The Soul World

Portals and Perils

Strange immediately set to work making a portal to Soul-Earth.  He held out his hands and, clenching his jaw, carefully spun them in a circle through the air until fizzling energy and sparks flew from his fingers.  Although Peter had seen this before when they fought Thanos, it was still incredible to behold: a circle of light burst into existence and suspended itself in mid-air, crackling and whooshing with orange radiance. 

However, the scene on the other side of the portal was almost exactly the same landscape as the one they were in. It could have been a window, showing amber sand for miles and miles.

"Um... Did it work?" Peter queried.

"Hmmm." Dr Strange grimaced and scratched his head. "We may have a slight problem."

"What? What is it?"

"The geography is different in this realm. Even if I knew the right distance to Earth, the direction is different too so I can't really be exact."

"So what can we do?" Quill said.

Strange considered this for a minute. "I suppose I'll just have to do some trial and error until I find Earth. But this may take a while. You'll just have to bear with me for a bit," he said. 

As he concentrated on the portal, the scene switched - this time showing a herd of purple, disfigured creatures, whose heads all pricked up at the sight of their group. They were pulsating, slimy, dog-like animals with bulbous red spots and 6 beady eyes, all of which were now staring intently towards Strange. A couple of them started to prowl towards the portal. They made a high, keening howl which gave Peter goosebumps and he stepped backwards.

"Shut it! Shut it now!" Quill screamed and Strange quickly changed the scene again, so that the portal was back at an empty landscape. Peter let out his breath in relief.

"What were those things?" He said.

"Xarltan hounds," shuddered Quill, "You don't want to mess with those things. They're like alien hyenas and they will devour anything that moves."

"We used to hunt them on my home planet," Drax added, "as a ritual for boys to prove their manhood. I took down three of the ferocious beasts, but one bit me and I barely escaped alive. Most of the others were not so lucky..."

"Okay," said Strange, shaken by this turn in the mood, "I think, Quill, that maybe you should stand with me and let me know if I make a portal to somewhere dangerous. How about you guys sit over there and we'll let you know when we locate Earth?"

"Alright," Peter agreed, happy to be out of the action for once. 

Peter, Drax and Mantis all settled down a few metres away from Strange's portal and, for a few minutes, simply watched their attempts. As a dozen more scenes of empty landscapes flicked past, each gradually lost interest and started chatting.

"So. Spider child. You have spider powers, yes?" Drax said. Peter nodded. "Can you shoot silk from your butthole?"

"Uh, no," Peter blushed, "but I made my own webbing and I can shoot it from my hands,"

"Show me,"

Peter obliged, firing a small web into the air. As the silvery strands floated down, Mantis' eyes widened whilst Drax seemed unimpressed.

"What can you do?" asked Peter, who felt that his abilities should have a little more reaction.

Drax smiled, or at least Peter thought it was a smile. It looked more like he was baring his teeth.

"I can kill a man with my bare hands in 179 different ways. I can master any weapon in a week. I have killed many a monster and I was the death of Ronan the Accuser, a mighty Kree. And," he leaned in conspiratorially, staring at Peter with intensity, "I can catch metaphors."