Armour Invincible nods, looking up from the damage on his chest plate to check the assembled survival materials. "More would be nice, buuuut honestly it's more than I was expecting." He turns towards Angstrom as Invincible flies off to talk to Local Invincible. "Okay, we already cleaned up most of the radioactive material from New Zealand. Can you open the portal to there?"
Ah, right, fallout. Even with human super-tech or alien tech to fix it (assuming the Viltrumites have that level of science) it still spreads a long way once it hits the upper atmosphere.
"No. My power only lets me open the portals relative to the planet. If you want one in New Zealand, we will have to travel there on this Earth."
I knew this was possible, but I haven't actually done it before. And everyone's.. sort of both horrified and enthralled by the glowing orange Angstrom Levy standing next to me. The Invincibles sort of sneak a look and then pretend that they were looking somewhere else.
It probably is a terrifyingly out-of-context concept for everyone. And Atom Eve may well be worried that she could be capable of doing that too, since she likely hasn't realised her powers and the Lantern's aren't the same thing expressed differently
Armour Invincible look at me. "You mean you could just have taken the sheep to New Zealand instead of here?"
I shrug. "I didn't know where you wanted them. Why don't you pop back and get things prepared, and I'll take them to New Zealand once we're finished here?"
Hardly a difficult thing for him. Giant livestock pen construct, for instance.
"Mm-hm. Quick question: how do I know that you're actually opening a portal back to my Earth?"
"Ah… Because it would be far more work for me to do all this than it would be for me to pick a fight with you and then portal you somewhere else when you charged me?"
...He has a valid point.
He tilts his head slightly to the right. "I mean… Yeah…"
I call down the drone I acquired and hand it to him. "Can you interface with that? It used standard Viltrumite Empire protocols."
Interesting detail. Suggests the Mechanists or whoever made them acquired them from a Viltrumite reality that
didn't wipe out their scientists...
"Just a sec…" The drone blinks, then does a self check. "Got it. I send this through the portal, it sends telemetry back, and that's how I know I'm home. Okay, open the portal."
I nod, and-
Interesting. I wonder if this Invincible would found a new scientific caste amongst the Viltrumites?
Ssshnnng.
-the portal opens, the drone flying through a moment later.
"What did he offer your Invincible?"
I suppose there's not a lot to talk about otherwise while they wait.
"A chance to kill Cecil Steadman."
"Huh. Seems like a lot of work to kill one guy. Is that what he's doing next?"
I mean, when you
hate someone that much... They're probably fortunate there's no Red Rings in their home reality.
I look over to where he's talking to Local Invincible, Atom Eve and a short purple viltrumite who was introduced to me as Oliver. Local Invincible's half-thraxan half-brother, which I guess explains why Purple Invincible is purple.
"Maybe. I'm not sure. But it's his decision."
Ironically, they get
less purple as they age. I expect the Invincible is much lighter a tone than young Oliver.
"Hm." He rises off the ground and flies towards the shipping containers with the pumps. They're wreathed in chains to spread the load when he picks them up, and it should all hold. "You can still watch through the drone, right?"
"Yes. Just hold up a sign when you're ready."
What, no audio transmission? Surprising, but I suppose it would have been harder to make this plan if Levy could have heard them talking.
There's a.. decidedly unpleasant screeching-clanking sound as he picks the shipping containers up, and then I breath a little easier as he flies through the portal. I generate a giant sack barrow construct and start conveying the rest of his order through.
Purple Invincible drifts over. It's… A little surprising, but he's not paying any attention to the other purple viltrumite at all. I'd have thought that they'd have.. something to talk about. Or is that racist?
Or maybe he's just accustomed to seeing strange-looking people where he's from?
"Cecil, huh? Why Cecil?"
"He holds him responsible for his mother's death."
And ultimately, he was. By letting a known criminal super-genius to make his killer zombots without proper oversight, by the sounds of it.
Purple Invincible shakes his head. "He shouldn't make it so personal. It's self-indulgent."
"What did he offer you, then?"
I suppose that lack of grudge-holding is natural for a species as short-lived as the
Thraxans. Wow, less than a year of life?
Damn, how did they even reach space? Their first launches must have been multi-generational efforts.
"I wanted to make sure that he stayed away from my Earth. Thraxian-viltrumite hybrids grow up faster than human-viltrumite hybrids. In my reality, Dad went to Thraxa first. He brought all of my brothers and sisters to Earth. It wasn't really much of a fight. Angstrom was a threat to us…" He looks pointedly at the construct. "And now he's not."
And by Thraxan standards, half-viltrumites are practically
immortal.
"Do you mean to imply that I am?"
He huffs with amusement. "No. You're not crazy like he was, and neither of us has anything the other one wants. I can go home and tell Dad and my brothers and sisters that it's taken care of."
And with this Levy eliminated the way he was, his backers will probably stay hands-off of any universe with an Invincible...
I nod.
Ssshnnng.
He nods, and heads towards the portal with a wave. "Let's hope we never see each other again."
A very realistic possibility, too.
"Likewise."
He flies through, back to his home Earth, the portal shutting down a moment later.
One more safely home. Any left who aren't future zombots in the making??
Ssshnnng.
Still got some more equipment to move, and then I've got to transport these sheep to New Zealand… Which wasn't targetted by any of the Invincibles, so at least things should be relatively calm there.
Ah, clean-up busywork. The unglamorous side of superhero fights, especially at this level.
"Hey…" Local Invincible drifts towards me, awkwardly pointing at Angstrom. "Is that..? Permanent?"
"I believe so. I haven't made a point of turning people into constructs on a regular basis, so I can't say for certain, but…" I nod. "I believe so. I certainly don't feel any sort of mechanism for turning it off."
And he'll probably be on his way by the time Conquest arrives. So there won't be any help there for the locals...
"Would it work on viltrumites?"
"If I could survive in close physical proximity to one for long enough… Probably."
He looks thoughtful. "I know you said that you didn't wanna join your G.D.A…. But if you had… I mean-."
...Ah, I see Mark's already considered the possibilities of Lantern hanging around, eh?
"I could have killed my Invincible. Probably. Or.. helped someone else do it. The x-ionisation process isn't something that I worked out on my own, but attacks based on mental focus seem like they'd work. And with anti-matter? There'd be a crater in the planet the size of Australia, but I think I might have managed to kill Omni-Man as well. Distinctly possible." He nods slowly. "That wouldn't have helped with the next dozen viltrumites, who'd know what happened and could easily ambush me. Or just throw rocks at the Earth. Or… Any one of a number of things." I sigh, shrugging. "Or maybe they don't have that many people to send after an unimportant place like Earth and it would have been fine. Or at least taken them until I got x-ionisation technology and could outfit other people… Or take on a greater number myself. I don't know."
Especially given that a lot of his skills were learned from Jevek's trade. He wouldn't have been able to fight anywhere near this level if he'd been active back when Omniman first turned.
"Huh." He thinks for a moment, and then nods. "Cecil says that all of the other Invincibles are dead, so it's just the two of you…"
"Baaaah-h-h-h-h-h."
"And the sheep still to go. Do you have a reason to stick around?"
It's not like he can't come visit if he needs to.
"No. Not really. It's been… Nice to see an Earth that hasn't been stamped on, but this isn't my home."
"You… Can stay. Cecil would love the ability to make portals, and… Learn how 'x-ionisation' works."
Eh, Cecil would be badly conflicted between the 'so many new weapons to protect Earth' desire and the 'another super-powerful potential conqueror? Must be Tuesday. Get the guns' reflex.
"I can hardly abandon my wife or child. And I want to finish putting the planet back together. But… Thank you for the off-"
Bwf-fytt!
Oh, this better
not be Cecil, thinking he has a shot at Lantern.
Angstrom ripples-. Armour!
"-er."
A bullet slams into the side of my head!
On the other hand,
conventional bullets aren't much of a threat to a motivated Lantern.
