Through the porthole of the ship, Nebula's blue, rage-filled face came into view. Her eyes locked firmly on the vessel ahead. Inside that ship was her sister—Gamora—the one person she hated most in the entire galaxy.
But this wasn't just personal. Nebula wanted to prove to her father, Thanos, that she was the child most worthy of his attention.
From the moment she could remember, Nebula had lived alongside Gamora. Both were adopted daughters of the Mad Titan. Growing up under his ruthless tutelage, they were forced to follow one cruel rule: every so often, they had to fight each other. The loser… would have part of their body replaced with machinery.
Unfortunately for Nebula, she lost every single time. And with each defeat, more of her organic body was stripped away and replaced with cold cybernetics.
Oddly, she didn't mind the mechanical upgrades themselves—after all, they made her stronger. What truly fueled her rage was Gamora's cold, detached attitude after every victory, and the way Thanos showered Gamora with all the attention, while barely acknowledging Nebula.
Now, aboard her ship, Nebula unleashed the full force of her arsenal. Cannons roared, missiles streaked across the sky. Explosions bloomed like deadly fireworks above Ego's planet.
"We're under attack!" Drax bellowed.
"No kidding!" Star-Lord snapped, wrestling with the controls as the ship banked and twisted to evade. The two vessels danced through the sky in a deadly dogfight.
"Hold on tight!" Star-Lord yelled, yanking the control stick. The ship pulled a stomach-lurching vertical climb, then abruptly cut its speed. Nebula's fighter shot past them like an overeager predator suddenly finding itself in front of its prey.
"Ha! Gotcha now!" Star-Lord grinned. "How's that for some vintage childhood training? Now, time to kick your butt."
Blasters on his ship lit up the skies, hammering Nebula's craft. But Nebula wasn't one to run—she flipped her ship, flying backward while firing directly into Star-Lord's path.
Gamora, strapped inside the cockpit, could feel Nebula's hatred radiating like heat waves—directed solely at her.
Then, without warning, Star-Lord's ship jolted violently. Every alarm on the console screamed at once, lights blinking red—then darkness. Total systems failure. The engines went dead, and the craft began plummeting toward the ground like a stone.
Nebula's ship suffered the exact same fate. Both ships tumbled helplessly toward the surface, slamming into the terrain with bone-rattling force. Inside, the passengers were tossed around like ragdolls.
"Quill, I think your piloting skills need some serious work," Drax groaned, rubbing his head. "Honestly… you're worse than Rocket."
"Oh, come on!" Star-Lord shouted. "This isn't a piloting issue! The engines died, okay? Died. You get that, right?"
"All I know," Drax said, dead serious, "is you flew us straight into the ground. And I'm not forgetting it."
Gamora, still shaken, added with perfect timing, "He's got a point."
"Gamora, you—" Star-Lord began, but he didn't get to finish.
A massive impact struck the ship from outside, shoving it hard enough to send the whole craft rolling across the ground. None of them were ready, and the violent tumbling left them even more battered.
The two wrecked ships rolled into the yawning maw of a dark, cavernous pit… and vanished.
Meanwhile, Ego's body pulsed with the most terrifying surge of energy yet. At the site of his battle with Gene, a colossal mushroom cloud towered upward, tearing through the clouds above. The strange, emotion-mirroring clouds that floated over his world were ripped apart in an instant.
"ROAR!" Ego's voice thundered, his eyes locked coldly on the black-and-gray figure before him. "You're strong… but this is the end for you. You have no idea what ancient Celestials are truly capable of!"
Planting both feet on the ground, Ego sent silver-white energy tendrils lancing deep into the planet's core. The ground quaked violently. Then, massive silver giants began to rise from the earth—each one wearing Ego's face, each expression twisted with fury.
The power radiating from them was identical to Ego's own.
Six of them. Six beings as strong as Ego himself… now stood alongside him.
Gene suddenly found himself facing seven titanic enemies.
All seven lunged forward, fists raised. The sheer force of their combined strikes compressed the air until it screamed, space itself shuddering and splintering where Gene stood. The shockwaves alone sent dirt and rock clattering against his armor.
Fists hadn't even landed yet—but the wind was already there.
A flash of blue light ignited across Gene's body, and in the blink of an eye, the black-and-gray figure was gone. Seven massive fists slammed into the ground where he had been, unleashing a cataclysmic blast that split the earth in jagged fractures.
The impact hurled a silver-white energy beam skyward, slicing through Ego's atmosphere and streaking into the void of space.
Then—another flash of blue. Gene reappeared beside one of Ego's hulking duplicates. A golden gleam arced through the air—
—and the giant's head, still wearing its furious expression, tumbled from its shoulders, silver-white light erupting from the stump.
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