DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from Guardians of the Galaxy, either in its movie or comic incarnation. I own any OC I can invent, though. I am not making a £ out of this. It is just for shits and giggles.
Thanks to everybody for bering with me during the festive season and then over this few days of extra delay, and special thanks to all who subscribed and faved this fic. We have now hit 14000+ views and 101 reviews, and this is like, massive. It's probably more than all my other fics combined...
Thanks a lot guys, you are amazing!
Thanks again to for his enthusiastic review. We are indeed going to Terra and things are going to get even more complicated as the Avengers and SHIELD are going to get involved. I am going to take a few liberties with the SHIELD bit, first because I want to keep Nick Fury in the game (I love the snarky old man) and second because I have not even finished watching S2. I am going to change things around a bit and use material from the comics to fill in the gaps.
I apologise for the shortness of the chapter, but I couldn't really help it, and at any rate, from the next chaper onwards we will get in the thick of it.
Warnings: none. It's mostly a silly introduction.
Enjoy, and please don't shout at me!
P.S. for those interested, one of my Star War TPM fics "Breaking the Chains, Forging the Links" is going to be updated soon, after nearly a year of hiatus and is going to be updated monthly for at least a few months, so stay tuned.
"Alright, people! - Peter exclaims - Hold tight to your seats because that's it. The last jump before Terra. Aren't you excited?" he asks, turning from the command console to his comrades.
They have jumped in leaps and bounds across the most densely inhabited regions of the Cluster, and now their flotilla is parked at the edge of Kree space, a few light-minutes away from the massive fortifications of Kilda.
This is not the route that Yondu took when he picked him up, but one that High Priestess Derdriyu suggested, given the coordinates of Terra. She even gave them some sort of special clerance to get through the border beyond Kilda.
From there, the trip to Terra is just a long, smooth hyperspace jump. His home planet, from a spacefaring point of view, is literally next door to the blue fellows. It's weird that they never visited.
Or did they? He'd have to ask Ronan.
"I am Groot! I am Groot! I am Groot!" little Groot exclaims, bouncing up and down all over the place.
"Yeah, yeah... it's so cool we might die." Rocket comments, faking boredom. The truth is that he can hardly wait to get there, and is almost as excited as Peter is.
They all are.
Only Ronan seems worried and has been so since Yondu gave them the coordinates.
Maybe it is because they are close to his own home planet without being able to make a stop on it.
Whatever the reason, Peter just hopes that it is not something that will bite them on the backside later.
"Cut the drama, Quill. - Nebula barks through the radio - Just initiate the bloody jump sequence, before we die of old age." she adds.
"Alright, alright. No need to get so worked up. - Peter concedes, raising his hands even though she cannot see him - Initiating jump sequence." he announces, tapping the commands with ease born of practice.
"Copy that. - Helenai confirms - Jumping in 30 seconds. See you on the other side." she salutes.
"Let's hope they don't shoot us down." Nebula comments grimly.
"Have faith, Nebula. It's going to be amazing!" Peter exclaims, just before the radio cuts into white noise and static.
"And off we go!" he yells, holding tight to the seat as the Milano jumps with a hard wrench, accompanied by Groot's and Drax's enthusiastic laughter.
They decant just outside of the Terran atmosphere, above the African landmass, all brown-green-red against the white of the clouds and the blue of the oceans.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Peter comments, peering through the glass.
"It's beautiful..." Gamora whispers.
"Up close it's even better." he promises.
"Alright, buddies. The atmosphere is 71% nitrogen, 20% oxygen, some carbon dioxide and some other trace gases. - Rocket announces - Nothing that will kill us straight away. We should all be fine, except maybe for Ronan." he adds with a shrug.
Peter turns towards his lover, heart clenched with worry.
"The oxygen saturation is close to the upper limits of what I can tolerate. - the Kree replies - I might be a bit dizzy for a couple of days, until I adapt. It's nothing serious, really." he reassures.
"Alright. - Peter concedes - Let's keep it easy then."
"Hey brother! - Helenai calls through the comm - Do you have any idea of where we are supposed to land?" she asks.
"We need to report at the SHIELD headquarters. - Thor replies for him - They are somewhere in Vinland." he adds.
"In Finland?!" Peter repeats, a bit baffled.
"No, Vinland. The land you call America." Thor explains.
"That's a bit vague, don't you think, buddy?" Rocket retorts.
"It's in North America, in the United States. - Loki clarifies - Somewhere close to the East Coast, but a good fifty miles inland at least."
"Still not very helpful, but at least it's a start. - Rocket judges - Hey, blondie! Why don't you ring your Terran buddies up for directions?" he proposes.
On the other side there is a moment of embarrassed silence.
"Let me guess, you don't know the frequency, right?" Rocket provokes.
"I am not usually in need of contacting them via radio transmissions." Thor replies, apologetic and embarrassed.
Rocket sighs and hits his palm against his forehead.
"It's alright, we'll do a frequency sweep and find it out. - Peter says - In the meantime, we'll head towards North America, East Coast." he announces.
"And which one of those landmasses is it supposed to be?" Saskia Rael asks, sounding already irritated.
"The one that looks like..." Peter starts. Yeah, well, what does it look like, after all?
"Whatever... just follow me, OK?" he amends.
From the radio comes an indistinct grumbling that sounds like "jackass". He would bet that it was Nebula, but her and the Xandarian are more or less competing for the first prize in bitchiness.
The frequency sweep takes a while, but yields quite a few gems.
Terran music has evolved quite a lot since he left, and in several different directions. Not all of them are pleasant, but there is no lack of dancy, uplifting tunes.
"Hey! This stuff is good, isn't it, Groot?" he comments, nodding his head in time with the music.
"I am Groot!" the plant-child confirms, swaying in his chair.
"Can we focus?!" both Gamora and Nebula protest, almost in unison.
"Yes, of course. I was just saying..." Peter retorts.
Rocket starts to fiddle again with the transciever. They surf through music of different kinds, news reports and even what sounds like the broadcast of a religious ceremony, before he gets an actual communication frequency, and by this time, they are already in the stratosphere, about 20 or 30 kilometers away from the surface of the planet.
"This is the air control of JFK Airport of New York! - a rather harried Terran shouts from the other side - You are flying unathorised in a reserved corridor! Identify yourselves immediately!" the man yells.
"We are not making any friends here already..." Rocket comments in an undertone.
"Let me speak with them, we'll smooth things out. I am Terran, after all." Peter declares confidently.
"Hi there, air control! - he greets warmly - I am Peter Jason Quill, from Texas, flying on the spaceship Milano. Listening on this frequency are also my sister Helenai, princess of Spartax, on the Boukefalos, and my good-sister Nebula, on the Bloodfin." he explains, hoping that it will be identification enough.
"Sorry about barging in your corridor, but it was not signed in any way. Can you tell us where we can go to get out of the way?" he adds, when the man on the other side doesn't reply.
"S-spaceship... - the man finally mutters - Did you say spaceship?" he asks.
"Yes, well, techically they are all shuttles, or small personal carriers. We don't carry any freight, honest. - Peter replies - Do we have to pay a landing fee for them anyway?" he asks.
On the other side there is a lot of noise and excited voices just out of range of the transciever.
"Shit! I guess we must have already broken some immigration law or something like that." Peter comments.
"Hey! Air control! - Peter shouts in the radio - We're sorry if we made some sort of mess, but we didn't recieve any instructions from you when we decanted in your orbit!" he tries to explain.
"Star-Lord! - Loki calls from the Bloodfin - The Terrans don't have an orbital defence system!" he reveals.
"What?! - Rocket exclaims - After two alien invasions they still don't have one?!"
"Protecting Terra from Thanos is going to be harder than we anticipated." Ronan comments gravely.
"Hey! Air control! We are not here to invade Terra, I swear! We are in a diplomatic mission from the Security Council" Peter yells into the radio. Not yet arrived, and they are already making a bloody mess.
Perfect, just perfect.
"Man of Midgard! Master of the Airways! - Thor booms from the Bloodfin - Heed my words! I am Thor Odinsson, from the Avengers. I need you to keep your wits about you, and do us all a service." he says decisively.
This seems to get through to the near-hysteric Terran.
"Thor? Really?" he repeats.
"It is me indeed. - the Asgardian confirms - Listen, Master of the Airways, you need not fear for the safety of Midgard now. My comrades come in peace. I vouch for them." he reassures.
"So they are not here to enslave all humans, or destroy the city?" the man asks. His voice still trembles a bit, but he sounds less like he is going to have to change his pants.
"Of course not! - Peter replies - Personally, I am here mostly to eat pizza and stock up on music cassettes." he adds flippantly.
"Aliens like human music?!" the man interjects.
"I am half-Terran myself. I told you: I am from Texas." Peter explains.
"When did the aliens invade Texas?!" the man exclaims.
"Never. They did not. - Peter retorts - My father crash-landed there thirty-odd years ago, met my mum, fixed his ship, and then left. Hardly invasive." he argues.
"Well, man, I'd say that if someone barges into my house uninvited, that's invasive enough!" the man argues, regaining a bit of his initial aggressivity.
"Man of Midgard! This is not the time to argue immigration policies. - Thor intervenes again - We nees you to put us in contact with Director Nick Fury or another high-ranking officer from SHIELD."
"What the hell is SHIELD?!" the man protests.
"Strategic Homeland Intervention... - Thor starts - No, wait, Intelligence maybe?" he adds, sounding unsure.
"Loki, do you remember what it stands for?" the Asgardian asks.
"Why should I? - the Jothunn replies - I have never been fast friends with them! Much upon the contrary!" he protests.
Peter facepalms. He is used to Drax, Rocket and Groot screwing up like that, but at least Thor looked like he was more of an hyper-efficient warrior dude, like Ronan or Gamora.
"Hey! Terran! - Drax intervenes - Why don't you look them up on the communications directory?" he suggests.
"Yeah, sure! - Rocket butts in, thick with sarcasm - Because the super-secret government agency will be listed on the phone book, right?"
"It might be. - Drax insists - They are a public utility service, after all."
"Oh, Goddess in heaven! Are you all crazy, or just bloody amateurs!? Didn't you plan this fucking mission at all?" Saskia Rael blurts out, hissing like a furious cat.
"I got you here, didn't I? - Peter retorts - I thought Thor would handle the SHIELD side of things. They are his buddies, not mine." he points out.
"I apologise, good-brother. - Thor chimes in - I had not thought that calling upon them would be such a challenge." he explains.
"But I am sure you can find them, Master of the Airways. - he continues, back into the radio - If you just look for them a bit harder..." he suggests.
"I don't think there is any need. - Ronan intervenes - It looks like they have found us, instead." he announces with eerie calm, pointing towards the horizon.
"Oh, fuck!" Rocket exclaims.
Peter turns to look through the windshield.
Three flying humanoid figures are approaching fast and with clear aggressive intent.
"It's Falcon, War Machine and Iron Man!" Thor announces, clearly pleased.
Peter can't really tell which one is which, but one thing is certain, they have really sweet exoskeleton armours and are packing amazing amount of weaponry.
"Hey, Thor! - one of them exclaims, tapping into their radio channel - Did Bifrost break down, or did you just fancy taking the scenic route?" he asks.
"Whoah! What is Rock of Ages doing here?!" another exclaims, stalling mid-air next to the Bloodfin.
"And who is Rock of Ages supposed to be?" Peter asks himself.
"Did anyone tell you that you are not as witty as you think yourself to be, Stark?" Loki retorts archly.
"Ah, that explains things..." Peter thinks.
"My brother is with me, I vouch for his good behaviour. - Thor inserts himself in the incipient snark battle - I have left for Asgard seeking answers. I found them, and I bring reinforcements with me." he declares.
"Reinforcements? Against what?" Stark asks, and even if Peter cannot see his face under the helmet, he sounds pretty worried.
"Against Ragnarok, the end of all things."