AN: I would like to start this chapter by apologizing for this taking a while. I know I don't have a set schedule for this story to release chapters, but I expected to have at least another chapter out in September. Luckily this will be the last chapter for a while where I need to come up with 100% original stuff, so enjoy this look into Batch 89's life in the wider galaxy.

"Even when things diverge at a nexus event, timelines have a way of echoing across dimensional barriers. While Rocket Racoon may have his friends by his side, there is still the matter of Batch 89 finding a living out in the stars. And when you're someone as skilled as Rocket, you tend to make your own ways of putting your skills to good use…"

Onboard the Rakk 'n' Ruin, Rocket was looking over some targets while the ship was in autopilot. Ever since Batch 89 had registered to become official galactic citizens, Rocket had taken it upon himself to be the main breadwinner of the group, using his advanced intellect to fix other ships alongside Teefs and ferrying Lylla and Floor around to planets to help with relief efforts. What the raccoon had found the most enjoyable job to take on, however, was bounty hunting alongside Groot.

The two made one heck of a duo, with Rocket's rapidly increasing proficiency in guns and Groot's plant-based abilities making them great at capturing their targets dead or alive (mostly alive, as Lylla preferred from them to only use lethal force in self-defense or when no other option was available). Of course, this profession also tended to get Rocket into a bit of trouble and on more than one occasion had he been imprisoned or captured, having to escape or get busted out by the rest of Batch 89. None of them wanted to be in a cage again and they were keeping it that way.

"I am Groot?" Groot asked, stepping into the cockpit and leaning over to see Rocket's screen.

"I'm finding our next bounty, buddy, don't worry," Rocket waved him off. "Let's see, who's our next target gonna be? Talos- nah, that guy's been missing for years from what I've read. The Black Order- and deal with Thanos breathing down our necks? Hard pass. Jack Harrison- eh, do I really want to take us all the way out to Terra just for this small bounty?"

There was a rumble from a side panel on the wall, and Floor popped out. "Floor fixed leak, Rocket!" the rabbit said.

"Good job, Floor," Rocket smiled, patting his friend on the head.

"What Rocket and Groot doing?" Floor asked.

"Just finding our next target for bounty hunting," Rocket replied, swiping through a few more files.

"Oh, can Floor come on next mission?" Floor asked.

"We'll see which one we pick next," Rocket shrugged. He suddenly stopped scrolling as a surprising face came on screen. "What the heck- is that guy like us?"

"I am Groot?" Groot raised an eyebrow.

"I never saw any bird Uplifts on Counter-Earth, so I don't know if he's one of High Evolutionary's projects or not," Rocket shook his head. "Hm… According to his file, Howard Duckson is from… Duckworld, seriously? They couldn't come up with a better name for their world?"

"To be fair, Counter-Earth isn't the cleverest name High Evolutionary could have come up with," Lylla pointed out, entering the room with Teefs behind her. "Did you find your next target, Rocket?"

"Possibly. I just gotta look into it more…" Rocket said. He read the bounty, eyes going wide as he saw the prize money. "Woah, that's a lot of units… Okay gang, looks like it's duck season! Let's see, Howard's last known location was near Kral IV. That's one of the former Skrull colonies if I recall the star maps correctly. And there just so happens to be a big casino that patrols that sector of space."

"Oh, a casino! That's were people gamble away their money, yes?" Teefs asked.

Rocket nodded. "Yep, which means we'll need to be a bit more discreet this time around. I'm gonna need all of ya to help me out looking for Mr. Duckson as well, so this'll be a team effort. Don't go doing anything that'll get us kicked out or shot at, got it?"

"Aye, aye, Captain Rocket!" Teefs saluted.

[***]

A few jump points later and Batch 89 were in the Kral IV sector, heading to the spaceship Big Casino for their bounty (yes, the casino was named Big Casino- the Skrulls hadn't put a lot of effort into that one). Big Casino was a space station/casino hybrid run by Skrulls, the ship shaped like a Terran zeppelin with the inhabitants inside all shapeshifted to look like those of Terrans right out of the 1930s. It may have been a bit odd to see four talking animals and a tree walk into a place like this, but with all the other aliens around, it probably wasn't even the weirdest thing to ever happen in Big Casino that week.

"Okay guys, let's split up," Rocket said. "Everyone keep your coms open and eyes on the lookout for a talking duck in a red suit. His report says he's no slouch when it comes to a shootout, so don't engage until the rest of get there, got it?"

"Okie-dokie, Rocket!" Floor nodded before scampering off into the casino.

"I am Groot?" Groot questioned.

"Floor will be fine, Groot. She can take care of herself," Rocket assured his friend.

"Besides, Floor doesn't have any money to gamble with. How much trouble could she get into?" Teefs added.

The gang split up from there, with Rocket and Lylla sticking together as they went duck hunting. It was a new experience being in a place like Big Casino, and honestly Rocket wasn't sure if he was a fan. He was never big on spending money on things that weren't building materials for his weapons and ship or the essentials, so gambling had little appeal to the raccoon. He could maybe get behind the entertainment with classics of yesteryear, and the bar would be a good place to stop by before heading out, but Rocket was solely focused on the mission right now.

"Looks like someone let their pets in," a rude patron said, sneering at Rocket and Lylla.

"Hey, we're no one's pets. Free agents of the galaxy right here," Rocket shot back.

"Looks like the little badger is getting feisty," the patron's friend laughed.

"Actually, Rocket is a raccoon, not a badger," Lylla corrected.

"And he's got a little lady friend," the patron said. "Look and 'em, trying to be people."

"Says the shapeshifter that doesn't show his own true face," Rocket growled, putting a protective arm around Lylla. "And I'm not going to let you talk to my lady like that. Come on, Lylla, let's go."

As the two went off somewhere else in the casino, Teefs was fiddling with a gadget as he rolled around between slot machines. The walrus had been learning from Rocket to make his own tools, mainly focusing onto attachments for his arms to better help with repairs and occasionally combat. This gadget in particular was a wave emitter that used sound to pinpoint a given target. It was supposed to work by giving off a frequency only heard by the target, but Teefs was having a bit of trouble making it work.

"Perhaps if I adjust this…" the walrus muttered to himself, turning a nob before pressing a button. The machine turned on, giving off its waves… and proceeding to knock out the nearest slot goer, dropping the Skrull out of their disguise, their head hitting the bar to start the slot. "Oh dear… Well, at least that looks to be a winning pull," Teefs said before quickly rolling off to mess with his gadget somewhere else.

Meanwhile, Groot was blending in with some potted trees, occasionally swiping a drink off of a waiter's tray for a quick sip. He was keeping an eye out for Howard, but clearly the duck was a lot more slippery than the gang thought he would be. Floor was nowhere to be seen either, but there wasn't any major commotion, so she was most likely fine as well.

"Still nothing to see here…" Rocket muttered as he and Lylla stopped at the bar.

"We'll find the target, Rocket. You always do," Lylla assured him.

"I know, I know…" Rocket sighed. As he drank from his glass, the raccoon's ears twitched as he felt the cold metal of a gun being placed to the small of his back.

"Subject 89P13," the voice said.

"Howard Duckson," Rocket said, trying to play it cool as he slowly turned around to see the duck in question standing there with a pistol pointed at him. "And I go by Rocket."

"Then you can call me Howard the Duck," Howard said. Lylla moved to defend Rocket, only for Howard to pull another gun out and point it out her. "I wouldn't make a move either, Subject 89Q12."

"Lylla," the otter corrected.

"Heh, nice name for a lady," Howard smirked. "Still, I caught wind of a bunch of animals coming to hunt me down here. Lots of hotshots try to take me down; what makes you think you can?"

"There's no one in the galaxy like us, so I think our odds are pretty good," Rocket said, trying to think of a way out of this situation.

"You know I'd hate to make a mess of his fine establishment, so how about we make a deal?" Howard offered. "I let you two live, and in return-"

"Yeah, we're not ones for making deals with our targets," Rocket cut him off, quickly flipping his own gun into view, pointed at the duck's head.

"You think you can out-shoot me, raccoon?" Howard questioned.

"I'm willing to find out," Rocket smirked.

"Gentleman, if you could take this business outside…" the bartender said as he and a few other Skrulls pulled out their own weapons, all aimed at the two feuding animals.

"Seems we've gained an audience," Lylla mused. "Perhaps we can take you up on your offer?"

"Lylla, you know we don't make deals like that," Rocket said. "This bounty could really put us on track to the good life."

"But we also need to get out of here alive," Lylla whispered.

"I'd listen to your lady, Rocket Raccoon," Howard said. "As for the rest of ya, don't think I haven't escaped worse scrapes than this. You think you have numbers, but no one stops Howard the Duck."

Suddenly all the Skrulls suddenly seized up, falling over and grabbing their ears in pain. "Oh, sorry about that!" Teefs apologized, rolling up with his device still in hand. "I thought I'd changed off of the Skrull setting, but apparently not."

"Thanks for the save, Teefs," Rocket said, using the distraction to kick one of Howard's guns away and getting rid of the one pointed at Lylla with a blaster bolt. Now disarmed the duck made a run for it, only for Groot to reach out and scoop up Howard into his arms, disabling him from moving.

"Put me down you walking garden!" Howard squirmed.

"You almost had us there, Duckson, but we came out on top here," Rocket said. "Let's get our bounty back to the ship, guys."

"What about Floor?" Teefs asked.

"Floor here!" the rabbit exclaimed, popping up behind the walrus. Dragging behind her was a comically large bucket of units, along with an angry mob of casino goers.

"…Do I even want to ask what happened?" Rocket sighed, pulling out his blaster once more as Batch 89 made their escape back to the Rakk 'n' Ruin.

[***]

Howard grumbled to himself as they flew away from Big Casino, his hands firmly cuffed to his back as he was propped up in a seat by Groot. "Are these things really necessary?" he asked.

"Yes. I have plenty of stuff in here I don't want you touching," Rocket nodded. "Now we just have to get you to Knowhere and-"

"Oh duck, don't tell me Tivan is the one that put out the bounty," Howard groaned. "Does that hoarder have nothing else better to do?"

"Sounds like you know the guy," Lylla said.

"He goes by "The Collector" and he loves to get his grubby little hands on whatever oddities he likes," Howard explained. "And since I'm the only resident of Duckworld in this dimension, guess how valuable I am to him. I already escaped him once…"

"So then you'll can just escape him again," Rocket shrugged. He gave the duck a somewhat sympathetic look. "Hey, I get not wanting to be around that guy. Trust me, he almost caged my crew when Groot and I first met the guy. But he's offering good money for this… although the haul that Floor brought in might be just as good."

"Over a million units and counting, Rocket!" Teefs called.

"I am Groot," Groot was, impressed at the rabbit.

"What did you do to win that many units, Floor?" Lylla asked.

"Floor play cards with people in casino. They say Floor have poked face," Floor explained.

"It's "poker face" kid. Means you can keep it cool and face 'em out when playing cards," Howard corrected. He looked to Rocket with a raised eyebrow. "How's some illegal experiment so good with cards?"

"Beat me? Floor's got all kinds of skills we're still trying to figure out," Rocket shrugged. He then pulled out a keycard-looking device and slipped it into Howard's pocket. "Here, take this. It's an encoded lock picker, perfect for the cells that the Collector uses. I'm sure he won't notice for a while if you slip out after a few days. Plus I have a policy of not taking the same bounty twice, so…"

Howard gave a smirk. "You might not be so bad, raccoon. Maybe I could roll with your crew for a while."

"No thanks. We're already cramped in here as is with just Groot- no offense, buddy," Rocket said.

"I am Groot," the tree man waved off.

"Floor can teach friends game she learned," Floor offered. "Even got cards from casino man!"

"I'd love to learn a new game, Floor," Lylla said. "What's the name of it?"

The rabbit smiled. "Blackjack!"

Author's Note

This was just a simple day-in-the-life scenario for Batch 89 with Rocket on one of his bounty hunting missions. While this Rocket is in a much more positive place than the main MCU Rocket, I still think his yearning for adventure would get him into trouble, and the life of a bounty hunter is just the thing Rocket would take up to put some spice in his life. The difference here is that he has the rest of his crew to back him up!

The setting if his chapter, Big Casino, is a real location from the Marvel comic, complete with Skrulls that co-opted Earth's 1930s culture. We also get to have Howard the Duck here, and while I'm not as well versed in his stories as I am with other characters, I think it plays well for him and Rocket to have a sort of "rivals with respect" dynamic, being talking animals with attitude and guns.

And yes, Floor being good at card games is just so I could get that pun at the end in there. If you know her comic book inspiration, you know.

Next time we'll finally get getting into the events of the first "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie, meaning that Batch 89 will be meeting the other future Guardians soon enough!