The Beginning of the End (Allyson)

Chapter 6

   "Peter, did you see that?"

I turned to him and waited for a reaction, hoping I wasn't seeing things. I could have sworn I watched a ship hurtling toward the surface, and with any luck, that was Thanos.

"Yeah, I did." He steered the ship closer to the surface, until we found the site of the crash. A circular ship sat among the settling dust, snapped in half. My eyes widened as I stared at it, waiting for some form of life to emerge.

"Nebula could be in there." I tapped Peter's arm and pointed toward the ship. "We need to check it out."

"It could be Thanos."

Peter landed the Milano on the the orange dust, and we all reached for our weapons before the ramp lowered and we got ready. This could go a few ways, but mentally, I needed to be prepared for any of them. I sighed and stared out into the vast planet covered in debris, my feet suddenly unable to move. I so desperately wanted it to be Gamora, alive and okay, waiting for us after her escape. But that was a dream scenario, the least likely to happen.

A pair of hands rested themselves on my shoulders, causing me to flinch slightly before I looked back to see it was just Peter.

"I need you to be calm about this," he muttered into my ear, brushing some of my hair aside. "I don't want something happening to you." I adjusted the dagger on the sleeve of my jacket and pulled away from him.

"I'll try my best."

Vaguely, I could hear voices from inside the wreckage. They spoke lowly, keeping me from being able to pick out their specific words. But at least one of them resembled a deep, male voice.

"That could be Thanos," I whispered, looking at the remains of our group. "It could be Gamora."

"Okay, let's.... be strategic about this."

This time, when he held up his fist, everyone paused. A hesitant air bound us all together; no one wanted to take the first step only to find disappointment... or a fate worse than death.

Peter crouched down into the burnt sand and removed an energy grenade from his belt. After glancing at all our faces, he threw the metal sphere into the darkness and quickly shot up.

"Get ready," he whispered. "We go in on my--"

The grenade exploded, sending out a powerful pulse of energy that would knock down anyone in the ship.

"Or we can go now."

We ran through the dust to see three figures in the darkness. None of us could make out their faces, but their shadows didn't match those of either Thanos or Gamora. I hesitated for a split second, wondering if we had anything to worry about, before shaking it off and realizing anything that inhabited this ship couldn't be good.

"Thanos!" Drax cried as he threw one of his blades.

One of the figures created some sort of orange shield to defend themselves. Something red and flimsy shot out of the darkness, wrapping itself around Drax's head and knocking him to the ground with impressive force. Peter fired his blasters at the one that appeared to be made of metal, and the two of them took to the air and shot at each other. A large explosion that the other creature made caused Peter to tumble backwards, throwing both of them onto the ground. I shot my arm out toward the one that had created a shield and wrapped it around his neck. His eyes widened in shock as I pulled myself forward and kicked him in the chest, knocking him to the ground. I could hear explosions and the clangs of metal as the figure I was fighting summoned two small versions of the shield from earlier, one on each of his hands.