Using the Bifrost to transport the spaceship back to Asgard, Mario finally understood why the Asgardians weren't interested in developing their own fleet of warships.
"Man, if only the Bifrost could teleport anywhere in the universe freely. That would save me a lot of trouble."
But that was pure fantasy. If Odin actually extended the Bifrost's range to cover the entire universe, every civilization out there would unite and beat him to death on his own throne, no matter how powerful he was.
He piloted the ship through space, occasionally executing high-difficulty maneuvers while Ivan and Tony collected streams of data from their monitoring stations.
"How about we test the space jump?"
Tony sat in the co-pilot seat as he studied the readouts. They'd gathered all the standard flight data, only the space jump remained untested.
Mario rejected the suggestion immediately. "Absolutely not. Way too dangerous. Don't try to run before you can walk, Tony. You might win ninety-nine times."
He paused, then added with a grin, "But you only need to lose once, and I'll be offering Pepper a high-paying job at my company."
Tony froze. That line... it was quite similar to what he'd said to J.A.R.V.I.S. when testing the Mark II armor, alone in the sky where nobody could have overheard. How did Mario know about that?
But the moment Mario mentioned Pepper, he dropped the space jump topic entirely.
"You stick with your own secretary. I've decided, Pepper's going to be the CEO of Stark Industries."
Mario and Ivan exchanged glances and burst out laughing. Pepper was one of Tony's few weak points.
"Alright, I'm dropping you two off. I want to check out some other planets and test the space jump myself."
After landing the ship in Asgard and leaving the two scientists behind, he piloted the Tony-1 back into the void.
"The cosmos is beautiful," he murmured, watching stars streak past. "Too beautiful. Makes it hard to want to go back to work."
In that moment, surrounded by the infinite expanse of space, he felt small.
Sitting in the pilot's seat, he spoke softly to the ship's AI. "Set course for Xandar."
Anna's synthesized voice responded from the ship's speakers:
"Destination confirmed. Route requires fourteen jump points. Estimated travel time: eighty-six hours. Destination: Xandar."
"Anna reminds you, there are thousands of routes, but safety comes first."
The ship accelerated rapidly toward the nearest jump point, the most common form of FTL travel in the Marvel cosmic setting. Whether ships could actually enter folded space by reaching light speed naturally, he honestly didn't know. At least none of the Asgardian vessels he'd seen were capable of superluminal flight without jump points.
---
Three days passed in a blur.
"Warning: unidentified spacecraft approaching."
Anna's alert snapped Mario out of his thoughts about whether Imperomite frying pans would affect him. He quickly stowed the pan and took his position in the pilot's seat.
Three small ships were approaching from below in an encirclement pattern.
He squinted at the display. "These guys don't look friendly."
But they didn't attack. Instead, they slowly closed in on his position.
"Incoming communication request. Should I connect?"
Mario glanced around the empty interior of his ship and couldn't help but grin. Everything he owned was packed into his inventory. The ship was completely empty.
"Connect."
The moment the channel opened, a voice came through the comms:
"Do not resist. Stop your ship! We are the Ravagers. As long as you cooperate, we won't hurt you."
Mario immediately shut down the ship's propulsion systems and obediently slowed to a stop.
"Ravagers working in small groups? I thought they always traveled in swarms. Well, at least I can use some local guides."
His cooperative attitude clearly pleased the Ravagers.
Soon all four ships came to a halt in the vacuum. Three small shuttles detached from the larger vessels and flew toward Mario's ship. He'd already opened the rear hatch, waiting for their arrival.
Click.
Eight aliens in brown leather jackets stepped inside.
Their appearances were wildly diverse. Though by their standards, they were probably considered attractive.
"Oh, a blue one..."
Mario's gaze landed on a guy who looked like a distant relative of the Na'vi from Avatar, and an idea formed in his mind.
Three Ravagers stayed to guard him while the others began searching the ship. Two strange-looking weapons were aimed directly at him.
He stood there obediently.
The leader, presumably male, smiled at him. "Hey, you're pretty smart about this. Don't worry. Since you're cooperating, we won't hurt you. Heading to Xandar?"
This was one of the jump points on the route to Xandar. They camped here specifically to ambush passing ships. Otherwise, in the vastness of space, finding targets would be nearly impossible unless they attacked a planet, which would be suicide.
Mario smiled back, meeting the man's eyes. "Yeah, going to Xandar for some sightseeing. You're with the Ravagers, right? I want to ask about someone. His name's Star-Lord."
At first, the leader had been curious about Mario's calm demeanor. But when he heard that name, his expression shifted immediately.
"What's your relationship with him? Oh... judging from your looks, you're from Terra too?"
Earth had many nicknames in the galaxy. The Ravagers called it Terra.
"Yeah, I'm from Terra. You could say Star-Lord and I are from the same neighborhood."
The man's smile froze for a moment, then returned. "Well, since you're his friend, I'll leave you some supplies to make sure you can get to—"
Before he could finish, the search crew came running back.
"Captain, there's nothing on this ship. No supplies, not even a change of clothes."
Of course there wasn't. The ship had just been repaired and taken out for testing. Mario hadn't even disembarked before setting course for Xandar. Finding supplies would've been a miracle.
The captain turned toward his crew. "How's that possible? This ship might look new, but it's an old model from over a century ago. How could there be nothing?"
Then he turned back to Mario, who stood there with a faint smile.
We've hit a hard target.
"Hey, me and Star-Lord are on good terms... Maybe we can grab a drink sometime!"
The Ravagers were a loose yet surprisingly unified organization in the Marvel cosmos, made up of many different factions. Some acted as space pirates, others as mercenaries, still others as bounty hunters. They were everywhere.
Mario looked at the slightly nervous man and smiled. "Can you get in touch with him? I need to talk to him about something."
The man gave an awkward laugh. "We're looking for him too..."
Internally, he was grumbling, Why does a piece of junk ship have to be painted in such flashy colors? Is it specifically designed for baiting people?
"Well, alright then."
Mario wasn't surprised. Ever since Star-Lord became an adult, he'd been wandering around solo. Though he hadn't yet done anything to get on Yondu's wanted list, he often disappeared for long stretches.
Seeing Mario fall silent, the man grew increasingly uneasy. Someone wandering the galaxy alone was either a complete idiot or extremely dangerous. And Mario's calm reaction when faced with weapons suggested the latter.
"We've got some business to handle. Let's talk another time, okay?"
He turned to leave with his crew, silently praying Mario wouldn't stop them.
But when Mario saw they were about to depart, he decided to keep them around.
A staff radiating icy energy suddenly materialized in his hand. He softly uttered, "Freeze."
In an instant, the group and their weapons were encased in solid ice. The spell didn't deal much damage, but its special effect immobilized enemies for ten seconds. The downside was that once the frozen targets were attacked, the spell would break instantly.
He tapped the staff lightly and approached with a friendly smile. Looking at the lead Ravager, he said, "Since you're already here, it wouldn't be polite to just leave, right? You guys take on jobs, don't you? Well, I've got a few that need handling. Don't worry, I'll pay you properly."
The Ravagers might not have overwhelming individual strength, but their information network was excellent. He had just left Earth and was a complete novice out here. Even his star map was a century out of date, who knew how inaccurate it was now.
As soon as he finished speaking, the ice around the group melted. They immediately raised their weapons and aimed at Mario, but the leader lifted a hand.
"Lower your guns!"
He'd seen enough to recognize Mario as a sorcerer, and sorcerers were far rarer in the wider cosmos than in places like Kamar-Taj.
"What do you need from us?"
His expression had turned serious.
"I want to find a habitable planet, preferably one without intelligent life. Size doesn't really matter. Oh, and I need help locating two planets. One's called Morag, the other Vormir. I only know the names, nothing else."
Mario wasn't planning to wait until the plot kicked in to grab the Infinity Stones. If he could get them early and toss them in his inventory, nobody would ever find them.
The man mentally sifted through star names. There were countless planets in the universe, but knowing exact names meant someone had been there before, so it shouldn't be too difficult.
"A habitable, uninhabited planet..." he muttered to himself. "I know of a small habitable planet. It's pretty small, though. Is that okay?"
Mario hadn't expected things to go so smoothly. "Of course. Smaller's fine."
Suddenly, he realized a problem. He didn't have any galactic currency. Feeling uncertain, he asked, "Uh... is gold worth anything in the universe?"
After all, natural diamonds were rare on Earth, but on planets like Jupiter and Saturn, it literally rained diamonds. If there were a few golden planets out there, gold might not be worth much at all.
When the man heard "gold," he shook his head. "Gold's a relatively rare metal, but it's easy to mine on many uninhabited planets. Not worth much, honestly."
Mario felt his "gold standard" strategy collapse.
"Then what is valuable in the universe?"
By now, the man fully understood, Mario was just a rookie who'd somehow acquired an old spaceship. The only difference was that this rookie had incredible personal power.
"Plenty of things. Special materials, objects containing powerful energy, even corpses of rare and powerful cosmic creatures are all worth a fortune."
Hearing this, Mario understood. Those kinds of things were valuable on Earth too, like arc reactors, which cost a fortune to build.
"How about vibranium?"
Vibranium was one of the most famous materials in the Marvel universe, rare even by cosmic standards.
"Valuable. Very valuable."
This time, the man answered without hesitation.
"If you've got vibranium, I can help you find buyers. You'll get an excellent price."
Seeing his reaction, Mario finally felt relieved. Whether on Earth or in space, being broke sucked. Unless he planned to become a full-time space pirate, he needed money.
"First, take me to that habitable planet. Once we find it, you'll get your share."
The man nodded. "My name's Zela. I'm one of Yondu's Ravagers."
"Mario. Just a traveler wandering through the universe."
The two exchanged smiles and shook hands.
Zela brought two teammates aboard Mario's ship while the rest returned to their own vessels.
A few minutes later...
"Your star map is absurdly outdated. Half this information isn't even accurate anymore. Where did you dig up this antique?"
Zela grumbled as he worked on updating the ship's navigation system.
"The manufacturing date is 120 years ago. This ship is literally twice my age. It shouldn't be out here, it belongs in a scrap yard."
Hearing that, Mario was speechless. What surprised him more was Zela's age. He knew alien species had different lifespans compared to humans, but Zela looked barely thirty, yet he was already sixty years old.
Then he remembered Thor was at least 1,500 years old and quickly accepted it.
Rocket Raccoon's entire lifespan is only about twenty years. Compared to that, humans live pretty long.
"I'll update your star map with the latest version for free. Consider it my personal service. Otherwise, this heap of junk wouldn't even find its way to the destination."
Zela laughed and shook his head. "Hahaha! Who would've thought I am giving someone free help. What a miracle."