Chapter 6.
VOLUME 3 STARTS NOW! Great movie! Best since "Endgame"! Hope you enjoy the chapter! And before you ask, I decided that Mark and Cosmo will have a sort of relationship. And before you ask, Mark was NOT created by the High Evolutionary, but by other people.
Knowhere, 2026…
Mark, now around 30 years old, wearing an orange and blue stripe V-necked shirt with a brown belt around his Dog waist, and black dark lensed circular goggles over his eyes, was helping the others with the finishing touches to Knowhere, now their HQ, while listening to the good music coming from the Zune, which, he noticed, Rocket had. "Quill's not gonna like that." He thought in his head. He was currently helping Groot and Nebula install a "Guardians of the Galaxy" sign post, hanging from a harness from the railing above as Groot and Nebula (on a ladder) moved the sign into place, he then fitted the sign into place in the two beams behind it with the welding machine he was holding in his left front paw, the yellow lights on the sign coming on as he started the first, finished it in a second, then he swung himself leftwards to do the second one, after which put a smile on his face. He and Cosmo had unexpectedly started to get close, which was a surprise to the others and to Mark himself, as they/him had considered him to be fully asexual. He'd insisted on taking things slow for now. Quill was, as he suspected, sitting in the bar getting drunk as he was usually doing now as he still hadn't gotten over all the Gamora stuff. He then looked downwards/leftwards, lifting his goggles to his furry forehead with his right front paw to see Kraglin, who still hadn't gotten control of Yondu's arrow, was messing with Cosmo, who had a bit of meat in her mouth, Mark smirking. Then he pressed the harness button by his thigh with his left front paw, making it lower him down. Both hind paws on the ground, he took the harness off, left it where it was, put the welding machine back into its box, then followed Nebula to the window of the bar where Quill was, stopping on her left to see Quill standing drunkenly for a moment before he fell down on the floor, Rocket in front of him, holding a drink carton. Mark signed heavily and moved his left front paw to his goggles, taking them off his forehead, still holding them as he brought his left arm down. He stood by the entrance while Rocket and Nebula went in and came out, Nebula carrying Quill in her arms. Mark turned rightwards and walked alongside them on Nebula's right. Groot (near Kraglin and Cosmo) came up to them, concerned and touched Quill's head with his hands, as they came up to Drax and Mantis (who's actually Quill's sister). "Again?" Drax asked, Mark looking leftwards/upwards to them and nodded his head. Then he moved his head to face forwards again, hearing footsteps, no doubt it was Kraglin and Cosmo besides him as the group (Mark now in between Nebula and Groot) kept walking.
They then took Quill back to his quarters. Mark stood in the doorway as Nebula put Quill to bed. As she walked away, he saw Quill was holding her arm. "I love you, Gamora." Quill spoke softly. Nebula let the hand go and walked, Mark turning around rightwards and heading out before her. He came out of the entrance first opened it with his left front paw, stopping rightwards of the door as Nebula came out. "So what are you two gonna do about Quill?" Rocket asked, Mark following the voice upwards to see Rocket walking on the gantry in front of them. "Me? Why not you?" Nebula asked. "I got emotionalistical issues. What am I gonna do? What about you, Mark?" Rocket asked, walking along the ceiling as they came up to him. "Yeah, you got issues and you don't talk about them." Mark thought in his head. "I tried, but he doesn't listen to me." Mark answered. "Why are you on the ceiling?" Nebula asked. "I wanted to see if these new gravity boots worked on a slope." Rocket answered. "Well, call me impressed." Mark replied as they kept on walking, thinking it was pretty badass.
They walked over to where he smelt Kraglin and Cosmo were, and when the came through the doorway, he was on Nebula's left when suddenly his Arrow stabbed her in the chest, which made him moved his head rightwards/upwards to see it, his eyes widening, before he looked ahead at Kraglin, his eyes now narrowing, hearing some of the locals laughing. "Sorry." Kraglin spoke. Mark signed in annoyance while shaking his head, as he and Nebula then walked towards the stairs in front of them, went down them, hearing Nebula take the arrow out of her chest and she got a step or two in front him give it back to Kraglin, with her left arm as he turned rightwards to be on Cosmo's left. Th dog turned her head leftwards to see him with a happy expression, to which he smiled back, before they both looked at Kraglin. She said something in Russian. "You must know you will never learn." She spoke to him in English, sitting down. "You think you could do better?" Kraglin challenged her. "Da" Cosmo said, (Russian for 'yes') then walked to where a small stone lay on a brick, levitated it with her telekinesis, Mark smiling with pride, before she then moved the stone to impact the targets on the floor in front of them, before bringing to the stone back to where it had started. "Good one, Cosmo." Mark spoke as he moved to Cosmo's left as the locals laughed again, as Cosmo looked back at Mark with her tongue handing out. "Telekinesis is cheating! That's a stupid little pebble! I can do that with my dang finger! You're a bad Dog." Kraglin ranted, the last sentence, made Cosmo, and Mark snap their heads towards him. "Do not say that to me." She spoke angrily, before she looked at Matrk again. "Mark, friend, paw-blast him." She requested. "Not worth it." Mark replied as he shook his head. "You are, you're a bad Dog." Kraglin said back as he started to walk away. "Take that back! Come on, that's not cool." Cosmo spoke as she and Mark went after them, Mark being behind Cosmo and then on Kraglin's right "Nebula, did you hear? He called me a bad Dog and he refuse to take it back." Cosmo said. "I don't care, Cosmo." Nebula replied. "Is Peter okay?" Mantis asked, and she and Drax came up to them, Mark, now in between Drax and Kraglin, saw Nebula look at Mantis. "I don't know." Nebula answered, looking ahead. "What are you going to do?" Mantis asked her. "Me? He's your brother." Nebula replied, as they came up to a food stand, Nebula doing a nod. "It doesn't matter, he still doesn't listen to me." Mantis replied. "Yeah, you guys know how stubborn he can be." Mark added, as Nebula started passing around cooked bugs on sticks, first to Mantis. "Yeah, and he has been pretty mopey ever since Gamora died." Kraglin spoke, taking his stick. "She's not dead. She just doesn't remember anything from the past few years." Nebula corrected, while giving Rocket a stick, then she threw another stick at Cosmo, then handed the last one to Mark, who took it with his right hand-paw. Mark, taking a bit of the bug, mentally admitted that the whole Gamora thing had always been complicated to explain. "Nobody tells me nothing." Drax muttered. "Mantis, why don't you just touch him? And, you know, make him happy?" rocket asked. "I am Groot." Groot spoke, which made Mark narrow his eyes in disgust. "Gross!" Nebula replied, Mantis making a similar noise. "No, not like that. Touch him with her powers." Rocket corrected. "It is wrong to manipulate the feelings of friends." Mantis answered. "What about the time you made me fall in love with my sock?" Drax asked her. "Well, that as funny." Mantis said back with a smirk. "I guess its back to one of us touching him the other way. Maybe we should draw straws." Drax suggested, as they entered a building. "No one ever meant that, Drax." Nebula replied. "Look, guys, there no clear plan about what to do with Quill, so how about we just call it a day? Oh, and Kraglin, please take it back. She's not gonna get over it quickly." Mark asked, before taking a bit of his bug. The others, clearly in agreement, thought Kraglin stubbornly refused to take it back, all went out of the building, leaving just Mark and Cosmo, who faced each other.
"Can you believe that guy? Calling me a bad Dog." Cosmo spoke to him, making him smile. "Well, Kraglin better take it back, because we both know you're a good Dog." Mark replied. "You always make me happy, Mark. Are you happy?" Cosmo then asked, which made Mark go silent and his smile fall. "Uhhh…. goodnight, Cosmo. I'll see you in the morning." Mark replied after a few seconds, before he turned around rightwards and headed out of the building to his quarters. Alone in his bedroom, his belt lying on the table, Mark was in the toilet, holding his blue dog bowl below the tap, holding it with both front paws, filling it with water. Once full, he held it up above him, pointing his, splashed water all over his furry face. His face wet, he brought his head level, turned off the tap with his left front paw hand looked in the mirror, the wet fur pointed downwards as he stared at himself. As he did, a voice in his mind spoke. "Are you happy?" The voice, his voice, asked rhetorically, his mind drifting deep into itself. He had been asking himself that question for a while now. Is he happy where he was, who he was? He had begun to wonder… what if he was back on Earth, still a human? Would his parents still be alive? Where would he be right now? He had also begun to wonder if the Guardians would've been able to do what they have done without him, and what exactly does he bring to the group? Signing loudly as he brought his mind back into focus, he then heard a strange sound coming from outside that made his eyes narrow, then he turned his head round to look over his right shoulder as he heard more sounds, which sounded more and more like crashing sounds to his Dog ears. Sounding out of the ordinary, he ran out to door and followed the sounds.
Following the noises, he looked upwards to see a flash of orange flying around, which then flew into a building, then downwards onto the ground, see a golden man was the source of the flash, before he was submerged in smoke and dust. He then looked rightwards and spotted Kraglin, who hiding behind a large object. He moved towards him, noticing a pile of boxes to Kraglin's right, a gap in between, and he moved towards it. Behind and in the middle of the boxes, as he heard something drop near the golden guy, he put his back against them, looked leftwards at Kraglin, and mouthed 'The arrow', then pointed in the direction of the golden guy, with his right index paw-finger. Kraglin, then took out the arrow and looked at it, then back at Mark, who nodded, hearing the footsteps of the golden guy. Kraglin the whistled and unleashed the Arrow, but Mark didn't hear the usual sound of it going through skin, instead sounded like a click, and of the Arrow hitting the ground, saw Kraglin looking over where he hid, then his head back, clearly indicating the golden guy was looking around. "Who threw this thing at me?" The golden guy asked, to no reply, Mark hearing Kraglin mutter 'shut up' to the whimpering woman besides him. "Baby." The guy spoke. Mark, deciding to do this himself, then ran out from behind the cover and ran towards the guy's back, held up both his paw-hands and fired a paw-blast from both of them. The Paw-blasts struck the guy's cape, yet strangely, did nothing, which made Mark narrow his eyebrows as the guy turned around, then flew forwards at Mark, impacted him by the chest and rammed him into the wall behind him, the impact feeling painful on his back, but he tried his best to ignore it. He then got a good look at the guy, whose skin and clothing looked familiar. "Let me guess, your Sovereign, aren't you? Ayesha sent you?" He assumed, to no response. His hind paws still on the ground, he brought his front paws up to shoot, but the golden guy suddenly grabbed them with his hands, clenched the paws into fists, and outstretched Mark's arms. For the next few seconds, Mark genuinely felt afraid, but suddenly started to feel something inside him. Something he'd never felt before. Like a burning energy flowing from his front paws, through his Dog arms, up his Dog neck and face to his eyes, which made closed them, feeling the energy concentrate in his eyes. Unsure he opened them and saw red circles in the middle of his eyesight, hearing this strange sound like a laser being fired, seeing the golden guy, being forced back. Surprised, and confused Mark slammed his eyes shut and opened them a moment later, no longer saw the red circles, yet saw the guy lying on the floor, the expression on his face showing surprise. Mark looked down slightly at the ground, stunned. He then realised that somehow he had fired what were always blasts from his paws as laser beams from eyes! "Woah. I didn't know I could do that." He said to himself softly. He then looked at the guy, who got up on his feet, then turned around and walked to the building he had originally been walking towards. Mark, feeling he needed backup, turned rightwards and ran down the street. After a minute or two of running, he then spotted Nebula running down the street, so he followed her, came around the bend, saw the golden guy beat Drax up, then started walking with Nebula towards the guy, then he noticed a knife lying on the ground ahead of him and just to his left. Not knowing why, he knelt down as he came upon it, picked it up with his left paw hand, hearing Nebula extended her own glowing blade (her mechanics having been modified by Rocket) continued towards the guy, narrowed his eyes, and as the same time as Nebula stabbed her blade into the guy, Mark stabbed his knife into the guy's left mid body, the blade obviously protruding his, just below Her's. "That hurts." The guy spoke. "It's supposed to, dickhead." Mark spoke, not in the mood for being nice, just before he and Nebula drew back their blades, the guy falling down onto his back.
Turning around with a sense of victory, he then dropped the knife and ran the other ran, after the rest of the group. Sniffing he smelt where Quill, Mantis and Rocket were, ran in that direction and entered the open door to them room they were in, noticing Rocket injured on the floor, Quill and Mantis preparing a grey med pack, Mantis just finished using one on her right arm. He came up to them on Mantis's right as he watched Quill press the button, but sparks started flying around Rocket, who jolted around as it happened. "Is it short circuiting his cybernetics?" Mark thought in his head with worry. "No!" Mantis Yelled with worry. A few seconds later, Mark heard footsteps, looked rightwards to see Nebula enter the room. "All I did was activate the med pack!" Quill cried out. "Get them off! Now!" Nebula cried back, Quill quickly removing the med pack, Mark seeing Rocket's wound wasn't any better, and he was now foaming in his mouth. Quill then picked up Rocket with both hands as he stood up. "We need to get him to the med bay." Quill decided. "It's destroyed. There's one on the ship!" Nebula replied, and with that, they carried Rocket over to the Bowie. A few minutes later, Mark, standing close to the table, his only his head showing over the top, in between Groot (who was regrowing his body after losing most of it fighting the golden guy, who seemed to have survived and got away) and Mantis, and the rest of the group were on the Bowie, in the med bay, Rocket lying on the table, a oxygen mask over his mouth, scanning equipment on his wounded chest, which were connect by wire to Nebula who reported that the problem was that there was a device linked to Rocket's heart, a kill switch. "A kill switch?" Quill asked in surprise, Mark feeling confused. "A device. Set to destruct if anyone goes poking around inside him. Or even if we used the med packs." Nebula explained. "Why would Rocket have a kill switch?" Quill asked, Mark nodding, want to know also. "Apparently, someone considers him proprietary technology and sent that golden lunatic to get him." Nebula answered. "So he'll die if we operate on him?" Mantis asked fearfully. "And he'll die if we don't." Drax added. "There has to be some way to bypass it." Quill spoke. "It looks like there's a passkey that could override the kill switch." Nubla answered. "What do we know about where Rocket came from?" Mantis asked. "He's never talked about it." Mark answered instantly, shaking his head. He'd always wondered where he came from and why he refused to talk about it, but gave up ages ago trying to bug Rocket. "Much of the tech was developed by a company called OrgoCorp. And there's a code on all of it: 89P13. He's got maybe 48 hours." Nebula explained. Mark then remembered the Nova Corps officers on Xandar mentioning that code all those years ago when they first met. He also remembered Yondu saying to Rocket 'scientists what made you never gave a rats as about you', and from what Nebula just told him, that made sense. He then began to wonder if him and the others would finally learn more.
Silence filled the room for a few moments before Quill started walking out of the room. "Where are you going?" Nebula asked, as Mark moved away from the table and followed Drax, Mantis and Quill out of the room. "OrgoCorp have to have records, right? Maybe they'll have a way for us to override the kill switch and save Rocket." Quill answered. "They won't just give us that information." Mantis pointed out. "Well, that's why we're gonna break in." Quill answered. "And kill anyone who gets in our way!" Drax exclaimed. "Yeah!" Mark added, his eyes narrowing as they entered the cockpit, mentally unsure why he said that, but he did. "Not kill anyone." Quill said back. "Kill a few people." Drax replied. "Kill no people, and Mark, that's not like you." Quill spoke, pressing some buttons. "Mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." Mark said back menacingly. "Kill one guy, one stupid guy who no one loves." Drax spoke, after finishing pressing some buttons. "Now you're just making it sad." Quill replied, as Mantis sat in the co-pilots seats and started the engines, as Quill sat down in the pilot's seat. Mark stood in the circular doorway and held out his left arm and held onto the metal wall. "Kraglin, Cosmo, I need you to keep watch on Knowhere till we're back. Couple of days, tops." Quill ordered over the ship's comms. "Aye, Cap'n/Aye, comrade." Mark heard Kraglin and Cosmo say over the comms before the connection was turned off. "I located the coordinates OrgoCorp. I think I have a contact near there. Maybe they can help us get in" Nebula announced. "Contact him! Let's go save our friend." Quill spoke, before he piloted the Bowie out of Knowhere and to the jump point. And so the mission began.
And that's the start of VOL 3 done! Hope you enjoyed it. Sorry if this chapter's a bit long, but I just wanted to get the first few minutes over and done with.
As for Mark's laser eyes, I thought it would be good for him to have a new ability. Btw, what do YOU think Mark's fate and decision at the end should be, and how do you think his character should develop? Please say so in the comments. I already have it figured out, but I'd like your thoughts. Oh, and I know the "are you happy?" thing is from "Doctor Strange; Multiverse of Madness", but I just thought it would fit in this story/character.
Not sure when the next chapter will be out, so please be patient.