It's time for Year 1 in the Post-Snap universe, and with it, new life from the ashes.

Meet the Family

After fixing the Benatar, the Avengers went on the hunt for Thanos, following his trail after getting a massive energy surge on the other side of the galaxy. Tony and Lylla stayed on Earth to recover from their time in space, and when the others came back, they learned a horrifying truth: in his last act, Thanos had used the power of the Infinity Stones to destroy the Stones. Thor killed the Titan, but now there was no way to reverse the damage Thanos had done to the universe.

When the heroes returned to Earth, they got to work helping out wherever they could: Providing relief for those that were in need, quelling crimes, and trying to give some semblance of order in these times of need. As for the Guardians, Nebula took the Benatar (with Rocket's permission) to go and get the ship fully repaired other than what minor fixes Rocket managed before.

"I'm surprised that Thanos was able to use the Stones twice," Lylla said as Rocket finished his story. "Considering that it took all of us just to hold one of them, and we only barely managed that."

"Well, they're gone now, so it's not like that matters," Rocket said.

There was a knock at the door, and Bruce Banner, one of the Avengers, came into the room. "Excuse me?"

"What is it?" Rocket replied.

"There's a call for you two… or at least, for the Guardians?" he said. "They hacked into our coms and they won't leave until you reply."

Lylla and Rocket exchanged a look, then left the room, making a beeline for the Avengers control center. Tony, Steve Rodgers, and Natasha Romanov were all in attendance, waiting around for the two Half-Worlders to get there.

"Our furry companions arrive," Tony said, still a bit weak from his time in space.

"Where's Thor?" Rocket asked.

"He's helping his people get acclimated to Earth," Bruce explained. "They just arrived this morning."

Lylla hopped up onto the table and took control of the coms. With a bit of unscrambling, she managed to take the audio message and patch it into her personal comlink, pulling up a hologram of the caller.

" -you sure this thing is on, Rus?" said a deep, British-accented voice. The screen became clear to reveal another raccoon Half-Worlder on the other side, though this one was wearing a red jumpsuit in contrast to Rocket's blue.

"Holy Half-World, Ranger!?" Rocket said, jumping up on the table in surprise.

The raccoon, Ranger, looked at the screen and gave a smile. "Hey, little bro! Looks like Rus here managed to pinpoint your location after all."

Wal-Rus came into view. "Glad to know you two are safe out there."

"Good to see you as well, Uncle Rus," Lylla said.

"How many of them are there?" Tony whispered to Bruce, only getting a shrug.

"How many people are still left?" Rocket asked.

Ranger and Wal-Rus gave a confused look. "People left?" Ranger repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lylla and Rocket quickly explained what had happened with Thanos and half the life in the universe disappearing. "Hm…" Wal-Rus thought. "It might be a stretch, but since our planet is already split in half between animals and machine, then maybe Half-World was skipped over, since by Thanos' logic, the planet was 'perfectly balanced' already."

"Lucky us," Rocket said sarcastically. "Anyway, what was it that you called us for?"

Ranger took the lead on the call. "Right, well, I just wanted to call and say that we're coming for a visit."

Rocket paused. "Wait, a visit? Like, all of you, or just you and Rus?"

"As in the whole family, Rocket," Ranger replied.

[***]

In an Earth days' time, Rocket's family arrived at the Avengers HQ in Wal-Rus and Rocket's old ship, the Rakk'n'Ruin. Rocket and Lylla waited outside as the ship landed, watching as three raccoons and Wal-Rus exited.

"Why are so tense?" Lylla asked her mate.

Rocket scratched the back of his head. "Let's just say there's a reason I never introduced you to my family."

"Rocket!" Ranger called, running up and giving his brother a hug. "Half-World's been dull without you blowing up robots! How's your bounty hunting gig going?"

"Haha, good to see you too," Rocket said. He looked over at the other raccoons, whom were giving the Guardian the stink eye. "Uh, hi sis, mom."

Rocket's mother, whom wore a green Half-World uniform, walked over to her son and grabbed him by the face. "So, you thought that you could just run-off with some girl and not tell your mother, did ya?" she said in a thick Brooklyn accent.

"Mom, I'm my own person, I don't have to tell you everything that I decide to do with my life," Rocket said.

Lylla watched the scene play out, only for Rocket's sister, wearing a light-blue Half-World uniform, came into her view. "You're Lylla, right?" she asked curiously.

"That's correct," Lylla said with a nod. "I don't believe we got the chance to meet during the war."

"I was on the southern front with Ranger," Rocket's sister replied.

"Ah, that explains it," Lylla said.

" -and another thing!" Rocket's mom shouted.

"Okay, Mom, I think he gets it," Ranger intervened, pulling his mother away from Rocket.

She growled, then looked over to Lylla. "You didn't even pick a girl of the same species!?"

"Oh boy," Rocket's sister sighed, pinching her snout.

It took some time, but the raccoon family was soon able to calm their mother down, at least to the point that she wasn't shouting at Rocket.

"Lylla, let me introduce my family, properly this time," Rocket said. "You already met Ranger on the coms, so that one's my Mom, Ripley, and the other is my sister, River."

"Can't believe he chose you over any other girl of his species," Ripley muttered.

River sighed. "Mom, she's not just any girl, she's Lady Lylla. You know, the one that's heir to one of the biggest companies on Half-World?"

Ripley gave Lylla another look, astonishment on her face. "Wait, what? Why didn't you say that earlier!" She playfully grabbed Rocket ruffled his head. "For being a runt, you sure know how to pick them. You should have lead with that line first."

"Glad that you changed your mind so fast," Rocket grumbled. "Are you going to be staying long, or will you go back to what is debatably a better planet now, please?"

"Nope!" Ripley said, dropping her son to the ground. "Now that we're here, how's about we take a look around Earth? Get to know the future in-law here before we go."

"Great," Rocket sarcastically said.

"I'll refuel the ship while you're gone," Wal-Rus said, heading off towards the Avengers HQ.

[***]

And so, Rocket and Lylla showed his family around Earth, or at least New York. There was still a lot of chaos going on from the Snap, but nothing that two raccoons and an otter with laser weapons couldn't handle. Lylla got to know more about Rocket's family: Ranger was a scout on the southern front of the war, doing sniper missions and having an aim that rivaled Rocket's when it came to marksmanship. River, on the other hand, worked as a medic, fixing up soldiers and saving Ranger from near-death on multiple occasions.

Lylla even tried to get closer to Ripley, though she found that the female raccoon's personality was colder that Rocket's other family members. "So, you said that Rocket was the runt of the family?" Lylla asked.

Ripley grunted. "Yep. Of course, my memory from before being uplifted isn't so good, but he was the one always fighting for attention between the three of 'em." She looked over at her kids as they fiddled with scraps they found from nearby cars. "Ranger, he's always been the big brother type, even standin' up to his ma for the runt. And River, well, I'd like to think she takes after me, but clearly it's her father's caring nature she got."

Lylla noted the sadness in her voice. "What happened to their dad?" she asked.

"He was one of the first those flarkin' bots tried upliftin'," Ripley replied. "He didn't make it through the process."

"My parents were murdered by the robots as well, so I know how it feels to lose a loved one," Lylla said. "I even watched my new family vanish before my eyes…"

Ripley looked at the otter, her gaze having drifted to Rocket as he impressed his siblings with a new invention. "Lylla, the runt may be screw-up at times, but there was nothin' either of you could've done about this 'Thanos' guy."

"I wonder if us being together would have changed anything," Lylla said.

"You really care about him," Ripley stated. "I see it in the way you look at him."

"We've been through everything together, since we first met in the labs," Lylla said. "I don't know what it would be like if we weren't together."

Ripley chuckled a bit. "Well then, at least you won't be having to worry about him leaving anytime soon."

Lylla tilted her head. "And why's that?"

"You'll be having your own little ones to deal with soon enough," Ripley replied.

The otter did a double take. "Wait, what? There's no way that Rocket and I are or could have kids. We're two different species."

"You can't fool a mother's nose," Ripley said. "I can smell him on you, and you've got the smell that only a mother-too-be has."

"I mean- well, uh," Lylla's face became heated. "Just because we've… fooled around, doesn't mean that I'm… He's a raccoon, and I'm an otter, it just doesn't happen!"

"Don't ya know about all the weird things those robots did to us?" Ripley said. "The scientists on Half-World figured out that in addition to cybernetics, they had to do some gene splicing to make our bodies compatible for sentience or whatever. Point is, whatever science they used on us made animals on Half-World compatible with each other, so…"

Lylla let the information sink in. "I mean, it makes sense… It would be easier for them to find a common gene to insert rather than make every Half-Worlder unique intentionally… It just makes those of different species less likely to be able to conceive…" She jumped up quickly and ran to her mate. "ROCKY! WE'RE HAVING A KID!"


Author's Note

Surprise! I've been waiting for this moment since Volume 2, but it's official: Rocket and Lylla are having a baby!

Rocket's mother and siblings are from the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, where they're… interesting, to say the least. Look, the show isn't terrible, but let's just say that I heard there was an episode where they went to Half-World and I was disappointed that they focused more on Rocket and his family instead of classic Rocket characters like Blackjack and Wal-Rus. Heck, Lylla didn't even show up in the episode!

Ranger is Rocket's brother's name in the show, but his mom and sister never got names, so I stuck with the "R-name" scheme and named them after Science Fiction characters: Ellen Ripley from the "Alien" movies and River Tam from the cult TV show "Firefly."

Anyway, I changed up their personalities a bit, with River basically being a new character and Ripley toned way down from the original nag that she was (though she still gets on Rocket from semi-valid reasons). Ranger is more brotherly than he was in the show, but other than that he didn't really have much personality to begin with.

Next Time: Rocket and Lylla welcome their child into the world