05 - Mother of all the thingies
Gamora volunteered to try one of the modified spacesuits. Rocket had enhanced it with a crude HUD like system, making it a little heavier and harder to move into than before, but she would manage. She positioned herself next to the airtight door, Peter and Groot by her sides and ready to shoot whatever might try to come in, while Drax slowly unlocked the handle. The door peered open just enough for her to see if the HUD worked and boy, it did work. The small corridor was swarming with creatures, but she didn't have time to register it for all she could care about was the slimy tongue jumping at her and grabbing her by the waist, pulling her in so fast she didn't have time to react. Thankfully, she immediately felt Groot's one strong arm circling her and wresting her from the claws of the beast, while Peter shot at it furiously. She nimbly cut the tongue still holding her with her sword, and Drax closed the door in a hurry.
"Wow," she said, catching her breath as Groot gently put her down on her feet. "They're fast."
"Yeah, don't tell me about it." Peter eyed her worryingly. "You alright?"
"Yes, thank you." She smiled at him reassuringly and straightened her pose with her hands on her hips, then removed them almost immediately, disgusted by the sticky remains of saliva staining her clothes.
In front of her, Peter chuckled in amused fondness. Gamora was always so tidy and well put-together while he was the mess personified, and yet they made it work.
"When you two have finished making eyes at each other, we're ready to go end some monsters, just so you know." Rocket snarled behind her, adjusting his spacesuit while Drax was already all suited up and by the door, looking at them nonchalantly.
The raccoon handed her a small taser gun. "I know you prefer to eviscerate your enemies but, just in case…"
She took the gun solemnly and put it by her belt. "Thank you, Rocket."
Peter noticed his friend was carrying his favorite huge ion cannon. "You know it doesn't work on them, don't you?"
Rocket snorted and answered with a diabolical smirk, "Now it does. Ready to go?"
"I was born ready." Peter checked one last time that both his blaster guns were charged and placed himself in front of the airtight door.
"Do you mean there was a prophecy about you fighting those creatures?" Drax mused next to him.
"Ha! No buddy, it's just an expression. But it will be legendary anyway." He winked at his friends then activated his mask. "Let's go!"
Peter and Rocket started shooting at the creatures the second Drax opened the door. The small corridor leading to the docking bay and the engines compartment was packed with an unbelievable number of crawling beasts. "I don't understand," Peter shouted over the non-stop firing roar. "There shouldn't be so much of them!"
"What do you mean," Rocket answered equally loud, while climbing over a pile of dead bodies, "You've never seen those things before!"
"I know but," the former Ravager dodged a claw aiming for his carotid and fired. "Think about it; when I first saw them outside, there were no more than twenty, maybe thirty of them! And when Groot and I were first attacked here, they were two at first and more kept coming..." he jumped over a decapitated corpse, shooting at as much creatures as he could with both his guns. "but not as much as this! It's not logical!"
"They're invisible! A whole flarking solar system jumped on us! It's forget logic day!" Rocket roared, jumping over two maimed beasts and firing at two more. "Bam, murdered you!"
"I do not think it would be wise to forget logic for a whole day," said Drax, grinning like a maniac. He was a few feet ahead of them and slashing his way through, enjoying the action.
"Stop talking and keep fighting!" Gamora grunted on Peter's left, slaying with her sword everything that dared coming for her.
"I am Groot!" Agreed the Flora Colossus, skewering a few creatures with one extended arm and using them to bash at the others. His other arm had already started growing back, but wasn't useful for now. They all were progressing slowly but surely, and after ten minutes or more, they finally reached the engines room.
"Well, I'll be damned." Peter said, astonishment seeping through his voice. Gamora's sword swaying a few inches from his face to slay a beast jumping at him got him back on track a millisecond later.
"You wanted to know why there was so much of them thingies. Now you do, Shit-Lord." Rocket said from his vantage point standing on Groot's shoulder and showering the creatures with electricity blasts, but his own amazement was tangible.
The place was covered with creatures from the ground to the ceiling, but the main event was the hideous, gigantic sort of queen which had attached itself to the core reactor, sucking its energy and somewhat using it to duplicate itself on a smaller scale. The sight was gross and the way they popped out of the queen reminded Peter of that Gremlins movie he saw with his granddad a few months before The-Day-That-Drastically-Changed-His-Life happened.
"We need to kill that thing and fast!" Gamora exclaimed to his right.
"I agree!" Rocket answered, jumping from Groot's shoulder to the nearest pile of dead bodies and getting on with aiming most of his shots at the queen, while Drax and Gamora had naturally taken the task of slicing and dismembering the creatures coming at them.
He noticed that Peter had once again zoned out. "Hey Quill! No time to daydream, snap out of it and help me to kill the damn thing!"
Startled, Peter shook himself and resumed shooting at the humongous beast which let out a deafening shriek. That was the first sound they ever heard one of those things make, and he didn't want to hear it again. Also, he couldn't pinpoint it yet, but something didn't feel right and it kept distracting him.
He diverted his attention from the queen to kill a creature which had jumped from the ceiling to get behind Drax and that's when he realized what was bugging him. Groot had separated himself from the team and was standing motionless a few feet between them and the core reactor, a transfixed look on his wooden face. The creatures were running past him as if he was no longer a threat to them.
Quill tried calling out to him without success, except for catching the rest of the team's attention.
"Groot, what's wrong buddy?" Rocket asked, trying to get another clean shot at the queen but failing as the beasts kept getting in the way, sacrificing themselves with no hesitation.
"I don't like this," Peter mused, "they don't attack him anymore. Not that I want him to be attacked in the first place but, that's weird." He gunned a creature down and shot at the queen at least four times before actually managing to hit it on the side. The giant creature shrieked again but remained attached to the core reactor, seeming mostly unfazed.
The awful scream had some effect on Groot, who slowly turned toward Peter but looked right through him, as if he wasn't even there. It was unsettling to say the least, and the former Ravager couldn't help the shiver that crept up his spine. "Groot, are you okay?"
Groot stared at him, eyes strangely empty. "I am Groot." The deep voice was detached, cold even; and he didn't understand the true meaning behind the three words.
"What?!" exclaimed Rocket, taken aback so much that he forgot where he was and if it wasn't for Gamora's awesome skills, he would have been swallowed whole. "Have you lost your flarking mind?"
"What's he saying?" Peter ducked a flying decapitated head and continued shooting at the never-ending flow of enraged creatures.
"Stupid here got it into his stupid head that he needs to protect the stupid queen! Must be some kind of stupid mind control. Flark that stupid shit!" The raccoon used a small window of opportunity to shoot at the queen. His enhanced eyes noticed that he did have wounded it, but the gash on its abdomen closed shortly after, sparks of energy flying all over the wound. "Ah, dang it! The thing is using the core reactor's energy to regenerate itself! We'll never shoot fast enough to kill it at this rate!"
"I AM GROOT!" His best friend's voice boomed right behind him and there was nothing he could do to avoid the massive wooden hand from hitting him and sending him flying all over the room and back into the narrow corridor they had come from. Thankfully or not, his landing was cushioned by the mattress of cadavers covering the ground and he got up a second later, shaking his head in confusion.
"Rocket! You alright bud?" Peter asked worryingly.
"Yeah, yeah. Back in a jiffy, those uglies are a pain to walk on, slippery with nasty claws and all." He started climbing his way back when Quill stopped him.
"Don't!"
"What?! Stupid shit got to you too?" He eyed his friend suspiciously, searching for signs of brainwashing.
"No, Ranger Rick. You need to go back to the bridge and shut down the power; If the queen can't feed on it, we might have a chance to kill it!"
"Ooh. Right." He made a U-turn and started run-climbing as fast as he could. "Won't take long, stay safe. And don't harm Groot!"
"Pinkie promise!" He heard Peter shout back and a second later he pretty sure heard Drax ask how a promise could be colored pink.
He soon reached the corridor's exit and got back into the common area. Behind him, he could still hear the sounds of his friends' fight muffled with the distance, grunts, blaster shots, shouts and the occasional shriek from the queen, followed by a furious "I am Groot". He climbed the ladder to the cockpit with a heavy heart. He wasn't fast enough, and his friends needed him. Sure, they were the best team in the Galaxy (not to brag), but facing an army of invisible and silent deadly monsters was one thing and if you added Groot in full mamma-bear mode to the equation you obtained a recipe for disaster. What if his best friend killed one of the team in his brainwashed state? Poor sweet soul wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. And what if they killed him and he couldn't grow back this time? No matter how much he loved them, he'd never forgive them.
He shook himself out of his dark thoughts and jumped on the console, searching for the switch of the core reactor. You'd think the damn thing would have been easy to find in case of emergency, but since his life was a succession of mostly shitty moments, why would it, right? Right.
Downstairs, he could hear the battle intensifying and the unmistakable sound of somebody getting hurt. The voice sounded male, so it was Peter or Drax. He started pulling his hair in frustration. Damn! He was a flarking genius, wasn't he? So, why wasn't he able to complete the simple task of finding a stupid switch? Or maybe there wasn't any switch to find. He groaned, angry at himself. It was so stupid, he had lost precious time panicking and self loathing when he could have been useful... Of course there wasn't a switch, nor a button! It was a flarking ship with a flarking main computer, he just had to enter a specific command and that's all there was to it!
Rocket typed the command as fast as he could and pressed enter with rage. A few moments later, the lights went out and the constant buzz of the machines died, the only sounds resonating in the ship being the ones of the team struggling against the creatures and Groot.
Not losing any second, he jumped down the ladder and ran back to his friends so fast he could swear he walked on the walls. When he finally reached them, it was to find Peter and Gamora shielding an unconscious Drax, whose bone was grossly sticking out of his left arm, spacesuit ruined and dripping with blood. They had taken shelter on a corner of the room and were fighting in synch, Gamora taking care of the beasts circling them while Peter fired stunning jolts of electricity at Groot to keep him occupied and at a safe enough distance.
Assessing the situation and calculating the odds in a millisecond, Rocket climbed onto the highest place he could find and fired unrelentingly at the queen. Since the reactor had stopped supplying it with energy, the thing had stopped duplicating but was still charged enough to regenerate. He kept on firing, and soon the gigantic beast couldn't heal itself anymore. Sensing their queen was in danger, some of the creatures diverted their attention from the trio and charged at him. He chose not to shoot at them and stayed on the queen which showed signs of weakening.
To buy his friend some needed time to kill the queen, Peter stopped firing at Groot and shot the beasts down as soon as they passed within range. A few seconds later, he purposefully ignored Gamora's desperate cries for attention and felt wooden vines grabbing him and lifting him off the ground, winding around his body and slowly squeezing the air out of his lungs. He carried on firing, trying to ignore the dark spots dancing before his eyes, and concentrated on his only purpose: to protect Rocket at all costs.
Gamora had to think fast. She couldn't leave Drax' side as he was still unconscious and was most likely to be devoured if left alone for one second, and she also couldn't let Groot squeeze Peter to death. She grabbed Rocket's taser gun from her belt with her left hand and aimed at the Flora Colossus, trying not to hit Quill in the process, while she continued maiming the creatures threatening Drax and her with her sword. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was one of the many reasons why she had earned the title of Deadliest Woman in the Galaxy.
The taser blasts had Groot loosening his grip on Peter a little and the former Ravager gulped the air greedily, his oxygen deprived lungs expanding painfully against his abused ribcage. At the same time, Rocket's relentless assaults against the queen had finally bear fruit as the giant creature slowly slid from the reactor and fell on the ground, twitching and wailing miserably. The raccoon whooped devilishly, fired one last blast and the thing definitively stopped moving, her mind control over Groot disappearing in an instant.
The Flora Colossus emerged from the nightmarish haze he had been forced into with a horrified gasp, and released his friend like if he was made of fire. Peter got caught up by surprise and fell on the back of a live beast, his blaster slipping from his hand with the abrupt landing. He rode the creature awkwardly for a brief moment before both realized what was happening and fought to be the first to kill the other. The beast kicked and reared, trying to dislodge and bite the interloper who was hanging onto the edge of the hard shell above its neck with one hand and reaching for his blade with the second. After a few missed attempts due to the uncomfortable bouncing between his legs, Quill managed to thrust his blade in the nape of the creature's neck, putting an end to the weirdest rodeo of his life. He then jumped on his side to dodge a beast pouncing on him, made a side roll, grabbed his discarded blaster and leant his back against Groot's leg to shoot at every creature he could.
Above him, Groot had resumed dismembering all the beasts passing within his reach and heaved a sigh of relief when he realized Peter still trusted him. The wooden giant was angry at himself for not having been able to prevent the queen from forcing its will on his mind. He had felt trapped in his own body, watching himself break Drax's bones and suffocate Peter while his mind was flooded with the urge to protect the queen. He had never felt so helpless since he had witnessed his entire species being wiped out in a giant beam of fire, and the memory still haunted him to this day.
But now that he had regained control, he channelled his anger toward the creatures and did his utmost to kill each and everyone of them with Rocket and Peter's help, while Gamora stayed behind to protect Drax.
About thirty exhausting minutes later, they had finished clearing the ship of the creatures and had regrouped in the common area to take care of Drax, whom had regained consciousness and was currently sitting on his bunk, striped from his damaged spacesuit and holding his awkwardly limp arm on his lap. Gamora was about to reset his compound fracture when Groot timidly handed him a delicate purple flower. His fuzzy, concussed brain couldn't process his friend's odd behavior and he stared at the flower with uncomprehending eyes.
Groot delicately nudged the flower next to Drax's mouth, and made an eating sign with his other hand.
"I think he wants you to eat this." Gamora said as she was applying disinfectant to her friend's wound. "Does it have healing properties?" she asked, noticing the Flora Colossus sorry and eager to help look.
Groot smiled and nodded. "I am Groot."
Drax took the gift with gratitude and let the flower lie on his tongue, savoring its sweet taste and already feeling the numbing effect on his throbbing arm. He smiled contentedly.
Groot bowed his head down and murmured a quiet "I am Groot". This one was easy to interpret.
"You don't have to be sorry, my friend. You were not in control of your actions." Drax gently took his friend's hand and made him sit next to him, both taking comfort in each other's presence while Gamora sharply put the sticking out bone back to its rightful place.
On the other side of the room, Peter noted that Rocket was sitting alone and seemed to be brooding. He came closer and sat carefully by his side, not wanting to upset him more. "Hey buddy, what's wrong?"
"S'all my fault." The answer came so quiet he almost missed it.
"What do you mean, all your fault?" he asked, genuinely intrigued.
Rocket shifted nervously, torn up between his hatred of deep conversations and the need to vent the angst. He sighed and chose the latter. "Drax getting hurt. I lost too much time looking for a non existing switch, I panicked and I just couldn't concentrate. Stupid, stupid, stupid!"
It was so out of character that Peter looked at him with goggled eyes. "Whoa, are you serious?" His friend couldn't even look him straight in the eyes, too busy with his self-shaming. "Rocket, you can't possibly think that. You killed the queen of the thingies, you saved us! And if you really want to blame someone for the mess we are in, then blame me. If I hadn't delayed our leaving Guna for an hour because I wanted to show you all that awesome bar but didn't remember where it was, we wouldn't have been on the path of this crappy planet. Plus, the bar wasn't that awesome anymore so, you know, it was all for nothing."
Rockey snorted. "Yeah, the bar was really lame."
Peter smiled, then sighed. "Come on, break's over. I need you to help me find a way to get the ship to fly long enough to find a wreckage with parts we can use. And we also need to get rid of the pile of cadavers polluting the Milano's lower levels real quick. There's no way we're gonna take that stench with us when we take off!"
"Oh, you're not coming with us then?" the raccoon teased him, eyes gleaming once again with mischievous wit.
"Ha. Ha. Ha. Speak for yourself, furball. I think you missed a spot when you decided to roll on smelly dead gunk. Shower time's gonna be epic." He sighed. He was craving for a shower and a 24 hours power nap.
Rocket groaned. "Don't remind me. Stuff's sticky as hell." He stood up and readjusted his overalls. "Come on Dirt-Lord, we've got some repairs and cleaning to do."