His first charge was intercepted by Karasuba; he was on guard now, and her invisibility wasn't worth as much. With his enhanced senses, Nolan could hear the sword whistling through the air, and caught it on his left forearm, probably thinking it'd just hurt a little like my own sword.

Thing was, Karasuba was a Viltrumite, just like him, and when she swung a sword, she did it with a lot more strength than I could muster. Her sword plowed through flesh like it wasn't even there, and cracked through one of the bones, only stopping when it hit the other bone. A quick drawing motion pulled the sword out and through the wound, and sawed a deeper cut through that other bone; it stayed in one piece, but now, Nolan was actually hurt. He listed to the side, in a way that told me his flight organ had been damaged, and it took precious moments for him to right himself, precious moments Karasuba used to come at him again.

This time, he did manage to dodge, but on the followup swing, Karasuba's sword managed to lop off a few fingers from his right hand.

I flew up above Nolan, and pulled out an alternative weapon: a four-dimensional gun. The shot I squeezed off didn't land, instead punching a crater in the soil (knocking over his table and laptop in the process) and roaring like a jet engine.

Nolan's train of thought was clear: I wasn't willing to shoot the gun horizontally, for fear of hitting something fragile that wasn't him. Therefore, he could not afford to be below me, and so flew up to my level, continuing to dodge Karasuba's sword.

Immortal tried to sneak up on Nolan, but by this point, he was pretty wary of what was going on, and managed to actually dodge Immortal's sword.

"Who's next on your team of people I've already killed?" Nolan demanded. "The fucking fish king?"

"He wouldn't answer our calls," I said, flying up some more, and forcing Nolan to follow me. I had him right where I needed him, and if I could just-

"Mark, I'm in Nebraska, someone's trying to kill-"

You fuck.

I seized control of the comm in his ear, ending the call and making it emit a frequency that'd resonate with his inner ear, fucking up his sense of balance and causing a lot of pain.

"You think bringing your son into this is going to save you?" I yelled at Nolan as he barely missed Karasuba and Immortal's latest swings. "You think we can't handle a teenage Viltrumite? Or do you think we won't?"

"You'd... kill a teenager?" Nolan ground out, before catching a sword in the side of the head from Immortal. It seemed like a coup right up until we were reminded that pretty much only Viltrumites could swing these things hard enough to seriously injure Nolan, and all Immortal had done was destroy the transmitter in Nolan's ear. "And here I thought you'd want to keep the moral high ground."

"He'll live," I said. "He just might wish he hadn't, is all."

I wasn't really that worried about Mark. While Viltrumites might be resistant to hostile telepathy, they were not especially resistant to hostile telekinesis, and I was perfectly capable of forcing Mark through a portal to a faraway portion of the galaxy. Or, hell, just to a part of the Warehouse that's... less time dilated. He needed to be in there long enough to be calmed down and convinced that his dad was, in fact, a pretty bad dude, but it would probably be a bad thing if I threw him in there, and then tried to let him out later, only to find that he'd been there long enough to go native, find a girlfriend, and refuse to leave.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Eh. Ten minutes out here would only be like seventeen hours in there, and I doubt this fight is gonna take much longer than that.

"Cecil," I said over the psychic channel. "Nolan just called Mark-"

"I know," he interrupted me. "We weren't able to intercept it in time, but we are in his ear right now, trying to explain what's going on. It's... a struggle."

I grunted, and closed the channel, lining up a shot with Nolan. He darted out of the way, but in his haste, he overextended a leg, and Karasuba managed to slice his foot in half, drawing out a yelp of pain and a quick dip in his hovering. And while he fought to regain control, I took the shot I'd actually planned, and nailed Nolan through the thigh with an extradimensional bullet that went all the way through and only came to a stop in the bedrock.

For a mortal man, that would've been a pretty immediately disabling wound.

For Nolan, it just made him angry.

"Fuck!" I wheezed out as he shot upwards like a rocket, having put his fist through my stomach on his way into outer space.

"Let's see how long you can hold your breath, yeah?"

"Invincible inbound, T-5 seconds," Clover warned me.

"Thus always to tyrants," I said, before shooting him in the shoulder and ripping myself sideways off of his arm, letting the flesh regrow.

"DAD!" Mark screamed as he flew up to us. "What the hell are you doing to-"

"I don't care," I said, opening that portal I'd mentioned and shoving Mark through it, into the Warehouse, before closing it. "Real big help he was, eh Nolan?"

Nolan simply snarled, as I drifted lower, and threw himself at me again. I wasn't fast enough to dodge him, and I knew what he was trying to do- I did my best to dodge anyways, of course- so I let him have his way, grabbing me and flying me up into space, away from Karasuba- thinking she'd be unwilling to attack Nolan while I was being used as a human shield.

Nolan was going fast. He didn't stop at the Karman Line, or low earth orbit, or even geostationary orbit. At this rate, we were going to cross the moon's orbit before he even considered slowing down.

"Hey Nolan," I said, forcing my way into his mind. "Did you know that I don't need to breathe? You'd die out here long before I did."

"At least I'm away from your wife and her fucking sword," Nolan said. Everything Karasuba had lopped off would heal and regrow, over time; Viltrumites could heal from pretty much anything. "And there's nothing stopping me from ripping you apart, one bone at a time."

"Lemme tell you a little story, first," I said. "A long time ago, a faster-than-light starship drive called the Circle's End was developed, and it worked by creating a naked singularity. It could pinch space in front of the craft, letting them cross vast distances in a heartbeat. There was just one small downside: when you used it too close to anything too massive, it caused horrible earthquakes."

Nolan registered his disinterest by ripping my throat out.

"And when I developed that four-dimensional sword that could actually hurt you, I was wondering what other weapons I could modify to use the same technology," I continued, undaunted. "The Circle's End is too dangerous to use near a planet, but hey, look at that: we're in space!"

Nolan realized I was going somewhere with this just barely too late, and I opened a portal to bring through the Terminal Sphere as he tried to fly away from me. Too late, Nolan, the drive is already priming.

Wait, how the fuck did Mark get through that portal?

The drive fired.

Shit.