[center][h2]THOR AND STAR-LORD[/h2]
[b]IN[/b]
[h2]RUN THROUGH THE JUNGLE[/h2][/center]
[hr]

Draaga and Thor sized one another up. The alien gladiator had a hideous, gap-toothed, fanged smile on his face as he did so, and Thor knew exactly why. The creature had his old weapon, the battle ax Jarnbjorn, and intended to kill the God of Thunder with it. The weapon was what he sought when Quill took him to the dead planet with the Asgardian cache on it, yet here it was in the hands of a mortal unworthy to hold it. It made Thor's blood boil at the thought of being cleaved in two by his own blade.

"I have no quarrel with you, Draaga of Warworld!" the Asgardian called out to his foe. "Let me pass. It is your master I would have words with."

Talking usually wasn't Thor's thing. He was a being of action, not of discussion. But he needed to keep all the eyes of Warworld on himself for as long as he could. Heimdall and the rest needed the opportunity to get to the spaceport. As long as that happened, he would do what was needed of him.

The gladiator laughed loudly. He was clearly putting on a show for Mongul, "Do not make me laugh! You are not worthy enough for my master to leave his gilded seat and crush you like the insect your are. He has sent me, one who needs to earn his freedom, on this task!"

Freedom? So Mongul has offered Draaga out of the Warworld game in exchange for killing Thor. That made sense. But the way he talked about Mongul, it was like he thought the tyrant was a god.

"Come, cretin!" Draaga called to Thor. "Face your end with honor!"

"Aye!' Thor called back. "An end it shall be. But not mine, gladiator! You have brought the wrath of Thor, and thou shalt rue the day thy did!"

The two combatants rushed at one another. Thor was surprised to see how fast Draaga was. The video highlights that Mongul played night after night of the gladiator killing others were misleading. Thor had assumed that his foes were just normal, which was why he seemed so unstoppable. But here, face to face, Thor realized that the warrior merely was incredible. He was the planet's champion for a reason.

Draaga swung Jarnbjorn with ferocious strength, missing Thor by a hair. He rolled beneath it and drove his fist up into the chin of Draaga. The blow was usually enough to send a mortal dozens of feet into the air, but instead Draaga merely stumbled back a few feet. He growled at the God of Thunder, and swung the ax again in a horizontal, circular sweep that almost disemboweled the Asgardian.

Thor tried to close the gap between the two of them, knowing that if he could stop Draaga from swinging Jarnbjorn with his full strength, he could win this fight. He delivered a few body blows to Draaga's exposed midsection, and the gladiator panicked and swung the blunt end of the ax around, catching Thor below the chin. The blow sent stars flying through his vision, and his body flying through the air.

He landed a few yards from Draaga, and had to roll out of the way of another axe swing that would have cleaved him in half. He felt something, deep inside, that he had not felt in a long time during a fight.

Fear. It was just the smallest flicker, but it was there.

He pushed it down and stood, "You want to kill me, warrior!? Then come and kill me!"

[center]**********[/center]

Quill took a giant, relieved breath as he climbed out of the manhole and into an alley of Mongul's imperial capital city. Sure, it still smelled of piss, but at least he wasn't wading through it any more. He looked down and saw a strand of...something hanging from his boot, and gagged for the millionth time in the past half hour.

"Okay, that is the last time I ever let you come up with a plan," he said to the raccoon that had been sitting on his back the entire time. "Seriously that was disgusting."

"Oh I don't think it was all that bad," Rocket chuckled to himself and hopped to the ground. "Just a little smelly."

"Easy for you to say when you're a trash panda," Quill gagged again. "That's probably like a five course meal for you."

"What the hell is a panda?" Rocket's nose scrunched up.

"Would you two shut up?" Hawk grumbled as she climbed out as well. "Might as well alert the whole damn city we're here."

She was right of course. The whole idea of coming through the sewers was so they could enter the city unseen. Squabbling amongst one another would do nothing to help.

Still, Quill looked around and saw that there seemed to be no one out on the street next to them. In fact, the entire city seemed quiet. 

Silently, he siddled up to the side of the house closest to him. Peering into the window, he saw that the inhabitants were all huddled around their view screens, watching some kind of fight. 

"Mongul must be pushing some big pay per view fight or something," he hissed in a whisper. "Looks like everyone in town is preoccupied."

"Well then it's our lucky day," Rocket grinned broadly, which looked wholly unnatural coming from a raccoon. "Should give us less to worry about in the city."

They started to move in a single file, keeping to the alleys when they could. What little guard presence they saw seemed to be just as distracted by the prize fight as the citizens were. They were all looking down at their personal, hand-held screens rather than paying attention to their patrol routes. Whatever had possessed Mongul to do this today had clearly worked in their favor.

They snaked their way through the city, keeping an eye on the tyrant's palace in the distance as it continued to get closer and closer. 

Suddenly, they turned a corner and came to a huge crowd, all watching a gigantic view screen. While Rocket and Hawk kept moving, what Quill saw stopped him in his tracks. There was Thor, his new traveling partner, going toe-to-toe with Draaga, the champion of Warworld. From the looks of it, both fighters had gotten their licks in on one another, but Thor certainly seemed to be taking the worst of it so far. And that wasn't surprising considering Quill could see that the gladiator was wielding a gnarly-looking battle ax. 

"Peter," Hawk half-whispered, half-yelled. "What are you doing!?"

He motioned up to the screen, "That's my...friend? I dunno. But he's my meal ticket. I gotta go help him."

"Are you crazy! We're getting so close!" Rocket protested.

"You guys can keep going if you want," he shrugged. "I'm going back there."

"No way," Hawk grabbed him. "I'm at least getting the bounty on one of you."

"Would you two stop it!" Rocket pleaded. "You're gonna draw too much attention!"

"Hey you!"

The three of them froze and looked up to see five of Mongul's guards coming towards them through the crowd. They were clad in purple and yellow riot gear, and to Quill they looked like what Prince's secret police would look like if he became a Nazi. The thought brought a smile to his face right before he ran, with Hawk and Rocket on his tail.

"Freakin' humies!" Rocket yelled. "Always messin' up my plans!"

Another pack of guards cut off their escape, but were shredded by fire from Quill's Element Guns and the pistols Rocket was packing. The two gunslingers looked at one another with wry smiles.

"Okay, not bad," Rocket had to admit.

They turned to find Hawk engaging the first group of guards. Her mace made short work of them, and before long there were no guards standing.

But Quill noticed something off. As the sun poked through the clouds above, a glint on a rooftop drew his attention, "Hawk get down!"

His warning came out just in time. The Thanagarian hit the ground as a blast sailed right past her shoulder. Quill responded with a shot of his own, and a dead sniper fell from a third story window down the block.

From the ground, Hawk looked up, "You...saved me."

"Yea, well, you're good in a fight," he helped her up. "Come on, we need to get to cover."

The three of them headed back into the alleys of the city, hoping to get towards the main gate where Thor was fighting for his life. Unfortunately, they found themselves face to face with a whole battalion of troops. They turned to retreat, but found their way back had been cut off by another group.

"You think you can walk into Mongul's city undetected!?" the leader of the guards called to them. "He knows all! He is the god of Warwo-"

Before he could finish, his head became a smoking crater, courtesy of Rocket Raccoon. Without another word, the guards charged towards the three fighters, who all looked at one another before starting the fight. They knew this was the end for them, but they would go down fighting.

The guards were on them quickly, and even Hawk's sweeping flight couldn't keep them off. Quill took down a few, but before long he was dogpiled, and was being beaten and kicked repeatedly. He would surely die here, on the ground, being pummeled by these glorified backup dancers. This was not how he ever thought he would go out.

Then, suddenly, the kicks and punches lessened, and he heard the guards yelling. He managed to get to his knees. What he saw made him sure he had suffered brain damage. A tree, a pile of rocks, a bug, and another dang space Viking were tearing through the guards' rear flank. Quill managed to pick up his guns and rejoin the fray, taking revenge for the beating, and Rocket and Hawk did the same. Before long, the two groups of off worlders met in the middle.

"Groot! Buddy! You're okay!" Rocket said to the tree, with genuine happiness in his voice.

"I am Groot," the tree responded.

"No, my flying did not get us into this," Rocket snapped back. "How dare you."

"I am Groot!"

Quill approached the new Viking warrior, "You have to know Thor."

"Aye," he smiled warmly. "The God of Thunder is a very old friend."

"Well we need to go help him," Peter motioned to the large screen. "He's getting his ass kicked out there."

The new friend just smiled, and pointed to the sky, "For now. Thor can take care of himself. We need to get to the hangar. He will meet us there."

As the newly assembled group started off, Quill noticed the clouds in the sky were thickening quickly, swirling into an inky black layer. 

In the distance, thunder rumbled.

[center]*********[/center]

With every strike Draaga landed, Thor could feel himself losing the fight. He had been too overconfident coming in. He was sure of that now. The gladiator was a formidable opponent, but he believed the mortal did not stand a true threat to him. His over confidence had always been his downfall. It was why he couldn't see Ragnarok coming. It was why he could not stop it. It was why his family was now dead along with most of his people. Thor, the God of Stupidity was more like it.

[i]Quit your self pity.[/i] 

The voice was so distant, but so familiar. His father's voice had echoed into his ears. He was not sure if it was a hallucination from the pain, or if his father was truly reaching out yet again through some ancient magic that could pierce the veil of death. In truth, it did not matter which one it was. It was right. He was the God of Thunder. This rock would not be his grave.

Draaga missed with another potential death blow with Jarnbjorn as he had the entire battle. But he let go of the ax with one hand and back handed Thor with it as the Asgardian dodged the blade. The blow did nothing but harden Thor's resolve. 

The gladiator brought the hand back around, but Thor caught it. The two warriors snarled at one another, and Draaga kicked out, catching Thor in the midsection. The god rolled back, and regained his footing with a smile. He did not know how, but he felt the electricity rolling through him as if he held Mjolnir in his hand once more. Every blow now seemed to energize him, more than cause pain.

"You have fought well, Draaga," Thor admitted. "But now is the time for you to surrender. Or die."

Draaga laughed, "You have not been paying attention to this fight. But one of is is about to die."

The gladiator rushed at Thor, holding Jarnbjorn above his head, sure that this would be it. 

Thor felt the lighting coming. He couldn't control it as well as he could when he had Mjolnir, but in the moments since it started calling to him once again, he knew he could call it down. Every footfall of Draaga's sprint brought him closer, and with each one Thor waited. That is until he could not wait any longer.

With a blinding flash of light and a deafening crack, Draaga of Warworld was no more.

Jarnbjorn clattered to the ground, before it was picked up by a hand, glowing blue.

[center]**********[/center]

The new, motley crew of Warworld rebels stood in the hangar of Mongul. The seven of them stood shoulder to shoulder. On the other side of them, blocking their path, was ever last guard that remained in the city.

At their head stood Mongul himself. His large, imposing frame dwarfed everyone in the room.

"Impressive," the tyrant admitted. "No one has ever made it here before. But here is where it ends."

"No," Heimdall assured him. "This is where your empire ends."

"Fool," Mongul seethed. "I am Warworld."

He waved his hand, and the guards charged. The escapees charged as well.

Before the two groups could meet, however, a bolt of lightning crashed through the ceiling of the monstrous hangar. It struck directly between the two groups, but exploded out towards the guards. The seven tired fighters covered their eyes as the energy dissipated, revealing Thor, cloaked in arcs of electricity and holding the battle ax that Draaga had wielded. In front of him, all of Mongul's army lay motionless, with only the leader of Warworld still standing.

"Bad. Ass," Quill smiled broadly. 

Thor strolled confidently towards Mognul, his ax jumping with energy. The alien warlord fired his weapon, but every shot was deflected by Thor. When he reached his enemy, he cleaved the gun in two, and grabbed him by the throat. Thor lifted Mongul off the ground by his neck, "Mongul of Warworld, you have angered the God of Thunder. For that, I leave you to the people you force to kill one another for sport."

With that, he raised his ax and called down another bolt of lightning. He directed it with the ax towards Mongul's chest, and the alien, seemingly shot from a canon, flew from Thor's grasp and through the ceiling once more. The group watched as his body disappeared over the horizon.

Thor turned to the rag tag group and smiled, "Shall we get off this rock now?"

And with that, the God of Thunder passed out from the exhaustion, and hit the ground hard.