Steve was standing next to Dr. Strange, the contact team being kept minimal for "security purposes." Just him and Strange were going to make contact. Steve would've preferred to take Ward or Daisy or someone else he trusted as well, but since they were breaking into a ship, Trent thought it best not to appear too hostile. Steve didn't like Strange, he was prickly and rude and arrogant. But he couldn't deny he was a very smart guy and seemed to have humanity's interest at heart. Trent and Heimdall were here too, being the plan's designer and a crucial implementing part, but Steve didn't know Heimdall and didn't like Trent.

For a final review, Steve decided it was best to test it out loud. "Let me go through who we're contacting, one last time. Gamora – Daughter of Thanos, Peter Quill – A part human hybrid with a planet, Rocket – Who is, to be clear, a raccoon, Drax – A very literal warrior, Mantis, who can put people to sleep, and Groot, a tree who can only say his own name?"

"Well," Trent said, shaking his hand in the way he did when he was equivocating, "I'm not sure 'his' is the right pronoun for Groot, Groot reproduces through a form of parthenogenesis, but the principle is correct."

Strange rolled his eyes at Trent's pedantry and looked over at Steve, "Alright, Captain, are you ready?"

Steve nodded his head. Strange offered his hand to Heimdall and then drew up a portal, opening a portal into the spaceship of the Guardians. Steve stepped through and then Strange did, closing the portal behind them. Worst case scenario, they'd shield up and Quantum Tunnel back to terrafirma to regroup.

They'd planned in advance not to appear somewhere anyone was to avoid getting blasted in the face. Steve was in his old costume to maximize the chance that he was recognized. "Which way to Quill?" Steve asked and Strange nodded his head toward a door, which they walked up to.

Strange popped the door open with a button to a young man, fit, blond-ish, buff young man in a leather coat was playing air guitar while listening to some kind of mp3 player. He was facing away from them, so Steve spoke, "Excuse me, Peter Quill?"

The man startled, lunged for what Steve could only assume was a gun of . Neither Steve nor Strange made any move to stop him – They'd tested Asgardian attacks against Strange's shielding ability and it was fine.

"Woh! Don't move!" Quill said, holding up the gun toward them.

Steve managed to appreciate the restraint about shooting them, holding his hands in the air .

"Captain America? Nice try, asshole, Captain America died in 1945."

"Technically I crash-landed a Hydra-designed bomber in 1945, MIA. Declared dead in '46. Found alive 2010, held in accidental stasis by a freezing arctic tide."

"That's ridiculous," Quill said, walking up to the communicator on the wall and pressing, "Guys, we've got stowaways. We're going to get to the bottom of who you two really are."

Steve looked at Strange and shrugged helplessly. Strange looked at the mp3 player, "Zune huh? I'll bet you, any song you have on there, I know its names, artists, and the year it was released. Thirty seconds. Your choice of song. In exchange, you have to lower the gun and let us prove that we're from Earth and he's Captain America."

"Alright, Mr. Red Cloak," Quill said, turning up the volume and handing his headphones over to Strange while keeping his gun uncomfortably close to him.

"Rubberband man, Atlantic Records, 1976," Strange said almost immediately.

Quill glared and skipped.

"That wasn't part of the deal, but Father and Son, Cat Stevens, 1970, B-side of Moon Shadow, published by Island."

Quill looked angry now, "You're- you're reading my mind or something!"

"We're not," Steve said, lowering his hands slightly, "Mr. Quill, come on, we can prove we're from Earth if you'll just-"

"Keep those hands all the way up," a cranky voice said from a low angle behind Steve. That would be the raccoon. Trent had said he didn't like that being mentioned. "What're these guys doing here, Quill?"

"Pretending to be from Earth," Quill said, "I'm not fooled though. Earth's billions of miles from here." Steve started to glance toward the voice. "Don't look at him, look at me." Steve looked forward and kept his desire to sigh in check.

"Yeah, okay good, but how'd they get on the ship? What're they doing here?"

"I don't know!" Quill shouted at Rocket.

"Gentlemen," Steve said, trying to calm them down.

"Who are these strangers and why are they in such colorful and ridiculous costumes?" A new voice said. That would be… male voice, not saying I am groot, not short, had to be Drax, the very literal warrior.

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"It's an open question that we're looking into," Quill said, his gun still at the ready.

"We can explain all this very quickly," Steve said.

"It would be better if you did," a woman's voice, calm but clearly edged. Gamora, most likely, the foster daughter of Thanos, kidnapped from her homeworld. A tragic fate for anyone to suffer.

"Alright, we're from Earth, Mr. Quill's homeworld. We were attacked by an exploratory attack by Thanos and now we're trying to get him before he gets us."

"That's hopeless, especially for a backwater world like Quill's," Gamora said.

"Hey!" Quill said in defense of his homeworld.

"We have the aid of Asgard," Steve said, "And we've… well, things have changed a lot since Quill was last home."

"How'd you get here?" Gamora asked, staying on task.

"He's a wizard."

"Wizards aren't real," Quill said

"I've known a few," Gamora said. "How'd you find us?"

"Heimdall."

"Are they telling the truth?" Gamora asked.

Another female voice now, this one softer and gentler. "They feel nothing that indicates anxiety about being discovered in a lie. The wizard is annoyed. The clown is calm – A warrior's calm. He is annoyed, no, amused. Annoyed again."

"I just don't like having my feelings broadcast," Steve said. He also didn't like being called a clown but it was kind of funny and she couldn't have known any better.

"I'd be more sympathetic if you hadn't broken onto our ship," Gamora said.

There was a moment of stillness, a heavy tension from the fact that Steve was completely surrounded by enemies. But they weren't enemies. If they were enemies, the shooting would've started now.

A voice broke the silence with a tone of confusion. "I am Groot?"

"We're working on it," Gamora said to Groot.

"I am Groot?" The tone was different now, more like someone asking for permission.

"No you can't go back to your game, this is important."

"I am Groot," the voice was grumpy that time.

Strange coughed. "Look, I'm not interested in your tree-rearing policies, how about I just open a portal to Earth's low orbit and you can see it for yourself."

"You can do that?" Quill asked, his voice a little shaky.

"I'm going to need to be able to see outside the ship so I don't saw it in half, but yes."

Quill looked over their shoulders, probably to check with Gamora, who was clearly the captain of the ship. "Alright, alright, yeah. Turn around real slowly."

Steve and Strange turned around slowly to see the crew. Quill was mostly human, even if he was part planet. But the rest of the crew was a bit of shock

"The clown finds us unsettling," Mantis said, her voice high and air. She looked remarkably human. Her head had antennae and she wore a green tunic with her large black eyes. Gamora was a fit woman, in leathers, holding a sword. It was only the green skin and purple hair that revealed her as an alien. Drax was a large, burly man with pink and gray skin in a strange pattern. Rocket really was a raccoon. Groot was some kind of human-shaped tree… thing.

"I'm sorry," Steve said. He didn't feel it was fair to be judged based on his emotional response. He knew these were people, real people, he was just surprised and taken a little bit aback. "Still adjusting to the whole aliens thing. My problem, not yours."

Drax humphed. "Humans are strange. Quill's mother had sex with a planet but you think we look strange?"

"Drax!" Quill said.

"The wizard is growing impatient."

"Can we just get to the somewhere with a view?"

Gamora lead them to the bridge with the rest of the Guardians pointing their guns at Steve and Strange's backs. Once they got there, Mantis walked up and put a hand upon the back of Strange's head. Gamora pointed out the window.

"Remain calm," Strange said, lowering his hand in front of him and beginning to turn it, opening the burning wheel portal in open space wider and wider until it was wide enough that Steve could see Earth. It was a beautiful sight, that green-and-blue planet that was humanity's home. Steve loved it. "Would you like to fly through it or is it alright if I bring it through us?"

"We'll fly through it," Rocket said, hopping into the pilot's seat and steering them through the portal. "Holy shit," Rocket said, as if he hadn't believed the portal was really there. He readjusted so dials as they exited the portal. "Well, welcome home Quill I guess."