"-hundreds-"
-then raises his arms to shield his face as the shots keep coming.
On the upside, she can beat on him for hours without damaging him much unless she starts tossing antimatter or something. So percussive therapy?
"-of thousands-"
I generate a wall construct between them-
Hopefully that's enough to get the message through that she is
not happy with Invincible.
"-of people-"
-which she keeps battering because she has completely lost her cool.
"-because-"
...Okay, let's hope she doesn't start throwing the
big guns at him, then.
As it starts to crack I realise that more extreme measures are necessary. Construct chains projected from the inside of the bubble grab her arms and haul them back while construct armour covers my body as I interpose myself.
She glares ferociously at us both.
At which point, she might well have started shooting stuff from her
feet, given how mad she is.
"-you thought you should?!"
"I-. I mean I-. Wouldn't.. put it like that-."
He must really be enjoying the taste of his boot leather right now... Or be feeling a little masochistic.
I raise my right hand towards him. "I appreciate that was a big deal for you, but-. Stop talking. Please."
He sighs, but nods.
Good, he
can do as he's told. And nice that Lantern felt confident enough to tell him that.
"Eve."
She glares at me, though thankfully the pink glow has gone out. "What!?"
Are you feeling better now and ready to talk like civilised people?
"Histrionics are not helpful. Invincible has chosen to open up to us. We should consider how to proceed rationally and dispassionately. And if you can't do that, then accepting his offer is probably the wisest course of action."
She… Well, she's regularising her breathing while refusing to look at either of us, and that's probably as much as we're going to get right now.
She's probably seriously considering that offer, I suspect. there's only so much a person can take.
Okay.
I turn back to the awkward-looking young tyrant. "Okay. Invincible? What are you hoping to get out of telling us?"
Good, communication! So often a fatal mistake between super-powered people is that they don't
explain things to each other. Unless it's a super-villain monologue, which usually ends up giving away more than they ant to.
"I-. Dunno? Friends, I guess? I mean, we.. work together, we're trying to make the same thing happen… And there's no way we can fight the Viltrumite Empire, so we're just.. making the best of it."
Eve's head snaps back to him "Don't pretend you're not on board with this!"
To be fair... What can he do to
prevent it? His father could have kicked his ass like the prime universe's did. And that would still leave Viltrumites on their way, some of whom are
stronger than Omniman.
"Compared to what, Eve?! If Dad was just a regular superhero, none of this would have happened! Hell, if Immortal had just-."
"Stop." I hold out my right hand again, realising that on top of everything else both of the people I'm dealing with here are teenagers. "Think very carefully whether or not what you're about to say adds anything to the discussion."
Ah, yes. That
magical age when every slightest thing feels like a mortal insult to your ego, before you learn to play nice with the world. Which usually happens when you get out of school and run face-first into
regular life.
He nods. "Immortal could have made it a negotiated surrender. How many people on Earth right now have even seen a viltrumite? A few hundred?"
"You keep killing them."
I'm guessing that's usually because they keep attacking Invincible or Omniman.
"We had a global war! And after me and Dad won, they thought they could change that by moaning about it! The whole reason things got that bad was because the governments couldn't just accept that they lost, and they wanted to carry on doing that instead of fixing things! And yeah, I know I could have done things better-."
I mean, they probably don't realise how two sufficiently powerful people can project their personal power against seemingly monolithic collectives.
"You could have fought him too!"
"I already-!" He bites down his instinctive response. "The Invincible of the world we went to did that. His dad threw him around a city and killed hundreds of people with him before he somehow convinced him to quit. But there was another Invincible who came with us all covered in scars. His dad decided he was defective and put him in viltrumite prison for re-education. The me with the Mohican asked why Angstrom didn't bring more of us, and he said that in most realities we don't even make it this far. Mostly, either Dad kills me or the other viltrumites do when they get here. So whether I fought him or not, it didn't make any difference."
Kind of an object lesson in how
fucked they are right now.
"Except the one time it did."
"No, the other viltrumites are just giving him a little while longer to complete Dad's mission. Then they'll send Conquest, and he'll be dead too. And because it's Conquest, the guy the other viltrumites think is a violent nut job, he'll probably kill even more people. Or just fly right through the planet and wreck the whole thing!"
Indeed, Conquest turns up less than a week later. And I would not be surprised to find that's a thing he
could do. It wouldn't blow the planet up, both the sheer forces involved would shake the mantle enough that most of human civilisation would die. Followed shortly after by everything else in the wake of super-volcanoes and the like...
I sigh. "Perhaps if we move on to something actionable?"
"Okay." Invincible nods. "Okay. What do you want?"
Oh, he wants
many things, I bet. Best to start small, though.
Ah… "Could you please stop calling me 'buddy' in that really creepy way?"
"'Creep-?" His face falls. "You found that creepy? I was trying to be friendly."
This isn't really the kind of relationship where that level of friendliness is appropriate, though.
"While I don't know how you spoke to Mr. Clockwell, I assure you, friendliness was not what you were communicating. Furthermore, when you're super strong, wrapping your arm around someone's shoulders has rather different implications."
"Like what?"
"Like 'if I squeeze, your head comes off'." It's a threat pantomiming friendliness."
Like a hydraulic press, really. A guillotine made of his bicep and forearm...
He looks like I just shot his dog.
I blink rather heavily. "Did you really not do that intentionally?"
I mean, he has only really had the full span of his powers for... What, a
year at this point? It's not unreasonable that he isn't that experienced with the social implications of that much strength.
"No!" … "I mean, maybe a little bit threatening, but more 'I'm keeping an eye on you', not 'I can rip your head off'." I look at him expectantly. "Okay, no more 'buddy' and no more… Arm around the shoulders."
"Thank you. In return, it seems to me that having the most human viltrumite being as strong as he can be is in our interests. I took scans of the training equipment the other G.D.A. used for their Invincible, and I can set that up for you. I can also ask Anissa what sort of equipment she used, and… I can have Angstrom look for Earths with other training opportunities."
Helpful! ...Well, as much as making the guy who's basically ruling the Earth
stronger can be.
He nods. "Okay." … "Thanks."
"And I can also cough pointedly when I think you're leaning into the 'deranged alien overlord' bit a little too hard. Just in case we're in company."
"Yeah, I-. Apparently I need that."
Yeah, coming on a little too strong can be worse than too weak.
"Alright." I offer him my right hand, and after a moment's hesitation he takes it with a weak smile. Then I turn to Eve, dismissing the construct chains. "Do you have anything you'd like to contribute?"
"What do the viltrumites actually want from Earth? Is it just..? Breeding?"
Certainly, the breeding is probably
fun. Especially for the males, who can fire-and-forget, so to speak.
He shrugs. "That, and so there are people who can do all the jobs in the Empire that aren't fighting. Dad says they usually wait a generation or two before training people for anything important…"
"But why Earth?"
Compatibility? Both reproductively and socially?
"I dunno? I guess because we look like them. I mean, if you could get a.. fish pregnant, would you want to?"
"What's the plan for educating the new children?"
Good question. I doubt they'll be given any kind of scientific education, given the Viltrumite preferences. Probably raised as soldiers.
"I don't know. I guess they'll probably get tutors. They'll have enough for a whole class…"
"Human tutors?"
I mean, if they want them educated in anything but combat, that might be necessary.
"Ah. Maybe? Early on, I… Guess so."
"Find out."
I expect they'd be watched, but most of the Viltrumites seem to have little patience for
intellectual things. They'd probably get bored quickly unless it involved combat training.
I raise my eyebrows. "Do you have a plan?"
"If the only thing that can beat a viltrumite is another stronger viltrumite... Then we need to make sure that the next generation is on our side."
Oooh, good angle. A risky play, and a long-term one, but if they can produce numbers larger than the original Viltrumite invaders...
