Clean Sweep Ch. 35 (DC Comics) (Patreon)

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

A/N: I wonder who this could possibly be…

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Koriand’r’s situation was rather dire. While she’d managed to escape her captors and make her way down to a planet, it had proven to be some sort of backwater so far… the materials here were too weak for her to use her innate strength to break free of the manacles wrapped around her arms.

Worse still, the Gordanian Ship had followed her down to the planet’s surface, meaning that Koriand’r had effectively endangered every living being in this city. She didn’t know where she was, she didn’t speak their language, and she couldn’t even rectify that while bound as she was.

She just needed to break free! Unfortunately, every time she slammed her manacles into another surface, it was the surface that gave way instead. Was nothing on this blasted world made of a proper building material?!

Of course, just because she’s single-minded in trying to free herself does not mean that Koriand’r is entirely unaware of her surroundings. Most of the beings of this world have run away from her at this point, something she considers to be a pleasant side effect of the wanton destruction she’s being forced to enact.

She’s not out to hurt anyone after all, certainly not this planet’s primitives. All she wants is to free her hands so she can utilize her star bolts and have the full range of her power, strength, and flexibility available to her.

Unfortunately, not every one of the city’s denizens have run away from her. Three remain and one of them is shouting at her angrily and aggressively, clearly telling her to stop even if Koriand’r cannot understand her language. She gets dangerously close as Koriand’r continues to try to bash open her restraints, enough for the Tamaranean Princess to snarl at her.

“Stay back! I do not wish to hurt you!”

But of course, the woman does not understand her any better. Fortunately, one of the others who remains on the street calls out suddenly, pulling her attention away for a moment… to the Gordanian Ship high in the sky.

The way the woman’s eyes widen makes it clear that the spaceship is no more of a welcome sight to them than it is to Koriand’r. Huffing slightly, she goes back to trying to rip off her manacles, hoping that they might focus on the ship and leave her alone.

Alas, it’s not meant to be. Her admittedly loud destruction of her surroundings draws attention back to her… and to her shock, the eyes of the woman suddenly glow as she says something in that strange incomprehensible tongue of hers! And then, out of nowhere, the ground around Koriand’r rises up and wraps her up in a tight cocoon, locking her down in a mere moment.

Her eyes widen in disbelief as she begins to struggle with all her might.

“You-! What are you doing?! Release me or I will be at the mercy of the Gordanians! Damn it all!”

Despite her strength being more than enough to destroy the material the ground was made of before, Koriand’r now finds herself lacking in one supremely important department… leverage. She’s so tightly wrapped up that she can’t manage to actually bring her strength to bear!

Nodding decisively, the woman who has bound her quickly turns away, returning her focus to the Gordanian Ship above. She pulls out some sort of communication device and begins to speak into it. Meanwhile, the man who had alerted her to the ship’s presence in the first place has a worried look on his face as he regards Koriand’r from afar. Koriand’r frowns… and then does something rather dishonorable.

She stuffs her anger down as deep as she can… and allows herself to feel all of the despair, grief, and heartache she’s tried to avoid feeling these past few weeks. Ever since she was betrayed by her sister and sold into slavery to the Gordanians. Ever since it felt like her entire universe had ended and she was going to spend the rest of her life as mere property.

Koriand’r doesn’t even have to fake the tears, or the way her face scrunches up in soul-deep sorrow. It overtakes her in an instant and she sobs in her latest prison, allowing herself to show as much weakness as possible. None of it is a lie… but there’s no denying it’s manipulative.

The worried look on the male’s face transforms into full, wide-eyed concern at her breakdown. As she’d hoped, he was sympathetic to her, at least a little bit. He takes a step forward towards her, only for the other woman at his side to stop him and say something. In response, he gestures at Koriand’r and says something back to the woman… something that has the woman furrowing her brow thoughtfully.

The first woman is still looking at the ship and talking frantically into her communicator as the male and female both approach her. The man tries to say something to her, but Koriand’r shakes her head, still sniffling even as she somewhat controls her emotions.

“I can’t… I c-can’t understand you…”

She leans forward though, pleadingly.

“Please… a little closer.”

The man, scowling at their inability to communicate, reciprocates and leans in… and while Koriand’r can barely move, it’s just enough space for her to lunge forward and place her lips on the male’s. His eyes widen in surprise while the woman beside him looks outraged. And yet, all Koriand’r needs is a full moment of contact… which fortunately she gets before he pulls back, looking bewildered.

“What the hell was that?!”

Yes! She understood him! Koriand’r smiles her best most winning smile.

“Ah! Sorry, but I had to perform the Transfer of Knowledge in order to gain your species’ language!”

Both the male and the female jolt at suddenly understanding her. The male in particular gapes.

“Uh… what?”

Her smile turning somewhat shy, Koriand’r squirms in her imprisonment.

“As a Tamaranean, I can replicate the spoken language of any life-form via lip-to-lip contact!”

“… So you speak English now?”

Nodding brightly at first, Koriand’r’s smile falters slightly when the shadow over their heads grows larger.

“Yes! But please, you must free me before the Gordanians get here! They-!”

“Cole! What are you doing? Wait, is she speaking English now?”

Koriand’r finds herself interrupted by the first woman, who stomps over and puts herself between her and the male… Cole, his name apparently is.

“You! Just so you know, the Justice League is already on its way, so there’s no point in resisting. Why have you and your ship attacked our planet?”

She has every intention of telling the woman that the Gordanian Ship is definitely NOT her ship. But before she can do that there’s a massive flash of light from above as the Gordanians fire upon the city… or rather, specifically, they fire one laser cannon directly at their location.

It would have been certain death for the people around her and it would have grievously injured Koriand’r as well… if not for the second woman, who somehow summoned massive black shields over their heads at the last possible second, blocking the weapons fire but also shattering in an instant.

“What the hell… they just fired on us!”

Koriand’r resists the urge to be flippant with the other woman, though she can’t help but roll her eyes a little bit.

“Yes! As I’ve been trying to say, the Gordanians are the ones who have the ship! I was their prisoner! They are not good people and you must free me immediately so we can fight them off together!”

Not that Koriand’r had much hope of doing that. She really wished she’d managed to escape while she still had the chance. Now though… well, now her only real option was to go down fighting, wasn’t it? After all, she wasn’t about to abandon these people or this city to its death.

Before she can receive a response however, things change… dramatically. A small figure appears in the sky above and rams into the side of the Gordanian Ship, causing Koriand’r’s mouth to drop open in disbelief as an explosion rocks the ship from the side.

And he’s not the only one either. Was that… a Green Lantern as well? And a Thanagarian?! And those were just a few of the flying people who attacked the ship!

“There they are… thank god.”

The first woman’s shoulders slump in relief, even as the Gordanian Ship… well, it’s soon being lifted out of its position over the city and dragged back into space. By one man. Koriand’r can only watch, mouth still agape, as this happens.

Until finally…

“Zatanna. Report.”

Another man in a cowl appears seemingly out of nowhere, drawing quite the reaction from the three people already in front of Koriand’r. ‘Zatanna’, as the first woman has now been identified, swallows hard.

“Right. This alien claims to have been an escaped prisoner from the ship that just attacked us. I don’t know much more than that, Batman.”

Seeing her opportunity, Koriand’r speaks up.

“The Gordanians are slavers! I was sold to them as chattel and they were transporting me back to their Citadel where I was to live out the rest of my life as their slave! I fought my way free and landed here on your planet.”

It’s a long shot, of course. If this planet is one of those that does not revile slavery, she might be in trouble. But just based on how the one ‘Cole’ had interacted with her, she hoped that this species of ‘Englishians’ was more empathic than that. She could only tell them the truth and hope they would be moved by her plight.

Batman’s eyes narrow beneath his mask and he looks at her consideringly for a moment before gazing around at the destruction surrounding them rather pointedly. Koriand’r cringes back, guilt welling up inside of her and felt all the more strongly since she purposefully let go of her anger and fury earlier.

“Ah… I apologize for the damage I have caused. I was only trying to break myself free of my manacles… I thought your buildings and vehicles would be made of… tougher materials.”

It sounds like a weak excuse even to her own ears. And yet, Batman just looks to Zatanna.

“Zatara?”

Zatanna, meanwhile, slowly nods as she looks down at where Koriand’r’s body is encased in the ground.

“Now that she mentions it… her arms were held together by what looked to be large metal cylinders. I thought they were pieces of armor or weapons at first…”

This time around Koriand’r does not roll her eyes. That would be disrespectful, after all. Before anything else can happen though, someone else arrives.

“Batman? What’s the situation here?”

Koriand’r looks up and stares with wide eyes at the floating man in red and blue with his arms crossed over his chest. He was the one who had literally forced the Gordanian Ship back into orbit… with his bare hands.

“The situation here is contained. What’s the situation up there?”

And the dark man in the cowl… he talks as though they are equals! Koriand’r is beginning to think that she’d not landed on a backwater at all, but some sort of secret civilization of powerful entities that nobody knew about! Well, rather, that she didn’t know about. There was a Green Lantern and a Thanagarian here after all.

“The aliens call themselves Gordanians. They say that this one is a very dangerous, very violent criminal that they were transporting to their prison. They’re… apologetic about firing on the city, but apparently they were afraid of what she might do if allowed to escape.”

What? That was… Koriand’r’s rage and fury come roaring back with a vengeance. How dare they lie like that! They were the monsters here! But before she can even begin to shout about how wrong he is… Batman speaks up in her defense, much to her surprise.

“She claims they’re slavers and that she escaped slavery at their hands. Call for the Martian Manhunter so we can get to the bottom of this, Superman.”

Superman’s frown grows sharp and pointed at Batman’s first words, but he nods all the same and flies off. Within moments he’s back with another flying man, this one green and red eyed. Koriand’r stiffens as he looks at her and his voice projects into her mind.

Hello young one. Apologies for the intrusion, but I presume you wish to be believed… simply show me the truth and we will not allow the Gordanians to take you.

That sounded almost too good to be true. And yet, what other choice did Koriand’r have? She lets the psychic alien into her mind, allowing him to see the truth of her captivity and enslavement… even the betrayal of her older sister as well.

After a moment, the Martian Manhunter withdraws while slowly nodding.

“She speaks the truth. The Gordanians are guilty of many actions that would be considered grave crimes here on Earth. She, meanwhile, has done nothing wrong and committed no serious offense… save for the property damage around us. But that was, as she’s already said, an attempt to remove her own manacles, not an actual desire for wanton destruction.”

Koriand’r watches relief wash over everyone present and feels a deep sense of relief wash over her in turn. It looks like the psychic is trusted by the others… meaning that they believe him when he says he believes her.

“Right… I’m going to go tell the Gordanians that they can either get out of our solar system or go straight to the Phantom Zone.”

Superman’s words are proceeded by him immediately flying up. Meanwhile, Koriand’r blinks as the hardened ground holding her in place suddenly sloughs off of her, dropping back to the street and freeing her. Then, much to her further surprise, her manacles are removed as well with a few short words from Zatanna.

As she stands there, freed of her bondage and surrounded by the natives of this planet, Koriand’r swallows hard and then puts on her best smile.

“Greetings Englishians. In your species' tongue, I am known as Starfire. I would humbly request asylum on your beautiful planet.”

Nailed it.

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A/N: Cole and Raven in the background: “Holy shit that’s Batman! Holy shit that’s Superman! Holy shit that’s Martian Manhunter! Ahhhh!”

Throw me a comment if you can but please leave a Like if you don’t want to, it’s the main metric I use to track whether a story is doing well or not!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xzl6NPvIWxJoFmXM3CrxepDJqI2epU4cAFJ1wCMteag/edit?tab=t.0