Chapter 14.
Here it is! Chapter 14! Hope you enjoy it!
Forgot to add: Mark kept the knife the creature gave him and put it on his right-hand side of his belt.
Happy New Year!
Mark led the others down the hall as he smelled a load of creatures up ahead, which he assumed as the children. He then moved his right paw-hand up to his comms. "Kraglin, come in. You there?" He spoke into it. "Yes, Mark." Kragin's voice spoke. "We're gonna connect the ship to Knowhere to get off the ship. Be prepared to move. Rocket or Nebula will assist you in manoeuvring." Mark explained before he removed his right paw-hand, as he heard a voice that sounded like a child, speaking in a language he didn't understand. Then he entered a hallway with cages on either side, ran down it a bit to see a lot of children sized people with white silver hair. "Hello, moron." He heard Drax say, as he turned leftwards and went to the nearest cage door, saw the lock on the right-hand side of the door, which was parallel to his head, so he looked straight at the lock with his laser eyes and destroyed the lock, so he pulled the door leftwards/open with his left paw-hand. "Come on!" He spoke, waving his right paw-hand out and towards, gesturing for the kids to come with him. As they stepped towards him, he turned leftwards ad stretched out his left arm, the children starting to head in that direction. "Come on! Follow me! Come on! Come on! Come on! Go, go, go!" Gamora said as she and Drax started to get more children out of their cages, the children starting to run down the hallway. He then went to the next cage behind him and destroyed the lock with his laser eyes again. "Come on, Come on!" He spoke as he opened the door, the kids ran out of that cage without being told twice. Then he turned rightwards and ran down the hall. He heard a female one directing some with a word the sounded like Domo. He stopped on Groot's right. "I am Groot!" Groot spoke, pointing down the hallway with his right arm. "Uh… Domo? Domo." He spoke as he held out his right arm and pointed it rightwards, looking at the children as they ran.
Then he looked ahead at the female one, who looked concerned at something. Sensing it was something behind him, he turned around rightwards to see the golden guy, his clothes ruined, standing weakly in the open-door way in front of him. The guy looked down at Mark before he clenched his hands fist. Mark groaned, as he had had enough of this dude, so he clenched his paw-hands into fists and got his laser eyes ready, the circles building up in his eyes. The guy, sensing the challenge, let out a scream as his hands began to glow, before he suddenly went silent, the glow going away and fell to the ground. Mark unclenched his fists as he circles in his eyes faded, all anger suddenly going away as he felt pity for the guy. He looked upwards/leftwards at Groot, who looked down/rightwards at him. From the expression on his face, he clearly was thinking the same thing, so he stepped up to the guy and picked him up with both hands and began carrying down the hallway, Mark following behind. "I got a space big enough to get through. I gotta find out if I can change it to a permeable shield." Quill's voice spoke through the comms. Mark (feeling the ship was moving) and Groot moved to the front of everyone as they went to where Quill was, which was the remains of the chamber they had fought in earlier. "Come on, come on, come on! Go, go! Go, go, go!" Gamora spoke, as Mark entered the room on Groot's right. "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Stop, stop!" As they came upon the shield, Mark turned around rightwards and held out his arms in both directions (leftwards and rightwards) and stopped (his back to the shield), the kids stopping in front of the him and on his left and right. "Are those kids?" He heard one of the locals ask, as he turn around rightwards, now facing the shield, his arms still held out, seeing the ship approach the gantry in the eye of Knowhere, some locals gathering near Cosmo, who sat down, waiting. After a few seconds, they got as close as they possible could. "All right, Cosmo, stich it up! It needs to be airtight so the kids can make it across." Mark ordered to Cosmo. "Locking up, Mark friend." She replied, as the ship jolted, causing him to lose balance for a second before he regained it, and moved down at bit, the gantry and the floor pretty much linked. A few seconds later, he heard a sparking sound, then a whirring sound as the shield turned from yellow to purple. As the children cheered, Mark then threw his arms forwards, his index Dog-finger pointed forwards. "Go! Go now!" He cried, as the locals became helping some of the children down, some of the children stepping down. "One by one, one by one!" He heard Gamora say, as he stepped of the ship and onto the gantry and walked towards Groot, who laid the guy down on the floor. "Locking in and headed down." Nebula's voice came over the comms, as he came up the guy's right-hand side and knelt down before him, as the guy came to. "This way. This way." He heard Drax and the guy looked rightwards at him, then leftwards at Groot. "Why? Why are you doing this? I tried to kill you." The guy, confused. "I am Groot." Groot answered. "He says "Everyone deserves a second chance."" Drax explained, (the guy looking at him) Mark nodding in agreement with a smile. "What's your name, dude? I'm Mark Wulfson." He greeted as he held out his right paw-hand. "Adam." The guy replied. "Adam who?" Mark asked, before he heard a rumble and followed by some screaming, looked over his right shoulder to see Cosmo was struggling a little. He got up on his hind paws, turned rightwards and ran towards Cosmo as Mantis did so. Mantis knelt before Cosmo's right, placed her hands on Cosmo's neck and back, as Mark came up on her left. "You are so strong." Mantis said, using her powers, as Mark stroked the top of her head with his right Dog-hand. "I believe in you, you strong dog." He spoke fondly as Cosmo straightened herself up. He then looked leftwards to see Nebula come towards them, carrying a child on her back. "Why are you so slow? Hurry!" She barked at some children running with her. Then Mark saw that Rocket wasn't with her. "Where's Rocket?" Quill asked as Mark stepped away from Cosmo and ran onto the ship and ran closer to Nebula's right, looking down the hallway. "Oh, no." He thought in his head with worry that Rocket was somewhere in the ship looking for the High Evolutionary. Then he suddenly remembered something which made his mouth gap open with a smile. "I've just remembered. I put trackers in all our suits." He explained as he looked down and opened a zipped-up pocket in his suit's left hind leg side, and pulled out with his right paw-hand a small rectangular device. He looked upwards, at Quill and Nebula, who had looks of a mixture of surprise, annoyance and irritation. "And you tell us this now?" Quill asked incredulously. "Better late than never." Mark shrugged, before looking down at the device.
A few minutes later, having led the group to where Rocket was on the ship, the device showing Rocket should be in the room to the right. He could hear the High Evolutionary screaming Rocket's code (89P13), followed by a few thumping sounds and something he never thought he'd hear. "The names Rocket. Rocket Raccoon." Rocket's voice spoke. As Mark heard the sound of a gun firing, he held out his right arm/dog index finger, the others running ahead of him, leaving him standing in there in shock for a few seconds (as it seemed Rocket had finally acknowledged/accepted that he is a Raccoon, which Mark had never thought he'd do), before he then shock his head, clearing his head, put the device back in its pocket and pulled the knife out of his belt with his right paw-hand. Then he looked forwards and ran down the hall he was in, turned to the right, entered a chamber with a tall machine in the centre of it, and saw the others beating the hell out of the High Evolutionary. As he watched Gamora swipe her sword across the High Evolutionary's chest armour, Mark saw a clear target, so he charged forwards towards the High Evolutionary, jumped forwards, holding out in the knife he had by stretching out his arm Dog-arm and his left paw-hand, and impacted the High Evolutionary's chest, making him fall back onto the floor. Mark bent his hind legs to keep himself on the High Evolutionary's body as he hell on the ground, and when he was on the ground, Mark grabbed the handle of the knife with both paw-hands, raised it up over his head, and then rapidly moved the blade down and stabbed the High Evolutionary, letting out an aggressive yell, before he pulled upwards the blade, removed his right Dog-Hand and moved the blade down to his left side. This wasn't out of hatred, but rather was retribution for the destruction of Counter-Earth. Then he noticed something about the High Evolutionary's face: A part of the skin was folded up, like it falling off. He touched the bit of skin with his right paw-hand, which felt like material instead of flesh, and then pulled it leftwards, the material turning out to be a mask, the face beneath made him winced a bit as he got up on his hind paws and walked backwards down the body, hearing the footsteps of the others coming towards them around him. "His face came off!" He heard Drax say. "It's a mask." Rocket replied, as he stepped up the face of his maker and held his gun towards it. "It's a face-off." Mark muttered to himself, noticing the irony of the titles, as he stepped off the body and stopped in between Mantis and Gamora. Now everyone could get a clear look at the High Evolutionary's face; His skin was blood red and scarred, his nose was gnarled away, his mouth was gnarled away on the left, showing his teeth, as were his eyes (the eyelids of his right eye gone). "Look what you did to me. For what? All I wanted to do was to make things... perfect." The High Evolutionary spoke to Rocket, who clearly did something that made his face like that. Meanwhile a loud explosion could be heard. "You didn't want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are." Rocket proclaimed boldly. "Kill him." Drax cried out, and silence filled the room. Mark kept his eyes on Rocket, hopeful. Hopeful he had gotten through to him. As here was his shot to get revenge. The silence continued for a few seconds, until Rocket lowered his gun, Mark instantly smiling proudly. "Why?" Drax asked, confused. "Because I'm a freaking Guardian of the Galaxy. And the better creature." Rocket answered proudly, Mark's pride burning like a furnace, as his advice had worked, before an explosion happened behind them all, which made Mark look over his left shoulder to see it happen in the room they were. "We have to get out of here now." Gamora spoke. "Yeah, this ship is not gonna last much longer." Mark added in agreement, before he turned leftwards. "We have to save them." Rocket spoke behind in an unusually emotionally/ pleading tone. "We've got all the kids on board." Quill replied. "No, Pete." Rocket said back, which made Mark stop in his tracks (as that was the first time Rocket had called Quill by his first name) and turned rightwards, seeing Rocket. The rest of them." Rocket added, with a look on his face he'd never seen before. That's when he realised something. Ever since his near-death experience, Rocket had changed. He was now displaying/showing and expressing much more emotions that ever before. Somehow the brick wall that surrounded his heart had cracked and crumbled.
And that's chapter 14 done! Sory if it seems a bit rushed, but I just wanted to get a chapter out before the New Year. Not sure when the next chapter will be out as I'll have a lot on my plate in the New Year, so please be patient.
Something baffles me about a lack a viewing on my profile/stories these past three months, as there suddenly seems to be no more views/visitors (the last showing on my reader tracker shows since September 2023, there have been zero viewing/visitors in my profile/stories. And it worries me: Has my account been malware affected, preventing people from looking at my work, or are people not just looking these days? Oh, and how could Sinikettu have done those recent reviews without having looked at the recent chapter? Or maybe something wrong with tracker?
On a more positive note, HAPPY NEW YEAR! From 2023 to 2024!
