Guardians of the Galaxy [1]

7

"I am Groot!" Someone was slapping Astra's face. Still she did not stir. It wasn't until Rocket's pod crashed to the ground that she did open her eyes and sit up.

"Blasted idiot. They're all idiots!" Rocket was muttering angrily.

"What? What happened? Where's Gamora and Quill?" Astra questioned, instantly alert.

"Quill and Gamora just got themselves captured!" Rocket answered angrily. "That idiot flew out of his pod to save your sister and now they're with those Ravagers!"

"You fool!" Astra stood up and punched Drax in the face. With too much force, she thought, as visible purple mist sent him flying and landing a few metres away. "You called Ronan, didn't you? You just had to make everything worse for your own liking! My sister almost died because of you and Ronan has the Orb now! None of this would have happened if you had just thought before acting, like a normal person would!"

"You're right," said Drax. "I was a fool. All the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss."

Groot put his hand on Drax's shoulder.

"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo, 'my wife and child are dead.'" Rocket imitated Drax's grief.

Groot gasped and put a hand over his mouth.

"Oh, I don't care if it's mean!" Rocket responded to his action. "Everybody's got dead people. It's no excuse to get everybody else dead along the way! Come on, Groot. Ronan has the Stone. The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there."

"I am Groot," said Groot defiantly, standing up.

"Save them? How?" Rocket asked.

"I am Groot!"

"I know they're the only friends that we ever had, but there's an army of Ravagers around them. And there's only two of us!"

"Three." Drax stood up.

"You're all wrong. There are four of us." Astra walked closer to them.

Rocket groaned loudly and buried his face in his paws. Then he turned around and started kicking at the ground.

"You're - making - me - beat - up - grass!!!"

Once he was done, the four of them formulated a plan. It was simple, yet risky. If Yondu would let his ship get blown up rather than hand over Quill and Gamora, well... Astra didn't want to think about it. They needed all the help they could get to stop Ronan.

"By the way," Rocket muttered to Astra as they walked off to where the Milano was parked, "sooner or later we'll have a real discussion on your freaky magic powers."

***

As the Milano caught up with the Ravager ship, Rocket fired three non-damaging shots at the ship, all hitting the same spot.

As soon as the Ravagers could be seen through one of the small circular windows, Rocket began to talk.

"Attention, idiots," he began, his voice amplified. "the little girl on top of this craft is capable of blasting you all to bits in a matter of seconds, and she's holding a Hadron Enforcer. A weapon of my own design. If you don't hand over our companions now, she's gonna tear your ship a new one. A very big new one."

I never said I could do that! Astra thought, panicked, as her left hand glowed purple and she aimed the gun at the ship in her right.

"I'm giving you to the count of five," Rocket warned. "Five, four, three-"