Chapter 12.
HERE IT IS! Chapter 12! Sorry for the long wait! Hope you enjoy it.
Mark (his head just above the table) watched as Groot passed the computer to Gamora, who then attached it to two grey beans above a screen, and then fitted a plug onto left team, a lot of data showing up on the screen. He then looked downwards/leftwards at Rocket, whose breathing was now rough/laboured, as Quill and Groot put a plug each into the burnt area of Rocket's chest. "Okay. Here we go." He heard Quill mutter softly. A few seconds later, as Quill fitted the last two plugs, Groot over to the other side, Mark moved over to Gamora's right, placed both his paw-hands on the table side and began fidgeting his paw-fingers up and down, while staring at Rocket's body. "Okay. All right, Rocket. Go." He heard Quill mutter hopefully, as the passkey data kept flowing on the screen. Mark, too, was hopeful, as they've gone through a lot of trouble to get this passkey. "I wonder what's going on in his head." Mark thought in his head. If only he knew.
Silence filled the room for a few seconds. The screen beeped, which made Mark look leftwards/upwards at it to see several gaps in the data. "Okay, okay. Okay, here we go." Quill spoke hopefully. Gamora looked closer at the screen and pointed her left index finger at the gaps. "This isn't right." She spoke. "Yeah, No, no, no it's good. It's gonna work. It's working." Quill responded. "Yeah, it's just taking its time." Mark muttered in concern. "It needs to be faster." Gamora said back, which Mark agreed. Half a minute later, Rocket's shock and the machinery started beeping a flatlining sound, and his body went limp. Mark looked forwards/upwards a bit to see the red screen of Rocket's body, the heart area flashing white. "He's flatlining!" Mark spoke in shock, his eyes widening, Quill and Groot looking at the screen. "No, no, no, no!" Quill spoke out in shock as well as he looked back at Rocket. "No! Come on. Come on!" Quill spoke frantically as he shook Rocket's body. "Quill." Gamora spoke to no response, as Mark's breathing got deeper. "No! NOOOO!" Quill screamed before he began pulling some of the plugs out of Rocket's chest. "Quill." Gamora repeated. "No!" Quill yelled out. "Not after all this." Mark said softly, refusing to have gone through all this effort for nothing. "Quill." Gamora said again. "I'm not gonna lose him." Quill spoke "He's gone." Gamora replied. "I'm not letting him go!" Quill yelled back, as Mark turned his head to the left/upwards at Gamora. "If it were Nebula, would you do same?" He asked rhetorically, before Quill started doing CPR on Rocket. "Come on, Rocket, don't go into the light." Mark whispered as he looked down at Rocket again with worry. If only he knew how right he was. A minute or two later, Rocket woke up with a loud gasp, Mark took a step back, then he saw the data on the screen went back to flowing. "The passkey's going through!" Quill spoke hopefully. "He's free. Med pack!" Mark spoke before he looked over his left shoulder to see Gamora already getting one out, then came back to the desk and look it out its white wrapping, before she placed it on Rocket's chest and pressed the button. The med pack worked like it normally would, glowing white for a few seconds, then stopped, Quill then removing Rocket's oxygen mask and took off the med pack and plugs, Rocket breathing as Mark saw the burnt area now white. Rocket looked leftwards at Quill. "Quill?" He asked. Quill then moved Rocket's upper body up a bit and leaned down and hugged him. Mark then pulled himself up onto the table side with both paw-hands, sat down on the table, his forward body facing the wall, and as Groot leaded down and hugged Rocket, he budged over leftwards to the left of the trio, moved his body rightwards, bending his right hind-leg to get move on the table, and, closing his eyes, hugged Rocket's right-front side, Rocket's right head side head touching the right side of Mark's muzzle, as Rocket placed his right arm around Mark's left side. The group then got out of the hug. "Where's Nebula?" Rocket then asked, which made Mark straighten his body and open his eyes. "Uh…" He spoke, unsure how to answer. "Because her code is on the comm behind you." Rocket replied pointing with his right hand towards the wall.
Mark instantly turned his head rightwards to see Nebula's code on the small screen on the wall. He then moved his right paw-hand to his left shoulder side to press to comm device on his left shoulder side. "Nebula? You there?" He asked into it. "Mark! Where are you?" Nebula's voice came over the comm, as Rocket sat up on the end of the table. "Thank God!" Quill spoke in relief as he stepped away from the table. "Drax and Mantis, are they okay?" Mark asked in concern, having just remembering they hadn't stayed at the Bowie like they were instructed. "They're with me. We're here to get you out of here." Nebula answered. "Out? Out of where?" Mark asked in confusion, as he turned rightwards and walked into the enter of the room. "The High Evolutionary's ship." Nebula replied. "No, we got off the ship." Mark said back. "You what?" Nebula asked back in confusion. "Where are you guys?" Mark asked, hoping they weren't where he was starting to think they were. "On the ship!" Nebula said back. "On the ship?" Quill asked, taking two steps closer to Mark. "I didn't lie." Nebula said, with an obvious tone. "Why are you on the ship?" Quill asked in concern. "To save you, obviously." Nebula replied. "No, you should have gone back. You should know by now that we're perfectly capable of getting ourselves out of a fix!" Mark yelled into the comm. "Tell them I said hi." He heard Drax's voice on the comm. "Really?" Nebula asked, annoyed. "Tell them we're coming to save them." Drax added. "Pay attention or play with the kids. One or the other." Nebula said back, which made Mark narrow his eyes in confusion again. "'Play with the kids'?" Gamora asked in confusion. "How did you get out?" Mantis's voice asked on the comms. "You don't need to know that." Mark replied, just before Groot leaned down in the direction of his comms, Mark turning his head leftwards slightly as Groot's head neared "I am Groot." He spoke, Mark shaking his head and mouthing 'no'. "Jumping a thousand feet to your deaths with a parachute is getting yourselves out of a fix?" Mantis asked incuriously, which made Mark roll his eyes. "You're al just makin' up stuff that they're saying, right?" Gamora asked rhetorically. "The important thing is, we're all okay." Rocket spoke. "Rocket?" Nebula, asked, Mark getting a tiny hint of emotion in her voice. "Yeah, he's here. It worked. He's okay." Mark said with a smile, turning his eyes leftwards to see Rocket. "Rocket, we love you very much and we're happy your alive." Mantis spoke. "Well, that makes you the idiots then." Rocket said back. Just before Mark could chuckle, another voice came over the comms. "He's right about that." It was the High Evolutionary. Hearing that voice made Mark look down at his comms in concern, but in the corner of his eyes he saw Rocket reacting to the voice with a fearful expression. He recognised the voice. "Back in your cages!" He heard the High Evolutionary order, but he heard what sounded like Nebula grunting. "Guys?" He asked with worry. "Nebula?" Quill also asked, his widening. "Nebula? Guys? You there?" Mark asked again, to no response. "So, you'd like to joust, would you?" The High Evolutionary asked in the comms. "Go to hell, you murdering son of a bitch. You killed all those innocent people." Mark growled with venom in his voice. "As I will your friends. I'm sending you the coordinates. They will die unless you BRING ME WHAT IS MINE!" The High Evolutionary yelled back, Quill snatching Mark's comms off his suit with his right hand and held it up to his mouth. "Screw you, you stretch-faced, RoboCop-looking, Skeletor wannabe, purple-nurple, piece of…" Quill ranted into the comms, before a fizzled sound came through in, which made him stop. "He hung up." He spoke. "You think?" Gamora asked. Mark then started walking towards the med bay entrance. "Quill, call Knowhere for reinforcements." He ordered as he stepped out of the room.
A minute later, he came back into the med bay, holding the suit he made for Rocket, which was neatly folded up and held in both paw-hands (his forearms bending parallel), Rocket's gravity boots on top. He waked over to Rocket, who got down from the table. "Here, put this on. And I got you your gravity boots. Just in case." He shrugged at the last sentence. Rocket stare at the suit and boots for a second then up at Mark then back at the bundle and took it with his hands. Mark then turned around leftwards to see Quill, Gamora and Groot walk out of the room. He followed them as well, but then stopped halfway and held his paw-hands together and looked downwards at the floor. He realised something. When he threatened the High Evolutionary the way he did, that wasn't him. And those emotions he felt about Counter-Earth's destruction, that also wasn't him. He realised then that he's not, and never has been the revenge type. "I know what he did to you." He spoke, believing he needed to say something. "You do?" Rocket asked behind him. "We saw a video. A recording. Of some what they did to you. And I'm sorry you had to go through that." Mark said back sympathetically, then he the sound of a scoff. "One video? You don't even know the half of it." Rocket scoffed. "I don't. And I don't think I never will know the rest. But I know enough. And I know that he scared you." Mark continued. "So what?" Rocket asked back, with a tone of unsureness. "You not the only one who's scared, buddy. We all have our scars. Quill was abducted by Ravagers, Drax lost his family, Mantis and Nebula suffered too. I was taken from my family, my home, and turned into this. That pain… made me who I am. Not sure who I'd be without, honestly. Though I have been wondering." Mark answered wisely, getting that out of his system, muttering the last sentence. Then he signed. "What I'm trying to say is, the scars we have make us who we are. I saw how you reacted, when you heard his voice. You escaped, and you've been running from him ever since. Well, now he's caught up with you. So maybe it's time for you to stop running and face him. And when you do… you'll have a choice." He continued to no response. "You can either destroy him out of hatred, make him suffer, get revenge or there's an alternative." He added. "And that is?" Rocket asked behind him. "Be the better creature. Be better than him. Go down the road of hatred, and you'll just be just as bad as him. There'll be no going back. And it won't change what happened." He answered, speaking for himself as well. "Just because someone steals your lunch money doesn't mean you punch them back. Did I just quote my mother?" He asked himself in confusion, narrowing his eyes, having just remembered something his late mother used to say. The he realised he was remembering a lot his family's old sayings. Then he shook his head a bit. "Anyway, your story may not have had such a happy beginning, but that doesn't make you who you are. Nor does it matter. It is the rest of your story that counts. The point is, you've gotta let go of all that stuff in the past because it just doesn't matter. It never did. What matters is what you choose to do, who you choose to be. What I'm basically saying is… killing him won't bring you peace." He finished wisely and hopeful, before then then walked out of the room. Once he exited the room, he looked leftwards to see Quill and Groot standing against the wall, clearly having listened in to all that. "Where did all that come from?" Quill asked, looking downwards at him. "A lot of that was from stuff my parents and grandparents used to say. I forgot about it for years, but… suddenly, somehow all the memories have come flooding back." He answered, looking downwards leftwards at the wall, his confused mind empty of thoughts.
Silence filled the area before Rocket came out of the med bay in his suit and boots. "He looks good in blue." Mark thought in his head. "This could be futile, guys. He's too powerful." Rock spoke as he stepped up to them. "Well, then I guess we'll die trying." Quill replied, as he then led then down the hall, Mark following behind Rocket. "What is 'dying trying' gonna accomplish?" Rocket asked back, as if he was unsure, as Gamora came up to them, behind Mark. "Or we could just give him the Badger?" Gamora suggested. "Our thing is dying trying!" Rockt said back immediately, preferring that, waving his left arm down. "That's the spirit." Mark replied with a grin. "I am Groot." Groot spoke in agreement. "I know who you are already!" Gamora snapped back, as they came into the centre of the hallway, and Mark then stopped. "Okay, we don't know what kind of defences he has, so we'll do a three-pronged attack. Rocket and Groot will detach in the wings, while we go in via the cockpit section." Mark offered, Quill and Gamora having stopped and gotten besides each other and turned around to look down at him. "Who are you and what have you done with the real Mark?" Quill asked, to which Mark just shrugged, unsure how to answer, as Rocket and Groot then turned around and then walked down the hall to their right. "Well, I guess we're going with my plan then. Feel free to stay behind in the main area, Gamora." Mark offered, as Quill rolled his eyes before he and Gamora then turned around and walked towards the cockpit Mark behind in between them. "I'm not leaving my sister with that jackass." Gamora replied as she then moved her right arm up her body. "This you? Fell out of your bag." She spoke, before handing something to Quill, which he took, before Mark followed her into the cockpit, Mark following her, going past Quill's right, but not before he took a quick glance at what was handed to him (which he held in his left hand): an old photo of him as a kid, his late mother and his grandfather. "Let's do this." Gamora spoke before she got into the right-hand side seat. "To battle." Mark added, as he stood in the centre of the cockpit, both arms pointing outwards and both paw-hands holding onto the grey smooth structure in between. He looked leftwards to see Quill sit in the pilot seat, placed the photo in front of him, placed the Zune into a holder with his left hand, pressed the button which started playing good music. Mark looked forwards again, seeing the jump portal open and then they headed towards the portal and went through it, the High Evolutionary's huge ship, the Arete, before them.
And that's chapter 12 done! Hope you enjoyed it! Not sure when the next chapter will be out, so please be patient. Please leave a review/comment.
1: What do you think of all that stuff Mark told Rocket?
2: Do you that should be Mark's moment (each member had their moment in the movie), so do you think it should be that? Or something else? My mind is kind of made up, (though I havent really thought about it like that until now) but I would like to hear any ideas you have.
I got some of it from "The Flash" (2023) (the "scars and pain" sentence) and "Kung Fu Panda 2" (2011), (the "story, past and who you choose to be" stuff, which I felt suited Rocket very much considering his backstory and the near-death experience moment), and X-Men: First Class" (2011) (the "Killing him won't bring you peace" bit).