Chapter 23
Martinex lands on a planet that looks uninhabited and I look around, not sure where we are. "Where are we?"
"You'll find that out later. Here's how this works. You get this holopad with a map on it and this compass. Use these to find your way to where the ship will be waiting. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to catch you. The solar star will be setting soon and it gets cold. So, you'll have to figure out how to stay warm, too. You know how to build a fire?"
"Kinda, yeah..."
"Alright. Good. If I catch you I'm going to 'kill' you," He says with finger quotes while he says kill and I look at him. "Start running. Five. Four." I bolt as he counts down and I miss his slight smirk.
I stop running after a few minutes and think, looking around a bit as I pant softly. "OK... Um..." I look around and slow my breathing, listening closely. I scale a tree quickly and stay near the top of it as I grab a type of restraining technology, quickly putting it around me and the tree to keep myself in it. I lean against the trunk and think, tapping a few things on my wrist com to set an alarm on it for four hours before I fall asleep.
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My wrist com buzzes slightly and I wake up, looking around a little bit as I shiver, undoing the restraining tech. The sun had set and I listen for a moment before climbing down the tree, pausing now and then to listen. Somewhere for shelter, water, and food... Water and shelter are the most important... I look at the holopad with the map on it and see that there was a stream southeast from the middle of it. I look at the compass and start to walk that way, thinking as I do while listening closely for running water to signal the stream is close.
I hear it in the distance but it was northwest according to the compass and I head toward it, paying more attention to the map and compass.
Someone grabs the back of my collar and yanks me away from the edge of a cliff, throwing me slightly. I groan, my arm hurting a lot now, and look at my resources. "Damnit... Broken..." I look at the person who had thrown me and see a species that I didn't know existed. With spears pointed at me. Fun...
"You, come with us." One of them grabs me tightly and drags me with another person. I struggle, causing more pain in my arm, and they tighten their hold, disarming me. "Stop struggling." They pin my wrists behind my back and restrain them with the tech I used to stay in the tree. They drag me by my jacket despite me still struggling and hold me above a pit for a moment by the restraining tech.
I fall into the pit as the undo the tech and grunt as I hit the bottom hard. I look around the pit slightly and don't see anyone else, deciding to try to climb my way out.
Someone pours something on me and I cough, slipping back to the bottom of the pit. "Stay in the pit, child. We have company for you now as well." Someone throws Martinex in and I look at him.
"You good, dude?"
"I'm fine. They move quietly and have traps all over the forest."
"You get caught in one then caught when you tried to get out of it?"
"Shut up."
"That's a yes." He glares at me and I look at the walls of the pits.
"Got a plan?"
"Yeah." I try to climb the walls again and they pour the stuff on me again, making me hit the bottom of the pit forcefully this time as my boots get wrecked. "Damnit." I hear something creak and look up to see a cover being put over the pit. "This should be fun," I mutter and he scoffs. The cover is secured over the pit as I notice that it's like a storm drain and feel my gut twist slightly. "Why don't I like the look of that cover?"
"We can still breathe so that's good." He shrugs and sits against the wall of the pit. "Might as well sit down. Unless you know a way to get through those gaps?" I look at it and think for a few minutes. "Didn't think so. Have a seat." I think some more and look at his boots.
"What kind of boots are those?"
"Normal ones. Why?"
"You got a few blasters?"
"I have one. They took the rest of my weapons." I tap my finger against my palm slightly as I think and try to take my knives out, finding out they're gone. "The walls are made of dirt. What's your plan now?"
"I'm thinking."
Water suddenly cascades down and I move quickly, looking at Martinex as more water cascades down. "Are they trying to drown us?"
"Probably. It's been a good run, Rogue." He shrugs and I gape at him. "Stakar's on his way. Calm down." More water cascades down and there's a splash as someone is thrown in. We turn to look and see Stakar standing from the water, wiping it from his face. "Gods," Martinex mutters and I run a hand through my hair as I think, looking up as the cover is secured shut again with a slam of metal on metal.
"Alright, this is fine. Are there more people coming?"
"No. Once they saw me get in the atmosphere, they put something that will keep anyone from coming or going until they turn it off," Stakar explains and I nod slowly, thinking.
"OK... OK... This is fine..." I run my hand through my hair and think, putting my hair up as I do. "This is fine," I mutter as I pace slightly in the water that is starting to come to my knees and the other two watch me, Martinex standing. "Contacting anyone would be useless because they can't get planetside right now. Boots are busted because of the water so I'll need to fix those, great." I pause and think for a moment, kinda nodding. "Question. How strong are the laces in these boots?"
"Strong. Why?"
"Strong enough to hold my weight?"
"Probably. Why?" I quickly get the laces out of my boots and look at them.
"Give me your laces. Hurry up." They stare at me and I roll my eyes slightly. "Give me your laces so I can try to get out of here and hopefully beat the shit out of people." They roll their eyes and give me their laces. "Thank you." I tie the laces together and compare the distance of my location to where the cover is, nodding slightly. "Should be long enough..." I take off a boot and tie it to one end of the laces. "Let's see... The formula to find trajectory is... y equals the initial height plus x tangent of the angle of the launch minus g times x divided by two times the velocity to the power of two with cosine to the power of two times the angle of the launch again..."
"What?" I ignore them and spin the laces with my boots on them slightly, thinking.
"That should be right..." I spin the boot slightly faster and throw it toward the bars, waiting with bated breath in the hopes that it works.
It latches onto one of the bars and spins around it twice before the toe of the boot gets stuck underneath another bar. "That worked...?" I gape for a moment before shaking my head slightly and tug on the laces slightly to make sure it would stay. "Thank fuck," I mutter under my breath and start to scale the rope of laces, glad Yondu and Kraglin made me gain muscle mass.
I get to the bars and see the space between would make it difficult to get through. "This is nothing." I pull the rope up and carefully secure myself so I won't fall back down before stripping out of my duster, letting it fall to the other two. I slip my arms through the bars and follow them with my head.
I eventually get my whole body through the gaps and take the boot from the bar, using it to knock the people around the pit unconscious. I find where the water was coming from and can't turn it off so I just clog it with clothes from people's bodies. "There," I pant and move it as much as I can, opening the cover.
"And how are we supposed to get out?" Stakar raises an eyebrow at me and I look around, thinking.
"Um... Hang on..." I see Martinex's satchel and go over, grabbing it to dig through it. "Food, water, stuff to make a fire... Rope!" I take it out and tie it to the pipe that the water was coming out of, throwing the rest into the pit. "There! That should hold," I call down and Martinex climbs up first at Stakar's order to do so. I offer my hand when he gets close and he takes it so I can pull him out fully.
"Not bad." He checks the rope and adjusts it slightly. "Alright, Captain. You're good!" Stakar climbs up and I hear something snap then a whistle as something cuts through the air. Then a flash as something flies for the rope and I go closer, tripping.
"Shit!" I end up half in the pit as Martinex catches my ankle and I get an arrow in my stomach. "Son of a bitch!" Stakar pushes me up slightly and climbs out quickly. Martinex loops my arm over his shoulder and helps me to cover quickly while Stakar grabs his satchel.
"You got a medkit in here, Marty?"
"Inside pocket." Stakar gets it out and I feel my head swimming as my body sways slightly. "Rogue? You alright?"
"Feel weird..."
"How?"
"My head is swimming... Feel dizzy..." He sets me against a wall and I pant softly.
"Get that arrow out of her stomach." He nods and pulls it out, looking at the tip of it.
"Looks like there's poison on it..." Their voices were fading in and out and I blink, trying to focus.
"What's wrong, Sparkles?"
"Uh..."
"Nothing, Rogue. It'll be fine," Stakar says for him and I nod slightly.
"OK..."
"You stay here, Marty. I'm gonna deal with this."
"Captain, that's- And you're already gone."
"Sparkles..."
"Yeah, Rogue?"
"Pops is a bad liar... What's wrong?"
"The arrow had some poison on it... We don't know what it's doing to you and we don't have an antidote for it..."
"So I could die..." He's silent and I try to look at him but I'm not able to focus on his face.
"You could..." I nod a bit and try to stand up. "Woah! Woah! Not so fast!"
"Hey... If I'm gonna die... I'm gonna do it on my terms... And my terms... Are fighting these bastards... Until I do... Please," I cough a bit and he nods.
"Fine... Let's go." He helps me to my feet and loops an arm around my waist, moving quickly after Stakar as he fights to get inside of a building. "Stay here. I mean it." He leans me against the corner of a wall and helps Stakar. I squint and turn on my visor, seeing a sign that reads 'Med Bay'. I go that way, limping, and use the wall for support.
"Ooooh, kay... This is fine..." I struggle and open the door to the med bay, shutting it behind me after I stumble in. "Let's find the antidote..." I pull up my location on my visor followed by the dangerous plants or animals and find only a dangerous plant that is highly toxic. "Cool... Antidote is... Blue and you drink it... Cool, cool..." I look around and a scan happens with my visor before a batch of vials flash. "I'm guessing that's it..." I stumble over to it and grab it, downing a vial quickly.
I blink and everything becomes clearer while everything else goes back to normal. "Nice." I look around and see arrows in a quiver and a bow in a glass case as well as a padded bag. "Dope," I smirk and go over, breaking the glass. I grab the stuff and sling the quiver across my back, holding the bow. I grab the bag and put most of the vials in it. "Let's see..." I pull an arrow from the quiver and nock it in the bow, aiming at the button by the door that would open it. "Am I still good at this?" I let go and the arrow embeds into the rubber button, opening the door. "Nice." I run out and grab the arrow, nocking it again. "Time to back their asses up."
I come across the fight and look at the scene, seeing Martinex and Stakar struggling to fight a large group of the native people. I draw the arrow back and trail one of the others with the arrowhead, letting it go. Everyone turns to look when the snap of the bowstring happens alongside the whistle of the arrow slicing through the air and the guy chokes before falling to the floor, the arrow in his throat. "Hey, guys. How's it going?" I nock another arrow and draw it back, aiming at someone about to stab Stakar.
"What the Hell, Rogue?" He yells and I let the arrow go. The person screams and stumbles back, the arrow in their eye.
"Damn... I've gotten rusty. I was aiming for their shoulder. That works too though." I quickly nock another arrow and look at the two of them. "Y'know... It'll go faster if we all work together. So, wanna go back to what you were doing?" They nod slowly and go back to fighting.
Someone runs at me and I fire the arrow, hitting them in the chest before they fall to the ground. I nock the next one and fire it in someone's neck when they try to shoot Stakar with one of my blasters. "That's mine, asshat!" I nock another and draw it back, seeing someone running at me with a spear dripping with the poison. I run toward them and up the wall slightly, firing the arrow into their shoulder as I flip over their head.
"AUGH!" They groan as they fall and I land behind them, slinging the bow across my back as I take the spear from the now poisoned native.
"Die!" Someone runs at me and I stab them with the spear, fighting alongside Stakar and Martinex in a sort of triangle.
"How about no?"
"Shit!" Stakar growls and I glance at him, digging a vial of the antidote out quickly. "The Hell is this?"
"Antidote to the poison. Chug." He looks at it then at me. "Can you just fucking drink it, you giant ass baby?" He looks offended but drinks it and I stab another native with the spear. "Fuck off, dickweed!" I try to stab someone else and they catch the spear, yanking it. "Shit!" I go tumbling and they slam their elbow into my lower spine. "Fuck!" I crumble to the floor and roll away quickly, legs a little tingly. They snap the spear and throw it away from me. "Damnit..." Someone grabs me from behind in a tight hold and someone else comes over from in front of me.
"Just die!"
"Nah, I'm good." I lean back and jump slightly to kick the person in front of me in the face as hard as I can.
"Damnit!" They stumble back with a broken nose and I fling the other person over my shoulder, the broken bow and arrows falling around them. I grab the arrowheads and stab anyone near me.
"Rogue! The control console is over there! Destroy it and we can get off of this fucking planet!"
"On it, Sparkles!" I run toward it and a lot of people get in my way. "No thank you!" I stab some of them with the poisoned arrowheads and take my blaster from a fallen one. I charge it up and point it at the console as I run toward it still, aiming.
"Rogue! Careful! It'll cause a big-" He's cut off because I blasted it and a huge explosion occurred, blasting me away.
"SHIT!" I hit the back of my head on a wall and drown in a sea of blackness, crumpling to the floor. The last thing I see is Stakar and Martinex blasting the rest of the natives.
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"Guys!" I gasp as I sit up suddenly and Stakar and Martinex turn from Controls to look at me.
"Well, at least you're awake. Were you worried about us?" Martinex smirks and I glare at him slightly before I get dizzy suddenly. "You have a concussion. Lay back down." I flop back down and hiss when my head hits the pillow, sitting up slightly. "You also have a gash in the back of your head. And less hair than before." I carefully feel my head and feel that it seemed to be similar to Kraglin's hair.
"We couldn't get to the cut with it there so we had to cut it."
"OK." I carefully lay back down and rub my face slightly, head pounding. "Ugh... My head's pounding..."
"There's water and something for it next to you." I turn my head and see them, grabbing it as I sit up slightly to be leaning on my arm.
"Thanks..." I down the stuff and half of the water.
"Where'd you learn to use that thing?" Martinex motions toward the bow and I look at it, smiling slightly at the memory.
"My sister taught me. She learned how in school during gym and she bought us some bows and arrows. We used it for random things and to hunt sometimes when we didn't have the money to buy meat for us. I'm gonna need to save some units up to buy one or to fix that one. Cuz that was a damned good bow." They were looking at me and shake their heads slightly.
"Blue ain't gonna let you have a bow and arrows."
"Sure he will. I just got to show him how good I am with it and explain why it would be a good idea for me to have one. He's way more reasonable than you'd think." I run a hand through my hair and carefully sit up to lean against the wall. "That and I know how to get what I want. He's the one that taught me so if he gets pissed about it, it's technically his fault." Stakar scoffs and notices a transmission coming in. I notice too and carefully go over.
"Well, now would be your chance to get an answer about it." He answers the transmission and Yondu and Kraglin pop up.
"Hey, Gramps. Hey, Krags." They look at me and both look pissed. "What'd I do?"
"Ain't none 'a ya know 'ow ta answer yer damned coms?" Yondu barks and I look at my wrist com, trying to tap a few things after taking it off.
"Shit!" I yelp and drop it when it shocks me as blue lights flash above it like lightning.
"The Hell 'appened, Kid?"
"N-"
"Nothing that the two of you need to worry about," Stakar cuts me off and I look at him, offended that he cut me off.
"Ah was talkin' ta the kid, Cap'n Ogord," Kraglin growls carefully and I look at the transmission, noticing he looked pissed.
"And I answered for her."
"Which I could've done myself, Pops," I grumble and he glares at me. I cross my arms and lean against Martinex's chair.
He lifts his foot and the chair turns, causing me to fall to the floor. "The fuck, Sparkles?" He snickers and I glare at him as I stand, getting a little dizzy. I brace myself on his chair slightly and close my eyes.
"Ya eatin', Girl?"
"Yeah... Probably been a while, though..."
"'Ow long is tha'?"
"I dunno... Twelve hours?" They facepalm and Yondu rubs his head slightly, clearly frustrated.
"I'm sorry. Since when?" Doc asks, popping up behind them, and I grin charmingly.
"Hey, Moddy."
"Hello, Rogue. When was the last time you ate?"
"No clue. Around twelve hours...?"
"Yeah. Took about that long to get that dealt with."
"Get what dealt with?" They narrow their eyes at us and I put my hands up slightly.
"I ain't getting in the middle of this. Cuz I apparently can not speak for myself."
"Ah. Captain Ogord is speaking for you. I see. Explain yourself, Rogue."
"Excuse-"
"Ah, ah, ah! You are not Rogue, Captain Ogord. She is highly capable of talking for herself. Rogue?"
"I had training and things got a bit more serious than it was supposed to." They nod and notice something.
"You got a haircut, I see. It's nice. Why did you get it?"
"Well, thanks for checking in. We'll be signing off."
"Later, guys!" I wave slightly with a smile and Martinex ends the transmission.
"How in the Hells did Blue's Doc manage to make us feel like we were Rogue's age?"
"They're good at doing that. I think they have or had a kid."
"What makes you think that?"
"They just give off a parenting vibe and act like one." I shrug and rub my head slightly. "But, I do know that I'll be getting interrogated when I get back. So thank you." Martinex gives me two thumbs up and Stakar rolls his eyes, piloting.