Galactic Surge

Almost Discovered

Joules' POV

"What is this planet?" I asked as Groot, Rocket and I followed him back up to the bridge to see a planet in front of us that was colored a bloody red with some dark orange smeared around.

"Don't know don't care. All I know is that the idiots on that planet are called Oajin's. Let's just collect the bounty and get the hell out of here." Rocket answered gruffly as Groot opened up the cells and used his vines to tie all the scientists into a line as he led them out, many of them looking at me with fierce hatred on the way out.

"Me and Groot'll take care of these guys, you stay here."

"But I want t-"

"No! Stay. On. The ship, these people are dangerous to mess with. You can listen in on what we're doing from this comlink." Rocket told me and handed me a small device that fits into my ear.

"Ok..."

"Don't worry, we'll be back. Just stay out of sight 'til then."

"Will do." I responded as I took the comlink, placed it in my ear, and went to sit down in the bridge.

Time Skip

A little while later, Rocket and Groot had met up with whoever they were turning the scientists in to and I started to doze off in the driver's seat of the ship when one of the man's questions startled me awake.

"Were there any test subjects in their lab?"

I could hear Groot trying to say that they found me, in his language, earning panicked responses from me, but that I was staying with them until Rocket cut him off,

"There's no point Groot, these bozos can't understand you and there weren't any, so just give us the bounty so we can get out."

"Is that so? We received a tip that they had a weapon that would destroy us, so where is it?" Another voice butted in.

"Must've gone with the rest of the lab when it went kablooey."

"Very well... take the bounty and leave."

After hearing Rocket and Groot leave wherever they had gone to, Rocket whispered into the com set,

"We're going to grab some supplies, keep an eye on the ship 'til we get back."

"Yes, Rocket."

I took off the comlink and set it down on the armrest of the seat as I got up to explore the bridge. No sooner than I did, I heard something metallic whirring outside of the ship and the screen in front of me pulled up a video feed of some beings, Oajins I had assumed, cutting through the door and coming aboard the ship.

Immediately, I tried to grab the comlink to signal to Rocket, but I accidentally dropped it making the metallic 'clang' echo through the ship.

"I heard something over here!" One of the Oajins yelled to his companions and their footsteps were heard thundering my way.

In panic, I looked around for a hiding spot and found an air shaft above my head, so I gently took the cover off, pulled myself in, giving my right arm a couple of long scratches on the way in, and pulled the cover back on just as I heard the people enter the room.

One came over to the seat I was sitting in before and picked up the comlink I dropped before crushing it in his bare hand in anger.

"It was here."

"The commander said he wanted it alive, it's no use to him as a weapon against our enemies if it's dead." Another voice growled in anger.

"Search the place!" Another voice butted in and they started to go through all of Rocket's stuff in his workshop and in every cell and room that was aboard the ship.

This went on for about 20 minutes and my arms were starting to cramp up from being in the air shaft. I tried to look down from my hiding spot, but I accidentally slid my hand against the metal shaft making it squeak slightly and I saw that one Oajin was under the shaft entrance, about to take off the cover when,

"Hey hey hey! You can't just barge into our ship and tear it apart!" Rocket yelled as he and Groot came aboard and saw the mess that was made.

"I Am Groot!" There was some silence before,

"Apologies, we didn't find the lab rat, so we will leave now..."

"Yeah you better.. before I blow the rest of ya out the window." Rocket growled as the men left and Groot followed to make sure they all left.

When they were all gone, Rocket whispered,

"Hey kid, you alright up there?"

"Truthfully, no..."

"Then let's get out of here." The ship started up and we left the planet with Rocket making sure we weren't being followed.

When it was finally safe to come out, Groot lifted me out of the vents and wrapped my scratched arm that was rimmed with dried, purple blood in green vines since my hyper-regeneration wasn't working too well.

"Did they seriously call you 'lab rat'?" Rocket asked, surprisingly angry.

"Yes..." I responded quietly.

"I Am Groot!" (They were rude!)

"That's just how it's been..."

"Well, luckily we were able to get away before they found you. Here, we managed to find some new clothes for you that we hid with the supplies." Rocket pulled a separate bag out of the first one and gave it to me.

Short Time Skip

A while later, I was dressed in my new clothes: a dark red shirt with a lighter matching skirt and black leggings with a pair of brown boots. I decided to keep the electrical conveyors on the inside of some black gloves that came with the new clothes and I used some sharp-edged pieces of metal to cut off the fingers so that my fingertips and the circular part of the conveyors were exposed and available to use my abilities.

After I finished changing, Rocket showed me to an empty room they had onboard their ship and gave me a "sleeping bag", as it was called, and I placed it in a corner.

"We're heading to another planet to continue huntin' so try and get some sleep, we'll wake you up when we get there." Rocket turned to leave when I asked,

"Rocket?"

"Hmph?"

"There are more who would want to use me as a weapon of mass destruction, you're not going to let them do that to me, are you?" I asked fearfully, scared of what could happen if they did get ahold of me, somehow.

"Nah.. you're better off with me and Groot than those war-raging nutjobs." Rocket responded.

"Promise...?" I asked sleepily as I started to fall asleep and the last thing I heard before being pulled into the darkness was,

"Yeah, I promise..."

Rocket's POV

I got out of JJ's room after she fell asleep, but what she asked was stickin' to me for some reason.

"I Am Groot?" (She's asleep?)

"Yeah, kid's tough, I'll give her that, and you were right." Groot cocked his head waiting for an explanation.

"She is a little like how I was before, alright?" I moaned out and Groot smirked at that.

"I Am Groot?" (Now you admit it.)

"Yeah yeah, let's give her some rest before we land, we're taking her on this next mission." I told him as I took the navigation screen, set the coordinates, and we were off.

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