For some reason, Rachel had asked Garfield to meet him up in airport. Garfield was said to be waiting for her on the lobby alongside the other so-called heroes. Not sure who these peoples were or why they were called the real superheroes, but Garfield was sure convinced about it. He made a promise towards her, a very important promise, and she wanted him to remember that because it had something to do with her life as a whole.
She finally made it into the airport. Thankfully the Star City taxis weren't that expensive and it only took her at least $9 from her house into the actual airport. Not sure what kind of airplane that she's going to take a ride in or if it was actually safe, or especially if it was approved. She found Garfield amongst the crowd of the superheroes that he was referring to. The most noticeable of all was the relatively huge African-American man right behind him and the stunningly beautiful red-haired supermodel of some sort. Not sure what her powers are.
And of all people, the famous billionaire and entrepreneur Damian Wayne and on the other flip side of the coin, the infamous billionaire Mia Dearden Queen were also in there hanging around. She couldn't help but to find it impressive. Somehow, the annoying but fairly intelligent blonde-haired guy who can turn into any animals somehow got a connection to both of these peoples. And to see Damian Wayne up close like that...
"There she is!" Garfield said as she pointed out right towards her. "I'm so glad you came! And not a second late!"
"Yeah, because I've been told to check in two hours prior." Rachel said.
"Don't worry. I'll get your baggage." Garfield grabbed in her said baggage.
"So um... these are your friends?"
"It's a pleasure, Ms. Roth." Damian stepped in first, shaking Rachel's hands with a smile so stunning it would make the nearest fangirls nosebleed to death. "I'm so glad that Garfield could convince you to come."
"I... okay... uh... thanks..." Rachel blushed.
"It is joyful to finally meet another female companion!" Kory stepped in and shook her hands immediately. "I am looking forward for our next interactions!"
"It's... Rachel."
"My name is Caroline Anders! Although you can call me Kory! I'm pleased to see you!"
"Yeah, me too."
"So the ancient stone thief finally showed her face." Mia said, hands crossed in front of her. "You know, I would've preferred to just put a sleeping gas in your mother's room, but if that Jedi choke was right, then sending Garfield in was the best choice."
Rachel's face turned from an awkward smile into an uncomfortable scorn as she heard the words coming out of Mia's dirty mouth.
"So you're Speedy?" Rachel said. "I'm not up to fight with you."
Mia smirked. "You cheated on me using magic. I won't let that get away from you."
"And the other one is Victor Stone." Damian said. "He's new here too."
Rachel was about to shake Victor's hands, but all that she could feel was his bionic arms engrained in nothing but cold metal. She noticed this and was a bit startled at first.
"I... oh..." Rachel said. "Wow. I..."
"Yeah." Victor said. "It's a long story."
"In fact, all of us do have one." Damian said. "So let's not waste any time. We're going into the jet."
"A... jet?" Rachel asked.
##
She shouldn't have underestimated the power of Damian Wayne. He had his own private jet. His own private jet. She shouldn't have been doubting about it, especially knowing that this man was known to be gaining at least eleven billion dollars a month. Knowing that someone with that crazy amount of money should be beneficial for someone like Garfield Logan.
Sitting on the private jet alongside the other so-called superheroes was a rather puzzling experience. She wasn't even sure why some of the peoples that were inside the plane were called heroes. She was optimistic on some of their abilities like Garfield Logan with his animal turning abilities and Mia Queen with her bow and arrow gimmicks, but he wasn't so sure about Damian Wayne. What was his power? Money?
"This place is comforting." the so-called alien Kory said as she glanced over the windows. "It's been a while since I've seen a bright and peaceful blue sky directly."
"You've... never seen one before?"
"No, I haven't." Kory said. "I assume that you are not informed of my origins."
"I only know that you're an alien."
"That is correct." Kory said. "I'm an alien from another part of the galaxy."
"I find that hard to believe." Rachel said.
"I know it's hard to process, but believe me we exist out there." Kory said. "I'm an alien called Tamaranean. The other aliens are called Kryptoninans, they're dangerous. They have taken over my homeworld, and I won't let them to take yours."
"For an alien, you talk English very well." Rachel said. "You sound a bit too formal, but not that bad."
"Yes... well, I have to use a rather embarrassing method to learn your language." Kory said.
"Hm..." Rachel said. "I can somehow believe you. How did you learn the language?"
"I have to kiss someone."
"Oh." Rachel said.
"I'm astonished." Kory said. "You're the first person to not tease me at all."
Rachel giggled. "I can't imagine the amount of teasing that will occur by the time you said that."
Kory giggled. "Although to be fair, I think he deserved at least one. He had been taking good care of me ever since I come here."
"Let me guess..." Rachel said. "It's... Damian Wayne?"
"Yes."
"Wow, you're incredibly lucky." Rachel said. "A lot of girls in your age demand to be right near him."
"Really?" Kory said.
"For the record, Damian's not the kind of person who's going to hand kisses like that over."
"Ah well, he didn't hand me that." Kory said. "I have to force it out to him."
Rachel raised her eyebrows. "I see."
"Kory, can I talk to Rachel for a moment?" Damian said as he popped up from another room, hopefully not hearing any of the conversation that they had.
"Uh... yes." Kory stood up from her chair right across Rachel.
Damian smiled towards Kory as she left the room, leaving him and Rachel alone at least in that particular table. She wasn't very sure what he was about to ask, but the one thing that she needed to do is to make sure that she kept it polite and civil. He maintained his respect throughout the journey, and she wanted nothing but to return the courtesy.
And he's ridiculously rich.
"Are you alright?" Damian asked.
"What? Yes, I'm fine." Rachel said. "Why? Is there a problem?"
"Nothing much." Damian said. "I think I owe you an apology."
"Apology?" Rachel said. "What kind of apology?"
"Well, Mia's methods might be a bit unusual for you to look at." Damian said. "She was the one who stalked you last time, not Garfield."
"Did Garfield ask you to tell me this?"
"Well, he was a bit afraid of confronting you after last night."
"I can't blame him." Rachel said. "He was right."
"About what?"
"I only cared for my problems." Rachel said. "And I don't want anyone else to fix it."
"Does this include your mother's health?"
"I..." Rachel startled. "Yeah."
"Garfield told me about her." Damian said. "In that kind of situation, you're definitely going to need someone's help, and thankfully I'm here."
"Wait." Rachel said. "Are you... are you going to... ?"
"I will pay for your mother's bills."
"What!?" Rachel shrieked. "But... that's $750k!"
Damian chuckled. "I know, but you know me. A money like that is something that I can make in a minute. You're going to need it a lot better than I am right now."
"I... I..."
"Your mother is going to need the surgery." Damian said. "No matter what happens, you should totally help her."
"Okay." Rachel slightly bowed. "I will! I... thank you! Thank you so much!"
"Don't thank me." Damian said. "Thank Garfield. He had this idea. And in some ways you also have to thank Mia. It's her idea too, you know?"
"I... of course!" Rachel said. "I will do my best."
"Great." Damian said. "But there's another thing that I want to tell you."
"Okay." Rachel said. "What is it?"
"When I told Garfield and Victor that they're going to save this world, they were a bit shocked about the concept of death." Damian said. "This is a life-threatening situation, and I'm afraid that by joining our group, you're going to put your life at risk."
"I'll do anything to keep my mother alive." Rachel said. "I promise."
Damian smiled. "Well, I'm glad. I know that you're going to be useful. Anyway, the others are gathering right there. Why not introduce yourselves?"
"I..." Rachel said. "I'm not too good at socializing."
"Neither am I." Damian said. "Believe it or not, I wasn't socially adept back then, but you won't be one if you don't at least try."
"I... okay." Rachel said. "Thanks."
"Hey Damian!"
Garfield shouted from the group slightly further away from the jet.
"What is it?"
"You should check the news!" Garfield said. "Fascana just got bombed!"
"What!?"
Damian stood up from his chair and went in towards Garfield who watched the news from the common lounge room. Rachel followed him from the back. On the way, Rachel asked on what's going on with it.
"Fascana?" Rachel asked. "Wait, why would they do that? I thought the US already had advantage of it."
"I see that you're observant with the current news." Damian said. "I never thought that ARGUS is going to pull this off."
Damian and Rachel arrived at the group with Garfield leading in on the conversation.
"You think that ARGUS did it?" Garfield asked.
"The situation in Fascana is already a question mark." Damian said. "We're not even sure what ARGUS is planning."
"Um... sorry to interrupt." Julia asked. "But how is Fascana relevant?"
"ARGUS is pulling a lot of moves behind our back." Damian said. "Getting Tim Drake alive, creating armors, investigating aliens, and now drone-striking a capital city."
"Apparently these are not just regular bombs." Kory said. "It was put in with chemicals called a white phosphorous."
"White phosphorous?" Damian shouted. "Why would they need white phosphorous in there?"
"It's weird." Garfield said. "I don't know about you, but ARGUS would've been a lot more covert about this. If they go out in and just drone strikes Turbain with white phosphorous, then it would be chaos."
"As if they didn't create enough chaos already." Damian said. "We need to be prepared. I have a bad feeling about this."
##
The horror. He glanced at it once again. What he feared the most out of his military service finally came true once again. The peoples he was fighting for, the peoples that were rallying on his cause, were easily decimated by a simple airborne bomb. He thought that humans cannot be more savage than the Citadelians or even the Tamaraneans, but he thought wrong.
This bomb alone really came from a country of power. The only country who could unleash such monstrocity was the United States and no doubt about that. The United States had their hands on these predator drones for a while and they have been abusing it to instantly win a war that they have lost, to regain control to whatever things they deemed necessary for liberty and freedom without even considering the liberty and freedom of those being targeted.
In result, the monstrocity commited caused more than just explosions. The Capital City of Turbain was now riddled with a white gas that are incredibly lethal. The white gas was called white phosphorous and the civilians suggested everybody to avoid it at all cost, but they were too late. This gas has already engulfed half of the city, and there was nothing that the General could do to save the civilians. They have either burned themselves to death or their respiratory lungs broken thanks to inhaling the lethal materials.
Some of the Kryptonians actually found these drones and jumped high to destroy them, but all of them were unmanned. One thing for sure, the United States did this. The bombing wasn't really the problem for General Zod. It was the chemicals that got into the bombs. These bombs killed a lot more civilians than militias, peoples who actually should've died from the monstrocity commited, but the General witnessed more than just death. He witnessed pain, suffering, and torment unleashed upon the women and children of Turbain.
Zod was immune to this gas. The gas was nothing but a white flour to him, but he was completely unable to save the lives of these civilians who were vulnerable to it. As such, he had to witness some civilians flocking on the streets grabbing their burned face while having their entire hands burned out as well. Before they could relieve the pain again however, they also had to choke and cough up blood thanks to the gas entering their systems. And after that, they fell down to the ground, whimpering like a dead puppy begging someone to just please end their lives there already.
Even for someone as superpowered as him, it was one of the most horrifying ways to die. Not even the Tamarans could come up with this monstrocity.
Zod was unable to save the parts of the city that were engulfed in gas. So he went out of the city and ordered the rest of his men to regroup into the cave. There was something that needed to be done, and that was to completely eradicate the Western Civilization.