"I..."
Yondu had his back to the communicator; for a short while, he simply couldn't pull himself out of his surge of emotion.
No one rushed him. They just waited quietly.
After a full forty seconds, Yondu finally managed to rein in the tears that had threatened to spill. He turned back around to face his old brothers.
He scrubbed his stiff face and said quietly, "I've run into a bit of trouble, boys."
"Ha, even an idiot could guess that! Now hurry up and spill what it is!" Charlie-27, the little giant, said with a laugh. His words made Stakar, on the other end, sigh in irritation.
"True enough—even an idiot like 27 could guess."
"Bullshit, Stakar! You wanna throw down?"
"Bring it, bitch! I'll show you how to bury your head in a wall!"
Stakar was still sore, and he used the opportunity to trade jabs with Charlie.
But with Astro around, these guys who'd been tight for hundreds of years wouldn't let it spiral. Astro hauled off and punched them both.
"Quit it and listen to what damn Yondu has to say! Hell!"
"What do I say?" Yondu paused, then broke into a grin. "After twenty-something years, seeing you two sling insults at each other like the old days... goddamn, I can't even tell you how fired up I am! But this ain't the time for me to be laughing. The trouble I've got isn't some small-time shit—it's huge!"
"Oh?" Astro blinked, then shot Yondu a carefree grin. "Bigger than that time we went up against Galactus? Spill it, man!"
"Might not be that serious, but it's pretty damn close! Back then... before you all kicked me out, there was another one of Ego's kids on my ship. You know, when I found out Ego had murdered all his children, there was no way I was handing that boy back over to him. So I raised him. Right up till now."
"Whoa, so you're saying we got ourselves a son—even if he's adopted?!" Martinex, the crystalline man, immediately perked up with an interested grin. To him, if his best brother had a kid, that kid was his kid too.
Hearing that, Yondu hurriedly shook his head. "Bullshit son. I just let him earn his keep on my ship and gave him enough grub to barely get by. And then the little punk went and stole my ship and my credit chip. Can you believe he ran away from home?"
"Ran away from home. Tsk tsk." Martinex gave a cryptic smile. "If you didn't think of yourself as his home, then why'd you say he ran away from home? Come on, Yondu, just admit it. You've got a son, and he's the one in trouble. You actually came to us old brothers for your kid! Haha!"
At this, Martinex got so worked up he couldn't contain himself. He gave Stakar a solid slap on the shoulder. "You see that, old pal? I never once thought Yondu was some heartless money-grubber. He's got more compassion in him than you or me."
While he spoke, Martinex pressed Yondu, "Now get to the point—what happened to our little boy?"
"Fuck fuck fuck! He ain't my son, and even if he was, he's my son, not yours!" Yondu roared in exasperation, then rubbed his temples weakly. "But you're right. While he was out pulling his runaway stunt, he somehow managed to piss off Asgard. When I got his call, the little shit was snoozing happily in an Asgardian prison. Boys, I need your connections. Any of you know some big shot from Asgard? I want to reach out, see if I can get that goddamn idiot sent back."
Yondu's words left the group baffled. They looked at one another. Finally, the honest, big-hearted Charlie-27 said, clueless, "I've been knocking around the universe for over two hundred years and I've never met a single Asgardian in person!"
"That's right." Astro nodded, adding, "Asgardians have always roamed within their own Nine Realms. They barely get involved in anything out here in the cosmos. The only reason any of us have even heard of them is because some big shot went to the Nine Realms and got beaten back, or another big shot went and got beaten back. Like that Galactus we all beat on together—he got beaten back by Asgard before..." Astro shrugged helplessly.
Yondu didn't look disappointed. He knew his old brothers well. As long as the five of them were together, there wasn't a problem in the whole damn galaxy they couldn't solve. No question.
Then Stakar, who'd been scowling, suddenly rapped on the broken table in front of him. "Yondu Udonta!"
"I'm right here, man. Even if you can't get past your beef with me, you don't have to use my full name every time you open your mouth!"
...
Yondu finished, and the channel fell dead silent. Everyone looked at Stakar, whose expression was growing colder by the second.
A long moment passed...
"Pffthaha..." Charlie-27 cracked up, waving his hands frantically. "Sorry, sorry. Couldn't help it. Heh heh..."
Stakar shot Charlie-27 an exasperated eye-roll, then looked back at Yondu. His voice turned hard. "I might know someone who has a connection to Asgard. But before that, I have to know what crime your kid committed. If he's done something truly heinous, I will have no part in this. Even if you get him out, I'll kill him myself."
Yondu pointed a finger at his own head. "Stakar, use that brain of yours. If that boy had really done something bad, you think they'd have given him the chance to call me?"
No sooner had he spoken than Martinex, standing beside Stakar, tapped the device on his wrist. "Yondu, I just pulled the records on your ship. A young guy named Peter Quill left your crew not long ago and took one of your ships with him. Before that, he was camped out on Xandar. No criminal record whatsoever. But when I jacked into his ship's logs, it shows his last gig was a mercenary job to investigate the Chitauri invasion in the Nine Realms. I checked the others who took the job with him—just a bunch of two-bit space vagrants. My guess is their real goal wasn't investigation. They planned on looting or stealing whatever the Chitauri or the Asgardians left behind on the battlefield."
At this, Martinex adjusted his device and went on. "Stakar can rest easy. The Quill kid's clean. Hell, we pulled the same kind of stunts when we were young. He just picked the wrong battlefield. Shouldn't have set foot on Asgardian turf."
"Got it," Stakar nodded after hearing Martinex's rundown, then turned his gaze back to the anxious Yondu.
Quietly, he began. "I've been to Sakaar three times. One of those times was sixty-two years ago, with all of you. Anyway, when I was on Sakaar, I heard the legend of a woman. The most famous hunter on Sakaar goes by the name Brunnhilde. Rumor has it she used to be a Valkyrie of Asgard. I can't confirm whether it's true or not, but..." Stakar spread his hands dismissively, "You all know how it is with rumors. Same as those gossip-mongers in the entertainment feeds: no smoke without fire. So that Brunnhilde really might be a former Valkyrie of Asgard."
"Uh-huh. So it's just a guess?" Yondu grinned. "Would you look at that. After all these decades, Stakar, you've turned into the kind of man who works off rumors and legends."
"So what, you bastard? I'm only responsible for giving a suggestion. Take it or leave it, it's on you."
"Why wouldn't I take it? I'm heading to Sakaar right now!" Yondu nodded decisively. He trusted his old crew utterly, same as he did back in the day.
He cut the comm and set the ship's course straight for Sakaar. Some of his subordinates were a little puzzled by it, but wary of Yondu's authority, nobody was going to argue with him over a flight path.
...
Meanwhile, on the other end of the broken connection, Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex, and the others stared at each other, speechless.
After a beat, Charlie-27 smacked his forehead in annoyance. "He sure was quick about it. I wasn't done enjoying his ugly mug yet!"
"If he wasn't quick, did you want him to have to keep looking at Stakar's ugly mug?" Martinex quipped, then stretched out his right hand, palm down, in front of the others. "I don't know about you all, but my old brother's kid has been hit with some bullshit trouble. I'm going to give him all the help I can. I'm heading to Sakaar right now. Any of you with me?"
"Of course!" Charlie-27 slapped his hand on top of Martinex's without hesitation. "I'm not about to watch Yondu get strung up and beaten by the gladiators on Sakaar."
"Same here. When it comes to a kid, our brother needs all the help we can give." Astro laid his hand over Charlie-27's, then looked at Stakar with both hope and encouragement.
A long silence. Finally, Stakar rose to his feet, looking utterly put out and resigned. He reached out his hand...
Suddenly, his face twisted, and Aleta emerged in a flash. "Guys, Stakar is secretly over the moon about this, haha! He just won't say it!"
"Get lost!" Stakar snatched back control of his body, but the other three were already doubled over laughing.
Under the warm, good-natured laughter of his old friends, Stakar rolled his eyes and slapped his hand on top of theirs. Once the laughter had died away, Stakar finally said, "I will never forgive Yondu for what he did. But I only allow myself to hold that grudge against him. Now let's put on our pointy-toed boots and go kick Yondu's ass all over Sakaar!"
"Hell yeah!"
"Oargo watch over us!"
"Move out!"
...
Nobody knew that the crew long thought vanished from the universe had quietly reunited. Just like nobody knew that the woman gulping down booze at this very moment was a Valkyrie.
Sakaar. The lawless place. Just outside the Grandmaster's great arena, in a rundown old tavern.
Brunnhilde had just delivered her latest catch to the Grandmaster. She'd caught this one near the planet Vormir, out in the southern sector of the galaxy. The new guy was freakishly strong—so strong that even the Grandmaster had paid a small fortune for him. The moment she thought about the millions now sitting in her account, Brunnhilde couldn't help but laugh, showing a mouthful of white teeth.
And the sorry soul she'd bagged? What kind of fate awaited him?
Pfft. She couldn't care less.
If the prey hadn't been so incredibly tough and the bounty so incredibly high, she wouldn't even have bothered to keep the target in her mind at all.
But thinking about the prey, Brunnhilde had to admit: this guy was the strongest she'd ever caught since she'd started this line of work. If he hadn't already been badly wounded when she ran into him, she definitely wouldn't have been his match.
What was that guy's name again?
Brunnhilde thought for a moment. Oh, right—Beta Ray Bill.
The name might not be that easy to remember, but he had a horse face. Hard to miss.
/-\
Enjoying the story? Want to read ahead?
Support the novel and unlock early access to unreleased chapters!
~ +20 Advanced Chapters Available on Patreon! (+1 Chapter daily)
https://p-atreon.com/Its_Zack
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access Patreon normally)