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“ T his doesn’t make any sense,” the tall one said, obviously frustrated.
As the present solidified before her, Vers vaguely wondered why the Skrull was upside down. When she saw the second Skrull, she realized that they weren’t upside down—she was.
She became aware of the beams of energy drilling into the sides of her head. The pain was intense, like nothing she’d experienced before. It took all her effort to concentrate on her actual, physical surroundings. All she wanted to do was drift back into her memories...
...the memories she saw playing out in front of her on an enormous screen in the room.
The Skrull mind fracker , she realized. A device that the Skrulls used to extract information from their prisoners. Probably what they had used to take the information from the real Soh-Larr. And what they were now using to pick at Vers’s brain, for some unknown bit of data that could be used against the Kree.
Vers blinked her eyes, and suddenly, the picture on the screen winked out.
“Where’d she go?” the tall Skrull said.
“I’m still looking,” the second Skrull said, working at the controls of the mind fracker. “Her mind is a mess.”
Vers noticed there were other Skrulls present as well. Technicians, charged with troubleshooting the mind fracker, she assumed. They seemed very busy, making adjustments to various bits and pieces of machinery, as the Skrull at the controls tried to tune in on Vers’s memories once more.
Slowly gathering her senses, Vers realized she needed to free herself. She immediately thought of her fists, channeling a photon blast at her foes. But when she glanced at her hands, she saw they were encased in something metallic and block-solid. Like handcuffs, but they engulfed her entire hands. Then she looked at her feet and saw they, too, were restrained. Her boots were missing.
“Do we have any information we can act on?” the tall Skrull asked.
The Skrull at the mind fracker controls removed something from the console—probably a portable drive, Vers guessed. The Skrull shrugged. “Just that Lawson was somewhere on planet C-53. We’re on our way.”
The tall Skrull furrowed his brow. “Then dig, dig, dig deeper!” he fumed. “Lawson is our link to that light-speed engine!” He took a few steps, then stared at the screen that had been running Vers’s memories. “And everything we’re after,” he added more solemnly.
A Skrull technician approached Vers, and she quickly shut her eyes, pretending to still be unconscious. He examined her head, failing to notice the glowing photon energy building up inside her hand restraints. Then he flicked a finger at Vers’s forehead.
The screen showing Vers’s memories flickered, and started to change.
“Oh!” said the tall Skrull. “That did something. Try that again!”
The Skrull technician leaned in, and tapped on Vers’s forehead a second time. That was when he decided to look upward, and saw the glowing hand restraints.
“Uh-oh,” the Skrull technician managed.
Time was tight, and Vers knew it. She yanked one hand, still encased in the handcuffs, away from the mind fracker that held her fast. Now partially free, she took a swing at the Skrull technician, clocking him in the head with her metal-encased hand. The Skrull crumpled to the floor.
Then Vers smashed the one hand into its still-trapped sister, breaking it away from the mind fracker. Though her hands were still cuffed, at least they were free of the machine.
A half second later, Vers pulled herself up, smashing her ankle restraints with the metal cuffs, and she fell to the floor, landing on one knee.
The Skrulls were stunned and, for a moment, didn’t seem to know what to do. Perhaps they’d never had a prisoner escape before.
Vers wasn’t planning to wait around for them to gather their bearings.
A Skrull guard raised a weapon at Vers. Before he could squeeze off a shot, a heavy arm came down on top of his blaster. It was the tall Skrull, who seemed to be in charge.
“Not yet!” he ordered.
Taking advantage of the opening, Vers knocked the weapon from the Skrull’s hands, throwing him off balance, and then turned, swinging her arm and punching another Skrull with her still-metal-encased fist. They both dropped to the floor, hard. Another Skrull ran right for Vers in an attempt to restrain her.
He shouldn’t have bothered.
Vers sent him flying with a crushing blow of her fists.
Skrulls seemed to be coming from every direction, as yet another took a swing at Vers, and this time connected. It barely slowed her down as she punched back. This Skrull seemed to know how to fight, at least better than the other ones in the mind-frack chamber. He kicked Vers, but she was too fast, catching his leg with her bound hands. In one fluid motion, she threw the Skrull to the floor.
The Skrulls kept on coming, and so did Vers’s punches.
She made short work of them all, until the only one left standing was the tall Skrull. Vers threw an arm across his neck, and shoved him bodily into a console. Then she raised her fist, photon energy glowing from within, ready to take a chance and blast him.
“What did you do to me?” Vers demanded. It was a question, and it was clear the Skrull had better answer it. To emphasize her point, she moved her raised fist closer to the Skrull’s head.
“Now, we’re just after a little information,” the Skrull said calmly.
“What did you put in my head?” Vers pressed.
“Nothing that wasn’t already there,” the Skrull replied easily.
“But those aren’t my memories,” Vers countered.
At least I don’t think they are , she thought, before immediately shaking herself free of that dissenting notion.
“Yeah, it’s bad, isn’t it?” the Skrull said, almost amused. “I’m not surprised you can’t keep it straight. They really did a number on you.”
Vers wasn’t sure what to think, but she was frustrated and done with being manipulated. DONE.
“Enough of your mind games,” she growled, moving her fist closer. “What do you want?”
“We’re looking for the location of a Dr. Lawson,” he responded. “And her light-speed engine.”
“I don’t know any Dr. Lawson,” Vers said flatly.
“Really?” the Skrull asked. “Then why is she in your head?”
That’s the question , Vers thought to herself, frustrated. And I don’t know the answer. That bothers me more than anything.
The sound of boots on metal caught Vers’s attention, and she turned slightly to see Skrull troops flooding into the mind-frack compartment. Before they could do anything, Vers picked up the tall Skrull and threw him right at the troops, knocking them down.
At least one of the Skrulls managed to evade Vers’s assault, however, and ran at her with a glowing club. She kicked him in the chest, sending him backward.
Then she ran.