NOTE: There will probably be grammar mistakes which I will fix later.

WARNING: Adult humor in this chapter.

As Rocket started up the ship, Mikey sat down in the pilot seat opposite to the raccoon's and let out a soft, blissful sigh. "Just like the good old days, right, Rocket?"

Rocket chuckled and nodded. "Yep. Really glad you join us on one more adventure, kid."

Mikey looked through his side window and down at the magnificent, golden city of the Sovereign as they got higher. "Bunch of snooty jerks," he grumbled. "Can't belleve they talked to Quill that way."

"You didn't even understand a word she said, did you?" Rocket asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Ummmm, no," Mikey sheepish admitted, "but I knew that she hurt Quill's feelings. Guess Casey was right: a turd made of gold is still a turd."

"Ha! Got that right!" Rocket laughed. "By the way, what you did back there in the throne room was awesome. It was pretty ballsy and stupid, and I couldn't be more proud."

"Yeah, well, Leo wasn't too happy with me," Mikey sighed. "He seriously needs to lighten up more, but I guess it's not his fault. He has to look after us now that our Dad is gone, and that can be pretty stressful."

"Wait, I thought you went back to save your Dad?"

"We did..." Mikey felt the tears coming and blinked them back. "...only to lose him again."

"Well, sh**," Rocket cursed in a quiet, somber tone. He looked over at Mikey with sympathetic brown eyes. "I'm really sorry, Mike."

Mikey merely shrugged, when he felt something crawl up his shell. He turned his head and saw Groot standing on his shoulder. The little tree creature stared back at him with tiny black eyes before handing him a blue jellybean. It was comforting to know that Groot was still the same sweet and gentle giving tree that he befriended over a year ago.

The Turtle smiled at him as he took the tasty gift and plopped it into his mouth. "Thanks, Groot," he said as he chewed. "Hey, remember that time when you stuck your fingers up that blue guy's nose and lifted him, like, five feet off the ground? I bet his nose is still bent backwards." Groot just looked at him confused and tilted his head. "You know, back at the Kyln? Where we first met? You remember that...right?"

"Uh, kid?" Rocket said softly. "I hate to break it to ya, but he doesn't remember anything before Xandar."

"Wh...What...?" Mikey choked.

"The old Groot you knew is gone. The twig that we picked up grew into a whole different Groot. I guess you could say that he's...kinda Groot's baby."

Mikey felt his heart rip right in half at that very moment. Groot didn't even remember him nor the adventures they had together. "So Groot's really gone," he mumbled sadly.

He then felt Groot tug at the ends of his mask, undoing the mask in the process. When it fell off his face, Groot tried to put it over his own, but it was way too big for him, so he looked through one of the eyeholes and up at Mikey. The Turtle couldn't supress his laughter and instantly felt better. He knew right then that he already loved this new Groot and would protect him with his life.

"Alright, Groot, that's enough," Rocket chuckled as he reached over to take the mask from the little tree. He looked up at Mikey and grinned as he gave it back to him. "He's getting more and more curious. Sometimes it gets him into trouble."

"I'll bet," Mikey laughed as he put his mask back on and set Groot down in his lap. "Hey, uh, Rocket? What was in that bag you showed to Drax earlier?"

"Huh? Oh, that bag." Rocket looked over his seat, as though to make sure that they were alone in the cockpit. "Can you keep a secret?" he spoke very softly to Mikey.

Mikey raised an eye ridge, not liking where this was going. "Uh...sure?"

Rocket leaned over closer to Mikey and whispered to him, "I bought some Kree porn before we left Xandar."

"What?!" Mikey stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Awwww, sick, dude!"

"What?" Rocket shrugged his shoulders. "I live with four guys and no chicks! I say four 'cause Gamora doesn't count."

"That is so gross!" Mikey groaned as he shook his head.

"Oh, like you never masturbate?" Rocket huffed.

"Master Bait?" Mikey scratched his head in confusion. "What's that shop in Florida got to do with this?"

The raccoon was now just as confused as the Turtle was. "Uhh, where's Florida?"

...

Meanwhile, at the rear of the ship, Leo tried contacting his brothers back on Earth to check on them, but neither one of them ever answered their T-phones. Sighing in frustration, his shoved his phone back into his belt when he heard some footsteps.

Gamora was dragging her sister Nebula to a metal post and cuffed her to it. The blue woman noticed a bowl of strange-looking fruit next to her.

"I'm hungry," she hissed. "Hand me some of that yaro fruit."

But Gamora just ignored her and walked away. Leo couldn't believe how cruel she was acting toward her own sister, and he felt a little sorry for Nebula, so he walked over to the bowl and offered a fruit to her. Nebula looked at him with surprised dark eyes.

He smiled at her shyly. "Hi. I'm Leo."

Gamora saw what he was doing and snatched the fruit out of his hand. "It's not ripe yet," she sternly said as she put it back in the bowl. "And she's a prisoner, not a guest."

"But she's also your sister," Leo defended as he pointed to Nebula.

"It doesn't matter that she's family," Gamora firmly stated as she looked directly at Nebula. "She's still a criminal."

"I'm a criminal?" Nebula spat, her voice dripping with venom. "You left me there while you stole that stone for yourself. And yet here you stand...a hero. I will be free of these shackles soon enough and I will kill you. I swear."

But Gamora was unfazed by her sister's threat and shook her head. "No. You're gonna live out the rest of your days in a prison on Xandar..." She leaned in closer to Nebula's face and taunted her. "...wishing you could."

Nebula tugged at her cuffs with a snarl on her face.

Suddenly the alarms sounded off and Gamora hurried to other side of ship. Leo paused to look back at Nebula sympathetically before he followed Gamora to the cockpit. Everyone else was already there, including Mikey, who now stood behind Rocket's seat with Groot on his shoulder. Quill had taken the other pilot seat and was looking at the readings on the control panel.

"What's going on?" Leo asked as he walked over to Mikey and stood next to him.

"For some reason, we've got a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear," Quill announced.

"Why would they do that?" Gamora questioned.

"Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries," Drax suggested.

All eyes were now on the furry little pilot.

"YOU WHAT?!" Mikey screamed at him.

Rocket glared over at Drax. The cat was out of the bag now. Or in this case, the raccoon. "DUDE!" he yelled angrily.

Drax immediately regretted opening his mouth. "Right. He didn't steal some of those," he lied, even though it was already too late. "I don't know why they're after us. What a mystery this is."

"You told me it was porn!" Mikey yelled as he slapped Rocket at the back of his head.

"Well, obviously, I lied, okay?!" Rocket shouted. "There, I said it!"

A laser blast was fired from behind the Milano and missed them by a few inches. Many more came right after that, and Quill quickly took control of the ship and made a sharp turn away from the firing drone ships. Like an swarm of angry bees, they all chased after the Milano.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Quill screamed as he struggled to avoid the oncoming blasts.

"Dude, they were really easy to steal!" Rocket said.

"That's your defense?" Gamora scoffed.

"Come on! You saw how the High Priestess talked down to us! Now I'm teaching her a lesson!"

"Baloney!" Mikey yelled. "You just want to sell those batteries for a lot of money! You haven't changed one bit, Rocket!"

Leo joined in on the bickering and pointed his finger at Rocket. "You put my brother in danger because of your greed!"

"You wanna keep your finger, Captain Nerd?!" Rocket threatened the older Turtle. "Then put it away!"

"Can we put the bickering on hold until after we survive this massive space battle?!" Gamora snapped.

Another fleet of Sovereign ships suddenly appeared in front of the Milano. "More incoming!" Quill announced.

A sinister smile was now on Rocket's face. "Good! I wanna kill some guys!" He let out a battle cry as he fired like a maniac at the enemy ships, destroying some of them.

"You're not killing anyone," Gamora told him. "All those ships are remotely piloted."

"Of course," Leo rolled his eyes, recalling what the High Priestess had told them earlier. "'We can't risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens'. But wait, if they destroy us, they'll destroy their batteries. They won't risk that, either, since they're too valuable. Maybe if we'd just return the batteries and apologize-"

BAM!

The whole ship shook and rattled after it took a hit. The Sovereign's intent was made very clear: they were going to destroy the Milano and everyone onboard.

"Okay," Leo's voice cracked with fear. "Never mind."

"Quill, please tell me you got a plan!" Mikey begged the captain as he gripped the back of Rocket's seat even tighter. "Or 12% of plan! ANYTHING!"

"You freaking out is not helping things, Mike!" Quill said to the panicky Turtle, then he asked Gamora, "What's the nearest habitable planet?"

From her seat, Gamora quickly looked through the jump points on her monitor and found one. "It's called Berhert."

"How many jumps?"

"Only one. But the access point is 47 clicks away. And you have to go through that quantum asteroid field."

Before them was a large asteroid field, but instead of just floating, the rocks would randomly disappear and reappear, making it even more dangerous and nearly impossible to get through.

Mikey gulped and lowered his head into his shell a bit. "That asteroid field?"

"Quill, to make it through that, you'd have to be the greatest pilot in the universe," Drax said.

Quill smiled confidently and nodded. "Lucky for us, I-"

"-I am," Rocket cut him off with a smugly grin and suddenly took control of the ship. Everyone held their breaths as the raccoon dove right into the field and narrowly dodged every asteroid that would appear out of nowhere. The Sovereign ships weren't as lucky and nearly every one of them gor destroyed by an asteroid.

At one point, Quill flipped his pilot switch back on and regained control of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Rocket asked him.

"I've been flying this rig since I was ten years old," Quill said.

"I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft!"

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a douchebag!"

"Yeah!" Mikey shouted in agreement, which earned him a slap on the head and a disapproving look from Leo.

"Well, later on tonight, you're gonna be laying down in your bed and there's gonna be something squishy in your pillow case, and you're gonna be like, 'What's this?' and it's gonna be because I PUT A TURD IN THERE!" Rocket screamed before he flipped his pilot control back on.

Quill gave him a dagger stare. "You put your turd in my bed, I shave you."

"I'd like to see that!" Mikey laughed.

"Oh, it won't be my turd," Rocket said with a grin. "It'll be Drax's."

At this, Drax threw his head back and laughed, finding it to be hilarious for some strange reason. "I have famously huge turds!"

Mikey joined in on the fun. "Oh, yeah? You haven't seen Leatherhead's turds! They're, like, the size of basketballs!"

"We're about to die and this is what we're discussing?" Gamora snapped as she glared at both Drax and Mikey.

"Sorry," Mikey sheepishly said.

Quill and Rocket continued to fight over the control of the ship and couldn't focus on the asteroids.

"Son of a-!"

"Dude! Seriously!"

"Hey! Let me-!"

WHAM!

An asteroid smashed through the stern of the ship and took out a chunk of the rear. The Milano began to spin out of control as the all the air was sucked in through the hole. Everyone held onto their seats, but Groot lost his grip on Mikey's mask and was almost sucked out of the ship. Thankfully Leo caught him in time and held him close to his plastron.

Quill quickly punched in a code on his monitor and an energy field slid up in front of the hole, and as soon as it did the ship stopped spinning.

Leo let out a sigh of relief when he suddenly remembered that Nebula was downstairs. "Is Nebula okay?" he asked the crew.

"IDIOTS!" Nebula yelled to them from below.

"Yep," Mikey nodded. "She's okay."

"Well, that's what you get when Quill flies," Rocket said, trying to shift the blame onto the human.

Gamora growled in annoyance and anger as she threw a wrench right at Rocket. The raccoon cried out as it hit him on the head. "We still have a Sovereign craft behind us!" she yelled.

Sure enough, one solitary Sovereign ship continued to chase and fire at the Milano.

"Well, then let's blast it!" Leo shouted. "It's just one ship!"

"Can't! Our weapons are down!" Quill said.

Gamora looked down at her monitor. "Twenty clicks to the jump!" she announced.

Without saying a word, Drax all of a sudden climbed downstairs into the common area.

"Drax, where are you going?" Mikey asked the tattooed man.

Gamora instantly understood. "He's buying us some time."

The Sovereign ship managed to hit the right wing of the Milano and the impact caused Mikey to lose his grip on Rocket's seat and fall flat on his face. "OW!"

"Gamora, how much longer is this gonna take?!" Leo shouted as he helped Mikey up.

"Fifteen clips to the jump!" Gamora yelled.

Down in the lower part of the ship, Drax hooked a cable onto the belt of his pants and slapped a disk onto his back. The small device activated a force-field spacesuit that covered his entire body and would allow him to breathe in space. He then grabbed a large gun and pushed a button on the wall that activated a second force field between him and Nebula and deactivated the first one in front of the hole.

He jumped out and swung back and forth as the Milano made sharp turns to avoid the laser blasts and the asteroids. He aimed his gun at the enemy ship and shouted, "Die, spaceship!" With one blast of his weapon, the drone exploded into a ball of fire.

Quill finally managed to get the ship out of the asteroid field, but just when they thought they were out of harm's way, even more Sovereign ships came at them from both sides. They were now completely surrounded.

Quill's jaw dropped. "Son of a...! They went around the field!"

The ships all fired at the Milano and everyone watched in horror as the windows began to crack. It seemed like this was truly end.

But then, out of nowhere, two bright arrows of light dashed through the entire fleet and destroyed them, saving the Guardians from their doom. They all looked on in awe as the ships exploded like fireworks until there was nothing left but black smoke.

"One click!" Gamora announced.

Rocket looked through his side window and saw a small white figure heading in their direction. "What is that?"

Quill didn't even look his way and focused on the jump point before them, which was hexagonal in shape. "Who cares?! That's the jump point! Go! Go!"

But Mikey, being the curious Turtle that he was, looked out the window with Rocket. The figure turned out to be an oval shaped spacecraft, and standing on top of it was a man, who casually waved at them as they passed by.

"It's a guy," Rocket said, raising an eyebrow.

"A guy on a giant egg," Mikey said, nodding his head.

The Milano flew straight through the jump point, which led them straight to planet Berhert. As it entered the atmosphere, it began to smoke and fall apart. Quill struggled to maintain control of the ship, but it spiraled out of control and continued to dive straight toward the green forest below.

Gamora looked down at her monitor and gasped. "Oh, my god. He's still out there?" A surveillance video in the common area showed that Drax was still attached to the cable and was dangling outside the ship. She wasted no time in getting out of her seat and running downstairs to help him.

Leo took the opportunity to push Mikey into the empty seat and buckle him in before placing Groot in his hands and then shielding them both with his body.

Quill looked behind him and saw what the older Turtle was doing. "Leo, brace yourself!" the human shouted as the ship got closer to the trees. "PREPARE FOR A REALLY BAD LANDING!"

The ship smashed through the trees with full force, cracking the windows even more. Leo gritted his teeth and held onto the seat with all his might as the ship shook with every impact, determined to protect his brother from any harm.

After a few intense moments, the ship finally came to an abrupt stop. Once it did, Leo let go of the seat and fell on his butt, trying to calm his breathing and racing heart.

Mikey's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Dudes...that was so wicked," he whispered.

"I Am Groot," Groot said softly, his black eyes wide, too.

"LOOK AT THIS!" Gamora screamed as she looked at the wreckage.

Everyone was standing outside the damaged ship, all of them still a little shaken up and with minor injuries, but thankfully still alive.

Gamora continued to blow off steam. "Where is the other half of our ship?!"

"My ship," Quill mumbled, rubbing the back of his aching neck.

"Either one of you could have gotten us through that field," Gamora pointed back and forth at Quill and Rocket, "had you flown with what's between your ears instead of what's between your legs!"

"Huh?" Mikey scratched his head. "Between their legs? I don't get it."

"If what's between my legs had a hand on it," Quill quietly said to Drax and the Turtles with a sly smile, "I guarantee I could have landed this ship with it."

Leo groaned and covered his face with his hand while Mikey tilted his head in confusion.

Gamora heard what he said and sighed as she placed her hands on her hips. "Peter, we almost died because of your arrogance."

"More like because HE stole the Anulax batteries!" Quill shouted in defense as he pointed to Rocket.

"They're called Harbulary batteries," Drax corrected him.

"NO, THEY'RE NOT!" Quill both yelled and laughed in disbelief at Drax's stupidity.

"Who cares what they're called?!" Leo snapped. "All I care about is how we're going to fix this mess! And I don't mean just the ship!" He turned to Rocket and narrowed his eyes into angry slits at the raccoon. "You just couldn't keep your paws off those batteries, could you?"

Rocket glared back at the Turtle. "You know why I did it, Fanboy? Hmmm?!"

Leo sighed and shook his head. "Again with the 'Fanboy'," he grumbled to himself.

"I did it because I wanted to!"

"Dick," Quill mumbled.

"What are we even talking about this for?" Rocket pointed to the sky with his tiny, clawed finger. "We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!"

"How little?" Drax asked.

"Well, I dunno." Rocket guessed the measurement with his finger and thumb. "Like this?"

"A little one-inch man saved us?" Gamora questioned with a skeptical look.

"No, it's true!" Mikey nodded his head. "I saw him, too! Or he could've been normal-sized and was riding a giant flying egg."

"A giant flying egg?" Quill chuckled. "Yeah, that makes more sense."

"Okay, first of all, it wasn't an egg," Rocket said, more to Mikey than anyone else. "It was clearly a ship. And second, if he got closer, I'm sure he would be much larger."

"Yeah, that's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon," Quill told him.

"DON'T CALL ME A RACCOON!" Rocket bellowed.

"I'm sorry," Quill apologized. "I took it too far. I meant 'trash panda'."

Rocket paused, not sure how to take this. He turned to Leo and Mikey, who were more familiar with Terran insults and vocabulary. "Is that better?" he asked them.

Both brothers looked at each other, hesitant to answer that question.

"Uhhh..." Leo rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Uhhh...no, dude, it's not," Mikey finally answered.

"It's actually worse," Leo said.

Mikey nodded. "Much worse."

The fur on Rocket's tail puffed up in anger and he leapt right at Quill with a growl. "WHY, YOU SON OF A-!"

As Quill struggled to keep Rocket off of him, Nebula lifted her head to the sky and saw the same oval-shaped ship from before coming down toward them. "Someone followed you through the jump point!"

Everyone else immediately drew out their weapons and they all formed a tight circle with their backs to each other.

"Set me free," Nebula insisted. "You'll need my help."

"I'm not a fool, Nebula," Gamora said, her gaze never leaving the strange spacecraft.

"You are a fool if you deprive yourself a hand in combat."

"You'll attack me the moment I let you go."

"No, I won't."

"You'd think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie," Quill muttered, earning a dirty look from Nebula.

"Dude, I know, right?" Mikey said to the human. "You should meet our supervillains."

"I bet it's the one-inch man!" Drax said rather excitedly.

The ship landed softly on the ground with a low hum and the crew cautiously approached it. A large orange window suddenly disintegrated as a man with a cape and woman in a tight green suit stepped out to meet them. The man seemed like a normal human being with wavy grey hair and a beard and looked to be in his late fifties or early sixties.

The younger woman, on the other hand, was clearly not human. She had shoulder-length black hair, but long antennae protruded from her forehead. Also, her eyes were very large and dark, almost like a bug's eyes. For some reason, she seemed timid and nervous with her hands folded in front of her, occasionally glancing at the man next to him.

The man looked directly at Quill and smiled. "After all these years, I've found you."

"And who the hell are you?" Quill asked, not at all recognizing this stranger, but something about him felt familiar.

The stranger chuckled softly. "I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego...and I'm your Dad, Peter."

Quill was absolutely shocked. His Dad? The one who was supposed to come for him over twenty years ago? The so-called "angel" whom his mother fell so much in love with? This had to be a trick...right?

Everyone else was just as stunned as he was, and only Mikey broke the silence with a long and loud, "Whaaaaaaaaa?!"