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"She's got it! Yeah, baby, she's got it!"

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Continuation of Rachel's POV...

Later, a guard told me to remove my small, suitable metal arm, to which I hesitated but complied, on the condition that I would get my sketchbook and coloring pencils. At first, he did not want to, but the other guard agreed to the request since it's made of wood and paint only after I shower. After showering in an orange substance, I noticed my sketchbook and coloring pencils near my yellow clothes. I eagerly grabbed them into a bear hug before putting them in a changing room with Gamora.

Who stared at me in confusion before she looked away. As soon as I put on my top, I noticed no hole for my tail to fit in, so I sighed awkwardly: "Hey, Gamora...um... can you make a small hole so my tail can fit?" I shyly asked. For a moment, I thought she would reject it, but surprisingly, Gamora motioned her hand to give me my pants; I blinked and handed them to her, who used a unique trick for them and then returned them, "Thank you, Gamora." "Whatever." She responded, and we ended up in a comfortable silence.

Time skip~

We met with the boys, and the guards handed us all our sleeping mats. I catch up with Peter, who offers to hold my mat, but I decline it, saying that I can handle it, but I don't mind him picking me up and cradling me close to his chest: "Did you get a panic attack again?" He whispered, and I silently nodded: "Yeah... just... don't even get electrocuted like that. I hate it." 

"Okay, I promise." Peter takes out a pinkie promise; I shake my head and chuckle, "Good." I answer. "So... you going to tell me how a Raccoon like him acted nice around you?" "Not. Going. To. Happen." I jokingly decline his question, and Peter fails to hide his smirk before we look around the prison. I see thousands of different people around the place, and I spot one heavy-set woman crying over a hologram of her family. Making my snout tickle in disgust, I wipe it off Peter's sweater until Peter gets hit with a squishy bread. 

I cringe, the sticky substance coating his face, "I don't think that meant to throw it at you, Peter." Peter gives me a look. He turns and sees a lot of prisoners leaning over a railing on the second floor: "You first! You first!" "Murderer!" "Coming for you first, Gamora! You're dead!" More people yell at Gamora, "You're scum! You're scum!" Someone throws something at Gamora, and she flinches; I got concerned about them bullying her like that: 'I hope she doesn't get hurt.' I thought as we all continued walking.

"It's like I said, she's got a rep." Rocket tells us, "A lot of prisoners here have lost their families to Ronan and his goons. She'll last a day, tops." "The guards will protect her, right?" Peter asked, making him shrug at that question, "They're here to stop us from getting out," he responded. "They don't care what we do to each other inside." I look at him in disbelief: "We're allowed to bully others? I might as well do it."

"Whatever nightmares the future holds," Gamora interrupts, "are dreams compared to what's behind me." 

Peter turns around to walk forward, only to cause us to run into another big blue guy, and I snarl-up at him with a cold stare, "Check out the new meat," He says, running his large hand down at Peter's face: "I'm gonna slather you up in Guanvian jelly, and go to town..." His hand tickles the underside of Peter's jaw, 'Y'know what? I hate the Klyn prison, and this guy is creepy!' Before he can even touch me, I bite hard enough on his large hand that I use my strength to rip it off of him with blood squirting out by coating my yellow clothes, and I spit it out of my mouth as if I didn't care about the eyes burning holes on me: 

"Back. The FUCK! OFF!" I angrily growl before wiping the blood off with my furry shoulder and hopping down to walk away. However, Big Blue suddenly stomps on my tail hard enough to cause me to yell and scream, but I am saved by Groot, who stops him by sticking two fingers inside his nose; I can hear the groaning in pain from the blue alien Groot continues to grow his fingers to the point where he's freaking lifting the guy off the ground. 

The guy grasps Groot's arm with his muscles. Unfortunately, it wouldn't work like that: "Let's make something clear!" Rocket shouts, getting the prison's attention. He points to Peter and I. "These two here are our booty!" He punched his chest by proving that we were his bounty. I will be honest; Rocket is very admirable, even if he is a sarcastic asshole, to begin with: "You wanna get to them, you go through us! Or, more accurately, we go through you." 

A sickening crunch fills the air as Groot lets the guy go. He falls to the floor, holding his nose and groaning. I grab my mat, stuff, and tail in one left free arm by hurrying to catch up with Rocket and Groot, who have started to walk away: "Thank you, but you didn't need to do that..." I mumble a bit, struggling to carry my stuff, only for Rocket to sigh and take my matt with the other arm after he heard me: "Whatever... by the way, how's your tail? The asshole didn't do it hard, did he?" 

"..." He took my silence as a yes before he offered to wash off the blood from my snout, sending me a soft stare; I told Rocket that he could once I placed my stuff in my shared cell with Gamora, that is. Rocket nodded in agreement as we continued walking along beside him. "I'm with them," I hear Peter say behind me. 

In the female section cells...

The guards made Gamora and me share the same cell since we were the only two females in the group; I still felt the pain on my bushy tail after what the blue man did to me: "No cell's gonna protect you for long," One of the inmates says. We walk into our cell, and Gamora sits on the bed while I lie under it. One of the inmates bangs on the glass of the closed door. She gasped softly but quietly for me to hear it carefully, "You're dead! Dead!" The rest of the inmates mumble intelligible garbage while they're walking away. 

Slowly, I asked Gamora if she wanted to be alone for a moment. She calmly nodded, and I respectably left the cell before it closed, where I was met by Rocket in the showers. We stared at each other for a split second before Rocket gently pulled my left arm and sat me down on a stool to dap some clean water around my snout and the side of my snout: 

"...I didn't expect you to do that." 

"Hm?" I tilt my head at him in confusion.

"Biting off the guy's hand like that. That's something I wish I could do...nice." Rocket whispered the last part, making me giggle. I shrugged, letting Rocket continue to clean the blood off me until he eyed my tiny black lips. It caused me to look away at how close he was. I could feel my heart pounding, but Rocket shook it off when I told him, "I guess our instincts are just different," I replied. "Being a raccoon, you're probably more used to fighting and defending yourself. It's not something I like doing, but when push comes to shove, I'll do whatever it takes to protect myself or those I care about."

Rocket nodded, his eyes focused on his task. "Yeah, I get that. Survival instincts and all that shit. But damn, you went at him..." He chuckles, "Maybe I should be more careful around you, huh?" He smirked, teasing me playfully. I rolled my orange eyes but couldn't help but smile at his joke: "Careful on what you wish for, Rocket. Try not to jinx it." After cleaning my face, Rocket grabbed a towel and handed it to me to dry myself. I watched him, feeling a strange mix of appreciation and vulnerability. It was rare for someone other than Peter to care for me like this, especially considering our circumstances.

"You know," I spoke up, breaking the silence. "I never imagined I'd end up in THIS prison...other than HIS lab... heh, life is full of surprises, isn't it?" Rocket chuckled and threw the towel over his shoulder. "Tell me about it. Didn't think that I'd find myself with a bunch of idiots." He paused, a thoughtful look crossing his face. "Except you, uh... you're not an idiot." After he and I left for our separate cells, I took a peek from the shared cell to meet up with Gamora, sitting exactly as she was earlier. 

Seeing her like that made me walk over and place my paw on her hand before she looked at me with shock, wondering what I would do: "I know... I didn't scare you, but would you like me to sing you a song? N-Not to worry, I thought that you might like it." I quickly said; another surprise happened; Gamora lifted me off the floor to place me over her lap, motioned me to sing while petting my head, and rubbed between my ears before I sang: " 'Yesterday I die... tomorrow's bleeding...' "

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Later on, it was midnight, and everyone was asleep except for me. I couldn't sleep when I was abruptly transported back to the lab. It was such a painful experience that I jolted up from my sleeping mat and groaned in frustration. Across from me, Gamora was sleeping soundly. 'At least she's sleeping. I'm not tho.' I lay down on my sleeping mat, hoping to fall back asleep. 

However, just as I was about to drift off, I noticed movement behind me. I froze and remained still until I heard a guard instructing someone to take another person to the shower immediately but quietly. I spotted Gamora, who was now awake, being taken away by one of the prisoners with the glass cell door open. I wanted to go back to sleep, but since I was already awake, I decided to look for the boys to see if they could assist me in saving Gamora, who happens to be my cellmate. 

Narrator's POV:

Despite not being surprised, Peter was determined not to let it happen, primarily since he had just heard a guard endorse the plan; he slowly got out from between the large amounts of other alien people's stench and sweat before heading for the door to find Rachel in front of him: "Rachel?" She turns by shushing him and motions him to follow. Peter nods, and in the process, Rocket wakes up. One side of his face had fur stuck in all directions, showing which side he had been sleeping on against the floor. 

Groggily, he could make out the figure of the Terran being motioned out of the cell by Rachel, who was also awake: "Quill, Rachel, where are you both going?'' He asked, watching as Peter completely disregarded him and started to lurk around the corner. ''Quill, Rachel!" Eventually, Rachel and Peter trailed the prisoners, unaware that Rocket was also following them.

Meanwhile, the prisoners have been permitted to hold Gamora captive behind one of the corners of the showers. The three knives stayed pointing at her throat. Luckily, there was not enough pressure against it to break the skin as it was getting too close for Gamora's liking. She groaned while getting pushed between the wall and the blade when one of the inmates creepily grinned at her: "Gamora," He gave a small, sickly smile, "Consider this a death sentence for your crimes against the galaxy." 

Before he could stab the assassin woman, another baritone voice cut in, "You dare?" 

A man walked out from the shadows of the showers: he was blue-skinned, with red tattoos all over his athletic body, which was visible enough since he didn't wear a shirt and only had on the pants to the prisoners' usual uniform, and he looked threateningly dangerous that he slowly calmly walks towards Gamora: "You know who I am, yes?'' The newcomer asked, taking small, steady steps closer. The other prisoner responded, either out of fear or astonishment. Quite possibly both. ''You're Drax. The Destroyer.'' 

By now, Rocket had arrived as he hid beside Rachel and Quill, whispering out in a yell, "Quill!" "Glad you could join in, Rocket." Rachel whispers with a sly smirk, causing him to glare and watch what was in front of them in the shadows: "And you know why they call me this." Drax continued, "You slayed dozens of Ronan's minions.'' That granted Drax an invitation to share his backstory with the group about Ronan murdering his wife, Ovette, and his daughter, Camaria. He slaughtered them where they stood while laughing.

Rachel felt guilty for Drax, understanding how frustrating it was, only bringing back the memories of her past losing two friends, Chrissy the Turtle and Tweety Bird. The High-Evolutionary slaughtered them when they were put in a capsule to transform them into monsters that only caused them to explode. She shook it off and focused on Drax's fist clenched around his palms in anger, but she also didn't want Peter to fight with someone stronger than himself: 

"Quill?" Rocket whispered again to the human male; Rachel grabbed Peter's pants tightly and threatened, "Peter, I'd follow you, but this!" She hissed while pointing at Drax, "This guy will murder you for breakfast!" Peter ignored them by silencing them as he began watching by edging closer to the prisoner group.

Drax and the others were unaware of the slowly gaining Peter, and Drax continued: "Her life is not yours to take. He killed my family. I shall kill one of his in return." The prisoner nods vigorously, understanding where Drax is going with this. He held the knife gingerly, passing it over to Drax. "Of course, Drax. Here. I..." "Quill! What are you doing?" Again, it was useless for Rocket and Rachel to stop Peter from going over there, whereas Drax's hand wrapped tightly around Gamora's throat, only limiting her breathing. 

"I'm no family to Ronan or Thanos. I'm your only hope at stopping him." Unfortunately for her, Drax didn't care about it at all; he glared and continued to strangle her throat to the back of the showers, "Woman, your words mean nothing to me!" Before Drax can do anything serious to Gamora, Peter comes in with his hands up in surrender, trying to stop him from what he is about to do to her: "Hey!" He shouts, getting their attention. 

"Hey, hey, hey! Hey!" Drax turns while holding Gamora's throat, giving Peter a weird look from the green-skinned woman in return. From behind, Rocket was visibly embarrassed by Peter's actions. Seeing as this was his bounty, he found himself responsible, in a way. 

"Crap." The mammal murmured. "You said it." Rachel facepalms at how stupid Peter is doing in 'rescuing the damsel in distress,' which reminded her of the time he used it as an excuse to protect people: ''You know,'' Peter tries bargaining in with his words and Gamora's way out of the situation, "If killing Ronan is your sole purpose, I don't think this is the best way to go about it.'' Drax grew confused at Peter's words. Rachel was baffled, to say the least, since it was the first time her friend had made sense in a conversation: 

"I bet 330 units if Drax doesn't care about it." "You're on." Both raccoons snickered and watched with their arms crossed. Drax turns to Peter and asks him: "Are you not the man this wench attempted to kill?" "Well, I mean, she's hardly the first woman to try and do that to me." Peter chuckles. Rachel made an 'are-you-freaking-kidding-me' look and groaned since she knew where Peter was going with this as he began to lift his shirt to show his side: "Look, this is from a smoking-hot Rajak girl," he continued explaining about the times his ex-girlfriends had stabbed him, "Stabbed me with a fork. Didn't like me skipping out on her at sunrise." 

Peter pulls down his collar. "I got, right here, a Kree girl tried to rip out my thorax. She caught me with this skinny little A'askavariian who worked in Nova Records. I was trying to get information. Have you ever seen an A'askavariian?" Pete continues. "They have tentacles and needles for teeth. If you think I'm seriously interested in that, then..." That's when Peter realizes Drax doesn't seem to care about his ex-girlfriend's backstory; he sighed: "You don't care." "Nobody does, Peter," Rachel comments while she watches Gamora's breathing heavily from a lack of oxygen. 

"But here's the point. She," Peter motions to Gamora, "betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you..." Peter runs his fingers across the base of his neck; Drax looks at him weirdly. "Why would I put my finger on his throat?" "What?" Peter mumbles, tilting his head; Rachel snorts before snickering quietly at how Drax copied him, "Oh no, it's a symbol," Pete emphasizes the point by slicing his finger across his throat once more. 

"This is a symbol for you slicing his throat," Peter smirks. 

"I would not slice his throat," Drax says. "I would cut his head clean off." 

Peter drops his arms: "It's a general expression for you killing somebody," he says, turning to the knife guy and repeating the motion, "You've heard of this. You've seen this, right? You know what that is. Everyone knows." He returns to Drax and raises his arms once more. The knife guy nods, "Yeah. Yeah," he agrees before shaking his head when Drax glares at him. "No. No." At this point, Rocket noticed how Rachel struggled to hold on to her laugh; he smirked and smiled a bit. Before she coughed a bit to hide it with her serious face:

"I'm saying you want to keep her alive," Peter says. "Don't do his work for him." A silent tension filled the air as Rachel unknowingly held her breath for a few seconds, stopping her body from moving a single muscle with her fur sticking out in goosebumps. They waited for Drax to make his decision. Rachel felt her tail sweep from side to side out of nervousness when she suddenly felt Rocket's tail wrap around hers. It caught her off guard, to say the least, as she glanced at him while he looked forward, "Breathe..." He whispers, only for her to hear that she lets it out, "Thanks." She thanked him, who nodded.

At last, Drax drops Gamora, who gasped and coughed for air to enter her lungs, and Peter smiles at this before Rachel slaps the back of his leg, making him wince at how hard she did: "Ow!" "That's the stupidest distraction I have ever seen!" "It worked, by the way." He pats her head, and Rachel rolls her eyes at him; Drax, on the other hand, keeps the knife that belongs to the remaining inmate, who nervously spoke: "That was my favorite knife."

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The fiasco had ended as Gamora, Peter, Rachel, and Rocket speed walked back to their cells, only to end up with them quarreling along the way, "Listen!" Peter cut in. "I could care less whether you live or whether you die." "Then why stop the big guy?'' Gamora retorted. 

"Simple. You know where to sell our Orb." Rachel points out. "How much will we sell it when we and it are still here?" She asked them. Making Peter smirk at her, "Our friend Rocket, here, has escaped 22 prisons." He looked down at Rocket, confident they'd find a way out. Rocket reassured them. "Oh, we're getting out. And then we're headed straight to Yondu to retrieve our bounty." "Yeah, lucky for me, I was already thinking of escaping after I leave the prison; give the Orb to Gamora, you, and Peter." 

With a heavy yawn, Rachel stretched her arms in the air as Peter turned back to Gamora: "How much was your buyer willing to pay you for my Orb?" "Four billion units." Gamora returned, almost bluntly. "What?" Rocket and Rachel exclaimed, astounded by the large amount. "Holy shit." Peter freaked, keeping himself cool on the outside. 

Gamora continued: "That Orb is my opportunity to escape Thanos and Ronan. If you free us, I'll direct you to the buyer and split the profit between us." Suddenly, Groot pops up from inside the cell. ''I am Groot. (Don't you mean the four of us?).'' "Five of us, Rocket." Rocket grunts at them, "Five of us. Asleep for the danger, awake for the money, as per frickin' usual." Agreement has been settled, as the five of them started returning to bed, having a king day ahead of them tomorrow, except for Rocket; he wanted to ask Rachel something earlier, "Question... are you getting enough sleep?" "Yes." Rachel lied, but he could see right through her tired orange eyes, scoffs: "Liar, you need to sleep." 

"Heh, that's rich coming from someone who doesn't admit he is a raccoon..." She shook her head in defeat as he glared, "Look, I'm not a Raccoon. And seriously, I ain't gonna let you stay awake because of some nightmare bothering you." It took a few more minutes for Rachel to register how he was reacting towards her; she leaned closer, inches away from touching his snout by making a boop sound, and smiled, "Aw~ you're worried about me, aren't you?" She teased him.

Rocket backed away, "Worried? Puh-lease, I'm only worried about the bounty not being alive." He sarcastically huffed while his heart hammered along with the feelings of his stomach fluttering whenever Rachel was around, but then, an idea came to mind. Secretly believing it was a great plan, Rocket smirked before he leaned even closer to her and pinned her towards the wall next to the men's cell, where his snout was touching hers: 

"Plus, you're a hottie, already between me and the cell.~" Rachel snarled hotly at his words before she pushed Rocket off, "I was only kidding, jeez. Anyway, good night!" She ran away back to her shared cell while the heat around her body started burning in a good, unknown way. With Rocket, however, he sighed in relief that she ran because he was so close to doing something that he didn't even know what was going on with himself. 

Slowly, he chuckled and went off to bed.