Ash kinda hates Xandar. It's too clean, too polished, too uptight. Almost everything she considers fun is more or less outlawed. They don't even do their own fighting, they pilot remote drones for that. Fuckin' waste is what it is.

The one upside is that they're rich, and enough trade flows through the port that there are backdoors if you know where to look, to turn priceless artifacts into priced artifacts and then into cash. Starting with the most expensive, obviously, because the one thing she will give these pampered fucks credit for is that their banks keep her money safe. Not that she expects anyone to be able to pickpocket her here, but still.

When she reaches the Broker's pawn shop, he's alone behind his counter, working on some little fiddly thing. He looks up and says, "Ms Quill," with some wariness in his tone. "It's unusual to see you here alone. Do you have something for me - ?"

(He'd commissioned the Ravagers to find the orb, of course, but that's not the only item he has a bounty out on, and he'll buy many miscellaneous items the Ravagers come across, if they're valuable and rare enough.)

"You think I'd bother stopping over on this shithole if I didn't?" She pulls the silvery orb out and tosses it onto the counter.

"Xandar can hardly be called - " he starts, then startles when he sees the orb. "Ah, you Ravagers work exceptionally quickly, Miss Quill - though may I ask, where is Yondu?"

"He doesn't need to be here if I'm the one you're paying, now does he?"

"Well, it was Yondu I initially offered the job to..." 

"And now I'm the one with the goods. Are you really gonna fight me on this?"

He folds. "That was not my intent, Miss Quill." He starts his usual process of verification, placing the orb on an advanced scanner and taking out several tools. "Do you want the funds transferred to your usual account?"

"To my private one."

He hums as he works. "I will complete the transfer as soon as I finish verification." His fingers flick, and the queue'd transfer pulls up on a small screen - a staggering amount, far more than implied by what Yondu had promised to the Ravagers as their individual shares. Enough for Ash to retire and live the rest of her life in the sort of luxury that suffuses Xandar - 

And it implies an even more staggering amount being offered directly for this orb, given how small a share many in the Broker's trade tend to pass on to those directly acquiring the goods. (Far, far more than the kind of money spent on the ordinary sort of priceless artifacts.)

"Though... I must note, Miss Quill, I would prefer not to have Yondu asking me why the money isn't in your Ravagers account."

And that's why she swiped this job out from under Yondu's nose.

"Feel free to tell him to come to me with questions. I'm the one who almost got shot for this piece of shit, not them."

"You were shot at? By who?" he asks, in the tone of a man wondering if he needs to give his security team an updated briefing and also a raise (not that he would admit to having a security team; it's uncouth).

"Some mercs. Not very talented, considering the size of this payout."

That visibly relieves him. "Perhaps someone else was looking to keep a bigger cut for themselves... Did they give any indication of who hired them?" Always good to scope out the competition, after all. 

"One of them said something about some asshole named Ronan," she offers.

He freezes like a small animal caught by a predator's gaze. "Ro - Ronan! Are you sure?"

"...Pretty sure, yeah."

"I - I'm sorry, but if Ronan is involved, then I can't take part in this - "

"Man, just push the damn button and transfer the money."

"I would still need to transport the orb to my buyer - and if I had the money to hire enough security to could protect me from someone like that, I wouldn't be in this business, I'd be buying my own planet to retire to - "

"Then give me your buyer's name and I'll go direct, you pissant little bitch."

"I - "

He's protested before about protecting the identities of his clients.

He is, however, a coward at heart before anything else, and the threat in front of him is much more important than the threat that hasn't found him yet. 

"My buyer is the Collector Taneleer Tivan, leader of the Tivan Group." Even as... Removed from politics as the Ravagers tend to be, she's heard of the Tivan Group - they mostly run in circles far more refined than the Ravagers, but conflicts between a massive and prestigious criminal syndicate and a massive and disreputable pack of smugglers and bandits are bound to happen from time to time. The Ravagers have almost always come out the worse for those conflicts; the Tivan Group broadly isn't considered worth tangoing with. 

- And then, almost surprising himself, he tells her the price he was offered (it's ten times what he was offering her, of course). "Though... Unless that orb is just some sort of Kree religious artifact - it's possibly worth much more than that, even before hazard pay. Ronan does not care for the refined things in life; anything of interest to him is a matter of religious zealotry, vengeance, or military power."

"Real fuckin' pleasure doing business with you." She grabs the orb and stuffs it back in her bag, and leaves the shop.

There's someone standing outside, holding herself like she's waiting to go in to see the Broker once he's free. "Deal not go well?" she asks, her tone sympathetic and friendly. 

"The fuck you care?"

"I like knowing what's on the mind of a pretty girl like you."

Big eye roll.

"You lost or what? Red light district's down at the ass end of the island."

"This planet even has a red light district? Color me impressed."

"Whatever." Leaving now.

- And the odd girl starts walking beside her, clearly intending to keep trying to talk to her. 

Okay. Doesn't mean Ash has to listen. Or arrange her bags and pockets in such a way that Odd Girl has access to them.

She falls back after a little bit, apparently finally getting the hint. 

About damn time.

And that is about the time that she hears the subtle charging of an energy weapon! 

Aw shit, duck and roll-

The first shot goes where her torso was - 

The second, almost certainly shot out of a second weapon, clips her as she's rolling, sending a painful jolt through her - fortunately not disabling - 

Just enough to jar a small round object out of her bag as she draws her weapons and ignites the blades with a snap-crackle and spins to scan for the attacker.

The attacker is a - cat? One standing on two legs, wearing a rugged leather jacket over a denim dress and chunky steel toed boots, with handles for energy weapons - and a few good old fashioned knives - and assorted pouches on tool belts criss-crossing her chest, currently holding two sparkling pistols pointed right at Ash.

And there's a totally normal cat ambling very idly around the perimeter of the panicking crowd, nevermind that Ash hasn't seen a house cat since leaving Earth. 

(And a quick motion out of the corner of her eye, like someone darting forward to grab something off the floor...)

What the entire fuck-

-Wait shit no that's hers can't let that get away-

Seems to be trying very hard to get away!

And the cat with the guns lines up another shot. 

Well running after Odd Thief Girl sounds like a good way to dodge!

Odd Thief Girl is fast! 

...But Ash is faster and can catch up to her before she gets too far. 

"Hey! Give that back!"

Nope! Ash is going to have to physically stop her from flinging herself over this here railing to the walkway below them. 

Yeah sure, like Ash isn't perfectly willing to vault right over it after her.

She gets only a few steps away by the time Ash lands next to her - though she's still trying to run.

Ash lunges at her, blades first.

She ducks and rolls - she's holding the orb in her hand -

- And Ash hears the whine of those energy guns from above her -

Oh, motherfucker-

"Fuck off, asscat! I ain't done shit to you!" she yells up, continuing to chase her thief.

"You got a bounty on your head, if you didn't notice!" she yells back at Ash -

- And she's basically caught up to the thief - 

Who looks behind her and then ducks and rolls to the side for no apparent reason even though this means Ash will probably catch her -

Hey, she's not going rag on her opponents for making mistakes in her favor.

This is the point at which she hears a horrifyingly wet sound from behind her, and what look like colorfully purple-pink octopus tentacles whip around her. 

She has maybe a heartbeat or two to react before she's grabbed; this thing is fast.

Energy blades vs tentacles, the energy blades usually win. Ash is fast, but now the question is if she's fast enough, whipping her arms up in front of her and uncrossing in a slashing motion.

Almost!

But almost isn't all, and two thick tentacles still wrap around her, like slimy bands of steel. 

Oh fuck that's gross.

Come on swords, there's still time to slice this shit off her!

She just barely gets herself free! 

But the thief - who's still pretty tightly holding onto her orb - is still entangled. Her knives don't seem to work as well as Ash's sword - and the tentacles are tensing to drag her back to - 

What appears to be the open, distorted mouth of the Totally Normal House Cat from earlier, actually. 

Oh hell no. Hell no.

Ash dives for her, trying to wrest the orb away.

No the orb is going inside her clothes - she takes that opportunity to get a vice grip on Ash though! 

And they both start sliding towards the Oh Hell No kitty. Who has some extra tentacles to make sure they get Ash too!

"What the fuck's your problem," she snarls, returning to slashing at the tentacles.

Through the power of slash and stab they can both get free! Though they should maybe get some distance - the thief definitely seems to think that, by how she immediately breaks into a sprint.

Ash goes after her. Again.

"Stop running, dammit!"

- At which point a soft golden light envelops the thief -

Ash, too.

(Seems they're being arrested, to the surprise of everyone except maybe Ash.)

Ugh.

Yeah, in retrospect that was way too much noise for this not to happen.

From the angry cussing, sounds like both the weird cat people are being arrested too. 

They deserve it, though.

Who just shoots at a person, honestly. Disrespectful.

They're pretty likely to get charged accordingly, at least. Though Ash is going to be in the jail for a bit before she gets to argue her case in court...

Argue her case in court, yeah, funny joke. The last thing the Nova will want is to be reminded of this once they've cleaned it up. Ash is either going to have to break out of the transport or whatever prison they dump her in.

The transport is pretty high security!

...And contains some unpleasantly familiar faces. 

Including a muzzled Totally Normal House Cat (who's very grouchy about this).

And her erstwhile thief. (Who was the last one holding the orb before they got arrested.)

Yyyeah not going to get into whatever is going on with that weirdass cat gang. Ash has more important things to worry about right now. She can get revenge when she's rich.

"Hey. Thief girl. Where is it?"

Grumpily: "Wherever they put prisoners' belongings."

"They keep them on site," says the weirdass cat who isn't muzzled. "Because they're lazy idiots."

"Done this before, have you?"

"I," she says, grandly, "Have broken out of over three dozen prisons - in the Empire alone."

"You get caught that often?"

...Mrrr.

Snrk.

"You got caught right alongside us, missy."

Slow, quiet smirk.

"Oh what, like getting arrested was part of your master plan? Bullshit."

She laughs. "I'm not staying here for long, either. And the orb is more secure than it was." Light shrug. 

"Yeah, about that. How'd you find out I had it?"

She considers for a moment before pretty clearly deciding 'fuck it.' "I was sent to stake out potential buyers - I know Tivan's interested. It's not too hard to figure out who his middlemen are." (It's insanely hard to untangle the high value trade network; the Ravagers have tried and failed to cut out middle men before, and the Tivan Group keep that information on tight lockdown.)

"And you matched the height and gait of the person who took it from the temple, and the timing was right if you came straight to unload it, given what I could tell from recordings of your ship."

"So you're just a stalker."

"I prefer 'intelligence agent.'"

"Professional creep."

"And good at what I do."

"You really shouldn't sound so proud of yourself."

"Especially for a lackey of Ronan."

Her expression turns more serious. "I don't work for him anymore."

"Easy to say."

"You want proof?"

"What I want," she says, "is my orb."

"Just so you can sell it to Tivan?"

"Obviously."

"It's a weapon of some kind. I don't know I want it in the hands of the Tivan Group."

"Feel free to outbid."

"How much did Tivan bid?"

"Four billion."

The weird cat does a spit take! 

"Four fucking billion?!?? What the actual fuck did you steal?"

The thief girl has the expression of someone doing a lot of math very quickly. 

"Something small enough to get away with if someone hadn't started shooting people."

She finishes doing her math. "You'd already been caught. And, also, Tivan is dramatically underbidding."

"You don't run faster than I do. And again, unless you want to offer more..."

"Depends on if the person paying Ronan to fetch that orb thinks to lock me out of the bank accounts before the next time I'm at a terminal."

" - Ronan can be bought?"

"Where do you think he's getting the funding for his army?"

...Okay point. 

"Seems like a bit of a long shot."

"Anyways... I have a new idea." To Ash: "Me and Chewie break you out - and tell you who's posting bounties on you - and you give us a cut of your sale."

"That sounds fair."

"Pleasure doing business." She leans back. "My name's Rocket. This here's Chewie." She nods to the muzzled Perfectly Normal House Cat. 

"Call me Ash."

"So what's with the uh, talking and tentacles? Respectively."

"I learned to talk as a kid, same as most people," she says with a shrug. "Chewie here's a flerken - we don't think I'm one even though I look like it, they've got these extradimensional stomachs and mine's just normal. The tentacles are how flerken hunt."

"Freaky."

"Most people are terrified of them," she says, smugly.

"Yeah, I can see why."

"And Chewie's going to be our ticket out of here."

"Are they going to eat the walls?"

She laughs. "No - remember those extradimensional stomachs? We've got supplies stored in them, enough to rip a hole in any prison you could name. They'll take these stupid shackles off once they release us into the general prison population - and then I'll pop that muzzle off Chewie, and we'll be sailing on out."

"Huh. That's... kinda clever."

"You'll learn not to underestimate us."

"After your plan works out."

"So pretty soon." She leans back, rolling her shoulders to stretch as much as the shackles will let her. "Now we just need to wait to get there."

Waiting's a lot more bearable when you have a plan for how to end it.

Rocket's feeling confident enough for a little cat nap -

At least until the rude awakening that is their arrival to the Kyln. Being striped and washed down and forced into stupid prisoner clothes: very uncool.

Gamora is quiet and withdrawn throughout the process. 

Yeah, orange isn't her color.

Ash does want to make sure to note where Gamora's possessions get stored.

With everyone else's, it seems like - which means taken away from them, presumably to a storage area out of sight. 

All right, just have to hit that on the way out then.

Shouldn't be too hard, once 'the way out' is secure. 

And speaking of...

The odd thief girl steps next to Ash just before they're pushed out into the main prison area. "I can keep Ronan - and worse - off your back," she says, quietly.

"Yeah, I fuckin' bet. If what you want is to hitch a ride, say so."

"I'd like to 'hitch a ride,' then."

"You'd better find something worth our time, then."

"Helping you avoid Ronan isn't?"

"I can do that on my own, thanks."

Hum. "Then we'll see what I find."

"Guess we will."

And they're pushed out into the common area -

- Where it pretty quickly turns out the thief girl's name is 'Gamora,' and very nearly everyone here not only recognizes but fucking hates her. 

Some highlights, in amidst the things being thrown at her: 

"Murderer!"

"You first! I'm coming for you first!"

"Hey you fucking cunt - "

"You're gonna pay - "

"Psycho bitch - "

"You're dead!"

Mostly, of course, from people not standing within striking range of her - people on the lowest level with them seem to still be working up their nerve - but the crowds in the upper walkways have pretty quickly gone from 'fear' to 'bluster,' and there's a lot of threatening gestures even in the crowd around them. 

Yeah Rocket and Chewie are going to very quickly stop standing anywhere near her. She's not eager to get associated with a fucking genocidal maniac, even though the blustering idiots here don't scare her.

Anyways, time to find a quiet corner to poke the lock on Chewie's muzzle... And Gamora's arrival to the floor is a pretty good distraction for some light thievery of things that might be useful later...

Yep, seems like that particular problem is about to solve itself.

- Except the annoyed curses coming out of Rocket's mouth might suggest a minor roadblock or two to their plan. 

"Problems?"

"This is a fancier lock than I've ever seen them pull - it's electronic, but I can't just short it with what I've got, the shielding is too good - and it'll shock Chewie if I just cut it off. And I'm pretty sure it's got a basic AI, it'll adapt to what I'm doing if I don't work fast enough once I start."

"I can get through this, but we'll need supplies. And probably time." (She hopes.)

Fuck.

"Guess we settle in, then."

"For now..." She's going to need to start figuring out what she even needs first, how to get it second...

Meanwhile: 

Gamora settles into her cell - unfortunately solitary, if she'd been placed with the other women she just knows she could've pulled in allies -

And she waits, because there's not much she can do here, not with the crowd disrupting anything but the most fleeting manipulation - she can look proud, and severe, and pretty, and quietly fascinating, and no match for the ones who want to tear her apart, and not the one who'll be to blame for the oncoming match -

Not much she can do, but Gamora is good at people. And her hearing is better than she's let anyone know. 

(She knows Rocket can't get them out, not without help. She knows she's decent at electronics. She bets she can find someone better; this prison is designed to be hard to just hack your way out of, to subvert, which means it'll be used to hold anyone who's at risk of doing just that...)

Not much time passes, before curfew is called. Not much after that, before the door to her cell opens, and a small crowd press in with knives and the turned backs of guards and a wry, idle, "Take her to the showers. It'll be easier to clean up the blood," from the uniformed man who opened her cell, whose back is to the men dragging her out.

She struggles, but only manages to make some noise. Enough that anyone awake and paying attention will notice what's happening. Not enough to escape. 

(They have knives, if she can get them off balance, if she can get one in her hand - if she can delay them, turn them against each other -)

Her chances aren't very good, though. Not alone. 

"Excuse me." The voice of the intruder that interrupts is calm, unhurried. "What is going on here?"

"Bit of justice," says the man holding Gamora's right arm. 

"This murdering cunt earned herself a death sentence," says the one holding her left. 

"And if you want a place in the peanut gallery, you stand in the back," says a third, sharply, who's hanging back to watch and help if Gamora tries to break free. He's got a knife clutched tightly in his left hand, his yellow skin turning white around the knuckles. "If not - then this doesn't concern you."

(There's a small crowd gathered, thirtsy for blood - they've cut down on the ones who just want a show, restricted it to people who want revenge. But that's still a lot of people.)

(Gamora looks an angry, determined kind of scared.)

"This does not seem like justice. It seems like mob violence. I do not think I can permit you to continue."

"Mind your own business, bitch," says the one standing guard. (Gamora looks like she'd like some help, actually.)

In lieu of answering, she grabs his knife hand and strikes with her other fist at his joints- wrist elbow shoulder- ducks underneath his now upraised arm, levers him off his feet and throws him with startling accuracy at guard on Gamora's right side.

She twists to the left as the prisoner on her right flinches - the one on her left turns his attention to the new threat - she gets her arm free in the chaos and punches him in the stomach, then grabs his knife off his belt while he's reeling, slashes at his throat - makes contact, though the wound is shallow enough he might live with treatment, but bleeding enough he now has much bigger problems than holding her down.

There's a lot of other prisoners in this room, though, and they're now pissed.

Angry fighters make mistakes. 2B does not make mistakes, she exploits them. With ruthless precision.

(Though she is not actually aiming for killing blows. Given the demonstrated level of medical technology, the damage she deals is survivable. If for whatever reason these prisoners do not receive medical assistance... that is neither her fault nor her problem.)

Her rescuee takes down a few of her own - she's got a pretty similar ruthless precision, but far less talent. Hits weaker and slower, and wouldn't be able to afford not going for killing blows, even if she could pull that balance off. (Most of her cuts with her stolen knife are survivable, but that's more a comment on the quality of  the knife than on her own intentions.)

 They (mostly 2B) clear the room pretty quickly. 

She's not breathing hard at all. It's hard to tell she was a blur of violent movement seconds ago.

"Are you unharmed?"

"Just bruises. They'll heal."

"Good. Then we should leave."

She couldn't agree more. "Lead the way."

Gamora's rescuer does so, but not back to her cell. Rather, they seem to be heading towards a more sparsely-populated wing of the prison.

Something she approves of.

And speaking of things she approves of: "Thank you for the assistance."

"You are welcome."

Small smile. "You fight very efficiently."

"It is my purpose."

"I am surprised you were not more prepared for tonight's event, given your reputation."

"I had other plans in motion - you're far beyond my best case, though."

"Perhaps you would end up in less trouble to begin with if you increased your standards."

She laughs. "I think you're right." Wink. "Maybe now I won't settle for anyone less than you."

"I am, approximately, unique in this world."

"Then I'll have to find out how to recruit you long term."

"If our goals align."

"And what are yours?"

"...A secret. For now."

"My partner will have some questions for you."

"I might even have some answers." How close are they to this partner? 

Fairly. They get to a bulkhead door, which she knocks on.

At her knock, it opens!

"Ah, 2B, welcome back. And this must be Gamora?"

"The one and only - and what should I call you?"

"You can call me Nines!" she chirps.

"9S," 2B corrects.

She seems amused. "Your partner rescued me just now - and she said you'd have some questions for me, Nines."

"Oh yes. Do come in." She steps aside to let them in.

These rooms are much more nicely furnished than the rest of the prison, with what looks like the same furniture the guards enjoy in the non-secured sections of the prison.

She raises an eyebrow. "You two have done well for yourselves - at least, given you're still here."

"Ah, well, it's a lot easier to get stuff in than out."

Hum. "What questions did you have for me?"

"Mostly about your, ah, employers. I've been able to piece together a decent picture of what's going on in the galaxy by hacking the prison's data connections, but people like Ronan don't exactly spend a lot of time on social media."

(Seems today is her very lucky day.)

"I've defected, so that isn't the kind of information I'll prioritize keeping secret anymore - but some answers might not be free. Unless, of course, you having that information would advance my own goals, and your partner has earned you two a lot of good will."

"And, a freebie for you - we likely have at least thirteen more hours until Ronan figures out I've defected, figures out where I went, and then arrives at this facility to seek me out - and slaughter anyone not relevant to his search. And I have a fairly fast way out of here lined up, but it requires better hacking skills than I have myself."

Infinity Stones?

She examines this chart very intensely. 

"What do you plan to do with this information?" she asks, something far more - present, almost, about how she's holding herself. Like she hadn't been taking the two - possibly the overall situation - entirely seriously before. Like she's realized it's time for the kid gloves to come off, or time for her to actually engage fully with what's happening. 

"Save the world," 2B says, "if that proves to be required."

"...It will be."

"The distortion you're seeing has a name - Thanos. And the connection to Ronan is that he is bankrolling Ronan's entire operation. Thanos is searching for the Infinity Stones, among other weapons."

"And Thanos was my true... 'Employer' as well. Not Ronan."

"I see." 9S starts filling in the information. "Do you know more about the Infinity Stones?"

"Yes. Not as much as I'd like - but enough to realize that anyone who possesses one is automatically a threat to everyone around them. And anyone who possesses more than one is a threat to the universe."

"To start... There's six, each named for what they affect or control. Time, Space, Reality, Power, Mind, and Soul."

"That's an... odd... breakdown."

"How so?" (It seems pretty straightforward to her.)

"How do Time and Space differ from Reality? What sets the Power stone apart from the others? What separates Mind from Soul, and why are they on the same level as the others?"

"Second one is simplest, because we honestly don't really know - the records are patchy at best, and the Power stone is... Inert, in a way the others aren't. All of the other five have been known to act on their own sometimes - Time, Space, and Reality generally fairly basically, but Soul exhibits at least an animal level of intelligence, and the Mind stone is generally suspected to be sapient. The Power stone though just - sits there, unless someone tries to use it, at which point they inevitably cause a massive and undirected explosion and the stone usually then vanishes from the records for a few centuries. The Power stone is also considered the hardest to identify for that reason."

"Thanos thinks it's required to use the other stones to their full potential. I'm... Doubtful that that's all it does."

"Time and Space are different from Reality because Reality covers the more fundamental - way the world works. Magic especially. Space lets you move things around at the most basic, and be in multiple locations at once if you have better control of it - it's one of the better understood stones since it's more active than most. Time is... Difficult to find, since it moves itself around in the timeline, and not much is known about it beyond that it enables time travel."

"Mind and Soul are - fundamentally different things, and they're also basic properties a thing can have. You don't need to have one to have the other - we're not entirely sure how things acquire souls, I think figuring that out would require some very unethical" but fascinating "experiments with the Soul stone, but we know roughly how minds emerge. Minds are... Very simply, anything mind magic works on, anything that reacts with intelligence to its environment and has memory. Simple computers are the most common things with minds but not souls - computers can definitely have souls, but I don't know why some do and some don't. And people who are brain dead usually have a soul, but don't have a mind."

" - Those six are also fairly fundamental divisions in magic, though there's usually some obfuscation built on top of it."

"I see. Not quite the way I'm used to thinking about things."

"They're unpredictable and extremely impactful - honestly, no one should have that power. It shouldn't exist." She does not like things she can't control, and she isn't stupid enough to think she can control the Infinity Stones. "But Thanos especially shouldn't have it, and - he's trying to seize all six."

"Seems like destroying them to keep them out of his hands isn't so much of an option."

"Then we cut off his hands."

She grins. "A good idea."

"There might be ways to neutralize them without destroying them - but I'm fully in favor of taking Thanos out."

"I'll just mark that one down as 'long term', shall I?"

"Though I'll keep my eyes open for opportunities."

"We'll have to get out of here first."

"I have a way for that lined up, fortunately."

"You mentioned. Something that needs hacking skills?"

"The group I arrived with - I overheard their escape plans, and I'm fairly certain they can pull it off. One of them is a flerken, who has useful tools stored in their extradimensional stomachs - and they and their usual partner have escaped from tougher prisons that way. Their only problem is the Nova have wised up, and put a muzzle on the flerken with an electronic lock that's beyond their partner's abilities. They could probably get it off eventually... But not before Ronan gets here, though I haven't told them about that deadline yet."

"They don't particularly like me - but we can leverage getting the muzzle off the flerken into a ride out."

"Can they be trusted?"

"...I don't know yet."

"They're at least motivated by profit, and will put aside personal enmity for money. I'm unsure about other motives."

"Common criminals, then," she says, with a hint of disdain.

Fond smile. "I can't discount them wanting that profit for specific ends, though."

"Maybe we can find out!"

"Have a bit of fun while we're plotting our escape?"

"A working mind is a healthy mind."

Sigh. "Just don't get us into trouble again, 9S."

"You get into trouble often?"

"We are currently in prison."

"How'd you end up here, speaking of?"

"An amusing series of misunderstandings!"

"It was not very funny at the time."

"It was a little bit funny."

She tries very hard not to laugh. 

Still... "I did end up here on purpose - this was the best way to give me some breathing room and get ahead of Ronan. And... Of the ones I got arrested with - the human girl, Ash, has a strange orb that Thanos was willing to bankroll Ronan to get. She's tough to steal from, and only willing to part with it for a higher bid than Tivan's - it was easier to get us both thrown in here, and therefore both out of Ronan's reach for a time. And the Nova store prisoners' belongings in the same facility as those prisoners."

"A curious security flaw."

"Exploitable."

"Very much so."

"Let's go get started, then."

Over to where Ash and the cat gang have holed up, then. 

Don't these people know it's the middle of the damn night?

"Sorry, but I need to get out of here before Ronan comes looking. And you're the one with the ship and the escape experts - and we're the ones with the key to that little muzzle."

"What, really? Hey, Rocket, wake up."

She looks... almost familiar, somehow.

Kind of, if you squint...

9S sends out a quick ping, just in case. Nope, still only two black box signals. "Not her," she whispers to 2B.

"You're sure? But..."

"I know. But this is someone else."

She raises a faint eyebrow at them. 

- But Rocket wakes up, preventing any tangents. "Ash?" she mumbles. "Whazzup?"

Chewie shifts a bit but goes back to sleep with a tiny 'mrr.'

"Thief Girl's back. Says she found a key to Chewie's muzzle. Probably her new friends."

"What - really - " 

She bounces to her feet. "Chewie! Time to look lively!"

Grumble grumble mrr.

They turn over enough that 9S can access the important parts of the muzzle for hacking.

"Come on, we haven't got all night - "

This is probably directed at 9S and 2B.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your tail on."

9S will go poke the sophisticated electronic lock attached to the dangerous predator beast. So far she's seen some tricks from the local programmers, but nothing she'd consider actively dangerous, really, so she's pretty confident.

This is a lot more sophisticated than anything she's seen so far!

...And they also still haven't invented the attack barrier. The difficulty comes as much from the programming logic being incredibly alien as much as anything, really, which just means it's a puzzle she can keep working at until she cracks it. (It's learning her patterns and real-time reinforcing itself - definitely stronger on the defense than machine lifeforms ever managed - but as long as her own analysis keeps up with it she's golden. And it isn't networked at all, so no chances of hints for it from other Nova systems she's broken into.)

(She gets the sense that this was built a lot more recently than the prison, which hasn't been fully overhauled in years, just getting minor - and floundering - updates to its software.)

An enjoyable challenge. But in the end, a surmountable one.

Chewie cracks their jaw and licks their lips (revealing a brief glance of the Oh Hell No seething down their throat) in triumph when the muzzle finally comes off. 

"Hah! Now we're talking!" The bipedal cat punches the air. 

"Talking about what?"

"Getting out of this joint!"

"Aha. Do you need any more help with that?"

"Could use some, and I'll need anyone coming along to stick by me."

"All right."

She'll start retrieving objects from Chewie's stomachs - a pretty disgusting process - and go over her plan. 

It's pretty simple: get into the central control tower, and stall until she finishes hotwiring it. From there, she'll be able to seize control of the entire facility - including selectively turning off the artificial gravity, and controlling the doors. It'll also give her a map to where their stuff is stored. 

Practical and workable.

And fun! 

Fun is a secondary objective. At best.

Nah she's pretty sure it's up there in the primaries. 

...2B is not filled with confidence about the success of this plan.

She's broken out of worse prisons, it'll be fine! 

Of course it will! 9S believes in the plan!

"I like you," she informs 9S, smugly. " - What's your name. I'm Rocket."

"9S", she says. "Good to meet you, Rocket."

"You got a real name? I ain't using some fucking - serial number."

"You can call me Nines, if you like."

Not very creative, but neither were Floor nor Teefs, so she doesn't really have the heart to throw stones here. "Nice to meet you then, Nines." She stretches. "Let's get going."

Yes, to work!

And chaos!

...It is very difficult to complete any part of Rocket's plan without the entire base trying to kill them. So, better to just assume they're going to be getting extremely shot at, in Rocket's opinion. Luckily Chewie and Ash are extremely talented at dishing out massive amounts of violence - hopefully the newbies can pull their weight there.

Yes. She can.

"And just wait til we get her swords out of lockup," she whispers to Rocket.

"She's really good already," Rocket says with clear awe. "Hot damn. Don't think we need to be scared about Ronan."

"Depends how much anti-vehicle weaponry he's packing. We're not really armored for that."

"He's got a hammer that can pulp spaceships, and it sends out shockwaves and possibly makes forcefields. Plus he's strong enough to toss a light tank around - that's weird as fuck for a Kree, which means he's some kind of super soldier, and those are a pain in the ass to fight no matter how they're built. And he's got heavy weaponry on his spaceship. But he doesn't have much in between that, far as I can tell from some videos shot by very stupid people - his goons have basically normal weapons. Still, you'd have to be crazy good to take him on in a serious fight."

"I think I'd prefer to tip the scales a little before trying."

"No firepower like overwhelming firepower," she says, agreeably, and then something clicks in the console she's half buried in the guts of and she gives a little 'ahah!'

"Tell your partner she might wanna get back in here," she says, straightening up. 

"2B!" she calls. "Time to go!"

"Understood." She snap-kicks one last guard back down the hallway and retreats into the control room.

And she clicks something with a little cackle - 

And gravity turns off for everyone but them - then reverses, sharp and hard - then turns off again - 

And then she straightens up, and takes the controls she'd also hotwired, and the control room smoothly detaches from its pillar, becoming instead something of a flying tank as a swarm of flying robots are masterminded to hook onto it as ad hoc thrusters.  

A flying tank with a lot more momentum than anyone unlucky enough to be in the passages between her and her goal - and doors snap open ahead of them, snap shut to seal off side passages or open certain others - 

She passes the controls to Gamora and dives back into the console's guts - 

And by the time they're at the lockers with their stuff, she's opened up - gravity-enabled - escape routes for most of the other prisoners, funneling them towards a cloud of emergency escape pods and official ships - her crew will be getting out first, but there's gonna be a rush now, a mass breakout big enough to obscure their trail for a precious few hours - 

Gamora's a better pilot than Rocket, for a value of 'better' than involves not just ricocheting off the walls even if the control room's armor can take it. She's - actually a really damn good pilot, she's also flying faster than Rocket had, navigating the ungainly room through openings with bare millimeters to spare at a speed it's frankly impressive this thing can manage. 

By her grin, this is her idea of fun. 

She lands them gracefully in a side hallway in easy running range of the lockers - she thinks they can just take this ride all the way to the hangar with Ash's ship.

Yeah, so long as they remember whose ship it is. And who is going to hold onto the prize.

She doesn't try to steal the orb while they're all getting to the ship, at least. 

Maybe she is capable of learning.

Either that or is lying in wait.

"You're planning to head straight to Tivan?" she asks, once they're all aboard with all crew and all belongings accounted for after she finished giving 2B's swords an admiring once over.

"The sooner we make the orb his problem, the sooner we'll be rid of Ronan."

She hums and nods slowly. (...She should try to get 9S and 2B aside. See whether they want to steal the orb from Tivan after the sale, or from Ash before - and if they're even still on her side here now that their freedom is more secured.)

"Unless you've got another brilliant fucking idea to throw a wrench in everyone's plans again?"

Tiny smile. "I still don't want that orb in Tivan's hands - though it does depend on exactly what it is. If it's a relatively minor piece... Tivan's been left in place even with something major in his hands. But if it isn't - "

"Well, he's the type to explain things at inadvisable lengths, so he just might tell you what it is. And I'm thinking he might be easier to steal from than you."

"Damn straight."

"I can avoid any theft getting traced back to me as one of your companions, too, so the heat doesn't end up falling on you over it."

"I'd appreciate that. Otherwise I might have to help Rocket claim your bounty."

"I think even you'd have trouble with that now." She's keeping 2B and Nines. Even if they maybe haven't been informed of this yet. 

"Good thing you won't make us find out."

"No such plans, don't worry - I'd prefer a working relationship."

"Yeah, we'll see."

Anything else for right now?

Ash doesn't need her help to fly her own ship, so.

She'll go find 2B and Nines, then.

In the hold, checking over their weapons.

They're very nice weapons. "Everything as expected?"

"Yes, fortunately."

"That's good."

"They don't seem to be regular swords..."

"They are not."

"They're actually highly advanced nanotech polymer constructs. That resemble swords from a distance."

"They do look much cooler than a normal sword."

"What can they do?"

"Well, for example..." She tosses her sword casually across the room. Halfway through its arc, it dissolves into shimmering particles. A second and a half later, it reforms in her hand again.

She has questions about how that works! (Including on if the technology is similar to Asgard's weapons technology.)

9S doesn't know much about Asgard weapons technology.

Fortunately Gamora does! (...A lot more than is accessible from outside Asgard; they keep that data mostly on isolated servers.)

Ooh, fascinating.

Gamora is extremely both an engineering nerd and a weapon nerd. (Mostly for swords, but she knows a lot in general.)

This should be a productive conversation, then.

At least get a good start. 

There is much yet to learn about this world.

And much that even Gamora doesn't know. 

Though speaking of... What world are 2B and Nines from? 

A vastly different one than this.

"Most worlds are fairly different from each other... But if you're thinking of this as all one world - was yours uncontacted?"

"Not... exactly."

"Unfriendly contact."

She makes a face. "Unfortunately all too common - most of the civilizations making contact are the - aggressive ones."

"We killed most of them. Eventually."

"Winning that kind of war is better than losing - but it's unfortunate you had to fight it in the first place."

"I'm not sure I would call it winning, either."

"What happened?"

"A long war. That killed everyone but the proxies, and most of those as well."

"Ah," she says. 

Then, quietly: "My planet had - a violent first contact too. ...I'm pretty sure I'm the last survivor, from the 'invaded' side."

"I am sorry."

"...It was a long time ago."

"But - thanks."

"Although, aside from the question of our original terrestrial world, I think there may have been a slight miscommunication. When 2B said we were from a vastly different world, a better term might have been universe, or dimension."

"Oh - do you know which one? - There's a couple of different designation systems but I'm familiar with most of those, so whichever designation works..."

"We've not been able to identify it, no."

"Would you be interested in finding out? - Or going back?" ...Might complicate keeping them, since Gamora doesn't currently have any easy ways to move between universes...

"At some point, yes. But the problems currently in front of us seem more urgent."

"I'm glad to have your help."

"It is a worthy endeavor."

"And you're worthy companions."

"We appreciate that."

Smile. "Even once this is settled - I'd like to keep working with you."

"That seems possible."

"Good."

"Making big plans for after already?"

"I'm an ambitious woman."

"So we see."

"And you two would be excellent prizes."

"I'm not sure that's exactly the word you want to use."

"What word would you prefer?"

"Allies. Companions, perhaps."