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merryghoulTitle: Virginia is for Tourists
Author:merryghoul
Prompt: Agent M goes into a bar and meets... The Supreme Intelligence (Captain Marvel)!
Fandoms: Men in Black: International, Captain Marvel
Word count: 3569
Rating: Teen
Contents: Gaslighting, MCU-canon-style violence
Characters: Agent M (Molly Wright), Supreme Intelligence, Yon-Rogg, Carol Danvers, background Starforce
Relationship: Carol Danvers/Agent M
Summary: It takes a mission to C-53 for Starforce member Mol-Lee to realize her life on Hala was a lie.
Author Notes: Fusion with Captain Marvel (2019) and Men in Black: International. Since M’s name pre-MIB agent is Molly Wright, her name is initially Mol-Lee in this story, since it starts on the home planet of the Kree, Hala. For this fic, I did invent some backstory for Molly, since MIB:I didn’t go in depth with Molly’s past.
AO3.
Mol-Lee had a series of dreams after arriving in Hala. None of them made sense to her. One of them was a dream of seeing some furry blue creature run out of a window, presumably when she was young. Another was her, a bit older, cheering as she made it to the top of a rope dangling from a ceiling. There was a dream about climbing under some low-lying obstacle and racing to get to something else she knew she had to conquer. Then a dream about meeting a man and his phone in a place called Virginia with people she wanted to call “tourists.” The dreams felt scattered and incomplete. It felt like there were details missing, like the rest of Mol-Lee’s life in Hala. Mol-Lee told no one. The Kree had a disdain for weakness, and Mol-Lee thought her dreams were just that: weaknesses.
When Mol-Lee arrived in Hala—not like she remembered how she arrived in Hala—Starforce was still looking for one of their former members known as Vers. Starforce knew that Vers had betrayed the Kree and was protecting a group of Skrulls somewhere in the galaxy. Vers had also threatened to stop the war versus the Kree and the Skrulls. Since then, Starforce was committed to stopping Vers before she could find them.
Mol-Lee hadn’t done much on this day on Hala. She woke up and trained with Yon-Rogg. She blanked her mind and concentrated on Yon-Rogg’s moves, to seem as if she wasn’t thinking about the four dreams that haunted her on Hala for ten years. It seemed Yon-Rogg didn’t notice anything off with her maneuvers. He complimented her on being sharp with her moves for a short Kree woman. She dressed in Starforce uniform and went to Starforce’s reconnaissance room to attempt to track Vers and the Skrulls. Mol-Lee was still amazed Starforce was doing reconnaissance; it was believed maybe the Asgardians were protecting the Skrulls, but the Skrulls weren’t discovered after Asgard fell. Failing once again to find Vers and the Skrulls, Mol-Lee left work, took off her Starforce uniform, and went to a bar.
When Mol-Lee entered the bar, she saw someone who looked like Yon-Rogg in the bar. Lights surrounded Yon-Rogg; Mol-Lee knew this wasn’t Yon-Rogg at all, but the Supreme Intelligence. The Supreme Intelligence specifically appeared to Mol-Lee as the person Mol-Lee admired most, Yon-Rogg.
“Your commander doesn’t know you struggle with your emotions,” the Supreme Intelligence said to Mol-Lee.
“That’s why you come to me as him,” Mol-Lee said. “I don’t want to disappoint him, and I don’t want to disappoint Starforce. But you always seem to know what I hide from Yon-Rogg.”
“I have told you about what happened with Vers.”
“She couldn’t control her emotions. She encountered the Skrulls and they brainwashed her. It’s why she left Starforce.”
“Vers turned her back on the Kree. It was easy for the Skrulls to seduce her into aligning with them. You may not look like most of the Kree, and you may be shorter than a lot of us. You look human, very much like Vers, but not exactly like her physically. But you will not turn your back on the Kree. You recall what the Skrulls did to you.”
“They stole my memories.”
“And that is why you have to fight for us. We cannot allow the Skrulls to do what they did to Vers and you. Stay in control. The Kree depends on you. But I am not only here to chastise your failings, Mol-Lee. I need you to return to Starforce immediately. While you have been taking a break, Yon-Rogg has found Vers.”
Mol-Lee’s eyes lit up. “Where’s Vers?”
“He has spotted her on Planet C-53. He has also found the location of a number of survivors from Asgard on this planet. Yon-Rogg believes the Asgardians are protecting the Skrulls from us. You are to go to C-53 with Starforce, capture Vers, and kill any Skrulls.”
“What about the Asgardians?”
“I have been told by Yon-Rogg the Asgardian known as Thor and the last of the Valkyries is at this compound, but the others should be easy to subdue.”
“I thought all the Valkyries were killed centuries ago.”
“We thought so as well, but one hid in Sakaar for centuries and has now rejoined her people. You may need to be careful around her and Thor. Otherwise we have no business with the Asgardians. Do what you want with them. All we want are the Skrulls killed and Vers captured.”
“Why don’t you want Vers dead?”
“Vers might not be easy to kill. At least on C-53. Yon-Rogg can confirm this. Now report back to Starforce and serve the Kree well.”
The Supreme Intelligence disappeared, and so did Mol-Lee’s chances of getting a drink in this bar.
Starforce—now consisting of Yon-Rogg, Att-Lass, Bron-Char, and Mol-Lee, the team’s only female member—didn’t find Vers in New Asgard. But she was close to New Asgard, either coming towards it or leaving from it.
It felt like Vers didn’t realize Mol-Lee was on Starforce at first. “After all these years, I’m amazed the Supreme Intelligence has faith in you,” Vers said to Yon-Rogg.
“The Supreme Intelligence knows one day Starforce will bring you back to Hala to face justice.”
“One day the universe will judge you for what you are: genocidal murderers.”
The Supreme Intelligence and Starforce informed Mol-Lee that Vers was powerful. She believed the Skrulls experimented on her to make her stronger than the Kree. But seeing Vers fight her Starforce team members as if they were motionless objects and not Kree stunned her. Not enough for Mol-Lee to remember that emotions, including fear, were weaknesses. Mol-Lee marched up to Vers when Vers was done with her Starforce teammates.
Vers stopped for a moment when she saw Mol-Lee. “Valkyrie? Why are you dressed like Starforce?”
Mol-Lee kept walking towards Carol and wondering if the Valkyrie was nearby or behind her.
“You’re not the Valkyrie.”
Mol-Lee swung at Vers with a right hook. Vers was able to block Mol-Lee’s punch with her left hand. “You have a photon inhibitor,” Vers said.
“It enhances my power.” Mol-lee pulled her fist back.
“That’s not what an inhibitor does. I think you’re human.”
“I’m Kree.” Mol-Lee tried to aim for Vers’ face again. “To even compare me to an Asgardian is an insult.”
Vers grabbed Mol-Lee’s fist with her hand again. “You’re not wrong, but I have a feeling you weren’t born on Hala.”
Mol-Lee kept swinging and kicking at Vers. Vers met every one of Mol-Lee’s punches with a hand and a leg. Eventually one of Mol-Lee’s punches missed Vers’ body entirely. Vers was able to grab Mol-Lee’s left arm. “I’m sorry,” Vers said before Mol-Lee felt a blast of energy on her right side. “And I didn’t call you an Asgardian. You look like an Asgardian they call the Valkyrie. Last I remember, though, the Valkyrie hadn’t cut her hair.”
After Vers spoke, Mol-Lee fell unconscious.
Mol-Lee dreamed her most vivid dream while she was unconscious. It was ten years ago. Mol-Lee went by “Molly” in the dream. She was at a job fair for government jobs. A man, looking very much like Yon-Rogg, was sitting at a table not marked as, but was close to, a table for a Central Intelligence Agency recruiter. Beside him was a phone that looked like it was playing a video of television static. The phone also had several weird noises coming through it. The man talked to the phone before Molly arrived at the table and continued to do so during Molly’s recruitment interview. The man and the person or people over the phone were accepting of Molly’s dream. It was a break from Molly getting death stares and accusations of being tethered to the Weekly World News’ website from CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The man and the phone liked Molly. They asked her to appear at Camp Peary, believed to be the CIA training facility in Williamsburg, Virginia.
In Virginia, Molly met the man who looked like Yon-Rogg and his weird phone at a fast-food restaurant packed with tourists to either Williamsburg’s theme parks or Williamsburg’s living history museum. Molly agreed to get into their car to obtain access to Camp Peary. The car drove away from the restaurant. There was a bright light, and Mol-Lee’s dream ended.
Mol-Lee woke up in a medical bay. She was lying on a gurney. Mol-Lee stood upright and sat on the gurney. Vers was in front of her.
“Am I on a Skrull ship?” Mol-Lee asked Vers.
“Yes. I don’t want to fight—“
“I don’t want to fight, either.” Mol-Lee took a breath. “You’re right. I am human. I had a dream after I was knocked out. Ten years ago, I went to Virginia because that’s where I thought the Men in Black were located.”
“The Men in Black?”
“They’re some secret government agency. I used to have a dream on Hala about the Men in Black erasing the memory of this alien I befriended in my bedroom as a child. After that moment I wanted to find the Men in Black and join them. And I just dreamed of the day Yon-Rogg and the Supreme Intelligence found me in Virginia. Yon-Rogg was in a black and white suit, and the Supreme Intelligence was a phone. I was in Virginia to get into Camp Peary, or so I thought. They took me to Hala instead. And they’ve been lying and gaslighting me for ten years.” Mol-Lee blinked her eyes a few times. “Um, Vers?”
“My name is Carol Danvers. You can call me Carol.”
“Oh, so they called you ‘Vers’ on Hala because it was part of your last name.”
“Yeah.” Carol extended a hand.
Mol-Lee shook it. “I’m Molly Wright.” Molly pointed to the proton inhibitor, which was now on a table in the medical bay. “Can I look at that proton inhibitor?”
“Is this a trick? Are you going to put it back on and try to attack me?”
“No. I studied mechanical engineering in college. I know it’s Kree technology, but I think I can guess what that thing did to be while it was on my skin.”
“Okay. But if you try something funny, I’m throwing you across the hall.”
Carol brought Molly the photon inhibitor. The first thing she noticed was something dry and green on the back of the inhibitor. “What’s this green stuff?”
“Kree blood. That’s why you look human but you have Kree strength. Some time after you were abducted the Supreme Intelligence ordered you to have a blood transfusion. I know. The Kree did the same to me after Yon-Rogg captured me.”
“I’m never having human blood again?”
“I don’t know. I’ve gone two decades without needing Kree blood or human blood. My Skrull friends haven’t found any complications from my transfusion. Maybe you’ll be fine too.”
Molly rolled the photon inhibitor around in her right hand. “I assume the photon inhibitor for me was implanted near a place in my brain that suppressed my memories. But not all of them.”
“The photon inhibitor I had suppressed my powers.”
“The Kree really screwed us up, huh?”
They both laughed.
Molly looked up at Carol. “It’s been ten years. Everyone I knew probably I’m dead or really in the CIA as some sort of field agent. I may as well find the Men in Black. Is there any way you can help me?”
“I think I can help.”
“Good. I couldn’t imagine leaving someone as cute as you on this Skrull ship for this impromptu mission.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
Molly nodded.
“Where are we going?”
“To a bodega.”
Carol raised her eyebrows. “A bodega.”
“Yeah, so we can read about the latest alien sightings on Earth. It’s all I did when I wasn’t training to get into the Men in Black. I figured maybe I’d show up at an alien sighting in New York and some agents would get me inside the organization, even as I was studying and training to join some other government agency. It’s worth a shot.”
“You sound mad.”
“Every recruiter but Yon-Rogg’s said that. I don’t care. I’m getting in the Men in Black and no one’s stopping me this time. But back to the bodegas.” Molly meant the convenience stores widely found throughout New York City and especially in Molly’s home borough, Brooklyn. “The Weekly World News stopped printing years ago, but I’m sure I can find something like it.”
“So is this a date?”
Molly shrugged. “If you want to call it one. So, are we taking this ship to New York?”
“We could fly there. It would be easier.”
“If we’re not taking this ship, then how are we flying there?”
“No. I can actually fly through space. It’s how I got you to the ship in the first place.”
“Oh.”
Flying through space with Carol was a peaceful, yet quiet encounter for Molly. There was no air. There was no point in small talk, at least until they arrived on Earth. If anything, Molly could think about the memories she could recall on Kree in her dreams,to piece together memories she thought she lost forever.
The furry blue creature Molly saw when she was young was an alien named Luca, and it was the day not only Molly escaped losing her memories of Luca and the Men in Black, it was the day she decided to join the Men in Black, come what may.
One of her dreams involved climbing a rope in grade school hung from the ceiling. Molly worked hard at developing her upper body muscles to climb up the rope. Her physical education teacher was impressed at her climbing up and down the rope with ease, but Molly did it not to impress her teacher. She wanted to prove in the future she’d be a good agent for the Men in Black.
Another dream came from her doing the low crawl on an obstacle course. Molly thought the Men in Black were a government agency, and agencies with field agents required some military training. So Molly decided to enroll in the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. For some reason her mind was focused on part of West Point’s Indoor Obstacle Course Test. While she was doing the low crawl, she knew she had to keep going. The next obstacle, a tire run, was up ahead. And she had less than about three minutes to finish the course and get a perfect grade.
Molly had enough of reliving the time she was abducted from Earth, so she passed on that before Carol and she arrived in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
On Earth, and in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Molly changed the color of her Starforce uniform from green to black.
“You may as well add color to your uniform,” Carol said to Molly. The two were about to walk into a bodega. “It’s hard to go into stealth mode in New York City with a Starforce uniform.”
“Oh no, this is my Men in Black audition uniform. When the Men in Black find me, I want to kinda look like I’m dressing the part.”
“We haven’t figured out how to pay for any of this stuff.”
Molly shrugged. “I’ll talk to the cashier.”
Molly picked up every tabloid she can find in the bodega. Carol, meanwhile, picked up two bottles of cream soda. They both went up to the cashier, who met them both with a gun. Molly and Carol both reached to grab the gun from the cashier. The cashier let go of the gun, screamed, and hid under the cash register. “Take it!” the cashier screamed.
Carol, toting the sodas, looked at Molly as they both left the bodega. “I think we just robbed that bodega.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Molly was holding a stack of tabloid newspapers under her arm. “I was going to ask if he could get us store credit until I could come back some day and pay him back.”
“I’m not seeing any alien sightings.” Carol turned the page on her tabloid. Molly and she were on the west side of Prospect Park. They were sitting together on a bench there, with the rest of Molly’s tabloids on Molly’s right side. “Only someone who’s supposedly dying of cancer and they supposedly have days to live. And something about some British duchess.”
Molly slid beside Carol on the bench. “Let me see.” She sighed. “The guy who’s supposedly dying is in California.”
“And the duchess?”
“She’s a duchess. Point is, if aliens are involved with these stories, they’re not coming to New York soon.” Molly took a sip of her cream soda. “Thanks for these, by the way. It’s been so long since I’ve had anything to eat on Earth.”
“I feel like you’re angling to kiss me.”
“Why would I pass up kissing the woman who saved me?”
“Alright.”
Carol and Molly’s kiss was short. Carol pulled Molly’s chin closer to her face with her middle and index finger. Carol leaned into the kiss and Molly followed. The kiss tasted, unsurprisingly, of cream soda. They both smiled at the end of the kiss.
When the kiss was over, a burst of energy appeared in Prospect Park. Starforce walked out of this energy. There was Yon-Rogg and Bron-Char and Att-Lass with huge gauntlet-sized handcuffs, presumably for Carol. And Starforce brought a special guest with them, the Supreme Intelligence.
”Mol-Lee,” the Supreme Intelligence said to Molly. Molly had a confused look on her face, since it seemed like two Yon-Roggs were walking towards her. “Yon-Rogg said you were lost to us.”
“I thought Vers abducted you,” Yon-Rogg said. “I was able to convince the Supreme Intelligence to find you. We couldn’t lose one of our finest Starforce members to a traitor.”
“I’m right here, Yon-Rogg,” Carol said.
“You are a criminal and traitor to the Kree Empire. You are not to speak,” the Supreme Intelligence, who still looked like Mar-Vell to Carol, said.
“Att-Lass.” Yon-Rogg gestured for Att-Lass to come forward. “The cuffs.”
Molly stood up. “Vers is my prisoner. I deserve to cuff her, not Att-Lass.”
Yon-Rogg nodded. Carol looked at Molly in horror. “You’re right. Att-Lass, give the cuffs to Mol-Lee.”
Att-Lass gave the cuffs to Molly. “The least I could do was to take these cuffs away from a group of liars.” Molly presented the cuffs to Carol. Carol’s look of terror dissipated. “Who else would I trust to dispose of these cuffs?” Molly said.
Carol took the cuffs. She crushed them in her hands, turning the cuffs into a pile of dust. She smiled at Molly before slugging Bron-Char into a tree.
The Supreme Intelligence watched silently and in horror as they witnessed Carol and Molly thrashing Starforce all over the park. Starforce would get up, head towards Carol and Molly, and either Carol or Molly would block them and punch or throw them all over their side of the park. It wasn’t until the Men in Black showed up, using their black cars to block off parts of Prospect Park West and West Drive, that the fighting stopped. The parties involved in the fight surrendered to the Men in Black. The Supreme Intelligence, on the other hand, disappeared.
The Men in Black sorted out the small skirmish between Carol and Molly and Starforce. The Men in Black booted the like-minded Starforce members from New York City. Carol was allowed to continue her mission on checking on other worlds after the Snap. Meanwhile, O, the leader of the New York branch of the Men in Black, offered Molly a position with the organization. O was impressed with how Molly was able to hold her own in the Starforce skirmish. And, as Molly told Carol, most everyone Molly knew before she was abducted either thought she was dead or in the CIA as a field agent anyway. Molly received a new tuxedo, tailored to fit her perfectly, and a neuralyzer. She was given a weapon known as a noisy cricket, and was told she was the first agent in a long time that could hold the weapon and not be jolted by its power. She was given her own car and she was also given a new identity: Agent M. So when Carol landed in front of Molly and her car and said “Hey, Molly,” Molly put a finger to her lips and made a shushing sound. “It’s Agent M now. Molly Wright never existed.”
Carol nodded. “Guess your determination paid off.”
“Yep. All I’m missing is a regular partner. I haven’t found anyone yet. I was about to head out for London for a spell, to see if I can find someone.”
“What a coincidence. Starforce trying to capture me and look for someone known as Mol-Lee prevented me from checking on New Asgard. You wanna take a slight detour to Norway before you head off for London?”
“I don’t see why not. Shouldn’t take me long to get to London from there. My car flies.” A pause. “So this is sort of like a date, right?”
“It’s a date.”
“Well, let’s go, then!”
Carol flew down the street and towards New Asgard. M, in her car, triggered the flight mechanisms in it and wasn’t far behind Carol.
Author:
merryghoulPrompt: Agent M goes into a bar and meets... The Supreme Intelligence (Captain Marvel)!
Fandoms: Men in Black: International, Captain Marvel
Word count: 3569
Rating: Teen
Contents: Gaslighting, MCU-canon-style violence
Characters: Agent M (Molly Wright), Supreme Intelligence, Yon-Rogg, Carol Danvers, background Starforce
Relationship: Carol Danvers/Agent M
Summary: It takes a mission to C-53 for Starforce member Mol-Lee to realize her life on Hala was a lie.
Author Notes: Fusion with Captain Marvel (2019) and Men in Black: International. Since M’s name pre-MIB agent is Molly Wright, her name is initially Mol-Lee in this story, since it starts on the home planet of the Kree, Hala. For this fic, I did invent some backstory for Molly, since MIB:I didn’t go in depth with Molly’s past.
AO3.
Mol-Lee had a series of dreams after arriving in Hala. None of them made sense to her. One of them was a dream of seeing some furry blue creature run out of a window, presumably when she was young. Another was her, a bit older, cheering as she made it to the top of a rope dangling from a ceiling. There was a dream about climbing under some low-lying obstacle and racing to get to something else she knew she had to conquer. Then a dream about meeting a man and his phone in a place called Virginia with people she wanted to call “tourists.” The dreams felt scattered and incomplete. It felt like there were details missing, like the rest of Mol-Lee’s life in Hala. Mol-Lee told no one. The Kree had a disdain for weakness, and Mol-Lee thought her dreams were just that: weaknesses.
When Mol-Lee arrived in Hala—not like she remembered how she arrived in Hala—Starforce was still looking for one of their former members known as Vers. Starforce knew that Vers had betrayed the Kree and was protecting a group of Skrulls somewhere in the galaxy. Vers had also threatened to stop the war versus the Kree and the Skrulls. Since then, Starforce was committed to stopping Vers before she could find them.
Mol-Lee hadn’t done much on this day on Hala. She woke up and trained with Yon-Rogg. She blanked her mind and concentrated on Yon-Rogg’s moves, to seem as if she wasn’t thinking about the four dreams that haunted her on Hala for ten years. It seemed Yon-Rogg didn’t notice anything off with her maneuvers. He complimented her on being sharp with her moves for a short Kree woman. She dressed in Starforce uniform and went to Starforce’s reconnaissance room to attempt to track Vers and the Skrulls. Mol-Lee was still amazed Starforce was doing reconnaissance; it was believed maybe the Asgardians were protecting the Skrulls, but the Skrulls weren’t discovered after Asgard fell. Failing once again to find Vers and the Skrulls, Mol-Lee left work, took off her Starforce uniform, and went to a bar.
When Mol-Lee entered the bar, she saw someone who looked like Yon-Rogg in the bar. Lights surrounded Yon-Rogg; Mol-Lee knew this wasn’t Yon-Rogg at all, but the Supreme Intelligence. The Supreme Intelligence specifically appeared to Mol-Lee as the person Mol-Lee admired most, Yon-Rogg.
“Your commander doesn’t know you struggle with your emotions,” the Supreme Intelligence said to Mol-Lee.
“That’s why you come to me as him,” Mol-Lee said. “I don’t want to disappoint him, and I don’t want to disappoint Starforce. But you always seem to know what I hide from Yon-Rogg.”
“I have told you about what happened with Vers.”
“She couldn’t control her emotions. She encountered the Skrulls and they brainwashed her. It’s why she left Starforce.”
“Vers turned her back on the Kree. It was easy for the Skrulls to seduce her into aligning with them. You may not look like most of the Kree, and you may be shorter than a lot of us. You look human, very much like Vers, but not exactly like her physically. But you will not turn your back on the Kree. You recall what the Skrulls did to you.”
“They stole my memories.”
“And that is why you have to fight for us. We cannot allow the Skrulls to do what they did to Vers and you. Stay in control. The Kree depends on you. But I am not only here to chastise your failings, Mol-Lee. I need you to return to Starforce immediately. While you have been taking a break, Yon-Rogg has found Vers.”
Mol-Lee’s eyes lit up. “Where’s Vers?”
“He has spotted her on Planet C-53. He has also found the location of a number of survivors from Asgard on this planet. Yon-Rogg believes the Asgardians are protecting the Skrulls from us. You are to go to C-53 with Starforce, capture Vers, and kill any Skrulls.”
“What about the Asgardians?”
“I have been told by Yon-Rogg the Asgardian known as Thor and the last of the Valkyries is at this compound, but the others should be easy to subdue.”
“I thought all the Valkyries were killed centuries ago.”
“We thought so as well, but one hid in Sakaar for centuries and has now rejoined her people. You may need to be careful around her and Thor. Otherwise we have no business with the Asgardians. Do what you want with them. All we want are the Skrulls killed and Vers captured.”
“Why don’t you want Vers dead?”
“Vers might not be easy to kill. At least on C-53. Yon-Rogg can confirm this. Now report back to Starforce and serve the Kree well.”
The Supreme Intelligence disappeared, and so did Mol-Lee’s chances of getting a drink in this bar.
Starforce—now consisting of Yon-Rogg, Att-Lass, Bron-Char, and Mol-Lee, the team’s only female member—didn’t find Vers in New Asgard. But she was close to New Asgard, either coming towards it or leaving from it.
It felt like Vers didn’t realize Mol-Lee was on Starforce at first. “After all these years, I’m amazed the Supreme Intelligence has faith in you,” Vers said to Yon-Rogg.
“The Supreme Intelligence knows one day Starforce will bring you back to Hala to face justice.”
“One day the universe will judge you for what you are: genocidal murderers.”
The Supreme Intelligence and Starforce informed Mol-Lee that Vers was powerful. She believed the Skrulls experimented on her to make her stronger than the Kree. But seeing Vers fight her Starforce team members as if they were motionless objects and not Kree stunned her. Not enough for Mol-Lee to remember that emotions, including fear, were weaknesses. Mol-Lee marched up to Vers when Vers was done with her Starforce teammates.
Vers stopped for a moment when she saw Mol-Lee. “Valkyrie? Why are you dressed like Starforce?”
Mol-Lee kept walking towards Carol and wondering if the Valkyrie was nearby or behind her.
“You’re not the Valkyrie.”
Mol-Lee swung at Vers with a right hook. Vers was able to block Mol-Lee’s punch with her left hand. “You have a photon inhibitor,” Vers said.
“It enhances my power.” Mol-lee pulled her fist back.
“That’s not what an inhibitor does. I think you’re human.”
“I’m Kree.” Mol-Lee tried to aim for Vers’ face again. “To even compare me to an Asgardian is an insult.”
Vers grabbed Mol-Lee’s fist with her hand again. “You’re not wrong, but I have a feeling you weren’t born on Hala.”
Mol-Lee kept swinging and kicking at Vers. Vers met every one of Mol-Lee’s punches with a hand and a leg. Eventually one of Mol-Lee’s punches missed Vers’ body entirely. Vers was able to grab Mol-Lee’s left arm. “I’m sorry,” Vers said before Mol-Lee felt a blast of energy on her right side. “And I didn’t call you an Asgardian. You look like an Asgardian they call the Valkyrie. Last I remember, though, the Valkyrie hadn’t cut her hair.”
After Vers spoke, Mol-Lee fell unconscious.
Mol-Lee dreamed her most vivid dream while she was unconscious. It was ten years ago. Mol-Lee went by “Molly” in the dream. She was at a job fair for government jobs. A man, looking very much like Yon-Rogg, was sitting at a table not marked as, but was close to, a table for a Central Intelligence Agency recruiter. Beside him was a phone that looked like it was playing a video of television static. The phone also had several weird noises coming through it. The man talked to the phone before Molly arrived at the table and continued to do so during Molly’s recruitment interview. The man and the person or people over the phone were accepting of Molly’s dream. It was a break from Molly getting death stares and accusations of being tethered to the Weekly World News’ website from CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The man and the phone liked Molly. They asked her to appear at Camp Peary, believed to be the CIA training facility in Williamsburg, Virginia.
In Virginia, Molly met the man who looked like Yon-Rogg and his weird phone at a fast-food restaurant packed with tourists to either Williamsburg’s theme parks or Williamsburg’s living history museum. Molly agreed to get into their car to obtain access to Camp Peary. The car drove away from the restaurant. There was a bright light, and Mol-Lee’s dream ended.
Mol-Lee woke up in a medical bay. She was lying on a gurney. Mol-Lee stood upright and sat on the gurney. Vers was in front of her.
“Am I on a Skrull ship?” Mol-Lee asked Vers.
“Yes. I don’t want to fight—“
“I don’t want to fight, either.” Mol-Lee took a breath. “You’re right. I am human. I had a dream after I was knocked out. Ten years ago, I went to Virginia because that’s where I thought the Men in Black were located.”
“The Men in Black?”
“They’re some secret government agency. I used to have a dream on Hala about the Men in Black erasing the memory of this alien I befriended in my bedroom as a child. After that moment I wanted to find the Men in Black and join them. And I just dreamed of the day Yon-Rogg and the Supreme Intelligence found me in Virginia. Yon-Rogg was in a black and white suit, and the Supreme Intelligence was a phone. I was in Virginia to get into Camp Peary, or so I thought. They took me to Hala instead. And they’ve been lying and gaslighting me for ten years.” Mol-Lee blinked her eyes a few times. “Um, Vers?”
“My name is Carol Danvers. You can call me Carol.”
“Oh, so they called you ‘Vers’ on Hala because it was part of your last name.”
“Yeah.” Carol extended a hand.
Mol-Lee shook it. “I’m Molly Wright.” Molly pointed to the proton inhibitor, which was now on a table in the medical bay. “Can I look at that proton inhibitor?”
“Is this a trick? Are you going to put it back on and try to attack me?”
“No. I studied mechanical engineering in college. I know it’s Kree technology, but I think I can guess what that thing did to be while it was on my skin.”
“Okay. But if you try something funny, I’m throwing you across the hall.”
Carol brought Molly the photon inhibitor. The first thing she noticed was something dry and green on the back of the inhibitor. “What’s this green stuff?”
“Kree blood. That’s why you look human but you have Kree strength. Some time after you were abducted the Supreme Intelligence ordered you to have a blood transfusion. I know. The Kree did the same to me after Yon-Rogg captured me.”
“I’m never having human blood again?”
“I don’t know. I’ve gone two decades without needing Kree blood or human blood. My Skrull friends haven’t found any complications from my transfusion. Maybe you’ll be fine too.”
Molly rolled the photon inhibitor around in her right hand. “I assume the photon inhibitor for me was implanted near a place in my brain that suppressed my memories. But not all of them.”
“The photon inhibitor I had suppressed my powers.”
“The Kree really screwed us up, huh?”
They both laughed.
Molly looked up at Carol. “It’s been ten years. Everyone I knew probably I’m dead or really in the CIA as some sort of field agent. I may as well find the Men in Black. Is there any way you can help me?”
“I think I can help.”
“Good. I couldn’t imagine leaving someone as cute as you on this Skrull ship for this impromptu mission.”
“Are you flirting with me?”
Molly nodded.
“Where are we going?”
“To a bodega.”
Carol raised her eyebrows. “A bodega.”
“Yeah, so we can read about the latest alien sightings on Earth. It’s all I did when I wasn’t training to get into the Men in Black. I figured maybe I’d show up at an alien sighting in New York and some agents would get me inside the organization, even as I was studying and training to join some other government agency. It’s worth a shot.”
“You sound mad.”
“Every recruiter but Yon-Rogg’s said that. I don’t care. I’m getting in the Men in Black and no one’s stopping me this time. But back to the bodegas.” Molly meant the convenience stores widely found throughout New York City and especially in Molly’s home borough, Brooklyn. “The Weekly World News stopped printing years ago, but I’m sure I can find something like it.”
“So is this a date?”
Molly shrugged. “If you want to call it one. So, are we taking this ship to New York?”
“We could fly there. It would be easier.”
“If we’re not taking this ship, then how are we flying there?”
“No. I can actually fly through space. It’s how I got you to the ship in the first place.”
“Oh.”
Flying through space with Carol was a peaceful, yet quiet encounter for Molly. There was no air. There was no point in small talk, at least until they arrived on Earth. If anything, Molly could think about the memories she could recall on Kree in her dreams,to piece together memories she thought she lost forever.
The furry blue creature Molly saw when she was young was an alien named Luca, and it was the day not only Molly escaped losing her memories of Luca and the Men in Black, it was the day she decided to join the Men in Black, come what may.
One of her dreams involved climbing a rope in grade school hung from the ceiling. Molly worked hard at developing her upper body muscles to climb up the rope. Her physical education teacher was impressed at her climbing up and down the rope with ease, but Molly did it not to impress her teacher. She wanted to prove in the future she’d be a good agent for the Men in Black.
Another dream came from her doing the low crawl on an obstacle course. Molly thought the Men in Black were a government agency, and agencies with field agents required some military training. So Molly decided to enroll in the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. For some reason her mind was focused on part of West Point’s Indoor Obstacle Course Test. While she was doing the low crawl, she knew she had to keep going. The next obstacle, a tire run, was up ahead. And she had less than about three minutes to finish the course and get a perfect grade.
Molly had enough of reliving the time she was abducted from Earth, so she passed on that before Carol and she arrived in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
On Earth, and in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Molly changed the color of her Starforce uniform from green to black.
“You may as well add color to your uniform,” Carol said to Molly. The two were about to walk into a bodega. “It’s hard to go into stealth mode in New York City with a Starforce uniform.”
“Oh no, this is my Men in Black audition uniform. When the Men in Black find me, I want to kinda look like I’m dressing the part.”
“We haven’t figured out how to pay for any of this stuff.”
Molly shrugged. “I’ll talk to the cashier.”
Molly picked up every tabloid she can find in the bodega. Carol, meanwhile, picked up two bottles of cream soda. They both went up to the cashier, who met them both with a gun. Molly and Carol both reached to grab the gun from the cashier. The cashier let go of the gun, screamed, and hid under the cash register. “Take it!” the cashier screamed.
Carol, toting the sodas, looked at Molly as they both left the bodega. “I think we just robbed that bodega.”
“I didn’t mean to.” Molly was holding a stack of tabloid newspapers under her arm. “I was going to ask if he could get us store credit until I could come back some day and pay him back.”
“I’m not seeing any alien sightings.” Carol turned the page on her tabloid. Molly and she were on the west side of Prospect Park. They were sitting together on a bench there, with the rest of Molly’s tabloids on Molly’s right side. “Only someone who’s supposedly dying of cancer and they supposedly have days to live. And something about some British duchess.”
Molly slid beside Carol on the bench. “Let me see.” She sighed. “The guy who’s supposedly dying is in California.”
“And the duchess?”
“She’s a duchess. Point is, if aliens are involved with these stories, they’re not coming to New York soon.” Molly took a sip of her cream soda. “Thanks for these, by the way. It’s been so long since I’ve had anything to eat on Earth.”
“I feel like you’re angling to kiss me.”
“Why would I pass up kissing the woman who saved me?”
“Alright.”
Carol and Molly’s kiss was short. Carol pulled Molly’s chin closer to her face with her middle and index finger. Carol leaned into the kiss and Molly followed. The kiss tasted, unsurprisingly, of cream soda. They both smiled at the end of the kiss.
When the kiss was over, a burst of energy appeared in Prospect Park. Starforce walked out of this energy. There was Yon-Rogg and Bron-Char and Att-Lass with huge gauntlet-sized handcuffs, presumably for Carol. And Starforce brought a special guest with them, the Supreme Intelligence.
”Mol-Lee,” the Supreme Intelligence said to Molly. Molly had a confused look on her face, since it seemed like two Yon-Roggs were walking towards her. “Yon-Rogg said you were lost to us.”
“I thought Vers abducted you,” Yon-Rogg said. “I was able to convince the Supreme Intelligence to find you. We couldn’t lose one of our finest Starforce members to a traitor.”
“I’m right here, Yon-Rogg,” Carol said.
“You are a criminal and traitor to the Kree Empire. You are not to speak,” the Supreme Intelligence, who still looked like Mar-Vell to Carol, said.
“Att-Lass.” Yon-Rogg gestured for Att-Lass to come forward. “The cuffs.”
Molly stood up. “Vers is my prisoner. I deserve to cuff her, not Att-Lass.”
Yon-Rogg nodded. Carol looked at Molly in horror. “You’re right. Att-Lass, give the cuffs to Mol-Lee.”
Att-Lass gave the cuffs to Molly. “The least I could do was to take these cuffs away from a group of liars.” Molly presented the cuffs to Carol. Carol’s look of terror dissipated. “Who else would I trust to dispose of these cuffs?” Molly said.
Carol took the cuffs. She crushed them in her hands, turning the cuffs into a pile of dust. She smiled at Molly before slugging Bron-Char into a tree.
The Supreme Intelligence watched silently and in horror as they witnessed Carol and Molly thrashing Starforce all over the park. Starforce would get up, head towards Carol and Molly, and either Carol or Molly would block them and punch or throw them all over their side of the park. It wasn’t until the Men in Black showed up, using their black cars to block off parts of Prospect Park West and West Drive, that the fighting stopped. The parties involved in the fight surrendered to the Men in Black. The Supreme Intelligence, on the other hand, disappeared.
The Men in Black sorted out the small skirmish between Carol and Molly and Starforce. The Men in Black booted the like-minded Starforce members from New York City. Carol was allowed to continue her mission on checking on other worlds after the Snap. Meanwhile, O, the leader of the New York branch of the Men in Black, offered Molly a position with the organization. O was impressed with how Molly was able to hold her own in the Starforce skirmish. And, as Molly told Carol, most everyone Molly knew before she was abducted either thought she was dead or in the CIA as a field agent anyway. Molly received a new tuxedo, tailored to fit her perfectly, and a neuralyzer. She was given a weapon known as a noisy cricket, and was told she was the first agent in a long time that could hold the weapon and not be jolted by its power. She was given her own car and she was also given a new identity: Agent M. So when Carol landed in front of Molly and her car and said “Hey, Molly,” Molly put a finger to her lips and made a shushing sound. “It’s Agent M now. Molly Wright never existed.”
Carol nodded. “Guess your determination paid off.”
“Yep. All I’m missing is a regular partner. I haven’t found anyone yet. I was about to head out for London for a spell, to see if I can find someone.”
“What a coincidence. Starforce trying to capture me and look for someone known as Mol-Lee prevented me from checking on New Asgard. You wanna take a slight detour to Norway before you head off for London?”
“I don’t see why not. Shouldn’t take me long to get to London from there. My car flies.” A pause. “So this is sort of like a date, right?”
“It’s a date.”
“Well, let’s go, then!”
Carol flew down the street and towards New Asgard. M, in her car, triggered the flight mechanisms in it and wasn’t far behind Carol.
