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

[Finland SSR]

Finny presents...

The Ultimate Majin

Part One: Prologue

Frank Mayhem

---

Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!

Why am I even angry? It's simple - I've always been a little bit of a competitive person... actually, scratch that. A competitive person. And just a few minutes earlier, I was surrounded by people who are leagues, leaps above me.

How? When? When did this happen? It's like my whole world just collapsed and remade itself without me being aware of it, just to laugh at me. Just to point fingers and say 'Hey, Frank! Oh, should I call you "Lame-ank"? Yeah, you're lame, you can't get any stronger than what you are now, so why not throw people who can possibly destroy universes at you? Have a nice day!' Seriously, what did I ever do to you? You know there's a nigh-unbeatable training gap between Influx Levels Two and Three, right? That's what the instruction manual says - and hey, my experience confirms it. I got Level 1 immediately, Level 2 took a few weeks of harsh training, and now I'm struggling with achieving Level 3 for a year, even though I throw my form at everyone on sight. And considering how I'm a robot and not an organic lifeform, I can't train my base form to get stronger that way. I'm just stuck with this, and new Earthlings keep surpassing me every single moment.

Praetoria was already far past the horizon as I finally reached the land, those chunks of rubble and rock that aren't engulfed by water. There were a few suspicious ships coming to Earth, and I swear to whatever deity over there is the highest, if Xicor suddenly jumps at me somehow having beaten the Level 3 gap, I'm going to... scream!

Still flying. Huh. What am I even searching for? The land under me started growing more arid, deserted and less populated-

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What was that?..

It looked like something like a meteorite, or a spaceship, landing just a few hundred kilometers to the west from my position. I could only see a little bit of smoke coming out from the site.

Well, why not take a jab at it? With that thought, I started descending down from the skies, while approaching the crash. First at full speed, then slowing down, giving me time to inspect it from above. It didn't look any better from here. It appears that, if the object had a driver, it was a pretty amateur one, seeing as he or she missed the pretty safe plateau just a bit to the north and instead crashed right into the mountain nearby. The crew, they're all probably dead - but it wouldn't hurt to check for possible survivors. As the distance between me and the site closed in, I could make out some of the ship's details. It wasn't a construction I could immediately recognize, though - a bit like Arcosian vessels, but not really.

There was a faint heat signal inside... Are the bodies still warm? Or is someone there still alive?

Finally, after a few minutes of flight, I landed in front of what looked like the ship's front entrance. I still can't make out who could have built this. Not the Earthlings, that's for sure. I leaped in front of the door and ripped it off in a single fell swoop, being greeted by barely lit corridors and a completely wrecked structure. The fires were still burning, so this must have crashed recently- oh god, dammit, you saw it land, Frank!

Seriously, you need a vaca- BOOM! My thoughts were cut short by one of the metal doors bursting, with an energy beam coming out of the resulting hole. Okay, it's alive.

Sounds of footsteps echoed through. I took out the Heat Blade and assumed a fighting position.

A silhouette started approaching the hole. I held tight on my weapon.

Suddenly, it jumped out, standing in front of me with an energy blast in it's hand.

"Whoa whoa whoa! Watch ou-" Wait a minute. It's a female. Orange hair. Blue-green ish skin. Composite battle-worn clothing. Those confident, yet childish eyes. It's...

"Frank?" she spoke. Yep. Itaku.

"Itaku? Wh-what are you doing here?" I sheathed the Heat Blade. Her energy blast dissipated.

"I... I was searching for you."

"Searching for me? What for? How did the fight against the Androids go, by the way?"

"It went great, thanks for asking. You see, I left my planet, as well as the Nihil Novi to come here."

"Okay, but that doesn't answer the question. Why?"

Short pause.

"You know, this isn't the best place to chat right now. Mind if we go outside for a bit?" Itaku spoke. I shrugged, then leaped back to the light, with her following me. It was still early afternoon, and the Sun was shining intensely. She continued. "You see, I want to join you. I want to become a superhero."

I was quite shocked. Why wouldn't I be? "And then you came to me?"

"Well, yeah. You said you're a superhero, right? You can teach me or something."

God dammit. "You know, about that superhero thing..." I was about to explain that I'm not all that heroic and mainly just run around doing my thing, but she cut me short:

"Wait!"

"Huh?"

"Can you feel that?"

"Feel what?" I can't sense energy all over the Universe like ki users do.

"A lot of power levels... are dropping? And vanishing... It's in a densely populated city."

"Can you give me a precise location?"

"It's about thirty thousand leagues to the northeast."

Converting from Heran to Celestial units... locating... Ah, it must be Cairo! It's that huge Earthling city next to a bunch of old big pyramids. "Interesting."

"Something must be going on over there!" Itaku was pretty pumped. "Superheroes travel around to help those in need, right, Frank? This could be my first big mission!"

"Well, I suppose..."

"And with you..."

"Oh, don't snuggle with me over here! Let's just go..."

I leaped up, with the young Heran following me, and shot off to the northeast. Full speed. So we finish this quick.

"So, Frank," Itaku just won't get off me. "What do you do on your free time?"

"Nothing much. Mostly just stare into the distance."

"So you're a loner, huh? Not really the social type?"

"I wasn't built to socialize..."

Itaku, you're giving me flashbacks of that truck with Victorus!

---

It took us a good few minutes to reach the destination, but the Sun moved as if it were a few hours. Oh, yeah, time zones. The endless desert beneath us changed into suburbs, covered with shacks and slums of wood and animal skins, and it was clear that something fishy was going on. The streets were covered with bodies, but no blood.

"They're not dead, they're just drained of energy." Itaku commented.

"What kind of enemy would need to suck up energy instead of killing?" I replied.

"Hey, look, explosions!" Something was going on in the center of the giant city. "Explosions always indicate something that needs intervention." She's already thinking like a superhero... I shrugged, again, and flew there head first. She didn't stay there, in the suburbs, and followed me. After passing a few districts of clay buildings, I noticed a fight.

Two Earthling-like figures, a female adult and a male child, were fighting two alien-like figures. The kid was fighting the two by himself, actually, and he had golden... hair...

God dammit. Meanwhile, the female was sitting next to a pile of rubble, which housed two knocked out alien-like figures. She was blue-haired and wore a schoolgirl uniform.

"Darn! We got beaten to it!" Itaku exclaimed.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." I commented. "Having allies is always helpful." I'll trust the Earthlings this time, and with that thought, I landed in front of the schoolgirl. She jumped back at first, but soon calmed down.

"Oh, you don't have the M on the forehead." Her words reminded me - those two aliens had odd M letters on their foreheads. I guess that's an easy way to distinguish who's the bad guy.

"What's even going on here?" I asked. "We noticed something going on and felt like helping you guys out."

"Uh, thanks! I don't have the answers, but these two do," I looked at the two aliens she was referencing. They didn't have the M. One of them was short, purple-ish and with a mohawk. The other one was taller, more slender and reddish. They looked like they were a big deal, that's for sure - their clothes were flamboyant enough. "Me and Lucien-"

Darn it.

"-found them fighting the two Majins here. They willingly gave them energy for some reason, but miscalculated and got knocked out. The Majins, as they called them, are supposedly after energy for some plan of theirs. I'm Atiala Hypernova, and I'm an aspiring superhero. You guys are from some of the big name groups, right?"

"Nah, independents. I'm Frank Mayhem, the girl over there is Itaku."

I saw the two Majins move a bit back as Itaku joined the fight and transformed. Now I could compare a Super Heran next to a Super Saiyan.

"These two are too powerful." One of the Majins, a short white alien, spoke.

"No problem, there's enough energy in the devices already, both from the Earthlings and the Kaioshin. Master Bebidi will be pleased."

And in the blink of an eye, the two Majins leaped up, flared in their purple aura and shot off towards the distance. Huh-

"They're waking up!" Atiala exclaimed. Well, maybe we'll finally get some answers.

[The Republic of Atria]

As requested, Xander made her the outfit that she requested, but she hardly got to see him. As soon as he finished, he went right back out to resume his patrol, and she had gotten movies for them to watch. She left them on the dresser and went to bed, alone. Normally she could convince him to at least get some sleep, but he was no where to be found. It was slightly depressing, but she wasn't willing to cut him loose. For a number of reasons. Morning came and Xander was still gone. She got dressed and flew out to where she was supposed to be for a child's birthday. It was a quiet little neighborhood, and she got some weird looks when she landed and knocked on the door, about fifteen minutes early. "Oh! You're... Taller in person."

"I get that a lot." She said. "Oh. And I brought him a gift too. I think he'll like it. Where is the little guy anyways?" She asked and looked around the house. He wasn't home.

"He's out with his father. They should be back any minute now. Thank you for coming. Jason is going to be so happy. Oh, my name is Irene." She said and offered to shake Naja's hand. Naja of course shook it when a car rolled up the drive way. "That's them. Here, wait in the hallway. I'll tell you when to come out." Naja agreed and hid around the corner when Jason and his father walked in with some groceries. They talked for about a minute, but Jason himself seemed rather quiet. Probably sad that he had to go grocery chopping on his birthday. "Jason... There's someone here to see you." Just after she said that Naja walked around the corner.

"Hi, Jason. Your mother said that you wanted to meet me?" She said nicely. It was a few very long seconds of Jason staring at her silently. "Is there... Something wrong?"

"Y-You're the real Naja?"

"Last I checked, yes." She said and offered her hand to him. "Check if you don't believe me." Jason grabbed her hand. Of course he had no way of knowing what her hand really felt like, but it certainly felt real. His face lightning up seemed to confirm that she was indeed the real Naja.

"You came... I can't believe you came." He said staring at her and hugging her. "This is the best birthday ever!" Naja was a little taken back by his affection, but returned the hug nevertheless.

"Why would I want to disappoint a fan? I didn't even know I had fans." She replied. "Come on. We've got all day. Let's have some fun."

[Siliarba]

As the tournament reached the pre-finals break, Jamie found herself lying on a bench near one of the building's stores, holding a half-eaten hot dog in hand. She had been pretty excited about the tournament at first, but now, in all honesty, she was bored. She had expected the other contestants to put up more of a fight, but in the end, none of them had been much of a match for her. There were some national-level players present, but she still beat them with relative ease, hardly even bothering to get a perfect score, thinking that it was not worth the effort when she was sure to win one way or the other. While they were indeed good players in their own right, perhaps even great, from her perspective they were slow and unrefined, which made them all sitting ducks.

These thoughts and more ran through her head as she took another thoughtful bite of her hot-dog, ignoring the curious and/or remorseful stares thrown her way and the occasional attempt to talk with her or tell her to sit up. After all, it was probably poor etiquette to use up the whole bench like that, but Jamie didn't really care. She didn't often go out, anywways, she was sure that society could put up with the few times she did.

She ignored everything, at least, until she noticed a shadow being cast over her. Flicking her purple hoodie out of the way of her eyes, she looked up as she took another bite, instantly recognizing the person addressing her. Really, it was difficult not to recognize her if one had seen her at least once before already, what with the green hair and ridiculous attire. However, perhaps an even strongest reason was the fact that Jamie had seen her matches, and she had cleared through them almost as easily as she had. If she had to guess, the weird girl had made it to the finals, which was apt enough given she was the only one who seemed like a decent match.

Lazily, Jamie sat up on the bench and yawned. "I'm fine." She replied, ignoring Luna's trash-talking for the most part, not thinking it was important enough to pay attention to it. Whatever had to be shown would be shown during the match, anyway. "Name's Jamie." The black-haired girl added afterwards, before taking the last bite of her hot-dog and dropping the napkin on a nearby bin, before looking back up at Luna.

Luna

"No trash talk? I was expecting trash talk, it's basically how you say hello at these kinds of events. At least that's what I learned at this place, first time I ever played in a tournament, heck, first time I ever played a video game. Easy enough to learn though it seems. Well, if you're not trash talking then how about a good luck? The break will end soon, I'll be looking forward to who's number one and who's number two at these. I've gotten sortoff used to number 3 so either is an improvement." I sat down on the edge of the bench, not sure if I should leave her alone and head to the finals and wait there until the signal. Or stay here until the signal goes for us to get ready then head there. Darn it I wish I could just blow up this place and make that my introduction but that would seem more villainous than heroic.

[The Silhouette of Adventure]

He left her with the child, pulling out a phone, calling Alex. "You there? We need to talk."

"I'm here Loss." Spoke Alex, whom was swiveling in her room, with little to do since Loss had the students. She had some paperwork to file and do and whatnot, but she was instead practicing the art of procrastination. "What's going on?"

"One of the students, a Pyromancer, used too much of his power and injured his psyche. I was forced to intervene on the Astral Plane. This boy... He was powerful. Almost too powerful." He sighed. "You may have felt the ramifications of his pain- An abundance of imagined heat, perhaps, or simply a disturbance, a broken sort of feeling in your magic. I believe the effects may have been large enough to spread over all of Oxford, if not England." He paused for a moment. "Madam Fang and I entered the Astral Plane to heal the boy... But we weren't the only ones there. The Shadow King was there. We dispelled his form, but he'll be back eventually- And he won't be happy. We're going to have him, and maybe whatever American allies he has, on our doorstep soon." He frowned. "Damn it." He growled, leaning back in his chair and holding his temple. "Why in the name of all the Gods did I think this school was going to be a good idea? Of course this would happen."

[Siliarba]

CeeCee & DeeDee

Well, ..., that happened, God, what the hell should I do now, no point going home and acting this never happened, no point in trying to just ignore it and keeping it a secret because D knows about it. And above all of that I can't stop thinking about her, it! The situation! Not her! God damned! *sigh* might as well continue to D, she saw what happened and frankly this is going to lead to a conversation before you know anyway. Like a band aid, just get it over with and get Dee her advice fast. Estimated time of arrival, within the minute.

"I'm fine, I swear, just saw something I never expected to see while awake. By the way we're going to get a visitor soon, within the minute even, she's really racing here fast. Can't blame her I suppose, she's attempting to be rational and not trying to avoid what can't be avoided is her style, usually. I don't know if you've met her before, at the Devil's Den. But my twin is going to be here soon." Considering how much we look alike and the fact we both even have heterochromia iridum, just with the eyes swapped, and heck, even our names rhyme. Saying she's my twin is something nobody would question and truthfully it's basically the truth at this point, hard to see her as anything else than a pain in my butt and my loving sister and I'm sure she feels exactly the same. Speak of the Devil, there she is.

My first instinct was just to fly straight in and grab Dee for a chat but I suppose remaining calm and just walking in seems best, after all I've been already introduced to Dee her witchy friends. So I landed at the entrance, walked in, and headed straight to Dee's table. "Hey Dee, we're going to need to have a chat." I suppose I should say hi to her friends to. "Sarah, Sam, Hannah, Roy, and John, hi." I nodded in each their direction as I said their names. "Hey Cee, I suppose we do, but let's both recuperate a bit from our collective shocks a bit. Sit down, I'd offer you breakfast but I know you already ate. Besides, with both of us outside of the Devil's Den let's check how long things last before we feel the pull. We can always remove the pull afterwards, or at least postpone it for a few more hours afterwards even if it is tiresome to do so." "Sure Dee, why not, besides with your teleportation and my remarkable speed we can just go to the Den faster than the pull can have it's effect."

I grabbed a seat at the end of the table, one of the few open spots left, I didn't really talk after this, I had no idea what to say, not to my sister, not to her friends, I guess the best thing would be wait for them to start asking stuff, I'm sure they have questions, if they won't start I'm sure Dee will start speaking soon. "I'm sure you guys could have guessed but that pink-haired red lantern is my sister, if you got any questions shoot, you must have questions. At least I expect you to have some otherwise you'd be the least inquisitive people I'd know."

[New Neros]

Madworld

Swinging cranes dotted the skyline, diligent workers manning them and the steel beams they carried, rebuilding on massive scale as the horrors of war were swept away in order to usher in progress. Highly advanced technologies were at play, ensuring that the rapid rebuilding of Mad City would make the capital on the cutting edge of technology, as well as making preparations for massive immigration. The monstrously large Parahuman known as Shatterstar, one of the strongest among his people and rightfully earning a place among the King's elite in the Godbreakers, sighed deeply as he looked over the rebuilt skyline from an office in the Mad King's palace.

"Hm?" Wildstar grunted, turning his attention to his comrade, while Wildstar sat and relaxed after a hard day of training - recruitment by the Forever Knights steadily increasing, meaning more soldiers needed to be fielded. "Something troubles you, Maddox?"

"Yes." Shatterstar replied, "My family is one that relishes in honor, especially having honor in our bloodline, and by extension, Parahumanity as a whole." He explained, Wildstar listening intently, the beastly man scratching his chin with a clawed hand. "I'll put it simply...I don't like the interlopers and outsiders that our King is bringing into Madworld and into the Godbreakers. They can serve Maxwell, but I don't think they should be in our same group. The Godbreakers are the ones who fought -"

"Sovereign." Wildstar said bluntly, "And to that, I can see your reasoning, but I cannot agree with it." The beastly Parahuman sat forward, Maddox unmoving from the window he looked out of. "The pure-blood caste system was flawed and skewed, it was rightfully abolished years ago, there are no more peasants or nobles, all Parahumans are equal before the law. This equality rightfully should extend to other civilians of our nation, regardless of their heritage. Place a low-powered Parahuman next to a normal man and the difference is minuscule."

"But there is a difference." Maddox replied, "In culture and DNA. We have gifts that man cannot receive, different even from mutants and Inhumans, we Parahumans are unique in our physiology. We may look the same, share the same base model, but we are vastly different and deserve to be treated differently. They do not have our experiences, our events, they cannot relate to our struggles."

"You will find that they can, Maddox, you just need to open your point of view. You dismiss them before even knowing them. You reject all other beings in favor of your own race. What of Otto, then? He was a Godbreaker before you and I."

"Otto? He's brainwashed you, swept you up in that 'love thy neighbor' bullshit, his laws do not reflect the Parahuman experience. Our constant fight for survival, our steady need for improvement in order to succeed or face death, that was the way of the Parahumans. You remember growing up, the hardships you faced, I faced, Max faced."

"And?" Wildstar said, making Shatterstar turn his body around in anger, "The next generation, the one born after Maxwell became King, did not face our struggle. Our children will not, and I am glad. Do you want your child fighting another child for scraps of bread thrown out by the Tyrant King?" Wildstar asked, angry at his comrade at such backwards thinking. "The Godbreakers weren't formed just to defeat Sovereign. We came together to make a better tomorrow for our people, and if you can't accept that what we do is for the greater good, then you may leave at any time."

The two warriors stared hard at each other for the longest time, the tension steadily rising between them. Neither would dare raise a hand against a comrade in anger, so they stood, letting their stares do the battle instead. "I will not leave." Shatterstar finally said, "But my opinion is my opinion. I joined Godbreaker for Maxwell and to oppose Sovereign, the fine print didn't matter, what mattered was that I was there for my friend and ally when he needs me the most. I don't like Mir, Xala, Ashy, or Otto being on my team, but they are nonetheless, and I will treat them no different that you, Val, or Rebound. Max accepts these outsiders into our organization because he's paranoid of his own people, you and I both know this."

"That may as well be the case," Wildstar agreed, "But they sworn an oath of loyalty like you and I, to Madworld and her King. He has fears both rational and irrational, but I do not let them affect my perception. I do what I must and what I am ordered, I will defend this nation, her people, and my king with my life, and as long as I'm serving alongside people who are willing to do the same, then I shall remain a Godbreaker." Wildstar said with passion, Maddox relenting, walking from his observation post, heading for the exit. "Where are you going?"

"To see what our...allies...in the Ultra Corps are doing to aid our realm. To see if they too live up to the standard you've set for the Godbreakers." Maddox said, walking out of the room, "Until next time, friend."

[Zarkenis Ultima]

---

Etla was quite happy to see that her plan had worked, and a grin spread across her face when she heard Serene complimenting her. She completely forgot about the situation at hand and simply turned around to look at the Lightbearer, running a hand across her hair. "A genius? Me? Oh no, no, not at all." The Rainborn spoke with modesty that was clearly false, giggling at her own comment, before raising a hand to her chin in thoughtful gesture, her smile never truly leaving her face. "Although, maybe I am a genius. Maybe being so close to Craig all the time is actually making me smarter!" She considered with excitement, wondering if what she was saying was true. She had acquired the knowledge to make mechanical animals after all, and while it was true that the Tech Core helped with that, maybe it was passively giving her knowledge with each use.

Regardless, she was too caught up in her moment of narcissism to notice Darian destroying the remaining golems with relative ease, and only when the others were already walking into the cave alongside the old man did the Rainborn come back to her senses. Glancing around with confusion, she soon raised an eyebrow. "Where did the other clay things go?" She asked, not seeing any of them around. "Did you guys take them all out without leaving any for me?" She continued, a bit more aggressively this time, as she was reasonably certain that this was the correct explanation, something that irritated her quite a bit. She had been hoping to have at least a bit of fun dealing with the golems, and had even figured out how to take them out, but someone else had clearly taken advantage of that and stolen all of her entertainment, and as she understood this, a frown appeared on her face.

But she realized soon enough that there wasn't really anyone she could complain to, as the others were already heading down the cave without her. Etla puffed her cheeks, indignated, but then ran after the group. "Hey! Don't leave me behind!"

---

---

Hearing Luna speak, Jamie simply yawned again, not out of disrespect or to display boredom at the strange girl's words, but out of boredom in general, and a slight bit of drowsiness as well. "I could trash talk. I could also be the bigger woman and not bother." The gamer said, before breaking into a chuckle. "That's bullshit, though." She admitted. "I'm just a bit sleepy is all. These scrubs are not challenging me at all. I could play with my feet and still beat them." She boasted half-heartedly. In truth, to her, it was not a boast, and was rather the simple statement of a fact, but she realized that others might not see it as such. Regardless, having said her part, the black-haired girl simply closed her eyes and sat there, perfectly immobile, resting some more, until suddenly, something that Luna said finally caught up to her and caused her to open her eyes once again.

"First...?" She asked, sleepily squinting at the green-haired woman, before shrugging. "Don't grab the hammer. It's bad luck." She said honestly, thinking no more about the odd matter and closing her eyes once again. Having truly addressed everything this time, she was able to fall asleep quite quickly this time, falling in Luna's direction and leaning against her as she lightly snored.

---

---

After the whole conversation between CeeCee and DeeDee was over, Sarah glanced at the latter, then at the former, and finally shrugged before speaking. "Well, DeeDee, as I'm sure you know..." The attractive black-haired woman began, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "My little sister is a werewolf who is friends with a mutant who I'm supposed to train in using shadows to fight, I'm kind of like a vampire except way hotter and without the silly limitations and the mirror thing, my other sister is a witch who is being trained by another witch who is also a demon with a Red Lantern twin. Also, my boyfriend is a millionaire superhero who started dating me despite the fact that I robbed a bank less than a week ago, not that I can blame him. Oh, and we're occasionally pursued by a creepy wizard with a big hat who wants to steal our powers for chaos or something like that." She recounted, before making another deep inhalation to recover her breath.

"As you can probably tell, our lives aren't exactly normal, so by comparison this isn't too weird. With that in mind, I don't really have any questions, I'll just take what you want to tell me." Sarah stated. Truth be told, she could have been more cautious, but in the end, she doubted any harm could come from Samantha's teacher and her sister. She was by far more afraid of the wizard than she was of them. "If I had to ask something, I suppose it would be how Cee here knows our names, but if you two are anything like me and my sisters, and I'm pretty sure you are, then I can guess you just told her about us mentally. So, really, there's not much left for me to ask." She concluded, idly grabbing for a drink and taking John's instead, sipping from it without paying it much mind. "I suppose you might want to tell us about why you arrived here in a rush, though?"

[Confederation of imperial states]

Metropolis

The Man of steel landed on the ground, standing up the sheer power within him could be felt.

"what do I owe the pleasure of.." The Knight saw as Superman's eyes glowed a but, "Two Humans, who were able to take on Bizarro".

"I'm The Knight, protector of Chicago. This is Guardian, from San Andres", Guardian pitched in, "That Bizarro Clown was quite the character, he's powered UP from Kryptonite". Superman nodded, "Bizarro is only hurt by Blue Kryptonite, however it's extremely scarce and even harder to make". The Knight took a mental note before responding, "we're here for Alexander Luthor, better known as Lex Luthor", Superman rolled his eyes, "what did Lex do this time?", "He's connected to an attack in San Andres which almost killed 200 Civilians, the Pyrotechnic weapon we found from Star labs was paid and ordered by Lex himself". Superman rubbed his Chin, before lifting his head and looking leftwards, "there's a problem halfway across state, train out of control. Kara could you please take care of this", Supergirl nodded as Superman jetted off, shaking the area a bit.

Supergirl approached The Knight and Guardian, "So, we're going after lex?", Guardian peered at The Knight, "yes, the Compiled evidence is more than enough to warrant an arrest". "did you find where he is?", The Knight shook his head, lifting up his right hand and activating the UI on his gauntlet, "Bizarro disrupted it, I'll try to backtrace the signal", "there's gotta be a faster way". The Knight paused, before closing the UI on his gauntlet and taking out a transmitter, "Supergirl, fly to the highest Broadcasting Antenna and attach this device to it, I'll be able to scan Lexcorp's communication waves for him". Supergirl took the device and nodded, jetting off even faster than Superman, Guardian peered at the Knight.

"Why didn't you ask me?", "Well, She knows the high points of Metropolis, She's faster than superman from what my scans just read, who in turn is faster than you". Guardian stared at The Knight, squinting, "It's nothing to be ashamed of-", "Shut up" Guardian said as Supergirl landed fast, however surprisingly soft in front of them. "It's hooked up", The Knight nodded as he used his earpiece, "Sanza give me a Reading of Alexander Luthor's Location", [Scanning.....Lexcorp Skyscraper, Downtown Metropolis]. Guardian sighed, "The Bad Guy is in his intimidating headquarters, who would've guessed, Knight do you want to grab on or-", "I've got it covered" The Knight said, grappeling upwards onto The VTOL and climbing in. Supergirl and Guardian took of with The Knight following behind.

["Any Ideas on Exactly how we're going to approach Luthor?"], ["We'll walk in through the front door"], ["You've got to be kidding me"], ["I don't think the Authorities are going to take kindly to us smashing through into his office, ripping him out and plopping him down at the Police station"]. The Knight ejected from his VTOL, gliding and landing on a Lexcorp Emblem in the concrete in front of the main doors, Supergirl and Guardian landed to his right. The Knight, Supergirl, and Guardian walked into the Lexcorp lobby, the attendant at the desk gave them a midly shocked face when looking up,

"we're here to see Luthor" Supergirl said to the attendant,
The Attendant scoffed, "As much as i'm sure you'd love to see him Supergirl, Mr Luthor is not in the mood for visitors. Especially from Aliens".
The Knight scowled, grabbing the Attendant by his shirt collar and pulling him almost over the desk, "Luthor is currently Responsible for an attack in San Andres, An attack that almost cost 200 innocent people their lives. If you don't tell us where he is, I'll make sure you're prosecuted for his crimes as well, counting the ones that were killed in that attack" The Knight let go of the man's shirt, causing him to fall back into his chair. "Mr Luthor is upstairs on the top floor, can't miss it", the man said before sinking under his desk. The Knight walked over to the elevator, Supergirl peered at Guardian who simply shrugged. They stepped into the elevator, The Knight pressing the top floor button as it carried them up. The Insuing Cheesy music played as all three of them waited for the elevator carried them up.

Once reaching the top, The Knight stepped out, readying his dart launcher on his left gauntlet, they approached the large doors of Luthor's office. Supergirl nodded to The Knight before he kicked them open, to reveal Luthor staring calmly at them, "Alexander Luthor, You're under arrest for your involvement in the attack in San Andes". Lex chuckled, "You've got me, I'm under arrest", he said, putting his hands in a position to be cuffed. The Knight began walking over, when suddenly, a green ray of light started beaming down on Supergirl forcing her to the ground, "K-Kryptonite" He said as she tried to at least keep up on one Knee. Guardian attempted to pull her out from under it , but was thrown back by an electrical feedback, throwing him into a bookcase on the opposite side of the room. The Knight stared towards Luthor who stood up Clapping, "do you really think I'd let you just Arrest me?". The Knight lunged at Luthor, however Luthor pressed a button on his desk, dropping down a hole which closed up behind him.

The Knight stood up, "Where did he Go?!" He yelled as Guardian stood up and shrugged, Then, Luthor rose from a panel in the middle of the room, In his Kryptonite based Armor. "Now Gentlemen, Let's get to buisness", Guardian flew at Luthor, gearing up a punch, However Luthor caught the punch, smashing Guardian into the floor with his other hand. The Knight shot an Explosive dart at Luthor's back, it exploded, however showed no real mark on Luthor's armor. Guardian got free of Luthor's Grip, kicking him and sending him into the ceiling, sending him crashing up and smashing down onto the floor. Guardian flew at Luthor, however Lex shot him with a Kryptonite Laser, throwing Guardian through the double doors, through the elevator shaft, and out of the building. Luthor stood up, turning towards The Knight, "so, what can you do my Vigilante Friend?", The Knight threw down a Smoke grenade, creating a screen of smoke, he then jumped at Luthor, punching him across the face which was exposed.

Lex grabbed The Knight by the Neck, using his other hand to tear off his cape, "Let's see how a Knight does without his Shield" he said throwing him into the right wall. The Knight slammed into a TV, he dropped down behind a couch, The Knight took a Knee, contacting Sanza with his earpiece. ["Sanza Contact Heavy Support, Red Level"], [Right Away Sir], Before The Knight could react, Luthor grabbed The couch, and using it like a bat, hitting The Knight and smashing him into the Reinforced glass of his office. The Knight internally groaned as he stood up, Luthor grabbed him by the neck, the Knight kicking and grasping for an exposed part of Luthor's armor, "Such tenacity, I wish we could've been buisness partners". The Knight thought, then activated one of his Gauntlet's Electrical Shocks, "I'd never invest in a Madman" The Knight said slamming it against one of the exposed joints of the arm Lex grabbed him with, causing Lex's armor to malfunction and him reeling back. The Knight took a breath, then noticed a gray spot outside of the window, Luthor had his armor return to normal, readying the Kryptonite Laser, "Any Last Words?", "Titan", "What?".

lex was cut off When Titan slammed through the reinforced glass, forcing Her and Lex into the back wall, Titan hovered, grabbing lex by the collar piece of His armor. "Oh look, a pretty little Metahuman, What are you going to do? Bark me to death?". The Look Titan gave Lex sent a shiver down The Knight's spine as she ripped off the Chest piece of Lex's armor, pulling him out of the suit and holding up up by the collar of his shirt. "set him down, I'll take care of the rest" The Knight said, standing up and walking over, the slight limp from his left side gave Titan a sign he'd cracked a rib or two. Titan tossed Lex into the wall, causing him to crack it before sliding down. Guardian returned flying through the several holes he'd made. "What'd I miss?", The Knight grabbed lex by his throat, punching him square across the jaw knocking him out. The Knight then shot an Electrical shock Dart at the Kryptonite protector keeping Supergirl down.

Supergirl stood up, groaning, "God I hate Lex, Always using Kryptonite, I'm gonna have this headache for a few hours". Supergirl hovered over to Lex, "I'll get him to a Police Department", The Knight nodded, "Thanks Supergirl", Supergirl shook her head as she dragged Lex out, "Please, you guys can call me Kara" she said as she jetted out. Guardian peered at The Knight, "I'm guessing this isn't the end of the trail from San Andres?", The Knight shook his head, "Stahl is connected, We'll have to part for now, I'll contact you when I have more Information". Guardian nodded, hovering and flying out though the broken window, The Knight looked at Titan, who peered down at the his right hand currently placed on his right ribs, The Knight walked over to the cape lex ripped off, reattaching what he could.

"I'm getting you home", "Titan I have work that needs to be do-", The Knight was cut off when Titan placed an arm around him. "Not up for debate" She ordered as she jetted off.

[The Rebel Alliances]

Daniel Carter/Killswitch-23-Baravia, South America

Daniel Carter/Killswitch-23-Baravia, South America

As my eyes traced the battle between the alien and Gravity, I was impressed with the firepower that the alien was bringing into the fight. Gravity was not defenseless however, as he was able to harness his abilities so that he could minimize the damage received and fight back, that being said though, his attention was entirely off of me. It was strange though, how even with all of her technology the alien was obviously avoiding death blows. I had thought she would understand, that death is a part of being for warriors. Death is inescapable and oftentimes unexpected. A lesson I learned as a child and lived by as an adult. As a merc, I walk with death at my side. As a killer, I escort it to its next victim and as a man it lives next to me. Waiting for me to greet it the last time I close my eyes.

I turned my attention away from the outside battle as I slowly retrieved my primary weapon. Deciding to relocate and reengage. I never got the chance as I was hastily tackled by the six armed giant. Thrusting me into a wall with enough force to break the brick, but not cave the wall entirely. He regenerates? The question stuck itself in my head as he attempted to physically paste me to the wall. Backing off and grabbing my legs with both hands he then hurled me across the room. With some distance between us, I clawed at my weapon and pulled the trigger as I attempted to blast him across the torso.

Only no bullets were fired.

What the hell is going on?

The weapon is not damaged nor malfunctioning, but it refuses to fire. The delay cost me dearly as he slammed me again, this time we could both hear several of my bones snap. Gripping me with two very large and powerful hands the mutant began to taunt me. "They call me Behemoth. Now you can feel why." Personnelly, his deep and thick accent was beginning to annoy. I drove my fists to the side of his head, but the blows were random and desperate, matching my frantic state of mind as blood seeped from my mouth and I battled uphill for life. Behemoth was unfazed by the blows, and used two of his free hands to pull my helmet from my face. Staring me in the eyes for the first time as hechoked the life out of me. "Any last words before I kill you and hang your corpse on display?"

I answered, but his choking made my attempt at speech barely audible. He then pressed his face closer to mine and asked again. "What was that, didn't quite catch that."

"F*ck you."

I switched my tactics to fighting dirty, slamming the one weakness all of my kind share with the ruthless force of my armored right boot. The groin. Behemoth caved in easily after that as I gasped for air, both of us racing to see which of us would recover first, as I forced myself to stand I saw that the mutant had retracted all of his extra arms as his only concern was nesting his damaged goods. Wasting no time as I stood over him clasped both of my hands to either side of his skull and placed my thumbs over each of his eyes, Behemoth began to claw at me and scream in pain as I eye guaged him, blood cascading down his face as his eyes were destroyed. Gritting my teeth I then wrapped my gloved hands around his head and ended the fight a second time with a grostique snapping of his neck, severing his head from his spine for the most part. His body thumped onto the foor as it fell in a very awkward manner. Breathing heavily but victorious over the man, I spat blood onto him uttering what I hoped to be a final warning.

"Stay dead."

I popped my neck as I walked away from him. This time however facing the corpse to make sure he does not regenerate once more, while picking up one of my combat knives from the dusty tile floor. As I was about to assure myself the man was truly dead this time, a flash of light connected with his body and I realized the truth, he was not regenerating, rather was reversing time. Is this brute immortal? It certainly seemed so as I knew another round of fighting was about to commence. But more strangely than the dead corpse reversing time, the more he spoke, the less he seemed to actually be aware of what is going on.

"You will need far more than a can opener to kill me." As he repeated his simple but pretty damn effective strategy of blitzing me, I thought about how his statement implied that he was unaware of already dying twice by my hand. But as I ducked under a massive swing, it was clear. That if things keep progressing this way, I will eventually tire and be killed. I was careful to evade his wide and predictable blows, knowing it could be over if he caught me. I lunged at him blade in hand, making a superficial cut but seeing that with his many arms he could both defend and attack, as he grabbed my knife hand and tore the blade away from me, I rolled around him in a attemp to take him from the side.

But it was like fighting a damn tank, he slashed me across my chest, saved only by my kevlar as he slugged me with piston like punches which sent me reeling to the floor and into a pile of seeming trash. I could hear his heavy footsteps behind me as I panicked searched through the pile for anything useful. As he was almost over me, my blurry vision spotted a bic lighter and a spray can. Not giving it a second thought I snatched both common household items up and rolled over on my back to face Behemoth. The sight of sudden terror in his eyes the last thing I saw as a jet of bright orange flame enveloped him.

His cries split my ears as he randomly bumped into walls as the stench of burning flesh filled my nostrils. The whole sight combined with pain convinced me to puke, as I took a moment to gather my breath. In the span of around a minute, Behemoth's cries fell silent. And retrieving two of the remaining four knives from my vest I stood myself back up and watched the burning corpse intently, determined to discover the method used to keep reviving him. The smell was the worst part of the waiting, as I had concluded that whateve being wa behind the repeated revival of this mutant was utterly dispicable. This man did not need to suffer several gruesome deaths, but by the intervention of some third party he has had to endure far too much.

As a mercy I will ensure the next time is the final time. I stood there, my body tense and throbbing as I searched for anything. And then I saw it. An arrow, for only a brief instant contact the body. Then the normal process of his reverting back to a time when he had no injuries occured again. Only this time there would be no fight. As he prepared himself for our fourth fight, I threw both of the large knives at him, each one embedding themselves into my target. He reeled back in sharp pain as he attempted to pull the knives free. I dashed at him, drawing my final two blades, all of them housing bombs in the handles, and with the opening I created I stabbed both of them deeply into his gut. Backing away immediately after and leaving him in the room by himself, pulling the detonator from my vest as I walked down the hall and up the stairs of the building, pressing the detonator twice.

"Click, click...boom." On cue the exposion rocked the building and collapsed that room, turning Behemoth into meatchunks, It seemed the mutants had retreated, possibly because they figured Gravity could handle it, or for any number of reasons. But they were not my concern, instead my focus was on only the one which made me kill a man three times over. It is time to call the bastard out. As I reached the roof of the building, my eyes scanned across the cityscape. I could not see whoever was hiding, but I was certain they could see me. Wounded and battered, as fighting a mutant behemoth for fifteen minutes will do that to you.

My voice then echoed across the distance.

"DID THAT NOT ENTERTAIN YOU!? ARE YOU SO TERRIFIED OF A SINGLE HUMAN WARRIOR THAT YOU WOULD HIDE YOURSELF AND ALLOW A FALLEN COMRADE TO FIGHT YOUR BATTLES SEVERAL TIMES OVER!?" I had nearly driven myself hoarse as my voice began to break.

"Answer me!!!" I breathed rasply as I shot my eyes back and fort, awaiting for my hidden adversary to reveal himself.

Lysia

So predictable, but then again, it's a poor huntress that can't predict her prey, then again who can't predict the simple nature of man. He has faced the brute many times over so I suppose he has earned himself a worthy death, even if his life is worthless. My bow and arrows vanished and in it's place a sword and shield formed, let's give the prey a chance to see the huntress, a last honor, even if he's undeserving of it. I jumped out of the building from several stories high and left an impact on the ground before I started racing towards my prey's location. To make the run faster and more unpredictable I used my powers sporadically to vanish from where I was standing and reappear where I would be standing in the future.

As I closed in I began shouting, if this was a real hunt I would remain silent and attack when the prey is unprepared, but this is just a man I'm hunting, no need for caution. "Don't overvalue your worthiness, all you've proven is that you're a better beast than the one I made you fight, and don't mistake this for a fight, this is a hunt, and striking from the shadows, wounding the beast before striking it is the way of the huntress. Now be proud that you will face an honorable death at the hands of an Amazon!" When I was close enough I drew me sword and raised my shield and charged at him resembling a simple charge, but my intention was to roll down and behind him then leap and do a downward strike. As that is my plan it is a simple matter of activating my powers and propelling me in a future position. And just like that I vanished in a blue and white light and appeared behind him already with my sword raised high ready to strike this man down in a single swing.

"One strike should be enough for weak prey like you!"

The sun was just starting to set, as twilight approached my vision was blurred by the declining sun. As whoever was targeting me was good enough to place the sun to their back. I shielded my eyes with a dusty and bloody gloved hand as I once again looked out into the square. The landmarks of the remains of cars were still there but it seemed that my original target, had been scared away by the outbreak of fighting. And for a moment it looked as if my challenge to my stalker went unanswered. Shoving the horizon away in frustration I turned my back as the ache in my bones set in from my knock down, drag out with Behemoth. Resigning myself to relocating my body went erect as my stalker revealed...from the echo of the voice...herself. In a manner about as subtle as an atomic bomb.

Turning on a swivel I armed myself with little more than my fist. My enemy was in constant motion as she both verbally blasted me and charged directly, armed with light armor with sword and shield. Her speed was blinding and in one swift motion which moved quick enough to where I was wholly unaware as to how she managed to position herself behind me. Her sword clashed with concrete as her strike made contact with the floor beneath us. I myself had thrown myself to the left skidding several feet as I ungracefully dodged the strike. My teeth grinded against each other as I stood up, palming a flash bang in my left hand and gripping a crowbar with my right.

A gentle breeze surrounded the fight as I gauged my new opponent. The most obvious details was her female frame and unusual height for a woman. She stood easily around six feet and her weapons as well as armor seemed fit for a museum rather than a battlefield. The armor was certainly not restrictive, allowing free movement but also left much of her legs and arms exposed. Not to mention her face which held a large but narrow nose, full lips and earth brown eyes. Her long hair was entirely unnecessary, long enough to reach her upper thigh. Her bangs were cut neatly so that they would not obstruct her vision as her hair perfectly framed her face. Matter of fact, her whole person seemed clean, untarnished as if she was a model of a warrior rather than a genuine article. She contrasted so sharply with the dull, grey and damaged environment that it was almost surreal.

Compared to my own form, I matched our arena. My sweaty and dirty face covered a two day shadow that had started to grow in, my deep brown hair was decorated with dust, smoke and debris. The deep bags beneath my eyes showed a level of exhaustion setting in as my rapid breathing gave evidence to the level of adrenaline pumping in my body. The armor I wore was now tattered and filled with holes, dirt smears and blood spots. I then squeezed the crowbar until my knuckles turned white.

"You almost had me. One swift strike delivering a single quick kill." I breathed, addressing the warrior, knowing how deep her pride ran from her previous speech. "But you just had to drone on with idiotic jabbering. Giving away your own position." I then brushed some blood away from my lip with the back of my gloved left hand.

"Mistake of anamateur." I spat.

Then without another word I pulled the pin on my single flash bang grenade, and 'cooked' it for three seconds before allowing it to sail to the Amazon for the final two seconds. Its explosion was my hope for an opening, as I charged at the woman with a powerful overhead swing of a crowbar which whistled as it cut through the air, as I too attempted to end the fight with a single attack.

[Siliarba]

Daniel Carter/Killswitch-23-Baravia, South America

The sun was just starting to set, as twilight approached my vision was blurred by the declining sun. As whoever was targeting me was good enough to place the sun to their back. I shielded my eyes with a dusty and bloody gloved hand as I once again looked out into the square. The landmarks of the remains of cars were still there but it seemed that my original target, had been scared away by the outbreak of fighting. And for a moment it looked as if my challenge to my stalker went unanswered. Shoving the horizon away in frustration I turned my back as the ache in my bones set in from my knock down, drag out with Behemoth. Resigning myself to relocating my body went erect as my stalker revealed...from the echo of the voice...herself. In a manner about as subtle as an atomic bomb.

Turning on a swivel I armed myself with little more than my fist. My enemy was in constant motion as she both verbally blasted me and charged directly, armed with light armor with sword and shield. Her speed was blinding and in one swift motion which moved quick enough to where I was wholly unaware as to how she managed to position herself behind me. Her sword clashed with concrete as her strike made contact with the floor beneath us. I myself had thrown myself to the left skidding several feet as I ungracefully dodged the strike. My teeth grinded against each other as I stood up, palming a flash bang in my left hand and gripping a crowbar with my right.

A gentle breeze surrounded the fight as I gauged my new opponent. The most obvious details was her female frame and unusual height for a woman. She stood easily around six feet and her weapons as well as armor seemed fit for a museum rather than a battlefield. The armor was certainly not restrictive, allowing free movement but also left much of her legs and arms exposed. Not to mention her face which held a large but narrow nose, full lips and earth brown eyes. Her long hair was entirely unnecessary, long enough to reach her upper thigh. Her bangs were cut neatly so that they would not obstruct her vision as her hair perfectly framed her face. Matter of fact, her whole person seemed clean, untarnished as if she was a model of a warrior rather than a genuine article. She contrasted so sharply with the dull, grey and damaged environment that it was almost surreal.

Compared to my own form, I matched our arena. My sweaty and dirty face covered a two day shadow that had started to grow in, my deep brown hair was decorated with dust, smoke and debris. The deep bags beneath my eyes showed a level of exhaustion setting in as my rapid breathing gave evidence to the level of adrenaline pumping in my body. The armor I wore was now tattered and filled with holes, dirt smears and blood spots. I then squeezed the crowbar until my knuckles turned white.

"You almost had me. One swift strike delivering a single quick kill." I breathed, addressing the warrior, knowing how deep her pride ran from her previous speech. "But you just had to drone on with idiotic jabbering. Giving away your own position." I then brushed some blood away from my lip with the back of my gloved left hand.

"Mistake of anamateur." I spat.

Then without another word I pulled the pin on my single flash bang grenade, and 'cooked' it for three seconds before allowing it to sail to the Amazon for the final two seconds. Its explosion was my hope for an opening, as I charged at the woman with a powerful overhead swing of a crowbar which whistled as it cut through the air, as I too attempted to end the fight with a single attack.

Lysia

"It's been a wile since a man was capable of lasting longer than my first attack. I'll commend you for that." I was genuinely surprised, even if my victory is still assured a small sense of a battle rush came over me, when every opponent you have faced fell at the first swing having one making it past that can already be exhilarating even if only for a moment. Time for his counterattack it seemed, I didn't recognize whatever it was he threw in my direction but considering the cylindrical thing came from an enemy, whatever it was it was meant to hurt or disable me. My guess, a bomb of some sorts. I readied my shield arm and as the object came close I bashed it away with my shield at full force, making it fly high in the air before it came to detonate. I was however not fully expecting the flash of light it created so even though I knocked it far in to the sky the light halved the sight my eyes could give me.

But that was more then enough to see the direct follow-up off my opponent. Using a metal weapon he charged at me, in a way he's mimicking me it seems. A distraction followed my an opponent being left open and vulnerable than one hit to finish it. I could revert my position in time a bit where I still had my shield at the ready to block his attack, but it seemed better to simply show this man his inferiority by using the momentum of my swing to turn my other arm in to a position to catch the metal weapon as it came down. The sword I had created with my powers vanished as I attempted to move my arm in to position, this man was fast however, faster than I expected and I only got my arm and hand in to position at the absolute final moment. A bit surprising, but just in time is still a success.

My open hand took the impact of his swing and grasped the metal bar. His swing held a great amount of strength, I could feel that the bones in my hand were at the edge of breaking and the flesh ripping open making blood flow down my arm. "I am slightly impressed, you show great strength and speed, for a mere man at least. Now let me show you the strength of an Amazon!" I clasped my hands with my full force and the metal weapon began to bend. "And do not mistake me for an amateur because I revealed my position or even risked getting hit while I could have easily blocked. I am still at the peak of my strength, not tired, barely hurt, while you, you're beaten and at the end of your rope. Before the fight even began it was clear I would win simply by looking at our conditions. And even if you did manage to crack my skull and kill me, I'd just resurrect and fight again, if I can resurrect others you really think I can't do it to myself?"

I pulled back my shield arm once again while still holding the metal weapon of my opponent, clearly preparing for a shield bash that would break his skull and neck, perhaps even sever his head completely from the force if he did not dodge. And with the strength that could smash a concrete wall I slammed my shield in the direction of this man's head.

[Charmera]

Aru grunted from the gravity as it nearly sent her planting her face into the floor, however she managed to stand herself up, just about. She had to get away from the gravity well, and so she suddenly teleported, ending up behind her foe. She pulled out two pulse pistols and fired, a pulse of electromagnetic energy coming out from the guns. She made sure to keep it on a low setting so she wouldn't kill him. "I've had worse odd's before human." She remarked. While she fired repeatedly she made sure to teleport. "

Oh course she can fucking teleport.

Callum cried out as he was suddenly blasted from all sides by burning pulse fire. He quickly discovered that his wetsuit didn't really help against scorching alien weaponry, as his skin burned with each hit. He hastily launched waves of gravity in all directions, hoping to hit the girl, but he already knew they would be far off. Changing tactics, he started ripping up parts of the floor, surrounding himself on all sides with chunks of stone. It managed to block most of the pulse shots, but some still hit him. Luckily, the stone wasn't a barrier. With a grunt, Callum expelled a powerful wave of gravity, firing chunks of heavy rock in every direction, making it impossible to predict, and therefore block, even for a teleporter. He densified himself, to help prevent damage from kinetic damage, and turned around, trying to find out where she was. He'd hit her at least.

She could beat her. Probably.

Aru'va grunted as she was hit by a burst of gravity, rolling as she fought through the pain of impact. However she saw her opponent was preparing some sort of attack, stones. She managed to play keep away from most of them. Though she suffered a gash from an straying rock. She grunted, some of her blood on the rock. She gritted her teeth. "Okay. My turn." She pulled out her sniper accelerator cannon, a larger weapon which should annhilate the rock. She then used her other hand to grab a few disks. Tossing them in the air, they unfurled to reveal they were her drones. She commanded them to rain down hell on Gravity with pulse weaponary while she teleported a bit back.

She carefully lined up a shot. Then fired. Fired two more times for good measure. It would make short work of his barrier at least.

[Krytonus]

Oh course she can fucking teleport.

Callum cried out as he was suddenly blasted from all sides by burning pulse fire. He quickly discovered that his wetsuit didn't really help against scorching alien weaponry, as his skin burned with each hit. He hastily launched waves of gravity in all directions, hoping to hit the girl, but he already knew they would be far off. Changing tactics, he started ripping up parts of the floor, surrounding himself on all sides with chunks of stone. It managed to block most of the pulse shots, but some still hit him. Luckily, the stone wasn't a barrier. With a grunt, Callum expelled a powerful wave of gravity, firing chunks of heavy rock in every direction, making it impossible to predict, and therefore block, even for a teleporter. He densified himself, to help prevent damage from kinetic damage, and turned around, trying to find out where she was. He'd hit her at least.

She could beat her. Probably.

Aru'va grunted as she was hit by a burst of gravity, rolling as she fought through the pain of impact. However she saw her opponent was preparing some sort of attack, stones. She managed to play keep away from most of them. Though she suffered a gash from an straying rock. She grunted, some of her blood on the rock. She gritted her teeth. "Okay. My turn." She pulled out her sniper accelerator cannon, a larger weapon which should annhilate the rock. She then used her other hand to grab a few disks. Tossing them in the air, they unfurled to reveal they were her drones. She commanded them to rain down hell on Gravity with pulse weaponary while she teleported a bit back.

She carefully lined up a shot. Then fired. Fired two more times for good measure. It would make short work of his barrier at least.

The drones were an unwelcome surprise, but other than that, thing had gone to plan. She had taken the bait. Leave himself partially open. Maybe make it look like the pulse fire had taken more out of him than it actually had. Creating the conditions for his opponent to unleash her full set of weaponry for a final coup de grâce.

And dear god, she had a lot of shit. Those drones were meant to keep him busy while she prepared something else, that much was clear. That being said, it was very tempting to bring up his stone barriers to block the constantly painful, constantly burining pulse fire. But he persevered, (if you could say that). He desperately swerved around in a random pattern to try and escape the scorching shots, but he was still getting hit a lot. In a few seconds, part of his suit had been burnt through, painfully burning his upper body. And where the suit preserved itself, the heat painfully grafted the melting rubber to his skin. It was agony, but as heavy explosive fire smashed into his makeshift shielding, he knew that if he had moved the rock plating up, he'd be dead. He quickly moved to try and throw off the girl's fire, but she was very experienced. Another shot landed expertly in the same area, bursting a hole in the rock. Callum twisted to try and move another piece of rock into the way, but before he could cover up the hole, another round sailed through the hole and exploded into Callum's chest.

Fuck.

The pain was something else, and the flash of light filled Callum's vision. He blindly struck out upwards with what remained of the chunks of rock in an attempt to knock some of the drones out of the air as he was hit, and was sent spiraling backwards. He groped out at the air to try and steady himself, but with a gasp he smashed through the back wall of the building, skidding to a painful halt on the tarmac below.

Callum groaned, and stumbled to his feet, swaying like a feather. He hissed at the pain, squinting through his visor at the blinding whiteness around him. He could already feel he had lost a lot of blood. He didn't have a lot of time until delirium set in.

As his eyes adjusted, the first thing he noticed was that the visor of his helmet had shattered, and plastic fragments had embedded themselves randomly into his face. Blood streamed down into his eyes, making it hard to see. Anybody could see his face now, so Callum pulled off the helmet and tossed it to the side, his curly hair slick with blood, sweat and god knows what else. A thick red scar cut along his left cheek, staining most of his face red with blood. A large amount of his suit had been burnt off and hung in tatters from his chest, scorching hot rubber sticking to his skin. Painful burns covered a large amount of his upper body and shoulders, some also embedded with shrapnel. His breath was wheezy, and each breath caused sharp pain in his chest. One of his lungs had likely been punctured, and some ribs had likely been broken too. A large slice of shrapnel had also cut into his abdomen. There were several cuts and bruises scattered on his arms and legs, and the skin had been scraped raw on the right from his skid out of the building. However, the most interesting thing was the deep gash that had cut through his right wrist. Callum wasn't an expert, but he was fairly sure that cut was the reason he couldn't move his right hand. It flopped uselessly around as he tried to move it. It looked really silly, the way it flopped around.

Where was he?

He was standing outside the building, a few dozen feet away from the wall. Callum could even see the hole he made when he was knocked outside. That was funny. Inside the building, Callum could see the girl he was fighting.

Was he fighting her?

Callum was like, 75% sure he was fighting her.

"You're dumb." Callum giggled as he swept his good hand down, unleashing a wave of gravity with a power so intense the building's supports buckled immediately. In one fell sweep, the building's main walls started rapidly crumbing, and the whole thing twisted. Callum giggled again as the building began to fall apart. he sat back down to watch. It was wet where he was sitting because of the blood, but Callum didn't really mind.

[The Republic of Atria]

Jason's parents brought out the cake and they all sang happy birthday to him. Naja included while sitting next to him. It felt good seeing someone happy. "Happy birthday." She said. "Oh! I almost forgot, I got you a present." She said and gave him the box. "I think you're going to like it." Jason excitedly opened the box with an exasperated look when he saw what it was. It looked just like her costume, but clearly made for a child. "I had it made special. It's practically indestructible, and when you grow, it'll stretch. I hope you like it." She explained while he looked it over.

"This is awesome! Thank you!" He replied obviously enjoying his gift.

"No problem." She said patting his back. "So what do you want to do first? It's your birthday." They spent a few hours playing typical party games and just generally having a good time, with Naja answering questions that he had regarding what it was like being a superhero. Most of it boiled down to finding a way to end the threat at hand and getting the tar beaten out of you until then. "I like it, but don't get me wrong. I can't remember the last time I went to do something and didn't go home without a broken something. It's fun, and most everyone is really nice, but it hurts."

"I guessed. Is it fun though?"

"It is. For the most part. You meet a lot of interesting people, make a ton of friends, and see the world in a different light. I wish more people were like you. Not everyone likes my whole snake look. Not like I can change it. Though people are getting over it." She said.

"I don't get it. Why would you want to help people who don't like you? You're strong. You don't have to help them if all they do is be mean to you."

"Not everyone is like that. And that's just what we do. Police officers aren't popular, but they still keep people safe. It's the same concept. Not everyone likes us, but in the long run, people are safer. Come on. Let's have some cake."

[Mavorpen]

snip

Orbit of Annoval 14

Liko Tani's ship, the Terigon, orbited the planet of Annoval 14, which housed the most secure prison--of the same name--in the Milky Way. The captain of the ship--which was cloaked, naturally--herself stood at the front of the bridge, staring down at the planet through the window in front of her. Frankly, the thought of breaking into the prison exited her, as it would be something that had never been done in the history of the prison's existence. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and sighed, seeing that Jamal was about 10 minutes late.

As if on cue, one of her crew ran up to her and saluted. "Captain, we've detected the opening of a stargate on the edge of the system."

"Understood." Liko Tani said with a nod. Within a minute, Jamal had reached their ship and entered it. Liko Tani was there to greet him as he took off his helmet and gave her a nod. "What took you?" She asked as the two walked to the bridge.

"What do you mean? I had to calculate how far out I had to be when I exited the stargate in order to make sure I wasn't within range of their hyperspace detectors. Don't tell me you guys didn't check for that beforehand."

"Okay then, I won't tell you."

"You're slipping."

"Bite me."

"Wow, an English idiom. That was unexpected." The two reached the bridge to find the crew gathered around a circular holo-table. "So, is everyone prepared?"

"Prepared? How could we possibly be prepared when you haven't told us anything?" Tarka spat.

"Trust me when I say that this plan isn't so complex that you guys need any special preparation." Jamal said as they stopped in front of the holo-table. "After all, the only ones who will actually be going inside the prison is Liko Tani and I. The rest of you are going to attack the prison head on and serve as the primary distraction."

"What? That's suicide!" Tarka snarled.

"Don't worry." Jamal tapped the holo-table and a 3D holographic projection of the prison appeared above it. "You guys will split up into three groups and attack the prison from three separate areas in order to split up their forces. Naturally, I'm expecting that they'll anticipate that you guys will be the detraction, since there aren't any bounty hunters stupid enough to launch a headfirst attack on the prison, so that'll also lessen the load on your guys. Of course, since I care about your safety, I will also lend you a bit of the Nova Force. Just enough to enhance your base abilities such as speed, strength, stamina, etc. No fancy stuff like gravimetrics. Jamal paused and looked around the group. "So, any questions?"

"Yes, actually." Liko Tani spoke up. "Why do you need us?"

"I don't. I can't let them know I'm involved just yet, which is why I'm not giving you guys gravimetric abilities. So while I could just tear through the prison with ease on my own, it's not in my best interest at this point in time. A group of actual bounty hunters makes it all the more convincing. Plus, your ability in particular is really useful. Well, if that's all, split into three groups according to what you believe will work best for you.

The crew did so, and they were then teleported to the planet's surface, the groups surrounding the prison from three separate directions. Back on the ship, Jamal turned to Liko Tani. "You ready? Once we're inside, we'll have to get out the hard way."

"Of course. Let's just hope we don't end up in the middle of a load of guards." She took out her guns and then fired one of them in front of her. A red beam of energy emerged from it and it expanded out to form a circular portal 10 feet in front of them. The two walked through it and the first thing they heard was the sound of an alarm going off, most likely signifying that the crew had began their three-pronged attack. The two then found themselves in the middle of a cafeteria, with a large number of guards who were in the process of heading towards the exist in order to join the fight outside surrounding them. The guards collectively stopped and looked at Jamal and Liko Tani.

The two wasted no further time and Jamal charged at a handful of guards and quickly dispatching of them while Liko Tani fired bullets at another handful. Jamal flashed a look at her and she rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, they're non-lethal." She fired the gun behind her and a portal opened up in front of some guards who were charging her from behind. Instead, they ended up in front of Jamal, who knocked each of them out without a second thought.

Just as the two had finished dispatching of the guards, Liko Tani looked at the door to see one of them fleeing. "One of them escaped. Should I--"

"No, I let him go on purpose. It's best that they know we're here so that it lessens the load on everyone outside. Plus, they're going to be paranoid, and that can only help us. Come on, and stick close to the walls. Don't say anything until we get to Dassu Hann and be as quiet as possible." Jamal led her out of the cafeteria and the two walked along the wall of the hallways as they made their way to the lowest levels of the prison. As they walked, guards ran past them occasionally, searching for the intruders that they were passing by without any knowledge of their presence.

Eventually they reached a sealed door. "Worldmind?"

["Done."]

The door opened and revealed a control room containing several people workers who maintained the prison cells as well as controlled access to them. The workers turned around, staring at the door in confusion as Jamal and Liko Tani entered the room. Jamal quickly blitzed around the room and knocked out all of the workers in the control room in the blink of an eye. Jamal then walked over to the computer system in the middle of the wall across from the door. Above the system, windows lined the wall allowing him to see outside of the control room. The room was housed in a cylindrical column that was dead center inside of a large cylindrical open space. Lining the outer walls of the space were the prison cells. The large gap between the inner cylinder and the outer helped to serve as another defensive measure to prevent access to the cells.

"How did you do that?" Liko Tani asked him as she watched him sit down in the chair in front of the computer system and begin pressing some buttons.

"What, making us invisible? It's pretty simple. I just encased us in an invisible gravimetric field that bent the light around us. Got it." He stood up and the door to their right opened and they walked through it onto a circular platform. The platform then began moving, hovering through the wide gap and taking them to one of the prison cells. The energy shield preventing access went down, and the metal doors opened, revealing what appeared to be the living room to a luxurious apartment-like cell.

An alien entered the living room from another room. "Hey, what are you guys doing he--?!" The alien looked at them and his eyes widened n horror.

"Hello, Dassu Hann. We're gonna go for a little trip." Jamal said. Before the crime boss could react, Jamal had grabbed him and took him to the platform outside the cell.

"Unhand me! Unha--" Jamal stuck him in the head with enough force to knock him out and caught the large alien as he slumped forward.

"So, what now? We can't lug him around through the prison, can we?" Liko Tan asked.

"No, we're gonna take a more direct exit." Jamal pointed up and then encased her and Dassu Hann in gravimetric bubbles. He crouched a little and jumped about 2,000 feet in the air. "Do you see it?"

Liko Tan stared above them. For Jamal, he couldn't see the ceiling of the room, however, her species had powerful eyes that allowed her to do so. "I got it!" She aimed her gun above them and then fired it as they fell down. She then fired her gun below them and a portal opened up. They fell into it and found themselves in a ventilation system. Jamal fell down the entrance shaft but he quickly caught the right ledge and pulled himself up, with Liko Tan and Dassu Hann floating in the vent in gravimetric bubbles. "Lucky for us the vents are large enough to walk in." Liko Tan said as the bubble around her disappeared and she landed on her feet.

"The compound is large, so naturally it requires an appropriately sized ventilation system." Jamal led her through the vents and eventually they reached a hatch. Jamal opened the hatch and they found themselves on the roof of the prison. They looked up and saw an energy shield that had been activated just after word got out about the attack. "Be right back." Jamal disappeared for a brief second and then returned just as the shield began dissipating from around the prison. "Alright, time to go." Liko Tani fired her gun in front of them and they walked through it, finding themselves back on the Terigon. She then walked over to the holo-table and pressed a button on it. The crew were teleported from around the prison and onto the ship. The ship then quickly entered hyperspace. The crew gathered around to see the fruits of their labor, Dassu Hann contained in a gravimetric bubble floating a few feet off of the floor.

"Well guys, thanks for your help. I'll transfer your pay once I lock up Dassu Hann here." Jamal said, turning to the door leading out of the bridge.

"That's it?!" Tarka snarled.

"What did you expect?" Jamal said, stopping and turning his head to face Tarka.

"I think what Tarka is trying to say is that he's worried about what happens to us. Sure, the money's all well and good, but what if we get a bounty on our heads?" Liko Tani asked.

"Annoval 14 is controlled by the Galactic Council. On paper at least. Normally they'd take something like this personally and they indeed would place a bounty on your heads to save face, but I already have plans to convince them to do otherwise."

"Good enough for me. See, you worry too much, Tarka." Liko Tani grinned.

"But--" Tarka began when suddenly she pulled out her gun, pointed it at the floor beneath him, and fired it. A portal formed on the floor beneath him and he fell into it.

"Anyone else wants to get sent to timeout?" She called out. The crew members collectively shook their heads and she smiled. "Good. I'll be seeing you, Jamal." Jamal nodded and continued walking until he reached the main side doors and his Nova Prime uniform appeared on him. He opened the doors and flew out of the ship, then proceeded to open a stargate and enter it.

"Where are you taking me?"

Jamal looked back at Dassu Hann. "The Kyln. You should feel proud, you're going to be its first resident since it's been rebuilt."

"I beg to differ." Suddenly, Jamal felt himself being tugged to the right, finding himself being unable to control his body.

["Attention! Jamal, something is wrong. We're being pulled out of hyperspace!"]

"What? How is--" The next thing he knew, he was forced out of hyperspace and entered normal space. He found himself in front of a ship. Said ship immediately fired a beam at him that upon hitting him, caused him to scream out in pain.

Dassu Hann took out a remote of some kind from his shirt pocket and pressed a button. A space suit surrounded him just in time to protect him as the gravimetric bubble disappeared. "You Novas think you're invincible, don't you? Well too bad for you that this isn't something you can just block with an energy shield. You're being attacked on a biological level. Your DNA is being twisted and turned in the most painful ways imaginable. Just because you're a Nova, doesn't mean you aren't human." The ship stopped firing momentarily and then it fired again, but this time with pure concussive blasts. Having not recovered from the pain of the initial barrage, he had no way to defend himself and thus he took the full brunt of the bombardment. Suddenly, blue energy exploded from him as a stargate appeared to spontaneously open.

...

["Jamal...had to...stargate..."] Jamal attempted to focus on what Worldmind was saying, but the pain was too great. However, the pain wasn't what frightened him the most. Rather, it was the fact that he couldn't feel his lower body. Of course not, because it was missing. It was ripped off due to the hastily constructed stargate combined with Jamal's defenses being virtually nonexistent.

Suddenly, a bright light encompassed Jamal's body, and a voice rang out in his mind, though he couldn't make out half of the words. "Jamal Hawkins of Earth, you have been broken during your pursuit to protect the life of the universe. Your understanding of life and death makes you the perfect host. Welcome..." The light briefly flashed brightly and dissipated just as quickly as it had come, revealing his body repaired, but covered in a new uniform. Dark blue tendrils emerged from the suit at his neck and covered his head, and then immediately, his eyes began glowing pure white. "Captain Universe."

[New Rnclave]

A large orb floated in the middle of Mad Max, Val Valentine, Otto Godblessed, and Xala, acting like a magical camera into the meeting spot where the Enchantress was to hand over her prisoner to the Xyrixma. The gang was situated in a pocket dimension "next" to Niflheim, where they could enter the realm at a moment's notice, but observation was more important at that point. But, as the scene played out, Max watched silently as the prisoner overpowered Enchantress, or rather, outsmarted her by absorbing her magical energies. "Xala," He called out, the slime girl picking her head up to listen, "Do you know this Xyrix?"

"I'm...Not sure." She said honestly, "If I had to guess just based on absorbing magic, her name is Zaki. I don't know her too well, I just know of her."

"I see. That makes things interesting, though - Doesn't it? Xyrixma's have an affinity for specific types of energy they devour, say for example you, Xala, you can absorb solar radiation, whereas this...Zaki, can absorb magical energy. Very interesting indeed, we could have use for someone like that, and by the looks of this and the wording in that letter from Enchantress, it doesn't look like Zaki was going to be exchanged for another prisoner, but ransomed off."

"It seems that Enchantress has picked a nice location for me. I'll empowered in this realm, and I think we may need every bit of power if these Xyrixma are as powerful as warned. But, have our objectives changed? Shall we still take Enchantress' prisoner or leave her be?" Xala nodded, wondering what must be done about Zaki.

"The mission was to take the prisoner for ourselves, Otto. But we'll simply use diplomacy rather than force to take her to our side."

"And if words don't work?" Val asked, watching Zaki intently through the orb.

Max smirked under his helm, "Then we can use force."

---

BOOM.

A vortex opened behind Zaki, a man clad in armor stepping forth onto the frigid wasteland of Niflheim from the space he occupied previously, a female and male warrior exiting behind him, the crunch of the snow beneath their feet marking their presence, had the impossibly loud Boom Tube not announced it already. Behind those three, though, was a curiosity, a slime creature, a Xyrixma. Max spoke quickly and forcibly, using the Allspeak so that he could be understood. "Zaki, I presume? I am Maxwell Morningstar, and these are some of our Godbreakers." He said, motioning to the ones behind him.

"I have come to offer you shelter from the coming Xyrixma, as I have done with another of your race." He said, Xala moving to Max's side, tilting her head to the side with a smile and a wave.

"Hello!" Xala said cheerfully, "I'm Xala. Haven't we...um, met before, or something?" She said nervously. "Oh it's so cold...." She complained, shivering a bit despite being made of slime. "We...We need to hurry..." She said, turning to Max, who stood stoic and unmoving. "They could be here any moment..."

"Not only that, Xala...But they could already be here."

Zaki frowned as she instantly spun around, the sound having broken her out of her euphoria. At first she thought that perhaps it could be one of the other Generals or Xyrix herself come to take her for their end of the bargain. She was fully prepared to hit them with some sort of magic when she realized they were not all Xyrixma. In fact the one that was there looked rather familiar. Zaki kept her face as nuetral as possible, even though she was fairly sure they didn't wish to hurt her, she reserved judgement for now.

"That is my name, yes." Zaki replied with a slight nod. "Though, shelter isn't quite what I require from my kind..." she replied, though she didn't eloborate.

She offered a return smile to the one Xala gave her. "Oh... yes. I remember you now." He smile weakened slightly. This was the one the council had made the decision on. The one in exile. Xyrix had left her fate to be up to the Generals, and they had decided a prison sentance in all but name. She paused, about to apologize, when she heard the cracks of spacial rifts.

"Turn Traitor. Let us see your cowardly face before you die." Spoke the voice of Kalxanix, one of the 18 Generals. There had been 20, but ever since Rixi grew too large to contact and Zaki herself left the fold, there were only 18. 5 of which were standing behind Kal, as Zaki could see as she turned to face her old friends.

Kalxanix was a red slime, whom absorbed rage, including her own. Just to the right of her was Ziaxia, whom absorbs Gravity. There was Jazia, whom absorbed sound. There was Glaxia, whom absorbed and projected cold, and finally there was Oblixia, whom was leading the group and whom could absorb Thoughts, making her a potent psychic.

"Xala. So that's why you weren't responding to the marshaling order" Remarked Oblixia. "Why side with these fleshlings over your own people? At least tell us that." She spoke, speaking to Zaki too.

Zaki frowned. "We're not traitors." Zaki shook her head. "You've got to know this kind of life is not sustainable."

"It's all we have Zaki. What would you have us do? Die out? Or run after your fantasies with Primordial Ooze?" Oblixia shook her head. "This is the only way." She then turned to Max. "This doesn't concern you. This is a matter between Xyrixma."

Oxford College of Charms and Spells

Loss breathed in deeply as he returned to the physical world, the shadows around him dispelling. Just outside of them, Madam Fang was meditating. She shook her head slightly before opening her eyes. "Loss." She smirked. "What a pleasant surprise."

Loss rolled his eyes. "The boy will be fine in a day or two. Alex and I established a formal healing chamber in the west wing just for this purpose." He lifted the boy over his back easily.

Madam Fang glanced over at the manor. "Isn't it a bit small to say it has wings? It looks more like a couple rooms on each side, that's it."

He chuckled. "We shrank its outside and made the inside bigger. I can assure you, it's much more impressive inside.

She sighed. "Of course you did."

The two walked inside and to the healing chamber. Inside the stark white room, an antiseptic smell permeated its entirety, and the roof was absolutely littered with various life preservation runes. "They're along the walls and floor too, just hidden." Loss remarked. "Now, if you can watch the boy, I need to make a call."

He left her with the child, pulling out a phone, calling Alex. "You there? We need to talk."

"I'm here Loss." Spoke Alex, whom was swiveling in her room, with little to do since Loss had the students. She had some paperwork to file and do and whatnot, but she was instead practicing the art of procrastination. "What's going on?"

Barely hiding his heavy sigh, Hiroshi slipped past her for a moment, slipping into his room to pull on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. This was hardly how he imagined spending his first night back, and he barely did anything to hide the annoyed expression on his features as he pulled a pillow off his bed, tossing it towards the couch with his free hand, the Hybrid turned towards Claudia as he slipped past her again.

" I was thinking." He remarked quietly. " I missed Tomia's birthday during... that time. Maybe we should celebrate it tomorrow? I'm sure she'd enjoy a few normal days before she gets back into the same old schedule."

"We should. After all things have been far from normal for so long. We should actually determine what normal is now." She spoke. Claudia crossed her arms, still not sure what she was feeling. She was afraid that if she gave herself too much time to think she'd walk away again. Maybe she should. Maybe this wasn't the kind of thing she was cut out for. But she had to give it a shot. For Tomia at least.

" Yeah. Normal. Normals good." He said quietly. She was making that face again, like she was angry and uncomfortable at the same time. He knew she was rethinking her decision to come back, but how did you approach such a uncomfortable and fragile subject?

" Are you... Should I?... Goodnight." Hiroshi said quickly, standing on his tiptoes to kiss her cheek before hurrying to the living room, so he couldn't face her wrath.

[The Fallen Jedi]

Kazuko Masaki | Asumar Masaki | Master Shimura

The night sky was calm and serene throughout the Masaki Enclave, the snow falling upon the complex at a rapid rate that covered the countryside in a blanket of snow. As the blizzard of snow continued falling upon the countryside, Asumar on the verge of falling asleep, while Ryuichi slept soundly alongside his father, It was a long day in Asumar's book, nothing had been happening since Alastir's assault upon Earth which was something akin to throwing a piece of straw at the planet, something that Asumar himself snickered in regards to such a comment "I am so glad that I at least took the right side in that little situation." Asumar turned to the sleeping Ryuichi and gently rubbed his hair with a proud smile on his face "You've been through a lot my son, that I know, but you'll eventually grow to become a better man than I could have ever been..." Asumar suddenly turned to the right, he could sense a familiar energy signature closing in upon his complex, it wasn't his father's or Lord Ouranos' energy signature, but it was Primordial in nature "Is this one of Ouranos' brothers?" Asumar practically whispered, walking out of his room as an energy containment barrier formed atop Ryuichi in order to assure that his son would sleep undisturbed.

As soon as Asumar stepped into the outside world, he found Shimura sitting on a chair made out of jade energy, talking with a man with a fur cloak and extremely long hair that would even put Asumar's to shame, and they were both smiling as they conversed with each other. Asumar's eyes slightly narrowed in suspicion, he could sense a decent amount of Cosmic Energy flowing around this specific individual, as if he was not afraid of being detected whatsoever, but Asumar could also sense that this man held no ill will towards himself or towards the complex itself. Eventually, Eldros turned around to look at Asumar, and a smile curled up in his face "Ah, one of our grandchildren!" Eldros rose up and approached Asumar with a smile on his face, extending his hand to the hybrid "I'm sure that you've sensed my energy signature, and you suspect me to of Divine Descent, my name is Eldros, Lord Ouranos' fifth brother, you know of Lord Ouranos, correct?" Eldros asked curiously. As Asumar gave a nod, Eldros clapped his hands in satisfaction "Excellent! For Lord Ouranos has decided that due to your actions of protecting the Galaxy such a long time ago, he is going to bestow upon you and your brother, a gift."

As soon as Eldros said this, a large beam of energy crashed down into the very middle of Asumar's Complex, with only three silouettes being seen from within, causing Asumar to quickly whip his head to the side in order to look on in awe of the energy signatures from within, they were a combination of both Normal Energy, and of Divine, Immortal Energy "Aside from a light show that half the would can see, This is very surprising to say the least, did he actually do it?" Asumar pondered inwardly, turning to Eldros who simply smiled with a knowing expression on his face "I'm sure you have a lot of questions to ask, who are those three people?, why do they have a similar energy signature to yourself?" The energy pillar slowly died away amid the snowstorm, retracting back into the heavens and taking the form of an aurora borealis that spanned practically around the entirety of the Atlantic Ocean, and the East Coast of the United States "Well to put it blatantly..." Eldros glanced back to Asumar, a smile still present on his face:

"It's time to meet your new relatives."

[Tomia]

Darian and Serene
Serene heard Etla's questions about the golem's and was confused why she was angry but it seemed to blow over as she caught up to them. Etla was certainly a bit strange, but Serene didn't mind it. After all, who was she to complain about weird? She was actually enjoying having Etla around, it was nice to have companion and she seemed fun, if a bit quirky.

"Sorry Etla, we'll try to save some for you next time." Serene said with a smile as they followed the unnamed man through the cave.

"Where exactly are we going? and why did you blast me with magic?" Darian asked with a frown, having returned to his most basic human form.

"Figured you were one of his men." The unnamed man said, "His followers have been hunting me for thousands of years, and I sensed darkness in you. Care to explain that to me?"

"It's none of your concern." Darian responded.

"It is my concern. I was the Angel's greatest ally during the war. I am quite curious as to what her vessel is doing traveling with an abomination like yourself."

Darian reached for his sword but Serene stopped him, "Darian, Angel is speaking to me. She says we can trust him. His name is Haldran. He fought with the Angel against the Demon in their final battle." She said before turning to Haldran. "My brother... my brother is the Demon's vessel."

Haldran went quite for nearly a minute, and the silence had gotten thick before he final spoke. "So it has finally come. The end times are here."

[Finland SSR]

The Ultimate Majin

Part Two: Answers

Frank Mayhem

---

The Majins shot off into the distance, to the southeast, already barely visible from here. Itaku and Lucien were about to follow them, but Atiala raised her hand, telling them to leave them be for now. Pretty logical - they're moving pretty slowly, we can catch up to them later, even if they have a headstart. Right now, the big focus is the two unnamed aliens who are finally regaining their consciousness. The tall red one slowly moved a few rocks to the side, with the whole pile of rubble and blocks of concrete starting to crumble. These people look like they might have some answers to what is going on.

But first... I turned around and walked up to the already de-transformed Prince of Lithuania and spoke:

"Why are you here?"

He was clearly confused by my question, not to mention the fact that we met again. He probably didn't expect me here. "Frank? I would've asked you that question myself."

Atiala joined in. "You know him?"

"Well, yeah, we fought in the same unit for a few days." I replied, then turned back to Lucien. "Shouldn't you be there serving your country or something?"

"Oh, that. I left."

I looked at Itaku, then back to Lucien. Then back to Itaku, then back to Lucien. Deja vu. "But... your father?"

"It's a long story. Back there, in Stutthof, you made me realize... some things. I don't want to hurt people. I want to help them. Then I found Atiala, who shared the same view. And then this-"

"They're waking up!" Atiala exclaimed. Again. "This time for real." Confirmation acquired. Awaiting input. The tall, red and far more intimidating one stood up first, brushing off a little dust from his thick brown clothes, then looked down at the four of us. The man was certainly massive - easily towering over me - with pointy, almost elvish ears, rather wrinkly face and odd spherical earrings. He gazed at us with narrowed eyes for a moment, then turned around and crouched down to help his friend.

"Supreme Kai, are you alright?" he spoke.

"I'm fine, Kibito... We seem to have miscalculated the capacity of these new Energy Absorbers." the smaller, seemingly less threatening purple guy with a white mohawk replied. The taller alien referred to him as the "Supreme Kai", right? That's an odd name. The purple alien stood up, still weak and tired, then looked at us. "Earthlings! What happened to the two Majins?"

"We beat them back, quite easily, but they escaped." Atiala replied.

"Good. We must fly after them immediately!" The Supreme Kai was about to leap up and go after the Majins, but I stepped forward and spoke:

"Hold on a sec, there's still time left. What's even going on over here? Why do the 'Majins' suck up the energy of innocent bystanders? I've never seen such a phenomenon."

"All of this is beyond your concern. We have already tried to deal with the Earthlings once, and they and their arrogance nearly doomed the Universe." Kibito rebuffed, not really happy about us interfering.

"Hold on, Kibito. Bebidi has access to far stronger opponents than his predecessor. While we still could have a chance against Babidi's men, I fear we might have to completely rely on the warriors from the lower realms this time." Supreme Kai wasn't as one-sided, it seems.

"It's painful to me that the people that we are supposed to watch over have surpassed us by such magnitudes..."

"Perhaps it was meant to be," The purple man nodded, then looked right at us, this time with a far more serious and calm attitude. "I'm sorry, we usually work by ourselves, so we weren't prepared. I am known as the Eastern Supreme Kai, and this is my bodyguard, Kibito. We are from the Other World, from the Land of the Kais, and our task is to watch over our quadrant of the Universe and stop any universe-threatening activity. And this event you're witnessing - this is one of them."

"Seems fair," I replied. "I'm Frank, Frank Mayhem, and we're... uh..."

"A superhero team!" Lucien chiseled in.

"Right, okay, we're a superhero team. The child that interrupted me is Lucien, the Heran girl is Itaku, and the schoolgirl is Atiala. You said you watch over the universe? My databa- I mean, I could name at least ten beings who serve a similar function."

"Yes, the hierarchy of our Universe is complicated and far from perfect, but I am not fooling you. So, you are a superhero team, and yet not a single one of you is an Earthling?"

Uh, what? We all looked at each other in confusion. I mean, we only barely know each other in our "team", and we've already got the big spoiler dropped...

"Uh, scratch that. We have to hurry, anyway. I can still sense the two Majins moving - we can still track them! Let's go!"

This time, none of us bothered to object. The Supreme Kai and his bodyguard leaped up and flew first, followed by the four of us. Only a few seconds later, we were already a dozen kilometers above the deserted and drained city, and the entirety of it could be seen. And it didn't look any better from here. Smoke and ash flowing from where the Majins hit, streets littered with drained bodies, and an overall unpleasant aesthetic. The aura around us flared up, and we shot off forward, towards the fleeing enemies. Itaku and Atiala were chatting - they had already exchanged some words before the Kais recovered, and now it transformed into a full-on conversation. Good for them. Lucien was a bit farther away from us, clouded in his own thoughts, while I approached the Kai and spoke:

"So, can we begin the part where you actually explain us what is going on?"

"Sure. We have to move slowly so Bebidi's forces don't immediately notice us, so there's time. What do you want to know?"

Basically, everything. What are these Majin guys? Why are they sucking up energy? Why are we following them? How is this a universal threat? But I couldn't ask the Kai everything at once, so I had to settle on one question at a time:

"So who or what are we actually up against?"

"We are up against a nefarious and evil alien wizard, named Bebidi. He is not a physically strong person, but he does not have to be, as it's his abilities that give him the edge."

"What can he even do?"

"He is a potent spellcaster, but also a great engineer. He has built a device that he calls the Reality Reader - it is a tool that helps him weaponize alternate universes."

"Whoa. Sounds like fun."

"It is certainly not. Bebidi can use the Reality Reader to find strong, but corruptable fighters across the Multiverse, summon them and take hold of them with his Majin Curse. The Majins I was talking about - they are Alternate Warriors, just mind controlled."

"So that's what the Majins are, I suppose. What's Bebidi's plan? Take over the universe? Would be tough."

"Yes, but not in the way you'd presume. The Alternate Warriors are nothing but a ploy, a tool that he uses to gather enough energy from this planet and power up his Reality Reader to be able to summon his primary goal - Majin Buu."

The ground beneath us changed into an ocean. What, is the target on an island? "Majin Buu? I think my data- I mean, I think I've heard something about him."

"Don't bother to hide it, Frank. I've been watching over your quadrant of the Universe for billions of years, I know that you're a Celestial Android."

Bastard. If he knows that I'm an Android, and he knows who they are - why doesn't he try to stop the Celestial Army? I mean, he's supposed to be a god, isn't he?

"Stopping your race is beyond my ability. I am a god, but I am not an omnipotent." The Supreme Kai suddenly spoke. Hold on, hold the phone. I didn't say anything, did I?

"Did you just... read my mind?"

"Being a Kai has it's perks."

I don't like this person. He knows too much. He probably knows what I've eaten for breakfast this morning...

"Nothing. You're an android, you don't need to eat." The Kai spoke and chuckled, as if playing with me. I gruntled and moved a bit away from him. Atiala soon approached me. Oh, god dammit.

"Hey. Frank, right?"

"That's correct."

"You're the only person in our team that I haven't really got to know about - we only dropped a few lines and that's it."

Oh, dammit. From one chat to another. Lucien is more talkative than me and even he gets to have some peace and quiet!

"So, what are you? Like, species-wise." she continued.

"Human, I suppose."

"Don't lie to me, come on." Ugh, why doesn't anyone just fall for that? "If you were a human, I'd be able to sense you."

"Who knows, maybe I'm too weak to be sensed."

"If you were that weak, how could you keep up with us right now?"

Smart little Earthling girl. "Oh, you want to play this game? Fine! What about you?"

"Not human either. Mother's Kryptonian. Father's a Saiyan."

"That's a pretty dangerous combination."

"Maybe that's why my parents would never let me go help and save people... They think I'm too powerful, that I might accidentally vaporize everyone within a square mile by sneezing too hard or something."

"Don't worry, you're still far from the most overpowered-"

We stopped. What? Why did we stop? The Supreme Kai raised his hand, as if saying 'Hold up'. Looking down below, I saw a pretty large island with ocean surrounding it up to the horizon. The island was large and oval shaped, at least a dozen kilometers wide. It looked pretty arid, though with quite a few forests, too.

"This is where the energy of the Majins went," Kibito spoke. "If anything, I believe Bebidi hid his ship underground, much like his predecessor." Wait, there was a predecessor?

"Wait, isn't this Socotra?" Atiala exclaimed.

"Uh, what?" Itaku asked.

"Socotra. Island off the coast of Somalia, belonging to Yemen, I believe. There's a lot of rare plant life there. I like to spend my days zooming around the planet, and I think I visited this place once."

"Have you noticed anything strange?" Supreme Kai questioned.

"No, not really. It was ten years ago or something."

"I think I still sense their energy!" Lucien suddenly exclaimed, then descended down, towards a rocky wasteland in the east, at full speed. I guess we should follow him- and they're going after him. I didn't wait around. Just a minute later, we touched down on a massive boulder in the middle of the area. Right in front of us was... an artificially flattened plateau, with something that looked like a weird alien telephone booth sticking out. Just as we landed, the door closed, showing an M symbol on it. It's them.

"This is just like how things went on that last time all those years ago... I have a question, is everyone here pure of heart?"

We were all confused. What kind of question is that?

"So, Supreme Kai, what are we going to do now?" Kibito cut in and asked.

"This time is far different from that last one. Earth has gone stronger, and gives far more energy to fuel the Reality Reader than we expected. Frank, do you remember the fight you participated in on Praetoria a while ago?"

"Yeah, why'd you ask?"

"Well, it alone produced enough energy to power up the Reality Reader to almost half of what is needed. Earth is so crawling with cosmic beings that Bebidi can gather enough energy to release Majin Buu in just a few days, and then it's all over to this Universe. We cannot waste any time."

So that Majin Buu fellow must be pretty strong, huh? Maybe he'll give me a good exercise, or a way to prove myself once more. The Supreme Kai's expression suddenly soured. That mind reading bastard.

"Here's the plan," The Kai stepped up. "Kibito, you will stay here and take down any Majins returning to the ship. Me and the Earthlings will head to the ship and destroy the Reality Reader before it's too late. As Bebidi's ship is protected against Kai magic, I can't teleport into it, so we'll have to head in the normal way."

"You certainly have become a lot more reckless since last time, Supreme Kai."

"Kibito, my indecisiveness that last time almost got Piccolo and Krillin killed. And this time is far different, we need to move in quick." He then turned at us. "So, Earthling warriors, are you ready? This will be a long day, but the Universe calls for it."

"I'm certainly ready." I replied first.

"I can't wait!" Itaku joined in.

"I'm up for it." Lucien didn't back down.

"I was born ready!" Atiala showed the most excitement.

The Supreme Kai nodded, then leaped towards the door, with us four following. I was just about to bust the door and descend down, when the Krypto-Saiyan exclaimed:

"Hold on! We forgot something!"

"What is it?" The Kai asked.

"This is our first great mission, yeah? As we're now a team, we have to think of a name!"

"You have GOT to be kidding me." I am not amused.

"How about... The Third Alternative!"

Short pause.

"What?" Itaku didn't get it. Neither did I, probably neither did Lucien, but we kept our mouths shut.

"Right now, there are mainly only two ways that a good natured super-powered person can go - big name superhero groups like the Avengers or the Justice League, or independent. We're the alternative! Get it?"

I shrugged. "Whatever. Let's just settle this-"

"Hold on! We have to get a team selfie first!" And with those words, Atiala took out her smartphone and a stick to hold it, grabbed hold of all four of us - Supreme Kai included, even though he wasn't even a part of the team - and took a nice big landscape selfie. After all of this done, I immediately pushed myself of out of the picture, exclaiming:

"Okay, can we start the 'saving universe' thing now, Atiala?"

She nodded. I signed, then turned to face the entrance to Bebidi's ship, took out the Heat Blade and sliced right through it. The door immediately melted down. So satisfying. There was only a hole in the inside, with light shining from the bottom. Well, better now or never.

I sheathed the blade and jumped right in.

[Dandoniapolis]

Maximus walked down the Mexico City street, his silver skull mask covering his face. The Day of the Dead parade flowed in front of him, the celebrants dancing the flamenco. Max always showed up for the festivities, as Day of the Dead always seemed to attract monsters. Suddenly from the hotel, he was standing next to an unearthly scream rattled the people standing next to Max. Max, however, rushed inside the building.

Inside it was smokey and hard to breathe. Men smoked cigars and drank whiskey more gold than the masks they wore. The women next to them wore black feathery outfits with platinum skulls. They danced circles around their masters. Through the lens on his mask, Max could see the horns and hooves that made up the creatures true form. However, Max was not there for these beings. In the next room over, Max found what he had come for in the first place.

On the bed within the room was a man. At first glance, he looked peaceful, as though he was merely sleeping and had forgotten to take off his clothes. His suit jacket was black, with pants the same color. His shirt was a deep red and his mask was white like snow. Then on the second look, the red of his shirt seemed to flow onto his neck and then his mask like he had fire spreading from his heart. Unbuttoning the shirt, Max found the cause. Every bit of flesh was gone from the mans chest. Bleached white bone lay beneath his shirt. Analyzing the facts Max knew there was only one creature that could cause this kind of damage.

The Glas Anda was a rare spirit, only found within this part of the world near the Mexico Rift. They were created when a female suffers an unfortunate death over an item close to them. This item becomes an "Anchor" of sorts to the mortal realm. The Anda himself begins to continue life as though nothing happened until a certain point is reached. At this point, the Anda must seek out and find a mortal specific to them, though sometimes the reasons for which were blurry. The Anda then stole every single piece of physical evidence of the person, except for blood, bone, and clothes. Though Magic was clever ad removed the DNA itself from the remains, so that they could never be identified.

Recognizing the signs of the Anda, Max looked for some kind of magical residue with his mask. His mask suddenly revealed a purplish trail leading out the window of the hotel. Jumping out, he followed the trail until he reached a small inn on the edge of the city. The trail ended there as the Anda appeared to have returned to human form. Walking inside Max was greeted by an elderly Hispanic woman speaking to him in Spanish. He spoke to her the one sentence in Spanish he knew "Yo no hablo español". The women responded in good English "Perhaps this would better suit you, yes?" Max replied in his thick Oxford Accent "Yes, Quite. I was wondering if I could have a room?" The old woman responded "Ah, Yes, Definitely. We have one more available." Max followed her to a small counter and received an old fashioned key from her. He walked into his room and took off his mask.

The Anda was a clever beast and hid well that night. Max put on his mask and walked downstairs searching for any sign of the spirit. After an hour of searching, Max found a small trapdoor beneath the inn's kitchen. Beneath it Max found a small shrine, made of glass hearts surrounding a statue so eroded that Max could not tell what it was supposed to be. Behind him, he heard small steps. The old innkeeper stood behind him. He looked at her for a second before she began talking. "My name was Maya once," She said "But now I have no name. I found that if I told someone my name... They would be the next one I killed. I died nearly 200 years ago and yet I am still cursed to remain here on earth." Max watched as her eyes watered up. Clearing his throat, Max said "I'm sorry you had to deal with this for so long. But You must know why I'm here then?" The women looked up at him and said "Yes, but I am not ready to go just yet. I'm afraid you will have to die now" She began to grow and de-age, her teeth becoming needles, her skin a pasty white. Her face cracked around her eyes, which turned black as well.

Max was prepared however and drew and fired his gun behind him, the silver bullet shattering the clay "Anchor" statue. He watched as Maya disintegrated in front of him. As the dust fell over the floor he heard one last hiss "Thank youuuuuuuuuuu..." Max remembered that however how many humans he saved, He saved other species as well. And however bad Humanity could get, there was good in them as well, Good which didn't deserve this kind of existence. Putting on his mask, He watched the spirit of a young woman watching him from on top of the pile of dust that was once the Alda. She waved at him once, before floating upwards. Max stepped over the pile and walked upstairs.

[Siliarba]

Hearing Luna speak, Jamie simply yawned again, not out of disrespect or to display boredom at the strange girl's words, but out of boredom in general, and a slight bit of drowsiness as well. "I could trash talk. I could also be the bigger woman and not bother." The gamer said, before breaking into a chuckle. "That's bullshit, though." She admitted. "I'm just a bit sleepy is all. These scrubs are not challenging me at all. I could play with my feet and still beat them." She boasted half-heartedly. In truth, to her, it was not a boast, and was rather the simple statement of a fact, but she realized that others might not see it as such. Regardless, having said her part, the black-haired girl simply closed her eyes and sat there, perfectly immobile, resting some more, until suddenly, something that Luna said finally caught up to her and caused her to open her eyes once again.

"First...?" She asked, sleepily squinting at the green-haired woman, before shrugging. "Don't grab the hammer. It's bad luck." She said honestly, thinking no more about the odd matter and closing her eyes once again. Having truly addressed everything this time, she was able to fall asleep quite quickly this time, falling in Luna's direction and leaning against her as she lightly snored.

Luna

"Bad luck doesn't exist, it's all calculations and reflexes. And while games are fun I the calculations are really easy, easy to the point I can practically predict the outcome from the game at the first button pressed." She fell asleep? Whatever, I'll just head back to the tournament and wait for the signal.

Way to crowded here though, thank god as being part of the tournament I can go to an area non other can otherwise I'd kill half the people here just to get some damn breathing room. I pulled out a small metal circle out of my pockets, a small communicator I built to contact Jylt and Drop and while I was alone gave them an update "We're close to the end, just my target and us four left and the finals will start soon. After that we can get Jylt to rampage. Be ready for the mark to attack, also, get some chocolate somewhere, I promised the other Luna's chocolate if they kept quiet and they are upholding their end of the bargain so far. Luna out."

A few moments later the sign for 5 minutes remaining until the finals went off, I suppose I'd see that Jamie person here soon, would be kind off annoying if she fell asleep and I can't do my plan because she's sleeping.

[The Rebel Alliances]

Daniel Carter/Killswitch-23-Baravia, South America

I cannot keep this up. She is right, there simple fact is that I am too weary to keep the fight going long. Even if I was in normal condition, there is still no guarantee I am good enough to beat her. Her shield was being braced as she prepared for a lethal shield bash, in attempt to dodge I lept back, but felt my body contact a brick wall, with nowhere to run, I dropped myself to the floor just as her shield collided with the wall, tearing through it far too easily causing loose bricks raining down, several smaller pieces assaulted my skull, one hit breaking skin on the top side of my head. The fight was over, no where else to run. The time seemed to slow down, as my breathing was almost a rasp. But just as I braced myself for the final blow. I assumed she would make it quick.

But luck seemed to be on my side. The building began to shake and rumble. Not having to be an architect, I knew the whole place was about to go down. Seizing my chance, I scooped a handful of dust and small rocks which I hurled at the eyes of the Amazon. Dirty, certainly. But there is that saying, all is fair in love and war. Summoning all of the reserve energy I could from my adrenaline I dashed past her as I threw myself down the stairway leading back into the building. The stability of the building was collapsing quickly, affecting my own stability as I slipped on a pile of busted glass as I crash landed on the third floor.

Landing on my stomach, I pushed off with my hands as I continued my marathon run from the building. Walls and pieces of the ceiling started to cave in as I made my last turn entering the stairwell leading to the second floor. Looking down I saw that the stairs were starting to give way. As the last six steps broke away from the rest of the stairway, giving it no thought I leaped across as i crashed on the other side.

At this rate, I will be buried in this damn building. My eyes were starting to blur and my head felt like it was on the San Andreas fault line. Seeing a window I smashed my fist through it creating an opening, a jump from the second story wont kill me, and I cannot risk another run to the ground floor. Getting a running start, I dove through what was left of the window. The asphalt served as my landing area, as I had broken my left arm from the way I hit it.

Forgetting about the battle, I let myself lay there for several minutes as I watched the building fall in on itself. Observing the site of the recently demolished building, I relocated myself to the opposite building across the street. I had nothing less, and even if the building killed that Amazon, she claimed she would just come back. No matter what happened to her, my own fate would be decided by whoever found me next.

[Finland SSR]

The Ultimate Majin

Part Three: Turning

Frank Mayhem

---

Legs, prepare for touchdown. pfffffff... There we go. It wasn't a long fall - only a few seconds - but the idea that one could just hide a ship this big under the ground isn't easy to comprehend. Things like 'three seconds of fall' or 'x meters wide' make it seem so general and trivial, as if anyone could do it. I suppose Bebidi has some manpower to spare. While everyone else was taking their time coming down here, I went on to take a look at the decor. And it's painfully simplistic. Aside for the hole in the center, everything above me was just a yellow striped dome. Hell, even Celestial Android transport ships have a prettier aesthetic, and the people they're caring couldn't care less about what their ships look like!

Itaku landed first, squeezing next to me while looking around, then Lucien, then Atiala, and then the Supreme Kai. He was the only one who didn't even bother with what was around him.

"Alright, so here's our plan on the inside," The Kai spoke first. "If I recall correctly, Babidi's spaceship was composed of three stages, with every one of them housing a single powerful warrior that we have to beat to advance, and I don't think that Bebidi will try to innovate too much with that. Every single injury dealt or ounce of energy released will be immediately sent to the ship, so we cannot waste time! We will have to fight the warriors as a team, and take them down as soon as possible."

No.

"No." I spoke my thoughts.

"Pardon?"

"I did not come here to share my victories with four other people. I came here to reassert myself to the top. If I fight - I fight alone. If you fight - you fight without me."

Everyone... just looked at me weird, and I don't even know what else I expected. After all, all three of my teammates are only beginning their long superhero career - I should be an example to them, I should show them how a truly honorable and heroic person should act, but instead, I'm acting all selfish and mighty and disregarding them as obstacles, rather than allies. I suppose that's what I get by trying to hide the fact that I'm not actually a hero to begin with. I mean, only a year ago I was a cocky prick who almost went to tears when someone, that is Liberty, came up and surpassed him.

I mean, Celestial Androids can't produce tears, but you get the point.

"You..." The Supreme Kai's face was full of worry.

"You are a fool." Wh-what?

It was a loud, distorted and screeching voice coming from... everywhere. I wasn't the only one to hear it, too - everyone else looked around in surprise.

"It's Bebidi. He's using his magic to speak to us." The Kai explained. Oh, that makes sense. He sounds like an overgrown fly, though. Is that really the main villain?

"So, Supreme Kai. How long has it been since you and the pesky Saiyans took down my doppleganger, do you still remember?"

"Seven years. I still remember that gross grin on your face when we first met. So, you still haven't learned your lesson?"

"Oh, haven't you learned yours? Bringing even more fighters for me to use for reviving Majin Buu?"

"This time is different. I won't repeat the mistakes that almost led to our downfall."

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing."

Silence. Nothing but creepy and terrifying silence... And then poof. Within an instant, the bland domed room changed into a blue and green landscape, covered in hills, plateaus and seas - much like Earth, just with a pallet change, the grass was blue and the sky and the waters were green. What in the world...

"What? Why Namek?" The Supreme Kai exclaimed.

"What happened?" Itaku asked.

"Bebidi often changes the location and environment of his ship's stages to gives his fighters an advantage. I don't see how being on Namek would help his side, though..."

"Maybe the opponent's a Namekian?" Lucien commented.

Maybe- wait. I looked down from the small rock that we were situated in, There was a shadow moving there, in an abandoned village composed of white domes. Hm. I grabbed onto the Heat Blade, then turned on the Influx mode in an instant, flaring up in a fiery white aura, then spoke:

"Nah, I know what it is. It's dead."

And as I said that, I leaped forward, charging up a large energy blast in my hand, then threw it right at the village. A massive and violent explosion followed, and only then did I actually see a figure - it was leaping out of the smoke. Alright, so we're doing this now? I moved back to the ground, touching down upon a nice flatland, and just a few seconds later, the mysterious fighter stepped up from the ash and the dust, moving into a combat position. Lucien was right - it was a Namekian. Menacing look, as if trying to pierce through my soul, and the standard M on the forehead. The veins were popping out, and the muscle mass was far from normal. It's like the whole possession thing powered them... up...

"Bebidi's first fighter is that strong?.." The Supreme Kai was probably the only one shocked here. "Even I wouldn't be able to beat him by myself! Frank, are you sure you don't need any help?"

I know you can read my mind, Supreme Kai, so here is my answer - no. Oh, see, he's already frowning! Alright, what way of approaching this guy is the best? Namekians have a lot of utility powers, but, in combat, they mostly rely on their strength and ki alone. Eh, no need to overthink it. I backflipped, then charged forward at full speed - the Majin opened up with the exact same thing. Just a few seconds later, our elbows clashed in the air, and we once again moved back.

No time to waste. I vanished from view, then delivered a nice drop kick from the side, continuing the combo with a fast barrage of kicks and punches, finally throwing him into a boulder. The poor rock broke up and collapsed immediately upon impact, but the Namekian was tougher than that. Just a few moments later, an elongated stretchy arm, coming from the pile of rubble, grabbed me by the hair and smashed me into the ground. The rest of the body didn't stay too long in the debree, and as I rose up from the crater, I saw him flying right at me, ready to kick me.

Not today. I quickly stood up, took out the Heat Blade and chopped right through the incoming limb. The leg fell on the ground, gracefully, while the rest of the body continued to tumble on behind me. Namekians can regenerate - I can't stop here. I charged up a visibly small, but incredibly compact energy blast and tossed it right at the recovering Majin. A small, but powerful explosion ensued, and moments later, the arena changed back to the old yellow dome, just with a hole in the floor leading to the next stage.

So I beat him? I suppose so. And as such, I went back to my base form. "So, Kai. Letting us fight alone didn't turn out to be as dangerous as it seemed, huh?" I spoke.

"You're risking too much, Frank."

"...No, I'm not? Anyway, considering how it wouldn't really be fair for me to fight alone and for you to fight as a team, we will all fight our fights only by ourselves. Got it? You might not always have allies, remember, so it's best to learn how to fight now, rather than at that moment."

We all just nodded in approval.

"Bravo, bravo." Bebidi was obviously sarcastic, but not devoid of worry. Heh, he fears me. "You beat one level. One level. And every level is stronger than the last one."

"Don't you worry. Remember how I beat your henchman rather easily just by transforming once? I can do the 'transformation' thing two more times. And my teammates are pretty near my strength. So, what does this mean? I think you should be the one worried."

"Don't bluff to me, you insolent, I can see through you clearly. You are a powerful warrior, and while you may not show it, deep in heart, you are both proud of your heritage and furious that you've been surpassed by many others. You're desperate to find a way to improve your strength, and catch up - you feel oh so insecure about it."

Dammit, how many people have read by mind so far? Bebidi continued:

"So, Supreme Kai, you said you learned from your mistakes? You missed one."

What the-

AAH!

The pain... How can he be sending me pain?.. I can't feel pain!..

I crouched down... holding my head...

It's like it's about to burst...

What in the world is happening...

This is the pain that you feel deep in your heart. It is filled with envy and frustration. Do you want it to cease? Do you want it to subside?

Get... out of my head! It's mine, it's not yours to invade!

When you fought Cargot, my warrior, have you noticed anything different about him? Have you noticed how he is so abnormally stronger than an average Namekian?

Get the hell out, Bebidi! I went into my Influx form - maybe it can help me... The pain just got stronger - I was now locked to the ground, kneeling and holding my head... The cries and shouts of my fellow team members were reduced to only a minor part of the buzzing phonetic background.

My magic is incredibly potent. I see... you want to find a way how to advance further than what you are now. I can help with that.

Wh-what?

The Majin Curse works like a spell that can unlock your potential, too. I can help you to reach what you want, and I know what you want. I only want a little bit in return...

You... you wouldn't...

Oh, please, it's nothing much. Come on, Frank, you have already killed enough people in your lifetime, will a few more really hurt your conscience that much? All I want you to do is to get rid of your former team members and the Supreme Kai, and not much more!

Kill them? Kill Itaku, kill Atiala, kill Lucien...

Or, if you decline, you will always stay the butt monkey of Earth's superhero ranks. Come on - Itaku has surpassed you with the god transformation, Lucien could disassemble you with a thought, and Atiala is genetically superior to practically anything you can throw at her! Do you want this to be your fate? You're a Celestial Android - you're a member of the strongest race in the universe! How can you accept all this?

How-how do you even know all this? The pain started to slowly subside...

Oh, I know far more than that! So, Frank, do you agree to the terms? Or should I leave you be as the weakest member of the Third Alternative?

Weakest member... What are you saying?..

I'm saying the truth.

You... I... I...

"FRANK!"

What? Itaku? Her voice breached through Bebidi's magic... and I saw her face. She held up the immobile, agonized body of mine, with tears dripping across her face, desperately shaking me by the shoulders, trying to break me out of this trance. I could see my reflection in her glistering eyes - I was no longer me. I looked like I was a Majin. I had the M mark on my forehead, just red, not black, which meant that I was still 'fighting'. Lucien, Atiala and the Supreme Kai were watching from a distance, concerned, worried and frightened. Do I really want to kill these people?

They trust me. They believe in me. They accepted me into their ranks, and I'm going to end their life just for a power boost? One that I could just as easily achieve by training even harder?

The Namekian... and those Majin soldiers... they were stronger, yeah, but did they act upon their actions? Did they even know what they were doing? Throughout the entirety of my fight with the Namek, he didn't say a single word. He just stared at me... with those eyes. Blankly.

He was... mind controlled. No longer alive, just like me before the encounter with the Namchinnians...

And this is where I made up my mind. I gently moved back the young Heran's arms, and she barreled back in fear. I stood up, still weakened, but still transformed, and shouted out:

"I REFUSE!"

WHAT? Don't you joke around! I could tear you up, one limb after another - think about what you're doing!

A massive, far bigger pulse of... pain... followed...

I collapsed back down once more, screaming in agony. The pain... it's burning... but I must not let myself fail...

Now, Frank, can we try again?.. Are you sure-

"Yes." I muttered out and grinned, standing back up, in a powering up pose. The magician sent me additional pain pulses, but all they did was make me close my eyes for a moment.

"You tried making yourself look legitimate, I see. You tried to appeal to my emotions, and my fears." I started speaking. "But you know what? It's not worth it. You want to make me a slave? You want to justify it with my weakness? Here is what I say to you - it's not all about being the strongest or the weakest. It's not about the end, it's about the means. I will never choose an option where I can become momentarily stronger, but not through my own sweat and blood. Would it be satisfying to me, knowing forever that I had to resort to help from other people just to end some petty frustration?"

"But, Frank-"

"Yes, sometimes people might surpass me. Sometimes they might laugh at me and make a fool of me. But I'm a Celestial Android - I have infinite potential, I just need to train to achieve it! I need no potential unlock! Here is what I say to you, Bebidi..."

I gathered up some of my energy. GET. OUT. GET. OUT. GET. OUT. GET. OUT.

"I FOUND MY OWN WAY!" I screamed at the top of my voice generators, and flared up my aura. Get out. Get out. Get. Out. Get. Out. You no longer control my body. And... the pain ceased! It looks like he decided to move back, for now. I went back into my base form... again... and collapsed... again. Itaku was the first to run up to me and help me get back up.

"You don't have the M anymore! You did it, Frank! You fought off the Majin Curse!" The Supreme Kai exclaimed, no longer worried, now just delighted.

"Yes... but it was close. I almost fell for it." I replied, then turned to Itaku. She was back in her happy mood again - I was no longer a monster! "Had you not broken through Bebidi's magic and showed yourself to me, you would all be fighting a Majinized me right now. So... uh... thanks."

It was too close.

[Siliarba]

After the whole conversation between CeeCee and DeeDee was over, Sarah glanced at the latter, then at the former, and finally shrugged before speaking. "Well, DeeDee, as I'm sure you know..." The attractive black-haired woman began, taking in a deep breath before continuing. "My little sister is a werewolf who is friends with a mutant who I'm supposed to train in using shadows to fight, I'm kind of like a vampire except way hotter and without the silly limitations and the mirror thing, my other sister is a witch who is being trained by another witch who is also a demon with a Red Lantern twin. Also, my boyfriend is a millionaire superhero who started dating me despite the fact that I robbed a bank less than a week ago, not that I can blame him. Oh, and we're occasionally pursued by a creepy wizard with a big hat who wants to steal our powers for chaos or something like that." She recounted, before making another deep inhalation to recover her breath.

"As you can probably tell, our lives aren't exactly normal, so by comparison this isn't too weird. With that in mind, I don't really have any questions, I'll just take what you want to tell me." Sarah stated. Truth be told, she could have been more cautious, but in the end, she doubted any harm could come from Samantha's teacher and her sister. She was by far more afraid of the wizard than she was of them. "If I had to ask something, I suppose it would be how Cee here knows our names, but if you two are anything like me and my sisters, and I'm pretty sure you are, then I can guess you just told her about us mentally. So, really, there's not much left for me to ask." She concluded, idly grabbing for a drink and taking John's instead, sipping from it without paying it much mind. "I suppose you might want to tell us about why you arrived here in a rush, though?"

CeeCee & DeeDee

"Keep it a bit on the low about your bank robbery and any other illegal things." I adjusted my red lantern suit to mimic my military suit, medals and all, "I may be a red lantern but I'm also a high ranking general in the army, I'd be honor-bound to arrest you but because Dee likes you, all of you, and really, really likes Sam, I'm ignoring it. Just don't rub it in my face, ..., I have anger issues." I'd leave the rest of the explanations to DeeDee, she was the one who actually knew this people, I only know them by the link me and Dee share, and it wouldn't be fair to them to act like I know them when they haven't had the change to know me.

"Thanks Cee, and to your remarks about a bond, it's something like that. I don't know how strong the bond is between you three, but I think mine and Cee's is stronger, what she sees I see, what she feels I feel, what she hears, you get the picture, total sharing of all of our senses. In other words when I eventually get Sam here in to bed Cee will feel that to." "Annoyingly so, especially with the appetite my sister has, even outside of a relationship not a day passes that she finds someone to sleep with, she's never been in a relationship so I'm not looking forward to how often I'll get to experience that once she gets in to one with you Sam." Naturally Dee couldn't help but laugh at that statement "Oh don't be so sour Cee, you should be grateful, you've never even kissed someone, thanks to me you at least know what to do if you do actually find someone some day. All you do all day is either punch people or study study study. I can stand the punching people but the studying can be so boring you put me to sleep with it while I'm not even there."

"Yeah, and you getting laid while I'm in the middle of a military operation hasn't been a picnic either, I nearly lost my arm because of that once. And if I recall correctly your date didn't like it when your shoulder suddenly shattered and started bleeding as a result of me getting hit! Whatever let's just drop it no use fighting it just causes a loop of me yelling while I sense me yelling at you who senses me doing the yelling, ugh gives me a headache." "Same here Cee, but you can already feel that of course. Well, in any case I guess that answered that question, a lot more thorough than you probably wanted even. Oh and if you're wondering why Cee's here she actually got her first crush today and she has no clue what to do, so feel free to give any hints you want in terms of pursuing relationships."

I felt my face turning red, I don't think I've ever blushed before, I guess that was unavoidable with this topic, thank God my red suit and red aura from my ring masked it a bit or I'd be blushing more for being seen blushing. God I feel so girly right now, how can normal girls stand that feeling? "Discrete as always Dee, thanks for that." I spoke out sarcastically, "Regardless not like I expected anything else." This back and forth bit could go on for hours but we both realized we had talked enough, this wasn't the usual situation where it's just us, this is actually the first time we're together with a group wile both having our own bodies. It takes some getting used to, for both of us.

[Confederation of imperial states]

Knight's Domain, Under Branston Estate House

Titan zoomed down the long exit way for The VTOL, speeding through the concrete tunnel whilst keeping The Knight next to her.

Titan paused once she reached the end of the Tunnel, hovering in the large concrete and metal room. Titan had one of her arms around The Knight's waist, the other was holding his right arm over her shoulder, The Knight pointed to The Knightcomputer with his left arm, "Over There". Titan landed next to The Knightcomputer's chair, setting down The Knight, The Knight quickly sat down in the chair and began to access the files. Titan noticed there was a bald man with a large air mask on his face, covering most of his face except for his eyes, "Who's that", "Stahl, an Internationally wanted Criminal Warlord. He's been harassing me and Chicago for the past few months. The Files i took from Luthor's suit when you ripped it apart allowed me to access his dealings with Stahl".

Titan peered down at The Knight as he finished decrypting the files, "Alright, let's have a look" .

Log File 257:
- Stahl's dealings have so far been lucrative, He's been able to bring in a large amount of money, which has been laundered and I'm able funnel into my Dealings against Superman.
- Stahl's pressuring me to go after 2 Heroes, "The Knight", a Vigilante and self sworn "Protector of Chicago". and Guardian, a Metahuman, and very powerful hero based in San Andres. Both of them are meddling Heroes, however I don't think they're worth spending Twenty Five Million dollars on. Still, Stahl is promising a big payout after this, so I'll go along with his plan.
- Stahl left, saying he'd have something planned for The Knight, said he'd be heading to Chicago to put something in place. Whatever he's planning, he has a sinister undertone to it.

"Sanza, open up the current police report records, traffic cameras, anything we can get into. and Give me the sightings of Stahl's symbol within the last 10 hours", [Yes sir]. Sanza went to work, hacking, logging, and opening up any file The computer could get into, eventually pinpointing Stahl's symbol at an Industrial facility. [Macmanus Industrial Facility, Eastern coast of Chicago], The Knight downloaded the files and atempted to stand up, however Titan placed her right hand on his shoulder, turning him towards her. The look Titan gave The Knight slightly confused him, "What?", "You're really going", "Chicago is in dang-", "And WHAT about you?" Titan gestured to the fairly damaged suit The Knight was currently using. "I'll Manage", "You can't be this Solemn protector, While being busted up like you just went toe to toe with superman", The Knight scowled at Titan, however Titan's glare shot straight through him. "Fine, I'll wait One Hour. Then, I need to go out", Titan nodded as The Knight took of his helmet, half hobbling to the Armor case.

[The Republic of Atria]

Naja spent the entire day with the young boy. It felt good to have a fan. She never thought that she had a following. "Now I've got a question." Naja asked. "What makes me your favorite superhero?" She asked. "I mean, most people like Superman... Or Thor. Wonder Woman is a good one."

"Yeah, but you look the coolest. And you actually came to meet me." He replied. "And... You're really nice."

"I've met both Superman and Thor. They're both really nice." She smiled and watched as the sun started to go down. "I think that's what everyone's problem is. They never slow down. It's always trying to stop the planet from exploding. No one ever stops and takes some time off." She was mostly referring to Xander, but there was probably some truth in there as well. "Thanks for inviting me. It was a lot of fun."

"I'm just happy you came. Thank you so much."

"No problem. How about some fireworks before I go?" He offered and fired several little blasts into the air the exploded much like fireworks. Jason was enjoying it quite a bit. It went on for about twenty minutes until it was clearly night and Jason was exhausted. "Someone looks tired. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah... I did. It was a lot of fun." He replied. "You made me so happy. Thank you for coming. Really. I know what they say about not meeting your heroes. But if there was an exception to that rule. You'd be it." Naja couldn't resist giving the child one last hug before she left.

"Tell you what. I'll come to your birthday every year. How's that sound?"

"I'd really like that." He replied. "Goodnight and thank you."

"You're welcome Jason." She said and waved good-bye as she flew off to go home. Even if she brightened just one person's day, it was worth it. "Xander? Are you home?" She called into her house, but no response came. "Of course not... Why would he be home?" She muttered and decided to watch some television to unwind. As soon as she turned it on, the news played, talking about an incident in North Korea. And Otis. "Oh my god..."

North Korea

There was just... Nothing. At least for a few seconds until Otis came to. He felt weak and sore, which was something he hadn't felt in a long time. At least until he saw his Inhuman body and looked down to see that he wasn't in his body. "Oh... Oh no..." He muttered. This was bad. This was very bad. "Listen!" Ots stammered. "I know you're scared. I know you're angry. But you don't understand what you're doing."

"I understand perfectly. You and all those so called protectors. Heroes. Where are they now? Why are they not helping us? We are suffering! I feel incredible. I feel like a god."

"I know... You're right. But that's why I came here. I wanted to help everyone. I know you have the power to do what you want, but listen. Let me take my body back. I promise I'll put an end to this. Please. You don't understand what kind of power you're using. It's dangerous." Otis said and the person who jacked his body thought for a moment about what he said.

"I can do anything?" He asked and surrounded Otis in a spherical barrier and lifted him off the ground. "I will return your body once I have rid this country of that fat bastard. He claims that he is god? I will show him what a true god is." Otis felt his stomach sink at the thought of his body being used like that. The man wasn't wrong, but by the same token, he also had virtually unlimited cosmic power to do whatever he wanted. And what he wanted was revenge. It was a massacre. Otis would have been jealous at the man's handling of the Omega Effect if he wasn't so terrified at the same time. Tanks, bullets, men. They might as well have not existed for all the good they did. It didn't take too long for Medusa and Kim to see his rampage since he came to them.

"Bolt?! What are you doing!"

"Medusa." Otis said from his new body. "That's not me."

"Correct. My name is Sung."

"He's an Inhuman who can swap consciousnesses on touch. Which in this case, happened to be mine."

"Yes. And now I will finally end this. We will be free. No more fat bastard to control us and treat us like unwanted animals." He said and Kim lifted into the air and as Sung was about to crush Kim with telekinesis, he was hit by the stinging pain of a flying magic hammer.