"No!" His voice was scratchy and garbled, his new ability to vocalize proving more harmful than anything else at the moment but that didn't stop him from pleading as the white coated scientist wrung his latex gloved hands around his middle, causing the small creature to cry out again in fear. The man showed no intentions of letting go, tugging on the ring-tail's quivering body harder, tearing its small hands from the bars of its cage that it had been clutching like a lifeline.
The creature's heart was beating rapidly and he was practically gasping for air as the metal collar was forced around his neck, his frantic clawing at the band proving useless against the vigorous yanking of the chain against his frail neck. He let out another strangled cry but the figures continued to ignore his warbled yelps as they practically dragged him down the corridor, tearing open old scabs and ripping new wounds into his already red stained neckline.
A door was thrust open and a harsh blinding light exploded from the room on the other side, momentarily blinding the frantic creature. And when he opened his small brown eyes again, he was being grabbed roughly around the middle once again before the familiar and bone chilling touch of the metal operation table met the sensitive skin of his small hands.
The panic only grew from there. He had been placed on his stomach, his head twisted uncomfortably to the side as firm hands held down his writhing body from escape. Because there was no escape.
No escape.
No way out.
At least that's what he had learned over the years. Every time he bit, scraped, ran. He was always caught. Always subdued by another tranquilizer as the long needle was pressed forcefully into his skin until eventually he just stopped trying. Stopped running.
Unfortunately for the poor creature, his compliance did little to stop the painful experiments. They very rarely ever put him out for the tests. Anesthetics were expensive and would only alert the authorities of their illegal work. They never seemed to mind his pleads and crying, although he often found himself with some plastic plate in his mouth to keep himself from biting down on his tongue, not that it wasn't torn to shreds already by his sharp teeth, otherwise muffling his strangled screaming.
Larger hands wrestled down his own as he tried desperately to pull away from the metal restraints on the table while another figure carried over a bundle of neatly wound wires. The small creature only struggled further upon seeing the chords, as though scalpels and needles weren't enough torture, they had taken to electrocution as of late, tampering with the implants on his back and chest. He didn't know their purpose, only that it hurt.
"No! NO!" He shouted again, snapping at the hands that held the small plastic guard for his mouth. He writhed again, managing to gain back one of his paws and clutching it tightly to his body as of not to lose it again.
He heard one of the figures let out a long sigh before trying to wrestle the arm back into place. "Remind me again why we gave you new vocal chords." The voice muttered. A firm hand presses on his back and the small creature let out a stifled shout as the pain coursed up his spine, the figure took advantage of the ring-tail's pain and wrangled the arm back into place, cuffing it firmly to the steel table.
"Don't do that!" Another voice called back, but the injured animal couldn't turn enough to see them. "Those prongs are directly connected to his spinal cord, you damage that, you might damage the brain stem." The voice finished. The man holding him down only shook his head though before finally letting go of the writhing creature's back, allowing him to take a gasping breath.
The creature felt his other arm being pulled away against his will towards the second restraint when the room jolted to one side, sending a few syringes and some other supplies clattering to the floor and he suddenly found that he once again had control of the appendage. Without thinking twice about it, the small animal pulled the arm in again, grasping his fur to keep from losing it again when he realized that there was no longer any hands trying to grasp it back.
The pressure on his midsection had lightened substantially as the scientists began to look around nervously. "What was that?" One of the figures finally asked, his brow drawn with confusion. The others exchanged a few wary glances before shrugging.
"Earthquake?" One suggested, her hold on the animal still struggling on the table growing firm again, forcing the air out of the creatures small lungs. The others seemed to think on the explanation before turning back toward their cowering experiment.
Boom!
Another blast shook the room, this one more forceful than the last and the hands holding the creature down were removed entirely. "What's happening?" A figure shouted angrily, striding to the other side of the room and pulling open the doors. The creature had yet to get up from his position in fear of reminding the remaining scientists their original task but the muffled profanity from the man at the door alerted him that whatever was out there wasn't good.
"It's Nova." He seethed, practically tearing his lab coat off and heading towards the second exit that led to the other testing rooms.
The other figures fell into a sudden state of panic, grasping their heads in their hands and following suit. "What do we do with this?" One of them asked frantically, pointing towards the restrained raccoon.
"Grab it, we can't have it falling into Nova's hands as evidence." He shouted back, making his way towards the dissention table and tearing the restraint off of the creature's small wrist.
The raccoon didn't waste a second in lashing out at the men, scraping long claw marks through their lab coats. The one that had been holding him let out a startled shout, dropping him instantly onto the cold floor.
"Grab it!" The animal heard the other shout, but he was already scrambling to his feet and racing out the double doors. His heart was racing at a mile a minute and he was almost afraid that it would somehow leap out of his small chest, but his legs didn't stop moving as he ran through the white-walled hallways, ducking under other frantic scientists and dodging their hands as they reached down to grab him, but he was far too quick.
Freedom.
Escape.
His mind couldn't quite grasp the concept yet, still worried this was all some sort of test to see just how well he could strategize his escape, yet he continued to run. That is until he found himself facing another predicament. The creature skidded to a halt as he veered around the corner, almost crashing head on into the man's blue clad leg.
He scrambled back, staring up fearfully when the man turned around, holding some sort of weapon in his hands that was now pointed directly at the raccoon. The animal closed his eyes tightly, awaiting the electric pulses run through his body, but it never came. In fact, the figure had dropped the gun entirely so that it now hung loosely at his side.
"Hey." The voice was surprisingly calm and the animal slowly unclenched his eyes, looking up shakily as the man began to crouch down.
Trap.
His eyes widened and he reared back towards the wall to avoid being grabbed again. He was so close and he wasn't about to allow himself to be caught yet. He awaited for the man to lunge, ready to leap away and take off down the maze of hallways again, but the figure didn't move from his position, simply holding out a hand calmly, as if waiting for the creature's approach.
The raccoon only bared his sharp teeth, wanting nothing other than for the man to move out of his way so he could complete his escape. The man pulled back his hand, realizing that the untrusting animal wasn't about to comply.
The Nova Corps had been alerted of an illegal facility somewhere near Xandar, reported to have been experimenting on animals, but he hadn't been prepared to come face to face with the frightened raccoon. His eyes scanned the creature, it was fairly skinny and its course fur was missing in certain areas, but what caught his attention was the three mental implants sticking out of his heaving chest.
"Did they do this to you?" He asked, knowing that the poor animal probably couldn't understand a word of what he was saying, but he found himself almost falling over when its hand raised up to feel the three prongs uneasily before nodding back at him and turning around slowly, showing three more implants on the creature's scarred back.
The Nova officer felt sick to his stomach at the thought of the pain that the creature must have been feeling. But it could understand him, which meant that there was a possibility of getting through to it his intentions.
He put a hand to his own chest, gesturing to himself. "I'm not going to hurt you." He said clearly, cringing as the animal's eyes squinted with unease. "We're here to get you out."
The creature's aggressiveness dropped almost instantly upon hearing the phrase. "Escape?"
The Nova officer stumbled back in surprise. It could speak. He cleared his throat and shook his head, trying to regain his composure as the raccoon took a tentative step closer. He nodded frantically, and the animal's eyes widened with what he could only place as hope. "You're escaping today." He said, reaching out to pick the animal up and take him back to the Nova ship when a searing pain raced up his spine.
The raccoon stood there in shock as the man clutched his chest and fell to the floor, blood starting to pool around him from the bullet wound. The scientist holding the gun behind him gritted his teeth and aimed the weapon towards the animal. "Come with me, and no one else gets hurt." He said, gesturing towards the fallen man sprawled on the ground.
The raccoon stared at the fallen man in astonishment. "Escape." He managed, grasping the blue man with all his might, ignoring the blood that was now covering his feet and fur. He couldn't go back. Not now.
"There is no escape!" The scientist shouted back, clicking the gun and coming closer to the experiment, making to grab him.
The creature reared back, still holding the arm of his fallen savior, eyes scanning frantically for anything, anything that could save him. Then he saw it. The discarded pistol at the dying man's side, the one he had dropped to care for the animal before he had been shot.
The Scientist moved steadily towards him, one hand outstretched to grasp the being's tail when a deafening shot shook the walls and there was suddenly a second body at the raccoon's side, jolting and writhing in pain as electricity shot through him before he froze, his eyes open and staring blankly into the animal's eyes, sending a chill up its spine.
He was dead.
He had killed somebody.
The sound of shoes against the hard floors shook the creature out of his thoughts. There were more coming. More scientists, saviors. He wasn't sure which, but he did know that he didn't want to go through that experience again. He tore his gaze away from the haunted eyes of the man who had once tortured him. But not anymore. He was getting out. He was going to escape.
...
Rocket's breathing had quickened again as he blinked away the memory, his shaky claws tearing holes in his shirt nervously. He felt around uneasily to find that he had yet to strap any sort of weapon to his back before he had left. A step that he made sure never to miss... at least until today. Just his luck.
He clenched his jaw tightly and bared his teeth at the man sitting in front of him before practically launching himself off of the bar stool and racing on all fours towards the exit. He only stopped when a large weight came down upon that one useless appendage that he found himself constantly wishing he never had, his tail.
An animal like yelp tore itself from his throat as he whirled around towards the large reptilian alien that had stepped on him in his haste, ready to begin a serious bar fight seeing as though he was most definitely in the mood for it, but another presence caught him off guard. The former scientist had left his seat and was slowly making his way over to where Rocket was sitting, holding his ringed tail for dear life.
"Please, I-" The man began to reach out as though to help him up, but Rocket lashed out with a clawed hand, stumbling back when a white flash blinded him. No. No no no.
He clutched his head in his hands and pulled tightly at the fur. "Not now." He whispered to himself as another flash of syringes and scalpels blurred across his vision.
The man in front of him stared down in what could almost have been mistaken as confusion and sympathy. But Rocket knew better, especially when that blinding flash suddenly transformed that man's clothes into the all too familiar stark white lab coat. He saw a hand reach tentatively toward him and he lashed at it again. "Don't touch me!" He cried, almost falling back on himself as he searched again for the open doorway frantically, blinking rapidly to clear his vision again.
Upon finally spotting his escape route, the panicking raccoon was back on his feet in an instant and taking off back towards the open air, making sure to dodge the feet of the other larger drinkers. He was outside now and in his panicked state, Rocket couldn't even fathom what he was supposed to do next.
Where was he supposed to go?
Home? He couldn't think straight.
Did he even have a home?
The Milano! His ship.
Where was it?
Left? Right?
Did they leave him?
No!
His mind was racing at a mile a minute and the loud pounding of his heart wasn't making his thoughts any clearer as his eyes flickered from side to side, trying to remember which way he had come from.
"Wait!"
His breath hitched in his throat upon hearing the scientist's voice. He couldn't go back. He didn't even realize that he was running again until he found himself veering around the corner of the bar into a darkened alleyway and pressing himself up against the brick wall, praying that if he just closed his eyes it would all just go away.
But he had no such luck.
"Please, I'm not going to hurt you." The voice called, somewhat calm, yet Rocket refused to let down his guard.
"Leave me alone." He said through gasping breaths. His eyes were still closed as he tried to calm himself down, his shaking form refusing to comply and his fingers carving claw marks into the wall behind him.
"I just wanted to-"
Rocket's eyes snapped open, rage coursing through every vein in his body. "I'm not going back!" He shouted, staring at the guilty looking man. "You can't make me!"
"89P-"
"Shut up! That's not my name." He seethed. "Don't ever call me that!" But the damage was already done. Numbers and letters flying through his mind at rapid pace.
"Subject 89P13 is ready for operation." The Scientist with the clipboard said taking one of the metal prongs that had been sitting on the tray into his gloved hand and handed it to another figure standing behind the animal.
The raccoon stared up pleadingly at the man in front of him. The same man now standing in the alleyway. He opened his mouth to say something, wanting to simply beg the figure to let him go, but he was cut off when a stifled scream tore from him, and then there was nothing except pain.