(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: A whole new woooorld!

-x-X-x-

“Alright Donald, what are we looking at?”

Cecil Stedman was used to running on fumes and being called in for emergencies at any and all times. As such, he’s not any more grouchy than usual as he steps foot in the Global Defense Agency’s command center, a cup of piss poor coffee in his hand.

Donald Ferguson, his right-hand man, turns to face Cecil and shrugs helplessly.

“We… don’t know sir.”

That causes Cecil’s eyes to narrow, the balding GDA director huffing as he turns to the large monitor that dominates one wall of the room.

“You don’t know. Donald, now is not the time to be wishy washy. Tell me what you do know.”

Almost immediately after that, the screen comes alive with photos. Not live video, much to Cecil’s consternation, but then to be fair, the reason why becomes obvious fairly quickly. The photos aren’t of anywhere on Earth where they could easily send a GDA camera drone to get them eyes and ears on the ground. No, rather… the photos are of the moon.

“Our satellites picked up the appearance of what is clearly an alien spaceship half an hour ago. It first showed up hovering near the moon before flying around to the dark side where we’ve since lost the ability to monitor it directly.”

Frowning, Cecil takes in what they do have. Donald is right, it’s very clearly a spaceship. The photos are more than good enough to pick that up. However, it’s… strange. The spaceship is rounded, like a classic flying saucer that turns into a dome at the top. But the way it’s built up, the way it’s designed… why does it scream human to him?

Cecil has always relied on a combination of information and his own goddamn instincts to do his job properly. He can’t exactly explain why the architecture of the ship he’s looking at feels human, but it also doesn’t really matter in the end.

“What do you mean by appeared, exactly? Do we have any idea where it came from? A direction at least?”

But Donald just shakes his head.

“No sir. That’s the problem… it didn’t come from anywhere outside of our solar system. It didn’t come from anywhere inside of our solar system either. One moment there was nothing there and the next… it was just floating there occupying space that had just been empty.”

Huh. That was… intriguing. And obviously concerning. They’d just got done dealing with interdimensional invaders in the form of the Flaxans and their blasted portals. And while GDA had their own teleportation technology, it was nothing on the level of being able to move a ship this size from point to point.

Under normal circumstances, Cecil would send the Guardians to track down this flying saucer and ensure it wasn’t a threat to Earth. Unfortunately, these weren’t normal circumstances…

“Damn it Donald. We really don’t need this right now.”

“I know sir. But I also knew you’d want to be informed.”

Damn straight he wanted to be informed. Still, this was perhaps the worst possible time for something like this to show up. They were dealing with a budding crisis that Cecil wasn’t even sure they would survive… in the form of a traitorous, murderous Omni-Man.

It had taken several long months to pin down the murderer of the original Guardians of the Globe. Months in which Cecil’s suspicions had grown more and more as evidence piled up against Omni-Man. The idea that he would turn on his fellow heroes and slaughter them all was initially unthinkable, but that was precisely Cecil’s job… to consider the unthinkable and develop countermeasures in the event of the worst case scenario.

Throughout his career as first an agent and then director of the Global Defense Agency, Cecil had always managed to find a way to safeguard the Earth by leveraging the numerous resources at his disposal. Be they weapons, personnel, or otherwise. However, there was no denying that Omni-Man, Nolan Grayson, had steadily become Cecil’s greatest asset.

And now… it seemed that he might just be their greatest threat.

Everything was steadily coming to a head too and it was becoming clear that Nolan was no longer buying Cecil’s excuses about Damien Darkblood.

Now, on the eve of exposing Omni-Man for the lying murderer he was and their best attempt at bringing him to justice… there was this spanner in the works. Cecil liked to think he was a decent multitasker, but he was already split too many different ways as is… they all were.

“We can’t worry about this right now. Things are coming to a head… you’re needed in the Grayson’s neighborhood and we need all of our focus and resources on the Omni-Man issue.”

Donald nods… but hesitates as well, as is his tendency.

“Are we just going to ignore this then, sir?”

Cecil huffs and shakes his head.

“I didn’t say that. The Global Defense Agency and the Guardians of the Globe might be tied up, but that doesn’t mean we’re completely out of resources…”

-x-X-x-

Samantha Eve Wilkins, known to most of her friends and family as Eve and to everyone else as Atom Eve, groans as she slowly wakes up. Stretching this way and that, the red head stares at the ceiling of her treehouse for a moment before sighing and lifting herself up in bed enough to begin making coffee.

This involves her laying on her side while reaching out with a hand and using her powers to handle the entire process. She can manipulate matter on a molecular and subatomic level, so it’s not like this is all that difficult for her… it’s just that she has to maintain conscious intent and precise visualization in her mind if she doesn’t want her powers to go haywire.

It sometimes feels like nobody understands her or how difficult her powers really are to wield… but then, that’s sort of why she’s hot here, isn’t it? After breaking up with Rex over cheating on her with Dupli-Kate, Eve had been up for joining the new Guardians of the Globe… but not with either of them on it.

And yet, even if the Teen Team was gone and she wasn’t a Guardian, Eve still considered herself a superhero. She wasn’t going to give up on helping people… on saving people, just because things didn’t quite work out the way she wanted them to. She certainly wasn’t going to give up on it just to placate her father.

As she finishes her cup of coffee and brings it over to her hands, Eve fully sits up in bed, sighing and blowing on the steaming cup for a few seconds before taking a tentative sip. It’s perfect, of course… but then, she’d known it would be since she was involved in literally every step of its creation.

Unfortunately, she only gets about halfway through the cup before her phone begins to ring. Wrinkling her nose, Eve looks over to see who’s calling… only to let out a groan. With a shake of her head, she ignores the call and goes right back to her coffee.

… Only, a moment after the call fails to go through, a familiar voice calls out anyways just as a Global Defense Agency Drone comes floating into view through the opening of her treehouse.

“Atom Eve. Not picking up your phone now? I thought you wanted to help people.”

Eve groans again, covering her face with her palm.

“Seriously? Sending a drone? Can’t you take a hint?”

Cecil Stedman’s voice responds through the drone, his usual acerbic personality reading loud and clear despite the slightly robotic tone.

“We don’t have the luxury of ‘taking hints’ and giving ‘cold shoulders’ in our line of work, Atom Eve. I accepted your refusal to join the Guardians because frankly, if a single bad breakup was enough to sway you, then you weren’t a good fit for the team.”

Eve’s eyes widen in outrage and she nearly destroys the drone instinctively in retaliation… but manages to pull back at the last second before the urge can overtake her. Still, how dare he?! Cecil continues on though before she can give him a piece of her mind.

“You’re still a hero though, aren’t you? You’ve been working independently for a bit now and we’ve been keeping an eye on you. You’ve been doing good work, even if you’d do better with a team.”

Wait… was he complimenting her? Eve blinks, caught off guard by the sudden change of pace. Seriously, what was with him?! Initially, she’s a little flattered. Cecil might be a bastard of an asshole, but he’s the kind of bastard of an asshole you can’t help but want to be recognized by.

Only, Eve isn’t an idiot. It takes her all of a few seconds to realize why he’s probably buttering her up. At which point, she huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, glaring at the camera drone.

“You can quit it with the Katy Perry routine, Director and just get to the part where you ask me for whatever it is you want from me. Also, you’re lucky I’m eighteen and don’t sleep naked, asshole.”

There’s a pause at that and Eve wonders just how many people from GDA are on the other end of the line watching her stand her ground. She hopes it’s a lot. For a long moment, she even wonders if Cecil would back out without ever actually asking for whatever he came here for. Might be he does if he deems her ‘too emotional’ for the work.

… But no. In the end, the pause ends with an exasperated sigh followed by Cecil.

“I’m not even going to ask what Katy Perry has to do with anything-”

“One moment you’re hot and the next you’re cold. It’s simple.”

Another pause, this one much briefer.

“… There’s been an extraterrestrial spaceship sighted in orbit. It’s currently hiding on the dark side of the Moon and I need you to go up there, check it out and report back to me.”

Eve blinks as she takes in the request. Then, she frowns.

“You want me to go to the Moon? Are you crazy?!”

“What I want is for you to investigate a potential threat to Earth. You know, like any superhero would.”

Her eyes narrow at the blatant provocation.

“Fuck off. Don’t act like you don’t have a bunch of other options to send.”

“I don’t.”

His immediate and certain-sounding answer catches Eve off guard and makes her go quiet.

“There is a situation currently brewing on Earth that I need almost all hands on deck for. Even the Guardians of the Globe are being kept on high alert. However, you are not a Guardian… you specifically turned down the chance to become one. Right now, Atom Eve, you are the only individual with the powerset needed to do this mission.”

Eve’s hands curl into fists and she slowly rises from her bed at long last.

“How exactly does that make any sense? If shit is about to hit the fan here on Earth, then I need to be here. You need me.”

“What I need is someone to investigate the spaceship hiding on the dark side of the Moon. What I need is for you to prove to me that you can follow orders and do what’s right for Earth rather than just what you want to do. What I need is for you to get a move on and figure out if we’re dealing with another goddamn alien invasion.”

Even though he’s not there, even though he’s just talking to her through a damn camera drone… Eve has to admit, Cecil’s larger than life personality and attitude make it feel like he’s there all the same. Towering over her, looking down on her, judging her for not falling in line.

She hates that it’s working too. The freedom she’d had since the disbanding of the Teen Team and her refusal to join the Guardians has been good and all, but there’s a reason Eve has answered Cecil’s call a couple of times since.

She’s not some immature idiot who doesn’t understand what role Cecil plays in Earth’s continued survival. Without him and the Global Defense Force, Earth would have been destroyed, conquered, or enslaved half a dozen times over if not more… and that’s just in her lifetime.

As much of a fucking bastard as Cecil is, Eve recognizes that he does important work… and that if he’s calling her for this, then it’s for a good reason.

Setting aside all of her hangups, Eve huffs one final time and lets her shoulders slump in defeat.

“Fine. I’ll go. Send me the mission briefing.”

There’s an immediate ding from her phone over on her nightstand.

“Done. You have everything we have, including the estimated trajectory and where the ship might be located based on its flight patterns before it disappeared behind the Moon.”

Eve just nods, picking up her phone and looking through what she’s been sent.

“Good luck, Atom Eve.”

She barely has time to look up before the camera drone disappears back out of her humble tree house, leaving her huffing in disgust.

“Yeah… fuck you too.”

Looks like she was taking a trip to space…

-x-X-x-

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