AN: It's time for Volume 2 of this story! I took me a while to figure out how I wanted to go about this part of the story, but I think I came up with how I wanted to do Rocket's arc in this timeline. Enjoy!
"The past always has a way of catching up to people. Sometimes it's an unknown fact of their origin that hurtles into their life, and sometimes it's a minor choice that causes catastrophe in when its consequence becomes clear. For Rocket and his friends, their escape from the High Evolutionary would take many years to haunt them, but he was a man that always wanted to keep his creations under his control, no matter what…"
One year before the formation of the Guardians of the Galaxy…
"Sire?" a Recorder asked, standing nervously in the doorway to the High Evolutionary's lab.
The High Evolutionary held out his hand, pulling the Recorder towards him with his powers and clenching onto his face. "DID I NOT SAY I WASN'T TO BE DISTURBED!?" he shouted in the Recorder's face.
"Y-Yes, Sire, but… I was to inform you of the progress of the Counter Earth project," the Recorder replied. He looked over at the experiments his master was running, in particular the subject floating in suspended animation. "The population is developing as expected and… what are you working on now?"
High Evolutionary let go of the Recorder's face, dropping him to the ground. "Batch 89 escaped, a plan carried out by Subject 89P13. I overestimated its intelligence, which allowed it and the other subjects to escape. 89P13's brain was a valuable asset to the Counter Earth project, but we were still able to continue as scheduled. However…"
He spun around, throwing out his arms as the suspension tube behind him started to glow. The being held within the tank started seizing up, blood pouring out of their left eye as their body was subjected to electric shocks. "Subject 89P13 proved that their batch of specimens has its uses. While Project Counter Earth is monitored, we will begin terraforming another planet here in the Keystone Quadrant to populate with this new breed of what Batch 89 was. They will be stronger, smarter, and without any of the mechanical defects that Subject 89P13 and the others exhibited."
"So that's why this new subject looks like…?" the Recorder asked, only to be lifted up by his master's power.
"HOWEVER! I still desire to have Subject 89P13's brain for dissection and study. This new subject will be my key to retrieving what rightfully belongs to me," the High Evolutionary explained. He placed a hand on the tube, his manic grin reflecting in the glass as the subject inside reached out their own hand. "You will retrieve Subject 89P13 for me, by any means necessary. That is your only purpose in life."
"A-And what of the rest of Batch 89?" the Recorder asked.
High Evolutionary laughed. "They are all defects! They are expendable for my cause. Now, prepare a ship for Subject 95Y14 to start their mission. Their programming will be done soon."
The Recorder left in a hurry at that, while the High Evolutionary watched as the suspension tube was drained of its liquid, Subject 95Y14 hanging by wires before being dropped the floor as they detached. They looked up with their one functioning eye at their creator and spoke their first words.
"….Hurts…"
[***]
The Present Time
Two months after the Battle of Xandar…
In the planetary system of the Sovereign, the Guardians of the Galaxy were setting up shop on a power station platform. During that time Batch 89 had changed up their outfits, now being more uniform with each other and having additional armor padding for protection. Rocket wore an orange jumpsuit that left his arms and feet exposed, the Guardians of the Galaxy logo proudly displayed on his chest. Lylla wore a matching jumpsuit that was indigo in color, with Teefs' being green and Floor's being magenta.
"Showtime, a-holes! It'll be here any minute…" Quill said as his handheld device beeped.
"Which will be its loss," Gamora said, cocking her gun.
"I thought Gamora's weapon was sword?" Floor questioned, the rabbit clutching her own knife one of her spider-like limbs (Rocket had added more uses for her arms in the two months they'd been with the Guardians).
"We've been hired to stop an interdimensional beast from feeding on those batteries, and I'm gonna stop it with a sword?" Gamora replied, eyeing the batteries.
"I thought it was an unspoken rule that we all had our own signature weapons," Teefs voiced. "You have swords, Mr. Star-Lord has guns, Rocket has bigger guns…"
"We don't need to go over everyone's weapon, Teefs," Lylla giggled. She unholstered her own laser pistol, doing a few point maneuvers before grinning.
"I would've liked a heads-up on that beforehand…" Quill muttered.
"I'm more concerned about Drax not wearing one of Rocket's aero-rigs," Lylla said, looking to their warrior teammate.
"It hurts," Drax answered.
"Hurts? Where!?" Floor gasped.
Drax looked at the rabbit, looking away before replying, "…I have sensitive nipples."
Rocket laughed as he looked up from his tinkering. "My nipples hurt! Oh, goodness me!" he said mockingly.
Drax frowned. "What about him? What's he doing?"
"I'm finishing this so we can listen to tunes while we work," Rocket replied, gesturing to the jury-rigged stereo system he had hooked up.
"How is that a priority?" Drax questioned.
"Blame Quill! He's the one who loves music so much," Rocket defended himself.
"No, I actually agree with Drax on this. That's hardly important right now," Quill said.
"Yeah, well… I already set it up, so it's too late to stop," Rocket said, rolling his eyes.
"You could be preparing in other ways, Rocky…" Lylla said.
"Sure I can," Rocket said, giving her a wink.
"…No, I'm being serious. We don't really need music for this," Lylla said.
Rocket winked again. "No, I understand that. You're being very serious right now."
"I can clearly see you winking," Drax pointed out.
"Damnit. I'm using my left eye?" Rocket cursed. His attention was distracted when small aliens came running by, Groot chasing them and giving one a good punch. Rocket was glad that they had Groot back on the team, even if he was now even smaller than Floor with the mentality of a toddler.
"I am Groot," Groot said.
"They were not looking at you funny," Lylla said. She and Rocket had stepped up to be parents for this new baby version of Groot. Their attention was drawn away from Groot's antics as a rift tore open the sky, a tentacle monster coming through the skyline right towards them! "…That's intense."
"Time to get this job done…" Rocket muttered, cocking his gun and activating his aero-rig. As the team went into battle, Groot managed to connect the final wires of the stereo system, Star-Lord's newest mix tape coming to life on the speakers.
Sun is shinin' in the sky
There ain't a cloud in sight
It's stopped rainin', everybody's in the play
And don't you know
It's a beautiful new day? Hey…
As the Guardians battled against the monster (called an Abilisk), Groot was unaware of the danger the team was in, instead opting to goof around and dance to the music as explosions went on the background.
Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mr. Blue Sky is living here today, hey!
The Abilisk managed to knock Quill back to the floor, the human pushing himself back up to his feet and firing at the monster before noticing Groot dancing around. "Groot-!" he shouted, only for a tentacle to come by and slam him away.
Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long (so long)
Where did we go wrong…?
As Groot danced around, Drax tried his best to fight the monster, but one of the tentacles managed to wrap around his feet, repeatedly slamming the warrior into the floor near Groot. "I'll get you out of their, Mr. Destroyer!" Teefs called, the walrus pulling out a laser cutter to attempt to amputate the tentacle.
Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long (so long)
Where did we go wrong…?
"Groot! Get out of the way, or you're going to get hurt!" Gamora shouted as she noticed him near her. Groot instead just gave an oblivious wave to his teammate. "…Hi," he said before activating her aero-ring and getting back in the fight.
As Groot went back to dancing, Floor was having the time of her life jumping around and avoiding the Abilisk's tentacles. She may not have an aero-rig of her own, but her spider-like limbs and enhanced jumping capabilities gave her enough of an edge to keep up with the rest of the team. Her knife though was not as effective as Drax's own weapons, but the rabbit did make for a good distraction for the rest of the team.
Groot did stop dancing for a moment when Drax rolled up next to him, the tree-kid still nervous around the warrior's presence. Drax started at Groot for a moment before getting off the floor and running back into battle.
Hey you with the pretty face
Welcome to the human race
A celebration, Mr. Blue Sky's up there waitin'
And today is the day we've waited for!
A bug soon flew by Groot, distracting him and chasing after the insect in an attempt to eat it.
Oh, Mr. Blue Sky, please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long (so long)
Where did we go wrong…?
"No! Spit it out! Spit it out!" Rocket exclaimed, flying over and slapping the back of Groot's head to make him upchuck the bug. The raccoon rolled his eyes and picked up his gun. "Disgusting!" he muttered as he flew back into battle.
Hey there, Mr. Blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around, see what you do
Everybody smiles at you
"Rocket, have you seen Groot?" Lylla asked, taking potshots at the Abilisk. She looked around to see Groot chasing after another small alien again, the otter using her robotic arms to try and grab him to no avail. "Please stay out of the way, Groot!" Lylla shouted after him.
Hey there, Mr. Blue
We're so pleased to be with you
Look around, see what you do
Everybody smiles at you
Groot managed to wrangle one of the aliens, riding it around for a bit before he was flung off right back where the stereo system was set up. The tree-kid shrugged and went back to dancing along with the song as the battle continued behind him.
Mr. Blue, you did it right
But soon comes Mr. Night creepin' over
Now his-
The music was suddenly cut off as Teefs was slammed down into the stereo. Groot let out a cry of despair, before climbing up onto the walrus and jumping on his back in anger. "Oops. Sorry about the radio, small Groot," Teefs apologized as he righted himself, making sure Groot was safely held by his tool collar.
"The beast's hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside!" Drax stated. "I must piece through it from the inside."
"Huh!?" Gamora exclaimed in shock before Drax let out a battle cry and ran right at the Abilisk. "No, no! Drax, wait a minute!"
"Oh, Drax going to do internal knifing! Floor come too!" Floor exclaimed, hopping after her fellow Guardian.
"Floor, no!" Lylla shouted, but it was too late as the rabbit and the destroyer jumped right into the beast's maw.
"What are they doing!?" Quill exclaimed.
"He said its skin is too thick to be pieced from the outside, so he-" Teefs started to explain.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Quill cut him off.
"I tried telling him that!" Gamora shouted.
"Skin is the same level of thickness from the inside as the outside!" Lylla said.
"I realize that!" Gamora groaned. Inside the monster, Drax and Floor were going ham on the beast's insides… to no effect, of course.
"There is a cut on its neck," Quill pointed out. "Rocket, get it to look up!"
"On it!" Rocket replied, activating the minigun setting on his blaster to get the Abilisk's attention. "Hey, you overgrown sea-monkey, up here!" Rocket and Quill did pull the monster's attention skyward, but its heat breath managed to catch Rocket's gun, making it unusable.
Gamora readied her gun as she aimed for the neck cut, Teefs standing by as her spotter. "Ready, aim… fire!" he called… only for Gamora's gun to make a jamming noise.
"I didn't even realize laser guns could jam…" Lylla muttered as Gamora tossed the gun aside and drew her sword. With a running leap Gamora managed to jab her sword into the wound, sliding all the way down its belly as the Abilisk cried out in pain before keeling over.
Out of the wound slid Drax and Floor, the two of them covered in yellow goop. The warrior laughed as he held his knives up in victory. "Yes! The tiny rodent and I have single-handedly vanquished the beast!"
"Yes! Victory for Floor!" Floor laughed in agreement. The rest of the team stared unamused at their teammates, with Groot even throwing a rock at Drax.
"What?" Drax questioned.
"Let's all just get cleaned off and cool down," Lylla suggested, the team moving over to one of the batteries to sit down and do so. She removed her own aero-rig and stored it away, the otter flexing her arms a bit in a stretch. Rocket had improved her own mechanical parts recently, the arms now having a cobalt sheen to them as they'd been reinforced with Nova Corps tech. "So, what can you tell us about our protective charge, Rocky?" she asked.
"These are Anulax Batteries. They're worth thousands of units apiece, which is why the Sovereign hired us to protect them," Rocket explained, admiring one of the batteries. A part of him was tempted to take a few batteries for himself… but another part of him would rather not have an entire nation of gold people on his ass. "Do you think they'd let us have some of these? They could be useful."
"Hm… I have my doubts about that," Teefs hummed.
"It wouldn't hurt to ask at least," Lylla shrugged.
"Be careful what you say around these folks. They're easily offended," Quill warned. "The cost of transgression is death."
[***]
"Thank you, Guardians, for putting your lives on the line," the ruler of the Sovereign, Ayesha, said to the team as they stood in her throne room. "We could not risk the lives of our own Sovereign citizens. Every citizen is born exactly as designed by the community. Impeccable, but physically and mentally. We control the DNA of our progeny, germinating them in birthing pods."
Batch 89 looked at each other with unease. The Sovereign reminded them a bit too much of the High Evolutionary with Ayesha's talk of being "impeccable" sounding like how their creator wanted to make everything "perfect." Rocket and Lylla subtly held each other's hands.
"I guess I prefer to make people the old-fashioned way," Quill replied to the queen's speech.
"Well, perhaps someday, you could give me a history lesson in the archaic ways of our ancestors," Ayesha said. "…For academic purposes."
"I would be honored, yes," Quill said. "In the name of research… I think that could be pretty, uh…" He looked over to see the glance Gamora shot him. "Repulsive. I'm not into that kind of casual…"
"Oh please," Gamora rolled her eyes, stepping forward to speak. "Your people promised something in exchange for our services. Bring it, and we shall gladly be on our way."
Ayesha lifted a finger, calling out two guards who dragged a cloaked figure between them. Forcing the figure to knee, they ripped the hood off to reveal the captive as Nebula. "Blue sister!" Floor cheered, running up and giving Nebula a hug. The cyborg just glared daggers at the rabbit.
"…Family reunion. Yay…" Quill cheered nervously.
"I understand she is your sister," Ayesha said.
"She's worth no more to me than the bounty due for her on Xandar," Gamora replied, picking up Nebula by the arm.
"Our soldiers apprehended her attempting to steal the batteries," Ayesha explained, standing up from her throne. "Do with her as you please."
"We thank you, High Priestess Ayesha," Lylla said, giving a respectful bow.
The queen turned her gaze back to Star-Lord. "What is your parentage, Mr. Quill?" she asked.
"My mother is from Earth," Quill answered.
"And your father?" she pushed.
"He ain't from Missouri. That's all I know," Quill elaborated.
"I see it within you. An unorthodox genealogy. A hybrid that seems particularly… reckless," Ayesha said.
"I haven't been able to make heads or tails of it with my own studies," Lylla said.
"Of course a defect like you wouldn't be able to understand such a hybrid," Ayesha said dismissively.
"Hey, don't talk to my lady like that," Rocket growled. "I'd heard the Sovereign were a bunch of conceited douchebags, but that comment was-"
"Rocky!" Lylla said sternly. "Let us pick our battles wisely, yes?"
Rocket calmed down, but crossed his arms and looked away. "…But those rumors weren't true at all." He gave a wink to Teefs, the walrus chuckling a bit before straightening up.
"Thank you for having our time, High Priestess," Teefs said, giving his own bow before the Guardians left with their prize.
"Count yourself blessed they didn't kill you," Drax whispered to Rocket.
"You're telling me. I mean, what are they going to get me for, stealing batteries?" Rocket said sarcastically.
Drax laughed at that, Floor laughing as well, while Lylla just raised an eyebrow. "Rocket, you didn't actually steal any batteries, did you?" she asked.
"What? No I didn't! I'm not going to endanger all of our lives when Nebula's bounty is going to bring it way more units than some batteries," Rocket said. The raccoon then noticed something by the entrance to the hall and picked it up. "Oh, that's where I left my bag of spare parts. I was wondering where I'd dropped it before."
"You should be careful where you leave your things, Rocket. You never know who might try to steal them," Teefs said.
"Please, on this planet, I'm more likely to get my stuff toss in an incinerator than stolen," Rocket scoffed. "This is a good lesson for Groot, though. Remember to keep your stuff safe and secure, buddy!"
"I am Groot!" Groot nodded from his perch on Lylla's shoulder.
As the team went to the Milano, however, someone else was watching from the distance. Their robotic left eye zoomed in on Rocket, eyeing his back as they smirked to themself. "And the little bugger has taken the bait," they chuckled. "Now I just have to watch the fireworks, and Subject 89P13 will be all mine…"
Author's Note
As with the Volume 2 movie, we start this arc of the story in a flashback, this time to what the High Evolutionary has been up to since Batch 89 escaped. It seems the mad scientist is still obsessed with Rocket, to the point that he's gone back to the designs of Rocket's friends to create an all new series of animal hybrids for a new planetary project, Batch 95 (if you didn't know, the humanimals that live on Counter Earth in Volume 3 are Batch 92). If you've read the Rocket comics before you might have some ideas as to what Batch 95's deal is, but I'll save those details for when we get to Volume 3.
Once we get to the "Mr. Blue Sky" scene of the movie, things aren't that different from canon, though we do get to see Floor and Teefs contribute to the fight as well as the talk with Ayesha. Rocket is more well-behaved with his friends around, but he doesn't take kindly to how the queen of the Sovereign insults Lylla. We also get to see Rocket and Lylla being parents for Baby Groot, with Teefs and Floor being his uncle and aunt, respectively.
While Rocket didn't steal the batteries like in canon, it seems that Subject 95Y14 has finally caught up to him and did something to the raccoon's bag. Subject 95Y14 is based on a character from the comics, but I'll save their full reveal for when their plan goes into motion to capture Rocket. Here's a hint for you about their identity: besides the "95" at the start of their subject number, "Y14" is in reference to this character's creator and the year they debuted.
Things are going to get turned around for the team next time, so stay tuned!