Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls

Chapter 4: Misadventures In Petsitting

Milky shot up from the clouds of Venus's planet, now carrying two fragments. She barely had enough time to react when another, even larger fragment flew right past her and beyond the Asteroid Belt. "Where is that one going?" She asked herself. She flew as fast as she could after the fragment, which flew towards an extraordinarily large planet with colourful stripes and a giant red circle on its lower half. "Ooh, what a pretty planet!" Milky said, eyes sparkling. "Perhaps anyone living here would have equally beautiful clothes!" Milky Way flew towards the planet, but she quickly realises that the stripes were actually clouds. She held her breath like she did before, but the cloud layer was much thicker than Venus's planet. Right as Milky Way was descending toward the ground, a giant electric bolt flashed across the sky accompanied by a loud bang, catching her off-guard. "Ah!" Milky yelped, almost dropping the fragments. Milky quickly flew towards the surface in fright, the impact causing a shooting pain in her legs. "Ow, hard fall." She remarked. At that moment, she heard another noise, and it sounded like...barking? Milky looked up and saw a small dog with brownish fur running towards her, excitedly, she gasped. "Hi, doggy!" Milky said, gushing at the approaching dog. Milky bent down and rubbed the dog's head as he panted, happily. "Who's a good boy?" Milky asked, repeatedly, as she rubbed the dog. Another electric bolt and loud bang erupted from the sky again. Milky jumped up in fright, looking frantically at the sky in all directions. "Are you alright?" Someone asked her. Milky turned her head back around, where another girl that looked no older than Saturn was standing.

Her dark brown, curly hair was huge and poofy, and was tied back by a headband coloured pink, brown, light yellow, and cranberry red. She wore a pale yellow belly top, ripped, brown pants with the same colours of her headband at the bottom, brown flip flop skates, and in her ears she wore yellow bolt earrings. Surrounding the girl was a pink cat with lilac stripes, and a small, pale yellow rabbit. "Is the thunder and lightning bothering you?" The girl asked Milky. "The what now?" She replied. "Thunder and lightning, you know, those things." The girl said, pointing at the sky as another bolt flashed above. "Yes! It's so loud and scary!" Milky exclaimed. The girl had her gaze fixed on the fragments in Milky's arms. "What are those?" She asked. "These?" Milky asked, looking down at the fragments. "These are fragments of a planetoid." The girl's eyes widened for a second, but they quickly returned to slightly drooping over her eyes. "Black Hole..." She said to herself, Milky raised a brow. She seized up when see saw another lightning bolt. The girl removed the fragments from Milky's hands and placed them on the ground. "Now, now, Io, don't touch these." The girl told her dog. She gently placed her hands over Milky's hands. "There now, there's nothing to be afraid of," She told Milky, calmly. All of the fear Milky had was replaced with tranquility, she felt her nerves relax, and her heartbeat slow down. "Does that help?" The girl asked Milky. "It...does, actually." Milky replied. The girl smiled. "My name is Jupiter, before I forget." "Mine's Milky Way, or just Milky."

Suddenly, Jupiter and her three animal companions turned around and started to walk quickly away from Milky. "Wait, Jupiter! Where are you going?" Milky asked, she picked up the fragments and started following Jupiter. "Ganymede? Ganymede! Where are you, my dear?" Jupiter called out. "Who's Ganymede?" Milky asked Jupiter. "Oh, Ganymede, he's my pet ferret." The latter replied. "Whoa! How many pets do you have!?" Jupiter, with a straight face, replied. "Only four; Io, my dog, Europa, my bunny, Callisto, my cat, and of course, Ganymede." Milky's mouth was wide open with surprise. "I am a bit of an animal lover," Jupiter added. "It can be a bit stressful looking after four animals, but I love them no matter how much trouble they cause." Jupiter, Milky, and Jupiter's pets continued to travel in search of Ganymede, and on the horizon was a towering object. "Wait a minute..." Jupiter squinted her eyes. "I hope that isn't what I think it is!" When they got up close, they were greeted with a gigantic hill of space junk, containing rusted rockets, old satellites, spacecraft parts, and scrap metal. Jupiter crossed her arms and grumbled. "Careless astronauts, they leave behind their junk for everyone to deal with, it's completely unacceptable, and bad for the environment." Milky looked at the pile of debris, then to Jupiter. "I'll have to look for some bin bags, and large ones at that." Jupiter said to herself. "Milky, look after Io, Europa, and Callisto for me, I'll be back in a moment." Jupiter left to find bin bags to get rid of all the junk. When Jupiter was out of sight, Io started to dig inside the pile. "No, Io, bad boy!" Milky put the fragments down and tried to drag Io away from the pile. Io still dug into the pile, and that's when Milky heard a strange noise coming from inside the pile. "Is that a ferret, could it be Ganymede?" Milky wondered. The noises got louder as Io burrowed into the pile. Milky looked up and saw that the pile was starting to sway, alarming her. "No, Io! Stop doing that!" Milky fruitlessly tried to pull Io out of the pile. "What's going on here?" Jupiter asked, suddenly, she was racing back towards Milky and the animals with multiple bin bags. And all of a sudden, the pile toppled, and all of the debris landed on Jupiter, Milky, and Jupiter's pets.

Milky felt something heavy lying on her thighs. She pushed away all of the debris on top of her and looked at her lap. There was another fragment of Black Hole's planetoid on top of her, and it was the largest so far. "I found another fragment!" Milky cheered, luckily, the other two fragments were right beside Milky. Meanwhile, Jupiter and her pets emerged from the junk, too. "I still can't find Ganymede." Jupiter reported. Io started sniffing the ground beneath Jupiter. "What is it, boy?" She asked the dog. Io dug into the debris, and out came a little brown ferret. A smile spread across Jupiter's face. "Ganymede!" Jupiter picked up Ganymede and hugged him. "You had me worried, you silly billy!" She said, rubbing the ferret's back. "Milky." Jupiter addressed Milky. "Yes?" She asked. "Thank you for helping me find Ganymede." Jupiter replied. "No problem, Jupiter, I have to get going now, so I must be off." Milky tried to fly up through the clouds, but the fragments were weighing her down. "Here." Jupiter said. She handed Milky a messenger bag. "This is way too small." Milky told Jupiter. "Wait." Jupiter took each of the fragments out of Milky's hands and put them inside the messenger bag. She closed the opening flap and handed the bag back to Milky. Milky put the messenger bag on, it was so much lighter than she was expecting. "Thanks, Jupiter." Milky said to Jupiter before taking off into the sky. "Be careful now, don't get struck by lightning." She replied. "What?" A lightning bolt zapped right beside Milky. "Like that." Jupiter added before getting to work cleaning up the mess. Milky careful waded through the clouds, being careful not to get struck by lightning, and she resurfaced from the clouds of the planet. "Much more convenient." Milky said to herself, happy she had a magical messenger bag to carry the fragments.