AN: I would like to say upfront here that this story doesn't have a set schedule as to when it will update. Some will come sooner than others, but I will do my best to make sure it get's completed and give updates in chapter notes if I need to go on a major hiatus or anything of that sort.
"Time. Space. Reality. It's more than a linear path. It's a prism of endless possibility. Where a single choice can branch out into infinite realities, creating alternate worlds from the ones you know. Each a reflection of what could have been. Some heroes will rise, others will fall. And nothing will be the same. I am the Watcher. I am your guide through these vast new realities. Follow me and dare to face the unknown, and ponder the question... What if?"
The Dragon Saver Presents
A "Guardians of the Galaxy" Story
"Batch 89: The Awesome Mix"
Sire had lied to them.
Sire had lied to them.
Sire had lied to them.
Those words kept repeating through Rocket's head as he muttered to himself, picking up the pieces of machinery he'd hidden around his cage. Sire had promised him a paradise, a place where he and his friends could live in a new world as His perfect creations. Rocket had even figured out the flaw in Sire's evolution machine that He couldn't even solve. And how had Rocket been repaid for his efforts.
Sire had laughed at Rocket. To his face. All Sire cared about what Rocket's brain, his intelligence that rivaled that of his creators. Rocket couldn't care less about how smart he was. All he wanted has to build a spaceship so he and his friends could fly off into the forever and beautiful sky. They could all fly away together: Rocket, Floor, Teefs, and-
"Rocket?" came a soft voice from the other cage. He looked up to meet the eyes of his first friend- the one who taught him what a "friend" even was. "Rocket, what's wrong?" Lylla asked again.
Rocket looked at the device he had made in his hands, the one that would free himself and his friends so they could escape. "Lylla… I… I did it. I solved Sire's problem."
"That's good, Rocket," Lylla smiled.
"Friends go to new world now!" Floor chimed in, bobbing happily on her spider-like appendages.
"No, we don't go, Floor," Rocket shook his head.
"What do you mean, Rocket?" Teefs asked, looking at his friend in confusion.
"Sire… He says we aren't made for the new world," Rocket said. "That we're… broken, imperfect."
"But Sire only makes perfect things," Teefs said.
"We not broken. We work fine," Floor added.
"Sire doesn't think so. He said that we're… going to be taken care of tomorrow," Rocket said. He looked at the device in his hands. "We need to leave. Now. Or else we won't be able to see the sky…" As he spoke, Rocket's ears twitched a bit, pulling the words from his throat as a sound that wasn't supposed to be there echoed faintly. Rocket recognized the sound: the sound of Sire's shoes on the floor.
Rocket's mind went into overdrive at the implications of that sound. 'Of course,' he thought. 'Sire wouldn't tell me what he was going to do to my friends and not expect me to act out. He just wants my brain, after all. Why waste the time with the rest of my body?'
"Rocket? No lies," Floor suddenly said. "Friends don't lie to friends. Rocket don't lie to friends, yes?"
Rocket realized the position he was in right now. If he tried to escape now, there was a likely chance that Sire would kill him and his friends. But if he didn't act at all, then they would die anyway. So he did what he could at the moment, what he could say to make sure they had a chance of escaping. "No Floor… It was just a joke," Rocket said.
"A joke?" Teefs chuckled. "Rocket has a weird since of humor."
"Ha Ha Ha! Rocket tell jokes!" Floor laughed.
"Yeah… Just wanted to try something new…" Rocket chuckled, though he felt awful for having to lie to his friends. He slipped the completed device under the straw that covered the floor of his cage, putting it near the door. "Well, we have a big day tomorrow. Might as well get some sleep."
"Yes! Sleep now, see new world tomorrow!" Floor nodded, hopping over to her preferred sleeping spot.
"Well then, good night, everyone," Teefs yawned, rolling over to where he slept as well.
Rocket laid down at the edge of the cage on his back, looking up at the ceiling of his cage, trying to think of what he should do. "Rocket, did you lie to Teefs and Floor?" Lylla asked quietly, laying opposite to him.
"They wouldn't be able to accept the truth," Rocket said. "I had to lie to make sure we can all get out of here alive. You believe me, don't you, Lylla?"
Lylla reached one of her robotic arms through the bars of the cage, taking hold of Rocket's own. "I trust you, Rocket. If Sire is lying about the new world, then I trust that you tell the truth. Sire may have created us, but he is not our friend. Friends trust friends… but you should apologize to Teefs and Floor."
"I will," Rocket nodded, squeezing her hand with his own. "Once we get out of here, I'll tell them everything. And we can explore the forever sky, together…"
[***]
The High Evolutionary did not like to have his time wasted. He stood just outside the room where Batch 89 was held for an hour before determining that staying there would be a fruitless effort. The mad scientist concluded that, despite his hypothesis on Subject 89P13 planning for and implementing an escape for Batch 89, he had been wrong in the raccoon's actions once again.
"It seems that Subject 89P13 has fallen into despair upon hearing of his fate," The High Evolutionary stated to one of his Recorders as they went about beginning the final stages of his Counter-Earth project. "Make sure that it and the rest of Batch 89 are terminated first thing in the morning. For now, let us continue with the evolution process. My perfect utopia is at hand now."
"Um, sir-" another Recorder suddenly entered the room.
"WHAT IS IT YOU WANT!?" The High Evolutionary screamed, making the Recorder flinch. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of something!?"
"Sorry, Sire, it's just that… there was a breach in the holding cells," the Recorder explained.
The High Evolutionary quickly moved over to his control console pulling up the map of the cell block area. He looked at the map and tapped on where the breach was, finding both the open cells of Batch 89 and a knocked-out guard and Recorder on the floor. Slowly turning to the Recorder, The High Evolutionary tilted his head, making his servant struggle as they were grabbed by his telekinetic grip.
"You let them escape!?" The High Evolutionary shouted.
"They escaped on their own and took out the guard!" the Recorder stammered. "Subject 89P13… he outsmarted us, Sire!"
"I want all guards hunting down Batch 89. NOW!" the madman shouted, his men all quickly rushing out to spread the word and raise the alarm.
"We're you already planning on terminating them, Sire?" his Recorder asked. "Surely losing a few faulty experiments wouldn't be so bad?"
"I want Subject 89P13's brain, and I can't have it if he's not here!" The High Evolutionary stated. "You can kill the rest of them for all I care, but I need 89P13's head intact for further research."
"Sire! Batch 89 continues to evade capture!" a guard called over the intercom.
"The rabbit is surprisingly flighty!" called another. More guards kept chiming in.
"Who thought it was good idea to put a ton of fat on wheels!?"
"The raccoon has a gun! I repeat: Subject 89P13 has a gun!"
"This would be so adorable if they weren't attacking us right now!"
"Everyone SHUT UP!" The High Evolutionary screamed, his powers pulsing out again. The coms went silent after that, the mad scientist panting as he looked out the window from his desk, catching the faintest glimpse of a spaceship leaving the atmosphere of Counter-Earth.
"…Uh, Sire…?" a nervous Recorder peaked into the room. "Batch 89 just escaped on a… You know what, you look like you already knew that… I'm just gonna… go now…" The cybernetic person quickly fled as his master roared out in anger.
[***]
"Sky! Sky! Sky!" Floor chanted, rapidly bouncing around the cockpit of the ship Rocket had stolen. Despite never having flown a ship before, he found the controls had come naturally to him, like a fish to water.
"The sky is beautiful…" Teefs said in awe, his face pressed against the glass.
"And it's all ours to explore, together," Rocket nodded. "Sorry I lied to you guys, but it was the only way for us to get out of there."
"Friend Rocket no lie. Rocket surprise friends with game!" Floor giggled. "Guards acting silly when Floor pounced them! Fall to ground and not get up! Silly guards."
"Sure, Floor, let's go with that," Rocket sighed, though he couldn't help but smile at his friend's wide-eyed naiveite. It was something he wished he could still have.
"It truly is beautiful here," Lylla breathed, taking a seat next to Rocket. "Where should we go first?"
"I… I never thought of where I'd go once I got out here," Rocket admitted. "How about… we just go wherever this ship takes us? You see a planet; we can go there." He smiled as he looked out into the endless sea of stars surrounding them. "Then, we'll find some parts and make a new, better ship… and, and I don't know what we'll do after that, but I just want to do it all with you."
Lylla nodded. "Yes. It's good to have friends."
"Yeah. Yeah, it is…" Rocket agreed. He didn't know where they would end up first, but he was just glad to be alive and free in the moment.
[***]
For about a month or so (none of them were really keen on keeping track of time at the moment), Rocket and his friends simply explored the galaxy at their leisure. They had no big plans or goals, just a couple of illegal genetic experiments roaming space together. Of course, the fun couldn't last forever, and soon Rocket had to make a longer pitstop for the gang to both rest up and to make repairs to their ship. The old thing had seen better days since the gang had stolen it, and Rocket decided it was high time he actually started building one for himself.
"Welp, here we are," Rocket said as Batch 89 exited their ship. "Sakaar, the dumping grounds of the galaxy. I'm sure we'll find plenty of parts to make a ship of our own."
"Trash. Lots of trash," Floor noted, skittering between junk piles.
"Yeah, but there is the phrase "One man's trash in another man's treasure"," Rocket recalled. "Just make sure you steer clear of raiders out here. They like to throw things into their death matches in the big city apparently."
"We'll be careful," Rocket," Teefs nodded. The walrus rolled on after Floor, but the uneven terrain made it hard for his wheels to navigate. Eventually, Teefs found himself stuck in place as a large piece of shrapnel managed to puncture one of the tires. "Oh dear… It appears that I'm stuck."
"We'll get you out of there, big guy," Rocket said. He, Lylla, and Floor all worked together to push Teefs back to the ship, settling him down in the main area they'd been using for sleep. "Aw crud, how are we going to fix this one?" Rocket cursed. "It's not like we're just going to find another tire like this one lying around, at least not in a usable condition."
"I'm sorry guys. I should have been watching where I was going," Teefs apologized.
"There's no need to apologize, Teefs. We just never thought we'd be in this situation," Lylla assured her friend.
"But what now? If Teefs has no wheel, then Teefs can't go," Floor asked.
"We'll have to figure something out," Rocket replied. The raccoon went over to one of the ship's compartments and pulled out a small box roughly the size of a book, along with a disk. "Here, we can use that disk I "borrowed" of the Recorder we jumped. That guy was always following Sire around when I was taken out of the cage, so I'm sure he had to have some information on us."
Inserting the disk into the box, the device lit up with a hologram displaying all sorts of information. "What's it say?" Teefs asked.
"Well, it's a bunch of notes on all of us," Rocket said, pointing to the title of the file Batch 89 Schematics and Biometrics. "Basically, if I just do this…" He tapped the subfile labeled 89A95, which showed notes on Teefs. That raccoon looked more concerned the more he read through the file.
"These changes… they all look incredibly inefficient," Lylla said, making Rocket look at her in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Rocket asked.
"The way Sire made Teefs… it doesn't seem very efficient," Lylla reiterated. She pointed at some of the pictures in the file, one showing a standard Earth Walrus, and the other showing Teefs post-uplift. "While Teefs does have better mobility and use of his upper flippers, his base anatomy was not fully taken into account when making the modifications. It would have been more efficient to give a walrus faux limbs for dexterity while keeping their body low to the ground, as to not cause any discomfort in the changed posture."
"You… got all that from just looking at these pictures?" Rocket said in surprise.
Lylla scratched her head, right where the High Evolutionary had opened up her skull during his experimentation with augmenting her brain. "I can't explain it, but a part of me just looks at this and understands what's wrong with Teefs' current state."
"…Like me whenever I figured out the flaw in Sire's machine. I just knew what was wrong," Rocket said in realization. "Lylla, you're a genius!"
"Oh… Well, thank you, Rocket, but you're the smart one here," Lylla said modestly.
Rocket smiled at her. "No, seriously, you're a genius, Ly. It takes serious brains to notice something like that right off the bat. I might now how to fix machines and stuff, but you might just have me beat when it comes to medical know-how."
"Well, I am the one that's been taking care of all of us whenever we get hurt," Lylla noted.
"Yes, yes! Lylla makes the boo-boos go away!" Floor nodded.
"You have a big heart, Lylla, always taking good care of us," Teefs added. "So, do you think you can fix my wheel, then?"
Rocket and Lylla looked at each other and nodded. "Oh, we're going to do better than fix your wheel, Teefs. I think it's time that we all get some upgrades to the "gifts" Sire left us with. Lylla can figure out what we need to do to get you back on your… flippers, and I'll go scavenge up some parts do that."
"Upgrades?" Floor questioned. "Like Rocket wants to make for ship?"
"Yeah, like that," Rocket nodded. "But I'm only doing this if you guys want me to. I'm not going to be like Sire, tearing our bodies apart and putting them back together however he damn pleased. You got that?"
Floor tilted her head, processing his words before nodding. "Floor understand. Sire make us, but Sire also make hurt. Rocket wants to fix us, but not hurt friends." She suddenly gasped. "Can Friend Rocket and Friend Lylla upgrade Floor too!?"
"Anything you want, Floor," Rocket chuckled. "But we gotta work on Teefs first. Wanna go find the parts to do that?" The rabbit eagerly accepted, happily following her friend out into the junkyard planet to scavenge for parts that they needed, while Lylla stayed behind to further study the intricacies of each of their unique physiologies.
Time passed, and soon Rocket had enough parts to fix Teefs' wheels and then some. The raccoon had created a belt of sorts that wrapped around the walrus' waist where his wheels usually connected, which allowed for a new set of collapsible wheels to be attached, thus giving Teefs the option to roll around upright or fold the wheels in and move around on his belly. Additionally, Rocket created a collar for Teefs that held various tools inside that the walrus could control mentally, since he had expressed interest in helping around the ship with mechanics that Rocket was eager to teach.
In the process of all this, Lylla was disturbed to find that the High Evolutionary had installed a failsafe in each of their hearts that acted as a kill switch should any sort of medical device be used on them. "Luckily there seems to be a copy of the deactivation codes for each of us in here," Lylla said. "I just need to upload them into our cybernetics to turn off the kill switch."
"Yeah, I'd like to not die because of some device latched onto my heart, thank you very much," Rocket said. No one else disagreed with that notion.
Once that was done, Rocket went about making other upgrades for his friends, as well as upgrading their ship in the meantime. Floor wanted to be able to feel the ground like her friends did, so Lylla and Rocket figured out a way to do just that. By adjusting the ports Floor's spider-like appendages, Rocket was able to let them retract and create a brace around her torso that stabilized Floor enough to let her stand on her own legs, while Lylla used her medical knowledge to restart the nerves in Floor's limbs. She would be shaky for the first few weeks, and her forepaws didn't have the same enhancements as Lylla and Rocket to hold objects, but the rabbit was happy to be able to hug her friends anyways.
"Is there anything we can do about her mouth guard?" Rocket asked. "I mean, she can eat just fine, but would it hurt her to do so?"
"I think it's safe to remove, if we do it carefully," Lylla nodded. "From what I'm reading here, Sire put it in place so Floor would stop biting him…"
"Floor can take it!" Floor insisted. "Floor want to smile like friends do!" And after some careful tinkering, she was able to do just that.
Days went by, and soon enough their ship was ready to fly again. The entire thing was made more aerodynamic and added in small living quarters for each of them, with Rocket making sure to update the weapon systems and the friends all pitching in for a new paintjob, coloring the ship a sleek chrome with orange-yellow detailing.
"Well guys, we did it!" Rocket nodded. "Now to get off this junk planet and back out into the sky!"
"Yay! Sky, sky, sky!" Floor bounced around the ship.
"It will be nice getting a change of scenery," Teefs nodded.
As the two headed up to their seats in the new cockpit, Rocket stopped Lylla from following them. "Lylla, there's one last thing I wanted to show you," he said.
"What is it, Rocket?" she asked.
Nervously the raccoon went to one of the ship's compartments and came back with a box. Opening it up, Lylla looked down and pulled out what appeared to be a pair of small prosthetic arms made from durable fibers. "What are these for?" the otter asked.
"These are… These are for you," Rocket said. "I know you didn't ask if for new arms, but when I was working on the parts for Floor and Teefs, I may have set some parts aside to work on these." He gave a cough. "Not that I think you need new arms, you're great just as you are, but I just… wanted you to have the option."
Lylla looked at the raccoon, a warm feeling coming to her chest as she did. "Rocket… Thank you." She gave him a smile, making the warm feeling bubble up in Rocket as well. "So, will you help me put these on?"
Rocket nodded, moving behind Lylla to have better access to her cybernetics. He carefully used his claws to press down into divots on her collarbone, her arm sockets making a hissing noise as her old arms fell to the ground with a thud. Rocket then picked up each of Lylla's new arms and put them into place, the devices giving a click as the connecting wires latched into the sockets.
"Okay Ly… This might tickle a bit," Rocket said, stepping in front of her. "I'm going to activate your new arms now…" The raccoon carefully pressed in on different divots on Lylla's collarbone, the otter giving a small yelp as a jolt of electricity went over her body as the new arms fully connected to her nervous system.
Lylla shuttered a bit, before noticing a new feeling she'd never felt before. The otter let out a gasp as she raised her arm, flexing the fingers and watching as the simulated fiber "muscles" expanded and contracted with each movement. "I can… feel them…" Lylla whispered. While she was able to pick up and touch things with her old arms, the otter had never been able to truly feel anything with the crude imitations of arms the High Evolutionary had "gifted" her with.
"Yeah. They're a bit basic, but I wanted to make sure you could have a full range of touch with those," Rocket nodded.
Lylla smiled, tears coming to her eyes as she rushed into Rocket, holding him tight and rubbing her snout against his neck. The raccoon stiffened, feeling the heat in his chest rise to his face before returning the hug. "Thank you, Rocket…" Lylla sniffled. "It's nice to able to feel this…"
"Lylla cry?" Floor asked, popping her head into the room.
"Is everything okay?" Teefs added.
"I'm fine," Lylla smiled. "More than fine, actually. These are happy tears."
"Tears can be happy?" Floor questioned.
"Sometimes," Lylla nodded.
"…Can Floor join hug?" the rabbit asked.
"Get over her, you guys," Rocket rolled his eyes. Floor happily jumped into the hug, with Teefs scooping up all of them in his flippers as well. The quartet just held there for a moment, feeling the warmth between them. 'This… This is nice…' Rocket thought.
The moment was unfortunately interrupted, however, by the sound of another ship landing nearby. Looking out the open ramp, the group of friends saw a human-looking woman with white marks on her face striding up to them.
"Excuse me. We were in the middle of something," Rocket said to the newcomer.
The lady quirked an eyebrow at him. "A talking rabbit?"
"No, Floor is rabbit. Rocket is raccoon," Floor said, oblivious to the situation.
The woman shrugged. "Eh, there've been worse champions." She then held up her wrist and tagged each of the four with a small device, which soon sent an electrical shock through their systems, knocking them out.
"Oh, flark me…" Rocket cursed as he fell to the ground.
Author's Note
As soon as I saw Volume 3, I knew I needed to return to the world of Guardians of the Galaxy to give Rocket Raccoon a different twist on his fate. I've written for Rocket and Lylla in the past with my story "Half-Worlders of the Galaxy" on FFN, but that was just after we'd gotten Endgame. This time, Teefs and Floor and joining in, and while I am counting this as a pseudo-remake of "Half-Worlders", don't expect this story to go the same way that one did.
And right off the bat, we get the "nexus event" that diverges our story from the canon timeline, being Rocket waiting before staging his breakout. With the High Evolutionary not there to shoot Lylla, Batch 89 are all able to escape together!
Skipping ahead in time, the friends land on Sakaar first seen in "Thor Ragnarok" where Rocket is not only able to upgrade their ship, but also make new and better robot parts for his friends. One thing I wanted to do for this story is to make sure that Lylla, Floor, and Teefs all have their own strengths so that Rocket isn't the only one that can do stuff. Here we learn that Lylla was programed with medical knowledge, which I gave her since she was the one that seemed to care the most about the well-being of her friends in the movie. I also think it's poetic that the High Evolutionary did his experiments on Batch 89 just to flex his god complex, while Rocket and Lylla are able to turn those same twisted experiments into something more practical and useful for their friends.
While this is set in the MCU multiverse, I wanted to pull in a few Rocket Raccoon comic book references as well. In particular note here is Teefs having a multi-tool collar, which was inspired by the character from the comics he's based on, Wal Rus. Expect more comic book callbacks as well whenever we're not covering how the movies change.
And it looks like Valkyrie (who still works for the Grandmaster at this point in the timeline) has arrived to capture Batch 89 for her master. What will await Rocket and his friends in the Contest of Champions? Tune in next time to find out!