Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out, but Finals are over and I have summer free time to write more!

Year Three, and Lylla's been taking care of little Shocket on Earth. Another couple has a kid as well, so it's time for the two children to meet!

Somewhere in the United States, Tony Stark had made his residence, having retired to the countryside with his wife Pepper and their daughter, Morgan. After the Snap, Tony wanted nothing to do with the Avengers and had cut off all contact with them, though that didn't stop his friends from calling to see if he was okay.

Lylla had gotten the Stark address from Natasha (it really pays to have a super spy for a friend) and planned to introduce Shocket to them. As she flew over there with the Benatar's space pod, the otter called Rocket to see how he was doing.

"Rocky? Are you there?" she asked as the comlink connected.

Rocket's image came onto the screen. Ever since leaving Earth he had changed to a more spacefaring one, more like a pilot's outfit with goggles and a red scarf. "Hey Lady, how's the kid doing?" he asked.

Lylla smiled and held up Shocket, the little ottercoon reaching out to wave at her father. "She's doing just fine. I've only had to stop her from blowing up the Avenger's base a few times."

"At least I'm not there to encourage that behavior," Rocket replied sarcastically. "Anyway, I'm currently investigating what's left of Xandar. There's been quite a few bandits looking through the rubble out here, but they're not the only ones that have found something good." The raccoon adjusted his camera to show Nebula sorting through various junk they had picked up. "We're in contact with the remaining Nova Corps that were off-world when Thanos blew the place up. As long as we get their stuff back, they'll allow me to keep some of this stuff."

"Oh, anything good so far?" Lylla asked,

Rocket smirked and held up a container with a purplish-black substance inside. "Check it out."

Lylla's eyes went wide. "Is that…"

"Yep! It's a real live Klyntar," Rocket said. "These things can give their host a major power boost."

"And are known for being unstable in the wrong hands," Lylla said. "Sure you don't want to hand that over to the Nova Corps."

"He- heck no!" Rocket said, correcting himself before he cursed in front of Shocket. "They don't know that this survived, so I'm keeping it."

"Not like I can really stop you at the moment," Lylla muttered. "Nebula, make sure that Rocky doesn't use that thing for any nefarious purpose."

Nebula looked at the screen and nodded. "I'll put the Klyntar somewhere where the rodent can't use it." She went off-screen and came back with an orange tabby cat of all things.

Rocket freaked out and pulled a gun on it. "Nebula, you better freaking keep that thing away from me, or I swear- "

The cat opened its mouth wider than it should be able too, producing tentacles that grabbed the Klyntar container and swallowed it whole. "Good girl, Goose," Nebula said, petting the alien cat on the head.

"Of all the things for Danvers to have, it had to be a Flerken," Rocket grumbled. "It's gonna take forever to get that back…"

Lylla giggled at her mate's antics. "Well, we have to go now," she said. "Wave goodbye, Shocket."

The ottercoon gave her father a wave before Lylla turned off the comlink. The Stark residence was in their view, so the otter parked their ship a good distance from the house before going up to it. She knocked on the door and waited before voices could be heard inside.

"Tony, did you invite anyone over?" Pepper called.

"No, I didn't," he replied. Tony opened the door, "Natasha, I swear to god if this is-" he stopped and looked around before seeing Lylla and Shocket. "Oh, it's you."

"Hello Tony," Lylla greeted. "I've come by for a visit." She nudged Shocket forward. "This is mine and Rocket's daughter, Shocket."

"Your… daughter," Tony repeated slowly. He sighed. "Alright, you are aliens, so I guess that can happen."

Shocket crawled over to Tony and latched onto his leg. The human reached down to pick her up, studying the ottercoon like one does a new scientific find. Shocket, having grown in the passing year, was now wearing a purple onesie, with a hole cut out for her tail to poke though.

"What's with the pink hair?" Tony asked, fingering the little tuft of pink on Shocket's head.

"We're not entirely sure," Lylla said. "We think it's part of Half-World biology, as there are other people on our world that have different coloration from what would be considered 'normal' by your Earth standards."

Tony decided not to question it and gave Shocket back to Lylla. "Honey, we've got a guest," he called.

"They're just in time for dinner," Pepper replied.

Tony returned Shocket to Lylla and let the two inside. The otter looked around the small yet homely Stark residence, though she could see some of Tony's inventions interwoven into the furniture as well. Lylla went into the kitchen and hopped up into one of the chairs, setting Shocket down before pulling out her pocket storage device to retrieve a seat for the ottercoon.

"You have technology to create a personal pocket dimension?" Tony asked.

"Yes," Lylla replied, "but I'm not going to tell you how it works. There are laws against giving advanced technology to planets under certain tech level. No offense."

Tony rolled his eyes and sat down at the head of the table, Pepper entering the room with a casserole in hand. Lylla gave thanks to Pepper, scooping out food for her and Shocket.

"Oh, is this Morgan?" the otter asked, motioning to the two-year-old girl in a booster seat.

"Our little bundle of joy," Pepper replied. "And how's your kid? Shocket, right?"

"She's quiet and is already trying to make things explode," Lylla said sarcastically. "It's been interesting, seeing as she's one of the first Half-Worlders to be born after we freed ourselves from the machines. Uncle Rus has gotten some interesting data because of her."

"I was wondering about that," Tony said. "From what you've told me, your whole planet has animals with cybernetic enhancements, so what does that mean for your kid?"

"Thanks to alterations in our DNA, Shocket's body is able to biologically stand upright and have higher cognitive functions compared to your Terran animals. She won't be as physically durable as Rocket or I but at the same time she won't have to deal with the risk of cybernetic failure," Lylla explained. "We're expecting her to be able to join us on missions by next year."

"You're going to take a child on dangerous space missions?" Pepper questioned.

"Half-Worlders don't age at the same rate as Terrans," Lylla replied. "In your years I'm only a teenager, but biologically I'm closer to someone in their late twenties early thirties. Shocket here will be a fully-fledged adult in six to seven years. She's still not willing to talk around others, but we're working on it."

Tony nodded, muttering something about "Weird alien biology" and going back to his food.

[***]

Lylla allowed Shocket to play with Morgan for a bit as evening came, with the two kids quickly forming a bond of friendship. Despite being roughly the same age, Shocket took to being the "older" one, leading Morgan in building a castle out of wooden blocks. The ottercoon's mind was as sharp as her parent's in spite of her age, though just as quickly as they built the castle Shocket went and knocked it over with a pillow.

"Yeah, definitely like her father," Tony said, watching from the doorway with Lylla. "You know that he tried to steal one of my armors before he left for space?"

"It's not like you don't have spares," Lylla rolled her eyes. "By the way, how's that 'project' coming along?"

Tony pulled out his phone and showed Lylla a blueprint for a new armor. "Still working on all its functions, but hopefully she'll appreciate it."

"You're still holding onto hope that we can fix this," Lylla said. Tony didn't respond, so she continued, "I understand that. I would love for Quill, Gamora, Drax, and especially Groot to meet Shocket. There's a lot of place I haven't been in the universe, so maybe there's still something out there we could use to bring back our loved ones." She sighed. "But then again, that would be selfish to only bring back a few people."

"It would have to be all or nothing," Tony said. "Do I miss them? Yes, especially the kid, but I don't want to lose Morgan either."

Shocket tried to build the castle again, only for Morgan to grab her tail and cuddle it like a blanket. Shocket let out a growl and turned around, only for Morgan to pull the ottercoon close and cuddle her like a teddy bear. Shocket resisted a bit, but eventually relented to the hug. While she took after Rocket's attitude and tendencies most of the time, she still had Lylla's capacity for caring for others.

"It's getting late. Time to go, Shocket," Lylla called.

Shocket looked to her mother and pulled herself free from Morgan's grip. The ottercoon waved goodbye to her friend as Tony picked up Morgan to put her in bed and Lylla went to take Shocket home.

"Thank you for the food," Lylla said to Pepper.

"Feel free to bring Shocket over for a playdate any time," she said.

"Not any time," Tony said, coming into the room. "Call us first, please."

"I'll be sure to do that," Lylla responded.

As the two Half-Worlders left the Stark residence in their ship, Lylla sent out a call to get in contact with Rocket. After a bit of time, the connection went through and Rocket came on screen, the raccoon holding a device while Goose sat next to him.

"Rocket, what are you doing?" Lylla asked.

Rocket looked up from his device. "Oh, hi Lylla, Shocket. How's Stark doing?"

"He's fine, and so is Pepper and their daughter," Lylla replied. Shocket waved to her father.

"Hey kid," Rocket waved back. "Anyway, I jury-rigged a miniature drone and put it inside the Flerken to try and find my stuff that it keeps eating."

"It's worked so far, surprisingly," Nebula commented from off-screen.

"What would you even do with a Klyntar anyway?" Lylla asked.

"After some thinking- " Rocket said.

"And by that he means I threatened him," Nebula interjected.

" -I decided to return it to its home world," Rocket said, glaring at the cyborg.

Lylla giggled. "Good luck with that. We'll see you back here on Terra soon."

As the call ended, Lylla looked over to see Shocket curled up, fast asleep in her seat. The otter smiled at her daughter, rubbing the tuft of fur on her head as they went back to base.

Author's Note

Shocket and Morgan know each other now, and we've gotten to see a bit of what Rocket's been up to as well. Shocket is definitely going to be the "big sister" in their relationship.

Since Goose didn't show up in Endgame, we don't know if he's still alive or not, but considering that he's an alien I figure that he's still alive during the present day. Captain Marvel has left Goose in the care of Nebula, and the relationship that Rocket has with the Flerken is a nod to when the raccoon cameoed in a Captain Marvel comic (though with less trying to murder the space cat).

A lot of Half-Worlder biology is made up by me, but in the Guardians of the Galaxy cartoon series we see Rocket as a child before he gets uplifted, so if figured that they all age at the same rate as Earth animals, but then slow down significantly once they reach adulthood. And before you ask, Shocket does have the pink hair tuft in the comics, and it goes unexplained there as well.

If you don't know what a Klyntar is, it's description should make it pretty obvious if you know your Marvel characters. May or may not be set-up for the future…

Next Time: Rocket and Lylla take their daughter on her first mission!