Drax held two daggers and lunged at Karl. But instead of striking with the tips, he stabbed at Karl's arm—while Karl's legs were bound by Groot's vines.
"Clang! Clang!"
Two crisp metallic sounds rang out. Rocket stared at Karl in shock, his mouth open. "What kind of monster are you?!"
"Ahhh!!"
Drax roared in disbelief. His daggers struck again like ghosts, stabbing Karl's arm repeatedly—but the result was exactly the same.
"Clang, clang, clang…"
Ignoring their attacks, Karl used his free hand to tie up Rocket, tossed him aside, then walked toward Quill, putting on a fake expression of pain.
Seeing Karl approach, Quill quickly threw out a triangular metal device and pressed a button.
Karl felt a slight gravitational pull from the device. He picked it up from the ground and casually squeezed it. With a crackle of electronic sparks, it stopped working.
Seeing no effect, Quill turned and ran in the opposite direction—completely unaware of who Karl really was.
But before he could take more than a step, Karl grabbed him by the collar, tied him up with an unknown rope, and threw him to the ground.
Drax roared behind Karl, slashing wildly. The harsh clanging sounds never stopped.
Karl turned around, grabbed Drax, looped the rope around him as well, and tossed him next to Quill.
As for Groot, who was still restraining Karl's lower body—Karl grabbed him and stuffed him straight into Quill's coat pocket.
"I'll hang you up for a day first. If you're not honest, I'll hang you for three days."
Karl lifted them all up with one hand.
"Karl, don't do this! If Gamora sees me like this, I'll lose all my dignity!" Quill struggled with the ropes, but quickly gave up when he realized it was useless.
"Man… what are you? Humans from Earth don't have bodies harder than steel."
Rocket struggled to lift his head to look at Karl, but he was hanging face-down and could barely see him.
Karl glanced at them. "Relax. If I really wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead. This is just because my girlfriend is visiting space for the first time—and you're the first aliens she's met."
Quill looked stunned. "What, you want to keep us as pets? That's not happening—we've got things to do! If you want, you can keep the raccoon."
Rocket exploded in anger again. "Quill, you idiot! You should be the one staying as a pet, you useless trash!"
Quill shot back, "What did you say? I'm useless? You're the useless one, you smelly fox! You look like a zoo pet—someone has to feed you, and you have to pretend to be cute every day just to survive!"
Drax, now furious, roared, "Stop arguing and hold still! You're hurting my nipples—they're very sensitive!"
Karl's lips twitched. What a bunch of weirdos. This was clearly turning into chaos. As expected of a group wandering the galaxy—completely fearless and unruly.
"Who told you I was keeping you as pets? My girlfriend just thinks the ship is too big for the two of us."
Hearing this, the three of them stopped arguing. Rocket asked, "Don't you have any better ideas? Like joining us for experiments… or helping Quill become an umbrella?"
Quill glared at Rocket. "Why would I become an umbrella? You idiot! You should skin yourself and make a coat!"
Seeing them about to argue again, Karl threw them to the ground, crouched down, and said, "After I leave, will you still fight? Even if you kill each other, nothing here will be affected. After I hang you up, do whatever you want."
Without another word, he dragged them away.
Quill cried out in pain, "Can't you carry us like before? Dragging us like this hurts!"
Drax said, "The only reason I'm suffering like this is because of you."
Rocket disagreed. "Don't blame us, big guy. Blame the one dragging us down."
From inside Quill's pocket, Groot shouted, "I am Groot!"
Karl ignored them. Their noise was like a swarm of flies buzzing endlessly in his ears.
The arguing continued all the way to the residential area, where Karl hung them from the ceiling.
Gamora and Nebula returned after hearing the commotion. Seeing everyone hanging from the ceiling, they turned and looked at Karl seriously. "What are you planning to do to them?"
Karl glanced at the two who were ready to attack at any moment. "They tried to plant a bomb on my ship. So I'm hanging them for a day—as a warning."
Quill quickly shouted, "No! Gamora, he's trying to turn Rocket into clothing—we're resisting!"
Rocket added, "Don't listen to Quill! He's the one this guy wants to turn into an umbrella!"
"They're both lying," Drax corrected.
Karl was speechless. What kind of team was this? No coordination at all—and constantly contradicting each other.
Gamora didn't care. "Let them down."
Karl shook his head. "One day. This is a warning. Don't try anything on my ship."
Gamora and Nebula exchanged a look, as if reaching an understanding.
Then Gamora drew the sword from her thigh and slashed at Karl, while Nebula pulled out two short blades and attacked from the other side.
"Clang! Clang!!"
"Crack…"
Gamora stepped back, staring at the sword that Karl had taken from her hand.
Nebula also retreated to Gamora's side—her two blades had been snapped in half.
Karl vanished in an instant—then reappeared behind them. In the next moment, both women were tied up and hanging from the ceiling just like Quill and the others.
"Karl, you can't treat ladies like that. That's rude," Quill said.
Before anyone could even react, the two women were already hanging beside them.
Karl looked at them and said, "I'll let you down at this time tomorrow. You're free to leave anytime—but don't try anything on my ship."
With that, Karl disappeared again. No one could even see how he left.
"Who is he? Why does he feel even stronger than your dead father? Could he be some kind of Celestial?" Rocket swung on the rope toward Quill.
Quill glanced at him. "Ask him next time. He doesn't seem like he wants to hurt us."
Gamora looked at the rope binding her, then at Quill, then back at the rope, and then at Quill again. "The 'idea' you came up with… won't get us killed, will it?"
Quill looked confused. "This is all Rocket's fault. He wanted to plant a bomb on someone else's ship and got caught red-handed."
"Quill, you agreed to it! Don't push everything onto me!" Rocket swung toward him and kicked him with his claws.
"You were the one who suggested it! I just went along with it, you idiot!" Quill swung his rope and kicked Rocket back.
Seeing the two fighting midair, Nebula asked Gamora, "How do you tolerate them? I already want to leave."
Gamora sighed. "I've wanted to leave more than once… I've even wanted to beat them up."
Nebula nodded. She had already wanted to hit them several times today alone.
"But they're sincere, aren't they?" Gamora said with a small smile. "With them, you don't have to be on guard. You can trust them."
That was the reason she chose to stay.
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