Aboard the Planeswalker, the unconscious Rocket suddenly snapped his eyes open.
He furrowed his raccoon brow and scanned the room warily. Only after finding no sign of danger did he relax a little.
Ever since he and Lylla had left Counter-Earth together, the two little animals had endured countless dangers across the starry sea. The outside world was vicious. People deceived each other, civilizations crushed one another, and for wanderers with no one to rely on, one careless step was enough to get swallowed whole without a trace.
Back then, Rocket and Lylla had roamed the galaxy in the ship sir gave them, and their first stop had been the infamous Knowhere, a den of street kids, con artists, and violent lunatics. They were scammed out of their ship there, and Lylla had nearly had both her metal arms ripped off by a gang.
The dark truth of the universe dealt a devastating blow to their innocent hearts. To protect each other, the pair of modified little creatures quickly used their intelligence to master every illegal trick in the book. You could say they went into the mud and came out completely filthy. Before long, the galaxy had gained two infamous thieves who could run wild among the stars, and their feelings for each other deepened just as quickly until they became soulmates.
Sadly, the good times did not last. They soon fell into a huge fight over everyday nonsense, and in the end both of them felt the other was no longer the companion they had once known. In a fit of anger, they split up. The raccoon found a new partner named Groot, a walking tree and a truly decent guy, the kind who reminded Rocket of old friends.
As they drifted through the cold galaxy, Rocket and Lylla never forgot the warmth of their childhood. They saw Counter-Earth as their eternal home, and they believed that their noble sir had surely finished building the utopia there, a place where all animals lived in peace and happiness. That small, warm faith carried them through hardship after hardship, one desperate moment after another.
Rocket's memory stopped at not long ago, when the Sovereign came looking for trouble. Clumsy little raccoon paws had recently stolen some of their energy batteries, little rods that looked tiny enough in the hand but stored power comparable to a star, priceless goods of the highest order. When the Sovereign realized the batteries were gone, they went completely insane. They would have torn apart every star in the galaxy if that was what it took to catch the criminal raccoon behind it.
At the time, Rocket had been attending a mechanics competition on Xandar when he was struck by Sovereign gunfire. He had known he was done for. The only thing he regretted was that Lylla did not know yet. Then again, maybe it was better that way.
But apparently things had taken a turn. Rocket was not dead. He was alive and perfectly fine.
He discovered that all of his wounds had healed. Aside from feeling mentally drained, which was probably because he had dreamed too many strange nightmares while unconscious, he felt fine. In those dreams, Rocket clearly remembered sir, the High Evolutionary, as a kind and gentle man, yet somehow he had dreamed that sir became a cruel and evil dark-skinned fiend. He had even dreamed that his friends were shot to death by the High Evolutionary. Those dreams filled Rocket with shame. They felt like a betrayal of sir.
Rocket would never forget sir's touch. From head to tail, it always made the raccoon tremble from the bottom of his heart. He had not returned to sir's side in many years. Those beautiful days remained vivid in his mind, yet he had almost forgotten the warmth of sir's embrace.
"Mr. Rocket!" Jojani shouted in delight. "You finally woke up!"
"You… oh, it's you." Rocket remembered the blue-skinned girl. "How did I end up here? And where exactly is here?"
"You're on the Planeswalker. Right now the Planeswalker is docked on Counter-Earth."
"What?!" Rocket suddenly seized Jojani by the collar. "What did you just say?"
"Counter-Earth. Mr. Rocket, could you please let go of me?"
Rocket released her collar in a panic, grabbed his own head, and paced back and forth on the bed. "No, no, no. I can't come back here. Sir told me my destiny wasn't here." He glared viciously at Jojani. "Take me to the cockpit. I'm leaving right now."
In the corner of the room, Groot opened his eyes and lit up at the sight of a lively Rocket once more. "I am Groot!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, aren't I? Don't make such a fuss. Now keep an eye on this blue girl for me."
Jojani saw Rocket leap off the bed and sprint out the door, and immediately panicked. "You rotten raccoon! Don't you dare mess with the ship!" She hurried after him, but the ever-dutiful Groot awkwardly stepped in front of the door.
"Mr. Groot! Why are you helping that rotten raccoon fool around too?"
Groot was so embarrassed he could hardly bear it. He turned himself into a tree, blocked the doorway, and immediately started playing dead.
Fortunately, Jojani was carrying a communicator and hurriedly informed the Planeswalkers of Rocket's plan.
At that moment, on Counter-Earth, Skyl, Tony, Moonshadow, Gali, Stan, and Little Snake were sitting along the edge of the top floor of the Twin Towers, sharing beer and bratwurst, their legs dangling in open air as they watched the sunset over the ruins of New York.
Tony had grease all over his hands as he ate. Looking at the desolate streets and the shattered world left behind by the battle, he sighed and said, "Does everyone really end up here in the end?"
No one answered.
Then Jojani's anxious voice crackled through the communicator on his shoulder. "Mr. Stark, the raccoon's awake, and he hijacked the ship, he's trying to take the Planeswalker!"
Tony tilted his head, pressed the talk button, and replied, "We can see that. Don't worry. I'll handle it." He casually wiped the grease off on his pant leg, drained his beer in one gulp, then tossed the empty bottle off the building. After that, he pushed off the ledge with both hands and dove straight down. A split second later, brilliant magic armor covered his body, wings of light spread wide, the roaring thrusters shattered the last remaining glass, and the Iron Mage shot into the sky after their ride.
Rocket piloted the Planeswalker over New York, trembling all over, tears shining in his eyes.
This place, the homeland he had always held in his heart, was nothing but the ruins of war. So where was the utopia he had believed in?
The Iron Mage flew ahead of the Planeswalker and hovered in place. Tony's voice came over the speakers. "Well, well, Sleeping Beauty Bear, finally awake, huh? So where exactly are you planning to fly my ship?"
Rocket pressed the comm button and demanded, "What happened here?"
"Uh, you mean why this city looks like total crap?" Tony shrugged. "That's a question for the captain. He knows everything."
"This isn't Counter-Earth. This is Earth, isn't it?"
"I'm pretty sure this isn't my home," Tony said, growing impatient. "Hey, Rocket, you need to stop."
The raccoon cut the connection, swung the ship around, and made for the sky.
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Now that's just rude." He snapped his fingers. "JARVIS, disconnect the ship's power and shut down the engines."
The iron suit fused magic and technology together. Tony had installed the artificial intelligence JARVIS into the armor, and it also served as the Planeswalker's central control brain.
"At once, Mr. Stark."
With its power gone, the Planeswalker began to fall. Tony flew beneath it, braced both hands against the underside, and carried it back to the top of the Twin Towers.
"Hoo, this thing's pretty heavy."
Skyl narrowed his eyes with a smile. "Stark, if you ever drag a nuclear missile into a wormhole, you won't complain like that. At least this ship isn't trying to kill you."
"Oh, come on, Lin, there you go talking like that again," Tony said, shooting him a look.
Rocket burst out of the ship, yanking at his own ears with both hands as he yelled, "This isn't Counter-Earth! I want to go home! You bastards lied to me!"
"Rocket." Skyl turned slightly to look back. To the raccoon, that silhouette felt strangely familiar, and those eyes seemed burned into his bones.
Rocket began trembling before he even realized it. "You're… that guy from Earth… but how are you…"
"How do I look so much like someone else?" Skyl's tone turned teasing. "That's right. I'm the High Evolutionary."
"No way! How dare you pretend to be sir!" Rocket lunged like a mad creature, intending to rip open the wizard's lying mouth with his claws.
But then a warm hand gently stroked along the raccoon's back, from head to tail.
That familiar feeling made Rocket go weak to the bone, and a soft, comfortable sigh escaped him.
"How is this possible? What did you do to me?" Rocket asked lazily, though panic filled his eyes.
Everyone else could not help laughing.
Skyl shook his head helplessly. "Your body remembers me honestly enough, but your eyes still didn't recognize me. Since when did you get this slow, Rocket? Life hasn't been easy out there, has it? Welcome home, my creation, my child."
The wizard took a golden mask from inside his robe and gently placed it over his face.
Rocket's eyes immediately grew wet. He remembered that distant afternoon when he first saw the gene accelerator, when the sight of humanity shining inside the eyes of beasts made him cry, when he had still believed all things in the world were bright.
After decades of wandering, every ache and sorrow came surging back like dead tidewater pouring in from a withered sea.
"Sir… I missed you so much."
"There, there. Don't panic. From now on, you can stay here. Destiny has changed." Skyl gently patted the raccoon's back.
"Congratulations," Lady Moonshadow said, lightly applauding.
"Congratulations," Stan Lee said, also clapping. "I really wish Gunn, the director of Guardians of the Galaxy, could be here for this."
Tony immediately cut through the mood. "Are you people serious? You're really going for that whole Evangelion thing? Come on."
"That's why straight men are so boring," Lady Moonshadow said, giving him a sidelong glance.
"I was wrong. Sorry."
Rocket cried for quite a while, then suddenly asked in alarm, "Sir, how did your utopia end up like this? What happened? Are Floor and Teefs okay?"
Skyl nodded. "Come on. You definitely want to know the truth."
He led Rocket to the ruins of the old starship where the test subjects had once been created. The experimental habitat there was covered in dust now, but on the top floor, three rooms still had occupants.
When Rocket saw Lylla, Floor, and Teefs again, he broke down all over again.
Lylla started crying while she laughed. "I knew you'd come back someday. I didn't wait for nothing, my friend."
Floor still looked just the way she had back then. This little white angel crouched in her studio, painting the story of Counter-Earth's civilization. Through Floor's clear and innocent telling, Rocket learned what had happened after he left. The High Evolutionary had created the beast-folk race. Their nature was gentle, but they still were not a perfect species. As living conditions changed and class divisions emerged, the beast-folk fell into infighting and war, and in only ten years they had turned the whole world into a mess. After that, they came to their creator's ship and found the gene accelerator. Using the machine, they kept evolving again and again until they became a completely different future life-form, possessing incomparable intelligence and the ability to know both past and future.
In her bright, lively voice, Floor said, "Then they decided they didn't want bodies anymore. So everybody turned into souls and flew out into the universe. Then Teefs moved the gene accelerator back here and locked it in storage."
Skyl offered the final conclusion. "That is the story of the utopia."
Rocket was silent for a while, then asked his creator, "Is that the utopia you wanted?"
"Maybe not. But it is still an answer. Any answer is remarkable. You can't reject it just because it doesn't suit your taste."
The raccoon gently hugged Skyl. The otter, rabbit, and walrus crowded in too, and their furry, soft-bodied embrace was so warm.
Rocket said softly, "I want to take my friends and go look for a new life. Will you give us your blessing?"
The corners of Skyl's eyes grew slightly damp. Even Rocket was realizing for the first time that the creator could cry too.
"I want all of you to have a safe journey. Do you understand?"
"Thank you, sir. Goodbye."
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