Arrow had gone over the room for all of a minute now, men thrown all across the floor, most done by him or the others, some however weren't. These men had compound arm fractures and broken ribs, dents on body armor that only made him think one thing.
“What the hell did these people catch?”
He had seen the footage. A tall teen in need of a haircut practically bulldozed through these guys, he didn’t need to throw a punch because anyone in the way got moved out of the way, forcefully.
While he continued to pick between the wreckage he tossed a glance at a dark cowled figure in the center of the room. On his wrist was the security footage of the lab played on repeat, his mouth in a permanent frown as he analyzed the footage over and over.
“So what do you think? It's something, but doesn’t link directly to the missing people does it?” Black Canary asked the man.
The figure stopped the video and held his unmasked jaw for a moment before replying.
“No, this is too shoddy. Rushed room structure, barely serviceable security. They were trying to be the first to identify whoever landed in that pod and failed. But more interestingly they have everything they need to start, meaning they had to have a backer.”
“Hence you wanting to catch them in the here and now?” Arrow added “To see if you could find the connection before this facility became self-sufficient. That about cover it Bats?”
Batman nodded before he moved to examine the pod in front of him. Reaching in with his gloved hand he took a sample and brought it up to his mask.
“Hyper conductive...Oxygen-rich...capable of reformatting based on electrical impulses..” Batman explained, “Based on the handiwork of our walking mystery I doubt this was for keeping him contained, some type of liquid-based biometric scanner perhaps...”
“Well seems like the standard ‘Keep em locked up until they get all the answers out of him right?” Arrow said.
“Or until he decides to leave,” Canary added.
Just then a red blur entered the room, a man wearing a red suit with a thunderbolt in the center took a seat on one of the sprawling desks without a care for the people lying all across the ground.
“Tracks went through the woods and ended down the road about a mile. Seems our John Doe knows about hitchhiking, maybe not as alien as we thought?”
“Or they know more about Earth than we gave them credit for.” With a flick of his wrist video from Batman's gauntlet started playing on one of the few remaining screens untouched by the surrounding carnage.
“Learned in school..? Is this a hospital? Was I-” an unsure voice spoke over the video. The kid in question was groggy as two scientists kept him talking while documenting everything on paper.
“Wait so he is from Earth?” Arrow asked.
“But previous video clearly shows them taking him out of the pod. And our recordings already confirmed that this is what fell near Lake Ivrith.” Black Canary added. “Was he taught English before arriving here? Is it similar to that guy you met up north Flash?”
The man in red gave her a haphazard shrug before turning his attention back to Batman.
“Either way we’ll have our answers when we find them, for now, let's get these men rounded up for transport,” Batman concluded.
“And the,” Flash paused for a moment before raising two fingers for air quotes, “Partnership situation?”
“Will be discussed later.” Without another word, Batman turned to leave before anyone in the room could stop him.
“Working with him again is going to be great…” Flash groaned.
“He has his charm.” Arrow chuckled.
“Well I will circle around another time and let you know what I see, it's your home after all.”
“You are the only one thinking that way so far…”
“You can really put it away huh…” Sam muttered.
Kye had so busy eating everything placed in front of him he didn't give it much thought. It's a problem that was going to be a big issue for the next few days without a wallet or bank account to his name, but for the moment he was content with every plate placed in front of him. He already had an idea based on the looks the Diners owner was giving him.
Between bites, he managed to speak. “Sorry, long night. I’ll slow down a bit. Just need the meal and the food here checks all the boxes.” He gave the owner eying him a thumbs up, which he returned.
“Don’t on my account! Good to see a kid who can enjoy a proper pot pie. Here, have another on me!” Placing the dish in front of him the man, or Parvy based on the nametag, gave him a shoulder squeeze before turning to fill up another customer mug of coffee.
“Thanks!” He continued to scarf down the meal. When Kye was on his second to last pot pie he touched his face, suddenly reminding him of something.
“Hey Sam, lemme see your phone real quick.” He asked.
Sam raised an eyebrow. “Why? Need to make a call?”
“Nah, they took a couple of swings at my face. I wanna see the damage.”
“Ok then here.” Taking out a silver phone, Sam went to slide it over the table before he remembered the small hill of plates between the two of them. He then awkwardly reached out and handed it over to him.
Kye quickly switched the camera and took a picture of himself and sure enough, it was him, but with a couple of key differences.
His skin was a bit darker than he remembered, a nice tan that gave him the golden sheen so many look to get at the beach every year. He looked younger than he was though by far, the wrinkles he started to get as a twenty-five-year-old now replaced with the baby-like smoothness of a teen. He couldn’t place his age but he guessed eighteen or maybe a bit younger, but from what he knew about Saiyan biology maybe he was still twenty-five and just would stay looking like he wasn’t till his eighties.
His hair and eyes were the same black and dark brown respectively, but now he had a lot more hair than he remembered, it was wild and long, not as spiky as he expected it to be but it did jut out in places. He had to admit the hair worked, though he didn't remember his eyes looking so sharp. If he wasn’t careful people would probably think he was glaring at them.
“Done admiring yourself?”
“Never, but that's enough for now. Lucky my good looks stayed intact.” Before Kye handed it back he took a quick look at the calendar.
September 20th, 20..10? What DC past? Though that could mean anything based on how these timelines could work.
“Keep telling yourself that.” Sam pocketed his phone, but not before checking the time.
“Anyway I have to get going earlier than expected,” Sam leaned back into the booth chair, “The suite I would be staying in is booked till next Friday. You could use the time not looking for a place to figure things out, so here.” Sam took out a keycard and held it in front of him. Kye eyed it for a moment before he spoke with a smirk.
“And you are fine just giving it to someone you just met? You're liable to get robbed like that.”
“Well any kid who can rob me deserves the money. Plus if it helps it's not my money that paid for it.” Sam answered.
“One of your trucker clients? Must be big, anyone I would recognize?” Kye asked.
“I get jobs from the only two that matter. It's easy money, but not my passion. The call I got earlier is someone looking for my real artistic talents.”
Kye took note of the way Sam seemed to light up when he spoke. “Oh, didn’t take you for an artistic type, what's your media? You a painter or something?”
“Metalizer among a few others. Learned it when I was down bad, you know.”
“Well, I owe you. I’ll stay around the city for a while and next time I’ll treat you.”
“I'll hold it to you.” Sam grinned and exited the booth. “Parvy, get the kid another and bill my normal account.”
“Alrighty then! Bring this kid around more often, he keeps you spending money.”
Sam exited the building leaving Kye eagerly waiting for another pot pie to eat.
Who knew a burger place could make this good of a pot pie.
When Parvy came around Kye was eagerly awaiting the next pie. When it was placed in front of him, he had to force himself to not dig in then and there and asked the question he's been waiting to ask Parvy.
“So boss! You could use any help around here? I don’t know if you can tell, but my wallet could use the help.”
Kye found himself in a relatively nice hotel room with his thoughts. After the longest night of his life, he expected to be dead tired and ready for rest, instead, the familiar energy radiating out of himself seemed to keep him wide awake and in his thoughts. Well, he wanted to tell himself it was just the energy and not the many, many questions he had put off, again and again, to stay grounded. Yet now in a quiet room with nothing immediately pulling his attention he could feel the runaway questions threatening his sanity.
What the hell is all this anyway. I spend a night out and end up in a tube somewhere that should be fiction? Makes no damn sense. And the only lead I have is to go back and politely ask the people who were all too happy to gun me down the second things got difficult for them...
Leaping off the bed with ease he began to pace the room.
I was lucky, met someone friendly, and was sturdy enough to go through what was practically a suicide charge with little to no repercussions. Don’t know how much of that was me or the new tail, but I can’t make a habit of that.
Tentatively touching a sore spot he was surprised to feel no pain. A quick look and the angry red marks had vanished.
Quick healing, durability, and strength. And when I figure it out, Ki…
An appendage came into view as he continued to pace.
As well as a new attachment that I can’t decide if it's a boon or a curse...
As he had it, for some reason he was in one of the many DC universes in a hotel room in Star City. Who or whatever threw him here had given him an upgrade and tossed him here with no knowledge of how or why. From what he remembered he had just enjoyed a nice dinner and went bar hopping with a couple of friends and then… nothing. Just a huge gap in memory and him suddenly waking up as a test subject for who knows what.
The question is, what could be going on that would need a Saiyan in the mix. Anything that could bring me here and give me the copyright makeover should have more than enough in the tank to not need me. DC has its own heavy hitters and planet-destroying people, why add another and not even tell them. Not like they would need the help anyway.
Taking a breath he decided to sit down.
He could entertain the thought that nothing brought him here and it was all freak circumstance…
No way in hell am I falling down that rabbit hole.
Taking a breath he stopped pacing the room. Looking outside he took note of the moon, it being only a sliver in the sky.
First things first, since it doesn’t look like I’ll be sleeping...
Kye decided to focus on the feeling, what he knew from all the episodes and chapters as Ki. It was what he had used subconsciously to protect himself and with little effort, he was able to grab it. He sat there in a trance for a moment, getting used to moving it around and feeling it. He couldn’t tell how much of it he had, but if his biology followed his pop culture knowledge, he should have more than anyone here. And with practice and training, he would have enough to…Well, handle whatever necessitated him being here.
So he sat there, meditating on the feeling for the rest of the night until it ran empty early in the morning and fatigue finally caught up with him. Deciding that was as good of a place as any to stop he took a quick shower and decided to sleep for a couple of hours.
