Blue Blood

5. "Kree." (Steve)

     Nat's eyes go wide, and she arms herself with her stun batons, sharply ordering, "Назовите себя."

Identify yourself.

     The blonde stops just a few feet away from Natasha, the orange cat obediently following.

     Cute little cat, but who the hell is the woman? And why is she glowing?!

     She smiles sweetly at Nat, saying, "Капитан Марвел. Я пришел домой, Маленький Паук."

    Captain Marvel. I came home, Little Spider.

    "Unbelievable," Nat smiles, dropping the stun batons to the lab floor. "Its really you."

     No one moves, but our thoughts go off the rails when Nat runs toward the mystery woman and practically jumps into her arms. She hugs Nat tight and smiles when Nat finally lets her go to give her a quick, but passionate, kiss.

     Nat smiles in disbelief as she says, "I can't believe you're really here. I thought Maria and Monica were making it up, that you finally coming back to Earth was just a dream."

Who is she?

     Clint walks over, smiling as he says, "Good to see you, Captain."

     "You haven't changed since the last time I saw you," the woman says as Nat lets her go so she can hug Clint.

      "Nat, could you be a dear and tell me who the hell just waltzed right into our compound?" Tony chimes.

     The woman fires a glare at Tony, and he nearly pisses himself when the woman's hands start to blaze even brighter, light swirling around her hands.

      Nat puts a hand on her arm, saying, "It's okay. He's Howard Stark's son."

     "I've heard of you, and I've met many of the Kree," Thor says. "Are you one of them?"

There's that word again.

The woman relaxes, the glow around her fading.

     "Did you say Kree?" Bruce asks. "Weren't they all killed in some freak explosion when their overlord was slaughtered?"

Huh?

What?

When?

Who?

     "I assume that technology hasn't changed much since the last time I was here?" The woman says to Nat and Clint.

     "There have been some improvements, but nothing close to what you had on Hala," Clint says.

The woman looks at Thor and Bruce and says, "Technically, I'm Kree, so yes, I said it." She looks at Clint. "I'm assuming I'll have to upgrade more equipment while I'm here then? Is that right?"

"I'm not going to get an answer, am I?" Tony sighs.

Nat smirks and bumps the woman with her hip, saying, "You might as well answer Stark while he's busy contemplating what to do with all of the information we've thrown at him."

The woman smiles softly, and then she says, "Part of who I am came from a different planet, but I lived here on Earth for a time before then. Have you ever heard of Project Pegasus? It was a SHIELD project, one of the most secret and controversial projects in the organization's history. I doubt that any of the records were declassified when SHIELD fell, since Pegasus happened during the dial-up era, so it shouldn't be public knowledge, but it could have been leaked somewhere."