Picking Up The Pieces

28. A Meeting Too Soon

ATTENTION READERS. IT CAME TO MY ATTENTION THAT THE LAST TWO CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST ATLANTIS SAGA BOOK WERE MISSING. I PUT THEM INIF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ THEM TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE STORY.

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Taserface turned around in anger with his goons beside him, glaring at the enhanced raccoon who was laughing like crazy. I sank lower in my chair. "Shut up, Rocket!" I hissed at him, but I doubt he heard me.

"I'm sorry," Rocket sniggered. "Your name is... it's 'Taserface'?"

"That's right," Taserface growled. Rocket gave a small smirk.

"Do you... shoot tasers out of your face?" he asked, not understanding the history behind his name. A few of the Ravagers mumbled to each other. Taserface looked around at his crew, somewhat offended.

"It's metaphorical!" he shouted, and the Ravagers cheered. I raised a brow at that.

"For what?" Rocket questioned.

"Do you even know what a metaphor is?" I interrupted. Hell, they were already riled up, and I was probably gonna get beat up by them anyway.

"It's..." Taserface though out loud. "It's a name that strikes fear in anyone who hears it!" Instead of receiving a cheer, the Ravagers murmured their disagreement.

"Really?" Rocket commented doubtfully. "Okay... sure. Keep telling yourself that." I flinched as Taserface moved close to the raccoon.

"You shut up!" he screamed in his face, spit getting all over Rocket's fur. "You're next!" Looking a little smug, Taserface unsheathed a long blade and made his way back to Yondu. "Udonta, I've been waiting to do this for a long ti-" Taserface stopped mid sentence when he heard Rocket snickering all over again. I looked over at the raccoon, who was hanging his head and trying not to laugh out again. "What!? What!?"

"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," Rocket apologized while gasping for breath. He was beyond delirious. "I just keep imagining you waking up one morning, looking in the mirror, and, in all seriousness, saying..." Rocket puffed up his chest and deepened his voice for a more dramatic effect. "You know what would be a really kicks name? Taserface!"

Rocket howled with laughter, and I heard some of the crew stifle their laughs. "What was your second choice?" Rocket continued. "Scrotum Hat!?" Unable to keep their laughs in, the Ravagers burst out into screams and shouts, and a few fell to the floor from the hilariousness. Taserface glowered at him.

"New plan," he muttered darkly, and he whipped out a knife and held it against Rocket's throat. "We're killing you first. Rocket's smile disappeared as he looked a Taserface's strands of drool about to drench his fur.

"Well," Rocket concluded, his voice audible over the alien's growls. "Dying is certainly better than having to live an entire life as a moronic shitbag who thinks 'Taserface' is a cool name." I thought Taserface was going to stab him through, but he turned around and pulled back my hair viciously, and I yelped as I felt the cold metal lay against my throat.

"Maybe having one less of a teammate will change your mind!" Taserface shouted. I closed my eyes, and my heart pounded in my chest as I felt the knife start to cut into my throat, but as soon as the blade was pushed, something jerked it out of the way. I opened my eyes to see Nebula pull the knife out of Taserface's hand.

"That's enough killing for today," she told him angrily, her voice sharp with the robotic rasp. I gave a small sigh in relief and slumped in my chair. Taserface looked at Nebula in surprise.

"Thought you were the biggest sadist in the galaxy," he commented, and Nebula's eyes narrowed.

"That was when Daddy was paying my bills," she explained with a steely tone. "The Priestess wants to kill the fox and girl herself. And he..." Nebula pointed at Yondu, who was slumped over like me. "... has bounties on his head in at lease twelve Kree provinces." Taserface glared at her, and his fingers inched for the hilt of his long blade. "I assure you, I am not as easy a mark as an old man without his magic stick or a talking woodland beast. I want ten percent of the take, and a couple more things."