08-Pinkie promise
Peter found Gamora in the same position on the bridge, standing still with her arms crossed against her chest and jaw so tightly clenched her tendons appeared through the skin.
"Hey… Apparently there was a glitch with our comms, sorry. We uh, found a top winglet that we can use, but the power converter was busted, so we still have to find one..." He fidgeted on his feet, not sure what to tell her, until he noticed she was shaking slightly. "Gamora?" He closed in on her, their hands almost touching, and he bowed his head to try and find her eyes. "What's wrong?"
"I saw you both enter the wreckage. Then I saw it fall and… I never saw you get out."
"Oh."
"I called, again and again, and you didn't answer. I couldn't leave the ship because neither Drax or Groot can maneuver it in their current state and I couldn't lower the ship to take a look at the wreckage in case you got out and were still coming back here, which you did eventually, I didn't know what to do..."
Peter closed the gap between them and gently took her in his arms, her forehead resting on the crook of his neck and his hands moving soothingly on her back and hair. "I'm sorry we worried you."
"Not your fault the comms chose this specific time to malfunction." Her muffled voice resonated against his shoulder.
"Still, I'm sorry."
They stayed like this for a few moments, enjoying the slight reprieve in this crazy day, until Gamora gently removed herself from his embrace. "Where's Rocket?"
"In the decontamination shower. He got a tear in his suit when we escaped and got exposed to that weird glowing dust." Quill answered, settling into his seat.
"Is he going to be alright?" the Zehoberei woman asked, looking at him with worried eyes.
Peter shrugged, unsure what to say. "We don't know what that stuff is, it's probably not dangerous and it was only a small exposure. But I didn't want to take the risk, you know?"
He slowly turned the thrusters down a notch, lowering the ship so they could resume their journey through the petrified forest. "Still, he's going to be out of it for a while. This is crazy. This damn planet is taking us down one by one, it's like this novel my mom read to me when she tried to get me interested in something else than comic books… About a group of folks that get murdered one after the other on an island. Damn thing scared the shit out of me."
Gamora eyed him with this puzzled look only he could get out of her. "Why would your mother chose such a frightening story?"
He got this sweet smile he always wore when he shared a fond memory about his mother. "It was scary and I had nightmares about it at first but it had this great suspense, we would share theories about what we thought was coming next, who I thought was the murderer… She was already sick and it was good to think about something else. She also told me it was the first book she had loved when she was a kid and that she was a little older than I was when she first read it, but knew I was stronger than her. I guess she already knew she wasn't going to be around long enough to read it with me when I was old enough to properly enjoy it..."
"She wanted to share it with you." his friend commented, smiling at him.
"Yeah. And what about you? Your parents never scarred you to life with some made up stories?"
She laughed. "My people didn't have such a fascination for fiction as yours. My parents would tell me about the feat of some legendary warriors from the ancient times and sometimes they were scary, but these stories were all about events that truly happened once."
"Oh."
"I think we have reached the end of the forest, there is natural light once again right over there."
Peter nodded and steered the ship toward the light. In the labyrinth of trunks and branches, he didn't have a way to get his bearings and the scenery that appeared before them as they exited the forest wasn't at all like the rocky landscape they had raced over before the crash. The only things left visible of the giant sun now were the coronal loops dancing high in the sky, their faint light illuminating a muddy sea, or lake, stretching as far as the eye could see in front of them, bordered by tortuous looking mountains. Here and there, puffs of fumes sprung out with large, sloppy bubbles of mud splashing droplets everywhere.
"Wow. I didn't think we'd see a swamp here, with the giant sun burning everything and all…" Peter mused, guiding the ship toward his left, where it seemed the mud met the mountains in what looked like a beach, just in case they had to do an emergency landing once again.
"Maybe it was a sea before the water evaporated," Gamora wondered absent-mindedly, her attention caught by an odd ripple on the surface. "Beware; I think something is moving right under us."
"What do you mea... Oh shit!" Peter sharply swerved the Milano to the right, then the left, boosting the thrusters to avoid the gigantic worm-like monster that had jumped out of the mud to swallow them. The ugly thing was so big the ship looked like a small bird in front of it, each of its hundreds of teeth bigger than the Milano itself. The worm dived on them and Peter shut the thrusters, letting the ship fall fast before firing them up again, avoiding the infernal mouth by a few inches. The monster gave it another try, its massive body slamming against the hull and sending the ship into a succession of loop-the-loops Quill had a hard time stopping. Next to him, Gamora was breathing fast to fight the nausea and he didn't want to think about the rest of his friends being tossed everywhere around the ship. Focusing on their escape only, he managed to stabilize the Milano and put some distance between them and the worm. Seeing that its prey was about to escape, the enormous monster charged once again and Peter had to slither quickly, zigzagging the best he could with little to no navigation available and praying silently that he wasn't overexerting the core reactor.
They finally managed to reach the shore and Quill hid them behind a rocky peak, smoothly landing the ship on a flat hard surface. Only then he allowed himself to take a deep breath and gazed at Gamora, whose dumbfounded look probably matched his. "Well, that was fun. Let's never do that again?"
Gamora shook her head, giving him a short laugh. "Yes, please."
"I'm going to check on the guys, can you keep an eye out for anything else wanting to eat the ship?"
"Sure."
Peter jumped down the ladder to be greeted by an anxious "I am Groot?"
The Flora Colossus was standing in the middle of the room, head cocked and his big eyes full of innocence, making him look like a giant wooden puppy. His arm had almost grown back to full length and he seemed unharmed otherwise.
"Hey buddy, sorry for the bumpy ride. Where's Drax?"
Groot showed him the closed door of the bathroom. Frowning, Peter quickly went by the door and knocked on it lightly. "Drax? Everything okay in here?"
He heard movement inside, then the door opened to reveal a very pale and queasy Destroyer. "Damn, you look bad… Did you hit your head again?" Peter asked anxiously.
Drax smiled faintly but didn't make a move, not trusting his balance. "No, I did not. But my stomach did not tolerate to be shaken like this."
"Yeah, sorry about that. We're taking a little break now but after I've made sure Rocket is fine we'll get out of here fast. You're going to be alright?"
"I might not be at ease for a moment, but you needn't worry, Peter Quill."
Peter sighed and patted his friend on the shoulder before leaving him. He hated to see his teammates hurt or not feeling well, as he felt it was his duty to ensure they were safe and happy. The Guardians worked more as a democracy than the sole leadership that usually ruled life in a spacecraft. They decided their next work together, and everyone's voice mattered.
The rest of the Galaxy might view him as the leader because they needed a face to represent them and he was the most negotiation-savvy of the team, but that was it for him. Except that in moments like this, when they were all in danger, his friends trusted him and his decisions to guide and protect them with an absolute certainty and a faith in him that always left him full of wonder. He never had this kind of responsibility before, always avoided it, and now he had a gang of the most dangerous misfits in the Galaxy to look after and it kept him awake at night, wondering how it happened and fearing the day they would realize he was just a thief with no leadership ability whatsoever.
He reached the decontamination room with a knot in his gut. The special shower was a very small space with no handle to hold on to and Rocket must have felt like in a pinball machine. "Rocket?" he called softly. "Buddy?"
"WHAT. THE. HELLS. HAPPENED?" The grumpy voice boomed through the metallic door.
Peter let out a relieved laugh and leant his back against the cold surface, sliding down until he sat on the floor, head in hands and elbows resting on his knees. Thank gods, he's alive.
"A giant ugly worm tried to eat the ship with us inside. Can you believe that?"
"Well, I was hoping you had a really good reason for all that roller coaster thing you just did. Thought you had a stroke while piloting or that you tried to teach your dance moves to the ship or whatever, but giant worm? Eh, why not."
Quill rested his head against the door, hitting it lightly in a slight balancing movement, knowing he had to ask the dreaded question. "Are you hurt?"
Rocket liked to keep to himself, especially when it involved his medical condition, and often belittled his injuries until Peter had to remind him he could trust them with his health. But trust took time and even if things got better between them, the former ravager knew his friend was not quite there yet.
"Mostly bumps and bruises to add to the collection. Nothing's broken, no bleeding either."
"You sure?" Peter knew this tone of voice. Genuine but with a catch.
"Yeah, yeah... Well I uh, kinda landed funny on my wrist. But it's not broken, I promise."
"Sorry."
"Not your fault, not really."
"How's the decontamination going?"
"Awful, as expected. At least the shaky-shake thing made it a little entertaining."
"Well, you know me, I'm all about a little entertainment." He heard Rocket's short laugh echoing inside the small room and smiled, then picked himself up. "Okay, time to go. I can't promise a smooth ride with everything going on there, but I'll do my best."
"I know you will."
"You hang in there, okay?" He gave three little taps on the door to indicate his leaving.
"Don't go all mushy on me, Star-soft."
"Come on, you know you love it when I do."
The last thing he heard before exiting the room was a hearty laugh. On his quick walk back to the bridge, he was surprised to find the main quarters empty, but was glad to find both Groot and Drax harnessed to their seats in the cockpit, all fine and ready to go. Even better was that Drax had gotten back to his natural coloring.
"Is Rocket fine?" Gamora inquired.
"It was no pleasure cruise, but nothing serious," he settled into his seat and buckled his harness. "No giant worm in sight?"
"It did not find us here anyhow, but I found something on Rocket's portable scanner," She showed him the red dot flickering on the screen. "It seems to be located beyond that mountain."
Peter started the thrusters and took off slowly. "Seems like we've found our next stop. I'll need you guys to watch for ripples on the surface of the mud, our giant friend is probably still looking for us and we might not get so lucky next time."
They stayed as far as possible from the muddy sea, no one uttering a word or daring to break the pilot's concentration. Fortunately, the giant monster didn't show up again and they managed to reach the other side of the mountain and the end of the sea without trouble. Before them displayed new scenery as the mud and rocks gave way for a patch of arid earth and flat topped hills covered with short and sparse vegetation.
"What the Hells?" Peter exclaimed at the sight of a structure dominating the landscape.
"I think that is what the scanner detected." Gamora said.
"This is huge..."
"I am Groot." the sentient tree agreed.
"Its shape reminds me of the usual architecture of the Universal Church of Truth." Drax said.
"I think this is one of their Templeships," Gamora added, "but only a part of it."
"Ugh, I hate the Universal Church of Truth." the former ravager huffed.
His friends agreed in concert.
Now that they were close enough to see the details, they could confirm Drax and Gamora's assumptions. The Templeship was the size of your typical mothership except the gun-turrets looked like steeples. The far end of the ship was missing and its front was embedded in a hill. Even with a good chunk missing, the thing was massive and looked like a creepy deserted town.
"Looks like our friend the giant worm had a religious meal." Peter joked.
Gamora smiled. "I think you're right". She frowned when she realized they weren't getting close to the wreckage anymore. "You don't want to inspect it?"
"I'd rather not," Quill answered, "First, I don't think their technology matches ours and second, I really, really don't want to risk finding survivors… Look," he pointed at the Templeship. "No dust, no vegetation taking over the ship and the fragments around the wreckage are still clearly visible. This seems fairly recent to me."
Gamora was about to object that they might not find another wreckage to plunder when the scanner in her hands made a beeping sound, another red dot appearing on the edge of the screen. "Fine. It seems like we have another candidate at about twenty miles from here." She showed him the coordinates, hoping that this time they'd find what they needed to leave the planet for good.
The landscape evolved as they went along, the arid earth and hills gradually disappearing in favor of a spectacular desert of sand, the shimmering dunes reflecting the last rays of sun in red and purple flashes. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
A bit further, they could distinguish the shape of a ship partially buried in the sand. Peter landed as close to it as he could and they all went down to the main quarters to prepare. Quill took his guns from their loading station and filled his knapsack with a few more deadly and useful gadgets, then turned to his friends.
"Okay, Gamora and I will go inspect the premises while Drax and Groot keep guard of the ship. Put your spacesuits on 'cause we don't know if we're gonna meet some other invisible creatures and I don't want a repeat of what happened earlier."
Gamora nodded and went to her bunk to get her suit while Groot headed for the armory to gear up. Meanwhile, Drax took Peter aside, obviously upset with his assignment. "I am not an invalid."
Peter sighed. "I know. I know you're a better fighter than I am even with only one good arm, but you're concussed and I wouldn't forgive myself if something happened to you. Plus, I really need you to keep an eye on both Rocket and Groot. I know Rocket will be mad that we went without him but we don't really have the time to wait for him to shake off the tiredness induced by the decontamination process. And what if another queen tries to take over the ship while we're out? I can't let Groot be on his own against it, we've seen what they can do to him… See? You won't be useless at all, far from it."
Drax smiled. "I know you have your doubts, but you're naturally good at this."
"At what?"
"Being our leader."
"What? I'm no leader," Quill scoffed, "I just improvise on the fly, and I have literally no idea what I'm doing ninety percent of the time!"
The Destroyer shrugged. "If you say so." He patted his friend on a shoulder then went to get his suit. When Drax made it his secret mission to give his friends the same peace of mind they had offered him, he hadn't realized how hard it would be. When they accepted him as their friend and ally, giving him back this long lost sense of belonging, it awoke the fatherly side of him with an undeniable urge to love and protect them as if they were his. He knew they all had issues, he just hadn't imagined how deeply rooted they were. But nothing would prevent him from reaching his goal. One way or another, he would teach them to love and accept themselves, damn it!
Meanwhile, Peter had stopped by the decontamination room to check on Rocket.
"Hey, it's me, how's it going?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. Getting my fur almost peeled off, wishing I'd never existed…" The raccoon sounded miserable.
"I know buddy, I know. It should be almost over now. Look, we've found another crashed ship to inspect, Gamora and I are going to pay it a visit, see if we can find a power converter. In the meantime, if you feel up to it, I'd like you to fix the top winglet, so we can leave this hellhole fast."
"Yeah, sure."
"Thanks, Rocket."
Peter had almost left the room when he heard his friend's voice through the metallic door.
"You two be careful out there."
"Pinkie promise."
"I never understood this one."
"Understood what?" Quill came back by the door, intrigued.
"This thing you have for promising on your pinkie like it gives value to your promise. I know the thing is a precious part of your anatomy but…"
The former ravager did a double take. "Sorry, what? What do you think a pinkie is?"
"Well, your dick… or your wee-wee, I don't know what you call it in private."
Peter exploded in laughter, unable to take his breath or make an intelligible sentence for a short while. "Oh my… you… no! That's not what a pinkie is, at all!"
Rocket had finally finished the last round and the door opened to reveal a Peter Quill holding his sides, face red and eyes shining with laughter tears. If he hadn't been so worn out by the decontamination process, the raccoon would have probably been offended but he did not have the strength right now. "Okay, enlighten me, please?"
"The pinkie is the name we give to the little finger. It's a thing children do, when we make a promise, we join our little fingers like this," Peter showed him the gesture, "and it adds some formality to it."
Rocket snickered. "Pinkie means wiener in Xandarian, it's rarely used but I can't believe you've never heard it… You mean that all this time, you were being cute and we all thought you were using some kind of gross turn of phrase?
"YES!"
They looked at each other and erupted in another fit of laughter. Rocket wiped his eyes with a tired hand. "Thanks dude, I needed it. I can't wait to tell Gamora."
"Yeah well, let's all mock my cuteness later, I really have to go." The former Ravager smiled and left the room lightheartedly to the sound of Rocket having a fit of the giggles.