CHAPTER 3: Calling For a Friend
Maybe the giant croc-thingy could sense what was about to happen, but then again, it was running at full tilt, which was enough to give Shuri nightmares. Carol took a short breath before firing a photon blast at their attacker from her fingers, which were still pointed like a gun. Wanda and Shuri were almost blow off their feet, the sand around Carol and along the path of her shot turned to glass. Before the creature could even turn, it vanished with a short shriek as her photon blast went right through it. The blast continued to carve a visibly gaping hole in the mountain that was behind it, miles behind it.
"Holy shit! Is that your full power?" Shuri was quick to ask, once she regained her footing.
Carol didn't even hesitate, "No. Not even close. The first six years I had powers, I might as well have had both hands tied behind my back."
Before she could continue, Wanda asked, "Why is that" as Carol briefly touched the patch of skin between her shoulder and neck where the inhibitor chip was inplanted.
"The Kree wanted to control me, like a weapon. And for six years, I'm ashamed to say I was everything they'd hoped for." Carol shook her head as her friend Talos' words from twenty years ago rattled around her head: 'My hands are filthy with it too.'
"What happened after the first six years then?" Shuri piped up.
Carol smirked a little, "That's a long story. One that will take a while to explain, and I'm getting the feeling that there'll be others who need to hear it as well. Especially humans."
"That's a bullshit answer, Carol," Shuri responded promptly; Wanda's lips quirked in amusement.
Carol gave a long suffering sigh before saying, "I was a pilot in the 80's, I got shot down by aliens, then I blew up the Tesseract engine that powered the prototype plane, lost all memory, spent the next six years fighting a shameful war, landed on earth, met Fury, reunited with M-Maria and Monica," she stumbled there, but neither Shuri nor Wanda interrupted or gave any hint they noticed (they did). "Then I helped some alien refugees find help after repelling an orbital bombardment by my former comrades. I've been going back to Earth every so often since, and when I'm not there, I'm flying around the galaxy, helping out." Despite the earlier stumble, she kept her rapid pace, and was now taking a well-earned deep breath.
Shuri raised a hand and Carol gave a long suffering sigh, "Yes, your majesty?"
"How old are you?" Shuri asked almost shyly. Almost. Despite their rather bleak situation, even Wanda rolled her eyes at that question.
Carol shrugged, "Physically? I'm about twenty-nine." Shuri was about to say something crass no doubt before Wanda shut her down with a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Are you done asking dumb questions?" Carol wasn't being mean, she couldn't help but have a small grin at the younger woman's ironic insolence. 'Royalty from where again?' Carol wondered with an internal chuckle.
She began fiddling with the holographic display that rose from her forarm. Shuri was instantly entranced at the technology but was pulled aside by Wanda before she could continue to pester Carol about it. "Princess–,"
"It's Queen. But you can call me Shuri," the young Wakandan royal was quick to correct and reassure.
Wanda let out a small chuckle, a little hollow-sounding to Shuri, but better than nothing. "Before the battle, we went to you to see if the stone could be removed without killing Vis. How far did you get?" Shuri looked up at the slightly taller woman with sorrow in her eyes.
"I'm sorry Wanda," she said in an uncharacteristically somber tone. "I didn't have nearly enough time. And even if I had, I'm pretty sure Thanos' minion destroyed my lab with the hardrive on it. I'm so sorry Wanda."
Wanda just nodded to herself. The slim hope hse had for Vision was just as dead as he was. The Sokovian found herself abruptly pulled into a warm hug by the young queen. She didn't have the heart to even apologize for her quiet tears soaking into Shuri's shirt. Shuri began softly murmuring to the grieving avenger in her mother tongue. It was all Wanda could do to just hold onto her new friend.
Some tome later, the girls broke apart when Carol let out a exclamation that definitely wasn't in a language the other two recognized. A holographic image sprung from her wrist: it was a drifting space ship. It looked like an ostentatious military jet if the wings were distinctly more birdlike, more curved. Flying in atmosphere clearly wasn't the priority when this ship was designed.
The garbled transmission drew all their attention for one important reason: it was in American English. "…anyone out there? Heh, I doubt it. Been broadcasting this SOS for days, and nothing. Nebula's probably gonna cannibalize me at this point. Fuck you human! Yeah, that's not important right now. This is the Milano calling anyone listening. This ship belongs to Peter Quill of the ravagers, if any of you are listening, we could really use your help.
Our food and water is gone, we'll probably be dead in a couple days. You will be. Okay, Nebula will definitely outlive me. This has been an SOS."
"That's Stark," Wanda whispered as the transmission became clearer towards the end.
"Are you sure you know this guy. There's probably a million distress calls going out right now," Carol said as she levelled the girl with a sympathetic look.
Carol hummed to herself before decideing this was how they got off this rock. "Can you defend yourself? If one of those creatures shows up?"
"Yes. Not as easily as you, but I can do it," Wanda replied quickly.
Without further ado, Carol took several steps back, and suddenly her face was covered in a helmet, hair drawn into a Mohawk before she smirked and blasted into the air, and disappeared an streak of light.