Inconceivable Ch. 44 (Invincible AU) (Patreon)

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

A/N: Maya’s no good very bad day.

-x-X-x-

Maya was not on top of the world anymore. In fact, Maya was having a pretty bad day.

It had started out as a pretty good day, to be fair. A good day to top off a good week. Ever since Anissa had made it clear that Maya was being tested, she’d decided to go all out and show the older female Viltrumite exactly what she was capable of. Part of that involved working with ‘Titan’, a low level criminal that she’d actually fought early on, back when her father was still off planet.

Titan, as it turned out, needed her help to deal with an even bigger criminal known as ‘Machine Head’. Machine Head had effectively threatened Titan into working for him and after seeing the latter interact with his wife and daughter, Maya’s heart strings had been tugged.

That didn’t mean she’d gone off half-cocked or anything like that though! She’d totally done her research and even asked her father for advice. If Anissa had been around at any point she would have asked the other woman for advice as well, but while Maya was certain that she was watching, Anissa had held true to her word that she wouldn’t know if or when the Viltrumite Warrior was nearby.

What ultimately tipped Maya over the edge and led her to storming Machine Head’s penthouse office alongside Titan… well, it was rather simple. Put bluntly, there wasn’t enough left on Earth for her to do that would really impress Anissa.

With forty-ish more of her father running around, Earth was actually experiencing a pretty unprecedented level of protection. Yeah, not all forty were actually deployed all the time and crazy shit still happened every other day, but the end result was undeniable.

Put bluntly, she wasn’t getting much of an opportunity to fight big monsters or strong opponents. For instance, just yesterday Argan had fought a huge kaiju down in Washington D.C. that he’d managed to kill before Maya even heard about it.

So what was a gal to do? Well, the one thing the Viltrumites didn’t focus on was the organized crime. Someone like Machine Head was beneath their notice, but that made him the perfect sort of takedown for Maya. And she’d already spent hours awake at night coming up with reasons why that was the case if Anissa confronted her over the subject.

… Now she’s wondering if she’ll even get the chance to make those arguments though, because everything has thoroughly gone to shit.

Admittedly, it’d gone to shit from the moment that she and Titan invaded Machine Head’s office. The crime lord hadn’t even been fazed by their arrival and before Maya had known what was happening, he’d summoned nearly half a dozen villains into his office to defend him.

She recognized four of them. Magmaniac was a dude who could turn into living lava. Kursk was one of Red Rush’s old rogues and could control electricity. Furnace was a dude made of plasma contained in a Power Suit that let him use said plasma in different ways. And Tether Tyrant was a guy with massive elastic tentacles coming out of his chest.

They were all… well, they were known quantities. Nothing Maya couldn’t handle, in fact. She’d thrown down with them and been winning too… until the fifth stepped in. The fifth guy that Machine Head had hired was a stranger to Maya. An anthropomorphic lion wielding a large, flanged mace and wearing sleeveless battle armor.

Maya hadn’t thought much of him at first. Until he’d waded into the fray and caught one of her punches in his bare palm. The impact had been enough to generate a minor shockwave that bowled over some of the others and the smile… the smile on the lion man’s face had sent a shiver down Maya’s spine.

“Good. You might just be a worthy fight. You may call me Battle Beast.”

Those were the words he’d said to her right before swinging that mace of his around and smashing it into her jaw. Pain had exploded across her face as she’d been sent flying across the room.

Admittedly… things hadn’t gotten much better in the short time since that exchange. Maya had gotten back up of course, even though it was the worst pain she’d felt since her training with Argan. In fact, it was the first time she’d bled since coming back from Flaxa.

That didn’t mean she was going to give up though… if anything, that just meant she had to fight harder.

Unfortunately, Battle Beast was too strong. That wasn’t a complaint on Maya’s end, but rather a simple, immutable fact. If Machine Head had hired the other four villains and not Battle Beast, the fight would already be over and they would all be in custody. Thanks to Argan’s training, the others couldn’t even touch Maya, let alone hurt her.

… But Battle Beast was a different story. The lion-headed warrior was faster, stronger, and tougher than Maya. He couldn’t fly, but that didn’t stop him from constantly coming up on her while she was trying to help Titan, his claws grabbing her and yanking her down to the ground so he could slam his mace into her again.

The longer the fighting goes on, the less certain Maya is that she can survive this. Every blow she takes feels like it breaks something and she’s bleeding from a broken nose, broken face, and internally at this point. Part of her wants to lay down and just… stop. But she can’t. She refuses.

With a roar, she gets up again, dodging a blow from Battle Beast’s mace and slamming her fist into the side of his head hard enough to turn it. Unfortunately, he slowly turns his head back while her trembling fist is still planted in his cheek, a wide grin spreading across his face as he looks at her.

“You’re feisty. But not strong enough.”

He knocks away her fist and headbutts her then, causing Maya to see stars. Her vision was already pretty fucking blurry and there was blood in her eyes from a gash on her forehead, but Maya knows she can’t give up. She knows she has to keep fighting. She doesn’t… she doesn’t want to die here.

Though, even as she’s flung back again a part of her does wonder if Anissa is even watching. Surely she would have stepped in by now if she was, right? Surely she would have done something to help… right? She couldn’t watch Maya all the time though. So what if… what if this was the rare time she wasn’t? Maya hadn’t made any secret of the fact that she was going to try to take down Machine Head with Titan today, but what if Anissa thought it was beneath her notice?

What if all of this… was pointless? What if she was losing her life for nothing? No! No, she refused to die here! She-

Maya gurgles on her own blood, trying to lift herself back off of the ground. And then she screams as Battle Beast’s foot comes down on her abdomen, his claws digging into her shattered ribs. Distantly, she hears Machine Head’s robotic voice carry over the office floor.

“Jesus, where did I find that guy?”

It would be a darkly humorous thing to hear under any other circumstances, but Maya doesn’t have much of an appetite for comedy at this point. Battle Beast, meanwhile, looks down at her appraisingly… before slowly nodding.

“You put up a good fight. I shall give you the honor of dying by my hands.”

No! She didn’t want to die, not by his hands or anyone else’s! She wanted to live! Unfortunately, for all that Maya tries to force her body up, for all that she attempts to keep fighting… her limbs feel heavy. She can barely even move them. Her body remains fallen, pinned down by Battle Beast’s foot.

He raises his bloodied mace, preparing to bring it down on her head and all Maya can do is watch through the one eye that isn’t covered in blood as death descends upon her. Was this really how it all ended? Where was her father? Where was Argan? Where was-?

“Cease.”

All of the sudden, Anissa is there. Maya and Battle Beast blink in unison as the brunette catches his mace easily, in one hand. Over on the other side of the room, Machine Head curses.

“What the fuck?! Who the hell is this bitch? Where did she even come from?!”

Heh. Machine Head had been bragging about his special microchip back at the start. It had apparently allowed him to see Titan’s betrayal and their attack on his tower coming, giving him time to prepare his defenses. But it would seem he hadn’t seen Anissa coming.

Battle Beast, meanwhile, narrows his eyes and growls low, even as Anissa forces him back by simply pushing on his mace and making him back pedal off of Maya’s body.

Floating forward over her, the Viltrumite Warrior shakes her head.

“I know not why you are on this planet Dornian. But the girl is not yours to kill.”

“Tch… who are you to tell me who I can and cannot kill? The girl fought and lost honorably. She was a worthy opponent, even if she fell far short of being able to match me. Are you going to take her place? Are you going to fight me in her stead?”

Maya is pretty sure she has a concussion, but at the same time those words are like a bucket of ice water down her back. Anissa is currently hovering over her, protecting her from those who want to do her harm… to kill her.

But… Anissa is also pregnant. With Argan’s child. She shouldn’t be anywhere near a fight like this, especially not against an opponent like Battle Beast!

“If I must.”

And yet… there it is. She’s willing to risk everything to save Maya’s life. That’s not… she can’t… Maya groans as she forces herself back up, finding an inner strength that she didn’t even know she had.

“N-No…”

All eyes turn towards her. She knows how she must look. Beaten to a pulp. Covered in blood, most of it hers. Parts of her feel like tenderized meat. Other parts of her feel sharp and unforgiving, like the broken ribs currently digging into her lungs and threatening to pierce them with every shaky breath she takes.

And yet… still she stands, her hands clenching into fists at her sides.

“No… Anissa… this is my fight.”

Anissa stares at her for a long moment before scoffing.

“As you currently are, you are no match for this Dornian.”

“I… don’t care. You’re pregnant. I… can’t let you get hurt.”

That draws a blink from the other woman and something strange passes over her face.

“Cute. But ultimately you can barely stand.”

That is true. Maya is swaying from side to side right now. She definitely doesn’t feel very invincible at the moment. But it doesn’t matter. She won’t let Battle Beast hurt Anissa. She’ll die before she lets that happen.

Only… the lion-headed warrior makes no aggressive moves. His nostrils flare for a moment and then he growls.

“She’s right. You are pregnant. You do not belong on this battlefield, woman. You-!”

Anissa punches him in the face before he can continue and Maya’s eyes widen as the punch throws him across the room where he slams so hard into the wall, several feet deep and reinforced as it is, that he winds up embedded in it.

“I grow tired of people telling me where I belong and what I can and cannot do.”

Anissa’s eyes sweep across the rest of the assembled in the office.

“You will all lay down your arms and submit. Or I will not be gentle in making you.”

Eyes slide between the brunette, Maya, and Battle Beast. Everyone else in the office knows that Maya would have kicked their asses if not for Battle Beast’s presence. Meanwhile, Battle Beast had handed Maya her ass and completely and utterly defeated her.

And now Anissa had arrived and seemingly taken the powerful warrior out with a single punch. There’s a pause in which Maya thinks that maybe, just maybe, they might actually all surrender.

… But then there’s a groan and a growl from the wall and everyone looks to see Battle Beast dragging himself out of the wall while shaking his head, befuddled.

“You… you actually knocked me unconscious there for a moment.”

He falls down from the wall, landing on his feet and lifting his mace in both hands. Anissa tenses up as he takes a step forward, only having eyes for her now.

“Woman… pregnant or no, you are the most powerful being I have found throughout my travels across the galaxy. I demand glorious combat from you! I demand-!”

Before he can give any more of his demands however, the other wall, the one he WASN’T slammed into, suddenly explodes as Argan punches through all half a dozen feet of the reinforced wall and flies across the room to slam into Battle Beast and take him the rest of the way through the wall that Anissa crated him into.

In a single instant, both are gone. It’s a total blink and you’ll miss it moment that Maya barely even comprehends. The rest of the office outside of Anissa… less so.

“Jesus Christ, what the fuck was that?!”

“Where did he go?!”

“Did something shoot him or something?!”

Before they can continue, the doors to the penthouse slam open again and the Guardians along with GDA agents come flooding into the room with War Woman at their head.

“ENOUGH! Machine Head and those who work for him, you are under arrest!”

Maya watches, swaying on her feet as Machine Head turns to his side… only, at some point in all of this, Isotope has vanished. His escape hatch, his handy-dandy personal teleporting thug… is gone.

Huh… they’d actually done it, hadn’t they? They’d… won.

Maya doesn’t doubt for a second that Argan will defeat Battle Beast, after all. That fight was a foregone conclusion, as far as she was concerned. Which meant… she could finally let herself pass out. Yippee.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Next time… the ‘foregone conclusion’~

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!

-x-X-x-

Google Doc Link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mf1WeATAWWe2hr86oNLOhVVEcB9zymEfvnEQ4RvgsBM/edit?tab=t.0