"Okay, Anissa," I hailed, raising a hand in a casual wave. "See who I've got with me."
I had led us to the very center of this gigantic warship, floating in the endless emptiness of space, where stars twinkled like diamonds scattered against a backdrop of black velvet. It was anything but an ordinary ship. It was MY warship, radiating with technologies so cutting-edge that Apple products looked like playthings by comparison. There, in the lounge, lazed my two so-called "partners," a description that was woefully inadequate to convey the phenomenal connection we shared—my partners Nolan and Eve, stretched out as if this space was their own cocoon of loving comfort.
"See what I found," I told the duo, dropping Anissa's hand as if it was a burning hot potato. Her eyes went wide with amazement, darting back and forth like a cartoon character shocked into awareness. The living room was filled with all the over-the-top amenities one came to expect of a supervillain's decadent ship—plush velvet couches, a bar able to serve drinks from anywhere in the galaxy, and a holographic fireplace with no actual flames; after all, we were not barbarians.
Nolan, once the bright symbol of the Viltrumites, lay sprawled on the couch, looking like an Instagram model who had just discovered that someone had forgotten to airbrush over her curves. The glare she turned on me was a deadly mixture of venom and heat, with the ability to boil oceans. Of course, we had a past, but such was the nature of entanglements when you turned someone's world on its end. I met her glare with a smirk, well aware that beneath all its braggadocio, she couldn't resist indulging in the disturbance. It was like giving a child a cookie, only to inform them it was forbidden, all while enjoying their ravenous desire for it.
Eve, on the other hand, wrapped me in a hug as ill-fitting as a poorly tailored suit the second we stepped inside. The air sizzled with her yandere aura, so dense it seemed like it could be cut with a lightsaber. She clung to me, her eyes fixed on Anissa with the single-minded ferocity of a hawk stalking its kill. When I was close, she was warm and affectionate; however, the second I tried to create even a sliver of space, she turned into a churning black hole of anger, one that could consume a galaxy. Her love was a deadly trap; slip up once, and she'd lash out. But admitting that only made her more attractive because of it.
I laid a soft kiss against Eve's brow, trying to calm down my possessive victim who was struggling with a primeval desire to rend flesh with teeth. Closing her eyes, she buried her face into my palm, as if this was the deepest moment of intimacy she'd shared with another human. Anissa watched with a grin of surprise, as if she was watching their sixty-year-old grandmother giving a striptease. I couldn't suppress a soft snicker; this was going to become quite a show.
She drank it all in—Nolan's dramatic change and Eve's possessive grasp—and I felt as if I could almost hear the wheels turning in her brain. She was wrestling with a sense of stunned incredulity that I, archetypal alpha male, not only turned Nolan into a woman but also fueled inside of her this... this... this hunger for dominion. And let's not forget she was also on a path to becoming a mother, raising a child probably pre-programmed to achieve a PhD in world domination. A pink flush washed over her cheeks, unmistakable as my first game of paintball; I could all but feel cogs inside of her brain whirring as she forced herself to cope with this new reality about her own aspirations.
"Conquest, what in the world have you done to him?" Anissa finally demanded, her tone a mixture of outrage and incredulity.
"Her," I specified, a grin spreading across my face. "And she's still a badass, just with a better view now."
Her eyes darted between me and Nolan, a storm of emotion crossing her face. She moved towards Nolan, inspecting her old friend's new appearance with a chilling mixture of distaste and fascination. "You... you really approved of it?" she whispered, hardly able to get more than a whisper out of herself.
My eyes locked with Nolan's with a burning fire so intense in less stalwart hearts, it could've ignited a ship's sails into flames. She had already made her way to me."It's complicated," she whispered, hardly more than a breath against my lips. "Being with him, being his... it's like nothing I ever knew before." There was a hunger in those few spoken words that made my own heart beat faster, like the cry of an animal who'd discovered a more lush, more thrilling source of food.
Anissa drank it all in, narrowing her eyes as she put it together. She turned to me, and for an instant, I caught a glimpse in her eyes of something that made my heart pound—lust. Her eyes shifted to Nolan, a warrior reduced by what I'd done, and where she should've felt pity, she felt only an overwhelming desire. The raw, unbridled energy pounding through me was a virile elixir, and she tasted a sip of it. "You turned him into a woman and bedded him," she murmured, as much to herself as to me. It was a mixture of admiration and censure, like seeing a person try a backflip from atop a skyscraper. Yes, it was daredevil bold, but no one was going to deny the rush it created.
Nolan's eyes remained on me, shining like polished emeralds. She was like a cat discovering its voice, purring with satisfaction. "You enjoy it, don't you?" she whispered to Anissa, with a voice weaving enchantment. "The control, the mastery with which he can take you to the height of pleasure and then crash you to your knees?" I leaned in towards her, almost feeling the warmth emanating from her, an illusion of a kind.
Anissa's eyes darted unsteadily in either direction, trapped in a tumultuous clash between fear of what was real and the unshakeable pull of heartstrings. It was as if she was watching someone gorge on a dish she found offensive, but devour it with such relish that it ignited their taste buds. "I." she tried to say, but the words stuck in her throat as if whatever was there was too hard to swallow.
I restrained the indulgence of allowing her to jump to conclusions on her own. There was business to attend to—a clever matchmaker's task. "Why don't you two take a moment to become familiar with each other?" I suggested, sending a mischievous wink in Nolan's direction as she grinned at me with a smile as cold as a Great White sensing a tuna run. "I'm certain you'll find, ah, plenty of similarities between the two of you." Turning my attention to Eve, who was hanging on to me like a barnacle on a ship's hull.
Her eyes were fixed on mine, a desperate search for some sign of what was to come next. "I'll be back," I promised her, and she nodded, leaning back just far enough against me so I could pull her away from me a little bit. "But for now, be a good girl."I kissed her—not a light peck on the cheek, but a deep, intense kiss with tongues tangled and toes curling, sending the various components of a ship into a flurry of activity. A kiss vibrating with possibility—either signaling the start of a war or perhaps its end—depending on who was watching.
I smiled, turning away from the lounge as my HUD sprang to life like a match engulfed by flames consuming the darkened shadows. The Butcher's Voice was already working its magic, spinning honeyed half-truths into my brain, ready to lead me to my next prey. "Where's my boy, Dinosaurus?" I whispered, with a stab of excitement coursing through my bloodstream. The HUD unfolded out of me, laying out the expanse of space before me, stars dying and rebirthed with each iteration as I narrowed my search. There he was, an infinitesimal speck in the endless expanse, his fortress hidden on Planet Earth.
"Ah, the blue marble," I thought to myself as I appeared in his fortress, dropping with the grace of a cat falling from a ten-story jump. The air was thick with the bitter smell of fear and adrenaline—his signature scent, as distinctive as fingerprints on a glass door.
Dinosaurus paced back and forth in his laboratory, surrounded by a collection of gadgetry that appeared to have been stolen directly from a Star Wars set. He was so focused on his work that he didn't even notice me at first, his tail swinging back and forth behind him like a metronome marking time. Classic, I thought. Here was a being with an ego the size of a planet, and the attention span of a goldfish.
"Hello, Dino," I said, my voice echoing through the large room. "Do you miss me?"
Dinosaurus's head jerked upright, eyes bulging as if he'd just been discovered in some intimate reverie. He stumbled backward, overbalancing a table laden with beakers in a breathtaking splash of breaking glass. It was a textbook gaffe. "Conquest," he snarled, tail thrashing back and forth against the ground with a lashlike motion. "What are you after?"
"Only passing through," I added, moving in close. "I was wondering how my beloved mad scientist was doing."
The dinosaur looked at me as if I had just farted in his face—outraged but certainly intrigued. "What are you playing at?" he growled, his teeth glinting in a menacing way. This fellow looked like he had bling in his mouth than a space rapper.
"Oh, I'm just looking for a little... call it a 'partnership," I told him, shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly as I shifted my waistcloth unnecessarily. "You see, I'd like you to work for me,"
The dinosaur snorted, a sound strangely like human speech, in spite of his half-dinosaur appearance. "And why would I do that?"
"Because, dear Dino," I declared, my tone cutting through the air like a razor-sharp blade, "I know who you really are." I swept my arms apart, embracing the remains of his latest attempt to become the "hero of Earth." "You're not just some soft-centered ideologue plagued with a God complex. You're a cold-blooded, cunning bastard who'd kill millions to save billions, all so you can bask in adoration as being the galaxy's worst dickhead saviour."
Dinosaurus narrowed his eyes, scales glistening as if with an impending storm about to sweep over its surface. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
It was then when Invincible flew in, his blue suit was announcing himself. We locked eyes, and I was gazing into a blazing sun—no, I am not exaggerating—but not just some sun; this sun had decided to abandon its gaseous state and become a colossal ball of defiance instead. The individual exuded anger, and I couldn't blame him at all. I had stolen his girlfriend and made his father into a woman, after all. The archetypal evil thing to do, don't we think?
But as he lingered there, face a grim tableau of unbridled anger, I could see his doubt insinuate itself into his bearing. It was like seeing someone remember that particular moment when he tried to wrestle with his own shadow and was left defeated. With each attack, each charge, it was like he was brandishing a knife against a supernova's brilliance. I admit, he had struck a few times successfully, but all I felt was a fluttering of sensation—albeit I must not discount that single moment when he had almost choked me out. His anger swarmed about me like a fly buzzing past my ear—annoying yet ultimately without effect.
"What are you doing here, Conquest?" Invincible's voice boomed throughout the lab, his knuckles white with strain from clenching so hard. He floated suspended in mid-air, torn between dashing towards me with fists and having me sign an autograph book.
"Just your charming company," I commented, a grin spreading across my face, its edges as sharply etched as glass. "And perhaps a little chat with Daddy Dearest over there," I went on, nodding towards Dinosaurus, who gave me a glare, as if I'd soiled his dear laboratory coat.
Invincible was locked in a stance of rigid stillness, muscles tense and fists balled. The air was charged with a palpable testosterone, dense enough to cut with a lightsaber. But he knew better. He was aware of the reality of it all. Of fighting me in this instant moment was like pitching a rock into a stormy hurricane. There was a brief possibility of delivering a lucky blow, but more usually than not, all he was left with was a bruised arm and bruised ego. So, with his jaws clamped firmly together, he stepped back.
"Fine," he growled. "But if you hurt him, I'll..."
"You'll what?" I taunted, a smile spreading across my face. "You've never had the mettle to beat me, Invincible. Face it, you're not even in my league."
Invincible's jaw clenched, as if he could somehow call upon the energy he so intensely desired. But deep inside, both of us recognized it was only a temporary illusion. His talent dimly burned like a dying candle compared to my intense fire of ability. There he stayed, a picturesque figure of enraged frustration, and I reveled in it. The Butcher's Voice taunted me with tantalizing images of how much more delightful it would be to crush him again, to see him beseech me for mercy.
However, my plans were elsewhere.
Facing Dinosaurus whose lab was a cluttered mess of uncompleted experiments and a broken ego, I understood he possessed the vital details I needed to know about my next destination. With Invincible seething just under the surface, restrained but on the boil, I was well-positioned to pry what I was after.
"Hear me, Dino," I spoke, my voice dripping with honey oozing from a Venus flytrap's nectary gland. "We both know how fragile your dedication to the hero role really is. You possess world-destroying intellect, yet there you stand enjoying it all like you are at a children's birthday gathering." I took a step in, my HUD carefully monitoring his every move and every breath he made. "But think about what we can do if we united."
The air became cooler, crackling with foreboding prelude to a storm about to unleash its full force. Invincible planted himself firmly on the ground, fists clenched so hard he probably could crush diamonds; his eyes fixed on me, as if he could burn me with a single glance. But he didn't move. He knew, in this moment, he was no match for me. That's the definition of power—once it's in your possession, what others think of you no longer matters; it's all about what you're capable of doing. And his... his powers were pretty insignificant when compared to mine.
Dinosaurus pondered my proposition briefly. His large brain was in overdrive, like a high-speed supercomputer. He gazed at me, then into his laboratory, and back again at me. The Butcher's Voice inside me was silently whispering away in my brain. It was aware of how great a temptation was being dangled before him and how he couldn't possibly say no to it. And who was he to say no, after all? The prospect of being a cog in something far greater than a hero? The prospect of flaunting his large ego and demonstrating who was boss?
The dinosaur let out a deep sigh, like a balloon deflating. "Alright," he grumbled. "But I get to keep my pet projects."
"Oh, certainly," I replied with a great, toothy grin like a shark's. "Provided that they are consistent with our... shared objectives."
With a movement of my fingers, we were on my warship. There was a tremendous energy in its walls, and Invincible seemed tiny by its side. The mouth of Dinosaurus widened as it gazed upon wonderful sights, wagging its tail joyfully like a kid in a candy store. The Butcher's Voice inside my brain was extremely thrilled—this was going to be so much fun, it thought.
"Welcome to the major leagues," I remarked, gesturing towards the flashy hallways and exhibits of various planets whose defense was not so useful, such as a chocolate fireguard.
And so I grasped the hard reality that struck me with more force than a water-soaked fish at a dumper's party—I was bored. Invincible was a toy without batteries. Okay, we had been having great times—iconic battles that shook the universe and induced galaxies to weep—but this? Now it was simply me indulging with him, witnessing the frustration in his eyes like a kettle which refused to whistle. The battles had become monotonous routine, him stretching out on his back and begging me to show him mercy. To be frank, mercy was not my kind of thing.
I was also too powerful for this universe. Like a boy who'd grown too old for his toys, I gazed out upon the galaxies surrounding me and felt... nothing. The excitement of battle, the thrill of victory—boring. Of course, I still destroyed worlds as if breaking piñatas on a birthday party circuit, but where was the challenge? The thrill? The... enjoyment?
So, I did what any of us tough folk who enjoy drama would do—take a respite from reality. The Butcher's Voice in my brain was not pleased, naturally, but even the nastiest of AIs need a break here and there. I flailed my hand and whisked us away from the scene with my entire ship, leaving Invincible behind, I'm sure he would go cry in a corner as expected or do whatever the heroes do when they realize they can't triumph.
The Universe that my crew and I was in was now much like our own, but there was something... a je ne sais quoi to it that cried "alternate reality." The colors were more vibrant, the stars twinkled with an unnatural gleam, and the air carried this strange tingle to it that made your hair stand up on end—like a static shock that would never cease.
"What the fuck did you do?" Dinosaurus growled, a tone of amazement mixed with suspicion. He looked around, his eyes wide as saucers.
I couldn't blame him for shock. We'd been in his lab, then my ship, and then before we knew it, we were in a universe that looked like someone had a box of crayons and gone to town with the neon colors. "Ah, a little teleportation magic," I said, gesturing with my hand like a Vegas illusionist.