STARGIRL

thirty-four.

"Start the incision here," the recording was saying, and baby Rocket screeched as the man came at him with a scalpel. Eleanor hung onto her dad's arm with tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn't think that anyone could be so horrible to an innocent kit, "Keep calm. Hold it still."

A different voice in the recording spoke, "I can't! It won't stop moving!"

Baby Rocket continued to screech.

"Why did he never tell us about any of this?" sobbed Mantis.

"This is worse than what Thanos did to me." Nebula announced, with her eyes blurry with tears.

Another tear rolled down Eleanor's cheek, and Peter rubbed her back lovingly with his thumb. His arm had snaked around her at some point during the recording. "Well, what about the passkey? Is it there?" Peter asked.

"No," replied Nebula, "But a file was removed today. Downloaded and deleted, a million characters in length. The biometrics say it was this man," a picture came up, "Recorder B2H6."

"I saw this guy outside of records today." Peter yelled, pointing at the photo.

"Hmmm." grumbled Groot.

Gamora leaned forwards, "Looks like one of the High Evolutionary's recorders."

"The High Evolutionary?" questioned Mantis, looking at Gamora, "The founder of OrgoCorp?"

"OrgoCorp is just a way to fund his experiments that lie outside intergalactic laws," replied Gamora, "He's created whole societies. Xeronians, the Ani-Men, the Sovereign."

"The Sovereign?" questioned Drax.

"Corners of the universe consider him God." Gamora concluded.

"I am Groot."

"Yes." Nebula said, and Peter started to nod.

"Yes, what?" Gamora asked, "That he's Groot?"

"He said maybe this man downloaded the passkey into the computer on his head." replied Nebula.

"Huh?"

The image zoomed in to the side of his head, "That could store the passkey." explained Nebula.

"We find him, we save Rocket." Peter said.

"The High Evolutionary's coordinates." said Mantis, pointing at a screen.

"Put the coordinates in the nav." Peter told Nebula, and Eleanor followed her.

She sat down in the seat next to Groot, and tried to drown out the argument happening behind her, but she ultimately turned around when she heard the sound of breaking glass.

"What are you so afraid of in your self that I need to be something for you?" Gamora growled at Peter as he stood up, "I don't give a shit about your Gamora! Life made me me!" she went to punch him but Nebula grabbed her wrist.

Gamora looked over at her. "I have a few upgrades courtesy of that gutted badger in the Med-Bay," Gamora pulled her arm from Nebula's hand, "and we are not risking his life to make yours more convenient."

"I'm family." Gamora moved right into Nebula's face.

"So is he."

Gamora breathed in deeply, and looked over at Peter, then back to Nebula, "Screw you. Screw all of you." and she walked away.

Eleanor rolled her eyes, "See why I don't want that asshole in my life." she muttered to Groot.

"I am Groot." he replied.

"Exactly! You get my point!"

The ship went through the portal and everybody started to talk again. Eleanor leaned forwards and pressed play. All the Young Dudes started to play and Eleanor sang along, "And my brother's back at home, with his Beatles and his Stones. We never got it off on that revolution stuff. What a drag. Too many snags." she pretended to sing into a microphone.

"We've arrived." Mantis announced, cutting off Eleanor's singing.

"It looks... just like home," Peter commented.

"Did you know that the Earth is the only planet not named after a Greek or Roman God?" Eleanor piped up from the front seat.

"I am Groot!"

"Yeah! It is interesting!" Eleanor said, happily.

"Atmosphere is habitable," commented Nebula, "Gravity's Xandar minus one."

Eleanor smiled down at the row of little houses. She hadn't been to Earth apart from that one time in the final battle against Thanos and she also stayed for Tony Stark's funeral. Thinking back, she wondered how Teddy and Peter and their aunt were doing.

Eleanor's jaw dropped open as she saw a hog walking on two legs, pushing a stroller with a hoglet inside. A panda was mowing the lawn and he looked up as the ship landed, making sure that it didn't crush any houses. Many other animals came out of their homes to investigate the newcomers. Gamora stayed on the ship.

Eleanor walked out of the ship, dressed in her new suit, behind her dad. "Hello," Peter said, "We mean you no harm."

A little lemur child pushed her ball towards them, and it bounced along the ground. Drax picked it up, and the child started to giggle. He threw it back at her, hitting it sharply off her head causing her to yelp and fall backwards onto the road. A rabbit started to yell in a language they couldn't understand and he pointed threateningly at the Guardians.

"Listen to me," Peter yelled, "he was just trying to throw her back her ball," a rock hit him in the head, "Ow!"

Drax started to laugh at him, but then he got hit by a rock too. Eleanor ducked as more rocks came flying at the Guardians. A man hit her on the back of her head with a baseball bat. She turned and glared angrily at the animal. "Hey! Hey!" Peter yelled at him, holding up his hands at the man. He wasn't being threatening but he wasn't going to let his daughter be abused.

"Groot, full Kajiu!" Nebula yelled, dodging the rocks, and Groot grew, towering over the animals and the guardians. Eleanor looked up at him in awe.

"I am Groot!" he shouted threateningly, and he started to walk towards the animals, who started to run away.

A bat woman fell over, and she stared terrified up at Groot. "Groot, get down!" Peter yelled to him, and Eleanor nudged her dad, pointing towards the bat woman who was cowering on the ground.

"Hey. Hey, hi," Peter and Eleanor slowly walked over to her. Eleanor winced when she saw the woman's scraped knee, "We're not here to harm you," he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and held it out to the woman, "For your knee," she took it, "We just need to save our friend."

The bat woman stared up at them, slowly pondering whether to trust them, and after a few minutes, she smiled at them. Peter helped her up, and she led them to her own house.