Just thought I'd add a little note, just in case. Marisol and Rocket are going to say some very rude things about Stan Lee when he appears for his cameo.

Disclaimer: this is not meant to disrespect him in any way shape or form. This is not meant to be taken as me speaking ill of the dead. This is simply because both Rocket and Mari are mean spirited at this time of the story.

Thanks. Okay, enjoy the story, bye!

---

Twenty-six years had come and past since Rocket and Marisol had first met one another in that laboratory. Since then, they had escaped, using the abilities they had gained from the experiments to their own adventure and become criminal masterminds throughout the galaxy.

Typically they robbed people, morons who could be easily fooled. But occasionally they tried looking for fellow crooks, capturing them and turning them in for a couple of units each.

Usually, they did this on the planet Xander. There were some pretty stupid people there, so they all made easy prey.

Naturally, when Rocket asked Mari to go with him to scope the place out she said yes.

The place made her a little nostalgic. It looked astoundingly similar to her home planet, the only real difference, of course, being the flying vehicles.

Green grass on the ground, crystal blue water in the oceans. The streets were always busy, people running around just to get to nowhere.

The people looked pretty similar to humans as well, same skin tones and everything. Mari could almost pretend she was back on earth every time she was there.

Presently, Mari and Rocket were perched on top of a water fountain, Rocket examining the pedestrians of Xander with a holographic scanner.

"Xandarians," Rocket snickered. "What a bunch of losers." He shook his head. "All of 'em in a big hurry to get from something stupid to nothing at all. Pathetic."

Mari nodded her head in agreement. The pair of them had already had this conversation more than once, and, frankly, she had grown tired of it. They were all morons. Nothing more to add. Still, poking fun at the idiotic people never grew old.

Rocket showed her his scanner, as he aimed it at some jerk with floppy bangs. The man was really much too old to pull the look off. Mari scoffed. "Look at this guy!" Rocket scoffed. "Can you believe they call us criminals when he's assaulting us with that haircut?"

Mari rolled her eyes as the jerk went about his merry business, not even having enough sense to take notice of them. "Seriously, why isn't it illegal for him to wear that haircut!? It's hideous!!"

"Right??" Rocket said, before moving onto the next victim of their ridicule. It was a small baby boy, maybe two or three years of age. "What is this thing?"

Mari scowled. There might have been a time when she was a young girl in which she adored children, when she was much younger, much more naive and helpless. But she wasn't that girl anymore.

Children, just the very idea of them, made her sick to her stomach. They were loud and whiny. And they made more messes than they were worth.

Rocket made a face at the boy. He rolled his head around, mocking the thing as an adult reached out to help it walk properly. "Look how it thinks it's so cool. It's not cool to get help! Walk by yourself, you little gargoyle!"

That comment managed to get a small laugh from Mari. It was always amusing, watching Rocket yell at random Xanderains. Making fun of them was their favorite pastime.

Marisol gestured to the child's mother. She would have been a good ten feet tall all on her own, but the lady added to her natural height with a pair of eccentric heels. "Yeah, well having Prissy there for a mom has got to be pretty rough. I think I'd be pretty messed up too if my mom went around walking in those god forsaken things."

"Look at Mr. Smiles over here." Rocket pointed at an old man over the bridge. His hair was white and greasy, and he wore thick, golden glasses over his eyes. He was talking to a pretty woman who was much younger than he was. "Where's your wife, old man?" Rocket rolled his eyes. "What a class-A pervert."

Mari snorted. "I was thinking he looked more like one of those lameos who write comics and sell movies on Terra. Thinks he's some hot shot cause he's got money."

Rocket let out a loud laugh. "Yeah, and she's totally buying it too. I bet she lets him go all the way, thinking they'll get married and that'll solve all her daddy issues. But he'll be gone before the next morning."

"Hm," Marisol mused. "Not sure who I feel more sorry for. She's obviously some whiny tramp. Probably a big crier too. Most likely super clingy and annoying. And he's just a gross old man."

"Definitely him. No one wants to deal with that crap," Rocket snickered.

Mari doubled over, clutching her sides as she and Rocket laughed for a good five minutes. "Right, Groot?"

Groot was their companion. They'd met him a while back while working a job on his home planet. Back then he'd been no more than a little sapling, but now he was a full grown plant man.

(It had only been a few months ago, but his species grew much faster than any other Mari had ever seen so it felt like it had been longer than that.) He was taller than even the largest of men back on earth, his arms and legs long and wide.

His body looked more like vines than it did like bark, and his mouth was made from a simple slit, leaves poking out around his figure and moss running over his arms and chest here and there. Marisol had always assumed that was his species' equivalent to body hair, but she never dared to ask him to confirm it.

Mari glanced over at Groot and snorted. He was slurping the water from the fountain as it shot into the sky. The poor thing was so childish sometimes, it often felt as though she and Rocket were his mother and father. "Don't do that, mi arbolito dulce," she told him.

Rocket jumped off the fountain and gagged, scolding Groot as well, though in a much more hostile manner. "Yeah, don't drink the fountain water, you idiot. That's disgusting."

Groot looked at the pair of them, water dripping from his chin. He shook his head, his big brown eyes widening a bit, denying what he'd just done.

"Yes you did!" Rocket said. "Both Marisol and I just saw you doing it! Why are you lying?"

"I am Groot," Groot cursed at them.

Mari jumped to her feet, hands on her hips as she gave the tree man a stern look. "Watch your tone, mi arbolito dulce! You remember the last time you talked to me like that?"

Rocket cringed, remembering that particularly nasty punishment she'd given him for using foul language. "No VCR games for a whole week. Wouldn't want that again, now would ya, Groot?"

Groot looked down sadly. "I am Groot."

"Yeah, you better apologize," Mari huffed.

"I am Groot."

Mari narrowed her eyes at him, folding her arms over her chest. "My punishments are not cruel and unusual!"

Groot shrugged. "I am Groot."

She scoffed. "I am not a nag!"

Their argument was cut short when Rocket's scanner started beeping and flashing red with an alert. "Whoop. Looks like we got one." Rocket held it up to see what they'd found. "Okay, hunnie, how bad does someone wanna find you?"

Groot and Mari sat on the fountain behind him, looking over his shoulder to see a picture of a sandy haired man on the scanner. Marisol instantly recognized the target's name -- Peter Quill; he was wanted by Yondu Udonta.

Years ago, she would have felt something, reading those names. Remorse. A longing to see her family. Anger and sadness for everything she had lost. Hatred for the man who stole her away from her family and then sold her off like she was nothing.

But Marisol had learned to better herself, to control all those pesky emotions and shove them into a deep, dark pit within herself so that they would never get out.

Besides, she wasn't really paying attention to the name of the man who'd put the bounty up or their target. Instead, she focused her attention on the amount of money he was wanted for.

Her eyes widened with surprise, and Rocket lowered the scanner, turning around and grinning widely. "Forty-thousand units? Marisol, Groot, we're gonna be rich!"

"Rich enough to finally get one of those fancy flying douchebag cars?" Mari grinned. She'd been obsessed with getting her hands on of those bad boys ever since she'd had that dream about retrieving one from a Xanderian.

"We'll be rich enough to buy seven fancy flying douchebag cars!" Rocket proclaimed, spreading his arms out wide.

Mari pumped her fist in the air. "Yes!" she cheered.

Their giddiness was quickly brought to an end at the sound of splashing.

Simultaneously, Mari and Rocket glanced over to see Groot drinking out of the fountain again. Evidently, he had gotten bored and decided to entertain himself with the disgusting water.

Rocket sighed, Mari putting her head in her hands and groaning. "We better move quick," Rocket said urgently. "Someone's gonna beat us to the score!"

Marisol followed his gaze to the bridge. He was right. A green skinned woman was in the middle of grappling with their target. "Oh diablos no, perra! That is our money! Groot, get the sack! We're taking this bitch down!"

"I am Groot," Groot said, grabbing the sack they'd brought along with them from the side of the fountain. It was soaked from Groot's messy slurps in the fountain.

"Of course it's wet! You just splashed water all over!" Rocket rolled his eyes. "Stop complaining and just grab it, will ya?"

The three of them sprinted up the bridge, Marisol up ahead with Rocket on her shoulder, pushing people to the ground when they got in their way.

Once they were in a close enough range, Rocket leapt from Mari's shoulder, sending a flying kick (literally) to the green skinned woman's skull, as she prepared to stab their target. She stumbled back. Rocket attacked the woman, grabbing at her hair, as she struggled to get him off.

Mari jumped on their target, pinning him to the ground. He fought, but she had a much stronger grip than she did when she was eleven. She had trained herself so that she would never be weak again. No man, woman, or otherwise could harm her ever again. "Groot!" she called. "¡Venga! ¡Vamonos!"

Groot was just standing there, holding the sack and looking confused by all the chaos. Rocket shouted over at him, hanging on to the woman's hair for dear life as she swung around, violently swatting at him. "Put him in the bag! Put him in the bag!"

Groot moved towards Rocket and the woman, raising the sack. "Not her!" Rocket shouted, getting flung around like crazy.

"Groot! Wrong one!" Mari groaned at the same time. The target sent a kick to her stomach while she was distracted, knocking her off of him. She fell on her back with a grunt.

"Learn genders, man!" Rocket told Groot. He pulled back on the woman's nose, causing her to scream and bite his fingers. Rocket yanked his paw back. "Ow, lady! Biting? That's not fair!"

Marisol groaned, forcing herself into a sitting position. She glanced over at Groot, who was wrapping his arms around the woman like rope, before turning back to their target. He had taken his chance to run off, pushing past people as he ran for escape.

Mari glared after him. "Not today, tu mierda. I'm getting that douchebag car!" She pushed herself to her feet, sprinting after him.

From the corner of her eye, she spotted the green skinned woman toss Rocket off her back so that he flew over the side of the bridge and slammed into a glass wall, shattering it on impact.

Mari let out a low growl at that. She'd have to get her back for that once she'd apprehended their target. No one hurt her friends and lived to tell about it.

Marisol was gaining on him, when he yelped in pain, dropping something on his own foot. It was a round, silver container, the kind of thing you only put very dangerous and very valuable stuff in.

Mari smirked to herself, thinking they could probably get a few extra units from whatever was inside...except it rolled over the side of the bridge as soon as the moron dropped it.

He stumbled, slowing down significantly as he hopped on one foot, trying to rub the other one. Mari tackled the idiot to the ground, slamming his head against the walkway and pinning his arms behind his back. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" he complained. "Jesus! What's with you ladies today?"

"You're coming with us," Mari hissed in his ear. "And you're gonna make us a couple of rich madre folladora."

"Yeah? How much you get for bringing me in?" the target asked, sounding genuinely curious. He clearly hadn't recognized her yet.

Though, in all fairness they hadn't seen each other in over twenty years. There was no reason for him to know who she was; the only reason Marisol knew who he was was because of Rocket's scanner. If not for that she probably would have thought him just another usual, moronic Xanderain. It didn't change anything though. She was still collecting his bounty and getting that flying car!

"Forty-thousand units," Mari told him. "Enough to earn seven flying douchebag cars."

The target scoffed. "Are you freaking kidding me? I'm Starlord! I should be worth way more than that! I should be worth enough to buy thirteen flying douchebag cars!"

Mari snorted. So, he'd developed a huge ego. Fun. She ignored that, however, focusing on the nickname he'd given himself. "Starlord?" Vaguely, she recalled her Aunty Meredith calling her cousin that a time or two.

"It's kind of an outlaw name," he said. "I mean, I'm a pretty big deal so of course I have to have an out law name."

"Of course," Mari agreed, jamming her knee into his back, smirking when he let out a yelp. "I've got one too. It's Chimera."

"Well, that's cute," Starlord snickered. She jammed her knee deeper into his back for that, making him scream a little more.

Belatedly, she wondered how long she could keep her identity from him before she dragged his stupid ass back to Yondu and his Ravagers. Could be a fun little game...

Marisol hulled him up, keeping his hands behind his back. That would have been a job well done, except the green skinned lady had withdrew a pair of hatchets from her belt, slicing Groot's arm off, making him stumble back. Mari gasped, shouting, "Groot!"

The woman jumped over the side of the bridge, landing expertly on her feet before sauntering coolly towards the sphere Starlord had dropped. She grabbed it and took off.

Mari lost focus, unknowingly losing her grip on Starlord and allowing him to shove her off once again. She grunted, hitting the ground for the second time that day. "Son of a bitch!" she cursed, as her target leapt over the side of the bridge, colliding with the green skinned woman as she was running under it.

For a second he was on top of her, but she flipped them over, pinning him soon enough. The woman sneered at him, but Mari couldn't hear what they were saying from where she lay on the ground.

Marisol shook her head, leaping to her feet, running back down the bridge towards Groot. "Come on! We can still get him!" she called as she ran by him. This lady was really starting to piss her off. She was looking forward to kicking her ass.

He followed behind, taking the sack with him. They rounded the corner just in time to see Starlord place something on the woman's thigh, sending her flying across the way, splashing into the fountain Groot, Mari, and Rocket had been at earlier.

Starlord stood up, eyeing his handy work with his back turned to them. Mari and Groot snuck up behind him quietly, raising the sack to loop it over his head. Rocket caught up with them as Groot swung the bag over his shoulder, Starlord thrashing around inside, screaming.

Groot smirked as the three of them started walking. Mari couldn't help grinning as well. Rocket shot them a serious look. "Quit smiling, you idiots. You're supposed to be professionals."

Mari rolled her eyes at him. She would have responded with her own retort if their little victory hadn't been short lived. The green skinned lady had gotten up again and she was marching towards them, hatchet in hand and moronic smug smirk on her face. "Santo infierno! This lady doesn't quit!"

"You gotta be kidding me," Rocket groaned out in the same instance. He grunted as the woman harshly shoved him to the ground.

She swung her hatchet at Groot, but Mari sent a kick her stomach before she could land a hit. The woman stumbled back but quickly recovered; she sent a swing Mari's way.

Marisol ducked, latching on to the end of her hatchet, wincing as it drew blood from her palm. She yanked it away from the woman, tossing it behind her, ignoring the slight stink and the blood dripping down her hand. "I prefer hand-to-hand combat," Mari told her with a smirk.

"Me too," the woman breathed out, her own lips quirking in an upwards motion. She sent a kick at her, only for Mari to grab her leg and toss her backwards. The woman retaliated, catching herself with her hands and kicking outwards, knocking Mari off her feet for the third time.

With an angry grunt, the woman jumped on top of Mari, punching her repeatedly until Mari was able to knee her in the gut and knock her backwards. Mari jumped on the woman's back, wrapping an arm around her neck, choking her; the woman screamed, reeling her head back and slamming it into Marisol's nose.

"Aah!" Mari yelled, being forced to let her go. She grabbed her nose, blood dripping on her fingers and mixing with her already bloody palm."Perra!"

She clenched her fist around the cut, ignoring the stinging that now burned across her hand and face, punching the woman in the back. The woman hissed in pain, face planting with the sidewalk.

Turning quickly, the woman latched onto Mari's arm, swinging her into Groot and Rocket. The woman's face somehow miraculously didn't even have so much as a scratch on it. That little fact just made Mari hate the bitch even more.

"Thanks for the help guys," Mari grumbled as Groot caught her. "Really appreciate it!"

"Eh, you looked like you had it covered," Rocket shrugged. Mari glared at him.

The woman hurried over to the bag they'd trapped Starlord in, opening it only to get blasted backwards once again, when he flashed one of his seemingly endless amount of tools in her face. She fell back with a yelp, looking dazed as she hit the ground.

Now that she wasn't moving around so much, Marisol could get a better look at her. She was tall, but not nearly as lengthy as Groot, of course. Her biceps and legs were pretty muscular, like she also spent a great deal of time training. (Judging from the way she fought that was probably the case.) She wore a leather suit, thick combat boots on her feet, various weapons and tools on her belt.

Mari was surprised to see she actually sort of recognized her. She had never met the woman in person before, but there'd been rumors about her family all throughout the galaxy. The mad titan family, hell bent on destroying the world.

She was Gamora, daughter of Thanos. And she had just been brought to her knees by some punk junker.

The punk junker in question was currently racing down the street. Starlord shuffled out of the bag, dragging it with him on his feet for a few paces before managing to kick it off.

Rocket smirked, raising a grenade launcher. Mari hadn't seen where he'd gotten it, but she guessed he must have nicked it from someone while he was being useless during Mari's fight with Gamora.

"I live for the simple things." He aimed the weapon at Starlord's retreating form. "Like how much this is gonna hurt." And he fired.

The next five seconds were filled with blissful screams and cries of pain from Starlord as he fell face first into the ground, withering violently, volts of electricity running through his body.

Rocket chuckled, Mari smirking next to him. "Yeah. Writhe, little man."

From the other side of Rocket, Groot whined a bit, playing with the spot his arm used to be. Rocket rolled his eyes. "It'll grow back, you d'ast idiot. Quit whining."

Mari put a hand on her hip, sighing loudly. "You know we could really play a drinking game with the amount of times you call each of us an idiot."

"Not my fault you two are imbeciles," Rocket snapped. "Besides, if you really wanna make a drinking game out of something annoying, we should do it with the amount of times you roll your eyes at people!"

Marisol rolled her eyes at him, simply just to annoy the crap out of her friend.

Rocket huffed. "Quit it! It's seriously rude, and it makes you look stupid!"

"Hey! I'm not nearly as stupid as you are!" Mari snapped back.

Rocket gasped dramatically, placing a paw over his chest. He pointed at her, sneering. "You take that back right now!"

"Make me!"

"Why I oughta!" Rocket crouched, making like he was going to pounce on her, but before he could a beam of yellow light washed over everyone who'd been fighting.

Mari groaned, looking up at the sky to see the familiar ships of Xander law enforcement. They were massive things, in the shape of a star, the light shooting from the center.

One of the local law enforcers spoke through a megaphone on his ship, calling out to Rocket. "Subject 89P13, drop your weapon."

"Aw, crap," Rocket mumbled. He stood up right, lowering the grenade launcher to the ground.

"By the authority of the Nova Corps, you are under arrest," the law enforcement continued, as a few blue suited officers landed their ship and came out to arrest them, "for endangerment to life and the destruction of property."

"Oh come on!" Mari complained. "That's total bullshit! The people here are complete losers, and the scenery sucks anyway!"

The officers didn't seem to care much about her excuses though, as they rounded her and her friends up.

She kicked at them, throwing punches and all around just giving them a hard time. She didn't have to make it easy for them!

Sure, it was against the law to wreck the place and to shoot at people, but Marisol believed it should have been perfectly vindicated if they'd been doing it for units. It was so unfair that they were being arrested!

Her only consolation was that they were arresting Starlord and Gamora too.

They hauled Starlord to his feet, the sandy haired man looking disgruntled. One of the officers snickered when they saw his face. "Hey, if it isn't Star-Prince."

Starlord sighed and corrected him with irritation. The officer nodded in a mocking manner. "Sorry, 'lord.'" He glanced at his fellow officers as he brought him towards the others. "I picked this guy up a while back for petty theft. He's got a codename." The other officers scoffed.

"Come on, man," Starlord sighed, exasperated. "It's an outlaw name." He nodded to where Mari was forcibly being shoved into the ship with Groot and Rocket, the green skinned woman rolling her eyes, already sitting in one of the seats. "She has one too!"

"Oh yeah," the officers nodded. "Chimera."

Peter sighed heavily. How could they get her name right but not his?! That just wasn't fair!

"Just relax," the officer said. "Codenames are cool. It's not that weird."

Officer Dey stood at the center of the screening room at the Nova Corps headquarters, going over the identities of those he and his team had arrested earlier that day.

His commanding officer Saal stood behind him, listening to Dey and watching as the crooks were brought in one by one for the line up.

"Gamora." The green skinned woman stood in front of them, looking utterly bored. Her dark hair was hanging over her shoulders, the ends dyed purple. "Surgically modified and trained as a living weapon. The adopted daughter of the Mad Titan Thanos. Recently, Thanos left her and her sister Nebula out to Ronan, which leads us to believe that Thanos and Ronan are working together."

"Subject 89P13. Calls itself Rocket." The fury creature stomped into the holding chamber as Gamora walked out. He folded his arms in front of him, looking irritated. "The result of illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower life form."

"Subject 90P14. Calls itself Chimera." A mexican woman with silky dark hair and smooth olive skin stepped forward as Rocket left. She flashed the officers a smirk before firing off some rather rude and provocative gestures. "The result of the same illegal experiments as Subject 89P13."

Saal stared with wide eyes as their next captive came in. "What the hell?"

"They call it Groot," Dey told him, as the massive plant man stepped into the room, staring at the officers perplexedly. "A humanoid plant that's been travelling recently as 89P13 and 90P14's personal houseplant/muscle."

"Peter Jason Quill from Terra." The overgrown houseplant was replaced by the sandy haired man. He fiddled with his hand, frowning at it with fake confusion, giving the officers the finger and looking surprised about it. "Raised from youth by a band of mercenaries called the Ravagers, led by Yondu Udonta."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know how this machine worked," Quill said, referring to his hand.

"What a bunch of A-holes," Saal commented. Dey chuckled at that. "Transport all five to the Kyln."