Chapter Text
Space was so peaceful, there was nothing that Carol Danvers loved more, beside spending time with her family. At light speed, in a total silence, the planets, moons and stars she passed not even noticeable, she could travel dozens of planetary systems, a couple of galaxies, within a day. She had explore so much of the universe in the last sixteen years but she still had a lot to discover.
More than two decades since Carol went to space for the first time, and the place she spent the most time was still Earth. Of course, having her family there was a good reason, but this planet was also her favourite for the landscapes and the air, she always felt lighter on Earth.
Earth was the best place to be, she knew it, and every time she went back to it she flew faster than the usual, but what she didn't know after this alert that she received via the AI of her suit was that she was going to spend a lot more time on her favourite planet than she could ever dream of.
Captain Marvel had been called by Nick Fury, a man she encountered for the first time when she still thought she was born a Kree, when she was a noble warrior hero, but she quickly learnt that her place of birth was Earth and that she had people that she loved there, who thought she had died. Fury was working at S.H.I.E.L.D, a long acronym for an organisation that dealt with the biggest threats against Earth, alien threats included. When Carol left Earth to help aliens finding a new home, she gave Fury a pager that he would use 'for emergencies only', as she told him, and this was the first time he ever used it. As mush as she was happy to go back, Carol was also worried, if Nick called her, Earth must be threatened, and she hoped she would get there fast enough to save the planet and all its population.
The surroundings of the blue planet were clear of any threat when Captain Marvel – who was almost never referred to this name – arrived in the Solar system. She was confused about the why Fury called her and she landed on Earth only because her curiosity was strong.
She knew her way around the building that hosted the head quarter of S.H.I.E.L.D and landed on the balcony of Fury's office. Now that he was the director, he had a big spacious office, unlike the one he had back in the days when Carol and he met. It was apparently late in the night, as Carol observed when she saw the enlightenment of this side of Earth decreasing as she dived towards New York City.
Even if people were supposed to sleep at this time, Nick wasn't, and that didn't surprise Carol, "Imagine my surprise when I approached Earth and saw zero threat around. Maybe the word emergency doesn't mean the same any more?"
"It's good to see you too, Carol."
They both laughed out loud as they hugged, they hadn't seen each other in a long time and, even if they would never admit it, they had missed their late night conversations.
"Something changed in your look, new eye-patch?" Carol asked jokingly and Fury didn't even bother to answer, "Okay, jokes aside, why am I here?" her tone changed from amused to serious, and so did her posture. Standing in her space suit, arms crossed, she stared at her friend with an insistent gaze, not that he could be intimidated by it, but at least she showed him her annoyance.
"I will need you soon, to lead a team," Nick said as he walked to his desk.
Carol sighed sharply, a mission, with people, she didn't like it. In space, she learnt how to do her job alone and hadn't work with a team for many years, "I'm going to need more than that to convince me to stay."
"Back in 1995 I had an idea, to find more people like you to be Earth first defenders, and I think I finally found them all."
"How many are they?" Carol asked as she went to Nick's desk, seeing that he had files that were probably about those individuals, "Six, but one of them is probably dead," he said and gave Carol the files of the six – five – people that would be her team mates.
"What does probably dead means?" she wondered as she went through the first file of a man named Bruce Banner, a scientist, specialised in biochemistry, nuclear physic and gamma radiation.
"He was a super soldier in world war two. I'm sure you heard of him, Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America."
Carol gasped as she remembered her history lessons, "Oh God, yes! He crashed a plane or something."
"He did," Nick confirmed, "and since then S.H.I.E.L.D have been trying to find his corpse, or body in case the ice he crashed into kept him alive, since he is a super soldier that wouldn't surprise us, but without success, and the case has been closed a few days ago."
Carol read the other files as Nick told her other details about what he expected of this team.
It was the one of this Rogers guy, and quickly Carol recognised two names. The first was the one of the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D, Peggy Carter, who was Rogers' instructor in the army and was – briefly – his lover. The second name was another founder of S.H.I.E.L.D, but also the father of a third member of the team, Howard Stark. His son Tony was in the list for being a hero named Iron Man, although only the heroic figure was approved for this team, the man himself was judged too reckless and it was recommanded to use him as a consultant.
The third person, Carol had heard of him in space, was a God named Thor. She didn't have a lot to say about him, he was a powerful being for what she heard and could only be an asset for the team.
Remained two persons and they were humans with, at first sight, no visible super powers. They were both agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, unlike the others, and therefore must be skilled in fighting techniques. A man and a woman, Carol noticed, she wouldn't be the only one representing the gender.
The first file she opened was the man, named Clint Barton. He was described as an amazingly skilled marksman, the greatest of the planet. He had been an agent for many years and was the one recruiting the last member of the team.
The first thought that came to Carols mind when she opened the file was not one she should be having towards a team mate, but damn, this woman was extremely good looking. Her name was Natasha Romanoff, she was a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D and in her previous life an assassin for the KGB in Russia. She had a very impressive résumé, especially considering that she was the youngest member of the team. At twenty seven years old, she mastered most of the fighting techniques present on Earth and was one of the best at playing people to extract informations out of them.
Carol spent more time reading Natasha's file than all the others combined and it didn't go unnoticed, "A thought on Agent Romanoff?" asked Nick with a teasing tone, he instantly saw that it wasn't just Natasha's skills that made Carol stare at her profile, "she is quite an impressive woman for what I've read," the Captain replied, trying to fool Nick but it wasn't something one could achieve easily, "I heard she likes girls, I don't know exactly to what extent but you could have a chance."
"And you wouldn't mind that, me flirting with one of my subordinates?"
Nick chuckled dryly, "As if me warning you ever stopped you from sleeping with any of my agents! And they all will be your team mates, you won't be their boss."
Carol shrugged as she acted innocent, "Right. But you can't blame me for the rest, it's not my fault if you hire beautiful women all the time."
They laughed for a moment, they both needed it, their jobs being the opposite of laughable.
Finding their normal breathing rhythms, Carol took another look at the Natasha's file before handing them back to Fury, but he push them away, "You keep that. I want you to study those, learn everything about these six people," Carol was about to object, she didn't understand why she should study Rogers' file, but Fury raised his hand to stop her before she could speak, "I want you to know them by heart, that way you'll be able to lead them right."
Seeing that Nick wasn't starting another sentence, Carol allowed herself to ask the Captain America question, "I will, but what about Rogers? If his case is closed, why should I learn about him."
"You two have a lot of similarities, but more than that, I think some details in this file are important," Nick explained but Carol didn't seem convinced, "Just to it, Danvers. It's an order."
Carol looked at him with a confused gaze and mimicked the military salute, "Yes sir," she said dryly before walking to the balcony, "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to make a surprise to my family, I'll be there until I can meet the team."
She took off of the cement-made ground before he could say anything, and flew at a very high speed to Louisiana, even though she was allowed to do so on Earth.
Fury wanted to keep Carol's identity and her powers a secret so when she was on the third planet of the Solar system she had to act like a 'normal' person, and by that he meant she couldn't travel by flying or shooting photon blasts with her fists.
But tonight, after this meeting, Carol was on edge and didn't give a damn about this flying ban, it was not like people could see her, she was going so fast that the human eye could not detect her.
Carol arrived to New Orleans and went straight to the couch of her best friend's – Maria – house. After tossing the files on the coffee table with a loud sigh, she laid down and fell asleep almost instantly.
At dawn, the sound of a coffee maker running awakened the Captain. Carol groaned as she rubbed her eyes and, when her sight was finally less blurry, she saw Maria coming her way with a two cups of coffee, "Old habits die hard huh?" Carol said with a husky voice, referring to the fact that Maria always woke up as the sun started rising in the sky.
Handing Carol a cup, Maria chuckled, "And you coming here unannounced, can we talk 'bout that?"
"I didn't know I was coming until like six hours ago!" Carol retorted and this got Maria's attention, "Do tell."
Carol nodded toward the pile of files that Maria took as the Captain explained, "Nick used the pager to give me this. He wants me to be the leader of a team made up by these people."
Maria took her eyes off the papers and saw Carol's annoyed face, "And what's wrong with that?" she asked before going back to her reading.
"I don't know, I just don't feel like doing it, but at least I'll be more here with you."
Maria gave the files back to her best friend after a quick analyse of each member and Carol took Natasha Romanoff's file out of the pile, looking at the front page once again, "What's this one's story?" Maria asked, curious to know why this person seemed to attract Carol.
"Nothing much. It's just that she has been through a lot for her age, kinda like-"
"Like you," Maria interrupted, "Yeah, that's what I thought when I saw her file. And she is cute."
Carol looked at her best friend with wide eyes, "Please, not you too."
"I ain't saying anything, just stating facts."
Carol scoffed as she shook her head, "Sure, facts."
"Don't even try to convince me that you don't think she's good looking."
Annoyed by this conversation, Carol thought it was better to give in, "She is, yes. Happy now!" she said loudly as she walked to the kitchen to put her cup in the dish washer, hoping Maria would drop the subject, but of course she didn't, "You know, finding someone attractive is the first step to romance, maybe you will finally allow yourself to find the love with this woman."
"I can't believe we are having this conversation," Carol began as she went back to the living room, "You realise you are skipping a lot of steps, you are talking about a relationship when I didn't even meet this woman. And you know my agenda always come in the way of that at some point, it's pointless to even try."
Maria laughed out loud at Carol and it took all her willpower not to just go out in the garden and fly away, "You never even tried to make it work, Carol. And yes, I'm skipping steps but that's because you are like that, you get attached to people way faster than the norm."
"I'm aware of that, thank you very much. Now can we not talk about it any more?" It was a rhetorical question but Maria still nodded in agreement, yet she was not finished talking about this red haired woman Carol was going to team up with, "I swear that if you and this Natasha woman ever end up in a relationship, I will make your life a living hell. For at least a week you'd be at my service, it's not debatable!"
"Deal!" Carol replied in a second before slouching onto the couch.
She sat there, still in her combat suit and stared at the ceiling for some time, thinking about details she read in her soon-to-be team's files, mostly details about one Russian born spy, before her attention went back to her best friend, "Can we go see Monica soon?" she asked with a soft tone, a big change from the earlier conversation, "I sent her a text, she is coming for lunch."
"Great," Carol replied before sitting up, she leaned on her elbows and opened Steve Rogers' file. Since she apparently didn't have a choice about leading this team or not, she might as well do it correctly, for the greater good of the Earth and the success of Fury's Avenger Initiative.