In the boundless depths of space, a massive Ravager ship sailed onward.
Yondu had already eliminated the mutineers who dared betray him. Now, accompanied by the remaining crew as well as Tony, Rocket, and the others, he followed the signal emitted by the tracker.
The destination was extremely far away.
Even at their current speed, the journey would still take several days.
Inside the ship, Tony wandered everywhere, continuously scanning the vessel.
This trip had completely solidified one thing in his mind—
Once he returned to Earth, he was absolutely building his own spaceship.
Groot remained as simple-minded as ever, snoring loudly in his cabin.
Meanwhile, Nebula and Rocket sat together tinkering with a pile of mechanical components.
"You could leave whenever you want, you know," Rocket said without even looking at her, still focused on assembling parts. "Nobody's stopping you."
"I know."
Nebula's response was calm and indifferent.
"Then why aren't you leaving? Can't bear to part with Gamora?"
Rocket continued casually.
"No."
Nebula denied it instantly—far too quickly.
"I just want to kill her myself."
The response came sharp and decisive.
She clearly thought she hid her emotions well.
But Rocket still noticed something.
"Whatever you say," he muttered while fitting several components together, gradually forming the outline of a gun. "Honestly, most of your body's machine now anyway. I figured you'd eventually turn into one of those metal freaks."
"Don't mention that again!"
Nebula's hand swept across her body.
A sharp dagger instantly extended and pressed against Rocket's throat.
"Okay, okay—I won't bring it up," Rocket replied immediately, tossing aside the half-assembled weapon. Parts scattered all over the floor. "Now put that thing away."
"Hmph."
Nebula snorted coldly before retracting the blade.
The two fell silent again.
Only the sounds of mechanical assembly echoed through the room.
In truth, Nebula and Rocket weren't all that different.
Both had been forcibly altered against their will.
The only difference was that one had become machinery—
And the other had become an animal experiment.
---
Tony leisurely entered the bridge.
Yondu sat in the captain's chair at the center of the command deck, able to oversee both the crew and the endless starfields outside.
Tony curiously looked around at everything.
He was fascinated.
He had already studied Quill's ship before. Operating it wasn't all that different from flying a Quinjet.
But this—
This was a large-scale spacecraft.
The difference between piloting something like this and flying a small vessel was like the difference between rowing a boat and commanding an aircraft carrier.
"Your Terran civilization's still primitive as hell," Yondu mocked casually. "Can't believe you people haven't even seen a real spaceship before."
And honestly, he wasn't wrong.
Compared to the rest of the galaxy, Earth was incredibly underdeveloped.
Even humanity's individual combat capability ranked near the bottom among galactic species.
In many ways, that was one of the reasons Earth had avoided large-scale alien invasions for so long.
It was simply too backward.
Most invaders couldn't even be bothered.
"That's true when it comes to space travel," Tony admitted without embarrassment. "But I'm different."
"I've already made it into space."
"Once I get back to Earth, humanity will have its own spaceships soon enough."
Tony sounded extremely confident.
He had already gathered most of the required data.
What remained were the energy core and the flight control systems—
The two most critical components of all.
With so many people on the bridge, Tony could only secretly scan information in small amounts.
Getting caught openly stealing technological data would definitely be awkward.
"What powers your ship?" Tony asked curiously.
He needed to determine whether the Arc Reactor could support a spacecraft of this scale.
Yondu glanced at him before replying lazily:
"Batteries. Same kinda stuff the Sovereign use."
That was true enough.
The galaxy possessed countless forms of energy technology.
The Sovereign's Anulax batteries were merely one example.
Tony's expression immediately darkened.
As expected—
His Arc Reactor still wasn't nearly powerful enough to serve as the energy core for a ship this massive.
Still, he quickly remembered the several Anulax batteries he had obtained.
Once he got back to Earth and studied them properly, maybe he could upgrade the Arc Reactor yet again.
And at that point…
Perhaps it really could power a spaceship.
---
Ego Planet.
Quill stood silently before a sculpture of a woman.
Earlier, he had gotten into a huge argument with Ego.
His emotions were in complete turmoil.
He couldn't understand why his father had abandoned his mother to suffer alone from her illness.
She might have survived—
If only Ego had returned to Earth to see her.
But Ego claimed he had his reasons.
The argument escalated immediately.
And during his rage, Quill suddenly awakened a strange power.
The energy could manifest physically.
Earlier, he had instinctively created a glowing blue energy sphere with his bare hands, shocking even himself.
Ego told him it was an innate ability inherited from him.
The closer Quill was to Ego, the more likely his powers were to awaken.
And now—
They finally had.
---
Elsewhere, everyone sat on the palace steps quietly admiring the sunset.
Mantis sat among them.
"Mantis," Drax suddenly asked, "how'd you end up on this stupid planet?"
Oddly enough, Drax occasionally possessed a very unique instinct.
Many of his blunt remarks unintentionally touched on hidden truths.
Like just now—
"This stupid planet."
He tended to trust his instincts completely.
And strangely enough, those instincts were often correct.
The problem was simply that he lacked any tact whatsoever.
Everyone shifted their attention from the sunset to Mantis.
"When I was still a larva, Ego found me," she answered softly. "Honestly, I don't even know how I was born. He raised me himself and kept me by his side."
"So basically you were a pet?" Drax said immediately.
As always, whatever came into his mind came straight out of his mouth.
Mantis nodded without anger.
"Probably, yes."
"So you used to be a bug?" Gwen suddenly leaned forward with interest. "How does a bug evolve into a humanoid form?"
As a biology prodigy, Gwen found this kind of transformation fascinating.
Everyone knew insects underwent constant metamorphosis from the moment they hatched.
Take butterflies for example—
Caterpillar.
Cocoon.
Butterfly.
That life cycle alone had once overturned humanity's understanding of biology.
But Mantis was different.
She had apparently evolved directly from a larva into a humanoid being.
That was far more extreme.
Then again—
This was outer space.
Who knew what kinds of bizarre lifeforms existed out here?
"Yes," Mantis nodded honestly. "At first I really was a larva. But after emerging from the cocoon, I became this."
"To be honest, I don't understand it either."
"I haven't met many people. For most of my life, it was only Master and me."
Her voice remained soft and gentle.
Sometimes when Ego left the planet, she would remain entirely alone.
"How come there aren't any other living creatures on this planet?" Gamora suddenly asked.
Ever since arriving here, they hadn't seen a single animal.
Not even an insect.
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