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Rocketing Around the Galaxy

Part 6

For GlynWolf

By Draconicon

It was easier than he expected to get the location of the last weapon piece. Jonas had managed to track down a few people that knew where it was, but not the location itself. Glyn had expected to need to take some serious measures to get them to talk, either through bribery or combat, but thankfully, they were willing to give up the location quickly.

Well, relatively quickly.

"Cannot believe that they could drink that much," he muttered as he left the bar, shaking his head and wiping his muzzle clean. "Never had that much drunk slobber, either..."

But at least he had the location, now. Rocket would be happier to hear that they had a definitive location rather than a vague system-wide spot to search, and that would mean that life on-ship would get that much better.

He just wished that he'd been allowed to get clothing privileges back, too. He had a lot of other things in his favor now - including the fact that Rocket was allowing him some actual pleasure from time to time now, rather than just rutting him and leaving it at that - but he had yet to be allowed to get actual clothing privileges again. The most that he was allowed was another rubber thong, even more exposing than the last one, and he gritted his teeth as he walked down the streets of the latest spaceport, feeling his cock and balls all but sliding out from under the thong with every step. It was almost worse with his ass, considering that his fluffy butt sucked the thong right between the cheeks and kept it pressed to his pucker. It wasn't quite so bad, but it was still...embarrassing.

Squelch.

"Ugh..."

And due to the lack of footwear, he was also still stepping in random bits of grime and mud when he went from place to place. Glyn hopped on one foot, groaning as he shook the mud off his toes. The spaceport had been built with a mostly-uncovered design, with only the ships in the docking bays getting roofs. The houses, sure, but the streets? Nope. And considering this was a rainy planet, that was all kinds of -

Kaboom!

The thunderclap was the five-second warning before the rain started falling again, and the timber wolf glared at the sky. The seconds ticked down, and then he was battered with raindrops thicker than credit chits. He growled under his breath, his fur sagging down the sides of his face and leaving him looking like someone's bedraggled pet. Shaking his head, he stomped down the street back to the ship.

The gangplank had been closed, and he was half-sure that Rocket had intentionally lingered going to the door to let him in. Glyn walked up and deliberately stopped right beside the little trash panda to shake himself out, sending water everywhere. The raccoon shouted at him, dancing back, but too late; he was just as soaked seconds later.

"Okay, that was dick," Rocket muttered.

"Takes one to know one; I was stuck out there for three minutes before you opened the gangplank."

"Hey, I was napping."

"And I was getting what we needed."

"Ya got it, then?"

"Yep. Let's get going."

Despite their mutual annoyance, neither could entirely hide the grins spreading across their faces. They were on their way. Finally, they were on their way.

As Rocket ran for the front of the ship, Glyn went to the back, getting the engine kickstarted and making sure that it was still running the way that it was supposed to. The clicking sounds it made were just fine, perfectly normal, but the rest of it...

Good, still making the same patterns.

He hadn't heard from Ventman since the events at the merc base, but he knew that Jonas's second would be following them. Hopefully, he would be following close, but as long as he was within at least a system or two, they should still be able to make this work.

Even if he didn't...

Don't kid yourself. If he's not in position, there's no way that you're dealing with both Rocket and Groot at the same time.

Hell, he doubted he'd be able to take Rocket solo, or Groot solo. They'd both kicked his ass more than once, and he was not looking forward to any sort of confrontation. Hell, he was still hoping to avoid one. All it would take was a single offer from Rocket, something that extended an olive branch of payment for all this work instead of just working off a bounty here. If he could just get that, then he would be more than happy to keep the backstabbing plan from happening.

But, Rocket wasn't exactly helping his case at the moment. He hadn't made so much as a single offer, not even an indication that he might make such an offer. Whether the raccoon was just that greedy or was just entitled, he didn't know, but whatever it was, it meant that they still hadn't completely fixed this problem between them.

Though that romp helped...

Glyn chuckled, patting the engine casing. He wished that he could remember just what they'd done a little bit better, but hey, at least they'd had fun.

Hustling up to the cockpit, he found Groot and Rocket already strapped in. Rocket tossed him a nod as they started lifting off, with Glyn hurriedly strapping himself in.

"So, where to?"

"Off to another space station."

"Goddamn. These guys don't like living planetside, do they?"

"Not really."

"Least this one's not in a black hole cluster, heh...right?"

"Oh, it's not."

It was, however, somewhere quite a bit more complicated than either of them were going to like. He offered Rocket the coordinates, and the raccoon gave him a flat-eyed stare.

"...You are fucking joking with me."

"Wish I was."

"Kid...I hate you."

"Trust me. I'm not keen on this either. But that's where we gotta go."

Once they were done skipping and jumping through warp space, Groot, Rocket, and Glyn all assembled in the cargo hold. Rocket was pacing back and forth around the hologram of the station map that they'd pulled up, grumbling under his breath.

"Had to be Outpost Z, didn't it? Had to be fucking Outpost Z..."

Glyn had to admit, he was more on Rocket's side this time. Considering that Outpost Z had been built by humanoids that were looking to 'preserve' the various bits of animal species that were going extinct through the galaxy, Outpost Z was supposed to be one of the places that were actually doing good things in the galaxy. As a matter of fact, most humanoids thought it was one of the more humanitarian places out there.

And that was the problem. Humanitarian tended to focus on humans and humanoids more than it did anything else. People that were more on the animal side of things, like him - and particularly like Rocket, who was closer to the proper size of a raccoon - were not looked at with the same sort of rights as the humanoids that populated it. People like him, people like Rocket, could easily run the risk of being thrown in the major attraction of Outpost Z: the Zoo.

The hologram was zoomed in on that, a multi-story thing that ran from the bottom level of the station to the top. It was divided between different enclosures, and, unlike most of the zoos that were on other planets, there were no dividers between the different enclosures on a single floor. Prey species and predator species were encouraged to live the way that they did 'in the wild', and that meant pushing them to hunt, to kill.

More than a few sentient prisoners had lost their lives that way. If he or Rocket didn't have perfect papers on arrival, then they could be thrown in there.

And if they did, they still could, if they pissed off the wrong person. This heist was going to have to be their best yet, which was why Glyn wanted to plan it out properly. One wrong turn, and they were going to be utterly fucked, and he doubted that Ventman had the brains to get them out without blowing the whole station to hell in the process.

Not to mention that the mercs would be able to find us real fast when the Zoo posts that it has two new attractions...

"Alright. Let's stop complaining and start thinking," Glyn said.

"Hmmph. Fine. Who actually has the piece we're looking for?" Rocket asked.

"I am Groot."

"Then show me what he looks like, genius."

The tree pushed a button, and the hologram changed, showing a human-esque figure, though with pink skin, leaning back on a throne. It was clearly made of faux leather rather than the real thing, but the pink-skinned alien smiled with a red-eyed glare at the camera.

"Meet the Meat-Man," Glyn said. "Real name Boris, but he's not gone by that for a very long time."

"Meat-Man, huh? What the hell's he doing with the Zoo?"

"He bought it ten years ago," Glyn said, shaking his head. "Friend of mine lost a bidding war against him for it. Supposedly, he's looking to keep all the animals safe, but...well, you can guess, with a name like that, what he's really doing."

Rocket blanched, and Glyn couldn't blame him. Exotic meats sold well, but having them drained from a humanitarian project wasn't exactly a nice thing to see happen. Or a good thing to imagine, considering their potential fates.

"Alright. Alright. So, we got a, uh, 'exotic' meat lover. Where's he keeping the piece?"

"Only two real possibilities, aside from his person. His home, which is down here at the base of the station." A glowing light appeared, taking a square shape just under the engines on Outpost Z. "Or in the Zoo company vaults. Which are on the other side of the station entirely." Another square glowed at the top. "Neither one's exactly unguarded."

"And Meat-Man?" Rocket asked.

"Not much better. He only has one main bodyguard, but, well, we saw what happened with Knives, remember?"

They had only just gotten away from him, and that had been a two-on-one fight that they weren't keen on repeating. Glyn shook his head, flicking the hologram around so that it was lying horizontal, rather than upright.

"Now, we have a couple options -"

"Hey, hey, hang on." Rocket held up a hand. "Since when are you calling the shots?"

"...I'm not, but I have some experience with stealing stuff."

"And you think I don't?"

"I think you're better at hunting people, and I'm better at stealing."

"...Ya got a point." The raccoon nodded. "Alright, but no decisions just yet. Just tell me some of the options."

That was all that Glyn wanted to do. He gestured at the map and continued.

"The first thing we have to do is find out where the Meat-Man's keeping the piece. Once we find that out, we'll know which place we gotta hit. I'm hoping that all we have to do is steal it from his place."

"...Why's that? Seems like some asshole like him would keep it well-guarded."

"Because the bottom of the station comes off," Glyn said, pointing to the bottom of the hologram. It zoomed in, showing how the space just under the engines had been attached later than the rest of the station. "If we can scare him bad enough, he might just use his home as an escape pod. If he does, then we can have Groot waiting on the ship to pick him up, and then, we can explore his place at our leisure. Much easier than fighting our way through the company to get to the Zoo vault, and a hell of a lot easier than dealing with trying to take it from him directly."

And a hell of a lot less public, and a lot less likely to get them thrown into the Zoo. He did not want to try and stage a prison escape from there.

And much as he didn't like the idea of trying to chase someone down into their house, forcing them to eject and potentially leaving them in the vacuum of space, he liked the idea of someone stripping his fur and flesh off him even less. He'd heard horror stories about the Zoo; they would keep creatures alive for years down there, stripping off bits of muscle and tissue just for the sake of a few units, and then leave it to regrow, bit by bit, and do it again. The creatures of the Zoo lived in agony when they weren't being used to grow the Meat-Man's personal accounts.

Rocket seemed to get that, too. There was no argument. No fighting. It was almost...weird, how in-sync they were once they both understood the big picture.

Rocket eventually waved his hand through the hologram, dismissing it.

"Alright, kid. We'll do some scouting once we get there. And when we get that piece..."

"Full speed to Nidavellir."

"Heh, 'less you stab me in the back, first."

"..."

"Or I get you. Heh. HAHAHA! You should have seen your face."

Rocket punched him in the leg as he walked by, all while Glyn did his best to keep it to a nervous chuckle. The 'joke' had been serious enough that he was half-sure that Rocket was actually still testing him or something. He followed the raccoon back to the cockpit, shaking his head.

"Like I'd be able to double-cross you," he said with a joking smile.

"Heh, yeah, right? I mean, sure, you might have some friends out there, but all I gotta do about that is lose 'em."

"And if someone happened to leave tracers behind?" Glyn asked.

"Oh, man, that'd require some real brainpower. Tracers. Man, I'd never think of it...Less I did, and I put a filter on the engine to keep us from leaving anything behind."

...Please, for the love of fuck, tell me you're joking.

There was no sudden laugh from Rocket this time, though the raccoon did look back at him with that wide grin again. Was this one a joke, or was he serious?

Glyn just put a smile on his face, keeping it there as he worked out the way around it. In the end, that was simple enough.

"Well, anything that's back there isn't going to last for long. Not at the speed we're burning fuel. So, anything that you did to catch a tracer wouldn't work for long; how'd you keep someone from pulling some help in after that?"

"Oh, easy. I'd just pick a different ship," Rocket said.

"Oof, you really think that's a good idea? I mean, if the rat's in the ship, that means that you're just bringing one problem onto a fresh ship."

"Good point. Maybe I should make the backstabber take his own ship."

"Hmm, that's an idea. But what if he picks a faster one than yours?"

"I'll keep the navigation charts."

"And he could copy them."

"Not without sneaking back on the new ship."'

"Unless he got a copy from the old one."

"Oh...oh, you're good," Rocket said with a laugh. "Man, I haven't had to work at this for a while. Huh. How to get around that..."

Okay, so it is a game...it's just a game...

With his heart no longer right in his throat, Glyn was able to throw himself into it with the same sort of interest that Rocket seemed to have. It was surprisingly fun to bounce ideas back and forth off each other, and before long, it had slipped over. Soon, they were discussing how Rocket would counter some of Glyn's plans.

"So, let's say that they did find you. How would you deal with that many reinforcements?"

"Well, that depends. They like the guy that led them to me?"

"Let's say - oh, hell, you're not going hostage, are ya?"

"Kid, lemme tell ya. You get a hostage at my size, you deserve one," Rocket said, shaking his head. "I mean, look at me. You really think that most people are gonna get taken by me and kept helpless enough to be a hostage?"

"..."

"Heh, glad you didn't answer that."

Considering Rocket's size, one might have a slightly easier chance of getting loose of his grip, that was true. But that didn't mean that it was guaranteed, particularly with something sharp held to the throat or anything like that.

And considering how small he is, he doesn't present a target to anyone from the front...

Which meant that no over-the-shoulder shots would work, or anything that would be suggested to deal with a normal hostage-taker. It was a smart idea, and something that most people wouldn't expect of a much smaller species. Glyn had to give him credit for that much; he was pulling one surprise after another.

"Alright. What if the guy you're trying to take hostage is someone that you care about?"

"Not like the other guys know that. And besides, I don't care about much besides me and Groot."

"Just suppose."

"Eh...it'd be a pain in the ass..."

"But?"

"...It'd really depend on just how good that weapon is."

Glyn would have faulted Rocket for that, but he would have said the same thing. He shook his head, leaning back against his seat as he tried to think of a way around that. A randy, angry Rocket Raccoon on his back, holding a knife to his throat...How would he get out of something like that without a convenient wall to slam Rocket against?

Huh...that's a tricky one.

Regardless, he put that one in the back of his head, and the two of them continued their game of 'What-If' all the way through their journey to Outpost Z.

The station was a giant cylinder, though unlike some of the others they'd passed, this one was more transparent. A glass-like material sheathed it, allowing an outsider to look in almost like someone might have done to a goldfish bowl in other, olden days. It was just as curved and distorted as that would have been, but it was still intense to see so many things in the station core that were normally hidden.

Glyn focused on the Zoo exhibits that could be seen from space on the way to the docking bays. They were in the middle of feeding, which meant that common species were released into the exhibits for the rare ones to chase down. It was a rare moment of reprieve for the prey species that were forced to call the Zoo home.

He watched as a crate-full of feral rabbits were released, only for walking beasts on two legs to come barreling from their hiding places in the exhibit. He looked away as they ripped through the ferals, knowing that it was only luck that they were going after dumb animals rather than intelligent ones. If he and Rocket were tossed in, they could easily become prey to the larger beasts like that.

The exhibit faded as Rocket guided them into the docking bay, bringing the ship in for a landing as the station gravity exerted itself and forced them to be aware of what was up and what was down again. The always-down feeling of the floor was reinforced by the station gravity, turning it from a tube on its side to being an up-and-down structure. Glyn groaned, forcing himself to focus on that, to remind himself of what he needed to focus on.

It was harder than he liked.

"Alright. We got our papers?" Rocket asked.

"...I thought you were going to forge those," Glyn said.

"Well, ain't like I was doing that while flying the ship, was I? Mr. Thief?"

"Hey, neither of us said we were going to do it, I just assumed -"

"Well, we fucking know what assumptions do now, don't we?"

"..."

"..."

"Okay, we're going to have to improvise," Glyn said, shaking his head. "And this time, I'm going to need clothes."

"Well, that's a fucking shame...but okay. Fine. Fine. You get to get dressed."

He didn't actually need clothes, but it was a good opportunity to get them back, and a better opportunity to rub Rocket's nose in the whole thing a little bit. As soon as he had a jumpsuit again, he felt better than he had for weeks. The whole sense of being covered up rather than exposed from head to toe was something that he had almost forgotten. He loved it.

Rocket, on the other hand, was grumbling. Always about how much better Glyn looked without clothes, always going on about wanting to take it off and look at what belonged to him again. Glyn rolled his eyes.

"Don't you get tired of staring at my bare butt?" the timber wolf asked.

"Not really."

"Well...flattered I think."

"You should be. I ain't that interested in most people."

"..."

"And you're fun to keep underfoot, too."

"Alright, flattered moment done."

"Heh, you sure about that?"

"Very."

Down the gangplank they went. Groot stayed onboard, mostly for the sake of keeping anyone on the station from being tempted to shove the rare bit of flora into the Zoo, as well. They would have argued that he was probably the last of his kind, or a rare species, and as far as Glyn and Rocket's knowledge went, they were probably right. Certainly, neither of them had seen another walking, talking tree before.

As soon as they stepped outside of the docking bays, though, they were faced with a bit of a problem. They stood out completely in a crowd filled with humanoids, all of different colors and shades, but none of them showing even a little bit of fur. Eyes turned to them, and more than a few locals muttered to themselves. Glyn's ears flicked, picking up the words here and there.

"Escaped exhibits, do you think?"

"Nah, they'd have collars."

"But what if they got them off?"

"Well, don't disturb them."

"Wild things."

"Ferals?"

"Oh, holy shit..."

They were little more than animals. Glyn's ears folded back, trying to shut it out, while Rocket growled at his side, obviously the more pissed off of the two of them. Glyn reached back and patted the raccoon's shoulder.

"Steady..."

"Oh, you think that I'm gonna just take this?"

"We don't have much choice."

"Nnnnngh...fucking..."

"We'll come back later."

"Get the weapon. Come back. Blow this place to fucking hell."

Glyn did not disagree.

They followed the corridor to the customs desk, where a yellow-skinned humanoid looked up at them. The young-ish man blinked at their furred faces, and was halfway to hitting the security button before stopping himself. Good thing, too; Glyn wasn't sure that he would have been able to stop Rocket from ripping his gun out and shooting the poor bastard.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked.

"Yeah," Glyn said, speaking too fast for the raccoon to interrupt. "My associate and I are on-station for business."

"What kind of business?"

"Just a little meet-up with the Meat-Man."

"...Ah, you're customers of his, I assume?"

"Yes, sir, that we are," Glyn said.

The whole idea behind the lie was that they were here for shady business, that they were predators that wanted some exotic meat of their own. The only place locally to get that would be from the Zoo and the Meat-Man himself, and that meant that they would be less likely to have papers that the clerk would otherwise ask for.

Plus, it was as far from what Rocket's image would do as one could imagine. Even more so than whoring.

"We got plenty of cash, but, uh, we've lost our papers. You get what I'm saying?"

"Why, yes. Yes, I think I do."

The clerk smiled, pulling his hand from the security button. He looked past the pair of them, and then dragged his eyes back to Glyn. His voice dropped by a few decibels, muttering quietly.

"Fifty units to 'replace your papers,' then find a place to stay. The Meat-Man's got a busy schedule, but he's always got openings for business."

"You got it. Pay the man."

Rocket had refused to let go of their funds, after all. The raccoon fixed him with another glare, but did hand the money over, passing it to the other man. The clerk smiled, pocketing it before tapping a few buttons. Some glowing chits popped out of the desk, and Glyn and Rocket took them, tucking them into their pockets.

"Don't lose those. They mark you as persons, so that's the only thing that's keeping the pair of you out of the Zoo."

"Don't worry. We'll keep a close watch on these..."

Nodding his 'thanks', Glyn passed by the customs desk. As soon as they were through, they stepped onto a walkway that overlooked the massive grassy plains that were part of this floor's exhibit. The long ring of a walkway stretched out across the entire level, leaving them about thirty feet up from the various goings-on in the exhibit, and with a diameter of well over a mile, the exhibit was quite large, big enough for a number of larger creatures. All around them, other humanoids grinned as they leaned over the railing, pointing at the various 'monsters' as they called them, while he and Rocket did their best to ignore them and keep moving.

Just keep moving...just keep moving...

They managed to get all the way around without much in the way of comment, but as soon as they were alone in the elevator, Rocket lost his cool. The raccoon screamed and kicked the elevator door, only to hop back and cup his foot.

"Goddammit! Ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"Sorry," Glyn said. "But it was the only way to get in here."

"I hate this place. I hate it. I hate it. I HATE IT!"

So did the timber wolf, but obviously not to the same degree that Rocket did. He didn't know what had happened to the raccoon during his lifetime, but it had obviously carried over to this. He hesitated, then reached down, patting Rocket on the shoulder as he watched the floors go by.

"We'll come back and...do something." He didn't know what. Hell, he didn't know if they'd still be working together after this. But he didn't like this place either. "We'll do something."

"Ain't doing something. We're gonna blow this place to hell..."

"...You didn't bring explosives with you, did you?" Glyn asked, suddenly worried.

"Don't need 'em. I can make my own."

That was what he was afraid of. If Rocket started building up explosives, and they were caught, then it wouldn't matter that they had chits keeping them out of the Zoo. They'd be thrown in almost instantly, and probably in the most dangerous part. He had to find a way to calm Rocket down.

The only thing he could think of was probably the worst idea around, but...

Ding.

They stepped off in the 'resort' part of the station, where the hotels were. He dragged Rocket out, went to the nearest one with the raccoon's wallet in hand, and paid for a room. He didn't even look at how much it cost. The most important thing was getting the hell off the street and somewhere private before Rocket lost his shit.

They rolled out of bed an hour later, and Rocket seemed better after hate-fucking Glyn's ass for the last hour. The timber wolf was rather happy that he had kept Rocket from getting bigger for that; despite the size difference, he had still felt the hard thrusts, but if they had been on the other side of things, with Rocket at his full, grown size, he doubted that he would have been able to get out of bed. He groaned as he managed to swing one leg, then the other around the bed, wincing as he did.

Rocket whistled from the far side of the bed. The raccoon turned his head to look the timber wolf in the eye.

"Six-hundred units? For one night?" Rocket groaned. "This is gonna bite my account, kid. It really is."

"You're the one that was getting too pissed to think."

"Coulda gone for a budget room, at least."

"Not enough time." Glyn groaned. "Besides...besides, I need a place to sit after what you did to my ass, and a more comfortable place than a lumpy bed."

He stumbled towards the bathroom, filling a tub with hot water and a few trace chemicals to clean his fur properly. As soon as it was more than halfway full, he slipped inside, groaning in satisfaction as the hot water started loosening up muscles. He settled into the water, closing his eyes and taking a few seconds to think about the situation they were in.

He had managed to keep Rocket from blowing up the station, for now. He had managed to calm the little guy down, and they were in an expensive hotel for the night. That was a start.

However, Rocket was right. He had blown a lot of money to get them into this room, and that was only going to last for that one night. For all that Rocket had some funds to work with, he doubted that they had time to keep up a long-term stay here. They'd need to find another place in the morning, and they'd need to start making good on their plan to meet with the Meat-Man. Otherwise, someone might start getting jumpy about 'animals' living like people on Outpost Z.

This shouldn't be this complicated...

But it was, and he had to deal with it. He grumbled as he settled a bit deeper in the water, trying to get comfortable. It mostly worked.

Mostly.

The End

Summary: Rocket and Glyn have some banter about how they're going to deal with each other when this is over, and then arrive at the location of the last piece.

Tags: M/M, Off-Screen Sex, Size Difference, Banter, Rocket Raccoon, Raccoon, Timber Wolf, Rule 34, Series, Sci-Fi, Comedy, Anger, Speciesism,