Resurrection: Phoenix Ascending, Chapter 25: Encounters

I don't own, you know.

A collaboration between OobluebubblesoO and Nitebreaker

Hank woke up in Titans' Tower, feeling as if he'd undergone a beating. He checked the time; he'd missed breakfast. Hurriedly, he washed his face and got cleaned up. He turned his senses inward, to check on Omega, but couldn't detect any activity. Evidently, the Osiran was still recovering from his ordeal.

Nobody was in evidence in the kitchen, so Hank prepared his own breakfast. While he was scrambling the eggs, he wondered: why was Omega so insistent upon being able to talk to people directly? He saw the need for it, yes, but undergoing what the Osiran had gone through…seemed to call for a motivation beyond anything he could understand. He shrugged; he'd probably do the same thing, were roles reversed.

And he wondered where Raven was. Probably on patrol, with the others. Something about her had caught his attention, and he was pondering ways to, to, well, to be around her more. As he ate, he wondered: did Raven like movies? He'd just have to find out, wouldn't he?

...

Alpha gazed at the two miscreants. Here they were, on a strange new world, with strict orders not to draw attention to themselves, and what had they done? Not only commandeered an Earth vehicle, but brought home a stray human. And an immature one, at that. {{I suppose you have a good explanation for this?}} Theta thought that just the tone of his mental voice lowered the ambient temperature in his office by about twelve degrees.

Delta, however , stood her ground. {{We could not leave her, Alpha. She would have been easy prey for many predators. Do we really want who knows what manner of earth predators drawn to the area around our stronghold? Besides, can we not learn from her?}} She stood and faced him, expression defiant.

{{That is not the reason you brought her here, however. You may've kept to the letter of my instructions, but this is clearly a violation of the intent, nonetheless.}} He paused. {{Bring the child here.}}

Maria didn't know what to make of these aliens—even at her age, she knew what they were, what they had to be-, but she was not uncomfortable with them, for some reason. Now the two that had brought her here led her to yet another, this one just as bald as the other two, but with masculine features and an air of authority about him. She was afraid of him, and clung to the alien who'd brought her to this strange place.

But that one simply picked her up and stroked her hair reassuringly. The leader—he was clearly in charge-looked at her with an unmistakable expression of distaste. Then he turned towards the other one, the one who'd brought her here. She thought it rather odd, that nobody spoke or said anything…

{{Very well. What has been done cannot be undone. But YOU,}} and here he indicated Delta,{{will be responsible for her. And YOU,}}he gestured towards Theta, {{will assist her. Understood?}}

{{Yes, Alpha. I wouldn't have it any other way.}} smiled Delta.

{{You do realize that we cannot return her to the humans, not after all she's seen. And, she will need upgrades, augmentations, and possibly prosthetics just to be able to interact with the rest of us, on even the most fundamental level, do you not?}} Delta nodded. {{ That will be part of your responsibility towards her and the rest of us.}} Again Delta nodded.

{{I have already conferred with Beta and Epsilon. It will take time, but it can be done. And you will see, Alpha. I believe she will be quite valuable to us, a treasure, ah, in terms of information, of course.}}

...

Terra concentrated, feeling with her mind for the connection to the earth she had. It had been a slow process, but she was getting there. Now, she could displace medium-size amounts of rock or dirt by direct levitation without getting a headache; it was still, however, a work in progress.

And, as always, Beast Boy was there to cheer her on. How did I ever get by without him? She wondered to herself. Of course, she knew the answer: poorly.

Ever since the Markovian scientists had experimented on her and her brother, so many years ago, Terra had been acutely conscious of her, well, her isolation she guessed one might call it. Brion, her half-brother, had taken to the "treatments" rather better than she had; being the illegitimate offspring of the Markovian king had only let her in for abuse. She wasn't entitled to the respect of being fully royal; that, plus the growing difference in her had only tended to isolate her further.

She was neither royalty nor commoner. It was a lonely niche.

And, for so very long, it had been the only niche she had.

But now….now she wasn't alone any more. It was a wonderful feeling.

For his part, Beast Boy was feeling such elation he could barely contain himself. He felt Terra's achievements as though they were his own. We're becoming one person, he told himself. Perhaps they already were, on some levels…

In the kitchen, Cyborg and Starfire were collaborating on tonight's meal. Hank was in on it, too. It was fitting, really; a successful day warranted a good dinner.

"And what is this, Friend Hank?" Starfire inquired, looking over his shoulder.

"It's called turnip greens, Star. My mom makes the best, better than this, I'm sure. Someday I gotta introduce you guys to her."

"Turn Up greens? What an odd name!" She wrinkled her nose at the sound, giggling.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it. These recipes have been handed down through more generations than I can count. Here, now, you add the salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce….here, try some."

Raven was busy trying to read her book. Or perhaps pretending to. Hank noticed, every time he glanced over at her, she quickly re-buried her nose back in the book. Hmmm. I wonder…is she checking me out? That thought was, actually, kinda nice. "Hey, Raven. Wanna try some?"

"Uhm, what? I—I'm sorry, I wasn't listening…" Shhuure you weren't, thought Hank. "Oh. Uh, yes, I-I will try some." She accepted the small forkful a bit hesitantly, but resolutely put it in her mouth and chewed….

…then began coughing and gagging. She clawed for a bottle of Sprite, managing to get outside most of it in one gulp. "Ah, er, per—perhaps it is an acquired taste," she managed to choke out, her voice raspy.

"Probably," Hank acknowledged cheerfully. "They tell me I acquired it 'bout two seconds after I was born. But, hey: different strokes an' all, you know."

"So, Hank," Cyborg broke in, "What's all this about Omega talking? I mean, not that I'm complaining or anything, but I kinda got this impression he went through an awful lot just to do it."

Hank sobered, turning the heat down on the greens, wiping his hands, and turning to Cyborg. "Yeah, he did. He went through hell itself. I didn't feel any of it myself, but just the echoes were bad enough. As to why it's so important," here he spread his hands, "I honestly don't know. I get the impression, it's more than just simple efficiency, on his part. But as to what else it could be, he hasn't shared that with me yet."

"Okay, Titans," broke in Robin, "Time for some updates. Batman tells me Lex Luthor and company destroyed one wave of projectiles, or pods, or whatever you wanna call 'em. That leaves two. Hank? You have anything to report on that?"

Hank leaned back in his chair. It hadn't escaped Robin's eyes that he always seemed to pick a chair close to Raven. Or was it the other way around? Either way, she didn't seem to mind…."Yes, I do. Omega's pretty sure we're dealing with Thinkers here. The modus operandi is totally consistent with them and their mindset. And, he tells me, if the other surviving wave was Lords, everybody in creation would know about it, by now. But he hasn't seen any sign of warriors, either. They might not be quite as obvious as Lords, but you can imagine a whole bucketload of guys like him, on their own, wouldn't exactly be hard to miss."

"He's sure it's not Lords?"

"As sure as he can be without physical evidence. From what I gather from him—and that reminds me, he's been awfully quiet today—Lords, had they landed, would have set up these things called 'Domains,' like little city-states under impenetrable force-domes, and pretty much conquered anyone inside. Little fiefdoms, you know. And, more than likely, one or more of them would already be on the warpath against either the others or us. On Osira, they had warriors to enforce their will, but they were not powerless, themselves, not by a good long shot.

"On the other hand, everything he's seen is completely consistent with Thinker mentality: survey the area, set up strongholds of their own, stay below the radar until they're good and ready."

Robin chewed a knuckle. "So…..this other wave, the one that escaped destruction, that wasn't Thinkers-it's most likely…..?"

"Warriors. But if so, something's gone wrong. If there were Osiran warriors loose on Earth right now, well, I don't see how we wouldn't know."

"Speculation?"

"Something happened to the warrior wave, and, for some reason, they haven't, haven't, uhm, hatched? Yet."

"So what can we do?"

Hank chewed his lip. "Not really sure. It may be, if the Lords' wave was the one destroyed, the warriors 'seeded' here on Earth may be waiting for orders. Thinkers might have a little bit more, what would you call it, free will? More independence? Remember, the warriors' primary function was as the martial arm of the Lords. I gather there was some sort of conditioning process, or programming, or something like that they underwent, presumably to make them more controllable. And that might be the only thing that's held them back for this long."

"What would their weaknesses be?"

"The only sure one that comes to mind is that same conditioning procedure. Omega's not sure how it worked, but if we could somehow get a handle on the process ourselves…it'd be a major step."

"Can you work with Omega to put that together?"

"I'll try. But like I said, he's been pretty quiet today. I get the impression he needs time to heal, so to speak. But I'll definitely get with him about that as soon as I can."

"That's all we can ask."

...

Interlude 3

Debra Smith was having the time of her life. Graduated high school with honors, on her way to the University of Southern Cal, hot boyfriend waiting for her in LA. So, yeah, life was good, as the commercial said. She'd been driving for hours without a break, but she coming to an area she knew, in the Colorado Rockies, that she'd found a couple of years ago, a special area she'd found on a hiking trip some time before. It was just up ahead. It wasn't even too far off the beaten path. She just hoped nobody else had found it, but if they did, what the hey. It'd do her good just to get out of the jeep and stretch her legs a bit. She drove off the main road, and, after a rather bumpy ride and a short hike, found herself at a secluded pond of crystal clear water.

She put down her backpack and stretched. Driving that far was work! But, of course, it was worth it…

She sat cross-legged while she checked her cell, thinking about calling her mother, but the display showed no bars. Well, she'd be back in civilization altogether too soon anyway. She'd call her mom then.

She was sitting on a rock overlooking the pond. It was really too small to call it a lake, but large enough to discourage trying to swim all the way across. Hm…she had a wicked impulse.

She carefully checked around, and then, seeing no one, hurriedly shucked her clothes, carefully folding her khaki shorts and shirt on the rock itself, and plunged, naked, into the water.

The shock of the clear mountain water's coldness momentarily took her breath away. Then, reflexes took over, and she paddled around in the water, luxuriating in the sense of doing something naughty. She smiled a lascivious smile as she found herself thinking about Bobby, and wishing he were here. Then they'd really be doing something naughty.

She swam back and forth along the shore line a few times, then decided she was rested enough. Time to get back on the road.

She turned towards the rock where she'd left her clothes. Huh? There was some strange dude crouched there, looking at her folded clothes.

Great, she thought to herself. Some perv had been watching her, and now he was gonna steal her clothes, forcing her to walk back naked to the jeep for others. But she was a modern young woman, and didn't have any problem with showing off what she knew was a body to die for. Plus, she had a brown belt in karate; unless the perv was armed, she wasn't worried.

But the closer she got to the shore, the more she noticed how odd the perv looked. For one thing, his skin was totally white, like a sheet of high-grade copy paper. And he had no hair at all. Oh, wait; some thin eyebrows, also paper-white. And some sort of odd headband all the way around his head. Could he be wearing makeup or something? Like clown makeup, greasepaint? Why?

But it really didn't look like greasepaint.

She reached the bank and hoisted herself up out of the water. The perv stood up from his examination of her clothes and looked at her. He made no sound whatsoever, and if he was showing any kind of expression, she couldn't tell it. "Enjoying the show?" she asked him, with only a little bit of bite in it. After all, it had been her own idea to get nekkid in what was, basically, a public place.

The perv made no sound whatsoever as she approached. She reached down to get her undergarments—just as another dude, almost identical to the first, came out of the woods and joined them.

Okay, enough's enough, she thought. She had no fear of one guy, but two? How big an audience had she drawn, anyway?

She began to put her clothes on, and a third one, for all intents and purposes identical to the previous two, strolled out of the wooded area behind them and joined the growing crowd. It was a little unnerving, how nobody said anything, or made any sort of sound whatsoever, but just looked at her steadily.

And, she realized, something else: most of the time, when presented the sight of a woman's unclad body, most guys' eyes will gravitate towards the boobs, at some point. These guys apparently hadn't gotten that memo, because they all stared, steadily, at her head. A memory flashed through her mind, of when she was little and had fallen down, the family's Labrador retriever had jumped at the chance to lick her face, almost as if he understood that the part of her that made her herself was actually concentrated in her head….

These guys acted the same way. They totally ignored what she'd always considered to be a killer bod and watched her face the whole time. "So," she said, more to break the silence than anything, as she wrung out her hair, "you guys live around here?" The silence was a little eerie; she couldn't even hear any birds or crickets. The trio didn't move, didn't blink.

While she dressed, she studied them. They weren't completely identical, but if asked to pick one out of a line-up, she wasn't sure she could do it. Come to think of it, were they all really guys? Like, guy guys? The one on the right seemed slightly shorter and, although just as hairless as the others, had a definite swelling of the upper torso…not Playboy material, by any means, but there, nonetheless. All of them were wearing some sort of black, tightly fitting garment that had some sort of silvery "V" design down the front, almost like a science-fictiony type uniform or something. They were all standing up, and, though she had no way of measuring them, seemed to be significantly taller that she was. She guessed them as being about six feet and change. Not bad looking bods themselves, from what she could see, underneath those tight outfits. They didn't have the overmuscled look of professional bodybuilders, but they were still quite buff.

They didn't say anything, or respond to her questions in any way, but just continued to look at her in that strange, unnerving way. Like they were waiting for something. She finished dressing, got out her car keys, and picked up her walking staff. She felt a little better for having it in her hands, now. "Okay, guys, it's, uh, been real." More like surreal.

Now she headed back up the small trail that led to her jeep. While she didn't run, she couldn't help but check behind her, to see if she was being followed, but apparently not. She got to her car, started the motor. It kicked in, reliably. So they hadn't sabotaged her jeep; that was good, and they apparently hadn't followed her; even better. At least this wasn't a "Hills Have Eyes" type deal.

But as she drove on to LA and her new life, she couldn't help but think that something very important had happened back there. Those weird dudes hadn't been any inbred locals or mutated mountaineers; just what the bleep had they been?

Oh, well. It was probably nothing.

End of Interlude 3

To be continued….