capencowl2020 | [closed] Kree hybrid vs. Last Son of Mars

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[closed] Kree hybrid vs. Last Son of Mars

On the surface, it seemed like any other op. The big brass had uncovered a Resistance safehouse, and sent The Captain to bash some heads in. All in a day's work. Carol's been a busy woman since the Porter started up again, bringing in vigilantes left, right, and center. Some more bloody than others. So she doesn't expect this op to go any different.

As soon as she arrives at the safehouse, she busts open the door with a well aimed photon blast, flying in, ready to fire more blasts at anyone who tries to run. Only... There's nobody running. There's nobody there.

"It's a trap!" She calls out on her comm to her team of native soldiers outside. "Search the back of the building, they could have gotten out another way."

It's then that she realizes she's not as alone as she thought. Her computer readout on her modified Starforce suit is showing one sign of life. Carol stills in the center of the room, peering into the shadows.

"Show yourself. Resistance scum."

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The doors slam in the faces of the others, leaving her alone in the room as the lights came up.

Out of the floor rises a man with green skin, wearing the ancient battle gear of his people.

"Hello, Captain Marvel." He uses the name deliberately, hoping he wont have to go the hard way, but ready for it, nonetheless. He stands there, eyes a brilliant red as he looks at her.

He has been preparing for this confrontation for a long time. He does not get involved often anymore, but the loss of a friend made him abandon his old habits and finally come in out of the cold, so to speak.

And now, he was here to help bring home someone else.

"Its time to come home, Carol."

She hears movement before he speaks, turning to raise a glowing fist at the figure appearing out of the floor.

"Martian. I thought we snuffed out your flame a long time ago." Her intel said that J'onn J'onzz was dead. Could this be a decoy, sent to trick her?

"You don't get to say that name. You should be dead."

"I am harder to kill than that." He squares off facing her, shimmering and almost translucent as he moves toward her slowly.

"Your people never were good at follow through."

He shakes his head as he starts to reach out with his mind to hers, carefully, gently, slowly, trying to worm carefully past her blocks and controls. She is not the villain here, even if he must fight her. He will remember that.

"You were once Carol Danvers, hero, and defender of the innocent. Do you remember those days?"

Edited 2020-01-19 03:28 (UTC)

She hesitates, only for a half second, feeling some kind of push against her thoughts. She hadn't been warned about this. No one thought they'd be seeing the Martian Manhunter again, so no one prepared her to face him. She'll have to improvise.

"I won't listen to your lies, Rebel scum!" She is the Captain. She is already a hero, defender of what's right and true. It's the Resistance that is trying to tear down all the work they've put in to make the City what it is.

She fires off a photon blast in his direction, not even sure if it will hit him or just pass through, what with how translucent he looks.

He moves, shifting as he lets the bolt pass through him, wincing slightly, as he is older, and not quite as used to fighting as he once was. He's been mostly retired for years now.

But he will not fail, this, and he increases his attempts to enter her mind as he raises his head and lets loose a pair of purple red beams from his eyes, fairly low-level vision that si9mulated a low-level laser. Not intended to hurt her, just keep her thinking and distracted.

"Were you not once a hero, fighting forthose who needed help, against an authority?" He has prepared, finding out what he could of her past.

When the laser beams come her way she takes off, hovering near the ceiling, circling her target down below. She can tell that though he's powerful, he's out of practice. Not like her, in her prime. She'll wear him down or she'll outlast him. Either way, she'll win.

If only there wasn't that annoying pressure in her head... She shakes it off, trying to concentrate on the here and now.

"I am a hero. The authority are helping people. You rebel metas are dangerous, and a threat to the City's way of life."

"Your authority are tyrants who brainwash people, turning them against their selves, their family, their loved ones, and who hurt those who do not yield."

J'onn nodded as he took a long breath, and strode toward her in the air. Now he just needed to distract her a little, so he could take this fight inside her mind.

And he used his power to pull one crate to him, and hurl it at her, following right behind it.

"You still have a chance to save lives, to stop helping those who have put shackles on you, Carol."

She dodges the crate easily, but his words are starting to get to her. Certain key phrases echo in her mind, bringing up memories.

...hurt those who do not yield... Talos showing up at Maria's house, unarmed. ...put shackles on you... Hanging upside down on the Skrul ship, her hands literally encased in iron.

That last image lingers, even though Carol tries to forget about it. She snarls, firing off another photon blast towards J'onzz. "I'm not going to listen to your lies, Manhunter!"

He bats the photons away, grunting as he closes with her, and reaches for her hands, eyes blazing with the power of Mars.

"I speak only the truth! I will not allow you to be enslaved anymore!" And he headbutts her, hard, even as his mind strikes, as deep as he can go, pushing at the bonds that have been constructed over her. In her mind, his voice echoes, pushing to reach the part of her that is buried deep.

Fight, Carol, fight! I cannot free you alone!.

His power slices at the bonds placed over her mind, carefully unwinding the knots of brainwashing, knowing she will need a lot of therapy or something to deal with this later. but for now, he works as fast as he safely can to try to free her in here even as their bodies struggle in the real world.

Distracted as she is by the psychic onslaught, he can easily grab her hands and head butt her, knocking her backward, stumbling back onto her two feet. The echo ringing through her mind begins to wear away the ties binding her to servitude, to loyalty to a false government.

She screams, a primal yell of pain and anger. She remembers doing this before, breaking free from chains. Again, and again. Why do they always try to put her in chains?

She staggers back, stunned, shoulders heaving with ragged breaths.

"What... What are you doing to me?"

He does not let go but follows her, hands locking to hers, eyes burning red and his mind not stopping its work as he tries to free her completely. "Reminding you of who you once were."

He digs at the controls, the brainwashing, and finds her older memories of throwing off the controls of the Kree, of her life of defiance and heroism, showing her those, reminding her of what, and who she once was.

"Remember, Carol. Fight!"

She tries to push back, both with her fists and with her mind, tries to throw him off, but she's distracted, memories coming to the surface that had been suppressed, driven back into the dark recesses of her mind, to be forgotten forever. So she could obey, so she could be a tool for yet another oppressive government.

She screams, a guttural yell, and unleashes as powerful a blast of photon energy as she can muster, exploding from her entire body as a wave of force.

In the aftermath, she stands, shaken.

"I... What did you..." No, that's not right. "...What have I done?"

That blast...in the aftermath, J'onn stood, having drunk it in and almost glowing in the wake of it. He approached, hands spread, open, and spoke gently to her.

"You have done nothing wrong. You were victimized, as so many criminals and oppressors do, as so many of our brethren have been victimized. I know it is not easy to face the memories of what they did to you and what the being they put in your place did during this time, but you are not evil, Carol, and you did nothing wrong."

His voice was gentle and calm, and he spoke with a soft assurance. He was tired, H'ronmeer, he was tired, but the battle for her mind was done. Now he hoped she could, and would, listen to him.

"I know what it is like to be so mindbent. I was forced so in the early days of the occupation of my world. The things done in those days horrify me to this day. But I know they were not me. Not this me. And this was not you."

Carol staggers back, leaning against a wall for support. She shakes her head, eye line kept low, fixated on a point on the ground in the middle distance. She can't bear to look at J'onn. Or even worse, at herself.

"I just can't believe it happened again!" In a fit of pique, she slams her fist against the wall, discharging another blast of photon energy at nothing in particular. It leaves behind scorch marks in the shape of her fist. "Am I that easy to manipulate? Why do I keep letting these people use me as their weapon?"

"I know you may not be ready to hear this, but it is not you. There will always be people who are machining, villainous manipulators, and no matter how good you are, how smart you are, how strong you are, anyone can be broken down, and anyone can be beaten."

J'onn's voice is gentle and kind.

"You did nothing wrong. I know it is hard to accept, but you were victimized. Not through your fault, but through the skill and evil of another."

He's right. Carol isn't ready to hear this. She's too deep in the hole, blaming herself.

"What do I do now? They'll be expecting me to report back. If I don't go, they'll come looking for me." She finally looks up, looking J'onn in the face with scared eyes. "I don't know where to go."

"You are not alone, Carol." He steps to her, one hand gently touching her shoulder. "We'll get you to a safe house, a place where you can recover an take time to deal with this. And I will be there, so you do not have to face it alone."

J'onn nods.

"Let me get you somewhere safe, please. You need rest."

Carol shakes out a breathy laugh. "I step one foot into a rebel safe house, they're going to think I'm there to arrest them all."

She shakes her head. "All the blood on my hands... Everything I've done... How can I come back from that?"

It seems like an insurmountable task.

"Because you are not the first."

And out of the shadows step two more people, flicking off shields as they step out.

The woman smiles, eyes full of tears as J'onn gestures at her.

"This is Angela. You may have known her as Angela Morning, a former member of the regime, also brainwashed, and also broken free. She has been through this as well. "

The man bobs his head, nervously, eyes downcast. "This is Ted. He was a prison guard for those captured. He was also of those forced to be other than he wished. He understands."

J'onn gently squeezed Carol's shoulder.

"You are not alone, Carol. Come with us. Come home."

Carol looks up from her crouched position against the wall, recognizing Angela immediately. Ted, she doesn't know as well, but Angela and Carol had worked side by side.

"...I had wondered whatever happened to you."

After Angela had gone AWOL, Carol had been sent out as part of the search party. They always just assumed rebel forces had killed her.

Finally, Carol takes a deep breath, and stands. She isn't going to let this defeat her. She's stronger than her fear.

"Okay. Let's go. I... I want to be anywhere but here right now."

"Angela. Open it."

The woman named Angela opened a small box and put it down and it bloomed upward into a door. She and Ted moved through immediately and J'onn held out his hand to Carol.

"Let's go. Its time for you to rejoin your life, Carol." And he led her through, smiling gently, and hopefully.

[ ooc: And fade? ]

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[closed] Kree hybrid vs. Last Son of Mars

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sorry for the delay.

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