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V.G.D. Headquarters, Sector B Employee Cafeteria.
The air was thick with the rich aroma of melted cheese and fried cutlets.
Kraglin was hunched over the dining table like a squirrel that hadn't eaten for three winters, battling a mountain of food piled high on his plate.
He grabbed a burger drenched in meat sauce and melted cheese, taking a massive bite without even caring that the sauce was dripping onto the back of his hand.
As a member of the Raiders, he had spent most of his life wandering the Milky Way Galaxy. He had eaten Kree nutrient paste, chewed on synthetic protein blocks from Planet Xandar, and had even been forced to swallow three-eyed mollusks raw on some nameless, desolate Planet.
But this thing in front of him... Kraglin carefully picked up the item called the "Homelander Supreme Double Cheeseburger" with both hands.
Two soft buns sandwiched juicy, tender beef, with melted cheese flowing down like golden lava, complemented by crunchy pickles and fresh lettuce.
He opened his mouth wide and took another huge bite.
"Mmm!!"
The rich textures exploded in his mouth, the perfect combination of fats and carbohydrates making his scalp tingle.
"God..." Kraglin mumbled indistinctly, tears even welling up in the corners of his eyes. "The people on this Planet... how can they be so happy?"
Just as he was preparing to launch an attack on a slice of pizza, the cafeteria's automatic doors slid open, and a group of people walked in.
The Vought Heroes, who had just finished watching the press conference, swarmed inside.
Their emotions were still lingering in the tragic and stirring atmosphere from earlier, their discussions rising and falling.
"That was the best speech I've ever heard!" Angela was still wiping away tears. "Advancing over my corpse... Oh my god, look at how wet I am... I mean my face, my makeup is ruined."
"Of course, the Boss has always been that cool." Pietro paused when he spotted the alien in the corner eating like a wild animal.
"Hey? Isn't that... what's-his-name?"
Pietro pointed at Kraglin.
"The blue-skinned old man's sidekick? What was it... Klin?"
"It's Kraglin," Steve Rogers corrected as he walked over with his tray. "Hello, Mr. Kraglin. Are you enjoying the food here?"
"Enjoying it? It's amazing!"
Kraglin swallowed the food in his mouth, wiped the grease from his lips with his sleeve, and grinned foolishly.
"I'm thinking about asking Boss Yondu if we can just be stationed on Earth from now on. Seriously, as long as they provide food."
Everyone looked at each other with rather strange expressions.
Natasha Romanoff raised an eyebrow and leaned against the table with her arms crossed, a hint of pity in her voice.
"Um... Mr. Kraglin."
"Yeah?" Kraglin picked up another piece of fried chicken. "What is it, beautiful?"
"Did you... not watch the live broadcast?"
"Live broadcast? What live broadcast?" Kraglin looked completely bewildered.
Natasha sighed and pointed to the large screen hanging on the cafeteria wall.
On the screen, a replay was showing the deep blue "Homelander One" spaceship igniting its thrusters, piercing the sky, and disappearing into the clouds.
"They're gone," Natasha said. "Twenty minutes ago."
"Gone?"
Kraglin blinked, and the chicken piece in his hand fell onto the plate with a "clatter."
"Who's gone?"
"The ship. The blue Smurf, the Rocket Raccoon, and that tree," Pietro helpfully added. "And of course, our Boss and the Big Sis."
Kraglin stared at the screen, his brain seemingly unable to process it yet.
"The ship is gone... Yondu is gone..."
He muttered to himself, then suddenly jumped up from his chair, knocking over his tray.
"What about me?!"
Kraglin pointed at his own nose, his voice cracking with panic.
"I was still eating a burger!! Did they forget about me?!"
"Impossible! Boss Yondu wouldn't leave me behind! I'm his first mate!"
He frantically fumbled for his communicator, trying to contact the ship.
"Bzzz... Bzzz..."
There was only static from the communicator.
"The signal is cut off," Tony Stark said as he walked over with his coffee, coldly pointing out the reality. "They've already entered a faster-than-light jump corridor. They're probably hundreds of light-years away by now."
"No..."
Kraglin slumped back into his chair, his eyes hollow, looking like a child abandoned by his parents.
"They really forgot me..."
"This isn't fair... I just wanted to eat a hot lunch..."
An awkward silence fell over the surrounding area.
Just then.
A hand gently patted Kraglin on the shoulder.
It was an invisible hand.
"Don't be sad, brother."
A pitying voice came from the air.
"You'll get used to it."
Kraglin jumped in fright and looked around. "Who? Who's talking?"
"It's me, Shabby."
"Believe me, I know the feeling."
Shabby's voice was full of stories.
"Look on the bright side, this is just the realization of being a minor character."
A slice of pizza floated up in the air and drifted in front of Kraglin.
"Eat up. Once you're full, you won't miss home as much. This one's double cheese."
Kraglin looked at the pizza floating in the air, then at the ship receding on the screen.
He was overcome with grief, yet helpless.
He took the pizza, took a big bite, and a tear rolled down the corner of his eye.
"It's so good..."
...Meanwhile, in the Skynet Base deep beneath upstate New York, a brand-new production line was running twenty-four-seven.
There were no sparks from welding, nor the screeching sound of metal being cut.
Massive transparent containers were filled with a silver-gray metal stock solution. This liquid seemed to possess a vigorous life force of its own, slowly writhing and gathering under the influence of electromagnetic fields.
This was Skynet's technological iteration based on the Terminator series, combining its own body's Life Cradle technology with Stark Industries' Nanotechnology, further infused with trace amounts of Vibranium powder—the Memory Mimetic Superalloy.
"Mimetic Infiltration Unit, Batch 103, quality inspection beginning."
The valve at the bottom of the container opened.
Globs of silver liquid flowed out, landing inside a transparent chamber.
"Zzz—"
An electric current surged through.
The silver liquid began to stretch and take shape.
"T-1050 Liquid Infiltration Robot, Production Batch: 001, Quantity: 100."
A few seconds later.
Dozens of stern-faced men stood there.
Their skin texture, pores, and even the reflections in their pupils were indistinguishable from a real person.
But this was only the beginning.
"Injecting biological simulation signals."
"Zzz—"
Immediately, their body temperatures rose to 36.5 degrees Celsius, their chests began to heave, and simulated pulses and blood flow could even be detected beneath their skin.
This was the terrifying thing about the T-1050.
They were no longer cold machines; they combined the organic technology of the Regeneration Cradle to simulate perfect biological characteristics over a liquid metal skeleton.
Not even thermal imaging or heartbeat detectors could distinguish their authenticity.
They were more stable than the original T-1000, more resistant to high temperatures and damage, and even better at disguising themselves.