Oh, I'm just a girl, living in captivity

Your rule of thumb makes me worrisome

Oh, I'm just a girl, what's my destiny?

What I've succumbed to is making me numb

Just your average day in Nova Corps - staking out a courtyard on Xandar, waiting for the daughter of the Mad Titan to show her face. No big deal. Tackle the galaxy's most deadly assassin to the ground and arrest her. Cassidy Taylor could do that, right?

There were rumours that Gamora was also working with Ronan and the Kree. It made little sense to Cass that she would be casually running around Xandar if she was working with Ronan. Ronan whose Sakaaran soldiers were responsible for an attack on a Nova Corps fleet a few months prior that resulted in her mother's death.

She swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. It hadn't been long she'd known her mother - only three years, really. But they'd only just become family after 30 years apart.

And now she was gone.

In the span of three years she'd lost everything. Her father had sacrificed himself so she and her mother could escape the Kree on Earth. And now the life she was just starting to build was erased in the blink of an eye.

Without thinking, she reached up to toy with the pendant hanging around her neck - a bright golden star her mother had gifted her.

Cass blinked back the tears that threatened to spill.

It wasn't the time.

She leaned against the railing in front of her and scanned the crowd. A pretty average day, in her opinion. Happy families, friends, strangers. The air was filled with laughter and chatty voices.

Three years ago, searching for a green-skinned assassin would've been easy. Odds were, on Earth anyway, everyone around her wouldn't be green. But on Xandar? The universe had so much more flavour out here. More skin tones, more abilities, more languages, more…everything. The fact that she had to have a universal translator implanted just to function day to day was amazing.

Glancing down toward the fountain she saw what looked like a tree and a raccoon, and the tree was drinking from the fountain. A soft giggle bubbled up as she watched them. The idea of a raccoon and a tree walking around and having a conversation…. Was this real life or a Disney movie?

When she turned away, she was biting down on her grin when a man with light brown hair and blue eyes smirked at her and threw her his best Blue Steel. He wore a dark red leather jacket over his blue shirt with a brown cross-body bag draped across his chest. While he wasn't exactly filthy or caked in dirt, he was somehow dirtier than the average Xandarian. On Earth he wouldn't look out of place, but here? There was something she couldn't put her finger on.

Cass rolled her eyes and bit down on a smile. He was cute, but it would take a lot more than a bad Blue Steel to win her over.

"Got a smile," he said as he walked past her. The man spun around and tossed her a wink before continuing into a nearby pawn shop.

Before she could think anymore on it, a flash of green caught her eye. Still smiling, she shook her head and the flash of green resolved into Gamora in her peripheral. Cass turned back to the courtyard and kept an eye on the assassin using the reflection in the steel railing.

Gamora approached the pawn shop and leaned casually against it as she pulled out a piece of fruit. What was she up to? Was she after the broker? Or the cute guy?

Either way, it spelled trouble. Especially given how busy the courtyard was.

If they evacuated the courtyard, they would risk Gamora getting away. If they didn't evacuate, someone could get hurt. It was a hell of a choice, but all things considered, it was probably best to at least wait it out and see what happened.

The order to hold came in her ear and she almost sighed in relief.

Instead of engaging, she watched.

Gamora peeled the fruit, tossed the rind, and started eating it as obscenely as possible as the door slid open and the Broker physically shoved the guy outside.

"Hey!" the guy shouted. "We had a deal, bro!"

Bro? Did the guy walk straight out of 80s Earth? Jesus, who talked like that? What next - radical? Cowabunga?

The yelling was cut short when he saw Gamora. She licked the fruit and his jaw hit the ground as he tensed and relaxed his muscles, visibly trying to calm himself.

"What happened?" she asked, looking at him through her lashes.

And he took the bait. Cass had to admit it stung a little. Not that she was envisioning marrying the guy, but it was jarring how quickly he'd switched to flirt with someone else.

The guy glanced back at the door. "Uh…this guy just backed out of a deal on me," he said before turning back to her, a smile shining in his eyes. "If there's one thing I hate, it's a man without integrity. Peter Quill, people call me Star Lord."

Peter Quill? This was the guy she'd heard Dey talking about? He didn't look like a thief. Or a Ravager. At least not one she'd encountered before. More like a used car salesman. Or an overly confident college kid hitting the bar, looking for a hookup.

If that's who he was, she had zero interest in being part of this idiot's little black book.

In the reflection, she watched as he tried to continue flirting, tossing some silver ball around in his hands. Gamora's eyes lit up and she snatched the ball, kicking out at him before she took off at a run in the opposite direction.

Quill was quick to recover. He grabbed something from one of his pockets and threw it, catching her around the legs. Almost faster than she could track, he ran after her and tackled her to the ground and the pair launched into a full-blown fight.

Cass snapped into action, pushing civilians out of harm's way. "This way!"

Just as Gamora pulled out a sword to skewer Quill, the raccoon she'd seen earlier tackled her to the ground and the tree wrapped her in its branches as she screamed.

Meanwhile, Quill grabbed the orb and took off. With Cass hot on his heels.

Something silver flew past her head and hit Quill in the hand, causing the ball to drop and roll off the walkway to the courtyard below.

"Hey!" she shouted at Quill.

He turned and grinned at her. "Later, Smiles." And jumped over the railing.

Dammit! It was supposed to be just Gamora. 'Just'. As though the trained assassin was going to be an easy target to take down. Still, adding in Quill and the raccoon and the tree was a complication she hadn't expected.

With a growl, she ran for the stairs and hopped over the railing. Ahead of her, Gamora tackled Quill to get the ball - what the hell could be so damn important that a thief and an assassin were after it so ruthlessly?

"Fool!" Gamora hissed, pinning Quill with a knee to the throat. "You should have learned!"

"I don't learn," he gasped. "One of my issues."

Cass kicked out before Gamora could attempt to stab the guy again and sent her flying sideways off him. Gamora stood with a growl and brandished her sword, then launched at Cass. Slipping the electrified baton out of her boot as she rolled below the blade, Cass grinned. The sword came down toward her head and she blocked it with the baton, shoving back hard against the other woman. To her credit, Gamora stumbled but remained upright as Cass regained her footing and charged.

Only to be sent flying across the courtyard by a kick to the gut.

Grimacing, she got to her feet and saw Quill escape a massive sack the raccoon and tree had tossed him in. She ran for Quill, while Gamora took down the tree. Part of her was a little insulted at how easy the assassin must've thought her to take down to go for the tree first. But she swallowed her pride and used the advantage to close the distance between her and Quill.

Just as Quill reached the edge of the gathering crowd, Cass skidded to a stop in front of him.

"Wish I had the time, Smiles," he said, trying to dodge around her.

Over his shoulder, she saw the raccoon and tree get taken down by Gamora, who was now headed right for them. "And I wish you'd stop calling me that," she muttered. She let Quill land a blow and start past her before kicking out and taking him down just as the Nova Corps ships arrived and held Gamora, the tree, and the raccoon. Much easier than the idea of having to take her down herself, as far as Cass was concerned.

She wrenched Quill's arms behind his back and cuffed them. "Sorry, Star Boy."

"No, no," Dey's voice came behind her. "It's Star Prince!" He helped her pull Quill to his feet.

"Star Lord, man," Quill grumbled.

Cass bit back a smile at just how dejected he looked. Honestly, Quill didn't even look bothered that he'd been caught, just that they'd got the name wrong. "Sure, dude," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "Star Prince it is."

The look he gave her as they carried him off was half annoyed, half offended, and Cass held back on a triumphant grin. Served him right for calling her 'Smiles'.

After taking down Quill, Cass didn't bother to clean up. Instead, she stood in Nova Corps HQ a little worse for wear in her civilian clothing and waited to assist in processing the prisoners. It didn't bother her in the least that she stood out amongst the disgustingly clean halls and prim and proper Nova Corpsmen. In fact, she preferred the down and dirty of it all to the picture perfect visage Xandar presented. She'd rather be in the slums than dealing with bureaucracy or worrying about how she presented herself; nobody would ever mistake her for a politician or any kind of mediator.

"You look terrible, Taylor," Denarian Saal's voice sounded behind her. She turned down the hall and saw him looking down his nose at her. Like always. "What happened?"

"Thank you for noticing, Sir," she shot back. Sarcasm was her first language, before English. Her dad had always told her it would get her in trouble one day, though that never stopped him from encouraging her.

Dey stepped between them and stammered, "She took down one of the criminals we're processing. Peter Quill."

"I also survived a one on one encounter with an assassin with body modifications," she put in. "I think that's pretty impressive." Cass grinned. "At least worth an honourable mention."

Saal shook his head. From the get-go, he'd hated her and reminded her constantly that the only reason she had her job was because of her mother. Lucky for her, she was good at what she did. Too good to fire. But probably also a little too Terran for Saal and many others in Nova Corps.

"Get ready to move the prisoners after processing," Saal said, stepping around her.

"To where?"

He glanced down his nose again and Cass's fingers twitched with the urge to slap him. "The Kyln."

Again, she found herself biting back a response. Maybe Gamora deserved that place - deadliest woman in the galaxy whose hands were dripping with the blood of the innocent? Sure. But Quill? The tree? The raccoon? Probably not. Dey had only said Quill was a thief. Was Saal just feeling particularly asshole-ish today?

Grimacing, she headed to the end of the processing line and watched as they brought Gamora in first.

Dey began reading her docket. "Gamora. Surgically modified and trained as a living weapon." Yeah, that seemed like someone who belonged in the Kyln. Then again, those in glass houses…. "The adopted daughter of the Mad Titan, Thanos." Thanos. She might not be the most up to date on all criminals out in the greater galaxy, but she sure as hell knew who he was. And the atrocities, the genocides he'd committed. "Recently, Thanos lent her and her sister, Nebula, out to Ronan, which leads us to believe Thanos and Ronan are working together."

Now that caught Cass's attention. Initially she'd been hoping for justice, but hearing Dey say it outloud built up a rage inside her. If the rumours were true, maybe she could use Gamora to get a shot at the Kree who'd killed her family. As they moved Gamora along, Cass made a beeline for the exit. Time to see if she could cut some kind of deal with the daughter of the Mad Titan.

Peter Quill watched as his ship and all his belongings were loaded onto the prison transport. The Kyln. That was his destination. It was supposed to be impossible to escape. But he didn't like the word 'impossible'. Instead, he preferred to think of it as a challenge. Just because nobody had escaped the Kyln before, didn't mean he couldn't do it. He was a professional, after all.

Ahead of him, the green chick who'd taken him down boarded the ship and he grinned. At least he'd have something to occupy his time.

As he followed the raccoon - what was his name again? Rocket? - as he followed Rocket onto the ship, he saw the hot Nova chick who'd taken him down boarding too.

Options.

Peter liked options.

Especially when one of those options could be his way out of the prison.

He almost grinned when she bit down on a smirk as he passed her. Oh yeah, she was into him. This was gonna be a piece of cake.