The Beginning
Jane had only had Riot for a few years, thanks to her uncle Eddie. Apparently his ‘favorite’ niece (i.e., only niece) needed some protection on her side just in case something happened. Which really means that because she has the Brock surname, that all of her uncle’s enemies, including other symbiotes, were out to get her just for her name.
Thank you, Uncle Eddie.
She loved him, truly, but god, was he a pain in the ass.
Basically, she had been seventeen when he said, ‘hey kiddo, people want to kill both of us, so here’s a space parasite to protect you, it’s basically your cousin anyways’.
Bringing us to five years, a decent amount of brains, and some light homicide charges later, she wasn’t too surprised to be on a spaceship. It was very futuristic looking, almost better looking than SI gear.
Personally, she had to say the most surprising part was how different the people surrounding her looked. There were people of all colors with neat features like horns and spikes and extra eyes. Safe to say, she knew she wasn’t on Earth relatively quickly. Obviously Riot helped.
‘Not Human’
Gee whiz, you don’t say.
‘I will still eat them.’
No, no we will not eat them, we will find something else, god, you have more anxiety than I do. I’m sure they will be so kind as to feed us.
‘Hmm.’
Use your words, I know you can, you seem to talk a whole lot whenever we’re watching the Bachelor.
‘He should not have chosen Kara; she was in it for the clout.’
Jesus Christ. I mean, you’re not wrong, but still.
Back to the rainbow of people in crisp matching uniforms, which seemed fantastic to her, that meant they at least had some form of uniformity. Way easier to deal with than random drive-by aliens.
She was currently sitting on the ground of what looked like a little meeting room with blinking buttons everywhere and little desks, and a chair in the middle of the room. They all had matching uniforms except for the colors and skirt and pants preferences that she assumed were assigned to gender, or perhaps the closest gender they identified to. She glanced around her, seeing a giant screen with a space window behind her. The size of the window, personally, felt a little obnoxious. Or maybe that was her claustrophobia speaking. She hated to be trapped, and the obnoxious window made her feel like they were bragging about how trapped she was.
She was a sardine in a space can.
‘Mmm. Fish. We should find some dolphins to eat.’
She wanted to gag a little bit, but this was certainly not the time.
They could definitely see her. She didn’t want to presume in case this was a ghost type situation, but the way they were staring and not saying anything really doesn’t make anyone confident.
She raised her hand, hoping to show peace, “Uh, hey. I- I uh- You don’t happen to speak English do you? I have passable Spanish and I can ask where the bathroom is in French, but if you don’t this is going to get awkward really quick.”
The man in the chair in the middle of the room cleared his throat quietly before starting his spiel, “This is Captain Christopher Pike of the USS Enterprise, may I ask who you are?”
“Oh, good, that’s rad, you speak English, and you have like an English name. That’s like, totally not weird for being in space and not being anywhere on Earth,” she sighed, “This is just like Star-Lord all over again.”
He quirked a brow before the woman next to him moved her hand to her side where she assumed some sort of weapon situation was going on.
Oh, that’s not good.
‘We can eat them.’
Jane muttered under her breath, “You annoying parasite, I am not eating anybody.”
She glanced to the left of her, where a man with pointy ears at what she presumed her desk was, gave her a once-over and began talking, “May I enquire what you mean when you say you won’t… eat... any of us?”
“Oh. That’s fun. You have super hearing. Love it. I’m loving this situation I’m in. I don’t feel super not safe at all.”
A voice from the same side piped in, “You just mentioned eating one of us, and you feel unsafe?”
Jane scoffs, “I’m feeling very judged right now,-“ she takes in a deep breath, “Look, sometimes your uncle gives you a brain-eating parasite and all you get to say is thanks because his arch-nemesis has already kidnapped you and your uncle and his parasite made an ugly baby parasite that needs to live in people, and you don’t want to seem rude, but then he tells you if you don’t feed it, then it will start eating your organs while making passive aggressive remarks about how you handle situations.”
Captain Pike starts to open his mouth before Jane cuts him off, “I’m not finished,” she stares pointedly at him, “So tell me, Captain Pike, how do you go about not being rude to your cousin parasite that your uncle had with his parasite? Hmm? Tell me Captain, how does one go about saying, ‘thank you for the parasite but no thanks’?”
Captain Pike is left with a slack jaw as one of his associates(?) pipes in, “Are you in need of medical assistance?”
Jane smiles slightly before turning to the pointed-eared man, “That is so super nice, thank you, but I’m probably fine. Like, you could stab me right now, and it would just not even matter.”
“I see.”
“You probably don’t but if your friend over there gets trigger happy, you will get to.”
Pike commented, “You seem of an unusually happy disposition despite being ridden with a parasite.”
Jane looked back at him with a beam, “Totally! I mean it sucks a little bit, and Riot’s super annoying, but I would totally be dead without him. Like, I’ve been shot in the head multiple times.”
‘I am not annoying, you are annoying!’
“Even now, we’re arguing. To be fair, I’ve grown fond of him. It’s like whenever your grandma has this crusty white dog that has asthma or something and it just shakes all the time for no reason. Riot is that crusty dog. A little gross, cute in a morbid way, and heavily motivated by food.”
Pointed-Ears from a few feet away lowers his voice, “I don’t think she’s of right mind. Should we sedate and escort to medical?”
Jane frowns, shifting to slide back towards the window, which makes everyone shuffle a bit and grab what she presumes to be weapons.
“I think that there has been a misunderstanding here. I don’t know where I am, or why I am here. I am willing to work with you to return me to my place of origin without hurting anybody. I genuinely don’t want to hurt anybody, but if you try to harm me, I will not be able to control what happens.”
She slides further back, her back hitting the window. Out of the view of the uniformed people, Riot starts feeling out the spaceship behind her.
She continues, “That being said, I presume all of you have normal lives to get back to, so should you decide to not take my offer of peace –“ She looks the Captain in the eye, “-What do you want me to tell your families after I’ve killed you?”
And the room was swathed in red lights.