Picking Up The Pieces

23. Let's Get Down To Business

"I am Groot," he said angrily. Well, someone was throwing a temper tantrum.

"They were not looking at you funny!" Rocket and I yelled at him. The sky let out another crack, and the six of us looked up to see a rift open in the sky. A hundred foot monster started to climb out and roared at us. The Abilisk.

"Well, that's intense," Rocket said to himself as it fell. We all got into our positions. "Stark, you know the drill. Groot is your main priority." I didn't have time to retort before Drax hollered and charged the Abilisk with his twin blades.

Rocket, Gamora, and Quill followed closely behind while I watched unwillingly from the sidelines. Groot picked up the two wires Rocket had abandoned and started meshing them together, causing a few sparks before the stereo turned on. The music began playing and Groot's hips started swaying. As much as I loved the baby tree, it had been ages since I had actually fought something.

"Don't do anything stupid, got it?" I ordered him. He didn't respond, causing me to sigh. Not waiting any longer, I charged in after the Guardians.

Sun is shinin' in the sky

There ain't a cloud in sight

It's stopped rainin' everybody's in a play

And don't you know

It's a beautiful new day, hey hey

"Hey, ugly!" I called the Abilisk as I ran toward it, which was currently trying to swallow Quill as the man fired his gun into the alien's mouth. The large alien monstrosity roared at me, and a tentacle came flying toward me. Pushing off the ground hard, I did a front flip over the tentacle and threw a knife in it.

Before I reached the ground, I used a water whip to grab the knife back while ripped off the end of the tentacle in the process. The Abilisk howled, causing me to grin. "God, I love space," I murmured to myself before sliding underneath a new tentacle.

Runnin' down the avenue

See how the sun shines brightly in the city

Using my powers, I froze the entire tentacle and threw another knife at the ice, causing it to shatter off completely. I looked up in horror as a tentacle went flying in Groot's direction, one too large to cut in such a short time.

Mister blue sky please tell us why

You had to hide away for so long (so long)

Where did we go wrong?

"Groot!" I yelled, activating my aero-rig and flying toward the dancing tree. Before the tentacle could smash him, I powered off the rig and went into a dive roll, knocking Groot out of the way. "I told you to stay safe!" I lectured him, even though it was technically my fault to make sure he was out of the way. Shaking my head, I flew back off into the fray, high above the Abilisk as it blew fire at the Guardians. I threw my throwing knives into his eyes, receiving a satisfactory howl of pain.

Hey you with the pretty face

Welcome to the human race

With a loud and sickening splat, I landed on the Abilisk's face and started pulling my throwing knives out before jamming a few back in for good measure, making sure the thing was blinded. When I stood back up, another tentacle was waiting for me, and I went flying off the Abilisk's head and on the ground. I struggled to breathe as all the air had been knocked out of me.

A celebration, mister blue sky's up there waitin'

And today is the day we've waited for