"The New Girl"
"Where's Fury?"
The blonde woman's words hung in the air for only a second, but for the disillusioned and beleaguered Avengers, it felt like an hour.
Standing before them was a woman garbed from neck down in some kind of protective armor of possible alien origin, the bright red-and-blue aesthetic with gold highlights certainly standing out in the metallic and streamlined aesthetic of the room.
Her brown eyes stared at them without fear or hesitation, a piercing and unwavering approximation perhaps of her own personality.
She looked like a human.
She certainly talked like a human.
But the question was….is she truly one of them?
Stepping forward, Steve Rogers sought to answer this question himself. "If you don't mind me asking-"
Not even a splitsecond later, a visibly skeptical Natasha Romanov cut him off. "Who the hell are you?"
The woman turned only slightly to speak to the assassin-turned-Avenger, "My name is Carol Danvers. And…"
Taking a breath, she refocused her gaze on the super soldier before telling him, "I am, well, was, from your world."
"Define 'was', please," Bruce Banner asked her, sharing some of Natasha's skepticism.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she sighed.
"Well, a talking raccoon is currently in the other room giving a pep talk to a demigod from Norse mythology, so I'd say we're a pretty open-minded group of people," James Rhodes remarked at her with crossed arms and a somewhat curious glint in his eyes. "Try us."
Nodding in understanding, Carol told them, "What do you know about the Kree Empire?"
"...that night, I gave Fury that pager to contact me in case the Earth ever needed my assistance again. I took off to help the Skrulls find a new home free of Kree persecution, and never looked back. There were times I wanted to come back and see what had changed in my absence, but then a new threat cropped up in a planet full of beings unable to adequately protect themselves. Eventually, I just convinced myself that Fury had found people who could protect the planet, and by the looks of things, you guys have more than done your duty to protect the Earth," Carol Danvers finally finished.
The meeting room was uncharacteristically silent for the uncharacteristically verbose Avengers.
Leaning back in his chair, Banner let her story fully digest and be processed through his disciplined mind while Rhodes produced a cellphone from his back pocket and exited.
"That's debatable," Romanov sighed, running a tired hand through her platinum blonde locks.
"We've done our best here, Carol, and I appreciate you taking the time to tell us your story. But you'll have to understand that after all we've been through the past few days, it's just all a lot to take in," Steve finally spoke up, his tone encouraging but still undecided.
"I understand. I can give you guys a few minutes," the woman said, standing up from her seat and exiting into the hallway.
As soon as the door closed, Steve turned to Natasha. "How much of it do you believe?"
"If she's lying, she's doing a damn good job at it," she told him, before explaining further, "Back at S.H.I.E.L.D., I vaguely remember Fury mentioning a Dr. Wendy Lawson in relation to the Tesseract. I'm not saying corroboration but Fury was always very particular about who he said that name to."
Nodding, Rogers then turned to the graying scientist. "Bruce?"
"How she got her powers sounds more science fiction than science, but we all saw the security footage of her flying in here. She's at least being truthful about that," he admitted.
"That's not the only thing."
Stepping back into the room, the former colonel hung up the phone and reported to the three, "I just finished talking with an old contact with the Air Force. Turns out Carol Danvers was a fighter pilot during the 1980s, right up to where she claims she was abducted by the Kree."
"So, she passes the background check. There was a Carol Danvers on Earth before, but how do we know that the woman out there is that same Danvers?" Rogers pointed out.
"What do you mean, Cap?" Banner asked, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
"We all fought Thanos' lieutenants back in Wakanda, right? What if they weren't the only ones? For all we know, she could be a shapeshifter that he sent to finish us off here before we could go after him," the super soldier pointed out.
His suggestion gave the two male Avengers pause for thought, but not Romanov.
"If that were true, she would've killed us the second she saw all of us together," she reasoned with him. "I've been on both sides and keeping your target alive long enough to figure it out isn't the kind of play any sane person would make."
"That would imply Thanos is sane to begin with," Banner remarked dryly, rubbing his glasses against the fabric of his buttoned shirt before putting them on.
"All I'm saying is if her story checks out, she might be able to help us," Natasha told them. "Fury sent that signal out for a reason. Not to sound too naive, but in my experience with him, he always was a pretty decent judge of character."
"Secretary Alexander Pierce would disagree with that, Natasha," Steve reminded her.
"Look, I'm not saying I believe her story one way or another. But seeing as how half our team is currently disintegrated into ashes, I'd say we only have two options here. Either we believe her, or we don't," Rhodes spoke up.
"It's your call, Cap," Banner told him.
Looking deep within himself for guidance, Steve Rogers took only a moment to bring his train of thought to a conclusive halt before coming to a decision.
"Carol!"
Turning around, the blonde woman looked on expectantly as Rogers approached her from the meeting room.
"Captain Rogers," she greeted him curtly.
Stopping in front of her, he hesitated for only a moment before extending his hand out to her.
"Call me Steve," he finally said, as the two shook hands.
Looking up at his bearded expression, Danvers thought she could see the glint of something in his eyes, but it was gone before she could study it any longer.
"What do you know about Thanos?"
Her expression immediately darkened. "He's lined star systems with the blood of billions, made entire species go near extinct overnight. Wherever he goes, death follows like a shadow.
"Any personal experience with him?"
She shook her head. "Unfortunately, I hadn't had the displeasure of meeting him yet. But maybe if I did, none of this senseless tragedy would've happened."
"There's only one man on this planet capable of beating him, and a week ago he went after Thanos' forces in a spaceship. We haven't heard from him since," he told her.
"What do you want me to do?"
The sudden click-clacking of boot heels interrupted their conversation.
Walking with the utmost urgency, Pepper Potts greeted them both, "I came as soon as Rhodey called. He said you guys have a new lead on how to find Tony."
Stopping in front of them, she looked at Steve, who then turned to Danvers, "I need you to find Tony Stark."
The nightly breeze greeted the heroes as they stood outside the Avengers facility, their expressions solemn but slightly hopeful as they all looked at Carol Danvers.
The despondent and downtrodden Thor watched from a distance near the facility's entrance as Banner finally walked up to the Tesseract-enhanced woman.
"After the fight at Wakanda, we found some technology off of Thanos' top guys. Before it was busted, it could've possibly functioned as a teleportation device, but I managed to scrounge something useful out of it," he told Danvers, handing her a circular device.
"I tinkered around a bit but managed to reverse engineer the built-in coordinates into a GPS tracking device to a planet called Titan. If that's Thanos' homeworld, then that spaceship with Tony in it would logically be in that solar system. Theoretically speaking of course," the scientist continued to inform her.
Attaching it to her belt, she placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "I'll find him, Bruce."
"Please do. We really need a win after the past couple of days," he confessed to her wearily, before taking a step back.
Potts took his place and embraced the woman in a tearful hug.
Slightly taken aback, Danvers nonetheless returned the gesture on her end as the redhead whispered into her ear, "Just bring him back home."
"You have my word," the blonde woman whispered back.
Stepping back, Potts gave her one last smile before standing next to Rhodes.
"I'm not going to hug you," Rhodes deadpanned at her, before wrapping a protective arm around Potts, "Bring him home, Carol."
"We'll be here waiting when you come back," Natasha smiled at her, fighting back some tears herself.
"Thank you. I won't let you all down," Danvers promised them all, before locking eyes one more time at the former Captain America.
"Good luck, Carol," Rogers saluted her.
Grinning appreciatively, Carol Danvers planted herself firmly in the grass before taking a breath, and then, in a dazzling flash of light, blasting off.
Her human form became an ethereal ball of energy as it disappeared into the nighttime sky, only a second later vanishing entirely from their sight.
As the palpable heat from her departure gradually dissipated, the bitter coldness that had dominated their lives for days threatened to return.
But not for Steve Rogers.
For the first time in a very long time, he smiled.
Author's Note: Long story short: I just finished watching Avengers: Endgame and got inspired to do a little one-shot expanding upon the post-credit scene of Captain Marvel. Btw, Endgame is a masterpiece of a movie and an immensely satisfying and fulfilling way to close out an unprecedented 22-film saga. You can find dozens upon dozens of YouTube videos that will give a much more in-depth analysis about why the movie is so good, but those are just my basic thoughts.
As far as this one-shot goes, like I said, it's more to satiate my own curiosity and hopefully some of yours about what exactly the initial exchange between Carol and the remaining Avengers could've possibly been about. I am by no means a huge Marvel Comics fan, but I am a huge fan of the movies and I truly hope that I did the voices and personalities of these iconic characters justice. Feedback (positive and/or negative) is very much appreciated, so let me know how good (or bad) of a job I did here. Reviews are most certainly welcome.
I love you 3000! :)