Soooo...how was your summer? I am so so so sorry for not updating...I know! I'm months behind schedule, and I have many excuses that I will not use... So yeah...sorry about the wait...

Disclaimor: I do not own the Avengers fandom

For Peter Quill, leader of a ragtag, slightly legal (so far) band of misfits, boarding a ship stealthily was not a first, but still difficult due to (ahem) his current circumstance. And what circumstance is that? you may find yourself asking. You see, he was still kind of new to this...leader type...thing and Groot was not exactly well-versed in the art of infiltration, sort of. Of course, Gamora had no problem at all, but Drax could not seem to grasp the concept of radio silence (or any kind of silence, for that matter), and Rocket would do just fine if decided to be cooperative and to just shut his mouth for at least five minutes. But a 1960's space shuttle, out this far from Earth? This technology was ancient, and Peter just needed to find out what his fellow humans were doing. If he had to guess, it was something about as legal as his friends before their little incident—that is, not very.

"Peter," hissed Gamora, breaking the silence. Peter felt like glaring at her—hadn't he just lectured his team about how important silence, or at least quiet, was?—but she would probably tear off his scalp and make him eat it. "Peter," she hissed again.

"What?" he hissed back. "What is so important that you feel the urge to hiss at me? Why are you hissing at me?"

"There's a little girl in there."

"What?!"

She glared at him. Hadn't he just lectured the team on the importance of maintaining silence, or at least quiet? "I said, there's a little girl in the room."

"What's she doing?" demanded Rocket loudly. They all froze as the sound of hurried footsteps answered him.

Thanks, man, thought Peter, annoyed. This was why silence was important!

"I am Groot," answered Groot mournfully.

"Quick! Into the closet!" said Peter.

"What closet?" asked Gamora.

"There is no closet," answered Drax unhelpfully.

"Then into the room!" hissed Peter.

"With the little girl?" said Rocket doubtfully.

"You were the one that nearly got us caught—you don't get to question my judgement!" retorted Peter.

"Get in!" hissed Gamora.

"Why is everyone hissing?" muttered Rocket to himself.

"I am Groot." Groot answered.

"I know that, you idiot—but why does anyone bother to listen to him?" demanded Rocket.

To this, no one had an answer, because what they saw next left them speechless.

A few hours before

Sophia was in pain. When she had first heard the word, she had not known what it meant, but that was before this. Every day, the people would come in and begin their procedure. Every day, the people looked different except for one thing: they always, always, had purple eyes. Every day, they would enter her mind, until she felt her mind slowly slip; then they would stop. But every day, she would feel herself slipping faster, until their procedures grew from two hours, to only one, then to half an hour, then to twenty minutes a day.

She had seen other humans, after they could only resist for two minutes before they slipped. Eventually, their eyes would turn purple and they would become one of the others. Sophia had promised herself to not slip, but each time, it would hurt too much to resist after a while, like some foreign object was slowly forcing its way into her brain. Every session ended in tears, and at night, she would dream of her mother and Grace, and Mr. Stark and Mr. Rogers and Mr. Banner and Mr. Barton and Dr. Banner, and Thor, and Tasha, and Luke, and even Jarvis. She had begun to lose hope.

Until today. Today was strange; she had looked out and seen people. Strange people—and not purple-eyed strange. There was a pretty green lady, and a racoon, and a moving tree with a racoon, and a big grey man with red tattoos, and a normal man, all whispering and hissing to each other.

She wondered what they were doing. Then they came into her room.

The man spoke, and not unkindly, "What's your name?"

Sophia simply looked at him.

So I'm sorry for the shortness, but I will update again! Hopefully soon!

-Rain