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CHAPTER TWO:
JAILHOUSE ROCK

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"GAMORA, surgically modified and trained as a living weapon."

Elektra waited patiently in the line-up as Corpsman Dey–Jonas's old mentor–rattled off each of their rap sheets to his superior, an asshole by the name of Denarian Saal. Gamora looked absolutely pissed at being arrested, and Elektra didn't blame her. "The adopted daughter of the Mad Titan, Thanos. Recently, Thanos lent her and her sister Nebula out to Ronan, which leads us to believe Thanos and Ronan are working together."

Gamora was led out by a Krylorian who spat her direction. The green woman flinched slightly as the gob of saliva landed on her cheek before wiping it away.

Elektra had seen Gamora and Nebula around Ronan's ship a few times, but she was never allowed to look at them, let alone talk to them.

She figured it had been Thanos who was funding Ronan's crusade across the galaxy, but she still didn't know what either party wanted with that stupid orb.

The raccoon was shoved forward next, arms crossed as he scoffed at the two NovaCorps men. "Subject 89P13, calls itself Rocket," Dey looked down at the tablet with something akin to disgust in his eyes, "The result of illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower life form."

At least now she knew the raccoon's name.

"What the hell?" Saal's attention was drawn immediately to the next alien in the lineup, who happened to be the tree whose limbs Gamora chopped off.

"They call it Groot. A humanoid plant that's been traveling recently as 89P13's personal house plant slash muscle."

The final person before her was the Ravager she'd followed off Morag, a man with dirty blond curls and carried himself in a very Tom Cody-esque way. The man who'd called her a princess before she kicked his ass, literally.

Dey and Saal sighed as he walked into view.

"Peter Jason Quill, from Terra," Dey scrolled through his sheet with a roll of his eyes, "Raised from youth by a band of mercenaries called the Ravagers, led by Yondu Udonta."

Udonta she knew.

The infamous criminal was known in all parts of the galaxy, but Elektra's connection was a bit more...personal. A chill ran down her spine at the memory.

While Dey talked Peter wound up his middle finger like a jack-in-the box and Elektra smirked as he flipped off the two Corpsmen.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Sarcasm dripped from his lips like honey, hand pressed to his chest like he'd made an honest mistake, "I didn't know how this machine worked."

A small giggle slid past Elektra's lips and the ravager sent a smirk her way as she stepped up to the scanner, hands on her hips.

It brought up everything from her height to her planet of origin to her known associates. Her blood boiled at the sight of Yon-Rogg's name listed there.

The only crime however, seemed to be associating with known terrorists.

"And lastly, we have Elektra, also from Terra, although she's spent the last nineteen years on Hala with the Kree Starforce, working on ships for the Empire. She, like Gamora, was also loaned out to Ronan on the orders of her commander."

The mention of Yon-Rogg sent her stomach churning, rage stirring in her gut.

"A good little soldier, then."

She slammed her fist against the glass, causing the two men to flinch as it shook slightly, "You guys gonna get on with it or do I have to process myself?"

Saal stared at her, unimpressed, "What a bunch of a-holes."

Dey smiled next to him.

Elektra pursed her lips.

"Transport all five to the Kyln."

Elektra rolled her eyes as a Xandarian pulled her forward, shoving her into a small transport ship with the rest of the misfits she'd been arrested with.

If she knew the orb was gonna be this much trouble she would have stayed out of the fight altogether, but no she had to go after it.

She had to believe in things like signs from the universe telling her to take it and trade it for permanent freedom.

She shot a glare at the rest of the group, who refused to look at each other, let alone talk to one another.

Gamora's gaze shifted to the star in the middle of her uniform and she scoffed.

Elektra reached for her necklace and tugged. It would be taken with the rest of her belongings, never to be seen until she finished her sentence.

Thankfully, with no priors, hers seemed to be lesser than the others. Particularly Rocket and Gamora's.

The ship docked with a jolt and several figures dressed in NovaCorps uniforms entered the ship with bins, standing before each of them.

A balding one brandished an electric baton and pointed it at all of them, eyes narrowed, "All personal belongings and weapons will be stripped from you, whether willingly or by force."

Elektra sighed and tossed her bag in the bin, hands lifted in surrender.

The guard wasn't fooled, however, and began patting her down.

He stole her ring and ripped the necklace from her throat, Elektra clenching her jaw at the careless way it was thrown in the bin.

What followed was probably the most humiliating moment of Elektra's life as she began to be stripped, metaphorically and literally, of the only belongings she'd collected over the years. The guard ripped a pair of retractable batons from her back along with a cord often used by Kree to suffocate their victims. Elektra preferred to use it as a rope.

He took her all-purpose tool and her belt with her explosives and threw them in as well.

She knew the only thing left to hand over were her bracers, but the guard had other plans.

As his hand moved to squeeze her ass, she shoved her knee between his legs.

He doubled over in pain, the bin clattering to the ground.

The other guards were on her in seconds, all pointing their guns in her direction. She simply lifted her hands in surrender and unstrapped her bracers, dropping them into the bin with the rest of her weapons and equipment.

The four other inmates all turned to look at her, Quill looking rather impressed but covering his junk with his hands just in case.

Elektra resisted the urge to smirk.

She felt naked without the bracers, having carried them practically her whole life. It was like cutting off a limb, or being stripped to her underwear.

More alarming was the fact that she felt herself weighed down with each step she took, as if a thousand bricks had landed on her shoulders at once.

The only other prisoner getting patted down more than her was Rocket, who carried way too many guns for an animal his size. 

She looked at the haul with an affirming nod.

When all of them had been thoroughly searched and patted down, their wrists were fixed with tight binders and the guards marched them out single file.

Elektra followed Gamora through the steel corridors, ignoring the leering gazes of the guards as the two women walked forward.

Rocket followed behind her, while Quill and Groot brought up the rear.

A band of misfits if ever there was one, and Elektra hated to be lumped in with them.

For starters she'd never murdered anyone, unlike some people.

She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although she supposed her association with Yon-Rogg and Ronan didn't exactly look good on a resume.

Especially since the latter had been bombing Xandarian outposts in an attempt to eradicate the population.

The raccoon rattled on about how many prisons he'd escaped and Elektra found herself growing increasingly bored.

"You're lucky the broads showed up, because otherwise, me and Groot would be collecting that bounty right now, on both of yous."

Rocket looked pointedly at her as she said that.

"Oh and what am I supposed to be grateful?" Her questioned carried a bit more bite than she expected, but the animal looked unfazed.

"Yeah, actually you are, considering what Kree do to traitors and defectors."

"Whoa," Quill chimed in, clearly interested in the conversation as it was happening, "The Kree put a bounty on you?"

"Oh not just any Kree," Rocket interjected with a smirk. Elektra's blood boiled, "Ronan the Accuser himself, along with the Captain of the Starforce. One million units."

She didn't need to look behind her to see the awe on Quill's face.

Perhaps she should be flattered they'd put that high of a bounty on her, instead she sulked.

"A lot more than the 40k Yondu and the Ravagers put out on your head."

Quill bit down on his cheek, "Yeah, well I've had a lot of folks try to kill me over the years. I ain't about to be brought down by a tree and a talking raccoon."

Elektra shook her head with a scoff.

The five of them came to a stop for a brief moment as the guards punched something into the device in his arm, sending it to multiple recipients. Several more inmates who'd been newly processed marched ahead of them, and Elektra made a note to herself to look into those armbands. No doubt some way of obtaining clearance throughout the prison, including the cells they would all find themselves in.

"What's a raccoon?"

Elektra turned her head to look at the rodent with disbelief in her eyes.

"What's a raccoon? It's what you are stupid."

Rocket let out an arrogant laugh, "Ain't no thing like me, except me."

Elektra rolled her eyes and turned to face the window, rocks drifting lazily by in the sea of stars. They reminded her of the ones she used to see from her mother's ranch house in South Dakota.

Sometimes if they were lucky they'd even catch sight of the Milky Way.

They continued to march and irritation continued to boil in Elektra's chest at how long this was taking.

"So, this orb has a real shiny blue suitcase, Ark of the Covenant, Maltese Falcon sort of vibe," Quill spoke up, shoving an inordinate amount of pop culture references in a single sentence, "What is it?"

"It's an unremarkable silver relic that's caused nothing but trouble," Elektra grumbled.

"I am Groot," The tree finally spoke, although Elektra wasn't sure what saying his name would accomplish.

"So what?" Quill shot back at Groot before turning back to Elektra and Gamora, "What's the orb?"

Gamora stared ahead, shoulders taut at the sound of the Ravager's voice, "I have no words for an honorless thief."

"As opposed to a genocidal maniac?"

Gamora tensed at Elektra's words and she whirled around, "You're one to talk. How many planets has Ronan destroyed? How many Skrull still walk the galaxy after refusing to submit to your rule?"

Elektra clenched her jaw, fingers wrapping themselves into fists, "I am not one of them. I was stolen from my home, my family, forced to work for men I despise and enslaved by a race I will never call my own."

Gamora's lips tilted into a small smirk, "Then it seems we have that in common."

The two women stared at each other for a brief moment, nothing but shallow breaths between them. Elektra's hand reached up to grasp her necklace but met only bare skin, clawing her throat as it met the leather of her uniform.

"Keep moving!" The guard yelled, breaking apart the stand-off.

The rest of the crew looked between the two women with their mouths all slightly ajar before continuing down the corridors.

Her stomach churned and flipped, the familiar anger surging through her veins, although this time it was accompanied by a pang of sympathy.

"Who the hell are these people?" Quill asked, dumbfounded by what he'd just witnessed.

"I am Groot," Groot replied.

"Yeah, you said that."

Rocket simply shook his head,

Gamora sighed and continued walking forward, "I wasn't retrieving the Orb for Ronan, I was betraying him."

Now that perked Elektra's ears.

"I had an agreement to sell it to a third party."

"Guess that's another thing we have in common," Elektra muttered under her breath. She thought she saw the green-skinned woman relax slightly at her words.

Another door opened and the guard led them through.

Elektra kept track of how many doors had been opened so far. She'd need it if she wanted to get out of here. And if Ronan was after that Orb, then she definitely needed to get out of here.

Especially if Thanos was involved, which it seemed like he was based on the fact that he'd sent his daughter out to get the Orb for him.

God, what had she gotten herself into?

"I am Groot."

"Well, that's just as fascinating as the first eighty-nine times you said that," Quill shook his head, clearly growing annoyed with the sentient tree, "What is wrong with Giving Tree, here?"

"Well, he don't know talking good like me and you. So his vocabulistics is limited to "I" and "am" and "Groot". Exclusively in that order."

Elektra's gaze shifted to the left, where she caught sight of the guards sorting through their stuff. She watched as one picked up her all-purpose tool and tried to flip it, dropping it to the ground with a clang!

She winced at the sound.

He picked up her mp3 before realizing he wasn't going to figure it out and sorted through the change of clothes she'd picked up on Xandar.

She was just grateful they seemed to ignore the jewelry she'd thrown in there.

"I tell you what, that's gonna wear real thin, real fast–Hey!" Quill stopped at the door of impound, his face red as a blue prison guard moved to put a pair of headphones on his head, dancing along to whatever music was playing. Elektra thought she heard the beginning notes of "Hooked on a Feeling."

"Put that away, Hey!"

The guard hit a button on his baton, electrifying the end. An alarm blared through the cage as the door began to close, but Quill slipped inside with terse brows and clenched fists, "Listen to me you big blue bastard, take those headphones off, that's mine. Those belong to impound, that tape and that player is mine!" His shouts echoed off the walls and Elektra bit down on her lip as she leaned against the grate.

"This isn't gonna end well," She muttered.

"I am Groot," The tree replied in agreement. Or at least she thought it sounded like agreement.

Elektra winced as the shock of the baton rattled Quill's insides, dropping the man to his knees. But still, he remained unperturbed, "Hooked on a Feeling, Blue Swede, 1973, that song belongs to me!" He shouted as if saying it any louder would make a difference.

It didn't.

The rest of the crew watched with thinly veiled disgust as several more shocks ran through Quill's body, sending him writhing with each strike of the baton.

Elektra simply shook her head at the ravager, eyebrows raised at his reckless actions, "Idiot."

The rest of the group seemed to agree with her.

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