Chapter 342: Presentation

Chapter 342: Presentation

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

---------------

Chapter 341: Presentation

16th May 2013, Middle of Space

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

Yondu blanched when I mentioned Thanos, and I could understand. The Mad Titan was like the boogeyman in the galaxy. He didn't hold a physical empire, he didn't conquer planets and star systems, he simply killed half the population and left.

No one really knew of his intentions, his goals or his dreams, outside of killing half the population of every planet he visited. His children, trained soldiers utterly devoted to him, were extremely feared. Gamora was one of the most feared women in the galaxy. The Ravagers kept glancing her way many times with nervous looks on their faces, as if they expected her to snap and kill them all at a moment's notice.

Still the fleet started to arrive towards Ronan's ship, I nod towards Yondu, "Good luck."

Hela followed me as I walked towards the small shuttles. We entered inside and were ejected from the ship. We made our way to Xandar's surface while the Ravager fleet prepared the attack. This should be interesting, at least.

---------------

(Peter Quill POV)

Peter Quill, the self-proclaimed Star Lord was falling. At least he wasn't alone anymore. Ever since his mother died, he was alone. He didn't have any true friends. Yondu's crew wasn't really appropriate for a young boy to befriend. Even now, as an adult, Peter was weary of a lot of them. Oh, the whole cannibal thing was very persuasive, but it was a running gag because that's what he cried out when he first saw them. But at their core, Ravagers were killers, thieves, and worse.

Truthfully, he never really liked being a Ravager, and he had hoped that the orb would have been his way out. Even when he ran missions for Yondu, he always refused anything that was too extreme, like murder or pillaging. He might be a thief, but he always thought of himself as an explorer. Yondu had understood this line, and had thankfully never asked Peter to cross it. Yondu could be surprisingly thoughtful at times. But deep down, Peter knew that he would inevitably be forced to do something against his moral code, and that he wouldn't be able to refuse, which is why he was always looking for a way out.

He's actually been saving up for years for the day that he could just leave Yondu's crew and never look back. His dream was to live a luxurious life, full of adventures, like the movies in his childhood. At first, the orb heist in Morag was supposed to add a few thousand units into his savings. Oh, it wasn't anything drastic, just a reasonably large payday that would put him one step closer to freedom.

Alas, when he realized that the orb was actually worth billions of units, and that Gamora already had a buyer, he knew that this was it. Even split four ways, it was enough for his retirement plan and more. This was his freedom on a silver platter, his true happy ending.

Unfortunately, the orb contained an infinity stone, a planetary weapon of mass destruction, and all thoughts of retirement went to hell. Well, they did when Drax the moron chose to invite a fucking rogue Kree fleet to their doorstep, because he wanted to kill Ronan. And well, that ended up with Peter back at the beginning with the Ravagers, under Yondu's thumb, and planning a desperate heist with a ridiculous plan that was pretty much suicidal. His dreams of freedom were crushed, and he was now desperately trying to stay on Yondu's good side to atone for his transgressions.

Oddly enough, the plan went reasonably well. They were able to infiltrate the Kree warship, sneak on board, and kill a few Kree soldiers. Gamora was able to disable the security lockdown, although she had to fight her bald blue robot sister. Rocket was doing a good job at killing any of the stragglers attacking the city, which was evacuated by the Nova Corps. Speaking of the Nova Corps, their planetary defensive fleet was very impressive with how it connected with each other, and held up the entire war ship, until Ronan decided to get serious and use the infinity stone to blow them up.

Still, it was enough for them to sneak on board and use Rocket's moon destroying weapon thingy, to hit Ronan point blank. That was when shit hit the fan. How the fuck did Ronan survive a direct blast of Rocket's weapon? He didn't even kneel. Maybe he used the infinity stone or something, but Peter didn't know.

He was relatively sure that he was going to die until Rocket crashed into the control room and hit Ronan point blank with the Milano. Now, that was some impressive flying. Anyway, the war ship was falling towards the surface with no end in sight. And Quill was prepared to die.

Quill was falling, but he wasn't alone. His crew was with him. Gamora, the woman who had tried to kill him, was giving him a sad smile while holding his hand. Drax was looking down strangely smiling he was probably thinking about seeing his family again. Rocket, the sassy talking raccoon who kept insulting him, was weeping as Groot was turning himself into a protective cocoon in a vain attempt at saving his friends. Because they were his friends. It was such a strange concept, having actual friends, even if they all tried to kill each other before.

They didn't know each other for long, but he was glad to have met them. At least he would die a hero, having saved billions of lives, or at least tried to. It was a fitting end, in a way, that he wouldn't die a monster as he always feared. He would die a free man, like he dreamed. But at least he had purpose, his life wasn't an empty one.

The orb opened up by itself, and swallowed the stone. He had to say that Ronan's baffled face was worth this entire mess.

For some reason, the Morrigan was snickering, "Pikachu, I choose you."

"What?" he asked.

"Oh, Earth reference. I forgot you were taken in the eighties. So, that was after you left Terra."

Grumbling at the fact that someone knew more Earth pop culture than him, he almost missed Ronan running towards the orb, only for a large piece of metal, probably a remnant of the ship, to fall from the sky and cut him in half, before turning into feathers and disappearing as well.

Peter, his crew, and even the Nova Corps stood there gaping at the corpse of the man that had terrorized the galaxy for years, and tanked weapons like they were nothing, die from an accident of all things. Although Peter didn't think that it was accidental at all. At least, considering the Morrigan's silence on the matter.

Peter walked towards the bisected Kree terrorist and went to grab the orb he threw. He didn't even realize that he was laughing. It was just so ridiculous. He fully expected to die because of this. He was smiling next to Gamora, with Rocket and Groot at their side, that were hugging, and finally Drax that had tears in his eyes, having finally avenged his family.

Unfortunately, the celebrations were interrupted by Yondu, "Well, well, well. Quite the light show. Ain't this sweet? But you got some business to attend to before all the nookie-nookie starts."

Peter stifled a groan; he had forgotten about Yondu in all the madness with Ronan, "You gotta reconsider this, Yondu. I don't know who you're selling this to, but the only way the universe can survive is if you give it to the Nova Corps."

"I may be as pretty as an angel, but I sure as hell ain't one. Hand it over, son."

Peter sighed and handed him the fake orb, making sure to hide the real one from him. After the Ravager Captain left, Peter muttered to. Himself, "He's gonna be pissed when he realizes I switched out the orb on him."

Gamora's smile made things worth it. Yondu was the closest thing that he had to a family, but it was time for him to grow up.

Before he was going to be interrogated by the Nova Corps, Morrigan said, "I'd appreciate it if you didn't say anything about my involvement in all of this. I'd rather keep a low profile."

Peter was confused, "Don't you want to get pardoned from going to jail?"

The Morrigan snorted, "I didn't get arrested, Peter, I broke into the prison. It would take someone very powerful to even think about taking me down."

"Why the hell would you break into a prison?"

"To meet you, of course."

Still, Peter was confused, "Why would you want to meet me?"

"It's because of your father."

---------------

If you want to support me check out my patron at /athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.