"You're very different. You're something I've never seen before. You, and the immense power inside your body, are both special..."
The gold-skinned priestess kept her eyes locked on Jovian, as if she wanted to see straight through him.
"Heh..."
Jovian only answered her stare with a cold laugh.
"Uh..."
The next second, the priestess who had been staring at Jovian recoiled into the chair behind her, her face full of terror.
In that same instant, the soldiers around them raised their weapons and aimed them at Jovian and the others.
"So, what, you want to fight?"
Jovian swept his gaze across the room, looking at the armed soldiers surrounding him, his voice cold and flat.
"Stand down! Let them leave!"
From her throne, the priestess flashed with panic and immediately barked the order.
At her command, the soldiers exchanged glances and lowered their weapons.
"Let's go."
Jovian turned and moved to the front of the group, speaking to the Guardians in a low voice.
The others, who had already taken up defensive stances and were ready to throw down, immediately turned and followed him. They made their way back to their ship without any resistance at all.
After the Guardians left the palace, one of the soldiers looked at the priestess and asked, "High Priestess, we're just letting them go? They were clearly disrespectful to you."
"It doesn't matter. Let them go. Let them leave here, and leave our planet as fast as possible."
A few nervous beads of sweat rolled down the priestess's forehead. Her eyes were still full of fear.
When she had looked at Jovian, she had not seen a man. She had seen a colossal flaming bird, claws spread wide, screaming with a metallic cry that shook her soul.
The instant she saw that firebird, she knew Jovian was not someone they could afford to provoke.
So she noticed the Phoenix Force. Guess that really is worthy of Adam Warlock...
Jovian walked at the front of the group, muttering to himself inwardly. If he could avoid it, he had no interest in clashing with those little golden NPCs. He wasn't entirely sure how important Adam Warlock would be in the MCU, and if Adam Warlock's destiny really was to take over for the Living Tribunal, then the second Jovian smashed the gold people, the Living Tribunal might come knocking on his door right after. There was no point offending an omniversal-level powerhouse over a bunch of trash.
"Jovian, is there something special about who you are?"
"You guys didn't notice? That gold bitch saw Jovian and freaked out like a complete cowardly bitch."
Rocket Raccoon grinned, clearly entertained by the expression the golden priestess had made.
"Talk less. These people hold grudges like crazy. Let's get the hell out of this place already."
"Every extra second I spend here makes me feel worse."
Star-Lord frowned. He didn't want to waste any more time here. His gut instincts were usually dead-on. If he felt like staying would lead to trouble, then trouble was practically guaranteed.
"All right."
After hearing Star-Lord, everyone boarded the ship and returned to their positions. The ship powered up, while Jovian stood there with his arms folded across his chest, quietly watching.
"Jovian, man, keep an eye on Nebula for us. She's not exactly cooperative."
As Star-Lord and Rocket worked together to get the ship moving, Star-Lord suddenly remembered something and called back to Jovian.
"Easy enough." Jovian nodded, then looked at Nebula, whose hands and feet were bound in cuffs. "I'll be watching you from here on out."
Nebula bared her teeth at him, apparently trying to look intimidating.
"You look weird doing that."
Jovian raised a brow, then lifted one finger and pointed it at her.
The moment his finger settled on Nebula, she felt her body grow hotter and hotter. Then the metal cybernetics attached to her body began falling away. At the same time, the cells inside her body rapidly regenerated, replacing the missing tissue where the machinery had been.
A blue-skinned beauty with long, elegant hair appeared in the middle of the ship.
"Huh..."
Jovian frowned as he looked at the now-restored Nebula. This was no longer some minor issue. That skin color really was a little strange.
"..."
Everyone in the cabin, including Nebula herself, froze.
"Hey, Jovian... are you a god or something?"
Rocket Raccoon couldn't help staring at Jovian as he asked.
Everyone else in the control room immediately pricked up their ears, especially Gamora. The look in her eyes as she stared at Nebula, then at Jovian, was incredibly complicated.
"Haha, I'm not. He is..."
Jovian smiled, shook his head, and pointed at Star-Lord.
"Me?!"
This time, it wasn't just Rocket and Gamora. Even Star-Lord himself was stunned.
"Hahaha, come on, Jovian, you've got jokes. Star-Lord's a god? What, the god of losers?"
Rocket took it as Jovian dodging the question, so he turned it into a joke and tried to move the conversation along.
Everyone in the room burst out laughing, and Drax laughed the hardest of all.
"Heh..."
Jovian laughed along with them a couple of times so he wouldn't seem too out of place, then quietly went back to waiting for Star-Lord's old man to show up.
"How did you do that?"
"My father couldn't even do something like this."
Nebula looked at the pile of fallen cybernetics on the floor, then at her restored reflection in the ship's mirror. Her gaze toward Jovian was filled with curiosity.
"I wanted to do it, so I did it."
"As for your father, Thanos isn't some Eternal with healing abilities. Of course he can't use healing powers."
Jovian answered her in an utterly bored tone.
"Eternal..."
Nebula frowned, clearly turning his words over in her mind.
"No matter what, I'm not thanking you. I never asked you to restore me. Honestly, I liked how I looked before."
Nebula spoke stubbornly, saying the opposite of what she really felt.
"You don't need to thank me. I was bored and just used you to test my power. Besides, the way you looked before was way too ugly. At least now, aside from the skin color, you're easier on the eyes."
Listening to Nebula's inner thoughts, Jovian felt a little speechless. The last time he'd heard this much unfiltered internal monologue had been with Tatsumaki.
"Hey, did you hear that? Jovian said I'm some kind of divine being. And earlier that priestess said my father was something special too. That probably means my father's a Celestial."
Star-Lord was exactly the kind of guy who would climb all the way up the pole if you complimented him once. The second Jovian said he was special, and with the priestess's earlier reaction added in, he immediately concluded that his father was probably some incredible cosmic being. Most importantly, though, it gave him something to brag about, and maybe even a great dad to claim, because Gamora's father was Thanos, the Mad Titan, one of the biggest names in the universe. If Star-Lord didn't have an equally impressive father, it would be hard to say he measured up.
After all, people everywhere cared about being in the same league. In fairy tales, the one who marries the princess is always a prince.
"Hahaha, Jovian was obviously just being nice because he felt bad for you. You don't even know who your dad is, so how would he?"
Rocket Raccoon laughed nonstop. He didn't believe for a second that Star-Lord's father was really some cosmic being.
"Yeah, I'm not buying it. Your father's probably some nobody. Maybe just a random thief."
Rocket shook his head. One look at Star-Lord's loser vibe and he felt like he could already picture the father, probably the exact same kind of guy.
"Hey, want to bet on it?"
Star-Lord was getting fired up now. He glared at Rocket and threw down the challenge.
"If you want to bet, then fine, we bet. Name the stakes. Whatever it is, I'm in!"
Rocket wasn't about to back down. When it came to gambling, he was always ready. As far as he was concerned, he had never lost a bet in his life.
"Then let's bet... let's bet that my father isn't a Celestial!"
Star-Lord's eyes flashed. He immediately seized the initiative.
"Hey! That's cheating! Who bets like that, you scammer?"
Rocket's eyes went wide. It was the first time he'd ever met someone that shameless, someone who would phrase the bet so he couldn't lose either way.
"I'm out. Not betting."
Rocket angrily shook his head. There was no way he was taking that bet. It was unwinnable.
"Ahahaha..."
Star-Lord laughed without a shred of grace.
"I gave you a chance. You just couldn't handle it."
"You really are a man with no courage when it comes to betting against me."
He lifted his chin smugly, doing everything he could to needle Rocket into taking the bet.
"I'm not betting! Don't even try it!"
"That kind of cheap provocation doesn't work on me!"
Rocket refused to take the bait. In his eyes, Star-Lord was a fraud, a shameless little con artist, and he was not about to fall for it.
"Hmph."
Star-Lord snorted and raised his chin even higher.
"I'll take that bet."
Just as Star-Lord was sitting there at the controls, humming to himself and looking pleased, Jovian walked up to him and spoke softly.
"Huh?"
Star-Lord jerked in surprise and nearly sent the ship off course.
"Star-Lord, watch it!"
Seeing the ship veer in the wrong direction, Gamora hurriedly warned him.
"Oh, right!"
Star-Lord panicked and yanked the controls back, narrowly avoiding a direct collision with an oncoming ship.
"What did you say, Jovian?"
After correcting their course, Star-Lord wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked back at Jovian.
"I said I'll bet with you."
Jovian simply repeated the same four words.
"You want to bet with me? Bet on what?"
Star-Lord stared at him, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.
"On your father's identity. I'm betting that your father is a Celestial."
Jovian curled his lips slightly and met Star-Lord's eyes as he spoke.
"Hahaha..."
"Have you lost your mind? Come on, man, you really don't need to humor Star-Lord like this. His dad might just be some pirate. Honestly, Yondu looks way more like his father to me."
Rocket laughed so hard it was ridiculous, like Jovian had just told the greatest joke in the universe.
"Hey, Yondu is definitely not my father."
Star-Lord immediately corrected him.
"I mean his biological father, not the guy who raised him."
Jovian shook his head and clarified.
"Yondu isn't the guy who raised me either. Shit, why does everybody keep thinking Yondu's my dad?"
Star-Lord looked exasperated. He genuinely couldn't understand why everyone made that connection.
"That's not important. What matters is, are you taking the bet?"
Jovian smiled at Star-Lord.
"I'm in. Why wouldn't I be?"
Star-Lord was proud enough that he wasn't about to back down from this.
"So what do you want to bet? Whatever stake you put on the table, I'll match it."
He looked at Jovian seriously, even though deep down he was already starting to lose confidence. For some reason, he had a bad feeling he was going to lose, but he refused to admit it.
"If we're betting, let's make it big. I'll put up a miniature universe against six Infinity Stones."
"If you win, I'll give you a miniature universe. If I win, you collect all six Infinity Stones from your universe and hand them over to me."
Jovian calmly laid out the terms.
"What the fuck?!"
"A miniature universe?"
Everyone's eyes widened at the stakes.
"Are you joking?"
Gamora, Star-Lord, Rocket, all of them thought Jovian had to be kidding.
"I'm not joking. I really do have a miniature universe..."
"Actually, forget it. That's probably too hard for you people to wrap your heads around, so let's lower the stakes..."
He thought for a moment, then added, "How about this? If you win, I'll help you kill Thanos."
"Kill Thanos?"
Even after Jovian lowered the stakes, everyone was still stunned. Thanos was the undisputed tyrant of the entire observable universe, yet Jovian said it as casually as if he were talking about swatting some random thug.
"Man, that kind of talk is just..."
Star-Lord laughed, clearly finding the idea absurd. He was already preparing to turn down the most ridiculous wager he'd ever heard.
"Fine. We bet."
Before Star-Lord could say anything else, Gamora accepted on his behalf.
"Uh... then yeah, we bet."
Star-Lord's expression changed several times before he finally agreed.
"Good..."
Looking at Star-Lord, who had been hooked purely because of Gamora, Jovian could only shake his head. Simps really were hopeless.
"But I don't know who my father is, so there's no way to prove which one of us is right."
Star-Lord quickly added that, clearly trying to hand Jovian a graceful way out.
"No need. Star-Lord, your dad's here."
Jovian had no intention of taking the out Star-Lord was offering. He raised his left hand and pointed out the window.
"Outside...?"
The moment they heard that Star-Lord's father had arrived, everyone followed Jovian's finger and looked.
"What the fuck?!"
Out in space, they saw an old man riding on a ship as if it were a chariot, gripping invisible reins and standing right out in front of it. His whole body was exposed to the vacuum of space, to the radiation and lethal cold that should have frozen any normal person solid, and yet he kept charging forward like it was the coolest thing in the universe.
The old man seemed to notice the stunned expressions on Star-Lord and the others. Smiling, he casually waved through the ship's window, as if he were greeting old friends.
"Am I seeing things? Is there really someone in this world who can survive the vacuum of space with nothing but his body?"
"Does that mean Star-Lord's father really is a Celestial?"
Everyone in the ship except Jovian was completely dumbfounded by that ridiculously flashy entrance.
//Chapter 133 is fixed.
// I hope you enjoyed this massive release. Again, thanks for the Power Stones, comments, reviews, etc. Also, thanks to the supporters on Ptrn for voting in the poll.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 10 extra free chapters //[email protected]/Razeil0810