Inconceivable Ch. 33 (Invincible AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: Going to Mars.

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If Argan were being completely honest, this latest mission is only slightly more worthy of him than everything else he has been asked to do by the GDA since arriving on Earth. At least this mission is interplanetary and involves the humans boldly venturing somewhere they’ve never ventured before.

But the truth was, the real reason Argan had not raised any sort of fuss or tried to pawn this mission off onto other Viltrumites was that he’d seen an opportunity as soon as Maya presented herself as his second. Leaving Earth behind with the young hybrid, and on the GDA’s orders at that, would grant Argan the opportunity to get Maya alone so that he could speak with her without being surveilled.

Given what had taken place at the ‘family dinner’ and seeing how hard Maya had been training to try and reach her full potential ever since, Argan had decided she deserved to know more about their people… specifically, just how dire their situation truly was.

First, however, came the mission to Mars. A mission that Argan had swiftly discovered Maya was ill-prepared for. When she’d said back in the conference room that she’d never been to space before, Argan had not taken that to mean her father hadn’t even begun training her in handling the rigors of space travel.

Unlike most species in the galaxy with their weaker constitutions, Viltrumites did not need to fear the vacuum of space. They could handle the void easily enough so long as they knew how to hold their breath. Indeed, Argan and his people had no issues traveling vast distances across the cosmos.

… Maya could barely last a minute before she had to rush back into the atmosphere of her birth planet to suck in large lungfulls of air. Argan had done what he could to help her conditioning before they departed, but in the end she’d still needed to wear a space helmet attached to an oxygen tank. Unacceptable in most circumstances… but in this case Argan blamed Nolan more than he blamed the man’s daughter.

“So… this is kind of crazy, yeah? I mean, escorting astronauts to Mars… that’s wild!”

As they lay on the outside of the human spaceship, a shuttlecraft barely rated for planet-to-planet travel, Maya tries to make small talk. Looking over at her, Argan smirks. He sees no reason not to take this opportunity to begin laying the groundwork, so to speak.

At its height, the Viltrumite Empire held thousands of planets within its borders. Travel between them was extremely commonplace. In comparison, humans are… quite primitive. But it is good to see them struggling to achieve what meager accomplishments they can all the same.

Maya stares at him for a moment, nonplused. She’s already well aware of the mind-to-mind communicators, so that’s not what has her so befuddled. Rather, it’s his words. After a moment, she lets out a little laugh.

“You’re extremely good at backhanded compliments, Argan.”

When Argan just arches a brow at that, Maya elaborates.

“Its when you praise someone in a condescending way to make it clear you’re doing so from a place of superiority.”

Hm. Was that what he’d been doing? Perhaps so, but only tangentially. He and every other Viltrumite were superior to humans in every way, after all. Just because that was the case did not mean he could not applaud their ingenuity and drive to reach beyond their means though.

“I get it though. I mean… yeah, obviously humans don’t hold a candle to Viltrumites. I guess the only way in which we kick your guys’ ass is the whole breeding thing, right?”

Argan blinks, causing Maya to blush and squirm a bit.

“I mean… you literally had to come all the way to Earth because we were more fertile or whatever, right?”

She’s not wrong… except for in one way that has Argan frowning.

You keep saying ‘we’. You would do well to remember that you are not a human, Maya. You are a Viltrumite.

Maya opens her mouth… and then closes it, flushing a little. Eventually, she nods.

“Yeah… of course. I… I’m kind of both, right? Like, I thought I was just a human for so much of my life. And then my dad tells me he’s a Viltrumite and so am I, but I don’t actually get cool powers until after I turn eighteen. So for most of the time I’ve been alive so far, I’ve just been… a boring old human girl. It’s going to take a while for me to really come to terms with my true nature I guess.”

Argan waves a dismissive hand.

It matters not. You are Viltrumite. I have seen the scans. Your Viltrumite DNA is strong… it has already begun overwriting your human DNA, replacing it completely. Inch by inch you become a full Viltrumite. Within a century, there will be little ‘human’ remaining within you… the same for every ‘hybrid’ that we birth on your planet. You are correct that humans make for the perfect partners for our species, but you should not name yourself among them. You are one of us.

Maya’s jaw is wide open by the time he is done transmitting his thoughts to her. Argan wonders if maybe he went a little overboard, but he feels very strongly about this. Maya might currently be the weakest Viltrumite in the entire universe, but she was still a Viltrumite all the same.

Or perhaps it was the mention of ‘the scans’ that has caught her off guard. Indeed, Maya looks a little bewildered by that and when she finally recovers, she quickly begins to ask something.

“I-!”

But before she can get the words out, the shuttle under them shifts and they start to make their descent towards their destination. To be fair, they had already been close when Maya insisted on making some small talk.

“Oh! We’re here!”

Their previous conversation is immediately forgotten by the hybrid as she creeps over to the edge of the shuttle in order to watch them make their landing. Argan rises up off of the shuttle entirely, matching its speed while crossing his arms over his chest and flying at a steady pace behind it.

Out of sight, out of mind. That was what Cecil had insisted upon before their departure. Apparently, neither this ‘NASA’ organization nor the very humans they were meant to be protecting knew that he and Maya were here right now. They were supposed to try and keep it that way, avoiding detection if at all possible.

Argan found all of the subterfuge to be rather ridiculous, but he also didn’t care enough to argue about it. As the shuttle fully lands and the four human ‘astronauts’ disembark onto the planet’s surface, he and Maya pull away from them, watching from behind some rocks at a safe distance.

In the meantime, Argan finds himself studying their environment… and rapidly finding that it’s not quite so desolate as it first appears. In fact, Mars is teeming with life… all of it hidden beneath the planet’s rather arid and unlivable surface. The native species appeared to have numerous underground cities, though what Argan’s senses are telling him is that there are two main forms of life on the planet. One is more primitive to the other… but also familiar in a way.

Maya has her phone out and is taking pictures as Argan soaks up this information. He has to admit, he doesn’t quite see the appeal. If she cares about aesthetics that much, Earth itself seems to be much more pleasing to the eye in that manner. Visually, Mars is nothing more than rock, rock, and more rock.

Of course, just because Maya is distracted does not mean Argan is. Not truly. He grunts when he sees some of the natives approaching the astronauts and while he was told not to interfere… that only applied so long as the humans were not in danger.

Maya. Come.

Just as the Martians are riding up and pointing energy spears at the human astronauts, forcing them to raise their hands in surrender, Argan interposes himself between them, arms still crossed over his chest. Maya arrives behind him a few moments into the tense standoff, a little late but nevertheless falling into a battle stance he approves of out of the corner of his eye.

You will leave the humans alone. They are not here to do any harm to you or your world.

Argan transmits his thoughts to everyone around him, causing the humans to gasp in shock and the Martians to rear back as if struck, their red eyes widening in disbelief. Finally, one of them inches forward, taking charge of the situation.

“You… what are you?”

Before he can respond, Maya speaks up… and Argan is reminded of why he needs to have a talk with her sooner rather than later.

“We’re Viltrumites! You’d better back off or you’re in big trouble!”

Fortunately, this is about as far as you can get from the more… civilized parts of the galaxy. The humans have a word for this that works rather well… a ‘backwater’. Even as Maya throws out a name that would send dozens of races fleeing in terror and dozens more into fight mode, the Martians just exchange confused glances, making it obvious that they have no clue what a Viltrumite is.

Finally, the head Martian just shakes his head.

“It matters not. You must all come with us to see the Emperor, immediately!”

Argan sneers.

You do not have the strength to give us orders. I have already warned you once. These humans are under our protection. You will-

“Uh, actually… we don’t know who these two even are. And as members of NASA and representatives of Earth, we would love to meet with your Emperor.”

Argan slowly turns his head to regard the only female among the four human astronauts. Her comrades are looking at her aghast, but she has stepped forward and has a determined glint in her eye. She looks from him to Maya and then back to the Martians.

“Take us to your leader.”

He’s half-tempted to tell her to be quiet and return to her mission immediately… but truth be told, Cecil had not actually told Argan exactly what the NASA mission was. Travel to Mars? Yes, obviously. But he hadn’t been informed of what these so-called ‘astronauts’ were supposed to be doing once they got here… nor had he actually cared enough to ask.

In hindsight, perhaps he should have. It was rather awkward, realizing he had to back down… for now. Shifting back, he inclines his head to the human astronauts, allowing them to take ‘the lead’ as much as it galls him to do so. But to be fair… this was their little journey of self-discovery. Who was he to get in the way? All he really needed to ensure was that they all made it back to Earth alive.

Looking rather confused, the Martians nevertheless corral the six of them and escort the four astronauts, as well as Argan and Maya, beneath the planet’s surface into one of the larger underground cities that Argan had detected. Once down there, Argan registers that the atmosphere is enough that he could actually speak now rather than simply projecting his thoughts. Not that he bothers.

Rather, it’s here that he finally recognizes the second form of intelligent life on this planet… it’s one he’s encountered before.

Sequids. These foolish Martians appear to be domesticating sequids. Argan stares at the parasitic creatures all around them somewhat aghast. While sequids were not actually capable of harming Viltrumites, they were still an irritant… like a pest you wanted to be rid of as soon as possible.

They got even more irritating when they managed to infect any sort of intelligent lifeform that was weak enough to be controlled by them. Once that happened, they used the biological computing power of their new hosts to expand their own meager intelligence massively, until they were unified enough into a proper hivemind to begin making a proper mess of things.

Fortunately (for them), they had never managed to make too much of a mess in Viltrumite territory. Only a couple of planets within the Viltrumite Empire had ever had to deal with an infestation and their technology made it a simple enough endeavor to deal with them more often than not.

… But human technology was woefully behind and humans themselves were exceptionally weak. All four of the astronauts the Martians were escorting to see their Emperor were vulnerable hosts to the sequids, though he and Maya were not.

Indeed, as they make their way down the corridor, more than one Martian escorting them has to use their spears to smack a sequid away from the astronauts, none of whom seem to truly realize the danger they’re in.

Eventually, they stop running into more sequids and finally reach a throne room where a Martian in ostentatious robes sits upon a throne. Argan lingers at the back with Maya at his side as the four astronauts step forward, the woman taking the lead.

“Greetings, Emperor of Mars! We are-!”

But the Martian Emperor interrupts her with a growl and a wave of his hand.

“You are humans. You should not have come here to Mars. By my imperial decree, all of you are to be executed immediately!”

“… What?”

Argan might have laughed at the female astronaut’s suddenly small voice… but as it is, he knows how to hold his tongue and simply readies himself for battle instead. Not that it will be much of one… no, this will be more of a slaughter.

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A/N: Do you guys think there will be a slaughter? Hmm…

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/1aSkcYbO5I91yJivttRvRISoX9W6hDbswuUwVGwsycz4/edit?tab=t.0