She's the most powerful woman in the galaxy; he's the demigod who saved her home, over and over. An unlikely coincidence brings them together, and amidst their adventures in this tumultuous world, 'sometimes, it's nice to just be a boy and a girl'.

'A quick in-and-out operation. I shoot them, you get the package. Got it?'

That was the original plan. It wasn't working.'

If it worked, she'd be out of here already. Instead, Carol was trapped in a square, airtight laboratory but for a single door, fending off wave after wave of Kree soldiers who wanted to either stop her accomplice, Luphomoid rogue assassin Nebula, from getting their new planet-exploding chemical bomb or take her back to the Supreme Intelligence for some fun torture sessions. Probably both.

Her photon blasts were tearing through her former kinsmen and her aura made her essentially bulletproof, but there were so many of her enemies that she was tiring. Someone had definitely put an energy dampener somewhere because she was already sweating.

'Nebula?' she risked a glance back. The assassin was nowhere to be seen. 'Oh, you little—'

Someone stabbed something into her neck. Instantly, her limbs became noodles and she collapsed onto the floor. 'Ouch…' she groaned.

'Hello, Vers,' someone purred in her ear. 'We meet again.'

Carol glanced up and groaned. 'Minn-Erva, you little—' minx. 'I thought you died when Maria melted your ship.'

Minn-Erva, the doctor and biochemical engineer, smirked her familiar smirk as Kree soldiers surrounded her. 'Well, you thought wrong. I guess nothing has changed.'

Carol tried to shoot a photon blast. Her hand heated up, but Minn-Erva kicked her ribs, and she lost concentration, doubling over in pain. 'I swear, if you put one of these disk things on me again…'

'Oh, not just. It's upgraded, by yours truly.' Minn-Erva bent down. 'Listen, Vers. Your accomplice will be caught; we have the entire starship surrounded. You can still come with us.'

'After this fiasco—' Carol pointed at the newly installed Supreme Intelligence control chip in her neck, '—you expect me to go back? And, you expect the Supreme Intelligence to let me go back? No, thanks.'

Minn-Erva shook her head and motioned for soldiers to stand down. She lowered her voice. 'Starforce misses you, Vers. I miss you. Please, come with me, and I will vouch for you in front of the entire Kree army, if needed.' She took Carol's hand. 'Just stand down. I know you never do, but please, just this once.'

Carol gripped her hand tightly. 'I never understood your loyalty to them, Minn,' she murmured. 'You're too talented to be wasting your life away on Hala developing weapons. Imagine the diseases you could cure, the people you could save, if you left.'

Minn-Erva hesitated. 'I can't do that, Vers.'

'The name's Carol now, Minn.' Carol smiled at her sadly. 'Not Vers. Until you change your mind, goodbye.'

'What—'

The biochemist failed to notice Carol's glowing feet until it was too late. A photon blast shot through the floor of the ship, and Carol shot through the hole, not forgetting to flick an EMP device at the ship. Kree warships dimmed behind her as her aura flickered dangerously, and she half-flew, half-flailed through the deep, dark cosmos...

Disjointed memories flickered through her mind. Her first test flight as a pilot. Playing basketball with Maria. The tesseract explosion. First mission as a Kree. Defeating the Supreme Intelligence. Minn-Erva's mischievous smile.

As the pictures came and went, they seemed to become more recent. Meeting Nebula. Minn-Erva's smile, again. Stuttering through deep space. Crashing through an atmosphere, her suit burning with cosmic fire…

She woke with a start. She was not crashing through an atmosphere. Instead, she was in a dimly lit room in someone's bed, which was for some reason...completely blue, pillow, quilt and all. The curtains were drawn, but she could tell it was light out. On the nightstand stood a glass of apple juice and a glowing, silver flower.

She had a pounding headache, and her throat was parched. She supposed if the person wanted to kill her, he would've done so already. So, she grabbed the glass of apple juice and drank.

It didn't taste like apple juice at all. For a second, she thought she was being poisoned.

It tasted like...her favorite comfort drink, iced mocha, temperature and all. She hasn't tasted it in...forever. Decades, probably, by Earth time. She downed it all in a few gulps. The headache abated, but she started feeling a little feverish. Maybe it was poison after all.

'Did you seriously drink all of it?'

Carol instinctively aimed her hand at the voice before hissing in pain. It was covered in fresh bandages.

'Yeah, it's pretty badly burnt. Don't worry, though. The nectar should help it heal, but a little too much and you might spontaneously combust, so I won't be giving you any more.'

A guy was standing at the doorway who couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen. He wasn't terribly muscular but well-toned, with windswept raven hair and eyes which reminded her of calm, shallow seas. He twirled a ballpoint pen in his right hand, staring at her with cautious interest.

'Who—' she cleared her throat. Her voice was raspy. 'Who are you?'

He frowned. 'I think I should be asking you that question, seeing as I had to carry you to my bed from the road. You're lucky you didn't get run over by a car.'

'A car?' She sat up, inwardly grinning. Was she seriously this lucky? 'Is this Earth?'

'No, it's actually Mars.'

She supposed she was pretty close to Earth when she got captured, on the edge of its solar system. 'Oh, you have no idea.'

'I do.' He walked around her - his? - bed and swept the curtains open. Carol blinked at the sudden sunlight. 'The blue blood gave it away. Plus the fall from the sky. And the colorful suit. And the fact that you're still alive.'

Oh. '...I guess that would give it away.'

'So, alien?' He raised his eyebrows. 'Monster? Egyptian...whatchamacallit? Honestly, nothing would surprise me, so shoot. I bet my world is crazier than yours.'

'I'll bet you ten bucks it's not. And I'm not any of the things you just mentioned.' Carol groaned as she tried to get out of bed. She wobbled and nearly collapsed. In a flash, the boy was next to her, his arms on her shoulder.

'Woah, relax.' He helped her lean against the wall. She was already breathing heavily. 'I should tell you about your injuries. Your costume shielded you from most of the fire, but your hands are burnt. You have, surprisingly, only one broken rib and probably a concussion.'

'I don't get concussions.'

'Maybe not, but there's a thing in your neck which can't feel too good. I couldn't take it out. You still haven't told me who you are.'

Carol hesitated. '...Vers.'

He waited. She got the feeling that he wasn't fooled. 'Danvers,' she clarified, sighing. 'Carol Danvers.'

He blinked. 'So you're not an alien?'

'I just said that I'm not. It's complicated. I need to get this thing out of my neck.'

'I'm Percy,' he said. 'What is that thing, anyways?'

'Power dampener of sorts.' She looked at her uniform interface and tapped it twice. It was dead. 'Do you have a computer, or something?'

'Yeah. Don't break it.'

Carol started unwrapping the bandages on her hand with her mouth. 'How badly—woah.'

Her hands were almost completely healed. No pain. They still looked a little redder than normal but otherwise, completely normal. She patted her chest. A twinge but definitely not bad.

She looked at Percy, who smiled. 'Nectar works fast. You also heal fast.'

Carol stared at him. 'Thanks.'

'It's what I do.'

Earthen technology was a lot more advanced than she remembered - their computers were almost competent now. With a little bit of fiddling, she managed to recalibrate her interface. She might have overheated Percy's computer, but…

'Did you overheat my mom's computer?'

Carol glanced up. 'You have a mom?'

That sounded bad. Percy frowned. 'Of course I have a mom. Don't you have a mom?'

'...Yeah. Sorry. Not what I meant. It's just that you...seem too normal to be normal. Do you have some sort of tweezers or something?'

Percy scratched his head. 'No, sorry. I doubt tweezers would help you get whatever that thing is out of your neck though. I'm hardly normal, but we all try to be. Sometimes, that's the best we can do.'

'Water, then? I need to short circuit this thing.'

'Sure, but it looks more like plastic than metal.'

'It's not plastic. There's metal in the circuits. I just need to somehow get the water between it and my skin.' In all honesty, Carol didn't really know what she was doing. The first time she removed it, she was Binary and very inspired. She could hardly turn binary now, and she wasn't very inspired. She was pretty much guessing.

Percy brought a bottle of water. 'You want me to do it?'

'No, thanks. I got it.' Carol poured the water onto the dampener. It didn't do much. She tried to pinch her skin to get a bit of space but hissed in pain. 'Damn you, Minn-Erva.'

'Minerva?' Percy frowned. 'Are you Roman?'

'What? No, what does that even mean? This isn't working.' Carol slammed the bottle down onto the table. The bottle collapsed and water started running from it onto the floor. 'Oh, sorry—'

'Don't worry about it,' Percy interrupted. 'Wow, those are strong arms. You said you had to get the water underneath the dampener?'

Carol glanced at him. 'Yeah. But it's skintight.'

Percy didn't respond. He made a twirling motion with his hands. Carol watched in shock - and bewilderment - as the water responded, lifting off the floor and from the bottle into the air. As she stared, the water formed a singular stream and started snaking towards her.

'Can you move your neck a bit? I need a good look at it.' Carol complied. Percy squinted at her neck. 'That's pretty tight, but I think…' The water stream flattened into a thin sheet and slid between the device and her skin. It was a weird feeling - Carol could feel the water moving, but not like water usually would. It was like they had a mind of their own.

The device sparked and fell off. Strength flooded back into her limbs. Carol took a deep breath. She could feel the rest of her wounds closing.

'That's better,' she grinned. 'That was cool.'

Percy grinned back. 'Most people think so.'

Percy treated her to McDonald's. She vaguely remembered the fast food chain from the sixties, but had never bothered to try it. She regretted that decision immensely.

'I bet you don't have this kind of stuff where you come from,' Percy said, watching with a wry smile as Carol demolished fries.

'I remember this from decades ago,' Carol mumbled through a mouthful of fried potatoes, 'but I never had one.'

'Okay, where exactly are you from?' Percy leaned forwards, his hands together. 'You sound very normal. You behave very normally. But I know you're not human. At least, not exactly.'

Carol glanced at him. 'I am human.'

Percy sighed. 'Okay. Say I believe you. That doesn't explain the blue blood.'

'It came from blood transfusion. Yon-Rogg did this.'

'Now you're just avoiding the point.' Percy picked at his fries. 'I don't think you're going to try to take over New York or anything, which, believe it or not, has happened. So let's do this - I ask you a question, and you answer honestly, and then you get to ask me a question. Cool?'

Carol hesitated. 'Three questions each.'

'Deal. You don't have to answer, but you don't get yours if you don't.' Percy sipped his coke. 'Were you born here?'

'Clarify 'here'.'

'Earth,' Percy elaborated. 'A country. America.'

'Yep.' She wriggled her eyebrows at him. 'Boston, actually. What about you?'

'Is that your question?' At her nod, Percy smiled. 'Right here in Manhattan.'

'Fancy,' Carol said. 'Big city.'

Percy scowled. 'Not always. Are you in any way related to non-Earth people?'

Carol thought about it. 'Sort of. Not by lineage. By blood.'

Percy frowned. 'That's the same thing.'

'Not exactly.' Carol shook her drink. It was empty except for ice. 'You did a cool water trick. How'd you learn to do that? Last time I checked, we couldn't do that.'

'I didn't learn it. It's heritage. And blood. They mean the same thing.' Percy made coke spiral out of his straw and land back in perfectly. 'Last question. I saw your hands glowing. What can you do?'

'Nothing much without causing irreparable damage to your house.'

Percy eyed her. 'Danvers...'

Carol gave in. 'Fine. I can fly and shoot light out of my hands to kick ass. I'm also strong.'

Percy made an expression that was somewhere between satisfied and confused. 'Shoot light? How can light kick ass?'

'You don't have any questions left.' Carol wagged her fingers at him. 'My last one: are there more people like you?'

Percy hesitated. Carol gave him the same look he gave her before.

'...Yes.'

He didn't seem willing to say more than that, so Carol left it. 'Well, good talk. Good food.'

Percy nodded. 'Yeah. Very good talk.'

She stood up. 'Well, I have to go.'

Percy stood up too. 'I'll walk you out. Where?'

Carol raised her eyebrows. 'I'm not going to torch your building down, not after you paid for my McDonalds. But, if you really want to know, there's a blue-skinned alien-slash-cyborg girl with a planet-exploding chemical bomb running amok in the galaxy.'

Percy nodded, not surprised at all. 'Good reason. But I'm still going to walk you.'

She got the feeling that if they started arguing, some planet would explode into toxic chemical gas before they finished. 'Fine.'

A portal made of mist and rainbows opened next to them. Carol glanced at it with mild interest. Percy grinned widely.

'Hey, Wise Girl,' he said. 'What's up?'

Carol tried to reach through the portal and almost shut it down. Percy glared at her, like don't shut down the portal or I will get very angry. The girl in the image also had blonde hair, but her eyes were stormy grey. She looked stunning.

'Hey, Seaweed Brain,' she responded, also smiling. 'I'm at Hermes's. Can I come over for dinner?'

'You know you don't have to ask, right?' Percy's grin was growing wider by the second. 'Of course you can.'

Carol coughed. 'Wise Girl' finally noticed her. 'Oh, hey. Who's this?'

Percy glanced at her, as if just realizing she was still here. 'Oh, this is Carol Danvers, some girl who can fly, shoot light out of her hands and kick ass. Also she bleeds blue but says she's human, but is somehow also apparently alien.'

'Wise Girl' nodded. 'Right. Well, I'll be over by six.' She swiped a hand through the portal. It dissipated. That's when Carol realized it probably wasn't a portal.

'Girlfriend?' she asked.

Percy nodded. 'Annabeth. We've been dating for a couple of years.'

'She seems very secure,' Carol remarked. 'Doesn't she care that a girl's in your apartment?'

Percy's eyes widened. 'Oh, gods, I didn't even think of that. But I think our relationship is a little more stable than that.'

Carol thought about Minn-Erva's possessiveness. She couldn't relate.

'She's also at someone else's place,' she said. 'Aren't you worried?'

Percy frowned. 'What? Oh, you mean Hermes? She's an architect, and is designing his place. That's why she's there.'

'She's also very beautiful,' Carol said casually.

'She is, isn't she?' Gods, he was oblivious. And very secure. Carol smiled faintly, a little bit amused and a little bit envious.

'Well, I'd better get going,' she said, holding out a hand. 'It's been nice to meet you. If there's a crisis on Earth, just call me. I left a communicator on your study desk.'

'Nice to meet you too.' Percy shook her hand. 'There aren't going to be any more crises. We had two. We solved them.'

Carol raised his eyebrows. 'Different worlds, Percy.' She walked over to his kitchen window. 'Sounds like yours is pretty crazy.'

'It is.'

She smirked. 'But mine is crazier.' Before he could respond, she backflipped out of the window, cosmic flames already engulfing her body as she blasted off into the atmosphere. She caught Percy giving her the bird.

As she soared through the atmosphere, she pondered on the day's events. Water-controlling guy (Percy). McDonalds (from Percy). A hot girl (who is unfortunately Percy's girlfriend).

'Decent day,' she decided. 'At least I had a good time before hunting down this thief.'

She'll be back soon.