Rocket's head hurt. Actually, that was a lie. Rocket's head was pounding with agonizing pain when he woke up. He wasn't exactly sure when he had gotten back to the Milano, let alone in his own bed, but when he finally decided to open his eyes, the raccoon found himself in his room, the covers pulled over him and the recently demolished door propped against the hole in the wall to keep the hallway light from streaming in, most likely thanks to Groot.
He sat up and peeled the tattered sheets off of himself, wincing when his headache decided it wasn't quite ready to leave. "Ugh, what hit me?" He asked himself, pressing his small hands to the sides of his head, trying to relieve himself of the pain.
Allowing the pounding in his head to fade to a dull thudding, Rocket glanced about the room. Groot was nowhere to be found, but he couldn't help but let a small smile escape his otherwise aggressive demeanor when he saw the small flower that had been placed at the side of his bed.
It was obvious that the two were the oddest of friends, and the other guardians, although having come to terms with it, still often watched the pair with great interest. And who could blame them really? They were practically polar opposites. Rocket, the aggressive, trigger-happy, escaped criminal, and Groot, the gentle giant that had, for some unknown reason, dedicated his life to protecting the small creature.
His feet hit the metallic floor with a soft thud and Rocket made his way towards the leaning door, slinging one of his oversized guns over his shoulder as he did, not wanting to forget it again. Once the weapon was secured around his orange jumpsuit, he ducked out of the small opening between the door and the wall, careful not to knock it over as he slipped through the small opening lest it fall and hurt him further. He quickly closed his eyes tightly upon seeing the bright light and he silently swore to himself that he was going to kill whoever hit him.
A knot formed in his gut as he opened his eyes again, he knew that he had fallen into another episode again. Weakness. It pained him to know that the others saw him as fragile now, so much so that they had to knock him upside the head just to get him on the ship without killing himself... he bet it was Drax.
But the raccoon's proud demeanor kept him from turning back to his room, knowing that hiding wasn't about to help anything. He strained to remember exactly what had happened before he had been thrown back into his delirious mentality of the laboratories again and almost tripped over his own feet.
The scientist at the bar.
...
"Is he okay?" Peter asked Groot when the large being entered the room.
"He's fine Quill." Gamora answered, nodding towards Groot for confirmation before turning back towards the front of the ship where their 'guest' was sitting.
"I still don't understand why we had to knock him out." He muttered, the guilt gnawing at his gut just thinking about Drax's large hand whacking the raccoon into unconsciousness.
"He was panicking Quill. There was no way we were going to get him to cooperate with us while in that state. What were we supposed to do?" Gamora retorted, still weaving through the hallways and up the stairs to the upper part of the ship.
"Um, I don't know, wait for him to calm down maybe?" Peter stated incredulously. He really didn't see how the others didn't find just knocking Rocket out was a problem. "You don't just go around giving people concussions because they don't 'cooperate.' That's not how we solve our problems around here!"
"That is how I solve my problems." Drax put in. He was sitting across from the man they had found in the alleyway who they had forced upon the Milano. Peter knew that having the stranger on board his ship wouldn't do much in terms of helping Rocket, but at this point he was really up to listening to anyone if it had the smallest chance of finding out more on the raccoon's condition. And since, the guy had been the only one there to either trigger or witness the attack, he was their only lead.
"Well, you were in prison for a reason." Peter quipped, watching closely as their captive fidgeted nervously in his seat upon hearing the comment. Drax didn't seem to take notice though.
"I was not convicted for sending anyone into unconsciousness." He stated defensively. "I had removed a man's spine from his body."
"And there you go."
"Quill." Gamora snapped, grasping the half-Terran's shoulder and spinning him around so that he faced her. "We need to focus."
The focus in question shifted once again in his seat. Peter was sure that had Groot not been standing mere feet behind him, the man would have already taken off in his attempt escape from the Milano. Although it was obvious that he hadn't taken kindly to being apprehended, the guardians had found it quite easy to get him onto the ship, which made Peter wonder if he even had anything to do with Rocket's current state.
"Ugh, fine, but this conversation isn't over." He managed through a sigh of defeat. Turning to their mystery man, Peter hardened his glare, looking the man over for any weapons. Although seeing as though he had yet to pull anything whilst being forced onto the Milano in the first place, it was unlikely he had so much as a pocket knife on him, but it didn't settle Peter's nerves either way.
Rogers had made a horrible, horrible mistake of agreeing to come on the ship with the four strangers. He should have run when he had the chance, but his immense curiosity of the long lost raccoon had overcome him. Well, that and the large tree-like creature behind him had walked only inches behind him, eliminating chances of escape.
The ship itself was much larger than Rogers had been expecting it to be. Despite the fact that there seemed to be five living on it, he hadn't expected their craft to be much larger than his own. In terms of money, he hadn't thought that the mysterious care takers of the so called 'Rocket' would have been able to afford anything of the size.
But despite his astonishment and disbelief, the four humanoids lead him onto the orange and blue ship nonetheless. The wooden being behind him held the unconscious raccoon in his large arms after the larger man who for some reason had refused to put on a shirt, had sent the small animal tumbling to the ground with a swift fist to the back of the head. The more human looking man hadn't taken kindly to the fact that their small friend was now unconscious, but led them up the stairwell and into the cockpit of the ship anyway, pointing the shirtless one to lead him towards a separate room while the others walked along side the tree being in the opposite direction.
It hadn't taken long for them to return, the blonde man still ranting about the seemingly unnecessary comatose state of their pet. At least he guessed the former subject was a pet, but he really couldn't tell at this point, and quite frankly, he was too afraid of having his spine removed by the large mass of a man in front of him to ask.
After another minute of bickering between the blonde man and the green woman who still had her dagger in her hand, ready to strike if provoked, the attention was again turned back towards Rogers. "Listen, I don't want any trouble." He said, trying to prove his innocence in the situation. The one addressed as 'Quill' pursed his lips, turning towards him and crossing his arms across his chest, looking the former scientist up and down as though scanning for any sign of threat.
The green woman scoffed, rolling her eyes at Rogers' comment. "If you didn't want this trouble, then you wouldn't have attacked Rocket in the first place." She stated plainly glaring at the man, her jaw locked sternly.
Rogers threw his hands up in defense. "I never attacked anyone." He managed, his heart pounding with fear of the lunatics on the ship. It was already stated that the larger of the men had been to prison already, but Rogers would have found it a safe bet to say that all of the people in the room surrounding him were escaped convicts at one point or another.
The green skinned lady only scrunched up her nose in disbelief and rage. "I do not believe you." She said bluntly, pointing her dagger towards the man in the chair.
"Well to be fair, Rocket does have the tendency to shoot first, ask questions never." Quill put in, causing the remaining three psychopaths turn to him in disbelief.
"You are taking this man's side?" The tattooed one sitting across from Roger's asked, pointing his own knife towards his chest. He looked up hopefully towards the other man in question, thinking that he may at least have one person taking things from his perspective.
"What? No!" Quill stated, dashing all of Roger's false hopes away. "I'm just saying that maybe he's not entirely lying. Rocket knows how to take care of himself and due to the immense lack of explosions, I doubt that it was an actual fight."
"Perhaps that's because he was having another blasted panic attack!" The woman shouted, throwing her arms up in anger.
"I am Groot." The deep voice behind him made Rogers jump in his seat and whirl around to face the giant tree being. He was sure that the thing was incapable of speech and the sudden and quite unrelated comment surprised him to no end.
"Even the tree man agrees with us." The tattooed one stated, gesturing to 'Groot.' Although how he had translated "I am Groot" to agreement was beyond him.
"I never said that I didn't!" Quill practically shouted. "I'm just saying that I think we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Although, I would like to know what did happen." He finished, looking back towards Rogers who had been almost hoping that the four had forgotten he was still there.
"I'm sure we all would." The green one agreed. Rogers had barely a chance to take in his surroundings before the horrifyingly familiar feel of the cool metal of a knife against his throat. "Tell us."
"Wow, wow! Gamora, come one what did I just say about not solving our problems with violence?" Quill shouted, running his hands through his blonde hair.
"I find that rule unsuitable for this situation." Stated the shirtless one plainly, running the rag in his hand over the blade of his own knife.
"And that's why you went to prison!" He retorted, in disbelief.
"Were you not in prison as well?"
"Not for freaking murder!"
"We are getting nowhere!" Gamora cried, pressing the knife further against the man's throat, drawing a thin line of blood. The man in the chair took a hitched breath, his eyes widening with fear.
"Wait, wait, wait!" He practically shouted, pushing himself against the back of the chair he was sitting in, beads of sweat beginning to form above his brow. "I-I promise, I didn't do anything to him." He stuttered, wincing when Gamora's knife only pressed harder.
"Then what were you doing in that alleyway with him?" She raged. It surprised Peter to no end at how protective the warrior was being at the moment. The two had never really gotten along, not that there had been much argument between her and Rocket either. To be honest, Peter had never seen the two strike up an actual conversation before besides those early morning arguments when Gamora found one of the raccoon's discarded inventions strewn about her cabin.
But for whatever reason, Gamora wasn't about to let their captive go without an answer, and by the looks of it, so far it was working. "No, no I know Subject- I mean Rocket! I know him." The man cried, his eyes glued to the blade in the green woman's green hand.
"What did you just say?" Drax asked, standing up from his seat. He exchanged a wary glance with Peter before staring back toward the seated man.
"I know him, I do!" He countered, his eyes pleading as he looked towards Quill, the only one not attacking him now.
"I am Groot." The Flora Colossus said, standing up tall behind their captive and glaring daggers toward Peter. His voice was filled with something that he had never heard from the usually gentle tree, anger.
But Peter had already stopped listening, his mind wandering to something much darker. He had never approached Rocket with the subject of his past, deciding he knew all that he needed to since that night at the bar. Well I didn't ask to be made! I didn't ask to be taken apart and put back together, over and over again. The words still haunted him, it had struck all of the guardians as a day to remember. The day Rocket had ever actually opened up to any of them, besides Groot that is.
He felt rage fill his gut as he was pulled back into reality. "Subject?" He practically seethed. He didn't know that much about how Rocket worked, but he sure as hell knew that the title of 'subject' wouldn't have sat well with the raccoon. "What did you mean 'Subject?'?" He asked angrily, silently wishing that he had his own knife on hand to press against the guy's neck, but luckily he already had Gamora and Drax filling that position for him as their glared also hardened. Groot frowned, reflecting Peter's anger in his dark eyes.
"I'm sorry, I-"
But the man didn't get very far before he was struck in the jaw with one of Drax's large clenched fists. He blinked rapidly, trying to shake off the pain as he felt a bruise already forming on his throbbing face. "Answer the question." The tattooed man said angrily, his teeth clenched and his eyes practically glowing with rage. The man gulped, wincing when another drop of crimson blood ran down the hilt of Gamora's knife.
Peter's mind was reeling. It was not only unnerving hearing this man say that he somehow knew Rocket, (which in their case usually meant that their trigger-happy friend had done something in terms of explosives or prison escapes) but he had addressed him as 'Subject.'
Now Peter hadn't known Rocket for all that long, and he certainly didn't consider himself an expert on his partner's past, but he sure as hell knew that the term meant only one thing. "You bastard." He spat, causing the others to stare at him in confusion while their captive only bit his lip in anticipation. He felt rage fill his mind and his lip curl into a disgusted grimace. "How could you?" He shouted ignoring the looks of puzzlement.
"Quill..." Gamora whispered harshly, trying to pull him out of his raging daze.
"I know what you're thinking." The man began frantically, almost making Quill laugh at the pure disgust that he now felt towards their captive, but he didn't cut him off. Peter wanted to hear his excuse. "I didn't mean for any of this to happen. What I did then was horrible, and I'm sorry, but-"
"Let me stop you there." Peter said, holding a hand up. "What you did then was horrible. In fact, it disgusts me that you're even on my ship right now, but you have no right to apologize. Saying that this somehow isn't your fault! In case you haven't noticed, our friend is having quite the problem with handling his own anxieties because of what you've done to him and no amounts of apologies are ever going to change that!"
It had dawned upon the others exactly what Peter was talking about now and the anger in their glares had only deepened upon hearing Star Lord's speech.
Drax look as though he was about to throw another punch when another voice caught everyone in the room off guard.
"Alright, which one of you idiots hit me?!" Rocket shouted, making everyone freeze. The irritable raccoon had just barely made it up the stairs before stumbling back, his eyes wide with fear and his small hand grasping to the metal railing with a death grip while the other slid from his throbbing head and to his seizing chest.
"Rocket?" Peter asked hesitantly. The others stared back nervously, Gamora and Drax having dropped their weapons (or in Drax's case, his fists) and exchanged wary glances. Groot's face lit up instantly upon seeing his furry friend and had already made his way over to the raccoon, letting out a gleeful 'I am Groot' as he did.
But Rocket took no notice, his eyes were staring emptily at the man in the chair. Peter felt his stomach tighten, afraid that they were going to have to resort to knocking him out again but only stared nervously when the orange clad raccoon raised an accusing finger pointed towards the seated man. "What is he doing here?" He asked, his voice quivering despite the angry tone he was trying to mask it with.
"We found him in the alleyway with you, while you... um... were having an episode." Quill managed, looking away quickly when Rocket shot him a glare, obviously still not wanting to approach that particular issue.
"If it makes any difference, to the furred one, I had offered to remove his spine from his body." Drax cut in, oblivious to Gamora's eye roll and their mystery man's questioning look.
"I am Groot." The large being said, his tone now significantly softer but the raccoon still flinched nonetheless as the pounding in his head throbbed against his small skull.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Rocket responded, patting a hand against Groot's wooden leg, ignoring the look of shock that the man in the chair gave him. "But I want him outta here." He finished, gesturing blindly across the room, refusing to meet anyone's eye as he made his way to the front of the ship, taking hold of one of his many weapons and began tampering with the make, tugging at dials and wires as though the thing were actually broken.
The other guardians had been quick to pick up on Rocket's nervous habit long ago. His constant tinkering had at first seemed like an unhealthy obsession that the raccoon had picked up, but the more that the Guardians watched, the more they had begun to realize what this quirk really was. Waking in the middle of the nights, from what Peter now decided was due to countless nightmares, to start of a new invention. No one had ever brought it up with one another, let alone with their smaller colleague, but it was obvious now that Rocket was most certainly not 'fine' as he pried apart his own invention with shaky hands, his back to the remaining five in the room.
No one dared move and the feeling in Peter's gut had only become worse as his mind was riddled with guilt. He turned blankly to the man in the chair, gesturing for Gamora to release her hold and back away. She gave him a distrustful look before dropping her hand to her side and sneering back at the man.
Peter was quick to grab him by the collar of his shirt, yanking him forcefully out of his seat and stumbling to his feet. "Come on, you herd him." He stated, walking over to lead their captive back out of the ship.
"Wait." Peter stopped and he could have sworn that he had seen Rocket flinch out of the corner of his eye when the man finally spoke up before turning sharply towards the raccoon. "Listen I-" But Drax was quick to stop him short, raising a large fist in the air.
"You do not get to speak with him!" The muscled man shouted, making Rocket wince again as his headache pounded harder upon hearing the loud voice, but he stood up shakily anyway, holding the red and blue wired tightly in his clenched hands as he did so.
"Hold up Drax." He called, making everyone turn with looks of bewilderment towards their furred companion. Dark eyes still downcast blankly at his now dismantled invention, Rocket continued. "Let him talk."
Peter pursed his lips with distrust, he had already made things worse bringing Rocket's personal torturer back into his life, but he knew that the raccoon's defensive behavior (and a rather annoying one at that) wasn't about to back down from this fight. So with a sigh of defeat, Peter let go of the man's collar, gesturing for Drax and the others to back down as well, crossing his arms across his chest, not taking his eyes off of the stumbling scientist.
"Alone?" He inquired, almost making Quill want to sic Drax on him again.
"Don't push it." He answered angrily, only breaking eye contact when Rocket spoke up again, his tone surprisingly serious compared to his usual sarcasm.
"Quill." He said sharply, before making his way back over to the stairwell, gesturing for the scientist to follow.
"What? Rocket, you can't be serious!" He cried after him, grasping the raccoon by the arm and pulling him back to face him. "Listen, I'm sorry we brought him here, I messed up but don't do this to yourself." He argued.
Rocket only pulled his arm back. "Trust me, I can handle this." He said, patting the ever present gun strapped to his back.
"I trust you." Peter commented, crossing his arms again. "It's Dr. Dolittle that I don't trust." But he didn't fight it anymore, watching carefully as the two made their way down the stairway.
...
"What do you want?" The door had barely closed behind the former scientist before Rocket had begun talking. He tried his best to mask the shakiness in is voice, but it somehow still made its way through. He heard the man take a deep breath of his own before stepping towards the creature who was making an effort to avoid his gaze, pulling at the hem of his small jumpsuit and taking small quickened breaths.
Taking a gulp of air, the former scientist finally decided to break the ice. "I'm sorry." He said truthfully, glancing down when the raccoon only scoffed, turning sharply to face his, his eyes lit with rage as he clenched his small hands into fists at his sides. Rocket couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"For what? Ruining my life?" He seethed, cursing himself for the break in his voice . Rogers shut his mouth instantly, only looking down sorrowfully at the creature. "Do you have any idea what you've put me through? What you did to me?"
He almost laughed out loud when the man turned away his gaze. "What? Can't stand to look at me? Can't stand to look at the monster that you've created?" He was shouting now, his throat growing tight as his eyes filled with unwanted tears.
"It's not like that." The scientist countered. "It's not like we knew that-"
"That what? I was capable of feeling pain? Of thinking for myself?" He shouted, he wasn't even thinking anymore as he reached a hand around his back again feeling for the plasma blaster that he had strapped to himself earlier that day. It was mainly for security reasons, since he had hated that feeling of being ill prepared like he had been while in that damned alleyway, but even just feeling the cool metal under his skin made Rocket want to pull it out and shoot the man right then and there.
"You killed Campbell that day." The comment made Rocket stop short, his arms falling back to his sides. He didn't recall the name, he hadn't really paid attention to the titles of the people that were prodding him with syringes or forcing electric wires into his body, but he sure as hell knew who the man was talking about.
"Well he damn well deserved it." He managed. Rocket wasn't one for guilt, he had shot and killed multiple people, smiling all the way as he did, which was what had landed him in prison for the majority of those twenty-three times, yet he had never shaken the blank stare of the first man he had ever murdered. The unmoving, glazed over eyes that simply stared into nothingness. "I'm not going to apologize for defending myself if that's what you want." He stated plainly, gritting his teeth.
"I wasn't asking you to." The man responded. "Just thought you should know. To be honest, I hadn't expected you to have survived this long." Rocket shot him an offended glare. "Well I mean with the cybernetics and protecting yourself and everything." He quickly added
The raccoon scoffed. "I've built and shot enough of these things in my lifetime out of that hellhole to know how they work, and I'm not hesitant to aim it at your big head if you dare try and take me back again." Rocket managed, grabbing the gun strapped to his back and holding it out for show, smirking when the man in front of his stiffened visibly.
"There's nothing to take you back to." He admitted. "The day you got out was the day Nova shut us down. There's nothing left." His voice almost sounded sorrowful, but Rocket paid no attention.
"Good riddance." He murmured. "Otherwise I'd have to make sure Halfworld was our next stop." Rogers took a nervous step back as Rocket switched on his gun for show, grinning to himself at the man's reaction.
Rogers opened his mouth to speak again when the ship lurched to the side, sending both raccoon and scientist alike tumbling over. A tremor shook the cabin as the familiar sound of a powerful blast hitting metal shook the Milano, "What the hell?" He murmured, rubbing his head. He knew they had knocked him out for a reason, but he swore that he was going to give whoever caused him this unwavering headache a good few blasts to the head with his plasma blaster.
The door was practically thrown open as Gamora entered the room, her eyes wide with panic. "What's going on?" He asked, grasping the wall for support as another tremor shook the ship.
"We're being attacked." The green woman said, worry etched in her voice as she made her way over to him. "Quill's working on getting us off the ground, but we have no idea why they're shooting or even what planet they're from."
"Have we taken any damage?" The raccoon inquired quickly, pushing away from her hands as they reached over to help him up, ignoring her look of disappointment, he wasn't really in the mood for this whole 'team bonding' thing they were trying to get him to join.
She shook her head. "Thanks to Nova, we've got a sturdier ship, but if Quill doesn't get us out of here quickly, we won't have that advantage for long."
Rocket nodded, already making his way back to the cockpit, trying to ignore the fact that Rogers was still following them both up the stairs. He practically leapt into the seat next to Peter, taking hold of the controls for his personal favorite addition to the Milano, the weaponry. Quill gave him a wary look but kept quiet, pulling up on his own controls, finally lifting the ship into the air.
Rocket knew that none of his partners wanted him in the fight, afraid his sudden fragility would take over again, but he refused to abide by their suspicions. He would admit to being many things including inconsiderate, sarcastic, and downright insane, but he was not weak, and he was not going to sit out on this fight either.
"Any idea who we're dealing with here!" He shouted over the gunfire as another blast shook the ship, sending Rogers into the nearby table to which Rocket snickered.
Quill shook his head, turning sharply to dodge their attackers. "They came out of nowhere. Don't even know what kind of ship it is. I've never seen anything like it before!" He answered, his brow drawn low in concentration guiding the Milano higher.
"Wait!" Rogers' voice caught everyone off guard and Rocket quickly ceased in his fire to follow the man's gaze. He was practically pressed against the window of the ship, staring blankly at the attackers' white ship, his eyes wide with disbelief. "That's not possible." He almost whispered.
"You know them?" Quill called back.
Rocket's breath hitched in his throat, his ears pressing up against his head. He knew what the answer was going to be before Roger's even had a chance to say it, not that he could have heard it anyway with the ringing in his ears. "It's a Halfworld ship."