Durga awoke to a searing pain in her body. Groaning, she lifted her hand to her head as she struggled to sit up. In the background, two male voices were arguing.
"Yon-Rogg! Stand down! Let me disable the Psyche-Magnitron! You know it's dangerous!"
"Ha! You think I'm going to let your hero act work on me, Mar-Vell? Not a chance! I will defeat you once and for all!"
Durga's eyes opened, and she looked around her. She saw a man in a red and blue uniform fighting a huge metal robot, with another green-uniformed man laughing evilly off to the side. "What is going on?" Durga wondered. The last thing she remembered was wishing on the stars. It seems her wish was granted.
Standing, she grabbed her apparently concussed head and took a step back. Looking over to the others, it appeared the alien had now joined the battle. There was also some metal machine she had not noticed before looming in the background.
"Where am I?" Durga muttered.
"Carol! You need to get out of here! Save yourself!" the man in the red and blue uniform yelled at her.
"Carol? Why is he calling me that? Does he not recognize the form of Durga?" she thought to herself. Looking down, she was startled to find that her normally bronze skin was now a pale white, and her ten arms had shrunk to two. "What? Where is my body?!" Durga wondered. Perhaps her concussion was worse than she thought. Looking back at the man who had yelled at her, she noticed a bright yellow star on his chest.
"Huh, that reminds me of someone I've met before...I can't quite remember who though," Durga thought. Searching through her memories, she finally realized who. It was Captain Marvel's Hala star! The two had fought against common foes before, and Durga admired the fierce warrior. With this recall, however, her mind whirled as she realized whose body she must be in. The scene playing out before her started to seem familiar...
"You'll never win, Mar-Vell! My Psyche-Magnitron gives me an edge that you have no hope of overcoming!" taunted the man she now recognized as Yon-Rogg. The machine in question was shaking, and emitting a strange sound.
"Uh...is it supposed to do that?" Durga yelled. But it was too late for a reply, as suddenly the world vanished and Durga lost consciousness.
Sirens blared. Durga, startled and confused, leapt up from the chair.
"Where am I?" she thought to herself, looking around her. She noticed what seemed like a regular apartment, if a bit outdated. "Is this Carol's apartment? How did I get here? And how do I get back into my body?"
There was no time to investigate, however, as screams filtered up from outside her apartment. Rushing to the window, she flung it up and leaned out. Below, chaos reigned as a mass of people struggled to run from a strange figure standing in the middle of the road. The man didn't look like any regular human she'd ever seen--he looked like a human scorpion!
Durga watched as the Scorpion-man attacked a policeman and ran down the street. "Who is going to stop him?" she wondered. "Not me, I can't even save simple innocents," she glumly thought. All of a sudden, however, her stomach dropped as she tumbled out of the window. Screaming, she tried to reach for anything to grab onto, when suddenly she felt her power rise to the surface and then her trajectory changed to level her body out with the ground. She was flying! Durga laughed as the wind blew through her hair and she angled her arms out in front of her. This was definitely different than flying on her tiger's back.
She remembered that the explosion she had gone through earlier was how Carol had gotten her powers. Taking advantage of her new body, she hovered over the New York City street. Spectators on the ground shouted when they noticed her. Durga hung back as she surveyed the scene. The Scorpion-man was laying destruction in his wake as he ran down the center of the road, pushing people to the side. Looking down at her hands, Durga wondered, "I may not be able to do anything about this, but maybe Carol's body can?"
With that thought, Durga shot down towards the ground, aiming for Scorpion-man. The villain looked up and laughed at her approach.
"Ha! You're just some woman! You are no match for The Scorpion!" he taunted.
Durga growled fiercely. "Ha! I'll show him!" She sped up and landed in front of Scorpion with a boom, stopping him in his tracks. Wasting no time, she punched him in the face as hard as she could, and the Scorpion went flying backwards. She ran toward him, stopping when Scorpion advanced toward her. Braced for a blow, all of a sudden energy shot out from his stinger, blasting her backwards.
Groaning, Durga got up. She hadn't expected the sting, and she had been caught unprepared. Grimacing, Durga faced her attacker. She dodged each of the Scorpion's attacks, and threw punches of her own as the two neared a brick building. Seeing her opportunity, Durga slammed the villain into the wall, knocking him out cold.
She had won!
Smiling, she glanced around to the sound of cheers. "Thank you!" the bystanders cried out.
Unable to stop her grin from widening, Durga laughed. She hadn't felt this mix of pride and satisfaction in ages! And it was all thanks to Carol. She was starting to remember how it felt to give her all and save the day.
As she left and headed back to her apartment, the last thought she remembered before everything went black was that she had to get back to India...
Note: For Author's Notes specific to A Heroic Awakening, be sure to click on the Author's Note tab above! There are also bibliography sources specific to this story, so check those out for more! Thanks for reading!
Image Source:
Picture of Ms. Marvel #1 (1977) from Marvel Comics by Maia C. on 1-19-21. Link: flickr