Simple Man

Chapter I:

The Milano

Peter put the ship in auto-pilot as he drifted off to sleep. He closed his eyes and pressed his headphones up against his ears and put a tape labeled 'Awesome Mix 2' in his Walkman. Peter waved his index finger around like an orchestra conductor and began humming the tune of the song he was listening to.

Downstairs, Rocket was tinkering at his latest invention. It was a small contraption that he constructed out of the air conditioner.

"It's meant to harness the power of say, Ronan, for example, and be able to shot it back. When it's finished that is."

"So, a cruel machine of death constructed out of an air conditioner?" Gamora said, slightly confused as to why and more importantly how any of this was possible in the first place.

The gadget, which Rocket called Halcyon XV, was an impressive machine of death. The body was mostly made from the hot coils, the cold coils, the condenser and the compressor from the air conditioner. This baby had six barrels- two by two stacked on top of each other and one on each side of the four. When fired, the bullet, which was an extremely rare Technetium bullet- a bullet made from one of the most radioactive- and most unstable-elements in the universe, would travel through the hot and cold coils, heating it and cooling it to try and stable it. It would then require a second pull of the trigger, releasing the pressure that was slowly building up behind the bullet. The bullet would then be fired through the air and when it came into contact with an object, such as an insurgent- well, Rocket hasn't gotten to that part yet.

To be honest, it was an WSF. Weapon of Speculative Function. Meaning that it could literally do what he said it would do, or more accurately, completely obliterate anyone who crossed the line of fire.

Either way, Rocket set the machine down and began dismantling it slowly.

As he was doing this, Drax, who was in the bathroom, exited and noticed that it the room temperature was rising. "Why is it," he said, walking in the room nonchalantly, "that whenever something is visibly wrong in the air you're the one to blame."

He looked down at Rocket and smiled playfully. The raccoon, who was still busy working, slowly removed the highly dangerous Technetium bullet and stored it in the storage unit he got it from- an extremely secure, completely indestructible safe that he only knew the combination to. Opening the safe and noticing that Drax was standing there, Rocket looked up at him.

"Don't ask the obvious questions please."

"Alright," Drax said, "where'd you get it?"

Rocket rolled his eyes, "I know a guy."

Gamora, who returned to her nail filing at this point, smiled deviously a moment and laughed, "You're a regular comedian, now really, where'd you get it?" She looked back up and saw the object and her blood chilled to a nice panic mode. Her face grew expressionless and her eyes focused on the ceiling for a moment. It was all she could do to not go over there and strangle Rocket to death. She let out a very disappointing sigh.

Rocket nodded, "Yeah, I know it looks and sounds bad- that's because it is."

"Why do you have the most unstable element known to man in a safe Rocket?" Gamora asked, still looking at the ceiling. Drax looked at her and then at the ceiling, slightly confused.

"Sorry to interrupt, but is there something interesting up there?"

Gamora rolled her eyes and looked at her companion and shook her head.

"Then why were you looking up there?" Drax asked.

"Yeah," Rocket said, placing the bullet in the safe and closing it while Drax was no longer looking. The raccoon stood up, "what's so interesting about the ceiling. Just a bunch of pipes and metal."

Rocket started to pant a little, his tail moved from side to side. "Maybe I should've rethought about this more."

"You think!" Gamora screamed. "You have the most dangerous bullet in a safe right next to you!" She stood up kneeled down and pulled a knife out to Rocket's throat. "What were you thinking?"

Rocket backed up a bit showing his palms as a sign that he had no intention of getting into a brawl. "I was thinking on how hot it was in here. I was about to repair the air conditioner but you know, I think I'll just check up on Quill. He'll take my side on this."

"I'm not against you," Gamora said, standing up, knife still in hand, "I just want to know what you were planning to do with that thing."

Rocket smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "Nothin'." He said, "Absolutely nothin'."

"You said that sarcastically." Gamora replied, hinting at the fact that the raccoon snickered, rubbed his feet up against them a bit and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Because I was being sarcastic." Rocket said, smiling again. "I was planning to- to use it against someone."

"Who?" Gamora asked.

"Someone who did something to me." Rocket replied, as he quickly dismantled the weapon and also very quickly returned the air conditioner to normal- replacing the pieces and restoring the beloved air. When he was finished, he crawled out from the hole in the wall, put the steel plate back in place and stood up again.

"There, is that what you want?" The raccoon asked.

"I don't care about a lousy air conditioner." Gamora said, "I want to know who this Someone of yours is."

Rocket shook his head and sighed, "Ever heard of keeping one's business to one's self?"

"Ever heard of teamwork? We're a team Rocket, that means we're there for each other. If you just tell me what's going on then-"

Rocket interrupted her via the raising of his hand-like paw and proceeded to walk upstairs. "There's nothin' more to talk about because there's nothin' going on. Just get back to your nail filing and leave me alone please."

Gamora nodded and sighed. "He's going to be all alone one day."

"I'll go talk to him," Drax said, "maybe I can get through to him."

"Let me know if he's alright, alright?"

Drax nodded and walked upstairs.

Rocket beheld Peter Quill, fast asleep with headphones in ear and head resting on his shoulder. He was listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man". The lyrics, which Rocket could hear, moved the raccoon so much as to silently climb onto Peter's torso, remove the headphones from his ears and place them on his own. While he was at it, the raccoon put the ship out of auto-pilot and took control of the ship- steering it in the direction of his personal agenda- the place where that specific Someone was. Xandar.