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Rocket and the Imp

[A Guardians of the Galaxy FanFiction]

Chapter Seven - Bad Moon Rising

---

The detaining procedures applied by Judson's rabbits were not unlike any other prison's - riddled with faults. Sure they frisked her, confiscated all of her weaponry, and locked her in a dark cell with thick walls of cement and a hack-proof steel door - but Sale the Raccoon was a survivor.

And she had a plan.

Her heightened sense of smell and hearing led her to believe that just underneath the cement flooring was an array of wires, power supplies, and possibly a vent. So, with no hesitation, she unsheathed her claws and began to dig into the ground. The cybernetic implants within the raccoon granted her enhanced strength and durability, and allowed her to withstand a tremendous deal of damage. The sheer toughness of the ground would've wore away her claws within minutes, but she'd made the effort of reinforcing her claws with some very rare and expensive Vibranium she'd picked up from a criminal on Knowhere.

It didn't take long for the ground to give way, and reveal an assortment of metal pipes and wires, but no vent.

She exhaled through her nose, bringing a paw to her chin.

Her original plan was to find a vent to escape through, but upon the discovery, and Rocket still on her mind, she formulated a new plan in seconds.

"Oh, now this just might be a hell of a lot more fun," Sale said, with a twisted grin.

---

It wasn't a long fight.

BlackJack had charged down the hall towards Rocket, slashing his dagger violently as he ran. The raccoon lifted his rifle and set the charge to stun.

"BlackJack, stop!" Rocket yelled.

This didn't seem to faze the rabbit, as he seemed to actually speed up upon hearing him. BlackJack was frantic, and missed his footing. He tripped on himself, and fell over, face-planting into the hard ground with a unnerving crunch!

"Oh, fuck!" Rocket exclaimed.

"Shit! Is...Is...he okay?" Lylla said.

Rocket slowly walked over to the downed rabbit. BlackJack was lying still, face down, and appeared unconscious. The raccoon tentatively tapped his unmoving head with the barrel of his rifle, to no result. Rocket turned towards Lylla, then motioned toward the room they'd just left.

"Grab his arms, let's bring in that room."

And so they did, dragging the lifeless body into the cluttered room. Shutting the door behind him, Rocket turned to see Lylla crouching down beside the rabbit, softly bringing a paw to caress his face. The raccoon approached her.

"Uh...Is he okay?" Rocket asked.

"Yeah, he just hit his head, he'll wake up soon."

Some time had passed, while the two caugh their breaths and examined the rabbit.

Lylla stared at him. She felt her heart flutter a bit, upon being in his presence again. The otter felt the fur of her lover's cheek, stroking it softly. She then felt a flood of morose thoughts, realizing his state and Judson Jake's hold on him.

Curious, she moved closer and gripped his large, red goggles, pushing them up.

She never could have known it was that bad.

Lylla gasped in utter terror at the sight. BlackJack's eyes were receded, blackened, cracked with dried blood, and sunken into the recesses of his skull.

Rocket quickly rushed to her side, wrapping her in a huge and pulling her further away from the unconscious body of BlackJack. With a quick motion, he slid the goggles back over the rabbit's damaged eyes, and took to comforting Lylla as she began to cry.

"Jack! He's-...he's...-"

"Lylla, Shh...It's okay! It's okay, we'll-"

"Is...is he dead!? W-what's wrong with him, Rocket?!"

"It was Judson...he did this, but...but we'll fix it!"

"How?! How could we-"

"We'll figure something out! I promise! Now, we-we gotta find Sale before this happens to her too. She could help us, she's really smart and-"

Rocket didn't get to finish, as in that moment, a loud, deep siren had begun to sound throughout the entire building.

Alarm sirens.

"Fuck...they must've noticed O'Hare missing. We really gotta get moving!"

"Are we just gonna leave him here?"

"Well, we can't take him with us!"

The sounds of rapid approaching footsteps began emitting from down the hall, approaching the door at a rapid rate.

"Lylla! Now!!" Rocket shouted.

The otter seemed to snap out of her emotional trance, and she furrowed her brow and realized the situation. She leaned in and quickly kissed the rabbit on his cheek.

"I'll see you again..." Lylla whispered.

The two then took off into the vents, just as Judson's rabbits charged into the room.

"They're heading into the vents! Shoot them!" One yelled.

And in seconds, the two were assaulted by an array of bullets, just narrowly missing them.

The interior of the dark ventilation shafts lit up with orange strobes as the two quickly crawled away from the vicinity of the room. The loud, brash gunshots grew more distant as Lylla and Rocket continued down the narrow vent.

Whether it be the loud and abrupt gunshots, or the emotional turmoil of seeing the grotesque and horrifying sight of BlackJack's corroded eyes, the two lost focus as they ran escaped through the vents, and found themselves in a dead end. A sense of dread washed over the two as they realized they were completely lost in the vents, once again.

"Damn it!" Rocket shouted, banging against the steel corners of the walls.

Lylla sat down against the wall, panting.

Then the raccoon realized he was panting too.

"Do you hear that?" Lylla asked, her voice soft and small.

Rocket stopped, and heard a small vibrating rumble from deep down the vents.

Then he felt it.

"Do you feel that?" Rocket asked.

He swallowed, his mouth coarse and dry.

"They turned on the heat."

"Rocket."

"Those bastards, t-they turned the fucking heat up! I'm so fucking sick of being in these goddamn bents! We gotta get outta here!"

"Rocket..."

"Lylla, get up! We gotta leave, we gotta find Sale, I got to find Sale!"

"ROCKET!"

Rocket stopped and looked at her.

Lylla was visibility shaking, and taking deep breaths.

"Calm down, please. I'm...I'm freaking out, I-"

Rocket's heart dropped to the bottom of his chest, and he walked over to her side. As he sat down, he noticed the metal itself was starting to heat up and burn.

"The uhm, metal is getting hot..." He said.

"Who is coming to save us, Rocket?" She whimpered.

"What?"

"We're...we're just fucking around here, you have no idea was he's capable of! He's...he's going to kill us, I thought-...if I could, get through to BlackJack. But I can't. It's just us, and- we're literally fucking cornered!"

"Lylla, listen to me."

"Rocket-"

"Lylla, I've killed douchebags with scarier names than Judson Jakes."

She grinned a little. Rocket continued.

"I'm sure you've heard of my recent endeavors in the Guardians of the Galaxy, Lylla? You must've done your research."

The otter emitted a light chuckle. Rocket felt a sense of calmness and joy wash over him, as he watched his antics lighten her mood, if only just a little.

Making her calm, made him calm.

The ventilation shafts were heating up, and Rocket suddenly felt his sleeveless armor to be too hot. He took to removing it, while continuing to brag to Lylla about his recent achievements as a member of the Guardians, in an effort to comfort her and reassure her of the odds they had against Judson.

All the while, the vents were becoming scorching hot, while the two were undoubtedly lost within the maze of metal tunnels. But no matter the danger, Rocket felt that he needed to distract Lylla from the dire circumstances they were currently in. Eventually, the two were sitting side by side, Lylla idly listening to Rocket talk and calm her down, as her breathing stabilized. Her head was spinning as her the day was a rollercoaster of emotional turmoil.

Lylla furrowed her brow as she focused at a blank spot on the metal in front of her.

Her mind drew a blank, and she felt something odd happen.

"I need him to live."

Rocket frowned.

He pulled her into a hug.

"It's going to be okay."

This mere action bore unexpected consequence. Lylla's stream of memory was sustainable to occasional relapses, if her present circumstances mirrored those that had occurred in an earlier point of her life.

And as she sat there and hugged Rocket's shirtless, sweaty body, it triggered a vivid flashback that she acted out in real time.

They were back on Halfworld, several decades ago, sitting alongside a large pond. There was a large waterfall, crashing down on boulders and filling up the area with crystal-clear water. It was a hot day, and the two had traveled quite a distance to get there. They were out of breath and tired. Rocket was younger, and different. He mentioned the Halfworld Book, and that he had a lead to find it.

"Rocket Raccoon, you told me we were coming here to swim!"

"W-what? What're you talkin' about?"

"Oh, Rocket. You're so silly."

She leaned in and kissed him, wrapping her arms around the raccoon.

As the otter's warm lips pressed to his, Rocket felt a flicker of remembrance to a time, long long ago, where he'd done this before.

NO! WHAT THE FUCK-

Rocket pushed Lylla violently against the metal of the vent behind her. This shove seemed to snap Lylla out of her heart-stroke induced flashback trance, as she suddenly came to realize what time she was in. The sight before her was anything but normal, however.

Rocket was clawing at the metal below him, surprisingly causing a lot of damage to the vent.

"Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck-" Rocket growled.

"R-Rocket?" Lylla asked.

"Enough FUCKING AROUND!" He barked, pulling out his laser gun, and aiming it at the floor of the vent just mere inches behind him.

"Rocket, wait!"

But he already fired.

The foundation crumbled beneath them, and the two hit the ground with a sharp, hard, thud.

As the metal, cobble, debris and dust settled, Rocket stood up and fiercely analyzed his surroundings.

He stopped, took a deep breath, and chuckled.

"Well that was easy." He deadpanned, for in front of him, inscribed on the concrete walls, read 'Maximum Security Holding Cells.'

Before him, stood five doors. With his Laser Gun set to maximum charge, he took after the rightmost door. He aimed it right at the center of the thick concrete slab, and fired with no hesitation. It shattered like glass under the might of Rocket's armament. Before the thick gray dust could even begin to clear, the raccoon charged inside the small room.

"Sale!? Sale are you in here?!" He shouted.

No answer.

His heart fell to his stomach for a brief moment, only to realize he had four more rooms to check.

Making a quick scan of the room and finding nothing, he ran backwards into the hall and fired into the second door. It gave way just as easily. He charged inside to much of the same, an empty room. His heart sunk deeper. After running out and taking out the third room's door, he growled intensely to find there was nothing inside. The fourth was the same, and Lylla froze in fear as Rocket shouted dozens of expletives at the top of his lungs.

"She's gotta be in here, she's gotta be!"

He charged up his cannon to fire into the last door.

But then it exploded into his face.

There, standing before him, was Sale.

She was holding a cobbled-together laser cannon made of random bits of metal, pipes, and wires.

Her paws were bloodied, and she was panting.

She was the most beautiful thing Rocket had ever seen.

Likewise, Sale froze, completely overwhelmed with the amount of information her brain was processing in the same second. She assumed the worst had happened to Rocket, however illogical that was. But there he was, alive and well.

And she reveled in his appearance. His large, heavy laser cannon was resting in his arms - muscles bulging from his biceps, sweat glistening and...he was shirtless. Her mouth became extremely dry and she choked on her words.

"Hi." Sale said.

"Hey." Rocket said.

She nervously fiddled with the now burnt-out barrel of her scrap-heap rifle.

"Did you uh, make that in there?"

"Yeah. I, uh, built it from the wires in the floor. Simple overloading of high-voltage cables-"

"That's really clever, but, I was here to save you."

"What fucking took you so long, Rocket?"

"What took me so long?! How'd you get captured by some wimpy insane rabbit?!"

"Fuck you! There was tons of them, and Judson-"

"Judson?! What'd he do to you?"

"He just, put me to sleep and, I ended up here-"

"Did he hypnotize you!?"

"What? No. He can do that?"

"Oh, god." Rocket said, wrapping his arms around Sale. She reciprocated the hug, albeit slowly and nervously.

"I'm so fucking glad you're okay, Sale."

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She whispered, her heart thumping harder and faster than it ever had in her entire life.

He pulled back from the hug to meet her eyes. He placed a paw on her cheek, caressing it gently and softly.

"I...just...I love you. I love you more than anything!" He cried.

Sale sighed with passion.

"I love you too, Rocket. So fucking much."

She brought her paw to his face, Rocket sliding his hand up to cup her paw against his own cheek.

"I missed you like fucking crazy." He whispered, leaning closer to her.

"Me too." She breathed out.

"So...we gotta escape."

"Yeah."

"Gotta take down Judson Jakes."

"Yeah."

"Time is of the essence, and stuff."

"Yeah."

"But...I-"

"We're fucking, right now."

"F-fuck, yeah-" Rocket huffed, pushing Sale up against the concrete wall. He began to take her shirt off when Lylla had entered.

"There you are, Rocket! Who's this?"

Immediately, the two separated. Sale pulled down her shirt, with Rocket trying to help, but ending up making the scene worse.

"Rocket, stop-"

"Lylla, this is Sale."

"I'm Sale. Rocket's girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Rocket asked, surprised.

Sale shot him a glare.

"Girlfriend! Yeah! Sale's my girlfriend." He added.

"Uh, okay." Lylla responded, confused.

"And, who are you?" Sale asked.

"I'm an...old friend of Rocket's."

"That's funny. He never mentioned you."

An air of awkwardness and silence washed over them.

The three stared at one another, for several minutes.

"Wait...do you guys hear that?" Lylla asked, looking around, startled.

"No." Rocket and Lylla said in perfect unison, before looking at one another with a fond smirk.

"Exactly. The alarms are off..."

Lylla slowly stepped back into the hallway, softly on her tips of her paw pads.

"Lylla, wait!" Rocket said.

Rocket took after her, walking into the hallway. He was surprised to find that it was completely empty. Sale followed, closely behind Rocket.

The three continued down the hallway, with an eerie sense of dread floating over them.

The silence was deafening, and unsettling.

"What the fuck? Where'd they go?" Rocket snapped.

Sale looked to him, inquisitively.

"There was tons of these crazy-looking rabbits chasing us."

Then Lylla picked up her pace, heading for the storage closet where they'd left BlackJack.

The two raccoons followed the otter as she raced down the halls, coming to an abrupt stop as she turned into a small closet and froze. As the two caught up, they saw a mess of a storage room. With no one inside.

"Where could he have gone?" Lylla whispered.

"Who?" Sale asked.

"BlackJack O'Hare. The bunny that beat you." Rocket deadpanned.

"He didn't beat me!"

BOOM!

The three were interrupted by the loud, deafening sound of an explosion. The ground shook and the walls shifted, as the lights flickered and turned an ominous red.

Rocket instinctively went to protect Sale, rushing over and wrapping her in his arms. Just then, their visions were reduced to a blank whiteness, and a high-pitched ringing in their ears.

The room in front of them had exploded in a bright, white inferno.

The shockwave sent the three flying backwards into the opposite wall.

As Rocket regained his consciousness, he furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes to see through the smoke ahead. As the dust and debris settled, a cavernous hole in the building was revealed, leading to the outside world, where a large spacecraft idled in the air, aiming a threatening cannon in their direction.

Then the ship fired again.

The last thing Rocket recalled was two distinct shapes behind the cockpit glass -- a rabbit and a mole, and a blinding white flash. Then it was over.