Episode 01

Wings Above, Alien World Below

Chapter Four

Quebec, Canada

Spring, Early 2007

At some point between the end of winter and the beginning of spring, arguments had started between Zari and Danny. Often they were over something stupid and inconsequential, but they were arguments all the same.

It had put some strain on their friendship to some degree and she was trying hard to not bite when he annoyed her. Often when one broke out, she left for a half-hour or more and took a flight, usually using that time to top up their food supplies.

She knew the reason for it. Spring reminded them of how long they had been here, just the two of them, alone together. They didn't have separate rooms, so it was inevitable that the two of them would start to get on each other's nerves.

Zari had tried to ease it by spending a lot of time outside the cabin, giving Danny some space. It had worked to some extent, but there were still avoidable arguments that broke out between them.

Today had started off well. The two of them were sat down in the cabin. Zari was singing an old tune from her home, while Danny played with the club she had fashioned for him, pretending he was one of the Thanagarian warriors she had told him about.

Danny stopped and put the club to the side and stepped up to her.

"What are you singing?" he asked.

"Hmmnn," she said, not hearing what he said.

"What were you singing?"

"Oh, just a song."

"But it was in a weird language."

Zari tried not to take offence to him calling her language 'weird'. "It was Thanagarian."

"So you speak that weird language on your planet?"

"Yes."

"But you speak English?"

"Yes, I do."

"Did you learn English?"

"Yes, but not in the usual way."

"What do you mean?"

"I learned it from a device called the Absorbascon."

"The what?" Danny asked, clearly confused.

"Absorbascon."

"Absorberon? What's that?"

"The Absorbascon is a Thanagarian device that implants information into the brain, usually from others, but it can be used to retrieve specific information from storage devices," she said, reciting what she had been told by her father.

"Cool," Danny said. "Do you have one?"

"No I don't," she said. "And it wouldn't work on you anyway."

"Why not?"

"Because you're human. Besides, it's not supposed to be used on adolescents either, or for extended periods of time. I heard that if you used one too much, it scrambles your brain."

"How?"

"I don't know. But there was this story of someone who overused one and could spout out many facts but had no idea who they were, or who any of their family was or anything. They were a walking encyclopedia and that was it, they were nothing else. They couldn't even take care of themselves."

"What happened to them?" Danny asked her.

"The same thing that happens to any Thanagarian who is considered disabled to an extent that they are not a benefit to society. They are euthanised."

"What does that mean?" Danny asked.

"It means." She hesitated. Did she tell him? Yes, she would. She wouldn't coddle him, he should know these things. "They are killed."

His eyes were like saucers. "Killed? Why?"

"Because if they cannot add to society, then they are a drain on it and my people cannot afford a drain on resources, especially not when we're at war."

"That's horrible," he almost shouted.

"Life for Thanagarians is hard. We're all trained to fight and we're all trained to survive. Weakness is not allowed."

"What about Dregnar?" Danny said. "I thought evil was gone, that he defeated it."

"Evil?" she asked. "You think we're evil?"

"You kill weak people."

"We don't kill the weak," she objected.

"You just said you did."

"No, those that can't contribute to the society are euthanised."

"Stop using big words to sound smart. You've killed people for not being strong."

"I don't kill people. I've never killed anyone."

"Liar."

"I'm not lying. I was a farmer with my mother and little brother, not a soldier. If Gordanians showed up then, yes, I was expected to and I would have fought them and killed them."

"So you want to kill people," he accused.

"No, Gordanians aren't people."

"Why not?"

"Because they're aliens," she said.

A deep frown crossed his face. "Am I an alien?"

"Well, yeah, I guess."

"So that's why your people wanted to blow us up. Because we're aliens to you?"

Zari began to feel dizzy. Was that really how her people looked from the outside?

"I didn't try to do anything," she said defensively. "We had our reasons, I'm sure of it."

"Killing's always bad," he said.

Zari couldn't believe it. She was being accused and shouted at by a little kid. The worst part was that he was kind of right. But she herself hadn't done anything wrong. Could he really hold her accountable for her people?

"I'm sorry, okay," she said heatedly, folding her arms. "I didn't know anything, I was a stowaway, hidden by my father and his friends. I didn't know we were out here to blow up planets. We failed okay. You were able to stop us." Not that she knew how such a primitive world had managed to.

"You were stopped by the Justice League. They saved us and stopped you."

"Yeah, okay I get it. I'm the bad guy here, even though I didn't do anything."

"They stopped you from blowing us up."

"I'm glad," she said.

"No you're not!" he shouted at her. "You don't care," he accused. "You'd be happy if we'd all died."

"Maybe I would," she shouted at him. "Because I wouldn't have to be here with you!"

Zari stormed out of the cabin and took to the air. She needed to be away from him for a while.

She couldn't believe that he was accusing her of trying to destroy Earth. She wasn't military, she didn't even know what had been going on. All she knew was that they were preparing to stop the Gordanians once and for all. She didn't know until her father was leaving her behind that they were going to destroy this world.

It made her so mad that he would point his accusatory finger at her like that. She had saved his life, he should be grateful.

It wasn't long until she found the old makeshift hut she had called home when she had first arrived. It was still stood in the trees, though the one she had built around where she had had the fire during her first winter here had fallen down.

She landed in the crude tree hut and sat down. She stared out into the trees, her mind blank of thoughts. For several hours she sat there feeling empty, wishing that she had never set foot here on this planet. Wishing that the Gordanians had never existed. Wishing that her father had cared more about her than the military.

Zari wished for so much but knew that none of it was to be. She was here on this world and she was here to stay. Her father was dead, as was her mother and little brother. The Gordanians had taken so much and had left her with nothing. But she did have someone and he was called Danny. He was like a little brother to her now and she felt guilty for storming off.

Then it hit her. When she had first seen him being chased by the bear, she had been happy to just kill it, take what flesh she could from its corpse and leave. If she hadn't heard Danny sobbing, then she would have left him to his fate.

She could barely believe now that she would have just left, but at the time she would have done. It made her feel sick to even think about.

She cast her eye up to the now dark sky. He had a point and she knew it. She had to go back and apologise.

Zari took off and started to head back when something caught her eye. Something flew across the sky, leaving a trail of smoke. It glowed red, as the fast-moving object forced its way through the ever-thickening atmosphere. It then crashed, sending out a shockwave that rocked her and almost knocked her out of the sky.

She glanced in the direction of the hut, then towards where the object had crashed, which was a good few miles to the north.

Zari decided she needed to check out the crash site, as she was certain it was a spaceship. She needed to be sure that it wasn't anything hostile. If it was, then she would have to get both herself and Danny away from here. Though, in truth, she was hoping it was her father, that she had come back for her.

She could only hope.

It took her a while to get there. When she did, there was a full battle underway over the crashed spaceship, though a closer look showed it was only two against the rest.

Zari hid in a tree, watching it from afar. It was quite impressive how the two were able to defend themselves against the others and also a little frightening.

Something then caught her eye. She looked to see wings in the sky. Wings of a Thanagarian.

The battle seemed to stop as one of the two orange combatants began to speak to the newcomer or at least Zari thought she was speaking. She was too far away to hear, so she was going solely on body language and posture.

There was some pointing at the ship and waving of arms before a second Thanagarian climbed out of the downed spaceship. He flew to the other and they began to talk. Then another in blue and a red cape joined them and they spoke to him.

After a few minutes, most of them moved away from the ship and out of sight, while a smaller group, including a dark-skinned man in green and black, began to remove objects from the crashed ship, including what she believed was a drive core using green energy that appeared to project from his fist.

Hearing a noise, she looked up as a long-nosed ship landed. They placed the smaller components inside, while the man in green flew up into the sky, holding the larger ones in some kind of green forcefield. The others got into the long-nosed ship and it took off into the sky after the man in green.

Then she heard something else coming from behind. She turned to see aircraft roaring overhead at high speed. They made a very long and wide turn before coming back over the other way.

Zari waited to see if anything else would happen, but when the strange aircraft that were held in the air by spinning blades started to show up, she decided to head home.

It was a good hour before she made it back to the cabin. She arrived, expecting to see Danny in bed, but he wasn't. In fact, he wasn't in the cabin at all.

Zari stepped outside and shouted, "Danny!" There was no response.

She took to the sky and began to circle around, looking for any sign of him.

Nothing.

She began a search, starting by flying a small circle, with the cabin at the centre, before making it larger and larger, covering more and more ground in search of him. She kept calling his name, hoping that he would respond.

Then she caught sight of something in the trees. For a moment she thought it was Danny, but whoever it was, they were far too large.

Suddenly she felt a stinging sensation in her side. She looked down seeing something in her side. She gripped it and pulled out some kind of dart.

It was only a few moments after that that she started to feel dizzy. Her wings slowed involuntarily and she began to lose altitude.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get her wings to move properly and the world was becoming an unfocused blur.

Unable to maintain her height, she crashed through branches, before striking the hard trunk of a tree.

She hit the ground hard and laid there, unable to move. She heard muffled voices, but couldn't tell what they were saying. She then passed out.

Zari awoke with a pounding headache and a sore back. She sat up, finding herself in a small concrete room.

She flexed her wings, which were also sore, before she stood up, resting her hands on the odd black glass wall that lay opposite her bed.

"You're awake," a male voice said over some speakers that lay up in the corner of the wall.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

"Who are you?" the voice asked right back.

"Zari Tarin," she said.

"How did you hide from the Justice League?"

"I didn't."

"You came on the crashed spaceship, correct?"

"Incorrect," she replied. "I came with the Thanagarian fleet that left maybe three years ago now."

"The invasion force?"

"Yes, that one."

There was a brief pause before the next question came. "Why are you here?" he asked.

"Before I answer, I need to know what happened to Danny?"

"Daniel Durant is with his aunt and uncle," the voice told her.

"So he's safe?"

"Yes, he is safe."

"So you knew I didn't come on that ship, didn't you?" she questioned. "He must have told you what happened?"

"The bear and you saving his life? Yes, he told us. We wanted to see if you would lie."

"Well I haven't, so you can let me go now."

There was a brief pause before the response came. "Sorry, but we can't do that."

She glanced around the room. "Then I'll just have to escape."

"I know you must be frightened, but I hope we can work together. We aren't going to harm you. We are offering our help."

"Work together? I don't even know who you are," she pointed out.

"All you need to know right now is that we work for the Canadian government."

"You do realise that that means nothing to me," she said. "I don't know about your nations or politics."

"We are a western nation."

"And? Does you geographical location have significance or something?"

"Maybe I should have said that we're a first world country."

"First world. What does that mean?"

"We are an advanced nation."

She scoffed at that. "Keep kidding yourself."

She heard him sigh over the speakers. "Just forget it."

"So, what do you plan on doing with me?"

"Nothing yet. We want to know your intentions first."

"I don't have any. My father left me here so that I wouldn't die in the upcoming battle."

"How old are you?"

"Thanagarian years? I guess I would be seventeen now, but I don't know how long Earth years are compared to Thanagarian years."

"Interesting. That is all for now. You should get some rest."

"Sure," she said, sitting on the edge of her bed.

Zari sat there for several minutes, staring at her reflection in the darkened glass. She had a few bruises, probably from the fall she had taken when they tranquillized her.

She looked at the steel door, before standing back up and making her way over to it. She pulled on the handle hard, which started to buckle under her grasp. She let go knowing that the handle would snap off and she would be no closer to getting out.

Zari looked around the room to see what she had at hand. There was a toilet and a steel bed that was anchored to the wall. She stepped up to the dark glass wall and rested her hands on it, wondering if there was a way to break it. She had an idea, but she didn't know if it would work.

Turning back around, she gripped onto the bed and began to pull on it, hoping she could pull it free from the wall.

"What are you doing?" the voice came

"I want to rearrange the furniture in my room," she told him.

"The bed is bolted to the wall. You can't move it."

She ignored him. She wasn't going to just give in. His words just made her pull harder. Finally, she felt it start to move. She stopped pulling on it and glanced around at the glass.

"See, it won't budge. Just get some rest, okay?" the voice told her.

Zari repositioned herself at the bottom of the bed and started to pull on it some more. She felt it begin to give even more before it finally broke free. Using the momentum, she swung the bed into the glass, causing a huge crack to mar its clean, reflective surface.

"Stop, right now," the voice commanded loudly and with a hint of fear.

She continued to ignore him as she slid the bed across the floor, then pushed it forward, its legs screeching as it struck the glass again.

She heard the locks of her cell clicking open. She turned to face it, readying herself for the fight.

The door flew open and before she even had a chance to react, a dart was in her shoulder.

"No," she whimpered as she fell forwards, the tranquillizer taking almost immediate effect.

The world spun around her until her consciousness started to slip away. Her last thought was that she was now a prisoner on this alien world and she wasn't sure if she could escape.

She didn't know what they had in store for her and she didn't have time to even speculate as she involuntarily lost consciousness.

Updated January 2018