“Whoa, look at that!” A voice sounded out as two people entered the room from different entrances. I couldn’t help but speed up my eating process.
“They even got slushy!”
Wait, what where? I closed the fridge door and finally looked at the newcomers. The iconic Wonder Woman and the Flash, though I didn’t know which exact versions they were. Honestly, DC Comics as a whole had completely flown over my head in my past human life.
If it weren’t for YouTube videos, I wouldn’t even know half of this multiverse., though it was still superficial.
I approached the two and took a slightly bigger cup from beside them. The Amazon princess nodded at me before taking the cup that Flash offered her. Only then did he notice me.
“... Dude, that is a popcorn bucket!” The Flash needlessly pointed out. I ignored him to fill up my cup.
The Flash vanished and reappeared at the fridge to open up to a relatively full inventory. Although I had been eating just now, the two didn’t give me enough time to make a dent in the supply they got here.
The Flash whistled, closed the fridge door again, and turned into a blur. He left the room to explore the watchtower. I had been here for a while now, but after I had seen the training facility and the kitchen, I didn’t continue to explore much more.
There were some entertainment rooms and a library, I think. I had only glanced inside, but I lost interest almost immediately.
The Flash returned as fast as he left and told us he had found an awesome view to eat our slushy at. Well, he said that to the princess, and I happened to hear his words were a coincidence.
We then left for the view he had mentioned. He shot me some glares, but I didn’t know what he meant by that. Honestly!
We arrived soon after.
“-will act as an early warning system for detecting other threats of invasion from space.” A deep voice, which could be easily attributed to Batman, could be heard through the elevator’s door.
As soon as he had finished, the door opened and Flash quipped in. “And it also has a fully stocked kitchen. A slush Supes?”
“No, thanks.” Superman smiled slightly, raising his hand as a refusal.
“Mm~ This is delicious! They don’t have these on Themyscira.” Diana said as she enjoyed her first slush.
“Stick around, princess. I will show you the ropes.” The Flash said a bit haughtily, which made me worry Diana would take anything he said at face value. I had the feeling that his advice on life choices would cause the opposite effect of the intended effect.
“Perhaps I will,” Diana said with a kind smile.
“An impressive installation.” A stern voice sounded out from above. We looked up and saw Hawkgirl and Green Lantern slowly float to the ground right next to us. “Most impressive, but what it’s got to do with us?” Green Lantern finished and stepped forward towards Superman.
It almost looked like Green Lantern was our representative with him forming the head and we building the setup line behind him as he spoke to Superman, whose attention was on us. Batman stood to the side, observing us as he played the outsider.
Superman didn’t answer the question directly and instead turned around to the big window with the earth at the display.
“I once thought I could protect the world by myself, but I was wrong...” He turned around again to address us directly. He was certainly charismatic with his gesture and mimic, but I couldn’t help but stare at the earth inside the window.
It was a really beautiful planet, and it just hit me differently to enjoy its view like this. It wasn’t the first time I had seen it from outer space, but it stunned me every time. This sight also made me question something.
Was I an astronaut? Technically, it was just a man who went to space, so even though I hadn’t trained specifically for it, it still counted, right?
“... working together, we saved the planet. And I believe if we stayed together, as a team, we would be a force that could truly work for the ideals of peace and justice.”
“What like a bunch of Super Friends?” Flash joked.
“More like a Justice League.” Superman said with a confident smile.
“Do you have any idea how corny that sounds...” I was surprised to hear Flash say that, but I had to agree on that point. Flash continued, “... but maybe the big guy has a point. With all of us behind it, it just might work. Count me in!” Flash finished by laying his hands on Superman’s outstretched hand.
“Me too.” “And me.” Green Lantern and Hawkgirl followed suit and put their hands on the other two’s in a half-circle.
What is this? Were they boys scouts?
“My mother may not approve, but I find man’s world intriguing. I’ll gladly join.” Diana added as she put her hand on the others’.
I had already walked beside them while scooping out the slush with a spoon. Drinking it with a straw was too bothersome with the bucket. I would have to stick my entire head inside the bucket.
With a spoon, I could get most of it and just drink the rest later. Therefore, I had my hands full, so I just put my tail on their hands, which earned me surprised looks from the others.
... Were they surprised that I was joining them or was it my tail?
“Dude.” Flash said to me, and he couldn’t be more ambiguous with the way he said it.
“What about you Batman?” They looked at Batman, who was still standing to the side.
“I am not really a people person, but when you need help, and you will...call me.”
“Understood. Then we all agree-“ Superman started but was quickly interrupted by the Princess.
“Wait. J’onn is not here.”
“Yeah? Where is he?”
His life force wasn’t far away, in hearing distance actually, but I couldn’t talk. I was eating a cookie I had taken from the cupboard. I had already stuffed the bucket inside the trash can beside me. Batman had watched me the entire way.
Didn’t know what to say since he was silent as well. I could have offered him the cookies he probably had bought... I could have tried to be polite, but cookies...
Superman seemed to know where J’onn was hiding and floated towards a platform a few meters high.
It had a bunch of control panels with lots of buttons on it. It didn’t look off in this futuristic space station. Superman gave the Martian a pep talk since the Martian felt lost and alone.
A short few sentences later, the Martian joined us below. I looked around and found Batman had vanished. Well, not completely, since I could sense his life force... It was slowly moving away from the watchtower.
Now that I thought about it, he was one rude motherfucker. The group was having a moment and was holding a conversation, but he just left. He is one Badman.
“Justice League, huh?” Diana mumbled as she grasped her lasso. I wondered where her shield and sword went.
“What are you anyway? Former Gorilla? Meta-human? Or just plain old alien?” Flash asked as he pointedly looked at my tail.
“Alien. I am a Saiyan, a member of the greatest warrior race in existence.”
I heard a snort from the side. I turned towards Hawkgirl, who looked at me challengingly. She cracked her knuckles as her fierce eyes shone provokingly through the slits of her helmet.
“Want to test me?” I asked the woman, who smirked in response.
...
I rotated my shoulders before jumping on the spot to warm myself up. I shadowboxed for a brief minute and I could see Hawkgirl do the same. I had offered her that she could use her Nth metal mace, but she refused on the account that it was a friendly match and she didn’t want to hurt me too badly.
Like everyone else’s, I could sense her life force. It was certainly impressive, but not surprising. She wasn’t a human, after all.
When I first met her, I still thought she was human. I only dropped that thought when she said that she came from a world called Thanagar during the invasion. I could swear her species was mentioned in a video or two.
I always thought she was the reincarnation of an immortal couple, with Hawkman being her significant other, but I might confuse it with Hancock.
“Are you ready?” I asked her as I got into my stance.
“Born ready!” She said with viciousness in her voice. With a jump, she pushed herself into the air before she dived toward me with her wings spread. As soon as she jumped up, I was already on the move.
I kicked the ground and sent myself flying forwards almost parallel to the ground. I kicked the ground again and accelerated upwards, heading straight at her into her dive.
She pulled back an arm and punched as soon as we got close. I tilted my head out of the way at the last second. Her arm was brushing against my cheek while my fist buried itself in her stomach, folding her in half.
She folded around my fist, her mouth opened and drops of spit flew out. She was barely pushed upward since the force I had used had only barely canceled out the momentum of her dive, though now her ankle was in perfect grabbing distance.
I instantly grabbed her ankles with both my hands and directly started spinning. Before she could recover, I threw her full force towards the ground.
Just before she hit the ground, she managed to turn around and open her wings, giving her enough leverage to fly up again.
She turned around to face me again and I couldn’t help but smirk at the sight. I raised my hand and gestured for her to come at me.
Since her helmet only covered her upper face, I could still see the snarl on her face, but even without her expression, her roar clarified she was mad.
We flew at each other at the same time and just as we reached each other, she suddenly twisted. She spun around with her wings spread, using the edges of her wings as a spontaneous bladed weapon.
Without resistance, she cut through my face, and I could hear the gasps from the spectators. Hawkgirl was the first to notice something wrong. Her experience as a fighter made it clear that there couldn’t be no resistance at all.
She ignored my after image that was already fading away to turn around, but it was already too late. My leg was high above her face, casting a shadow covering her face. Her eyes widened, but even surprised her arms were already moving to cover herself.
Before she could prepare herself properly for the impact, my leg cut through the air and pushed her arms out of the way as if they weren’t even there. My heel crashed into the top of her helmet.
Her entire body was unable to resist the force I had put into the top of her head. This time, the force was more than enough to send her flying into the ground. Before the others could react, she already reached the ground.
The white tile she hit lit up, revealing a barrier above it. It absorbed the force of her body and caused her to bounce off of it. She bounced several times over the ground until Diana caught her and she lost all her momentum.
I was about to follow up, but a hand grabbed my wrist and attempted to twist it around my body.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” The Green Lantern growled.
“What are you talking about? This isn’t your fight. Stay out of it.” I raised my leg and buried my leg into his stomach, making him spit as he was sent flying.
If it wasn’t for the green light covering his body, that kick would have snapped him in half, but I knew enough about the Green Lantern that they wouldn’t die from something like that.
I turned around, only to have my head snap to the other side. My face stung, and I knew I was hit just now. I reached up and felt the busted lip.
I looked back to see Hawkgirl hovering in front of me. She had a fierce smile on her face, but it was more than viciousness in her eyes... she looked like she had fun?
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. I had known it the moment we had exterminated the remaining forces of the Imperium’s horde. She was “A kindred spirit.”
Her smile widened at that. “Indeed. I was already getting bored fighting thugs.” She rotated her wrists as she prepared to jump at me again, but she seemed to remember something. She turned towards the spectators and attended Green Lantern.
“He is right, you know.” She started, getting the attention of the others, “This is our spar. Don’t ruin our fun. If you want to fight, we can afterward or say beforehand if you wanted to join in!”
After that, she ignored them and started throwing punches. I weaved out of her fury of punches and the occasional kick and wing slash. I had to give it to her. Although her life force wasn’t as great as the others, obviously except for Batman and the Flash, she was pushing closer to her limits.
I wouldn’t find it weird if she suddenly started blasting ki attacks. This attune she was with her body and she wasn’t afraid to push herself. Unfortunately, hand-to-hand combat just wasn’t her style.
I pushed a punch out of the way for the umpteenth time, only to retaliate this time. My knuckles brushed against her chin, snapping her head to the side before it bounced back again instantly.
It was rather difficult to do much damage if I aimed for her temple since she wore a helmet and I couldn’t use too much force in case I punched her through the ceiling, wreaking the space station in the process, but I could aim for her chin.
No matter how tough one was if their brain didn’t match the toughness of their exterior, I could still rattle it, which could be somewhat counteracted with ki, but Hawkgirl didn’t have that experience.
Her posture buckled from the hit, and she was about to collapse before she surprisingly remained floating. Her dazed look faded as she looked straight at me again.
“I had underestimated you, but it seems your prowess wasn’t restrained to your weird light attacks.” She then put her hand on her hip where her mace was hung on a leather loop on her belt.
She took out the mace and grasped the mace with both hands. Lightning enveloped the top of her spiked mace. “Let’s turn it up a notch!”
Before she could swing, Superman appeared and pressed the mace downwards. “Now, now. We don’t want to escalate things.”
Hawkgirl annoyingly looked at Superman and I couldn’t help but do the same, making him smile wryly.
“It’s the first day. How about we get familiar with the station and with each other first before we... spar again?”
Hawkgirl’s mace was spewing out lightning for a bit longer before she relaxed her stance.
“Fine. Just for today.” She sheathed her mace again at her hip before turning towards me. “Let’s continue this another day.”
I just shrugged and responded with a “Sure.” before Hawkgirl and I made our way to the exit. The Green Lantern had a complicated look when he looked at Hawkgirl.
As for me, he glared at me, which I returned with a smirk. That seemed to have infuriated him. It should have been obvious that I wasn’t going to seriously injure her. Not my fault that he intervened for nothing and got punished for it. At least, he didn’t complain afterward...
We then went on and explored the Watchtower’s features, from monitoring to the inventory, gates, and the outer side of the station.
Afterward, we all sat together at a table and ate. I didn’t know when, but when I looked up from my meal, they were staring at me.
“What?”
“... are you starving?” The Flash finally spoke up. I looked at the plates that I had emptied.
“No? I just ate. Are you blind?”
“Th-that’s not what I meant! I mean, I eat a lot too, but this is freaky. Where does all the food go??” He asked astonished.
“Into my stomach...” I said before slurping at the slushy or Slurpee or icee or whatever the others called it.
“I- you know what? Fair enough. So, you said you were a Saiyan. What are doing here on earth?” He asked to change the subject. At least he had waited until I was done eating.
“Well, my parents sent me away before my race went endangered, with probably only a handful of Saiyans running around somewhere. After that, I was on another planet, but there weren’t any intelligent beings, so I moved on. I arrived here and since I liked it, I decided to stay.”
I wasn’t sure if the Saiyans were already hit by that ‘meteor’ or not since it had only been 2-3 years since my arrival in this universe. They might as well still be enslaved by Cold. It might take a few more years until Frieza decided to destroy the planet. I probably won’t make it to that universe before that.
“Oh... I am sorry I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Eh? Of course, you should have asked, otherwise how would you get to know me?” I waved his concern off. I then felt a hand on my shoulders. The Martian looked at me with camaraderie. Not too surprising considering that he too had lost everything.
“So, what’s up with that giant monkey mode I heard you had going on?” The Flash asked as he leaned forward as if I was about to reveal a secret to him. Well, it could be considered that way since the military had suppressed all the news about it.
I wondered how he got to know about it. Did Superman tell him? Either way, I should probably warn him. It probably won’t ever happen, but just in case he met up with Vegeta.
I narrowed my eyes at him and said to him seriously. “It is not a monkey mode and I would like you to refrain from calling it that, other Saiyans won’t like that description. And with not like I mean, they will probably beat your ass for saying it.
A Saiyan turns into an Oozaru when we see the full moon. Usually, we go absolutely nuts and destroy everything in our path.” I told them, which caused some eyebrows to raise.
“S-sorry and sh-should we close the blinds?” Flash asked uncertainly as he looked out of the window behind me.
“No, it’s fine. I can suppress it. If I didn’t want to turn, I won’t... usually.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but that didn’t reassure me.” Flash pulled at the neck of his suit. It wouldn’t be weird if he started sweating, “By the way, why do you call yourself Shallot, anyway? I get Superman because he is super, and Hawkgirl, for obvious reasons, as well as Green Lantern and Batman, but with your name, I am coming up with nothing.”
I gave an annoyed huff before responding, “Shallot is my name...”
Flash looked stunned before a bit awkward and just looked at the Martian and the Amazon. “Oh, and what are you two going to call yourself? Open for suggestions? I have some great ideas!”
“I never really thought about it, but for now just call me Diana.” Diana kindly declined his offer of help. I wondered when she would call herself Wonder Woman. Always thought she had adopted the moniker from her mother, which she used when she helped in the world war, but then again I had read nothing about a Wonder Woman for that time period.
J’onn J’onnz held his chin for a moment before he spoke up, “On Mars... before the war, I used to be a cop and we were called manhunters by the others, so I think I will go with Martian Manhunter.”
“Huh, fitting.” Flash said as he took a slurp from his drink. He looked around at the others before his eyes wandered to my head. “Cool hair, by the way.” He pointed at me with the cup in his hands. He was rather sporadic, wasn’t he?
“Thanks, I grew it myself.”
“Hah! Good one, but how much hair gel are you putting inside of it that it sticks up like that? It doesn’t even look sticky. Tell me, what do you use?”
I was surprised by the question because it was already normal to me, but I could see why it could be considered weird from a human standpoint. Even though there are humans with similar styles, they wouldn’t be able to pull it off like me.
“I don’t.”
“Ah, come on. You can tell us we won’t spread your secret.” The women in the group seemed to be interested in that as well, as they discontinued their own conversation to look at me expectantly.
“Are you going to ask me why I have a tail, too? I just do. It’s pretty standard for a Saiyan to have my kind of hair. And before you ask, I don’t have to do anything to maintain it either. I just dry it and then it will look the same as before.”
“And when you want to have another haircut?” Superman cut into the conversation. I wondered if he had to cut his hair with his heat vision. I knew that he at least shaved that way.
“Generally, the hair of a pure-blooded Saiyan does not deviate from its appearance from the day the Saiyan is born. However, it can fall off, though it is a rather rare occurrence. So, even if I cut it, one day it would just grow to have the same shape as before.”
“That’s really weird.” Flash said, resting his chin on his palm.
I couldn’t help but snort, “That’s weird? You are a human that runs faster than most beings in the universe.”
“Eh- Fair enough.”
“Is there some kind of watch duty and what will the schedule be like?” I finally asked Superman, since it seemed he called the shots when Batman didn’t. After all, it looked like the Justice League was his idea, or at least in collaboration with Batman.
I had already decided that I wouldn’t spend much more time with the League than I did normally when patrolling in Portland. It was cool being a founding member of the Justice League and I was geeking out because of it like any other casual fan, but I wouldn’t accept it eating away from my training time.
Superman was surprised before he nodded. He then blurred away and came back with a box in hand. He opened it and we found several small in-ear buds.
“These are our way to communicate with each other. With that, anyone from the watchtower could call you when there is a need for more members on a case. And as you said, we also need to rotate watch duty to see if there was a catastrophe somewhere on the planet or even in space. The member on duty could then alert the other members to take action.”
“There is no need for rotation. I don’t have a civilian life as you do, so I can be on permanent watch duty.” The Martian declared just as Superman finished.
“That doesn’t sound healthy, J’onn. Besides, I don’t have a life in man’s world either, and it would be a genuine shame to not experience it.” Diana said to J’onn with concern, and then proceeded to convince him to try to integrate himself into earth’s society.
It took some effort and, with just chiming in, he eventually relented.
Since we were 8 people, including Batman, we would rotate daily at least in the beginning, so everyone knew how to operate the most commonly needed commands on the space station.
I also suggested having regular training sessions to sharpen our combat abilities, but that didn’t seem to be well received by Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern, but with a bit of taunting the Green Lantern was eager to spar with me, saying something about humbling me.
I didn’t really get why I would need to be humbled. I just said that they needed some training to keep up with me and he was getting all mad. Even Flash, who ‘didn’t have time’ to train, was all fired up and wanted to knock me unconscious ‘before I even knew what had happened’. What a bunch of whiners and loudmouths.
With his experience as a cop on mars and after the war he had been through, the Martian, on the other hand, wasn’t dismissive of the idea of training. So, he had already asked me if we could train with our psychic abilities, which I obviously accepted.
I was the only one that had some advanced talent on the psychic side and could be considered the only real training partner for J’onn.
Superman was still declining, but one day I would convince him to have an all-out spar with me as well. Maybe I could unearth his potential then. I would make sure to make him call me Kaioshin or Elder Guru.
After making out the little details and some dates for our spars, we separated. I didn’t know where they were going to but I couldn’t care less, since my hot girlfriend was waiting for me back home.
I exited the space station and just let myself fall into the atmosphere. The gravity pulled me to the ground. I pierced through the atmosphere and I caught on fire. I aimed for my house and quickly dropped towards it.
Just a few meters above it, I forcefully stopped myself from destroying my driveway and landed softly on the ground. I looked at the house and I couldn’t help but frown.
I opened the door and looked around. There was no sign of her anywhere. The house seemed to be completely fine as well. I couldn’t sense her enormous life force anywhere near either. I stopped for a second and closed my eyes, scanning the entire planet for her.
“Whoa, look at that!” A voice sounded out as two people entered the room from different entrances. I couldn’t help but speed up my eating process.
“They even got slushy!”
Wait, what where? I closed the fridge door and finally looked at the newcomers. The iconic Wonder Woman and the Flash, though I didn’t know which exact versions they were. Honestly, DC Comics as a whole had completely flown over my head in my past human life.
If it weren’t for YouTube videos, I wouldn’t even know half of this multiverse., though it was still superficial.
I approached the two and took a slightly bigger cup from beside them. The Amazon princess nodded at me before taking the cup that Flash offered her. Only then did he notice me.
“... Dude, that is a popcorn bucket!” The Flash needlessly pointed out. I ignored him to fill up my cup.
The Flash vanished and reappeared at the fridge to open up to a relatively full inventory. Although I had been eating just now, the two didn’t give me enough time to make a dent in the supply they got here.
The Flash whistled, closed the fridge door again, and turned into a blur. He left the room to explore the watchtower. I had been here for a while now, but after I had seen the training facility and the kitchen, I didn’t continue to explore much more.
There were some entertainment rooms and a library, I think. I had only glanced inside, but I lost interest almost immediately.
The Flash returned as fast as he left and told us he had found an awesome view to eat our slushy at. Well, he said that to the princess, and I happened to hear his words were a coincidence.
We then left for the view he had mentioned. He shot me some glares, but I didn’t know what he meant by that. Honestly!
We arrived soon after.
“-will act as an early warning system for detecting other threats of invasion from space.” A deep voice, which could be easily attributed to Batman, could be heard through the elevator’s door.
As soon as he had finished, the door opened and Flash quipped in. “And it also has a fully stocked kitchen. A slush Supes?”
“No, thanks.” Superman smiled slightly, raising his hand as a refusal.
“Mm~ This is delicious! They don’t have these on Themyscira.” Diana said as she enjoyed her first slush.
“Stick around, princess. I will show you the ropes.” The Flash said a bit haughtily, which made me worry Diana would take anything he said at face value. I had the feeling that his advice on life choices would cause the opposite effect of the intended effect.
“Perhaps I will,” Diana said with a kind smile.
“An impressive installation.” A stern voice sounded out from above. We looked up and saw Hawkgirl and Green Lantern slowly float to the ground right next to us. “Most impressive, but what it’s got to do with us?” Green Lantern finished and stepped forward towards Superman.
It almost looked like Green Lantern was our representative with him forming the head and we building the setup line behind him as he spoke to Superman, whose attention was on us. Batman stood to the side, observing us as he played the outsider.
Superman didn’t answer the question directly and instead turned around to the big window with the earth at the display.
“I once thought I could protect the world by myself, but I was wrong...” He turned around again to address us directly. He was certainly charismatic with his gesture and mimic, but I couldn’t help but stare at the earth inside the window.
It was a really beautiful planet, and it just hit me differently to enjoy its view like this. It wasn’t the first time I had seen it from outer space, but it stunned me every time. This sight also made me question something.
Was I an astronaut? Technically, it was just a man who went to space, so even though I hadn’t trained specifically for it, it still counted, right?
“... working together, we saved the planet. And I believe if we stayed together, as a team, we would be a force that could truly work for the ideals of peace and justice.”
“What like a bunch of Super Friends?” Flash joked.
“More like a Justice League.” Superman said with a confident smile.
“Do you have any idea how corny that sounds...” I was surprised to hear Flash say that, but I had to agree on that point. Flash continued, “... but maybe the big guy has a point. With all of us behind it, it just might work. Count me in!” Flash finished by laying his hands on Superman’s outstretched hand.
“Me too.” “And me.” Green Lantern and Hawkgirl followed suit and put their hands on the other two’s in a half-circle.
What is this? Were they boys scouts?
“My mother may not approve, but I find man’s world intriguing. I’ll gladly join.” Diana added as she put her hand on the others’.
I had already walked beside them while scooping out the slush with a spoon. Drinking it with a straw was too bothersome with the bucket. I would have to stick my entire head inside the bucket.
With a spoon, I could get most of it and just drink the rest later. Therefore, I had my hands full, so I just put my tail on their hands, which earned me surprised looks from the others.
... Were they surprised that I was joining them or was it my tail?
“Dude.” Flash said to me, and he couldn’t be more ambiguous with the way he said it.
“What about you Batman?” They looked at Batman, who was still standing to the side.
“I am not really a people person, but when you need help, and you will...call me.”
“Understood. Then we all agree-“ Superman started but was quickly interrupted by the Princess.
“Wait. J’onn is not here.”
“Yeah? Where is he?”
His life force wasn’t far away, in hearing distance actually, but I couldn’t talk. I was eating a cookie I had taken from the cupboard. I had already stuffed the bucket inside the trash can beside me. Batman had watched me the entire way.
Didn’t know what to say since he was silent as well. I could have offered him the cookies he probably had bought... I could have tried to be polite, but cookies...
Superman seemed to know where J’onn was hiding and floated towards a platform a few meters high.
It had a bunch of control panels with lots of buttons on it. It didn’t look off in this futuristic space station. Superman gave the Martian a pep talk since the Martian felt lost and alone.
A short few sentences later, the Martian joined us below. I looked around and found Batman had vanished. Well, not completely, since I could sense his life force... It was slowly moving away from the watchtower.
Now that I thought about it, he was one rude motherfucker. The group was having a moment and was holding a conversation, but he just left. He is one Badman.
“Justice League, huh?” Diana mumbled as she grasped her lasso. I wondered where her shield and sword went.
“What are you anyway? Former Gorilla? Meta-human? Or just plain old alien?” Flash asked as he pointedly looked at my tail.
“Alien. I am a Saiyan, a member of the greatest warrior race in existence.”
I heard a snort from the side. I turned towards Hawkgirl, who looked at me challengingly. She cracked her knuckles as her fierce eyes shone provokingly through the slits of her helmet.
“Want to test me?” I asked the woman, who smirked in response.
...
I rotated my shoulders before jumping on the spot to warm myself up. I shadowboxed for a brief minute and I could see Hawkgirl do the same. I had offered her that she could use her Nth metal mace, but she refused on the account that it was a friendly match and she didn’t want to hurt me too badly.
Like everyone else’s, I could sense her life force. It was certainly impressive, but not surprising. She wasn’t a human, after all.
When I first met her, I still thought she was human. I only dropped that thought when she said that she came from a world called Thanagar during the invasion. I could swear her species was mentioned in a video or two.
I always thought she was the reincarnation of an immortal couple, with Hawkman being her significant other, but I might confuse it with Hancock.
“Are you ready?” I asked her as I got into my stance.
“Born ready!” She said with viciousness in her voice. With a jump, she pushed herself into the air before she dived toward me with her wings spread. As soon as she jumped up, I was already on the move.
I kicked the ground and sent myself flying forwards almost parallel to the ground. I kicked the ground again and accelerated upwards, heading straight at her into her dive.
She pulled back an arm and punched as soon as we got close. I tilted my head out of the way at the last second. Her arm was brushing against my cheek while my fist buried itself in her stomach, folding her in half.
She folded around my fist, her mouth opened and drops of spit flew out. She was barely pushed upward since the force I had used had only barely canceled out the momentum of her dive, though now her ankle was in perfect grabbing distance.
I instantly grabbed her ankles with both my hands and directly started spinning. Before she could recover, I threw her full force towards the ground.
Just before she hit the ground, she managed to turn around and open her wings, giving her enough leverage to fly up again.
She turned around to face me again and I couldn’t help but smirk at the sight. I raised my hand and gestured for her to come at me.
Since her helmet only covered her upper face, I could still see the snarl on her face, but even without her expression, her roar clarified she was mad.
We flew at each other at the same time and just as we reached each other, she suddenly twisted. She spun around with her wings spread, using the edges of her wings as a spontaneous bladed weapon.
Without resistance, she cut through my face, and I could hear the gasps from the spectators. Hawkgirl was the first to notice something wrong. Her experience as a fighter made it clear that there couldn’t be no resistance at all.
She ignored my after image that was already fading away to turn around, but it was already too late. My leg was high above her face, casting a shadow covering her face. Her eyes widened, but even surprised her arms were already moving to cover herself.
Before she could prepare herself properly for the impact, my leg cut through the air and pushed her arms out of the way as if they weren’t even there. My heel crashed into the top of her helmet.
Her entire body was unable to resist the force I had put into the top of her head. This time, the force was more than enough to send her flying into the ground. Before the others could react, she already reached the ground.
The white tile she hit lit up, revealing a barrier above it. It absorbed the force of her body and caused her to bounce off of it. She bounced several times over the ground until Diana caught her and she lost all her momentum.
I was about to follow up, but a hand grabbed my wrist and attempted to twist it around my body.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” The Green Lantern growled.
“What are you talking about? This isn’t your fight. Stay out of it.” I raised my leg and buried my leg into his stomach, making him spit as he was sent flying.
If it wasn’t for the green light covering his body, that kick would have snapped him in half, but I knew enough about the Green Lantern that they wouldn’t die from something like that.
I turned around, only to have my head snap to the other side. My face stung, and I knew I was hit just now. I reached up and felt the busted lip.
I looked back to see Hawkgirl hovering in front of me. She had a fierce smile on her face, but it was more than viciousness in her eyes... she looked like she had fun?
I couldn’t help but smile at the sight. I had known it the moment we had exterminated the remaining forces of the Imperium’s horde. She was “A kindred spirit.”
Her smile widened at that. “Indeed. I was already getting bored fighting thugs.” She rotated her wrists as she prepared to jump at me again, but she seemed to remember something. She turned towards the spectators and attended Green Lantern.
“He is right, you know.” She started, getting the attention of the others, “This is our spar. Don’t ruin our fun. If you want to fight, we can afterward or say beforehand if you wanted to join in!”
After that, she ignored them and started throwing punches. I weaved out of her fury of punches and the occasional kick and wing slash. I had to give it to her. Although her life force wasn’t as great as the others, obviously except for Batman and the Flash, she was pushing closer to her limits.
I wouldn’t find it weird if she suddenly started blasting ki attacks. This attune she was with her body and she wasn’t afraid to push herself. Unfortunately, hand-to-hand combat just wasn’t her style.
I pushed a punch out of the way for the umpteenth time, only to retaliate this time. My knuckles brushed against her chin, snapping her head to the side before it bounced back again instantly.
It was rather difficult to do much damage if I aimed for her temple since she wore a helmet and I couldn’t use too much force in case I punched her through the ceiling, wreaking the space station in the process, but I could aim for her chin.
No matter how tough one was if their brain didn’t match the toughness of their exterior, I could still rattle it, which could be somewhat counteracted with ki, but Hawkgirl didn’t have that experience.
Her posture buckled from the hit, and she was about to collapse before she surprisingly remained floating. Her dazed look faded as she looked straight at me again.
“I had underestimated you, but it seems your prowess wasn’t restrained to your weird light attacks.” She then put her hand on her hip where her mace was hung on a leather loop on her belt.
She took out the mace and grasped the mace with both hands. Lightning enveloped the top of her spiked mace. “Let’s turn it up a notch!”
Before she could swing, Superman appeared and pressed the mace downwards. “Now, now. We don’t want to escalate things.”
Hawkgirl annoyingly looked at Superman and I couldn’t help but do the same, making him smile wryly.
“It’s the first day. How about we get familiar with the station and with each other first before we... spar again?”
Hawkgirl’s mace was spewing out lightning for a bit longer before she relaxed her stance.
“Fine. Just for today.” She sheathed her mace again at her hip before turning towards me. “Let’s continue this another day.”
I just shrugged and responded with a “Sure.” before Hawkgirl and I made our way to the exit. The Green Lantern had a complicated look when he looked at Hawkgirl.
As for me, he glared at me, which I returned with a smirk. That seemed to have infuriated him. It should have been obvious that I wasn’t going to seriously injure her. Not my fault that he intervened for nothing and got punished for it. At least, he didn’t complain afterward...
We then went on and explored the Watchtower’s features, from monitoring to the inventory, gates, and the outer side of the station.
Afterward, we all sat together at a table and ate. I didn’t know when, but when I looked up from my meal, they were staring at me.
“What?”
“... are you starving?” The Flash finally spoke up. I looked at the plates that I had emptied.
“No? I just ate. Are you blind?”
“Th-that’s not what I meant! I mean, I eat a lot too, but this is freaky. Where does all the food go??” He asked astonished.
“Into my stomach...” I said before slurping at the slushy or Slurpee or icee or whatever the others called it.
“I- you know what? Fair enough. So, you said you were a Saiyan. What are doing here on earth?” He asked to change the subject. At least he had waited until I was done eating.
“Well, my parents sent me away before my race went endangered, with probably only a handful of Saiyans running around somewhere. After that, I was on another planet, but there weren’t any intelligent beings, so I moved on. I arrived here and since I liked it, I decided to stay.”
I wasn’t sure if the Saiyans were already hit by that ‘meteor’ or not since it had only been 2-3 years since my arrival in this universe. They might as well still be enslaved by Cold. It might take a few more years until Frieza decided to destroy the planet. I probably won’t make it to that universe before that.
“Oh... I am sorry I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Eh? Of course, you should have asked, otherwise how would you get to know me?” I waved his concern off. I then felt a hand on my shoulders. The Martian looked at me with camaraderie. Not too surprising considering that he too had lost everything.
“So, what’s up with that giant monkey mode I heard you had going on?” The Flash asked as he leaned forward as if I was about to reveal a secret to him. Well, it could be considered that way since the military had suppressed all the news about it.
I wondered how he got to know about it. Did Superman tell him? Either way, I should probably warn him. It probably won’t ever happen, but just in case he met up with Vegeta.
I narrowed my eyes at him and said to him seriously. “It is not a monkey mode and I would like you to refrain from calling it that, other Saiyans won’t like that description. And with not like I mean, they will probably beat your ass for saying it.
A Saiyan turns into an Oozaru when we see the full moon. Usually, we go absolutely nuts and destroy everything in our path.” I told them, which caused some eyebrows to raise.
“S-sorry and sh-should we close the blinds?” Flash asked uncertainly as he looked out of the window behind me.
“No, it’s fine. I can suppress it. If I didn’t want to turn, I won’t... usually.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but that didn’t reassure me.” Flash pulled at the neck of his suit. It wouldn’t be weird if he started sweating, “By the way, why do you call yourself Shallot, anyway? I get Superman because he is super, and Hawkgirl, for obvious reasons, as well as Green Lantern and Batman, but with your name, I am coming up with nothing.”
I gave an annoyed huff before responding, “Shallot is my name...”
Flash looked stunned before a bit awkward and just looked at the Martian and the Amazon. “Oh, and what are you two going to call yourself? Open for suggestions? I have some great ideas!”
“I never really thought about it, but for now just call me Diana.” Diana kindly declined his offer of help. I wondered when she would call herself Wonder Woman. Always thought she had adopted the moniker from her mother, which she used when she helped in the world war, but then again I had read nothing about a Wonder Woman for that time period.
J’onn J’onnz held his chin for a moment before he spoke up, “On Mars... before the war, I used to be a cop and we were called manhunters by the others, so I think I will go with Martian Manhunter.”
“Huh, fitting.” Flash said as he took a slurp from his drink. He looked around at the others before his eyes wandered to my head. “Cool hair, by the way.” He pointed at me with the cup in his hands. He was rather sporadic, wasn’t he?
“Thanks, I grew it myself.”
“Hah! Good one, but how much hair gel are you putting inside of it that it sticks up like that? It doesn’t even look sticky. Tell me, what do you use?”
I was surprised by the question because it was already normal to me, but I could see why it could be considered weird from a human standpoint. Even though there are humans with similar styles, they wouldn’t be able to pull it off like me.
“I don’t.”
“Ah, come on. You can tell us we won’t spread your secret.” The women in the group seemed to be interested in that as well, as they discontinued their own conversation to look at me expectantly.
“Are you going to ask me why I have a tail, too? I just do. It’s pretty standard for a Saiyan to have my kind of hair. And before you ask, I don’t have to do anything to maintain it either. I just dry it and then it will look the same as before.”
“And when you want to have another haircut?” Superman cut into the conversation. I wondered if he had to cut his hair with his heat vision. I knew that he at least shaved that way.
“Generally, the hair of a pure-blooded Saiyan does not deviate from its appearance from the day the Saiyan is born. However, it can fall off, though it is a rather rare occurrence. So, even if I cut it, one day it would just grow to have the same shape as before.”
“That’s really weird.” Flash said, resting his chin on his palm.
I couldn’t help but snort, “That’s weird? You are a human that runs faster than most beings in the universe.”
“Eh- Fair enough.”
“Is there some kind of watch duty and what will the schedule be like?” I finally asked Superman, since it seemed he called the shots when Batman didn’t. After all, it looked like the Justice League was his idea, or at least in collaboration with Batman.
I had already decided that I wouldn’t spend much more time with the League than I did normally when patrolling in Portland. It was cool being a founding member of the Justice League and I was geeking out because of it like any other casual fan, but I wouldn’t accept it eating away from my training time.
Superman was surprised before he nodded. He then blurred away and came back with a box in hand. He opened it and we found several small in-ear buds.
“These are our way to communicate with each other. With that, anyone from the watchtower could call you when there is a need for more members on a case. And as you said, we also need to rotate watch duty to see if there was a catastrophe somewhere on the planet or even in space. The member on duty could then alert the other members to take action.”
“There is no need for rotation. I don’t have a civilian life as you do, so I can be on permanent watch duty.” The Martian declared just as Superman finished.
“That doesn’t sound healthy, J’onn. Besides, I don’t have a life in man’s world either, and it would be a genuine shame to not experience it.” Diana said to J’onn with concern, and then proceeded to convince him to try to integrate himself into earth’s society.
It took some effort and, with just chiming in, he eventually relented.
Since we were 8 people, including Batman, we would rotate daily at least in the beginning, so everyone knew how to operate the most commonly needed commands on the space station.
I also suggested having regular training sessions to sharpen our combat abilities, but that didn’t seem to be well received by Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern, but with a bit of taunting the Green Lantern was eager to spar with me, saying something about humbling me.
I didn’t really get why I would need to be humbled. I just said that they needed some training to keep up with me and he was getting all mad. Even Flash, who ‘didn’t have time’ to train, was all fired up and wanted to knock me unconscious ‘before I even knew what had happened’. What a bunch of whiners and loudmouths.
With his experience as a cop on mars and after the war he had been through, the Martian, on the other hand, wasn’t dismissive of the idea of training. So, he had already asked me if we could train with our psychic abilities, which I obviously accepted.
I was the only one that had some advanced talent on the psychic side and could be considered the only real training partner for J’onn.
Superman was still declining, but one day I would convince him to have an all-out spar with me as well. Maybe I could unearth his potential then. I would make sure to make him call me Kaioshin or Elder Guru.
After making out the little details and some dates for our spars, we separated. I didn’t know where they were going to but I couldn’t care less, since my hot girlfriend was waiting for me back home.
I exited the space station and just let myself fall into the atmosphere. The gravity pulled me to the ground. I pierced through the atmosphere and I caught on fire. I aimed for my house and quickly dropped towards it.
Just a few meters above it, I forcefully stopped myself from destroying my driveway and landed softly on the ground. I looked at the house and I couldn’t help but frown.
I opened the door and looked around. There was no sign of her anywhere. The house seemed to be completely fine as well. I couldn’t sense her enormous life force anywhere near either. I stopped for a second and closed my eyes, scanning the entire planet for her.
