Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 469 DONT DEAD OPEN INSIDE

I flew through the vastness of open space. My target of the moon far ahead of me, I looked back to see the Earth was still rather large. I wasn’t exactly sure how far away the moon was from the Earth, but I knew it was pretty far. Pushing my flight more, I sped up. No scenery moving faster around me, I wondered how I knew I was going faster. 

I had received the Viltrumite form at 1% and jumped to the Hero smut World. After fighting someone that could fly I was left falling in the sky and had to figure out where my flight came from. Luckily I had, a part of my subconscious mind understanding what had to be called upon for the flight. Now I wondered what it could be. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

In some fiction people could fly by controlling the wind, other times they used internal energy to push them away from the ground. What the hell was I doing? 

Closing my eyes, I used my mind’s eye to search my body. Back when I used the Ability Fusion item I had seen Flight was a separate ability. So there had to be something special about my body. Listening to the Haki around me, I thought I felt something surrounding my body, but it was too faint to track down. 

Continuing on the search for a few hours, I eventually gave up, attributing it to comic book magic. Until I got stronger, I wouldn’t be able to find what caused it, so for now I was glad it was there. Propelling me forward, I thought on my most recent accomplishments. 

Marvel had been a crap show most recently. One adventure after another I dealt with anything from school bullies to being kidnapped by aliens. Unsure where the System was taking me in that world, I thought on the others. 

I really needed to go back to Invincible. Though I wasn’t great at flying a spaceship, I was at least strong enough to fight my way off the planet. More confident in my Viltrumite body, I needed to come up with a better backstory for myself, and get back to Earth. From what I remembered of the comic they went through one disaster after another. The Earth always a hair’s breath from being destroyed, I could at least help now. Challenging the foes there would help push me more, so I could potentially become strong enough for worlds like Marvel and DC. 

Back in DC, fighting against Zod with Superman had been a sobering moment. They could have probably sliced me in half with a wave of their hands. But they held back. Superman was one of the strongest, if not the strongest in the canon. Though the villains weren’t near as strong as him there were a lot of threats that could still pop-up. 

The Superman in my world had felt like a boy scout, but he could easily become morally ambiguous if pushed. I seemed to remember an instance in a canon where he turned bad when Lois Lane was killed. I might need to watch for that, but my true focus was honestly on Powergirl and Willow Wayne. My position with them still in question, I felt digging into that world would be worth it. I was fairly certain I had Wonder Woman’s lasso too, I should really get back there to give it back to her. For all I knew, she might be appreciative. 

A smile on my lips, I decided I might want to take a break from Marvel for a while. The fights were getting harder, and rewards were getting better, but it felt like a slower burn to other worlds. I had to walk a tightrope over the next four years to maximize my gains. 

With that thought, I remembered I needed to help the other Weston. A part of me was honestly tempted to kill him. He was still weak in this world, at least compared to me. I was fairly certain if he died I would get his powers, but there was no guarantee of that. 

I felt bad for having the thought, but he and I were the same, he would most likely be tempted to kill me as well. There was no guarantee we would get each other’s memories, and whoever survived would for sure be the Weston that continued on. It was a very weird situation to be in, that was for sure. 

Not seeing any real gains by killing him though, I decided to keep things as they were. After I helped him, we could continue on our paths in different Halls. Maybe there would need to be a fight for dominance, but I didn’t see how that could happen. For now we had the same goal, and that was good enough for me. 

More random thoughts moving through my mind, I worked on my plan of action as the moon grew ever closer. Unsure how long I spent naked flying into space, I eventually felt the moon’s pull of gravity. Very slight compared to Earth, I dropped down to about a hundred feet above the surface. My Haki spanning miles in every direction I began to memorize the subtle differences of moon rocks compared to Earth’s. 

Everything barren under me, I considered looking for some Apollo missions landing points. Curious if maybe they really had been hoaxes I had a smile on my lips as I flew around the place in a straight line. Trying to get to the dark side, I turned in the air to face the Earth. 

The sun, a far distant star, I couldn’t help but get tears in my eyes as I looked to the Earth. Half of it shrouded in darkness, the other half was experiencing daytime. No zombies to worry about, no drama, no nothing. This was one of those experiences that would also stay forever in my mind. Though the whole universe was open to me now, this was the sight that every kid on Earth dreamed of seeing. It may be a small step for me, but it felt huge. A fact I needed to learn to enjoy. 

My own joy soaring at the sight, I remembered all the good times on Earth. My original life and family. My parents, wife, kids, friends, everyone. It was crazy to think that all those things could happen on such a small orb in such a small corner of the universe. Though I could travel to new ones, I needed these reminders. I had to always keep the reason I was fighting forefront in my mind. As I made lives and affected them, I had to appreciate them.

With that I was reminded of my kids in One Piece world. My twins Lupin and Lily were still babes in that world. Unable to protect themselves I didn’t want to disappear in my Challenges. If that happened, and the Straw Hats didn’t take down the government, they would eventually decide my kids needed to die like what had happened to Ace-er-Ash anyway. 

I frowned, the thought of my kids gave me a sudden urge to have more. I had been so worried about leaving bastards in these worlds, I forgot to appreciate that it was better to have them. Kids were the best reminders of what you were working for. I remembered my own kids in my original life helping me push through a mindless job. Seeing their smiles each night, knowing they were safe, and provided for. Maybe that was what I needed to keep me going. 

Shaking my head, I let a few frozen tears fall as I felt the strange Haki. Frowning, I turned to face the direction. Not seeing anything, I headed straight for it. Though it didn’t feel like the meteorites on Earth, it was a stark contrast to everything else on the moon. Getting closer and closer I realized I was feeling metal. The Haki distinct, the hard metal was still unseen. I thought maybe it was some lunar cruiser left there. As I came to about 100 feet away from the strange Haki a laser was fired at me. 

My flight working automatically, I dropped down, narrowly missed by the high powered red beam. Another one fired at me. I pushed forward as I dodged laser after laser. Confused and surprised I flew straight on, to come into a hologram. 

My body moved through the hologram like it wasn’t there. Hidden behind it was a small spaceship. My eyes wide there were six guns aimed right at me as I came through. A red light turned on the ship as a voice blared from speakers inside the ship. 

“What the fuck?!” I said voicelessly as I dodged all six lasers. Shooting forward, I moved to the cold metal of the ship to where the guns couldn’t see me. My mind racing, I didn’t want to put the words together, but they did anyway, “Fucking aliens?!” 

No words escaping in the vacuum of space my mind reeled at the implications. Looking up, I saw the Earth overtop me, slowly putting it together. The meteorite locations didn’t move East to West because of the sun, but because of the moon. Though the moon moved around the Earth West to East, because the Earth spun on it’s axis East to West, they dropped the meteorites on Earth as it spun over a day’s time. 

“Mother fuckers,” I mouthed. Having just come from a different alien problem child, I was thrust upon yet another. A surprise one as well, since aliens had never been a problem for the Walking Dead canon. “Damn aliens,” I said and turned around. My hands on the ship, it resembled a moon lander. 

About three stories tall it was conical with a wide base at the bottom. Large legs sticking out from the bottom, it was about six feet off the ground. Dropping down, a gun was pointed right at me, but I blasted it with a Haki-heavy Hoken. The black lightning destroyed the hi-tech gun, leaving no trace as alarms continued on inside the ship. As I looked around for a way inside, a notification appeared. 

“Shit,” I said as the engines around me came to life. My Observation Haki searching all around me, I found a small window at the lower deck. Flying to it I crashed through into the ship. 

Red lights all around me, before the atmosphere could be sucked out, a gate slid down the window, closing it off from space. 

“Intruder alert! Please activate precautions.” A voice said in the intercom. Frowning, I moved into the ship as I found living bodies near the top. Their Haki distinct as living breathing beings, I moved to a door beside me. It didn’t move as I approached and didn’t appear to have a knob to open it. A circular glowing area by the door I guessed it was for some keycard or something. Instead of trying it I just punched the door with all my strength. It dented in and with another blow it blew out of the frame. 

Some kind of hallway on the other side I began running as the ship lifted off the ground. The force pulling me down slightly, I began making my way to what I hoped was the bridge. Climbing ladders, breaking down doors, I was a room away from the living bodies as one of them pointed a gun at me. He was a human, which made me pause for a second, but as the red beam made it’s way to me I dodged down and shot at him pushing him into the wall. 

Knocked out, I began punching at the door for the bridge. Voices yelling on the other side, it took eight good punches to get through this door. When I was, three more humans were revealed. Each one was in their underwear. Two women and one man, they stared at me wide-eyed from the controls of the ship as we broke out of the moon’s atmosphere. 

“Where we goin?” I asked, a smile on my lips as their Haki radiated dread. 

—

I punched down. The air in front of my fist cracking, massive tremors broke out on the Earth below. The ground caving in, rifts in the rock formed, making all the men falter. More gunshots going off, I moved to the other grouping as my people moved in on those I knocked over. A massive army below me I wasn’t sure how they had gathered so many, but they would learn it was useless. 

I had been in Myrtle Beach for over six weeks by that point. My territory currently taking up a good portion of the Carolinas, which ended up pissing off the large group from Charlotte, NC. Unwilling to give up access to the coast, nor come under my flag, I challenged them to a fight. Which was commencing below me.

No guerilla warfare, a simple backyard brawl, they had decided to bring guns to the fight. We had of course as well, but I wanted to limit the damage on both sides. Using my Tremor Devil Fruit power to knock people down, Easton had also been nice enough to lend me Matatabi when my clones stopped hanging out with him. 

The big blue cat currently spit blue fire at the men, forcing them to stay behind their vehicles. My clones running through the area shrouded in dark chakra, they disarmed everyone they could. 

A bullet passing by me. I dropped down and shot and cast a jutsu. Releasing a massive water tornado in the general direction of the gunfire, people were thrown off their vehicles and horses. Punching the air again and again it took a good half hour for my people to gather everyone up and the fighting to stop. 

I landed in the middle of the battlefield. Rick Grimes held the leader of the other army, his gun at the man’s head as he kneeled in front of me. 

“Had enough?” I asked confidently. 

“H-How?!” He yelled. “Were you really bitten by a-”

“No,” I said with a tired sigh. I was getting sick of people asking me if zombies gave me superpowers. I wasn’t sure what idiot started that rumor, but they needed their ass kicked. “Do you yield?”

“I-I-I,” he looked up from me as he spoke. Confused, I turned to face the way he was. High up in the air was a red fireball that plummeted to the Earth. Frowning at it, I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it. 

“Watch him,” I said as I jumped back onto my puddle of water. Before I could fly off Tabi jumped up to me, landing on my shoulder. My hand moved to her head, patting it as if it had a thousand times. “You’re interested too, eh?” 

“It’s Weston,” she whispered as I raised up. She looked up at the fireball as she spoke. I followed her gaze, spreading my Haki out. As it did, I felt his/my familiar Haki inside the fireball. To my surprise, as it dropped below the clouds it began to slow down. The fire extinguishing slowly, a conical black ship was revealed. 

Floating in the direction it was landing, I went as fast as I could. Landing more toward the coast, the ship came to rest on a large green hill. As I dropped down to the hill, a hatch on the bottom opened. Four humans and one Easton walking down a ladder from it, he gave me a weird look as he noticed me.

“Did we actually land near Myrtle Beach?” He asked. 

“Kind of, it’s about 100 miles that way,” I said, pointing Southeast. 

“Fuck, I still suck at flying,” he said. “Well, Weston, say hello to the alien bastards behind the mask.”

“Aliens?” I asked, not believing him. Looking up, I wasn’t sure if maybe I was dreaming somehow, but he really had come from space. “Well, fuck man, fill me in.” I walked over to him as he began to speak. The other humans with him radiating terror as he did.