“So close, Weston, just, a, little, more,” each word from Delilah becoming slower as I reached for the stone. I knew she was right and didn’t respond, all of my concentration focused on moving as memories continued to cascade back into my mind. 

—

“Back already, captain?” Shippie asked as I walked inside my mobile home. 

“Yeah, we are cutting this trip short,” I said. With a bounty from Nebula looming over our heads, I didn’t want to go anywhere civilized for a while. “You sure you don’t know why the Andromeda’s kidnapped you in the first place?” I asked Peter Quill. 

“Huh?” He mumbled, having gotten wasted off a couple of drinks. “I uh- from Earth,” was all he was able to get out before he burped. I shrugged both passed out crewman off of me. Rocket landed hard on the metal deck then Peter fell on top of him. Causing the small racoon to squeak. 

Both were wasted. Though I only had my eyes off of them for a few minutes; they apparently hadn’t heard there was a price on our heads. More specifically me, but that was as good of a death sentence for anyone. Out here in the middle of nowhere there were no rules for collecting bounties. 

“Shippie, do a bomb search please,” I said. 

“No one has approached our vicinity other than hangar staff,” the ship said. The lights around us turned red then white as he commenced the search anyway. “No known anomalies detected.”

“Good,” I said, my foot tapping. “ETA?” I asked into my communicator, a small badge at my collar. 

“Two minutes,” Jame said. She and Delilah were both ready to get back after they heard my news. I didn’t think I needed to tell them about another Shi’ar trying to kill me. That had happened enough, and I doubted the Andromeda’s had anything to do with it. 

Though Tabi had filled me in on why the Shi’ar hated me. I still didn’t know why they cared. I was away from Shi’ar territory. Apparently some civil war had taken over their systems, the Shi’ar were far from worried about me. But many held grudges for my part in getting their emperor-guy killed. 

“High alert until we leave Elsewhere,” I told Shippy. Grabbing Quill and Rocket I dragged them to the medbay, injecting them with a sobering agent. 

“Holy shit,” Peter said, his eyes bulged open. 

“That’s the stuff,” Rocket said, jumping up. He looked around quickly, his hand moving for small knives he had hidden on himself. “Why are we on the ship?” 

“News,” was all I said. Jame and Delilah showed up soon. They hadn’t had time to buy any supplies. Both in a bad mood, I got them moving in a rush soon after I explained the trouble. 

“Andromeda’s are a little peeved we took these guys,” I said, pointing at Delilah and Quill. Making certain they understood this was their fault, not my own. “They may have put a little bit of a bounty on me.”

“I fucking knew it,” Rocket growled as he jumped in his seat. 

“What’s so important about us?” Quill asked, fear leaking from him. Whatever confidence he had from the alcohol and the weapon buying montage from earlier was gone.

“No idea,” I said truthfully, at least for Delilah. Quill’s dad probably wanted him, like in the canon, but since I had personally met Ego in this version of Marvel, I doubted that was him. I was fairly certain in the comics that Quill’s dad was some space prince. 

Delilah was another story. She was a skinny red head with pale skin and freckles. I knew she said she woke up in a vat and lost her memories because of Mr. Sinister, but I didn’t remember much at all about Sinister from canon. Mainly that he was a pale bad guy that looked like a vampire drag queen. What the Andromeda’s wanted from her was a mystery as well. 

“It doesn’t matter, for now,” Jame said. Her haki said she felt almost protective of Delilah now. Though their shopping spree had been short, I guessed it was fruitful. The matriarch of our little band, I could tell Jame was all in with helping them now. “Let’s just get somewhere safe.”

“Groot,” the jolly brown tree said. 

“I don’t know if we should go to Ego,” I said. The sentient planet had helped us in the past. But I still didn’t trust the guy. Probably because of his role in the Guardians movie. “If we want pirates off our tail we should probably go to somewhere the big three patrol.” 

“Seriously?” Rocket said. “Shi’ar have been quiet. The Kree are still pissed about that planet we took the Regaria Ball from.” 

“We earned that thing,” I said. “They wanted to freakin steal it.”

“Doesn’t matter, they hold a grudge,” Rocket said. “That leaves Xandarians. Which isn’t the best-” 

“Captain, the station is under attack,” Shippie’s voice cut in. 

“Elsewhere?” I couldn’t help but ask as I turned to the screens. 

“No, here,” Shippie said. I narrowed my eyes at the screen, fairly certain that it was attempting a joke, as if I said elsewhere rather than the station’s name. 

The screen populated with a view outside the ship. Some miniature drone of Shippie’s flew off, and the monitor showed what the drone saw. Zooming between the ribs of the long dead Celestial, a massive ship appeared. It was a giant block that looked like a futuristic version of a Rubix Cube. With shiny blue lights showing through creases in the massive ship, I knew it immediately as every member of the Guardians did as well. 

“The Betelguese,” Rocket groaned. 

“Beetlejuice, beetlejuice,” Delilah said instantly. She looked around, then frowned when no one appeared. “I thought it might work in space.” Her haki radiated disappointment. 

“No, its Bet-el-geiss, fucking Nebula herself,” I said. 

“The Pirate Queen,” Jame groaned. 

“Don’t call her that,” I said. 

“Captain, the Guese is projecting to everyone on Elsewhere,” Shippie said. The screen changed from the view of the drone to the blue bitch herself. She was different than I expected. In the movies she had metal parts showing, but this version appeared all humanoid. With blue skin, the sides and back of her head shaved, she had long black hair that dangled to one side. She wore black leather gear, had full black eyes, and wore a side grin on her lips. 

“Citizens and vagabonds of Elsewhere. Bring me this so called, Starlord,” Nebula said. 

“Starlord?” Delilah asked. 

“That’s a dumb name,” Quill said. 

“I fucking agree,” I said. “Shippie, fire engines. Rocket, you’re at the helm,” I added as Nebula continued. 

“These supposed Guardians of the Galaxy have decided to piss off the Andromeda’s. A bounty of 1,000,000 sol is put on this Star Lord’s head.” 

“Ha! I’m tempted to turn you in myself,” Rocket said. 

“And another million for his crew and ship,” Nebula added. 

“Ha, good luck collecting,” I said as the ship began to move away from those others parked near us. I pulled up camera viewpoints, pushing them to the main screen to make sure no one made a move for us. A few ships nearby began to light up as their engines were fired. I gulped as another couple actually lifted off. 

“No one messes with the Andromedas!” Nebula roared. Female voices around her cheered and the feed cut out. 

“Get us out of-” I said but was cut off as a ship fired at us. Jame and I took our seats as Shippie began reading off how many were taking aim at us. 

“It’s gonna be bumpy!” Rocket yelled as we flew through two ribs. On either side of us were more ships docked to Elsewhere. More began to fire at us. Shippie’s shields increased their power.

“No! Focus on escape!” I roared, manipulating the power output to the engines. “Activate Null Engine Drive!”

“Captain, we are too close to Elsewhere. Other ships will be pulled in-” Shippie announced. 

“I don’t care,” I said. “They fire on us, they deserve it.” The Null engines began firing up. A 60 second timer started as we made it out of the ribcage of the dead Celestial. 

“What is our destination, captain?” Shippy asked. 

“Regulus Prime,” I said. “I saw a warning posted of a Nova Patrol ship in that area.”

“I fucking hate Xandarians,” Rocket growled. Straight ahead from us was the Betelguese. Rather than firing upon us, it broke apart. Not in a good way where someone destroyed it for us, instead the rubix cube split off into eight sections. 

“Fuck!” I couldn’t help but growl. I had heard of the ship’s final form. Like some reverse Megazord from Power Rangers, the Betelguese got stronger when broken apart. Each section controlled by one of Nebula’s many captains, fighting her was like fighting an army. As the eight sections began to move away from each other, smaller ships began to be spat out. The thin blue lights streaming out of each section like fireflies in the night. 

“This is why you don’t fuck with the big fish!” Jame yelled. For some reason the yell was directed at me. 

“You don’t get stronger if you just challenge the small fries,” I shot back. My heart racing I felt helpless for a split second. All of my training and powers didn’t amount to the strength of the Andromeda’s. One powerful blast and all my work would be for naught. But that was all my life had been out in this universe. From my first star ship battle, to now. I had survived each. 

“20 seconds,” Shippie said as we raced toward the Betelguese. 

“Are we gonna make it?” I asked. A world escape only a couple of words away. 

“It’s gonna be close!” Rocket said as the much smaller ships began to fire upon us. All the while the ship sped up toward the projectiles fired our way. 

“Clear a path,” I ordered Rocket as I took the helm. 

“Aye aye,” he said as he took control of the ship’s offenses. Ribbon-like lasers began to twist and turn away from the ship. Like some deadly ribbon dance they struck the missiles ahead, forcing them to explode.  The seconds ticked away and the ship was jostled as some made it to us, but then we were in the white. 

Shippy made it to Null Space. Our visuals turned to pure white as we entered the underbelly of dimensions. “Fucking hell that was close,” Rocket rasped. 

“Groot.” 

“Yeah, yeah, Elsewhere was a bad idea,” I said. “We get to Nova territory for a bit. Let the heat die down, we lie low and-”

“And what?!” Jame interrupted. In the back seat our navigator glared at me as she interrupted. “What now? The Andromeda’s have a two million sol bounty on us. That’s enough to buy…a shitload of crap.”

“Couple shitloads and ships full of crap at least,” Rocket said. 

“And it will just get worse if Nebula has to look for us. We all heard about Ionith. She destroyed that crew when they tried to poach one of her sub-captains,” Jame said. 

“We will figure it out,” I said, my eyes always hopeful a quest would appear. The System was fairly good at keeping me alive. I didn’t think it had let me down yet. “Shippie, how long until we reach Prime?” 

“A few minutes,” Shippie admitted. 

“Crap,” I whispered. I had been hoping for more time in Null Space, but distance was weird in the dimension. Instead of getting up to relax a little, I leaned back in the captain’s seat. “All pirates are scared of the cops. We get to their territory. Maybe do some jobs for the Xandarians for a little protection. Then when Nebula fucks up some where else we try to figure out something she wants.”

“What?” Rocket asked. “What makes you say she wants something?”

“She’s a pirate…not queen, uh dutchess, that’s it. She obviously wants something. We can look into her background and figure out what she needs,” I said. I was really hoping for a quest, but in the grand scheme of things the others could latch onto some hope that there was some Holy Grail that Nebula could be after. With the thought of the Grail I internally cursed. Pushing DC out of my mind another idea struck me. 

“Wait, she only has female crewmates. I got it, we can gender bend a little bit,” I said, perking up. 

“Not this again,” Jame growled. 

“What’s that?” Delilah asked, she and Quill having stayed out of the way of us and the conversation thus far. 

“It’s this operation I heard about on Yeren,” I said. “They can change your gender for a bit. No surgery, just enough to fool some people. We join up with the Andromeda's and take them down from the inside.”

“It would never work,” Rocket said. “They have scanners that the Yeren’s wouldn’t be able to fool.” 

“No, it’s the perfect plan…” and I continued on explaining the genius of it. We began spitballing ideas to get Shippie a sex change operation then the conversation turned into what the mechanics would need to make Shippy any gender. It got rather philosophical rather quickly and the other’s bad moods subsided. 

When we pulled out of Null Space we were all in a better mood. That was until one of the sections of the Betelguese warped into existence directly behind us. “Fuck!” I yelled, kicking the engines in once more. 

“Captain, a tracker has been detected on the rear-” Shippie said. 

“No shit, Sherlock,” I said as our good mood was ruined once more. “Activate Null Space drive again.” 

“Cooldown is five minutes,” Jame reminded as her hands began moving across her screen. 

“Shit, shit, shit, shit,” I said as one section of the Betelguese after another appeared. It didn’t take long for all eight to warp directly to us, and again the blue fireflies of hundreds of small ships lit up. 

“Shoot everything at them!” I yelled at Rocket. 

“On it!” He responded as missiles and lasers began shooting toward the giant cubes. 

“They’re doing that cage thing!” Jame yelled in a panic. I knew it was happening of course. All eight sections of the Betelguese began moving toward us, trying to trap us inside. I had heard stories of the cage they made. When the ship separated each part would connect with some weird energy, making a much bigger box. Then the eight sections would close in on you until they were one again. Crushing everything inside of them. I had heard of it once, the Betelguese Crush was infamous for destroying the previous pirate fleet that had the number one spot. 

“I’m going over there,” I said as I stood. Pulling my Shi’ar armor out of my Status Screen I began putting on each section one at a time. 

“Over where?!” Jame yelled, too focused on trying to navigate a path away from ships. 

“Out there,” was all I said as I put arm and leg guards on. 

“Weston, we can’t escape without you,” Rocket reminded. 

“I know,” I said. The Null Drive on Shippy wouldn’t activate without me there. Some weird protocol by the ship, my special blood was the only thing that set me apart enough to activate the ship. “Strap in,” I told Delilah and Quill as I put the knight-like helmet on. The visor now blocking everyone I calmed myself and opened a Rift. 

Stepping out into space the ship zoomed past me. The blue lights of the ship all directed at us I couldn’t help but relish in the sight. Like some science fiction cacophony of badassery, I was going to face an entire fleet of pirates on my own. Preparing myself mentally, Nen, Haki, and my Tremor Fruit began to rumble inside. 

Pulling up my Status Screen I pushed summon and Tabi was in front of me. The blue and black cat bright in the vacuum of space, she was unaffected by it. Technically chakra itself, the cat floated to around my neck and spoke to my mind. 

-What now?- She asked, having run off to laze around Shippy. 

-Pirates- I said. -Not the good kind- I reminded. She had pushed me pretty hard to become a pirate because of my role in One Piece, but I had refused. Unlike Luffy, I didn’t like to deal with the drama of the pirate stigma. Unable to find port or succor, I preferred the good guy label in the universe. 

-Fine- She thought at me as the ships closed in. All flying at insane speeds it would only be a few seconds before they came to me. If they got past me they would get to Shippie a few seconds after. 

-It’s time- I thought and opened myself up to it. The blue cat became a massive flame, engulfing me. Though I didn’t understand chakra, Tabi did. Letting myself go, I allowed her chakra to enter me, and she took control. 

My hands moved on their own. Forming hand seals, nothing changed, then suddenly it formed. A condensed ball of chakra, like the sun itself it began to grow as chakra arms expelled out of me, connecting into the attack.

The dense chakra ball only grew. Tabi making hand seal after hand seal with my hands as chakra moved through me like a raging inferno ready to burn me up. But this was needed. Having perfected this after the last major fleet attacked us, Tabi knew just what to do. 

When the ball of chakra was at least five hundred feet across, it shot forward. Directly at the line of attackers. The first ship exploded and didn’t slow the ball. Going directly through the middle of them, ship after ship was destroyed, but not just the unlucky one in her attack’s path. Other man-size ships were overturned by the force of it. Many striking one another the blue lights exploded like fireworks in soundless space as my Haki felt hundreds of ships explode. I didn’t feel any people inside. Most likely drones, I was thankful we didn’t kill any…this time. 

Suddenly Tabi released from me. Forming back into a cat, she latched on as many of the leftover ships began firing at us. Activating my flight I began picking up speed and the real fight began. 

My punches shooting off Nen blasts, my kicks sending Tremors straight ahead, my Haki warning me of everything, white and black lightning shooting from me; I destroyed everything. Ship after ship came at me and all were destroyed. A few missiles got close but none penetrated the strength of my armor. They all came and all were destroyed as a new wave of smaller ships was released from the Betelguese sections. 

All the while Shippie flew away, me going after it, protecting it’s flank as ships tried to reach it. Though I wasn’t as fast as the ship with my flight, I was still between it and the invaders. That was until I noticed a new ship. 

A far bigger ship coming into my path, I noticed that there were actual people inside this one. The eight sections of the bigger ship still trying to entrap us. I couldn’t help but be curious why they sent actual people this time. Making a Rift into the ship I appeared inside to find twelve female pirates pointing weapons at me. Directly in front of me was a very angry blue woman. 

“Fuck,” I spat as I jumped back through the Rift. Closing the tear in space as the weapons were fired, the lone manned-er womanned ship, headed straight for me. Nebula had honored me by coming herself. But the blue bitch didn’t realize I had a lot of skills. Able to identify Nebula’s haki now, I ignored the other ships and focused on hers. 

A little hesitant to kill actual people I set about disabling their ship. That was until I noticed yet another massive ship heading our way. This one the size of Betelguess it looked more like a teardrop than a cube. 

-Now the Xandarians show up- I cursed at Tabi. Turning back to Shippie I noticed she was free and clear, then suddenly the ship winked out of existence. My eyes opening wide I realized they had gone into Null Space without me. 

The Xandarian ship nearly on us, I noticed Nebula’s smaller craft did not even give up a fight. Obviously some form of message relayed to her from the Xandarian ship, the eight sections of Betelguese began to retreat. Once they reconnected to one another they warped out of there. 

-This seems odd- Tabi thought at me, growing bored now that the action was done. -I thought Shippie could only escape with you present-

-That’s what I thought- I sent. But slowly I was realizing that maybe my blood wasn’t all that special. There was now someone new on my ship that probably had just as special blood as I did. Quill or Delilah, I wasn’t sure, but I had my guess. 

-Either way, we should be safe with the Xandarians, right?- I asked. Trying to think back if I pissed these guys off, I was pretty sure I was safe. A forcefield projected around Nebula’s smaller craft and myself, we were slowly pulled to the Xandarian ship. All the while I couldn’t help but feel like Luke being pulled to the Deathstar.