All We Do Is Save The Galaxy Chapter 1: What Doesn't Kill You, a guardians of the galaxy fanfic

Author's Note: I won't be doing many notes like this because I think it detracts from the overall flow of the story, but for the first chapter I think it's important to explain some things. This story takes place between Vol. 2 and Infinity War, the actual time will be detailed further on in the story so I won't spoil all of that here. But most of the first three chapters were at least partly written before I saw Infinity War. So while Thanos only plays a background role in this story, his motivations as explained by the characters may not exactly square with what's detailed in the film. It's just a small thing but I wanted to point that out before someone pointed it out too me.

Now onto the fun part, this story has music! Whenever a song appears in the text, written as (Awesome Mix Vol. 3: Band Name - Song Name) the idea is to play the song while reading the text. All of the songs should be on YouTube and my recommendation is to find the version published by YouTube themselves when available, usually listed under the channel name "YouTube Topic". Sometimes the songs play within the story, i.e. the characters are listing to it as you are. Other times the music acts as my version of score. But almost always the songs are commenting on what's happening through their lyrics and themes.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy it!

Any reviews are always appreciated.

Chapter One: What Doesn't Kill You...

Awesome Mix Vol. 3: Steely Dan – Do It Again

Half a mile of circular steel, Luminary station shines against the black backdrop of the cosmos as it reflects the blue brilliance of its stellar neighbor. Its design, a pinwheel with three spokes, spins with calculated purpose, simulating gravity inside. The halls within are clinically clean, free of dust or dirt, as if hands of any kind have never touched it since construction.

All of this was true for over three million cyclical rotations.

And all of this changed about thirty minutes ago.

Now red lights flash, klaxon horns blare, and the smell of burnt electronics fills the carefully controlled atmosphere. The reactor at the central hub, a large device powered by the fission of atoms, shakes and blares with its own warnings. A timer on a computer screen nearby counts down the seconds till a very explosive end.

And in the hallway of spoke number one, just outside the reactor room, Rocket is starting to get pissed off.

"I AM SICK AND TIRED" he bellows as the butt of his rifle lashes out to sever the head of a charging security mech, "OF ALL THESE DAMN ROBOTS!"

"I agree" says Drax as he tackles another mech to the ground and rips its chest open with his bare hands. "These mechanical constructs are irksome, but rest and medicine must come later" he says, tearing out the internal circuitry of the machine with one quick motion. Looking up and towards the small horde of machines still charging towards them he yells, declaritivly "but now is the time for killing!"

"You ain't killing nothing" says Peter, ejecting a smoking hot cylinder from his pistol as he does so. Reloading it, he fires another superheated bolt of plasma through an advancing mech. "We're the only things living on this station Drax."

One of the mechs, rolling forward on its tripod legs, attempts to bring a heavy metal arm down on top of Rocket, but with a quick blast from his rifle, arm and machine are sent flying backwards instead. Rocket sighs as he looks upon the still advancing machines, complaining "we must have killed a hundred of these things by now."

"One hundred and one" adds Peter, cutting another one down with a quick burst from his pistol.

"Right, it just gets repetitive you know? A whole army of faceless machines just ain't as satisfying to kill as Thanos's other goons."

Drax cuts the torso from the wheeled base of another machine, sending its halves crashing in two separate directions. "One hundred and two" he says with satisfied emphasis.

"Ugh, just kill smash kill" mutters Rocket as his rifle spits fire down the corridor, turning three more mechs into scrap metal. "It's just so impersonal; there isn't no fun in it!" He reloads his rifle, "I dunno, are you guys with me on this?"

Peter continues down the hallway, pistol raised at his side. "I'm not having this conversation right now" he says, raising a hand up to his ear. "Gamora, how's it going?" he calls into his communicator.

"Minimal resistance, these machines are hardly more than a nuisance" comes her voice, intercut with the sound of smashing machinery.

"That's great, just what I like to hear, no complaints" he says, raising his voice in emphasis on the last few words so the others behind him can hear. "So, I'll see you back at the Milano?"

"I'll be there Peter," she says, the sound of her sword slicing through another hapless drone interrupting her for a moment. "Just have to make one quick stop first."

"Uh, wait, no that is not what I like to hear" he responds, cupping his hand over his ear. "Rocket's set the reactor to blow in like ten minutes; I don't think you have time for sightseeing!"

"I've got time" she says matter-of-factly, "and I'm not sightseeing! Just get yourselves to the ship, I'll be there."

"Gamora, wait, hold on" he tries in vain, but the line stays silent. "Unbelievable" huffs Peter angrily as he turns towards Rocket and asks "how long do we have?"

Rocket taps at a small holographic screen on his wrist, "eight minutes till the reactor goes critical. After that, we may have a few minutes before it actually blows."

Peter returns his hand to the communicator "I know you can still hear me Gamora, you've got eight minutes or so till boom time. Whatever you gotta do, do it quick!"

"That goes for us too" adds Peter, dropping his hand away from his ear to grab his second pistol from its holster. "We've got about a quarter mile to go until we get to the outer ring, then another quarter till the ship dock. Hopefully, Mantis and Groot aren't having any trouble defending the Milano."

Drax kicks a fallen mech, sending it careening down the hallway and crashing into the next wave of approaching robots. "They shouldn't with this enemy."

As Rocket unloads a fierce volley of fire into the oncoming machines, he asks "so, back to the important questions. Are killing these things fun? Me personally, I miss the tactile qualities of real, thinking baddies."

Peter downs another two with carefully placed shots to the midsection before rolling his eyes at Rocket. "Killing people ain't fun" he insists, "it ain't supposed to be. Besides, most of these bots don't have weapons, and the ones that do can't aim for shit. Are you telling me you'd rather be up against something that can fight back?"

"What I'm saying is," Rocket cuts down the last few machines making their way towards them with a burst from his rifle, "is that there's a little nuance to these things. It figures you wouldn't understand the finer things in life" he says as he ejects the spent cartridge from his rifle, "or death rather." Falling in line behind Peter as they advance further down the hallway he suddenly asks "but really Quill, you haven't enjoyed killing someone sometime?"

Peter pauses in his tracks, causing Drax and Rocket to come to a halting stop behind him. As if mulling the question over he rolls his pistol around in his hand. "Ok" he finally concedes, "killing people is sometimes fun."

"Ah-ha I knew it!" cackles Rocket as they continue forward once more. Turning to Drax walking beside him he asks "what about you big guy? I'm fishing for opinions here, throwing out a net."

Drax stares at him angrily and says "I will not be caught, whether by net or words you will not ensnare me!"

Rocket shakes his head, trying to explain, "remember when we say you have problems understanding what the hell we're talking about sometimes? This is one of those times. I just want your opinion man."

"Oh" mutters Drax, turning his face away from Rocket. After a moment he whispers out of the side of his mouth "so, you do not have a net to capture me with?"

"NO!" exclaims Rocket, "I just want to know how you feel about killing things!"

To this, Drax answers instantaneously. "If the battle is fair, the opponent worthy, and the circumstances just, it is the second best feeling in life."

"Dam straight" says Rocket, "you hear that Quill? Drax is behind me all the way, none of this 'well maybe sometimes' crap!"

Peter cocks his head to the right and asks over his shoulder "you said killing was the second best thing in life Drax. What's the first?"

He again answers without hesitation. "The smile on a friend's face, or the touch of a loved one."

Peter stops and smiles broadly at him. "That was my answer too" he says. Glancing at Rocket he adds, "sounds like it's you that needs help learning the finer things in life."

Rocket rubs the bridge of his long angular nose with his paw, muttering "never before has so cool of a conversation turned so stupid, so fast."

~oOo~

Gamora runs down the second spoke of Luminary station, attacking her foes with precision.

In front of door number 54J; Gamora spears two of the mechanical machines together with her sword.

In front of door number 50L; Gamora cuts the head off of three of them with one stroke.

In front of door number 45K; Gamora is starting to get bored.

In nearly two years of work they had destroyed five full sized stations, numerous other outposts, killed thousands of his henchpeople, and cost Thanos untold billions of units. She is proud of that record, prouder of it than anything else she had ever done. It isn't enough to balance all the red in her ledger, but it is a start. So why did this one, the sixth full sized station, first in nearly four months of searching, feel so different. It didn't, if she could find the words, feel important enough.

"But now is not the time for those thoughts" she thinks to herself as she passes door number 43A at a run.

Now is the time for action.

And in front of door number 42DA, she finds her answer.

Coming to a stop before it, she studies her surroundings. The door and the room behind it, visible through two windows, seem as unremarkable as all the others she had passed by in the last few minutes. But when she had gotten a look at the main computer while Rocket was setting the reactor to blow, all useful information had pointed towards this room. Cryptic messages of future plots, slave camps, even Thanos's designs on entire worlds emanated out of here. "With that kind of information the progress they could make in dismantling his plans could increase exponentially," she thinks to herself. So when the door retracts into the ceiling with a simple press of the button, Gamora is immediately wary.

"If it looks like a trap" she recites, pulling out a device with a small holographic screen Rocket had manufactured, "it probably is a trap."

She presses a button on the back of the contraption and then lets it go. Held aloft by an anti-gravity field, it hovers in the air as it shoots out pulses of blue energy all around the room. In only a few seconds it is done, the device's display detailing the only security feature in the room, a single ankle high laser tripwire just behind the doorframe.

Instead of making her feel better the single tripwire puts her more on edge. "This isn't right" she mutters, "it is not like him to be so careless." But Rocket built his toys well, and if it didn't detect any other traps she was sure there were none. So with the countdown clock Peter had given her running in the back of her mind, she steps gingerly inside.

The first half of the room is entirely empty, nothing between the floor and ceiling but empty space. In the second half however, dozens of physical servers all intricately linked together feed into a massive computer nearly the size of the one in the reactor room. Hurrying over she looks around for a way to activate it and finding an ON switch on the bottom left side of the interface, flicks it. The machine whirs into life, the servers behind it lighting up in sequence.

The display lights up and information begins to scroll down the screen, more of it than she could ever have imagined. Locations of bases, names of informants throughout the Xandarian, Kree, even Terran governments. Several different slave camps, all harboring thousands of captured peoples.

Her thoughts race wildly, in time with her searching eyes. "With this we could really make a difference, maybe even stop Thanos before he started his end game!" She didn't know when that was coming, but she could feel it, he was in more of a hurry than ever before. Reaching down and removing from her belt another one of Rocket's contraptions, a data storage device with an unusually large capacity, she plugs it into a corresponding slot on the front of the machine. It begins to download its contents, and now with a moment to spare, she studies the information still scrolling past her.

Entry: Forward Operations position Alpha, Irregular Globular Cluster, Quadrant sixteen
Crew: 120
Current Mission: Disrupt trade routes sixteen and fourteen through Quadrant sixteen
Upcoming Duties: Raid Museum of Ancient History on Sklyjak IV, recover information on [REDACTED]

Entry: Informant Level 6, Xandar, Intelligence Gathering Division
Current Mission: File weekly reports with Section Head [REDACTED]
Upcoming Duties: Monitor local elections, influence results in favor of candidate [REDACTED]

Entry: Political Prisoner Relocation Camp, Halifax System, Quadrant two
Prisoners: 369
Update: Twelve prisoners killed in escape attempt. Commandant retired due to inefficient management. New Commandant [REDACTED] installed. Regular operations resumed.

"Political prisoners, I wonder what that could mean" Gamora asks herself rhetorically. Ignoring the angry thoughts that threaten to clutter her mind she continues to read the dispatches.

"Wait a minute" says Gamora, studying the screen in rising levels of confusion. "These are the same reports."

"I don't understand" she begins to say, but then her eyes light upon something that had gone unnoticed in her haste. On top of the display's right side, a small device with a glass eye stares out at her, unblinking.

A camera.

"If it feels like a trap-" Gamora yanks her storage device out of the machine and sprints for the door, but in an instant it slams closed in front of her. Crashing into it, she removes her sword from her belt and cuts into the door with all her strength. But the metal is too dense; all her sword manages is several light gouges. Cursing herself for her carelessness she searches for another means of escape.

From behind her the computer suddenly makes a loud whirring and buzzing noise. All of the many servers begin to hum and rattle, visibly radiating heat outwards as they overheat. Rocket's toy had technically been right; there wasn't a trap in this room, not one that it could detect anyways. But if those servers overheated to the point of failure, anything foolish enough to be in this room would be perforated with the shrapnel caused by their explosive ends.

Unfortunately for Gamora, she was the fool in the room.

Coming upon the rightmost window, three inches thick of many layers of tempered glass, she takes the butt of her sword and pounds against it furiously. The first layer cracks in a spider's web of crisscrossing lines, but there is still a dozen or more layers between her and the outside. Redoubling her efforts she pounds on the window again and again, slowly chipping away at its integrity.

Glass fragments dig into her hand as she continues smashing her way through layer after layer of the window's glass. With the servers glowing red hot the heat inside the room is reaching near unbearable levels, plastering her hair to her forehead in a layer of sweat and powdered glass. Suddenly, her communicator crackles into life "how did you make its head explode like that?" comes Peter's voice through the line.

"Great, he must have accidentally activated his communicator" runs Gamora's inner monologue in-between another desperate sword stroke.

"It's not a trade secret! You just don't want to tell me" Peter says to someone, presumably Rocket.

"This is last thing I'm going to hear before I'm cooked alive!?" she rants to herself, the heat of the room having long since made speaking impossible.

"Anyways, Drax, I tried to ask her to dance at this bar on Knowhere about a week ago, but she said she didn't want to. Said something about studying trade patterns, I dunno."

Despite the stifling heat Gamora snarls audibly as she hits the window again with surprising force. "Those trade patterns were the key to understanding the location of this station" she thinks to herself as she pounds desperately on the glass.

"But she is a dancer Drax! I probably shouldn't be telling you that but it's true." Gamora involuntarily stops her attack mid-swing, listening. "When she does dance she's great at it, she's like a natural! And, I don't know, when we dance, it's like nothing else much matters. In those moments, life is simple ya know?"

Gamora takes several steps back from the window, eyes lowered and thinking.

"Nah Rocket, if life was nothing but that, the moments wouldn't be moments anymore; they'd just be normal life."

Gamora flips her sword around in her hand, and rearing back, throws it like a javelin towards the window. It buries itself up to the hilt, its point sticking through to the other side.

"People are people, Gamora is Gamora."

Backing up until the heat from the servers starts to sear the clothing on her back, she runs towards the window and dives towards it, legs first.

"And I'm me. That's the way it otta be."

Impacting the window at a diving run, the hole made by her sword breaks open and Gamora passes through in a torrent of broken glass. Sliding across the hallway on her back she comes to a sudden stop against the far wall, gasping in a large lungful of air after the long exertion.

"You've got to like someone for who they are."

The servers inside the room explode in a shower of superheated projectiles, detonating what's left of the window in a shower of crystalline shards. Gamora covers her face.

"And I, well, Gamora means something to me."

She can feel the bite of the glass as it digs into her forearm, only superficial wounds though as the rain of projectiles finally stops.

"If that means anything, it means-"

Gamora raises a hand to her earpiece, "Peter" she breathes.

Silence on the line for a few moments, then "oh hey Gamora, what's up?"

"It's a trap."

Silence again for a few moments, "ok, can you be more specific?"

"We need to go. Thanos guessed we were coming, it's been a trap the-"

-The ground rises beneath her, the air coils, and death seems descends upon her like a great wave.

~oOo~

The barrel of Peter's gun sizzles in his hand as it sends another useless security mech to its doom. "And I, well, Gamora means something to me" he rambles, trying to get his thoughts in order. Drax's question had caught him off guard, if anything the guy said could be counted as normal. He must have seen him trying to dance with Gamora on Knowhere; why else would he have brought up that stupid 'not a dancer' thing again?

With the hallway finally silent he turns to an expectant Drax, saying "If that means anything, it means-"

"Peter."

The voice catches him off guard, and he looks to Drax and Rocket as if one of them might have said it. They both look at him with blank expressions. Suddenly the buzzing in his ear, invisible during the chaos of battle, makes him realize that he must have accidentally activated his communicator. "How long has that been on" he wonders to himself as he speaks into it "oh hey Gamora, what's up?"

"It's a trap."

He swallows hard, "oh shit she definitely heard what I was saying." His mind starts to go wild, "what's a trap, our relationship?" "Now's not the time" he thinks to himself, "just play it cool."

"Ok, can you be more specific?"

"We need to go, Thanos guessed we were coming, it's been a trap-"

He sees it before he hears it. From the direction of the reactor room, a blinding flash of light with a rolling shockwave following right behind it. He doesn't have time to warn the others as the shockwave overtakes them in an instant, throwing him ten feet in the air and at least thirty feet down the corridor in a superheated blast of hot air and debris.

*KRAKA-BOOM!*

Tumbling to a stop all he can do for the first few moments is hold his chest, his innards all trying to climb out of his throat at once. Ceiling tiles rain down around him as the whole station seems to shake and groan under the strain.

His ears ring painfully loud, and he can taste blood in his mouth, but Peter still finds the energy to yell out "WHAT THE HELL ROCKET! I THOUGHT WE HAD ANOTHER FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THAT THING STARTED BLOWING UP!"

"WE'RE SUPPOSED TOO" yells Rocket in return, shaking from head to tail to remove the layer of particulate rubble that had covered him. Kneeling and checking a wrist mounted display he taps at it several times muttering "that's not possible."

"What's not possible!?" chokes out Peter as Drax helps him to his feat, the man himself relatively unharmed by the blast.

Rocket ignores him for a moment, continuing his search until he comes upon the screen he wants. He stares at it for what seems like an eternity.

"What's not possible?" repeats Peter, staring at Rocket intensely.

Rocket finally looks up from the data pad, eyes flashing between the both of them. Peter's breath catches in his throat as he finally recognizes the expression on Rocket's face, something he had never seen there before.

Surprise.

Fear and surprise.

"The reactor-"

"-How long do we have" interrupts Drax, but for once Rocket angry retort doesn't come. He continues talking as if to himself, "the reactor's already going critical. That… shouldn't have happened. That can't happen. Unless-"

He jumps to his feet so quickly as to make Peter step back in surprise, "-it's a trap! It's been a trap the whole time! The lax security, easy robots, we made it by sabotaging the reactor!"

"Gamora was thinking the same-" suddenly it dawns on Peter and covering his ear to better hear he calls out "Gamora can you hear me? Please tell me you're alright!?"

But there's nothing but silence on the line as Rocket continues talking over him.

"The reactor is artificially accelerating the fission progress" he explains, gesturing to his wrist display, "there must have been a hidden program that I missed when I set it to overload. What should have taken ten minutes took five."

"So" repeats Drax, "how long do we have?"

Rocket shrugs his shoulders with genuine uncernatity, "it's already going critical. Anywhere from five minutes to right now."

Peter lowers his hand from his ear, brows furrowed in concern. "Gamora's not picking up, I'm going after her!"

Removing both pistols from their holsters and taking off in a run back towards Gamora, Peter is caught off guard when Drax slaps him across the face, sending him staggering backwards. "SHE WILL MEET US AT THE MILANO!" he yells, grabbing Peter by the shirt and shaking him about.

Peter stares at him bewildered, "what the HELL was that for!?"

Drax's own face screws up in confusion, "we watched those Terran movies. Is that not how Earth humans impart an important point?"

Peter rubs his mouth, "I guess, but I think you broke one my teeth!"

Drax releases Peter's shirt, "the point is still valid. Gamora will meet us at the ship."

Peter shakes his head to clear it. "You're right Drax, you've got a mean swing and you're right. We've got to get to the ship, come on everybody let's go -HOLY SHIT- Rocket, your shoulder!"

A large six inch gash traces a line from his left shoulder down to his chest, Rocket glances at it as if noticing it for the first time.

Peter winces, "doesn't that hurt?"

"Yeah" says Rocket, bending down to pick up his fallen weapon, "but I was built for worse. And so apparently was your jaw Quill. Let's go." As he passes them by Peter and Drax share a meaningful glance, then follow after him at a run.

They don't get very far.

Out of nearly every door in the five hundred meters left until the hallway terminates into the outer ring of the station security mechs pour out. Nearly a hundred of them swarm towards them, with reinforcement following quickly behind.

"Oh Krutack" mutters Peter as he involuntarily reaches back to activate his mask, his hand meeting nothing but bare skin.

Rocket grabs several pieces from fallen drones blown down the corridor by the reactor's explosion. "Hold them off" he yells as he begins assembling some contraption.

Peter fires wildly down the hallway, downing half a dozen of the drones. "What you're building, is it going to be able to clear the way for us?" he asks Rocket over his shoulder.

"In a manner of speaking" he answers, welding parts together into a makeshift frame.

Drax brandishes his knifes, roaring a loud battle cry. "Now is not the time for speaking, now is the time for killing!"

~oOo~

Mantis's antennae droop low over her forehead as the gun in her hand shakes not from fright, but from exertion. She has been holding it upright for nearly thirty minutes. It is much too large for her, one of Gamora's spares rifles, and its weight now bears down on her wrists and arms. But she dares not lower it, there had only been a few mechs in the first couple of minutes, but now, they were coming once every few seconds. As another rounds the sharp ninety degree corner, she dispatches it with a well timed shot.

*Pew* *Pew* *Sploosh*

Mantis glances over at Groot who had been occupied with some videogame even since Peter and Gamora had left his sight. The noise coming from the thing had been a welcome distraction earlier, but now it is grating on her senses.

*Pew* *Pew* *Crunch*

"Could you please turn that down?" she asks as politely as possible. Groot ignores her, but Mantis persists, she knows he can hear her.

"I am trying to keep the ship safe; your electronic game is distracting me. Could you please turn it down?"

Groot finally looks up from the object of his attention. "I am Groot" he mocks.

"No, I cannot turn the gun down" replies Mantis indignantly, "it is needed to-" turning back towards the hallway three drones are suddenly upon her. Her rifle barks out two reports, but the third is on her before she can level her gun at it. Grabbing her by the throat it lifts her up in a crushing embrace. She grabs at its shoulders, her empathic powers reading nothing from its cold purpose before it is suddenly pulled off her. Wrapped around its chest Groot's vine crushes it down, and then with one mighty heave he throws it down the hallway. It crashes into two more approaching drones and smashes them to pieces.

Mantis coughs, trying to regain her breath as she rises back to her feet, gun in hand. "Thank you" she breathes, rubbing her reddening throat.

"I am Groot" he says, shaking his head.

"Don't mention it?" asks Mantis perplexed, "you saved my life."

Groot holds out his hand, "I-" he pauses as if considering something, then waves it off, "am Groot."

"I agree" says Mantis, raising her rifle back into position, "Peter's Terran expressions don't make much sense."

Returning to her vigil watching over the hallway, Mantis readjusts the rifle in her hands. It is just then a strange sensation comes over her; the floor seems to rise around her as if being bent by some unseen hand. For a moment the rising and lowering mesmerizes her, rooting her to the spot. Then the shockwave comes upon her, hot air buffets her face as the force of the blast sends her tumbling backwards, the rifle flying out of her hand. Groot fares better as vines shoot out from his arms and legs to anchor him to the ground, one them flashing over to stop Mantis's head from hitting the floor.

The station around her seems to spin as she slowly rises back to her feet, helped up by Groot. Finding her footing on the still shaking floor of the station she nods thankfully in Groot's direction but his attention is now fixated on a small smashed object on the floor. He reaches out with his vines to pick up several of the pieces, but they crumble on contact.

"Is that-?"

"-I am Groot" he mutters in affirmation.

Mantis steps up behind him, slowly wringing her hands together as she says "maybe we can get you another one? That is, after we leave this station."

Groot shakes his head angrily, and turning to face her, he points down the hallway towards the outer ring of the station. "I AM Groot!" he exclaims.

"I do not see how anger is going solve anything" answers Mantis, "but we're supposed to stay here and defend the ship until the rest of the team get here."

Waving his arm dismissively Groot starts walking down the corridor away from her. "I am Groot!"

"What revenge? It was destroyed by a shockwave. We've got to stay here and-"

*BOOM*

The heavy clash of metal on metal silences Mantis and stops Groot in his tracks. Both of them stare down the hallway towards the outer ring of the station, their pathway ending in two right angles taking you down either the right or left of the outer ring.

*CLANG* (pause) *CLANG*

Mantis, remembering the rifle that had been blasted from her hands, now hurries back to it. It rests on its side, the ammo having been spilled on the ground. As she hurriedly gathers up the slugs and tries to load the weapon a fire lights up in Groot's eyes as his arms and chests grow thick with resilient bark. "I AM GROOT!" he bellows, as if inviting the challenger.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

Mantis runs up behind Groot and levels the rifle down the hallway. The noise, which sounds like the heavy footfalls of some great machine, emanates from the right of the outer ring.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

"Are you ready?" she asks, finger hovering over the trigger.

Groot smirks broadly, "I am Groot."

"Yes, yes you are" agrees Mantis.

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

Around the corner rolls the ponderous form a standard security mech, and in a long languid motion it raises its gun arm toward them. With an unceremonious clang, the arm falls to the floor.

"I am Groot" he mumbles, disappointed.

"I guess that's it" breaths Mantis, hopeful.

Without warning a huge metal leg appears around the corner, and with an enormous *CRUNCH*it crushes the smaller drone beneath its foot. Stepping fully into view, the massive military mech towers nearly as high as the ceiling twenty feet above them. Its arms, thick appendages nearly the length of its body, reach out towards them as it advances. Shots from Mantis's rifle smack into it with a hefty wallop, but the machine continues on undaunted, its steady footfalls like an oncoming avalanche.

Groot charges it, pounding at its right leg with a series of vicious attacks. The metal dents and bends under his onslaught, but the machine is too fast for him for in one quick motion it picks up Groot with its left hand and holds him high in the air. Vines pulling on the fingers of the robot, Groot struggles to get free as he fights against its crushing grip. Thrusting upwards the machine smashes Groot into the ceiling, sending debris raining down as it buries its arm almost to the shoulder. Lowering its arm back down, it returns empty handed.

Mantis continues firing but her shots aren't doing enough damage and the mech continues its seemingly unstoppable advance towards her. Stopping in front of her, it rears back a great fist and plunges it down towards her.

Mantis closes her eyes.

But the blow never comes.

Opening her eyes she sees the robot's giant hand hovering near inches away from her face, but the arm is being held back by a great vine. Dangling from the ceiling, Groot lets out a primal yell as he pulls with all his might, twisting the robot around. Staggering backwards it sways for a moment under its great weight, and then topples over with an almighty crash, landing on its front.

Groot drops from the ceiling, landing on the beast's back with a loud thump. Digging his vines into a damaged point of metal on its back he opens a large gash in the machine. Then, he climbs inside.

The Mech pulls itself back to its feet, its arms digging into the wall to act as support. It takes several lumbering steps towards Mantis as she prepares to fire, but then, it comes to a staggering stop. Its right arm spasms as its left tries in vain to reach around to its backside. Suddenly, bursting forth from the joints of its arm and legs, great vines wrap around and ensnare its appendages. The Mech struggles impotently for several more moments before, like a cork from a champagne bottle, its head pops off and disappears into the ceiling.

Everything is all at once very still as Mantis approaches the machine cautiously, weapon raised and ready to fire at the first sign of movement. "Groot, are you alright?" she hesitantly calls out.

Appearing in the space where its massive head once rested, Groot's pops up. The giant machines right arm suddenly rises up and Mantis's finger moves to the trigger to fire before Groot stops her short.

"I am Groot!"

Mantis raises an inquisitive eyebrow, "are you sure?"

Groot's vines acting as the sinews of muscles, he flexes his massive arms back and forth. And taking the first few steps under the direction of its new master, Groot stretches the machine to its full height.

Just then, from around the left corner another of the massive machines lumbers into view, but it stops short when it sees its new opponent. As if sizing the Groot controlled machine up, it pauses in the frame of the hallway for several moments before taking off back down the outer ring at the closest thing to a run it can muster. Groot smashes his two new mechanical hands together, open hand into closed fist, as he takes off after it. His shattering battle cry rings out down the hallway for all to hear.

"I AM GROOOOOT!"

~oOo~

Flickering lights struggle to illuminate the shattered space in front of Room 42DA. Shards of glass, ceiling tiles, and pieces of the wall cover the floor in a several feet thick layer of debris. Out of this pile, a green arm suddenly shoots through. Grasping around for purchase the hand finally comes upon one of the larger pieces of refuse, a six foot section of wall, and begins to pull hard.

Gamora grunts with the effort as, with one final heave, she manages to extricate herself fully. Rolling onto her back and breathing in heavily she tries to reorient herself.

"I'm on Luminary station's second spoke. Peter, Drax, and Rocket are on the first. Mantis and Groot are guarding the ship just off the outer ring. I was…I had just gotten out of that awful room. Peter was saying something… or I was saying something to him. Then, the ground seemed to rise up… everything went dark."

Dragging herself up into a sitting position she taps at the communicator that had rested in her right ear, but instead of activating it her hand comes away covered in small pieces of metal. "Not like it was doing me any good" she mutters to herself as she brushes her hands free of the shattered device.

Checking herself for any serious injuries she is surprised to find none, only a few sprains and pretty badly rolled ankle, only the latter causing any problems as she slowly rises to her feet. She has cuts all over her body from the broken glass, "but those will heal fast" she thinks to herself, "the bodymods will see to that."

Slowly walking down the ruined hallway towards the outer ring, gingerly testing her right ankle, she smiles despite herself. "If there's any irony in the universe it's that Thanos is trying to kill me and the only thing that kept me somewhat conscious after that explosion were the bodymods." She lets out a hoarse laugh, "the bodymods that he gave me."

As if in response, she hears a metal popping sound directly above her. Looking up she barely has time to dive out of the way as a huge military mech comes crashing down directly on the spot she had occupied just milliseconds ago.

Her normally graceful movements are somewhat stunted by her hurt ankle and it takes her a second or two before she is able to stop swaying and face her new opponent. Rising to its full height it towers above, its face a blank slate of unmoving sensors as it rears back, preparing to smush her into the ground.

Gamora reaches back to her sword holster, she'd fought bigger things than this before, but her hand touches nothing but air. Suddenly it dawns on her that she had used her sword's blade like a javelin to cut through the remaining glass on the window to room 42DA, and she hadn't picked it back up.

The arms come down in a long arc and it's all Gamora can do to side step them as they tear a great hole in the stations floor. Trying to raise them again the machine seems to be momentarily stuck, struggling to free its arms from the hole it had dug them into. This gives Gamora a short opportunity and she uses it.

She runs.

Runs as fast as she can towards the outer ring of the station and the hopefully still waiting Milano.

As the robot finally tears itself free and begins it lumbering pursuit after her she limps along as fast as she can, almost hopping along to keep the weight off her still injured ankle. "I hope you paid a good price for these bodymods Thanos" she thinks to herself, glancing over her shoulder at the hulking form of the advancing robot, "because right now I am really going to need them!"

~oOo~

Rocket's paws move in a synchronized dance with his mind as they fly over and assemble the various parts of his latest contraption. He doesn't know how other intelligent minds, or what passes for intelligent minds out here in the galaxy, work, but when he comes up with a concept it's fully formed. Each screw, each nut and bolt, every contour a clear picture in his minds glorious eye.

Peter, still firing with abandon at the seemingly never-ending advance of machines, looks over his shoulder at Rocket and his work, and does a double-take.

He yells out over the din of battle, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? I THOUGHT YOU WERE MAKING A WEAPON!"

What could charitably be called a cart, nearly seven feet long, sits in the middle of the hallway. Rocket, his body a blur of tensed muscle and matted down fur, works feverishly to finish it. On its bottom a dozen or so wheels, salvaged from the rolling legs of the smaller security mechs, prop it up. The rest of it seems to be composed of whatever relatively flat pieces of metal he could get his paws on.

Rocket pauses in his work to glare at Peter, retorting "I SAID I WAS MAKING A WEAPON IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING!"

"THAT IS NOT WHAT THAT EXPRESSION MEANS!" shouts Peter as he takes out a pulse grenade from his belt and throws it over his head and down the hallway. It lands and explodes in a blinding flash of light, bringing all of the currently attacking mechs down to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"That should buy us a few seconds" comments Peter as he walks over to examine Rocket's work, "now, as I was saying, WHY DIDN'T YOU BUILD A GUN!?"

"WOULD YOU QUIT SHOUTING!" yells back Rocket in return, "I got sensitive ears. And any weapon big enough to clear a path for us would tear right through the station's outer wall. I don't know about you Quill, but I don't want to see explosive decompression up close!" He turns back to finish his work before suddenly spinning back around to face him, paw and finger outstretched, "and don't lecture me about your stupid hummie expressions. It's a miracle of science that we can all understand each other in the first place; your stupid language, with its stupid sayings, is just, stupid!"

"Oh yeah" retorts Peter, arms crossed. "Well some days I wish the miracle of science didn't work!"

"You and me both pal" mutters Rocket as he attaches the final few components to his creation.

Drax, who had been in the middle of the fray slicing and dicing robots until Peter's pulse grenade had gone off, runs up to them. "Why did you not use that device before?" he asks Peter, gesturing down the hallway at all the fallen machines.

"Only got one" he explains, "actually there's a really good story behind that thing. Me, Yondu, and the old crew, must be almost ten years ago, anyways we had a job robbing a bank on a Kree planet. Yondu handed one of those out to each of us and, oh man this is funny, I'll never forget what he said-"

Peter comes to a stop, noticing the extremely bored look on Drax's face for the first time.

"What's up with you dude?"

"I have no interest in your stupid tale."

"Oh" huffs Peter indignantly.

Drax moves over towards Rocket, examining the cart at his feet. "What is this thing? You said you were building a weapon."

"I said in a manner of – never mind – it's a way off this station" he answers, but when Drax continues staring at him with a confused expression he sighs. "Ask Quill, and then, the both of you, do me a favor? Bend down and shove your collective heads up your collective asses so I can finish this thing before more robots get to us!"

Drax looks over to Peter, who shrugs his shoulders in partial answer, saying after a moment "a big enough weapon to clear our path would have breached the outer wall. Something about explosive decompression."

Drax nods in understanding, and then begins to bend over in Peter's direction before he slaps him on the shoulder. Drax looks at him but he just shakes his head angrily.

"Done, it's done!" exclaims Rocket happily. "Oh shit, and not too soon" he adds, pointing down the hallway.

As they push the bodies of their fallen comrades aside, another massive wave of the smaller mechs quickly approach. But this time one of the larger machines, its lumbering steps shaking the floor as it draws nearer, leads the group.

"Ok, that big guy is new right?" asks Peter.

Instead of answering Peter's question, Rocket jumps up onto the cart and begins dolling out instructions. "Drax, you're going to be the battering ram" he explains, pointing towards a small platform sticking out of the front of the cart at a forty-five degree angle with a chest high guardrail. "I'm going to strap you in there and you're going to bash a path for us."

"I did not know I was known for my bashing prowess?"

"Whatever you want man. Smash, cut, break, all I need you to do is clear a path with your knives!"

Drax nods in gleeful understanding as he hops up onto the forward facing platform. Rocket straps him in with a crude metal belt around his waist, tying it to the guardrail.

While Rocket's doing this Peter steps onto the cart and pulls out his pistols, "I'm standing here and firing right?" he asks.

Checking Drax's supports one last time and angling him so he sticks out in front of the cart, Rocket says "that's my job Quill; you're going to be the propulsion."

"What, like I'm gonna get behind and push?"

"No you idiot, you're going to lie down on your back here" he explains, pointing to the mismatched metal floor of the cart, "and I'm going to use your jet-boots to get us moving."

Peter blinks rapidly in surprise as he stutters "that insane, you're insane, you've finally gone insane Rocket!"

With his paws behind his back Rocket walks over to him, calmly saying as he does "you know that hummie expression, 'sorry not sorry' Quill?"

"Yeah but what-"

-with a vicious kick to the shins, Rocket sends Peter tumbling down to the floor of the cart. Howling in pain, Peter doesn't have time to protest as Rocket straps him in with a large metal band across his chest.

"You are such an asshole" growls Peter as Rocket moves to stand within reach of his feet.

"You'll thank me later."

"NO I WON'T" protests Peter, but Rocket ignores him, his attention fixed firmly down the hallway.

The large mech, its arms stretching out towards them, is now only about fifty feet away with a whole host of smaller machines trailing behind it.

Awesome Mix Vol. 3: Mott The Hoople – All The Way From Memphis

Rocket smiles and begins to reach behind himself.

Holding his knifes aloft, Drax laughs riotously.

Peter curses loudly, trying to stretch down and rub his shin.

Gamora hops on one foot, her pursuer about to bring down its arms on top of her.

Mantis fires into a mass of mechs, downing three.

Groot rears back his mighty metal fist in preparation.

Rocket's paw reaches the manual on switch to Peter's jet-boots, it hovers just above it.

"Here we go" he mutters quietly before yelling out "hold on to your butts!"

All We Do Is Save The Galaxy: A Guardians of the Galaxy Story
Written by: ThePetulantPen
Music by: Whoever

Groot's fist makes a thundering impact, Gamora rolls out of the way of another attack, Mantis levels two more drones, Rocket activates Peter's jet-boots, and Drax asks a question.

"Why would I hold on to my buuuuttt-" the acceleration of the cart is instantaneous and Rocket has to grab onto a handrail to keep from getting thrown as they tear off in a blur of metal and fur. The large mech in front of them takes a swing but they are moving too fast for it to make impact. And as they pass just between its legs Drax's knifes whip out, cutting both from its body as it topples over in a clattering heap behind them.

"AHHHAHAHA" bellows Drax, "this is indeed a most glorious form of combat!"

"I thought you said battle was best when it was fair?" yells out Peter in question.

"Best? Yes" answers Drax as he flips his knifes around in his hands, "but this is much more fun!"

The first dozen or so of the smaller mechs shatter apart on the prow of their craft as they slam into them at an incredible speed. Drax immediately starts going to work slicing and dicing, his arms moving in wild arcs as he makes mincemeat of their metal foes. However, even with his efforts, the sheer mass of enemies in front of them begins to slow them down as the cart is buffeted back and forth by the movement of the drones.

Rocket, noticing this, looks around for a solution. Finding it, he jumps on top of Peter's chest, causing all the air to be knocked out of him. As Rocket reaches for and removes Peter's pistols from his hands the man wheezes out "ahh, what you doing?"

Instead of answering, Rocket tucks both of Peter's pistols under his arms as he sets his own rifle down on Peter's chest, causing him to protest "stop *cough* doing that man."

Rocket ignores him as he removes a small roll of tape from his person, and holding the two pistols against the side of his rifle, begins to fasten them to it. Peter lifts his head up from his prone position on the floor of the cart and asks "tape, where'd you get tape?"

"I always carry it now" explains Rocket as he presses the second to last piece into place, Peter's pistols now firmly attached to the sides of his rifle. Stepping over his chest, Rocket uses the last piece on his roll to tape Peter's head to the floor of the cart, saying as he does "unlike you I always learn from my mistakes."

A string of loud curses trail after him as he climbs to the front of the cart and onto Drax's shoulders, the man himself stopping his wild attacks and looking at Rocket in confusion as he does so.

"Let me try" says Rocket as, in one fluid motion, he hoists his modified weapon onto his shoulder, raises his two paws to the triggers of the attached pistols, and uses his teeth to pull on the trigger of the rifle. Out of the three barrels a torrent of slugs comes pouring out, ripping into the massed drones blocking their path. Slowly but surely they begin to advance again, gaining speed until they start to roll over the mechs blocking their path, crushing them beneath the wheels of their cart.

Rocket ceases fire and lowers the weapon back to his side. Rubbing his jaw he says, "may have broken a few teeth, but hey, it got the job done!"

"Indeed" exclaims Drax as once Rocket hops off his shoulders he returns to cutting through any drone that nears him. "We are making progress now, only three hundred meters to the outer ring!"

Rocket opens his mouth to agree, but it slams shut when he sees what's up ahead. Two of the large mechs have their arms down in front of them, completely blocking the path forward. Rocket's mind works for a solution as he mutters "no way around them."

Suddenly the answer comes to him, "around them!"

Rocket yells out "Quill, I need you to turn us to the right!"

Struggling against the tape to look over his shoulder, Peter bellows "how am I supposed to do that?"

For an answer, Rocket flicks the trigger of one of Peter's attached pistols and fires a glancing shot just to the right of the man's feet. Jerking his feet to the left, Peter's angry retort is cut off as the cart makes a sudden and drastic turn to the right. Impacting the wall of the hallway with incredible speed the front wheels of the cart, angled out in front of Drax's position, find purchase as it with everyone inside begins to climb up the vertical surface. Rocket is nearly thrown off due to the sudden change in angle but just barely manages to hang on by bracing himself against the side of Peter's head, both hands still holding his modified rifle. "Ow, OW watch the claws!" barks Peter as Rocket's feet dig in to the side of his face.

Reaching the rounded ceiling of the hallway the cart flips upside down, centripetal force keeping them all inside as they reach the apex thirty feet above the ground. One of the military mechs swings its arm upwards in an attempt to grab them, but a quick swipe from Drax cuts its hand off at the wrist and they sail freely over it.

Coming into contact with the left wall, the contraption rides it down until it smashes back into the floor once again. The cart sways back and forth for a moment, threatening to topple over, but settles back down on its wheels after a few moments.

Eyes closed and grimacing in discomfort Peter chokes out "holy shit, that was worse than the matter scrambler ride at Paradise Park, I thought I was going to up-chuck!"

"How was that worse" asks Rocket as he starts to extricate himself from the side of Peter's head, "as I remember you telling it the matter scrambler actually made you puke!"

"Yeah but on the matter scrambler I didn't have to smell a Raccoon's butthole the entire time" exclaims Peter as he shoves Rocket the rest of the way off his head.

Slicing through the smaller mechs still trying to block their way, Drax says calmly "another right turn will be needed soon, as I have had little experience in fighting a head-on collision."

The wall of the outer ring of the station quickly approaches, but this time Peter doesn't need any instruction as he swings his legs to the left. The cart veers right, just missing the corner where their hallway terminates into the outer ring, and speeds off towards the Milano. The wind whipping the fur on his face backwards, Rocket once again climbs onto Drax's shoulders at the front of their vessel to get a better view down the outer ring.

"There it is" he calls out happily, seeing the short entryway to the Milano's docking position in front of him. But his smile disappears when he sees the large mech standing in front of it; it's back turned to them. Rocket's face hardens in determination as he says "let's ram em! Get ready to slice it up Drax!" Drax smiles in anticipation, his knifes glinting in the station's artificial lights. Rocket readies his rifle to fire.

Then the mech turns around, it's head green with large amber eyes instead of unmoving metal.

"OH SHIT- Stop! Turn off the jets Quill!"

Peter reaches for his feet but the metal strap that had kept him secure throughout the whole ride now impedes his movement and he can't quite reach. Seeing this, Rocket dives towards the back of the cart, but their forward momentum pushes him farther than he intended and he just manages to grab Peter's feet as he slides down his body. The flames singe the fur on his tail as he fumbles for the manual shutoff switch, but it's too late, a collision is imminent.

Groot raises his mechanical arms out in front of him and braces his feet against the ground. Impacting with a mighty crash of metal on metal, the cart comes to sudden stop, two large hands on the front and back holding it in place. Finally switching off the jets, his tail smoking mournfully, Rocket lets out a loud cheer of "dam Groot! That was one hell a catch!"

Letting go of them Groot shrugs his mechanical shoulders, feigning disinterest as he says "I am Groot."

Pulling the strap off his chest Peter staggers to his feet, ranting angrily "that was the craziest, stupidest, most unpleasant things in a lifetime of unpleasant things!"

Drax, unmooring himself from the front of the cart, cackles "that was most enjoyable, let us do it again!"

"Thank you Drax" says Rocket before crossing his arms and addressing Peter, saying "I think now it's your turn to appreciate the finer things in life."

"Nothing about that was fine" says Peter as he tears his two pistols off Rocket's rifle and re-holsters them.

Mantis runs up, asking "are you all alright?"

"I think the answer to that question is always no" says Peter, "but physically, we're mostly good."

"Oh quit whining you pansy" comments Rocket, earning an angry scowl from Peter. "Let's get on the ship and off this stupid station."

"Wait" says Peter as he turns in place to survey his surroundings, "where's Gamora?"

"She has not arrived yet" says Mantis in answer.

Peter eyes go wide as he grabs his pistols and takes off to the left, down the outer hallway. Drax tries to grab him again but this time he spins out of his grasp. "She will meet us at the Milano!" he calls out after him.

"I know that" says Peter as he sprints off down the outer ring, "but we're here and she ain't."

After a few moments, his form disappears around the curvature of the hallway. The Guardians are silent for a while; Drax examines the blades of his knifes, Mantis shifts her large rifle to the other shoulder, Groot raises one of his large arms to scratch at a point on his face, Rocket rubs his injured shoulder.

Finally Rocket, gesturing at Groot's large new body, asks "how did you get that?"

"I am Groot!"

"Can't believe I missed it" says Rocket as his eyes take in the holes in the floor and ceiling of the entryway they're standing just in front of.

Groot points to Rocket's tail, a large part of the fur having been burnt off by Peter's jet-boots, but Rocket just shrugs his shoulders in answer. Finally saying after a moment "it'll grow back, looks ain't everything-"

"-LOOKS" exclaims Drax, his arm pointing in the direction Peter ran off towards, "he returns!"

Rounding the bend in the hallway, Peter's arms are flailing wildly as he gestures towards them.

"What the hell is he doing now?" asks Rocket.

"Perhaps he is trying to communicate to us nonverbally" says Drax, "I did not know he was fluent in the language of the non-verbal."

Just then Gamora comes into view behind him, hurriedly limping with discomfort to avoid her hurt ankle.

"There's Gamora" says Mantis, breathing a sigh of relief.

A massive military mech, its steps felt as a slight vibration beneath their feet, trails closely behind her, gaining with every step it takes.

"And there's trouble" growls Rocket, reading the rifle in his hands.

Finally Peter's echoing voice reaches them "get the ship ready, we gotta go!"

Drax and Mantis take off down the entryway, disappearing into the airlock leading to the Milano. Rocket looks at the rifle in his hands and then back to Peter before cursing under his breath and following after them.

Groot, however, rolls his great shoulders around in anticipation and takes off towards the approaching mech. Both Peter and Gamora have to dive out of the way as he goes thundering past them, lowering his shoulder in preparation for the attack. But his opponent is quicker, for as they collide in a rending crash it gets beneath Groot and slams him into the floor. Pinning him in place, it begins to bring a great fist down upon Groot's head, but he catches it with both his metal hands. Struggling to get free, Groot with a mighty heave tears off the robot's hand, leaving a jagged metal stump with a two foot protrusion. The mech looks at what remains of his hand for a moment, as if in curiosity, then swipes down at Groot's head with it.

Unable to block it, Groot disappears back into the mechs body as the improvised blade slices a great gouge in the floor where his head once was. His vines tearing open a new hole in the side of his abandoned metal body; he bursts forth and sprints towards the ship.

Arriving at the frame of the entryway to the Milano, the ship's airlock only fifty feet away, Peter, who is helping Gamora along as she limps in agony, turns when he hears the sound of Groot's voice. Seeing him running towards them, the large mech right behind in pursuit, Peter asks Gamora if she can shoot.

Leaning heavily on one leg, her face screwed up in pain, she nevertheless nods in the affirmative as Peter hands her one of his pistols. Bracing Gamora up against the inside wall of the outer ring to free up his shooting hand he commands "aim for the leg joints" as they both open fire.

Shots ripple over Groot's head and slam into the less protected joints on the great machine's legs, but nearer and nearer it comes even as the slugs tear away at the metal. Groot finally passes them by, heading for the airlock as Peter and Gamora keep firing. Finally, its legs separating from its body, it leaps at them and with a backhanded swipe sends them tumbling across the hallway and ten feet down the entryway to the Milano.

Leaking a noxious black liquid out of the stubs where its legs once were the mech starts pulling itself towards them, using the spiky protrusion that used to be its left hand as a pick to gain traction. Peter, recovering first from the impact, rolls over onto his back and continues to fire his pistol in a desperate attempt to stop the machine's slow advance. His shots ricochet off its head, denting the metal in a dozen places, but it does not fail as the mech raises its jagged arm and slams it down, plunging it into the floor between Peter's legs.

Raising it again, it prepares the killing blow as Peter lines up his final shot.

*CRACK* *CRACK*

Two shots just to his right ring out, piercing the contorted metal of the mechs head in two parallel places. Creaking and groaning, machinery stuttering to a stop, the robot slumps inert onto the station's floor. Leaning on her side, leg tucked up beneath her body, Gamora lets his pistol fall from her hand as she slumps onto her back.

Peter, standing up and regaining his footing rather shakily, crosses over to her, and after retrieving his discarded pistol, begins to pull her gingerly up off the floor. It takes several tries, her injured leg proves nearly useless in supporting her weight so Peter has to prop her with his shoulder. But as they finally start moving towards the airlock with staggered steps, he says "that was some good shooting, but I think I weakened it for you."

"Take whatever credit you want" says Gamora as she limps by his side, injured left leg dangling impotently between them.

"I'm not trying to take credit" argues Peter, shifting her weight on his shoulder for better support. "I was just stating a fact, I weakened it for you."

All her attention now focused on remaining upright Gamora doesn't respond, but Peter continues anyway, asking "so, um, did you hear what I was saying earlier on the communicator?"

"Can't this wait" hisses Gamora through gritted teeth, having put momentarily too much weight on her injured ankle.

"Oh yeah, sorry, it can wait" says Peter. But after only a few more steps he blurts out "it was just that Drax asked me a stupid question, and I don't know, I rambled a little bit."

Irritated, Gamora asks through labored breaths "what makes you think I care?"

"Well," Peter lowers his eyes away from her, "I was hoping you'd care a little bit. I meant what I-"

Gamora lurches forward and tumbles to the ground as Peter's supportive shoulder suddenly vanishes from her grasp. Ankle burning freshly hot in agony, she spins around to yell at Peter for his carelessness, but her angry retort never comes. He is on his knees, hands slowly moving around a foot long protrusion of metal sticking out from of his right leg. As his eyes move from examining the piece of jagged metal to her shocked face, his mouth opens to speak but all that comes out is a weak murmur.

"Oh man."

As Peter collapses face first onto the ground the piece of metal is suddenly and violently pulled out from his leg as the massive mech, thought dead, retracts its arm back towards itself. From out of the two parallel holes Gamora shot through its blank face, a red light from internal circuitry shines through, giving it a vividly monstrous stare as it once again starts pulling itself closer to them.

Crawling across the floor towards Peter, her swollen ankle making walking nearly impossible, Gamora grabs onto his shoulders and desperately starts to pull him towards the airlock twenty feet away. Struggling to gain enough traction with her one good foot, she suddenly feels a strong presence grab ahold of her from behind. Groot, having returned from somewhere inside the Milano, stands in the frame of the airlock with his vines wrapped around Gamora's midsection. Pulling hard, he begins to drag them closer.

Another explosion, rippling through the floor, is felt from somewhere deep within the station. The air around them, which had been mostly still up to this point, is suddenly whipped up into a gale as it pulls them with incredible force away from the ship. "Explosive decompression" slurs Peter, struggling to stay conscious though the loss of blood, "the reactor must've torn a hole in the station!"

Strong vines shooting out from his body to anchor him to the frame of the airlock, Groot struggles against the suction of the wind, but he can't pull them any closer. Lifted off the ground by the balance of the opposing forces, Peter and Gamora sway back and forth violently as Gamora struggles to maintain her hold on his midsection.

Despite its great weight the mech too is lifted off the floor and slides backwards several feet before digging in with its arms into the walls of the hallway, bringing itself to a grinding halt. Slowly, one arm moving at a time, it claws its way back towards them, the piercing red light from its bullet hole eyes staring out at them.

Peter struggles to turn his head towards Gamora as he mouths words, but she can't hear him over the roar of the wind. Trying again, he points a shaking arm towards his feet and mouths "jet-boots!" Catching his intention even if she still can't hear him, Gamora strains to pull him closer, but the suction of the wind is too strong. Beginning to mouth the words "I can't" back to him she is interrupted by a furry presence suddenly slamming into the top of her head.

Through eyes watering from the impact she can nevertheless see Rocket, who must have slid down the length of Groot's vine to get to them, climbing over her and onto Peter. Ignoring the mouthful of fur she is getting as Rocket's tail whips in the wind in front of her face, Gamora watches in anticipation as he pulls himself down to Peter's feet and reaches out for the manual switch on his jet-boots.

Still red with Peter's blood, the jagged makeshift blade of the metal monster's arm swipes out and tries to cut them in half, but Rocket is just a moment too fast for it as the flames from Peter's feet are the only thing it touches.

Concentrating with all his fractured energy, Peter struggles to keep his legs straight as the jets propel them closer and closer to the open airlock. Clinging to his lower half, Rocket tries to help him by wrapping his arms around the shaking man's legs, singeing his tail again in the process. But with a final heave from Groot; Gamora, Peter, and Rocket pass through the semi-permeable force field keeping the air inside the Milano calm and collapse onto the ground, Rocket having reached down and deactivated the jets.

Gamora, pulling herself out from under Peter, staggers towards and slams her hand down onto the panel controlling the airlock door. It begins to shut, its two halves sliding down into place, but the broken metal hand of the robot is suddenly thrust through, keeping the door from sealing shut. It struggles against the closing doors, jostling back and forth, threatening to break them off their mechanical hinges. The jagged metal blade, still dripping with Peter's blood, makes a small pool on the Milano's floor.

Rocket and Gamora both dive for the pistols attached to Peter's waist, but a bounding figure emanating from the stairs to the Milano's cockpit is faster. Coming to a skidding stop in front of them, Drax grabs ahold of the blood stained protrusion sticking through the door, and with one mighty heave, rips it away from the machine's arm. The door finally closes with a heavy thunk, sealing them away from Luminary Station.

The roar of the Milano's engines fills the ship as they detach and blast away. Peter, his head pressed against the floor in pain, calls out "who's flying my ship?"

"Mantis is piloting" answers Drax as he examines the ghastly shard of metal in his hands.

"She better not crash" gasps Peter in-between rasping breaths.

Rocket, his tail once again smoldering, asks "what took you guys so long? Last time I saw y'all you were right behind – what the hell!" For the first time Rocket notices the front of his body is soaked in blood, sniffing at it in confusion he realizes that it's not his own.

Gamora, kneeling down clumsily due to her swollen ankle, cradles Peter's head in one hand; the other holds his in a tight embrace. "He's hurt bad" she croaks out, examining the still bleeding wound in Peter's leg. "Rocket, get me the med-kit!"

He takes off towards another part of the ship as Drax and Groot run over and kneel beside them.

"I am Groot?"

"How did this happen?" echoes Drax.

"The machine stabbed him with that" answers Gamora, gesturing with her head towards the severed blade in Drax's hand. "Got him when our back's where turned, when he was helping me. I thought I had killed it…"

His blue eyes blinking open and closed as he fights to remain conscious, Peter mumbles "not your fault, I took credit for the kill remember?"

Gamora doesn't say anything for a moment as she continues to cradle his head in her hand. Finally, she turns to Drax and says "tell Mantis to take us to the nearest friendly planet, we need to get him into a hospital as soon as possible."

Nodding, Drax stands up and heads towards the cockpit, disappearing up the stairs. Peter, his eyes now closed, pleads "I don't want to go to a hospital, I hate them. Haven't been to one since Mom-"

A shot of pain through his leg silences him as he struggles back and forth on the floor in anguish, Gamora having to hold him in place so he doesn't further injure himself. She quietly whispers "I know you don't want to go, but it's the only way."

Rocket returns from Gamora's cabin with a black bag over his shoulder, and removing a small metal cylinder about the size of his paw from it, holds it out for her.

Letting go of Peter's hand she takes it in hers, saying as she does "now Peter, this will hurt, but it'll seal the wound until we can get you some real help." Peter, his eyes opening and alighting upon the device in her hand, yells out and tries to squirm away, afraid of the pain. Groot extends several vines to anchor him in place but Peter continues to thrash back and forth in primal fear.

Rocket whispers into Gamora's ear "you've got to distract him." Shaking her head in understanding she grabs Peter's face and twists it towards hers, saying as she does "Peter, PETER LISTEN TO ME!"

His bloodshot eyes stare into hers as she says, "there's something I have to tell you." Peter stops struggling as Gamora gently caresses his face, saying after a moment, "I love you."

"Really?" he splutters, "because I LOOOOOOVE-"

-His words turn into a bestial yell as Gamora plunges the device in her hand into the open wound on Peter leg. Pressing the round button on the top it sizzles and pops, sealing the hole with a protective yellow foam. His whole body relaxes as his head rolls to the side, eyes staring open and looking out the windows at the back of the Milano. Luminary station, now a small white pinprick amongst the stars, flashes brilliantly bright for a moment before slowly fading slowly into so much cosmic dust.

As his eyes close and the sounds around him become muffled, he mutters "all we do is save the galaxy."

Then, as his mind slips into the unconscious, he becomes numb to the universe.