The silence of space wrapped around Soren like an endless sea.
The silver surfboard hummed beneath his feet, still coursing with residual cosmic energy as he drifted out of the battlefield where Galactus's duplication had been annihilated.
"Time acceleration…release." He whispered to nobody.
In an instant, the magical acceleration field that had kept him moving faster than reality dissolved.
His body sagged slightly, fatigue creeping into every limb.
The strain of using the Time-Space power had drained him. his connection to the dark dimension of Dormammu was dry as bone.
"That spell better be worth the months it took to build." He muttered, massaging his temples.
"One Galactus clone… and I'm basically running on fumes."
Still, there was no urgency to return to Earth. The Silver Surfer, now without his board, was powerless and stranded.
Earth… Jean, for the moment, was safe.
Soren soared through the stars, weaving through nebulae and asteroid belts. Hours passed.
Days.
Eventually, a faint yellow glimmer caught his attention, a planet, dull and cracked like an old coin, rotating lazily in the vast nothing.
As he descended through its broken atmosphere, a murky scene unfolded.
Ruins.
Collapsed towers.
Deep fissures like scars.
"So… this was once a civilization." Soren murmured, stepping off the board and landing softly on the broken stone of what might've been a city square.
"But what the hell happened here?"
Steam hissed up from deep crevices. Geysers of groundwater shot into the sky, only to mist and fall as soft rain.
It was a strange cycle, a planet trying to heal.
And then he saw them.
Dozens of small, skinless creatures crawling along the broken surface.
They resembled rats, grotesquely exposed sinew over twisted muscle, with teeth too large for their faces and eyes that glowed faintly red.
They stared at him.
One sniffed the air and let out a high-pitched screech.
"You've got to be kidding me…" Soren muttered, just as the first wave lunged at him with terrifying speed.
He raised a hand.
WHAM!
A wave of psychokinetic force burst out like an invisible sledgehammer, slamming the nearest attackers into pulpy yellow smears on the ground.
The rest? They didn't care.
They came faster.
"Persistent little demons, aren't you?"
"You can't even talk, but you're all guts."
Dozens more rushed toward him.
"But fine."
"You want extinction?"
He clenched his fists. The air around him shimmered, bending under immense psionic pressure.
"Die!"
With a cold, guttural cry, Soren released the full force of his power.
A violet aura erupted around him like a supernova, bending reality itself.
Space compressed, then shattered.
The laws of physics collapsed within the radius, and everything caught in the zone soil, stone, ruins, air, and the swarming plague of mouse-creatures, was annihilated in an instant.
A crater dozens of meters wide was all that remained, its rim steaming and glowing with residual energy.
Soren stood at its center, exhaling sharply.
"Finally. Quiet."
But peace was fleeting.
On the far horizon, a shadow streaked across the dim yellow sky, growing larger with unnatural speed.
Within moments, the thunder of anti-gravity engines roared overhead, and the dark form swooped down, blotting out the sun above.
A ship.
Unlike anything Soren had seen before.
It resembled a massive bird in mid-flight, metallic feathers spread wide, with rows of gun ports embedded across its lower belly like fangs on a predator.
Power surged through the weapon mounts.
"Great. Company."
The ship hovered for a moment before slowly descending.
Dust swirled violently as its thrusters kicked up wind, and the hull hissed open with a hydraulic groan.
Out stepped dozens of beings.
They were humanoid, but grotesquely varied. One had horns like a ram, another bore reptilian scales, and a third had a mechanical jaw fused into his face.
All wore tactical armor with glowing emblems, Kree military tech, if Soren's memory served. Their weapons pulsed with plasma energy and were almost comically oversized.
The leader, a tall dark-skinned figure with ridged skin and a crown of bony protrusions, stepped forward. His glowing eyes narrowed at Soren.
He said something in a thick, alien tongue, clipped and aggressive. Soren's mind translated it imperfectly through his Lv 10 Language proficiency.
"You. Intruder."
"Who are you, and why are you on this restricted world?"
The warriors around him formed a loose perimeter, weapons raised.
Soren arched an eyebrow, tilting his head in mild amusement.
"Who, me? I'm just a tourist. From Earth."
He folded his arms, deliberately relaxed. "You know… the little blue planet full of people who apparently piss you off."
The moment he said Earth, the air changed.
Gasps. Scowls. A few of the warriors gripped their weapons tighter. One whispered something in his commander's ear.
The leader's jaw clenched. His name, Soren would soon learn, was Kratt, Commander of the Kree Accuser Patrol.
"Earthling… So another one."
He barked a command in Kree.
Immediately, all weapons were raised, glowing with lethal energy.
"You're trespassing on Kree domain. By decree of Ronan, your kind is to be executed on sight."
Soren blinked.
"Wow. Harsh neighborhood."
He glanced at the muzzles now surrounding him.
"Let me guess. One of us Earth guys took something from you?"
Kratt's lip curled.
"It was in our grasp, until your kind interfered. Star-Lord wounded my men, and escaped. And now, we find another Earth vermin."
"Coincidence? I think not."
Soren gave a short laugh.
"You think I know him? Buddy, Earth's got over eight billion people. We don't even agree on pizza toppings, let alone cosmic theft."
Kratt snarled.
"Doesn't matter. Earth-scum. Kill him."
Weapons charged.
Zzz-ZZRRRRRRMM!!
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream