GUARDIAN

Part I

By Anthony Crute

Life happens one tiny thing at a time The moments roll endlessly into one another without you ever really noticing. The times when you know ‘this is big’ or that ‘this changes everything’ are few and far between. Even when that happens, most of it is inconsequential. When I look back on my life, it really has been an eventful one, big and amazing things have happened, more than I ever imagined possible back in my old room as a kid as I sat staring up at the stars. There has been three of those big moments in my life. The first when I was selected to enter the space program. That was the day all of my dreams came true. The second was the day I was selected for Project Starjump which sent me rocketing from Earth in the late 1970’s for a journey to the stars which took me 1040 years.

The third, given my life up to that point, could have just been another drop in the ocean of weirdness that I got used to but it was one of the days which changed everything, one of the days which was the catalyst to change everything in all our lives.

-Vance Astro, August 28th 3128.

A body in space is near invisible. You can always see it on TV or movies because it’s very cinematic that way, but think about trying to find something in the dark and then imagine that dark to be almost infinite. Even within the bounds of the solar system we inhabit, a single human (or Kree) body would be nigh-impossible to spot.

Captain Marvel bobbed in the darkness all alone. The hundreds of ships that surrounded him didn’t notice him. His body too small to pick up on sensors without a detailed look, this was unlikely when nobody knew that the tiny figure was even there and all of their sensors were busy pointing somewhere else.

There was no reason for him to be there. He in fact was present due to a chance of near impossible odds. He had been on Titan, the moon of Saturn in the year 2010 battling to save the small moon from the machinations of his enemy Thanos.

He had flown into the raging core of the moon, into the very heart of ISAAC’s energy matricies and detonated a charge. The energy should have ripped apart his very molecules and in fact in all probability it did.

The unusual part however was that his molecules seemed to have been transported or coalesced again after a long period of time in the year 3020 in the same place. The same place now was however just empty space.

Mar-Vell awoke in the vacuum of space. He floated there as he began to come around. The moment of consciousness was followed by a deep inhalation of nothingness. This, however, didn’t bother the Kree, his powers allowing him to survive in the vacuum. His vision was blurry at first but quickly became clear.

He looked at the stars before him. Someone else may have wondered at their beauty or been amazed that they had managed to survive. Mar-Vell however had the ordered mind of a military tactician and former ship captain. He first began to plot his location as best he could; he looked for familiar constellations and recognized them instantly.

He turned in the Vacuum and faced towards Saturn. He faced at least to where Saturn should have been but instead all there was to be found was a small meteor belt. A drifting cloud of space rubble.

The thing which was just beyond the belt was the thing which really drew his attention though. An armada; ships in their hundreds pointing towards him. It was an armada of alien ships of a design he didn’t recognize.

They began to charge their weapons. Silently the visible streams of light began to form down the length of their cannons.

A shot fired passed him from behind. It sent his body spinning in it’s wake. He straightened himself and stared at the ship which had launched the blast. It was sailing very close to him and from his perspective it was immense in size. He was amazed he had only noticed it now.

He read the name of the ship. ‘Captain America II’

Another volley of blasts shot passed him. They passed harmlessly at around 15 feet of distance. He turned to face the route of their blast. The small ship on the receiving end of blast did not get away so easily. It exploded in a wash of plasma causing a nearby ship to also detonate.

A number of ships in the Armada began to unleash a series of blasts towards The Captain America II.

Mar-Vell didn’t recognize the design of the ships but their battle tactics were old ones. They maneuvered around, attempting to take out the singular ship. Their weapons timed perfectly not to hit one another.

The shields of The Captain America rippled with energy as the blows from the armada’s blasts hit it changing colour and glowing as they burned out. He knew shields well and these were amazingly strong ones, but he doubted they could survive a protracted assault from this many ships.

The Captain America II resumed firing. It’s weapons systems seemed to be larger and could be fired happily with no fear of hitting any allies as it seemed to be alone.

Mar-Vell decided it would be best to not hang around so close to the firing zone of the large ship especially since if he was the armada leader he’d be targeting the weapons array as soon as any ship had a firing solution.

He shot forward leaving a golden trail of particles behind him through the vacuum of space. He needed some distance from this, he needed to get back to Titan and find Genis and the others.

The Kree had travelled no further than a mile (which occurs rather quickly at his speed without an atmosphere to slow you down) when three ships broke off from formation and began to follow him.

This was not surprising really. They were engaged in a combat situation when something with a visible and traceable energy output trail strafes away from the zone of an enemy ship.

Mar-Vell turned on the speed. This was a battle he wanted no part of, it wasn’t his fight, normally he would have gotten involved in this kind of thing but he had no clue of who these two sides were. Given one ship versus an Armada, when the one ship was called The Captain America II, he had some inclination about who he would rather win the battle.

He decided to use his flight as best he could to help the single ship. He spun on a dime in the vacuum and shot forward directly at the three ships darting between them. They each fired off a blast when they had him targeted, but due to the angle and his speed they all fell well short.

They adjusted their positions and gave chase. He flew directly across the path of the Captain America II causing the three ships to do likewise. This had the bonus of effect of automatically cancelling all of their buddies’ firing solutions, letting The Captain America II get off a volley of blasts against a number of ships.

The three ships which were chasing Captain Marvel seemed to realize what they had done and immediately strafed off. This however lead to a larger number of the ships which were closer to him now giving chase since they were out of The Captain America’s firing zone.

Mar-Vell cursed, he was now in this battle whether he liked it or not.

I could barely believe my eyes the first time I saw him. He had a golden glow like the corona of suns as they move behind planets. It was as if some massive power was being held back only by his physical form. It was exactly like I remembered him as a child.

He dodged through the ships as if they were moving like molasses. Golden energy which made the sensors scream into the red poured from his hand towards the ships which chased or attacked him.

“Harkov’s bones! Who in Io’s Gravity is that?” questioned Charlie-27. He was a big hulk of a man from Jupiter. He like all of his people had been genetically designed for the much higher gravity of Jupiter. He could bench press an entire galaxy-class scout ship if needs be. The need had never arisen, but he had been forced to hurl one or two of them in his time. He had even thrown a couple for a bet during his military training placement with normal humans.

“He seems familiar to me. I just can’t place him though,” Aleta narrowed her eyes at the view screen. The beauteous Arcturian searched her memory as best she could but she couldn’t quite put her finger on how or why she knew the man.

“It’s Captain Marvel!” barked Major Victory. The Kree superhero had been the hero of this earthman ever since he had been a child. He had even managed to meet him once when the team had been hurled back in time to fight alongside The Avengers to fight Korvac.

“I would recognize that tush anywhere,” Nikki smirked as she flicked a glance to her boyfriend Charlie.

“He’s got a girly ass,” snorted Charlie. He knew Nikki was only joking but it was much better banter if he rose to it.

“What have I told you about checking out other guy’s butts?” she laughed back.

“Since you two made it official, I don’t think we’ve been in a battle without some sort of innuendo. We’re defending the Earth from utter destruction and our own imminent death; just a little decorum please!” warned Martinex. He was the Plutonian leader of the Guardians. The silicon-based life form with a massive IQ had gotten them out of so many jams due to his strategic and scientific abilities. He also had control over fire and ice, projecting the two different temperatures from alternate hands.

“Not that all of this arguing isn’t fun and isn’t at all distracting us all and bringing us inevitably closer to death. Shouldn’t we help him out and y’know fight this battle?” Hollywood spoke. He mumbled under his breath that this would never have happened if he was still with the Avengers; well maybe if Hawkeye was on the team, he thought. Hollywood was the seasoned war horse of the team. He was the newest addition to the squad (several years ago) but had proven himself tie and time again. He was the one who knew Captain Marvel best from his time on the Avengers as Wonder Man. He had even fought alongside the Guardians at the same time against Korvac.

Yondu the Alpha Centaurian warrior monk narrowed his eyes at the view screen. He had not really interacted with Mar-Vell in the past all that much but now by Anthos something rubbed him the wrong way about the figure.

“I think aiding him as expediently as possible would be a good thing. I see a future tense where he can change our destinies dramatically if we band together now,” Starhawk, the mysterious Guardian spoke.

“So you want to go help him too?” Hollywood queried, he sometimes had difficulty understanding exactly what Starhawk was suggesting.

“Another future tense in which we don’t help leads to the death of the entire human race at the hands of our adversaries.” Starhawk nodded slowly and then turned to leave the room without another word.

Hollywood looked from him to the other members of the team. “I probably think it’s an idea if I go with him then,” he nodded and turned to follow Starhawk.

Outside

Mar-Vell grabbed the hull of one of the small ships. It was the size of an ocean liner. He fired on his power and shot forward rocking the ship sideways as best he could. The gravity inducers inside the ship would no doubt make it so that everyone was still comfortably standing no matter at what angle but it did make their ongoing attack useless and give him some protection from the surrounding ships.

He rotated the ship again only to see that he no longer needed it’s cover as protection. The silent rippling balls of light which signified a plasma explosion in a vacuum indicated that something was going on.

The two figures which zig-zagged out showed that his guess was in fact right.

Mar-Vell did not know these two beings but he could see they were assisting him in his assault. The three flew in sharp darting patterns taking out the enemy ships with little difficulty. The massive gun array on The Captain America II doing a similar job in picking off the ships.

The three made short work of the ships which had engaged them. They then turned to the others. The ships which were left were making a tactical retreat whilst still coming under fire from the guns of The Captain America II.

Mar-Vell turned to face his new companions. The first was dressed entirely in blue, his face was humanoid and he glared back at him without emotion through purely white eyes. Golden arches spewed from his head and down over his back.

The second had a much broader face, a much broader body too. He wore large sunglasses hiding his eyes and had long flowing hair and beard. He wore a huge grin like he was pleased to see Mar-Vell. They motioned for him to follow and began to return to the ship.

He weighed his options for a second and then followed.

Upon entering the ship the doors behind him sealed shut with a hiss. He was tempted to begin powering a blast just in case this was some sort of trap or situation he didn’t want to be part of but decided an open palm was probably the best form of diplomacy at the moment.

He was greeted a second later by the opening of another door and a number of alien individuals stepped forward.

They were The Guardians of The Galaxy. A group of heroes thrown together by circumstance to protect what was left of the human race after a number of horrendous wars. They had several years ago managed to recapture the once occupied planet Earth. They were it’s Guardians.

“Greetings Mar-Vell,” Martinex began. He was examining Mar-Vell as he greeted him with a handshake.

“I don’t quite remember who you are as well as the other guys do. The whole Korvac fight is a little hazy in my head, one too many blows I think,” Charlie beamed at Mar-Vell, half-joking and half telling the truth. “But damn by Ganymede I’m glad you turned up and helped us out there…not that my shooting wouldn’t have seen them off eventually.” Charlie gave him a big cocky grin.

The blue and white individual stepped forward next. He looked to be in some kind of containment suit. He stood a few feet away from Captain Marvel and then saluted, his back straight his face deadly serious. “Captain it is my honor to meet you again.”

The other members of the group all looked at one another wondering what exactly was going on with Major Victory. The one time they had been involved with Captain Marvel was right in the heat of battle so they had not seen Major Victory’s hero worship for the soldier.

“Marv,” began Hollywood “Boy am I glad to see you! It’s been over 500 years since I last saw another Avenger in the flesh.”

Mar-Vell turned to the large white-haired man, unsure if he had heard him correctly. Hollywood grinned and took hold of Mar-Vell’s hand tightly shaking it. “You might remember me looking a bit differently. Hold on this might help out.” He focused for a second and rippled with energy before Wonder Man took the place of the old features.

“Did we know he could do that?” Nikki leaned over to whisper to Aleta. Aleta couldn’t help but giggle slightly.

“Honestly I didn’t even know he could fly until he did it last week. I think Hollywood keeps everything as close to his chest as he can.”

Mar-Vell smiled. He did not know Wonder Man very well but knew him none the less. Hollywood’s features quickly returned. He had grown accustomed to his features in the past thousand years and quite liked the beard.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all; again it seems. I apologize, but like the muscular guy, lets just say my memory is a little spotty in places,” began Mar-Vell. “Could someone let me know what is going on? Who were they? Who are you and where is Saturn and Titan?”

The others looked to Martinex. He was the science officer, intelligence officer and co-leader of the team (he occasionally cooked a meal for the others too) so this debriefing seemed to be very much his duty.

“The year is now 3020 roughly just over 1000 years since your time,” he began. He wasn’t sure exactly what point from the heroic age Captain Mar-Vell was from but it was a fair assessment. “The Galaxy has changed drastically since your time. One visible change you may have noticed is that Saturn and Titan are no longer there.”

“No!” Mar-Vell couldn’t help but bark. The thought stampeded through his head that it was his doing. The detonation in the core had torn the moon and planet apart. His son, his friends all gone.

Obviously a thousand years in the future you expect your loved ones to be gone but not when they are Eternals. The fact that he was one thousand years in his own future hadn’t even begun to sink in.

“It was destroyed in a counter attack against a Martian stronghold during the early days of their occupation 800 years ago. I can understand that this is quite a lot of information to take in…though given what Hollywood has told us about The Avengers and their adventures, this may be nothing new. It also brings me to ask a question.”

He moved his eyes across the other members of the group who nodded their agreement. “We wish to ask you for a favour as part of a mission.” He motioned for them to go deeper into the ship.

Briefing Room

The group were sat around a large console. All eyes were clearly on Mar-Vell. They were mostly friendly looks but the blue alien Yondu glared with a certain level of anger and mistrust.

Martinex stood at the head of the console with Major Victory in the position directly to his right he still looked at Mar-Vell with a slight look of hero worship. It was a look he had seen many times from young Kree soldiers.

“These are the ships of our enemies…and this is them,” a 3-D construct of a creature appeared in the centre of the table. Its legs were long and insect like, on top of them perched a two-armed torso holding a weapon. An angular head with a large disc construct on top of it. Large compound eyes surrounded the sides of its cranium.

“We don’t know who they are or what they want.” This lack of information obviously annoyed him. “All we know is that 7 months ago, they began a series of attacks on our settlements as we expanded out from the base on Earth. They then began to advance towards the core worlds. Their attacks have been massively successful, killing millions.”

“Do you know their home system?” Mar-Vell questioned. He had been around and knew various species quite well. Even given the 1000 years difference, he thought he might be able to shed some light on the matter.

“We have managed to track their trajectories.” Martinex shifted the image to a star map showing a system deep into space. “This is our Destination.”

The team nodded. This was something they had all heard before. They knew the overarching plan like the back of their hands.

“The scans show us a star system not unlike our own but with many more inhabited planets. These are from a long distance scope though so I’m sure as you know this could be a million years out of date for all we know. Honestly, we’re going in a little blind.”

Mar-Vell nodded along listening to the briefing. His head was swimming if he was honest. He was an elite soldier and superhero, so he was used to having busy weeks. But he had been thrown into the future into an ongoing war with a team he didn’t know. He was still unsure on whether he should really get involved and where this could lead.

“Remember this is not an act of war, it’s a fact finding mission,” said Martinex as if reading Mar-Vell’s mind. Mar-Vell wondered if he had read his mind.

The team nodded along. “We’ve already fought too many wars,” agreed Major Victory. “Now we are just protecting our own home system and the best way to do that if possible is through diplomacy.” The blue and silver figure then turned to Mar-Vell and spoke directly to him. “You’ve been a hero of mine since childhood and I know all the things you fought for. I know it’s hard being thrust into a different world, believe me I know, but I have to ask you for any help you’re able to offer. We could really use you. The battles are only going to get harder the closer we get.”

Mar-Vell sat silently for a few moments. “I’m not one to mince my words and hesitate, my main priority, however, is getting home. I have too much left unhandled in my own time…I however know that time travel plays a role in all of that and I’m beginning to believe in what you say. I’m going to help you in any way I can until I can figure out a way home.”

NEXT: Captain Marvel, Guardian of the Galaxy!