C297 Spider-Man (Patreon)

Sovereign, a collective of planets bundled together to form the technologically advanced home world of the Sovereign, golden humanoid beings who’ve been genetically engineered to perfection.

At least their idea of what perfection is or could be.

Currently, on a high-rise platform far above the planet's surface, a group of armed individuals stood guard around the glowing sun-like spheres that occupied the area.

These spheres powered the entire planet and the Guardians of the Galaxy were hired to protect them.

“Show time, a*sholes! it’ll be here any minute now.” Quill calls out as he rests his rifle against his shoulder.

“Which will be it's last minute to draw breath.” Gamora pulls two pistols from her belt.

“I thought your lady had a thing for blades?” Yondu looked to Quill questioningly.

“Me too...” Quill frowned as he looked toward Gamora.

“I’m not his ‘lady’ and we’ve been hired to stop an inter-dimensional beast from feeding on those batteries.” Gamora gestures to the small batteries on the contraptions holding the sun-like spheres in place. “How the hell am I supposed to stop something like that with a sword?”

“It’s just... swords were your thing and guns were mine, but I guess we’re both doing guns now. I just didn’t know that.” Quill spoke as if his friend chose the same class as him in a video game.

“You gonna let your woman talk to you like that?” Yondu asked without a care for the glare he received for it. “Back in my day if a woman gave me that kinda lip, I’d-”

Before Yondu could continue making his misogynistic views known, two blaster bolts impacted the floor next to his feet.

“Say another word...” Gamora held two smoking blasters in Yondu’s direction. “I dare you.”

“...” Yondu simply held his hands up and smirked.

Ignoring the most insufferable addition to their crew, Gamora turned to Drax, who was shirtless as always.

“Drax, why aren’t you wearing one of Rocket’s Aero-Rigs?” She asked as she gestured to the jet pack vests that she and everyone else wore.

“It hurts.” Drax answers in distaste as he cups his hands over his chest. “I have sensitive nipples.”

Rocket laughed at Drax as he continued setting up some speakers, which sat next to Quills Walkman.

“What about him, what’s he doing?” Drax says defensively as he continues covering his sensitive nips.

“I’m finishing this so we can listen to some tunes while we work.” Rocket said matter-of-factly.

“How is that important?” Drax asked and everyone, even Quill, seemed to agree with him.

...

While the group began to argue about the musical addition to their work, Groot, who was surprisingly small now, walked over and watched them in amusement.

[Insert picture of Baby Groot here]

After his roots were burned by the fire in the Collectors ship, Groot was weakened to a large extent and reverted back to his childhood form, a foot-tall baby tree who seemed to smile much more than his old self.

(A/N: Just to clarify, this is the original Groot, not his child like in the movies.)

As everyone continued to argue, lightning filled the sky as clouds began to form, opening a rainbow-colored dimensional rift in the process.

“I am Groot.” Baby Groot warned as he pointed to the sky.

Hearing his wise words, each member of the Guardians peered upward just in time for a giant grey tentacle monster with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth to come hurtling in their direction.

[Insert picture of the Abilisk here]

“Oh, well that’s intense...” Rocket muttered as the giant beast landed in the center of the platform.

“Roar!” The monster bellowed as it started swatting at the Guardians with its tentacles.

Instantly, each Guardian jumped into action.

Gamora, Quill, and Rocket launched out of the way of its tentacles with their jet packs as they opened fire on the squid-like monster.

Though their weapons didn’t seem to do much if any damage whatsoever.

Drax on the other hand, rushed forward like a crazed bull with his swords drawn, trying to slice through the inter-dimensional beast.

Though, just like the long-range weapons, Drax’s blades appeared to be useless against the monster's tough skin.

Meanwhile, Yondu kept himself out of sight, behind the beast at all times as he whistled like a madman, sending his new arrow soaring across the platform.

And although he made sure to replace his old broken arrow with the best and latest model available, none of his attacks could make it through the alien squid's skin.

Seeing the Guardians fighting off the inter-dimensional monster, Baby Groot ignored them and plugged the AUX cord into Quill's stereo.

Instantly, the platform filled with the sound of music as ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by ELO started to play.

(A/N: Feel free to listen to it while you read.)

Feeling the music, Groot started dancing his way through the battlefield without a care in the world for his wellbeing.

“Groot!” Quill yelled as he was sent flying by a swipe of one of the beast's tentacles.

“Groot, get out of the way your going to get hurt!” Gamora exclaimed as she passed the dancing tree, firing her gun off whenever she had the chance.

“The beast’s hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside!” Drax yelled as he eyed the beast with a glimmer in his eye. “I must cut through it from the inside.”

“What? No, Drax! Drax!” Gamora screamed to stop him, though her words fell on deaf ears.

She watched as Drax rushed forward and leapt into the beast's open maw, disappearing down its throat.

“What’s he doing?!” Quill asked in alarming confusion.

“He said that the skin is too thick to be pierced on the outside so...” Gamora explains with an annoyed sigh.

“That doesn’t make any sense!” Quill exclaims in disbelief.

“I tried telling him that!” She shouts in return.

As the battle continued, Quill soon noticed a weakness in the beast that they could use to finish the job they were given.

“There’s a cut on its neck! Rocket, get it to look up!.” Quill shouted and Rocket shot off into the sky above the monster's head.

“Alright, you giant sea monkey, up here!” Rocket yelled as he fired down on its head.

The distraction seemed to work as the tentacle monster craned its head upwards and extended its body, revealing the small cut on its neck.

Seeing the opening, Gamora tried and failed to hit it with her pistols before throwing them to the floor and pulling a long retractable sword from her belt.

Just as she was about to rush forward to stab her sword through the beast's neck and end its life, a blue and red-dressed figure ran right past her.

Leaping into the air, the figure summoned a long black spear into his outstretched hand before swiping across the beast's body.

*swish!*

Landing behind the inter-dimensional beast, the figure turned around just in time to see it freeze in place for a moment.

“That should do it.” Peter muttered as Corvus Glaives' spear disappeared from his hand.

And just as the spear vanished, a long cut appeared across the beast's body as it fell to the floor in two separate halves, gushing out a green gooey blood onto the platform.

And out of that goo rose a familiar grey and red figure.

“Yes! I have single-handily vanquished the beast!” Drax exclaimed, somehow thinking that he was the one who delivered the finishing blow.

“Yo!” Peter waved as he walked over. “I see you guys have been busy while I was away. Are we getting paid for this or?”

“It's a job.” Quill nods as he lands beside Peter. ”The Sovereign paid us to protect this place from that thing.”

Quill gestured between the contraptions that held the sun-like fireballs in place, and the dead dimensional alien squid thing.

“I see. Cool jet pack.” Peter comments as Rocket walks over. ‘I didn’t think they would go to Sovereign already...’

Peter only planned to stop by to check in on his crew for a moment, as he wanted to evolve one more time using another vial he had, though that would have to wait now.

“I made 'em.” He says proudly as he tosses a towel in Drax’s face. “Clean yourself up. You smell like sh*t.”

“Good to have you back Captain.” Yondu said as he strolled over.

“It’s good to be back.” Peter replied as he looked to the palace in the distance. “Should we go and collect our payment?”

“We? Our? I don’t remember you joining in on this job?” Rocket asked incredulously.

His greed wouldn’t allow the cut he was promised to grow any smaller.

“...” Peter remained silent as he simply gestured to the giant tentacle beast carcass, which he just sliced in half.

“...fine...” Rocket grumbled reluctantly.

“Alright, let’s go. Careful what you say around these folks. They’re easily offended. The cost of a single transgression is usually death.” Quill warned as he was the one to accept this job.

“Sure, let’s go.” Peter nodded as he caught sight of Rocket sneaking some glowing batteries from the platform into his bag. “Rocket? Is that part of the job?”

“!” Rocket jumped as all eyes turned to him.

“I’ll take that as a no.” Peter shook his head and let out a sigh. “Return what you stole. We’re already getting paid. Don’t push it.”

“Screw these a*sholes! Sovereigns are just a bunch of grade-A obnoxious pr*cks.” Rocket exclaimed as he held his bag tightly. “These batteries are worth hundreds of thousands of Units apiece!”

“Sigh...”

A/N: 1600 words :)