The Sector House of 2814 was a cylindrical spire of rock, stone, and metal. A mixture of harvested space material and alien technology, it was clear evidence that the Guardians provided their operatives across Guardian Space with the best of the best. Complete with a space port akin to the side of an Imperial Star Destroyer, the interior structure stretched throughout the overall spire, many floors hidden behind space rock formations. Scattered drones flew around the structure in elliptical orbits, likely acting as environmental sensors to ferret out threats or study the mysteries of space. Inactive engines remained dormant at what might be its base, or perhaps it was the top: the disorienting truth was that there was no objective up or down in space.
Three of the orb-like machines made of sleek chrome metal approached and bathed me in the emerald light of their scanners. I prepared for the worst, if only because it was unfamiliar tech. But a few seconds later, I saw the green energy field covering an entrance open, and my badge vibrated and lit up with a written message.
"Welcome aboard, Cassian."
Permission achieved, I touched down within the space, disoriented slightly as the artificial gravity of the station activated. The moment the port closed with the activation of the energy barrier, thick metal doors closed behind it with a whir of sound, the first I'd heard in days. I let out a whistle just to hear my own voice for a second, a half-smirk emerging.
"Optimal atmospheric conditions restored." The female voice of a computer declared. "Life support enabled."
A deep breath of natural enough air was soothing magic to my poor lungs. I'd had to take pressurized air canisters a few times throughout the trip, and to smell and taste normal, if packaged air? It was genuinely wonderful.
I almost longed for the polluted air of an industrial planet again.
The space port was empty apart from a familiar sleek white ship, one I'd essentially lived in for months. The primary body was roughly spherical, while two wings stretched forward. It was not a freighter, according to Gabriel, but was instead a cruiser meant to support only a handful of people comfortably. The amenities inside were quite nice despite that, and ultimately, I wanted one. That with combination of my abilities meant I could truly go anywhere, do anything.
"Cassian!"
I glanced up to see, approaching from an upper balcony, two figures. Gabriel carried a small bag in hand, dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. A kid roughly my age stood behind him holding a case of bottled water, a leather jacket across his torso. The resemblance between them was uncanny – dark hair, blue eyes, dimples, of Hispanic descent. They descended the stairs to greet me, and I grinned.
With two fervent shakes of the hand, I quickly ripped into the case of water and downed a bottle as quickly as I could, real fluid flowing into my system properly for the first time in days.
My stomach protested.
"So the pills weren't great?"
I finished the first and started a second, taking smaller sips. "No, they, uh, did the job. I'm a little surprised they worked as well as they did. They were just uncomfortable, and I left a pile of my vomit floating somewhere outside of Saturn."
"That is so cool," the boy declared with awe on his face, still holding the twelve pack. "Do you need another?"
"Probably, but I think I'm okay for now." I offered him a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Kyle. I've heard good things."
"Thanks, nice to meet you too." He hesitated for a moment. "I thought you'd be taller. And green or purple?"
I laughed, surprised he mentioned my height because I had a good six inches on him. "Green and purple are great alien colors, but no, my skin's just pinker than a human's."
My own skin tone was noticeably pinker than the average white man's skin tone, but it was fairly subtle. I hadn't even noticed that was a predominant difference between Osmosians and humans until meeting Gabriel, and my people had differing skin tones too.
Gabriel added, "Put him under an X-Ray, and you'll see more differences. Like the horns that haven't grown in yet."
I rubbed at my forehead.
"That's cool, bro. Are we talking devils, tieflings, goats? Ooh, a hercules beetle?"
Oh, Kyle Rayner would be a D&D nerd.
Gabriel cut in. "You'll have to show him pictures of what those are."
"I can draw them for you," he said with a smile. "It's just crazy to think you're an alien. The first alien I've met!"
"I doubt it will be the last," I suggested, earning a beaming smile. He was my age in this new world, but even if you did not count the years of experience in dangerous situations, he was clearly a child. I taught kids his age.
But the kid was Kyle Fucking Rayner. One of my favorite Lanterns from the comics, and I half-expected a power ring to come crashing through the wall at any moment to declare him a member of any of the corps. I vaguely knew through cultural osmosis that he had become a White Lantern with a lot of hard work, harnessing each of the colors. He'd been the only Lantern at a time when the whole Corps was temporarily dead.
And yet, the teenager was just a teenager here. I wasn't sure what to think about it. Was I inadvertently stopping him from doing any of that? If Hal goes evil, will someone else have to step in to stop him?
Gabriel pulled me from my reverie. "We should have the med-bay look you over for any malnutrition or dehydration symptoms," he offered, gesturing for one of the adjoining metal-plated hallways. "When I've been on spacewalks-"
"You've done a spacewalk?" Kyle interrupted. "Can I do one?"
"Maybe later," Gabriel said with a curious expression on his face. "Keep heading down this path, and I'm sure that you'll get your chance."
Kyle beamed.
The man continued, poking a thumb at his chest. "My Plumber suit keeps me mostly okay in space, but I can't handle more than short bursts, not long trips. And none of that without a helmet."
I could tell the kid wanted to ask about the suit, but there were too many other things to discuss. I filed it away to bring up myself: how Gabriel's implants and tech worked were as much a mystery as the Plumbers themselves were.
We entered the deeper parts of the structure, and both Gabriel and Kyle made a note of a few chambers that might be useful in the future. A gym, a data center, a fabricator, a lounge. Residential chambers, some of which were marked with glowing nameplates like 2814.1, 2814.2, and 2814.3.
One of those was for Stewart.
My lantern, John Stewart.
As we entered the medical bay, I tried to tamper down my excited thoughts. "Anyway, the trip was wonderful. More than anything I could have expected, and I look forward to the chance to do it again," I explained simply. "I've already thought of a few things that might help future jumps."
The two of them nodded. "You need a cool suit too," Kyle suggested excitedly. "Maybe one that could build in ways to have an air supply or water supply?"
I remembered the kid was an artist in the comics. "You wanna design it?"
The teenager blue-screened. "Wait. I could – I could do that! Can I, Gabe?"
Gabe. Not Dad. I glanced at the man, but if he was uncomfortable with that name, he didn't show it. That was not a situation I wanted to touch.
"Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Our fabricator can make it a reality, if we have the right base materials."
The kid's fingers twitched with excitement at the prospect.
The hall was filled with complex sensors and diagnostic tools. Earth hospitals would pay a fortune for any of these things, because noninvasive scanning tech like this? They would be invaluable. A medical drone hovered in one corner, corded implements dangling beneath its central, near spherical body. The thing was more than a little creepy, reminding me of, coincidentally, a grell from D&D.
A half-hour and a series of tests later, and my prognosis was ultimately that I'd face a few days of exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition. Nothing debilitating, and I suspected that there were adjustments I could make for future jumps to help avoid such difficulties. All in all, I'd made it to my destination with only a mild case of what I'd call "jump sickness" in the future.
Within the medical bay, I noticed a few gathered supplies and materials were left on the counter, while most other items were stored away. These were supplies for wound care, and I considered them for a long moment.
"Are those for me?"
Gabriel followed my gaze, but it was Kyle who answered. "No, those are for me. When I'm ready."
I looked between them both for a long second. "You're planning to give him the implants?"
The man nodded uneasily. "Not quite yet. I'm in the process of preparing, should they be necessary."
Kyle would be ready for them. This was a teenager destined for greatness in a few years. Gabriel mentioned a few things he was looking for first, but I turned to the kid.
"How will you know when you're ready, Kyle?"
"Oh. Well, Gabe mentioned pain tolerance, decision making, mental fortitude – I'm trying to prove him right every day."
That was the bare minimum.
"And the responsibilities that come with it?" I asked. "Once you have these, you'll have the basic tech to operate as your dad does. What does he do?"
Gabriel watched me intensely and crossed his arms.
"Cleans up the aliens and other weird things that slip between the cracks," Kyle explained. "Plumbers are agents that operate from the shadows to monitor planets and respond to threats from other worlds."
A fairly simple summation of what I knew. They weren't from the comics or any other adaptations I had seen, so everything about them I understood came from experience with Gabriel. That was what he'd done on Osmos V, and the impressive tech he'd displayed would have wonders against simpler foes than the Reach.
"We got a lot of work to do before you're ready," Gabriel explained simply. "But I hope to give you the chance. Don't want to distract you from schoolwork."
Kyle guffawed. "Gabe, there's no chance I'll ever need that. Even before I learned this was an option for my future, I didn't need to know anything about trigonometry."
Gabriel smiled conspiratorially. "He's trying to extend his spring break."
"Come onnnn! I'd rather be up here reading about space empires and studying Plumber rulebooks than going back to that place."
"I'm sure you would, but your mother made the arrangement very clear."
Kyle seethed.
It was certain that they'd had that conversation before, if not multiple times before. I wanted to help the kid out, but I also understood that school was important for most folks to get a good foundation for any career. Osmosian school had ended for me when I'd had to go into hiding, and some in Carnifex had tutored the children who'd gotten involved. Back in my previous life, I'd been a public school teacher. This topic was especially relevant for me.
But did I step in to help the kid? No. It ultimately was not my business to intervene in their relationship. Gabriel and Kyle needed to build that bond, without my input.
That didn't stop Kyle from trying to pull me into it.
"Cassian isn't in school. He's billions of light-years away from home!"
I held up my hands in surrender. "Not my call to make, Kyle."
"He's right."
Kyle sighed. "But if you had to choose? If it was your call?"
I studied the boy's father, whose expression was a mixture of emotions. I couldn't imagine being in Gabriel's shoes. It would be so difficult to not spoil the child you're reconnecting with, especially one who is already a teenager, to try to build a relationship. In fact, I wasn't entirely sure that taking him to the Sector House was not a mistake, this early in their reconnecting as father and son.
There were some challenges ahead.
But still, I did have an opinion.
"If I had to choose for you, I'd try to find a balance until your school is over. If you're really wanting to pursue Plumber business, wait 'til you get older to do it full time."
Kyle wasn't happy to hear that. "How does anyone expect me to go back to caring about the history of our tiny country when I just learned there are aliens conquering galaxies out there?"
I didn't have any answers for that. Not ones that would support going back to school or caring about the little things.
"The scale of the universe is much bigger to you, now," Gabriel began, "but you can't throw away everything you've ever known overnight. I did that, and I regret it. Maintaining ties, maintaining a connection to your homeworld? That's invaluable."
Kyle still grumbled, but the point had been taken.
LOS ANGELES
March 31, 15:58 UTC
TEAM YEAR ZERO
"Terry, you're not gonna believe this."
Kyle breathed hard as he recovered from his full sprint to his friend's place after-school, the first day back after spring break ended.
The gangly blond kid with too many pimples to count fished the work uniform from the pile of unwashed clothes on the floor. "I can't hang today, Kyle. Big Belly Burger needs me."
Kyle pulled his sketchbook and flipped to its latest entries. "No, but seriously, you're gonna have to check this out."
Terry sighed and studied the pages for a long moment and then shrugged. "You're shifting Aaron from a time traveler to a space cop?"
Kyle huffed loudly. "No! I mean, maybe – that's not important. What's important is that I found him."
His best friend had a dumb look on his face, hands still clutching at the visor in hand. "Found who?"
"Do you remember how weird I was those last couple days before break?"
Terry scoffed. "I guess so. We were supposed to hang out over break, but you ignored my texts. Figured you were in one of your moods."
… "I'm not moody!"
"You change moods on a dime."
Kyle shook his head. "None of that fucking matters, Terry. I found my dad!"
Terry blinked. "What…?"
"I can't get into the why or how, but he showed up at my house. Turns out that my mom's friend Gabriel is actually my dad." He pointed to the sketch of a comic strip still in development. "He knew my mom as Aaron, a fake name! He couldn't tell me all this time for some really important reasons, and-"
Terry clutched the visor harder. "What kind of reasons keep you from your kid?"
"You don't even know!"
Terry said nothing for a moment, checking his watch. "Kyle, I really gotta go. If you wanna chat about something real later, hit me up. Otherwise-"
"But I'm telling you the truth," Kyle argued. "I wouldn't lie about this."
Terry shrugged. "You're probably right. Good for you. I got a shift."
And with that, Kyle himself was dumbfounded. Terry blew him off, and Alexandra wasn't answering the phone. He'd wanted to hang, to tell someone in his life about all of the cool things that were happening.
Instead, he settled for catching a bus back to his apartment to wait for his mom to come home. On the way, he couldn't get the inspiration to draw more detail for Cassian's suit.
But he did sketch his own.
SECTOR HOUSE 2814
April 1, 09:07 UTC
TEAM YEAR ZERO
"Plan B."
I sat up from my bunk aboard the Sector House, grogginess filling my head. Interrupted dreams about Darkseid, about Nightwing, about Luthor, about Wonder Woman, about the Reach still filled my head.
Gabriel stood in the doorway, munching on what might be a breakfast burrito. Two steaming mugs of liquid rested in one hand, and the smell of fresh coffee filled my nostrils.
Real coffee.
Coffee.
I practically danced on the way to the man and took the offered drink, downing a significant chunk of it with a first swallow. "Oh man, that's delicious."
"Glad you like," he chuckled. "But we need to discuss your next steps."
I nodded and palmed some of the comet rock I'd salvaged in one hand. Ice flecks had long since melted, leaving the object mostly a cool paperweight in anyone's hands. For me, it was enough for a gauntlet of space rock to the face of an enemy.
"I can't just call them up," I argued. "You said you don't have a good relationship with them."
Gabriel considered it for a moment and then shook his head. "'Fraid not. It's a long story, and I'm not above trying to make amends, but that's easier said than done."
He hadn't explained why he didn't get along with the Justice League, and the fact that he wasn't willing to be more candid frustrated me. He was entitled to that respect, though, so I left it alone.
"I tried to just request help from the Guardians, and that didn't work." I wanted to pace back and forth, a habit I formed in my first life and repeated here. "I want to approach them, but I also want them to understand who I am, what I'm about, why I'm doing what I'm doing."
Gabriel nodded, taking a swig of his own cup. "Making a name for yourself is not a bad plan. The Lanterns could just read your file, though, and learn all there is to know."
Point taken, but not enough. "Maybe so. I never planned to come to Earth and sit on my ass. I'm not under any illusion that I'm strong enough to fight the Reach single-handedly. If the GLC are going to blow the bugs off, then I'll earn the League's trust first, maybe gain more powers for myself in the meantime. Asking them to get involved in an intergalactic war that doesn't involve them directly is a tall order."
The Justice League were paragons, but they were new. From what the man had told me, many of their most iconic faces were members, including Lantern Jordan and Lantern Stewart. They had the means to step into intergalactic affairs, but a more established Justice League would do it better. As they were, they might not be ready or able to intervene.
The Justice League in the comics, the movies, the cartoons – they were capable of breaking a space empire over their knees. Superman and Wonder Woman alone were so close to invulnerable that the Reach would be hard-pressed to put them down, and what was a Beetle going to do against the damn Flash? With Batman at the head of their strategy, I was certain that the League could squash the bugs.
"They won't abandon Earth for some punk alien kid," I almost whispered. "But an ally with a good record? With Plumber connections? One with a planet's dictator for an uncle?"
The recipe was there, but there were several missing ingredients. I wanted to avenge the injustice against Osmos V. I wanted to stop the Reach from ripping apart more planets, from killing more mothers or fathers, to end their scourge. I had my sights set on the Reach, but I did not wish to simply fly to their homeworld and ineffectively throw myself against their defenses. Osmos V would need time to prepare for an offensive, and I had to prepare myself.
"It's a solid plan," Gabriel stated carefully. "Get in their good graces, make friends, convince those friends to help you do the universe a favor."
They were far more likely to spend resources to prepare for a problem if they knew and cared for someone affected. The Justice League were powerful, but there were dozens of space empires as bad or worse. The Thanagarians, the Khundians, the Gordanians -
…. Oh.
I laughed.
"What?"
I'm a moron. My first outing in Sanitas, the day my mother first showed her abilities. The story of Osmos V fighting off an alien horde of bird-men. In my defense, they never talked about nth metal or Thanagar directly – I thought it was a metaphor for damn angels or something!
"Never mind, I just made myself laugh."
If I had known this was the DC Universe all that time ago, I might have changed the way I'd done things.
"From what I've read since I've been gone, a lot of the League's heavy hitters have started training sidekicks over the last few years," Gabriel suggested finally, "kids around your age. Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman and Troia, Flash and Kid Flash - you'd do well to approach one of them."
Hmm.
Maybe this was the one time looking fifteen would be an advantage.106