Inconceivable Ch. 32 (Invincible AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: Maya thoughts on recent happenings~

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Even all these days later, flying as fast as she can and zipping back and forth, Maya Grayson is still thinking about that damn family dinner. But to be fair, it was kind of a big deal, wasn’t it? She really didn’t know what to think about it, even after all this time.

She was really going to live forever? Not a single Viltrumite had ever passed away from old age?! What did you even do with that sort of information? Not to mention the tangential knowledge that her mother was going to die long before her.

To be fair, that was sort of the common understanding among humans, right? Mothers were supposed to pass before their daughters and fathers before their sons. It was a tragic loss whenever a parent had to bury a child.

Even still, to find out that she had thousands upon thousands of years in front of her (assuming nothing killed her first) in the same breath as her mother’s very limited human lifespan had been thrown in her face… it was a lot to unpack.

One might even assume it would be enough to cool some of Maya’s burgeoning attraction towards Argan. He had been exceedingly blunt at the dining table and not entirely kind in how he’d delivered the bad news. He’d thrown uncomfortable truths in their faces as though it should have been expected, doing nothing to soften the blow.

… But then, based on her limited interactions with him so far, Maya got the impression that Argan didn’t know the first thing about “softening blows”. It didn’t seem like Viltrumites put much stock in letting someone down gently, that was for sure.

At the same time, Argan had been… surprisingly chill about the rest. If it was true that the entire Viltrumite Expedition was literally just here to ‘get busy’ with humans, then it made sense that her dad would be worried about what was expected of him.

And yet, Nolan needn’t have been concerned at all. Argan seemingly had no intentions of forcing him to do anything like cheat on Maya’s mom. Though his expectation that they would produce more brothers and sisters for Maya was… well, that was something else entirely, wasn’t it?

After all, Maya knew that her parents would be… figuring things out for quite some time. Even with it all being out in the open, even with Argan’s offer to extend her mother’s lifespan by a couple hundred years… there was still the fact that her dad had lied to her mom all these years. To her too…

She-

Maya yelps as she’s suddenly tagged on the side of the head by a pink bolt that strikes her and sends her off course right into a wall. She plows through it in a tumble, falling flat on her face just a few hundred feet from the finish line.

“Oof! Sorry!”

The by-now-familiar voice of one Atom Eve calls out to her, even as Maya groans and flips herself onto her back. She wasn’t actually hurt or anything, not by the pink hard light construct nor the fall. When Eve comes down to land beside her a moment later with a concerned look on her face, Maya chuckles and shoots her a thumbs up.

“All good. Only thing hurt is my pride.”

Eve grins right back and offers Maya her hand, which the latter takes allowing the former to pull her back to her feet. Giving her a knowing look, Eve arches a brow.

“Still thinking about… the stuff?”

After Argan had left, Maya’s mom and dad had needed to talk… privately. So Maya had asked Eve if she could stay over and the other heroine had immediately said yes. As it turned out, Eve was literally living on her own out in the woods in a super kickass treehouse that she’d made with her own powers.

Of course, as a consequence of staying with Eve for a couple nights, Maya had wound up spilling the beans to the red head. Specifically, she’d told Eve what she’d found out about Viltrumite Lifespans and how Argan had offered advanced medical technology to extend her mother’s lifespan by a couple hundred more years.

She hadn’t told the other woman about the true purpose behind her father’s mission to Earth or the related reason that the Viltrumite Expedition was now here. It… hadn’t seemed like it was her secret to tell. Plus Maya knew that Eve had a tendency to tease Maya about her crush on Argan… while carrying her own somewhat flickering torch for the Viltrumite Leader.

If she told the red head about the whole ‘here to breed with humans’ thing, she was worried that the teasing would never stop. She was even more worried that Eve might do something unwise… like proposition Argan outright or something.

Anyways, she’d told Eve enough for Eve to know why Maya was so distracted and lost in thought in recent days… and why her mom and dad were currently at odds with one another.

“… Yeah. It’s just… well, it’s a lot.”

Eve nods in agreement, brow furrowed in concern as she plants her hands on her hips.

“What about your parents? How are they doing?”

Maya licks her lips, tilting her head to the side.

“… Better. I think mom is still mad at dad, but I also think she loves him more than she’s angry at him. I think… I think they’re going to be fine. Dad’s just going to be in the doghouse for a while.”

Eve snorts at that.

“Yeah, I bet he will be. Not every day you find out your alien husband is over a thousand years old and doesn’t even have an expiration date. It’s a lot to take in, especially when your dad’s been keeping it a secret for all these years. At least Argan was willing and able to set the record straight.”

Maya bristles for a moment at that before calming down. On the one hand, a somewhat irrational part of her wants to leap to her dad’s defense. He was on a mission after all, he had orders to keep things hidden. By comparison, Argan didn’t have that yoke around his neck. He wasn’t bogged down by orders, he was the one giving them. So it wasn’t a fair comparison.

On the other hand, she and her mom were her father’s mission, so frankly she wasn’t feeling that generous, all things considered. Hell, what would have happened if she’d never awoken to her heritage? What if she’d remained a baseline human all her life? Would her father have just… left eventually? Would he have abandoned her and her mother to return to the Empire for his next ‘assignment’?

Maya grimaces, hands curling into fists at her sides as she goes right ahead and pushes the ugly emotions such thoughts down as far as she can. Shaking her head, she forces a smile onto her face.

“All I can do is focus on my training. I’ve seen what real Viltrumites like my dad can do… I know how far I still have to go. And getting distracted and tagged like just happened… it’s unacceptable. I have to be better.”

Eve winces at that, before shrugging.

“Well… I mean, you were on track to put forth your fastest time yet before I hit you, so at least there’s that? Whatever sort of headspace you were in, it was definitely moving you faster.”

Making a noise of acknowledgment in the back of her throat, Maya turns to regard the obstacle course in the absolutely massive GDA training facility. Technically she wasn’t a Guardian of the Globe or a member of the Global Defense Agency. But at the same time, she was friends with Eve and also technically a part of the Viltrumite Expedition… sort of?

It was a little messy, but the end result was that she had access to all of the GDA’s training facilities so long as she was with Eve. Maya hadn’t tried coming alone just yet… but really, she didn’t want to come alone either. Training with Eve was a lot better than training by herself.

“… Let’s do another run, yeah? I’ve got at least two or three more in me at this point.”

Eve looks her over for a moment before grinning.

“Sure. Sounds good to me.”

With a burst of speed, Maya makes her way back to the starting line and gets ready for the next race. This next time she’ll be faster and more cognizant of her surroundings. She can’t stop training. She can’t stop improving. Argan had said it himself, she had the potential to become just as strong as him and the other Viltrumites if she kept working at it and striving for her next milestone.

And she had to become that strong. She had to prove she was worthy of standing alongside her people. Otherwise, how was she going to ever prove worthy of the name ‘Invincible’?

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It’s a couple hours later before they finally call it quits. Well… an hour and a half before they finish their last run on the obstacle course. The thirty minutes after that is spent in the locker room getting a little frisky. It’s Eve’s fault, really. She keeps bringing up Argan and teasing Maya, so Maya had to shut her up… namely by silencing Eve with some correctional lip on lip action.

Or to put it another way, they’d made out for like fifteen minutes before someone else came into the locker room and interrupted them. They weren’t caught necessarily, but it was a close call. After that, they’d gone their separate ways and taken a separate pair of showers. Maya’s shower had been… particularly cold.

Despite the sheer amount of alone time they’d had together, Maya and Eve hadn’t actually done anything beyond kissing just yet. Frankly, Maya wasn’t sure if they were even going to. They definitely weren’t in a relationship or anything like that, but rather more just… really, really good friends?

All of that was to say-

“-on’t try to tell me you didn’t know anything about it! You left the moment she showed up!”

“I did not know what her intentions were. I departed specifically to avoid whatever she was planning.”

Maya’s head tilts to the side as she hears two familiar voices off in the distance. Cecil Stedman… and Argan. Before she thinks better of it, she finds herself moving through the GDA Headquarters’ labyrinthian hallways towards the pair of voices.

“You should have told her to stand down.”

“Why? Did she do something wrong? I was led to believe that making food for a prospective partner was considered a… standard step in human courtship.”

To Maya’s surprise, they’re much further away than she initially thought. Had her hearing gotten better again when she wasn’t paying attention? Still, she quickly reaches the conference room where Cecil and Argan are conversing. Argan is sat at the large table while Cecil is stood on the other side, hands planted palm down and gimlet glare directed at the other man.

Maya slows as she gets closer, trying to avoid detection. Though she thinks she sees a slight bit of movement from Argan in her direction all the same. Cecil, meanwhile, only seems to have eyes for Argan… and from the look of things, is gnashing his teeth. What exactly were they talking about anyways? One of the female Viltrumites, maybe?

“I hope there was another reason you called for me, Director.”

Left unspoken is ‘for your sake’, Maya can’t help thinking to herself. But to his credit, Cecil growls… and then straightens up.

“Yes. I require your assistance with something.”

Then he clicks a remote and starts a whole slideshow presentation that has Maya’s eyes widening the more she listens in.

Argan sits passively as Cecil explains that NASA is sending their first manned mission to Mars… and they want Argan and at least one other Viltrumite to shadow the mission, both to ensure nothing goes wrong and to show Earth’s world powers that the Viltrumites truly are here to help.

It’s obvious from his reaction that Argan doesn’t really realize how big of a deal this is. Sure, they had an alien invasion every other week and all that, but NASA going to Mars was crazy! There were Martians on Mars, Martian Man had been one! Though, err… from what her dad had told her, Martian Man was exiled from Mars so they probably weren’t going to return his remains there or anything…

Still, it made plenty of sense that they’d want the whole thing to go as smoothly as possible.

“Very well, I suppose-”

“I can go with him!”

Maya barely even registers what she’s doing until she’s already impulsively done it. Crossing the rest of the distance between her and the conference room, throwing open the glass doors, and announcing her presence by inviting herself along on the mission.

It’s not until Cecil looks at her with a narrow eyed look that Maya realizes she’s probably stepped in it. But… she’s in too late to back out now.

“I mean… I’ve never even been to space before. It seems like a cool opportunity?”

Crossing his arms over his chest, the Director of the GDA scoffs.

“This isn’t some summer abroad in Europe, Invincible. It’s not an opportunity, it’s a responsibility. One that I’m not convinced you’re at all ready for it.”

Maya flinches back… because Cecil might just have a point. She’s kind of jumping the gun here, isn’t she? But before she can apologize, beg for forgiveness, and excuse herself…

“It’s fine, she can come.”

Maya’s eyes are wide and Cecil’s eyes are narrowed as both of them swing their gazes over to a still-seated Argan. Hands clasped in front of him, he nods.

“You wanted me and at least one other Viltrumite, no? She’ll be my second.”

Cecil clenches his jaw.

“At least one other… we’d prefer more than two if you could spare them. And she’s not exactly a part of your expedition…”

“More than two of us won’t be necessary. And she very much is one of us. It is settled. We will tend to this matter for you. Your human spacefarers will make it to their destination and back to Earth in one piece. I swear it.”

Still looking rather unhappy, Cecil stews silently for a moment longer before throwing Maya one last glare.

“Fine. I’ll hold you to that promise, Argan. And tell that woman to stop baking for me!”

With that, Cecil stomps out of the room leaving Maya with more questions than answers. But honestly… who cares?! She’s going to space! With Argan! Fuck yes!

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A/N: I’m sure this will go swimmingly~

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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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CnpnycDzP7OC54G3WB_UxzWpakucJXVo0IMiIU5MbJI/edit?tab=t.0