Author's Note: I tried doing a Marvel story before, but didn't like where it was going. Then I saw the trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy and I really started to get into the idea of that extended-universe being in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I like the idea of Earth tech in an alien environment, fighting advance beings without a pray of winning. Then winning. Shows and movies like Stargate, Independence Day, and War of the Worlds where humans kick alien ass in desperate defense of the planet. Avengers really came off like that to me, they didn't seem so desperate, thus the idea as 'why doesn't SHIELD take the fight to the baddies?'
The comics have some answers to that, like Joss Whedon's(Avengers, Agents of SHIELD) creation the Sentient World Observation and Response Department or just SWORD. Abigail Brand is the commander of the organization in the comics, but I'm trying to do something interest with her. I'm very much so inspired by the Marvel comics, but this is not a crossover, so I don't want to hear too much from the super-fans.
Enjoy and Read & Review please!
An endless ocean horizon.. warm sunny days.. cold, salty breeze... ...
These are the things that Abby remembered best about her vacation on the resort planet of Cote d'Azur, a world of described as the paradise this side of Large Magellanic Cloud. Soaking in the twin suns rays, sipping on something with more alcohol than fruit juice... *sigh... ... Why couldn't she be there?
Sitting in a dark, dank corner of what passed as a bar on a planet that passed as livable, Abby sulked to herself about her present circumstance. Of course, she did her up most to look anything but sulking. She was a bad ass! It was all a part of her persona as bad ass mercenary for hire and sulking was not a part of such a character. Abby held her arms crossed and her lips were pulled into a firm grimace, creating a imposing image along with her pulse pistol hanging loosely on her hip. She kept her head slightly tilted down, so that with her eyes covered with her green tinted visor no one could see if she was looking into her water-down drink on the table or glaring at anyone brave enough to peer her way.
With a quite sigh, Abby blinked once and activated a HUD display from behind her visor. She quickly shifted through the HUD's options to a time keeping function that was set to local time. Shit... Her thoughts fumed with thousand other curses, some that Abby couldn't pronounce with her vocal muscles. This bad ass mercenary's client was an hour later and that meant things might be going south. Even worse, she might need to order another crappy drink to keep the bartender from raising hell. Glancing over to the door, the entrance to harsh outside world was left open to any newcomers escaping the blowing winds. Occasional, a strangely formed creature would pass by, and sometimes, entered the bar to join the other motley patrons for the lovely decor of gray tables, gray walls, and gray drunkards. They came in covered in the dull colored dust, patting their clothes down in a vain attempt to rid themselves of the substance. The shit was everywhere! The thousands of strip mines of Kull Minor VII left the planet with an ashen sky, a black landscape, and dried-up oceans. There was no escape from the gray dust, even Abby's favorite green jacket was looked more a puky lime. She could not wait to be through with this job and blast off this rock.
Just as Abby was signaling for another drink, a white figure appeared in the doorway caught her eye. She paused, turning her head up and look directly at the being as he glided across the bar in finely crafted white robes. This was no working slob coming from the mines, this guy was money. Not only that but as he came closer, Abby could see his crown of ebony feathers rising up from under the white hood that clearly stated his Shi'ar nature. He was one of the ruling elites that owned and controlled Kull Minor VII, that lived on the orbiting space colonies. To think that one of those pompous, over-grown canaries would leave their gilded cage and come planetside left Abby make her grimacing lips turn up into a smile. Reaching her, the Shi'ar pulled out the chair across from her and sat gracefully down with enough the self-important poise that it made her want to vomit.
"I would take it that you are the soldier of fortune that responded to my communiqué?"
He asked with an accent very similar to upper-class British from back on Earth. It seemed like all the conceited alien assholes in the universe sounded like Brits. Abby gave the Shi'ar a dangerous smirk and snickered, "Do you really want me to answer that out loud?"
"Quite right... The walls have ears and all that..."
"I was just think it was that I'm a mercenary. You know, with my gun and my devil-my-care demeanor... but that ear-wall thing is a good reason, too."
The Shi'ar gave her an impassive face, perhaps a little disgust shining through. Seemed that of all the bird-man's hollow bones, none of them were his funny bone. "May we continue on to the business that we have come to discuss..."
"Sure thing." Abby reached into her inner coat pocket and revealed a small, black bag that she pinched between her two fingers, "This is the item you wanted. So where my end of the deal?"
"Feh. Impatient, lesser lifeforms..." He scoffed, but Abby didn't look too keen about the Shi'ar's comment. "I had wondered as to what ne'er-do-well would answer my call on the black market and to how barbaric their demeanor would be. Though, when I saw your image upon the profile you had sent, I felt some relief to my ease. I would have thought a near-Shi'ar species would be more civilized to interact with. How short you have come to reach such expectations... ..."
"Look here, you overgrown parakeet!" She bashed her hand against the table and gritted her teeth as she spoke, "I'm not here to listen to your xenophobic bullshit. I want my reward, damn-it! Do you know how hard it is to break into a Kree historical archive?! I had to artificially supernova a nearby star just to knock down the achieves outer defenses!"
"I assure you.. this prize worth such an endeavor..." His had closed fist came over the table as he slowly and delicately unfurled his fingers to present a pink gem that filled his palm. "A M'Kraan diamond... a rare thing of beauty. Only eight are known to exist in the Empire, and only three are not apart of the Shi'ar royal collection. This would be the crowning jewel of any collector. It's worth-"
"A giant, butt-load..." Abby smiled devilishly, her words cutting the Shi'ar off.
"I would have said it's worth would be nearly priceless, but of course, there is not such thing in the universe."
"Then I guess, it's worth the same as this piece of shit..." Turning the black bag over end, Abby let it's contents land unceremoniously onto the table. A rounded, dark stone struck the table with loud thud and nearly rolled off the edge onto the floor. The Shi'ar gasped and his eyes widen to the size of saucers, causing Abby's smile to form into a devious grin. "Personally, I don't see the big deal about it. Kull Minor Seven is full of dumb rocks like this, but you want one from the other side of the galaxy and took a supernova to retrieve it. I don't really care, though... I just want my diamond."
"Of course..." Stretching out his arm slowly, the Shi'ar crossed the table between the two and carefully placed the diamond next to the black stone. Then he slid his fingers to the rock and eagerly wrapped them around it's dark surface, taking it close and rubbing his palms all across it. Abby didn't even touch the pink gem, just gaze at the diamond for a lengthy moment, then watched as her employer having his rock-stroking orgasm. "After all this time..." The Shi'ar mused out loud himself, "We will find the Master Key and the timeless tomb will be opened! Then... the age of the Eternal One shall begin!"
"Yeaahh..That's nice..." Abby paid little mind to avian's ramblings and picked up the W'Kraan diamond from the table. Holding it up to dim bar light, letting the gem glitter in a dazzling display. She didn't know about what her Shi'ar employer was talking about the diamond being some collectable, but she was sure an pawn shop around would throw some major cash for a jewel this big. "All I know is this pretty little rock is going to do me a lot more good then that one."
The Shi'ar looked up from his stone-love fest and laughed. Abby cocked an eyebrow from behind her vizor, brushing a stray ember hair to behind her ear as she subtly down to her pistol. "Heh heh... And now, my impertinent dear, you will give me back the diamond." She was about to tell the bird man right where she would shove that rock, when a the distinct feeling of disruptor barrel pressed into the back of her skull. Abby grunted out a curse in old Rajak, damning herself for let the bastard outflank her. She felt the creature behind her pull the pulse pistol from her holster, relieving her of the only weapon. Watching the Shi'ar in front of her beamed a wide smile, Abby kept her hands still on the table so not to provoke her assailant to vaporize her head. "You are much too trusting, my dear.." The avian alien related through grinning teeth, "..for someone in your line of business. Did you truly believe that I would trade my families prized jewel for anything you rabble scrum! You'll be lucky to leave her with your life."
"So, this is just a fake.." Abby stated, rolling the pink gem across the table.
"No. This is the legitimate M'Kraan diamond." The Shi'ar picked the jewel up with one hand, cradling the dark stone with the other. "I had a desire... One to see the look on your face when you realized as to how close you were to this precious gem. See you hold it in your fingers and believe it's actually yours... To see you make such a fool of yourself... ..."
Glancing over to the front the entrance, catching sight of a few more of the Shi'ar aristocrat's thugs at the door. She figured the back corridor leading to the outside was guarded as well. This wasn't going to be easy... "I guess you really have only two options-"
"Ha! What would that be.." The Shi'ar snickered, interrupting Abby, "Are you either let me leave with my life or kill me? Really now, my dear.. Why do you mercenaries believe your bravado will save you in the most dire of situation?"
"Oh, my dear, you have it all wrong..." She slow reached up and pulled her vizor from her face, revealing a pair jade eyes that burned a glare into the bird man's soul. "You are going to die today. It's just how long do you want it to take to expire..."
She heard the Shi'ar audibly gulp as her fierce stare made the avian alien shake. Abby smirked, then kicked her chair backwards and knocked the assailant behind her off balance for moment. She quickly rose up, flipping the table over and twisted around with her elbow to bash the creature's gun hand away from her. Finishing her spin, Abby slammed her fist into the assailant's pointy nose, throwing the bastard's head backwards into the wall with bone crashing thud. Replacing her vizor with a happy smirk, the sound of foot trots alerted her to turn and see three thugs from the front racing towards her. Abby lifted her arms above her head, stopping one alien from bashing her across the head with some type of blunt object. She stumped her boot into it's gut, knock the creature away, before catching the arm of another thug as it thrust a blade for her stomach. Twisting her body around and under it's arm, she moved behind the creature with the arm still in tow and pulled as she kicked his spin. A disturbing crack came from the assailant's body as it screamed at the top of whatever it had as lungs. The third alien suddenly appeared beside Abby, taking advantage of her as she held the other thug. She let it go and tried to quickly put up some defense block, but the assailant managed to smack it's fist in a uppercut into Abby's chin.
The world around her flashed for a second as Abby stumbled back into table of angry insectoid patrons. One of the alien started buzzing at her in it's odd language that she only partially understood. "Who are you calling a fat ass!" Abby barked and punched the insectoid creature in the mouthparts. Twisting back to the three thugs, she found the assailants slowly circling her as their fingers twitched around knifes and metal pipe. She heard one the creatures say in a grunting speech that they should rush her again and that she was still unarmed. "No body ever understands who their fucking with..." Abby said a loud disgruntled frown, "I'm sick of you dumb-asses wasting my time!" She thrust her down to her sides, balling her hands up in fists. Suddenly a burst of flame and heat jumped from her hands, startling the three to jerk back in surprise. The thugs looked on at Abby with horror as she brought up her fists, now engulf with green-tinted fire. She gazed back with wicked board smile, like a Cheshire cat mischievously grinning. "Ready for round two?"
Dumbfounded, the three thugs frozen where they stood. The assailant with metal pipe, then, let it's weapon rattle to the ground and dashed for the door. A second of the thugs did the same, leaving it's comrade to face Abby only. Smirking, she walked over the confounded alien, brought up her two burning fingers, and pinched the exotic curved blade in it's head. The metal melted like a ice cube against a blow torch's flame, falling to the floor in white hot chunks. In a flash, Abby chopped down onto the thugs forearm and severed it from the creature's body. It bellowed, clenching the stump where an arm had once been, then got a face full of flaming fist. The thug dropped backwards onto the ground, dead before it hit the ground.
With a sigh of satisfaction, Abby let her ember flames extinguish from her hands as stepped over the thug's corpse and went to the bar. Garbing the first drink see saw -it looked as though it was a shot of Lomora star whiskey- she downed the spirit and addressed the bartender, "Sorry about the mess. Just put this on my tab, okay?" The alien behind the bar just blinked at her before nodding to her in acknowledgement. A low groan caught Abby's attention and pulled her eyes over where she first had been anxiously sitting before her ex-employer arrived. Her boots stomped loudly as she crossed the room to the overturned table with a dark feathered head poking out from under it. Oh, this was going to be fun... "Evening, governor!" She related with a mocked accent like the Shi'ar's.
"YOU..." The avian said in a painful moan, "...You will know a horrid death..for your transactions... You will wish that whatever mongrel mother bore you had chosen otherwise... ..."
"Yeah..I'm all lovey-dovey for you, too, jackass." Abby flipped the table off the Shi'ar and pulled him onto his back. It seemed that when she overturned the table at the beginning of the fight it had landed on the bird man so hard that it broke his pelvis. She confirmed her suspicions with a prod from her boot onto the Shi'ar's lower torso, causing a bellow to jump from the avian alien's throat. Abby smiled as she leaned down close the Shi'ar, speaking to him in a hashed voice, "Not many men know how to treat a lady these days..but you showed me a real fun time..."
Her hand retrieved the M'Kraan diamond on the floor next to him and placed it in her coat pocket. The Shi'ar glared and coughed up some blood from his mouth, but didn't say word. Abby then looked at the black stone her ex-employer so wanted, harmlessly sitting amongst the broken glass. A sudden sense of danger seem to loam from it as stared and she wondered what exactly was it really suppose to be. She thought for a moment and decided that she wouldn't give the Shi'ar the pleasure of his prize, see that he tried to kill her. As Abby picked up the stone, the avian aristocrat snarled at her, "As long as you keep the stone, he will found you... Then, the end of your days will come!"
Abby reared up her hand, her green flames enveloped it in a blaze that flooded the dim bar in ember rays. "Pucker up..." She said sinisterly, "Time for the goodnight kiss... ..."
Note: R & R! I'd love to see what you think