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Groot Lore

Groot Always Have Friends

When the Milano crashed, Groot stood around for a while watching Rocket and Quill argue about whose fault it was, but pretty soon he got distracted by the voices he was hearing from the jungle surrounding the ship graveyard. The vines and trees and flowers all had voices, but Groot was far enough away that he couldn't tell what they were saying. Eventually, Rocket and Quill got on his nerves enough that he had to get away from them, so he went for a walk. As he walked away, he heard Rocket say, "See? Even Groot can't take your crap, Quill. I'm gonna go find a way out of here while you sit here and pretend you know how to fix the ship!" He heard Rocket stomping away in another direction, but Groot didn't try to meet up with him. Rocket needed time by himself sometimes, and so did Groot. Especially on strange planets that stank of death.

The ship had come down near one end of the graveyard containing... hundreds of other ships? Maybe more? Groot wasn't good at counting. He wandered away from the fire that burned in the Milano's crash path, finding himself at the edge of the jungle. The voices of the jungle spoke to him, and Groot stopped and stood still, trying hard to listen now that he was close enough to understand what they were saying.

Away get away we'll hurt you if you get close

A chill ran down Groot's branches, straight into his roots. He had never heard plants talk like this. He stayed still, letting his consciousness drift out and collect impressions like a pollinator floating from flower to flower.

Hurt you hunger survival death prison Klyntar

Hey, Groot thought to them. You don't have to be afraid.

You don't belong here

"I am Groot," Groot said. He looked at the edge of the jungle, where it tumbled over the hulks of wrecked ships, grew among them and over them, strove to reclaim them and make it as if they were never there. These were not plants like he had ever encountered. They were part plant and part...something else. Something from Klyntar, made of Klyntar. Beings of some kind, that could only exist when they bonded to something else, creating a new being that was part host and part parasite. Groot was horrified and fascinated.

I'm new here, Groot thought.

Go away go back where you came from

It's all right, Groot emanated peace and kindness. I am Groot.

None of them had names. They conferred among themselves, snapped at each other, screamed and wailed and whispered in pheromonal registers only they and Groot could understand. They were still afraid. Even more, they were confused by how friendly Groot was. He could feel that in their responses. It was like nobody had ever been friendly to them before.

This planet must be a hard place to live, Groot communed.

That idea confused them too, because it had never occurred to any of them that it was possible to live somewhere else.

Oh yes, friends, Groot expressed. I've been to dozens of other worlds. This one is... He struggled to find a thought that was honest without being hurtful. Tough, he thought. Not too friendly.

What is friendly?

Wow, Groot thought. So that's what he was dealing with.

He tried to project a feeling of openness. Trust, feeling understood, and knowing you were never alone, surrounded by the people important to you.

The jungle plants were still confused...but now they were also curious. Weakness was whispered back to Groot.

No, Groot said. Trust takes strength.

They considered this. He could feel their conflicting reactions, and Groot could not help but be astonished that none of the jungle plants had ever considered what was trust. It was so fundamental to his relationship with Rocket, and Quill, and the other Guardians...

Heat seared his branches as a huge explosion bloomed over the junkyard. Groot flinched away from it, stepping into the jungle, and turned to look from the relative safety of the tangled vines and underbrush.

The fire caused by the Milano's crash had spread, and finally found another ship with a reserve of fuel or ammunition. The mushroom cloud of the explosion still spread over Klyntar's black sky, and the fire was now racing across the graveyard.

Toward the jungle.

Panic and fear spread among the plants. Groot felt fear too, partly for them and partly for himself. Fire was any plant's worst enemy, worse even than drought. At least in a drought, you could hope for rain.

Also, Groot could move. These plants...they might be part symbiote, but by and large they were still rooted to their spots.

That meant Groot had to help them.

He saw the fire approaching, licking along the lines of the crashed ship toward the edges of the graveyard, where the jungle had begun to reclaim the wrecks. Already some plants were charred and curled by the sweeping flames. Groot saw those crinkling leaves, those wilting flowers — and he got angry.

In his anger he grew. Thousands of feet of roots dug into Klyntar's soil, spreading along the boundary of the jungle. Groot forced them out, felt them searching for nourishment and finding little, but still he grew them, until he had created an intertwined mat of roots under the soil, overlapping the edge of the jungle and the outermost crashed spaceships.

Then, he closed his eyes and lifted them up. The earth heaved under those ships, toppling them over away from the jungle with a gargantuan sound of tearing roots and shifting earth. The pain of tearing the plant life from himself was nothing compared to the satisfaction Groot felt when the wall of roots and wrecked spaceships collapsed on the fire, suffocating it immediately where it had been threatening the jungle. Even those few embers that remained would have had to cross a firebreak fifty yards across to reach the jungle.

Groot let the roots die off into the earth. He stood silently for a moment, recovering his strength as the fire sputtered and crackled among the jumbled wreckage. He was happy. Even better, he heard the voices of the jungle and he could tell that his new plant friends were grateful.

Groot save us Groot go save other friend, one of them said.

What? Which friend? Groot looked back over the ship graveyard. The area around the Milano was still unburned, so unless Quill had gone wandering he was fine.

That left Rocket.

One of the plants — a woody vine with entangled mouths from some other species that was intermingled with it — volunteered that it had seen a smallish mammal headed in the direction of the old complex of buildings.

Groot didn't know where that was. The vine rustled, and tensed some of its tendrils. They pointed in a certain direction. When Groot looked that way, he saw two things. One, the fire had spread not just to the edge of the jungle but a complex of buildings he had somehow missed.

Rocket is in there?

The vine coiled in a shrugging motion. That way.

Groot thanked the vine and charged across the ship graveyard, giving the fire a wide berth and arriving at a corner of the building complex just as one side of it was catching fire. He punched through a wall on the other side. "I am Groot!" he roared over the sound of the fire.

"Groot, you idiot! What took you so long? You think I'm in here for my health?"

Rocket was alive! Groot charged into the building toward the sound of Rocket's voice. Halfway there, he ran straight into a group of tentacled black monsters. They were trying to get at Rocket, who was stuck inside a room with some kind of energy barrier blocking its doorway with turrets ripped out of the walls, strewn upon the floor.

"I AM GROOT!" he roared, tearing the monsters apart. More came from the darkened halls and rooms. Groot tore them to pieces too, but there were still more, and still more. He knew he might not make it to Rocket, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying. Their fangs and claws stung his bark and tore at his roots. Groot roared and fought back. He heard Rocket calling his name, but he couldn't spare the focus to answer. All he could do at that moment was stay alive as the black monsters overran him.

Then help came from an unexpected source. Vines twisted out of the darkness, ensnaring the monsters and dragging them away. We help! the vine called to Groot.

"I am Groot!" he shouted back, glad to see his new friends — and also feeling proud that on this planet where every plant was suspicious and hostile, he had helped them learn how to be friends.

"Who are you talking to? I'm over here!" Rocket shouted.

"I am Groot!"

"What do you mean, it's hard to explain?"

Groot didn't try to elaborate. He fought through the remaining symbiotes to reach Rocket, who was hunkered down in a small room with an energy barrier across the door.

"I am Groot."

"Yeah, I know." Rocket turned off the energy barrier. "How did you know I was here?"

Groot turned and pointed at the vine, which was twisting its way back along the corridor toward the hole Groot had punched through the building. "I am Groot."

"Groot, you moron! You trusted a symbiote vine to tell you how to help me escape from other symbiotes?"

Groot looked at Rocket. "I am Groot."

"I know it worked! Still..." Rocket gave up. "Whatever. Anyway, Quill needs help way worse than I do. Come on, we gotta get back to the Milano before the symbiotes remember he's there." Rocket powered the energy barrier down and started detaching it from its fixtures in the doorframe. "Here, you gotta carry this. I'm gonna use it to fix the ship." He chuckled to himself. "Quill's gonna feel so dumb when I show him this trick. I love it."

Groot picked up the energy barrier projection frame and started back toward the Milano. The voices of Klyntar's plants were still in his head. He felt proud of himself for what the vine had done, not because Groot could take credit for it, but because he had helped the vine see what it could do on its own, just by being friendly.

He didn't tell Rocket any of this. Rocket wouldn't understand.