Chapter 2 – The Infinity Surprise

His breathing quickened, his focus worsened, his pulse was getting out of control. Daniel then rethought his approach, if Thanos and his goons recreated Special Weapons Project 89P13, it is my duty to not just destroy this drone, but also to cripple his capability to create more. I'll need information from this one to know precisely how he did it in the first place.

Dan put the rifle away and made his way down to the lower levels of Knowhere where his map told him where the raccoon was. However, by the time he got to the plaza, his map suggested that he had moved inside of a nearby building. Shit, Daniel thought, trailing behind far enough not to be noticed. He put his sensors on high sensitivity, scanning everyone in his immediate vicinity. Eventually he caught up with the animal right where his HUD told him he was going to be, betting on other animals eating each other…

[FLASHBACK]

Chuckling, he brought Rocket back inside and placed him again on one of the lab benches. It had been approximately one month since he found him underneath that… well, rocket. He grabbed one of the tablet-like sensor devices He pressed a few buttons, initiating a basic internal scan of Rocket's body. SPRAIN 95% HEALED IN LEFT PAW. Daniel sighed in relief, nothing serious as I thought. He then sat back in his chair and buried his face in his hands.

"What are we going to do now, eh Rocket?" Daniel asked, looking at his new furry friend, "our home has been destroyed and the Interstellar Union is in ruin just like the rest of this goddamn galaxy! There's nothing left for us here".

"But! The trans-universal jump-gate is almost fully charged and ready for action, we'll be out of here in no time at all!" Rocket looked at him with blank eyes, Daniel knew on a deeper level that the animal was trying to comprehend what he was saying, after all, raccoons have always been known to be very intelligent animals. When he first realized his beloved home was dead, he was dying inside, emotionally gasping his last breaths. However, just before he lost all hope, he met those cute little raccoon eyes, which acted as a sort of emotional defibrillator, bringing him back to life. At the time, he'd probably dare say he was happy. He redirected all power being generated by his micro-fusion reactor in the basement charging a trans-universal gate that could, in theory, allow him to jump once to another reality. While he could predict where he would land in that universe, there was still a margin of error… of about plus or minus fifty percent. He looked at the progress bar on one of the terminals, 94% charged – ETA: five hours. Then, he looked at the clock, which read, 19:05.

"Okay Rocket, we need to get up early tomorrow-"

Before he could even finish the sentence, Rocket had already relocated himself right in front of the scientist's feet. He clawed at Daniel's pants, obviously begging him not to utter the dreaded words, "bed time".

Rocket howled and put his hands over his snout. Dan chuckled and picked him up and put him into the "Raccoon House" he had built in the corner of his personal bedroom upstairs. Immediately after he placed him in the miniature structure, the Raccoon leaped out and lay on his bed in an act of defiance. Dan rolled his eyes, "okay, I guess you can sleep here just this once, neither of us is likely to return here after tomorrow". Rocket looked at him with worried eyes. "How about a lullaby? Hm? Did I ever tell you the key to designing plasma based weaponry?"

[END FLASHBACK]

Daniel snapped out of his trance, something was going terribly wrong, he could feel it in the crowd. When he finally was able to focus, he heard screaming, people seemed to be on edge. There's a fight going on, Daniel reasoned based on how everyone was acting.

He then he heard words that would pierced the emotional armored shell he constructed like bullets through paper, "WELL I DIDN'T GET ASK TO BE MADE, I didn't ask to be TORN APART and PUT BACK TOGETHER ALL OVER AND OVER AGAIN". It was at this moment that he knew that he made a mistake, one of the biggest mistakes of his life.

This wasn't some look alike or some clone as he thought earlier, this really was Rocket.

He walked closer to the source of the commotion and saw the Raccoon in a stand-off. Oh no. Daniel thought, seeing that his former friend was pointing what appeared to be a laser cannon at someone else. A flurry of possible courses of action bombarded his mind like a large meteor shower, however, before he could pick, Rocket had already calmed down and lowered his rifle. It was times like these that caused Daniel to be ever grateful for his helmet that covered his entire face, because he could have sworn he teared up at that moment. I need some air, Daniel thought, somewhere I can think.

Daniel pushed his way through the crowd, eventually reaching the outside. He teared off his helmet as he gasped for air. W-What just happened, Daniel mentally stuttered, not fully processing the magnitude of his findings. Rocket was alive, but that just opens a whole new can of worms. How the hell did he escape? Does he still remember me? Based on his actions in the bar, he appeared to be unstable and unwell emotionally, no doubt a result of his time on Halfworld as he literally said a few minutes prior. Dan put back on his helmet and went through his helmet cam's footage of the barfight. Before he was even able to run all the faces he saw through the Nova Corps criminal database, he noticed a certain green alien woman in the background.

Gamora.

Ah shit, Daniel thought bitterly, today's going to be a long day. When his armor's onboard computer had finally finished analyzing the footage, five major warrants appeared on his HUD. Most notably, Rocket's mugshot was the first one on his left. "Damn," Daniel breathed as he read Rocket's list of charges. Twenty-three counts of escape from incarceration, seven counts of mercenary activity and to top it off, fifteen counts of arson. He glanced over the others quickly and remembering their faces before taking off his helmet once again, this time less violently. Taking a deep breath, he scanned the environment around him, he knew that the Nova Corps had no jurisdiction on Knowhere, but, he needed to know what this band of crooks were up to before they did something… awful. Daniel still had a hard time believing this was the same Rocket that he found under that rocket, and in a way, deep down he knew that was true. He knew exactly what augmentations he had installed on Halfworld, he had designed them after all, even if he wasn't involved at all with their installation in Rocket's small body.

He felt a surge of anger in his heart, he wanted to throw his helmet on the ground like he did during the raid of the Lab on Halfworld. However, he channeled his anger into determination, he was going to figure out what these guys intentions were, and to report back to Nova with them. He turned heel and walked back into the bar, his eyes scanned the crowd for his targets. Nothing. He then commanded his onboard to pinpoint Rocket's location. His eyes immediately went wide, The Collector… they're selling something to The Collector. Convinced, Daniel ran out of the bar and looked at the giant building the man used to store his collection. He had visited the Collector just after he arrived in this universe, with the man offering to pay handsomely for some of his trinkets that he had on his person. Before Daniel could create a plan to infiltrate the complex, his sensors detected a massive surge of energy.

"HIT THE DECK!" Daniel reflexively screamed as he did exactly what he said. Unfortunately, it was too late to bring his armor's shielding online, as the flames came too quick and engulfed Dan's body. The shockwave then sent him tumbling down the path for a dozen meters before he finally stopped.

It took him approximately thirty seconds to fully regain consciousness. Before he even got up, he mumbled, "computer… what in the hell just happened?"

"Massive energy surge was detected".

"Yes, yes, I know that," Daniel sighed, standing up and stretching his back. His armor was charred, and his helmet's visor had minor cracks, but, other than that, he was fine. "Give me a graph of the energy surge". The computer did as he asked, and Daniel's eyes widened when everything started to connect in his head. "Only an Infinity stone could produce that level of energy in that timespan," he mumbled.

Daniel turned around to see Rocket and who he knew from the arrest warrant to be Groot. The tree like creature had just let the raccoon out of his arms, and was just dusting himself off. Fueled by a new utter fury, he marched over to where they were and yelled, "what the hell did you think you were doing, selling a GODDAMN INFINITY STONE!" The raccoon looked up to him with surprised eyes, before retorting, "I don't know what your talking about, screw off".

Before Dan could open in retort, Gamora and Quill had already exited the building with the orb. Rocket looked at them with utter shock, "why do you still have that!"

"We need to get this to Nova, there is a chance they can contain it!" Gamora argued.

Daniel stepped forward and took off his helmet, "I can help with that".

Gamora recognized him, "you… you were on Halfworld!" Cracking a small grin, Daniel clasped his arms behind his back and questioned, "abandoning Thanos I gather?"

Before anyone could say more, the sound of starfighter engines thundered from behind. The group collectively turned to see what it was. The man Dan identified as Drax was standing right in front of where multiple Kree craft were landing in the middle of the road. Holding his knifes outwards from his sides, he announced, "I shall meet my foe and destroy him!"

Daniel was absolutely horrified, "you IDIOT!" He grabbed his rifle and turned to the others, "I'll stay with Drax, get the stone out of here!"

Doing as they were told, Gamora and Quill ran off. Rocket stuck around for an extra few seconds, apparently giving Dan's rifle a doubletake before running after his new friends. Dan stood a few meters behind Drax, "I'll leave Ronan to you," Daniel said, holding his rifle downwards and getting out of the way. He knew that Drax 'the Destroyer' would be no match for Ronan, but, he would be an excellent distraction.

Ronan stepped out of his craft onto Knowhere's soil with Drax bellowing, "Ronan the Accuser!" Ronan continued to step forwards, "you were the one who transmitted the message?" Drax's expression turned even more crazed, "you killed my wife, you killed my daughter!" Ronan's face hardened, perhaps out of confusion or amusement, it was clear that Ronan would not be defeated by this mere peasant alone. He then looked to Drax's side, "and who are you?"

Daniel looked up, oh shit. It was his original plan to have Ronan distracted with Drax before lining up a clean shot with his Phase Rifle, but this eliminated this from the realm of possibility. "Ronan," Daniel spoke clearly, "it has been a while".

The Kree froze, instantly recognizing his voice, "Daniel Flynn, you have been a nuisance to me ever since you escaped from Halfworld".

Daniel smiled awkwardly behind his helmet, "I am honored; however, I am about to become far worse to you than that". He could see that the Kree was cocky in his presence, so, in a flurry of motion, Dan raised his rifle, raised his armor's graviton shielding and fired three blood-red phase energy bolts into Ronan's chest with perfect precision at close range. The first two bolts were fully absorbed by the Kree's armor; however, the last one burned through his skin (though not affecting any organs). For a fraction of a second, Daniel felt a real sense of pride and accomplishment seeing the Accuser's blood drip to the floor, before lining up his killing shot. However, something happened that caused him to miss.

Drax happened.

The muscled, 6-foot-tall man barreled into Daniel, causing his would-be perfect shot to only deflect off the Kree's shoulder plating. Falling to the floor, Drax kneeling atop of him, the man growled, with his knife to Dan's throught, "Ronan is MINE!"

You… colossal… asinine… fool… Daniel mentally seethed.

Just as Drax got up to face the Kree, Ronan appeared out of nowhere and punched him, causing the man to go flying into a wall. Daniel looked up through his cracked visor as the Kree stood apparently victorious over him. Daniel pulled out his sidearm, but, Ronan kicked it away before he could fire a single shot. The Kree stepped forward and placed his heel on Daniel's throat. "You're so right about you being more than a nuisance. You are an enemy, and there is only one thing that happens to my enemies".

With his armor's shield power draining rapidly repelling what would be a killing blow, Daniel was running out of options. He could've tried running for his rifle, but, Ronan wouldn't let that happen for sure. In fact, according to Dan's tactical mind, there was only one way out of this. He unclipped a grenade from his belt and threw it straight up in the air into Ronan's face. The Kree dodged and dived for cover.

And that was all Daniel needed, as the grenade wasn't actually armed and fell to the ground harmlessly. He dashed for his fallen weapon that was only about a meter away and picked it up. Before Daniel could do anything else, Drax flew past him and attempted to stab Ronan, but, in the end, the Kree flicked him away with ease.

Daniel rolled his eyes and fired at the blue alien. However, he was prepared and dodged every one of scientist's bolts. Ronan grabbed his hammer and sent a gravity pulse through the air, sending Dan flying into one of the walls, cursing along the way. Before Ronan could finish the job, his communicator went off, "Ronan, it is done".

Smirking, Ronan turned around and glanced at Drax, who was still trying to regain his balance. The muscled man then ran up to him and tried to land a punch, but Ronan dodged again and grabbed him by the throat. After a few seconds of struggling by Drax, the Kree screamed and threw him to the ground. "I don't recall killing your family," Ronan said, "I doubt I'll remember killing you". The Accuser then kicked his opponent unconscious, dragged him to one of the spinal fluid tanks and threw him in, leaving him to drown.

Daniel, who pretended to remain unconscious, lifelessly watched behind his helmet as Ronan boarded his craft and flew off. After he was out of sight, Dan got up and looked around for split second before running toward the spinal fluid pool. It was at times like these when he wished he designed his armor to enhance his strength, because getting Drax out of the pool was… challenging at best for him. Once the man's limp body was in front of his body, his HUD automatically assessed his wounds. Immediately, it started flashing in red text WARNING, AIR PASSAGE BLOCKED.

Well no duh, Daniel thought. Before he could to anything else, he felt the ground shake slightly behind him, with a large shadow covering both Dan and Drax. The scientist turned around slowly, only to be met face-to-face with the large tree creature that he saw earlier. "I am Groot", the tree said, gently pushing Daniel to the side. "Hey, what are you doing…"

Dan cringed as he saw the tree generate a sharp twig and lined it up with Drax's air passage. Dan knew exactly what he was doing, but still, it wasn't pleasant to watch by any means. Coughing, the red and gray man clung back to dear life and vomited out spinal fluid. Daniel crouched down beside him, and asked in a completely calm tone, "do you realize that I had a clean shot? One extra millisecond of accuracy and that monster would have been fried".

Drax looked away in shame. Daniel saw this and decided to ease up a bit, it wasn't like this was the first universe he's ever lost. He leaned back on a wall. Suddenly, a mining pod crash landed a few meters away. "Blasted idiot!" Rocket yelled, "they're all a bunch of idiots". Daniel leaned against a nearby wall, "tell me about it".

"Quill just got himself captured!" The Genetically Modified Racoon continued, pointing at Drax "none of this would have happened if YOU didn't try to single handedly TAKE ON A FRICKEN ARMY!"

Dan stepped forward, "that's not half of it, I had a clean shot on Ronan after I punched a hole in his armor. If Drax here hadn't tackled me when I tried to make that shot, Ronan would be DEAD right now".

Rocket's eye twitched, it was just too much for him. Out of anger, he started kicking a patch of grass. "You're both right, I was a fool," Drax confessed, "all the anger, all the rage, was just to cover my loss". Daniel took off his helmet, knelt down to Drax's level beside him and said, "I completely emphasize with that, I'm from a different universe because my home world was terraformed by an asshole just like Ronan. Everyone I knew from that life died, I was the only survivor, except for a little Earth creature, called a Raccoon, that happened to get into my shielded area before…"

Daniel trailed off, knowing he just slipped up.

Raccoon… Rocket thought, isn't that what Quill used to describe me?

"What became of this 'Raccoon'?" Drax asked out of curiousity. Daniel sighed, stood up and looked away. "You really don't want to know, I mean, people die, but… he… didn't die… he suffered an even worse fate than that".

Daniel turned around to see Rocket, who looked like he had seen a ghost. He stood there, in deep contemplation for a few seconds, before asking in an uncharacteristically deadly voice, "what was his name?"

Daniel took a deep breath.