WHAT IF . . . ?

"Rocket & Groot & Lylla & Floor & Teefs"

Or

Rocket's Friends Survived and Had Adventures with Him and Groot

Part Two: Piece of Cake

It took some time to patch up the old ship well enough to take off, but Rocket's mechanical genius shone through as usual and the group was once again flying through the forever and beautiful sky.

Rocket heard the clicking of Floor's mechanical legs as he sat at the controls, and he turned to see the cyborg bunny approach while holding a sheet of notepaper in her paw.

"Floor made something special to inspire friends!" she said as she held out the piece of paper to Rocket.

Rocket took the paper and looked at it. It was a crayon drawing of the new ship, flying amongst planets with cartoonish depictions of everyone on board. Rocket was holding a blaster as big as he was and shooting at a red skull, with Groot right behind him looking far more tree-like. Lylla was surfing on the left wing of the ship, Teefs was cheering with his flippers raised at the rear of the ship, and Floor herself was up on the nose of the ship doing a "King of the World" pose. Of course, everyone had huge smiles on their faces.

Rocket himself was smiling too, and he looked down at his friend and said truthfully, "I love it. It's perfect."

Floor laughed happily, her antennae moving expressively.

Rocket used two wads of gum to attach the drawing to the control panel, covering a smashed monitor in the upper left corner.

Rocket nodded and said, "Well, since we need a ton of credits for a new ship and have zilch, we're gonna have to actually work for this." He put the ship on autopilot and slid his chair over to the computer section. Rocket had custom made the computer system so that he'd be able to pull up exactly what he needed at the push of a button. "Let's check the outstanding bounties," He said as Groot and Teefs came over to look over his shoulders.

Lylla nodded and said, "Okay. Just remember to not get in over your head, Rocket. No ship is worth risking your life over." Bounty hunting had been a bit of a point of concern for her back when the friends' adventure had just begun. Lylla had no issue with stopping bad people from doing any more harm. In fact, given what they had been through due to the vile machinations of the High Evolutionary; she herself nearly being shot; Lylla felt some duty to do whatever she could to keep such things from happening to other innocents throughout the galaxy. That being said, Lylla did not feel comfortable with Rocket and Groot going after criminals or monsters that could destroy them instantly should they make one false move.

"Don't worry, I'll keep it simple," Rocket assured her, and he hit a button to turn on a hologram that displayed the latest wanted posters. He then began swiping left as he dismissed the various criminals and beasts that came up.

"Too monstrous. . .Too deadly. . .Too ugly. . . Next. . . Wait, what?"

Rocket turned back to a wanted poster that depicted the head of a big eyed feline with an antennae like protrusion on its head.

"I am Groot," Groot cooed, taken in by the adorable looking creature.

Teefs blinked and said, "Huh. That's the most adorable looking criminal or monster I've ever seen."

Rocket was already excited as he said, "Well would ya look at that! It's cute, it's cuddly, and it's worth a million credits!"

Lylla was confused by the image and asked, "But why? What could something so sweet-looking have possibly done?"

Rocket checked the details and said, "It says here that this creature has been connected to the disappearances of many explorers who've landed on its planet. Huh. Probably leads them off cliffs or into bottomless bogs or quicksand. Your basic will-o'-the-wisp kind of deal. But it's not gonna work on us!" He then grabbed the control to change course and said excitedly, "This bounty will be a piece of cake! What can go wrong?"

"I am Groot!" Groot cheered as Rocket fired up the engines and set a course for the planet.

They group landed on the planet and disembarked to find themselves in a colorful wonderland of giant balls of cotton-like fluff, giant mushrooms, and huge vibrant vines that grew across the ground.

Floor hopped about excitedly and cheered happily, "It's so pretty!"

Groot was quickly entranced by some buzzing, green firefly-like creatures. "I am Groot. . . I am Groot. . .I am Groot!" he said as he reached out a finger to touch one of them.

Teefs rolled along leisurely as he looked up at the tall mushrooms. He then took a deep breath in through his nose and sighed, "Ahhh. . .Now this is a nice change of pace, ain't it?"

Lylla smiled as she sat down on a soft, fuzzy, blue and pink striped vine and said, "It sure is."

Rocket had his blaster ready as he peered suspiciously around. "Yeah, yeah; this planet is soft and colorful and cute. I get it," he said, his voice thick with tension as he searched for the bounty.

"Maybe you should give yourself a chance to enjoy it?" Lylla suggested.

"Can't right now, we're on a mission," Rocket said busily.

Lylla just shook her head and said, "Well. . .I remember a time when whenever we found a nice, peaceful planet, we'd just park the ship somewhere safe. . . set up a nice little camp. . . collect some food. . .and just. . . relax."

Rocket paused, and he slowly turned his head to look at Lylla, who was smiling warmly at him.

"And then. . ." Lylla went on, ". . .we'd lay down on our backs together like we used to do in our cages, except instead of staring at the ceiling and imagining. . .we'd see clouds against a big sky and find pictures in those clouds. . .and then at night, we'd see so many stars and connect them into pictures. . ."

Rocket blinked, and he smiled and holstered his blaster. He walked over to Lylla and sat down on the fuzzy vine next to her.

"Yeah. . ." Rocket said, his smile growing sheepish, "I guess it has been a while since we've done that, hasn't it?" Then he sighed and hung his head. "I'm sorry. . ."

Lylla put a bionic arm around him and said, "Aw, don't apologize, Rocket. After all, we all like going on adventures too. But it is nice to just be able to relax and enjoy what's around us from time to time."

Rocket raised his head and turned to meet Lylla's warm gaze. The pair sat there smiling at each other and looking into each other's eyes. Slowly, their faces began to inch closer to each other. Suddenly, the vine they were sitting on jerked around and they both fell off of it. Then there was a loud, low rumbling sound that caught everyone's attention.

The five friends all looked up and finally noticed the huge figure that had been silently towering above them. It was the feline from the wanted poster, but what the poster did not specify was the alien cat's enormous size, with the "vine" Lylla and Rocket had been sitting on being its tail. The cat was easily 50 feet tall.

"I am Groot," Groot said in amazement.

Rocket stood in wide eyed amazement and said, "Yeah, he doesn't look like his profile pic."

Lylla looked around at all the giant pink "cotton balls" and said, "Well, now we know what these things are."

"Yeah, and now we know where all those explorers went!" Teefs said nervously, "Down the hatch!"

Rocket nodded and said, "Well, if it's been eating people, then it's got to go! Hmm. . . but we're gonna need a bigger gun."

Lylla took a step back to better gauge that cat's incredible size and said, "I don't know how we're going to catch something so big!"

"Oh, I've got it!" Teefs said, "How about that paralyzer ray you built, Rocket? You could zap it, and then we'll just call the authorities to pick him up."

Rocket smirked and said, "Heh! I'm away ahead of ya, Teefs!" Rocket then pulled out the yellow paralyzer ray and took aim. "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty!" Rocket said mockingly as he fired the gun at the creature.

The beam hit the cat dead on, and the energy from the blast traveled up to its antenna and dissipated harmlessly. The cat blinked, clearly unfazed by the shot.

"Heh. . ." Rocket said awkwardly, looking over his weapon, "That should have worked. . ."

Then, in the blink of an eye, the situation suddenly took a turn for the chaotic. With no warning whatsoever, the cat's jaw unhinged, and its lips peeled off to reveal a horrifying gaping maw filled with razor sharp teeth as it let out a monstrous roar.

"RETREAT, RETREAT, RETREAT!" Rocket shouted as the group turned and made a beeline for the ship.

The monster cat continued to roar as it took heavy, booming steps in pursuit. Its immense size allowed it to keep up with the would-be bounty hunters without moving very fast. Rocket held Lylla's metal hand tightly as they ran, with Groot reaching the ship first and Teef rolling in at a close second. Rocket and Lylla jumped in, and Rocket quickly pushed the button to close the rear door as the cat bore down on them, its gaping maw looking ready to swallow them all whole.

Rocket then jumped into the captain's chair and powered up the engines. The ship quickly rose and took off for the atmosphere.

"I am Groot," Groot said with visible relief.

"You can say that again," Rocket said with a nod, then he frowned and said irately, "You'd think they'd mention that in the wanted poster-."

"Uh, guys?" Teefs asked nervously.

"Yeah?" Rocket replied absentmindedly.

"Where's Floor?!" Teefs said in alarm.

Rocket's eyes widened and he quickly spun his chair around to look around the ship. Groot and Lylla looked around as well.

"Oh no. . ." Lylla said softly, looking to be filled with fear.

Rocket quickly grabbed the controls and turned the ship around. "Don't worry, we'll get her back! Don't panic!"

The ship dived back down towards the planet's surface, and the enormous cat could clearly be seen to still be in the area.

"Look! There!" Teefs shouted, pointing with one of the arms in his collar. Sure enough, the cyborg bunny could be seen sitting right on top of the monstrous creature's head, hanging onto its single antenna with two of her metal legs.

"WHAT IS SHE-!? URRGH!" Rocket shouted in both frustration and disbelief, "Groot, head to the back of the ship. I'm gonna swing around. Grab her when we fly past."

"I am Groot!" Groot said dutifully, and he got into position as the rear door opened.

The cat looked up and roared again when it saw the ship coming back.

Rocket clutched the controls tightly as he leaned forward in focus. "Come on. . .come on. . ." he said as he lined up his trajectory while also studying the way the cat's paws were planted.

With one more roar, the cat lunged forward as the ship flew past. Rocket quickly brought the ship upwards, just barely dodging the deadly chomp. As they zoomed past, Groot grew his arms out long enough to grab Floor and pull her back into the ship.

Once the door shut and the ship was once again headed to the stars, Teefs and Lylla both sped over to Floor and Groot.

Lylla joined in on the hug Groot was giving Floor and said, "Oh, thank goodness you're alright!"

Teefs laughed and gave Groot a nod. "Nice catch there," he said.

"I am Groot," he replied with a smile.

Rocket wasn't as happy as the others, and he slammed the autopilot button before stomping over to his friends and shouted, "Floor! What were you thinking!?"

Floor looked over at Rocket, her eyes showing signs of confusion and embarrassment, and she said, "Floor thought kitty could be friend. Floor give kitty head scratches."

Rocket stared at the bunny blankly, then he finally found his voice and said, "But it tried to eat us! Didn't you hear it roar? Didn't you see its teeth?"

"Floor was climbing on kitty's back. Heard roar, but thought kitty was just grumpy," Floor explained innocently.

Rocket buried his face and his hands and groaned.

Floor looked down sadly and said, "Kitty looked cute and friendly. . ."

Lylla looked between the exasperated Rocket and the dismayed Floor. She gently lifted up the bunny's chin and said, "Remember that fun farm planet we visited? The one with all the lettuce?" The way Floor's eyes lit up gave Lylla the answer, so she continued, "Well, you know how those two children took one look at you and ran away?"

Floor nodded and said, "Yes. Lylla say they judge Floor before they know Floor."

"Right. They saw your extra legs and big metal mouth and antenna and thought you were scary and would try to bite them," Lylla explained gently.

"Floor never do that!" the bunny said while shaking her head.

"Exactly! They thought you looked mean, but you're really nice. . . Just like how we all thought the kitty looked nice, but it was really mean and dangerous. That's why it's a bad idea to judge anything based on how it looks, because you could be wrong."

Floor was silent for a moment as she took it all in. Then she nodded and said, "Okay. Floor understands. Sorry."

Teefs waved a flipper and said, "Ah, no big deal. I mean, we all kinda made the same mistake. We're all just glad you're okay."

"Good. Floor will stay in ship for next mission," the bunny said.

"I am Groot!" Groot said with a chuckle.

Lylla nodded, and then turned to Rocket, who was currently staring at her in amazement.

". . .How do ya do it?" Rocket asked quietly, "How do ya always know just what to say in the most perfect way possible?"

Lylla smiled bashfully and said, "Oh, I wouldn't say perfect-."

"Well then I'll say it for ya! I mean. . ." Rocket calmed down a bit, then continued, "I mean, ya always know the right words to say. Not just back in the cages. Tons of times you've done it. Like right before we ran into that cat. I was all wound up and ya got me to just take a breather and . . . appreciate stuff. . ."

Rocket rubbed his arm awkwardly and said, "Listen to me. I can't even find the right words to explain what ya do. Seriously, if I had to explain something to someone or teach them some kind of lesson, I'd just get all annoyed and frustrated and end up insulting them and being blunt and stuff. . ."

"And maybe there are certain people who need that approach," Lylla offered, "I'm sure there are plenty of tough guys that would like your way better."

Rocket grinned and said, "And here ya go again, making me feel better about myself. I'm starting to wonder if you're a genius too. . . in your own way."

Lylla felt warm all over as she replied, "Thanks Rocket. That's really sweet of you to say."

So, while no credits were earned that day, a few valuable lessons were learned by those on board the old ship. Now the group was in search of a more simple, straightforward bounty that didn't have so many misleading unknowns.

End of part two . . .