Ronan
Close your eyes and picture the city of Xandar — a gleaming planet of golden towers and sweeping walkways, home to the Nova Corps, the peacekeepers of the galaxy. Imagine millions of people going about their lives: shopping, laughing, watching the sky. Now picture a shadow falling over all of it. A massive warship — dark, angular, bristling with weapons — descending through the clouds toward the city below.
That ship was called the Dark Aster. And the being aboard it was Ronan the Accuser.
Ronan was the most feared warrior of the Kree Empire — a tall, armored figure who spoke in a thundering voice and carried a weapon called the Cosmi-Rod, a great hammer of law and judgment. He believed the universe would be better off with fewer people in it, and he had made a deal with the warlord Thanos: deliver an object called the Orb from the ruins of the planet Morag, and receive the planet Xandar as his prize.
But when Ronan opened the Orb and saw what was inside — a glowing purple stone that hummed with unimaginable power, the Power Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones — he changed his mind. He pressed the Power Stone into the head of his Cosmi-Rod, and the hammer sang. ZAP. BZZZZT. The very air around him crackled and bent. Why share a prize like this with Thanos? Ronan would take Xandar for himself.
The Nova Corps launched hundreds of ships to stop the Dark Aster, forming a crackling energy net beneath it to slow the descent. But it wasn't enough. Xandar was running out of time.
And that is when the Milano came screaming through the battle.
Peter Quill — Star-Lord — banked his battered little ship through the smoke and explosions, Gamora gripping the seat beside him, Rocket at the guns, Drax hollering with pure joy from somewhere in the back. They flew straight into Ronan's fleet — CRASH — and brought the Milano directly into the Dark Aster's bridge in a collision that shook the whole ship to its bones.
Groot wrapped his long wooden arms around all four of his friends — Peter, Gamora, Rocket, and Drax — bending himself into a shell around them as the ship tore apart and the world became fire and metal and noise. "We are Groot," he said. Just those three words. And then: BOOM.
The crash that would have ended them all ended Groot instead. Where the great tree-person had stood, there was only a twig. A tiny branch with a few small leaves, still warm.
Ronan rose from the rubble wearing the Power Stone like a crown. The stone pulsed and crackled with purple light. Even the Avengers would have struggled against that kind of power. A whole army would not have been enough.
But Peter Quill started dancing.
He shuffled his feet. He pointed finger-guns at Ronan. He challenged the most feared warrior in the Kree Empire to a dance contest, right there in the smoking ruins of the Dark Aster's bridge. Gamora pressed her face into her hands. Drax was very confused. Rocket stared.
And Ronan — for just one moment — stopped and stared too.
That was all Rocket needed. He aimed his enormous weapon and fired at the Cosmi-Rod. BOOM. The Power Stone cracked free, tumbling through the air, blazing purple. Before it could hit the ground and reduce Xandar to rubble, Peter Quill reached out and grabbed it.
Purple light shrieked through him. His eyes went white. His whole body shook.
But he didn't let go.
"Take my hand," Gamora said, and Peter reached for her. Then Drax clasped his hand around theirs. Then Rocket. Four people, holding on to each other and to the most dangerous object in the galaxy. The purple light screamed and crackled — and then, together, they aimed it at Ronan.
Ronan the Accuser, the most feared warrior of the Kree Empire, dissolved in purple light. The Dark Aster crashed into the Xandarian surface. The smoke cleared.
Xandar was safe.
And five people who had been strangers in a prison cell not very long ago looked at each other and understood: they were not strangers anymore. They were Guardians. And Xandar would remember the day the galaxy's most unlikely heroes saved it by dancing.