The dioramas all around Quill and Ego transformed into a map of the universe. Quill stared in his cosmic reverie at the planets around him, thousands of them with pieces of Ego's lifeform, glowing cosmic plants, buries in them.
"I call it the Expansion. It is my purpose. And now it's yours as well." Ego gestured around them proudly.
"It's beautiful." Quill stared up at a diorama. Ego grabbed handfuls of his own body, engulfed in light, and planted the wriggling pieces on various planets. "Over thousands of years I implanted thousands of extensions of myself on thousands of worlds." In the dioramas, the cosmic plants overgrew and covered each of the planets. "I needed to fulfill life's one true purpose: to grow and to spread, covering all that exists, until everything... is me." Ego's eyes lit with a sick madness. "I only had one problem. A single Celestial doesn't have enough power for such an enterprise. But two Celestials - well now, that just might do." On the dioramas depicted Ego with hundreds of species of female aliens. "Out of all my labors the most beguiling was attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species. I hoped the result of such a coupling would be enough to power the expansion. I had Yondu deliver some of them to me. It broke the Ravager code - but I compensated him generously. And, to ease his conscience, I told him I would never hurt them." Ego explained. "That was true. They never felt a thing. But, one after the other, they failed me. None of them had the Celestial genes. Until you, Peter. Out of all my spawn, only you have carried the connection to the light." Peter smiled like an enchanted idiot, the cosmos in his eyes. "For the first time in my life, I am truly not alone." Quill suddenly looked sad. "What is it, son?"
"My friends." Peter said coming to a bit. "Rhea?"
"That's the mortal in you, Peter." Ego told him and Peter zoned out again.
"Yes. I don't need that." Peter said in a monotone voice.
"What are we?" Ego asked.
"Forever." Quill answered.
"What are they?" Ego questioned.
"Temporary." Quill replied.
"You think you love them. But love is merely an evolutionary trick in the service of reproduction. We are beyond such things." Ego said pompously.
"Yes." Peter said.
"Now…" Ego began.
"But my mother." Peter cut in and Ego looked at him, questioningly. "You said you loved my mother."
"That I did. My river lily, who knew the words to every song that came on the radio. I returned to earth to see her three times. I knew if I came back a fourth, I'd never leave." Ego sighed wistfully. "The expansion, the reason for my very existence would be over. So I did what I had to do. But it broke my heart to put that tumor in her head."
"Wh- what?" Quill snapped to, the cosmos disappearing from his eyes, replaced by tears streaming down his face.
"I know that sounds bad…" Ego started, but Peter pulled out his pistols and fired. The blasts tore through Ego, dispersing the molecules forming his body. In a blind rage Quill shot at him again and again and again. The flesh disappearing from Ego like bites from a cookie, exposing the angry alien skeletal form beneath, but as the charge on Peter's blasters wore out, Ego just looked at him and although he was filled with holes, he merely looked disappointed. "Who in the hell do you think you are?"
"You killed my mother!" Peter ground out.
"I tried so hard to find the form that best suited you, and this is the thanks I get?" Ego transformed into David Hasselhoff before returning to his usual form. "You really need to grow up." A spiky cosmic light propelled tendril shot up from the floor behind Quill, and jutted into Quill's body thrusting him into the air. Peter opened his mouth to scream, a white light emanating from within. "I wanted to do this together! But I suppose you'll have to learn by spending the next thousand years as a battery, 'Star-Lord'."
Ego walks calmly up beside the trapped Quill. He snatches the Walkman off of him. He stares at it. Quill can barely speak.
"NO." Quill gasped out as Ego pressed play and a distorted version of "Brandy" played. He stared at it perhaps feeling wistful sadness, but more than likely feeling nothing at all.
'Brandy, you're a fine girl. What a good wife you would be.'
"'My life, my love, my lady is the sea'?" Ego sang along a bit. "Peter, THIS IS THE SEA."
Ego crushed the Walkman in his grip as Quill watched helplessly. The power surged from Quill through the tentacle and throughout the entire palace power surged. Rhea, Gamora, Mantis, Drax, and Nebula ran toward the Palace it burst with white cosmic light, so brightly they had to protect their eyes.
Ego basked in the power that traveled down his legs through the surface of the planet twisting through viens of light beneath and into an enormous metal orb, the self-chamber which exploded with the light. Various planets Ego had been on he had left behind a strange flower that now burst to life, reaching out and consuming all in its way. Ego summoned all his energy, when, suddenly, a door beside him smashed apart with a powerful kick from Drax. Behind him Rhea, Gamora, Nebula and Mantis ran into the palace flinching back at the light. Ego turned to see them, then heard a rumbling above him. He turned to look at a window on the palace wall behind him and the giant laser drill came smashing through the palace wall.
"Hey there, Jackass." Yondu called out as Ego looked surprised.
The laser drill smacked into Ego, smashing him back. The tendril retracted from Quill as he fell and heaved for breath. The cosmic plants suddenly stop cold in their tracks. Drax, Rhea, Gamora, Nebula, and Mantis rushed into the crumbling palace. The door on the side of the Laser Drill slid open and Baby Groot was standing there, smiling, and waving.
"Out of the way, dumber, smaller Groot." Drax ordered. As Drax crawled in, Groot started punching Drax as hard as he could. Taylor opened a portal jumping through it and rushing to the man who had been released from the spike. Ego stood shakily to his feet stalking over to them, his jaw set into a hard line.
"You'll not touch another hair on his head." Taylor ground out as she took out her spear.
"Who the hell are you?" Ego sneered at her.
"Taylor Quill, the daughter you didn't want." Taylor snarled with a dark smirk. "And I've come all this was to find my brother and kick your butt." Ego's face looking surprised as she formed a spell seal with a few quick slashes from her spear. "And I've found my brother."
Taylor blasted him back with a powerful white light reducing his body to smoking ash. She spun her spear around cutting off the spell when the job was done starring down at what was left of Ego with a sneer.
"Taylor?" Peter looked up at her in shock.
"Hello Peter." Taylor said as she knelt down next to him helping him up.
Rhea ran over before he could say anything and taking up his other side while casting a weary look toward Taylor. Taylor glanced at Rhea doing a bit of a double take, her eyes going very wide, but shook her head at the impossibility of it.
"I told you something didn't feel right." Rhea snapped at him
"'I told you so.' That's really what I need right now." Quill groused.
"I came back, didn't I?" Rhea replied.
"Because of our thing." Peter smirked.
"I hate you." Rhea muttered.
"No you don't." Peter replied.
"Is that thing really our dad?" Taylor asked.
"Would seem so." Peter nodded, slightly unsure of his sister after all the crap he was going through with his father.
"What are you doing? You could have killed us all crashing in here like that!" Drax complained to Rocket.
"Uh, 'Thank you, Rocket'?" Rocket snapped.
"We had it under control." Drax argued.
"We did not. That is only an extension of his true self. He will be back soon." Mantis told them.
"What's Smurfette doing here!?" Peter gestured to Nebula
"Back rubs, dishes, killing gods, whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home." Nebula replied.
"She tried to murder me!" Rocket said.
"I saved you, you stupid fox." Nebula sneered.
"He's not a fox." Gamora said.
"I am Groot." Groot said.
"I'm not a raboon either!" Rocket told them.
"I am Groot." Groot corrected him.
"'Raccoon,' whatever!" Rocket said.
"Who is she?" Gamora demanded as she advanced on Taylor.
"Taylor Quill." Taylor replied, eyeing the green woman.
"Quill?" Rhea echoed glancing at Peter.
"My sister." Peter said to the shock of those who did not already know. "So you're alive and have…powers?"
"Yes, I'm alive and I have powers, I'm a sorceress." Taylor replied, both of them uneasy, not sure how to act. "Why would you think I was dead?"
"Ego said you'd died of the same cancer mom had." Peter told her.
"Well I think we can guess how much salt we should take with him comments." Taylor replied. "You never came back."
"I couldn't." Peter shook his head.
"Why not?" Taylor asked, but suddenly tentacle like strands burst up through the palace flooring all around the drill.
"How do we kill a Celestial?" Drax turned from the window to the others.
"There's the center to him - his brain, his soul, whatever it is, in some sort of shell…." Peter told them.
"It's in the caverns below the surface." Mantis said as Quill climbed up the ladder to see Yondu in the drivers seat much to his surprise.
"YONDU?" Peter exclaimed.
"If he's got that fin back, I am so screwed." Nebula looked to Gamora.
"After you shot him from behind in the head I wouldn't be too surprised." Taylor commented as she made her way after Peter, but was stopped by Rhea.
"Who are you?" Rhea glared Taylor down.
"Taylor Quill, like I said before." Taylor wrenched her arm from Rhea's grasp.
"Yeah, Peter's sister." Rhea said with narrowed eyes. "I mean who are you really?"
"Just who I said I am." Taylor stood tall. "I can't say it any more clearly than that."
"Sorry is I'm a bit skeptical on how a terran woman made her way all the way from earth out here." Rhea said sarcastically with a bit of bite in her voice.
"I had some help from a friend." Taylor told her.
"Oh really? Who's that?" Rhea asked crossing her arms over her chest tightly.
"Vanessa Stark and her husband Loki of Asgard hooked me up with a ride." Taylor said in annoyance, really looking at Rhea. "And if I might ask, who are you? You looked really familiar. Have we met?"
"No, we haven't." Rhea stepped back away from Taylor.
"You got a name?" Taylor asked, but Rhea ignored her, walking away to Gamora. Taylor gave her one last look before following Peter up to the cockpit leaving behind a stunned Rhea.
"Are you ok?" Gamora placed a comforting hand on Rhea's shoulder.
"Yeah…" Rhea nodded her head shakily, her arms falling to her sides. "I'm…I'm fine. I mean I knew they existed in this universe, I just…."
"Never expected to really have any contact with them." Gamora nodded.
"Yeah…" Rhea breathed out, but any further conversation was cut short by the rockiness of the ride.
Taylor made it to the top of the ladder just as Yondu thrust the ship upward for takeoff, but tentacles wrapped around the ship and yanked is back down into the floor, destroying the foundation of the palace causing it to crumble.
"Thrusters are out!" Yondu called out.
"I guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid. Otherwise you would have delivered me to this maniac!" Quill started rewiring the mechanics.
"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?!" Yondu replied.
"That's what you told me, you old doofus!" Quill shot back.
"Once I figured out what happened to them other kids, I wasn't gonna just hand you over." Yondu told him.
"You said you were gonna eat me!" Peter complained.
"Eat you?!" Taylor echoed in disgust as she held onto the back of Peter's seat.
"That was being funny!" Yondu defended himself.
"Not to me!" Peter said.
"You people have issues." Rocket commented.
"Of course I have issues that's my fricking father!..." Quill saw where Ego's creepy skeletal form was growing in front of them.
"Well thank god we took after mom." Taylor called out getting a dry chuckle from Peter.
"Thrusters are back up." Peter told them sitting back up.
Quill thrust the ship forward instead of up and it crashed through Ego and down the sloping floor and out through the giant pane of glass at the end. Everyone held on in what's essentially the worst roller coaster drop ever.
"We should be going up!" Yondu said.
"We can't. Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him." Peter said as they plummet toward a fissure in the earth below, but it's too small for the ship. "Rocket!"
"Got it." Rocket blast the lasers perfectly, chipping away at pieces of rock, forming an opening in the crack. They smashed into the opening, barely fitting, leading down into the planet. Quill flew perfectly, twisting through tunnels and around corners. Rocket mans the lasers, blasting pieces out of the place just in time so they can scrape through. "So, we're saving the galaxy again?"
"I guess." Peter said.
"Awesome. We'll really be able to jack up our prices if we're two-time-galaxy savers." Rocket smiled as he moved around his seat working the various controls to keep the laser going.
"I seriously can't believe that is where your mind goes." Peter shook her head.
"It was just a random thought, man! I thought we were friends!" Rocket defended himself. "Of course I care about the planets, and the buildings, and all of the animals on the planets."
"And the people." Rhea called out.
"Meh." Rocket shrugged and Mantis giggled.
"The crabby puppy is so cute he makes me want to die!" Mantis smiled.
"Your suicidal thoughts sadden me, but your wish will likely come true." Drax said as the flight got worse.
Meanwhile, Kraglin was mellowly hanging out, eating some soup and listening to "WHAM BAM" BY Silver when he saw something out in the distance of space and looked a bit closer. Soveriegn omnicrafts are popping out through the jump points above Ego's planet. Ayesha was remotely piloting one of the ships looking determined and angry on the vid-screen, the other crafts coming up to flank her making up a large fleet.
"Pilots, release envoy units!" Ayesha, in full pilot gear, yelled into her comm. Smaller, more nimble robotic envoys, like big pods with blasters for arms - detach from the front of every Omnicraft. "Our sensors detect the batteries are below the surface of the planet. "Dive!"
On the screens in all the pods, the envoys dove toward the planet from slightly different directions. Kraglin, in shock, watched the massive fleet of envoys diving downward and grabbed the comm.
"Uhh... Cap'n?" Kraglin tried, but no answer. "Cap'n?"
Yondu didn't hear the crackling speaker beside him as they maneuvered down through the fissure and Quill eyed him.
"So why'd Ego want you here?" Yondu asked.
"He needs my genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe. He tried to teach me how to control the power." Peter explained.
"So could you?" Yondu asked.
"A little. I made a ball." Peter told him.
"A ball?" Yondu echoed and Taylor giggled a little.
"I thought as hard as I could, that's all I could come up with." Peter defended.
"You 'thought'?" Yondu questioned and Quill nodded. "You think when I make this arrow fly I use my head?"
"What do you use?" Peter asked.
"Hey! Pay attention to the road, chick flick moment later." Taylor yelled when they looked at each other instead of where they were going, and then crashed into an overhanging piece of rock. The entire side door was ripped off as they screeched through a smaller space and into the planets hollow. "Dear lord, this is like the time you talked me into stealing grandpa's truck for a joyride."
"We were just going to back down the driveway." Peter smirked a bit.
"But you couldn't reach the break and we nearly backed into traffic if grandpa hadn't stopped us." Taylor pointed out and Peter laughed.
"He was so pissed." Peter remarked. "We couldn't sit down for a whole day."
The Laser Drill had dropped into this enormous open space within the planet. The Guardians gathered on the side of the ship open to the hollow, gazing out at its stunning beauty, lit by Ego's white glow running throughout it.
"Whoa." Gamora breathed out.
"There! Thats Ego's core." Mantis turned, looking through the portholes on the other side and pointed at the Self Chamber, down below them. They twisted down towards it.
"That ore's thick. Rocket, we're gonna need to use the big laser." Gamora said and Rocket nodded, flicking switches. All the small lasers on the sides moved through grooves to combine into one huge laser in the center of the ship.
"We must hurry. It will not take Ego long to find us." Mantis told them.
"Keep it still!" Rocket said and Quill steadied the craft as best he could beside the Self Chamber, but I was an unwieldy beast, built for power, not precision. Rocket powered up the mega-laser and held tight to the shuddering controls as it drills, burning a hole into the protective sheathe, molten slag melting and dripping down.
"We drill into the center, we kill him." Quill held tight to the steering wheel.
"I know he tried to take over the universe and all, and I know he didn't really want me, but can we maybe talk to him? I mean he is out dad." Taylor pointed out, a little uncertain.
"He killed mom." Peter said darkly.
"What?" Taylor breathed out, her nails digging into the seat.
"He planted the cancer in her head because he was afraid he'd distract her form his big plan to take over the universe." Peter bit out.
"Well let's drill faster and lobotimise this frugly rock already!" Taylor roared over the noise of their flight.
"What is it, Kraglin?" Yondu noticed the blinking light on the comm and tapped it.
"Um, remember that Ayesha chick?" Kraglin asked.
"Yeah, why?" Yondu looked out the window where Ayesha's squadron was swooping out of the cracks in the ceiling all around them. "Aw, hell."
Quill pulled away from the envoys, but the Sovereign envoys started blasting at the craft all at once; the laser loses power and the vehicle turned sideways. Drax, Mantis, Rhea, and Gamora go tumbling from the hole in the side. Nebula and Groot managed to grab onto the floor. Gamora, Rhea, Drax, and Mantis fall from an incredible height, landing hard on the ground, but managing to stay upright. Rhea looked up and saw the Laser Drill curl behind the Self Chamber as it tries to avoid the envoys' blasters. Nebula and Groot settle as the ship rights itself and blasts pierce the ship around them. Taylor peered down at Rocket, who had jumped out of his seat and is pouring out the contents of his satchel.
"Why aren't you firing the laser?!" Taylor asked.
"They blew out the generator!" Rocket told her. "I think I packed a small detonator."
"A detonator is worthless without explosives!" Nebula argued.
"We got these!" Rocket showed Nebula the Anulax batteries. Peter left the controls to Yondu as he climbed down beside Rocket taking Taylor with him. Rocket was messing with wiring on his bomb.
"Is it strong enough to kill Ego?" Peter asked
"If it is, it will cause a chain reaction throughout his entire nervous system." Rocket explained.
"Meaning what?" Taylor asked.
"The entire planet will explode." Rocket said. "We'll have to get out of here fast. I rigged a timer." Rocket stuffed the bomb back in his satchel and Groot climbed on his back. Rocket and Quill slapped on their Aeero Rigs.
"What are those?" Taylor asked.
"Aeero Rigs, they let us fly, I made them." Rocket answered smugly as Peter held one out to her.
"I'm good." Taylor rushed, jumping out of the ship using her fire to fly.
"Wow…" Peter watched her go, sending out blasts of fire and ice at the ships along with using her spells seals to block oncoming fire.
"Are you sure you two are twins?" Rocket asked eyeing Taylor who was yelling out a fierce battle cry sweeping around with her spear sending out a blast of light. "I mean she's really awesome and you're…"
"Just go!" Peter just shot him a dirty look before they ran jumping out of the laser drill, flying and avoiding the gunfire. They zoomed towards the blast hole on the side of the self-chamber. Rocket and Quill landed, messily, tumbling, Taylor taking up guard duty over them.
-0-
Mantis was worried about something else entirely; the entire chasm began trembling and the walls started to mutate. They writhed, twisted, and morphed at the will of Ego as he approached them.
"He's coming." Mantis breathed out.
"Didn't you say you could make him sleep?" Drax asked.
"When he wants! He's too powerful! I can't!" Mantis said.
"You don't have to believe in yourself because I believe in you." Drax encouraged her.
They looked ahead and see, on the enormous wall in front of them, the light-form of a giant Ego screaming angrily. His scream became a tunnel of rocks rushing toward them like a train. Mantis spotted a nerve bundle on the ground coming from Ego's Core and although afraid, she grabbed it.
"SLEEP!" Mantis screamed with effort and some pain as energy traveled through the bundle and into the core, where it darkens.
The light leaves the rock formation and it slammed into the ground in front of them, splashing dirt over them, but they were safe, shivering. Drax, Rhea, and Gamora look at each other.
"I never thought she'd be able to do it. With as skinny and weak as she appears to be." Drax admitted.
"I don't know how long I can hold him!" Mantis's arm was trembling.
"Well you need to so you better do so." Rhea told her.
"If you don't keep Ego at bay, we all die." Gamora added.
"Wasn't going to put that pressure on her, but yeah, Mantis, he'll obliterate us so hold on." Rhea said keeping an eye on Peter and his so called sister.
-0-
Rocket shined a powerful pen-light inside the cavity, exposing the interior, spattered with Swiss-cheese-like holes glowing with light.
"The metal is too thick! For the bomb to work we'd actually need to place it on Ego's core. And our fat butts ain't gonna fit through those tiny holes." Rocket said.
"Well..." Quill slowly eyed Groot, who is playing with a leaf on his arm and thinking about something else entirely.
"That's a terrible idea." Rocket said.
"Which is the only kind of idea we got left." Peter said. Rocket sighed putting Groot on his back and moved with Groot deeper into the blast hole, mumbling to himself:
"Unbelievable. 'Rocket, do this. Rocket, do that.'" Rocket groused. Quill turned toward the opening where Taylor was still holding off some of the ships.
"Uh, what a day." Peter sighed.
"Ain't it just." Taylor grinned pointing Inlustris at one of the ship firing off a bright beam cutting it in half. Quill flew up as a ship flew in toward him blasting, and he's about to fire back.
Blasts in the deep background echoed down the tunnel to where Rocket placed a tiny bomb in front of Groot. It was a small, simple device with two switches and two buttons.
"All right. First you flick this switch, then this switch. That activates it. And then you push this button, which will give you five minutes to get out of there. Whatever you do don't push this button, because that will set off the bomb immediately, and we'll all be dead." Rocket explained very carefully as Groot looked up at him wide eyed and mouth agape. "Now repeat back what I just said."
"I am Groot." Groot said.
"Uh huh." Rocket crossed his arms sitting back on his haunches.
"I am Groot." Groot went on.
"That's right." Rocket nodded.
"I am Groot." Groot pointed to one of the buttons.
"No! That's the button that will kill everyone!" Rocket told him. "Try again."
"I am Groot." Groot said thoughtfully and Rocket nodded. "I am Groot." Another nod from Rocket. "I am Groot."
No!" Groot pointed to the death button again. "That's exactly what you just said! How is that even possible?! Which button is the button you're supposed to push?! Point to it." Groot thinks and he pointed to the one that will kill everyone. "NO!"
"Hey, you're making him nervous!" Peter called down to them. Rocket runs to see, at the end of the hole, a sliver of the outside as Quill peeked in while shooting at envoys.
"Shut up! And give me some tape! Does anyone have any tape out there!? I want to put some tape over the death button!" Rocket called up.
"I don't have any tape. Let me check." Peter disappeared from the hole as Rocket waited, he heard, amongst the chaos, faintly…
"Yo, Yondu, do you have any - ow! - do you have any tape?!" Peter asked as the sounds of gun blasts echoed. There were some grumblings, but nothing definite as they heard Peter ask various guardians for tape. Rocket and Groot looked around, waiting. Rocket was impatient and coughed. Groot was like a bored kid in a waiting room and he shifted around playing with the wires on the bomb. Quill reappeared outside the hole, shooting an envoy. "No one has any tape."
"Not a single person has tape?" Rocket complained.
"You have priceless batteries and an atomic bomb in your bag! If anyone had tape it would be you!" Peter argued.
"That's exactly my point! I have to do everything!" Rocket snapped.
"Dude, you're wasting time!" Peter snapped back. Rocket turned back to Groot, who had already taken the bomb and was heading towards the hole. He made a "WHEEEEEE" sound and smiled brightly as he hopped into the hole and slid down as if on a water slide.
"We're all gonna die." Rocket, heavy-lidded, watched him go.
-0-
Yondu and Nebula, were in the cockpit, being overcome as blasts come through the walls of the ship.
"We're done for without the generator." Yondu yelled and Nebula moaned, frustrated. She flipped open a section of the dashboard, then a part of her arm. The remaining Sovereign envoys encircled the battered Laser Drill, blasting it to bits. Quill slew into the Laser Drill, slamming into the wall.
"Guardians! Perhaps it will provide you solace that your deaths are not without purpose." Ayesha told them. Nebula fed the wires from the craft into her mechanical arm. The actual Ayesha, fitted with the pilot gear, looked at the Laser Drill on the screen. "They will serve as a warning to all of those tempted with betraying us; don't screw with the Sovereign."
"This is gonna hurt." Yondu worked some switches: The lasers slid back into the slots all over the ship.
"Promises, promises." Nebula muttered as Yondu flipped all the switches; all the power runs painfully out of Nebula's body into the vehicle and the lasers beam out of the ship in all directions at once, like a dangerous disco ball, slicing through almost nearly every single envoy. A beam almost hit Drax, but he leapt out of the way. Smoke rose from a hole in the ground between him and Mantis.
"Hey!" Drax snapped at them. With flair, Yondu spun the pilot's wheel, so that the whole rig revolves. Ayesha looked on, in horror as the beams slice through the remaining crafts and one is coming her way.
"NO!" Ayesha roared as she was ripped apart. She sat back in disgust as all around her the other pods: all of them were down. "NO! NOOOOO!"
"We're gonna blow!" Peter yelled as flaming chunks flew into the rig, fire spilling toward the ship engines. Yondu whistled as the flames hit the fuel. Rhea watched in stricken horror as the entire laser drill exploded.
"Peter?" Rhea called out.
"Nebula!" Gamora gasped.
They spotted Taylor clambering onto the ship reaching in through where the windshield had been. She grabbed Nebula pulling her out and jumping away from the ship landing in front of the others. Gamora ran over to Nebula, worried. Nebula gave her what might be a little smile, and looked upward.
"Thanks." Nebula muttered reluctantly to Taylor, who nodded back, but was starring up.
They all followed her line of sight to see Quill flying from the explosion on his aero-rig. Yondu was holding onto his yaka arrow: his one arm up straight and his heels were touching. Quill looked up at him snickering.
"What?" Yondu questioned him.
"You look like Mary Poppins." Peter said.
"Is he cool?" Yondu asked and Peter looked at the man who raised him with a smile.
"Yeah. He's cool." Peter nodded.
"I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!" Yondu looked out at the Guardians as he came in for a landing.
Both Rhea and Taylor glanced at Peter who subtly shook his head, motioning for them not to say anything. Peter and Yondu landed beside Nebula and Taylor. Taylor grabbed Peter pulling him into a tight hug, Peter slowly wrapping his arms around her as well.
"I missed you Pete." Taylor mumbled as they separated.
"Missed you to Tay." Peter ruffled the top of her head. Rhea ran over to them as fiery ship fragments rained down around them. "I gotta do something." Peter let go of Taylor who watched in amusement as Peter pulled Rhea into his arms cupping the side of her face and pressing a kiss on her lips. Rhea looked up at him surprised while Peter just rested his forehead against hers. "I love you."
Peter had never ever said that to her before, or any other woman as far as she knew. He avoided those words like the plague. She started into his eyes with a narrowed gaze searching them before letting go a soft smile.
"I know." Rhea replied.
"Did you…did you just Hon Solo me?" Peter blinked at her as Taylor laughed behind him.
"Yep, now get it together Star Lord, we got a galaxy to save again." Rhea winked at him.
"I like her, I approve very much." Taylor continued to chuckle as the other Guardians joined them, Rocket flying down on his aero-rig. Mantis was staring forward with concentration with her hand pressed to the glowing nerve until a huge chunk of spaceship flew at her hitting her in the side
"Oh. Wow." Peter muttered as they all were shocked. Mantis lay unconscious beneath a ship fragment losing her hold of Ego. The entire hollow around them began to rumble as the ground and walls themselves shifted and wavered, the whole cavity was alive.
"She's just unconscious." Drax checked on Mantis
"How long before the bomb goes off?" Quill asked Rocket.
"In the unlikely event Groot doesn't kill us all, about six minutes." Rocket answered.
"Kraglin." Yondu spoke into the comm on his lapel. "We need the Quadrant for extraction in T-minus five minutes."
"Aye, Cap'n!" Kraglin answered. They all peered up to see the surface of the planet unfolding above them, so that bright skies shone through.
"Someone needs to be up top when Kraglin arrives." Peter ordered. "Drax, take Mantis."
Drax nodded as he picked up Mantis. Quill grabbed the aero-rig off himself and slapped it on Drax's back, which automatically wrapped around his upper body.
"Ahhh! My nipples!" Drax yelled as he flew upwards.
"Did he just say…?" Taylor started to ask.
"Yeah…he says he has sensitive nipple." Rhea shrugged, slightly embarrassed.
The ground around them split into enormous cracks. Rhea saw a crack in the earth heading toward her Gamora, Taylor, and Peter. Rhea turned to Peter, their eyes meet for a brief moment before she, along with Gamora, fell with the crumbling earth leaving behind Peter and Taylor.
"Rhea! Gamora!" Peter called out as huge bursts of earth shoot up all around them. The planet formed giant tentacles that hurtled toward them. Rhea and Gamora were plummeting, seemingly to their death, when Gamora looked over and saw Nebula falling just behind her. Nebula grabbed Gamora's arm and then grabbed onto a passing cliff. They snap to a painful stop handing down off the side of the cliff.
"Rhea!" Gamora looked down just in time to see Rhea form a string of light that wrapped around the rock and using it swung back up to a flat surface just above Nebula and Gamora. Nebula tossed Gamora up to Rhea who leaned over the edge helping them both up one at a time onto the flat surface. Gamora looked at Nebula, wary but surprised by this beneficence.
"Oh, get over it." Nebula brushed her off.
Quill blasted a tentacle while Taylor froze another before slicing it in half. Yondu whistled, the yaka arrow weaving through them and around them. Rocket tossed a bunch of tiny bombs at some, which stick to and explode, but they are by no means winning this fight.
"We have to get up to the extraction point!" Gamora looked at Nebula and Rhea. They looked over the edge and see a huge rift of land rising quickly. They all look at each other and jump grabbing onto the edge of the rising rift, clutching to it as it flew upward toward the open space above them.
