Koriand'r

Love Interest: Starfire/Koriand'r

From: DC Comics

Duncan is soaring through the sky. After the dance and Jenna breaking up with him, he needed to think. The Son of Belloc was so deep in thought, he narrowly misses the giant ball of fire about to crash into him.

"Woah!" he watches as it crashes not far from the city. As much as he does not want to do this, Duncan needs to call it in. "Hey, Blitz," he speaks through the comm in his ear.

"Kid!" the agent yells. "Where've you been? Your mother's been worried about you. Maybe she'll get off my back now," that last part was mumbled.

"Yeah, well? I'll take whatever grounding she'll give me. But I thought you should know that a meteor or something crashed not far from here."

"Really? We weren't notified of anything."

"Well, it nearly hit me."

There is silence on the other line before the MEGTAF agent spoke up. "I'll give a call to some old Plumber friends. Right now, just get back home. Your mother is threatening to release your old man."

"Tell her I'm fine, tell dad I'm fine," the hybrid emphasizes that last part. "I think I'm going to check it out."

"Hey, wai—"

Duncan shuts the comm off and soars to the crash site. Landing right next to the crater, he finds not a chunk of space rock, but a ship of sorts. He turns the comm back on. "Blitz?"

"Did you really cut me off!" shouts Barnes. "Your mother really needs to discipline you a little more, Boy!"

"It's not a meteor!"

"What?"

"I think I'm looking at a spaceship."

"Hang on kid! We have a code Ten! I repeat, we have a code Ten. Get the Plumbers on the line, now!" he shouts "Duncan, we got a lock on your position and the professionals are on the way."

With a loud hiss and thunk, Duncan's attention is brought back to the small ship. "I think it's opening," a side of the ship then starts splitting apart. "It is opening!"

A figure crawls out of the opening partially covered in smoke. As the smoke clears, Duncan is stunned at what he sees and barely registers Agent Barnes yelling in his ear. "Kid! Kid, what is it? What does it look like?"

The hybrid lets out a "Hot!"

"What!?"

"I, uh mean, she looks human," Duncan manages to correct himself. "Aside from the orange skin."

The figure is that of a girl around his age with orange skin and long flowing red hair. She is wearing a rather revealing purple outfit and matching headpiece. The girl also has large cylinders holding her hands together and a strange glowing collar. Duncan approaches her and the alien's eyes shoot open to reveal bright green orbs. Then, she jumps, slams the cylinders into Duncan, and starts shouting something unintelligible.

Duncan rubs his nose. "What's wrong with you?" he only receives more shouts. "Lady, I have no idea what you're saying."

This time she speaks slowly as if she is explaining something to a little kid. Only this time she raises the cylinders to tap the collar.

He raises an eyebrow at this. Duncan lifts a hand towards it. Only to stop at the sound of a boom. Turning to the source, he spots another ship much bigger than the last one. The alien girl shouts something as the ship approaches them.

A swarm of something flies out of the ship and towards them. These things were much taller than him with large wings. Green scales can be seen underneath their dark armor, and they are carrying trident like weapons.

One of them that has armor with a gold crest shouts, "Return the Tamaranean!"

Duncan instinctually steps in front of the girl. "What do you want with her!?"

"She is the prize of Trogaar, Lord of the Gordanians. Now…" the Gordanian points the trident at the hybrid as the tip starts glowing. "…hand her over or you will be forced into submission, Terran."

"I don't think so," Duncan sprouts his wings, grabs the girl, and flies off.

The Gordanians starts firing at the hybrid, but he manages to doge the blasts easily. One of them gets in front of Duncan. the Kaiju Kid just opens his mouth to expel flames at it. The girl starts yelling and swinging her arms around. In order to settle her down, Duncan flies behind some large boulders.

"What do you want?" Duncan asks as the Tamaranean shouts at him. "I already told you. I can't understand you."

At this the girl slowly speaks again while tapping at her collar. Duncan reaches up and manages to snape it off her neck. The girl cheers as her eyes start glowing and she tries pulling the cylinders apart. the hybrid's eyes widen as the cylinders start cracking. Without thinking, he grabs them and together they manage to shatter the cylinders, freeing her hands.

The girl looks at one of her hands as a green ball of energy forms withing its palm. Then, she glares at Duncan and toss it at him. Only, it flies past the hybrid and hits a Gordanian about to fire his trident at Duncan.

Duncan turns to the fallen Gordanian and back at the girl. "Uh, thanks." In response, the girl says something and bows before she rises into the air and throwing the headpiece away. Having a feeling of what she was saying, Duncan just says "You're welcome," he smiles as he flies after her.

Six Gordanians are approaching them. The Tamaranean turns to fire several of those green orbs, hitting all but two. In response, Duncan forms two fire halos and toss them at the remaining two.

The decorative Gordanian lifts his arm to speak through a comm on the brace. "The Tamaranean is free and the Terran is more formidable than our reports say they are capable of. Fire the main gun."

The large ship turns to the direction where Duncan and the alien girl are fighting several of the Gordanians. Then, the front of the ship opens to reveal a giant cannon and the whole ship starts humming.

Duncan was unaware what is happening until he notices the Gordanians fleeing. "What's going on?" the girl starts shouting as she points back at the ship. Looking over, he sees the cannon. His eyes widen as something else occurs to him and turns around to see that the city is in that direction. "We have to stop them!" and he flies towards the ship with the girl shouting at him. "That's my home. I can't let anything happen to it." with that the girl concedes as she tries to catch up with him.

The humming increases as energy can be seen building up. Just as the cannon has reached its capacity, a draconic red kaiju slams into it, redirecting the cannon away from the city just as it fires, creating a new canyon within the dessert. It then starts tearing into the ship, making sure that thing can never fly again.

Duncan sighs. "Dad?" the girl turns to him with widen eyes and speaks as if she was questioning him. "Yeah. That's my old man. It's a long story."

Jets then flies past them firing at the remaining Gordanians. On of the jets lands not far and Duncan flies towards it and lands with the Tamaranean right behind him.

The hybrid's mom leaves the jet and hollers at him. "Duncan!" with Blitz not far behind her.

"Hey, mom," Duncan waves at her. The Tamaranean says something as she looks at the woman and back at the now approaching kaiju. "It's another long story," he tells her and then mumbles "One I wish I never knew." the girl then grabs him by the shoulders and kisses the hybrid.

As Belloc reaches them, he shifts into his more humanoid form, and then asks, "What is she doing?"

Margret tells him, "Thanking him, I guess?"

Agent Barnes then comments, "That is some thanks."

When the girl breaks away from Duncan she tells him, "Thank you for saving him."

Duncan just says, "You're welcome," he then shakes his head, realizing something. "Wait! You can talk now."

"I could always talk," she giggles at him.

"Yeah, but English?"

"Us Tamaraneans can learn a new language through lip-to-lip contact," she backs away to bow. "I am Koriand'r of Tamaran."

Blitz chuckles and leans to Margaret. "Better not let the lab boys at home base know that. I have a feeling they'd want to experiment."

"Agent Barnes!" she silently scolds him.

The hybrid introduces himself. "I'm Duncan. This is my mom. The Commando over there is Blitz," he gestures over at the two humans before turning towards the kaiju. "And as I mentioned before, that's my dad."

Belloc lowers himself to get a better look at the girl. "You are a powerful creature, with a strong will," he tells her before turning to his son. "I must say, I approve, my son."

"Dad!" Duncan's face starts reddening.

Margret looks up at the kaiju. "Belloc! Perhaps we should take things slow before teasing him," she then turns to her son and winks causing the blush to intensify. She then turns to Koriand'r. "Koriand'r was it? What an intriguing name."

The Tamaranean smiles. "Thank you. In your tongue it would translate as star fire."

"What happened exactly?"

Koriand'r turns away. "I was traded away by my sister to be a gift to Lord Trogaar. She said it was to be a peace offering to avoid war with them. It was not until on our way to their home world I overheard that there was never any threat of war and that my sister was the kind one to offer such a gift. I waited for the perfect opportunity to break out and made my way towards an escape pod," she then starts crying. "I do not know what to do. I have neither a home nor family."

Margret walks up to her. "Oh, poor thing," and hugs Koriand'r.

Belloc speaks up. "Don't worry child. I'm sure that MEGTAF can help out," he then faces the agent. "Isn't that right, Barnes?" and growls.

Blitz snaps at the kaiju, "You don't tell me what to do, Belloc! Incase you have forgotten, you are a fugitive of the United States Government," he sighs. "I have some contacts with the Plumbers and a few at N-Tek. I'll see if I can get some strings pulled. Now, you get back in your cage."

The king of kaiju growls, "Very well, Barnes," and begins his trek to his prison.

The MEGTAF agent turns to Margret. "Look, Margret."

"Barnes, please?"

"I can't keep doing this. I'm running out of strings to pull and there's only so many times I can pass off Belloc getting out being a strategy plan or a means to an end," I explains. "The higher ups will eventually catch on and not only will I lose my job, but they will not hesitate to rip up that contract of yours. Not only will that mean there will be no one to protect your son, but the war will start back up. So, next time, come to me first so I can better prepare a good lie."

Margret smiles. "Thank you, Barnes."

"Yeah, yeah," he waves it off then turns to the alien girl. "You better come with us so we can figure out what to do with you that doesn't involve dissection," he walks back to the jet. "and get you some actual clothes. Dr. Patel is going to love this."

.oOo.

"I love this!" shouts an ecstatic scientist on a communication screen in Agent Barnes' office. She is almost as giddy as a high school girl. "Duncan was one thing, but Koriand'r is something else entirely," she brings up several readings. "Usually, we'd have to deliver her directly to the Plumbers, but thanks to your friend, I can actually study and extra-terrestrial lifeform. Within reason of course," she can be seen pushing her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

Blitz skims through the data. "That's the thing about Max, he has a big heart. It's what makes us so different. He sees the scared kid and just wants to make them feel safe," he leans back in his seat.

"What do you see?"

"I'm calling it a night, Dr. Patel," he closes the communication link. Barnes then goes through his personal files and clicks on a folder labeled 'Possible Threats'. Within this file are various other files.

Coming Storm

Turbo

Phantom

Kurr

Titan

Firebreather

The Agent opens a new file labled Starfire and transfers all of Patel's data on his new guest to it.

End

NOTE: I know they might be obvious, but can you guys name the additional references/easter eggs I left in this chapter?