"Sunbathed by a planet?"
Upon hearing this in the second-floor hall, everyone couldn't help but break into a sweat. Only Rocket, with his nonchalant and unconventional thinking, would bring up such a trivial point at a time like this.
"If Quill were here, he'd probably blast your fuzzy head, little raccoon," Drax felt nauseated as he spoke while shivering as he crossed his arms.
"Speaking of which, where's Quill?" Howard finally noticed that Quill had left the area of the second-floor hall at some point.
"If he were here, I wouldn't be making wisecracks," Rocket grinned, "Mr. Kyle just mentioned going to kill Ego, so that guy left the hall. He probably went back to the ship to contact that hunter Yondu who brought him here. He seems to be stubbornly denying it, but his body is being quite honest."
As they spoke, the building they were in suddenly shook, followed by the sound of engines igniting as Star-Lord stopped at the ship outside. With a powerful surge of dust, the orange-blue ship floated into the air, accelerating straight towards the starry sky.
"He actually left us behind and went off on his own?" Rocket's expression froze.
Gamora shook her head, her dark red hair swaying like waves. Despite her usual disdain for Quill, she surprisingly spoke up for him. "The cross-interstellar signals on this planet aren't very good. He might have gone to a nearby star to make a video call."
"That makes sense," Rocket snorted.
However, Howard's expression turned grave. "Wait a minute, Star-Lord shouldn't be allowed to leave alone right now. If Ego finds him, it could be disastrous!"
"That Celestial Ego has tried to manipulate alien women and produce offspring, is he trying to revive the former glory of the Celestials?" Drax, slightly puzzled, noted that their race, the Destroyers, had also been massacred by Ronan and were on the brink of extinction.
"No. That man only cares about expanding his own territory. How could he let the collective interests of the race override his own?" Howard shook his head. "Celestials can manipulate the power within them, plant their seeds on other planets, and these seeds will lurk like tumor cells, waiting for the day they achieve their goal of devouring the cosmos!"
Lorna quickly caught on, her expression filled with uncertainty. "So, you mean there are seeds planted by him on Earth too?"
Howard nodded. "Not only that, but Ego has probably planted his seeds on thousands of inhabited planets. But in the past decade or so, he suddenly stopped these actions and focused on finding Quill's whereabouts."
"That kind of guy wouldn't delay things for the sake of father-son affection. It's probably because there's something on Quill that he needs to awaken the seeds and make them sprout," Kyle bluntly remarked.
"Exactly, that's what I think too." Howard nodded. "I suspect that Ego, relying solely on his power, cannot devour planets. So he raised Quill, hoping to borrow the power from him to achieve his ultimate goal."
"As long as we kill him before Ego absorbs his power, that'll be it, right?" Kyle looked at Howard seriously, showing signs of impatience.
Howard nodded in agreement, speaking slowly, "Fortunately, it seems Quill hasn't awakened his power yet, and evidently, Ego hasn't found him either. Perhaps that hunter named Yondu is secretly hiding and protecting Quill."
"In that case, it's simple. Let's knock Quill out and trap him in the basement of this building," Rocket chuckled, pulling out a device from his pocket and quickly operating it. "Out of professional habit, I installed a tracker on Quill's ship earlier. Now let me see where he's gone..."
After finishing his operation, Rocket looked at the screen and laughed, "Quill is indeed flying to the neighboring star. We can rest assured... Wait, the ship suddenly moved."
"Hand it over, let me see." Howard reached out, and Rocket promptly handed over the tracker.
After taking the tracker, Howard put on black-framed glasses from his coat pocket and looked at the instrument screen.
"He's leaving in the opposite direction of our planet," Howard said, surprised. Blinking, the cursor on the screen disappeared without a trace. His face grew solemn. "He's initiated a space jump and gone to another distant galaxy!"
"Now, he's really abandoned you guys," Drax chuckled, looking at Rocket and Gamora's pale faces.
"Give me the tracker. I'll go get him back!"
Kyle suddenly had a foreboding feeling and stood up from his seat without hesitation. Taking the tracker from Howard's hand, he turned to Gamora and said, "After we deal with the Celestial, I'll go get the Soul Stone with you."
Gemora nodded in response, "No problem."
Seeing Kyle about to leave, Howard exclaimed urgently, "Sir, you only know the general direction he flew in with the ship. How will you chase him with the ship?"
"Who said I'm going to chase him with the ship."
Kyle's lips curled upward as he held the tracker. Glowing with radiant energy, he suddenly strode across the hall, transforming into a colorful stream of light.
He crashed through the glass of the second-floor balcony, accelerating as he flew out into outer space.
"This is... so... unscientific." Howard stared blankly, watching Kyle's figure disappear, murmuring to himself.
"Father, just get used to it." Tony rubbed his small beard.
Kyle broke through the atmosphere at light speed, entering the vast expanse of outer space. Accelerating to superluminal speeds with full firepower, he chased after the direction where the signal disappeared. Countless stars, some dim and some bright blurred past on either side.
"What does Star-Lord want to do?" Kyle squinted his eyes, looking at the tracker while speeding through the cosmos like a beam of sunlight.
Five minutes ago.
On a neighboring star not far from the Kree.
Quill landed the ship by a tranquil forest lake. Seeing the signal recovery indicator turn green, he took a few deep breaths to calm his nerves before initiating a cross-interstellar communication dial on the pilot's seat.
A few seconds later, a holographic projection appeared on the video communication display, revealing a middle-aged alien with blue skin and metal embedded in his forehead. He scowled at Quill and berated him, "You brat, finally willing to contact me proactively? Where are you now? Still alive, I hope!"
"Of course, I'm still alive." Despite the scolding, Quill felt warm inside, knowing that Yondu had a soft spot beneath his gruff exterior.
"Still alive and not coming back to me? Are you planning to wander around on your own again? Oh, and you still have The Orb with you, right? Bring it back to me, I heard it's worth a lot!" Yondu rambled on.
"Yondu." Quill suddenly called out, straightforwardly asking, "Was it my father who asked you to bring me into the galaxy when I was a child?"
Yondu's expression changed slightly. "Why do you ask?"
"My father..." Quill's voice trembled slightly. "Is his name Ego?"
"It seems you already know." Yondu sighed lightly, looking at Quill, and admitted, "Yes."
"But there's a reason behind all of this..."
Yondu's words were interrupted halfway as the video suddenly stuttered and the communication was forcibly terminated, as if the signal had been heavily interfered with.
"Yondu, Yondu?" Quill tapped on the device, puzzled. Just then, ripples began to spread outward from the center of the lake in front of the ship's windshield.
A small silver star shuttle slowly docked on the surface of the lake. On top of the shuttle, a middle-aged man with a goatee stood confidently, using the cosmic shuttle as if it were a skateboard!
(End of Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 90 chapters on my patreon and I've also activated (date to date) subscription model on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395