"Hey, you," Kara greeted as she landed in front of me, smiling as she went in for a hug, which I returned. "Are you ready to depart...?" She asked as she let go and stepped back.
"As ready as I'll ever be..." I replied with a nod. I spent the past twenty-four hours making calls to prepare for any eventualities in case something happened that would delay us off-world.
Naturally, ensuring the operation against the League went smoothly took precedence over everything else, so I contacted Harley and the others, Katherine Spencer, Deborah, and Agent Bundy, and arranged for everything to progress even if I wasn't there.
I had to lie through my teeth and make up a shit ton of excuses since I couldn't just go, like, yeah, I'm heading to space with a girl to a vacation planet, so do the heavy work while I'm having fun.
I still preferred to be here to oversee the operation personally, and that was the plan, but it never hurt to be over-prepared.
I also visited Richard and Benjamin to see how my teacher was adapting to his new arm, and he had nothing but positive things to say. I was already sure it would work like a charm since I did a lot of tests, but it was still good to see how happy he was about it.
My next stop was Tricorner island, where I visited Leah and her mother to let them know I'll be out of town for a while and to contact Selina or Deborah if they needed anything.
Finally, I stopped at the theatre and met with Crush since I didn't get the chance to talk to her since she returned to Gotham, nor did I have the time, busy as I was.
Subsequently, Crush told me how she took care of Ezekiel and asked me to stay in the theatre until she figured out what to do with her life now that she had her revenge. I agreed without hesitation.
"So, what do you prefer, princess carry or potato bag...?" Kara said, her tone teasing as she stepped toward me, spreading her hands. "Don't be shy now," She added with a chuckle.
"As much as I'd like to experience what it feels like to be a princess, I think I'll pass..." I replied, giving Kara a side glance. "I'll have you know that I'm perfectly capable of keeping up, even in space," I added as I raised my hand, equipping the Starheart power ring.
"So you're with the green lantern corp now...?" Kara asked, her eyes slightly widening as she looked at the ring. "Aren't you full of surprise..." She added, looking me up and down.
"What can I say? I'm a man of many mysteries..." I replied with a chuckle, shaking my head. "But no, I'm not with the corp. Hall Jordan invited me some time ago, but I don't work well with an entire species of hyper-intelligent alien bauble heads breathing down my neck..." I added with a shrug.
"This little thing is the Starheat power ring, the only one in existence..." I explained, feeling like some Long Island rapper flexing his jewelry. "It does everything a green power ring does, but better..." I concluded with a chuckle.
"That's even more surprising, somehow..." Kara said, clearly fed up as she shook her head. "Come on, let's go. We don't want to keep you away from your precious work too long now, do we?" She added with a faint smile as she levitated off the ground, extending her hand toward me.
"That we don't..." I said as I activated the ring and flew to her side, taking her hand into mine. "But go easy on me, will you? It's my first time, you know...?" I jokingly added.
"I won't make any promises..."
...
Elaine Marsh-Morton, better known as Lady Vic, couldn't help but frown, barely resisting the urge to walk away as she stood at the podium with a crowd of journalists clamoring to get her attention.
If only Elaine knew she had to be here straight after getting out of prison, she might have preferred to stay behind bars. Still, someone had to address the news-hungry journalists, and Harley was too crazy to do it, while Deadshot was too deadpan.
"You, the bloke in the funny jacket..." Elaine said as she pointed towards the closest journalist, gesturing for him to ask his question.
"Miss Marsh-Morton, everyone knows that Grayson Whitlock was a big part of the reason you were released," The journalist said as he briefly glanced at his notes. "He claimed that you were ready to change your ways and integrate back into society..." He added, trailing at the end of his sentence.
"My question is, how do you plan to do that exactly?" He asked.
"By using my considerable skills to help the lad achieve his fancy goals and filling my pockets with his money, of course," Elaine blankly replied with a shrug.
"The only reason I turned to crime was that I needed the quids to keep the estate my deadbeat ancestors left afloat..." Elaine explained before anyone could say anything.
"It's not like I want to spend my entire life dodging coppers like bloody Ronald Kray..." She concluded, pausing as she waited for the journalist to ask his next question.
"I see. However, can you give us any specifics as to Grayson's so-called plans...?" The journalist immediately asked without delay, fully intent on asking as many questions as possible before Elaine picked someone else.
"Afraid not, mate. I couldn't tell you what's going on inside the lad's mind even if it was cracked open," Elaine replied. "All I know is that he wants to do good things," She added, shaking her head.
"He went out of his way to give me a second chance at a decent living, even when he didn't have to," Elaine went on. "As long as the lad sticks to his word, that's enough for me to jump when he tells me to jump," She concluded.
"But doesn't that make him no better than Amanda Waller? He is using convicted criminals for the so called greater good as she did..." The journalist snidely remarked, raising an eyebrow.
"Let's make one thing clear, mate. The lad and that old hag have nothing in common," Elaine said, scowling at the journalist. "That bitch had us in collars like bloody mutts, except we didn't get coddled like no damned lapdog," She added, her tone growing more heated as she spoke.
"We had bombs in our heads, you daft muppet," Elaine added, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "The lad might be using us, but that's just how society works," She went on as she let out a drawn breath and gathered her bearings.
"We get paid the top bucks as you Yanks say, we don't have to worry about the police, and we're free to walk out anytime we want..." Elaine continued. "It doesn't get better than that, for all I care..." She added, shooting the journalist a dirty look.
"That's enough questions for you," Elaine said as the journalist prepared to ask his next question.
"You there, the pretty redhead with the tits..."
...
I couldn't help but hold my breath as I floated in space, looking down on the gigantic sphere that looked like a blue marble with countless white swirls surrounding it.
I've seen it through pictures, videos, and even Martain Manhunter's eyes, but seeing it with my own felt vastly different.
I'd heard countless people talking about how beautiful our planet was and how we must protect it at any cost, but I dismissed it as nothing more than hipster nonsense, which it probably was for the most part.
However, now that I had seen it with my own eyes, I couldn't help but agree; our planet, Earth, was beautiful and worth all the effort needed to protect and preserve it.
'So this my home...' I mused, a genuine smile unconsciously tugging at my lips as I stared at the planet in a daze that didn't continue for long as Kara snapped me out of it.
"I know it's your first time in space, but you've been staring at the planet for thirty minutes now..." Kara said, shooting me an amused look, causing my smile to turn bitter.
"Now you've gone and ruined the moment," I said, rolling my eyes as I turned to Kara and flew towards her. "I hope you're happy, you friggen killjoy," I grumbled, shaking my head.
"You can come back and gawk anytime you want once we're back. Come on, let's get going..."
...
Want more chapters? Then consider subscribing to my pat rēon. You can read ahead for as little as $1 and it helps me a lot!
-> (pat rēon..com / wicked132)
You can also always come and say hi on my discord server
-> (disc ord..gg / sEtqmRs5y7)- or hit me up at - Wicked132#5511 - and I'll add you myself)
"Well, what do you think...?" Kara asked, letting go of my hand as we landed in what I could only describe as a strange, alien city, and for the first time in a long time, I had to think of a reply.
It was not easy to describe as it looked futuristic and natural at the same time. It had colossal tall white and gray buildings with strange arched shapes surrounded by short trees with green leaves and colorful flowers.
The sky was blue and completely devoid of clouds, with three suns and two moons hanging over the heads of the various species and humanoid and other such aliens casually strolling around the streets.
Not only was the city visually stunning, but it also seemed to have been designed to accommodate every species imaginable. There were transparent ductways underground and around the countless tall buildings full of aquatic aliens swimming through them.
There were also strange signs in alien language directing the movement of countless avian creatures in the sky.
"It's incredible..." I replied after a brief pause, as I couldn't find a better word to describe the place. "I feel out of place here, like a country pumpkin visiting metropolis for the first time..." I added, shaking my head with a sigh.
"Are there many places like this out there...?" I asked after a brief pause as I stepped aside to let what I assumed was a humanoid female alien with purple skin pass by me.
Don't let anyone know I assumed their gender, though. No one is safe from cancel culture, not even thousands of light years away from our lovely planet.
Speaking of which, for those who may not know, a light year is the distance that light could travel in the span of one year, yet somehow it only took a couple of hours for us to arrive here, to planet Aeolla.
Yes, the Starheart ring could achieve flight at such speeds, but it was a very draining process, both on the ring's energy reserve and my own, practical as it might be.
Still, I was here and had recovered a good portion of my energy very quickly, so it didn't really matter.
"Unfortunately not," Kara replied, shaking her head. "There are wars going on everywhere around the universe, so places like this are very few and in between," She added with a shrug, causing me to frown thoughtfully.
I suppose it made sense. Humans were a single species with very slight differences between their races, yet they still found many reasons to hate and kill each other.
The universe was endless and ever-expanding, with countless languages, civilizations, and species, each vastly different from the next in almost every aspect of their existence. It only made sense that everyone would be at everyone's throats.
"Nothing we can do about it, really..." Kara said, reaching for my hand as she noticed my thoughtful expression. "Let's go and register our arrival before the local authorities get suspicious," She added as she held onto my hand and dragged me towards a strange spherical building.
We quickly reached our destination, and Kara immediately approached the alien standing at the entrance. She spoke in a language that sounded like nothing more than gibberish, reminding me that I didn't speak the local tongue.
"Is there something like an internet outlet I can use somewhere around here...?" I asked after waiting for Kara to finish her conversation with the strange alien. " I wanna download the local language, just in case," I explained.
"What good would that do...?" Kara said, clearly confused at my words, to which I just shrugged. "Well, if you want to access the public database, you only need to connect, but I doubt your phone would work," She added, causing me to raise an eyebrow.
I activated my personal computer power and immediately identified the local network, which seemed to cover the entire city. "Give me a minute, will you...?" I said as I accessed the public database, pausing for a minute as I deciphered enough of the local language to steer around the alien systems.
"And I'm in..." I said, speaking in the planet's alien language, much to Kara's confusion as she gave me a wide-eyed stare. "What? I'm a fast learner," I added, shrugging my shoulders.
"Alright, that's enough showing off for one day. Let's go get registered before we cause any problems..." Kara said, rolling her eyes at me as she held my hand and dragged me into the building's interior.
...
"When you said this was a vacation planet, I didn't think we'd end up fighting a horde of creepy alien crawlers within the first two hours of getting here..." I said, raising my hand as I unleashed a wave of searing flames that burnt hundreds of large, spider-like creatures.
We had already finished our registration and applied for the intelligence test. Kara then finally decided to share that the locals weren't interested in the gold and other precious I brought from Earth as a form of compensation.
I knew Earth's money would be useless here, which is why I came prepared with a shit ton of gadgets and metals from our planet to sell in exchange for some local currencies.
The shit I brought wasn't worthless, but the locals couldn't buy them even if they wanted to, as it was illegal for Aeollans to barter with aliens as long as the transaction included their currency.
I could still exchange some of my stuff for various knick-knacks, which I intended to do once we had a place to stay and a roof over our heads, but that's neither here nor there.
"We gotta earn our keep somehow... Earht's money is no good here," Kara replied with a chuckle as she took a deep breath and unleashed a blizzard that took care of the few lingering creatures.
"This is why planet Aeolla is relatively peaceful compared to the rest of the universe..." The Kryptonian blonde said, floating into the air as the ground began to shake and giant mandibles emerged from within, alongside eight insectoid limbs.
"It's actually inhospitable," Kara added with a chuckle as she watched me eviscerate the giant spider with my axe. "It might not look like it, but the natives of Aaeolla are all hardened warriors. Their ancestors struggled just to survive on the planet..." She went on, her eyes glowing red as she fried another giant spider emerging from the ground.
"They aren't all brawn, though. Aeollans are also smart and very business savvy," The Kryptonian blonde said, watching as my machines finished off the last spider in the area.
"They turned the planet into a tourist trap and used the resources they gained to hire mercenaries who would cull the dangerous wildlife..." She concluded with a shrug as she landed next to me.
"That is pretty smart, I'm not gonna lie," I said as I combed the area with my drones and found no remaining spiders or other dangerous creatures, causing me to sigh in relief.
No wonder the locals weren't allowed to provide to barter with aliens using their currency. They've created an incredible city, but if you were an outsider and wanted to stay, you'd have to risk your life protecting it while the Aeollans sit on their asses.
I knew the city looked too utopic for its own sake, but that's just me being my cynical self. The world was not all rainbows and sunshine, and what the Aeollans were doing was perfectly normal.
"Yeah, the work isn't half bad either. Especially when you have some steam to blow..." Kara said with a bitter expression. "I used to come here to decompress every once in a while before I worked out my anger issues," She concluded.
"Well, it's definitely not a bad way to let loose... I'd bet this guy wasn't here to blow steam, though," I said, trailing off as I kneeled next to the half-eaten corpse of a strange-looking humanoid alien.
"Poor guy probably was in it for the money..." Kara said, shaking her head as she approached and noticed the dead alien. "It's bound to happen from time to time..." She concluded, putting a hand over my shoulder.
"Well, on the positive side, the Aeollans pay well, so we're set to enjoy the rest of the trip without dealing with any more alien crawlers," I said with a chuckle, putting my hand over Kara's as I changed the subject.
"Let's get back to the city and get our pay. Better yet, I'll race you there," I said as I jumped into the air and flew toward the city. "Last one to get there pays for lunch," I shouted, briefly turning to Kara before increasing my speed.
"I'm not ten years old, you know...?" Kara said, rolling her eyes at me, even as she flew into the air and chased behind at an incredible speed.
...
Want more chapters? Then consider subscribing to my pat rēon. You can read ahead for as little as $1 and it helps me a lot!
-> (pat rēon..com / wicked132)
You can also always come and say hi on my discord server
-> (disc ord..gg / sEtqmRs5y7)- or hit me up at - Wicked132#5511 - and I'll add you myself)