I do not own Marvel or GotG
Title from 'The Dirt Whispered' by Rise against
.
Chapter 18: The Dirt Whispered
The sky was dotted with stars as Peter leaped once more from the canyon wall. The freefall this time had lost a large measure of its joy, and he landed wordlessly in the forest below. He had briefly searched for Nebula after she had failed to reappear by dinner time, much to nobody's surprise, but the assassin was nowhere to be found. It was pretty apparent he wasn't going to find her so now he did his best to retrace the rout she had shown him the night before. His Walkman served as his only company tonight.
It took some doing, and he got lost at least three times before he made it to the far canyon wall, not quite at the same place he had meant to come out. He could see the rockslide area Nebula had used to climb up last time in the distance, though. Good enough. He could get to the top now, follow the edge of the canyon from above, and be there in under fifteen minutes, easy.
When he made it to the landing field the predicted time later, it was empty and silent.
Peter waded through the tall grasses, careful for any traps the paranoid raccoon may have left. "Rocket!" he called into the darkness. "I know you heard the news this morning, we need to talk!"
He finished a lap around the meadow and stared into the shadowy forest, his hands on his hips as he debated the safety of wandering in without his mask to see in the dark. These trees seemed much thicker than the forest in the canyon, which allowed plenty of starlight to filter through, and Rocket could have easily set all manner of less technical traps to ward off Peter's attempts to pursue a conversation.
"Come on Rocket! We're leaving soon! Now or never, man!"
The trees rustled in a soft breeze.
Peter sucked in a deep breath. It had been such a long day. "Uuuuuuuuuuugh! This is getting so oooooold! At least let me know if you can hear me!"
"You could find him, you know," a voice whispered in Peter's ear and he leaped, twisting around with a scream. No one was behind him, though.
"What are you doing here?" Peter demanded. "I didn't call you."
"Your connection to the Light is growing, and with it, your connection to me. I am here to help," the voice was like a distant recording of his own, echoing back at him. "I may be able to provide you with a solution you have overlooked."
"Yeah? And what would that be oh wise voice-in-my-head?" He now found himself hoping Rocket wasn't watching. It wouldn't be too helpful to have him see Peter talking to himself like a crazy person.
"Reach into the planet," the voice whispered. "You have seen Ego do it often enough to assess where you and your companions are, surely it has crossed your mind that you could do the same?"
A grimace pulled at Peter's face. It had crossed his mind, sure, but "How would I even do that? Ego's never shown me." Plus, if Peter was being honest, he might still have a few lingering fears about being plugged into the planet and its core again.
Eternity seemed to sense this thought, and an echoing chuckle rolled through the back of his mind. "He has shown you how to interact with the planet to answer the hails, this is not so different. There is no need to worry, I will look after you Peter. I will not let you be swept away. Just do as I instruct, and all will be well.. Place your palm against the ground."
Peter chewed his lip nervously but kneeled down and swept the grass aside to press his hand against the dirt beneath. "Okay, now what?"
"Listen... Not with your ears, with something deeper. Do you feel the Light, the veins of energy humming through the planet beneath you?"
The grass rustled around him like whispering voices as Peter closed his eyes and pressed his hands deeper into the dirt.
It took a minute, maybe two, but he swore he could feel something, a thrum of energy, like a pulse beating through the ground beneath him.
"Did you find it?"
Peter struggled not to lose the feeling as he answered. "Yeah, I think so. What now?"
"Good."
An answering energy seemed to swell up from within him, reaching down his hand toward the living dirt.
"Now you lean into it, and let yourself fall."
The energies met and then he was tumbling down into darkness.
Peter tried to shout, but he had no body to cry out with.
"Do not panic, I am here." Something brushed up next to his formless consciousness, like the feeling of a great beast's breath as it hunted the dreamer through their nightmares. "Follow the Light, Peter. Trust it. Ask it for what you seek, and then allow it to guide you. I will help you along the way."
Peter tried to shove aside the sensation of falling, bodiless, through empty space and focus on the thought of Rocket. Fractured bits of Light sparked into existence around him, like thousands of winding streams shooting off in all directions. One seemed to shine just a little brighter than the others, the flickers and sparkling flashes calling out to him, inviting him that way.
The presence wrapped around him, buoying him up through the darkness and tugging him along toward the stream. As they grew near, Peter tried to reach out again, with the Light when he recalled he had no hands to use.
The Light swept him up like a leaf on a river, bringing him back to the surface where he floundered weightlessly until Eternity righted him again. As he struggled to make sense of his surroundings he thought he saw Rocket, reclining on the twisting branches of a tree that hung out over the canyon wall.
He looked around for any other landmarks that may help him locate his evasive teammate. A loud crashing sound hummed through the air, and something glowed bright and silver nearby.
"Good. You found him."
The sensation of tumbling through the ground returned and much quicker than he had left, Peter was back in his own body, gasping for breath on his hands and knees.
"Well? Did it work?"
"Damnit!" Peter ripped up a clump of grass and dirt and flung it at the assassin crouching in front of him.
Nebula swatted the sailing clod aside then stood, wiping the dust off her hand.
"I swear to God Nebula! Wear a bell or something!"
The assassin was less than apologetic, ignoring his complaint outright while she checked under her fingernails on her right hand for any dirt that may have been lodged there.
After he had a moment to catch his breath and quiet his heart he asked;"How did you know what I was doing, anyways?"
That did earn him an answer, at least. She gave the meadow around them a meaningful look. "What else would you be doing?"
"And what are you doing here?" He'd assumed she would be as far away from any living thing as she could get right now, and had given up any hope of seeing her until breakfast at the earliest.
"I figured you'd be desperate to find the uplift-"
"Rocket."
"-Rocket- tonight and came to ensure you didn't wind up lost or impaled on some spike trap he set."
With his breath fully caught, Peter hauled himself back to his feet, wiping the dirt and loose blades of grass from his pants. "Aw, you really do care."
"I care about your obsession with making friends not ruining my chance to see my father dead."
"Nu-uh, this makes twice in one day that you've gone out of your way to help me. Admit it; I'm, like, your best friend. You looooove me! "
"I'm going to love snapping your neck when this is all over."
Satisfied that his pants were as clean as they really needed to be for a trek through the woods at nearly midnight, Peter wandered back towards the edge of the canyon, scanning the sides for any sign of the hanging tree. "Nah. You wouldn't do that to your best bud."
Nebula trailed after him, her nose wrinkled like he had said something especially disgusting. "I don't have a 'best bud,'" she sneered.
"Don't you?" he shot back with a bright smile and waggle of his eyebrows that only made her grimace deepen.
"How well do you think you'd survive if I shoved you off this cliff?"
"Okay, okay. I'm done. Before you shove me off the cliff, though -which you and I both know I would survive just fine-" he tapped the toe of one of his boots against the ground for emphasis. "-you can help me find Rocket. He's in some tree hanging over the canyon. I think he might be near a river or a waterfall."
She considered this for a long moment, before eventually taking a deep breath and blowing it out through her nose like she had to physically let go of her annoyance before helping him. "I believe I know where he is. I hope those boots of yours have plenty of fuel left."
-x-
"I'm sorry I didn't go after you, by the way," Peter confessed as he ducked under a bridge of low hanging branches that interrupted the trail Nebula was leading him down. "There's only one of me, and I just thought, right then, that Gamora needed me more..."
"You wouldn't have caught me, anyways." Flashes of starlight reflecting off of her augmentations gave her away as she stalked through the shadows ahead, occasionally calling back a warning about an obstacle in their path.
"I looked for you after you didn't show for dinner."
"A waste of your time and energy."
"I was kind of hoping you might want to be found. What happened, when Mantis touched you? You looked-"
"Nothing happened." She cut him off abruptly. "Her powers don't affect me as strongly as they would someone like you."
"I mean-" Peter paused to pick his way carefully through some twisting roots. "- they still affect you a little bit, right?" If Mantis could put a raging Celestial to sleep against his will, certainly she could effect Nebula despite her enhancements.
"Watch your steps up here, we're getting close to the edge of the cliff. We'll be traveling parallel to it for a while before we leave the trees, so don't wander."
That sounded like a yes, but Peter let it go for now to focus on finding Rocket. The air was filled with the rumble of a waterfall, and a light mist that steadily dampened his hair and clothes.
"Hey Nebula, can I ask you something else? Something I think I'd rather ask back here, where it's a lot harder for you to hurl me to my death or drown me in the waterfall."
The footsteps ahead of him stopped.
"We haven't made it to your friend yet," she warned him. He couldn't see her face through the night, but he was sure her lips were pressed into a deep frown and her eyes had that hardened look to them like she was bracing herself for something painful to be thrown in her face. "Think hard before you piss me off enough to just leave you out here."
Peter hesitated and almost changed his mind. He really didn't want to send her away, but this may be the last chance he had to talk to her alone before they were back with the NOVA Corps, and privacy was a luxury they were sure to be lacking. "This thing between you and how Gamora was being so soft on Mantis... were you... jealous?" Peter took an unconscious step closer to the trunk of a large oak-like tree to his right, in case he needed something to put between himself and the assassin who's buttons he insisted on pushing.
There was no noise for a while, not even the sound of her leaving as she had threatened. When she did speak, her voice came back, flat and emotionless. "No."
"But-"
"I am not jealous. Mantis can have her, and with any luck, Gamora will be satisfied with training her new student and leave me alone now." Peter doubted that, but kept his mouth shut and let her continue. "It's just... infuriating, to know she had it in her this whole time. To have to stay here on this planet and see it. After everything I did just to survive and she wouldn't even acknowledge me, let alone show me the smallest scrap of mercy." The leather of her suit creaked and Peter was sure she was balling her hands into fists as she spoke.
"Well-"
"I know the circumstances," she cut him off again, "I know them better than you ever will, and I don't care. We're done talking about this."
"Okay." They probably weren't, not really, but he'd pressed his luck far enough, and now mostly just felt guilty about intentionally bringing up such a sore subject. "Sorry."
They made it the rest of the way with nothing but the growing rumble of the waterfall between them. When they arrived, Nebula pulled them off the path they'd been taking and pushed through the edge of the trees, one hand held out to keep Peter from walking straight over the edge when the brush and leaves hung out deceptively, making the ground appear to jut out farther than it really did. After assuring he wouldn't fall to his death, or at least an unpleasant setback in tonight's journey, he looked up and quickly realized something was off.
"Hey wait," he said, narrowing his eyes against the spray in the air as he stared at the waterfall cascading down from across the now very narrow canyon. They must have traveled down to where the two edges nearly met, but...
"We're on the wrong side."
The edges of her augmentation shone in the starlight as she raised her arm to point one slender finger across the way. "That should be where Rocket is, if he hasn't left yet."
About a third of the way down the cliff, half-hidden from this angle by the mist of the waterfall, a tree grew defiantly out from the drop. It appeared it had taken a hold of a small shelf among the rock, and decided to set root there, simply refusing to be ruled by the laws of physics.
"I wasn't joking about your boots needing fuel."
"Oh," Peter groaned, measuring the distance between himself and the tree and plotting the best path to his target without missing and face planting into the wall or getting soaked. "Are you coming with?"
Her eyes narrowed as she did some calculations of her own. "It would take me a significant amount of time to join you. The water complicates the climb up."
Peter hummed to himself as he glanced up and down the canyon edges. "What if we go down that way?" he offered, pointing down to where the two cliffs nearly reached each other before separating again. "I can get us both across that narrow part with my boots, then we just walk back on the other side and we can drop down on him together?"
The 'No' was plain and clear on her face even in the dark.
"Come on, please? It's not even a mile away, shouldn't take more than ten minutes to get there. I think I have a better shot if you're with me."
"Why in all the galaxies would you think that?"
"I dunno," Peter shrugged but persisted. "Just a feeling, mostly. He talks to you at least, and you're better at explaining what we're up to. Plus, maybe he won't just run away if he thinks you could track him back down."
"All of that is stupid, Peter."
"Hey, my gut feelings are not stupid." He was already ducking back into the trees and feeling his way down in the direction of where the cliffs almost met. "I've been saved by a gut hunch plenty of times. I've learned to trust them. It's like a sixth sense-AAH!" His boot came down on nothing and a hand yanked him back onto solid ground by the scruff of his shirt.
"You would do better to listen to your common sense first." Nebula shoved him further from the uneven edge of the cliff and took the lead once more.
"See now that has lead me astray a few times."
-x-
Peter nudged his toes along the edge of the canyon, frowning at how bits of it crumbled away. "Are you sure you don't want a ride over? I really can do it. It's not that far. And I've carried people plenty of times before."
"My answer isn't going to change," she said stubbornly. The assassin was standing back from the edge, her arms crossed defiantly over her chest while she watched him test the footing for his takeoff.
"How are planning to cross, then? You can't jump that." His heart hammered a little faster at the thought of her trying, just to show him up and hurting herself. Sure, she could survive a fall that long, but he knew very well now that she felt every broken bone when it happened. Maybe he shouldn't have insisted so hard she come with him this way.
"How is your creation coming along?" she asked in place of an answer. "Do you think you could make a long staff with any sort of flexibility to it?"
Peter glanced between the assassin and the far cliff face. "I don't think I could make you a bridge without taking all night." And it might not hold, anyways. He wasn't exactly an engineer.
"Not to walk on," she corrected him, "to use as a vault."
"You want to vault that!?" Again, the image of her misjudging the leap and plummeting into the thick tree-tops below filled his mind.
"I can. Easily. But I will need a staff, much taller than the ones you made before."
There was some discussion about exact height and materials, Peter still being unable to make things out of wood or metal, which would have been the ideal mediums, and eventually Nebula settled on requesting a shorter staff made of something like diamond, the only solid material he really knew how to make that wasn't likely to snap.
"If you miss and fall, I'm catching you," he warned her as she took several steps back to wind up.
"If you touch me, I'll break that finger for a third time."
"Then you'd better make it over, or we're both going to be miserable tonight."
A roll of her eyes was her only response to that and then she was off, rushing the cliff with her makeshift vault after he had failed to make a more reliable one for her. He couldn't help the wince as she made the leap, still half-expecting to be diving down after her any moment. Instead, she cleared the gap just as she had promised, landing easily in the open space on the other side as the staff she'd been using tumbled down into the forest far below, glimmering brilliantly as it went.
"Hurry up," she called back. "The longer you insist on taking with this, the more likely your friend will be long gone by the time we get there."
-x-
The trek back to the waterfall was even quicker. The trees and undergrowth on this side were thinner and more easy to navigate, and before he knew it, Peter was looking down at the top of the twisted tree growing out of the canyon ledge below. He couldn't tell through the thick cover and the rolling mist if Rocket was still there.
"Well, here goes," he muttered to himself before stepping off the edge and plummeting to the shelf below, wishing he had his mask to help him see where he was going. The boots buffered the bulk of the drop, but he still landed with a grunt and the breath knocked out of him.
The shelf was just as narrow as it had looked from across the way, but it was more slanted than Peter had predicted, and the loose crumbling dirt nearly sent him sliding over the edge. A thick root twisting out from the cliff provided enough of a hold to allow Peter to drag himself up to the slanted trunk of the gnarled old tree.
"Hey Rocket?" Peter called up, squinting against the spray as he scanned the branches above. "I'm coming up!" he announced, searching with his fingers for a hold along the damp, twisted trunk. "If you're up there, don't like, throw any pine cones or acorns at me okay? I don't have a good grip and if I fall I won't die, but I'll be pissed."
The array of branches and heavily angled trunk made for a manageable climb up, despite the soggy bark, and as Peter reached the thicker canopy he dragged himself up to where a thick branch met the trunk at a perfect angle and sat in the crook to catch his breath.
"Was that supposed to make me not want to do it?"
"Rocket!?" Peter gasped. The raccoon crouched in the fork of a branch jutting out in the opposite direction, a darker shape among the shadows. "Good you're still here! We can talk now!"
"How did you find me? Did that damned cyborg rat me out?"
"No, I did it!" Peter declared, a little proud that his new powers had been put to real use. "Okay, it was more of a team effort, really, but it was like, 90% me. Nebula should be joining us soon, though."
Rocket's lips pulled into a grimace, his ears pinning back. The tips flashed brilliantly in the dark.
"I assume you heard the news," Peter started. "We'll be going off planet soon."
"Yeah. I heard."
The sound of loose debris and pebbles raining down the cliff face rose over the roar of the waterfall, and a moment later the whole tree swayed as something dropped onto a nearby bough.
"Nebula," Rocket greeted her coldly.
"Rocket," she returned, locking eyes with him through the distorted starlight.
"Ugh, he's got to you too with that name," the raccoon grumbled standing up straight on his own branch and crossing his arms. "What are you, his bodyguard now? That's one hell of a demotion you've suffered."
"The only step-down from my previous position would have made me you."
There was a flash of teeth and an audible snarl in response to that. "I don't need to take this from Gam's spare parts."
Nebula narrowed her own eyes and took a threatening step towards Rocket's branch.
"Whoahwhoahwhoah!" Peter shouted, too far down in the tree and too unable to move with any speed to actually get between them. "Easy guys! Reel it back in. We're wasting moonlight bickering when we should be planning."
"Planning for what?" Rocket moved away from the pair and up a branch, so he was just a little higher in the tree than Nebula now, and well out of her reach, but didn't leave just yet.
"What we're going to do when the Nova Corps pick us back up. Unless you're planning to go back into that cell. You didn't leave a great impression on the way out."
Rocket's glowing red eyes narrowed into slits. "I ain't going back in a cage," he warned.
"That's why I'm here. To make sure you don't. But I am going to need just a liiiittle bit of cooperation to make that happen."
"Why do you need that? Ain't you some magic boy that can make all their problems go away with a snap of your fingers. They should be linin' up to kiss your boots, right? So just demand what you want. They gotta give it."
Peter rubbed at the back of his neck. "Not... exactly."
"He has yet to prove his worth to them." Nebula's voice echoed his thoughts pitilessly. "You'll have to pull your own weight for now."
A snort told them just what Rocket thought of that.
"Will that be a problem?" Nebula taunted the raccoon, sidestepping to a twisting branch that ran nearly parallel to the cliff face as it reached towards the sky. She leaned back against it with deliberate nonchalance. "Are you missing your life as a lap-dog already?"
That seemed to get through to him at least. Rocket's hair stood on end, the tips gleaming silver where they caught the barest hints of light filtering through the trees. "I'll show you a lap-dog," he growled, low and deadly.
"Go ahead." The assassin seemed less than impressed with the threat. "And the last thing you'll ever see is the inside of the Nova Corps' airlock. If I don't just throw you off this cliff, first."
"Nebula," Peter warned.
"It's the truth," she shrugged. "Avoiding it isn't going to help anyone."
Peter closed his mouth with a hard frown, not sure where she was going with this. His attempts hadn't gotten them very far, though, and at least Rocket was holding something like a conversation now. A violent one... But there was something in Rocket's voice, and in the way he was looking at the assassin that reminded Peter they had some sort of a history here, something Peter himself was sorely lacking, and he did his best to trust her judgment and wait.
She laced her fingers together over her stomach as she reclined back against the branch as though getting ready for a nap, and turned her face back to Rocket, continuing as if Peter wasn't there at all.
"You and I both know how the Titan feels about giving up what he considers his. Your plan to run- how far do you think you'll get before he finds you?"
"Far enough."
"Do you really think such a thing exists?"
"It could." Rocket's tail was twitching now, and Peter thought he looked a little uncertain as his eyes adjusted to the new darkness.
"You know what happens when it doesn't, though?"
Peter could swear he saw a shudder pass through the tips of Rocket's fur before he answered. "So what? Asking nicely didn't work, so you're going to try threatening me?"
"No. I still don't care if you come or not. I don't think we even need you anymore. Peter is already improving his ability to wield this Light. Once Ego finishes training Peter, any use you once had in all of this will be gone."
Rocket stiffened, clearly offended by her dismissal.
She settled more comfortably against her branch and closed her eyes. "I am just here to make sure you don't throw this idiot off the cliff. He won't let me rest so long as he thinks there's a chance to sway you. Hear him out, then run away and have yourself killed if you wish, but he will have to be satisfied that he did all he could, and we can all be done with this nonsense."
The rumble of the waterfall was the only sound to follow, as Rocket stared down at her through narrow eyes. Peter held his breath and didn't dare move as he watched Rocket's tail twitch thoughtfully, swinging back and forth like he was counting reasons in his head.
Having said her peace, Nebula seemed more than content to rest her eyes, and offered nothing more.
Slowly, so slowly that Peter almost didn't notice, Rocket's gaze shifted to bore into him instead.
"Well?" he grunted out.
Peter straightened up, afraid he had missed something. "Well?" he echoed.
"What are you deaf all of a sudden? You heard 'er. Just say whatever you came to say, and then we can all get some d'asted peace."
Startled by the sudden chance to make his case, Peter scrambled for the words that had once been on the tip of his tongue.
"What would it take to get you on our side?"
"If you know me so well, why don't you tell me?"
"Well, in my universe, I think you mostly joined because of Groot..."
"Groot? Pfft. You keep that overgrown courtweed away from me or I'll turn 'm into the pile of kindling he deserves to be."
It took Peter a moment to be sure he'd processed those words correctly. "Dude, what happened between the two of you?"
"What happened is he's a filthy traitor. A bleedin'-heart coward. You never shoulda sprung him from that cell. If you ask me, he was gettin' what he deserved!"
Peter probably resembled a cross between a fish and an owl at this point, his eyes were so wide they beginning to sting. "That can't be right. Groot would never-"
"Yeah well, it seems like you don't know any of us as much as you think you do."
Okay that hurt. Peter opened his mouth, but found no reply and instead bit his lip and let his shoulders slump miserably. "Everything here is backwards and wrong," Peter mumbled. "You shouldn't be like this."
"An asshole?" Rocket jeered.
"So scared."
A warning growl rumbled over the crash of the waterfall and Rocket's teeth flashed in a vicious threat.
From where she reclined on her branch, Nebula cracked one eye open.
"You were always an asshole, and a little bit of a coward, yeah, but not when it really mattered. You always came through."
"I'm not a coward," Rocket's voice was ice cold. "I'm a survivor."
"You're running away," Peter pointed out harshly. "That's what cowards do."
"It's what someone who wants to live does."
"For what? To spend your whole life alone and running?" Peter used the gnarly trunk to drag himself up to his feet. "To be afraid forever?"
"At least I'd have a life to spend."
"That's just what we're saying here Rocket; you wouldn't."
Rocket was beginning to shift his gaze into the branches around them and Peter got the feeling he was getting ready to leave and take the gamble that they wouldn't follow.
"The Nova Corps should be calling again tomorrow to discuss plans. I think it would be a good idea if you came. You could have your own say in things."
The raccoon scoffed and shifted up a branch.
"Aren't you sick of letting other people talk for you?"
Half-way into the next branch, Rocket froze, casting one last unreadable look over his shoulder at where Peter stood below, making no move to follow or stop him. Like all the times before, there was no farewell. One moment Rocket was there and the next he was lost to the shadows and Peter was left with a swirling ball of confusion about what his friend was thinking.
He heaved a deep sigh and ran his hands through his damp hair.
"Alright," he sighed. "Let's go back I guess."
Nebula pushed off the branch and deftly maneuvered her way through the branches to the shelf below, making Peter feel like a clumsy bull as he ripped chunks of soggy bark off in his hands and slid more than actually climbed his way down to join her.
On the shelf he immediately slipped on the loose dirt again and fell to his knees, sliding dangerously close to the edge before Nebula once more yanked him back to solid ground by the back of his shirt.
"See?" he panted, tugging his collar back into place and hoping it wasn't going to get all stretched out. "I told you it was a good idea to bring you along. I think he likes you."
-x-
"Are you sure you can't tell if Gamora's parent's are there?" Peter asked his own dark-eyed visage. "You know the planet now, it can't be too difficult, right?"
Eternity stood at the foot of the bed, shaking his head at the real Peter who sat cross-legged over the covers. "No, it is not that simple. There are many souls there. Certainly some could be those you are searching for, but I cannot see their faces as you would, only feel the energy humming within them. The closer we grow, the better my vision here. Each day I can differentiate more of the going-on's of this realm, and tell the individual souls apart, but as of yet they are no more than sparks of light, like stars in the darkness. I might recognize a star I know very well or one with a unique glow, as I do Thanos or you, but finding a new one from only their mortal heritage is not reasonable at this point without your eyes to look through."
It was the same answer he seemed to get every time he asked. Eternity just found a new way to word it each time.
Peter blew some air out through his nose and scrubbed at his tired eyes. "Then I guess asking if you could play scout and tell us what we're walking into would be-"
"Useless."
"Ah."
The cosmic being offered a facsimile of a reassuring smile. "Perhaps when we are closer, I will be more useful."
"Yeah," Peter yawned. "Maybe." It didn't seem very likely, though.
"You are doing well," the cosmic entity reassured. "Just focus on the future. We will achieve our goals."
End
Chapter 19 Preview: "...he shoo'd the still laughing Drax and Mantis, who was doing a poor job of covering up her own giggles, out of his room and got dressed for the day. As he laced up his boots, he hoped this might be the last morning he spent here..."
.
Talking to Rocket was supposed to be maybe 500 words, but expanded into an entire freakin' chapter when I decided to slightly alter something in the next arc, and wanted to set some groundwork for some stuff. Oh well, it was a fun chapter to write, so I hope you'll excuse the last of my dawdling on Ego's planet.
I know literally nothing of vaulting. I'm leaning heavily on Nebula just being a general badass since Peter still can't make a wood/plastic/metal material which would have had more flex...
Anyways, thanks for staying with me on this journey! One more chapter done!
-OMaM