"Ughh," utters a very in pain Rocket, rubbing at his throbbing head. He feels a slight movement in his front pocket. His eyes go wide. "Groot!" he exclaims fearfully.

Rocket looks into his pocket. Even though it was pitch-black, being what he was, he could see quite clearly. Groot was getting up, groaning irritably. He was fine. Rocket sighs in relief.

His ears perk up at a movement to his side. He looks to see Peter, down on his back, shifting uncomfortably. He'd almost forgotten he was here. Rocket clicks a button on the little flashlight pinned to his vest.

From beside him, Peter, who is still fairly confused, winces at the light, his hand flying up to shield his eyes. "Rocket?" he asks, voice sore, hurting all over.

Rocket rolls his eyes at him. Good. They were all okay,

but they weren't a minute ago,

so, what happened? "Get up, Quill! Up!" he tells hastily, accidently worrying his blonde friend.

Peter jerks up to his feet. Unable to see anything, he blinks his pinned up flashlight on. "What?! What is it?! What happened?!" he questions actively.

Rocket ignores him, studying the area they had fallen from, heart beat increasing by the second, his mind rewiring back to the one person he usually thought of,

the one person that he wasn't with right now.

The picture of her standing with that creature dangerously close behind her. He saw horror in her eyes, it slapped him across the face. And the fact that he wasn't there to protect her, that he wasn't there right now.

He quickly lost his nerves with his thoughts. "No. No. No!" he shouts at the closed up tunnel, the one that left no way back up,

to her.

Peter, who was observing the area they'd fallen in warily, cave-like with several, darker, tunnels, he turned to his yelling-at-the-fallen-rocks-friend in concern.

"We need to get back up there," he turns to Peter, who is the reminded by their endangered friends and his sister. "Now!" Rocket suddenly yells, making Peter slightly jump.
"Okay! Okay!" he complies, looking about once more in haste. "Well, we clearly won't be getting back that way, sooo, we'll have to go through the tunnels," he tells.

Rocket shakes his head furiously. "It'll take too long! We need to get back up there now!" he shouts. Peter eyes him warily. He picked up on the hint of fear in his friend's voice, and couldn't comprehend what had gotten into him.
"Hey! Okay! Calm down," he tries.

At those words, Rocket snaps.

"Calm down?! Calm down?! What, did you get hit too hard in the head on your way down?!" Rocket questions in disbelief. Peter is offended and angered. Groot covers his ears at the yelling inside Rocket's pocket. "Your sister is out there!" he points at the rubble.

His words strike immediate fear into the Quill's heart, but, for god's sake, he already knew where she was, and what she was in, he didn't need to hear this! If he could do anything about it he obviously would! So why was Rocket giving him such a hard time about it?

Then, it hit him

like a brick to the face.

He was worried about her, his sister. His feelings for her was why he was freaking out so much right now, and that bothered Peter, a lot.

Rocket was, however, unaware of the Quill-boy's deduction. Blinded by fear, and rage, Rocket decided to take it a step further by saying something he knew would hit a nerve. "Gamora is out there!" he tells. Peter widens his eyes at this, never expecting Rocket to use that against him. Rocket doesn't give him a chance to reply though. "With those things! Meanwhile, we're stuck down here, in a cave! So I'm sorry, if it seems a little hard for me to calm down right now!" he shouts.

Peter clenches his jaw in a desperate attempt not to lose it as well. If only Petra was here. This argument would have ended before it even started. But she wasn't here, he was, and since he wasn't blind to the fact that Rocket only spoke from fear and concern for the others, specifically his sister, it took everything in him to take the calm approach.

"Okay," he starts calmly. Rocket turns to him expectantly; certain he would say something even more stupid than (Calm down). "I get what you're saying," Peter tells, surprising Rocket in the process with his agreeing with him, somehow. "I'm worried too, Rocket. She's my sister," he points out. Rocket feels like he'd suddenly been exposed. He stays awfully quite. "But, she's not alone. Drax and Gamora are there too. They'll take care of each other. We can't help from here. And there's no way back. Only forward. For them too. The only place we could regroup is at the temple," he explains, a plan forming in his mind.

In the midst of his speech, Rocket's ears perk up to a sound. He couldn't place what it was, nor pinpoint where it was coming from, but one thing was for sure,

it was nearing.

"So," Peter resumes, "we'll use the googles, follow the heat radiation, and-"
"Shh!" Rocket cuts off to hear more clearly. Was it screeching? Were there some of those creatures down here too?!

Not understanding, Peter eyes Rocket wrathfully. "Did you just shush me?!" he questions in disbelief. Here he was, keeping himself from exploding on the little guy, only to be rewarded with a shush!
"Quill! Shut up!" Rocket whisper-yells harshly, putting up a stern hand. Peter slowly deduces that, with Rocket's pointed ears' movements, he was listening to something, grateful that he wasn't just being a complete douche-bag. He does as told warily.

The voices came closer by the second, no, half-a-second. Definitely screeching, but fairly different from the ones up top. This was something, something large in numbers, and fast.

Rocket's head turned to the tunnel on their left, flashlight directed at the dark. Peter turns too in wander and fear.

Eventually, Peter hears it too. Before either could react, they turned the corner, jumping into eye-sight.

They were small, no larger than grapefruits in size, but they looked deadly. Their colors were a gruesome-green, but their most significant feature, was their eyes,

and the fact that they had none!

They were on the floors, the walls, a few were even on the ceiling. They were a lot, and they were coming in hot.

Groot, who was observing from Rocket's pocket, disappears back inside fearfully.

"Run," was the only word that was able to fly out of Rocket's frozen mouth.
"Yeah!" exclaims Peter, slapping the googles onto his eyes, his vision turning blue and funny. He turned around frantically till he spotted a large quantity of orange, aka: heat, down a certain tunnel thankfully opposite the threat. "This way!" he shouts, snapping Rocket out of it.

He too slides the googles down his eyes as his feet carry him off to Peter's fleeting side.

The creatures were hot on their heels, forcing the two to take out their weapons and start shooting, split between the twists and turns down the confusing tunnel-ways, and insuring that the storming creatures stayed at least two feet behind.

"What the hell are those thing?!" Peter asks in irritancy. As if they needed more crap on their plates.
"How the heck should I know?!" Rocket asks back, a few feet ahead of Peter, shooting down some more, praying to dear god none would cross their maze-like paths.

Behind him, Peter struggles on his feet, trips down and falls, letting out a scream. Rocket scuttles to a stop and turns back irritably, but quickly. Him and Peter got along well enough for Rocket to want to keep him alive, and not just for Petra's sake.

Fear-stricken, Peter turns onto his back and looks behind, sliding his HVs up, eyes going wide at the horrifying sight of the approaching flesh-eaters. He was snapped back to reality as, beside him, Rocket couldn't see a better way of dealing with all of these numbers than something long-ranged and lethal.

He chunks two grenades at the couple hundred beastly creatures. The explosion echoes through the cave's walls and, once again, it begins to collide.

"Get up, Quill!" Rocket shouts in haste. Peter quickly complies, wondering why on earth Rocket insisted on using weapons that risked getting them killed along the way, but thankful he came back for him.

The two run with all their might. Peter mentally curses his lack of exercise.

They run, and scream, and run some more, their HVs on. Eventually, they glimpse light at the far end of the long tunnel they stood at the end of.

Alas, an exit.

The two charge forward, the stones crashing at a threatening distance, almost collapsing onto them.

With no second to waste, the two jump at the last minute out of the darkness, smacking onto the stone-made ground.

"AGHGAHA!" yells Drax as he, Gamora, and Petra run through Reveserume's forest, followed closely by up to three of those giants.

The temple was in sight, but far, and even if they made it, they were still being followed. This would have been a lot easier if the rest of the team was around.

The three reach the temple's enormous, five-stepped staircase, each step as tall as Petra. The three climb with great effort, alas reaching the ever so more enormous doorway.

Drax and Gamora attempt to open one side of it as Petra shoots at the approaching monsters.

However,

suddenly,

all three creatures reach at least twenty feet from the stairs and halt to stop, grasping the attention of the present Guardians.

"Why are they stopping?" asks Gamora, approaching Petra's side, Drax doing the same.
"Maybe Petra scared them," Drax suggests. Both females roll their eyes at him. Petra then shakes her head as the creatures turn and leave, as if in fear.
"Let's just get this over with," she says.

"Ugh," groans Peter, rising from the ground, stretching his aching back. Rocket rises too and checks on Groot.
"You okay, pal?" he asks. Groot solely nods in his pocket, only experiencing less than a quarter of the pain the boys were feeling. Peter watches to insure Groot was fine as well, and when Rocket nods and looks onwards, he is assured.

Peter eyes around curiously. They were still in a goddamn cave. This time though, there were only four, adjacent tunnel ways across from them.

"Where are we?" he questions warily, the sight somewhat threatening. Rocket shrugs tiredly.
"Only one way to find out," he nods slides the slightly cracked googles back onto his eyes, doing his best to push his fears for the others aside, telling himself they were fine, she was fine.

Peter nods in agreement. The two move towards the tunnel radiating the most heat in hopes of reaching their intended destination with no further quarrel.