Captain Mar-Vell #4

[fan4]

Captain Mar-Vell #4

Written by mallet
Edited by Aaron Martel

The fighting was fast and furious, with Mar-Vell dismantling the guards outside without a single one having to be permanently put down. He knew that despite their attempts to stop him, they weren’t really his enemies- no more then Carol was his enemy. They were just people doing their jobs. It made Mar-Vell sad that it had come to this, but he was determined to get to his ship, or any ship that might be held here, for that matter. In a way, the military was his greatest ally right now; their secrecy had allowed him to determine relatively easily where he could find a ship worthy of space travel. Though, Mar-Vell thought, he wouldn’t be likely to thank them anytime soon.

Still, he tore through the guards on the surface and headed for the hangar that housed a secret elevator to the underground laboratories. One young guard stepped up to him and attempted a full-on tackle, a foolish move as Mar-Vell’s flight belt kept him silently aloft and unmoved. It would have taken an artillery shell at close range to have thrown him back any, and a blow like that would no doubt cause Mar-Vell more damage than not. He picked the guard up by the collar and gingerly tossed him off, and into another guard who was running towards him, sending both to the ground.

Pulling out his Nega blaster, he blew a man-sized hole in the hangar door, only to be greeted by a hail of bullets. The guards had pooled together inside and attempted to mow him down with a firing line. Their bullets, however, had bounced harmlessly off of him, while he adjusted the settings on his blaster to a widely dispersed beam set at a high frequency. With a single point and click, the blaster fired a large cone of energy, hitting all the guards in its path and stunning all the opponents. He then hovered in through the hole, only to find more guards rising up on an elevator, proving where the others had come from.

Mar-Vell flew straight into the group and into the console on the back of the still rising platform, throwing his attackers off him and hitting the bottom floor button all at once. His punches flew as the platform lowered down into the underground facility; several guards were downed with a single blow. He was actually able to stand and rest for a few moments before the elevator had reached it’s final location- ground floor, twelve stories underground. He then met another party of well armed guards, who were obviously waiting for their chance to ride up on the elevator, and with luck assist their compatriots in ceasing his attack.

Once more Mar-Vell found himself thrown into the fray, battling more servicemen, who were doing nothing, not even slowing him down. His Kree heritage was one of a warriors race so deep inside, he felt remorse not just for attacking these innocent men, but also that they weren’t stronger. An enemy not strong enough to defend itself properly shouldn’t be attacked, unless it’s for a strategic gain, but even then it’s still not very honorable. The Kree had committed horrible acts in the name of war, and he wasn’t denying or ignoring that fact, but he still held their values close to him. Well, he had tried to anyway, but spending so much time on Earth and deciding to stay here even, may have shaped how he subconsciously viewed his home world.

Such thoughts were put into the back of his mind as he continued his march forward. The last guard fell- roughly 60 guards in total now. Such a high number for a relatively small base was a good sign he was right about the material stored in here, though the guards themselves likely didn’t know about the items they guarded. The military had gotten excellent at hiding what it needed to; even now, programs were activated and being tweaked with, should Mutants attempt terrorism. Biological agents, in case of a national emergency, were being prepared that would affect only certain beings on the planet. Other horrible ideas were being spawned every day.

Mar-Vell turned a corner and found himself staring down the hall way at a series of entrances, some larger then others and all with card locks. Card locks wouldn’t stop Mar-Vell, but finding the correct bay holding his or any ship would be difficult, though the most obvious answer would be the largest room in the building. There, at the end of the hallway, was a large door, not unlike the hangar bay doors he shot through at the beginning of this journey. Not being one to turn away a good tactic, Mar-Vell shot through the door just like before, only to find silence instead of gunfire. Mar-Vell slowly entered the room, but not even the slow reveal of what lay in the room could truly allow him to take it all in.

In the center of the football stadium-like room sat a large silver machine, with two large, bulky metallic legs attached to what could be described, at best, as a large egg-shaped pod. It had weapons on either side of the pod and running down the legs. These included weapons not even Mar-Vell had seen the likes of. Some glowed with the faintest hints of light, suggesting energy weapons. Was this what they did with the research they got from the damaged ships? Mar-Vell stopped his thoughts as he realized something. If the energy weapons were on, that meant the machine was on. Mar-Vell immediately flew straight up, and just in time too, as the weapons burned a hole through what was left of the door behind him.

The weapons were relocking on him. Whatever they were, they were slow, and that was more than enough advantage for the agile Kree warrior. He took his blaster right to the couplings that held the energy weapons, slicing through them with ease, sparks flying out as the cannons fell. Then it was onto the egg itself, obviously the control center for the metallic monstrosity, firing at it from all sides, until something inside opened a hatch. Inside the shell was a small bespectacled man, completely bald with extremely large ears. He raised his hands in surrender as soon as Mar-Vell was in sight. Mar-Vell just smiled and began to turn away when a shout came from his side.

There, having entered secretly through the side of the room, stood Carol Danvers, Mar-Vell’s former fiancé, still dressed in plain clothes. Mar-Vell was stunned and stared down at her, wondering not only why she was here but how she was, and he wanted nothing more then to fly down and hold her. Mar-Vell stayed in the air though, because to Carol he was dead, literally, as she only knew him as Mark Hansen, whose life had been lost during an attack by the Kree Sentry robot. She obviously still blamed him, a fire burned in her eyes that would have been clear to a blind man, but there was something different about her. That’s when Carol started towards Mar-Vell, but as she walked she also rose, and to Mar-Vell's astonishment she drifted up in front of him. Carol had a devilish grin on her face as she saw Mar-Vell's awed expresion on the parts of his face not hidden.

[fan4]

30 minutes before:

Carol had gotten out of her escort and had been taken to the lead scientist working on the base, a tiny, bald, glasses-wearing, big-eared gentleman. He was amicable enough to show Carol around, giving her what she wanted by taking her to the experiment rooms first, passing through a much larger room as they went. The little man spoke of how they tested the latest military special weapons there, and that she’d be able to see one of their proudest achievements soon. Carol wanted to tell him that she had no intention of staying here much longer, but held her tongue as they passed through a side entrance and into another hallway that led to the core rooms. These rooms held all the stored data and biological agents, as well as the mini reactor that powered the entire facility. As the two entered a room, the man stopped and admitted he was still befuddled as to why she was allowed here as their new test subject.

He took her over to a station and showed her a syringe that had the genetic programmers in it. This was Project Warbird, but he still had to get everyone ready before they began. As well as blood tests and other physical challenges, she would have to undergo psychological examinations, and that was something Carol didn’t really want to do. She began to slowly move behind the scientist and raise her hand to knock him out, when an alarm rang through the halls. The scientist ran over to a monitor on the wall, tapping the screen, when another man in a lab coat appeared on it. He yelled something about an attack on the base, but Carol wasn’t really listening and instead moved to the syringe. She came to a dead stop when the name Captain Mar-Vell was mentioned. She snapped around to see what it was about, but the screen was black again, and the little man moved to her.

“Stay here. I’m sure the guards will stop him, but just in case, I have something in mind…” And with that the little man scurried out.

Carol, however, had no intention of standing around and immediately moved over to what had been her entire objective, the Warbird formula. She wasted no time and injected herself as soon as she held the needle, and fire shot through her blood. It felt like she was going to burn from the inside out, but then again, her body was being changed on the DNA level into something far superior to a human. She could feel it as it ate away at her old self, her old weakness. It was changing her into a soldier of revenge, for her fiancé.

When it was finally over, she had to pick herself up off the ground. She hadn’t even remembered falling, and she stumbled out to the door of the room, when she heard the sounds of battle from the large test room. She stepped out of the room and straightened herself out, then marched down to the large room, where she saw what looked like a large silver egg with legs being taken apart by Captain Mar-Vell. The egg opened and there was the little bespectacled man from earlier; he had surrendered and Mar-Vell had floated down in front of him. Now was her chance. If ever she was going to get the justice she deserved, it had to be now.

Carol shouted at Captain Mar-Vell.

[fan4]

Now:

Mar-Vell flew backwards through a hall, but the flight was not one of his own accord. Carol had thrown him into the passageway she had just emerged from. He was still confused by her sudden appearance, and even more confused by her powers of flight and strength- enough to throw him around when a full tackle could not move him earlier. Carol, however, suffered from no such problem and was on Mar-Vell before he knew it, landing a blow directly on his exposed chin. The punch shot Mar-Vell even farther down the hall, before he crashed into a steel door. But Carol, getting used to flying, didn’t stop and plowed right into him and through the door.

Mar-Vell crashed to the ground, his suit tearing open and his helmet flying off. He slid backwards before stopping at the wall. Carol picked herself up and walked towards him, paying no heed to her surroundings. She just wanted this to finally be done. When Mar-Vell turned over though, she finally stopped her assault. His face, the monster's face, was that of her dead fiancé Mark. It was Carol's turn now to stand mouth agape at what she saw. The man who stood before her very clearly was a living, breathing Mark Hansen.

Mar-Vell rose and the two looked at each other briefly, but before Mar-Vell could speak, it came to his attention that the room they stood in was strange. That’s when he realized it was the reactor room; they were fighting right next to a nuclear reactor! Carol, however, was just confused. The Warbird serum had taken its toll on her psyche and she either couldn’t or wouldn’t accept what she saw. It had to be a trick, she thought, and that thought made her mad, so mad that she didn’t notice she was beginning to draw energy from the reactor. It formed in vapor-thin trails around her, circling her, entering her, empowering her.

Mar-Vell noticed it though and began, “Carol, watch out! You're--"
When suddenly an rupture of energy shot from Carol's eyes and plowed the weakened Mar-Vell up against the wall. He felt himself weaken even more as radiation seeped into his body, but he raised his nega blaster, set at full power, and fired, sending Carol careening back. The damage had been done to the reactor already. The energy fluctuations had weakened the structural integrity of the core itself and the power began to overwhelm it. Mar-Vell had to get out of here, and get Carol out of here, but if he did, any chance of finding his ship would be lost. For the briefest moment, Mar-Vell struggled within himself, but then he grabbed his helmet and Carol and flew out of the abandoned building. The reactor exploded, pressure and fire racing up and out of the vents installed for just such an occasion, and then the desert collapsed as the facility created a sink hole.

As Mar-Vell flew away with Carol, he saw the facility members above ground. Apparently, an evacuation was ordered as soon as he had gotten underground, and they had reached a safe distance. The more pressing concern though, was with Carol. He wanted to explain to her why he did all these things, but she was injured and he couldn’t very well stay at the hospital with her. So he dropped her off, making quite the scene, promising to himself that he’d return one day and he would explain what happened and why.

As Mar-Vell flew skyward he realized that after all that had happened, he was still no closer to getting to space so he could draw off the oncoming threat. He had to keep searching, he had to find some way to protect Earth, but if he couldn’t find a way by himself, maybe the next best thing he could do would be to recruit allies…

The end.