The change in scenery came far too fast.
Clara had no time to react—one moment she was standing on a Manhattan street, and the next, she found herself in the middle of a desolate wilderness.
The sky above was a murky gray, as if someone had splashed ink across it. The grass around her grew half as tall as a person, its thin, reed-like blades a deep, unsettling crimson.
As far as the eye could see, the wasteland looked as though it were burning.
Clara froze.
Crossing over?
Spatial teleportation? Time travel? Dimensional shift?
She forced herself to take a deep breath and calm down. In a barren place like this, screaming would only make things worse—there was no telling what might be lurking inside the tall grass.
Not far away stood a slanted hill. Its top was bare, with only a few massive red stones scattered across it. Clara cautiously waded through the grass toward the slope, the fine fuzz on the red reeds brushing against her skin and making her intensely uncomfortable.
Once she climbed to the top, the view nearly blinded her.
A vast, blood-red forest stretched across the horizon, an overwhelming sea of crimson that assaulted her eyes.
Between the forest and the wasteland lay a buffer zone roughly a kilometer wide, scattered with nothing but red gravel. In that empty stretch stood a strange man dressed in a dark red leather bodysuit, swaying his hips and shaking his shoulders in a manner that radiated shameless flamboyance.
Around him, red spiders the size of teddy bears continuously leapt forward, trying to bite him. He seemed completely unbothered, casually blasting them apart with a laser gun while dancing with wild abandon.
Suddenly, an eerie clicking sound came from behind her.
Clara turned her head—and screamed.
A gigantic red spider, at least the size of an adult human, was slowly rising from the grass behind her. Several small eyes locked onto her, fixated on the fresh, living prey.
With a string of panicked screams, Clara bolted down the slope and ran straight toward the man in red. The smaller spiders scattered in all directions, seemingly terrified of the massive one.
-----
Peter Jason Quill had been short on cash lately.
With no immediate way to make money, he decided to try his luck on Kree.
Kree was a planet famous for producing a rare red mineral that could be added to pharmaceuticals to cure numerous diseases.
Unfortunately, it was a very peculiar planet.
The mineral couldn't be directly extracted—trace elements interfered with its medicinal properties. Instead, local plants absorbed the mineral, using those trace elements as nutrients. Herbivores then ate the plants, spreading the mineral through their bodies. When carnivores consumed those herbivores, the mineral would finally concentrate in a specific part of their bodies.
Only then did it become truly valuable.
The bigger the creature, the more valuable the mineral.
Unfortunately, the dog-sized spiders Peter had been killing weren't worth much at all.
Just as he was about to leave empty-handed, Clara unknowingly lured over a giant spider.
To Clara, it was a nightmare monster.
To Peter Quill, it was walking units.
Peter tapped a small button near his ear. A red-eyed, masked space helmet snapped over his face. He slapped the thrusters on his leg-mounted jetpack and launched himself forward, intercepting the spider just before it could sink its fangs into Clara.
The larger a carnivore on Kree territory, the tougher its exoskeleton or hide. It took Peter some time to bring the beast down. Once it was dead, he used a scanner to locate the red mineral inside its body and carefully extracted it.
"Whoa—jackpot!"
Peter let out an excited shout. A mineral chunk this large would fetch at least fifty thousand units on the black market. This trip had been more than worth it.
Only after stowing away the mineral did he finally look at the girl who had brought him this fortune.
The first thing that caught his attention wasn't Clara's looks—but her distinctly human, Caucasian features.
Years of drifting through space had exposed Peter to countless alien races. Seeing someone who looked like him immediately stirred a sense of familiarity and warmth.
Then his eyes dropped to the bag in Clara's hand.
In her mad dash, she'd forgotten to drop the barbecue she was carrying. The giant spider had probably been drawn out by the smell.
Printed in bold English letters on the bag were the words:
"Mike's Barbecue."
Peter's heart surged with emotion—the kind you only felt when meeting someone from home in a foreign land.
"You're from Earth?" he asked eagerly.
"Yes, sir."
Clara didn't quite understand why he looked so excited.
"America?"
"Yes. From Manhattan—"
Before she could finish, Peter scooped her up and spun her around in circles. He was ecstatic.
Clara, meanwhile, was completely stunned.
"I'm Peter Jason Quill! From Missouri! I'm—"
He rattled off his name, hometown, age, height, hobbies—everything—without waiting for a single question, as if he were on a blind date.
"Nice to meet you. My name is Clara Johnson," she said carefully. "But… where exactly are we?"
"This is Kree Star."
"Kryx… Star? An alien planet?"
"Relative to Earth, yeah. Definitely an alien planet."
"How far is this from Earth?"
"I don't know the exact distance, but at least… five hundred light-years."
"Five hundred light-years?!"
That massive unit of measurement hit Clara like a hammer.
The realization that she might never go home, never see the people she loved again, sent a sharp ache flooding her chest.
"Hey—hey—kid—don't cry!"
Peter, who prided himself on being a smooth talker, suddenly found himself at a loss when faced with the tears of a fellow Earthling.
"I don't want to cry… I'm just… a little sad…"
She tried to wipe her tears away, only for more to fall.
"Don't be sad. I'll get you home. I promise kid."
If Peter's companions could see him now, they'd think they were hallucinating. The normally flippant, irreverent Star-Lord had never sounded so serious.
But it was empathy.
Peter knew this pain all too well—his mother had just died when he was abducted by Yondu's crew. Trapped among vicious alien outlaws, even crying had been something he did in secret, terrified he'd be noticed… and eaten.
"R-Really? I can go back?"
"Of course! A ship's coming to pick me up tomorrow. With the jump drive, I swear—three days tops, and you'll be back on Earth!"
The last part was pure exaggeration. Five hundred light-years would require countless jumps, and Earth—still barely venturing into space—didn't even have a nearby jump point.
"But how did you end up here? Were you abducted by aliens too?"
"No. I walked out of a barbecue shop, and the next second I was standing in the grass across the street."
"…That barbecue smells amazing. Can I have some?"
The rich aroma wafted from the bag, and Peter was practically drooling.
"Of course!"
"Come on, then. My gear's in a cave up ahead. I'll treat you to some alien food—might not beat barbecue, but it's not bad."
"Okay!"
While one adult and one child happily discussed Earth food versus alien cuisine on Kree—
Back on Earth, all hell was breaking loose.
--------------
T/N:
Access Advance Chapters on my
P@treon: [email protected]/PokePals