I ripped myself from her memories. “Delilah, what’s going on?!” I roared. 

“You remember me?” She asked, her voice, or actually thoughts perking up. We weren’t actually talking but she was using her psychic powers to think at me. 

“Yeah, yeah, that shit later. What’s going on?” I asked, trying to keep the memories at bay. 

“We don’t know! Ego struck down Osiris and it ran away. Nebula is trying to limp her ship down. Its me and the others. You guys are in this weird glowing energy thing and Jame says we shouldn’t approach. But there is something I can feel there. You’re so fucking close Weston, just reach out and-” She was cut off and I was thrown into more memories. My own this time at least.

—

“Evasive maneuvers required,” Shippie Mcshapeface said. His voice was faceless as it echoed in the bridge from tiny speakers mounted most everywhere in the ship. 

 
“No shit,” I yelled. Moving the controls down, the ship lurched, throwing those not strapped in to hit the ceiling of the ship hard. I actually heard the boy and girl’s heads conk on the ceiling, both crumbling in a heap as they hit the floor. Since I had snatched them from the pirates I didn’t want them to die so quickly. Their bodies slid across the ground boneless, but their haki said they were alive. “I did that on purpose,” I said.

“Yeah fucking right,” Rocket said. The man stuck in the body of a racoon used his tiny hands to manage the floating buttons for controls.  

“Grooot,” the tree-man said behind us. He extended his twig-like fingers out, gathering the two human kids up from the ground and pulling them toward him. The ship’s house plant was more of a decoration than actual crew member, but I was glad I asked him to join up. 

“Captain, we are being hailed by the Andromeda Pirates again,” Shippie said. His voice dull and emotionless, the main screen ahead changed from the view outside to that of the pirate ship’s captain. 

“Goddamn it, learn to wait for my approval before you connect that crap,” I barked at the ship, but Shippie hated waiting for approval for everything. In my mind a ship should be like that from Star Trek, the captain acknowledging everything before it was completed, but the others and Shippie thought most of the mundane stuff should just happen. 

“The fucking Starlord?!” The other captain said. She was a big woman with yellow skin and spikes jutting from her skull. She had a puffy face and wore the mottled together uniform of the Andromeda’s. 

“I hate that fucking name,” I spat. I had received it for helping some planet with a doomsday event. Their prophecies claimed a noble from the stars would save them, and somehow the name stuck. “Hello, yes, I am Starlord,” I said as I waved at the screen. It was better than introducing myself as Weston the human, like I was on Adventuretime or something. 

“Give our prisoners back,” the pirate captain ordered. Her meaty and spike covered fist squeezing the air.

“Finders keepers, and all that,” I said as I began pushing buttons. “I would consider giving you one of them back for the location on where you picked them up.” I eyed the boy that the Delilah girl told me to grab. I didn’t need him, so it would be worth finding out where the hell Earth actually was. 

“Fuck you, Starlord,” the pirate said. “Nebula will be hearing of this. Do you really want to piss off the Pirate Queen?” 

I laughed. “Pirate Queen? That blue bitch. I’m pretty sure I met the man that will be the Pirate King, and he sure as shit isn’t blue.” I had haki, and Tabi said I was on the Strawhat pirate crew, but I still couldn’t remember specifics. Either way, I much preferred Luffy as pirate royalty than anyone else. “Tell that smurf the Guardians of the Galaxy don’t take kindly to kidnapping people. Especially kids, so we are kidnapping them in retaliation,” I said. “Cut communication.” 

As the screen cut out, I pulled the controls back, moving us out of range of the missiles and lasers. “Countering!” Jame said. She was at the rear controls, she was the female Jux alien that led me to Shippie. She had a smooth face and smoother skin. Her fingers running across the floating screens she was in charge of defenses. 

The screen in front of us showed laser ribbons twist and turn to block the attacks of the pirate ship. “Null Space projector online,” I said.

“Hold on, stragglers incoming,” Rocket said. He took control of some turrets and began blasting those pirates that had jumped into small spaceships to attack us. The Andromeda ship about five times our size, they could hold a lot more people. A lot more expendable people. 

“Should we really be pissing these people off?” Jame asked yet again, worry in her voice. 

“They’re fucking pirates,” I said. “And though I respect the title. As the Ravagers say, we don’t mess with kids.” 

“Amen to that,” Rocket said and mowed the people down. The Null Space Projector powered up and as Rocket protected our retreat, Shippie sent us into another dive into the dimension between dimensions. White static showed on the viewport screen and we all let out a sigh of relief. 

“Groot,” Groot said from behind us. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll fix them up,” I said as I unstrapped myself from the captain’s chair. 

“Why the fuck were we doing this again?” Jame asked. The woman was fiery as usual, and moved to help me with the kids. 

“I had a feeling,” I lied. I had really received another quest. One to save a girl named Delilah from the Andromeda Pirates. I had thought the system or whatever that gave me quests was mistaken, but a few minutes later an Andromeda ship was found preparing to pounce on us. The System proved yet again it knew of the drama in the galaxy far better than I did. 

“I think she knew me,” I admitted to Jame as I picked up the boy. He looked like any boy really. About 16 or 17, he had brown hair combed to the side. A few pimples and average build I was a little curious why the Andromeda’s would steal both of them. They must have been some important couple on Earth or something. 

“Old you?” Jame asked, intrigued. The woman picked up the unconscious redhead with ease. The girl had freckles on her nose and cheeks, and did remind me of someone, but I couldn’t remember who. 

“Lets get them to Medical and I can try my trick again,” I said. 

“Last time you tried it, Rocket’s fur was singed,” she pointed out. 

“That was mostly from his bomb,” I added. 

“The bomb that worked,” Rocket said from the bridge as we headed away from it. 

We were inside my ship, Shippie McShipface. Though it wasn’t obvious, I was the one that named it about four months ago. The interior of the ship was a dull gray, random lights blinking on as we walked past. Jame and I moved through the halls that had once felt like a maze. 

The ship itself was about half the size of a football field, but it felt a whole lot bigger inside. Achieved by some kind of space stretching method, it was top of the line, or really ancient, we still weren’t sure. Since I had brought it to life I wasn’t really sure who had made it, all I knew was that it really only liked listening to me. 

“Door,” I said as I approached. The door already opening while I said the command. 

“I was doing that, captain,” Shippie’s voice said. There was almost a hint of annoyance in the statement, but I gave it a wide smile. 

“Just checking,” I said. The ship preferred that we didn’t talk, spending its time anticipating our needs; it had an androgynous voice that sounded female sometimes and male the other. I rather liked the AI of the ship, but if I wasn’t annoying it and the crew, then I really wasn’t doing my job. 

Inside of the Medical Bay were two tables. Jame and I set the kids on each. Shippie began scanning them with some weird anal probe that shot out from the ceiling. I waved it off, feeling their aches. My hands coming alight with Hoken I shot them both with some electricity infused with spiritual energy. Their wounds began to heal rapidly and my eyes drifted up to Jame. 

She was a tall woman at about my height. A little over six feet tall she was an alien of course. Though she wasn’t in the original Guardians of the Galaxy comics, she had accepted a spot on my crew, because it would have been an annoying sausage fest without her. 

Her species was called Jux, she had light pink skin, more red than my own, the skin itself smooth and hairless, and somehow shined like a balloon in the right light. She didn’t appear to have any hair, the top of her head looked almost bald, but she did have hair. It simply blended in too well with her skin. The hair itself was slicked back, the individual strands of hair looked like tiny tentacles that draped down the back of her skull. No ears, she just had holes where they should be, at least everything else about her looked human. She had a large rack, hidden currently by her dark red leather attire. Her pants were tight against thick thighs, and her toothless smile brought one to my face. Which was normal for her kind, rather than teeth they had really strong gums, which had its bonuses in itself. 

At least I assumed they did. Because I still didn’t have my memories back, I was lost when it came to women. Especially those of an alien nature. She and I had a very ‘will they won’t they’ vibe going on. Both of us too hesitant to push the other, it was annoying, but added some nice sexual tension to the already tense crew. 

“What?” I asked, her Haki leaking worry. Her eyes were focused on the girl laying on the table. She looked up at me, blinking slowly as she frowned. 

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Pissing off the Andromeda Pirates?” She asked. 

“We’ve pissed off worse,” I said, waving her off as I left Medical. 

“No we haven’t!” She yelled, chasing after me. I sped up as she followed. 

“We will,” I assured. “Besides, I freaking hate those pirates. You saw what they did at the Tuxxan mine.” 

“Yes, they kill more than they need, but they are made up of at least 20 ships. I don’t know if you noticed, but we are one ship,” she whined. Her hair losing its composure it moved from the back of her head to the side, giving her more of a bob-cut hairdo. 

“One great ship,” I said, smacking the hallway. 

“Thank you, captain,” Shippie said. 

“Dammit, Shippie, what have I said about taking compliments?” I asked. 

“...Nothing?” The ship offered. 

“Oh right, well learn to accept them.”

“I did accept it,” he said.

“Then do it quietly while we have a private conversation,” I said. The real issue I had was the ship watched everything and was always interjecting in our conversations. I tried to limit his eavesdropping to the bridge, but then he tended not to do what I asked when I was in other parts of the ship. The AI really was a fickle dick. 

“Weston, I’m serious,” Jame said as her Haki radiated fear. “We need to watch who we piss off. Especially in the no fly zone.” 

Another name for uncivilized space, I couldn’t help but say, “Everywhere is a no fly zone. We haven’t been anywhere civilized in weeks.” Her worry continued to leak out. Her haki sad and fearful, a part of me wanted to kiss her. But I knew that was inappropriate. As the captain, the last thing I wanted to do was shit where I ate. 

“It will be fine. For the time being we can stick to Kree or Nova space, alright? Andromeda’s try to steer clear of those. I think there was a job one of the Ravager crews wanted us for, so maybe we can busy ourselves with that for the time being.” Her haki became more docile as we came back to the bridge. 

“Shippie has us locked in. Keep us on course, alright. I need to check something,” I said. 

“Weston-” She said, causing me to pause. She reached out, and again her haki felt familiar. Like she wanted to kiss me, but she was an alien. I had no way of really knowing if her feelings matched mine. Besides, I didn’t want the space version of Human Resources to be on my ass. 

“Don’t worry so much,” I said, waving at her. Disappointment moved through her, but I ignored her feelings. Coming to my room, Tabi was already lazing in the room. A simple bunk, with a cabinet built into the wall, closet, and random stuff I collected scattered about, it wasn’t much, but better than nothing. I pulled up my current quest. 

Though I wasn’t exactly sure the importance of a Hall Door Fragment, any reward from my quests was worth it. I brought up my status screen, trying to gauge all the changes to it since I lost my memories. 

Mostly my bonuses had been upgraded. I had received Fire and Ice resistance after fighting some weird mountain sized polar bears, and combined the resistances into elemental. Petrification had been well earned after helping a planet with a plague that turned you into stone. And Light resistance after we beat this one guy that tried to blow up the sun. After commencing an epic battle near his solar system’s sun I had learned a lot about how much my Viltrumite form could handle. 

The form itself a quarter of the way through, I was slowly inching it up with battles as I made my name across the galaxy. Currently known as Starlord, or the captain of the Guardians of the Galaxy, or that one asshole, I had made quite the names for myself after escaping the Jux and breaking away from the Ravagers.

Empowered was a recent evolution of my Berserk Mode. It increased my strength as long as I was feeling intense emotions. Whether that was anger or sadness. All the other skills the same, I was rather confident with all of them. Having worked to find all the different energies and attributes in my body, the last and most recent skill I figured out was my Rift Skill. Able to open doorways a few hundred feet away, I had been able to enter the pirate ship with the she-deviles none the wiser. 

I was more than a little excited to keep practicing with all of these skills. Problem was, a ship wasn’t the best place to try. So I was left with questioning where I wanted to go next. I could go to our base which was out of the jurisdiction of most space police forces, or go to somewhere populated. Either way I wasn’t looking forward to the blowback from the Andromeda’s. 

“Trust in the System,” I mumbled. Words I didn’t want to say, but I was sure past me had mumbled them more than once. The System hadn’t led me to die yet, right? 

“Captain,” Shippie’s voice said from hidden intercoms. 

“Yes, Shippie?” I asked, annoyance clear in my voice. 

“Your refugees are awake,” he said.

“Already?” I asked, realizing I had been studying my screen longer than I meant to. Tabi jumped on my shoulder and we headed out of our room. 

“Groot,” the massive tree said as I stepped into the hall. I couldn’t understand the word, but his haki was clear. 

“Yeah, yeah, you want to see the sun,” I said. “I hear you. I promise we will land on a planet soon.” 

“Grooooot,” it said, still annoyed it had been so long since we went home. I waved him off as his thick tree limbs stepped through the wide hallway. The being was a lot like the movies, basically a walking tree, he looked like thick vines intertwined to make a humanoid form. Greenery sticking out the top of his head I was still surprised he agreed to leave his people to join us, but even the Groot people dreamed of seeing the final frontier. 

I walked down the hall toward the Med bay. Whistling a tune as I did. I heard Rocket in his room, messing with some tools as he cursed slightly. “Need help?!” I called from the hall, not stopping to talk.

“Its these tiny hands!” He yelled. “I need smaller tools!” 

“They don’t make them any smaller,” I said, waving him off. Forced into a much smaller body, the man still complained about it as much as I did losing my memories, so it was hard to judge him for complaining. 

In a good mood my hand moved along the metal hall, content in my ship. I wasn’t sure what my dreams were in the past, but this is the kind of life I wanted. Free to go where I wanted, when I wanted, with who I wanted. We let the next job or quest dictate our actions. Having saved civilizations and more than a few dames from danger, I had plenty of money to keep this life up and continue on with my adventures. Nothing to cause me drama or headache as I lived my life how I wanted.  

“Weston!” Delilah said as she noticed me. I frowned, feeling a pure white haki escape her. It felt like…love. The girl ran toward me and I was at a loss for words for a moment. She latched onto me, and my hands naturally moved to hold her. The thin girl actually began to cry as she pressed her face into my shoulder. 

I gave the other occupant of the room a weird look. The young boy frowned at me. His haki bleeding jealousy as the red headed girl held onto me tightly. I frowned, not willing to step on any toes, but moved my hand to her back, rubbing it as she continued to cry. 

“Is this another one of your human activities?” The ship asked. Delilah and the boy jumped at the sound of the voice. The girl letting go, she looked for the source of it. 

“Yes, its called joy,” I said to the ship, then put my hands on her shoulders, pushing the girl away slightly. “Ignore him. So tell me, how did you two piss off the Andromeda Pirates?” The duo turned to one another with a frown, then both began speaking. 

—

“That’s it!” Delilah of the present said. “Just reach out!” My hand was moving closer to the energy. It had been moving closer for days now, but I kept pushing to try to grab it.