DISCLAIMER: I own Derrick Bolris. The Misfitverse this story takes place in belongs to Red Witch, the characters of G.I. Joe belong to Hasbro, and everything else belongs to Marvel.

Chapter 10: Explanations from Xavin

"What the &%^# are you?!" Karolina cried, swearing being rather unusual for her. "And what are you talking about?!"

"Well, as for your first question," Xavin said, "I'm what's called a Super-Skrull…or at least I will be, once my training is complete."

"What's a Super-Skrull?" Karolina asked.

"Haven't you heard of the one from New York?" Xavin asked. "He is Kl'rt, the first and greatest Super-Skrull, who frequently combats the heroes you call the Fantastic Four. He has all of their powers via genetic engineering, and since I wanted to be a great and mighty Super-Skrull like him, I chose the same power set, as you can see."

He gestured to the bubble holding an unconscious Derrick.

"As for the arrangement," Xavin continued, "my father attempted to invade Earth when your parents were in the Pride, but they stopped him."

"How?" Karolina asked. "They can't have done it out of the goodness of their hearts."

"They didn't," Xavin answered. "They offered the Skrull Army the coordinates to their—your—home planet in exchange for sparing Earth. My father, De'zean, needed assurance that the coordinates were real, so they offered your hand in marriage to me, Karolina."

"Figures our parents still try to mess with us from beyond the grave," Gert's voice came as the remaining Runaways arrived.

"Back away," Xavin growled, his force field disappearing as one hand became enveloped in flame.

"Xavin, no!" Karolina cried. "They're my friends!"

"Fuh…friends?" Xavin stammered. "You mean…your parents actually let you have friends?"

"Yours didn't?" Karolina gasped.

"No," Xavin shook his head. "The closest I had to friends was a crowd of corpses I was left with for three days after I cried during a slaughter."

"Ouch," Derrick said. "Even I didn't have it that bad."

"Karolina, your people and mine are at war," Xavin said. "The youth of both planets only want an end to the war, and so do I. With you as my bride, there will be hope that I can unite our races. Please, Karolina, will you marry me?"

"I…I, uh," Karolina stuttered.

"There, uh, might be a few complications with that," Derrick said.

"What do you mean?" Xavin asked.

"Well, I…uh…I…like girls," Karolina stuttered.

"Wait, what?!" Chase cried. "So that's why she always freaked out when I said that costumes are gay!"

"They're not!" Molly cried.

"Way to ruin a tender moment, people," Gert sighed.

"So that's all?" Xavin said. "To be honest, I'm actually relieved."

Xavin began to shapeshift again, but this time his body thinned and his hair became brown and grew longer.

"Skrulls are shapeshifters, Karolina," Xavin said. "Some of us change our gender more than most humans change their hair color."

Xavin was now a disturbingly attractive girl. Karolina's jaw dropped, and Xavin took this as a sign to continue.

"Myself included," Xavin added, taking Karolina's hands in her own. "I actually prefer being female more than male. It's just…so much easier for me. Anyway, we'll be married back on Tarnax IV, the Skrull Throneworld."

"Can…can my friends come with me?" Karolina asked. "I…I can't stand to be separated from them again."

"If that's what you want, then it'll be all right with me," Xavin nodded.

"Freakin' A!" Molly cried. "We're going to a wedding!"

"As long as nothing goes wrong," Nico groaned.

"Believe me," Xavin said, "I have the same hope."

****

On Tarnax IV, various Skrulls and people of Karolina's race had gathered for the highly anticipated wedding. As Xavin had stated, the youth of both sides fervently hoped that this wedding would put an end to years of bloodshed. The Runaways, however, hoped that they would actually survive the experience.

"Well, so long as no one tries to kill us, we're okay," Derrick said as he and the remaining Runaways (excluding Karolina) sat in the front row.

"Hey, it's like they say," Nico said, "we don't mess with them, they don't mess with us. I'm just hoping this goes smoothly."

"Hey, you notice?" Chase whispered as Karolina and Xavin (in her male Skrull form) took each other's hands. "Some of Karolina's peeps are giving us the evil eye."

"Well, we are the Pride's kids," Gert whispered back. "They're not too happy with what Karolina's parents did."

"I now pronounce you husband and wife," said the Skrull priest. "Now let us just get on with the party!"

"I like that guy," Chase smirked.

"Oh, come on!" a Skrull objected. "Could we at least have gotten her a better outfit that doesn't make her look like the Earthling called—what was her name—Emma Frost?!"

"Shut up, Paibok!" snapped one of Karolina's people. "You know what? I've been waiting for this!"

The Majesdanian fired off a blast of energy at the Skrull named Paibok, which triggered the process known as the "domino effect": a Skrull near Paibok changed into some sort of bat-winged creature and tackled the closest Majesdanian, another of Karolina's people fired off another rainbow blast at that same Skrull, and everything simply broke into chaos.

"Well, that went without incident," Gert said with a roll of her eyes, a human female Xavin leading the Runaways out of the wedding chapel-turned-battlefield.

"There's a ship this way!" Xavin announced. "We can use it to escape!"

"You can fly it, right?" Chase asked.

"Hopefully!" Xavin replied.

"We're doomed," Derrick sighed.

****

A well-known building in New York, aside from the Avengers HQ, was the Baxter Building. It housed four people who were exposed to cosmic radiation, which granted them fantastic powers. Thus, they named themselves the Fantastic Four.

Reed Richards, alias Mr. Fantastic, was currently in his lab, performing studies. With his ability to stretch himself into any length imaginable, no research was impossible, nor was any project.

Even the one that began blaring the minute the Runaways' stolen ship entered the atmosphere.

"What's going on?" asked a blonde woman as a blonde man and a bulky man who appeared to be made from orange rock came in.

"It's my new Alien Entry Sensor," Reed explained. "It looks for Skrull or Kree genetic code whenever a ship enters the atmosphere."

Reed stretched his arms and head, fingers blazing over the keys as he looked at a distant computer screen.

"So, what's the problem?" asked Ben Grimm, the hard-skinned Thing.

"Strange," Reed said. "There's only one Skrull signature, along with several human signatures…and…I can't figure this signature out."

"Well, it's the end of the world," quipped Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. "Reed doesn't know the answer to something!"

"Shut it, Torchie," Ben snapped.

"That's odd," said Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman. "Reed, your device can detect Skrull code even if they're shapeshifted, right?"

"Of course," Reed said. "But I can't understand why any Skrull would have humans ally themselves with him."

He noticed the ship, unknowing of Xavin's true nature, land in none other than Los Angeles.

"Los Angeles?" Reed said. "I thought the Skrulls weren't interested in just one of Earth's cities."

"You think we should take the Fantasti-Car and investigate?" Sue asked.

"Good idea," Reed nodded. "Maybe once we get to Los Angeles we'll get to the bottom of this."

****

As had Xavin's ship before it, another space craft entered Earth's atmosphere, cloaked to disguise itself from Reed's sensors. This one, like Xavin's, contained a single young Skrull. Unlike Xavin, however, this one had a different mission.

"You won't get away with betraying the Skrull Empire, Xavin," growled the young Skrull. "I will see to that!"

****

Yes, the Skrull at the end is another character I made. You'll find out more about him eventually.