The re-entry procedures had been rough on Peter Quill's ship. Even from the safety of the cockpit, the Star Lord felt the ship give a distinct groan. He felt that he would need to take it easy on the ship for a while. It had got him this far already. It deserved a rest. After all, Star Lord had arrived on Earth. The home he had avoided for the best part of 9 years. Was it truly his home? He had grown up there, but the revelation of his ancestry had made him doubt who he was more than once. If he was to chicken out now, Peter thought, it was a long way to Titan.

"Scan for life-forms within 4 miles and open the doors!" Peter jumped from his seat and climbed down a short ladder. The ladder took him down into the cargo hold and the way out. As he headed for the doors, a small window opened up in the display of his helmet, indicating that the onboard computer had identified life-forms. The window held the number "5". Not many life-forms around. Whether that included non-humans or not remained to be seen. Peter hit a button on the wall and several bright lights flashed on as the doors opened, spilling light on the ground. The lights made him appear as a silhouette would. Keeping his hands by his sides, he took the first, tentative steps onto New Mexico soil.

James watched in awe as the craft opened up. This was definitely one of the most amazing things he'd ever seen and probably among the most amazing things he'd ever see. A humanoid shape was silhouetted against the brightness of the lights on the spaceship. Well, it appeared humanoid; it was clearly wearing something other than clothing one might expect to see on a human.

James almost wanted to get out and approach, but he didn't dare exit his car. Whoever this was, wasn't necessarily a good person. He was in his Jeep, which meant that he could at least try to make an escape, since he was terribly slow when running.

He also had his pistol with him regardless, but if his last encounter with anyone other than a regular human taught him anything, it was to not rely on a handgun... namely if you're up against someone who was super-fast. James wasn't too sure if the guy in the ship could see him, but he reached over for his pistol, just in case. Worst-case scenario, he could throw the pistol at the guy and take off, though chances were against that ending well.

James felt the hair on the back of his neck raise slightly, though he attributed that to this extraterrestrial person. Of course, he didn't know about the other observer, and probably wouldn't until the latter decided to reveal himself. Sadly, this left poor, normal James at a major disadvantage were some incident to occur.

Chris's eyes widened. The extraterrestrial could speak English?!? He had said hello, like he had been doing it all his life. A natural accent. So, maybe he was testing a NASA prototype or something? Then he wouldn't be from the void and there would be no reason for Chris or the guy in the jeep to worry.
But no, that was impossible, as Chris's eyes got used to the light he could make out that, although humanoid, the spaceship occupant had orange, glowing eyes, black skin, and various kinds on weaponry on his body. Also, his ship looked too beaten up and dented, like it had been through asteroid field after asteroid field, and had that weird sheen that screamed, I've been in space for a long time!. Not to mention, the very real possibility that he had a translator, and so therefore could speak to all alien races.

Christopher debated wether to answer the man's greeting. It would be natural for him to. Also, Chris's instinct told him that it was a well-meaning gesture. However, since he was here in the background, it might be better not to... He'd risk scaring the heck out of Jeep-guy and maybe forcing an attack on both of them. That would be where things would get ugly. The ET's ray gun- or whatever he had on him- could possibly be more powerful than anything the Darkhawk suit could withstand. So far there was nothing that Chris couldn't, but his buddy on the Darkhawk ship had warned him that it might be so, and that there were many races more technologically advanced than humans. Any one of their gadgets could blow Chris and the alien-alloy Darkhawk suit to smithereens.
So there was no real answer here. Still he hung back, unsure of what to do. Chris hoped that maybe the other man, in the vehicle, would answer the greeting and make his presence known to the newcomer. Then maybe he could step out without risk of his life or the civilian's.

Finally, someone had stepped forward and introduced themselves. It was the human in the jeep who had made the advance. What followed next was a blur of names that he had no inkling of an understanding of, and an expression of the human's curiosity. That was only natural. How often did others see such a spaceship land in the middle of a desert? Peter's guess was not often. In this case, he was willing to give the human the benefit of the doubt. Taking his eyes off the extraterrestrial signature, Peter slowly approached the human. "My name is...oh, wait." He realised he still had his helmet on. He put a hand to where his temple would be and tapped a small button.

The lights on the faceplate went out, and it retracted to reveal his human face. He took a deep breath, and breathed in a fresh dose of fresh, Earth air. How long he'd been waiting to breathe this particular air again. "My name is Peter Quill. I was an astronaut. Now I'm...." How would he explain Star Lord to any human now? They probably had no idea what it was. "...now I'm a....space cowboy." Easiest way to explain it, in Peter's mind.

Peter's hand jumped to his belt at Chris' appearance, but he relaxed. "I suppose, when you land a spaceship in the middle of a desert, people come flocking. For a moment, I thought you were the government." Or worse. he thought to himself. For that matter, when Chris had approached him, the extraterrestrial presence had vanished. Was this human disguising his true nature? Or was something more sinister at play? "But..." he continued. "...I suppose not everything is as it seems."

"For example, I saw there was some non-human presence when I stepped out, but now it's gone, and you're here. I have a few guesses as to why." The helmet's faceplate slid back over Peter's as he examined Chris. "You're not Skrull...I got this set to Skrull changes. And there aren't many races who can change their shape that effectively." If this kid was an alien, he was doing a very good job at hiding it. "Or I might be overreacting and you could just be a normal human. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened."

James was startled when the second man- rather, teenager- revealed himself. He was smaller than James by a couple inches and a few pounds, and also looked younger- though, James had always looked older than he was. He wondered whether the insofar nameless boy knew of him, as the "space cowboy" had nary a single sign of recognition at his or his company's name. After all, a lot of teenagers knew of him for the sole reason that he was their age and he was rich. In today's society, those sort of things were widely known, for reasons that James was unsure of.

"A space cowboy? That's... different. It's nice to meet you though, Mr. Quill." He scanned his memory to see if he recognized the name "Darkhawk," but to no avail. "And... Mr. Darkhawk... It's my pleasure to make your acquaintance." He suddenly felt as though he was at a severe disadvantage, being the only person in the middle of a desert without some high-tech or alien power suit to help him fly around or move better or so on. He remembered how Tony Stark had created the Iron Man suit, but that was out of necessity. Arc reactor technology was probably patented, so James had no hope of competing efficiently.

"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm only a human... albeit a wealthy one." He said that with the hope that it would raise his standing in the eyes of the two before him, but he knew that it was near-useless in the grand scheme of things. He took a few steps to be closer to those he was conversing with.