Chapter 336: Meeting the Guardians

16th May 2013, Klyn Maximum Security Prison, Nova Empire

(Jasmine Sayre POV)

"A psychopathic alien came to Earth with his ship and tried to destroy the world or something. I ended up killing him and took the ship for myself. So, I decided to travel the galaxy for a bit."

The half Celestial burst into laughter, "Well, as a Ravager, I do approve. But how did you end up in here?"

"The Nova Corps are assholes, that's all I'm saying."

From the loud laughter that Quill released, I knew that I said the right thing. Things were going well. Quill didn't seem to be a psychopath in hiding, just some wannabe rogue that fancies himself to be a captain.

Once I get to know him a little better, I was going to recruit him.

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice, "Quill, what're you laughing at?"

I turned towards the noise to find a small walking raccoon next to what appeared to be a man-tree hybrid of sorts. Hela looked at me, confused and spoke up, "I never met a talking rodent before."

Well, shit. And everything was going so well. It's my fault for jinxing it.

As expected, said rodent didn't like being insulted by Hela, and practically leapt into the air to beat her up. The idea that a genetically and mechanically modified raccoon could hurt the Asgardian Goddess of Death was amusing. Unfortunately, Hela tended to be ruthless whenever she was attacked, so I decided to grab the Raccoon by his clothes in midair.

The scene was comical as the speaking animal tried to fight my grip and kept slashing his claws towards the grinning Hela.

I raised an eyebrow and turned towards my student, "Did you have to insult him?"

"Come on, how was I supposed to know that he would take it so seriously? I was just surprised that he could even speak."

"Then you have no problem apologizing, do you?" I insisted.

Hela rolled her eyes and looked at the struggling talking animal trying to leap at her, "I meant no offense with my comment, and I apologize for my unthoughtful words."

The raccoon stopped glaring at Hela and nodded, "Just don't do it again."

Well, that's one disaster averted at least. I almost forgot that Hela was raised as a princess and knew how to apologize properly. I let go of the talking Raccoon, who landed on his feet. Quill gave me a sheepish look, "He's a little sensitive about the animal thing."

I shrugged, "He really needs to grow a thicker skin if one comment can make him lose all rationality like this."

"He's right here, you know? And his name is Rocket, infamous bounty hunter." The now named Rocket interjected.

"I am Groot" the talking tree spoke up. And yet that wasn't all that was said. It was some sort of psychic message that was very complex, with the general concept of a greeting. It was a beautiful language that was far more complex than anything ever created on Earth. It was the closest thing I ever heard that even resembles a manifestation of thought. The more psychic sensitive a person is, the better they understand it. Rocket seemed to have developed an understanding of the language after so long.

I smiled at him, and answered, "I am Groot." I was greeting him back, telling him that it was an honor to meet him.

The tree's eyes widened, and he let out a huge grin, "I AM GROOT!"

He was very happy to see someone understand his language. Before I could continue our conversation, the talking raccoon interrupted me, "Wait, you speak Groot?"

I shrugged, "I have a talent for languages, and I have seen somewhat similar methods of communication. It's a beautiful language."

Hela interjected, "What's the big deal? A language is a language."

I snorted, "You're an Asgardian and use the All-Speak. It's not really fair. Plus, you lose a lot of the message by cutting corners like you are."

"I am Groot," Groot affirmed. He was right of course, the All-Speak could never translate something this complex without losing a lot of it.

"Wait a minute," Quill interjected, "that's an actual language? I thought he could only say three words?"

"A lot can be conveyed with only three words, Peter Quill," I answered.

Rocket burst into laughter, "I like them. Let's take them with us when we escape from this place."

The human hybrid gave the raccoon an incredulous look, "Seriously, you're just going to give them our share of the loot just like that?"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Hey," the raccoon protested, "I said nothing about the loot. We're just going to get them out and leave them there. We can trust them; Groot likes them and he's never wrong about these things."

I spoke up, "Look, after we're out of there, we're going back to Terra, and your credits are useless there. We're both very well off and we really don't need anything from you."

Rocket gave Quill a smug look, "See, they're not interested in the orb, and we can use the extra manpower to get out of here."

Immediately, a green skinned woman sat across from us, "Who are these women, Quill?"

"I actually don't know their names. But they're from Terra just like me, and Rocket invited them to escape this place with us, Gamora." Quill responded.

She gave me a suspicious look and I grinned at her. Quill gave me a warning look, "Don't let her pretty face fool you, she's a child of Thanos. She killed more people than you can count."

I raised an eyebrow, "Really? The Mad Titan. He's allying himself with an enemy of mine, which makes him my enemy. Honestly, I can't imagine being raised by someone like him. I presume that your childhood was not a happy one?"

Gamora's eyes widened as I spoke, "No, it was not."

I grinned at her, "So, tell me, gentlemen. How are we going to leave this place?"

Rocket grinned, "I have a plan."

We all turned towards the raccoon, "Don't look so surprised. I personally escaped from 22 prisons before here. It will be a little harder, but still doable."

Hela gave me a meaningful look and whispered to me, "Are you seriously going to listen to him?"

I shrugged and whispered back to her, "Hey, if things get out of hand, I'll handle it. As for now, I'm curious as to what Rocket was planning."

Our conspirators didn't seem to notice our conversation because Rocket continued, "If we're gonna get out of here, we're gonna need to get into that watchtower," Rocket pointed at the control tower in the middle of the courtyard. "And to do that, I'm gonna need a few things. The guards wear security bands to control their ins and outs. I need one."

Gamora answered, "Leave it to me."

Rocket nodded, accepting her decision. He then looked around and saw a man with a prosthetic leg, "That dude, there. I need his prosthetic leg."

I almost snorted in amusement. I could tell that the raccoon was lying and didn't need the leg for anything, but I will let him do what he wants for now.

Quill, though, was completely confused, "His leg?"

The talking raccoon nodded, "Yeah. God knows I don't need the rest of him. Look at him, he's useless."

"All right," Peter answered, "I'll handle the leg."

Rocket nodded, pleased with himself, "Finally, I need a quarnyx battery."

"Dude, we're in a prison," Quill protested.

"I'm not an idiot, Quill," Rocket protested, "there's one behind the black panel underneath the watchtower."

Gamora gave the raccoon an incredulous look, "And how are we supposed to get it, exactly? It's in the middle of the prison, twenty foot up, in an area that's completely monitored."

The raccoon glared at her, "Look, I got one plan, and that plan requires a fricking quarnyx battery, so figure it out! Can I get back to it? Thanks."

I spoke up this time, "I can handle the battery if that's the problem."

Rocket visibly sagged in relief, "Good, now, this is important. Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last."

Hela hit me in the shoulders and pointed at Groot who was currently removing the said battery from the panel in the middle of the courtyard, "Rocket?"

The raccoon's eyes widened when he realized what his partner was doing, "Groot, don't do it, you…"

Just as he said it, Groot removed the battery from the panel and the alarms started to blare. Rocket groaned and murmured to himself, "Or we could get it first and improvise."

Gamora stood up, "I'll get the armband!"

"And I'll get the leg," Quill answered.

Rocket leapt towards Groot who was being attacked by security robots, and I still sat at our table with Hela next to me. I raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you don't want to join the fighting?"

She shrugged, "It wouldn't be much of a challenge."

I nodded and the both of us simply sat down and continued our conversation. I opened my personal dimension and got a thermos filled with tea. I then conjured a tea set and started sipping my tea, watching the prisoners revolt.

Hela shook her head at my antics and watched as Groot and Rocket fought the robots, and the foolish guards that can barely handle a gun, "They're very untrained," she remarked.

I shrugged, "They're prison guards, not warriors. They mostly rely on the robots to keep things in order."

"Still, their lack of skill is shameful," she protested.

She had a point, especially since this is a maximum security facility. The guards should be at least as skilled as the average inmate in case of a prisoner uprising. Which is why they were getting destroyed by a tree and a talking raccoon of all things.

Hela remarked, "They seemed very eager to leave."

I snorted, "Everyone in prison is eager to leave. But no, from what I saw in their minds, they're being hunted down by Ronin because of that orb. There's a good possibility that he would personally come here and they're terrified of him."

"The Kree warlord you spoke of?"

I answered while nodding, "Yes. He's not that big of a deal. Carol Danvers, a warrior from Earth with powers, destroyed an entire fleet of his when he tried to invade Midgard. You can easily handle him, but these mortals just can't. Plus, he's got a large fleet following him, apparently. Although Thanos' involvement with him is curious."

"He's an enemy, right?"

"Yes, Entropy's tool. He's one of the ones that he chose to collect the infinity stones for him." I responded.

"And the orb?"

I grinned, "It's an infinity stone. Whoever designed the mechanism was very good at concealing what it was, but I can sense it without much trouble when I'm this close. I am rather curious how they achieved this, to be honest."

Hela looked at me disbelievingly, "They're just leaving an infinity stone unattended in a place like this? And the idiots want to sell it? A fucking infinity stone, of all things?"

"They have no idea what it is. As far as they're concerned it's just an orb that's worth a lot of money. They don't know that this thing can blow up an entire planet by accident." I drawled back.

"So, they're idiots?"

"They're ignorant, there's a difference. Although this trip does bode well for us. We could get an infinity stone out of it, which would make us have the same number as Entropy."

I looked around and saw Gamora give Rocket a control band. The raccoon smiled and yelled out, "Move to the watchtower."

Well, they seem to have finished their mission, "Let's follow them, shall we?" I told my student.

Hela grumbled as we walked towards the top of the watchtower. Yes, this was far better than staying on Earth. I have to say that space is more exciting than I thought it would be.

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