Sorry for the month long delay again guys! I realize how long it's been, and I apologize once again, but life gets you once In a while, and let me tell you, it has for me. :/ I am afraid that updated chapters may not arrive until 2 - 3 weeks after the first one is published, but I will try my best from this point on to update as soon as I can. Know this: I will never abandon this story.

Anyways, Happy Valentines Day, and enjoy the chapter!

Note: I apologize if the battle scenes aren't written the best and are too quick. :( action isn't my biggest genre, even though I like it.

Please don't forget to share your thoughts and hit that review button for me! ;D


Chapter 7: Taken


The minute Kree soldiers had swarmed the third floor, Rocket was pretty sure they'd found the Armory. That and the arrow signs naturally directing them to their destination, but that wasn't how he'd known they were close to the Armory.

However, they also found that they weren't the only ones in the fire fight at the time. There seemed to be other resistance fighting against the Kree, and huddled together at some place along the third floor. Xandarian soldiers from the looks of it. Luckily for the Guardians, the Kree on there side were occupied with the Xandarains, but Peter knew they wouldn't last long on their own.

Just liked last time, Peter, Gamora, and Drax all charged into the mix, while Rocket and Sam took to ranged combat from a distance.

"I don't think those are the bad guys chief!" Rocket told Peter, pointing to the group of Xandarians huddled in the middle.

Peter looked over and nodded to him, before activating his battle mask once more. "Then let's give them a little hand," he declared, before running ahead towards the hostile Kree soldiers from behind.

Peter shot one in the back, making him crumple to the ground. Two more enemies armed with Laser weaponry turned around to face there opponent, only to be gunned down without mercy by Peter's own weapons. He landed in a crouching position behind a flipped over table and finished the two opponents that lie on each side of him, and Sam finished off the sniper providing over watch on the fourth floor. Rocket finally decided to run head on with the team, all the while gunning down unsuspecting Kree soldiers, who turned around right as he unloaded on their black suits of pointless armor.

Gamora leapt over a counter in front of her and landed a sweeping kick to a Kree's face, knocking him flat on his back, and then jabbed him in the chest with her sword. Drax raced head on a group of three enemies, who'd just turned their attention to Gamora's sudden ninja-like attack, and laughing like a mad man, he punched one across the face before grabbing the remaining two by their heads and smashing them together numerous times, until their bodies went limp. He heard the sound of a Heavy Weapon being fired, and noticed that the Krees' had created and mounted one of their stationary weapons. Looking down at the two lifeless corpses he held in his hands, Drax tossed them at an alarming rate of speed, at the Kree soldiers arming the weapon, knocking them off the glass railing, screaming themselves to their death until they reached the ground. Drax grinned in satisfaction and noticing yet another enemy, he lunged over the counter in front of him and grabbed the soldier's throat, readying his fist to beat him to a bloody pulp.

"Drax!" Peter's voice stopped him from doing anything else. He ran to his side, his mask dispersed momentarily, now frowning with confusion and his eyebrows creased. "Hold on bro, this guy's not a Ninja Turtle, put him down!"

It took Drax a minute to realize that he was holding a scared half to death Nova Corp soldier in his grip, that and the other four aiming weapons at him. He slowly lowered him to the ground and let go. "My deepest apologizes Xandarian," Drax mumbled.

The soldier who'd been dropped turned back around swiftly, and his allies helped keep the enemy Krees at bay. "Deepest apologizes my rear end!" he growled. "Who are you guys supposed to be? A buncha rag tag wannabes?" he asked harshly, rubbing his shoulder, which looked to already have been shot.

"Why would I apologize to your rear end?" Drax asked, frowning in confusion.

The soldier looked back at him with a questioning raise of his eyebrows, clearly confused, then back at Starlord. "Uh… does your friend understand the concept of-"

"No, he doesn't even know what a joke is sir," Peter interrupted. Realizing that the conversation seemed to be heading off task, he said something more essential to the current situation. "But anyway, you don't know who we are? Seriously? Dude, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy, don't tell me you haven't read the memo too," Peter stated, ducking down behind cover next to him, and taking a shot at a Kree.

"The Guardians?" The Lead soldier echoed in surprise. He glanced back at the enemy soldiers, then back at him. "Help me take care of these guys, then we'll talk!" he shouted back.

Peter opened his mouth to protest, but the soldier had already leaped out of cover along with his fellow comrades and started opening fire. He ended up letting a sigh of frustration, before turning his mask back on, and jumping back into the firefight.

He and the group of soldiers- not to exclude Rocket, Sam, Drax and Gamora, all worked together to fight the swarming Kree soldiers, as if they were one military Task Force, fighting against the enemy to achieve victory.

Peter, the Nova Corp, Rocket, and Sam all unloaded on their enemy together. Gamora and Drax did their parts on attacking up close, but the large amount of enemy soldiers made it increasingly difficult to push forward, so they strayed back most of the time to avoid being hit.

The firefight between them went on for another ten minutes, until the Kree soldiers suddenly decided to fall back. They ran far into whatever doorway they could find inside the compound and jumped through whatever windows they saw, shooting behind their shoulders, and running…. Like they knew something was about to happen.

"They're runnin' already?" Peter asked in confusion.

"Ha! What a buncha wimps! We had them beat before this battle'd even took place!" Rocket laughed.

The Commander of the Nova Corp ground didn't look or sound as enthusiastic. "Hold on!" he put his fist in the air, suddenly halting his troops fire. "This battle's not over yet my friends…. far from it."

A rumbling sounded not far from the Guardians position across the hallway, shaking the skylight above them, and causing the glass above to shatter. The glass shards fell and scattered onto and around the group of Nova Crop and the Guardians alike, but they paid little attention to it, instead, listening to another current distraction, which shook the floor a little more.

Out of the hallway walked a large machine that looked about two times the size of Groot, with duel machine guns hanging on each side of itself. A single, box like structure on it served as the head and torso, with two red dots, which seemed to serve as eyes at the time that lied on each side of its box like head. Two metal legs, with curved metal plates at the bottom of them helped control the speed of and momentum of its movements.

Quill's jaw dropped to the ground. "Uh…. those are really big guns," he restated, not caring that he'd used same statement from before.

It turned it's box sized head towards the Guardians and Nova Crop, and at that instant, the weapons attached to its sides started to spin, followed by a high pitched whirring sound that emitted from the machine.

"GET DOWN, NOW!" The Nova Corp Leader yelled, leaping behind a solid counter, followed by his fellow soldiers preforming the same action.

Rocket, Peter, and the other Guardians didn't hesitate to listen.

At that moment, a burst of machine gun fire erupted from both barrels of the immense machine. It ran straight ahead at them, firing recklessly at any enemy they saw. Rocket flinched as a stray bullet whizzed by the edges of his fur. This was one of those times where he really wished Groot were here.

The Nova Corp took positions behind their counter and attempted to blind fire from cover, but the machine kept them pinned at their current location.

Peter activated his rocket boots, which lifted him off the ground, and unloaded on the enormous machine with both of his duel pistols. He flew overhead of it, right as the machine's weapons slowly rose upwards towards Peter's position. The Terran attempted to dodge its wave of bullets, but one stray bullet hit the bottom of his Rocket Boot, causing his transportation to go haywire on him, and smoke started to appear right away where he'd be shot at. He swerved around furiously in the air, struggling to get back on track, but his attempt failed in the end, resulting in Peter clumsily crash landing into another nearby metal desk.

Drax took advantage of the machine's attention being off Peter, and ran ahead straight at it. He charged at it and jumped onto one of its Mini Guns, and summoning all of his strength, he started to rip it from its body. Creaking and whining protests of the mechanical menace sounded from within itself, as the Mini Gun attempted to turn towards Drax, but he continued pulling with all of his might.

Howeve, the Kree as he turned out, had decided to join the party again. One soldier attempted to bash Drax from behind, so the maniac grabbed him with one of his hands, and punched him across the face, knocking the soldier to the ground. But as he did this, it allowed the gun totting machine to knock Drax off with ease. He was rammed into the wall of a nearby technological booth, causing more shards of glass to rain onto him, and Drax grunted with pain at the wall bash, as the machine's Mini Guns started to spin.

But right when things seemed to be turning in the Kree's favor, something interrupted Drax's demise from commencing. "Hey, dumb machine!" a voice called.

The machine's box-like head turned at the sound of the voice, to find one of the Nova Corp soldiers, with a loaded Triple Barreled Rocket Launcher. "This is for Xandar," he stated, pulling the trigger on the launcher, sending a barrage of missiles into the machine. It staggered backwards on impact of the missiles, and the Machine's box head now looked to be cracked. One of his red, blinking lights on the side of its head was now out, and the second one looked to be fading away. The problem however, was that the machine was not dead yet.

The Nova Corp soldier who'd fired the Missile Launcher stepped backwards cautiously to see if he'd done anything to it, or if the robot would fall to its death.

"It's not dead yet!" the Captain yelled.

"Get back!" Another soldier shouted in panic.

But they spoke to soon. After hearing the whining of the Mini Guns starting to spin, the Nova Corp soldier was lying flat on the ground, full of bullet holes, dead.

The Kree machine looked over at the rest of the Nova Core, getting ready to spin its weapons again, as if to say, 'who's next?' The Captain looked enraged, and in disbelief, and even the Guardians of the Galaxy looked stunned to see that it hadn't fallen yet by three rockets.

Rocket sat in his one spot of cover, inhaling and exhaling calmly. Sam was just right across from him, looking just as hopeless as he did about the situation they were now in.

But then, a new presence rumble throughout the base silently, and Rocket's ears rose at hearing this familiar sound. It sounded like footsteps…. Strangely familiar ones too.

Just then, Rocket knew who it was, when a large figure came running at the machine from behind, it's tree-like arms swaying wildly, and the Raccoon heard some all too familiar words be shouted.

"I, AM, GROOT!

The large machine turned around to face the tree humanoid, but Groot rammed himself into the threat, and wrapped his long, tree limbs around it. His arms created roots, which entangled the robots weapons. From what Rocket could see, Groot was actually a couple 6 inches taller than the machine, making it easier for him to overpower the robot. With a grunt, Groot picked the robot up by the head, slowly but surely, raising him higher and higher above the ground, until he'd practically had him halfway off of the ground. Then, the tree humanoid ripped off his Mini Guns, one by one, before he'd raised him even higher above his head, and thrown him across the room.

The robotic contraption smashed into the concreate wall on impact, it's legs still working, but barely. With a weak groan, the robot attempted to take a step forward towards Groot, only to shakily move to the left, as if it were drunk.

But Groot wasn't finished with him yet. He picked up the two Mini Guns from the ground, one in each tree limb, and approached the now defenseless behemoth casually with them. The machine groaned mechanically again, and a rackety whirring weakly started to sound, as it tried to move backwards away from Groot. The tree shoved one Mini Gun through the Box-like head of the large machine, causing the second red light on its head to go dark, then, holding the second heavy weapon like a baseball bat in both hands, Groot brought in back behind his head, and slammed the multiple barrels of the Mini Gun against the one that was stuck in his head, causing it to move deeper through it. Then he brought in back again, and smashed it against his head again, and again, and again, until the machine's head was split in half. In moments, The Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Nova Corp, found themselves staring at a pile of overkilled mechanical wreckage, lying on the fourth floor of the compound.

The soldiers sat up cover, gasping for their breath out of disbelief. Peter sat up from the ground, grunting and wincing as he sat up, and grabbed his Laser weaponry. He scooted a little closer to the mechanical pile of wreckage on the ground, and cautiously gave it a little kick, causing a few sparks to appear, but nothing else exciting happened despite this.

Groot looked down at the machine in triumph and smiled, pumping his muscles, as smashing it one more time with the Mini Gun he held. "I am Groot!" he declared, probably saying something prior to his victory over the large behemoth.

Rocket sat up and coughed a little, trying to get the dust that had clogged itself in his throat out.

The Leader of the Nova Corp walked over to the Terran, and grabbed Peter's hand, helping his stand him. His face now had a few scratches on it, and what looked to be a bullet graze lied on his right check, but the soldier seemed to be okay other than that.

"Captain Salvias Royce," he said. Peter nodded in acknowledgement. "And for what it's worth Mr. Quill, we appreciate the- somewhat of a rescue 'attempt,' but even though you may have saved us at the moment, we still have two more Nova Corp members that need rescuing."

"Yeah, but you aren't going anywhere fast without our help Captain, trust me, Peter insisted.

Gamora stepped up to his defense. "He's right. You won't get to those men in time without our help, especially with the amount of men they still have. With only 4 other men to cover you, your odds of success are slim."

The Captain turned, and almost immediately, his expression turned vicious at the sight of her. His eyes grew wide, like he recognized her and his teeth gritted together, as he readied his weapon on the green assassin. The Laser Rifle whined, clearly stating that it was ready for firing. "How dare you show your face to Xandarians after what Ronan just made our people through!" he growled. The other soldiers around them turned their weapons on Gamora. Royce looked in Peter's direction. "You'd best have a very good reason for her standing in our presence Mr. Quill!" he demanded.

"Whoa, whoa, lower the toy there man, cool off!" Peter urged, getting in front of the Captain's weapon point and waving his arms like a stranded plane crash survivor. "She's with us, trust me! Gamora doesn't work for that Ronan dude anymore, and she sure as heck doesn't have any problems with you guys! She's one of us," Peter finished calmly.

The Captain still kept his weapon pointed in Peter's direction, the hostility and anger burning in his eyes and he glared sharp daggers straight at the Terran's eyes, and also at Gamora's. But the next second, he finally lowered his weapon, though the hostility still remained in his green eyes. The soldiers went along with their commanding officer's actions.

"Fine," he replied reluctantly. He looked up at Peter, and pointed at him. "But know that we will be keeping close surveillance on your little murdering slut," he growled.

Gamora glared at him. "Watch your tongue Xandarian, or I will silence it permanently!" she threatened.

The Captain stared back at her with that crazy look in his eyes, like he wanted to murder someone. "Charming," he ended up muttering under gritted teeth, clearly trying to keep his real anger contained. Turning back to Peter, he added on. "Fine. But just how do you suggest we reach the top floor without using the staircases? We still have another ten floors to go, and even then, any floors above this one are laser sealed, and not only that the elevators are not active, or in other words, not able to be activated, period!"

Peter knew very well- based off of Rocket's knowledge that Gamora wasn't exactly the most popular person in the galaxy, especially due to the fact that she'd taken the lives of many people's families during her line of work with Ronan. But Peter still valued her highly, and saw that it wasn't her fault that Gamora was this way. Of course, Xandarians of all people failed to understand this, especially after Ronan's little show with the Dark Astor on Xandar. The Captain seemed no different, and Peter knew he could hate her for any of the following reasons.

"Actually my friend, you may want to reconsider that sentence."

Peter and the Nova Corp turned their heads at the sound of Rocket's voice, just in time to hear Elevator music turn on. Rocket Raccoon stood in that exact spot in front of the doorway, grinning, just as two steel elevator doors opened behind him. The elevator's panel had looked to have be hacked.

Peter's jaw dropped for the hundredth time. "You mean to tell me that YOU, could've done that at any time?!" he said out loud in disbelief.

Rocket shuffled his feet and smirked, looking away from the dumbfounded Terran. "No- not at any time," Rocket's voice reached a high pitch, "it only works for certain elevators…." He put a paw of his mouth to stifle the laughter that was starting to creep into his voice, and Peter Quill rolled his eyes and facepalmed, sighing with frustration. "I hate you sometimes…." he mumbled, as he walked into the elevator.

Dang rodent, he thought to himself, remembering the time Rocket had pulled this same kind of prank, when he'd made him fight through several different guards at the prison they'd been stuck in, given a crippled old man 40,000 units for his robotic leg, and run back to the backstabbing ball of fur with it, only to find that it'd all been a JOKE! From that point on, Peter had been cautious about anything the Raccoon had said, and he hated Rocket for that…. for the most part.

Rocket sighed in amusement and shook his head. "Ah…. I know," he laughed, as the group of troops approached the elevator's entryway.

Captain Royce suddenly halted them before they could enter, his rifle propped on his shoulder, and frowned. "Hold on!" he insisted, "why are we going into a transportation device that is so obvious to attract the enemy's attention? You'd be a fool to think that the Kree wouldn't have that area guarded!" he insisted.

Rocket looked up at the bulky soldier and grinned. "Thank you for stating the facts Captain Obvious!" he said sarcastically, "but luckily for you, I have a plan."

Peter groaned. "That's supposed to be my line."

The Captain, ignoring Peter's remark, suspiciously asked, "What might you suggest?"

Rocket looked down the hall, and hearing the faint footsteps of a Kree patrol, he grinned. "Well, for starters, I'm gonna need a few things…. Involving those guys over there."


Grimlock walked over to a wooden counter top and gripped the railing beside him, as he looked down at the two prisoners that he had positioned near the glass panel leading to the outside. Kree soldiers lined the long glass panel, and kept their weapons at ease. The robotic menace looked back at one Kree.

"How much longer will it be before transportation arrives?" Grimlock demanded.

The soldier looked down at the wrist bracer attached to his arm, then to his superior. "Approximately 5 minutes sir," he replied.

Grimlock turned away. "Good," he said. The mechanical whirring of his helmet sounded as he cracked his neck around and adjusted it. His red eyes suddenly went alit, and immediately, his head went up. "I have just received a new order from our superior. Execute the prisoners. Both of them."

The Kree soldier bowed. "Yes sir, with pleasure." The soldier unsheathed a small handle from his side, which ejected a blue flash of blinding energy from it, sizzling like lava. Two others held the Nova Corp members up so the executor could kill them easily.

The Kree held the energy weapon high in the air above his head, readying it for the kill, when suddenly, a rumbling sound interrupted his chance to do so.

"Wait!" Grimlock ordered, putting his gloved hand in the air, halting the Nova Corp Soldier's execution. "The elevators are being used?" he asked in confusion. Turning to his remaining Krees, he ordered, "investigate this intrusion, and put a stop it, immediately!"

With that, the Kree all made their way to the two elevator doorways, their weapons readied, as they crowded near the entrances. They waited and waited, as the rumbling made it's way up from below, and it became louder to their ears until it came to a sudden stop. Then, the doors opened, and Hooked on a Feelin' started to play.

The soldiers peered inside the first open elevator, right away, finding the origin of the music that was playing.

Sitting in the center of the elevator, was armored Kree soldier, binded forcefully into a black office chair, with a homemade time bomb strapped to his chest, which played the song that they'd be hearing from the outside. The timer on it read: 3 Seconds remaining. The soldiers that were watching widened their eyes in surprise at the sight of the timer, and turned to run, only to do so when the timer reached zero. At that exact moment, chaos erupted, and anyone standing near the elevator was blown into the wall behind them, or blown to kingdom come, and the other soldiers that had been watching the second elevator had been hit by the bomb too, resulting in a few fatalities of their own.

At the time of the bomb's detonation, the second elevator door opened, and 5 Nova Corp soldiers and a tree humanoid came running out, attacking any Kree they saw. From the top of the elevator's hatch, Peter, then Rocket, Gamora, Sam, and Drax, jumped down, and raced outside to join the fray. Grimlock scrambled for his Laser Pistol and started firing at the group, while backing away towards the glass panel behind him slowly. Other Kree scrambled to react to the situation, but were killed before they could fight back effectively. Quill grabbed one soldier from the ground and slammed him against the wall, before firing a laser bolt into his chest, and smacked another behind him with the butt of his pistol, only to find that Drax had snapped his neck for him, ending his life indefinitely. The hostages meanwhile, were tended to by Gamora, who were only about 6 feet from Grimlock's current position, behind a metal desk.

Once all enemies were dead and eliminated, Quill, Rocket, and everyone else approached a pinned Grimlock.

"Now do you think you can take us all, Robo-Cop?" Peter asked from underneath his mask firmly, readying his weapons along with the Nova Corp. "Double the guys, double the firepower, think you can top eleven people?"

Grimlock just lowered his pistol and looked over them all with his red eyes. "I am quite capable of handling you all, but I am afraid I don't have the time." The assassin drew the Infinity Orb from his side with his free hand. "Nor does my master."

Rocket approached the robot from behind Peter, his teeth bared and his eyes demanding answers. "How do you know who I am?" he demanded. "Who are you even?!"

At this point, the Raccoon didn't care if Peter or anyone else heard what he was saying. He had to know the truth about his strangely familiar appearance, and how he seemed to know this robot.

Grimlock simply looked down at the Raccoon into his gaze, and took another step back against the glass panel.

"Don't move another muscle you imbecile!" The Captain warned.

Ignoring him, Grimlock said, "you will receive answers in time, Rocket Raccoon. But if you wish to have them….. the path to finding me, lies within one of your group."

Peter glanced to the side at Rocket in confusion, as if questioning what he was asking. "Rocket, what does this guy mean? What's he talking about?"

Grimlock looked at Star-Lord. "And you…. Peter Jason Quill, you are going to seek answers as well. I will not tell you why my master requires the orb, but I will tell you that he is someone who is close to you…. very close. He has watched you for a long while now, and still is."

"Who?" Peter asked hastily. "Who is he?"

The robotic assassin took another step, nearly touching the panel. "You will find out soon enough."

At this, Grimlock turned around and jumped through the glass panel as if it were nothing, his cape flowing in the wind behind him.

"NO!" Peter shouted, as he lunged himself to the edge.

The Nova Corp and Guardians looked over the edge, to find Grimlock's shape disappear inside a Kree Starship, which closed it's open canopy, and flew away. Peter, Rocket and their Nova Corp allies attempt to shoot it down, but their attempts inevitably didn't do anything to cease the ship's course to space.

The Captain's lips curled, and he punched the wall beside him an stomped his foot in anger. "Dang it! We lost them, we lost the orb!"

Peter and Rocket both exchanged grave glances, and Gamora stared up at the escaping ship, fear clearly visible in her eyes. She knew just as well as the rest of the team did that the orb was important above all else, and now that it was in enemy hands, who knows what would happen now.

Royce looked back at Peter and everyone else. "Follow me, we need to talk to Prime. Now!" the captain urged them, walking back towards the exit hastily.