Starlord shifted around in his seat as the ship he rented on Knowhere entered the atmosphere of a bright pink planet. Nebula sat in the chair closest to the window, her deep black eyes scanning the sky and surface. The entire planet's surface was light pink, with dim shades of blue peeking out from the ground where the ship landed. The place was shrouded in fog, the same shade as the planet.
"Rocket, what are we looking for again?" Peter spoke into his earpiece. The rest of the team was back on Knowhere.
"You and Nebula are lookin' for the part of my ship that got blown off a few weeks ago. I figured that you and her would do a better and faster job lookin' for it than all of us. I've pinpointed its location, you're close. Just a few clicks south of there." Rocket said.
"Alright," Peter turned around to see Nebula mindlessly kicking away at a small bush that looked like it was made of cotton candy. "Nebula, did you hear that?"
"Huh?" Nebula's head shot up from the ground, her black robotic eyes meeting his.
"We're looking for the tail of Rocket's ship. We're almost there." Peter pulled a small tracking device from his pocket.
"Following you." The Luphomoid women looked back down and began walking. As she followed behind Peter, she couldn't help but pay close attention to the robotic drone of her hips and feet as she walked. Most of the time, Nebula either didn't notice the sounds her cybernetically enhanced body made, or she didn't care, but today, she was very self-aware.
"Hey Peter?" Nebula called.
"Yeah?"
"Do you still think about Gamora?" She knew the question was sudden, but she had to know.
"All the time," Peter sighed before turning around and walking backward to face her. "Why do you ask?"
"I was just... I was just curious." Nebula said, her eyes not meeting him.
"I miss her alot, but at the same time, I don't regret punching that big purple bastard in the face. No offense." Peter said, remembering when he let his anger get the best of him when half of the Guardians, Iron Man, Doctor Strange, and Spider-Man had the Mad Titan trapped.
"None taken. My father killed her. Nothing would have brought her back, well at least not the one you knew. The one we knew." Nebula held back a tear.
"Yeah." Peter stopped walking backward before putting the tracker back in his pocket. Nebula noticed and looked up at him in confusion. Peter placed a hand on her biological shoulder.
"It's okay to say that you miss her too, Nebula." He said. Nebula froze.
"I do. Let's go find that part." Nebula returned to her usual cold tone.
Peter turned around and booted up the transmitter one more time. It began beeping and flashing.
"We're right below it," Peter said while looking at the ground. Nebula moved her feet around, noticing her boots were sticking to the bottom like mud.
"I'm not seeing anything." Nebula said.
"Welp," Peter put the transmitter in his pocket before getting on his hands and knees. "Looks like I'll just reach down and see if I feel anything." Peter then stuck his hands deep into what felt like quicksand, staining his brown jacket. Nebula stood over him, watching closely.
"Do you feel anything?" Nebula asked.
"All I'm feeling is- wait." Peter felt something cold and metallic.
"I think I found it." Peter said.
"I'll help you pull it out." Nebula wrapped her body around his back and grabbed his arms. Peter felt her breasts pushing into his back, but he pushed that thought away.
"Ready?" Nebula asked.
"Ready." Peter said. They began pulling as hard as they could until they heard a low rumble beneath them. The sound built up until the ground started to shake.
"What the hell is that?" Peter asked, his voice trembling slightly.
"I don't know. I'll try to-." Just then, a thick blue tentacle jutted from the wet ground, smacking Nebula in the face hard enough to break her grip on Peter's arm and send her flying back towards the ship.
"Oh shit!" Peter shouted before pulling his arm out of the ground and dove backward to avoid the giant tentacle that continued to rise from the ground. One tentacle had the tail end of Rockets ship wrapped in its slimy grip. Peter looked to his side to see if Nebula was fine, but he got hit by the same tentacle that knocked her out. Peter wasn't knocked unconscious, but he felt something running down the side of his face and into his ear.
"Crap." Peter felt blood mixing into his smashed earpiece. He felt like the tentacle monster intentionally opened a nasty gash on his forehead. The giant mass of tentacles began whipping and thrashing out of the ground wildly. Peter tried to stand up, but his head was spinning, and his vision was blurred. The tentacle monster used the part of Rocket's ship to smash a hole into the glass of the smaller vessel.
Nebula's eyes popped open after hearing the loud crack of the rusted metal banging against the glass. She sat up before automatically popping her shattered jaw back into place. She noticed Peter splayed out with blood running down the side of his face; her eyes were focused as she stood up and readied her nanotech arm, forming it into a cannon. Nebula used her other arm to aim it and fired two bright orange-colored shots into the body of the monster.
The tentacle monster shook at the blast's force; three tentacles dropped back into the ground, but the one holding the ship part swung at Nebula. She ducked under the attack, causing the limb to smack into the rented ship and knocking it to the side. Nebula changed her cannon to a red-hot blade, jumped into the air, and sliced the tentacle open. Purple blood spewed from the smoking skin as the tentacle finally dropped the ship part and disappeared into the ground.
Nebula's eyes returned to their blank stare as she ran to check Peter.
"That was really cool." Peter grunted through the pain. Nebula crouched down, and her blue fingers over the leaking wound.
"You'll be alright, I'll fix this." Nebula said.
"It's fine," Peter grabbed Nebula's shoulder to lift himself up into a seated position. "I'll live."
"There's a lot of blood, Peter. It's getting worse." Nebula noticed Peter staring at her when he thought she wasn't pay attention.
"Lay back down. Now." Nebula said with her usual growl. Peter did as he was told but kept staring into her eyes.
"I'm going to cauterize the wound." Nebula said before morphing her arm into a small candle-like shape with a light flame on the end.
"Nebula," Peter grabbed her non-bionic arm and ran his hand over her skin. "There's bandages on the ship."
"The ship is destroyed! Now stop staring at me and let me close the wound!" Nebula shouted, even though deep down she liked him caressing her arm. She just couldn't understand why it felt good.
"All you have to do is grab it from the smashed window! There's a compartment with a first aid kit near the steering wheel!" Peter began to panic as the flames came dangerously close to his facial hair.
"Fine." Nebula morphed her flame back to its normal shape and began to walk back to the ship. She dug through the broken glass and shattered bits of metal to find a small white box with an unknown symbol on it. Nebula swallowed hard, hoping Peter would stop making her feel so... attractive. She'd never seen herself that way.
"See, there's the safe option." Peter said as Nebula removed the cloth from the bin.
"Keep still." Nebula said before gently wrapping the white cloth around Peter's head.
