The ship lands with a thud on Hala ground. We flew for what felt like days, but was probably only an hour. My legs were stiff from sitting on the hard, cold bench but I didn't show it when they told us to get up. 

Because I was the last kid in, I sat closest to the ramp door. I would go out first.

Two soldiers came to stand in front of me at the door, one shouting to the people in the front of the ship to open it. 

The light that poured in when the ramp opened felt like a blast to my eyes and I had to close them against the harsh, white light that came from the hanger bay.

I dared open them when a soldier nudged me forward with his hand as a sign for me to start walking. 

I couldn't believe what I saw when I stepped onto the edge.

There must have been more than a hundred ships, all stalled neatly next to each other with their noses pointed forward. Ready to move whenever they were needed for a mission or a war. All sizes and shapes I could think of were there, and more. Big warships with weapons so big I could see them from were I stood. Smaller ships for what I tought more stealth. I even saw the cargoships that always came to Atera to pick up our tradegoods. 

They were all in typical Kree colors: green, black, silver.

I ignored the painful memories that wanted to surface at the sight of the ships and ran down the ramp when I noticed the rest of the children all passed me as I was staring at the ships.

They let us down some corridors, which all looked the same to me, and sat us down in what looked like an empty conference room. There was a big table in the middle of the room with at least twenty chairs around it. No screens on the wall, which I tought was weird because where would they project their pictures. Black carpet lined the floor and a plant was in the corner, probably to make it more homey and make it feel more alive, but it did nothing for the cold, starile feeling you got when you walked in there. 

They ushered us inside and made us sit on the chairs which all had a silver star on the back of them. The same star that was on their Starforce uniforms. 

The other kids hugged their blankets and turned to silent crying, but I had left my blanket in the ship, had no sign of tears on my face and was the only one who actually looked around. So when suddenly a hologram appeared above the table, I was the only one who was startled. 

It was all blue, because the it couldn't project any other colors, but I didn't need colors to see what planet it was.

'Welcome to Hala'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke at first light, as usual, when everyone else who wasn't on a nightshift was still asleep. The night had been kind to me this time, no nightmares had plagued my dreams. 

Getting out of bed, I opened my window and let the light of the rising sun fall on my face. I looked at the city below and saw that life outside didn't stop when I went to bed last night. Ships were flying everywhere between the steel, grey buildings that made up the capital of Hala. There were no trees, no green, no color. Only steely grey, black and the occasional Kree-green. 

It definitely wasn't for everyone, but I liked the simplicity and simularity of it. It calmed me down and suited me, I guess. No nonsense and finery, just the basic.

While I waited for my coffee to be ready so I could properly wake up, I put on some easy work-out clothes, just a tight fitting legging, a tank top and a jacket, for my daily morning training. I trained every day without fail when I wasn't on a mission.

I loved being in the gym when no one else was. Just me, my thoughts and my powers. 

I hadn't had all my powers when I arrived here 14 years ago, but the Kree were not unfamiliar with weird abilities and they had helped me very good when I got the last two. They taught me how to control them, weaponize them and use them to my advantage on missions. They came to me naturally now and everybody on Hala knew about the Kree commander who controls the four elements and can set a whole town on fire with a look of her eyes. 

A lot of them were scared of me, I knew that, I am not blind. I hear the conversations stop whenever I walk by, scared glances thrown my way, afraid to get on my bad side and call my 'wrath' upon them. I just let them think whatever they wanted of me. I didn't have to explain myself and I didn't care about my reputation or image on Hala. I wasn't anything like the stories they had heard or made up, but I didn't feel like correcting them, because everyone stayed away from me like this and that was what I wanted.

Also, the fact that I had become a Commander when I was just 19 years old when I had been on Hala for only 3 years, earned me the respect of almost everyone within the Starforce. 

Of course I had enemies, people who said I didn't belong here and that an Ateran shouldn't have become a Commancer before a Kree, but I didn't give them any interest. 

One of those people was Yon-Rogg. Man I hated that guy. He was 4 years older than me but just as fanatic at getting higher up in the Starforce. He saw me as his competition, someone to beat, but I wasn't interested in his games. He did not like that. 

He saw me as an outsider within the Starforce, someone that couldn't be trusted, when I hadn't done anything to prove otherwise. So when I became commander before him, he was pissed. No he was more than pissed, he was furious. He even went as far as going to the Supreme Intelligence to try and get me to level down. 

I still remember his face when he came back two hours later. I was standing in the Commanders offices at the holo-table, going over a mission with some other Commanders, when he walked in. How he even got in there, I had no idea. 

I had never seen him express any emotion, let alone the anger I saw on his face now.

He stalked up to me, grabbed my left shoulder hard, roughly turned me around and slammed by back into the edge of the table. I swear I could smell his anger as he breathed in my face.

'You. You don't belong here Ateran.' He spat out the last word, as if it was dirty and he didn't want it on his tongue. 'You don't deserve to wear that symbol so proudly', he said as he pricked his finger into the star on my chest, 'You are a disgrace to the force and I will make sure your life will be a living hell as long as you are here.' 

I just stood there unfazed and let his whole outburst come over me. His empty threats meant nothing to me, they didn't hurt me and he definitely didn't get to me. 

His yellow eyes burned into my purple ones, waiting for an answer. When he didn't get one, he backed up, huffed once and stalked back out of the office. 

I didn't file a complaint, I didn't take revenge, I didn't do anything and neither did he. He never talked to me again unless he needed to, which unfortunately for him, was more often than he wanted. He became Commander about a year later so we saw each other a lot in the Commanders offices and the hallways. We even went on some missions together. He just glared at me when we did, never said anything, and I was completely fine with that.

While I ate my cereal and drank my coffee, I read through my Com's log to see if I had gotten any notifications or messages when I was asleep. 

There were some people who wished to see me regarding a mission I went on a couple days ago and one message showed a potential new mission I were to go on soon. 

I loved the missions. They gave me purpose, something to work for. And the feeling of flying back to Hala knowing you had successfully completed one and saved a lot of people, was the best feeling in the world. That is what I do it for. Protecting the people who can't protect themselves. Helping those who needed it, so they would never go through what I went through.

My father always said that was the most important thing about our powers. Protect those who can't protect themselves.

So that is what I did.

I put my dishes in the sink and went out the door. The Commander's wing of the huge compound that was the Starforce base had its own gym, or training room as I like to call it. It was on the ground floor and my apartment was on the third, so I quietly made my way down the long hallway towards the stairs. 

I could take the elevator, but I had a deep fear for that thing. The idea of being stuck in that small space with no way out made me want to throw up. Of course I never told anyone I feared it, I just said I took the stairs because liked the workout. 

I don't. I hate the stairs.

The doors to the training room opened automatically for me, recognizing my face, and I walk into the big space. The high, pointed ceiling makes the whole room feel spacious and the east wall consists of only glass, giving a gorgeous view of the city and letting in a lot of light. This is probably the only room where black isn't the main color. 

Light wood covers the walls and ceiling. But the floor is black and so are the mats covering the arena floors where people put their skills to the test in hand-to-hand combat.

A quick scan of the room tells me there is nobody here so I walk to the row of treadmills positioned along the huge window and put my water bottle down on the most left machine. 

I stretch my body, arms and legs before I start a nice jog. While my muscles slowly warm up and the stiffness from my sleep is disappearing, my head clears and all I can focus on is my body. 

This is probably my favorite place in the room. The eastern sun on my face and the view that never stopped to amaze me. And at the same time, I could still see the door from the training room in the reflection of the window. So anybody who comes in won't be missed by me and my senses.

About half an hour later, I step off the treadmill and move to the punch balls on the south side of the room. The rhythmic sounds of my fists hitting the thick plastic is the only sound audible. At this point, some sweat is dripping down my temples and my arms are burning. But I love that burn. It lets me know that whatever I am doing is working. 

When my arms are so sore I almost can't throw a punch anymore, I take a break. The cold water from my bottle feels amazing in my throat and gives me the energy I need to practice my elements.

On Atera, everyone born gets the ability to control the four elements: water, fire, earth, air. You don't have them all four when you get born, because that would be seriously messy. No, you get a new one every few years the moment you turn ten years old. It really differs per person when, how, and in which order you get them. Although most of the time, you get your parents' dominant elements first. 

Everyone has a dominant element, one that is stronger than the others, one you can control just that little bit better and one you can do greater things with than the others. 

For me, that element is fire. But it wasn't the first one I got. 

It was a week after my tenth birthday that I suddenly blew over the dining table when I was angry and yelling at my mom. All the plates and knives and forks and spoons clattered on the ground when I turned it on its side without touching it. That was when I got air, my father's dominant power.

My mother's was water. I got that element when I was fourteen and jumped into the swimming pool at school. I wanted to make a big splash and ran to get a run-up on the edge. So I was running too fast to stop myself when the water parted and left the place I was going to land, empty. So I landed on my butt on the floor of the pool and couldn't painlessly sit for about a week. 

Fire came next, when I was 16, a couple months after I got to Hala and started my training. I immediately knew this was my element, because I almost set the whole room on fire the first day I trained it. Most powers start out small and simple and making a little flame in your hand would be hard enough for most, but I almost burned my face off when a big flame welled up in my hand. It was the power I trained most, because it had a lot of potential and was a big weapon.

Earth came last. Out of all the elements, it was probably my least favorite. Yes it was handy to induce a little earthquake from time to time, but I just didn't feel a connection to it. Maybe it had something to do with the need of extern factors to be able to use it. The same applies to water. It would already have to be there for me to control it. I can't create water or create earth. But air was everywhere, always, plus I could make it myself. The same applies to fire. 

So fire it was. But I made sure to train all elements, even though I didn't really need to. Once you have them and control them, you don't need to keep up training to be able to keep controlling them. Its like riding a bike or a car. You never forget how to do it. 

But I liked finding new ways to use my abilities. For example: two years ago I learned I can use air to make myself fly. It was a hard learning process with a lot of bruises and headaches from hitting my head on the ceiling but hey, I got the hang of it in the end. 

I also learned I could combine the elements. Air plus fire will make a huge fire blast and water plus earth will make quicksand. Very fun to learn.

Our fancy training room had a holo-targeting system on the south side. You could personalize the system however you would like it and it would create holo-targets for you to hit. It works with knives, guns and swords, which is what most people used to 'kill' them, but it also worked with my powers. 

You could set the targets to any alien species or creature you wanted to kill, but for me, I didn't even have to look at the menu to know who I wanted to kill. It were the Skrulls. Every. Single. Time. 

This was probably the only time you could ever catch me having trouble hiding my emotions. The deep hate that I felt for these creatures sat deep in my core and my anger helped me channel my powers. 

So when I stood in the middle of the arena and waited patiently for the first one to appear, all I could feel was the need for revenge for my parents by killing the species that killed them, killed my home planet, killed the old me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now you know a little bit more about the Aterans and Aayala's powers.

Her hate for the Skrulls is deep, because they killed her parents, making her the ideal weapon for the Kree.

Thanks for reading!

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