This was the first time that James had ever been in outer space since – well – his entire lifetime. He didn’t utilize the Space Elevator after it had been diligently built by Jeffries and Danger (and then sabotaged by Nazi clones) and, to be quite honest, he had never really felt a desire to venture out into the cosmos like some of his fellow colleagues did. He was, without a doubt, a creature of solitude; hell, Hank and Warren had to bend over backwards to get him to work with a small team of people who shared his interests and passion when it came to science, so the fact that Abigail had persuaded him into getting beamed up to the S.W.O.R.D. headquarters above the atmosphere was an outstanding feat all in itself. That, however, didn’t mean he was happy with the situation. He had responsibilities at his lab to take care of, like referring to Kativa as Petri Girl and not appreciating Madison, but he assumed that perhaps him being a total pain in the ass could wait for a day; after all, if Abigail was willing to put up with him, and find a way to transport him from Utopia to space, whatever she needed to speak with him about was probably far more important than his hobbies, and so he would tolerate his surroundings for as long as physically possible. But he would continue to frown beneath his surgical mask as he was escorted to Abigail’s office by one of her lackeys, and frown he did.
“Glad you got here safely, James-”
“It’s Doctor, Miss Brand, Doctor Nemesis,” he corrected her without any second thought and took a seat in one of the chairs at the front of her desk, totally disregarding the man in the unusual helmet and World War One-esque outfit he was donning.
“Moving on,” Abigail’s eyes rolled behind the green tint of her sunglasses, and she crossed her arms under her chest, continuing to speak after she cleared her throat of any implications, “I’d like to introduce you to someone,” she tilted her head to her left to gesture towards the stranger – who was a rather quiet man, which shocked her – sitting to Bradley’s right, “Nemesis, this is Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Don’t scare him off; I need him more than I need you.”
James scoffed at Abigail and pulled his mask down to hang around his neck so his words wouldn’t be muffled and close-to-inaudible. His blue eyes glanced over to the so-called Star-Lord, but he didn’t proffer his hand to be taken and shook by him, “people are running out of names, aren’t they?”
Peter raised his brow at the pompous doctor, but decided it was best to laugh it off. He was used to worse – Gamora was a diva and, to a certain extent, so was Drax and Phyla went through more mood swings than an overly-hormonal teenage girl, “guess so – but you can call me Peter. It’s nice to meet you, Doctor,” he offered a half-hearted grin and adjusted the face-plate of his mask to sit on the top of his head – taking it off was too much of a hassle; besides, he was more than certain he looked beyond cool when he wore it like that, no one would ever convince him otherwise.
“Both of you are beginning to bore me, and that’s never a good thing,” he dismissed Peter’s introduction with a wave of his hand and an unimpressed expression as he directed his attention back to the green-haired agent, “I know that neither of you probably have a lot on your plate – what with guarding the galaxy and observing sentient worlds and all – but I, on the other hand, am very busy. I’m a scientist – there are things that need to be solved each second of each hour of each day – I cannot waste my time with anything, Special Agent. So, please, if there’s something you needed me here for, spit it out, or else ‘port me back to Utopia.”
“Yeah, of course,” Abigail spoke through gritted teeth and leaned over her desk with her elbows, her gaze – behind her glasses – flickering between both of the men in front of her, “Peter contacted me not too long ago after he and his team came across some… issues in space. I’m not fully informed on exactly what happened, so, Quill, go ahead and give us a rundown – I need a coffee break, you X-Men,” she looked directly towards James, “are exhausting.”
Again, Peter’s eyebrows knitted together. He was all for talking – he talked all the time – he bossed around destroyers and killers trained by Thanos and raccoons with super-intelligence who wielded guns – but there was no doubt at all that both Abigail and James were intimidating, but composure wasn’t a lost art-form for Star-Lord, so, without letting the silence last for too long and become insanely awkward, he spoke up, “after the Annihilus fiasco happened,” he wasn’t going to go into details about the catastrophe – it was irrelevant and, frankly, he had no desire to reminisce on anything that happened during that timeframe, “we were faced with this enemy that called themselves the Universal Church of Truth, who conquered world after world and forced the indigenous peoples to convert to their religion. Long story short, after facing the zealots for the first time, my team and I discovered that there were rips in space – fissures that were, literally, altering reality and time. We did our best at patching up these holes while everything else,” everything else referring to the hostility between the Kree, Inhumans, Shi’ar, and basically every other alien race in the universe that seemed to start out of nowhere and cause him and the Guardians way too much trouble than it was worth, “was going on. But – what has Special Agent Brand and I concerned is some other space-y issues, especially after S.W.O.R.D. got taken over by Gyrich and he ordered any and all aliens on Earth to be arrested and imprisoned.”
Abigail, since the issue happened under her watch, interjected after taking a sip of instant-coffee that tasted more like moon dirt, “during his reign of extreme stupidity, Gyrich managed to snatch the heir-to-the-throne of the Majesdanians, Karolina Dean. Keep in mind that the Majesdane race is pretty formidable – they held their own against the Skrulls for years and can be hostile.”
“And Lord only knows who else that das’t idiot Gyrich managed to piss off during all of that.”
“Fft. None of that matters. He could have every extra-terrestrial in the universe demanding his head, but I’m much more terrifying than an alien-warrior race could ever dream of being.”
Peter couldn’t help but to snort at her statement, mainly because it was true, but now wasn’t the time for jokes, especially given the look he was receiving from the super-brain, “but, I contacted Brand because I have reason to believe that the universe is still damaged from the fissures I mentioned earlier. I have some really, really smart people backing me up, but this issue is bigger than any of us, and we could use your help. Not only that, but after everything – between my Guardians and S.W.O.R.D. – Earth could be facing a huge threat from other-worldly beings, and every person we have helping to prevent that makes a big difference, especially when it comes to the X-Men’s previous relationship with the Inhumans and Shi’ar,” he had learned quite a bit about the huge mutant-vigilante group from Abigail while waiting for Doctor Nemesis to arrive, and it was safe to say that they made his team appear stable and completely and flawlessly functional.
“So, what you’re attempting to say here is, someone under your watch,” he pointed to Abigail, “managed to pull a stunt that could result in Earth’s untimely demise and you,” his arm moved so he could point at Peter, “are saying that reality could possibly be at stake because of some space-war, and even though you are somewhat certain that you and your motley crew fixed it, it was a botched surgery, and the Big Bang could reverse itself?” Even with a mind like his, James was terribly confused. He was beginning to hate anything and everything that dealt with outer space. He felt as if his sudden animosity was completely justified.
“Yeah,” Peter’s eyes glanced up towards the ceiling and his word was drawn out as he thought about Bradley’s inquiry, “that’s exactly what we’re saying.”
James couldn’t help but to laugh. The response came out unexpectedly and it caused Peter and Abigail to stare at him as if he was insane, but James was positive that he was dreaming – or drugged – or perhaps dead, and this – this room with these people – was the equivalent of hell. Since he seemed to enjoy making himself miserable, he stayed stationary in his seat, and managed to calm his diaphragm so he could speak, “I hate to burst you bubble, Agent Brand-”
“Special Agent,” Abigail narrowed her eyes at him and pushed her empty drink-cup off of her desk and into a trash bin.
“Yeah, whatever, that’s not important – what’s important is that I am a doctor, not an astronaut. This issue you’re having right now, it’s way out of my league – and that’s saying something, because I’m phenomenal at everything I do,” James waved his gloved hand in the air with an indifferent shrug and continued to, in his odd way, compliment himself as he shot Abigail and Peter down on their plea for help. “But there’s just no way – no way in hell – that I would be of any use to you. That’s not an easy thing for me to admit, just so you know, so don’t think that I’m making any excuses, because I’m not, but you’re going to have to find someone else who wants to face-off against mystical cosmic forces,” his fingers wriggled in the air, “why didn’t you call Strange? Isn’t mystical his area of expertise?”
Abigail couldn’t help but to groan. This man was more difficult than she could have ever imagined, she couldn’t help but to wonder if they were somehow related. “That’s not the point, Doctor Nemesis. Star-Lord and I need you for reasons beyond what you are assuming. I don’t really care about your title – you’re probably the most intelligent person on the planet right now,” she knew that was going to be a mistake. She didn’t want to feed his ego at all, but, truthfully, she needed the man on her side, and even though it was rare, Abigail was not against telling someone what they wanted to hear to get what she needed. “If these tears in space show up again, you are the only person I know that’s qualified to fix them, and you have Peter as assistance, since he’s gone through this before. Plus, those guns you use? With the needles? If something does decide to attack us – your weaponry would be extremely useful. I’m sure that between Peter and I, we can manage to dig up information about any species of extra-terrestrial we have met and you could concoct something that’d incapacitate them. It’d save a lot of money, and maybe giving us a helping hand would teach you something about selflessness.”
“I’m still not convinced. I have no desire whatsoever to be stuck on this floaty-tower with people like you and a grown man who calls himself Star-Lord. I have things to do on Earth – things, Abigail! You never know when a genetically engineered Nazi will show up and cause mass destruction and chaos throughout all of America. My presence on Utopia is extremely important. Without me, everyone would be running around like headless chickens.”
“You are one insufferable son of a shlag – and I’ve been around some insufferable people before,” Peter pointed out, his head shaking slightly as he called the doctor out on his attitude. “If this turns out to be a true threat, this is more important than anything happening on Earth right now. I understand where you’re coming from – I have my own team and people who depend on me – but Abigail is trying to prevent a potential intergalactic war, Doctor Nemesis,” Peter shifted in his chair so he could face James, “if you asked me – you’d probably be a lot more important on this floaty-tower than you are locked away in your super secret lab of science, but,” he shrugged with the palms of his hands facing the vaulted ceiling of Abigail’s roomy office, “that’s just my opinion. Besides, you’ve already got a wardrobe strange enough to fit right in with both my team and Brand’s – it seems like it’d be a perfect opportunity for you.”
James couldn’t help but to sigh – his index finger and thumb pinching the bridge of his nose as he did so. Abigail was stubborn and had a temper hotter than his, and even though he didn’t know this Quill fellow at all, he could tell that he was just as unwilling to budge on something he thought was best. Because of this fact, James allowed his shoulders to roll back and relax, his hands smoothing out the front of his white tailored suit (he had gotten up far too early to need his lab coat, and it would have been useless for this trip in the first place) as he, reluctantly, gave his answer to the proposal given by Abigail and Peter. “With the way you two are speaking at me, I’m assuming that I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?”
Almost in unison, and both with a smile on their faces, Abigail and Peter nodded to answer his question.
“Well, I guess this isn’t the first time,” or the last, “that I’ve been sucked into something completely ridiculous, moronic, and meaningless. I’ll do whatever I can to assist you, but as soon as someone shows even the slightest lack of intelligence while in my presence, I’m going back to Earth, far, far away from this mess that you two have managed to create.”
Abigail, unable to hold back her overwhelming sense of accomplishment, pushed herself up from where she sat with a wide smile that was close to being considered a taunt, “fantastic. We’re going to need a lot of coffee and even more Valium. It’s good to have you on the team, Nemesis,” she nodded to him before turning her attention to Peter, “and the same goes for you, Star-Lord. Now both of you – get the hell out of my office, and go do your jobs.”
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