The Sovereign pair piloted the ship to land on the highest platform, a sort of landing dock, where the Guardians then had to carefully navigate over a thin bridge to the adjacent platform for the real battle. 

Seven massive orbs sat on the edges of the circular platform. Golden energy swirled and bounced of the edges of the glass balls, illuminated the platform and gave a decent glow to the night sky above their heads. 

The Anulax Batteries they were asked to protect were stored in a single container; an oddly shaped cylinder with indents of diagonal lines and egg-shaped lights beaming through the golden exterior. 

Peter was asked to stay on the landing dock for a moment; the Sovereign granted him a handheld machine to tell when the transdimentional energy the creature emitted was nearing the atmosphere. After he ensured his pair of quad blasters were successfully charged and ready to go, as well as his helmet stored safely behind his ear, he brought it to the platform and stood near the center of the platform to get a good signal.

Meanwhile, Drax, Charlie, Groot, and Gamora were going through the two bags they had brought from the Milano. Separation of weapons was the first order of business, then, once everyone was equipped with their guns or knives, Charlie passed out protective wear to cover a majority of their bodies. 

"We don't know exactly what this thing can do," she told them when they scrunched their noses. "I don't want this to be like Alien and have it spit acid and kill one of you, so let's just have a little precaution, okay?"

Rocket took his little blue jumpsuit and wiggled into it quickly before he resumed being hunched over a device. Charlie didn't think much of it; she tended to push off anything technical looking as things he was working on for the better of the team. Usually, that was the case. 

Peter perked when the tracker beeped. Excitedly, he said, "Showtime, a-holes! Should be here any minute."

Charlie grabbed an aerorig for herself and one for Peter. She applied her own, then scooped Groot from the floor, setting him on her shoulder. She collapsed the storage bags and shoved them into the front pocket of her jeans. 

"Which will be its loss," said Gamora. She cocked the gun in her arms. 

Peter frowned. "I thought your thing was a sword."

"We've been hired to stop an interdimentional beast from feeding on those batteries and I'm gonna stop it with a sword?" asked Gamora slowly.

"It's just that swords were your thing and guns were mine, but I guess we're both doing guns now-- I just didn't know that," said Peter casually. 

"Butthurt, a little?" wondered Charlie.

Charlie slapped one piece of his aerorig to his back and the other to his front. She leaned away for it to build around his shoulders and connect in the front. She wrapped an arm around his waist. 

"I'll live, maybe," said Peter, applying a kiss to her forehead.

"Drax," said Gamora suddenly. "Why aren't you wearing one of Rocket's aerorigs?"

"It hurts," he said flatly.

"'It hurts'?" repeated Gamora.

"How are you supposed to reach the beast?" asked Charlie.

"I will jump," said Drax.

She looked to Peter to help. Distracted with looking through the gold-tinted sky for the Abilisk, he muttered, "Drax, listen to Charlie."

"Why can't you wear an aerorig, Drax?" sighed Charlie.

"I have sensitive nipples." 

Rocket busted out laughing, a real laugh this time, they knew, because it sounded more like a cackle than a normal chuckle. In between his maniacal laughing, he teased, "'My nipples hurt, oh goodness me!'"

Charlie nudged her foot into his side to knock him off balance. He only leaned on her with one hand, using his other to hold his 'cramping stomach' because he was laughing too hard. She rolled her eyes and offered a frown at Drax. Getting Rocket to be polite was a process.

"What about him? What's he doing?!" accused Drax, pointing his finger. It brought light to the boom box they subconsciously gathered around.

Wiping his eyes, Rocket said, "I'm finishing this so we can listen to tunes while we work."

"How is that a priority?" asked Drax.

"Blame Quill; he's the one who loves music so much," said Rocket accusingly. 

"What the Hell, Rocket?" sighed Charlie, confused as to how she didn't see him pack it up or assemble it right in front of her. "We can't have tunes; you know how Peter gets when his songs come on."

"I'm not the one we should be worried about," sang Peter softly.

Charlie challenged him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Remind me who's Terran here? Raise your hand?" 

"Both our hands would go up, Shit-Lord."

Peter opened his mouth only to hastily correct her, then, to Rocket, he said, "No, no, I'm with Drax. That's hardly important right now."

"Oh, okay, sure, Quill," said Rocket, winking too obviously and consistently for only Peter to notice. 

"No, seriously, I side with Drax," said Peter slowly, for him to understand.

Still winking and putting forth more effort that he was actually leaning over to wink, Rocket said, "No, I understand that you're being very serious right now."

"I can clearly see you winking!" yelled Drax. 

Rocket stopped. "Damn it. I'm using my left eye."

Conversation ceased when their ears registered a soft screaming being battled with frightened squeaks. Three Orloni were scampering away from Groot. He sprinted at them, which prompted two of them to run. The one Orloni who didn't caused Groot to throw his entire body weight into punching it, then he wobbled to a stand still and watched the thing limp away. 

"I am Groot," he said, annoyed.

"They were not looking at you funny!" insisted Rocket. 

The dial on Peter's tracker skyrocketed. In an instant, the point in the sky at which Peter was staring into got sucked in, transforming into a flashing rainbow of colors. It was a portal. It settled on a sickly green color and a wiggling blob appeared within it, soaring through the length of the portal until it landed in the atmosphere of Sovereign. 

The Abilisk's skin was pink underneath the thick layer of slime covering its skin. Fat oozed from every inch of it-- it's wrinkles had wrinkles forming. Two giant blue eyes were stuck onto the sides of its head. It's mouth was jutted out farther than the rest of its head, mostly to account for the hundreds of rows of teeth the thing had to devour its meal. 

"That's intense," said Rocket with a gulp. 

"You guys ready?" wondered Charlie. 

Peter replaced the tracker for his two guns. "Born ready," he said. 

"To fight an Abilisk? Really? Because I find that incredibly hard to believe," sassed Charlie. 

"Fight me," he prompted. 

"When we're done," said Charlie. 

She quit joking around when the platform shook, thanks to the Abilisk crash-landing on it. It roared at them, mucus and spit flying from its lined rows of interior teeth and it wiggled its dozens of flailing tentacles. It used the front two tentacles to start tugging its body toward them. 

Scared into action, the Guardians took different approaches. Charlie, Peter, Rocket, and Gamora blasted into the sky with their aero-rigs. All four withdrew their guns to fire at it from the safety of the sky. 

Drax decided to run directly at it and use his knives to puncture its skin.

Groot barely noticed the Abilisk approach. Having climbed down the human tree that was Charlie, he wobbled over to the boom box Rocket brought and he decided his talents were best used figuring out how to turn on music. It took a few tries, but he plugged in the final chord and Mr. Blue Sky by Electric Light Orchestra began to blast from the radio. 

"No!" screamed Charlie as she dodged a tentacle. She was using her own gun, a stolen Chitauri gun, to work on eliminating tentacles, first. "This is gonna be super distracting! I'm a sucker for E.L.O!"

To the song, the fight continued. Rocket, Gamora, Peter, and Charlie ducked throughout tentacles and narrowly avoided one another in the airspace above and around the Abilisk. Things were going okay, until a matter wave of transdimentional energy was shot from its mouth. 

Peter tackled Charlie within the air. The clash of their aerorigs caused them to malfunction and send them spiraling towards the floor when the Abilisk landed a tentacle on one of the illuminating orbs and exploded it, sending their bodies abruptly in the opposite direction. Hitting the ground was not soft at all. They both landed hard and knocked their heads, only Peter was protected by his helmet, meaning his bounce-back to the fight was easier than Charlie's. 

"I'm so sorry, I am so sorry," he kept saying as he leaned above her, protecting her from flying debris as she tried to recover. "We're getting you a helmet first thing, okay? I'm so stupid. I should have thought about it beforehand."

Charlie was out of it. She barely heard Peter's words through the muteness her left ear was experiencing. Her eyes were moving, though she was really only focusing on one thing: a golden ring of fire that had started to roll in their direction. 

"Peter," she breathed. 

"Yes, baby, I'm right here," he said quickly. 

Charlie could feel her whole body, the strength she still had. It was only a matter of telling her mind to tell her body to move. It seemed it happened in slow motion as she raised her body and wrapped her arms around Peter, then let gravity take them over the edge of the platform. They avoided being squished by the ring, now, the trouble was clicking on the aerorig in time for it to save them. 

Peter started to slip from around her as soon as they began to fall. He only had one hand to work with, as he didn't dare take the risk of losing his hold on her, and he tapped her aerorig first. It kicked on and stopped her body from falling any longer. The sudden stop caused Peter to lose her hand and he continued to fall, until he found a way to hit his own and stop his own falling. He flew back up to her. 

"Worried about me much?" he tried to tease.

"It was a close call," breathed Charlie slowly. Internalizing the pounding in her head, she teased, "I can't always be there to save you."

"Pretty sure I saved you."

"Pretty sure I saved you." 

Peter placed his hand gently on the back of her head to feel underneath her ponytail for unusual lumps or bleeding. He found nothing, but he made note to take her through a full examination later. A hit to the head like that was bound to have damage. For the time being, he hooked his helmet behind her ear instead. 

"No, Peter," she tried to protest. 

"Hey," he said softly, kissing her lips. "I'm not full Terran. I can take a few hits. Now, come on, and take it easy for me, yeah?" 

"Yeah," agreed Charlie quietly. 

They landed on the platform, catching their breaths in front of the blasting radio. In wake of the instrumental section of the song, Groot was scooting and dancing to the music on top of a light within the floor of the platform. He was having the time of his life, it looked like. 

"Groot!" said Peter in surprise to their baby's lack of aid in the fight. He was going to point out their dancing boy to his girl when a tentacle slammed into his abdomen and threw him from the platform again. 

"Nice dancin', baby," complimented Charlie. 

Her movements were slower than usual. She couldn't focus much on speaking, since all her mental efforts were being thrown into telling her mind how to move her limbs. She placed her gun on the floor, finished with it for the time being. After stealing the Chitauri gun from a bar a month or so back, she quickly got tired of the size. Having a smaller gun was more her style. 

She brought forth the bow from hanging over her shoulder. She retracted the string, then broke it apart in the center, revealing two curved and jagged knives. The knives themselves were almost bigger than her forearms. It had been her engagement present from Gamora. 

"Guys, I think it's time to try something a little different," suggested Charlie. "You guys mind keepin' him distracted so I can sneak around back?"

"I can try," agreed Rocket over their headpieces. 

"Ready when you are," said Gamora, landing next to Charlie. She noticed Groot obliviously dancing next to her. "Groot, get out of the way, you're gonna get hurt!"

All Groot did was wave enthusiastically at her. 

"Hi!" she smiled. 

Gamora and Charlie blasted off from the platform and flew off in separate directions, rendezvousing with Peter in the air as well. The two of them and Rocket let the Abilisk chase after them, flying high into the sky to extend its neck. 

Charlie did her best to fall out of its eye line and get underneath its eyes. When she was successful, she boosted what was left of the aerorig's power into launching her body into the Abilisk and plunging her knives into the typically sensitive skin on its neck.  

The downside of the plan, however, was that the durability of its skin was unheard of. Charlie's knives simply bounced off its neck, which sent her sliding down it's slimy back like a water slide. Screaming in absolute terror, and slight disgust, Charlie tried to get her aerorig back online. It didn't work. She slid all the way down the Abilisk's back and then slammed into Drax, who was trying to catch her, sending both of them tumbling down. 

She breathed a sigh of relief, thankful to have Drax to break her fall. What broke Drax's fall, unfortunately for Groot, was the boombox. Baby Groot screamed and grabbed a broken piece of the stereo to whip Drax, angry beyond belief about the tunes that were now dead. He ignored it and stood, while Gamora landed and Charlie got to her feet. 

"The beasts' hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside!" observed Drax. 

"Right, right, but it did have a--" started Charlie. 

Eyes glossed with excitement, he finished, "I must cut through it from the inside."

Gamora lowered her gun when his words registered. "Huh? No, no, wait a minute," she opposed. 

"Drax, no!" gasped Charlie. She went as far as to lunge after him, but to no avail. 

Drax, laughing maniacally, had already begun sprinting. He unsheathed his knives and he ran for the Abilisk. Yelling in preparation, he jumped from the platform and lunged his body into the air. 

The Abilisk swung around at the perfect time to catch his figure flying through the air. There was no fight, no hesitation-- the beast opened its mouth and swallowed Drax whole. 

Charlie froze. She had no words forming in her head, she could put together no words, except an appalled and utterly tired, "I can never again let any of you out of the ship."