You Familiar With The Phrase, "Welcome Wagon"

Fury: You familiar with the phrase, "welcome wagon."

Carol: No.

Fury: Well, this ain't it.

-Captain Marvel, 2019

The first time she fell to Earth, it was a blur with her mind, a blank slate of her former self on her home planet. Now, Carol Danvers was falling back to Earth after getting a distress signal from Fury. She hoped that whatever happened, that Fury would be alright, with Goose.

Maybe they were hiding with Maria and Monica again. Still, wherever the signal was pinging, it wasn't her home, it another place in the States. Either way, Fury would be pleased to see her and they'd catch up before kicking the person's ass of whoever had made the agent contact her through the pager.

When she flew over the sky, seeing Earth Carol felt a morbid feeling wash over her. It seemed that the ashes went as far as Earth, Carol noted. She knew about the piles of ashes, seen it first hand when she was visiting Talos. Panic took over as she landed on the grass outside a compound with a big A on the building. She stealthily entered the building, hearing muffled voices as she turned one corner only to see pictures of faces staring back at her. They switched from one face to another.

Peter Parker -Missing

Princess Shuri of Wakanda -Deceased

King T'Challa of Wakanda -Deceased

James Buchanan Barnes -Deceased

Wanda Maximoff -Deceased

Samuel Wilson -Deceased

Maria Hill -Deceased

Maria Rambeau -Deceased

Monica Rambeau -Deceased

Nicholas J. Fury -Deceased

No. No, no, no, NO, screamed her mind as she saw the names, their faces flashing back at her with the single word on the bottom. Deceased, dead. This couldn't be, Nick contacted her, he's alive, she stubbornly told herself. Looking back at the picture of her old friend, Carol noted silently that he looked different than the last time she saw him, wearing all black, shaved head and an eye patch to cover up the scratch that Goose gave to him many years ago. It felt too long and she hated herself for not coming back once in awhile to check up on them.

Balling her fist, she could hear the people talk about the communicator, the device that she gave to her old friend years ago. Time to find some answers because she refused to believe that the agent of SHIELD, the one that called her Starforce lady and helped her save the Skrulls from death could succumb to death.

She finally found the area where the voices, the people could be heard. One of them, a blonde woman told her male companions to "get that thing turned on" because "I want to know who the hell is on the other line." She turned around to face the person on the said line.

"Where's Fury?"

The other people surrounding her looked too stunned to speak. Carol could see the ashy blonde woman along with her companions stumbling over their words.

"I'll ask again," She said her wrath on the brink of showing itself, it was in her voice. "Where. Is. Fury."

She eyed each of them, from the way they stood, and looking at the pager that was sitting behind the glass. No Fury around to greet her, the adults around her were the only people and they were already not answering her question. Finally one of them, the man that stood next to the ashy blonde answered Carol.

"Are you the person-the one that Fury called?"

Carol nodded at him. "Where is he?" Her patience already thinning by the lack of words they were telling her. Something in her gut told her that this was wrong, that Fury would have been here to greet her, getting her up to speed with the 'big emergency' that caused him to contact her.

"He's gone." The man with the glasses finally told her. "He's gone just like the rest of them from Thanos snap."

Snap?

Thanos?

Gone?

"Explain."

It was a lot for Carol to take in, finally sinking in the reality that she saw on the screen when she came inside the compound, to believe that her old friend was just taken out by a single person snapping his fingers. Then again, she remembered the ashes that befell during her fight across the galaxy and the call that Fury sent to her. Whoever this Thanos was, was going to regret ever doing that to her home plante, to countless of people and her friends.

"Who are you?" The blonde said to her.

"My name is Carol Danvers, I'm the person that Fury called on the pager." She told them."I also go by Captain Marvel"

The way she said it was "Mar-Vell" after Dr. Lawson but she knew they would say, Marvel, like Fury, proposed that day before she left to help keep the Skrulls safe. It felt like years ago, god when did she become old.

They had no idea who she was, so they regarded her warily while they found information on her. It wasn't hard considering the "classified information" that Fury kept was found in his office along with a familiar figure that she was glad to see.

"Hey Goose" she cooed to the Flerken-Cat that purred around her legs.

"She wasn't friendly with us," The curly haired man, Dr. Banner mentioned as they took her to another room. "A friend of ours tried to... kill it. Said it was an alien or something."

"Yeah, Goose is something of a special species not from Earth. He's a Flerken that Fury kept as a pet." Carol mentioned casually as she carried Goose under her arm. That left the group a bit speechless at what she said and one of them muttering, "Rocket wasn't kidding then..."

They gave her, her own room as she put Goose there to sleep. It was too much confusion as they explained what had happened to everyone when she got to the room where everyone was waiting.

There was an alien called Thanos who wanted to help the universe and by doing that, he would have to get all of the Infinity stones and with the snap of his fingers, everyone they knew disappeared into a pile of ashes. As good as dead, Natasha Romanoff said to her. They were met by two other teammates.

"Who is this?" Another person asked a good looking blonde man that towered over her. His blue and golden looking eyes seemed to regard her as if trying to tell if she was an enemy or an ally. She changed out of her suit into a black tank top and jeans. He held out his hand and something zoomed past her, an ax in his hand.

Still looking at her, he broke into a large grin as he announced to the room, "I like her."

She couldn't help but give a smile at him.

He held out his hand to shake, taking it in strides to the guy. "Thor Odinson, King of Asgard."

Asgard? As in Norse Mythology? Carol thought to herself.

"Carol Danvers, also known as Captain Marvel." He nodded. It seemed just the rest of his teammates, they all seemed to be grieving over the people they lost. The Raccoon called Rocket said a small hello before going back to fiddling with his gun. He wasn't much of a talker as she could tell, none of them were. There was a thick air of grief that shrouded over them.

Natasha spoke up, telling them that she got ahold of Fury's documents.

Carol read them in the screen, the words Avengers Initiative in bold letters. She remembered that word Avenger, Carol knew it from her old bird that was on the side all those years ago before the crash. It was her call sign in the Air Force and felt a bit touched at the fact that Fury named his project after her.

Carol "Avenger" Danvers.

There it was in bold letters as Fury reported what happened those days he spent with her. She could tell that it dawned on the group just how much of an ace she was as Rhodes whistled lowly at what Fury put in his old report along with the picture of Carol with her airplane, climbing it to go fly.

"So you were his first alien then?" Rhodey said to her. Carol nodded, a small smile on her face as she looked at the picture. Banner piped up, "You were the inspiration for our name."

"Your name?" She asked.

"We're called the Avengers," Thor explained. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes."

She could sense there was some faltering in his words. They were heroes, no doubt about it but they were heroes that lost the fight. They had losses just as any person across the universe at the moment. They've lost the battle and the universe paid the price for it.

They looked at her with weariness yet they were willing to see that if Nick Fury contacted her, she could be trusted. She could tell that they held her old friend in high regard, as she later found out it was also because she went up ranks to director of SHIELD. She chuckled when she spotted the eyepatch where Goose scratched his eye, blinding him.

Carol hoped that this could be reversed, that maybe Maria and Nick could be saved from the ashes. That somehow it could be reversed and everything could go back.

The one that did talk to her or at least the one she could talk to a bit more was Thor. Only because he seemed the one lost, floating from one room to another. He told her the tale of his home, his parents, a mischevious little brother, and revenge seeking older sister. He told her about Thanos attacking the ship full of his people, killing his oldest friend and murdering his brother right before his very eyes (eye?).

"It is my fault that he finished his plan," Thor told her one day as they walked the perimeter of the building outside. "I wanted him to pay for what he did to Loki, wanted to make him suffer. All I did was give him time to finish his plan."

"Now you can fix it." She said to the blonde god. "We'll need all hands on deck to fight this monster, for everyone that isn't here anymore."

She felt like she might have gotten through to him because the next thing she knew, she challenged him to a flying contest one that even this sad looking god couldn't pass if only to forget for a few moments.

That was until Rhodey told them to come down and say hi to someone named Ant-Man. Apparently, he was an old teammate of Steve, one that survived the chaos of Thanos' infinity snap.

A few months into the new year after the Decimation ("That's what they've been calling the snap that Thanos did," Steve explained to both her and Scott), another person was introduced to her. Hawkey or Clint Barton, another Agent of SHIELD and fellow founding Avengers went AWOL after Thanos attack in Wakanda. Natasha and Steve went to go retrieve him after a mysterious vigilante called Ronan caught their eye for a while. now he was here, a tattooed arm and what looked to Carol a snazzy type of Mohawk. Clint Barton gave her a single nod and turned back to Romanoff asking the redhead, "She worked with Fury?"

"In the 90s, was the first alien he ever saw and worked with for that matter." She told him. Barton nodded. A few days later, Carol and Clint seemed to have quick chats here and there, Carol taking note as to what the decimation took from him. His family, his wife, and children. Carol wondered if Talos' family was alright and survived. She patted his shoulder as if silently telling him, "We'll avenge them. We will kick this monster's ass back to the pits."

Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man.

Nebula, Sister of Gamora and Daughter of Thanos.

They landed the ship on the grass of the compound as everyone waited to see them. It was a relief for the Avengers seeing the person they called Iron Man to step out of the spaceship, helped by a blue-skinned woman. Pepper Potts who was something more in Tony Stark's life, Carol noted, hugged the man. They whsepred something to one another, making the dark haired man laugh, it was a weak laugh but it was still a laugh. Tony swayed on his feet before Pepper and Nebula, who stood a bit away from Tony grabbed his arm to help him steady himself. Rhodey grabbed his other arm from Pepper, while Clint grabbed his legs as Tony protested that he could walk but he finally went quiet as they walked inside the compound, carrying Iron Man. He was too weak as Bruce got an IV pack and made him drink water while Rhodey found some blankets for him.

"Who's this?" The messy haired man asked, more like croaked, looking at her from the chair as Banner examined him.

"This Captain Carol Danvers, she's Fury's friend that he called before the snap took him," Steve told him. Tony blinked processing the information that Fury was inevitably snapped before responding to his ex-teammates. "Fury has a friend? From the '90s, like 1990s? Uh, is she going to help us?"

Carol spoke up, "She is."

The look that Tony gave her with the small smirk could only be described as the same thing Thor said, I like this one.

You familiar with the phrase, welcome wagon? Nick would ask her, this agent of SHIELD about to break into Pegasus with a Kree warrior trying to find Dr. Lawson. Well, this ain't it.

Not in the slightest bit as she surveyed the room full of heroes that faced the Mad Titan. This wasn't the Welcome Wagon she wanted when she was flying after receiving the emergency call from Nick's communicator, all she could picture was Nick as the same, cat loving, joking agent she met years ago greeting her and quickly bringing her up to speed about the enemy they would be fighting. He would pull her into a big hug before ribbing her with an, "What took you so long Marvel?" or "Look who returned to play laser tag Starforce lady!" joke. Instead, what she got was a team that was trying to pull themselves together from the in-fighting that occurred between them and the loss of their teammates from Thanos attack on Earth, trying to see who else survived from their team to go fight the big bad, only this time to win.

They were battle ready and so was she. Carol could tell that Fury put a lot of dedication for this Avengers Initiative to work, seeing how they've picked themselves up time and time again to defend their planet-to avenge the Earth. Now she was part of that team, slowly but she was here to help avenge her home planet as well as the universe.

You familiar with the phrase, welcome wagon? Nick would ask her, this agent of SHIELD about to break into Pegasus with a Kree warrior trying to find Dr. Lawson. This person that she would call a friend, got his eye scratched by a Flerken and trusted her to help stop the Kree. She could hear his words ring in his ears as if he was right next her waiting in that little office in Pegasus all those years ago. Well, this ain't it.

No it isn't, but I'll make sure you get to see one. Carol thought to herself. Time to go kick Thanos ass, time to avenge.

NOTES: I wrote this a while back, I just had to fix it up. Watched Captain Marvel multiple times (four) to make sure I had everything set and the quote correctly said. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy this one-shot, it's set after the post-credit scene of Captain Marvel! Guys, only a couple more days till Endgame and I'm not ready! Are you guys?

Let me know down below in the comments or if you want to geek out about Captain Marvel, I'll be more than happy to geek out with you guys! :3