Chapter Text
Earth is a hideous, horrendous little world. A ball of dirt crawling with an infestation called humanity.
He’d never attributed strong dislike, let alone hate, to anything. Thousands of visited worlds, hundreds of dimensions, millions of species in the universes he was familiar with, and not one of them triggered the intense hatred he felt right now and any time he glanced at the dark, thick walls of his prison.
Humans.
A species that barely made it out of their creational soup, apes descended from their trees and yet, they played at being gods. Brushed aside all notion of the sanctity of peace, of hospitality, of civil behaviour. It took just one disgusting human to decide the death of the people he’d considered his friends, his family, one of them his love. It took just one human to decide to throw him into this rotting hellhole for not accepting the hand fate had dealt him in form of being stuck in this dimension, on this little mudball.
Noh-Varr, former diplomat in training, a being created and trained for peacekeeping, had never felt stronger in favour towards war and total terraformation. And if he ever broke through the restraints they’d inflicted upon him, he’d show this world the Kree’s capability for war.
It wasn’t the first time Tommy had been captured, though he could say (and he had plenty to say on the matter) that it was the first time he’d been snatched up so unceremoniously, and far quicker than he had anticipated. That was saying plenty, all of which were bad things that continued to ferment in Tommy’s mind and gut as he was lugged through his new habitat.
Well, at least the rooms weren’t as white as in juvie.
He might have remarked on that had they not sealed his mouth shut. Nothing he couldn’t remove himself, but after a few clocks to his head, among other things, he decided to humor his captors. They had the foresight to bind not only his wrists but his ankles, all three of the brutes dragging him so as not to let him touch anything, as if Tommy could just touch something and make it spontaneously combust.
Tommy was anything but docile, despite what they thought of his lack of struggling. Granted, he was bone-weary and eager to get some shuteye, but his mind was, as usual, on constant alert, soaking in every detail faster than they could compute it. By the time he was heaved to a massive sliding door, Tommy already brewed up more than one plan to make their lives miserable in the process of his escape.
And escape he planned, shouldering no burden of it on his teammates, wherever the hell they were now. The witch would be groaning and rolling his eyes though the moment he knew Tommy was caught. Unless he got caught too.
Tommy shelved those thoughts, heart clamoring though he tried to will it to calm down. He’d never acknowledge how any inkling of a prison ruffled him up inside, turned him inside out, yet his heart never listened.
“Toss him in,” a nasty voice said behind him, and Tommy was propelled forward.
A quick reflex was all that spared his face from smashing into the cold floor, and he had enough sense to shoot his captors a look before the door was sealed again. Their footsteps echoed beyond the door, leaving him to the darkness of what was an impressively grungy room.
Once their footsteps were out of earshot, the pain vibrated through Tommy, reminding him he had received more damage than he would ever let on. Grunting, he wiggled onto his backside and managed to lean against an equally cold wall, sucking in a deep breath through his nose to ride out the discomfort.
Before he had the luxury to exhale out his irritation, Tommy’s hackles rose, eyes sharpening. Someone was in the room with him. There. Corner where it was darkest. Tommy squinted, barely made much out besides a bulk of a shape, and in the seconds it took to determine that, he relaxed just enough to lean back against the wall.
It took a moment for him to work the wrapping around his mouth loose and he gulped in some air. “Hey,” he said, disliking how much it came out like a croak, “hey, you. You alive?”
This was new. He’d been confined alone, ever since the humans had gotten their grubby little claws on him, caught broken and wounded after the crash to Earth. Of course he knew that such a barbaric race would imprison their own kind, but he’d never seen another prisoner in all his time here. And he’d been in this box of a room for a very, very long duration.
He kept to the corner as his new...roomate was hauled in, thrown to the floor like some sort of waste unworthy of respect. Figures humans didn’t even respect their own.
Noh-Varr stayed in the darkest corner, quite capable of seeing very clearly even in the dim, depressing lighting they’d allowed him to have. He was young, whoever he was. The human, Noh could smell he was human, shifted himself, clumsily with the weight of his restraints on him, to sit up.
And then he spotted him. The Kree tensed, he had no idea what this human creature was capable of or in what sort of primitive state of mind he was in. Noh may be imprisoned, but he was not about to be caught unaware.
The human spoke. English, of course. The words and sounds of the language were familiar to him, ran through his mind as smoothly as any other speech he’d learned in his training with alien species, but it still took some measured thought to form them with his own mouth.
“I am alive. What are you?”
No, that wasn’t quite right, he intended to question the reason for this young male being here, not what his species was.
“In here?”
Alive, well, Tommy couldn’t decide yet if that was good news or bad. If he’d been dead, Tommy might have had to brace himself for similar treatment, and if alive, he’d have to concern himself with a living, breathing creature that might as well have been stuck here to rip Tommy to shreds.
Tommy flexed his fingers as much as he could, testing their ability as he considered his answer.
“Guess they just don’t like me,” he replied, wincing around his cramped hands.
He scanned the room again, finding little to go on, then leaned forward a tad as if with enough will he could brush the shadows aside see who skulked underneath.
“You human, or what? What’s your deal?”
All Tommy could deduce was that the fellow was male, and his voice was smooth, much smoother than anyone’s voice Tommy had heard. There hadn’t been underlying menace that he could pinpoint just yet, but Tommy didn’t feel any more comfortable with that tidbit of knowledge.
And maybe a muted piece of himself needed the conversation to go on, not just for information, but because Tommy had had enough of being squished by silence, the eerie kind that four walls knew too well how to inflict on someone.
This human was obviously no stranger to confinement, because he didn’t seem particularly phased by being bound and thrown into a tiny room with a strange man sitting in the dark. He seemed insistent on verbal communication, despite being barely able to see his conversational partner. Noh knew human eyesight wasn’t all that great, especially without a large source of light.
He gave a dismissive, disgusted snort at the suggestion. Him, human? He might bypass his physiology and throw up at the notion.
“No. I am Kree.”
Which was a bittersweet statement in itself. Yes, he was part of an advanced, superior race and yet, here he was, captured by creatures far beneath him. To feel both shame and pride was very conflicting and bizarre to him.
“Noh-Varr. I am Noh-Varr.”
“Noh-Varr,” Tommy said as a means to test the name.
A Kree. That was both curious and unsettling. How had they gotten a Kree bound and chucked into a prison cell, and what the hell kind of death were they pursuing to keep him around? Tommy knew enough about Kree that should have made him feel uneasy, but then again, swatting aside unease was a perpetual notion he’d gotten accustomed to.
“That’s certainly reassuring that you’re still locked up here,” Tommy said, more as a mutter to himself.
He sighed as if he had no care in the world, mentally building up barriers as memories tried reaching their long fingers into the crooks and crannies of them.
“So, what,” he pressed on, surveying himself, “they just keeping you as a pet then here? I’m not one for submission myself.” As an afterthought he added, “I’m Speed.”
His examination proved his lack of concerns wrong. Uniform yawning with tears and holes, Tommy could feel more than see rivulets of blood caking his skin. Nothing too serious from what he could gauge, but they all hurt like a bitch and were making even his attempt to just sit a task.
Noh-Varr didn’t feel obligated nor inclined to answer any more questions, this could easily be a ruse to attempt a gathering of information. Make him feel acclimated to having human company and reveal secrets about his advanced species. An oddly subtle tactic for humans, but he commended their dedication, he almost bought the genuine weakness and exhaustion in ‘Speed’.
“I am not submitting. That is why you keep me in this,” he gave a disdainful little nod towards the heavy, metal collar around his neck, the one that suppressed more of his abilities than he could ever muster to break out.
“I don’t keep you in anything,” Tommy replied, if a little frustrated.
Ignoring the protests of his muscles, Tommy scooted forward enough to spot what ‘this’ meant. Tommy had to whistle at the sight of the collar, a thick monstrosity that must have been keeping the Kree from doing all sorts of things.
“Got you good,” he said, pressing deeper into the darkness.
He barely made out any details, but he had enough to go on. Noh-Varr was a big guy, no surprise there, and just the bumps of his muscle, so unlike the lean ones of Tommy, promised the kind of power a Kree was capable of.
The fact that this fellow had been a prisoner here for who knew how long had Tommy sink back against the wall, then stretch out onto his side as exhaustion burrowed into his bones. He was processing the information, making it tumble in his head again and again, for fear of passing out and not being aware when they came to do...well, Tommy didn’t ponder much on that.
“Hey,” he called out into the silence again, pretending he didn’t hear how raspy his voice was beginning to sound. “You know if they’re gonna show up anytime soon? You know, to have a chat or some fun with us.”
Speed had inspected and commented on the collar as if it was entirely new to him. Noh-Varr watched him, partly because it always paid off to be cautious and also because he hadn’t seen anyone besides the heavily armed and armoured guards that fetched him for...whatever they needed to do to him according to their hostile alien lifeform protocol.
The human wasn’t in the best of shapes and his injuries were definitely real, by now, Noh could smell the drying, cloyingly sweet smell of blood, so very different from his own. The apparent fragility of his fellow inmate put him slightly at ease. No matter what his abilities, they’d be suppressed in here and he was no match in a contest of physical strength, surely.
So there was no harm in humouring him with a little conversation in the foreign, clumsy language they called their own.
“I assume you mean...guards. Or scientists. Both come and go, no regular intervals, always unconscious when they come for experiments and samples,” he was angry, beyond angry, so far gone his rage had cooled into this small, scalding, glowing, sharp core inside of him, gathering strength, information, anything useful and storing it, biding his time as his captors continued to live in the absolute belief they had full control over him.
“Gas. They pump this room full of gas to make me unconscious.”
Gas? Shit. Tommy rolled carefully onto his back and met more darkness, the kind that was luring him into it where he could sleep for a long, long time.
“Great,” he murmured, letting his eyes shut and regretting it the moment he did it.
Pain radiated through him, awakened by his lax state, and Tommy hissed, forcing his eyes to open again. There was no guarantee he’d heal quick enough to squirm out of his bonds, and if they snatched him out for whatever the reason, he might be in limbo, waiting to heal to escape, only to be dragged out again before that could happen.
Memories rattled in their cages. A white room. Experiments. So many needles.
Tommy clenched his jaw and turned again on his side, facing his roommate.
“How’d they catch you anyway?”
He was going to be throwing his caution to the wind, wasn’t he? Then again, as long as he didn’t share out any actual specific information, the human would gain nothing and he’d have an actual conversation instead of interrogations which made for a nice change.
“Shot my ship down. Killed my crew and stripped the wreckage. I don’t know how long I have been in here.”
Tommy couldn’t see any facial reaction. The voice though, he knew that stiff, matter-of-fact tone too well. It was a calm born from rage and hatred, packed and prepared so it would fuel future vengeance.
Before Tommy noticed himself doing it, he said, “Sorry.” It came out so lowly he wasn’t sure he’d even said it.
He faced the ceiling again, keeping Noh-Var’s form hovering in his peripheral vision. “I don’t like the stuff I saw on my way here. They experiment on you, don’t they?”
The apology threw him. No human had ever apologized for the collective cruelty of their race and he especially didn’t expect it from someone who looked to be in the same situation of imprisonment and experimentation as himself. Noh kept his gaze steadily on Speed, watched every movement he made, every breath that seemed laboured.
“They do. I am...not an average Kree. I am not from this dimension. And they seem fascinated by me,” he paused, not sure if he should deepen this conversation, but it felt...pleasant, or at least, distracting, to exchange words with a stranger who wasn’t demanding to know how he ‘worked’ and such, “why would they experiment on you? Are you...an enemy of...humans?”
Laughter always seemed to find its way out of Tommy, and this one bounced off the walls as Tommy replayed the question in his mind. He couldn’t help himself, even if it aggravated his spent body.
“An enemy of humans?” he repeated, exhaling as the laugh subsided, leaving him with more aches than before. “I think a lot of them might say so. But,” he shrugged a shoulder, “in the eyes of these jerks, I’m part of the good guys. I’m with a group. Young Avengers.”
Saying it uncoiled something in Tommy’s core he hadn’t known been there. A heartbeat was all it took for images of his team to rush forward, and just as quickly for Tommy to bat them aside. They were okay, he assured himself, yet couldn’t bring himself to think they’d bail him out either.
“We’re superheroes,” he added.
“Superheroes?” Noh-Varr shuffled himself along the bench, leaned forward slightly to keep a keener eye on Speed’s expression. The term didn’t mean anything to him, his mind supplying him with the concept of a hero, a person who put themselves in great amounts of risk for the supposed sake of others, but ultimately could get those he or she protected killed because there was little logic in absolute bravery.
“What is a superhero?”
The question wasn’t one Tommy had ever been asked, and never expected to have been asked.
“You’ve been cooped up too long or really are missing some action back in your dimension,” Tommy said, then winged it with his answer. “We fight bad guys. Protect the weak, that kind of thing. There’s no short supply of bad guys, human or not, wanting to cause problems. I guess the ‘super’ part comes from having powers, abilities that most humans don’t. We were doing superhero-ing when I had a little slip up and...well, I’m here now. But I’ll get out. Soon.”
“You are a research case then,” Noh-Varr gave the vaguest of nods, understanding the connection between Speed’s occupation and the interest to science he may be. Special abilities. This species was still evolving, it made sense. Slightly.
“You will escape? How?”
“GIve me some credit,” Tommy said. “They might be listening to us.”
For the most part, he didn’t care if they heard him. Part of him hoped they did, wanting to shove his defiance in their face and rub it in until they were all red in the face. Using that train of thought to motivate him, Tommy forced himself up and examined the restraints.
“If I make myself pass out, I guess it doesn’t matter, right? You said they use gas.” Tommy frowned at the bonds on his wrist, deciding to focus on the ones at his ankle. It would suck the life out of him to try this now when he was dented but he had no plans on sticking around like Noh-Varr.
And what would happen if he got out? Did he take this guy along? Surely he was just a Kree of circumstance, having no intention of causing mayhem to the world. Then again, how much of it was true and not some ruse to backfire on Tommy?
Tommy shook the thoughts aside. First things first. He had a team to catch up to.
Filling the bottom of his lungs with a deep breath, he shifted his position and began wiggling his feet, which had barely enough space to do so but barely was all he needed.
Once the human had stated very clearly he wouldn’t actually be sharing any bright ideas on escape, Noh-Varr had lost at least half of his interest in him. Leaning back against the wall, he intended to retreat back into his own mind, the only thing he had for company anyway ever since being disconnected from the Omniwave and Plex. He almost missed the constant commentary and communication with his crew, with...no, he was not going to think of those he’d lost. That was sentimental and unproductive.
Not that sitting here thinking and remembering really produced any plans for escape, but he had at least formulated a very good plan of the structure of the place, during the first few times he’d been dragged to the laboratory and the scientists had miscalculated the dosage of the gas in his cell. Half-conscious, he’d gotten a near map of the corridors, the layout. He knew he was underground, this whole complex was, assuming there wasn’t another structure on top of it.
Noh-Varr listened to the guards, to the steps, to the distant voices of more cruel humans, once or twice he heard the protesting groans of other prisoners.
And, he knew that though this collar he bore was incredibly heavy and completely put white-running or excessive speeds out of commission, it did not affect his other useful abilities.
Still, a functional plan hadn’t been developed yet and so he waited for an opportune moment, counting on the humans to fail to discover his other ‘talents’.
Speed was doing...something. Something that drew his full attention back to him.
“Are you experiencing a spasm?”
A part of Tommy’s brain that never stopped sucking in data was telling him Noh-Varr was speaking. With the bulk of his efforts targeting his ankles and feet. It was incredibly uncomfortable, each grunt of pain suppressed, concentration peaking. There was a delicate balance in vibrating his molecules.
Frankly, manipulating hyperkenetic energy would have tired him less than what he was doing now, but the risk of calling attention with an explosion, however small, was not one worth taking. For now.
It felt like hours, though it was mere minutes, before he gasped as if breaking the surface of water. He heard the restraint that had been looped around his ankles clink to the ground and he let out a breathless laugh as he could stretch his feet all the way to his toes.
“Perfect,” he said.
Then, he wilted, half-crumbling to his left side as the world tilted and wouldn’t right itself. “Oh, I think I am going to be sick.”
Alright, that was an impressive ability. Noh-Varr watched in silence as his cellmate literally vibrated himself out of some of his restraints. Was this the special ability, or was there an overall element of manipulating kinetic energy? Now, he found the scientist in him intrigued and the rebellious, vengeance-seeking core growling out a warning to the rest of himself. This could still be a ruse after all. But if he played along, he might find himself in the opportune moment to actually escape. It was rational to do so by that logic.
“Are you not nanoactive? Your senses do not compensate? What did you just do? Vibrating your molecules? Is that a normal human ability?” Noh tried to restrain the enthusiasm in his voice, but the curiousity in his gaze was much harder to disguise. After endless days, weeks, months and maybe even years in here, this was almost as good as that moment of opportunity he was awaiting.
Tommy endured the feeling of nearly losing consciousness through a groan.
“My name says it all,” he offered as a response, managing to sit up and let his head bump against the wall.
If he was already this wiped out, who knew how badly the next step would affect him. Not one for mulling things over much, Tommy bit down on his tongue and studied his wrists. Nope.
He would have to put up with them for now, but at least his legs were free, which were most important. As he heaved and lugged himself to stand, leaning against the wall the entire time, he flashed a grin at Noh-Varr’s direction. The guy must have been brimming with hope, maybe thinking he could finally escape.
Tommy dragged himself a little closer until he could finally see a little of the other’s face.
“Look,” he said through heavy breaths, “I don’t know what your deal is, but...I don’t think you’re out to get me, so I’m going to try to loosen up one of your restraints, okay? If you do anything funny I’ll stab your eyes out.”
Swallowing, Tommy lowered onto his knees. “But it’s all on you then. Can’t promise what happens after.”
Tommy said nothing that that part of him wanting to do a good job at this superhero thing was urging him to just go on and break the Kree free. Everything else kept him at a distance, mindful that even if you showed goodness to someone, they could and usually would still stab you in the back and twist the knife.
Apparently, that idiotic part of him hoping for opportunity wasn’t entirely misplaced. But Speed was already worn out and that would definitely affect his efficiency. Noh-Varr needed him to be efficient and since he couldn’t dredge up energy for the human, he could at least offer him a reward to work for.
“Break or loosen these,” he lifted his arms, both hands clad in heavy casing entirely of some sort of heavy alloy and several titanium rings, “and I can probably break your restraints. Exchange?”
He could also help the human with any pain or adrenalind boosts, but he didn’t think Speed was in the right mindset, or rather, erase that and replace it with the entirely wrong species to appreciate nanobots for all their potential uses.
It was a decent trade; Tommy nodded.
“I can loosen them. Breaking would make too loud a noise on my part,” he said and closed the gap between them.
Noh-Varr’s presence was an anomaly, thick with power. It was no wonder he’d been locked up good and tight the way he was. Tommy raked his eyes over his state, finally settling on the heavy weight around the Kree’s wrist.
“Alright,” he said, more to steel himself for the oncoming discomfort.
He reached out clumsily with his tied wrists, his hands resting over Noh-Varr’s, cautious enough to not make sudden moves and startle the Kree. Tommy didn’t doubt he was a threat even tied up. His fingertips flexed against the restraint, palms on the back of the other’s hands.
He started slower than he would have liked, his body too taxed to want to obey his demands. A few mental kicks though and he was at work, all of him devoted to kinetic energy and molecules. The first set of nausea slammed into him, and still he pushed through, refusing to stop until his own hands can slip through the gap he made of Noh-Varr’s restraints.
Tommy sagged, hunched over already from the spinning world.
“Okay,” he forced himself to stay, “I think...that should do it. My hands can slip through. Your hands are bigger than mine but a little force will get the job done.”
No word of gratitude or relief was uttered on Noh’s part, but there a massive rush of the power cramped up in his body, the festering anger lending the strength that had been siphoned from him during his extremely long stay here. The metal gave a whine, then a wailing creak, before the Kree flung his arms apart with enough strength to rip a bus apart or throw said vehicle.
It felt good, more than good, it felt great to flex his arms, see his own hands and curl fingers numbed and stiff from being clad in metal without pause. With the most delighted sneer, Noh peeled the restraints off and heaved a pleased sigh. Oh yes, the exchange. With his hands free and only his ankles restrained and body burdened by the large collar, he managed to hobble to his feet, grasping the hunched form of the one responsible for his partial ‘freedom’ without hesitation and hauling him up into the dark corner Noh preferred to occupy.
His hands landed on the cuffs on Speed’s wrists, they were made of a strong metal, of course they were, but their captors had not invested as much dedication to the security of these restraints as to Noh’s.
“Hold still. I don’t break bones, but it could happen. Humans are fragile.”
Tommy couldn’t protest at being treated like a sack of vegetables, less so when the comment of breaking bones sobered him up completely.
“What’s a kidnapping without a few broken bones,” he said, smirk bitter.
When Noh-Varr clenched the bonds, Tommy willed his muscles to relax to assuage the worst of any possible damage. The relief he had felt at Noh-Varr keeping up his part of the trade was already a distant memory.
He couldn’t stop himself from talking though. “Guess this means I can moderately trust you won’t be breaking me in half anytime soon.”
“What benefit would I reap from that action, Speed?” Noh clenched, then dug his fingers into the metal, which gave tiny, high pitched groans beneath them. Almost like a small, tortured animal. If he couldn’t break them, he could always use his nails.
The question was undoubtedly addressing the credibility of his word, but Noh really had no use for a broken cellmate who’d just enabled him to have partial freedom. And on a planet this cruel, he would take anything that he could get, any help to further his cause. Freedom, the revenge. And vengeance. And then he’d tear this world apart and rebuild it, better, a Kree world, a supreme existence without a trace of humans. Or maybe just a handpicked few. Speed had won himself a ticket today.
“You helped me. I will honour our agreement. And harming you seems...counterproductive. You haven’t wronged me.”
“Man of business,” Tommy said, “guess that’s a good thing for me today.”
All talking ceased as the metal resisted Noh-Varr, and when it finally released its tenacious grip, Tommy winced. A soft cry left him as he concluded all fingers and their bones were in fine shape, not a crack or dent.
Flexing them, Tommy smiled, his energy renewed at being free. His body was his weapon and now he had the advantage.
“Thanks,” he threw out casually, looking up at Noh-Varr. The Kree was taller than he realized.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m not waiting until they pump this area full of gas.”
Tommy treaded to the sealed door, straining to pick up any sounds beyond the wall. “Any chance you could break this hunk of a door down without too much noise?”
There was nothing more Tommy wanted to indulge in was a nasty explosion on his part as he took down the door, but the resulting energy drop might impede his overall escape, not to mention since vibrating his whole body through this was out of the question; he hadn’t gotten the hang of the entire body through walls thing just yet.
Right after Speed’s hands had been freed, Noh-Varr busied himself with his leg restraints. Once those were free, he really stood up straight, towering over Tommy easily, nothing containing his power now except that damn collar.
“It will be difficult...step back,” Noh examined the door in question, a solid sort of blockish rectangle that meant business and laughed at bank vaults and maximum security safes.
The Kree took a few steps, measure the distance, pressed his ear to the cold metal, then nodded, thumbnail growing to a very odd little peak entirely too quickly to be appetizing. Noh broke said nail off in four places around the door, then stepped back himself, arm out in front of Speed to keep him shielded behind the larger man’s bulk.
The explosions were subdued, no louder than popcorn, but the holes in the door were definitely impressive.
“Hinges. Weak points,” the Kree explained very briefly, before grappling with the massive obstruction and toiling to break it.
Definitely gross. Disgust settled on Tommy’s face as he observed the strange ritual. Was this a common way to take down buildings for the Kree? Tommy decided he didn’t want to know when his stomach was as sensitive as it was. Exhaustion would do that.
Instead he watched, a bit mesmerized. Then Noh-Varr was looming over him, but before Tommy could comment on it, he heard the soft pops.
“Oh,” he said, approaching. The door was done for. “Damn.”
He held his hand out before Noh-Varr could leap out. Quickly, as Tommy did best, he peered around the expansive hallway. In the distance were more doors like theirs and groans and cries, muffled, wafted his way.
“Empty,” he said, tucking back into the room, “but I don’t doubt they know the door’s open. I’m heading east to the main hold. I saw a control room along the way. Think you can keep up?”
Noh-Varr only raised an eyebrow in response. He was a of a superior species, even if Speed wasn’t as impaired as other humans. Speed...well, he really was aptly named if he could manipulate kinetic energy for the purposes he’d shown already.
“I cannot white-run, but I am capable of keeping up, or following at least.”
Tommy nodded. That was good enough for him.
“Going to check ahead then,” he said as preamble before zipping out of sight.
His side and thigh were the worst of his injuries, and they burned with each step. Tommy assured them they could recover when he wasn’t in danger of being prodded and poked by who knew what.
In the span of two blinks Tommy was back in front of Noh-Varr.
“Something’s wrong,” he said, gesturing for them to hurry down the east wing. “It’s really empty. Was only one guard down there who is taken care of. But I saw a bunch of guys here before so where--”
The walls, or maybe the world around them, rumbled as if having ridden a massive boom. Tommy scanned the area, then heard the sounds of a distant fight where they were headed. He glanced at Noh-Varr, and didn’t wait to rush deeper than he had gone the first time.
And screeched to a halt as a mass of armed brutes skulked around the room.
Shouts leapt from one to the other and Tommy managed a sheepish smile just before he was darting and hurrying back down the hall to meet Noh-Varr.
“Okay, so they’re all down there,” he gasped, pointing. “Good news is they’re there for a reason and I’m sure that’s my team causing a mess outside. Come on, if we can get at least half those idiots out of the way, that’ll be enough for my team to get inside and finish the rest off.”
This was all going too smoothly. Noh-Varr had been kept in maximum security for so long, guarded carefully and now, on the same day as the convenient arrival of a cellmate, escape was suddenly in his sight? Maybe the opportune moment had been handed to him on a silver platter. Or in titanium alloy hand and anklecuffs.
He did his best to keep up, but Speed really lived up to his name. Not to mention the collar Noh couldn’t break really slowed his pace to a lumbering far inferior to his capabilities. Once his human ally returned and informed him of a fight, just sitting there, practically offered to him in the same convenient manner, he couldn’t restrain that core of his, the one that acted rashly, the part of him the PLEX intelligence heads always disapproved so much of.
“We can clear the whole way before your team makes it inside.”
And that was all the tactic he’d give to Speed, because he took off, fast despite the collar and threw himself into the combatants awaiting them. Time to really let that Kree superiority shine.
Despite his boisterous comment from before though, there were a hell of a lot of guards, and they were armed and ready, neither injured, underfed or unconditioned. And they came prepared. The weapons they used weren’t necessarily ‘normal’ projectiles, but Noh only noticed that once several dart-like, arrow tipped objects missed him by milimetres. They were filled with liquid, and the gun they’d come from was already repositioned and trained on him. A quick sweep of the room revealed at least six more of these launchers, though it was hard to tell where they were aimed at, with half of the group occupied with the blur that was Speed, a quarter of the most heavily armed trained on him and yet another, toiling and bustling around the side where the noises, shocks and tremors shook the walls. Must be Speed’s team.
There was his ‘cellmate’. Slowing. Definitely slowing. Running right into the path of at least two of those damn launchers. Noh-Varr moved, no thought involved, just the instinct to protect his ally, his potential freedom.
“Speed, move fas-”
He hadn’t expected their aim to be so accurate, or his own reflexes failing to avoid them. The Kree hit the ground with a dull thump and an uproar among the guards, toppling a few meters from where Speed stood, unharmed and most of all, unhit.
Tommy knew too early on he was dwindling fast. What recover time he’d allowed himself had been exerted in getting their restraints off. Now he was running on a fight-or-die instinct that he’d learn to call his companion ever since his mom learned he was a freak.
It had kept him alive on countless occasions, and had won him more than a good deal of fights with brutes twice his size. Now, it was tired from no respite, and when the launcher zeroed in on him, Tommy had felt something cold race up his spine.
There was a flurry of movement, for once not coming from him, and suddenly he was seeing the Kree collapse to the floor, the shot meant for Tommy deep inside him instead.
Then, sound exploded from everywhere. Tommy barely registered it, though his mind was recording it all down for later use. He was rushing to the Kree, instinct telling him to check on his partner in escape, but his hand barely brushed the hair as white as his own when a familiar swirl of blue magic engulfed him and, with a pop, Tommy wasn’t inside anymore.
He cried out as he landed on his back, the magic bubble having teleported him right outside. The source of the commotion was all around him, his team rushing in and probably preparing to retreat.
“Speed!”
Tommy blinked up, saw his own face with dark hair looking down at him.
The world cracked at the edges, gaps yawning for the darkness that had been waiting to claim him hours earlier. Still, Tommy struggled, grappled with it, insisting there was someone in there that needed help, demanding that they send him back in there at the least.
But all he heard was his own breath going dry, and darkness finally took him away.