"I don't care about aliens." Rachel said. "I don't care about the world. Why should I really care about it? It's going to blow up anyway."
Garfield didn't really want to force her to join the group, but it was obvious that her powers and skills were going to be needed to save this world. The one thing that surprised him was that she was lying. She was lying about not caring about anyone's lives and especially the world she was living in. He wondered what made her to do so. There had to be a better reason for it.
"I... okay." Garfield said. "If that's exactly what you want, I'm not forcing you out. Can I ask a few questions, though?"
"Just one question." Rachel said. "And I cannot guarantee that I would answer it either."
"Okay."
Garfield really had to get his brains working on this time. As a loner who didn't really get along very well with other friends back in Elementary, he resorted into reading books. A few of them included history books and novels. Beyond that however, he wasn't really that smart.
"Um... do you have any family?" at least he tried.
"No."
"Okay." Garfield knew she was lying. There was in some ways hope to at least turn her into the good side, but perhaps asking her is not the right way. So he turned himself into a green eagle and flied off back into STAR Labs, unsatisfied with his results.
##
Garfield Logan went back to STAR Labs with very unfavorable results. Mia went to glance on the explanations that were provided by Dr. Palmer and Kory Anders. Their debates gone to the point of counting physics equations and gravitational quantum mechanics. Mia stood bewildered, crossing her hands and unable to get the sequences right. Not even Garfield could make it out. Tons of technobabbles later, Mia went out of the whiteboard and finally glanced at Garfield Logan.
"Oh great you're back." Mia said. "Finally, I can talk with someone as stupid."
"Wow. You're nice." Garfield said. "Although to be fair, I'm not good at math and physics myself. Did you replace the stone?"
"Thankfully it was a piece of cake." Mia said. "A few days ago, GCPD got a hold on that stone for fingerprint testing, which would've taken them about a day without Victor. They replaced the common stone in the museum with the stolen stone. I replaced their stone with the common one. Piece of cake."
"That's great." Garfield said. "I wish I was just as successful."
"How's the mission?"
"She's not coming."
"What? Oh well, thanks for trying, I guess." Mia said. "All bets are off. We're sneaking to her house. Let's abduct her out."
"Whoa dude. I won't be doing that if I were you." Garfield said. "She could choke you out like a jedi."
"Doesn't matter." Mia said. "I'm going to do everything I can to get her. If she's not in our side, she's against us."
"Mia, she's not against us. She just doesn't care." Garfield said. "She's not going to care at all. If we can't do it the nice way-"
"Then we're going to do it the hard way."
"What, no!" Garfield said. "I... urgh fine. If you want to do it the hard way, be my guest."
"Night time then!" Mia said. "I'm definitely going to get her."
##
"Any progress on finding Conner?" Damian asked via phone towards Stephanie, who was still at a nearby diner doing her job.
"No luck." Stephanie said. "Ever since I told him to freak off or something, he just left. Not sure where he is right now. I mean he could be anywhere."
"Damn it." Damian said. "Well in that case, he's probably regrouping. Have you checked in with the doctors?"
"What? Why?"
"Well, it's going to sound weird, but I'm worried that he's-"
"Damian, if I got STDs, I would've known about it just now." Stephanie said. "Besides, never thought that you're going to be the one asking me for STD."
"How are you and Tim?"
"We're... getting used to with things." Stephanie said. "Barbara thankfully still has her game. She's monitoring the entire Gotham City for Conner. And by the way, he's sleeping on Dick's apartment for a while. He worried that if Conner saw me with him, he would get the wrong message."
"I don't even know if Conner stil wants to pursue a relationship with you even after all of that." Damian said. "Regardless, give me any reports if you find him. We're working on our team here. Let's just hope that the last thing we get in there is reports on alien attack."
"I really hope there won't be." Stephanie said. "I'll talk to you later."
Stephanie switched the call into Tim, who was also still looking for the alien but couldn't find any significant results.
"Any luck?"
"Nah." Tim said. "He's really hard to find you know? I mean talk about 24/7 surveillance and face detection and we still couldn't find him."
"And please send my regards to Damian who managed for successfully burning my PC up." Barbara said.
"Well, I'm sure that he can change that." Stephanie said. "How are you and Dick?"
"We're doing fine."
"Can I see Mary again?"
"Not this time."
"Alright then." Stephanie said. "Keep on watching. I'll call you back later. It's been too freaking busy here."
##
"Well, that is all for the diagnostics, son." Silas said. "I have tweaked some of the components inside your armor. The calibrations are a little bit off on your sonic gun, but I have fixed it. You're good to go."
"You still can't give me human skins, can't you?"
"Your skin graft skin tissue did not mesh well with your cybernetic components." Silas said. "You're going to need a bandage or a mask."
"Eh. It's getting real uncomfortable anyway." Victor looked back into a nearby mirror to look at his face. "Jesus. Garfield was right. I really look like a Terminator."
"Red eyes, metallic plates on half of your face, dead giveaway." Mia said. "Just be glad that nobody fries your skin. Otherwise that skull would make you look really ugly."
"No kidding." Victor said. "Anyway, how's the progress on finding this alien?"
"Well, that's why I'm going to need Dr. Stone to take care of it." Mia took out the stone from the museum. "Here's a stone sample from the museum that was stolen last night but reappeared again. It was stolen by someone who knew a lot more about archaeology, geology, and stone relics. She said that this stone was fake and that it was a meteor from outer space purposedly disguised as a common stone. I'm not sure what made her say that, but there has to be something in it that we can use."
"I'm going to take a look on it." Silas said.
"Good." Mia said. "And Vic, Damian tells me that once you're done with the diagnostics, he needs to see you in the rooftop."
"Oh, alright." Victor said. "Wait, why the rooftop?"
"Because it's private."
##
Victor and Mia went out into the rooftop to find Damian and Garfield, crossing their hands and waiting for both of them to at least speak up. All this time, they were constructing a team to fight in the alien threat, and wondering if this alien threat can be fought or even be defeated.
"Oh, there you are." Damian said. "I really thought that it's going to be just the two of us."
"Where is Kory?" Garfield asked.
"She said that she's almost done." Mia said. "After tons of technobabbles from both of them, from what it sounded like, I think Palmer was convinced."
"He was more than convinced."
Kory came up from behind and reported on the issue. "I managed to explain him about the warp drive, but he wanted me to stay at least after the alien invasion."
"Well, I guess there's that." Damian said. "How is the progress on Rachel?"
"I... couldn't convince her." Garfield said. "If I were you, I'd stay away. She just choke me out with the Force and pinned me down a wall."
"Pussy."
"Watch it, Mia." Damian said. "Okay, Rachel is not with us, but I think we can definitely manage on our own. Knowing that Rachel Roth isn't going to be joining us anytime soon, just so you know that we're all a team here. What we should do is to stick together. This alien problem is real, and that we're going to do everything we can to defend this Earth."
"And take them out." Kory said. "They're going to destroy this Earth no matter what. I suggest you all to give your best force."
"Wait, Karen is not coming?" Mia asked.
"She's important for the Aerospace project." Damian said. "The last thing we wanted is to risk her life."
"Whoa dude." Garfield said. "Are you saying that we're... expendable?"
"And you're saying that we can die in this mission?" Victor asked.
"Of course we can die. What do you expect?" Mia said. "We're fighting aliens that has the punch of a C4 bomb. If you do your job well and you know how to stay alive, then we're good."
"Oh my god..." Garfield said. "Oh my god... are you serious?"
"Dude, I didn't sign up for this." Victor said.
"The hell?" Mia said. "At one moment, you said that you wanted to be a hero and save this world, but when you're confronted with the issue of death, you have to whine it all out."
"Dude, I'm not really in the sort of mood for dying." Garfield said. "Look, I'm just so glad that I'm alive right now, but being punched by an alien like that again and break my skins and bones, god knows how I'm going to get back again."
"We still have STAR Labs who can treat you out." Mia said. "For god's sake both of you. If you really love this world and you want this world to stay alive, stop being such a pussy and be ready to-"
"It's okay, Mia." Damian said. "I understand that you both are scared. I was also scared when I got into my first mission. I have to assassinate some important peoples and fight a lot of peoples throughout. I went through several gunshots and cut wounds and many life-threatening situations. I cannot lie that I've been through the same thing when I was Robin back in the day, but that never discourage me from anything."
"Why?" Garfield asked.
"Because in the end, I did something right." Damian said. "Well, at least back when I didn't actually kill peoples. When you returned the daughter who got captured by terrorists to her parents, you cannot imagine how rewarding it is to see the face of their parents. They didn't have to thank you for it. They just need to be happy. Knowing Gotham City, I know that happiness is a hard thing to achieve, but I'm going to do everything that I can to get it."
"Whose life would you rather risk?" Kory asked. "As someone who had gone through wars and genocides, would you risk your own life to save a thousand, or risk the life of thousands to save yours?"
That really managed to shut them both up. Knowing about the alien threat that they were facing, they had to sacrifice something. However, shutting them up wasn't enough. They needed to be convinced. There was no other way to convince them other than showing them the real threat, and unfortunately there wasn't much of a real threat just right here. If Stephanie's boyfriend wasn't really going on around, then Gotham City is in danger.
"I... I don't know, dude." Garfield said. "Even if we could, I think we're going to need a lot more than this."
"We're the only ones that we got." Damian said. "We don't know how many aliens landed here. We don't know how many of them to beat. We don't even know how strong they are compared to our strength."
"The last time I checked, there were only a few Kryptonians left." Kory said. "We have killed at least four of Zod's men. That was about five Kryptonians left."
"Five?" Garfield said. "Well, at least it wasn't a hundred of them. Are you serious five?"
"I'm not sure if he can bring in backup from his home planet." Kory said. "I hope he didn't. Hundreds of them is hell raining upon us."
"If we're talking about numbers, I'm going to get Rachel to get here no matter what." Mia said. "This alien is going to kick our asses and she's staying in that freaking church? I mean are you kidding me?"
"There has to be a different way to convince her." Garfield said. "So when are we coming back to Gotham City?"
"We'll get back tomorrow." Damian said.
"I can get to her by then." Mia said.
"I'm not suggesting you to abduct her." Garfield said.
"I don't care." Mia said. "I'm doing it. If you stay in my way, I'll probably get you around too."
Garfield wasn't really the type to intimidate, but Mia's eyes were serious enough for him to not mess around.
"Urgh fine." Garfield said. "Do as you wish."
"Tomorrow, we're going back to Gotham City." Damian said. "The alien threat is right there. Stephanie and Tim are struggling to find them and their connections. Let's just hope that they come up with something by the time we arrive there."
##
ARGUS Agent Kate Spencer AKA Manhunter was sent into Turbain to brief in towards whatever kind of situation that is happening on that capital city. To think that the government was easily defeated by the extremist rebels was something that ARGUS did not expect, and it had to be something that needed to be investigated. What kind of allies that the rebels get that made them so incredibly powerful? At any rate, their attempts should be hopeless by now, and knowing that the rebels were only in small numbers, it was impossible for them to take the place out.
Before Kate could even approach the Capital city of Turbain Fascana, Kate was one of the first few peoples who noticed quite a hard anomaly. Somebody in the rooftop of that capital was literally hovering about ten feet above the building. She had absolutely no idea who this man is, but he could control himself and he could fly. However, after a few minutes hovering above the ground, he dropped off moments later. Was it a helicopter? Or was it just as what she found unbelievable.
Kate had no choice but to report her findings to ARGUS. This has got to be one of the most insane discoveries that she had ever found in the recent history.
"Any progress, Agent?" Waller asked.
"You would not believe me when I say it." Kate began. "But it seemed like that Turbain got access to... supernatural beings."
"Supernatural?" Waller asked. "Be specific, agent."
"Someone... flying."
"Flying?"
"I'll send you the footages immediately."
##
Waller got herself watching the footage for a couple of times. No helicopters were on the scene. Absolutely no trickery or video manipulation. Kate Spencer would not have faked this evidence. The place had to be eradicated as much as possible, and there has to be nothing but dust in there despite the civilian risk. She definitely had to consult this to the president.
"Mr. President." Waller said. "I have given you documents about our alien captures."
"Another aliens again Mrs. Waller?" President said.
"I'm sure you are familiar with the Turbain crisis." Waller said. "The rebels had no weapons, no backups, manpower of less than 200 peoples, and yet they have managed to take on the capital."
"And how would your explanations come into aliens?" President asked.
"We have examined one of these aliens personally, Mr. President." Waller said. "This alien is called Kryptonian, and they have destroyed our lab in Washington. I'm sure you already know about it."
"I thought it was explosions."
"No, Mr. President." Waller said. "You should see this footage."
It took a few minutes for the President to take a look at the footage that Kate sent to Waller and for the President to make decisions. His face slowly turned into astonishment.
"My god." President said. "This is unbelievable."
"These aliens are threatening." Waller said. "They have destroyed our labs, and they have proven to destroy peace in Turbain. We're going to need to take action.
"What are your suggestions?"