Hermit the Frog
The shattered hull of the derelict Kree cruiser groaned under the low gravity of the asteroid field. Carol Danvers hovered in the vacuum, her body glowing with restrained photonic energy. Her golden hair floated in the zero-G, and her eyes scanned the darkness beyond the torn bulkheads.
Something moved.
A wet, chitinous scrape echoed through the ruined corridor. Then the wall exploded outward in a spray of metallic shrapnel and black ichor.
The massive Brood erupted into the chamber. Easily thirty feet long, her segmented body was armored in brown plates that shimmered with green veins. Multiple clawed arms flexed, each ending in scythe like talons dripping with corrosive acid. Her elongated head split open in a hiss, revealing rows of needle teeth and a whipping, tentacled tongue. Egg sacs pulsed along her abdomen, already hatching smaller warriors that skittered across the walls.
Carol’s lips curled into a fierce grin. “Big girl, huh? Let’s dance.”
She rocketed forward in a blaze of white-hot energy. The Queen lashed out with blinding speed, one massive claw slicing through the air where Carol had been a split second earlier. Carol twisted mid-flight, channeling power into her fists, and drove a glowing haymaker into the creature’s armored thorax.
The impact sent shockwaves rippling through the Queen’s body. Chitin splintered. The Brood roared, a sound that vibrated through Carol’s bones even in vacuum, transmitted through the debris field. Acid sprayed from the wound, sizzling against Carol’s energy field. She felt the heat, but it wasn’t enough to burn through.
The Queen countered with her tail, a whip of segmented bone and razor spines that caught Carol across the ribs. The blow sent her tumbling through the air, smashing through two bulkheads before she stabilized.
Carol coughed once, tasting blood, then laughed. “Okay. That one stung.”
Golden light exploded outward. Her eyes blazed like twin stars. The temperature around her spiked as she became a living supernova. She blurred across the chamber faster than the Brood could track, slamming into the insects side with the force of a meteor. The impact cratered the alien’s armor and hurled the massive creature backward into the cruiser’s central reactor core.
Metal twisted. Sparks flew. The creature shrieked and retaliated, grabbing Carol with two massive claws. The talons clamped down hard, piercing her energy aura and digging into her shoulders. Acid burned.
But Captain Marvel didn’t budge.
She planted her boots against the Brood's chest and pushed. Muscles powered by the energy of a star strained against alien sinew. With a primal yell that carried across the comms of her distant allies, Carol wrenched the claws apart, snapping one of the monsters limbs with a sickening crunch.
The Brood monster thrashed wildly, her remaining arms slashing and her maw snapping shut inches from Carol’s face. Smaller Brood warriors swarmed in, leaping onto her back, biting and clawing. Carol spun like a wheel, photonic blasts erupting from her hands in every direction. The swarm disintegrated in flashes of golden fire.
Now it was just her and the Brood Queen.
Carol flew straight up, dragging the massive creature with her through the crumbling ceiling and out into open space. Asteroids tumbled around them. She poured more power into her flight, accelerating until the stars blurred.
Then she flipped, reversing direction and slamming the Queen head-first into a massive drifting rock. The asteroid shattered on impact. The Queen’s head cracked open, leaking viscous green fluid.
The creature was dying, but still dangerous. It lunged one final time, jaws wide enough to swallow her whole.
Carol hovered in front of it, hands raised, energy gathering between her palms into a single, searing point of light.
She unleashed one last massive blast.
A column of pure white energy lanced forward, wider than the Queen’s body. It punched straight through the Brood’s chest, vaporizing armor, organs, and egg sacs in a single surge. The Queen’s scream cut off mid roar as the beam continued out the other side, carving a glowing tunnel through the asteroid field behind her.
What remained of the Brood Queen drifted apart in slowly cooling chunks, tumbling silently into the void.
Carol floated there for a long moment, breathing hard, Glow slowly fading back to her normal radiance. Blood trickled from the gashes in her shoulders, but she was already healing.
She wiped her mouth with the back of her gloved hand and smirked at the drifting carcass.
“Next time, bring friends.”
She turned and streaked toward the nearest jump point, leaving the ruined cruiser and its dead horror behind her.