The, moist, humid summer air had settled in the Lightfield guard tower. No matter how cool the marble structure of mansion could get, it could never cool down the hotness of the Minarian summer. In a small room in the bottom of the tower, two guards sat uncomfortably in the metal chairs staring into space, avoiding eye contact with one another. They hadn't spoken to each other in about two hours, they say in complete silence after what they had just done. The girl gave in and stared over at the older man. "So..." She started to speak up, but that's when it happened.
Static. That was the first thing that the guards heard from the radio in the past two hours. The older man perched a brow up in confusion at his partner who also gave him a confused look. Curiosity got the better of the younger guard and urged the male guard to answer with a pleading look. "This is Lightfield tower one, come in. Lightfield tower one, come in. Please state your identity." The guard ordered into the large silver plated microphone.
More static. He glanced to his partner with a look of stale boredom. She bit her lip and looked back apologetically. "Maybe it's just a bad frequency?" The female guard suggested, shrugging her shoulders making her partner sigh in frustration. A low, faded voice chanted words from the radio, the man narrowed his eyes at the speaker. This perked both of their interests. The guards leaned in, trying to figure out what the voice was saying.
The male guard started fumbling around with the different colored knobs, trying to make a clear frequency. "The Purity. The girl must be destroyed. The world is out of balance. The Purity will die. The dawning of a new age is upon us." The voice said in an eerie tone. It looped around and repeated itself again, using the same grave tone as before. The recording repeated itself once more before the female guard jumped up almost terrified. "I can't." She huffed out then leapt up and ran out. The man sat there with utter content on just listening to it play over and over again until he figured out what to do with it.
A moment later his partner returned with a tall woman with braided hair and an older woman. The tall woman's guarded grey eyes, scanned the room and found the radio, the source of the threat. They listened to it for about three more times before the older woman spoke. "They're going to kill Vesper? For what purpose?" She wondered towards the tall woman. "I have no idea but, whatever the reason it's still a threat." She growled the proceeded to slam her fists on the desk where the microphone was.
"Put every guard on every perimeter. I want guards in the pivots, nooks and crannies of this establishment. Station two of the higher ranking guards outside of the Purity and Unix's sleeping quarters. Now." She demanded, glaring at the older guard. The two guards saluted the woman and ran out of the room. "Should we leave Elise to handle this?" The older woman asked. "No. She's not ready and you know it." She announced. "Then what'll we do? We can try to fight off whoever it is with all our might but what if they're bigger than us? The only person to protect Vesper is Elise, she's the Unix. It's been like that for two thousand years, we just can't break that." The older woman stated while watching the other woman pace the room.
She leaned against where the stereo was before stating, "We'll call Nova Prime." The older woman's eye were still immensely worried. "And Elise?" The tall woman sighed, she rubbed the back of her neck before calmly stating, "We'll break the news to her in the morning."
The warm rays of sunlight seeped into the large bedroom of the Lightfield mansion. The mansion had been Elise and Vesper's home for most of their lives, ever since they were 6. They had been sent here for the protection of their mentors Serefina and Helen, and for their training to begin. Elise yawned, while stretching as she slowly woke up. She noticed that Rajah was perched by the wooden door, staring out from under it.
"Rajah?" Elise whispered, jumping out of bed alarmed. She could hear the saber cat annoyed purring as she continued peering under the door, she watched as the cats ear twitched back and forth irritatingly. Elise cautiously opened the door, Rajah leaping out roaring threateningly at what was out in the hallway. "Miss Newton!" A voice called. Elise ran into the hallway, alerted as she saw one guard clinging to the wall, the other pinned under Rajah's large paws, her teeth baring as she growled at the man.
"Rajah!" Elise screamed. This caused the saber cat to rise up, still growling at the guard back behind her master. "What're you doing outside my room?" Elise questioned, petting her cats head. The two guards looked at each other before speaking up, "You better come with us."
"What do you mean she's in trouble?" Elise wondered, sitting across from her mentor and Vesper's mentor. The room was poorly lit, the only light was coming through was from the large windows that were behind the mentors.
Elise gave off a face of worry towards the two masters. "Last night we received an anonymous threat through the radio and it's about Vesper. Saying it's time for a new era to begin and it starts with her dying. We couldn't trace it." Her mentor, Serefina, spoke.
Serefina was young, in her early 30's with black hair tied up in a braided up-do. Her grey eyes filled with nothing but concern for her students counterpart, with every second she stared into Elise's eyes the more anxious she became.
"In this case the Unix would be in charge of the situation but in your current condition we figured it'd be better to call in the Nova Corps. I'm sorry, Elise." Helen, Vesper's mentor, explained. Helen was older, in her late 40's, with short grey hair and vibrant green eyes that reminded Elise of a Terran cat.
Elise's brows furrowed in confusion, she shifted in the wooden chair uncomfortably to change her posture from slouching to sitting straight up. "No it's fine. I understand why you need to bring in the Nova Corps but I can also help." Elise protested, leaning forward on the table. "I'm out of my wheelchair, I can go into the heavenly state, I'm fine, I'm healed." Serefina and Helen glanced at each other from the corners of their eyes.
Elise could sense their judgement from the other side of the room, she once again fidgeted in the chair. "Elise, you said you've been seeing visions of yourself though, like a darker entity of your younger self, and she's trying to kill you. We can't help but think that's a red flag in your safety and Vesper's as well. We think it's best you sit this out and let Nova deal with it." Serefina announced in a strangely calm but strict voice.
She narrowed her eyes at her students disappointed face. "Although you say you've recovered the physical part of your injury, it doesn't seem like you're done recuperating from the psychological damage Bageer has instilled in you." Helen explained, folding her hands on the top of the table. "Do you understand what we're trying to get at?" Helen clarified.
There was a long pause between the three of them as Elise glared at the table in frustration. She slouched back down with her arms crossed. "I understand." She sighed. She quickly shoved back her chair and exited the room even though Serefina protested her to stop.
Elise walked into the courtyard to find An old friend of hers, Walker, sitting alone on a bench, just staring at the ground. Elise gave a weak smile to the Nova Corpsmen, his hands running through his dark hair, then down his face skimming along his shortened beard. His piercing blue eyes were exhausted looking, he had traveled from Xandar to Minaria in just a day to make sure Elise and Vesper were ok. "Are you the first of them?" Elise wondered, startling Walker.
Walker immediately stood up and smiled at the Unix. He closed the distance between them and embraced her in a tight hug. "So you are ok. I haven't seen or heard from you in months." Walker exasperated squeezing Elise tighter. A feeling of remembrance crossed her mind, about their past relationship. She had convinced herself that she was over Walker but she wasn't sure on how well she had prepared herself for this. Elise mentally shook her head in disappointment and snapped out of her trance.
"I was in a bad place, but I'm out of it now." Elise explained breaking the hug even though she wanted it to last longer. "Love the new outfit by the way." She added teasingly, looking at his new Nova Corps uniform. "It took two weeks to come in. Two. Weeks." Walker groaned while pulling at the blue fabric with a sarcastic smile.
"Figured Alice would be with you." Elise mentioned half heartedly thinking of her sister whom she hadn't seen since her graduation. "She's out doing some sort of Eco-mission on Giana Prime." Walker informed her. "She's trying to discover new species of animals."
Elise snorted at the idea of her sister roaming around on a jungle planet trying to find as many animals as possible. "I thought she was a law enforcer, not a scientist." Elise scoffed walking towards the garden, Walker trailing behind her.
"She is. She's just providing background searches to see if the planet needs to be quarantine like Morag." Walker explained trying to catch up with Elise. "She's trying her best to make you proud." Walker added. This made Elise stop in her tracks.
Elise sucked in a deep breath before she slapped on a smile and turned to face Walker. "I understand," Elise stated. Walker could hear an angered edge to her tone. "Where's Percy? Is he here?" Walker looked confused by this charade of niceness all of a sudden. "Uh, yeah. He's in our room. I'll show you." Walker stammered, perking an eyebrow up at her actions. "Where's the rest of you?" Elise wondered as they started to walk from the courtyard to the house. "Rest of us?" Walker questioned, turning to look back at the inquisitive Unix.
The wind started to pick up, kicking up the dirt and debris. Pebbles, leaves, littered trash swarmed around and hit Walker and Elise who had blocked their faces with their hands. The sky turned dark, Elise shot her head upwards to see a large ship descending from above.
"Is this part of you guys?" Elise questioned turning back to Walker with an accomplished grin on her face. "Part of us? I don't understand. Who's us?" Walker was getting frustrated at this time. "Nova Corps." Elise replied as she watched the ship open up. "Nova? But we're not scheduled to come here. Percy and I came on our own." Walker explained approaching her slowly, Elise turned her head back and almost glared at the Nova Corpsman in disbelief. She didn't believe what he was saying, he was so far down on the Nova Corps chain that he probably didn't know they were coming. She turned back to watch five beings emerge from the ship.
One was a tall looking tree, it was carrying a raccoon...with a gun slung around its back. The other was a bulky dark teal man with red tattoos covering his body, no shirt to show off his impressive structure. There was a green woman, tall and slender with black hair and pink colored tips. Finally at the front of the group was a lean humanoid with a robotic face, it's glowing red eyes piercing into Elise's steely blue eyes. They stopped as they approached the Unix and the young Nova Corpsman.
"Who're you?" Elise asked, perking up an eyebrow and sticking out her bottom lip almost in a pout. Walker glanced towards the confused Unix. He didn't want her to start freaking over nothing once again, it could end badly…again. She always jumped straight into situations before even considering the consequences, he always had to watch after her.
The face of the first person seemed to dissolve, it's red, round eyes turning into the teal eyes of a Terran. Elise recognized him from Alice's graduation, the one who stopped the crowd from ridiculing her, but she wasn't sure if he was helping her sister out or trying to maintain his title of being a hero. "Please don't-" The green woman spoke but was interrupted by the Terran. "Star-lord." The Terran smirked coyly.
Elise squinted her eyes and placed her hand on her hip, waiting to hear more information about the stranger. Was that some kind of code name? If it's his real name that's a preposterous one. "Ooo…ok? I'm Elise, the Unix…Star-lord." Elise smirked and spoke to him indifferently.
The self-proclaimed Star-lord slowly slumped his shoulders before sighing out, "Peter Quill and the Guardians of the Galaxy." The raccoon scoffed and rolled his eyes at Peter's title. "You act as if we're sidekicks." He hissed, it climbed down the tree creature and pushed on Peter's leg. "You know damn well you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for us." The raccoon spat out at the Terran. Walker stared weirdly at the creature, was it talking? "So why are you here?" Elise asked impatiently crossing her arms, she didn't mind cutting the chase and getting to the point.
Peter opened his mouth to explain until Elise shortly cut him off. "I'm sorry for being so assertive but what's your business, we're expecting the Nova Corps at anytime now." The talking raccoon started to chortle hysterically. He was nudged my Peter's foot with him whispering his name, Rocket, in a low tone. "They didn't tell you?" Rocket questioned Elise.
"Nova Corps? No. What's wrong?" Elise wondered showing worry that something was going bad. "They sent us to protect you. Instead of showing up themselves." The green woman came forward pushing Peter and Rocket back. "We were told that the Purity needed to be protected. We took the opportunity to serve for you. Although we don't understand why you couldn't've done it on your own, we're quite confused." She explained also crossing her arms in question.
The woman was talking down to the young Unix, Elise could feel her anger broiling inside of her. The Nova Corps didn't even feel it was fit to actually send anyone here besides these people? And why was she the one being questioned? She could hear Walker take a sharp inhale when the green woman make that comment. Elise wanted to turn back to Walker and glare at him just for his line of work, the people he worked for didn't care.
Walker could see Elise's fidgeting with her fingers that she was becoming painfully irritated at the group, especially the comment about how she couldn't protect Vesper. "Long story." Elise hissed out. "Anymore questions?" She glared at the group, examining them all. A tree, a green woman, a bulky man wearing no shirt, a talking raccoon, and a Terran. What kind heroic defense team is this? And by what means do they have to question her?
The green woman returned the glare and opened her mouth to protest but Peter jumped in the way trying to bide Gamora some time to cool down. "No thank you. Gamora can get a little nosy, sorry." He pleaded for the green woman, who he sent behind him with his arm preventing her from coming forward.
"Hold on, Gamora? As in Thanos' daughter? You're a hero now?" Elise let out a low chuckle. "This has got to be some type of joke." She narrowed her eyes towards the the ground. "You're the people trying to take Vesper!" She accused, her hand glowing red before it ignited with fire. She drew a line of fire between Walker and herself and them.
Walker gave Elise a concerned, yet stern look. He didn't come all the way to Lightfield to watch Elise fight off Vesper's protection. "Elise." Walker scolded but the Unix ignored him to spite him. "Whoa! What the hell!" Peter exclaimed peering over at her above the scorching flames. "Haven't you heard the news lady? We're good guys now!" He shouted in their defense.
"Peter, it's obvious we're not wanted. Let's go. She can defend the Purity on her own." Gamora assured him with a pat on the shoulder before turning towards the ship. Elise burst through the wall of flame and grabbed Peter by the collar, she stared wary and enraged into his teal eyes. "I'm sorry. For the past year I've been broken by trying to save a whole race. Forgive me for not reading up on the news in Xandar." She spat out.
Peter looked into the girl's cold blue eyes, he could see the fear in his face in her eyes. He tried to hide it but he couldn't help it, the threat of her igniting him on fire at anytime kept him on edge. A whole race? That's when it hit him, she was the girl everyone hated at the Nova Corps graduation. "I know you." Was all he could say before something else caught Elise's attention. "Elise that's enough!" Helen's voice alarmed her from behind. Walker was relieved to watch as Serefina and Helen appeared from behind him to stop Elise and greet their guests.
"You drop him and put out these flames now." Helen demanded with a furious tone. Elise glared untrustingly into the man's eyes once more with anger before dropping him to the ground and turning to Helen and her mentor Serefina. She dowsed the flames down until they no longer existed and stepped over to her mentor.
Serefina looked down at Elise in disappointment, sending Elise inside with fury ignited in her and Walker trailing after her. "Sorry for my apprentice's behavior, she is very hot headed. She has much to learn for a Unix." Serefina apologized, holding out a gloved hand for Peter to take.
Peter took it without hesitation, hauling himself on to his feet. "I'll say." He grumbled. Serefina chuckled at his quip. "Vesper has always been the more spiritual out of the two. She understands the price of a life. Elise has always been able to recognize the physical traits of being a Unix. The woman picked up metal using and mastered it in about six months, I will give her props to that." Serefina chided, putting her hands behind her back formally.
"That's what happens when I get to train one and you get to train the other." Helen joked patting Serefina on the back and smiling when she gave her a side eyed look. "We appreciate you coming all the way to Lightfield to protect Vesper. I'm sorry we didn't tell Vesper or Elise you were coming instead of the Nova Corps." Helen made a sympathetic smile towards the group.
"Might've kept my head if ya did but…" Peter trailed off, brushing off his red coat. "But your head is still intact." Drax spoke in a confused tone. Peter rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips while pursing his lips. "It's an expression." Gamora whispered to the man. "Well then it is a bad one." He replied. "I am Groot." Groot agreed.
This is the most unorganized team I've ever seen, Helen thought while she kept her smile glued to her face. "Here why don't we show you to where you will be staying." Serefina suggested, her face still pasted with a blank expression as she motioned for them to step inside the house.
After the encounter with the Guardians Walker and Elise managed to make a b-line to their room. Elise was greeted by Percy bear hugging her and telling her to thank Serefina for their huge room. Elise looked around. It was big. Three beds, a little living room, one large mirror and even a little fridge. She was surprised to see that Percy had brought along Pici, a little hyper active ferret. She remembered when Percy had bought it back when they were teenagers. Elise began to reiterate the story of the run in with the Guardians, Percy started snickering at it.
"They're weird." Elise rolled her eyes at Percy, who was now hanging his head upside down from his bed. "So? Weird is awesome and awesome is…awesome." Percy chipped with a goofy smile. Seeing his huge grin made Elise smile a bit. Percy was tanned, with black hair like his brother. He had a chinstrap and emerald green eyes, Elise couldn't help to think of a younger brother.
"Oh Percy you sweet, sweet, innocent little bunny. You see the good in everything. It's a trait I wish I had." She admitted leaning down into the mini fridge to grab a juice. "You can have that trait," Walker chimed in, while turning the page of a newspaper, he sat with one leg crossed over the other in a blue chair. "You just have to relax." Elise and gave Walker a weird look the place one hand on her hip while using the juice to gesture to Walker.
"Pfft. You of all people are telling me to relax? Walker you walk with a stick up your butt 24/7, take your own advice." Elise scoffed while smirking towards the bearded man who sighed hastily and turned the newspaper again. "Yeah, Walk, since when do you relax?" Percy joined in on the teasing.
Pici chirped as he pounced on his owners stomach, forcing him to sit up and pet him. "Maybe you need a pet to relieve your stress." Percy poised as he held up Pici towards Walker. "A pet?" Walker perked an eyebrow up. "You mean something you have to feed, care for, and take care of?" He wondered.
"Yeah! Totally!" Percy exclaimed jumping off the bed and towards his brother. "Oh so you mean you two?" Walker smirked before hiding his face in the newspaper. Elise threw her juice bottle at Walker's face, hitting him square on the nose and making him yelp in pain. "Whoops. Slipped." Elise hummed out while winking at Walker. Her flirtatious look caused Walker to blush hard, embarrassed he buried his face in the newspaper. Even though they had split up she still had the attitude and quirks that made him fall for her. Hard.
"And this is where you'll be staying, Mr. Quill." Serefina's voice caught them all off guard as she opened the large wooden door and let herself and Peter inside. Peter noticed Elise first, he tried to smile fondly at her but she averted her eyes. Peter looked to the ground dishearteningly and flattened. Elise immediately rolled her eyes and sighed in disbelief. "Have fun." She whispered sarcastically to Walker.
Walker shrugged off Elise's comment, stood up and went over to Peter with and outstretched hand. "Walker Millit." He introduced himself, making strict eye contact with the Terran. He could feel Peter tensing up as he stared at him. "Peter Quill, people call me Star-Lord." Peter informed quickly, he had to assure himself that he was a "legendary outlaw" to invoke his self-confidence.
More like Star-Loser, Elise thought to herself and gave herself an audible low chuckle which caused Peter to glance over at her for a split second. He noticed that she had changed from her all black attire to grey spandex shorts that reached the middle of her thigh with an electric blue streak down the middle of the sides, and a pale navy blue zip up hoodie. He didn't want to admit that she was actually good looking, but she was young. But, then again when did that stop him?
He notice a man about his size in height and bulkiness came up from behind Walker. "I'm Percy, Walker's little brother. It's nice to meet you, Star-Lord." Percy beamed as he patted his brother on his shoulder. Little? He was bigger than Walker! Pici scrambled up Percy's torso to yip excitedly at the newcomer, he quickly jumped on over to Peter's shoulders making Peter give an uneasy look as he tried to shimmy the rodent off him.
"And that's my pet ferret Pici. He seems to like you!" Percy awed then picked the ferret off him. "Make yourself at home. I'm sure these three can show you were dinner is held when the time comes." Serefina vouched, placing an assuring hand on his shoulder. She gave him one last sympathetic look before she turned to her student.
Elise only looked over to her mentor for a split second before looking back down to the ground. "Elise." Serefina said sternly from across the room. "Yeah, yeah I'll be on my best behavior and show Star-Butt to the dining hall, yada, yada, yada." Elise reassured her mentor sarcastically, shoving her hands into her pockets.
Serefina frowned at this. She paced the room over to Elise and stood close to her. "Show some respect. He's here to protect you. He's basically risking his life to save yours." Serefina whispered in a deadly tone. Elise sighed and looked towards the ground again as her mentor left the room.
An awkward silence filled the room, Peter felt the tension growing between Elise and himself. "So," He started. "Which bed is mine?" He shifted his duffle bag from behind his shoulder into his hand. "Uh, I guess the last one. The one closest to the mirror." Walker smiled meekly and pointed to the very last bed.
It's blue sheets were nearly tucked in its sides unlike his and Percy's. Peter sauntered over to the edge of the bed, plopping his bag down with a thump. He could feel the daggers, Elise was throwing at him in her glare. He looked in the mirror and caught the gaze of the Unix as she cocked her head in question while she examined him. Cute.
He smirked at her in the mirror as he put on his headphones, she caught sight of his smirk and began to blush. Elise got too flattered that she began to glare and face the opposite way of him. "What are those?" Percy asked as he poked at the orange fluff of the headphones. "It's headphones. We used to use them on Terra to listen to music." He explained taking them off and showing them to Percy by placing them on his ears.
"Terra is a little out of date with technology so this is as close as we can get to ear pieces." Percy smiled, beginning to swag back and forth to the music that was playing. Peter made sure that he was listening to a good song so he chose "Come and Get Your Love" as Percy's first song. "This is awesome!" Percy shouted as he placed his hands over the headphones making the music louder as he began to dance to it.
"You've got a good taste in music, kid. Along with a nice mug and killer dance moves. I bet you get all the ladies." Peter praised, slinging an arm around Percy. "Oh, uh," Percy stammered as he took the headphones off. "There's no ladies. There's only one lady." He admitted with a light pink hue coming to his face. "Oooohhh. I see you're a natural then. What's her name?" Peter questioned. "M-Madelyn. She's my girlfriend." Percy confessed with a proud smile as he thought of her.
Elise stuck out her tongue and made gagging noises. "Ew. Are you talking about love?" Elise traded Percy with a smirk. "I bet you don't know the meaning of it." Peter challenged the Unix. Enraged, Elise stood up from the chair with clenched fists. "What was that, Quill?!" Elise shouted.
Peter threw up his hands in surrender. "It was a joke! A joke! Geez!" Peter exclaimed as he watched Elise close the distance between them to glare at him closer. "What do you have against me?" Peter demanded to know, becoming somewhat irritated with her attitude.
You're whole team is a joke, Elise thought but didn't say it. She kept remembering that Serefina did point out that they're risking their lives to protect Vesper's and possibly hers too if it came down to it. "This tough girl charade needs to end." His voice brought her back to reality. "There is no tough girl charade, it's just who I am." Elise defended herself.
"It's true. Being cranky is just in her nature." Percy noted from Peter's bed. "Percy." Walker warned from across the room. "And I have nothing against you," Elise announced grabbing Peter's attention once again. "I'm thankful your team is here. I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot." Lies.
She extended her hand expecting him to grab it. He cautiously took her small hand into his. Walker perked an eyebrow up at Elise's strange actions towards the Terran. She was one to never forgive and forget, well, immediately that is. "Come on. Let us show you around, I'm sure you got the formal tour but we'll show you the actual one." She suggested after the hand shake.
"You coming Walker?" Percy called out before they left the room. "No I'll leave it to the Unix." Walker replied. As they exited he noticed that Peter had been staring at the backside of Elise. Walker balled up his fists causing the paper in his hands to tear and crumple. What a tool.
