Marvel At What Could've Happened

Chapter 28

Battery At 5%

The message blinked across Tony's mask and a voice repeated it in his ear, but he was not conscious to register it. The suit had done its job; Tony was alive and breathing, he had maintained a normal body temperature, but he had not planned for a loss of communication or an anxiety attack in the middle of space. The suit's power would not last much longer.

Carol Danvers squinted through the windshield of her ship.

"What is that?" she muttered to herself. Something in the distance was floating alone. It had a few lights on it, or she might have passed it by. She slowed the ship's acceleration as she got closer. Whatever it was, it was in the shape of a man. She let the ship hover with the figure in front of her and stared at it. It was a metal suit, and theoretically had a person inside of it, but it floated limply. She parked the ship and headed for the airlock. Carol closed the door behind her and opened the next one, and carefully flew into the open space. She propelled herself to the figure and basically dragged it behind her back to the ship.

Once she was back in the safety of the ship, she dragged the figure onto the most open part of the floor plan and knelt next to it. She rocked back on her heels, thinking. She was desperately curious who or what was in it, or if it was a faceless robot. It's lifelessness was not that of a robot, but of something that had at some point had life. She carefully reached forward and with a bit of effort, ripped the face-mask from the figure. She half expected its removal to reveal wiring, but instead she was met with a human man. He was older than herself, tanned, and had neatly groomed facial hair.

"Who are you," Carol whispered. She slid fully to the ground and sat cross-legged on the ground next to the man and waited.

She didn't have to wait long. It was only a few minutes before he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. His expression changed quickly to panic, and he glanced around wildly and saw Carol. He relaxed slightly.

"Where am I?"

"On my ship," she replied.

"Oh, yeah, okay, that clears everything right up. And who are you?"

"Carol Danvers. You're lucky I found you, I was just passing through the galaxy. I didn't plan to make any stops."

"Well, I appreciate it, Carol...does my suit have any power? Hey, Jarvis, can you let me out of this thing?" he said. The front of his suit parted open and he sat up and rubbed his hands together. "Oh man, how long was I out?"

"I don't know. I only picked you up a few minutes ago."

"Okay, okay...and who are you exactly, Carol?"

"I'm a former Kree soldier. Now I travel the universe, protecting people and their planets. I was born on Earth, though. You're human?"

"Yeah, do I look like anything else."

"Just checking. There are several races that look like us. Who are you?"

"Tony Stark. I'm kind of like you but I just stick to protecting Earth. Not the whole galaxy."

"But it appears you're branching out?"

"Slightly. Just in the test phases of how to leave Earth. It's not going well. I lost communication with my guys."

"It's hard to plan for how long of a range you need for communication."

"Apparently. Can you get me home?"