It seems like nobody decided to directly answer any of his question, but it was fine, people were busy, and it didn't surprise him if his comments got lost in the flurry of decisions that had to be made right now. If Goose was coming with them, that told him everything he needed, to know, hopefully their fuzzy friend would be amenable to giving them an assist here. It was a side quest, but an important one for sure, and he'd be joining in on it, as Sparky seemed to have named the people she wanted to help, and he wasn't on that list. Who knows, maybe a speedy tech nerd could be of assistance in the world of Flerken hunting.
"I'll help on the search as well." Oliver piped up, following not far from Kwassi. He hadn't gotten much of a chance to know the man yet, everything was a little hectic at the start of the mission, between the splintering the team went to, and the emotional hellfire he had been facing. The man seemed smart though, and since Tempest had gone, he was a little short on close friends. "Hey uh," He said awkwardly as he clamored into the truck bed, "I don't think we ever actually introduced ourselves, I'm Oliver, nice idea with the watch, sorry if I seemed critical of it." He said, placing a hand behind his head as Oli sat across from him.
Niah smiled at Bonnie. Well so much for getting some attempted walking time in. But it would be better she supposed. "I'd like to have Sparky take a look at it too." She wanted to know its limits. She also thought it would be good for them to get a bit of a tech boost from it. If Sparky could get ideas from it, that would be even better.
She was glad she wasn't going on the Flerken hunt since the children were going too, and riding in the back of a truck without seatbelts or any sort of safety devices was a bit too close to riding a motorcycle for her. She shivered at the idea of it. At least the kids would be in carseats. Niah picked up her drink before Goose could knock it over.
"Goose we aren't doing this to replace you. We need more help though in more than one place." She told him.
Location: Hawkeye's Homestead - Missouri Skills:
Matt caught Cass's smile and wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was. Did she want kids? They hadn't been together very long, but was this what they wanted? He supposed they'd have to have that conversation soon. Matt didn't get to his coffee cup fast enough and Goose knocked it over. He signed and cleaned it up. He really wished he had been able to finish his coffee, but no. Goose had to be a punk cat. When he finished cleaning up the spill he took care of his dishes.
Matt joined the others on the truck bed. There was something freeing about being on the back of a truck like this. It was very country. The lot of them cramming onto the truck bed sans any safety equipment. "You know maybe having more than one Flerken around might be a bit much."
Sparky glanced over at Raynor when he suggested that they go see about her working in the quinjet as opposed to the house. "Well I thought that'd be a given. After all, that has all the stuff that I'll be needing for this sort of thing anyway, plus you know, probably a little more space too," she said towards Raynor with a bit of an eye roll, before she glanced over to see the cat that was now up in the air on the rafters in the building, something that she couldn't help but find slightly amusing. Though she did feel a bit bad for Goose, since the cat probably didn't like getting his tail pulled at all.
"Poor cat," Alex couldn't help but comment seeing the cat go flying up almost like in a cartoon or something like that. Sure, the kid probably didn't know any better with regards to how to really treat a living animal, but still, Goose went straight up into the air really quickly. Of course, to think that they were going to go off and get more flerkens, who all apparently looked like actual normal cats was going to be interesting. Goose was used to people and what not, he didn't want to think of what a flerken who wasn't Goose would act if a small child grabbed their tail and yanked on it.
Walking towards the door, since at the moment she wasn't all too hungry or anything so she hadn't really grabbed much food, Sparky glanced back to look at the others, "Yeah, figured that if I was going to make a robot eye for her, might as well see if it fits, so then since I'm poking around potentially in someone's eye socket why not have the doctor. Figured that you'd want to keep an eye on Niah anyway Bonnie. So win win all around let's go," she said as she headed out and went towards the quinjet, more or less just wanting to get this whole situation started and working on the devices and robotic eyeball.
Glancing upward at the cat in the rafters, he thought that this entire situation was more then a little bit amusing. "Goose you going to come down or no?" he asked the cat, finding it more then a bit amusing that he was asking a cat to come down from the rafters. Goose seemed to think for a moment, before the cat jumped straight off of the rafters, and landed right into Alex's arms. "Well aren't you just a bundle of joy," he chuckled at the cat in his arms. Goose was purring in his arms before the cat looked over at Fury, almost with a sort of knowing look, as the cat waved his paw sort of lazily at him, but it was almost like the cat was gesturing at his eyepatch or something. "Anyway let's go then," he said, petting the cat a bit as he carried the furball towards the truck. Once over there, the cat jumped from his arms into the truck bed, clearly not wanting to be anywhere near the kids. Back home in Montana growing up he had typically ridden in the bed of pickup trucks, so this wasn't anything new, and he easily jumped up into the bed of the truck and found a spot that was somewhat far away from Kwassi, as far away as you could get in such a small space, and waited for them to get going.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
Okay, this plan would probably work, but there was another issue that was being shown with regards to this. He wasn't sure any sort of situation would give a good enough reason to really drag the princess through the bodies and carnage that currently is the bridge area. "...Are you sure you want to go through there and see if the person we're looking for is in the area?" he asked her, he just really wanted to make sure. Especially since more then a few of those bodies were completely burned, meaning he wasn't even sure if the person would still be recognizable.
Then there was Maria more or less making a promise that he wasn't sure that they'd be able to keep. Based on how some of the others in that room had been fighting, he wasn't sure if any of them would be fine with just not attacking the Skrulls or going along with nonlethal means. That just wasn't going to end well, and if Maria wanted to make that promise, then she could be the one who spoke with people about that, no roping him into it. Glancing at the Princess and Hope for another second, he said nothing as he headed back towards the bridge, since they were going to head that way anyway.
Anelle nodded at Flynn. She had a brave face on as she walked after Maria, going back to the bridge. Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of all the destruction - and the casual attitude of those who had committed it. She could barely hold back the tears, seeing all of the dead. Some of them were burned beyond recognition. It was so horrible. It had been a massacre. Her heart was pounding, as her mind was seized by the idea that she was siding with these people who had slaughtered her people.
"Hey take it easy, Princess, breathe," Wasp reminded her. "Captain Marvel, have you seen the skrull leader?" Wasp then asked, as Carol came on over.
"You're... Captain Marvel?" Anelle asked, her face clouded with confusion. "Do you have news of Mar-Vell, my betrothed?"
"Wait, what?" Wasp asked, confused.
"You're Mar-Vell's fiancée?" Carol asked, looking shocked. "She never told me she was engaged... But yeah, I know her. She's the reason I got into this line of work. I named myself Captain Marvel in honor of her."
"Is she alright?" Anelle asked.
"As far as I know, she's still on Earth," Captain Marvel answered.
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 9:20 A.M.
The truck had been too full for Spider-Man to go along with those heading to the animal shelter - that and since his secret identity was secret even to other heroes, he wasn't about to remove his mask and whatnot. So showing up to an animal shelter in Missouri as Spider-Man would definitely draw attention. Instead, he was in the quinjet with the others, albeit stuck to the ceiling and looking at everyone upside down. He was a bit of a tech nerd himself and he was very curious about this entire eyeball process.
"Hey, have you ever heard of some really old movies called Star Trek? This one guy in them, he was the villain, he was missing an eye too. Had a really lit looking eyepatch and everything! Maybe you could cosplay as him," Spider-Man suggested. "I think his name was Chang, if you wanna Google him. I'd tell Fury to try it out, but I think he'd kill me."
Raynor sighed. "Kid, if you keep blabbing like that, I'm going to make you lose an eye," he threatened. Despite all of the rest he had gotten, he was still pretty weak and recovering. He wasn't anywhere near full strength and having a hyperactive spider-ling around wasn't helping. At least now he was surrounded by people he mostly knew and could mostly trust. A thought then occurred to him. Speaking of kids, he had no idea what the gender of his baby was going to be. "Do you know the gender yet?" he asked Sparky.
Baby names... Those were going to be a thing too. He knew that he'd want to honor his parents - he missed them so dearly, mostly his mother - and he hoped that Sparky wouldn't mind. Midgard names weren't as cool as Asgardian names anyways, there was a reason she went by Sparky and not Theresa, right?
"Someone needs to eat a Snickers bar," Spider-Man quipped.
Bonnie was doing some general busywork at the moment, tidying things up and reorganizing and taking inventory of all their supplies. As they had more or less stolen the quinjet, they hadn't had much of a chance to really go over all of the medical options. In a strange way, it was also the closest they had gotten to a girl's night so far - plus Spider-Man and Raynor. She wondered briefly how Raynor would be as a father, before deciding that it wasn't really any of her business. And she wondered again if there was a chance that Flynn was out there, alive.
"I think everyone needs to behave themselves or I'm kicking them out," Bonnie said, eyeing the two boys. "This is a medical facility, and as the doctor, what I say goes. If you don't like that, I'm sure there's something on the farm somewhere that you could do that'd be worthwhile. Maybe the animals need to be fed or something."
"Sorry Agent B," Spider-Man said.
Raynor just shrugged.
Bonnie stared at Raynor.
"...Sorry Bonnie..." he grumbled.
"Better."
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 9:20 A.M.
The truck bed was incredibly packed, with everyone who had decided to go flerken hunting. They were more or less all squeezed together like sardines. Amelia ended up squeezed in between Sam and Bucky, whereas the President was right next to T'Challa, Cap ended up right next to Kwassi, and Mar-Vell rode shotgun up front. The trip was relatively quick, which was both a blessing and surprising, given how far out in the middle of nowhere Hawkeye's family seemed to live. When they pulled up to the animal shelter, Amelia's face fell, seeing the name.
"Never understood why they always feel the need to plaster names like that everywhere, seems a little bit backwards to me, given that they, y'know, lost and everything," Amelia said, shaking her head. She conjured up a little gust of wind, propelling herself up and out of the truck, flipping over in the air, and touching the ground firmly behind her. "Like why can't they name the bloody place after someone who was good and wasn't, y'know, an actual bad guy?" she continued.
Sam nodded, feeling the same discomfort that Amelia did. Captain America opened his mouth for a moment, about to say something, but then reconsidered it. He truthfully didn't really know what to say. For a man from the 40's, everything seemed much better nowadays, but he was beginning to understand that the work wasn't really done yet and the movement was far from over.
"I must confess, I do not understand it either," T'Challa said, getting out of the truck. He was silent for a moment, feeling a certain heaviness in the air. "So, Goose, shall we go see if we can find more of your kind?" T'Challa asked, addressing the cat like he was a person and not, well, a cat.
"I guess we could say you like cats, T'Challa," Sam teased lightly. Even Bucky smiled a little bit at the joke, as he got out of the truck bed along with Steve.
"Ugh, I just know they're all going to be so cuuuute!" Amelia exclaimed. She didn't want to dwell on racism in America for too long, especially not since she would much rather think about all the cute dogs and cats they were about to see. Even if they weren't all equipped with tentacles in their stomach, she was still excited at the thought. And from the squeals coming from the truck's cab, Hawkeye's kids were equally excited about the idea.
Case in point, the small family (and Mar-Vell) practically spilled out of the truck, with the three kids running as fast as they could towards the shelter doors.
"They're free to a good home, any takers? No?" Hawkeye joked.
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Cassandra looked up at Spider-Man hanging upside down on the ceiling of the medical bay in the Quinjet, and shook her head slightly at the comment she did grow up watching some of Star Trek. "I was more of a Star Wars fan growing up than being a Trekkie." Cass said to him, as she got herself comfortable in the medical area while looking over at her friend as she started to go through the supplies. "So is there anything I need to do?" She asked looking over at both Bonnie and Sparky, she wasnt really comfortable with having her eye socket poked and prodded at. But then again it was the same way that they had to get the M-Pox cure out of her, which she almost died from but that wasnt Matt's fault really.
"Also do I need to be under or anything like that to? I'd rather not have a repeat on the M-Pox cure either." She asked, mostly out of curiosity she trusted both Bonnie and Sparky that they would be able to do it all safely. She looked between Bonnie, Raynor and Spider-Man and laughed slightly knowing that her friend would actually do it as well.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri -> Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter Skills: N/A
Evelyn sat in the back of the cramped truck bed, it wasnt her ideal way of traveling but they didnt really have anything else that would be able to fit all of them in either. She tucked a few strands of her hair out of her face and behind her ear as they drove towards the nearest animal shelter. It didnt take them to long to get to the shelter as Evelyn turned to look at the animal clinic seeing the name of it made her shake her head slightly.
"The name isnt really the best." Evelyn said as she climbed out of the back of the truck and dusted herself off a bit as she looked over at Hawkeye. "I'm good thanks for the offer though." Evelyn said jokingly as she watched the three kids bolting off towards the animal shelter and started to make her way towards the inside of the shelter. She did enjoy seeing cats more than dogs she did have a cat or two growing up as well.
Maria Novikova
Location: Bridge Skills: N/A
Maria still couldn't help but feel guilty as she stood by Princess Anelle's side as she entered the bridge and looked at her. "It's okay Princess." Maria said trying to make sure that she was okay. She looked at Captain Marvel and then over at Princess Anelle for a moment a bit confused. "Who's Mar-Vell anyway?" Maria asked, as she looked over at Tony and then over at Sue as well as Johnny.
"How are Tony and Johnny doing?" Maria asked, she couldnt help but wonder if they were okay to it looked like they were still out. "So whats the plan anyway?" Maria asked looking over at Hope, it looked like she had some kind of plan while they were talking to and calming down the princess.
Kwassi was a bit disheartened when he saw that Spider-Man wouldn't be joining them. He was still full well and happy that his king would be with him, even if it was just to visit shelters and look for alien cats that hated green invaders. He was running through plans in his mind when he heard the most unlikely of voices speak to him. Oliver climbed into the truck next to him and began idle conversation, complimenting his idea in a fairly awkward fashion. It had been a while, it seemed, since anyone from S.H.I.E.L.D had offered him a friendly chance. Even those recently rejoining from space endeavors had seemed to immediately dislike him. He offered the awkward geek a smile, extending a hand out in friendship. "Think nothing of it my friend. You're idea was quite sound as well. I do not mind constructive criticism. It is only when others shut down ideas and offer none of their own that I begin to feel irked."
When they reached the Animal shelter, Kwassi's stomach became knotted and twisted. The name was an unfortunate choice, even more so knowing others prided themselves on this form of heritage. He didn't say anything, not wanting to add to the chamber of voices already airing out their disdain for the place. Instead focusing on T'Challa, Goose, and the mission ahead. He finally clamored out of the truck bed, looking at the building before finally speaking. "The sooner we can find these flerken, the sooner we can leave this unfortunate place." As far as secret hideouts went, Bartons seemed ro be out in the middle of nowhere, hard to find. But it was unfortunate to know he lived so close to a location that would condone this kind of thought.
A part of the awkward nerd in Oli that remained deep in his core beamed at the fact that it seemed he had made a new friend in Kwassi. He called Oliver his friend! Of course, he had to play it cool now, and not devolve into hyperfixation on the minutia of different design choices and the like, but a part of him wanted to. His time with Niah was great, and he thought he found a friend in her, but she never struck him as a techie. In any case, Oli turned his attention slightly towards Peter Parker, and briefly remembered the trouble his existence had caused Oliver, when Deadpool had ruined their Christmas for him. He choose to keep his mouth shut, but a part of him felt odd around him.
And, as they reached the name of the shelter, Oliver realized that they were, in fact, in Missouri, and in Missouri everything was apparently terrible. Only in America, Oliver thought, would they name a pet shelter after the general of a rebel army that wanted to continue to enslave other human beings. Not that the British were particularly better about the whole, "Subjugating human masses" thing, but at least they stopped before America did. In any case, he agreed with Kwassi, they needed to get in and get out as soon as possible, even though it wasn't his own head at risk here.
"Mar-Vell's my mentor. She was a big deal in the Air Force, did a lot of stuff with experimental planes, and since she's Kree, she helped me to understand that part of me," Carol reflected. She was half-human, half-Kree - a hybrid. There weren't very many Kree on Earth that she knew of, so Mar-Vell had more or less been a role model to her.
"Mar-Vell inspires greatness and possibility," Anelle agreed with a sigh. "It's been some time since I have seen my beloved. I was meant to escape to be with her on a shuttle, but I was captured and declared a traitor to my people... That is why you have found me in the cell earlier today. I have been a prisoner of the Empress for many Earth rotations."
"I'm fine, just listening to the Game of Thrones recap," Tony groaned, finally getting up off his feet. His arc reactor wasn't flickering in and out, so it seemed like he wasn't dying - at the moment at least. "And I'd love to hear this plan, although something tells me it's more like 12% of a plan, and I'll have to fix it."
Hill completely ignored Tony. The Human Torch wasn't conscious yet, although his eyes were fluttering, so he'd likely wake up soon. "I'd like to hear this proposal as well, Wasp."
"Well... We found out from Princess Anelle that the Kree have a weapon that can detect skrulls. If we can steal it from them, we could use it to definitively figure out who all the skrulls on Earth are and expel them," Wasp proposed. "I have another idea though. If we could stage a coup, get rid of the Empress and install Princess Anelle on the throne, Anelle can order the skrulls to withdraw."
"What do we know about the Kree?" Black Widow asked, weighing their options.
"They're one of the strongest empires in the galaxy. Stealing from them would be a suicide mission," Carol said bluntly.
"Speaking as a fan of not dying, I vote we go with the second plan then and throw a coup!"
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 9:30 A.M.
"Oh, that's lit, I'm a huge Star Wars stan," Spider-Man gushed to Cass. "I'm actually working on making a Lego Death Star with a friend right now, when we finish I can bring it over and show it to you guys. I'm guessing you have a secret base in New York somewhere? I'm not much of a guy for traveling out of state very often."
"For the moment? No," Bonnie told Cass, shaking her head. "I'm going to want to clean out the wound again before Sparky does anything with installation of a robotic eye, but given that the eye hasn't been created yet, I think you're fine for the time being. I'd rather sterilize the area as soon as possible to when the device is put in, as it'll sting a fair bit, and I don't want to have to re-sterilize." She then considered Cass' next question, thinking for a moment. "As for being put under, it'll depend on how sensitive the area is. If you're worried about the pain that may be easier, but I wouldn't expect we'd have to unless you really wanted to do so..."
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 9:30 A.M.
Mar-Vell scooped up Goose. "Be a good boy, okay?" she whispered to the flerken. He had been her pet before he had been Fury's. She would have taken him back with her during her return to space, but he had become so attached to Earth and Fury that she had decided to let him stay behind. Still, she missed him greatly and was glad to have time to spend with them. "I'm going to go catch up with the kids," Barton said, before jogging into the animal shelter.
"Do you all have any pets?" Amelia asked, falling into step with Cap, T'Challa, Bucky, and Falcon.
"I've got a bird," Falcon admitted, grinning slightly. "His name's Redwing. If you're lucky, you'll get to meet him."
"I have a man named Steve," Bucky said, breaking his silence for the first time in ages.
Captain America rolled his eyes, chuckling. "Very original, Buck. You can really see how I'm being brought to tears over this," he said, before clapping Bucky on the back.
"Hmm... No, I cannot say that I do, although once when I was little I hid a panther cub in my room for a week before Baba caught wind of it. The Dora personally escorted me to return the cub to the wild," T'Challa reflected. "I named it Vlek - which means Spot in this tongue."
Amelia couldn't help but break out into a grin. She had always been a bit of an Avengers fan, and hearing these stories made her so incredibly happy. She also thought it was incredibly rad to imagine the Black Panther will a little panther cub for a pet. It seemed super on brand to her and she had to wonder how deeply the panther aesthetic was represented in Wakanda. And of course, Falcon having a bird was also on brand. The Bucky-Steve thing confused her, but she figured with more context it probably would have made sense.
Inside the animal shelter, a frazzled looking employee was being bombarded by Hawkeye's kids with a million questions. There was a sign on the wall pointing towards where the cats were kept, so after a moment of awkward dawdling, Amelia headed on back there and the others followed. There had to be fifty or so cats back there, all different shapes and sizes, ages and coloring. "Awww, there are so many!!" Amelia squealed. A few of the cats meowed in greeting.
"Goose, go see if any are friends, okay?" Mar-Vell instructed, putting the cat down and letting Goose roam around. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see T'Challa giving ear scratches to a kitten, whereas Bucky was having an intense staring contest with a red one eyed cat.
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
"I've read some of the Star Wars books back in college." Niah smiled at Spiderman. "It is a good universe." She leaned back in her chair. "Do you want to look at Cass's eye socket first or my leg?" Her question was answered though when Bonnie said she wanted to clean the socket right before Sparky finished the eye for Cass. So she nodded and got out of the chair and upon the table.
"Sparky when do you want to look at the chair?" She asked reaching over and thinking it back to the robotic leg that it had been when Dr. Larson first gave it to her. "Leg." She corrected holding it up. She resisted a Mrs. Nesbet joke, it wouldn't really work since it was a leg she decided.
Location: Missouri - Animal shelter Skills:
Matt frowned at the name of the shelter. He did not like places in the world that were blatantly bigoted like that. Chances were if a place was racist they'd also be transphobic. He was uncomfortable. He had a feeling that several of the members of the group were also uncomfortable as well. He sighed and entered the animal shelter after the others.
In the cat section of the shelter, there were a bunch of cats. He picked a random cat and offered his fingers for scratches to it. "Hey there cutie. Are you a flerken and willing to help us find a bunch of aliens trying to take over the world?" He said quietly to the cat. He liked animals and thought of a cat he had growing up. It had lived outdoors mostly but it would sunbathe in his yard a lot and he would pet and feed it.
The cat in the kennel came forward and sniffed at Matt's fingers before rubbing against them. "Aww you're a sweetie. If I didn't live the life I live I'd adopt you even if you weren't a flerken. But I probably would not be a great parent right now. I should wait till I leave this line of work."
Cassandra nodded at Bonnie as she started to remove the bandages covering the eye socket and leaned back slightly, she didnt really want to take a look at the damage really. Cass turned to look at Spider-Man for a moment and shook her head, they had been primarily stationed out in San Francisco. "We work out of the HUB mostly out in San Francisco." She said, though she remembered when the team was first made they worked in the Playground in DC which felt like a really long time ago now at this point.
"I'll be fine staying awake for it, I can take the pain." Cass told Bonnie, she looked over at the leg that Niah had and wondered how that actually worked. She just hoped that they would be able to be successful with their mission and getting rid of the skrulls on the planet and find those who were taken by the Skrulls as well to.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri -> Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter Skills: N/A
Evelyn looked at Amelia for a moment when she asked some of the Avengers if they had any pets, she shook her head slightly she didnt really grow up with to many pets really. "I didnt really have any pets growing up." She decided to say as they entered the animal shelter seeing the poor woman at the front desk of the shelter being bombarded by a bunch of Hawkeye's kids with questions. She gave the woman a friendly smile and thanked her before going over into the cat wing of the shelter seeing all of the cats that were there.
Evelyn smiled as she approached one of the cats and gently reached her fingers into the cage so that the cat would be able to sniff them. She instantly took a liking to it as Evelyn started to scratch under its chin. She thought about coming back when this was all said and done and adopt a cat of her own to bring back to Serval Industries.
Maria Novikova
Location: Bridge Skills: N/A
Maria leaned herself up against a nearby wall as she listened to Captain Marvel explain who Mar'Vell was she seemed to be a very good ally to have with the. "Do you think there is a way to contact her right now while we are on our way there?" Maria asked, maybe they could get in contact with the others and let them know they were on their way. She also listened to Hope's plan and nodded slightly, the coup idea would be a bit easier than taking on the Kree.
"I say we go with the coup, Princess Anelle deserves to have her throne anyway. And if we do go after the Kree though we'd have to find them or somehow take them on while drawing their attention to Earth most likely, but having that weapon could help. Unless the Kree have set up shop somewhere in system on our way back home." Maria said, she would go with whatever plan that the others would go with.
Sparky didn't say too much at the moment when she headed off with the others and back on board of the quinjet. She couldn't help but roll her eyes at the exchange that happened between Raynor and Spider-Man. "Ray be nice okay?" she added to the conversation before she looked over at Bonnie, figuring it would be better to get all of that squared away before answering Raynor's question, "Don't worry about it, it likely will still be a little while before I get to work on the robotic eye, gonna get the other stuff started at the least first. And I'll look at your leg later Niah, I am curious as to how it works."
She started to head around and grab what she needed to in order to potentially create the watches that they'd need to break into the White House. Grabbing tools and various electronic parts, she set to work, before remembering after a brief moment that she still hadn't answered Raynor's question about the baby. "I found out not too long ago actually, it's a girl," she said calmly, not even looking up from what she was tinkering with as she seemed more focused on that and less so on the gender of their kid.
Location: Animal Shelter ]Skills: N/A
He still wasn't too thrilled about Kwassi still being around, though he did have to agree with everyone else that the shelter probably could use a better name than the one that it had. Since that sort of name was a bit of a bad one to have in this day and age. Unfortunately since they obviously were closer to the south from what he could tell, that was probably a more common thing then not. Yeah, but right now was probably not a good time to go trying to change that, since they were in a bit of a hurry, though that was something to sort of think about for later.
Following along after the others into the building, he contemplated going up like the others to the random pets in the place and starting to scratch them, then again. Eh, what the hell, he was going to do that anyway, and he walked up to random cat and started scratching it behind the ear and it started to purr. Alex personally wanted a cat as opposed to a dog or something, maybe he should bring that up with Jade somehow and mention it to her. Then again they'd have to make sure if they did get a cat that it had a personality that would be fine with a little baby wandering around and maybe pulling on its tail.
Goose personally still wasn't too thrilled with the hoomans wanting to find more Flerkens, and when Mar-Vell ordered him to go look, he looked up at her and sort of yawned, helping to show his disapproval at this situation. Walking around, Goose started poking his head into various cages, looking at the other cats. Eventually he stopped by two different cats, their names were labeled as Fluffy and Muffin, and the tentacles popped out of his mouth and sort of waved at the two of them, and suddenly tentacles popped out of their mouths and waved back at him.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
Flynn just nodded slightly at the Princess when she more or less gave her own nod in response to him asking if she was sure that she was okay. He still wasn't too sure about this, about how she might be doing. Then again, he wasn't a telepath, so he wasn't sure what exactly was going through her head, and he wasn't going to pry if she didn't want to talk about it. That was her choice, and she at least seemed to understand that they didn't really want to hurt her or cause any more problems for her then they might have to. Which he hoped was a good thing. He just listened to the conversations that were going on around him.
He was a bit interested in the conversation with regards to someone named Mar-Vell, who apparently Captain Marvel and Anelle both knew, and Anelle was apparently engaged to. Well, this Mar-Vell person didn't seem so bad from the sounds of it, and he did feel a little bit bad about Anelle trying to escape to Earth and not being able to get there. The conversation shifted towards a potential plan, and from what he was hearing, Plan A sounded like a death wish and Plan B also sounded somewhat like a death wish. It all depended on which one would be the least likely to get them killed. "I say we go with the second plan and put the princess on the throne, both plans in a way could end up being suicide missions, that one seems the least likely to result in getting us killed, plus sounds like the princess deserves the throne anyway like what Maria said..."
Kwassi had chosen not to answer the question about pets in front of T'Challa. Truth was, growing up he had a black cat as a pet. He would study its movements, the way it contorted its body to slink from room to room, and try to mimic its cat like reflexes. Not only did it serve to keep him limber, but he liked to imagine that he was the Black Panther as he was doing it. Skulking through the foliage of Wakanda, hunting down his prey of evildoers and poachers, and striking when the time was right. His thoughts were pulled back to the present as he heard the sounds of children speaking over one another as they attacked the clerk with questions.
Kwassi gave the woman an apologetic smile before turning the corner and following into the room where all the cats were being held. Already the others had taken to petting and scritching the cats. Kwassi himself unsure of how exactly they were meant to discern one cat from a flecked without Goose's aid. He stood back against a wall for a moment, eyeing all the cats from afar with a soft smile. He turned to talk to Oli only to notice he hadn't entered the room yet. So Kwassi pushed himself off the wall and made his way towards one of the cages when he saw Goose giving two cats a tentacley wave. He walked on over, squatting down in front of one of the cages with a big smile. "Well hello there Fluffy. What do you say we get you and Nuffin out of here and get you some treats?" Kwassi wasn't sure how different Flerkens were to cats, but he figured it was better to be safe. Staying near eye level and holding out a hand slowly for Fluffy to sniff and adjust to him.
Oli watched with a kind of morbid curiosity at the intellectual assault the kids were staging at the clerk. Now, he saw how utterly terrible he himself was as a child, and he could only imagine what it would be like to have to deal with dozens if not hundreds of little Oliver's every day. That being said, of course, Oli wasn't going to stop the kids. Curiosity was good, and incredibly fun to watch. Plus, it made for a good distraction, in case something hinky happened in Goose's search for his fellow Flerken. If he had to guess, they'd probably be problem children, and The clerks would be fine with letting them go, but still.
Following after Kwassi, Oli was absolutely amazed by the cornucopia of cats and kittens, or as he knew they were properly called, a clowder. He gave a look at one of the adorable ones in a cage, and a very big part of him wanted to adopt a cat that could not grow tentacles and eat them, but he also knew that today of all days, they had to stick to the mission. He might come back one day, or at least, go to a less terribly named pet shelter, and get himself a cat, but he honestly didn't know SHIELD's policy on having pets on premises, or how Goose would feel about other fluff balls getting attention.
"Fun, the United States now gets to create puppet states out of alien races too now," Tony muttered under his breath. "Yay us." His political views had gotten a bit more extreme after his stint in captivity. He didn't care for US Imperialism and this felt dangerously close to that, but he wasn't sure what other choice they'd have. His daughter was on Earth and the love of his life, Pepper, was too - and it seemed like the only way to save them.
"Are you up for this, Princess?" Carol asked, as she was the one with the most space knowhow. "You'd have the chance to end the war - to let the galaxy be at peace."
Anelle nodded. "The war between our peoples... It's gone on so long that even I scarcely know why it began. I believe my people will follow me if they are given a choice... I can do this."
"Great, we have a plan. In the meantime, as this travel will take a while, Flynn, Maria, train the Princess in some self defense. She'll need to prepared."
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 9:40 A.M.
Spider-Man gasped slightly. "They have Star Wars books?!?! Whaaat?" he exclaimed. He seemed very easily excitable, almost childlike. He hadn't removed his mask at all so there was no way for anyone to really tell how old he was, especially since he seemed like a normal height and all. Plus, there was no way the Avengers would just let a kid run around fighting crime, right? They had barely consented to letting the X-Men help with the Galactus issue and the X-Men were largely adults.
Raynor's heart skipped a beat, finding out that they were having a little girl. He would have been happy either way, but he had been secretly hoping for a daughter. He would have been too worried that a son would take after him too much. The women in his life had always been a better influence on him than the men too - although, his uncle/aunt was Loki and he knew that the gender assigned at birth wasn't necessarily what his child's gender would be.
Bonnie made sure that she had a clean pair of gloves on, as she examined Niah's leg. Her eyes widened slightly, but she didn't gasp or make any comments. She had a better bedside manner than that. There were black splotches all over Niah's leg that hadn't been there previously. They weren't confined to the direct area of the amputation either, but rather running all the way up her leg, like some sort of demonic infection. Bonnie bit her lip slightly, weighing through the options. They could amputate more of Niah's leg, but there was no guarantee that would fix the problem.
She already had been having Niah take antibiotics, so clearly Niah somehow was spitting them out when Bonnie wasn't looking, or they needed to try a more aggressive treatment. While Bonnie was a doctor, she specialized more in the dead than the living. She knew when she was looking at something that required a call to a specialist. This didn't seem like an ordinary infection from an amputation. "I need to get a second opinion," she told Niah. She debated lying to her and telling her everything was fine, but Niah would notice the black splotches sooner or later. "Sparky, would you take a look?"
Maybe Sparky would have seen something like this before - Bonnie wasn't the only one present with medical training. She hoped they'd be able to figure it out via the people in this room, but if not, they'd need to escalate and call in Doctor Strange.
Raynor was a little bit curious, glancing over and seeing the remains of Niah's leg. He sucked in air sharply through his teeth, making a slight hissing noise. In all of his years of life, traveling the world(s), he had never seen anything like that before. "How'd you lose your leg again, exactly?" Raynor asked Niah. He couldn't recall if she had explained it already to him - he was so tired and worn out that he might as well have just forgotten if she had.
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 9:40 A.M.
The cat Evelyn had approached - named ZuZu - meowed slightly at her before a long tentacle snaked out of its mouth and poked her on the cheek. The cat that Matt was petting was decidedly normal in each and every way, and was named Radish. The President was also petting a normal cat, this one was named Butterscotch. Mar-Vell rolled her eyes slightly at Goose. "You're such a needy cat," she teased him gently. "Don't worry, we aren't replacing you. Think of these flerkens as your new recruits."
"Ooo, we found some of the alien kitties?" Amelia said, glancing up from the pair of kittens she had been petting. She went on over to where Goose and Mar-Vell were, her eyes widening as Muffin and Fluffy's tentacles were waving around happily. The two flerkens they had found were very fat - they looked so big, as if they had been eating the other cats at the shelter in order to stay so big and fluffy. With their tiny little legs, Amelia doubted they could run very fast at all. "Aww, so cute! How would you two like to stop an alien invasion?" Amelia cooed.
"Wow, they're so much bigger than I would have expected," Captain America commented. The rest of the group was gravitating over towards the two flerkens that Goose had found, leaving Evelyn pretty much as the only one to have noticed her flerken. T'Challa had a few kittens in his hands that he was clearly intent on adopting, while Bucky and Sam were bickering over something in the corner.
"They're going to lay eggs soon," Mar-Vell explained. "I don't know if we can expect to find more flerkens at the shelter here."
"Wait, lay... eggs?" Amelia asked, her eyes widening like saucers. She hadn't realized that flerkens had eggs and not babies. Now, the kitties being very fat made a lot of sense. Muffin and Fluffy were expecting parents. Could they really ask those two to go fight off an alien invasion if they were going to lay eggs and have babies that way any day now? Wasn't that immoral or something? She didn't even understand how parents of humans did hero work, it seemed too dangerous and risky.
"Yes, flerkens reproduce by laying eggs," Mar-Vell said, very matter of factly.
"I do not feel right using these creatures to help us while they are expecting," T'Challa admitted.
Fluffy then started yowling - and laying eggs!
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Much like Bonnie Niah's medical knowledge started with dead bodies, it also ended there. And usually then involved finding a bug or something on the body to tell her how long it had been dead. She hadn't worked with those in a while. Since she had joined SHIELD actually. But those black spots would be hard to miss even if she had never seen a dead body. A potential cause of death. But the gut-wrenching fear that would have come with that before didn't happen. She had faced her death and had accepted it. Everything after the fight with the bear was extra time.
She looked at Raynor and frowned. "I know I was pretty high yesterday, but I wasn't joking when I said it was a demon bear." She closed her eyes thinking about the incident. She hadn't really digested everything that had happened. "It fed on fear. It wasn't until I had come to accept that I was going to die and that that was okay because I was proud of what I had done with my life that it stopped. Just disappeared and everything went back to normal." That wasn't everything that had happened, and she wasn't certain if she would ever tell anyone what all had happened in that fight.
Location: Missouri - Animal shelter Skills:
"Well Radish it has been a pleasure." Matt said giving the kitten some chin scratches. "We might not use them for the alien invasion, but I think leaving baby flerken eggs at a Missouri animal shelter might be criminally dangerous." He wondered how no one seemed to know about flerkens if they were that common. "We have ZuZu there, let's gett these two and their eggs out of here too. How many do you think we'll need for the mission?" If two were enough that'd be good. If they needed more they'd have to find another animal shelter.
"Hey um Mar-Vell what do they do with the males then? Or do they just reproduce?" There wasn't a class offered at SHIELD for alien biology and he was wondering why not. Though he wouldn't have taken a class like that in his college days. He was certainly curious enough to want to take the class now though. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too science-heavy. "If there are males they might be around still?" He said, ending more on a questioning note because really he had no clue how flerkens reproduced or acted socially.
Cassandra looked at Spider-Man for a moment. "Theres a few TV shows as well to for Star Wars." She pointed out seeing that he was surprised about the books, her attention turned towards Sparky. "Have you thought of any names of the little girl?" She asked mostly out of curiosity as Bonnie inspected the area around Niah's leg and got up to get a better look. Seeing the weird black splotches on her skin didnt look good at all as Niah explained how she lost her leg from a demon bear. She didnt have any kind of skill really to help other than basic combat first aid.
"Maybe we should contact Dr. Strange about this?" She asked looking over at Bonnie for a moment, he was the one to help her when she had contracted M-Pox and helped her on the road to recovery really quickly and get the cure from her after all. It was Bonnie's call after all whether or not they should get in contact with him.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri -> Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter Skills: N/A
Evelyn looked at ZuZu seeing a tentacle coming out of it's mouth and poked at her cheek, and gave the kitty a smile as she opened the cage and picked the cat up into her arms. "Would you like to help us out little guy?" Evelyn asked, as she gently scratched ZuZu behind the ears and chin and smiled. "And would you like to come home to Serval with me? I'm sure that John Watts would really love you." She said to the cat, she had a feeling that Watts would be really annoyed having a cat wondering around his lab as well to.
She started to fall in love with the cat as she turned to face the others seeing that Goose had found two more Flerkens who looked rather large. Hearing Mar-Vell explaining that they were about to lay some eggs which was really weird and she had been de-aged to a twelve year old and sent to the mojo-verse and then becoming an old woman there as well to. Seeing that Fluffy started to lay eggs in front of them, and shook her head slightly. "I agree we should probably take them with us, unless we can't while they do that." Evelyn said she had a feeling that the animal shelter workers would be freaked out by cats suddenly laying eggs everywhere.
Maria Novikova
Location: Bridge Skills: N/A
Maria nodded slightly as everyone else seemed to agree with putting Princess Anelle on the throne she rolled her eyes slightly towards Tony for a moment. "Don't listen to him, once we get you on the throne we can try and help your people find a home somewhere." Maria said trying to reassure the Princess as she gave Director Hill a slight nod. She did need learn how to defend herself after all, and learn how to fight as well to.
She did graduate from the SHIELD's Operations Academy, and learned how to fight from the instructors there as well as she motioned the princess to lead the way. "If theres a spot on the ship where we can help you defend yourself, or we can do it here." Maria said to the princess.
Sparky was just more or less focused on what it was that she was messing with, not necessarily what everyone else was doing or saying. Though she heard Cass' question about the baby names or if she's thought of any and she just shook her head. "No, I've been busy and didn't know the baby's gender until fairly recently. Never thought to take time to actually think of any," she said with a slight shrug. She never really took the time to think of any, since she had for the most part been freaking out about a few other things that were sort of going wrong in her life.
When she heard Bonnie's words, her attention was drawn away from what she was doing and she set down what she was messing with and looked at Niah's leg. "I've never seen anything like that before... Guessing the bear thing was worse in general then initially thought though," she commented, unsure of what they should do in this situation. Cass mentioned talking to Strange but Sparky just shook her head slightly, "He was kind of busy last time we talked to him, not to mention shoved us out of the sanctum after about 2 minutes even after we helped him fight a demon. Not sure he'll help... But guess it couldn't hurt to try, though I vote you guys talk to him and not me, I've already talked to him once this week and that is good enough for me for a while."
Location: Animal Shelter ]Skills: N/A
Alex was thrilled still to just be surrounded by all of the animals at the shelter. He wondered if after all of this was over how Jade would react if he came home with a kitten or two just out of the blue without saying anything to her about it. It might not end too well, but truthfully he had just been thinking about getting one or two and seeing what happened. Of course he wouldn't let anything happen to the cats at all, he really did love animals of all sorts, that's just the sort of person he was at this point.
"Guess you learn something about alien cats every day, aside from the fact that apparently there are a lot of these Flerkens in existence..." he commented, not entirely sure what to say with regards to that. It was a bit strange thinking about them laying eggs, since normal cats obviously didn't, guess that would be one of the obvious signs that they aren't one of the normal cats. "Yeah, not sure leaving them here would be the best idea, since they would kind of stand out..."
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
Flynn rolled his eyes slightly at what Stark had said, but from what he knew about the guy, it was kind of to be expected. Of course they currently were on a ship surrounded by more than one person who was known for having a bit of an ego, so they just had to deal with it. He was glad that they had a plan though, sure it was probably a plan that would still get them all killed probably if their luck was bad, but it was a plan. Actually if they went about it the right way, it could be a rather good one, they'd just have to careful with how they do this almost rebellion sort of thing to get the Empress off the throne.
Turning to look at the others when it was mentioned that he and Maria were going to see about teaching Anelle a bit of self defense. He was fine with that, before he even was in OMEN he had been in the US military, so he knew a thing or two about fighting before he joined any sort of outside agency. "Sure, we can do a few self defense lessons, sounds like fun and gives us something to do while this ship hurtles through space towards Earth again, and hopefully we can come up with a way to actually execute the plan of putting her on the throne..." he said, before listening to Maria ask her questions to the princess about where they might be able to do the lessons without maybe getting in the way.
Oliver's head was spinning with the possibilities about how Flerken's evolved to lay eggs, yet look so similar to cats. Oliver was not a biologist, and he had no idea about how evolution actually worked short of his high school education, never having taken any kind of post-secondary class in the topic, but he was sure they would throw darwinists for a loop. It was endlessly intriguing to think about, but the idea became real as Fluffy began laying eggs. The miracle of life lay bare before him, Oliver threw up in his mouth a little, and started to think on his feet.
Moving quickly, Oli said, "I should be able to run Fluffy back to the homestead, with the amount of noise ...Fluffy is making," Oli said, realizing he didn't know what sort of pronouns to use for a Flerken, "We should get them out of here sooner rather than later. Sound good?" Oli didn't want to take action without some kind of consensus, he'd fucked up too many times in the past for him to feel good about taking strong unilateral decisions about mission critical things in any capacity. "I can probably get our cute new friend there and be back in a couple minutes."
To run Fluffy back to the Homestead if the team is alright with it.
Anelle thought for a moment - she really didn't want to learn in this spot, as so many of her countrymen were either dead or unconscious on the floor. "There may be a training facility down in the guards' quarters," Anelle then said softly. "Those would be on the lowest floor of the ship if I had to take a guess... although they did not exactly permit me to tour this facility when the Empress ordered me to be imprisoned here."
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 9:50 A.M.
Raynor frowned deeply - Niah was telling the truth, but he had never heard of a demon bear before. However, he did know enough about their companions to know who they would have to turn to in order to get an advised opinion as soon as possible - the President. Jakobsen was the leader of O.M.E.N. after the original leaders, the Winchesters, had been murdered. He knew more about Midgardian demons than anyone else currently present did. "If it's a demon, then Jakobsen should take a look," Raynor voiced.
"Wait, the President knows about demons?" Spider-Man blurted. "Oh, wait, guess that checks out, he used to be in that weird organization that did things, right?"
"...Yes, O.M.E.N. did things," Bonnie replied sharply. "They were organized to handle necromantics originally - basically anything that wasn't human. And by handling them, they tended to kill them... like a modern day Salem," she reflected. Flynn had been a part of O.M.E.N. He had defected after O.M.E.N. started to target mutant children, a far cry from the Satanists and demons they had been tasked to track down and eliminate.
"Which is exactly why a demon bear is right up his ally," Raynor pointed out. "And if he doesn't know anything, he'll know who would. Fastest results we can get," he argued. He knew that others probably would want to run straight to Strange with every little problem (such as Cass), but Raynor didn't think they needed to escalate that much just yet. Strange was the nuclear option. And although Raynor wouldn't admit it, part of him was worried that Strange would sooner kill Niah to neutralize the threat than save her.
"I think Cass is right too though, we should try to get in contact with Strange... And it just occurred to me, we don't exactly have his phone number, do we?" she muttered, frowning slightly. That was one of the problems with magic users - they didn't really use phones. She half wondered if Strange already knew that they were debating contacting him and would just show of his own accord... assuming he hadn't been replaced by a skrull. "We also don't know if we can trust him, though. He could be one of them." She looked at Sparky, wondering if the man who had helped her earlier had actually been Strange - did the skrulls have access to magic?
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 9:50 A.M.
Mar-Vell frowned, thinking for a moment. "I think that we could get away with ten at most. If we're too badly outnumbered by them, they may just start eating the politicians, which would cause another host of problems..." she trailed off. It was a little bit startling how calmly and emotionlessly she was discussing all of this, but she was a kree - they tended to be more stoic and repressed. She then moved onto Matt's question. "ZuZu there is the male," she answered.
ZuZu the cat stared at Evelyn for a moment, as if he could understand her, and he hissed.
Mar-Vell nodded at Oliver. "Run with them quickly back to Barton's - the rest of us will meet you back there, we just need to find Barton and his children." They were still off somewhere else in the facility, looking for a furry companion for the kids.
"Ooo, so you're like a speedy bloke, yeah?" Amelia commented, looking at Oliver. He didn't look like the speedster type to her - when she thought of speedsters, she thought of Quicksilver, the ex-terrorist from the news. He was pretty much honestly the only speedster that she knew about. It didn't seem to be all too popular of a power set. What happened if a speedster tripped? Did they break their face on the pavement? Did they create a tiny crater in the process?
"I'll go find Clint, if you all want to grab ZuZu and head to the car," Cap offered, before exiting the room.
Amelia glanced over at the non-pregnant flerken - ZuZu - and saw that the cat was still hissing at Evelyn. Clearly, ZuZu didn't want to go anywhere. She glanced around the room next, hoping that someone would have an idea. "Oi, Goose, any chance you can convince this one to follow along with us and help us save the world from aliens?" she called out to Goose. From what she could tell, Goose seemed to have above average intelligence - that or Mar-Vell just liked talking to the cat as a sounding board.
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Niah did her best to keep from frowning at Raynor for suggesting Alex look at the leg. It was better him than Jade she supposed. It was hard to let go of the prejudice she carried from her time in House of M against Jade. Though prejudice might not be the right word. She had just clashed with Jade really hard. The woman tended to like to one-up, which Niah hated that mentality. She sighed.
"Yeah we can ask him." She said softly. She had a better relationship with Strange but didn't want to bother him if they could help it. Though that relationship seemed more uncomfortable since Dalisy had shown up in their world again. Strange had her on his watch list and Niah didn't know why. Well, she could guess from some of what Dalisy had told her. Neither option seemed like a great idea to Niah, but she decided to go with the easier option. "I think Alex is the better choice for now. He is a known entity. I don't particularly want to show up and challenge Strange to find out if he is a Skrull and then ask him to look at my demon diseased leg. I will say I don't know for certain the bear was a demon that's just the words I have to describe it."
Location: Missouri - Animal shelter Skills:
"I have about a dozen questions about Flerken biology, which is weird for me. He shook his head laughing a bit at the idea of himself sitting in a class about Flerken biology.
"Yeah, Oliver good idea. We can adopt ZuZu and the rest can be spirited back to the farm." Matt wondered how quickly it would be till the 'kittens' hatched, and then how quickly from there they would develop. He knew normal cats took a while and would therefore be useless in their endeavor. But if all the ones that were being laid right now hatched within a day or so and then developed fast enough to be at least good for detecting Skrulls then they'd be set with what they had.
He kept with the rest of the group. He wondered if there was a vet who had found cats laying eggs and felt crazy, or maybe there was some Doctor Dolittle type out there that took care of Flerkens because they befriended one like Mar-Vel had.
