AN: Happy Eclipse Day! Fitting that I get a new chapter of this story out for that, huh?

"It is sometimes said that there is always a calm before the storm, and the Guardians of the Galaxy were about to fly into a new storm soon enough, sweeping them into a new adventure that would test if their bond as a team was strong enough to survive…"

Rocket hummed along to "Lake Shore Drive" as he started up the Milano, a smile on his face as the engines roared to life. "All right, let's get baldy to Xandar and collect that bounty!" he exclaimed.

Floor and Groot looked out the back window of the ship with faces against the glass as the Sovereign home world became smaller as they ascended. Teefs hummed along with the song as well as he rearranged his tools, while Lylla watched Gamora adjust the handcuffs on Nebula to be more secure.

"That stuff she was saying about my father… Who does she think she is?" Quill questioned.

"I know you're sensitive about that," Gamora nodded.

"I'm not sensitive about it. I just don't know who he is," Quill replied.

"Yes, I'm very aware that you have parental abandonment issues, Peter Quill," Lylla giggled. "Trust me, myself and Batch 89 have dealt with plenty of trauma due to our upbringing as well."

"Well, I don't know if I have trauma about my dad…" Quill muttered. He turned back to Gamora and said, "…Sorry if it seemed like I was flirting with the High Priestess. I wasn't."

"I don't care if you were," Gamora shrugged, walking out of the room with Nebula in tow.

"Well, I feel like you do care. That's why I'm apologizing. So, sorry!" Quill called after her.

"Gamora is not the one for you, Quill," Drax said, making Quill and Lylla jump as the warrior appeared out of nowhere.

"Damn shadow…" Quill muttered.

"There are two kinds of being in this universe: those who dance, and those who do not," Drax explained. "I first met my beloved at a war rally."

"Oh, Drax backstory!" Lylla whispered excitedly, while Quill just sighed.

"Everyone in the village flailed about, dancing. Except one woman. My Ovette," Drax said. "I knew immediately she was the one for me. The most melodic song in the world could be playing. She wouldn't even tap her foot. Wouldn't move a muscle. One might assume she was dead."

"That does sound pretty hot," Quill admitted.

"It would make my nether regions engorge," Drax said.

Lylla let out a sound of disgust. "Too much information, Drax…"

"I get it, Drax. I am a dancer, Gamora is not," Quill said.

Drax put a hand on his shoulder. "You just need to find a woman who is pathetic… like you."

While that conversation was happening, Teefs finished rearranging his tools and moved to another room of the ship, finding Gamora chaining up Nebula. The cyborg looked over at the walrus before noticing a bowl of food nearby. "I'm hungry. Hand me some of that yaro root," Nebula demanded.

"No. It's not ripe yet…" Teefs shook his head.

"And I hate you," Gamora added.

"You hate me? You left me there while you stole that stone for yourself," Nebula rebutted. "And yet here you stand, a hero. I will be free of these shackles soon enough, and I will kill you. I swear."

Gamora shook her head. "No. You're gonna live out the rest of your days in a prison on Xandar… wishing you could."

It was then that an alarm went off, calling the Guardians to gather in the cockpit area to see what the trouble was. "Odd. We have a Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear," Teefs noted on the radar.

"Why would they do that?" Gamora questioned.

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

"No I did not! That was a joke, dude!" Rocket shouted.

"Uh, Rocket? Why part bag glowing?" Floor asked, holding up his spare parts satchel.

Quill took the bag and opened it up, revealing Anulax batteries inside. "Really, Rocket!? What were you thinking!?" he shouted.

Suddenly the Sovereign ships started firing on the Milano, forcing Quill and Rocket to take evasive action. "Quill, I swear I did not steal those batteries! I don't even know how they got in there!" Rocket shouted.

"That's your defense?" Gamora questioned.

"Come on, you all were with me the entire time! When would I have even had time to steal those!?" Rocket defended himself.

"I have to agree with Rocket, Peter. I was at his side then and he never stole any batteries," Lylla voiced.

"Of course you side with him, seeing as he's your boyfriend," Quill said sarcastically.

"Hey, don't be using that sarcastic tone with my lady! Leave her out of this!" Rocket shouted.

"You do frequently rely on the female beast to defend you whenever something goes wrong that is your fault," Drax stated.

"Could we save the bickering until after we survive this massive space battle?" Gamora suggested.

"More incoming!" Teefs announced.

"Good! I want to kill some guys!" Rocket growled, venting his anger out on the enemy ships that came into range of the Milano's line of fire.

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

The Guardians all braced themselves as they took a hit. "What's the nearest inhabitable planet?" Quill asked.

"It's called Berhert," Teefs announced, pulling up a map.

"How many jumps?" Quill asked.

"Only one, but the access point is 47 clicks away," Teefs replied. "And we have to go through that quantum asteroid field."

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

Quill smirked. "Lucky for us…"

"I am," Rocket finished the thought, taking piloting controls for himself as they blasted into the field of randomly warping asteroid.

"Yes! Go Rocket!" Floor cheered as the raccoon flew around the asteroids, leading the Sovereign ships to crash into both rocks and each other.

Quill adjusted the controls, giving himself piloting access once more. "What are you doing!?" Rocket questioned.

"I've been flying this rig since I was 10 years old," Quill stated.

"I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft," Rocket said, taking controls back.

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a douchebag!" Quill shot back, regaining controls.

"You two need to stop and focus on getting us out of here!" Lylla shouted.

"Preferably in on piece…" Teefs added.

"Later on tonight, you're going to be lying in your bed and there's going to 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 shouted.

"You put your turd in my bed, I shave you," Quill threatened.

"Oh, it won't be my turd. It'll be Drax's," Rocket smirked.

Drax laughed at that. "I have famously huge turds."

"We're about to die, and this is what we're discussing?" Gamora sighed.

Quill and Rocket continued to fight over the controls until their luck ran out and the Milano ran into an asteroid, taking out the back of the ship and causing the suction of space to come in. Teefs locked his wheels into the floor of the ship and grabbed Floor with his mechanical limbs while Quill caught Groot and tossed him back to Drax for safety.

"Activating cabin repressuring system!" Lylla shouted, pressing a button on her console to put up a barrier that blocked the suction of space.

"Idiots!" Nebula shouted, having almost been sucked out into space.

"Well, that's what you get when Quill flies," Rocket said smugly.

Gamora growled and tossed one of Teefs' wrenches at Rocket's head. "We still have a Sovereign craft behind us."

"Our weapons are down! Twenty clicks to the jump!" Teefs announced.

Drax handed Groot off to Lylla, the otter strapping the tree-kid into her seat as the warrior made his way down to the back entrance. The warrior kicked away a yaro root from Nebula's grasp and hooked up a tow cable to his belt and slapped on one of Rocket's newest inventions, a portable emergency spacesuit.

"15 clicks to the jump!" Teefs announced as the Milano took more damage.

Drax grabbed a blaster from a rack of weapons and pressed the button for the repressurizing shields, letting himself fall out into space to act as a makeshift gunner.

"10 clicks… 5 clicks!" Teefs shouted as Drax managed to shoot down the Sovereign ship on their tail… just as more ships descended on the Milano from all sides.

"Son of a… They went around the field!" Quill cursed.

Rocket looked back at his friends with fear in his eyes as they were shot from all sides. 'Is this how we go out? Dying because I got set up…?' he thought. But as all hope seemed lost, a blue light came out of nowhere and blew up all of the Sovereign craft in one attack!

"One click!" Teefs called.

"Who was that?" Rocket questioned.

"Who cares? That's the jump point! Go! Go!" Quill ordered.

Lylla looked out the window and squinted in confusion as what looked to be a human waved from atop an egg-shaped ship. "It's a guy," she stated.

The Milano managed to make it through the jump point, entering the atmosphere of Berhert. "Oh my god, he's still out there?" Gamora gasped as she saw Drax still being dragged along by the tow cable behind the ship.

"Good thing I installed a remote wench system!" Teefs shouted, pressing a button on his console that caused Drax to be reeled back into the Milano safely. "I knew that upgrade would come in handy…"

"Everyone else, seatbelts on!" Quill shouted. "Prepare for a really bad landing!"

[***]

"Look at this! Where's the other half of our ship!?" Gamora screamed. After crash landing on the planet, the Guardians were now gathered outside of the wreckage of the Milano, which was in no condition to fly them anywhere now.

"My ship," Quill corrected.

"Either one of you could have flown us through that field if you had flown with what's between your ears instead of what's between your legs!" Gamora chided, walking off in a huff.

"If what's between my legs had a hand on it, I guarantee I could've landed the ship with it," Quill stated.

Lylla sighed. "Peter, we almost died because of your arrogance."

"More like because he stole the Anulax batteries!" Quill shouted.

"Like I said before, I did not steal the batteries, Star-Munch," Rocket growled. "And even if I did steal them, I would have done it because I wanted to!"

"Dick," Quill muttered.

"I feel like we should be more concerned about the little man on his egg-shaped ship that saved us from the Sovereign," Teefs said.

"How little?" Drax asked.

Lylla held her fingers close together. "He was about… this size?"

A little, one-inch man saved us?" Gamora raised an eyebrow.

"Well, if he closer I'm sure he would be larger," Rocket shrugged.

"That's how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon," Quill said.

"I am not stupid!" Rocket growled, moving to try and bite Quill only for Lylla to hold him back. "I'm not going to let you insult my species like that, either!"

"I'm sorry, that went too far. I meant trash panda," Quill said.

"…Is that a better name for Rocket's species?" Teefs asked.

"I dunno," Drax shrugged.

Quill smirked. "It's worse. It's so much worse."

"That's it! Lylla, let me go so I can rearrange his face!" Rocket screamed.

Nebula, currently being held by Drax, looked up in the sky to see an egg-shaped ship approaching. "Someone followed you through the jump point." The Guardians all set aside their arguments to huddle up in a circle for defense. "Set me free, you'll need my help."

"I am not a fool, Nebula," Gamora replied.

"You are a fool if your deprive yourself a hand in combat," Nebula said.

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

"I won't," Nebula whispered.

"You'd think an evil supervillain would learn how to properly lie," Quill said.

"I believe that's the ship with the one-inch man," Teefs mused.

The ship landed in front of the Guardians, a door opening up to reveal two figures inside. One was an old man that looked to be human, while the other was a woman with antennae on her head and wearing green clothes. The old man smiled and said, "After all these years, I've found you."

"And who the hell are you?" Quill asked.

"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious. My name is Ego… and I'm your dad, Peter," the man introduced himself.

Floor gasped and smiled. "Star-Lord's Dad! More family reunions!"

"Something tells me this is going to have a long story tied to it… Let's at least make some sort of camp before night falls," Lylla sighed, just about done with everything that had happened today.

After getting a fire set up for the group to sit around, Ego told his story to the Guardians. "I had Yondu go and pick you up when your mother passed away. But instead of returning you, Yondu kept you. I have no clue as to why."

"Well, I'll tell you why: because I was a skinny little kid who could squeeze into places adults couldn't. It made it even easier for thieving," Quill replied.

"Just like Floor does! Kid Quill was like Floor is now!" Floor gasped.

"But he was probably a helluva lot uglier than you," Rocket snickered.

"Well, I've been trying to track you down ever since," Ego said.

"I thought Yondu was your father?" Drax questioned.

Quill raised an eyebrow. "What? We've been together this whole time and you thought Yondu was my actual blood relative?"

"You look exactly alike," Drax stated.

"One's blue!" Lylla exclaimed with a laugh.

"…No, he's not my father!" Quill sighed. "Yondu was the guy who abducted me, kicked the crap out of me so I could learn to fight, and kept me terror by threatening to eat me."

"Eat you!?" Ego said in surprise.

"Yeah," Quill nodded.

"Oh, that son of a bitch," Ego cursed.

"How'd you locate us now?" Gamora asked.

"Well, even where I reside, out past what's known we've heard tell about the man they call Star-Lord," Ego explained. "What say we head out there now? You're associates are welcome Even that triangle-faced monkey there and his companions. I promise you, it's unlike any other place you've ever seen. And there, I can explain your very special heritage. Finally get to be the father I've always wanted to be."

Ego turned away. "Excuse me. I've got to take a wizz."

As soon as he left, the Guardians all shared looks of uncertainty with each other (other than Floor, who was oblivious to the strangeness of the situation). "I'm not buying it," Quill voiced.

"Let's go take a walk," Gamora suggested, leaving Batch 89 and Drax alone with the antenna lady.

Lylla coughed as she looked towards Ego's plus-one on this trip. "Hello there. I am Lylla, team medic of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Who are you?"

"I am Mantis," Ego's aid answered, her face twisting into what appeared to be a smile.

"What are you doing?" Drax questioned.

"Smiling. I hear it is the thing to do to make people like you," Mantis replied.

"Not if you do it like that," Drax muttered, going back to his soup.

Mantis looked down. "Oh… I was raised alone on Ego's planet. I do not understand the intricacies of social interaction."

"Then perhaps Floor can help you out, Ms. Mantis," Teefs suggested. "She was created to be a therapy animal, so her presence and comfort may be able to help you adjust to being around so many new faces."

"Yes! Floor love meeting new faces!" Floor beamed, hopping up into Mantis' lap.

"Yes, Floor likes being pet, unlike the freaky beast there," Drax said, pointing to Rocket who just gave the warrior a growl.

Floor sighed contently as Mantis stroked her back, making the rabbit nuzzle into her lap. "Bug lady is warm, Friend Lylla," Floor stated, rolling onto her back to let Mantis rub her tummy next.

"And you're just like a little puppy," Mantis giggled, her antennae glowing a bit.

"Woah, what are you doing to Floor there?" Rocket questioned.

"I have powers that let me feel the emotions of others. Your friend here is very happy with my pets," Mantis explained.

"Empath powers… how rare and interesting," Teefs said in wonder.

Lylla voiced her interest in Mantis' powers as well, while Rocket just grumbled to himself, staring angerly at his bag of spare parts. 'I didn't steal those batteries… I know I didn't. Not that Quill is going to believe me…' Rocket thought. 'Clearly someone is trying to set me up, to get me to make a mistake and hurt my friends… Well, jokes on them. After this nonsense with Quill's dad is over with, I'm taking my friends off into the forever sky and never looking back…'

Author's Note

If it wasn't obvious, last chapter Subject 95Y14 put the stolen batteries in Rocket's bag, setting him up to have the Sovereign attack the Guardians and hopefully make Rocket easier to capture for the High Evolutionary. While we know from Guardians 3 that Ayesha and the High Evolutionary are working together, Subject 95Y14 was ordered to capture Rocket by any means, even manipulating the Soveriegn to make their job easier.

This of course leads to tension in the Guardians team, with Quill being pissed at Rocket and Rocket being pissed that his new allies don't trust him enough to not steal the batteries. We also get some conflict with how Batch 89 are more readily willing to defend and trust Rocket more than Quill and Gamora are since they've know Rocket all his life- literally.

Ego coming in doesn't really help matters there, though we do get a cute scene between Mantis and Floor. They unfortunately won't be getting a lot of time together in Volume 2 since Batch 89 are going to be part of Rocket's story, but I do plan on having more interactions between those two in the future. For now it seems that Rocket is planning on ditching the Guardians and taking his friends with him, but will that just play into Subject 95Y14's plan? You'll find out next time...