Inconceivable Ch. 34 (Invincible AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: The slaughter will not be televised.

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Of course, Argan knows better than to make the first move. Before coming to Earth he almost certainly would have. There was incalculable value in striking first even when you already had the overwhelming advantage in power.

However, the GDA had made sure to hammer home a couple of specific lessons above all else. One of those specific lessons was the need to always respond with ‘proportionate’ force. In other words… you needed plausible deniability. There was a ‘moral high ground’ that came with being the defender.

This was not something Argan had ever needed to concern himself with previously, but with Maya at his side and the human astronauts all watching on, Argan could not just slaughter the Martians to the last without proper provocation. And while the Martian Emperor ordering their execution was a good start, Argan figured he would let the armed guards around them strike him first before he killed them all.

… Unfortunately, this does give Maya room to speak up, crying out as she spreads her arms as if to ward off the approaching Martians.

“WAIT! What do you mean ‘executed immediately’?! You can’t just decide to kill us because we visited your planet. We didn’t even know it was off-limits! Don’t you think that’s a little ridiculous?!”

There’s a pause as the Martians all share glances. All save for the Emperor, who scowls angrily.

“Do not think I have ordered your execution simply because I wished to. Your very presence on our world presents an existential threat to our civilization! And yours as well! You all must die in order to save both our planet and your own!”

Ah… now Argan begins to understand the Martians’ panic. The others… not so much.

“Uh… what? What are you talking about?”

Maya’s confusion is matched by the astronauts, one of the males stepping forward and clearing his throat.

“I’m afraid we don’t understand. Earth has no desire to wage war on your planet… we humans come in peace.”

The Martian Emperor scoffs.

“It would not matter either way. You humans as you are pose no threat to our world or our civilization. No… it is your weakness that presents a danger to everything we hold dear!”

Ugh. This is what humans called ‘beating around the bush’ wasn’t it? The Martian Emperor still hasn’t fully explained himself and Maya and the humans are as confused as ever. Finally, Argan breaks his silence, annoyed enough to want to move this whole conversation along.

“You fear the sequids.”

Maya and the astronauts are caught off guard by his sudden ability to speak out loud. Meanwhile, the Martians all stiffen as their Emperor snarls.

“We do not fear the sequids! They are harmless and can do nothing to us so long as they do not have proper hosts. We are not weak enough for them to infect… but you humans are.”

However, even as Maya and the astronauts are processing that bit of troubling news, the Martian Emperor leans forward, squinting at Argan curiously.

“You… you are not human. What are you?”

Argan tenses up… but the damage is already done thanks to Maya.

“The female claimed that she and the male were called Viltrumites, my Emperor!”

So much for hunting the Martians from outside down later and silencing them all. While none back on the surface had seemed to know what a Viltrumite was, Argan nevertheless tenses up now… even as Maya pipes up with a cheerful tone.

“That’s right! I bet you’ve heard of us!”

This girl… but he can’t fully blame her. Perhaps he should have started this excursion with the conversation he’d been intending to have with her. As it is now, it feels like doing it afterwards will be far too late.

“Pah! Of course we’ve heard of you!”

Only, even as the Emperor blusters and pontificates… he looks to one of his attendants who shrugs in response, making it obvious that none of the Martians in the throne room has ever heard of a Viltrumite either. This place really was a backwater…

“Then you know that we fight for peace and protect the weak! It’s like our whole thing! Look, you don’t have to worry about the sequids infecting the astronauts… it’s the only reason Argan and I are even here, to watch their backs.”

The female astronaut grumbles at that.

“Sure wish we’d been told that ahead of time…”

Argan shoots her a slight glare that is nevertheless more than enough to cow her. At the same time, he looks back to the Martian Emperor and can tell that he’s considering everything.

… The truth is, the Martians actually have a bit of a point. The sequids are a threat to both Earth and Mars. All the damn creatures need is a single host weak enough to be infected but smart enough to boost their own intelligence and provide the brainpower necessary for the hivemind to assert itself and they became capable of completely toppling low tech civilizations. And both the humans and these Martians had low tech civilizations.

Admittedly, even if the sequids made it to Earth, Argan was confident that him and his people could handle them. However, how many humans would die in the process? Humans who could instead be acting as mates for his warriors… or making more delicious food.

No.

“I will deal with your sequid problem.”

Argan’s words cut through the air before the Martian Emperor can render his final judgment. Everyone in the room, including his own ally and dependents, blink at him in confusion.

“What… you will deal with the sequids? What does that even mean?”

“They are a pest. Humans have something they describe as ‘pest control’. I will act in this role for you and eradicate your sequid infestation. In return you will allow these humans to return to Earth unharmed.”

The Martian Emperor shakes his head.

“Don’t… don’t be ridiculous. If it were really that easy, do you think we would not have already dealt with them ourselves? They burrow and scurry too and fro. They are all over the planet at this point?”

Argan just scoffs.

“I do not see what your own inability to control the infestation has to do with anything. I will handle them.”

“One creature cannot hope to-!”

That is when Argan finally moves. He flies across the room fast enough that he knows it looks to both the humans and Martians alike as though he’s teleported. Maya might be able to track him at this point, but he’s not entirely sure how far along she’s come. Regardless, Argan reaches one wall of the throne room before anyone can so much blink and shoves his arm through it, reaching into the wall… and pulling out a squirming sequid.

Everyone stares at him with wide eyes as he closes his fist around the squirming parasite, crushing its core body in his fingers with ease. Then, as the sequids begin to crawl out of the hole in the wall he’s made, Argan plucks them from the air one by one with just that one hand, crushing and dropping their corpses to the floor below him until a small pile of sequid bodies begins to grow.

All the while, he maintains eye contact with the Martian Emperor. All the while, not a single sequid makes it past his hand, despite a veritable tide of the damn things coming out of the wall. From the shocked, horrified looks on the Martian faces around the room, none of them knew they were there… none of them knew just how bad their sequid problem had really gotten.

He completes the first wall and moves over to the second, speaking as he slams his hand through that surface as well and begins to clear out the sequids from behind it.

“You have an infestation, Emperor of Mars. I will exterminate it for you… and in return, you will guard these humans with your life and the lives of every single one of your people. Because if any of those four humans die… you will not like the consequences.”

Argan finishes clearing out the second wall and offers the Martian Emperor a simple, superior look… that cows the alien, the Emperor eventually lowering his gaze in submission. With a pleased nod, Argan looks to a shocked Maya.

“Watch the humans, Maya. This won’t take long.”

And then… he moves.

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Maya… doesn’t really know what to do. Well, she knows she needs to keep an eye on the humans and not let any sequid get close to them now, obviously. She also knows that she needs to make sure the Martians guarding them don’t try anything either.

Not that the half-Viltrumite really thought that second thing was very likely. Argan had been… very thorough in showing the Martians precisely why they didn’t want to make an enemy of the Viltrumites and by extension, an enemy of Earth. Because Earth was under their protection now and they weren’t going to let anyone, not even some stinking Martians, harm their people!

“So… Invincible right?”

Blinking, Maya turns to the female astronaut. It takes her a shameful second to remember the darker skinned woman’s name.

“O-Oh um… yeah? Zehra right?”

The other woman nods.

“Yeah… Zehra Lafaz. And your companion… that was Argan? The new hero who broke Abraham Lincoln’s face during the attack on Mount Rushmore, right?”

Maya tries not to wince too hard at that. Ugh, the internet had been all over Argan for that. Never mind that he’d quite literally saved a park ranger and some kids by doing what he’d done. Never mind that it was Doc Seismic who had been the bad guy causing problems. No, all anyone wanted to talk about was Argan pulverizing Lincoln’s stone face into a million pieces.

“Uh… yeah, that’s him. He’s not… I mean, to be clear, he was saving human lives when he did that. Just like he’s working to save all of your lives now.”

Zehra exchanges glances with her fellow astronauts before frowning.

“Right. He seems very… intense. And driven. It’s just… look, he’s agreed to deal with all the squid creatures for the Martians in return for letting us go home, right?”

Maya is quick to nod, smiling and throwing out a thumbs up.

“Yep! Don’t worry, he can handle it. And I’ll make sure none of the Martians try to take advantage of his absence!”

Said Martians, of which there are currently two in the room with them right now standing guard by the door, exchange glances as well. But you know what? Maya is pretty sure she can take them. Sure their laser spears seem wicked as hell, but she doubts they can actually hurt her. It’s the astronauts who are squishy and prone to dying if their suits get punctured or damaged in any way…

“Right… well that’s kind of the problem, actually. I’m sure Argan can ‘handle it’ or whatever… but can he handle it fast enough before we all run out of oxygen? Because our suits only have a couple more hours at this rate.”

Maya opens her mouth… and then closes it, her eyes widen behind her goggles as she stares at Zehra and the other astronauts. She hadn’t thought about that. And from the look of things, neither had Argan! Well shit, what were they going to do? Hell, Maya herself was probably going to run out of breathable air at some point as well. She didn’t need as much as humans did thanks to Argan’s lessons about holding her breath in space, but every time she talked, she was using up some of her own tank of oxygen…

Shit… looking between the astronauts and the Martians guarding the door, Maya grimaces. She might just have to break the astronauts out of here and get them back to their ship before they all suffocated to death. Argan wouldn’t be happy, but what if he was on the other side of the planet killing sequids? There was no way he’d get back before they all ran out of-

The door to the room suddenly slides open and Argan steps in, brushing his shoulder clean.

“It is done. We are ready to depart.”

Maya blinks, even as Zehra sputters in disbelief.

“W-What?! What are you talking about? You told the Martians you were going to eradicate every sequid on the planet. How can you already be done?!”

The look Argan gives Zehra is downright disdainful.

“It is done because I have already eradicated every sequid on the planet. I thought those of your species that were allowed to venture off your planet were meant to be more intelligent and competent than the average human being.”

Ooh, burn. Zehra rears back as if struck and Maya has to hold back a laugh at Argan’s unintentional (or perhaps intentional?) insult. Fortunately, before she can speak up again, one of the male astronauts puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey Zehra… maybe let’s not argue about it and just get out of here instead?”

It takes Maya a moment to place that one’s name… Rus Livingston, that’s his name. Only, Argan narrows his eyes as he looks at him suspiciously.

“… You are not the original human astronaut.”

Wait, what?! Maya can only gawk as Argan suddenly appears in front of a panicked Rus, his hand closing around his neck. In an instant, the seemingly human astronaut’s form writhes and transforms back into the Martian who had taken his place.

“W-Wait! I’m sorry! I just… I just wanted to see what was out there!”

He looks young for a Martian, that’s Maya’s first thought. Her second thought is that their Martian Guards at least look as alarmed and shocked by the replacement as the rest of them are. And of course, her third thought is to wonder where the hell the real Rus Livingston has gone.

Fortunately he’s not dead because if he had been, Maya’s not sure what Argan might have done or if she would have been able to hold him back. Instead they find the missing astronaut in an out of the way hallway, unconscious but still in his suit with plenty of oxygen left. In fact, because he’d been out like a light, he had more oxygen left than the other three astronauts when they woke him up.

Regardless, with that final hiccup dealt with and the attempted hitchhiker given to his people’s custody, they all make their way back to the surface and she and Argan escort the four astronauts to their shuttlecraft. As insane as it might seem, the Martians make no effort to stop them… so for all intents and purposes, it does look like Argan managed to take care of their sequid problem. Either that or they were simply too intimidated by him to actually check and were just willing to let them go at this point to get them all off Mars.

Maya makes sure to do one quick surreptitious check of the space shuttle just in case a sequid managed to slip past Argan and hide on board… but she doesn’t find anything. Fortunately, Argan doesn’t call her out on it. Instead…

Maya, once we’ve gotten the human’s ship back to Earth’s orbit, you and I will stay behind and rendezvous on the Moon. There’s a conversation we need to have that is long overdue.

Maya can only gulp and nod in uneasy agreement, wondering what exactly this ‘conversation’ entails.

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A/N: Maya is worried she’s in trouble v.v

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Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LBzdoTcmbb6aLOerBAzgXSMXFGcxnLtHnP_n3vzkn9U/edit?tab=t.0