Knowhere

She had been brought up in the courts of one of the finest families in the solar system, she was an Inhuman royal and her every movement further exemplified that. Attilan was a land of beauty and culture, the Princess Crystalia was renowned for her grace. However, the porcelain structure of her face was held taut and firm. Her sapphire eyes that had dazzled so many, alien and human, into succumbing to her whim had become less luscious, and hollow. Tragedy had made the hooded princess cold and desolate. She allowed no one to come close to her, not even the family she had so recently left behind. It was a mother’s prerogative to protect her young. Crystalia’s failure left her with no option other than to strike out on her own. War had come to their planet and death had reigned on that night. In the chaos, Luna had disappeared but Crystalia would never allow herself to believe the child was dead. If she couldn’t hold her cold corpse as proof, she would search forever.

Gorani stepped out of the office. His gelatinous figure moved heavily under the glare of the royal. There was no denying that he was a man of great persuasive abilities. In the years as a mentor to the Luminals he had acquired a great many contacts. On earth they would have been called narcs, individuals willing to present information for money or protection. Gorani wasn’t above such shady dealings. It was the one reason the princess had placed her life in his hands but a deal had been brokered and she could never disgrace her family’s name, the great houses of Amaquelin and Boltagon, by abandoning an agreement she had made. It was with great haughtiness that the much taller woman looked on the impish “governor” of the Guardians of the Galaxy. She had once been naïve in believing there was kindness in all people but her views had changed.

He chirped. “Come along now, princess. There is much to plan. The Guardians have a comeback to make before a live audience. Don’t you want them to chant your name as you ride off into battle?” His tone mocked her.

“I’m not quite so fickle.” She answered bluntly.

“Now, now,” Gorani sighed. “A deal is a deal.”

It was a phrase that immediately brought up her anger. Crystalia lowered the brown cloaked hood as her turbulent eyes, with the wrath of crashing waves, fell upon the creature before her. Her patience was not limitless and it was tested to the extreme in the period since she had brokered her deal. She had been an Avenger but now she found herself in a whole new world and she was out of her depth. Her very survival and that of her daughter rested in the seedy hands of a media mogul and the criminal underworld he had come to rely upon. Her young shoulders slouched wearily as the lengthy blonde curls fell heavily across them. She had once been the wife to the Avenger Quicksilver and in the years since their marriage became estranged, he had matured as natural to humanity. Inhumans aged slower, Crystalia appeared as young and nubile as she initially had all those years ago. Although mentally she was much older and rationally diplomatic, she still had the body of a woman in her twenties.

Even the sight of her face was enough to halt the greedy alien broker for a moment.

Crystalia frowned. “You have offered little information. Why should I believe your end of the deal is being met?” Her gloved hands parted the heavy cloak as they shifted to her waist, a stern but strong expression etched across her face. She held all the beauty of a Terran goddess but in the weeks since the disappearance of Luna, she had lost the grace and charm that often accompanied that beauty. Her costume, a form fitting sleeveless top of gold and white that exposed her midriff and matching leggings, was exposed in this moment and caused drool to form across Gorani’s nigh-reptilian lips. Her lip quivered as she held her tongue from what she honestly wanted to say to him. At the moment, she had no other option and they both knew it.

Flashing lights exploded behind her as she turned to face them, blonde curls bouncing from her shoulders and cascading along the nape of her neck. The princess held her frown as Gorani’s spindly fingers caught around her elbow and pinched. It was façade for the cameras but she stood radiant, and he honestly admired the effort as he murmured a reply. “These things take time, princess.”

“We do not have time.”

DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN

Part I

By Gavin McMahon

“Perhaps one should travel to Igrinar, and speak with Rocket?” Mantis reasoned as she placed her hand on the shoulder of Major Victory. He had been silent since Gorani had made his exit from the office. Vance remained unresponsive as the doe-eyed, green-hued Vietnamese woman attempted to make her presence known. They had all suffered a substantial amount of loss less than twenty four hours ago but they needed to keep ahead of their situation or it would consume them wholly. “This one thinks if we could contact–“

“I’m more concerned about that Inhuman,” interjected Vance as he came back into awareness, throwing a suspicious glance at the doorway in which she had previously stood.

It wasn’t that his mind wasn’t on his fallen comrades or the recuperating Rocket Raccoon but he was a soldier first and foremost and with that came the responsibility of forethought. Those players were inactive and from this point on, the survivors of the Alpha Centauri incident were his main priority. It was their lives that concerned him. The princess and the Bryldn native had already set up their personalities as an issue. He knew he would long for the days when the hot-headed Drax was his only wildcard.

“The fallen will be honoured but the threat is to the living.” His coldness seemed to surprise her as she jutted her shoulders back from him.

Her concern was evident.

“I’m sorry but after all of this, we have to be smarter. I came back to change the fate of Alpha Centauri,” he continued. “I failed. It’s time I learned my lesson. We need structure. We need to be better and stronger. Petulant children don’t survive in a war.” His tone was somewhat cutting as he manoeuvred off of the table that had become his seat and stepped into the centre of the room. His eyes watched over the others. Ismene had vacated the room huffily almost twenty minutes beforehand but Cynosure, Drax and Mantis all remained, for the most part in stoic silence.

Cynosure’s face soured further. “I don’t know why you’re asking him,” his voice snappily caught their attention. “I was leader of the Luminals and under Gorani leadership is still mine, regardless of what we are forced to call ourselves after that catastrophe of a mission. Most of which, I might add, fell onto the shoulders of your esteemed ex-leader over there who couldn’t run a Brelfonian rask to the river, even if he tried.”

The arrogant snarl was an almost permanent feature of the lilac-hued warriors’ face. His haughty attitude defined his view of the world and after he had spent so many years struggling to stand where he now stood, the unsteadiness of his position more than irked him at the moment. He turned his chiselled features away from the face of the man he had just so openly insulted, remaining unapologetic.

“This one hardly deems that a–“

Vance held his hand up to silence her. She was well-intentioned but Mantis did not deal with pride as the men did and it was fortunate for the cosmos that that was the way. They could not contain the inflated ego of the Celestial Madonna but Vance was more than capable of subduing the self-righteous Bryldn male. “The past has to be the past.”

Brae’s eyes flared. “That’s easier said when five of your friends aren’t dead.” It brought a cold air into the room. It had all been so brief that the Luminals had barely been known to them, Vance wasn’t sure he could even have named them. They had been Cynosure’s friends and colleagues and now they were dead. Yet, the Guardians hadn’t been completely without loss. Vance could still clearly see the losses of Beta Ray Bill and Bug in his mind. Persephone was the brightest image and caused his chest to stutter. Brae’s face showed a slight hint of frailty that exposed his inner trauma. Vance could relate but failed to vocalise.

“Soldiers die in war.”

Drax the Destroyer spoke loudly and clearly for the first time. He watched them intently but the chaos in his mind was still fresh. It was almost as though memories fluttered into existence in what had previously been a vast darkness. Every life he had taken seemed to draw him further into a sense of understanding tremendous power within him. He remembered them all. Villim, Odana and Faze had been recent casualties under his hand but he knew the last should never be revealed. His teammates referred to him inwardly as heartless and brutish, Drax did not deny those traits but he did not answer solely to them. He had killed but every murder and victim had led them to where they now stood. He had set a chain in motion that destroyed Sarka but saved the Guardians of the Galaxy that had been gathered there. He was not remorseful, but he barely noted the passing of those no longer by their side.

Under the reproachful suspicion of Mantis, the behemoth turned from them and exited the room before anyone could respond.

“It all seems so black and white to you.”

Mantis frowned. “We lost too, Brae of Bryldn, but we must move on for the sake of the innocents that are in need of our help. You once lay trust in Gorani to guide you, and now we must do the same. This one feels your pain but do not be consumed by it.”

“I’m all that’s left.”

“You’re not alone in this,” there was almost kindness hidden in the words of Major Victory, but it was shielded behind his authoritarian tone.

Starlin’s

“Been a couple of days since I seen you last, stranger.”

Drax looked into the face of a woman he presumed he should have recognised but didn’t. He was a man who saw very little other than the turmoil and echoes of his own mind. The faces of even those he had considered teammates weren’t clear in his mind any longer – they had begun the slow descent into obscurity. Drax didn’t rely on human relationships and attachments as so many others did. He barely remembered the time when he had been a mere mortal. It no longer mattered. His frosty vision came to rest on the blue hued alien without a nose ahead of him, her piercing yellow eyes looked down on him and where hair should have been rested a bone carapace, curling past her cheeks. Statuesque, she towered even above the behemoth and her lower limbs split into tentacles around the knee – allowing her to slither gracefully.

“I may have changed slightly since our last meeting. My species has a habit of doing that after our hundredth year of life.” She offered what he supposed to be a smile. “I’m Palomai, your usual serving wench here at Starlin’s.”

He grunted. “Names and faces have never been my strong suit.”

“Glad I made such a lasting impression.”

Her smile never faded and Drax quickly came to suspect her friendliness. Even those that considered him amongst their ranks had made very little effort to talk to him. They feared him. Mantis was cautious of him. Drax posed a threat to them but for some reason the alien barmaid didn’t cower as the other gawking patrons of Starlin’s did. He could feel the eyes of all in the room, looking over their drinks and from behind menus, bearing into his back. Drax didn’t react. He didn’t need to add fuel to the fire. He may not have remembered the woman before him but he could clearly remember the bar brawls he had already been involved in.

He assumed this was why they feared him but something in the back of his mind gave rise to the idea that was not the only reason. He couldn’t locate were the idea had stemmed from.

“Is your companion not joining you today?”

Drax shrugged. “Rocket is off-world for a while.”

“You seem subdued,” she continued. “The last two times I met you, you were throwing yourself around with as much bravado as Ddbian mariahood in heat. Has that anger so quickly healed?”

“There is a saying where I come from. We must act as needs must.” His reply was blunt and uninviting of further conversation.

Palomai finished pouring his pint and drew the tap upright. She then slid the frothy ale towards the green monster that drew so much attention. Her eyes were soft and offered the comfort he was so quick to ignore but Palomai did not intend to outstay her welcome. Her dignity would not allow it.

“Ah,” she sighed. “Very little good ever comes of dwelling on the past when it cannot be changed.”

Palomai slinked sensually to the other side of the circular bar to attend to the patrons that had so briskly summoned her. Her role was to serve but her advice was like that of a wizened sage.

Observation Deck

“A penny for your thoughts?”

Mantis didn’t take her attention from the sight of Earth in the far distance. “It’s probably autumn back home. The leaves are falling and there’s chance to start again. This one always loved to spend autumn in the comfort of Vietnam. It was nostalgic.” She had memories of her father before her world had been shattered with news of his criminality and the weight of destinies placed upon her by the Priests of Pama. They had been wrong in their predictions as the child she had borne was now dead. Mantis regained composure as she tucked a stray raven hair behind a pointed green hued ear.

“Seasons weren’t so specific on Alpha Centauri,” Major Victory mused. “It was more like a constant spring.”

“How awful.”

Major Victory smiled. “It had its moments but on a whole it was perfect. I never did much like the snow.”

Mantis looked fondly.

“What brought you back, Vance? If it was perfect then why did you see the need to enlist this one and the others on a suicide mission to rescue Alpha Centauri from destruction? This one has questions. If Alpha Centauri is in the future then how is it gone now? How were we to change it?”

“I said the weather was perfect.”

His tone was sombre. He remembered the trials that he and the other Guardians of the Galaxy of his time had faced. Alpha Centauri had been burning once again when he was sent through space and time to kill the beast. Unfortunately, Vance’s memory was disturbed in the process and he arrived on the new Earth in a state of mindless aimlessness. Even now, as he remembered watching the others die, Major Victory didn’t allow his shoulders to slouch. He had once been a Guardian of the Galaxy, and he may have been a long way from home, but that was a title of importance and proud in the world he had travelled from. Nikki had been the last, and he had held her hand until the rest of her body dispersed into a fine powder on the winds of a dying planet.

Faze had restored his memories and he felt each death as acutely as he had then.

“It was a world of tyranny under the threat of a volatile and impending monster attack. The Leviathan lay dormant in the centre of the planet to be awakened as cursed long ago.”

Mantis interjected. “The Leviathan was destroyed with the planet.”

“It is a creature not unlike a phoenix. Reborn but needing the instruction, the release, of a mad king. It so happened that that king was in my lifetime. I was to come back and destroy the beast. If I had destroyed the king with the amulet of Lygg, it would have been unable to reconstitute. Unfortunately, both the Leviathan and the amulet are lost to me now.”

“It can be retrieved.”

Major Victory shrugged. “Not in our lifetime. The planet must reconstitute over hundreds of years before the Leviathan will begin to birth and the amulet will have floated through the galaxy and been retrieved by then.” His eyes widened. “Fate will repeat itself surely, I failed.”

“This one understands your hurt but you tried,” she said as she grazed her hand against his taut shoulder. “Duty is achieved in the smallest of steps, as the Priests once said.”

War Room

“I was told you wanted to see me, Terran.”

Richard Rider smirked.

Gorani’s voice echoed with the distrust that most men approached him with. He was the Nova Prime, the chief and leader of the intergalactic police force known as the Nova Corps. He had left behind the mortal life in order to prove his dedication to his destiny.

“Although, I must admit that I’m not sure how a man as humble as myself can be of much service to the Nova Prime.

Richard laughed. His ornate helmet of gold and red tucked under his arm as he stood above the gelatinous alien. “You underestimate the persuasive abilities you are so well known for, Gorani.” His face became serious. “You also underestimate the role that you and yours Luminals–” He cleared his throat. “I apologise, your Guardians of the Galaxy, have played in recent affairs across the length and breadth of the galaxy. You knew it would not go unnoticed.”

Gorani nodded. “I did.”

“What concern me are the motivations you may have for involving yourself in these matters,” Rider informed him.

“I have no ulterior agenda, Nova Prime. I just seek to help the people most in need of it, as do my Guardians.”

Richard shrugged. “The Nova Corps are already in place for that.”

“You cannot be everywhere–”

“Neither can you but given the record I managed to pull on you, I’m not sure I can trust there’s not an ulterior motive for ‘helping’ these planets,” his voice was weary and homesick but he remained tall and strong. “After what occurred with Alpha Centauri, I’m not sure you can be left in charge of aliens that are so hell-bent on destruction–”

“They are heroes and they–“

“No, Gorani. Heroic endeavours don’t need to destroy every planet they have been sent into save. Alpha Centauri is scattered through space. Billions of lives have been lost. Sarka is only now recovering from the annihilation of its capitol. It has taken four months for the Lady Amarelle to even gain a foothold to create a democratic policy. I cannot allow–”

“They are young and learning but able–”

Nova sighed. “If you persist in sending this team to other planets, I will have to accompany them to ensure their intentions are right and just under galaxy law.”

“Can it not be trusted that I will act honourably?” smirked the alien handler.

“A man that can be bought can never be trusted.”

Quadrant 5 Corridor

Crystalia rested her hand on the bouncing head of her stoically silent partner and cousin, Lockjaw. He appeared to be nothing more than oversized dogs but the Terrigen Mists had transformed him from a once fairly beautiful man, a cousin and potential suitor to the princess, to the beast that now lumbered heavily beside her. It was a sad thought but the Terrigen Mists were always a game of potluck. She should have been thankful for retaining her beauty but the powers that she wielded were more chaotic in the royal’s head than she would have wished on an enemy. There was a storm that built inside of her, the gradual collision of the four classical elements until she could contain it no longer. Crystalia waited the day when she would break, but until then she struggled onward with a singular thought and goal constantly at the forefront of her mind.

Luna.

Her daughter had been stripped from her arms in the chaos of the attack on Attilan. Lockjaw had been by the young princess’s side until the fateful moment of her disappearance yet he could not track her. This was no common abduction, and there had been no ransom. The Inhuman would tear the galaxy apart and destroy everything in it to locate her daughter. There was a wild intensity in the otherwise cold eyes that looked out into the void of space.

The Rip, she thought. It was an apt name for the vast tear in the galaxy leading into the unknown. Her hand traced the swirling arcs that ran across the special anomaly.

However, she soon realised that these were not just dying stars and solar flares of another galaxy from beyond the Rip, but an oncoming armada. Monstrous, spewing some fiery energy from their mouths as they hurdled through the vast space between the docked space station of Knowhere and where they had come from. Crystalia stepped back from the window with a quickened movement. Her head raced as she witnessed the descent of hell on the place that had become her home. In a matter of seconds, they had smashed through the long windows – sucking oxygen and unfortunate aliens into the wilderness of space.

Crystalia created a ground force around her, creating and manipulating the area around her to mimic a more human-friendly environment and controlling her own steadiness against the force that threatened to pull her after the others.

“What the–“

Crystalia was quick to react. Her hands slammed on the nearest panel that caused metallic doors to slam shut around her, sanctioning off the quadrant from the rest of Knowhere. Her body was adapted to the pressures of space, an alien princess born on land but still of greater origin. Unhooking the clasp at her neck, the cloak fell ruffled to the ground. In a fluid second movement, Crystalia pushed Lockjaw from her side with a whisper as he disappeared in a blinding light, cloak in his mouth. Crystalia walked forward never breaking eye contact with the beasts that now bellowed ahead of her. She came to a stop almost face to face with the daemon at the forefront of the five.

“Bring it.”

NEXT: Knowhere’s media circus is caught in a war and the Guardians must prove themselves as heroes live before the entire universe?!

KNOTES FROM KNOWHERE

Whoa.

Guardians of the Galaxy #10 came out in December 2011, and now over three years later – the series continues. I look at that gap and wonder what I was doing with my life to allow it to get so behind. It’s a small saving grace that the issue at least concluded “The Tide that Left and Never Came Back” arc set on Alpha Centauri. In many ways, this was my first proper series of fan fiction. I was unfamiliar with the characters and I stumbled my through two arcs that can only be considered seriously dodgy. This series began in the August of 2009 and, not trying to sound pompous, my writing has improved tremendously in the years between now and then. I read over this work and I can sense the directionless state of mind I had when I tried to make these characters work as a team and, in large part, they didn’t.

I forced a team into existence that really needed a writer much more talented than myself. I wanted to let everyone that I’m aware of how bad this series has been, and I apologise for taking some of your favourite characters and throwing them to the fire under my unskilled hands.

However, it will get better.

I don’t expect many people to be reading this series anymore but for those of you that had stuck with me; I promise that this is an arc you can jump straight in with. I have included the link to an extensive debrief on what has happened in the previous issue, they are all threads that I will draw on and attempt to bring to a conclusion but this arc is also the first arc of the series in which I have a clear direction of where I need to take these characters. I have it formulated and no one will be forgotten. I have not finished with the stories of Beta Ray Bill, Rocket Raccoon, Persephone or even Brainstorm, but they will be brought into the series in new ways that will hopefully act to interest you all and provide some closure for the horrendous issues of the past.

We turn over a fresh leaf as we forge on. This is a changing galaxy and as the only current space title, Guardians of the Galaxy will be forging on with a look at the vastness of the Shi’ar Empire and those who seek to threaten it. Feuding Royal Houses, dissenters on distant galaxies, and a tear in the rip, a war is brewing and loss is all that can come from war.

I promise an epic tale going forward.

Gavin McMahon
January 3, 2014