SOUL SEARCHING

Part Two: Killing Galactus

the 69^th tale of agc

written and created by Mark Bousquet

2201 / NOVEMBER

ASGARD - LOGAN'S BAR AND GRILL

"Eshir, I'd like you to meet Brigadier General Edward Rhodes," Dani Moonstar said as Eshir joined her for lunch at Logan's. "General Rhodes, this is Eshir Maximoff."

Rhodes rose from his seat to shake Eshir's hand, then caught himself as he saw the young man had no hands. "Huh," he grunted, staring at the stumps. "What happened?"

"A dog ate them," Eshir announced flatly, taking a seat.

"You'll have to forgive the General, Eshir," Dani smiled. "Manners have never been his strong suit."

"Forgive me?" General Rhodes said, faking shock. "What about forgiving him for the clear lack of a sense of humor?"

Dani's grin only grew wider as she turned to face the General. "But General, he wasn't joking. He really did lose his hands to a dog."

"A wolf, technically," Eshir interjected. The young mutant used his magnetic powers to push his seat closer to the table. Brigadier General Rhodes was an older man, but still fit, with the body of a gymnast. Not the most physically imposing man Eshir had ever met, but there was something in the way the man held himself that told you he was in charge, uniform or not.

"Eshir Maximoff!" The three table guests turned to see Logan, the fat, metallic green android that ran the establishment, walk over hurriedly. "Where are your fellow Orphans, huh? I haven't seen either Angelica or Toomi in months! They are the worst waitresses I have ever hired!"

Eshir looked at the android as if her thought Logan was stupid. Which wasn't far from accurate. "You're just realizing that now, Logan? Your patrons could've told you that while they were still here."

Logan slapped Esh hard on the back and cocked his head towards Dani. "Listen to this one. Sense of humor all of a sudden. I'll bring you a pasta salad with grilled tuna on the house!"

"On the house!" the establishment roared in unison.

"Who's joking?" Eshir asked, perturbed. "I don't joke. I just don’t."

"Beautiful, beautiful!" Logan roared. "Let's just hope when they get back they've got some good stories to tell!" With that the android moved shuffled away to make conversation with another table.

"That is the strangest creature I have ever met." Rhodes shook his head, "Unbelievable. Makes a great steak sandwich, though."

Dani smiled and the three settled into their meal. Eshir tried to stay friendly, knowing that Dani had invited him to give him something to do, but his mind kept returning to last night's dream, and the sense of loss he felt over Felicia. He became aware of whispering around him, and caught several ladies across the bar and grill peeking at him, then turning quickly away. 'Stop being paranoid,' he told himself. General Rhodes finished his meal ahead of Dani and Eshir, and excused himself. "It's Earth's turn to take the helm of Amora's Rainbow Defense," he explained.

Dani waited for him to leave, then turned to Eshir. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Eshir. It has been quite the topic of rumor and innuendo among the Ambassadorial staffs since you returned."

"What's that?"

Dani leaned in close, "Did you sleep with Angelica or not?" Eshir felt like he had been slapped. Dani continued, "Some think you must have at the Jazz Masquerade, only afterwards you both regretted it ever occurring, which is why you have returned and she has not. Of course, there are others who swear you have had a thing for Angelica for years and you returned only after catching Angel and Brono in a passionate embrace." Dani smiled. "Which is it?"

The bar and grill, at that instant, became a very, very quiet place.

"By the gods," Eshir mumbled, "what has become of my life?"

KE-ATOMCRUSHER

JUST INSIDE THE FAR EASTERN BORDER OF KREE CONTROLLED SPACE

"Cosmic Protector, we will assist you in any way we can in your mission to kill Galactus."

Every time someone said those words to Ben-Vell he felt the pit in his stomach grow larger. "Thank you, Colonel Kizlo," he nodded. "May I introduce you to Thalia, daughter of General Van'Rogg."

"Colonel," Thalia greeted, shaking hands. "You may present to us your report."

"Of course," Kizlo bowed. "Please be seated."

Ben-Vell and Thalia moved to take their places in the front row of the auditorium styled seating. Seated above and behind them were a handful of the Atomcrusher's officers. All of them nodded to Ben-Vell when his eyes were upon them and moved quickly to Thalia when the Cosmic Protector's attention was elsewhere.

The lights dimmed and Kizlo brought an image of a blue and green planet up onto the wall screen before them. "This was KP-873," he began. "Kree Planet Eight Seven Three. Uninhabited by intelligent life, but rich in resources." As Kizlo talked, images of the Eden-esque planet clicked past slowly. "There are large oil fields beneath the southern continents, and rich foliage and animal life in the north. Mining operations to strip the planet were due to begin in twelve years. We no longer have that option."

The image changed to a video feed of Galactus devouring the planet's energies.

"This is what KP-873 looks like today." The video feed was cut and the screen ascended into the ceiling, revealing to them the view outside the ship. There was dust and rock, but no planet.

Kizlo continued. "It is impossible to estimate the financial cost incurred by the Kree Empire due to Galactus' attack, but we believe the resources of that planet could have fed and fueled Hala for seventy-seven years."

For Ben-Vell, all of this information was insignificant. He had even somehow turned his order to kill Galactus into one of insignificance.

What was significant, and what increasingly dominated every waking moment of his day, was that before he could even get to Galactus, he was going to have to get through his fellow Orphan, K'Zan, Galactus' newest Herald.

JUST INSIDE THE FAR NORTH-EASTERN BORDER OF KREE CONTROLLED SPACE

For the first time in his life, K'Zan felt whole, and not simply a sum of disconnected parts. He knew that he owed it all to Galactus. The price he had to pay for this sanity was to find planets for Galactus to devour.

To this end, he had soared through the Everything, his body imbued with the Power Cosmic making it all too possible, searching for sustenance. He had no idea that certain planets were the property of the Kree or Shi'ar, or where "Kree Controlled Space" ended and "Shi'ar Controlled Space" began. As a child he once pestered Beta Ray Bill for hours about why lines that were on a map to mark out territory were not there in real life.

Flying across the universe, K'zan thought space could use a few more road signs and boundary lines. When he came across KP-873 (which, in his mind, he had referred to as 'that green and blue planet with the weird horse looking creatures) and found no intelligent life, he believed he had found the perfect planet to feed Galactus. To his delight, this was the first of about 10 similar planets (teaming with energy and non-intelligent life) in a row, each spaced roughly twenty light years apart.

One-by-one, Galactus fed on them. Since he was new to the role of a Herald, K'Zan didn't realize that Galactus was eating at an increasingly higher rate. Planets that should have sustained him for a year or more were now sustaining him for no more than a month. To K'Zan, this was nothing unusual because he had no knowledge of the way Galactus used to be. His self-deprecating manner, and the treatment he'd received growing up on Asgard, had trained K'Zan to believe that he would forever be one person's new "project" after another. That Galactus would come and make him a Herald was just another attempt to get K'Zan to be something other than useless. Volstagg had tried it, Beta Ray Bill had tried it, Dani Moonstar had tried it, and most recently Amora had tried it.

Galactus, he believed, as an ally in the war against Thanos, was just the latest to try his hand at making something out of a kid whose body seemed always to be in conflict with itself. Unlike the others, Galactus had actually been successful, and K'Zan had no problem repaying him by finding him one planet after another to consume. He believed the string of planets he found to be a godsend.

He'd begun to suspect he'd done something wrong only hours earlier when he approached the fourth planet and found a Kree deep space war ship waiting for him, the KE-Atomizer.

"Is this the planet?"

K'Zan turned to see Galactus approaching behind him, moving through space with a silence that seemed to defy all the physics that explained it.

"It is," K'Zan nodded, his new red-skinned frame moving to float near Galactus' head. "But I think something's wrong. That's a Kree warship out there. I think this is a Kree planet."

Galactus looked over to the planet. "It is a Kree planet, my Herald, as the past three planets have been."

K'Zan nodded, thinking aloud, "Isn't it against the Alliance Treaty for you to-"

"I care nothing for treaties," Galactus announced. "I will feed on this world, and you shall aid in defeating that warship. I hunger. I must feed."

K'Zan knew he had no choice. "Of course."

Zipping ahead, K'Zan approached a row of Kree fighters. "Move aside," he ordered them. "Galactus hungers."

"You are in violation of the Alliance Treaty," the lead pilot replied testily. "Stand down or you will be fired upon. Galactus has no claim on this planet."

"Galactus hungers," K'Zan said again, as if this was the only explanation needed. He looked over his shoulder, watching the giant approach, and turned back to the fighter pilot. "I suggest you move. You know, I know, and your Commander back there on that warship knows that you have no chance to stopping the Big G." K'Zan floated higher and allowed his powers to boil forth, filling the air around him with just a taste of the Power Cosmic.

"Hold your fire!" he heard the pilot shout just before a blast from one of the ship's on the left wing tore into K'Zan.

The Herald barely flinched. Annoyed more than angered, K'Zan leveled his gaze at the pilot who'd fired upon him, and let loose a blast of the Power Cosmic that ripped the Kree fighter ship in two, searing the craft - and pilot - in half. He turned back to the lead pilot, energy coalescing in each fist and pouring from his eyes. "Turn away. Now."

"I can't do that," the pilot replied, his voice curt and determined.

K'Zan nodded. "I will not fire upon you until you-"

His words were cut short as the lead pilot fired two missiles. Neither reached K'Zan, as the young Herald destroyed both in the short space between himself and the pilot. He could see the pilot staring out at him, and the calm resignation in his eyes that told K'Zan he knew he would not make it out of here alive. "Do what you have to do," the pilot said to K'Zan, then ordered his squadron to open fire.

KE-ATOMCRUSHER

"Colonel Kizlo!"

The attendees of Kizlo's presentation turned as a young private streaked into the room, handing his superior officer a print-out, then turned to the officer controlling the video screen and gave him a set of coordinates.

The screen before them changed, showing the Kree warship KE-Atomizer locked in combat against Galactus.

While the Kree around Ben-Vell gasped at the image of Galactus smashing his way through a squadron of Kree fighters, Ben's eyes were locked on the streaking red-and-yellow figure that buzzed around the battlefield, striking hard and fast and cutting a path for his master to walk through.

"Isn't that K'Zan?" Thalia whispered beside him, knowing that it was. And then louder, to the room, Thalia announced, "Colonel Kizlo, the smaller individual is a man named K'Zan, the newest Herald of Galactus." Pause. "He is a former associate of the Cosmic Protector. I believe Ben-Vell will have no problem killing him as well."

KE-ATOMIZER

Ben-Vell Parker approached the battlefield with a sense of dread he had no felt since the assault on Titan-3.* This time, however, there was no Beta Ray Bill standing beside him, coaching him through his nerves. There was no Valkyrior supporting the attack.

* AGC 1: The Vengeance of Hope

There was only his friend, K'Zan, out there ahead of him, who would do everything to stop him.

It helped only slightly that the K'Zan he saw slicing his way through elite Kree fighter pilots barely replicated the K'Zan Ben knew. Even from this distance Ben-Vell could see the confidence in the Herald's actions. There was no hesitation, no misstep. K'Zan the Herald fired to his left, then right, then swooped behind a fighter to send two blasts deep into the jet's engines.

Ben shook his head - K'Zan wasn't just performing at a high level, he was showing off, or at least thrilling to his own abilities. Ben recognized what K'Zan was doing because it was exactly what he had done nearly every day of his life.

The Cosmic Protector blasted forward, shooting past the outer edge of Kree fighters, past Galactus, aiming straight for K'Zan.

"K'Zan!" he roared the moment before impact, wanting K'Zan to know who was attacking him.

"Huh-oooooof!"

Ben caught K'Zan square in the stomach and poured on the speed, carrying them both past the battlefield to the eerie quiet ground between the battle and the KE-Atomizer. "You've got to stop this!" Ben roared, pushing K'Zan forward as they separated.

The younger Orphan righted himself and floated a mere ten feet away. "Ben-Vell? What are you doing here?"

"I'm the Cosmic Protector, K'Zan," Ben said, and for a moment they were twelve once again. "Why do you get to bat first, Ben-Vell?" "Because I'm older, K'Zan!"

"So?" K'Zan challenged, and suddenly the twelve year olds were a long way away. "Does this planet have some cosmic significance I'm unaware of, or are you here because your new Kree masters have ordered you to be here?"

Ben squeezed his hands into fists. The one thing he always had hated was being challenged. That K'Zan had never done it before only made Ben that much angrier. "You've been leading Galactus to Kree planets, K'Zan. You're costing the Kree government-"

"I don't care about the Kree government," K'Zan replied. "If Galactus is not fed, he starts eating whatever's closest to him. You'd prefer him feeding off inhabited planets?"

"I'd prefer him feeding off non-Kree planets," Ben replied. "Now clear him out of here. There's a medium-sized planet two light years from here that's twice as rich as the one you've condemned."

K'Zan wasn't backing down. "Condemned? No one lives here, Ben! The planet you want to send us to is inhabited by ten thousand people!"

"Then go somewhere else," Ben shot back. "I'm not allowing you to take this planet."

"You're not allowing me?" K'Zan questioned, his anger growing every time Ben opened his mouth. "Who are you to tell Galactus where he can and cannot find nourishment? You would condemn him to death rather than feed off the riches of the Kree government?"

"Stop being so melodramatic," Ben waved his hand in disgust. "You were always such a whiner."

"It's the only way you guys would ever listen to me," K'Zan answered, but instead of the whine that Ben expected, there was anger in K'Zan's voice. "Do you think it was easy being me growing up? You never took me anywhere, never included me in anything. None of you did. But I took it, Ben-Vell. I dealt with it. And now, after I've found a purpose, you dare come here and order me to step aside, to let the only person who's ever been able to show me that I have real worth die? Forget it."

"K'Zan, listen to me," Ben said, refusing to back down. "I'm the freaking Cosmic Protector. If I want to make you leave, I can."

"It always comes down to force with you, doesn't it, Ben?" K'Zan countered, his powers flaring to life. "Well not anymore." Before Ben could react, K'Zan was on top of him, slamming his fist into Ben's face and knocking him five hundred meters backwards.

ASGARD - THOR ODINSON HALL OF PEACE

"What is it you want?" Eshir asked, being led into the Council room. He saw the concerned faces of the Ambassadors, plus King William and Skrull 4, turn to him, then back to the image that floated three-dimensionally before them.

"Is that …?" he asked, his voice trailing off.

"A live feed from the Kree warship, Atomizer," King William informed him. "That is, indeed, Ben-Vell and K'Zan locked in combat."

"It seems," Ash'lin spoke, her words dripping with venom for Kovar, "that the Kree government has ordered Ben-Vell, the Cosmic Protector, to kill Galactus."

"What?" Eshir asked. "Is that possible?"

Kovar ignored his question and glared at Ash'lin. "The Kree government has every right to protect it's own interests! Galactus has chosen to break Kree law and he will be brought to justice!"

KE-ATOMIZER

Feeling equally powerful, important, and enraged, K'Zan shot forward after Ben-Vell. K'Zan was the forgotten Orphan, the kid who was never included, who almost seemed a footnote in his own life, and he was going to take it out on Ben right now for copping the same attitude the 'golden boy' had always copped. "The world is not here for you, Ben!" he screamed, lunging for Ben's face.

For all the newfound power and abilities at his disposal, nothing could change the fact that K'Zan had rarely ever been in fights - either real or simulated - and Ben had. Experience could not be over-valued at moments like this K'Zan soon learned as Ben rolled out of the way at the last second and finished his move by delivering a vicious chop onto K'Zan's lower back.

Using the powers granted him through the Nega Bands of Mar-Vell, Ben fired a varied attack at the Herald, testing K'Zan's ability to withstand different forms of punishment. For all his bravado, Ben wasn't about to underestimate a Herald of Galactus, even one as inexperienced as K'Zan. He heard K'Zan scream and dart off towards the Atomizer. Confident he had bought himself a few seconds, Ben turned to check on Galactus' progress.

It was worse than he thought.

Galactus was having no trouble smashing his way through three squadrons of Kree fighters. 'Sharbnit,' he swore, turning back to the Atomizer, 'where's the big guns? Why have you sent out only three squadrons?'

Turning back to find K'Zan, Ben-Vell was suddenly overcome with a searing mental pain - his Cosmic Awareness. Holding his hands to his head, Ben screamed as a white pain descended on him, rendering all his senses mute as a blurred image flashed into his mind, warning him of a danger to the universe. His eyelids fluttered rapidly as his eyes rolled back into his head.

"Ben, what's wrong?"

The concerned shout of K'Zan somehow penetrated Ben's mind and reality slowly came back to him. To his surprise, the blurred image of his Awareness solidified as well.

Floating directly before the Atomizer was a massive projection of the Supreme Intelligence.

"Stop where you are, Galactus," the Intelligence ordered.

K'Zan and Ben turned to see that Galactus had made his way through the squadrons of Kree fighter jets, which lay strewn about the area behind him in a massive, floating circle of junk.

"I hunger," Galactus repeated.

"You are in violation of Kree Empirical Law," the Supreme Intelligence charged. "How do you plead to the crime of planetcide?"

"Your laws are beneath one such as me," Galactus replied, striding forward through space.

"Then you are found guilty of crimes against the Kree people," the Supreme Intelligence's projection announced as Galactus passed through his mouth.

"No!" Ben-Vell shouted, grabbing K'Zan and blasting as fast as he could away from the Intelligence's projection.

"Ben, what?" K'Zan protested, trying to push himself free. "By the gods …"

The projected image of the Supreme Intelligence vanished. K'Zan watched as Galactus continued to press towards the planet beneath him. At that moment, the two Orphans learned why the Atomizer hadn't done anything but watch the proceedings.

It was empty, loaded with explosives, a massive booby-trap just waiting for its target to cross its path.

As Galactus walked past the ship's mid-point, the Atomizer self-destructed.

"No!" K'Zan screamed, watching in horror as Galactus was caught flush by the massive explosions and quickly engulfed in flame and smoke and debris.

"There's nothing you can do!" Ben-Vell screamed as K'Zan blasted free from Ben's grasp as he saw Galactus battered body pushed backward by the force of the blast.

An image of the Supreme Intelligence appeared before Ben-Vell and K'Zan. "Finish him, Ben-Vell," the Intelligence ordered. "Kill Galactus."

K'Zan whirled around to face his friend. "Kill Galactus? You actually mean to kill Galactus?"

"I … I …" Ben stammered, feeling once again like he was twelve as he looked at K'Zan. K'Zan Strange, the mutant speedster magician, a product of one too many cross-time genetic polinations, a thin, weak kid who couldn't even keep up with Angelica, let alone himself, Toomi, and Eshir. The kid who was always left behind, or forgotten about. The kid who fit in nowhere. The kid who now had now been given a purpose by the being Ben-Vell had been charged to kill.

"Kill Galactus, Cosmic Protector!" the Intelligence ordered.

"No," Ben said flatly, shaking his head. "You engineered my becoming Cosmic Protector, Intelligence, but that does not give you control of me. My Cosmic Awareness didn't warn me of the events here until you arrived. You are the threat to the universe - or, at least, your plan to kill Galactus is a threat my Awareness wants me to stop."

"If you do not kill Galactus," the Supreme Intelligence warned, "you will be marked as a traitor to the Kree people. You will never sleep soundly again."

Ben glanced to K'Zan and nodded. The Herald shot instantly across the debris-filled space towards his master. Ben's attention came back to the Supreme Intelligence. "I won't do it, Supremor. Killing Thanos needed to be done, but not Galactus."

Pure hatred filled the eyes of the image of the Supreme Intelligence, but Ben-Vell didn't give it more than a second's thought before he, too, shot across the field of debris in search of Galactus.

Only now with the purpose to save him, not destroy him.

ASGARD - THOR ODINSON HALL OF PEACE

The Council members stood, watching the events unfold in silence.

"Is Galactus dead?" Eshir finally asked.

King William shook his head, "I cannot tell."

HALA

"I told you we should have sent a back-up plan," General Van'Rogg scoffed to the Supreme Intelligence. "Ben-Vell does not possess the guts to do the dirty work."

The Supreme Intelligence turned to look down upon his most senior military advisor. "What makes you think, General, that what we just witnessed did not unfold exactly as I desired?"

Van'Rogg said nothing, but wondered not for the first time about the path the Intelligence was leading the Kree people down.

THE SURF

"Is he dead?" K'Zan asked, feeling a sickness swell up inside him. The Herald and Ben-Vell had pulled Galactus' still body into the safety of the Surf hyper-dimension. The Planet Devourer's body was badly battered by the explosions, and his flesh and costume had melted to varying degrees across the left side of his body, the side that had been closest to the blast.

"No," Ben-Vell answered. "At least, not yet. But he's badly injured. He's maybe even in a coma."

"How do we fix him?" K'Zan asked.

Ben shook his head. "I don't know. There's some kind of … virus working it's way through him, I think. Something in the blast."

K'Zan's brain worked overtime, trying to find a solution. "What if I poured my power back into him?" he asked. "He gave me a piece of himself, of the Power Cosmic. What if we fed it back into him? Would that work?"

"I don't know, K'Zan," Ben answered honestly. "I just don't."

"Can't your powers tell you anything?" K'Zan asked, panicking. "Please, Ben! I'll do anything to save him!"

Ben thought on K'Zan's idea. "It's possible, but … you might lose your powers, K'Zan. If you do, you might go back to the way you were. Are you sure you want to risk that?"

"I have to," the young Herald said despondently. "How could I turn my back on someone who did so much for me?"

Ben nodded. "Right. Let's get to it. I'll act as a conduit. I can absorb your power and infuse it back into Galactus. It won't be easy, but it should work. Whether it's enough to save him-"

"It's worth the risk," K'Zan said flatly. The two Orphans met each other's gaze, a new bond between them. Whatever Ben-Vell had come to do, K'Zan knew, when it counted he had stood beside him.

K'Zan let the Power Cosmic rise within him, then directed it towards Ben-Vell in a steady release, watching as Ben redirected it down into Galactus. Steadily, over the course of the next half-hour, K'Zan felt his power draining away, but he didn't hesitate in his commitment. Whatever resources of energy he had he would gladly give it to Galactus. Even if the result was the return of the weakened, splintered K'Zan.

"Enough," Ben-Vell gasped, cutting off the flow. "If that's not enough, nothing will save him." Ben looked across the body of Galactus to K'Zan. His friend's body still wore the appearance of a Herald. "How are you, K'Zan?"

The young man put a hand to his head. "Weak, but … whole. I can still feel some of the Power Cosmic within me, but …"

"It's okay," Ben-Vell said, not knowing if it was true. "Come on, K'Zan, let's go home."

Ben-Vell wasn't sure if he meant it, but it was all he could think to say.

SOUL SEARCHING to be concluded ...

I don't joke. I just don’t.

Y G G D R A S I L

comments to bousquet22@earthlink.net

Mark Bousquet

3 June 2003

Northern Bear Productions