2/24 Instance: Space Rocket

[Svartfreja]

Current Timeline. After [Instance]My Two Dads.


<Rocket> "But noo, I said, I said.. Look, I said hey. I'm a free spirit, I can't *hic* I can't be tied down. I'm wild aminal...aminal... animal. I don't do the whole couples thing. I can't be married. I am a man with needs, you know? And then she started the water works, can you believe that?"

<Rocket> The short little furry person stumbled left and right as he made his way up the long driveway, following the pinging from a scanning device. His wrist communicator crackled as it kept losing connection. *I...zztggrs... Groot* it said.

<Rocket> "What? I don't hear ya, man, you gotta shpeak clurly into the thinger." the furry little fellow said. "Okay... hang on... I need to get my bearringsh straight here... there is a lot of trees. We should get you girlfriend, hehehe *hic*"

<Rocket> The little guy stumbled to the side, unzipped his orange jumpsuit, and sighed for a moment, before zipping back up. When he turned, he just felt the floor slipping from his feet before it came up rushing towards his face.

<Jessica> Jess drove very carefully up the long road to the school, it was still icey in patches though it had been salted fairly heavily. She was not going to miss the snow in the summer. The bright orange on the road stood out clearly against the white and she pulled to a stop, opening the door and getting out.

<Jessica> She stayed by the car and stared at the shape, trying to work out what it was. Was that a tail? Cautiously, she moved over toward it. Looked kind of raccoony... but it was wearing clothes. She gently prodded the shape with her toe.

<Rocket> "...hmngamora... go poke something else... five more minutes." the orange clad raccoon mumbled, then curled up on the ground into a ball of fluff with his tail covering him.

<Jessica> Jess blinked. Okay... not a racoon. "Uh... hello? Are you okay?"

<Rocket> Tiny raccoon hands went up to hold his ears for a moment, before the head looked up and squinted at the fuzzy image of a Terran. "....hey, how you doing, what's... what's a nice place like you doing in girl like this?" he asked.

<Jessica> "Woooow you're drunk..." The cold dulled scents but now that he was talking toward her she could smell the booze. "Are you trying to get to the school?"

<Rocket> "School? Nah, I'm self taught. I'm heading... uhh.." the raccoon pushed himself up to sit with his legs spread and fumbled at the navigator device, pointing it around until it beeped. "Thatta way. Hey, hey, you got one of those ground ship things. Has it explodeded yet? Hehehe, oh wow, you Terrans love living on the edge, hehehe." The raccoon fell back.

<Jessica> Jess sighed, so drunk. "Alright, there's no way you're going anywhere under your own steam and I can't leave you out here in the snow because you'll freeze to death so... sorry." She bent and picked him up.

<Rocket> "Wahey... oh, hello there, you like picking up guys?" he asked, giving a wink as well, "I know a few things that'll rock your world." he added before his head rolled back and a light snoring started.

<Jessica> Rolling her eyes, she took him back to the car and deposited him on the passenger seat before shutting the door and continuing the drive up to the school. Racoon guy needed coffee.

<Jessica> [Time Passes]

<Jessica> Orange jumpsuit was filthy but racoon man kept falling off the stools so she propped him up against the bread bin on the counter while she waited for the coffee to materialise in the jug.

<Rocket> The raccoon's consciousness ebbed back and forth between kitchen and darkness, until a smell started to pull him more towards the kitchen. He first mumbled, but then repeated his mumbling in a more incoherent fashion. "Wuzzat smell?"

<Jessica> "Coffee. Something you're in dire need of." Finding a smallish cup, Jess poured him some and put it into his hands. "Here... drink up."

<Rocket> He had to use both hands to keep it steady, first sniffing it then pulled his head back, "Smells like Orkian poison, you trying to kill me?" he asked with a slight slur and looking up at the female.

<Jessica> "No, I'm trying to sober your drunk ass up. Drink. I'll make you a sandwich... you're not a vegetarian or anything are you?" She headed for the fridge.

<Rocket> "Vegetarian? Nah, I'm no plant." he said while sniffing the poison again, and then carefully tasted it. He gagged, "Oh my flark that's horrible. It is Orkian poison." he sipped some more. "I can believe you're trying to trick me into drinking this." he added before drinking some more, complaining after each drink until the cup was done.

<Jessica> "Want some more?" Jess asked, glancing over at him as she sliced the sandwich.

<Rocket> ".... yeah, sounds good." He replied, holding his cup towards her. "So, making me a sandwich.. did I sleep through the fun bit?" he asked looking a little confused.

<Jessica> Jess shook her head slowly, "I imagine the fun part happened before we met." She swapped the cup for the plate and went to refill the cup, flicking the kettle on for tea as she passed it.

<Rocket> The raccoon sat up, legs open while on the counter with the plate between them as he ate, stopping momentarily to peel the bread open to sniff the contents, shrugging and continued eating.

<Jessica> Jess set the next cup of coffee down beside him and watched him for a few moments. "Feel better?"

<Rocket> "Yeah." he said after swallowing. "Still a little drunk." he admitted, taking the coffee to drink some more. "So this place is a school? Watcha teach?"

<Jessica> "I don't...." she went to make her tea, "I was a student here... but some stuff happened so now I don't do anything."

<Rocket> "Don't do anything?" he asked, shifting to sit more comfortably. "You some kind of royalty? I know a few princesses actually. So your highness, where's your bedchamber?" he asked, waggling his eyebrows.

<Jessica> "No... I'm a mother to a newborn and my 'bed chamber' which I share with my husband is half an hour from here on a good day with no traffic."

<Rocket> "Ohhh, I gotcha, escaping the dreary life for a night, no wonder you came to Rocket. You have good taste, lady." he added, pointing with the cup and spilling a bit of coffee.

<Jessica> "I found you passed out in the middle of the road and felt bad leaving you there, that is all." She finished making her tea and took a seat on one of the stools. "Going to tell me why you're here or do I go and get one of the staff?"

<Rocket> "I'm..uh... visiting. Yeah. Visitng a student at this school of... uhh... ssstone... masonry? Carpentry? What do you guys teach kids on this planet again?" He guessed.

<Jessica> "All kinds of things... but this isn't that kind of school. You said you were following something." She shifted to fish the device out of her pocket, "This thing."

<Rocket> "Oh, yeah, watch out, you gotta be careful. It's a magical device that can tell me things of the world." the raccoon said, speaking slightly slower and gesturing with his hands as he reached for it.

<Jessica> Jess frowned, pulling it out of his reach, "You're not getting it back if you use that tone of voice on me again."

<Rocket> "Well I can speak slower and try and dumb things down even more if it's still too complex for you."

<Jessica> "I live in a house with three engineers."

<Rocket> "Wow, no wonder you had to get out of there. They must be speaking in tongues for you."

<Jessica> ".... I'm not an idiot! But I'm offended now, thank you very much."

<Rocket> "Oh, okay, my bad, thought you were going a completely different way with this train of thought. Hang on," he said, taking a last sip of coffee and putting the cup down to stand up on the counter, wobbling a little and grabbing a cupboard behind him to steady. "Okay, hello Terran, my name is Rocket, and I'm here to visit your quaint little over populated planet."

<Jessica> Jess stared at him for a long moment. The concept of aliens wasn't as far fetched to her as it would have been to someone else given that her brother had alien DNA but she was struggling. "Hi... my name's Jessica and I'm wondering how the hell you got here."

<Rocket> He squinted, "I'm now afraid to answer that, because it might be a trick and you end up yelling at me again."

<Jessica> "Not if you tell the truth. Fair warning, I can tell."

<Rocket> "Okay, but if it actually does get too complex for your Terran mind to understand, just tell me... and no yelling. My head is not feeling so well." he told her. "I got here on my ship. It's parked across this nice bar filled with other aliens."

<Jessica> "And the name of the bar is...?" Jess coaxed.

<Rocket> He opened his mouth and closed it, squeezing his eyes tight as well while he tapped at his forehead. "I can't remember the name, but it had this weird rodent animal on it with big ears and antlers."

<Jessica> "The jackalope?" Well talk about coincidences. "It's not full of aliens.... Mutants, yes, but not aliens.... I hope no one's found your ship. You'll never get it back..." she set the tracker thingy down and pulled out her phone to text Viper.

<Rocket> "Doubtful, it's parked on top of the building and has a cloaking that's nearly top of the range." he said, mumbling "...in some galaxies."

<Jessica> "Awesome." At least that was one headache they didn't have to worry about. "So why are you here?"

<Rocket> "Looking for somehting that should probably not be here, and the second I can get it out of your Terran hair, the second I can get paid for services rendered."

<Jessica> "What something? Maybe I can help?" She picked up the device and gave it back to him.

<Rocket> "Ehh not sure about that bit. It gives off this signal that only Shi'ar tech does when abandoned. Kind of like a 'hey, pick me up, I'm in a place full of people that will abuse me' type of safe guard. Anyway, stopped at that Jackaleap place because it was giving off a similar looking reading, but it turns out the tech there was based on the tech I'm looking for."

<Jessica> "Uh... well we don't have any tech around here that we're not using."

<Rocket> "Yeah yeah, and according to this... we are surrounded by the tech. This is actually scary." Rocket said, staring at the tracker while swaying back and forth. "I think it's a hard light device... but everywhere. Yeah, we're standing in a deathtrap, lady."

<Jessica> "Oh the danger room stuff? Yeah that's everywhere... it's part of the security system now. There were a few teething problems but we fixed that..."

<Rocket> "Hope you guys got a failsafe on that, notorious for being hacked into and used against the owners. Reason why it's not used that much where I'm from." He stumbled back and fell down on his rear, then looked over to his empty cup, nudging it towards the female. "How about refill?" he asked.

<Jessica> "I'm not your maid." She pointed to the coffee machine where he could get it his damn self, "Hardly anyone uses hard light here... it's sort of new. I've only seen it at the school."

<Rocket> "Ah, well, then I guess it's fine. Gotta toughen up the kids some way, right? Nothing better than homocidal virusses trying to kill you with something that can make any deadly weapon imaginable." He gave a thumbs up as he got up again, grabbing the cup and walking on the counter to the coffee machine.

<Jessica> "Sounds about normal," She nodded, taking a sip of her tea. "We're pretty used to stuff trying to kill us."

<Rocket> "So where you guys keeping the AI that's running it?" Rocket asked as he poured the coffee.

<Jessica> "Uh she kind of just wanders around... Mostly she stays in the basement with my brother though."

<Rocket> Rocket paused, nearly spilling the coffee. "You guys let it in a body? Are you insane?! It's gonna kill you all! Me included! Do you know how terrible that would be?! For me to die?! I'm one of a kind, woman! The galaxy can't survive without me!"

<Jessica> "She was trying to kill people before she got a body, the way I heard it." Jess leaned against the counter, "She's better now. She's been fine for years... well except that bit last year but that was completely understandable."

<Rocket> "When I heard you Terrans lived dangerously, I didn't expect this dangerous." Rocket said, shaking a little as he leaned against cupboard and slid to sit down, drinking the coffee to try and calm his nerves. "Now I can't wait to get off this rock. So this brother of yours, which way is the basement? Need to get the AI back to its owners."

<Jessica> "Danger is Danger's owner. She's entirely autonomous and you're not taking her anywhere. Pretty sure Broo will arm his lab to shoot lasers at you if you try."

<Rocket> "Broo? What kinda name is that?" he asked, frowning and sipping the coffee.

<Jessica> "It's short for Brooklyn... never asked why she called him that." She made a mental note to check. "Most people assume it's short for Brood... which I hate."

<Rocket> The coffee went from his mouth and sprayed across the counter. "You have brood here?! Are you flarkin' insane?! I gotta notify the nova and get this planet burned to the core."

<Jessica> "No you won't!" She picked up a roll of paper towels and threw it at his head, "Broo is my brother! And he's perfectly safe company."

<Rocket> "I, what? You're not making any sense, woman. Brood is a brood. Their whole existence is to kill, maim and kill some more just to take over whole thungian planets and systems." he graciously took the towels and cleaned himself and the counter cleaner than what it started out.

<Jessica> "Broo isn't a hundred percent Brood... it's complicated."

<Rocket> "So he's a new strain?"

<Jessica> "Strain? You make it sound like a disease. Brood dna was grafted onto an infant human to save his life. Broo is the result... and he's my baby brother so any threats will be taken extremely seriously."

<Rocket> Rocket stared in silence, before thinking about it and giving in, shrugging. "Okay, yeah, this planet is full of crazy, but that last bit has got to be the craziest."

<Jessica> "Well no one ever accused Viper of being sane..." she conceded, "But really, he's not a threat."

<Rocket> "Whatever you say, lady, I just gotta collect the AI and get the hell off this death trap of a planet."

<Jessica> "You're not collecting anything." Jess put her hands on her hips, "Danger's one of us, we went through hell to get her back in one piece, we're not about to hand her over to some total stranger."

<Rocket> "Total strangers? They ain't no total strangers, they're her- its creators."

<Jessica> "Do I have to go and get someone else? You can't jus take people without asking them if they want to come with you. Danger's her own person."

<Rocket> Rocket rubbed his temples. "You're not following me here. I am going to go to the AI. I am going to take her core - it's core. I am going back to the original owners. I am going to get a big fat reward. Now you gotta choose, either you want fif..uhm... five percent of the reward, or you can stand aside and get nothing."

<Jessica> "Or I can refuse to accept either of those outcomes and kick your ass."

<Rocket> Rocket snorted, "I'd like to see you try. You want to go back to your cave and fetch your club first?"

<Jessica> "I don't need a club."

<Rocket> "Ah, got to the iron age, have ya? Then your little sword or whatever it is you fight with."

<Jessica> Jess charged a venomblast in her hand.

<Rocket> "Gah!" Rocket scurried back and reached for the gizmo on his back, holding it in both hands as it recognized its owner and activated into a quadrifle. "You got the count of one to stand aside, lady!"

<Jessica> "Not happening." Any misunderstandings could be cleared up later, she judged his weight and fired a blast to knock him out.

<Rocket> He should have been used to the strangeness of lights shooting from peoples hands. He once saw a space octopus shoot electricity from its suckers.

<Rocket> Yet no matter how much experience he had in the matter, the blast still got him, and he fell back, off the counter, on to the floor, triggering the oversized rifle in his hands, shooting from its barrels an electrified net up into the air, which came down on him again, and did its job as an electrified net quite well.

<Jessica> Jess eyed the furry shape on the floor for a moment or two, detected a heartbeat, then turned to go and get Carol.