The Orb

The Orb is casing for the Power Stone of the Infinity Stones.

History

Guardians of the Galaxy

The Orb was originally sought out by the thief Peter Quill. It eventually came Korath the Pursuer under the hunt of Ronan the Accuser who was under the orders of the intergalactic warlord Thanos. Quill made his way to Xandar to sell it to the Broker. However, the Broker backed down on their deal when he learned Ronan was also after the Orb. Quill was soon after attacked by Gamora, Thanos' adopted daughter who was hoping to sell the Orb to the Collector.

The bounty hunters Rocket and Groot prevented her from taking it and the four of them were taken into the custody of the Nova Corps. They and the Orb were taken to the Kyln, where it stayed until they and fellow inmate Drax escaped on Quill's ship the Milano.

The five of them then took the Orb to the Collector's base at Knowhere to sell it to him. There, he removed the Stone from the Orb and revealed to them its true nature, which led one of his slaves, Carina, to grab the Stone in a desperate attempt to free herself. However, the Stone's power overwhelmed her, destroying her and a good portion of her master's collection. Gamora quickly put the Stone back in the Orb, planning to return it to the Nova Corps if only to prevent it from falling into Ronan's hands; however, Drax had contacted Ronan's ship, the Dark Aster, while they were meeting with the Collector, and he personally led an assault on Knowhere to retrieve the Orb.

Although they fought hard against the Kree, Ronan's lieutenant Nebula managed to get her hands on the Orb. Now that Ronan knew the true power of the Orb, he kept it for himself, believing he could use the Stone to destroy Xandar without Thanos' help, and placed the Stone in his Universal Weapon. The fanatical Kree then led his ship to assault Xandar, but The Guardians and the Ravagers, the Nova Corps were able to intercept him. Star-Lord, Drax, Groot, and Gamora confronted Ronan in the ship's bridge, but were unable to kill him. Rocket then crashed his ship into the Dark Aster, causing it to crash. Groot sacrificed himself to protect his friends, while Ronan was still unphased.

Quill was able to distract him with a dance-off long enough for Drax and Rocket to destroy his Universal Weapon freeing the stone. The Stone fell out of Ronan's hammer, and Quill was able to grab it as it flew through the air. The Stone's power slowly started to overwhelm him, but The Guardians grabbed him to lessen the burden on him. Quill then used the Stone's power to destroy Ronan. The Guardians handed a new containment Orb over to the Nova Corps.

Avengers: Endgame

In order to get the Power Stone, Nebula and James Rhodes traveled back in time to 2014 to steal the Orb before Peter Quill on Morag. After knocking Quill unconscious and using one of his tools to enter the temple holding it, Nebula reached through the force field surrounding the Orb with her mechanical arm and pulled it out. In the process, Nebula's mechanical arm was damaged and she and Rhodes commiserate over how circumstance forced them to both to become partly cybernetic. Rhodes took the Orb back to 2023, but Nebula's implants linking with her past self caused her to fail to return and get captured by Thanos instead.

After using the Infinity Stones to restore everyone that Thanos had disintegrated and then again to destroy the 2014 Thanos and his army, Steve Rogers returned all of the Stones to their original points in time, including returning the Orb to Morag.

Powers and Abilities

Energy Projection: The Power Stone can be used to produce blasts, explosions, storms, orbs or tornados of lethal, purple, fire-like energy. When used at maximum potential it can produce an energy wave strong enough to consume a planet. Though the stone seems incapable of performing this function inside a containment orb, instruments such as the Universal Weapon can be used to contain it, preventing the need to directly touch the stone and experience its deadly effects, and still exploit its full power. There has only been two known instances where living creatures have channeled the energy of the Orb. The first resulted in the death of all those who were present. The second was by the Guardians of the Galaxy, whose leader first grabbed it and was being killed by it before the others grabbed his hands and each others to share the energy and their leader released some of the energy to kill Ronan the Accuser. When the energy touched living things, it corroded and burned it by first coursing through and then causing them to burn and disintegrate until they are reduced to purple ambers that then fade. The process of being destroyed by the Stone's power is seemingly extremely painful.

Enhanced Durablity: Similarly to Malekith while he was wielding the Aether, Ronan's durability was enhanced while bearing his Power Stone-infused Universal Weapon. He withstood a direct, close range shot from the Hadron Enforcer, with no apparent injury as well as not being at all affected by the crashing of the Dark Aster as he walked away from the massive wreckage of his ship as if he had landed without problems.