Amongst the Stars // Peter Quill

Second Guessing Children

Peter slapped behind his ear to lower his mask, then hit his aerorig to drop him back on the platform. Panicked, he asked, "What is he doing?"

"He said its skin was too thick to be pierced from the outside," recited Gamora. 

"That doesn't make any sense!" said Peter, glancing at Charlie, who had been staring at the belly of the beast with her eyes wide and the rest of her body stiller than a mannequin. 

"I tried telling him that!" said Gamora. 

"It has the same thickness from the outside as from the inside."

"I realize that," snapped Gamora. 

Charlie jerked from her stunned phase when Rocket had soared above the Abilisk's head, revealing the horizontal slice on its neck that Charlie had previously spotted when she had slid down its slimy torso. She pointed, slapping Peter's shoulder until he stopped snapping back and forth with Gamora to look at her. 

He turned to her and followed her finger. His eyes squinted before they widened in understanding. 

"There's a cut on its neck," said Charlie. 

With the soft words of, "There's a cut on its neck," by Charlie, the three knew exactly what to do. Falling into action, Peter and Charlie hit their aerorigs to slide over their shoulders and connect to their chests again. Gamora tightened the grip on her gun, sliding it closer to peer through the scope. 

"Rocket, Charlie, get it to look up?" asked Peter.

"You got it," agreed Charlie.

Together, Peter and Charlie blasted off into the sky to help Rocket raise the Abilisk's neck into the sky. 

"Alright, you giant Sea-Monkey, up here!" shouted Peter. 

Rocket shot blasts up the beasts neck. It didn't do much other than cause its tentacles to flail in irritation. 

Charlie and Peter flew circles around its torso, shooting rapidly to make it growl, which typically caused it to raise its head. She spun throughout its tentacles, dodging and weaving until she found the longest one. It was currently whipping Peter around and shaking him up. 

As she flew towards it, it raised its neck to unleash a rainbow burst of transdimentional energy. Rocket did his best to dodge it, only catching part of his gun on fire. He launched into the air to avoid the reach of its tentacles while he tried to rid the fire from his gun, cursing and shouting the entire time. 

The Abilisk began to raise its tentacle to douse Peter with the same treatment. 

"Peter, watch it!" she yelled hopelessly. 

Charlie made it to the base of the tentacle, wedging her legs around it for steadiness. Whining in fear, she tried to withdraw a plasma sphere from within her jacket pocket. She shook it up and made it glow. On a timer, Charlie blasted off from the tentacle then threw it at the Abilisk's tentacle, which caused it to explode on impact. It didn't take off the tentacle, but it caused Peter to be released. 

She looked down in time to watch Gamora's body fly into the air and slam her sword into its cut. A deep, gut-wrenching roar came from the beast as Gamora slid down its body and sliced it open. Rivers of a sickly, light green exited from the beast. It fell over and died. 

Peter, Charlie, and Rocket shut off their aerorigs. They gathered where Gamora was standing, watching the slice bubble and wiggle until Drax emerged from within the beast and slipped onto the platform. 

"Childbirth," said Peter quietly to Charlie, disgusted. "Right there. You sure you wanna do that to your body?"

Charlie winced. "Not so much."

"Yes!" yelled Drax. He wiggled to his knees and held his knives in the air, screaming, "I have single-handledly vanquished the beast!"

Groot threw the broken knob of the stereo at him. 

"What?" asked Drax. 

Minutes later, tired and all the adrenaline slowly dying, they regrouped by the battery station. Peter and Charlie started to collect the aerorigs, while Rocket dissembled the guns to fit them into a single bag. 

Drax stared at the golden glowing batteries. Drying the slime from his skin with Charlie's extra shirt, he wondered, "What are they called again?"

"Anulax batteries," said Peter as he tugged on his jacket. 

"Harbulary batteries," repeated Drax.

"That's nothing like what I just said," sighed Peter. He shook his head in confusion, but let it go, like what they typically had to do with them. "But they're worth thousands of units a piece which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them."

Charlie stood at the front of the crew, clapping her hands to make an announcement. "Okay, guys, we're gonna talk to the Sovereign High Council now, okay? So we need to be careful what we say around these guys. They're easily offended. Their cost of transgression is death."

Gamora and Drax nodded their heads. Speaking in soft tones, they passed up Charlie and Peter to start the long trek to the Sovereign Palace.

"Rocket, Groot?" asked Charlie after a mental roll call. 

The two popped out from behind the egg of batteries. Noticing everyone was leaving, Rocket adjusted his knapsack and hustled to walk with Charlie to the Palace. 

"Everyone has everything?" asked Charlie. She peered around the platform to double check. "Okay. Let's go get our reward."