The planet was chaos... Cities and it's people in ruin...
High above the battlefield of Arakko, Derrick suddenly stopped fighting.
Storm noticed it first.
The anomaly that had been tearing through their warriors simply… vanished.
No teleportation signature just pure speed.
For several seconds the battlefield remained frozen.
Then Storm slowly descended from the sky, lightning still crackling across her body.
"Where is he?"
Across the battlefield the Omega mutants searched the horizon.
Lactuca the Knower closed her glowing eyes and reached into space itself.
Moments later her expression changed.
"…He left Mars."
A collective exhale passed through the surviving warriors.
But it wasn't relief.
It was dread.
Because their instincts were screaming something was terribly wrong.
Derrick was already far beyond Mars.
He had exited the planet's gravitational field at super-sublight velocity, accelerating faster than most sensors could track.
Then he aimed for the nearest massive gravitational anchor.
The Sun.
Within minutes he reached the orbit of the star.
The heat didn't matter.
His biomass regenerated faster than the radiation could destroy it.
Now Derrick began circling the Sun.
Again.
And again.
And again.
Each orbit increased his velocity.
Gravity assisted the acceleration.
Momentum stacked.
Every rotation pushed him closer to relativistic speeds.
His body adapted as he moved.
Viltrumite biology strengthened under the stress.
The tiny fraction of Thor's divine DNA helped resist the stellar radiation.
Derrick's internal calculations ran continuously
.
Objective: Destroy Arakko completely.
Secondary Objective: Consume surviving Omega mutants.
He spoke to himself quietly.
"Planetary durability varies…"
He remembered Viltrumite history.
How worlds had been shattered through sheer kinetic force.
Mars was smaller than Earth.
Its gravity was weaker.
Its core was less stable.
Which meant the required energy threshold was far lower and he was much stronger than all viltrumites combined at this point.
Derrick increased his orbital speed again.
His body began glowing white-hot from friction with solar particles.
Now he was moving unbelievably fast.
Not quite light speed But close enough that impact calculations were becoming
catastrophic.
He turned toward Mars.
And dove.
Back on Arakko the silence was oppressive.
Storm's winds slowly faded.
But no one felt relief.
Every warrior present had lived through centuries of war.
And all of them felt the same thing.
Something worse was coming.
Storm looked to Lactuca.
"Find him."
Lactuca searched again.
Her connection to space rippled outward across the solar system.
Then her eyes snapped open.
Fear flashed across her face.
"…He's accelerating."
Storm's voice hardened.
"Where?"
Lactuca whispered.
"Around the Sun."
Even the hardened Arakko warriors went silent.
Because they understood immediately.
Sobunar muttered in disbelief.
"He means to strike the planet with great force."
Storm's eyes widened.
"Evacuate."
Storm rose into the sky again.
Her voice echoed across Arakko's cities.
"All survivors move immediately!"
The Omega mutants mobilized instantly.
Lactuca the Knower began opening spatial gates.
Isca the Unbeaten moved through the battlefield gathering the wounded.
Sobunar unleashed dimensional oceans to carry thousands toward the portals.
Storm contacted Earth through psychic relays.
Krakoa had to prepare for emergency arrival.
Across Mars the Arakko population rushed toward the gates.
But even as they moved…
Something began appearing in the sky.
A faint glowing streak.
Storm looked up.
Her expression went pale.
"No…"
From orbit a blazing object was falling toward Mars.
At first it looked like a meteor.
Then a comet.
Then a miniature sun.
It was moving so fast the atmosphere ignited around it.
The sky itself caught fire.
Across the entire planet people could see it.
A burning spear of white plasma descending from space.
Inside that plasma inferno…
Derrick accelerated even further.
He compressed gravity around his body to stabilize the impact vector.
Momentum stacked beyond comprehension.
Energy equivalent calculations flashed through his mind.
Planetary crust.
Mantle density.
Core pressure.
All variables accounted for.
He aimed directly for the center of Mars.
And did not slow down.
Storm screamed across the battlefield.
"MOVE!"
Lactuca expanded the portals desperately.
Thousands of mutants rushed through the gateways to Krakoa.
But there were millions on Mars.
Not enough time.
The burning star in the sky was already seconds away.
Sobunar roared as he tried to shield thousands within a wall of oceanic pressure.
Storm summoned the greatest storm she had ever commanded.
Lightning storms the size of continents attempted to intercept the falling object.
But nothing could stop the velocity Derrick had reached.
The flaming mass hit the planet.
BOOOOM...
The impact point erupted instantly.
Derrick struck the Martian crust with apocalyptic force.
The ground vaporized.
Mountains disintegrated.
Shockwaves traveled across the planet at supersonic speed.
But Derrick didn't stop there.
He pierced straight through the crust.
Then the mantle.
Then the planetary core.
His kinetic energy ripped the interior apart.
Gravity destabilized.
The core collapsed violently.
For a fraction of a second…
Mars held together.
Then the entire planet broke.
The explosion was visible across the solar system.
Mars shattered.
Gigantic fragments blasted into space.
Oceans of magma erupted outward.
Cities were vaporized instantly.
The shockwave obliterated most of the Arakko population before they could reach safety.
Only a handful escaped through Lactuca's portals.
Storm managed to push several final survivors through the gateway to Krakoa seconds before the planet disintegrated.
Then the portals collapsed.
Where Mars once existed…
Only a spreading asteroid field remained.
Floating within the debris….
Derrick slowly emerged from the molten fragments of the destroyed world.
His body Undamaged from the immense stress of the impact.
He looked around calmly at the shattered remains of the planet.
Scanning for survivors.
Because the few Omega mutants who lived through that catastrophe…
Were now floating helplessly in the void of space.
And Derrick intended to consume them all.