By my estimate it took us a little over five hours to reach Gamora's buyer coordinates, but really who was counting? Me, I was; but you could hardly blame me. I had spent the five hour ride settled in the captain's chair, curiosity got the best of me about two hours in which led me to check my HWT to find planets we were in route to arrive at. It seemed that every time I found one though Gamora would appear in all her green glory and have me turn the ship in a very specific direction. She wouldn't even give me an ETA when I asked her. It was driving me insane!

At the very least I had made some process on uncovering the mystery that was Groot. And after multiple failed searches I had finally found a solid lead.

Groot, or rather his species, was known as a 'Flora Colossus' from a planet only known as X.

In other words Groot was a giant flora; that was the literal translation.

So naturally I absolutely had to know more about them. I set up a search on everything on the Flora Colossus, which left me to search on more information about the orb. Most of what I found seemed more like conspiracy theories, so most weren't actually leads. It was frustrating to say the least, I mean come on it was a metal orb!

The only special thing about it was the hum, and even that I was pretty sure that was my imagination running wild again!

Eventually I did migrate back downstairs, the chair was comfy but not if you sit in it for hours. I wondered if this was what road trips were like, whoa I dodge a bullet.

It took some convincing on the behalf of Quill to finally get me downstairs. That and a promise, sworn on the oh so important Walkman, that not everything downstairs was gross and that all his chairs were safe to sit on… except one that he would be moving away.

Rocket seemed incredibly pleased when I finally allowed him to take the wheel, his smug little smile agitated me. I made sure he knew that the only reason he was driving was because I was hungry!

I didn't know where Gamora and Drax had managed to hide themselves away to, it wasn't that big of a ship, but I found Quill easy enough. Playing with my sniper rifle.

"AH! What are you doing?" I cried out surging forward, the sight of my baby in Quill's hands sent me into panic mode. I pulled it away from him hugging the rifle to my chest protectively and glaring dangerously at Quill.

"Oh relax, I was just trying to figure out how the heck you shoot it," Quill announced sounding unbelievably frustrated as he practically glared at the device in my arms throwing up his arms as he demanded baffled, "How the heck do you reload it?!"

I smirked at his frustration a little pleased with myself for being able to drive Quill mad, "I don't have to. Its powered by… well me. I don't need rounds which saves time."

"Yeah, the weird glowy stuff in the Kyln." Quill realized nodding now a little pacified… well mostly. He turned away from me, while at the same time shooting badly hidden glances my way. The silent question that he was without a doubt asking couldn't be cleared even if he screamed at me.

"Weird glowy stuff? Haven't heard that one yet." I admitted slightly amused by Quill's wording. I hesitated for a moment deciding on whether or not to answer the silent question. In the end I decided not to open that can of worms today, instead remaining silent as I put away my rifle.

Quill sighed realizing that I wouldn't be sharing any of that backstory with him. He instead pointed me towards the kitchen, offering anything edible I could find, before he headed to check his own guns.

He seemed deadest on avoiding silence though because he set up his tape to play while he worked. I will say that I was a little happy to hear the song Cherry Bomb, not that I would ever admit that out loud.

A little over an hour later Rocket called us up to the cockpit, announcing that there was a planet inbound. I had expected a simple planet, so I was incredibly surprised when I saw the planet.

Even you would be shocked if you found a giant decapitated head the size of Jupiter floating around in space!

"Whoa…" Quill gasped as amazed as I was.

Drax was the one to ask the big question, "What is it?"

"It's called Knowhere," Gamora explained, "The severed head of an ancient celestial being."

"I want one." I whispered my eyes wide as I announced, "Are there more? Can I buy one? I'm buying one."

"Be wary heading in rodent, there are no regulations whatsoever here," Gamora warned Rocket ignoring me once again.

I practically pressed my face against the glass as we rode in, flying in through what had once been the eye of this giant guy, or girl I guess, arriving in were the brain probably was. This was so cool.

Once we landed Gamora decided to fill us in on why there were people basically living in somebodies head, "Hundreds of years ago, the Tivan group sent workers in to mind the organic matter in the skull. Brain tissue, spinal fluid, all rare resources. Highly valued in black markets across the galaxy."

"Gross…" I commented as we walked through the dirty streets, "But still totally awesome."

"It's dangerous and illegal work," Gamora informed me, "Only suitable for outlaws."

"Well I come from a planet of outlaws," Quill bragged proudly as if we had great thieves on earth, "Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Stamos."

"John Stamos?" I demanded frowning confused. The only John Stamos I knew was the guy from the old TV show Full House.

"Sounds like a place which I would like to visit," Drax decided convinced by Quill's not so impressive list.

"You should," Quill agreed proudly.

I rolled my eyes at this, it's not like Earth was that great. Last I saw it was boring unless it was in danger of being destroyed or enslaved. I kept my hand in my pocket still looking up at the whole area, Groot fell into place next to me.

My gaze was returned to the area around us when Quill suddenly warned us to watch our wallets as a small group of children swarmed us all asking for units. I slowed to a stop when Groot suddenly did something incredibly unexpected.

One of the kids, a little girl with long blond hair, stopped in front of him. Groot smiled sweetly kneeling down and hoping his hand, I watched in amazement as a small white flower grew from his hands. He plucked it from his hand and handed it to the little girl who responded with a small smile. It warmed my cold heart just a tiny bit, the scene was sweet enough to give me the warm-fuzzies.

Groot moved back to his feet as we continued on after the group who seemed to have missed Groot's caring actions. I think Groot had just become my favorite.

I stopped when I found were we were going.

"Your buyers in there?" Rocket demanded eyeing the bar with disbelief. The warm-fuzzy feeling left being replaced by a sense of loathing, the same I would get whenever I saw a bar or a drink. It was an unconscious thing, something I couldn't stop myself from doing.

I hated alcohol. Hated it with a dying passion, and now it looked like I would be stuck in a bar. Just what I needed.

We are to wait here for his representative," Gamora informed us calmly as if there was no problem with it.

"This is no respectable establishment," Drax noted suspiciously, "What do you expect us to do while we wait?"

I sighed disappointedly, "It's called alcohol."

I almost talked myself into not going into the bar, finding somewhere else to hang out except I dismissed this thought. These guys were criminals, which meant they would probably have no problem ditching me and taking my share. So I sucked it up and followed them into the bar.

Once inside everyone seemed to split up into different areas. Rocket, Groot, and Drax settled themselves around a game table where they basically watched a rat style murder. Well they were really weird creatures that reminded me of rats. I decided to stay away from that table, I don't know how Groot managed to watch it; I had always been fond of animals even though I was mostly a computer child. Still I couldn't bear to watch as smaller rats were viciously and mercilessly eaten by a much bigger opponent.

They never even had a chance.

Quill risked getting cut out by heading out to buy gas for the Milano and Gamora settled herself down on the balcony.

I found a quiet, well mostly quiet, area that seemed to be ignored by the drunk people. There wasn't any chairs so I curled up against the wall content to pretend I was somewhere else as I played on my HWT. I looked up when Quill reentered the bar, he spotted me waving hesitantly. I gave him an annoyed look and instead pointed him towards were Gamora had disappeared too.

The sexual tension between the two was seriously getting annoying.

It worked for a while until somebody screamed and I looked up just in time to see Groot tackle Drax sending them rolling over the game table.

I was interested in what had started the fight, if I had to guess though I would say the alcohol loosened somebodies tongue and somebody took offense. I jumped to my feet with a startled shout, "Shit!"

I rushed to them as I spotted Rocket pulling out his gun, apparently about to shoot Drax, since I highly doubted Groot had done anything to cause such anger.

I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do in this situation, having actively avoided alcohol for most of my life meant I had never experience a bar fight. And even then I doubt it would prepare me for a bar fight between two very big opponents, both of which could probably break me in half if they wanted to. That being said as I passed the balcony exit I shouted to the two down there, "Hey lovebirds! We got trouble!"

I didn't wait for a response instead taking a moment to debate my options, I will did not want to get in between Drax and Groot. Luckily though there was someone smaller than me involved in this fight, but he was also the one holding the gun.

"Rocket, hey! Knock it off!" I shouted as I rushed towards him holding my hands up as if that would stop him from shooting me. Grateful that out of the corner of my eye I could see Gamora having joined the party, bravely holding the raging Drax back. Quill appeared next to me holding up his hands.

"Whoa, whoa!" Quill shouted focusing on the drunk raccoon who was still swaying unsteadily on his feet, "What are you doing?"

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knowns nothing about!" Drax shouted accursedly at the raccoon.

"That is true!" Rocket confirmed with hesitation.

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true!"

"Great! Now would all you drunk idiots just calm down? Come on!" I shouted at the two of them waiting for somebody to move so I could blast them. At least Groot seemed calm now, if I had to guess he just jumped to defend Rocket and wasn't actually involved in the argument.

"Keep calling me vermin, tough guy!" Rocket challenged the blue man fearlessly ignoring my request, "You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!"

"Rocket, you're drunk." Quill tried to reason with the smallest of the group keeping his voice as steady as he could, "Okay? Nobody's laughing at you!"

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does!" Rocket insisted the alcohol making it difficult to come up with actual thing to say. Before I could respond, or disarm him, he shouted again, "Well, I didn't ask to be made! I didn't ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over and turned into… some little monster!"

"Come on Rocket, you're not a monster!" I insisted trying to help drawing from the limited amount of interaction I had had with Dr. Banner, "And no one here called ya one!"

Rocket leaped at the opportunity to correct me pointing at Drax and Gamora as he announced, "He called me 'vermin'! She called me 'rodent'!"

I sent an annoyed glare back at them, silently blaming them for the emotional fallout we were now dealing with. I swore I almost saw a look of guilt flash in Gamora's eyes, but it was gone almost as soon as I had seen it. Honestly as far as I was concerned she should feel guilty.

Rocket took a breath before suddenly lifting up his gun clumsily aiming towards the two offenders as he shouted, "Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your FRICKIN' FACE!"

"WHOA! HOLD ON!" I shouted not a little panicked, because that clumsy aim almost seemed to be pointed towards me a bit.

Quill decided to be reckless and jumped in front of the raccoon, making him a perfect target to be blasted in the face, as he held up his hands shouting urgently, "No, no, no, no! 5 billion units! Rocket, come on man!"

"Of course money will save us," I sighed rolling my eyes at the ridiculousness.

"Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich!" Quill continued to persuade the raccoon with the only thing that seemed to work. While I can't say it did much in the way of comforting the distressed coon, but it seemed to give Rocket a reason not to kill us all. For one tense moment Rocket said nothing, until he lowered his gun glaring at the gun with a hard look.

He sighed in a defeated sort of way, "Fine. But I can't promise when this is all over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks."

"See? That's exactly why non you have any friends!" Quill shouted angrily looking back at Gamora and Drax, "Five seconds after meeting someone you're already trying to kill them!"

"It's much better to just skip the meeting part, isn't it?" I snapped accursedly glaring Quill down as I crossed my arms. I haven't forgiving him completely for knocking me off the balcony, sue me.

"We have travelled half way across the quadrant and Ronan is no closer to being dead!" Drax announced sound tired as he voiced his complaint. With that said the big blue man turned and fled the bar dejectedly.

"Drax!" Quill called after him trying to call him back.

"Let him go." Gamora insisted stopping from going after the destroyed, "We don't need him."

"If he kills anyone I get to blame you," I informed her a little agitated that we had brought a convicted killer to a bar, let him get drunk, and then just sent him on his way. Somebody was going to be missing a spine before the night was out.

"My lady Gamora,"

I turned surprised by this new voice, I found that while we were busy a door had opened. A girl with pink skin and brown hair had appeared wearing a white dress standing perfectly still with her hands together as she announced, "I am here to fetch you for my master."