Summary:Noh-Varr tells Kori about meeting a new Tamaranean. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Kori's sitting at the common room table with her laptop in front of her and some papers at hand. She's dressed quite informally, in calf-length black leggings and a pale pink tee that exposes a little orange skin near her midsection. She's sitting with her usual perfect posture, looking like she copied the pose from a stenographer on TV. Her typing method is a little slow and painful though, a lot of two-fingered hunt-and-pecking.
She's backlit by late morning sun slanting through the windows. Steam wafts from the hot tea near her elbow. Other Young Avengers (those without families and jobs) loiter in the area as well, on their own personal errands.
Noh-Varr wanders in from the main area, having just arrived back after filing some reports at the Triskelion. Heading toward the kitchen, he glances around to see who happens to be here. "Oh, good. There you are." he says to Kori as he opens the fridge. "Been looking for you. We out of beer again?"
Kori looks up and flashes a friendly smile at Noh-Varr. "Here I am," she agrees, as if pleased to have helped him reconcile the trouble he went to of finding her. She sets her laptop aside an inch and regards the Kree warrior with a steady gaze.
"If we are out of beer, you will need to take the issue up with Rose. Most of us cannot purchase it," she says apologetically. "Perhaps we can contract a food delivery service of some kind. The shopping for a group this size is becoming onerous."
She falls silent. "Oh! Were you looking for me for a particular reason?" Kori asks, as the thought occurs to her.
Noh-Varr closes the fridge then opens the cupboard under the sink. Rummaging around all the way in the back, he pulls out a six pack of stout. "Want one?" he asks, taking a bottle and pausing before putting the others back under the sink. "Dark beer should be room temperature." he informs Kori. "Cold kills the flavor." Pause. "Which is probably why American beers are supposed to be ice cold." But on to her question. "Yes. Another Tamaranean crashed on the planet and wants to kill you."
Kori freezes, the first question forgotten. "Another… Tamaraneaen?" Noh-varr wouldn't miss the signs of an extreme rush of agitation. Her skin turns a ruddy shade, luminescing. All detail of her eyes vanishes as the sclera burns with lambent emerald light.
"Th-that is impossible," she insists, twisting her fingers into knots. "Earth is far too removed from the Vega system. No one should be here."
"Did… are you sure it's me? They want to kill… me? By name?" She gives Noh-varr a thoroughly worried look, clearly concerned what details may have been related to him.
"Is there another princess whose name begins with 'kori' on your planet?" Noh-Varr asks. "I'm pretty sure she said your full name but I was kind of busy at the time. She called you a traitor, kissed Roy, and flew off. So what's going on?"
Kori flies upwards and zips towards Noh-varr, hovering over him. The motion would be aggressive if it wasn't for the fear on her face. "You cannot tell the others!" she demands of him, anguish in her voice. Her normally endless enthusiasm is gone. "They cannot know— it will put them in danger. Promise me!" She zips a few inches closer. "Say it! Say you will not tell them!" She sounds near-hysterical.
Noh-Varr tilts his head up to look at the hovering Tamaranea. "I'm not going to promise that. If she's trying to kill you, she's going to come looking for you. Anyone with you is going to be a target and that puts them in danger. Better they should know in advance what's coming and prepare for it."
For a second— just for a second— there's an awful implicit violence in Kori's face. It's a flash of temper utterly uncharacteristic for the Tamaranean woman. She stares at Noh-Varr and then finally relents, backing up with a forceful shake of her head.
"No. No one knows who you are, or cares, off this planet. If I'm gone, she has no reason to stay. I'm … " Her face twists. "I will signal for low orbit pickup. Surely there is a civilian freighter within a parsec. I can barter for travel," she says, talking more to herself than Noh-varr. "I will go furthur, out into the Outer Rim. How did she /find/ me?" she wails. "I have been so careful!"
"You do know the Kree are blockading the planet?" Noh-Varr reminds Kori. "Even if there was a freighter, and why would there be out here in the middle of nowhere, the Kree will just destroy it as soon as they detect it." As to the last, he just shrugs and twists open his bottle of beer. He has no idea how she found her. "So who is she and why is she calling you a traitor?"
"I… I could try and pick it up beyond the Mars orbit," Kori says, uncertainly. "I can fly that far in a few weeks. But Silkie, and Fluffers…" Her face twists at the thought of leaving her pets behind.
"She … I don't know who she is. What name did she give you?" Kori asks Noh-varr. "She no doubt works for the Kree usurpers," the woman clarifies. Her eyes flash once at Noh-Varr. In moments of tension she has to forcibly remind herself that Noh-Varr is *not* the Kree of her familiarity.
"I escaped their custody after they overthrew Tamaran and murdered the aristocracy. I don't know how long I spent fleeing them, I was in and out of realspace. I went from the Vega system to the Galactic Core, then I tried to disappear on Nova Prime but Kree forces spotted me. I thought nothing could be more removed than /Earth/," she complains.
"But if she is here, I can hope at best she's just here for the bounty on my head. If she is here as a reconaissance scout, then… then Earth is in great danger. The Imperial Governor of the Vega system has sworn to see me publicly executed. If they think Earth is harboring me then it could lead to outright war unless you surrender me to them."
Noh-Varr shakes his head. "If she said her name, I didn't hear it." He's not particularly fond of the Kree in this reality either so doesn't take any offense over her attitude. "Earth is already in danger." he points out. "From the Kree. And they're not going to let some unimportant planet get in the way of their plans so I don't think we need to worry about them. Whoever she is, her ship had been fired on so she didn't have permission to come here."
A glimmer of hope. Kori pauses her agitated drifting back and forth. "Then… she might not be here as an agent of the Kree," she says, thoughtfully. "It is possible this is a personal foe. Many Tamaraneans blame me for the collapse of the Vega star system. And … rightfully so," she admits.
She lands, sniffling, and of all things her eyes well up. Her shoulders slump in defeat and the lights go out in her eyes. "Perhaps I should simply surrender to her. I have been fleeing for so long. I do not wish to kill one of my people and if she's followed me here I do not think I can convince her to just … leave."
"The Kree don't hire inferior races to do their work for them." Noh-Varr says. "If the Kree want you dead, they'll hunt you down and kill you themselves so you don't need to worry about that. She also didn't sound like she was working for anyone so I'm pretty whoever she is, she's on her own." At the talk of surrender, he snorts. "Oh, stop that. We don't need to kill her. She's already fled SWORD custody so there's an order for her arrest. We can just lock her up for a bit and let her cool down. And if she tries to kill you, then she'll be locked up for more than a bit."
Kori nods at Noh-Varr, still looking thoroughly miserable. "I… suppose," she relents dubiously. "I do not think I am an enemy of the state for the whole Empire, but I doubt they would pass up a chance to curry favor with the Imperial Governor of the Vega System by bringing me in to their custody. The bounty is not insignificant, from what I've heard," she adds.
"But we are very very far from my home here," she reminds Noh-varr. "If she came to the dusty edge of the galaxy to find me, I cannot imagine she will simply abandon her cause. What do we do if she attacks?
"Kick her ass." is Noh-Varr's matter of fact answer. "Your people have some abilities but you're really not all that powerful. I'm sure I could take her on my own but even if I wasn't there when she attacked you, the rest of the team can take her down. The best thing to do is set a trap for her and then lure her in, using yourself as bait. That way you can choose the time and place to take her down. And now I'm going to go get more beer. You want some ice cream while I"m there? The women I've known always eat ice cream when they're upset about something." Without waiting for an answer, he starts leaving. "I'll get you double chocolate fudge."