"Dear Peter,
I hear that you've made quite a band for yourself in prison. These individuals are quite unique in their own way, but considering that you're my son, so are you."
"Would you like some tea?" Professor Lionheart offered to the ex-prisoners. Half of them gave scowls that made the lion Faunus nervous. Groot was the only one who happily accepted a cup.
"I am Groot."
"You do realize that tea is made from leaves, right?" Rocket asked.
"I am Groot."
"Who cares about being a good guest?" Rocket asked. "What I want to know is why the headmaster of Haven went out of his way to help us."
"Yeah. It does seem pretty suspicious." Gamora said.
"Now, now, guys." Peter said. "Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth."
"I am neither looking at Professor Lionheart's bearded mouth nor is he anything related to a horse." Drax said. "He's a lion Faunus."
"It's a saying, dude." Peter said. "Anyway, professor, I appreciate the escape, but we need to leave."
"If you do, you'll be arrested." Lionheart said. "Once Atlas spreads the word over Mistral of your escape, you won't be welcome in the kingdom anymore. But I'm here to offer you a chance to be free."
"Free, you say?" Rocket asked. "Well, it would make our operations much smoother."
"I am Groot."
"Of course, we're continuing, Groot. We're on a hot streak. Now, lion man, what is it you need from us?"
Lionheart pulled out his scroll and pressed a button on its screen. Appearing above it was a holographic image of a bearded man with a red robot eye and a white lab coat.
"This man is Dr. Merlot, a scientist who used to work at Vale." Lionheart introduced.
"Dr. Merlot?" Gamora asked. "Of Merlot Industries? I thought he died when Mountain Glenn was destroyed."
"So did my colleagues," Lionheart said, "But we have recently discovered that he survived and he's continuing his work."
"What work?" Rocket asked.
"Mutating and controlling the creatures of Grimm." Lionheart answered which shocked the former convicts.
"That's insane." Gamora said. "He can do that?"
"He believes he can, and that creates a problem." Lionheart said. "He's always had the insane idea that Grimm are the future, the key to evolution. But his methods are too extreme. Some say that it was his mad experiments that caused Mountain Glenn to be destroyed."
"So why are we here?" Drax asked. "What did you need us for?"
"Well, not all of you exactly." Lionheart said. "At first, I only meant to help one of you escape, but seeing how you made it out of the military base on your own, maybe you'll be much more help working together."
"Work together, with these losers?" Rocket asked pointing at the others.
"I am not a loser." Drax said. "I have claimed countless victories in my underground battles."
"Bully for you." Rocket said.
"So professor," Gamora said, "You said you only wanted to help one of us at first. Who was that?"
"Why Peter Quill, of course." Lionheart said.
"Me?" Peter asked. "Me? Star-Lord?"
"Sure, whatever you call yourself." Lionheart said. "Look, Dr. Merlot is hiding. We don't know where he is. But what we do know is that he's been getting components for some kind of device one piece at a time. They've been delivered to him by members of the infamous Spider gang."
"The Spiders?" Peter asked. "The Branwen Tribe's been making a few deals with them. I've even been acquainted with their leader, Li'l Miss Malachite."
"You're a bandit?" Gamora asked.
"Well, your history with the Spiders is why you're here." Lionheart said. "I can't go up to Li'l Miss and demand her to tell me what she knows about Merlot or what he's planning. But she might open up to someone she trusts. And when I heard that there was a Branwen bandit in custody, I've decided to help you escape and enlist your help."
"So you need me to get Li'l Miss into revealing where Merlot is." Peter summarized.
"Well, we also need you to confirm if what she said is true." Lionheart said. "Just follow her lead and see if Merlot's where she says he is. After that, report back to me at Haven and I'll handle the rest. Once all that is done, I'll give all five of you blank slates."
"I seek not a blank slate." Drax said. "If I help you, all I ask for in return is the location of Tyrian Callows."
Lionheart grew nervous. "Callows? The serial killer? Well… I heard he was dead."
"He isn't dead until Drax the Destroyer says he is!" Drax held up one of his daggers which frightened the Haven headmaster.
"Okay! Okay!" Lionheart complied. "I'll see what I can do!"
"Since you're accepting deals, I have one of my own." Gamora said. "In Argus, there's this little girl. I want you to give her the best kind of support."
"A little irregular, but I don't see why not." Lionheart said.
"Why do you care so much about one brat?" Rocket asked, but Gamora didn't answer.
"Well, since we're all in agreement," Quill said, "There's just one thing left to do… I gotta go potty." He walked his way to the restroom. When he was gone, Mantis glared at Gamora.
"You feel… regret." Mantis said.
"How do you know?" Gamora asked with an aggressive glare.
"I'm supposed to know." Mantis said. "My Semblance is called Empathy. I can sense the emotions of others, and in some cases, project feelings into them. I can make a stubborn person compliant for example. Mostly though, I use my powers to put Professor Lionheart to sleep."
"He needs you to sleep?" Rocket asked.
"He does." Mantis replied. "He gets nightmares. He wouldn't tell me, but something really scares him."
"So you can make anyone fall asleep?" Drax asked. "Try me."
"Okay." Mantis said. She placed her hand on Drax's left shoulder. "Sleep." Suddenly, Drax closed his eyes and slumped down snoring.
"Well, that's gotta be handy." Gamora said.
After he was done with the toilet, Peter Quill whistled "Lake Shore Drive" while he washed his hands. When he was done washing, he reached for the paper towels. That was when a flash of red appeared behind him. He shrieked seeing the piller of black and red spiral before him. And out of that pillar, a woman in black-and-red armor walked out. She had black hair and a white Grimm mask over her face.
"Raven!" Peter gasped. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Quiet, Quill." Raven ordered. She removed her mask and revealed her red eyes that shot daggers at him. "What happened? You said you could get the job done two hours ago."
"I know. I know." Quill said. "Look, I hit a bit of a snafu, but I got the plans." He pulled up his Walkman and popped open the battery compartment. He reached in and slipped out a green microchip that was tucked in there.
"Excellent." Raven said. "And you deleted the original files from Atlas' servers?"
"I was just done with that right before they threw me in a cell." Quill said. "Thankfully, they had no idea what I was doing in there. A bunch of dum-dums."
"So what are you doing here?" Raven asked. "We agreed you'd meet up with Shay at the city limits. And yet, here I find you in a bathroom."
"It's the men's room actually." Quill said. "Speaking of which, I don't think you should be here."
"Don't get smart with me." Raven snapped.
"Right." Quill said nervously. "Okay, remember how you always told me not to trust the Huntsmen academy headmasters?"
"Yes." Raven said raising her eyebrow.
"Well, the funny thing is… Professor Lionheart wants me to do something for him." Quill said with a nervous chuckle.
"What?" Raven asked. "And you accepted?"
"Not because I wanted to." Quill said. "Look, he told me he'd clear my name in Mistral if I do this for him."
"And you believe him?"
"No, but it's better than the alternative. If I set one foot out of the camp now, it's basically Star-Lord hunting season. At least this will give me a more free reign to do more heists for you."
Raven sighed heavily. "How is it that you can be this naïve even after I found you nine years ago and brought you into my tribe? Fine. Just give me the chip and you'll be on your way." She extended her hand, but Quill backed away.
"Yeah, I'm not as naïve as you think, Raven."
"What are you doing?" Raven asked.
"Well, I'm basically breaking a few of your biggest rules going on this mission. As long as I have this chip, I have insurance that I'll be welcome back into the tribe when I'm done."
"You really don't trust me?"
"Would you?"
Raven let loose a small smirk before putting her stoic face back on. "Only you can make me so disappointed and proud at the same time. Fine. But you better come back with that chip."
Raven turned and stepped back into the portal. It closed leaving Quill to take a breath out.
"Hoo." Quill thought to himself. "I thought she was gonna decapitate me for a second there. Well, the best thing I should do is talk to Li'l Miss, find the mad scientist's lab, and tell Lion-head where to find him. Should be easy, right?"
Famous last words.