God the level of excitement I saw from the reviews just made me all giddy to see and if you're wondering, it was all planned and my good comrades BulletStormX and Jebest4781 were instrumental in shaping what this story would become after its rewrite.
So much awesome shit to come for all parties, the Jedi, Sith, Avengers, Guardians, Mandalorians and so on for others to come.
There is one reviewer who did mention the whole thing about how is it that the MCU characters appear to be unaware about the Star Wars universe since it's mentioned and all and dude, it's a story. Intentionally omitted and if you worry about those details, your head tends to hurt, trust me I can attest to this. There's no memory wiping, it's just that for the sake of the narrative, Star Wars (As unholy of a thing it is to say this) doesn't exist in this iteration of the MCU.
Now that that's out of the way, I have a lot to get to with much more setup to go through on top of catch up. Catch up for the Guardians that is. Cause when you put it in terms of timeline wise, there's a four-year gap between the chronological end of Volume 2 leading up to Infinity War. Thankfully, there's this story to fill in the blanks.
So Season 2 is officially underway and this will be too awesome to do.
Let's get to it then.
Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.
Avengers Infinite Wars Chapter 24: Welcome to the Galaxy.
It had been a melancholy few weeks for the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Two in particular.
Peter Quill and Rocket Raccoon held rather morose demeanors for some time though the other Guardians could hardly blame them.
The death of Yondu Udonta still weighed heavily on the heart and mind of both aforementioned Guardians for very similar and very different reasons.
For Peter, it was obvious. The phrase you don't know what ya got till it's gone never hit a more personal level for the Terran. Say what you will, as dysfunctional as it is as much as the two butted heads in the end Yondu truly was the father figure Peter had his entire life. Kidnapped as he may have been from Earth, Peter wouldn't change it for the galaxy.
Everything that had happened to him since led him to what he has now: a family.
Rocket had his own thoughts on the matter, thinking constantly on the time he had spent with Yondu brief as it may be. And in that short instance, this one guy managed to cut through all the bullshit, his entire façade down to a T. Which in turn calls back to another classic phrase that simply showed how easy it was for Yondu to see right through Rockets mask. Never bullshit a bullshitter.
And that was that.
Drax was surprisingly, though not really when one thinks about it, the most empathetic and understanding. He was much more silent and supportive in his own way, showing both of his fellow Guardians that he was there to support them.
Gamora had also been supportive in her way, simply being a constant presence for Peter and Rocket for them to know that they have someone for whom they could talk to if anything.
Groot was simply Groot, showing his care in his own bratty way. It was rather annoying dealing with puberty again but still, he wasn't tiny anymore so there is that.
Surprisingly, though not so much, it was Kraglin that Peter and Rocket found the most type of solace. Aside from Quill, Kraggy knew Yondu best and they had spent many nights after Yondu's funeral talking about all his quirks and tendencies.
Another more pleasant surprise was Nebula making sure to send occasional updates to her sister Gamora. While it would be a difficult and awkward path, the fact that Nebula was willing to mend the bridge shows how much has changed for Gamora since she first joined the team.
Those calm few weeks afterwards however were not to last as Peter had an unusual episode so to speak.
The Guardians were having breakfast together, though Gamora noted that Quill seemed distracted if not distant. He kept rubbing his eyes and sometimes his chest with multiple grimaces and uncomfortable faces.
"Peter." Gamora said softly. "Are you alright?"
Gamora's question made the other Guardians look to their leader who was frowning.
"I dunno." Peter said, eyes squinting. "It's… it's weird, I can't explain it."
"I know thinking isn't your strongest forte but any idea what's wrong?" Rocket asked in his usual snark with none of the old bitterness from before.
Peter made another face, trying to figure out what was troubling him so much when he felt a soft hand on his wrist. Looking down, he saw that it was Mantis with her eyes closed in concentration while her antenna glowed.
"You feel… scattered?" Mantis said in slight confusion. "Lost but present. There is a turmoil of survival but it is not yours."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Rocket inquired in complete bewilderment. "This isn't some Avant guard opening your mind to the cosmos type shit, is it?"
"Open your mind?" Drax repeated. "How is that even-"
"Expression, Drax." Peter said absentmindedly, without looking at him.
"Right, metaphor."
"Sure."
"Mantis." Gamora spoke to their newest member. "What do you mean by scattered?"
Mantis scrunched her face up in concentration as she tried to formulate a proper way of describing it.
However before she was able to speak, Kraglin cut in with a rather panicked tone.
"Cap'n, your eyes!"
The Guardians looked to Peter's eyes with several of them gasping in shock.
"Peter." Gamora said on concern. "Your eyes! They've changed!"
"Wha-" Then Quill felt it.
He had hardly recognized it as it had only happened once before but the feeling was so raw, powerful and unrestrained it was not something he'd ever forget.
His father gave him access to such a feeling.
"The expanse." Peter saw it. All of it…
Or what was left of it.
When his father went throughout the cosmos planting seeds of himself in every world he visited. Upon his death, many of them eroded away and perished.
There were some however that survived. A few withered away on their own but some had apparently taken root in a kind of emergency survival response and were eating the planet it remained on to stay alive.
And so, Peter stated that he must root out these remaining seeds and destroy them making sure none of his mad father's legacy remained. The Guardians bolstered by their recent ordeal and belief in their group naturally agreed.
And thus, for the past year thanks to Kraglin who had knowledge on where most of these seeds had been planted went from system to system, planet to planet, galaxy to galaxy. Though most had ended up empty handed for those that held one were disposed of with a quick reign of fire.
However, there were some that proved to be difficult. After every single seed dome that was destroyed, the next one became rather harder to kill off.
It was proving to be rather annoying but in the back of Quills mind, disconcerting. Were these seed domes reacting to their crusade and preparing themselves? A base survival instinct?
Then came a truly shocking display.
They stood upon the planet Xander, being welcomed as heroes due to no small part in their actions the year prior from holding back Ronan and apparently being the ones to have prevented the blue glob which nearly consumed their planet.
"What the hell is going on? This Enforcer is my third variation." Rocket complained aloud. "I made it after we kicked Ego's overgrown head to the curb."
"Well it's not working, Rocket." Gamora chided, arms crossed in frustration. "Whatever this piece of Ego is, it's more resilient than the last one."
"Quill." Drax spoke up, observing the blob. "You are a descendant of Ego. You spoke of the power you had being half-celestial. Maybe you could still use it."
The other Guardians stared in bewilderment at the rather far-fetched idea but nonetheless, Peter figured he'd give it a try. Stepping up to the blob, Peter loosened his shoulders and closed his eyes.
Reaching far back to the time he first felt the power, Peter at first found nothing. Not to be deterred, he concentrated, bringing back everything on that day.
There was nothing but a blank void for a while, until…
"H-Hey!" Peter said excitedly. "I- I think I've got something!"
Small tendrils of light began seeping off his fingertips before they connected together with his hands held out.
Laughing ecstatically, Peter felt the familiar over-flowing power he had back on Ego's old planet but it was significantly weaker than what it once was.
But that was all that he needed to do as the glob of Ego's essence began glowing itself since being in such close proximity to one with the Celestial Gene.
Quill stood there for several moments, taking in the power while also trying to figure out just what to do with this rediscovered power. He could feel the connection to the old glob yet he couldn't quite figure out what to do with it.
Recalling Yondu's words his old father-figure spoke on how he controlled his old Yaka-arrow with his heart, not his mind.
So then how should he handle this?
Standing there with the others watching and the energy still swirling in between his hands, Quill felt a bit stumped as to how to proceed from here. Sure he had access to his old power but it was practically a small flicker of what it was. Even though Ego's essence and center was destroyed, Quill still had the Celestial gene and thusly could develop it himself though it was clear to him that he was gonna need a lot of practice.
No time like the present.
…
"Quill, are ya gonna do anything or not?" Rocket asked grumpily, getting extremely impatient now.
"Hold up, fur bag, I've only used this like four times and that was last year." Quill rebuked.
"Well, what did you do last time?" Gamora asked.
"I… I turned into a giant version of Pac man." Star-Lord stated.
"I am Groot."
"No, it's not from that stupid ass game you have." Rocket said, eyes up at the sky in annoyance. "And can you please at least turn the damn sound off? Damn thing rings in my ears when I try to sleep."
"Ok." Gamora then turned to, "Mantis, you spent a great deal with Ego. Did he ever show or talk to you about his powers? How did he control them at all?"
Mantis adopted a thoughtful look, swaying from side to side.
"Ego always talked about concentration and compression." Mantis said offhandedly. "But him being a Celestial, his powers were natural and he could use it without thinking much."
"Well maybe that's a positive." Rocket remarked. "Quill doesn't think much to begin with."
"Har, Har." Peter said dryly, thinking on Mantis's words.
Concentrate and compress?
Peter's eyes then lit up with an idea and focused, reaching out the connection between himself and the seedling glob before him. Nothing happened at first but then, the glob began glowing more until it shifted slightly in place.
Concentrating, Quill maneuvered his hands carefully and had them at a foot apart from one another. Slowly, he brought his hands closer together gritting his teeth as he felt a sliver of resistance. Forcing the resistance to submit to his own power, the energy emanating from his hands began to converge together and astonishingly the large blob began to writhe and shrink.
Soon enough, the energy that Peter had formed into a sphere with the blob emulating the shape until he clapped his hands together.
In an instant, both his power and the blob of Ego's seedling dissipated and vanished altogether.
Star-Lord immediately collapsed onto his backside breathing heavily.
"Peter." Gamora was by his side, hand on his back to keep him from falling. "Are you alright?"
"Oh yeah, yeah." Quill played off, though the slight wheeze didn't exactly assuage Gamora's concerns.
"Hey, would you look at that." Rocket remarked. "You were useful for something other than music."
"Ha ha." Peter said, getting back up to his feet.
The Guardians looked to where the glob once was, with the ground slightly indented to signify that it had stood her until Quill had gotten rid of it.
"Alright, so we figured out an easier way of getting rid of these things." Rocket stated. "So now what?"
"Now? We gotta get the rest of them of course."
Since then, the process of taking out the remaining globs had become exponentially easier upon every passing one with Peter's control becoming stronger and stronger. Though getting there was a bit of a problem.
With Peter being able to tap into his latent Celestial gene, taking out the rest of his father's seedlings was the easy part. The hard part was getting to the next one on top of finding it.
Though Kraglin had a great many dealings of coordinates marked down, most had died out upon Ego's own death. The rest were scattered far and wide across the universe and getting to each of them would be rather tedious.
So, for the duration of a year, the Guardians went from planet to planet, system to system, galaxy to galaxy.
All the while, the ragtag group of losers went about upholding their name helping those in need, protecting and rescuing all for a small reward of course. Freebies here and there but hey, they needed to make units somehow.
Which leads them to their current situation.
The derelict ship they had found was being taken apart by the Guardians.
"Kraglin, anything working in there?" Rocket called out from his end, outside the ship with the parts of the disassembled robot they had found inside. Only the chest piece was missing.
"Nothing." Kraglin responded, taking off a control panel within the cockpit of the ship trying to see if anything in here was working inside. "This ship is just a tap away from crumbling."
"Wonder what it went through." Peter Quill said, seated in one of the chairs of the cockpit. The controls as a whole looked entirely worn out and rusted, seemingly impossible to salvage.
But he was trained by the Ravagers. And they have quite the talent in making junk work. So this shouldn't take too long.
Gamora walked around the ship all the while examining it with scrutiny. This was a rather strange ship to say the least.
The design of it had one side that was curved on one end with three extended prongs on the other side. Two of the prongs were connected while one just jutted out, being connected with the rest of the ship through the back curve, if that's how she would describe it.
When she had walked through the interior, she found that it was rather spacious and accommodating though clearly not for such a large crew. Kind of like the old Milano.
Drax and Mantis had gotten bored earlier and went off to do who knows what.
Off to the side, Rocket had let out a few annoyed curses at the state of the robots head before marching off to find some replacement parts.
"I Am Groot."
Gamora turned to see Groot had exited the ship holding what looked like…
"Rocket." Gamora called out to the smaller creature who had already exited the hangar bay of the Quadrant. "Groot found the chest piece."
"Well Halle-freakin-Lujah." Rocket yelled back, re-entering the hangar bay with a tool kit. "That makes things slightly easier."
Gamora turned back to Groot who had placed the chest piece down with the rest of the parts.
"Where'd you find it, Groot?" Gamora asked.
"I Am Groot." The sapient tree said with a shrug.
"A floorboard?" Gamora turned to the ship. "In the ship?"
"I Am Groot."
"Huh, interesting. Anything else in there that was fresh?"
"I Am Groot."
"What smelled funny?" Rocket asked as he plopped back down where he was working.
"Groot found a compartment under a floorboard in the ship."
"Floorboard huh?" Rocket repeated, eyeing the ship. "Hmmm, might be a transport or smugglers ship. Not a lot of weapons on it like what we've got."
Gamora only shrugged looked back to the ship which Groot reentered to see what else he could find.
By the cockpit, Quill was assisting Kraglin extracting the flight data and suffice to say-
"The hell is this language?" Peter questioned. "You make anything of it?"
"I'm as clueless as you are, Quill. Never seen anything like it. I could make a few bits but doesn't seem to match with any language I know at all."
Peter didn't like hearing this. But remembering earlier on scanning this derelict ship earlier, this craft was extremely old. This vessel could've been from a race that died out with their own language for all he knew.
"Then let's just extract everything we can and figure things out later." Peter said. "We got other things to take from this ship. What's a bit of a data cache gonna do in harming us? Just something else to do in between destinations."
"My thoughts exactly, Quill."
Rocket had run through several schematics that he found within the bots' head that appeared to be damaged. With a few replacement wiring and metals, he let out a satisfied grunt and clapped the back flap of the head shut.
Now that he was finished with the head, it was time for the rest of the body.
He slowly began piecing the head back to its chest, followed by the arms and thankfully the legs were just one piece themselves.
"Hey guys, I'm done on my end here." Rocket called out to the Guardians.
Soon, the Guardians were now all present in the hangar with Rocket standing upon a crate to add a few more tweaks to the bot.
"Now then, wakey wakey sleepy head."
It took a few moments for light to appear in the robot's red optics to flicker on. And it took several more for its head to start moving from side to side. It then stared at the Guardians who looked back at the bot with a slight look of anticipation.
Then it spoke.
"Inquiry: Who are you? And, where am I? Are you Friendly Meatbags? Or annoying Meatbags?"
A few of those present blinked upon how the robot spoke.
"Uh… We're friendly, I guess." Peter said with an unsure tone. "You're not gonna go Terminator on us and kill us all?"
"Inquiry: What is this Terminator you speak of?"
"Nothing, nothing." Peter waved off.
"If you say so." The robot then looked back at the rest of the Guardians. "Once again, who are you? And where am I?"
"In that order: I am Gamora, this is Peter Quill, that's Rocket, Drax, Mantis, Kraglin and he's Groot." Introduced the Zehoberian female. "And we're the Guardians of the Galaxy."
"Confusion: Guardians of the Galaxy? What is this supposed to mean?"
"Just a band of misfits if you're wondering." Rocket interjected. "Merely helped save the galaxy twice so far and the title stuck with us."
"And as for where we are," Gamora continued. "Well… you're on a derelict ship."
The droid looked around and the others swore they saw a bit of recognition crossing its optics.
"This is my master's ship."
"Your master?" Mantis inquired. "Your owner?"
"Correct, Large Eyes. Question: You're not like those morally annoying Jedi?"
The Guardians all stared at the droid in bewilderment, Drax and Quill sharing a look.
"What's a Jedi?"
The Droid regarded them silently. "You don't know what the Jedi are?"
"I haven't." Peter looked towards his friends. "Have you guys-"
"Nada."
"Never heard of them."
"Don't know anything."
"I am Groot."
"I have no idea what that sentient tree just said."
"You get used to it and understand in time." Rocket stated to the reassembled droid.
"Further Query: If you are not aware of the Jedi, you spoke of my ship being derelict. For how long?"
This was a bit strange to say as they hadn't really expected to find any survivors of the ship. Then again… they've seen stranger things.
"Yer ship's been floating around like a junk pile for about four thousand years, tin head." Rocket stated bluntly.
The droid looked about the Guardians to see if they were fibbing but had detected no traces of deceit.
"Sadness: Then my master is long gone."
"And who would be your master?"
"The Glorious Master Revan." The Droid sounded slightly morose. "Fleshy Meatbags could only last so long until they deteriorate into goop and dust."
"That's one way of putting it." Quill muttered.
"And even worse, my second master Surik has undoubtedly perished as well."
Some of the Guardians could feel a bit of sympathy towards the repaired droid.
"What do you want to do now?"
"I… do not know." The droid hesitantly spoke. "My master gave me purpose after purchasing me. He treated me well and I served him well in return."
Mantis could only feel a bit of connection with the droid before her, but only a small margin. Ego had taken care of her upon taking her in. She done her part in easing his mind while exploring the cosmos as he protected her in return.
Granted things were utterly messed up on what he did on his task of being everywhere, but what was she supposed to do? She was practically powerless before she met the Guardians and now, she became something better than her past self.
"What's your function?" Kraglin asked.
"Joy: Ah, a question that matters. I am programmed to be an Assassin Droid." The Droid said with great pride. "You may call me HK-47. Are you going to be fulfilling the roles of my Masters now? Do you need someone dead? Someone killed? I have quite the catalog since I have reactivated. It seems all my back functions and schematics have been restored."
"You're welcome." Rocket spoke up, gaining HK's attention.
"You are the one who rebuilt me? You are much smaller than the last one who rebuilt me."
"You get a pass on that one."
"Though I am unfamiliar with several of your species." HK-47 stated.
"Pardon?"
"In my database, I don't recognize any of your kind."
"I… am possibly the last of my kind." Drax said dejectedly. He had not been home since losing his wife and child to Ronan the Accuser vile genocide of his people.
"I Am Groot."
"I don't know if there are others like me." Mantis mused aloud.
"The only ones I do recognize are you two."
Seeing HK-47's gaze upon him and Kraglin, Peter voiced his present thought. "You recognize humans?"
"Answer: Correct."
"Huh… so there are humans where you come from."
"Answer: Once again, correct."
"Come on, Quill, there's Humies scattered across the universe." Rocket remarked. "How is that any surprise?"
"I know, I know. I'm just stating a fact is all."
HK took a moment to look around the Hangar bay he stood and spotted current state the ship he came from.
"Woefully: Oh, the Ebon Hawk! How sorrowful to see it in such a horrible state. My masters would have been very furious to see it in such tatters."
The Guardians found the droids behavior unusual since it was rather emotional but they simply shrugged it off.
"4000 years…" HK-47 said to itself. "This is truly unprecedented. I had never been offline for such a duration."
"What was the last thing you remember before you were shut off?"
HK processed the question.
"There was a conflict. Another war between the Jedi and the Sith and I was being used as a template to make more droids like myself."
"You must have been one hell of an assassin droid." Rocket said with an interested glint in his eyes.
"Prideful: I was the absolute best at my job. My master made sure of it."
"Rocket." Gamora said with a deadpan look to the smaller Guardian who only grinned.
HK-47 was silent for a few moments looking at his old ship then back to the Guardians. Now, being a droid and all, "Feelings" were an icky Meatbag concept that frankly sounded more of a hindrance than anything else. Always so needlessly complicated, these flesh bags. But… HK-47 recalled something from one of his old crewmates talking about being sentimental.
"Request: Then I wish to join you."
"You do?"
"Explanation: Yes. I have no other purpose and direction." HK-47 answered. "I can do just about anything for you all with no question in the slightest and kill in your honor-"
"Then welcome aboard!" Rocket said with glee.
A few of the others groaned, realizing Rocket was going to milk the assassin droid dry with the free slave labor at his leisure.
"Declaration. Assassin Protocols active. Greetings Master." HK said to Rocket whose grin turned maniacal now.
"Whoa-Whoa, stop right there." Peter quickly cut in. "I don't normally throw this card around but I am the captain of the ship and team leader."
"It's true, he is." Gamora added rapidly, catching on to what Quill was insinuating. "Quill is our leader."
"He is indeed." Drax confirmed, though unaware of what exactly the underlying method was.
"He is, he is." Mantis chipped on.
"We call him Star-lord for a reason." Kraglin stated, and like the Guardians he knew full well that if Rocket had his own Assassin droid the chaos would be unprecedented.
"Statement: Wonderful! If you shall excuse me, I must see what I am able to salvage from the Hawk."
HK turned and went to enter his old home.
"Well that's just swell. We got ourselves a Terminator joining our crew." Peter groaned out. "Don't know if I should be excited or scared."
"Could it be both?" Mantis questioned.
"...Maybe. Come back to me on that later."
"Why'd you have to go and ruin my fun, Quill?" Rocket called out aggravated.
"Rocket, come on." Quill said tiredly. "You know damn well why."
"I thought we were friends." Rocket said challengingly.
"Yes, and as friends it is sometimes our sworn duty to deny you things that would be clearly bad for your life." Gamora stated.
Rocket only grumbled and huffed, crossing his arms in a childish manner and looking away from the others.
"Hopefully you will be better than what happened to one of my previous Meatbag masters."
"And what happened to him?"
"Electrocution. I found it rather soothing."
Peter suddenly clapped Drax on his shoulder in an appreciative manner. "You know Drax, I'm really glad for all the things you told us you did in your old rampage. Makes hearing HK's story not as bad. Horrible and kinda scary still, but nothing we can't handle."
Drax puffed his chest out. "Why thank you very much, Quill."
"Fascination: Drax was it? Would you, perchance, have time to regale me with this "rampage" Peter Quill spoke of?"
"Oh most certainly." Drax assured. "I'll tell you how I got the name the Destroyer that one time on that Kree ship."
Though it was difficult to see considering his face plate, HK-47 felt his processors glowing and flowing with excitement and anticipation. Maybe these Meatbags wouldn't be so bad after all! They promised that they'd use his skills and two of them appear to be very blood thirsty.
Seems the Guardians now have someone to direct Drax onto for some particular conversations for now on. Well another one with Mantis who's the only one who really listens to Drax most of the time.
"Don't make me break you apart."
"Commentary: I would truly hate to be turned into spare scrap, master. That would be a waste of my genius engineering."
"Could you not make us uncomfortable with your odd violent quirk, HK?"
"I can only act as you instruct me... even if that means being... *gulp* ...non-violent."
"Good enough." Quill said with a sigh. "But… save that violent part when we need it. Things tend to get that way with us."
"Excitement: Oh I can't wait for these endeavors."
Gamora only sighed, looking at Peter. "Are you sure about this, Peter?"
Quill only shrugged. "Well, he asked and if he really is an Assassin droid… not gonna lie, scary as that kinda is, that is also kind of cool."
"Peter, I'm an assassin."
"Yeah and you're both cool and hot. But a robot assassin? That's a boyhood dream."
Gamora only shook her head though she couldn't shake the small smile that she held.
Pecking his cheek, she wrapped an arm around him which he reciprocated. "You and your Terran nostalgia."
HK then spoke up again. "Request: Could you be so kind as to bring the Ebon Hawk with us?"
Peter looked back at the assassin droid with the others being curious. "What for?"
"Answer: Sentimental reasons. That and there are parts of this ship that can be quite useful if brought back to working order. Not to mention the hidden caches left on this vessel."
"Oh~ hidden caches mean extra tech and molla." Rocket stated, rubbing his hands together. "Then where, pray tell are these hidden caches on this ship?"
"Say, you know how this ship works right?" Kraglin asked, interjecting Rocket's request. "Inside and out?"
"Confirmation: I do indeed."
"Great, cause Quill and I have been trying to figure out the star maps and they're just not working with ours."
"Yeah, there's a language in it we don't recognize."
HK tilted his head in confusion.
"Query: You do not know Galactic Basic?"
"Galactic Basic?" Peter repeated. "Is that the name of your galaxy's language?"
"Answer: One of millions." HK said. "But what do you mean by "your galaxy's"?"
The crew was silent momentarily.
"Where exactly did you find me?"
"Huh… How do we explain this?" Rocket mused.
To say that HK learned that he no longer resided in his galaxy was beyond extraordinary. There were too many questions to ask as this was rather outside his parameters and functions.
This was certainly not what he was expecting when he had been reactivated.
To learn of his long 4000 year "slumber" was one thing, but to think that his ship had gone far off the reaches of his home galaxy?
Not to mention his home galaxy was rather… remote. Never venturing past the outer rim of said galaxy at all by any of its native residents… wherever it was located.
He was picked up by interstellar/intergalactic travelers! This was certainly shaping up to be one hell of a start to a new adventure.
It took some time to properly connect the Ebon Hawk onto their ship for safe travels. They had wanted to strip it bare and sell whatever they didn't need to restock their supplies. But after some discussion they chose against it.
They realized the possible benefit of having the Ebon Hawk as a secondary vessel for them to have alongside the Quadrant. Said ship would be their main base/home while the former would help speed things along if needing to go to separate destinations quicker and not take as long on certain jobs.
Besides, they didn't have the Milano anymore and no one wanted to spend more money to get a replacement one anytime soon.
Right now, Quill, Rocket, Kraglin and Gamora assisted HK-47 in further stripping out the Ebon Hawk.
Most of the food and water they had found had long eroded away or spoiled. There were a few guns, or blasters as HK called them and while they had also deteriorated and rusted, they knew that Rocket could fix them or at the very least replicate them. And with clothing, it was odd to see some of the attire's fashion design, but they stored them away for later use.
The rest of the ship would need fixing and repairs over time.
Currently though, Rocket was in the middle of going over HK's deeper functions hoping to find more useful information on their new destination that being HK's home galaxy.
During his scans, Rocket found something interesting which led to a compartment being opened up from the droids chest.
"What in the hell is this?"
HK glanced down. "Ah, I was wondering where Master Surik had placed her last possession."
"What is this thing?" Rocket asked.
"What are you talking about Rocket?"
"Take a look at what's in HK's chest."
Upon taking a gander inside of the assassin droid's chest, Gamora saw a faint glowing blue cube inside of the droid.
For a split moment, the Zehoberian thought she was looking at the Tesseract; more importantly the container of the Space Stone. But then realized the size was not right along with there being metal parts all over instead of being entirely glass-like.
Taking a closer look, Gamora had a sense of… knowing what it was.
"I've seen this before."
"You have?"
"On my father's ship." She answered. "I don't know what it was exactly, but I've seen something like this in his possession." Grasping the object in her hand, she turned it all over to inspect it more. "But what he had was a pyramid in shape… and was red. But the concept design looks pretty much the same."
"Observation: You must be talking about a Sith Holocron."
"A Sith what?"
"Explanation: A storage container of vast amounts of knowledge. Only accessible to select individuals with a certain ability." HK looked at the object in her hand. "What you have in your grasp is a Jedi Holocron. One that belonged to my former master Meetra Surik. Your father has a Sith one."
"A Sith one…" Gamora tasted the words on her mouth, finding something else vaguely familiar about it.
"What are these Sith?" Rocket inquired.
"Rivals against the Jedi. Both groups have the same sets of abilities, yet have different opposing philosophies with the religion they follow."
"A religion?"
"Correction: I wouldn't actually say religion. Just something they both follow deeply as everything about them heavily relies on it."
"Sounds stupid." Rocket said.
"It is, isn't it." HK stated. "I never paid much attention to it, due to how boring, complicated and convoluted it all is. Apologetic: Sorry in advance if you can't get anything further from me on the matter."
"This thing that the Sith and Jedi relied on…" Gamora made HK turn to her. "It was, what did he call it again? The Force, right?"
"Surprise Statement: Mistress Gamora, I was unaware you held knowledge about my galaxy. Are you from there by any chance?"
"Yeah, how do you know that?"
Releasing a sigh, Gamora leaned against the wall before explaining.
"Not exactly." Gamora grimaced. "My father… he always held extensive knowledge on the entire universe. Something that took centuries to accumulate. He mentioned it a few times to me and my other "Siblings" about a galaxy where people use some unique power that is found in that particular galaxy and nowhere else."
"Fascination: Your father must be a wise individual."
Gamora then sneered "More like a madman."
"Mad and wise are two sides of the same coin. Something Master Revan once said."
"I like ya, HK." Rocket stated. "But I'm gonna have to go with Gamora on this one. Her pops isn't called the Mad Titan for nuthin. Guy is fucking loon to the extreme. Kills and destroys planets like it's nothing."
"Huh… a worthy opponent on my kill count. Request: I wish to defeat him and show how superior I am to him."
Gamora actually snorted. "HK, if you manage to kill my father in particular then you'll surpass every known killer and assassin to have ever lived in the universe."
Raising his head, HK recalled something one of his old companions used to do when offered a trial of skill. "Challenge accepted."
Rocket all the while had taken the Holocron and examined it on all corners. "So is there anyway of opening this thing? You mentioned something about those ability users being the ones to open it."
"Correct." HK confirmed. "Only a Force-user is capable of such a task. Impossible to open by any other means unless destroying the Holocron and its stored knowledge in the process."
"...Well that's fantastic."
"I'd call my brothers or father for such a task if I didn't hate them both so much." Gamora wryly stated.
"Query: Your father can use the Force?"
"Not necessarily. Father has a greater understanding of it and I've seen him use tools that do require the Force in a way, but he knows some people who possibly could."
"And your brothers?" Rocket asked.
"One's a fanatic loyalist. Let's leave it at that. The other… haven't heard from him in several years now honestly. No one knows where he is. Father sent him off on a mission that he hasn't come back from."
"Alright, family drama aside then." Rocket held up the Holocron, gauging it. "There's gotta be a way to open this."
"Well, my fanatic brother figured out a way and my father did as well." Gamora said. "So if they could do it, so can you."
Rocket scratched his head as he eyed the faintly glowing cube. "If you say so. Just something that'll bug for weeks on end. Got nothing else better to do, anyhow."
Quill and Kraglin were looking over the map that HK had provided for them since they had stripped out the Ebon Hawk.
It did take some time to properly learn the basic language of the other galaxy. It was hard, no doubt along with the rest of the Guardians, but they eventually got the rough basics of it all.
For Quill, it was like living out another fantasy of his after watching Indiana Jones; deciphering an unknown language and showing off to the idiots not in the know.
Amongst the lessons, HK filled the crew of a vast amount of information on his home galaxy with a good number of alien species residing there to the major worlds to the reigning governments and organizations ruling the many sectors.
It was rather fascinating *cough* boring *cough*.
HK believed it was boring as well. Only focusing on the important bits as they were required on his past jobs his previous masters had tasked him with. Especially with the crime syndicates and bounty hunter jobs.
There was one thing however that greatly troubled them and that was this… what did HK describe it as? The Hyperspace Anomaly? Whatever it was, it prevented exit or entry into this galaxy through conventional means like this Hyperspace that was on the Hawk or the Universal Jump Points that inter connected the universe.
And this map that was provided for them was over 4000 years old. Short as that may be in terms of universal time, 4000 years was still a long time with many events that could have transpired in HK-47s home galaxy.
Certain worlds could possibly be dead and uninhabitable to no longer be present anymore via supernovas or worse. And who knows what other crazy shit could happen to change up that map now than from back then.
Regardless, the Guardians were now above all else, curious. When they thought about it, there really was no reason to go to this new galaxy. After all, they had so much more to do with them upholding their namesake on top of finding the rest of Ego's seedlings.
That all changed when Kraglin made a startling discovery.
There were several coordinates that Ego had supplied to him and Yondu during their time in retrieving Ego's offspring and delivering it to him. One of them being…
"The hell Kraglin, why'd you never bring that up?!"
"Sorry Quill, but Yondu and I never really thought about the others after we stopped with you." Kraglin admitted. "We were honestly relieved we didn't have to do it no more."
"Not to mention Yondu grew a conscious and stopped huntin' them down once you came onboard. Cut all ties with Ego from there, but the damage was done with the rest of the Ravagers by breaking their child trafficking rule."
Peter was rather blown away by this revelation, with him sitting back in his seat with an expression that held a great deal of emotions.
The more he thought about it, the more a lump began forming in his throat.
"Are- are you telling me I might have other Brothers and sisters out there?" Peter asked in a low voice.
"Could be, Quill. Don't know what is going on over there and its completely alien territory for us. For all we know, they could still be alive or dead without us coming in contact with them."
Try as he might, Star-Lord found it rather strange that he couldn't hold back several stray tears that fell from his eyes. The possibility of having family, genuine blood related family as much as he hates his connection to his father.
One thing was certain now, Peter wanted to reunite with what living half-siblings he has left in the universe. They might love him, hate him or tolerate him, but Peter wanted to at least know he was there for them… as the best big/younger brother they could ever have!
"Then we shall venture to the great unknown." Peter said in his best captain impersonation voice. "Go, where no other man has gone before. Explore unknown lands -to us- and have untold adventures along the way."
"Oh~ Is that from Star Journeys?" Mantis inquired.
"Star Trek, Mantis. But close enough and yes."
"But how can we even get to HK's galaxy anyhow? Even though we integrated the Ebon Hawk's tech onto the Quadrant, we still need a means of safely traveling there. Not to mention the cost of fuel and time in getting there."
"Well..." Kraglin spoke up scratching his chin in thought, eyeing the map projection with a calculating expression. "There was one thing I noticed when looking at this anomaly barrier."
Walking around to the northern area of the map where it was close to the section labeled the Unknown Regions and pointed to one point.
"Look here." Kraglin said, making the map zoom in on where he was pointing to. "Wasn't sure if it was a glitch or somethin' but from what it looks like it to me..."
"That could be our way in." Gamora finished for the Ravager making him nod.
"So then how do we do it?" Drax asked. "This Galaxy doesn't have a universal jump point to use for use to get in."
"And flying through an anomaly is way too dangerous and unpredictable." Peter added with a grimace.
"Suggestion: I believe if you use a combination of this Jump capabilities that you have on your ship and combine it with the Hyperdrive on my old ship, it can perhaps be the key to bypassing the anomaly and using that entryway safely."
Rocket hummed in approval, nodding his head. "Well, that's all we got for now with a plan to get in. Let's get started."
And so, with an objective in mind, The Guardians of the Galaxy along with their newest crewmate began the strenuous work of essentially creating a new Faster Than Light device that had to combine aspects of both Hyperspace and the Jump tech they already had.
The process was a lot longer than they had wanted it to be but eventually, they had succeeded and were now on route to HK's home galaxy.
"Alright boys and girls." Rocket said, typing away on the controls. "This is gonna be a bumpy ride. So put your head between your knees and kiss your butt's goodbye."
"But I can't kiss my butt goodbye." Drax said from his seat. "It's impossible to do that in such a way."
"It's an expression, Drax."
"Ah, metaphor…"
"Oh goodie. I'm coming home." HK said with glee. "Can't wait to see the lights of Coruscant once more."
"What's Coruscant?"
"Answer: The galactic capital."
"So, I take it there's a lot of politicians there?"
"Depressed: Unfortunately, yes. I had gone on many missions to eliminate targets from Coruscant but I became aware that no matter how high in number I succeeded in killing, it would never even make a dent."
"Sounds like hell." Quill quipped.
"It truly was, Master Quill. I still have much work to do it seems."
"Alright guys, better clench up." Rocket said, expression grim and focused.
Up ahead, the Guardians of the Galaxy saw their destination up ahead. It was like any ordinary cosmic body as they had traversed much from before they converged as a team and well after.
There were actually satellite galaxies around the main larger one though nothing incredibly new to them.
"Any last words before we jump?"
"I am Groot."
Several of the Guardians gave Groot a flat stare. "Let's get this over with."
"I wonder if we'll lose our lunch like last time."
"I hope not. I felt sick when we got to Ego from that jump." Kraglin grimaced, paling slightly.
"Should I go use the restroom before we go, then?" Mantis asked innocently.
"Please do." The others -minus Drax and Groot- chorused.
Mantis made a quick run and came back a few minutes later feeling relieved.
"Alright Guardians." Peter said, steeling himself. "Get ready. Rocket, HK make sure you keep our shields and trajectory up."
"Affirmative, Master Quill."
"Got it."
"Gamora, Drax, make sure that the Jump drive is on full blast. Let's not take any chances. Kraglin, keep even with me."
With the crew now ready to do their assigned roles, Rocket throttled his controls forward with the ship accelerating towards the galaxy.
"Anomaly thirty degrees to the northeast." Kraglin said.
"Got it."
The Quadrant adjusted itself, flying straight for the intended path.
"Quill." Drax suddenly spoke up in a slightly tense voice.
Peter didn't need to look to Drax as he, like the rest, saw what caught his attention.
"What… is that?" Rocket asked nervously.
"Let's not find out." Quill shouted. "PUNCH IT."
After several moments, they jumped… leaving an odd plaid-like stream behind them the moment they went through the blue hexagonal like portal.
"I REGRET EVERYTHING!"
"I FEEL MY BRAIN'S GOING TO MY FEET!"
"IT'S GOING TO MY ASS!"
"I CAN SEE ETERNITY AGAIN!"
"I AM GROOOOOOOOOT!"
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.
A ship blipped through a hexagonal portal of some kind and floated there aimlessly for a few moments.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Roll call, who's not dead?"
"Never… Never again."
"I need to lie down."
"I… am… Groooot."
Mantis quickly unbuckled her harness and ran towards the restroom before the sounds of hurling could be heard.
"Confusion: I don't understand what the problem is with you all. I feel fenren. Could be with all that slershing liquids inzeede of you which made you this way." HK paused. "My Vobabulator appears demmmaged."
"I'll fix it." Rocket murmured, dry heaving. "As soon as I get my shit together."
"Urgh… Captain." Kraglin moaned. "Since we're not dead, did we do it?"
Groaning, Peter shakily stood from his seat and had to hold onto it as he literally felt that he was going to collapse at any minute. Bending forward to keep himself from hurling, Peter looked up and saw…
"Hey, there's a planet up ahead!"
"Oh… good… What should we do now?"
"Now? Why don't we… take an hour break. Or two."
"How about the rest of the day?"
"Best… suggestion you've ever made…."
With nothing else needed to be said… the Guardians all promptly passed out in their seats either staying in their chairs or falling to the floor. HK-47 had made an internal scan and found that a few functions were screwy so he would need maintenance. His power cells weren't working at full capacity either so he too shut down with the rest of his new Meatbag comrades.
The Quadrant remained floating idly in space with an entire crew of strange and crazy individuals within a new galaxy far, far away.
They had no idea as to what they had just flown in to.
Alright, WOO 'nother one done.
Lots to do and my God was this one a breeze thanks to Jebest. So many of you guys were so excited and I just had to do it, I couldn't leave you guys high and dry. It's HK-47 we're talking about here.
Jeb: Though now things will be a little hectic with the Guardians' arrival with more changes coming along.
FMW: And Hectic is putting it politely. We all know how things go when it comes to our lovable band of morons.
J: Then again, more events will drastically be altered than what originally went on with the episodes and even comics. Who knows what may befall the galaxy with the inclusion with the biggest band of misfits in recent years?
FMW: So… yeah, shit's gonna only get crazier from here and you guys are gonna love every second of it. I guarantee it. So other than that, until next time.
Rate Read and Review and as Always Have Nice Day.