Rocket Raccoon Skins

After Quill went and crashed the Milano — because he wasn’t paying attention to what Rocket was telling him, naturally — Rocket had noted that they were in the middle of what looked like a huge ship graveyard. Great, he thought. Let me go find parts, get the Milano patched up, and we’ll be out of there in no time.
So that’s what he was doing, only most of the ships were so old that they didn’t have anything useful for the Milano. He’d marked a few that might be worth closer attention, but mostly Rocket was not finding what he needed in this massive junkyard.
“Figures,” he said to nobody in particular. “Looks like I’m gonna have to engineer something tricky.”
There was movement among the hulks of ships off to his left. Rocket watched, but he didn’t see anything else. This Klyntar place had a strange vibe: Big spaceship boneyard, big monumental spooky ruins, all of it surrounded by a jungle made of the weirdest plants Rocket had seen on any planet. No visible sentient life, but all the same he felt like he was being watched. Also, there was a huge fire burning at one end of the boneyard, not too far from where Quill had crashed the Milano. Rocket considered checking back with the group before he explored much more...but nah. He could handle whatever came up. He sure didn’t need Quill, and Groot had said something about bonding with the local plants. Let him. Weirdo.
Uh oh. More movement.
They came out of the shadows so smoothly that for a moment, Rocket thought they were shadows. Then their motion gave them shape, silhouetted against the background of the spreading fire. Strange, elongated black life forms, no two the same except for their long teeth and claws. They sprang from the wrecked ships toward Rocket, but he didn’t waste any time. He racked his blaster and started shooting, running as he went.
He’d taken off in a more or less random direction, firing as he went to keep the monsters away, but ahead he saw a complex of buildings, in a weird monumental style that made him want to do literally anything other than go inside. But more and more of the toothy black monsters were hot on his tail, and Rocket prided himself on having better than average common sense, so he headed for the buildings, hoping to barricade a door, maybe. Anything to keep them out.
Right before he got to the doorway, Rocket dropped a miniature gravity well behind him. He had been toying with black hole tech for a bit and the temporary void annihilated the closest monsters, buying him enough time to get inside the building and jam the door with various bits of debris — and a weird-looking statue he knocked over and shoved in front of the doorway.
Okay, he thought. The monsters started to bang and scratch at the door. They weren’t getting in at the moment, but he wouldn’t have all day to execute the plan he hadn’t yet come up with.
So, he had to do a little scouting, see what he had to work with, but not waste any time.
As it turned out, quite a bit of scouting was required. Whoever had used these buildings, they had been very much into weapons and containment technology. This, Rocket reasoned, meant that it must have been some kind of jail, maybe? Or maybe they were trying to contain the living goo he had just escaped. Whatever its former use, he was going to turn it into a little fortress until such time as Groot and Quill decided to come looking for him.
His ears remained perked and alert, as he expected some of the monsters were in the building with him. This helped him dodge the blast from a wall turret as Rocket was trying to strip some quantum circuits out of a panel way down at the end of a long dark hall. He was so focused on what he was doing that he didn’t even hear the self-defense mechanism arm itself, only jumping backwards a moment before it fried him. He looked back to his score, a fresh new hole in the quantum circuit cluster he was attempting to pry out. “I was looting that!” Rocket shouted at the inanimate object. Only the turret wasn’t there anymore, smashed to bits by one of the creatures he was expecting.
The creature snarled back, and Rocket blew it away. In the darkness, he heard others moving and breathing. “Spooky,” he said. “Remind me not to book the reunion here.” He was talking just to hear his own voice, and keep himself calm while he figured out what to do. Truth was, only one course of action made sense. He couldn’t go back outside, so if he had to stay inside that meant getting rid of all the monsters, or activating the rest of the tech.
Rocket looked up and down the long corridor, noting how many side passages and intersections he could see. “Nah, too open.” He thought back to the building’s entrance. Just off the big front door, there was a smaller side room. It only had one door, and if he had oriented himself right, one of its walls was an exterior wall. So, if the monsters got in, he could always blast his way out through the wall. If he could retrofit the defense system before it took him out.
Not the best plan in the world, but it would do for now.
He zig-zagged along the passages back to the front of the complex, slowed down a bit by all the gear he was dragging. A monster flashed out of a side passage, but Rocket had smelled it a split second before. Another one dropped from the ceiling, but Rocket’s whiskers sensed the disturbance in the air. Again, he was ready. His blaster lit up the darkened halls every time one of the monsters got near. The closest one of them got to him was a weird crab-looking version that ripped some hairs out of his tail before Rocket reduced it to a puddle of goo.
Then he stopped in his tracks. Right there in a doorway was an energy barrier projector. Like the kind you might set up in a Xandarian prison. Rocket knew a little bit about those.
“Aw yeah,” he said, ducking into the room and keeping his ears perked up while he fiddled with the barrier projector’s control panel. He was close to the entrance, close enough to hear the other monsters snarling outside the front door. This little room would be a perfect citadel, if he could get the other bits of the self-defense system online.
One of the monsters loomed out of the darkness. Rocket dropped his tools and blazed away at it until it was gone. Then he got back to work, knowing his time was running out. Kree, Shi’Ar, Skrull, Xandarian, so much tech had been retrofitted into this panel, Rocket was surprised it wasn’t his own invention. It looked like there wasn’t a power source but he had hotwired a few quantum circuits in his time. So he put the finishing touches into the console, paused to splatter another few monsters, and then hit the power button.
Aha! The energy barrier thrummed to life, with a few turrets in front of it, and because Rocket was exceedingly clever and also a little lucky, he was on the inside and the monsters were on the wrong end of a Kree turret. Just as an experiment, Rocket tried to shoot one of them through the barrier. Blam! It worked!
“Aw, yeah,” he said again, louder this time, and then he was lighting them up through the barrier like there was no tomorrow. Which, if he didn’t figure out a way to get back to the Milano and get off this terrible monster rock, there wouldn’t be.
Hey, he thought. I bet I could use some of this stuff to reconstruct the containment fields in the Milano’s engines.
The idea lit up the inside of Rocket’s brain. He saw it all come together. It would totally work. All he had to do was get a plasma array, set of the couplings that would link it to the Milano’s magnetic field resonators, then wire the whole shebang into the acceleration chamber that was damaged when Quill crashed the Milano. Because, Rocket repeated in his mind, Quill was not listening to Rocket at the time.
More of the toothy black monsters that survived the turret onslaught threw themselves against the barrier. Rocket blazed away at them, and they fell back again.
Man, he thought. This is a mighty elegant solution to a real tricky problem. Guess a few other unfortunate souls worked together to try and survive. But I guess whatever works...
Only problem was now, Rocket had to get out of the protected room, and the complex, with all the components.
And that was going to require some finesse, because there were more of the monsters coming, and those doors weren’t going to hold forever.
Rocket racked a fresh charge into his gun, held it on the door, and waited.

Rocket Raccoon understood why Jean Grey wasn’t exactly thrilled with his plan to defeat Knull. He had just informed her that she was going to have to sacrifice herself in order to make it work. When Jean asked to hear the full details of Rocket’s scheme before deciding to go along with it, it seemed only fair. And Rocket was more than glad to spell everything out if it helped her come to terms with her part in it.
“A while back, my ship crashed into Klyntar and got stuck in the planet’s symbiotic surface,” Rocket said. “At first, I didn’t know how to get it out, but then I built a gizmo that worked on the same principle as Captain Marvel’s old Nega-Bands. It swapped the ship’s physical location with a Celestial Husk in orbit over Klyntar and — BOOM! — problem solved!”
“Impressive…” Jean said, “…but how does that help us against Knull?”
Rocket rifled through a pouch on his uniform pulled out a pair of circuit boards.
“If you rush in, ready to impale yourself on that nasty sword of his,” Rocket said, “Knull won’t even notice you’re wearin’ a portable version of that tech. As he revels in his victory, Venom will sneak in and slip one onto him, too. Then, once you’re reborn in the White Hot Room, I can activate the sequence and — switcheroo! Knull gets annihilated by the light while you’re returned back to us, safe and sound. In theory, at least... I can’t guarantee the tech will work across dimensional planes. But everythin’ else we’ve tried has already failed. This might be our last chance…”
“Then it’s one we have to take…” Jean agreed, grabbing Rocket’s circuit board and running towards the last place they had seen the King in Black. “I came here to stop Knull, and I plan to see it through… no matter the cost.”
“Whoa! Hold on a minute, Red!” Rocket said, a bit of panic in his voice. “I gotta calibrate a few things first if we actually wanna pull this off! Gimme, like, five minutes and then you can go right back to gettin’ yourself skewered. Promise.”
As Phoenix and Venom huddled together to discuss the details of Rocket’s elaborate plan, Rocket found a secluded spot near the entrance of a cave. He sat down and removed some tools from the pouches on his belt, then began to tinker with the second Nega-Energy Replicator board. It was delicate work that required absolute focus, so Rocket didn’t even notice when the ground beneath him started to shift.
“Rocket!” a voice yelled from nearby. “Look out!”
“Huh?” Rocket said, looking up from his work to see the Scarlet Witch flying towards him at top speed. It looked like she was about to attack him, but that didn’t make any sense. They were on the same side… weren’t they? Rocket instinctively reached for his blaster cannon, but as he did, he felt a sharp pain course through his body. By the time he realized what had just happened, it was too late. He was already trapped in the jaws of a giant symbiote dragon!
“You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me!” Rocket groaned as he tried with all of his might to struggle free from the dragon’s mouth. But with every movement, the creature’s teeth sunk deeper into Rocket’s flesh. Rocket tossed the Nega-Energy Replicator a safe distance away and then reached down and grabbed a quantum grenade from his belt, ready to detonate it if needed. He knew full well that the blast would obliterate him as well, but if it stopped this monster from messing up his master plan, it would ultimately be worth it.
“If I’m gonna be your last meal,” he yelled, “I sure as flark ain’t gonna go down easy!”
“You won’t be anyone’s meal today,” Scarlet Witch said as she released a wave of chaos magic from her hands that surrounded the symbiote dragon. “To be fair, you’re barely an appetizer.”
Rocket let out a painful laugh as the dragon’s jaws began to loosen their grip on him. It was enough for him to be able to push free… right in time to watch the Scarlet Witch’s spell break the enormous beast down into a puddle of undulating goop.
“That’ll teach ya to mess with a Guardian of the Galaxy!” Rocket shouted at the puddle, firing at the writhing sludge with his blaster cannon.
“I think we beat him,” Scarlet Witch said reassuringly as she stood next to Rocket, “but I fear it may have been a bit too late.”
“What are ya talkin’ about?” Rocket asked, putting on a brave face as he tried to dismiss the severity of his wounds. “I’m perfectly… fine…”
But Rocket knew otherwise the second he saw the sparks shooting out from several of the puncture wounds that had been left behind by the dragon’s fangs. There was no hiding the fact that Rocket's cybernetic implants had been severely damaged. These devices were so deeply integrated into Rocket's biological systems that he would barely be able to function if they were compromised. And to make matters worse, they were so highly sophisticated that only Rocket's original modifier — or someone with intimate knowledge of his body — would be able to build and install replacements.
“You gotta find Groot for me…” Rocket said to the Scarlet Witch as he fell to his knees. “Tell him I’m sorry… That I didn’t wanna go out this way… And that he doesn’t need me to watch his back anymore…”
The Scarlet Witch immediately began to cast a healing spell to protect Rocket, but the furry fighter knew it would take more than magic to save him now. It would take a miracle. And Klyntar wasn’t exactly the kind of planet where people’s prayers tended to be answered. So what happened next took Rocket by complete surprise.
Another symbiote slithered its way over to the wounded Rocket. Unlike the dragon that had unleashed its vicious surprise attack earlier, this symbiote moved slowly and cautiously, putting itself in clear sight so that Rocket was aware of its arrival. And for some reason, Rocket felt no reason to be afraid of this creature. In fact, its presence felt almost comforting. And Rocket realized why as soon as the symbiote touched his fur-covered hand.
Earlier, when the Guardians of the Galaxy first returned to Klyntar, they were attacked by a horde of symbiotes that forcefully bonded with them, momentarily causing the heroes to fall under the thrall of Knull. Thanks to the indomitable spirit of Jeff the Land Shark, the symbiotes were broken free from their hivemind, restoring the Guardians’ free will. Although the encounter had ended quickly, the bond that Rocket had formed with his symbiotic partner must have lasted… because here it was again in his time of need…
As the symbiote enveloped Rocket’s entire body, he could feel it seeping into his wounds, as if thoroughly examining every damaged component inside of him. Then, without warning, the symbiote removed itself from Rocket and reshaped its protoplasmic form, creating slimy tendrils that each ended in what looked like specialized tools.
Rocket could only watch in confusion as the symbiote began to repurpose parts from his own blaster to craft temporary replacements for his implants. With surgical precision, the symbiote installed the components into Rocket's body. As soon as they began to power up, Rocket could tell that he was going to be okay. He couldn’t fully understand how, but this symbiote knew exactly what to do to save his life. And he wasn’t about to waste his second chance.
Pushing himself back onto his feet, Rocket found the Nega-Energy Replicator he had been working on earlier. He made a few finishing touches and rushed off to find Jean Grey and Venom. Soon the battle with Knull would finally be over… and when it was, Rocket had plenty of questions that needed to be answered…
LATER.
“…and then the little guy put me back together again, good as new,” Rocket said, recounting the tale of his unusual experience on Klyntar.
“Not quite as good as new…” said Reed Richards as he examined Rocket under the scanners in his lab at the Baxter Building, “…but certainly good enough. I should be able to handle the rest from here. Still, for a symbiote, it did a shockingly thorough job of repairing your internal systems. The question is… how?”
“I was wonderin’ the same thing, Doc,” Rocket said. “I’m guessin’ that, when I first bonded with the thing, it got full access to my memories… includin’ ones I didn’t even realize I had. Like ones from way back when I first got my implants.”
“That might make sense,” Reed said, “but only if you had engineered and installed the components yourself. Logically, it might have known the locations of your implants from the frequent injuries you’ve suffered over the years, or even from body scans you may have seen. But it’s highly unlikely it would have known how to fabricate functioning replacements. Unless…”
“Unless what?” Rocket asked as Reed trailed off into deep thought. “Don’t leave me hangin’ here!”
“Unless,” Reed continued, “the symbiote had previously bonded with someone who not only understood the enhancement process you underwent, but who also knew you personally and intimately. Someone from your world, perhaps…”
“Not many folks left out there who fit that bill,” Rocket mused. “And I ain’t got a clue where my little symbiote savior slithered off to after he fixed me up, so I guess we’ve got no way of figurin’ it out.”
“Actually, we do,” Reed replied. “From studying Peter’s old suit, which I suppose is the Venom symbiote now, over the years, I’ve learned that when a symbiote bonds with a host, it leaves behind a trace of itself in the host’s body called a codex. This genetic imprint not only identifies the symbiote itself, but also every other host it has ever bonded with. It’s more than just a fingerprint. It’s a family tree, if you will.”
“Well, then I gotta know who else has been climbin’ around in those branches!” Rocket said.
“Let me see,” Reed said, grabbing another device and running it along the length of Rocket’s spine. “Hmmm… that’s curious… According to my scans, there are traces of all sorts of alien DNA in the codex. That’s to be expected, I suppose. But there’s also something that is a near-perfect match for a species found here on Earth.”
“Really?” Rocket inquired. “Back on Halfworld, they experimented on all sorts of animals. I may be the very best of the lot, but it’s possible someone else got off that miserable planet and made their way to Klyntar. The question is, who?”
“All I can say for sure is that they had the characteristics surprisingly similar to the genetic subfamily Lutrinae,” Reed replied.
“That don’t ring any bells,” Rocket said, scratching his furry head.
“Here on Earth, we more commonly call them otters,” Reed added.
Rocket’s eyes went wide. There was only one otter he knew back on Halfworld, and she knew him more intimately than anyone else in the galaxy, including Groot.
“Lylla…” Rocket whispered under his breath in astonishment.
He couldn’t believe his old friend was still out there somewhere. But the fact that they had both bonded with the same symbiote couldn’t be just a coincidence. And it wasn’t a miracle either. It was a sign. A sign that he had to find her. Rocket had no way of knowing where Lyla was now, but he was willing to scour the entire galaxy to find out. It was another plan he had to see through… no matter the cost.