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05. twin size mattress

Rounding the corner, Ziggy saw Groot tackle Drax, sending the two across the table. Gamora joined the two then, coming to see what the trouble was. Groot had Drax pinned to the table, beating him in the face as Drax attempted to save himself. Ziggy grimaced, surprised by his demeanor change from the interaction with the little girl.

Groot wrapped his branches around Drax's neck, and Drax ripped them apart, shattering the wood with his bare hands. Rocket bore his teeth at Drax, pulling out a huge gun compared to his size, and cocking it before aiming it at Drax.

With wide eyes, Gamora launches herself in between the chaos, pushing Drax out of the way despite the cheering of the crowd. "Stop it!"

"Whoa! What are you doing?!" Peter exclaims, covering the gun with his hand, the other keeping Drax back.

"This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax shouted.

"That is true!" Rocket agreed.

"He has no respect!"

"That is also true! Keep calling me vermin, tough guy! You just wanna laugh at me like everyone else!" He shouted, and Ziggy was surprised to see how despite the gritted teeth, he seemed to be almost in tears. Ziggy, truthfully, knew nothing of her supposed new friends' upbringings. Other than knowing pieces of Peter's now, the others were a clean slate. Rocket's tough-as-nails personality seemed to deflate the second anyone called him a raccoon or poked fun at how he was.

"Rocket, you're drunk. Okay? No one's laughing at you." Peter tried to reason with him.

"He thinks I'm just some stupid thing! He does! Well, I didn't ask to get made! I didn't ask to be torn apart, and put back together over and over again, and turned into some monster!" Rocket exclaimed. The room that was once booming with energy was now in a standstill silence, everyone not daring to make a sound.

"No one's calling you a monster," Ziggy spoke up.

"He called me vermin!" He points at Drax, then rounds on Gamora. "She called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots to your fuckin' face!"

"No no no no!" Peter jumped in between Rocket, and Drax and Gamora as the latter two backed up a few steps. "Four billion units! Rocket! Come on man, hey! Suck it up for one more lousy night and you're rich."

Rocket hesitated before his shoulders drooped and he lowered the gun. "Fine, but I can't promise that when all this is over I'm not gonna kill every last one of you jerks."

Ziggy panicked for a moment, thinking that she never had treated Rocket wrongly like the others. She always called him by his proper name, and he hadn't judged her for what she had done.

"See?! That's exactly why none of you have any friends! Five seconds after you meet someone, you're already trying to kill them!"

"We have traveled halfway across the quadrant. And Ronan is no closer to being dead." Drax spat, stomping away from the group.

"Drax!" Peter called, exasperated.

"Let him go." Gamora crossed her arms, watching Drax go over her shoulder. "We don't need him."

The main door opened then, and a woman in pigtails, a white dress with pink skin stepped forward. "Milady Gamora, I'm here to fetch you for my master." She bowed, and with a sweeping arm allowed the group in.

They glanced at each other before following her in. Rocket and Ziggy were the last of the group as they walked in, Rocket looked up at her. "I wouldn't kill you."

"Um, thanks. I don't plan on killing you either."

Entering the room, there were hundreds of cages hanging with strange-looking creatures as they were lit with a blue glow. They all glanced about, cautious of their surroundings.