We Care A Lot
After everything they’ve seen and all the planets they’ve been to, the sight of one that looked just like earth shouldn’t be so jarring and yet it was. Additionally it was only made worse when the rip-off statue of liberty turned out to be the High Evolutionary holding a monkey.
“Set us down there.” Peter instructed noticing the familiar urban setting of late 80’s American inspired houses. The team did so causing many of the local inhabitants to turn an eye to the sudden large spaceship landing in the middle of their road. “Atmosphere is habitable, gravity is Xandar minus one.” Nebula reads off.
Great. Looks like it was time to see what this nutjob’s planet was all about and maybe rip a disk off a guy’s head whilst they’re here.
Stepping down the ramp towards the crowd of unfamiliar races, each of the guardians, except Gamora, were greeted with a familiar look. “Let me do the talking.” Quill whispered but was only met with silence from the others. Eventually they made it surface level and it was then that Peter saw fit to begin. “We mean you no harm.” He began before a little girl with strange sharp ears and a bat like nose tossed a ball towards Drax.
The large man picks up the ball and seems to contemplate for a moment on what to do with it before unceremoniously pelting it back at the girl causing her to fall back with a high pitched yelp.
Oh no.
Suddenly a rabbit looking man from the crowd shouted something in an unfamiliar language that could easily be interpreted as “GET THEM!” before various rocks, cans, tins and litter were being thrown them. The first nearly hitting Quill in the face were in not for Venom’s intervention as it caught the improvised weapon in its tentacle grasp with ease. “Thanks, babe.” Peter nods to himself “You’re welcome.”
“Hey, we’re sorry. He was just trying to give her ball back.” Peter tries to diffuse the situation but it didn’t stop there though as the guardians were rained on with the objects with all of them getting hit and trying to shield themselves with their arms as the crowd continued to speak in the unknown language. It lasted only a few seconds before Nebula barked out a last resort order, “Groot, go full Kaiju!!” She yelled above the crowd.
Before he could try to disregard the command, the teenage Groot had already grown and additional twenty feet and started screaming and flailing the elongated arms in a frenzied manner. The cherry on top being the stomping around that could have easily crushed any one of them but in the end it did manage to scare off most of the locals as they ran away at the sight of a giant sentient tree turning into a titan-esque monster.
All except one, A women with bat-like features similar to girl that started the incident had tripped against the edge of the pavement and grazed her knee. Her holding it tight and wincing at the pain was what alerted Peter to her presence and in that moment he saw his chance to get some help. He quickly knelt down in front of her and rummaged around his belt pouches for a moment before pulling out a wipe.
He raised it slowly and cautiously before leaning forward. “We’re not here to hurt you, let me help you.” He requested before carefully wiping the blood away as the women hissed quietly. “We just want to save our friend.” Peter tries to explain but the women responds with a strange word before quickly standing up and gesturing for the guardians to follow her.
-
Inside the house, it was just like Peter remembered. There were pictures of the family, two kids were playing some sort of game before the women closed the door on them. The interior design was what he was expecting, a lot of browns and wood but before he could criticise or reminisce they were all escorted to what looked like a dining room. “Alright yeah let’s sit.” He instructs before taking a seat at the head of the table.
The rest of the guardians were a significantly less organised. Groot was busy looking at photos with the signature 80’s laser background. Drax decided that the couch was best used for laying on and even more so for rubbing his dirtied boots all over.
Nebula sat down with a passive aggressive sigh as Mantis eagerly sat and waited patiently. Venom meanwhile was smart enough to keep himself hidden with a little comment of “These people are nice. Reminds us of New Asgard. They were nice.”Venom mentally muttered causing Peter to shift uncomfortably for a moment a flash of regret passes through him as he places the hammer carefully on the floor..
Shaking himself free of the thought he looks over to Drax, “Get up! That is not for laying on” He quietly yaps “Why would it be so wide then?” Drax complains reluctantly sitting up “Because its for people to sit shoulder to shoulder.” Peter explains shaking his head before looking back over at the women. “Our friend is dying.” He explains sombrely before glancing at Nebula.
She quickly flicked her arm before a hologram of Rocket appeared and as it did Mantis made an attempt at a sound to represent dying with a gross “Uuuuhhhhhh”. The women gasps for a second before eyeing Nebula with a hard to understand expression. “We love our friend dearly…and we need to find this man that looks like...” Quill continues before noticing Drax laying on the couch again.
“I told you sit up!” Quill yells pointing a hand over in Drax’s direction “Sorry, my friend is a dumbass.” He apologizes to the lady as Mantis makes another noise somewhat similar to the first with a loud “Aaagghhhh.”. Nebula immediately shakes her head with an agitated “That’s the same noise? Now there going to think he’s dead.”
“Why do you have to criticise everything I do? They were two totally different sounds.”
“No, they weren’t. Uhhhh, dead and Aagghh, dumbass. They are the same.”
Groot was at least silent as the Flora Colossus continued to look at the photos before messing with one, knocking it out of place before looking back to see if anyone caught him and when sure that he wasn’t in immediate trouble he turned around and stood in front of it with a nervous smile. Then there is the sound of pillows creaking.
Peter loudly sighed, taking a second to centre himself.
“Mantis, those sounds are fine if not unneeded.”
“Nebula, Leave Mantis alone.”
“Drax, I see you!”
“Groot, stop touching things.”
After yelling at each of them, and having unknowingly conjured a symbiote tendril to slap Drax up from laying, Peter looked back at the owner of the house with an apologetic look. “Do you see that thing on her head-
“Oh that is delightful.”
-We’re looking for someone with one of those. See, I- we’ll draw it.” He finishes before fishing around for a piece of paper before landing on what looked like an oversized, mostly blank business card. Setting it down on the dinner mat everyone watched as Peter’s hands were enveloped by large black claws that dripped a dark inky liquid.
They moved surprisingly fast as the woman watched in disbelief as the improvised ink created a shockingly accurate image of their target before Venom manipulates its host’s hand to lift up the sheet. “Awww that is amazing, Peter.” Mantis praises as Vee bubble with jealously. He did the work, he should get the praise. “Can I have that to hand in my apartment?” Drax requests causing Venom’s jealousy to simmer.
The women seems to think for a second before standing up with confidence and walking over to the nearby window and throwing open the curtains to reveal the crowd and reformed to spy on them all. The women rolls her eyes before waving them all away. She turns and points at the picture muttering a sure “Moti.” That Peter echoes “Moti? He is Moti?” He asks but the women shakes her hands and head at that before pointing in the distance and saying once again “Moti.”
Quill stood from the table as the claws receded as he took in the sight of the large pyramid structure in the distance. “Wait that’s Moti?” He inquires and this time the women nods. “Alright people get ready to set off.” He orders as his eyes land on a type of vehicle that had gotten him to and from many places in his childhood.
“Is that your car?” Peter raises a confident brow as the husband mutters something in the foreign language from across the hall.
As each of his friend’s filter back out into the street there was one of them left in the house’s hallway. Peter found himself reaching into the back pocket of his belt looking for something that he’d left to only be used if he absolutely had to. The pager was bulky with a distinct Rocket Raccoon Makeshift appearance and topped off with a hastily sketched lightning bolt on the back.
Something in Quill made him not want to use but the other was screaming for it be finally be put to us. But with the reputation this High Evolutionary had…well simply they might just need some divine intervention.
“I am Groot?”
“It’s nothing, buddy. Just thinking.”
“Just thinking?”
“Yes, thinking. Nothing more, totally nothing more.”
With that he shook off the light prying and stumbled out towards the car and passing his guns over to the jock of a tree with a vague “You know what to do with these.” And then getting in the car easily. The others not so much.
“Drax and Mantis you should stay here and watch Rocket. Make sure that nothing happens to him.” The other two groan at the instruction whilst Groot slips into the back of the car. Nebula meanwhile couldn’t seem to comprehend what to do in order to open the door. “This shouldn’t be funny.” He mumbles to himself. “Give it second. We’re are enjoying this all too much.” Venom requests as the deadly Nebula, Daughter of Thanos, Traveller of time and Guardian of the Freaking Galaxy…beaten by a car door.
“Push it down.”
“It’s not working.”
“It looks like your pressing the keyhole.”
Nebula moves her hand for a moment as Venom emerges to watch with his own two eyes instead of through Peter’s.
“Now what?”
“Open the fucking door.”
Nebula pulls it open with a unamused frown before sitting down in a childish strop. “Was that so hard?” Quill taunts twisting the ignition key “Only because your instructions were hardly useful. Now let’s go.” She rests her head against her arm on the window as the dark claws reemerge. “Hey big guy, I don’t think now is the time for that.” Peter says bewildered by what Venom was doing. “We know how to drive.”
Oh great. The Alien symbiote knew how to drive. Lord only knows what it would do when it comes to road rage. “Eddie knew how to drive and we saw what he did when we were bonded to him.” Venom happily recalled as it started the car and set off and after a few minutes Peter did have to admit that sure enough Vee knew what he was doing.
-
As they travelled down the streets there were a few more than questionable sights along the way. That was a rodent homeless women sleeping on a bench, an obese octopus man dealing meth to people with cockroach heads and then was all topped off with the sight of a muscled rabbit man beating a porcupine person with a baseball bat against the bins.
Wasn’t exactly the exact Earthen representation he was hoping for, then again this was some sort of alien rip-off that seemed to come from nowhere. It wasn’t until they were at the car park that they came to a stop and with virtually no damage to the car. Peter couldn’t exactly say he would fair as well but they were here all the same.
When they got out the car the three were quickly stopped by B-movie horror rejects that looked like they had been pulled out of an edgy teenage mutant ninja turtles. One was some sort of cyborg pig and the other a robo-hawk. They were slightly painful to the eyes.
“Hold it. She can’t go through.” The pig says with oddly female voice “Why not?!” she scowls “The High Evolutionary has a specific no weapons policy inside the facility and that arm is a gun.” The cyber-organic explains as the Hawk turned its attention towards Quill “That means you will need to leave the weird hammer here.” It says as Peter drops the hammer on the floor before a sudden line of light scans him up and down as he immediately senses Venom’s apprehension.
It lasted all of a moment but all he heard for that moment was “We don’t like this, kill them.” It tries to instruct but manages to overcomes its desire to tear the abominations before them. “You’ll have to leave the symbiote here.” The pig says sounding bored if anything. “But it’ll die without me!” Peter argues not wanting to be separated from the other “We don’t make the rules.” The hawk mumbles.
“We don’t have a choice here.”
“But I need you.”
“If this is what needs to be done for Rocket to live, we have to do it.”
“But how can we protect you if we are not together?”
“You’re just going to have faith in me.”
Venom seems to ruminate with that thought for a second. Unhappy and overprotective but not beyond reason or empathy for his friend. “I don’t trust Nebula.”It mutters “Just do it for me.” Peter all but begs “Please.” And its then that Venom eventually decides to separate itself from Peter and form itself into a formless heap in Nebula’s arms, her face grimacing in disgust.
The creatures don’t react and instead just continue with their robotic demeanour “The High Evolutionary has been expecting you, he will see you now.” The pig mutters as Nebula’s suspicions are all but confirmed “I told you it was a trap.” She says holding the symbiote away from here like it was a baby reeling to puke but Peter just brushed her off with his signature pluckiness.
“It’s not a trap, it’s a face off.”