'That's classified. Not unlike the file I started on you.' He looked between us both as he walked from behind the counter. The other guy looked at Fury confused, not knowing what was going on here. But he walked off quickly when Fury gave him a look, probably not wanting to do anything with this. Vers turned so her whole body was now towards the man and looked at him expectantly.
'But I see you've changed it up a bit since then. Grunge is a good look for you', he gestured to our outfits. I had no idea what Grunge was, but it seemed to be some sort of fashion style here. On Hala, I never had to worry about clothing. Everyone wore the same Starforce assigned clothes, simple and plain.
'Did you have a rough day, Agent Fury?', Vers taunted him with a small smile on her lips.
'It's cool', Agent Fury answered casually while he walked along the bar, me and Vers following his every move. 'You know, space invasion, big car chase, got to watch an alien autopsy', he put extra emphasis on the word alien. 'Typical nine to five', he shrugged. He acted like it wasn't a big deal, but I knew it was to him.
'So you saw one?', I asked curiously. I don't know where or how he had found one and apparently killed it, but it was one less Skrull for us to worry about.
He leaned on the bar when he answered me. 'I was never one to believe in aliens. But I can't unsee that', he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
Beside me, Vers squinted her eyes and looked at him. 'This is gonna get a little awkward, but I gotta ask.' Knowing what she meant and how she was probably planning on doing this, I laughed at her words and the face Fury made when he realized she was going to force him to answer some questions.
'You think I'm one of those green things?', he said indignantly, pointing his finger to his chest with his eyebrows raised.
'Can't be too careful', I joined in on the joke innocently. Fury looked back and forth between us, like he expected one of us to crack and tell him that we were just joking. But even though the way we said it was lighthearted, we did need to question him. We couldn't risk giving a Skrull more information.
But Fury really didn't want to be questioned and tried to convince us once again. 'You are looking at a hundred percent red-blooded Earthman.' He walked closer and sat on the pool table. He had a big gash above his left eye that wasn't there before, so I guessed the Skrull didn't go down easy.
Vers walked over to the table and stood in front of him. 'I'm afraid we are going to need proof.' I nodded when Fury looked over her shoulder to me, as if I was going to back him up.
He turned his attention back to the woman in front of him when he saw I wasn't gonna be much help. 'Are we talking cheek swab or urine sample?', he asked curiously.
But Vers already shook her head at the word 'cheek'. 'No, the DNA would match.'
'Want my AOL password?' I had no idea what an AOL was so no, that wouldn't do either. We needed to get personal and Fury seemed to finally understand that when Vers spoke again.
'Skrulls can only sim recent memories of their host bodies.' And there it was. The little light in Fury's brain went on and he understood what she meant to say. And he did not look too happy. Scoffing, he exclaimed, 'Oh, oh! You wanna get personal', he swayed his finger to her. She smirked, knowing she finally got him where she wanted and gestured to a table for him to sit down.
He reluctantly did so and Vers and I sat in front of him. Asking questions alternately.
'Where were you born?', Vers started. She took this very seriously and sat up straight in her chair, analyzing every move the man made.
'Huntsville, Alabama. But technically I don't remember that part.' I could see she had to hide a smile. She and Fury had a very similar sense of humor so he knew exactly how to get a reaction out of her.
'Name of your first pet?', I asked next and he turned his eyes from Vers to me. 'Mr. Snoofers', he answered quickly and toneless, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.
'Mr. Snoofers?', Vers asked. Checking to see if she had heard correctly because the name sounded ridiculous.
'That's what I said. Did I pass?' Nope, not by a long shot.
'Not yet. First job?', she asked again. The words were flying fast between us now, everyone a little uncomfortable with asking personal questions.
'Soldier, straight out of high school. Got the ranks of full-bird Colonel.' Ah, he was a soldier, just like us. I immediately liked him a little more. Soldiers understand each other and war is the same everywhere you go, so we would most likely think the same. But his description was very vague, so we kept asking.
'And then?' He turned to look me in the eyes.
'Spy.' This man did not look like a spy, but alright.
Apparently, Vers thought the same. 'Where?'
'It was the Cold War, we were everywhere. Uhm... Belfast, Bucharest, Belgrade, Budapest.' He moved his head from side to side as he listed the cities. Or countries? I had no idea what those places were. To be honest, they sounded like made up names. 'I like the B's, I can make 'em rhyme', he joked at the end.
'Now?', I took over from Vers.
'Been riding a desk for the past six years, trying to figure out where our future enemies are coming from. Never occurred to me that they would be coming from above.' Pointing a finger to the ceiling to emphasize his statement.
It was Vers' turn to ask a question and by the little pause that came from her, I knew she was going to say something funny. And I was proven to be right. Like I said, her humor was very predictable. 'Name a detail so bizarre a Skrull could never fabricate it.' I had to keep from laughing. We didn't need this info, she just wanted a laugh. And a laugh she got.
Fury thought for a minute, thinking she was completely serious and then sighed when he realized he was going to tell us something embarrassing. 'If toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it.' Looking at us for any sort of reaction, he got none. We just stared at him very still as we waited for him to get that he had been pranked.
He finally narrowed his eyes and raised an eyebrow. 'You didn't need that, did you?'
Immediately, Vers dropped her facade and a smile came on her face. 'No. No, we didn't. But we enjoyed it.'
Fury was not amused and wanting to get back at us, he said, 'Okay, your turn. Prove you're not a Skrull.' Ah, he seemed to get it.
Vers, not backing away from a challenge, rolled up her right sleeve a bit. Before I could grasp what she was going to do, she raised her arm and shot one of her blasts at the jukebox in the corner.
'V!', I yelled sharply at her. She was just destroying and stealing everything today wasn't she. She looked at me innocently, like she had done nothing wrong and winked at me. I rolled my eyes.
Fury turned around in his chair so he could assess the damage and when he glanced at Vers again, he had a puzzled look on his face. 'And how is that supposed to prove to me you're not a Skrull?'
'That's a photon blast', she answered matter-of-factly. Still trying to look as innocent as possible. It was quite cute, I had to admit. 'And?' Fury still didn't understand why this was proof that she was not a Skrull. 'A Skrull can't do that!' I could see that he still wasn't convinced, but let it slide anyway. Except now, he turned to me.
I raised my eyebrows at him when he didn't say anything, just stared at me expectantly. 'What?', I asked. 'Your turn.' Really? I had been with Vers the whole time and still he needed proof?
I looked at him and then at Vers, hoping she would back me up on this, but she just stared at me the same way Fury did, wanting to see what I would do. Narrowing my eyes at her, I said sarcastically, 'Thanks babe.' She just smiled at that.
Alright, they wanted proof, they were going to get it. Looking behind the bar, I noticed the bottles of alcohol lined against the wall. They had to contain water, right? Focusing on that, I let five bottles explode with such force that glass pieces flew everywhere, making Fury and Vers duck.
Now it was time for some fire. Alcohol was very flammable, so I had to be careful not to blow anything up. A nice small flame arose in the puddle of alcohol and I could feel Fury stare at me with an open mouth.
Not wanting to damage the bar too much, I lifted the water from the sink and let it drop on the fire, putting it out.
Taking a deep breath, I turned back to Fury with a look that clearly said 'did that answer your question?' He blinked twice, looking from the puddle to me to Vers, who just shrugged and looked kind of proud.
'You control the elements?', he asked curiously and in disbelief. I had to give him some credit, he was a lot smarter then he looked and seemed to get these alien things really quickly.
'Yes, and those were only two. I haven't even shown you what I can do with air and earth yet', I said arrogantly.
'Do I want to know?', he looked between me and Vers, who had put an arm over my the back of my chair. But we didn't answer, just smiled a smile that said more than a thousand words.
'So', Vers steered the conversation back on track, 'A full-bird Colonel turned spy turned SHIELD agent must have pretty high security clearance. Where is Pegasus?' lifting her eyebrows once.
Fury sighed, finally giving in. He put some money on the table before we left, and when Vers and I turned to look at him with question, he just gestured to the jukebox and the glass everywhere on the ground. Right, we had kind of destroyed the bar.
I allowed Vers to go through the door outside first, but regretted it instantly. Before I could even see the car Fury came in, she had already called shotgun. Again. Which meant that I was stuck in the back. Again.
Maybe her life goal was to annoy the hell out of me. If it was, she was on the right track.
So here I was, squeezed in the back of a car that was not made for more than two people. We drove through the same dead landscape we had passed on the motorcycle. Nothing but sand and the occasional cactus. It was nothing like the Capital of Hala. I kind of missed it.
'How you doin' back there?', Vers asked innocently, turning around in the passenger seat so she could look at me. 'I'm gonna kill you', I joked back, narrowing my eyes at her. She just laughed at my face and turned back around. I could feel Fury's eyes on me in the rearview mirror but didn't answer them.
Deciding to take this time to rest again, I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes. Tuning out the conversation going on in the front and blocking all the noise in my head. I wanted some peace. Vers was explaining who the Skrulls were and who we were, although she was mostly talking about herself, leaving me out. She knew I didn't feel comfortable talking about myself, especially to strangers, so she didn't tell Fury anything about me either. She really knew me.
Fury's loud voice suddenly interrupted my peace and I opened my eyes to see him turn his head to Vers. 'Okay, the Skrulls sim alien races to infiltrate and take over planets and you're Kree', he motioned between her and me in the backseat, 'A race of noble warriors.'
I chuckled at that. Of course she had bragged a little bit. 'Heroes. Noble warrior heroes.' I shook my head, grinning. This caught Fury's attention in the mirror and it looked like another question suddenly popped up in his head.
'What is the deal between you two? How long you been together?', he asked me. I looked at Vers unsure, not knowing whether to trust this man. If we told anybody the whole story, there was a risk the Kree would find out. Fury sensed something was wrong by the silence that followed his question. 'Did I say something wrong?', he asked, looking genuinely sorry.
'No. It's just..' I trailed off.
'You don't trust me', he concluded. I nodded my head. But Vers seemed to trust him and I trusted her, so I nodded my head at her, gesturing her to tell the story. I nodded again when her eyes asked if I was sure and she turned to Fury. I was curious of what she was going to say and what she was going to leave out, but I trusted her to tell the story.
'Relationships are frowned upon in the Starforce, especially between a Commander and a Soldier. On Hala, everything is about pushing down your emotions so they don't distract you. Love is an emotion, so to love someone and be with them is almost a crime. You would lose your job in the Starforce and your life on Hala. All respect would be gone and your life would basically be over. But we tried pushing our feelings away, it just didn't work', she looked at me when she said that, 'So we decided to take the risk and jump all the way. That was about two years ago now. We have been hiding ever since. Only meeting at night and careful not to give people any idea's', she concluded her story.
She had told it exactly like I hoped she would. Without too much information but enough for Fury to get the struggle of it all. He started frowning from the first sentence and didn't stop throughout the whole story. 'I'm sorry. That must really suck', he concluded his thoughts and feelings.
'Yeah', I said, 'And I don't look forward to going back to that again, but we can't change anything so we will just have to deal with it. Who knows, maybe one day when we don't owe the Starforce anything anymore and we can finally be together.'
I saw Vers smile in the front seat. She wanted that too.
'Well, I really hope you get there one day', Fury said compassionately.
'I hope so too', I answered with a sigh.
~~~~~~~~
I love Fury and I love the dynamics between him and Vers.
Thank you for reading again!
(2573 words)