XXVI
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While the demigod Son of Poseidon was glad that he was out of that underground hell, experiencing the sudden assault of gravity was something that felt entirely hostile to him. He figured it was because of their sudden and quick ascent into the sky, a realm he has never been welcome in to begin with.
If Percy had to compare the feeling, it was felt like he was taking upon the burden of the Titan's Curse once again.
Where the sky felt more akin to taking an incalculable weight, this felt more like a heavy pressure.
Though it would do the burden an injustice. This pressure of gravity was nothing compared to that and he was able to resist it after a moment of challenge.
He heard a meow from behind him but he strained his head to look to source feeling that instinct to kill well up within him. The source was what he feared to see.
That odd…cat from before was pressed against the ramp of the aircraft by the pressure and howling indignantly at them.
"Hang on," Vers spoke, her voice trailing off into a hiss of pain. Percy felt the jet level out and his body heave and relax. His eyes stayed on the cat though.
There was something not quite…right about it as he looked to it and felt an unnatural urge to pet it. Though like before, Percy let his instincts and gut feeling guide him.
If the demigod could help it, he would be keeping his distance from that…thing.
The cat curled itself on top of a nearby stack of containers and subsequently passed out.
Percy audibly sighed as he disentangled himself from the straps and cords that he had used to keep himself from ending up like the cat.
He hissed in pain as he made contact with the steel floor. He had forgotten that his leg still had a rather sizable bullet wound in it.
Time to take care of that.
He would see to the other two afterwards mostly because he could fix himself up the fastest.
He may not be an experienced healer but every demigod knew some form of first-aid and his own abilities gave him a slight edge in that regard.
Percy sat on the metal floor while willing his armor to fizzle and disperse into a dissolving mist, leaving him in the typical fatigues that he wore underneath it. He felt no need to maneuver to one of the empty chairs that lined the interior of the jet because one side was taken over by an unnatural cat and the other was simply too far away when he could just heal himself right then and there.
He was, while not entirely spent of energy, still tired. After being wired for the entire duration he was underground and under a mountain at that, despite taking a measured approach to relax, he was left rather drained.
He fished out a small white case that had the red cross symbol from his satchel and the flask of nectar. The basic first aid kit that no demigod left home without. Clicking it open he pulled free a simple bandage and then dumped a few drops of the godly drink onto the cloth. Setting that aside, he conjured an orb of pristine water from the air and promptly pressed it against the hole in his leg.
He hissed in slight pain and discomfort as the water instinctually began regenerating the torn tissue and muscle. It was always an odd and slightly uncomfortable experience feeling his body sew itself back together.
Usually, since he fought near exclusively under heavy rain, it was an automatic and subconscious thing that happened and for the most part, never endured the feeling of his body knitting itself into its normal shape.
Still though, he would take the advice of the few demigod doctors that had the pleasure of treating him and not overly rely on his regeneration capabilities. So he took the nectar-enhanced bandage and pressed and tied it tight against the wound. Given its properties and his own powers, he was sure that the wound would be nothing more than a faded scar in a few hours.
Then he looked up to see Vers staring at him with a suspicious and questioning look. "What was that?"
He should've been a little more careful about healing himself. Coming right out of the gate with his powers was something that he didn't like doing, especially if they were able to give him an advantage over potential enemies.
Vers was one of those potential enemies.
While they may be working together to get the Tesseract, there was no telling what she might do should she be adamant about taking it to her people.
Percy was not going to allow that to happen and keeping his abilities secret until they were needed was something that could and would give him the edge should they come to blows.
His self-healing and hydro empowerment was something that no one outside of the immortal realm knew about and even after that, not many considered that he had also inherited his father's seismic domain as well as his powers over storms among other things.
Reyna had once jokingly commented that with Greek Fire, he technically had the capability of controlling the four base elements.
Even if she had said it in a joking manner, she didn't know how accurate and terrifying her words actually were. The only one that had known the full extent of his capabilities was Annabeth and maybe Poseidon.
And he was not keen on sharing that information with anyone else.
"You want me to take a look at your shoulder?" An obvious deflection but Percy wasn't intending on making it a subtle thing. The demigod wanted to make it clear that he wasn't going to talk about his powers.
He used the nearby crates to ease himself upwards while placing his medical case and satchel beside him.
He would help her though. She had taken a bullet and the feeling of getting shot was never a good one.
She nodded and made to stand up.
"Woah, Woah, Woah! Don't you need to fly the plane?" The demigod stood as he spoke. His heart began racing and his fear skyrocketing alongside it. The sudden weight on his leg caused him to instinctively apply pressure to the bandaged wound with a hand.
She smirked at him. "Relax, Shiny." She retorted. She gave the center console a pat. "This flying scrap heap has autopilot."
"Shiny?" He recoiled slightly at the nickname even if his mind was still entirely untrusting of an automated flight system. He would be much more comfortable with someone at the wheel and manning the controls.
"Your armor." She explained with a slight shrug but winced and clasped her wound at the action. "It's shiny."
Percy had been called a lot of things.
Shiny was never one of them.
He brushed it off though. He did technically call her a lava lamp so he figured she was owed her own counter to that particular one even if it was rather unimaginative.
"Have a seat." He gestured towards the seat that was by Fury while carrying the case and his satchel over onto a crate that was across from it. He favored his uninjured leg though as applying any sort of pressure to his healing leg sent jolts of pain up his body. The demigod would forever avoid misting with a bullet in him again. The feeling of a bit of metal being twisted and torn from his leg was one he would rather avoid.
Percy would treat them both at the same time but just in case they ran into some difficulties, he would prioritize Vers simply because she was the pilot and he would rather not have the person in charge of flying the jet incapable of flying.
Vers made her way over to the directed space and sat down, that portion of her suit dissipating in a flurry of blue hexagons revealing her bare shoulder.
Taking a moment to inspect the wound, He could tell it was similar to his own. She had both the fortune and misfortune of being absent a bullet as well. Fortune because he didn't have to pull it out. Misfortune because that meant that the bullet was torn from her body as well when he had misted her to them to the car in the first place.
Using what first aid he knew, Percy quickly fished out the necessary materials to bandage her shoulder but first, he conjured another orb of water that floated serenely in the palm of his hand. She looked between him and the sudden appearance of the orb of water. "Is that one of your abilities?"
"You can say that. I'm going to clean it out and it may feel weird. Just try not to move." He doubted there was anything inside considering that misting seemed to have pulled it out but it was better safe than sorry. He leaned in front of her and pressed the orb of water into the wound.
With his own powers of regeneration, however, he would jump-start her own healing process as well. Hopefully, her healing would take only a couple of days rather than months.
She hissed in slight discomfort. "It's cold." She commented as a sigh of relief escaped her lips. He may not be able to fully heal her but he could relieve much of the pain. He began bandaging her shoulder.
Even if the wound was comparatively small to ones he had healed in the past, well future, he would rather save his energy for fighting considering they were not technically out of the woods until they dealt with this Skrull threat.
It was only luck that on Asgard that he was able to dictate the terms of the battle and thus allowed and able to get some dedicated rest from when he had healed Frigga. Here though, he wasn't afforded such a luxury. Vers would just have to do with the minor healing. Plus, in case she turned against him, he would be able to use the wound against her. Even if it was more of a temporary advantage and one that would fade if this was drawn out.
An added and a bit of a callous bonus but a bonus regardless. If she was adamant about getting the Tesseract for her people, then he would not hesitate to kill her.
Percy quickly finished bandaging her shoulder and then moved on to Fury. Vers didn't regenerate the shoulder of her suit which was good. He didn't think that it would be all that conducive to healing if she had done so. The Kree returned to her seat at the helm of the aircraft. "Do you know where this New Orleans is?"
"Louisiana?" He questioned as he tilted Fury's limp head to the side and opened an eye. A slight concussion but Percy was of the opinion that it was getting his ass beat and then teleporting was what had caused the man to blackout.
The man mumbled something about cats.
Shaking his head, he made a mental list of what he could do for him and fished out the necessary items from the white case. Percy didn't want to fix his shoulder until the man was awake so instead, he set about mending the cuts on his face and the deep jagged gash on his brow.
He did debate on attempting to re-stitch his brow but even Percy knew his limits on that particular field of medicine and he didn't want to accidentally damage Fury's eye. It would put a damper on things if Percy would be the one responsible for his loss of vision.
"New Orleans, LA?" She asked from her seat.
He focused his nautical sense for a moment, sensing for the nearby ocean like he did back at the bar. A familiar tug pulled him backwards. So the Pacific was behind them which meant they were heading East.
Then he felt a stab of pain in his mind as if someone had noticed and did something about it. He immediately dialed back. It had caused him to violently flinch and recoil and he could taste iron on his tounge. Percy pressed a palm to his forehead in an attempt to relieve the pressure.
That was stupid.
"Head southeast and then continue east along the coast. I'll know when we get there." At the very least, if they were closer to water he wouldn't need to be as focused to find the coastal city. He wouldn't be detected if he was passively looking for it rather than actively looking for it. He returned to tending to Fury in an attempt to keep his mind off of the sudden attack.
And the fact that someone, most likely his father had noticed him and almost smote him. Only his reactions, the innate obscurity he probably still retained and most likely being in the domain of the King of Olympus had probably saved him.
His father was more inclined to look where he was attacking, in contrast, to his younger brother.
He didn't think he would ever be as happy to be in the air as much as he was now.
It was silent for a while after Percy finished looking over the SHIELD agent. The unsettling cat had leapt and curled into the agent's lap the moment the demigod had moved away from treating him.
Seeking refuge away from the piercing and judging gaze of said cat, Percy maneuvered to the cockpit and climbed his way into the seat beside Vers who looked deep in thought. She shook her head to bring herself from whatever was running through her mind as he settled into the seat.
Having brought his satchel into his lap, Percy pulled the leather-bound journal from it and his cellphone.
"Is that a communicator?" She asked with slight interest.
"Something like that. It's a cell phone." Well, a little more than a piece of metal at the moment. There was no service for it and consequently no internet. If he remembered correctly Wi-Fi wasn't even invented yet or if it was, he was sure that it hadn't hit the public.
To put it simply, his phone was next to useless.
But next to useless still meant it had some use.
"What are you doing?" Her curiosity piqued, she watched as Percy, after inputting the passcode, had begun taking photos of each page. Percy didn't answer, mostly because it was obvious as to what he was doing.
But he would have to be a real idiot not to notice the growing agitation from Vers. If the frown that adorned her face wasn't an apparent factor of it, then it was the slight twitching of her eye that made her annoyance known.
What would he even tell her?
Percy didn't want to inform her of the fact that the Tesseract was just a focus and container for a pillar of creation, an actualized remnant of the birth of the universe and an artefact of near-infinite power.
That could only go two ways. Either she would think him crazy and just play it off or she would be that much more determined to obtain it for her people.
And knowing his rather poor luck, it would be the latter.
Sheer silence seemed to be the best answer for him right now.
His migraine notwithstanding, he didn't need to hear a spiel about how destroying a book and thus information that she probably needed was going to be beneficial to them at all. If she really needed it, she would have to get his phone and he would be more than happy to blow it up should she press the issue.
"If you're not going to tell me why you're taking photographs, would you mind telling me how you got your powers?"
His answer was as automatic and evasive as it could be. "Inherited." He could say the truth in that regard. It wasn't like he was giving anything away either. Whatever she thought from that was on her.
"Like one of your parents has the same powers?"
"Yes."
"They could do the same thing?"
"As far as I know."
"What else can you do?"
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Like a lot of stuff."
Percy had an inquisitive little sister that didn't take 'No' for an answer, he had dealt with Jane's incessant curiosity of the Immortal Realm and Sif's own childlike innocence with the human world.
He could do this all day.
"Does this stuff have to do with water?"
He looked at her, her previous irritation seemingly evaporated as a light smirk played on her lips. Percy's eyes narrowed in both suspicion and begrudging respect. She was observant.
He'd give her that at least.
The demigod nodded as he continued to take pictures of the journal. He was nearing the end. "Water has something to do with it." He affirmed. It was a good deflection.
Let her think that he was restricted to just water.
"You have seismic powers too, don't you? Back in the base, my photon blast would have caved us in if you didn't do something about it."
He looked back to her. Maybe a little too observant. He would have to be careful. "Somewhat." He relented though he wasn't going to tell her the extent of that particular ability. "I don't like talking about it."
"Really? I couldn't tell." She deadpanned and then laughed lightly at his slightly narrowed expression. "If we're going to be sitting here for the next couple hours, you mind if I read that before we destroy it?"
He shrugged. "By all means, knock yourself out." He tossed her the journal. "Read it aloud. I'm curious to hear what the doctor knows about the Tesseract."
"Worried she might know more than you?" She cocked an eyebrow at him as she easily caught the journal in her open hand. She flicked it open to the first page as Percy reclined and relaxed as much as he could in his seat. Despite the former security he had, it wasn't nearly enough to dissuade the inherent dislike he had for the realm of his uncle.
For a military jet, he expected it to be a lot more utilitarian. It was surprising that he was able to recline as he was.
And in reality, he was, in fact, worried that she may know what it actually was. "Yes." He returned her deadpan but compared to hers there was no humor in his voice nor a trailing laugh.
Vers liked to think she was able to get even the most isolated people to open up. Minn-Erva and Bron-Char being chief examples of her being able to worm her way into people's lives despite their insistence on remaining distant with others.
Percy, though, was proving to be a rather tough case to crack.
With her team, she already had a semblance of common ground. They were Starforce operators. They were in the same squadron and most importantly they were Kree.
Here though, the only common ground she seemed to share with Percy was that they wanted to rid C-53 of the Skrull threat and that they were enhanced.
And it was beginning to look more like the former included the Kree as well, from Percy's perspective. So in actuality, the only thing they had in common was that they both had unnatural abilities and powers.
Vers would have thought that he would have liked someone to relate to even if on a minimal level. She certainly wished for someone that was enhanced similar to her mostly to be content in the knowledge that she wouldn't be entirely alone in that manner.
She was the only Kree and formally the only being that she knew of, with exception to the Asgardians, that had powers.
Now there was also Percy. A Terran that seemed to be more familiar with the enigmatic and reclusive Asgardians rather than the wider intergalactic community and with a seeming mastery over powers that left her the tiniest bit envious. She had to work to get to where she was and he looked to only be about her age.
And like Yon-Rogg and the more fanatical of the Kree, he seemed to be entirely focused on seeing the mission through and wound tighter than even Ronan was.
Maybe that was what she should do. The mantra of the Kree was to put the Collective above personal interest. The Kree operator was becoming too invested in this.
But how could she not be? Her visions and dreams all held a semblance of origin here on Terra. That much was certain. She had to have been involved in the mission with Mar-Vell somehow. The extent of which was so far unknown to her.
Yet the key to all of it was most likely held in the leather-bound book that sat innocently in her lap.
She was conflicted.
Vers did and didn't want to read the contents of the journal of Mar-Vell. There was an almost certainty that whatever was inside was going to trigger an…episode.
Did she really want to lose control of her powers thirty thousand feet up in the air?
Likewise, what if there was nothing in here? What if this was a mission that was entirely unrelated to her? As much as she doubted that was the case, considering the photograph, there was still that inkling of hesitation that there was nothing more to it and that her visions and dreams were nothing but a manifestation of her powers.
Or maybe she was just overthinking it?
Could it be as simple as opening a book and reading about how she almost died?
"You going to read that or what?" Percy spoke up, snapping her from the cascading of thoughts. She spared the book a glance and then spared one to the enhanced Terran. He was casually reclined in the co-pilot seat, his hands clasped in his lap and twiddling his thumbs absentmindedly as he gazed at the ceiling of the Terran jet.
Steeling her resolve and figuring that if for nothing else it would provide some decent closure if she just cut the wire. Vers opened the cover, scanned the first page and began reading aloud.
There wasn't much on the first page. Just some general information regarding the circumstances on how Mar-Vell received the mission in the first place by the Ministry of Imperial Sciences.
The next section was what intrigued her, however. "The circumstances regarding the mission in general are…skeptical. An undercover Kree spy had heard rumors of a power core capable of sustaining near-limitless energy and as one particularly intelligent Terran had put it, 'the source and key to clean, renewable energy.'
Rumors were just that however, and while the spy may have had a reputable career, there was not much to go off of other than that. Still, the Imperial Ministry deemed it a suitable piece of information and dispatched myself to make contact with this spy, investigate and then proceed at my discretion on how to best utilize this power core. We are, after all, in a war with the Skrull Empire and any edge against that conniving race is a step in the right direction. The Ministry would not have sent me if they weren't after a specific outcome."
"The informant goes by the name of Mari-Ell," Her head throbbed and the image of a woman, well she saw herself only slightly older looking down at her odd perspective. She took a deep breath before continuing. "and has been active on C-53 since the Terrans went into space and has even started a family on C-53 to further assimilate and continue her cover. Though I believe that to be her official report and reasoning and not the actual truth. The little spitfire of a daughter is proof enough."
"Regardless, she can provide intelligence on the Terran artefact in question. From what little she was able to gather, the Terrans have had the artefact since their second global conflict. Though little has been done to capitalize on its energy as limited as they are by the technology. As good as Terrans are at innovation and advancement, everyone encounters walls."
"Lucky for the Terrans, I am here to break the walls. Mari-Ell has set me up with the credentials and introduced me as a consulting scientist to begin studying the Tesseract." She looked to Percy who had inclined his head slightly at the name drop but still looked up to the ceiling of the craft. Despite his former disinterest, whatever this Tesseract was, it ignited a fire in him.
Vers continued to read. Most of it, after the first couple pages, were her own notes on what the Tesseract could be or what it could be used for but most of it was just speculation on her part. Percy seemed relieved if the minute relaxing of his previously anxious posture was any indication.
"You can get some rest if you'd like," Vers spoke offhandedly. He looked like he could use it. From what she was able to tell, he had been awake since the day before. Besides, she was used to operating on little to no sleep if it was needed. "I'm not going to shank you in your sleep." She laughed lightly as he looked sideways at her with a raised brow.
Maybe he was more open to dark humor like Korath?
"As much I would love to get some sleep, I'm not entirely comfortable doing so in the air."
"Afraid of heights?" It was a valid fear, Bron-Char had it as well though over his years of service it had dwindled to an uncomfortableness.
"More like afraid of falling." Was his succinct reply. "I'd rather be awake if I'm going to die."
"Well, you can teleport so you shouldn't be that worried." And she could fly if it really came down to it.
The only one that had anything to worry about at the moment was Fury. And the Kree warrior didn't think that Percy would just let the man die after taking a shot for him.
Vers certainly wasn't going to let all that effort go to waste.
Still, with her behind the controls, they would not be going down anytime soon. She liked to think that she was among the best pilots Starforce had to offer.
As far as she knew at least.
She never had much interaction with other Starforce teams.
Vers shrugged. While she would've preferred that Percy was well-rested when they arrived, it wasn't her place to press the issue. She returned to the journal, flicking into the next page. Just a quick scan told her it was going to be an interesting section of it and considering she was nearing the last pages it was probably her last accounts as well.
"Mari-Ell has been acting distant as of late. I don't know why but I have my suspicions. Her daughter, however, seems to be doing rather well. She is a natural pilot, something that is to be expected." Vers eyes narrowed in suspicion. Other than the first pages, Mari-Ell was never mentioned. She had a sneaking guess that this was more of a research journal rather than her personal one. It was almost guaranteed in fact. With how their culture was, separating their work and personal life was almost done with an obsessive desire.
It was drilled into children at an early age to do so. The Collective was put above all else.
She didn't like that. Not much at least. She wanted to be friends with her squadron mates as she figured it would make for better team cohesion.
Pulling herself from those thoughts before they delved too deeply and at Percy's questioning glance, Vers returned to the journal. "The Tesseract…words cannot describe what this artefact is capable of. The Terrans were right. While the Kree and other galactic powers have achieved similar feats, it had taken us centuries or even millennia to reach this point. This…cube is possibly limitless in its potential. Infinite clean energy for anything. From day-to-day life to military application, the Tesseract is capable of so much that I've only begun to scratch the surface of its potential.
I know what I must do. The Kree Empire has been at a stalemate with the Skrulls for nearly twenty cycles. The Ministry would not have sent me here if they didn't want me to somehow weaponize this for our own use."
The next account had a considerable gap. "Mari-Ell has approached me. I didn't believe it at first. How could I? The Skrull general has been our enemy for the past century." Her breath hitched and Percy sat upwards. It was clear to both of them that Mar-Vell was about to reveal something big. "He wants to desert and escape the war. A guilty conscience–something that I have been having as well. He doesn't want anything to do with the war anymore and after some considerable thought neither do I. My weapons and designs have led to hundreds of thousands, if not millions dead. Mari-Ell now has a stake in it as well. We plan to escape the war.
But we can't leave the Terrans defenseless. My reports to the Ministry of Imperial Sciences would have told them of my initial findings and of the Tesseract itself. They will send Starforce kill teams after us and the artefact if we're lucky. If we're not, the Accusers will just bomb us and Terra out of the galaxy. That's not even taking into account the Skrulls. He's their top general. Without him, the Collective will be able to dictate a peace on their terms but not without considerable and costly casualties.
And then there's the Tesseract. The artefact would subject the Terrans to invasions by both empires and reduce their world to a warzone. I'm not above leaving them to their fate, but Mari-Ell convinced me otherwise that we have to at the very least try and prepare the Terrans for what may come. Their hope lies in the Tesseract and its potential. Taking into account of their technology, I have begun Project: PEGASUS."
She snuck a look to Percy who looked deep in thought as if he was considering the words of Mar-Vell.
"SHIELD is a good organization and while they know there are enemies that endanger their Earth as a whole they don't realize yet that those enemies are not internal but external."
There was another pause and Vers and Percy shared a small glance as they digested that sudden influx of information.
Vers' migraine returned in full force as she thought of what may have happened. She palmed the corner of her eye and temple with a gloved hand. Images of an older version of herself, who she suspected was her mom and Mar-Vell cascaded through her thoughts fully. Entire scenes arrayed out in her mind's eye, now from her perspective instead of playing spectator.
What exactly was she? Was she half-Kree, half-Terran? The journal and her hallucinations were alluding to it. Was Mari-Ell really her mom? If she was Kree, what happened to her? How come she never had memories of her until now?
Did Yon-Rogg know? If he did, why didn't he say anything? Did any other members of her squadron know?
The pictures, her hallucinations, the journal, it was painting a horrid picture in her mind.
Was the Empire she had fought, bled and killed for just using her as a convenient weapon?
They said they had used an experimental procedure to essentially bring her from the brink of death. That she had volunteered for it. Had she really done so?
Now that she thought about it, she had no recollection of ever volunteering for such a programme. She was just told that she had done so for The Collective.
And Vers accepted it at face value. There wasn't any hesitation on her part in that regard. She had simply woken up in the medical ward, told that a mission had gone wrong, was operated on to save her life and then pressed into service of Starforce as if it was just any other day.
Vers could feel the thrumming of energy coursing throughout her body and try as she might to stamp down on the feeling of confusion and anger, she couldn't stop the energy that just begged to be released. The thought of possible betrayal grating against her mind and taking root.
"Easy there! I'm still in here!" She heard Percy's voice and that same cooling sensation from before. It gave her something to focus on. Something to distract her before she blew this ship out of this sky. She slowly opened her eyes, blinking and forcing away the wash of red that threatened to engulf her vision.
Glaring at the book in her gloved hands, she ignited her powers. The translucent and pearlescent energy instantly engulfing the book in a seeming pale white flame, reducing it to nothing. Not even ash or cinder remained.
She determined that the book would be a suitable outlet for the time being until she got some real answers as to what exactly was going on.
As quickly as she had summoned her energy powers, she dissipated them not wanting to melt the consoles around her.
"Well….that happened," Percy remarked from his seat with a raised hand, that same wisping and trailing bright energy emanating from his fingertips.
"Sorry." She sulked in her seat. 'Logic over emotion. Mind over the heart.' The words of Yon-Rogg echoed in her mind. Vers stamped them away. As much as the saying seemed to apply here now more than ever, the last thing she wanted was to hear the voice of her mentor.
Fury woke with a start, coughing and blinking away the drowsiness that had overtaken him. The feeling of developing sweat on his brow. He could feel pain spiking in his shoulder and there was the faint and dissipating odor of burnt paper that permeated around.
The SHIELD agent quickly took in his surroundings. He was in an aircraft of sorts. The roar of a jet's engines audible even through the metal frame of the jet. Dark metal crates were strapped to the center and there was a slight rumble of turbulence that caused a shudder to wave through the cabin.
He felt a tingle on his mind and he absentmindedly stroked the nape of the lounging cat in his lap. A purr of contentment was given as the animal stretched widely before limply retuning to its curled and resting state.
How in the hell did I get in here?
The man replayed through his thoughts as far back as he could remember.
His boss had paged him. Telling him that he arrived at the base and Fury had proceeded to go escort him to Vers. Despite the Branch Director wanting this to be a solo op with the consultant, Fury needed another pair of eyes and he wanted Coulson.
Coulson had a knack for being detailed and perceptive.
The devil was in the details after all. Fury didn't know how recent memories Skrulls could mimic but would they be able to mimic even the minute details? The SHIELD agent would take the gamble that unless they were unnaturally focusing Fury didn't think that once Coulson got in the thick of things, he would be next to impossible to impersonate.
Granted, there was Fury's first encounter with the alien race but the agent figured that trying to impersonate the same person twice was quite possibly the dumbest move they could make. It was weird in that way. Coulson would be monitored simply for the fact that he had been impersonated once. That made him essentially immune to being impersonated again.
Fury had needed more backup and had asked the secretary in the lobby to call them in. While he didn't necessarily think them to be Skrulls, Fury was not going to be led on a wild goose chase through a highly sensitive military research facility with his pants down again.
Some backup that he could trust was better than no backup. He couldn't rely on base security, given the cold shoulder they had received.
And besides Vers was still, at the end of the day, another alien despite her human appearance and Percy was a wild card with an unknown stake in this whole debacle.
Fury then thought further on his encounter with the Branch Director. He had called him Nick. If there was anyone that only called him Fury, it was his boss. Mostly because Fury couldn't recall a single instance of the older man referring to his subordinates by their first names, much less nicknames and one Fury hated with an absolute passion.
That had set Fury on edge and the CIA operative in him told the SHIELD agent to make sure he wasn't a double agent or rather a Skrull.
The Army Colonel off-handedly recalled a memory of serving with the man in Havana and how this was similar. Keller agreed with him.
On that alone, Fury determined that SHIELD Branch Director Richard Keller was not in fact SHIELD Branch Director Richard Keller and instead a Skrull.
Not only had Fury never been to Havana in his life. Fury had never served with Keller before SHIELD and the man had hardly left the office for the field regardless.
He never even met Keller until he first arrived in Los Angeles.
He needed to get to Percy and Vers. If Keller was a Skrull then as much as it damaged his pride, there wouldn't be much he could do to kill it.
And Fury knew that his sidearm wouldn't be much use if the alien was right next to him. From what the agent was able to determine it was that the Skrulls had a decent reaction time. Fury pulling his service pistol on Not Coulson in the car was evident of that fact.
He evaded him, sending him a few levels further down so he could get a head start on finding the other two. They would be able to deal with the Not Keller.
To add on to his list of problems, they had bailed on him and Not Keller had alerted the base.
His day had just gone from easygoing to blood-pumping.
He was promptly pulled from his haze of thoughts as he heard conversation come from the cockpit. Voices he recognized as belonging to Percy and Vers. They seemed to be getting along well enough. Though he could tell that there was still an air of awkwardness as they spoke. Percy was still being evasive and he tell Vers was attempting her best play at being subtle to pry answers from her questions.
He groaned slightly as he shifted in his seat. The pain in his shoulder flared as he did so.
"You're finally awake," Percy spoke as he looked over the seat he was in and moved to stand up. Percy noted that his thigh had a tightly wrapped bandage on it. He wasn't in his civvies anymore and instead looked to be that black tactical clothing from when Fury had first met him. "About time. We're just past Houston and coming up on New Orleans."
"What happened?" All Fury could remember was getting his shit rocked in the Records room. Anything beyond that came up blank.
Vers answered and Fury looked at her, she also had a bandage though it wrapped around her shoulder and she was now in her spacesuit. "We're guessing that a Skrull simmed your boss who placed a kill on sight order on us."
Something definitely went down while he was out.
"Sounds about right but I was mostly talking about how we ended up in the jet." He looked around the cargo hold again, the cat leaping away from his lap as Percy approached him.
"To put it simply, they started shooting and unless we started killing, we weren't getting out the front door. Lava Lamp said she could fly this and here we are." The raven-haired man said succinctly, earning an indignant 'Hey' from Vers at the apparent nickname she had earned herself. "Whoever that was, he did a number on you."
"Shiny here thinks you called them in, Nick." Shiny? Fury didn't see how that particular nickname was relevant, but Percy cringed and grimaced at it, an expression that the SHIELD agent shared.
Fury hated nicknames with an absolute passion.
But at least he knew the woman was not a Skrull. In their brief time conversing after she had found out his name, she had only called him Nick and every time a playful smile would wash across her face at his irritation of it.
An action she did as she turned from her place in the pilot's seat to just see the twitching of his brow and a mischievous upturning of her lips in response to it.
"I think my shoulder is dislocated." Fury stated as Percy gave him the once over that the agent recognized as one that had some training in first aid.
Fury firmly believed and determined that the man had some semblance of military training. That combined with the fact that there was no way he was that comfortable and confident in his abilities that walking out the entrance to a highly secure military entrance was an option otherwise.
"I was waiting until you woke up to fix it." He responded and Fury leaned to the side. "You ready?"
"Ye=" Fury shouted in pain as Percy abruptly pushed his shoulder back into place. He clearly had experience doing that if his slight smirk, in response to Fury's glare was any indication. "Damn you." He flexed his arm, some of the soreness and pain still lingering.
"I have some aspirin or some gauze to set it if you want it," Percy added as he checked the shoulder.
"I'll be fine." Fury would let his injury simmer for the moment. He didn't want to be on painkillers until he absolutely needed them. "And I did." There was no point in lying. "Figured I could get some extra hands on deck in case one of ya'll decided to get antsy." He bit out the last part.
"And look how that turned out." Percy retorted with a scoff. "We saved your life."
"Am I supposed to be grateful?"
"No." He said immediately. "But I expect you to know who your allies are. I don't know about her but if I wanted to kill you, I would've done it when we met or just simply left you to die. Consider that next time you don't trust me."
"Trust?" Fury barked a laugh, his blood boiling at the irony. Percy was the last one to talk about trust. Fury knew more about Vers than he did about the young man and despite his powers and strength, the SHIELD agent was not afraid to call him out on it. "Pretty rich coming from you, don't you think?"
Percy was unfazed by the comment nor did he answer it, instead he deflected. Again. "Regardless, realize that if I wanted you dead I wouldn't waste my time with keeping you alive." With that, Percy stood and returned back to the co-pilot's chair, Vers looking between the two in concern.
Fury figured that Percy did have a point albeit a shaky one and one that was rather blunt. As far as the SHIELD agent was able to deduce, Percy didn't appear to be someone to want to waste his time with just anything.
"We do need your help though. We need to find Lawson's lab. It says she kept the Tesseract there." Vers explained from her seat. "We are hoping this Maria Rambeau can give us a hand with that."
Fury nodded and massaged his shoulder as he stood and made his way over to them. "At the speed that we're going, we'll be coming up on New Orleans in half an hour," Vers stated and tapped the center console. "Courtesy of this convenient Terran navigational system, we should be able to go straight to her house."
"That's called a GPS," Percy remarked, shaking his head in exasperation as he did so. "We went over this."
"A navigation system." Vers cemented with a nod and a smile while starting to take control of the jet. "No matter what you call it, it's a navigation system."
Fury internally groaned. "Semantics." He interrupted. Percy shrugged while Vers flashed him a smile to which he returned with the corners of his lips upturning slightly. Despite his heated…discussion with Percy and their apparent injuries, they looked to be in good spirits.
They were silent for a moment before Fury spoke up. "Did we learn anything new?"
"Lawson is a Kree." Vers bluntly stated, her eyes facing forward.
Fury sputtered for a moment. "The late doctor is an alien?"
"Yeah." She added. "Turns out that journal wasn't chicken scratch. Those were Kree glyphs. She was sent here to develop weapons for the war."
"And?"
"And it turns out, those weapons weren't for either the Kree or the Skrulls, but for humans." She clarified, slight derision seeping into her voice. "She thought that deserting would bring the war here and well what do you know. It did." Fury thought that something a little more was at stake here. It wasn't that simple. "Also it looks like I may be some sort of Terran-Kree hybrid." That caught Fury flat-footed. He wasn't expecting that.
"As in your parents….one…Terran, one Kree…" He trailed off. Growing up in a rather conservative era and in the Deep South had rather frowned upon coming right out and saying it but his time in the military had dulled his senses to that kind of talk.
But a human and an alien? He internally shivered. To each, their own, but Fury was slightly uncomfortable with the thought. His curiosity only extended so far.
"Yes. They had sex." Vers bluntly said with a small smile as she continued to control the aircraft. "You'd be surprised. Interspecies relations are pretty common in the wider universe." Fury did not need to know that. "Granted, those species are humanoid in appearance so-"
"I get it." Fury cut in before she could continue. A light ripple of laughter was shared between the two, even Percy managed a small smirk and a slight shake of his head at the absurd turn of conversation. "Anything else I should be made aware of?"
"There's an object called the Tesseract, it looks like a glowing blue cube. It absolutely cannot fall into the hands of either the Kree or Skrulls. We find it, you call me. I'll deal with it."
"You have a pager?" Fury asked.
"He has a communicator," Vers added.
"It doesn't work," Percy admitted.
"What's wrong with it?" If Fury had to, he would buy him one.
Vers spoke up this time. "Is it broken? I can fix it if you need me to."
"It's not that. It wouldn't work here regardless. And phones and, I'm going to guess pagers, don't work well with me." He looked conflicted. "I have an idea but I'll have to think on it."
The SHIELD agent figured it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume it had something to do with one of his abilities.
He would still keep a close eye on them. Fury still didn't fully trust them but with his own apparent boss a Skrull. It was better to stick with them if only so he could ensure they stuck to their words and rid Earth of this extraterrestrial threat.
'I think a good friend, to me, is all about trust and loyalty. You don't ever want to second-guess whether you can tell your friend something.'
-Lauren Conrad
A little characterization, plot development chapter while we continue on! Please let me know your thoughts!
On that note, (and as always), you can find me on the Emerald Library Discord! It's a fantastic place to interact with other writers and readers where we just chill and chat about ideas, future works and generally just have a good time! You can also find an update schedule for Of Water and Salt on there with chapters slated up to six months from now!
The link to that is on my profile!