Kamala Khan

The plan was half baked at best.

Karla had always been the kind of person that planned things a bit on the fly. She could plan ahead, sure, and play chess like the best of them. But she preferred to keep flexible and occasionally smash her way through obstacles as they arose.

But just smashing wasn’t going to prove useful here and she was hitting some serious roadblocks trying to scheme. The goal was obvious enough: locate the second moonstone and obtain it. The subgoal was to do so without pissing off everyone around her. It was true that having both stones meant there was no way anyone could reasonably stand in her way…but she didn’t exactly need to tempt fate either.

Hell, she had seen these people take down Galactus. She didn’t need to draw that kind of fire even if she thought she could handle it.

The bigger problem was even figuring out where the damn stone was. When SHIELD fell, she had tried to keep track of the stone but it had ended up lost in the shuffle of materials between government agencies and whatever HYDRA chose to smuggle away.

What she needed was a way to not only find the stone, but to have the government and Super Tights Crowd thank her for it.

“Please be home, please be home, please be-

“It's open.”

Yes.

The teenage girl burst inside and upon locating Karla, slammed the newspaper onto the coffee table in front her.

“Remember those ninja guys from the docks last week? And the one in red was all ‘you will pay for your insolence’, but he didn't get to finish because you punched him in the face? I think I know what they're going to do, but we have to hurry. They might have already started moving.”

Without waiting for the former villain to respond, she held the paper up for her to see. One finger animatedly pointed to one article in particular. A small spread beneath a piece on the mayor’s birthday party. Local Diner Closed Indefinitely After Reports of Rat Infestation.

“Everyone in Jersey knows Jose’s. The owners are super dedicated to their reputation. There's no way they would let something as big as this happen to their kitchen. Unless they were set up.”

Ms. Marvel Vol 4 #7 (2016)   //   Marvel Comics

Kamala and Miles

Story: G. Willow Wilson, art: Adrian Alphona

Get the comics here

Cassie opened up her eyes to the sharp-acrid smell of dry concrete smoke. Crinkling her nose at the lack of fresh air, she opened her eyes to a slab just inches away from her face, as she propped herself up on her elbows. 

The space was dim and cramped, and it suddenly made sense why people were scared of being buried alive. She could still hear sediment rolling somewhere, which meant the building wasn’t stable yet. Still trying to process the situation, she rolled on her stomach and scanned the perimeter before laying her eyes on a mop of dusty brown hair, with chunks of plaster in it. 

“Miss Marvel !” she panicked. 

Peering out from beneath a curtain of hair, she squinted into the dark, dust filled air. A concerned face, inches from her own, slowly came into focus.

“Stature? Are you okay?” she asked, spitting out chestnut locks that had managed to make it into her mouth. Kamala braced her arms against the floor to push herself up, only to have her head connect with a broken wooden beam.

She fell to the floor with another groan, rubbing the newly formed bump on the back of her skull.

So they were buried alive…Not the worse thing to be, given their current situation. If the support beams hadn’t fallen the way they did, they would have been crushed to death.

Thinking back, the trap was quite obvious in hindsight. Hydra always leaves little goodies for any curious souls investigating their deeds, whether it be AI’s of a dead scientist, or in this case, a mousetrap shaped like a suspicious facility.

But dwelling on the past won’t change their predicament. Right now they need to somehow get out of here. She thinks back to her training with the Avengers. 

‘First thing first, asses yourself and the position you’re in before moving, a fun way of checking if you’re upside down or not is by spitting and seeing where it falls ‘ her dad smirks.

she smacks his arm and laughs.’ that’s so gross !!’

she came back to the dim present, to assess just that. They’re definetely not upside down, and aside from her nasty bump, Ms Marvel didn’t seem to have any obvious injuries. It was halfway there thinking of injuries that she realized her ankle may have been twisted in the fall. Unlike her friend she definetely didn’t have a healing factor, so her boot will have to keep it in place. 

She reached up to check her earpiece, only to find it gone, with no way of calling for help. ‘Great ! maybe next time I should really carry a spare.’ 

She reached up for her earpiece, only to grasp air where it had once been. The fall must have knocked it out. “No, I don't, but I might have something better. I always carry my cellphone in my-

Moving to grab the device from her boot, she found herself clutching a handful of circuitry and broken glass. Kamala let out a loud moan into the concrete. “My parents are going to kill me…”

Looked like she wouldn't be calling anyone any for help any time soon. They were on their own for this one.

They could always grow, break their way out of the debris. Her body began to grow almost subconsciously before she scraped the idea. The debris wasn't stable yet and disturbing it could cause another collapse. Or worse, who knew what other traps had been buried in their with them. No, it was best if they proceeded with caution, which left…

Kamala’s body glowed dully before shrinking, seemingly disappearing from sight. Moving towards Cassie’s still outstretched hand, she climbed on top to get her attention.