Year Four after the Snap, and now we get one more chance to see Rocket and Lylla's family in action before the endgame…

Adventuring out into the far reaches of the galaxy, Rocket held on for dear life while Shocket piloted the Benatar. The ottercoon was now four years old (a teenager in Half-World age) and was laughing up a storm as she dodged and weaved between asteroids.

"I said to go around the asteroid belt, not through it!" Rocket shouted.

"This is just like in Star Wars!" Shocket continued to laugh.

"I knew we shouldn't have binge-watched all of those moves before leaving Terra," Lylla grumbled, desperately trying to keep her lunch down. "She's almost as bad as you, Rocky."

"At least we're not near any planets for her to crash into, or get arrested on," Rocket shrugged. As the ship has another near miss with an asteroid, he sighed and grabbed his own control, piloting the ship out of danger. "That's enough flight training for today, young lady."

"Come on Dad, I was just having fun," Shocket pouted. She had switched out her kid onesie for a flight suit similar to Rocket's, with a purple color scheme with light blue accents and the Guardians of the Galaxy emblem on the belt buckle. Her voice was a mix of her father's Brooklyn accent and her mother's British accent, making her sound Cockney in tone.

"You can practice flying the ship later, Shocket," Lylla assured. She tapped her screen and did a scan of the area. "Doesn't look like there's anything unusual on the radar, so let's have a look around to see if there's anything of use around here."

"Hope we find something worthwhile," Rocket agreed.

The Benatar flew through space, past remnants of worlds forgotten. The Half-Worlders weren't sure what had caused all of this destruction, as the energy readings weren't that of an Infinity Stone, but whatever destroyed these worlds had to have some sort of cosmic power on their side. Lylla was silently thankful that they hadn't come across anything else on par with Ego in their travels.

"So, how's Terra been doing while I was gone?" Rocket asked.

"Natasha and I have been working on helping relief programs, as well as scouting out potential new heroes," Lylla said.

"Getting the kids ready for war already," Rocket sighed.

"We're just seeing if they have potential, nothing else," Lylla said. "Unfortunately, despite what Thanos may have thought, getting rid of half of the universe's population didn't change the rate of crime at all. If anything it just left a power vacuum for new criminals to rise up with less law enforcement to stop them."

"Least there's Captain Marvel to handle most of those things for us," Shocket said. "She's been getting more popular on Earth, especially in certain online groups. Made a few friends there."

"How many of them know that you're an ottercoon?" Rocket asked.

"They think I'm something called a 'Furry' I think? Humans that dress up as animals," Shocket said.

"Ah, like at those conventions that I've read about," Lylla nodded. "It's apparently custom or Terrans to dress up as fictional characters and go around taking pictures of each other. There's a whole holiday around it where they give you free food."

"I got so much candy," Shocket said with a sigh.

"Backwards planet," Rocket grumbled. "You know what that's called anywhere else in the galaxy? Identity theft or being a Skrull."

"Anyway, how's space been, Dad?" Shocket asked. "Kicked any butt with Aunt Nebula?"

"Just the usual scum I dealt with before," Rocket said. "Had an… interesting encounter on Klyntar, but nothing else unusual. I got a call to investigate a Nova Corps signal near Terra, but it was just some kid with experimental technology."

"You've met Sam?" Shocket perked up. "I knew he wasn't lying about having powers! Everyone on the Avengers Forum thought he was just roleplaying, but me and Kamala figured that his story was a bit too detailed for it to be made up."

Lylla smiled as her daughter talked about the friends she had made. "I've also made connections on Terra, Rocky. I helped establish a diplomatic relationship between Wakanda and the Inhumans, got relief funding for the homeless and displaced from Rand Industries, and gave Tony a few suggestions for his latest armor."

"Morgan also said her first words," Shocket said. "She's even started calling me her 'Big Sis.'"

Rocket nodded, then turned to his controls as a beeping came on. "We'll have to hold off on the small talk. I just got a big energy reading nearby. Get ready for anything."

Lylla nodded and went to get her weapons prepared, while Shocket cheered and took up gunner position. The otter picked up Rocket's dual pistols and Shocket's multi-launcher, a weapon of the ottercoon's design that could use standard blaster fire, Gatling rounds, an electrified net, missiles, and set up proximity mines. Lylla grabbed her staff, now reinforced by Vibranium and given the option to fire stun blasts out of one end.

The Benatar soon landed on a large chunk of space debris, with just enough of an atmosphere for them to safely breathe on. Shocket quickly grabbed her weapon and ran off, despite protests from her mother.

"She gets it from you, you know," Lylla said.

Rocket grinned. "As long as she doesn't get herself killed. We were just as bad at her age too, ya know?"

"We were also in a war against killer clown robots," Lylla rolled her eyes. She reached up to her chest and pressed on her brooch, the cloak she wore retracting to reveal Lylla's new combat outfit. The brooch now rested in a necklace sitting just under her collar bone, with the rest of her outfit being a light blue jumpsuit with grey accents on the side, lacking sleeves and stopping just after her knees. Matching bracers covered her forearms and a pink sash was tied around her waist.

"Woah…" Rocket breathed, admiring the beauty of his mate.

Lylla smirked at the look he was giving her. "Now then, let's check out this energy reading, shall we?"

Rocket nodded and the two went to catch up with her daughter, whom was already exploring the ruins on this chunk of earth. Lylla noted that the remaining architecture was similar to that of the Shi'ar, which was odd to see this far out from their own galaxy.

"Looks like this place was scorched to high heaven," Shocket shouted.

Her parents went over to see a large blast mark in the center of the destruction, with a large pink gem at the epicenter. Rocket slid down the crater to inspect the crystal, with Lylla and Shocket not far behind. Lylla's scanner started beeping rapidly as they approached, meaning that it was the crystal's energy that they had picked up on.

"What do you think it is?" she asked.

"A power source of some kind?" Rocket shrugged. "Whatever it was, it looks like the Shi'ar either tried to use it against whatever destroyed this planet and failed, or this crystal is what blew it up in the first place."

"Maybe a few good shots will crack it open," Shocket suggested, readying her blaster before Rocket pushed the weapon down.

"Careful there, kid. Never shoot without purpose, or if they're already shooting at you," Rocket said.

"You should take your own advice sometimes," Lylla snarked. She walked over to the crystal, placing a careful paw against it. "It feels warm. Like there's something inside of it." The crystal glowed as Lylla continued to touch it, the light forming into the shape of a bird across its surface. "I hear a voice. It's calling out… to me…?" She gasped and let go of the crystal, Rocket catching her as she stumbled backwards.

"What in the bloody hell was that?" Shocket questioned.

"Language," Lylla said. "But to answer your question, I don't know. I felt a presence here and saw a room of white fire. It was like when Cosmo speaks to us, a strong psychic force is inside this crystal."

Rocket let out a grunt. "Well, I don't think we'll be able to do anything about this crystal, and it's far enough out here that no one will find it on purpose. Still, I'll set up a signal scrambler to mask the energy readings, just in case."

Lylla nodded and turned to head back to the ship, until her foot kicked against a crystal fragment on the ground. It looked freshly cut and gave off the same energy as the larger one behind them. "Might as well take this for study," she said.

"We might be able to make a new weapon out of it," Shocket said.

"Or an energy source," Lylla said.

Shocket rolled her eyes. "Sure, we can do the boring thing as well."

[***]

After setting up the energy dampener, the Half-Worlders jumped back to the populated part of the galaxy, heading to the temporary Nova Corps base to check in. Captain Marvel was there chatting with Rhomann Dey, one of the survivors and the current Nova Prime. Along with them was a middle-aged man with brown hair and a Latino teenager.

"Sam!" Shocket called, running over to the teenager.

"Shocket?" the boy said with surprise. "So you really are a raccoon."

"Ottercoon, actually," Rocket said. "Sup kid, long time no see. Getting yourself familiar with the rest of the Nova Corps now."

"With some help," Dey said. "Rocket, Lylla, good of you to join us. You're already familiar with Carol Danvers, so let me introduce you to Richard Rider, the head of Nova Force."

"Good to meet you," Rider said, leading down to shake the Half-Worlders hands. "I was sent to check out the Nova signal from Terra after you reported it and brought Sam here for some more official training."

"I'm gonna be a real superhero now!" Sam said with a smirk.

"Hold up, short stuff, you've got a long way to go before you can consider yourself a hero," Carol said.

"What's Nova Force?" Lylla asked.

"Nova Force is the new initiative to patrol and protect the galaxy," Dey responded. "After Thanos ravaged Xandar, we went back to our roots and dug up some of our older Nova technology. With a few updates- "

"Thanks to yours truly," Rocket smirked.

Dey sighed. "- We were able to create helmets that give the wears energy manipulation, flight, and space travel. Sam here has one of the original prototypes worn by his father, Jesse Alexander."

"Whom we're still looking into," Carol said. "I suggested we call it the Carol Corps, but that was shot down quickly."

"Not everything has to be about you," Rider snarked.

As the two humans started to playfully bicker, Lylla rolled her eyes and went to look around the new Nova Headquarters. "Until we can repair Xandar, this is our home," Dey explained. "We've got new recruits coming in every day, and thanks to Captain Marvel we've been able to get back on our feet in protecting the galaxy in your absence." He coughed. "Sorry about what happened to Quill and the others."

"It wasn't your fault," Lylla sighed. She looked at a nearby tube on the command table containing a familiar ooze inside. "Rocky, isn't this that Klyntar you found on Xandar? I thought you said that you took it back to its homeworld."

"About that," he scratched the back of his neck. "Remember how I said that things got complicated there. Turns out that after they went and 'healed' it, whatever that means, the slime wanted to come back with me. I just left it here so you didn't ask any questions."

"It's still yours to take," Dey said. "We don't have a use for it, and our research division has analyzed it. It has traces of Rocket's DNA in its code, so it's already formed an imprint on him. Our records on Klyntar show that they prefer a certain host or its offspring, and certain deviations are what cause them to become unstable and violent."

"I call dibs!" Shocket shouted, jumping onto the table and grabbing the tube. "Can I have it Mum and Dad, please? If it has Dad's DNA, then I should be compatible as well."

Rocket looked to Lylla and shrugged, making the otter sigh. "We can keep it, but I don't want either of you bonding with it until we can trust it."

Shocket cheered. "Hear that Sam? I'll be a hero like you in no time!"

"Both of you will have training before that," Carol said.

"I already have the best teachers right here," Shocket replied, gesturing to her parents.

"There's three of them now…" Dey sighed.

Rocket smirked. "Alright kid, if you want the Klyntar to be a part of the Guardians of the Galaxy, then we'll need to take it on some missions with us. Got anything for us to handle, Dey?"

Nova Prime nodded and pulled up a star map on the command desk. "There's been reports of a Kakarantharian in Nova space. Probably something that all of you should check out."

"What's a Kaka-whatever-its-name-is?" Sam asked.

"A space dragon," Carol replied. "Some of them are galactic conquerors, but others make a mean Chinese food."

"We get to fight space dragons!?" Shocket shouted. She gave a manic grin and ran out to the Benatar. "Let's go kick some dragon arse, Sam!"

"Language!" Lylla called, running off after her daughter.

Carol powered up and flew out of the base, with Sam and Rider putting on their Nova helmets to activate their powers. Rocket looked to Dey and said, "Hope you have a good price for space dragon hide," before heading off to the ship.

"The galaxy gets stranger and stranger every day," Dey said to himself. "Good luck, Guardians."

Author's Note

Fun space adventures! There were a lot of references in this chapter to the larger cosmic Marvel universe, some of which were just for fun and others that will come into play later. The crystal fragment that Lylla has now may come in handy later…

It always bothered me that the Nova Corps in the movies aren't he helmet wearing ones from the comics, so to reconcile the two I have the remnants of the Nova Corps here rediscovering their roots, while also introducing Richard Rider and Sam Alexander to this universe. Fun Fact, Commander Dey was the original Nova Prime in the comics that gave Richard Rider his powers. Rocket meeting Sam is also a reference to his first appearance as well.

Shocket is interesting to write, as she's definitely more like Rocket but a bit more immature, with Lylla's sass mixed in. I also wanted to establish her having Earth friends as it makes sense to me that she would get involved in their culture after living there for three years. We've met Sam/Nova, and it should be no surprise to those in-the-know who Kamala is.

And the Guardians now have a Klyntar on the team! I'll be up front about it: this is NOT Venom, but an original Klyntar character. They are a slight reference to when Flash Thompson/Agent Venom was on the Guardians, however.

If you don't know what a Kakarantharian is, it's the species that classic Marvel villain Fin Fang Foom is. Yes, the giant green dragon in purple shorts. THAT Fin Fang Foom.

Next Time: The endgame starts with Lylla's return to Earth and meeting a certain insect-themed hero.