[center][img]http://i1090.photobucket.com/albums/i374/bensundeitestutho/MsMarvelBanner2_zpstn5miyti.png[/img][/center][center][b]Carol Danvers[/b][/center]
	The beginning of any high schooler’s Senior year was a stressful time.  While the ACT or SAT were out of the way, there were still college applications to fill out and submit, the stress about financial aid or if he or she would ever be accepted in the first place.  Carol’s family was in this weird limbo: they were not wealthy enough to support both Carol and her younger brother at the same time, but they were not poor enough that they could rely entirely on government assistance.  And even if they were, Joseph Danvers Sr. was too proud to ever consider the latter option.  Even with the potential of the merit based scholarship that Carol could earn with both her grades and her standardized test scores, the plan was always to send her little brother to college.

	Carol was fuming over her father’s decision.  She was the obvious choice to send to college.  It probably would cost less for her to go to college than her brother, especially with any scholarships that she might earn.  But Carol would not allow her father to dampen her dreams of college and reaching the stars.  If her father was not going to support her, Carol was determined to find some other way.

	Periodically, the United States military would show up at high schoolers nationwide in order to promote the enlistment of the young, bright minds of the current generation.  By offering means of covering the costs of a collegiate education, the military might seem like the only other option for those who are not fortunate enough to be able to afford college on their own or with the help of their parents.  One school day, the Air Force visited Carol’s school.  Since she knew that the first ‘a’ in NASA stood for Aeronautics, Carol hoped that the Air Force might give her an edge in pursing her dreams about space.  Plus, what could be better for being rebellious against a girl’s father than to sign up for the military, especially a father with an outdated view of what a woman’s role in the household.

	After Carol took a handful of information pamphlets from the Air Force table, she began walking away towards her next class when suddenly a blond haired man in a dark suit approached her.  Any sane person would at first have wondered how anyone at the front desk of the school could have let someone like this man into the school.  However, the man visibly had a ‘visitor’ pass clipped to his sports jacket.  In his hands he held a couple more flyers and pamphlets for the Air Force.

	“Ma’am, I believe you dropped these.”  The blond haired man politely commented as he handed the pieces of paper to Carol.

	“Thanks.  They must have fell without me noticing.”  Carol responded as she looked at the mess that she was already carrying.  It was entirely plausible that some of the papers had fell from her hands.

	However, almost as soon as he had appeared, the mysterious man began walking towards the entrance to the school, no doubt intending to hand in the “visitor” badge and leave.  This encounter did not even cross Carol’s mind until she got home and began looking through all the different handouts and flyers that she had received from the Air Force table.  However, in that stack of paper, Carol discovered a small business card that the abbreviation S.W.O.R.D. printed on it, while the reverse side had a telephone number printed on it and the word ‘Damocles’ written in blue ink just below the list of ten numbers.

	For a moment, Carol sat on her bed, staring at the card.  She wondered whether that man slipped the card in with sheets of paper that he had picked up when he handed them back to her.  Then, against her better judgement, Carol decided to try to call the number.  What was the worst that could happen other than the FBI or CIA bursting into her house?  Wasn’t like weirder things haven’t already happened to her.

	After listening to some elevator music as she waited for her call to be answered, Carol suddenly heard a voice on the other side of the line.  Her heart was beating since there was not going back if Carol said anything.

	“Thank you for calling the United States Space Command?  How may I help you?”  The woman greeted Carol with a cheerful voice, something that one would not expect to hear from any type of customer service, let alone one attached to the government.  However, Carol sensed that something was fishy about this.  Didn’t USSPACECOM merge together with the United States Strategic Command almost a decade ago?

	“Um…”  Carol hesitated, not entirely sure that she should be doing this, “My name is Carol Danvers and today at school I received this business card that has the abbreviation S.W.O.R.D. written on it.  Your number was also printed on the back.  I just wanted to know what this all was about.”

	There was a short pause as Carol could hear the person on the other side of the line shuffling through some papers and the clicks of the computer keyboard as she typed.

	“And what is your password?”  The woman then asked, almost as if she expected Carol to know what she was talking about.

	“Password?”

	“Yes, what is your password?”  The woman repeated.

	“Um…”  Carol stalled as she looked at the card.  She was at loss for what the woman wanted.  What password?  Since the handwritten word on the back of the card was the only thing she had to go on, she decided to try it.  “Damacles?”

	“Thank you for your verification, Ms. Danvers.  Do you have a pen and paper at hand so that you can write down our
address?”