CHAPTER FOUR
' YOU KNOW YOU CAN SAY 'FUCK,' RIGHT ? '

Ash lay on the ground with her hands folded over her stomach and eyes closed, and Nebula stood in shackles. A sigh escaped her, moving to massage her forehead again.

Nebula suddenly let out a noise of frustration. "Get out of my head!"

"What? You got something to hide? Apart from how much you want that yaro root."

"I am hungry," she answered. "Hand me some of that yaro root."

"No," Ash replied in a bored tone, eyes still shut. "It's not ripe yet, and I hate you."

"You hate me? You left me there while you stole that Stone for yourself. Yet, here you stand, a hero, a Garden of the Galaxy!"

Ash was quiet for a moment before she shifted to sit up. "A what?" Silence sat between them as she leaned back against the wall. "Did you mean Guardian of the Galaxy?"

"Oh."

"Why would we be the Gardens of the Galaxy?"

"I don't know. I thought it was stupid."

"Yeah, it would be." she agreed.

"It's still wordy."

"I wasn't the one who thought of it."

"Your name doesn't matter. I'll be free of these shackles soon enough, and I'll kill you, I swear."

"No. You'll live out your days in prison on Xandar, wishing you could." Gamora appeared behind Nebula, hands on her hips. Ash looked past her sister and to the other, furrowing her eyebrows. "Ash, you're needed up top." The two females walked up the stairs as Rocket and Quill sat in the pilot seats. Drax stopped behind her as Gamora shifted a hologram to see better. "We got an armed Sovereign fleet approaching from the rear. Why would they do that?"

"Probably because Rocket stole some of their batteries," Drax replied blatantly.

Ash looked at Drax, blinking slowly before her gaze shifted to Rocket whose mouth hung open.

"Dude."

"Oh, right." Drax shifted. "He didn't steal one of those. I don't know why they're after us. What a mystery this is."

The Sovereign started to fire at their ship, but Ash was too busy looking between Drax and Rocket with amazement.

Quill did his best to avoid them but glanced at the duo when he got the chance. "What were you thinking?" he yelled.

"Dude, it was really easy to steal."

"That's your defence?" Gamora asked exasperatedly.

"Come on. You saw how that High Priestess talked down to us! I'm teaching her a lesson!"

"Oh!" Ash placed her hand on her chest in mock surprise. "I didn't realize your motivation was so selfless. It's such a shame the Sovereign have mistaken your intentions and are trying to kill us!"

"Exactly."

"I was being sarcastic!" she shot back, iterating her words slowly and loudly.

"Oh no! You tricked me!" Rocket argued, leaning forward to enhance his anger. "You're supposed to use a sarcastic voice! Now I look foolish!"

Drax pointed at Rocket and laughed at him.

"I FUCKING DID, YOU WAMPRAT!"

"Shut up, Drax! You knew! You should have told us!" Quill scolded.

Drax was aghast as he stared at Rocket. "Did you tell him it was easy to steal?"

"Are you kidding me?" Rocket asked incredulously.

"What?"

"You never listen to anything!"

"None of you listen! Can we please just put the bickering on hold until after we survive the massive space battle?" Gamora glared at them.

"Hey!" Ash complained. "I listen!"

Rocket glanced at Quill, nodding back at Gamora. "Whoa. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning."

"Do not try to bro down with me right now, dude. I will fricking punch you in your fricking face." Quill seethed.

Ash leaned forward. "You do know the word 'fuck,' right?"

"Real nice! Resorting to violence." Rocket rolled his eyes.

"More incoming!"

The number of ships flying at them grew, and Ash braced herself against the wall.

"Good! I want to kill some guys!" Rocket shouted in glee.

They twisted and turned between the oncoming ships while Rocket took the chance to fire at them, screaming violently. One of the ships caught the Milano's wing, causing the emergency systems to scream warnings at them. Ash stumbled against the wall, shaking her head to rid the high-pitched sounds.

"What's the closest habitable planet?"

Ash moved to the hologram. "It's called Berhert."

"How many jumps?"

"Only one. The access point is forty-seven clicks away, and it's through that Quantum Asteroid Field over there."

Quill spotted, to his side, a field of glowing asteroids, and he zoomed sideways toward them.

"Quill," Drax intervened. "To make it through that, you'd have to be the greatest pilot in the universe."

Quill smirked. "Lucky for us-"

Ash sighed. "Oh, fuck."

"-I am." Rocket flipped the pilot controls between them so that he was piloting the ship.

Quill gaped at him as the Milano dived into the quantum asteroid field, swopping in and around the asteroids, barely missing them. The Sovereign ships followed, but most were immediately pelted with rocks and erupted into fire. Quill flipped the controls so he was piloting again.

"What are you doing?"

"I've been flying this rig since I was ten years old," Quill shot back.

"I was cybernetically engineered to pilot a spacecraft!" Rocket flipped the controls back to him.

"You were cybernetically engineered to be a douchebag." Quill swapped them again.

"Stop it!" Gamora shouted, grabbing hold of Ash's shoulder to steady herself.

"Quill, later on, tonight you're gonna lay down in your bed, and there's gonna be something squishy in your pillowcase, and you're gonna be, like, 'What's this?' and it's gonna be because I put a turd in there." Rocket switched the controls.

"You put your turd in my bed, I shave you," Quill warned.

"Oh, it won't be my turd. It will be Drax's."

Drax laughed heartily, and Gamora and Ash glanced at him. "I have famously huge turds," Drax informed.

Gamora's face recoiled in disgust. "We're about to die, and this is what we're discussing?"

"They raise havoc with the pipes. That's why I do all the plumbing. I take responsibility for my actions. Unlike some people..." Drax eyed Groot.

"Groot, he's right. You have to start aiming inside the box."

Groot looked towards the ground, pouting as Quill flipped the controls back.

"Stop it." Rocket switched it.

Quill swapped it back.

They were nearing the end of the asteroid field when they both went to switch it before the other had, and a massive asteroid hit the stem of the ship. Everything flew around the spacecraft, rushing through the hole created. Ash nearly lost her balance, but she managed to stop herself from disappearing through the hole with her magic, black mist also shooting out to catch Groot. She casually tossed him back to Drax before letting the pressure slide her across the floor to a keypad, where she punched in a code, causing a protective energy shield to slide up in front of the hole.

Ash looked back. "Why am I always clearing up after you boys?"

They heard a bang and a yell, "Idiots!"

Everyone caught their breath, and Ash fell against the wall with a sigh.

"Well, that's what you get when Quill flies."

Ash launched a broken wall piece at the back of Rocket's head.

"Ow!"

"There's still a Sovereign craft behind us!" Gamora shouted as the electronics flickered.

"Our weapons are down!"

"Give me as much time as you can!" Ash ordered, diving towards a wall and ripping the panel away. Her eyes flickered over a large switchboard as it sparked.

"Twenty clicks to the jump." The pilots blasted at them, taking out another part of a wing. The Milano was trembling, and Drax started climbing into the living area.

"Where's he going?" Ash quickly turned back to her work. "Gamora! Can you read this?"

Gamora followed her instructions and relayed the information on the map, "Fifteen clicks."

Another blast from the Sovereign craft hit them, and Ash continued to work on the weapons.

"Ten clicks." Her voice gained frequency as the ship jolted, and as Quill and Rocket left the asteroid field, everything stilled for a moment.

"Five clicks!"

Then dozens of crafts pulled around them on both sides.

"Son-of-a-! They went around the field!" Quill shouted.

"FUCK YEAH!" Ash cheered.

Weapons online.

Rocket prepared the weapons before something destroyed the ships shooting at them. "What is that?"

"Doesn't matter! That's the jump point! Go! Go!"

"It's a guy."

The force launched Ash backwards, and she remained on her back as the ship shot through space.