He *is* dreaming and he awakes, but he doesn't recognise himself in the mirror. He blasts his way outside and *does* recognise
Soul World, so he must be dead again. He goes out to see what's what.
Now back to the regularly scheduled
Guardians of the Galaxy storyline in the
Nova Corps HQ the
Rock. The GoG signed up in
#146 at the start of this
Legacy story '
Infinity Quest'. Agents of the
Fraternity of Raptors have infiltrated the Corps.
Rocket Raccoon, working for Nova Commander
Scott Adsit, has arrested all the Corps members involved in petty crimes. But last issue he sprang a surprise. *They* are the ones who are actually loyal. The apparently squeaky-clean Corpsmen are the Raptor spies. And now Raptor forces are attacking thinking the base is undefended. But Adsit and Rocket have freed and armed the prisoners.
The enemy Corpsmen don their Raptor talons and prepare to slaughter the defenceless prisoners, but instead they face they face the armed troops and Guardians led by Rocket in the
Centurion helmet he donned last issue (and the red uniform he found with it).
Ant-Man (
Scott Lang),
Gamora,
Groot and
Star-Lord (
Peter Quill) are in the fray. As is
Drax whose pacifist stance only forbids him from killing - except accidentally.
As the enemy are subdued and captured the Raptor fleet starts firing on the Rock. Rocket taps into the
Nova Force at the superior rate allowed by the Centurion helmet and flies out to zap Raptor ships. But there is 1 large ship with shields even the Nova Force can't punch through.
Ant-Man has a plan. The shields allow light through, and he can shrink himself to a single photon. Adsit programs the forward laser to emit only light and Scott Lang hitches a ride. And returns to full size in the big ship's control room where he knocks out a couple of goons and then triggers further growth and becomes so large he breaks open the spaceship. Then he shrinks to human-size and Adsit tells Rocket to bring him back.
As usual after a trick like that Scott is almost wiped out. Rocket is full of praise, but when he realises that Ant-Man can't remember what happened he tells Scott that he got knocked out and Rocket had to blow up the ship himself and rescue him.
The Raptor
Talonar survived the attack and is contacted by an uncaptured spy
Talon-M who tells him that the Nova Corps have the
Power Stone on 1 of their research facilities. He overheard the Earthman Nova telling Star-Lord about it (
#148). Talonar assumes that Nova is the young
Sam Alexander - he doesn't know that Richard Rider has returned from the
Cancerverse. And Gamora beheads Talon-M before he can correct him.
Nova (
Richard Rider) himself now arrives at the base. Star-Lord tells him the Raptor emergency is over and now they can get back to dealing with the
Ultron virus infecting aliens (since
#146). But Nova has news of a new problem - giant trees attacking planet
Telferina led by an old man. The Guardians already fought some of his trees on
Knowhere in
#148-149 and they figure that the man behind it is the
Elder of the Universe known as the
Gardener. (They learned in
All-New GotG that he had stolen most of Groot's wood and was probably the reason why Groot was currently unable to grow taller than a sapling.)
Gamora wants to leave the Ultron-aliens to the Nova Corps and continue their search for the
Infinity Stones. But Peter Quill wants to go to Telferina because they might find a cure for Groot. Adsit takes the Centurion helmet back off Rocket (who was hoping to keep it). And Drax says he quits (probably partly because he accidentally killed a Raptor spy in the fight). Gamora says they need Rider for raw power then, and he only agrees if they go to Telferina. Quill persuades Drax to come with them because he has somewhere he thinks Drax should be ...
... which turns out to be the Nova Corps place which is hiding the Power Stone, which is very very much bigger than it was in the old reality. Star-Lord introduces Drax to pregnant Nova Centurion
Eve Bakian who is guarding the Stone and suggests he stay there for quiet contemplation while also guarding the place when Eve leaves for the birth. Drax comments that the Power Stone didn't used to be purple, he thought that was the
Reality Stone, but Peter gives him some proof. And also admits that he hasn't told anyone else including Gamora about this.
But the word is getting out. A
Skrull spy in the Nova Corps tells his people. A member of an unidentified group tells an alien called
Talinda that they monitored a transmission (presumably the 1 from Talon-M) from the Rock during the Raptor attack and heard about the Power Stone. Talinda broadcasts an offer to other criminals to sell the location to the highest bidder. Ultron-infected aliens overhear that as do the
Chitauri, and their
Warbringer has Talinda kidnapped and makes *his* bid - he'll let her live if she tells him where the Power Stone is. He'll use it to free the Chitauri homeworld from
Thanos (which he conquered in his
(2017) #13 and presumably still ruled in
#18 after his return from a trip to the future in between).
We finish the issue back with Adam Warlock who doesn't remember how he got back inside the
Soul Gem. Is he hiding here or did someone such as Thanos imprison him? He comes across an aged version of Gamora who asks him to help her escape like he did before. He claims that's impossible and she blames him for trapping her here in another life. He admits that he and his friends found refuge here a long time ago but now claims not to recognise her. He says he no longer owns the Gem, but as he leaves this place he says if he regains it he might return here.
What we see is Warlock emerging from 1 of his cocoons facing
Kang the Conqueror in his hall of trophies.
Adam Warlock's story continues in
INFINITY COUNTDOWN: ADAM WARLOCK. He has awoken at the end of time. Kang explains the Thanos problem and sends him back in time to his earlier self
Rama Tut in ancient Egypt who sends him forward to the present by suspended animation.
(Note that Warlock's costume in the current issue is plain black across the chest. An energy bolt on p1 of IC:AW adds a yellow lightning symbol like the 1 on his
Power of Warlock costume which he will sport in later IC apps.)
Then Warlock and the Guardians will have bit parts in
IC PRIME which introduces all the players in IC.
Then the Guardians story itself continues in full in
IC #1.