In deep space, not far from the borders of the Kryptonian Empire, a small twin-winged spacecraft streaked through an asteroid field like a teor.
Its engines burned bright against the darkness, carving a glowing trail through drifting debris before vanishing into another sector entirely.
Inside the cockpit, loud retro music blasted through the cabin speakers.
Peter Jason Quill lounged in the pilot's seat, snapping his fingers to the rhythm while bobbing his head and swaying shalessly in place.
Leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Self-proclaid legendary outlaw.
Professional disaster magnet.
Otherwise known as Star-Lord.
The rest of the team occupied the cramped cockpit with varying levels of regret.
Gamora.
Drax the Destroyer.
Rocket Raccoon.
Groot.
Mantis.
Five wildly different people from completely different worlds sohow stitched together through war, accidents, and an unhealthy amount of chaos.
Originally, fate should've brought them together through the Orb and the Kyln prison.
But Drex Valen had already acquired the Power Stone long before those events could unfold.
No Orb.
No prison breakout.
No original Guardians storyline.
And yet destiny in the Marvel universe had always been annoyingly persistent.
Especially when literal cosmic embodints of fate existed.
So through a ridiculous chain of coincidences involving Ronan the Accuser's campaign against Thanos, the group still ended up together anyway.
Even Gamora had joined under bizarre circumstances.
Originally, she should've remained at Ronan's side under Thanos' orders, helping recover the Orb.
After all, Gamora's reputation as the deadliest assassin in the galaxy wasn't just hype.
Thanos trusted her completely.
Probably too much.
But with the Orb already gone, that entire mission never happened.
Instead, an assassination attempt spiraled out of control, Star-Lord accidentally saved her life, and then spent an aggressively persistent amount of ti chasing after her until she finally stayed.
Rocket claid it was emotional manipulation.
Peter called it romance.
Gamora called it exhausting.
As for Groot, without the chaos surrounding the Orb, he'd never been reduced and regrown repeatedly.
He still remained in his smaller tree form, happily occupying a flowerpot near the cockpit controls.
Suddenly, the ship shifted course sharply and accelerated.
Rocket nearly rolled out of his seat.
"Seriously?" he groaned. "I thought today was supposed to be our day off."
Space travel sounded exciting until soone actually experienced it.
Even with an extrely fast ship, distances between star systems were asured in light-years. Long flights beca ntally draining after a while.
Rocket had no interest in sacrificing his break because Quill's brain malfunctioned again.
"We picked up a distress signal," Gamora explained calmly. "Possible casualties. We need to check it out."
Rocket threw his paws into the air.
"Why? For all we know it's a trap."
"Because we're heroes," Peter announced dramatically.
Rocket stared at him with naked disgust.
Peter imdiately corrected himself.
"...And maybe they'll pay us."
That sounded more believable.
"If it is a trap," Peter continued proudly, "that's even better. We rob the people trying to rob us."
"There it is," Rocket muttered. "The real plan."
Peter pointed forward enthusiastically.
"Co on, it's not even far away. Besides, we're the Guardians of the Galaxy. Defenders of justice. Champions of the innocent. Protectors of the weak."
"You rehearsed that speech, didn't you?" Gamora asked.
"A little."
"We're approaching the coordinates," Mantis interrupted.
Apparently she was the only person on the ship still doing actual work.
Peter instantly jumped to his feet.
"Alright, everyone look intimidating."
Drax looked at him slowly.
"That will be difficult for you."
Peter ignored him.
"Drax, when we make our entrance, you and I roar together. Establish dominance."
Drax stared at Peter's stomach.
"If you roar, they'll laugh."
The entire cockpit erupted into rciless mockery.
Rocket nearly fell over cackling.
Even Gamora looked dangerously close to smiling.
Peter's "intimidating presence" apparently lost credibility sowhere around the existence of his slight beer belly.
Deeply offended, Peter silently swore vengeance.
The ship dropped from faster-than-light travel near a chaotic asteroid cluster.
The formation itself looked wrong.
None of the asteroids followed natural gravitational movent patterns.
Before anyone could investigate further—
BOOM!
Sothing exploded through the drifting rocks and flew directly past the Guardians' ship.
Peter imdiately stood up dramatically.
"Fear us, pathetic mortals! Tremble before the legendary Star-Lord! RAAAHHHH—"
Then he saw what had just gone flying past the windshield.
His battle cry died halfway through.
"RAAAH— hic... eep?"
Nobody laughed this ti.
Because every single person onboard had frozen.
Peter's eyes widened slowly.
"Guys..." he whispered. "Please tell I didn't just see that."
Silence.
Then Groot wobbled slightly inside his flowerpot.
"I am Groot."
Peter imdiately relaxed.
"Oh thank God. It was just a Groot. For a second I thought soone punched Ronan through an asteroid field—"
Rocket slapped the back of his head.
"You idiot, that was Ronan!"
The entire crew snapped their heads back toward the battlefield.
Then they saw it.
A gigantic blue giant flew out from the debris cloud.
Massive.
Humanoid.
Easily over a hundred ters tall.
The Guardians collectively forgot how breathing worked.
"What... the hell... is that?" Peter managed weakly.
Only Rocket and Gamora recognized it instantly.
And the expressions on both their faces turned deadly serious.
"That," Rocket said quietly, "is an Ultraman from the Kryptonian Empire."
Nobody else understood.
"An Ultra-what?"
"I am Groot?"
Gamora spoke before Rocket could explode.
"The Ultran are the Kryptonian Empire's super-soldiers."
Rocket pointed toward the distant giant.
"An entire legion of those things exists."
His voice rose sharply.
"That's the force the Kryptonian Empire used to steamroll half the galaxy!"
The cockpit fell silent.
Outside the ship, the blue Ultraman casually dragged Ronan through another asteroid hard enough to split it in half.
Peter swallowed slowly.
"...Maybe we should pretend we never got that distress signal."
...
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