first and foremost, something that he had done his part in reminding the Wakandan contingent assigned to Bucky and him. By comparison, Bucky was coming ahead swimmingly.

Bucky was going to the meetings on time, consumed copious amounts of Beer which was just water to his system, cooked for himself, cut up firewood for himself, ran around the mountain, and even lifted modified weights, something to keep him in shape.

The Vibranium arm was something that he was getting used to, as well. It came with a multitude of combat options that turned Bucky into someone who was essentially wielding Iron Man's arm. It came with its repulsor systems, to allow limited flight, limited blast capacity, and even get this, autonomous functioning, as was evident when he was given beer that was fetched by Bucky's arm.

"Alright, so, I assume Shuri will be on the team, then?" 

"Yes, I am afraid so."

"Perfect. Now, in about a day, I will be bringing in Ms.Betty Ross to meet Bruce and I need you to make arrangements in case she decides to stay for a longer period of time which I think will be a strong possibility once she is exposed to the sheer amount of data you guys on have species that are exclusive to Wakanda."

T'Challa sighed, "Not even King yet, and I already am importing foreigners into the country and giving them residency for an indefinite period of time. The Council is going to love me." 

He grinned and stood up, "Hey, cheer up. They might grumble now but once they see the amount of enemies that you would face, with me by your side, they will be tripping over themselves to thank you."

T'Challa shook his head, and shook his head, "Somehow, I doubt that will come true."

"See ya!" he said as he jumped back into the portal that had formed. He was getting very good with portals now. It barely required focus, when he wanted to open one to a handful of places.

It was as if some sort of anchor was being formed in those places, allowing him to open portals in split seconds, without his hands being occupied solely for the waving in circular motion to open portal stuff.

He jumped back and he found himself mid air, right above the spaceship, which was now moved from its underwater place, because the military had ebgun tracking his movements and were sending out ships to see just what was in the place where the Green Guardian frequented to. 

He took in a deep breath and smiled, "Ah, what a view," 

Now, it was in an icy cavern that he dug himself using his powers. It was not really combat worthy in terms of the time it took to use it, but he had used a so far unused aspect of his power.

Casting spells through his barriers.

He created a giant barrier and shoved it into the ice, and then cast a heating spell on his barriers, heating them up immensely, melting the snow and then he created another barrier to layer atop the heating one, only this one was used to isolate the melting process.

That was how he created this giant icy cavern in the middle of the South Pole, with no human activity for hundreds of miles in either direction, something that was becoming more and more of a rarity these days.

"Seriously, I have got to do something about climate change these days," He muttered to himself as he watched the sun rays hit the ice outside the cavern at the right angle, lighting up the cavern in natural diffused sunlight.

It is a good thing that Tony has already started busting Big Oil and Coal's ballsacks with his Arc Reactor. Once all SWORD operations mandate Arc Reactor usage, something that he will push for, it would signal the death knell of Big Oil.

The future generation deserves to know the joy of riding a motorcycle on a straight empty road with nothing but the sound of wind and the roar of the engine in their ears, all without the guilt of the planet being actively choked to its death, in their minds.

He looked at the spaceship, somewhat resembling the Milano model of the Guardians of the Galaxy, sans the weapons. It was currently perched on a small platform he made of ice.

"Welcome. Mr.Sullivan," The robotic voice greeted him as he entered the cockpit which was not as complicated as it should be, with the onboard computer doing most of the heavy lifting.

Now, while he told everyone that he would give them unrestricted access to the spaceship, it was only partly true. He was only going to give them access to the FTL engine, and let them tinker with it, while the software, the real star of the show, will be isolated.

"Hey, computer? Can you remove yourself from the ship and exist as a standalone entity if your hardware is taken out of the ship itself?" He asked the voice, and to his amazement, a small compartment opened up right behind the captain's seat, on the floor.

A small yellow bar rose up from it, filled to the brim with blue blinking lights.

"That is the entirety of the processing node afforded to the civilian version of the ship. The module can be taken out of the shop for repair works and it can function on minimal energy or remain in a dormant state until the ship is ready to be used again. Be warned though that the module is very fragile and could break under forces exceeding 10 tons." 

He smiled at the warning. Guess the computer didn't know that normal human computers broke apart after being subjected to a hundredth of that weight.

"Very well, initiate the shutdown procedure. Make sure that no star maps or any data about the outside civilizations is kept in the ship. Make sure that the module is sealed rightly, before disengaging everything. I will see you soon." He said and then nodded as he stepped out of the ship, the lights turning off one by one as he saw the small situational awareness modules it had kept out of the ship disengaging and entering the ship's hull one by one.

It was quite advanced but without any of its weapons.

"Guardians of the galaxy, huh?" He muttered to himself as he spun the bolt that ROcket had given him for some reason, no doubt another one of his juvenile pranks. He wondered what they were doing.

He had visited Missouri and aside from an astonishing amount of caves and cheese, there was not much he could find. He had hoped to find the seed but no luck there.

Maybe Ego wouldn't even look out for Quill this time since there would be no anomalous news of Quill handling a freaking Infinity Stone without immediately dying and then having his DNA entering the Xandarian systems.

Maybe. Maybe, this time the Guardians of the Galaxy will be completely fine and Ego would just remain floating in the universe, impregnating various species and just forgetting about Earth.

…..

….

There was the sound of crickets in the cavern, even though they should not be in the icy environment, as he cursed himself for even thinking those forbidden thoughts.

His form slumped as a sigh echoed through the icy cavern.

"I just fucked up, didn't I? Fucking Murphy," He muttered to himself, resigning himself to another galavanting across the galaxy to where the hell the troublesome group had found themselves.

"Ah, I hate this!" He roared to the heavens, with his hands outstretched, with only the metaphorical crickets to keep him company in his misery.

After getting that out of his system, he straightened up and created another portal, and floated through, straight above the Avengers Tower.

Speaking of the Avengers, where was THor really?

Since he was going to leave the planet anyway, might as well check on the Thunder God as well. Hell, he might even visit Zeus, if he had the confidence of dealing with a God King, that is.

He then lazily floated down to street level, waving at the cheering crowds and occasionally stopping to sign some autographs, and gave some kids a flying ride on a carpet he made out of his barriers, their heartfelt laughter and giggles warming his heart as he finally reached the hotel where Betty was staying.

"Damn, being a General pays well, I guess," He muttered to himself as he normally entered the hotel lobby, it was quite an establishment, something that screamed "quiet luxury" to him. The million dollar cars in the parking certainly screamed wealth to him, and the European interiors just added to the voice.

"Hi! Welcome to Dorchester Collection, what can I d–ack" The receptionist halted mid speech as he let his natural green barriers flow over his skin. He just took a second to reply as he watched the receptionist along with the bellboy just staring at him with wide eyes.

"Hi!" he finally said to break them out of their trance.

"I am here to meet one Betty Ross. Can you tell her that I am waiting for her down in the lobby?" he asked the receptionist after they got through their entire song and dance about apologising profusely and then asking him about what he needed.

The receptionist's face took on a troubled look as she traded looks with the bellboy, "I am extremely sorry, sir but it is against hotel policy to do that. We take our guests' confidentiality very seriously and confirming if the person stays at our establishment would violate their privacy. If you want, I can–"

"Right, Hello, I am Rico, what can I do for you on this fine day, Mr.Sullivan?" An older gentleman, Rico, appeared from behind him and shook his head.

"Ah, I was hoping to get a message to one Betty Ross who is staying in this hotel. If that is not possible–"

"Ah, certainly. Just let me get the message to her. In the meantime, why don't you have iced tea, on the house?" Rico gestured to the bellboy and the receptionist who immediately began dialing numbers while Rico himself began leading him to another section of the hotel, probably the cafe side.

"Just a moment," Rico said after handing him the newspaper and a bunch of magazines and skedaddled off to somewhere.

In the meantime, he just sat there, feeling woefully out of place in his normal jeans and T-Shirt, in this luxury hotel.

"Ah, we have confirmation from Mr.Ross. She is on her way," Rico said as he handed him his iced tea.

"Thank you, and please, bill me for this." He insisted.

Rico just smiled, "You kid, sir. It is our pleasure to host the hero of New York. If you need anything, I am right here."

Damn, 5 star hotels really were something else.

Now, only if he could get Betty to Bruce soon enough, so that he could get to the Guardians of the Galaxy in time. 

Stan Lee knows the trouble they must be in, right now.

___xx____

Somewhere in the remote part of the Galaxy

"Ahahaha! This is so much fun!" A muscled mountain of a man with glowing blue eyes roared as he wrestled with an infernal demon, while his surroundings were filled with corpses of such demons, only much smaller than the ones he was wrestling with.

It was huge, towering over the surroundings and yet, the positively tiny man, in comparison, was able to contend with the demon, and was even winning.

In the distance, a signature orange spaceship was parked with its inhabitants standing in front of the ship, looking at the aforementioned carnage happening in front of them,

They had to quite literally land their ship on top of corpses.

"Uh, Quill, I think he is the one who gets the bounty. I don't think he has noticed us yet, should we, I don't know, just leave?" Rocket Racoon asked Quill, their somewhat dumbass of a leader.

Quill gulped as he looked at the mountain of muscle who just threw a hundred ton demon on its backside and then began using its legs as handles to throw it around. The largest Infernal Night demon on the planetoid and the man was throwing it around as if it weighed nothing.

"..Y-yeah, we should just leave." He slowly began backing away from the clearly crazy man who was still laughing. The slow backward walk turned into panicked scrambling when the man finally noticed them.

"Run for your own hides!" Rocket screamed as they ran to their ship.

Quill cursed himself for straying so far away from the ship. Thankfully, he had some mods in place just for this. He fumbled around in his pocket and grinned as he pressed the button, the propulsion system, and the hangar bays both lighting up as the Milano entered its Rescue mode.

Now, all they had to do was reach the ship, something that was easy since the man had yet to move.

He looked back to confirm, only to see no one in sight. He turned around and almost tripped over himself as he came to a halt, watching the same man crashing in their path, all shirtless and covered in burning blood.

"AAAH!" he did not scream like a little girl when the blond mountain began smiling, in an incredibly creepy and not reassuring way.

Word Count - 2761

If you guys would like to support my writing or just want to read ahead of the public release, you can head on to my P*treon or Ko-fi .

I already have upto 15 extra chapters published there.