JJ's POV
"Hey guys?" I called out to the others as I finished listening to whatever jacked-up distress call managed to get through to the Benatar with more static than actual words, "We got another one!"
"Where?" Gamora came up from the training room to ask me before I pull up a map of the point of origin to point,
"A couple systems away, we should be able to reach it through a jump point a few clicks in front of us."
"Nice job." Gamora patted my shoulder before we both stepped away from the console just in time to hear the speakers screech a bit before a tune came on.
"Then let's get a move on Guardians." Quill called everyone up so me and Gamora made it to the cockpit to sit with the others just before we made it to the jump point that sent us zooming through a tunnel of stars.
All while Quill was doing his stupid lip singing and dancing movements in his seats to the song we were listening to before he called out,
"Sing it, Drax!"
Only for said person to be snoring in his seat already fast asleep before I noticed,
"Really Gamora you too?" I raised an eyebrow at how she was doing the same thing as Quill but less dramatic and she side shrugged with a,
"It's catchy…"
Making me roll my eyes but even I had to admit, ever since he got that Zune from Kraglin, Quill's music choices may not have changed, but at least we got some more variety in what he chose to play.
"*Yaaaawn* Why are we doing this again?" Rocket asked after letting out an exaggerated yawn.
"It's a distress signal, Rocket. Someone could be dying." Gamora told him with some annoyance in her voice at how she still had to explain that to him.
"I get that, but why are we doing it?"
"Because it is a worthy cause?" Gora answered from the seat behind Groot and next to mine in the back of the cockpit.
"Exactly, and maybe whoever it is will give us a little cheddar cheese for our help." Quill rubbed his fingers together to indicate units before Gamora pointed to him and interrupted with,
"Which isn't the point."
"Which isn't the point…" Quill pointed back before adding, "I mean… If he doesn't pony up…"
"We take his ship." Drax spoke up from where he had woken up making Quill practically sing,
"B-b-b-bingo!"
"Alright!" Rocket cheered.
"You guys are unbelievable sometimes I swear…" I muttered from my seat as I fiddled with a strand of my hair.
"Oh don't act so innocent Miss Stolen Tech Bootlegger."
"What?!" The others yelled and I sent him a glare before raising my hands to tell them,
"It was just some tech someone had gotten from the Oajin scientists that I bought off some broker on Knowhere." I dug around in one of my belt pouches and held up a mid-sized computer chip-looking device before adding, "I don't know what it is yet but I know, whatever this is, if it came from them, it's too dangerous to just let it float around the intergalactic black market."
"Ok you're off the hook.. this time." Quill pointed at me as a scolding so I scoffed and rolled my eyes before pocketing the tech again just as Mantis announced,
"We are arriving."
"Alright, Guardians. Don't forget, this might be dangerous, so let's put on our mean faces." Quill announced.
"Not literally Mantis." I spoke up with a bored tone from already knowing she was taking Quill's order literally and was proven right when she turned around to face me with her version of a "mean" face that just made it look like she was trying to bite the air in front of her with her lips peeled back.
Some beeping noises came from Groot's seat as he continued playing with Quill's handheld Arcade Defender game so he told him,
"Groot, put that thing away. Now. I don't wanna tell you again. Groot."
"I am Groooot!"
"Whoa!"
"Language!"
"Hey!"
"Wow..."
Everyone shouted at Groot's curse before Quill told him,
"You got some acorns on you, kid."
"Ever since you got your little sap, you're a total d-hole. Keep it up, and I'm gonna smash that thing to pieces!" Rocket yelled at him in a scolding tone as he pointed at the device before I asked him,
"Yeah and when are you gonna give me a turn?"
Groot scoffed and rolled his eyes before I stuck my tongue out at him making Rocket yell,
"Don't make me come back there!"
Making Groot and I look at each other with a shared "yeah right" expression.
Right before the ship stopped and everyone went quiet at what was in front of us; bodies of people were floating around lifelessly as chunks of what used to be the ship floated alongside them and there was no sign of any survivors so far.
"What happened?" Mantis asked and I stood up from my seat to get a closer look at the wreckage through the front window panel before saying,
"From the looks of it… it's like the ship just.. blew up on itself.. but how's that possible? You'd need like an insane amount of energy…"
"Whatever happened, it looks like we're not getting paid." Rocket spoke without any guilt or sadness in his voice that made me roll my eyes before there was a *THUNK* right in front of me as the body of a man with an eyepatch hit the windshield of the ship.
"Wipers! Wipers! Get it off!" Rocket yelled waving his paws around as I looked in disgust at him right before one of his eyes opened up making us all shout in surprise.
"I'll go get him…" I groaned out before walking down to the airlock and pressing the buttons to activate the shield behind me as I activated the magnetic function of my boots so I could "walk" along the side of the ship before making it to the man and grabbing his arm to drag him back to the airlock.
Right as I touched his arm though, a flash went through me and I suddenly saw purple fires going off around "me" while "I" leaned over a dead body and watched as some other aliens, one with a golden gauntlet of some kind with two blue and purple lights in it, along with a blur of red disappeared in a blue haze right before there was a huge explosion of purple that made everything go black.
When I snapped back to the present with somewhat of a headache, I saw my core flicker for a bit before dimming back down as a few sparks popped out from my fingers that matched some that came up from his fingers.
"What the hell was that?" I muttered to myself before shaking my head and hands to get rid of the fuzzy feeling so I could get back to dragging the body back toward the airlock where Gamora and Gora were waiting to help me carry and dump him on the table.
"How the hell is this dude still alive?" Quill asked as Rocket sniffed the body and Mantis copied him before Drax spoke up while pointing at the man,
"He is not a dude. You're a dude. This… This is a man. A handsome, muscular man."
"I'm muscular." Quill argued defensively before Rocket shut him down with,
"Who are you kidding, Quill? You're one sandwich away from fat."
"Yeah, right." He scoffed before Drax added,
"It's true. You have gained a little weight…" Making an eating motion before making a belly enlarging motion.
"What? Gamora, do you think I'm…" He questioned in disbelief before I reminded him,
"Save it Quill, I've seen you nicking Drax's Zarg nuts and my Xanderian spicy popper candies when ya think we're not lookin'." I crossed my arms with a raised brow and narrowed eyes from where I leaned against Groot's chair as he continued playing the game, smacking my hand away when I tried to sneakily grab it.
"He is anxious." Mantis announced from where she had her hand placed against the man's forehead with her antennae glowing as she read his emotions, "Angry. He feels tremendous loss and guilt."
"He also has the residue of whatever powerful force destroyed the ship and it's... familiar somehow…" Gora added from where her antennae were glowing after she hopped onto the table to get a closer look at him before quickly hopping back down as the energy reading seemed to wear her out since she stumbled when she landed on the ground.
"Yeah I saw some kind of memory of him leanin' over a dead body right before the whole joint went kaboom." I told everyone before Drax started low-level gushing,
"It's like a pirate had a baby with an angel."
"Wow. This is a real wake-up call for me. Okay. I'm gonna get a Bowflex. I'm gonna commit. I'm gonna get some dumbbells." Quill started to rant, getting back to his physique insecurities.
"You know you can't eat dumbbells, right?" Rocket questioned him right as Gamora spoke up from where she was sliding a hand along the man's muscular arm,
"It's like his muscles are made of Cotati metal fibers."
"Stop massaging his muscles." Quill told Gamora with a hint of jealousy in his voice and she dropped his arm before he told Mantis, "Wake him up."
"Wake." She whispered with a hand placed on his forehead and he instantly jumped up yelling defensively walking a bit away from the table before he turned back to face us standing there will all our weapons raised and asked,
"Who the hell are you guys?"
I jutted my chin at him before telling him,
"You first."
"I am Thor Odinson and the God of Thunder."
That's what was up with the sparks… I thought to myself remembering what happened outside.
"Well we're the Guardians of the Galaxy." Quill introduced the team before Rocket added,
"And part-time bounty-hunters slash mercenaries slash whatever the frick people do for units these days."
"But, at the moment, your rescuers." Gora spoke up, sending Rocket a pointed look as she hopped back onto the table to better look Thor in the eyes.
"Bathroom's on the right if you wanna clean up." I told him with my arms still crossed before adding, "You just survived one hell of an explosion."
"Thank you." He nodded to me before going off and everyone finally relaxed enough to put down their weapons before Drax had to ruin the silence with,
"Is he your deity?"
"What?" I asked in disbelief with a raised eyebrow.
"He claims to be the God of Thunder therefore it would make him your deity."
"I control electricity which is basically lighting so no not thunder." I argued before Quill make a so-so motion with his hand,
"Eh."
"They're technically the same thing." Gamora tried to reason, "Only one is light and the other is sound."
Making me look at her in confusion at how she knew this before I shook my head and told them,
"Look, point is, he's not the god of me and, whoever the hell he is, he's got info about what blew up a ship like that," I pointed outside, "and why the energy signature is so familiar for me and Gora."
"Did you see anything else in that memory of his that might give us a clue?" Gamora asked and I thought back before remembering,
"Yeah the someone with the blue and purple lights in their golden glove or whatever was some big purple guy too and some other guys were there too haulin' someone with red hair."
"Ooh red hair that's helpful." Rocket stated sarcastically.
"It's something."
"I believe those two lights you saw before were Infinity Stones." Gora spoke up and we all looked to her before Quill asked,
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because me, JJ, and all other Chrysinthean-born beings were created from the Orinix and the Orinix was created from fragmented remnants of the 6 Infinity Stones, therefore we share similar energy signatures to them."
"So you are a Chrysinthean."
We all turned to see Thor standing by the hallway cleaned up of the blood and smoke.
"I had a hunch you were one..."
"What do you know about us…?" I stepped forward with a look of daring for him to make a move.
"I know your sister, Lumna."
"What?" I dropped the aggression as I processed what he just said.
"She crash landed on Earth after your planet had been invaded by the Chitauri some years ago."
"How do I know you're not just makin' that up?"
"She carries a locket that was your mother's and it contains a picture of you, your mother, your strange cat there, and her before she had left to the training grounds for fire wielders… that was the last time she saw you before the planet had been invaded and you both were separated..."
I looked to Gora for extra confirmation and she nodded before she walked off somewhere and I remembered for myself the day our mom had given it to her before she had to leave.
"Where is she now?" I asked, trying not to let my voice shake as I considered the two possible answers as Gora used her spines to hand him a bowl of soup and a spoon.
"The one who invaded my ship and seized the Infinity Stones took her… Thanos."
"What's his plan?"
"I don't know…"
"I do." Gamora spoke up and we all turned to face her as she started to explain,
"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal: To bring balance to the Universe by wiping out half of all life. He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre…"
"Including my own." Drax muttered and I added,
"And ours…"
"If he gets all six Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers, like this." Gamora snapped her fingers to make her point.
"You seem to know a great deal about Thanos." Thor noted with a slightly accusing tone as he ate his soup.
"Gamora… is the daughter of Thanos." Drax told him making Thor stand up sharply stepping toward her as he seethed,
"Your father killed my brother."
"Oh, boy. Stepfather. Technically, she hates him as much as you do." Quill tried to loosen the tension between Thor and Gamora and it worked as he put a hand on her shoulder to empathize,
"Families can be tough. Look. Before my father died, he told me I had a half-sister…that he imprisoned in Hel. Then she returned home, and stabbed me in the eye, so… I had to kill her. It's life, isn't it, I guess. Goes round and round and… I feel your pain."
Before Quill just had to step in and show him up by saying,
"And I feel your pain, as well. I mean it's not a competition, but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother, then I had to kill my father. And that was hard. Probably even harder than having to kill a sister. Plus, I, came out of it with both of my eyes-"
"Quill cool it." I interrupted him before he could go on.
"I need a hammer, not a spoon…" Thor put his bowl down before going around trying to mess with the control panel for the pod deck, "How do I open this thing? Is there some sort of a four-digit code maybe… Maybe a birth date or something…"
"Uhh what are you doing?" Rocket questioned.
"Taking your pod."
Quill cleared his throat before saying in a deep voice,
"No, you're not! You'll not be taking our pod today, sir."
"Quill. Are you making your voice deeper?" Rocket asked.
"No."
"You are. You're imitating the god-man. It's weird." Drax spoke up before Quill tried to argue,
"No I'm not."
"*Gasp* He just did it again!" Mantis pointed to Quill before he tried to argue again,
"This is my voice!"
Before Thor stepped right up to Quill as they started a back and forth while I kept a hand to the side of my face with my head tilted as I thought to myself thinking,
No wonder this guy got overpowered if he spends this much time yappin'...
"Enough!" Gamora finally cut off their pointless fighting to remind them, "We need to stop Thanos. Which means we need to find out where he's going next."
"Knowhere." Thor answered as he walked away from Quill making Mantis question,
"He must be going somewhere."
"No. Knowhere? It's a place. We've been there. It sucks." Quill told him before I side shrugged with a,
"Good spot for junk rummaging at best."
"Excuse me, that's our food." Quill told Thor as he opened our mini-fridge and grabbed several of our food packets.
"Not anymore."
"Hey hands off my spicy poppers!" I snapped snatching the small red foil bag out from his hands as he muttered,
"I see you and your sister share a love of spicy foods…"
Right as I was about to question that Gamora cut in with,
"Thor… Why would he go to Knowhere?"
"Because for years, the Reality Stone has been safely stored, there with a man we call the Collector."
"Seriously? 'Safe' with that weirdo? Ha!" I looked at him with a raised brow before laughing.
"If it's with the Collector, then it's not safe. Only an idiot would give that man a stone." Quill agreed with me but Thor just told us,
"Or a genius.
"How do you know he's not going for one of the other Stones?" Gamora asked Thor and he answered,
"There's six stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week, when he decimated Xandar."
"I should probably save these then…" I muttered before pocketing my candy bag into one of my belt pouches as Thor continued,
"He stole the Space Stone from me when he destroyed my ship, took Ash, your sister, and slaughtered half my people. The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth. They're with the Avengers." Thor looked at me when he mentioned my sister and her other name.
"The Avengers?" Quill questioned.
"They're Earth's Mightiest Heroes." Thor told him before Mantis asked,
"Like Kevin Bacon?"
"He may be on the team. I don't know. Haven't been there in a while. As for the Soul Stone, well, no one's ever seen that. No one even knows where it is."
I cast a side glance to Gamora as she had a facial expression that said she knew something he didn't as he continued talking,
"Therefore, Thanos can't get it. Therefore, he's going to Knowhere. Hence, he'll be getting the Reality Stone. You're welcome."
"Then we have to go to Knowhere now." Gamora urged but Thor argued,
"Wrong. Where we have to go is Nivadellir."
"That's a made-up word." Drax spoke up.
"All words are made up." Thor pointed out before Rocket climbed onto the table, landing next to Gora as he started to say excitedly,
"Wait Nidavellir is real? Seriously? I mean, that place is a legend."
"The legendary forge located right in the middle of a neutron star." I cut in with some wonder in my voice before Rocket continued with,
"Yeah where they make the most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the Universe. I would very much like to go there, please."
"The rabbit is correct, and clearly the smartest among you."
Gora and I snorted at Thor's name for Rocket as he questioned,
"Rabbit?"
"Only Eitri the dwarf king can make me the weapon I need." Thor turned to Rocket to ask him, "I assume you're the captain, sir?"
"You're very perceptive."
"Yeah and he's the mascot." I joked making him give me a stink-eyed look before Thor told him,
"You seem like a noble leader in addition to a proud representative of your team. Will you join me on my quest to Nivadellir?"
"Lemme just ask the captain. Oh wait a second, it's me! Yeah, I'll go." Rocket told him.
"Wonderful."
"Except that I'm the captain." Quill tried to set the record straight but Thor just told him to be quiet and Rocket told him to sit down before Quill had it and demanded to know,
"Look, this is my ship. And I'm not going to… Wait, what kind of weapon are we talking about here?"
"The Thanos killing kind." Thor answered simply before Quill asked,
"Don't you think that we should all have a weapon like that?"
"No. You simply lack the strength to wield them. Your bodies will crumble as your minds collapse into madness."
"Is it weird that I wanna do it even more now?" Rocket asked and Thor answered honestly,
"A little bit. Yeah."
"If we don't go to Knowhere and Thanos retrieves another stone, he'll be too powerful to stop." Gamora tried to protest but Thor just told her,
"He already is."
"I got it figured out." Rocket announced before telling everyone, "We got two ships, and a large assortment of morons. So me, Gora, JJ, and Groot will go with the pirate-angel here, and the morons will go to Knowhere to try and stop Thanos. An even split. Cool? Cool."
"So cool." Thor told him as he boarded the pod and I hung back long enough to hear Quill tell Rocket,
"For the record… I know that you're only going with him because it's where Thanos isn't."
"You know, Quill, you shouldn't talk that way to your captain." Before getting into the pod with Gora by his side and telling Groot, "Come on, Groot. Put that game down. You'll rot your brain."
I turned to Gamora to quickly tell her,
"Take care of these morons."
"Only if you watch over the idiots you're taking." She smiled just long enough to tell me that and I smirked while putting a hand on her arm before finally boarding the pod, noticing that my core was glowing a bit before dimming down again, as Thor told the others,
"I bid you farewell and good luck, morons. Bye."
RIght before the pod launched from the ship and we started flying toward the sector of the galaxy where Nidavellir was said to be located.
AN- Happy Valentine's Day! For those of you who might not have someone to spend this day with or, like me, just prefer to spend their time alone here's a new chapter for you all that hopefully brought some laughs ^^
Just a heads up, there are only about four chapters left for the Infinity War segment before moving on to Endgame and then the post-Endgame sequel, which I'm still having trouble coming up with a name for ^^;
I hope you all have a good day regardless of relationship statuses and I'll see you all in the next chapter!