5

“Approaching jump point,” Gamora said. Peter locked in the coordinates and gunned the Milano forward...and a new swarm of Sovereign drones appeared.

“Son of a...they went around the field!” exclaimed Peter.

The drones raked the Milano with their combined fire, rocking the ship as it tried to cover the last distance to the portal. Peter wasn’t sure they were going to make it in one piece.

Then, in a single instant, the entire Sovereign fleet disappeared in a huge cluster of fireballs. When the afterimage cleared, a single spacecraft hung by itself in the void.

Shock silenced the Sovereign pilots’ chamber. They had been sure their ambush would work. “Someone destroyed all our ships!” the admiral exclaimed.

Ayesha pierced him with an ice-cold glare. “Who?”

“One klick!” Gamora yelled. Sparks showered from overloaded circuits in the cockpit.

Rocket looked out the window at the ship that had just annihilated the Sovereign drones. “What is that?” he wondered. It didn’t look like any ship he’d ever seen before.

“Who cares?” Peter was focused on one thing and one thing only. “That’s the jump point!”

“It’s a guy,” Rocket said, amazed. An egg-shaped spacecraft, gleaming silvery white, flashed by them. A single humanoid form stood on top of it, holding a pair of glimmering cables as if they were the reins of a horse-drawn chariot. The figure raised a hand and waved.

Peter didn’t care. He aimed the Milano at the jump portal and shot through it. The shock of the jump overloaded parts of the hull and the ship started spewing fire as it passed into Berhert’s upper atmosphere. Pieces of it tumbled away, and the temporary shielding failed. Wind tore through the passenger compartment, sucking out debris and spewing it directly at Drax, still dangling at the end of his cable.

“Oh my God,” Gamora said. “He’s still out there.”

She dashed back to the rear and caught the cable’s spool just before it broke free of the wall. Nebula flailed in the wind, held in place by her manacles. The suction dragged Gamora out of the ship, but she caught hold of the edge of the hole and held on for dear life, the cable fixture in her other hand—and Drax still bouncing at the end of the cable. The friction of reentry started to burn around them, and soon they were trailing fire just like the rest of the ship.

Only then did Peter notice that both Drax and Gamora were outside the ship. He looked over his shoulder and saw Groot sitting in Drax’s seat, calmly having a snack. “Groot, put your seat belt on. Prepare for a really bad landing!”

Peter kept the landing angle as shallow as he could, but they were going in fast and headed for a dense forest. The Milano tore through the canopy and then snapped off tree trunks for a mile or more before plowing into the ground and coming to rest in a cloud of dust. A final shower of shattered branches and drifting leaves fell around the crash site, and with a groan, the Milano’s right wing broke off and crashed to the ground. A startled flock of birds flew up into the sky.

Behind the ship, Drax pushed himself up and started laughing. “That was awesome! Yes!”

Gamora stood closer to the ship, still holding the other end of Drax’s cable. She flung it to the ground. “Look at this!” she screamed as Peter and Rocket emerged from the wreck. They brought Nebula out, too, not wanting her to be trapped inside the ship if it collapsed any further. She might have been a prisoner, but she was still Gamora’s sister.

“Where’s the other half of our ship?! Either one of you could have gotten us through that field!” Gamora said. “Peter,” she snapped, “we almost died because of your arrogance.”

“No, because he stole the Anulax batteries!” Peter pointed at Rocket.

“They’re called Harbulary batteries,” Drax said.

“No, they’re not!” Peter yelled.

“You know why I did it, Star-Munch?” Rocket said.

Offended, Peter looked away. “I’m not gonna answer to ‘Star-Munch.’”

“I did it because I wanted to! What are we even talking about this for? We just had a little man save us by blowing up fifty ships!”

“How little?” Drax asked.

“I don’t know,” Rocket said. He held up his left hand with thumb and forefinger maybe an inch apart. “Like...this?”

Gamora was obviously skeptical. “A little one-inch man saved us?”

“Well, if he got closer, I’m sure he’d be much larger.”

“Yeah, that’s how eyesight works, you stupid raccoon,” Peter said.

“Don’t call me a raccoon!” Rocket yelled, furious. Peter knew he hated that word.

“I’m sorry,” Peter said seriously. “I took it too far. I meant ‘trash panda.’”

Rocket looked around, confused. “Is that better?”

“I don’t know,” Drax said.

Peter couldn’t help himself. He started to laugh. “It’s worse. It’s so much worse.”

“You son of a—” Rocket launched himself at Peter, but before they could really fight, all the Guardians looked up, hearing the thrum of a spaceship’s engine.

“Someone followed you through the jump point,” Nebula said. “Set me free. You’ll need my help.”

“You’re a fool, Nebula,” Gamora scoffed.

“You’re a fool to deprive yourself of my talent in combat.”

“You’d attack me the moment I let you go.”

“No, I won’t,” Nebula said quickly, looking around at the group and trying to appear earnest.

“You’d think an evil supervillain would be better at lying,” Peter commented.

The ship came into view, the same pale, egg-shaped craft Rocket had seen near the jump point on the edge of the quantum asteroid field. The Guardians clustered together, ready to fight if they had to. Groot was behind them, just then climbing down out of the ship. “I bet it’s the one-inch man,” Drax said.

Yellow lights blazed powerfully from the craft’s windows as it settled among the trees near where the Milano had crashed. After it came to rest, two figures appeared from a large, eye-shaped portal in its side. One was a slim humanoid alien in green and black, with large black eyes and a pair of small antennae pointing up from her forehead. The other was a human male in a long cloak, his bearded face alight with a smile as he looked the Guardians over. “After all these years, I’ve found you,” he said to Peter.

“And who are you?” Peter shot back.

“I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious,” the man said. “My name is Ego...and I’m your dad, Peter.” LCAKOVyBGLX3/CbvPEVOSlS1VYRFTLpBf7xF9qEjIcXnB8y4MlOVD+QVwH1Ndmbt