Sky High After Dark - Cosmic

"You promised I got the giant one." Aminah and Vera snorted at their sister's words. Yet she knew if they were there, where were the others?

"There are others; take your pick, Metallia." Softly biting her lip as she listened to the banter of his very first team. Squeezing Aminah tighter to her as those that followed that twisted path poured out of the opening. Unaware of what was taking place inside of it once they had gotten the last hostage out. Those villains weren't willingly coming to the maul of justice. While she was never going to be okay with seeing her son shoot someone, even if it was in defense of someone else, she could take solace in the fact that to those people he had saved today, in the Rose Garden and the warehouse, she knew he was a hero, at least to them. Vera could feel her sister releasing the pent-up breath she held as they waited for it to end. Which, thankfully, it did no more than five minutes after her son had knocked the woman out. With nowhere left to go and pinned in between her family, the villains dropped to their knees in surrender.

"We have to have a supper ready for them when they get home," Vera said, knowing Aminah wouldn't stop worrying until Aron got home.

"I think a roast would be good, don't you?" Aminah uttered, looking to her sister. Remembering all the nights her mother would make dinner just for their father whenever he was out on his own. "Can you watch the children; I need to go check on something."

"Sure, sis, you know I will," Vera said, giving her sister an odd look. Smiling at her grandbabies, all the while eyeing her sister's departure from the kitchen.

The hiss of the room seal pierced the air as the door to the clean room slid open. Seeing how they weren't working on anything sensitive any longer, it was fine for her to walk in without suiting up. Air bubbles raced up the column of water as she walked past. While the android was only running on its basic operating system, it was still able to move. It wasn't wise to do this while the stem cells were growing the layers of muscle and skin to make Veil appear as human as the rest of them. However, to sculpt Veil's womanhood, now was the perfect time to plant the seed, so to speak, to grow the most spectacular pussy Aron has ever experienced. After all, this little project they had been working on could sort of be referred to as a father gifting his daughter with a body. Since Veil already thought of Aron as her father, Aminah didn't see it any different than a mother shaping her daughter. Yet to do any of that, she would have to wait as the android moved at a snails' pace to get into position without disturbing the cell-rich solution that Aron had spent two months cloning to get the amount needed to grow skin needed to cover the outer shell.

The lights of the lab cut off one by one as she powered down her workstation. Her image appeared on the tank's glass once the light inside of it shut off, returning the emergence pod to its sleep cycle. Knowing it would be another month before she or Aron would be able to see the fruits of her work. However, she did wonder what Aron would think of the tweaks she had programed into the grifter that turned the solution into actual skin. Humming as she walked out of the lab, her fingertips skimmed along the wall. Knowing in a few more months, Veil's body would be ready.

"She just walked in," Vera said into her phone when she'd been talking to her son and siblings minutes after Aminah had left the kitchen. "Here, I'll put it on speaker."

"Hello, honey," Aminah said happily, quickly scurrying to Vera's side.

"Hello, Aminah."

"What were you up to?" Tazia asked, wondering if she had something plan for Aron when they got back.

"Checking on something for Aron," Aminah said truthfully. Ignoring how Vera was eyeing her as she spoke into her sister's phone.

"Oh, and how is the progress?" Aron asked cryptically.

"On schedule," Aminah informed him. "So, the bad guys are beaten. When are you coming home?"

"Leaving now, have to make a stop, but we'll be back by dinner," Aron said as the engine for their jet car powered on.

"Good. Nettie can't sleep without you here," Aminah lied when in truth, it was her that couldn't sleep without feeling him beside her every night.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll make sure to tuck her in tonight. Okay, we're going into Null space; see you soon."

"Bye, baby, I love you," Vera uttered before the line was cut. "Now, what are you and my son cooking up?" she asked in a sisterly voice, placing her fists on her hips.

"You'll see."

******

"What the hell was that?!" Sara shouted over the wind as they exited Null space.

"Another dimension, basically," Aron admitted, rolling with the slap she landed on his chest.

"You, mister, are too smart for your own good," Sara said, wagging her finger at him as she faced him on the back seat.

"This I agree with you," Tazia nodded along.

"Hey, I take a three-hour flight over a seven-hour one any day of the week," Neil said over the wind, following the coordinates Aron had loaded into the navigation system to direct him towards Sara's condo.

"Now don't you watch too much TV while you pretend to fiddle around in that lab of yours," Sara said from her balcony as the car hovered beside it. Her thumb brushed along the back of his hand when she held it.

"Sara, why don't you come over Saturday. Unless you're busy, that is," Tazia said, peering up at her while she snuggled against Aron. "We'll have a cook out just us, you, me, Aron here, Aminah, and the kids."

"Not the rest?" Sara asked, glancing over at Carl, Neil, and Chery.

"Nope, this is just for us. Family time, you know. That is if you want to join our little family... get together," Tazia uttered, allowing her innuendo to hang in the air. Watching how Sara's eyes widened at what she had just said. She wasn't offering this freely to Sara; no, she's been in government back groups long enough to know they don't always have your best interest at heart. Especially when things go south. So having Sara in their pocket so they could keep tabs on the powers that be would be a key asset. Plus, it was obvious to everyone that Sara was smitten with him when she was around Aron, so Tazia knew she would work that much harder to keep Aron safe.

"Very much so," Sara said, nodding her head very vehemently.

"Good, you know where we are, just drop by say around noon," Tazia said with a friendly smile. Ignoring how Aron was looking at her beneath his mask, or she presumed he was giving her that look of his.

"I wouldn't miss it; I'll be in contact, Aron," Sara said. Her hand falling away as she backed away.

"You know how to reach me." Were Aron's departing words as they drifted back into the air.

"Aron?"

"Yeah?"

"If we're going to be a team, we totally need a new ride," Chery said as she climbed into the back, where there was more space.

"New toys already, huh?" Aron mused.

"Hey, the women who bore your children would like a new car, please?!" Tazia said with a very wide smile on her face.

"We'll see."

"Also, since we're a team now, we need to practice and formulate strategies," Chery said, peering around her sister's chest.

"When I'm gone," the fabric of his mask started to inch up, "You're in charge, but when we're together," his auburn hair ruffled as he continued to pull it off, "I'm in charge," Aron said, looking over at his aunt. The afternoon light played along his blue-green eyes as he did. "That was the stipulation I gave Aminah the first time."

"I can live with that," Chery nodded.

"Of course, you can, sis," Carl bemoaned from the front seat.

"I hear the couch is lumpy; care to find out?" Chery warned, yet in a teasing manner. "Thought so," she gloated with a flick of her tongue and a smile on her lips.

"So, what's our first mission?!" Tazia asked excitedly as they entered the tunnel to their base.

"The Collector."

Chapter Four

Three days later...

"Why is it every time I see the two of you in here by yourselves, I get this strange notion something is afoot," Vera said, standing in the doorway of the lab on sublevel two.

"Ignore her Aron, she's starved for attention," Aminah teased, blowing her sister a kiss.

"So what are the two of you subjecting my sweet, adorable," watching Nettie's eyes and smile widen as she said those words, "grandbaby to?" Vera asked, waving to Nettie, who sat in her baby carrier that rested on the island.

"Ha, ha," sticking her tongue out at her sister, "I know for certain, Nettie likes being here," Aminah spoke, turning her nose up at her sister.

"Aminah is constructing the prototypes for the sensors that will be in the probes that I'm launching into space. I'm working on a design for Isabel, and I've contacted a specialist in the type of radiation that's killing Jill," Aron said from behind the screen of a device, not of this Earth.

"Aron, just what is that?!" Vera asked, perplexed, given she's never seen it in the lab before.

"You won't believe me anyway," Aron grumbled as he continued to scan down the text in the native language of his friend's people.

"Now, son, you shouldn't say that; I'm you're mother," Vera huffed irritably.

"I know, but if she didn't, why do you think I would believe you would believe me?" Aron asked, his eyes flickering over to her.

"Okay, try me," Vera said, steeling herself.

"The person, I use that term loosely, I'm talking to at the moment, is roughly halfway between us and the giant black hole at the center of our galaxy." Aron watched how his mother's mind struggled to comprehend what he had just told her.

"Aron, it's not nice to play a joke on your mother," Vera said in a stern voice. There was just no way her son was talking to an alien?!

"I'm not."

"You actually believe you're talking to an alien in some far-off part of the galaxy?!" Peering over at her sister, who was surprisingly keeping her nose out of this, which was odd, very odd.

"Don't have to believe; I know I am," Aron said, sticking to his guns. After all, it was true.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, wondering where he got this stubbornness from, from her or himself. Seeing how even the layman knows while there might be life out in the cosmos doesn't mean it's intelligent life. "Okay, Aron," blowing out a breath and leaning on the edge of the island, "let's say I believe you; just how exactly did you meet someone whose however many light-years away," Vera said in a disbelieving voice as she gestured to the screen.

"You remember the time I told you I saved the world three times prior to then?" Aron asked, peering over at his mother.

"Yeah?"

"Well, one of those times, it was with the help of the people who my friend belongs to, hence how I can talk to... her from here."

"Aliens helped to save the Earth?" Vera asked, arching an eyebrow.

"No, Earth only benefited indirectly. Their Homeworld was in danger at the time," Aron said, giving out as much as he could.

"Are these the same type of aliens you see in those movies?" Vera inquired, curious now.

"No," Aron said, continuing to read the transmission that she had sent him.

"Okay, then what is this alien like?" Vera asked, eager to know some part of Aron's past before coming home for good.

"Makes me look like an infant," Aron said matter-of-factly. Which even got Aminah's attention, causing her to turn her gaze at him. "They don't have genders; then again, being a gaseous body in this dimension doesn't really help. So the only way to function in this dimension and the one where... this is a very rough, loose translation, I haven't mastered their language yet," he warned, "vessel of the Ulk, which I took to mean body, is to inhabit these small, blue, bioelectrical suits." Aron watched how his mother was trying not to burst out in laughter.

"So why do you call her a she if they are genderless?" Vera asked, trying to hold back her snort of laughter.

"Because of the way she writes. It's in the context of her words," Aron said, gesturing to the screen.

"So then, Aron, why haven't we seen any aliens when we've been in space?" Aminah inquired, earning her a nod of support from her sister.

"Because to them, we're still too young, as my friend puts it. It was only, let's say, a fortunate twist of fate that they even took notice of Earth eighty years ago."

"Then what happened back then was real?" Aminah gasped at the realization of what Aron was saying in a roundabout way. Catching herself on the lip of the counter when Aron nodded.

"Okay, then why wasn't Earth on their radar?" Vera asked, seeing the seriousness in her son's eyes.

"Earth's atmosphere is toxic to them. Even with their suits, it wouldn't take them long to die. So that's why, as to why they sought us out is because something, I honestly can't define it on our periodic table as we know it, was expanding into this dimension. They say it was one of those other races that's in the other dimension their body inhabits, but I only got their word to go on. But anyway, my only contribution to their fight was helping one of their... scientists make a power source that could work on planets with our type of atmosphere so they could ferry their citizens to those worlds in case something like that happened again."

"Oh? But how did you meet this person?" Vera spoke, looking down at her son. Wondering what other kind of adventures he's been on without her at his side.

"Well..." Scratching his cheek and looking away, "that's a rather long and weird story to tell," Aron said. His mind flashed back to when he was seventeen.

"Go on, you just can't say that and not tell it," Aminah said, placing her left hand on her hip as she turned towards him with a little hand gesture for him to continue when he grew silent.

"I was seventeen at the time, and I was bored."

"Odd for you," Vera cut in.

"Touché. So anyway, I snuck out of the dorms," ignoring the glare his mother was giving him, "there was this little convenience store to the northwest of the school's property. By then, the event with them had passed. So I knew what to spot when they were on earth. Given how toxic our world is to them, imagine my surprise when I noted the cellular burn damage that happens when something from their environment touches something living in ours in the pathway that led towards the store that night. So naturally, I forewent my trek to the store to find out why one of their people would be there of all places. I found her near the point of passing out as we know it. So after a little shock, I got her to her little explorable pod her people use to explore worlds hostile to their kind. After she had strengthened enough, she came back out to talk to me. I learned that since her ship was in orbit at the time, she might as well stock up as the saying goes for her long trip to surveil some kind of solar system I've never even heard of existing before."

"Not on people, I hope," Vera joked.

"No, weirder."

"How can anything be weirder than that?!" Aminah exclaimed.

"Twinkies." That one word had Aminah and Vera so flabbergasted only a blank far off look could incorporate the magnitude of their befuddlement.

"Come again?!" Vera stammered.

"Why would any alien species want a Twinkie?!" Aminah asked, pleading with him not to draw this out; it was already too convoluted as it was.

"They're after the cream filling actually; there's something in the structure of the cream that makes the ultimate lubrication for their suits. So when I had found her, she was disoriented given it was her first time on Earth, and there are no trees on her planet," rolling his eyes at their 'Awes,' "so I offered to get them for her, seeing how I was headed to the store anyway. When she was back, she showed up at my window one night, asking if I could get her some Twinkies. It was just the way she said it made me think it was some form of a drug deal going down," Aron chuckled. "She told me she had recorded a snippet of the airwaves the night of our first meeting before they left our solar system. Don't ask me why but apparently, as she told me, she got addicted to the rerun of that old superhero cop show."

"Not the one I told you not to watch when you were growing up, is it?" Vera asked in that motherly voice of hers.

"The very same," Aron nodded, then everything around him stilled. His heart raced as his eyes zeroed in on the words she used. His friend only used English when there wasn't a way to translate a word, or she wanted to be direct and get her point across. Did Jill have the months, the years it might take to find what he needed on his own while searching the whole cosmos for the needle, or does he cut a deal, take a shortcut when her people were offering a trade. "Veil calculate the price of a ton of Twinkies!" Aron barked as he typed out his response that read 'Deal' in his friend's language.

"Aron, what's going on? What has you so up in arms?" Aminah asked, seeing the relief in his eyes when he turned his gaze to her.

"My friend has offered to save us months if not years looking for hints of what we need to save Jill," Aron said truthfully, which definitely got their attention.

"And this person, you trust her?" Vera asked seriously.

"Yes," Aron nodded.

"So a ton of Twinkies for the means to save Jill? Did I get that right?" Vera spoke; she'd go to every market on the planet if she had to.

"And how do you know she has a piece of stellar core large enough for our needs?" Aminah asked, trying not to throw a wet blanket on everything.

"Then come here," Aron said, waving them over. Hearing their gasps when they peered at the live feed of the scientific site on an asteroid in a part of the galaxy long forgotten where that piece of a stellar core had collided with then a forming Earth-size planet, thus ending its short life.

"Aron, what's that?" Vera inquired, not sure at what she was looking at.

"That is a piece of a star's core; either it was ejected when it went super nova, or it got flung out during a stellar quake, what matters is that for the deal she offered, seeing how it was her find, she'll give us what we need to help Jill."

"Then you tell her, yes!" They spoke as one as they shook him.

"Already did, Veil; how are those numbers? Okay, put in the order, have them rush it. You might want to get a room ready for Jill."

"Why?" Vera queried, keeping her eagerness hidden.

"To get from where she is to there," pointing at the screen, "then to here will take her about a week. So we might want to figure out where she is sleeping for the time being until we can fix something more permanent. Then we have to see about what atrophied has acquired and get that sorted, as well as getting her caught up on the past sixty years," Aron said, peering up at them from his seat.

"What about the basement? You don't need your office down there when you have the warehouse. It would be nothing for us to fix it up in the meantime," Vera spoke, not hiding her joy as she looked at her sister.

"Yes, and that will give her the space and the safety she will need to deal with everything. Because you think we took dad's and mom's death hard, just think of how Jill will take the news that her father, mother, and brother are all dead. We're going to have to be patient with her when she comes to," Aminah uttered, ignoring Aron completely.

Aron leaned on his arm, watching his mother and aunt just chatting away for the past five minutes about what they needed to do to keep Jill from getting too depressed. Knowing that they would go on for another hour if need be, he returned to his work. He would use the suit he was designing for Isabel as a prototype for the super-suit he was designing for Jill, should she have the same bug all his family members seem to have.