Marvel owns the X-men and the Guardians of the Galaxy, no profit is to be made from this work.
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The shower had done him good, whatever the hell they used to put out fires on this rock it sure as heck stunk, not to mention his fur had been a mess. Enjoying a long, shivering shake, he felt ready to get back on with his rescue mission, or at least just as soon as his flight suit was finished with its delicate cycle. Pulling out a couple of drawers at the vanity, a few careful steps and hops had him up with his mug staring back at him in the mirror.
"Ah, they'll grow back quick enough." Rocket muttered to himself in regards to his singed whiskers, though usually he only had himself to blame what with his interests and hobbies.
Kid had been lighter than she looked, and thankfully enough she hadn't woken up once as he dragged her on up for a nap. Her room was easy to pick out, it was the one with Groot. Credit where it was due, the kid had been taking care of him, keeping him watered and even finding some tunes for him to enjoy. Happy to see Groot as he was him, he'd tucked the kid in albeit down on the floor before seeing to getting cleaned up.
"What the hell's Listerine?"
A sniff had his eyes watering even as he sneezed, but if there was one thing he had learned from the plethora of seedy watering holes he'd hit up between jail breaks, usually the worse it smelt the more kick it packed. Slugging back a belt and swishing it around for consideration, it tasted like gut rot and candy as he swallowed.
"What the fuck!?" The kid asked immediately after throwing open the bathroom door.
Too busy as he was scavenging after his shower, it turned out the kid must have been a light sleeper, or at least the evidence pointed in that direction what with her standing frozen in shock at the threshold. Just as he caught her eyes in the mirror though she slammed the door shut, the last he saw her being a face flushed and lips drawn into a nervous, twitchy line.
"You're real?!" Kid shrieked from out in the hall.
"I'm real!" Rocket shouted back, snatching a towel just nearly right his size from beside the sink and wrapping it about his waist.
The door opened a crack and out in the dark of the hall he saw Kid peeking in with her face lit by her glowing fist. A sidelong look saw his current blaster leaning up in the corner of the bath, just a quick tumble away and set to stun if Kid needed a less than voluntary nap. Trying to prove he wasn't looking for a fight, he assumed the familiar position with his hands up for the authorities, spinning around to show he wasn't armed...a moot point what with her catching him with his pants down.
But by the time his dog and pony show was over with though she had a different look in her eyes, one that painted her less likely to blast him, looking a lot more curious and...strangely pained. Her features turned dark as her pallor turned sickly with the lights sparkling around her fist dying. Hissing out of irritation and thinking he could use another belt of Listerine, she must have gotten an eyeful of the hardware that made a mess of his back.
"There's a hair dryer in the bottom drawer..." Kid whispered as she drew the door closed between them.
Scratching at a bit of stubborn water in his ear and listening to the quiet steps that lead off down the hall, no doubt for the second time tonight Groot was going to be asking what he did to the Kid, and just like the last time he hadn't done a thing other than be the being he was. Scampering back up to the counter for another swig, as he enjoyed the burn he got to reading the back of it.
"What d'ya mean ya ain't supposed to drink it? Shoddy frelling translation mod..."
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Leave it to a walking, talking raccoon to make himself at home. It was supposed to be a dream, one fuelled by a dinner of Sugar Bombs and the kind of movies Jean and Scott wouldn't let her watch...the kind she and Logan watched from hotel to motel back when they'd been living a life on the road. Sitting cross-legged on her bed with Sticky nestled upon her lap, Jubilee waited.
The problem was the house was too quiet even with the music playing that Sticky loved, he'd been dancing when she woke up and that had been magic to see. He wasn't dancing so much right then, he was staring up at her with the kind of deep soulful eyes reserved for dogs, wordlessly begging to know what was wrong and how to make things right. Clenching her own eyes tight against her tears, visions of her furry intruder wouldn't leave her alone.
"He's Groot."
Startled and feeling foolish for it, Jubilee wondered just how long he'd been standing there, Mister Raccoon and his really big fricking gun...that was thankfully nowhere in sight.
"What?" Asking after his question, she wondered what a Groot was.
"Not what, who, and you're holding him."
Sparing a glance down at Sticky, he was smiling up at her in a way that had to be his way of saying Hi. Groot did sound a lot better than her placeholder, and it explained what the raccoon was doing in the garage earlier, at least if she read between the lines.
"What's your name?" Jubilee asked, watching him wander into her room completely uninvited in just a handtowel.
"Rocket. "
"Jubilee." He hadn't asked, but it helped to fill the quiet to tell him.
She had more questions on the tip of her tongue, like how could a raccoon talk and walk like he was people, and just what Groot was. Rocket looked like he had some questions too, but he wasn't asking as much as looking at all her photos and postcards from her time together with Logan. He was paying a lot of attention to the map Jean bought her, full of push tacks and string, each one a story wrestled out one lonely night to the next, Jean was devious like that. The stories helped as much as they hurt, stuck with the Summers just waiting for Logan to come back.
"What was Groot doing in some tourist trap?" Jubilee asked, needing something, anything to think of other than Logan.
"Some broad up and sold him on me while I was checking out new pots for him, and that's a mistake no one is gonna be making again anytime soon."
"Are you an alien?" The question tumbled out too fast for her to even consider it.
"Do I look like an alien?" Rocket asked, turning his gaze on her as she sat there with Groot.
"...you look like a raccoon." Her mumbled reply had her feeling foolish, wondering if some aliens had gotten bored of cows and moved onto something a little less...weird.
It would explain his back, but she didn't need much help to imagine just the kind of things that must have been done to him to make him like that. Like Jean, she could be devious when she wanted, and she could guilt Logan into talking when he got a bit too chatty in his sleep...or when he got to screaming and thrashing and needing a stiff drink and a cold shower when she finally woke him up.
And just like Logan, Rocket had that look of a man...racoon...that didn't like being reminded of it, didn't like being looked on with pity. So she looked to Groot and lost herself in those not quite puppy dog eyes of his and wished she could hug him like one, because she sure could use a hug. The sound of the washer chiming off on a finished cycle was just unexpected enough to draw away her thoughts from all the depressing feelings she'd been running away from since California.
"You're doing laundry?!" Jubilee asked, her voice a mix of surprise and disbelief.
"Hey, you're the one that doused me with whatever that crap was."
Feeling embarrassed as she was at the reminder of both setting him on fire and then putting him out, she couldn't feel so mad over him breaking on in what with knowing he'd been rescuing Groot. That was something friends did.
"You hungry?" She was feeling a little hungry herself, her Pafs tended to do that.
"Starving." Rocket answered with a show of feral fangs.
"K, go get your clothes drying and I'll go whip something up."
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"What did you call this stuff again?"
"Chili." Kid answered, Jubilee was a name he'd have to get used to.
"You made this?" Rocket asked before wolfing down another hefty spoonful, whatever this Chili was he was gonna need some for the road...not to mention a recipe so he could try and find a few analogs of the ingredients around the galaxy.
"Does heating it up count?" Kid, Jubilee asked with an empty can for show.
"It comes in a can?" Cans were universal, why waste perfectly good gigawatts on a matter replicator when they could be used for cannons or thrusters.
Jubilee looked thoughtful, the kind of thoughtful when they were trying to think of something that hadn't been put in a can. Rocket had seen a good number of systems and their jails included, the more civilized ones he'd 'visited' tended to be the kind that had everything you needed at one surplus or another. It made things easy when you needed to get out of system fast.
"Uh yeah, and like...I'm pretty sure we even got underwear that comes in a can..."
"I love this rock!" Hooting and enjoying another spoonful of chili, he was going to have to get some of that Evian stuff too that the kid was giving Groot, because Groot sure looked to like it.
The now familiar ding of his laundry rang from somewhere down the hall, and even before he could think to go after it the kid was gone in a shot. She was probably getting a bit sick of worrying about his towel falling down, he couldn't blame her, it was getting a little drafty. Catching Groot looking at him, Rocket rolled his eyes back at his friend who didn't even need to say anything to say something.
"Okay, okay, I'll try and make it up to the kid." Rocket muttered under his breath.
Between the kid, Jubilee, being out whatever she paid for Groot, he kinda felt like he owed her for taking care of his best bud in the whole galaxy. As far as the garage incident went, he figured they were even what with him getting the short end of that stick. A slam and hurried feet had Kid back with his flight suit looking fresh and clean.
"Alright, put some pants on. I'll give ya five, I forgot my phone back up in my room. Scott will have my ass if I miss him texting that they're coming home late." Jubilee announced, tossing the flight suit down on a chair.
It wasn't like he had to be told twice, as soon as she was nothing more than feet vanishing up the stairs he got to getting dressed. There was something to be said for clothes nice and toasty from that dryer of theirs. Usually he just hung his up in the engine room and let them dry by the exhaust heat...which usually left them a little on the stiff side.
"Hey kid, ya can come down now! How long does it take for her to find her phone, whatever that is..."
He didn't like that she wasn't answering, this kid hadn't been one not to speak her mind as far as he had seen. Groot looked to be getting worried too and that was all it took for Rocket to get his ass in gear. All bets were off as he got to the stairs and heard kid screaming, by the time he found her in her room she was curled up on the floor clutching her head.
"Kid, kid? Jubilee!" Rocket shouted, dashing in on all fours.
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Jubilee knew the restaurant from a visit with the Summers to celebrate a promotion that Jean had earned at the hospital. It was a reminder of her old life, a restaurant that boasted its accolades in Michelin stars and the celebrities and socialites who dined there. It was a place for quiet conversation and reserve, for deals made at the bar over cocktails and a handshake. And like her old life, all at once the glitter and glamour became ash and ruin.
"Scott!" Jean's voice rose above the screaming and panic.
Turning through the smoke, Jubilee looked for the woman who had opened her heart to her, who had listened to all the stories of Wolvie she had to tell and even shared a few of her own. The lady doctor knelt against the debris strew across the once pristine floors, the flare of her power visible and manifest by the way dust rain down an unseen barrier. With her several patrons trapped under rubble lay, struck dumb by the disaster that had fallen on their evening.
"Jean!" Jubilee cried, her own panic clutching her heart as the lady doctor spared her a glance.
"Run Jubilee, run and find Logan!" Jean gasped, her breath coming hard and fast as she struggled with her burden.
Looking on that very burden, part of the roof had caved in and were Jean not the woman she was then those trapped beneath it surely would have been crushed. Looking for Scott out of the smoke that rose from numerous fires, in the distance the call of sirens could be heard promising help if only they would reach in time. A flash of red cut through the dismal scene and she saw him unleash his cursed vision on an attacker who charged at him in a ridiculous armour that looked like it should belong in some television show instead of one of Manhattan's top restaurants.
Spotting another rising from where he had lain prone, Jubilee saw that Scott didn't see this latest attacker and found her resolve to even the odds. Holding her fists out and letting her emotions get the better of her, the Pafs didn't come as she called, trying again and again until the awful moment that Scott was laid low with a blow to the back of his head.
"Jean? Jean!?" Jubilee shrieked, growing more frantic as she saw the others surround the lady doctor.
"Run Jubilee, they could be coming for our home next! Run!" Jean ground out through clenched teeth, her eyes flaring with her own anger and finding strength in it.
The rubble and ruin that had been her burden was unleashed on those that surrounded her, and rising in challenge to face her attackers Jean looked to burn with seething rage. The fight became a fog of screaming that stirred things within Jubilee as she watched it grow distant, felt the darkness take Jean as it surly had taken Scott. Alone in that darkness knowing people she cared about her had been taken again, Jubilee felt her eyes grow damp as the world shifted and a new voice called her.
"Kid, kid? Jubilee!"
It was a voice rugged and rough, harsh without being unkind or uncaring. It sounded like a voice she knew and that only made her chest ache all the more knowing he wasn't there to keep her safe.
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The lights were on but no one was home, her eyes stared sightlessly so far past him that she might as well have been looking for her rock's moon. Damn ready to hit up their Wikipedia for some quick info, maybe even try that Google thing, Rocket heard a noise that didn't belong on some backwater planet in the wrong arm of the galaxy.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Rocket shouted, forgetting the kid for the moment to chase after his blaster that was making a racket back in the bathroom.
One of the first mods he'd hooked up to it had been a scanner for most frequencies the authorities of the galaxy liked to use, a bit of an early warning system. It wasn't like he was figuring on hearing it much what with earning himself a nice clean slate from the Nova Corps, maybe the usual beep of the local law enforcement, but this...this was bad.
"Shi'ar! What's a Shi'ar carrier doing in this system!?"
Like most beings, he had a few very important rules he lived by, and right up near the top was one about not messing with any race that went around building Galactic Empires. And just like the Kree, the Shi'ar had a few colourful characters like Ronan who any sane being didn't want to meet, not in this life or the next.
"Oh this is not good." Rocket muttered, squelching out the noise to see that there had to be Shi'ar boots suborbital.
Upping the stun setting from a polite suggestion to take a nap right to a firm lights out order, Rocket slung his blaster over his shoulders and ran back to the kid. Looking like she was coming off a hell of a bender on the kind of swill you needed certain organs or enhancements to enjoy, asking her what happened to her could wait with the warning his blaster was screeching in his ear.
"Get down!" Rocket roared, doing something he hated doing, playing a hero like Pete.
The familiar ring of an explosion deafened him, feeling shrapnel and debris rain down on him as he did his damnedest to try and keep the kid safe.
"Where's Drax when I need him!?" Rocket yelled, even if he couldn't hear his own angry shout.
Jubilee didn't need to be told to run if how she was manhandling him was any indication, one second they were laying in the remains of her shattered room, the next she was out in the hall making a dash for the kitchen. Somewhere she picked up a stupid looking hat and a bag that kept battering him as she held him. It had bug out bag written all over it and scored her a few more points in his book.
Groot was tucked away in the bag before he could even ask what the heck was going on, and just as he was wondering himself Rocket saw the answer as they bolted back to where he had met the kid in the first place.
"What the hell are we doing here?!" Rocket barked, hoping the kid didn't think they were safe there.
"Just what Jean said, running." Jubilee whispered, tears rolling down her flushed cheeks as sobs wracked her tiny frame.
Keys he knew, but keys to what Rocket didn't know until a canvas was pulled off of something sitting in the corner of the loading bay...garage as his mod finally translated. Whatever it was, it looked fast and dangerous and his kind of fun. Jubilee hopped on and after cranking the key and giving it a kick to some lever the shiny new toy came to life with a throaty growl.
"Oh I want one. Hey kid, you know that big bit of green you got in the middle of this place?"
"Central park?" Jubilee asked, fiddling with a little remote on the ring of keys until the garage door opened.
"My ship's there, what say we make with the running, I got our backs."
For as scared as she looked, at the mere mention of a ship she looked just that big curious in all the right ways. Grinning at her full of fangs knowing something about that expression did her good, he scrambled up to the back of the bike and hunkered down with the business end of his blaster pointed at anyone who might come after them.
Howling into the night as the kid peeled out in a screeching cry of tires and plume of smoke, he had the only things he needed on this rock right with him. Groot, his blaster, and trouble chasing his furry tail. He didn't have long to live, so he might as well enjoy the time he had, even if that meant pissing off the rank and file of an empire that could give the Kree a run for their credits.
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