Face Off
Walking the halls of the strange pyramid shouldn’t have been as daunting as it was but something was telling him that this place wasn’t what it seemed, that everything they were looking at was some sort of fancy appearance to cover up the real dark stuff that was both literally and metaphorically under the surface because it every villains wildest dream to have secret hidden floor. At least in their experience it was.
Groot meanwhile seemed calm enough as he trudged along beside a rather agitated Quill but the man was unable to pinpoint what was causing his agitation. At first Peter thought it was just his old Ravager instincts acting up telling him to check for traps and dangers or maybe it was the much more likely the immediate withdraws of not being able to feel his other’s presence.
Either way, he’d gotten them into this situation so he’d fill his role and captain and get out with what they needed and everyone in mostly good condition. Eventually the strange robotic animal people had guided them towards the door before all but shoving them through and shortly thereafter closing it with a loud metallic slam.
Inside the room are various figures; some in white and some in black. Yet by the time that Peter and Groot were in the centre of the room nobody had seemed to address their existence beyond the guards glaring daggers. Looking around further in awkward silence revealed something- or better, someone that Quill was itching the beat the life out off.
The High Evolutionary was sat smugly at the overly ornate desk with a finger help in the air. The bastard silencing them and well that wasn’t going to last much longer. As the man continued to sit there with his hand in the air, the sight of his ego on display lead to a familiar, dangerous feeling within Peter. A feeling he’d long since struggled to try and control.
The power within sparked through Peter’s veins and all but begged to be used but Quill, knowing that trying to use powers he barely even understood in a room full of people probably wouldn’t go well, instead turned his gaze to the others of the room which eventually lead him to see the exact one they were looking for.
“Hey you! Yeah, you!” He shouted at the pale and blue skinned recorder “I’ll bet that passkey in that thing, isn’t it?” He questioned striding towards the man, his eyes unknowingly a spark brighter. “I’d advise against aggression.” The High Evolutionary states as he stands “Oh so now you have time for us?” Peter questions loudly.
The man seems to ignore it in favour of starting a monologue, “You’re friend did that once and I learnt my lesson, I directed some of my cognitive ability back in my own direction and now gravity itself bends to my whims.” He explains proudly with that grin only growing wider.
Meanwhile, one his assists sneakily communicates with the beasts quietly, “Warpig, now.”
-
“Do you just sit around and eat brains all day? Because for the life of me I cannot understand why Peter likes you so much.” Gamora mentally asks the sentient goo currently residing somewhere in her body. “No. Peter doesn’t usually like us eating brains so he also buys a lot of chocolate but he likes us because we protect him, we care for him and we also please him by-“ Venom prepares to answer but is cut off when Gamora lets out a disgusted “That’s enough. I don’t need to know more.” She finishes by shaking her head.
Yet the second of peace is over when her watcher suddenly shoots into the air of half functional thrusters.
“That’s not good.”
“You don’t say.”
-
“You must find Counter Earth familiar.” The High Evolutionary began with self-assured look, as if he had figured out some grand secret.
“Of course you named it Counter Earth.” Peter sighs.
“I visited your planet a long time ago, the people had such wonderful spirit.” The man ignored deciding his lecture was more important.
“Mhm.” Quill just nods along.
“The art and music were some of the greatest in the universe, Earth would be a fantastic place were it not for the ignorance and bigotry.” The High Evolutionary praises clearly not getting the message.
“Okay.” Peter mutters knowing that it had grown to be not quite as true, at least in New Asgard there wasn’t much bigotry.
“It inspired me to create Counter Earth-
“I don’t care.” Peter abruptly snapped.
-all the good and none of the bad.” The man continued anyway.
Growing sick of it, Quill takes a step forward “I don’t need another speech from an impotent whack-job justifying why he needs to conquer the universe because his parents didn’t love him enough.” And that seems to get a reaction out of the high evolutionary “I’m not trying to conquer the universe…
…I’m perfecting it.”
-
Humming a tune, Gamora finishes messing with the toilet paper but before she can put it back into the holding a sudden alarm starts blaring as its accompanied by sudden flashes of orange light. “Damn it.” She mutters pulling up her trousers and shoving past the door and immediately inspecting her surroundings for signs of danger and yet none appeared in the hall.
But it would soon make itself known when a glance down the hall towards the med-bay revealed some abomination carrying the badger the Guardians seemed to care so much about. She drew her pistol and aimed at where she guessed this beast’s heart was with a cold and calculated voice declaring “Put the badger down.”
And to her credit it worked maybe a little too well as the creature dropped the badger on the spot immediately leapt at her, throwing both itself and her into a nearby wall with a shocking speed causing the wall to shatter and spark to shoot out from the damaged circuits.
-
“We just want the passkey.” Peter tries to explain calmly as the spark starts to get harder to ignore but the High Evolutionary just seems to find it hilarious “Then bring me 89P17.” He shrugs as if it was some obvious solution to the problem. “I am Groot.” The walking tree declares causing the man to look over confused, “He says ‘suck my-“
The man sighs “Why are you so angry?” And the blatant ignorance only adds the fire within Quill “Because I know what you did to our friend.” Peter declares as the covered veins start to glow with a dull blue-white light as the High Evolutionary leans forward “Anything I have done was for the betterment of the galaxy.” He spits.
Quill grasp on the power starts to slip as the brown irises start to turn a similar colour to his veins “Newsflash, Einstein, a better galaxy doesn’t usually involve octopus people selling meth to guys with cockroach heads.”
The man contemplates the words for a moment before ultimately agreeing “You are right.” There is a beat of silence as he turns away “Which is why I will have to do as I have done many times before. I will raze it all and start again.” He reveals staring out the window.
As the words process in Peter’s mind he willingly lets that ancient power win out.
-
Gamora recovers moments later as she looks up to see the vile creature start to carry the badger once more with a bored “I’ve got 89P13 and I’m on my way.” But before Warpig could get beyond a few steps Gamora had drawn her dagger and sprinted over and lunged at the beast. Swiftly she stabbed at the neck, getting rewarded with a pained scream yet when she attempted a second the beast was quick to respond and tossed her over itself.
Landing on the floor once more, she looked up to see a pair of robotic arms descending from the air but impact never came. Instead a sudden flash of gold shot through the air and collided with the animal-robot hybrid sending it across the ship. She heard a disgruntled “What the hell? We’re working for the same boss.” Come from the beast and Gamora saw her chance.
Grabbing the badger she put in under her arm and sprinted from the ship in a hurry, hoping the two would either fight or distract each other long enough for them to make an escape of some kind. Sure enough she was able to make it down to the surface and start running towards the front entrance ramp when the unexpected happed.
Whilst running under the ship, the very ground itself seemed to rupture as explosions tore at the street one after another as the citizens of the planet, strange as they were to look at, to panic and scream as they started to run and yet the explosions didn’t seem to stop. They were al around, a deafening series of booms that never ended and seemed to barely just avoid the pair.
However a nearby family were not as lucky as Gamora witnessed the mother and her kids stood on the centre were the surface shot up and fire broke through. Not giving herself a second more to waste, Gamora sprinted up the ramp only to be met with the sight of second fuzzy creature that was frightened to point is urinated on the ship in front of her.
But before she could do anything else there was an explosion beneath the ship that sent it rocking and the three of them all cascading through the halls and med bay, each colliding with various object along the way in a painful abrupt motion.
Moments ran past before she was able to recover but when they did Gamora saw the sight of the same golden man but this time he was collapsed against the hatch of the ship. “Well things really had to from zero to one hundred.” Gamora thinks to herself.
-
Nebula and Venom stood in awe as the pyramid in front of them started its slow ascension from the ground. “Mantis and Drax, Come in! Mantis!” She shouts down the com device “Hey.” Drax responds “I need you to bring the ship over now.” Nebula yells and laments the response she gets “Well we can’t do that right now. We’re not at the ship.” He mutters down the mic.
Nebula starts to pace feeling not only her own unease “They are idiots.” Venom mentally shakes its momentarily non-existent head “Well then where the hell are…” She trails off before turning around to see the two stood behind her. “Like we said, idiots.” The symbiote repeats. Knowing they don’t have time to waste Nebula instructs the others to follow after her as she runs towards the floating building.
A voice suddenly plays over the comms “Nebula, come in.” Gamora requests as her sister swiftly responds with “Gamora, use the ship to get yourself and Rocket off planet.” As her and the others make a break for the nearest platform on the ship ahead of them.
It was that or die where they stood.
-
“Kill them all.” Peter whispers to Groot causing the High Evolutionary to react by launching a wave of gravitational energy towards the pair, knocking them to the ground in a flash of purple.
Around them the guards and recorders laugh at the pair whilst the man behind it all walks away. “How stupid are you? Hhm.” One of them asks, “It was so obviously a trap.” Turns out it was the one they were after and this time when Peter opened his eyes the usual soft brown was replaced by a cosmic blue. “It’s not a trap. It’s a face off.” He declared before looking over at Groot “Now kill them all.” He orders.
The pair stand as Groot retrieve a device from his chest and presses the button atop it. “What is that in your hand?” The man asks but instead of giving an answer Groot tosses it towards the clusters of guards as one of them loudly shouts “GRENADE!”
The room shakes as a explosion fills a corner of it and sends the guards scrambling to the floor as the blast soon gives way to a room fills with smoke as chunks of the ceiling grow loose and rapidly fall into a smoke and dust filled heap. And soon enough the smoke soon gives way to a bright blue aura framed by a certain flora colossus wielding eight different pistols.
Peter feels the celestial power flow through him but this time it’s different. He quickly conjured charges of energy in his hands and launches them at the people around him as Groot begins to fire at anything and everything that moves. The room descends into chaos as light flash across from the fighting. Quill hits a guard with a blast of energy and follows it up by telekinetically lifting a piece of the rubble and sending it colliding with a small group of others.
Groot manages to land a series of shots against the recorders of the High Evolutionary as well as a few of guards whilst using his branches to form a barrier in front of Peter when a few managed to fight back yet, for them, it was for nought when Quill used his power to grab two and send them barrelling towards Groot who finishes them both by growing two additional branches to pierce through their chests.
For a moment the dust seems to settle but once Groot’s vision clears up he is able to see his friend looming where it hadn’t. Quite the opposite in fact as the dust, dirt and small debris seemed to swirl around Peter’s feet as he held a charge of the cosmic energy in his hand, aiming at their target who begged for mercy. “Please don’t kill me. Please, spare me!” The man crawls to his knees and pleads.
And for a moment it seems to work as Groot watches Peter lower his hand as the dust falls and glow disappears from around him. “Thank you. Thank you much.” The man says sighing in relief watching outstretch a different hand towards the recorder.
“That’d be premature.” Quill claims as beyond the window something seems to bend the air as it rushes at great speed when suddenly the window shatters before them, a certain lightning conjuring hammer slams through it in a flash of blue before colliding with the recording and launching him forward where Peter grabs his throat in one hand and Mjolnir in the other.
Peter smirked to himself before charging towards the window, dragging the recorder with him, as he sent both of them down toward the dying planet’s surface. Behind them Groot watches on as his friend jumps overboard yet prior to Groot getting the chance to do the same safely, a purple glow emits from behind the debris across the room. “I am Groot.” He states before running and jumping over the edge.
“Quite a novel escape. Jumping headfirst on to a dying planet.”
-
Beneath them Nebula, Drax and Mantis race across the road towards the building. “There!” Venom exclaims pointing out the hatch where they could get in from. “That could work.” Nebula comments as they sprint towards the edge only to see a large gap in the ground stand between them and their goal. “What do we do?” Mantis asks panicking “We jump.” Drax suggests as Nebula realizes that they don’t have much of a choice.
“On three.” She declares “One...two…THREE!” Nebula shouts as they each leap forward towards the ship. The ground beneath their feet crumbles at the leap is taken but in the Nebula and Drax manage to land effectively but Mantis was not so lucky, her landing get tainted by a misplaced arm that causes her to fall back and cling on the ledge with one hand.
A scream descends past them and for a moment Nebula dreads to think it belongs to Mantis, they may not be the best of friend but she did not wish for her to die. The symbiote however is quick to react as it form itself an appendage and wraps around her wrist securely. The sight causing a mix of relief and disgust to go through Nebula that that thing had just come out of her. But soon enough Mantis had been pulled up.
Now they just needed to find a way to open the door.
-
“Why are you doing this? You’ll kill both of us!” The man choked out but Peter just glared at him with an electric glare “Not both. Just you.” He states before pinning Mjolnir against the recorder’s chest and letting go where he was met by a familiar Flora Colossus who had grown a pair of large spanning wings.
Touching down, Peter made sure to drag the man’s body a short distance as the pair came to an eventually stop in a body of muddied water. Where the lifeless body of Theel stared up at them. “Groot.” Peter said holding his hand out expectantly as the titanous plant tossed the knife over. Quill flicked it open and quickly used it dig into the device that was stuck to Theel’s head.
But no plan was without room for error as the Bowie started to rapidly approach them from beyond the treeline “Whoever is in the cockpit you have to press on the brakes.” He explains starting to hastily cut at the submerged wiring. “The braking mechanism is stuck!” Gamora shouts over the comms “Well pull harder!” He argues before cutting the last wire loose and grabbing the disk in time to witness the ship break past and start shuttling towards them.
Turning heel and running, after Peter quickly picks the hammer back up, the pair break into a sprint away from the ship as Gamora yanks the brakes back. The two manage to get some distance before the ground starts to rumble beneath them causing both to lose their balance and fall the floor as the Bowie continues its journey forward.
They brace for the inevitable impact but it never happens, somehow Gamora manages to bring the ship to a stop before any damage is done. From the ground Peter feels his body go limp “I’m never doing that again…that crap’s exhausting.” He huffs clutching at the disk tightly.
-
The others struggle to open the door as the planet beneath turns into a Firey hell of red and black. But contrary to expectation it was cold and only getting colder. Nebula could feel it settling into what remained of her organic nerves and bone. “It’s getting hard to breath…” Mantis struggles to get out “…We’re entering space.” She adds staring at her fingers as a layer of frost encapsulates them and is joined by visible breath.
Drax, upon realisation, start to hammer against the door with his shoulder praying for any give yet before there was so much as a budge the symbiote leaped from Nebula to Drax with such haste that none noticed until there was a sudden appearance of hulking black, white and red, beast that slammed the door with enough ferocity that the others were sure that the whole ship could probably shake as a result.
Soon enough the seemingly impenetrable door as flung of its hinges and is thrown somewhere into the dark room. The four soon stumble past the shield and onto the floor in time for it to turn from permeable to solid. Inside the room there were various small chittering sounds and the occasional work like sound so to get a better understanding of their surrounding Nebula turned her arm into a flashlight as the symbiote receded from over Drax. The light revealed an expansive room full of kids in cages.
“Oh piss off.” She grumbled.