Chapter 12 - Arm-wrestle for the Lunchbox

Carol flies the spaceship into the laboratory and then they disembark the plane and begin walking through the corridors. Talos picked up a baseball on the ground and then he started walking in hurry leading the group.

They found themselves walking into a giant room, with the Tesseract sitting in the reactor on one side of the room. Goose jumps onto the reactor and scratches the Tesseract, intrigued by the bright light. Carol and Maria followed behind him.

"Is that it? The core?" Maria asked.

"In her notes, she called it the Tesseract." Carol said while looking at the cube in awe.

Carol reaches out and grabs the Tesseract from its position in the reactor. She then throws it in the air like a baseball and walks around the room, beginning to observe her surroundings.

Then Maria saw some toys of kids mixed with the charts and notes of Dr. Lawson, "Whoa! What was Lawson doing with all this kid stuff?"

Maria picks up the lunchbox and opens it. Carol then places the Tesseract inside before closing the box.

Fury then coughs and gestures towards a cup of tea, which is still steaming.

"We're not alone." Maria concluded.

Talos begins singing loudly which sounded like a mooing of a cow.

"Told you he can turn into a Cow." Faust said.

Suddenly, a swarm of scared Skrulls appear from their hiding places.

"Talos!" A female skrull went forward and hugged him.

"He didn't come here for the Tesseract." Carol said upon the discovery.

Soren who was Talos wife calls a child to come towards her and Talos.

The child comes willingly, and Talos leans down to get a better look at him.

"It's okay. We didn't know what to do. Mar-Vell warned us not to send a signal for any reason or the Kree would find us." Soren explained.

"You did the right thing." Talos agreed with her.

Then Soren noticed Carol, Maria, Faust and Fury standing in the room, and she tries to back away but Talos stops her.

"It's okay, it's okay. She's alright. She's a friend." Talos said trying to keep her calm.

Carol approached them and said "I'm not gonna hurt you."

Talos added "She led me to you."

Knowing the truth about the Skrulls, she began to symphatize with them.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know." Carol said in guilt.

Talos reassured Carol and said, "This is war. My hands are filthy from it too. But we're here now. You found my family. This is just the beginning. There's thousands of us separated from each other... scattered throughout the galaxy."

Talos' daughter walks over to Carol, holds her hand and directs her towards the pinball machine in the corner. When they get there, the child points to the high score in glowing lights. The child jumps excitedly and asks her to play.

Fury saw this, "If I played the same pinball machine for six years I'd have some high scores too."

Faust scoffs but didn't say anything.

Suddenly the doors to the lab opened, and Yon-Rogg and his team walk through.

"Fraternizing with the enemy?" Yon-Rogg asked in a questioning tone of high authority,

Fury draws his gun but Minn-Erva one of the Kree already has hers pointed directly towards him. When she gestures for him to drop it, he raises his hands in surrender and returns the gun to its holster.

Yon-Rogg walks towards Carol and throws Goose along the floor towards her.

Talos has positioned Soren behind him. Faust, Fury and Maria were unarmed as well and the Kree's have surrounded their group.

"What did you do to your uniform?" Yon-Rogg asked when he noticed the color of Carol's uniform.

Minn-Erva chimed-in "They got in her head. Just like we thought."

Another Kree named Korath said "The Supreme Intelligence will set her straight."

"You can see they're not soldiers, let them go. You can have me." Talos said while trying to negotiate their situation.

"And the core?" Yon-Rogg asked.

But Carol didn't answer him.

"You lied to me."

Yon-Rogg countered, "I made you a better version of yourself."

Carol tries to light up her fists but they just spark uselessly before eventually dying out. The chip in her neck has also turned off.

Seeing this, Yon-Rogg said, "What's given can be taken away."

Since she wasn't able to use her powers, Carol runs towards Yon-Rogg and begins punching him. This results in a fist fight between the two.

However, very quickly, Yon-Rogg lights up a gadget in his suit. The gadget glowed bright blue and Carol to leaned back in an attempt to avoid it.

Around her, the Kree are attacking the Skrulls, forcing them to kneel.

Yon-Rogg then jerks his arm away from Carol, causing her to fall onto the ground unconscious.

--

Meanwhile, the Kree are still surrounding the Skrulls, and Goose is being scanned with a Kree scanner.

Scanner: Species: Flerken. Threat: High.

The kree, Bron-Char begins putting a muzzle on Goose's head, but is met by protests from Fury.

"Hey, It's a cat. Not Hannibal Lecter."

Then it was Fury's turn.

Scanner: Species: Human male. Threat: Low to none.

Faust laughed so hard hearing the result he began to choke.

Fury said in defense, "That thing is clearly busted."

Another kree aim the scanner to Faust.

Scanner: Species: Human male. Threat: Unknown.

Then the scanner started to flicker and sparks exploded in it.

Seeing this, Fury said, "I told you it was busted."

But Faust have different thoughts.

'Is it really busted or just coincidence? Or something else.' He pondered.

His train of thoughts was interrupted when he heard the order from the Kree.

"Load the Flerken onto the heli. Eject the others into space." Minn-Erva ordered.

--

Carol was in a sitting position being held at by tendrils of black lines of goo pulsing with energy.

She continue to struggle as Carol's hands begin to light up and begin burning the machine.

"She's trying to break out."

Carol continues to release energy waves from her hands. This causes all electricity on the ship to malfunction.

Goose's cage comes loose, the prisoner's handcuffs suddenly pop open and the cage full of Skrulls went open.

The chip explodes off her neck like a bullet and she is released from the Supreme Intelligence, glowing and floating in the air. She suddenly blasts energy from her hands, and sends four Kree flying backward in to the wall behind them.

She grabs the lunchbox with the Tesseract and finds Maria, Faust and Fury.

Fury was dumbfounded seeing her appearance.

"You know you're glowing, right?"

Carol cut him off and said,"I'll explain it later."

Carol opens the lunchbox to reveal the Tesseract glowing inside. She took the Tesseract, leaving the lunchbox empty.

"Take the Tesseract" She said.

Fury has just unbuckled Goose's collar and is now holding him.

"Me?" Fury pointed at himself to confirm.

Carol nodded, "Yes."

Fury declined the hot potato and said, "I'm not touching that thing."

Carol was amused by his 'courage' and said, "Want me to get you an oven mitt?"

Then Goose suddenly lurches himself out of Fury's arms and giant tentacles emerge from inside Goose's mouth. Goose picks up the Tesseract from her hand and swallows it whole before returning back to a normal cat. Fury quickly drops Goose in surprise.

All of them were flabbergasted. Except of course, Faust.

Carol instructed, "Get the Skrulls in the QuadJet and go. Take the Flerken with you."

"What about you?", Maria asked with concern.

"I'll buy you some time!" Carol said with determination.

When she was about to head out, Faust stopped her.

"Hang on a second, Carol. Uhmm I have a small request. If it's convenient, would please snatch one of the glowing sticks from that Kree earlier?" Faust whispered.

"You mean, the sword that Korath use? Why would you want that?" Carol asked curiously.

"For stud--err I mean..for self defense?" Faust reasoned trying to make his face convincing.

Carol stared at him intensely.

"You want to study it, right?"

"Uhmm N-Yyyeeeess?" Faust said in embarrassment scratching the back of his head.

Carol smiled and patted his shoulder, "Okay, just be careful with it. That thing is extremely sharp."

Hearing this, he excitedly go for a hug which she didn't mind.

"Thanks! You're the best. Go kick their ass. God, you smelled really nice." Faust grinned and gave her a cheer.

Carol just shook her head and rush out to buy them the time they need.

On the other hand, Fury and Maria was reluctant pick up Goose. Faust went forward to pick him up instead which made the Flerken happy and nestled in his arms.

"Don't eat me, okay? If you wanted to eat, you can eat Fury."

"Hey, you're selling me out when I'm right behind you." Fury said in protest.

Faust just laugh and run along with them.

---

Meanwhile, Carol is sitting on the railing of an overhead corrider. The Kree surrounded her while she holds up the lunchbox and she jumped over the railing once she has the Kree's attention.

"Hey Guys. Arm-wrestle for the Tesseract?" Carol greeted provokingly.

"I used to find you amusing. Let's put an end to this!" Yon-Rogg said.

The Kree all draw their weapon and begin to advance on her. Carol simply blasts her energy down the overpass, causing the metal to snap and four Kree to be incapacitated. Carol then proceeds to take on the Kree, attacking them individually. Each fight only lasts a few seconds, but always results in Carol dominating. 

----

At the same time, Maria, Faust and Fury was running over to the corridor leading to the hangar. All of a sudden, there are Krees stormed out of their front.

Maria picks up a gun and fires but it runs out of energy. To save them Goose opens his mouth and the tentacles take the kree soldiers, beat them up and swallowed them.

Maria was stunned looking at Goose and said, "Okay."

Fury complimented Goose with good scratch, "Good kitty." While Faust continue to hold him.

Then they continue running through a corridor on the ship. However, a group of Kree appears behind them with bunch of Skrulls prisoners as a hostage.

"Hey! In a hurry?", the Kree said while aiming the gun at them.

Fury grunted and told Goose, "Now! Come on! Do your thing. Come on!"

The two Kree exchanged glances in confusion.

Fury pleaded, "Come on! Goose."

Then Goose ran out of Faust's arms went towards one of the Kree soldier purring.

Seeing this, Fury couldn't help but cursed helplessly, "Dammit, Goose. Pick a side."

Faust just watched this calmly because he knew that one of the Kree was Talos and what he's going to do next.

"Take them to the hangar too. We'll blast them all into space." the Kree soldier said.

Fury, Faust and Maria held up their hands in submission.

Then the Kree soldier approached Fury while aiming his gun at him, "Play it cool. Just like Havana. Do you have the thing?"

Fury got the signals and cooperated before whispering back, "Flerken kitty ate it."

Hearing this, the Kree soldier urged them, "Come on. Move..Move!"

Talos (Kree soldier) whispered, "Follow my lead." 

Then he looked at his wife and said, "Cover her eyes."

Soren covered the eyes of their daughter and then Talos shoots the three soldiers at the back.

Faust on the other hand has been paying attention to Talos' every move so when he saw him shooting the other Kree soldiers, he immediately kicked the crotch of the Kree soldier near him. The soldier curled doubled over due to pain and Talos turned to shot him in the face.

"Get on the ship. Let's go, let's go." Talos instructed.