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Gone Native: Resurgence (ch. 57)
🕑 Added 2022-10-10 14:42:15 +0000 UTC"He's acting weird. He's plotting something," Elery griped, her hands clenching into fists as she lightly banged them on the admittedly sturdy dinner table. She guessed that it had to be when dealing with a Kryptonian. Even still, Elery noticed that the metallic surface was looking more than a little dinged up.
Kara gave her a rather flat look, "Your brother is always plotting something. I think it's the closest thing he has to a hobby." She pointed out, tapping a finger against the counter hard enough that her nail was digging a divot in the surface. Her gaze was fixed on a computer screen about genetics and other science stuff. Elery wanted to have some interest in it, if only to help, but as soon as her eyes looked at the walls of text and diagrams they just went cross and unfocused. There was a spectrum of boring and science stuff was on the extreme end of it.
"Yeah, against other people. But this time he's planning something for us. Saiyans! I can feel it. Olaive totaled a building and Brother just let her go. He wouldn't do that unless he was planning something," Elery theorized. That was the kind of thing that Tarble would instantly smack down. She saw him do it a bunch of times. But he didn't. And the only reason that he would would be because he didn't see a point in it because he was planning something that would take care of the punishment as a side effect.
Elery knew her brother. Inside and out. The entire situation stank of plots and skullduggery. Which were pretty much his favorite things outside of fighting.
"Have you asked him what it's about?" Kara questioned, her tone testy. Annoyed. Not with her, Elery didn't think. But, since Kara returned from the trip to the New Lanterns, she had been in a pretty terrible mood.
"Can't. Because he's off-world with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman. And Raven," she stressed that last one, feeling suspicious. Kara finally gained an interest in the conversation when she heard her cousin being mentioned. "See? He's plotting something and he's getting the Justice League involved. And Raven."
Kara frowned, "Kal didn't tell me he was going off world. When did this happen?"
"Do you even listen to me when I talk?" Elery questioned, pointedly asked, closing Kara's laptop with a snap. "They left like thirty minutes ago."
Kara looked briefly annoyed, "If Kal is involved, then you probably won't have anything to worry about. Worse he'll just shrug his shoulders and dismiss the entire thing," she muttered, her tone the sole definition of bitter. Kara thumped the table, her fists making dents as she worked herself up. Again. Kara would make a pretty good Saiyan if the whole Kryptonian thing didn't work out for her. Based on how much complaining she's heard, Elery was going to go with that it wasn't going particularly well for her.
"He also brought Batman," Elery pointed out. "He's a plotter guy too. They're plotting together. For something," Elery stressed, trying to keep the conversation on topic.
Kara's face twisted before she buried it in her hands, "I can't believe him! It's like he doesn't care that the Guardians engineered our species for extinction!" She snarled and Elery rolled her eyes up to the sky. It wasn't like she wasn't sympathetic. She'd be upset too if someone wiped out the Saiyan race too. Probably. Mostly because, you know… if Saiyans were extinct, that meant she and her family were dead too.
But it has been months since she learned the information and she was still bringing it up and getting pissed about it. How many times could you complain about the near extinction of your species because they were big dumb idiots that decided pulling up the floorboards they were standing on was the only way to power their technology? Sure -- the Guardians made it that the Kryptonians couldn't leave the planet, but they didn't make them blow it up.
"I'm not sure what Wonder Woman is doing with them, but I'm guessing something nefarious. She's a beard. People wouldn't think they're up to something because they have the icon of Truth with them, but I know better," Elery continued, pleading with her eyes for Kara to take the hint that she lost interest in the disastrous fate of her species. Seriously. Find something else to talk about. Please. "What do you think they're doing? They hid where they're going too."
Kara threw her hands in the air like she was the one being unreasonable, "I don't know, Elery? Does it really matter?"
"It does, because I can't take anymore boring," Every stressed, thumping the table for dramatic effect. "And that's what I'm worried about! Your cousin and Batman conspiring to make things more boring. And it's centered around us -- the Saiyan race," Elery stated with conviction. Earth turned out to be a bit of a snooze fest. Brother hogged all the good fights for himself. Understandable, but still totally greedy. Worse, he made it that no one else could fight the strong people found on Earth.
Lame. Very lame.
Then all the bad guys decided to leg it off the planet. Could be fun. If they ever bothered to show their stupid faces.
There was already a crisis going on. Mom realized that Brother wasn't gearing up for another war -- not one any time soon, and she was getting mopy. Same for a lot of Saiyans, really. The hero-force was meant to be a solution… but… all the really strong people that she created the force to fight ended up working on the hero-force. Leaving nothing but weaklings as enemies.
Humans had a word to describe what Ekery was suffering.
That word was hell.
"You're being paranoid," Kara sighed but Elery was shaking her head.
"He didn't punish her, Kara," Elery refuted, stating all of the evidence that she needed. "So, either he's okay with Saiyans crashing through a building, or…"
Kara seemed very annoyed to admit that Elery had a point, "Or he's planning something," she agreed after a moment. "Again, thinking you're blowing this out of proportion. What do you even think is going to happen?" She pressed and, admittedly, Elery hadn't really given that any thought. So, she gave a shrug and Kara gave her a rather flat look.
"He's going to make things more boring. More than they actually already are," Elery voiced the heart of the issue.
"Then find a hobby," Kara rebuked, thoroughly unsympathetic. Elery scowled in her direction -- why was she forced to listen through Kara's griping but she couldn't listen to hers? "I'm serious. If you're bored because there are no fights to be had, then find something else to do." The implication was pretty clear -- Kara wasn't in the mood to spar. Sadly. That sucked.
"I will if you stop obsessing over genetics," Elery decided, standing up. Kara narrowed her eyes, her nails carving a deep groove in the table surface, but she paused and let out a breath.
"You aren't going to provoke a fight," Kara said, sounding like Elery got pretty close to doing just that. Dammit. "But fine. If you're that big of a baby, then I'll hold your hand on this journey of self discovery.
Now who was provoking a fight? Eh, she probably deserved that one, so fair enough. "I'll call Broly and see what he does all the time," she muttered, reaching to an ear piece as she floated through Kara's apartment in Metropolis. Elery was still getting used to decorations in general. There were still pangs of moments that felt like things were too cluttered.
Broly picked up instantly, "Yeah?"
"I need a hobby. Give me one of yours,” She demanded, hearing a beat of silence coming from the other end of the call. Out of the corner of her eyes, Elery saw Kara dragging her hands down her face.
“Sure,” Broly decided after a moment. “I’m at home with Oliave,” he informer her, earning a nod from Elery.
“Lets get this over with,” Kara groused, sounding unhappy that she was ripped away from her research. Elery wasn’t entirely sure what she was researching but if she had to guess, it was a way to undo whatever the Guardians do to the Kryptonians. Actually, that should be something she should look into too. Apparently, the Guardians stole a bunch of transformations away from the Saiyan race, and she had less than zero interest in jumping through whatever hoops those egg heads put before her.
That went on the to-do list -- researching Saiyan biology. Actually, wait, no- that sounded incredibly boring. Amendment -- pay someone to research Saiyan biology. Much better.
Together, she and Kara took off flying out of the apartment from the window at a penthouse floor. Kara didn’t bother with a secret identity to begin with. She wasn’t exactly good at pretending to be human, and she didn’t have any interest in trying. It was why Elery liked her more than Superman -- from the sounds of it, Superman was way too caught up in ‘being human’ when he wasn’t. It was weird. It’d be like a human pretending to be a Saiyan when they were incredibly squishy. Like Robin. Especially Robin.
Broly’s island was as welcoming as ever. White sandy beach before a little inland the sand became grass and palm trees. The word peaceful came to mind. It wasn't really for her, but Elery could tell that it was for Broly. It only became clear how… unhappy he had been during the war. Wasn't like he moped around or anything, but since it was revealed that he wasn't dead, Broly was nothing but smiles. As if to prove it, when Elery touched down and pushed the door open, Broly greeted her with one, dressed in a pair of spats and an apron with an absurd amount of frills.
"Hey Broly, makin' something?" Elery greeted, entering his home that he shared with the last member of the 501st -- bird lady. But, she seemed to know better, and made herself scarce. She could forgive Brother for sending Broly away, but her? Far less so.
"Cake," Broly answered, turning his smile to Kara, who titled her head as she looked at Broly. "Hey Kara."
"Hey, Broly," Kara returned.
"Buy!" Oliave's voice rang out from the living room. "Buy, buy, buy!" Elery cocked an eyebrow, floating over to see her teammate sitting on the couch with a scouter on one side of her face. But, based on the text that scrolled by, it wasn't reading power levels. "DPR -- Sell! Sell, sell, sell!"
That was new, Elery decided. "What are you doing?" Elery questioned, going to grab the scouted, but Oliave jerked her head out of the way.
"Day trading," she answered, making Elery blink. She knew what that was. Mostly because back during the war, Brother used to manipulate the stock market all the time to secure money for the war effort. However, she didn't know that was still a thing. "It's a human version. It's like the wild west in the human movies since the stock exchange got closed down when King Tarble took this place over."
That didn't really answer any of the questions that came to mind. "What are you doing day trading?"
"Got bored. And making the numbers rise feels like winning, so I'm going to become the richest day trader in the universe." Oliave spoke and Elery glanced over her shoulder at Kara for an explanation on what was going on to find her friend looking every bit as clueless as she was.
"So… are you… going for high turn over? Bonds? Dividends?" Kara questioned, earning Oliave's attention.
"What's a dividend?" She questioned and Kara just backed away slowly in response, seemingly unable to respond. She probably didn't know. That was okay. Elery had no idea what a dividend was either. However, she had far more important things in her mind. It seemed that Oliave was one step ahead of her.
Oliave had a hobby. Something other than fighting. "I thought you were going to be the strongest in the universe?" Elery questioned, earning a shrug.
"I want to beat your brother at least once, but it's going to take me a really long time until I can. So, I thought that I should find something else to do in the meantime." Oliave shrugged again, making Elery frown. That didn't sound like a proper Saiyan attitude. That sounded a lot like quitter talk to her. It didn't matter how much stronger Brother was than everyone else. You kept trying and putting in the work until you surpassed him or die trying. That's how things were supposed to be.
Not… half assing it with focusing on a side project at the same time.
She felt like she was getting left behind, in a way. Especially when Kara turned to Broly and started talking to him about cakes and Broly was all too happy to. Part of her wanted to blame Brother for this -- if he wasn't so far ahead, then even the most head strong of Saiyans wouldn't be losing hope of beating him. But that wasn't exactly fair either. Brother shouldn't be handicapping himself for the sake of the Saiyan race -- if they were falling behind, then it meant that they were too weak to keep up.
Another part of her knew that this was.. inevitable. The War of Light was over. The golden days of nothing but fighting every day were over. Not without another war starting and while the thought was so very tempting, Elery didn't have it in her. Not when it was clear how desperately Brother was trying to build something peaceful. Even if it would be so easy to -- a single unprovoked attack against the Trade Organization? The war would resume in a heartbeat, but Elery couldn't follow through.
It wasn't anyone's fault for changing. It was her fault for staying the same.
"Elery? I'm about to start icing. Wanna try?" Broly spoke up, catching her attention, and it was only then that Every realized that she had zoned out in her own head for a long minute. The smells of Earth cooking were as intoxicating as ever. Absentmindedly, Elery floated over and accepted the icing thingamajig and resisted the urge to squeeze it all into her mouth. Instead, she started decorating the cake.
A handful of seconds later, Elery could admit that it wasn't as aesthetically appealing as the cake that Broly worked on in the meantime. But appearances didn't matter -- what mattered was what was on the inside and how delicious it was.
"That looks… good job, Elery," Kara offered, trying to be supportive and only managing to prickle her pride.
"Broly! Bake another!" Elery commanded, rebelling at the idea that she wasn't good at something. Broly just chuckled before he opened a pantry that was stockpiled high before he started pulling from the pantry. Broly figured out how to flash cook things with his ki, making it simple work to bake a factory line of cakes for her to decorate, each one improving ever so slightly, and the best part of failure was eating the cake.
If it could be considered a hobby was anyone's guess, but Elery had to admit, it was delicious. Earth food really was just the best. The best part of it was she felt herself entering the zone, as humans liked to call it. That state of mind when your brain dismissed everything else as white noise to focus on a task. She thought it could only be applied to fighting, but when she found herself creating a detailed picture of herself standing on Brother’s beaten body in a victory pose, she found herself in the zone.
Only to be snapped out of it when there was a harsh staticy sound coming from the TV. Her face twisting into a scowl, she turned her head to blast the dumb thing to pieces, but paused when she saw some guy wearing… was that a sack on his head?
“Time… and space. Two things that… twist memories…” Sackman uttered, his voice twisted and warped.
“Get the homeless guy off the air. I’m trying to focus here,” Elery griped, but Kara flew forward, her expression tense. She was tilting her head ever so slightly like she was trying to hear something. “You know the homeless guy?”
“It’s Scarecrow. A villain,” Kara answered while Scarecrow -- name was a little on the nose -- continued rambling.
“It makes people… forget. Forget the truth. That they are never safe,” Scarecrow continued, a harsh bitter edge in his voice. “Half a year ago, Earth was conquered and its people welcomed it in the name of security. I despaired. For I knew the truth. What Tarble offers… are lies. Sweet pleasant dreams of peace… and prosperity. He seeks to make the world weak. Pliable. Forced to rely on his strength and that of the other heroes of the world.”
Was that homeless man talking shit about her brother? He was. And as if to confirm it, he continued, speaking what Elery was determined to make his final words. “I shall make you strong. It’s time for the world to remember… remember what it is to fear…” And with that, the TV shut itself off like it had been before he forced himself on the air.
Elery wasn’t happy, “I’m gonna kill him.” She decided, crossing her arms when Kara shot her a look. Elery was unrepentant. That idiot needed to die for his own sake -- he was clearly too stupid to let live. He could breed or something. “Is he on Earth?”
Kara hesitated but shook her head, “I’m not sure. I didn’t hear the original voice, but Scarecrow could just be taking precautions. What did he mean by teaching the world fear?” Kara questioned, looking to her and Broly like they were supposed to know. Broly was already talking on the phone, from the sound of it, he was calling the Hero-force to let them know about the situation. Elery was looking at Kara, and because of that, she saw it.
The exact moment that her pupils constricted to needle points.
That, and the moment when she punched Elery in the face.
Comments
aj0413
No chapter today? Cliffhanger killing me 😭
Kabir Kumar
Could be a magic spell
ethan maloney
Huh, I thought Kryptonians needed kryptonite laced fear toxin to be effected?
