Space twinkled like a velvet curtain infused with sparkles. In the other-worldly thickness, an aerodynamic spaceship cruised along, its occupants set out for a mission.
The youngest member of the crew sat in the second row, chowing down on whatever food was within his reach. He glanced over at the raven-haired woman sitting across the isle from him and winked.
"Want some, Princess? I got extras."
She shook her head and kept staring straight. "I'll survive," she said dryly.
The hungry man shrugged his red shoulders and kept eating. A tap on one of those shoulders made him pause and look into the green eyes of the other female member of the crew.
"I'd like some food, if you please."
"Sure! Here." He handed her some, then launched himself back into full stride.
The woman sat back in her seat and held some of the food out to her seat partner. The black man shook his head. "I already ate before we left."
"Come on, John, it's been hours since we left. You've got to be hungry by now."
"Not for Flash's food."
"Hey! I heard that!"
She chuckled but didn't respond, eating instead. A figure clad completely in black walked past her and up to the pilot and co-pilot. He stopped between their two chairs and stared into space for a moment.
"How much farther until we reach our destination," he asked in a rough voice.
The pilot looked over to his green-skinned co-pilot and shrugged. "It could be another few hours or another day. We were only given the coordinates of the general area to go to, not the specific planet. We might be stuck searching for the right one."
John crossed his arms and huffed. "Lot of good that does us.. What kind of people tell us what part of the universe to go, but not the place?"
"Apparently, these people."
John looked at the woman sitting next to him and swiped what she was about to eat, taking a bite out of it. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."
She scowled and swiped it back, stuffing the whole thing in her mouth before John could snatch it away from her. He rolled his eyes, trying to hide a smile. "Hey, you offered, Shay."
"Doesn't mean you can take."
The man in black looked at the co-pilot. "What's your estimate, J'onn?"
"The area we have been sent to is relatively small. It will take us another hour to get there. Finding the planet should take less than 5 hours."
"What's the matter, Bruce? Antsy?"
Bruce stared at the pilot, then turned and walked back to the back of the plane with a swish of his cape. Flash paused eating long enough to watch him go. "Nice going Supes. Get the Bats mad."
Superman shrugged and concentrated on flying the ship. "He'll get over it," was his flippant reply.
True to J'onn's prediction, they arrived within an hour to the coordinates sent to them. The area, surprisingly enough, only had a few planets. They flew around and determined that only two were able to support life. By process of elimination - one planet was completely covered in water- they headed toward the remaining planet. After landing, Flash dashed out of the ship and spread his arms wide, stretching.
"Finally! I was getting cramped in there..."
The others followed at a slower pace, looking around at the dusty and barren landscape.
"Are we sure we're at the right place," the princess Diana asked.
Superman continued to survey the land, eyes narrowed like he was scanning for something. He probably was. "The coordinates brought us here and this was the only logical place. Ah. There's a city over that way. We can go and see if anyone knows where we should go."
They began to head out, leaving their ship behind, deciding it was better than to fly it into town where the locals might get frightened. With their ability to fly - or in Flash's case, run - they made it to the city outskirts in no time. It wasn't much to look at: Dust everywhere, the houses looking very rundown and poorly up kept, people sitting around and coughing frequently. In the drab scenery, the Justice League felt out of place in their brightly colored uniforms. They quickly headed further into town, feeling sorry for the people but needing directions ASAP. It proved to be worthwhile. The further in they went, the better the houses and people began to look until the suddenly found themselves in the center of a bustling square.
People were constantly moving and shouting, so much so, the League couldn't even stop and ask for help. They just found themselves being dragged along until they left the main crowd and stepped into a side street. Luckily, this street went to a quieter square. They stood and looked around some more. The streets were covered in stone to eliminate dust, the houses and buildings painted soft colors or brown or tan, and there were considerably less people milling around the place. They tried to ask for directions but each person they asked either didn't know, or told them to ask someone else who also didn't know. They were just about to give when music drifted from a street corner.
"I don't know about you, but I'm game to relax for a few minutes," Flash stated before zipping off to the source of the music. The other Leaguers exchanged looks, but followed him, eager to keep him out of trouble and to listen to calming music for a while. When they got closer, they noticed that the music seemed oddly familiar. Upon reaching the spot, they found Flash, staring at the singer with his jaw dropped wide open.
The singer was a young, green-skinned woman with black hair pulled into a ponytail. She opened her red, mammalian eyes and scanned the small crowd around her, a smile tugging at her lips and her eyes sparkling brightly. Her fingers strummed a guitar-like instrument as she crooned about love.
Everyone looked at J'onn, as if to ask if she was what they thought she was. J'onn stared at the singer, slowly nodding to confirm their suspicions. Flash elbowed him. "Go talk to her."
J'onn shook his head.
"Why not?"
Shayera put a hand on Flash's shoulder. "Let the Martian get his thoughts back together. He looks like he could use the time."
And it was true. J'onn was completely blown away by the fact that he wasn't the only Martian left. He didn't know what to make of this. He was feeling too many emotions, thinking too many thoughts.
The female Martian ended her song and immediately started up the next one. At once, the Justice League recognized it as an Earth song.
"How does she know that song," Flash asked.
"Maybe she visited Earth before," Shayera suggested, shrugging.
With that in mind, they continued to listen to her. Songs ended and started, the crowd occasionally tossing money in a hat on the ground by her foot. It must have been hours later when she finally stood up and bowed to the applauding audience. She kicked open the case she was sitting on and put the instrument in it, locking and picking it up. The hat floated off the ground and into her hand. Then, she crossed the street and walked up to an open vendor, putting the case on the counter.
"Well here you are, Haji," she said, taking several bills and some coins from the hat and giving it to the brown, burly alien.
"Thanks, Peppy. You take care now."
She smiled at him and waved as she walked away, hat jingling softly in her hand. Automatically, the League followed her down the street. She rounded a corner and stopped to look in a store window.
Flash nudged J'onn. "Come on, now's your chance! Talk to her."
The big alien was about to follow his suggestion when several thug-looking natives came out of the alley on the other side of the street and surrounded the other Martian.
"Hey, hey, hey.. Lookit what we got here.. A nice night and a pretty lady. Care to buy us dinner for 5?"
She didn't turn around from her window shopping. "No actually. I'm not feeling very hungry tonight. Why don't you ask someone else?"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk.. Wrong answer, greenie." The cold sound of a click made her blood freeze. "Turn around and give us the hat."
Slowly, she turned around, hands up with the money-filled hat dangling from her fingers. However, when she faced the leader, she didn't look scared. No, she looked furious.
"You want this? Then try to take it."
Her free hand thrust out in a back-slap motion, and the gun flew out of the leader's hand. Enraged at her gall, he ordered his men to attack. Instantly, the 3 goons jumped at her, but she grabbed the one who was closer to her with one hand and, lifting him over her head, threw him into the second goon. As soon as she let go, she turned and lifted her leg, striking the third mugger a kick to the jaw, an audible crack sounding out. Carrying on with her momentum, she completed the spin and charged the leader. Her raised fist, however, met his open palm and his fingers closed on hers in a crushing grip. With a grunt, she was forced to her knees.
"Oh, ho, ho.. feisty, aren't we? Well, that'll soon be fixed."
He lifted her up until her toes barely scrapped the ground. He clenched his other hand and swung the fist at her stomach. However, before it could connect, she lifted her knees up and caught his wrist between said knees. Socking him in the face, she dropped to the ground, still keeping her knees gripping his wrist and flipped over. The result ended in him being drug over her and thrown into the window, crashing through it. She stood up and put her hands on her hips, smirking.
"Yeah, I didn't think you could! Maybe now you'll rethink trying to mug a gal."
The next instant, she was eating those words in the form of a knuckle sandwich. Somehow, she managed to keep her balance despite sliding back several feet. Even though she could feel blood stemming from her cut lip, she didn't give the mugger the satisfaction of seeing her check. Instead, she flew forward and at the last second, ducked under his wild swing and tripped him. Seeing him on his back, winded, was a small and short-lived victory. The 3 goons had gotten back to their feet and grabbed her, holding her still while their leader stood back up and dusted himself off. He walked forward until he was breathing down into her face.
"You... You just made a huge mistake."
His hand shot forward, latched onto her throat, and squeezed. The Martian began gasping for breath, clawing at his fingers to no use. The muggers' laughter filled her ears, both frightening and angering her. Just before her vision blacked out, she built up as much mental energy as she could and let it out in a telekinetic wave. All 4 low-life's were thrown clear, breaking through the walls of surrounding buildings. Before they could process what happened, she drug all of them back out into the open and began to mercilessly pound them.
With each word being accentuated by a punch, she shouted angrily, "Didn't your mamas teach you to never, ever, ever hit a lady? You aught to be ashamed of yourselves! Why, if she were here, she'd take you all over her knee and beat you til the sun set tomorrow! You're lucky I'm not as friendly as she is! So don't you ever let me see your faces around here again!"
With that, she stopped her assault and watched them pick themselves up, running away at full speed. She stood there and shouted after them, "Bullies! Cowards! Good-fer-nothings! Let those bruises teach you a good lessons!"
When she was certain she had frightened them enough, she dusted her hands off and looked around for her hat. It was a few feet from her, relatively unharmed. Sighing, she walked over and bent to pick it up. Suddenly, the result of using so much mental energy crashed on her and she fell on her hands and knees with a groan, a hand pressed to her temple. Through the migraine, she felt hands grab her arms and help her up, voices asking if she was alright. She cracked open an eye and gave a pain-filled grin.
"I'm alright.. Just used too much juice. Forgot I shouldn't be doing that so much..."
She managed to get both eyes open and raised an eyebrow at her... colorful rescuers.
"Hi, I'm Flash. What's your name?"
"Uh.. Sarah."
"Are you a Martian?"
"... Yes?"
Flashed clapped her on the back. "Good to know! Hey look.. we've got a friend here who's dying to meet you. Sarah, meet J'onn. J'onn, Sarah."
"Is that so..?" Sarah smiled at J'onn. "Hi there. How are you?"
"I.. I'm doing well, thank you."
An awkward silence elapsed before Diana decided to break it.
"Those were some very interesting moves you have. Do you have any prior training?"
"Ah, no. I just improvise."
"Oh. Well for someone who isn't an Amazon, you fight well."
"Thank you. Ah.. if you don't mind me asking, where are y'all from?"
"Do you mean individually, or as a group," Flash asked, trying to be a wise-guy.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "I think you can figure that out."
"We're from Earth," Superman interjected helpfully. "We're actually here because of a set of coordinates that was sent to us."
Sarah stared at them all strangely, then smiled. "Earth, hm? Well, maybe I can help you with this mission of yours. You can tell me all about it over dinner."
And that, folks, is chapter one! Hope you enjoyed it. ^.^ Any questions, feel free to leave it in the review box. Anything at all, just lemme know. 'kay? Thanks. Bye.
