"You know, this would be so much easier if we had, you know, a mage?!"
The speedster dodged another thrown car and sent the superhuman thug sprawling with a well-placed punch in the mouth.
"What do you expect me to do about it, Speed? It's not like I haven't..." the rest of the sentence was lost in the roar of a darting flame, courtesy of a flamethrower belonging to today's brand of havoc wreaking criminals.
"He quit, he doesn't want this, you gotta let it go, Speed."
The reprimanding tone unmistakably belonged to one Hawkeye, otherwise known as Kate to her friends. A circle thinned too harshly in the recent past.
"Tch, he shouldn't have. He should be here."
Tommy's extraordinarily whiny mood was diminished the instant something came screaming out of the sky, afire from its recent atmospheric entry.
The dull shockwave of the impact reverberated in Tommy's very bones.
"I'll go check it out!" And he was gone. Speed never waited for acknowledgement let alone permission. Besides, Kate and Teddy were more than capable of dealing with these chumps for the five minutes he'd be gone, right?
The crater sprawled across Tommy's vision, a vast and violent hole in a conveniently empty parking lot. At least there'd been no people around to get crushed or burned...
At the center of this smoking devastation was a hunk of metal, no, it had form, more like a ship. It looked nothing like any ships or planes Tommy'd ever seen before and that was saying something, he lived in New York after all and he'd seen plenty of robots, space-ships and alike.
No, this was definitely an alien ship. A badly damaged, burning sort of alien ship. The acrid smell of molten cables, burning organic matter and white-hot metal invaded the speedster's nose and he lifted his hand immediately to try and keep his smelling organ covered, his breath reduced to short, shallow bursts.
A tiny movement inside of the wrecked ship caught his eye. Something...someone was in there! The faintest of groans brushed Tommy's ears.
Right. He knew what to do. He was a hero, and heroes' duties involved rescues.
In a matter of seconds, his hands shifted the hot mess that once resembled a door and the person who'd groaned fell from their entrapment and Tommy barely managed to catch...him.
He was heavy, whoever he was. A mess of black, white and red. So much red. Tommy wasn't one to faint at the sight of blood, but the amount of hot, sticky scarlet running over his hands put a heavy pit into his stomach.
"Come on, don't die on me, alien dude!"
The speedster dragged the body away from the burning wreckage and settled him on the ground. Gently, for Tommy Shepherd standards, which only guaranteed a fractured skull wouldn't be added to the man's injuries.
Tommy let his gaze sweep over the rescued life and was met with a dirty shock of snow-white hair, furrowed brows and matte, icy blue eyes. He seemed almost familiar, but the speedster couldn't remember why or where he'd seen him before...
"Hey, you're awake, good. Do me a favour and stay alive for the next five minutes?"
Okay, empathy had never been Tommy's strong suit, but he was afraid of failure. Heroes didn't fail. He would not be a lousy hero and he damn well would be if this guy decided to kick the bucket under his care.
The nameless stranger parted bloody lips, moved them, tried to speak, but his voice would not obey him. Tommy pressed his palms to the bigger puncture wounds, trying to call up his less than rudimentary knowledge of first aid.
"...ou.."
"What?!" his voice came out too loud, too harsh, but the speedster leaned his head down, ear almost touching those abused looking lips in order to hear the bleeding man speak.
"Thank you..." icy eyes, murky with pain, drifted closed slowly, an expression of relief washing over the disturbed features of the man's face.
"Nonononono come on you asshole no dying!"
Tommy gathered the bulkier man closer in order to find a pulse or something, but his search was without reward. Of course, it would have helped if he'd remember where he was supposed to look or feel. The neck? Or was it the arm?!
"Tommy!"
Finally, Hulkling and Hawkeye. Surely one of those two would know what to do.
"He's bleeding all over the place and I think he's unconscious. One of you do something!"
Yet neither Young Avenger moved. Speed looked up wildly to see what had paralzyed his friends.
"What are you doing?! Help me!"
Teddy's face had hardened, his jaw set and eyes several touches too cold for comfort.
"That's Noh-Varr."
Tommy's mind works at four times the speed of an average human. And yet it could not dredge up one memory of seeing this man before, not one memory of icy blue eyes and white hair...
"I don't give a fuck who he is, he is NOT dying on my watch!"
That startled Kate and Teddy into action, both knelt down to look at the unconscious, injured man.
*
In hindsight, Tommy really should have remembered.
An alien, he hadn't been wrong there. A kree, to be precise. Once upon a time, an Avenger, two superhero identities and a lengthy stint in prison, courtesy of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Oh yes, as well as a brain-washed attack on the Young Avengers and the Runaways in L.A. The reason for Teddy's displeasure at their unintended reunion. Tommy'd missed most of that affair, so it came as no surprise that he didn't recognize 'Marvel Boy'. AKA the Protector. AKA Noh-Varr, currently banished from Earth by both the Avengers and the X-Men.
All in all, someone who made a lot of mistakes. Somehow, it seemed a perfect fit that Tommy's first real rescue charge was a misfit, an ex-convict and in exile from general human society. Not to mention pretty strongly disliked in the superhuman community.
The speedster paced as he waited for Teddy and Kate. Someone had to watch over their uninvited 'guest' and since, well, Tommy rescued him, that particular chore had fallen to him.
With Noh-Varr's worst wounds dressed by Kate with Teddy's help and the accelerated healing this particular Kree was well-known for, there wasn't much they could do for him.
So Tommy was alone at the hideout, the little not-store Kate had bought for the team before they got all buddy-buddy with the Avengers, or so he'd been told. It was horrifically boring to be left with a sleeping alien, but Kate had been merciful enough to leave her laptop.
And he'd promptly done something he would have picked on Billy on for a week; he googled the Protector.
As an Avenger, he'd been...well, nothing exceptional. The general consensus of the superhuman-obsessed internet people of the world seemed to be a resounding 'meh'. The fact that he was Kree came up several times, but he stood in the shadows of Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel in that aspect. Even Hulkling came up more often in the search than Protector.
Of course, there was little to find on Noh-Varr's time in the Cube, but enough vague information to give Tommy an idea. Experiments, solitary confinement...it was all hauntingly familiar. He felt the groping hand of buried memories grasp at his mind, but he was definitely not in the mood to remember his trauma-inducing past. At least, not now when he was viewing an old article adorned with a picture of the lovely message Noh-Varr sent Earth. Tommy bit back a snigger as he read about the impressive, five block high lettered 'fuck you' the Kree burned into New York, right along with his declaration of war. Alright, that was kinda cool.
The speedster glanced up towards the clock. Fuck. Only ten minutes since he'd sat down with the laptop. Kate had promised to make her errands as fast as she could and Teddy had to put in his obligatory appearance at the Kaplans...
Tommy was fidgeting, tapping his foot against the couch, stomach rumbling as he looked over at the make-shift bed. Noh-Varr was deeply asleep. And hey, he wasn't exactly a villain. Nothing spoke against a short trip to the store, some snacks, some god damn food! Before he'd even finished the thought, Tommy was out of the door.
Loud voices greeted him upon his return. Tommy gripped the bag of packaged goods tighter, in case he needed a weapon on hand.
As he got closer, he relaxed. The raised voices belonged to Kate and Teddy and a third, unknown rich baritone. Must be Noh-Varr. Wait, he was awake?!
Tommy rushed into the room, only to find his charge sitting up and fully conscious. The murkiness was gone from his eyes, they were cold and crystal clear. Tommy had to admit, the pure aggressive strength in that gaze, despite the Kree's poor physical condition was impressive.
"What's going on?"
Kate wheeled around and fixed Tommy with a withering glare.
"You! You left him alone! He could hav-"
"What? Walked away? Saved us the trouble? Good, it's not like we don't have enough problems to take care of!" Tommy snapped, body immediately taut and ready to defend himself. A reflex, but it seemed enough to make Kate consider his words.
"Guys, enough," Teddy raised his currently human hands and sighed, trying to ease the tension in the room, "nothing happened, he's still here, let's just calm down okay?"
He looked weary. Billy's long, depressive, almost catatonic state had worn him down and left its scars all over him. The usually cheery blond looked tired and avoided any kind of argument between his tempered teammates as if he had no energy left to give.
Meanwhile, Noh-Varr kept silent. His eyes were preying on Tommy, chasing him around the room and clinging to his every movement. The speedster shifted as if the gaze was a discomforting, thick layer of slime or something unpleasant on his skin.
"I do not want to trouble you. I owe you," the look he sent Tommy stirred liquid fire in the Young Avenger, which was a sensation he wasn't entirely sure of liking, "my life."
"Look we don't wanna be rude or anything but you have to go as soon as you're better."
"Wow Teddy, feeling especially xenophobic today? I'm not sure you can do that and all, what with being green and shit," Tommy sneered, crossing the room with definite purpose now, carefully avoiding his friends to reach the make-shift bed. Not a show of solidarity, but to enforce his objection to the decision Kate and Teddy had obviously felled in his absence. He couldn't care less about this stupid fucking alien.
"That's no it," the shapeshifter slumped, what little strength there'd been to his shoulders seeping out in view of yet another argument.
"He's been banished from Earth, Thomas," the speedster cringed at that name out of Kate's mouth, but she continued, "the Avengers told him to never return! And here he is. They're gonna hunt him down and guess who else? Us, for letting him stay in the first place."
Teddy nodded solemnly in agreement.
"So?"
Kate gave an exasperated sigh, of course, Tommy would be stubborn now.
"You don't get it, do you? Unless he returns to where he came from, we'll be criminals for sheltering him."
"Since when do we care about the fucking Avengers?! They never like what we do, so what? You gonna send him back just cos' you don't wanna get in trouble with the 'grown-ups'? That ain't right! I thought that's what we're all about? Doing the right thing!" Tommy took a deep, fast breath and Noh-Varr's deep baritone broke through the stunned silence of the room.
"I can't."
"Can't what?" Teddy asked, his voice much terser than usual.
"I can't go home. I have none. I am in exile...banished from the Kree empire, just as I am banished from Earth. They will kill me."
The silence wasn't stunned anymore; it was deafening.
"That settles it. Fuck the Kree and fuck the Avengers and especially fuck the X-Men. He's staying here, with us. And if either of you have a problem with that, I'm leaving, right now."
"Tommy..." Kate began, ready to argue until the last breath in her lungs, but the speedster set his jaw and tensed his shoulders, eyes glowering with conviction. He was utterly, stupidly and stubbornly determined to do this his way. The decision had been made.