Chapter 101 Flerkens And Their Void
Late at night, the room was lit only by a single desk lamp, casting a soft yellow glow. The atmosphere was almost like sitting down to tell tales from One Thousand and One Nights, or some kind of fairy tale.
Xiao Huang first enjoyed Xi Nian's gentle strokes, purring happily. Then the little Flerken cub, lying on the bed, slowly opened her small-toothed mouth. From her throat emerged a tiny bottomless black hole.
Gurgle—
Before long, under the watchful eyes of Diana and Xi Nian, Xiao Huang spat out a palm-sized starfish.
The starfish was like a miniature version of the alien species Starro's true form, covered in dazzling colors with a single large eye in the center of its strange body.
Unlike the mindless clones that only absorbed energy, this one's eye radiated wisdom and emotion. Looking at Xi Nian and Diana, it showed no hint of aggression.
Of course—
Even though Diana seemed to be calmly sitting in bed, if the starfish made any hostile move, it would be erased instantly.
Xiao Huang also glared at the starfish she had spat out. Even though her very existence was tied to finding Starro, she still chose to stand firmly at Xi Nian's side.
Under the vigilant gaze of one goddess, one boy, and one beast—
The starfish, as a fragment of Starro, looked deeply at Xiao Huang. Then, in a strangely gentlemanly manner, it bowed slightly to Xi Nian and Diana.
It had no mouth, but its voice echoed in their minds.
"I deeply apologize. I misjudged earlier."
"At that time, my heart was consumed by rage and hatred. When I saw the little black cat, I thought it was merely pretending to be a Flerken, so I attacked without reason. Only when it used the Flerken's unique ability did I realize it truly was… a Flerken cub."
The starfish's eye lingered on Xiao Huang, showing a trace of doting affection.
Xi Nian nodded knowingly. Back then, when he was in his three-in-one form, he truly hadn't counted as a real Flerken.
"Starro, can I call you that?" Xi Nian asked.
"I would be honored, young sir." The starfish quickly nodded, bowing again. It gave off a surprisingly refined and courteous air, completely unlike the cold, violent creature that had rampaged in Japan earlier.
Xi Nian continued to stroke Xiao Huang's smooth orange fur as he asked curiously, "I want to know—why does Xiao Huang know you, and why has she always been searching for you? What's the connection between the two of you?"
"For more than twenty years… it has been searching for me?" At those words, the starfish trembled, a glimmer of watery light flashing in its lone eye.
"Meow!" Xiao Huang, as if not recognizing Starro at all, simply purred in delight, rubbing her tiny head against Xi Nian's hand like an ordinary kitten.
Xi Nian instinctively felt that when Starro said "it," he wasn't referring to the Xiao Huang before them now.
The starfish fell silent for a moment, then with a voice heavy with memory, it said,
"It all began more than twenty years ago."
"I had a close friend then, an adult Flerken named Goose. I loved drifting freely through space, while Goose enjoyed traversing the cosmos. For a long time, we traveled together—near the legendary realm of Asgard, brushing past the desolate Underworld where no living being dwells, visiting the bustling heart of the galaxy's central civilizations, even crossing Green Lantern territory. We witnessed hundreds of wondrous spacefaring cultures."
Those places were all unimaginably dangerous, yet traveling with an adult Flerken made survival almost too easy. Xi Nian could certainly understand that from his own experiences.
The starfish continued,
"Then, twenty-two years ago, Goose and I followed Danvers' spaceship to Earth."
"Wait." Xi Nian couldn't help interrupting at this point. There was something too important. "Did you just say Danvers?"
"Yes," the starfish replied. "Carol Danvers. She once thought she was an alien, but she was in truth a human born and raised on Earth."
Xi Nian fell silent. He hadn't expected to hear that name from Starro's mouth.
Carol Danvers.
Xi Nian had once heard Kara Danvers' foster father mention her. She was his biological daughter—Kara's older sister.
But according to Kara's foster father, Carol Danvers had died long ago in a military jet crash during training.
"Go on," Xi Nian said, pushing aside his doubts for now.
"After Danvers left Earth, Goose and I remained here. That was when the nightmare began." The starfish's voice trembled with lingering fury and dread. "One day, Goose left to hunt, and I drifted near Earth's orbit, basking in the sun. I dozed off and was captured by an American spacecraft. They locked me in a research facility in Japan, in Kotomatis. I was imprisoned there for twenty years. Only today did I finally escape—that's why I wanted to destroy that human city."
Xi Nian's eyes shifted to Xiao Huang. "So… that means Xiao Huang is…"
The starfish nodded, gazing tenderly at her.
"Yes. She should be the offspring hatched from one of Goose's eggs."
Flerkens were egg-layers.
That part had never occurred to Xi Nian—he had been too deceived by Xiao Huang's kitten-like appearance.
"For some reason, Goose must have left Earth. Before leaving, she left behind an egg, imprinting it with the racial memory of finding me. For decades, she never succeeded in reaching me, so she placed her hopes on her offspring instead…"
As Starro's mind-voice trailed off, a single crystalline tear rolled down its eye.
"Meow…" Xiao Huang, moved by instinct, placed her tiny paw gently on the starfish's body.
Xi Nian had one last question. "The Flerken's pocket dimension—are they all connected?"
"Not exactly," Starro explained. "They endlessly divide. To put it simply: when the very first Flerken in the universe was born, its pocket dimension was as vast as this entire universe, a true parallel realm. But when it laid eggs and spawned offspring, its space split according to the number of eggs. Each new space became unique to its descendant."
"I see." Xi Nian suddenly understood.
That explained everything.
The aliens and warship wrecks inside Xiao Huang's pocket dimension hadn't been swallowed by her. They had been inside Goose's space, and when Goose laid her egg, the space itself had split and carried those contents into Xiao Huang's body.
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