Darsca Xandahlia landed her ship on the edge of the mountains and then crept toward the entrance of the caverns. Lord Terrack kept all his prisoners in the caves behind his palace. They were scarcely caves anymore, more like a network of underground cells in what once had been caves. The mouth of the underground prison glowed with the unending florescent lights that lined every ceiling. There was no darkness to hide in. Fortunately for her she had never relied on darkness to hide. She was walking up a long ravine that lead to the side of the mountain by the cave's opening when she heard footsteps behind her. She turned, staring in shock and annoyance as five beings walked around a bend in the ravine behind her.
"You've got to be kidding" she groaned, facing them.
The five all raised their weapons.
"Who are you?" the human asked.
"Well, seeing as the Misfits of the Galaxy need no introduction that is a fair question" she did a mocking bow with an eyebrow arched sarcastically at them. "I'm Darsca Xandahlia, professional ass-kicker and part-time bounty hunter," she said "is that answer enough Star-Serf" she gave a smug grin and then turned to continue down the canyon. She sensed the rodent moving to fire at her and ducked, slid towards them, pulling his weapon free from him and standing over him with it. "Nice try bandit hamster" she laughed.
"Why are you here?" Gamora said coming towards her, she was prepared to kill this woman if need be, but she didn't seem evil, so she didn't bring out her sword just yet.
"To rescue the princess and collect the booty for doing so"
"What princess?"
"Princess Alessori Danai of Marahcka" she said, "her father hired me."
"Well that's weird," Peter said sarcastically "because he hired us to do the same thing" he did not believe that she spoke the truth.
"What did he look like?" she asked him.
"Kall, had a beard, wore a tall turban" he replied.
"You're dumber than you look Star-Serf, and that's saying a lot" she snarked. "It's death to look upon the face of the Grand High King of Marahcka, and Marahkai can't grow beards anyways." She turned away again "nice to know that y'all may be slightly better than me in a fight, but that I'm still" she paused for effect "apparently smarter than all five of you combined" she sauntered further down the canyon.
"So what do we do?"
"Well we don't let that smartass little piece of work take our job, I don't care who hired us" Rocket exclaimed.
"He does have a point" Gamora added, "money is money, are we really that picky about where it's coming from?"
"I thought we were the good guys?" Pete asked, slightly appalled at how mercurial his friends were being.
"So, who says she isn't a bad guy?" Rocket pointed at her retreating figure.
"Because she's Darsca Xandahlia, that's why the damn Novacor hires her to extract hostages and infiltrate hostile situations. She may be a mouthy little bitch but she gets the job done, and she's not ever worked for a bad guy that I know of."
"Peter's right," Gamora said "if she's working for a villain, she'll need our help. She hasn't gotten intergalactically famous for taking just any bounty job out there. She does them right, and for the right people."
"So you're tellin' me we're actually gonna go help that thing that just called me a bandit hamster?"
"Yup," Pete said "hell, I might help her just because she called you one" he gave Rocket a grin and then walked on, hearing the raccoon mutter under his breath.
Darsca was scaling the canyon wall when they came up behind her.
"You're not letting this go?" she said with a huff.
"Actually, we're here to help," Gamora said.
"Seriously? I think I liked it better when the rodent was trying to shoot me" she quipped. "I don't need help," she said pulling herself up to another standing space on a cranny on the canyon wall.
"Well like it or not we're coming," Peter said.
"And what do we do when payday comes around? you gonna split the bounty with me if I'm wrong and your guy is credible?"
Peter paused and looked at Gamora.
"Yup," he said, "But only if you agree to do the same should the unlikely event of us being wrong should happen."
Darsca's hazel eyes searched Peter and Gamora's faces, then she looked to the other three below them, following up the ravine's walls. She reached down her hand to Peter "deal" she said as he reached up and took hers. She pulled him up to the next foothold on the cliff wall. The four scrambled up while Groot and Rocket climbed with ease. They would have used their rocket suits but didn't want to alert Terrack to their presence.
"So who's going in there?" Rocket asked as the six of them stood at the entrance to the caves. Mantis was still aboard the ship with Kraglin, ready to hightail it and extract the team should the situation require it.
"I am," Darsca said with a grin.
"No, not alone" Peter demanded.
"Listen, if I'm to give up half my bounty to you guys, I should at least get to have all the fun" she grinned.
"That's another thing, whose buyer are we going to first? yours or ours?" Gamora asked.
"If I don't make it back," she said walking over to Peter and taking the Zune out of his holster, she scrolled through the playlists "before this song is over we can go to your buyer first" she grinned and clicked play on a track titled Money for Nothing.
"It's an eight-minute song" he protested as she sauntered into the caverns, flipping her hair and then suddenly her look changed, she looked like one of Terrack's guards. The control to her hologram disguise was on the back of her neck. She kept Solo around mainly for company and to make sure that her look never started faltering. People could never know what she actually looked like.
The Guardians watched as she strode into the prisons like she owned them. Two minutes later they heard screams and shots from the inside. They moved to go inside the cavern cells but from the back of the row of cells they saw her, in her normal form and dress, wielding a katana in one hand and a laser pistol in the other, she cartwheeled and took out two guards, flipping upright again she shot four more and put her blade through a fifth. They watched, impressed, and some a little frightened. They also were puzzled by the docile, blue-skinned, six-armed seemingly female creature that followed behind her.
With a final shot, she took out the last two guards and strode up to the Guardians. She went and took the Zune out of Peter's belt loop and looked at it "dammit, she muttered, I lost the bet by thirty seconds" she groaned. A thunderous sound came from above as thirty-one man crafts all lined up to stop their exiting with the freed six-armed princess. "This is what I get for hooking up with high profile characters," she said drawing her pistol.
"And you're not high profile?" Peter asked rhetorically.
"Fair enough," she said as she aimed at the lead craft and took out its pilot with a skilled shot through the glass. Peter flipped on his rocket suit and Drax lept at the lowest craft. Groot reached viny tentacles towards the ships and gripping one he pulled it down and slammed it to the ground. "Let's do this" Darsca said, sending Solo to knacker the targeting systems on the ships. Her aerial droid was the closest thing she allowed in her solitary life to a friend. She shot down two more ships, keeping the princess behind her at all times, using herself as a human shield. Then Kraglin showed up, Gamora having contacted him. The Guardians fought off the enemy ships as they got onto their own.
Gamora got the princess and escorted her onto the ship.
"Come on!" Pete yelled as Darsca still stood, firing shots into the belly of the ten ships that remained. She couldn't hear him for the roar of the engines and the crashing of the crafts she sent to the ground. He flipped his rockets back on, grabbed her, and flew back onto the ship, the gate closing as they lay in the bay.
"You actually are sticking to the bet?" she asked, she was sincerely puzzled.
"What? yeah" Pete said catching his breath.
"I thought for sure you guys were just going to leave me and take the princess and cash in on the reward for yourselves" she looked over at him not sure what to make of him, or any of his compatriots for that matter.
"We may be scoundrels, but we're not backstabbers," he said, a tone of offense in his voice.
"Speak for yourself Star-munch" Rocket said casting Darsca a nasty glare.
"Be nice trash panda" he snarked back. "Where's the princess?" he asked as Gamora came into the ramp area where they were still sitting.
"She's fine, I put her with Mantis, thought she might help our royal guest calm down a bit" Gamora looked at Darsca with her penetrating glance that tried to tell everything she could about a person in a look. Something felt off. Not that Darsca wasn't a trustworthy person, but more like she wasn't being completely forthright.
"I don't suppose you guys could pick up my ship before we blast out of here? it's rather small, it could fit in this boarding area where we're sitting now."
"Afraid not," Gamora said as they left the planet's atmosphere.
"Oh well, I needed a new one anyway"
"I am Groot," the tree said for about the fifth time though this was the first time Darsca had had the time to pay attention. The young organic was pointing to her personal droid.
"He wants to know what it is" Pete explained.
"It's my personal droid, his name is Solo," she said. She took him in her hands and held him out towards Groot. The tree looked it over and then looked at her. She moved away, she felt uncomfortable being looked at so closely by so many people. Gamora made her more nervous than most.
"And what about your shapeshifting?" Pete asked "pretty legit" he commented.
"It is, I can use Solo as an external harddrive, we share a mental link, so I decide who I want to look like, he downloads the data and reprograms my body holograph" she reached the button on the back of her neck and shifted into Gamora "and then he backs it up so it never fails me" she changed back into the pale Xandarian with whitish blonde hair and hazel eyes.
"So how do we know you're actually the real Darsca Xandahlia?" Drax asked.
"Because I just single-handedly rescued a princess from an overlord's cavern cells in less than ten minutes," she remarked with a smug grin.
"Fair" Peter said with a nod. "Is anyone else hungry? I'm starving" he commented to bring the conversation to a close. He liked Darsca, he really did, but something felt wrong all the same like she was hiding something. Maybe it was just the fact that with tech like hers, you could never truly know if the person you were talking to was the real Darsca or one of the various faces she decided to wear. They could wake up the next morning and she could be looking like Drax for all they knew. Too much power and too much mystery.