Heisenberg of Asgard had made up his mind. The petty grudge between him and Doomsday needed to be settled sooner rather than later.
In about half a month, once the Bifrost was fully restored, Heisenberg would set out.
The reason for his caution was simple: this time, he had no intention of stopping time in the Marvel universe.
At present, his reach only extended across the Marvel and DC worlds. Pausing things every now and then might not cause any real trouble.
But in the future, when he ruled over countless worlds?
Would he truly need to freeze everything just to wait for him?
Or, would he even have the patience to personally handle every minute in every single universe?
Of course not.
…
Heisenberg of Asgard had reached his decision.
At the same time, aboard a Ravager ship, Yondu reached his own.
…
The moment Yondu first opened the channel to his old friends, he truly hesitated.
He didn't want to. He didn't dare. And he was too ashamed to ask anything of them.
After being cast out of the Ravagers for certain misdeeds, he'd gone far too long without contacting those old friends.
How long?
Pretty much ever since Quill had come aboard his ship.
Everything, every last bit of it, could be traced back to Peter Quill.
And now, because of that very kid, he was about to reach out to those people again.
A cold, frost-like unwillingness crept across Yondu's blue skin.
His right hand trembling, he forced himself to press the communication button.
A moment later, the call connected, and Yondu squeezed his eyes shut.
He could barely bring himself to look at the screen, let alone face the man who filled him with shame and regret.
…
In the distant Sterfao system, the Ravagers had just wrapped up a massive, seven-month deep-space escort mission.
They collected their payment, and on the way back to the lawless planet where they gathered, they broke out the ship's existing liquor and got an early start on a small victory party.
Unlike the rowdy, mixed-up drinking of their underlings, the Ravagers' elders and leaders sat together, bored out of their minds, playing cards.
At the head of the table sat the Ravagers' undisputed core: Victory Colonel Astro.
To his left and right were the stern, rigid-faced Starhawk, Stakar, and the muscle-bound Charlie-27.
Opposite Victory Colonel was the crystalline being, Martin Nox of the Ice.
The four of them slapped down card after card, but there wasn't a trace of joy on their faces.
Think they'd lost a lot of money?
Not a chance.
They couldn't care less about winning or losing. If they didn't have so many underlings and free citizens to feed, they wouldn't even care about money itself.
Their happiness had vanished only because their once-perfect crew had long been missing a vital piece.
Yondu.
Still, when all of them were together, no one ever uttered the name that brought them such pain.
But sometimes, the harder you avoided something, the more likely it was to come knocking at your door.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz!
Right in the middle of the game, Astro's communicator rang.
Astro paid it no mind. He casually tossed down his card and glanced at the caller ID.
In the very next instant, he froze.
The shift in his expression was caught by the one person among them who cared for him the most—Starhawk.
In a flash, Starhawk Stakar's face—identical to Sylvester Stallone's—twisted with a strangely feminine wariness.
Before Astro could answer, Stakar reached out, grabbed Astro's wrist, and opened the channel himself.
And from that ruggedly masculine face, Stallone's… ahem, Stakar's face, came an outrageously feminine outburst.
"I've got to see for myself which little tramp's call has you this worked up!"
"Hey, Aleta, don't be like that!"
The ice-crystal man beside them patted Stakar on the shoulder, yet the name that left his mouth was Aleta.
Hearing that, Stakar whipped his head around to glare at Martin Nox.
In that split second, his Stallone-like face swiftly morphed into the face of Stallone's daughter.
At the same time, this daughter of Stallone before them snarled in displeasure.
"You're telling me not to be like that? The moment I loosen my grip on you, you'll drag him off to some damned den to fool around with some damned hussies!"
She then turned her glare back on Victory Colonel Astro.
"Answer it, now! I have to see who has you so on edge!"
Yelled at by Aleta like that, Astro could only shake his head helplessly and answer the call.
And so, Yondu's face appeared before them, making all four of them shoot to their feet in shock.
Before Aleta could get a single word out, her face shifted back into Stakar's.
Stakar slammed his hand down on the table, caving it in, and roared at that damned Yondu.
"You damned bastard, filthy slaver, idiot who sent countless children to their doom—how dare you still have the nerve to call Astro!"
"Ahaha, Stakar! I knew I had your name saved right next to Victory Colonel's—I always knew you two were glued at the damn hip!"
Yondu shot back without the slightest courtesy.
After that curse, Stakar's face rapidly shifted into Aleta's.
But instead of the fierce expression she should have worn, Aleta actually smiled at Yondu.
"Oh, it's you, Yondu. Then I can relax.
It's fine. Feel free to call Astro as much as you like, as long as his line isn't tied up by some damned tramp!"
With that, Aleta's expression shifted, and she reverted from female to male in an instant.
Stakar immediately continued bellowing at Yondu.
"Impossible, Yondu! Where do you get the nerve to come begging the Ravagers for help after committing such a monumental wrong?!
Never, ever expect us to lift a finger for you again!
Never!"
"Never my ass!" Aleta popped back out. "Don't listen to my brother. He just can't get past it. I don't care about the crap you pulled. You were a pitiful man too—Ego deceived you!"
"Bullshit, Aleta! Stop interrupting!"
Stakar's face surfaced again. He stared at Yondu, and though the anger in his heart was boundless, his ever-shifting features simply couldn't summon that fury back in an instant.
He fell silent for a moment, and finally spoke to Yondu.
"Maybe my sister Aleta is right. But you have to know one thing: deceived or not, you still delivered hundreds upon hundreds of children into Ego's hands!
No matter what your intentions were, no matter whether you believed Ego's claim that you were just returning children to their fathers who missed them,
you must always know this: you caused the deaths of those children. You fed them into the maw of a demon!"
With that, Stakar seemed to lose all his strength and slumped back into his seat.
Aleta, as if understanding exactly how her body-sharing brother felt, didn't emerge to fight him for control of their shared voice.
Victory Colonel and the others stood frozen, Stakar's words having stripped them of the confidence to defend Yondu.
Even Yondu himself now wore an expression of sheer agony and helplessness.
Across the vast sea of stars and the communication link, the five of them sank into a dejected silence.
The silence held for a long while, until the one man who hadn't yet spoken finally shattered it.
The small giant, Charlie-27, licked his thick lips and rumbled at Yondu.
"Tell us what you need, Yondu!
Unless it's something truly important, you'd never call us.
I don't care what Astro and Stakar think—I know we're brothers. We were, we are, and we always will be.
You wronged a lot of people. You got a lot of children killed.
But as long as you never betrayed me, and never betrayed us, I'll always be there to help when you need it!"
The moment Charlie-27 finished, Victory Colonel Astro, seated at the head, nodded without hesitation.
Not even waiting for Yondu's reply, he slapped the remains of the table Stakar had smashed and declared resolutely.
"Charlie's right, Yondu. You may have broken the Ravager code, shattered the creed of free citizens of the cosmos.
But so long as you haven't betrayed us in a single day, then no one—no one—can stop us from extending a hand to you!"
"But what about the children who died? Why should they have to suffer what they never should have—"
"That's enough, Stakar!"
Stakar, gearing up to continue his tirade against Yondu, was cut off by the ice-crystal man.
Martin Nox exhaled a deep, frigid breath, then turned to the group and spoke in summary.
"Whether Yondu was deceived or not, he made a mistake. He violated the Ravager creed.
But we must acknowledge: we already punished him. His crew was expelled from the hundred Ravager clans long ago, and he lost his identity as a Ravager a long time ago!"
He patted Stakar's arm and explained with emphasis.
"He was wrong, but he already paid the price!
The flame badge has been stripped from his chest forever. The horn of freedom will never sound for him again!
The light of Olgo will never shine upon his tombstone!
Yet beyond that—after he received the punishment he deserved—we can't be so harsh on our own brother.
As long as Yondu isn't asking to rejoin the Ravager ranks, we have no reason to turn our backs on him!"
Turning, Martin Nox faced the communicator, looking at Yondu, whose eyes had long since reddened.
"Yondu Udonta, last son of the Centaurian planet, our blood kin.
Tell me, tell Astro and Charlie-27, and say it loud and clear for Stakar and Aleta.
What happened to you? Why did you call us? And how can we help you, my brother?"
Hearing the ice-crystal man Martin Nox's words, Yondu felt as though a heavy hammer had struck his heart, making it clench into a tight, painful knot.
Tears nearly spilled from his eyes. It was only by craning his head back with all his might, gasping for air with all his might, that he barely managed to keep them from falling.
He pulled himself together, trying his hardest to look composed.
But the moment he opened his mouth, his emotion could no longer be contained.
"Stakar… I…"
He briefly lost the strength to speak. Wheeling around, he turned his back to his brothers and tipped his head skyward.
And in that moment, Stakar finally looked directly at Yondu, this long-lost old comrade-in-arms.
"Just tell us your trouble, you damned bastard. You'd better not let me hear you sniveling to rejoin the Ravagers—that'd make me look down on you, Yondu!"
As soon as Stakar finished, Victory Colonel, his eyes now reddened too, clapped Stakar on the shoulder.
Then, Victory Colonel spoke into the communicator toward Yondu, who had turned his back to them.
"Yondu, don't blame Stakar for treating you like this. He's a son of Ego, after all.
And every child you delivered into Ego's hands was his half-sibling!
It's just that neither you nor we knew until after it was all over—when Stakar finally told us the secret he'd planned to take to his grave.
Put aside that damned Ego and those poor children. Put aside Ego's cursed lies and his sick pleasure in tearing our crew apart…
We're still brothers. We're still family.
So tell us the trouble you're in. We will always be by your side, Yondu!"
/-\
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