CHAPTER ONE:

"NO MORE TEARS"

"In Which The Collector Uncovers a Artifact NOT destroyed by Rocket Raccoon that leads to ANOTHER much unneeded Collection/Revenge Scheme."

"The light in the window is a crack in the sky

A stairway to darkness in the blink of an eye
A levee of tears to learn she'll never be coming back
The man in the dark will bring another attack."

Ozzy Osbourne: No More Tears

The Collector sat alone at his desk. Well what remained of it, anyway. Half his collection ruined in little over a half in hour by the blasted Guardians of the Galaxy. Numerous eons of The Immortal's patience and work just disregarded like fucking child's play was enough to bring the sulking elite close to tears. He hated loss. Everything about it just ticked him off.

He was a genius, a winner, a dominant figure oozing with single masculinity. Well he was,….till he captured Rocket Raccoon in his lab, hoping to make him his latest collection piece. Now his pride as well as most everything else he cherished was in complete disarray. Destroyed, Demolished, Eliminated or Stolen. All of his animal subjects were stolen, Taneleer Tivan knew that much. However he had a feeling that Rocket Raccoon probably took a few of his other items for his own benefit as well, during the attack on his beautiful museum. Fucking Raccoon.

He stood up from his desk and stared out at the endless space before him. The Collector could care not about the huge crack in the window. Like Space, he was endless. He couldn't die and he really didn't know how to live. He just was there. He was in this way, special. Just like everything he tried so hard to contain. Rocket Raccoon was just like everything else Taneleer Tivan's home/museum housed. A Special, Limited, "Only One" being that against all odds…. survived.

The Collector thought he was doing the doomed rodent a favor! His "Friends" obviously didn't understand how crucially imperative the trash panda's need for acknowledgment and recognition was. Keeping him locked in his collection would have totally erased that issue! Rocket wouldn't have to deal with such dim-witted, low intelligent beings ever again. He would be a part of something greater! Better even! But not everyone is up for the task. Rocket wasted no time in freeing himself from his habitat and wrecking the whole animal section. Even the areas, him and his so called "friends" did not physically touch, were damaged by the quakes and rouge laser shots that occurred during the rescue attempt. His glass ultra rare My Little Pony collection on the far other side of the facility ended up shattering due to how much the guardian's fighting rocked the ship!

Taneleer Tivan paced back and forth, breathing heavily as he remembered walking in to the Earth chamber earlier. ALL of it ruined. He tried not to question himself. As one of the oldest beings alive, it just wasn't good for his own reputation. But thinking more about his actions earlier that day, he realized he should have never attempted to collect Rocket Raccoon. Rocket was one thing that had to be able to gazed at and touched. He was too complex for The Collector anyway. Which was a shame, because there were still parts of Taneleer Tivan's brain that still yearned for the beast. How sad.

Whizzing sounds radiate all around Tivan's slender form as he walks into the control room. Monitors of all sorts greet him as he enters the small, tight area. His self service robots are everywhere in the facility. 2 are attempting to repair broken walls and electric circuits in the Earthen History and Memorabilia room, 3 appeared to be rebuilding the doors in the animal habitat. The collector counts 17 machines in the unfinished sector, which was completely unfazed by the attack.

Against all of Taneleer Tivan's wishes, he begrudgingly began walking down to the unfinished sector. His thought slowly starting to run more and more wild. What the hell are they doing in there? There is fucking water leaking into the desert tertian and the devices are more inclined to stare at a trash area in the ship? Morons.

The unfinished sector was more of a trash dump for all things that Taneleer no longer needed or desired. To get to the location, he had to catch an evaluator to the very bottom of his home. For most it would make more sense and be quicker to just walk down a flight of stairs to get to desired location. But for Taneleer Tivan, the thought of doing anymore extra work just seemed pointless and stupid. Again he was a "special" type of being. One that had seen and done it all countless times prior. And was known to take short cuts if he could.

When the fur covered elevator (RARE on Planet Rajak during the Riot Period) stopped moving a few seconds later, The Collector eyes feasted on the numerous remains on the his robotic minions. He blue eyes barely had time to register that those were his more current subjects that he saw moments before on the surveillance camera, before a silver robot similar in design to his own creation whizzed right in front of him. It was much older than what he liked to use in his collection tracking system. Antique even and appeared to be in desperate need of a proper oil cleaning. Whatever was its backstory, made no difference to The Collector's inner vision. The Machine already proved its worth and its extreme intelligence by using his own device's as its own battery supply. It had siphoned their data to replenish its own. Tivan hoped to find a way to stun it, so that he could quickly move it to a more contained location in the museum. This after all was no junk. It shouldn't have been here in the first damn place!

"Hello Taneleer Tivan, aka "The Collector." My borrowed Data from your units indicates that you are a being that collects rare and special items." The Machine's High Pitch Female voice said to the stuttering man in front of it. It could actually still speak. Most impressive! Especially since the device had been stored down in the junk pile for who knows how long!

"Yes. I am Taneleer Tivan, proud collector of special antique artifacts. How may I assist you?" He mouth curved in a half smile as he answered back quickly. It was more like how would it assist him.

The robot did a quick 360 around his form, scanning him as if it didn't believe his claims. The repairs the machine needed were more evident when the machine showed Taneleer its back. Wires were sticking out of its mind abdomen. With further focus, The Collector noticed the damages appeared self inflicted. Which would make sense, since the wires were connected to his dead minions scattered across the room.

What didn't make sense though was when the machine started rapid firing at the immortal, who just stared back in surprise. However the surprise soon fell on the robot, because no matter what it did to the being in front of it, it just refused to die. It was very perplexing. Perhaps it should have gathered more data about this Taneleer Tivan from his robots, before it used them as a battery juice. Was this being a being that was experimented on also? No. The Machine would have had more information regarding the creature if that was the case. The Collector just waited for the device to stop shooting. He was used to this and used to make him laugh. The confusion in people's reactions when he just continuously kept living was almost comical. Today though wasn't really the case. He had just bought the red shirt and had somehow been able to keep it from being damaged by The Guardians earlier. Now he wasn't so sure if it was still worthy of him wearing it. Just because he had lots of credits did not mean that he enjoyed just throwing them all out there in the fashion world for nothing.

Brushing off his shirt and thanking the universe for not seeing any visible tears or holes. He willed himself to be in a calm manner as he held out his hand to the robot. He smiled. "Nice to meet you also. Let's try this again. How may I help you?"

The robot slowly responded to both his hand and his question "My name is 214569LGH, I am looking to detain test subject 89067 and escort it back to Halfworld Lab.6574 immediately for study. My partner and I have concluded that Subject 89067 is a failed experiment and reactions are faulty. To study the failed attempt will help future attempts to be successful. My data implies from your machines that the experiment was here. Where is it?"

This was just too good. Just too good. This bot was looking for Rocket. The asshole who destroyed his home and his pride! It wasn't just a random Half World Robot either, it was the one who helped create him! He realized he was jumping up and down in excitement. This was just to good to be true.

"Rocket Raccoon was here. I attempted to capture him for my collection and it ended in the destruction of my home. He escaped with his friends shortly after. They are after a artifact known as The Cosmic Seed."

The Device's inner gears sped up indicating its furious reaction to Taneleer Tivan's news. It so badly wanted to capture Rocket. Something both Taneleer Tivan and the machine both shared an interest in.

"We must go after the subject…" the machine started to say only for The Collector to cut it off mid sentence. "We can't. Rocket and his friends out power all my defenses as you can see." 214569LGH's sensors allowed itself to truly download the shared data from the other connected devices. It was horrifying. Artifacts being smashed and a familiar experiment fighting a dragon known as "Fing Fang Foom." It deleted the files promptly after viewing them.

"But what if I knew another way of how you can get a more conclusive test result from Rocket Raccoon?" The half smirk on Taneleer Tivan's handsome face was mirrored on the deactivated silver robots on the tiled floor under him as his eyes looked up at the hovering mechanical being. He had spent years and years only with his robotic minions so he knew that the high pitched how that 214569LGH replied with was in one of the happiest tones a robot can muster to make. This plan was flawless, unlike 214569LGH's test subject. Rocket Raccoon would regret EVER being made. The Collector and his new partner would make sure of it. Allowing the robot to stand beside him in the elevator as he smiled from ear to ear, he thought only of the future in which the cosmic seed and Rocket Raccoon put back in his place.

Let the games begin.