Chapter 9.
This is the ninth chapter. Hope you enjoy it. FORGOT TO ADD: When Young Rocket scratched the High Evolutionary's face, I though "That's where Mr mean and tough was born", and maybe I said it when, piloting his ship out in the sky, the look on his face toughened. And when he fired those shots at those three bodyguards after that, I think I thought, "His first kills.". And when he piloted that ship out as his escape, I think I thought of something like "His first ship/ or piloting" or something like that. And when the Hell-Spawn were attacking Knowhere, and when Kraglin looked around and then took out the arrow, I think I thought, "Come, Kraglin, this is your moment. Use the Arrow." Or something along those lines, can't really remember.
After the Bowie had jumped to a reasonable safe distance, and Drax and Nebula having been healed with Med-Packs, they all gathered in the Med-Bay, to look at the date from the file they'd stolen. Nebula held the ball into her robotic hand and activate a projector in it and showed the contents. Said contents was actually a video recording of an early surgical experiment of Rocket as a normal Raccoon. And the sight was, to Mark (standing in between Drax and Groot), shocking to say the least. Hearing the screeches Baby Rocket made as they started the incursion shattered his emotions with sadness and pity, watching as he kept moving, but they tried to keep him still as two figures in white began cutting the back of his head open. They were operating on him and he was still conscious! "They didn't even use antitheses." Mark spoke, his eyes wide, his right front paw, touching the front of his muzzle. "Why did he never tell us about any of this?" Mantis asked, with an emotionally filled tone. "My guess? He escaped and wanted to move on, put it behind him." Mark assumed. "This is worse than what Thanos did to me." Nebula spoke softly. "Me too. I mean, I was just transferred from body to body. Sure, it hurted like hell, but at least I didn't experience the enhancements done to this body beforehand. Nd I wasn't cut open." Mark added. "Well, what about the passkey? Is it in there?" Quill asked, getting back to the point, before Nebula stopped the recording and began searching the data. "No. But I file was removed today. Downloaded and deleted, a million characters in length. The biometrics say it was this man. Recorder B2H6." Nebula explained, before showing an image of man, who was actually the same man who Mark saw Quill bump into. "You bumped into this guy outside of records today, didn't you, Quill?" Mark asked loudly, looking at Quill "Yeah, I did." Quill exclaimed loudly. Groot growled as Gamora walked towards the image and looked closer. "Looks like one of the High Evolutionary's recorders." She spoke, making something in Mark's head buzz as he looked rightwards at Gamora. "The High Evolutionary?" Mantis and Mark asked at the same time. "The founder of OrgoCorp?" Mantis added. "The illegal genetic scientist obsessed with perfection?" Mark added. "How do you know that, Mark?" Quill asked, looking at him. "I've heard a lot of rumours and stories about him." Mark answered. "OrgoCorp is just a way to fund his experiments that lie outside of intergalactic laws. He's created whole societies. Xeronians, the Ani-Men, the Sovereign." Gamora explained. "The Sovereign?" Drax asked. "Now it all makes sense." Mark spoke, referring to the golden guy earlier. "Corners of the universe consider him God." Gamora added, as Mantis turned around and went over to the nearby computers.
"I am Groot." Groot spoke. "Yes." Nebula answered. "Yeah, I agree." Mark replied, as he saw Quill nodding. "Agree with what? That he's Groot?" Gamora asked. "He said maybe this man downloaded the passkey into the computer on his head." Nebula answered/translated. "Huh?" Gamora asked, clearly confused. "That could store the passkey." Nebula explained, while zooming in to show the device on the man's right hand side head side. "We find him, we save Rocket." Quill spoke determined, as Mark heard the computer Mantis was at beep. "The High Evolutionary's coordinates." She announced, pointing at the screen with her right index finger. "Put the coordinates in the nav." Quill ordered, before Nebula turned off the projector and walked out of the room. "Wait a minute." Gamora spoke as Mark turned around to walk out of the Med-Bay, Quill walking just ahead of him and past him, Mark getting behind him as Gamora grabbed his left arm which he moved out of her grip. "Are you kidding me? What he wants is that gutted Badger in the Med-Bay, and your gonna brig him straight to him? It's almost certainly a trap." Gamora spoke. "Trap isn't a trap if you know the trap is trying to trap you. T's a face off." Quill replied, Mark unsure about what he just said. "A face off is a trap if you're facing off against a guy a thousand times more powerful than you." Do you know who the High Evolutionary is?" Gamora asked, as Mark went off to the pilot's seat and stood to the right of it, the console just parallel to his muzzle. "Yeah, he's some dickhead who dissected an innocent animal. That's all I need to know." Mark said back, while pressing buttons with his left-hand paw, his left front arm level with his head and the console. "The High Evolutionary isn't someone you want to think about messing with." Gamora replied "We won't think about it when we do it." Drax said back, as Mark finished his work as he turned leftwards and walked towards Gamora. "Yeah, have you don't your research? We're the Guardians of the Galaxy! We've faced guys more powerful than us before! We defeated Ronan the Accuser, Ego the Celestial, and helped take down Thanos, who knows how many mercenaries, and survived!" Mark explained, stopping in front of Gamora. "You know what? I don't care! Just drop me off with the Ravagers and you go and do whatever it is that you wanna do." Gamora exclaimed "We don't have time for this." Nebula spoke, as she walked past them. "I'm not asking you. Drop me off with my people now!" Gamora said back sharply, as she looked in the direction Nebula went, Mark turning leftwards behind her. "'Your people'? The Ravagers aren't your people. I'm a damn Ravager. You aren't. Listen, I know you were always looking for a family. Okay? But, my Gamora, the one I loved, she didn't find it with a group of criminals, she found it with us." Quill spoke, turning away from the screen he was working at and faced Gamora, Mark rolling his as he spoke. As he already knew this talk was hopeless. "People who care about you. I know that's who you still are. Somewhere inside you…" Quill continued, before Gamora let out a scream and pushed Quill back with both hands, pushing him to the screen, shattering it and falling to the floor. "What are you so afraid of in yourself that I need to be something for you? I don't give a shit about your Gamora! Life made me me!" Gamora ranted as Quill got up on his, and she was just about to punch him with her left hand before Nebula grabbed/stopped it with her robotic arm, which made Gamora look at her. "I have a few upgrades curtesy of that gutted Badger in the Med-Bay, and we are not risking his life to make yours more convenient." Nebula spoke, as they moved their arms down. "I'm family." Gamora said back. "So is he." Nebula replied. Gamora looked at Quill for a second before looking at Nebula again. "Screw you." Gamora said before she turned away. "Screw all of you." She spoke before she walked down the hallway.
Silence filled the room for a few seconds before the sounds of the first jump point opened up, Mark (who had been standing where he was) turning his head leftwards to see Groot pilot the ship through it. Mark, (thinking someone needed some sense talked into) then turned his head to face Quill again, his eyes narrowing as he walked towards him and stopped right before him. He then looked upwards at Quill's face, before he held up his left paw-hand and moved forward and backwards several times, indicating he wanted Quill to kneel down. Quill, with a confused look on his face, knelt down as he was asked to, his face now parallel to Mark's muzzle. They both stared at each other a few seconds before Mark then slapped Quill in the face with his left paw-hand! "OW! What did you do that for!?" Quill moaned, his eyes closed and his face turned rightwards with the slap, "When are you gonna wake up, Quill!? You'll never have the love you had with Gamora back! Now, I get it. You miss your Gamora. But she's gone, really gone. And this new/past Gamora? She'll never love you the same way. You have to accept that, and the sooner you do, the better." Mark ranted sternly. "Oh, you're one to talk, Mark. What if this thing happened to Cosmo, huh? Would you do that?" Quill asked back, which made Mark move his face back a bit and his eyes widened and his mouth gaped open, then they narrowed and closed again. "She's irrelevant, Quill! Keep her out of this." He snapped, while in the middle of his eyes, he began to see small red circles forming and slowly getting bigger, indicating he was about to fire those beams he'd fired earlier. Not wanting to harm Quill unintentionally out of anger, he closed his eyes, he panted a few breaths as he calmed down, his face looking less angry as he opened his eyes his eyes going normal. He then looked down at his orange uniform. "In the meantime, let's get out of these uniforms." He suggested, grabbing a bit of the suit on his Dog-chest with both paw-hands, holding the fabric, before he let go, Quill getting back on his feet. Then he had an idea, which made him grin and look up at Quill. "Everyone, follow me. I got something for us." He ordered as he turned around, headed for the hallway and began walking down it, looking over his left then right shoulders to see Quill, Mantis, Drax and Nebula following him.
He led them to a chamber where there was a large containment unit on the right-hand side with a lever on the nearest side to open it. Mark grabbed the lever with his right paw-hand and pulled it down, the unit double doors opening up and down revealing, brightened by white lights, were blue suits with bits of red on them, an orange upwards flame symbol in the centre, with boots and gloves. Mark stared at them with a proud smile. "Well, what do you think?" He asked proudly with a smile, his arms folded. "Now this is definitely my colour." He heard Drax say. "Yes." He thought in his head, relieved. "I got the idea from the Avenger's time travel suits. And I figured it's about time we had some uniformity around here." Mark explained as he walked forwards and grabbed the suit his size, turned around and went to an empty room to change. As he undid his orange suit and began pulling it down his body, his mind began to race again. To him, the pieces were coming together. Rocket was experimented on by the High Evolutionary, a test subject, that was obvious. What he assumed was that Rocket had managed to escape, but what he went through as a test subject broke his heart, and so he hid his heart behind a wall of meanness and toughness, so it could never be broken again. He didn't have the answer he mentally asked himself at OrgoCorp, but, as he got his front arms out of his suit, he felt he'd never know the answers, and somehow, he felt in his soul that he didn't need to know all of that, as he pulled his hind legs out of his outfit. He then realized as he opened up his new suit and stepped his hind legs into it, that he had been extremely lucky in his experiences, as he'd managed to escape the ones who did what they did to him without much pain, and a thought suddenly occurred to him that if he hadn't escaped, or they been distracted, he would have either been sold to someone as a slave, or sold to the High Evolutionary and become a test subject himself. He may not know everything about Rocket or himself, but he knew what he knew, and that was enough for him, as he pulled his new suit up his body, a hold in the bottom part for his tail to poke out of, moved his arms through the arms, and fastened it up, finishing off with a belt around his waist, then some custom-made gloves for his Paw-hands, and socks for his hind paws.
Pointing his head downwards, looking at himself in the new suit, grinning with pride. "Damn, I look good. No, I look badass." He thought in his head as he looked at himself, before his mind suddenly then began asking if he thought they could have gotten the file or if they could easily do this mission with or without him, coming back to his dilemma. He purged the thoughts out of his head before he then looked upwards and went out of the room and walked towards the cockpit, but something inside him made him instead go up the stairs to the upper platform, and when he was at the top, he saw down the corridor Quill and Drax standing on the platform, also in their suits. "I know lots of analogies, Quill. Analogies, metaphors, et cetera. For instance, Gamora's head is like a lily pad because it is green. Analogy. And also, stupid looking and flappy." Drax spoke, which made Mark confused. "Flappy?" Quill asked, clearly equally confused. "Because her skin is made of a leaf. Metaphor." Drax sort of answered. "Is it?" Quill asked, unsure. "Yesterday, I made a poop shaped like a fish. Even my butt is capable of making an analogy." Drax answered, as Quill turned around, Mark bending his upper body forwards, looking leftwards to see Mantis hiding behind a beam, also in a suit, her hands on her head in annoyance. "Let me guess, you told him to say an analogy." Mark spoke, acknowledging he'd missed a bit of it. before moved his upper body straight again and looked upwards at Quill and Drax again. "Oh." Quill spoke. "Look at us." Mark grinned, gestured with his paw-hands and arms held out by his side, gesturing to him and the others in their suits, Quill and Drax looking down at him. Suddenly an alarm began blaring, coming from the Med-Bay. Grin going away instantly and turning around in a flash, Mark ran down the corridor and down the stairs, hearing footsteps run behind him, most likely Quill. The got to the bottom of the stairs and ran into the Med-Bay, saw Nebula in it with Rocket frantically jolting around a lot. "What's happening?!" Mark and Quill asked at the same time, Mark's voice being a bit louder, as they came up to the bench. "The fluid is in his lungs." Nebula explained, as Mark looked upwards at a screen to see the situation and it wasn't looking good, and from what he saw in the lung area, Nebula was right. Looking at Nebula, he watched as she inserted the tip a circular device into Rocket's body, which calmed him down, and after a few minutes, it seemed to do the trick. But it was obvious to even Mark that Rocket's condition had just gotten worse. "He's dying. We need that passkey. We don't have long." Nebula explained. Mark stared at Nebula, seeing Quill in the corner of his eye do the same. A moment later, the PA chimed, and Mark looked leftwards/upwards to see the small screen in the middle top of the wall he was facing as Mantis's voice came over it. "We've arrived." She announced. Mark turned around leftwards and followed Quill out of the Med-Bay into the corridor and stepped into the cockpit (Drax already ahead of them and getting into a seat), stepping up to Quill's left. He watched through the viewport as they came through what looked like clouds and the view of the planet before them came into view. But something about the planet made Mark narrow his eyes in confusion, for it had green continents and blue oceans and white clouds, and a white cold northern pole. The continents wee different, but the planet still looked very familiar, as it looked a lot like Earth. "That looks just like…. home/Earth." Mark and Quill both said at the same time. This mission as just getting weirder and weirder.
And that's the ninth chapter done. Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a review/comment. Sorry if it was a bit short, but I felt that was a decent enough part of the film for a chapter. Next chapter will be out soon, please wait. Oh, and thanks to Sinikettu for making me come up with the 'lucky' stuff, but I had been thinking about the possibility him being sold to the High Evolutionary if he hadn't escaped for a while.
Btw, I hope you like that it was Mark's idea in this story for the new suits.