A/N
This is a partial sequel to Justice League Continues: Part 1. Initially, I was going to write a series of one-shots that went through brief snapshots focused on specific characters, but I couldn't do what I wanted in a single chapter, so instead they will be short stories that last around 4 chapters. The next full story "Part 2" will be a proper story. This is just an interlude to set up some characters I want to introduce.
This first "Episode" is an OC character. Initially, I was going to restrict OC's to tertiary and support roles, such as Doctor Pauline Lester and Delina Gibson in the first story who were old made up friends of Emil Hamilton. (even though Pauline's role in that grew beyond what I had initially intended.)
I hope people enjoy reading a Justice League story "episode" that pretty much features no one at all from the DCU or DCAU. Don't worry, the rest of the Episodes in this story will feature DC characters, but they will be ones seldom or not used at all in the DCAU.
Finally, I don't own anything in the DC or DCAU. This is written for the love of the universe.
Episode 01
Wings Above, Alien World Below
Chapter One
Quebec, Canada
21:54 – Eastern Daylight Time
Summer, Mid 2004 – Mere Hours After the End of the Thanagarian Invasion.
The small spaceship descended out of the thick cloud covered sky and lowered itself into a clearing, deep within the forest. There was nothing but wilderness for miles around with no sign of civilisation. It was the perfect place for one to disappear, for one to live in peace without being discovered or disturbed.
A hatch opened and two winged figures stepped out. One of them was a female and was much shorter than the taller, far older male. The two moved away from the ship towards the trees, the male keeping his head high while the shorter female stared down at the floor.
"This is the way it has to be," he told her, his voice cracking slightly as they stepped into the trees.
The two of them stopped. He turned and gripped her by the shoulders. She did not raise her head and he knew why. He did not want to do this to her, but he felt that it was the only way.
"I don't understand?" she questioned, finally raising her head just high enough so she could look him in the eyes for what could well be the last time.
Neither of them was speaking any language of Earth. Instead, they were speaking in their native language, the prime language of Thanagar.
"I smuggled you away after the Gordanians destroyed our colony. Your mother-" He trailed off, clenching his jaw tightly. After a moment he continued, "She made me promise to take you along, to save you and I did that and I am still saving you right now." He sighed. "I know I should be angry that we failed our mission here on this world, but I'm not. I'm thankful in fact."
"Why is it good we failed?" she questioned in confusion.
"My daughter," he said holding back his tears. "We were going to destroy this world so that we could save our own. These people are not involved in our war with the Gordanians, but to save ourselves we tried to annihilate them. It was wrong. We have become our own enemy." He closed his eyes tightly. "And I must save you from what is now sure to follow. I'm sorry, but now we must part ways."
"Why can't I go with you?" she practically demanded.
He released her shoulders and turned away. "Because we are unlikely to survive the upcoming battle," he told her honestly. "I promised your mother that I would keep you safe and this is the only way I know how."
"Why can't you stay with me?" she demanded.
"I am sworn to my duty. I have to go with my brothers and sisters. But you. You can survive here, on this easily forgotten world."
"I don't want you to leave me," she cried out.
He unsheathed his Nth metal axe and offered it to her, handle-first. "Take my weapon. It has been in our family for generations. It will be your lifeline here on this world. It will be your closest ally and your most useful tool."
She gripped the handle, tears running down her face. "I want to go with you."
"No. You need to survive," he said hugging her close. "Remember what the Absorbascon taught you?" he asked as he released her.
She nodded.
"What was it?" he asked her wanting confirmation.
"A few of the languages of this world and some of their cultural habits and some of the flora and fauna," she said, reciting the knowledge the device had implanted into her mind.
"This knowledge may save you if you come into contact with the locals. This particular nation primarily uses the Earth languages of English and French, which I was sure you knew before we arrived."
"Did you know this would happen?" she asked him, nigh on demanding to know. "Did you know we would fail?"
"I had hoped," he said sadly. "Because if we had been successful, then we would be no better than the Gordanians. We would be monsters like them and we would not be worthy of survival."
"But doesn't our failure mean we'll lose?"
He didn't answer as he turned back and began to move towards the small ship.
"Father!" she cried, moving after him.
He paused and looked around at her. "Do not come any closer," he warned. "Your place is here now."
"I don't want you to go. I don't want to be left alone!"
"To come with me is to die, Zari," he said, turning back around to face her. "I promised your mother and I will keep it. Both I and my comrades risked a lot by hiding you aboard the ship. They have all lost family, all lost those closest to them. I won't let you come with us to die. I have lost one child already, I will not have you die too. You will stay here where it is safe."
"Why do you have to go?" she demanded. "Stay with me, please!"
"I cannot. Be strong my daughter and live."
Zari Tarin watched as her father stepped back up into the ship and closed the hatch behind him. She could barely see the ship as it took off through her tears.
The craft hovered there for a few moments before it shot upwards into space to join the cruisers in orbit, leaving her all alone.
Zari wondered if she would see him again. She wondered if she would see any of her kind again. She didn't know. What she did know was that she had to survive on an alien world, with only the clothes and basic armour on her back and her families axe.
Zari didn't know if she could do it. She had been trained from a very young age how to survive. Now, she would have to use those skills just to stay alive.
She pulled the axe close to her chest and fell to her knees. She didn't want to do this. She couldn't do this. She was only fourteen years of age. She just wanted to go home to her mother, not be alone on this alien world.
But that would never happen. Her mother was dead and her home colony world destroyed by the Gordanians. Everything she knew, cared about and loved had been destroyed.
She curled up in the dirt and cried. Her sobs echoed through the trees and she didn't care. As far as she was concerned everything was over and there was no point in anything.
Morning
Autumn, Late 2004
It had been the worst time of her life. To be alone, to have no one to talk to, to have nothing.
Her daily life was wake up, hunt, eat and maybe cut down another tree with her Nth metal axe.
She used the wood to do two things. First was for the fire and the second was the construction of the shelter that she desperately needed.
Luckily, she had found the perfect spot, where three quite large trees sat quite close together. Their thick branches intersected one another, meaning she could construct something quite sturdy.
Survival and building shelter was one of the things that every Thanagarian was taught at a young age. Whether or not one was good at it was another matter. She herself wasn't the greatest, but her mother had made sure she had the knowledge. She had also made sure that her younger brother was taught as well, but the Gordanians had made sure that he would never get to use it.
And because of them, she was here all alone, lost on a strange world that was not her own that were ruled by people that probably hated her kind.
So she stayed away. Luckily there was nothing for miles and miles except for trees and more trees. In some ways, she liked the fact that there was no one around. She suspected that they might react violently if they knew there was a Thanagarian here on Earth living in the forest.
Right at that moment, she was hammering a wooden stake through a larger piece of roughly cut wood into the tree using the back of her axe. She had almost completed the base of the tree home, which was roughly six by six metres. Not exactly big, but it only needed to be large enough for her to sleep on comfortably and without the risk of falling out of the trees.
With the final plank in place, the "floor" was complete. Next, she would make some supports to put the roof on, which she was looking forward to having. It would no doubt offer more cover than the leaves, which some of the trees were currently shedding in preparation for what she assumed was winter.
From where she was, she could see the tall, darker cone-shaped trees, which seemed unaffected by the colder weather. She assumed that they were some kind of evergreen, or perhaps they simply lost their coverings later in the year. She supposed she would find out.
She grabbed the thinner pieces of wood and slotted them into the rough holes she had knocked into the base of the timber she was using as flooring. She would build up all the sides except one, which would be the entrance and exit. As she slept towards the rear, she knew she shouldn't get too much weather on her, but she also knew that winter could be a very difficult time of year for her to get through and it was coming fast.
Her construction was interrupted by a strange roaring sound on the wind. It was deep and was clearly from a large animal.
Knowing that having large predators in the immediate area was bad news, she decided it was prudent to investigate.
With axe firmly in her grip, she flew out over the trees and headed in the direction that the sound had come from. It didn't take long to find the source.
A large brown creature was using its claws to rip at a tree, perhaps marking its territory and it was far too close to the area she was calling home.
She had two options: Scare it away or kill it. Judging by its size, she doubted it would be easily scared away.
"Bear," she suddenly said, remembering some of the information the Absorbascon had given her about this region before they had landed. And not just any, it was a grizzly bear, which if she recalled was a very dangerous animal.
Zari circled overhead, studying the bear intently. It sat by the tree it had just scratched up and just lay there. She was somewhat intrigued to see what it would do.
After a few minutes of laying there, the bear got back up and continued on its way, heading towards her home. The last thing she wanted was for it to scratch up the trees she was building her shelter on and cause them to get an infection or something else that might kill or damage them, so she decided it was time to act.
She waited until she could get a good angle on the bear and swooped down, hoping that she could scare it off. She failed.
The bear reared onto its hind legs and began to roar as she swooped down a second time. The creature definitely wasn't going to yield and move off easily. She doubted there was much in the forest that proved much of a threat to it, as such it wouldn't be easily intimidated.
After failing to even remotely get to bear to even change direction, Zari knew that she would have to attack. Hopefully it would get the message and leave, otherwise, she would have to kill it.
Zari landed several meters in front of the bear, her axe raised threateningly. The bear roared, rearing up onto its hind legs once more, then put its front paws back down heavily onto the dirt with a heavy thud.
Just as she expected it to, the bear charged forward, rushing at her with surprising speed. She flew upwards, drawing her right leg back, before kicking it hard in the face. The bear stumbled and crashed into a tree, causing its branches to shake violently.
The animal quickly recovered and turned, looking up at her. It roared again, pushing itself back up onto its hind legs menacingly.
With it back on all-fours, it began to circle beneath her, waiting for her to come back down. She hovered there, watching it closely, waiting for her chance to attack.
When it did, she dived down, her axe raised. She used the flat side of it, to strike the bear hard on the side of the face. It roared and swiped at her with a sharp claw, missing her leg by mere centimetres.
Knowing that she couldn't risk getting injured, she decided that she couldn't play any more games. The bear had to die and it had to die quickly.
Zari spun around and dived back towards the bear. It reared up on its hind legs and she then began to flap her wings, rising clear over it, before swinging back around before the bear could land its front paws and turn around itself.
With a hefty swing, she brought the axe down, striking the back of the bear's neck. Its whole body went limp and it collapsed to the ground. It was dead.
She landed several paces from it and stood there silently, listening for any sign that it was still alive. Judging by the blood coming from where she had clearly severed its spine, she believed that it most probably was indeed dead.
The young Thanagarian approached the animal, axe still held tightly in her grip.
While she had dealt with the immediate problem, there was not the issue of the dead bear attracting more predators, perhaps more bears to the area.
The solution while simple would be difficult. She would get as much meat off of it that she could cook and consume before it went bad and she would drag the remains and dump them in the nearby river, where it would hopefully be washed away. She didn't care if it was washed up onto the bank further down stream, she just wanted it away from the what she was starting to think of as her territory.
She did just that, though in a different order. She dragged it over to the river, before slicing it open and removing some of its meaty flesh. She then rolled it in and watched the current take it away.
Once it was out of sight, she headed back home, the fire still burning quite vigorously. She stabbed the pieces of bear meat through a large branch and propped it up so that it was over the fire.
This wasn't the life she had envisioned. She had always thought that she would join the military and fight the Gordanians. This definitely wasn't that, but she was surviving.
In the end, that was all she could hope for.
Afternoon
Winter, Early 2005
The ground and the trees were white with snow. Zari had built a shelter around the fire so that she could keep close to it. Even so, she had given up on trying to get warm let alone stay that way. Instead, she was happy to simply not freeze to death in the turgid cold.
It didn't help that the wildlife had become a lot more sparse meaning that it was more difficult to hunt, though not impossible. The odd deer or moose had been enough to keep her going, but the last time she had seen a sizeable animal that was worth the expenditure of energy had been a few days ago.
She glanced up at the now unused shelter built in the trees. It had never been her intention to sleep on the ground where large predators could attack her, but she had no choice. She had to keep close to the fire or else she could get hypothermia and potentially die.
Zari wasn't having a super happy fun time, not at all. Between the lack of food and the cold, she was starting to wonder if she would make it through the winter.
While she knew that emigrating south was a possibility, right now she didn't have the energy to make such a journey, nor did she know what would happen if she was discovered by the planet's populous. She didn't really know what exactly had occurred during the Thanagarian occupation on this world, but the way her father had described it, it hadn't been particularly pleasant.
So here she would remain. Once it started to get warmer and a more stable food source, then perhaps she would head south. Or she might instead build herself better shelter. Back home on her colony world, she had always had a dream of building a house in the woods. It had been just a childish fantasy at the time, but maybe she could make it a reality.
The problem with that was a lack of real resources. Her current structure in the tree would only last maybe a year or two before it came apart. She needed to gather the resources, but that could mean taking them from someone else.
That wasn't something she really wanted to do, but she needed nails, hammers, proper tools to make something proper, something that would last a few years.
She had no doubt that there was commerce here, so all she really needed to do was to find a store that sold the items she needed. There were of course, problems with that. Firstly, she didn't know where the nearest towns or settlements were. Secondly, she couldn't purchase what she needed, so she would have to take them. That could prove disastrous if she was caught or discovered.
It would be something she would mentally wrestle with. She didn't want to risk interaction with the local population, but she also needed to have proper shelter.
For now, though, she had to keep close to the fire, hoping that there would be a warmer day and soon.
Afternoon
Spring, Early-Mid 2005
When the weather did start to warm up Zari was definitely thankful, especially as the wildlife and thus her food supply was starting to return.
After she had gotten her strength back up from the extended cold, she had sought out to find the means to build herself some better shelter, something that would protect her.
Instead, she found something much better.
As she flew overhead, following the river eastwards, she came across a wooden cabin. Her first thought was that there might be someone living there, however, upon further inspection it appeared to be abandoned.
Zari landed by the front door and peered in through a dirty window. The place was dark with absolutely no sign of life. She moved over to the front door and carefully pushed it open before stepping inside.
The place was definitely abandoned. It looked like it had been for years.
The Thanagarian stepped fully inside and studied the single-room structure. There was a bed on the rear-left side. It looked sturdy, though the mattress was mouldy and full of holes. She would have to throw that out. She would also have to throw away an armchair for the same reason.
The table and the three wooden chairs immediately around that appeared to be dirty, but otherwise fine.
She sat down at the table and brushed off some of the grime with a swipe of her hand. The place would need some work, but it would serve her well for shelter. Far better than what she's had up until now.
Her gaze fell onto the stone fireplace. A smile crossed her face. While it wouldn't be the warmest place she had called home, especially in the winter, this place would keep her out of the elements and that could mean the difference between life and death.
She had been lucky this year and she knew it. Finding this place was like finding a new Nth metal deposit. Very useful and it was most certainly easier than having to build something herself. She certainly wasn't going to look a Warhawk in the beak and knew she couldn't take this for granted. She would make it her mission over the warmer seasons to make sure this place was secure and ready come next winter.
Things were starting to look up and Zari found herself being cautiously optimistic.
Evening
Summer, Mid 2005
Zari flew over the woodlands, Nth metal axe firmly in hand. She was looking for prey, an animal to kill so that she could eat.
Once she had killed her prey, she would return to where she had made her home, in the abandoned cabin and cook it, eat it, then she would watch as the sky darkened, before going to bed.
She had seen a deer and was about to go in for the kill when something strange caught her eye. There was something moving through the forest, something that was an odd shade of blue.
Curious, she flew overhead, catching glimpses of a wingless bipedal creature wearing a blue shirt and black pants, running wildly through the forest.
The creature looked oddly like a Thanagarian, except without wings, like a youngling. She knew that this must be a human, the native primary species on this planet.
Then she heard the familiar roar from a bear coming from the direction the human was running from.
While she could just ignore it, the fact was that she wasn't too far from her home. Bears were bad news and by the sounds of it, it was a rather large one.
Zari knew that she would have to kill it, or it could pose a threat to her in the near future.
She circled overhead, watching the bear closely as it gained on the much smaller human. She had two choices. Wait till it killed the human and was gnawing on its bones to attack, or attack now, while its focus was on its fleeing prey.
She decided to attack now.
Zari folded back her wings and dove down, the bear completely oblivious to her approach from behind. She raised her axe as she landed on its back and brought it down hard against the back of its neck. The creature was dead before it even knew what was happening.
She flew off its back as its body went limp and rolled over itself, as its previous momentum from running continued to push it forward. The dead bear crashed into a tree, causing birds to fly off in a panic.
Zari landed next to the now dead animal and began to hack its flesh off. A creature this large would yield a lot of good meat, though the problem was its corpse would attract other predators. That meant she would get as much as she could before dragging the creature into the river, where the current would wash it away.
As she hacked away, she heard a strangely familiar sound on the wind. One that she was very familiar with considering it was a sound she had made frequently herself for the first few months she was here.
It was the faint sound of crying.
She stopped what she was doing and looked around to the direction it was coming from. She couldn't see the source from where she was, so she stood up and made her way through several trees until she saw him.
It was a child, quite young, perhaps six to eight. Or at least if he was Thanagarian that's how old he would be. She wasn't sure how Human's aged, so she didn't know.
She sheathed her axe and began to approach slowly, cautiously. She didn't want to frighten him or give him a reason to run away. Zari knew that a child of his age wouldn't last long out here and for some reason, she felt the need to try and help him.
Maybe it was because he reminded her of her little brother. The one that had died because of the Gordanians. Or maybe it was because she was lonely.
The kid looked up at her, his eyes going wide. "Are you an angel?" he asked her, wiping his red eyes.
She didn't know what an "Angel" was, but it seemed to her that an angel was a good thing.
"Yes," she said, hoping that she was speaking in either English or French. It had been so long since the two languages had been implanted into her brain by the Absorbascon, that she didn't know. She had understood him, so there was some hope that it had stuck.
The child did seem to understand her. "Does this mean I'm gonna meet Mommy and Daddy?"
"What do you mean?" she asked, confused by the statement. Was an Angel some sort of guardian?
"Angels can only be seen by those that sleep forever."
Zari's own eyes went wide. He thought he was dead and by his earlier statement, he either thought his parents were also dead, or they in fact were. "No, you're not sleeping forever. You're alive and I'm here to help you."
He covered his head with his arms. "You're not an angel!" he cried out.
"What?"
"You're not an angel. You're one of those mean nasty Fangrians."
By "Fangrian" she assumed he meant Thanagarian. While it was true that was what she was, she didn't consider herself to be either mean or nasty.
"I'm not nasty," Zari protested but trying to keep her voice calm and soft. "I'm here to help you."
"Liar," he cried.
She continued to move up to him, hoping he wouldn't run away. He didn't, he just buried his head further under his arms and cried harder.
Zari sat down next to him against the tree and wrapped her wing gently around him as if to shield him from the world. He didn't deserve this, she hadn't when her father essentially left her here to potentially die. To lose one's parents wasn't fair, especially for one as young as he was.
Zari thought about her father. How he had left her here to continue a fight he knew they had little chance of winning. She always held onto the hope that he was still alive and would come for her one day. But deep down she knew that was just her being childish. He was most likely dead and he had died for nothing.
She put her arm around the small child's shoulder and held him. He stiffened up for a few moments before he leaned his head onto her lap and continued to sob. She proceeded to rub his back softly and began to hum a tune from a song that her mother used to sing to her when she had been very small.
Zari felt a tear roll down her own cheek. She missed her mother, her little brother and her father. She missed her friends, she missed everyone.
The two of them sat there for several more minutes. Eventually, the child's sobs began to grow quiet until they stopped completely.
For a few moments, she thought he had fallen asleep, but he lifted his head up and looked at her, his blue eyes were red and his cheeks were stained with tears.
"It's going to be okay," she told him, hoping that she was speaking clearly and in the same language. It was entirely possible that she was mixing English and French together as she had learned them at the same time. Though the two languages did sound quite different, French being smoother as she recalled, so she believed she was speaking English. "I'll protect you," she promised.
He stared up at her and she looked back down at him. The two remained like this for a while, simply staring at each other. He finally put his arms around her, as much as he could, given his small stature, and hugged her. Zari was initially surprised by this action but quickly hugged him back. Eventually, he fell asleep. Probably due to exhaustion, both physically and mentally.
Zari knew they couldn't stay there all night. Firstly she had to deal with the bear corpse or else it would draw predators and she liked to keep the area around the cabin she lived at clear of the more dangerous wildlife.
She picked him up and took to the air, carrying him to the cabin. Once inside, she laid him down on the bed, which no longer had a mattress, but instead, she had placed the fur skin of a deer she had killed a few weeks back over the slats. It wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world, but it was better than the dirt or sleeping in the branches of a tree.
Zari checked that he was still sleeping before heading out back to where the dead bear lay.
She didn't waste any time in dragging the dead animal to the river, as she had done many times before and cut it open. After she had gathered some of its flesh, she pushed the large animal into the water then took the meat back to the cabin, where she put it on the rusty old tray that lay in front of the fireplace.
She then checked on the child. Seeing that he was still sleeping, she left him once more, heading in the direction she had seen him come from.
Nearly a half-mile from where she had spotted him, she found the camp where he had been staying with his parents. The two of them were dead, that much was certain. As to what to do with them, she wasn't sure. Did she throw them in the river?
She looked around, seeing many useful items, including sleeping bags, the tents, though only one hadn't been destroyed. She also found a shovel. She wasn't sure why they would have needed one, but she decided to use it.
With the shovel in hand, she dug a large grave, putting the bodies inside, side by side, before filling it back up. With that out of the way, she began to pack up the equipment into the travel bags and small containers. Then she started to move it to the cabin which took a few trips.
While she knew she shouldn't find joy in the death of others, she couldn't help but feel happy about her find. Sleeping bags, a cooking pot and a cooking frame would be very helpful to her. Of course, now she had someone she had to look after, but she didn't mind. She just hoped he wouldn't be too much trouble.
Updated January 2018