Since you've been gone
Knowhere.
Home to just about every kind of person. Including but not limited to Criminals, outlaws, scum, salespeople, telekinetic dogs, giant walking trees, talking (Not) raccoons, assassins and one certain half-human. Together the guardians had turned from a mining colony with a side of black market into something slightly more respectable, even if only because the black market contents were made legal under strict marketing laws.
Hell they had even bought themselves an office with real contracting deals and not just a promise of “We’ll totally do that and only steal from you fifty percent of the time.”. Well at least that’s how rocket saw the place.
He was more occupied with trying to find a good song on the borrowed Zune then reflecting on his life. Scrolling through the lengthy list of music he eventually stumbles upon with a name that stands out. “Creep” a song by some Terran band who called themselves “Radiohead” the picture was strange but Rocket just shrugged and pressed play anyway.
And for a moment he sat listening to the lyrics and occasionally following along with them as he watched the people around him. The people of Knowhere seemed to go about as the usually did, used to the random streams of music the often played as a result of Peter or Rocket but more notably some of the Guardians seemed to react in a more animated way.
Specifically he noticed, after getting up starting to walk over to a nearby bar to get a drink, that Mantis had started to dance in a way that only be considered as floating with waving arms and a bobbing motion that looked frankly weird yet fitting for Mantis. She even tried to involve Drax with a hopeful “Come on, Drax, Dance.” But was quickly shut down by the destroyers monotone “Only idiots dance.” Yet the man’s response did little to dull her enjoyment.
Meanwhile, Rocket continued on his journey whilst singling along before taking occasional glances around and spotting Cosmo and Kraglin performing some sort of tug-o-war. Groot and Nebula seemed to be adding the new sign that he had designed as Rocket eyed with a huff of amusement. Guardians of the Galaxy was quite a name to have but after saving it nearly four times now he reckoned that they matched the description it gave.
Before too long, however, he was at his destination and of course who else would be here but the one and only Peter Quill. In his usual depressive slump that consisted of the usual three stages.
First: Walk into a place that sells food, sit down and eat and an ungodly amount of it and then feed and even more amount of food to the symbiote before laying his head down on the table.
Second: Start to cry about his ability to have any relationship that worked out before Venom would explain about their shared bond and then Peter would be happy for about three seconds before spotting the drinks he’d bought and start downing them.
Third: Pass out and be carried back to his room by the hulking, full form of venom as the others all looked on with various mixed reaction before the cycle repeated the next day. Or on rare occasions their captain would sometimes function surprisingly well but Rocket wasn’t foolish enough to miss the subtle black veins that always stood out on those days.
At a glance it would seem that his friend was somewhere between stages two and three judging by the delayed reaction. Rocket didn’t pay too much attention as the half-human slowly rose from the table with a loud “Hey, Nuh-uh! I told you a million times…you keep your grimy raccoon hands off my Zune!” Quill loudly shouts before nearly tripping over the glowing shattered, silver and blue hammer.
Rockets smirks before the device is snatched from his hand “And I told you a million times that I ain’t a racoon.” Rocket retorts eyeing Peter after grabbing one of the drinks from the mini-fridge. Peter looked tired as he blankly stared at the floor before his legs seemed to there in just give up and send Quill falling sideways.
The fall itself was cut short when an series of tentacles suddenly appeared and made sure that Peter avoided hurting himself before they eventually placed him down and a head emerged, one with numerous sharp teeth and large blank eyes emerged with a remorseful “We’re Sorry.” Before slinking away and reappearing in it’s larger form after enveloping its host.
Through the window Rocket was able to spot Nebula who watched on with a look of defeated disappointment before he and venom walked out of the bar. Nebula joining them as the guardians did as well one by one. Second and third were Drax and Mantis with the Kylosian grunting out an unhappy “Again?”
After them was Cosmo and Kraglin who followed along with a shrug to himself. The group walk down the path towards the place that Quill called his home. The apartment was respectable with the contents consisting of a table covered with various mechanical components, a closet filled with various sets of outfits and unsurprisingly the main colours were red or black.
Lastly was the normal sized bed with an old looking quilt that consisted of various patch jobs that gave it a colour scheme only seen in trash piles and failed art projects. Venom stepped into room and had to hunch down unceremoniously to avoid hitting the ceiling, before dumping its host onto the bed and retracting itself back into Peter’s body.
It easily sensed its host’s unhappiness and misery but anytime it would try and offer a solution it was shot down and after adding the new rule of not mentioning Thor, well there was little he could do beside the random day where he was allowed more “access” than usual. Those were the days where Peter would be unable to drag himself out of the room and would instead request that Vee took over and just impersonated him and did what they needed to for the day.
But for now they could sleep and be at momentary peace as the symbiote manifested its form and pulled Quill closer to it, causing Quill to momentarily stir and mutter something quietly along the lines of “Night, Thor.” As a rare sensation of happiness and contentment was sent through their bond and for a second Venom was happy and lightly squeezed.
-
Rocket meanwhile was busy hanging around with Nebula who eyed him with confusion as Rocket asked her “So what are you going to do about Quill?” as she just scoffed with a retort of “Me? What about you?” She asks in return to which Rocket shrugs with a practiced excuse of “I have emotional issues.” He says calmly. “What are you doing on the ceiling?” She asks rolling her black eyes “I’m just testing to see if these gravity boots work on slopes.” He answers and sure enough they did, another point for Rocket’s inventions.
Over the street they both spotted Kraglin practicing (and failing miserably) to use the arrow that Yondu had left him with before seconds later it ended plunged into Nebula’s chest. Looking down she just sighed with mumble of “Ugh great.” Before ripping it out and shoving it against the man’s chest. Even Cosmo seemed to get in on taunting the man with its signature Russian robotic voice “You must realise you will never learn.”
Kraglin immediately got defensive “Oh you think you can do any better.” He frowned before folding his arms as Cosmo lowered its head towards a small pebble and sure enough, with a telekinetic assist, the dog managed to hit all the targets flawlessly as the crowd cheered the spectacle. “You’re a bad dog.” Kraglin began to rant and rave “You cannot say that to me! Take that back!” She demands before padding over to Nebula.
“Nebula, did you hear what he called me? He called me a bad dog! Tell him to take it back!” She yaps but the guardians continue to keep walking. “I don’t care, Cosmo.” She mutters spotting the food stand. “Is Peter alright?” Mantis tries to pry much to the assassin’s annoyance “I don’t know. He’s your brother.” She deflects “Doesn’t mean he listens to me.” Mantis explains as Kraglin joins them “I mean he has been kinda mopey since he got back from Earth, even during Christmas.” He recounts.
The group just mumble amongst themselves. Something here about Gamora, something there about Thor but the consensus was all the same: Relationship issues. “Mantis, why don’t you just touch him and make him happy?” Rocket suggests to which Groot grossly misinterpreted “I am Groot?” he asks causing everyone to gag in disgust.
“No not like that. Like with her powers or whatever.” Rocket explains more clearly “It is wrong to manipulate the feelings of friends and besides the Symbiote protects him from mental alterations. It’s like trying to understand ten thousand voices all at once.” She debunks “Well maybe we do try the other way, pull straws.” Drax reasons after all how bad could it be? Nebula shoots that idea down “Yeah. no one is doing that.” She says as they all come to a stop at the hallways to their separate rooms.
Rocket was just thankful to not have to share a wall with a certain throuple anymore. Only God knows how many nights of sleep he lost to them three like literally. Preparing himself to get to sleep, he place his belt of component on the desk and inspected the damaged and improvised key card that had saved him so long ago.
Tracing a paw along the edge his breath hitched at the memory of that day, of his friends. How everything went so wrong before depositing it into his holster and throwing the shirt and vest off as music began to fill the room from the re-acquired Zune.
“I’m just glad Drax isn’t doing anything stup-“
He’s suddenly cut off by a blinding flash of golden light bursting through his window and grappling him before both and sent flying through a cascade of walls. Screaming loudly, he is eventually stopped when whoever this golden bastard was came to a standstill on the landing bay. Trying to look past his hazy and disoriented sight he was able to make out the distinct golden skin and blonde hair of a Sovereign.
The attacker was looking around and Rocket knew that he had to seize his opportunity as he was distracted by Peter, Who’s apartment they had crashed through, as the Captain stood and stared from his window before dashing out of sight.
Nebula meanwhile spotted the incident and imminently ran to the armoury with an annoyed “What the hell?!” She snatched the jetpack and quickly strapped into place. Seizing his moment, Rocket managed to wiggle his way out of the grasp of their sudden attack and sneak down onto the support beams. “Where did you go, Squirrel?!” The man asked as Rocket desperately clung to the metal bars.
“On the ground now!” The blue skinned women demanded as she hovered above the invader with her nano-weave arm glowing with primed energy ready to be released. “ARRRGH!” The man screamed either not understanding the warning or blatantly disregarding it as he leapt at Nebula only to be met with that blast of energy as it sent him flying back through one of the nearby buildings.
Yet even after that, the attacker wasn’t dissuaded instead it was as if his will had been amplified with anger as he emerged unscathed from the blast zone and instantly flew towards Nebula and in flash sent her crashing towards the ground level. Landing beside her, there was a cacophony of panic and chaos from the people around them, he began to wail in on her. Punch and after amplified punch met its mark as Nebula’s body began to break and dislocate in various places: Ribs, Jaw, legs.
But before he could finisher her off a certain Flora Colossus descended from above and ensnared the man in a suffocating grip of branches and vines. Yet it seemed to have little effect as the golden attacker just shot into the sky and began to use and all structures to slowly break apart Groot’s body by use of grinding it into sawdust whilst blasting yellow plasma beams from his hands to slice at the snaking branches, until the only thing left as they landed was a head with four small spider like legs that scrambled to escape.
With no choice but to fight, Mantis and Rocket sprinted into the armoury in search of weapons. “Who is this guy?” Mantis panics “Some guy with freaking ray gun hands, I don’t know.” Rocket spouts reaching for a gun. Kraglin meanwhile cowers behind one of the transport vehicles and he witnesses the fight between Groot and the stranger, knowing that getting involved would likely result in his death.
After all he was a lot less experienced that the others and not to mentions squishier. “Ah screw it.” He thinks before taking a deep breathing and beginning to whistle. The tune was as calm as one can be with some destroying your home right next to you but when it hit, because somehow he finally managed to hit his target, there was virtually not effect.
Instead the man looked at the fallen arrow in confusion “Who threw this thing at me?” But when no replay came he just muttered “Baby.” As he continued to stomp towards his targets. Inside he saw his targets: The Squirrel as well as the women with twin antennae. Sending a way of plasma at the furry one was easy and sent it barrelling into the crates and when his other target try to lunge at him he was able to effortlessly catch her arm in a vice grip and crush it with ease before tossing her aside as she hissed in pain.
But it would not seem his work was done as a sudden bolt of electricity was sent straight to his chest knocking him back slightly before being followed up with a flurry and quad-blaster shots and top off with a empowered shove from black tendrils as Peter joined the fight. More prepared than the others thanks to Mjolnir’s armour, he was able to enhance his abilities to put up a good offense as Drax appeared to throw the man back out into the street.
Swiftly The Destroyer picked up the man again and spun him into the Guardian’s office sign, destroying it instantly as he lived up to his name. Yet the stranger once again got up effortlessly with a look of pure malice and vengeance atop his face. The two ran at each but Drax was a second too slow as the man ducked under his punch and instantly counter with one of his own the guardian’s face.
He continued to land successful attacks before eventually trying to launch a series of lasers at the Destroyer but before he could Drax was able to grab the arms and momentarily keep them from moving towards anyone. Yet he could hold it forever, as the stranger continued to add more and more power to the blast until it seemed to quite literally burst at the seems in an explosion of light that sent Drax reeling back to the ground.
“Peter!” Mantis called out from beside Rocket as she applied pressure to his bleeding chest “he needs help!” She screamed But as Quill went to run beside his friends he overheard as Drax was having the life beat out of him by their unknown assailant. The decision was before him: He could either potentially leave Drax to get beaten death and try and help Rocket or he could Potentially leave Rocket to bleed out and help Drax.
What if he could help both?
“Vee, see what you can do for him!” He shouted as the Symbiote argued “What about you?” It put forward “I’ll be fine. Just do it. We don’t have time!” He insisted “Alright.” Venom agreed before suddenly ejecting itself and slinking towards Rocket to try and repair the damage as Thunder-Lord ran out to attack the guy who suddenly assaulted them.
The first thing Quill did was Throw Mjolnir before running closer with his pistols drawn and firing. The attack managed to stumble the guy for long enough that Peter was able to close the distance and summon the hammer back before swinging it across the man’s face. The resultant thunder and lighting crackled for a few seconds before light sudden beams of light hit Quill’s chest.
The magic armour managed to absorb most of the impact but it still managed to send Peter back and give the gold skinned-man the chance he needed to recover and fling an amplified punch across Quill’s face, shattering the conjured helmet into fragmented pieces that fell to the floor into a glinting heap.
“Not cool dude! That helmet takes a minute to remake.” Peter complains before spitting out a string of blood and conjuring lighting to send flying through the air with a bright flash of blue and white. following it up with a ground slam of the hammer, lighting crackled against the ground and stunned the guy long enough for the recovered Nebula to reappear and introduce the attacker to a certain thousand degree nano-tech blade to his stomach.
“That hurts.” The attacker complains weekly, as if it was the first time experiencing real pain.
Nebula just shakes her head “What a pity.” She mutters before pulling her arm back and causing the man to keel over momentarily. Yet before they could celebrate there was a distraught scream from the armoury “NO! Guys!” It was Mantis bellowing as Peter and Nebula ran over.
They saw Mantis had been able to use a medpack to help her arm into place but judging by the sight of sparks shooting off in all direction from Rockers chest, the pack she had tried on him wasn’t working “Get it off him!” Nebula ordered as Peter ripped the pack away and was hit with that signature wave of cold as the Symbiote once again made its way back into him.
“What happened?”
“There is some sort of device?”
“Device?”
“A device on his heart made the medpack not work.”
“Well crap.”
The situation was only getting worse by the second “We’re sorry.” Venom apologises “The device has a frequency we don’t like. We can’t fix the injury.” It explains as Peter just nods “It’s going to be alright buddy.” But fate would not it be that easy as Rocket suddenly began to choke.
“We have to get him to the med-bay.” Quill instructs “We can’t. It was destroyed but there is one on the ship.” Nebula points out as Quill quickly heavy the Raccoon up as they began to run towards the newest ship, The Bowie.
“You’re going to be alright.” Peter said.
Praying was more accurate...