Somewhere to Belong Ch. 38 (DC/Multi) (Patreon)

(Every character depicted in the story below is a consenting legal adult over the age of 18)

A/N: The fight is short.

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Myk-Zod’s opponent, this so-called ‘Omni-Man’, manages to right himself in midair before he can fully leave Earth’s atmosphere. However, he doesn’t manage much else before Myk-Zod is on him, grabbing him and dragging him further up and into space.

Punches and kicks come his way, but the truth is… this ‘Viltrumite’ simply isn’t as strong as him. Oh, don’t get him wrong… he’s very, very strong. That’s why Myk-Zod removed him from Earth, to protect the planet’s surface from the destruction he’s calculated Omni-Man is capable of enacting.

But comparatively, he simply doesn’t have the power or force behind his punches to do more than turn Myk-Zod’s head. He needs every ounce of his power just to try and make Myk-Zod bleed and he’s not even managing that much.

He is, however, the better fighter of the two of them. That Myk-Zod has no problem admitting to himself. His own combat experience can be measured in a mere handful of years, with Mystique in particular pushing him to spar with her back on her Earth after she’d come to realize how much he tended to rely on pure brawn instead of any sort of skill.

Admittedly, it wasn’t like anything from her Earth was capable of harming either of them anyways as far as Myk-Zod could tell, but Mystique was a worrier and a long term planner type. So she’d trained him to fight all the same and they’d been having regular sessions for years now.

Even still, Myk-Zod could tell that Omni-Man’s experience was measured in decades instead. The man’s skill level was far beyond his… but at the same time, his techniques relied upon overwhelming power and strength, as well as his own incredible durability.

Put bluntly, he wasn’t used to fighting someone stronger than him. He wasn’t at all used to being the underdog in a battle.

Off in the far distance, the Yellow Sun of Earth’s star system blazes merrily, providing Myk-Zod with even more energy. The thing is, as far as he’s been able to tell, there is no limit to how much solar power his body can store. He and Mystique both just get stronger and stronger the more time they spend in Yellow Sunlight.

By comparison, Myk-Zod’s X-Ray vision tells him all that he needs to know about Omni-Man’s species. These Viltrumites… it doesn’t really surprise him that they would become intergalactic conquerors. They were pretty much built for it.

Omni-Man’s musculature and skeletal structure is incredibly dense and resilient, perhaps the most so that Myk-Zod has ever seen. In spite of his outward appearance being all but identical to a human being, ‘under the hood’ so to speak, things were so far off it wasn’t even funny. Viltrumites seemed to be integrated biological organisms, their entire physiology interconnected into a highly optimized framework that made them inordinately powerful.

And they only got stronger as well from what Myk-Zod could see. He was watching in real time as Omni-Man’s cells tried and failed to keep up. But incrementally, the longer the fight was going on, by mere fractions… they were growing tougher and stronger.

Was it possible that a Viltrumite could become powerful enough to overcome a Yellow Sun-Empowered Kryptonian? Hm, perhaps under the right circumstances, yes. It would require the Kryptonian to be without a Yellow Sun so that their energy slowly went down. It would also require the Kryptonian to hold back and not end the fight too early. And even then, it would take decades of near-constant combat by Myk-Zod’s estimation.

Of course, these weren’t the right circumstances for Omni-Man to win. Myk-Zod was being empowered by the star system’s Yellow Sun as they fought… and obviously, he had no intention of letting this fight drag on for any real length of time.

Indeed, it’s only been about thirty seconds since he threw Omni-Man up into space, the two of them exchanging hundreds of blows in that time… but there’s no point in letting things go on any further. Myk-Zod has seen all he needs to see.

Quicker than the Viltrumite can even react, Myk-Zod slips into place behind Omni-Man and puts him in a simple chokehold. Immediately, his opponent tenses up and tries to break free, his neck muscles even bulging and straining to try and stop Myk-Zod’s arm from fully closing off his airways.

That doesn’t work though as inexorably, Myk-Zod fully completes the chokehold and squeezes until Omni-Man goes limp in his arms. He descends as this happens, back into Earth’s upper atmosphere, just in time for…

“DAD!”

The younger one to arrive. Mark Grayson, aka ‘Invincible’. His fist aims for Myk-Zod’s head as he lunges forward, but Myk-Zod simply moves out of the way.

“Do you really think you’re going to do any better than your father did? He’s much, much stronger than you.”

“LET HIM GO!”

Myk-Zod sighs. On the one hand, he’s not surprised that the young Viltrumite is too angry to listen to reason. On the other hand, he’s not feeling very much sympathy, all things considered. From what Myk-Zod had heard so far, Mark had willingly joined his father and tried to help him conquer the planet. In spite of being half-human, in spite of growing up here all his life.

Mark continues to try to punch him, to try and free his father’s limp body from Myk-Zod’s grasp. Every attempt at deescalation fails, until finally he’s had enough. Instead of moving his head out of the way of Mark’s next punch… Myk-Zod moves his forehead into the path.

C-CRUNCH!

“GAAAAAAAAH!”

The young man’s pained scream as his hand shatters against Myk-Zod’s forehead is not at all music to his ears, but at least it finally puts an end to things. Mark reels back, cradling his ruined hand to his chest. Meanwhile, Myk-Zod stops holding Omni-Man in a chokehold and simply keeps him aloft by the collar of his cape.

Now came the hard part… deciding what would be done with Earth’s would-be conquerors. Fortunately for Myk-Zod, that wasn’t really up to him. Doubly fortunately, the person it would be up to was just arriving.

Atom Eve flies up under her own power, having clearly chased after Mark as soon as she could. When she arrives to see the state of things, her eyes go wide with disbelief for a moment before narrowing as her expression firms up with resolve.

“You really fucked up, Mark.”

Tears streaming down from under his goggles, Mark shakes his head.

“No… Eve, you don’t understand. My father… he’s just one Viltrumite. They have an entire Empire! If we don’t join them peacefully, they’ll wipe out Earth’s population and take the planet by force! This was the best way!”

Eve grits her teeth, hands curling into fists at her sides.

“You call this peaceful?! Your father has killed thousands of people. In a single fucking day. Not to mention killing the Guardians of the Globe twice. And Cecil and Donald to boot.”

Mark grimaces.

“They fought back! Me and my dad… we were trying to save this planet! You don’t want the Empire to have to come here. A thousand Viltrumites! Even HE can’t beat that many!”

Agree to disagree. Though admittedly, it would be hard to handle a thousand of them at once and also protect the planet and its inhabitants. But Myk-Zod doesn’t say that even as Mark gesticulates wildly in his direction with his uninjured hand. Eve looks a little disconcerted by the idea for a moment, as she probably should be… but in the end, human stubbornness wins out.

“If the Viltrumite Empire wants to pick a fight with Earth, they should be ready to bite off more than we can chew. We won’t go down without a fight… and we’ll kill as many of you as we possibly can first. So maybe consider that before anything else.”

“You’re naïve.”

That response doesn’t come from Mark… but rather from his father. Omni-Man, or rather Nolan Grayson, still dangles from Myk-Zod’s fist, but he has woken back up, something Myk-Zod had already noticed and was ready for. Seeing as he’s flying under his own power now, Myk-Zod releases his hold on him, letting him float up a bit into the air.

But he’s ready in case Nolan tries anything… and he can tell the other man knows it as well. His jaw clenches, his fists shake… but he doesn’t attack again. Instead, he simply looks between the two of them, eyes narrowing into slits.

“Earth is nothing but a speck of dust in the grand scheme of things. The Viltrumite Empire would no more hesitate to crush it beneath its heel then anyone might hesitate to take a step forward. Mark is right, the only way for Earth to survive and prosper is by willingly coming under the Empire’s aegis.”

Honestly, Myk-Zod is a bit impressed that the man still sounds so sure of himself even after getting his ass so thoroughly handed to him. Nolan looks over at him directly and frowns.

“I don’t know what you are. Some sort of experiment, perhaps. But you’re only one man. You’re up against an Empire that has stood since the dawn of time. You’d be better off joining us than standing against us. And so would you.”

Eve jolts as Nolan turns his gaze in her direction for that last part.

“You’re a formidable warrior in spite of your inferior species, Eve. Help us finish bringing Earth in line and you could rule alongside us, making Earth a better place for everyone. Yes, some people have had to die in the past few days, but do you really think they were all innocent? Do you really think they were all free of guilt? Your planet’s political systems have been plagued by corruption, greed, and selfishness since long before I arrived here two decades ago. Imagine what this world could be like if you could do away with all of that. If you could make the decisions alongside Mark for what Earth’s future would look like. Imagine the utopia that this world could become.”

Nolan is very charismatic, Myk-Zod has to give him that. He can see now how the man convinced his son to betray his planet in the course of a single conversation. There’s just one problem with all of this… and Eve is smart enough to see it.

“Funny how you resort to offering all of this only after you’ve gotten your ass kicked by a third party.”

Nolan stiffens, but Eve isn’t done.

“You would never have even thought to give me a lick of power or control over Earth if it wasn’t for Myk-Zod’s presence right now.”

“Wha- Eve, that’s not true!”

Mark might even believe it, but Eve ignores him in favor of staring down his father.

“You can dress it up in all sorts of niceties and try and make it sound as necessary as you want, but the truth is Earth was doing just fine without alien overlords and it will continue to do just fine. So hear me now because I’m not going to say this twice… get off my planet.”

Nolan’s eyes narrow, his gaze flicking over to Myk-Zod too fast for human perception to pick up on it. The Kryptonian sees it though, of course.

“Those are big shoes you’re trying to fill, girl.”

Eve just sneers at him.

“Someone’s gotta fill them, seeing as you killed everyone else who would have. And just so you know, if it wasn’t for your wife, I’d say we kill you here and now… both of you.”

Mark chokes on his own spit at that, looking thoroughly betrayed. It’s almost enough to make Myk-Zod want to laugh. But yes, Eve is correct. The only reason she’s giving them this opportunity to flee is because Debbie Grayson begged for it.

After they’d rescued her, after she’d told them everything that had happened and the carnage her husband and son had caused… the woman had broken down and begged for them to be spared. Even though she’d known she had no right to it. Even though she had no way of knowing if they could even be beaten… she’d still asked.

Admittedly, she’d begged more for Mark than for her husband…

“Life sentences are the least of what you deserve for your crimes but we don’t have any way of holding Viltrumites indefinitely here on Earth. So I’m exiling you both from the planet… and from the solar system for good measure. Go and never return. If you do, we’ll kill you. And you can tell that to your goddamn Empire too. Earth is off-limits.”

Silence reigns for a long moment, only broken by Mark’s quiet whimpers as he cradles his broken hand. Nolan, meanwhile, stares at Eve wordlessly for a few seconds before looking to Myk-Zod. He raises an eyebrow back at the Viltrumite, curious if Nolan is going to make him kill them after all or not. Admittedly, if Mystique were here both Viltrumites would already be dead… but she’s not.

“… Very well. We’ll go.”

“What? Dad!”

“Hush, Mark. We’re leaving. Now.”

Mark Grayson looks torn as his father begins to ascend into the upper atmosphere. He also looks like he regrets every decision he’s made in the past day. For a moment, he even looks longingly at Eve, like he thinks she might let him stay if he pouts hard enough. But she just glares at him, making it abundantly clear that there’s no turning back the clock.

Finally, the younger Grayson follows his father up. Myk-Zod watches as they depart from Earth… and then keeps watching of course. At one point he feels Nolan look back at him, their eyes meeting as Myk-Zod stares at the Viltrumite from across an increasingly vast distance of space.

Shortly after that eye contact, he senses both father and son pick up speed, able to reach far faster flight speeds now that they’re out of atmosphere. In no time at all, they’ve left the solar system behind altogether. Hopefully to never return… but only time would tell.

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A/N: Remember to Vote, leave a Like, and let me know what you think!

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MXJeWylM1pCdxAzBDUKOF48EMV71vWuK5jEPxR4bgtk/edit?tab=t.0