A/N Hey guys. I just finished my My Hero fanfic called Death which I've been working on for the past 4 years. It's 4 and a half million words long and if you like this story then I suggest you go check that one out too. I've taken the My Hero characters from that AU that I built around them thanks to my OC's existence in their story, so the characters from My Hero in Nexus will have a bit of elements from Death in them. Not really something that matters in this chapter, but just to let you know for future (and past) reference. Anyway, I'm planning on moving on to some non-fanfiction work on a novel while I apply for grad schools... but Nexus is still on my mind and I have a ton of chapters already finished or at least in the works that I plan on updating real fast now. Look forward to some rapid updates these next few days/weeks! XD Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the sources that I got characters and settings from, or any other proper noun really. Support the initial releases!
Nexus HWR 20.1 Zodd Part 1- Bad News:
In the far east of Aebrith, a few thousand miles off the eastern seaboard, and only one hundred miles south of the Cataclysm line, the Kryptonian city of Zodd stood. The city was self-sufficient, so the Kryptonians did not see a need to expand into the surrounding lands. They lived secluded, like the Saiyans, though without the fifty mile radius protective range that Bardock had declared. Zodd stood alone, a city of five hundred and twenty square miles, with some fields for animal roaming and bioengineered crops that grew fast and were plentiful enough to feed the entire Kryptonian population. Even in the dead of winter, crops grew the same as they did the rest of the year thanks to the fact that the Kryptonians had control of the weather inside their golden dome.
The Kryptonian city was surrounded by a dome of yellow light, and there was only one hole in that dome that reached three miles high at its tallest. The hole was an entrance on the southern side, with a large metal gateway that absorbed the yellow light when it flooded down from the dome's center. The bottom of the gateway had panels connected to tubes that went beneath Zodd all the way to the center of the city, where the renewable yellow energy that was absorbed would be shot back into the sky above the control tower once a day to replenish the dome. The only ones supposed to be able to make it through the dome of light were the Kryptonians of Zodd who were not harmed by the effects of a yellow sun. The barrier itself was not as hot as a yellow sun, nor as effective, but its close vicinity and the fact that it blocked out the red sunlight of Nexus meant that the Kryptonians were stronger inside their own city than anywhere else on Nexus.
Although supposedly only the Kryptonians could fly through their own barrier, they were much less secluded from the rest of the world as their Saiyan counterparts were. They had an entrance in the yellow barrier solely for those who were not Kryptonians to enter through. The land around Zodd did not all belong to one country, as Zod would not have it for his city to be surrounded by a single enemy. He took part in the border disputes between the country to his south, ruled by the Black Witch, and the Ren Empire to his north, in order to ensure that Zodd was bordering them both. The perimeter directly outside of Zodd was also a neutral zone, making it so that the Ren envoys and merchants could go around and enter through the single southern entrance.
Someone once mentioned to Zod that if he had put the entrance on the eastern or western side of his city, right on the border, they could have avoided the neutral zone altogether. Someone also used to have a head on their shoulders. Most of the tallest buildings in Zodd were situated in the central and southern section of the city, and Zod did not care for people other than his own going to the residential areas around the outskirts of the city in the north, west, and east. People who were visiting Zodd were there to trade technology created by other countries around the continent. Although the Ren family and the Black Witch were Zodd's primary trading partners, the Ren's allies could also travel through the Ren Empire to reach Zodd and trade with them as well, so Zodd had trading partners all over Aebrith. And despite the Resistance not bordering nor having allies in either of the countries touching Zodd, once Resistance members or representatives of the countries involved with them got inside Zodd, Kryptonians were not against trading with them if their business ventures were good.
The Resistance liked trading with Zodd very much, because it was one of the few places in all of Aebrith they could go to get the technology, supplies, spices, and other goods that only other areas around Aebrith provided. Resistance members and the countries they protected could not freely trade with any of their enemies, which currently consisted of every High Lord in the Cooperative. Zodd was not a part of the Cooperative though, and the city of Kryptonians was a trading hub of the world. Then again, Zod himself was not fond of humans, nor of most races other than his own. He did not want his city oversaturated with non-Kryptonians, so there were rules banning non-Kryptonians from living in Zodd, as well as rules regulating those who entered the city every day to trade or do other business.
It was because of these rules, that despite arriving on Aebrith over two weeks before, Ichigo Kurosaki was only just granted a pass to visit Zodd. He stood outside of the southern entrance on a line with many others, inside the two-mile wide neutral zone that made him think there would not be any fighting around here. He already had to fight once that morning on their way through the Black Witch's territory in order to reach Zodd, and he noticed that ever since he revealed his shinigami powers, the three Resistance traders who came with him were sticking closer to his sides. They did not think they were bad fighters themselves, but in front of them were four wagons with wealthy traders from the Ren Empire on and around them, and with dozens of powerful-looking guards protecting their sides. Behind their group of four were a few other traders with carts that looked to have less on them than the Ren's large wagons, but they were also being protected on their sides by two figures in black cloaks who Ichigo could swear were staring straight at him.
Someone in the Ren's group who had gone ahead with their group's identification and special pass forms came back to his large group. He told the wagon drivers to move forward, and as the whole group started moving, Ichigo frowned in a little confusion. "You said those guys were from the Ren Empire, right?" He asked, as he and the three on his sides started walking forward slowly after the final wagon. Each person going into the city with that group were pulling out their individual passes that had their faces on them, showing Ichigo there were multiple levels of security required for entering the city. He could hear the guards at the gate that was getting closer to them every second telling each person who entered the city that they had to be back here by nightfall.
S Nando looked left and up at Ichigo and nodded. The short chubby trader had short black hair, wore a golden necklace, large golden earrings, fancy dress in general, and he had a black eyepatch over his left eye. A slightly taller, thin, blond man stood on S Nando's side, his younger brother M Nando. On Ichigo's left side stood the largest and youngest of the Nando brothers, the only one taller than the teen himself, a four hundred pound man who looked bald until one noticed the small blond ponytail sticking out the back of his shiny head, L Nando. The oldest of the brothers who nodded at Ichigo spoke in a whisper, "Yeah, but pay attention. We trade here for Leam all the time, but they're going to grill you since it's your first-"
Ichigo interrupted S Nando, "I heard while I was waiting in Leam for my pass to come through, that the Ren Empire had the most slaves of anywhere on Aebrith." He said it in a low, unhappy voice, and the men who had seen what he could do on their way through the Black Witch's lands shivered at the look in his eyes. At the moment he looked like a harmless, spiky-orange-haired human teenager, but they knew better. Ichigo continued darkly, "Not that I'm disappointed not to see them, I just don't know why that is. Traders like those should be using slave labor from what I heard."
"We do not allow slavery in this city," a loud voice responded from in front of Ichigo. He looked forward, and twenty feet in front of him was a young woman who was too far to hear what he just said. Ichigo realized it a second later why the woman with short blond hair only two inches long could hear him, She's a Kryptonian. The woman had on a black helmet and a black uniform with padding over the chest, shoulders, and knees. She had a baton pinned at her side with twin metal points sticking out the end of it that appeared able to be electrified. On the opposite side of her waist as the baton was a gun, but Ichigo doubted she needed any weapons to deal with most people who tried to start anything in the neutral zone. If anything, using weapons against them is probably a mercy. Is that why?
The woman started walking towards Ichigo while the others at the guard post finished dealing with the Ren traders. She continued to the boy she responded to, "Slavery is a barbaric practice, and as such is not allowed inside Kryptonian lands." Ichigo nodded slowly at the woman, feeling a little peeved as she had eavesdropped on what he was talking to his companions with. "Sorry," she said, "part of my job. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who talk about illegal dealings or how they're going to lie at the gate when they're out here. It's like they don't understand what 'super hearing' means."
He shook his head and said, "It's fine." Not what I was expecting. I was told the Kryptonians are nothing like the ones I know, but she doesn't seem bad at all.
"Zia, bring them over here," another guard called out after the Ren group had marched through the gate.
"Got it," she said and started walking the traders forward. "First time here, huh?" Zia asked the teenager at her side who nodded as he stared up at the golden dome, feeling the heat coming off of it even though he was heading towards the big opening inside the gate. It got hotter as he got closer, making him and the traders sweat by the time they got into the gate where the other guards walked forward and started inspecting them.
"Any weapons on you?" The head guard asked S Nando.
"Only to sell," the oldest trader said. He took the bag off of his back and pulled out a small box that he opened up for the guard to see. Inside were dozens of capsules, and S Nando said, "Check one."
One of the other guards was checking the passes M Nando handed off, then he turned towards Ichigo and handed three of the passes back to the tall trader in front of him. He walked towards the teen who stared with half-open eyes at the Kryptonian in a bored way. He was already tired of waiting in line, and going through this security check was even more annoying considering he was just here to give a message. "What?" Ichigo asked as the man was looking at him expectantly.
The man frowned at the blunt teenager. Normally when people got into the gate, they were sweating badly from the outer dome but also from their own nerves. The boy in front of him did not look unnerved by his harsh glare though, which made the guard suspicious. "What is your business in the city? You don't look like much of a trader," he said.
"He's, got a special pass from," S Nando stopped talking as the suspicious Kryptonian shot him a glare.
"Why is your heart racing so fast?" The Kryptonian asked the guy who leaned back and waved his hands while saying there was no reason for his anxiety. "And why isn't yours?" He asked while turning back to Ichigo and frowning at the boy. "Your pass doesn't say anything about you being strong." The Kryptonian punched forward and Ichigo pulled his head back, but the fist would have stopped in front of his face anyway. The teen started to sweat a little at that action, and he looked over to the nicer guard lady to see if she had anything to say. Zia was just watching with her mouth closed though, and Ichigo could see she looked a bit suspicious of him too.
Probably a good thing I put Kon in one of those capsules. These guys are so suspicious of me they probably would have ripped him apart thinking I had a Kryptonite knife or something hidden inside. Ichigo made eye contact with the man in front of him and said, "I'm not strong. I'm sure you could put me in the ground with a flick of your finger. Now can I go in? I'm just visiting a friend."
"That's all?" The man asked him.
"That's all," Ichigo assured with a nod.
"Hmm," the guard hummed but leaned back away from the kid. He's not lying, the man thought while listening to his heartbeat, before relaxing his expression and holding out the teen's pass. "My mistake," he said, and Ichigo looked surprised as he grabbed his special day pass back from the guard. "Go on in. Just be back here before nightfall." It was still early in the day, so Ichigo nodded at him without seeing any issue in that. He figured he would find Supergirl before the day was done. It was a Saturday too, so he hoped that if the woman had a job in the city, she would be off from work today and he would be able to find her at her place.
"Thanks," Ichigo said and started walking in. He glanced over at the Zia girl who smiled at him, and he nodded at her too before turning straight ahead. The traders behind him finished up with what they were doing and followed Ichigo into the city.
They made it fifty yards from the gate before S Nando turned to Ichigo on the sidewalk and said, "We're going to head downtown and sell all this stuff." Ichigo gave him a look, and the trader who knew the guards were still within earshot just handed Ichigo the capsule that had Kon in it without saying anything. "Alright, meet us back at the gate at sunset, got it?" The head trader asked. He tried to sound in charge, but he was relying on Ichigo after seeing what the teen could do back when they were crossing the Deadlands.
"Yeah yeah, I'll see you there," Ichigo said, then he shoved his hands in his pockets and started walking off. He looked around and then walked up to a young woman on the corner of the sidewalk at the intersection who was wearing the same guard uniform as the people at the gate. "Excuse me," Ichigo said as he reached her. She turned to him and looked him up and down, then she frowned and glared into the spiky-haired teenager's eyes.
"What do you want, human?" The woman asked in a snappy voice.
"Never mind," Ichigo said, turning to go look for a guard who was a little less hateful towards humans. The woman did not even call after him to show annoyance at his attitude, and he figured she did not want to talk to humans any longer than she had to. How are the Kryptonians here… nah, that's not it. Just like humans, there are good ones and bad ones. Same with Kryptonians, and same with the Saiyans. Ichigo spotted a man in a guard uniform up ahead of him. Sure are a lot of them, he thought at the sight of the black uniform. "Hey," Ichigo began to the guy who did not look much older than him.
The guard looked towards him and frowned for a second, making Ichigo hesitate and wonder if he had picked wrong again. Then the guy shook his head around before smiling and asking, "How can I help you?"
Maybe, is he faking nice? It's not like he needs to, considering how that last chick referred to me. "I'm looking for someone," Ichigo replied. "Is there like a government building or something where I could look up someone's address?"
"For what reason?" The guard asked, as this was a pretty strange request. He had offered his help more in terms of just giving simple directions if the human was lost, which the teen seemed like he was.
"I've got a friend here I'm trying to find, but I've never been to Zodd before," Ichigo replied. He was getting tired of saying this, especially since he had had to tell the leaders of Leam as well, multiple times, when they wanted to know his reasons for requesting the pass. He did not get the pass just because he asked either, and during the two weeks that he was waiting for it, he had been recruited as a guard for Remano. He had also helped out a lot with rebuilding Remano in the days after the region rearranged out of nowhere, though he was shocked by how fast it came back together thanks to the efforts of Leam's army and some help from the Resistance.
"Alright then," the guard said who did not think the human was lying. "Yeah we've got a Hall of Records. Should be exactly what you need in there on the datacrons."
Ichigo nodded, wondering what those were. Maybe they're like the holocrons Master Windu mentioned once. I don't know, but if it tells me where to find Kara, I'll go with it. "Thanks, could you point me in its direction?"
"It's about fifty blocks that way," the guard said and pointed to his left. Ichigo's bottom lip lowered and he sweatdropped. "There isn't any public transportation," the guard continued after seeing Ichigo's expression. "You don't have a capsuled car or anything?" He asked.
"No," Ichigo muttered. Can't go shinigami right now. They'll notice and be on me in a second, since I'm pretty sure all of the Kryptonians have died before, at least the ones from Kara's universe had. Wish I had learned to fly as a normal human. I've seen people do it.
"Well, if you don't mind," the guard began and Ichigo looked at him confusedly. "I could fly you over real quick," the guy sounded hesitant about it himself, but Ichigo's eyes widened.
"Really?" Ichigo asked in surprise. The idea of being carried by another dude was not the best option to him, but it was the only one he had at the moment.
"Why not?" The guard said, as if reasoning with himself. "I'm new at this, but part of my job is helping people out. Not many people actually need help around here though," he added with a low chuckle as he lifted off the ground and floated towards Ichigo. He grabbed under Ichigo's right arm and lifted him by the armpit before Ichigo could say anything about it, then he flew them up in the air fast and over the tops of the nearby skyscrapers.
"Whoa!" Ichigo shouted and snapped his head down as he saw the ground get very far away in a second. "Not gonna drop me, right?" Ichigo asked, only half-jokingly.
"I might, if you're insinuating that I'm a racist just 'cause I'm Kryptonian," the guard said, looking down at Ichigo with a frown.
Ichigo looked back up at him and the teen's eyes widened. He thought about how he was looking at the guard apprehensively when he approached, as he had expected a similar response to how the last guard treated him. He realized that the first frown the guard looked at him with was because he was the one being judgy himself, and the boy said, "Sorry about that." He realized the Kryptonian with super hearing must have heard that his joke had some actual worry in it, and he grimaced as he was the one being racist here. "What's your name, by the way?" Ichigo asked, wanting to get off the subject and realizing he should ask now that the guy was helping him out.
"Chris," the guard replied. "You?"
"Ichigo," the teen replied back, using his first name since the other man did the same. They flew fifty blocks in under a minute, and Chris flew them back down to the street level where he dropped Ichigo off right in the middle of the road. Ichigo looked around and did not see any vehicles near him, and most people were not even using the doors of the buildings near him, instead just flying in and out of windows on the upper floors. He looked higher up at the golden dome above him and thought about how Supergirl and Superman had told him how their powers worked. "Thanks for this, Chris," Ichigo said once he was standing on his own feet with the guard still floating above him. He looked forward at a building that had these tall pillars and a weirder style to it than the skyscrapers at its sides. It had the engraved label of the 'Hall of Records' on the front wall above all the pillars, and Ichigo was glad he got to the place so soon after entering the city. He had been worried about his timetable, but he was already ahead of where he thought he would be at this point, as he thought it would take him two hours before he would even discover a way to find out how to find Kara.
Chris told Ichigo that it was no problem, then he flew off and Ichigo started heading up the white steps for the doors of the Hall of Records. As Ichigo walked up those steps, a boy turned the corner just down the street from him and started walking down the sidewalk. The kid with brown hair walked straight past the Hall of Records but had his head turned to the right instead of left at the buildings on his side of the road. He read the title of a building across the road that made Ben Tennyson smirk, Zodd municipal building. Zodd Guard Corps. What kind of pretentious dude names his city after himself? Ben's smirk rose even more as he thought of something, Didn't Gohan say the planet his dad came from was called Vegeta? Ben started laughing, then he reached the next corner and started scratching the side of his head as he had forgotten the directions.
From where he was standing with tall skyscrapers all around him too, he could not see where the tallest building in the city was. Ben took a deep breath in and then flew straight up in the air, trying hard not to make a white aura come around him. As much as he tried though, he was not great at hiding his energy while he was flying. A semi-clear white aura surrounded Ben as he flew up, and he frowned as this meant he would still be known not to be a Kryptonian. Ever since he had entered the city, when Kryptonians he talked to learned that he was human they started treating him like crap. There were some who told off the racist others and helped him out, but in his experience the majority disliked him. A few had taunted him for being weak, and though he felt that without his Omnitrix they were right, he did not appreciate it and had flown into the air to prove them wrong. This barely worked though, and a couple of Kryptonian teenagers a little older than him had scoffed at him for pretending to be a big shot.
Ben reached above the skyscraper next to him, then he leaned to the side as a Kryptonian man flew his way and right past while giving Ben a harsh glare. Ben thought the guy would have slammed right into him if he had not moved, and he gulped before turning back towards the tallest building in the city with a huge spherical top section. "Zod," Ben whispered. I've heard that out of all of them, he hates humans the most. And he's the strongest. And I really don't want to talk to him… but I have to. Ben imagined the fight he saw between the Wizard King and Meruem, and he thought of the fear he knew Cartman had of that monster he claimed to not want to fight just because it was not his problem. In his head showed the faces of Sora, Dash, and Goku when they talked about the War of the Saiyan Mountains, and he recalled how terrified he was when Meruem first appeared above them after he had foiled Nox's plans. That's the biggest monster in the world. Worse than anyone, or anything else. If Zod can beat him, then I have to try to convince him to do it! If I don't, then the next time I might have to use the Eliacube, Meruem will come and kill me!
I wish Conner was here. Superboy would have been a great guide. I should have looked for him before I came out here on my own. Ben gulped while looking up at the tallest building in front of him that had a huge dome-shaped section at the top of it. He took in a deep breath then looked down from that top section to the front doors he was hesitating outside of. Here goes nothing. I can do this. Omnitrix or not, I'm a hero. I have to do this! I have to prove that I can do this!
Ben's legs felt like dumbbells. It was tough to lift up his feet. He curled his fists down at his sides and let out one last heavy breath, then he started walking forward to the executive tower he expected to find Zod inside of. Well, nothing ventured nothing gained. If I'm nothing without the Omnitrix, then I shouldn't have it in the first place. I have a Keyblade. I can fly! I can do this! Ben marched into Zod's tower, confidence covering his expression despite the sweat dripping down his face.
Walking down a street only a block and a half away from Ben, across the street on the opposite sidewalk but actually in view at that second of Ben, a spiky-orange haired teenager turned away from the road. His back was to Ben's as they looked at buildings on opposite sides of the street, and he headed into the tall apartment building at the same time that Ben was stepping into Zod's tallest skyscraper.
A fidgety stuffed animal in Ichigo's bag popped its head out once they stepped through the apartment's front doors. "Ahh!" Kon gasped as if being stuffed in that bag was just as bad as being stuffed in the capsule before it. "Let me out already, Ichigo! I'm itching for some air!"
"Please shut up," Ichigo growled at the stuffed lion poking its head and mane out of his backpack. I was getting nervous so I let him out in case I need a quick transformation without abandoning my body, but Kon's too much of an idiot! "Kryptonians have super hearing. It might be selective, but could you shut up before they decide to come rip you in two?"
"Yah! You think they would?" Kon wondered in panic while sweat poured down his soft and squishy face.
"I would," Ichigo muttered.
"Hey!"
Ichigo pressed the up arrow outside the elevator doors. He reached down into his pocket and pulled out a slip of paper that he had scribbled an address onto back at the Hall of Records. 1204. Twelfth story. Ichigo stepped into the elevator when it dinged and opened up for him. He pressed the button with the number 12 on it then leaned back into the back of the elevator, squishing Kon between his body and the wall so the stuffed Mod Soul gasped out in suffocation. Ichigo rolled his eyes at Kon's overdramatic action, then he opened his eyes wide in surprise as the doors opened back up. Did we just go up? I didn't even feel us moving. That was fast.
Ichigo leaned off the wall and stepped back out of the rapid elevator. "Stay quiet, Kon. Or I'm putting you back in the capsule."
Kon's open mouth closed fast and he covered it up with both hands as he was about to shout at Ichigo right before getting that warning. "Okay," Kon whispered, ducking his head back into the bag to avoid the punishment of returning to a capsule which he did not enjoy a bit.
Ichigo looked to his left and down the hall to one door. 1201, he shook his looked to his right instead and past only two more doors across from the elevators. There was a fourth door in the hall off to his right. He turned towards the door labeled 1204, and a nameplate under it that read: 'Kara Danvers.' There she is. Wonder why she doesn't use Zor-El? The records had both names at least. Might have been lost otherwise.
Here goes, Ichigo rose his right fist and knocked twice on the door. The doorknob twisted only a second later. Super speed or, maybe she was standing right on the other side when I got here. Maybe she heard me coming- Ichigo cut off his thoughts theorizing why Kara was already at the door, as the door opened and a man inside looked out at him. The Hispanic man had long black hair falling evenly around his head down to his shoulders. He had a bit of red sauce on the corner of his lip, and a crinkled napkin in one hand that he was still wiping off his other hand with while opening the apartment front door. "Uhh," Ichigo stared past the man and to a lighter-skinned figure walking out of a hallway and into his view.
The white guy also older than Ichigo had a slice of pizza in one hand that he bit into before turning his head and looking towards the door that was just opened. He took a few chews while looking up above Ichigo's head just like his friend at the door did. Both older men stared at the strange spiky orange hair of the teenager who grimaced at their stares. Kryptonians don't have spiky hair. Or orange hair, Ichigo reminded himself, trying not to be annoyed by their stares.
Ichigo shook his head back and forth. "Sorry, I think I have the wrong place," he muttered. He turned his head though and glanced at the nameplate again.
"Kara, someone's here," Winn called out from the hallway.
Ichigo's eyes widened and he looked back towards the man who called out that name. He just confirmed that he was not mistaken and the place definitely belonged to who he was looking for. She just had some company over. Cisco Ramon was unsure why he had opened the door without checking to see who it was first. He just got startled when he heard the knocks next to him while walking out of the kitchen where he had gone to grab a napkin, and he opened it thinking someone else had arrived. No one else was coming, Cisco reminded himself, nodding as he remembered that. "So, uh, are you looking for Kara?" Cisco questioned, though the younger boy's reaction to hearing her name already told him that was it.
Ichigo opened his mouth, but a blonde-haired woman came around the corner over near Winn Schott who turned and moved a bit out of the way so she could see who had arrived. There was something playing noise in the background in the room she came from that Ichigo could not see around the corner, but he could see an edge of a couch and figured it was the living room. He could also see straight out some windows across that room on the far side from the door and connecting hallway in the pretty large apartment. Those windows got blocked from sight though as the woman stepped into view and looked towards the younger man standing in her doorway.
Kara's eyes bulged. She stared past her two friends straight into the eyes of a boy she had not seen in a very long time. "Ichigo?" Kara whispered. Her face lit up after a second as it was definitely him, even if he had aged almost two years since she last saw him. "It is you- Ichigo!" Kara shook off her surprise and jogged forward down her hallway. She looked up at the six foot tall teenager who looked back in more surprise himself at her enthusiastic reaction to seeing him.
"Supergirl," Ichigo said, greeting her back.
Cisco and Winn spun to Kara in surprise while she just leaned back her excited expression a little. "You can call me Kara," she told the teenager who hesitated for a second before nodding at her. Oh yeah. He was the youngest one there. Or, him and Tetsuo are the same age. Kara lowered the corners of her lips down a bit more but then moved to the side and lifted her small smile back up. "Come in, Ichigo. We're having pizza."
"Yeah, come in, mysterious stranger named Ichigo who we've never heard anything about." Winn commented towards the door. He sounded like he was joking even if his voice was sarcastic too. He added interestedly, "How do you know Kara as Supergirl?"
Ichigo looked his way in confusion while stepping in. He turned to the man next to him who closed the door behind him then wiped his face of some sauce that Kara motioned at him to get with his napkin. While Cisco wiped his lips he added to explain away Ichigo's confusion, "Kara hasn't been Supergirl for years. Someone didn't even tell us that she donned the cape on this world," Cisco flashed a smile towards Kara who sheepishly scratched the side of her head then laughed and headed back for the living room.
She waved a hand to the side, "Didn't I? Well, I may have kept being Supergirl for a few months here. Back over on Awul, I actually wore the costume still…"
"Not much point though when there are Kryptonians everywhere though?" Winn wondered at her.
Supergirl looked towards her best friend who just dropped back on a recliner in the living room again, though he was leaning forward and looking at her interrogatively before looking back to Ichigo too when he entered. Winn turned down the volume on the tv as well then took a serious bite of his pizza slice while eying Kara suspiciously.
Kara's lighthearted expression at first just waving off the questions shifted a bit. "That, wasn't the reason," she just responded, before picking up a slice of pizza herself that she bit into.
Kara nearly choked on the slice as she turned and saw the awkward stance of the tall teen who just stopped at the edge of her living room. "Oh sorry- Ichigo! This is my friend, Cisco Ramon," she motioned at the Hispanic man who lifted a hand and made a small wave at Ichigo who he was looking at interestedly for more than just his hair now. "And over there is Winn, uh, also my friend."
"Technically, I'm her husband," Winn countered while lifting his left index finger.
Kara rolled her eyes while Ichigo turned towards her with a sweatdrop in confusion. "Short version?" Kara wondered to Ichigo hoping he'd be fine with it which he just nodded to. "Nexus is a very dangerous place for normal people to wander around. I wanted Winn to be safe and to protect him, but that could only work if he got a visa because of Zodd's strict rules, so we had to get married… even though we're just friends."
Ichigo nodded slowly as that made some sense. Still sounds weird to me, he admitted after a second though decided not to press on about it.
Ichigo turned to the other man who was walking over to one of the two pizza boxes on the living room table. "Are you, also a Kryptonian?" Ichigo wondered. He honestly could not tell. He figured that Winn was human based off that last exchange, but that led him to wonder if Cisco did not need such formalities in order to stay in Zodd.
"Me? Haha, no, no I'm not," Cisco shook his head. He sounded surprised at first then thought it was a joke before denying it when he saw Ichigo not laughing. "Do I really look like one?" Cisco wondered.
How am I supposed to tell? Ichigo frowned at the question. "I don't know," he just muttered in a low voice.
"Come, Ichigo. Try a slice. Did you just get to Zodd?" Kara wondered to her old friend who she grabbed a paper plate for and put a slice of pizza onto. Ichigo turned to her and tried to get a serious look on his face, but she was holding a slice of pizza out for him and was waiting for him to grab it. He reached out and started nodding, but he really wanted to tell her something and was unsure of how to approach this now. "Well it's not really Kryptonian cuisine, but we love this pizza place."
"I'm just visiting Zodd too," Cisco explained to Ichigo who still looked confused or frustrated about something. Cisco wondered if it was because it did not make sense that he was not a Kryptonian but had no explanation for how he lived in the city. Cisco explained to the teenager, "Got myself a three-day pass."
Ichigo wanted to move on to his reason for being there already, but he actually paused upon hearing that and turned fully towards Cisco. "Three days?" Ichigo wondered. All he had heard from Leam leadership and the merchants he traveled with in the past few weeks told him how difficult it was to get passes into Zodd and how strict those rules were.
Cisco tapped his nose in a smug way at the surprised look on Ichigo's face. "I design a lot of tech for the military here," he explained. "And some other companies too. It's the defense contracts that I get paid the big bucks for though. And well, what gets me my longer-term passes here."
"You're arming up Zodd?" Ichigo wondered. He was unsure how to feel about that, but Cisco just laughed and took another bite of his pizza like it was no big deal.
"Kryptonians have been peaceful for two years now. It's just 'defense' technology, kid. Don't worry about it!" Cisco waved him off for the response the teen had.
"Plus, I mean," Winn brought up. Ichigo looked towards him then gained the same look Winn had as that guy explained, "It's not like Kryptonians need tech to fight. They're stronger without weapons, honestly," Winn finished, and Ichigo nodded his head as that sounded true to him.
"But my Kryptonite-magnets are going to…" Cisco trailed off. People in this city had super hearing, and bringing up that 'K' word was risky for a human like him, even if he was designing technology meant to disarm enemies of their potential Kryptonite weapons. "Ack- ah-hem, well, I've made some great stuff," Cisco decided to just keep it vague. I also have no idea who this is, Cisco reminded himself, realizing he probably should not be explaining his defense contracts to a random teenager.
"Ichigo, I'm so glad you came to visit," Kara told the boy holding a plate with pizza on it that he still looked too uncomfortable to start eating. "Here, sit down," Kara moved in a blur and returned with another seat she put down on one end of the coffee table so that he would not have to sit on the couch or next to anyone if he was too awkward about it. She helped him down into his seat with Ichigo shaking his head around in surprise as he was suddenly sitting down and his arms were bent so that his plate of pizza was closer to his face.
He got a better scent of it with where Kara just moved the plate for him, but he ignored the good smell of pizza to frown up at Kara instead as she just moved him around like that. "Oh, sorry. I'm just excited. It's been so long." Kara glanced at the other two who were still waiting for some answers from her too. "Ichigo's a very strong fighter. He fought alongside me and Clark a lot those first months after we got here." She ran back around the table then dropped onto the couch next to Cisco.
Cisco's laid-back attitude about telling the teen all that stuff a few seconds ago wiped from his face as surprise covered it instead. Winn's mouth opened wide where he sat on a recliner on the opposite end of the table as Ichigo, a half-chewed bite of pizza still in his dropped jaw. "Wow," Winn finally chewed faster and swallowed. "You never can tell," he mumbled softly while looking at this strange person up and down with a slightly more uneasy gaze now.
"This is where I've been living for a long time now, Ichigo. Two years almost. It's not a bad apartment right? I'm actually a lead journalist for ZTV, the Zodd news station." Kara paused for a second as she realized she was rambling, and she continued, "Though, I am surprised you're here… Why are you here?" She wondered.
Ichigo had just started to smile as Kara rambled about her life in Zodd. He even reached for his pizza before hearing her question and realizing what he was doing. His smile faded and he looked down at the plate that he lowered onto the edge of the coffee table. "Have you heard any news from Awul?" Ichigo wondered in a low voice.
"Not recently," Kara replied with a shake of her head. "My cousin has not come by in the past few months to keep me up on the politics there. I honestly was tired of hearing about it," she added, rolling her eyes too. "Even though my boss wants me to get news on Awul for our station, I avoid it altogether. I don't mind not having those talks as they bored me, and annoyed me always hearing about Tetsuo- but I wish Clark would still come to visit me." Supergirl stopped her more annoyed tone when bringing up Tetsuo, reminding herself, He's Tetsuo's friend. Not the person to rant to about this. He's more Tetsuo's friend than mine. We weren't even that close. Why is he here then? Kara had an uneasy feeling in her gut that was unknowingly making her ramble more than usual.
She already had a talkative persona, but Winn noticed and even Cisco started to hear an uneasiness in Kara's tone too as she avoided something. "He could bring Trunks next time," Kara added. She said it like suggesting Ichigo could bring it up next time he saw Clark, but then Kara spun quickly to the other men in the apartment who started laughing.
"Haha, she's bringing him up again," Cisco explained their laughter to the spiky-haired teen who shifted him a sideways glance past Kara on the couch to him. Cisco stopped laughing after Ichigo just hesitated for a second before nodding and lowering his gaze down even farther.
This is too much, Ichigo sighed and lifted a hand that he rubbed his right temple with. He put it up through his hair then sat back up straight to face Kara with an intense look.
"What?" Kara asked. The nervousness finally showed through at the focused way Ichigo looked at her that could not mask at all how serious he was. "Why do you ask?" She asked in regards to his question that she had given a long-winded answer to. "Did something happen in Awul? Do you need help?"
Ichigo shook his head back and forth at the girl sounding ready to fly off if he needed her to. "No help," Ichigo told her. Glad she already sat down, he thought while looking at the woman in her later twenties who faced him looking uncertain and confused about why he looked the way he did. Ichigo took a deep breath then started, "You heard about the Underworld, right? I'm sure Clark told you about them…" Ichigo saw Kara nodding but pursing her lips shut to not interrupt him this time. "Okay," he said. "Well, Tetsuo and the Underworld made an alliance-"
"He did what?!" Kara exclaimed in anger and disbelief.
"Akainu was in on it too," Ichigo continued to her in his same tone. He wanted her to calm down but did not want to stop talking either and drag this out too long. "Along with a bunch of other new members you never met. They killed the Jedi Order, and they, blamed it on Superman. Tetsuo led him into a trap," The other three in the room stared at Ichigo with their eyes growing even wider and shaking at the words coming out of his mouth. Cisco and Winn started turning to their lefts to the woman whose ears started thudding with the sound of her heart beat as Ichigo looked into her eyes.
"And then, Lex Luthor killed Superman."
Kara tried to stand up but her legs felt weak. She was leaning forward still but her whole body flinched from the words that Ichigo just spoke to her. Winn got up from the recliner and moved onto the couch where he sat closer to Kara than Cisco. He put an arm around her shoulders quickly and around her other side to hold her into him. "How?" Winn whispered in shock at Ichigo while Kara was still frozen. "Lex Luthor did? That doesn't make, sense," Winn winced himself while seeing how Ichigo looked to Cisco who already dreaded what that look was for.
"Luthor brought Kryptonite," Ichigo said softly.
Winn anxiously glanced in at the head of the woman he had pulled towards his shoulder. He eased away from her as she was shaking and just in time too as Kara shot up to her feet with a look of rage plastered across her face. "I knew Tetsuo could not be trusted!" Kara roared. Her fists balled at her sides and she glared towards her windows. "I'm going to-"
"It's too late," Ichigo stopped her. He jumped to his feet too and called out to her before she could fly out of there. Kara turned to him and Ichigo flinched at the glowing red light in her eyes that she glared him down with. "Tetsuo is dead," Ichigo told her.
Kara's red glow started to dim from her eyes. Her fists were still clenched but she asked him harshly, "Did you do it?"
Ichigo pulled his head back. He thought of a limp wrinkled body falling out of the air. A body he had found after the battle in the rubble. In his head he saw the small patch of freshly upturned dirt that he stood alone in front of far from civilization. A burial with no one else around. No one else would have done it. They all hated him. I hated him. He shook his head back to answer Kara's question. The look on his face though in that moment he shook it made Kara pull her head back too though.
Her lips curled down more, He still cared for Tetsuo. She felt frustrated and angry at that look she saw on Ichigo's face. He continued while glancing back up into her eyes, "Luthor took him out next, after Tetsuo killed Trunks."
Kara blinked once before her eyes grew to the size of saucers. "He…" Kara whispered. Tetsuo killed Trunks? They were close. Clark said that Trunks was always making excuses- why? And, how did Luthor kill him? Kara rose a hand up to her forehead and gripped it tightly, furling the skin of her brow in anger. Tetsuo was the strongest person I ever saw. This doesn't make sense!
"Luthor took Tetsuo's powers for himself, in the Battle of Metropolis. It all happened a few months ago," Ichigo continued, answering some of the questions he knew Kara thought about. She looked back towards him with shaking eyes, and he continued, "The war is over. Metropolis is being rebuilt. A new government in its place… I just wanted to let you know about Clark."
Kara nodded at Ichigo, feeling grateful at the least that he had come to tell her this. She shook her head back and forth though. "Thank you, Ichigo. But what happened to Luthor? Who stopped him?" He said the battle was over and that the city was being rebuilt so she just assumed.
Ichigo looked away though. "No one… well, no one defeated him. No one killed him," Ichigo corrected himself. Was that a victory? It didn't feel like much of one.
"Luthor crushed the Super Saiyans and Timmy Turner, and myself," Ichigo started after that last confusing response he gave Kara. "But as much as he tried to force us all to submit, the people wouldn't take him as their leader. Everyone told him to screw off, and he flew away. He could be anywhere on the planet," Ichigo finished. The Kryptonian he was speaking to looked angrier than ever to hear that Luthor had apparently gotten away with it. "I'm sorry, Kara."
Winn reached a hand forward but it twitched near her right fist that he was unsure whether to hold onto or not. Cisco leaned back into the couch and tilted his head back. Superman's gone? That it was Lex Luthor too who did it is brutal, Cisco closed his eyes. This just isn't the heroes' world. Never has been.
"Kara?" Winn whispered to the back of his technicality wife's head. "Are you oka-"
Boom!
The apartment shook under their feet. Ichigo snapped up and spun back to the windows where a flash of light illuminated in the near distance for a second right as that explosion went off. "What the?!" Winn yelled while jumping up to his feet too.
"That can't be good," Cisco had sweat dripping down his face as he looked towards the windows too.
Kara had been shaking in anger though. She was furious but had nowhere to direct her anger at. "Good," Kara growled at Cisco's comment. "Because I really need to let off some steam."
"Wait, Super-" Ichigo started but she flew towards the window and flung it open easily, flying out of the push-window a second later and then diving down the alley between buildings towards the street past the front door. "Damn it," Ichigo reached into his pack and pulled out a stuffed lion that the other two men in the apartment stared at confusedly as it swung its arms and legs around. Ichigo squeezed the middle of the stuffed creature, and a tiny round pill popped out of its mouth and into the air. "Take care of my body," Ichigo snapped while chomping down on the pill and swallowing.
"What are you talking about? Whoa!" Winn reached forward and caught Ichigo as he started to fall in the living room.
Ichigo's shinigami form stepped out of his human body and sprinted for the open window. He did not glance behind him but heard Kon's voice shout out in his body after Winn grabbed him by the arms. Cisco and Winn stared with baffled expressions at the strangely-acting teenager whose goofy smiling expression and demeanor was entirely different than a second ago. Neither of them saw the boy's death god form that flew out of the window and down to the street after Kara, only realizing as he was reaching the surface, What the hell am I doing?
Ichigo got onto the street and immediately felt dozens of eyes lock on his body. He wore the black hakama of a shinigami that set him apart from everyone else on the road. He had not revealed that he had shinigami powers when he entered the city, and he actually had no idea how they were going to react. Several guards were staring towards him instead of towards the explosion down the street that Kara had flown towards herself. She darted a look backwards too and grimaced at the sight of all the attention Ichigo brought upon himself when he flew after her.
Oh yeah, Krypton exploded. All of them died. All of them can see me. Ichigo was in a hurry and did not remember it right away because the two guys back in Kara's apartment could not see him. They were the odd ones out though. Ichigo did not see a single person on the street who appeared to not have noticed him. Many of them were glaring his way too, and sweat covered the teenage shinigami's face. A city full of people as strong as Superman, and under this yellow dome they're probably stronger than I've ever seen Superman before. And they look like they all want to kick the shit out of me.
Ichigo stopped hesitating and flew after Kara. Whether it was to check out the source of the explosion himself or just to get close to the one person he was pretty sure would protect him from an angry horde of Super-People. He hovered a few feet over the ground just as Supergirl did while they stared at a settling cloud of dust in the middle of the road next to a hole in the wall of the tallest building's first floor.
A silhouette of a small boy staggered up to his feet in the middle of the road while the dust fell around him. "Who is that?" Kara wondered in a low voice. She looked past him and towards the wall where an armored short-haired figure flanked by several others marched outside. His hair was pitch black and his eyes dark as he glared towards the child who stood up before him and glared straight back into his eyes. Kara took one look at that man's expression and got a bead of sweat on her face while shifting her gaze to the child again, "And why did he just anger the strongest man on this world?"
The brown-haired kid who stood up in the middle of the road had blood dripping down from the corner of his swollen left eye. There were new cuts on his right arm and left leg through his sleeves that had ripped on sharp pieces of breaking wall and glass when he smashed through the first floor's wall. Ben Tennyson glared his green eyes straight back at the man who he had come to see. Sweat dripped down both sides of his bleeding face but he bit down hard and curled his fists at his sides. His left eye was mostly shut but the green iris showing in the bloodshot eye was glaring at the Kryptonian King just as his other fully open eye was. Ichigo stared in disbelief towards the boy, but even more so towards the man in black armor with dim yellow lines cutting through it. It was a man he had seen once before in one of the most deadly fights he had ever taken part in on Nexus. A man he had dreaded seeing and very much intended to avoid just in case that man would recognize him. Zod did not look towards the unwanted shinigami in his city though, instead just tilting his head back and glaring down his nose at the upstart child who would dare look back at him in such a way. Zod curled his right fist…
A/N And cliffhanger! Ichigo arrives in Zodd to tell Kara the news about Clark. Supergirl and her friend/"husband" Winn are from the CW show Supergirl. Cisco is from the Flash tv show. While Zod and the other Kryptonians we'll meet in this arc are from a variety of tv shows and comics. Mixtures of their characters from Smallville, Krypton, Supergirl, the Man of Steel movie, and actual DC Comics themselves. Superman comics have been around for over 80 years, so I doubt I'll be true to some sources while staying true to others, so just stick with me as we get into the Zodd arc! What happened that got Zod so pissed at Ben to smash him through a wall? Find out next chapter... which I'll probably post tomorrow! XD So 'til next time!
cyber chapter 130 . Jan 27
i like how the story is going, and terminators?
Glad you're liking the story's progression! We've seen terminators only on a couple of occasions before this. Gray mentioned Terminus as one of the High Lords I believe back on the Thousand Sunny. And when Goku met the three Saiyans he initially saved on Aebrith, he was saving them from Terminators that interrupted a meeting between Saiyans and the Frost Giants. We get a look at the Terminus leaders and find out that the Androids are also under their control rather than separate entities. Moving on from Sora's chapter we head to see what Ben's up to in this month apart, and it seems he's gotten himself deep into trouble! Thanks for the review. Hope you're enjoying the story!
hikolb6 chapter 130 . Apr 2
When will next chapter be for this story? Loving it so far.
The next chapter will be now! And another tomorrow! Hope you continue to enjoy, and thanks for reviewing!