A few minutes ago
"What do you mean, you think they're up to something big?!" Peter asks Gamora tiredly, who had just told him her honest and concerned opinion about the mysterious, and lethal, Shadow Clan.
They were still in the kitchen, Drax seated on the table, Peter and Gamora across from him. Gamora was doing two things at the moment. First and foremost, keep Peter in line and away from his twin and her unprofessionally close friend. Second, needing him, team leader, to hear her plea and agree.
"Peter. They are a dangerous group of people, with resources, and numbers. They're collecting powerful relics for who knows what. You saw what that vail did to Rocket. Whatever they plan on doing with it, and the other amount of artifacts they seem to be hording, it won't be pretty," she tells firmly. Drax listens intently. Peter rolls his eyes.
"Okay, then we'll stir clear of them," he tells uninterestedly. Gamora clenches her jaw.
But she knew why he was so tense. He would have heard her out more thoroughly if he were calmer, and he usually was. It was one of the many things she thought was wildly impossible to achieve herself, yet, admired how easy-going he was. It was contagious, and she liked it. But sometimes she wished he'd take certain matters more seriously.
Though Peter didn't, or couldn't put much thought into this right now, Drax did. He spoke next. "Their constantly cheerful leader said that his commander thought us useful. Had he not tried to kill us, what would he have wanted with us?" he offers curiously, and worriedly. Gamora nods quickly, pointing a hand at Drax.
"And who is their commander?" she resumes, Drax nods along.
Peter exchanges glances between them. He could feel their words held seriousness, and so was forced to think about them. Sighing tiredly, Peter washes a hand down his face and nods slightly. "Okay," he starts. Gamora is relieved by his earned attention at last. Drax smirks at how easily he'd given in. "I'll talk to Yondu, tell him what happened, and see if he can help us find out anything more than we already know. Happy?" he asks her irritably, but the genuine smile on her face played his heart-strings, making him smile too.
The silence then kicks into his mind. "They've been gone for an awfully long time. I'm gonna go see what's up," he says suddenly. Gamora rolls her eyes as he storms off.
She quickly follows after him though; to insure he wouldn't act stupidly.
Now
Petra makes her way to her desk to analyze the sample. On the bed Rocket's ears perk up. He could hear Peter's loud and fast footsteps from a mile away, just then noting that his hearing had increased with his size as well. He wondered what else had enhanced.
Peter barges into the room, without knocking as usual, startling Petra on the desk slightly. Peter stands at the door way, observing the situation. His two targets were at a safe distance from each other, which gives room for his worked up mind to relax.
Petra turns to his weird posture, rolls her eyes, and looks back to the digital microscope. Rocket smirks, curious as to exactly what Peter thought was going on in the closed bedroom before he came in threateningly.
Peter tries to act casual. "So, how's it going?" he asks, exchanging looks between the three present.
"Awe! You're worried about me! I'm touched," Rocket tells sarcastically. Peter gives him a scoff-like grin, turning back to Petra, who has a wide smile plastered on her face. He furrows his eyebrows.
"Everything's great," she says, turning on her wheeled-chair and facing Rocket once more. "You're in perfect health," she tells in relief and pure content. Rocket could tell she was seriously worried about him. He smiles happily at her.
"Well, of course I am," he tells, as if he'd made sure he was fine just for her, eyeing her in great admiration.
She flushes red and purses her lips, looking to her lap as he refused to remove his eyes from her.
At the door way, Peter is beyond wary of what was going on. His mind thinks of multiple ways to break this, fast. "Great!" he yells suddenly, "Cause, Gamora-" he starts, then catches movement next to him. The Zen-Whoberi was now stood next to him, studying the situation carefully to try and process what sight Peter had been exposed to before she got there, in order to take charge if he over-reacted. Cause, honestly, nothing happened, yet anyways.
As Peter is distracted, Rocket attempts to get up. Petra hurries off her chair to his side. He raises an assuring hand at her and nods that he was fine to stand. She lets him.
"and I," Peter resumes, furrowing his eyebrows slightly at the two that were now uncomfortably close, "were just talking about the Clan, and how we think they're, um, dangerous," he tells, attempting at starting up a more distracting conversation.
Petra nods in agreement, processing his words carefully. This was probably as good a time as any to bring it up, but she thought everyone should know.
The red-head smirks in amusement. "I'm way ahead of you," she tells mischievously. Oh, how she loved surprising them. She eyes Rocket the same way they eye each other whenever they come up with a new invention, or a great plan. Playful, and up to no good.
He smirks understandingly as she rushes out of the room, obviously wanting them to follow. They do.
Petra enters the kitchen, where Drax was rummaging the fridge. She acknowledges his presence as he pulls out of it with a leftover sandwich in his hand.
Drax can see she is up to something, observing her determined steps curiously as she made her way to the wide screen on the wall, tampering with it as the other four appeared in the room.
Peter and Gamora take seats on the table, Drax too as Groot climbs onto the table itself.
Rocket is wary of his every step. Everything seemed so much smaller. It was alien to him, but he wasn't complaining. As a matter of fact, he found it very amusing, how small they all seemed now. But alas, he felt equal, and was eager to test out his new strengths.
Rocket leans on the wall casually next to the screen and Petra. The two automatically teamed up whenever something was even remotely related to technology.
Done, Petra moves out of the way and shows them the screen. "I'd managed to sneak a tracking device on one of them. They seem to be headed to Sulix," she explains.
Peter widens his eyes slightly. "What? And you want us to follow them?" he asks. Gamora furrows her eyebrows at him. She did say she wanted information on them, and couldn't see why Peter suddenly didn't like that.
In his defense, he said he'd ask Yondu, he didn't say he was willing to follow anyone around, especially when he didn't see any personal benefit in the situation. They still needed money.
Petra shrugs slightly. "Well, we need to refuel anyways. And it's pretty close by, so, we might as well see where they lead us," she tells. Gamora nods in extreme agreement. Drax doesn't mind. Groot isn't even listening. But the other two males, not so much.
"Why would you wanna do that?" Rocket asks in confusion.
"Thank you!" Peter exclaims.
Petra exchanges glances between the two of them weirdly, not understanding what the big deal was. Gamora then stands furiously. "Guys, we need to find out more about them! They're dangerous! They're up to something! We need to figure out what it is!" she tells.
She trusted her instinct, and if she felt the Clan meant trouble, then they probably did, just like when she chose to trust Peter and Petra all those months ago. She'd never regretted it since, and probably never will.
"Why?! What good would it do?!" Peter asks irritably. Gamora was always slightly dramatic in his opinion.
"In case you haven't noticed, greeny. We're broke. What we need, is to find a job, fast," Rocket tells.
Believe it or not, though they didn't get along very well, Peter and Rocket were awfully similar.
Petra honestly didn't care what they did. However, if a decision was to be made, she wanted them to know all the facts before they made it. "Guys," she interrupts, driving all attention to her. She didn't mind. "If you're worried about the money. Rocket and I have a few extra blasters and some other stuff we could sell. So, chill," she tries, seeing as how things were heating up.
Rocket widens his eyes at her. "What?! Why? Why even bother? The Clan's gone! We couldn't negotiate! We couldn't get our stuff back! I say, get over it and move on!" he yells the last few statements at the persistent Gamora, who glares at him in return as Petra rolls her eyes.
Un-surprisingly, this was how they usually discussed things.
"NO!" shouts Drax suddenly startling them as he stood. "Gamora is right," he tells.
The Destroyer was only agreeing for his own reasons. He did not like being bested by others. He felt it hurt his dignity to fail. He wanted to show the Clan that the Guardians were not a group to push around, rather a group that pushes back. However, he appealed to the Zen-Whoberi's point.
"They are up to something. I can feel it. Something bad. We need to find out what it is," he tells.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" exclaims Rocket tiredly, not interested in a single word.
In annoyance, Groot slaps his hands on his ears and holds. Petra sees him and realizes the yelling needed to stop. "Okay! Time out!" she calls loudly, placing a firm hand on the worked-up Rocket's shoulder, immediately shutting him up as his complete attention was diverted to her touch.
However, she is too caught in her words to notice the effect of her smallest of action on her admiring furry-friend. "Peter. Rocket," she starts, eyeing them both. Peter was about to lose it with all the touching, but then she removed her hand, and he decided to let it slide. This time.
"I see what you're getting at. It feels like we're wasting time with the Clan," she tells, Gamora and Drax glaring at her, but she wasn't finished yet, "but I'm also just as worried about the Clan and their intentions. We can get a job any time. And we have backup money…But we can't risk a surprise attack…Not again…We need to find out what they're planning, especially since they seemed to think we'd be willing to be a part of it. We're too involved to ignore this," she explains.
The others take a moment for her words to sink in. She was clearly taking Drax and Gamora's sides, but it was barely noticeable to the two males with the way she spoke.
She was appealing to their sense of nature. Neither liked surprise attacks, neither liked being a step behind of anything, but they were also somewhat obsessed with money, and so she assured them that there was plenty.
With all sides closed, the two had no further reasons to disagree.
Rocket smirks at his girl. Always the diplomat. "So, what's your plan, short stuff?" he asks. Peter rolls his eyes. This was way less annoying when Rocket was smaller.
Petra cocks an eyebrow at him. "Really?" she questions.
"Does it bother you?" he smirks, the way he eyed her making her flush red.
Gamora senses a dangerous reaction from the Quill next to her. "Guys!" she calls, as if in annoyance, even though it was more in concern. They both turn to her. "The plan?"
And so, Petra shortly sums it, that they'd just tail them and see where'd they'd end up, then they'd come up with the appropriate plan.
With all on board, the group retire to their usual habits. Each of them took turns washing up the fight's filth as Petra cooked something fast up.
As so happened, Peter had contacted Yondu and informed him of everything as he'd requested. He asked him if he knew anything else about the Clan, but, as expected, the Zatoan knew nothing.
Out of bottled up frustration, Peter told Yondu about Rocket's new form, not really sure how Yondu would react to that, and he was fairly surprised when the Zatoan held a pissed-off expression upon hearing this. He was even more surprised when Yondu told him to keep a close eye on the two. Alas! Someone understood!
Their union at the dinner table was different this night. Even though a lot of them tried to start up conversations, it would still end up getting awkwardly quiet, for several reasons. One being that Peter was too wary and suspicious to talk about anything. Second being that Petra and Rocket themselves couldn't keep their eyes off each other, constantly forgetting that they weren't alone in the kitchen. Third being that Drax wasn't one to start up a conversation, so, really, it was just Gamora. Poor Gamora.
