High Admiral Siendir frowned as he watched the readout.

What he saw…did not put a smile on his face.

“What is going on down there?!”

“Unidentified bogey intervened in the battle and wiped out the expeditionary force!”

“Bogey? As in singular?! What on Vokanus was Captain Shalled doing?!”

“We caught his signature right before that blast! Presumed KIA, sir!”

High Admiral Siendir clenched his fist. Losing four disciples, including a captain, to a bunch of primitives would not reflect well on him.

“Get me Captain Sildeth! I want to know how he managed to miss someone capable of this in his sweep!”

“Sir…Captain Sildeth is not responding.”

High Admiral Siendir slammed his fist onto the armrest of his throne, his eyes glowing slightly with the impact. Of all times for the Captain to be acting up…

He closed his eyes and focused his power. He sent out a psychic feeler for Captain Sildeth.

Naturally the Vophae could simply communicate telepathically at will, their only means of communication before first contact with the auxiliaries. But for the modern citizens of the Imperium such a thing was generally reserved for intimate and familial relationships only, or at the very least close friends. It was simply considered polite (and a sign of a competent entourage) to rely on the auxiliaries for droll communications. And it was considered the height of discourtesy to simply blare out at a distant acquaintance like the High Admiral did now.

But the Captain brought that on himself when he…

High Admiral Siendir froze.

He couldn’t find Captain Sildeth’s psionic signature…whatsoever.

Even if the Captain had simply left the planet he should have left a footprint behind that the High Admiral could have traced. But instead, the signature arrived on the planet…and simply stopped.

That could only mean one thing.

High Admiral Siendir straightened his back.

“...call off the attack.”

“High Admiral?”

“Call off the attack and blockade the planet. Nothing in or out. Send out a call to all my disciples, retainers, and allies. I want them in the system as soon as possible.”

“Yes, High Admiral.”

The High Admiral rubbed his chin.

A race that could take down that insufferable…and peerless…Captain Sildeth?

The risk of this operation…and the potential rewards…had just grown several orders of magnitude.

A red cloud twisted and formed in the air.

“Dad!”

Saydaa leapt at and grabbed Sadid the moment he appeared. He grunted at the sudden impact, then smiled and returned her hug.

“...I’m back, Saydaa.”

Until she started to grip significantly harder that is.

“Don’t. You. DARE do that ever again!”

Saydaa proceeded to express her love for her father in the best way she knew how.

Incredible violence.

But Sadid simply smiled as she vented her emotions upon him. Which of course created new emotions to be vented.

Meanwhile the supers of the ILS and AVS exhaled their breaths and fell onto their backs.

It was over.

They had won.

Suddenly Xiong Huang landed among them, shaking the ground. Bob walked up next to her, his helmet back on to conceal his face. Londyn raised an eyebrow at the armor suit standing next to Xiong Huang before sighing and walking up to the pair.

“...Xiong Huang was it?”

“I don’t recall giving you permission to use my name, mortal. You may refer to me as the Great Immortal Mistress of the Eternal Night Sect.”

Londyn held back her sigh. Today she had earned it.

That didn’t mean Londyn wouldn’t have to force the words out from between her teeth though.

“Ok…Great Immortal Mistress of the Eternal Night Sect…as the Director of the International League of Superheroes and on behalf of the United Earth Coalition, I thank you for your assistance in this battle. We would not have won without you.”

Xiong Huang frowned and crossed her arms.

“Save your thanks. This battle is not over. Not even close.”

Londyn paused for a second before tilting her head.

“I take it you mean…the fleet in orbit?”

“Obviously. Seriously, this is the director everyone goes on about? Doesn’t even use her eyes, much less what’s in-between them?”

Londyn’s left eye started to twitch.

“Obviously they’re a problem and we would like to take care of them as soon as possible. But in case you haven’t noticed…they’re in space and someone already used most of our space-capable missiles. Not to mention the shield we would very much like to stay in place. So obviously we’re going to regroup and rebuild. Maybe if we can reverse engineer some of this tech on the ground, we can start thinking about the fleet in orbit.”

Londyn glanced at the armor suit but there was no response, so she turned back to Xiong Huang.

“If you happen to be able to walk through space and punch a starship unassisted, then please be my guest. But the battle is over for those of us who can’t. Read: all of us.”

“You think I, the Immortal Mistress of the Eternal Night Sect, am going to let you sit on your butts and watch while I do all the work alone? You are courting death with your insolence!”

Londyn desperately held in her sigh.

“Do you have a spaceship? No? Then I don’t see how it can be helped. It’s impossible for the rest of us to even get up to space, much less fight there. So tell us, ‘Great Immortal Mistress of the Eternal Night Sect’, what exactly do you want us to do about it?”

Xiong Huang took a wide stance with her arms crossed.

“Just who the hell do you think I am?! I’m about to tell you something important, so listen up! The infamy of the Eternal Night Sect echoes far and wide and who is its immortal leader? That’s right! Me! The Murderous Bloody Fist! The one who surpassed the Ninth Realm and overturned the heavens! Impossible?! Don’t be stupid! Impossible just means something I haven’t bothered trying yet!”

She pointed up towards the sky.

“Those jerks think they’re safe, flying up in the heavens like that?! They think they can trash MY world and kick ME out of my own home?! Screw that! Even if the heavens forgive them, Xiong Huang of the Eternal Night will not! And you think I’m going to let you laze around on your sorry butts while there’s work to do? Anyone who stays behind is next on my list! So stop milling around and acting stupid, and get ready to knock these suckers out of our solar system!”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest again. As she did her qi flooded through her body, becoming a visible glow around her. Her hair began to flutter behind her as the wind picked up around her feet.

“The feelings in my chest are about to burst! My fist will break through the heavens themselves! All who would fight with me…all those who would defy the heavens for the sake of my friend…”

She slammed her fists together, sending a burst of qi surging across the field.

“LET OUR HEARTS BE AS ONE!”

Bob raised an eyebrow as his suit began to glow, power capacity blowing off the charts.

“Observation: Non-standard energy source attempting infiltration. Infiltration is…benign? Canceling countermeasures. Integrating energy flow into Mass-Energy Manipulation Array.”

Elise began to glow, qi surrounding her body and filling her circuits.

“I can feel it…what power. With this…I can finally be useful to Bob-sama.”

And then Nana.

“Heh, true power after all. Funny how things go.”

And then Kiyosuke.

“AHAHAHAHA! This is great! Oh, I’m going to enjoy this!”

And then Saydaa.

And then Arvid.

Who raised his eyebrow as his sword burst into light, shining like a star. He heaved a sigh.

“Looks like this will be one for the saga…”

One by one the members of Nemesis found themselves filled to the brim and beyond with power like they’ve never known. Wounds began to heal. Broken gear repaired itself. Each member was surrounded by a shield of qi, causing their bodies to glow brightly and float into the air…

“Oh? Ohhhhh?! I think I like this…”

Next Arachnalich began to glow.

And she began to cackle.

“With this…I can finally catch that…”

The glow started to fade.

“...that…alien fleet?”

The glow returned.

The spider woman heaved a huge sigh.

“Whatever, as long as I get to kill something…”

And then the power arced from her into the nearest monster, and the next, and the next, onto the supers of the SLF.

A chain of light raced through the AVS and all who followed it.

And then…

“Director?”

Londyn started to glow. She closed her eyes.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

And the light began to arc from her into the ILS.

Fainter than what had illuminated the AVS, but enough to leave each hero with a visible glow.

On and on.

Until it reached Miss Dayal. Her eyes began to glow as a tree grew under her lifting her high into the air.

“So you have learned to share…to give back. We have not forgiven your greed…but it is a start and we are in a good mood now. So today, the Earth will give as well! Go beat those jerks!”

And with that declaration, power surged back across the line, filling the members of the ILS until they too were glowing as bright as the AVS.

A circle of energy formed, spinning between the Earth and a single star no less bright. Thrumming, accelerating, growing stronger and faster with each cycle. And surrounding each link in the chain, filling them with power beyond imagination.

Then Xiong Huang leapt…

And pulled everyone with her, hurtling through the air. The Earth barely managed to open a hole in the planetary barrier before they blasted past…

And then everyone was in space.

“What the heck, bro?! We’re in space?! How are we in space?!”

Chronolock wanted to retort to her beloved and…intelligent…romantic partner.

But well, it wasn’t like she understood how they were in space either.

In fact most of the supers were just looking around with eyes wide open. Only Nemesis glanced at each other and shrugged.

“It’s that demo…the Great Mistress after all.”

“Resigned Acceptance: Calculations cannot determine how this is possible, but circumstantial evidence dictates events were not unpredictable.”

Kiyosuke just shrugged. And also turned to the side so the others couldn’t see his wide and trembling eyes.

Nana hoisted her gun and eyed the alien fleet in front of them.

Arvid…well, his sword was glowing so bright at the feat of reaching space that no one could currently see how the man himself was reacting.

And Bob just heaved a sigh, checking over his suit once more. Once upon a time he was just a guy in a mask. With plans and well-placed friends, but in the end just a guy. A minion even.

And now he was fighting aliens.

In space.

But well…

He glanced at Xiong Huang ahead of him, her qi shining bright like a star.

He allowed a smile to form.

This time…he didn’t find it that annoying after all.

On the Vophae’s side, Admiral Siender simply stared at the monitor in front of him.

The monkeys…

Were in space?

Without any sort of protective suit or space craft?

A race of their biological limitations and weak psionic potential?

He stared blankly, blinking repeatedly as he gave his orders.

“Well, go on, shoot them.”

“Um, yes, High Admiral!”

Well, they had done a number on the ground forces and the transports, and even took down Vophae in single combat but surely even these powerful beings couldn’t stand up to a fully kitted, top of the line warship of the Imperium firing weapons meant to take down battleships and devastate entire planets.

Right?

…he tried not to think about the implications of Captain Sildeth’s death. High Admiral Siendir did not retreat, after all, no matter the situation.

The fleet began to move, angling their bows towards the incoming humans and charging their main cannons…

And so the might of the Earth faced the dread fleets of the Imperium.