The silence after the screams was suffocating.
Kratt and his entire squad now lay broken, their twisted bodies littered in a massive crater near the ancient ruins. Once-proud Kree soldiers, now food for vermin.
In the shadow of the towering ruins, a twitching rodent-like creature crept from the rocks. It sniffed the air, its beady eyes sparkling with excitement.
One high-pitched squeak later, a swarm of creatures surged forward, feasting with grotesque glee.
High above them, a stolen battleship roared into the skies, its black hull cutting through the heavens like a blade.
Inside the ship's cockpit, Soren sat alone.
One hand on the controls, the other tapping on the console, processing the data he had extracted from Kratt's systems and memories before their end.
"The Orb, the power stone."
"That's an Infinity Stone I've just missed."
He exhaled slowly, the weight of realization settling in.
"What a damn coincidence…"
He leaned back, eyes locked on the endless stars outside the viewing port.
Just hours ago, he'd been drifting without direction, trying to understand the scope of this new reality, the size of this universe. But what he'd learned changed everything.
"The Earth… is small. The galaxy? Vast. Far bigger than I ever imagined."
"Even Galactus's shadow barely touches a fraction of it."
Soren's expression turned grim.
"And I was naive to think I understood it."
He'd taken the Kree ship's star charts, loaded the encrypted logs, and fed them into the onboard AI. The result was mind-bending: lightyears of recorded data, wormhole relays, disputed sectors, and uncharted nebulae where even the Kree dared not go.
The scale of the cosmos made his Earth-bound instincts feel laughably quaint.
"Even traveling at ten times the speed of light…" Soren whispered, "...it could take decades to cross just one segment of the galactic rim."
He smirked bitterly.
"And Ronan thinks he's the apex predator here. Typical."
But there was one thing Soren had now that none of them did, narrative foresight.
"Quill has the Orb." He said aloud, pulling up the holographic map. "Which means the Guardians of the Galaxy arc is about to start."
He watched as planetary systems pulsed in front of him.
"And if I remember correctly, after Morag… Quill heads to Xandar…"
"Quill's not a hero yet." Soren continued.
"He's still under Yondu's thumb, still arrogant enough to try and sell the Orb himself."
He entered the coordinates manually. The ship hummed.
"If I get there first… maybe I don't miss the next stone."
XANDAR SYSTEM — EARLIER
Peter Quill's day had gone from hopeful to disastrous.
He had made it into Nova Corps territory. He'd even secured a meeting with a shady middleman operating out of a cantina behind a bazaar on Xandar's outskirts.
"You're selling what?" The man asked, adjusting his cracked lenses.
"The Orb. Ancient, metallic, probably a paperweight for a god." Quill grinned.
"You mean... the Orb?" The man leaned in, voice lowering. "Ronan the Accuser's looking for that thing. He's killing people over it."
The man's tone changed in an instant. He stood up, stepping away like Quill had turned radioactive.
"Deal's off. I don't need Ronan nuking my stall from orbit."
"Hey, wait!" Quill protested. "C'mon, man! What happened to free enterprise?!"
Security was called. A crowd formed. And things only got worse when a talking raccoon and a tree tried to kidnap him for a bounty—and a green-skinned woman tried to steal the Orb outright.
After an explosive melee, all four were arrested by Nova Corps officers and thrown into Kyln Prison.
But Soren… he wasn't on Xandar. Not yet. He was heading to the edge of civilization.
KNOWHERE
Soren's stolen Kree warship glided silently toward the unreachable zone.
Outside the window stretched a sight that would unnerve even seasoned cosmic wanderers: the skull of a long-dead Celestial, hollowed out and re-purposed into a lawless trading post.
The gargantuan head spun slowly in the void, eyes empty, its jagged jaw stretched open like a cosmic wound. Lights flickered inside like fireflies in a corpse.
Soren stared.
"How big were you when you were alive?"
"A god… or something worse."
He narrowed his eyes, sensing the faintest remnants of something ancient and dreadful clinging to the marrow of this forgotten god.
It was so faint, just a dying echo, but it stirred something primal.
"A pity." He said, turning away. "Whatever secrets you had… they died with you."
As Soren's ship descended into the hangar carved inside the Celestial's jaw, dozens of unsavory characters glanced up, smugglers, bounty hunters, cybernetic cannibals, and black-market surgeons.
For a moment, their eyes gleamed. Fresh meat. Unfamiliar ship. A new victim.
But then, someone caught the Kree war standard painted on the hull… Ronan's sigil.
They backed off.
"Nope." One muttered, turning back to his drink. "Not getting disintegrated over lunch."
"Let him pass." Another whispered. "Ain't worth the mess."
Soren stepped out, cloak swirling behind him.
Time to find the Collector.
꧁𓊈𒆜༺⚜༻𒆜𓊉꧂
PhantomDream