CHAPTER FIVE:
"You don't have to do that. I know how he
haunts you more then he ever did I."
FROST'S NIGHTMARES WERE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH. The smell of her damp cell was lingering in the back of the Ice Demon's mind with the constant screams and panicked yelps of poor innocent creatures being experimented on haunted her.
Little Frost had shuddered on her bed, watching mist flow of her hands in waves as she huddled beneath the thin blanket she had found was left for her since she was dragged from her home. She had no clue just how much worse it'd become.
The door had skidded open suddenly one day, making the young Ice Demon scramble to her feet obediently. She stood with her hands by her side, blue eyes watching the tall dark creator looming in the doorway.
"Come, child," High Evolutionary had whispered, extended a hand into the dark cell, uncaring of how ice crept out of its restraints. "It's okay." He held a crooked smile and a dark stare that told the Ice Demon she didn't have much of a choice, and Frost elected to follow. Her tiny hand had slowly risen into the High Evolutionary, and he locked his own around it tightly. Frost was sure she wouldn't be able to escape.
Instead of walking, Frost was more so pulled through the laboratory. She bowed her head in a panic as they passed many guards and scientists of all designs glaring at her seemingly in disgust by her appearance.
"I believe I have found a solution to your sickness, Frost." Frost's bold blue eyes had locked up to the creator just as he turned to look down at her. "Though your body may not be able to maintain the temperatures at which your powers present, there might be an easy answer in the form of merging."
As they entered the main open floor, a window overlooking new earth making Frost squinted against the blinding sun. Frost tilted her head and she slowly took in the fellow slaves that were awaiting the return of their handler. Each of them bowed their heads respectfully as Frost and High Evolutionary passed, walking to the centre where a small chalkboard was being vigorously written on.
"89P13," High Evolutionary called.
The raccoon immediately paused, spinning around with his lips stretched into a wide grin across his snout. Frost could've sworn she could see the recent stitches of a major surgery upon his fuzzy arm, metal prosthetics extending over his arm on the surface before dipping beneath his skin.
The raccoon extended his paws to the chalkboard where an abundance of calculations and predictions were scribbled over the black surface. High Evolutionary lowered to both Frost and 89P13's level.
"And it'll work?" He clarified, glancing at subject 89P13 expectingly. He earned a firm nod from the animal and turned to Frost urging her to take a comfortable seat beside him, explaining just what the animal had been hard at work on.
The warmth of a human host could level out the way her powers sent her to sleep shuddering each night. Eliminate how each breath felt like sharp razors stabbing the back of her throat as the air around her radiated a sense of coldness that not a single other being could mimic. It would help Frost feel as normal as she can be and take away every ounce of pain she felt. And it'd maintain the High Evolutionary's perfect experiment.
That was the first time Frost had encountered the incredibly intelligent raccoon soon to be known as Rocket.
Drawing the Ice Demon's attention from her memory, she listened in from the confines of Allison's cluttered mind. Right now, Mantis was sat next to Allison as the girl laid her head next to Rocket's sleeping body. She silently listened to her friends deep and trembling breaths, a reassurance that he was still there. He hadn't let go yet.
Mantis looked down at where her hands laid clasped together in her lap and her antenna twitched with thought. She desperately wanted to graze her hand over Allison's shoulder and take a little bit of her pain away, to bring back the girl they all loved so desperately. But she couldn't, she wasn't allowed to unless Allison would ask for it. So, instead she sat quietly beside Allison, simply being there beside the woman as a reassurance she wasn't alone.
"We're here," Nebula instructed in a huff over the ship's comms.
Peter and Drax soon entered the med bay, their precious Captain pausing by the exit. He glanced over his shoulder as Mantis stepped by, following Drax down to the engine room where the perfect weapon awaited. The perfect device to pass through Orgo's advance security measures silently.
He watched quietly as Groot sat down beside Allison, curling a long arm over her shoulders and resting his head against hers. Allison's trembling hand reached to grab his, quietly murmuring her gratitude for her friend's hug.
Hearing Peter's footsteps vanish downstairs, Allison glanced over to Groot with a deep frown. "I'm thinking a lot about the past," she admitted to the tree, who's large head tilted in confusion. "Just about how we had met, do you know about that?"
A grin fell over Groot's face. "I am Groot!" he exclaimed, leaning back in a silent laugh.
Allison smirked, impressed Groot knew of his father's adventures. "Yeah, where Rocket and you had to break me out of prison. We didn't even know it would be possible at that time." She shook her head at the thought of how Rocket was adamant he wouldn't leave without her, how he'd come back in a few days and they'd blow the place to smithereens. Allison had expected him to come back alone and blow a whole in the side of the prison, she had never expected him to invade the prison on the back of a massive tree.
"I am Groot."
"Yes! He promised your Dad so many units and he never actually paid," Allison snickered, covering her mouth as she leant against the bed. "I guess in a way, Rocket's stubbornness was good, as it ended with this. If he paid, I don't think you'd be here with us, Groot."
Allison turned back to Rocket, taking his paw in her cold hand. He had survived so much that she was beginning to think he was invincible. There was nothing in the universe that could hold him down, and yet here he was. He looked so small, so innocent.
"I'll follow your lead, Allison," Frost suddenly whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"When High Evolutionary inevitably shows up," the Ice Demon explained, her voice quivering with fear. "Whatever you want to do, I'm down. Whether that is to kill him or run, I'll follow."
Looking over the bed, Allison caught her reflection in a mirror upon the opposite wall. "You don't have to do that," she promised. "I know how he haunts you more then he ever did I."
"But he hurt my friend," Frost declared in a deadly low voice. "If it means that my family will be safe, then I won't be afraid anymore. He should be scared of me."
The frown that had fallen onto Allison's lips eased. "We'll make him regret it."
"I am Groot?"
"Hm?" Allison quickly turned to her friend, forcing a tight smile to hide the deep frown that had creased her face. "Oh, nothing to worry about, Groot." She patted his arm and stood, following the path Peter, Mantis and Drax had taken. She hurried down the stairs, trying to maintain the easy going side as much as she possible could. "How's it going down here-," she began only to be immediately interrupted.
Mantis was watching Peter with a look of distraught as he continued to move around the large system jammer. "Are you about to die!?" she had suddenly screamed, making Allison's heart lurched.
Allison blinked as Peter sharply turned to his sister, a look of both annoyance and confusion at her screech. "I'm not fifty!"
"I feel like I've come in at the worst possible time," Allison murmured, finding a spot beside Drax who watched on silently. He was munching away on a bag of zarg-nuts, quite loudly.
"Hey, babe," Peter greeted with a short wave, before turning back to the machine and inserting the small device. "Mantis is just discovering that humans don't usually live long and that my grandfather cannot possibly be alive. Even if he was, I doubt he'd care." Holding the small microphone to his lips, he spoke quickly to Nebula. "Second shield set."
"I was making the point of he has family on earth. People he's never gone back to and yet he hates how so many people have left him but he left people back on earth," Mantis explained, practically breaking into a sprint to keep up with the group as they headed for the third and final device. Leaning against it, Drax held out the bag of zarg-nuts to Allison in a quiet offering. She smiled her thanks and took a handful.
Quietly chomping on the fruit, she watched the siblings continue to argue and envied how determined Peter was to stay far away from earth. There was nothing but nightmare like memories awaiting him on that planet and she couldn't blame him for not wanting to return.
"Family that doesn't care. My granddad practically pushed me out of the room when my Mum died, how's that for caring," Peter spat, his jaw clenched as he snapped the small compartment closed and once again reported to Nebula. "Third shield set."
The ship quivered slightly as it fought its way through the final shield.
"That's what all the screaming is about, really?" Allison clarified, her mouth full of zarg-nuts.
"It's irrelevant to all of this," Peter insisted, leading the group back to the top deck. "I wasn't talking about any of this."
Mantis rolled her bold eyes, pushing through Allison and Drax to fall in line with her brother. "Well, not everything is about what you are talking about. And I'm only saying you are upset because so many of the people you cared about have left you but you also left someone."
Peter's thumb grazed the elevator button and it let out a faint beep at the soft force. He exhaled a few harsh breath from his nose as his shoulder fell with each sound. Mantis was beginning to get to him and that was clear as day.
"And maybe I wanted a zarg-nut!" Mantis concluded as Drax and Allison joined them in the elevator. However Drax merely gave her a blank stare, still chomping on his latest handful of the tasty fruit.
"It's too late," he insisted after swallowing. "They're all gone."
"No they're not," Allison spoke, reaching her hand in the bag and scooping as much as she could. She held the handful close to her, picking the small fruit and plopping it in her mouth. She shrugged. "Now they are."
Suddenly, the elevator came to a grinding halt, the whole ship physically beginning to rumble. The engine that had always purred quietly in the background when they flew was beginning to die out and the lights above flickered violently.
"God's taking vengeance because you lied," Frost remarked in a dry and unnecessary joke.
Peter held the microphone to his lips, looking up in search of an explanation for the sudden disturbance. "Why didn't we go through?"
"We did. It's not the shield," Nebula reported as the elevator managed to struggle to the main deck. The group of four quickly exited the elevator, each cautiously examining their surroundings when Peter's eyes landed ahead. Just passed Nebula, a group of armed bandits surrounded the Bowie. Ships of all sizes but sharing similar cover schemes practically glowed against the dark abyss behind them. And Star-Lord hated how familiar their faces and colours were.
"Oh hell," he whispered, catching the others attention and dragging it forward. "Ravagers..."