The whales start to beach themselves
Tortoise shells tear away from their spines
It happens all the time, it happens all the time
Lemon Boy by Cavetown (Atlantis Playlist)
My eyes fluttered open as a loud bang echoed through the ship, and my stomach felt like it had flipped both upside down and inside out. I leaned forward in the seat I was strapped down in and coughed up blood before tiredly slamming back against the seat.
"What the hell are you doing boy?" I heard Yondu yell, and I tilted my head to the side so I could see Rocket and Yondu crouched against the ground in pain.
"I could tell by how you talked about him, this Ego is bad news," Rocket exclaimed as he pulled himself up into a standing position. "We're here to save Quill." I glanced up to the large front window to see a colorful planet in front of us. Ego's planet. My hunch about that man from the beginning was right. And now Quill was in danger.
"For what?" Yondu argued back, his voice hoarser than normal. "Huh? For honor? For love?"
"No!" Rocket protested. "I don't care about those things. I wanna save Quill so I can prove I'm better than him! I can lord this over him forever."
"Rocket..." I tried to stop him, but my voice was too feeble. Yondu laughed hard as he leaned against the controls of the ship.
"What are you laughing at me for?" Rocket asked him, not amused.
"You can fool yourself and everyone else, but you can't fool me!" Yondu told him as he jaggedly walked forward to the window. "I know who you are."
"You don't know anything about me, loser," Rocket growled, clenching his fists.
"I know everything about you!" Yondu snapped, turning around in rage. "I know you play like you're the meanest and the hardest... but, actually, you're the most scared of all."
"Shut up!" Rocket spat at him, and I could see him tensing as Yondu's words hit true. Kraglin stood in the dark corner, confused and a bit frightened.
"I know you steal batteries you don't need, and you push away anyone who's willing to put up with you... because just a little bit of love reminds you how big and empty that hole inside you actually is."
"I said shut up!" Rocket repeated himself, and his voice cracked a little.
"I know them scientists what made you, never gave a rat's ass about you," Yondu continued.
"I'm serious, dude!"
"Just like my own damn parents who sold me..." Yondu jabbed a finger at his own chest. "...their own little baby, into slavery! I know who you are, boy. Because you're me!" The two of them stared at each other, and even though I couldn't see Rocket's face, I knew the both of them were feeling a mix of rage and sadness.
"What kind of pair are we?" Rocket relented finally, and he sounded... hopeless. Defeated. Yondu nodded before pivoting to Kraglin.
"The kind that's about to go fight a planet, I reckon."
"All right, okay! Good!" Rocket cheered. "Wait... fight a what?"
"I am Groot!" Groot called them, and the group turned to me. Kraglin gave me a small smile.
"Boy, I'm glad you're awake," Rocket sighed nervously. The rest of the crew went back to work on piloting the ship. His paws made soft padding noises against the ship's floor as he walked up to me. "How you feeling?"
"Like I was stabbed in the leg," I grumbled, and he chuckled, taking off the restraints that were holding me in for safety. "It's... it's not too bad, is it?" Rocket shook his head.
"Maybe another half hour until it's healed," he estimated. Rocket sheepishly tapped his claws against the arm rest. "Look, it might get real ugly down there, so it might be best to leave you here with Kraglin."
"What?" I questioned in shock, my eyes wide. "No way, I'm fighting."
"You almost died-"
"That comes with the job, Rocket!" I said in exasperation. "People are going to try and kill you! I can't just... Rocket," I said in a softer tone, causing the enhanced raccoon to look at me. Using both my hands, I unclasped my necklace and showed him the dog pendant. "What do you think this is?"
"Um... jewelry?" Rocket guessed, and I chuckled lightly. The two of us looked down at it, and I rubbed the pendant between my metal fingers.
"When I was captured, I worked with a man named Bucky Barnes. He was always getting his memories erased so he was the perfect soldier, but from what I've gathered... I was the constant that never went away."
"So..." Rocket guessed. "He was like your boyfriend or something."
"More like a brother," I corrected. "But this necklace was what kept us together, even when I never knew it's meaning. It's... hope, and it's what's kept me alive through this." I pulled the necklace back and put it back on. "So yeah, I'm fighting. And we're gonna live, because as long as this necklace is on my neck, nothing can stop us."
____________________________________________________________
I held tight to an overhead pipe as as Yondu sped to Ego's planet. A bright light blinded us as we zoomed to the largest building on the planet. I could feel my last few throwing knives move in my jacket pocket. Kraglin had given it to me before we had left to attack, telling me he had found it in a trash bin on the way off the Ravager ship. I didn't care if it was dirty, I was just happy to have my space jacket back.
"Hey, there, jackass!" I heard Yondu yell, and there was a thud as the ship hit the ground. My feet left the ground from the force of impact. I forced open the side door to see Drax, Mantis, and Nebula running to me. Groot hopped off my shoulder to wave them aboard.
"Out of the way, dumber, smaller Groot!" Drax yelled, and as the man pulled himself up, Groot gave him a swift kick to the arm. Nebula stared at me in shock, as if seeing me reminded her of something she had seen before. "What are you doing!" Drax said to Rocket. "You could have killed us all!"
"Uh, a thank you would be nice?" Rocket told him, turning around in his chair to roll his eyes.
"Your leg," Mantis gasped, pointing to the bandage wrapped around my thigh. I waved a hand.
"Better, trust me," I told her. "Just in case I get worse." I heard shaky breaths, and I turned around to see Gamora trying to get Peter on the ship. I extended a hand and helped pull him up. "What happened to you?"
"I got stabbed by energy, you know, the norm," Peter snorted. "What's Smurfette doing here?"
"Back rubs, dishes, killing gods," Nebula answered sarcastically, all signs of shock gone and replaced with annoyance. "Whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home."
"She tried to murder me and Stark!" Rocket growled at her, and Nebula gave him a glare.
"I saved you, you stupid fox," she seethed.
"He's not a fox," Gamora corrected in a steely tone, her hands on her hips. Groot raised a hand.
"I am Groot."
"He's not a raboon either," I stopped Groot, causing the tree to narrow his eyes at me.
"I am Groot."
"'Raccoon,' whatever," Rocket grumbled, crossing his arms and spinning back to the front. There was a loud crack as giant tendrils of light erupted from the ground and began wrapping themselves around the ship.
"What the hell is that?" I yelped as the machine shuddered, latching on to whatever was beside me for support. That something turned out to be Drax, who shook me off like I was a flea.
"Ego," he grumbled in his monotonous voice. "How do we kill a Celestial?"
"There's a center to him," Quill answered, still leaning on Gamora for support. The man looked out of breath and exhausted as he prepared one of his laser guns. "His brain, his soul, whatever it is, in some sort of shell-"
"It's in the caverns below the surface," Mantis piped up, rubbing her arms nervously. Both her antennae and bottom lip quivered. Quill slowly pulled himself up the ladder to the cockpit, and I heard him curse under his breath, probably because of Yondu being in front seat. I took Mantis's hands in my own and held them in my own.
"Mantis," I said calmly, and the alien looked at me with wide eyes. "We're going to be okay, I promise."
"No we won't," she shook her head, tears beginning to brim in her eyes. "And you can't be here."
"Mantis, calm down," I tried to sooth her, but she ripped her hands out of mine, now a mixture of anger and fear.
"I will not calm down!" she told me fiercefully, and it shocked me. "You are not safe here, even with your water and ice powers. Ego has a way-"
"Will you shut up," Nebula hissed, and Mantis fell silent. I mouthed thank you to her before climbing up to the cockpit, where Quill and Yondu were arguing.
"You still reckon that's the reason I kept you around, you idiot?!?" Yondu shouted at Quill, pressing several buttons. Quill looked at him with a glare.
"That's what you told me, you old doofus!" he insulted, and I felt uncomfortably out of place.
"Once I figured out what happened to them other kids, I wasn't gonna just hand you over."
"You said you were gonna eat me!" Quill brought up with a raised voice.
"That was being funny!" Yondu said over him defensively. Quill tensed up in shock, not believing this.
"Not to me!"
"You people have issues," Rocket snorted on the intercom.
"I second that," I replied back to the raccoon. "And I thought I had it bad."
"Of course I have issues!" Quill groaned before pointing out the window. I followed his gaze to see a skeleton advancing toward us as its bones slowly formed. "Because that's my fricking father!" A loud noise echoed throughout the ship. "Thrusters are back on."
"That's Ego?" I questioned. "I thought those tendrils-"
"Everything here is Ego, girl!" Yondu roared at me. "The planet is- what are you doing, boy?!?" I quickly grabbed on to Quill's chair as he thrusted the ship forward, crashing through Ego's bones and into the ground. The ship went into free fall, and my feet began to lift off the ground. My metal hand was starting to make an indention in the seat as I pulled myself back down."We should be going up!"
"We can't," Quill told us. "Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it. We have to kill him." The ship was moving to fast toward a small fissure, no time to move around it. "Rocket!"
"Got it," Rocket answered, and a laser blasted out from the bottom of the ship and created a bigger opening.The ship barely fits, smashing the sides. Quill flew with ease throughout the tunnels, and Rocket's lasers are hitting pieces Quill wouldn't have been able to avoid. "So we're saving the galaxy again?"
"I guess," Quill replied, his voice strained in concentration. Rocket hooted on the intercom.
"Awesome," he said back, and by the tone of his voice I could tell he was smiling. "We'll really be able to jack up our prices if we're two time-galaxy savers."
"I seriously can't believe that is where your mind goes," Quill snorted, and the ship jerked left as he avoided a long column.
"It was just a random thought, man! I thought we were friends! Of course I care about the planets, and the buildings, and all of the animals on the planets."
"And the people," I interjected sternly.
"Meh." I gave the intercom a glare. Quill side-eyed Ego for a few seconds before going back to focusing on steering.
"So why'd Ego want you here?" Yondu asked Quill in curiosity.
"He needs me genetic connection to the light to help destroy the universe," Quill responded bluntly. "He tried to teach me how to control the power."
"So could you?"
"A little. I made a ball." I started laughing hard at that. Quill turned his head to look at me as I held an arm to my stomach. My sides were aching, and it wasn't because of all the injuries I had sustained within the past 48 hours. "What?"
"You," I choked out, banging my hand against the chair I was holding on to. "Used your magnificent, world-creating light powers... to make a ball."
"I thought as hard as I could, that's all I could come up with," Quill said defensively, and Yondu huffed angrily.
"You... 'thought?'" he commented, and Quill nodded. "You think when I make this arrow fly I use my head?"
"Well, what do you use, old man?" Quill shot back, and in the midst of their arguing, they forgot to focus on steering. I looked up from their conversation with wide eyes, realizing what was going on.
"QUILL!" Quill's head jerked up right on time to see and overhead piece of rock crash into us, and the side door ripped away. Mantis shrieked from down below as the ship fell in a spiral and crashed on the ground. A white, pulsating light would blind me every few seconds, mimicking a heartbeat.
"There!" I heard Mantis call out, and I left the cockpit to join the Guardians standing by the ripped entrance. "That's Ego's core," she whispered.
"That ore's thick," Gamora started. "Rocket, we're gonna need to use..." I tuned everyone's voice out as I focused on the core. The wall that had prevented me from reading Ego's mind was gone. I could hear him, his thoughts for the universe, and it was so... mesmerizing.
"I can hear him," I murmured to myself, and my body seemed to have a mind of its own. I began to walk closer and closer to the ripped opening in the ship when a hand grabbed my arm.
"Isabel." I turned my head to see Mantis tighten her grip on me, her antennae glowing. "You can't," she ordered me, and I felt the urge to step as far away as possible from the core. "He's trying to call you and use you."
"Use me?" I repeated, not believing or understanding what she was telling me.
"Your power," she explained fearfully. "He fears that even with one of his progeny they're might not be enough power. He wants more power. He craves it!"
"Stay away from the orb, got it," I nodded, glancing back over my shoulder to the glowing center. Mantis let go of my arm, and I was able to read Ego's mind again. I mentally put up a barrier, quite similar to the one I had put in my head when I first received my powers. And just when I thought everything was going to plan, the ship jerked unexpectedly, and I lost my footing.
Small shouts of shock came from Gamora, Drax, Mantis, and I as we fell towards the ground, the first three falling faster than me. While they landed perfectly on the ground, planting their feet firm, I quickly moved my hands to shoot snow down below me, creating a safe bank to land in.
"What is this?" Mantis asked me as I pulled myself out of the snow bank. "Fluffy ice?"
"Snow, actually," I corrected her as she picked some up with her hands before dropping it. "Yeah, you want to have your hands covered before touching it."
"How come you didn't just land like us?" Drax questioned me, his monotone voice making it hard for me to understand whether the question was real or a sarcastic remark.
"Not the time," Gamora snapped at Drax, looking up at the ship. I followed her gaze and realized why the quick movement had happened. Hundreds of Ayesha's ships were shooting at our own with the intent to kill. The chasm began trembling, and the walls were starting to disfigure.
"He's coming," Mantis warned us in a scared voice, rubbing her hands against each other.
"Didn't you say you could make him sleep?" Drax remembered, and Mantis shook her head frantically.
"When he wants!" she explained, tears welling in her eyes. She was so scared by everything because she knew what Ego was fully capable of. 'He's too powerful! I can't!"
"You don't have to believe in yourself," Drax encouraged her. "Because I believe in you." I heard a shout, and I quickly pivoted on my feet to see a giant light form of Ego rushing toward us. His mouth opened as he screamed, and a tunnel of rocks came barreling toward us.
Mantis set her hand on the ground where a nerve bundle was sticking out. "SLEEP!" she screamed, and from her voice I knew she was suffering from the amount of power being used. Ego disappeared, his voice in my head went away, and the rocks slammed on the ground in front of us, splashing dirt everywhere. I felt goosebumps rise on my arms as a chill went through the air.
"I never thought she'd be able to do it," Drax muttered, causing Gamora and I to snap our heads in his direction with a quick glare. Mantis's head hung low, and her arm was trembling.
"I don't know how long I can hold him!" she cried out, and I realized why Ego's thoughts were no longer in my head; they were in Mantis's.
"You have to try," I told her, wincing at how loud Ego was as he yelled at her to stop.
"If you don't keep Ego at bay, we all die," Gamora told her, and Mantis nodded. I saw Quill's form speed toward us with his aero rig on.
"Do you guys have any tape?!?" he yelled at us as he got closer, and I shook my head.
"Does duct tape work?" Drax asked, and Quill nodded exasperatedly.
"Yes duct tape works!"
"I don't have any right now."
"Then why did you ask if duct tape works?!?" Quill shrieked before zooming off. I raised an eyebrow as he passed by me. Weird... I didn't get much time to think about it before a laser nearly cut me in half. Gamora lunged as she pulled me out of the way of the beam, and Drax cursed under his breath when a laser almost sliced his foot.
"Hey!" he yelled, but as soon as the the words left his mouth, explosions occurred everywhere. The four of us quickly covered our heads as flaming chunks fell everywhere, but nothing prepared me for the large and loud explosion at the end. I looked up into the sky full of smoke... and our ship was nowhere.
"Peter..." Gamora whispered, staring at where the ship had once been. There was a loud thud as Nebula landed on her feet next to us, not a single cut or scrape on her body. She gave us a small smile and motioned for us to look up. Quill and Yondu were safely flying down, and I couldn't help but smile. Yondu's posture was priceless; one arm was held up straight as he held on to the flying arrow, his heels touching.
"I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!" he grinned from ear to ear as he landed. Gamora marched over to Quill, but I turned my attention to Nebula, who was gingerly holding her metal arm.
"What happened?" I asked her urgently, and she waved me off.
"It is no matter," she said to me, her robotic tone sticking out more than ever. I grimaced, looking away as she tilted her metal arm in an uncomfortable position with a loud crack. "Bet-"
"Mantis!" I interrupted Nebula, fear spreading through me. "Move!" Mantis looked up just in time to see the huge chunk of spaceship fly into her, and the Guardians looked at her in terror. The ground began to rumble again, and the walls of the cavern started to shift around.
Ego was awake.
Drax threw the spaceship chunk off of Mantis and quickly checked her vitals. "She's just unconscious." Quill looked unnerved by the situation, not knowing what to do.
"Rocket, how long before the bomb goes off?" he spoke into a comm, and we waited anxiously for a reply.
"In the unlikely event Groot doesn't kill us all, about six minutes." The group of us glanced at each other, waiting for someone to give orders on what to do. And no one did.
"We only have six minutes," I started, getting a few shocked looks as I grabbed the lead no one wanted. "We need an extraction in five."
"On it," Yondu told me, grabbing the comm that connected us to the larger ship outside Ego. "Kraglin. We need the Quadrant for extraction in T-minus five minutes."
"We need someone to be on the surface when the Quadrant gets here," I continued.
"Drax, take Mantis," Quill thought out loud, and Drax nodded. Quill took his aero rig off and slapped it on Drax's back, which immediately began to form.
"Ahh!" Drax cried out as he flew up. "My nipples!" The ground cracked in half, separating Gamora from the rest of us. She gave us a fearful look before the earth crumbled away.
"Gamora!" Quill yelled with wide eyes, but he had no time to try and help her as earthly tentacles erupted from the ground and started attacking everyone in the group. Everyone... except me. I yelled out in terror as one wrapped tight around my waist, and I had no time to even breathe or shout for help before I was sent flying away.