Alright here is chapter 2 updated and hopefully this will be the last update! As much as I love writing this story… yeah I've rewritten these chapter like four times so yeah. Anyways, I hope you all have a good weekend and chapter three might actually be updated by tomorrow. I'm in a writing mode J
He was sorry after all of this crap that he had unintentionally put me through he dared to feel remorse. How could I tell? Well for starters there was the way he kept glancing at me during our line, up like one of those boys in school who have done something stupid but don't want to admit it. Later he also tried to make it right by speaking up in my defense when they told us that we had earned a one way trip to the Kyln, which was basically space Alcatraz for those non-space people out there. He even mouthed 'sorry' in my direction when they cuffed me. However I was not in a forgiving mood so his guilt and attempts at appeasement did nothing to quell my unadulterated rage, a rage that I dare say rivals the Hulk's at the moment.
The tree man also seemed to feel a bit bad as well, could trees feel apologetic?
I would have to consider it later, I decided instead continuing to ponder and seam over this whole situation. Just seventeen years old, fresh out of the house and I'm already off to jail. Dad would be so proud.
I had even tried to defend myself but none of the officers seemed willing to listen to me, especially when they checked my record and found that I sort of didn't exist. I may have also assaulted one of the officers who had arrested me, but he was fine... mostly! On the trip the legendary Kyln I made it my personally mission to ensure that we stay in silence, because I knew that if there was any talking of any kind I could snap and go on a vocalized rampage. Whenever one of my fellow occupants of the shuttle would open there mouths as if about to speak I sent them a very heated glare, silently warning of what kind of hell I would unleash if they did. If looks could kill all of them would already be in the ground.
Once we were off the shuttle however my glare lost some of its effect, especially since the only one who was behind me was the tree who didn't seem interested in talking anyways. All the chatty Kathy's were in front of me.
And I blamed all of them. The jackass had the biggest chuck of blame of course for initiating the issue but as far as I was concerned they were now all on my very long list of people to kill.
As we walked down the very boring halls I found myself glaring threateningly at the back of the jackasses head, though I had learned his name was Quill during the line up the name 'jackass' seemed to fit much better. Or the most unlucky guy in space, because the guards had made a very poor decision to put him directly in front of me in the line.
The only thing that was really stopping me from jumping him right then and there was, well first off it was because the tree and the guards would probably try to stop me... that and his name. His first name I learned was Peter, a name that meant more to me than I ever thought possible. He wasn't even close to my Peter, but there was still that little lovesick part of me that missed that adorable weirdo the more I tried to forget him.
"I hate you all." I informed the group, trying desperately to force my attention away from Pete. Instead I forced myself to debate if I should strangle Quill or bite off one of his ears... maybe both! Yeah, both sounded good... except that the tree and the guards were still here. Even moving as fast as I could I could only do one of them successfully, but I wanted to make it as painful as possible.
Uh, I just couldn't win!
"So you have told us," The raccoon snapped from his spot just in front of Quill. He was a vicious little guy for sure, I had managed to catch sight of him taking out a chuck of the one of the guards hands on the way in. I made a mental note to keep clear of his teeth, I had already been bitten by a raccoon I didn't really want to do so again. Even with his small size in play he managed to look back around Quill, so he could properly glare at me as he stressed annoyed, "Many, many, many times!"
"About 42 time," the green woman agreed from the front of the line, in the longest sentence I had heard from her so far.
I growled wordlessly in response clenching and unclenching my hands, glaring at Quill's still mostly exposed neck that was ready for strangling. Quill seemed to sense my murderous intentions because he tried speeding up just a bit. I rolled my eyes at his hurried actions, not like they would help, and instead listened to the raccoon who was saying stuff about the guards here being dirty or something.
"I've escaped twenty-two prisons, this one's not different. You're just lucky the broad showed up 'cause otherwise Groot and I would be collecting that bounty and you'd be getting drawn and quartered by Yondu and those Ravagers."
My focus immediately shifted away from Quill to the raccoon. The name Yondu clicked in my head, it took a moment for me realize why; it was the name of the guy who I was scheduled to meet. Hopefully he was more forgiving than I was, otherwise I would have a very angry group of space pirates to deal with. Who knows, they might thank me for taking out the annoyance that was Quill. But no that wasn't that that really interested me; it was the raccoon's impressive escape record.
The way I see it either I could get this raccoon to help me get out of here, probably by giving him a lot of money, and be out in a day or two. Or I could serve my time like a law abiding citizen and be out in, what was it, like 15-20 years?
I had spent my whole life being law abiding, it wasn't that great.
The raccoon, I should really learn his name but I think if I heard the guards right it was just a random string of numbers like PJ something. Either way he was clearly a mercenary, partnered with the tree I guess, so it should be easy to make a deal. After all there was a lot of money in fixing rich peoples rare machines.
"I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years, I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon," Quill countered glancing back towards the tree, purposefully looking over my and trying to ignore my still murderous glare.
We came to a stop by order of the guards, and I rolled my eyes biting back any comment I had about me killing him.
"What's a raccoon?"
Oh shit.
My face went black as my mind raced. Did the raccoon not realize what he was? Did Quill just unintentionally destroy his life with a throwaway line?
"What's a raccoon?" Quill repeated in disbelief before I could stop him, "It's what you are stupid!"
"Dude!" I hissed at him harshly stabbing him in the side with my finger, "You can't just say stuff like that, idiot!"
"Ain't no thing like me, 'cept me." The raccoon, really gotta figure out his name, insisted ignoring the possibly life changing information Quill had just thrown on him.
"So this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, arc of the covenant, Maltese falcon sort of vibe. What is it?" Quill questioned moving onto the next topic.
"Okay first off you were almost killed because of that thing and you don't even know what it is?" I snapped in disbelief rolling my eyes, "And secondly that was way too many references in one sentence."
"I am Groot."
Oh that's right, that's what the trees name was.
"So what?" Quill demanded unimpressed, though if he was talking to the tree or me I didn't know. He didn't give a pause as he went on to ask, "What is it?"
"I have no words for an honor-less thief." The green girl replied calmly with an air of disdain. It sounded like she felt she was above all of this.
"Pretty high and mighty coming from the lackey of a genocidal maniac," the raccoon replied knowingly, I really needed to learn his dang name. The green girl looked back surprised at the species confused raccoon who continued, "Yeah I know who you are. Anyone who's anyone knows who you are."
"Yeah we know who you are!" Quill announced proudly before he glanced back asking, "Who is she?"
"Don't look at me." I snapped shaking my head.
"I am Groot," the tree repeated, he seemed very confident that he knew who he was. Quill and I both looked back at him.
"You already said that," I informed the tree narrowing my eyes suspiciously.
"I wasn't retrieving the orb for Ronan," the girl explained exasperated but it only seemed to bring up more questions for me, "I was betraying him. I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."
"Okay hold the phone that sounds like politics!" I announced eyes narrowing before they widened in realization, "No! No, no, no! You did NOT drag me into political BS!"
"I am Groot,"
"Are you real, man?" I demanded not bothering to look back at the tree.
"That's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you told us that," Quill said sarcastically before asking, "What is wrong with giving tree here?"
"Well he don't talk good like me and you," the raccoon explained his leafy friend's actions, "So his vocabulistics are limited to 'I' and 'am' and 'Groot'. Exclusively in that order."
"Great..." I groaned hanging my head only to frown in confusion when something caught my attention. If this was a normal day, well to be more specific, if I was still on Earth I would have ignored it. Except we were in space... and in jail... and that sound did not fit in here.
I listened to it carefully before I was able to pinpoint exactly what I was hearing.
I looked around area suspiciously trying to find where it was coming from.
"I'm sorry, but does anyone else hearing Blue Swede? Where is it coming from?!" I demanded baffled, maybe I had finally lost my mind and this was just a hallucination my brain had conjured up to comfort me. But then why the hell did my brain pick Blue Swede of all things, I would have thought some AC-DC would be at the top of the list.
I kept moving my head around trying to find the source of the noise, I looked back at the tree who seemed to have no idea as to what I was talking about. But it would appear that Quill did.
For the first time since the shuttle ride Quill was dead quiet, and my eyebrow raised when he snapped his head to the side so fast I swore he might have just given himself whiplash. His eyes were wide, and his expression was one of rage.
For a second I thought he was angry at me, or maybe he hated Blue Swede, until I followed his gaze into the open door right next to him. It took me a moment to realize what exactly was so rage inducing about the scene before me.
All I saw was a guard who was going through our possessions, I swear if he touched my HWT I will break his knee, anyway he was blue with an oddly shaped head. What really caught my attention was the oldest piece of tech I had ever seen.
"Is-is that a Walkman?" I demanded a note of horror in my voice. I had seen a Walkman before, when I was a kid and was building stuff. But never had I ever seen anyone actually using one of them, the thought itself was horrifying.
"Hey put that down!" Quill ordered the guard fearlessly. I snapped back to look at him with a wide eyed stare, he couldn't actually be serious could he? Someone who owned a spaceship and had bounty hunters on his tail had to have a better music device than a WALKMAN! Right?
The guard did the exact opposite of Quill's demands, and decided instead to put on the equally old orange headphones, and began nodding his head to the song.
His lack of respect for the dinosaur seemed to make Quill angrier, because not a moment later he did something incredibly stupid. So stupid that I dare say it was the stupidest thing I had ever witnessed.
He bitterly muttered 'you son of a-'under his breath as he effortlessly slipped into the room before the door managed to close. He, in a remarkable show of either bravery or incredibly stupidity, snapped at the guard, "Hey! You big blue bastard! Take those headphones off!"
"Is he serious? He cannot be serious." I insisted glancing towards the rest of the group desperately hoping that somebody could assure me.
"That's mine! Those belong in impound!" Quill yelled in deviance even as the 'big blue bastard' took off the headphones and reached for his tazer. Quill ignored that and continued to shout, "And that player is mine!"
"Oh my god, he's actually serious."
Before Quill could shout anymore he was electrocuted, though he still continued to try arguing about the Walkman even as he basically collapsed on the floor withering in pain. He even went so far as to name the song and the band as if that would prove that it was his.
For a moment I found myself remembering the time I had seen Thor get electrocuted and I realize this was impressive. A tazer had knocked Thor out in under two seconds, about three hits later and this guy was still going.
I dare say I was impressed by his determination, but still slightly appalled at thought of a Walkman actually being used.
What can I say? I was born into one of the greatest ages of modern technology.
Though I will admit a sick twisted part of me felt a ping of satisfaction as I watched Quill being repeatedly shocked. At least I didn't have the urge to bite off his ear anymore, I think I deserved some credit for that.
There was another part of me though that was wincing in sympathy, who wanted to call off the guard as we watched the proceeding. A part of me that realized that that Walkman meant a great deal to Quill, it meant so much to him that he was willing to be basically tortured.
That sympathetic part of me almost convinced me to call out to the guard, about to tell him that the sad withering man on the ground had had enough with the electrocution.
But there was a part of me, a bigger part than both of the other parts. And that part of me was what eventually won out and caused me to speak four words.
"But it's a Walkman."