Kree, Shi'ar, and Skrulls, Oh My!

The Little Wiccan That Could

Christmas on Noh's ship came and went with a few holiday songs and some mistletoe that Jubilee and Kate were basically using as weapons by the end of the day to grab their respective boys and kiss them. Logan was sure to keep watch on the observation deck while the party went on — and again on Kate's birthday about a week later as Jubilee insisted that they still had to have a dance party just the four of them — though the girls ended up more or less spending Kate's entire birthday bouncing on Jubilee's bed with hairbrush microphones just because they could.

But besides the few moments of distraction like that — the days of the trip were more or less the same, with someone on observation and someone watching the Skrull frequency as the rest of them took turns piloting or sleeping.

They were still three days out from their destination when they ran into trouble. Noh was on the observation deck when he spotted the approaching signal and swore very loudly in his native language and a few others as he ran to where Kate was piloting and breathlessly told her to get out of the way so that he could steer as the first shot went over their bow, missing them by inches.

Kate looked surprised as Noh was already sliding into the pilot's chair and pulling down holographic displays as another shot came apparently from the space in front of them, though there was no sign of the craft ahead of them.

"Shi'ar stealth tech," Noh growled out like it was a curse as he pulled down a few more displays, apparently using them as a guide to where the craft was instead of trusting his eyes as he jerked on the stick and twisted hard, narrowly avoiding another shot. "Hang on."

Almost to be helpful, part of the ship formed a little handle near Kate's head so she could do just that and hang on as Noh made another sharp turn, nearly flinging the ship around 180 degrees past the Shi'ar craft so he could return fire for just a moment before he had to tuck into a tight spin to avoid another shot from the Shi'ar.

"Hawkeye, get these guys in your sights and return fire; I'll keep them off of us," he muttered out as he gestured to the weapons controls, and he tipped the ship so she could have a better shot for just a moment before he quickly pulled up on the stick as soon as she had fired to avoid the retaliatory shot.

As he righted the ship to give Kate her next shot, though, the Shi'ar were finally able to land a good hit, and the entire craft rocked with the impact as Noh had to turn his attention just to keeping them from losing trajectory as he switched to evasive maneuvers, swearing in Kree under his breath the entire time.

Kate managed to get off another shot before the Shi'ar's retaliatory blast crippled their weapons systems and had Noh swearing in English as well as he just tried to keep them out of the Shi'ar's reach — but when another hit took out a good portion of their engines, there wasn't much he could do except to just keep cursing the Shi'ar for whatever he could think to curse them for.

By that time, the rest of their companions had finally made their way to where Kate was almost quietly watching Noh lose his cool. When her little photographer imp made to raise the camera phone, she just reached up and took it from him quickly.

Logan looked over at Kate and the expression on her face before Kurt gently asked what was going on and headed over to stand by Kate.

"Shi'ar," she said simply, tipping her head at Noh. "They took out our engines."

"Does he need ... something?" Kurt asked quietly.

"Only my guns and a clear space to work," Noh said with a deep glare as he got up from the pilot's seat. "They're not getting my ship."

"How many are there?" Logan asked. "We know how to cripple them."

"Judging by the size of the ship, I'd say quite a few," Noh said. The bands on his wrists morphed into the guns that he carried as he looked at the others.