It was a breathtaking night, outside of Empire City. On the horizon, the gleaming lights of the metropolis, shone from the ground like a gleaming jewel, cutting through the darkness, and overhead, a million stars twinkled merrily. Out in the sprawling countryside, the only sound to be heard, was the animalistic roar of a motorcycle, as it tore across the empty roads. The vehicle boasted an incredible design and upkeep, and its beauty was easily appreciated by even the most casual of motorcycle fans, and no one appreciated it more than its rider.
The rider was clad in a leather biker's suit and helmet, the latter failing to contain her plentiful, black hair, which flew behind her like a cape. As the bike reached the top of a hill, the rider slowed to a stop, and removed her helmet, allowing the remainder of her hair to spill over her shoulders.
Her name was Abigail Mills. As a busy, big city gal, with a full-time job, Abigail's motorcycle rides through the country were a rare treat, but one of her favourite pastimes, especially on nights as perfect as this. Abigail's motorcycle had been with her since she was a teenager, and was her proudest possession. The bike's name was Veronica.
Abigail sat on her bike for several minutes, enjoying the cool, spring breeze in her hair. She liked Empire City enough, but she honestly thought she would go insane if she didn't step out for some fresh air at least every few weeks, as she was doing now.
She was almost ready to head home, when something caught Abigail's eye- a streak of white light, making its way through the stars above her. At first, she thought it was a shooting star, but quickly noticed it was going too slowly. The white streak flew lower and brighter, then began to expand, growing larger until Abigail made the fearful conclusion that a meteor was hurtling towards her. She was almost ready to leap into the ditch by the road for safety, when she noticed the object's unnatural trajectory.
The thing curved through the air, making to zoom over Abigail's head. As it did, she realised that the faux meteor wasn't one object at all, but three vehicles, the likes of which she had never seen. Small, one-seater planes, which looked like they had flown out of a science fiction movie. The one in front was engulfed in green flames, and was under laser fire from the two in pursuit.
The dogfight darted its way across a vast corn field, until the flaming ship veered upwards and span in the air, like a flipped coin, before its engines burst into life, sending all three ships into a collision course, with a mighty eruption of green fire, and a shockwave that threw back Abigail's locks.
Abigail spared a moment to stare at the dancing flames in wonder, before racing towards them. As she pushed her way through the towering stalks of corn, she came to terms with the incredible notion of what she had just seen- three alien spaceships had just crash landed outside of Empire City!
The crash zone was a site to behold, the three ships had fallen apart into relatively few pieces, all lying amongst the dancing, emerald flames. Abigail's suit and helmet were as good as body armour against the fire, she just tried to keep it from reaching her exposed hair. The ship's windscreens were gone, revealing a series of flat panels, in front of empty seats. There were no pilots to be found, just flakes of rubble and what looked like shards of gemstones.
The ship which had been leading the pursuit, was the most damaged of all. A wing from one of its pursuers had penetrated the cockpit, and yet still, no sign of an alien pilot (living or otherwise) could be found.
Determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, Abigail took hold of the wing, and heaved it out of the ship's cockpit, reasoning that there had to be a pilot concealed inside somewhere, but once she pushed the slab of metal aside, she was frustrated to see another empty cockpit, although, rather than shards, this one contained a whole, pitch black gemstone, tiny and long, like the jewel from a necklace.
Abigail was about to pick the gem up when, to her astonishment, it lifted out of the cockpit and into the air, all the while, radiating a white light. After hovering for a few seconds, the light took a humanoid form, before fading away, leaving a person to drop to the ground, falling into an action stance, before backflipping onto the wreckage of her ship.
The person who had been projected from the gem was wearing a jet-black flight suit with a silver trim. Her skin was dark grey and she boasted an attractive, white mohawk. The gemstone seemed to be attached to her skin, at the base of her neck. She stared at Abigail in alarm, which eventually melted away into relief. She sighed, and hopped down from her ship.
"You're not a Homeworld mechanoid..." She pointed out, as she strolled over. "What are you, some primitive, local automaton?" The alien woman ran her hand along the arm of Abigail's biker suit. "Is this... organic refuse? Gross!" She laughed. "Anyway, you can tell your controller that I come in peace... Unless... is this thing transmitting a live feed?" She took hold of Abigail's helmet and pressed her face against the visor. "Hellooo? Is anyone listening?"
Abigail gently pushed the alien away and removed her helmet, realising that her armoured appearance would look strange to an off-worlder. "I'm... not a robot." She smirked. "My name's Abigail, I'm a human. And... you are...?"
The alien looked stunned for a moment after Abigail removed her helmet, staring unblinkingly. It was a look Abigail got a lot from guys in bars, before they came over and started flirting with her. The only difference was the alien's adorable blush, causing her cheeks to turn a darker shade of grey. She quickly snapped out of it, and stood to attention.
"Pleased to meet you, civilian! The name's Jet 2L7 Y16! Legendary fighter pilot and... more recently... fugitive from the law..."
"Fugitive from the law...?" Abigail repeated.
Jet rubbed the back of her head, awkwardly. "It's... a long story... There were these defective Gems, sentenced to shatteri... erm... death, and I..."
Suddenly, Jet's eyes widened in sudden realisation and she gasped. She raced the few steps over to her enemies' ships, and stared remorsefully at the contents of the cockpits. She slowly stood up straight, crossed her forearms and pointed her fingertips together. She pursed her lips, and a tear ran down the side of her face. Over the sound of the flames, she could just about be heard, whispering, "Well fought... my friends..."
Abigail was beginning to piece it together. Jet belonged to an alien race whose existence was somehow dependent on the integrity of the gemstones on their bodies. Jet's gem had been undamaged, so she had been able to recover from her injuries after the crash, while her pursuers hadn't been so lucky. Jet's compassion for people who had clearly been trying to kill her, moved Abigail, deeply. She stepped forwards and placed a reassuring hand on the alien's shoulder.
"What will you do now?" She asked her.
"Those two were my escorts while I transported those Gems, they'll be safe now..." She looked gratefully up at the stars. "But all the same, I should probably get back to them..." Jet made a tapping gesture at her ship, and a diamond-shaped screen flickered into life above the wreckage, displaying an indecipherable screen of data. "It's not as bad as it looks... If I can just get some tools, I should be able to..."
As though Jet's ship had a sense of comic timing, it chose that moment to violently detonate, causing a chain reaction which tore all three ships apart and engulfed the crash site in a plume of green flames, which rose into the air, forming a small mushroom cloud. Once her ears stopped ringing, and she blinked the spots out of her eyes, Abigail realised that Jet had tackled her to the ground, and was lying protectively on top of her, her body singed, and her eyes narrowed in pain.
Abigail bit her bottom lip, to keep herself from smiling, knowing she should be sympathetic of Jet's situation, and humbled by her heroism, but the timing of the explosion was deeply ironic. Jet soon let Abigail off the hook by bursting into laughter, and her human associate soon joined in. For several seconds, the duo's rambunctious laughter was the only sound, as the flames simmered, and reduced to embers, until Jet rolled off Abigail, and lay in the dirt next to her, joining her in staring at the stars.
"So..." Jet said, wistfully. "What do you do for fun around here?"
Hello, dear reader. What you've just read, is the beginning of one of the greatest romance stories ever told, rife with twists, suspense, action, and of course, cute lesbians, one of whom came from outer space. Nevertheless, that isn't this story, because I wasn't there until the end, so here's the short version-
Jet and Abigail formed an instant friendship, which would eventually become love, but in the meantime, Jet needed a purpose in life, now that she was stuck on earth. The two stayed up all night at Abigail's apartment, talking about each of their societies, and by the time the sun rose over the city, Jet had set her Gem on becoming a police officer.
Long story short, she did. Being an alien with unlimited stamina and super strength kind of made up for her knowing almost nothing about earth laws and morality. But of course, anyone who's seen Gotham knows what being a cop in a big city is like (yes, it's exactly like that). On Jet's first day on the force, someone tried to rope her into a crooked protection racket, and a week later, every dirty cop in the city was in the hospital. Before long, the most senior crooked cop on the force tried to get her fired, and Jet responded by kidnapping him, and forcing him to confess to all of his crimes, live on TubeTube.
Meanwhile, Abigail was working her way up her career ladder as a lawyer. This was the early nineties (by the way) so there were more than a few glass ceilings for her to break through, but Abigail was as good at smashing the patriarchy, as Jet was at smashing criminals' bones. Being the fantastic lawyer that she was, she rarely lost a case, and being the shining example of humanity that she was, she never gave a second thought, to clients she knew were guilty.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that these two badass chicks made Empire City a better place for everyone, even though I'm biased, since Abigail and Jet are my mums.
My name is Jayla Mills, but my friends call me JJ. The second J stands for 'Junior' and the first J doesn't stand for 'Jayla'. Like most women, Jet wasn't narcissistic enough to name her child after herself, which is a shame, because Jet is the coolest name ever, right? So, when I was a kid, I liked 'Jet Junior', and now it's JJ.
If you're trying to picture what I look like, picture that punk chick archetype, right down to the lip piercings and sick tattoo sleeves. I have my human mum's luscious, black hair, but I livened it up with some purple streaks. Just above my chest, is my other mum's gem. My mum's explained the logistics of a human-Gem hybrid as best she can, but it's difficult, since I'm the only one of my kind (I mean, I'm not. I thought I was at the start of the story, but more on that later). For me though, I still like to think of space mum as her own entity, and it's reassuring to look down, and know that she's always here with me.
Between them, they left a pretty difficult legacy to live up to. Even though mum always says that self-worth needn't be tied to wealth and success (easy for her to say, amirite?) I still worry about not meeting my potential, but maybe that's how everyone with an assortment of alien superpowers feels? Especially when they work in a coffee shop...
So, to recap- my name is JJ Mills, the 25-year-old Gem-human hybrid from Empire City, and I'm on a mission to save the world! Or at the very least, make rent this month...