STARMAN

In a world filled with people like Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, people who have never had to cut their teeth with the regular people that they save on a near daily basis, it’s nice to hear that he’s not the only one who had scraped knees and backpacks weighted down with textbooks while he walked to a gig waiting tables. “Well, now I’m really hoping that it’s the two of us who figure all of this out, not a college degree between us.” He grins wolfishly and raises his mug before taking another sip out of it. The Nova force is reabsorbed and he nods his head, leans back in his chair. “Yeah, every Nova has access to it, it gives us our power. It used to come from the planet Xandar, but it was destroyed--so I had to, take it into myself.” 

“No, it really isn’t.” He says simply, shrugs his shoulders again. “And you should be grateful you don’t know about it, means we did our job.” He sighs when she asks him if he has any sort of insight as to what’s going on with the city, worries his bottom lip between his teeth. The closest thing he has to experience with any of this is the Cancerverse--but that door had opened itself, had been a tear threatening to spill something out of it, not keep something in. And he’d only been able to close it by using almost all of the Nova Force the Worldmind could give him and the power of an infinity stone--and it had killed him. He can’t--he can’t go through that again. “I’ve seen alternate dimensions before, even been in them, but there’s always been a kind of door of some kind--the universe follows certain rules y’know? Things tear, people need a way to get in and out.” 

“Jane, we’re not seventeen anymore, you don’t have to pretend that anyone named The Human Rocket could ever sound cool or authoritative.” He laughs and shakes his head, rolls his eyes fondly. “The only thing it has going for it is that it’s less of a mouthful than Nova, Prime Commandant of the Nova Corps.” Her tone goes from teasing to serious concern easily, and it makes warmth pool in the pit of his stomach to see that there are things that haven’t changed--that Jane’s propensity for caring about him is still capable of taking him by surprise. He exhales slowly before answering her question about the Corps, shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah, I can recruit others if I can ever get off this rock. Humans are more of a difficult sell, especially with all the insanity going on outside.” He smiles wryly, a gesture tinged with sadness and what feels like a thousand other things. “There’s not much to tell--I died trying to keep it from getting out, a fat lot of good it did, considering.” He shrugs his shoulders, can hear the faint screeching of a demon in the distance as if it’s trying to punctuate his point. 

“Well you’ve been doing it since he was a kid in an oversized helmet,” He meets her eyes and grins, settles himself into a chair and pulls one of his knees up. “But luckily for you, he has--more power than he used to, doesn’t break as easily.” 

Rich could have easily have said the same thing--the Cancerverse took everything from him and literally spat him back out--but it was never able to take his belief in himself as a Nova, his belief in the things that the Corps stood for. So he believes in something, even if it’s small and self contained at the moment. “He wants them to eat together, have fun together, so they’ll see not only that he saved them, but that he saved them to such a degree that he can literally give it away. It’s all just propaganda.” He's seen enough oligarchs and tyrants on other planets to know when he’s looking at one--none of it is any different from Thanos claiming benevolence for the universe, or Annihilus destroying everyone who he thought would oppose him. 

“Can’t blame a man for thinking of his home world.” He raises an eyebrow, keeps the rest of his features purposefully blank. “Even if he is no fan of being trapped on it either. You’re just usually not the kind of person who responds to invitations, or has nothing better to do.” 

“Oh I’d swear it to anyone--you wanna bring your brother in here, I’ll tell him to his face you’re the best member, definitely number one out of four.” He laughs and shrugs his shoulders. “I don’t ally the Corps to just anyone, I believe in what your team is doing here--what you’re doing here.” He smiles warmly, hope settling warm in his chest in a way that he hadn’t really anticipated. Maybe he would--talk about what had happened on Xandar, or even one day--how he had died. It could help him better explain it to Jane, the one person who deserved to know, who had missed him. It could make him a better leader--but he wasn’t there yet. He needed to carry the pain around for a little while longer, needed it to remind him. “Well when you put it like that.” He nods his head, feels his smile soften around the edges. “Your company is something that I would be an idiot to refuse.” 

“No myth, the Worldmind is what gives every Nova their power, and it contains all of Xandar’s history and culture and knowledge.” He can’t help but grin at the look of amazement on her face--he rarely gets to share what he knows with the heroes of Earth, and he knows some amazing things--he’s grateful that his choice is proving to be the best one he could have made. “When Xandar was destroyed I absorbed it into myself, I bet with your technology we could create a kind of database that you could access--and that would really drive Stark crazy.” 

“Well at the moment I’m kind of the only one who can do what I can do, ” He sighs and drags a hand through his hair, worries his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment. “So you don’t have to worry about that. I’m the only Nova left, especially since we’re stuck here and people aren’t exactly clamoring to join up with an intergalactic militia, all things considered.” He makes a wide sweeping gesture before shrugging his shoulders again. He half expected that to be one of the few things SHIELD had about him or the Corps, that there was no one using the name up until Rich had come back from the dead. When he gets back up into the black he’s definitely going to have to set up some sort of information exchange with Earth, so that people won’t be so surprised to have someone with his skillset on the streets. 

He takes a sip of his coffee and taps his fingers against the ceramic; being dead has made him gravitate towards sources of warmth, like he’s trying to remind himself that he hasn’t gone cold yet, despite everything. He wonders if she’ll even know to ask about the others, the ones who went cold when Annihilus tore Xandar apart. “I know I’m the unknown in this situation, but does this mean I get to ask you why you got into journalism instead of say... laser gun science?” He smiles and raises an eyebrow, chuckles. “By the way,” He channels only a little bit of the Nova Force, enough to make his palm glow and do nothing more, opens it so it faces her. “I may have mislead you somewhat, since I’m kind of a laser gun myself. Every Nova has the ability to channel the Nova Force.” 

He raises an eyebrow and chuckles, shakes his head as he feels the tension he’s been holding in his shoulders dissipate for real. “Damn, the Worldmind identified you as being from Attilan, but not as a member of the royal family.” He    drags a hand over his face, but he’s smiling as warmly as he can manage. “I apologize for being such an asshole, Princess. I have nothing but respect for the work you’ve done to protect your people, and I’d love for us to be allies, despite all of this.” Attilan always had a good working relationship with the Corps, Rich had even been there once when he was still training with his helmet, the kind of diplomatic mission that was difficult for even new recruits to mess up. It didn't deserve any of what happened to it. “Yeah, Xandar was attacked by a being called Annihilus and the Corps were pretty much wiped out apart from me--and I’ve been--trapped, in an alternate universe until recently. So it’s just me, for the time being, but I’m obviously going to try and reestablish the whole thing when we get out of here.” 

“I’m sorry about Attilan, that there wasn’t a Nova there to assist.” 

Her touch is light on his arm, and he’s suddenly aware of how long it’s been since he stopped long enough for someone to touch him like that, with gentle ease and concern, without his armor providing a kind of physical and emotional barrier. He wonders if he should touch her hand in return, but he decides against it just in case--he’s well and truly out of practice and he doesn’t want to ruin a good thing. “It was a while ago, the kind of weight you get used to eventually.” He says and shrugs his shoulders. That would have been enough for one lifetime, but Rich seemed to draw in tragedy, as if somewhere along the line the universe had decided that he was going to draw his strength stacked against his losses. “Thank you Sue, really. I wouldn’t want to take up any of your space--from what I hear Reed Richards is probably our best hope of getting out of here, and I’m sure he doesn’t need my tragic backstory taking up any room.” 

He laughs when he sees a tick of excitement on her face when he describes the Corps, and if she didn't firmly have a place on Earth with her team he’d offer her a helmet right here and now. “Dishwashing robots? Somewhere on Long Island my mom is losing her whole mind.” He shakes his head, grins. “I’d like that--I’d like to be useful in any way I can. You’d probably enjoy working with the Worldmind--it’s mapped an incredible amount of space, galaxies worth.” 

“Neither,” He says slowly, as the Worldmind scans the woman as a threat and identifies her as Sharon Carter, Agent 13 and the other half of the Panel leadership. Of course, because ever since he started breathing again he can’t catch a break. He wonders if he should just take off, she has no way of tracking him beyond what he just did, and there aren’t enough people who know he’s back from the dead to correctly identify him. That’s not to mention the fact that Earth intelligence leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to the Nova Corps. He decides that’s his plan B, and he straightens up to his full height. “Nova Corps, Prime Commandant. And occasionally, Guardian of the Galaxy. He's really going to be okay--I have full control over the intensity of it. I would never kill anyone.” 

He rolls his eyes again and exhales, scrubs a hand over his face. “I’m not going to literally drop him, it’s a figure of speech. I meant that I could leave him somewhere else.” He straightens his spine and folds his arms across his chest, feels the Nova force thrumming through his bones and in the pit of his stomach, the Worldmind alive and ready for its next command. She’s clearly trying to keep him around out of sheer annoyance, a decent tactic to allow her to size him up as an ally or an enemy. But Rich is among the best tacticians in the universe, which he’s sure she didn’t bargain on. “I’m Nova, Prime Commandant of the Nova Corps, formally of planet Xandar. I am the host of the entire Nova force and the Xandarian Worldmind.”