Chapter 14- All of Infinity in the Palm of my Hands (Complete)

I braced for impact, and when the light came towards me, I decided to do something stupid. You see, Kelex and I had done a lot of digging into Kryptonian physiology and just what made us so powerful. So the first thing we had to note was where exactly our strength came from,. There were different continuities with loads of different explanations for just what made us so physically mighty. The most fascinating was the one were all the Kryptonians were actually just powerful psychics who could easily express it with strength and speed and what not. Unfortunately, my body wasn’t blessed with the gifts from that continuity. Instead, I was more like Superboy from canon dc. The reason I was so strong was because I had tactile telekenesis. It never mattered before today. After all, all it did was make me hit things as hard as I want, and lift basically as much as I wished. But it also explained a lot. 

It was why the building hadn’t just collapsed around me when I’d hurled myself into a section of it and began trying to keep it upright. Physics dictated that the entire thing should have just continued falling apart from the part I was holding, but superpower bullshit meant I could do it. That was what I was hoping for now. More superpowered bullshit. I knew it wouldn’t hurt. Nothing had been able to hurt me for a very long time, but it wasn’t about me. I was invincible but that didn’t translate well to the city that I called my own right behind me. I lifted my hands towards the beam, and I prayed. Not to any puny god. But to myself. I could do this. I’d done whatever I set my mind to, and this would be no different. 

The beam hit, and just as expercted, my bare hands were somehow holding it back, preventing it from making progress. Sure, it strained at my strength a bit, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Guess it’s time to return to sender, I thought to myself as I begin straining an d flying forwards, heading right to the ship with its beam clutched in my grip. 

I couldn’t hear them from here, but I was sure the people on the Mothership must have been shitting their pants. At least, that was until two more beams joined the one I was holding. It was abrupt as the force I was straining against almost certainly tripled between one second and the next. All I could see was the light from the beams as I held them back. I fought and strained against it, but I could feel myself losing ground. It wasn’t fast, but it was noticeable. I could feel it, and I was sure their sensors must have told them the same. I struggled. For the first time in this life, I pushed at something with all my strength, but I wasn’t winning. It wasn’t giving. I was losing ground. I wasn’t strong enough. Minutes passed, and I was already out of space, being pushed into the planet’s atmosphere. New Kylos was going to die here, and it would all be my fault. Because I wasn’t strong enough. 

I was pushed back even further. I was sure of it now. This attack would be a planet buster when it finally hit. I could survive. This wouldn’t be enough to kill me, I knew as surely as I knew my name. But it would kill everything else. AIKO, the Kylosians, Ovette, Drax, Komori. Fuck. Komori. So young and so full of life. She brought new strength to my bones. I couldn’t give up here. Not when her life was at stake. 

“Ahhhh” I screamed to the heavens as I pushed against the beams, but it was all for naught as I didn’t even manage to gain any ground. I was only able to prevent myself getting pushed back for a few seconds before the beams continued their journey with me as a minor slowing impediment. 

“Is there anything that can be done?” I asked AIKO through my earpiece, struggling to even recognise the voice that came out of my own ears. 

“Nothing. I’ve been trying to design some new shields, but nothing we have ready would work against an attack of this magnitude” She said to me. I nodded to myself, unsurprised. 

“Make a copy of yourself. Preserve only the essentials. There is no time for anything else. Send it out into orbit on a small drone the moment you finish. I’ll hold this back to give you time.”

“Captain?” She asked back, confused. 

“New Kylos dies here, AIKO. But this needn’t be your end.” I said to her, still struggling against the attack. We’d enter the city’s skyline anytime now.

“Artificially Intelligent Kylosian Organiser. That is the name you gave me, Captain. These people are as much my people as they are yours, and I will not live without them. A good vice-captain must go down with the ship, nay?” She said. 

She was resolute. Her mind was made up, and that was her decision. Sure, I could order her to do as I said, but that wasn’t me. Not the kind of person I ever wanted to be. 

“It’s been an honour having you then, AIKO” I said, saying goodbye to her. 

“It’s been an even greater honour serving you, Captain. Avenge us.”She said, and I nodded. 

It was sudden. Sudden and abrupt. In the space between seconds, the force pushing down against me reduced in power. By at least 30%, I estimated. And then it happened again. What’s going on? I thought to myself. The answer came quickly as I began flying back into space, the suddenly reduced attack doing little to hinder me. 

And then, my vision was clear as even that remaining beam disappeared. I stretched my vision for the Kree ships in space, only to catch the last few seconds of their retreat. They disappeared in a hyperspace jump, and as I flew upwards I was met with the brightest humanoid I’ ever seen. She shone like the sun.

“Heard you needed some help” Her voice rang out.

My eyes took a few seconds to adapt, filtering out the excess light to get to the woman beneath. 

Wearing a blue suit with white and red ascents, it was obvious who she was before I even looked at her face. Her long blonde hair made it even m ore obvious. Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel. 

“Thank you” I said to her, barely managing to get the words out as I realised just what had happened. She’d saved New Kylos and everything that I’d built here. She’d saved me from losing nearly everything. AIKO, my friends, Komori, my people, everyone I’d grown to hold dear in the last year. They were all saved thanks to her intervention. 

“I don’t think I can thank you enough” I said to her, continuing to talk. 

“Oh you definitely can. I heard about you. Killer of Ronan the accuser. They say you’re like me, and I see it. Holding back an attack like that is impressive. Definitely beyond anything I’ve ever seen before” She said. 

“If you want to thank me, do it with action and not mere words” She said further, pressing. I could tell she was about to ask for something. Maybe something that would even be difficult for me to deliver, but in this situation, I wasn’t going to hold back on her. 

“Whatever you’d have of me, I’d deliver” She said. 

“Good. The Kree Empire is stirring again, they’re moving and sending feelers across the universe. The prevailing theory is that they want to resume the war with Xander. You’re strong. A hand like yours would be useful in the efforts to take them down, Ronanslayer” She said to me, flying forwards until we were so close that I could reach out and touch her. 

I was being manipulated here. I could see it plain as day. It was unlikely that she’d arrived just in time to help me at the last second, but what was more likely was that she’d sat around waiting for the opportune moment. By only interfering when it was clear that I was already lost she made sure to amplify whatever feelings of gratitude I had towards her. It was manipulative, plain and simple. But I couldn’t fault it. At the end of the day she’d saved us. 

She’d saved New Kylos and I owed her. Besides, I could see what was in it for me here. The Kree had attacked me once. What were the chances that they wouldn’t do the same again. I’d killed Ronan, and now with Marvel’s help sent them packing with their tails between their legs. They weren’t going to leave me out of it, so why not take the fight to them directly. And even apart from that, the Kree had almost succeeded in taking everything from me. They’d failed only by a hair’s breadth. I’d never give them that opportunity again. 

“I’ll help you take them out” I said, “but Xander will owe me concessions for my help” I was trying to at least gain something out of the situation. A great man once said that life wasn’t about the difficulties you went through. Everyone goes through difficulties. What separates the great men from the rest of the rabble is what they did with the setbacks. And I was going to turn this setback into one hell of an advantage at the end of the day. 

“You can negotiate that with them. When will you be able to leave? I assume you’d need a ship to keep up” She said to me. 

“I just need a week to figure things out here and make whatever plans I need. As for ships, I have a few.” I told her. 

“Of course, New Kylos extends her hospitality to you for that period” I said to her, gesturing towards the planet. 

She looked down, appearing to be tempted for a second or two before she wiped the look off her face and straightened up. 

“Thank you, but I do have to be going. There’s a few things I still have to look after in the meantime. I’ll return in a week” She said, and I nodded at  her before she turned around and flew off in a burst of speed, leaving behind nothing but a halo of light that I could see. 

“Did you get all that, AIKO?” I asked as I began my slow descent towards New Kylos

“Every last word, Kal. So we’re going to war” She said, and I nodded. 

I was foolish and shortsighted. I knew the tales of me killing Ronan would spread. I knew the Kree would find out, but I was content with meh anonymity. For some foolish reason, I’d trusted the collector. I’d given Carina near free reign to travel New Kylos, secure in the knowledge that I’d wipe her brain of all the memories when it was time to send her away, but I’d never expected her to be used as an inside tool to get at me and my people. I’d been outsmarted by the Kree and Tivan, and I’d make them pay for it in blood. 

“Yes we are. This time, no holding back. We must make sure the galaxy knows what will happen should anyone get stupid enough to try this” I said to her. No one messed around with Thanos because the mad man had drowned countless planets in blood. He was left on his own to do as he wished because everyone agreed that messing with him just wasn’t worth it. That was the kind of notoriety I needed for myself and the System I’d chosen to call my home and reign over as King. I needed to be untouchable by the Galaxy’s elite, and this would be the very first step to getting there. 

I didn’t pay attention as I flew downwards, lost in my thoughts as I was. If I did, I’d have noticed that practically every single one of my citizens was outside, waiting for me as I flew down. 

The applause was what got me first. The sound was rapturous. Thousands applauding all at once, echoing all across the small city I’d made for myself as a Capital. I looked down to see Ovette leading the applause. She looked proud to see me, but it wasn’t just her. I looked across the gathered faces and where I expected boredom or indifference, I saw nothing but gratefulness, pride, and strangely of all, devotion. 

XXXXX

With one week to prepare my Kingdom from my departure, I was forced to move quickly. The very first day was gone as AIKO had insisted on hosting a celebration once we were able to get everything, including the defences up and working again. It was a waste of time, but I couldn’t deny the morale boost that it brought. It also gave me the opportunity to meet the people I protected and claimed as my own. The death toll had come in from the collapsed building but it ended up being that we only lost a couple dozen and not the hundreds that I’d expected.

 The Kylosians were a hardy bunch but we had medical supplies aplenty to deal with the injured. Instead of allowing the Kylosian healers deal with it, I’d rolled out a piece of tech I’d been sitting on for a few months. Bacta tanks like what they had in Dragon Ball Z tailored to Kylosian DNA and genetics. The Bacta tank was one of the most interesting of my ‘inventions’ as instead of coming from a place of technology, it actually came from the Kylosian’s primitive methods. 

The reason their healers had been so effective was because of a plant that grew naturally on Kylos. It secreted a sap that when applied to wounds greatly sped up their regeneration and healing. Burning and inhaling it could even help treat all but the most severe of illnesses. With that kind of cheat code, all I had to do myself was isolate the elements that granted the plant the healing properties and find a way to reproduce them artificially. From there, creating a tank that allowed those within to be completely consumed by the essence of Dittany, for that was the name the plant had been given, had been easy. They’d seen it and looked at me like a Wizard when they had actually had all the tools available to them for centuries. 

The healing of the injured was sorted with the Bacta tanks, so all we needed to handle was the mourning of the dead. Thankfully, Kylosian culture provided for celebrations of life over mourning of death so I didn’t have to pretend to be in mourning for people I’d never known nor cared about beyond their existence as numbers on a spreadsheet. The party to celebrate our survival was just extended to include a celebration of the lives of those who had passed in the attack. It was for the best.

And then I’d been forced to figure out everything I needed in six days. AIKO was going to be in charge in my absence, formalising what had essentially already been the case. Sure, she ran decisions by me before making them but I almost always just said yes to her suggestions and running things by me was a formality. While I spent my time in the lab tinkering or trying to work on some advancement or the other, she was the one who was actually with the people during the day to day.

With the succession in place, the next matter to handle was the defences. Where before I’d been reluctant to go overboard on the design of the anti-spacecraft weapons, I was now given all the motivation I could ever need. The first thing I had to do was prepare the shield planets. I’d already terraformed both planets on the edge of the solar system to host the defences for the rest of the system, but those things had to be dialled up to 11 now. First of all, I installed cannons. Artillery canons powerful enough to shoot spaceships out of orbit from the ground level, that is. And then on top of that I included powerful repulsers strong enough to tear holes in the moon on the body of each canon for when they needed to recharge. Both planets had been emptied and hollowed out for the most part so I could replace the core of the planets with giant Arc reactors. The fog was the only way I could manage to get that done in a week, but most of the other defences would have to be completed in my absence. It had taken three days to complete the Arc Reactors, and in that time the only other thing I’d been able to find the time for was outfitting the fleet I’d be taking with me to Xander. My personal power couldn’t be the only thing notable about my Kingdom, so I was taking twelve of the most powerful ships when it came to weaponry, along with my flagship, the Death Star. Each one was about the a quarter of the size of a Kree mothership, but they could punch well above their weight class when it came to armament. And the Death Star was the most powerful of them all. She had a few surprises that I couldn’t wait to debut on the big stage. 

 The other thing I had to work on to ensure the safety of the system was hyperspace shielding. AIKO had been going through the data I’d reclaimed from the Kree systems on the Dark Aster and had been the first to figure out that most Kree planets had some form of shielding or the other to prevent people from just popping out of hyperspace right on top of them. The only problem was that I had no idea how to even design something like that, but I knew that there would be someone who had access to that information, Kelex. 

I’d not gotten to see my best friend in years. I guess it was time to make a trip to Earth. 

A/N; Yes. Yes, I just did that. I did it. Now what do you think? Chapter complete. Not spell checked or edited just yet so please be forgiving.