Star Lord: When Two Become One

Chapter One: More than we bargained for

A bright blue sun casts its light down onto a small grey moon surrounded by rusted space cruiser debris, now orbiting the moon. The moon looks mostly desolate, garnished only with the odd high-rising mountains and monstrous skeletal remains. The ground is littered with thousands of deep and intricate holes, eluding that some form of life may still lie below the moon’s surface. Suddenly a familiar voice interrupts the silence.

“Peter! What the hell are you doing?! We need to go… NOW!” Gamora blasted down the comms. Peter Quill is rummaging through a pile of debris against a large shark-faced skull. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m on my way Gamora, don’t worry.” Quill responds with no urgency whatsoever in his voice.

Several large rocks hurtle into the side of the Milano’s hull, flinging Rocket from his chair. “PETE! Get your fleshy pink ass back to the ship, we’re being eaten alive out here!” Suddenly a small rock-covered whale sucks itself to the front window of the Milano. “Literally Pete!” Rocket berates down the comms.

Groot tries to tickle the rock whales' chin from within the Milano, blissfully unaware of the danger around them. “Groot quit it!” Groot looks over at Rocket and raises his hands in defence of the rock whale. Yeah, I’m sure I’ll remember it’s cute whilst we’re all floating about dead in space because Pete CAN’T MOVE HIS ASS!” “Alright Rocket I’m coming” Quill states over the Comms. Quill stands there holding a pulsating orb in his hands. “Man, this does NOT look safe. Then again, I bet it would look pretty sweet next to my Lava lamp.”

Rocket shouts down the comms again. “PETE! F#@**’ Move it!”

“I’m moving, I’m moving Rocket.”

“No, you’re not!” Quill stands deadly still as if frozen in time. “Quill you A-hole, I can see you! Get your ass back to the ship. Now!”

“Rocket. Relax you lil’ fuzzball, I’ve got the orb, the ships fine, we’ve got all the time in the world. Only thing we need to do is get Drax and we can blow this joint.”

“Peter, what do you mean find Drax? He left the ship with you.” Gamora interjects the conversation, “No Drax said he was going back to find something to help find the eye. He gave me that whole I am a warrior speech.” Peter responds in a mocking bravado tone.

“Well, he never came back.” Gamora darted back. “I say we leave him.” Rocket states plainly to the group.

“Rocket!/I am Groot.” the group shouted back. “What c’mon, I’m only joking… We’ll give him 20 seconds. Then we leave him.

“Guardians come in. I have the eye and I am returning to the Milano victorious once again.” Drax proudly boasts down the comms.

“Err Drax buddy. I’ve got the orb right here, what on earth do you have?”

“Well, you must have some puny glowly rock, because the eye is right beside me.” Drax plunged a dagger into the beast beside him. A large wail sounds through the comms.

“You hear that? That is the sound of the eye in pain.” Drax it’s not ACTUALLY an eye, it’s just a name for the orb.” Quill responds.

“Wait. Are we not going to acknowledge the massive screech that came from Drax’s comms?” Gamora states with concern in her voice.

“I am Groot.” Groot worriedly speaks to the group.

“Drax. What is it you really have in your hands?” Gamora calmly asks, dreading the answer she may hear back.”

“HA. There is no beast in my hands green one.” Rocket begins to release a sigh of relief when he suddenly see’s an enormous glowing space shark rising over the horizon.

“No, I have my dagger plunged into this humungous beast with the glowing eye. We shall defeat him together, as warriors!”

Quill slowly shuffles out from behind the large shark skull to see the enormous glowing space shark hurtling towards them. “Yep, Rocket. I’m heading back to the ship now.” Quill states, knocking on his jet boots on and hurriedly flying back to the Milano.

Gamora runs to open the bay doors just as Peter’s boots cut out, crashing onto the Milano floor. “Ouch! also…” Peter lifts the orb now attached to a stretchy piece of chewed-up alien gum. “Gross dude. Why’s there chewing gum on my ship’s floor.”

“Yeah that’s your bad Pete, I didn’t see you leave a bin around the loading hatch.” Rocket responds, pulling the ship up.

“Then don’t spit it on the floor! Just swallow it or something?”

“Jeez Pete, I’m not an animal.”

Mumbling under his breath Quill responds “Yeah I don’t know about that.”

“Gamora come. I need your blade to pierce this ugly beast's skull and retrieve our prize.” Drax States, still trying to convince his team to slay the monstrous shark.

“Drax we are NOT, going to fight that thing, are you insane?” Gamora shouts as she stands by the bay door assessing the situation.

The glowing shark is now much closer, angrier and she can now see Drax dangling from the eye socket of the beast. “I have the beast pinned down. We can take him.”

“Drax we are NOT taking on that… that space shark!” Quill responds as if he’s telling a child not to put their finger in an electric socket for the fourth time today.

“As the strongest Guardian I will claim the beast’s eye without you, for I a…” The giant space shark wiggles around, shaking off clumps of dirt and loosening Drax in the process. He falls down the side of the shark bashing into its protruding spines before catching himself on one of the shark’s fins.

“Ah for Pete’s sake!” Quill says, face palming at Drax’s stubbornness.

“Rocket I need you to fly this ship just above this giant err, space shark. Groot you’re coming with me, and Gamora, Stay on that loading bay door, we’ll need to jet ASAP”

“I am Groot” Groot says casually strolling to Peter’s side.

“Yeah sure thing Pete, I’ll just hover us over the giant spiked reptile, whilst you chuck Groot out the window to save that frickin’ idiot.”

Groot turns to Quill with concern on his face “I Am Groot?”

“No. No Groot I’d never throw you out the ship, Rocket on the other hand.” Groot cracks a smile, pleased to hear Peter wouldn’t actually throw him out the bay doors.

“Look. Final offer, we leave this dagger-wielding idiot to this ‘space shark’ as Pete calls it and we all get to live to see another day. Anyone with me?”

“Rocket! He means well, even if he is a stubborn idiot” Gamora chimes in to quickly shut Rocket’s idea down.

“Well how about we don’t risk our lives for him and spend the money we get from the orb on a tombstone for him that says here lies Drax, he meant well and didn’t GET HIS ENTIRE TEAM KILLED?!”

“Rocket c’mon man we got this, besides with your flying we’ll escape with ease,” Quill says trying to reason with Rocket.

“Well, I am the best pilot we’ve got. Alright, Fine. I’ll do it. But if we die, I’m going to haunt you forever Pete!”

Quill and Groot run down to the loading bay to catch Gamora shouting from the opened bay door to Drax. “Drax we’re coming to get you, just hold on.”

“No, I can take the beast, I just need it to stop first.” Drax proclaims.

“Dude, what the hell are you going to do if it stops?” Quill asks Drax as he arrives.

“Stab him a thousand times, of course, My blades are sharp, and my muscles even stronger.”

“Drax it’s like 5000 times your size!

“Okay, I’ll stab it 2000 times.”

Visible frustration exudes from Quill’s face. “Nope. I’m not arguing above glowstick Jaws, Groot branch out and bring him back… Haha branch, that’s a good one right?”

“I am Groot.” Groot exudes a confused tone, whilst Gamora sighs to the side.

“eh, tough crowd. Right Drax, Groot’s gonna grab you and pull you back. Be ready.”

“I. AM. GROOOOT.” Groot holds onto the stairs and plants himself into the ship wrapping wooden tendrils around the stairwell to keep him balanced, before shooting out his right arm out of the Milano towards the space shark.

The extended arm is just above the flailing fin Drax is clinging onto. Just as Groot’s arm reaches him, Drax lifts an arm trying to swat Groot’s help away.

“No, I can take this beast, treeman.”

“Drax for god’s sake, take Groot’s arm!”

“No, I can get his eye. I shall grant us a memorable victory!”

“WE DON’T EVEN NEED THE EYE DRAX?!?!” Peter shouts to him from the bay doors above him. “No, I agree Drax. That eye is valuable.” Interjects Rocket.

“Rocket! Not helping.” Peter snaps back.

“Groot, can you just wrap your arm around him and pull him in?

“I am Groot.” Groot’s extended arm splits into two, the newly separated part supplants itself into the space shark causing it to let out another screech. Whilst the other wraps around Drax’s waist several times and starts to drag him back to the ship. Groot’s arm flings Drax into the bay as the other separated arm recoils back to the ship swiftly behind.

Gamora slams the bay door shut and Rocket punches the throttle taking them skywards, through the circling storm clouds above.

Still agitated by Drax’s annoyance the space shark continues to give chase before the Milano and the shark break out of the clouds to what must look like a Sci-Fi version of the iconic Jaws poster. Now mere inches away from the ship's thrusters Rocket ejects the rubbish from the ship’s rear; loose scraps of guns, metal shards, bark and an empty waste bin fall from the Milano’s rear. Covering the space shark and making it recoil slightly, granting the Guardians just enough time to escape.

“Huh, so that’s where the bin went.” Rocket states looking back at the space shark now returning the the planet’s surface.

“Haha, we have achieved victory today!” Drax proclaims as Groot unwraps his arm from around him.

Rocket jumps down from the flight deck, and down to the loading bay to see everyone. “You frickin idiot! Why’d you go and chase that frickin’ shark down?” Rocket angrily asks Drax.

“We had no battle story to tell… and I was bored.”

“Drax, an easy payday is a good thing, you know that right?” states Quill.

“I don’t care for credits. I only long for the thrill of battle!”

“Can we just drop him off at the next interstellar battle area?” Rocket asks the group.

“No,” Gamora responds.

Quill turns to look at the orb but sees Groot standing in front of him. “Oh hey, Groot. Good job-saving Drax.”

“I am Groot.” Groot lifts his hand to present one of the shark’s eyeballs skewered on a snapped branch like some chic served space olive.

“Hahaha! Groot we didn’t actually need the eye!” Rocket drops to the floor laughing at Groot’s mishap.

“You did good Groot.” Quill tries to reassure him as Groot looks on proud at his newfound prize. Reaching into his bag Quill pulls out the glowing orb and presents it to the Guardians.

“Despite nearly getting eaten alive. We have it, the eye of…erm.” Quill lowers his voice leaning back towards Gamora and whispering “Gamora help me out here.”

“The eye of Alondia (A-lon-de-a).” She responds exhausted at Quill’s lack of knowledge of their mission.

“Yep, totally knew that, I was just testing you.” Quill proclaims.

Gamora plucks the orb out of Peter’s hands and examines it closely. “It’s said to grant sight across dimensions. But no living soul has managed to get it to work.”

“So what you’re telling me, is that it’s a useless hunk of junk? Why do we need the eye for that, we’ve already got Pete to for that” Rocket states, gesturing at Quill, who sarcastically laughs at Rocket’s retort.

“I wonder if it needs something else to activate it?” Peter asks, trying to redirect the conversation back to the orb.

Gamora chimes in “I suppose there could be another piece, or even an altar out there that it needs to be linked with to operate?”

“You’re all thinking too hard.” Rocket jumps up and snatches the orb from Peter’s hands.

“Hey!”

“Relax Pete I got this. An eye for an eye and all that crap. So why not put it in a bigger eye?” Rocket slams the eye into the open wound of the space shark’s eye from Groot’s splinter. Everyone stands back as if something is about to happen, and… nothing.” “Huh, I guess not.”

Rocket jumps down from the table, but just as he reaches the floor, the eye activates shooting up a visual projection between them. In the distance, a figure is seen running towards them blind firing to whatever blurs are chasing them in the distance.

“Holy crap Rocket, You actually did it,” Quill states with some amazement in his voice. The figure is now getting even closer to the origin of the projection, the Guardians can just about make out it’s the figure of a human female.

She seems to notice the projection and begins to run towards it, the blurs slowly come into vision as some form of soldiers shoot back at her. She leaps at the projection, and the ship’s power quickly depletes, plunging the ship into darkness.

“Woah! Who the hell was that?” Quill asks out loud, directing his question at anyone who’ll listen. “Ouch, what the hell is that? a new voice chimes from the stairwell. The ship's power comes back online, revealing the girl from the projection, pulling what looks like a loose spanner from behind her.

“Hang on. Gamora you said it was just a looking-glass kinda thing, she doesn’t seem like a projection anymore.” Rocket states in a slight pitch of worry.

The Guardians group together ready to strike her if need be. The girl gets up, and now closer, they can confirm she is indeed human, well human looking at the very least.

The girl from the projection pulls herself up, whipping back her long ginger hair. She’s wearing; tight grey utility leggings with jet boots taped around her lower legs, and sporting a rather battered Green leather jacket. The girl from the projection quickly draws two elemental handguns and powers up a helmet that starts to construct around her face. “What the hell’s going on here?” She asks the Guardians. “You’re the one who dived into our ship! Who the hell are you?” Quill asks her back.”

“Dude, I’m Star-Lord. Who the hell are you?” She proudly remarks back to them.

To be continued…