Alex's Phoenix flames surrounded the escape pod in just seconds.
Contrary to what Alex was thinking, the vacuum of space actually helped to speed up the flames, rather than hinder them in some way.
The moment the flames reached the pod, they spread to cover the whole thing in an instant.
The fact they were in a vacuum didn't matter, as the Phoenix flames didn't need other mediums like oxygen to stay alight.
And the defences of the escape pod didn't matter much either, as the high temperature resistant metal still succumbed to the intense heat of the flames after just a few seconds.
When the flames reached the compact engine bay of the escape pod, it suddenly disappeared from its spot, just like it did when Yaron entered warp.
'Looks like it worked.'
Alex dropped the freighter out of warp as well, appearing in the middle of literally nowhere as he turned on the scanners to search for the escape pod.
He had taken note of what every button did when he frantically pressed every one of them earlier while trying to find the weapons systems, so he knew how to access the scanner.
Those few seconds of delay between the escape pod dropping out of warp and him dropping out accounted for quite a large distance accumulating between them.
'Gotcha!'
It was only a few seconds after the scan was sent out that it picked up the signal from the nearby escape pod.
Or what was left of it...
When he arrived at the location, what he saw was more like a floating blob of molten metal than an escape pod...
It bore no resemblance whatsoever to its previous form.
And Yaron was nowhere to be seen.
Well, actually there were a few ashes floating about amongst the molten metal, which Alex presumed were what remained of Yaron.
Click!
Alex flicked his finger and the Phoenix flames that had been lingering around the 'wreckage' disappeared in an instant.
'What were these Kree pirates doing here?'
Naturally after finding out how close these Kree were to human territory, Alex started to get a little worried.
The system had already confirmed that the protective period of the human race had already passed since they had been stupid enough to make contact with another alien race, so the location of the Milky way should have already become known to the rest of the universe.
But Alex didn't expect other alien races to act as well, considering the Red Demon race had already laid their claim over the human race's territory with their bold declaration of war.
'Maybe they weren't here for something like that at all? After all, they were pirates. I'm sure the Kree would have sent a more professional and official scouting crew than just a couple dozen pirates.'
Though Alex could only speculate for now, as all of the data on this ship was completely alien to him, pun intended.
It was in a format he didn't recognise, and an even weirder language, so he would leave the deciphering of such data to the experts back in the federation.
But now that he was finished with his ruminating, Alex finally activated the warp sequence once again.
'It's time to go home.'
He still didn't know how he had even ended up floating tens of thousands of light years away from his original location, but he intended to find that out when he returned.
***
A few days prior, on Ceres-9.
In the aftermath of Alex's disappearance and the incredible conclusion to such an awe inspiring fight, word spread of Alex's actions quickly.
Tens of billions had watched the fight live already, so news of it spread through word of mouth to those who didn't at the speed of light.
Soon enough, Alex had become a household name after a day had passed.
This was one of the first times a fight between two higher powered awakened was aired for the whole federation to see.
The Federal officials had made the decision to lift the veil of mystery surrounding the world of awakened from the wider public.
This was in response to the declaration of war from the Red Demon race.
The human race was facing an existential threat, so they needed to do what they could to unite.
And figures like Alex who could act as idols or figures to look up to were much needed in times of crisis like these.