Cass nodded towards the others they can use Strange as a last option if Alex didnt know anything about the infection on Niah's leg, she was pretty sure that he had a lot of training on that as well to. "Alright then we just have to wait for the others to get back and we can work on Niah's leg and find out whats wrong with it." Cass said though they did have Goose as well and Niah and Raynor to detect if Strange was a skrull or not if they did ended up contacting him.
"Hopefully it won't take long for the others to get back then adoption paperwork is petty annoying to sign as well to." Cass said as she looked between Sparky and Raynor for a moment. "You guys could think of names right now if you wanted." She said giving a slight shrug they weren't busy at the moment.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri - Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter Skills: N/A
Evelyn took a step or two back from ZuZu as he suddenly hissed at her turning to look at Mar-Vell for a moment she wasnt sure what would happen if the alien cat ended up clawing her. "So what happens if they claw you?" Evelyn asked as she turned to stare at ZuZu she remained calm for the most part while looking over at Oliver. "Yeah you might want to get Fluffy and Muffin out of here if they continue to lay some eggs here."
"If ZuZu allows us to take him we can adopt him and get back to the others it looks like he doesnt really want to leave." Evelyn said looked at Goose hopefully he can convince the other Flereken to come with them. ZuZu seemed to be pretty smart and decided to not say anything else since it looked like ZuZu didnt like her at all at the moment.
Maria Novikova
Location: Bridge Skills: N/A
Maria nodded towards the Princess. "Alright then lets go there." She said as she looked over at the others still on the bridge they seemed to have things covered over here. "Let us know if you need Flynn and me." Maria told them and gave them a slight wave and made it over towards the elevator, waiting for the others to get here and called the elevator up to them.
She turned to face Princess Anelle as the elevator opened and took a step inside. "So, have you ever trained or anything like that before Princess?" Maria asked her, she had a feeling that Anelle had never trained before at all but couldnt help to know if she did actually know how to fight or not.
"I think we should ask Strange as a last resort, since I've already bugged him once this week, plus he's a bit of an arrogant priss so preferably we ask him after we exhaust all other options. Also not sure how he'd feel about more SHIELD agents showing up on his doorstep like we did earlier, just saying," she commented with a bit of a shrug. Personally she was fine with not seeing Strange for at least a week, or two, because of how arrogant the guy could be. He was helpful, but she'd prefer to keep her distance unless she had to.
"I agree that maybe we should let the president at least look, since you know, demons and all were kind of important to what that organization originally did. If not, then we talk to Strange. Sounds like a good bit of compromise to me," she added, before turning to look at Cass when she suggested thinking of baby names and she shrugged, "I honestly don't know what to name the kid, as I said, never thought about it. Not sure what sort of name would be a good fit for her..."
Location: Animal Shelter ]Skills: N/A
Yeah, this was getting chaotic. They had two female Flerkens that were going to lay eggs soon (one was in the process of laying them) and a male Flerken that clearly did not want to go with anyone, things were not looking very good. Though Mar-Vell mentioning that they probably shouldn't have too many Flerkens with them otherwise they probably would lose control of them and people would likely end up dead was also kind of concerning. Goose at least was trained to only eat people (hopefully) that were trying to kill everyone or whatever, as far as he could tell so far.
"So how about we get going then with these three and hope for the best, quickly for the two laying eggs before they draw too much attention, agreed on that fact," he commented as he glanced over at the Flerkens and the one that was still seemingly laying eggs. He walked over to see ZuZu who was currently still hissing at Evelyn, "He's definitely a feisty little guy isn't he?" he commented.
Goose walked over to look at ZuZu and tilted his head to the side, "Mrow?" he said out loud, looking at the cat.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
"Sounds like a plan to me, it will keep us from crowding the area up here too much I would think..." he commented, nodding his head. It would also keep the princess away from the dead bodies of her own people that had been killed only a little while ago. This sort of thing gave her something to do, and something to potentially keep her mind off of the idea that they might have to potentially fight more of the Skrulls in their quest to get her on the throne for the Skrulls.
He followed after Maria to the elevator, since they were following Anelle's directions of where exactly this sort of room would be, and they'd have to travel farther down in the ship to reach it. Flynn was really hoping that they'd luck out and not run into any more Skrulls as they went. It was a rather large ship so there was the chance that there were more Skrulls. He stepped into the elevator after Maria. "Here's hoping that we don't run into anyone else trying to stop us."
The yowling took Kwassi completely by surprise as he squatted before her. He didn't know if he had done something wrong, or triggered some sort of parental panic, the sound and shock causing him to fall back onto the floor and stare at the scene before him. Mar-Vell had mentioned they were pregnant, but Kwassi hadn't expected one to start laying eggs while he was face to face with them. He looked back towards where they came from, hoping the clerk was too preoccupied with the children to hear the sound the flerken was making. His attention moved towards Oli as he began to come up with a solid plan. "I believe speeding them back is our best option right now but..." Kwassi trailed off as he looked at the few eggs that had already come out, turning to face Mar-Vell, their resident expert on alien cats.
"How delicate are these eggs? Do they need to remain in the position their laid? Or can they be moved and placed in others pockets so that we can bring them back to Bartons and reunite them with their mother?" This wasn't exactly the kind of work that Kwassi had expected when he signed up for S.H.E.I.L.D. Sure he anticipated some alien things here and there, but the live birth of an alien race of cats in some middle of nowhere town with horrid sense in naming conventions? Thst wasn't exactly on his bingo card. Still, he got up waiting for instructions on how to proceed.
Oliver nodded at Eve, grabbing Muffin as well sounded like a good idea, the sooner the Flerken were away from civilians, the better. Though Kwassi showed doubts, the broader team consensus was to race them over. Oli waS pretty certain he could run them over safely, given that the laws of physics got pretty relaxed when it came to his speed. He nodded at Amelia, and said, "Pretty new to it, but yeah, I can zip around." Before scooping up the two not-kitties, and giving Zuzu one last look. He shrugged, if he was male, there was no chance of pregnancy, and he trusted the team, so he saw no need to take him.
Turning his back with the Flerken in his arms, he drew breath, and felt his speed run though him. It was always a weird feeling, a kind of nervous electricity, that wanted to slip and go everywhere, but he held onto it, and directed it forward, heading out the door. It was always hard to explain exactly what he saw when he ran, it wasn't that things were slower, per say, but that the number of things he could do per second was just more, and he could perceive all his options. Soon, he was on the road, and even faster after that, he was at back at the homestead.Stepping in, he announced his arrival, "Hey all, I'm back, some of the Flerken were giving birth so I ran them back ahead of the others." He said to the general house, before quickly looking for towels, and finding them in the laundry room. Laying them down on the ground and putting the Flerken on top of them, he scratched his head, having no idea how to properly deal with Flerken eggs.
Anelle hesitated, before leaving the bridge with Flynn and Maria. She had never really been trained in how to fight, although she had observed the Royal Guard training prior to her exiled status. It had given her somewhat of a fascination with warriors, one of the things that had appealed to her about her beloved, Mar-Vell. Mar-Vell was a fierce warrior, a keen scientist, and a pure heart. She had compassion in a war where none was to be found.
"I haven't had any instruction in combat," Anelle admitted. "I was largely raised to be a socialite, someone who could be married by a warrior or prince so that way the empire would continue to prosper. As of such, most of my education concerned how to be ladylike... nothing in the way of combat."
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 10:00 A.M.
"If it was a demon, he'll know," Raynor told Niah with a shrug. "I'm not an expert on Earthly devils and whatnot. And if it wasn't a demon that did that to you, well - Strange'll be able to figure it out." He was comfortable with the idea that Jakobsen and Strange were the experts to reach out to here. He didn't believe that he knew everything.
Bonnie, however, was feeling anxious. She didn't know how fast Niah's condition would spread throughout her body. Niah had already lost one leg - she didn't need to have more limbs amputated in a futile attempt to save her life. And she refused to let Niah die. Niah was too young for that. She'd sooner upload Niah's consciousness into a computer than let her die. Her thoughts flickered towards the Framework. That would be one potential solution.
It didn't help that they had little idea on how long it would be until Jakobsen got back. Bonnie was pacing back and forth nervously. She wanted something controllable to deal with for once - rather than their usual nonsense, never-ending chaos that spiraled more and more out of control the more they attempted to fix things. They didn't just have a superhuman war to deal with - there was an alien invasion. And on top of the alien invasion, people were missing. And on top of that, Niah was dying and there wasn't anything she could do but sit and wait.
"What about Kirby as a name? Kirby's cute. Works for a boy or a girl," Spider-Man suggested.
Raynor gagged at the thought. The only Kirby he knew was a weird pink little cartoon character. And he didn't even know much about the character, except that little kids on Midgard seemed to be absolutely obsessed with it. "Kirby? Seriously? Were you born stupid?" he snapped at Spider-Man, more concerned now about name ideas rather than Niah potentially dying. They weren't that close.
"No, but I can tell you were," Spider-Man taunted.
"Seriously you two?" Bonnie snapped. "Get out, both of you, now."
"But-"
"Now!"
Raynor stared at Bonnie. She stared back at him. He huffed. Raynor and Spider-Man then left the quinjet, both of them grumbling under their breath.
"Men sometimes..." Bonnie said, shaking her head. The other heroes were off in the quinjet, so the only person still in the house at the moment was Hawkeye's wife, Laura. Laura raised an eyebrow, staring at the towels Oliver had set out and the yowling cats who kept on producing eggs. "I'm guessing this was part of the plan?" Laura asked hesitantly. While her husband was a superhero, she didn't ask him too many questions about work - they tried to keep his work life relatively separate from his personal life.
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 10:00 A.M.
Mar-Vell smiled slightly at Matt. She liked seeing people who took an interest in things they didn't understand - it was a quality that she prized highly. "I'd be happy to answer them," she told him. "Although perhaps once we've gotten them all back to Barton's home," she then added. She glanced at Evelyn, hearing her question. "You would likely bleed. The claws aren't the problem - it's the tentacles. And the limitless stomach."
ZuZu tilted his head sideways at Goose, before purring and rubbing up against Goose's face. Clearly, ZuZu liked Goose and would most likely cooperate.
T'Challa picked up an egg with care, examining it. "They do not appear to be too fragile," he said. He let Oliver take the egg from him, a bit curious about the man's abilities. He didn't know too many who were graced with superhuman speed. T'Challa made it his business to keep up with the various superheroes active in the world and the first one who came to mind was Northstar, the Canadian speedster. He watched closely as Oliver took off, before looking at ZuZu.
T'Challa walked forward, scooping up the pet. "Let us see about adopting you, little one," he said, before heading out to reception with the cat. ZuZu seemed to really like T'Challa.
"Sooo... Guess we're heading off then, yeah? Since Cap is looking for Barton and his kiddos and T'Challa has the cat," Amelia surmised, before heading out after T'Challa. T'Challa was talking to a rather plain looking lady at the reception desk, quickly filling out some forms to legalize ZuZu's adoption. Meanwhile, Barton and Cap were petting a shaggy looking brown dog that his kids had clearly picked out.
"Awww, puppy!" Amelia squealed.
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Niah smiled softly. The idea of Sparky and Raynor having a child named Kirby was sort of hilarious. "Honestly, I thought about the vacuum cleaner brand." She watched as Bonnie paced. She was upset and it was obvious why. Niah wanted to comfort Bonnie, wanted to reach out and hug her. For a moment she saw Bonnie stepping between Niah and the robots that would have killed her. Niah knew with unwavering certainty that Bonnie would sacrifice her life for her. Niah also knew she would do the same for her.
It was hard loving someone and knowing it could never happen. She wanted to tell Bonnie how much she loved her, she thought she had gotten over that. Instead, she said once Raynor and Spider-man had left, "Bonnie, it is okay. You'll figure it out." She didn't want to say what she was thinking. Didn't want to say that she was on borrowed time anyway and that this was a gift to get to say goodbye. Instead of just being gone. Her heart hurt thinking about how many she had lost that way. How much she wished she could have said goodbye to.
"If Alex doesn't know we'll call up Doctor Strange. Do the usual tests. I'll be fine." She had faith in Bonnie. Maybe not faith in Alex, but if Raynor did as intensely as he sounded certain about it then sure why not. Though a part of her felt like she was saying some famous last words.
Location: Missouri - Animal shelter Skills:
"Thank you." Matt said to Mar-Vell. He was pretty interested in how the Flerken's biology worked. He watched Oli pick up the cats and take off. That speeding around was a neat trick. Though he liked his powers, as much as the paralytic touch that he could do scared him.
"Cute dog." He considered making a joke asking if it was alien too. At this point, he wouldn't be surprised. It felt like sure why not. "Do you have a name for him yet?" His question was directed at the kids. It was a cute dog. He hoped that the dog was a good one too, but he had never known a dog to not be a good one.
Cassandra knew about Kirby it was one of the games that she grew up playing as a kid, though the name didnt really seem fitting but it would be completely up to Sparky and Raynor to discuss anyway. When Raynor snapped at Spider-Man and Spider-Man taunting him back made her shake her head and sighed a bit. Bonnie going full mom mode and ordered the two to get out of the room, she looked at them for a moment as they left before standing up slightly gently resting a hand on Bonnie's shoulder. "It'll be alright." Cass said to Bonnie and looked at Niah and smiled a bit.
"Maybe we can take a blood sample from the effected area and run a blood test or something while we wait for the others to get back I'm sure that there is something to test that and see how quickly it's spreading?" She suggested looking at Bonnie it was her area of expertise anyway and maybe Niah's before turning her attention to Sparky. "Maybe we should get to work on the eye designs while we wait to?" Cass said, they needed to at least do something in the meantime while they waited for everyone to get back, and maybe Bonnie and Niah could learn more on the infection somehow to.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri - Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter Skills: N/A
Evelyn looked at Mar-Vell and nodded towards her, she had been shot and stabbed at before she wasnt sure if their claws were poisonous or not. "I wonder if thats how Fury lost his eye." She said jokingly she didnt know much about the director of SHIELD he could have lost his eye in a fight or something for all she knew as well to. Evelyn gave a nod towards Alex as he approached her and watched as Oliver ran off with the two egg laying cats back towards Barton's place. "He seems to be a bit grumpy." Evelyn said jokingly as T'Challa picked up ZuZu and headed out to get the paper work started.
Evelyn headed out shortly after with Matt and the others she looked over to see Barton and his kids along with Steve with a shaggy looking dog and smiled. "Looks like you guys picked up a pup you wanted." Evelyn said as she went over and knelt down and gently patted the dog that they had picked up while the others went and signed the paperwork.
Maria Novikova
Location: Bridge -> Training Area Skills: N/A
Maria gave Anelle a slight nod as she leaned back slightly against the wall of the elevator as it descended downwards, they'd have to do a lot to try and get her up to speed then it seems. "Flynn and I will get you up to speed pretty quickly then." Maria said to Anelle and smiled some as the elevator came to a stop and the door opened and looked around. Maria hoped that there werent any other skrulls down here as she looked at Flynn.
"Just stay behind Flynn and I, but if we run into anymore of your people you can trey and talk to them or you can convince them to stand down if you'd like." Maria said she didnt want another bloodbath on her conscious really and wanted to try and avoid what had happened on the bridge.
Location: Barton Homestead Skills: Electrical Engineering, Jack of All Trades (Engineering)
"Uh no, probably not Kirby..." she started to say to Spider-Man, before Raynor decided to start getting mad at even the suggestion, and then started arguing and looking like he was going to strangle Spider-Man. This was not going to end well, but she was definitely glad that Bonnie stepped in and kicked them both out of the quinjet. "If you hadn't done that I probably would have," she admitted to Bonnie with a bit of a smile, before looking at Cass. "Sure, I've got a few ideas already on what we can do with that. Of course we are a little pressed for time but should be able to give you a few things..."
She instantly went to work more or less starting to sketch out a few potential designs that they could go with, of course she wanted to mainly see about making the eye look as natural as possible and not truly stand out or something as a robotic component. As she sat there drawing, her mind went back to naming the baby, and she decided to admit something with regards to it, "There are a few things with regards to naming the baby that have crossed my mind, just a few things with regards to it, but considering the fact that Ray's only really been back or whatever for 24 hours, haven't really gotten much of a chance to think about it... Naming a kid isn't exactly an easy thing to do."
After a few minutes, she stopped moving her pencil, and she looked at Cass, "Okay, so obviously we don't have time to get too fancy with things we can probably do some upgrades later when we have more time, but we probably can do something aside from just allowing you to see out of it, and of course trying to make it so that it isn't obviously a fake or robotic eye, since that might be seen as a little bit creepy. So my immediate thoughts, would be giving you a few different vision settings that we could allow you to switch between using something that connects to your brain and you just think about it or whatever and it switches to that setting. Something probably like a night or darkvision sort of setting probably would be useful in more stealthy situations, a zoom one where you can magnify certain things so you can see things from a pretty far distance that way. Another sort of setting if you wanted would be essentially being able to see through things, like an x-ray vision almost except you wouldn't really be seeing just bones or whatever you could see if say you didn't know what was waiting for you behind a door, you could see what exactly is there."
Yeah, Sparky was definitely in her sort of element and she looked directly at Cass now, "Thoughts or do you just want something insanely simple where it just is an eye and allows you to see with it? Oh, and already going to have the eye lineup with your eye color so it doesn't stand out, as I said before, that sort of thing is kind of important here..."
Location: Animal Shelter ]Skills: N/A
Truthfully he was a bit curious to learn more about the Flerkens and how their biology worked, but based on what Mar-Vell was saying right now was probably not the best time to deal with it and ask about it. He had to hold back a bit of laughter as Oliver sped out of the area, and everyone more or less sort of just ignored Kwassi's questions about how fragile the eggs were, as Oliver just grabbed them and the two cats and raced off out of the shelter. Hopefully the people running the place weren't going to ask too many questions about when a group of people walked in to adopt one cat, and two other ones just disappeared.
"Cute dog," he commented towards the kids with a slight smile their direction. Sure, Alex preferred cats to dogs, but he was perfectly fine with all animals, and dogs were no exception. With the adoption for ZuZu underway, he waited for the go ahead for all of them to just head back to the house all. Goose was sort of just wandering around, and Alex picked up the cat, despite the sort of warnings people were giving about Flerkens, but the cat (or well, alien) didn't seem to mind all too much with regards to it, and actually started purring in his arms. "So are we ready to go then?" he couldn't help but ask, glancing back towards T'Challa who was filling out paperwork.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
"Basic self-defense isn't too difficult, and it'll give you an easier time in the case where there isn't anyone immediately around you if you get attacked," he commented to her with a smile, still following along after Maria as she wandered around towards the training area. The odds of them running into more people were high, but he wasn't too sure if, given their current situation, any of the other Skrulls would actually listen to a word that she said if she tried to talk to them. It was always worth a shot though, given how she didn't want to hurt anymore of the Skrulls.
He thought about ways to distract Anelle from the fact somewhat that they might have to actually injure or maybe even kill more of the Skrulls if they ran into them. Flynn figured that they might want to learn a bit more about her, "So princess, you were saying about how you weren't taught self-defense and more social skills and whatnot, what was your life like before you ended up locked up in here... If you don't mind me asking," he asked her, glancing back to look at her for a moment, before he turned and went back to somewhat keeping a lookout for anymore Skrulls.
Oliver took a breath for a moment as he petted Fluffy's head, before nodding at Laura, "Well, I mean." He paused, looking for words, "We didn't expect the Flerken to be pregnant, but that's been resolved viz a vis me." He explained, gesturing to himself, "They're going to be coming back soon with a male one." He smiled at Laura, having a bit of difficulty imagining what it was like being a civilian married to an Avenger. He didn't know if this kind of insanity was the norm, or if pregnant cat aliens pushed the line of that at all. As the cats continued to lay eggs, Oliver hesitated.
"To be clear though, animal husbandry or uh... alien? Alien husbandry isn't exactly my forte." That seemed like the right name for it, he though, as animals were technically a kingdom of living organisms on Earth, so, technically speaking, aliens couldn't be animals. That made sense to him at least. "I'm really sorry to make a mess of your towels, but if you have any better ideas for how to care for these fuzzy beasts, I'd love to hear them." He didn't want to put that on Laura per say, but he was a bit out of his depth on this one, and he didn't expect Dr. Larson to be back for at least half an hour.
Kwassi watched as T'Challa picked up one of the eggs to examine it. There was a natural inclination to trust his king, to believe that the Bkack Panther was capable of such care with the fragility of life that he would know the best way to inspect the alien egg in a manner that wouldn't hurt it. He watched carefully himself, noting the way the lights shone on the egg, seeing whether or not it could pass through, if it could show the process inside, and how far along they may be. He watched for any sign of movement, unsure as to how quickly they may hatch after having been laid. "Hardy eggs, that's good to know. I haven't had much experience with such things, with the exception of gator eggs when I was younger. I was taught that when they needed to be moved, they had to be careful picked up and placed exactly as they were on the ground into the bin. Turning them or shifting the position could lead to a death." He noted outloud as he studied the egg.
Kwassi's attention then turned towards Mar-Vell, an inquisitive look coloring his face. "Are you aware of how quickly they may hatch after being laid? Is there a period in which the parent must be with them? Are they left out to fend for themselves until they hatch?" Truly this was New territory, or at the very least for him, and he wished to know more. So many other creatures on Earth could lay eggs, and for each the parenting style and safety varied from species to species. Kwassi wondered as to which one Flerken may relate to more, if any at all. He was curious as to how they evolved to adapt a limitless stomach? What caused the need for it, and the tentacles as well. The whole species seemed odd to him, then again the concept was quite literally alien.
"Convince them to stand down... You mean persuade them that if they do not wish to be killed in combat, they should surrender," Anelle corrected softly. She was clearly not a fan of violence of any sort. Anelle sniffed slightly as Flynn asked her what her life was like before. "I am a princess, so it was mostly tutoring sessions in etiquette and society," she summarized again. "I was kept to the estate and its grounds, with a strict schedule, and I was only permitted to interact with others of my social standing... until Mar-Vell."
Unfortunately for the trip down memory lane, as they neared the sparring facility, they ran into a squad of heavily arms skrulls! There were about ten of them. "The Exile - what is she doing out of confinement?"
They had assumed that for whatever reason, some other skrulls had shifted to look like humans and were escorting the princess somewhere.
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 10:10 A.M.
Bonnie stopped in her pacing for a moment, nodding at Niah. Niah shouldn't have been the one comforting her at the moment - Bonnie wasn't the one dying. "Of course. I'm not going to let you die," she promised. Her promise was like an oath, and if there had been a certain deity listening out there, it would have been finalized on the River Styx. She looked at Niah, remembering everything she had read in her medical file, before she couldn't help but voice one thought in particular. "If we can't figure this out, I think we could host your consciousness in the framework - and then work with Pym to build you a body."
It was bleak and grim, but Bonnie wanted Niah to know that they were prepared for the worst case scenario. She was feeling antsier by the minute, waiting for the President to walk through the door and determine whether her friend had a demonic infection - their lives were insane. But she wouldn't have traded it for anything. She had experienced so much loss at SHIELD, but so much joy as well. She had gotten to meet amazing people and do incredible things. One of those people of course was Niah. She loved her the way someone loved a friend.
Bonnie then nodded at Cass, a bit glad for her friend prompting her. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with Niah, but at least she could get data on it. She prepped for a blood draw, before going over to Niah. "This might hurt a tad," she told her friend, locating a vein before extracting a not too small amount of blood. When she finished, she put a bandaid on the wound and then went on over to her equipment, getting to work on inputting the sample for analysis. "Well, when Clint isn't around I run the farm, so animal husbandry is right in my wheelhouse," Laura admitted to Oliver. "But birth is pretty much a universal experience, so lots of towels, somewhere warm - this works - and then steady hands," she recommended. "I've got this, if you could go round up some more towels, there'll be some in the barn that should do the trick."
The (Horribly Named) Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter - Missouri: 10:10 A.M.
The kids nodded at Matt, still petting their new pooch. "His name is Perry the Platypus," the youngest informed him eagerly. "He's a spy, he works with Dad at SHIELD and takes down the evil Victor von Doofenshmirtz!" the eldest added. "And we're gonna get him a special hat!" the middle kid finished.
Mar-Vell glanced at Evelyn and winked at her knowingly. Perry the Platypus the Pupper woofed affectionately at Evelyn, wagging his tail and clearly loving the attention. However, when Perry the Platypus the Pupper spotted Alexander, the dog started whining, clearly wanting his attention too! Everyone had to give the pupper love or else!
Amelia was all too happy to oblige, of course. She went over and joined the little group petting the dog, admiring the dogs ears (they were floppy in the best way possible), giving the dog a little chest rub (she had read on wikipedia that was supposed to be calming) and just cooing over it. "That's such a fucking wicked name," Amelia gushed. "Perry the goddamn Platypus."
Hawkeye's eyes widened, but he only had two hands, so he settled with covering the ears of his youngest child. "Seriously, stop swearing around my kids!" Hawkeye requested. Even Captain America looked disappointed.
Amelia blushed intensely. She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. She had spent so much time in military settings where swearing was just part of life. "Sorry about that mate. I wasn't thinking," she admitted. She really had just been focused on the dog, as Perry the Platypus the Pupper was extremely adorable, and she was definitely fighting the urge to go adopt a dog of her own. She'd have to get one that liked to jump out of planes - were there dogs like that?
Mar-Vell then took in Kwassi's questions, thinking for a moment. "I believe it can vary, but anywhere from ten minutes to two days later. Flerkens are very adaptable and self sufficient, although the parent tends to stick around until the tentacles have grown in. That's their primary defense mechanism."
"I believe we are ready to depart," T'Challa then announced. Everyone was more or less gathered up, and they all piled back into Barton's truck. Barton drove them and their new fluffy friends back to the farm.
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Niah did her best to keep her facial expression from showing too much surprise at Bonnie suggesting to upload her into the Framework. She had been in it before and didn't like the idea of living in it. Her Catholic adjacent upbringing cringed at the idea of it. If she was dead would her soul have moved on? She stopped the metaphysical thought line. Niah wasn't one for metaphysics like that. The world was complicated enough with stuff they could prove. Not to mention the existence of deities running around with hammers and capes.
She didn't wince when Bonnie drew some blood. Niah was going to let Bonnie do what she had to. She knew that her friend had to do everything in her power to help her. That's how the Secret Warriors were as a group. They'd re-write reality, go against orders, and break the laws of physics just to help each other.
Niah watched and listened to Sparky. It was nice to see her friend so much in her element. They really needed to give everyone on the team the chance to shine better.
"What a great name." Matt said in agreement, with significantly less cussing. He had seen some of Phineas and Ferb over the years so he got the reference. That show was a decent kids' show. He sort of wished he had had access to similar shows growing up. He hopped into the truck bed and sat there with the others until they got back to the farm.
"How long does it take for the tentacles to grow in?" Matt waited for Mar-Vell's response before he headed inside looking for where Oliver had ended up with the pregnant flerkens. He didn't know much about how to care for eggs of any sort. It did strike him as funny that Kwassi knew how to care for gator eggs though. Wasn't he from Wakanda? At least Matt assumed with how he greeted T'Challa.
Cassandra gave Niah a smile and gently rested a hand on her friend's shoulder she hoped that there was a way to save her, and looked towards Bonnie with her suggestion. She wasnt sure what to think of that it would ultimately be up to Niah though on what she would want, as she watched Bonnie taking a blood sample from Niah. "It'll be alright Niah." Cass told Niah as her attention went back over towards Sparky as she started to work on the designs for her robotic eye and started to think for a moment on some of the features. It would be really nice to just be able to see fully again, but some interesting features would be really good to.
"Having full vision again would be really good thing to have." Cass said jokingly as she leaned forward slightly looking at the drawing as she thought. "Lets start with three features for now since we are on a time clock, when this is all said and done we could upgrade more later?" She suggested, as she thought a bit. "A zoom feature would be useful, and night vision for night or dark situations, and infrared would be nice to." She said looking over at Sparky.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri - Robert E. Lee Animal Shelter -> Barton Homestead Skills: N/A
Evelyn smiled at the pooch while looking over at Barton's kids. "Well Perry the Platypus is a mighty fine name for such a great spy." Evelyn said to them as she stood up and gently patted Perry the dog while looking over at Mar-Vell and smiled towards her and nodded as T'Challa went to work on the paperwork for the two animals that they were adopting. She was glad that they had gotten all of the paper work done and started to make her way towards the truck getting into the bed of the truck with everyone else and leaned back slightly.
The truck ride wasnt to long at all as she climbed out of the truck and stretched slightly as she opened the doors for Barton's kids to get out. "We should probably find where the others are and let them know what we found." Evelyn suggested as she followed Matt into the house seeing him with Oliver talking to Laura.
Maria Novikova
Location: Training Area Skills: Power Absorption (Skrull Shapeshifting)
"Sounds like it was a pretty nice life before." Maria said looking over towards Princess Anelle and smiled towards her as they continued to walk forward until she could see some armed skrulls there and whispered to Flynn and the Princess. "Play along, and Princess i'm sorry I have to do this you might feel a bit uncomfortable for a little bit." Maria warned as she gently rested a hand on the Princess' shoulder feeling the skrull's ability to shapeshift she started to change into a skrull and approached the armed men.
"The Exile needed to get out of the small confined cell are you going to deny her that? She isn't going to run anywhere we will keep a constant eye on her." Maria said being as convincing as possible, as she went back and grabbed the princess by the shoulder a bit roughly and started to lead her away from the armed guards. "Sorry about that princess hopefully they bought it. Please tell me there is a private training room nearby or something." Maria whispered when they were out of earshot.
Location: Barton Homestead Skills: Electrical Engineering, Jack of All Trades (Engineering)
Sparky listened to what it was that was being spoken about, but then focused more intently on Cass and what it was that she wanted in her robotic eye that she was currently working on. She was glad that Cass seemed perfectly fine with adding a few fancy tools in her eye so it wasn't just entirely boring and just used for her eyesight. That sort of thing always made things way more fun then they first appeared, and it gave her a small bit of a challenge getting it all setup so that she can switch between the different settings, something she appreciated.
"Sure, I can see about doing those settings, it'll be a little bit tricky to get it so you can easily switch between the different settings, but don't worry, I always love a challenge and should be able to easily make it, so don't worry..." she said with a bit of a shrug as she started fiddling with a few things as she went. This was something that she found to be fun, and sure, she was kind of worried about what was going on with Niah, but she also knew that there wasn't anything she could do for her, so she was glad that she had the bit of a distraction from it.
Location: Barton Homestead ]Skills: N/A
He didn't say anything in particular, just smiling at the kids before they headed back to the house, which was nice, maybe they could actually find a better idea then just having a bunch of Flerkens around. Others headed for the house, but he also remembered that the others had mentioned going to the jet for the equipment and whatnot that they'd need for various projects, so he headed that way. Walking on board, he headed over and eventually saw the others. "So, we found a few Flerkens, how are things going for you guys here?" he asked.
"Actually perfect timing, something's up with Niah's leg and we were wondering if you'd look at it, partially since the injury was caused by a demon bear and all, it seems to be getting an infection," Sparky responded, not looking up from what she was doing.
"Demon bear thing right," he said as he walked over to be closer to Niah and took one look at her leg, and his face seemed to go pale. "Shit shit shit that's bad!"
Now Sparky glanced up to look at him, "What's wrong?"
"Warning agent Bautista, this is not going to be pleasant at all, but also I really need you to not move." he said to her, before looking at the others, "We need salt and to restrain her."
"Going to ask again, what's wrong."
"That's not an infection that's for damn sure. It's a demon, like an actual demon. Apparently one that likes to play with its food considering most demonic possessions happen within a matter of minutes. Which means we are going to have to do an exorcism on the fly, right now before things get worse. Demon trap maybe? Nah, we should be fine with just the salt and restraints, hopefully. Unless we want to go find a big sharpie or something..."
"...She has a demon in her leg?"
"Yeah, and one that likely will possess her soon, so I'm going to run into the house and try to find some salt, go get something that can be used to restrain her, and agent once again, I'm asking you, don't move." With those last words Alex booked it off of the jet and straight into the house. He ignored the others as he started searching around, trying to find something useful, but not telling anyone what, that is until he found it, that being some rock salt in the garage. Grabbing the bag, he headed back out, "I uh, just need to borrow some of this for the moment, so I'll be back," he called, only giving that slight explanation before he went straight back into the jet.
Sparky meanwhile had managed to find some restraints that they could use, and set them down. "So how sure are you that this will fix the problem or whatever?" she asked Alex when he came back.
"Well, like, 80% sure... But that's only because usually when you do this sort of thing typically there is a book around or something so you don't have to memorize everything... Oh and also the slight fact that there can be incidents that happen with this sort of thing, and doctor," he said, turning to look at Bonnie, "I'd recommend you being on standby since there is a chance that this goes south, since not everyone in the past has actually survived an exorcism. But then again it is better then the alternative I suppose... Though she has going for her that it hasn't possessed her yet and even if the thing did decide to it wouldn't have been possessing her for long, making this a whole lot easier... Anyway, damn still debating if a demon trap would be useful, it has been a while since I've done this sort of thing, so bear with me okay?" With those last words he went over to where Niah was and used the salt that he had found and made a decent sized circle surrounding her.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
Flynn nodded, glad that after her correcting Maria about what likely was what she had meant, that the princess seemed to have gotten somewhat distracted by his question about how things had been like before all of this had happened. It was a good thing to distract her, since it was clear that she was a bit of a pacifist really, and didn't like violence at all. Then, of course, the worse case scenario decided to happen as they ran into a group of Skrulls who were rather decently armed. However, they weren't... Attacking? This was a bit weird, but things made sense when they asked them what the princess was doing out of confinement.
Of course, Maria could do her thing where she borrowed Anelle's powers and could shapeshift into a Skrull to talk to the guards. That wasn't something he could do, so he really hoped that they wouldn't find it odd that he didn't shapeshift into a Skrull to talk with them or whatever. Flynn nodded their way, before following Maria as she more or less dragged Anelle away from the group. "...Well that was a close call," he whispered to Maria as they left the guards behind them, and he really hoped that they weren't going to be followed.
Oli nodded at Laura, he had hoped that that would be the case, being an Avenger and managing a farm sounded borderline impossible, so he was happy that she was proficient. The last thing he wanted was to explain to the team that he accidentally made scrambled flerken eggs, least of all to Goose. He had the sneaking suspicion that he'd find cat piss in his room until the day he died if that had happened. Running off to the barn to get towels, he returned just as the team got back to the homestead. Dropping off the towels in the room, he said, "Thank you so much for your help here." to Laura, before going out to meet the team.
Greeting Matt, he waved and said, "Everyone got in safe, Laura's delivering them at the moment, how ever long the eggs take to hatch and what we'll need to do to keep them safe after that is beyond me." Oliver explained. "They'll be in the laundry room, unless Laura has a better place for them. I'm sure between whatever equipment they use for normal eggs, and all of us, we'll be able to get something together to help them along the way." The only part that really worried him was whether or not the momma flerken would be able to help them still, or if they'd be too preoccupied with caring for their spawn.
The guards allowed them to pass without an issue, and Anelle nodded at Maria's request. She gestured towards the last door at the end of the hallway on the level they were currently on. "Through there," she said quietly. They were still within sight of the guards, so Anelle couldn't very well lead them into the room without raising suspicions - either Flynn or Maria would need to take charge.
Whenever someone did open the door to the training room, they'd find a state of the art training facility, equipped with Shi'ar hard-light hologram tech. It was enough to make Charles Xavier swoon.
May 18th, 2021
Clint Barton's Homestead - Missouri: 10:20 A.M.
"Oh, the tentacles grow in after a few days," Mar-Vell answered. "Flerkens grow rather rapidly, especially if they are well fed." It was one of the contributing factors that made them so dangerous and widespread across the galaxy - the ease of repopulation. She went into the house with Matt and Evelyn, finding Oliver getting prepared. As a birthing set up went, it wasn't too bad. And from what Mar-Vell knew, flerkens could pretty much give birth anywhere. "I'll go assist," she said. "I am the doctor after all." Mar-Vell then went into the laundry room, opening the door where the poor kitties could be heard yowling their heads off.
Amelia thought about going to look, but then decided adamantly against it. She wasn't scared of anything (or at least, so she claimed) but she wasn't too sure she wanted to witness the miracle of life at the moment. Instead, she decided to play with Perry the Platypus the dog, talking eagerly with Hawkeye's kids about the new pooch, completely oblivious as to what was happening on the quinjet. When the President came in, grabbing some salt, and running out, she was so terribly confused. "Oi, are y'all expecting snow or something?" Amelia asked, looking at Hawkeye.
"Not in May..."
"... Wild. I'm gonna go check it out," she told Hawkeye, before kissing the pupper on the head and heading on out to the quinjet. She spotted Raynor and Spider-Man dashing in ahead of her, so there was definitely something weird going on. Bonnie was glad to know that Sparky had Cass more or less sorted. It was sad to know that her friend had lost an eye, but that seemed to be a disturbing trend among the higher ranks of SHIELD. At least Sparky was able to craft her something that would be even better than what she had once had. Everyone was becoming some sort of cyborg today it seemed - Niah with her leg, Cass with her eye. "Perhaps with our team's antics, an eye roll shouldn't be the trigger to switch modes," Bonnie suggested to Sparky. "Intentional blinking may be more practical."
She then glanced up, seeing the President walk onto the quinjet. Bonnie was filled with relief. Hopefully, they'd have an answer as to the Niah of it all soon - she really didn't want to have to upload her friend's mind into the Framework to prevent her death. However, at Jakobsen's candid reaction, Bonnie's eyes narrowed and she couldn't help but scold him. "You seriously need to get better bedside manner... sir." Her heart was beating quickly, like a butterfly trying to escape captivity. Jakobsen's explanation of what was going on tested Bonnie's resolve - she did her best to keep her face calm and neutral.
"Like hell am I going anywhere," she responded roughly. She had read a lot of trashy monster romance novels in her time, and it gave her a bit of an idea. She searched through the medical supplies until she found what she was looking for - a sedative. "Sedatives, yes or no during exorcism?" she asked Jakobsen bluntly. "Cass, there should be restraints in the brig, if you could go grab them. Sparky, I want you on standby ready to revive Niah if needed."
She didn't want to risk Niah's heart stopping - Sparky could prevent that.
Two more people then rushed onto the quinjet - Spider-Man and Raynor. "What in Odin's name is going on?!" Raynor shouted, instantly going over to Sparky to make sure she was okay, before looking at Jakobsen. He knew that Jakobsen used to run OMEN, and given that he had grabbed a gigantic bag of salt, Raynor knew something incredibly wrong had to be going on with Niah.
"Perfect timing. Spider-Man, I need you to web up Niah so she can't move," Bonnie instructed.
"But-"
"Do it or so help me god..."
Spider-Man gulped, nodding before spraying Niah up with webbing so she was more or less immobilized on the hospital bed.
Amelia then popped her head in. "... What'd I miss?"
Everyone was cleared over the timeskip. Hooray!
... Except for Nick Fury. He has only been cleared by Goose.
Cassandra nodded to Sparky for a moment as she tried to think of a way to switch between the settings, before coming up with a potential idea. "Maybe a subdermal implant connected to the eye? I know that you can't really cut through the skin but with the big gapping hole where my eye was right now, you could maybe put it in there and just a simple touch where the implant is it could switch between the settings?" Cass suggested if Bonnie could draw blood from the same area when she had M-Pox then they could install the implant just under the skin. Her attention turned towards the President as he came in, she was actually glad to see him, and maybe help Niah and Bonnie with their problem.
Cass turned to see Alex inspecting the area hearing the news wasn't good at all as she listened to him explain that it was a demon that was there somehow. She then watched as Alex quickly bolted off to grab some salt this was nowhere near her area of expertise at all and felt a bit helpless that she couldn't really help Niah at all. Alex came back with a bag of salt and nodded towards Bonnie as she told her to get some restraints.
"I'm on it." Cass said as she left the infirmary towards the brig running past Raynor and Spider-Man as the two of them entered the infirmary. Cassandra entered the brig and started to look around before finding a set of restraints and quickly came back just in time to see Spider-Man covering Niah up in webbing. "I guess we won't need these then." Cass said sarcastically as she went to set the restraints down on a nearby counter. "What can I do to help?" Cass asked looking at Alex and Bonnie, just as Amelia poked her head in to see what was up. "It's Niah's leg has gotten worse theres apparently a demon on her right now." Cassandra told Amelia.
Evelyn Holder
Location: Missouri - Barton Homestead Skills: N/A
Evelyn followed the others into the house and looked over at the birthing setup that Oliver had made for the soon to be mother alien cats, she leaned slightly up against the wall. Listening to Mar-Vell explaining more about the flerekens as she caught some movement in the corner of her eye seeing that it was the President running with a huge back of salt. While turning to look over at Amelia asking about it, she didnt know why the president needed that at all.
"I have no idea honestly." Evelyn said as she looked towards the others for a moment and decided to join Amelia and started to follow her towards the Quinjet seeing Amelia standing just outside of the medical area. She overheard what Cass had said, and apparently there was some sort of demon on Niah which didnt sound well at all.
Maria Novikova
Location: Training Area Skills: Power Absorption (Skrull Shapeshifting)
"I didn't think it would actually work." Maria whispered back to Flynn as she followed the Princess towards the training area as she looked down at the princess. "Sorry about that Princess." Maria whispered to her she probably had a feeling that the Princess didnt like to be touched by a compete stranger. She looked over her shoulder towards the guards for a moment and looked at Flynn, since she was able to shapeshift now she could stay and watch.
"Flynn why don't you go in and train the princess a bit, i'll make sure that they don't enter the room." Maria suggested as she stood by the door, she just hoped that none of the other skrulls would go and investigate the training area. "I'll come in and let you guys know if something happens."
Kwassi nodded along as Mar-Vell gave them more information on the Flerkens and their parenting habits, taking mental notes to write down later about everything he'd learned about this species. He hadn't expected to not only run into several alien species today, but to also have one so knowledgeable and willing to teach them about the others. It was a breath of fresh air after his encounter with the Happy Go Lucky Thor Jr. The ride back was uneventful save for the bits of information that could be exchanged during the ride to Barton's hideout.
Once they reached the expense of land, Kwassi hopped out of the truck and made his way back towards the quinjet, curious to see what the femme fatales had cooked up for them while they were gone. But instead of a spiel about the marvels they worked, he got a ranting President talking about Demons and possessions. It wasn't exactly something up Kwassi's alley, but he was willing to help, especially with the urgency lacing every word. He wasn't sure which text to pull from for the exorcism, there were so many religions, so many texts, and each culture had their own rites and words to exorcise a spirit (or in this case a demon) out of another body.
Upon hearing that the President felt his memory was a little rusty, Kwassi pulled out his phone and took to the biggest collection of knowledge mankind had, The Internet. He searched through fakes, texts with bad or partial translations, and finally fell upon some Latin writing that seemed to be up the occults alley and genuine as can be. He looked towards Jakobsen as he came back in with the salt and hastily began making a circle. "I've got the text right here, but I couldn't find anything on a Demon Trap. Just a bunch of Hollywood nonsense that has flooded the images tab and web pages." Kwassi stood by, ready to read the words in unison or help as needed.
Well, being possessed hadn't actually been on her list of things that she was worried about. Her list of things she had been worried about had been "Bonnie". So really that wasn't a surprise. "I have a bear with me." Niah joked automatically. Then more people started filing in. She got to enjoy Spider-man's web powers too. She sighed.
"Okay, can we do this with like eighty percent less audience members? Bonnie kick anyone you don't need out." At least Flynn wasn't here. She couldn't deal with this. She didn't like Kwassi much, and she'd rather the people that were in the room were Alex and those she considered her team. She certainly didn't want Matt in there and he had just walked in too.
Location: Missouri - Hawkeye's Homestead Skills:
Matt was listening to Mar-Vell. Weirdly fascinated with what she was talking about. When things got extra interesting. Alex ran into the house and grabbed a giant bag of rock salt from the garage before heading back into the Quinjet. He wondered what that was about, and saw that everyone was going into the quinjet.
"I'm gonna go see what all the fuss is about." Matt said. Then he walked over to the Quinjet and stepped into the medbay. Niah was strapped down using Spider-man's webs. He raised an eyebrow. Had it turned out that Niah was a Skrull or something? She looked irritated though and told Bonnie to kick out anyone she didn't need.
"Apologies. Not used to the person needing the exorcism not actively trying to kill me since they are possessed by a demon and that typically is not a good thing, and also no sedative, it wouldn't really do anything to help," Alex said somewhat calmly to Bonnie, as several others started entering the area. The room was starting to get a bit crowded, and he wasn't too thrilled when Kwassi decided to almost mock him in a way when it came to the words, just because Alex didn't have really anything on him to be useful for finding out the words or anything else that might be helpful, like how a demon trap worked or what it looked like.
Sparky nodded as Bonnie told her about staying on standby in case Niah's heart stopped, and she turned to look at Raynor when he entered the area. "As the others said, Niah apparently has a demon in her leg from her encounter with that demon bear," she responded simply with a bit of a shrug, glancing around at what was going on. "So... Let's get this show on the road right? And hope that it works or something like that... Since you know, demons are typically considered to be bad and all..."
"Yeah, well here's hoping that this doesn't go south or anything," Alex responded, before he more or less snatched Kwassi's phone away from him, "Borrowing this, especially since pretty sure you don't know a word of Latin and aren't fluent in it."
"Wait, who is fluent in Latin anymore?"
"Well when you constantly have to read spells and exorcisms or whatever, you kind of pick up the skill," he said, before taking a bit of a deep breath. "Alright, if no one is going to leave at least take a few steps back please, the quicker this is done the quicker we don't have to worry about it potentially possessing her completely." This was probably not going to end well, it had been forever since he had messed with this sort of thing it felt like. "Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii..." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Niah would start foaming at the mouth.
"Is this supposed to happen?"
Alex didn't respond to her question, continuing to recite the incantation, "Omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica. Ergo, omnis legio diabolica, adiuramus te…cessa decipere humanas creaturas, eisque æternæ perditionìs venenum propinare…Vade, satana, inventor et magister omnis fallaciæ, hostis humanæ salutis..." Now, the demon was definitely starting to show itself, as Niah's eyes turned completely a solid black, and she started hissing at him.
He wasn't really scared at this point, showing fear was probably not a good idea in this sort of situation, but he was feeling surprisingly calm with this entire thing, even though it was his first actual demon encounter for a long time. "Humiliare sub potenti manu Dei; contremisce et effuge, invocato a nobis sancto et terribili nomine…quem inferi tremunt…Ab insidiis diaboli, libera nos, Domine. Ut Ecclesiam tuam secura tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos." When the last words were out of his mouth, Niah would scream as black smoke came pouring out of her mouth, and when the smoke seemed to just be floating in the air, after a moment it took the form of a bear.
"Niah? Niah are you okay?" Sparky instantly called to her friend, hoping that she was okay. If there wasn't a response from her, she wasn't getting prepared to bolt across the line and give Niah a electric jolt to wake her up or something. She really could not handle potentially losing anyone else that she cared about. With Raynor, she hadn't even known if he was alive or not, that feeling that she might have lost him was a feeling she didn't want repeated with anyone she cared about, at least not for a long time.
"Whatever you do, do not cross the salt circle or break it in anyway. That's the only thing keeping him trapped and not completely lashing out... Guessing he's probably not too thrilled at being kicked out..." It was clear that the bear was pissed off, as it continually was trying to cross the salt line.
Location: Skrull Ship Skills: N/A
"Wow, this place is cool," he couldn't help but comment when they entered the training room. It was definitely was impressive with how it was built and designed. Flynn's attention was drawn away from the room though by Maria saying she'll keep an eye on the door or whatever and he could get started with a few training things for the princess. "Sounds good to me, we should be fine, hopefully... Though we are gonna likely start small with this sort of training session..." He gave another smile to Anelle, before he headed to a console that looked like it would control things in the room.
"Alright your highness, we're going to start off with something rather simple. We're going to just do a quick sort of test to figure out where we are... Mainly testing your strength to see how strong you are, and fighting form alright?" he said to her, before he managed to get a punching bag to materialize in the room. It was rather sturdy and durable, so it should be able to withstand quite a bit of strength. Walking over, he stood by the bag, and giving it a rather simple punch, managing to get it to move somewhat from the force. "This is just a punching bag, so nothing is coming at you at the moment, I want you to do what I just did and punch the bag so we can see what we've got to work with, okay?" he said rather calmly to her, making sure to keep her informed as to what he was doing as he took a few steps back and away from the bag so that he could see what it was that she was doing.
