One hour to the spaceship's morning meals. Victor slipped the three of them through the void down to the street, letting Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel wander off to buy food to fuel up before beginning with their plan. They faded into the shadows beyond a streetlamp, and Victor portaled back to his apartment halfway across the city.

There, he paced into the kitchen, tugging open the fridge but wrinkling his nose at the sight of bland nutrient bars. He marched to the bedroom and tapped open the laptop, setting the wall glowing with images of Ms. Marvel in his "hunt" to locate her.

With the stream of city camera feeds scrolling up the wall, he could track her progress through the city, find out where they went to buy food. But he didn't. He closed down the laptop. He paced back to the kitchen, fingers itching. What did he do with one whole hour?

In the bedroom, he eyed the mess on the floor, the desk. He crawled across the bed to the far corner, fetching a paper bag folded neatly on the carpet. He swept the desk of crumbs and stray napkins, leaving the wood spotless. Then he worked his way around the bedroom, cleaning up trash and tossing blankets semi-neatly onto the bed, then halfway smoothing out the quilt. A collection of kree swords--elaborately carved, blue-gray metal--he propped in the bathroom's shower. His armor he left half-folded under the sink, his boots he organized at the base of the bed.

What if...what if their plan went wrong?

Victor shoved the thought away and opened the desk drawer for the tablet, which he tossed onto the bed. He tipped out crumbs from the drawer into the trash sack. He sat on the corner of the bed, bouncing. It'd barely been five minutes.

What if...he growled. It couldn't go wrong. Because if the plan did go poorly, Hala and the kree would know where to find him. Here.

But maybe, Victor would only receive a slight scolding for not knowing Ms. Marvel had a superhero partner.

Or maybe it'd be worse than that.

Victor cleaned out the kitchen next, rubbing down the counter with a towel from the cupboard. He emptied the water jug into the sink, and dumped all the nutrient bars into his paper bag of trash.

The whole point of not helping Dante himself was to avoid Hala's wrath. Because Victor had nowhere to go except working for Hala, who might throw him away if she deemed him a failure.

Victor held a dirty towel under the faucet rushing with water, soaking cold, chills racing up his arms. He grit his teeth. The whole point wouldn't work. If Dante or any other inhumans escaped, Hala would just order Victor to hunt them down again. Or she'd have someone else hunt them down again, if Victor were deemed a failure. In which case, Victor would have to protect Dante from the kree.

Not that protecting Dante sounded bad...

He shut off the water. He thunked his head against the faucet. "You fool," he muttered. He tossed the wet towel behind him, and it splatted onto the counter. "You fool," he growled, marching back to the bedroom. Throwing desk drawers open, he wiped the tablet's memory and cleared every file from the laptop, then bundled his armor and boots and shoved them in a second paper bag. He took one of the swords from the shower, for good measure, then yanked away the dull one barring the door, so someone else could get inside. He dried off the counter. He left the pair of towels in the sink. And he turned off all the lights. Because he wasn't coming back.

***

Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl barged onto the roof through the stairwell. "Change of plans," Victor announced. They halted in the doorway, gaping at his hand. The one holding a sword. Right.

He carefully set the sword by his foot. "We're taking down the spaceship."

A brown sack thumped to the concrete. Followed by a paper cup, ice and red liquid splashing over Squirrel Girl's boots. "Did you say what now?"

"We're taking down the spaceship," he repeated, softly. "Because if we don't, Hala will just come for everyone again."

Ms. Marvel slowly swung the stairwell door shut behind them. It clanged. "Hold on, take down the spaceship? But our plan wasn't about--"

Victor shook his head. "Your part of the plan's the same. Squirrel Girl and I will just go to the command deck and get the ship to crash itself onto the planet."

"Uh, hooray?" Squirrel Girl said. "I mean, is that really a good idea? What about Hala?"

Ms. Marvel marched off, toward an electric tower at the corner of the rooftop. Her fast food sacks crinkled and she thunked them to the ground.

"Ms. Marvel?" Squirrel Girl called. "You okay?"

"Yeah! Just hungry!" she plopped to a seat and dug through the sacks.

Victor frowned. Squirrel Girl scooped up the spilled drink and jogged after Ms. Marvel. "Brilliant. Battle tactics over midnight snacks. Come on, Victor!"

Victor picked up the sword and reluctantly followed.

"So," Ms. Marvel said between bites of cheeseburger, "now the plan is to face Hala directly?"

"I have many questions," Squirrel Girl dug out a whole handful of hazelnuts. "Starting with, what?" She frowned. "Actually, that about sums it up."

"I thought we were trying to avoid Hala," Ms. Marvel said. "And help the inhumans escape."

"Like a covert spy mission," Squirrel Girl said.

"Yeah. And now you want to...crash the spaceship on earth? We could die! We could destroy a whole city!"

Victor carefully sat, sword across his lap. "I know, it sounds crazy. I know, I didn't want any of the kree thinking I was involved--"

"That is how double agents usually work."

Victor scowled at Squirrel Girl.

"Sorry," she shoved a handful of hazelnuts in her mouth, cheeks puffing.

He opened his mouth to continue, but paused. Was he a double agent? Or just a traitor? Or... he shook the thought off. "I wanted to stay, which is why I didn't want to be suspected of being involved. But then I thought about it more," he shifted uncomfortably on the hard ground. "I can't keep doing this. If we free Dante, Hala will just order me or someone else to hunt him down again. And I can't lie to myself anymore. So," he shrugged, staring intently at the sword. "I guess I'm out. And I'm going after Hala."

"Wow," Squirrel Girl muttered. "You're right. What do we do with a bunch of newly freed kids if the kree keep coming after them? They'll have nowhere to go."

Victor's chest constricted. "So we crash the spaceship somewhere. That way Hala won't be able to send me after them again."

"We could land it in the ocean," Ms. Marvel suggested. "I bet we could get all the inhumans out of the training rooms and attack the command deck--we'd overwhelm Hala and take control of the ship."

Victor glanced up. Squirrel Girl and Tippy both devoured bags of peanuts, while Ms. Marvel stared off into the distance, nibbling her lip.

"I'm not sure we can count on all the inhumans," Victor said. "Some of them...well, they might be like me," he grimaced.

"I'm sure that won't be hard to figure out," Squirrel Girl said. "Just keep track of who punches the guards, and who helps them." She frowned. "Are there seriously people who'd help their prison guards?"

"Future subordinates," Victor corrected her. "If you show you're worthy, Hala gives you command above many of the soldiers."

Squirrel Girl shivered. "That's messed up."

Victor glared at her. "You didn't spend years there, you wouldn't know. We were given one way to ensure we stayed alive, and that was by pleasing Hala. You know how many people I've watched tossed off the spaceship? A lot. But I only remember one of their names, because I made myself forget. That's why it's taken Hala over a decade to build an army--she's building the perfect army. Anyone less than perfect, she tosses them aside! You wouldn't know--"

"Okay, great plan so far," Ms. Marvel cut in, loudly unwrapping a second cheeseburger. "We free everyone, we lead them to the command deck, defeat Hala, then land the ship in the ocean somewhere. Can you land it, Victor?"

Victor ground his teeth together, unclenching his fists. "I've never flown Hala's battleship before, but I've done smaller ones."

Ms. Marvel nodded. "And how do we get out of the ocean back to land?"

"We could try to land close to shore," Squirrel Girl suggested. "Or Victor could teleport everyone."

He scowled. "Not everyone at once, no."

"Or, maybe some of the prisoners can fly? Or also teleport?"

They both turned to stare at him.

"I don't know that."

"Except, didn't you like, you know...abduct them?" Squirrel Girl asked. "So shouldn't you probably know that?"

He glowered.

"How much longer do we have?" Ms. Marvel glanced at the sky.

"Not long," Victor stood. "We should probably go."

"Alrighty," Squirrel Girl hopped to her feet. "Pit stop first: the trash bin downstairs. Littering is bad!" She darted for the stairs, leaving them in silence.

"So..." Ms. Marvel said, "how are we getting everyone out of the ocean?"

He shrugged. "Like Squirrel Girl said. We try to crash close to land, and hope we have helpful powers if we don't."

"And...how exactly are we going to defeat Hala? You called her an 'insane warrior.' Do you think mobbing her with a bunch of inhumans will work?"

"Hala's nearly invincible. Her spear can shoot destructive beams, and she can leap probably from here to the edge of that building," he pointed across the blaring street. "I don't know what will work."

She nodded. "Right. So she's an actual, dangerous big baddie. Fantastic," she gulped. "I'm not sure I'm up for this."

Victor glanced down at his sword, thought of the bag with his few belongings tucked in an alley below this building. "I'm not sure I am either."

The stairwell door burst open, releasing a chattering Tippy and a panting Squirrel Girl. "Hello again," she gasped. "Squirrel Girl and Tippy reporting for duty. We are so ready for this." She turned to the sky and cupped her mouth. "You're going down, Hala! Just like...just like..." she paused. "Let's go nuts and kick some kree butts!"