Vert pulled in first, followed by the others.
"Were you successful in finding the anomaly?" Sage asked as soon as he hopped out. She tilted her head at the look on his face.
"We did one better," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We brought her back with us."
"Her?"
The Camaro rumbled to a stop and Diana stepped out, eyes wide. "You, uh... You weren't kidding." She swept her gaze over their hideout before focusing on Sage. She took an uneasy step back, hand resting on her car in case she had to jump back in.
"Relax," Vert said, gesturing for her to calm down. "This is Sage. She's a friend."
"What... is she?" She didn't mean to sound rude but seeing the translucent blue being hovering before her put her in shock.
"She's an alien," Spinner said, appearing next to Diana and startling her. "She's one of the good ones though. Our job is to fight off evil aliens and monsters in inter-dimensional Battle Zones and keep them from attacking the Earth. We're basically superheroes."
Diana, speechless, nudged him away from herself. "I don't understand," she admitted, feeling creeped out. "Aliens? Monsters? I suppose next you'll say mutants."
Agura walked over and led her away from the elder Cortez. "Maybe you should let Sage do the talking. Sage, this is Diana."
"It is nice to meet you," the Sentient said, warm smile in place.
"Um... Nice to meet you too," Diana said awkwardly. She had almost convinced herself that the 'alien' was nothing more than a hologram; some sort of optical illusion. Seeing her up close–the weird circuitry and markings that made up her body, and the life behind her eyes–destroyed that delusion. She stared numbly as the strange being explained the Battle Force 5 to her, the Zones, the Reds and Vandals and Sark, and so much more.
By the end of it, Diana's head was swimming and her stomach sick with worry. "I need to sit down," she said, stepping back and settling onto Reverb. She was sure she looked nauseated.
"I know it's a lot to handle," Vert offered, about to place a hand on her shoulder before deciding against it. "You're probably wondering how you fit into all of this."
"I'm wondering a lot of things right now," she admitted, staring at the floor. "Portals, or Storm Shocks as you called them? I never would've imagined. There really are other dimensions?" It made so much sense and yet none at all.
"It's not what you're thinking," Sherman said. "The Battle Zones aren't their own little worlds with alien life on them. I mean, some of them are, but for the most part you're not looking at an alternate version of Earth." He suppressed a shudder as he thought about the Eclipse Zone and their evil doubles.
"But still," Diana said, in shock. "And here I thought you were a bunch of freaks living in the desert, building weird cars and harassing people." Her fingers gripped Reverb's grille.
"We're sorry about chasing you down like that," said Vert. "But your car was letting off some weird readings that were similar to those of the Storm Shocks. We had to check it out."
"I understand."
"Speaking of your car's abnormal readings, would you care to explain how it generated such power?" Tezz spoke up for the first time since her arrival.
Diana looked at him, face blank. "I'm honestly not sure what you mean. I was just out blowing off some steam. I wasn't trying to tear a hole in the space-time continuum."
"Surely you understand that there is something unusual about that car."
"It's my dad's old Camaro that he gave to me," she said, growing irritated. "Aside from the smell of cheap cigarettes and the fact that it seems to be a bad luck magnet, it's pretty normal."
"Normal does not send out abnormally high energy readings," the scientist countered.
"Yeah? Well, normal also doesn't chase down people who're minding their own business." She leveled a glare at all of them, sans Sage. The Sentient's presence made her uncomfortable.
"Easy," Agura said, stepping between Tezz and Diana and shooting a warning glare at the former. "What Tezz is trying to say, is that our sensors don't pick up ordinary cars. Yours was letting out some serious power that it shouldn't be able to. We just wanted to know why and where you got the tech."
The look on the other girl's face made Diana wish she'd never mentioned her father. "I don't know why your scanners keep picking up my car," she said after a long, awkward pause. "As far as I know, there's nothing special about it. Belts, oil, everything a normal, classic car tends to have. I've certainly never noticed anything while driving it."
"Would you mind if we took a look at it?" asked Sherman.
"I would, yes. It's not that I don't trust you guys–I mean, you're obviously not lying–but I can't say that I know you." She folded her arms. "I'll tell you what; you let me join, and maybe I'll let you dissect the Camaro."
Vert didn't miss the way everyone looked to him. Being the leader did have its drawbacks. He thought about the situation before responding. "You don't have to join us if you don't want to. What we do is dangerous and not for everybody." He knew he was taking a stupid risk here; if she went home they had no way of making her stay silent. She might reveal them out of spite. A part of him was wary of accepting her on the team, however. There was something not right about the girl and he didn't feel as though he could trust her, not like the others. And there was something up with that car of hers.
"It's not like I have anything better to do," she responded.
"I mean, if you've got stuff you need to take care of first..."
"I don't. So what's next?" She tried to hide her unease as they all stared at her, incredulous. The short one–Spinner, she recalled–looked skeptical. As did Agura, Zoom and Vert. The rest just looked some level of baffled or nervous, though Tezz seemed to be trying to analyze her. And then there was the Sentient, who was watching her with an indiscernible expression she didn't like.
"We will have to upgrade your car," Sage said when it looked like no one else would say anything. "I will scan you and convert your current car into-"
"Whoa, hold on, hold on. Is there any way you can just... build the car from scratch?" She pushed herself off Reverb.
Sage blinked. "Of course."
"But why don't you want to upgrade your vehicle to make it more efficient?" Tezz asked, nodding at the Camaro.
She put her hands on her hips. "What part of 'gift from my dad' did you not hear? That car has too much sentimental value to me." She gave him a hard look, to which he scoffed and left the area. She 'hmphed.'
"I will begin the procedure," Sage announced in the ensuing silence. She watched Diana flinch at the scanners suddenly surrounding her and thought for a moment that the girl might respond with violence. She seemed very defensive, though there was no denying the sheer awe in her eyes.
Diana watched the Shock Suit materialize with rapt fascination until the construction of her new wheels caught her eye. The car was built from literally nothing; the mechanical arms piecing together an assortment of parts that quickly formed a vehicle. When it was finished, she took cautious steps over.
"This is seriously mine?" Her eyes roamed over it. Electric blue to match her suit and looking far meaner than the Camaro. She noted the similarities between a '77 Firebird and let out a brief chuckle at how she'd once wanted that car more than anything. It was wider though, had thicker tires and sat lower. The headlights were narrow and the body lines screamed aggression, though it still managed to look futuristic. It was everything she'd ever adored and then some.
"That thing is so sick," AJ commented, speaking up for the first time. "What're you gonna call it?"
She turned round to face him. "Hm? Um, I don't know..."
"To complete the upgrade, you must name your vehicle." Sage hovered nearer and observed her.
Diana closed her eyes–ignoring Sage–and wracked her brain for a good name. She wanted something with meaning, something cool and worthy of the car. She opened her eyes and looked back at it. "Whiplash," she said finally, not sure why that of all things came to her mind but liking it anyway. She heard a grunt of indifference–Stanford, no doubt–and for the first time since her arrival in this town, she laughed. "I think I could get used to this," she said when the chuckles died down.
"Glad to have you aboard," Vert said, offering a smile. No backing out now.
She thanked him. After a moment's hesitation, she added, "Sorry about... before. I wasn't trying to be a jerk, it's just-"
"Don't even worry about it," he said, waving her off. "I didn't exactly make the best first impression either." He watched her nod and glance around, unsure. He gave AJ a look and said, "How about we show you around? You'll have your own room and we can move your Camaro into the shop so it's out of the way."
"Sure."
"I'll do it," came AJ as he strode over. "You won't believe how huge this place is." He led her away to the quarters and as she left she kept glancing back at them and her Camaro. She didn't trust them, that much was obvious.
"Do you really think we can trust her?" came Agura as the two disappeared from view.
Vert shrugged. "What other choice did we have? If we let her leave she could've come back for revenge. At least this way we can keep an eye on her." Looking to Sage, he added, "Anything weird about that car of hers?"
The Camaro sitting across from them looked like an average car. No special equipment or parts were visible. Still, it shouldn't have been capable of outputting that sort of energy, however small.
Sage shook her head. "It seems ordinary. However, I cannot scan it for some reason. Somehow it is blocking me. I would have to inspect it more closely to find anything."
"And we can't do that without her knowing," said Spinner from his spot on the front of the Buster. "And even if we did, she'd never trust us again if she found out."
"Maybe we can try to check it out when she's asleep?" Zoom suggested.
"And if she wakes up in the middle of the night to check?"
The scout shivered at Vert's comment, recalling her icy rage from before. "Nevermind. Totally not worth it."
"Like I said, we're just gonna have to keep an eye on her. Maybe once she starts trusting us more, she'll willingly tell us about the car. I guess I can't blame her for keeping secrets. Just... don't try and question her right now. Let's wait until she's less likely to drop out on us, okay?" They all nodded, though some were begrudging, and Vert waved them off, telling them to go about business as usual. Just because they'd gotten a new, highly suspicious member, didn't mean they could suddenly get distracted by playing detective.
Sage would figure out a way to analyze Diana's car in due time, he told himself. Whatever she was hiding would come to light eventually. It just didn't sit well with him to have to keep a potential threat on his team. The girl clearly knew something, but wasn't telling. It put him on edge to think of all the what-ifs, including one big one where she had gotten her hands on Sentient tech. That one would keep him up at night for sure.
