A/N: Hey everyone, I only have two things to say before this chapter.

Thank you so much for all of your understanding and support about my situation. It was really comforting to see, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I will put more of an effort to get these out faster, and hopefully finish this arc soon.

Secondly, if you're reading this, you've probably have seen Infinity War. I have seen in twice, and even though it destroyed my soul both times, I loved it. If you somehow haven't gotten spoiled on it yet, don't worry, I won't do anything that will give anything about it away.

Enjoy!

Edit: I accidentally named this chapter the same as the last, because it was a cool name for a chapter and I thought I hadn't used it yet. I renamed this chapter because of it. Sorry for any confusion.

"You have been...aggravating."

Morlun, the vampiric being that has chased Spider-Man throughout half the galaxy, was standing only a few feet away from him now. Morlun was stoic, standing tall, but ready to pounce. The wind pushed his long coat to one side, dust from the wasteland gently floating past him. Peter couldn't help but think how ominous this entire moment was, as he stared at his enemy, the broken and dead wrecks of ships laying motionless behind him.

Peter was nervous, even as he stood alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy. And when he's nervous, there's only one thing he can do about it.

"Really? Aggravating? Me?" Spidey quipped. "Try being chased around space by a guy who's trying to eat you. Now THAT'S aggravating."

"You don't understand," Morlun stated. "There's no way you could. I am an Inheritor. My people were entitled to the universe and beyond by powers beyond your understanding. And they all withered away. I am the last of my kind, because our source of food was taken away from us. But yet, here you are. Different, yet the same. A way for me to get to the greatness I deserve. My spider totem."

"Thanks for clearing that up," Quill said, his lasers at the ready. "Everything makes much more sense."

Morlun gave a wicked smirk, and a low, bone-chilling chuckle. "It does not matter. You are beneath me. But I will grant you the best honor I can give you. I will consume you all, and let you be the energy I use to take what is mine."

"Wait!" Quill yelled in urgency, putting his hands in front of him, making Morlun stand still, confused.

"What is it, Guardian?"

"Look, I get it, you really want to eat us," Star-Lord started, a serious and grim look on his face. "But it doesn't matter right now."

Morlun quirked an eyebrow. "Why not?"

Quill slowly pointed behind the Inheritor, his eyes wide. "Because of that..."

Morlun cocked his head to the side, before turning behind him, looking at where Quill was pointing. He observed everything in his line of sight, looking up at the sky just to be sure that he didn't miss anything. Not seeing anything, he turned back around. "What are you-?"

The vampire cut himself off, as looked back at the heroes, to see only the Guardians. Spider-Man was gone.

"I can't believe that worked," Gamora said, as she drew her sword.

"Honestly?" Quill said, cocking his duel laser pistols. "I didn't think it would either. Should I say 'made ya look'?"

"I wouldn't," Gamora answered.

Morlun's eyes widened in anger. "Where. Is. HE!?"

"Made ya look!" Quill shouted, as he opened fire. Morlun charged at him, placing his arms in front of him to protect himself from the blasts, before shoulder blocking the space adventurer out of the way, sending him flying. Gamora and Drax jumped at him, only for Morlun to leap away at the last second, leaving the scene.

Drax looked at the monster leaving, before he started laughing. "That's right! Run! Run from the Destroyer! Haha! You Coward!"

"Uh, Drax?" Gamora said, tapping Drax's shoulder to get his attention. "He's not running. He's going after the kid."

Drax stared at her for a moment, considering it. "...maybe that's what he wants you to think."

"I am Groot," The potted plant stated, as he sat on the ground nearby.

Drax sighed. "Fine. Maybe he was after the Spider. But he's still scared of me."

"Uh huh, sure pal," Quill comforted, as he stretched out his arms to shake off Morlun's attack. After a quick moment of this, he turned towards the others, a new look of determination on his face. "Alright, our backs are against the wall, but this isn't the first time we fought something that was way stronger than us. And this definitely isn't the first time we were in a fight that seemed unwinnable. But we're the Guardians of the Galaxy, and hey, someone has to do this, so it might as well be us. We're gonna grab that gun, find Rocket, get it fixed, and blast that wannabe He-Man villain out of here."

The other Guardians looked at Star-Lord, with new found confidence.

"Come on," Quill said, as he started to leave the area. "Let's go save the galaxy."

"Yes!" Drax enthusiastically agreed, as he and Gamora started to follow him, with Gamora picking Groot up from the ground. The destroyer then leaned over to the daughter of Thanos. "We're going to die, yes?"

"Probably," Gamora replied, "but we might as well try our best."

"I am Groot," the plant nodded.

"Come on Parker, think, think, think."

Spider-Man was running as fast as he could, jumping and using his webs to zip through the junkyard of ships that seemed to cover the entire planet. He needed to put as much space between him and Morlun as possible. At least until he could think of a plan.

Well, he had a plan. Him and Quill agreed that Peter would try to stall Morlun for as long as possible so they can find Rocket and get the gun fixed.

Of course, Peter was the one that Morlun was after. And of course, if Morlun gets him, they lose, and the galaxy is doomed.

"Ok, maybe we didn't think this through all the way," Spidey mumbled to himself, as he perched on the broken wing of what looked like a space fighter jet. He took a quick scan of his surroundings, taking everything in. "You know, if it wasn't for the whole 'ancient alien being trying to kill me' thing, this would be the coolest moment of my life."

Spider-Man jumped off his perch, and did a handspring off a large rock nearby, flipping away to continue separating himself from Morlun.

"I mean, going on other planets, meeting aliens, finding another human who's been out here since the 80's, this is just crazy," he continued talking aloud. "Oh yeah, and who could forget meeting a space assassin, a raccoon with an arsenal, and quite possible the nicest plant ever. That can talk. Oh, and whatever Drax is. Man, that guy is...special."

A giant dust cloud was blown into the Web Head as he leapt through the air, causing Peter to pause as he landed on the overturned hull of another ship in order to get the specks of grime off of his gold lenses. "I do miss home though," he admitted. "Gwen, MJ, Harry, God help me, I even miss that old picklepuss Jonah."

Spider-Man jumped again, getting back to the task at hand. "I wonder how the Avengers are doing. I wonder if they even know that I'm ok. Oh man, I hope they didn't tell Aunt May that something happened to me. I know she was worried enough about me, I don't even want to think what would happen to her if she thought I was...I need to get back home."

"I'm afraid you'll never see it again."

Peter's spider sense went off a little too late, as Morlun appeared out of nowhere, suddenly tackling the web slinger out of mid-air and planting him hard into the ground. Pain ringed through his back, but the red and gold hero quickly wriggled out of Morlun's grasp, flipping and crouching low to the ground, facing his attacker.

Welp, so much for buying time.

"Speaking of seeing things, I can't believe you fell for the 'look behind you' bit," Spidey mocked. "Seriously, that's grade school stuff."

Morlun jumped at Peter, only for the teenager to dodge at the last second, having the monster's fist get stuck in the ground. Spider-Man then started running as fast as he could, as he saw what appeared to be a large canyon in the distance. "Bingo!"

Spidey didn't need to look behind him, he knew Morlun broke free of his distraction and was now right behind him. His spider sense wouldn't let him miss it. But if he could get in that canyon, he might be able to stall the vampire for a bit.

"I'm not surprised you're that easy to trick though!" The Web Head called back. "After all, someone tricked you into thinking that outfit was a good idea. You look like if Sherlock Holmes just stopped trying."

"These are garbs for the most elite beings in the universe!" Morlun yelled.

"Elite, huh?" The hero asked. "Still think you should try to get a refund." With that, Spider-Man finally reached the canyon, and jumped into the giant crevice, as he started to shoot web after web on the rock walls, swinging as fast as he could from his pursuer.

Morlun simply jumped in after him, leaping after the quick and agile arachnid. "I cannot believe that you have given me as much trouble as you have. You are nothing more than an insignificant pest, and I cannot wait to feast on your soul."

"You sure are a sweet talker," Peter joked, continuing to swing, hoping that his jokes would distract Morlun enough to slow him down for once. However, he could tell that it wasn't doing much. But it's important that he doesn't let Morlun get to him this time. If he freaked out like he did before, and the monster took advantage of it, he wouldn't make it out alive. And there was no one around to save him this time.

Morlun kept swiping at his prey, barely missing each time. Spider-Man knew that he wouldn't be able to do this forever. He needed something else to buy him some time. Peter looked up at the edges of the canyon, to see that some of the rocks making up the wall were loose. Peter then shot another web at where the rocks looked loosest, and pulled with all of his might. One by one, the rocks started to fall, as the large boulders started falling all around Spider-Man and Morlun. One boulder came down right on top of Morlun's head, sending him flying back down to the ground, and getting pinned down.

When the rocks stopped falling, Spider-Man landed back on the ground, looking back behind him. The rubble was starting to shuffle, but it seemed like it stopped him momentarily.

"Hey! Spider-Dork!"

Peter turned around, to see a familiar, but unexpected sight. Rocket Raccoon, holding what looked like a remote in his hands.

"Rocket?" Spidey asked. "What the heck, man!? Why did you run off!?"

"I thought I had more time before that piece of crap showed up!" Rocket explained, gesturing to the pile of boulders keeping Morlun in place. "I was going to set up some traps to give us some more time to fix up the gun. Guess I miscalculated how much time I had. By the way, great minds!"

Peter raised an eyebrow under his mask. "Great minds?"

"Yeah, you know, that humie expression. Quill loves saying it. Great minds think alike?" Rocket then held the remote in front of his face. "Although my mind tends to think a little greater," he stated, as he pressed a button. He then looked at the taller hero. "By the way, we should get out of here."

"Why?"

"Because I rigged the entire canyon to blow."

At that, the first explosion ringed out, making Peter turn around to see flames and rocks starting to fall, as the walls of the canyon started to fall apart as more and more explosions started to happen.

"Seriously Rocket!?" Spider-Man cried, as he quickly grabbed the furry mechanic and started swinging as fast as possible, trying to get out of the canyon as the entire structure started to fall apart right behind him. In only a few moments, the rate of the rocks collapsing superseded the speed that Spidey was going, forcing him to contort his body around the falling debris of the canyon, running along the side of the larger boulders before springing off them, repeating the cycle a few times before zipping away with his webs.

He barely made it out of the crumbling canyon, as he landed again on the ground, rolling for a bit and letting Rocket go in the process, and ending up with his face in the sand, as he laid on the ground.

Rocket hopped back to his feet, as he brushed off the sand from his fur. "Nice landing, kid. I almost avoided a rough landing there," he sarcastically chided.

"I think I hate you..." Spider-Man said, his voice muffled for still being in the ground. He slowly raised his head up, tired, as he felt exhausted. With a grunt of effort, the teenager pushed himself up so that he was sitting on the ground. He rolled his mask up to his nose to spit out some sand, as well as to take a few deep breaths.

Rocket was about to say something with his usual amount of tact, but when he looked at Spider-Man, and how tired he was, his expression slightly softened. He looked at the young man for a moment, mulling something in his mind, before he walked over to him. "What's up, kid?" Rocket asked. "Everything ok?"

"Huh?" Peter grunted. "Oh, yeah, yeah I'm fine, just...just needed to catch...catch my breath."

Rocket slightly nodded. "Yeah, I don't blame ya. The past few days have been crazy."

Spidey shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly, the past few years have been crazy. You think I would be used to this stuff by now. But here I am, huffing and puffing like I did back in middle school gym."

Rocket scratched the back of his head. "I guess I could've told you sooner that I was blowing the canyon."

Spider-Man looked at the tiny mechanic with blank, gold lenses.

Rocket narrowed his eyes at the teenager. "What?"

"I accept your apology."

"What? I didn't apologize."

"You totally just apologized," Peter told him, pointing a finger at him.

Rocket pushed the finger out of the way. "I did not! I did not say 'sorry' or 'my bad' or any other variant of that."

Spider-Man got to his feet, and rolled down his mask. "Come on, we got to get you to the others."

Rocket crawled up on the web head's back, and held onto his shoulders. "Alright, hope those idiots brought my gun with them. And I hope those idiots aren't too angry with me leaving."

Spider-Man took off, as he began leaping off towards where he last saw the team. "If they are, many you could try apologizing to them too."

Rocket sighed. "You and Quill. Ugh, flarkin' humies."

"So, any signs of him down there?"

Star-Lord, using his rocket boots, was up in the air, looking for any sign of his teammate. He decided to search up high, while the others looked for him on the ground.

"The winds of this planet make any footprints in the sand disappear in moments," Drax stated over the comm line.

"Rocket turned off his communicator," Gamora interjected over the line. "I can still track him, but the signal is very weak, and I have no way of seeing if it's 100% accurate."

"Oh, that's just super," Star-Lord said, as he looked over the ship graveyard through the lenses of his helmet. "He decides to disappear when he knows that he's the only one who can fix the super weapon to kill the big, scary, fancy man. I am gonna strangle that little possum."

"I am Groot?"

"What was that, buddy?" Star-Lord said.

"Groot said he saw something," Gamora clarified.

"I am Groot!"

"Peter! In the distance, to your left!"

Quill looked, to see Spider-Man coming in fast, zipping in between the hills and broken ships, with Rocket on his shoulders. On the ground below him, he saw the other Guardians run closer to the teen, as he started flying quickly towards them as well.

Spider-Man landed right in front of the others in a clearing of land, crouching to the ground as Rocket jumped off his shoulders. "Hey guys, look who I found! An apologetic raccoon!"

"After we're done with this, I'm gonna to find my biggest gun and stick it right up your-"

"Rocket!" The furry guardian was cut off by Quill, who landed next to the others. He tapped behind his ear, making his helmet disappear. "What the hell, man?"

"Look, I already had this conversation with the kid-"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, why the hell are you here!?" Quill asked, turning his attention to Spider-Man. "What happened to the plan? The super awesome plan where I distract Morlun so you can run off and then distract him so we can find Rocket and..."

Quill trailed off, as he looked at Rocket, who couldn't help but give a smirk.

"Ok, never mind," Quill said, as he realized that his goal has been completed. "But Morlun's gonna get here soon, so we need to worry."

"No we don't," Rocket said, as Drax handed him the gun. "We bought ourselves some extra time."

"How?" Gamora asked.

"I blew up a canyon on top of him," he simply answered, as he pulled out a tiny screwdriver from a pouch on his belt and started tinkering with his device.

"...alright, that sounds about right," Gamora muttered, as she looked at the potted plant in her hands. Groot looked at her with innocent eyes, before shrugging his tiny branches.

"So how long should it take to fix this thing?" Quill asked.

"I don't know, maybe about a half hour. It depends on how fried the circuits and stuff is in this thing," Rocket told him, focused on the weapon in front of him.

"That seems a bit slow," Drax bluntly said.

"Oh yeah?" Rocket snarled. "Let's see you do any better."

Drax rubbed his chin. pondering for a moment, before he shrugged and moved towards the gun, deciding to try. Gamora quickly slapped him in the chest, hard enough for him to stop and react to it. "Ow!" The destroyer exclaimed. "That was uncalled for."

Gamora just rolled her eyes.

Spider-Man looked back at the other earthling. "So, what's the plan?"

Quill raised an eyebrow. "For what?"

Spidey cocked his head. "What do you mean 'for what'? For Morlun! Your plan only went up to us finding Rocket, so what do we do now?"

"Well, we wait for Rocket to fix the thing..."

"And...?"

"And we hope Morlun doesn't kill us all before he does it," Quill answered.

Peter went quiet, as he just stared at Quill. "That's it?"

"Uh, yeah? What, isn't that good enough?"

"No. Not in the slightest," Peter honestly answered.

"Oh great," Gamora piped up. "Now the kid's the voice of reason."

"Trust me, I'm as freaked out as you are about it," the web head joked.

Quill threw up his arms. "Look man, what do you want? We don't have any other options! We just have to try to hold him off until Rocket's done. Who knows, maybe we can kick his ass without it."

Drax gave a giant, bloodthristy smile behind Quill, as he drew his duel knives. "I like this plan."

"Of course you do," Spidey said, deadpan. "I still think we should think of something real quick."

Suddenly, Peter's spider sense flared up once more, making him turn around behind him. He saw as Morlun landed with ferocious velocity onto the clearing of land in front of the teenager, cracking the ground as he landed.

"Or we can do your plan," Spider-Man conceded. "That's good too."

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Star-Lord stated, tapping behind his ear to materialize his helmet. He then grabbed several, square shaped devices from a pouch in his coat, and threw them in front of the group of heroes. With a slight whirl, the devices came alive, a blue light blinking on them.

Morlun roared, and charged at them. However, the devices seemed to be pushing back at the monster, making him slow down as he tried to force his way through.

Peter was confused. "What the-?"

"Gravity field projectors," Star-Lord explained. "Put in reverse, they push people away. Usually they go flying, but Lord Asshole over there is super strong."

"Look at you, being all sciencey," Spidey joked. "See, you can think of stuff that wasn't lame in the 80's."

"We are not having the 'Footloose' conversation again," Star-Lord said, before turning to Drax. "We need to get Rocket out of here!"

"Understood!" The Destroyer shouted, as he ran over to Rocket, roughly picking him up.

"Hey, watch it!" Rocket cried, almost letting go of the weapon as he was scooped up. "I almost dropped the-"

Rocket couldn't finish his thought, as Drax chucked him as far as possible. Rocket soared through the air, having a death grip on the device as he yelled in surprised terror. With a thud, Rocket landed behind the safety of a ship that was flipped on its side, with one wing pointing straight into the air. Rocket got up, spitting out some sand and holding his head. "Hey Drax, Quill...how 'bout a little warning next time?!" He yelled into his communicator.

"Sorry," Quill said, as he was putting his lasers to full power. "We would've let you know if you were around for us to tell you."

"Wow, ungrateful much?" Rocket snidely asked.

"Rocket, you had it coming," Gamora stated, placing Groot on the ground behind her. She drew her sword and got into a fighting position, as she stared at Morlun fighting against the gravity shield. "Now fix that thing before we all get killed."

"I have been looking forward to fighting the Inheritor again," Drax said, crouching slightly, rearing to go to take on Morlun. "This time, he will feel my wrath."

Morlun roared in pure rage, as he struggled against the gravity. "THE...ONLY THING...I WILL FEEL...IS THE SPIDER'S BONES CRUSHED BETWEEN MY TEETH!"

In one last, powerful blow, Morlun punched through the gravity shield, the blow back overloading the devices and causing the devices that Star-Lord placed to explode. The force pushed the heroes back by several feet, sliding on the sand under them as they tried to keep their guard up.

"Oh god!" Peter cried, his spider sense warning him at the last second to flip out of the way, as Morlun barely missed with a fatal blow to his head.

Before Morlun could strike again, Quill opened fire, and while his guns didn't do anything in the past, he had hoped upping their power would at least stun the monster this time. And for his credit, they did. But it wasn't enough.

Morlun flinched at the impact, as it slightly stung. He stumbled a bit, surprised that he actually felt the blasts, but quickly adapted to the sensation he felt. He charged at Star-Lord, delivering a hard blow to the former ravager's chest, knocking the air out of him and sending him flying backwards. Quill tried to recover and tried to line up his shot, but was quickly interrupted by Morlun pinning him down to the ground. The vampire threw lightning quick blows at Quill's head, the impact from them barely being lessened by Star-Lord's helmet. It did not take long for Quill's helmet to be badly damaged, as one of his red lenses shattered, revealing his swelled up eye.

The monster continued his assault, his frown deep as he wanted to finish this as quickly as possible. However, his attack was cut short, as Drax tackled him off of his friend, roaring as the destroyer held him tightly, as he charged into the side of a broken down star ship. The impact dented the metal, as Drax slashed at the monster with all his might with his duel knives. After a few moments, Drax saw that he hadn't done any damage. In fact, he didn't even tear Morlun's clothes. The only thing he managed to do was make Morlun crack an amused smirk.

Drax couldn't help but get angry at this. This monster was smiling at him. Laughing at him. Because he saw Drax as weak.

Drax snarled, before throwing his knives down with an angry roar. With a loud battle cry, he balled up his fists, and began swinging with all of his strength. His anger, his rage, his feeling of duty towards the galaxy, made him stronger than ever. With blow after blow, cry after cry, Drax threw as much punishment at Morlun as possible. Each punch sank Morlun further into the ship, the dent getting bigger, the metal warping from the ferocity of the attack.

But Morlun just kept smirking. "Pathetic," Morlun dismissed, as he grabbed Drax's fist, before smacking the warrior down to the ground with his free hand. Drax shook his head, trying to clear his mind from the attack, only for Morlun to come up and punt kick him in the gut, making him fly across the large clearing of land, right over Gamora's head.

Gamora looked at Drax roughly landing on the ground, before turning back towards Morlun, sword in hand. Morlun calmly walked up to her, knowing full well that Gamora was the next challenge he had to pass. "Why bother? We both know how this is going to end."

The deadliest woman in the galaxy looked at him with icy eyes, but a with a small smile on her face. "Yes, we do," she said, before slashing her sword into the back of Morlun's leg, making him grunt in surprise and slight pain as he dropped to one knee. As quickly as possible, Gamora followed up with a series of kicks to the vampire's face, before flipping over him, landing behind him and taking out his other leg with another swift kick. Knowing that it wouldn't actually cut him, Gamora swung her sword at the back of his head as hard as possible, knocking him down to the ground, face first.

Morlun was shocked, as he pushed himself up slowly. "You...threw me off my feet?" He asked aloud, mostly to himself. He quickly got to his feet, whipping towards Gamora. "Your reputation is well earned," he coldly said, before tightly grabbing her throat, raising her in the air. He started choking her, forcing her to drop her sword as she thrashed around in his grip, trying to loosen it.

"Gamora!" Quill called, before activating his rocket boots and flying as fast as possible towards Morlun. "Let her go you creepy piece of-"

The adventurer was cut off by Morlun grabbing his throat as well, stopping him dead. Quill's exposed eye bulged as his air was cut off, as the monster began choking him as well. Morlun stared at Star-Lord, an almost emotionless look on his face. "The Spider would of been mine a long time ago if it wasn't for you. I saw you and your team of misfits as minor annoyance at first, but now it's obvious that you are a large barrier in between me and my inheritance. That's why you die today."

"Up...yours..." Quill choked out.

"Hmph," Morlun grunted. "Always the crass one."

Morlun heard a familiar roar, as he slightly turned to see Drax charging at him again. Calmly, Morlun threw Gamora at him, knocking the destroyer away before he could reach him. With his newly available hand, he grabbed the remainder of Quill's helmet and effortlessly ripped it off of him. "I like to see the life drain from my prey," he justified. "It's more...personal. Enjoyable."

"You know what else is enjoyable?"

Morlun turned, to see a large, sand covered boulder come straight towards him. The rock hit Morlun dead on, knocking him away and making him drop Quill in the process. Star-Lord took a giant breath the second he could, as he started coughing. He looked up, to see Spider-Man holding a web connected to the big rock that he used to hit Morlun. With a grunt of effort, Spidey started swinging the rock around, spinning faster and faster before letting go, throwing it right at the monster. It had once again hit Morlun, sending him flying before getting pinned between the rock and the front of another wrecked ship.

"That," Peter said. "That was enjoyable."

"Jeez!" Quill said, shocked. "Dude, I did not know you were that strong."

"Only if I eat my spinach," the Web Head quipped, before going over and picking the former outlaw up. "You ok?"

"Well, I was getting strangled, but I have had girls do much worse."

"Ok, ew," Peter muttered. "I know we agreed that I hang back so Morlun couldn't get me, but-"

"Hey, you saved me, I ain't complaining," Quill interrupted. "But keep it in the back of your mind that if he gets you, everyone dies. Cool?"

"Uh...I guess?" Spider-Man said.

"I could've worded that better."

"Yes, you could have."

Without warning, the rock that had pinned Morlun shattered into pieces, as the monster leapt out of it.

"Get down!" Peter cried, pushing Quill down, as Morlun quickly closed the distance between them, grabbing him.

"Finally!" Morlun celebrated. "I finally have my hands on you. I finally won."

"No..." Peter gasped, as Morlun's hands wrapped around his throat. Spidey had the four mechanical arms pop out of his back, having one hit Morlun in the eyes, taking him by surprise. The amount of slack on his grip was enough for Peter to force his way out, as he used the arms to jump back a few feet, putting some distance between the two.

"This is it for you," Morlun said. "No more running. No more stalling. I will devour you here. Now."

Morlun was getting ready to pounce again, only for a large beam of energy to come out of nowhere, blasting him away from the teenager. Peter looked from where the blast came from, to see a sight he never thought he'd see here.

Iron Man, his hands up and ready to fire again, as he stood ready and willing to fight. "Stay the hell away from my intern."