[Third Person P.O.V.]
The air over the quiet suburban lawn grew heavy, suffocating under the crushing pressure of three pure-blooded Viltrumites.
Thula stood on the porch, the shattered glass of her sanctuary crunching beneath her boots. For centuries, her first instinct in the face of a threat was to strike first and strike lethally. Her muscles coiled and jaw set. She opened her mouth, ready to scream a challenge and buy her mate time to run.
But the Viltrumite pride that had defined her entire existence felt suddenly hollow as she felt the frantic heartbeat of the child in her womb. The bloodthirsty warrior was overwritten by a terrifyingly powerful mother's instinct.
She was frozen in place, fighting a battle of indecision. She had seen, both throughout her life as a warrior and a mother, the deformities that befall on the offspring of unfortunate parents. Even if she fought, survived, and gave birth, what would she do if her child suffered irreparably? Fleeing seemed to be the only option where she could survive and avoid harming the child.
Her pride refused. Not to mention Brit would be left to fight on his own.
"Thula."
A calloused hand clamped onto her shoulder, yanking her back with surprising force. Brit stepped in front of her, his broad back shielding her from the floating executioners. He looked dead at her, his hands dropping to cup her swollen belly. He was a veteran of a hundred years of black ops; he didn't run on pride but on cold and hard logic.
"You won't fight today," Brit said, his gruff voice leaving zero room for argument. "You're a mother now. You sit this one out. Promise me, Thula. You promise me you will keep our baby safe, no matter what happens."
Thula's eyes widened, her hands resting over his. "Brit, they will tear you apart—"
"Let 'em try," Brit grunted, cracking his knuckles.
Above them, Anissa and Kradd shared an arrogant smirk. To their rigid Viltrumite minds, the human's gesture was an admission of weakness. Thula was submitting, hiding behind a fragile mortal. It was pathetic.
Kradd raised his fist, preparing to obliterate the porch and the human with it.
Suddenly, a deafening guitar riff shattered the sky.
The thrashing intro of a Metallica track roared from a high-altitude acoustic projection system, shaking the remaining windows on the street. Kradd barely had time to look up before two brilliant blue streaks dropped from the stratosphere at Mach 15.
Zack and Zoe, fully clad in their advanced Geldarian Tech Jacket armor, executed a coordinated strike. Zack slammed his shielded shoulder directly into Kradd's chest, while Zoe simultaneously deployed a gravity-tether around the Viltrumite's waist.
The force of the ambush blew Kradd out of the neighborhood airspace. They dragged the massive Viltrumite warrior backward at supersonic speeds, rocketing toward the unpopulated badlands outside the city limits.
Miles away, in the subterranean depths of the Pentagon, Cecil Stedman was grinding his teeth so hard he was practically chewing on his own jawbone.
"Keep the Hammer Satellite primed, but hold fire!" Cecil barked, pacing across the GDA command center. Holographic screens flickered with real-time feeds of the chaotic skirmishes breaking out. "I want the old guard, the new roster, and the Secret Guardians deployed for perimeter control immediately! No civilians die today. Period."
"Director," Leonard called out, looking nervous. "We have an incoming, high-priority transmission. It's... it's Chaos Corp. Chairman Neelesh Kumar."
Cecil's scarred face darkened. The holographic visage of Neel materialized in the center of the room, looking entirely too relaxed for a man watching an alien invasion.
"Looks like you've got a bit of an infestation, Cecil," Neel smiled, sipping from a ceramic mug. "Do you require Chaos Corp assistance? I have a few private assets that could clean this up rather quietly. Just say the word."
"Shove it, Neel," Cecil snapped, his good eye narrowing with absolute defiance. He was not about to let this corporate parasite take the credit for saving the world again. He needed to prove the Global Defense Agency was still the apex predator on this planet. "We handle our own messes. My team of earthborn heroes is more than equipped to put these fascists in the dirt."
Cecil aggressively tapped his earpiece, opening a direct comms line to the Tech Jacket siblings currently wrestling Kradd in a remote canyon.
"Zack, Zoe! Stop playing with your food and use the new toys!" Cecil ordered. "Do not let him gain altitude!"
Over the comms, Neel's voice chimed in, having casually bypassed the military-grade encryption. "Actually, I'll allow it. Let's consider this a live-fire test to see how far you two have come along." Neel paused, his tone shifting into a playful, terrifyingly effective motivator. "Tell you what, Zoe. You bring down that big, ugly Viltrumite flawlessly, and I'll personally arrange a weekend playdate for you and Ship."
Inside her glowing blue armor, Zoe's eyes went wide. The Galvanic Mechamorph "dog" Ship was the greatest technological marvel and cutest thing she'd ever seen.
"A PLAYDATE WITH SHIP?!" Zoe shrieked over the comms.
She went completely feral.
Down in the canyon, Kradd was recovering from the ambush. He roared, his Viltrumite strength flaring as he easily peeled Zack's armored hands off his throat, preparing to punch a hole straight through the boy's chest.
Zack didn't panic. He smirked behind his visor, knowing his sister was already in position. He was just the bait. Zoe reconfigured her suit. The blue nano-tech rapidly shifted, detaching massive, floating speaker arrays that encircled the Viltrumite in a perfect, inescapable 360-degree sphere.
"Eat this, space trash!" Zoe screamed.
She unleashed the recorded, synthesized sonic scream of a Death Dweller to painfully incapacitate Viltrumite inner ears.
The sonic wave hit Kradd like a physical wall. The Viltrumite's eyes rolled back in his head as blood instantly sprayed from his ears, and his equilibrium was violently shattered. He dropped to his knees, screaming in paralyzing agony, his hands clutching the sides of his head, entirely unable to fly or focus.
"Zack, now!" Zoe yelled over the ear-splitting noise.
Zack didn't hesitate. He engaged his thrusters to maximum, driving his knee into Kradd's chest to pin the paralyzed alien to the dirt. With a swift motion, Zack's arm cannon extended, shoving the cold metal barrel directly down Kradd's screaming, wide-open throat.
"Choke on it," Zack growled.
He pulled the trigger, flushing Kradd's esophagus, stomach, and lungs with a super-quick hardening chemical foam.
Kradd's eyes bulged. He clawed desperately at his own throat, but his equilibrium was so shattered that he couldn't generate the leverage to pull Zack off. The chemical agent instantly expanded and solidified, turning into a highly concrete-like substance inside his chest cavity. The mighty Viltrumite warrior thrashed, his indestructible body useless as he suffocated from the inside out. Within seconds, Kradd's violent spasms ceased. He died a pathetic, choking death in the dirt.
Hovering above the corpse, Zoe pumped her armored fists in the air. "YES! SHIP PLAYDATE! I'M GONNA BUY HIM SO MANY BOLTS!"
Back at the GDA, Cecil let out a tense breath, watching the feed of Kradd's demise.
"One down," Cecil muttered. He turned to his communications officer. "Where is Mark?"
"He's engaging the female, Anissa, over the ruined financial district. Sir, he's fighting her directly over a populated zone!"
Cecil had anticipated this. "Don't hold him back. Deploy Atom Eve to his exact coordinates. Tell her to stay out of the direct line of fire and focus entirely on collateral control. Keep the populace safe, keep the buildings standing. Let Mark do the heavy lifting."
Cecil turned away from the main console, pulling a burner phone from his trench coat. He punched in a highly classified number. It rang once.
"Hello?" Debbie Grayson's voice answered.
"Hey, Debbie," Cecil said, his voice dropping an octave. "I need that quick favor we talked about."
[A/N]:
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