WHAT IF . . . ?

"Rocket & Groot & Lylla & Floor & Teefs"

Or

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

Part Five: Space Walk

Groot held Rocket up to the wall of the ship as he welded on a metal plate to the inside of the hull. Lylla approached the pair and said, "I. . .really think we should have waited and checked things more carefully before taking off. The ship took a lot of damage during that race."

"Eh, don't worry about it, Lylla," Rocket said nonchalantly as he put the blowtorch to the bolts, "Groot caught the hairline crack in the hull in time, didn't he?"

"I am Groot," Groot said nervously.

"Yeah, we're totally fine," Rocket said with a wave of his hand, "Besides, we need to hurry to where our next bounty target is!"

"Rocket, we all want that new ship," Lylla said gently, worry evident in her eyes, "But I can't help but feel like we're going too fast and taking too many risks. Shouldn't we be a bit more careful?"

Rocket stopped welding and turned towards Lylla. He lifted up his welder's mask and said with a reassuring smile, "Hey. Don't you worry about a thing, Lylla. I've got everything under control. Just relax and let me take you on that journey through the forever sky."

Lylla smiled slightly at this. "That's sweet, Rocket. But I'm always ready to help out and act when I need to."

"I know," Rocket said, "But still, I'd rather you not worry about stuff. Not that there's anything to worry about anyway!"

Rocket then tossed his welder's mask and nodded to the panel he just welded on, "That should hold this bucket of bolts together! At least for another-."

What happened next happened in a blink of an eye. Several of the bolts holding the panel down popped off, and then the panel itself crumbled like aluminum foil and was sucked right out of the hole it was covering. Rocket was immediately pulled out of the hole, but Groot quickly grew his arm out after him. Groot strained as he tried to pull his friend back in, but the forces pulling him out were too strong. Groot turned to the horrified Lylla and gave her a sad look before growing his other arm out to grab her and hurl her to the opposite side of the ship. Right after that, Groot was pulled out of the hole in the hull, and several objects, including the refrigerator, were sucked onto the hole, effectively plugging and sealing it in a very unconventional manner.

Teefs and Floor quickly raced to the back of the ship and saw Lylla lying flat on her back and gasping for breath.

"What was noise?" Floor asked.

"The life support system just went crazy!" Teefs shouted, "It's gone into emergency oxygen production mode and- wait, where are Groot and Rocket?"

"A hole! A hole! In the ship!" Lylla gasped as she pointed to where the refrigerator was stuck to the wall.

"What?" Teefs asked in confusion.

"They're in space!" Lylla finally exclaimed.

"WHAT!?" Teefs said louder.

Floor shook her head so hard that her antennae rattled. "No good! No good!"

Teefs looked around aimlessly, his wheels spinning and yet not taking him anywhere. "Nonononono, this can't be happening," he said to himself.

"What we do? What we do?" Floor asked desperately.

Teefs looked at Floor in desperation, despair in his eyes. "I. . .I. . .I don't-."

Lylla suddenly jumped up and bolted towards the cockpit. She jumped into Rocket's chair and grabbed the control stick.

Eyes wide in confusion and panic, Teefs shouted, "Lylla! What are you-?"

Lylla jerked the control stick to the left, and the ship violently and shakily made a sharp turn.

Teefs' wheels nearly tipped over, and he managed to steady himself and shouted, "Lylla, you don't know how to fly! Have you lost your miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!"

Lylla had pulled a lever, which boosted the engines. Combined with the sharp turn, the ship ended up going into a rapid spin.

"Weeeeeeeeeee! This is fun! So dizzy!" Floor cheered.

"I'm gonna be siiiiiiiiiick!" Teefs moaned as he was flung against the wall and pinned to it by centrifugal force.

Lylla pushed the lever back and pulled a different one, and the engines cooled down a bit. She tugged the control stick the opposite way and eventually stopped their spin. She shook the dizziness out of her eyes and then, to her amazement, she could see Groot and Rocket floating right ahead of them through the windshield. Groot had managed to grow out his arms and grab Rocket, but they were both visibly freezing up in the cold vacuum of space quite rapidly.

"Okay. . . . boost, turn, brake then open door. . ." Lylla said to herself, "I can do this. I can do this. I can do this."

Lylla pulled the lever to increase engine power, but only pulled it halfway this time. The ship zoomed towards Rocket and Groot, and Lylla pushed the lever back while at the same time turning the control stick to the right. The ship spun 180 degrees, but kept its momentum and floated backwards towards the castaways.

"Floor! Teefs! Get over here and buckle up! And hold your breath!" Lylla shouted.

The pair dizzily did as they were told, and then Lylla hit the brakes while at the same time hitting the button to open the rear door. Once Rocket and Groot had floated back in through the door, Lylla quickly closed it. This reengaged the artificial gravity and life support, which quickly worked overtime in replacing all of the lost air. Rocket and Groot fell to the floor, the frost covering their bodies shattered as they lay there, with Rocket gasping like fish out of water.

Teefs quickly rolled over with a warm blanket and draped it over the pair.

Floor walked over to Rocket and asked innocently, "Being in space not fun?"

Unable to speak, Rocket simply shook his head at her. He then turned to see Lylla walking over to him with an unreadable facial expression. Rocket immediately felt uncomfortable, as he had never seen Lylla like this before.

Rocket sighed and said, "You were right. About everything. I should've-mmph!"

It actually took Rocket a few seconds for him to realize that he was being kissed. It was something many alien races did to express love, and he wasn't sure if such an action would be natural for creatures like themselves. But, then again, literally nothing about him and his friends was natural. But what Rocket couldn't deny was that having his cheeks caressed in Lylla's metal hands as she passionately breathed her love into him was a wonderful feeling unlike no other.

"I can't believe ya actually flew this thing," Rocket said with a look of pride on his face as he guided the ship in for a landing on the planet's surface.

Lylla smiled shyly and said, "Not fly. . .more like. . .steered. I've seen you work the control hundreds of times, so I figured I could just guide the ship close enough for you to get back inside."

"Are you kidding?" Teefs said in amazement, "Dizziness aside, what you did was genius, Lylla! The way you figured out how to turn the ship at just the right time! You're just as clever as Rocket!"

"I am Groot!" Groot agreed with a smile.

Lylla smiled and blushed. "Well. . .I wouldn't go that far. . ."

"I would," Rocket said gently, and he grinned and said, "And ya really shouldn't sell yourself short after you've just saved two lives."

"You would've done the same," Lylla said humbly.

"Yeah, sure, but that doesn't make what you did any less heroic," Rocket said with certainty.

The shop touched down, and Rocket said, "Alright. Now it's time to check this crate with a fine toothed comb. I'm gonna make it a whole new level of airtight. I'm gonna reinforce every single weak point. This ship will last until we make 3 million credits! That's a promise."

Rocket spun his chair around and gazed at his friends. "You guys willing to help me find all the weak spots?"

The other four all voiced their willingness to help, and Rocket just had to back in his good fortune.

End of part five . . . .