Ego was surprisingly approachable and broad-minded. Faced with such an odd question, he answered with complete candor. "That's right, I made myself a penis, and I'd say it qualifies as pretty impressive."
Drax looked genuinely impressed.
"In fact, this body of mine has all the organs a mortal ought to have. I can feel pain, I can eat and taste food, and I have a complete digestive system. I wanted to experience real human life, joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. If I had never walked the universe in this body, I never would have fallen in love with anyone. And that would have been unbearably lonely, wouldn't it?"
After explaining his origins to the outsiders, Ego invited them to find rooms for themselves in the palace or go outside and enjoy the scenery. He wanted to spend the next little while talking with Quill about family matters after their long separation.
Drax wandered aimlessly and eventually made his way outside the palace. Feeling a little restless, he sat down on the steps and admired the beauty of the Celestial world.
Ego's attendant, Mantis, approached him of her own accord. She looked to be in her early twenties and had the air of someone who had never seen much of the world, still holding onto a childlike innocence and naivete. Unexpectedly, she and Drax got along rather well, so she sat down beside him.
Drax was bald, bare-chested, and fierce-faced, like some wild beast in human form. Mantis, meanwhile, was slender and delicate, with soft features and a pretty face. Sitting together, the two of them looked like the kind of pair that ought to have some spark between them. Drax stared at the young attendant for a long moment, then spoke from the heart. "You're not my type. Honestly, you're pretty ugly."
Mantis smiled foolishly. "Okay."
"Ugh. It's not that I'm picky, you're just way too skinny, and those droopy antennae on your forehead make you look like a bug. Poor girl. You probably have no idea what it's like to suffer from being beautiful. A handsome man like me gets harassed all the time."
Mantis's mouth fell open in surprise. "Wow! Then how do you deal with people who harass you?"
"I challenge them, obviously. You can't go easy on scumbags like that."
Even though Drax kept reacting to Mantis with the occasional burst of instinctive revulsion, the conversation somehow flowed along just fine.
"So how did you meet Quill?"
"I met Quill in prison. I knew right away he was a man with determination. After me, he's the second strongest man I've seen take on ten opponents at once. Though when I did it, I beat up half the prison. Quill was still a little short of that."
"And Gamora?"
"Also prison. I was planning to kill her, so I stopped a few thugs from assaulting her, took one of their knives, and put it to her throat." Drax made a throat-slitting gesture, teaching it to the innocent and sheltered Mantis with total seriousness. "See this? Quill taught me this one. It means slit the throat. One day, I'm going to do exactly that to Ronan."
He said it all with grave seriousness, though there was not much emotion in his voice.
Mantis lightly touched Drax's shoulder. Her empathic power activated, and the rage and sorrow inside that hulking fool's chest came pouring out. It hit her like a punch to the face, so hard that tears and snot immediately started running down her face.
"You have so much sadness inside you. How can you look like nothing is wrong?"
"Because I cannot afford weakness. Otherwise no one will avenge my family or my people. In the face of disaster, there is only duty." Drax answered as though this were the most obvious thing in the world. "Now I have Quill and Gamora helping me. The odds that we can kill Ronan together are very good."
"Your family and your people were all murdered. What were they like?"
"My wife was beautiful. I met her at a dance. Out of everyone there, she was the only one who did not move at all. No matter how passionate the drums were, they could not tempt her to shift her feet or even bob her head. She was calm as ice. The moment I saw her, I knew we were meant for each other. And my children, if you had met them, you would know how lovable those little brats were..." He paused. "Sometimes I feel like they're still alive. After I've been away from my homeworld for too long, I start imagining everything there is still the way it used to be. That when the ship lands, my family will come to greet me, and my people will still be out on the grasslands roasting Orloni."
"...Drax, if you want revenge, you have to leave this place." After struggling with herself, Mantis chose to betray the cold and heartless Ego. "Take Quill and Gamora with you. I can fly the ship. Otherwise all of you are going to die."
Elsewhere, Gamora had realized early on that although the planet was breathtakingly beautiful, it lacked vitality. She tried to find a bird or an insect somewhere near the surface, but it was useless. Before she noticed how far she had gone, she had wandered out into the wilds. Then she heard the roar of a ship tearing through the atmosphere overhead. Looking up, she saw Ravager landing craft dropping toward the ground like meteors.
She was quickly surrounded. The Ravagers closed in with guns raised, then stepped aside to let their captain and the wizard through.
Yondu led the way, but after giving Gamora a quick once-over, he waved his men back. "Move. We're finding Peter. This time I really am going to skin him alive!"
The crew erupted in wild, ape-like whoops and followed their captain toward the Celestial palace.
Gamora fixed her eyes on Skyl, then noticed the Infinity Scepter in his hand. Four gems shone against one another, and her heart skipped a beat.
"So it's you. Quill mentioned you." But the instant she opened her mouth, she realized her throat was too tight and her voice came out hoarse. She quickly cleared it. "I didn't expect you to be working with the Ravagers."
"This planet is well hidden. We had no choice but to ask a guide for help." Skyl placed a hand over his chest in greeting. "And you must be Thanos's daughter."
"You know who I am?" Gamora was pleased instead of alarmed. "Then it sounds like you know your enemy well."
"You are one of the survivors of Thanos's salvation plan. You have my sincere sympathy for everything you endured."
"I don't need sympathy." Gamora ground out the words through clenched teeth. "You and he are both collecting the Infinity Stones, so that makes you irreconcilable enemies. Sooner or later, one of you will kill the other. But I believe you can defeat him. I can tell you everything about Thanos, everything I know, as long as you kill him for me."
Skyl nodded. "That can wait. We still have a more immediate problem."
"You mean those Ravagers are here to make trouble for Quill, right?"
"Quite the opposite. They came to save him."
Skyl looked back toward the Celestial palace, and the others followed his gaze. The Ravager mob looked like a circus gathering outside Caesar's Palace, that whole pack of degenerates shouting at Quill to get out there.
The next second, the earth split open. A blue energy tendril more than half a mile long burst up from deep in the bedrock and swept across the ground, nearly wiping the Ravagers out in one blow.
Gali and Jormungand stared at the energy tendril and immediately started drooling. "Skyl! I want to eat that!"
"Let's say hello to the host first."
Skyl gave the Infinity Scepter a light wave. The Power Stone blazed with light, and a magnitude-10 superquake burst outward from the point where the scepter struck, racing across the entire planet.
The tough ground split wide apart with a thunderous crack, like a walnut being smashed open, and the air filled with the scent of a Celestial brain, rich and nutty.
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