Inconceivable Ch. 12 & 13 (Invincible AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: The end of an Empire.

[Hey guys, for the next two days (yes this includes Saturday) I will be releasing two chapters of this story a day! This is so that I can release the first chapter publicly on Monday and not Friday next week. Enjoy!]

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Grand Regent, preparations are complete.

Floating in orbit over Viltrum, Argan stares down at the planet for a moment longer before turning to acknowledge Kregg.

Very good, General. The detonator?

General Kregg nods and holds out a device with a single button atop it. Taking ahold of it, Argan looks it over for a moment. To think such a small thing would be capable of destroying their entire planet. Not alone though, of course. No, it would simply set off a cascading effect that would eventually leave nothing behind.

If he could sigh, he would, but considering they’re in the vacuum of space he simply turns to regard all of the others. Every remaining Viltrumite floats behind him, their departure imminent. They take with them several large containers filled with what little Argan had allowed to be brought along.

They could leave no traces of where they were going and Argan had no intention of letting the past define his people any longer. That did not mean forgetting everything that had made them who they were, however. Their history, their sciences, their discoveries… they would not let them go to waste. This new planet Earth… while it would not be conquered in the name of the Viltrumite Empire, Argan had no intentions of letting it languish in obscurity forever.

Sweeping his gaze across the lot of them, Argan nods to a few in particular. Carl, for instance, has fully recovered by this point, his Viltrumite Biology seeing to the swift healing of his broken limbs. He’s been forever changed by their battle… but Argan likes to think he’s stronger than ever for it.

Anissa is another that Argan lingers on. They’ve been at it multiple times a day since their first ‘encounter’, all to ensure that his seed would eventually take. Soon, she will bear him a child… the first Pure Blooded Viltrumite born since Argan himself.

Several of the other female Viltrumites have also paired off with males at this point for the same purposes, but not all of them. Argan has not pushed the issue for the time being though. He might have if it wasn’t for Nolan’s report on Earth, but given there were billions of these humans waiting for them to arrive, things were not quite so dire.

Finally finishing his visual check, Argan nods one final time.

Go. All of you.

And so they depart, leaving him alone floating over the empty world below him. Viltrum, their home… and if his father had had his way, their eventual tomb. Even now, billions of Viltrumite corpses encircle the planet, forming rings around it. Corpses tossed out of atmosphere during the worst days of the Scourge Virus, when millions of Viltrumites were dying by the hour.

Argan cannot claim to have direct experience with those events. He was born in the aftermath, the only living Viltrumite who could claim such. And yet, he floats there all the same, closing his eyes and soaking it in. The bodies. The decimation. The empty loneliness.

He had not reacted well to the news that his father had been working towards finding them a new planet and species to interbreed with in order to save their race. Parts of Viltrum had been utterly demolished in his resulting rage. Ancient architecture that had stood for thousands of years had been reduced to rubble beneath his fists.

Whether Thragg meant it as a token effort or simply didn’t have any faith in Nolan’s mission… it didn’t matter. That he hadn’t told Argan even when the younger Viltrumite had him dead to rights was infuriating, but also ultimately meaningless. His father was dead. Argan was all their people had left to rely on now. And so he would succeed where his father had failed.

Eyes snapping open, Argan presses the button on the detonator Kregg gave him. He watches as explosions begin to alight upon Viltrum’s surface, the first wave of devices eradicating cities that have stood since the time of Emperor Argall.

But of course, that’s just the beginning. It’s not enough to simply destroy their presence on the planet. If their enemies come here… and they will come here, then they cannot be allowed to find anything they might reconstruct. Nor can they be allowed to know just how low the Scourge Virus laid Viltrum’s people.

That is, in Argan’s estimation, the greatest achievement of the Viltrumite Empire in the past thousand years. The Great Lie. That they were as strong as ever before. That there were still millions if not billions of them. That they had not truly lost anything to the Scourge Virus attack.

If their enemies came and found an empty Viltrum, even one with a scoured surface, they would also find the corpses orbiting the planet. They would learn just how much damage they’d done and just how successful their underhanded attack had been.

Now, an argument could be made that letting them find the bodies might lead to them believing they’d succeeded in completely annihilating the Viltrumite Race. However, Argan found this unacceptable for two reasons. One, he did not like the idea of surrendering such information to anyone, let alone their greatest enemies. And two, tangentially related to one, giving the enemy access to billions of Viltrumite corpses to experiment upon was… unconscionable.

And so, even as explosions bloom across the surface of Viltrum, they’re quickly joined by much larger blasts. While the Viltrumite Empire had never needed weapons of mass destruction to wage wars of conquest because of their own inherent biological superiority… that did not mean they didn’t have access to some truly dangerous technology from the planets they’d conquered in the name of the Empire.

Viltrum’s continents begin to bulge up, the first array of explosions dwarfed by the second and ultimately looking like nothing more than small mushrooms on the surface of a series of massive beasts moved into action for the first time in millennia.

It’s almost beautiful in a way… until the third explosion starts. And then everything goes white as the planet’s very core is detonated and the planet itself finally explodes properly.

Technically, Argan was supposed to begin his retreat the moment that he pressed the button. He certainly should be flying away from the blast now in order to escape its range.

Instead… he lingers. He watches. And he lets the power of a sun wash over him as their history and the remains of their dead are erased from the universe in one final, massive detonation.

-x-X-x-

Kregg stops along with Carl and the others on the edge of the star system. They all turn and watch from afar as the detonation takes place. Kregg’s eyes, one biological and one mechanical, strain as they focus on the extremely bright explosion, trying to find the Grand Regent as he makes his way towards them.

… He should be making his way towards them.

General?

Kregg’s jaw clenches as Carl’s question floats through the void. The other Viltrumite’s depth perception is absolutely atrocious since he refused to take a prosthetic eye like Kregg did, back when he’d lost his eye and arm to the Rognarr.

… Kregg glances to Anissa, wondering if maybe she sees more than he does. She too is peering out at the blast, uncaring that she’s staring the blinding light right in its center. And yet, he can tell from her narrowed gaze and intense focus that she hasn’t located Argan yet either.

Which is a problem, because Argan is quite literally the best of them. If he had begun flying to them the moment he pushed the button, he frankly should have already been before them by the time the final blast took place. If he’d begun flying to them only after he saw with his own eyes that the final blast was happening, he still should have been visible by now.

That he wasn’t went beyond troubling. Especially since, with Nolan sent ahead of them all to prepare Earth for their arrival, Kregg was the only Viltrumite present who knew precisely why Argan might… purposefully fail to escape the blast.

Of course, the younger Viltrumite’s anger while they finished preparations had been felt by every other Viltrumite. He had destroyed so much of Viltrum’s surface while they were getting ready to depart that some had whispered that he was making sure to destroy any emotional attachments they might have to the planet.

Kregg knew better though. He knew why Argan was angry. Not just angry, but frustrated and possibly even grief stricken. Why had Thragg kept quiet about Nolan’s mission? Argan had been advocating for a shift in the Empire’s priorities for centuries. So why?

Kregg didn’t know the answer to that question anymore than he suspected Argan did. What he did know, however, was that if Argan was dead now… they were doomed. The infighting that would ensue in the wake of the Grand Regent’s demise would finish them off as a species. They would be-

There!

Kregg jolts as Anissa’s mental voice rings out. The female warrior points and every other Viltrumite follows her finger, including him. After a moment, the General spots the black dot in the middle of the planet’s explosion steadily growing a fraction bigger every second, and breathes a sigh of relief.

Then, he damn near swallows his own tongue when Argan gets a bit closer and becomes fully visible. The Grand Regent’s cape and uniform are gone, completely and utterly burnt from his body. The Grand Regent is therefore entirely naked, but even as he crosses the vast distances between them in two more blinks of an eye, he is entirely unharmed.

Indeed, the only sign of the fact that he’d clearly been in the middle of the blast that just erased their planet and the corpses of their people… is a light sunburn across every inch of his body.

Argan looks at them all unfazed for a long moment before arching a brow… at which point Kregg immediately snaps out an order.

Clothe the Grand Regent! Now!

It takes a handful of seconds for a Viltrumite to retrieve a set of fresh set of clothing from one of their storage containers.

Their Grand Regent takes the clothes from the Viltrumite in question and offers them a simple nod of acknowledgment before getting dressed. Though not before giving every female Viltrumite still alive quite the show.

Kregg huffs at Argan’s antics. He truly was his father’s son in many ways… while also being an entirely different headache in others. And yet… he can’t help but feel pride knowing that Argan had stood in the midst of their past’s decimation… and came out largely unscathed and unharmed.

He truly was the leader they needed to bring them forward into a brighter future. Kregg would do everything in his power, both as General and a proud Viltrumite Warrior, to follow him down this path.

Once he’s completely dressed, Argan looks at all of them. Perhaps sensing that they would like him to say something, he looks back at the destruction behind him and inclines his head.

The planet Viltrum is no more. The Viltrumite Empire is dissolved. But we are more than our homeworld. We are more than an Empire. The people of Viltrum still live… and we still strive. We now go to our new home, where one of our best and brightest has already gone ahead to prepare the way for us. A place where we can rebuild and recover in full. Until one day in the future, we will remind this universe of one truly inescapable fact.

He looks back to them then, face solemn and serious.

All is ours.

ALL IS OURS!

The call and response is instantaneous across the thought-transmission devices they’re using to communicate in space. And Kregg feels his chest swell with pride as Argan’s lips curl back into a savage grin.

Good. Come now… let us be off.

With that, they turn and follow their Grand Regent, leaving the decimated star system behind them. A moment later and their star detonates as well, the delayed timer going off to thoroughly erase all remnants of the Planet Viltrum from existence.

And yet… not a single Viltrumite looks back.

-x-X-x-

A/N: And the beginning of something else entirely~

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Chapter 13

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A/N: Cecil still going through it.

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Sleepless night after sleepless night. The Flaxans hadn’t attacked a third time just yet, but that didn’t mean they would never attack again. And in the meantime, Cecil had to juggle managing the response to that prospective third attack with filling the Guardians’ roster back out along with every other damn crisis facing Earth on the regular.

Still, he almost had it all figured out. The three new Guardians were all but locked in, they just had to be recruited properly and that was happening today. And who was going to say ‘no’ to a personal recruitment effort from War Woman and The Immortal? Certainly not Atom Eve, Invincible, and-

“Cecil.”

Jolted from his inner thoughts by a familiar voice that he hadn’t been sure he’d ever hear again, Cecil whips around just as Nolan Grayson steps out of the shadows.

“Jesus Christ, Nolan. You ever heard of knocking?”

He considers the other man’s stance for a moment, trying to get a read on whether Nolan is here for something nefarious or not. He doesn’t necessarily read aggression in the powerful alien’s stance, but at the same time Cecil is well aware that Nolan could cross the room and be upon him in the blink of an eye.

… Which ultimately made going for the panic button utterly pointless, in the end. Letting out a low breath, Cecil forces himself to relax instead, even as Nolan shakes his head.

“You might want this conversation to be off the record. I figured I’d give you that opportunity.”

Cecil frowns, not liking the sound of that.

“And why, exactly, does this conversation need to be off the record?”

Before Nolan can respond, Cecil continues on. He can’t quite help himself, maybe it’s the sleep deprivation talking, maybe it’s just the general frustration over losing three of the Guardians to the damned Flaxans. Either way, he growls.

“You know, your absence was pretty damn noticeable. Had a pair of alien invasions we really could have used your help on.”

When Nolan just frowns, Cecil goes for the jugular.

“Three of the Guardians are dead, Nolan.”

That gets a reaction from the other man, albeit one that’s still somewhat muted. He takes a moment to process that before…

“… Which three?”

Wow. Cecil gives Nolan a glare at that, but the other man doesn’t even try to pretend he doesn’t have favorites.

“Red Rush, Darkwing, and Martian Man.”

Nolan’s shoulders twitch and Cecil hates that he can’t quite tell if the man is relieved or not. Of course, outwardly he lowers his head.

“I see. Those are unfortunate losses.”

He certainly sounds somber, but Cecil really isn’t buying it. And again, maybe it’s the sleep deprivation talking… but he can’t help trying to force a real reaction out of the other man.

“Your daughter was nearly a casualty as well.”

In an instant, Nolan’s face becomes intense and Cecil can tell he has every bit of his attention.

“Excuse me?”

Feigning nonchalance, Cecil shrugs.

“She’s been doing her best to fill in for you while you’ve been gone. She’s just not as good as her dad yet. Fortunately she’s still alive, but it was certainly closer than it should have been… than it would have been if you’d been here.”

For a moment, Nolan looks truly angry. He really, honestly cares about Maya. Cecil wordlessly notes that in the back of his mind, even as Nolan gets himself under control.

“… I’ll have to speak with my daughter after this. She was explicitly told to sit out the alien invasions.”

Cecil just scoffs.

“Yeah, well if she hadn’t been there, we might have lost a lot more than three Guardians of the Globe, so you’ll forgive me if I’m not too beat up about her disobeying daddy.”

Nolan’s eyes flash at that but ultimately he doesn’t dignify Cecil’s obviously provocative words with a response. Instead, he changes the subject back to his original purpose here.

“I was recalled to Viltrum to go over the… results of my time on Earth.”

Oh so they were doing this now, were they? Cecil crosses his arms over his chest and leans back against the front of his desk, not entirely sure how much of this bullshit he’s going to be able to swallow. Unfortunately for him, it’s kind of his job to swallow down bullshit sometimes…

“Yeah? From the ‘world betterment committee’?”

He doesn’t go so far as to make air quotes but he can tell from the look that Nolan shoots him that the other man hears the incredulous undertone in his voice all the same. Still, rather than call him out on it, Nolan just huffs.

“My superiors have deemed Earth worthy of… additional protection. As we speak, a larger group of Viltrumites are in transit.”

Cecil’s eyes widen at that and his fingers dig into his arms as he tries to maintain his cool.

“… Exactly how large of a group are we talking here? You know, normally there’s a bit more that goes into immigration than a quick heads up, Nolan. Sounds to me like you aren’t really asking though. Do we have a choice in the matter?”

Nolan frowns, his eyes narrowing.

“There’s always a choice, Cecil. But I would think the Director of the Global Defense Agency would leap at the chance to have forty more of me helping defend the planet. Especially when everything started to go shit the moment I left for even a week.”

Oh this bastard… Still, at least he’d gotten a number out of the other man.

“Forty, huh?”

Nolan just shrugs.

“Around that much. No more than forty-two.”

The ‘answer’ to the meaning of life in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy? Surely Nolan wasn’t unaware of that meme, the man was literally a writer in his civilian life. Was he just fucking with him or something?

Still… forty-two more Nolans was both not as bad as Cecil feared and also more horrifying than he could have imagined. On the one hand, you’d think they would send a lot more if it was a proper invasion force. Given how strong and fast Nolan was, it might be hundreds or thousands instead of an army of millions, but it would still be more than forty… right?

On the other hand, Cecil didn’t buy for even a single second that Nolan’s people had decided Earth was just worthy of that much more protection or anything like that. And while he might have been fine letting Nolan have his secretive ulterior motives until now, he couldn’t afford to remain purposefully oblivious any longer.

“Let’s cut the crap, Nolan. No more bullshit about the ‘world betterment committee’, alright? Why are you really here on Earth and why are forty-fucking-two more of your kind coming to my planet?”

That gets a pause from the other man. He doesn’t look too surprised that Cecil saw through him. Rather, he looks more surprised that Cecil was finally willing to call him on his bullshit. Slowly, Nolan’s hands curl into fists at his side.

In that moment, Cecil is wondering if this is where he dies. If Nolan decides that it will be easier to make shit work without him, if he thinks he can browbeat Donald into submission instead… well, he’ll have another thing coming but he doesn’t know that.

“… Alright then. No more bullshit.”

Cecil blinks, even as Nolan uncurls his hands and looks down at his palms for a moment before looking up at Cecil.

“The truth is rather simple, Cecil… it’s because of Maya.”

What. Cecil’s confusion and incredulity must show on his face, because Nolan just shrugs and continues to explain.

“For as powerful as we are, Viltrumites suffer from one major biological flaw… it is extremely hard for us to reproduce. We are biologically immortal by your comprehension of time, Cecil. We live for thousands upon thousands of years, our bodies only growing stronger rather than older.”

What little they’d been able to gather from scanning Nolan from afar had actually led to the eggheads in the lab theorizing that. In twenty years, Nolan Grayson hadn’t visibly aged a day. Meanwhile, under the hood, GDA analysts theorized that he was actually growing tougher and stronger over time rather than weaker like your average human being.

“But even with thousands of years, it might take hundreds of years for a pair of Viltrumites to produce a single child. And you know full well that our two races are not alone in the universe. My people have their enemies… enemies who harbor hatred towards us simply because we are better than them.”

Cecil isn’t sure he buys that. Well, he buys the part where they have enemies, but he’s not so sure that the only reason these enemies hate Nolan and his people is because they’re built different. He doubts its as simple as that…

“Humans though… Humans are genetically compatible with Viltrumites. In less than twenty short years, I was able to produce a viable offspring in the form of Maya and with far less work than it would have taken if I had been trying to reproduce with a Viltrumite female. That is why my people are sending a larger group of Viltrumites. We do intend to protect this planet with our lives… while also building upon what I have already managed to create here.”

There’s no fucking way. It takes Cecil several moments to process what Nolan is saying and even once he’s done so he still takes several moments more to really internalize it. When he’s finally done that, he finds that he can’t quite help himself, his tone incredulous as he blurts out the first fully coherent thought that comes to mind.

“Your people are coming to Earth because you think humans are submissive and breedable?”

Nolan blinks, his brow furrowing in confusion.

“What? Cecil, what about my wife says ‘submissive’ to you?”

Cecil very nearly throws his hands up into the air and walks away from this whole interaction. As it is, only his sense of duty and responsibility keeps him rooted in place, even as he chews on everything Nolan just told him. Here’s the problem… on the face of it, it’s a really good fucking deal.

“… So that’s what you truly want, huh? To knock up some human women? And in return, you’ll all protect Earth with the same ferocity you’ve shown these past twenty years?”

When Nolan nods, Cecil growls.

“And do your people know the meaning of consent, Nolan? Because I’m not about to sign off on a bunch of humans being abused just to get you all on board.”

Something flashes across Nolan’s eyes at that, something that worries Cecil more than he can put into words.

“… It will be fine. The expedition has orders to keep a low profile, Cecil. As afraid as you might be of the prospect, we aren’t here as invaders nor to conquer the planet. Remember, we have our enemies… and you don’t want them to become yours.”

Yeah, Nolan is right, Cecil doesn’t. That said, something about Nolan’s reaction to all of this and the way he’s talking…

“Are you the leader of this ‘expedition’ then, Nolan?”

And there it is. The hesitation. After a moment, Nolan nods.

“No, I am not. They will arrive with the others.”

Cecil can’t help but bristle a little bit at that.

“Then I’ll have to talk to them when they finally show up, won’t I?”

Jaw clenching, Nolan growls.

“Cecil-!”

But Cecil cuts him off with a raised hand.

“I don’t want to hear it, Nolan. You want to discuss a long-term integration of your people into human society? Sure, we can discuss that. I could easily see us trading some proper identities to your people in exchange for their help in keeping the world from imploding every other week. But I’m not going to make any deals until your leader gets here and I can talk to them directly. Simple as that.”

For a long moment, Nolan looks like he wants to push the issue. In fact, he almost looks like he’s afraid of something… but maybe Cecil is reading too much into things. Nolan has always been almost impossible to read. Finally though, he relaxes and slowly nods.

“That is… fair. They should be here soon enough. We travel fast.”

Yeah, Cecil had already realized that. The fact that Nolan had left, gone home, and come back again all in the span of a week… fuck, he must be even faster in the vacuum of space than he was in Earth’s atmosphere and he was already pretty damn fast on Earth as it was.

Before Nolan can leave, however, Cecil calls out to him. Might as well make a bit of a Hail Mary play here…

“Actually… there is one deal you and I can make right now, Nolan.”

Curious, Nolan turns back to face him.

“War Woman and The Immortal are out offering your daughter a spot on the Guardians right now. I’d be willing to offer your people better terms if you-!”

“Excuse me?”

In an instant, Nolan has crossed the room and is looming over Cecil. Frankly, he’s not even sure where he finds the backbone to look him in the eye without stumbling back.

“Three Guardians are dead, Nolan. And you’ve never officially joined up. We need replacements so-”

“Not my daughter.”

Cecil grits his teeth.

“Be reasonable, Nolan. She’s eighteen years old. She can make her own-!”

But just as suddenly as he’d moved to loom over Cecil, Nolan is gone. And Cecil doesn’t have to play twenty questions to know where the man is going. Letting out a sigh, he shakes his head and turns back to his work.

Getting Invincible on the team was always a long shot, he supposed. But… back to the drawing board.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Nolan is not happy!

Throw me a comment if you can but please leave a Like if you don’t want to, it’s the main metric I use to track whether a story is doing well or not!

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Chapter 12 Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_bCoX6i-blmnUsvVIQ7ZlpgPYrBelYiKvmb6BK1vU6Q/edit?tab=t.0

Chapter 13 Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cg_XdIVCuZBXNUfmqaHs0A5iK9RHSrZGtzvRmMWA3n0/edit?tab=t.0