Justice League of Amazons: The Unplanned Variable
Chapter 5
…
Meandering through the alleyways, Adam looked about his surroundings with a cautious air. It was already beginning to darken with the sun slowly disappearing behind the skyscrapers. Adam knew he needed to find some reliable shelter, something that would be out of the way. The freelancer soon came across a set of railway tracks and figured he was nearing a railway station, but from looking at the considerable age and wear on the tracks themselves, it was that hadn't been used in some time. Following the tracks, Adam soon found what remained of an old subway station.
"Perfect. Just what I needed," the freelancer said to himself as he quickly entered the old, dilapidated train station. Walking up the unfunctional escalator, Adam climbed over the gates and walked past the ticket booth. Finding a door and examining the lock, Adam hummed in thought as he pulled out some mag-picks and placed them over the lock of the door. Almost instantly, the lock of the door gave a satisfying click and the door itself swung open.
Pulling out his pistol, Adam swept the room, wary of anything that meant him harm. A few rodents skittered away from the large intruder, but the room itself was otherwise unoccupied by anything human. With a relieved sigh, Adam holstered his gun and found the main office which was covered in a thick layer of dust but would serve its purpose for the time being.
It was a stroke of luck that Adam found what was an old military bunk bed. The previous manager must've sometimes used this room to sleep in, Adam thought to himself. A boon for him as he set it up and gingerly tested his weight on it. There was a worrying creak, but the cot held Adam's weight as he lay down upon it.
Lying back on the bunk, Adam stared up at the ceiling contemplating his situation. Figuring get a bit of shuteye would give him a clearer head, the freelancer closed his eyes and fell asleep.
It was almost an hour in when Adam suddenly heard the sound of footsteps that echoed into the office. His snapping open, Adam slowly rose from the bunk bed and put a hand to his pistol. Figuring that someone had tracked him down, Adam made a quick glance out of the office window to see the silhouette of someone entering the old station.
…
Emma had followed the trail of the mystery man from another universe to an abandoned subway station. Frowning slightly at the sight of dust and decay from years of abandonment, Emma shook her head and headed into the old station hoping to meet this mysterious man. Entering the dingy building, Emma looked around for any sign of her quarry. Using some psychometry again, the blonde telepath found the psychic footprints leading up the escalator and towards the main office.
Walking up the escalator, Emma shifted into her diamond form, her flesh becoming crystalline and hard as diamond but organic and flexible at the same time. Whilst she much preferred her flesh & blood form due to being unable to using her telepathy in her diamond form, Emma would hardly deny the physical benefits such a state granted her. It was certainly useful in fist fights where psychic powers weren't all that much use.
Finding the office door, Emma found it was unlocked and slowly opened the door. Looking around inside the dust covered office, Emma looked around cautiously. Suddenly the sound of metallic clicking of a gun's firing hammer being pulled back told Emma that someone had snuck up behind her.
"Don't. Move," said a decidedly masculine said to Emma softly but firmly.
Keeping her cool as this was hardly the first time someone had threatened her person, Emma spoke calmly. "I am not looking for a fight. And that gun you've got pointed at the back of my head won't do you much good against me."
"Then why look for me?" asked the man's voice evenly.
"Would you believe me if I told you I was curious?" Emma offered almost coyly.
"Curiosity killed the raptidon, as they say where I'm from," the man's voice said tersely although Emma could hear some small amusement in his tome.
"Are we going to continue conversing like this, or may I have a proper look at you?" Emma then enquired.
The mystery man hummed thoughtfully before speaking. "Turn around slowly and no funny business," he told Emma calmly.
Doing as he said, Emma slowly turned around to face the mystery man and was somewhat surprised by what she saw. He wore advanced looking armour that was coloured almost garishly in hues of blue, magenta and white with his helmet being made of brown leather. The pistol he held in one hand was of unidentifiable make and the other weapons he had on his person were equally unidentifiable.
The man seemed a little surprised upon seeing Emma's diamond. "Diamond? What… are you?" he asked.
"Mutant," Emma explained simply before shifting back into flesh & blood which made the man before her look even more surprised. "Besides my diamond form, I have some additional powers," she then said to him.
"I see," the mystery man muttered. "Who are you? Who sent you?" he asked.
"No-one sent me. My name is Emma Frost. You are?"
"Captain Adam of the Unreliable from the Halcyon Space colony."
Emma smiled thinly and said, "Well, that confirms what I heard of you at least. You're from another universe, yes?" she prompted.
"From what I've seen, yes," Captain Adam replied evenly. "I'd be right in guessing you are as well, I take it," he remarked.
"I am," Emma said in confirmation. "The how is for another time, but from what I've seen of this world, it's in rather dire straits," she added knowingly.
"Yeah, saw that as I made my way around," Adam said in agreement. "Which begs the question of why you came looking for me. And it can't be out of curiosity," he pointed out.
"I was… hoping to find a familiar face," Emma admitted after a moment. It wasn't quite a lie on her part, but it was not entirely the truth either.
Adam nodded in understanding and replied, "I guess I'd be looking for a familiar face too if circumstances were different…"
Emma smiled up at Adam and said to him, "Well, now that my curiosity has been satiated for the moment, what do you plan to do now?"
"Not sure. I'm betting whatever is left of the government will be looking for me," Adam admitted tiredly. "Not entirely sure I want to be put in a cage for the rest of my life," he said grimly.
Emma gave a thin smile and remarked, "Yes, I imagine they'd want to put you in a glass cage and poke & prod you to figure out how you're still alive."
Adam gave a huff and said, "Yeah, rather not do that…" Giving a sigh, he looked at Emma and asked her, "So, what now?"
"I was rather hoping you had some notion as what to do," Emma said to the freelancer. "We're both in a world unfamiliar to us, you more so than I am," she added.
"Yeah, not entirely what to make of these superheroes and costumed villains," Adam muttered dryly. "The closest thing to a real life superhero in my universe is Halcyon Helen," he stated.
"Interesting name," Emma quipped.
"Yeah, turns it was two people, twin sisters playing the role," Adam said offhandedly.
"Truly? How did that come about?"
"It's a long story and this ain't really the place to tell it," Adam said gesturing at the room they were in. Emma had to agree with him on that point.
"Then may I suggest somewhere more conducive to storytelling?" the blonde telepath suggested helpfully.
"Any ideas where we might go?" Adam quizzed.
"Somewhere I can have a hot shower, for one," Emma said dryly as she ran a hand through her hair. "And a bed with silk sheets so I can sleep and hopefully wake up back in my own home," she added ruefully.
"I dunno about silk sheets, but hopefully we can find somewhere that'll suit our needs," Adam replied as he holstered his pistol. "Let's get outta here," he said as and Emma then left the ticket office and made their way to the surface.
Reaching the surface of an abandoned train yard, the pair then made their way through the maze of broken down train cars and came up to a street. With Adam leading them, the two tramped down the street until they came up to what appeared to be a motel. As far as motels went, it looked clean and respectable enough to stay in. Given the state of the world, the establishment was abandoned as the workers being presumably male had all succumbed to the virus and the remaining workforce must've been given the day off.
"Will this place do?" Adam asked his companion who looked at the motel with a slightly critical air before nodding.
"It'll do," she said.
Breaking into the receptionist's office and using some bypass shunts to hack into the computer, Adam found a room suitable for him and Emma. Taking the keycard to the room, the pair of left the office and found the room they requisitioned. The room itself was a deluxe apartment with three bedrooms, a bathroom, two toilets, a kitchen with all the amenities and a living room.
"This to your liking, Miss Frost?" Adam asked putting on a humorous air of a butler serving his master.
Emma smiled in amusement at the humour in Adam's question and replied, "It'll do." Giving a more serious look, she said one word, "Shower?"
"Through there," Adam indicated the passage that led to the bathroom and the shower within. Giving a nod of thanks, Emma brushed past the freelancer and entered the bathroom where she stripped off her white regalia and stepped into the shower bay, turning on the hot water. Steam began to fill the room as hot water began to spray out of the shower head and splashed against Emma's bare skin. Emma gave a little moan of relief as the hot water brought an element of relaxation she hadn't thought possible after what she'd been through.
Meanwhile, Adam busied himself with finding some food that he and Emma could eat. He had plenty of food supplies in his backpack such as boarstwurst and such, but he didn't want to subject Emma to food from Halcyon's corporations. Searching the fridge in the kitchen, Adam found some basic snacks and drinks; it was a start and hopefully much better than the food from Halcyon. Taking out the food items from the fridge, Adam laid them out on the kitchen bench and prepared them for consumption.
After laying the food out ready to eat, Adam then looked over his gear, spreading them out on the table and took out some cleaning tools from his backpack t perform some basic cleaning and maintenance on them.
Going into what could almost be akin to autopilot, the freelancer cleaned and made adjustments to his weapons and gear as needed. Adam was so focussed on the task, he barely heard the sound of bare feet treading the carpeted floor and he then heard Emma's voice speak to him.
"Are you alright there?"
Adam turned around in his seat to answer the question when he stopped, a little gobsmacked at the sight before. Emma stood naked before, save for a bath towel wrapped around her, but even then it didn't do much to conceal her figure or her beauty. Her skin was perfectly tanned and near flawless like a newborn babe. Her ash blonde hair was matted by water from the shower but she looked lovely none the less. Her makeup had been washed off showing her natural beauty with her cyan blue eyes flashing at him, an amused smile pulling on her full lips.
"Cat got your tongue?" she asked Adam playfully.
Giving a small bashful smile, Adam apologised. "Sorry. Shouldn't have stared," He then turned back around and went back to cleaning his weapons and gear.
"Don't be sorry," Emma dismissed the apology. "Shallow of me it is to say, I rather enjoy male attention," she said almost proudly.
"I'll bet you do," Adam said dryly as he kept his gaze focussed on the task at hand.
"Do you not enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman?" Emma whispered almost sensually into Adam's ear. It was Adam's temperament that prevented him from almost shivering at the smoky timbre of Emma's voice whispering in his ear, but he couldn't deny that he enjoyed it.
Pausing what he was doing, Adam looked at his companion and replied, "I do, but I usually don't have time to enjoy it fully."
"Oh? Why is that?" Emma asked conversationally as she sat at the table next to him.
"Too busy for one," Adam said dryly. "I was so busy trying to save Halcyon from plunging headlong into ruin that I barely had time to enjoy beautiful things. Or find any prospect of romance for that matter," he added.
"Did you really have no time for such things?" Emma asked in surprise and disbelief.
"Unfortunately," Adam confirmed with a tired sigh.
"Sounds like a lonely life," Emma observed.
"A little, but I wasn't alone in trying to save Halcyon," Adam stated. "Besides Phineas who thawed and revived me from cryo-stasis, I picked up some strays along the way who became my crew," he said with a fond smile.
"Would you tell me about them?" Emma asked.
"It'd take a while to get through it all," Adam warned.
"I have a simpler solution, but I would like your permission first," Emma said.
"My permission? What for?" Adam asked quizzically.
"Trust me, it'll be easier to show you then explain," Emma told him. "May I?" she then asked.
"Um, sure, go ahead," Adam said cautiously. Emma then put her hands to Adam's temples and suddenly they were both in a vast field of white.
"What the? Where are we?!" Adam squawked in alarm reaching for his gun only to find no weapons on his person.
"Relax," Emma said to him soothingly. "We're inside your mind, this way I can see your memories of your life," she explained to the freelancer.
Adam looked around and muttered, "A bit empty in here." His tone was sardonic as he looked around.
"It was a bit cluttered when we came in here, I made some space so errant thought could come interrupting," Emma informed. "Now, think of your crew and the images will come to the surface," she told Adam who then thought of the first member of his crew that he picked up when he first found himself in Halcyon: the image of a young woman wearing mechanical engineer overalls stained with hydraulic grease and holding a large wrench in gloved hands came to the surface.
"Parvati Halcomb," Adam told Emma. "She was a engineer working in the Saltuna Cannery in Edgewater. She was born into the corporate workforce and would've stayed there if I hadn't come along," he explained.
"So, she was your first crew member?" Emma asked. "She seems like a very warm person," she remarked with some approval.
"She was, she still is," Adam replied. "She was also one of the most socially awkward people I had ever met, but in an adorable way," he said with some fondness. "I helped her more than the Board ever did and she was with me through many jobs," he added proudly.
"Did you like her more than a friend?" Emma asked.
Adam laughed and shook his head. "Nah, she was a little sister to me and funnily enough, I helped her find love with Junlei Tennyson, the chief and captain of the Groundbreaker. It was a whole thing with introducing Parvati and Junlei to each other and setting them on their first date together," he said.
"You talk abut not having enough time for romance, and yet you helped someone find love?" Emma asked in bewilderment. "You are a very bizarre man," she quipped.
"Never said I was perfect," Adam joked with a shrug of his shoulders. "If anyone deserved a chance at love then it was Parvati and Junlei," he said.
Emma smiled at this and said, "Who was next to join your crew?"
Adam focused and the image of a middle-aged man wearing navy vestments with a stern but serene disposition came to the surface.
"Vicar Max, a preacher of the OSI looking for answers to the Equation of the Grand Design," Adam recalled. "He kinda lied to me at first as the book I found for him needed a scholar to translate, but it turned out the scholar wasn't actually a scholar," he said.
"How did you react when you found out Max had lied to you?" Emma asked.
"I wasn't happy about it, but I learnt more of Max's reasons. He was a troubled man who was deeply unhappy and frustrated with his life as he couldn't find the inner peace that his parents apparently had," Adam explained. "We eventually found a hermit woman on Scylla who then had us inhale some hallucinogenic smoke and it was a trippy blur after that, but Max finally found the inner peace he sought for so long," he said.
Emma nodded and asked, "Who was next to join your crew?"
Surfacing was the image of a young man wearing worn looking crewman clothes with a bright-eyed eager smile on his face. "Felix Millstone. A stowaway orphan on Groundbreaker who had an issue with jackasses in power meaning the Board was right in his sights," Adam told Emma. "I gave him a chance to get off Groundbreaker and be a part of a real crew and I helped him realise some hard truths."
"What kind of hard truths?" Emma asked.
"Well, one dream Felix has was that there would be a grand revolution in which the oppressed proletarians would rise up and throw off the shackles of the oppressive Board of Halcyon," Adam explained. "I showed that there was nothing grand about a revolution, only a lot of hard work and that definitely sobered Felix and whilst he never had a head for numbers, he was always ready to lend a hand if needed," he said.
Emma nodded. "Who was next?"
The image of a stylish young woman with a short spiky haircut wearing a white leather jacket and her hand resting on the grip of her pistol was shown. "Ellie Fenhill; a former Byzantium surgeon who wanted to sell the idea of being a space pirate and outlaw who acted like she didn't need anyone," Adam recounted. "I helped her realise that even she needed people to turn to and rely on. I even helped her get back at her parents for cashing in on her life insurance payments," he said with some amusement.
"Life insurance? Ellie's parents faked her death?" Emma asked with disgust.
"Yeah, and they were both a pair of blue-blood Byzantiums who'd never worked a day in their life and they fabricated a story about how their daughter died tripping over in custom made high heels," Adam replied.
"Seriously?" Emma asked in disbelief.
"I wish I wasn't, but they did," Adam said grimly. "But I helped Ellie wrangle those payments by making a false account in her name, so her parents would have to learn make do with less," he added with smug amusement.
"So, I see," Emma said dryly. "Who was next to join you?"
The image of a dark-skinned woman wearing wilderness survival gear surfaced. "Nyoka; hunter and wilderness survival expert on the Monarch moon. Phineas often hired her as a go-between for the Information Broker. Nyoka joined my crew and I helped her make peace with the deaths of her old crew. I always got on well with her," Adam said.
"She seems like a nice person," Emma noted as she looked at the image of Nyoka.
"Yeah, bit of a drinker though and could really hold her liquor," Adam said with some amusement.
"So I see," Emma remarked. "Was there anyone else who joined your crew?"
"Yeah, there was Sam; an auto-mechanical cleaning robot repurposed for combat duties and there was also Ada, the AI pilot of the ship," Adam replied as the images of the non-organic members of his crew were shown.
"I see. And they were with you for all your adventures?" Emma asked as she gazed at the images of Adam's crew.
"Yep, they were the closest thing to a family I had," Adam stated. "They were with me until the end when I finally brought the Board down," he said proudly.
"Did you not have any family of your own?" Emma enquired.
"I… don't know," Adam said after a moment of thought. "I don't know if it was all the years of cryo-stasis or the chemicals Phineas used to revive me, but I don't really remember if I had a family of my own or not," he added sombrely.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked," Emma said softly.
"It's fine. Not the worst thing I've been asked," Adam dismissed.
Emma nodded and in a flash of light, they were both back in the motel room.
"How long were we in there?" Adam asked as he looked around.
"Only a moment passed in real time, but it might felt like an hour inside your mind," Emma informed him.
"I see. Well, I hope you learned a little bit about me," Adam said to the blonde. "And I think you need to get dressed," he added sardonically as he looked at the white bath towel wrapped Emma's body.
"I suppose I do, and I daresay you need to wash up as well. You must stink wearing all that armour," Emma noted as she looked at Adam's armour.
"Then I'd better have a shower then," Adam said in agreement as he stood from his chair and headed for the bathroom. Entering the bathroom, the freelancer then stripped off his armour and his underwear. Stepping into the shower, Adam flicked on the hot water and gave a sigh of relief as hot water splashed against his bare skin. Finding a small sponge and some liquid soap, Adam started scrubbing his body letting the warm scent of flowers fill his nose as he scrubbed his body with the sponge and soap.
After spending almost half an hour in the shower, Adam turned off the water and stepped out of the shower and wrapped a dry towel around his waist. Leaving the bathroom, he could hear soft snores from one of the bedrooms. Poking his head inside, the freelancer had to suppress the snort of amusement as he saw Emma sleeping on the bed in a position one would normally expect of a toddler. Shaking his head, Adam left the sleeping blonde lie and went to one of the other bedrooms. Climbing into the bed, Adam lay back and closed his eyes and went to sleep.
Then the feeling of someone or something entering the room alerted Adam and he sat up in bed and saw Emma standing in the doorway.
"Emma? Is something wrong?" the freelancer asked the blonde in concern.
"I… didn't want to sleep alone," she said reluctantly.
Sighing, Adam nodded and Emma then climbed into bed beside and curled up into his side. Adam felt Emma's womanly curves mould themselves into his body and he realised that she was naked beside. "You're naked?" he asked.
"I usually sleep in the nude," Emma replied sleepily. "Is that a problem?" she asked through barely open eyes.
Adam gave a small chuckle and replied, "No. Just don't get any funny ideas." His tone was warm and humorous as he said the words.
"Why? Don't you trust me?" Emma asked seductively.
"More like I don't trust me," Adam replied honestly.
"Well, I trust you to be a complete gentleman about this," Emma said sweetly as she settled herself more comfortably into Adam's side, nestling her head on his broad shoulder.
Adam gave a small smile as he lay back and closed his eyes and the pair of them then fell asleep.
TO BE CONTINUED…
A/N: There, chapter five is done and dusted. I know, another filler chapter, but like one of you suggested, Emma was the first one to find Adam and learnt a little about him. Next chapter, I promise Hawkgirl and her team will find Adam and there may be a fight happening as there'd be some misunderstandings on both sides, but it will hopefully be resolved when it does.
In other news, for my Witcher's Apprentice story, I was thinking about some crossover arcs that Aegon could go on. To that end, I've set up a voting poll on my profile of some worlds that Aegon could go to and so far, Lord of the Rings is the most popular one. If anyone wants to see another world take the top spot, you know what to do.
And that's all I have right now, so I'll see you next time.
Be kind to one another,
Angry lil' elf.