["Everyone, full armament, move out immediately—" The guard in the tower was cut off by the sound of the door behind him sliding open. He spun around, stunned.]
[There stood the fugitives: Star-Lord, casually holding a prosthetic leg; Rocket, cradling a power battery; Gamora, with her hands on her hips; and Drax, arms folded imposingly across his chest.]
[Groot was the last to lumber into the room, his massive form filling the doorway.]
[The guard took in their unfriendly expressions, looked at the automatically opened glass door, and wisely raised his hands in surrender.]
[As the group walked in, Gamora shoved him out of his seat. Groot then stretched out a woody tendril, wrapped it around the guard, and unceremoniously tossed him out of the control room.]
[A long scream faded into the distance, followed by a faint crash.]
[Rocket immediately set to work on the console. Gamora, however, noticed Drax standing right behind her and flinched.]
[Drax caught her look and scowled. "Cease your yammering and answer me. Why is this one here?"]
[Gamora turned her glare on Star-Lord. "Why is this guy here?"]
["We made a deal," Star-Lord said with a shrug. "We promised he could stay with you until he gets his chance to kill your boss. I'm a man of honor, and I always keep my word." He paused, then added under his breath, "Besides, he would have killed me if I said no. Now, let's get started."]
[He proudly placed the prosthetic leg on the console, but Rocket just glanced at it.]
["Oh, I was kidding about the leg," he said casually. "I just needed these two things."]
["What?!" Star-Lord sputtered, his face a mask of disbelief. All the effort he'd gone through to get that leg, and it was a joke?]
[Rocket let out a wheezing laugh. "Hah! I can just picture it! Wait, so that guy is just hopping around on one foot now, right?"]
["I paid him thirty thousand units for it!" Star-Lord yelled, thoroughly exasperated.]
[This only made Rocket laugh harder.]
"Wow," Tony Stark said, spreading his hands in mock surrender as he looked at the others in the viewing room. "And I thought I had a mean streak. That raccoon's personality is even worse than mine."
For once, no one even tried to object.
Captain America just shook his head, a wry smile on his face. "That raccoon is quite the troublemaker. Isn't he worried he'll get decked for a prank like that?"
"Seriously, that's just cruel," Peter Parker chimed in. "The joke cost Quill thirty thousand units, and Yondu's bounty on him was only forty thousand to begin with!"
"Damn it!" the actual Star-Lord, sitting amongst them, grumbled, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I still get mad every time I see this part!"
"Hahaha! It just proves how gullible you are, Quill!" Rocket cackled from his seat. "Who in their right mind would think a prosthetic leg is a critical component for a prison break?"
Rocket's laughter was loud and grating, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. Behind the taunt was a flicker of something else—a deep, ancient pain. Only he knew the real reason for his strange fixation on prosthetics. They weren't just jokes; they were grim memorials, souvenirs of friends he'd lost to scalpels and cages long ago. He kept that part of himself locked away, a past too painful to share, even with the strange new family he was slowly, reluctantly, starting to build.
[Drax ignored their bickering. His focus was singular. "How do we get out of here?"]
[Just then, a drone flew up to the side of the tower and opened fire, its blasts ricocheting harmlessly off the reinforced glass but still making Quill jump.]
["Well?" Quill demanded, gesturing at Rocket. "This maniac has a plan, right? You weren't just kidding about all of this, were you?"]
["I have a plan!" Rocket snapped back, not looking up from his work. "It's a perfect plan!"]
["Then get on with it!" Drax boomed. "Get us out of this wretched prison!"]
[Star-Lord glanced out the window at the assembling guards. "Yeah, I'm with him! Do what the walking thesaurus says!"]
[Drax stared blankly at Star-Lord.]
["I am not a 'walking thesaurus.'"]
["It's a metaphor, man!" Quill said, exasperated.]
[Rocket snorted without looking up. "His people are completely literal. Metaphors go right over his head."]
["Nothing goes over my head!" Drax declared proudly. "My reflexes are too fast. I would catch it."]
[Gamora listened to their exchange and dropped her head into her hands. "I am going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy."]
[Below, dozens of guards were arriving, armed with rocket launchers and other heavy weapons. Star-Lord watched their movements with growing alarm.]
"Whoa, okay, they're bringing out the heavy artillery now," Scott muttered as the massive weapons appeared on screen.
[Several guards took a kneeling position, aiming their launchers at the tower.]
[An officer yelled the command: "Number one, fire!"]
[A rocket slammed into the reinforced glass, sending spiderweb cracks across the surface.]
["Oh," Gamora breathed.]
[She turned to Rocket. "Little creature, we are waiting for your plan!"]
["Don't worry!" Rocket shouted, scrambling to another part of the console to continue his work.]
["Launch number two!"]
[Another rocket hit its mark, shaking the entire tower.]
[Drax commented thoughtfully, "I remember this animal. We would roast them on a spit. Very tender."]
[That was the last straw for Rocket.]
[He whipped his head around, glaring at Drax with pure fury. "NOT HELPING!"]
["Launch number three!"]
[The cracks on the glass widened with a sickening groan, and a piece near the center fell away.]
["Damn it!" Rocket cursed, his paws moving even faster.]
[The officer below saw the glass was about to give way. "Everyone! On my command! Three… two… one…!"]
[At that exact moment, Rocket found the wires he was looking for and slammed them together.]
[With a loud hum, the prison's systems went haywire. The guards below suddenly floated off their feet, their shouts turning to cries of confusion as they drifted helplessly into the air. The remaining drones tumbled about, their thrusters useless.]
[Gamora looked at the floating guards, a slow smile spreading across her face as she understood.]
["He turned off the artificial gravity," she said in awe. "Everything is weightless… except us!"]
[Rocket yanked a large lever, and with a heavy clank, the connections holding the control tower to its base were severed. The entire room began to float upwards.]
[He then seized control of the prison's drones, redirecting them to the underside of the tower.]
[The drones embedded themselves into the tower's foundation, their thrusters firing in unison to become a makeshift engine.]
[Rocket slammed the thrust lever forward, and the tower lurched, accelerating out of the prison structure and into open space.]
[A triumphant, feral grin split Rocket's face. "I told you! I have a plan!"]