After the warp drive dropped them out of interstellar transit, the energy trail from the Silver Surfer led them straight to a massive green planet.
“Is that it?”
Reed stared at the planet, brow furrowed.
“Is Galactus down there?”
“Everyone, stick to the plan.”
Steve took a deep breath and grabbed his shield, ready for whatever might come.
“Hold on.
Something’s wrong.”
Tony, in full armor instead of a spacesuit, got a sudden alert from Jarvis.
“The internal heat signature is climbing fast… wait.
Is that thing about to blow?”
“Guys, look at this.”
Johnny’s voice pulled every head toward the viewport.
One entire side of the planet was caving in.
No explosion.
Just pure, continuous collapse.
The ship lurched hard as the planet’s gravity suddenly spiked and started dragging them in.
“Susan!
Force field on the ship!”
“Thor!
Get outside and hold us steady!”
Reed and Steve barked the orders at the same time.
Neither argued.
Susan snapped up an energy field around the hull to keep the meteors from punching through.
Thor stepped outside, planted himself under the ship, and started swinging Mjolnir.
Lightning cracked out and shattered every rock that came too close.
Ben couldn’t help whistling.
“Damn.
I like that guy.”
Pym immediately cut in.
“Uh… Thor’s got a girlfriend.”
“I’ve got a girlfriend too!”
Ben realized how it sounded and rushed to correct the record.
“Hey.
Argue later.
Look.”
Tony pointed.
The planet, which had been a little larger than Earth, was gone.
Reduced to drifting cosmic dust in the time it took to blink.
The entire ship went dead silent.
Johnny gave an awkward little laugh.
“Well… at least our theory checked out.
He really can wreck planets.”
Steve shot a complicated look at the face that looked exactly like his own.
Hearing “himself” make that kind of comment still felt weird.
“I’d rather it stayed a theory.”
“Wait.
What’s that?”
Jarvis zoomed Tony’s HUD in on the cloud of dust.
Something huge was sitting in the middle of it.
“Is that… a ship?”
While Tony stared, the lightning outside suddenly intensified.
Everyone else snapped back to the present.
“Thor’s fighting someone!”
Janet’s shout brought them all around.
The Silver Surfer had reappeared and was locked in combat with Thor.
What really threw them was that the Surfer actually seemed to have a slight edge.
“Wait!
Thor!”
Pym, who still believed talking came before punching, keyed the comm.
“Listen to him first!”
Thor pulled Mjolnir back.
He’d attacked the second the Surfer tried to phase through the hull and hadn’t exactly stopped to chat.
The Silver Surfer didn’t look angry.
His voice stayed flat and empty.
“The great Galactus wishes to see you.”
Everyone exchanged glances.
Steve gave a short nod.
“Lead the way.”
Meeting Galactus had been the whole point of the trip.
Getting an invitation this clean was better than expected.
Thor kept the ship steady and followed the Silver Surfer deeper into the dust cloud.
Only when they got closer did everyone confirm Tony had been right.
It really was a ship.
An enormous one.
They docked inside the giant vessel, stepped off their own craft, and followed the Silver Surfer deeper in.
Tony’s faceplate slid open.
He looked around, surprised.
“There’s oxygen in here?”
Janet turned to the Surfer.
“Why did Galactus pick Earth?”
The Silver Surfer stayed quiet for a moment, then answered slowly.
“He does not choose.”
Banner’s head snapped toward him.
“You chose it?!”
The Surfer said nothing else, though a faint trace of guilt flickered across his otherwise blank face.
If someone hadn’t held them back, hot-tempered Johnny and Thor would have already gone for him.
Steve walked in silence.
From everything Wayne and Thor had told him, Galactus was an ancient existence that had been around since the birth of the universe.
Less a living being and more a cosmic force.
Devouring planets was simply part of how the universe maintained itself.
Steve still couldn’t accept it.
Most of those planets had life on them.
Wiping out every living thing because of one decision slammed hard against everything he believed.
They followed the Surfer all the way into the heart of the ship.
“Hey.
Guys?”
Tony stared at the energy readings Jarvis was spitting out.
The ambient levels were climbing off the charts.
“Uh… where is Galactus?”
Janet scanned the empty space around them.
No one.
Then a deep, ancient rumble rolled through the chamber.
Every head tilted upward.
Two points of purple light, bright as miniature stars, slowly resolved out of the darkness.
Those were Galactus’s eyes.
Only then did the scale become clear.
His upper body alone towered more than a hundred meters high.
“Have you come to beg for mercy?”
Galactus looked down at the stunned group, voice cold and slow.
“No, Galactus.
We’re here to negotiate.”
Steve forced himself past the shock, stepped forward, and met the giant’s gaze.
Galactus’s mouth curled into a thin, disdainful smile.
“What right do you have to negotiate with me?”
“I know you need energy.
I know you exist to keep the balance of the universe.
But the billions of lives on Earth have the right to keep living too.
There has to be another way to feed you without destroying entire worlds.”
Steve ignored the contempt and gestured toward Tony and the others.
“We have brilliant scientists.
If you’re willing, Earth’s best minds will work nonstop to find you alternative energy sources.
Destruction doesn’t have to be the only option.”
Reed gave Steve a long, unreadable look.
Galactus’s expression stayed full of scorn.
“What do you know?”
Ever since he had become an abstract entity, the hunger had clung to him like a curse.
The cosmic parasite that had once lived inside him had been born as his daughter some time ago, which had eased the worst of the hunger.
After devouring several planets recently he wasn’t particularly starving at the moment.
That didn’t change the fact that consuming worlds was still one of the main ways he kept the universe stable.
The hunger would return, and when it did he would not stop.
Otherwise he could have simply stolen energy from the dimensional dread lords instead.
When he wasn’t starving, he was no pushover.