~Cosmic Girl~ ON HOLD: MAY BE CANCELLED

Chapter 2

A/N: Back again w/ chapter two! We'll start to see more starmora from here on out. Anywhoo, Enjoy!

Gamora never would have thought she could care so deeply about a person as idiotic and pathetic as Peter Quill, but yet here she was. Time and time again they risked their lives for each other. Gamora just didn't understand why. She used to be independent, not paying much attention to others. But ever since Peter came into her life she couldn't help but check in on where he was and how he was doing. It was strange. Little did Gamora know, her relationship with the Terran would be tested yet again very soon.

The guardians had been walking through the dense woods of silver sparkling trees that lay just beyond the village. It seemed to be getting colder and colder by the second, and Gamora felt herself inching closer to Peter's warmth as they walked towards the amulet's signal.

It was then that she noticed Mantis's sudden hush. She hadn't spoken much since they arrived on the planet. Usually, by now Mantis would have said something about the strange silver vegetation or the gray swirling clouds above them, but she was dead silent now.

"Mantis, you've been awfully quiet since we arrived. Is something wrong?"

Mantis looked up from the ground, which she had been staring at for quite some time now. "Oh, uh," She looked slightly alarmed. "Something about this planet. The village and court." she paused. "It doesn't feel right. As if they are hiding a secret." Her eyes widened slightly at the word 'secret'.

"Well don't say anything about it now." Rocket cut in. "They won't give us crap if you jabber to them about weird-ass vibes you're picking up."

Gamora ignored Rocket's interruption, pushing Mantis further. "What do you mean? What could they be hiding?"

Before Mantis could reply, a faint shrill called from nearby.

"Gamora watch out!" Quill hissed, ducking in front of her to shoot at a short, feathery creature with deep blue feathers and what seemed like the exact same horns that the Vizonian village people had. The creature, who had outstretched its sharp talons and was beginning to trudge towards Gamora, stopped suddenly and fell to the ground as Peter shot at it.

Gamora was caught off guard by the sudden attack, taking a step back and retrieving her Godslayer, which was strapped to her back.

"We must be entering the orrin's territory," Drax said, raising his knives in preparation,

"I am Groot!" The tiny flora colossus, who had moved from Rocket's shoulder to walk on the ground corrected.

"Orroks." Rocket translated, preparing his most trusted weapon for battle.

The orroks began storming in all at once, flying in towards the guardians, claws sharp and unsheathed, ready to tear flesh. They all hissed and shrilled, attacking at once. Gamora slashed as many as she could with her sword, ducking out of the way to avoid getting clawed at. Peter fired at the creatures, squinting as more flocks came in from the shadows of the forest. Drax attacked with his knives and Rocket with his large machine gun, both yelling as they attacked the swarms.

"Mantis!" Gamora shouted though the chaos, looking at the bug-like woman who was struggling to make each individual orrok fall asleep. She had already received a few cuts. "Take Groot and find somewhere safe! We will meet you there!" Mantis nodded, picking up Groot who was busy trying to strangle a single orrok with vines outstretched.

After what seemed like hours of fighting, the orrok swarms seemed to have backed off, likely retreating to find backup. Gamora found Manis and Groot safe in a nearby cave, where there were little to no orroks.

"We need to move fast. God knows when those blue crows will be back" Quill ordered as he began to move. The rest of the group followed, and the signal of the amulet became stronger. As they approached the signal, an excruciatingly loud roar tore out through the trees.

"The Zira is approaching," Mantis said, eyes widened in fear.

Quill turned towards his fellow guardians. "Listen, I have a plan." He spoke fast, glancing behind him as the roar grew louder. "Rocket and Drax will fight off the orroks and try to keep them distracted while me, Mantis, and Gamora will try to weaken the Zira, and while the bird monsters are distracted, Groot will go and get the amulet. Then we run. Sound good?" Rocket opened his mouth for a moment, about to speak, but Quill cut him off. "Good. Because we don't have much of a choice. Let's go!"

They emerged into a clearing where thousands of orroks hissed and cawed, all surrounding the Zira, a huge, 11-foot orrok with bright magenta feathers and piercing red eyes. Inside of its sharp beak stood two pointed teeth, which Gamora assumed the venom shot from. The Zira let out a sharp cry, sending troops of orroks forward. Rocket and Drax fought, and Quill, Gamora, and Mantis ducked, stalking forward towards the Zira.

Gamora charged at it, stabbing the godslayer into its side, and the Zia let out a shriek of pain and surprise. Mantis tried to find a way to sneak up in the Zira to attempt to use her empathic powers on it. Peter activated his mask and shot at it, firing up his rocket boosters to attack the alpha from another angle. The Zira opened is beak and shot out a burst of black, goopy venom, and Quill ducked away from the spray with a yelp. The venom landed on a cloud of orroks, killing them in the process.

"That lady really wasn't kidding about this big bird. Anyone seen Groot?" Quill asked through the communicator, firing at the Zira again.

"I gave him the navigator. He's on his way to the amulet as we speak" Rocket replied. "Any progress on weakening the alpha?"

Gamora replied this time as an idea sprang into her mind. "If I can wound its wings and feet we may be able to immobilize it. That will make it much easier for Mantis to put it to sleep."

"Good luck with that."

Gamora ducked away from another spray of venom, a small splash landing on her arm and sending waves of pain down her body. Ignoring it, Gamora advanced towards it's left wing, which was flapping hard to hover in the air, blade raised. "Peter you get right wing, I've got left. We can bring it to the ground if we're quick." She spoke through the comm.

"Sounds good." He replied. Gamora began running towards the wing of the Zira but stopped as she heard a familiar voice shout across the clearing

"I AM GROOT!" Groot chortled from across the clearing, holding up a sparkling blue amulet and grinning. Quill, who had started to fire into the beast's right wing, was caught off guard and stopped as well to look for where the voice was coming from. The Zira used this opportunity to turn its head toward's Quill, opening its beak and hissing.

"PETER!" Gamora yelled at the top of her lungs, but it was too late. The Zira had sprayed a mess of venom onto Peter, sending him flying backwards to the ground, yelping with pain as he hit the ground.

"Son of a!" Peter winced, obviously in excruciating pain. In a moment of pure drama and adrenaline, Gamora shot herself upwards, stabbing her sword into the Zira's neck with so much force it fell from the sky and collapsed on the floor, where Mantis could put him to sleep.

Gamora landed on the ground with a grunt, the impact of her landing shooting pain into her legs. Nevertheless, she ran over to Peter, kneeling beside him to asses the damage. The venom was making him bleed, and he was unconscious now. Drax, Rocket, Mantis, and Groot took notice of Quill's fall and ran over to where he lay.

"He is loosing too much blood. We need to get him treated at once." Gamora urged, glancing over at the Zira, who was asleep on the floor, blood gushing from its neck. The orrok swarms had landed, studying the alpha's body with surprise and curiosity. "Let's go."

Drax, the most muscular out of the group, picked up Peter's body, and the group began quickly finding their way back to the village, Groot clutching the amulet close to him. Gamora led the group, her mind a blizzard of nonsense thoughts. Too much had happened too fast.

I swear on my life, Peter I won't let you die here on this planet. Not this way.

A/N: So that's the end of chapter 2! I wanted to end it here so that I could switch to Peter's perspective in chapter 3. Let me know what you think!