Clones, Stargates and Guardians, oh my! - Chapter 4

Dgre wrote:

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MyKai came awake abruptly, as was his way. He blinked at the bright lights in the infirmary, and the focused on the face above him … his queen. Relief flooded him, that she had not been harmed while he was incapacitated.

Dgre closed her eyes also in relief, even though she knew he would revive with her infusion of protoblood. She wasn’t sure she had had enough. Even though she had the formula for more, that took time, and only if Atlantis could supply all the right ingredients.

“ What happened?” He asked, concerned because he almost never had moments of confusion.

“My heart, apparently you had an encounter with a Wraith,” she said. “ I don’t know exactly what they are, but the people here tell me they are a species who must live off the life force of the living. He tried to take that from you, but … well … you know.”

“Yes.” He sat up. “Are you all right? Should we leave this place and go back to ComicCon?”

Dgre shook her head. “Yes, we should leave. But not back to ComicCon. People need to be warned of the danger, but we can’t do it here.”

She took a deep breath. “We’re going home.”

***

The Wraith spit up sea water and took in the salty air. His chest burned, whether from the unknown substance he had taken in when he tried to kill that strange being with all the hair, or the foul-smelling atmosphere of wherever he was, but he felt hope as he contemplated the vast array of city lights on the shore. Yes, a city, and best of all, full of his preferred prey. He began to swim toward it, certain he would regain his strength once he had ingested his fill of human life.

Eventually, he reached a sandy stretch beneath a structure with many pilings and struts that reached out into the bay. He could hear above him the sounds of humans laughing and speaking their execrable gutter language. There were probably too many for him to take on at once, and he didn’t know what kind of weapons they might have, so he would have to proceed carefully and in stealth. But he was hungry after his long sleep on Atlantis, and still sick from the after effects of the strange poison from the lifeless creature he had encountered. If only he could feed, he felt sure he would recover.

***

“Our sensors haven’t been able to locate the Wraith,” Ronin told Shepard and Teyla. “ I think he got through the gate, somehow.”

“Which means he’s on Earth,” said Rodney. “And if he’s there, he’s going to be able to tell the others how to get there.”

Everyone in the room froze. Jennifer squeaked, “But he can’t communicate with them unless …”

“Unless we open the gate,” finished a grim John Shepard.

They all stared at each other, aghast. Dgre and MyKai glanced at each other.

“We have to get home,” Dgre said. “We have to warn them. Just that one creature alone could possibly kill hundreds of thousands before he’s done, and if he gets control of the gate from the other side, Earth is finished.”

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then Ronin stirred, his expression murderous.

“So we take a risk and open the gate once, to send a team over,” he said.

***

The Wraith roamed the city, being careful to keep to the unlighted areas. If anyone saw him, they shrugged at the sight of just another San Francisco weirdo and went about their business. There appeared to be a lot of people about, and the Wraith concluded that night made no difference to the availability of prey. In fact, he observed that many of these night roamers preferred the unlit areas themselves, which made his hunt even easier.

He made his first kill in a dark alley, a lone human who was apparently looking for a place to sleep. It took almost no effort at all to latch on and begin sucking the life — and yes, this one at least was alive — out of him, and not full of that …

He faltered. Yes, life flowed into him, and there was no trace of the yellow poison. But there was something else … another substance, something he’d never encountered before. This substance didn’t make him sick. Instead, it made him feel like he was floating, and that the whole world was floating around him given his nature, he couldn’t decide if this was necessarily a good thing. What kind of humans were these? They either poisoned you, or they made you feel impossibly good, something he was completely unfamiliar with.

He didn’t even sense when the Stargate whooshed open for a moment, and then closed again.

Clones, Stargates and Guardians, oh my! - Chapter 3

The Wraith bared his pointy clenched teeth and growled aggressively at the mild pain of the weapon piercing his chest! His innate regeneration had no problem keeping him alive, but he was regenerating slower than usual since it had been ages since he fed on a human. And astoundingly, he wasn't getting ANY life force from the steely-eyed pale man with his hair in a ridiculously large bun! So he aggressively held MyKai close with his left had and kept his right hand on MyKai's chest, trying to extract any inkling of life as they both spun and struggled in the hallway, like a couple of angry dancers!

On the flip side, MyKai's flabber was also gasted at the weird, leech-feeling suckers from his attacker's palm that was latched on to his chest! He instinctively grabbed its wrist and tried to pull it off, but the lithe, white-haired, yellow eyed freak was a lot stronger than he appeared! So they spun, struggled, and grunted while trying to get the advantage over the other!

----

Down the hall in sick bay, Rocket's superhuman hearing faintly picked up the sounds of struggling and growling in the distance. His ears perked up and his face scrunched as he strained to hear what was going on. Recon, Techno, and Ronin, keeping an eye on Rocket from a few steps away, saw him scrutinizing the doorway.

Dr. Keller noticed Rocket peering around her while she was making notes in a digital pad, so she glanced back at the doorway, saw nothing unusual, then turned back around and looked at him. "What?"

Rocket kept his eyes on the doorway, "Sounds like a fight. Yall harassin' more innocents?"

Keller wondered where he was going with this, since she heard nothing. "A fight?" She prompted, and glanced at Ronin.

Ronin glanced at the door then back to Rocket, "I don't hear anything." He wondered if Rocket was trying to distract everyone to make an escape, so he stopped leaning against the wall and moved his hand closer to his blaster.

As Kai clones, Techno and Recon have excellent hearing as well, so they perked up and started listening intently...then looked at each other. Recon asked his brother, "Do you hear that?"

Techno squinted, "Barely. Like he said, it sounds like a struggle. And someone...growling?" He looked at Recon quizzically.

Ronin tapped the commlink in his ear to make sure it was working since he heard no security alerts, "Gate room. Ronin. Comm check." An officer in the gate room replied, "Roger." Comms were working...

----

Back in the hallway: Even though the wraith wasn't extracting any life force from the pale man, he kept aggressively attacking him not only out of hunger, but anger that he had no life force to take! Normally, the wraith LOVED an aggressive prey, especially one as physically strong as this one, because that meant it had a lot of life to feed on. But this...THING?? Nothing!! Even the paralyzing venom from his feeding hand was having no effect!

But he was starting to get weaker, and oddly nauseous?? Something he hasn't experienced since he was a child!

Wraith are born able to gain nutrients from eating food, but after puberty, gaining nutrients that way fades, and they have to extract life force to survive.

But this humanoid thing is just making him sick!! Maybe the brace weapon lodged in his chest was poisoned! He briefly let go of MyKai with his left hand, keeping his life sucking palm where it was but also digging his fingernails deeper into his jacket and chest, then tried yanking the brace out...

MyKai continued to struggle valiantly, but it wasn't enough! And he was really starting to worry that he couldn't get his attacker's palm off his chest, because their struggling was ripping his flesh and causing his grayish protoblood to spill down his torso. He could already feel himself getting weaker! So he struggled harder, and angrily said through his own clenched teeth, "What the HELL are you doing??"

Techno and Recon heard just enough of their brother's question and said simultaneously, "MyKai!" And they dashed for the door!

Ronin followed them and yelled at Rodney, "Keep an eye on him!" and pointed at Rocket.

Rodney stood there and glanced at Keller with his trademark look of surprise and fear. But he was also glad there were a couple of Atlantis guards in the room who looked better prepared to keep an eye on someone.

Rocket shook his head and folded his arms, "You people are jumpy."

----

The wraith heard running boots approaching down the hallway as the pale man's knees buckled! Finally!! The humanoid's weakness was just enough for him to dislodge the brace from his chest and roughly shove MyKai to the ground. He then glanced in the direction of the bootsounds. He *could* feed on one of them - but then decided he was too weak to fight that many for food, so he clutched his stomach and injuredly dashed off in the opposite direction...

MyKai struggled to at least sit up, but his strength left him and he flopped over onto his back. His vision blurred as he turned his head in the direction of the bootsounds and saw a group of people running towards him. Then he passed out.

Techno and Recon quickly hunched over their fallen brother, both concerned at the amount of protoblood on his torso and the floor. Techno gently shook his shoulder, "MyKai!"

MyKai's eyes were open but they saw nothing.

Techno looked at Recon, "Let's get him to sick bay."

Ronin scrunched his face and paced slightly. He really wanted to pursue the attacker, but he also wanted to find out what the gray stuff was first in case it was a bio weapon. "What's that stuff all over him?"

"Protoblood." Recon said while lifting MyKai's shoulders.

Techno lifted MyKai's feet and figured Ronin didn't know what that meant, so he added, "You have red blood. We have nanite-infused protoblood. It's what keeps us...alive." He motioned his head towards MyKai as they started to walk, "Basically, MyKai's bleeding out and needs more protoblood."

Ronin nodded. He glanced down the hall, but saw nothing. He tapped his commlink, "Someone just attacked MyKai. He's unconscious and being transported to sick bay. We're searching for the attacker now." He looked at the two security guards, "You're with me." He pulled his blaster and the three of them tactically glide-stepped down the hall, weapons drawn, in the direction the wraith ran...

----

Techno and Recon briskly hauled the limp MyKai through the sick bay doors. Techno looked at Keller as they hurried in, "Where do we put him?" Keller pointed to an empty bed, "There!" as she donned new medical gloves.

They gently placed him on the bed so as to not squish out any more protoblood. Then Techno tugged MyKai's ripped jacket apart to reveal the wound as Keller stepped in. She started dabbing some of the protoblood mess from his chest and leaned in for a closer look, "Torn lacerations 2-3 inches long, puncture wounds in a radius..." she said out loud. She dabbed more protoblood, "It's similar to a Wraith wound...but there's a lot more damage."

Rodney moved closer to the bed, "A *wraith* attacked him!?!"

Keller glanced at him, "I said it looks *similar* to a Wraith wound." She looked back at MyKai's chest and pointed, "The length and orientation is consistent, and there *are* hints of surrounding punctures on the chest where a Wraith's fingernails would be. But there's a LOT more tearing damage where the tendrils and suckers would be. We should know more after I run some tests."

Recon looked at Techno, "I'll get Dgre." Techno nodded. They knew Dgre has always carries spare protoblood on her as well as having the recipe to make more.

Rodney urgently tapped his comlink, "This is McKay! It's possible a *Wraith* was the attacker!"

Rocket thought about escaping in all the hullabaloo, but saw the two security guys staring at him, actually doing their jobs, instead of being easily distracted meat sacks. "So. What's a wraith?"

----

Ronin tensed up after hearing McKay mention the Wraith. He knew from his extensive background fighting them that it would be tough to find it and kill it before it kills someone on the base.

----

In the gate room, Col. Carter and Shephard shared a concerned glance at McKay's message. Shephard tapped his comlink, "This is Shepard. Intruder alert. Lockdown protocol." He looked at comm officer, "Get Teyla back here."

"Yes sir." The comm officer punched in a command to broadcast an alert to Teyla's comm badge. They all knew that Teyla's DNA allows her to sense the presence of the Wraith, so she'll be invaluable in helping them track one if there is one.

Doors across Atlantis began to slide shut as Shepard grabbed his P90 machine gun and jogged out the door with 4 security guards. As they left, another team of soldiers arrived to protect the command center. Col. Carter spoke to the comm officer, "Get me Stargate Command." "Yes Colonel." Carter was not looking forward to telling them a wraith might be loose on the base.

----

The wraith had been silently jogging down the halls of Atlantis, hoping to run into a wayward human to feed on, but none were to be found. He was still rattled by the pale man he attacked. Why couldn't he feed on his life force?? Are ALL humans like that now?? And that sick feeling in his stomach was getting worse - and now pain was spreading from his feeding hand up his arm and into his shoulder! His breathing grew rapid as his eyes darted around, looking for any prey!

But suddenly, the hallway doors a few meters in front of him slid shut. He stopped. Then he whirled around at the sound of the doors several meters behind him sliding shut. The only way out was a hallway to the left! He darted forward and took it, but instead of simply jogging down the hall like before, he started waving his hand over the door locks, hoping to find one that would open. He tried several. No luck! The humans must be aware of his attack and initiating security protocols. He needed to find someone to feed on to regenerate! He dashed down another hall...

----

Teyla was sitting at a table at Comic Con with 3 other Atlantis soldiers enjoying some french fries when they heard the security alert in their comlinks to return to Atlantis. Their relaxed smiles quickly faded as they shared a worried glance, then they swiftly stood and headed for the Stargate...

----

Carter finished up her briefing with Stargate Command, "...We have several teams searching for the attacker as we speak. We'll keep you posted." She tapped her commlink, "Dr. Keller, what the status of MyKai?"

"Still unconscious. I'm still waiting for the forensic test results and will let you know if we find Wraith DNA or not."

----

Lafe, even though she, Techno and Recon were on the base on special assignment, wasn't assigned a commlink, and neither were the two clones. So she didn't know what was going on when an armed female soldier approached her and Dgre in the cafe and said, "The base is on emergency lockdown. Please come with me." They worriedly got up and followed her to a nearby lockdown room where several other non-soldiers were being led. Both women scanned the room to see if their clones were in there. No luck.

Dgre wrung her hands, "Where's MyKai? Where are Techno and Recon??"

Lafe thoughtfully frowned. She hated being locked up not knowing what was going on. "I'm sure they're fine. I'm definitely going to ask for some kinda comlinks after this is over." She sighed irritatingly.

----

Teyla and the 3 Atlantis personnel she was with arrived at the ComicCon gate. She nodded to one of the soldiers who had the DHD on his wrist, "Send the confirmation code."

Stargate Command implemented a new protocol that in emergencies, away teams could send a confirmation code to verify if it was ok to dial the gate in the event opening the gate would cause a problem at the destination site.

----

Back in the Atlantis gate room, the gate officer spoke, "Teyla's team just sent the confirmation code."

Carter tapped the gate room mic, "Gate security, stand by." The 10 armed soldiers near the gate moved near the gate, making sure to stay out of it's burst radius.

Carter: "Send the reply code."

He did as he was told...

----

The soldier told Teyla, "Reply code received." Teyla nodded, "Dial the gate." He punched the coordinate in the DHD and the gate began dialing. Specialists Marcus and Davidson, eager to not mess up again after allowing Rocket through the gate earlier, stood nearby to ensure no other con goers entered the gate this time...

----

Back on Atlantis, Recon stopped a couple guards in the hall, "Where are non-military personnel being taken?"

"Just down the hall on the right. You'll see a couple of guards outside."

"Thanks." He jogged in that direction...

----

Shepard spoke softly through his commlink as they continued to quietly search the halls: "Teams. Status."

One by one, all teams reported "Clear." Still no signs of the attacker...

----

The wraith rounded a corner and smiled, he found a way out AND humans to feed on!!

He ran forward...

----

The Stargate whooshed open, and as soon as the gate's opening burst collapsed back into the shimmering ring, the gateroom soldiers jogged forward and created a semi-circular perimeter in front of the gate with their bodies, weapons drawn in case the attacker decided to make a run for the gate...

----

Teyla and her team jogged into the gate from their Comic Con...

----

The wraith, now at a full sprint, jumped.....and dove off a balcony into the ocean 11 stories down!

----

Teyla's team emerged into the Atlantis gate room behind the soldiers.

Carter ordered the gate officer, "Close the iris when they're through."

As soon as the last of Teyla's team emerged, the gate officer entered the sequence to engage the gate's interlocking panels, preventing anyone going through it in either direction.

Teyla looked up at Carter in the control room and nodded...

----

The Wraith surfaced from the deep dive and smiled. Even though he was in pain, it shouldn't take him long to swim to the large city that rose from the shoreline. He hadn't heard of a human city this developed, but he had no time or energy to wonder about that now. All he knew was a city THAT large would DEFINITELY have a human to feed on.

He ignored his pain and nausea and started swimming...

Behind him, the setting sun case a beautiful glow across the Golden Gate Bridge....

Clones, Stargates and Guardians, oh my! - Chapter 2

 “Look, lady,” Rocket said, “I’m not going to bite you, okay?”  He had (reluctantly) agreed to be examined for any diseases and was now sitting on the edge of the exam table.  For her part, Dr. Keller was intensely eager to study this strange creature that so resembled an Earth animal, and yet clearly was not.  She was also understandably apprehensive, of which Rocket was uncomfortably aware.

“I’m not going to shoot you either, since they took my laser away.  Which they broke, by the way.”

“I’m pleased to hear that,” Keller stammered.  “Not that your laser got broken, of course, but that you’re not going to shoot me.  Or bite me.  Not that I thought you would anyway.  You seem like … um … not a dangerous … um … person (this earned a quick nod from Rocket, approving of the “person”, not necessarily the “dangerous” part), “but you did fire your weapon through the Stargate unprovoked, so you understand we have to be cautious.”

“Yeah, okay,” Rocket grudgingly agreed.  “I get that.  Sometimes I might overreact a little bit, but I wouldn’t say I was ‘zackly unprovoked.  Anyway, the galaxy is a dangerous place.  I oughta know, cuz my team, we’re the Guardians.  Of the whole galaxy, capisce?

Rodney McKay, who had remained silent in a corner under strict orders from Keller, finally had enough.  “Yeah.  The whole galaxy, huh?”

Rocket hissed at him.  “That’s what I said, pal.  Are you deaf, or just stupid?”

Rodney turned red.  “now just a minute, you —“

“You — what?”  Rocket stood up on the table, stretching to his full height, clearly ready to rumble.

“Okay!”  Keller slammed her clipboard down on the table, making everybody in the room jump, especially the three tense Kais guarding the door.”Everybody just calm down!”

Rocket sat down and folded his arms.  “I am calm,” he said coolly.

Meanwhile, in the calm and airy space by the sea, which the current residents of Atlantis had converted to a cafeteria/commissary, Lafe and Dgre conferred over drinks.

“I know you can’t give me details, but I hear you’re here on a secret mission” said Dgre. “I’m a little envious, you know.  MyKai never takes me on adventures anymore.  I had to nag him to come to Comic Con with me.  He says he’s seen enough weird things.”

Lafe shrugged.  “The boys don’t always confide in me if they think it might put me in danger.  It’s very annoying, but I did get out of them that there’s a race of beings in this part of the galaxy who survive by sucking the life force out of other sentient species.  Now that the Stargates have become common knowledge, there’s a fear that these life suckers might get loose.”

“So you here to make sure the Atlantean force is keeping a lid on things?”  

“Maybe.  I’ve heard these things are almost impossible to kill.  I really think we might be here to figure out a way.”

XXXX

The Wraith had been hibernating for a long, long time in a remote, unexplored part of the city, left behind and forgotten after a long ago skirmish.  His ever present internal alarm system, even in hibernation, was attuned to any signal that the latest Wraith quarry, Ronin Dex, had emerged. Unfortunately for him, the Atlanteans had helped Ronin by removing his tracker, and the city’s peculiar qualities had masked the presence of humans.  What woke the Wraith now was an electro-magnetic laser pulse through the Stargate, and awake, the Wraith now knew humans were in the city.

He also detected the presence of beings who were unlike anything he had encountered before, individuals who were neither alive nor unalive.  

But he was very, very hungry.

 XXXX

MyKai had lost interest in the proceedings in the exam room, and decided it was time to collect his queen, and possibly persuade her it was time to go back to the Comic Con place, and from there, home.  He fist-bumped his brothers Techno and Recon in farewell, and left.

As he strolled along the somewhat dimly lit corridors, absent-mindedly contemplating the pleasures of being alone at home with his queen, he gradually began to sense another presence somewhere up ahead.  Something alien, cold, and deadly, making him put his hand on his wrist where his scorpion waited.

And then he saw it — the ghostly Wraith.

Simultaneously they each asked, “What are you?”

The Wraith began to try and extract MyKai’s life force, realizing at the same time that there was nothing he could latch onto.  And MyKai fired his scorpion weapon into the Wraith’s chest, but there was no heart to destroy.

XXXX

 Over to you.  MyKai’s in real trouble, and it’s up to Dgre, Techno, Recon and the Atlanteans to figure out how to fix him.  But the Wraith is in trouble too.  Possibly protoblood is poisonous to him?  Dgre always has extra protoblood and the formula to make more, but maybe the Wraith manages to stumble through the Stargate to Earth?

Clones, Stargates and Guardians, oh my! - Chapter 1

Hi all!

This is a fan fiction thread, written by me (nickname lafemmenikta) and a good friend, nickname dgrequeen. It's a crossover between Stargate, Guardians of the Galaxy, non-canon characters of Lexx (specifically, clones of Kai that have various personalities), and our own personas (lafe and dgre) that we invented while having fun back in the day writing on the scifi.com forums. 🙂

We started writing this one last month via email, but thought it would be easier and better to post it online, so here it is!

We haven't written in a while, so bear with us as our writing styles adjust while getting back in the swing of illustrious alliteration!

We hope you enjoy!


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Intro - Dgre and MyKai stumble into Comicon

Writer: dgrequeen

Dgre: Is the right place? I feel like we just walked through milk.

MyKai: It was a portal, my queen.

Dgre: A portal? At ComicCon?

Ronin, standing guard at the stargate: Who are you and what are you doing here?

Dgre: My, you're a specimen, aren't you?

MyKai: *growl*.

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Chapter 1

Writer: lafemmenikita

Ronin heard that growl and eyes MyKai suspiciously, especially since that pale man who just stepped through the stargate looks just like the cammo-clad pale man walking up behind him.

ReconKai, cammo-clad and looking serious: Dgre. MyKai. How did you get here?

Dgre, relieved to see a familiar face: Recon! We haven't seen you in ages! We were just at ComicCon and was told this doorway was a shortcut back to the panel wing. But we walked through and...now we're here. Wherever "here" is?

She glanced around, then her eyes widened as four armed soldiers took position behind Ronin and Recon, machine guns pointed at the floor but ready to spring to action. MyKai also saw them, which further escalated his protective tendencies, so he moved a little to put himself more between Dgre and the congregation of strangers.

Then another pale man walked up in grey BDU pants and a black tshirt.

TechnoKai, half-smiling, as he's more laid back than his cloned brothers: Hey, wow, it's MyKai and Dgre! Did I hear you say you got dumped here from ComicCon?

Dgre: Techno! Yes, we did!

MyKai eased a little and nodded in acknowledgement at Techno: Brother. The portal we walked through at ComicCon brought us here.

Recon glanced at the soldiers to indicate all was ok, and they walked back to their posts.

Ronin: What's a "comma con"?


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Chapter 2

Writer: dgre

Meanwhile, back at ComicCon:

Rocket Raccoon was basking in the adulation of his fans, after having delivered a panel lecture about his fellow crew members (“Drax is a diva.”). Something was happening in the back of the room causing his fans to stretch their necks and turn away to see what was causing the hullabaloo.

Someone shouted, “By the Celestial, it’s a portal! A genuine portal!”

Rocket’s ears pricked up. “wha …?” He bared his teeth in pure raccoon irritation, but if anybody had dared to say that in his hearing, they’d risk a serious mauling right around the ankles.

“Hold on, I gotta check this out!” He picked up his beloved Large Lazar Armament (well, not really “beloved”, because he had just stolen it the week before), and stalked through the crowd. Before him, he saw a giant vertical ring with a shimmering pool of what looked like water, and people were oohing and aahing all over the place.

“What the everlovin’ is that?” He demanded.

“It’s a portal,” someone said. “Some people call it a Stargate. It’s a gateway to other worlds.”

“Pfft!” Scoffed Rocket. He lifted his LLA and fired at the middle of the portal. The lazar beam passed through without damage, but suddenly three men dressed in black (two of them in black BDUs), one dressed in what appeared to be a black rug, another man dressed in rough leather, and all of them with a lot of hair, burst through the portal.

“Hey!” One of the men screamed. “What do you think you’re doing? You could have hurt somebody!” After giving warning scowls, all of them turned and went back through the portal.

Rocket stared in open-mouthed astonishment.

“Oh, hell no,” he said. Hefting his LLA, he marched toward the portal. “I gotta see what this is all about.” He gave a raccoon-like grin, all teeth bared, hefted his stolen weapon, and marched toward and through the portal.

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Chapter 3

Writer: lafe

Specialist Marcus, a newly minted E-4 Specialist of the U.S. Space Force, turned the corner with his loaded hotdog and bottled water just in time to see Rocket step through the stargate that E-3 Davidson and he were supposed to be watching. A few con-goers were starting to collect around the gate, but his buddy Davidson was nowhere to be seen.

Marcus, wide-eyed, "Wha- no!" He flipped his wrist over to access the DHD (dial home device) strapped to his wrist and pretty much dumped the hotdog toppings all over the floor. He fumbled with the water bottle in his other hand, trying to poke the buttons on the DHD to keep the gate open, but in a crescendoing zhooooooop, the shimmering stargate portal closed. And without it open, he wouldn't be able to see what address had been dialed. "Oh crap." His eyes and mouth both said.

Meanwhile, Rocket appeared on the other side of the gate, LLA in hand, and took a couple of steps and stopped. He glanced around at the blue and aluminum hues of a futuristic-industrial room as the gate zhoooped closed behind him. "What the hell is THIS place?" he said with a stank face.

The group still at the gate turned to see who said that. Recon, surprised but looking stern as usual, turned to face him, "No, the question is, who the hell are you?" Ronin saw the LLA and pulled his blaster, but kept it pointed at the floor, while the stargate guards moved into defensive positions behind him.

Rocket and Techno both started to speak but Dgre stepped forward and cut them off, "Oh my! Look at the puppy!!" She smiled walked towards him, hands out to give him huggles and cuddles.

"Hey-hey-hey, hands off!" Rocket stepped back and pointed the LLA at her.

Dgre stopped and jerked her hands back, startled at having a weapon pointed at her, "Oh!" But MyKai was absolutely NOT having anyone pointing a weapon at his Queen, so he snap-fired his brace and latched on to the LLA to yank it from the short furry creature's hands. But instead, Rocket didn't let go and MyKai zip-reeled it in with Rocket still gripping it!

Rocket, nearly nose-to-nose with a scowling MyKai, growled, "And hands offa this too!!" Then he tried to bite MyKai in the face, which MyKai dodged, but the clone loosened his grip and Rocket and activated his jetpack. The escape strategy partially worked, and Rocket and his LLA started to lift away, but Techno deftly grabbed the jetpack and awkwardly hung on while Rocket lifted him a few feet off the ground and started to carry him across the large, tall gate room.

At this point, Ronin and the stargate guards all had their weapons pointed at Rocket and were ready to fire, when Techno got lucky and inadvertently disconnected something in the jetpack to deactivate it. They both thumped to the floor.

Rocket rolled to put Techno between himself and the rest of the armed gate squad and pulled the LLA's trigger, but it just clicked and didn't fire. MyKai's brace must have broke it! He gave it a shake, but the status panel was still dark. "Damn!" So he threw at Techno, who caught it and sternly said, "Rocket, stop!"

Rocket, small and incredibly agile and fast, took off across the gate room!

Dgre peeked from behind MyKai and pleaded with everyone, "Oh please don't shoot the puppy!!!" Recon, trying to aim his brace at Rocket without hitting friendlies snapped, "It's a raccoon, not a puppy!"

Rocket one-hop jumped on the handrailing of some nearby stairs then hopped up to the second floor, then yelled over his shoulder as he bolted down a hallway, "I'M NOT A RACCOON!!!"

Ronin, Recon, Techno and some other guards raced up the stairs after him. While running, Techno said over his com device, "Don't kill him, he's one of the Guardians! I'll explain later!"

Lafe, in her quarters, heard the intruder alert and put her earbud com in her ear just in time to hear Techno's comment about not killing a Guardian. "What the hell??" She quickly grabbed her glock off the counter, holstered it, and bolted out the door - right as Rocket was zig zagging across the hallway! He roughly collided with her and they rolled several feet to a stop.

Then Ronin popped around the corner and shot "the puppy".

Techno, jogged to a stop and looked at Rocket laying motionless on the floor. "Stunned?"

Ronin, "Yeah."

Lafe, getting up slowly, "Ow."


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Chapter 4

Writer: dgre

“You can’t keep me here!” Rocket yelled, working his arm to get the stiffness out. “I’ve escaped from better places than this, and if I find out which one of you morons shot me …”

“Who are you and what are you doing here?” Ronin growled.

John Shepard, who’d been roused from a deep sleep and who had a severe case of bed hair when he was called down to the brig, decided to step in just in case Ronin decided to get physical, “More to the point, what are you?” He glanced at Ronin and added, “And … yes … what are you doing here?”

“He’s one of the Guardians of the Galaxy, we told you that,” Techno said, lounging outside the cell. He and Recon exchanged sardonic looks.

Shepard shook his head. “ I don’t even know what that is, and that doesn’t explain why he’s here. You are a ‘he’, aren’t you?” He rounded on the two Kais. “And by the way, how long are you guys going to be here? This is a classified facility, you know. I don’t know who left the Stargate open …”

“Rodney used it,” Ronin said. “There was some kind of party going on he wanted to go to. Comical something. The gate’s closed now, but I think he’s still over there.”

Shepard sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Where’s the puppy?” Dgre’s anxious query echoed outside the door to the brig, and she rushed in, swatting away MyKai and Lafe who were trying to calm her down. “You haven’t hurt it, have you?”

Rocket clenched his fists on either side of his snout in aggravation, and hissed, “Puppy! First they insult me by calling me a raccoon, and now …”

“Whatever he is,” Dgre said, “he’s cute. Look at him! He’s so small and fluffy!”

“He fired a weapon at us through the gate!” Ronin insisted. “And he came through carrying that thing, threatening all of us.”

Rocket sneered. “Yeah, my Large Lazer Armament! Which you broke! I’ll be submitting a bill for that!”

Dgre knelt beside the cell. “Aw, look at him. He didn’t actually hurt anybody, did he? How can you keep him locked up like this? You won’t hurt anybody, will you, pupp… er, Mr. Guardian?”

Rocket, sensing an advantage, tried to look innocent, although he had absolutely no talent at puppy-dog eyes. “No, of course I won’t. I’m a peaceful fella, you can ask all my friends.”

Shepard sighed, “Oh boy.”

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Chapter 5

Writer: lafe

The door to the brig whisked open and in walked the tall, short-haired blond base commander, Col. Carter, and the shorter but longer-haired chief medical officer, Dr. Keller, who had a medical bag over her shoulder and a nurse in tow.

Col. Carter had already seen Rocket's show in the gate room, but this was the first time Dr. Keller had seen him, so she approached his cell, wide-eyed and mouth agape.

Col. Carter walked up to the horizontal bars on Rocket's cell and no-nonsensely asked him, "So your name is Rocket. Why did you fire through the stargate?"

Rocket growled back, "I shoot first, ask questions later."

Carter: "What if it was a friendly?"

Rocket waved a small black hand, "I don't know no friendlies with gates like that."

Carter continued the interrogation, "What planet are you from?"

Rocket paused and looked at her, then decided to tell the truth because most of these folks - aside from the clones - seemed like they were from Earth, like his teammate Quill. "Halfworld", he replied. He also figured no one would know where that was anyway, since that quadrant was sealed off from the rest of the cosmos.

Carter glanced at everyone in the room to see if anyone knew where that was, but everyone shrugged "idk" in their own way, confirming his assumption.

Dr. Keller took the moment of silence to ask, "What species *are* you?"

And like he's said at other times of his life, "Ain't nobody like me, 'cept me."

Carter glanced at Techno, then back to Rocket, "I've hear that you're part of a team called The Guardians of the Galaxy. Is that right?"

"Yeah." He stood a little taller.

Shepherd squinted a little in doubtful scrutiny, "So you're one of the *good* guys?"

Rocket squinted back, "Depends on who's askin'."

Just then, Rodney McKay burst through the door, and everyone turned to look. "Oh wow, you arrested him??" He asked, wide-eyed.

Shepherd replied, "He shot through the gate! Lucky no one was hit."

McKay, with his anxiety meter always running in the red, argued back, "Rocket's one of the Guardians of the Galaxy! He's not a threat!"

"Hey now--" Rocket took offense to not being a threat,

Techno interrupted, "I can second that. Aggressive. Mouthy, apparently. But not a bad guy."

Dgre smiled and agreed, "And just look at him!"

Rocket annoyingly looked at her, then rolled his eyes, figuring that arguing would hurt his cause.

Carter and Shepherd exchanged a glance, then she looked at McKay, "So you're saying we should just let him go?"

McKay: "Yes! If nothing else, once his team finds out where he is, we would have a big problem."

Carter considered that warning, then turned to Rocket, "Ok. I'd like Dr. Keller to run a couple of scans, then you're free to go."

Rocket bristled and clenched his fists, not wanting anything to do with medical anythings after his torturous past in the hands of researchers who medically turned him into who he is today, "Ain't nobody cuttin' on me." he snapped.

Keller, "Oh! It's non-invasive! I promise. Just a blood sample and a body scan."

Rocket's natural reaction was a "hell no", but instead, he mulled it for a moment, then figured he'd agree, since that would get him out of the cell. "Fine."

Carter turned, "Shepherd, Techno, McKay you're with me." She wanted to chat with them about what Rodney said would be a "big problem" with Rocket's team.

Shepherd followed and glanced at Ronin, "Keep an eye on him."

As the three followed Carter to the meeting room, Shepherd annoyingly said to McKay, "Why'd you leave the gate open?"