Chapter Six: Invasion
I was just sitting there trying to fathom what had just happened. The others were doing the same, except they were standing up.
"Well, whoever she was, the girl knows how to make an impression." The man in the coat said, breaking the silence.
He was right. The entire area was trashed. Building's damaged, vehicles smashed in, signs snapped. Even the street was cracked in certain areas. It was a wreck!
"I think we made a pretty good impression. Crazy space girl's gone, the city is safe, mission accomplished!" Beast Boy said, turning towards Robin afterwards. "Right sir?"
"Seriously, stop calling me that." He told him.
Beast Boy responded with another salute. What did this 'Robin' guy have against being called sir?
I had questions that needed to be answered. Who was that alien girl, and why was she here in the first place? Also, what was with that gemstone that formed earlier? I couldn't get any answers sitting here, so I decided to go find her. And apparently, Robin had the same idea, because he was about to head in the same direction, though probably not for the exact same reason.
"We're done here. I appreciate the help." He told everyone.
"You're going to track down the alien?" the robed girl asked him.
"He's not the only one. This entire ordeal has me confused. I need to get answers from her." I said before I began walking.
"More like 'find out if she'll give him another kiss'." The man in the coat said under his breath.
"I heard that…" I told him.
At first he looked surprised that I was able to hear what he muttered, and so did Beast Boy. A moment later though Beast Boy caught up to us. He was about to ask a question, but Robin cut him off knowing what he was going to ask.
"I just went solo. I'm not looking to join a team right now." He told him.
Beast Boy looked disappointed, but went back to try and talk to the robed girl and the man in the coat. I kept walking, heading in the same direction the alien girl flew off, and also the same direction Robin was heading.
"I said I didn't want help." Robin told me.
"I heard you. We just happen to be heading for the same place. So I guess I'm coming with you whether you like it or not." I said, with a slightly smug look.
Robin lightly snarled, obviously annoyed at what I had just said.
"Just stay out of my way." He demanded. "The sooner we find that girl, the sooner I can take her down and be done with this."
Did I hear that right?! He still wanted to hurt her? Even after what I did before?! Did he just completely ignore everything that had happened just a few minutes ago?!
"What?! You can't be serious!" I said.
"I'm dead serious. I gave you a chance to do it your way, and you failed. So now I'm going to finish what I started." He said.
"But I didn't fail! She stopped attacking after I freed her!" I said.
"Freed her so she can cause even more destruction! You heard what she said!" he told me.
I do remember the last thing she said. 'If I wish not to be destroyed, I would leave her alone.' But still, it just didn't seem like she'd do that.
"I don't think she meant it exactly that way. If she was going to destroy me herself, wouldn't she have done it right when she got free from those shackles?" I asked.
Robin paused for a moment, thinking about the question I had just asked.
"How could anyone know what her intentions were?!" he asked me.
"She was not destroying anything because she wanted to; she was trying to break off those shackles!" I said.
"Wait. How would you know that? She was speaking a foreign language; no one here could understand her." He asked me.
"Well…. I can't explain it, but…. I could." I told him.
Robin's eyes widened in surprise, or rather the part of his mask where his eyes would be widened. It seemed at first because of what I had just said, but that was not the only reason.
"Um… Link was it?" Robin asked while looking up at something.
"Yes?" I responded.
He then pointed up to the sky, and when I saw what was up there, my eyes widened too. Flying slowly across the sky above the city was a gigantic red spaceship that was headed in the direction that we just came from. We ran back to meet the others, who hadn't gone far.
"Looks like space girl has friends!" the man in the coat said.
"I wouldn't be so sure…." I told him.
I had noticed that the man now had his jacket's hood down, and I saw that half of his face was mechanical. Not like the machines that had attacked me a few days ago, but a cyborg. He would later call himself that but I'll refer to him as Cyborg from now on to make things less confusing.
Anyway, the huge ship flew over a small island off of the coast and hovered there for a moment. Just long enough to open a hatch underneath it and drop a tower-sized structure onto the island. The top of the tower then lit up and projected the image of a hideous being that looked like a man fused with a lizard. He wore a crown of some sort, so whatever these things were I assumed that his was their leader.
"People of the planet earth…" the lizard man said through the projection. "We have come to your world seeking a very dangerous prisoner. After she escaped our ship, we tracked her to this area. Do not interfere with our search, and we will leave your city with only minimal damage. But if you attempt to assist her, your destruction shall be absolute!"
Afterwards, the image faded and tower began to open up, revealing hundreds of the same kind of creatures as the one we just saw. All of them opened their wings and soared into the city, intent on finding that alien girl. What do they plan to do with her?
"They told us not to interfere. Maybe we should listen." The robed girl suggested.
I couldn't just stand here and let those monsters capture that alien girl. To be honest, I think those monsters would destroy us regardless of whether we interfered or not. So while the others watched the lizard things continue to search the city, I began to head in the same direction that I was going before.
"You're still going after her, aren't you?" the robed girl asked me.
I nodded. "That girl isn't the threat here, those…. things are. I don't care what they say. I'm still helping her." I told them.
"Count me in." Robin said.
Wait. Didn't a moment ago he wanted to bring her down like a criminal? And now he wanted to help?
"I still don't know if I believe you about her being innocent, but I think it's safe to say that those things are the bigger threat right now." He said.
I smiled in thanks. I'm glad someone was agreeing with me…. somewhat anyway.
"Can we help?" Beast Boy asked both of us.
"I could use all the help I can get." I told him.
Cyborg groaned in disagreement for a second, but afterwards it seemed like he was in too. He stood in front of us and said, "This is crazy! But…. eh… I got nothing better to do right now, so count me in."
Robin looked somewhat annoyed at the thought of being assisted by this many people, but after a moment he gave in to the idea.
"Well…. I suppose I could team up just this once." He said.
With that we all started to head in the direction the alien girl flew off. Well, almost all of us. The robed girl stayed behind. I was going to try and convince her to help us, but Robin told me he would try to do it.
"Are you in?" he asked her.
All four of us were watching and waiting for a response.
"….I'm not really the hero type…" she said, "Trust me… if you knew what I really was… you wouldn't want me around…"
Despite hearing that Robin went up to her and held out his hand.
"I know enough." He told her.
She gave a weak smile and took his hand. Looks like she was in.
A minute later we were all gathered in a small alleyway, trying to conceal ourselves from the lizard things that were still searching the city. Robin was peeking out, waiting for the moment when the monsters searched another area.
The robed girl was standing at the back of the alley. I decided to try and talk to her. I felt like I needed to thank her for helping before.
"Hey, thanks for the help before. I probably wouldn't have been able to help that girl if you hadn't stopped the others." I told to her.
"No problem. It's the least I could do. Especially after I knocked you down earlier." she said.
"Oh… yeah… sorry about that." I said, "By the way, I never got your name."
She paused for a moment, but then responded.
"You can just call me Raven." She said.
After that, Robin had everyone gather around to discuss how we were going to go about finding the alien girl. He consulted me first.
"Link. You said before you were able to understand her. Whatever way you did that, do you think you could use it to find her?" he asked me.
"Err… sorry, I really have no idea how that happened." I said while being a little embarrassed.
Robin sighed in disappointment, and then directed his attention towards the others.
"Okay… we need some way to track her." He said.
"She's close." Raven said out of nowhere.
We all stared at her while looking somewhat confused. While doing so Raven had an awkward look on her face.
"….I can sense things." She said.
"Oh… Well that makes sense." I said.
Everyone then gave me slightly annoyed looks. I then just realized it was because of what I had just said.
"Heh… sorry." I said while holding the back of my head in embarrassment.
Beast Boy suggested that he would try to find her scent. At first I wondered how he would do it, but then I saw him transform into a green dog. I forgot… he could change into animals.
Cyborg also had a way to find her. He pulled up his sleeve, revealing a mechanical arm.
"There's a sonic analyzer built into my arm. If she's nearby, I'll hear it." He said.
A sonic analyzer? What on earth was that? As long as it could help us find the alien girl, I guess it didn't matter at the time. A moment later, Beast Boy changed back into a human, saying that he caught her scent. Right after that I heard a thumping sound from Cyborg's arm, coming from the analyzer he mentioned a second ago. He said he was hearing her heartbeat.
We tracked these readings to a video store that had a huge hole in the side. It looked as if the wall had been melted away to make the hole.
"She must be here." I said.
"Really? I couldn't tell from the giant hole melted into the wall!" Beast Boy said sarcastically.
Ignoring that I went through the hole, with the others following. The results from both methods of tracking were right, the alien girl was here. She was at the snack booth, voraciously eating whatever she could find there, not even bothering to remove any wrappers. How long had she gone without food?
"Uhh… those taste better without the wrappers." Beast Boy told her weakly.
She had heard this, because right after wiping her mouth off, she turned around and snarled at us while her hands glowed with the same green energy as before. The others began to back away, trying to tell her to calm down. But I stood in place.
"Calm down. We're friends…" I told her, "Right?"
"Friends?" She asked.
I nodded. She looked at me for a moment, probably remembering our encounter before. Her attitude quickly turned aggressive again.
"Why? For what purpose did you free me?!" she demanded.
"Didn't I tell you? There wasn't any reason. I was just being nice." I said.
"Nice…" she said, pondering for a moment afterward. "We do not have this word on my planet. Closest is rutha. Weak."
When I heard that, something in my mind just snapped. She had just compared the concept of being nice, a concept I had essentially devoted myself to being, with being weak. Weak?! That made me angry. The look on my face then turned from friendly (or at least trying to be) to aggressive, almost as aggressive as she looked. Also, for some reason, I could've sworn I felt a slight burn in my left arm.
"What did you just say?" I asked her with an aggressive tone.
Seeing my aggressive appearance, the alien girl had a hint of fear in her face. The others looked about as shocked as she was. I began to approach her. She was backing away slightly, though it was hard to tell. She could've attacked me, shot me with that green energy like before. But she didn't.
"You're not from around here, I understand that. But you should know that the two words you just compared are nothing alike!" I exclaimed. "Being nice is to be understanding, willing to help others, and willing to open your heart to someone else. It's not even close to the meaning of weak!"
It didn't look like it, but my aggressive attitude was affecting her. I had never felt anger like this before, I don't know what was coming over me. However, I soon got it under control, and came back to the reason we tracked her down.
"So maybe you could be nice, and tell us why those monsters are keeping you prisoner?" I asked her.
Both the aggressiveness and the fear she was displaying faded after hearing that. Her eyes stopped glowing and she lowered her hands. Then she responded.
"Not 'prisoner'. I am…. 'prize'." She said.
"What?" I asked, looking just as confused as the others.
"The Gordanians, those 'monsters' as you call them, are to deliver me to the citadel, where I am to live out my days as their servant." She said.
"And the Citadel are…..?" Raven began to ask.
"Not nice." The alien girl answered.
"What were you even doing on their ship in the first place?" I asked her.
When she heard me ask that, she looked sad. Her turned her head down and turned it away slightly.
"They… took me… from my home planet." She told me.
What?! They took her against her will?! Looks like Robin was wrong about her. She wasn't a criminal. She was a victim!
"If that's the case, you're not going with them! I'll make sure of it!" I told her.
When she heard that, I saw a glint of hope in her eyes. "Thank you…" I heard her say under her breath.
"Yeah, don't worry. We'll keep them from taking you away." Robin said.
"Uhh… when you say 'we,' you mean all of us, right?" Beast Boy asked Robin.
Right after that, another hole was blasted into the wall, and from it came a number of those Gordanians. All of them were carrying bizarre looking spears.
"Seize the prisoner!" one of them shouted.
But as one of them attempted to fly at her, his face met the wrong end of my shield as I thrust it into him, knocking him back to where he had been standing. I turned around, looking as angry as I did before.
"You want her?" I asked them. "You'll have to get through me!"
I drew my sword and pointed it toward them, and it glowed blue as I activated my powers, with my eyes glowing blue along with it.
"Whoa…" Cyborg proclaimed, surprised when he saw my sword and eyes glow.
The others looked surprised too, though none of them had seen me actually fight, so it wasn't that surprising. There were at least ten of them ambushing us. We weren't going down without a fight though.
