nextgenerationmarvel | Intruders in the Neighborhood (Open to Future Foundation)

A communication from the Moon? What were the long distance rates on that? Did Sprint offer coverage on that?

She activated the comm-screen, morphing her clothes into an Uhura-style Starfleet uniform. "You've reached the headquarters of the World Famous Future Foundation. What's up, moon-peoples?"

Since when had the Foundation changed their uniforms? Karnak chose not to dwell on it.

"I am Karnak. I speak on behalf of his majesty, Blackagar Boltagon, ruler of Attilan and its people. I would speak with you regarding a potential issue. Are you someone of authority for the Future Foundation?"

Okay, probably something serious. Most of the Inhumans didn't have a sense of humor. Especially Gorgon. Karnak was only a step up from that.

"Yes," she said. "Yes, I am. The FF's always ready to help the Inhumans."

"Very well. We have recently detected some manner of activity on the Moon's surface. By that I am referring to sentient action. Someone has some manner of facility on the Moon that is not one of bases that Earth's governments have informed us of," Karnak explained. "We do not know who this is, but it concerns us. However, His Majesty has no desire to start a potential conflict with SHIELD, SWORD, or another of humanity's various spy agencies if that is the case. We would consider it a favor if you would investigate this for us, and if is one of the aforementioned groups, to kindly ask them to inform us next time. If it is something else, we would like to be told."

Well, that was definitely concerning. On the Moon, it could be anything from Kree to Skrulls (damn Skrulls, always ruining everything...), to Shi'ar, Badoon, or, well, Earth was a popular space-tourist destination.

"I can promise you we'll find out everything we can," she said.

"His Majesty conveys his thanks, as do I. Hopefully we are being overly prudent, but that has rarely been our experience with such things."

Mary quickly went to round up the rest of the team. "Hey guys! We gotta get to the Moon!"

Remi arched not one but both of his angular eyebrows. "Go to the... wha?"

It wouldn't be as an odd of a statement if it weren't Mary being responsible. He wouldn't have blinked at all if it had been Jacob or Alexa saying it. Though if Ryan had said it, a similar reaction would have ensued.

"The Moon," Mary repeated. "You know, big ball in the night sky? Hits your eye like a big pizza pie? We need to go there."

"And why do we need to go put the moon in your eye?" He was slightly sleep-deprived. Pop culture references were not going to make much sense to him at the moment.

"We need to go to the Moon," she said. "Because one of the Inhumans Royal Family just called and asked us to."

The Atlantean pinched the bridge of his nose. "I assume not the crown prince who hit on me since he's on this planet. Why are they asking for us?"

There were multiple reasons for royals to ask for a visit. Since Remi was one, he liked to have it narrowed down so he reacted appropriately. And he didn't know if Mary ever had an appropriate reaction.

"Not Ahura, no, and... wait, he hit on you?" Mary said, rapidly shifting gears. "That's... kind of hot, actually. Even if we are related."

She shook her head. "There's something strange going on up there, and politics make it kind of messy if it's any legit Earth operation. But since we go to the Moon all the time anyway... we can check it out better than they can."

The usual thunk, thunk of Jacob's footsteps was accompanied by the secondary thunk, thunk, thunk of a basketball dribbling along beside him. Since the signal to meet up hadn't been emergency-like, he didn't see the need to rush.

"What's going on? Aliens? Mole people? Rat people? Dolphin people?"

"Moon-stuff," Mary said. "One of the Inhumans... the guy with the big head, does space-karate? Called and conveyed a message from the Royals that something weird's going on on on the moon, and wants us to take a look."

"In a subtle princely way, yes," Remi confirmed to Mary before Jacob came thunking in. He wished this were with dolphin people. He had a chance of knowing how to deal with them.

"So, aliens. Since Luna is not a major outpost of human settlement in this reality. We'll gather who we can and head to the Moon." Without Amara Aquilla running it. This would be strange for Remi.

"Big head. Space karate. Got it." Jacob only ever half understood what Mary said on the best of days. Usually he just nodded and agreed, figuring clarity would come one way or another. He nodded again at Remi's explanation. Ah. That made... marginally more sense.

"I'll go change into my uniform and prep our ride." He tossed the basketball to Mary.

Mary enlarged her hands and palmed the basketball easily.

"Yaay!" she cheered. "Road trip!"

"I'll see if any of our big brains are available in case it takes something other than fists or diplomacy." He could handle the latter two. He was a little weak on the science part. Even with his dabbling with the idea of getting an education that meant something on this world.

Remi did find one of the big brains available to go. The smart one happened to be Alexa, and he helped with getting someone to watch Guin while they went to the moon.

Now, he was on board their fancy conveyance to the Moon with Jacob in the pilot's seat. He fidgeted a little. Moon did not speak volumes of water to him. He hoped this was a quick journey.

"We ready?"

Mary tossed off a salute as she dropped into her seat.

"Aye, aye, Captain."

Jacob nodded as he went through the final preparations for take off. He looked over and flashed Remi a crooked grin. "All set, Boss. Have us there in no time."

Relatively speaking, anyway.

Alexa settled into her seat with a cup of coffee. It would distract her from leaving Guin behind for at least a little while.

"Good to go. Remi, I have a spray bottle of water for you, just in case."

The Atlantean did not return the sloppy salute. He nodded to Jacob before his gaze slid to Alexa. He blinked at her. That was thoughtful and almost made him sound like a houseplant or misbehaving kitten. He chuckled softly to himself.

"Thank you, gorgeous. Let's hope we won't be there too long."

Mary started humming to herself, to the tune of Whalers on the Moon.

Jacob very carefully did not make a joke about ferns and focused instead on flying. Fortunately, their particular vehicle didn't take nearly as long to reach the moon as more well-known ones.

"Approaching the lunar surface, boss. How close do you wanna get to the facility?"

Before Jacob could receive an answer, a barrage of lasers shot toward the ship from the facility below.

Mary let out a cry of alarm.

"We're all gonna die!"

Remi reflexively grabbed the arms of his seat. He glanced at his team with his gaze lingering longest on Alexa. His brow furrowed as he tried to supplement the ship's defences with his own shields.

He blew out a breath. He didn't have to tell Jacob a thing. He had faith the big rocky guy could handle the piloting.

"Whoa!" Jacob didn't have time to complain about Mary's lack of faith in him. He was too busy dialing up the ship's defenses and going into defensive maneuvers, ducking and dodging the lasers as best he can.

"Hold tight," he muttered between clenched teeth.

"What in the actual hell? I'M the one with lasers, damnit!" Alexa grabbed for one of her tablet-like devises.

"Do we need some additional shields, Jacob?"

Mary sucked in a breath.

"...Okay, so we're gonna live. Good. But who the heck is shooting at us?"

The lasers continued for a time, but suddenly halted. That's when they were replaced by giant projectile heading towards the ship.

Remi's grip on the armrests tightened. Crashing in space was bad. There's no water in space to save his bacon.

His eyebrows shot up at the alarm about the incoming projectile. "Sit rep?"

He wasn't sure how much air he could keep in a big, floating space bubble.

"Think we're good on shields," Jacob answered Alexa. "Maybe could use some of those lasers, though..."

He glanced at Remi and then to the console. "Not sure what that is, yet. All I know is, I'm gonna make real sure we don't smack into it."

And that was when the projectile came apart and launched a barrage of dozens of small missile projectiles flying fast towards the ship.

"Ah... time for some more awesome pilot skills, Jacob," Mary said.

Remi blinked at the read-outs. "And a lot more lasers. Can Stark's orbital lasers help here? Or will they just shoot me?"

He shifted a little. Outer space made him feel ever so slightly useless.

Intruders in the Neighborhood (Open to Future Foundation)

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