Chapter IV:

Through the smoke and flame of the door was a man in a black blazer smoking a cigarette. Well, man is a stretch. To be technical, this "man" was a six foot three reptilian humanoid who hated the term reptilian.

"Sir." A Xandarian guard, the abuser of the Broker's door, said.

"Be quiet please," the lizard said, taking a drag of his cigarette- letting the nicotine and tar fill his lungs and enter his system. He blew the smoke through his nose and chuckled a bit- almost like a Dragon, which was also his very fitting nickname.

He stepped inside the building, letting his military combat boots crunch the broken bits of metal, glass and display pieces that the Broker so desperately wished to sell for a price.

Rocket lay still up against the rubble of the Broker's desk. Glass and bits of plasma extruding from his chest made him appear a martyr of war than an aegis but that's how legacies survive. The raccoon slowly stood up and quickly examined himself- his ear was bleeding and his chest hurt like hell but other than that he was seemingly fine.

As soon as the reptilian stepped into the line of fire, Groot screamed bloody murder. Forming somewhat of a protective barrier around Anastasia, the tree anamorph extended his right arm, grabbing the lizard and wrapping his fingers slowly around the Dragon's neck. Groot was thirty milliseconds from squeezing the life out of him when the Dragon spoke.

"Virtue is the fount whence honour springs."

The lizard turned towards Rocket and smiled, "Do you have any recollection of that phrase?"

"If I did," Rocket said, limping over to him, "it's fuzzy and I don't give a damn." He walked towards Groot trying his best not to fall over. Anastasia scurried over to him and offered to balance him.

"Thanks," Rocket said, "but I'm perfectly capable." He stumbled a bit, the girl caught him.

"Easy," she said, "you don't want to move too fast too quickly."

The raccoon nodded and swallowed his pride a bit as he let her do what she wanted. She'll be the one who goes first when the world ends. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, to be helped by a willing martyr. It's almost inhumane. Part of me wants to just get it over with, spare her the misery, but another part tells me to let her go, let her save me. At least then she'll leave a legacy- then again, legacies are bullshit ideas anyway. Sad it takes me being hurt and her reaching out to me to see that- legacies are bullshit.

"Shame," the Dragon said, "to think you would forget such a phrase. You used to say it all the time."

Rocket laughed, "Yeah, me quoting flowery shit like that- that'll be the day! Virtue is the fount whence honour springs? Sounds like an awful Shakespeare moment."

"I am Groot." Groot said.

The raccoon looked at his companion with slight confusion, "Who is the hell is Christopher Marlowe?"

"I am Groot."

"Peter Quill told ya, huh?" Rocket said. "Where was I during this?"

"I am Groot."

Rocket smiled, "Yeah, that sounds about right." The raccoon laughed as Anastasia sat him down behind Groot.

"So what's the deal?" Rocket said. "You blow up the door and then what?"

"I take back what you stole Rocket." The lizard replied.

Rocket rolled his eyes, "Yeah, that's not going to happen reptile." He slowly made his way to Groot's side and looked towards the Dragon with a smug smile. "Why don't you crawl back into the sewer and leave all this alone."

The lizard whistled once. The guards that had blown up the door entered. Rocket noticed immediately that he was outgunned and outnumbered. Groot clenched his left hand into a very convincing fist. He was slowly beginning to grow into a menacing wave of anger.

"Groot," Rocket said, "don't- it's not worth it."

Groot eased up a bit.

Rocket turned towards the lizard again, "Do you have a name?"

"Yes," the Dragon said, "it's John. John Varexi."

The raccoon looked towards him as if he were crazy. He hadn't heard that name in so long he had almost forgotten what it sounded like. Looking at the lizard more sympathetically, Rocket attempted to stand again, using Groot for support. He winced from the pain and his knees almost gave out on him but Rocket managed to stand and gaze upon someone he once saved.

"John," Rocket said, "what the hell happened to you?"

"Scientific experimentation." John answered. "After you saved my life, I made my way to Xandar and met a scientist by the name of Henry McCoy, a geneticist from Earth who was visiting to check on business affairs for J'Son. I became fascinated with mutation and Doctor McCoy took me under his wing. After a few years I knew enough to go into business on my own and so I started experimenting with vaccines and cures. I figured that if there was a way to boost the human immune system by enhancing it then maybe we could cure diseases like cancer and AIDS. Well, when I found no success I turned to J'Son for help. He tinkered with the formula and used me as a subject. After that I was- transformed so to speak and was taken to a facility on Halfworld. I don't think any more needs to be said really except that I now have the brain capacity of Stephen Hawking, Albert Einstein and Garry Kasparov and yes, to answer your question, I am very good at chess."

John sighed a bit, "I sometimes cry at night because I know when people die, when they're in pain, when they- they kill themselves. When those occur, suicides I mean, I feel so helpless Rocket. I can't do anything about it."

The raccoon said nothing. All he did was stare at this lizard, this man, this former human being and feel pity for him.

"I'm sorry that you look like this John," Rocket said, "but you're wrong- you can do something about it."

"What? Risk myself for them?" John said. "Yeah, like they give a damn about me."

"I used to think the same way, hell, I still do," Rocket replied, "but there are good people left you know. Not everyone is one hundred percent a dick."

John smiled and nodded. "That's true. Now can you do my a favor and call your friend off. I have a Technetium bullet to get."

"Depends," Rocket said, "what do you want it for?"

"What do you think idiot, it's a cure!" John cried. "That's what can cure me of this. Please Rocket, help me one more time!"

The guard from before stepped to John's ear and whispered something inaudible. When the guard was finished, he stepped back and aimed his weapon at John's head.

"So," John said, "this is how it ends?"

The guard nodded. "This is how it ends."

The charging and readying of a weapon. The guard looked towards Rocket and saw that the raccoon was armed with a large, damaging and unmerciful weapon of massive pain which he appropriately called The Massive Pain Bazooka.

"'I'll give you to the count of three to put that piece of shit gun away and walk out of here alive." Rocket said. "One," he placed his finger on the trigger, "Two," he aimed and planted his feet firm. He paused a moment. The guard stood motionless. The raccoon turned towards Groot and nodded once. Groot nodded in response.

Rocket smiled deviously. "Tres."

"What does that mean?" The guard asked.

"It's Spanish for three you little prick." Rocket said and fired. Simultaneously Groot pulled John out of the line of fire and proceeded to cover him. The bullet from the bazooka exploded into a brilliant fury. Like Vesuvius, it destroyed the life and charred the corpse into haunting ash and insignificant dust. The guards who escorted John were fathers, son and grandchildren. Most of them, like the Germans of 1944, had no part in the deception. They were simply mercenaries who knew of coin and no code. Rocket didn't seem to care though, he laughed a bit as the two that flanked the leader bent and cried for deliverance and mercy.

Three more of them, reinforcements in case the mission went south, entered the building and fired upon the small band of legionaries. Rocket fired the bazooka again, this time he missed.

"Need some cover fire over here!" Rocket shouted as he resorted to his secondary semi-automatic pistol.

Anastasia for some reason unbeknownst to him, flanked the ongoing fire and made her way to a small box behind a display case. She opened it and pulled out a customized M9 Flamethrower. She turned towards John. He slowly made his way over.

"Do you have need of me?" John asked.

"Do you have anything that can distract them long enough for me to use this?"

John smiled and pulled a beautiful tear gas grenade. "You may want to cover your eyes." He pulled the pin and shouted, "Fire in the hole!"

The grenade was launched into the air and landed with a snake like hiss. The three guards' eyes watered to the point of blindness and they collapsed to the floor and screamed out of pain and confusion. Anastasia stood and opened the gates of hell of them. Moving back and forth like a sinister demon who didn't give a damn about the world, she screamed to where John thought her jugular vein might burst.

Now I've heard of red in the face, John thought, but this is ridiculous. She's redder than a cherry.

When the fuel ran out, Anastasia put the Flamethrower back in the box and assessed the damage. There was nothing- just two corpses frozen in fear and regret.

Rocket and Groot turned towards her, both of them sharing the same expression of disbelief. John stood, walked over to them both and smiled, "You two look ridiculous."

"Well if you won't say it," Rocket said, "then I will." He paused to clear his throat. "Damn it that was cool!"

"Thanks," Anastasia said, smiling a bit, feeling a bit better that someone approved of it.

"Is that your father's?" Rocket asked.

"Nope," the girl replied, "it's mine. Built it myself, take care of it, clean it, call it Mr. Bunny."

Rocket gave her a deadpan stare, the kind of stare that questions not only your intelligence but also your ability to do anything in society. What the fuck is she doing calling it Mr. Bunny? It's a flamethrower! A FLAMETHROWER! Not some kind of stuffed doll you put on a shelf. Then again, she is only a kid. On the other hand she just used a flamethrower! But...Mr. Bunny?

"You need to work on the naming skills kid." Rocket said. "How about FYSA for Fry Your Sorry Ass?"

"That's too vulgar." The girl said.

"I am Groot." Groot said.

Rocket rolled his eyes, "You're a real push over today aren't ya." The raccoon looked towards the anamorph, "You know there are days, and believe me this is one of 'em where I think you just live to drive me crazy!"

Groot shrugged, "I am Groot."

"Yeah I know who you are!" Rocket said. "Jesus, the one time you be literal is the time you got me mad."

He slouched, grumbled and complained silently to himself how his friend was taking the side of a girl they had just met less than one hour ago. Rocket walked over to the door of the room where his team was and knocked on it three times.

"You guys okay?" He asked.

Silence. The door opened slowly. Instantly the effects of Absolute Zero began to take Rocket's whiskers. Shivering like no tomorrow and succumbing to frostbite, the raccoon had just enough energy and time to glance at an empty lifeless room with a large ship sized hole in the back.

Author's Note:

Next chapter introduces main antagonist and main conflict.

Thank you so much for the support and readership :)

Also, I usually have something I call a "Writer's Soundtrack" that I post at the end of the story. It's basically a list of songs that I listened to while writing. I do it because I love music and I try to choose at least one or two songs that capture the theme of chapters or the overall story in general. It's just something fun to do (I think anyway).