STAR-STRUCK |star lord| [3]

CHAPTER 03

AS THE FIVE OF THEM walked through the main area, sleeping pads in hand, things were thrown at Gamora along with threats being yelled at her from the other prisoners, "It's like I said, she's got a rep. A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops." Rocket said,

"The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asked the furry creature,

"They're here to stop us from getting out. They don't care what we do to each other inside." He explained,

"Whatever nightmares the future holds, are dreams compared to what's behind me." Gamora stated, distracting Taulana.

"That's deep." Lana commented. She ran into a blue monstrous inmate and took a step back into Peter's chest,

"Check out the new meat." He chuckled before stroking Lana's cheek, "I'm gonna slather you up in Gunavian jelly, and go to town..." Suddenly Groot used his trunk to insert into the inmate's nostrils and Peter pulled her away,

Lana took a few more steps back as the prisoner cried out in pain. She had never been to the Kiln, but it was rumoured to house the worse of the worst.

"Let's make something clear. These two here is our booty! You wanna get to them, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you." Rocket growled at the other inmates and Groot dropped the monstrous inmate to the ground and walked off with Rocket following him.

Peter cleared his throat, "We're with them." He said before following in tow.

That night, Taulana fell asleep between Groot and Peter. It made her feel better, being sandwiched by them. She'd rather have that than be touched by the other prisoners.

Rocket was somewhere on the outskirts of the pile, he hated being touched.

She was woken up when Peter moved behind her. She opened her eyes to see him leaving the room, "Quill, what are you doing?" Taulana turned to see Rocket now sitting up,

"Let's go." Lana whispered, standing and following after Peter,

"Lana, you're gonna get yourself killed!" Rocket hissed.

They followed Peter down a corridor until they came into another room, where Gamora was pinned to the wall by a few inmates and had a dagger to her neck. The three of them hid behind the doorframe and watched as the inmates spoke to one another,

"Ronan murdered my wife, Ovette, and my daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood. And he laughed!" Drax yelled, "Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family, I shall kill one of his in return."

"Of course, Drax." The inmate handed Drax his knife, "Here, I..." Gamora kicked out and took the other two inmates weapons and held them against Drax and the other guy. At the same time Peter began walking towards the group.

"Quill! What are you doing?" Rocket hissed at the same time Taulana said, "What is he doing?"

This Peter seemed pretty stupid, in her opinion.

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos. " Gamora told Drax before taking a step back and dropping the knives, "I'm your only hope at stopping him."

Drax grabbed Gamora by the throat and pinned her to the wall, "Woman, your words mean nothing to me!"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Peter yelled, getting their attention, "You know, if killing Ronan is truly your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it."

"Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" Drax questioned,

"Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me." Peter said before pulling up his shirt to show Drax a scar on his side, "Look, this is from a smoking-hot Rajak girl. Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise."

He revealed to Drax another scar near his throat and Lana rolled her eyes, "I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. You ever see an A'askavariian? They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then..."

Drax gave him a look, "You don't care. But here's the point. She betrayed Ronan, he's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you..." Peter drew his fingers across his throat

"Why would I put my finger on his throat?" Drax asked, confused.

"What? Oh, this is a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat." Peter explained,

"I would not slice his throat, I would cut his head clean off." Drax corrected and Taulana rolled her eyes,

"It's a general expression for you killing somebody." Peter turned to the other inmate as he draws his finger across his throat again, "You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is."

The inmate nodded, "Yeah. Yeah."

"Everyone knows." Peter said and Drax glared at the inmate,

"No, no."

"What I'm saying is, you want to keep her alive. Don't do his work for him." Peter said. Drax looked at Gamora then let her go.

"I like your knife. I'm keeping it." Drax said before walking off,

"That was my favorite knife."

Gamora walked off and the three followed, "Listen! I could care less whether you live or whether you die." Peter said, making her stop,

"Then why stop the big guy?" She asked,

"Simple. You know where to sell my orb." Peter answered,

"How are we gonna sell it when we and it are still here?" Gamora questioned,

"My friend Rocket, here, has escaped twenty-two prisons." Peter stated and everyone looked down at the rodent,

"Oh, we're getting out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve your bounty."

"How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my orb?" Peter asked, ignoring what the raccoon said,

"Four billion units."

Taulana's eyes widened, "What?!"

"Holy shit."

"That orb is my opportunity to get away from Thanos and Ronan. If you free us, I'll lead you to the buyer directly and I'll split the profit between the four of us." Gamora stated,

"I am Groot." Groot said from the cell next to them,

"Five of us. Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual." Rocket said,