If someone…. Anyone…. had the means to observe beyond the heliosphere, past the drifts of Pluto and into the raw vacuum beyond, they would see a spectacle.
A single silver streak cleaved through the darkness, barely visible to the naked eye, yet leaving behind a luminous ribbon like a comet's tail.
Ahead: nothing.
Behind: !?#@!!?
Trailing the silver light was a mass of seething black vapor.
It writhed as though each tendril possessed its own mind, twisting, clawing forward like a pack of predators.
This was a chase.
Soren narrowed his eyes. His breath came steadily despite the chaos behind him.
The surfboard beneath him pulsed with interstellar energy, responding to his thoughts before he could even speak them.
The duplication of Galactus was closing in.
Its approach was relentless, not a being of muscle or matter, but a cosmic engine of hunger shaped like a shadow.
Its form was collapsing reality in its path. Stars blinked and trembled near its edges.
Soren flicked his fingers. The space around him bent, like curtains drawn back from a stage.
"Almost..." He murmured, silver eyes flicking ahead. "One more Galaxy."
He felt the edges of the solar system behind him. They weren't far.
If he fought here, even on the outer rim, the backlash could still cascade inward.
Solar flares, gravitational shears, orbital anomalies, it could destroy more than Earth. It could unmake the entire system.
He had to get out.
CRACK—!
Reality snapped.
Soren vanished into a fold of space, gone between one blink and the next.
Where he had been, a brief afterimage shimmered.
From far enough away, it looked like the silver line had warped, like glass bending in the heat. The distance before Soren shrank, space concertinaed like folded paper, and he slipped through the cracks.
When he emerged, it was with another flash, farther from the monster, now a winking silver mote hurtling deeper into the void.
The duplication felt it.
The surfboard.
That cursed energy signature.
The link, however faint, between it and the Power Cosmic writhed.
It had nearly reached its prey… and in the span of a heartbeat, the prey had escaped again.
The dark mass quivered in frustration. And then it screamed.
Not a scream made of air, or sound, or molecules.
It was a gravitational roar, a pressure wave of such unnatural force that it tore straight across subspace.
The roar hit Earth a second later.
Radars went wild. Satellites shook in their orbits. On the ground, buildings trembled with vibrations no one could explain. Birds fled the sky. Dogs howled.
And somewhere in a New York skyscraper, a little boy dropped his cereal and began crying without knowing why.
In the deserts of Nevada, inside the military nerve center, monitors screamed warnings in every language.
General Ross stood in silence, watching the image on the screen.
Someone whispered, not even realizing it.
"…the end… the end is coming…"
Soren welcomed it.
"That's it."
"Come after me, you bastard. Stay away from Earth."
He formed one fist.
The Time Seal on his hand ignited, burning with violet runes. Inside his core, a familiar weight stirred.
Dormammu.
Dark energy sluiced into him through the circle, thick and unnatural. The universe recoiled from its taste.
With his other hand, Soren twisted the space gem again, folding time this time, not distance. A sphere of accelerated chronal current burst around his body.
To outside eyes, he became impossibly fast, Planetoids rushed past like falling leaves.
Behind him, the duplication shrieked again.
It was gaining, but not fast enough.
"I need one more boast."
The void bent again. Stars twisted. Time hiccupped.
Soren vanished once more, the silver streak rocketing beyond the universe…
The distance between the silver streak and the shadowy titan was widening again.
Galactus' duplication emitted a piercing, reverberating roar.
The silver surfboard was just beyond reach.
The titan paused, pulsing with black energy, then shifted course with terrifying intent.
Instead of continuing straight, it pivoted toward the solar system, following the trajectory of Soren's last jump.
As it moved, energy shockwaves rippled outward like tsunamis through the void.
A cluster of passing meteoroids shattered in its wake, reduced to pink molecular dust.
Pluto hung quietly at the edge of the system.
The shadow came.
Galactus.
For a brief, almost sacred moment, nothing happened.
…
CRACK—
BOOM—
Fissures tore through Pluto's crust, hundreds of miles wide.
The planet screamed silently as its core destabilized, energy sucked straight from its marrow like juice from a crushed fruit.
The once-silent guardian of the outer reaches fractured, glowing with unstable energy. Entire chunks of its surface rose, hovered, then collapsed into jagged pieces.
What remained no longer resembled a planet but a cracked tombstone.
Panic had already set in long before Pluto shattered.
All across Earth, whether in news studios, science observatories, or amateur backyards, millions stared at screens or telescope feeds showing the same terrifying sight.
Pluto was gone.
In a packed observatory in Tokyo, a seasoned astronomer dropped his pen. "Impossible."
"Pluto's core… it's ruptured?"
In Times Square, the roaring news ticker simply read.
"GALACTIC ENTITY DESTROYS PLUTO – GLOBAL EVACUATION DISCUSSIONS BEGIN"
Inside the Situation Room, the President stood beside military advisors, scientists, and a handful of trembling foreign dignitaries patched in from around the world.
"...We've lost contact with the observatories on Europa and the Juiper Ring," Someone said.
"They're either destroyed or jammed."
An intelligence officer rushed forward with a live update, breathless.
"Mr. President, we've confirmed visual tracking of Galactus, it has altered course. It's not heading toward Earth. It's chasing a silver anomaly."
The President turned, his gaze locking on the massive screen showing satellite telemetry.
A silver streak.
Soren.
The President exhaled, shoulders sagging with a mix of relief.
"He did it. He actually pulled it off..."
GLOBAL MEDIA NETWORK – LIVE BROADCAST
"...and in breaking news, Soren~yes, the same Soren affiliated with Everlife Medical Center, has drawn the entity's attention away from Earth."
"Government officials confirm he is deliberately luring the monster out of our system."
A journalist tried to speak with calm dignity…
"Doctor… if you're out there… the world is watching."
"And we're praying."
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream