"Captured by one of their own kind and held captive on the Ravagers' ship, Batch 89 were in dire straits. It would take all of their skills to find a way out and act as a test to see if their bonds were truly unbreakable."
Batch 89 were unceremoniously thrown into a holding cell alongside Yondu. "We'll be delivering Yondu to the Kree in the morning, and the rest of ya to Sire by the afternoon," Sale said smugly. "I'm sure he will be most pleased with me to have you back, 89P13."
"Sale, please don't do this," Lylla pleaded.
"Yes, Sire is bad man. Very bad man!" Floor added.
"I'm not going to be manipulated by your lies," Sale frowned. "He told me you'd try to sway my faith in him."
"Let her go, guys. She's clearly a lost cause," Rocket spat. "And what'd you do with Groot?"
"You mean this little guy?" Sale asked rhetorically, pointing to one of the Ravagers that held Groot in a cage. "I've taking a liking the little guy. Maybe I'll keep him as my sidekick. You seem to have caused a lot of trouble with your group, so I'll be taking the little one as my reward from Sire. You guys have a tailor here, right? Make the Groot a nice uniform!"
"You bring Groot back here or I will make you pay for touching a twig on his head!" Lylla threatened, her motherly instincts kicking in.
Sale ignored her and walked off with the Ravagers, leaving Batch 89 and Yondu alone. "I don't mean any offense, Mr. Yondu, but your men are quite fickle when it comes to loyalty," Teefs noted.
Yondu sighed. "I was a Kree battle slave for twenty years when Stakar freed me. He offered me a place with the Ravagers. He said all I needed to do was adhere to the code. But I was young… and greedy, and stupid. Like you with stealing those batteries."
"That was actually Sale. She framed Rocket for that… but his attitude as of late sounds a lot like what you described," Lylla said, crossing her arms and side-eyeing Rocket.
"Me and Stakar and the other captains… we weren't so different from you and your friends," Yondu continued. "The only family I ever had. And when I broke the code… they exiled me. This is what I deserve."
"Slow down, drama queen. You might deserve this, but me and my crew don't. We gotta get outta here," Rocket said, looking around the cell for a way out.
"Where's Quill?" Yondu asked.
"Star-Lord with space dad now!" Floor replied.
"Ego?" Yondu asked.
Teefs nodded. "Yes. Today has been filled with questionable names now that I think about it…" Yondu laughed a bit. "There's a smile. Keep your chin up, Mr. Yondu, and Rocket will find a way to get us out of this."
"Why didn't you deliver Quill to Ego like you promised?" Rocket asked.
"He was skinny. Could fit into places we couldn't. Good for thieving," Yondu answered.
"Uh-huh…" Lylla hummed, not believing that was the true answer.
"I got an idea on how to get outta here. But we're gonna need your little friend," Yondu stated.
[***]
Sale laughed as she watched the Ravagers crowd around Groot, the tree now wearing his own Ravager outfit while they chanted, "Mascot!" over and over. The raccoon was amazed at how smooth this was all going; she'd have Batch 89 batch to Sire in no time at all. Moving herself into Yondu's former quarters, Sale pulled out a small communicator, activating it as a hologram of the High Evolutionary came up.
"Subject 95Y14. Why are you calling me at this hour?" the High Evolutionary asked.
"Sire, I have apprehended Subject 89P13 along with the rest of Batch 89. We are enroute to return to Counter-Earth in one rotation," Sale replied.
"Good. Very good, Subject 95Y14. Soon Subject 89P13's brain will be back in my rightful possession," the High Evolutionary grinned.
"If I may ask, Sire, why do you need Subject 89P13's brain so much? Aren't you the smartest being in the universe?" Sale asked.
The High evolutionary frowned. "That is not a question I need to answer, Subject 95Y14. 89P13's brain is simply the next step in finalizing my latest project. Without it, I cannot finish what I started with Batch 95."
Sale flinched, reminded of one of her earliest memories of seeing other creatures like her floating in stasis tubes, along with the pain she felt when she first woke up, her cybernetic eye being forcefully shoved into her skull by those men in doctor's uniforms. Sire was always talking about how Batch 95 "Would surpass what he started with Batch 89," but Sale had never met the other subjects from batch she was a part of.
"May I ask another question, Sire?" Sale said.
"…You may," the High Evolutionary said evenly.
"I had some assistance in capturing Batch 89, a group of space pirates calling themselves the Ravagers," Sale explained. "I promised them that you would pay them in exchange for their loyalty, and they seem like a good group to have around to help in your endeavors, so I was thinking I could-"
"YOU EXPOSED YOURSELF TO OTHERS!?" the High Evolutionary screamed, the hologram flickering as his rage was made known. Sale suddenly grunted in pain as the device attached to her heart squeezed, making it hard to breathe as her blood circulation was temporarily cut off. "I gave you explicit orders to not involve anyone in Subject 89P13's capture, and you went against them!"
"I-I-I'm sorry, Sire," Sale gasped out, clutching at her chest as her master made her fall to her knees in pain. "It was just easier to have them assist than to chase Rocket-"
"What did you call him?" the High Evolutionary said in a low voice.
"89P13! His name is 89P13!" Sale shouted in panic, fully collapsing to the floor.
"…Good. Remember your place, Subject 95Y14. You are my creation, so you must be perfect and do what I say. You don't want to end up like 89P13, do you?" the High Evolutionary said with an unhinged smile. "We will have to deal with those Ravagers, but I can overlook this imperfection… this time. You have an impressive mind, 95Y14, but not as great as 89P13. Do not fail me, understand?"
"Y-Yes, Sire," Sale said, the hologram turning off as her heart device finally let up. The raccoon said up, hand going to her face as she felt a tear streak of blood coming from her cybernetic eye. She hated whenever her heart device was used against her, but Sire insisted that it was a necessary control measure after Batch 89 had escaped.
…There was a knock on the door, and Sale turned to see one of the Ravagers, Kraglin, standing there. "Uh, I don't mean to intrude, Captain Sale, but was that your boss just now?"
"None of your business," Sale said, wiping the blood from her eye. Kraglin held out a rag to her, Sale flinching at the motion before realizing what it was and taking it to get the blood out of her fur. "…Thank you… I didn't get your name."
"Kraglin. Used to be one of the old boss' best men," Kraglin introduced himself. "You boss, though, he didn't sound like a particularly nice guy. I mean, Yondu isn't the nicest either, but he at least treated most of us well."
"Not well enough if they turned on him so easily," Sale scoffed. "Sire is the most perfect being in the universe. His kindness knows no bounds, and he will bring that perfection to the rest of the galaxy with his creations."
"Yeah, uh, that doesn't sound as "nice" as you think it does," Kraglin said nervously.
"You think your former captain is better than Sire?" Sale questioned. "Tell me, what does Yondu have over him? Can you prove how "nice" Yondu is?"
Kraglin shuffled nervously. "Well, I can't really say off the top of my head-"
"Hah! Then I am correct in saying that Sire is better!" Sale laughed.
"But I can say that even when one of us Ravagers messes up, Yondu would at least hear us out unless we got another one of us killed," Kraglin finished his thought. "He could be mean, sure, but I thought of this crew like my family… until we started turning on each other, that is."
"Family… What is "family"?" Sale asked.
"Normally it's the people that you're related to by blood or birth, but sometimes it's the people you choose to stick around with, even if they can drive you crazy half the time," Kraglin explained. "They always have each other's back. Those other critters you got locked up are kinda like a family."
Sale hummed. "So then, if Sire created me, would that make him my family?"
"Well, just cause he created you doesn't mean he's family," Kraglin said. "My parents weren't the nicest folks- that's part of way I joined Yondu and his crew of Ravagers. Family is supposed to look out for one another, ya know?"
Sale thought about what Kraglin was saying. 'Sire is my creator. I owe my life to him… but what do I want to do after I turn in Subject 89P13? I've never seen anyone else like me before seeing him…' She shook her head out of her spiraling thoughts. "I-I need time to think. You can leave, Kraglin."
"See you in the morning, Captain Sale," Kraglin said, leaving the raccoon alone in the room.
"…I like the sound of being a captain…" Sale muttered to herself, curling up on the bed and closing her eyes as her dreams took her back to the tube, the floating, and the pain of her creation.
[***]
Back with Rocket and friends, their plan was finally able to be put into action when they saw Groot walking by. "Groot, over here!" Lylla called.
"Aw man… what did they do to you?" Rocket asked, smelling the alcohol the Ravagers had drenched Groot in.
"Hey, you wanna help us get outta here?" Yondu asked. Groot nodded. "There's stuff I need you to get and bring back to me. In the captain's quarters, there's a prototype fin… the thing I wore on my head. There's a drawer next to the bunk. It's in that. It's red. You got it?"
Groot nodded and ran off to get the fin. "I see. If you have your fin back, you can use your arrow to get us out of here!" Teefs realized.
"Let's just hope Groot can find the thing. He's only, what, two months old?" Rocket said.
"He grows fast for a tree," Yondu mused. Soon Groot came back, holding a pair of white underpants. "That's my underwears."
Rocket face palmed. "Yeah, I was pretty sure he didn't know what you were talking about. You have to explain it more carefully."
"It's a prototype fin," Yondu said slowly.
When Groot came back this time, he was holding a struggling creature that the tree had managed to wrangle. "That's an orloni. We're looking for a fin, Groot," Lylla said gently.
"It's like my flipper, but for your head," Teefs said, holding up his arm.
"Let Floor explain! Floor can talk on Friend Groot's level!" Floor said.
Rocket shrugged. "Worth a shot."
When Groot came back for a third time, he was holding a cybernetic eyeball. "That's Vorker's eye," Yondu recognized. "He takes it out when he sleeps. Go. Look again."
"But leave the eye here," Rocket ordered.
Yondu gave the raccoon a funny look. "Why?"
"He's gonna wake up tomorrow, and he's not gonna know, where his eye is!" Rocket laughed, the other Batch 89 members giggling as well.
The rest of what Groot brought back continued to be unhelpful to the team. "That's a desk. It's about this big, Groot," Lylla sighed, holding up her hands to approximate the size. When Groot brought back a severed toe, everyone cringed at the sight. "Please tell me you have a refrigeration device on this ship that has spare organs in it…" the otter groaned, thinking about how much of a nightmare it would be to reattach the toe.
Yondu shook his head, making Rocket suck in his breath. "All in favor of never discussing this again."
"Agreed," Teefs nodded.
"Floor has new traumatic image burned into her mind!" Floor said happily.
Having enough of these shenanigans, Yondu pulled off his Ravager badge and held it up. "The drawer you want to open has this symbol on it. Okay?" he handed the badge over to Groot for reference. Groot looked blankly at Yondu and put the badge on his head. "What!? No!"
"Not hat, Groot, symbol!" Floor groaned, even her positivity starting to wane as they were getting nowhere with their plan.
"That's not what I said!" Yondu exclaimed.
"I am Groot," Groot said.
"He's relieved you don't want him to," Rocket translated.
"Well, he does hate hats," Lylla recalled. "On anyone, actually, not just himself."
"One minute you think someone has a weird-shaped head, the next minute it's just because you realize part of that head is a hat," Teefs said.
"Wait, that's why he doesn't like hats?" Rocket said in surprise.
"This is an important conversation right now?" Yondu questioned.
Groot then went off to go get the fin, but the group was surprised when Kraglin came back, holding Groot and the fin. "I didn't mean to do a mutiny," Kraglin stated. "They killed all my friends."
Yondu looked to Kraglin. "…Get the third quadrant ready for release."
Kraglin gave his captain a salute. "Wait!" Lylla called before Kraglin could run off. "What about Sale?"
"What about Sale? She's working for the High Evolutionary? As soon as we get out of here, we can ditch her alongside the rest of these Ravager cronies," Rocket said.
"But Sale like Rocket Lylla Teefs Floor," Floor said.
"She is not like us. We know better than to trust Him," Rocket argued.
"Weren't we all blind to the Sire's ambitions back when we were in our cages?" Teefs asked. "Sale was created by Sire, yes, but she is as much a creature created for science and not for care as much as we were."
"She still believes she has to please Him. If we can just get her away from the High Evolutionary, I think we can free her, make her see reason," Lylla offered.
"I don't like this…" Rocket said.
"I took a chance on a scared kid once. Was a pain in the ass, but he turned out all right in the end," Yondu voiced. "She did get rid of that Taserface fella that started this mutiny in the first place, so maybe I should be thanking her for weeding out which of my men are actually loyal to me… Sorry for your loss, Kraglin."
"At least I still have you, captain," Kraglin said.
Rocket sighed, clearly overruled on this matter. "Fine, we can take Sale with us. But if she betrays us, that's on you guys, got it? And you-" He pointed at Kraglin. "You got any clones of Quill's old music on the ship?"
[***]
The next morning as the Ravagers were getting ready for another day of space piracy under their new captain, the ship's intercom suddenly blared to life, with Jay and the Americans' "Come a Little Bit Closer" starting to play. The guards stationed outside of Batch 89 and Yondu's cell were suspicious of it was their doing and opened up the cell to see what was going on. What they found inside was Rocket finishing installing Yondu's new, bigger control fin, Lylla twirling the yaka arrow as the fin turned on.
In a little café
Just the other side of the border…
"Surprise!" Floor shouted as Yondu whistled, his arrow flying out of Lylla's hands and straight through the hearts of the guards, killing them instantly.
She was a-sitting there a-givin' me
Looks that made my mouth water…
Rocket picked up the guard's blasters, using one to blast off the restraint the Ravagers had put on Teefs' wheels before tossing the other one to Lylla. "Yondu and I will take care of the other Ravagers…"
"While Floor and I grab Sale," lylla nodded.
"And I'll grab the rest of our gear alongside Groot," Teefs finished, Groot waving from the Walrus' back.
So I started walking her way
She belonged to bad man, José
And I knew, yes I knew I should leave
When I heard her say, yeah…
As the team all split up to do their tasks, Sale's voice came over the intercom, "Attention, men! Yondu has somehow reacquired his primary weapon. You must apprehend him and the others, but leave Subject 89P13 alive- that's the ringtail for those that don't know!"
Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long
Lylla gave Rocket a hug before running off with Floor, the rabbit opening up a vent for the two to crawl through while Teefs rolled off with Groot. Rocket grinned as he and Yondu walked together, a group of Ravagers already charging their way.
So we started to dance
In my arms, she felt so inviting…
And I just couldn't resist
Just one little kiss, so exciting…
Then I heard the guitar player say
"Vamoos, José's on his way!"
And I knew, yes I knew I should run
But then I heard her say, yeah…
The Ravagers all stopped in their tracks when Yondu whistled, his arrow flying through all of them swiftly. Rocket snickered a bit as each Ravager fell over one by one. "Geez man, you gotta let me have at least one shot on these traitors," the raccoon said with a hint of sarcasm.
Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long
While Yondu continued his utter domination over their enemies, Floor and Lylla were crawling through the vents, the rabbit's antenna buzzing as she tracked where Sale was on the ship through the intercom's frequency. Floor stopped when they were above the captain's quarters. "She's down there," Floor whispered.
Lylla nodded, setting her confiscated blaster to stun as she opened up the vent.
Then the music stopped
When I looked the café was empty…
"I should be hearing less screaming and more shooting!" Sale shouted into her mic. "How hard is it for a bunch of space pirates to take out five lifeforms!?"
"You'd be surprised how easy it is for us to overcome impossible odds," Lylla quipped, dropping down and firing her blaster. Sale barely dodged out of the way and pulled out her own blaster, but Lylla quickly fired again and shot the weapon from the raccoon's hands.
Then I heard José say
"Man, you know you're in trouble plenty"
Sale smirked and pulled out a second blaster. "Never carry just one weapon," she said, shooting Lylla's weapon out of her hands.
"And in my experience, it's better to have friends than to work alone," Lylla replied as Floor dropped from the ceiling behind Sale.
"Sleep strike!" Floor shouted, startling Sale as she rapidly hit the raccoon's nerve points, making her drop her weapon and fall over on the ground.
So I dropped my drink from my hand
And through the window, I ran
And as I rode away
I could hear her say to José, yeah…
"I can't move!" Sale said in a panic, trying to move her limbs but to no avail.
"Rocket, we have Sale. Heading to the ship now," Lylla said into her coms as she and Floor picked up the paralyzed raccoon.
"You won't get away with this!" Sale shouted.
"But we did!" Floor giggled as they opened the door to find Teefs, the walrus picking up Sale with his reacquired collar while giving Floor and Lylla their stuff back.
"Ladies," Teefs nodded.
"I am Groot!" Groot cheered, blowing a raspberry at Sale.
"Groot! Language!" Lylla gasped.
Come a little bit closer
You're my kind of man
So big and so strong
Come a little bit closer
I'm all alone
And the night is so long
Back with Yondu and Rocket, the two had made it up to the monitor room of the ship, Yondu using the multiple cameras to easily take out any Ravagers that were coming their way. Rocket used his blaster to fire through the doors and walls and any Ravagers Yondu missed, the raccoon laughing as he got to vent out his anger on their captors.
La-la-la-la la-la-la-la (Come a little bit closer)
La-la-la-la la-la-la-la (Come a little bit closer)
Woah woah (Come a little bit closer)
I can still hear her say (Come a little bit closer)
La-la-la-la la-la-la-la (Come a little bit closer)
The fun ended when Yondu's arrow pierced the engine, causing it to blow up in a fiery blaze. "You maniac. The whole ship's gonna blow," Rocket said in horror.
Yondu shook his head. "Not the whole ship," he said before whistling to reclaim his arrow. Rocket followed him to where Kraglin had readied their escape vessel, the rest of Batch 89 gathering there as well.
"Future Friend Sale is with us!" Floor cheered as she pointed to the tied-up raccoon.
"You think this will change anything? Sire will get you sooner or later," Sale growled.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Rocket shook his head. "Let's get out of here before this whole flarking place blows up."
Kraglin pressed a button, detaching their quadrant of the ship and zooming off as the rest of the vessel blew up behind them. "Where to, Captain?" the loyal Ravager asked.
"Ego," Rocket replied, activating the jump coordinates.
"Everyone, buckle up!" Lylla called as she fastened Sale into an empty seat before buckling herself next to Rocket.
"Jump time!" Floor laughed as she and Teefs got into their own seats.
"No, boy!" Yondu shouted as the ship lurched forward through a jump gate. "It ain't healthy for a mammalian body to hop more than fifty jumps at a time."
"I know that!" Rocket shouted back.
"We're about to do 700!" Yondu exclaimed.
"…Oh dear," Teefs gulped as the ship started moving faster and faster.
"How does Sire see you as a desirable mind to keep around!?" Sale shouted before the world started to get weird and everyone started screaming.
Author's Note
Not too much changed on Rocket's part during this chapter, but I wanted to give some characterization to Sale. She's basically in Rocket's position from when he was first created, being the High Evolutionary's "favorite" and feeling like she owes him her life. Mr. HE is far more abusive towards Sale, however, since he obviously doesn't want her to turn against him like Rocket did, so he modified her heart bomb to also act like a shock collar if she disobeyed him. It's pitiable in a way, and Kraglin obviously recognized that even if she was trying to fool herself, Sale wasn't happy just being the HE's lap dog.
Teefs doesn't have a lot to do this chapter, so I'll have to make sure he gets his moment when we actually get to Ego. Floor and Lylla double-teaming Sale was fun to write, letting our leading ladies capture their target all on their own. They've both improved in that aspect since Xandar for sure. You may have noticed as well that since Taserface was taken out so early, no one called Ayesha to tell her about Yondu's ship, meaning the Sovereign aren't going to be involved during the final battle of the movie.
We'll see how that change shakes out as well as Yondu giving Rocket his much-needed reality check next time!