Chapter Three.
"So, er, do you want something to drink?"
Bereet shook her head, a coy smile tugging at her lips as she glanced down at the table. Peter had stuck the ship's autopilot on and moved them both down into the belly of his ship. It was a little cramped and more than a little awkward. Especially since he had noticed that Bereet was wearing one of his shirts. Honestly, Rava had just dropped beneath Haracks as 'least favourite sibling'. And Peter had lost count of the number of times he'd decked Haracks for slagging off his music so that was really saying.
"Um." Peter fidgeted with the little orb, rolling it between his palms. The metal was grainy and oddly creased in a way that caught against the callouses on his hands. "I'm heading for Nova, so I guess I could drop you off there? Then you could catch a ship from Nova to…wherever Rava picked you up?"
Bereet snorted. "Nova is fine."
"Right." Peter scratched the back of his head, casting around for something else to say. Then again, what do you say to one of your sister's one-night stands that you accidently kidnapped and dragged into a gun fight.
"Ah," Bereet exclaimed, and Peter glanced around just in time to see a hologram of Yondu's face pop up. "You have a call."
"No, no, no!" Peter yelped, darting forwards just as Bereet hit accept.
Peter winced, freezing in place as he heard the tell-tale crackle of the large screen behind him bursting to life. Bereet shrugged apologetically and, not for the first time that day, Peter found himself cursing Rava out inside his head.
"Peter." Yondu growled.
Peter turned, trying to keep the wince off his face. "Yondu! I weren't expecting a call."
Yondu did not look impressed. "Where are you." He demanded.
Peter laughed. "I'm on a job with Wiz and Raja. C'mon man you only gave it to me this mornin', your memory can't be going already."
"Uh huh." Yondu drawled, taking two large steps away from the camera and giving Peter an uninterrupted view of the Ravager-ship's control room. Rava was lounging against one wall, examining her nails with a look of faux nonchalance while baby-Glim danced around her feet on their newly developed legs. Most worryingly, Kraglin was stood in the centre of the room, Wiz and Raja on their knees in front of him, his hands caught in the scruffs of their jackets.
"Rava, God!" Peter groaned. "You are such a narc."
"And you stole my date." Rava said, tossing a wink over his shoulder at Bereet. "If you wanted to get a girl, I could have given you some tips, baby brother, kidnapping is so…gauche."
"I…You, that's not!" Peter stuttered, feeling his cheeks burn scarlet at the delicate giggle from behind him. "I didn't kidnap anyone! You left her in my ship."
"Enough." Yondu snarled and, even on a ship miles and miles away Peter cringed. "One chance. Quill, where are you?"
Peter swallowed and clenched his fists, staring fixedly at the point just above Yondu's shoulder. "I'm not gonna tell you?"
Yondu's face went a strangled shade of purple and Peter was quick to shout over the impending lecture.
"And like hell am I getting' you those batteries now!"
"What!" Wiz yelped. "Tha' aint fair. I held up my end o' the bargain."
"Hey, we said twelve hours." Peter said, jabbing a finger towards the clock in the corner of the screen. "This look like twelve hours to you?"
"I agreed ta cover for your stupid death-wish mission, I never agree no time limit." Wiz snapped back, attempting to struggle to his feet and giving up when Kraglin casually leaned his knee on Wiz's shoulder.
Most of Kraglin's lower body was metal now. It would be like trying to shift a freezer. Raja, Peter noticed with some annoyance, appeared to be using the time to doze. Or, was possibly feigning sleep in an attempt to get out of the lecture. It wouldn't work. Yondu could and would kick him awake if needed. Never seemed to stop the guy trying though.
Somehow the soft click of Maris entering the room cut through all other noise. Peter was reluctantly impressed. It was the same way that Yondu's whistle shut up everyone in hearing radius. He'd been trying to figure out the trick to it for ages.
Both ships fell silent as Maris walked up to Yondu, the only sound that of her heeled boots clicking on the metal floor.
"Yondu," She said, nodding at her captain but pinning Peter with a gimlet stare. "The scanner for the Big-Job is missing."
Yondu's face turned apoplectic, even as Raja deigned to crack his eyes open with a whispered "Oh, shiiiiiiiit."
"Are you on Morag, boy?" Yondu demanded, closing back into the screen until all that Peter could see was blue skin and red eyes. "I swear to God, tell me you aint on Morag, tell me you aint actually been that stupid."
"I'm not on Morag!" Peter squeaked, scrambling for the communicator controls. "Well, that's an asteroid field, gotta go, see you in a couple of days, bye now!"
He slammed the line closed and slumped into the nearest seat as his legs stopped working. The communicator started buzzing again with an incoming call and Peter was careful to shift the thing out of Bereet's reach.
Yondu would definitely know that he was ignoring the call. Peter didn't think any of his siblings had ever actually ignored a call from Yondu. None of them were that suicidal.
Still. He clutched the orb tighter. If he was dead anyway, he might as well be dead and rich.
"You are funny." Bereet said, her accent growing thicker with amusement. "Is this how all your calls end?"
Peter groaned. He could not wait 'til he got to Nova.
Xxx
"He ain't here Capt'n."
"Really, Krags, I hadn't noticed." Yondu snapped, rolling his jaw and spitting on the ground. "I swear, outta all the kids why does this one gotta be such an almighty pain in my ass."
"We gotta search party goin' round the cliffs in case he went for a bit of a wander, 'n I've had the Brood round up all the usual suspec's."
Yondu hummed deep in his throat, tipping his head back and eying up the miscreants that had been dragged before him.
They had all grown in the years since that bastard who had the nerve ta call himself their daddy had got what was comin' to him and yet, somehow, they still managed to find themselves right in the middle of the latest clusterfuck.
Iln had finally managed to put on some height now that the stress of her siblings dying wasn't stunting her growth. Her white fur had gotten fluffier and the tips of her twitching whiskers stood about level with his chin.
Haracks had put on some build and finally grown into his ears. He'd had the last of his tribal tattoos etched onto his skin nearly a month before and the open wounds were still a little swollen and tender. Wiz, by contrast, had stretched out, a lanky kid of elbows and knees and red skin that was slowly darkening into his adulthood's maroon.
He was the only one of the lot that Yondu knew for certain knew what was goin' on. Well, him and Raja. But Rava was seein' that Raja got what he deserved. She was about as unimpressed with her twin as Yondu was.
Yondu turned his attention onto the little ones. They didn't have many of them anymore. Without Ego there was no need to keep pickin' up new ones. And no real way to find 'em if they wanted to. It meant that, no matter how big they got, the newest pick'ups would always be classed as the little ones. And, bein' honest, some of 'em were getting pretty damn big.
"So," Yondu began, eyeballing the youngest. "None of you know where Quill's gone?"
The kids shuffled awkwardly. There was no point botherin' with Wiz and Haracks. They'd give Peter up in a heartbeat if they knew anythin'. He mostly just got 'em out here to watch them squirm. Iln was a toss-up. Tended to depend on which side would be more chaotic. But the little ones, they were likely to crack. And Peter had always had a soft spot for them.
"Don't know." Lana said, even as Glim and Nayadina rustled nervously.
"Huh." Yondu said, pacing around them. "An' here I thought you and Quill were thick as thieves. Bosom buddies an' all that."
Lana shrugged, solid and unbreakable as the mountain she resembled but Nayadina's rustling was getting faster, and the burnt cherry taste of Glim's guilt was growing stronger.
Yondu grinned and loomed forwards, catching Kraglin's eyes over their shoulders' and ignoring the eyeroll his second gave at Yondu's dramatics.
"So, you definitely aren't -"
"Captain!"
Yondu yanked his head round at the frantic shout of his name.
Maris was sprinting towards them, Gears close behind her as they pelted across the rocky terrain, leaping over the rubble of one of the planets deserted buildings and skidding to a stop at his side. She was trembling slightly, her rigid control meaning that the faint tremors were only just noticeable on her fingers and in the very tips of her antennae.
"What's happened?" He barked, scanning the surroundings for danger, even as Kraglin dropped into a defensive stance and the miscreants scrambled to their feet.
"Captain." Maris reported, falling back onto the familiarity of formality. "Gears and Objob found signs of a fight. We believe Peter was involved. It..." Maris took a shaky breath. "It appear to be the Kree, Sir."
Lana Snarled and Glim let out an ear-splitting screech but Yondu froze, his red eyes narrowing dangerously.
The Kree. Those species killing, child-enslaving psychopaths.
And Peter.
Trouble Magnet extraordinaire.
"Shit!"
