Milky Way and the Galaxy Girls

Chapter 12: Expedition On Earth

"Now, it's time to find that last fragment," Milky said to herself. "And I have a pretty good idea of where it might be going." At that moment, the last fragment flew past her. Milky gave chase to the fragment, which took her back to the blue and green planet. "Bingo!" She said. Milky turned to the starry sky. "Black Hole, you better watch out." She said, determined. Milky flew through the planet's blue atmosphere and landed in a green patch full of trees, flowers, and loads of people doing their own things. In the background were loads of high buildings that pierced the blue sky. Milky didn't know what any of this was, but she was highly transfixed by the sight. Suddenly, she heard something, it sounded like fast footsteps. Milky turned around and saw a man wearing a brown overcoat, brown pants, brown shoes, a small brown fedora, a pale yellow suit and a dark red tie running down the path with a black briefcase in one hand, pushing almost  everyone out of the way, clearly late for something. "Sorry! Excuse me! Coming through!" He shouted as he barged past everyone. The man barged straight past Milky, as he did so, two things fell out of his briefcase. Milky bent down to pick up the things that fell out. One was a little plastic rectangle containing a picture of the man and some writing on it, and a little brown packet with a green leaf logo on it. 

"Jonathan Gardner?" Milky said, reading the top of the card. She looked at the packet. "Emerald Gardeners..." By the time Milky looked up from the fallen content, the man was gone. This planet was very much unlike the other places she had been to; it was complex, crowded, and Milky was certain she would get little or no help. Milky skated through the park, asking people for help, and getting a plethora of responses: she got shrugs, she was laughed at, rudely or aggressively dismissed, or nobody who knew how to help Milky. She almost gave up until she saw a woman with wine-red hair and greenish-blue eyes standing around, not doing much of anything. Milky approached the woman. "Excuse me, do you know where, or who, Mr. Gardner is?" She asked the woman. She took the identification card and gardening packet from Milky and looked at them both. "Where did you get these?" The woman asked Milky, slightly suspicious of her. "They fell out of the man's briefcase as he was rushing past," Milky replied. "I'm trying to find him to give them back to him." The woman returned the card and packet to Milky. "Now, I don't know Mr. Gardner," The woman told Milky. "But I know where to go to get to Emerald Gardeners." She proceeded to give Milky some directions to get to Emerald Gardeners. Head straight, keep going straight, hop on a bus, turn left and then to the building. "T-thank you." Milky replied, she did not know what a "bus" was, but she didn't want to complicate things as Milky had much bigger problems to deal with. "You're welcome, goodbye." The woman said as Milky made her way to the park gates. Milky was about to cross the road when someone grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the way. As she was dragged off the road, a speeding vehicle flew past her. "Young lady, please watch where you're going..." Milky turned to see a round man with a bushy brown beard, bushy brown hair and a red nose, he shook his head, rather annoyed. "Sorry." Milky replied. The vehicles continued moving in front of Milky and the man, before they stopped when some lights above them turned from green to yellow to red. Another set of lights did the opposite, and people started walking across the road. "I think it's best to walk now." Milky said to herself, pacing towards the other side of the road. "Okay, now to keep going straight till I find this "bus", whatever that is." Milky continued down the path until she reached a shelter, where other people were waiting. Milky waited around for five minutes before a bus pulled up to the shelter. The doors opened and everyone started giving money to the driver. It was Milky's turn. "Do you have any money?" The bus driver asked her. "I don't have any." Milky replied. "Then you're going to have to get off the bus." The bus driver told her. "Can you make an exception?" Milky asked. "What are you, a princess? That's not how this works. Get off this bus, please." The bus driver replied. Milky continued to beg the bus driver to keep her on the bus, but he lost his patience with her and she was kicked off the bus, which promptly left. "How come nearly everyone I met so far on this planet is so needlessly aggressive?" Milky asked herself. "I suppose I'll have to get to Mr. Gardner on foot, even if it means it'll take up more time." She started down the road once more, much quicker than before. Milky was so caught up with the current situation that she didn't have a lick of awareness about the world around her. She snapped out of it when a guy wearing a hard hat and a high visibility jacket called out to her, urgently. "Ma'am, watch where you're going!" Milky turned to look at him. "What?" She asked before she fell through an uncovered manhole, landing flat on her front. Milky got up and dusted herself off, luckily her bag was still on her. She looked around, she was in a dark tunnel that was mostly flooded, save for the pathways constructed adjacent to the sides of the tunnel. The water was green, the air was green, and there was an awful smell inside the tunnel. Regardless of where Milky went, the smell lingered like a supernova remnant. Milky's next plan was to get out of this tunnel and to continue looking for Mr. Gardner. Behind her, Milky could hear an odd noise, like bubbles popping in a rapid fashion. She whipped around to see bubbles in the water, within seconds, something rose out of the water, a pair of yellow eyes. The eyes did not look welcoming, and Milky knew it. She edged backwards and the eyes sunk below the water. For a moment, everything was quiet and nothing happened, but when Milky took another step back, a green, scaly creature leapt out of the water, causing Milky to scream. The creature grabbed a hold of Milky's bag in its long, toothy mouth. "No! Let go!" She commanded. She and the creature tugged at the bag for a full minute, but the creature yanked the bag out of Milky's grasp and swam away, quickly. "Get back here, you!" Milky exclaimed. The creature tried to confuse Milky by taking drastic turns through different tunnels, but she remained in hot pursuit. After a great deal of chasing, Milky had the creature backed into a wall. "Gotcha now!" She boasted. Unfortunately for Milky, the creature held her bag by the handle in its mouth. Milky grabbed her bag and pulled as hard as she can, but the creature wouldn't let go of the handle. They struggled once more, before finally, the creature ripped the handle in half and it swam away from Milky, as fast as it could. "Ugh! What am I supposed to do now!?" Milky complained, looking at the ripped handle. She took a deep breath and let it go. "More importantly, how am I supposed to get out?" She looked up as she walked to find a way out of the tunnel. 

Eventually, she found herself under a small, thin ring of light. Milky jumped up to the source of the light, and something above her moved, giving way to some more light. "Could this be the exit?" Milky asked herself. She jumped up again and the thing above moved away some more. "It...might be." Milky said, supposedly. She pushed the top away a third time, which gave way to a circle of light. Milky jumped up a fourth time and climbed out of the hole. She was back overground, but she still had to find Mr. Gardner, wherever he was. She slid the manhole back into place, quickly got off the road, and started walking straight, all the while complaining about her bag. A few minutes later, she spotted a man in the distance trying to get inside a building. Milky held out the ID card and saw that the man bore a striking resemblance to Mr. Gardner. She raced up to the man, ID and packet in hand. "Excuse me," Milky began. "Is your name Jonathan Gardner?" The man turned to Milky. "Why, yes, I am, why do you want me?" He asked her. "I believe you dropped these." Milky held out the little packet and the ID. The man smiled, widely, and happily took the things from Milky. "Oh, thank you, young lady! I wasn't able to enter my workplace without my ID, and I needed this packet of soil for an important meeting!" Mr. Gardner said, gratefully. "You're welcome, it was the least I could do." Milky replied. Mr. Gardner noticed Milky's bag. "Do you mind if I fix that for you?" He asked her. "Sure, why not." She replied. He pulled out some duct tape and wrapped it around the handle. "Thank you, sir." Milky told the man. "Oh, and before you go, take this," Mr. Gardner reached into his overcoat and pulled out the final fragment of Black Hole's planetoid. "I found this on my way over here, but I thought you might like it." He gave the fragment to Milky. "Thanks again." She replied. "You're welcome, goodbye." Mr. Gardner scanned his ID and went inside the building. Milky placed the last fragment into her bag, looked around to see if there was anyone nearby, and she flew into space to stop Black Hole once and for all.