(AN/ Hey folks it's Garouge/Crewefox here with another chapter of The Broken Mirror on the one year anniversary of this fic! Thank you so much to all you amazing readers and I want to give special thanks to the TAS dev team as we finish off the last chapters of this fic and move onto new projects together! So without further ado, let's get cracking with this chapter...)
Chapter 42- Marital strife.
Lylla knew what she was doing could get her in trouble but at this point she didn't care. Ever since she saw Rocket through the Cauldron security feed her mind had been on nothing else. It had been a couple of hours since the MCB and Camelot had begun surveillance on the apartment Dr. McCoy was being kept prisoner in and she had managed to keep her cool so far and no one had noticed Rocket on the feed the MCB tech team had hacked into.
Both teams were in the office building across the street, with Camelot handling the strike teams and the bureau taking care of communication and computer surveillance. But what was on the computer didn't interest them, they seemed more concerned with hearing a voice that wasn't McCoy's in the apartment. The owner of the voice had stood in the doorway so Camelot's snipers could not get a look at him through the window, the voice had been male and deep saying "Be ready, Doom will bring you your first test subject soon." before vanishing. They had tried to call Beast on the smartphone they gave him but the blue mutant had turned it off, opting to work at an even faster pace.
While everyone else was distracted about how to contact McCoy, Lylla sat down at the empty workstation of one of the tech guys and started to search through the files they had hacked into from McCoy's computer. She had found files on prisoners but they were all titled with a strange code so she was forced to open each file one by one, she had gone through eleven files until she found the one she was looking for. The Raccoon's mugshot appeared on screen along with a brief summary of the hero, Lylla focused on the photo for a few moments noting all his fur markings and the shape of his face, this raccoon looked identical to her deceased husband. She forced herself not to cry and read the information in the file but when saw that this doppelganger was also called Rocket she knew this could be no sort of coincidence. She glanced around and saw her fellow agents were still fussing over contacting the mutant in the adjacent building, making sure no one was watching her read this file.
Designation: Rocket
Age: Unknown
Species: Genetically altered Raccoon
Home Planet: Halfworld
Skills/Powers: Genius intellect especially when it comes to armaments, cyborg components help with reflexes and reaction times, highly skilled aviator and marksman.
Info: Member of The Guardians of The Galaxy and part time bounty hunter, Rocket is the team's engineering and weapon expert. He is known for his short temper, playing practical jokes and being an expert at escaping from confinement, since he's been on the Cauldron he's tried to escape on numerous occasions. Doom had considered killing this fool but he's much more useful as a bargaining chip against his fellow heroes if the worst comes to the worst.
Rocket got onto the Cauldron via the same rift Professor Bloom had escaped through with the idiotic intention of capturing the ship's helmsman Tazerface. Once Doom had subdued Rocket and thrown him into a cell, this obsession with Tazerface was investigated. It would appear the slovenly bastard had killed Rocket's mate over a decade ago, another bounty hunter from Halfworld, an otter by the name of Lylla.
"What are you up to?" A puzzled voice enquired causing Lylla's sights to snap to the voice's source, a few feet away from the workstation, out of sight of what was on the monitor was Jack Savage.
"I, uh..." Lylla sounded, she was completely stumped, she couldn't think up an excuse.
"She's following my orders, sir." Aleks replied nonchalantly, walking up behind Lylla and glancing at the screen "I thought it'd be a good idea to take a look through the data on Dr. McCoy's computers to check on the well being of the kidnapped mammals." The silver fox fixing his glasses as he lied with ease.
The striped buck bought the lie and shrugged "Well it beats worrying about contacting McCoy or Beast or whatever he calls himself. Give me a shout if you find any new information."
"Yes, sir." Aleks and Lylla replied simultaneously.
As soon as Jack walked back over to the surveillance experts, Aleks whispered to Lylla "Let's go to the kitchen and grab ourselves some coffee."
Lylla clicked off the file and followed Aleks into the office's small kitchen where some bureau underling had left some snacks and a few pots of coffee brewing, lucky for the agents no one else in there with them. "That raccoon you were looking at, I've seen his photo on your desk...is it who I think it is?" Aleks got straight to the point, keeping his volume low, knowing how sensitive Jack's hearing was.
"Not...not exactly." Lylla answered, still trying to come to terms with what she had just read.
"Because that raccoon looks an awful lot like Rick Mantlo, your husband." Aleks called out.
"Rocket." Lylla corrected.
"Yes his nickname at the bureau was Rocket." Aleks replied.
"No, this one is just called Rocket, he doesn't even have a surname. That file I read was about my husband's double." Lylla answered, knowing how ridiculous it all sounded, but given the circumstances anything was possible.
"But all the doubles on the other earth are these human creatures." Aleks reacted, looking confused.
"I know but Rocket's still a raccoon and he's on the Cauldron." Lylla worried aloud.
"I'm not even going to ask how he got there but is there another you on the ship with him?" Aleks asked, his mind being blown.
"No...I'm de-, I mean she's dead, Rocket's after her killer, the pilot of The Cauldron." Lylla clarified and corrected herself.
"Well this situation just got a lot more complicated." Aleks groaned, scratching his muzzle.
"Why'd you lie for me when Jack questioned me?" Lylla asked, still feeling uneasy with the new information.
Aleks sighed before answering "The only reason Jack is letting me stay close to this case is because you're keeping me in check about freaking out over Zoe."
"So if Jack finds out I'm also emotionally compromised we'll both be kicked off the case?" Lylla assumed.
"Listen I know I'm acting selfish but I don't care, I need Zoe in my life so I'm not going to lose any sleep by keeping this from Jack." Aleks answered truthfully.
Lylla would usually berate her superior but she empathised with his desperation. These six years without Rocket in her life had been the worst thing she had gone through, she now how had the chance to see him again and she wasn't going to let it slide "Looks like we're in the same boat, we've both got everything to lose." she said with a depressed tone.
000
The Champions had not made the short walk across the flight deck from their mobile bunker to the Kestrel's lab, according to a text from Spiderman they were waiting for Ms Marvel to arrive. Ceartais and The Champions needed to discuss the deception surrounding the capture of Andi and if there were going to be any ramifications for the guilty party. But right now Luna didn't care about a team suspension or even being booted off all together, right now the vixen was sat on a desk chair in the lab with a sullen expression thinking about Alice. "Do you think she's going to leave me?" she asked aloud, but she had asked everyone this question half a dozen times since last night.
"Don't be silly." Clara fretted, not looking up from her tablet, she was reanalysing old rift data.
"You're jumping to conclusions, she's just pissed off with you that's all." Olivia assured, stood on a raised platform and calibrating Spitfire's thrusters.
"And you're both about to be mothers, she won't leave you before the babies are born." Robyn added with a sympathetic tone, getting up from her chair and hugging her sister, the ginger hybrid had lost count of how many times she had hugged her big sister since last night.
"But she said-" Luna began to moan, her stomach gurgling from the high volume of junk food she had consumed.
"Her kits, we know, you told us." Robyn sighed sadly "She was just lashing out."
"Maybe she's right though, maybe I don't deserve to be a Mom to those kits." Luna wallowed, sinking deeper into her chair "I did this, it's all my fault...and I haven't just lost Alice. Kion, Kodi and Hannah hate my guts too."
"Kodi's doesn't hate you," Clara eased "he's just hanging out with Kion, trying to get him to calm down." the she wolf was half fibbing, when they had returned to their room last night her boyfriend had voiced his frustrations with the archer.
"And Hannah doesn't hate you...she's just, um, well let's just say she doesn't agree with the way you handled things." Robyn tried to sugarcoat.
"So half of the team has sided with Alice and you lot are standing by me?" Luna figured, taking hold of her tail and stroking it for comfort.
"This isn't about sides, Lu. Everyone's emotions are just a little fried right now." Robyn replied, her long ears going droopy.
"And just between us I think Kion went too far last night." Olivia voiced her opinion.
"No, he didn't, he had every right to be mad at me...I think we take Kion for granted. Part of me still sees Kion as the cub I used to babysit but he's probably the most grown up out of all the team, he has a son and a loving girlfriend back in Zootopia, yet he came with us anyway to help, thinking there was a way home. But now I've ruined the best hope at getting everyone home, safe and sound." Luna said, remembering Kion's furious face from last night and shuddering.
"You haven't ruined it, we still have that rift in the Jersey parking lot that we came through, sure it's weakened but as long as we get through everyone at once it'll be fine." Robyn replied.
Clara then looked at the sisters awkwardly and said in an equally awkward manner "Actually..."
"Are you kidding me?" Robyn groaned at the scientist.
"Ignore her, tell us what you know Clara." Olivia prompted, setting her tools down and listening intently.
"I've been going over the data from the Jersey rift and it's losing power at a faster rate than anticipated." Clara answered, holding up her tablet and showing everyone the data that only Olivia could actually decipher.
"But how? Shuri said it'd only get weaker if anyone passed through it." Robyn asked, sounding anxious.
"My theory is because it hasn't got a stabiliser dish like the one in the subway station, that thing didn't just mask it's energy signature it kept the rift's energy from gradually dispersing around it, only sticking to the radius of the dish." Clara explained.
"So what would happen if we tried to get all the missing mammals plus us through the rift?" Luna asked, having a feeling what the answer would be but she had to know.
"It might not be strong enough to get us all home, my prediction is we could get through about half of the mammals through before the rift became unstable." Clara said, hating to add to Luna's woes.
"So to get everyone back safely we need Ronin...oh god, what have I done?" Luna lamented.
Robyn was already hugging her big sister despite her own anger at Luna, Olivia was about to say something but was halted when a very tired looking Dragoness entered the Kestrel's lab "Say you wouldn't happen to know who trashed my office, stole my wallet and wrote 'Lying Bitch' on the wall?" she asked, clearly frazzled from the last twelve hours.
"Wait, what?" Clara scoffed.
Olivia looked up at Dragoness and replied dryly "I'm guessing she's short, white fur, gold eyes, got a few scars, cybernetic arm and heavily pregnant."
"Wow Alice really is furious." Robyn commented with slight worry.
"Look I don't care about the office or the graffiti, I just need my wallet back. It's got some photos in it that are precious to me. Do you know where she is?" Dragoness asked, crossing her arms.
"In her cabin." Luna answered.
"No, she's not. She's nowhere aboard, I figured you guys would know." Dragoness responded.
"Wait she's not here!?" Luna gasped, rising from her chair "Then where the hell is she?!"
000
"Wade, veggie taco me!" Alice called from the sofa, pausing her game of Mortal Kombat and resting the controller on her baby bump.
"Oui Madame." Deadpool replied, tossing Alice one of the wrapped up tacos from the carrier bag on his very messy desk.
The former assassin and the merc with the mouth had moved from the food truck to Deapool's office around the corner. It was old and shabby, the décor and furniture looked like it was from the seventies, the only modern thing in the office was the tv and game console he had set up in the corner. Alice had created herself a little nest of blankets and cushions with her sheathed Katana resting on it's own small cushion. Pacing the length of the office was a clearly fretful Ms Marvel, looking at Alice and commenting "How can you just sit there, playing videogames and eating tacos?"
"With incredible ease." Alice smirked, unwrapping the paper around the taco.
"Urgh, you know what I mean! You're in danger here." Ms Marvel half growled before turning to Deadool and marching over to his desk "You're supposed to be protecting her, surely there's somewhere safer than this office?"
"Totally, I have this super secret bunker with lazer turrets and a super advanced security system. I offered it to Samurai Jack-Rabbit over there but she said she'd prefer to be within walking distance of a food truck and a bodega." Deadpool replied, going back to cleaning his swords "She's my customer and the customer's always right."
"She's paying you with money she stole from a SHIELD agent." Ms Marvel scowled.
"Why so pissy Big M? Is it because MCU is dragging their feet about giving you your own movie? I had to wait eighteen years for my first movie appearance and they sewed my mouth shut and that poor bun bun over there hasn't been given a fleshed out origin story from Ziegelzieg yet." Deadpool fake cried "I wanna' read Prey Upon so badly!"
"What the hell are you talking about?" Alice asked in a deadpan manner, munching on the taco.
"Ignore him, he had brain tumours before he got his powers, those tumours are still there and make him say crazy stuff like we're all in a comic book or something." Ms Marvel dismissed.
"Actually we're in a fanfiction at the moment and between you and me I think this third instalment sucks." Deadpool sniggered.
(AN/ Deadpool stop talking or I'll write you an unhappy ending)
Before Deadpool could talk again, Ms Marvel slammed her fist onto the table and implored "Look you're the only one she'll listen to at the moment, convince her to go back to the Kestrel or to your bunker."
"Ok one; I'm not crossing her, human Alice is scary enough but going against angry pregnant cyborg bunny her is like suicide. And two; I lied, there is no bunker." Deadpool shrugged, reaching under his desk and grabbing a medium sized box, made of pink plastic with 'Stark Industries' written on it.
Ms Marvel pushed passed her irritation and asked "What the heck is that thing?"
"This is a stasis box I stole from Iron Man when I was an Avenger, it's meant to hold chemicals for transport with no chance of degrading." Deadpool explained, opening the lid and putting one of the leftover burritos in, which floated in zero-gravity "I use it so my food won't go gross and mouldy...and this is definitely not foreshadowing of any shape or form."
"Enough!" Ms Marvel grit her teeth "Alice, I'm sorry, I know you're an adult and going through a rough patch with your wife but I can't let you stay here, I'm calling the Champions and Ceartais and we're taking you back to The Kestrel." the inhuman then began to check her pockets for her phone but couldn't find it, she level a peeved look at the smug looking bunny and asked "Where is it?"
"Somewhere safe." Alice sang, licking the last bits of taco sauce off her fingers before unpausing the game.
"Alice, give me my phone." Ms Marvel ordered.
The white bunny's ears twitched as she pushed the controller's buttons with rapid speed and kept her eyes glued to the screen "Ms Marvel, you should take three steps to your left and cover your ears." she replied in a calm manner.
"Huh? Look Alice, just give me my ph-" Ms Marvel began to reply but was cut short by a small black baseball-sized object bursting through the window and hitting her directly in the stomach, sending her to the ground, winded and bruised as the thing that struck her rolled onto the carpet.
Alice saw the object hit the inhuman and whispered "Praesidium."
The object that had hit Ms. Marvel was a flashbang grenade, it exploded with a dozen or so bright flashes and a series of blinding white lights that filled the room with smoke, terrifying and disorientating Ms Marvel. In the middle of the explosion a figure burst through the window, rolling onto the floor with grace before producing a desert eagle pistol and unloading an entire magazine at Alice all why screaming the word "Salope! Salope! Salope!" over and over.
The smoke faded and Ronin right hand was rattling, the gun was empty and she expected to see Alice riddled with bullets but then something unexpected; Alice was looking at her mutant counterpart with disappointment, the doe was unscathed and surrounded by a golden transparent dome of energy. Before Ronin could react, the gun in her hand became super hot and she dropped it as it beagn to burn through her glove, the gun turned to molten metal which burnt through the carpet and the floorboards below it. Deadpool tackled her from behind and restrained her arms, while the mutant was struggling she saw the Mage's figure slowly fade into view, looking down at Ronin with disgust before speaking into his comm link "Target secure. Roar, Bullet, sit rep."
"I've found Ronin's bike and smashed it into a million little pieces, she's got no other getaway vehicle." Roar's voice came over the radio.
"And I have a clear shot on her if she tries to flee the office. Is Alice and Ms Marvel, ok?" Bullet added
"I'm fine, but Ms Marvel may have a big bruise on her stomach." Alice replied, getting off the sofa with her katana in hand.
"T-this was a trap...oh man, I'm think I'm going to throw up." Ms Marvel coughed and spluttered, feeling groggy from the blow to her abdomen.
"You whore! I'll kill you!" Ronin screamed with rage at Alice, thrashing around and trying to free herself from Deadpool's grasp.
"Easy there, Frenchy." Deadpool warned, putting more strength into keeping the assassin down.
"Sayame would be so disappointed in you." Alice said with disdain "My master taught me never to strike in anger, that emotions cloud judgement and to always assume things were never as they seem. You were angry, you sought revenge upon Luna by killing me and my kits and charged in without a second thought. Just like at the safehouse, just as I predicted."
"You dishonour Sayame! She trained you to be a weapon not a heroine!" Ronin spat, still trying to free herself.
"But Sayame...no, my mother loved me, just as your Sayame loved you. She never wanted this life for us, she only trained us so we could save ourselves. But you never did." Alice replied, for a moment she felt pity but it quickly vanished.
"So this whole time, it was a set up!?" Ms Marvel exclaimed, hoping she wouldn't hurl.
"I began to formulate the plan last night, as soon as I kicked Luna out of our cabin. I would play the part of the scorned and irrational pregnant doe out in broad daylight, all the while Mage would be invisible beside me to ensure I was unharmed." Alice explained, looking up at the queasy looking inhuman.
"You were there the entire time?" Ms Marvel gawped at Mage.
"Yeah, you were an unexpected twist though but it really sold the whole thing; the well meaning heroine trying to bring the vulnerable bunny back to somewhere safe." Mage answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out Ms Marvel's phone he had pickpocketed earlier, handing it back to her. "We had Roar and Bullet tracking Ronin all the time, keeping up informed of her movements, Bullet had a sleeper sniper rifle ready in case this nut job tried to hit the office with a rocket launcher or something and Roar was there in case she brought back up."
"Oh that's a twist, very twisty." Deadpool chuckled, still holding down the struggling Ronin.
"So...so where's the rest of Ceartais?" Ms Marvel wheezed.
"On the Kestrel, oblivious to what we were up to." Alice replied with a touch of bitterness "Luna kept me in the dark and put herself at risk. I've kept her in the dark, didn't put myself at risk and worked with a team to capture my mark, like it should be done."
"So this is partly about capturing Ronin and the other is getting your own back?" Ms Marvel asked, looking at the bunny with disbelief.
"Pretty much, but Luna's far from forgiven yet." Alice stated.
Ronin saw that Alice's muscles were less tense now, she was not ready for an attack. The assassin forced her head back and slammed into Deadpool's chin, he loosened his grip slightly and Ronin's right hand shot to her belt wanting to grab a shuriken but before she could even touch one of them the swordswoman felt an unimaginable pain in her arm and her vision became blurred with red. It had happened in a flash, Alice had predicted her counterpart's intentions and in a one swift action had unsheathed her katana and sliced through Ronin's arm at the elbow, severing it entirely.
Ronin screamed in sheer agony as blood poured from the sever point, seeing her lifeless right forearm flop onto the ground. Mage waved his hand and bound Ronin by blue astral chains before crouching down and using magic flames to cauterise the wound before she bled out, Deadpool quickly grabbed the severed arm and waved it at the wailing Ronin "Bye bye, Ronin." he teased before running over to the staisis box, taking out the burrito and putting the arm in "One preserved arm!"
Ms Marvel witnessed the bloody scene and could no longer keep her nausea at bay, her legs buckled and threw up her breakfast, Alice ignored the vomiting teen and spoke into her comm link "Bullet, put this bitch to sleep." A sleeper gel bullet then came zipping through the window and hit the white haired killer in the head, putting her into an instant slumber.
"D-did you plan to chop her arm off?" Ms Marvel panted, beyond grossed out.
"No, but it seems fitting." Alice replied in a cold manner, holding up her cybernetic arm "I chopped off my arm once to save my life and I just did it again."
"Well it was a pleasure doing business with you Alice." Deadpool chirped, getting out his phone and selecting SHIELD's number "That fifty million bounty is as good as ours."
"Remember my half goes to the families of the victims killed at the SHIELD building." Alice reminded, cleaning the blood off her blade with a hanky.
Ms Marvel's phone buzzed and the dazed teen read the text before relaying "Luna's wondering where you are?"
"Tell her I've got the second rift key." Alice said coldly, sheathing her sword.
000
"And then Quill was all like 'Dance battle bro', distracting that shithead Ronan while me and Drax got the weapon ready." Rocket laughed as he told the story, mimicking his friend's dance moves. The raccoon was stood on top of a table in the cafeteria telling the crowd of mammals that had gathered the tale of his first adventure with The Guardians of the Galaxy. All of them had been enraptured and entertained by the space-fairing adventurer's tale.
"Oh come on, he didn't challenge the bad guy to a dance battle." Esso sniggered, hardly believing the tale as Rocket continued to dance.
"He totally did and Ronan was just stood there looking at this jackass saying 'What are you doing?'" Rocket continued, impersonating Ronan's deep voice.
"Ok so how did you get the stone out of his hammer?" Regina asked, the mare was cuddled up next to the stag Harper.
"Well I had the power cables ready while Drax held the..." Rocket started to explain but was interrupted by a claxon that began to echo through the cafeteria area.
"The hatch? Have we got a new arrival?" Vanessa murmured, rising from her seat as the large roof hatch began to open, some of the mammals scurried back into the cells but Rocket, Esso and her kinda-friends stayed rooted to the spot. But no prisoner was dropped down, instead a burly figure garbed in silver and green floated down, flanked by four Doombots.
"Is that..." Harper uttered, unable to complete his question due to his mouth going dry with fear.
"Doctor Doom." Rocket said in a serious manner, expecting the villain to grab him and drag him somewhere for interrogation.
Doom stomped towards the mammals, Rocket was bracing himself to be grabbed but instead the tyrant marched by him and loomed over the sitting Regina "You will accompany Doom, now." his demanded.
"She's not going anywhere with you, you bastard!" Harper shouted despite his terror, stepping between the armoured man and the trembling mare.
Doom looked at Harper briefly before giving him a backhanded slap, knocking him out and crashing him onto the table where Esso and Vanessa began tending to him while the Doombots aimed their weapons at the mammals in case they made any retaliation. Doom returned his focus to Regina and spoke "That deer cares deeply for you, you probably reciprocate those feelings. If you don't want to see those antlers ripped from his skull, you best heed Doom's command."
Regina was too scared to speak, she just nodded and stood up, Vanessa and Esso looked ready to jump on Doom and save the horse but she just shook her head warning them to stand down. Two Doombots grabbed Regina and carried her as they flew out of the hatch with Doom leading the pack. As soon the hatch closed Rocket began to smile menacingly "Ok it's time to take this scrap heap of a ship!"
"Do you think he's heading through the rift in the throne room?" Vanessa fretted, checking Harper's pulse, relived to feel it was strong.
"I trashed his lab in the last riot, his new lab has to be through the rift." Esso answered, already running for the trash chute.
Rocket scrambled for his makeshift radio as he followed Esso "Zoe, Doom's leaving the ship, as soon as he leaves give us the signal and we'll take the bridge!"
"On it, I'm still shadowing Doom, he's got the horse girl with him." Zoe's whispering voice came over the line.
Rocket couldn't help but smile, yes this was dangerous, yes he and other mammals could die but it didn't matter he was finally going to get a shot at Tazerface, he was finally going to get justice for Lylla.
(AN/ DUN DUN DUN! What did you think? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Review! Next Time on TBM; Ceartais are at odds with one another, Rocket and Esso get to work, Jack Savage gets the shock of his life and Robyn sees something through a mirror that terrifies her! Please review and c ya soon!)
