The Benatar shakes aggressively, waking Peter Quill up. She hits her side and realizes she fell asleep in the captain's chair again. She hears a loud yet low snore and turns to see Thor asleep in one of the other seats. Both Rocket and Groot are sleeping in the corner.
She feels a sharp pain in her intestines and assumes she needs to use the restroom. After a bit of quiet sneaking she manages to get by Groot without waking him up and makes her way to the toilet. She shuts the door and sits down feeling like she was cutting it too close.
She grunts as her stomach seems to tense up. She is wondering what she could have eaten to upset her. She starts to pee and a good way through, something doesn't feel right. She leans back and looks between her legs into the toilet.
Peter's eyes widen with shock and she closes her legs abruptly. She begins to breath heavily with concern and suddenly feels like crying. She takes a moment to calm down before parting her knees and taking another look. She looks a little longer this time but once again shuts her legs and starts looking around for an answer that she knew wouldn't be there. Star-Lord starts to breathe heavily again and her eyes begin to water.
*** Back to the cockpit***
Rocket takes a deep breath and licks her teeth as she shakes off the morning sleep. She opens her eyes and starts looking around. She sniffs the air again and sits up looking around with concern.
"Alright, who hurt themself?" She asks sleepily. Groot continues to snooze and Thor is now snoring loudly. "Quill?" Rocket calls. She looks around the room and doesn't see her. She then turns toward the back and notices the smell is stronger.
"Quill?" Rocket calls. "Are you alright?" She climbs down Groot, and makes her way to the door. It opens and the smell is much stronger. "Quill?!" Rocket calls loudly as she begins to rush to the back, looking for Peter.
"QUILL!?" Rocket shouts as she reaches the restroom door. Her shouting wakes up Thor.
"Quill, let me in!" Rocket calls loudly.
Thor gets up and slowly stumbles toward the back of the ship. "What's going on?"
"It's Peter! I think something's wrong. Quill! Open the door!" Rocket shouts.
They can hear her mumbling, but she doesn't open it. The door to Drax's room opens and she steps out, still topless. "Is everything alright?" she asks. Thor can see Nebula getting dressed in the dark.
"It's Quill!" Rocket responds. "I think she's injured! I can smell blood!"
Drax gives a look of concern. "We need to help her!"
"Quill!" Rocket shouts.
"Go away!" Peter finally shouts.
"Quill! Let us help you!" Rocket calls through the door.
"I don't want any help." Peter calls back.
"I think she's crying!" Rocket says in a panic. "What do we do?"
"Here, let me." Thor says, pushing his way forward. "Quill? Peter? Buddy... Captain." He calls.
"We need you to let us in. We're really worried about you."
"No! Go away." Peter cries. "Leave me alone."
"Look, Peter." Thor says sternly. "We're really concerned for you, and if you don't open this door, I'm going to have to break it down, okay."
"Please, just go away." She responds emotionally. Thor doesn't want to break the door down, but when he looks at Rocket, she has very concerned and pleading eyes.
"Ok Captain." Thor says. "I'm sorry about this, but I have no choice!" Thor starts deciding how he's going to break the door down when Peter speaks up again.
"Wait..." She says. "I'll open the door."
Everyone outside waits patiently. There is a long pause before the lock finally clicks. They wait another second before Rocket moves forward and pulls the door open.
Peter is sitting there, teary eyed and with blood on her hands. She looks at Thor and Drax, then turns toward Rocket. "Rocket..." she cries. "I think I'm dying..."
*** A few moments later ***
"WE NEED A DOCTOR!" Rocket shouts, rushing through the main ship, scaring anyone that gets in her way.
"WE NEED A DOCTOR!" She shouts again as she is followed by Drax who is carrying an emotional Star-Lord. They are followed by Thor, Nebula, and a very sleepy, slow moving Groot. The group continues running around the ship in a panic, which seems to generate even more panic.
At some point in the confusion, Matis notices them. He is being followed by Valkyrie. They quickly notice the legit panic and concern coming from the group and rush to help. "What's going on?" Mantis asks.
"Peter needs a Doctor." Rocket responds. "She's very sick!"
"There's one over there." Valkyrie responds, pointing toward the infirmary near the mess hall.
"Thank you." Rocket tells him before running off and guiding Drax. Valkyrie and Mantis join the group.
*** In the infirmary ***
Dr. Strange is trying to enjoy a cup of tea with a warm stomach compress when the ship starts shaking again. She holds her hand over the cup to prevent it from spilling everywhere.
As soon as the shaking stops. She attempts to take a drink, when the door slides open and Rocket comes running in. "WE NEED A DOCTOR! It's an emergency!"
Dr. Strange grumbles and takes a large sip of tea before setting it down and rushing to the new patients. The others come rushing in and it fills the infirmary very quickly. She becomes worried that maybe they're all sick. She see's Drax carrying Peter, and asks her to set her down on an examination table.
"What seems to be the problem?" Dr. Strange asks with legit concern.
"It's Peter!" Rocket responds. "Something is wrong with her... her... you know..." Rocket gestures toward her own abdomen and groin area. Dr. Strange is a little thrown off at the talking animal that just walked in, and she has to suppress her concerns about getting fur all over a sanitary office.
"We think she's dying..." Drax says, as she steps away from Peter after setting her down. Dr. Strange is now distracted by the large greenish breasts which are now swaying in front of her.
Dr. Strange looks at Drax, then Rocket, then Mantis, Groot, Valkyrie, Nebula, and Thor. "Is anyone else here sick?" she asks.
"No." says several of them at once. Some shake their heads. "Just Peter." Rocket adds.
"Ok." Dr. Strange answers, trying to take control of the room. "I'm going to need anyone, who is not immediately necessary, to wait outside." She starts making hand gestures to usher people out. It's clear she wants Rocket to stay, but she has to do a bit of coercing to guide Drax out.
"Wait!" Peter calls out. Dr. Strange turns to look at her. "Mantis!" Peter says. "I need Mantis to stay!"
Dr. looks back toward the group. Mantis raises his hand shyly. "That's me." Dr. Strange gestures for him to come back in. Mantis turns back toward Valkyrie and grabs his wrist. "I'll be back." He tells him.
"Go! It's fine." Valkyrie gestures. "I'll be out here." Mantis nods and enters the infirmary. Dr. Strange shuts the door, and follows him toward Rocket and Peter, who is now sitting up.
"Alright," Dr. Strange says, now that she assumes things have calmed down. "What seems to be the problem?"
"She laid eggs in me!" Peter shouts angrily, while pointing at Mantis. Rocket grabs her mouth in shock.
"I'm sorry, what?" Dr. Strange asks. Despite her attempts to stay calm and collected, she nervously steps away from Mantis.
"She laid eggs in me." Peter repeats. "A week or two ago. We were at a party, and afterwards, she snuck into my room, and did things to me."
"And you remember this?" Dr. Strange asks, now watching Mantis with serious concern.
"No." Star-Lord says, gripping her stomach in pain. "But what else could it be?"
"Well," Dr. Strange answers. "It could be a lot of things." She feels a cramp in her own abdomen at the same time.
"But I'm..." Star-Lord hesitates, afraid to say. "I'm bleeding..." she pauses, afraid to continue, down there." She points at her crotch.
"A lot." Rocket adds. Peter looks at her embarrassed, but then looks up at Dr. Strange and nods.
Dr. Strange furls her eyebrows. "Are there any other symptoms?"
"My insides hurt. It feels like they are moving and twisting." Peter responds. "I think there's something in there."
"Are there any other symptoms?" Dr. Strange asks, "Hot flashes? Mood swings?"
Star-Lord grips her abdomen abruptly and has to force herself to look up. "What do you think?" she asks sarcastically.
Dr. Strange is feeling a little less nervous, but she feels she should be careful. "I'm going to have to examine your body. Is that ok?"
Peter looks a little nervous now, but she reluctantly agrees.
"First, I've got to ask you a few questions." Dr. Strange asks. "Are you human?"
Peter nods her head. "Half, yes."
"And is it safe to assume, you used to be male?" Peter nods at this question.
"Ok, come this way." Dr. Strange gestures for Peter to follow. "Not you two." She tells Mantis and Rocket who were already trying to follow. She leads Peter to an examination area and closes a curtain behind her..
*** A few minutes later ***
Dr. Strange removes a pair of gloves and opens the curtain to the examination area. "Mr. Quill, I believe it's safe to say, you have started your menstrual cycle."
"My what?" Peter asks.
"What's that?" Rocket asks approaching from the other side of the infirmary with Mantis in tow.
"Your menstrual cycle... Your period?" Dr. Strange asks. "You're from Earth and you've never heard of a period?"
"No..." Peter responds. "I grew up in space..."
"Were there no other Earth women out in space?" Dr. Strange asks.
"None that I ever met." Peter responds. "What does this have to do with them?" she asks.
"Well..." Dr. Strange pauses, surprised that he's actually going to have this conversation. "On Earth, when women reach a certain age, they start something called the menstrual cycle." Peter is now listening with heavy concern. "It's basically a time in a woman's life when her body is capable of getting pregnant and bearing children."
Peter Quill's eyes widen suddenly and she glances at Mantis momentarily before turning back to Dr. Stange, and starts to shake her head aggressively.
"Now Peter, calm down." Dr. Strange says patiently. "Having your period usually means you're not pregnant." Peter looks a little more calm now, but still very concerned.
"Usually?" Rocket asks. "How do we know she's not pregnant?"
Dr. Strange looks at Rocket, still not used to a talking animal but still answers calmly. "There are some rare cases where it still happens, but it's not common."
"But how do we know she... he didn't get her pregnant?" Rocket asks, pointing at Mantis.
Dr. Strange looks at Mantis and raises her eyebrows. "Well, this isn't always the case, but if it makes you feel better, Peter Quill possesses a hymen, and it wasn't torn."
Rocket tilts her head in confusion. Dr. Strange looks up and sees a lost look on Mantis's face as well. When she looks at Peter it's obvious she also doesn't know. "It usually means you're a virgin." Steven Strange tells her. Peter Quill's face suddenly relaxes completely at hearing this.
"I had a period once." Mantis randomly says. "But Ego put a stop to that."
They all look at him in disbelief.
"I highly doubt that." Dr. Strange responds.
"Yea!" Rocket adds. "You were probably just sick, and he healed you."
"How do you know?" Mantis asks challengingly.
"Well, aside from humans, only certain shrews and bats have periods." Dr. Strange answers. "It's extremely rare in nature. I doubt it would even exist outside of Earth."
Mantis frowns and makes a disappointed pouty face.
"But how do we know she didn't get him pregnant, or you know... leave anything." Rocket asks.
Dr. Strange takes a deep frustrated breath. "You know what, fine! There's an easy way to find out." She turns around and grabs one of the dirty gloves from the trash then walks up to Mantis and grabs a hair from his head, pulling it out aggressively.
"Ow!" Mantis cries.
"This way." Dr. Strange tells them. She opens a small portal and has to stop for a moment when the ship starts shaking again. As soon as it settles, she reaches through and pulls out a type of stone cauldron. She sets it on a counter and immediately puts both the hair and glove into it.
The others watch in awe as Dr. Strange starts casting a spell on the items.
"You're a doctor and a magic user?" Rocket asks excitedly. "That's so cool!"
"Quiet please." Dr. Strange responds like a librarian. She continues working on her spell for some time, before speaking up again. "OK. Now, this test usually takes a lot of time, but utilizing magic, it can be done in a matter of seconds."
"What are you doing?" Peter asks.
"I'm analyzing your blood for any alien DNA, particularly his DNA." Dr. Strange answers, referring to Mantis.
"And this will determine if She's pregnant or not?" Rocket asks.
Dr. Strange scoffs. "Please, the chances of her getting impregnated by alien DNA is beyond one and a trillion. It would require both of them to have the exact same DNA structure, made from the exact same bases, and lastly the exact same amount of chromosomes. It's quite literally impossible..." Dr. Strange furls her brow in shock as she places magical impressions of both of their DNA side by side, and sees they are surprisingly similar. If it wasn't for Mantis's outward appearance, she'd swear he was human. Peter notices Dr. Strange's face.
"Uhh... Doctor." She calls. "Is everything alright?"
Dr. Strange snaps out of her surprised state and ends the spell. "I'm sorry about that." They are all watching her now. She has to regroup her thoughts for a moment.
"Well, the good news is, you're not pregnant, and there is none of his, or her, DNA in your body."
They all take a sigh of relief. "Oh thank goodness."Rocket says.
"But," Dr. Strange adds. "I have to warn you, not to sleep with each other again, if you want to avoid this mess that is, or something much worse."
"We didn't sleep together!" Star-Lord protests.
Dr. Strange looks at her, still a little confused. "Yea. Uhm... make sure it doesn't happen then."
They continue to stare at Dr. Strange in confusion when the infirmary door opens unexpectedly.
.
Scott Lang is standing in the doorway with an embarrassed look on her face. Hope, who is standing behind her, pushes her through. "Come on." She says.
The remaining Guardians and others are still waiting outside and trying to peek in.
"May I help you?" Dr. Strange asks.
"She needs femenine hygiene products." Hope says.
"Hmmm... you too?" Dr. Strange asks.
"Yeah..." Scott answers.
The door is about to shut when Steve Rogers rushes in forcing it to open back up. "Doctor, I'm not doing so good..." She gasps. She forces her way through the door, but is breathing heavily and practically hunched over..
Growing concerned, Dr. Strange approaches her and guides her to the examination table. "Here, come sit down." The Captain has to struggle to even get on the table.
"She looks worse than her." Rocket says pointing at Steve then Peter.
Dr. Strange glances at Rocket only momentarily before turning back toward Steve. "Can I assume you've started your menstrual cycle?"
"Yeah..." Steve gasps. "I think you can say that. Except they're very very... strong." She curls a bit and it causes her to slide off the table onto the floor. "I've never felt pain like this before. Is it supposed to be like this?"
"I suppose the super soldier serum could be making your cramps worse than usual." Dr. Strange tells her. "I can provide medication for the cramps and pain, but we didn't think to bring hygiene products."
The door opens again, and this time it is T'Challa who is barely walking in, she is covered in sweat, and being supported by Oyoke. "Quit being a baby!" Oyoke tells her.
"How can you go through this every month?" T'Challa asks Oyoke.
"Period?" Dr. Strange asks Oyoke, when they make eye contact.
"It would seem so." He responds.
"Did your troops bring hygiene products?" She asks Oyoke.
"Not nearly enough." He responds.
"This isn't good." Dr. Strange responds. "It hadn't occurred to me that so many people would get hit at the same time." She studies all her patients for a moment and thinks about how many people are on the ship. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I may have to open a portal to my assistant and ask him to purchase supplies."
Dr. Strange doesn't hesitate and starts using the sling ring. She has to concentrate extremely hard to compensate for the motion of the ship.
The portal opens to Wong sitting at a desk. "Dr. Strange, what's wrong?" Wong asks in legit concern.
"Wong." Dr. Strange says. "This is going to sound like a wild request, but we need you to purchase femenine hygiene products."
Wong's eyes widened in disbelief. "But, I don't know anything about feminine products."
"This is an emergency, Wong." Dr. Strange interrupts him. "It hadn't occurred to me that a lot of people changed to women at the exact same time. This has effectively synced a huge percentage of their menstrual cycles." Wong tries to listen, but it's clear he is very nervous now and confused. "A lot of people are having their perio..."
Before Dr. Strange can finish her sentence, the ship begins to shake violently again. She closes the portal for safety concerns.
"For the love of the Gods! What are they doing out there?" Rocket shouts. "Don't they know how to pilot a ship?"
Almost as if answering their question, the ship's intercom turns on.
"Folks, this is your captain speaking." Talos says over loud speaker. "While I know you guys are having fun back there, I ask that in the interest of everyone's safety, could you please stop shaking the ship? I repeat, could you please stop whatever the heck it is you're doing?"
"What does that mean?" Rocket asks.
"It means the shaking is coming from inside the ship." Star-Lord tells her.
"What could be shaking the ship?" T'Challa asks, before gripping her side and groaning.
Dr. Strange looks at her patients and notices that both T'Challa and Steve Rogers seem to be experiencing the most amount of pain. She thinks back to what she told Steve earlier, "I suppose the super soldier serum could be making your cramps worse than usual."
Almost as if responding to her thoughts, the ship jumps again causing everything to shake. Dr. Steven Strange's eyes widen with legit concern and borderline disbelief.
"Doctor, what's wrong?" Oyoke asks.
"We have to find Bruce!" she says, ominously.
***Meanwhile in New York***
It's still pretty early in the morning. The sun is shining, birds are singing, there is a light breeze, and it's a beautiful day.
Peter Parker, however, is curled up in bed gripping a hot bottle pressed against her abdomen. "Ooooohhh!" She cries which causes MJ to press harder as she massages Peter's back.
"Why does it hurt so bad?" She asks. "It's like being eternally kicked in the groin with knives! OOOOHH!"
"There, there." MJ says, not being sure what else she could do.
"Here honey, I brought some chamomile tea." Aunt May says as she walks into the room.
"Just put it on the nightstand." Peter responds. "I can drink it after I'm done dying." She continues crying.
Aunt May looks at MJ, and whispers, "Thank you." She looks back toward Peter, and for a moment both MJ and Aunt May wonder if it's really that serious, or if Peter is just being a big baby.