The Battle of Counter-Earth was the Guardians of the Galaxy's first confrontation with High Evolutionary, resulting in the planet's destruction.
Background[]
The Guardians learn that Rocket's file is missing the required information
When a failed kidnapping attempt resulted in Adam Warlock fatally wounding Rocket, the Guardians of the Galaxy learned that he had a kill switch implanted in him which will kill Rocket if they try to operate. In order to deactivate the device, the Guardians teamed up with Gamora and the United Ravagers to infiltrate the Orgoscope to steal a file on his experimentation by High Evolutionary, however they learned that the details about the kill switch had been extracted by one of High Evolutionary's recorders, Theel. Determined to save their friend, Star-Lord and the others tracked Theel to Counter-Earth to steal it.
To Gamora's anger, the Guardians refused to not go against the more powerful High Evolutionary, and refused to send her back to the United Ravagers from their urgency and decided to contact Fitz-Gibbonok to retrieve her by sending him the Bowie's coordinates. Unfortunately, Fitz-Gibbonok had been accidently killed by Adam Warlock and Ayesha in a failed attempt to interrogate him to locate Rocket to give to High Evolutionary to preserve their spices and used Fitz-Gibbonok's communicator and pet Blurp to track their enemies.
The Guardians of the Galaxy land onto Counter-Earth
Once the Guardians arrived at Counter-Earth, they were able to convince the Humanial Neelie to help them point out where High Evolutionary was at, Arête Labratories. Peter, Groot, and Nebula decided to go confront High Evolutionary, using Neelie's car to drive there while Drax and Mantis stayed at the Bowie and while Gamora sat by inside with the unconscious Rocket to wait to be picked up by the Ravagers, with her looking through Quill's stuff to learn more about the team.[1]
Battle[]
Quill and Groot greeted by High Evolutionary
Upon arrival at Arête Laboratories, Star-Lord, Groot, and Nebula were confronted by Behemoth and War Pig. Immediately though, they scanned Nebula and told them to leave her outside as her arm was classified as a weapon before allowing Quill and Groot to proceed as the scan claimed that they were clean. Behemoth personally escorted the two Guardians to High Evolutionary, who was surrounded by his recorders and some guards. However, as he was busy typing out something, High Evolutionary simply gestured everyone to be silent as he proceeded.
Meanwhile at the Bowie, Drax began to become impatient over how long it was taking the others, and knocked a Humanimal off their motorcycle, explaining his feelings to Mantis about it. Although Mantis argued that they needed to stay, with Drax pretending to plan on using the bike to take them back to the ship, asking Mantis to come. Relenting, Mantis hopped on, however Drax proceeded to drive to Arête Laboratories to Mantis' annoyance.
Quill confronts High Evolutionary
At Arête Laboratories, Quill recognized and confronted Theel over stealing Rocket's info. However, Quill was interrupted by High Evolutionary, who paused his typing to discuss why he designed Counter-Earth like Earth. In reality, High Evolutionary was distracting the two, allowing Vim to order War Pig to apprehend Rocket. As High Evolutionary talked about how he found Earth intriguing over its culture but hated its bigotry and other shortcomings, Quill kept stating that he did not care and had heard many villains drone on about how they sought the rule the universe because their mothers did not love them. However, High Evolutionary told Quill that he only wanted to perfect the universe, confused Quill told him that he never pictured the perfect society to sell drugs to teenagers, which they saw on their way to him. Reluctantly agreeing, High Evolutionary stated that he intended to wipe the slate clean with the Humanimals to make way for a better attempt. Tired of his talking, Groot told High Evolutionary to do something phallic, before asking Quill if he should kill the others which Quill accepted. However, before either could attack, High Evolutionary used his gravity manipulation powers to pin the two to the ground as they also began to activate the Laboratory to blow up Counter-Earth.
Adam Warlock and Blurp arrive on Counter-Earth
On the Bowie Gamora was using the restroom, when she heard War Pig's thrusters arriving, and after hurrying out, she saw as she escorted the unconscious Rocket from the bottom floor. To get War Pig to drop Rocket, Gamora yelled at her to do so, resulting in War Pig using her thrusters to knock Gamora out. As War Pig recontinued her recapture communicating to High Evolutionary, she was interrupted by Adam Warlock suddenly flying into the Bowie with Blurp. Adam requested that War Pig handed Rocket to him, however she argued that they were on the same side, which Adam admitted that he needed to bring Rocket to High Evolutionary to spare his species. Angered, War Pig attempted to charge her weapons, however Adam used his immense strength to rip her head off, killing War Pig.
As Adam continued to carry War Pig's head as he searched where she had Rocket, he realized that as he was busy, Gamora had woken up and ran off with Rocket from the Bowie to escape either Adam or War Pig, with her running under the ship. However, before she could find a place to run to, the suburbs of Counter-Earth begun to blow up, killing the Humanimals on the planet. Overwhelmed by the explosions, Gamora decided to run back into the ship, however one random explosion rocked the ship, briefly knocking out Gamora and Blurp again. Before that, when Adam saw what was happening, he remembered that his mother Ayesha was on the other side of the suburbs on their ship was in danger of being killed with Counter-Earth and used his powers to try to desperately fly to save her. Unfortunately, as Ayesha and Adam were able to see each other, another explosion destroyed the Sovereign ship, killing Ayesha and flinging Adam away. Eventually, as Gamora recovered from the explosions, she witnessed the exhausted Adam return to the Bowie to continue his mission. However, before they could fight, the tired Sovereign fell over, allowing Gamora to restrain Adam in a hurry.
Meanwhile, Nebula who was still outside of the lab, saw as Counter-Earth begun to explode and the Laboratory ascension from Counter-Earth. Concerned for Quill and Groot, Nebula used her communicator to contact Drax to bring the Bowie to her. However, Drax admitted that he couldn't, when asked why, Nebula turned and realized that Mantis and Drax had just arrived to her, to Nebula's anger. However, the group instead decided to break in to save the group and figure out the rest later, with all three jumping onto Arete Labratories. Meanwhile, inside the Lab High Evolutionary had decided to leave Groot and Quill to be dealt by his guards.
Groot and Star-Lord shoot out High Evolutionary's guards
As the ship continued to rise, Theel begun to mock Quill for blatantly walking into a trap. However, Quill stated that this was a face-off, ordering Groot to kill everyone now. Proceeding, Groot grabbed an explosive hidden inside of his chest to blow away some guards and causing debris to block High Evolutionary off from them. Once the dust from the explosive subsided, Groot unfurled his frame to hold and use a weapon arsenal he had hidden beforehand, tossing Quill's Quad Blasters to him. Quill and Groot proceeded to shot all of the guards that were still standing, with Groot shielding Quill with additional limbs to protect him from stray blasts.
Finishing off High Evolutionary's guards, Peter cornered Theel to the window before putting aways his Quad Blasters. Thinking that Quill was sparring him, Theel thanked him for it, however Quill told him not to do that. Immediately Quill tackled Theel through the window, causing them to free fall to Counter-Earth. By the time High Evolutionary finally removed the debris in the way, there was only Groot in the room who followed Quill to the outside, to High Evolutionary's apathy. During the fall, Theel screamed that Quill was going to kill both of them, which Quill said not both. At this point, Groot caught up and held onto Quill and creating two wings to parachute and glide them safety. Once the two quickly approached the ground, Quill shoved and dragged Theel headfirst into the ground, killing him by the impact.
Still knowing the planet was being destroyed, Quill contacted the Bowie with Gamora explaining that she was the only one on the ship, which Quill just commanded that she piloted the ship to them. Between the danger around her, and not knowing how to fly the Bowie, Gamora frantically and chaotically flew the ship through the planet to where Peter and Groot were. Meanwhile, as they waited for the Bowie, Quill used a scapple to pry open Theel's cybernetic head plate to extract the required info for Rocket. As he finished, Quill saw Gamora flying too fast toward them, and asked for her to slow down, which Gamora yelled she couldn't, so Quill told her to pull up as hard as possible. Trying as hard as she could, Groot and Quill ran out of the way as Gamora pulled the ship up to come to a stop. Afterwards, Quill and Groot joined with Gamora into the Bowie and flew out of Counter-Earth, as it proceeded to blow itself up.[1]
Aftermath[]
As Star-Lord, Groot, and Gamora left Counter-Earth, Nebula, Mantis, and Drax, under the belief that Quill and Groot were still in Arête Laboratories, finally broke into the ship as it left the atmosphere. Upset over Drax and Mantis' actions, Nebula berated them as Mantis argued back and had Drax forget the argument to make him feel better. However, as their fight ended, the trio realized that they were in an area that held High Evolutionary's newest creations, the Star Children, which Drax begun to bond with.
Meanwhile, now finally having the right information to get Rocket fixed up, Quill, Groot, and Gamora set up the device to deactivate Rocket's Kill-Switch. However, the device was slowing down too much, as Rocket began to flatline, briefly reuniting with Lylla, Teefs, and Floor and reconcile for him accidently getting them killed in the afterlife. However, Quill refused to let his friend die, and began to use CPR to revive Rocket long enough to fully deactivate the Switch and used a Med-Pak to fully fix Rocket, allowing him to live.
High Evolutionary offers the safety of Mantis, Nebula, and Drax in exchange for Rocket
Rocket, Groot, and Quill hugged after Rocket's recovery, and Rocket pointed out that Nebula was trying to contact them. Shocked over Nebula's survival, Quill answered his communicator, allowing the two groups to realize that Nebula, Mantis, and Drax were on Arête Labs, while the others were safe. Eventually, Rocket revealed that he had recovered to the group's happiness. However, High Evolutionary walked in onto the Star Children's holding area, scaring the kids and capturing the team. Stealing Nebula's communicator, Evolutionary stated that he will allow the group to live in exchange for Rocket, so he could continue his experimentation on his mind to perfect the Children. However, Quill instead endlessly mocked High Evolutionary, causing him to cut Quill of by breaking the communicator. Not wanting Rocket to endure further torture, and wanting to rescue their friends, the Guardians decided to Ambush Arête Laboratories and called Kraglin and Cosmo to prepare Knowhere to help them save their friends.[1]