Rocket and the Imp - Chapter Eight
Rocket and the Imp
[A Guardians of the Galaxy FanFiction]
Chapter Eight - Halfworld, Part I
The voyage to the Keystone Quadrant was long and arduous, but it allowed for Rocket and Lylla to become more familiar with one other's predicaments. As Lylla told the raccoon more about her life and what led up to this point, he found that his own memories had begun to slowly and gradually come back. It didn't take long after Rocket started to share what he knew and remembered when finally, the puzzle pieces came together, and the full picture was revealed.
It all started hundreds of years ago, when rouge alien scientists, chased away by federations that found their actions unlawful and abhorrent, found refuge on the secluded, distant planet of Halfworld. Away from the prying eyes of the rest of the Galaxy, they resumed research of their own sick curiosity. The beings had obtained samples from every planet and began testing and experimenting on them for reasons unknown, but most likely of a sinister nature. One thing is for certain - they weren't around any longer. A force, of some sort, eliminated them all. And just like that, the subjects - the animals, were free. This event would be the earliest that they could pinpoint, and credited as the beginning of their stream of consciousness.
Rocket, Lylla, BlackJack O'Hare, Mark, Judson Jakes, Sale, and thousands of others lived in harmony on Halfworld. For the longest time, it was nothing more than a quaint, Utopian town on the small planet. Centuries passed - they soon found the cybernetic enhancements and augmentations they'd received allowed them to sustain considerable damage and seemingly live forever. Naturally, the lust for exploration grew, and the leaders of Halfworld longed to see what lie beyond the Keystone Quadrant.
And all within a few years after these discoveries, all the animals had left. They'd moved on, and forgotten their old lives.
The Legends of Halfworld were paramount in kid's tales, all throughout the Galaxy. Stories told of a book that contained the secrets for limitless power, written by the very same being that freed all the animals all those years ago.
"I tell you, I read half of that shit, I don't feel any more powerful." Rocket spat, rolling his eyes.
"Well, what was it?" Lylla questioned, sitting across from him, in the co-pilot's seat.
"It-...It didn't make sense...I don't know. It was like...we were reading someone's crazy, incoherent thoughts."
"Really?" Lylla pondered. "Thoughts of what?"
Rocket hesitated.
"Power."
An unnerving silence washed over the two, drowned out by the white noise of the speeding ship.
Knowhere was on the far edge of the explored galaxy, and it just so happened that Halfworld was on the exact opposite end. Luckily, Lylla's ship was equipped with warping technologies, but the otter had firmly advised him to allow a few hours in-between each leap across the galaxy, as too many jumps in a row could cause some serious brain damage. Even going as fast as they could it still took almost an entire day before the raccoon had spotted the planet they'd abandoned all those years ago.
"Lylla," Rocket whispered, nudging the otter's shoulder.
The yellow mammal grunted, slowly opening her eyes.
"What-.." She groaned.
"We're here." Rocket said with a smile.
She shot up and turned to look out the front of the ship.
It was just as amazing as it ever was.
An inconceivable burning yellow ring, bigger than any sun Rocket's ever seen - and within it, at another angle, a cool blue ring, and in the center of it all - the small blue marble that was Halfworld. Memories of seeing this planet shrink in the mirrors of his ship came to him, contrasting with the bittersweet reality that he was truly, finally, going back.
"Welcome home, Rocket." He muttered, sarcastically.
They continued onward.
Lylla navigated the ship to the coordinates that Mark had sent her. It was Intel that rabbit had acquired through a long and arduous undercover mission, wherein he learned that this whole operation was much bigger than any of them had expected.
"Fuck, this isn't where the lab was, is it?" Rocket asked.
Lylla nodded.
As they broke through the atmosphere, details emerged and it became apparent that something was wrong.
Very wrong.
There was no grass. There was no water.
This planet had been abandoned and neglected beyond any hope of recovery.
And above all, quite literally, a behemoth of a structure stood. It certainly wasn't there before.
Judson Jakes had built himself a headquarters of monstrous size, whether to satiate his ego or to serve some greater purpose, they didn't know. Nonetheless, Rocket and Lylla felt a collective chill upon flying closer.
"Y-you should uh, take us behind that hill, over there." Rocket stammered, still a bit speechless upon seeing the intimidating structure that no doubt held Sale.
Lylla maneuvered the small spacecraft out of the line of sight from any watch guards near or around the building and gently landed it in a patch of dead grass on the other end of a rocky hill. The two quickly hopped out of the ship and climbed to the top of the hill, keeping low to the ground.
Lylla looked over at Rocket, as he eyed and inspected the building, no doubt formulating a plan within that thick skull of his. She decided to tease him to ease some of the unrelenting tension.
"Don't think too hard, Rocket, you'll hurt yourself."
He giggled.
"Shh. I'm comin' up with a plan."
"You telling me you don't wanna crash our ship here into the building all heroically and shit? Seems to work pretty well for you."
"Haha. Bitch. No."
The two silently chuckled with one another.
Then Rocket quickly bumped her shoulder.
"Look. There!" Rocket whisper-yelled, pointing at a structure on the side of the building.
Lylla followed the raccoon's digit, to the location he was referring to.
"You can't be serious." Lylla deadpanned.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Rocket fired back, a little agitated.
Lylla loudly exhaled, before replying.
"...damn it."
The full range of Judson Jake's powers was unprecedented.
The female raccoon had put up a fight of epic proportions, but it was all to no avail. With a mere wave of his claws, he was able to send a stream of painful, agonizing, negative energy at Sale, thus immobilizing her and making it possible for her to be imprisoned.
Sale woke up on the cold steel floor, looking around to find nothing else in the small room but a door. It was heavily armored and undoubtedly locked. As she collected her thoughts, the situation became clear to her.
This was Judson's plan.
To lock her up as a trap- as bait, for Rocket.
Filled with rage and fury, she kicked in the door with the base of her foot, this accomplishing nothing but causing a loud sound that reverberated through the room for a while. After catching her breath, a word floated back in her head.
"Rocket..." She thought.
Sale hadn't seen him in about two weeks, and she'd spend the next few hours running through her cycle of thoughts about the raccoon, always coming to that jarring, scary crossroad.
"Am I thinking that we were more than we actually were?"
Her breath caught in her throat again.
"He...what if...he doesn't love me?"
She sat down, dropping her head onto her knees.
"What if...he doesn't come back for me?"
Then...silence.
Her mind went blank, and as she sat there with her eyes shut... a memory came to her.
Sale's body shook and shuddered, her nails sinking deeper into the flesh of Rocket's back, drawing slight amounts of blood. Rocket had her in a vice-like grip, and she was nearly crushed as he tightened his grasp. He grunted in her ear, and his voice cracked as he moaned in utter ecstasy. Then, as their brains performed a full reboot, minutes passed where nothing had occurred but breathing. The sound of their heavy, panted breaths filled their ears. Rocket shook as he removed his head from being buried in Sale's shoulder, and lifted to rest in front of her. After a few breaths, Sale came down her euphoric high and slowly opened her eyes. The view took her breath away.
Her eyes focused on where their bodies connected, then traveled up to his torso. His brawny chest contracted and expanded with his deep breaths, his pectorals glistening with sweat. Rocket had his paws dug into the mattress on either side of her head. She looked up a bit more and finally met his gaze. His eyes burned with something she'd never seen before. The deep brown and hazel orbs were slightly illuminated, even in the dim light of the room. He stared at her as if she was a miracle. He stared at her with a hunger, a lust, an instinctual desire. He stared at her with the utmost admiration and...true love. The realization set a fire within her heart and enveloped her with a deeply comforting and unfamiliar warmth. It was intensely exciting. She nervously laughed in utter bliss and disbelief.
Her eyes shot open. A sense of purpose, determination, and motivation filled her.
"He will."
Sale smiled and shot up from her feet. The raccoon paced around the small room, looking for anything and everything that could aid her in an escape, then...she spotted something.
"But I don't have to wait for him," She said with a smile.
HalfWorld's climate had been that same temperate climate that it always was. It was the kind of weather that one would find on the most popular vacationing planets in the galaxy. Warm, sunny days took up most of the year.
This would be ideal if the two weren't crawling through a cramped, confiding metal vent.
It had become apparent that Judson's operations were on a larger scale than the two of them could've ever anticipated. The mole clearly had an extensive amount of resources in his grasp. With an army at his side and otherworldly powers at his fingertips, Judson Jakes was able to rebuild the abandoned alien lab that created them, bigger than it ever was before.
The towering structure had included a central air conditioning system with vents that ran all throughout the building, supplying every lab, room, and office with heated or cooled air. It was this that Rocket had spotted, and had come up with the idea to use the vents to sneak inside the building undetected. After some sneaking around the patrol rabbits, the two broke into an exhaust vent and began the arduous process of climbing through the building.
So there they were, crawling side by side through the narrow passages. Eventually, they came up to a small opening. Sitting side by side, they stared down through the vent grate to see an army of armored rabbits, marching down the halls in perfect unison. After exchanging a meaningful glace - the facial expression equivalent of saying, "Holy shit, we might be fucked." - they continued down the vent, leading further into the belly of the beast, as it were.
The two were led down to several dead ends or to vents that had openings into rooms filled with the mindless drones of rabbits under Judson Jake's influence. At one point, the two had crawled into a four-way split crossroads of the narrow metal passages. They tried the first vent. After a long, arduous trek, it was revealed to inexplicably end with a grate to the outside. They headed back and tried the second vent. It was longer, and once again led to a dead end. Rocket, at this point, was understandably stressed and tired. Upon realizing he'd have to go all the way back, he balled his paws into fists and brought them to his head tightly gripping the fur over his brow.
"Fuck!" He whisper-yelled, still remaining cautious.
He took a seat up against the vent, letting out an aggravated sigh. Lylla joined, sitting close beside him.
"Nice plan, Rocket." She teased.
After a chuckle and a few labored breaths, he replied.
"We...just gotta find her."
"Well, we know the next vent's gotta lead to something. Let's try our luck there."
"Yeah. Just lemme sit here for a while."
The vents weren't soundproof at all, and the two were sure to remain as quiet as they could during the entire time they'd been in there. Because of this, they were easily able to clearly hear the noises emanating from the building, and they were incredibly disheartening, to say the least. Loud, mechanical screeches, drilling, robotic slicing - along with the screams of the unknown. A long, awkward pause stretched between the two, as Rocket once again took notice of this. Lylla looked over the distressed raccoon and tried to make conversation.
"It's cold in here."
He didn't answer.
More awkward silence.
Lylla sighed.
"Rocket. We're strong, we've been through a lot worse. Even if you don't remember it."
Rocket turned and smiled at her, even if it was forced, it made him feel a little better.
"I bet we have."
A little more time passed, as the two sat there. Lylla's train of thought took a dark turn after that.
"But, our memories, they're fickle."
The otter cleared her throat.
"I'm scared...that if BlackJack doesn't remember me now, he will never remember me again."
"He will." Rocket reassured.
"I hope so."
The sinister, horrible sounds of the building became audible once again, and the raccoon was overrun with similar, terrible thoughts. A surge of anger and realization hit him, and he tried his best to contain himself as to not flip out and reveal their position to the other rabbits. Instead, he breathed a little bit harder and gripped his head tightly.
"It's my fault." He spat.
Lylla turned to him, giving him a look of concern.
"What?" She said softly.
"It's my fucking fault, it really is. Sale would've been fine if she never met me. If I didn't...fuck up and end up on that goddamn shithole of a planet."
Lylla said nothing but solemnly gazed at him, waiting for him to continue.
"I don't know, I just got bored. I wanted more! I-I...was selfish, and stupid."
Rocket looked at Lylla, presumably looking into her eyes for some sort of confirmation of his self-depreciation. Her soft, orange, alluring, feminine eyes tenderly comforted him.
"I just felt so alone and...she's...she's so nice..."
Rocket was sniffling now.
The otter reached over, placing a paw on his shoulder.
He immediately turned to face her.
"I just miss her so much, Lylla."
She immediately leaned forward, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him in tightly for a warm embrace. Rocket gripped her shoulders, resting his head up into her neck. The two hugged each other tightly, finding comfort in one another's embrace in the face of an unknowable danger.
After a few minutes of this, the raccoon broke the hug and met her eyes.
He wiped off his eyes and flashed an awkward smile.
"We should get moving."
And so they did.
They navigated through the tight vent, going back to the crossroads and taking the last path. This metal passage was the shortest of all, immediately leading into a downward-facing vent grate. Rocket leaned down, peeking through the grate and scanning the room for any sign of movement. There was none. After a look of confirmation from Lylla, Rocket grabbed the grate, pulling it from its place and setting it beside him.
Rocket and Lylla cautiously stepped down into the dark storage room. The raccoon felt around the walls for a light switch, stumbling over boxes and bumping into file cabinets. He'd slammed his hip into a particularly sharp table and let out an expletive when Lylla had flicked the lights on.
He regained his composure and vision, standing up to meet Lylla's eyes with an awkward smile. She had a look of shock and discovery in her orange eyes. The otter roughly brushed past him, running over to the file cabinet behind him. Her lean arms frantically pulled it open and began sifting through the folder's contents.
Rocket looked over and saw this cabinet was labeled.
B. O'Hare.
He made his way over to her, approaching cautiously as she was visibly shaking. Within the folders contained mostly documents, warrants, newspapers, pretty much anything that had anything to do with the rabbit. This must've been where Judson Jakes kept his research. Lylla pulled open another folder and audibly gasped.
Rocket peered over her shoulder and saw tears beginning to form in her eyes, then looked back over to the folder. There were photos.
Photos from another life. Long ago.
Her shaking paws lifted one after the other, staring endearingly and somberly at them.
Lylla and BlackJack standing beside a tree in a grass field, staring endearingly at one another.
Rocket, Lylla, and BlackJack laughing together, at a cards table.
Rocket and BlackJack mugshots, visibly smirking at each other.
Lylla and BlackJack's wedding photo.
She choked out a brief sob.
"Lylla." Rocket began.
She noticed him standing there, quickly composing herself and taking that last photo into her hands, shoving it into her pockets.
She wiped her eyes quickly.
"Let's...keep going."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I'm fine."
"Alright, then."
They stepped out of the room, cautiously looking down both directions of the corridor, and stepping out into the thin, hospital-like hallways. The walls, ceilings, and floors were no more than large slabs of rough concrete. Unpainted, the whole interior of the building was incredibly unsettling. Inexplicably, this part of the building was silent. Unbearably, deafeningly silent.
Rocket and Lylla continued down the hallway.
They didn't get far.
The two turned a corner and there he was.
Standing at the far end, wielding bloody, serrated dagger.
His chilling and eerie beaming red eyes illuminated the entire hallway.
Rocket retrieved his pocket-dimension storage vial from his pocket, launched out and materialized his laser cannon and in one quick motion.
He held his ground, and with a fierce stare of his own, and met its gaze.
Then the realization hit him.
"BlackJack?"
Lylla gasped.
The rabbit began approaching the two.
The raccoon raised his gun threateningly.
Rocket didn't want to hurt him, but he had no idea what BlackJack was capable of.
"Old...Friend..." the gangling-looking hare rasped.
He stopped and dropped his dagger.
Then he raised his claws and charged.