"We thank you, Guardians, for putting your lives on the line."

The Guardians stood listening to High Priestess Ayesha of the Sovereign go on about how advanced their race were.

"I guess I prefer to make people the old-fashioned way." said Peter. Alyssa resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Perhaps someday, you could give me a history lesson in the archaic ways of our ancestors." High Priestess Ayesha replied. "For academic purposes."

"I would be honoured, yes." said Peter. "In the name of research... I think that would be pretty...!" He caught Gamora's eye briefly and received Alyssa's telepathic message to stop flirting! "...repulsive."

"Oh, please." said Gamora, walking forward. "Your people promised something in exchange for our services. Bring it and we shall gladly be on our way." Ayesha's guards brought out Nebula who glared at Gamora.

"Family reunion, yay!" said Peter. Alyssa subtly nudged him and raised her eyebrows, silently telling him to behave himself. Gamora pulled Nebula to her feet and took her off back to the Milano, closely followed by Groot.

"We thank you, High Priestess Ayesha." said Peter. He turned to follow Gamora and Nebula.

"What is your heritage, Mr. Quill?" Ayesha asked. Peter and Alyssa looked at each other and turned back to face her.

"My mother is from Earth." he said.

"And your father?"

"He ain't from Missouri. That's all I know."

"I see it within you. An unorthodox genealogy. A hybrid that seems particularly...reckless."

"You know, they told me you people were conceited douchbags, but that isn't true at all." said Rocket. Peter, Drax and Alyssa all turned to him, then quickly looked back up at Ayesha to apologise. "I'm using my wrong eye again, aren't I?" Peter, Drax and Alyssa turned and walked off, Drax pulling Rocket away. "I'm sorry. That was meant to be behind your back.


Location: The Milano

"I'm sorry if it seemed like I was flirting with the High Priestess. I wasn't." Peter said, as Gamora secured Nebula.

"I don't care if you were." Gamora replied, walking off.

"Well, I feel like you do care. That's why I'm apologising. So, sorry!"

"That was a complete lie and you know it." said Alyssa, beside him. Peter jumped.

"I should really be used to you doing that by now." he said.

"Have you never had a romantic attachment to someone before?" she asked.

"What, you mean apart from my womanising phase?" he asked, smiling. "No, I haven't."

"That doesn't count. Not even on Terra?"

"No, not even on Earth. I didn't really mix with the other kids there. The only person I was at all close to was my mom." He stopped and looked down at the ground. She put a hand on his shoulder, making him look up at her, and smiled comfortably.

They headed up to the cockpit to join Rocket, Peter sitting in the other pilot's seat and Alyssa in the captain's chair behind them. Movement from behind the ship caught her attention.

"Does anyone want to tell me why there's a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear?" Alyssa asked.

"Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries." said Drax.

"Dude!" Rocket exclaimed, as everyone turned to look at him.

"Right. He didn't steal some of those. I don't know why they're after us. What a mystery this is." The Sovereign fired shots at them and Peter swerved the Milano to the side to dodge them.

"What were you thinking?" Peter asked, as he and Rocket flew the Milano away from the Sovereign ships.

"They were really easy to steal!" said Rocket.

"That's your defense?" asked Gamora.

"Alyssa, where's the closest planet?" asked Peter.

"Berhert, about five jumps from here." Alyssa replied. "The nearest one is in 47 clicks. But to get there, you need to get through that quantum asteroid field."

"Quill, to make it through that you'd have to be the greatest pilot in the universe." said Drax.

"Luckily for us, I..."

"I am." Rocket said in unison with him. Peter looked at him, and Alyssa groaned as they started to compete with each other.

"I've been flying this rig since I was ten years old." said Peter.

"I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft." said Rocket.

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a douchbag!"

"Stop it!" Gamora told them.

"Are both of you forgetting the fact that I am clearly the best pilot on this ship since I am the ship!" Alyssa exclaimed.

"Later on tonight, you're gonna be lying down in bed and there's gonna be something squishy in your pillow case. And you're gonna be like "What's this?"." said Rocket. "And it's gonna be because I put a turd in there!"

"Rocket..." Alyssa warned him.

"You put your turd in my bed, I shave you." said Peter.

"Peter..."

"Oh, it won't be my turd. It'll be Drax's." Drax burst out laughing.

"I have famously huge turds."

"We're about to die and this is what we're discussing?" asked Gamora.

"Here, let me make it easier for you." said Alyssa.

She took control of her ship, taking the controls away from Rocket and flying it with Peter. However, Rocket managed to gain control again and it was now Peter and Alyssa vs. Rocket for control of the Milano. The battle for control of flying caused them to hit an asteroid which blew a hole in the back of the ship.

"Ow!" Alyssa exclaimed, angrily.

"Rocket, seriously." said Peter. "Stop trying to fly the ship before Alyssa forcibly locks you out of the controls!"

"It's not that bad!" said Rocket.

"You're not the one who can feel every single hit that the Milano gets!" Alyssa told him.

"We still have a Sovereign craft behind us." said Gamora. "Twenty clicks to the jump!"

"Drax, where are you going?" asked Alyssa.

"I'll take care of the Sovereign craft." he said.

A few minutes later, he was hanging out of the back of the ship firing a gun at the Sovereign craft. Alyssa continued to maneuver her ship in between the asteroids, helped by Peter and hindered by Rocket. They exited the asteroid field but then were ambushed by more Sovereign craft.

"They went around the field!" said Peter.

The Milano took heavy fire, causing Alyssa a great deal of pain, before the ships were blown up by...something. Her control of the ship was slipping so she gave full control to Peter.

As they headed towards the jump point Rocket was the only one who saw the man on top of the other spacecraft, waving at them.


Location: Berhert

"First of all, how the hell did any of us, me included, even survive that?" Alyssa asked, angrily. Her avatar was flickering between flesh and blood and holographic, and she was holding her arm in pain as she tried to take her mind off her destroyed ship lying behind her. "Secondly, WHERE IS THE OTHER HALF OF MY SHIP? You had one job! One job! Fly my ship and not get killed by the Sovereign! But that didn't happen because you thought it would be a good idea to argue about who has the biggest penis instead of focusing on the massive space battle!"

"If my penis had a hand, I assure you I could have landed the ship better than Rocket." said Peter.

"You zip it, Quill!" she told him.

"What about the fact that we were being chased because he..." Peter pointed at Rocket. "...stole the Anulax batteries?"

"They're called Harbulary batteries." said Drax.

"No, they're not!" Peter and Alyssa told him.

"You know why I did it, Star-Munch?" asked Rocket.

"I'm not gonna answer to Star-Munch."

"I did it because I wanted to!"

"We were hired to protect those batteries!" Gamora reminded him. "You can't steal things that you were hired to protect!"

"That's rich, coming from a daughter of Thanos!" Rocket exclaimed. Gamora drew her sword.

"I am no daughter of Thanos!" she exclaimed. Peter and Alyssa quickly held her and Rocket away from each other.

"Woah, woah, stop!" Peter said. "We can't start fighting!"

"What are we even talking about this for?" asked Rocket. "We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!"

"How little?" asked Drax.

"I don't know...like this?" Rocket used his paws to show them.

"A little one-inch man saved us?" asked Gamora, putting away her sword.

"Well, if he got closer I'm sure he'd be a bit larger."

"That's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon." said Peter.

"Peter, don't!" said Alyssa.

"Don't call me a raccoon!"

"I'm sorry. I took it too far. I meant trash panda." Rocket looked around in confusion.

"Is that better?" he asked Alyssa.

"I don't know." she said.

"It's worse." Peter whispered to her, grinning. "It's so much worse." Rocket jumped at Peter and Alyssa stepped in between them to keep them apart. She was too preoccupied with them to notice what Nebula did.

"Someone followed you through the jump point." Nebula said. Peter and Rocket stopped fighting and the Guardians gathered in a circle facing outwards, looking up at the ship heading towards them. Alyssa scanned it but didn't recognise the make. "Set me free, you'll need my help."

"I'm not a fool, Nebula." said Gamora.

"You are a fool if you deprive yourself a hand in combat." said Nebula.

"You'll attack me the moment I let you go."

"No, I won't."

"You'd think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie." said Peter.

"I bet it's the one-inch man." said Drax.

The team stood in a line, weapons drawn, as the ship, which was a round white egg shape, landed in front of them. The door opened and two people walked out - a young woman with antennae who seemed to be quite nervous, and an elderly man with a Terran appearance. Alyssa doubted he was Terran, though. After all, she and Kraglin looked Terran but weren't.

"After all these years I've found you." The man said.

"And who the hell are you?" asked Peter.

"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego...and I'm your dad, Peter."