The moment Heisenberg thought about Quill's glorious track record, he couldn't help letting his mind wander.
If he brought Quill along to the world of One Piece, would he only need to drop Quill on Whitebeard's turf…
And then, without doing a thing, Whitebeard would one hundred percent adopt Quill as a son, only to die from a string of freak accidents and natural disasters before the Summit War even started?
Put that way, Quill wasn't just useless trash after all. If you used him on the right blade, at the very least he could screw over his old man…
Cough…
Heisenberg snapped out of his nonsensical train of thought and made a slight lifting gesture with his right hand.
Instantly, Quill, who had been kneeling on the ground, was pulled upright by an invisible force.
Quill stared down at his own legs, completely dumbfounded. After a moment of thought, he decisively raised a thumb toward Heisenberg.
"As expected of His Majesty Odin! Magnanimous!!!"
"Magnanimous my ass, I'm Heisenberg!!!"
Heisenberg shot back, annoyed. At the same time, he reached out and lightly tapped the air in Quill's direction.
With that tapping motion, Quill was sent flying like he'd been rammed by an AE86 taking a high-speed corner, smashing straight into a pillar of the small theater in the distance.
Meanwhile, Heisenberg turned to Heimdall and Loki and asked, puzzled.
"Where did you two dig this guy up?"
"Your Majesty, this is Peter Quill, one of the children of Ego the Celestial.
Half an hour ago, he invaded our territory alongside a group of space pirates!
After I reported to General Hela, I received General Hela's instructions and, together with Loki, brought this son of a Celestial to Asgard as a guest!"
"Heh, so he just delivered himself to our doorstep."
Heisenberg nodded in understanding, then gave a bored instruction.
"Throw him in the dungeons. Have him contact his father to come pick him up from Asgard. If no one shows, lock him up till he dies!"
"Yes, Your Majesty!"
Heimdall accepted the order with unconcealed excitement. In his eyes, this was Heisenberg signaling his intent to stand against the Celestials!
As one of the Aesir, Heimdall was thrilled that his new king possessed a boldness far surpassing the rulers of the past.
So he turned around without hesitation, strode proudly up to Quill, and casually scooped up the shrimp-like Quill with one hand.
While walking toward the dungeons, Heimdall addressed Quill.
"Peter Quill, even as a descendant of the Celestials, you have no right to trespass upon the territory of the Aesir and act recklessly.
As a lesson, His Majesty has thrown you into the dungeons. However, in consideration of your status, we will neither torture you nor confiscate your communication device.
Find a way to contact that irresponsible father of yours. Unless he comes to Asgard in person to retrieve you, do not even think about stepping half a foot out of that cell.
Lastly, remember this lesson well. Never again trespass upon lands that do not belong to you, Son of a Celestial!"
After finishing, no matter how much Quill struggled, Heimdall refused to exchange another word with this waste of a godly scion.
And so, wailing all the way, Quill was tossed into a cell and utterly stripped of his freedom to be a sand sculpture!
Sitting numbly in that immaculate Asgardian prison cell, Quill looked around in disbelief.
First, in a daze, he slapped himself twice.
Slap! Slap!
The slaps rang out crisp and clear, making Quill yelp in pain. He immediately reached up to rub his own face.
While rubbing, he let out a chuckle and started muttering to himself.
"I can't freaking believe it—I actually escaped getting hunted down by Asgard!!!
I'm alive!!!"
That's right, you thought he was depressed?
As if!
Quill, ever the hopeless optimist, was perpetually skilled at finding the silver lining in even the worst circumstances.
Even after being captured by Heimdall, even after being thrown into a cell.
What filled his mind was still the tragic fates of his temporary teammates!
Just look at those poor bastards frozen solid!
Compared to those dead guys, look around: an Asgardian velvet cot for a bed, murals and tiles done in authentic Aesir mythic style.
Tsk, being alive smells pretty sweet, doesn't it?
Just then, a guard pushed open the cell door, walked in, and placed a tray of food in Quill's room.
Setting the tray down with cold indifference, the guard couldn't be bothered to say a single word to Quill.
Once the guard left, Quill sprang up from the floor.
"Ha! They even feed you!"
He pounced on the tray and blissfully inhaled the scent of Asgard's signature roast camel-beef.
"Damn, the prison food here is actually better than what I ate on Xandar!"
He murmured a complaint, then stuffed the cutlet into his mouth, washing it down by chugging the thick soup straight from the bowl.
Well fed and watered, Quill plopped onto the bed, crossed his legs, and finally started thinking over his current situation.
"Those Asgardians seem to have a few screws loose. They're just like the elementary school teachers I remember—the second anything goes wrong, they want to call your parents. What the hell…!!!"
He fished out his communicator in annoyance, tossed that useless piece of junk aside, and kept thinking.
"They seem absolutely certain I have a father, but I've never once in my life met my so-called father. So where the hell am I supposed to find my dad?
But hey, it did just hit me—I never knew who my dad was anyway. Heh, Daddy, where'd you go?"
As he thought, a hint of a sour expression crept onto his face.
"Even when Mom died, you still didn't bother showing up, not even for a look. Damn you!
You better have dropped dead somewhere out there in the universe. Because if I ever see you, I swear I'll beat your brains out for my mom!"
At that, Quill ground his teeth fiercely, then casually dialed out on his communicator.
A moment later, a drowsy, blue-skinned figure appeared before him.
The figure yawned, then suddenly registered who Quill was. His eyes widened with venom as he glared.
"So it's you, damn it!
I took you in and raised you on my ship ever since you were small, and you repay me by stealing from me, the man who raised you!!!
Peter Quill, you bastard whose conscience got devoured by a Flerken! If it weren't for me, my crazy crew would have gnawed the flesh off your bones long ago!
And then you stole my ship and took the credit chip I accidentally left in my quarters!
And after all that, you actually have the nerve to call me, you worthless piece of trash!!!"
On the other end of the comm, the blue-skinned figure's tirade made Quill grin and bear it with a constant apologetic smile.
"My fault, it's all my fault, Yondu!
Be the bigger man. Forget our past grievances for a moment. I've got a huge deal to pitch you right now!"
Hearing that, Yondu abruptly straightened up on the other end.
First, he studied Quill's surroundings. When he recognized that it was a prison cell, he couldn't help but frown uneasily.
Still, Yondu buried his concern deep down and continued cursing Quill out without mercy.
"A huge deal?
Go to hell!
You think I can't see that you've gotten yourself locked up right now?!
Still, this isn't a Xandarian prison. Hah! You miserable little bastard, how about you tell me the embarrassing story of where you got caught? It'll give me something to laugh about tonight while I drink a few extra glasses!"
"Cut the crap, Yondu. I'm in trouble, but I really do have a huge deal to cut you in on!"
At this, Quill carefully glanced left and right, then continued quietly.
"I just got hold of some huge intel. We could sell it for at least a few hundred thousand!
Yondu, bring your people and bust me out. I'll give you all the intel. Trust me!"
"Horseshit. How could I possibly trust you? Not a single true word has ever come out of your freaking mouth!"
Yondu let out a dark chuckle and tapped his communicator.
"So, just tell me your intel straight up. If it's really worth something, I'll think about it. Maybe I'll come find you!
If the intel you give me is worthless, then you just wait. I'll still come find you—and haul you from that damn cell straight into my ship's fighting pit!
My bastards here have been dying to eat you for ages. You'll end up in their mouths, not a bone left!!!"
"Come on, they don't eat people! We lived together for over twenty years—you think I don't know they're not cannibals?!"
Hearing Yondu's same tired threat after all these decades, Quill helplessly smacked his own forehead. Then he got straight to the point.
"Right now I'm sitting in an Asgardian prison cell, I—"
Before he could finish, Yondu's eyes went impossibly wide on the other end of the comm!
He instantly cut Quill off, shouting in disbelief.
"You're in freaking Asgard! Are you telling me it's that Asgard, the one in the Nine Realms?!"
The words barely out of his mouth, Yondu stood up in agitation and began pacing anxiously.
After pacing for a while, he slapped his thigh hard!
"You are a goddamn disaster, Quill! I can't believe that in just the short time you've been out on your own, you've already managed to piss off one of the three most untouchable forces in the universe!
Did I never tell you?! Never start trouble with the Ravagers, the Titan Legions, and Asgard!!!
Just stay put in that cell, quiet and obedient. Don't even think about any clever tricks. Asgard is the realm of gods—even real gods have a hard time breaking out of its prisons.
I'll figure something out on my end. I just wonder what the hell His Majesty Odin even likes!
You… ah, you… goddammit. Wait there for me!"
Yondu finished, abruptly cut the connection with a troubled sigh, and slumped into his ship's command chair, wracking his brains over how to rescue Quill!
Yet no matter how much he thought, he came up with absolutely nothing!
Just how terrifyingly powerful Asgard was—the universe had no shortage of heavyweights who served as perfect examples.
Thanos went to the Nine Realms and was driven back. They even attacked him on his own turf afterward!
Galactus went to the Nine Realms and was also driven back, even stabbed clean through!
And most crucially, Yondu, as one of the universe's famed Ravagers and a former founding member of the Guardians of the Galaxy,
knew many secrets that ordinary people had no way of learning.
Having once dealt with Celestials, Yondu was keenly aware that His Majesty Odin of Asgard was the kind of ferocious monster who once chased Celestials around and beat them senseless!
Though Odin ultimately lost that war, he took on twelve Celestials alone. One combo attack smashed seven of them out of the fight, and it was only after the remaining five ganged up on him that he failed to clinch the final victory.
A monster like that—could a bunch of Ravagers really storm into the heart of his planet and snatch someone?
Thinking up to this point, Yondu stretched his wide mouth and bared his teeth.
That bastard Quill really knew how to bring trouble to his doorstep.
Looked like he had no choice but to reach back out to some old acquaintances for this jinx!
Except…
Standing before the communicator, Yondu was deeply conflicted. He stared at that old friend's contact code, hesitating for a long time, not daring to press it.
At this very moment, right in the center of his communicator screen, a line of text in the Centaurian planetary script was flickering continuously.
Its content…
「Colonel Victory · Stakar」
/-\
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