Panic Attack

Untitled Part 8

               Quill was tense at the controls, directing the Milano away from the firing ship. He wasn't sure what kind of artillery was being used on the white craft, but whatever they were shooting was certainly damaging his ship.

"What's Halfworld?" Gamora asked, voicing everyone's question. Groot on the other hand had already made his way to Rocket's side, wrapping his branch-like arms around the creature who only stared blankly into their hitch-hiker's eyes, his face devoid of expression.

"Rocket, who are they?" He said, trying to break the raccoon out of his shocked state of mind. But his furred friend refused to respond, instead baring his teeth and drawing his brow low angrily.

"You liar!" He shouted, causing Peter to almost lose his grip on the controls from surprise. Rocket thrust an accusing index finger at the man, only being held back by Groot as he struggled to leave his seat. "You said there was nothing left!" He continued, kicking and scratching at his friends arms, leaving tiny grooves in the tree's bark, but Groot refused to let go, simply staring at the scientist with a look of anger.

Quill managed a glance at the scientist, the man had only broken his gaze at the attacking ship to face the furious animal. "There wasn't, I'm sure." He stammered, holding his hands out as though it would somehow prove his innocence.

He couldn't pick up much from the conversation, but it was enough to alert Peter exactly what the circumstances were. "These pals of yours?" He asked sarcastically, reaching over to Rocket's controls and launching a blast at the white ship.

"No!" He shouted defensively, his outburst cut short as another blast lit the dark void of space with the orange and yellow flames of an explosion. "This isn't possible, they would have been caught..." He trailed off, looking back to the attackers as though inspecting their ship. The tinted windows of the white craft kept those on the Milano from seeing in.

"You knew about this?" Gamora spoke up, gesturing angrily towards the window. "You led them here!" Peter didn't need to spare a glance in their direction to know that the green woman had yet again pulled out her dagger.

"No! Not purposefully at least." Rogers tried explaining, stumbling back from the knife. No one spoke, glaring at him, awaiting further explanation. Rocket's glare was wavering between the line of fury and fear, his darkened eyes locked on the former scientist in front of him, only flickering away to glance warily at the Halfworld craft.

"A few years after Nova shut us down, a group of the escaped employees came to me with the idea of starting a second base on board a ship." He began tentatively, wincing when the raccoon tried lunging, the large tree figure being the only thing keeping Roger's unscathed at this point, although the stiffened expression that Groot wore, he wasn't sure how much longer he would be graced with that advantage.

"I declined the invitation." He added quickly, continuing his justification. "I regret everything from Halfworld and wanted nothing to do with it, thinking the Nova attack was a sign from above. They left to continue their search, but I didn't think they would ever have been capable of it without being caught by authorities first."

"Search for what exactly?" Gamora asked, gritting her teeth while Drax clenched his large fists not a foot behind her. Rogers only looked up guiltily towards the raging raccoon.

Peter almost lost the controls again when the answer dawned upon him, a sinking feeling filling his gut as Rocket stopped in his frantic thrashing to back up against Groot's protective hold for a sense of security. "They're here for me?" He managed, not even trying to mask the wavering of his voice when he spoke.