Long time no see!

I've been sitting on doing Infinity War and Endgame, but now that Disney Plus is out, I think now is that time to get this story rolling…

Got his feet to movin'

And the Rubberband off the ground!

He lifted it way up high, ha!

In the sky y'all!

Out in space, the Guardians of the Galaxy were cruising though the stars in their new ship, the Benatar. Kraglin had stayed behind with the Ravagers and Nebula was still on the hunt for Thanos, but the past few years had been pretty calm. Well, as calm as it can be when your job is to defend the galaxy from crazy, cosmic-level threats.

Oh get with it y'all!

Hey y'all prepare yourself

For the rubberband man.

"Sing it, Drax!" Quill said. Drax didn't respond, being fast asleep at the moment.

Gamora lip-synced to the song as Rocket let out a tired yawn. "Why are we doing this again?" he asked to the room.

"We picked up a distress signal, remember?" Lylla said as she cuddled up to her mate.

"I get that, but why are we doing it?" he repeated.

"'Cause we're nice," Quill answered. "And maybe whoever it is will give us a little cheddar cheese for our effort."

"Which isn't the point," Gamora added.

"Which isn't the point," Quill repeated. "I mean, if he doesn't pony up…"

"We take his ship," Drax said as he woke up from his nap.

"Exactly!" Rocket said.

"Bingo!" Quill said in an announcer voice.

Lylla rolled her eyes at the boy's antics. Rocket and Quill may have improved their relationship since the Ego incident, but both were still a bit immature at times.

"We are arriving," Mantis said, bringing focus back to the mission.

"Alright Guardians don't forget this might be dangerous," Quill warned. "So let's put on our mean faces."

Mantis tried and failed to do a mean face while Groot ignored everyone, the beeping from his video game being the only sound coming from him. The tree had grown into a teenager and was very dismissive of almost everyone, focusing only on his games now.

"Groot, please put that game away," Lylla said. "We're about to go on a mission, so get focused."

"Don't make her tell you again," Rocket added.

The tree ignored them, making Lylla huff and get out of her seat. The otter climbed over to were Groot was and snatched his game away. "You can have this back after the mission," she said in a motherly tone.

"I am Groot," Groot said sarcastically.

"Whoa, language!" everyone gasped.

"You've got some acorns on you, kid," Quill said.

Rocket turned around and glared at Groot. "Ever since you got a little sap, you're a total d-hole. Now keep that up, and I'll smash that thing to pieces!"

Lylla tossed the gaming device over to Rocket as she sat back in her seat. "He gets it from you, you know."

"Hey, I'm trying to set a good example for the kid," Rocket defended. "But it's hard, ya know?"

"Groot is practically our child now," Lylla stated with a shrug. "I can only hope this is a phase."

The Benatar pulled out of warp into the remains of a large ship. Debris filled the area as dead bodies floated lifelessly through space. "What happened?" Mantis asked, leaning forward in her seat to get a closer look.

Lylla covered her mouth in shock at the destruction. "Oh my god," Quill said.

"Looks like we're not getting paid," Rocket said, trying to lighten the mood. Lylla ribbed him in annoyance before one of the bodies hit the windshield of the ship, surprising all of them. "Wipers! Wipers! Get it off!" the raccoon exclaimed.

The body opened its eye, making everyone gasp in shock once more. "We need to get him inside, now!" Lylla shouted, already heading to the back of the ship to open the airlock.

[***]

Gamora and Drax threw the not-dead guy on a table as Rocket sniffed him curiously. "How the hell is this dude alive?" Quill asked.

"He is not a dude," Drax said. "You're a dude. This…" He pointed at the body. "This is a man. A handsome, muscular man."

"I'm muscular," Quill said.

"Who are you kidding, Quill?" Rocket asked rhetorically. "You're one sandwich away from fat."

"Yeah right," Quill scoffed.

"It's true," Lylla said.

"You have put on weight," Drax added.

"What?" Quill asked. Drax made a sign at Star-Lord repeating what he had said. "Gamora do you think I'm…" but she didn't respond.

Lylla watched as Mantis used her empath powers to read the man's emotions. "He's anxious, angry. He feels tremendous loss and guilt."

"It's like a pirate had a baby with an angel," Drax commented.

"Wow. This is a real wake-up call for me. Ok," Quill said as everyone paid more attention to the man on the table. "I'm gonna get a Bowflex. I'm gonna commit. I'm gonna get some dumbbells."

"You know you can't eat dumbbells, right?" Rocket asked.

Gamora grabbed one of the man's arms and ran a hand over it. "It's like his muscles are made of Cotati metal fibers."

"Stop massaging his muscles," Quill commanded.

Gamora gave him a look and dropped the man's arm.

"Mantis, could you try waking him up?" Lylla asked.

The bug girl nodded and placed a hand on the man's forehead. "Wake," she said, antennae glowing as her powers activated.

Almost immediately the man jumped up screaming, stumbling a bit as he gasped for breath. He slowly turned around to face the Guardians, all of them readying themselves to fight this guy if they had to. "Who the hell are you guys?" he asked.

[***]

The Guardians quickly introduced themselves to their newcomer who went by Thor Odinson. He was an Asgardian prince whom was leading his people to their new home when Thanos and his Black Order attacked their ship. While they had sent half of their people to safety, the rest of them had perished to Thanos' army.

"The entire time I knew Thanos, he only ever had one goal," Gamora said as everyone settled in. "To bring balance to the universe by wiping out half of all life." Lylla handed Thor some soup, which the Asgardian gladly started eating as Gamora continued. "He used to kill people planet by planet, massacre by massacre."

"Including my own," Drax said.

"If he gets all six Infinity Stones he can do it with a snap of his fingers like this," she snapped her fingers in demonstration.

"You seem to know a great deal about Thanos," Thor commented.

"Gamora was raised by Thanos as his daughter," Lylla explained.

Thor looked up at Gamora, her eyes downtrodden with shame. "You father killed my brother," Thor said. He got up and confronted Gamora.

"Oh boy," Quill said. "Stepfather, technically, and she hates him as much as you do."

Thor placed a hand on Gamora's shoulder. "Families can be tough," he said. "Before my father died, he told me that I had a half-sister that he imprisoned in Hel. And then she returned and stabbed me in the eye, so I had to kill her. That's life, though, isn't it? Goes around and round and…" He looked Gamora in the eyes. "I feel your pain."

Quill got in front of Thor and broke their eye contact. "I feel your pain as well, because… I mean, it's not a competition but I've been through a lot. My father killed my mother and then I had to kill my father and it was hard. Probably harder than having to kill as sister."

Rocket sighed as Quill sized up to Thor. "Plus I came out with both eyes, which was…"

Thor looked at his spoon, completely ignoring Quil. "I need a hammer, not a spoon." He walked to the back of the ship and towards the escape pod. "How do I open this thing? Is there some sort of, uh, four-digit code, maybe? Maybe a birthdate."

Everyone watched as Thor tried to open the escape pod. "Uh, what are you doing?" Rocket asked.

"Taking your pod," Thor responded.

Quill cleared his throat and put on a deep voice. "No you're not." Everyone looked at Quill like he'd grown a second head. "You will not be taking our pod today, sir."

"Uh… Quill, are you making your voice deeper?" Rocket asked.

Quill paused. "No."

"You are. You're imitating the god-man. It's weird," Drax stated.

"No I'm not," Quill said, his face starting to go red with embarrassment.

Mantis gasped and pointed. "He did it again!"

This is my voice," Quill defended.

Lylla started to giggle at Quill's antics. Thor frowned and got up in Quill's face. "Are you mocking me?" he asked.

Quill smirked. "Are you mocking me?" he said in his deep voice.

"Stop it. You're just… You did it again."

"He's trying to copy me."

"I need you to stop doing that."

"He's doing it first."

Lylla burst out laughing as Gamora rolled her eyes. "Enough! We need to stop Thanos, which means we need to find out where he's going next."

"Knowhere," Thor replied.

"He must be going somewhere," Mantis said.

"Knowhere is the name of place, Mantis," Lylla explained. "It kind of sucks, though."

Thor opened up the Guardian's fridge and grabbed some food, much to Quill's annoyance. "Hey, that's our food."

"Not anymore," Thor dully said.

"Thor, why would he go to Knowhere?" Gamora asked.

"Because for years the Reality Stone's been safely stored there with a man called the Collector," Thor explained.

"It's a good thing we never sold the Power Stone to him back then," Lylla whispered to Rocket, the raccoon nodding in agreement.

"If it's with the Collector, then it's not safe," Quill stated. "Only an idiot would give that man a stone."

"Or a genius," Thor retorted.

"How do you know he's not going for one of the other Stones?" Gamora asked.

Thor walked up to the Guardians. "There are six Stones out there. Thanos already has the Power Stone because he stole it last week when he decimated Xandar." Lylla gasped as he continued. "He stole the Space Stone from me when he destroyed my ship and slaughter half my people. The Time and Mind Stones are safe on Earth, they're with the Avengers."

"The Avengers?" Lylla asked.

"The Earth's mightiest heroes," Thor said.

"Like Kevin Bacon?" Mantis asked.

"He may be on the team. I dunno, I haven't been there in a while," Thor said. "As for the Soul Stone, well, no one's ever seen that. No one even knows where it is. Therefor Thanos can't get it, therefore he's going to Knowhere, hence he'll be getting the Reality Stone. You're welcome."

"Then we have to go to Knowhere now," Gamora stated.

"Wrong. Where we have to go is Nidavellir," Thor said.

Drax scoffed, "That's a made-up word."

All words are made up," Thor retorted.

"Nidavellir is real, seriously?" Rocket asked, getting up the table with Lylla. "That place is a legend. They make he most powerful, horrific weapons to ever torment the universe." He chuckled. "I would very much like to go there, please."

"The rabbit is correct and clearly the smartest among you," Thor said.

"Rabbit?" Rocket and Lylla said in confusion.

Thor continued. "Only Eitri the Dwarf can make me the weapon I need." He looked at Rocket. "I assume you're the captain, sir?"

"You're very perceptive," Rocket dryly said.

"You seem like a noble leader, with a lovely mate as well," Thor said, making Lylla blush. "Will you join me on my quest to NIdavellir?"

"Let me just ask the captain- oh, wait as second, it's me! Yeah, I'll go," Rocket said.

"Wonderful," Thor smiled.

Rocket and Lylla followed Thor to the escape pod as Quill objected, "Except I'm the captain."

"Quiet," Thor shushed.

Lylla grabbed Quill's bag and tossed to Rocket. "That's my backpack," Quill said.

"Go sit down," Rocket ordered.

"Look, this is my ship, and I'm not going to…" Quill paused. "Wait, what kinda- what kinda weapon are we talking about here?"

"The Thanos-killing kind," Thor stated.

"Sounds like something we should all get," Lylla said.

"No. You simply lack the strength to wield them," Thor replied. "Your bodies would crumble as your minds collapsed into madness."

"Is it weird that I wanna do it even more now?" Rocket asked as he opened up the escape pod.

"A little bit," Lylla shrugged.

"If we don't go to Knowhere and Thanos retrieves another Stone he'll be too powerful to stop," Gamora argued.

"He already is," Thor said.

"I got it figured out," Rocket said. "We've got two ships and a large assortment of morons. So me and Groot will go with the pirate angel here, and my lovely mate Lylla will take the morons to Knowhere to try and stop Thanos. Cool? Cool."

"I'll do my best, Captain Rocket," Lylla said, giving a mock salute to the raccoon.

He smiled and hugged his mate. "I trust that you won't die a horrific death while I'm gone, okay?" he asked.

"I promise," Lylla said. She playfully dug into his shoulder with her claws. "I'll be keeping in touch to make sure you guys don't die horribly either." She handed Rocket a radio. "This is a special two-way communicator that I've been working on."

"You're the best of us, Ly," Rocket said.

"For the record," Quills said to the Raccoon. "I know that you're going with him because it's where Thanos isn't."

"You know, you really shouldn't talk that way to your captain, Quill," Rocket said. "I wouldn't be leaving Lylla in charge if I was running away. We'll be back and give Thanos the old BANG before you know it. Now come on, Groot."

The tree reluctantly got into the pod with Thor and Rocket. "I bid you farewell and good luck, Lady Lylla and morons," Thor said as they disengaged from the Benatar and flew off to Nidavellir.

As everyone watched Rocket and Thor fly off, Lylla got back up onto the table and clapped her paws together. "So, off to Knowhere then?"

Author's Note

Wow is it good to be back!

While I'm covering Infinity War and Endgame, we'll be mostly in Lylla's POV unless she's with Rocket. The reason I split the two up this time is that Lylla wouldn't add much to the trip to Nidavellir, so that part is going to play out the same as it did in the movie. Just imagine that Rocket mentions fighting to protect Lylla during his heart-to-heart with Thor.

This will allow us to see more of Lylla's interactions with the rest of the Guardians cast (which has been a bit lacking) and let her meet a few Avengers characters that are important to her arc. I'll let you guess who in the comments.

Next time: Lylla takes the Guardians to Knowhere, and meets Thanos for the first time…