It was an hour since Cerion woke up and he should have freaked out but he managed to stay calm and focused. There was no point in freaking out at this moment. He was conscious the moment he entered the planet's atmosphere. When he woke up he found that he was restrained and in a body bag. From that simple fact itself he deduced that his ship might have broken apart and somehow he found himself in another planet. Thankfully the planet was one with a Yellow Star for a Sun because he could feel an unholy strength coursing through his body. Fortunately, he was still wearing the rebreather and it was shielding him from any sensory overload. He just continued to stay silent throughout the journey.
It was on the ground that the play changed pace. The moment his rescuers unravelled the bag they noticed that he was alive. Then there was freak-out by the humans and he was glad he was in the custody of humans rather than any other alien species. There was nothing they could do that would harm him so that was a relief unless they had Kryptonite which was not cool. Anyway, the humans continued their freak-out and the military base that they had taken him blared with alarms. He calmly broke the restraints and stood on his own legs. He was immediately converged upon from all sides by gun-wielding soldiers, mounted machine guns, artillery and tanks.
It was then that he truly took a good look around the military base. The weapons and vehicles used by the soldiers were more advanced than what was the norm of 1970s or the 80s for that matter. Another curious fact was that the soldiers were not wearing their standard uniform but rather uniforms in black. They looked like special-ops soldiers and then there were several people dressed in tight bodysuits. The common factor in all these people was that they had a silver eagle logo on their uniforms. The only plausible explanation that he could come up with was that either the Phantom Drive caused a time dilation field around himself or Earth was truly advanced enough. But to truly know what happened without giving himself away to his rescuers he had to take a risky step. He once again looked around the base and noticed that it was in the middle of a desert. Nodding to himself he deactivated the rebreather. The polymorphous glass shielding of his suit pulled back and he was exposed to the air of Earth.
He instinctively closed his eyes and breathed in the rich nourishing air of Earth. He could hear the soldiers scream out warnings and threats but he didn't give a fuck to what they were saying. Having lived in a ticking time bomb of a planet that was Krypton he could truly appreciate the beauty of Earth. Krypton was just dying and its air was polluted beyond anyone's imagination. A smile automatically blossomed on his face as he felt just how thin the air was and just how weak the gravity felt on Earth. In Krypton it felt like the planet was trying its hardest to ensure everything living in it felt its displeasure. Earth felt like a hot girl that was trying to woo you into staying with her for the rest of her life.
Cerion's smile abruptly disappeared when he was hit by his enhanced senses. It felt like the world was bearing down upon him and every sound produced in the entire planet was being shot into his brain like bullets. He could feel his hands shake and he almost slipped out of control but his training kicked in.
From the moment he had planned the escape out of Krypton he was training to master his senses. It was one thing to train for something that was only a hypothetical scenario but it was quite another thing to truly apply what he learned when the situation called for it. It took some time for him to truly suppress a lot of his senses and just focus on his own body. He managed to wrestle his senses and suppress them back. The real problem was his hearing because the sounds were very much distracting and painful. Comparatively, his vision was more manageable.
He took a deep breath and focused. He could feel that a force filed was covering the entirety of his body. He would have truly liked to use what he assumed to be the tactile telekinesis field to fly away but he suppressed that urge. Instead, he used the momentary respite and control he had over his super senses to use his enhanced vision. He could see through concrete and steel and his reach extended all around the base all of a sudden. What he saw took his breath away and only added more questions.
He saw the date on a digital clock which showed that it was 1st January 2000. The problem, however, was that he also saw several people that should frankly not exist in the DC Universe. There was a guy in a black trench coat dressed up as a pirate with an eye patch and all. The guy looked like a carbon copy of Samuel L Jackson and the guy was observing everything from a bunker below the base through a video feed.
Then there was Clark Gregg dressed in a black suit. The guy was closing in on his position and as if that was not weird enough he could see that one of the astronauts that were on his rescue team was Cobie Smulders. That was a WTF moment that truly floored him and he didn't know how to proceed. Frankly, he was ready to bolt straight into the sky and look for Kal-El.
Just as the thought of making a quick escape passed through his head Clark Gregg stepped forward and addressed him.
"Hello, welcome to Earth. Can you understand me? Please nod once if you can understand what I am saying."
Cerion nodded slowly as if he was unsure how to exactly respond.
"Good, my name is Agent Phil Coulson. Can we know your name?" the guy in the suit asked which made Cerion freeze.
Agent Phil Coulson? Where the fuck am I? Am I in some kind of weird DC-Marvel mixed universe? WTF!
He decided to file away that detail for later and concentrated on the here and now.
"My name is Cerion Vex. I apologize if I caused you any discomfort and alarming." said Cerion with a small dip with his head. There was no loss in being a little bit courteous. He had practised the British accent for blending in on Earth and now it was just bleeding into his speech.
"We fished you out from an orbit close to our planet. We had thought you to be dead. Can you explain how you found yourself close to our planet and how you survived space?" asked Coulson and he discreetly signalled the soldiers to lower their weapons.
Cerion knew that every piece of information would be used against him at some point. So he decided to be as vague and believable as possible.
"I once again apologize to have startled you and your people. My ship's Phantom Drive malfunctioned and a space-time anomaly deposited me close to your planet. As for how I survived it is quite obvious. The suit protected me."
"I see. You look like human and you speak our language well. What exactly are you? How can you speak our language so well?" asked Coulson
Now that was a tricky question. He could go with the route of Krypton had the same language which would be a lie and he would be caught red-handed. Earth itself had thousands of languages so it stands to reason that other planets have different languages. So he decided to go with a bit of half-truth.
"Our earliest ancestors have met before Agent Coulson. It must have been thousands of years before when your people were less polished and developed. The language that you use is remarkably similar to what we use although I don't know whether your written script is similar to that of Krypton."
"Krypton? That's the name of your planet?"
"Yes. I am a Kryptonian from the system of Rao. Although it doesn't matter now."
"What do you mean?"
"Krypton's core has been destabilizing recently. We have been trying to find a solution or even evacuate our people to the moon of our planet. We have failed and now by some fluke accident, I am halfway across the universe. I doubt there is anything left of Krypton except scattered rocks."
That brought the mood down around them. Cerion could see that Coulson was thinking on how to proceed from there and he waited patiently for the agent. Using his super-senses he heard the radio crackle to life in Coulson's ear and it was Nick Fury's voice.
"Ask him about the ship he arrived here? Ask him about whether there are other survivors?"
"Are there any other survivors?" asked Coulson with a solemn face that would have fooled anyone as a sympathetic guy.
"I hope so but very unlikely. Our evacuation protocols were not yet enacted because Krypton's ruling council had yet to give the go-ahead."
"I see. You have my deepest condolences. What about your ship? If you were close to Earth's orbit then surely your ship must be also close. We can help you recover the ship if it endured the travel." Coulson offered but Cerion could see where this was going.
They wanted the ship for any technologies or data it would hold. Again this presented a dilemma. He could just allow them to scourge space for any remains of the ship and hope that they never find anything. Doing that will make him indebted to SHIELD and they will be dealing with him from a position of strength especially if they find something.
He blinked as an idea came to his mind. It was going to expose him somewhat but it will nicely counterweight his position on Earth especially with Fury watching this exchange.
"You don't have to worry Agent Coulson. I will search for any remains of my ship myself. There is no need to waste your resources." said Cerion before he took a few steps back from Coulson who looked on in confusion.
He took a deep breath and bend his legs a little bit and then with a boom he was away flying into the air. He could feel the gravity of earth trying to drag him down but having lived in Krypton, Earth's gravity felt like a gentle tug. He could feel a force field covering his entire body and suddenly he punched through the air with no more barriers to hold him down. A sonic boom was left in his wake as his body cut through the air completely overtaking the speed of sound. He was among the clouds and it was just pure joy coursing through his mind.
"Whhhhoooooo."
He let out a whoop of joy as one of his greatest wishes came true. He has attained the ability for unaided flight. Wingsuit and Base jumping can fuck off as the sky was now his oyster.
2nd January 2000
The sun was setting slowly in the distance and Coulson began to slowly make his way to the special quarters that SHIELD assigned for their extraterrestrial guest. It has not been easy for most of SHIELD agents to stay in the base knowing that they housed a being who possessed powers far beyond their imagination. The only one that was experienced in dealing with super-powered beings was Nick Fury. But the Director had chosen to take a back seat and charged him to deal with their new guest.
Cerion Vex represented a great opportunity or a great calamity for Earth. It was Coulson's duty to properly vet him. Already, the threat level of Cerion had gone up after he demonstrated he can fly straight out of Earth's orbit well beyond Mach 9 speed with no external aid. From that single incident, it was easy to predict other possible powers of their guest. Super strength well beyond even the dreams of Captain America was a sure thing.
All SHIELD analysts were absolutely sure that there was nothing physical that could ever hurt Cerion Vex. If the guy could survive flying at speeds that even the most advanced rockets in NASA's arsenal was incapable of then the guy's strength was off the charts. Other projected abilities include enhanced senses, extreme resistance to basic elements and super speed. Frankly, even the projected abilities are terrifying to behold and he wondered just what other powers Cerion possessed. It was imperative to assess what his intentions are as he knew that it was a bad idea to just ask the guy to get out of the planet.
Turning a corner he found himself outside the door to the quarters assigned for Cerion. He knocked on the door three times and stepped back a little bit.
"Mr Vex. Can I come in?"
"Please do come in Agent Coulson."
Coulson opened the door and let himself inside.
"I see you have started working on the drone promptly." said Coulson as he moved closer to Cerion who quickly finished what he was doing to properly greet Coulson.
"The quicker I restore the drones the quicker I can restore my ship or what's left of it."
Coulson nodded in understanding. The Director was not happy to learn that the wreckage of the alien ship was now safely tucked away inside a giant hole on the moon. The only thing that Cerion brought back from the wreckage to Earth were several drones that he claimed would help speed up the restoration of the ship. Unfortunately, the drones are in a bad shape so they were in need of some patchwork.
"Anything that you need to speed up the process?"
"Oh no. What you have provided so far is more than enough to restore the drones. The real challenge will be the ship itself." said Cerion as he took a seat opposite to Coulson.
"I gathered that which is why this conversation is important. Director Fury has agreed to vouch for your asylum on Earth but know that this is going to be a tough position to sell to our government. The last time a group of aliens visited us they tried to bomb us back to the stone age with their fleet. Many among our government will be against helping you rebuild your ship."
"You need something in return for your aid and it will keep you in the clear from your government's pressure."
"Exactly." Coulson nodded but he kept the truth in his mind. The 'government' was not going to hear a single thing from SHIELD. The only one that will be informed will be the President of the United States and the World Security Council.
"Let's negotiate."
That statement was followed by almost a three-hour long discussion. In the end, Coulson retreated back from Cerion's quarters with a satisfied smile. He was careful to school his expression to impassive when he handed over a detailed report to Director Fury regarding the finer points of the deal that he made with Cerion Vex.
"So he agrees to share his technology and aid us in developing our own in military, space, energy, manufacturing, cyber and medical fields in return for asylum and material help in restoring his space ship. He also promises to work with SHIELD in defence of Earth from any extraterrestrial threat so long as he is granted citizenship on Earth. Those are some good terms." Fury commented as he read through the report.
"I have catalogued all the technologies that Cerion has promised to provide in a separate document according to categories." said Coulson and Fury acknowledged him with a nod.
"What about the DNA sample as well as his consent for some tests?" asked Fury
"Denied the both of them. He is prohibited from giving DNA of himself or that of any Kryptonian with other races by his own government. Apparently, that is a fundamental law in their planet. Kryptonians are also forbidden to procreate with other races in the Universe."
"If he is the last Kryptonian then how exactly does he think he can rebuild their race?" asked Fury
"I asked that sir. Apparently, Krypton has stopped having natural births in thousands of years. I have included that in a detailed report about Kryptonian history and how modern Krypton was shaped as a result."
"Hmm. The Council will be disappointed at not getting a DNA sample at the very least. But we have our ways to collect that don't we Coulson?"
"Already on it sir. We will be sweeping his room for every scrap of samples."
"Good. Have you gleaned any of his future plans?" asked Fury
"At the moment he is concentrating on rebuilding the ship. After that, he wants to search the wreckage of his planet and search for any survivors."
"Hmm. I will take this to the Council. But I don't have to tell you to keep an eye on our guest." said Fury with his one-eyed stare.
"You don't have to worry about that sir. I've got it covered." said Coulson before getting ready to leave.
"Coulson."
Halfway to the door he paused and turned around.
"Yes sir?"
"Have you thought of where he would stay for the duration of his stay?"
"No sir."
"You better start thinking."
"Will do sir."
AN:21edboy4926: The Red Skull already used the Tesseract and that seems not to attract any extraterrestrial attention that SHIELD knows of. Even if Cerion warns them they will still go with the project after Thor makes his landing. It is an inevitable event.