"And... done!" Azulan said excitedly, removing his paintbrush from my back. "Don't move though! I need to record it in the book." I did what he asked and heard him sketching fervently, occasionally using some of the bioluminescent dye to show the color. "You're good now!"
"What does it look like?" I asked him curiously, and he presented the picture. I had to hold back a gasp. The design was beautiful. It was like a tattoo, but it wasn't. It looked similar to Henna, but from what the Centaurian had told me, it would only appear with black lighting, or whenever my emotions were high. "Woah..."
"You like it?" Azulan asked me, showing a few fangs with his wide smile. I nodded in astonishment. "I must say, this probably is my best work. I say that to all customers, but this time I mean it."
"I can't thank you enough," I gushed. "Even though I was kind of forced to be here, but I never expected to receive something so beautiful." I reached backward to touch the art on my back, but Azulan slapped my hand away.
"Don't touch!" he warned. "The ink will stain your hands." I nodded, and Azulan started to put away his tools. "I can't thank you enough for coming," he told me. "Less and less people come every day now, especially since..."
"Since what?" I asked him. Azulan rubbed his hands against each other. "Azulan, since what?"
"I can't say his name," he said, looking around as if someone was coming for him. "But there's someone coming. Someone awful. He's been waiting for a long time, and he's becoming restless." I guess he was talking about some enemy on his planet. "Miss Gamora is with you; you can ask her." Azulan straightened himself. "Anyways, the job is finished. It's time Mr Quill gets the information he wanted. Marnin!" he yelled, and the other Centaurian swam into the house hurriedly.
"Yes, Mr Azulan?" he asked, panting.
"Go fetch Mr Quill," Azulan told him, and Marnin swam off. "Marnin needed a favor a long time ago," he explained. "Information on his parents. I told him that if he served under me for two years, I would give it to him."
"How do you get this information?" I asked him, a little suspicious. "If you don't leave the house, what is your source?"
"From the other people who come to see me," he laughed. "You saw my art book; many people come from across the galaxy to take a piece back to their home. Even the grand Ayesha visited with one of her handmaidens." Azulan swam back to his art book and showed me the front cover. I saw a gold shoulder with what looked like the sun painted on. "She insisted on her species being the front cover," he chuckled. "But the information she gave me was very unique."
As if on cue, Quill stumbled inside the room, accidentally crashing into a bookshelf. and looked back at Azulan, who set his prized book down, not amused. "You know," he told me. "I think I prefer Terran-Kree mixes over the other ones." I looked at him strangely as Quill gathered his bearings.
"Quill isn't a full human?" I said, unaware of this. I turned my attention back to the Guardian. "You told me you were human!"
"Half human," he said in his defense. "I don't know the other part."
"Which is why you are here, Mr Quill," Azulan reminded him, his fingers twitching as he tried to keep himself from fixing his precious art pieces which had fallen on the ground. "To-"
"To get information on my father," Quill interrupted, annoyed. "You know who he is."
"I do," Azulan agreed, sitting down beside me. "I only know his name, but not where he is or what he is."
"A name can get me a lot further," Quill pushed, a bit of desperation sneaking into his voice. I tilted my head a little and began searching his brain. A lot of painful memories surged through me, most surrounding around his deceased mother. "I've done a lot of business for you, Azulan. I know that you have a lot more information you could give me."
"Unfortunately, I was given a little tip from someone to only give you the name," Azulan said with a small smile. Quill cursed and kicked a chair. "Don't hurt that; it's vintage."
"I can pay twice as much he did," he offered. Azulan stood up from his chair, shaking his head.
"I don't think you can," he said, still smiling. "The man who paid me off was your father."
____________________________________________________________
"Did he tell you who your father was?" Gamora asked Quill as we boarded the ship. Quill gave a bitter laugh, pulling his water suit off.
"Just a name," he told her. "Ego." He ruffled his hair and huffed. "It's better than where I was earlier, but the fact that my own father tipped Azulan off to only say the name makes things a lot worse."
Gamora gave a small nod before remembering I was there. "Isabel, Rocket wanted me to tell you that he found a charging port for your cellone." I looked at her in confusion. "Phonecell," she tried again.
"Cellphone?" I corrected her, and she nodded again. I smiled widely. "Where is he?"
"Groot's bunk," she told me, and I sprinted off through the the ship. I nearly crashed into Drax, who moved out of the way just in time.
"Hey!" he said, startled. "Watch it!"
"Sorry!" I yelled back, not slowing down. When I reached the Guardian's quarters, I threw the door open. Both Groot and Rocket, who were sitting on the ground talking, jumped in the air.
"Shit!" Rocket yelled, and I shut the door behind me as I walked inside. "Can't you knock?"
"Sorry," I told him, this time not really meaning it. I leaned against the wall. "Gamora told me that you found a charger for my phone."
"Did more than find a charger for it," Rocket grumbled, pulling my phone out of his back pocket. He handed it to me, and it took all of my willpower not to lunge for it and see if it had any internet connection. Hey, maybe there was some sort of alien WiFi out there. Rocket had at least charged it to fifty percent."I fixed that weird finger scan thing, so now it works with your voice too."
"Thank you so much," I gushed, clicking on the Messages button when I saw a few unread texts. "I just have to see if-" My voice faltered as I looked at the texts I had received.
Isabel, where are you?
Please tell me you aren't doing the silent treatment on me. That's not cool.
You forgot that I can track your phone. I'm on my way.
-Peter
I felt my eyes water a little, and I ran my metal fingers through my hair as I set my phone down by my side. Rocket tilted his head at me, looking just a little concerned. An emotion I had never seen on his face.
"You okay there, Stark?" he asked me. I gave him a sad smile.
"Peachy," I told him. Groot gave my leg a hug, and I looked down at him with a soft chuckle. "Thanks, buddy." I squatted down so I could get to Rocket and his level and opened my phone. "You know, I have a few movies on here. I think it's time I introduce you to the magic of Disney."
About thirty minutes later...
I tried not to laugh as the entire crew sat down in front of a wall, completely mesmerized. Rocket and I had managed to find a magnifying glass for my phone, projecting Bambi on the wall. Groot kept gasping at all the colors.
"I don't understand," Drax said out loud. "Why don't the males impregnate the females?"
"Dude!" Quill said, not amused.
"It's a kids film," I tried to explain to Drax. "We don't normally discuss sex in them. We focus on a more positive look."
"If it's such a happy film, why is everything burning and being killed?" Rocket pointed out as the forest fire scene started. I widened my eyes, and I heard Groot start crying as the trees caught fire.
"Shit," I murmured to myself, and I closed Groot's eyes. "It isn't real, buddy. It isn't real."
"So you're telling me this is what humans do for fun?" Gamora asked me. I paused the film so I could answer her question.
"I mean yeah, we watch movies for fun," I told her. "We do other stuff too, like go to amusement parks and play games."
"How are parks amusing?" Draw questioned, super confused. "Do they make you laugh?" All of the Guardians we're directing their attention to me, but the most interested was obviously Quill. He stayed quiet, absorbing knowledge of how Earth was like now.
"Some do," I chuckled. Groot, know a bit calmer, crawled up my jacket and snuggled on my shoulder. "Some parks are for fun, while others can be scary or something exciting. Of course, the main attraction is our phones. You can take them about anywhere, and just like mine, they can have movies and games, and most importantly, music."
"You have... music?" Quill asked, finally speaking up. Music was his calling, and he never went anywhere without his Walkman. He looked like he was about to cry a little when he had to leave it on the ship to see Azulan. I nodded to answer his question.
"I have a lot of music," I smiled. "Adele, Broadway, some Panic at the Disco and Taylor Swift. A lot of ACDC since my dad got me into it." I realized that he had no clue who I was talking about. "Taylor Swift and Adele are big music people," I said hurriedly, and Quill nodded.
"You said what people do for fun," Gamora noticed. "What do you do for fun?" Ah, the question of the year. I squirmed a little.
"Well," I started. "I love swimming, so that was something I enjoyed to do. And singing, that's a favorite. I'm not really supposed to be out and about since I'm kind of a wanted person, but I like to push the limits."
"You're a criminal," Drax summed up. I rolled my eyes.
"Weren't most of you?" I retorted, causing a few squirms in the room. I fixed the front of my shirt, which was starting to ride up on my leg. "After an alien invasion, Earth needed heroes, and that's what they got. Heroes and a bunch of people ready to go against them. One of them was even a killer robot who kidnapped me, and one was a past captor of mine inhabited by an ancient Inhuman. The worst one was just a simple man who ripped my team apart like cotton candy." I let a dark chuckle out. "At least I'm safer out here." Holding a hand over Groot so he wouldn't fall, I unpaused the movie. "Let's finish this movie. We're watching The Little Mermaid after this."
____________________________________________________________
"Isabel, you awake?" I heard Quill whisper loudly by my door. to get used to the light coming off of my back. After watching movies with the crew, I came back to my room to find out Quill had changed all of the lights in mine to bioluminescent ones. It gave me quite a start to find my back glowing like crazy when I took my shirt off. "Isabel?"
"Quill, what time is it?" I whispered back. I slid out of my bunk and fixed my hair, which was frizzing like crazy.
"Maybe the middle of the night, I don't know," Quill shrugged before shielding his eyes with his arm. "Man, can you dim it down a little?"
"Says the man who changed the lights in my room to make my back glow," I shot back with a smirk, standing in front of him with my arms crossed. I had to look up a little to see his face properly. "Are you saying you woke me up during the middle of the night for no reason?"
"Oh, I have a good reason," Quill told me with a smile plastered on his face. "C'mon." Pulling my metal arm forward, Quill took me down several halls before we stood in the cargo pit. A small yellow force field separated us from space, which was currently having-
"A meteor storm," I breathed, looking out the force field in awe. None of the meteors were close by, but multicolored streaks kept zooming across the sky. "It's beautiful."
"Last time one of these happened, I was just turning seventeen," Quill said proudly as he stood to my right, taking in the view. "Best birthday gift ever. All we're missing is..." Quill lifted up his walkman and pulled the headphone cord out. "... a little music." Pressing the play button, music started to fill the small room.
Jessie is a friend, yeah
I know he's been a good friend of mine
"But lately something's changed that ain't hard to define," Quill sang along with the music, jamming out. . I had to admit, h wasn't half bad at it. "Jessie's got himself a girl and I want to make her mine." Quill looked up from his mike and motioned for me to come forward. "You said you sing, and you have to know Rick Springfield."
"I can sing," I said in my defense. "And the only dancing I know isn't exactly for this type of music."
"Aw, don't think of it as something you know!" Quill argued back, still grooving, doing some weird movement with his feet. "Dancing is fun! Just let the music flow through you!" I stepped backwards a few steps and rolled up the bottoms of my leggings so they were above my ankles.
"Just let if flow, huh?" I repeated with a smile, waiting for the next lyric I could start on. "I wish that I had Jessie's girl!" I sang, setting a hand on my hip and walking outward with my metal arm outstretched. Dancing had a weird feeling, like I was doing something embarrassing yet something that felt so amazing. "I wish that I had Jessie's girl! Where can I find a woman like that?" . Quill whistled enthusiastically.
"There we go!" he cheered as the music continued. "See, it isn't that hard!" He spun around twice to get to me, ending up right behind me just in time to start the next verse. "I play along with the charade, there doesn't seem to be a reason to change..." I joined back in with him, the both of us achieving perfect harmony while we danced to the beat, the meteor shower going on in the background. I had to say, that was the most fun I had in ages.
And I'm looking in the mirror all the time
Wondering what she don't see in me
I've been funny, I've been cool with the lines
Ain't that the way love supposed to be
Tell me, where can I find a woman like that
You know, I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I want Jessie's girl
Where can I find a woman like that
Like Jessie's girl
I wish that I had Jessie's girl
I want, I want Jessie's girl
I have had so much fun writing the past two chapters for this book series. The Avengers have had their funny moments, but you have to admit that the Guardians of the Galaxy seem to have the most fun. And guess what chapter is coming next? I don't now, maybe the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy 2!