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Chapter 2: Voyage of the Ham[ed]
The Peak, in orbit over Earth, the Gravity Well
"Ah, my head!" The superhero Jessica Drew, also known as Spider-Woman, uttered loudly when she awakened.
She was lying on the ground, surrounded by rubble of broken tables and shattered glass. Though her head ached she managed to grab the closest barstool and pull herself up. She rested with weary knees on the stool. While trying to keep balance on the stool with her arm, she stretched for a round tray. She held it in front of her and saw herself in the reflection.
"What the hell happened anyway?" She asked to herself while examining her damages in the reflection.
She had bruised her cheek and a piece of glass sat in her forehead. She reached for it and with a groan she pulled it out, leaving a small red cut. In the relfection she now noticed the unconscious cadets lying on the floor among the rubble. She then heaved herself up on the bar, enough to look behind it. There she saw the rude bartender snuggling with a bottle of bourbon while sleeping heavily. After grabbing an empty glass, that was cold enough to cool down her bruises, she headed for the exit. Though she had to tip-toe around the sharp rubble, ripping up a little of her costume around her ankles.
"Oh, come on. Dammit. Work!" She yelled at the console next to the exit that refused to do as she wished. She activated her powers, her hands glowing very strongly of green and yellow. After which she grabbed the door and pulled it aside with great force.
KRSH-ACK
But before she left she turned to the bar again and saw the either dead or unconscious cadets inside.
"Let's get those bastards." She whispered to herself after which she started running through the hallway outside.
The bridge, meanwhile
"Come one, come one, come on, come on..." Agent Abigail Brand repeated while trying to get the computer screen in front of her work. She quickly typed in different numerical codes on the keyboard, but the screen kept freezing.
"Excuse me. Agent Brand?" A cadet ran towards Brand in a hurry. She held a green package with a large white cross on it and a miniature S.W.O.R.D. logo inside it. Brand didn't answer at first.
"Yeah?" Brand finally replied without taking her eyes off the screen.
"There aren't enough first aid-kits on board." No response. "Agent Brand, people are bleeding."
"I know that. But what can I do about that? There aren't that many first aid-kits on board." Agent Brand answered.
"Yes. Precisely, Ma'am. That's what I've been saying." The Cadet told her, abruptly.
"I'm a little busy at the moment, trying to prevent this spear shaped space station from falling towards Earth and splitting it in half, cadet. So, I'm sorry if I don't care enough about the crew's boo-boos but I figured they could push through it!"
The cadet stood stunned.
"I'm...sorry, agent Brand." The cadet apologized softly. Agent Brand sighed.
"No. I'm sorry." Brand rubbed her forehead gently with her finger tips. "I bet it's those @#%&! skrulls." She hit the computer screen swiftly. The screen sparked and became static. A crackling voice came from the screen.
"Agent Brand?" The evil voice said.
"Hang on." Agent Brand and answered by hitting the screen even harder. The screen cleared and the skrull leader's vicious face appeared.
"Oh my--" The cadet whispered.
"I see that you have--" The skrull began.
"Hang on." Agent Brand told him once more. She turned to the cadet who looked very shaken. "If you can safely open the exit door to the hallway there should be a wardrobe further inside. Rip some clothes apart and use them as bandaids. Go!"
The cadet made a salute and ran away towards the hallway. Brand faced the screen again.
"Go ahead." She told the skrull. The skrulls frowned, licked his dirty teeth under his lip and then continued.
"You might have noticed we have taken control of the ship." The skrull hissed.
"Not really. I see you found the fuse box but that's about it." Agent Brand told him, talking about the blackout the attack had caused.
"We have destroyed one of your orbital engines. Without them you won't stay in orbit over your precious planet." The skrull continued. "Until that happens we will kill every human on this ship."
"Well, damn. Now we're talking major terrorizing. And when you've destroyed them all, huh?" Agent Brand asked. "Where will you go?"
"We will all go down with the station. For the glory of the Skrull Empire!" The skrull smiled largely, which gave Brand a disturbing tingling in her spine. She moved closer to the screen and looked into the skrulls eyes. She then lowered her green glasses a little bit.
"Are you trying to pull some kind of damn suicide trick on my ship?" She asked him with a soul piercing glare.
"You'll soon see." The skrull added before the screen turned pitch-black.
"Not even a goodbye, huh?" Brand asked sarcastically.
"Oh, fantastic!" Sydren cried. "I'm not human. I will be spared!"
"I'll make sure to kill you for them." Brand told him with a frown.
She put on her glasses again and stood up to face her crew.
"Listen up, everybody!" The large crowd of agents and cadets looked at her. "Like I suspected the skrulls have taken over The Peak. I don't know how, or when, or why. Well, okay, I think I know why. But that's not the point. They have to be stopped before this station crashes to Earth. One problem; the elevators doesn't seem to work. Our only hope is if someone below didn't get hurt enough to stop the skrulls. Whoever that might be."
Below
Jessica didn't like the emptiness she met in the hallways. Not a soul was awake. The power failure must have hit some of the crew hard, at least she thought so. Perhaps some fell over and broke something, maybe even fell unconscious. Or they can't get around without the electricity helping them through the day. She had left the Gravity Well behind her, heading for the closest elevator. She didn't think the elevators worked, but it was a start. After five minutes of walking, trying to find the right way and stepping over rubble she managed to find an elevator that was supposed to bring her to the bridge or further down. She immediately tried to get the panel that controlled the elevator to work. It was in vain. It, as everything else she had found, was useless.
"What was that?" Jessica thought to herself after hearing a strange clicking noise behind her. The dark hallway made it difficult for her to pin-point the origin of the clicking. "I'm warning you!"
She lit her hand, creating a greenish light that stretched across the hallway. A dark figure could be seen.
"Step forward!" Jessica commanded.
The creature did so. Sadly, it wasn't a hurt cadet or a lost janitor like she had hoped.
"Graargh!" The skrull cried before sprinting forward towards Jessica with a knife in hand, his sharp and bloody teeth covered with spittle dripping from his mouth.
Jessica didn't react like a normal human would do. Instead she fired of a blast that hit the skrull in its chest. He fell to the ground and appeared to be in a lot of pain. But he snickered coldly, and started to change his shape.
"Oh, no!" Jessica protested when the skrull, who had taken the appearance of Mystique, leaped forward towards her. "A shape shifting alien shape shifting into a shape shifter is just tacky."
"Not much time left." The skrull said with Mystique's voice.
"What do you mean?" Jessica asked after dodging a knife swing.
"Your filthy species will soon be dealt with." The skrull told her.
Jessica blasted the Skrull once more. The Skrull abandoned the knife after a wild thrust had embedded it into the wall, steam flowing from the hole in the wall. The Skrull managed to dodge the steam but Jessica was blinded by it.
"Agh!" She cried while rubbing her eyes.
While the skrull thought Jessica was unable to react he grabbed her neck from behind, but Jessica managed to grab the skrulls hands and blast bio-electricity into his skin.
"Graaagh!" The skrull screamed while reverting back to his normal form and falling to the ground.
"The hell did I agree on--?" Jessica asked herself. There was a damp signal ringing from inside the skrull's clothes.
DING-A-RING
DING-A-RING
Jessica approached the unconscious skrull. She noticed a small phone-like device in his pocket, she grabbed it and pressed the circle shaped button.
"Drew?" Brand asked after she appeared on the small device's screen.
"Brand?" Jessica replied. "What is happening?"
"The skrulls have taken over the ship." Brand explained.
"Yeah, I've noticed." Jessica pointed the device at the skrull.
"Oh. Well, at least you're alright." Brand told her. "Anyone else okay?"
"I haven't met anyone else." Jessica said. "But what are they doing?"
"Threatening our existence. The usual. They are planning to destroy all orbital engines." Brand said.
"And that is?" Jessica asked.
"The only thing that keeps us floating, basically." Brand said. "I want you to head for a safe place. The bridge is off limits."
"Don't you want me to stop them?" Jessica asked, confused that Brand didn't even consider it.
"This is too much for one person, Drew." Brand told Jessica.
"Isn't that why you hired me?" Jessica said with a smile.
To be continued...
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