At the edge of the Milky Way, a colossal battleship is parked within the pitch-black cosmos. Inside one of the ship's cabins, Rocket Raccoon is pacing irritably.
"How long are we going to wait here? Why does a human like you have to get permission from aliens to return home?"
Seated at one side, Peter, stroking an orange cat in his hand, says, "Although I am of the human race, I am part of the Ravagers. Thor has no obligation to let an interstellar pirate into his country. This is how it works in every civilization in the universe."
Mantis, who was pulled into the Guardians of the Galaxy by Adam's quick guide, is currently rubbing Groot's back. Gamora and Drax, who were also swept into the Guardians at the same time, are playing with a ball on the table.
"Alright, Rocket, stop complaining." Gamora sighed, "It's not easy being an independent mercenary. We still rely on Peter's father to get our orders."
"Why do we have an independent mercenary group?" Rocket hops on the table, spreads his hands, and looks at them with wide eyes. "Isn't it so we can be free from limitations and have our own freedom?"
"But a mercenary group originally serves to run errands." Quill shrugs, "Waiting for the employer's dispatch is normal. You have to learn to accept it."
"And I advise you not to provoke Yondu. He's been particularly irritable lately." Quill reaches for the ball that the two are playing with, drawing the attention of everyone else.
"The Ravagers are in a difficult situation. The Shi'ar Empire has contracted some disease and have begun to actively root out nobles of the Ferocious Feather Tribe. Their queen seems to want to become a real empress and is not giving any face to the elders."
"As you know, the Ravagers initially built their business on smuggling resources and treasures for the nobles of the Shi'ar Empire. Now that corrupt nobles have been killed, business is getting worse."
"Coincidentally, that purple maniac, Thanos, managed to engage the leaders of the Three Great Empires to set up a safety network in the Star Area. He also hired more maniacal mutants to help. The Ravagers' reconnaissance vessels have suffered terribly and crashed onto the edge of the Star Area."
"With no consistent supply of orders, and excluded from the biggest delivery area, how can we continue this business? Complaints arose among the Ravagers from top to bottom, Yondu is extremely troubled."
"Can't you just stop being interstellar pirates?" Gamora frowns, "You all know my father Thanos is a madman, don't you believe that he would be ruthless to those who stand in his way? You'd better remind your foster father to be careful. Thanos will never reform. If he appears to be doing so, it suggests he harbors bigger ambitions."
"I heard you have a sister." Rocket Raccoon, bringing up something unpleasant, says, "Are you two on good terms?"
Gamora purses her lips, doesn't say anything. Drax, with a volatile temper, punches the table and says, "I've had enough of waiting here. If not, let's just steal a small spaceship and go near Earth to survey the situation. It's hopeless to rely on the few useless fools that Blue Skin threw down."
Just then, there's a knock on the door of their room. Quill goes to open the door and finds that Yondu has come over personally.
"Something doesn't seem right, little ones, grab your weapons and go to Earth in person. There's some tricky problem that needs you guys to solve."
Everyone immediately surrounds him. Yondu looks left and right, then lowers his voice and says, "The location Loki asked me to find does seem problematic, it appears to be an alien settlement hidden on Earth. There are numerous smugglers and information peddlers."
"My subordinates got a little bit of information about the current state of the Star Area out from them, but you all know how useless those chatty deck cleaners are. They can't get any information I need."
"Now, I, Yondu, the leader of the Ravagers, am hiring you to go to Earth, to ask at the assigned place for the information I need. If you can catch a talker, all the better, but be careful. Loki better not find out that I came early. I can't beat those brutish men from Asgard."
"We can ask for information but won't capture anyone." Quill decisively refuses and says, "You really think Earth's superheroes are for show? I can't beat them too."
They stare off, and after a long while, Yondu finally compromises, "You really are my good son, go on."
Under Adam's quick guide, the hastily formed Guardians of the Galaxy board the small spaceship provided by Yondu. They sway and float along until they arrive at Earth.
Rocket Raccoon is now deciphering the Earth code provided by Yondu. As he types on the keyboard, he grumbles, "Why on Earth are you still using geographic coordinates? And you humans, why isn't the language used in the satellite system the same? Where did this twisted text come from that looks like Groot's tendons?"
Quill leans in for a look and says, "Oh, that should be Russian. This one is Chinese, I can't read this one. Here it is, English; you can directly connect to Google's satellite."
Rocket Raccoon operates it for a while longer, clearly to no avail, which infuriates him. He forcefully slams the console and yells at Quill, "Can't you put down that yellow creature in your hand? You've been holding onto it since we found it. Does it possess some kind of magic?"
"Hey, it's not a yellow creature, it's a lovely kitten." Quill makes cooing noises with his mouth to attract the attention of the orange cat.
Rocket Raccoon sighs deeply and says, "Did I not tell you? This thing is not a cat."
"But it clearly is an orange cat."
"It's..."
Rocket stops halfway, then shakes his head and says, "Once you see its true nature, you will regret it. It's the most disgusting kind of creature."
Gamora's eyes were continually darting between Rocket Raccoon and Peter, she leaned on Groot and said: "He doesn't want to hurt his own heart, such a lovable little fuzzball."
"If you have nothing better to do, why don't you come over and help!" Rocket barked irritably.
Before long, Rocket had finally set up the location. Quill leaned in to take a look and said, "It's in Orlando, huh? Why choose such a place when New York would be so much more convenient."
"Wait, isn't this Disneyland? Loki and Yondu are meeting at Disneyland, what the hell are those two thinking?"
"Didn't that blue guy mention some alien residential zone?" Rocket Raccoon asked Quill somewhat skeptically, and then again looked down at the satellite map, saying, "It does seem like a gathering zone; all the functional areas are well-equipped."
"What 'residential zone'? This is Disney World! It's a large amusement park, I went to the one in California when I was still in school."
Quill suddenly froze as he seemed to recall some clues from his memories, staring at the map, he said, "Those stupid deck cleaners couldn't have mistaken the park's mascots for aliens, could they?! They're played by humans!"
"Nope." Gamora immediately shook her head, stepped forward to look at the map, and said, "Don't you remember? Yondu said his men got some info about the current state of the Star Area here. Ordinary earthlings or terrestrial beings have never left their mother planet, how could they possibly know about the Star Area? It's not like all the superheroes who have been out in the universe have gathered here, right?"
Quill also seemed a bit bewildered. In the end, it was Rocket Raccoon who slammed the table and said, "We'll find out what's going on when we get down there. Don't forget, I can detect life forms."
"I really have no idea when I'll be able to openly talk about the abilities I've acquired through past experiences like you do." Gamora only said one last sentence before they set off for Earth.
Of course, they couldn't just fly directly to Earth. Although the Magic Defence Network does not stop flying crafts, the considerable amount of equipment near Mercury still intimidated them.
Only Rocket had some tech skills on board, but not to Stark's level. He suspected it could be a turret set up by humans. Although Quill believed that humans do not have such advanced technology, to be safe, they still parked the spaceship quite a distance away.
Protected by Groot, they first landed in the wilderness of Florida, found the nearest scrapyard, hotwired a car, then drove it to the entrance of Disneyland.
After that, the group stood outside the gate, eyeing each other.
"Uh, should we buy tickets?" Gamora looked inside and asked, "I don't think we'll be able to get through without tickets, right?"
Everyone looked at Quill, and Quill looked back at them blankly, then said: "What are you looking at me for?"
"We don't have Earth's currency; we're all counting on you."
"You guys really want to buy tickets to get in?" Quill said in near exasperation, "Not to mention how expensive Disneyland's tickets are, and I don't have that much money. Have you seen how you guys look? How on earth are you going to pass security?"
So, they had no choice but to sneak in.
There was, of course, a fence surrounding Disneyland. For the members of the Guardians of the Galaxy, what humans found difficult to climb was no challenge.
As the last one to climb up the mountain, Rocket threw down a rope allowing Quill to climb up. They hurried to the Star Wars Theme park, which was where the coordinates pointed to.
"Be careful of the deck cleaners who will be meeting us. It's interstellar pirate lingo. They are marginalized people, who are policed because they could either be Nova Corps spies or other pirate groups' agents."
Quill walked and cautioned, "If Yondu had them kicked out, they would send new informants instead, so it's better to keep them marginalized and make them stay put. If they could be used to kill with a borrowed knife, then it's even better."
Rocket Raccoon hefted his weapon onto his shoulder and added, "I figured out who they are a long time ago. But you're the one who needs to be careful, those non-marginalized ones aren't necessarily safe either."
Quill always felt like Rocket's words had hidden meanings, but he couldn't figure out what he was hinting at with his brain. On the other hand, Gamora caught on. While Quill wasn't looking, she slipped her hand into his waist pouch, took his Communicator, switched it to alert mode, and put it into her clothes pocket.
But when they actually visited the Star Wars Zone, Rocket couldn't help but curse.
"You said this is an amusement park, don't kid yourself. This and the information peddlers and smugglers gathering place in Centaurus don't have the slightest difference, both are old and falling apart, chaotic and disorganized."
He retracted his tail with a whoosh and said indignantly, "And the same species discrimination, with malicious intent."
"Don't say that. They think you're cute." Quill glanced over the curious visitors and joked: "They probably want to pat your head or your fluffy tail."
"Don't even think about it!"