The Stardust Ghosts

Not on Earth?

Spider-Man groaned. When he woke up, he couldn't work out where he was. It was loud and noisy. He picked himself up and looked around at where he was. It didn't look like New York. He didn't want to take his mask off until he was sure it wasn't. Then he bumped into something... moving. It looked like a giant bamboo stick with crocodile teeth and eyes that looked like candles.

Then he saw more creatures that didn't look like human beings or animals. These sightings made him finally decide to take his mask off. Peter saw that wherever he was it was not New York City at all. With all of the people he was around, some looking like human beings, some humanoid and some completely alien, he started to wonder if he wasn't even on Planet Earth anymore. The more he explored of wherever he was, he thought it looked like a sort of market town built under a mine tunnel. A giant mine tunnel. He started to wonder if he was in a nightclub. A very big nightclub.

As he explored and tried to make sense of where he was, Peter couldn't work out whether he hoped Gwen would be here or not. If she was, he would able to find her sooner. But on the other hand, if she was here and he found her, he wouldn't know how to get the both of them back to New York. All he hoped was that whether she was, she was alive and well.

Then Peter heard screaming.

"Everyone, down!"

He saw three figures each wearing something that looked like a spacesuit was completely black. Inside of each helmet was a purple humanoid face. He noticed the guns they were holding. They didn't look like ones from Earth and looked more like the ones from some of the science fiction video games he used to play.

"I said, everyone down!" yelled the middle of the three creatures with guns.

Everyone went down including Peter. He put his Spider-Man face mask back on. Despite not knowing where he was, he decided to put himself to good use if he wasn't going anywhere at the moment.

"Someone tell us where is Nebula, Daughter of Thanos!" the leader shouted.

No one answered. They all fired their laser guns.

"If no one answers, we will all kill you one by one!" the leader roared. "So someone start talking!"

"I have the answers!"

The purple aliens looked up to see Spider-Man flying towards them.

"Rejoin the others or face your death!" the leader yelled.

Spider-Man kept on flying towards them and used his spider senses to dodge the dark blue laser bolts being fired towards him. He knocked down the alien on the left and fired his web to trap him on the ground. Then he back-flipped to the one on the right before he could fire his gun, kicked him to the ground and trapped him in web. He turned to face the leader and his gun pointing at him. He forgot he misjudged the leader while he was busy taking down the other two. He had forgotten he wasn't in New York and he wasn't fighting human criminals.

"You had your fun," the leader said. "Now it's my turn."

But before he could fire his weapon, it was shot out. Spider-Man seized the chance to pin him to the ground and seize him in web. Then he saw four creatures running towards him. The first to approach him was a green-skinned creature with long red hair. She held a long sword at his throat. "Who are you?" she demanded. "How are you affiliated with the Ortluga Terrorists over here?"

"The what terrorists?" Spider-Man was puzzled. "I don't know who they are, but they were terrorizing these innocent people and I took them down by myself."

"Yeah, with a little help from my gun," said the short creature that looked a lot like a talking raccoon. Then he approached the terrorists in their web. "This web is from you yourself, is it?" Then he backed away when a spot of web was fired by his feet.

"Was that an effective enough demonstration?" Spider-Man asked.

The raccoon grinned. "I'll say."

Then Spider-Man got pushed by the blue-skinned alien with red patterns on his body He approached the terrorists and laughed. "Time to put an end to their misery once and for all!"

"Drax, no!"

The man with the space mask approached him. When he touched his mask, it vanished and revealed his human face.

"We will get paid more if we take them alive, not dead," the man said.

Drax groaned.

Then the man turned to Spider-Man. "Who are you? And where are you from? What are you doing on Knowhere?"

"Nowhere?" Spider-Man said. "I don't know where I am, but it must be somewhere."

"No, this place is called Knowhere. With a 'K'. In space."

That didn't really surprise Spider-Man so much as he thought where this Knowhere or whatever it was called didn't look like Earth too much

"Now, seriously, why are you here?" the man asked again.

"Why do you want to know?" Then he thought about something. "You're not arresting me, are you? After all the good I did."

"No, we want to know so you can get your share of the reward money for him," the man said. "Peter Quill, but I'd rather be called Star-Lord."

Peter Parker took his mask off. "Spider-Man when I'm wearing this outfit, but my real name is Peter Parker. And I'm from New York, Earth."

"Wow! Two Peters!" teased the raccoon. "Hope we're not going to get no confusion, Quill."

Quill seemed amazed with what Parker said. "New York, Earth. Wow. When did you leave?"

"About ten minutes ago."

The green-skinned lady approached the thick web. "And you've helped us capture the Ortluga Terrorists. We've been on them for months. Thank you for your assistance."

"You're welcome, Miss..."

"Gamora. You met Quill. The strong one is Drax and the last one is Rocket."

"Rocket? Strange name for a raccoon."

Rocket gave him a sneer.

"He doesn't like to be called that," Quill told him. "We're called the Guardians of the Galaxy. So, where's your spaceship? If you like to help us out more, we can contact you if we need an urgent help."

"I didn't come by a spaceship," Parker said. "I came by golden dust."

That seemed to confuse the guardians.

"Golden dust?" Gamora said.

Then Parker felt something in his mask and emptied on his hand. "This is the golden dust I was covered when my friend Gwen and I was taken away."

Gamora took Parker's hand and looked at the dust on it.

"This is a long story," she explained to everyone. "Let's take these terrorists to the Benatar and I'll explain on the way to the Nova Corps."

Quill turned to Parker. "Give us a hand with the bad guys in your web to our ship, would you?"

"Or a web," Drax said.

"Or your magical web-shooting hands," Rocket said.

Feeling a little bit uneasy with Rocket's comments, Parker put his mask back on. "At your service." Then, back as Spider-Man, he grabbed the three terrorists in their trapped webs and followed the Guardians of the Galaxy to their ship. Quill and Drax led the way while Gamora and Rocket went behind him in case the terrorists were up to any of their tricks. If any one of them did try anything, Quill gave Rocket permission to have any of their body parts he fancied.