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Another glorious day. The tunes blaring, the team behind him, a fight where they were about to kick some major ass. Quill adjusted the music of the stereo, doing some quick moves to show the rest of them how it was done (he ignored the groan that sounded like Nebula behind him. Some people had no taste), and skipped on forward. Just a mile or so to go, some boom bang boom on the bad guys — would-be conquerors trying to take over a small planet they didn’t belong on — and then they’d be back to the ship for dinner.
Maybe they could actually stop somewhere decent for dinner tonight, as a celebratory thing for their job well done. He wouldn’t dare say it out loud, but he was getting really tired of Nebula’s so-called attempts at cooking.
Oof.
He shuddered just thinking about it, but then shook his head. Nope, not going to think about that. Going to think about this glorious day where everything was going great.
Something whizzed by his head.
Something whizzed by his head way too close.
He drew up short, causing someone to bump into him from behind.
“What was that?” he said the same time as someone said, “Oof.”
Mantis. Figured.
From some shrubbery to their right — ughh, it was always the shrubbery — three figures stepped out into their path. Quill frowned. They looked human but they were wearing the ugliest outfits he had ever seen. Long dirty looking cloaks over these billowing pants. And they were holding things that looked a little like lasers.
“Who are you?” he said the same time as the woman who seemed to be in charge. She was standing in front of two men, her face in a menacing scowl.
“Who are you?” he said again.
The woman continued to scowl. “I asked you first.”
“You really didn’t,” Quill said.
“You didn’t,” Mantis agreed from behind him. “You both asked at the same time.”
“It’s polite to let the woman answer first,” Drax said, but the woman scowled harder and gripped her light thing a little tighter.
Quill sighed dramatically. Species negotiations were never his favorite.
“Fine,” he said, drawing out the word so it sounded more like Fiiiiiiiine. “We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m sure you’ve heard of us.”
“Who?” said one of the guys. He stared at them blankly. So did the other two.
“Seriously?” Quill said. “You haven’t heard of us? The Guardians of the Galaxy? We’ve saved the galaxy hundreds of times.”
“Hundreds,” Mantis repeated.
“Hundreds,” Drax confirmed.
“I am Groot,” Groot said.
Nebula, Gamora and Rocket were suspiciously silent. Quill was going to have to talk to them about backing up their leader.
The three intruders still looked skeptical.
“Did you fight the First Order?” asked the other man. This one had a nice head of hair. It made Quill suspicious. Gamora always talked about running her fingers though nice heads of hair. He needed to keep her away from this one.
But back to the question and the First something.
“Who?” Quill said. He felt like maybe he should start scowling. He glanced around him to see if the others knew what the intruders were talking about, but they all seemed just as confused.
But oh good, Gamora and Nebula were scowling.
He put a scowl on his own face.
“What planet is that?” he asked.
The first man spoke again. “How can you guard the galaxy if you don’t even know everything in the galaxy?”
“Do you know how big the galaxy is?” Quill replied.
“But you think we should have heard of you,” the second man said.
“We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy!” Quill repeated. These people were dense.
“Yeah!” said Mantis.
“That’s right!” said Drax.
“I am Groot,” said Groot.
“You haven’t told us who you are,” Gamora said. “We told you who we are.”
Oh, right. Quill had forgotten about that.
The other three were still scowling.
“We’re Jedi,” the woman finally said.
“What’s a Jedi?” Quill said.
“Is that a sort of club?” asked Mantis eagerly.
“Can we join?” Drax asked.
“Do we get to break stuff and fight?” Rocket said.
The intruders didn’t look impressed.
“You’re really bad at this guarding the galaxy thing, aren’t you?” said the first guy.
“No!” Quill huffed. “Just because we don’t know some little dingy planet of Jemis.”
“Jedi,” said the second guy. “And we’re on a whole star system. You have to travel by light force to even get to all of them.”
“Wait, seriously?” Quill said. “That’s cool.”
“It is cool,” said the first guy.
“Okay, but tell me this,” Rocket said, pushing his way past Quill until he was standing in front like he was the leader or something. “Are you guys the good guys or the bad guys, because we can fight you if you’re the bad guys.” He hoisted his gun over his shoulder and bared his teeth.
None of the three looked worried. Apparently nothing fazed these people.
“Pretty sure we’re the good guys,” the first guy said.
“You don’t know?” Rocket said.
“I am Groot!” Groot shouted.
“Okay.” A droll voice cut in. Nebula of course. “As fascinating as this encounter is, we are on our way to squash a mini rebellion in that city over there, so maybe you can get out of our way and we can continue on our way.”
“Wait,” said the woman. “You’re going to fight over there?” She pointed to her left.
“Yesss,” Quill said, like that had been obvious from the beginning. Though it should have been. How many cities on this planet were fighting off rebellions?
“We’re going there too,” the woman said.
“To free the city or torture them?” Mantis asked.
“Yeah!” Drax said.
“I am Groot.”
The woman scowled again. “To free them,” she said. Then she looked at Quill. “I’m Rey,” she said. She pointed to the first man. “Finn.” And to the second. “Poe.”
Quill did a quick point around his group. Because what the heck? “Quill,” he said. “Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, Drax, Rocket and Groot.”
“I am Groot!”
Quill rolled his eyes. “You are not least important because I said you last.”
“Yes, you are,” Drax said.
“Can we go fight now?” Nebula said.
Rey had finally stopped scowling. “I guess we’re all going to the same place,” she said.
“That’s cool,” Quill said. “If we’re faster, then we’ll be able to eat dinner sooner.”
“You know a good place around here?” the man named Poe asked.
Quill hoped Nebula didn’t offer to cook. He answered quickly before she could. “Yeah, tons. You want to come with?”
Poe looked at Finn and Rey. The three of them seemed to have some silent conversation.
“Yeah,” he said. “We’d like that.”
“Great,” Quill said. “Let’s go kick ass. And you can tell as all about the Genies while we go.”
“Jedi,” Rey said as they said off.
“Yeah,” Quill agreed. “That’s what I said. Jedi.”