By their estimates, this ship should either be completely empty by now, or have only a handful of enemies left. Otherwise there was no way it would have stayed this quiet for so long.
If everything went smoothly, Tony Stark might walk away as the biggest winner this round. The technology hidden in this one ship alone would be enough to keep him busy in the lab for ages.
Of course, that depended on whether Marvel editorial decided to slap a "plot requirement debuff" on him.
If Thanos had not been shipped off by Pendragon to grow purple sweet potatoes on Mars, Tony might very well have built an anti Infinity Gauntlet armor by now.
Tony, who somehow managed to be both reckless and cautious at the same time, stopped Thor from burying the ship under an axe swing. He gestured for a stealth entry instead, then used the high energy weapons on his armor to painstakingly melt open a gap in the hull.
"According to the scans from my suit and the intel from the drones, there are no active lifeforms on board," Iron Man said, popping open his helmet, tone relaxed.
"You are certain?"
Thor hefted his axe, clearly not in a great mood.
After hearing from the others that Thanos had not actually been killed, just exiled to Mars, the last prince of Asgard, who carried the hatred of a slaughtered people, was beyond impatient to exact his revenge.
But Tony, for reasons known only to his complicated little billionaire heart, had insisted on dragging him along to investigate this ship first. If Thor had known it would be like this, he would have left Stark on Titan to fend for himself.
"Not exactly certain. This thing is huge. We need time to sweep all the radar blind spots."
Tony shrugged like it was no big deal. "I found the main control room. Once we get that, we are golden."
"Make it quick."
Thor's voice was low, threaded with anger, like he might explode at any second.
"That depends on our luck..."
Before he could finish, both he and Thor were suddenly wrapped in a surge of spatial energy and vanished from the ship in the next instant.
Same familiar recipe, same familiar taste. Thor was seriously considering hanging Stormbreaker on Stark's head as a decorative hairpin.
With Pendragon's quantum computer running the show, this flagship's defenses were nothing like Ebony Maw's little sub ship. In fact, the moment Iron Man and Thor approached, the AI had already issued an alert.
It was just that Pendragon, at that moment, was sealed under a deadly combo of sugar and food, and really did not feel like dealing with them. Only when he sensed Tony about to start poking around in places he should not did Pendragon lazily summon the Infinity Gauntlet back with telekinesis and snap his fingers.
News of Tony going missing. Again. Reached S.H.I.E.L.D. very quickly. Fury's bald head practically started throbbing on the spot. Just that one massive alien ship, floating silently in orbit, was terrifying enough.
Now it was acting unpredictable as well, and even Thor had dropped off the grid.
Fury could feel the situation spinning completely out of his control. When even two founding Avengers had been taken out in a row, there was only one option left.
Ask for help. Fast.
Pendragon, meanwhile, had just finished stuffing himself with sweets and was burying his head in refitting the ship. He did not notice what was happening on Earth.
Even if he had noticed, he would not have cared. His actions only deepened the unease of certain countries below. To them, this was the calm before the storm.
The more peaceful it looked now, the more terrifying the eventual eruption would be. Sometimes, saying nothing at all was itself a statement. In the eyes of Earth's governments, those alien bastards were obviously up to something bad. Assuming the worst was always the safest bet.
Pendragon did, technically, have his own personal ship, but it seemed to be lost. Even the quantum computer could not locate a single trace of its signal.
That vessel had been capable of crossing interstellar distances. That was what intrigued Pendragon most. So after finishing the living spaces inside the flagship, he had already started modifying the propulsion system and outer hull based on the quantum computer's data.
With the Reality Stone as his cheat code, upgrading the hull material went quickly. He just had to overwrite the original parameters and swap in something that could survive the stresses of dimensional travel.
Driving something this big across dimensions, though, meant the power system would need to handle a frankly astronomical amount of energy. Pendragon chose the simplest solution.
Let the six Stones pay the bill.
He completed the entire refit in a single day. Lounging on the grass of the hot spring courtyard, Pendragon picked out a roasted whole steer that was in the middle of wrestling with another and took a huge bite.
His previously wilted ahoge instantly perked up, swaying cheerfully as Pendragon's face melted into pure contentment.
What had been an evenly matched showdown slowly tipped in favor of the less appetizing steer.
After all, the stronger one was currently being devoured. In the end, the roasted bull that lost a shoulder lost the match too, forced to watch Pendragon eat chunks of its own body while also watching the victor claim reproductive glory with another roasted bull and produce a new generation.
"Mmm."
After eating three times his body weight in food, Pendragon, whose stomach clearly belonged to a king, let out a satisfied burp.
The Infinity Gauntlet... honestly, as a piece made to fit Thanos's hand, it was hard to love from an aesthetic or ergonomic standpoint.
Pendragon had been tolerating it for a long time, but the Reality Stone's power could not affect the gauntlet itself.
After experimenting with it over and over, he had finally figured out how the original Infinity Gauntlet unified the energies of the six Stones. Once he was sure he did not need Infinite Power for the moment, he removed the Stones one by one.
Stripped of its gems, the Infinity Gauntlet instantly fell from supreme artifact to decorative knickknack and was tossed aside.
Five Stones floated over Pendragon's palm. His magic began to mimic the circuits and channels inside the original gauntlet, then carefully guided the energy of the sixth Stone into that improvised system, trying to unify them again.
To avoid any losses in every possible sense, Pendragon popped a piece of black bean mochi. The Stones' power gathered together even more easily than he had expected. With the scaffolding provided by his magic, he reassembled that supreme force.
The output magic slowly stabilized. Just like when he wove clothing directly onto his body, the dense magic knitted itself into the shape of a glove and finally solidified.
In terms of design, Pendragon based the style on the forearm armor plates of a knight's gauntlet, then painted it a deep black. Overlapping scale like plates gave it both a traditional and sci fi feel.
Since it was a piece of equipment generated directly from his magic, the Stones were not exposed on the outside at all. Even if they dragged Thanos over to stare at it right now, as long as Pendragon did not actively channel the Stones' power, that Titan would never guess that this slender but unyielding glove was actually the same supreme artifact capable of "balancing" the universe.
With that, the dwarves' gauntlet was officially retired.
Pendragon glanced back over the Marvel timeline in his head, running through all the heavy hitters that might appear next.