"And that is why I thought we were having friendship. Because one time he say I am not bad and Cosmo is so starved of affection I believe that that is big thing. Of course, false friendship not last long either. It all start to go downhill one night when-"
"Are any of you gonna answer that?" Rocket's voice snapped the Guardians out of Cosmo's telepathic storytime and back into the Milano's cockpit, where the raccoon was looking surlier than usual and pointing at the beeping comm unit.
"Oh yeah man, I was just about to," replied Quill, doing his best to act casual, and as if he wasn't snooping in on someone else's backstory.
"Well that's a relief. It's only been screaming for the past fifteen flarking minutes!" The beeping came to an abrupt halt. "So, any of you idiots wanna tell me what you were talking about that was so important you missed twelve calls from the Nova Corps?" Rocket asked noone in particular, but the glare he shot Cosmo suggested he already had a pretty good idea.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, Drax, for once on the receiving end of being startled by the unexpected presence of a crewmate, was the one to answer. "Cosmo was just telling us about-" he noticed the looks Quill and Gamora were throwing at him from outside of Rocket's line of sight and cleared his throat. "I mean, we weren't talking about you, we were talking about other things."
A pin-drop silence followed.
Titus Payne, Chief Warden and Dennarian of Tharvis K-8 prided himself on many things. His luscious white fur, his high ranking in the Nova Empire despite his status as an outsider and the ability to remain calm under pressure that had gotten him said high ranking.
The M-Class Ravager ship floating into Nova airspace and towing a S-Class ship of ambiguous origin made him far more nervous than he'd like to admit. He had received a transmission from Xandar's new (and, in Titus' professional opinion, underqualified Dennarian) earlier in the day, informing him of the capture and imminent arrival of the Black Order.
The supposed capture of the Black Order, Titus reminded himself. The transmission had also informed him that the ones responsible were none other than the Guardians of the Galaxy, the mercenary group that had supposedly saved Xandar from destruction at the hands of Ronan the Accuser.
He supposed that was what set him on edge. He did not doubt that the Guardians had contributed to the hard-won victory- no doubt after seeing that the day was lost and turning on Ronan- but knew for a certainty that their status as saviours was singularly undeserved, built up as it was on the sacrifice of better men and women, and no doubt part of a desperate re-election campaign on behalf of Nova Prime.
Noone had asked Titus' opinion on the matter, but had anyone bothered he'd have reminded them that in the lead up to the attack on Xandar three of their number had been some of Nova's most wanted fugitives. The Daughter of Thanos, the Destroyer, and the experiment that called itself Rocket.
Titus adjusted his eyepatch.
And now he was supposed to believe that a motley crew of former criminals had somehow taken out some of the Galaxy's worst? Ronan was one thing, a spoilt child high on power who'd bitten off more than he could chew. But the Black Order…
No. It was no doubt an infiltration strategy. An impressive one to be sure, but not one Titus would be foolish enough to fall for.
He tapped open Tharvis' sound system. "Attention! I want all available personnel in full combat gear to head to the centremost spaceport. Standby and be ready to fire at my command." Titus turned towards the diminutive Xandarian standing beside him. "Current circumstances allow for a breach in protocol. Hack the comms, I shall see these Children face to face before the battle commences."
A show of strength would do a lot for morale. Which would be at an all-time low once news got out that the Nova Empire's beloved Guardians were either slain, or worse, working with the enemy.
"Yes sir."
Titus nodded, punching up the glowing occulens of his suit. If they really were dealing with the Black Order then the life expectancy of everyone aboard the outpost had plummeted. He decided then that he would show no fear. If he had to die for the empire, then so be it, he would.
The screen in front of him came alive, giving him a clear image of the inside of the Milano's cockpit.
"That is the most unconvincing lie I've heard since Gamora." Rocket crossed his arms over his chest as Gamora shot him a questioning look. "Alright, now I need to know!" he snapped. "Frickin' spill it!"
To his credit as a liar, Drax did his best to stick to his story. "I just said we were not talking-"
"We talked about a lot of things, man," Quill butted in, before the Destroyer destroyed them all. "And as suspicious as what Drax just said is, he's actually telling the truth. You were not the subject of conversation. Cosmo was just showing us that time the Kree hired her to sniff out a skrull."
"Da!" agreed Cosmo. "This was on Hala, before Collector pay for Cosmo. You ever hear of Buub the Berserker?"
Rocket's glare bounced back and forth between the dog and the terran, trying to sniff out the lie he knew was there. "The Kree must have been real desperate if they needed your help to catch that asshole," he grumbled, turning to face the only one who hadn't spoken yet. "Your turn Gamora, try and convince me."
Startled by the request, but doing an excellent job at not showing it, Gamora kept her voice conversational. "We were also talking about-"
Rocket raised a pair of frantic paws for silence. "No! Stop, stop, stop! That was terrible, even for you!"
"I don't quite follow?" genuinely confused Gamora searched the faces in the room and was surprised to find they were all wearing identical looks of sympathy.
"You are a terrible liar, Gamora," Drax explained.
The assassin scoffed. "I'm not-" They were all still giving her that look, and not wanting to prolong the argument, Gamora admitted defeat. "-That bad!"
"Just make it stop!" Rocket pleaded, dramatically throwing his paws over his ears.
"Hey, it's okay. You're good at a lot of other things!" said Quill, which served only to further irritate the Zeihoberei.
"Let's change the subject," she said, teeth gritted as she pulled up her screen and began scrolling through the comm recordings.
"Great idea!" Rocket chimed in. "Why don't we talk about which one of you idiots let the dog sit on my chair!"
"I do not see name written anywhere," Cosmo retorted. "And is big enough for both-"
"No! No! No! I am not sharing a single thing with you! Quill, tell this mangy mutt to-!"
Groot, who had fallen asleep at some point during Cosmo's storytime, was awoken by all the shouting. "I am Groot?" the tree asked, yawning.
There came another pin-drop silence, as Rocket's ears flickered up and down. Then the raccoon dived forwards, snatching the walkman off of Quill's belt and drawing a blaster in the same swift motion.
"Hey!"
"Don't move!" snarled Rocket pressing the blaster to the walkman and accidentally pressing the play button. Southern Nights began to blare out from the Milano's speaker system.
"I swear if you get a single scratch on that I will shave you!" Quill's threat might have been more effective were he not currently frozen solid (because knowing Rocket there was about a fifty percent chance he'd pull the trigger anyways).
"Oh, it'll get more than that," Rocket shot back, with a nasty little snicker that reminded Quill far too much of the combustible-plasma-cells-for-fuel incident for his liking.
"You wouldn't."
"Wanna bet?"
"Rocket, you don't want to do this," Gamora warned, her statement half an appeal to his better nature, and half a threat.
"Yeah, actually I think I do."
"Then do it!" said Drax with a bark of delighted laughter. "Rid us of Quill's irritable music and we shall finally know peace and quiet again!"
"My music is not irritable!" Quill protested. "Hey, c'mon Rocket please man! We're supposed to be frien-"
With a snarl, Rocket pulled the trigger. He was immediately met with the sound of a hollow ker-chunk that told him the blaster hadn't come with ammo.
The raccoon blinked stupidly, and with his most prized possession no longer in mortal peril, Quill hurried to tear off his seatbelt.
"Hey relax!" Rocket noticed the danger far too late to make a retreat. "I knew it was empty, I was just pulling-"
"Nope! Nah-ah!" Quill cut him off, snatching the walkman out of his hands and placing it on the inside pocket of his jacket where, presumably it would be safe from the raccoon. "You crossed a line and you know it."
"And she's not crossing a line everytime she talks!?"
Titus, who by now had seen more than enough, cleared his throat, and did his best impression of someone not completely flabbergasted. "I hope I'm not interrupting."
As one the Guardians turned towards the comm unit, which now projected the upper half of a burly, feline humanoid with an eyepatch and a mane of white fur that he had styled into a goatee. "This is Titus Payne, Dennarian and Chief Warden of Nova Outpost Tharvis K-8."
"So this is the one who's eye you clawed off," Drax gave Rocket a nod of approval. "I am impressed by your choice of opponent."
"Shushushushush!" Rocket gibbered, desperately waving his arms in a bid to get the kylosian to shut up. "Don't remind him!"
"He can't hear us," said Gamora, matter-of-factedly. "We still haven't picked up the call so audio shouldn't go through."
"Unless he hacks the comms," the raccoon shot back.
To that, Quill rolled his eyes. "This is Nova Corps we're talking about. Doing that would be a major breach of protocol."
"A justifiable breach," Titus growled, as the Guardians stared dumbfounded. "If I have reason to believe this outpost and the lives of those within are at risk." His eyes darted from Drax, to Rocket, to Gamora, his features twisted in disgust.
"Why would they be at risk?"
"I do not take the Children of Thanos lightly." He let that speak for itself. "You're the Ravager, I assume? Star-Lord, was it?"
"Former Ravager, but yup, that's me." The Legendary Star-Lord put on his most winning smile. "Guess my reputation precedes me."
"Process of elimination," Titus replied, instantly wiping the smile off of his face. "The rest of your crew are much more… recognisable," his gaze lingered briefly on Rocket, who did his best to glare in return. "You have permission to dock in the centremost spaceport. We have made preparations for your arrival."
At least a hundred Nova Corpsmen awaited them in the hangar, prepped in full combat gear and pointing obscenely heavy artillery at the Milano and the smaller ship Cosmo was currently reeling in from outer space.
A palpable tension hung in the air as the Guardians stood in line at the foot of the Milano. Rocket had Groot cradled under one arm so that if the need arose he could shield the plant from mortal peril. He had positioned himself besides Drax, no doubt so that the Destroyer could do the same for him. Quill, awkwardly fiddling his thumbs, was wondering whether Gamora would mind if he hid behind her in the event of a firefight. The chivalrous thing to do would be to take the blasts for her but that likely wasn't something he'd survive doing… The assassin herself was regarding the assembled Corpsmen impassively. In truth, they seemed just as terrified as the Guardians were, albeit without the ability to hide it. They had shaking knees, were dripping in nervous sweat, and one on the younger side dropped their rifle entirely.
"Bit much, don't you think?" Quill quipped.
A ripple of awkward chuckling passed through the Nova Corps as they realised who they were threatening to fire on and hurried to lower their weapons. Quill himself nearly collapsed in relief, because not even a hundred percent of a plan could have gotten them out alive if things had gone ugly.
"I must apologise, Guardians," came the voice of Titus as the warden strode forwards to greet them. He stood a head taller than Drax, though not quite as wide and was made of the same kind of rippling muscle. "Like I said, I do not take the Children of Thanos lightly."
Quill waved away the apology. "It's cool. No harm done."
"Which is why I must ask you all to hold your positions!" Titus barked, rounding on his Corpsmen, who, to their credit, snapped back into formation. "Until I can be certain that you are not collaborating with the Black Order-"
There was a soft thump! as Comso set down the one-man vessel currently smooshing together four of the most threatening beings in the Galaxy.
The windshield hissed open, spilling the four out on the floor where they lay groaning. Proxima, who had taken the least amount of damage on Corix, was the first to rise to her feet
"Gamora!" she snarled, bearing teeth as black as her soul. "You know that this place cannot hold us. We will be free, sooner or later! You will think yourself free, think yourself happy, but as long as we live you will never-" She was cut off abruptly by the electro-round Rocket sent her way.
"What? We all know she was never gonna shut up."
Gamora smiled despite herself. "You didn't have to do that," she crossed her arms over her chest, though the reprimand was half-hearted.
"No, but it felt good."
Corvus, somehow still alive, charred black and smelling like a Sunday roast (albeit one with more gunpowder than usual) was the next to rise. "Guardians!" He devolved into a coughing fit before it could go further than that.
"Can I take this one?" asked Quill.
"All yours," said Gamora.
Without further ado and with unnecessary flamboyance, Quill spun his blaster into his hand, took aim, and hit Corvus square on the forehead.
The assembled Nova Corpsmen applauded.
"Show off," grumbled Rocket.
"I would like to go next!" Drax announced, as Ebony Maw rose to his feet.
"Rejoice," said the telepath, in a voice that sent a cold wind sweeping through the room. "For your death lies-" Drax's fist smashed it's way into the rest of his sentence. And his face. Mostly his face.
The crowd went wild.
Gamora turned to face Titus, who's jaw seemed likely to fall off his face. "Need we go on?"
To his credit, the feline recovered quickly. "Take the prisoners to the highest security division. Except the Maw, he belongs in cyrogenics."
"Do I wanna know what cyrogenics is?" Quill wondered aloud.
"They freeze you in a tube," Rocket explained. "Nasty stuff."
Titus shrugged. "You can never be too safe with telepaths."
Cosmo shuddered.
"Guardians, on behalf of the Nova Empire. You have our gratitude." The warden thumped his chest in salute, though every word he spoke seemed to be causing him unimaginable pain. "I believe… you were promised… payment in exchange for your services?"
"Yup!" Quill beamed. "And we figured, since these are some of the most wanted criminals in the Galaxy we'd be in for a huge-"
"You will have to take your request to Xandar," said the warden, unable to hide his delight as the smile fell off the terran's face. "This is a military outpost and a prison, we do not exactly have the units to spare."
"Your gratitude shall suffice for now," said Gamora coolly as besides her Drax gave the incoherently spluttering Quill a pat on the back. "The good people of our galaxy will rest easier knowing that they are locked away."
"More than just the good, I am sure," With that Titus gave them a final, grudging salute and turned away.
"Ignore him. Dude's just a hardass," Rocket gestured back at the Milano. "C'mon, let's get outta here before he starts asking for his eye back."
The Milano was not a particularly large ship but there was enough room for them all to loiter around without getting in each other's way. The mood was sombre, though Quill guessed that was mostly because everyone was too tired to fight. Rocket, fiddling with some kind of tech from his perch on the table, still shot Cosmo the occassional glare but seemed to have calmed down to his usual level of spite. Gamora had been strangely distant too, but that was understandable considering she had just locked up four of her siblings.
"You will all be pleased to know that our stay on Corix was not a complete waste of time," announced Drax, emerging from the kitchen and brandishing a small package of dried leaves crushed into a powder. "For I have succeeded in my goal of finding the spice."
"The spice?" asked Quill, looking over to see if Rocket had any idea what the kylosian was talking about. The raccoon shrugged.
"I am attempting to recreate something I ate many years ago, when I first set out on my quest for vengeance. Did you forget?"
"Oh, no, yeah I did coz you know, a bunch of stuff happened between then. Here let me see."
With exaggerated delicacy Drax handed the small packet over to Quill, who gave it an obligatory sniff.
"Oregano?"
"Bless you," called Rocket, without looking up from what he was doing.
Drax frowned and turned to the raccoon. "I'm not sure you are qualified to give out blessings and doing so strikes me as blasphemous, even for you."
"Everyone else does it, don't they?"
"Everyone else does it when someone sneezes," Quill held the package back out towards Drax. "I was just saying the name of the, well actually it's a herb not a spice."
"Whatever it is precious, and rare," said the Destroyer, holding it with far more affection than any of the others had ever seen from him.
"How much did you pay for it?"
"An agreeable amount," he replied, noncommittally.
Rocket snorted. "Which is way too much for some dumb terran plant that grows on trees."
"I am Groot?"
"Stop making everything about you!"
Drax retreated to the kitchen with bad grace, leaving Quill to do his best to tune out Rocket and Groot's surprisingly heated conversation on what did and didn't count as a plant slur.
As he fiddled with his headphones (because music was by far the best way to tune someone out), he realized that Cosmo too had been strangely quiet since boarding the ship.
Quill found her staring out into space from the Milano's rearport.
"Hey," he said, startling her out of whatever thoughts had been gnawing at her mind. "Mind if I sit here?"
"Cosmo wouldn't say nyet to company, but it is your ship."
"Yeah well, you seem to be the only one who remembers that," Quill sat down. "I guess you'll stick around until we collect the bounty but after that we still owe you a ride. So, where do you wanna go?"
Cosmo shrunk in on herself. "Okay. Now is part where I admit I lied."
"Huh?"
"So reason Cosmo seek 89P13 out is not just revenge," she began, very pointedly not looking at him. "Is revenge, but is not completely revenge. I tell you before I see news on holonet. I hear about group of outsider who never belong and don't fit and are…different. Like Cosmo. And I already know 89P13 and if he is hero maybe he will be less of mudak and Cosmo who is also outsider who never belong can also be… hero and be making galaxies safer place. So really when I hunt 89P13 with you I want to ask… can I be Guardian too?"
There was a pause as Quill processed this newfound information.
"I know. Is stupid!" Cosmo laughed, which was weirder than her talking because Quill was pretty sure people didn't usually laugh inside their heads. "Cosmo was just making joke! You can just- do you really think I lie worse than Gamora?"
"Hey guys, team meeting!" Quill strolled back into the Milano's common area with Cosmo at his heels. Technically he was the unanimously agreed upon leader of their little group, but adding a new member was not something he wanted to do without making sure the majority of his team were okay with it. "Drax! Gamora! I think this is something we all need to discuss."
"I cannot come right now!" Drax bellowed, as copious amounts of lime green smoke poured out from the kitchen. "The recipe calls for vigorous stirring!"
Rocket, who had seemingly lost the argument he'd been having with Groot, scowled, his glare darting from Quill to Cosmo and back again until finally he could no longer bite back a growl. "No! We can't keep the stray."
"I didn't even say anything!"
"Am I wrong?" the raccoon demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and knowing full well that he wasn't. "Is that not what this is about?"
"No, no, you're right," Quill admitted with a sigh as Cosmo shrunk behind him. "It's just- I was thinking you know, having a telepath could be really-"
"No! No! No! No! No! I don't care about whatever mushy garbage she spit out about being 'lonely' and 'not belonging anywhere'- newsflash Cosmo! You don't belong here and I don't want you anywhere near me and that is final!"
"That is not final!" Quill shot back. "And it was my idea, not hers. You've made your opinion pretty clear, but I wanted to ask the other members of this team so we could put it to a vote."
"Alright then! Let's vote! All who want Cosmo booted off at the nearest spaceport raise your hand!" Rocket's arm shot upwards, earning him a scowl from Quill.
"I feel the need to inform you that I am not at present raising my hand!" Drax yelled over the hissing of a fire hydrant.
Outnumbered, Rocket turned to the plant besides him. "Groot! Put your hand up!"
"I am Groot?" the sapling asked, nevertheless complying.
"You can't do that!" Quill spluttered in protest. "That's cheating!"
"You're right, it wouldn't be fair," Rocket sighed, sagging in defeat. "Groot, keep your hand up and I'll give you all of Quill's marshmallows."
"You can't bribe him with my stuff!"
"I am Groot?"
The raccoon squinted at that. "What do you mean he's already bribed you with them?"
"I am Groot…"
"I knew it!" Rocket snarled, clambering off the table and storming towards Quill. "You scut-stained son of a chog! You killed Charlotte!"
The Legendary Star-Lord blinked stupidly. "Who-?"
"The Hadron Enforcer!"
"It had a name?"
"Course it did!" Rocket snapped. "What do I look like some psycho to you?"
"Not naming your guns is the psychopathic thing to do?"
"He only names the ones he builds." Cosmo explained.
Rocket swelled with rage, and for a moment, Quill was sure he was going to explode. He didn't. Or at least, not literally. "See! That! That is exactly why you can't stay! It's always the same with you no matter how many times I-"
"If I may," Drax cut in, appearing from the kitchen and somehow giving Corvus Glaive a run for his money as 'most charred alien in the known universe'. "The dog has proven herself a keen ally in battle. While it is true that her propensity to speak into our minds is irksome, I believe we should let her stay for now. If any serious issues arise in the future, we may ask her to leave."
"I see no issue with a grace period," said Gamora, who had come down from the cockpit halfway through the argument and had already decided she wanted as little to do with it as possible. "It's not like she takes up much space."
"Screw you!" Rocket snapped. "I already had my grace period, okay? And I've seen enough to know that I don't want this stupid, sentimental fleabag anywhere near me!"
"Besides the irksome mindreading, is there any particular reason this is the case?" asked Drax. The question gave Rocket pause and may well have brought peace to the Milano had the Destroyer not immediately followed up with another. "Surely some part of you is still grateful to her for saving your life."
"How do you know about-" Cosmo shrunk even further behind her terran meatshield and the answer became clear. "Not the subject of conversation, right Quill?" the raccoon glared up so impressively that Quill was forced to take a step backwards.
"Oh come on! You talk about us behind our backs all the time! Besides, she didn't tell us anything you wouldn't have!"
"Except the part where the younger Rocket was cruelly rejected by the kronan criminal he was trying to befriend," added Drax, helpfully.
"Oh God," breathed Gamora, bringing a hand to her forehead.
"What? That seems like the type of thing Rocket would not share with us."
A terrifying pantomime followed, where Rocket reached for a blaster that was empty, remembered it was empty half-way through drawing it, and seemingly hating everything to do with it, hurled it right across the room. All the while he spluttered out insults and half-strung-together sentences which rose into a crescendo of gibberish until it really did look like he was going to go nuclear. Instead, he deflated, ears drooping in misery as he uncurled his fists. "What's the point?" he asked, in a hollow voice. "You've already made up your minds. You already know what I think. Why'd you call a frickin' vote?"
"Because we're a team!" Quill insisted, though noticing the raccoon's change in temperament, he made sure his tone was less hostile. "And that means we make decisions together."
"Yeah, well, if it wasn't for your stupid, unanimous decision-making maybe I'd still have Groot!" Rocket snapped, storming off to the relative safety of his room. Before anyone could think of an appropriate response to that, the blast doors had slammed shut behind him.
Footnote: Titus Payne is my take on the Nova Corps character/minor reoccuring villain from the Disney XD Guardians of the Galaxy show. I needed a character to be the the warden of Tharvis because we'll be coming back to it at some point and he already had a pretty solid design and also fit the bill of one-eyed, Nova Corps hardass. I imagine his stance on the Guardians isn't a particularly unpopular one among the upper brass and especially those further out from Xandar. Like seriously, who let these people run around the Galaxy calling themselves heroes? For the record, I like to think that for the most part the Infinity Stone angle was kept a bit hush-hush.
I hope Cosmo asking to join the team didn't completely blindside you. Admittedly I didn't do much to imply/foreshadow that but to be fair none of the present day scenes were written from her point of view. I guess the biggest clue is when she sticks with the Guardians during the Black Order bar fight. I also don't think it's all that out of character for her to do, at least the way I write her.
I hope the dramatics and all the arguing isn't starting to drag. I did my best to keep it from spilling out into OOC territory and I also did my best to make sure the Guardians didn't come across as being unsympathetic. Rocket has a bit more leeway to be an asshole because he's going through some stuff. Part of the reason I fused Mission Report and Dog Days chapters together was so that I can interspace all the arguments with something somewhat different in tone. There is a point to all this and I think it'll pay off well but I'll let you guys decide that for yourselves when we get to that bridge and the time comes to cross it.
Next chapter is Part III but whether it's for Cosmo and Rocket or for the Guardians has yet to be decided. Hope you enjoyed, let me know what you think ^^