Taking his first step into a new world, Brandon found himself stumbling as a strange feeling engulfed him. 'What is this? Could it be an aftereffect?' At first, he imagined that it was that common trope where space travel disorientates people, but that just wasn't it. He didn't feel sick nor was he dizzy in any way.
"Intruder! Kill him!" one of the Flaxans shouted.
Hearing the scream, Brandon tried to ignore the sensation. The Flaxans were coming, and he couldn't be distracted. So in one fluid motion, he prepared to meet his enemies, but that's when he noticed something strange.
"Why am I so slow?"
He moved fast by human standards, but this was nowhere near the speed he intended. Not by a long shot, and this was evident by the fact that the Flaxans were able to keep track of him.
"Fire!" With their guns drawn, they aimed right at him.
PEW! PEW!
"Agh!" Brandon grunted upon being hit on one of his shoulders.
Pressing his hand on the burn, he flinched in pain. "Wait, it hurts?" he questioned, not even believing his own words.
Taking his hand off, he glanced at it and saw something he hadn't seen in a long, long time. Something he expected to never see again the day he learned he was a Kryptonian.
"I'm bleeding…"
This shocking revelation made him realize the gravity of the situation. Taking quick cover to hide from the blaster fire, Brandon proceeded to think about what it could be. It couldn't have been their weapons. He'd been hit by them before, and they had no effect previously.
Which meant it had to do with this world, the atmosphere, the gravity, something about this place was different. It was affecting his abilities, slowing him down, making him vulnerable. Looking around, he tried to find what could be different. However, all his questions were answered with a single glance at the sky.
Floating high above, almost mockingly, was a large red sun. Just looking at it made him feel weak. "Dammit, if I knew these guys had a red sun, then I never would have come!"
A red sun wasn't deadly like Kryptonite and Kryptium, but it still had its fair share of disadvantages. Underneath its light, Kryptonians would become regular mortals, and in his current situation, that was quite dangerous.
"Quickly, surround him!"
Hearing the foreign language immediately put Brandon back on alert. He didn't understand their words, but it wasn't hard to imagine that they wanted him dead.
Turning back to where the portals were, Brandon found his situation becoming more dire. The portals were making strange hums that they originally didn't make and seemed to be closing slowly. Meaning if he wanted out, he needed to do so now.
"Fuu haa, breathe in, Brandon. It's not all bad… I can do this." Thinking back to his earlier speed, it was clear that Brandon's strength wasn't completely diminished. The only reason he still had strength beyond regular standards was Because of the energy he'd been absorbing on earth. But inside Brandon could feel this pool of power slowly becoming polluted.
Gritting his teeth, he launched himself at the nearest Flaxan, dodging another volley of blaster fire. He slammed into the alien with a powerful punch, sending it crashing into the ground. The others didn't take kindly to seeing one of their own killed like that and reengaged with heavier amounts of fire.
Having more lasers coming his way obviously made things much more difficult and not all could be completely dodged. So Brandon had to take the blasts in areas he knew were non-vital all whilst killing as many as he could.
.
"Dammit, why won't this creature go down? It's riddled with holes! You, go get the tanks and armor," the leader with a scar on his eye commanded. Before noticing a familiar soldier coming up to him.
"Sir, that's the enemy I mentioned before. The powerful one! But something seems wrong, he seems weaker somehow."
Hearing this, the leader looked slightly surprised. 'Weaker? Could these aliens also be weak in our environment, similar to how we are weak in theirs?' Unknowingly, the leader confused Brandon for a human due to how similar Kryptonians look and had made a wrong assumption.
'Perhaps if we capture this one, we may be able to learn what it is that harms them and weaponize it for the next invasion…' Feeling that such a plan could work brought a large grin to the Flaxan's face as he saw this annoyance as an opportunity.
"Switch to non-lethals, I want that Earthling captured!"
.
Brandon had no idea what was going on with the Flaxans at the moment and charged ahead with only a single goal: escaping through the portal. He wasn't far now and only needed a bit more to go, but the enemy clearly did not want to let him leave as they did everything to stop him.
They just wouldn't stop and were even willing to engage him physically despite there being a clear difference in strength. He didn't particularly like this species, but he had to admit that they were brave.
ZZM!
"Ugh, what was that?" Turning to his side, Brandon found a small hook lodged into his skin that had electricity dancing around.
ZZM! ZZM!
Hearing the familiar sound, Brandon felt two more get lodged into his back as they released shocks throughout his body. "Shit, they're slowing me down!"
Looking back, he gave the three a glare before he took hold of the wires and yanked them to him. The Flaxans came flying with fearful expressions that left a bitter taste in his mouth, but he didn't have time for pity. With a swift motion, he used a jumping roundhouse kick to fling them toward another batch of incoming soldiers.
ZZM! ZZM! ZZM!
"Argh!" Stumbling forward he proceeded to do the same maneuver but he knew things clearly couldn't continue this way. He needed a way to protect himself as he charged through and he had just the idea.
"Quickly Fire more, don't let him stand!" Following the command the flaxans encircled Brandan from all sides before releasing more shocks.
Unfortunately for them, Brandon had made himself a makeshift shield in the form of Flaxans. With two on each hand, he rushed forward and burst right through.
"Yes it's working and the portals right here!" Brandon cheered as he made a break for it.
"You fools turn that thing off! Why is it still on?!"
The two scientists that had originally been watching realized their mistake and quickly got to it but it was too late. The foreign invader had slipped through their fingers and left back to his world.
The leader gave the two a deep glare that made them shiver before looking back at the portal with a stern gaze.
.
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Back on earth, the GDA clean-up team was already hard at work cleaning up the wreckage of the battle. This was common practice after superhero fights and one that proved to be a necessity with how badly things went on some occasions.
Amongst the clean-up crew was a Robot and Cecil who walked around accessing the damage while also sharing what they knew.
"This was no victory. Do you know how many people died? 338 and it only stopped there because whoever did this ran away"
"The flaxans… that's what they called themselves. I reverse-engineered their language"
Cecil raised an eyebrow at this. It was useful but not what he needed. "We'll any idea why they left?"
Robot was about to explain his theories when a notable commotion occurred in the distance. In response to this multiple soldiers suddenly became visible as they surrounded Cecil in a protective manner.
"What's going on?"
"A portal reopened we think they are coming back"
"Not good! Most of the personnel are non-combatant I want this area clear"
The squad leader nodded as more soldiers appeared and ran to evacuate the others. "Come on robot you said you know their language I think we should give them a chat"
"It's illogical to assume they'd listen"
"I know but we might learn more so come on"
Robot didn't refute that and went along as they arrived before a familiar portal. Along with them were some soldiers who had taken tactical positions all along the sides. Ready to fire the moment they saw any sign of danger.
"Here they come" Cecil commented in response to seeing the portal flicker to life as it released a hum. All the men grew tense as they aimed along with robot who was prepared for anything but all this slowly calmed down once they saw who it was.
"Ultraman you've returned but what happened to you?" Robot asked as Brandon's appearance came into complete view.
He'd seen the recording and had studied Brandon out of interest several times but in each recording, he was never injured. If anything he might've had a bruise but such damage would heal within seconds.
But now… the man in front of him was riddled with burn marks. Random holes littered his skin and the circles beneath his eyes showed clear signs of exhaustion.
Cecil off to the side also watched this with interest. He more than anyone knew how hard it was to get a DNA sample the hero seemed almost impossible to hurt. Well almost impossible this had clearly changed.
"I want him on a stretcher pronto and get our best medics on this now!" Cecil called out as personnel were teleported in. However, Brandon's eyes glowed crimson halting all approaching medics.
"They are just trying to help you, no need to be hostile" Cecil said as he tried to defuse the situation.
"No need I'm already healing"
A medic was about to object and declare that he shouldn't be stubborn and accept help but he froze in place as he watched the burns fade away. It was almost like the wounds he had were an illusion. Everyone around watched this with fascination, especially Robot who took great interest.
"See I'm almost all better. Cecil, I'll be visiting later for a debrief but first I have somewhere to be" Floating, Brandon prepared to fly away but before doing so he looked back down and burned any drop of blood that may have fallen when he came through erasing any source of DNA. With that taken care of he left for a much-needed sun bath.
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"Gone just like that and it was probably our best chance at getting a sample" Cecil complained to Donald. It had already been a couple hours since Ultraman's return but he still felt bitter about losing out on an opportunity.
"Yes sir and his last actions seem to make it clear that he doesn't want his DNA in anyone's hands"
"Agreed he made that pretty clear"
"Umm sir I know this isn't my place to say this but do we really need his blood? Ultraman has been a great help so far hasn't he?"
"You're right on him being a great help but Omniman was also the same and we all saw how that turned out. I personally am not willing to risk that again"
Donald shut up after this because he knew this was still a sore spot for his boss. Omniman wasn't just a hero, he was a friend. After this, the two remained quiet for a short while before Cecil broke that silence to ask some more questions.
"Any clue on what might have caused all that damage to Ultraman?"
"So far sir we have a couple of theories but all would need a sample to test on"
"Sigh… of course. Let's skip that for now. How's the progress on bringing the immortal back?"
"Good sir. Remarkably Ultraman was right, all we needed to do was reconnect his head and his body began doing the rest. If we leave things as is he might be back within the week."
Cecil noticeably brightened upon hearing this. It turned out he didn't have to mourn one more friend after all. "How about War Woman and Red Rush"
"War Woman's wounds have mostly recovered. However, we are unsure of when she'll wake up due to us being unfamiliar with her origin. Red Rush on the other hand has been a bit of a problem. His legs aren't healed but he keeps insisting on leaving to be with Olga."
"Red Rush will heal fine without us just let him go"
"Alright sir, I'll notify her to come pick him up" With that said Donald recognized that Cecil had nothing more to say and left to go complete his tasks.
"The guardians need to heal fast… Most of all we need to be ready. Especially for events like today" Cecil said to himself as he watched a screen showing various crises happening all around the globe. He knew getting new teammates was a bit soon but time was a luxury they didn't have right now.