Nexus HWR 16.2 Let's Go:
Day 2, 8:15 AM
"Your identification has you marked as green," the soldier in a brown uniform standing in front of a teenager on a line of twenty people remarked. He handed the kid his I.D. back and frowned before looking back up and down the line, "You're all less useful than a single manned turret until you can prove it to me otherwise!" The man was taller than most people on the line, his head was bald, he had dark tan skin, and his eyes were so far back in his eye sockets it looked like someone had pushed them in with their thumbs.
Keith Shadis started marching down the line and glaring at each of the men and women from ages twelve to sixty standing at the ready for him. Some held machine guns in their arms, others had pistols in holsters on their sides or melee weapons strapped to their backs like the teen whose I.D. he just checked who had two swords on his back. Kirito's eyes followed the man as he walked off, then when the drill sergeant spun around and glared back to see if anyone was not staring straight ahead like he told them to, he made eye contact with the teen. "You!" He shouted and marched right back to lean over the teen and glare down into his eyes. "What in God's green earth do you think you're doing?! Did I say look at me?!"
"I was told to come here if I intended on joining the Resistance as a legitimate member, not where to go for basic training," Kirito began to the man who leaned back in a little surprise but kept glaring as furiously at the teen as before. "I now realize that the person I asked about this sent me to the wrong place."
"Oh, is that right?!" Shadis yelled. "You think you're in the wrong place huh? Are you sad that I called you a worthless steaming sack of SHIT?! Well too bad sissy mcpussyface!"
Kirito grit his teeth and he stepped off the line towards the man, closing the distance to a single foot. He looked up in the drill sergeant's eyes and showed no fear at all while everyone else on the line looked at Kirito like he was a madman. A couple of people watching from a one-way window on the opposite side of the room smirked, and a new figure who just walked up alongside the rest of them looked out there to see what they were looking at.
"You should see this, one of the new guys is about to get his head ripped off by the sarge," a man said to the darker-haired figure who stopped next to him. The man who just arrived at the window looked out and narrowed his eyes as he recognized the person standing there in front of the drill sergeant. He said nothing though as he watched the teenager lift up his right hand.
Keith Shadis clenched his fists and got ready to beat the kid senseless for raising a hand at him, when his sucked-in eyes opened wide and he darted them to the teen's right side. He stared at the teen's hand as it started glowing blue, and energy formed on top of his palm. He brought his left hand over and started hitting his palm at rapid speeds making chakra spin around and around until there was a spiraling blue sphere on his palm that he held out in front of him and made the older man take a step back to avoid it. Kirito turned to the man's right side and he did a single leap, a leap that took him thirty feet away in a single second, and then he slammed that ball of energy into the ground.
BOOM! Kirito's attack created a large crater in the floor and caused dust to rise up all around it. He stood up fully and looked back towards the drill sergeant who was staring blankly at him, then asked in as calm a voice he could, "Where do I go to actually join?"
Keith Shadis opened his mouth to shout at the teen, when a different voice spoke up first and everyone in the room spun the direction of the one-way windows on one wall of the room. A door at the side of them had opened up and a man had walked out into the large training room, and he looked towards the teen who faced him with a look of recognition. The ninja with black hair shot across the room in an instant and appeared in front of Kirito who barely saw him move. "Where did you learn that technique?" Sasuke questioned while looking with the one eye not covered by his dark hair into Kirito's eyes.
"Sasuke," Kirito muttered. He glanced right towards the rest of the people in the room, then back at the ninja in front of him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you when we first met, but I recognized your name. Naruto used to talk about you all the time."
"Where is he now?" Sasuke asked.
Kirito's expression darkened and he said softly, "Come on, I'll go tell you somewhere else." He motioned for the door Sasuke came out of and the other ninja from the Hidden Leaf Village nodded and they headed that way. Kirito spoke quietly as they left the training room, "Naruto taught me almost everything I know. I'm sorry, he was a great friend…"
In the mega-cafeteria of the Resistance HQ's basement, Kirito grabbed his tray of food and headed towards a table where some people he recognized were sitting. Natsu, Gray, Riku, and the men of the Straw Hat crew minus their captain were all sitting there eating already. Kirito walked over, and Riku and Natsu scooted to the sides a little to make room for him on their side of the table.
"Hey, congratulations on your 'official' entry into the Resistance," Sanji told the teen across from him.
"You're a full member now?" Gray asked, looking left past Natsu at the teen sitting there.
Kirito looked back his way and nodded once before looking down and starting to eat his food.
Gray grimaced at the cold shoulder treatment Kirito gave him and he looked back down at his own food. Damn, I want to take Kirito with me, but my soldiers need to be able to trust me. I can't expect to give Kirito orders without him wondering if I'm really valuing his life. Worse, if someone else on the mission sees the way Kirito's acting towards me and finds out about what happened, I'll lose the faith of my entire army.
"You look like you got no sleep at all Gray," Franky remarked to the man across from him who snapped his head up in surprise, then nodded as he really didn't.
"I was up all night deciding on who to bring, but I gave up early this morning and switched to planning the attack instead. Once I know what I want to do to take out the Emperor, I can work out personnel around that, figure out who's the best to bring along for certain aspects."
"I would be the best person for one of those aspects," Natsu muttered angrily and pushed some of his food around with a fork.
Gray groaned as he had been arguing with Natsu about this all morning. He was about to say something about it, when Riku spoke up first to Kirito and got all their attention back on the teen, "Did something else happen?" Now that Riku mentioned it, Kirito had a seriously dark look on his face, darker than usual which was tough considering he always looked like that.
Kirito looked around and saw everyone staring at him, and he gazed back down at his food before beginning, "That Resistance commander, Sasuke, he didn't know what happened to the Konoha on Awul." A few of the people who recognized the ninja headband the man was wearing nodded their heads in understanding. "Naruto always used to talk about his good friend Sasuke, and when Sasuke saw me use one of Naruto's techniques, I had to tell him all about how Naruto killed everyone in Konoha."
"Naruto did?" Usopp whispered from the other side of the table. "Why?"
"You didn't hear about that?" Sanji questioned the man next to him.
Riku spoke quietly, "Sora said that it was the Underworld leader, Lelouch, who brainwashed Naruto into doing all those things."
"And Timmy had to kill Naruto because of it," Kirito finished. He put down his fork and whispered, "That was really hard on him. I think, he was closer to Naruto than I first realized."
Everyone nodded in silence, but Usopp broke it after a few seconds, "Speaking of Timmy… where the heck is he?!"
"And Juvia?" Gray mentioned, looking around at the rest of the huge cafeteria, or at least what he could see on the first level of it. "I haven't seen her since yesterday afternoon."
"Same with Nami-san and Robin-chan," Sanji added.
"Haven't seen Stan since we got here either," Riku muttered.
"Luffy's gone missing too," Franky threw on top. The rest of them spun to him in surprise as he was with most of them yesterday to tell them all how Sora went looking for Kairi. Franky shook his head and continued to his surprised comrades, "I was looking for him this morning to show him an invention I finally got the time to work on yesterday, but his room was empty. It was pretty early, but I thought maybe he was training with Natsu."
"Haven't seen him all morning," Natsu muttered, then he growled in annoyance and slammed his hands down on the table. "Let's go!"
"Huh?" The rest of his friends said almost at the same time while looking his way.
"That bastard runs off on his own 'cause he doesn't want to be the last one here, well neither do I!" The others mostly looked at Natsu like he was stupid, but he stood up and leaned over the table. "Come on, almost everyone's gone already! They're all running off on different adventures and we're just sitting around here, what? Training?!"
"Well, that's what Sora said to do," Kirito mentioned.
"And he was the first one to run off," Natsu countered back, which made Kirito shrug as he had to admit that was true.
Everyone got deep in thought for a few seconds, then another figure came walking over to the table and the pirates made some room for him on their side. The kid with blond hair sat down with his tray, but he did not pick up his utensils to start eating. He looked up with that dark look his friends had seen on his face occasionally over the past week since they met back up with him for the first time since Eileen's continent-altering magic messed everything up. "Hey guys," Dash began.
They all looked to him wondering if he was about to tell them what had been bothering him all this time, only for most of them to lower their bottom lips as Dash continued, "Have any of you seen Ben? I didn't-"
"Damn it," Riku muttered and curled a fist over the table.
Dash looked at him in confusion, and Natsu exclaimed towards Riku, "Did Ben leave too?"
"I actually looked around for him this morning," Riku admitted. "I didn't want to mention him before because I wanted to think he was still here, but when I told him about the others last night, he looked ready to head out right after them. I told him not to do it on his own though, and he told me he understood," Riku got an even more frustrated look on his face and he slammed his clenched fist down on the table.
Kirito glanced back down the table towards Dash who was looking down with a depressed expression. It's probably just because Ben is gone though, Kirito thought, trying to comfort himself as much as anything since he had no idea what would have Dash looking like that. Did something happen while you were gone? Dash looked up and his eyes caught Kirito's. It took a couple more seconds, but Dash finally managed to bring his lips up into a smile that was as convincing as any and he got to digging into his food.
"So, what do you guys think?" Natsu asked. He looked around at the others again and they all seemed hesitant. "Come on," he urged. "Sora said we should be ready in a month, so let's go find a job to do during that month time."
Franky looked to his side at Usopp who shrugged back at him. They both turned Sanji's direction and the chef looked like he was thinking on it too. "Why not?" The others all turned towards the source of the voice and saw Riku unclenching his fists over the table. He took a deep breath to calm himself, then continued, "We'll be more use to everyone if we do something during this month instead of sitting around here. We can train while doing whatever mission we decide on. But we should stick together from now on."
"Good luck with that." The group turned back to Kirito who continued eating without looking up. "I'm going to keep training here. I could be stronger." The teen thought about how fast Sasuke moved that morning and how he could barely follow the other teen around his own age move.
"And I can't go either," Gray added, reminding them of his mission in the west. "But Riku's right, you guys would be of a lot of help wherever you go. Just, be careful, alright?" Juvia, did you really leave?
Sanji clenched his fists at his sides and grumbled under his breath, "I want to be with the ladies, not you idiots." He sighed and leaned back on the bench and added though, "Well I'm in. The rubber idiot didn't say anything before he ran off, but he'll be back by the end of the month."
"They all will," Riku agreed.
Usopp frowned at the silver-haired teen whose gaze he had been avoiding the entire conversation. A mission with only the people here? I'm stuck with Riku and just a few others, and it's going to be awkward. He knew it, but could not come up with a good reason for why he could not come along. "Guess I'll go too," he said, and finally Riku turned his way.
"Super!" Franky shouted and put his hands up above his head.
"So that's myself," Riku began, "Natsu, Usopp, Sanji, Franky, and-"
"I think," a small voice began, and Riku stopped talking to turn to the end of the table where the kid who spoke stood up. Dash looked towards one of his closest friends but broke eye contact with Riku pretty fast. He kept smiling though as he looked at the floor, "I'm just going to stay here and train too. Flash tried teaching me a lot about my speed, but at the time I wasn't taking what he said seriously enough. I think, I could probably master some techniques, if I spend the whole month working on them." He looked up and around the table and frowned as he could tell only half of the people there actually believed the reason he just gave.
"Dash, are you-" Riku began.
"I'm actually gonna go get started on it now," Dash said, interrupting his friend and turning away fast. "See ya guys later," he sprinted away too fast for any of them to see, making a gust of wind slam into a few people at other tables who had no idea what just went zipping by them.
Riku frowned deeply as he wondered what was on Dash's mind that the boy did not want to talk about with him. Natsu spoke up though and distracted Riku and the others who were thinking about that as well, "So the five of us then?" He looked around, and the male pirates at the table and Riku all looked each other in the eyes. Natsu smirked and punched a hand into an open palm, "Let's get to it then!"
500 Miles North of Resistance HQ
Again? Ben Tennyson thought, as the white aura around his body flickered. He was already panting, but now his breaths were coming out more ragged and he felt drained of all energy. I never realized how much just flying takes it out of me, he slowly descended towards the ground, until his aura faded completely and he found it hard to control his ki anymore. His descent quickened, but luckily he was close enough to the ground that he put one fist and a knee down and managed to make a hard but painless landing, unlike the previous two.
"Must not, have gotten, all my strength, back," he whispered while still down on a knee. That trip seemed shorter than the last two. Trying to do three flights in one day might have been too optimistic. He had left early that morning, but even with some rest in between flights, he was exhausted by mid-afternoon. Ben stood up after a minute of heavy breathing and looked around. Should find some high ground. He started trekking towards the tallest hill near him, but after only a few steps he noticed something about the hill that made him slow down.
"Smoke?" he questioned under his breath. There was a small trail of smoke lifting off the hill he was heading towards. Does that mean there's a fire? Is there a house there, or did someone else have the idea to rest up there and it's some other travelers? He hesitated and stopped walking altogether. What if they aren't friendly? Did I fly far enough that I'm out of Resistance lands? Can I beat them without the Omnitrix? A dark face appeared in his mind, a malevolent voice echoed in his ears, and his wrists and stomach started to ache in phantom pain. The boy shivered and found his legs frozen in place.
"No," he whispered. His face hardened and he clenched his fists at his sides before forcing his feet forward. "I won't let that happen again. Never again." He shook his head of all those dark, scary thoughts, and trekked to the bottom of the hill with the smoke at the top. He did not hesitate as he reached the base, but the closer to the top he got, the more nervous he became. Despite his bravado, he knew he was fooling himself by pretending not to be at least a little afraid. The kid could not stop now though, not after how determined he was at the bottom of the hill.
Ben got to the top curve of the hill where it started to flatten out, and towards the center of the hill there was a little campsite set up. He saw a few wooden sticks holding up a horizontal one that had some fish hanging on it, and another wooden thing set up next to it with clothes put out to dry. There was a single log in front of a small green tent, a log that had two people sitting on it, talking and looking at their fire.
The man at the fire spun his head to the side and looked back thirty feet straight into the eyes of the fourteen year old at the edge of the hill. The woman next to him turned next, reaching for the pistol at her side with lightning fast reflexes at how alert the man next to her became. Both of them calmed down at the sight of the figure standing there looking at them anxiously at how hostile they were being. They're just being cautious, Ben assured himself. He gazed at the man who noticed his presence first. Both figures looked to be in their mid-twenties, but he had short curly blond hair unlike the woman's straight black hair that fell down to her shoulders. The man wore a green jacket and black sweatpants, while the woman next to him was wearing all black and her pants were tighter to her body.
"Hey there," the guy began, getting to his feet as he did. He kept eye contact with the boy and saw the kid looked as on guard as he was when he first sensed something behind him. "Don't worry, we're friends," he said, and gave the kid a reassuring smile to try and prove it.
"Yeah, sure," Ben said. He started walking closer to them and tried to look less on guard, but he was still nervous about the two of them. The man's ability to sense him from a distance and the woman's reflexes and weapon made him unsure whether he should relax. "I'm Ben," he began. Are we still in Resistance territory? Do I ask? What if we're not though?
"I'm Danny, Danny Rand," the curly haired man replied to the boy's introduction. The woman behind him stood up and he motioned at her with a nod of his head, "And this is-"
"Alex," she finished for him as she stepped up to his side. Ben stopped walking when he was ten feet in front of them and he looked at the woman who finally gained a more friendly look like her partner had on his face, in part so the kid in front of her would relax. "Alex Danvers," she said, and held out a hand for the kid to grab. Ben frowned as this meant he had to get closer, within striking distance, but he took a deep breath through his nose and walked forward anyway.
It's okay to trust people. He smiled faintly and extended his hand to shake Alex's when he got close enough. "Nice to meet you," he said, then shook Danny's hand too. The man gave him a tight squeeze during the handshake and Ben could feel how powerful his hand was which made him a little nervous again, but instead of letting it show on his face, he just squeezed back to show he was no weakling either.
Danny smirked at the kid's reaction to his squeeze, and he let go with that grin plastered on his face. "So, what are you doing out here Ben?" He questioned, while motioning towards their fire. Danny turned around and walked back towards it himself, and Alex sat down on the log where she used to be as well.
Ben watched them sit, while thinking, Guess I could sit with them, I don't have the strength to keep… What was I thinking coming up here? I have like no energy right now. That was stupid! What if they were enemies?! What if they still are? He thought that last part, but then noticed the other two look back towards him wondering why he wasn't going to the fire they clearly motioned him to sit by. He held back his gulp and walked forward casually, though to the other side of the fire that he crouched down next to.
Ben held out his cold hands next to the flames and let out a breath from his mouth. The breath lingered in the air in front of him for a second before some wind blew in and made it fade away. "I'm going somewhere," he responded to the question Danny asked him ten seconds ago. He let out another breath, then continued, "I just wanted to take a break for a little." "Wanted," not "needed," in case either of you were thinking of trying anything.
"Are you part of the Resistance?" Alex questioned, and Ben's eyes snapped over the flames and to the woman nervously. "Because we are," she added, and just like that, a huge weight lifted off of Ben's shoulders. He stopped crouching and dropped down to sit criss-cross style on his butt. He nodded at her and she and Danny both chuckled at the relaxed look on his face.
"If you're saying that, we must still be in Resistance territory huh?" Ben questioned.
"Haha, yeah," Danny replied. "Very deep inside it. I don't know how far you've traveled, but we're only a few hundred miles from Resistance Headquarters."
Ben groaned and leaned back with his hands behind his head. "Really?" He muttered, looking up at the gray sky full of clouds. "I thought I got farther." He dropped his gaze back to the adults in front of him and asked, "Could you two help me with something?" Both of the others looked hesitant to respond, so Ben elaborated quickly, "It's nothing big. I just need some information if you have it."
Danny turned to Alex and she looked back at him. Both thought the same thing, but neither wanted to say it out loud. "It depends, on what you ask," Alex began, turning back to Ben with a more discerning look.
"Oh," Ben said, realizing something. "I guess I really didn't give you any reason to believe I'm part of the Resistance, so that makes sense." He wondered what they thought he was going to ask them, then wondered what sensitive information they knew that they were not allowed to tell him since they already mentioned how far Resistance HQ was. "It's nothing big, I just want to know if you guys know where I can find the Kryptonians?"
Alex tensed up, and Danny's eyes opened wide in surprise before turning to the woman next to him. "What?" Ben asked, as those seemed like strange reactions to have for that question.
"You just happened to bump into us?" Alex asked, her voice colder and more serious than before. Ben looked nervous as he nodded at her, and she examined his face closely wondering if he was telling the truth. "Hmm," she hummed, then questioned, "Why do you want to know?"
Ben looked back and forth between the two people in front of him who looked more on guard than before. He then gazed down at his left wrist, the skin still darker there than the rest of that arm or any skin on the rest of his body. I wish I could get some Kryptonian DNA for the Omnitrix, but I can't do that without getting the watch back from Zeref first… Bloodman's face appeared in Ben's mind again and he shivered. The kid looked back into the eyes of the woman who asked him, and he replied with the truth. "I want to find the King of the Kryptonians, Zod, and see if he can beat Meruem."
Danny and Alex went wide-eyed, but the boy did not flinch and looked completely serious as they stared at him. "Meruem, the Ant King?" Danny whispered. He shook his head as of course that was the Meruem Ben was talking about, then questioned, "Why do you think he'll listen to you?"
"First of all," Alex interrupted before Ben could answer. "Why do you think this is a good idea at all? What makes you think you can even get into Zodd in the first place?" Ben looked at her confusedly and she sighed but explained, "Zod named the capital city of the Kryptonian land after himself."
"Sounds like a prick," Ben said, and this time Alex cracked a smile and laughed before catching herself.
She shook her head and tried to look serious again. "He is, but he's still one of the most powerful men in the world, and he doesn't like humans. A lot of the Kryptonians have hate for humans, and if you go there, they're not going to be very happy to see you, let alone grant you an audience with their King. He doesn't even meet with Resistance leaders to discuss the Cooperative. The Kryptonians are very isolated from the rest of the world."
"Seem to know a lot about them," Ben mentioned, and he lifted his eyebrows hoping she would elaborate on why that was.
"Yeah, I do," Alex said, but was not going to let the conversation shift to her that easily. "And you don't," she continued. "So why don't you just go back wherever you came from? Where are you coming from anyway?"
"HQ," Ben replied casually.
"This is a mission?" Danny asked the kid.
Ben opened his mouth, but Alex cut him off again, "Of course it's not. There's no way they would send a kid to make this request, and there's no way the Resistance would make this request of Zod anyway." She frowned and started glaring at the kid who she wondered if he was lying about being a Resistance member. "Who are you?" Alex questioned.
The boy knew she wanted a more detailed answer, and he sighed that this became inevitable. "You guys hear about the Fire Lord?" Ben questioned. The other two nodded, confused at what that had to do with anything. "Well I'm in that group, the guys who took them down are my friends." The two in front of him looked surprised, but as he did not really want to elaborate any further on this, he continued quickly, "So, are you going to tell me where Zodd is or not? Because I'm going, not for the Resistance, but for myself." His face hardened and he looked into Alex's eyes with dark ones of his own, "Meruem killed the Saiyan King, Bardock, and the Wizard King won't help, so now there might be only two people in the world who can face him, one of whom I would never ask for help in a million years."
Ben's eyes were dark as he talked about that other figure, but Danny was too intrigued by that to let it slide. "Who else do you think could beat him? I just heard about Bardock myself and thought for sure there was no one who could stand up to the King now."
Ben glared at the fire, seeing a face inside the flames that made his blood boil. "Luthor," Ben snarled, and Alex Danvers dropped her jaw.
"Lex Luthor?" She questioned, and Ben snapped up his gaze in surprise that she knew who that was.
"Yeah," he replied. He leaned back and whispered, "Oh yeah, Superman was from his universe, and since you know so much about the Kryptonians, were you from their universe too?"
Alex nodded fast, but she quickly questioned, "How could Luthor beat the Ant King? He's just a normal human."
"Maybe at one time," Ben said, agreeing with her, "but nothing about him is human anymore. He beat Goku and the other Super Saiyans easily, and even when all the strongest fighters of Awul gave Goku our energy, at best all he could do was take one of Luthor's arms." Alex leaned back in her seat and put her hand through her hair, thinking about how crazy this all was to her. "Bastard might be the strongest person on the planet, but I would never ask a favor of him. He killed my friends, my grandpa, my heroes." Ben fell silent for a moment, then looked back into Alex's eyes, "So without Luthor, and with the Saiyan King dead, Zod's the only one left who could stop him. Please, I heard that he's in the northeast, but the last person I was talking to about this did not want me going and would not give me specific directions."
Danny Rand scratched his chin and gazed out the corners of his eyes at the woman next to him. "What do you think?"
Alex kept staring into Ben's eyes even while her partner asked her that question. He never broke eye contact and she finally let out a deep breath, "You don't seem like you're going to back down. I guess I'll tell you, we're on our way back from Zodd right now." Ben's eyes opened wide in surprise, understanding now why they seemed suspicious of him after he brought up the subject. The boy opened his mouth to ask something, but Alex continued first, "I know I said they don't just let humans in, but my sister lives in the city. She's a Kryptonian. I don't think I can talk you out of going, but if you have to, search out Kara Zor-el. She'll help you."
Her sister's a Kryptonian? How does that make sense? Well whatever, this was a nice break. Ben smiled and nodded, "Thanks. Now, how do I get there?"
3 Days Later
Ben descended from the sky and dropped down on a plain of black dirt. There were no trees for miles around him, no grass or shrubbery either. The ground was flat, so flat that it looked unnatural to the boy who looked around in every direction. He then turned straight to the east again at the massive yellow wall straight in front of him. Ben's gaze lifted up the yellow wall that curved away from him the higher up he stared.
The wall in front of him was not solid but translucent and looked to be made of some sort of energy. He followed it around the edges and saw it curved miles to the north and miles to the south of him. It's a giant dome, he thought, kind of like Metropolis. Ben lowered his gaze to the part of the wall straight in front of him. They could kill me just by my walking in there. How could Kryptonians be so different from Superman? He started walking towards the dome and took a deep breath as he neared the barrier surrounding the city. Through the barrier he could see a couple of nearby buildings over five stories tall, though none of the buildings looked like any he had seen before. There were domed roofs and tall pillars and strange curvy sections of buildings that he could not tell if they were make of glass or just some type of reflective material. Zodd. The strongest Kryptonian. I need him to be able to do this.
"All you have to do, is kill everyone close to you." What did Cartman mean by that? Can he really see a future like that? Where I kill my friends and that somehow lets me beat the King? Even if that future exists, what would be the point of killing him if everyone I cared about was dead? If everyone I loved was dead, I, wouldn't want to be alive either. He hesitated a little as he thought it, but a world where all of his friends and family were gone- it was too hard for him to even think about. Focus, he thought as he got even closer to the giant yellow wall.
Ben stopped when he was thirty meters outside of the wall, even though tall buildings did not even start for a couple hundred meters past that. Through the translucent barrier he could see some small buildings with a lot of open space around them that Ben considered might be used for crops. At this close a distance, Ben could not see the top of the yellow wall, nor the sides, but when he was farther away and still flying he got a good look at the entire barrier. He knew that it was a massive dome rising three miles into the sky, and wrapping dozens of miles around Zodd. Ben got closer to the yellow wall in front of him, but he winced and pulled back as from that close, the wall got really hot and stopped him from moving through it. What is that made of? Ben thought, examining the yellow wall closer. He was still over twenty meters away, and he grit his teeth as he took another step. I can't go through the main entrance. They might turn me away, especially with the reason I've come with.
"Alright Ben, you can do this," he muttered to himself. Ben took a few deep breaths, then he brought his elbows down at his sides and yelled, "AAHHH!" A white aura flared around him, and Ben kicked off the floor so hard that he broke through it. He clenched his eyes shut as the barrier got much brighter the closer he got, and even with his white protective aura around him, Ben could feel the heat getting more intense as he flew towards the barrier. I know it's cold out and all, but this kind of heating is ridiculous! Ben let out a yell as his skin started to sear, and then he let out a gasp as the heat was gone. Ben snapped his eyes open, and he could not see any yellow except in his peripheral vision, telling him the barrier was behind him. He lifted his head and looked above him to see the wall at his back curved over his head, and he followed that curve towards the center of the dome. Ben looked down once he focused on the center of the dome, and he saw a building towering into the sky in the center of the city in that direction, a building taller than all of those around it by at least fifty stories, and much wider than any of them. It had glass windows covering every single floor, and at the top was a huge domed section that was three times wider than the thick building already was.
"Alright Ben, I'll give you three guesses as to where I can find Zod," he smirked as he kept staring at that tallest building, then the kid noticed his hands were shaking at his sides. Get a grip Ben. You decided you were going to do this, alone. You didn't want anyone else here, in case this goes south… Ben calmed his breathing, and he looked around to see where he was. Like he thought but could not confirm from past the semi-translucent barrier, he was floating above a field of crops, and he suddenly spotted a man in the middle of the field.
The man in the field turned his head, and Ben found himself staring straight into the man's eyes. The guy lifted a hand, Ben got ready, and then the kid watched in mild confusion as the farmer waved at him. The man had black hair, and he turned back to his crops a second later and continued tending to them. Oh shit, Ben realized, and he looked down. Unlike Saiyans, there's not much to distinguish between humans and Kryptonians. No tails, no weird spiky hair. I wonder if brown is a natural Kryptonian hair color? The farmer doesn't seem to think I stand out, and I'm flying so that might be a reason too. Hope no one asks me to use heat vision or anything to prove myself. Damn, if I had the Omnitrix this would be so much easier. I could have really become a Kryptonian and then blend in when I need to.
Ben started flying forward towards the city before him, Well, if I can blend in, I might as well take some time to look around. Find out where Zodd is exactly so I can talk to him… yeah, yeah! That'll work! Ben wiped his forehead of some sweat and chuckled nervously to himself. Just gotta blend in.
A/N Zodd! Ben arrives in the city of the Kryptonians, named after their leader who the Wizard King told Ben about a few chapters back. Ben's on his own mission to figure out a way to stop the Ant King! With Ben gone, the number of people still at the Resistance HQ has diminished even more, and finally Natsu decides he wants out too. Usopp, Franky, Sanji, and Riku decide to go with him as they choose to go on a mission. Kirito starts up his training and becomes an "official" member of the Resistance, Gray continues planning out his assault on the Emperor, though he knows he can't bring Kirito along, and Dash says he's going to stay and work on his speed powers too. Stan is missing along with everyone else, but where did he go? Just finished up the next chapter before I started editing this one, so I'll be able to get it up tomorrow after my Kanji test, hopefully... Thanks for reading! Oh, and I don't want to do a list of all the characters again, (all the ones I don't own btw), but I will mention a few. Keith Shadis is from Attack on Titan, the drill instructor (and I took his personality more from the abridged series, though he's kind of like that in the actual show too XD). Then I added Danny Rand (from Marvel's Iron Fist), and Alex Danvers (from Supergirl, Kara's adoptive human sister). So a few new characters, some new plans for our heroes, and it's still the first few days of the month! Hope you enjoyed!
cyber chapter 110 . 9h ago
cant wait to see what happens next with fighting the sith
It's coming... and if you're that interested, bet you'll look forward to the next chapter- Nexus Heroes Will Rise 16.4 Sith! XD Thanks for the review! 'Till next time everyone!