Back to GatefoldIssue #1 by Travis Hiltz
"Orientation" February 2024 |
Carol Danvers stepped through the transport portal and within seconds found herself traveling from the S.W.O.R.D. east coast field office, to the secret organization’s orbiting space station.
She took a sip of her coffee, her attention focused on the numerous emails, files, and assorted paperwork, in the electronic tablet tucked under her arm.
The combination of fresh coffee and slightly lighter gravity was enough to make her forget she’d spent most of her day grappling with government bureaucracy and political infighting.
Carol was several steps down the white corridor before she noticed the lights flickering and the staff moving at a slightly more frantic pace, than usual.
“What now...?” She muttered, more irritated than concerned.
She reached out, and touched the arm of a familiar, passing man. “Ray, what’s going on?”
The middle-aged man, a one-time NASA astronaut, halted, his expression of a ‘why did I come to work today...?” variety.
“Oh, Captain Danvers, didn’t see you there.” Ray said. “They were doing some maintenance on one of the sensor arrays and then subject...uh...your friend, you know, Miss Rambeau set off some kind of energy surge...”
“Okay, I get it. Thanks.” Carol nodded, walking off. Spotting a petite, dark haired woman with an intent expression, the taller blonde headed for her.
“Teressa,” she said. “Where’s Director Fury?”
“Good morning, Captain Danvers,” The executive secretary to the man in charge of
S.W.O.R.D. replied. “He’s got a pretty full schedule today, and as you may have noticed, several unscheduled situations that require his attention...”
The lights flickered and the entire elaborate spacer station tilted sharply. “Terresa, just point.”
The secretary juggled her burden, to free a hand and point towards a trio of clear plastic tubes.
Carol nodded her thanks and stepped into one of the elevators and floated downwards. She then took a moving walkway deeper into the interior of the station.
The round courtyard structure, all white plastic and metal, was ringed with round doors. There was a half dozen assorted techs, scientists, and security guards, gathered in front of the largest door.
“Make a hole,” She snapped, striding through the crowd, focusing on a statuesque, severe expressioned woman and a man in his 30’s with premature white hair.
“Professor Lawson, want to tell me what’s going on?”
“There appears to have been a feedback issue, caused by the sensor array,” He explained. “It overlapped with the subject’s...her energy levels have been spiking...”
“And you all just happened to be here, when this energy spike happened...?” Carol asked, icily.
“We were proceeding with several avenues of research,” The tall woman replied, with equal frost.” Director Fury...”
“Is not here,” Carol snapped. “So, Doctor Rubenstein, you and Professor Lawson will halt any and all procedures, besides basic energy syphoning, until further notice.”
“Captain Danvers, I really think...,” Professor Lawson began.
“You cannot override months of research, on a whim!” Rubenstein protested. “Director Fury...”
“Is still not here,” Carol said, locking gazes with the two scientists. “Why don’t you go look for him...now!”
The various technicians and security staff were smart enough to scatter. The two scientists held their ground for another few moments, Lawson mentally trying to formulate a counter argument, and Rubenstein from sheer stubbornness.
“Professor Lawson, if you would see to setting up a tech team, we’ll consult on how we will be going forward, later.” Carol Danvers said, decisively.
She stood in front of the chamber door, sipping her coffee and fixing her steely, blue-eyed gaze on anyone who came near.
Once everyone had drifted away, Carol finished her coffee, glanced concernedly at the door, and then touched her communication earpiece.
“Terresa, I’ll be in my office,” she said. “Let Colonel Fury know I need to talk to him, at his earliest convenience.”
Nick Fury was one of the few members of the S.W.O.R.D. station staff, who didn’t wear a uniform. Clad in slacks and a dark green turtleneck, he moved through the crowds, like a shark, silently, earnestly, while the smaller fish did their best to get out of his way. The round door opened automatically, and Fury rapped on the plastic doorframe with a knuckle.
“What’s your crisis, Danvers?” He asked, gruffly. “I’ve already put out three fires and I still have to listen to an hour of passive-aggressive bullshit from Hill.”
“This isn’t working, Nick.”
Whatever grumpy, glib remarks Fury had lined up evaporated at the use of his first name.
He stepped fully into Danvers’s office, allowing the door to slide closed behind him. “What’s going on?”
Carol sighed, organizing her thoughts, while she taped at her white, plastic desk with a pen.
“I’m living in this office, hip deep in paperwork, fending off every government on the planet...did you know a half dozen companies, including Stark International and Timely, are suing us, claiming alien tech we’ve confiscated was actually created by them. When I’m not drowning in political bullshit, I’m fighting with everyone on this station in a lab coat, because, I have to constantly remind them the people under our care are not their own, personal toys! We aren’t helping and we certainly aren’t accomplishing any like I was promised, when you recruited me.”
Fury came over and sat in the chair in front of her desk.
Carol braced herself for whatever lecture or tirade was coming her way. “You’re right.” He said, quietly.
Which was the last thing she had expected. “What?” She asked.
“I’m not saying it twice,” Fury muttered.
He leaned forward slightly, his hands clasped.
“This isn’t how I wanted things to go,” Fury said. “I thought we’d be good by now...things would be set. Instead, it’s getting away from us...getting away from me. I’ve been dumping a lot on you and that’s not what you signed up for.”
Carol leaned forward, chin resting on her hands. Part of her wanted to savor this rare moment of vulnerability in Nick Fury. Six months of his stoic ‘I got a plan’ and swagger had left her feeling, maybe she was the only one who was struggling and in danger of failing. Maybe, she was the problem.
Seeing that Fury was also struggling, left her with mixed feelings, and she now had to quickly sort through her thoughts and feelings and figure out how to best react.
Much as she enjoyed any chance to bust Fury’s bravado, Carol Danvers realized this problem was bigger than the both of them.
“So, what do we do now?” She asked.
Fury sat back in his chair; arms crossed. He’d given the question a lot of thought, but now when he was presented with a ‘put up or shut up’ moment, he had to seriously organize his thoughts and potential plans, in order to articulate them.
“First thing I want to fix...is us,” Fury said. “When I started putting S.W.O.R.D together, I knew there needed to be point men, a set field team to take the lead. I thought it could be you, me and Rambeau...now, I don’t know...?”
“What? Monica? She’s supposed to be in this...uh...trinity you’ve dreamed up?”
“Yeah, I wanted to build a central field team, three or four of us...you were an obvious choice...,”
“Flatterer.”
“And I thought Rambeau could be the other, and I get she’s going through some stuff, but if she can’t get a handle on these powers of hers, we need to get her out of here and get her the help she needs.”
“Okay, so you have noble intentions and big ideas,” Carol said. “But what are we going to actually do? We can talk about it all day, but what we really need is a solid plan.
Something to point us in the right direction.”
Fury shifted in his chair, the wheels turning, as he stroked his bearded chin.
“I’m going to get Terresa to find us some admin candidates,” Fury said. “You, pick a file; we’re going on a field trip.”
“Who? All three of us?”
“Yeah. If we are going to see if this works, all three of us need to get outta of here: spend time together in the field, out in the world...touch grass, as the kids say.”
“That sounds risky,” Carol said, worriedly. “Monica is really struggling to get a handle on things. Her nearly dropping the station out of orbit has become a weekly event.”
“We gotta know,” Fury repeated. “If she can’t control it or if we can’t help her, then we have got to change the gameplan and start from scratch.”
“That part worries me,” Carol said, quietly. “There’s a lot of power packed into a very anxious woman. It’s not just that Monica could disrupt the power grid for the entire Eastern seaboard...”
“Look, I get it. You and Rambeau’s mom are friends, you feel responsible.” Fury interrupted. “I’m not treating her as disposable, but if she can’t pull it together, we need to get her the help she needs move her Project: Pegasus, get her a therapist...but, we also need to get her off the board, and find the people who can do the job.”
Carol sat back in her chair, toying with her stylus pen thoughtfully.
“Lawson says he’s got a working energy regulator prototype ready,” she said. “Not thrilled with field testing it so quick...”
“You’re picking the mission,” Fury said, getting to his feet. “Don’t put us in Times Square, pick some UFO sighting in redneck country. I gotta put out some fires and yell at some people. Talk to Monica and pick a spot. Let’s see if we can do this.”
“Deal,” Carol nodded.
24 hours later, the rental car bumped along, following the rocky furrow in the dirt, that the locals claimed was a road. Once it had eased to the grassy shoulder, the trio climbed out.
“These people ever heard of paving their roads...?” Fury grumbled, stretching. He’d added a dark green overcoat and black gloves to his usual green turtleneck and black slacks.
“I think it’s amazing,” Monica said. “I’ve never been to Norway.”
She wore a bulky sweater and jeans over the white body suit she wore to contain and regulate her vast energy powers. There were hints of it when she stretched her arms. She also had a thick blue bracelet on her right wrist. This was the device devised by the
S.W.O.R.D research team to allow her to theoretically control her energy powers.
“I was, but it was in the air force,” Carol said, intently studying a phone-sized scanner. “So, I mostly saw it from the air. And a couple bars.”
“So, why have you dragged me out into the woods?” Fury grumbled.
“Did you even read any of the files I sent you?” Carol said, looking up from her scanner.
“I had to juggle all the details for this field trip, which meant I ended up sleeping through our flight here,” Fury said, peering around to get the lay of the land. “Plus, I know how much you enjoy lecturing me. I know we’re chasing a local boogie man and that the nearest town, is about ten miles that way and I can’t pronounce it, cause the name has too many K’s, V’s, and S’s.”
“Are you two always like this?” Monica asked, absently, looking around. “Is that blue smudge over there the ocean?”
“Barnet Sea,” Carol said. “Part of Norway’s border with Russia. One of several reasons why this field trip is tricky, as we are traveling with one of the world’s most notorious spies, within spitting distance of the Soviet Union and we can’t use the portals to move about.”
“Somebody want to tell me why that is?” Fury asked.
“Because, S.W.O.R.D. doesn’t have a station anywhere in Scandinavia,” Carol explained, patiently. “And the ‘boogie man’ is putting out some exotic energy...it’s faint, but it’s all over the place.”
Fury nodded, his mood shifting from irritable to slightly interested.
He leaned against the rental car, professional instincts kicking in, as he looked around, at their rustic surroundings.
Carol returned to her scanner, while Monica, hands in jacket pockets, idlily strolled away from the car and into the tall grass.
“So, tell me about the boogie man,” Fury said, after a couple minutes.
“It’s the usual stuff,” Carol shrugged. “Weird sightings, local legends...could be anything from a ghost to a troll, to...Norse Bigfoot. I wanted a quiet case for our first field trip. I really thought, we’d show up, go through the motions, and then get lunch...”
“But there’s something here,” Monica said. “Energy traces are all over the place...”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Carol muttered, irritably. “My scanner is all messed up...waitaminute, you can see energy traces?”
“Yeah,” Monica nodded. “I’ve got to focus, but I’ve been getting better at it. Before, when my body would go into...uh...full energy mode or form, not really sure what to call it...”
“’Yeah’ covers it just fine,” Fury said, joining the two women. “So, we got weird energy floating around where there just happens to be ghost and monster sightings. How far back do the stories go?”
“Decades,” Carol told him. “Gets foggy prior to World War 2, but there’s a few snippets...”
“This better not turn out to be some weird Nazi science,” Fury muttered, darkly. “Hate dealing with that crap...hey, Rambeau, where’re you going?”
While they had been talking, the younger woman and been absently looking around and gradually wandering away from the rental car, with the vague intensity of someone trying to catch fireflies or trace a strain of music on the breeze.
“I can...feel it,” Monica said, peering at the air around her, at something only she could see. “Almost taste it...it’s all over the place...!”
“Okay, how about you come over here and tell us more about it,” Carol said, with hesitant concern. “You need to pace yourself.”
“What...no, I’m fine,” Monica said, pulling out of her near trance and frowning at Carol. “I’ve had things under control...”
“You had a panic attack when we hit turbulence and shorted out the stewardess’ call button,” Fury reminded her.
“And you melted the hand dryer, in the ladies room, at the airport,” Carol added. “You can trust us, Monica. We want to help you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Monica replied, growing agitated. “But how do you help me with...this!?”
She faced Carol and held up her hand, which was now transparent and crackling with energy.
“I didn’t just get superpowers...I changed...my whole body changed,” Monica said. “I’m not a person that turns into energy, I’m a big burst of energy that turns into a person...and it’s harder every time...!”
“If this is getting out of your control, then we’ll set up somewhere you can get the help you need,” Fury said, coming up next to Monica. “But, if you want to stay with us, with S.W.O.R.D., you have to trust us, work with us and you gotta trust yourself. I get you are going through some stuff, like almost no one else on the planet, so you have got to decide what you want to do, to be, and Danvers and I will help. Okay?”
Monica nodded, not fully convinced, but not having the energy to argue.
“Good, so let’s get to work, so we can get back to places with some damn pavement and I can get a cup of coffee,” Fury added.
“You came so close...,” Carol said with a rueful smile directed at Fury. “So, take a breath and tell us what you can see.”
Monica unclenched her crossed arms, took a deep breath, and nodded.
She took a couple steps and pointed to a patch of empty air, over their heads.
“There are traces of this energy...uh...I don’t know what kind, haven’t really mastered identifying energy, I can do some of the big, obvious ones...electricity, X-rays, that kind of stuff.”
“So, you don’t know what this stuff is, but you know it doesn’t fit?” Fury asked, scratching his chin.
“Yeah, that,” Monica nodded. “I can’t identify every wavelength, but I can tell when one doesn’t belong...it...um...tastes wrong, I guess.”
“So, it doesn’t matter that it’s messing with the scanner,” Carol said, thoughtfully. “You can trace it for us.”
“Is this stuff just floating around?” Fury asked. “Or is there a...uh...a tide or a...whatever you want to call it? Is it going somewhere or doing something, besides floating around?” “Don’t rush it,” Carol said to Monica. “But, if you see anything that looks like a concentration of energy or a trail, just let us know.”
Monica nodded and resumed strolling around.
Fury and Danvers moved back over to the rental car. They leaned against it, Fury, arms crossed, deep in thought. Carol went back to her hand scanner.
“Back here, by the road, the signal’s coming back.” She said, concerned. “Road,” Fury chuckled, still glancing around. “Generous.”
“We have faint traces here...they seem to be getting stronger that way...”
“Energy thrown off by the boogie man or a trail of breadcrumb...?” Fury mused.
“Flip a coin,” Carol Danvers shrugged. “There’s something here, but it’s faint...could be anything, could be nothing...?”
“Well, you’ve been wading through the paperwork,” Fury said. “Awful lot of these jobs don’t result in little green men. Also, years in the spy trade teaches you there’s a whole lot waiting. Much grumbling as I’ve done, something about this place feels like we got...I don’t know what. Let’s give it some time.”
“The fresh air will do you good,” “Hmmph.”
Several moments passed quietly, the duo deep in their own thoughts.
“You hear thunder?” Fury muttered, glancing skywards. “I am not hunting trolls in the rain...”
Following the distant rumble, there was a flash of light, off in the forest, and then the two investigators were left blinking as Monica flashed close to a half mile in a second to rejoin them.
Her street clothes were gone, having shifted into her energy form, she had left them behind, and was wearing just her white and black bodysuit.
“Oh my god...I found it!” She gasped, flickering in and out, from her human form to a crackling energy form before she caught her breath.
“What?” Fury snapped, guns in his hands moving nearly at the speed of light that Monica moved.
“What the...?” Carol said, her glance moving from Monica to her hand scanner and back again.
“The energy traces,” Monica said, struggling to keep from talking too fast. “They kept getting stronger...bigger...!”
“Okay, show us.” Fury said, with quiet intensity.
Lead by Monica, the trio made their way into the woods. The path was as faint a trace as the road had been.
The forest wasn’t particularly dense, but the foliage spread far enough overhead, to block out the sunlight.
Amongst the shadows, even Danvers and Fury could make out flashes of multi-colored light. The flashes were sporadic, but intense.
Monica led them through the trees, glancing at the energy threads only she could see. At one point, she flashed and streaked away from her teammates, as a blur of light.
“Don’t like this...!” Carol muttered, as they hurried to follow. The trees thinned out, opening onto a clearing.
The ground was rocky, the grass thin and brittle. The trees were all gnarled and seemed to droop into the clearing, as though they were all reaching towards something.
“Bit creepy,” Carol muttered. “Like something out of an old fairy tale...”
“I will shoot the first witch that offers me an apple,” Fury said, glancing around guardedly.
“It’s here,” Monica said, talking low, as though she didn’t want someone to hear them, or adopting the tone of a child in church. “I don’t know...it feels...it might be unsafe.”
“What?” Fury asked. “I don’t see anything.”
“Scanner’s picking up something,” Carol muttered. “But, where...?”
“It’s right there,” Monica said, pointing at a patch of empty space, about ten feet in front of them. “Wait!”
She raised her arms, her hands out, fingers splayed wide. Waves of energy, like heat haze flowed from her hands.
The air swirled, like water going down a drain. It then began to sparkle, and a large, round portal opened in the air, glistening with rainbow colors.
Carol gasped, slightly, mesmerized by the lights, color and energy coming off the rift.
“Jesus...!” Fury breathed, guns up, his arms trembling, wrestling with the mixed urges of explore and attack. He took a couple steps back.
“Nick...?” Carol said, putting a hand on his arm.
It was enough of a nudge to snap him out of his trance. Fury blinked, exhaled, and lowered his arms.
“Get what readings you can,” he said, quietly, as he tucked away his guns.
Fury took a couple steps to the edge of the clearing. Carol Danvers gave him a concerned glance, exhaled, and returned to her handheld.
Fury stood with his back to the phenomenon, focusing on his breathing and looking intently at the trees. There was a blur and Monica was standing next to him.
“What happened to you?” She asked, with quiet concern. “What?”
“Carol’s talked about what happened to her,” Monica continued. “How she ended up at
S.W.O.R.D. Everybody knows what happened to me, but you...you don’t talk about it. Everybody has a guess, but nobody knows.”
She looked at Fury, expectantly for several moments, then turned and looked at the surrounding forest.
“I fell through a hole in reality,” he said, in a low tone, not shifting his gaze. “I saw... Jesus, what I saw, made me feel like goldfish that had been shown the ocean. I knew how the world worked and then...I didn’t.”
“I know how that feels.”
Fury moved his head and shifted his piercing gaze at the younger woman.
“I haven’t been treating you right,” he said, gruff and thoughtful. “Been too wrapped up in my own shit and became one of the people who treated you like a project.”
Monica was aware she was getting a glimpse of a vulnerable Nick Fury. She was being given a glimpse into an exclusive club and didn’t want to screw it up by saying the wrong thing. Apparently, Fury could feel her inner debate. One corner of his mouth went up briefly, in what passed for a smile, by his standards.
“You stick around, we’ll talk,” Fury said, quietly.
“If you two are done, having a moment,” Carol called, over her shoulder. “This thing is spiking. Scanner is going nuts, and the back of my neck is tingling.”
“What do we know?” Fury said, all business, but glancing around the clearing, rather than directly at the swirling disk of energy. His arms were by his side, but one of his guns was back in his hands. Old habits.
“It’s a...uh...weird pulse,” Carol said, frowning at her scanner. “It looks like a steady thing, but it’s a...uh...not a wave, but almost like a musical note.”
“It’s a lot like the portal that Kree was operating, when I...um...when I was...changed,” Monica said.
She held out one hand and faint traces of energy, like vapor passed between the young woman and the energy phenomenon. Even though she was absorbing energy through her fingertips, her expression was more as if she were tasting or smelling something unusual. “But it’s...different, not quite the same kind of energy...uh...it’s hard to explain.”
“It’s a portal of some kind,” Fury said. “But it’s not steady... unstable, maybe?”
Carol shrugged. “I’m thinking it’s more that its occurring like a pulse, rather than a steady flow or frequency.” She frowned. “It would explain the random sightings. ?”
“Something is trying to get through,” Fury said, with quiet intensity. “But can’t quite sync up with Earth...or do we have a broken portal messing with this place. ?”
Monica Rambeau, having had some significant experience with a damaged inter-spatial portal*, took a few steps back.
*(See Ultimate Anthology # - Trav)
“If it’s not working or having some issue connecting Earth with. wherever is on the other
side,” Carol pondered. “If it’s causing a kind of...distortion or...um. energy ripples could
be the source of the ghost stories.”
“What about the local Jersey Devil?” Fury asked, scratching his goatee in thought. “Does that mean something got through?”
He and Carol shared an uneasy glance.
“Something is happening. !” Monica said, anxiously, wincing slightly. “I can feel
a...something, behind my eyes...it’s...uh...I don’t know...be careful. oooh!”
Monica began flickering, from her human form to energy and back again.
She staggered slightly, as the pulse intensified. Monica reached out, to steady herself against the nearest tree, uncontrollably transformed into energy and stumbled through the tree and landed, human again, on her knees.
“You okay?” Carol asked, rushing to help her teammate. “Ladies!” Fury shouted over his shoulder. “We got incoming!”
The disk of rainbow energy pulsed, causing the very air to hum, as it increased in size. A school bus could have driven into it with several inches of clearance.
Fury snapped up his gun, holding it steadily pointed at the portal, in a two-handed grip.
A pair of hands, the size of coffee tables, reached out of the portal. The massive hands were blunt, five fingered and seemed to be made from a reddish plastic or metal. They had a polished, smoothness to them. They were soon followed by thick arms.
Stretching out, the hands fumbled to grip the edges of the portal. Where the hands came in contact with the rim, the multi-colored energy sparked and flared.
With a persistent steadiness, a massive form emerged. It was blocky, nearly as broad as it was tall. It was shiny and smooth, encased in the same metallic substance. It was a glossy red, so deep in color as to be almost black.
Its head was a featureless block set on top of broad shoulders. It sported a pair of large, round eyes that shown like traffic lights. Despite the size of the portal, the creature still had to stoop slightly to pass through it. Straightening up, it towered over Nick Fury.
Despite the feeling that his weapon would have no effect on the behemoth he was facing, Fury’s gun hand was steady.
“Wow...!” Carol gasped, joining him.
“That your professional opinion?” Fury asked, under his breath.
The creature’s eyes changed from bright red to green and twin beams washed over the pair of investigators. Fury winced, feeling like his ears had popped while he was tasting something seriously sour. He shook his head, blinking rapidly.
Carol was holding her scanner out with one hand, while the heel of the other was pressed to her temple.
The eyes again shifted, this time to yellow and when the beams washed over them, the scanner sparked and whined and Fury could feel his pistol growing warm, even through his glove.
“What the hell...?!” He muttered.
Carol dropped the scanner, flexing her fingers, as though trying to shake off pins and needles. Fury fired off two quick shots, which ricocheted off the broad, glossy chest without leaving a scratch.
The creature’s eyes returned to red, and it ran a broad hand across the surface of its chest, more puzzled than hurt. It then raised an arm, in the center of its oversized palm, a disk of energy glowed. There was a bright flash, and both agents of SWORD struggled to keep their feet.
Carol fell to her knees, her eyes watering, fumbling around to regain her scanner, as well as fighting off a wave of dizziness. Fury fired twice more, aiming for where he guessed the creature’s knee might be.
There was a bright flash and Monica Rambeau was standing in between her teammates, her hands outstretched and glowing.
“Stop!” She shouted, blasting down at the ground, between herself and the new, otherworldly arrival. Her blast kicked up dirt and gravel. “You want to hurt them; you’ll need to get past me first!”
The creature lowered its arm and tilted its head down, as though studying the young woman.
Sounds emanated from the towering form: strange, discordant noises, like someone simultaneously playing whale song and techno dance music. There would be a burst of these sounds, followed by a pause, then another burst. Since it had no visible mouth, it was unsure where the sounds were coming from.
“ What’s it doing?” Fury asked, drawing his other gun, and pointing both at the massive, blocky being. “Why’d it stop...zapping us?”
“I don’t know...?” Monica replied, glowing hands still raised. “Some kind of stalemate? Maybe my blasts scarred it...?”
“It’s not attacking us,” Carol said, in a low tone, not having stood back up and tapping away at her damaged scanner. “It’s trying to figure out what we are...those rays, are similar to some of our scanners, just...uh...jacked up to eleven and mixed with some...weird frequencies...”
She got to her feet. “Think about it,” she said. “There are no visible weapons on it. That’s a containment suit. It’s not a warrior or a hunter...”
“It’s an astronaut...!” Monica breathed. “You think those noises mean we damaged it?” “You sure about that?” Fury asked, not lowering his weapons. “If I shot their Neil Armstrong, I’ll apologize, but if you’re wrong...”
“Let’s find out,” Carol said, stepping past Monica. She tucked her scanner in a coat pocket and raised her hands slightly, in what she hoped was a peaceful gesture.
“Hello,” she said, speaking loudly, as she was competing with the odd cacophony coming from the creature. “We are...uh...sorry if we hurt or startled you! I don’t know if you can understand me. Let me think...”
She held up her hands, fists closed. She extended a single finger on her left hand. Then she did the same with the finger on her right hand.
“Pay attention,” she said, nervously. “It works in science fiction stories. One and one.” She brought her fists together, lowering the finger on her left hand and raising a second figure on her right.
“Equals two. See? Basic math.” She then held up all ten fingers. “Ten,” she said. “Base ten.”
“Is this Star Trek crap really going to work?” Fury asked.
There was a burst of noise from the creature and then in the middle of it... “You Are Organic...?” It boomed, puzzled. “Carbon based...Interesting...”
It reached up, stroking thoughtfully at where its chin should have been.
“You can understand us?” Carol asked, lowering her arms. She touched herself on the chest. “I am Carol Danvers.”
It peered at Carol, and then over at Fury.
“You are same species, but separate...pair bonding for procreation...?” “Getting a little personal, isn’t he?” Fury commented.
“Does the different pigmentation signify something amongst your culture?” It asked.
“That’s...uh...complicated,” Carol replied. “Maybe we should...?” It raised a hand, and the palm disc began to glow again.
“Stop!” Monica exclaimed, flashing across the clearing, to stand in front of her
teammates. “Your scanners have a bad...adverse effect on them...us. If you want to know something............. ask!”
The massive explorer peered down, intently at the faintly glowing, African American woman. It then went down on one blocky knee in order to be eye to eye with Monica.
“A Fo’Tunn. ?” It mumbled. “ This unit was not aware.”
“Futon. ?” Fury muttered.
“No, Photon,” Carol corrected. “Interesting...”
“This unit is designated ‘Klagg’,”The creature said. “My conclave was unaware of your presence on this orb.”
“What...?” Monica asked, glancing from Klagg to Carol and Fury. “I don’t...?”
“Whatever happened to you is apparently a big deal,” Carol said, quietly. “And it...he...Klagg seems willing to talk, because you’re here.”
Monica nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to stand as tall and straight as she could. “This world is called ‘Earth’. She said. “It is the third planet from its sun...”
Fury holstered his guns and he and Carol took a couple steps back, letting Monica take the lead.
“All hail, Futon,” Fury muttered, with a slight smile.
“Photon,” Carol corrected him, absently. “What do you think?” “About Rambeau or our new friend?”
“Either...both,” She replied.
“Don’t know if I entirely trust him,” Fury said, thoughtfully. “You wouldn’t be Nick Fury if you did,” Carol said.
“We got a lot to sort through,” he said. “About Rambeau...”
“Someone she will believe and listen to just told her, she’s not a monster or a freak: she’s something special,” Carol said, watching the massive, armored explorer and the young woman attempting to make sense of the human race. “And...uh...we made first contact with an other-dimensional being.”
“Good to see where your priorities are.” Fury said, pulling out his phone, and walking towards the trees. “I’m getting a tech team down here. Keep an eye on the playdate.”
“Hold on, something’s going on.” Carol said.
The portal colors shifted, and the rim seemed to spark and blink like Christmas lights. Klagg stood up. Monica nodded and gave a brief wave.
The enormous being then turned, and stooping, squeezed itself back through the portal. It flicked and swirled, and then blinked out.
“We okay?” Fury asked. “Did Rambeau save the world?”
“We aren’t in any danger...I think,” Monica said, hands clasped behind her back. “Carol was right, Klagg is an explorer, an astronaut. I didn’t understand all the science, but I was more focused on giving Klagg information about Earth and trying to learn more about...uh...people like me.”
“We got a ton of information,” Carol said, gesturing with her scanner. “Should keep the mad scientists busy for a month.”
“Yeah, but you said, there’ve been ghost and monster sightings around here forever,” Fury said. “Has all that been Rambeau’s new BFF? Has Klagg been trying to get here for centuries?”
“Possibly?” Carol shrugged. “Or there could be some kind of time distortion...?” Monica stood close by, one hand raised and glowing.
“Maybe it’s this place?” She suggested. “It might be the energy was here already and attracted Klagg and...other explorers...?”
“Okay, we’ll let the lab monkeys sort this out,” Fury said. “Now, the important stuff: where can I get a cup of coffee?”
“Let’s head back into town,” Carol said, pocketing her scanner. “And if you behave, we’ll see if we can track down some School bread. You’ll love it.”
“Anybody see where the rest of my clothes ended up?” Monica asked, looking around.
She took a sip of her coffee, her attention focused on the numerous emails, files, and assorted paperwork, in the electronic tablet tucked under her arm.
The combination of fresh coffee and slightly lighter gravity was enough to make her forget she’d spent most of her day grappling with government bureaucracy and political infighting.
Carol was several steps down the white corridor before she noticed the lights flickering and the staff moving at a slightly more frantic pace, than usual.
“What now...?” She muttered, more irritated than concerned.
She reached out, and touched the arm of a familiar, passing man. “Ray, what’s going on?”
The middle-aged man, a one-time NASA astronaut, halted, his expression of a ‘why did I come to work today...?” variety.
“Oh, Captain Danvers, didn’t see you there.” Ray said. “They were doing some maintenance on one of the sensor arrays and then subject...uh...your friend, you know, Miss Rambeau set off some kind of energy surge...”
“Okay, I get it. Thanks.” Carol nodded, walking off. Spotting a petite, dark haired woman with an intent expression, the taller blonde headed for her.
“Teressa,” she said. “Where’s Director Fury?”
“Good morning, Captain Danvers,” The executive secretary to the man in charge of
S.W.O.R.D. replied. “He’s got a pretty full schedule today, and as you may have noticed, several unscheduled situations that require his attention...”
The lights flickered and the entire elaborate spacer station tilted sharply. “Terresa, just point.”
The secretary juggled her burden, to free a hand and point towards a trio of clear plastic tubes.
Carol nodded her thanks and stepped into one of the elevators and floated downwards. She then took a moving walkway deeper into the interior of the station.
The round courtyard structure, all white plastic and metal, was ringed with round doors. There was a half dozen assorted techs, scientists, and security guards, gathered in front of the largest door.
“Make a hole,” She snapped, striding through the crowd, focusing on a statuesque, severe expressioned woman and a man in his 30’s with premature white hair.
“Professor Lawson, want to tell me what’s going on?”
“There appears to have been a feedback issue, caused by the sensor array,” He explained. “It overlapped with the subject’s...her energy levels have been spiking...”
“And you all just happened to be here, when this energy spike happened...?” Carol asked, icily.
“We were proceeding with several avenues of research,” The tall woman replied, with equal frost.” Director Fury...”
“Is not here,” Carol snapped. “So, Doctor Rubenstein, you and Professor Lawson will halt any and all procedures, besides basic energy syphoning, until further notice.”
“Captain Danvers, I really think...,” Professor Lawson began.
“You cannot override months of research, on a whim!” Rubenstein protested. “Director Fury...”
“Is still not here,” Carol said, locking gazes with the two scientists. “Why don’t you go look for him...now!”
The various technicians and security staff were smart enough to scatter. The two scientists held their ground for another few moments, Lawson mentally trying to formulate a counter argument, and Rubenstein from sheer stubbornness.
“Professor Lawson, if you would see to setting up a tech team, we’ll consult on how we will be going forward, later.” Carol Danvers said, decisively.
She stood in front of the chamber door, sipping her coffee and fixing her steely, blue-eyed gaze on anyone who came near.
Once everyone had drifted away, Carol finished her coffee, glanced concernedly at the door, and then touched her communication earpiece.
“Terresa, I’ll be in my office,” she said. “Let Colonel Fury know I need to talk to him, at his earliest convenience.”
Nick Fury was one of the few members of the S.W.O.R.D. station staff, who didn’t wear a uniform. Clad in slacks and a dark green turtleneck, he moved through the crowds, like a shark, silently, earnestly, while the smaller fish did their best to get out of his way. The round door opened automatically, and Fury rapped on the plastic doorframe with a knuckle.
“What’s your crisis, Danvers?” He asked, gruffly. “I’ve already put out three fires and I still have to listen to an hour of passive-aggressive bullshit from Hill.”
“This isn’t working, Nick.”
Whatever grumpy, glib remarks Fury had lined up evaporated at the use of his first name.
He stepped fully into Danvers’s office, allowing the door to slide closed behind him. “What’s going on?”
Carol sighed, organizing her thoughts, while she taped at her white, plastic desk with a pen.
“I’m living in this office, hip deep in paperwork, fending off every government on the planet...did you know a half dozen companies, including Stark International and Timely, are suing us, claiming alien tech we’ve confiscated was actually created by them. When I’m not drowning in political bullshit, I’m fighting with everyone on this station in a lab coat, because, I have to constantly remind them the people under our care are not their own, personal toys! We aren’t helping and we certainly aren’t accomplishing any like I was promised, when you recruited me.”
Fury came over and sat in the chair in front of her desk.
Carol braced herself for whatever lecture or tirade was coming her way. “You’re right.” He said, quietly.
Which was the last thing she had expected. “What?” She asked.
“I’m not saying it twice,” Fury muttered.
He leaned forward slightly, his hands clasped.
“This isn’t how I wanted things to go,” Fury said. “I thought we’d be good by now...things would be set. Instead, it’s getting away from us...getting away from me. I’ve been dumping a lot on you and that’s not what you signed up for.”
Carol leaned forward, chin resting on her hands. Part of her wanted to savor this rare moment of vulnerability in Nick Fury. Six months of his stoic ‘I got a plan’ and swagger had left her feeling, maybe she was the only one who was struggling and in danger of failing. Maybe, she was the problem.
Seeing that Fury was also struggling, left her with mixed feelings, and she now had to quickly sort through her thoughts and feelings and figure out how to best react.
Much as she enjoyed any chance to bust Fury’s bravado, Carol Danvers realized this problem was bigger than the both of them.
“So, what do we do now?” She asked.
Fury sat back in his chair; arms crossed. He’d given the question a lot of thought, but now when he was presented with a ‘put up or shut up’ moment, he had to seriously organize his thoughts and potential plans, in order to articulate them.
“First thing I want to fix...is us,” Fury said. “When I started putting S.W.O.R.D together, I knew there needed to be point men, a set field team to take the lead. I thought it could be you, me and Rambeau...now, I don’t know...?”
“What? Monica? She’s supposed to be in this...uh...trinity you’ve dreamed up?”
“Yeah, I wanted to build a central field team, three or four of us...you were an obvious choice...,”
“Flatterer.”
“And I thought Rambeau could be the other, and I get she’s going through some stuff, but if she can’t get a handle on these powers of hers, we need to get her out of here and get her the help she needs.”
“Okay, so you have noble intentions and big ideas,” Carol said. “But what are we going to actually do? We can talk about it all day, but what we really need is a solid plan.
Something to point us in the right direction.”
Fury shifted in his chair, the wheels turning, as he stroked his bearded chin.
“I’m going to get Terresa to find us some admin candidates,” Fury said. “You, pick a file; we’re going on a field trip.”
“Who? All three of us?”
“Yeah. If we are going to see if this works, all three of us need to get outta of here: spend time together in the field, out in the world...touch grass, as the kids say.”
“That sounds risky,” Carol said, worriedly. “Monica is really struggling to get a handle on things. Her nearly dropping the station out of orbit has become a weekly event.”
“We gotta know,” Fury repeated. “If she can’t control it or if we can’t help her, then we have got to change the gameplan and start from scratch.”
“That part worries me,” Carol said, quietly. “There’s a lot of power packed into a very anxious woman. It’s not just that Monica could disrupt the power grid for the entire Eastern seaboard...”
“Look, I get it. You and Rambeau’s mom are friends, you feel responsible.” Fury interrupted. “I’m not treating her as disposable, but if she can’t pull it together, we need to get her the help she needs move her Project: Pegasus, get her a therapist...but, we also need to get her off the board, and find the people who can do the job.”
Carol sat back in her chair, toying with her stylus pen thoughtfully.
“Lawson says he’s got a working energy regulator prototype ready,” she said. “Not thrilled with field testing it so quick...”
“You’re picking the mission,” Fury said, getting to his feet. “Don’t put us in Times Square, pick some UFO sighting in redneck country. I gotta put out some fires and yell at some people. Talk to Monica and pick a spot. Let’s see if we can do this.”
“Deal,” Carol nodded.
24 hours later, the rental car bumped along, following the rocky furrow in the dirt, that the locals claimed was a road. Once it had eased to the grassy shoulder, the trio climbed out.
“These people ever heard of paving their roads...?” Fury grumbled, stretching. He’d added a dark green overcoat and black gloves to his usual green turtleneck and black slacks.
“I think it’s amazing,” Monica said. “I’ve never been to Norway.”
She wore a bulky sweater and jeans over the white body suit she wore to contain and regulate her vast energy powers. There were hints of it when she stretched her arms. She also had a thick blue bracelet on her right wrist. This was the device devised by the
S.W.O.R.D research team to allow her to theoretically control her energy powers.
“I was, but it was in the air force,” Carol said, intently studying a phone-sized scanner. “So, I mostly saw it from the air. And a couple bars.”
“So, why have you dragged me out into the woods?” Fury grumbled.
“Did you even read any of the files I sent you?” Carol said, looking up from her scanner.
“I had to juggle all the details for this field trip, which meant I ended up sleeping through our flight here,” Fury said, peering around to get the lay of the land. “Plus, I know how much you enjoy lecturing me. I know we’re chasing a local boogie man and that the nearest town, is about ten miles that way and I can’t pronounce it, cause the name has too many K’s, V’s, and S’s.”
“Are you two always like this?” Monica asked, absently, looking around. “Is that blue smudge over there the ocean?”
“Barnet Sea,” Carol said. “Part of Norway’s border with Russia. One of several reasons why this field trip is tricky, as we are traveling with one of the world’s most notorious spies, within spitting distance of the Soviet Union and we can’t use the portals to move about.”
“Somebody want to tell me why that is?” Fury asked.
“Because, S.W.O.R.D. doesn’t have a station anywhere in Scandinavia,” Carol explained, patiently. “And the ‘boogie man’ is putting out some exotic energy...it’s faint, but it’s all over the place.”
Fury nodded, his mood shifting from irritable to slightly interested.
He leaned against the rental car, professional instincts kicking in, as he looked around, at their rustic surroundings.
Carol returned to her scanner, while Monica, hands in jacket pockets, idlily strolled away from the car and into the tall grass.
“So, tell me about the boogie man,” Fury said, after a couple minutes.
“It’s the usual stuff,” Carol shrugged. “Weird sightings, local legends...could be anything from a ghost to a troll, to...Norse Bigfoot. I wanted a quiet case for our first field trip. I really thought, we’d show up, go through the motions, and then get lunch...”
“But there’s something here,” Monica said. “Energy traces are all over the place...”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” Carol muttered, irritably. “My scanner is all messed up...waitaminute, you can see energy traces?”
“Yeah,” Monica nodded. “I’ve got to focus, but I’ve been getting better at it. Before, when my body would go into...uh...full energy mode or form, not really sure what to call it...”
“’Yeah’ covers it just fine,” Fury said, joining the two women. “So, we got weird energy floating around where there just happens to be ghost and monster sightings. How far back do the stories go?”
“Decades,” Carol told him. “Gets foggy prior to World War 2, but there’s a few snippets...”
“This better not turn out to be some weird Nazi science,” Fury muttered, darkly. “Hate dealing with that crap...hey, Rambeau, where’re you going?”
While they had been talking, the younger woman and been absently looking around and gradually wandering away from the rental car, with the vague intensity of someone trying to catch fireflies or trace a strain of music on the breeze.
“I can...feel it,” Monica said, peering at the air around her, at something only she could see. “Almost taste it...it’s all over the place...!”
“Okay, how about you come over here and tell us more about it,” Carol said, with hesitant concern. “You need to pace yourself.”
“What...no, I’m fine,” Monica said, pulling out of her near trance and frowning at Carol. “I’ve had things under control...”
“You had a panic attack when we hit turbulence and shorted out the stewardess’ call button,” Fury reminded her.
“And you melted the hand dryer, in the ladies room, at the airport,” Carol added. “You can trust us, Monica. We want to help you.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Monica replied, growing agitated. “But how do you help me with...this!?”
She faced Carol and held up her hand, which was now transparent and crackling with energy.
“I didn’t just get superpowers...I changed...my whole body changed,” Monica said. “I’m not a person that turns into energy, I’m a big burst of energy that turns into a person...and it’s harder every time...!”
“If this is getting out of your control, then we’ll set up somewhere you can get the help you need,” Fury said, coming up next to Monica. “But, if you want to stay with us, with S.W.O.R.D., you have to trust us, work with us and you gotta trust yourself. I get you are going through some stuff, like almost no one else on the planet, so you have got to decide what you want to do, to be, and Danvers and I will help. Okay?”
Monica nodded, not fully convinced, but not having the energy to argue.
“Good, so let’s get to work, so we can get back to places with some damn pavement and I can get a cup of coffee,” Fury added.
“You came so close...,” Carol said with a rueful smile directed at Fury. “So, take a breath and tell us what you can see.”
Monica unclenched her crossed arms, took a deep breath, and nodded.
She took a couple steps and pointed to a patch of empty air, over their heads.
“There are traces of this energy...uh...I don’t know what kind, haven’t really mastered identifying energy, I can do some of the big, obvious ones...electricity, X-rays, that kind of stuff.”
“So, you don’t know what this stuff is, but you know it doesn’t fit?” Fury asked, scratching his chin.
“Yeah, that,” Monica nodded. “I can’t identify every wavelength, but I can tell when one doesn’t belong...it...um...tastes wrong, I guess.”
“So, it doesn’t matter that it’s messing with the scanner,” Carol said, thoughtfully. “You can trace it for us.”
“Is this stuff just floating around?” Fury asked. “Or is there a...uh...a tide or a...whatever you want to call it? Is it going somewhere or doing something, besides floating around?” “Don’t rush it,” Carol said to Monica. “But, if you see anything that looks like a concentration of energy or a trail, just let us know.”
Monica nodded and resumed strolling around.
Fury and Danvers moved back over to the rental car. They leaned against it, Fury, arms crossed, deep in thought. Carol went back to her hand scanner.
“Back here, by the road, the signal’s coming back.” She said, concerned. “Road,” Fury chuckled, still glancing around. “Generous.”
“We have faint traces here...they seem to be getting stronger that way...”
“Energy thrown off by the boogie man or a trail of breadcrumb...?” Fury mused.
“Flip a coin,” Carol Danvers shrugged. “There’s something here, but it’s faint...could be anything, could be nothing...?”
“Well, you’ve been wading through the paperwork,” Fury said. “Awful lot of these jobs don’t result in little green men. Also, years in the spy trade teaches you there’s a whole lot waiting. Much grumbling as I’ve done, something about this place feels like we got...I don’t know what. Let’s give it some time.”
“The fresh air will do you good,” “Hmmph.”
Several moments passed quietly, the duo deep in their own thoughts.
“You hear thunder?” Fury muttered, glancing skywards. “I am not hunting trolls in the rain...”
Following the distant rumble, there was a flash of light, off in the forest, and then the two investigators were left blinking as Monica flashed close to a half mile in a second to rejoin them.
Her street clothes were gone, having shifted into her energy form, she had left them behind, and was wearing just her white and black bodysuit.
“Oh my god...I found it!” She gasped, flickering in and out, from her human form to a crackling energy form before she caught her breath.
“What?” Fury snapped, guns in his hands moving nearly at the speed of light that Monica moved.
“What the...?” Carol said, her glance moving from Monica to her hand scanner and back again.
“The energy traces,” Monica said, struggling to keep from talking too fast. “They kept getting stronger...bigger...!”
“Okay, show us.” Fury said, with quiet intensity.
Lead by Monica, the trio made their way into the woods. The path was as faint a trace as the road had been.
The forest wasn’t particularly dense, but the foliage spread far enough overhead, to block out the sunlight.
Amongst the shadows, even Danvers and Fury could make out flashes of multi-colored light. The flashes were sporadic, but intense.
Monica led them through the trees, glancing at the energy threads only she could see. At one point, she flashed and streaked away from her teammates, as a blur of light.
“Don’t like this...!” Carol muttered, as they hurried to follow. The trees thinned out, opening onto a clearing.
The ground was rocky, the grass thin and brittle. The trees were all gnarled and seemed to droop into the clearing, as though they were all reaching towards something.
“Bit creepy,” Carol muttered. “Like something out of an old fairy tale...”
“I will shoot the first witch that offers me an apple,” Fury said, glancing around guardedly.
“It’s here,” Monica said, talking low, as though she didn’t want someone to hear them, or adopting the tone of a child in church. “I don’t know...it feels...it might be unsafe.”
“What?” Fury asked. “I don’t see anything.”
“Scanner’s picking up something,” Carol muttered. “But, where...?”
“It’s right there,” Monica said, pointing at a patch of empty space, about ten feet in front of them. “Wait!”
She raised her arms, her hands out, fingers splayed wide. Waves of energy, like heat haze flowed from her hands.
The air swirled, like water going down a drain. It then began to sparkle, and a large, round portal opened in the air, glistening with rainbow colors.
Carol gasped, slightly, mesmerized by the lights, color and energy coming off the rift.
“Jesus...!” Fury breathed, guns up, his arms trembling, wrestling with the mixed urges of explore and attack. He took a couple steps back.
“Nick...?” Carol said, putting a hand on his arm.
It was enough of a nudge to snap him out of his trance. Fury blinked, exhaled, and lowered his arms.
“Get what readings you can,” he said, quietly, as he tucked away his guns.
Fury took a couple steps to the edge of the clearing. Carol Danvers gave him a concerned glance, exhaled, and returned to her handheld.
Fury stood with his back to the phenomenon, focusing on his breathing and looking intently at the trees. There was a blur and Monica was standing next to him.
“What happened to you?” She asked, with quiet concern. “What?”
“Carol’s talked about what happened to her,” Monica continued. “How she ended up at
S.W.O.R.D. Everybody knows what happened to me, but you...you don’t talk about it. Everybody has a guess, but nobody knows.”
She looked at Fury, expectantly for several moments, then turned and looked at the surrounding forest.
“I fell through a hole in reality,” he said, in a low tone, not shifting his gaze. “I saw... Jesus, what I saw, made me feel like goldfish that had been shown the ocean. I knew how the world worked and then...I didn’t.”
“I know how that feels.”
Fury moved his head and shifted his piercing gaze at the younger woman.
“I haven’t been treating you right,” he said, gruff and thoughtful. “Been too wrapped up in my own shit and became one of the people who treated you like a project.”
Monica was aware she was getting a glimpse of a vulnerable Nick Fury. She was being given a glimpse into an exclusive club and didn’t want to screw it up by saying the wrong thing. Apparently, Fury could feel her inner debate. One corner of his mouth went up briefly, in what passed for a smile, by his standards.
“You stick around, we’ll talk,” Fury said, quietly.
“If you two are done, having a moment,” Carol called, over her shoulder. “This thing is spiking. Scanner is going nuts, and the back of my neck is tingling.”
“What do we know?” Fury said, all business, but glancing around the clearing, rather than directly at the swirling disk of energy. His arms were by his side, but one of his guns was back in his hands. Old habits.
“It’s a...uh...weird pulse,” Carol said, frowning at her scanner. “It looks like a steady thing, but it’s a...uh...not a wave, but almost like a musical note.”
“It’s a lot like the portal that Kree was operating, when I...um...when I was...changed,” Monica said.
She held out one hand and faint traces of energy, like vapor passed between the young woman and the energy phenomenon. Even though she was absorbing energy through her fingertips, her expression was more as if she were tasting or smelling something unusual. “But it’s...different, not quite the same kind of energy...uh...it’s hard to explain.”
“It’s a portal of some kind,” Fury said. “But it’s not steady... unstable, maybe?”
Carol shrugged. “I’m thinking it’s more that its occurring like a pulse, rather than a steady flow or frequency.” She frowned. “It would explain the random sightings. ?”
“Something is trying to get through,” Fury said, with quiet intensity. “But can’t quite sync up with Earth...or do we have a broken portal messing with this place. ?”
Monica Rambeau, having had some significant experience with a damaged inter-spatial portal*, took a few steps back.
*(See Ultimate Anthology # - Trav)
“If it’s not working or having some issue connecting Earth with. wherever is on the other
side,” Carol pondered. “If it’s causing a kind of...distortion or...um. energy ripples could
be the source of the ghost stories.”
“What about the local Jersey Devil?” Fury asked, scratching his goatee in thought. “Does that mean something got through?”
He and Carol shared an uneasy glance.
“Something is happening. !” Monica said, anxiously, wincing slightly. “I can feel
a...something, behind my eyes...it’s...uh...I don’t know...be careful. oooh!”
Monica began flickering, from her human form to energy and back again.
She staggered slightly, as the pulse intensified. Monica reached out, to steady herself against the nearest tree, uncontrollably transformed into energy and stumbled through the tree and landed, human again, on her knees.
“You okay?” Carol asked, rushing to help her teammate. “Ladies!” Fury shouted over his shoulder. “We got incoming!”
The disk of rainbow energy pulsed, causing the very air to hum, as it increased in size. A school bus could have driven into it with several inches of clearance.
Fury snapped up his gun, holding it steadily pointed at the portal, in a two-handed grip.
A pair of hands, the size of coffee tables, reached out of the portal. The massive hands were blunt, five fingered and seemed to be made from a reddish plastic or metal. They had a polished, smoothness to them. They were soon followed by thick arms.
Stretching out, the hands fumbled to grip the edges of the portal. Where the hands came in contact with the rim, the multi-colored energy sparked and flared.
With a persistent steadiness, a massive form emerged. It was blocky, nearly as broad as it was tall. It was shiny and smooth, encased in the same metallic substance. It was a glossy red, so deep in color as to be almost black.
Its head was a featureless block set on top of broad shoulders. It sported a pair of large, round eyes that shown like traffic lights. Despite the size of the portal, the creature still had to stoop slightly to pass through it. Straightening up, it towered over Nick Fury.
Despite the feeling that his weapon would have no effect on the behemoth he was facing, Fury’s gun hand was steady.
“Wow...!” Carol gasped, joining him.
“That your professional opinion?” Fury asked, under his breath.
The creature’s eyes changed from bright red to green and twin beams washed over the pair of investigators. Fury winced, feeling like his ears had popped while he was tasting something seriously sour. He shook his head, blinking rapidly.
Carol was holding her scanner out with one hand, while the heel of the other was pressed to her temple.
The eyes again shifted, this time to yellow and when the beams washed over them, the scanner sparked and whined and Fury could feel his pistol growing warm, even through his glove.
“What the hell...?!” He muttered.
Carol dropped the scanner, flexing her fingers, as though trying to shake off pins and needles. Fury fired off two quick shots, which ricocheted off the broad, glossy chest without leaving a scratch.
The creature’s eyes returned to red, and it ran a broad hand across the surface of its chest, more puzzled than hurt. It then raised an arm, in the center of its oversized palm, a disk of energy glowed. There was a bright flash, and both agents of SWORD struggled to keep their feet.
Carol fell to her knees, her eyes watering, fumbling around to regain her scanner, as well as fighting off a wave of dizziness. Fury fired twice more, aiming for where he guessed the creature’s knee might be.
There was a bright flash and Monica Rambeau was standing in between her teammates, her hands outstretched and glowing.
“Stop!” She shouted, blasting down at the ground, between herself and the new, otherworldly arrival. Her blast kicked up dirt and gravel. “You want to hurt them; you’ll need to get past me first!”
The creature lowered its arm and tilted its head down, as though studying the young woman.
Sounds emanated from the towering form: strange, discordant noises, like someone simultaneously playing whale song and techno dance music. There would be a burst of these sounds, followed by a pause, then another burst. Since it had no visible mouth, it was unsure where the sounds were coming from.
“ What’s it doing?” Fury asked, drawing his other gun, and pointing both at the massive, blocky being. “Why’d it stop...zapping us?”
“I don’t know...?” Monica replied, glowing hands still raised. “Some kind of stalemate? Maybe my blasts scarred it...?”
“It’s not attacking us,” Carol said, in a low tone, not having stood back up and tapping away at her damaged scanner. “It’s trying to figure out what we are...those rays, are similar to some of our scanners, just...uh...jacked up to eleven and mixed with some...weird frequencies...”
She got to her feet. “Think about it,” she said. “There are no visible weapons on it. That’s a containment suit. It’s not a warrior or a hunter...”
“It’s an astronaut...!” Monica breathed. “You think those noises mean we damaged it?” “You sure about that?” Fury asked, not lowering his weapons. “If I shot their Neil Armstrong, I’ll apologize, but if you’re wrong...”
“Let’s find out,” Carol said, stepping past Monica. She tucked her scanner in a coat pocket and raised her hands slightly, in what she hoped was a peaceful gesture.
“Hello,” she said, speaking loudly, as she was competing with the odd cacophony coming from the creature. “We are...uh...sorry if we hurt or startled you! I don’t know if you can understand me. Let me think...”
She held up her hands, fists closed. She extended a single finger on her left hand. Then she did the same with the finger on her right hand.
“Pay attention,” she said, nervously. “It works in science fiction stories. One and one.” She brought her fists together, lowering the finger on her left hand and raising a second figure on her right.
“Equals two. See? Basic math.” She then held up all ten fingers. “Ten,” she said. “Base ten.”
“Is this Star Trek crap really going to work?” Fury asked.
There was a burst of noise from the creature and then in the middle of it... “You Are Organic...?” It boomed, puzzled. “Carbon based...Interesting...”
It reached up, stroking thoughtfully at where its chin should have been.
“You can understand us?” Carol asked, lowering her arms. She touched herself on the chest. “I am Carol Danvers.”
It peered at Carol, and then over at Fury.
“You are same species, but separate...pair bonding for procreation...?” “Getting a little personal, isn’t he?” Fury commented.
“Does the different pigmentation signify something amongst your culture?” It asked.
“That’s...uh...complicated,” Carol replied. “Maybe we should...?” It raised a hand, and the palm disc began to glow again.
“Stop!” Monica exclaimed, flashing across the clearing, to stand in front of her
teammates. “Your scanners have a bad...adverse effect on them...us. If you want to know something............. ask!”
The massive explorer peered down, intently at the faintly glowing, African American woman. It then went down on one blocky knee in order to be eye to eye with Monica.
“A Fo’Tunn. ?” It mumbled. “ This unit was not aware.”
“Futon. ?” Fury muttered.
“No, Photon,” Carol corrected. “Interesting...”
“This unit is designated ‘Klagg’,”The creature said. “My conclave was unaware of your presence on this orb.”
“What...?” Monica asked, glancing from Klagg to Carol and Fury. “I don’t...?”
“Whatever happened to you is apparently a big deal,” Carol said, quietly. “And it...he...Klagg seems willing to talk, because you’re here.”
Monica nodded, took a deep breath, and tried to stand as tall and straight as she could. “This world is called ‘Earth’. She said. “It is the third planet from its sun...”
Fury holstered his guns and he and Carol took a couple steps back, letting Monica take the lead.
“All hail, Futon,” Fury muttered, with a slight smile.
“Photon,” Carol corrected him, absently. “What do you think?” “About Rambeau or our new friend?”
“Either...both,” She replied.
“Don’t know if I entirely trust him,” Fury said, thoughtfully. “You wouldn’t be Nick Fury if you did,” Carol said.
“We got a lot to sort through,” he said. “About Rambeau...”
“Someone she will believe and listen to just told her, she’s not a monster or a freak: she’s something special,” Carol said, watching the massive, armored explorer and the young woman attempting to make sense of the human race. “And...uh...we made first contact with an other-dimensional being.”
“Good to see where your priorities are.” Fury said, pulling out his phone, and walking towards the trees. “I’m getting a tech team down here. Keep an eye on the playdate.”
“Hold on, something’s going on.” Carol said.
The portal colors shifted, and the rim seemed to spark and blink like Christmas lights. Klagg stood up. Monica nodded and gave a brief wave.
The enormous being then turned, and stooping, squeezed itself back through the portal. It flicked and swirled, and then blinked out.
“We okay?” Fury asked. “Did Rambeau save the world?”
“We aren’t in any danger...I think,” Monica said, hands clasped behind her back. “Carol was right, Klagg is an explorer, an astronaut. I didn’t understand all the science, but I was more focused on giving Klagg information about Earth and trying to learn more about...uh...people like me.”
“We got a ton of information,” Carol said, gesturing with her scanner. “Should keep the mad scientists busy for a month.”
“Yeah, but you said, there’ve been ghost and monster sightings around here forever,” Fury said. “Has all that been Rambeau’s new BFF? Has Klagg been trying to get here for centuries?”
“Possibly?” Carol shrugged. “Or there could be some kind of time distortion...?” Monica stood close by, one hand raised and glowing.
“Maybe it’s this place?” She suggested. “It might be the energy was here already and attracted Klagg and...other explorers...?”
“Okay, we’ll let the lab monkeys sort this out,” Fury said. “Now, the important stuff: where can I get a cup of coffee?”
“Let’s head back into town,” Carol said, pocketing her scanner. “And if you behave, we’ll see if we can track down some School bread. You’ll love it.”
“Anybody see where the rest of my clothes ended up?” Monica asked, looking around.