AN: This story started with me trying to imagine a different way for Harry Potter to travel to another universe besides using the Veil, Reincarnation, and Master of Death powers. When I saw Captain Marvel, I was struck by how similar Carol and Harry's personalities were. This story switches between Harry and Carol's perspectives with a single short section following Fury. I didn't want to rewrite the movie and decided to leave everything not written about largely the same. I was hit with massive writer's block with this story as I couldn't get it to reach the ending I wanted and then having to proof read it after I had truly become sick of it.
The first part of this story takes place in the Harry Potter universe a before the epilogue of Deathly Hallows. I tried to write it so other people liked the way Harry ends up in a different universe, it could be used without much changing. I always welcome people to continue, translate, or base off of my postings. I will be getting back to writing Displacement with a post due soon. Any response in appreciated but I am erratic at best when it comes to messaging someone back.
P.S. - I have added a author's note at the end of the story that explains several things about the story.
By Storm and Flare
The day he was thankful for the new DMLE overtime rules, was the day Harry would snog a leprechaun. Unfortunately, the new workplace rules of conduct, forcefully implemented by Hermione for all magical creature equality, would have him written up for two or three different citations if he actually said that out loud, depending on which adjectives he used. He was allowed to be grumpy, he just came off a twenty-five hour curse containment incident. He had been mistakenly handed one of the ICW emergency protocol timeturners instead of the one that would allow him to attend court for one of his earlier arrests, which then immediately activated in a case of supremely poor luck, swishing him off towards some unknown, incredibly dangerous situation that has occurred at some point within the last six hours.
It took the entire several minute long and rather disconcerting ride for Harry to re-engage his auror training enough to remember he was flying into the undoubtedly lethal situation that activated this extreme protocol. Harry could feel the transportation magic swelling. He prepared himself for a combat landing.
So when it felt like he was hit by a fist as large as him, Harry knew he was in a bad spot. The familiar roar of wind and the distinct lack of something underneath him made Harry realize that he was in a terrible situation.
It took him tumbling about for a few seconds in deafening free fall to grasp the situation Harry had just been yanked into. A jumbo jet of some ridiculous size with flaming engines was lilting into a massive thunderstorm. There were several dots zipping towards the plane and a dozen others throwing magic at the furious cloud. The perception charm flickered away as Harry mumbled his auror security clearance while he pulled out his work broom and mounted it. He had fallen through a cloud and lost sight of everything.
The broom was an ICW auror standard issue, a stripped down and rebuilt Cleansweep that felt like he was flying a brick house but anything short of killing him couldn't knock him out of the sky with all the protection magic on it. Harry burst upwards with a trail of vapors in his wake as he pushed the old broom to its limits. He cast several communication and noise cancelling charms. Immediately he heard a scream of pain through the charm as he watched one of three dragons loose a bolt of lightning that nearly killed two of the aurors, causing them to plummet.
Harry set himself on a path to intercept the falling auror to the left. Someone managed to break away from the fight and dive after the same person as him, but they were much closer, so Harry redirected himself. By the time he was close enough to tell that he was rescuing a German auror, they had left the cloud cover. Harry figured they were somewhere over Italy or France, but geography was always hard for him mid-battle.
Harry caught the woman with a grunt and a dip in his broom. He leveled off and quickly scanned one unconscious R. Shultz, Austria, Second Class, Tier Seven. Her uniform had protected her well enough that she only had second degree burns on her hands and thighs. The lightning must have struck her broom. A couple emergency healing charms that limited her wounds to first degree burns later, Harry was ready to fly back to the battle with her stuck to his back.
He prepared himself for her to jerk about and woke her up with a blind flick of his wand. The jerk was smaller than he thought. Auror Shultz simply gasped and latched on tightly.
He refreshed her communication charms and called back to her in heavily accented german, "Are you alright? I just arrived to see you falling. What is the situation?"
"A smuggler was tracked to the cargohold on the plane, when confronted, he released three dragons as a diversion, not caring that he was stowed away on a muggle plane," they both paused when Harry broke back through the clouds again, taking a second to locate the fight. The plane now only had burning engines on one wing and it was slightly further from dragons than before.
"Drop me off at the plane, then go deal with the dragons, we need all the help we can get containing them," she ordered. Harry didn't mind that he was a higher rank than her, she knew what was going on here, so he brought her alongside the plane. All the other aurors had broken away to fight the dragons, leaving only one officer to keep the plane flying. Auror Shultz leapt to the plane wing and secured herself with a charm before waving him off, "Go! Hurry!" Before Harry exceed the limits of his communication charm, he heard her cursing bureaucracy, "Fucking budget cuts! We should have had twice as many aurors arrive half an hour ago, but no! Sixteen aurors is plenty for three fucking dragons and an effective hostage situation! Fucking assholes."
Harry couldn't agree more. He cast one last look over his shoulder to see the auror transfigure herself a set of honest to goodness knight's armor, shield, sword, and all, and charge a manticore. If they both get out of this, he's going to buy her a drink and ask her where the hell she learned that.
The wind bucked hard enough for Harry to feel it. He had no clue what type of dragons these were, but they were a few minutes away from making this storm the eye of a hurricane. He was hit with the wall of wind and water and gritted his teeth. Weather protection charms were forbidden, flawed in such a way that it was akin to running with magical scissors when it came to hexes. He could urge himself through. Apparently, he was horrible at meteorology mid-battle as well because this already was a hurricane.
Harry's communication charm picked up the second half of french shouts, "...own! Christian's shield is barely holding out. Francis, can you break away?"
"Negative! I can barely keep myself ahead of its tail, Guile's leading it against the spin and Ghimm's busy with the lightning!"
Harry didn't wait to hear more aurors call out that they couldn't help. His attention focused on the dragon high above him. Its powerful jaws were wrapped around someone. Just below was a wizard entirely focused on maintaining his spell. Harry zipped by, drawing his wand and circling around to be level with the dragon's head. The protective shield was dimming and he didn't have time to do something clever, so Harry did something Gryffindor.
He threw a specialized confundus at the creature's eyes. "Bite me!" He called out, pretty sure he was screaming in parseltongue. Harry had never come across anything that suggested that parselmagic was anything but tall tales about evil wizards, but it certainly was useful as a method to focus certain spells.
The dragon threw its victim with a bolt of vicious lightning, burning through the shield, but only just. It charged at Harry. The slate coloured beast snapped and lunged, each one missing by more and more. It wasn't often that Harry got a chance to fly as hard as he could; it was great to cut loose and blow off the stress of his inordinately long day. He led the dragon in a merry impersonation of a bludger into the other two, disrupting the storm, at least enough for him to realize he now had two dragons that were focusing on him.
Harry pushed himself in and out, up and down. His head was constantly spinning. Dodging and ducking teeth, electricity, claws, and mis-aimed spells. He slowly slipped outward, circling the edge of the eye against the current. Harry had managed to free up enough aurors to press an advantage against the third dragon, but it wasn't quite enough. He pressed himself closer to one, luring them to clash. Definitely not protocol but there was no other end in sight.
He spun himself about, biding time for the other aurors to move into position, but the dragons were roaring. Harry felt the energy build behind him, tickling at his neck. He banked right but was forced back by a bolt of energy. He was being corralled. He had one move left and it was a stupid move. More than stupid.
He couldn't just brake and hope they pass him by, so he acted on his other school experience: mouths are a good way to get to the brain. It wasn't a hairpin turn, it wasn't banking, it was the most violent flying maneuver Harry had performed. He fully reversed himself on a point and immediately flew as hard as he could at the gaping maw that was collecting a ball of lightning taller than he was. Last time he did this, he had a sword, but an unbreakable broom might work.
Harry twisted himself around the searing energy ripping apart his shield and threw himself in the cavern of fangs. The ball of energy was drawing back inside the mouth, the jaw was coming down. This was not supposed to happen. Forced to abandon his broom when it struck the pallet dully, he wormed his way deeper into the throat, casting a bubble-head charm and numerous ineffectual stunning spells, piercing, and everything else that he wouldn't kill himself with. Nothing.
Then the beast swallowed him. His entire body was compressed down. He couldn't move. It felt like his entire body was creaking. Harry had never felt so monumentally, impulsively stupid. He did notice his wand was pinned to his chest, just barely pointing at his auror badge. Harry focuses on the transfiguration spell he wanted. The badge alone wouldn't be enough material to work with, so he changed his robes to metal as well.
He focused on what he wanted to transfigure. He stretched and pulled the metal around him, with the metal touching his skin, it was surprisingly easy to shape. He focused all the metal to the tip of his wand and thrust in the rough direction of the brain with all his might and magic.
The metal did not pierce through. The long pole bent and forced its way up the throat without harm and into the mouth.
Harry's entire world was screaming, burning, pain. It radiated throughout his being. The dragon had kept building energy and he had just plugged his magic directly in.
Everything flared and crackled. His bones danced with electricity, his nerves burst and overloaded, his mind hammered by a charge of energy beyond comprehension, his skin and muscles burned, but he did not die.
The storm tore through his body and mind, but it clashed against his magic. The fight burned through him until it shifted and he regained his mind, but it was even worse. Now, Harry could remember as he felt every drop of pain but nothing else.
His magic fought so long against the storm that Harry was able to think of things besides the pain. At first, Harry could only languish, "Why? Why me? Why am I alive?"
It felt like he spent years reinforcing his mind against the pain before he could concentrate enough to puzzle at it. The best Harry could come up with is that the dragon must eat things a bit differently than he expected with the dragon trying to consume his magic. The only explanations on why this dragon was failing to eat him Harry had were chamber of secrets, horcrux, he had died once already, and the fact it was Halloween when the timeturner went off.
Harry, having only two things to occupy his time with, unending pain and his own mind. He chose to wander his thoughts. It was a strange, broken journey that left a bad taste in his metaphorical mouth. Dour. He had become endlessly brooding and dour. He never took time off of work, he never got out and flew, and if he did go out, it was just to the pub down the way. He didn't talk to anyone besides at work. He specifically mastered nonverbal casting so people would be less likely to bother him.
Harry promised himself that if this wasn't hell or an eternal moment of pain as his brain dies, he would make sure to have more fun, especially considering he had come much too close to resembling Snape for comfort. He shuddered at the thought…
HE SHUDDERED AT THE THOUGHT!
...and he could now feel the pressure of the dragon crushing him as well. He could feel his muscles twitching beneath his skin. There was darkness all around him and a deafening thrumming that he could feel in his bones along with the ache of all the power still coursing through him. He had been pressed into a ball. He was completely naked. Harry realized that his wand was likely destroyed long ago.
Harry wasn't strong enough to straighten himself out. All he could do was helplessly flex his body against the surrounding force. He struggled, thrashed, and strained without effect. He tried again, too stubborn to just be trapped. Nothing. He couldn't even shift his fingers.
Harry kept trying. Focusing on gaining some ground against his prison. He focused on every muscle he had but no matter what, no matter how far he stretched, he could only move his eyes. In complete darkness, paralysed as he was, opening them to see infinite nothing nearly crushed his soul.
After Harry's eternal struggle to move, he began to force himself to stare at the nothing. It hurt him to feel so small, so insignificant. His entire existence reduced to a single point in the middle of endless nothing that was somehow contained within a dragon. A dragon that was only one creature on a planet so unknown to Harry that it was another infinite unknown. That planet was only one of the solar system's. A system traveling infinitely in its own black abyss near enough to so many others do the same to form a galaxy with more space.
Harry's mind unraveled a little more with each mental step away from his existence. He continued on through dimensions and all the way up to the entire universe shifting through all of time. His sanity bound together by a single thread while all others fell away, "I am Harry Potter."
But then, while Harry stood on the edge of his constructed universe, his constructed reality, letting himself become content that he had something that could bear the weight of all reality, there was a little whispered thought, "But what about others?"
It tugged at his last thread, the center of him. Everything unraveled. He tried to pull himself together. He would always be Harry Potter, no matter the reality, but the thoughts started to flow wildly. They started to slip away from him, leaving him with nothing, in nothing.
He then started to slip away into nothing, but when there was only a wisp of himself left, Harry lashed out in desperation with everything he had left. His magic roared. He roared.
Then, nothing.
He jerked himself awake. Another jarring dream. He stared at his hand as he flexed and released a fist. It was still the same slate skin with the familiar hum of energy just beneath the surface. He flexed his hand again. So why did it seem so foreign? So surreal?
The feeling always left him too antsy to return to sleep and he only had a short while before his shift started. Luckily for him, someone was knocking on his door. He blinked the sleep from his eyes as he opened the door, not bothering to check the security port. "Vers, you do know you are supposed to be sleeping?"
"Couldn't sleep," she replied. There was a smile in the corner of her eyes that she couldn't hide.
"There are tabs for that," was all he said back, not letting her humor infect him.
"Then I'd be sleeping."
"Oh well, I tried," he gave a shrug, "let's go bother Yon-Rogg. You know we're not allowed to spar without supervision."
A massive grin burst across Vers's face, "I recall that it was your fault for issuing me a challenge."
"Me saying, 'I bet we would cause a massive mess if we sparred without restraint,' was not a challenge. Just give me a second to lock up my flat," he complained as he pulled on his clothes.
"Sevr, I noticed that you're the only Kree I know that calls their cube a flat, why is that?" Vers asked as she bounced against the wall as she waited.
"You're not the only one with a big blank spot in between the ears. At least I've still got the rest of my brain between mine," he replied.
She knew he was grinning madly, his ears would shift slightly, even when Sevr kept a straight face. Vers flicked his ear with a slightly charged finger, causing him to jerk away. "You know you'll get in trouble if anyone catches you doing that."
"I know," she replied petulantly. They both sputtered and snorted. They started walking towards Yon-Rogg's cube. It was enough levels below them to warrant the lift.
Sevr spoke up while they waited for it to arrive, "I was a survivor of a Skrull attack. I was being given my abilities when the facility was destroyed and I lost everything except my powers. It never seemed worth bringing up, so I just focused on the present, you know?"
"No," Vers replied, the mood taking a somber turn. They entered the lift and she continued on, "I'm stuck on a nightmare, a flashing blip of a clue to my past and it just makes me feel trapped. Maybe I'm just going stir crazy."
"Remember, Vers," Sevr said, turning to her with the stoic expression of their commanding officer, "In a battle, you need control, emotions only help the enemy," they finished together as the lift arrived.
"Thanks, Sevr," she said, "Yon-Rogg and Att-Lass aren't bad, but the rest are like having a conversation with a brick wall when it comes to getting personal. And sorry about waking you up early."
"Don't worry about it, I was up just before you knocked. I had a bit of a nightmare myself, but I usually get up early; I always feel sluggish if I sleep in."
"Same. Slow starts make me feel like I'm wasting the day."
Sevr nodded in agreement before they stopped outside Yon-Rogg's door. Vers knocked. The door opened up to reveal the perpetually grumpy face of Yon-Rogg. He looked at them and sighed.
It took them a bit of persuading to drag him out early, especially to spar when both Sevr and Vers were itching to get rough and tumble. It was a short, silent lift ride to the training facility in the basement with Yon-Rogg standing in front of them. Their CO stepped off the lift without a backwards glance and began his lecture, "Control. A warrior needs control to effectively fight. You two let yourselves be directed by your emotions and it will be used against you."
Vers shot Sevr an amused look as they followed Yon-Rogg to get changed into exercise wear, the lecture continued into the lockers, but neither listened closely as their CO was currently using yet another version of the same lecture he has used with every sparring session since Yon-Rogg took over their training.
As the lecture shifted towards proper use of their powers, Sevr leaned close to her and whispered, "He still refuses to call what I can do anything besides 'powers' despite the names I suggest because he believes they are ridiculous and emotional."
"And you thought Stormageddon or Taserface were appropriate ability names for a Kree warrior-hero?" she asked, barely keeping a straight face.
"Seeing Yon-Rogg's face twitch every time I mention naming my gift was totally worth it," Sevr replied with a hidden smirk. Her expression shifted to match his, "but luckily I've picked one out that should meet all the proper criteria without being a stick in the mud."
"Does it have the approval of Supremely Intelligence?" letting her tone voice her doubt of his naming sense before they followed their CO out of the locker room.
"I will be submitting it later today, but I don't want to tell you and spoil it," he replied. Vers huffed and started to complain when she was cut with a quick gesture. She was able to rein herself in as Yon-Rogg turned to face them on the sparring mat.
"Vers and I will spar while Sevr centers himself. When he is done, he will join and it will become a three way spar," Yon-Rogg stated.
"Finally," Vers grumbled as she rushed forward, trying to land a blow.
Throughout the shuttle ride, Vers was just about hopping from one foot to the other. "What's got your knickers in a twist?" Sevr asked when she bumped into him once again. "Are you worried about how Supreme Intelligence will react to your use of a CO as a projectile?"
She snorted loudly at his question, "No." Her petulant answer drew a stern glare from Yon-Rogg, directed more at both of them. Sevr snorted as well, forcing him to begrudgingly roll his eyes. "What does the Supreme Intelligence look like?"
"You know that Supreme Intelligence appearance differs between each and every Kree, but it is always someone you respect greatly. It is a deeply personal and sacred thing that you do not just ask about," their CO had schooled his features into what Sevr and Vers called his teaching face.
She looked him dead in the eyes, "So, what does Supreme Intelligence look like to you?" Yon-Rogg scoffed, so she continued to needle him, "Your father? Mother? Is it me? It is, isn't it?" His expression hardened as his patience was worn down.
Sevr spoke up, "Mine's a talking animal."
"What?" The two snapped around and stared at him. "Seriously?" Vers added with wide eyes.
"An honest to goodness, stands on all fours, loves to play fetch, dog, that talks, though that might just be because Supreme Intelligence talks," Sevr pondered, pretending to ignore his two confused comrades. "A large male quadruped with long black fur and grey eyes that is known for pack hunting, scavenging, and can be trained for battle or as a companion," he explained.
Yon-Rogg took a pensive look while Vers started to grin, "How did your first meeting go?"
He mumbled and then spoke in a whisper only she could hear when she held the threat of a flick to the ear, "I started petting the dog before Supreme Intelligence had a chance to speak." He was blushing when he leaned away from her, doing his best to ignore Vers's massive grin.
"My confusion was obvious, but there are plenty of reasons why I would respect an animal so much," he shrugged, "But the important thing is not what form Supreme Intelligence takes, but whether or not my ability name will be accepted."
"Your powers will have an appropriate designation, but the right to name it can not be taken away, despite your attempts to prove that a mistake," Yon-Rogg stated before the three of them fell silent for the rest of the shuttle ride, lost in thought. It took Sevr addressing her directly for Vers to remember to follow them off the shuttle.
"Mind if I go first?" Sevr asked as they entered the connection point assigned to their squad, "after Yon-Rogg reports, of course." Who responded with a nod before kneeling down and connecting with the Supreme Intelligence.
Vers was too nervous about being reprimanded to talk while Yon-Rogg was occupied; it was difficult for her to just talk with Supreme Intelligence when she wore an unknown face. She couldn't help but let out a snort at the thought of Sevr petting the Supreme Intelligence. Vers began looking up what a dog was on her data pad to distract herself.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you that," he groaned as she flicked through projections of different dog breeds.
"Says here that dogs are also known as hounds, canines, puppies, pups, cubs -"
She was interrupted by a growl, "Don't you dare."
"- bitch, pooch, doggie -" she continued without paying the interruption any mind.
"You are not going to give me a dog-themed name," he complained.
"- tyke, mongrel, or mutt, but I guess whichever one I use might depend on how you treat me," she finished.
He let out a defeated sigh, "I really should have expected that. Alright, Vers, call me what you like but try not to on missions. I don't want there to be a chance to confuse someone while in danger."
"Not if it's your call sign," she teased.
Another sigh left him, "Fine, but you're going to have to convince everyone else on your own. "Anyway, looks like I'm just about up." He nodded towards the connection receding from Yon-Rogg.
He smoothly replaced their CO and connected. The intensity of the silence the Yon-Rogg imposed brought her nerves back, but Sevr had helped her relax. A minute later, he stood up with a smile, "My name was accepted. My abilities are now known as synapse propagation, enervation, and wielding."
They nodded and Vers went to connect. Before the connection began she heard Sevr add, "I think I should use an acronym to shorten the name."
The mission had gone sideways. They were pinned down with a ravine all around them, an unknown number of hostiles outside of short range engagement, Vers's communication had cut out, and the only thing keeping them safe from shuttle fire was also disrupting their long range communications too much for their remote control of the ship to work.
Shielding the team from weapons of that size was incredibly taxing for Sevr. He had to stretch his powers out thoroughly enough to properly cover more than he ever had. Even then, it was only enough that Yon-Rogg had to block what remained of the blasts. Their defense was holding for now. He was so desperately pulling at the strafing fire that Sevr almost didn't notice that he was collecting a charge. The sound of the fight fell away when splitting his focus beyond controlling the building energy inside of him and pulling in an increasing amount of energy raining down became too difficult.
He was able to disperse a charge over time like static or in short, dangerous extensions of his limbs, but the most he had ever handled before was a demolition charge which was significantly less than what he was currently holding. It felt like a storm was threatening to burst out of him. Then the blasts stopped.
With no additional energy to burn its way through him, Sevr was able to reign in the storm. He pushed it down deep, compressing under the weight of his focus. He could hear something now. Yon-Rogg was trying to talk him through containing all the energy, "...just control. No emotions. No doubt. Do not get dis-"
Sevr stopped listening when the storm flared and slipped free to thrash against the end of his control. It was bigger now, all the effort he used to push in on the storm had fed it. When he tried to push it down again, it grew more. It grew when he pulled at it, when he tried to stretch it out like a limb, everything he tried added to its power. The storm was threatening to turn him inside out, like he was only able to inhale and now there was no more space.
Sevr exhaled hard. It didn't help. It felt like he had a balloon with a storm stuck behind his lungs. He tentatively searched for a way to deflate the power, but it simply shifted and bubbled dangerously at the back of his throat. The strain was too much for him to hold on much longer.
He struggled to warn his allies without losing control, "I have to try something or else the energy I blocked is going to tear out of me, probably as an explosion."
"Fucking great," Minn-Erva complained.
Yon-Rogg silenced her with a glare, "Can you move?"
"Not on my own," he grunted back. Sweat was beginning to pool and drip off of him. The Kree nodded and picked Sevr up with his magnetron gauntlets and deposited him on the other side of the linn.
He knew Yon-Rogg had tried to be gentle. Even the jostling forced the storm to rise further. It had become about reducing the number added to the collective now that the mission was blown. Yon-Rogg started to follow after him but he threw up a hand to stop him. The movement forced him to bite down hard to hold everything back.
It was the wrong thing to do.
He bit into the storm in the back of his throat. There was a hissing leak that quickly became a torrent.
Sevr remembered falling to his knees and screaming as everything hollowed out of him in a burning rush before he lost consciousness.
Out of the nothing rose a buzz. It grew until Sevr realized it was someone speaking, "...and chooses the wi…" before fading back out of focus.
Another voice began with such force that it rattled at his core before falling away, "There is only power and those too weak to seek it."
As the furious voice faded, another one rose, a much younger one that was having a conversation with an unheard person, "It was me with my parents. We weren't doing anything but sitting there talking... I don't even know if it was a dream or something I imagined."
There was a brief lull in the one-sided conversation. Sevr couldn't tell if the silent other was responding or the conversation was fading. A third voice interrupted with a whisper, "... Sirius, Sirius Black…" He felt something from the name, that it was familiar, somehow important. The voice continued with a different conversation. The voice was quiet but hopeful and so very familiar. It spoke with the same tone he used to reassure himself after his nightmares, "...this summer, would you like to come live with me?"
The young boy was incredulous, "Really? Come live with you?" The man's poor attempt to hide his disappointment was interrupted when the child nearly yelled, "YES!" The boy hugged the man. Sevr felt the hug. It was strange to feel someone else's hug. Unless it wasn't.
Sevr suddenly felt a sense of panic, "Oh no, the moon..." the man trailed off as the panic spread. He started to shout, "Run! NOW! I'll try to stop-" but a crackle and spark of energy interrupted everything with a flash of white.
More voices. This time they were slow and distorted. He could almost make out colours. Blue and probably grey. Maybe some red and yellow, maybe not yellow. There were looming shadows circling him before the nothing swallowed him again.
There was a spotlight in the middle of Sevr's nothing. There was something blurry moving around within its borders. A panicked looking boy running became clear. He was obviously running from something. Sevr could feel how cold the air around the boy became. He felt the despair fill his lungs. It was as if he was right there running alongside the boy.
It was getting harder to breathe as everything frosted over. Sevr watched helplessly when the child collapsed. He managed to place himself on the edge of the light, but he couldn't enter no matter how hard he wished to help the child. The boy turned over with all the effort in the world and looked at him, "...my father will save us." Then the boy collapsed.
The word sparked a sense of realization somewhere deep inside. Before he knew what it was, a scream of energy ripped through him. Sevr's muscles spasmed as his body tried to thrust itself into the air against the restraints.
Words gurgled at the back of his throat in numb confusion. His spinning vision tried to pay attention to the person checking him over. The only thing Sevr could make out was the Starforce crest before everything started to slip away. He was exhausted, yet something pulsed in the back of mind that made him feel like he could fly.
He was flying. The air rushed by his ears. Sevr could feel it roiling against his skin, whispering to him where currents flowed. He could feel the air directing him to fly, to let it fly with him. Up. Up he flew. The wind was his very breath, and each gulp drew him upward. Higher and higher until he was on the edge of the air. He knew he could go higher still but he didn't want to leave the embrace of the wind, so he dove. He dove with all the speed he could. Faster and faster, he dove until he heard the echoing clunk of the shuttle shifting out of atmo.
Sevr was forced to blink away his disorientation from the jarring halt of his flight. A dream. He remembered passing out from pain. A comforting touch helped him focus. He still felt like his eyes were reeling. "He's awake, let Yon-Rogg know." Sevr could feel the heavy voice of Bron-Char through his hand as he checked his vitals; the large man preferred to use his hands as much as he could.
Sevr tried to sit up, but the movement sent a disabling pain coursing through his muscles. He tried again. Sevr managed to pull himself upright despite Bron-Char's protests. "H-hwa, ha-hap-en?" Sevr asked with a painful rasp. He ignored the painful crackle in his throat, "V-ver-s?" He let out a small cough that led to more coughing tearing at his throat.
"Here." The big man held out a little grey pill. Sevr gave an infinitesimal nod and weakly took the familiar medicine. There was a grimace at the deep chill of the nanites spreading as they began to accelerate his healing. In his discomfort, Sevr had not noticed Bron-Char leave the medbay until the door shut.
Now alone with his thoughts, he focused on recalling the mission for his report. His memory failed to produce any real details once the Skrull ship started firing. Every memory was obscured by a haze of static. The voices, however, came back to him with a clarity that felt like memories. So he began to sift through the puzzle pieces.
He couldn't pull his thoughts away from the suffocating air and the last words of the child. He was asking, pleading, for Sevr for help. Dread drained the blood from his face. All the horrible possibilities pulled at his conscience. The stress of his thoughts overcame his bodily aches as Sevr absentmindedly ran clumsy fingers through his hair. He had never felt more useless, but he refused to simply wallow.
He gingerly pushed himself to his feet and wobbled his way across the room. Sevr dropped himself heavily on the chair by the room's terminal and entered his security code. His aches faded away while he waited for the system to complete its diagnostics of the ship. Whoever was piloting broke atmo using a rough emergency trajectory that had all of their systems in a tizzy, he suspected it was Minn-Erva using the shuttle's manual override. There was only so much that maintenance programming can compensate for; shuttle 13M-451 needed the care of an engineer to calm her down to fly at her best, and Sevr needed to keep his mind busy.
Once he was fully dressed, Sevr synchronized his data pad for repair work and located the nearest access panel. He sent out a message to the rest of his squad, "I am up and about to start maintenance. The take off stressed the system."
"Acknowledged," a short response from Yon-Rogg meant his focus was elsewhere. Sevr was pretty sure he heard Minn-Erva cursing again, so he must be in the cockpit.
"I will be monitoring your vitals. You should not stress your body while it is still recovering," Bron-Char added.
"Acknowledged," he grumbled back as he removed the access panel. Sevr crawled into the churning servos and humming circuits of the ship's guts, "It is a pleasure to get to know you, 13M-451. Let's see if we can make you really soar."
Sevr was awakened by a sharp kick to the boot. He sat up with a grunt and cracked his head on the ceiling of the hatchway. Sevr grunted again and wormed his way out to see the perpetually annoyed Minn-Erva leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, "Bron-Char has cleared you, so I'm through flying while you take a nap."
"Sure thing, Minnie," he replied as he came into a crouch and started putting away the tools.
She promptly kicked his feet out from under him. "Don't fucking call me that," she hissed before walking away with a scowl.
"Love you too, Minnie!" Sevr called after her while standing up. The electric hiss of a rifle shot punched into the wall, dead center of his shadow's head. He opened his mouth to tease her further but a second shot had his jaw snapping shut. A scorched glow neutered his shadow.
Sevr looked at his shadow, trying to figure out if Minn-Erva was flirting with or threatening him. He waited until he heard her footsteps disappear into the crew quarters before moving. He quickly stashed the tools and hurried towards the cockpit.
"You look better," Yonn-Rog said.
"Yep," he responded as he plopped himself down in the other piloting seat. Sevr silently took control of the shuttle with a few flipped switches and button presses. The navigation was set for a six day patrol route. Yonn-Rog leaned back in his seat and began quietly working on his data pad.
Once the quiet settled, Sevr focused on scanning frequencies and other patrol tedium. Constantly scanning for distress signals and hostile ships let his mind wander back to Vers. She is much too stubborn to just be dead, too much of a fighter. Sevr knew that was what Skrulls counted on when they simmed someone. It was one of the many ways they were so dangerous.
Sevr couldn't let his hope be prayed upon. He forced it down and replaced it with plans and counter measures for an impersonation. He worked himself into a state of constant vigilance; anyone could be a threat.
So when a bizarrely analog signal originating from a somehow familiar system, Sevr was on guard. Vers, or at least a Skrull with her voice, came in through heavy static, "Come on…"
Yonn-Rog switched to an alert mode and sat forward to adjust the signal himself. "Vers," he identified her aloud and then jumped into protocol, "Clarify: CQC-39." The serious expression on his CO's face made Sevr reign in his paranoia.
Without missing a beat the response came, "GRX8-1600." Yonn-Rog confirmed with a nod, much to Sevr's relief. Vers continued, "And I'm fine,thank you for asking." He held back a snort and let the commanding officer take control; he worked at maintaining the connection.
"Is everyone okay? What happened?" Yonn-Rog asked. Sevr sent an alert out to everyone's data pad containing a live link. Att-Lass and Korath soon joined them.
"It wasn't Soh-Larr. Talos simmed him. Even knew his code," Vers reported.
Yon-Rogg denied the disturbing idea, "That's impossible. The code was buried in his unconscious."
Vers stumbled through her response, still trying to figure out what happened for herself, "The Skrulls messed with my mind. The machine they used, I think it's how they extracted Soh-Larr's code."
Yon-Rogg sat forward and began pinpointing Vers's signal, taking over from Sevr so suddenly that he had to stare at his CO in surprise. Yon-Rogg's voice took on an urgent edge, "Vers, where are you?" Bron-Charr and Minn-Erva had arrived to hear the question.
"I'm on planet C-53," she answered, "The Skrulls are looking for someone named Lawson."
Vers's signal started decaying as Yon-Rogg pressed for details. It was suspicious enough for him to miss most of the back and forth, hearing only something about lightspeed and Yon-Rogg ordering Vers to stand down. "How far is C-53?"
Sevr was too focused on his CO's behavior to answer first. Korath pulled up the maps, "The nearest jump point is 22 hours." He spoke with a clear voice for Vers to hear as well.
"Vers, hold your position until we get there. Keep your comms online so we can contact-"
She interrupted Yon-Rogg, "No. What if they get a hold of it before…" the static spiked and her words became garbled.
Yon-Rogg called out several times for a response that never came.
"If the Skrulls got to her, she's been compromised," Korath stated. The man lived to the letter of Kree laws.
"She's stronger than you think," Yon-Rogg responded, sounding more cautionary than complimentary. Korath was only quelled because orders were absolute for a Kree warrior-hero, despite their CO's vague statement.
More things to be suspicious of.
Sevr shook his head to refocus. Minn-Erva's comment about C-53 sparked his memory. It was one of the dozen systems Supreme Intelligence's dog form could have originated from, where he could have originated from. He hadn't compared anything to his resurfaced memories, so Sevr might be able to narrow things down further, but right now Vers is more important.
He spoke up, "I'll get us to the jump point; I just got some sleep." Yon-Rogg nodded and shifted primary control of the ship back to him.
"That means we have 22 hours to prepare for a possible extraction and definite Skrull encounter. C-53 is sub-stellar travel, prepare appropriately and get some rest before we jump." He dismissed the rest of the crew before turning towards Sevr, "You will not be coming aground with us," Yon-Rogg stated as bluntly as ever, "Your gift overloaded. You lacked control and put the squad at risk. You'll pilot us there and then retire to your bunk."
He grumbled and nodded at the order. Sevr could understand it, but he didn't like it. His CO left him alone while he calibrated the ship for a hard burn. "Think you can get us there in 20 hours, Ishmael?"
Sevr hated it when his paranoia wasn't paranoia. He had set up an alert on communication; he wasn't going to be kept out of the loop when it came to rescuing Vers; she was his best friend.
She found a past on C-53, a past that intersects with a covert Kree experiment. Sevr knew enough about physics to know that if the lightspeed engine failed, it would be horrific, possibly even planet breaking.
An experiment that shouldn't, couldn't, be traced back to the Kree empire, less it starts another war.
It was a weapons test.
They either got a lightspeed engine or a lightspeed bomb with no risk to themselves. Cold, calculated math that benefited the Kree empire. Hell, even if the engine worked but coming out of lightspeed didn't, they would have an unstoppable missile. No one could oppose them.
"Bloody hell," Sevr mumbled as he rubbed his head. He added more pieces to the puzzle. Ronan and his adherence to the old ways, Korath too. Kree weren't supposed to have faith, but they were devout, blindly devout to the code and Supreme Intelligence.
"Orders are absolute," he realized, "Warrior-heroes. Emotions are weakness, there is only control. Shite."
He scrubbed furiously at his face. They were set to arrive at the jump in 20 minutes, 80 minutes earlier than anyone else expected. A plan started to form. Sevr began plotting an automatic course that would fly by the jump point and then perform an 80 minute loop back around. Hopefully that would give him enough time.
He sent a message out to the squad, "We're 95 minutes away from the jump point. It's a clear path and I'm exhausted, so I set up an auto-course."
"Confirmed."
"About fucking time."
"Get some rest."
"Thank you for the effort."
Their responses were all as expected. It hurt for him to wonder about his squad. Were they aware of everything or were they just drones in a command chain?
Sevr quickly made his way to engineering. It took him nearly too long to figure out a plan. He had 13 minutes to override a relay drone. It was the only thing small enough to get away unnoticed that still had a jump engine. He was planning on riding it through sub-space.
11 minutes to the jump point and Sevr had worked out the manual controls.
10 minutes remaining and he had finished the rigging to secure him to it.
He positioned his ride for launch and slipped into the engine core as he planted a decoy of his data-pad signal in the ship's network.
Sevr took a deep breath and began siphoning power from the core. Organics required shielding to travel safely through a sub-space jump, a combination of plating and energy shielding, something the drone was much too small for. So he did something stupid and improvised.
He figured he could shield himself through a small jump, ride the drone to C-53, get to Vers, protect the tech from Supreme Intelligence, stop the Skrulls, stop Supreme Intelligence.
Sevr repeated his check over everything as he watched his launch timer count down the last 90 seconds.
60 seconds.
30 seconds.
15 seconds.
Sevr closed his eyes and launched at 5 seconds. His suit protected him from short term void exposure, he hoped a 45 minute journey counted as short term.
He swirled the energy he had collected around him as he rode the drone to the jump point. This was a stupid idea, but he programmed a warning for Vers into the drone if he didn't survive.
Sevr let his storm swirl out of him as a shield. He pushed and pushed the energy into a spinning, siphoning current and closed his eyes for the jump.
Every was stretched and pulled. Radiation bombarded his shield from every direction, getting caught in the spin and adding to it. As the storm grew, the eye shrank, closing in on him.
Sevr put everything he could into protecting himself, but he couldn't stop it. The drone failed as he couldn't stop his shield from encroaching on him. Then the jump ended.
He slammed into real space at the center of a cosmic ray burst. In an instant, the drone disintegrated and the burst collapsed, flooding Sevr with all the built up energy. The light consumed him.
All the energy taken from his body fed another burst. Sevr's matter and energy fed the storm, his body was the burning core. He felt his body stripped of its matter. It was an agonizing eternity that would only last milliseconds, just long enough for him to be aware of everything.
The burst collapsed and sent out a wave of radiation and the last of his particles. Through all the pain, some part of Sevr was able to enjoy the fact that his last moment was as a supernova. He wished he could have gotten to Vers to warn her before a dreadfully familiar feeling of nothing took hold.
"Uh, Talos?" the Skrull called out, "We've got a problem."
The Skrull leader shook his head at his science guy and joined him over the shuttle's modified sensors. The screen showed a couple of lines of numbers, several jagged lines, and half a dozen different colors. "And what am I looking at, Karos?"
He pointed to a pair of spikes in the lines, "There was a GRB just outside the solar system."
"I do not know what that is. You're my science guy, what does it mean? What's the problem?" Talos asked.
Carol, overhearing the mention of a problem, joined them along with Fury and Maria. Maria glanced over at the monitor and cursed, "It means something just exploded with the force of a minuscule star."
"This GRB was moving in a straight line at us before it collapsed. It originated from near the only jump point to this system."
"That sounds like it was -" A series of urgent beeps cut Talos off. The lights in the shed flickered as a tension in the air built. It hung there as an unspoken threat.
"What is going on?" Fury asked as he tried to comfort Goose, whose hair had puffed up in agitation.
"Hey, mate, could you put the Flerken down? I'd like to not die after a botched attack just because you rubbed it the wrong way," Talos replied, focusing on the cat's small hiss.
"You don't know that this was an attack," Carol stated, glowing a bit as she got worked up.
"Hey, easy there. All I'm saying is that if the Kree had Lawson, or Mar-Vell, working on a lightspeed engine, why couldn't they be working somewhere else to make it into a bomb?"
"Are you saying that the Kree just shot a tiny star at Earth?" Fury exclaimed. He let Goose squirm free and run off somewhere, much to the Skrulls' relief.
"He's saying that they tried to, which means that they are likely close behind or about to try again, so we are on the clock," Talos replied, "Do you think you can finish the modifications quickly?"
"I'm working as fast as I can; maybe 30 or 40 minutes to complete it, but I'm not sure how it will handle the excess radiation and junk."
Fury gave a hard sideways look at Karos. "You're the science guy?"
"Yup," the Skrull replied as he returned to the modifications, re-igniting the torch he had been using to scratch an itch.
Fury grunted and began searching for Goose. Carol and Maria left the cockpit with him. "This is going to be fun," he said with a sigh, "I am going to get some milk for Goose and try to relax before I go into space in the equivalence of a backyard hotrod."
The lights flickered as the scanner pointed at Fury, "Species: Human, male. Threat: Low to none."
"That thing is clearly busted," Fury said. The Kree ignored him and the flickering lights. There were probably a dozen different things that could go wrong with a ship that has been floating in orbit for six years, but the Kree weren't sticking around long enough to care.
"Load the Flerken into the heli. Eject the others into space," the sour faced Kree ordered.
The lights surged briefly and a bulb popped as Fury and several civilian Skrulls were marched off. That wasn't right. They wouldn't use lightbulbs on a spaceship like this.
Just as they rounded the corner, another Kree stumbled out, holding himself up with the wall.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" The bitch questioned. She leveled her rifle at him, "Clarify: CFS-14."
The new Kree looked up with a dazed expression and held his head. "Q… QP..." the soldier groaned in pain and his eyes lost focus. They fluttered until he made eye contact with Fury and the haze over the man started to clear, "Kingsley? What ar-" the Kree flew backwards and slammed into the wall. Wisps of smoke drifted off the body. The smell of scorched something clung to the inside of Fury's nose.
"Fuck," the female said as she shot him. She moved closer to the crumbled Kree and kicked his foot. Checking something on her arm device, she kicked his foot again. "Fuck," she repeated before turning back to the other Kree soldiers, "You take the body to Skrull containment and the rest of you space these extras while I go inform Yon-Rogg." She pointed at one of the beefier Kree, who hefted it to his shoulder with one arm while he slung his rifle and drew a pistol.
The brute with the body disappeared down the corridor the corpse had come from. Fury figured the dead man was a desperate attempt from a Skrull, but it had seemed off. The one that had impersonated the rookie Coulson reverted back when he died. He didn't have long to wonder as he was already being marched towards his execution by the remaining four soldiers.
The lights fizzled again, but instead of the pop of a bulb there was a click as their cuffs shorted out and released. The soldiers spun about on guard. One leveled his weapon at Maria before being blasted away by a burst of light. Three more beams of light launched their remaining guards away before anyone could do anything.
A glowing Carol Danvers had rushed and disabled the Kree, judging by the lack of scorching, nonlethally. "You know you are glowing, right?" Fury felt foolish the moment he asked.
"I'll explain later," she replied with a quick smirk. Carol dimmed her full body glow but remained amped up.
Fury turned his attention to Goose and the muzzle. He did his best to soothe the cat, "There you go. The mean Kree and his broken thingy are gone." He continued stroking the cat as he returned his attention to Carol, purposely ignoring Maria's snort.
Carol was holding out the lunch pail and the glowy space cube, offering it to him, "Take the Tesseract.".
"Me?" he asked. His voice was definitely not pitched, and he was snuggling Goose closer to soothe the cat, not himself. It isn't unreasonable to not want to touch a glowy space cube that is some crazy power source.
"Yes."
"I'm not touching that thing," he said flatly. He was a firm believer in not touching things that give off light. He read the reports on what radiation could do, which means that it was basically SHEILD protocol, and the way his luck had been, Fury knew he wouldn't end up joining club jazz hands.
She sighed and held out the Tesseract with an urging shake of the wrist. "Want me to get you an oven mitt?" Carol mocked. Unfortunately, from a second glance, Fury knew that the soldiers were dead, so there was no ignoring this to secure them.
He manned up and was about to refuse Carol a third time when Goose lurched in his hands. A wave of churning tentacles lashed outwards and grabbed the Tesseract. The tentacles withdrew just as quickly, taking the cube with them. The shock of watching tentacles appears from nowhere multiplied as he watched Goose swallow everything.
The tentacles had come from Goose.
Flerken.
He yelped and dropped the not a cat. Goose landed on his feet easily and began grooming down some ruffled fur. He couldn't look away from the normal looking cat.
Carol spoke up, breaking him from his shock. "Get the Skrulls in the Quad Jet and go. Take the Flerken with you."
She had turned around and started away from them. Maria asked, "What about you?" before Carol could turn the corner.
"I'll buy you some time," she called back and kept moving.
Fury was working up his nerve to pick up Goose. He spoke gently as he telegraphed his movement, "I'm picking you up now. I'm trusting you not to eat me." The tentacle monster in a cat meowed gently and began purring. Fury forced down an instinctive shiver when Goose rubbed his head against him.
Fury took a second to come to terms with the Flerken. "Alright. Find the Skrulls. At least that big Kree with the body let us know where to start," he said as he started down the corridor, moving as quickly and quietly as he dared while carrying Goose.
A rhythmic jostling roused Sevr from unconsciousness to a helpless state of vague and muddled thoughts. Fragments of confusing ideas that puzzled themselves together. His revelation was cut short when he felt himself lift up and drop down hard on to what Sirius presumed to be the floor.
His incopacitated body ached numbly with pain, but he was still unable to move. There was a murmur of sound that he ignored when he realized he just thought of himself as Sirius and not Sevr. It just made sense. His brief stint as an exploding star connected dots that he couldn't find himself.
Sirius could barely understand a distorted voice, "What the hell is that?"
He paused his introspection and tried to focus on everything around him, allowing Sirius to recall his more recent memory. He had stumbled upon Kingsley Shacklebolt and was then promptly shot by Minerva McGonagall. No, wait, he was shot by Minn-Erva. The blast had knocked him unconscious instead of killing him, but he had survived his matter being burned away as a star, somehow, so a rifle shot wasn't surprising. Not a lot was making sense as he recalled that Kingsley was dead.
"Shut up, scum. You have just volunteered to carry it," a deep voice ordered.
"That's not a Skrull. I don't know what the hell it is, but-" the voice was cut off by a meaty thunk. Probably the Skrull being hit, probably in the head. There was no cry of pain or sound of a body hitting the floor and a Kree never held back against an enemy, so the victim must be tough.
There was a moment where Sirius couldn't tell what was happening, so he did his best to get up. All he could manage was an aching cough that grew until he was curled in on himself hacking. The fire subsided from his lungs and he managed to take in his surroundings through flickering eyes.
Sirius was in a holding cell full of Skrulls. Scared men, women, and children that were giving him as much space as they could manage. Then he saw the Kree on guard with their guns pointed at them, and him.
He groaned and dragged himself into a sitting position held upright by the corner of the cell. It was a strain to hold his head straight, but Sirius could feel his body recuperating. "Where am I?" he managed to ask, ignoring the near blinding headache the lights were giving him.
"Quiet," a male Skrull hushed as he picked Sirius up and maneuvered him into place across his shoulders with one hand free. He felt the Skrull shiver when they touched. He whispered to him once Sirius was secure, "I don't know what you are, but you're about to take a short space walk with the rest of us, so keep quiet."
Sirius acquiesced with a grumble. He focused on assessing his body. The spark of his power was already thrumming beneath his skin, gathering, ready to reach out. The lights flickered and Sirius could feel the ebb and surge of energy. He felt more than he was used to. There was a brilliant pulsing energy core that matched the flickering lights. It was so powerful that Sirius almost didn't notice one of the Skrulls shift just as the lights flickered again.
The Skrull simmed a Kree soldier in an instant and slipped to the back of the group to act as rear guard. It was strangely nostalgic to watch but incredibly disorienting to his newly heightened awareness of energy, like two people were in the same body. Most of the adult Skrulls also shifted with the flicker, adding layers of energy inside their body without an outward change, a combat form, perhaps? They were definitely going to fight to the very end, and he was going to help.
"Hey," Sirius whispered to the one carrying him, "Get me close to one of the soldiers. I can help." The Skrull responded by adjusting him, not gently, into a more secure position. "Fine," Sirius said, "then just drop me when it starts."
The Kree herded them towards the hanger. From the little he had seen of the ship, Sirius knew it was Kree but not any military ship he was familiar with. He caught a glance of colourful drawings on the wall down a hallway they turned off of, and several things started to make sense: Lawson was the scientist and Vers was her protection. Before he could finish building the narrative, the Skrulls rounded a corner and stopped.
"Now!" A voice ahead of them called out, "Come on! Do your thing, come on!" No one moved for a second before the guards moved in with weapons drawn. "Damn it, Goose. Pick a side," the voice complained when something meowed. The Skrull carrying him took advantage of two of the guards being distracted and dropped Sirius.
He hit the floor with a sudden thud, but none of the other Skrulls moved. Sirius stood while under gunpoint. He straightened up as two new prisoners were added to their group. The man somehow recognized him but did nothing besides position himself at the rear of the captives. The woman looked overwhelmed and drew into herself. She had drifted close enough for Sirius to slip next her without drawing attention to himself. She didn't notice until he whispered to her, "So, you're a native to C-53? Earth, was it? How did you get roped in to this, helping the Skrull? Was it Lawson?"
He had startled her, but she managed to keep mostly still. She was momentarily confused about why he, a Kree, was talking to her. She glanced over her shoulder at the nearest guard who was focusing on the perimeter and not them. She took a moment to decide he looked to beat up to be an enemy. "It was my best friend, Carol. She came back into my life dragging along this mess. She's always been good at finding trouble, but I never thought it would be aliens and laser powers." She chuckled quietly, despite the situation they were in, at a memory.
Sirius gave her a wan smile to cover his realization. "So, you two grew up together?" he asked. He wanted her to focus on him, having noticed how the tension rose the closer they got to the hanger.
"Near enough. We had done just about everything together since flight school. Thick and thin."
Sirius grunted a single laugh, "That reminds me of my friends." He repeated himself in realization, "That reminds me of my friends?" Sirius was almost lost in an absent memory but managed to pull away with a shake. The woman gave him a concerned look as he returned to the conversation odd question, "Sorry, but what sort of colours do earthians, wait, humans, come in?"
She blinked at the question, "What? Right, alien. Um, black, white, I guess red -" Her answer was cut off as the group entered the hanger and the Skrulls made their move with Sirius joining in.
Most of the civilian Skrulls cried out and tried to flee deeper into the hanger while their combatants did their best to engage the guards. Out of the corner of his eye Sirius saw a Kree with a conscience assisting them. Sirius pulled at his power to absorb a dozen random shots. He rushed towards the two wildly firing soldiers with a growl of disgust, giving them something proper to shoot at.
Each blast fired was drained from the air to feed his storm, causing his senses to flare. Sirius could see the charge pulsing through the guns, the twitches of their nervous system, the energy humming through the ship, the friendly Kree shifting back to Skrull, the odd well of power inside an odd animal, but he blocked out the extraneous and focused on the fight. Sirius was upon them before the soldiers could even take a step, pushing his storm out of his chest and down to his fists. He willed the energy to coalesce beyond his skin as he struck.
There was a spark and sizzle before the Kree dropped and he moved on. He let his focus shift. The crackling of energy cut out as he pushed his storm to power his enervation field. Sirius forced the field to unsteadily conform to the bay, flickering less and less as he dodged through the fight. One of the Skrulls called out, "Get to the shuttles, we need to escape."
Sirius let his field drop with the last guard. The Skrulls scurried from their hiding places to board an old Kree transporter while the two humans and a few others climbed into a scraped together shuttle. He watched the door from the ramp of the junker as the ships fired up. The civilians took off immediately while the junker had to prime its engine and weapons.
"Ready for take off, blue guy!" The woman called out. Sirius promised himself to learn their names as soon as they were out of here. Before he got a chance to turn around, Sirius was blasted across the hanger. His ears were ringing and the adrenaline kept him focused on his attackers and not the ache in his chest. He quickly threw up his enervation field, ignoring his growing chest pain.
"Go!" He called out with a cough. A second volley splashed against the junker's hull, sapped of enough energy to barely leave scorching. Sirius held off the attack and felt his storm growing. "This is familiar," he grunted after he absorbed a grenade and watched a half dozen more be thrown. The combined detonation strained him, but Sirius pushed through and tried to return fire with a drained rifle.
He threw the gun wildly at one of the Kree and growled with frustration. His storm crackled with his anger as he was forced back to his fraying defenses. None of the Kree moved from the hanger entrance, no doubt planning on outlasting him from behind cover. Sirius glanced at the nearest Kree jet. He hadn't figured out how to create a field that he wasn't in and the soldiers would destroy the jet before he could take off if he just dropped the field and ran, so he needed to do something. Sirius was nearly gnashing at the storm rising in his throat.
Another volley of grenades and shots had him shout in desperation; the simultaneous pushing and pulling his powers had him near to burst. A raw flash of light forced a lull and glowed in his retina. The grenades never detonated, the shots never struck, his storm abated, then the fire fight began anew after taking a breath.
Sirius took a ragged gulp and exhaled hard as he snapped his field back up. His storm was back in his gorge. It was becoming a familiar sensation. He grinned and called on his storm further. He braced himself from another Gryffindor idea. Sirius bit down and screamed. It welled up from deep within and became a roar of cascading power.
Unleashing that much energy had sapped him. Sirius's entire body trembled and he could barely hear anything over the ringing in his ears. He stumbled and ran to the jet as quickly as he could, not even glancing back at the damage he could smell. Sirius numbly climbed the jet and pulled at the cockpit hatch but it was sealed. "Oh no," he whispered as he looked inside to see a Kree grin and start the jet.
Sirius instinctually held on as the fighter roared out of the hanger into space. The air was ripped from his lungs and a haze crept into his vision, but he remained attached to the jet. He used what energy he had to dig at the cockpit. His suit's environmental protection switched on as the pilot began tumbling maneuvers to dislodge him. Both the jet's and his suit's displays were flashing warnings. If Sirius could get the jet back to the hanger, it wouldn't matter that he only had two minutes worth of air left.
The jet slammed into an inertial halt and immediately flipped into an irregular barrel roll, nearly jarring him loose. He flinched and gripped down as hard as he could when he thought his grip was slipping. There was a spark and a rush of pressure knocking Sirius free from the jet. Sirius focused the rolling jet as he tumbled, desperate to ignore his suit's countdown.
The jet never corrected its flight and continued back towards the hanger. The cockpit was torn open with the Kree dead or unconscious and soon to be. Three fighters shot out of the hanger and nearly collided with it before rocketing past him and into C-53's atmosphere. They were after the junker and they would easily catch up; the junker burned during its reentry. The human woman had taken charge the moment she was at the helm of the junker, she probably knew what she was doing. Hopefully the ship could handle combat flight.
As Sirius watched the ships, he realized that he was no longer tumbling through space but falling and was going to hit atmo before he ran out of air. He calmed his breathing as much as someone falling towards a planet could. Sirius wrapped himself in his enervation field, hoping he could handle thermal energy. He had been wrong about subspace radiation and survived, so Sirius figured he might pull through; he wasn't sure about the landing.
Sirius was holding his breath when his field began to act like a heat sink. He inched back from desperately tense to adrenaline riddled. Then he slammed into the wall of wind resistance. Sirius nearly lost consciousness as he skipped once against the air. His breath was smashed from his lungs and his field was shattered. The wind was so loud as it rushed by that it was all he could think about.
The wind engulfed him, paralyzing him in a spin. Helpless against the rising ground, Sirius watched the sky fall away in a near stupor. He knew he had to do something but his storm was blown away the moment it left his body, so he stared at the scattered clouds he had pierced through. Sirius spotted the familiar glow of ships hovering in low orbit. The immanent ground had him ignoring what he couldn't change. If he concentrated just right, Sirius was able to pretend he was flying higher and higher above the clouds. It was a beautiful thought to focus on. He had always loved flying.
Carol watched Yon-Rogg's sputtering escape shuttle leave Earth. She took a breath and almost let herself think it was over, that she had won her war, but it was just a battle. Her attention shifted from the shuttle to the glow she knew to be the arrival of Ronan's ships. Carol bounced on the balls of her feet and shook out the tension she had collected about facing her supposed mentor. She couldn't dwell when a madman was about to attempt genocide.
Carol launched into the sky to try to head off Ronan before he could attack. She oriented her flight nearly vertical and saw the first missile of the bombardment. She pushed hard to rush the head of the swarm. She held back her desire to just ram through and eased her approach to catch the lead missile, moving with it as she positioned herself against its dwarfing head. Carol focused on her resolve to never back down and began to push with a grunt. The missile drove down further but it seemed to lack any weight.
Her determination flared. She wasn't an underdog getting into a scrap over pride. She was stopping another atrocity from being committed in the name of the Kree. Carol threw the massive ordnance back towards Ronan and his bombardment. She watched with a grin as the missiles collided and detonated into smoke in the high atmosphere. There were several strays that survived the chain explosion. Carol lanced a cluster of three with a pair of unrestrained photon blasts and rushed the last of them. Before she could slam through the late missiles there was a rumbling crack and lightning struck, detonating them.
The only thing above Carol was Ronan, so she glanced down in confusion. A gray snake with white stripes was flying up towards her with a corkscrewing tail. The odd creature grew in size as it rapidly approached. Once she could make out the details of its canine face, antlered head, two forelegs, and twin frills running the length of its body, Carol realized she was staring at a dragon. "Well, aliens are real, why not dragons?" she huffed while keeping an eye on Ronan.
The beast leveled off and coiled around itself a distance away from her. "I am not your foe, defender of Earth," the dragon rumbled with only a twitch of its whiskers. Its voice sounded inhumanly of thunder and wind but still gave her a sense that the dragon was male. "There is little time to discuss but know that this storm rises with you against this assault on Earth," the dragon spoke as it began to accelerate upwards. Carol matched its pace out of the atmosphere. She'd take the help of a dragon when facing an army.
The dragon coiled behind her as they presented themselves against Ronan, she could feel its power. Carol stared at the lead ship's observation deck. She couldn't see through the opaque glass, but she knew Ronan was somewhere behind it watching. She silently threatened him. There was a brief lull as Carol scanned the ships for Ronan's response. She used the time to flare her radiant form.
Jets rushed from the ships and split off into squads and began a traditional engagement pattern. She gestured for the dragon to break off so the jets were forced to divide their attention. "Understood," it rumbled as it flew away with an erratic slithering pattern. How had it spoken through the void of space?
Carol quickly put it from her mind and engaged the squad circling towards her. She rolled out of the way of an opening volley and fired back. She was surprised by how easily her photon blasts tore through the shuttle, leaving herself open to a strike she narrowly avoided. Carol spun about and rushed in, forcing the jets into a dogfight.
The rush of flipping and spinning in combat had her grinning. She took the squad apart one after the other and looked for the next attack squad. They came in from above her, distracting Carol from shots below. Numb from the shock of being hit, she was sent careening only to snap out of her daze when she hit something. The jet she struck gave way and was ripped apart.
A quick glance down at her unscathed body had her laughing. The blast had done less than hurt her, it amped her up and set her determination against them. Carol charged straight at the jet that shot her and rammed though it with a punch and then continued through the rest of the squad. She tore through the jets and dove at the nearest ship, piercing it with little more effort than flying.
When Carol emerged from the detonating ship she scanned the battle for her next target. The dragon had reduced the other jets to broken slag. The dragon was facing the ships with an open maw, charging up a ball of plasma as large as her. Carol quickly flew to a stop next to him and began to charge her own attack. Her body grew brilliant with the energy of the most powerful photon blast she had ever tried to bring to bare.
The dragon spoke directly in her ear, "At your lead." Carol began to condense her energy and aim at Ronan's ship. Before she could release her attack the ships began to move away. Ronan was retreating. The ships quickly sped away, leaving her to reign in her powers. Not letting all of that energy burn through her was a struggle. Carol had it under control in time to see the distant flash Ronan making a subspace jump.
"This is the might of the Accuser? Pathetic," the dragon grumbled with lightning crackling in the back of its voice. It growled and static washed her ears. The dragon had been talking through her communicator. It lazily rolled over and fell back towards Earth, giving her a single quizzical stare. "Questions can wait. Allies cannot," it rumbled before the dragon spotted something and dove.
Carol sped after it. She berated herself for getting lost in the fight. They burned through the atmosphere and sped towards smoke rising from the Grand Canyon. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw Maria flying their shuttle away from the smoke without a ship in pursuit. The ship banked, probably to head back to Maria's, but instead slowed and landed in the desert. Carol must have been spotted.
Carol quickly landed and watched the dragon circle once before touching down where she could keep an eye on it. It loosely curled and wiggled itself into the hot sand, attempting to look as harmless as a massive dragon basking in the sun could. The shuttle's ramp opened and Fury stiffly stepped out, quickly peeked out, and snapped back. "That's a dragon," he stated in a daze, "First aliens, then tentacle cats, and now dragons. You just had to drag crazy into my life."
"You just happened to be in the right place," Carol laughed before asking, "Is everyone all right? Ronan has left and…" she paused to check her data pad, "there are no living Kree on the science vessel, so we are in the clear for now."
"Just some jostling and a cat scratch," Fury replied as he eyed Goose with suspicion as it sat on the edge of the ramp cleaning itself.
There was a ping from the cockpit and Talos called out, "Our shuttles managed to slip away without a problem. I've let them know that the fighting is over but that they should stay away until we clear Lawson's ship. Also, what is a dragon?"
"I believe that giant worm over there is a dragon," Karos replied. Talos had a flat response that caused some snickers, but Carol didn't hear it as she was focused on the dragon.
She approached the creature. It lazily watched with one open eye. "Thank you for fighting off the Kree attack, umm, dragon," she said. Carol felt a little ridiculous; diplomacy was never her strong suit. She had to hold her hands to stop them from flapping about with her nerves.
It chuckled like a soft breeze. "I have been called many things, Carol, but I hope to be called a friend." The dragon's ears twitched and flapped as it spoke, "I am Wind that Roars, Herald of Lightning, and Snake in the Sky. I have other names, ones that were forgotten while I slept."
The dragon raised its head and stared at the sky. It looked impossibly ancient and powerful. Carol felt small next to this true force of nature. It continued speaking as it stared, its voice was a distant thunderstorm, "It was the attack on Earth that cleared most of the haze from between my ears. I remember once being called Stormageddon, but that ended quickly."
Carol did her best to hide her snort. The dragon's ears twitched again before facing her. She did her best to keep a straight face. "I thank you, Carol, for all that you are and have done, and I give you the first name I remember, Sirius Black." The dragon bowed its head to her with a smile, allowing her to finally observe all of its canine features.
"Thank you, Sirius Black," Carol responded. The name felt familiar on her tongue. It came to her a second later. "The Dogstar," she mumbled and dots were suddenly connected. "Sevr?" she nearly gasped.
The dragon laughed thunder and began to coil tightly upon itself. It spun and shrunk smaller and smaller. Soon, in place of the massive dragon was a familiar person. Sevr had struck a heroic pose, but in his own humorous way, was facing the wrong direction. He threw his head back for a single barking laugh and spun to face her. "I haven't gotten the hang of this yet," he said with a grin.
The moment her brain caught up, Carol was a burning streak that slammed into him. She squeezed Sevr in a massive hug, "You're here! You have no idea how glad I am I don't have to find and kick your Kree butt."
Sevr laughed and pushed at the hug, "What makes you think you could?" She grinned and let her grip on her friend slip. He was going to say something else but he fell to the ground face first instead.
Carol glanced down at him and realized she floated a couple of feet off the ground during the hug. "Eating sand after a four foot drop?" she asked. "Behold, Sevr's might," she said as she floated down and gave him a hand up. "So, were you serious with Sirius being your name?"
"Yup, Sirius Orion Black," he replied with a grin, "I haven't filled in all the blanks, but I know that I'm not Kree, among a few other things. I hear you also found your past." He shook the sand out of his scorched Starforce uniform like a dog. Carol glanced back at her friends while Sirius picked at his sleeves and pants for the stubborn grit. They seemed a bit wary of her friend or maybe his uniform. Sirius must have followed her sight because he popped upright and leaned heavily on her shoulder, "So, going to introduce us?"
"Sure thing, mutt," Carol replied as she walked towards her friends and out from under Sirius, leaving him to catch his balance. He quickly caught up and stood next to her. "This is Sirius Orion Black. Back when I was with the Kree, he was my best friend and training partner." Talos eyed him up and down with suspicion, Fury gave him a searching look and a nod, and Maria definitely recognized him.
Carol continued her introduction, "I'm sure you remember Talos. His science guy is Karos, and his family are still on the shuttle." Sirius gave him a lazy, two-fingered salute before waving at the cockpit. Karos was in the pilot seat and waved back. Talos finally stopped eyeballing him but didn't say anything.
Sirius smiled at Fury as she turned to him, "This is Agent Nicholas Fury. He's stuck with me since I first called Yon-Rogg, trusting me when he had just about every reason not to. Thank you for that, by the way." Carol gave him a sincere smile that was returned. "He's also the one that befriended and brought along Doctor Lawson's Flerken, Goose, over there," she said, pointing to the cat sunning itself on the ramp.
"Flerken, is that the territorial one that likes riddles or the one that can walk upright and read minds?" Sirius asked before answering his own question, "No, wait, it doesn't have a person's face or extra legs." He paused before shaking his head and turning towards Maria, ignoring Fury's mumbling about alien cats.
Before Carol could introduce her, her friend stepped forward and held out a hand, "Maria Rambeau, Carol's other best friend. It's nice to officially meet you."
"A pleasure to officially meet you as well," he replied with a smile before he took her hand and kissed it with a bow. Sirius returned her hand and took a step back. "Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I could really use a meal," he paused and frowned, "Perhaps a shower as well. Think I could get a lift?"
"Can't you fly?" Fury said, interrupting Carol from leading him on to the shuttle.
"While I'm a dragon," Sirius replied with a shrug, "and I haven't really had a chance to figure all of this out, so I guess I could give it a try." He tiredly began to limber up. "Any other questions while we're at it?" Sirius asked as he finished stretching. Carol and Maria watched, amused by his exaggerated grumbles.
Talos spoke up when Sirius started concentrating on the sky, "What exactly are you? You're not like any shifting species I know." The Skrull gave the Flerken lazing behind him another cautious glance.
Sirius chuckled as he relaxed and shook himself. He struck a reaching pose and answered, "I can't exactly remember what I am, but I have pieced a few things together. I think my species all have one other form that is unique to each of us. I remember people turning into animals, bugs, and sometimes a mix of person and animal." He interrupted himself by punching upward, "...and fly." nothing happened.
"That explains a few things," Carol commented. Sirius nodded in agreement and tried a pose with only one arm raised.
"Dragons aren't animals," Fury said, "are they?" He looked at Talos and Carol for answers. Carol shook her head, frowned, and shrugged while Talos just shrugged and gestured towards Sirius, who had begun positioning himself to leap.
He kept adjusting and testing his stance, keeping his eye focused on his task, even as he answered Fury, "Dragons were, are, rare? There were other massive animals as well. The details are all in small pieces, but I remember a snake larger than my dragon, a squid so large that I only ever saw its tentacles, spiders from knee high to bigger than your shuttle, a dog whose heads were as big as me..."
Each example wore at Sirius until his expression melted and he trailed off, obviously lost in resurfaced memories. Carol knew exactly how it felt. Maria had pulled a few of those moments out of her.
"Did he say heads?" Fury asked, too startled to notice Sirius's state. "What sort of mythical hell did you come from?"
"Mythical?" Sirius asked softly, suddenly broken from his daze. He tested the word against his memories, "Mythic. That sounds familiar, but I can't place it." He shook his head and returned to focusing on his stance. Sirius gave one last test swing of his body before muttering to himself and leaping into the air.
He flew up twenty feet before losing balance and falling back down in a barely controlled tumble. He managed to roll through the landing, but he was engulfed in a spray of sand. "Maybe I should try after I've eaten," Sirius coughed as he walked back to the shuttle, "and definitely not in the desert." He waited until he was near Fury before he shook the sand off. Fury, being the bigger man, was only mildly annoyed.
"Pretty sure only the dragon can fly," he grumbled when he noticed Carol smiling at his antics, "Any chance we can get food before the experiment continues?" Sirius waited for permission from them before plopping himself in the nearest shuttle seat. They followed him aboard as he awkwardly introduced himself, "Uh, hello, Talos's family, Karos. My name is Sirius."
"Hello!" Karos easily replied as the little girl waved. He returned his attention to the control panel. As soon as everyone was settled in, the ramp lifted and the shuttle took off. "Did someone mention getting food? There's something called a drive-through that I want to try before we leave."
Fury turned to Talos and asked, "Is he serious?" Talos only shrugged. "We are not flying a stolen government spaceship full of aliens through a drive through. We are going to land this scrapyard ship at Maria's house and figure out some answers for my agency so we all don't get locked up!" Fury was working himself into a ranting stream of questions he had from the moment Carol fell out of the sky. She did her best to avoid eye contact with him.
Sirius leaned towards Maria and Carol sitting opposite him while keeping an eye on Fury. "Do you have something we could eat at your house, or is someone going to have to get food?" he whispered, doing his best to ignore that Fury was now talking at Goose as he stroked the Flerken.
"I don't know how much you eat, but there's food back at the house," Maria replied. He thanked her and sat back. They took a moment to watch Fury calm down the more he pet the cat.
Sirius broke the silence that had fallen, "So, what's everyone's favorite food? I know I have one, a sweet dessert, I think." This started a mundane conversation about each other for the rest of the ride back. Talos and his family shared stories about day to day shenanigans, Maria had her own to add as well as a few about Carol, she and Sirius had a few hijinks to tell, Karos mostly just laughed and mentioned some things he enjoyed before the fighting started, and Fury joined in occasionally with answers that weren't monosyllabic.
By the time they landed in Maria's backyard, to the awe of her parents and daughter, they were much closer than the thrown together allies they started as. Fury still had many more questions about everything. Sirius had to be bribed with food to answer all of them in a satisfactory manner; the man could turn nearly everything into a joke. Carol resorted to flicking his ear and threatening him with a newspaper when he started working puns into every answer.
Talos and Karos left soon after the meal to check on the others. Soren stayed to talk with Maria and watch their daughters play together. Fury was the next to leave. With Sirius and Carol's help, he had gleaned enough about off-world interests and capabilities to go back to his government with a satisfactory, if deliberately obscured, explanation.
Sirius slipped away to shuttle Talos's family and the last of the Skrull tech to the ship, giving Carol space to say goodbye to Maria and Monica. He was waiting for her in low atmosphere when she finally left.
"I forgot to change my suit to the new colour scheme," he rumbled when he joined her flight, "I do like it more than Nova's."
"Yeah, how will I be able to tell the difference between you and them in a fight?"
Sirius thundered a laugh, "You could follow the bad names and witty jokes?" Carol spun about and gave him a stare. Only her mouth could be seen but she knew he got the point. "Alright, no weird names."
"Good."
"Speaking of names," he paused as they left the atmosphere, "Do you think we should use code names or something? We are planning on overthrowing the A.I. overlord of the Kree Empire. They have the Nova Force and warrior-heroes, it seems a little lackluster to be just Carol Danvers and Sirius Black."
Carol bobbed her head back and forth in thought. Before she could respond, their comms signalled that they had connected with the science vessel's. "Is this Carol Danvers and Sirius Orion Black?" an unknown Skrull asked.
"It's us," Carol answered, "We are ready to head out."
There was a pause before the Skrull responded. The ship dropped its cloaking as she did, "Confirmed. Will you be boarding or flying alongside?"
Before Carol could ask Sirius if he was fast enough to keep up, he responded, "We'll be flying." Her glowing body hid her surprise.
"Confirmed. We are running through a final systems check. Please stand by."
"I like Marauders and then some call signs," Sirius continued as if their discussion hadn't been interrupted.
"That's already taken," she replied, causing him to grumble, "though new call signs are a good idea." She took a moment to think about it.
"Padfoot," Sirius decided aloud. "After my, well, the form that A.I. takes. It's my father's other shape. Wherever home is, I think there are a few people who might recognize it."
It took her a minute to respond. "Mar-Vell was mine."
They fell silent and waited for the Skrull to alert them to their departure. When she did, their mood was hard to shake. Carol managed to rally first, "Alright, here we go. Time to overthrow an empire and protect a scattered species."
She spoke more to herself than Sirius, his response broke the tension, "So no ideas on a team name?"
Carol couldn't help herself. She laughed as they sped alongside the ship faster and faster. The universe around them disappeared, leaving only what was in front of them to flicker as they sped past. "We'll figure it out, but I know what your naming sense is like."
"I stand by those names as a sound tactic," he grumbled.
"You can't think that they're intimidating," she laughed. His ears were twitching and Carol didn't think it was in annoyance. "Are they supposed to be funny?" She tried to scrutinize him, but traveling at lightspeed warped her vision. He exuded wisps of gray energy that gathered like a cloud before cycling back into his somehow vaporous body. He hadn't noticed what was happening with his body.
"Yup," Sirius replied. He was inordinately smug, almost preening. "Disarm your foes with just a word. Confusion and humor. It's devastating to the unprepared, puts people on their back foot and out of their combat mode. Too bad I'm pretty sure two thirds of the Kree are humorless."
"Yeah, otherwise it would have been the perfect plan." He grouched at her sarcasm but kept quiet. She couldn't help but to grin at the face Sirius was making. Carol recognized the ear twitch and joking glimmer in his eye.
They soon dropped out of lightspeed over a barely habitable planet. The ship locked itself in orbit above the planet's lone patch of life. It was a country sized forest that was harshly bordered by rock fields. The ship began scanning for life as the two of them drifted, waiting for directions.
"First stop, of how many?" Sirius asked.
"Until we've found them all," Carol replied simply.
"Roger." They quietly stared at the forest, looking for signs of life. "Do you think the Supreme Intelligence knows where my planet is?" He asked, lacking his usual bluster.
"The thing definitely knows more than it let on. It was behind my memory loss, maybe you just need a Talos to use his memory device," she gave him a reassuring smile, "but if it comes to it, I'll help you scour the unknown systems."
There was a long pause before he answered, "Thanks Vers, Carol, ah, Captain, whatever," Sirius trailed off as he tried to nervously scratch his head, finding it an elaborate task in his current form. He huffed and gave up with an awkward wave of his arms. "That means a lot," he said before huffing again, "Just get over here so I can hug you with my stubby arms!" He lunged at her with a shout.
She grinned and ducked out of the way of his attempt to dive on her. Carol laughed as she dodged a second time and let him grab her on the third attempt. His stubby arms were as big as her. "Friends stick together. That's why I was planning to kick your ass and convince you to join me." She just all but demanded a fight. Carol was goading him.
"Kick my ass, huh?" His voice rumbled at the challenge. "Well, we do have to figure out our powers again." He hummed in thought. "The rest of the planet is already a wasteland, so do you want to test our limits? After we pick up the Skrulls, of course."
"Of course." She grinned as she pushed her way out of his grasp. Carol punched him in his trunk sized arm. "It has nothing to do with our sparring record with you, what, three behind?"
"Two and a half at most, Yon-Rogg ended the spar after you threw him into me, I never got a chance to do anything," Sirius complained, "and I'll need to practice with both my forms. I think I'll only be able to match you as a dragon."
She nodded in agreement. "I'm not even sure you have an ass to get kicked right now," she wondered aloud, giving Sirius a questioning look.
He looked away in thought and wriggled his body. "I honestly have no idea," he replied with a similar tone.
"I'm not checking."
They made eye contact and devolved into laughter until the ship alerted them to the situation on the planet below. Even then, it took some effort to quell their chuckles. "We have made contact with the Skrulls on the planet. No hostile elements expected, so please stand by while everything is ferried aboard."
"Confirmed," Carol responded. She managed to hold back a snicker. "It's probably going to take a while. Do you want to wait on the ship?"
"Yeah, might as well." Sirius shrugged as well as he could, "It'll at least give me a chance to change my suit before we get new Skrulls aboard."
Carol sparked up her communicator, "Mind if we come aboard for the wait? It'll get Sirius out of his dragon form for the new arrivals."
"Confirmed. You are free to board. Our shuttles are preparing to launch, so do not take too long."
The two acknowledged the Skrull and flew to the docking bay. Sirius mistimed his shift as he landed and stumbled to the floor. Carol helped him to his feet with a shake of her head. "Come on," she said as he took her hand, "Let's see if Talos has something for us to do. Maybe play some pinball."
"I do not know what that is, but I'm in." Sirius was going to say something else but yawned instead. "Excuse me," he managed to say through a second yawn, coverIng his mouth with his fist. He shook his head, "I think I'll find a bunk after you show me what pinball is."
"Yeah, you look beat. When's the last time you slept?" Carol asked. She slowed her pace when Sirius yawned again. Several Skrulls passed by them talking about getting food. She didn't exactly know her way around the ship, but she knew the mess and converted recreation room were near each other.
"Just your first call, I got a decent nap. Two hours probably." He scratched along his jaw. "Though I was unconscious a couple of times." He started counting, "I burned myself out on the mission, got shot by Minnie when they boarded this ship, I blacked out for a bit when I fell out to Earth, -"
He was about to say something else, but Carol interrupted. "That happened to you too?" she asked with a laugh. "I landed in a video rental store. It's how I met Fury."
Sirius nodded and grinned, "I blacked out and turned into a dragon. I don't think I hit the ground." He paused, he was about to say something but changed his mind, "Did you manage to get any sleep?"
"I was knocked when Talos captured me." Carol had to fight the urge to yawn. "Maybe a raincheck for pinball?" He gave a tired nod and they started towards a bunk room they had passed. "Sirius and I are going to get some sleep. Send us an alarm if something happens," she said over their link to Skrull command.
"Confirmed. You two have definitely earned some rest."
"Thank you. Carol out." She let a sigh escape and stretched.
"Sirius out, wait, I never caught your name." He grinning like a fool. There was a short buzz as he shifted to a different comm channel. "Tara, when does your shift end? I'd like to thank you in person." Carol shook her head and left Sirius in the hallway to try to chat up Tara.
"Remember to get some sleep," she called down the corridor, "I'm going to kick your ass either way, but I'd like a challenge." Carol looked back before she entered the bunk room. Sirius gave her a careless wave and leaned against the wall. She managed to strip off her suit before her fatigue finally caught up to her. Carol barely registered Sirius crowing about having a date before she fell asleep.
A.N. - In this story, Harry goes through quite a bit without a lot of explanation because the characters in the story don't know what happened. Any narrative style explanations are stray thoughts of the character followed at the time. I did my best to place ideas about what was going on allowing the reader to form conjecture, but I'll explain my thoughts.The timeturner Harry is handed is an emergency response portkey that allows aurors to respond to an international incident. It functions by responding to a beacon that radiates magical coordinates for the timeturner to follow. The beacon's magic degrades and cannot be followed after 6 hours. The emergency response devices are expensive and voluntarily used, hence the low turn out for such a large event.In my head, magic is intrinsic to life, any life and a Horcrux is made to be indestructible, but because it is magic that makes it that way, several things can still destroy it. Fiendfyre is a spell that burns magic as fuel for a fire, making it incredibly dangerous and unpredictable just like magic, Avada Kedavra destroys a Horcrux by severing its connection to the owner, and both Dragons and Basilisks eat magic. Dragons use their innate affinity to break down and consume magic and Basilisks use venom. Harry Potter only survived the venom because of Phoenix tears, something that grants life. The tears didn't cure the venom but made it part of him, so when Harry was in the dragon's stomach, it was a war of who would consume who. Harry won because he tapped directly into the dragon's magic and ate it from the inside. The fight took place over many years with Harry only becoming aware as the dragon died.Harry's travel to another reality was largely inspired by Asian mythology of dragons. There are stories about how a dragon's strength has no limit, so long it keeps climbing upwards, being aspects of nature, and granting wishes. I took a little of the three. Harry didn't comprehend his connection to nature and the power he had. The dead dragon was the Harry's egg and him leaving his universe was him hatching.Harry hatching in another universe was not a quiet affair. The Kree discovered him thrumming with similar energy to the surge of power that attracted them. They put him through a similar process to Carol when she became Vers, except Harry's brain was still reeling from his experience so it was affected in a different, more complete way. They did a very good job removing "I am Harry Potter" from his head. He arrived a universe where he wasn't Harry Potter anymore.Harry, for all intents and purposes becomes a dragon. His energy powers are from his affinity to storms. He still is magical, he still has use of his magic, but he is a fully grown man who doesn't remember any of it, so the power closest to the surface is the only one he knows about. If Harry learns of magic existing, he could learn how to use it again.I wrote this story because I felt Harry would be a very good fit in the Marvel universe alongside Captain Marvel. I tried to keep with the mentality of the movies by expanding the universe while still resolving the smaller plot. This story is a peak into a a different Marvel Universe, I never wanted everything to be answered because it was just the first step into a world, a transition. No, I don't plan on a sequel.