I slowly regained consciousness without pain, weirdly enough.
I just felt... drained, as if I haven't eaten in a while. The blackness faded away as I opened my eyes and they adjusted to the light.
Finding myself looking at unfamiliar ceiling, I didn't even have the chance to get up before Steel floated into my field of vision.
"Oh, great! You're awake!" Steel said as he floated aside, letting me set up. "I thought I had to start zapping you again."
"Please don't do that," I mumbled, messaging my head before looking around to see where I was.
I was in the Steel Suit, sitting in someone's apartment on the couch I was laying on. The apartment wasn't very big, and in front of the couch was a coffee table with a flat-screen TV on the other side hanging on the wall.
There was an open kitchen on the right side of the TV. On the far left wall is a door to what I assume is outside based on the peephole and chain. On the far right is a door, probably the owner's bedroom.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"You're in my apartment," a new voice drew my attention and I saw the woman from before walk out of the kitchen with a glass of water.
"Hey, it's you!" I recognised her instantly, of course.
"Yeah, uh, sorry about what happened," the woman gave a sheepish smile as she walked closer and handed me the glass of water. "I don't know what came over me."
When she knelt down, I saw something. Her sunglasses tilted down and showed me her eyes. Her eyes were purple. But that wasn't what drew my attention.
What did was her square, white, glowing pupils.
Finally, it clicked. "Oh my god! You're Galacta!"
*crash*
The sound of the glass shattering as she dropped it was the only sound in the room as she completely froze and stared at me.
In the next instant, and I say instant because there's no way a whole second happened when she moved, I was in the air with a crushing grip on my throat.
You know, in hindsight, I really should have said 'Gali' instead of 'Galacta', because then I can explain knowing her through her Twitter account, while 'Galacta' is her real name that no one on Earth should know.
"Urgh," I choked as I gripped Galacta's hand that was holding me up.
"Hey! Let him go!" Steel tried to move in to help me but Galacta just raised her other hand and he was encased in an energy ball.
"Who are you!?" Galacta questioned. "Did HE send you!?"
"No! I- Gah!" I tried to answer only for her to tighten her grip on my throat.
"I swear, if you're one of HIS heralds, I'll send you back to him as a corpse," Galacta threatened, the glow from her pupils becoming visible even through her sunglasses.
Desperately, I tapped her arm as I thought of a way to calm her down. "S-Scan my DNA!"
Galacta raised an eyebrow. Then a floating, transparent tablet with a purple screen appeared in front of my face and ran a scanner over it.
The screen turned over and faced Galacta, who began reading through it. "A human-alien hybrid?" She mumbled before scoffing. "Pfft. Like that's anything special nowadays. So what if your half-human and half..." She stopped as she narrowed her eyes. "What in the..."
Galacta actually let go of me, letting me drop into the couch as I began rubbing my throat. The ball of energy around Steel vanished as Galacta held the screen with both hands and looked at it intensely.
"Zack! Are you okay?" Steel came in to check on me while I was nursing my throat. "What's your problem, lady?!" He yelled at Galacta, twisting his arms to look like clinched fists.
"What are you?" Galacta ignored him completely and was looking at me. "I have DNA records of every single species in the universe, even extinct ones. Your alien DNA doesn't match a single one of them. It's not genetically engineered, and there's no lingering energy from dimensional drifting."
"First, why don't you explain what happened when you knocked me out?" I asked when the soreness in my throat vanished. "I think you owe me this much."
"Yeah, for a start," Steel added, glaring at Galacta.
Galacta looked between me and Steel for a few seconds before sighing and sitting down on the coffee table. She took off her sunglasses and used her other hand to massage the bridge of her nose.
"Okay, so since you know who I am, do you know about my... constant state of hunger?" Galacta asked, setting her sunglasses aside and looking at me.
"Yes/No," me and Steel looked at each other before I added, "I'll explain to you later," looking back to Galacta, I motioned for her to keep going. "Continue, please."
She looked in confusion between me and Steel before lightly shaking her head. "Anyway, as you know, I always have this need to... feed on life and its energy. I've made do with the energy of some stray invaders, but it's never been enough and then... I bumped into you," Galacta looked at me with absolute seriousness. "You, alone, gave me more energy than any other meal I have ever had. That first contact alone made me feel like I devoured dozens of people, which is why I was surprised you were alive when you followed me. And, when I fed on that energy of yours... I couldn't get enough. It was so potent, and there was so much of it, and it was so DELICIOUS," Galacta gave a creepy, hungry smile before shaking her head and clearing her throat. "Uh, I mean, it was enough to actually... sate my hunger for some time. You, a single being, gave me as much energy as a small planet filled with life. For once, I actually don't feel malnourished. So, how? What are you? What is that energy? And how do you have so much of it?"
"Okay, wow," I couldn't help but reel back at the amount of information I had to process.
My Turbo Energy was enough for that? I know Turbo Energy is incredibly potent, dense, and enough to power some crazy stuff, but...
No, it makes perfect sense. Makino used the Alphalink to farm planets for Turbo Energy and alternatives. By Marvel standards, Turbo Energy is in fact the planetary energy Galactus, and by extension Galacta, needs. Plus, Dad- I mean, Jim McGrath was enough to power up a planet devouring ship for years.
I forgot a bit of Max was mixed into me. Explains why I felt angry thinking about Makino.
"Okay...," I rubbed the back of my head as I thought on how to explain. "First off, the energy that you were absorbing? It's called Turbo Energy."
"Turbo Energy?" Galacta asked.
"It stands for Tachyon Unlimited Radiant Bio-Optimized Energy," Steel clarified.
"It's an energy native to the planet Takion. The prime species of that planet, Takionians, generate that energy endlessly, hence the 'unlimited' part in its name," I explained.
"There is neither a planet called Takion nor a species called Takionians in the universe," Galacta immediately denied my claim.
"That's right, in THIS universe, there isn't," I explained, knowing she'll get my hint.
Her nose scrunched up. "Okay, let's say I believe you, that still doesn't explain how you knew about me."
Ooh boy, here comes the awkward part.
"Yeah, uh," I began rubbing the back of my neck. "You know how there's infinite universes? And how... in some of them, this universe is like a story or comic book-"
"Oh, for the love of the One-Above-All! You're one of THOSE!" Galacta immediately covered her face with her hands and groaned loudly. "I hate your kind so much. You always know more than you should."
"Yeah, that's how," I explained that this is how I knew about her.
"Okay, okay," Galacta raised her hands and took deep breaths. "How did you get here?"
I raised two fingers. "Two words. 'The' and 'Beyonder'."
"Of course it was," the dead tiredness in Galacta's voice couldn't be more obvious.