Units > Words

“C’mon, we gotta head out this way Jack, there’s a shortcut I saw through the blueprints of this place,” Rocket said as he lead them away.  

      “If ya say so...”

      “Sounds good t’me.“   Even if he’d rather have the billions of units, speaking from a personal perspective. But he could live with just surviving this. There were other, less completely insane scores to be made in the galaxy.

       “Yeah somethin’ like that?? There someone we can unload it on? Gotta say I’m not a fan of carrying this titan-bait around. Even fer all the units it’s worth-- which I know is a flarkin’ lot.“

    “Yeah--. Yeah--!! ‘Cause it’s just a run-of-the-mill job when ya got a weapon o’ mass destructing in yer hands an’ some head galactic honcho inside that buildin’ lookin’ fer ya. What do we even do with this thing, Rocky?“     

“So much for security,” Rocket mumbled before taking off.

Rocket rushed to the protection device harboring the orb, using Blackjack as his cover as he made a grab for it.  Things seemed to halt into slow motion for a moment as he reached out in mid-jump to get the power gem.

Success: they were at the climax of their mission.  Rocket had a pouch on his waist that he slipped it into, before he went towards the door, having had the mercenary hare clear the room.

Blackjack had done his work and blasted a clear path through.  Groot kept the guards at bay, swinging his thick arms like clubs as he roared in frustration.  For once, the tree and raccoon were doing a good thing by stealing.  Why could the Nova corpsmen not see that?

Once Rocket had secured the orb, Groot continued his assault on the guards.  Now they were even higher-risk targets.  Rocket, his partner, must be protected at all costs now more than ever.  The Halfworlders loaded their guns, and Groot continued his offensive.  They had to move with great speed here if this mission was to succeed.

It came as a mild surprise to see such a trail of destruction ahead of him already, but then again, the Nova Corps had surely been unwilling to give up the gem without a fight. A fight that whoever was trying to take the gem before Thanos arrived had done for him, leaving him all the more prepared to deal with them accordingly.

Now, Thanos had seen many a strange creature in all his travels, but when his eyes fell upon Groot, he nearly laughed. The leftover combatants that surrounded them were giving a feeble attempt to stop him–Thanos stilled them with a single flash from his hand, tossing their bodies like ragdolls through the air. Facing down the tree-like being, Thanos sneered. Two smaller creatures darted just out of sight behind it, and the Titan’s chest tightened as he felt that cosmic tug. They had it. The little ones had the gem.

      This had just become one such game.

      “We gotta move, Rocky, we gotta move--!!“

    Blackjack yelled over the din, grabbing the other Halfworlder by the arm and attempting to tug him away again. Back to their route out of this place. Rocket had to know they had no chance against this guy. Not with what they had on them. Not here in someone else’s backyard. If they handed over the gem, or the big titan got it by other means: they were dead.

      The conclusion was simple. They had to get the gem out. Whether Rocky wanted to go down fightin’ alongside his tree friend (given that the big flora colossus was still facing the titan, twigs bristling and whatever) was up to him. But either way, that gem was makin’ it outta here!!

Be-bing!

They were in.  The security door swung open and there was a metal display at the end of the hall waiting, the room had more corpsmen in it guarding it ready to attack the three of them, all of them confused and panicked due to the heist.

It was a little cramped for space, so Groot was grateful to be free of the confines of the metal lift shortly after.  It was calmer here, betraying the utter chaos they had ascended from.

“I am Groot.”

He lumbered along, lowering Rocket to the floor as the three prepared to square off against the Corpsmen who would try to stop them here.  They were so near to their goal.  There was no failing here.

Groot’s barky exterior thickened with sharp protrusions, and he waited for no creature as he engaged in frightening off the Nova guards.  He roared at them and swung his fists, inciting a panic.  He picked up one guard by the scruff of his collar and shoved him back out the large metal door.

“I am Groot!”

  This was the only thought that popped into his head as the great tree monster next to him bellowed ferociously and at once set about spreading  mass panic among the Xandarian guards. Once he flipped the settings Blackjack got right to it, letting out a tremendous yell as he ignited the blaster’s functions.

   A colossal burst of cyan-shot energy exploded from the barrel of his blaster, sweeping the room at his deliberate direction and forcibly throwing a good number of the Nova Corps elites into the walls behind them. Instant knock-outs and decommissions. The Halfworlder stops after one sweep, not wanting to risk hitting either of his teammates as they moved forward and engaged with ther rest.

    Blackjack wasted no time in holstering the blaster and scampering through the chaos of battle, straight towards the display case at the end of the hall. He was easily the fastest sprinter of these three, only made sense he make the grab-- right?

     There was a small rough orb- kinda looked like a mini comet- placed atop a high pedestal, surrounded by a last set of glass(?) walls. Had to be it. There was nothing else in here. He dodges a last Corps soldier with ease, swerving and outpacing him to the goal. Once he reaches the glass obstruction he takes his blaster out again, sets it to Absolute Mayhem before punching a special switch.

     A shrieking blast tears into the super strong material, set at a frequency that ricochets over the entire structure and shatters it. The loot is now entirely free for grabs. 

      “GRAB IT.“

    Good thing this was bigger than that.

    Rocket, who brought a few tricks up his nonexistent sleeves, pulled out his work tablet and his nimble fingers guided a hologram map of the building.  “Well the gem is gonna be in a metal orb, I think that’s all ya gotta know,” Rocket said.  

    “Right then… seems we gotta take this hallway down and… take an elevator up… then I’ll hack into the security system.  Trank any Novas ya see so they don’t do anything stupid.”

    “That should be fun, right?”  The whole place was chaos.  Wasn’t that typical?

“I am Groot.”

He ducked his head to get through the makeshift door that Blackjack had blasted into the wall.  Groot stepped one foot first and then the other through the opening and then stood tall, waiting for direction.

Groot observed as Rocket withdrew a holographic map, listening for directions.  For the most part, his job as he understood it was security.  To make sure the two creatures of Halfworld made it to the gem.  Anything less was sure destruction.  But maybe if they got out of this alright, the reward would be handsome.  Granted that there was anything left to be rewarded with.

“I am Groot.”

When Rocket climbed atop his shoulders, he began to scout out for the best path to get towards the security main.  Rocket’s nimble digits would take care of the rest and disable the system.  Once inside, taking the gem should be relatively easy.

Groot couldn’t help but fear, though, that they could possibly be leading their foe right to the treasure the mad titan so desperately sought.

     While the flora creature and his Halfworld compatriot took on the panicked Xandarian forces, Blackjack popped open the barrel of his blaster and restrung a few wires to speed up the recharge process. Who knew what sort of walls they’d come up with when they got to the actual holding location.

    Clapping it shut, a toothy grin lit up his face when he saw the affirmative lights gleaming from the screen display attached to his big gun. Now officially packing 100% more power.   His head darts up at the sound of the elevator, and with a yell he alerts the other, scurrying inside and holding the door open for them.

    It’s a rough fit, especailly with the tree creature and press of fire on them, but soon the doors are closed and they’re on their way. A mere some seconds later finds them at a heavily sealed off doorway, elevator sufficiently broken so that no-one could follow them up here.

    Slowly Blackjack approaches the doors, his blaster humming quietly as red lenses survey and flick over the huge metal structure.

Angela must not have hid her emotions well enough, making her a bit off guard. Seeing at BlackJack avoided her questions, she figured she would do the same, and with that she stood up and walked over to him.

“What are we waiting for, lets get going I can’t wait to see how this all plans out.” She gave him a cocky grin as she looked at him waiting for a reply.

      “....    If ya say so...“

    Blackjack trailed awkwardly. Truth be told, he wasn’t too keen on having someone following him around while he was tracking Rocket down. Least of all a stranger, least of all a heavily armed stranger.    It wouldn’t kill him to let her hang around a bit longer, just so long as one thing was made clear.

        “Okay but here’s the deal. Once I close down on Rocket? I’m off. That’s my business.        I’ll catch ya some other time after that, maybe.“

     “Yeah I bet this bucket could use a few upgrades,” he said as he went to the controls, and started yanking wires, before plugging it into a silver bar he pulled out of one of his pouches… the bar being the stick projector of his work tablet, and he showed Blackjack some of the weak areas of his ship’s specs and talking about improvements he thought they needed.

     Rocket obeyed the rules of Blackjack’s ship, but ended up getting antsy as hell and ended up quietly working on schematics on his tablet on his own, trying to ignore the dwelling eyes that he’d feel creep up on him, only giving as much as an annoyed glance back at the culprits.

     Time came soon enough that the mercenary’s ship was able to port at the mining community bore from a celestial skull.  Seeing the familiar nebulas around them Rocket closed his screen.

       “No interruptions, no casualties. This has been a good smugglin’ trip.“

     Blackjack had gestured emphatically as their ship had broken Knowhere’s atmosphere. Once they’d come to port, the engines powered down and the ship came to a comfortable stall. The ramp lowered for them to disembark, though it was only Blackjack himself who accompanied Rocket off the ship.

       He was pretty chuffed and pleased with himself. A successful ride through space, lotsa units headed his way, and his mind now turned to them upgrades Rocket had been yammering to him about. It’d been a productive day. 

       He comes to a stop once his feet touch the ‘ground’, folding his arms and leaning against one of the supporting frames of the lowered ramp.

She paid no mind to his actions, what it all came down to was, it had nothing to do with her. It was already fair enough she could stick around for the ride. “Ahh ya don’t say,” was all she could comment about his future plans. The quadrants made her a bit curious, but not enough to really care to ask more about it.

   “..........................“

        Blackjack had packed up and hefted his bag over his shouler at this point,but turned and watched the lady with a curious eye. Her words had left him at an awkward impasse. He could just... leave. Pretend he wasn’t interested in what she had to say any more. But, that’d be a lie. He was mostly no longer interested, but.     With an armor and weapon like that, he kinda wanted a good read on what she was thinking right now.

    “Yeah… you and your whole flarkin’ crew… Why’s everyone gotta be like that when I get on their ship?  I mean gods forbid I might tune up your tech… Sheesh…”

    At least Quill for the most part let him do his thing on the Milano.  Probably why they got along as well as they did.  

      “Now that we can do.“

  Blackjack voiced with at least a degree of enthusiasm, if belaboured. Ultimately he was just glad to have Rocket onboard with ‘the rules’. Truth was he was expecting the other being to be unable to keep his trap shut about what could use even extra tinkering around here - Blackjack would then make his own decisions about whether to let Rocket have at it.

       With supervision, of course.

    “We’ve got a whole flight ahead of us -- we can talk about the tuning up.“

    Rocket followed after boarding the ship as soon as he was summoned up by his fellow Halfworlder.  He couldn’t put his finger on it but being on the ship gave him the same kinda vibe being in prison did… maybe it was just the whole ‘being surrounded by criminals’ thing.

   “It’s us. O’ course we are.“ 

       Blackjack had spun around on foot, gesturing to the veiled figures that lurked in the shadows. Quiet, all eyes on Rocket.   Almost as if he was a new species altogether, when in fact they just shared the stringent ‘long time on see’ sentiment of their leader. They watched the almost-stranger as he walked further into the ship’s interior.

     “Right behind ya,” Rocket said, as he followed the taller Halfworlder.

   He had this hunch of why Blackjack kept insinuating how much risk might be involved wasn’t just for the danger itself that might just involve the attacks that could happen just by harboring a Guardian… but perhaps his reservations lied in the association.  He pulled out his blaster just to have it out incase they had any trouble heading to the ship.

     “Wait ‘ere.“

    Blackjack had told his shorter companion after they’d arrived at the landing site of his ship. It was an impressive thing, for its custom modifications that spoke of unusual and particular technological innovation. Expertise showing itself in the blooms and shutters of plated metal for heavy, aerodynamic armor; extra gun ports under the sharp jagged wings, and blaster rail guns jutting out like two protruding fangs from the prow of the ship.

    Perhaps thematically, the dominant color in her scheme was black.

     Blackjack slinked up the ramp and disappeared inside.   It was some time before he showed himself again, walking only a few steps down the ramp before he stopped and jerked his thumb back into the shadow-y interior.

      “Mmkay. Yer good.“

Seeing how her tension was obvious, she sighed and leaned back against a wall before speaking. "Well usually when people have to take care of business with others it ends up that way, at least from my experience." Her tone was calm and almost devoid of any emotion. True she did become friends with the guardians, but at the same time it was non of her business. Whether or not she had any intention to help them in trouble was up to how she was feeling when the time came.

    Blackjack passed over her words of experience, pretending he hadn’t heard them. Rude, and obnoxious; but that’s just how he could be sometimes. Especially when he was avoiding a subject, which as of now, he officially was. The rest of the stuff she wanted to talk about was fine though. He could talk about that.

     That stuff was easy.

   “Same ‘ere. ‘Cept further out, I know some good quadrants for business...   It’ll be back to those, and to ‘normal’.“