Infinite Justice: Beyond (Marvel,DC,DBZ X/Over, IC, Open)

[The Republic of Atria]

Medusa and XAnder both left to let Naja do her thing. So she walked back inside quietly to see Otis and Owen playing video games. "Otis?" She called and he looked back at her and then back to his game.

"Hey Naja." He replied. "You can stay if you want. I'm not mad at you." He said but kept focused on his game. "I swear... These stupid freaking Sectopods... Could they make a more annoying enemy? Shots do half damage and they can fuck up an entire squad. Along with having the second highest HP in the game..."

Naja sat next to him. "I'm sorry about them Otis. They can be jerks sometimes."

"Hmmm." He said. "I know. That's why I'm here."

"I know... I'm kinda feeling the same way. I love Xander. I really do. He's such a sweetheart, but that's only when he doesn't spend entire days away... and doesn't spend much with me unless I make him." She explained. "Medusa doesn't think you're just a weapon Otis. She just wants to keep the Inhumans safe, and without Black Bolt, that's difficult. She's just as scared as you are."

"The difference being that one of us has the power of an evil god, no idea how to use it, and has everyone who knows about it trying to exploit him. When he just wants to figure out his own life." He explains. "I don't know what this power can do Naja. All that I know is that Darkseid used it and did terrible things. I don't want to be Darkseid. I want to be me. Happy go lucky me. It's not that I don't like the power, because if I'm being completely honest? It's pretty awesome. I was always opposed to violence, but I would use it when I had to. When I got these new powers. I became even more opposed because I am afraid that I'm going to hurt someone." Otis said. "I don't want to hurt anyone Naja."

"Otis..." She said and put her arm around him. "You're not a bad person. You're one of the nicest guys I know, and practically my little brother. You're kind, caring, funny, and you're painfully good at video games. From what I've seen, your powers aren't bad. Your powers don't make you a bad person Otis. It's the person behind them. I understand what you're afraid of. You think that deep down, there's some part of you that wants to use those powers for your own gain. But you haven't done anything wrong. And I know you well enough that you would never do that." She said and pats his back. "You can't live like this forever. Hiding in an empty dimension. One day you're going to have to leave. For some reason. I can't make you leave. And I have to go. But I'll come back every day if you still want to talk."

Otis looked at her. "Get Medusa to apologize to me, in person. And I'll think about it."

Xander

"I hate to disagree with you Craig. But the world has every right to be afraid. There are people on this planet who could smash it to pieces if they had just one bad day. Ourselves included." He started. "They're scared that we'll invade them should they do something we don't like. And while I'm sure that'll get some people to straighten up their act, I don't see it as a bad thing. It's no different than having police officers. You have their name and rank clean and open on various websites and such. While I can't say I support what they did to you. It was terrible. But I support the act. There needs to be some sort of order. And we can't disobey laws simply because we don't agree with them." Xander explained. "People who disobey laws are criminals. I created Praetoria so that I could legally put an end to places like North Korea."

"To further push my point. Every Praetorian citizen has their powers registered. I don't see what the big deal is personally. The act is very simple. You fill out a small amount of paper work and you're done. It takes a few minutes and eases the minds of everyone who doesn't have powers. If the world governments want to have their own superhumans, I don't see what the big deal is. Our nations all possess large numbers of superhuman individuals. Provided they aren't committing human rights violations. I say let them. They're scared. If a few taxpayer funded government soldiers and some names on a list will put people's minds at ease, I fail to see the downside. The only people who will be harassed will be those who haven't followed the law. Plain and simple."

[The Republic of Atria]

Madworld

"I have my doubts that putting your name on a piece of paper is an unjust law. I, obviously, have no right to tell you how to run your country Max. If you chose not to follow it, then you're not required to." He explained. "However, most countries in the UN have ratified it, Praetoria included. In fact, I intend to offer my services in enforcing it. With the growing number of superhumans, it's time we did something to keep things safe and organized. Some of them have difficulties controlling their powers. The act will help them get their powers under control. Not just for their safety, but for the safety of others as well. It's not any different than say... Someone carrying a firearm. Most places require training before you're allowed to do it. This is the same concept. You don't send soldiers out to war untrained. You don't send police out to protect people without them being trained. Shooting lasers out of your hands is no different than that."

That was his position at the very least. It made sense in his mind. Police officers and soldiers had to be trained to do their job. Superhumans were no different. Madworld was a sovereign country. And as a result, he had no authority to tell Max how to run his country, but almost every other country on Earth did agree to it, and that meant someone had to enforce it. Who else would be better for the job than him?

Dinosaur, Colorado

Naja sat with him for a few minutes. Otis really needed some time to get his mind off things. "Hey. I've got something we could do together, just the two of us. I was going to do it with Xander... But I think he forgot and or wouldn't care about it anyways. You know how he is. And you look like you could use it more anyways." She offered and pulled a pamphlet. "A spa day!" Otis took the pamphlet and looked at it.

"I don't think I've ever had one of those." He said and shrugged. "Sure. Why not? Do they take aliens, slash, mutants, slash, Inhumans?" He asked. "Cause I don't wanna get there and them tell us to go away. That would be the very opposite of fun."

"Yeah. They do. I called ahead and asked." She said. "I got us the best one they had." They flew out to the very fancy looking resort. Naja had made a quick pit stop to grab more casual clothing rather than her hero costume, and Otis had suppressed just about the entirety of the Omega Effect, which removed his invulnerability. "Looks nice." She said as she walked inside with Otis and approached the front desk. "Hi. I have reservations for two for today. Under Naja." She said to the secretary, who gave her and Otis strange looks, but nevertheless found their reservations.

"Ooh. Here you are. Down the hallway, second door on your right." She pointed out for them. They followed her instructions and found themselves in a room with two massage tables. Shortly after, two people came in, one man and one woman. The woman was relatively average. The man however was much larger and muscular to the point where Otis was looking him over.

"Hi! I'm Marie, and this is Sven." She said and of course she shook hands with Naja. "Go ahead and take your shirts off and lie down on your stomach and we'll get started." Otis took off his shirt. He wasn't particularly muscled. Somewhat toned, but that was due to his species being naturally gangly rather than muscled. Compared to Sven, who looked half mountain half man, he was slightly insecure, but nevertheless he laid down like he was supposed to.

"You are skin and bone. Should eat more." The gruff man commented on whilst going to town on Otis' back in a way the a normal man would have nasty bruises. But being an Inhuman, it wasn't that bad at all. "You are alien, no?"

"Not really... Unless you count being born in Arkansas as alien. Neither of us are. My name is Otis."

"I do not understand. You are not alien? But you have tail. And do not have feet? How do you walk?"

"I'm going to be completely honest. I don't really get it completely either. But I am American as apple pie. I've played my fair share of video games and my diet consists entirely of cheeseburgers." Otis explained. "It involves some balance. The tail helps with it."

"I see. Will massage tail now." It was a very strange feeling having his tail massaged. "Tail is extension of spine. Will help with back." It was rare that anyone grabbed his tail, and he instinctively wanted to pull it away, but Sven was not having any of it. "Is like wrangling snake." He said and looked at Naja for a moment. "No offense to the lady."

"None taken." Naja replied silently laughing as Otis and his masseuse were half fighting eachother. Not that either of them seemed to care.

[The Republic of Atria]

Xander had every mind to continue the debate, but there was no point. Max was stubborn and held fast on his position. "Exactly. They're afraid of us. Doing this will help ease that fear. I have no intentions of declaring myself king of the world and decimating governments. The Middle East is a tricky one. The human rights violations that happen there every single day are sickening. Africa is still a diseased hellhole. Though Storm and Valancy have helped alleviate that somewhat... I don't know if you two know this about me, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone has an incredible amount of power. And does nothing with it. They just sit on it. It's infuriating to me. But I digress. This argument will go nowhere at this rate and I've things to do." He said and took his leave. Arguing was pointless. A waste of time and energy.

Mmm. Naja has been snippy as of late. Maybe I should go see what that's about. He thought to himself as he flew away from Madworld down south to Praetoria. However, as he approached, something was clearly very wrong. Plumes of smoke were never a good sign in a nation as advanced as his. His mood went from slightly annoyed to borderline murderous. What caught his eye was confusing. A pink monster? It was roughly human sized, a little bigger, but still. If it was an alien, it wasn't any species he knew about and he knew about many. Though it was something that needed hitting and he was going to hit it. Hard. So when he was directly above the pink monster, and dive bombed, extremely pissed off.

[The Republic of Atria]

Rage

"Read me like a book. Though you're information is a tad bit out of date. Yes. I hate politics. And you know all those people you just killed? They're my people. This is my country." Xander explained. "And two..." He trailed off and unleashed a massive golden energy blast from his right hand. The blast wide enough to engulf the equivalent of a city block. "My name is Xander. I have no idea who, or what you are. But what I do know is that I'm going to kill you. You picked a bad day to do this." He hissed and planted his foot firmly on the ground as he began to power up. "Normally I never use this much strength against someone. It's hard to control. But I need to blow off some steam. So let's see how long you last. The record is one minute."

[The Republic of Atria]

Praetoria

"Hm?" He spun around right into Buu's blast which not only knocked him through the nearest building, but wiped out a decent portion of his head and his left arm. However, when the smoke cleared, Xander walked down, appearing to be injured. For the moment at least, A bright golden flash later, and minus the burn marks on his clothes, he was right as rain. "If you're under the impression that blowing me to pieces is going to kill me... This is going to be a loooonnnng day." Xander said and flash stepped right in front of buu and unleashed a massive flurry of blows at the pink demon. "If all you've got is blasting me. Then things aren't looking up for you." He wouldn't admit he was enjoying himself, but it was so rare that he got to fight at full power that he couldn't resist a small smile.

Atlantic Ocean

Xander had been scanning the news reports for anything interesting that might require his attention. Nothing of merit until he saw that a large swath of land had been severed from the United States. Land had been stolen? How do you steal land? Why would you steal land? So Xander went flying to find out who stole it, of course it being the only people he believed were stupid enough to try it in the first place. Though only one of the brothers was present and was fighting Superman. "Alright. That's enough." He said and floated down. "Superman. I'll take it from here. I know this idiot." He said and landed next to him. "I know you well enough that you tried the honey. So now we're gonna try the vinegar. As for you Asumar..." Xander said pinching the bridge of his nose.

"How... How do you get to be as idiotic as you? Is there a class I have to take? Or were you just born like that? Because I honestly can't believe that you actually stole this much land from a sovereign nation. You have an entire GALACTIC EMPIRE. And yet you take this slab of woods? Seriously? I want to know what's going through your head that makes you believe that this wasn't a terrible idea. What you did was very illegal and since I know Superman was nice enough to tell you to put it back before fighting you. I'm just gonna skip straight to the part where I beat the tar out of you."

[The Republic of Atria]

- Snip -

Asumar Masaki

Upon sensing Xander's presence, Asumar turned his head in the Praetorian Emperor's direction, a smile on his face as his purple aura died down slightly "I knew that this would warrant your attention as well Xander." Asumar replied with a smile before continuing "Don't you know what has happened by now? The Old Masaki Dynasty has ceased to exist, following Alastir's Blitz Strike upon the Dynasties Central Server, rendering all of our forces in his hand, leaving us without our prized nation in the stars." Asumar explained, one of the six black construct orbs floating passively on his palm "We aren't leaders of a nation anymore, but rather we are what remains of an old empire, rebuilding it from the ashes once more." At being threatened of an attack, Asumar raised his arms up innocently "Oh no doubt about it, I know for a fact that my acts were illegal, as Superman told me so, but..." A grin formed on his face "I didn't pull that land from the United States simply to establish my new nation." With a snap of his fingers, the island began to move forward and back to it's original place.

"I did it so that someone of great power would be attracted to what was taking place, because you see, I wanted a worthwhile opponent to fight against, as well as determine my current level of power and skill against one of your high tier defenders of Earth." Vivid flashbacks of the recent battle remaining fresh within Asumar's mind "Now that I can stand against a Kryptonian, I've come to the conclusion that I am within a reasonable level of power." Asumar admitted as his purple aura dissipated in it's entirety "I have no reason to start another fight, not while I'm trying to get used to this new form now..." Asumar's white, ethereal cloak blew calmly in the wind as he had his arms crossed with an entertained smirk on his face "And besides, I know that you may have power greater than Superman's own, so I do not want to take the chance of fighting you... yet." Asumar looked back to the Island, which was now reconnected to the United States "The island has been reconnected to the United States, If you will let me, I can take my leave." Asumar stated, a patient expression on his face before he transmitted his words to Xander telepathically.

"There is no doubt in my mind that I would love to fight you one day, but not now."

"So... You did this solely to get attention so you could fluff your ego?" Xander asked. "Really? That's pretty sad even by my standards. There are better ways to get someone to fight you than painting yourself as a terrorist. And what is your whole big deal with Earth anyways? There are plenty of things out in space that will kick your ass if you ask nicely. Or if you so much as look at someone funny." Xander said, clearly annoyed with him. "I enjoy a good fight as much as the next guy, but you don't see me starting trouble just because I want someone to hit. I'm sorry that you lost your empire to an even bigger idiot. But don't start stirring shit up here. That's a good way to get yourself killed. Likely by me. If you're that desperate for a fight, you can come to Praetoria."

His suggestion was purely so he could keep an eye on him and deal with him if it came to that. Him starting any nonsense there would easily get him killed. "And just for the record. A fight between you and me? Don't flatter yourself. I've pulled nastier things than you out of my teeth. It took you what? 200,000 years to get where you're at now? Cool. give it another 2 million and you'll be on par me. But I'll have become billions of times more powerful than you in that time. I'll let this slide. But next time I'm going to kick your ass. Hard. And I will kill you. Do not test me on that. If there's one thing I'm good at, it's keeping promises." He finished and then flew off.

The Spa

"Marie. Explain. How am I supposed to massage feet?" Sven asked showing her Otis's feet. "These are not feet! They are... Spheres." Otis was slightly embarrassed about it. It's not like it was his fault that his normal feet turned into wheels. Naja however, thought the whole scene was quite hilarious and was snickering the whole time. Minus that, Sven actually knew what he was doing. Barring his feet of course. Once he stopped freaking out about Sven's grabbing his tail as forcefully as he did, it was quite enjoyable. "How do you know each other?"

"The best way to put it would be saying that she's my big sister. I've had a few rough days and she's helping me out." He explained. "She helped me get used to my new alien body. And then she married a really good friend of mine. So we're basically one big family. In some sort of cosmic way I guess. It's pretty cool. I dropped out of school... 10th grade. Then my life took a turn for the weird. I was still human then. Not complaining. I made a bunch of friends. We're all weird together."

"Life can be strange. Is very true. Never imagined giving massage to alien. Though you are very... Normal. Not what I expected from one with such a strange appearance. But is world we live in now."

Xander

At first Xander didn't even notice that his gravity was increased. But when the amount hit the thousands, he started to notice. Even more so when he avoided Buu's fire by simply letting himself fall through the ground, and then back up, sticking his hands through the dirt and grabbing Buu's legs to pull him down with him. "Good luck with that. Do you know how many psychotic reality warpers I've dealt with? Compared to them, you're just a warmup. And just like them you rely on your powers too much. Sure, you're strong, I'll give you that. But, no combat skill whatsoever." He explained as they fell into the ocean and he unleashed a massively powerful, but short ranged wave that expanded from his body. "And no creativity either."

[The Republic of Atria]

He likes to regenerate too... Xander thought to himself as he blew him apart for the second time. Going to have to make sure nothing is left of him or this is just going to drag. He spuns around to see Buu pulling himself back together again. "It's always from behind. So yes. Very homo." He didn't think anything of the pink blast Buu sent at him. As far as he could tell, it wasn't any different from the other ones. How wrong he was. Everything went black. Normally there was a brief moment of searing pain before his body healed the damage done, but this was different. He felt wet. Very wet. Absolutely soaked. Which was a very strange thing to feel when he was using this much of his power. "What... What the hell did you do to me?"

His senses started to come back. He was a cupcake. "Okay. I'm going to go ahead and say that I've been transmuted before. Usually into ash or slime. But... You turned me into a cupcake? Seriously? Bonus points for originality. But here's the kicker. I'm not really human. I'm an energy being. The body I use is more or less a puppet." To further prove his point, he rearranged the cupcake into something resembling a gingerbread man. Though made of cake rather than ginger bread. "The coolest part is that this has no impact on my physical prowess." And then the tiny bread Xander flew at near lightspeed aiming to just slam into Buu.

[The Republic of Atria]

Could he have changed back into his normal state? Yes, but he was having way too much fun with this fight. More than he probably should. "I'm actually impressed that you know anything about the laws of conservation of mass. Good for you." Buu caught him in what seemed to be a telekinetic web. He could break free, but the fact that he was made of cake rather than much more durable bone and muscles meant that he would likely tear himself apart in the process. Buu seemed that he had the intention of eating him. Which wasn't something that he wanted to have happen to him, but he had a plan. He looked like he was struggling to get free, but the second Buu would put him in his mouth, he would unleash a massive explosion and obliterate him from the inside out. Much easier than doing it from the outside.

"I will give you that, you're the first person to ever try to beat me by eating me."

[The Republic of Atria]

"Just what we needed. More of you." Xander muttered. This was quickly starting to go from fun to extremely annoying, very quickly. Buu's attitude wasn't helping either. "Alright. I'm done. I've got my exercise for the day." And with a bright golden flash, he was back in his human state rather than the cupcake one. "I bet you're glad you turned me into a cupcake rather than hard candy. Then you would have really been in for it. Funny though. How many people you've absorbed and you're still having trouble with me. Not gonna give you the chance to get me though." He said and charged up a much more potent blast than the previous ones. Tapping into his ability to manipulate matter to just eradicate Buu once and for all. "It was fun for a few minutes. But I'm bored now and have other things to do. When you get to hell, see if you can find all the others I've killed. You can share stories on how I kicked your asses!"

And with his final taunt, he fired the massive disintegration wave, planning to wipe Buu out once and for all and go find his wife.

[The Republic of Atria]

Something wasn't right. Suddenly his regeneration wasn't working? Whatever the reason, he wasn't in the mood to just let him off. He was begging for mercy, but he should have thought of that before killing his people. Absorbed or not, he counted them as dead as there was no real proof that they were alive. "Eenie, meeny, minie... No." He was preparing to finally vaporize Buu when something latched onto him from behind. Pink goo, from what he assumed was Buu. It was a trick after all. Xander tried to struggle and get free but the goo was sticking to him like glue. Buu was trying to absorb him and add his powers to his collection. That wasn't going to happen.

Despite being almost completely covered in Buu goo, Xander grinned sadistically. "I get it... You want my power to bolster yours. Well, all you had to do was ask." He said and his body began to glow brighter and brighter until the few parts of him that weren't covered shined like the sun. "Then take it! TAKE IT ALL!" And then he unleashed the vast amount of energy that his body had stored in one massive, final blast.

[The Republic of Atria]

"So close... And yet so far. Ow." He muttered. That last blast vented almost the entirety of his energy supply, but as far as he could tell, Buu was dead and gone. The city was already beginning to repair the damage done. He had enough energy left to where he could fly back to his communications room where the amount of messages condemning his actions in North Korea had begun to pile up, He skimmed through it and was starting to become more annoyed. He saved millions of lives from a life of torture and oppression and that was how they thanked him? The UN was even considering sanctions against Praetoria, which made no sense considering there was not much of an economy to speak of.

But that didn't stop the anger from building. In fact he was planning to fly out and give the entire UN a piece of his mind when Naja flew down looking also less than pleased. "Where have you been? It's almost been two days!" She asked, and then noticed that Xander was looking quite frustrated himself as he walked past her and started flying only for her to grab his leg. "Where are you going? You really shouldn't be going places when you're angry. And I've been meaning to talk to you about some stuff we really to work out."

"Can it wait? I've got to go tell some people off-"

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about!" She said raising her voice slightly, but enough to where Xander widened his eyes. She had never raised her voice like that before. "You're always putting me off! Every single time I try to spend some time with you, you keep asking if it can wait. And by spending time with you, I mean doing something just the two of us. No having to fly around and make sure people's noses are wiped. Just lying in bed together, watching a movie or two and maybe going out to eat once in awhile. I'm not asking a lot from you-" Xander was tuning her voice out. Not for any hateful reason, but life was really starting to get under his skin.

All he was doing was helping people. And removing despots from power. Deaths were kept to an absolute minimum and people weren't being tortured and killed over minor nonsense. Buu killing his citizens was something that he was irritated about and killing him only made sure the problem wouldn't be continued. Though he was completely unaware that Buu had survived. And now his wife was yelling at him for not spending enough time with her. As powerful as he was, his mind could only take so much pressure. Everyone has a breaking point and Xander had just about reached his. "SHUT UP!" There it was. He screamed at his wife.

It was a very slow and quiet few seconds before Xander realized what he just did, and then flew away. Fast. Naja was about to go after him, but it was too late. Xander was gone.

[The Republic of Atria]

Xander didn't know he was subconsciously flying back to his true home on the outer rim of the galaxy. He was just angry, frustrated, stressed, and guilty about having just screamed at his wife who was just asking a question about his recent behavior. Earth frustrated him to no end. Couldn't they see that he was really trying to help them? Help everyone? Instead all he got was criticized and vilified. He needed a vacation. Or at least a few days to gather his thoughts and cool off before he did something really stupid. After about an hour of flying he was greeted by his parents who were on their way to Earth, sensed him and met him halfway. His mother was the first to speak. "Xander? What's wrong? I sense you are very disturbed." He said and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Humans... My wife... They're all so... Complicated. I was trying to help out some very desperate people, my home was attacked by a monster who killed several people. I destroyed him, and then Naja comes home, and is upset with me because she thinks I've been neglecting her... And then I snapped and yelled at her." He spat and pulled his knees to his chest. "I'm trying. I really am. I just need to get away from that planet for a few days. I don't want to go back right now. I would just end up doing something stupid. I think I'm just gonna stay with you guys for a few days, if that's okay."

"Of course." His father replied. "You're our child. We were just coming to see you. Stay as long as you like. About your mate. Have you been neglecting her?"

"That's a complicated question with a complicated answer." Xander replied. "Right now there's a bunch of tension with humans with powers, and humans without them. The ones with powers are growing in number at a quick rate and the normal ones are scared. So they came up with a way to make sure everyone is safe... I tried to help them and even agreed to play by their rules. However, when I exercised my power to help people, they began to get upset with me. That coupled with everything else I already explained, did not help me. It's hard and-" He explained quite quickly only for his mother to slow him down.

"Calm down." His mother said and put her hand on his shoulder. "It sounds to me like you're trying to coddle them too much. Xander, we know you mean well, but even you cannot do everything. They will learn and grow. It will take time, but you must let them learn. You do not have to do everything for them or they will take you for granted. You have your own people to watch out for. You are a wedlocked man. The humans can take care of themselves without you. It may not be as good as it would be should you be there, they must learn from their mistakes and grow. As for snapping at your lover, I suggest that when you return, apologize to her immediately."

"That's the intent. Believe me, I had no intention of neglecting her. Things have been tense for awhile and I've been trying to smooth things over for everyone. She did ask me a few times and I did kind of brush her off. I'm not going to lie about that. But I didn't mean to make her feel like that. I'm new to this whole thing."

"It's a common problem with our kind. We do not experience many of the same emotions that organics do. And as a result we seem to come off as somewhat stoic and cold." His father explained. "You are young, and you will learn. Take some time for yourself and calm down. Naja seemed like a very understanding woman. I am certain she will understand how you felt if you apologize and speak to her." He said as they arrived back to the blue super-giant that was their home. However, something was off. All three of them could tell.

"I haven't been here very much, and I feel... Off."

"There is most certainly something wrong." His mother replied. Reality around the area was beginning to distort and warp until a massive BOOM that shook Xander down to his core was heard. Along with the voice of the most obnoxious man he ever had to deal with:

"GUESS WHO'S BACK COCKSUCKER!"

[The Republic of Atria]

Fuck me... Xander thought to himself. Wyatt Walker. A crazed reality warper. Xander only managed to beat him with the Starbrand, a motherbox, and help from Otis, Naja, and Frank. He had none of those things or people with him at the moment. "That's Wyatt Walker. A psychopath with far too much power." Xander explained to his parents. "I thought I got rid of him. Threw him in the Negative Zone. He's an Elo too. A very, very powerful one."

"Damn straight!" Wyatt said, descending from the black sky. "Hey blondie, I didn't know you were one of the family!" He cackled and teleported Xander uncomfortably close to him with his arm around Xander's shoulders. "See, I didn't know you were an Elo too! That makes me less inclined to smash you into quantum strings! 'Sides. I actually ain't here for you. Here for those old farts who live in the core. They're hogging all the quantum juice to themselves, and I can't give Galactus a wedgie without a nice big boost."

Xander knew who he was talking about. The Ancient Elos. The one who "Judged" him. Wyatt was already leaps and bounds more powerful than he was, and while he didn't particularly care for the Ancients, they were still people and Wyatt certainly didn't need more power. "And what makes you think that I'm just going to sit here and let you take their power?" He asked knowing full and well that going up against Wyatt alone was practically a death sentence. And that he actually didn't have the means to stop him.

Wyatt stared at him blankly for a few seconds. And then burst out laughing. "Wow! That's a good one Blondie. Don't let anyone ever tell you you're not funny. But in the event you're serious, which is even funnier... How the fuck are you gonna stop me? You ain't got your motherbox. You ain't got that blue guy. You ain't got your lizard wife. And those old farts couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. So let me put this in laymen's terms for you. You're. Fucked." He taunted and then booped Xander's nose ever so slightly. "Now be a good annoying piece of shit and let the grownups talk." Wyatt was about to sink into the ground when Xander hit him. Hard. Hard enough to split a planet in half. Though Wyatt only got a bloody nose. "Alright. So that's how we're doing this?"

This is going to hurt... And boy did it hurt. Wyatt wasn't kidding when he said that he would've smashed Xander into quantum strings. Because he did. Xander's rage forced his regeneration to work overtime and he kept coming back only for Wyatt to change up which particle he would rip off of Xander first. Usually the neutrons as that produced the most colorful explosion. Xander's parents watched helplessly as Wyatt tore him apart, only for Xander to reconstruct himself, only for Wyatt to tear him apart again. They didn't have combat instincts like Xander did, but they couldn't just sit by while their son tried to stop a seemingly omnipotent foe all by himself.

So they jumped into the fray. And didn't fair much better. Wyatt destabilized them, causing their forms of overload and explode. That was easily survivable for an Elo, but it was painful. The equivalent to a migraine. "C'mon. This is just wasting time. Y'all are gonna get tired of this before I will." While Valan and Navara were busy getting blown up over and over again, Xander had seemingly vanished. "Wait a second." He said holding both of them still. "There were three of you that I was blowing up. We're short one Blondie! Where'd he go?"

"He... Did not leave. He was taken."

"By who?" One could almost hear Wyatt's brain struggling to find out who took Xander, and then it hit him. "FUCK!"

Deep within the core of the star were the three Ancient Elos. They took Xander, knowing that they stood no chance against Wyatt without any sort of combat skill. So they brought him down in desperation. "It is simple. We will bond with you. Inhabit your body alongside yourself. You will be granted access to all of our combined power, plus your own. Combined with your combat prowess, we should be able for put a stop to this Wyatt monster." The center one explained. It wasn't like Xander had much of a choice. It was either let them bond with his body or Wyatt make himself twice as powerful as he was before.

Wyatt had released Xander's parents and dove right into the giant star hoping to get to the core before Xander did, but it was too late. The next thing he knew was being flung out of, and away from the star and smashed into the nearest planetary body... 100 light-years away. "Uuggrrrh... What the fuck was that?" He muttered and climbed to his feet to see the new and improved Xander floating just above him.

"I think we're about on even footing. Though from my experience-" Wyatt interrupted by trying to effect Xander on the quantum level yet again, scatter his particles, destabilize his physical form, turning him into a dildo, only for the Ancients to resist his attempts at every turn. Xander bent and warped, but stayed wholly intact. "-You don't know much about fighting. Who needs to fight when you can, in your own words, smash shit into quantum strings?" He asked, and then smacked Wyatt. Open handed.

[The Republic of Atria]

"Okay, this is some bullshit!" Wyatt said rubbing his face where Xander knocked several of his teeth loose. It wasn't often that he felt pain, and it was even less often that someone actually had the power to challenge him. "I don't know what you're mad at me for, you hit me first you goddamned prick." Wyatt tried to retaliate by striking Xander back, but quickly found his arm behind his back. "And what are you going to do to me exactly? Throw me into the Negative Zone again? I got out of there in a matter of minutes, I'll do it again. And then maybe I'll pay ole' snake tits a visit. Show her what a real man looks like." A very poor choice of words.

There went more of Wyatt's teeth. Mostly molars and incisors. And blood. Xander didn't just restrict himself to knocking Wyatt's teeth out. Any blow Wyatt tried to throw was immediately met with Xander crushing his hand into a fine bloody powder. Wyatt Wyatt was writhing in pain, he wasn't defending himself against Xander's new powers and was promptly twisted and warped in all three dimensions. "This is kinda fun!" Xander admitted while stretching and bending Wyatt like he was made of taffy. Smashing him into bits, stretching those bits out, and then Wyatt pull himself together. "I can see why you like using these powers. It's actually kinda fun."

"You little fuck! THIS IS MY WORLD! MY UNIVERSE!" Wyatt screamed at the top of his lungs. His powers flaring out of control. Stars died, planets all over the universe shook and some even fell apart. "You don't get it do you?! I can do anything I want! I can fuck the laws of physics! If I want two plus two to equal vagina, I CAN DO THAT! You think just because you smack me around a little bit that I'm just gonna fuck off? WRONG!" He hissed and channeled as much of his power as he could to blast Xander into as many pieces as possible, and keep him that way. And while Xander did break and bend, the Ancient ones were keeping him alive and preventing Wyatt's powers from doing any lasting damage. At least until Xander counter attacked and turned the same thing on him.

"Alright. I've had enough." Xander said calmly. "You're finished. Stop trying to destroy the universe." After a few seconds of shrieking and yelling, Wyatt complied. "Good. Now, go away." And Xander forced him through a pinhole sized portal back to Apokolips where he belonged. "There. He's gone. You can come out now." The Ancients did as he requested and left his body, but something was very wrong. They barely had a fraction of the power they normally had. Less than ten percent their original between the three of them. And Xander kept his shiny new form even after they left.

"Where is the rest of our power?" One of them demanded to know.

"I'm keeping the rest of it. Wyatt is a sociopath and clearly you three don't have the ability to fight him without me there. So I'm skipping the middle man. If I leave, he'll just come back and try to take your power again, and I won't be there to save you. Now he'll have to beat me to get his hands on it." Xander explained. They didn't like that one bit. Even if Xander did have a point.

"You do not understand the scope at which you are dealing with. You are still young. And while the progress you made in that short time is quite impressive, you are still dealing with power you do not understand. Return the rest of our power at once."

"No. And given your current state, I don't ever intend to. As insane as Wyatt is, he did have a point. You have an incredible amount of power, but you're not doing anything with it. Sitting on it? Unacceptable." He said as the rest of the Elos flew to see what was going on. They could feel the strange power exchanges, but their curious nature made them want to see what was going on. And to see Xander telling the Ancients off for not using their power to help people was... Dividing. About half of them agreed that Xander was in the right and that using their power for the benefit of the universe was a good thing, the other half also made the point that Xander was much too young to be handling that much power and likely wouldn't know how to control it.

Xander then got an idea. "Alright then. Here's whats going to happen. If you think that I would be a much better protector of the universe than them, then follow me back to Earth. If you don't. Well, I'm not going to make you do anything. I know some of you want to make a difference for the better. If that's the case, then Earth will be a great place to start." His parents were among those who wanted to help, but they were mostly just happy to see their son doing everything that he was. They did agree with him. What's the point of power if you're not going to use it to help people?

Unfortunately, the power wasn't nearly as easy to control as Xander initially believed...

[The Republic of Atria]

Xander

"You cannot do this!" One of the Ancients objected.

"Can't or shouldn't? I'm leaning more towards the latter." Xander replied. "And half of them agree with me at least. So, I'm probably not alone in my feelings. You're still alive and I hold nothing against you. I just think I would put this power to better use than you would." And by that he meant he would actually use the power for more than sitting in the core of a star judging shit. "People who have the amount of power you did, but don't use it are the type of people who annoy me. Power is intended to be used to serve the people around you." He explained. "I am serving billions. Maybe even more. And these people-" He waved his hand to those who stood with him. "-They want to serve too. I've said my piece." And with that, the Ancients watched helplessly as half the population of their species followed a youngling hopped up on more cosmic power than he had any idea he possessed.

Xander parents, Navara and Valan, flew beside him. "The humans have imprinted on you." His father spoke. "Never in my life would I have expected anyone to do what you did. I am proud to call you my offspring."

"As am I." His mother agreed. "I wished I was there to help you grow. But you turned out better than any sort of care we could have given." She wasn't wrong. There wasn't much they could have done that Earth didn't do. It was rare that Elos in general experienced physical pain, but Xander had experienced it in spades, quite regularly. Fear, anger, relief, and the love one could only experience in a physical body wasn't something they could have given him. And they knew that. After a relatively brief flight, they arrived at Xander's island nation.

"Here we are..." He said and floated down to see Otis talking with Naja while they were both sitting on top of a building when they saw the golden man fly down with about a million other glowing people.

Naja was the first to speak. Though she was more flabbergasted at what was going on, and Xander's new appearance. "You were gone for... 6 hours. You've got so much explaining and apologizing to do."

"Hey Xander. You look different." Otis said commenting on his new form. "Can't quite place my finger on it though... New haircut?"

Zeke

He was "busy" making "refinements" to his Zero Rifle design. He could easily halved the weight and size of the weapon without effecting it's output, but then that would reduce the amount of time that they would need him. And he wasn't looking to get fired from the very handsome salary that he was making. None of them were any wiser as far as his trick went, but it wasn't like he was dragging everything out to the point of absurdity. He gave them what they wanted. A weapon they could take down the majority of even the strongest supers non-lethally. So that kept them satiated. It was all about timing. He spent most of the time doodling around on his phone, while using his powers to make the cameras playback scenes of him working. The door was locked for "Privacy and quiet."

But that didn't mean much to his boss. Colonel Miles. Who smacked on the door on a semi regular basis. Neither of them particularly liked one another, but the Colonel signed his paycheck and for the most part left him alone. At least until today. As per his usual method of alerting Zeke to his presence, by smacking the locked door several times. Which he refused to stop doing no matter how many times Zeke asked to ho knock like a normal human being. Zeke opened the door to the man. "You've got company coming in here soon. Future Solutions. They're one of the biggest providers for this project. So don't screw it up."

"I think they're going to be happy. So don't get your panties in too much of a knot. The Stasis Rifle is better than any other anti-superhuman weapon on the planet." Zeke said, obviously proud of his design. "Unless they're strong enough to fight having your atoms pretty much being halted in time. I've yet to see any superhuman that can physically break time. Perfectly harmless, yet incredibly effective. The non-combat applications are incredible. Construction will be several dozen times faster. Blood donations will last much longer. Organs won't rot away. Hell, once we streamline the power supply we can even use it on people for extend periods. Think of it like a prison that's actually impossible to escape. Of course you'll need several redundant power supplies and-"

"Enough with the tech mumbo jumbo. The want to see progress, so show them progress. Weapons, shielding, and even that power suit you're always wearing. Keep them happy."

"Hey. This is my paycheck we're talking about. I'm not exactly keen on losing that." Zeke said and put the rifle he was working on back together. "So don't worry your pretty little head. I'll give them the lightshow they're after. More funding and supplies means that I make better toys to get more funding and supplies. Hell, at this rate, we'll make superhumans obsolete."

"That's what I, and by extension, they, want to hear."

[The Republic of Atria]

"That would indeed be me." Zeke replied to the man. "And I've got plenty of toys that I'm more than certain you're going to like. Let's head outside so I can show you without the colonel getting on my nuts for testing them indoors." He said and lead them outside to what appeared to be a scrapyard. "Where old military hardware goes to die. Basically giant paperweights." He explained, pulling the rifle he was working on from his shoulder. "Zero Point energy rifle. Or Stasis rifle if you don't feel like saying all of that. Let's get to the meat and potatoes." Zeke finished and walked over to a clearly out of order tanks. "Normally these things weigh between 50 to 80 tons, but with this neat little toy..." He said and fired the bright blue beam at the tank, causing it to be surrounded by the energy field while Zeke effortlessly pointed the gun above their heads leaving the heavy tank suspended in the air. "Weightless."

"The only limiting factor is size. You could probably do a small house before you start damaging the battery. At least currently. Once I streamline the design and battery, the size limit should be less of an issue. I'll spare you the nerd stuff on how it works, but as long as your target is within it's limits, it's not going anywhere until you release the trigger. Don't worry, there's a lock in the event your finger gets tired." He explained while dropping the tank about twenty feet in the air back where it was originally. "Now. For defensive purposes. We're got the Zero shield. Sample principle as the gun. It just stops things from hitting your body. Like say... Bullets. Lasers. Shrapnel." He said showing off a device about the size of a small child's backpack. "I think it'll just be easier to show you."

There was a crude test dummy on what appeared to be a firing range with several automated turrets controlled by him. He placed the backpack on the test dummy and backed away. "Now, I'm assuming you all know how a railgun works? Magnets are a wonderful thing. These turrets are basically automatic rail guns. The projectiles move at roughly mach ten. By comparison, fifty caliber rounds move at around mach 3. Shield engaged." The dummy was covered in a blue glowing field and the turrets each fired a barrage, with the rounds stopping cold before even touching the target. The shield then deactivated and the bullets all fell to the ground with the dummy without a scratch. "And as for what lies in the future... Well, since you guys seem to have a fancy for powered armor. I could probably whip up a few designs in a few weeks."

[The Republic of Atria]

Zeke shrugged. "I can always just quit. The contract I signed, I had altered so that I could quit anytime wanted and not have them pestering me after the fact. It was more of an under the table kind of thing so whatever works best for me is what I'm going to take." Double what he was making already? That alone would have made him switch sides, but access to better resources and tools plus whatever else they seemed to be offering? "Sounds good so far, but lets hear more about this deal. I like to know what I'm getting into before I jump into it." If they really were paying him double what he was already making, a few months of work and he would be set for life. "I do have a few questions. What kind of tech am I going to have to work with. I was working with some Kree stuff and that's what I was able to make."

"I've heard good things about Shi'ar equipment. Unfortunately, there haven't been too many of them on Earth. And even less of them left us some stuff we can use." Of course by that, he meant he was going to give them the leftovers and keep the good stuff for himself. It was how he did things. They would get the tech they wanted after he got what he wanted. Zeke always came first. He didn't have any sort of malice towards anyone. It was just the matter of him looking out for himself. Being as powerful as he was meant that people could easily see him as a threat. And he wanted to be able to defend himself should anyone actually attack him, or worse, betray him.

[The Republic of Atria]

Xander spent the next twenty minutes explaining everything that had happened and how sorry he was for snapping at her. "But that's all beside the point. I just wanted to apologize for the way I've been lately." Xander said, taking her hands in his own. "You're my wife and that comes first. I promise I'll do a better-" He was cut off by Naja putting her finger over his mouth.

"I get it." She grinned. "For a guy who makes even the strangest things sound boring, you sure can talk a lot. I love you. You're a dumbass, but you're my dumbass. I accept your apology, but tonight, you're going to be doing penance." She teased. "And hopefully changing back to normal... Because you're missing... A few vital pieces to the puzzle." Referring to the fact that his new form lacked... The fun parts. At least Naja didn't outright say it. "But for now, let's get everyone adjusted. You dragged half an alien race down here. After draining their old leaders of their power. How many times have you done that this month?" She asked.

"Three. If you count the slavers. Barring them, two... What can I say. I have problems with authority. Unless I am that authority. Then it's fine." It was supposed to sound like a joke. He said it like a joke. Naja shook her head, but she was amused. The couple spent the next few hours locating the Elos to semi-proper living quarters on Praetoria. Luckily they don't take up much room or resources. Or sleep. Most of them opted to read the incredible amount of signals being transmitted and catch up on human culture. Xander didn't even know he could do that. He was about to ask how until Naja pulled him down by his ear.

"No. You are going to sit down and watch movies like a normal person. You owe me several days worth of us time and I'm claiming it all now. Get your skin back so we can go actually do that." She waited for Xander to change back for about a minute. He was making wewird faces and looking at himself, but he hadn't changed back yet. "Is there something wrong?"

"Maybe? Normally this is easy. My body just isn't responding." That could be taken in a number of ways. But it was in the most literal sense. Normally, minor shapeshifting was quite simple, but this time it just wasn't working. Then he really tried to focus and it worked. Kind of. There was an explosion that rocked half a city block's worth of space and Naja was shielding herself, and Xander was standing in the middle of the city completely nude. "This is going to take some getting used to..." He muttered as Naja burst out laughing while he stood, with his arms crossed. "It's not funny. Since when is the human body so hilarious? Everyone has these organs if they're male."

"Get-Get inside..." She said covering her mouth and pushing her husband into their home..

[The Republic of Atria]

Avatar Project Part 1

"It's late. And while you were gone. I did some shopping..." She said taking off her clothes and tossing them aside. "And we're not leaving our room until the sun comes back up. You owe me that much. I got us movies, snacks, and..." She said pulling out a box from behind their bed. "I've got us something to... Spice up our... Physical relationship." She grinned and put the box down beside the bed. "Come on. I got us a bunch of movies I think you're gonna like. I even downloaded all twelve episodes of One Punch Man. Something I know you're going to like." She finished, kissed his cheek, pulled him into their bed and turned on the TV. "Oh! I almost forgot." She rolled off the bed and hit the floor with an audible thud.

"What was that about?" Xander asked and looked over at his wife. "You okay?" His face turned red when he saw her climbing back onto the bed and lying down next to him. "Naja... What... I don't... You can't possibly tell me you enjoy wearing that. Don't you think it's just a little... Degrading?" He asked. "Just a bit?"

"Not really, no. I'm wearing it because I want to. And to see how red your face gets. It never stops being funny. Plus, it has my name on it. Now shh. We've got over a dozen hours of movies and anime to get through, and so help me I will chain you to the bed if I have to." She said half as a joke and half serious. "Don't think I won't." Xander knew she would if she had to, but he did owe her for missing out on the things she wanted to do because of other stuff he had going on. So they spent the next 5 hours going through One Punch Man. And true to Naja's words, Xander did enjoy it. Quite a bit. He was much like Saitama in his early days. Powerful and bored.

"Okay. I will admit it. That was enjoyable. I'm aware of how difficult animation is, and I must say that they did an amazing job. Thank you." He said and hugged his wife. "I wasn't aware that things like this existed. It was funny, a good commentary on heroes, and I can see how much of an idiot I was back then."

"We're making progress." She replied, leaning on him. They spent the next several hours watch various movies and eating an unhealthy amount of junk food until they fell asleep. More or less lying on one another. At least until they woke up to a proximity alarm. Xander was up first and upon trying to crawl out of bed, fell flat on his face because Naja had coiled her tail around his leg. "Where are you going?"

"That's the atmosphere alarm. A foreign object, likely an alien ship, entered it." He explained. Naja gave him an annoyed look and crossed her arms with her tail still firmly around his leg. Xander sighed. "Alright... Can I at least check and see if anyone else has already gotten to it?" Naja thought for a moment and let him go. "I'll be right back. I promise." He said, kissed her cheek, and flew to his control room. Once he turned off the alarm, he scanned every news-station for anything about it. His sensors picked it up as hovering right over a major metropolitan center, but nothing about it. It wasn't cloaked or stealthed. And it was plainly visible to everyone underneath it. "Naja... Come here real quick. This is weird."

Naja took off the "accessories" she was wearing last night and grabbed her costume as she walked into the Control Room. "What's going on? An alien ship? Shoo it away."

"That's not the weird part. Par for the course for a Tuesday. The problem is that people don't even seem to know that it exists. No panic. Not a single news report... The Avengers and the League don't know anything... Motherbox. Scan."

"Psionic energies detected." It responded.

"Okay. That makes sense." Xander said. "We're shielded from psionic assault while we're in range of a motherbox. Everyone else? Not so much. I''ll go shoo them away. Shouldn't take more than an hour."

"Go ahead. I'm gonna take a shower and eat something." She said, for once not unhappy to see him go. "Be back within an hour or I'm gonna make you put that on..."

Xander snickered. "Alright. Love you." He engaged Praetoria's Psi dampeners while he took the motherbox. At the very least his country would be immune as long as they stayed there. And he was immune to any psi tricks while he had the motherbox. This should be a quick little mission. In theory.

As Xander approached the ship several of the aliens on board watched him as he flew up to what he thought was the bridge. Initial scans showed that the human was outputting incredible amounts of energy despite not doing anything. "A potential specimen for the Avatar Project. And a resistance to our abilities. Yes... He should prove most valuable. Let him in." One of them commanded and a slot on the ship opened up to let Xander in. "Human. You are one of the guardians of this world. We mean no harm. We need your help." The voice said in Xander's head. "I cannot read your mind, but you can hear me."

Xander didn't believe them for a second. If they really needed help, they wouldn't be trying to hide their presence. "Uh huuuh." Xander replied. "And that's why you're trying to hide from everyone with some Psi powers?"

"Your kind has a record of destroying invaders. We wanted to speak with one capable of withstanding it. There are a few of you who can see through our cloak, but you are one of the few whom we wished to speak to. Please. Let us speak about the situation and then you can place your judgement."

It was a fairly solid argument. So Xander played along and followed the path of opened doors until he came to a room filled with a handful of them. "Alright. I'm here."

"Thank you for your time human." The one in charge said and floated in front of him. "We are the Elder, and we are dying. Our kind has suffered though very acute form of muscular atrophy. We have been attempting to find a cure for decades. We believe we have found one."

"The cure is me right? You want my DNA or something to engineer one? And..." They weren't lying. Their bodies had shown a drastic decrease in muscle mass from what he saw with his enhanced eyesight. Another few years and their hearts would likely give out as well. "...That is a pretty bad case."

"We would like as much genetic material as you can give. Your body is unique."

"...How about this. I'm not comfortable with giving blood and tissue samples to people I just met. Give me a blood sample and I promise I'll make you a cure for your condition."

"You do not understand. We have tried to cure our condition for decades. Our bodies cannot be cured. What we are doing is making bodies capable of holding our consciousness without tearing it apart. Your body can store an incredible amount of energy. From what we've detected, your body is outputting enough power that you could be mistaken for a star. Which means it is more than powerful enough to withstand us. Should you assist us, we will be more than happy to share our technology with you. The disease you refer to as Cancer. An affliction that ravages human and many other species in the universe alike. We have long since cured. All human ailments can be cured."

Xander still didn't fully trust them. "That's a generous offer. But, just let me cure you and you can be on your way."

"We were hoping to do this without violence..." The leader one stated and the three of them telekinetically smashed Xander's Motherbox, and immediately began to telepathically assault him. "Your resistance is admirable. Few minds have the strength to fight this."

"Fewer can do this..." Xander hissed and unleashed a massive blast of energy the obliterated the Elders and their ship. "I tried being nice... Ho well." He said and flew home.

[The Republic of Atria]

Avatar Project Part 2

Xander flew back home to Praetoria. He was gone for a whopping fifteen minutes. "Problem was dealt with. And in record time. We're getting good at this." He snickered. "They got my motherbox, but I managed to blow the ship into ash before they could do any of their mind tricks." Naja greeted him with a hug and kiss. "See. Told you I'd be back within the hour." It was easy, but he did have new quantum powers. It was likely do to them that wiping out the ship was so easy. "And, it looks like my powers finally decided to stabilize. Two birds with one stone."

"You never fail. That's great. No more random explosions." She replied. "Come on. I made breakfast. You'll have to let me know how my cooking is. Bacon, eggs, and toast." The couple sat down next to eachother and Naja turned on the TV to watch the news. To Xander's surprise, Mad World and Travenois had decided to ratify the Superhuman registration act. "Well. Look at that. Looks like you actually managed to convince them. See? There are ways to convince people without Jack Bauering them." They both went back to eating. "Tell me the truth. did you really enjoy last night? I don't want to keep making you do things that you don't want to do."

"Naja. Last night was some of the best fun I've had in a long time. Thank you for making me do it." He replied. "Hey... When we're done, you wanna go on patrol? I mean just me and you?" He asked.

"Sure. That sounds great." She replied. "It's been awhile since I've actually gotten off my butt and done some actual superhero work, so I suppose it's time to actually do my job."

"I'll do my best to balance work and pleasure from now on. If any of our future nights are half as fun as that one was, it'll have been worth it." They finished eating and Naja put the dishes in the sink. Something they'd do later. They flew off into the sky and looked down to see another city not too far north of theirs. However, it had a massive smoke cloud above it. So, of course they flew down to see what all the hubbub was about. It looked like a fight was just wrapping up between what looked like the US military with an array of colorful superhumans. "What happened here?" He asked the man in charge.

"These Masaki idiots happened. Trespassing on our planet and building a city. Probably to plan an invasion. We went ahead and nipped it in the bud before they were ahead and hurt someone. Given their history, it's not surprising."

"I don't blame you. Glad you put a stop to them. I was planning to do the exact same thing. Saved me a whole five minutes. If that." He laughed with the Colonel and shook hands. "Take care, sir." Xander said and flew off with Naja. "Wow. This day is turning out to be a good day. Things are starting to finally look up. You don't mind those morons being killed do you?"

"What? Of course not. They were powerful enough to actually do damage... Maybe. And had maybe half a brain cell between them. The way I see it, good riddance." She replied. "You know what we should do... Go out and have a nice little sparring match. Just for fun. We should probably head out to somewhere nice and safe. Like Mars or something."

"I think that would be a great idea." Xander replied as he and Naja flew off into space towards the red planet.

[The Republic of Atria]

Avatar Project Part 3

"How is the subject fairing?" The elder in charged asked. Xander was kept in a dream world of his own design. One where the universe was perfect according to him. "And is he going to be useful to our project?"

"He is doing quite well. His body repairs any and all damage we've caused at an incredible rate. We can have as much genetic material as we please. And his genome is only slightly altered. A few modifications to it and we will have our Avatars. His body is unique. It's capable of metabolizing the ambient energy around him as we as converting and storing it as quantum energy to an incredible level. All we must do is alter the code so that the avatars process our psionic energies rather than the quantum energy he uses. It will not be difficult. After we gather all the genetic material we need, his memory will be wiped and we will be more powerful than ever." The scientist explained. "Thankfully, the human genome is quite simple."

After about an hours worth of work, they had their first avatar body. A blend of Xander's and Elder DNA created a potent hybrid. The avatars would be superior to their normal bodies in every way. Virtually immortal, limitless psionic power, physically powerful. The Elders would live. They were finally saved after decades of searching for the perfect body. They did consider making themselves known to the Earth and pushing along their technological progress, but if Xander ever found out the truth, things would be destructive and they didn't want that.

Naja finished making breakfast and waited. When it came close to two hours after Xander had left she began to worry. If things went good, then he would have been home by now, or at least checked in with her. If the more likely scenario that things went awry, then she had to find a way to get to the ship to rescue him. Unfortunately, that required a portable psi dampener. Praetoria had a massive one designed to protect the entire country, but she didn't have the mechanical skills required to make it, but smaller. She would need another mother box, but Xander took the one they had and the only other person she knew that had one was Otis. The problem was that she would have to leave Praetoria and would immediately forget everything. Quite the predicament.

[The Republic of Atria]

Avatar Project Part 4

Hours passed. Their new Avatar bodies were nearing completion. All they had to do was spend fuse their consciousnesses with the new bodies and they would be done. Free of their pain and weakness. But just as they were about to finally wrap things up. Xander stirred. Something wasn't working right. "What is going on? The human shouldn't be waking up." The leader said. "Put his mind to rest immediately! If he wakes before we can erase the memory of his fantasy, there's no telling how unstable he will become!" They quickly tried to get Xander's mind to return to it's relaxed state. But it wasn't working. Julie's death at the hands of Manifest sent out ripples of distortion. Negatively effecting those that were close to her. Xander, having been on very good terms with the Lantern, felt it even more. They quickly saw that their attempts to further sedate Xander were failing and he almost began to seize up. "Into the avatars! Now!"

They had a very limited window. The mental trauma from Julie's death was causing his body to believe that he was in danger. In Xander's mind he and Naja were having a playful sparring match, in which Xander began to feel angry, scared and sad all at the same time. "Wha- What's going on?" He asked and Naja more or less began to fade. "Naja! No!" But it wasn't just her that began to fade. Everything did. He was waking up fast. The Elder quickly began the process of transferring their minds into that of their new avatars when Xander's eyes began to open. "Wha..." He moaned as he shook off the splitting headache he had. "What the... It... It was a dream?" It all came back to him. "No... No it couldn't have..." The memories of the Elders flooded his mind once again. He was lied to. He had never been happier before in his life, and it was gone. His perfect life. The sadness was quickly replaced by anger which was replaced by rage. "YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" He screamed at the top of his lungs.

Xander fought and fought. The restraints and equipment they had him strapped to, snapped like twigs. "YOU'RE DEAD! ALL OF YOU! DO YOU HEAR ME?! DEAD!" His quantum energies flaring all over the room and causing the very fabric of reality to bend and break around his body, until he was finally free. His rage causing the walls and floor to boil like water in a pot. He smashed through the ship as if it were made of tissue paper looking for any sign of the Elders so he could start ripping them into pieces. Luckily for them, they were able to finish the transference before Xander crashed the ship into the ocean. Though they didn't run. They waited outside so they could explain themselves. Not that Xander was going to actually let them do that.

"Human! Stop!" The leader commanded as their ship smacked into the ocean. "You do not understand! We had no intention of you remembering any of this. Though it was very impressive of you to break free. Very few have the strength of mind to pull such a feat without catastrophic brain damage. The pain must have been unimaginable." Their words did nothing to deter the golden man from smashing into their leader and dragging him all the way to Mars.

"Here. Let me show you what it felt like..."

[The Republic of Atria]

Avatar Project Part 5

Xander hit the Elder in it's gut and was about to follow it up with an uppercut, when he felt his entire body go numb and then fall over limp. Despite that, he was clearly the angriest limp man to ever exist. "Human... Please listen. We had no intentions of you remembering any of this. I have shut down the motor control functions of your brain. If you would just let me erase those memories, we can both be on our way." He was trying to do that regardless, but Xander's rage was keeping him from digging any deeper. And that didn't stop Xander from blasting the Elder, point blank with a powerful pair of beams from his eyes, straight into the chest of the Elder. The shock caused the Elder to release his control of Xander's mind. Elder bounded across the surface of the red planet and looked as the rather nasty wound on his chest. And then as it rapidly healed. "Even better than we imagined..."

"Do you have any idea what you took from me?! Everything was perfect!" Xander hissed. "Everything was peaceful! We were going to have children!" Nevermind how biologically impossible that was. "Those idiots were finally dead! The world was united!" Life was good. "I had control over my powers! Everyone was safe and happy! And now it's ALL GONE! How dare you take my body?! After what you bastards did, you don't!" Xander wound up a punch, but then fell to the ground again. The other Elders having caught up and their combined might was more than enough to restrain the raving human.

"Enough. Human. We've read your mind. Where you in the same position, you would have done the same thing. With or without consent. This is not about whether or not we were kind in our approach. We asked you. You denied us. We are not letting our kind die because of one stubborn man. We made a very generous offer." He explained. "We have what we came for. If you refuse to let us finish our task, then so be it. We never had any intention to harm you. The memories you experienced would have been forgotten and you would have moved on with your life without ever knowing the truth." They released their hold on the man and flew into the air. "There is no malice here. We are simply doing what we must to survive. You would do the same thing in our position. Xander wasn't moving. Just lying there. They saw no more reason to stay and took their leave.

They didn't have anything against him. Survival was what they were trying to do. Xander was hurt. His regeneration wasn't going to be able to fix a wound like this. After a few minutes, he flew back to Earth and sat on top of a skyscraper, finally giving into his emotions and crying. For the first time in his life, He was actually crying.

[The Republic of Atria]

Naja waited for several hours for Xander to come back. She told him one hour at the most. It had been close to 6. When the ship blew up, that was when she decided to say screw it and go find him. By the time she got to the city, everything was already done and she found Xander. At first glance, she was prepared to verbally tear him a new one until she saw the poor guy bawling his eyes out. Which made her feel slightly bad about her intentions. She had never seen him cry before. Sure he shed a few tears once in a blue moon, like their wedding day. But genuine crying? That wasn't something that was possible. "Xander?" She asked and had the large man throw himself at her, burying his face in her chest. "It's okay. Let it out. I got you." She held him and coiled her tail around him. "Hey now... Let's go home, okay?"

Of course she had to carry him the entire way. It was strange for him to be so quiet. She had to carry him like he was a cape, held in place by her tail wrapped around his leg. When she got home, she carefully laid him down on the sofa and put a blanket over him. "Just relax..." She encouraged and sat at his head. "Whatever it was... It's over. You're safe. You're home. Do you wanna talk about it?" She asked, stroking his arm. It wasn't much, but she wanted him to know that she was there for him. "You don't have to do this by yourself. We're married. We're a team. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. I love you, and seeing you like this... I've never seen you like this before." So Xander had emotions other than angry, stoic and horny. Who knew?

Xander told her the story of what happened. And then the part the he had to stop multiple times at. He descried the world as perfect. He ruled effectively everything, crime and suffering had all but been eradicated. Everyone was happy. Naja listened and held him the entire time. "Wow..." She didn't want to say that it could have been avoided, but it easily could have. And his luck didn't help. "I get it."

"No... I... I didn't know if you were really still my wife... That's what scared me. You're the best thing to ever happen to me. When everything fell apart... I was scared that you weren't real. It was so vivid. It went on for what felt like months..." He admitted. "It was so real... I wasn't sure that you were real after everything faded. I didn't want to be alone again."

"I can assure you, this is all real." She replied. "I'm real. Our marriage is real. You can tell because you're actually sad. If it were that dream, you'd be happy the whole time. But yes. I can promise you that this is all real. I love you. Take a deep breath. You're safe. You're back in reality. Here. Let me get you something to eat. I made pancakes. You just sit here and I'll take care of everything, alright? I know you. You'll be on your feet by the end of the day. Let's watch a movie. How do you feel about World War 2 and Quentin Tarantino?"

[The Republic of Atria]

Otis sat around playing video games for what felt like at least two weeks. He had long since cooled off from his argument with Medusa and Xander and began to think about what he should do. Go back to Attilan? Walk the Earth? Walk in space? It didn't matter what he chose, he just had to get away from Owen. One could only take so much sad sack before it began to annoy him. "Alright Owen. Thanks for the company, but I think it's time for me to leave." Owen waved his hand, not really surprised that Otis was leaving. Unfortunately for Otis, his first steps outside of the town were not pleasant ones. As soon as he set foot outside, he was hit with a terrible feeling of death... The death of his girlfriend. How he knew that she was dead was beyond him, maybe his cosmic awareness?

Then the guilt began to settle in. As powerful as he was, he should've been there to do something. Sure, Julie was a Green Lantern and very much capable of taking care of herself, but he was her boyfriend and at least should have been there to help. Maybe he could've saved her life. "Julie... I'm sorry..." Some tears were shed, but something in his mind that he only felt a few times in his life... Anger. Pure anger. He was powerful. He wielded what was effectively the Wrath of God. There is no reason that he should be cowering. Superman, Xander, hell, any superhero used violence at some point or another. He had so much power, some that most people couldn't even dream of. And now, because of his own refusal to accept that he had that power, someone he loved was dead.

Whoever said that anger was a bad thing? It's not. Angry gets shit done. And he was very angry. The point of Julie's death stuck out to him like a beacon. He didn't know how, but he knew where she died. No more weak Otis. No more waiting until every other option was exhausted. Xander even told him that the whole point of power was that it had to be used to help people. Not everyone had power, and the ones that didn't certainly didn't have his level of power. And it was time to use that power. Otis shot into the sky leaving a bright red across the sky and through space. The Omega power propelling him thousands upon thousands of times faster than light until he came across his destination. It was huge. He was looking at it from a huge distance and it was easily the size of a galaxy. How does one MISS that? Holy crap... But without a doubt, that was where Julie died.

As much as he just wanted to channel as much power of the Omega Effect as possible and just blow the entire thing across the cosmos, that would require him to likely kill an unfathomable amount of innocent people. Even as angry as he was, that was a line he wasn't going to cross. IT was likely a single person was responsible, and only that person should pay. The walls did nothing to impede his progress. He just melted them down into slag as he walked through the Fortress. "This is gonna take forever... Motherbox, hack into the closest thing this place has to loudspeakers." Otis said as his Motherbox pinged in response and did as he asked. "Attention everyone on this... Erm. Place. This is Otis Steredenn. Most people know me as that guy who killed Darkseid and took his power. A Martian Green Lantern by the name of Julie was killed on this station not too long ago. I want who's responsible to come meet me."

"Shoot me a text, telepathic message, or have a subordinate take me to you. Doesn't matter to me. I know most of you people on board probably had nothing to do with this. Which is why I'm asking like this. I want whoever's responsible and no one else. And if the killer is listening. I'm coming for you." He wasn't exactly one to make badass threats. But that should be enough to get anyone's attention.