Rage narrowed his world down, narrowed in his focus to his own body and the figure of his enemy. Anissa was a true companion, despite their short friendship. A loss he refused to accept. Flickers of memory, sparring matches, her tenacious drive to grow in power.
The aura of flame around him surged, an eruption of yellow that pulled his black hair upwards. Lightning flickered around him as the sky darkened with clouds. Thragg turned from Anissa’s bloody form, an eyebrow raised as he took in Goku’s unrestrained energy.
“Scream all you like, child,” Thragg flicked his wrist and sprayed flecks of Anissa’s lifesblood onto Goku’s face. “That power of yours is too weak, too slow… Maybe if you’d faced me with the traitors by your side…”
Gold light erupted, a vast ocean that dyed the clouds a burnished orange. A piece inside Goku snapped, broken free as Anissa’s blood dripped onto his lips. Still fused with his biofield, the ki under his skin surged along a different path, pushed by an instinct he couldn’t control.
The black in his hair faded, replaced by a luminous yellow. Electricity arced around him, coiled sparks of blue in a sea of gold. Every thought in his head was coloured, tinted with the half-mad rage in his heart. Thragg had to pay, a price that Goku would carve out with his fists.
“Your pressure has increased, I’ll give you that,” Thragg laughed, the hint of an ancient monster behind its mask. He cracked his neck, a comfortable twist before he raised his fists. “I can finally feel a killing edge… it seems you valued that traitor more than the others.”
“Just shut up…” Goku’s voice resonated within the atmosphere, an echoed overlap that shook the world. He vanished in a mad press of ki, his fist planted into Thragg’s face before the Viltrumite could react. “.... AND DIE!!!”
Thragg rocketed back, spun end over end until he smashed into the side of a mountain. Goku followed on his heels, another blow that flattened the landscape and turned the stone to atoms. Blood forced its way past the Viltrumite’s lips, a fine mist that joined Anissa’s on Goku’s face.
The Saiyan grabbed hold of Thragg’s left wrist and pulled him into a kick. Thunder cracked, broken sound and fractured bones. A twist, leveraged against the Viltrumite’s resistance, and Thragg’s arm popped at the elbow.
“YOU INSOLENT BRAT!” Teeth clenched, Thragg ignored his wounds, left arm useless at his side. His speed redoubled, so fast the air exploded around him. Nuclear fire enveloped the sky, a wake of devastation that followed the Viltrumite’s path.
Goku roared in response, fist raised against fist as boundless power raced from his head to his toes. Thragg was no longer an unbeatable force,in time for vengeance, too late for Anissa. Boundless energy, the rage of his loss, they were more than enough to finish this.
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“It looks like I’m a bit late…” May appeared in an unnoticed flash, just outside the atmosphere. Her eyes flicked over the ravaged world, past the embattled Super Saiyan and onto three familiar figures. “Let’s hope there’s still time…”
A flicker of magic and she was beside the fallen. Her fingers blurred, a web of spells that enveloped Thaedus and Allen in restorative cocoons. The easy work finished, she turned to the lifeless Anissa.
“This girl is always getting herself into trouble,” May’s eyes filled with countless runes, overlaid until her pupils were lost to the glow of her magic. A great formation took shape around her, large enough to follow the curve of the planet under her feet. “She better not attack me again when she wakes up.”
Hand extended, May pulled her staff from the void and slammed it against the ground. An inverted ripple of light coiled around the fallen woman, but it was not enough. A frown pulled at May’s lips as she raised her staff and struck the ground once more.
A third, a forth, ripple after ripple, forged by the hammer of magic and driven into Anissa’s body. Silver threads reached from the edges of her wounds, microscopic filaments that knit in the shape of muscle and bone.
“Now, come back!” May’s body vibrated, pushed close to her limits as she spun her staff over her head. A final sequence of runes carved into the sky as she leaned down to tap it against Anissa’s chest. “GRAND RESURRECTION!”
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“Who are you, trespassers?” Namor looked down his nose at Dan, with barely a glance for Kara. “The city of Atlantis is forbidden to outsiders, even those with the skills to find it.”
“Get to it then,” Dan ignored the Atlantean King and wrapped a thin layer of his biofield around Kara’s body, enough that she would survive the lesson she was about to receive. “You wanted a challenge and this guy is an example of the beginnings of power in the universe.”
“You dare…”
Namor’s words were silenced by Kara’s tightly wound fist, a blow that launched the Atlantean back into the ocean. Face lit by a massive grin, she charged after the suckerpunched mutant with fire in her eyes.
“Let’s hope this is a lesson, and not a reinforcement of behaviour…” Dan sighed as he trailed after the rambunctious teen. “If she doesn’t learn she’s not always the biggest fish, she might run into serious trouble when I’m away.”
Dan planned on leaving Cal and Kara to tend the Fortress when he was sunbathing. They could manage the Order of Krypton’s activities on Earth and build the network needed for his future plans. Once there were enough heroes in the world, he would create a Justice League to match his Superman.
“It looks like he’s had about enough,” Dan squinted as Kara pummelled Namor’s head and chest, lightning blows that drove the Atlantean ever deeper into the water. The vein’s twitched on the muscled King’s brow, his eyes still focused on Dan. “Let’s hope she’s ready…”
“Get your child under control!” Water surged, an explosive wall that tumbled Kara end over end. Namor vanished, only to appear above the dazed teen. “She needs to learn her place when in the presence of her betters!”
Kara’s eyes widened, under the pressure of death as Namor’s fist closed with her skull. He was too fast for the young Kryptonian, a blur that carried enough force to shift the world. The fire in her eyes brightened, face set against the inevitable blow.
“When I meet someone better than her, I’ll be sure to remind her,” Dan’s hand reached out, an immovable vice that locked the Atlantean’s arm in place. Kara released the breath that had frozen in her lungs as Dan held Namor’s fist less than an inch from her nose. “I will say that I’m impressed, but also a bit annoyed, that you’re so strong.”
Dan gave a final squeeze before he tossed the Atlantean over a hundred metres through the ocean with a flick of his hand. Namor’s attack had edged into planetary levels and he wasn’t even trying. If the rest of this universe was scaled to the comics as well, he would need to reevaluate his plans.
“You people have chosen the wrong kingdom to attack,” Namor rolled his wrist back and forth as his healing factor regenerated the powdered bones. “I don’t think I’ve ever encountered someone as strong as you, but that doesn’t mean you can walk all over me in my own backyard.”
The water around below them shifted and heaved, unnatural waves that reached higher and higher. Namor’s face darkened, a mirror image of the stormfront that rolled in to cover the skies. Lightning coiled through the clouds, thunderless bands of electric serpents that cast a blue tinge over the world.
“I’ll show you trespassers why I’m the crowned King of Atlantis!”