AN: It's finally time for Batch 89 to start the first volume of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" Saga!


"Even in diverging realities, some constants remain regardless of how much things change. These universal constants usually occur when only small changes have happened, but can still lead to differences in what occurs on the so-called Sacred Timeline…"

Xandar, the home world of the Nova Corps and not the first place that Rocket would have chosen to look for their next bounty, but Lylla wanted to get some more supplies and Teefs wanted to sell some of his gadgets, so the raccoon couldn't go against his teammates. Despite saving one of their officers in the past Batch 89 had a rocky relationship with the Nova Corps, with it always seeming like they were one wrong step away from getting tossed in prison, most likely due to some of their more questionable exploits they'd used during their bounty hunting.

"Xandarians… look at 'em all, always going someplace to do something else on this planet," Rocket muttered to himself as he and Groot looked for their next target. "Who'd want to stick around in one place when there's a whole galaxy out there to explore? I mean, look at that guy's haircut! Seriously, you only get then whenever you don't know what to do with your life."

Rocket moved his scanner around to look at more people. "Let's see… Nope, not the kid- but could you imagine an evil child mastermind? How about… that guy? No, he's just a pervert, not a criminal. Where's your wife, old man? You see any targets, Groot? …Groot?" Rocket turned around to see Groot drinking out of the nearby fountain, the raccoon sighing at his friend's antics. "Don't drink fountain water, you idiot, that's disgusting!" Groot shook his head in denial. "Yes you did, I just saw you! Why you lying?"

Suddenly his scanner went off, bringing Rocket's attention back to the device. "Oh, looks like we have our next bounty… Okay humie, how much are you worth… Peter Quill, wanted by Yondu Udonta- the leader of one of the Ravager crews? And this Quill guy is worth… 40,000 units!? Groot, we're gonna be rich!" Rocket smiled and looked to his friend, only for his face to fall when he saw Groot drinking from the fountain again.

As Rocket came up with a plan to capture Quill, Teefs was off selling his wares to a man known only as the Broker. It wasn't much money, but it made Teefs happy to contribute to the team's funds in a small way. "It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Broker," Teefs said.

"As it is with you, Teefs," the Broker replied.

As Teefs left he almost ran into a human entering the shop, coincidentally being Peter Quill, the guy Rocket was targeting. "Excuse me, sir, just going through," Teefs apologized after almost bowling the guy over.

"…A talking walrus on wheels?" Quill muttered before shaking his head. "After you, man."

"Thank you," Teefs smiled before exiting the building.

"How'd it go, Teefs?" Floor asked, bouncing on her feet as her friend returned.

"I think it went quite well, Floor," Teefs replied. "I hope that Rocket and Groot's mission is going as smoothly as mine has."

Just then the door to the Broker's shop opened up as Quill was pushed out, the human shouting, "Hey, we had a deal, bro!" as the door was closed on him.

"Sounds like his dealings didn't go so well…" Teefs hummed.

A nearby civilian, a woman in dark clothes with green skin, looked over at Quill. "What happened?" she asked.

"Ah, this guy just backed out of a deal on me," Quill replied, gesturing to the door. "If there's one thing I hate, it's a man without integrity. I'm Peter Quill, people call me Star-Lord."

"Oh, Star-Lord…" Floor said in awe.

"I wonder what it takes to become a lord of the stars…" Teefs thought aloud.

"You have the bearing of a man with honor," the green woman said, her voice laced with sarcasm.

"Well, you know, I wouldn't say that," Quill replied. "People say that about me, all the time, but it's not something I would ever say about myself."

The green lady suddenly grabbed the orb from Quill's hands and kicked him square in the gut, making a run for it as the human doubled over in pain. "She's stealing his things!" Floor gasped.

"And he was kind to me before… We must help get his wares back, Floor!" Teefs declared, racing after the green woman. Floor hopped on his back and launched herself at the thief, using her spider limbs to wrap around the woman's arms and unbalance her enough to knock her to the floor.

"Give back what you steal, thief!" Floor exclaimed, only to get tossed away by the woman. Quill caught up to the trio and tried to fight the woman for the orb, only for her to outmatch him with her martial arts skills.

"This wasn't the plan," the woman said, pinning Quill to the ground and pulling out a sword. Suddenly she was tackled off the man by Lylla, the otter pulling out her staff to defend herself.

"Now then, I don't know what's going on, but I saw you hurt Floor, so I'm not going to let you hurt this human either," Lylla said to the would-be assailant.

"Is there a zoo outbreak going on I didn't know about…?" Quill wondered.

"Grab him now, Groot!" Rocket shouted, suddenly appearing alongside Groot as the tree man stuffed the green woman in a sack. "No, that's not the right one! Learn genders, man!"

"Rocket, what's going on?" Lylla asked as she watched Groot struggle with keeping the woman contained with his vines.

"That humie is worth 40,000 units for his bounty- alive, I should add," Rocket said.

"You mean the man that's just run off?" Teefs pointed out as Quill had fled the scene. "Shame, he held the door for me earlier…"

"Aw great…" Rocket groaned before the green woman broke free of her bonds and tossed Rocket aside.

"Hey! You can't just hurt Rocket like that!" Lylla said, thrusting her staff at the woman, who blocked the attack with her sword. "Teefs, Floor, go after the human! Groot and I can distract this assassin."

"You don't know who you're dealing with," the woman warned.

"You're right: you don't," Lylla replied with some confidence, twisting the end of her staff to make electric progs appear out of the other side.

Over with Quill, he was still trying to get away when a sudden sonic blast knocked him over, dropping the orb and letting it roll down to the ground level of the area. "Sorry about this, kind sir, but you do have quite the bounty on your head," Teefs apologized, lowering his sonic cannon.

"Of course Yondu put out a bounty…" Quill groaned. "And what the hell guys!? You were just helping me!"

"Sorry but Captain Rocket said to take you in!" Floor said, jumping onto Quill and using some rope from Teefs to tie him up.

Down on ground level, Rocket had recovered from getting thrown and stood up to see the orb Quill had been carrying was right at his feet. "If that human and assassin were fighting over this, it has to be worth something," the raccoon mused, only for get kicked away by the assassin lady once again. "Okay, I'm getting real tired of you tossing me around," Rocket growled, pulling out his blaster and shooting the orb out of her hands and into the waiting arms of Groot.

"Sorry about that, Rocky! She's a lot tougher than I thought!" Lylla called from Groot's shoulder as they dropped down a level.

"We have the human as well!" Floor cheered, propping up Quill into a sitting position a she and Teefs joined the group.

"Please don't smile like that, Floor. It's unprofessional while we're on the job," Rocket rolled his eyes.

The assassin growled and turned her sword on Groot, slicing off both his arms and grabbing the orb from his severed grip. "Oh no you don't!" Quill shouted, pulling free from his bindings (Floor wasn't very good at tying knots), pulling out one of his blasters and using it to stun the assassin, making her drop the orb.

As Quill grabbed the orb and tried to make a break for it, Rocket casually adjusted the sights on his blaster and set it to capture mode. "I live for the simple things, like how much this is gonna hurt," the raccoon said, firing off a plasma ball than dropped Quill to the floor in and electrified mess. "That's right, you're not getting away that easy, little man. Mission accomplishes, gang!"

"I am Groot…" Groot said, looking at his severed arms.

"It's okay Groot, they'll grow back," Lylla assured her friend.

"Yay, we got the bounty!" Floor cheered. Her cheers were cut short, however, when Nova Corps ships flew down and used their capture beams to detain all of them, suspending them in midair.

"Subject 89P13, drop your weapon. You and your gang are under arrest for the endangerment of life and destruction of property of the people of Xandar," the Nova said.

"Oh biscuits…" Teefs cursed.

"Maybe dragon lady can get us out?" Floor suggested.

"I don't think she'll be able to get out of this one, Floor," Lylla said, looking around at the mess they'd all made during their pursuit of Quill. "We were already on their bad side, but this just gives them an excuse to lock us up."

"Hey, if it isn't star prince," one of the Nova said as they grabbed Quill.

"It's Star-Lord," Quill corrected.

"Sorry, "Star-Lord." I picked his guy up a while back for petty theft. He's got a code name," the Nova explained to his colleague.

"Do you think we should get code names, Rocket?" Teefs asked.

"Not now, Teefs…" Rocket groaned as they were all taken into custody of the Nova Corps.

[***]

At the Nova Corps detainment center, Rocket and the rest of Batch 89 (along with Quill and the assassin lady, apparently named Gamora) were being held by the Nova Corps, waiting to see what their sentence would be. Currently they were all being introduced to Nova Saal by fellow Nova Corps member Dey. "Subject 89P13. Calls itself "Rocket". The result of illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower lifeform," Dey said as Rocket rolled his eyes, spitting on the floor. "It's also the leader of fellow illegal experiments that we have detained as well, all part of Batch 89 going off their subject numbers."

Lylla came in next, trying her best to keep her composure and not cause any trouble. "Subject 89Q12. Calls itself "Lylla." Currently acts as the group's medical officer and has been seen assisting other injured lifeforms during sightings of Batch 89."

"If you ever want to know who made us, you could just ask…" Lylla muttered as she was scanned.

"Subject 89A95. Calls itself "Teefs." A known seller of wares on various black markets across the galaxy." Teefs simply waved to the Nova Members as he was scanned.

"Subject 89L06. Calls itself "Floor." It looks harmless but might just be the deadliest of Batch 89 right next to Subject 89P13. Don't let it get a hold of sharp objects."

"Hello Nova! Say hello to dragon lady for me!" Floor said, oblivious to the situation she was currently in.

"What the hell…?" Saal whispered as Groot was brought in.

"They call it "Groot." A humanoid plant that's been travelling recently as Batch 89's personal houseplant-slash-muscle," Dey explained.

"What a bunch of a-holes," Saal said after the debriefing, getting a snort out of Dey. "Transport all of them to the Kyln."


Author's Note

The outcome of the events on Xandar didn't change much, but we did need to get all of the future Guardians to the Kyln so they could meet Drax. It was fun having Batch 89 get small interactions with Star-Lord and Gamora, such as Teefs reluctantly fighting Star-Lord after Quill held the door for him or Teefs using her spider legs to try and restrain Gamora. Dey getting to debrief on our favorite space animals was fun to come up with as well as it gives us some insight as to how Batch 89 are viewed by the Nova Corps.

If you didn't notice, I've also added a cover image to this story that was drawn by myself! I wanted to add a visual for this story and that's why this chapter took a bit to come out. With us following the plot of Volume One now I hope to get these chapters out more consistently (trying to go for one every two weeks but don't hold me to that).

Next time will be all about the Kyln sequence and meeting Drax, plus getting to know Star-Lord and Gamora a bit more!