Affliction (P.P.)

Part 13

(Peter POV)
The thing rounds the corner and it's.... a bunny? "Wha- what even is this planet? Why?" I ask. Loki bends down near it. "Hmm. Quite the adorable creature. Seems harmless." He says, which is really un-Loki-like. He holds his hand out, ready to touch it. "Loki I don't know if I'd-" but I don't get to finish. Because the bunny opens its mouth, revealing horribly pointy teeth, unhinges it's jaw, and bites Loki's left hand clean off. Everyone gasps. "Oh my God!!" Quill shouts. Drax snorts and then starts laughing. Mantis' eyes are as big as plates. Rocket and Groot are joining Drax in laughter. Loki screams in pain, if not a bit over dramatically. "IT JUST ATE MY HAND?!" He shouts, holding up his bloody wrist. I cringe. "No ones going to kill the blasted thing?! It tried to kill me!" He keeps shouting and going on about it. "Let's just- go." I say. "I can fix his wrist up." Rocket chimes in. "With what?" I ask incredulously. Gamora checks the hall one more time, and then we follow her down a few more hallways.

We walk past a room with the door open, and inside is a sleeping Vrenkrel, with a prosthetic arm hanging over the side of its bed. "I can fix his hand, but I'm gonna need duct tape, a screw driver, and that guys arm." Rocket says with a snicker. I give him a sideways glare. "Yeah, no." I say. "Come on! I actually need it!" He insists. I cross my arms, and he chuckles. We keep going, Gamora still at the front, and we wrap Loki's wrist in an old shirt we found on the floor of one of the rooms we passed. Then arrive at a big metal door, with a small square window that we could peek through. Me and Gamora look around, and inside is what looks to be a hangar for ships. "Look! The Benatar." She says, pointing to the Guardians ship. "And our ship!" I point to the one right next to the Benatar. "I thought ours was totaled?" Thor asks. "They- must have found it and fixed it." I shrug. I then look over the lock of the door, trying to see if there would be a way to pick it.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Quill pushes to the front of the group and gets ready to hit the door open. "Whoa! Don't do that, there's probably an alarm or something weird." I say, holding my arm up to stop him. "Oh yeah, I forgot these things are smarter than they look." Quill says. The lock has a big deadbolt, and by the looks of the border around the door, it definitely has an alarm. Loki steps forward, his now hand-less arm wrapped up tightly. "Here, use these." He pulls some little metal tools out of his pocket, and hands them to me. I crouch down to the lock, and he stands beside me. "Alright, take the skinny and jagged tool, and put it in the key hole." He instructs. I do as he says. "Now take that little metal square, and stick on the door. It's a magnet." He explains. I stick it to the door. "Now, twist the little tool, and slowly slide the magnet the opposite way from the handle." Loki puts his ear to the door. I do as he says, and we hear a click.

"Congratulations, you just picked your first lock." Loki stands, and I put the tools away and open the door. We all hesitate, waiting for a sound of an alarm, but nothing happens. I smile triumphantly. We all walk into the hangar. "Whoa." Me and Quill say at the same time. The place is huge, and filled with so many different colored ships, in all shapes and sizes. "I can't decide whether this is cool or scary." I say in awe. "Scary because of the fact that they could do anything with these vessels." Loki says. "But cool because, look at them all." Rocket adds. Gamora clears her throat. "Are you guys done?"
We all snap out of our trance. "Yep." I nod.
She rolls her eyes, then heads towards the ships. Me, Loki, and Thor climb into our ship. "Okay, so Thor is NOT driving, so Peter, your turn." Loki says. "Um, I don't even know how to-"
"I'll show you, mortal." Loki rolls his eyes. Thor sits in a seat and starts pushing buttons for navigation, and I sit in the control seat.

Loki points out all the bells and whistles, and I think I've memorized most of it. "Can you guys hear us?" I hear Gamora come in over our comms. "Yep. Loud and clear." I nod to myself. "Okay Peter. You're sure you can handle the ship? One of us can-" Gamora starts, but I cut her off. "No thank you. I can do this." I say firmly. I look over and see her through the window of their ship, and she nods. We're just about ready to lift off, when alarms start blaring. Red lights are flashing, and a bunch of Vrenkrels burst through the doors. "Now might be the time to get us going!" Loki says from his seat. "Okay okay." I say, concentrating. I start the engines, and the ship slowly levitates into the air, and hovers. "Alright, that's a start." I talk myself through. Then all of a sudden the ship gives a big lurch, and loses its balance. The Vrenkrels have started firing at us. "We need to go!" Loki shouts over the noise. "I noticed!" I say back. I steady the ship, and turn us towards the doors of the hangar. They're starting to close.

"Hang on!" I shout, then I slam on the accelerator. The ship zooms forward, and we're all pushed back in our seats. The stars blur in my vision. Finally, once we're far enough away and I figure out how to stop, I slam on the "breaks" and then we're leaning forward in our seats. The ships stops abruptly, and hovers there in space. We're all quiet, recovering from the gut wrenching moment that was. The Benatar pulls up beside us. "I think we're good guys." Quill says over the comms. I let out a breath of relief. Coordinates come in on the screen in front of me. "Okay, set those in your auto pilot, and you'll be right on course for earth." Gamora explains. I do that, and then we say goodbye to the Gaurdians and their ship, and are finally heading home. The auto pilot takes over, and I relax in my seat. "Okay everybody. Next stop, home."
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"Kid? Kid are you there?" I jolt awake, hearing the voice of Tony. "Mr. Stark?" I say, confused. A call is coming in on the ships comms.

"Peter! Are you guys alright? Why didn't you stay in touch? Did you get the cure? Are you hurt?" Tony rambles on questions. "Whoa whoa whoa. Mr. Stark, we're okay." I say. He sighs. "I said to keep me informed Pete, not leave me hanging." He says. "I know, but I couldn't get a signal. I tried several times. I think the only reason it's working now is because we're almost there." I look at the navigation system. "We are now 184 miles from earth." I announce. I hear whoops and cheers from the comms. "Is everyone there?" I smile. I miss everyone. "Yep! We're all ready for you. Charlotte is still relatively stable, but the curse is starting to crawl its way out of her body. It's a good thing you guys are almost here." Bruce's slightly worried tone comes on the comm. "Yeah, I'm glad we're close, we barely escaped the Vren-" but before I can even get the words out, the ship rocks to the side. "Whoa!" I grip the controls tightly. "Peter? What's going on?" Tony asks. "I don't know, Wha-" the ship lurches again.

"Oh you've got to be kidding." Loki says. I look out the window, and a whole fleet of Vrenkrel ships are right behind us. "Oh God." I say. "Peter! Drive!" Loki shouts, and I zoom forward. The Vrenkrels race behind us. Thor goes to the back guns of the ship, and starts trying to fire them off our tail. They're firing at us crazily. I maneuver as quickly as I can. "Peter! What is happening?!" Tony yells over the comm. "The Vrenkrels followed us! They're everywhere!" I shout as I turn the controls, swerving and looping everywhere, trying to dodge the bullets of the Vrenkrel ships. "I'm putting a dent in some of them so far!" Thor calls from the back. "That's good! Keep it up!" I say, firing the guns up front. Some of the ships have gone around and started coming at us from the front. "This is like a video game on steroids!" I yell to no one. The Vrenkrel ships are mostly small, but the number of them is what makes it bad. "They're overtaking us!" Loki says.

He's pushing buttons and trying to fire missiles and things, but considering he only has one hand, that's not going so well. "We Can make it! We will make it, we have to!" I shout. Vrenkrel ships are blowing up left and right, but our ship has also taken a lot of damage. "They're gaining!" Thor says. We're extremely close to earth now. Too close. If they get onto the planet we're in trouble. Right when the Vrenkrels are surrounding us, something zooms out of no where and starts punching through all the ships. "What is that?!".....