CHAPTER 7 - Ego
"What were you thinking?" Quill roared, everyone jostling in the ship as the Sovereign's ships attacked.
"Dude, they were really easy to steal," Rocket retorted.
"That doesn't mean you steal from the most, what did you say, 'conceited douchebags?' Smart," Clint hissed, not for the first time wishing he and Loki had gone and helped the guardians. But Loki had said it wasn't their fight and they should not join due to it delaying their return to Earth. Quill had refused to argue with the duo and Clint was forced to back down when Loki locked him in one of the bunk rooms. Rocket huffed and started a verbal war with Quill over the raccoon being an idiot for stealing the batteries from the Sovereign. Loki glanced at Clint.
"And you still believe these are the better choice to follow?" the trickster snarled, waving his hand to the bickering guardians before them. Clint rolled his eyes, turning to look at him.
"Drop it, there is enough fighting going on right now," the archer snapped.
"Can we put this bickering on hold until after we survive this massive space battle?" Gamora sharply pointed out, drawing Clint's attention to the front once again.
"More incoming!" Quill needlessly announced.
"Good! I wanna kill some guys!" Rocket announced. Clint rolled his eyes.
"Are you kidding me?" the archer harshly questioned as Rocket began yelling and shooting at whatever came within firing range. Clint rolled his eyes and looked out, trying to find a way for them to get out of this whole mess.
"You're not killing anyone. All those ships are remotely piloted," Gamora mentioned. Ducking and dodging all around the area was getting them no where. A few seconds later and suddenly there was a hit against the ship.
"Interesting. They were avoiding killing blows before," the Lie-smith noted. Clint, Drax and Nebula looked to him. "They must not care for the batteries any longer."
"What's the nearest habitable planet?" Quill demanded. Gamora quickly pulled up the information, ignoring the conversation behind her.
"It's called Berhert," Gamora informed.
"How many jumps?" Quill wondered.
"Only one. But the access point is 47 clicks away," Gamora finished. There was a silent cussing. "And you'd have to go through that quantum asteroid field."
"There! That field!" Clint called, pointing to the field on their right. Without asking further, Quill quickly shifted the Milano in that direction.
"Oh yes, get us killed," Loki grumbled.
"To get through that, you must be the greatest pilot in the universe," Drax stated. Quill pushed them further.
"You cannot be serious," Nebula grumbled. Clint flipped her off, sick and tired of dealing with all of this. That got Loki to snort in amusement.
"Lucky for us, I am," Quill replied, even as Rocket spoke 'I am' over him. After that, Rocket set the controls to his area with Quill looking at him in disbelief. After a moment, Quill took it back.
"What are you doing?" Rocket retorted, looking to the man. Clint groaned at them, of course they'd do this now. Behind him Loki rolled his eyes. Gamora and Drax just let it happen with only one comment to try and stop them. The two ignored her and continued to bicker until the back end of the ship hit one of the rocks and ripped open the back end of the ship. Loki's quick think saved him and Clint from being tossed out as the other guardians, sans Drax, who had a tight grip on the wall, were safely buckled in. Quill quickly set up a shield that protected the group from flying out of the back end. Loki glanced back in time to see Nebula fall to the ground, mostly free. He snorted. Serves the guardians right for not properly thinking all of this through.
"IDIOTS!" Nebula shouted. Loki turned and moved to grab her, wanting to keep an eye on her.
"Well, that's what you get when Quill flies," Rocket announced. Gamora snatched something off the floor and tossed it at Rocket, hitting the raccoon in the ear. "Ow!"
Clint grunted as Gamora announced they were still in trouble and how close they were to the jump. Quill informed them of their situation. Weapons down. Clint looked to Loki, wondering if the trickster could help but Loki waved his hand to the image before them. He was not going to let Clint get away with any of this. Clint rolled his eyes as Drax walked past. When the alien hooked something to his belt, the archer frowned.
"Drax?" he wondered as Drax nabbed a small disk that he pressed to his back and activated a small blue halo of protection around him. Loki's eyes widened and he grabbed Clint once again and shoved them both against the wall. Nebula looked back, surprised. But thankfully, Drax was smart enough to put a shield between the others and the back area he was leaving from. "You can't be serious!"
"Courting death," Loki snarled as they watched Drax release the field holding him in and take off into space. It took a moment before the alien hit the end of his tether and once there, he shot and destroyed the spaceship that was still following them. In the clear, Qull finished traveling out of the field.
"Oh shit," the archer muttered. Quill looked up.
"Son of a... They went around the field!" the guardian declared even as the Milano was suddenly covered in attacks. Sparks and circuits came from everyone. Clint shifted a bit on his feet, glancing back to Loki who had planted his feet himself and just stared out the window. They sat there for maybe a minute or so before, to everyone's surprise, suddenly the whole group was destroyed in a flash of blue lightning.
"What is that?" Rocket wondered even as Quill basically told him to shut up.
"That just happened," Clint pointed out seconds before they passed through the jump point.
"Is it just me, or was there a guy on it?" Rocket mumbled. Behind him, Clint nodded but no one else responded.
"Just get to the jump point, we'll deal with it later," Gamora snapped. The travel through the jump point wasn't that bad, up until they got closer to the planet. Milano had taken too much damage and they had no control over the ship. Clint turned to the open space behind them.
"Jesus, he's still out there," the archer cussed before rushing back and grabbing the tether anchored to the ship just as it let go. Loki grabbed Clint just before he was dragged off as well. They landed roughly and once settled, Clint heard Drax call out in the distance that 'that was awesome.' "Fucking insane."
"And yet, you chose to stay with these morons rather than going with Nova Corps," Loki hissed as the guardians slipped by to check on the damage. "Look at what just happened! They crashed their ship all for a small reward over some Norn forsaken batteries!"
"Dude, just cut it out," Clint snarled. "I get it. This whole thing sucks ass, but I wasn't gonna travel with those assholes who can't even do their job correctly."
"Yet these are so much better at that?" Loki shouted as Clint spun on his heel and walked off the ship.
"You know why I did it Star-Munch? Hmm?" Rocket was announcing as the duo came out onto the planet.
"I'm not gonna answer to 'Star-Munch,'" Quill muttered under his breath. Clint couldn't stop his small huff of laughter that was ignored as Rocket called out over him.
"I did it because I wanted to!"
"Dick."
"What are we even talking about this for? We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!" Rocket accused. Clint rolled his eyes.
"How little?" Drax wondered.
"Well, I don't know, like this?" Rocket held his thumb and forefinger close together.
"He wasn't that small," Clint argued.
"Well, if he got closer, I'm sure he would be much larger!"
"It's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon," Quill growled.
"Don't call me a RACCOON!"
"I'm sorry. I took it too far. I meant trash panda," Quill snipped. Clint forced himself to try and hold back his laugh at that. Even Loki found himself cracking a smile at that. Rocket looked at everyone to see their reaction. When he stopped on Clint and Loki, he frowned.
"Is that better?" the raccoon asked. Clint's eyes flicked to Quill.
"It's worse. It's so much worse," Quill answered, chuckling. That got Clint to actually bust a solo laugh. Rocket roared and rushed to attack Quill who began to dodge the small mammal. As they fought, Loki and Nebula looked up, hearing a noise above them.
"Someone followed you through the jump point!" Nebula cried, getting the guardians to stop fighting and turn to see the giant white orb like ship coming toward them. Clint looked up at it.
"That was the ship that saved us," he announced with a quick look. Nebula turned to him.
"How are you so certain?" she hissed before looking to Gamora. "Set me free, you'll need my help."
"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora began to argue.
"If whoever is on that ship just helped us, I doubt he'd want to fight," Clint grumbled, glancing at Loki who simply shrugged.
"You'd think an evil super-villain would learn how to properly lie," Quill whispered after hearing Nebula try and say she wouldn't attack her sister once free from her cuffs. Loki rolled his eyes even as Clint snorted. A moment later, the ship landed and two people emerged from yet.
"After all these years, I found you," the new guy announced.
"And who the hell are you?" Quill demanded.
"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious," the man called.
"Kurt Russel?" Clint whispered so that only Loki could hear. The trickster snorted but thankfully no one else heard.
"My name is Ego," the man introduced. Clint raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously?" the archer wondered. Ego's eyes flicked to Clint for a moment before settling back onto Quill's.
"I'm your dad, Peter," Ego called. The area went dead silent.
"What?" Quill grunted out after a second.
"I am your father," Ego pressed. The guardians, Nebula, Clint and Loki all glanced to Quill to see how he was taking this news. It was clear that the man was still in shock.
"What?" Quill repeated.
"You broke him," Clint stated making Rocket, Nebula and Loki chuckle. Gamora did not look pleased and Drax looked the other guardian over.
"He does not look broken."
"Come, it will be a minor distraction while your friends fix the ship," Ego called after having invited all of them to join him on a journey to his planet on the 'edge of what is known.' It took her a bit, but Gamora had been able to convince Quill to go meet with his father, much to not only Quill's consternation but also to Clint's. The archer was still of the position that fathers sucked. Out of all of them, it seemed maybe Drax was the only one with a decent father. Not that Drax talked about his youth much. Clint chuckled awkwardly. Ego had been pretty keen on trying to get Clint to come along with Quill.
"Yeah, no... You hang out with your once missing kid. I'll stay here," the archer decided, moving closer to Loki as if the trickster would protect him. Unknown to him, Loki was actually readying his magic as a just in case. Ego was rubbing him the wrong way as well. There was no way this meeting with Ego was a coincidence. The Celestial shrugged, even though there was a deep frown on his face.
"Maybe we can speak another time," Ego replied. Clint snorted, muttering a 'yeah right' under his breath. Slowly, Ego walked back to his ship, waiting as Quill, Gamora and Drax headed back to the Milano to grab some things. As they were walking by, Clint heard Rocket and Quill do another bought of verbal sparing.
"I doubt this is a good idea to let them go," Clint murmured when the group had left. Rocket waved him off as Nebula headed a bit deeper into the ship to settle herself. Groot spun on a broken piece of the ship to look at the archer.
"It is not our place to stop them," Loki reminded.
"Let 'em go. Serves 'em right," Rocket grumbled. "Don't need 'em."
"Oh, go fuck yourself," Clint hissed, sick and tired of all this. Rocket waved him off in a very uncaring manner. Tossing his hands into the air, Clint turned and headed off to explore a bit. Loki frowned, watching the archer disappear. The trickster had a bad feeling about letting Clint wander off but the archer did need a minute or so to cool down. Maybe a walk would be good for him. Sadly, the trickster should have gone with the archer.
Hours passed and as the sky darkened, Loki realized that Clint hadn't returned. Mad at himself for not noticing sooner, Loki headed off in search of the archer without speaking to Rocket or Groot. Nebula glanced up but didn't speak. Tracing Clint's limited magic trail, Loki headed off, not hearing the sounds of battle behind him. It took far longer than Loki wished before he found Clint's trail ended up meeting with Ego's once again in what had seemed to have been the back of the ship. He cussed. Of course Ego would have grabbed Clint as soon as he could. The Celestial had shown too much interest for him to just let it go. Spinning, Loki headed back to the ship to find Groot was the only one left.
"Curse the Norns," Loki cried. Things were not going in their favor anymore. Clint was seriously wrong, they should have joined Nova Corps' offer of help. But, right now Loki needed to find Rocket, so he turned around just in time to get Nebula's fist to his face.
"I have never felt a human as powerful as you that has gone untrained for so long," Ego reported, moving closer to Clint now that the archer was awake. The archer snarled, pissed that that 'Mantis' alien had gotten the drop on him. He never should have gone for that walk. He should have stayed by Loki. Or made Loki go with him. Fucking Rocket. Fucking Quill. Fucking Space Stone. Hell, fucking Avengers, fucking Thor, fucking S.H.I.E.L.D and certainly FUCK HIS FATHER FOR HAVING NOT KILLED HIM!
"Yeah, well, I don't care what you think," Clint hissed, keeping his eyes trained on the Celestial before him. Ego smirked and leaned in close to Clint's face. The archer fought the instinct to talk back to the man, insult him or something. He could tell it wasn't going to end well for him. For once in his life, Clint was actually going to follow the suggestions everyone had given him about torture and interrogation. Maybe this time it would actually go well for him.
"Well, you might care when I start teaching you some spells," Ego replied as if he could force the archer to do such thing. But, when Clint remembered Loki's warning of the spell books that had been in the trickster's memory, the archer reared back, trying to move away. No way in hell was that going to happen. He wasn't going to have Ego win.
"No! NO! I won't!" Clint screamed, panic that he couldn't control flooding his system. Ego chuckled even though his face had a bit of confusion on it. That just made it even worse. Clint nearly whited out in fear. This alien had no idea who Clint was, what Clint cared about. Nothing. All Ego cared about was himself. And it was made worse when Ego suddenly smiled.
"You seem to think you have a choice," the Celestial said moving even closer to Clint. The archer couldn't help but whimper. There was no way out of this. Even if Clint could escape, he was on Ego's planet. Ego knew everything about this world. And Clint doubted that anyone even knew he was here. But before Ego could even touch the archer, he looked up as if some higher voice spoke to him. Clint tensed even further. What new hell was being sent his way? With a small smile, the Celestial looked back to Clint. The archer winced, unable to pull himself together as of yet. "Ah, time for more father and son bonding."
"Fuck you," Clint shouted when Ego opened the door in an attempt to see if someone could hear him. Maybe Quill was right outside the door. Or Gamora. Someone that could help him. But as Ego walked away without a respond, the archer could see nothing. He hung his head. Jesus, he'd rather have just been beaten and tortured than this. Send him back to the Trogziks. He'd take Arath's questions over the idea of Ego making him use magic any day. Groaning, Clint looked to the things holding him to the wall. It wasn't actual cuffs or anything that he could easily escape from. It was some sort of energy thingy. Pulling against it just made the thing flash and hold him a bit tighter. But loosening himself didn't seem to make it that much looser. Just backed off enough so that it wasn't holding him painfully. "Damn it."
It was maybe a few hours or something before Ego reappeared. Clint tensed at the sight of the Celestial. This was not going to be a fun time right now. Ego looked determined to have this done. Clint pulled back, wanting so much to try and escape but he was stuck. The Celestial just smiled and came right into Clint's face. Apparently there wasn't going to be any more witty remarks.
"Lets get started," the alien stated before placing his hands on either side of Clint's head. Clint screamed as the Celestial's power invaded his mind. It could have been two hours or twenty seconds when Ego finally stopped and released Clint. The archer's head dropped onto his chest, his body sagging against his restraints as the muscles lost the ability to hold him up. Yeah, physical torture was totally better than this. He just wanted to go home. He wanted Loki to save him. Wanted this to simply be a nightmare. Ego chuckled. "Now, why not cast a spell?"
"Go, fuck yourself," Clint gasped, trying hard to focus on what was happening. Ego snorted, his eyes narrowing before placing his hands on Clint's head again. Clint screamed and after some time, there was something like a wall that just dropped in Clint. His screaming grew worse as whatever had been behind that wall tried to fight Ego's power. When that started happening, Ego laughed and released Clint. Clint's mind shut down as his body tried to adjust to the sudden release. A few seconds later, Clint was able to think a bit. "What... Did... You... Do?"
"I released your magic," Ego answered, pleased with what happened and feeling how truly powerful the archer was. Clint sobbed, feeling like an upset child. But he couldn't help it. This... This was worse than any torture he had gone through. Worse than any battle. Any injury. Ego nearly frowned at this.
"No... Put it back," Clint begged, looking up at Ego desperately. There had to be a way to fix this. Have his magic resealed. He couldn't live with this. It was unfair. Ego tilted his head in confusion.
"I assumed you would be thankful for this," Ego chuckled before moving forward and patting Clint's cheek. Clint shook his head, humiliating tears began falling even faster. God, he didn't even care anymore. He'd do basically anything to have his magic locked up again.
"No... No, I didn't want this," Clint sobbed. "I don't want magic!"
"Hmm," Ego hummed before placing his hands on Clint's chest. There was what seemed to be some sort of draining. Clint gasped, almost glad that Ego seemed to be taking his magic, but suddenly, the archer's magic attacked Ego, switching the draw so Clint was taking the Celestial's power instead. Ego quickly let go of Clint in surprise. "What are you?"
"A human," Clint groaned, noting Ego's fear for only a moment before he dropped unconscious, no longer able to withstand what was going on around him.
Hope everyone enjoyed the post from earlier this week.
My house is still a mess from Christmas. Had gotten all the wrapping paper and most of the boxes of things cleaned up but there is just so much stuff! Maybe I went a bit overboard with shopping. Whoops. Well, Darius certainly enjoyed it. Still got some of his gifts out in the car cause I'm a bit too lazy to get it all right now. Sides, I need to clean up the mess that was left over from Christmas. Gotta find some places for a lot of the toys that he doesn't seem to be playing with like some stuffed animals. And also gotta clean up the rest in general. So much work! _ Baby Jason got a bunch of gifts as well. Certainly not as much as Darius had gotten but a good amount. He's currently laying in a small ball pit thing that has different growing stages. I think most of what he had gotten was clothing. I think one of the best gifts that Darius ended up getting was the gift my father made for him. It's a wooden Jeep Wrangler. He liked playing with it at my brother's house and I enjoyed looking at it. The best gift my hubby seemed to enjoy was a Bray Wyatt Severed Head Lantern. Mike really seemed to enjoy both a San Diego Comic Con exclusive box of Ghostbuster figures and a book from Transformers. Janice really liked the coat from WWE with 'I Am The Man' written on it. As for me... Jesus, I don't know what the best gift was... I got two different Etsy made Hawkeye stuffed animals. Two different Hawkeye figures, two Disney books, tickets for events happening during my trip to Disney in February and a pillow/blanket Mickey Mouse gift where the pillow has like a felt and nice and soft feeling too it.
See you all next Friday!
