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Homelander opened his eyes and glanced at the caller ID.
Jane Foster.
After answering the phone, his expression became increasingly serious.
Rocket Raccoon? Blue skin? A sapling?
Guardians of the Galaxy?
No, this setup... is it the plotline of Guardians 2?
"Where did they say they were going?" Homelander sat up straight as Skynet smoothly massaged his shoulders.
"They said they were going to... Ego the Living Planet," Jane replied. "To find someone named Quill."
"Alright, tell them to wait. I'm coming over right now."
Hanging up the phone, Homelander fell into deep thought.
Ego the Living Planet.
The name was like a bolt of lightning, piercing through Homelander's long-forgotten memories.
He had been so busy causing trouble on Earth that he had completely forgotten about this.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there's an extremely dangerous monster.
The Celestials, Ego.
That living Planet.
To complete his so-called "Expansion" plan—which was to assimilate the entire Universe into a part of himself—he had planted his "seeds" on millions of Planets.
And Earth was one of them.
In the plot of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Ego planted a seed in a forest in Missouri.
Those seeds usually remain dormant. But once activated, they grow wildly like cancer cells, devouring all life on the Planet and even the Planet itself.
"Damn it..."
Homelander cursed under his breath.
He abruptly threw back the covers and stepped barefoot onto the carpet.
"What's wrong, sir?" Skynet asked with concern, sensing Homelander's emotional fluctuations.
"There's a bit of trouble."
Homelander thought rapidly while getting dressed.
Since Yondu and the others are with Rocket, that means... that old bastard Ego has already found his son, Peter Quill.
He hadn't expected the timeline to reach this point so quickly.
"The seed... let me think... it's in Missouri."
Homelander stood up and paced back and forth.
"In the woods of St. Charles."
That was the location shown in the movie.
"Skynet."
Homelander looked at Skynet.
"I am here, sir."
Beside him, Skynet was elegantly putting on her clothes piece by piece.
In fact, her body could directly transform into clothes, but she chose not to do so.
"I want you to go to St. Charles, Missouri."
"On the edge of that town, there's a Dairy Queen dessert shop that's about to go out of business. I want you to search the woods within a five-kilometer radius of it."
"Search for what, sir?" Faint lights flickered in Skynet's eyes several times.
"A seed."
Homelander looked up and to the left, recalling the scenes from the movie.
"It doesn't look like any plant on Earth. It glows with an eerie blue light and has a certain pulsation, like an alien heart buried in the soil."
"Understood, Mr. Starr," Skynet readily agreed.
"Good. It's time for me to meet our extraterrestrial guests as well."
...V.G.D. Experimental Base No. 2.
Rocket Raccoon held a screwdriver in his hand and was leaning over an instrument console, trying to pry open the cover.
"Hey! Stop! That's a precision instrument!" Jane Foster was fuming with rage. She held Mjolnir aloft, and if Thor hadn't been holding her back, she would have smashed it down long ago.
"Precision? Ha!" Rocket Raccoon didn't even look up, his furry paws moving with incredible agility. "The energy conversion rate of this thing is outrageously low! I'm helping you optimize these burdens! Got it, native?"
"I am Groot." The little tree person was playing with a measuring cup nearby, trying to put it on his head.
Yondu leaned against the damaged spaceship, his eyes warily scanning the Vought security personnel holding guns around them. That lethal Yaka Arrow hovered in front of him, ready to strike.
"Boom—!"
Suddenly, there was a roar.
The powerful air pressure deliberately created by Homelander made everyone's clothes flutter loudly.
The screwdriver in Rocket's hand almost fell into the instrument. He looked up, cursing, "Who the hell is it now? Do people on this Planet always have to make such a big scene when they show up?"
Homelander hovered in mid-air, his star-spangled cape slowly settling behind him. He didn't land immediately, instead maintaining a condescending posture as he scanned every extraterrestrial visitor on the scene.
Yondu's expression changed slightly. As a seasoned Raider, he could sniff out the scent of the strong.
The man in the skin-tight suit before him reminded him of those formidable beings in the Universe.
"Put away your arrow, blue-skinned gentleman."
Homelander spoke slowly and expressionlessly, carrying the authority of a superior.
"On Earth, pointing a weapon at the Boss is a very impolite behavior."
Yondu hesitated for a moment, then whistled, and the hovering Yaka Arrow obediently returned to his waist.
Homelander then landed on the ground with satisfaction, the coldness on his face instantly melting away to be replaced by a standard diplomatic smile.
"Welcome to Earth, friends from afar."
He walked over to Jane's side and gently patted the shoulder of the still-angry The Mighty Thor, signaling her to relax.
"Boss?" Rocket jumped off the console, patted the dust off his hands, and looked up at Homelander. "Alright, 'Boss'. Your underlings broke our ship and dragged us here from hundreds of light-years away. How are we going to settle this debt?"
"If it was an accident caused by our experiment, Vought will take full responsibility."
Homelander maintained his composure, his gaze falling on Rocket.
"A talking little Rocket Raccoon... that's quite rare."
"I'm Rocket! Not a Rocket Raccoon!" Rocket's fur bristled as he pulled out the energy gun from his back and pointed it at Homelander. "Call me a Rocket Raccoon again and I'll blow your head off!"
Homelander smiled slightly, raised an eyebrow, and a red light flashed in his eyes.
"Zzt—!"
Two thin beams of Heat Vision precisely sliced through the barrel of the energy gun in Rocket's hand.
"Clang."
Half of the gun barrel fell to the ground.
Rocket stared blankly at the half-gun in his hand, then looked at Homelander.
"...Fine."
He swallowed hard, his ears drooping.
"Fine, the little Rocket Raccoon is actually quite cute..."
"Haha, Rocket, I still prefer the way you were before." Yondu laughed, then looked at Homelander. "We don't need you to take responsibility for anything, just help us fix our ship. We need to get to Ego the Living Planet as soon as possible because our people are still there."
"Of course, we will do our best to assist you in repairing the ship."
Homelander acted very generously.
"This Planet's top engineer, Mr. Tony Stark, is already on his way. I believe this will make your engine repair work much more efficient."
Hearing this, Yondu breathed a sigh of relief.
"Furthermore... I have one request."
Homelander changed the subject, pointing at the massive interstellar jump ring.
"As you can see, our technology is still in its infancy."
He walked up to Rocket, squatted down, and leveled his gaze with the irritable Rocket Raccoon.
"...Mr. Rocket, I need you to give our scientists a lesson."