Galaxy (An Avengers Fanfiction)

Chapter 1: The Planet Tracker

     From my little office I could hear the incessant beeping of the Planet Tracker. I tried to busy myself with some paperwork, but the noise seeped into my subconscious and made me lose my focus.

Finally, I heard someone stomp over to the machine and silence it. I tried to get back to work, but once again my ears betrayed me; two people were talking way too loudly.

"The tracker picked up a signal from a nearby solar system," one voice, a shrill one that I knew too well, said. It was the voice of S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ , my supervisor.

"I've never seen a signal that... loud before." her male accomplice replied. This voice I did not recognize.

"What do you think we should do?" S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ asked him.

There was a moment of silence.

"How long would it take us to get there?" the man replied.

"With the technology at our disposal, probably no more than a day. In Sixam time, that is. That could be anywhere from years to seconds on their planet, though. Remember what happened with I-56?"

"Was that the one where we couldn't beat the mass extinction?"

"Yes, that's the one. So what I'm thinking is we just send one person over to check things out. I don't want to waste a bunch of resources." S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ said.

I couldn't take it anymore. I had to see what was going on. Before I could stop myself I shoved the paperwork aside and shuffled out of my office, only stopping when I stood right beside S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ and the Planet Tracker.

"What is going on?" I asked, cocking my head. The tracker showed a planet covered in blue and green with pretty white swirls in the atmosphere. It also carried a faint, light blue glow that was just barely visible.

S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ turned to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You- you're that intern, right?" she asked hastily.

"Yeah. I've been here for about a year now." I replied. One year and this woman didn't even bother to learn my name.

"Have you ever been to another planet?"

"No, the furthest I've gone is Moon 3, ma'am, but that was at the very start of my internship and I don't think I-"

"That's fine, that's fine. This shouldn't be too hard of a trip. I'll run a scan on the inhabitants, generate you a disguise, and you should be good to go by morning. I'll also try my best to find some info on their native language and atmosphere." S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ rambled, typing away at the tracker's keyboard.

I looked over to the man she'd been talking to earlier and he shrugged at me. When S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ got her mind on something, there was no stopping her. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. My job wasn't to explore alien planets, it was to sit in that little office and do paperwork.

"What are your plans for the future?" she asked me, waving away the man. I watched him walk into another room, mostly to avoid answering her question. She didn't let up, though, staring at me with her pure black eyes and waiting impatiently for me to respond.

"I'm hoping to become an employee of SET. I just need to take the exam first." I answered honestly. How I managed to land this internship at SET to begin with was beyond me. SET stood for Sixam Exploration Team- possibly the leading team in planet exploration on all of Sixam. My lifelong dream was to explore the galaxy and make new friends on every planet I could find. The only issue was that I hated being in a rocket. It gave me terrible motion sickness. That was why Moon 3 was my first and only expedition beyond the planet.

"If you go on this mission," S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ said, "I can waive the exam and get you a job here. All you'd need to do is sign a few papers when you get back and the position is yours."

My eyes grew wide and I couldn't help the growing grin on my face. "O-okay," I squeaked. At this point it was the only word I could manage to squeeze out of my mouth. I could see out of the corner of my eye that my blue skin had a green aura surrounding it- when our kind experiences intense emotion, this tends to happen.

"Go home and get ready for tomorrow," S̷̡̛̹̺̖̺̈́̌̄͂̄̔͗t̴̡̻̩̤͇͈͓̳̟͎̓a̷̡̛̬͇̹̣̝̮͎̣̭͚̾̿̈́̚r̸̨̲͓̮̠͎̓̔͊̈́̄͑̓̄͗̕͝ smirked. "You got this, kid."

With a small giggle and a salute, I rushed out of the SET building and walked home as fast as I could.

I felt like my green aura was lighting up the entire acre around me- in fact it was making my skin warm. I quickly entered my little house and closed the door quietly. For a moment I just stood there, breathing heavily, but I could barely contain my excitement. I let out a loud squeal and hopped up and down, listening as the sound of my feet hitting the floor echoed throughout my house.

This couldn't be happening. It was a dream come true.