A/N: This is my first fan fiction story ever! I have been so impressed with the Zutara fiction out there that I wanted to try. I hope this mash-up of Guardians of the Galaxy and Avatar the Last Airbender will be a fun galactic ride for everyone.

Disclaimer: I do not own rights to the Avatar the Last Airbender or Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I did come up with this mash-up idea and that's about all I can say about that.

Fire flares out from the space cruiser's lower thrusters, cushioning its descent onto the rocky terrain. Sokka eases forward the steering handle with the palm of his hand; his light touch lowers the landing pads. A cloud of red dust whips up as the space cruiser settles on the ground. His other hand reaches above him and quickly flips several overhead toggles, alternating the positions. A release of smoke plumes out from the back of the spacecraft into the planet's pinkish atmosphere. Sokka grimaces at the main control panel's temperature dial. The needle is reading nine hundred Kelvins.

"Katara, this better be worth it." Sokka flicks one of the switches on the pilot console. The search for life meter's screen immediately illuminates. "The heat outside is way above acceptable Kelvins. If we go out there, we're going to roast like some Draconian fire fuel." A blue beam radiates out into the planet's thick atmosphere. The light is barely discernible in the pink fog that surrounds the space cruiser.

"That is why I had you make the ice shield generator." Katara adjusts the holster, wrapped around her waist. She begins searching the cabin for her other scouting tools. Every drawer she pulls out reveals a jumble of items. "Sokka, I'm not your mother, why do I have to constantly organize this place?" Shifting through several metal cases, she mumbles about Sokka's short life if she wasn't around to clean up after his messes. Pocketing her typical gear into slots of her holster, she can't find where he put the ice shield generator.

"Because it's hard enough to be the brains and beauty behind our operation, I can't be the maid, too."

Katara glares at him and growls threateningly, "Sokka!"

Swiveling around in the captain seat, Sokka notices how Katara is making a mess of his organized chaos. "What are you doing?" He bolts uprights and slams his head into the ceiling above, smashing his skull into several buttons. "Ow!" He plops back down in the cracked leather seat. "Katara! See what you made me do!"

Katara laughs. "Good one, Sokka. For your last comment, I was about to test that freeze ray you made on you." She pats a gun in her holster.

"Trust me, no testing required, if I made it, it will work." Sokka ducks out from pilot capsule. He glances around and counts over several compartments that are flush with the side of the space craft. "The ice shield generator would be classified as a protector, which would mean it can be found in the drawer of freeze dried darmadillo." Grabbing a handle, he yanks open the slot three drawers away from where Katara was looking. The desired device is resting on top of a mound of withered jerky. He lifts out the round disc, thrusting it towards his sister. "You're welcome is all that is necessary as gratitude. Though if you happen to add, you're welcome, your Starlord-ship-ie-ness, it wouldn't hurt."

"That makes absolutely no sense."

"I like Starlord-ship-ie-ness, it has a nice ring to it. I'm hoping it might catch on, at least in this part of the Universe."

Katara ignores his ridiculous nickname. "No, the fact that you stored the ice shield generator in a drawer with a bunch of jerky!" She snatches the round meter from her brother. She pauses briefly to reflect upon Sokka's more annoying traits and concedes that the connection with jerky might not be so tenuous after all. Shaking her head, she focuses upon a more important gripe. "This is why I have to do everything on this lumbering lunkhead of a vessel."

"Hey!" Sokka presses his face against the side of the ship. "Don't call Shipie names." He rubs the slick metal in tender loving circles, while whispering, "She didn't mean it. Katara is jealous of your beautiful majesty and general awesome spaciness."

"I'm not jealous of a space cruiser. I'm trying to understand why you would put the ice shield generator…" Katara stops herself from flying through the asteroid field that is known as her brother's brain. "Forget it, I don't want to know." Attaching the disc to her breast, the instrument adheres to her skintight bodysuit. "How about when I retrieve the bounty you can thank me, and we'll call it even."

Sokka drapes his arm around his smaller sibling's shoulders. "Little Sis, you and I know that it will be me getting the item and the bounty."

Katara scowls at him. "Oh really, you and what Draconian army could ever convince me that was going to happen?"

Patting the top of Katara's intricate blue braid, Sokka puffs up his chest. "See, when Dad had us venture out from the Southern Aquaquadrant, because of all of those constant Draconian raids…"

"Uh, Sokka, I don't need some long exposition back story on something that I personally lived."

"A lot of people love back stories. I, for one, am very fond of the part, where we sneak past the Draconian War Dopes to sail the stars as hired bounty hunters…" Sokka winks and flashes his fetching smile across the cabin to a lumpy metal construction, which is slumped against the ship's wall. "Extremely abbreviated back story exposition complete!"

"Are you winking at that lumpy metal sea prune over there?"

"That is not a sea prune! It's dedicated to my dalliance with Suki, when we had that fact finding mission on planet Kyoshisan." Sokka waggles one eyebrow. "I had fun extracting information out of her."

Katara shivers and shoves down the bile that is threatening to rise up in her throat. "Gross, Sokka." She did not want to think about her brother in compromising positions with Suki or any other female alien. "Suki was weird. All those Kyoshisan women looked alike; I don't know how you could even tell one from the other."

Sokka yanks Katara's face closer to his chest, practically smothering her. "Little Sis, this is why, you have a big strong man, the man, obviously being me." He nods his head regally, his short tuft of blue hair, bound in a leather tie, waves with his self-inflated confidence.

Katara pokes her brother in the stomach, which causes him to release her from his chest. His arm is still draped across her shoulders. "So, if I understand this right, you're the man in this scenario? The way your voice cracks sometimes, I'm not always sure if you're finished with puberty, yet."

"My voice doesn't..." Sokka's shrill piercing response makes Katara grin. Even though he is determined to not look at her, he can feel Katara's smile. Lowering his voice into an overly exaggerated baritone, Sokka finishes. "My voice doesn't crack."

"Sure, sure." Katara bobs her head in an exaggerated agreement. "Maybe, I should tickle you and see." Her fingers reach up and wheedle into his armpit.

"Katara!" Sokka complains in a high-pitched whine. "Stop it! I hate tickling." For once, his sister listens, shocking him into a momentary silence.

"Well, finish what you were going to say."

"I can't." Sokka pouts. "You made me forget what I was saying."

Katara folds her arms and tilts her hip into her brother, which knocks him off balance, causing him to wave both arms wildly in the air. She giggles. "I think you were trying really hard to be a male chauvinistic ratpig from the Planet Neaderian."

Sokka manages to not topple over. His eyes bulge out at the mention of food, and he licks his lips with salivating hunger. "Is that the planet where we found those extra spicy fire flakes?" Sokka's flat stomach rumbles. He looks down and pats it reassuringly. "Don't worry guy, after I get this stupid bounty, we'll get some roasted ratpig and fire flakes in you soon."

"Don't you mean, after I get the bounty." Rolling her eyes, Katara tosses her blue haired braid behind her back. "And this stupid bounty is going to save you from being added to Iroh's Collection."

"Don't remind me, Iroh may seem like a kindly Uncle, but that man is tricky, tricky." Sokka yanks out a long blaster gun from a wall of several varying models and straps it to his chest. He looks up and says matter-of-factly. "I think it is his eyes that make him sneaky. They are yellow. Who has yellow eyes?"

An uneasy feeling creeps over Katara. She had pleaded with Sokka to stay away from the collector. Iroh was one of the meanest Pai Sho players in the galaxy, talented in the game and even savvier about extracting his price from the loser. She had cautioned her brother that 'only an idiot would gamble with Iroh.' Sokka had processed her warning as a challenge. Katara shakes off her dread and settles upon the business of retrieving the requested item, pay back Iroh, and make sure that Sokka avoids all future Pai Sho tournaments within the tri-galactic region.

"The Draconians have yellow eyes, like we have blue hair, and I have the ability to breathe different atmospheres." Katara unhooks the blaster gun from Sokka's chest, returning it to the wall rack.

Sokka scuffs the toe of his boot back and forth against the steel floorboards. "Yeah, you and your spooky magic breathing, it's creepy." He glances up and smiles, "But it does come in handy."

"I love you, too, Sokka." Katara reaches up and kisses her brother's dark skinned cheek.

Sokka smiles, even as he scrubs away his sister's affection. "Ugh! You have to make everything so girlie!"

"You're welcome!" Katara smirks.

"What!" Sokka flails his arms. "I didn't say thank you." He huffs at Katara's victorious giggle. Turning on the heel of his worn boot, he is careful to watch the pilot capsule's low ceiling as he lowers back into his captain chair. "Whatever, get the item and get out there. This is supposed to be an easy job, in and out!"

Katara doesn't respond back to Sokka's cosmic taunt for she is heading toward the back of the ship. Passing through the living quarters and relaxing area, she slips down the hole in the floor to the lower level. Standing in the holding area, she closes the hatch above her head.

The lights in the lower level flick on, indicating the space cruiser is sealed off from the holding cabin. Before every mission, Katara questions the sanity of this wandering life they have embarked. It has made for many an adventure, but mainly a lot of close calls in a permanent visit to the spirit world. All she wants is to be back in the Southern Aquaquadrant with her Gran Gran and Dad; but while the Draconian wage war throughout the Universe that wish isn't a feasible desire. Gran Gran and Dad are lost to her, their lives in too much danger, because of her gift. This gift of breathing different atmospheres feels more like a curse than a blessing.

In times like these, Katara aches for her mother. Her fingers lightly caress the blue ribbon necklace around her throat. Rubbing the dangling pendant, she shuts her eyes and asks for a blessing of protection from her mother. Hoping the prayer can reach beyond the Universe to the spirit world, where all souls travel upon their death. A small tear leaks out of the side of her blue eye. It runs down her cheek, and she can taste the salty sadness of homesickness and loss.

Katara blinks her eyes open. Time to focus on the job, she wants to get off this planet and back to Iroh, before he can begin sending his goons after them. Tapping the disc on her chest, a helmet and plated armor covers her body in overlapping scales. A visor completes the ice shield generator's protection gear. Sokka had taken a random muttering idea from her and really outdid himself this time. She is impressed with his handiwork.

Punching the wall button, it disengages the space cruiser's walkway. As the gangway slowly lowers, heat whooshes into the holding area. The temperature reading monitor on her visor screen rapidly increases in Kelvins. Katara swallows, hoping Sokka's suit can withstand the boiling outside temperatures. Not realizing she had been holding her breath, she exhaled with relief as her skin didn't melt off her body. With a thud, the gangway hits the ground. Katara cautiously steps out into the planet's murky pink atmosphere.

A/N: Please review, oh great fan fiction public (It will be nice to know that I'm not living in a cosmic writing void)! I'm going to steal an idea about asking character questions from Mrs. Pettyfr (Shout out thank you!). Ask me one character question, the character might respond if they aren't too caught up canoodling with Kyoshisan women. (Sokka, I'm talking to you!)