The sky split apart as blue light could be seen descending from the heavens, which, despite the sky also being blue, seemed to stand out that much more against the backdrop.

One, two, three, four-four lights fell and the ground shook each team as a welcoming.

Smoke covered the entire area and Marina could swear the smoke lingered just long enough to maximize the cool entrance of the four newly arrived battle participants.

"Superhero Entrance!" Ella said as Marina looked at her fangirl face for a while.

Time seemed to freeze as the ionic beams launched by the Mogadorians stood still in the air.

Marina, Ella, and Clayton had freedom of movement but opted not to move until the allegiance of the new arrivals were decided.

The smoke cleared, revealing Zeel to the left and Alice to the right, they had both frozen the Mogadorians and beams in their immediate vicinity.

Elizabeth and John did not yet possess the skill level necessary to freeze a packet of energy, so they opted for the next best position – they aimed their Loric laser guns at the Mogadorians in Zeel's and Alice's blindspots.

"Number?" John asked inching close to Ella, Marina, and Clayton.

"Wait – what?" Ella answered before Marina interrupted and quickly answered the question in her stead "Number 7 and Number 10,"

Marina was now truly scared at even the thought of upsetting the new arrivals, they even had a cool, badass landing and they were also looked decked out in expensive combat gear.

"Number 10?" Elizabeth asked confusedly. Not without merit, when had there ever been a Number 10? Isn't there supposed to be only 9 members of Garde alive?

"Well let's not mind the semantics," Zeel said since he could see Clayton still a bit defensive about the entire situation.

While he did like eliminating potential threats, he was by no means someone who killed without first considering alternatives.

*ttrrrr*

*trrr*

*trrr*

*bzzzt*

*bzzzt*

*bzzt*

Zeel and Alice, with a wave of their hands, sent the ionic beams back towards the Mogadorians, Elizabeth and John began firing their laser guns killing Mogadorians with every pull of the trigger.

Zeel began gliding around unsheathing his sword and flashing by unsuspecting Mogadorians, killing them in one fell swoop.

When the Mogadorians aimed down, he floated up into the air, when they aimed into the air, Zeel glided on the ground, when they shot wildly, he would spin like a ballerina with complex movements.

Alice killed the Mogadorians with their own energy beams, then floated their blasters into the air and started killing them with their own blasters instead.

John and Elizabeth were adjusting to the anti-gravity boots hence they did not maneuver around a lot, it would just make them targets instead.

Not even ten minutes had elapsed since their arrival, the battle had come to a swift end with all Mogadorians having been felled.

It wasn't until after the end of the battle, the group saw a bird flying down from the air above, the bird turned into a dog – Bernie Kozar.

"Sorry boy, you made it too late," John said to the dog a bit apologetic, they had all forgotten about him.

"I didn't forget about him. We had him do the scouting and guarding of the stasis pod," Alice said, as the group remained ever cautious of their surroundings.

They slowly made their way towards a starry-eyed Marina and company.

Not waiting for them to react, Alice froze them in place and Zeel, with slowed time perception, grabbed Marina's head first reading her surface memories, after which he did the same to Clayton and Ella.

"They check out, here," Zeel said as he took Alice, John, and Elizabeth's hands in his own, sharing the memories he had just gathered.

Alice then unfroze the trio who were increasingly more cautious than before, even Marina the apparent fan girl.

"Sorry, we had to make sure you guys weren't knowingly or unknowingly aiding the Mogadorians to attract us," Alice apologized, though her cold eyes for a split second showed that she was not being sincere.

Alice quickly snapped out of her momentary daze, and her smile became genuine while looking at the girls in front of her.

She had a strange inkling that something was wrong but could not pinpoint exactly what.

Was she becoming more Zeel-like? Maybe the nanites shared more than just his intuition with her?

"So a self-appointed Cêpan, a legitimate Garde, and a Garde who came on a second ship?" Elizabeth said as she tried to make sense of the memories that had been pushed into her head.

"Yeah, my name is Clayton, I act as -"

Before he could continue, Zeel cut him off "We know you should also know about us as well, I left some of the main details in your heads, take time to process it before you ask questions,"

Zeel was not one for idle bantering, all the information required to skip formalities had already been left in their minds.

"Let's go, the quinjet is coming back around," Alice said, then she looked at Zeel "So to base right? I haven't seen it yet and I need a bath,"

"Okay, everyone get on!" Zeel said as the quinjet docked nearby allowing everyone to enter.

The glistening black jet showed Marina and Ella an inkling of the luxury that was used to create it. Needless to say, life wouldn't be much of a struggle financially anymore.

"What are we doing above this place?" Marina asked a bit agitated not wanting to revisit the convent so soon after most members died here, including Adeline.

She blamed herself for not trying harder to convince Adeline and the others.

"Picking up a package," Alice replied as Zeel floated up the stasis pod of Adeline, much to Marina's and Ella's surprise.

"But she died," Marina said to which Ella nodded strongly taking a few steps back.

Ella, no doubt, had the misconception that the group was somehow able to bring people back to life.

"She wasn't dead cutie, she was on the verge of death but we save her with that stasis pod.

We did it to help Henry and Lexa as well, your Garde will probably also need to go in one of those things since it would shorten the process by quite a bit," Elizabeth said in a bored tone of voice.

Elizabeth, much like Zeel, did not like decorum and wasting time. She was annoyed by having to say the same things over and over again.

"What process? And why do I need to get in one of those?" Clayton replied, reluctant to leave Ella alone with these strangers.

"Henri is my Cêpan, Lexa is theirs. They were severely injured during the battle of Paradise Hills but we saved their lives with the stasis pod, but it is difficult to replicate Loric genome sequences to make a clone of their damaged organs.

Hence, it would take anywhere from 1 to 3 years for them to be fully healed and awaken.

But with more Cêpan in the chambers, the process can be shortened based on the number of Cêpan, so with you and Adeline added to the mix, should be less than a year until you all can wake up," John explained patiently, hoping Clayton would agree.

Henri was like a father to him, the only father he ever knew. It would be a huge blow to his psyche if he lost Henri and Sarah on the same day.

"Fine," Clayton said as the quinjet flew west, toward a famous City across the Multiverse – New York City.

"You had no choice anyway, Lexa is more practical on computers than any other Lorien I have observed. She needs to wake up, the rest are expendable," Zeel said earning him an elbow from Alice and a glare from Elizabeth.

"What?" Zeel asked a bit baffled by the elbow? Did he say anything wrong?

"Sorry, my boyfriend"

*cough*

*cough*

Elizabeth faked a cough so Alice could not finish that statement.

"Sorry! Our boyfriend has always been one more practically focused," Alice corrected herself to make Elizabeth contented.

Even if their time was limited to a couple of days, Alice had to admit that Elizabeth was an excellent company.

With that silence reigned as the quinjet continued on its course towards the highest tower in New York City.