Chapter 12
A few lunar cycles pass with nothing too interesting happening and we do our jobs to get paid, after getting the supplies we needed.
As I'm eating a nutrient bar at 1200 while I walk the ship, I get a message from Stakar and go to take the incoming transmission in Controls, sitting in my Captain's chair sideways because I can. "Hey, Pops. What's up?" I grin at him and can just feel the annoyance radiating off of him before I adjust how I'm sitting in the chair so it looks slightly normal.
"You're annoying."
"Yeah. I get told that a lot." The other Captains join the transmission and I give all of them the peace sign as I take another bite of the protein bar. "Where's Krags and Sparkles?"
"I'm currently talking to Martinex, Captain," Nebula says slightly awkwardly and I nod, smirking a bit.
"I see. Continue to plan your date, lovebirds." She shakes her head slightly and walks away to continue talking to Martinex. I see him blushing in the video transmission she's on with him and I give him a thumbs up. He blushes and I look at my transmission again before Nebula can look at me. "So. What's up? And where's Krags?" He joins the transmission from his wrist com as he finishes pulling on his jumpsuit and Senso was dressed behind him, straightening his hair.
"And my question has been answered."
"Wha'cha talkin' 'bout, Kid? Ah was sleepin'."
"It's 1200, Krags. You wake up before 0500 every solar cycle."
"Hey, Rogue."
"Hey, Senso."
"See you later, Sir," She smirks at Kraglin before she leaves and he sputters for a moment with a blue blush before he ends the transmission as he puts his wrist com on.
"Don'cha make fun 'a 'im, Girl," Yondu warns simply and I look at him in mock offense.
"I would never make fun of Kraglin! And if I were to, he'd deserve it," I chuckle and he joins Yondu's screen. "Hey, Krags."
"Shu' up."
"Alrighty then. What's up, Pops?"
"We're going to be making our way to Terra for the hot one."
"For summer, right. It is about June on Terra. Oh! June! Yes! That month is the best fucking month!"
"What?" Martinex had joined Stakar's screen and I just smile.
"You'll see. We should go somewhere else other than Boulder. Like... New York. We can go to the Avengers Compound. Gods, I always wanted to go there and raid Iron Man's suits to see how they're made. Gods, this is gonna be awesome."
"You didn't drink your blend, did you?"
"No, I didn't. Because fuck that shit today. When are we going?"
"Now."
"Nice! I'll meet you in the field in Boulder, then. Deuces." I give them the peace sign again as I sign off of the transmission and Avu was already setting a course for Terra. "June on Terra! Fuck yeah!"
"What happens during June on Terra?"
"June is pride month in the country we go to because last I knew, people who belong to LGBTQIA+ are still immensely oppressed and they use June as a way to speak out against it. I love June." She nods and I smile. "Oh, I've gotta go talk to Tony about getting us to the Avengers Compound!" I go to do that and she chuckles softly.
"Hey! Tony Stank!"
"What?" He yells over the railing of a higher level before realizing who yelled it and looks at me. "How do you know that name?"
"Because I do! I got a question!"
"What?"
"We're stopping on Terra soon! You got a way to get us to your guys' Compound?"
"Of course I do! Why?"
"Reasons!"
"Alright! Yeah, I've got a way for us to get to the Compound without raising too many questions!"
"Sick!" I feel us go through Terra's atmosphere and land after a moment in the field.
"Why are we on Terra?" Jay asks and I smile at him and the other kids.
"It's a good idea for you guys to experience culture during summer. Especially this month. Come on." I lead the way off of the ship and to the cabin for now. "We're gonna chill here while we wait for the others. And... I'm gonna try to find some stuff."
"What stuff?"
"It's a surprise."
"OK..." I lead them into the cabin and look at Morgan.
"You wanna help me find this stuff?"
"Sure." I lead her to the basement and tumble down the stairs when one of them breaks.
"Oof!"
"You OK?" Morgan stands at the top of the stairs and I push myself up, rubbing my shoulder a bit.
"Yeah, I'm good. Hang on and I'll help you down here." I stand and go over to the stairs, noticing the one that broke was at the top. Then more as I fell down them. "Alright. Jump down here, kid." She jumps and I catch her, setting her on the floor next to me. "Let's see... Light..." I go over a bit to my left and feel a chain hit my shoulder. "Ah, found it." I tug the chain lightly and the light turns on, filling the basement.
"That's a lot of stuff."
"Yup. They should be over here." I go over to a stack of boxes and pull some of them down, crouching in front of her. "You wanna choose which one we open, kid?" She looks and pulls the top one down. "That one?"
"Yeah."
"Alright." I set the other boxes down and take my knife from between my shoulder blades, taking the box from her to open it up. "YES!"
"A flag...?"
"This entire area is flags, kiddo. Different flags for different things and I'm so glad they're still here!" I put my knife back and take her over, putting her back at the top of the stairs. "I'm gonna pass the boxes to you and you just put them in the kitchen, alright?"
"OK." I pass her the boxes and she does as I told her.
"Alright. That's all of them." I give her the last box and she puts it on top of a small stack to her right. "Some of these stairs are still intact..." I carefully climb the stairs that aren't broken and climb out of the basement, giving Morgan a thumbs up. She giggles a bit and I smile a bit. "OK. Let's take these to the living room."
"I've got it." Strange opens a portal beneath the boxes and they land in the living room where the rest of my family was waiting along with their crews.
"Hey, Senso."
"Hey, Rogue." She smiles and comes over to give me a hug which I reciprocate, easily pinning her against my chest.
"You're not throwing me to the ground. Nice try, though."
"Damn." She lets me go and I grin at her. "Here. Drink this." She hands me a water bottle and I drink it.
"So..."
"Girl."
"I didn't even say anything."
"Uh-huh."
"You just gotta ruin all of my fun, don't you, Gramps?" He rolls his eyes and Stakar looks at me.
"What're the boxes?"
"Terran stuff." I look through the boxes and open one. "Found it!" I toss it to Doc and they catch it, confused. "Open it the rest of the way." They do and look at the flag, more confused. "Remember how I told you about June and the stuff that would happen here?" They look confused for a bit longer before nodding slowly as it dawns on them and I smile.
"This is one of the pride flags?"
"Yep. That one's the nonbinary flag."
"I don't know what that means, Rogue."
"Terrans who're nonbinary use the pronouns they and them, like you do. Other people do too, but, I thought you'd like that flag better." They look at it and nod.
"I do. Thank you, Rogue." I smile and go through a few more of the boxes before tossing one to Bucky.
"We get one?"
"Yep. Open it." He does and unfolds the rainbow flag. Steve looked pissed and Bucky grins a bit, wrapping it around both of them easily.
"Come on, Punk. You gotta admit, it fits us."
"Plus, you guys make it way too obvious if you were trying to hide it," Gamora says simply and I nod a bit.
"How long have you known?"
"Since they televised the fight between brainwashed you and him. You'd have to have no eyeballs to not see the sexual and romantic tension as he tries not to hurt you too much."
"Brings a whole new meaning to friends with benefits, doesn't it, Cap?" Tony smirks and Steve glares at him while I try to keep my composure.
"Plus, looking at all of the past recordings of you guys from before you were frozen, painfully obvious there, too. I get why you hid then, though. People. Fucking. Suck."
"You got a flag?"
"Maybe...? I don't know. But, Drax has a flag."
"I do?"
"Yup." I look through them and toss him one. He opens it and pulls it out, confused. "It's the pansexual flag. It means you can be attracted to anybody. People also say trans people, but I take it to mean before a full transition with all replacement surgeries done, but I don't know."
"What does being trans mean?" Petey asks and I look at him.
"The gender you're assigned at birth doesn't match what gender you are. For example, you were assigned male at birth. If you were to be a female in actuality, you'd be trans and a female."
"How would you react if any of us, your kids or Indri, were to want to be the flags representations?" Jay asks and I look at him, slightly offended, looking at all of the kids.
"Have at it. If you're anything that these flags represent, cool. I don't care because you're my kids, my family. It's not my fucking job to worry about controlling who you are, who you love, or anything like that. My job as your mother is simply to make sure you don't die, make sure you know how your partners if you have any, should treat you, teach you how to protect yourselves, and protect you when it's needed. My job is to... Love you. I don't care if you're male, female, trans, nonbinary, none of the above, or all of the above. I don't care if you love men, women, nonbinary people, trans people, none of them, all of them, or one specific person. You do you and I'll be here to support you if you need it, even if you don't need it. You have one rule. Don't be assholes and don't let your partners be assholes to you. It's called the Asshole Rule. Got it?"
"You just admitted to loving us," Indri says, shocked, and I roll my eyes.
"Yes. The same goes for you, idiot."
"And you're back." I flick him in the forehead and he rubs it, glaring a bit.
"Can you tell us what all of the flags mean?"
"Sure. What one first?" They each choose a flag and I look at them.
"Bisexual, you like both males and females. Asexual, no sexual attraction to anything, no sex period, food is best. Demisexual, basically, you're asexual or ace until you're not, you have a sexual attraction to a specific person or specific people. Aromantic, no romantic attraction to anything, no romance period. Lesbian, you're a female and you like other females. Transgender, not identifying the gender you were assigned at birth. Intersex, you're all of the binary, you could have the genitalia of both male and female, like Quill was before that asshole... Moving on. Polysexual, you're attracted to numerous but not all genders. You can be poly and any of the other things too. The progress pride flag is the normal pride flag with the arrows pointing in one direction to symbolize that while the LGBTQIA+ community has come a long way, there are still things that need to happen. The arrows are for people of color in the community and the trans flag. It's a good flag, ten out of ten, the best. Polyamory flag, like the flag but there's an infinite number of partners you could have. I like how they used the Pi symbol because it's a math thing that has an infinite number of numbers that go on and never repeat. It's kinda cool."
"Mom."
"Right. Variation of the trans flag with the female, male, and genderqueer symbols on it. Genderfluid, you can be anything on the binary spectrum or not on it. Genderqueer, kinda like nonbinary, you don't operate on the binary spectrum period. We're not talking about those because I refuse to. Agender, you just reject the binary spectrum. That's the pride ally flag, we need more of those. Abrosexual, you fluctuate on your sexuality. And pangender, multigender nonbinary gender identity in which the entire gender spectrum is you. You aren't on the gender spectrum, the gender spectrum is you."
"Cool. Is this another one of your hyper fixation things?"
"Yeah. I had a lot of those. They were all fun to learn about though, so it's fine."
"We still going to the Compound or what?"
"Yes. How're we getting there?" Tony looks at Strange and he opens a portal to another building.
"Go through the portal." He leads the way and the rest of us follow with Strange bringing up the rear. "Welcome to the Avengers Compound."
"Feels good to be home," Peter groans as he falls onto a couch and I look around a bit, noticing all of the windows.
"You've got a lot of windows."
"No one can see inside. They are one way," A voice explains from around us and I nod a bit.
"I'm guessing that was JARVIS?"
"How do you know about JARVIS?"
"The internet. Duh."
"I see that most of our guests are not human, Sir. What do they eat?"
"Wha' the Hell is tha', Girl?"
"It's an AI, kinda like Mainframe but without a body."
"A'ight..."
"I recognize the tall woman. She was on the news many years ago as a missing child. And years before that as a victim in a car accident. Quite the miracle that you are alive right now, Miss."
"Yep. I'm too stubborn to die." I look around a bit more as I walk around the floor a bit and don't notice the Captains and crews talking quietly to each other and the kids. "Dude, you would not believe how long I wanted to come and see the inside of this place..."
"Why?"
"You're the Avengers and you have the most high-tech building I know of on Terra. It was a fangirl thing that I never got rid of." I shrug and put my hands in my pockets, looking out one of the windows to the streets below. "Cool..."
"You wanna look at one of my old suits?" Tony asks and I look at him.
"Really?" Yondu snorts and I clear my throat, crossing my arms. "I mean. Uh, yeah, sure, I guess. Sounds good. Lead the way." He leads the way and I follow, somehow managing to keep a handle on my excitement.
"Here. This is one of the first models."
"Can I take it apart?"
"Have at it." I look at the suit and carefully grab the gauntlet, looking at it closely.
"Awesome," I murmur with a smile and sit at the workbench to carefully take it apart, paying attention to each piece. He watches me and I smile as I take it apart, focusing on just that.
"How long have you wanted to see one of these?"
"Since I was... Five, I think. I drew it out of Gramps and Doc when I was about thirteen. He shot down the thought of building and designing one, though. Real quick," I chuckle and finish taking it apart, looking at all of the pieces. "This is seriously cool, dude."
"Yeah."
"Want me to put it back together?"
"Nah. It's fine. I'll probably need the parts later for another project so it's easier to keep it apart."
"OK." I shrug and organize the pieces a bit better so the table didn't look like such a mess. "There." I rub my neck slightly and yawn, shaking my head slightly. "Fuck," I mutter and rub my eyes slightly.
"I can show you to a spare room so you can get some sleep if you want."
"Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks." He nods and leads the way to an empty room.
"Here you go. You gonna sleep in those?"
"I do most of the time, but not today. I got some clothes to sleep in for once." He nods and starts to leave. "Thanks, Tony. I appreciate it."
"No problem." He smiles at me and leaves, shutting the door behind him. I get changed into the Kyln Two jumpsuit because it was comfortable to sleep in and get in the bunk, falling asleep before I can even take my glasses off. I had put my weapons and wrist com on the nightstand next to the bed.
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"This seems like a terrible idea, Stakar," Doc says carefully as they head to the room Tony took me to with him, Lumes, Rocket, Mantis, and Tex and they carefully open the door.
"She deserves to have a normal life, Doc. Get to work. Mantis, Rocket, you know what to do." They nod a bit and Rocket grabs my weapons and wrist com while Mantis makes sure I stay asleep. Lumes and Tex go over to me while Doc stays by the door and Stakar gently pushes them forward. "Get to work."
"This is normal for her. We're normal for her. You got any clue how she's going to feel when she wakes up to see what you had us do?"
"She'll learn to live with it." They sigh and take my glasses off while Tex sets the normal prescription glasses on the nightstand. The three Docs work on taking the implant out and Mantis makes sure I stay asleep.
"This is cruel," She whispers and Stakar doesn't respond for a moment.
"What's cruel is having to watch her husbands die slowly in front of her."
"What's cruel is your taking away everything that makes her herself and taking her kids and brother away from her," Rocket says simply and Stakar looks at him, contacting Krugarr. A portal opens and Rocket glares at Stakar but goes through it to put all of my weapons and my wrist com in the Eclector's Med Bay before coming back for the implant.
"Alright. Let's go." He leads them out and back to the others.
"You heading out already?"
"Change of plans. Something came up and the other Clans need us to back them up," He explains simply and Tony nods.
"Rogue already back at her ship?"
"Yes. We'll see you all some other time." They bid each other farewell and Krugarr opens a portal to the field for them to board the ships.
"Are... Are you sure this is a good idea?" Indri asks softly and Stakar looks at him.
"It was your idea, to begin with, so yes. I do. The other kids agreed, right?"
"Right..." He nods and the kids board the Shadowblade while Stakar boards the Starhawk.
"Marty, let Nebula know she needs a First Mate." He nods and does that.
"Captain-"
"Don't. She deserves a normal life, Marty."
"Yes, Sir..."
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I wake and swing my feet onto the floor as I grab my glasses, standing. I put them on as I walk out, not seeing my stuff, and blink a few times. "Very funny," I mutter and go to the other room where the others were. "Hilarious, guys. Where's my stuff?"
"Wait, why are you here?"
"Cuz I was sleeping...? Seriously, where's my stuff?"
"We didn't take your stuff, Rogue. Why are you still here? We thought you went with the other Ravagers."
"Haha, very funny." I roll my eyes and scratch the back of my head where the base of my implant should be, freezing. "The fuck..." I run my hand over my head and feel no implant. "OK, not funny anymore. Where's my shit?"
"We do not have any of it, Rogue," Vision says and I tap the side of my glasses, nothing happening. I tap it a few more times and nothing happens.
"What the fuck is going on? You guys got a wrist com?"
"No. We gave them back to Stakar."
"There might be one at the cabin then... Ugh!" I make hair grow on my head and brush it out of my eyes, over the left side of my head. "Strange, you mind?"
"Not at all." He opens a portal for us and we go through it to look for a wrist com anywhere.
"Come on... There's got to be one here somewhere..." I wreck the cabin looking for it and he watches for a bit.