Carol Meets Medusa in Exclusive 'Captain Marvel: Liberation Run' Excerpt

As we near the theatrical debut of Carol Danvers in Marvel Studios' "Captain Marvel" next, we have a brand-new standalone novel Captain Marvel: Liberation Run from critically-acclaimed author Tess Sharpe.

When a mysterious spacecraft comes hurtling toward Earth, in Captain Marvel: Liberation Run, Carol Danvers—the hero known as Captain Marvel—narrowly prevents it from crashing.

The craft’s pilot is a young Inhuman woman, part of a group who rejected that society’s caste system and left for the stars in search of a new life. What they found, however, was imprisonment on a planet where Inhumans are treated like currency, and possession of an Inhuman girl brings great power and influence. To refuse means death, and Rhi has risked everything to seek help.

Horrified by the picture the young woman paints, Carol pledges to accompany her back to the planet and pulls together a team of heroes to help. Joined by Ant-Man, Mantis, and Amadeus Cho, Carol and Rhi set out to free her family, her people, and an entire world.

The tie-in novel from Marvel Comics and Titan Books is now available wherever books are sold.

Read an exclusive excerpt from Captain Marvel: Liberation Run below.

DID I find you?

The last thing Carol had expected when she heaved the alien ship into the Hudson like a basketball was this bloody and battered kid—couldn’t be more than twenty, if that—popping out of the escape hatch and staring at her like she’d just found God. When she sagged into a dead faint, Carol hooked her arm around the girl’s waist and set her safely on the flat part of the hull still bobbing above the water.

A quick sweep inside told her that the pilot had arrived alone, but the ship’s technology wasn’t from any world she recognized. Back on the hull, Carol studied the unconscious girl carefully. Brown hair in a haphazard braid, a cut head, dark circles and dried blood smeared under her eyes. She looked human, but that didn’t say much—shape-shifters weren’t uncommon. She wouldn’t have come in this kind of ship if she were Skrull, though. And she wouldn’t have come alone.

Carol tugged down the glove the girl was wearing to check her pulse, and that’s when she saw the scars: deep grooves of damaged tissue ringing the right wrist.

That prickle in the back of her head grew stronger as she checked the other wrist and found the same marks, along with a bloody bandage slightly higher up on her wrist. Pulling it back carefully, she exposed a jagged wound and a small chunk of flesh missing from the girl’s forearm. It looked as if someone had carved something out of her.

The desperation in the girl’s eyes, the scars and wounds, the fact that she’d arrived alone, on a ship that was designed to be piloted by more than one person…

It seemed to Carol that she had a refugee on her hands, not an enemy.

Are you her? Did I find you?

Who was the girl looking for?

Sirens wailed around them as Carol retied the bandage on the girl’s arm. Looking across the river, she saw emergency response trucks parking along the street, and the familiar agents in suits already herding people away from the shoreline.

Alpha Flight would take care of getting the ship out of the water, which meant that she was good to focus on their visitor. Carol could put her in an ambulance, but decided instead to get her to the Triskelion, Alpha Flight’s headquarters, as quickly as possible. Somehow, that hole in the sky had been her doing— maybe the ship, maybe the kid herself—and it’d been unlike anything Carol had ever seen. Like the air was torn in two, with the darkness of space rippling behind it.

So she made a call to give the Triskelion a heads-up and scooped up the girl fairy-tale-princess style. Her eyes didn’t even flutter as Carol pushed off, the ship bobbing under the force of takeoff. Wind rushed in their faces as they spun upward, the smells of the city and the Hudson fading to crisp, clean air in just moments.

Flying with someone clutched in your arms is always a bit of a juggle and definitely not a skill they teach in flight school. But do it enough times, and you get the hang of it. You wouldn’t think it, but an unconscious person is easier to transport, since they aren’t screaming or clutching you in terror as you try to move them to safety.

Because Carol was fast. And she flew high.

She sped over the city, heading toward the complex that housed Alpha Flight—among other things. The series of gray buildings weren’t the prettiest, but they were secure. It was the closest—and safest—place to take the girl. The medical staff was experienced with a wide range of species. They’d be able to treat and identify her.

Carol flew over the water and circled around the perimeter of the island. The lack of moon tonight made landing a little trickier, but she ended up choosing to set down right in the middle of the copter bay’s red bullseye with a less-than-graceful thump. No sooner did her boots hit the ground than someone came bursting out the door leading to the buildings at full tilt.

She squinted, her grip on the girl tightening when she realized it wasn’t a guard as she’d expected. But she relaxed when she saw the riot of killer—literal and figurative—red curls.

Carol had never been much for monarchy, but the queen of the Inhumans was the kind of woman who redefined the word regal. Tall and graceful, Medusa was all piercing gazes and icy elegance. Her hair, the source of her power, tumbled nearly to the ground, and the mass of red tendrils coiled and re-coiled with each step she took toward Carol. Behind her, medical staff hurried out, pushing a stretcher, led by a doctor in a white coat, who had dark braids twisted up in a bun. Carol set the girl on the stretcher. “She’s been out for at least ten minutes,” she said. “Her ship was in bad shape, so she probably hit her head. And there’s a wound on her arm you’ll want to take a look at.”

“Thanks, Captain. We’ll take good care of her in the med center.”