Phase Three: MARVEL's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Read online

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  © 2017 MARVEL

  Excerpt from Phase Two: Guardians of the Galaxy copyright © 2015 by MARVEL

  Cover illustration by Danny Haas.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  Visit us at LBYR.com

  marvelkids.com

  First Edition: September 2017

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Control Number 2017948501

  ISBNs: 978-0-316-27166-0 (hardcover), 978-0-316-31425-1 (ebook)

  E3-20170725-JV-PC

  Contents

  COVER

  TITLE PAGE

  COPYRIGHT

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  EPILOGUE

  A SNEAK PEEK OF PHASE TWO: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

  PROLOGUE

  Meredith Quill had never been happier. She sat in the passenger seat of her special spaceman’s convertible and laughed into the wind. He smiled at her from the driver’s seat and leaned over to kiss her. The radio was playing one of her favorite songs as he sped up, racing down the stretch of Missouri country road. He’d said he had a surprise for her and she couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

  He slowed down and turned into the parking lot of an ice cream shop outside town. Meredith was a little surprised—he hadn’t said anything about getting ice cream. But she was in love and she would do whatever he wanted to do as long as they were together. He pulled past the store and parked behind it, at the edge of the woods. Then he led her down the side of a hill to a beautiful little glade, dappled with sun that shone down through the leaves.

  “Look,” he said, pointing toward the ground in the middle of the glade.

  A marvelous little plant grew there. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before, with spiky leaves that waved even though there was no wind. Below the leaves, the plant glowed in different colors. It seemed to brighten as Meredith’s spaceman approached.

  She gasped. “Oh! It’s beautiful!”

  “I was afraid it wouldn’t take in the soil, but it grew quickly. And soon it’ll be everywhere.” He spread his arms, taking in everything they could see or imagine. “All across the universe.”

  She laughed, swept away by the grand vision. “Well, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I like the way you say it.”

  “My heart is yours, Meredith Quill,” he said.

  She put her arms around his neck. “I can’t believe I fell in love with a spaceman.” They kissed there in the woods, with the sounds of birds around them and wind rustling in the trees. Nearby, the strange plant began to grow.

  CHAPTER 1

  Near the home world of the Sovereign, the Guardians of the Galaxy stood on a circular platform. Around its rim were six huge spheres that glowed with powerful energies. Closer to the center of the platform were smaller pillars that held banks of Anulax batteries, technological marvels that were also worth millions on the black market. The Guardians were there because Ayesha, the Sovereign high priestess, had learned of a threat to the batteries. She had hired the Guardians to protect them at any cost.

  Peter Quill, better known as Star-Lord, looked at an old handheld video-game system in his hand. When he was a kid, he’d played endless hours of football on it. Now he had rewired it to detect the energy of the approaching threat. “Showtime, people,” Star-Lord called out. “It oughta be here any minute.”

  “Which will be its last,” Gamora said. Peter glanced over and saw she was holding an energy rifle.

  “I thought your thing was a sword,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes. “We’ve been hired to stop an interdimensional beast from feeding on those batteries, and I’m going to stop it with a sword?”

  “It’s just that swords were your thing and guns were mine,” he said. “But I guess we’re both doing guns now.”

  She ignored him. “Drax. Why aren’t you wearing Rocket’s aero-rig?” The rest of the Guardians had buckled on the tight-fitting metal jetpacks. Rocket had designed them so the Guardians could all fly during combat.

  But Drax, as usual, was shirtless. The dark-red tattoos covering his body seemed to ripple in the light from the glowing spheres.

  “It hurts,” he said.

  “Hurts,” she repeated in surprise. Drax was practically immune to pain.

  He looked embarrassed. “I have sensitive nipples.”

  Rocket burst out laughing. He was busy fiddling with a machine that didn’t look like any kind of weapon, but not too busy to laugh at Drax.

  “What’s he doing?” Drax snapped.

  “I’m finishing this so we can listen to tunes while we work!”

  “How is that important?”

  “Blame Quill! He’s the one who—”

  Peter held out a hand and cut him off. “Actually, I’m with Drax on this one.”

  “Ohh,” Rocket said. He winked at Peter. “I see.”

  “No, seriously,” Peter said. “I side with Drax.”

  Rocket kept winking. “I understand that. You’re being very serious right now.”

  “I can clearly see you winking,” Drax said.

  “I was using my left eye?” Rocket said. He stopped winking.

  Nearby, a sapling version of their formerly hulking partner, Groot, was chasing around a small group of lizard-like alien creatures called Orloni. They seemed to be everywhere throughout the galaxy. He knocked one over and shoved another away from him. Then he turned to Rocket and announced, “I am Groot.”

  “They were not looking at you funny,” Rocket said.

  Everyone looked up as an interdimensional wormhole opened in the sky: a huge whirlpool of multicolored energy with lightning flickering around its edges. A monstrous creature hurtled through it, as big as Quill’s spaceship, the Milano. Its body sprouted tentacles in every direction, and its round mouth was lined with razor-sharp teeth as long as Quill’s arm. It roared, shaking the platform, and dove toward the Guardians.

  “That’s intense,” Rocket commented.

  The monster crashe
d down on the platform, and Drax, knives out, roared right back at it. The Guardians formed up and charged at the creature. All of them but Drax and Groot took to the air using Rocket’s aerorigs. They blasted away at it with their weapons, and Drax struck at it with his knives. The monster’s tentacles flailed around, knocking them out of the air. It also screamed out blasts of concussive energy from its huge maw.

  Very intense.

  Meanwhile, Groot was looking at the stereo Rocket hadn’t quite finished. He picked up two cables and tried to stick them together. After a couple of tries, he got them connected, and Peter’s new favorite cassette, Awesome Mix Vol. 2, blared out over the platform. The music got Groot dancing, while the battle raged around him. A tentacle smashed down just behind him, and a moment later Star-Lord landed next to it. “Groot!” he shouted, but before he could say anything else, the tentacle slapped him away.

  Groot kept on dancing, oblivious to the chaos. “Groot, get out of the way!” Gamora shouted. “You’ll get hurt!”

  He just heard his name and waved happily at her. She smiled back and called out, “Hi!” while still blasting away at the monster. Then she took off, and Groot danced along the edge of the platform until he was distracted by a large bug flying near his head. He chased after it, and when he caught it, he stuffed it in his mouth.

  “No, no, no!” Rocket yelled, landing and slapping at the back of Groot’s head. “Spit it out. Come on.” Groot did, and the bug flew away. “Disgusting,” Rocket growled. Then he rejoined the battle.

  Without anyone watching him, Groot saw one of the Orloni scampering by. He shot out a vine and grabbed the fin on its back, catching a ride. The Orloni ran crazily through the battle, underneath the monster and out the other side, with flames and explosions everywhere Groot looked. He lost his grip and rolled across the platform, ending up next to the stereo. The music was still pumping, so Groot started dancing again—until a few seconds later, when Drax came flying through the air and landed on the stereo, smashing it to pieces.

  Furious, Groot started pounding on his back. Drax barely noticed. He got up, pieces of the stereo still stuck to his skin, and said, “The beast’s hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside! I must cut through it from the inside.”

  Gamora, still doing her best to slow the beast, stopped. “What?!”

  Laughing like he was having the time of his life, Drax charged across the platform, knives raised.

  “No, no, wait, Drax!” Gamora screamed at him, but he didn’t pay any attention. At a full sprint, he leaped straight into the monster’s mouth. It bit down and he disappeared.

  Star-Lord couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He landed next to Gamora. “What is he doing?”

  “He said its skin is too thick to be pierced from the outside, so he had to—”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!”

  “I tried to tell him!”

  “It’s the same thickness from the inside as from the outside!”

  “I realize that!”

  Star-Lord thought fast as he scanned the monster. “There’s a cut on its neck,” he said. That was the only place they’d been able to wound it. “Rocket! Try to make it look up!”

  He took off again, flying high enough to shoot down at the monster. Rocket joined him. It was working! The monster looked up, belching colorful attacks and swiping at them with its tentacles. Gamora sighted the wound and squeezed the rifle’s trigger.

  Nothing happened. It was empty.

  “Gah,” she said, and flung it away. She drew her sword and, just as Drax had, she dashed across the platform. The monster had Rocket and Star-Lord in its tentacles, but she still had a clear shot at the wound. Using one of its tentacles as a springboard, she jumped high and sank her sword into the wound. Her body weight did the rest, pulling her back down to the ground as her sword ripped the monster open in a shower of thick green goo.

  She hit the ground and stepped back as the monster flailed in its death throes and collapsed with a huge boom. A moment later, Drax, covered in the green goo, slid out from the wound and raised both arms in triumph. “Yes!” he shouted. “I have single-handedly vanquished the beast!”

  The rest of the Guardians just looked at him…except Groot, who threw a rock at him because he was still mad about the stereo. Drax looked down at him, puzzled. “What?”

  With the monster vanquished, the Guardians could get cleaned up and collect their payment from the Sovereign. Rocket was fiddling with one of the machines on the platform that hadn’t been wrecked in the fight. “What are they called again?” Drax asked as he wiped the green goo from his face.

  “Anulax batteries,” Rocket said.

  “Arbulary batteries,” Drax said.

  Star-Lord looked over. “That’s nothing like what he just said. Those things are worth thousands of units apiece, which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them. Careful what you say around these folks. They’re easily offended, and the cost of transgression is death.”

  The team walked to the edge of the platform to meet the high priestess Ayesha, ruler of the Sovereign.

  CHAPTER 2

  We thank you, Guardians, for putting your lives on the line,” Ayesha said from her throne in the great hall. The Guardians stood in a half circle before her. She was flanked by golden-robed Sovereign. Everything was gold: the throne, their hosts’ skin and hair, the decorations in the hall. Only the walls and floor were different, decorated in a blue-and-black starburst design. “We could not risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens. Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community. Impeccable, both physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods.”

  “Please,” Gamora said. She stepped forward. “Your people promised something in exchange for our services. Bring it, and we shall gladly be on our way.”

  Ayesha lifted a finger and two Sovereign soldiers appeared from the side of the throne, dragging a figure with a hood over its head. Pushing the figure to its knees, the guards removed the hood.

  Nebula. She simply glared at her sister, Gamora, who gazed steadily back.

  “Family reunion, yay,” Peter said, trying to lighten the mood a little. There was serious bad blood between the sisters. Nebula had remained loyal to their father, Thanos, and tried to kill Gamora and the rest of the Guardians the last time they had saved the galaxy. That adventure had ended with Peter holding one of the Infinity Stones in his hand, and defeating Ronan, a Kree fanatic, face-to-face. Nobody knew where Thanos was at the moment, but now at least the Guardians had Nebula under their control.

  “I understand this is your sister,” Ayesha said.

  “She’s worth no more to me than the bounty due for her on Xandar,” Gamora said. She hauled Nebula to her feet.

  Ayesha stood. “Our soldiers apprehended her trying to steal the batteries. Do with her as you please.”

  Gamora pulled Nebula toward the door at the rear of the hall. Peter gave a slight bow. “We thank you, High Priestess Ayesha.” He turned to go, but she had one last question.

  “What is your heritage, Mr. Quill?”

  Peter stopped, surprised by the question. “My mother is from Earth.”

  “And your father?”

  “He ain’t from Missouri,” Peter quipped. “That’s all I know.”

  “I see within you an unorthodox genealogy,” Ayesha said. “A hybrid that seems…particularly reckless.”

  Peter didn’t know who his father was. His mother had always claimed he was a spaceman, but Peter had written that off to confusion caused by the brain cancer that eventually overtook her. Now Ayesha had brought up all that old sadness, and Peter didn’t know what to say. He did know he was pretty mad.

  “You know,” Rocket piped up, “they told me you people were conceited, but that isn’t true at all.” He shot Peter an obvious wink. The assembled Sovereign nobles gasped at the insult. Soldiers raised their weapons. “Ah, I’m using my wrong eye again, aren’t I?” Rocket s
aid when he noticed that they’d seen through his sarcasm. “I’m sorry; that was meant to be behind your back.”

  Peter turned and walked out of the throne room before things could get any tenser. Drax picked up Rocket and followed. “Count yourself blessed they don’t kill you,” Drax whispered when he put Rocket back down outside the throne room.

  Rocket grinned up at him and lifted the flap on his shoulder bag. It was stuffed with Anulax batteries. “You’re telling me. Wanna buy some batteries?”

  He and Drax laughed the rest of the way back to the ship.

  CHAPTER 3

  The Guardians wasted no time getting away from the Sovereign. Rocket powered up the Milano. “All right, let’s get Baldy to Xandar and collect that bounty!” he said. The Milano streaked across the sky over the magnificent capital city, then up into space. Groot, plastered to the rear window, watched wide-eyed as the planet receded behind them.

  Peter left the piloting to Rocket. He needed a change of clothes after the fight. He put on some music from Awesome Mix Vol. 2 and looked around for a clean shirt. It wasn’t easy to do laundry in space.

  Nearby, Gamora was putting a new pair of shackles on Nebula’s wrists. Nebula glared but did not try to resist.

  “That stuff about my father,” Peter said, sulking and angry. “Who does she think she is?”

  “I know you’re sensitive about that,” Gamora said with a little chill in her voice.

  “I’m not sensitive about it. I just don’t know who he is.” He could tell from the look she gave him that something else was on her mind, and Peter thought he knew what it was. “Sorry if it seemed like I was flirting with the high priestess. I wasn’t.”

  “I don’t care if you were,” she said, leading Nebula away toward the front of the ship.

  “I feel like you do care,” he called after her. “That’s why I’m apologizing. So, sorry.”

  “Gamora’s not the one for you, Quill,” Drax said from behind him. Peter jumped. He hadn’t noticed Drax standing back there in the shadows.