CHAPTER 133 - OPERATION: TIMEHEIST IS A GO II

The best thing about tracking down Nebula is that she was in a nearby star sector a few spatial jumps from Xandar.

The broker had no idea that someone was in his head, nor did he have a clue when I took away what he knew of Nebula's ship's data stamp and spatial coordinates, which I calculated, and left him. 

As far as anyone was concerned, I was never there considering that the distance between me and the broker at any time was over a hundred meters, even when I copy-pasted his memories. 

"Don't worry, Sif. I'm sure you will get the fight you're itching for." I said to the warrior woman who was feeling quite fed up with all the spy work I've been doing for the past hour. 

Nebula's action of hiding on a populated planet was a very smart choice, one near the capital of the Nova Empire where she's a highly wanted criminal, but that made it easier for me. 

Covering the whole city in my telepathic wave, I shifted through the wavelengths of those with cybernetic-implants and effortlessly singled her out. 

The moment we landed behind her disguised form, she reacted instantly and whipped out a blade only to have her wrist hit with Sif's hand vambraces which made her hold of the blade weaken. 

A twist, knee kick and head bash later saw Nebula held against the ground under Sif. 

"Unfortunately, this isn't a social visit."

Silencing her shouts, I dived inside her mind, which was basically a database at this point, and started filtering the endless streams of data inside her head into catalogs. 

[Assimilating and filtering new data log into already existing tags…] 

[Multiple identical data stamps found!] 

[Databank updated!] 

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'Isn't that nice? Thanos' security systems had similar security protocols as my ULTRON. Better yet, it's based on the ULTRON Protocols, or at least a manually altered one.'

In other words, Thanos used the pseudo-sentient ego inside the Mind Stone to create a blueprint for his ship's security upgrade. 

However, unlike Stark, he only used it to enhance the already existing information he had rather than trying to rouse up the budding sentience by imprinting extinction level protocols on it. 

"This is a good find." I muttered before turning to Sif and signaling her to release Nebula who looked lightheaded and confused. 

"What did you do to me?" She asked, confused by why she wasn't in cuffs as a bounty to be collected, or even worse, being tossed back to her father's feet. 

"I borrowed some information, though no longer accurate but still something I can work with."

From what I got from her, the coordinates must've been changed after she deserted, the same way it changed when Gamora had deserted. 

The only silver lining to what would have been bad news was that I had Ultron's original algorithm and from it I might be able to dig up the blueprint's data of Thanos' ship that must've been processed with the Mind Stone some time in the past. 

Adding that and Nebula's cybernetic base sequence together, I might be able to use the data scrounged off of it to calculate the new coordinates. 

"What did you take from me?!" She took a step back in fear as the implications of my actions dawned on her and fortunately for her, I needed nothing else from her so I conveniently erased her memories and data of me and Sif. 

"Did you manage to get everything you wanted?" She asked as we quickly boarded our spaceship and shot off into a spatial tunnel. 

"Yes." I curtly answered back as holographic screens appeared around me with different calculations running on them. "Though how useful most of them will turn out to be still remains to be seen."

"I see. I guess that means our ship is currently heading in the Titan's location, isn't that right?" A nod from me seemed to be the only confirmation she needed as she then sat quietly and started cleaning her sword. 

[Calculating spatial coordinates… ] 

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Codes upon codes ran through every part of my body as I threw in all the data and processed information I had concerning space and traveling through it into the equation that was coming alive in my head. 

Acting fast, I produced a few tubes of Pym Particles and telekinetically placed them on different parts of the ship. 

I glanced at Sif and noticed how she didn't pay any attention to any of the ruckus I was creating, focusing only on the thing she could do at the moment and trusting me to do mine. 

"Here goes nothing." I muttered and covered the both of us in a hard light barrier along with all other types of barriers I could use, stacked around the hard light in layers. 

I punched the spatial coordinates into the sheep, hoping it won't cause our ship to implode on itself. "Might want to brace yourself for a bumpy ride." I warned. 

The mass of the ship increased multiple times over as it punched through an unauthorized space tunnel. While this was happening, I held onto Sif's shoulders for the next part which came soon after. 

As soon as our craft exited the other side of the coordinates it traveled through, everything around me slowed down to a crawl as my mind registered the surrounding space. 

I could see minute cracks slowly appearing all over the ship which was my cue to leave. 

Activating my quantum-shifting, Sif and I decreased in size and disappeared just moments before the craft exploded. 

It was a calculated risk but I might have underestimated the difficulty of breaking into pocket spaces by a few levels. 

"By Odin! Where are we?" Sif exclaimed at the change of location. 

"A diminutive realm. We'll be shooting straight to the nearest ship so hold on." Telling her that, I maneuvered a bit and with another series of calculations to pinpoint my landing point, I expelled me and Sif from the Quantum Realm and deftly used my phasing and light manipulation at the very moment our feet touched the ship to turn invisible and intangible incase we landed in a crowded area. 

"Looks like my luck is still rolling." I exhaled after registering that we spawned in an empty room. 

"Where is this?" Sif asked as we walked through the ship still in invisible mode. 

"One of the nearby floating ships. Ours exploded to bits upon arrival which means they'll be cautious until they investigate how the ship came through without any prompt notice."

"I see. And we'll draw closer to the main ship in the meantime." She nodded in understanding and silently followed me until we arrived at the ship's cockpit still unseen. 

Mind-jacking the four aliens commandeering this shop, I ordered them to return back to pod dock and they absentmindedly carried my order, looking very natural as they did so. 

We did it three more times before we got to the main ship and as soon as we did, I had to hijack the few alarm systems that easily caught our presence as we were only invisible. 

"Our cover might be blown any moment from now, so get ready."

"I'm a warrior. I'm always ready for a fight."

'Any attempt at hacking their main systems will immediately trigger an alarm. Our goal is the Time Stone, if it is in Thanos' possession. To efficiently carry out the mission, I need to access their control room and manually force my way through. With it being the same as an Alternate ULTRON Protocols, I should have an easier time assimilating and overriding it.'

Our bodies phased through the doors and floors as I made my way towards their control center, and from the information from one of the thousands of aliens on this ship, the control center was under the jurisdiction of one of the children of Thanos, Ebony Maw. 

Stopping before a cordoned hallway using energy fields, I frowned as the energy reading from them could affect my molecular deconstruction and if I tried quantum-shifting, the sensors here would definitely pick up the spatial fluctuations. 

"Guess it's time to wave them hello." With a mental command, all the alien pilots I took control to get here exploded their ships docked inside the Sanctuary II. 

Lifting the invisibility and phasing, I ignored all the sensors that immediately started monitoring us. I stood before the barrier and soon a dark orange energy ball formed on my fingertips and engulfed the entire hallway in a blinding explosion. 

"Keep close!" I reminded Sif who had her sword drawn out and was now cleaving through any enemy that was in the sword's path. 

Taking flight, I marked a rough path to the control center, and was about to go in that direction when a giant hammerhead flew at me but I caught it and broke it to pieces, only to have Sif attack Cull Obsidian's huge form which he easier parried with his braced knuckles.