Chapter 250:
"Sorry your friends didn't save you…again." I said to Peter Quill. "I really thought they would have while I was fighting the Collector. I didn't think they'd run away and try to steal your ship." I told him.
While I was fighting the Collector, I portaled the other Guardians away to keep them away from a fight way above their current levels. I told them to make themselves useful and save Peter…they did not do that.
The four of them instead tried to run to the hangar, where Starlord's ship was parked, and steal it for themselves in order to flee Knowhere. They got pretty close as well. I had to subdue them all for a second time before they got away. Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax were all tied up on the bridge of my ship under the guard of Jean and Nebula.
"Thanks for getting me out of that freaky cage." Peter said to me. "It felt like I was going to be in there forever." He added with shiver.
"You were barely in there for an hour! Some of us have been here for years!" An alien who had also been trapped by the Collector complained from inside their own cage. "Thank you so much for killing the Collector!" They added as I broke their cage and let them out.
"No problem." I said as they quickly made their way to escape.
"I was in there for an hour and a half, I'll have you know!" Peter called out behind them. "It was really hard on me, I had to hold in my pee!" He added indignantly.
"Why would you do that? Our cages have built in waste disposal." Another recently freed alien asked him. "It was that tube in the center of the floor."
"Well, no one told me that!" Peter complained while throwing his arms up in the air. "I pissed my pants for nothing!"
[Gross.]
Ah, so that's what that weird smell was...
"...Just go loot some stuff while I free everyone else. I have a proposition for you later, Peter." I said. "And maybe change your clothes as well…" I added too.
"Now you're speaking my language." Peter said while greedily eyeing the Collector's treasures around the room. Most of them were worthless to me. I knew he'd be keeping all of his good stuff in a hidden vault somewhere. I'd already taken all of his money anyway and figured all the people who had been trapped here deserved some restitution.
I had been going around releasing all of the Collectors slaves for the past few minutes. He had quite a few interesting specimens, some very strange aliens I'd never heard of. He also had a frankly absurd amount of galactic credits at his disposal. I was now a galactic trillionaire–not that I even had a need for that amount for wealth. It was just something I had now.
"Quack. Would you be a dear and let me out of this cage?" Howard the Duck asked me. His was the final cage I found.
"Of course, Howard. I'm a big fan." I told him. His movie was so bad that it was good! Too bad no one else in this Universe would know what I was talking about.
Would it be weird to ask for his autograph?
[Yes.]
The duck tilted his head in confusion at my remark. "Quack. Thanks?" He waddled off after stealing himself some shiny trinkets laying around as well.
"Try not to get captured again!" I called out behind him.
"Quack! No promises!"
I walked out of the Collector's museum/mansion with Peter Quill around 20 minutes later. We weren't alone as we walked out of there. A four legged companion was trotting along next to us.
'I love going on walks! My master never takes me on enough walks. Where is my master?' Cosmo, the space dog said in my head. I usually don't allow anyone into my head, but c'mon, he was a psychic Golden Retriever! Cosmo was adorable. He was even wearing a silly astronaut costume.
Of course, I decided to keep him. I had three daughters who I'm sure would absolutely love a talking dog as a pet. Cosmo was also immortal for some reason, so they'd never have to worry about outliving their pet. I had some sad memories about such a situation from my past life and was glad they wouldn't have to experience that...
I scratched him behind the ears. "I'm your new master now, Cosmo. Come on, I've got some doggy treats on my ship."
'Treats!?' His tail wagged furiously behind him as he followed me through a portal towards my new warship.
…
–Peter Quill–
"Well, well, well… Look who we have here." Peter Quill said to the four aliens he'd escape space prison with. He didn't think he'd be seeing the four of them again so soon. Not after they failed to save him…for the second time.
"You know, after escaping the Kyln, I bet you all have some pretty hefty bounties on your heads. I might be looking at a nice pay day if I bring you all back there." Peter said to Gamora, Rocket and Groot.
Drax was still unconscious. That was probably for the best, considering Ronan the Accuser was unconscious and tied up next to him as well.
"Wouldn't you have a bounty on your head as well for escaping alongside them?" Layla, his rescuer and arguably the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, asked him skeptically.
"What? Me?" Peter said innocently. "Of course not! I was a model prisoner I'll have you know. Those four took me as a hostage. I was afraid for my life and had to go with them." He said to Layla with a straight face. He couldn't have his beautiful and powerful rescuer thinking he was some kind of common criminal after all. He was, obviously, but he didn't need her to know that!
"That's a damn lie! You shot a whole bunch of people on our way out of that prison too!" Rocket yelled from inside his tiny black cage. Peter thought Rocket being trapped inside such a tiny cage was hilarious. It was like animal control had finally had enough of the little bastard.
"Lies and slander." Peter replied dismissively before turning back to Layla and her two gorgeous friends as well. "Once again, thank you so much for saving me from the Collector–may he rot in hell. Is there any way I could repay you? Maybe take you out to dinner?" Peter asked her with a suave grin.
Layla scoffed at him. "I'm not interested in men, but there certainly is a way you can repay us. We came here looking for you specifically after all." She said to him.
Peter was disappointed to hear that first part, but the fact that they had specifically sought him out did tickle his pride. "I suppose my reputation does precede me. What can I do for you ladies?" He asked them while standing a bit taller.
"We're trying to kill a Celestial and we need your help." The red haired girl told him.
Peter's smile immediately vanished. 'A Celestial!? Are they out of their freaking minds!?' Peter regretted saying that he would help them with anything. The beautiful Layla might have saved his life, but he wasn't going to throw it away to help her fight one of those monsters! "Well, good luck with all that, but I'm afraid I just remembered I had a prior commitment." Peter told them.
"Is that so?" Layla asked while tilting her head. "Are you sure you don't want to help us? It really was a lot of trouble, finding you that was."
"I would love to…but my prior commitment is really important." Peter lied. "I'll just be on my way back to my ship if you don't mind?" He said while stepping around the three suicidal women in front of him. Internally, he was lamenting at the loss. 'The galaxy is about to lose three beauties…it's always the pretty ones that are craziest!' He thought with a sigh.
He didn't get more than a few steps before his whole world went black.
…
–Layla–
Nebula holstered her blaster after shooting Peter in the back. She had it set to stun of course.
I sighed. "That went about as I expected."
"Ha! That's what you get, you bastard!" Rocket laughed as Peter collapsed on his face.
"I am Groot."
"Sister, are you truly hunting a Celestial? Why? Are you doing it for…him?" Gamora asked Nebula in concern. She was under the impression that Nebula was still working for Thanos.
Nebula scowled at her sister. "Of course not! Layla is my savior, I intend to help her. I care nothing for our father anymore!" Nebula said.
"What do we do now?" Jean asked me. "We have Peter Quill…although he's a bit more cowardly than I expected. I expected someone who calls themself Starlord to be braver." Jean pointed out. She was disappointed. She told us that she expected him to be more like Han Solo, since he had his own ship and wandered the galaxy.
I thought that he sort of was, just not in the first movie. Peter Quill didn't really step into his leadership role until the Guardians of the Galaxy formed. Considering the other members kept abandoning him, that wasn't going to happen. Not with some extra help at least…
"Hmmm. Time for plan B. Let's throw everyone in the brig for now and give them some time to properly bond as prisoners again." With any luck, the Guardians of the Galaxy might still have a chance at properly coming together despite their very rocky start. "In the meantime, let's try to find a camera. Do they even have Cameras in space…?" I couldn't use my phone because its primitive technology wasn't compatible with the space internet.
"We can use the camera built into my eye…oh wait. That's gone now." Nebula said while touching her organic eye with a smile. She still wasn't completely used to being whole again. "I'll try and find one." She said while exiting the bridge to look around the ship.
"So what's with the dog, Layla?" Jean asked me after Nebula left. Cosmo had been at my side this whole time. He was a very well behaved dog.
"Woof!" Cosmo barked at her and wagged his tail. 'Hello, I am Cosmo! Do you have treats?' He asked her.
…
–Ego–
After living for millions of years, there wasn't a lot that surprised Ego. He thought he had seen and experienced everything the galaxy had to offer at this point. That was one of the reasons he wanted to wipe it out. Not the main one, but a small part.
Admittedly, the one thing he'd never experienced was being blackmailed. He watched the video that was currently trending throughout the galaxy and scowled.
"Attention, Ego the Celestial! I am Layla of the Fallen." The woman on the screen declared. "You might know of me from one or both of my popular classic hits such as: Ripping off Thanos's Head, or slaying the Elder known as the Collector!"
The camera panned to a Kree prison cell with multiple different species inside. Specifically, it zoomed in on a terran male who Ego felt looked vaguely familiar to himself.
"I present to you, your son, Peter Quill. A genuine Half-Celestial! The one you have been searching for for decades!" Layla said over the video feed.
Ego didn't need to breathe considering his human looking body was nothing but a remotely controlled avatar, but he felt his breath hitch nonetheless!
"If you do not come to these coordinates within 72 hours, then you'll never see your Half-Celestial son again!"
The video ended there. Ego made note that the video already had over 100 billion views and counting. An entire galaxy full of mortals had seen that hateful woman calling him out directly!
"Damn her! She dares threaten my son and ruin my plans!?" He screamed in rage and destroyed the terminal in front of him. The ground underneath him shook at his rage. His body, the entire planet, was trembling from his fury.
"Master Ego? Are you ok? What will you do?" Mantis, his ever loyal pet, asked him.
The Celestial looked off towards the stars. "It's been a long time since a lesser being has attempted to pick a fight with the strongest race in the Universe! She thinks she's tough after killing Thanos and a measly Elder!? I've been around a long time, and I've seen thousands of beings more dangerous than either of those two rise and fall! I will show her the error of her ways, before grinding her to dust! And then, my plans will finally reach completion after I retrieve my son!" Ego's rage turned to jubilation. His body, the Entire planet, started to rapidly accelerate as he headed towards the specified coordinates from the video.
"I believe in you, Master! I hope you find your son." Mantis said to him.
He smiled at her. "Oh, I will, my dear. I WILL…"
…
–48 hours later–
Corpsman Dey had left my ship two days prior and headed back to Xandar to report to Nova Prime. Their help in distributing my video across the Galaxy was greatly appreciated. Before he left, I asked him to convey one last message to his people as well.
I also told him that neither Asgard nor Earth would enter into any treaties with planets actively participating in any form of slavery. We'll see whether the Nova Empire continues to do business with the Ravager's Guild or not after my declaration…
The Guardians were standing in front of me on the bridge of my Warship. They had made no less than 7 escape attempts in the past two days. If nothing else, their escape attempts kept us entertained while we waited at my specified coordinates for Ego to show up.
That wasn't the only entertainment we had though. We'd been watching ship after ship show up in our sector now for the past two days as well.
"This is insane." Peter said as well all looked outside the window. Surrounding my ship were thousands, upon thousands of other vessels. It turned out that by actively calling out a Celestial across the whole Galaxy, a lot of other people wanted to come and watch the battle as well!
"Ravagers, Nova Empire, Kree Empire, the freaking Shi'ar Empire, and everyone else! Holy crap, this is insane! We are going to die…" Rocket listed off some of the bigger names that had shown up to watch the fight I had picked.
"I am Groot…"
"I will assist you, crazy lady!" Drax said to me sincerely. "You allowed me to execute Ronan, and for that you have my eternal thanks!"
"You're welcome, Drax." I replied.
Ronan had killed Drax's family. Drax deserved justice. I was also tired of hearing Ronan monologue to us every time he opened his mouth anyways. I let Drax into Ronan's cell, and the outcome was as I expected. Ronan died covered in hundreds of stab wounds about 20 minutes later…
[Ronan was too annoying to keep around anyway. It was always "You're all going to feel my wrath!" Or the "Kree Empire shall rise again!" It was pretty annoying…]
"Of course, the crazy bastard wants to stay…" Rocket lamented Drax siding with us.
"Sister, there's still time for us to leave." Gamora said to Nebula pleadingly. "Why are we picking a fight with a Celestial? Much less Peter Quill's supposed father…"
"Mom always said my father was an Angel… I never thought she was for real." Peter said to himself. It took some convincing, but he eventually believed us when we told him the truth that he was only half human.
"He's definitely no Angel…" I muttered in offense.
Peter confronted me. "Why do you want to kill my old man!? Yes, he was a piece of shit for abandoning mom and me, but that's no reason for him to die! I'm not just going to sit by and let you kill the last of my family!" He reached down and put his hand on his holstered blaster. He wasn't yet aware of what Ego had done to him. I could understand where his anger was coming from.
Nebula placed her hand on her own gun next in my defense. If Peter drew on me, then I had no doubts she would shoot him down first. In response to that, Rocket and Gamora started reaching for their own weapons as well. Everyone around me tensed up and prepared for a fight.
I raised my hands to calm everyone down. "There's no need for a fight here, Peter. I'm sure you'll want to kill Ego even more than me after you hear what I have to say." I said to him.
Peter frowned at me. "Yeah? I seriously doubt it, but what do you have to say? Why would I want him dead too?"
"Ego gave your mom her cancer, so that you would choose to follow him after she died." I bluntly told Peter. "He killed her."
Peter took a second to register my words before an expression of pure hatred spread across his face! "I'll fucking kill him!" He yelled angrily. "How much firepower does this ship have!? Let's blow him to hell!" He said manically.
I smirked at him! "I like your enthusiasm, but I doubt this ship has enough on its own. We can certainly give it a try though." I wanted to test out what this ship could do!
"Oh please, a single ship isn't going to do shit to a being like that!" Gamora said to me before turning to Peter. "This is a Celestial, Peter! The strongest race there is! Even if you're half of one, you have no idea how to harness any of that power yet! Let's just leave. You can have your vengeance another day. Am I the only one thinking rationally here?" Gamora asked everyone else.
"Nope, I'm with you Gamora. The dumb "halfie" is our friend now and I'd rather not see him die either. Let's blow this joint." Rocket suggested while pointing to the door.
"I am Groot? I am Groot."
"Oh c'mon Groot, don't say that!"
I smirked to myself. Letting the Guardians spend 48 hours in a cell together had worked as intended. They had all become friends and I had a feeling they'd probably stick together after all of this. My existence had almost butter-flied away some of the galaxy's greatest heroes. I'm glad I managed to correct it in time, because they will be integral to protecting our galaxy from numerous threats in the future.
The Guardians started squabbling amongst themselves. Peter and Drax wanted to stay and help fight, while Gamora and Rocket wanted to leave. Groot was apparently on the fence, not that I could understand a single thing he said. I thought I could speak every single language in creation, but "Groot" wasn't one of them. Jean couldn't read his mind either. She was getting better at reading alien minds, but a sentient tree was still a tree according to her. She doubted she'd be able to understand him for a while yet.
"Which of us will be using the stone?" Jean asked me while the Guardians squabbled. "We each can only hold it for a few minutes." She explained.
We had tested out the Power Stone a little over a day ago, before the other ships started showing up in our sector. We found that Jean could hold the Stone for 5 minutes and I could only hold it for 4 and a half.
But, when I was holding it…. HOLY SHIT! My stats were multiplied by 50x! I felt like an actual Super Saiyan holding the damn thing! And that was on top of my Goddess of Angel's title already boosting all of my stats 10x over.
[Layla of the Fallen]
[Title: Fourteen Winged Angel, Goddess of Angels, Death's Favored.]
[Level: 84]
[Sacred Gears: Purger of Darkness, Orb of Infinity]
[HP: 114,000]
[MP: 120,000]
[Faith Energy: 128,548,853]
[Vigor: 10,000]
[Strength: 5,000]
[Intelligence: 12,000]
[Luck: 2300]
[Available Free Stat Points: 0]
[Perks and Skills:]
-Goddess of Angels (10x Increase in all Stat Points. Access to all Angelic Abilities. Can turn other races into white or black winged Angels depending on the person's Karma.)
-Death's Favored (Resurrect on Death after 24 hours. Can resurrect up to three people a day.)
-Daughter of Heaven's Will (Passive Skill: Ask and you shall receive! The universe bends to your whims and circumstances that you wish for are far more likely to occur!)
-Observe (Max: No one's level is hidden from your gaze. No one can detect you using Observe on them.)
-Light Manipulation (Max: All Light Abilities Cost 10x less MP to Cast.)
-Senjutsu (Max: Passively regenerate 1000 MP/Min.)
-Rinnegan (Max: All Rinnegan abilities cost 5x less MP.)
-Faith Pool (Can draw upon Faith Energy when MP runs out.)
"I'll hold onto it for now and give it to you when the fight starts. You can start us off with a bang!" I said with a smirk. Outside of Nebula, no one else knew we were in possession of an Infinity Stone. The Guardians never actually found out what was inside the Orb they brought to the Collector.
Jean and I decided to keep it that way. All of the most dangerous forces in the galaxy had sent representatives to watch us square off against a Celestial. If they found out that we had an Infinity Stone, they might stupidly try to attack us themselves ahead of time to steal it. However, if they watched us use that Stone to successfully kill a Celestial, I'm sure they'll have second thoughts.
Well, most of them at least. The desire for power will always sway some stupider beings…
"Ok, that sounds like a plan." Jean replied. We started going over the finer details and decided that she was going to start off the fight by bathing the Celestial/Planet in a wave of Cosmic Fire. We doubted it would kill Ego, but it would certainly hurt him. Also, if Mantis was with Ego, then I would try and kidnap her, via surprise portal, before Jean nuked the planet. She was a very sweet girl and definitely didn't deserve to die in a sea of flames.
While Jean and I were talking, the ship's alarms started to go off!
Nebula, who was now mostly in charge of piloting, called out to us. "Something is approaching the ship! It's small but moving incredibly fast. It's also emitting a massive amount of energy!"
I looked out the window and saw a shooting star of golden light quickly approaching our vessel. It looked incredibly familiar to me. It was a being of some kind, flying through space without a spaceship. As they got closer, I started to recognize who was coming towards us.
"Huh, I think that's Captain Marvel." I said.
"Captain Marvel? Who's that?" Jean asked. "She feels…strong. Maybe stronger than us right now." Jean said while feeling out the newcomer's power.
{Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers: Level 120}
"She is." I said with a whistle of appreciation. "If she's come to talk to us, then let her onboard." I said to Nebula.
"Be careful, even my father is wary of this woman." Nebula opened the hangar and Captain Marvel flew directly into my ship. Some drones would meet her there and escort her to the bridge. A few moments later, she entered. I immediately noticed that she was much closer to her comic book portrayal than her actress from the MCU. The most noticeable difference of course was that–
"Oh wow, she's really hot!" I said out loud almost reflexively while looking at the woman. I let the intrusive thoughts win and accidentally said that out loud… I blushed a bit in embarrassment.
"Layla! That's no way to greet someone!" Jean chastised me.
Nebula scoffed, in what I suspected was jealousy…
Captain Marvel, or Carol Danvers didn't seem to mind my strange greeting. She smiled at me. "Thank you for the compliment. Most of the time people only compliment me on my powers or strength now. It's still nice to be seen as a woman sometimes…" She trailed off.
I coughed awkwardly. "Sorry about that. Welcome aboard my ship. What can I do for you, Miss Danvers?" I asked her while changing to a business-like tone.
She raised a curious eyebrow at me. "You know my true name?"
I nodded. "I'm friends with Nick Fury. He was there when we took down the alternate Thanos that tried to invade Earth."
"Interesting… I saw the video of that. I'm surprised Nick didn't bother calling for my aid. He must really trust you. I'm also surprised to find out that Angel's have actually been real all along. I've only been away from Earth for a few decades and it's apparently changed so much." Carol said with a difficult to read expression.
To me, she looked a bit homesick. I didn't know that for sure just yet though. I wondered if she wanted to talk about it later perhaps?
"As for why I'm here…" She explained that she had been sent on behalf of the various Empires to find out why I was picking a fight with the Celestials. They were afraid other Celestials might start retaliating against the galaxy if I actually managed to kill one. The Celestials weren't friendly with each other, but they didn't like to be seen as weak either. Their inflated collective pride wouldn't allow for anyone to openly challenge them… like I did.
"You don't have to worry about that." I'd already informed Nova Prime about Ego's plans to destroy all life in the galaxy. I decided not to have her spread that information until after Ego was dealt with though. I didn't want him realizing we were on to his plans.
Carol was surprised by my revelation after I gave her a quick rundown. "He truly was that close to succeeding? All he needed was his Half-Human son and all sentient life would have been purged from the galaxy? He must have been planning this for a long time..." She commented with a contemplative look before shaking her head. "Thank you for figuring this out and attempting to put a stop to him. If you wish for my aid, you shall have it." Carol told me.
"Che…Layla doesn't need your help." Nebula clicked her tongue…
"Thanks, we'd love help from someone as powerful as you!" Jean said cheerfully at almost the same time. That seemed to annoy Nebula even more…
Carol glanced at Nebula curiously before shrugging. Her eyes drifted over to the Guardians who were still bickering in the corner, no closer to deciding whether they were going to stay or not. "Quite an interesting group you have here. How did you all meet and how did you acquire a Kree Warship of all things?" She asked me curiously. "Was this Ronan's ship? Where is he?"
I smirked at her. I waved my hand and created a small sofa with Creation of All Things. It was just big enough for two people to sit on… close together of course. "Why don't we chat for a bit, and I'll tell you. I suspect we have a few hours before Ego finally shows up anyway." I said while patting the couch spot next to me. I wouldn't mind having a nice chat with a beautiful super powered woman before having a fight to the death with an alien space god in a few hours.
Carol eyed the spot on the couch next to me strangely before she shrugged and plopped down. "This is a lot weirder than I thought our meeting was going to go." She said.
I laughed, my whole life was weird. "I haven't properly introduced myself yet, I'm Layla of the Fallen." I smiled while holding out my hand to her.
Carol smiled back and took my hand. "Nice to meet you, Layla. I'm Carol Danvers…"
XXX