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▎ MOONDUST ▎
»»————-　gogt vol one. the guardians
CHAPTER NINE━━ the infinity stones

. ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* 🪐🚀🔥
♯ ❝THEN THE UNIVERSE EXPLODED! ❞
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆

PETER AND MIDAS SHOVED THEIR WAY THROUGH THE large crowds that encouraged the bar fight on and both Gamora and Midas needed to work together to pull Drax off of Groot who was trying to defend his smaller friend

"Stop it!" Gamora yelled furiously, an angery frown etched on her skin.

"Woah, woah, what are you doing?!" Peter intervered when both Rocket and Drax tried to lung for each other again, even having to go as far as to put his hands out in front of him to stop Rocket from firing his blaster at Drax.

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax thrashed about wildy in the hold of Midas and Gamora, trying to get at the raccoon, but they managed to hold him in his place.

"That is true!" Rocket snarled harshly.

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true!"

"Hold on, hold on!" Peter shouted in an effort to settle the fight  before things could seriously get out of hand, but a drunk Rocket was too angry to stop

"Keep callin' me vermin, tough guy!" He kept his blaster up and pointed it at Drax, ready to shoot at any second. "You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!" 

"Rocket, you're drunk, alright? No one's laughing at you," Peter tried his best to reason with the raccoon but it seemed to fall on deaf ears as the racoon continued.

"He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together, over and over, and turned into some-" Rocket inhaled, his teeth clenched as he tried to hold his emotions back, not wanting to look weak. "Some little monster!"

"Rocket, no one's calling you a monster," Peter assured calmly, in hopes of finally stoping Rocket.

"He called me vermin!" Rocket roared, pointing accusingly at Drax. "She called me rodent!" He pointed to Gamora "And she called me furball" He snarled, pointing at Midas who's eyes widened.

She didn't mean to offend Rocket, the way he carried himself around made her believe he could stand her remarks, but it appeared her comments had hurt his feelings.

"Let's see if you can laugh after five or six shots to your frickin' face!" Rocket charged up his blaster and pointed it at Drax again, causing Peter to jump in front of it while Drax tried to charge at the raccoon, only to be held back again.

"No, no, no, no!" Peter pleaded helplessly. "Four billion units! Rocket! Come on, man. Hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich!"

Finally, Rocket seemed to calm down slightly and he complied, slowly lowering the gun back down. "Fine. But I can't promise, when all of this is over, I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks."

Peter rubbed his temples and took in a large gulp of air. "See? That's exactly why none of you have any friends!" Peter vented, completely fed up with the situation at hand. "Five seconds after you meet somebody, you're already trying to kill them!"

"We have traveled halfway across the quadrant," Drax spat out between deep breaths. "And Ronan is no closer to being dead." Drax grunted before he pushed Gamora's hands off him and stormed out of the bar as Peter called after him, trying to stop him.

"Let him go, we don't need him," Gamora dismissed him, irritation laced in her voice as she spoke.

All of a sudden, in one of the far corners of the bar, a door opened and they averted their attention to a Krylorian lady walking out, her stance firm and proper, but it looked mostly forced. "Milady Gamora, I'm here to fetch you for my master." The pink lady announced softly motioning for them to follow her. 

They all complied, silently following after the young woman as they were led into another, more secluded part of the building and Midas watched astounded at all the glass cages containing all sorts of strange objects and beings.

"We house the galaxy's largest collection of fauna, relics and species of all manner," the girl informed them robotically as the group followed close behind her.

"I present to you." The woman turned forward, stretching her arms out towards a man standing proudly among his collectables. "Taneleer Tivan, The Collector."

He was an older man, wearing a coat of white furs with hair the color of snow.

Gamora approaced the man, and he took her hand, raising it to his lips in courtesy. "Oh, my dear Gamora. How wonderful to meet in the flesh." His voice was low, trying his best to be suave.

"Let's bypass the formalities, Tivan. We have what we discussed," Gamora demanded as she lowered her hand not at all interested by the man standing in front of her.

He didn't seem offended by the assassin's words and instead let his eyes quickly drift to one of their other companions; Groot stood behind her, mindlessly looking around.

Almost as quick as lighting, Tivan moved towards the humanoid tree in pure wonder. "What is that thing there?" The Collector spoke, stopping in front of him.

       "I am Groot."

"I never thought I'd meet a Groot. Sir-" The collector trailed of as stared at the marvelous sight in front of him.

Midas watched warily as the Collector observed Groot, allowing his eyes to travel across Groot's towering figure. "You must allow me to pay you now, so that I may own your carcass. At the moment of your death, of course."

"I am Groot."

"Why, so he could turn you into a frickin' chair?" Rocket questioned accusingly and the brunette smiled as Rocket came to his friend's defense

"That's your pet?" Tivan asked Groot.

"His what?!" Rocket growled, reaching for his blaster that was attached to his back in one fluid motion.

"Tivan. We have been halfway around the galaxy, retrieving this orb." Gamora interrupted the growing argument and stepped in front of the white haired man.

"Very well, then," he complied with a solemn sigh, casting one last longing look at Groot before turning around. "Let us see what you brought."

Gamora turned her head towards Peter, and he collected the orb from his bag, holding it up. However the moment Peter pulled it out and held it out in front of him he managed to drop it and catch it before it could land on the ground

     They all watched embarassed as Peter smiled sheepishly at them all, and as soon as it was back up, it was plucked from his hand by Midas who gave it to Tivan.

The Collecter grinned before he proceeded to place the Orb between two metal claws.

"Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were six singularities." Tivan pressed a button, and the claws began to twist, unlocking the secret that was hiding inside the whole time, bit by bit it was opened up and seconds later the orb opened up and created purple circles above them.

"Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots." Inside each of the circles, there were pictures of what the galaxy looked like before it morphed into an image of different colored stones.

Midas watched entranced by the sight, her eyes wide.

"Infinity Stones."

"These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength."

Groot curiously waved a hand through an image of a strange, blue cube, memerised by the glowing light.

"Observe," Tivan said, motioned towards a  circle behind them. It showed some a giant, clad in armour. There were people running away from it, screaming in despair, but their effort seemed for nothing as the large creature slammed its staff down on the ground and a purple energy consumed them all.

"These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field."

"There's a little pee coming out of me right now," Peter admitted and Midas' face contorted into one of disgust as her gaze wandered towards the man.

Tivan continued, ignoring Peter remark. "Once, for a moment, a group was able to share the energy amongst themselves, but even they were destroyed by it." Pictures of said group was shown, they witnessed how the power became too much before it consumed them all,

Finally, just as he finished his story, the orb had been completely pulled apart into two parts, revealing the purple gem from the previous holograms. Tivan could hardly hold back his excitement, his hands shaking as he marveled at the stone in front of him. "Beautiful. Beyond compare."

Rocket, who had been standing unamused for the past few minutes, finally decided to speak up "Blah, blah, blah. We're all very fascinated, whitey, but we'd like to get paid,"

"How would you like to get paid?" Tivan asked him.

"What do you think, fancy man? Units!"

"Very well, then," Tivan nodded, walking away to retrieve what was requested.

But while they focused on the colletcor no one had noticed the Collector's assistant as she was explaining the orb's value and the way her eyes had been fixated on the purple gem ever since.

The pink woman gazed at the orb in awe,  She walked towards it slowly, not daring to take her eyes off it as she was lured towards it.

"Carina, stand back." The Collector warned, for the first time, his calm and neutral expression changing in one of complete fear

There was hatred in her eyes as she frowned at him. "I will no longer be your slave!" All the different specimens banged at the glass of their confinements, urging the woman to stop, but she had already enclosed her hand around the gem, thinking it was the key to her freedom. 

The glass around them began to shatter, Groot had picked Rocket up from the floor and ran off somewhere else, dodging any purple swirls that were shot across the room while Peter and Gamora ducked away. Midas' eyes widened as she watched purple swirls consume the young woman before she shielded her eyes and she was blasted away.

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