"I am Groot." The little tree person nodded from the side, twisting the knife.
"Shut up! Groot! Whose side are you on?!" Rocket stomped his feet in frustration.
"That old bastard was just sticking his nose where it didn't belong!"
"Seriously! I've got a hundred ways to deal with those gilded idiots!"
Rocket jumped onto a rock, pulled out his energy gun from behind his back, and struck an incredibly cocky pose toward the sky.
"As long as those glittering pansies dare show their faces in front of me again..."
"...I'll show them the fury of the Milky Way's number one bounty hunter!"
"I am Groot." Baby Groot suddenly raised his head and pointed at the sky.
"What is it, Groot?" Rocket looked in the direction of his finger.
"Bzzzt—bzzzt—"
Jessica's communicator suddenly sounded. It was an emergency call from F.R.I.D.A.Y., the AI aboard Homelander One.
"A large number of unidentified interstellar fighters have been detected dropping out of warp and entering Ego's Planet's atmosphere at full speed."
Homelander raised an eyebrow and stepped forward. "Put the feed through."
"Hum—"
A holographic screen unfolded before them.
It showed footage captured by Homelander One's deep-space radar.
Outside Ego's Planet's atmosphere, countless golden points of light had appeared.
They were densely packed, like falling stars.
The image zoomed in.
Thousands of golden unmanned fighters were diving toward Ego's Planet's atmosphere in attack formation like a swarm of bees.
"Oh, shit..."
Rocket was still holding up his gun in that cocky pose, but his expression had frozen.
"Are these the 'petty gilded bastards' you mentioned, Mr. Rocket?" Jessica shoved the camera in Rocket's face.
"They really seem to miss you... There have to be at least three thousand of them, right?"
"Maybe... maybe four thousand..." Rocket gave a dry laugh, his ears drooping.