After a little while of silence in the car, Fury started the converstation again. This time, he seemed to be more careful with his questions, as if he had learned something from the last one he had asked. Maybe he finally saw how big the differences were between Hala and Earth and had he been thinking about that while everyone was quiet.

'So ehm, what do Skrulls want with Doctor Lawson?' Keeping his eyes on the road as he said it. He looked comfortable driving the car, one hand on the wheel and sitting relaxed in the seat.

'They believed she developed a light-speed engine at Pagasus', Vers answered him. I could see she trusted him a lot. It was one of my favorite character traits of hers. She was very trusting towards people. But it also came back to bite her in the ass sometimes.

Fury's face pulled into a frown when he thought about the existence of a light-speed engine, as if it was something out of movies. 'Light-speed engine?' Looking at me in the mirror to see if Vers wasn't joking, I just shook my head. It was very real. 'I've got to admit, that is not the craziest thing I've heard today', he looked back through the front window.

'Well, it's still early', Vers joked. It was still early. We had crashed into the Blockbuster about an hour before dawn and the sun had subtly climbed higher and higher in the sky. I was really tired, so I had closed my eyes again, trying to get a little rest. Vers didn't seem to have any problems with tiredness. Well, she did run on energy, so.

'And you? What do you want?', Fury sensed there was something else. Another motive for our little mission. Wanting to see what she would say to that, I opened my eyes en tuned into the conversation.

'To stop the Skrulls before they become unstoppable', she answered him. But it didn't sound convincing. It sounded like she held something back and Fury looked like he knew she did.

'And?' When Vers didn't answer, he looked to me, but I just turned my head away. This wasn't my story to tell. Lawson was in Vers' memories so she had to decide whether to share this with him. 'Look, war is a universal language. I know a rogue soldier when I see one, you've got a personal stake in this.' I was right about him. He understood us, because he had been a soldier himself. Knew exactly how we were thinking and if we were hiding something. It made me feel uneasy to be honest. I loved hiding and hated sharing things. But with him, I couldn't hide.

Vers didn't say anything to that either, she just had that lost look in her eyes again. That look I really hated. Reaching forward, my hand found her shoulder and she looked at me thankful. She was not alone in this, I wanted to remind her of that.

It became quiet in the car again. Everyone lost in their own thoughts and taking in the scenery outside. I got nervous when Fury pulled up at a gated fence. We were so close to finding something out, I knew it.

The window at the driver's side went down and a voice filled the car. 'This is government property, turn your vehicle around.' Fury let out an annoyed sigh, as if he was tired of hearing this warning. 'Nicholas Joseph Fury, Agent of SHIELD', showing the badge to the camera in the little box at the side of the road he was talking into.

Vers' and my eyebrows went up at the mention of three names and I knew she saw another opportunity to make a joke. 'Place your thumb on the pad.' Reaching out of the car, he placed his finger on the scanner and waited for it to finish. 'Nicholas Joseph Fury?' Ah, there it was, the joke I had expected. 'You have three names?', she said amused to the man next to her.

'Everybody calls me Fury. Not Nicholas, not Joseph, not Nick. Just Fury.' He said it in a way that was like a little warning or a suggestion. He wanted us to call him that too. Well, we would see about that.

'What does your mom call you?', Vers continued asking. She couldn't get over the fact that she thought it was weird. 'Fury', the word coming out immediately.

'What do you call her?', I joined in. Vers' eyes turned to my face and Fury's found me in the mirror again. 'Fury' He appeared tired of our jokes.

'What about your kids?' Now all eyes were on Vers again. 'If I'll have them, they'll call me Fury.' Another question lay at the tip of my tongue, but the voice in the box interrupted me before I could speak. 'You are cleared for access.' That took a really long time. What if I had to wait so long each time I wanted to get into the Commander's Offices on Hala. I could eat my whole breakfast in front of that door, waiting.

'Thank you', Fury replied to the box and the fence in front of us opened with a loud rattle. Vers and I shared an amused look at the conversation we just had with Fury, but were startled out of it when the man pressed the accelerator.

Driving in between two mountains, a big tunnel suddenly loomed in front of us. I hated tunnels, they made me feel trapped. So I was glad that Fury sped through it. 'What is this place?', I couldn't help but ask. This was a government facility?

'This is where project Pegasus started. In this joint NASA USAF Facility', he replied to me.

What the hell was a NASA? Or USAF? 'I'm sorry, what?'

Sighing again, he seemed to do that a lot today, he answered my question. 'NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They monitor space and are in charge of the space program.' Ah, space, that I understood. It looked like this NASA didn't do a good job if they had never heard of aliens before, though.

'USAF is short for United States Air Force, the air defense of America.' That I also understood. We had air defense on Hala too. 'Does that answer your question, Miss?', he asked sarcastically.

'Yes it does, Nick. Thank you.' Vers snickered at that, her eyes lighting up at my mock. Fury did't react, just rolled his eyes.

Finally, after a really long drive, the car pulled up next to some other ones, inside the facility. My stiff joints had trouble getting out of it. I felt like an old woman. And of course, Vers saw that. 'You gettin' out okay there, grandma?', she smirked.

Narrowing my eyes at her, my body finally stretched out again. Man, that felt good. 'Very funny.'

She turned around and inspected the area around her, but Fury was quick to interrupt her staring. 'Oh, hold up. You two look like somebody's disaffected nieces.' I guess he meant our outfits. Apparently, these 'grunge' looks were intimidating, but it could also be the two women wearing them. Opening the backseat door I just came out of, he grabbed two hats and threw them to us. Catching it, I saw the familiar logo on the front. He had the same one on his badge. 'Put these on.'

Vers looked at the cap weirdly and gestured to the logo. 'What is it?'

'That's the SHIELD logo', Fury replied proudly.

'Does, eh, announcing your identity on clothing help with the covert part of the job?', she teased him while she placed the hat on her blonde hair. I did the same, my purple hair disappearing under it. Part of my view was immediately cut off by the visor and it felt uncomfortable. People wore these for fun?

'Said the space soldier who was wearing a rubber suit', Fury replied smugly. Not letting Vers' teasing get to him. She looked a little offended by the teasing she got back, not expecting her comment to blow up in her face. 'Lose the flannel', he added, pointing to the blocked piece of clothing wrapped around her waist.

Untying it quickly, she threw it back in the car, still a little fed up about the man's joke and walked over to the railing next to the car. Fury and I followed her quickly. What I saw made me miss Hala even more. The enormous hanger looked exactly like the one in Starforce HQ and the big planes made me think of the ships. I suddenly realized we were very far away from home.

Vers saw my longing look from the corner of her eye and put her left hand on my shoulder as a way of comforting me. 'We will be home soon', she whispered. 'Yeah.'

'How can I help you?' A sudden voice sounded from behind us. Turning around towards it, three men were approaching us. The one in front struck me as the boss, a big man with an authoritative look in his eyes. There was also a cap on his head, but this one held the Pegasus logo. We were in the right place.

The two men on the sides wore protective clothing and had large guns. The weapons looked like they could hurt, but it was nothing compared to the space weapons I was used to.

'We are agents of SHIELD' Showing the badge to the man, Fury put emphasis on the 's' at the end of the word 'agents'. He didn't want the man to ask for Vers' and my badge, because we didn't have one.

While he studied Fury's, Vers decided to take her shot. 'We are looking for a woman named Lawson'

'A Doctor. Wendy Lawson.' Fury added quickly, not wanting to make the man suspicious.

He looked up from the badge when she started speaking and his eyes shot between the three of us, trying to get any read. Deciding he trusted us, his hand closed the badge and gave it back to Fury. 'Follow me.'

He didn't have to say that another time. Vers gave Fury a 'look at that'- look with a little sound expressing the same thing and followed the man.

He lead us to a little waiting room, where Vers and Fury immediately sat down on the chairs. But I knew if I were to sit down right now, my body would have a lot of trouble getting up again, so my feet walked back and forth through the little space, trying to keep away the sleep.

Vers' eyes followed me back and forth, back and forth. At first with a hint of a smile on her lips, but as the time progresses and nobody came back for us, it disappeared slowly. Had they forgotten us, or were we onto something they didn't want us to know? Fury's voice interrupted the silence. 'Are you familiar with the phrase 'Welcome Wagon'?', he asked us, looking from Vers sitting next to him, to me, still pacing back and forth.

Shaking my head, Vers answered for us. 'No.'

'Well, this ain't it' He tried putting his thumb on the pad next to the door again, wanting to pass through, but it went red, again. He had tried it a couple times before, but tried again and again. Sighing, he stood up and his right hand went to his pocket, where some sort of device came out.

Vers' eyes followed his movement and looked questionably at the thing. 'Is that a communicator?' I stopped pacing when he stood up and walked away from her.

'Yeah. State-of-the-art two-way pager' Wow, these people could communicate with one person, back and forth. Impressive, I thought sarcastically.

Vers narrowed her eyes, clearly not trusting him fully. 'Who are you paging?'

'My mom. Don't worry, I didn't mention you.' He tried to ease her, but I had a feeling that he was not telling her the truth. I had to keep an eye on him. Vers clearly didn't feel the same way, because she stood up from the chair and tried the little scanner next to the door herself. She probably didn't expect it to work, but she was tired of waiting and not getting anywhere.

In the meantime, Fury had put away his pager and got out his trusty old badge. I suspected he was very attached to that thing. Clearly having a plan, I watched as he studied it, holding it in the light of the lamp. Apparently, he found what he was looking for and rumbled around in the desk, finding some tape.

It wasn't clear to me what he was doing, but I didn't have a solution either, so I let him to his thing. Sticking the clear tape to the badge and slowly pulling it off again, he was very happy with the result, clearly what he wanted. With a celebratory sound, he walked over to the scanner.

Vers sat at the table next to it, an amused look in her eyes and smile on her lips as she watched Fury fumble around. Knowing we could just blow the door off its hinges made it even better.

The little scanner started again and this time, it turned green. Fury's smile got even bigger and he looked really proud of himself. His hand moved to open the door and he gestured for us to walk through first. 'After you.'

'Impressive', Vers said dryly, clearly not impressed and mocking his theatrics.

'Oh, you should see what I can do with a paperclip.' Closing the door as he followed behind us, into the next corridor.

~~~~~~~~

A little shorter, but I really want to do the next part in one chapter. I think that one will be a lot longer.

Thanks for reading!

(2318 words)