The glowing chick was a bit extreme for Marisol's taste. The Guardians had taken off as soon as Ziana and Peter had fixed the Milano. Gamora proclaimed they were headed in the right direction, but she still refused to say specially where they were going. Things were unnaturally quiet amongst their little rag tag group. Kale was particularly insufferable, though, making snide remarks whenever she could fit one in.

"It's only a matter of time before something bad happens." The hallucination was leaning over the back of Marisol's chair, running her hands over the leather fabric. Her eyes were half closed, the imaginary girl looking like she could use a nap. As if she needed sleep. Maybe it was just because Marisol needed sleep.

"Oh, what now!?" Peter's shout came from the front of the ship.

"See what I mean?" Kale smirked down at Mari. She ignored her and moved to see what her cousin was going on about this time.

"Who is that?" Drax asked. He and the others were blocking the window from Marisol's view.

"How are we supposed to know, you idiot?" Rocket snapped from his place on Groot's shoulder.

Marisol pushed her way to the front of the group, irritated with all the noise. She was about to tell them all to can it, but after catching sight of what lay -- or more accurately hovered -- outside she froze. It was one of the women from her dreams: blonde hair floating around her in a pool of golden light, eyes glowing white, hands aflame. She wore a red and blue suit with a golden star on the center of her chest. Jaw slacked. Muscles lose. Her face is passive. Cool without trying too hard.

Marisol's blood turned to ice. It wasn't as if she were afraid of the other woman -- aroused if anything. It was just that she'd never seen one of her visions come true so quickly before. She'd actually never seen any of her -- for lack of a better word -- prophecies come true before. She actively avoided being anywhere near the location so she didn't have to see the events of her dreams unfold. But if this woman was here did that mean...

She didn't mean to be so obvious, but she let her gaze shift over to Groot. Were the rest of her visions going to come true too?

Rocket caught her gaze, and she quickly looked away. Hopefully he'd just pass it off as worry about the floating chick and not question her about it later. Rocket was such a mother hen sometimes. It was annoying.

"What does she want?" Peter asked.

Rocket glared back at him, paws stretched out as if to say 'what's with all the stupid questions?' "Again, how are we supposed to know, idiot?"

"Don't call me an idiot. I'm not an idiot, okay? You're an idiot."

"I'm more intelligent than you that's for sure."

"Oh really because you don't even --"

"Guys!" Gamora shouted. "Enough of your useless squabbling!"

"Where'd she go?" Marisol hadn't looked away, but somehow in the seconds it took her to blink she was gone. Was she invisible?

"Turn around." She didn't see her, but Kale's voice echoed in her head, and Marisol had been through too much with the hallucination to question her judgment -- as annoying as she was she was usually right. Mari whirled around just in time to see the glowing lady headed straight for her.

There wasn't any time to wonder how the hell she'd gotten on board without anyone noticing, Marisol acted on pure instinct. She threw her hand up, pushing the other woman back -- it was harder than she'd thought it would be, she was a lot heavier than she looked. It wasn't long before the other woman had Mari pinned to the wall, a position she might find exciting under different circumstances, but presently she was pissed beyond belief.

"Who are you?" Mari hissed.

"You don't know?" Her expression was still passive as ever. Was she just unmoved by everything or had she learned to suppress her emotions the way Marisol had? "You looked like you recognized me."

"I confess. I saw you in a dream." She wasn't normally so nonchalant, but something about this woman dragged it out of her.

The woman allowed her mouth to twitch upwards the slightest bit. Almost a smirk. Not quite amused, but pretty close. "So, I'm the girl of your dreams, huh?"

Marisol rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up!" She kicked at her, pushing with all her might before she got the other woman to move. Mari was already running low on stamina, but this woman hadn't even broken a sweat yet. It was both hot and irksome. "What's your name?"

She stared back at her with that same expression -- not quite enough yet to be anything really, but very nearly, almost amused. Smug, perhaps. The woman was smug. She was untouchable, and she knew it. "I have lots of names. Vers. Carol Danvers." Another almost smile. "You can call me Captain Marvel."

"Cute."

"Thanks."

"Marvel at this, sweetheart!" Rocket shouted. He was aiming a rocket launcher right at Captain Marvel; Peter and Gamora were right beside him, shouting at him to put it down before he blasted a hole in the ship. Groot was covering his eyes, Drax egging Rocket on, shouting, "Shoot her! Shoot her!"

"No! Not on the ship!" Peter screamed. "We just got repairs!"

Marvel quirked an eyebrow at the rest of the Guardians, as if thinking 'these idiots really think they can stop me?' Then, in one swift movement, she raised her arm, a beam of light shooting from her fist. In seconds, Rocket's weapon was crumbled to pieces on the floor, smoke rising from the ashes of its remains. Marisol would have thought she was just trying to prove how bad ass she was, but this woman didn't strike her as someone who needed to prove anything to anyone. She just was that eccentric.

Rocket was left staring wide eyed, mouth agape. His head whipped around the room, as if he thought he might have missed something. "Did you see that?! She just blew up my rocket launcher!"

"We were all here, Rocket, we all saw it," Peter pointed out.

"She shot freaking lasers from her hands! What kind of person shoots lasers from their hands?!"

There might have been more squabbling, but Marisol tuned it out. Kale's voice sounded in her head again, this time much more echo-y than the last. Her ears were ringing. "You won't be able to win, not against her." She was right. This woman's stamina could rival Mari's -- who had always taken pride in keeping her energy levels up (except of course when she used her powers.) She also had powers none of them had ever seen before by the looks of it. Their group was not equipped to handle this Captain Marvel. They needed a weakness. Or at least a distraction until they could throw her off the Milano. So, Marisol kept her talking.

"Nova Corps sent you didn't they?" It was a shot in the dark, but it made sense. They'd escaped the Klyn; they'd be considered armed and dangerous. Naturally, they'd send the best of the best to track them down and bring them in again.

"Yup." It wasn't much of an answer, but that's all Marvel gave them.

"Well, we're not going back," Peter said, puffing his chest in a failed attempt to look more manly. "We'll fight to the death if we have to!" That was not the smart thing to say.

"Works for me." Marvel stepped forward. Peter yelped and hid behind Gamora.

"Hold on, hold on! I was just being dramatic! We don't actually want to fight to the death!" He was real quick to backtrack. Marisol let a few Spanish curses slip through her lips at his expense.

Marvel moved to the front of the ship, taking over the controls, rerouting them back to the Kyln. "You know if you take us back we'll just break out again," Rocket said. Marisol smacked him. "Ow! Hey, watch it!" She glared at him. "What? I'm just saying, we'll just break out again. So, taking us back is sort of pointless."

Marvel glanced over her shoulder, but she didn't say anything. Perhaps, she was wondering how they planned on breaking out the second time so she could tell her bosses before it happened. Marisol would have liked to say the group wasn't moronic enough to discuss potential escape plans in front of her, but that would have made her a liar.

"Of course the old plan won't work twice, they'll see it coming now," Rocket went on. "We'll need a new plan. Maybe we can use the vents."

"We could just steal their guns and blast our way back out," Peter pointed out.

"No, see that's way too similar to what we did the last time," Rocket argued.

"We only had to do that last time because Groot drew attention to everyone."

"That might be true, but either way we'll definitely need someone's arm this time."

"Someone's arm? Seriously? That has to be another trick." Peter shook his head.

"No, no, really. I'm serious. I --"

"I think you should take us back." The words had left her mouth before she even realized her lips were moving to form them. The others stared at her, mouths hanging open. Marisol knew they all thought she was crazy, Groot even asking it out loud with a quiet, "I am Groot?" She ignored them. She was making the suggestion for them. For their safety. It wasn't like she cared for any of them besides Groot, but she didn't exactly feel like standing around watching a bunch of people die either. It was just as much self serving as it was in surface to them. Plus, they'd all owe her one.

Marvel stared back at her. She didn't exactly look skeptical, her face keeping that same neutral expression it had since they'd first spotted her floating outside that window. "I have to ask --"

"It's not a trick," Marisol said. "I'm just tired." She wasn't sure where the confession came from. She didn't share her emotions, and she didn't give people hints when she was physically out of it. She could usually at least fake it long enough to get by, but this time... This time it was all oh so heavy. She couldn't blink without seeing those awful visions from her dreams -- her friends and strangers alike crumbling to dust. People dying. Fighting. War. Any time she even attempted to rest she was startled awake by that damned snap. It was too much.

Maybe she was finally cracking from the sleep deprivation, maybe Kale had finally driven her crazy, but her body was rigged, nerves shot. If she had to keep it to herself a moment longer, she was going to scream. Still, she wasn't ready to share her aquantiances' -- they weren't exactly friends yet -- fates. Not yet. Not with them. How would she tell Gamora she was going to be sacrificed by her own father -- her life traded for a stupid rock. And how would she explain to poor Groot that he'd die more times than any of them? And Peter... 

She'd been avoiding letting her mind drift to him, only allowing herself to marvel at how stupid he had become. Anything more than that hurt too much. It wasn't right, wasn't fair that after everything -- after she had just found him again she was going to lose him again. Who knew how long it'd be. Maybe it'll all be over in a few months, maybe they'd have years. She'd been trying not to get too close. Maybe that way she'd care less when it happened. But maybe she cared more than she wanted to admit. In all her years of pushing it down so far it got buried underneath all that hurt and pain and fear, maybe she had forgotten how to express it.

So when she said she was tired, maybe she needed more than just a nap to fix it.

--

*cough* Uh, I know that was such an abrupt change of heart of Marisol. I had all these bonding things planned for her and others but...ugh. I don't know. Maybe later. Writing marvel is hard because the movies are so fast paced and it's been forever since I've updated this...so I don't know. I hope you liked it anyway! Even though I think it kinda sucked. (I'm gonna need a minute to get back into the swing of this one)

From here it's all pretty much au. So if you don't like that...sorry about ya. You'll have to find another book because this one probably won't be your cuppa tea. I love aus. So. Yep.

And I'm off for the next ten days since I was sent home due to stomach pain and COVID exists. (I'm already feeling better though so ugh) so, maybe I'll actually for the first time since starting work have time to update some stuff! (Starting with Chimera here) Woo!

Kay, well, that's all for now, toodles!

~ Elsie