11 Prometheon

I flew closely above the water. I could touch it if I wanted to, but this was not the time to enjoy flying. After flying for a few moments, I stopped. The trail I left behind on the water slowly calmed down again. I hovered above the place where it had landed but I couldn't see in the water.

Although my vision wasn't perfect, something of that size would at least be noticeable.

I searched it above the water, but I was momentarily distracted from my search when I noticed that not far from my position Superman's radiant lifeforce had entered the ocean as well. He was a bit further towards the coast and it looked like he was heading even further to the coast.

I didn't think that it was a coincidence for Superman to have arrived just a few minutes after a humanoid meteor fell into the ocean.

Did we both mess up the coordinates or was the meteor moving. Well, considering that this was DC it was probably not a meteor, but if it was able to move it was either a living thing or a robot.

I frowned slightly. If Superman followed it, didn't that mean whatever that thing was, was heading to the coast? But for what reason? Either way, according to its size it would make trouble no matter its goals.

I couldn't help but grin at that thought. When I fled from the Preserver, I wasn't able to witness Superman in action. It would probably be a sight to see, so without hesitating, I decided to follow Superman's lifeforce.

It didn't take long until I was right above him. Suddenly Supes accelerated, I didn't think I had to mention that I followed him like a shadow.

I hesitated for a moment as I was contemplating if I should take a dip into the ocean. I still had some snacks in my pocket, and I didn't want to get it all soggy.

I shook my head. I would probably regret it more if I missed Supes in action. I quickly pulled out the pastries I had in my pocket and gulped them down in one bite before I took a deep breath.

After a deep breath, my weight seemed to have increased as my body broke into the water and headed straight down to the bottom of the ocean.

It quickly grew darker as the light had difficulties reaching the depth I had reached the bottom. Even though the sunshine barely reached here, my eyes couldn't be underestimated as it was still bright enough for me to see.

Even if I couldn't, I would still be able to follow Superman's lifeforce. In fact, I was able to sense the lifeforce of humans as well now that I was deep in the ocean. Like usual I had unconsciously ignored it when I was further away, but now closeup I finally recognized them as living things.

Suddenly without forewarning, Superman and the humans inside a submarine left in the same direction. I saw them slowly rise to the surface, but I didn't care anymore about them as I saw the thing that had fallen from the sky.

A giant creature that looked like it was carved out of black-brownish stone with glowing white eyes. A slow and quiet thumping could be heard coming from the creature's body as it strode across the bottom of the ocean.

It continued to head towards the coast. It was fortunate that its direction had been a bit off, otherwise, it would end up at Portland.

I had been under the water for 15 minutes by now and I wouldn't be able to hold my breath for much longer, so I decided to leave. I quickly broke through the surface of the ocean. My ki flared up and became visible as I started to accelerate towards the coast until my speed split the water below me.

I knew its direction, so I would just wait until it would arrive. Before I waited for it though I headed back home and gathered some of my lunchboxes in my fridge. My hunger grew the best of me especially since I whetted my appetite with my snack just now.

Who could blame me? I hadn't eaten since my patrol last night, and I had been training the entire time until just half an hour ago. I certainly didn't want to fight it when I was hungry. And yes, I had already decided to fight it, of course!

To be fair, it wasn't necessary to eat for me now, but since I decided to fight, I wanted to be able to bring out my a-game.

I entered the forest and searched for a highpoint before resting on a big stone to overview the coast where the creature would inevitably come out from and laid out my food, deciding to have a nice picnic in nature until it would arrive.

I had already hoped something like this would happen since I had arrived on the planet, with no luck until now. There had been some Kryptonians a few weeks back, but when I heard that they made trouble it was already resolved by Superman.

Maybe it was a good thing. I heard the two gave him a run for his money. If I had engaged them, I would probably be a smudge on the concrete by now.

I silently ate through my lunchboxes as I waited for it to appear. Too bad the creature now was probably not a living thing, otherwise I would have been able to sense it.

Well, it might be a living thing anyway, but since it didn't have a lifeforce a better guess was for it to be something else. I was betting on a robot or some other type of machine.

Though it was strange that I heard something akin to a heartbeat when I had observed it in the ocean. I could only shrug, maybe the heartbeat was its pipes pumping its fuel through its body.

I didn't really care too much about the details. I only wanted to fight or at the very least watch an entertaining fight. After an hour of eating and meditating the forest finally came alive.

The creature had finally reached the coast as it steeped out of the water and into the forest. Without hesitating I flew right at it. I couldn't tell if it was surprised to see me, but I definitely had its attention.

I cut the distance short almost instantly and kicked him in the face. Its head slightly tilted to the side as it counterattacked almost instantly. Its giant palm slapped me from the air into the ground. The few trees in the way were promptly snapped in halves as I headed to the ground until I skidded across the rough earth.

Even after stopping, I was still dazed, but on instinct, I forced myself to jump to the side when I noticed the sky getting dark. A moment later a giant foot crashed into the place where I had been lying.

It didn't seem to have realized that it almost trampled me to death as it had only eyes for a city not far from here. After shaking my head in an attempt to clear my blurry vision I flew up before I accelerated at it as fast as I could while ignoring my arching rips.

With full speed, I crashed into the back of its head with both my fists extended. Its head only slightly tilted forward before it took another step. It looked behind it, but I stayed out of its peripheral vision. Almost instantly it stopped searching for me.

Even after I attacked it with full force, it seemed unbothered by it as it continued its journey towards the city.

"Tch."

I flew around its head and in front of its right eye. I attacked its white eye with a spear hand, the attack powered by my ki shaping an invisible pointy end around my hand. My attack barely breached the topmost layer before my bastardized ki blade was stopped in its track.

I barely did any damage to its eye, rather than stay and try again I retreated as fast as I could. I used my right arm to push myself out of harm's way, barely dodging the giant's slap. However, it wasn't without sacrifice, it was able to brush my right arm with its palm.

I flew around to its back again and rammed my leg into the back of its knee, but it didn't seem to be too affected as it barely buckled underneath the force. However, that gave me enough time to retreat, though it didn't seem to bother to pursue me more than a casual slap. Luckily it only had eyes for the city.

I stopped on a slightly elevated rock. My forehead was already covered in sweat. I looked at the arm that the giant brushed against and found it bend the wrong way at my elbow. An unsightly sight, something that would have made me cringe as a human.

I snapped it back in place and took a deep breath which almost felt curative. I wouldn't be completely healed just because I reset it, but I refused to already retreat because of a little bit of pain.

Just as I was about to engage again, I heard something a few kilometers in front of the giant creature. I flew up to take a look and saw that it was the military setting up a defense line throughout the forest.

There were mostly tanks stationed around the forest. There were some heavy artilleries as well. The military certainly didn't wait long to react to these kinds of threats. That is if they didn't know it would arrive here, then their response was kind of slow.

For the first time, the creature stopped after being met with some tank shells from multiple sides. Missiles followed almost immediately. I couldn't help but frown. There was no way a simple missile did more damage than an all-out punch of mine.

Under this heavy fire, the several dozen-meter tall creature just stood there and took it all while looking incredibly intimidating. The attack lasted several minutes already, and it should have been clear by now that it didn't affect it at all.

The forest had already caught fire from the explosions, but surprisingly the fire was quickly extinguished as it was sucked into the creature.

It was absorbing the fire.

The military seemed to have realized that point as well as the shots finally stopped. My eyebrows raised as it finally moved towards a tank, making it fire as it retreated. I quickly formed a sphere made out of ki and headed straight for the monster.

"Let's see if you can absorb this!" I said as I flew towards him and flung the ki sphere right at the back of its neck.

With a mighty explosion, the giant's torso was completed enveloped. Just as I thought I did some damage the explosion seemed to be sucked away from the inside as it vanished into the body of the giant.

The giant released a roar and waved its arm. The resulting air pressure uprooted several trees and overturned tanks near its vicinity.

"What the hell?" That was completely unlike its strength a moment ago, I noticed. Did I make it stronger?

Seems like I should just refrain from using ki attacks, but without them, it seemed like I would do almost no damage.

Just as I hesitated, my face lit up for a second, not figuratively but literally. I glanced upwards and saw a familiar scene before it vanished behind some clouds. I was already banged up by two attacks of the giant.

I couldn't use ki attacks or I would empower it and if my fists barely did any damage, there was only one way for me to continue this fight.

Without hesitating any longer, I shot upwards and quickly broke through the layer of clouds. I looked at the full moon and felt the power rise in my body. It was incomparable to the times I transformed on planet Arva.

I was several times more powerful than back then, but fortunately, I felt my control to be almost steadfast as it was back then. I reveled in the power until I remembered that it would have been better to have entered the Ikari State instead, but it was already too late.

If I forced myself to stop the transformation now only to trigger it again to enter Ikari, it would take too much out of me to continue fighting with the force necessary to win.

When I finally reached the height of my transformation, I couldn't hold myself this high up in the air any longer and I plummeted to the ground.

I found the creature heading towards a factory of sorts and started to steer my fall directly at it. Surprisingly, I was more successful than I had hoped for as I directly landed on its head, burying it into the forest ground.

I jumped on its head for good measure before I felt it rise again, lifting me in the process. I quickly jumped back and around its body to its back while simultaneously coiling my tail around its leg and pulled on it.

With its arms on the ground, it supported its weight, preventing its head from hitting the ground again.

It looked over its shoulder right at me and tried to kick my tail with its other leg. I blocked it with my hand and then took both of its legs into my hands. I took a step backward and turned around from the hip as I dragged the creature with me.

I swung it in a circle two times, destroying the trees in the way before I threw it to a more barren landscape away from the factory it had approached. Before it could stand up again, I approached it as fast as I could. It turned towards me just as I stomped its head back into the ground.

It grasped my ankle and squeezed. I felt like it would snap any second, so I started stomping on its arm with my other foot. I could feel how my kicks were impacting its death grip, but before I could escape it, it just quickly stood up with my ankle still in hand.

Losing my footing I fell to the ground on my back. Then it was like the world turned into slow motion as I watched it raise its arm lifting me up in the process before my vision was filled with a rapidly approaching ground.

My snout scrunched up and I was almost certain I broke something. Just as I lifted my face out of the imprinted ground, I felt a foot pushing me deeper into the ground before the weight vanished again.

I looked at the giant that was still stubbornly continuing its journey towards the city or rather the factory. I stood up groggily and just started running. Without much of a plan, I tackled it and put my arms around it. I could feel the giant straining against my grasp around it.

I tried my best to drive my fangs into its neck with more success than my punches seemed to have. Its skin was warm, but it tasted like iron, confirming my previous guess that this thing was anything but a living thing.

Either way, without its head it had to be at least somewhat impacted, I thought as I continued trying to rip its neck into shreds.

At the corner of my vision, I saw a little – read human-sized – figure looked at me as he just floated there for a second.

"W-what? Don't -huff- you see that I am busy?" I said unintentionally intimidating, I realized. Not unlike the giant, I was several dozen meters tall, and my voice had deepened because of my size.

Besides, I had almost glowing red eyes, oh and I was a giant, anthropomorphic, monkey-like creature that was trying to bite a giant to death.

Superman seemed surprised when I spoke, but I ignored him for the creature that was still trying hard to escape. Superman seemed to consider something before he shouted something about a lake at me.

I didn't know why since the water didn't seem to affect this thing, but Superman wouldn't just spout some nonsense, would he? Besides, I had everything under control.

I didn't have much more time to consider Superman's words as the giant stomped on my feet, the resulting moment of weakness was enough for the giant to somehow get one arm free. It immediately and unceremonially slammed its elbow into my eye.

I stumbled backward as I clenched my eye shut in pain. At that moment, I just blindly swung at the giant. Fortunately, I felt the impact of my fist, but at the same time, I felt something hit my temple. The force was too much for me to keep standing and I stumbled to the ground.

I felt the trees in the way snap underneath my weight. I laid on the ground as it took me a moment to make the world stop spinning. I was only able to open one eye as I waited for my vision to slowly stop being so goddamn nauseating. My other eye was flooded with blood, and it just hurt too much to open.

Maybe, just maybe I didn't have everything under control. I only had to glance around to notice the two figures. The giant immediately stood out in this forest. Given its size that was unsurprising.

Superman had taken over after my temporary incapacity as he fought with the giant, I quickly made my way towards the two.

Superman slammed his fist into its cheek, making the giant stumble to the ground once again. By then I had finally crossed the distance and followed Superman's example and punched the giant's face.

Every hit we landed sounded out like cannon shots as we slowly but surely pushed it towards the lake not far from here.

Superman's attacks were the hits that almost sent the creature flying, while I was mostly tanking the giant's hits. My bones were already aching, and I felt like my arms would snap in half any moment now.

Luckily my attacks couldn't be disregarded by the creature as it became increasingly warier and decided to rather dodge more of our attacks than counterattack.

It didn't take long until we fought our way towards the lake. As we reached the shallow waters, Superman suddenly accelerated and dragged one arm over the creature's head, messing up its balance slightly.

Two planes were flying above us in a circle, no doubt belonging to Superman's plan of sorts.

At that moment, I obviously knew what he wanted to do. I pushed myself from the ground as hard as I could as I flipped and dropkicked the creature into the water.

I landed heavily just at the edge of the lake. I exhaustively witnessed how the two planes released two different colored liquids into the lake. The entire lake almost instantly froze to a complete ice block with the giant trapped inside.

I doubted that something like that could hold something that was as strong as the giant, but even after waiting for several seconds, it wasn't trying to break out of it. Maybe it had something to do with the chemicals inside the liquids?

"Good thing I didn't jump into the lake with it," I growled involuntarily.

I slowly struggled to stand before finding myself face to face with the man himself, who had his arms crossed which only partially hid the iconic S on his chest.

I raised my hand to slap at him while saying, "High five!" It was almost worth just for the panicked look on his face as he dodged. He stared at me angrily. I almost rolled my eyes. Wasn't like I had been smacked around a moment ago. Well, it wasn't his fault that I couldn't dodge the giant's attacks…

"Aw, don't leave a bro hanging. It's not like it would have hurt you." I said as I slowly started to shrink again.

After mastering the transformation that was something I managed to accomplish. If I wanted to, I could even prevent myself from transforming.

It usually comes with agonizing pain and was extremely exhausting, but it was possible. In fact, I had been practicing that way to enter the Ikari state.

I closed my eyes in the process as I silenced the savage thoughts and repressed my power. When I opened my eyes, I found the man I tried to slap into the ground hovering above the ground just in front of me.

His previous glare was quickly overshadowed by a surprised look he donned after witnessing me transform back into a 'human'.

Well, I guess that was what he thought. I mean that wouldn't be unreasonable to think of me as a werewolf-like meta-human. Honestly, that would have been my guess if I didn't know a thing about Saiyans.

In fact, that was something I could rather believe than an invulnerable person that could fly, shoot lasers out of their eye, and blow out ice while being unreasonably fast. A guy turning into a giant monkey-like creature? Hardly a competition in weirdness.

He approached me before finally landing on the ground just an arm-length away from me.

"Thanks for the help, Son." He said as he curiously observed me. Maybe my appearance humanized me more in his eyes? Who would have thought that he would be more on guard against an Oozaru than my normal Saiyan shape?

I shook the offered hand, "No problem." I saw a scientist approaching the two of us with armed military men in tow. They were still a fair distance away, so I decided to bolt before they could recognize me.

"I think I will leave the cleanup to you." I said before escaping through the air as I heard a surprised "Sure…" from the Man of Steel.

I had no intention of mingling with the military. In almost all superhero movies they were either xenophobic or just complete dicks. I didn't want to meet a scientist that worked for the military either. I liked my organs where they were.

Superman would have experience dealing with them, so he could handle them.

I flew to the ocean and decided to take a dip even though my wounds were burning because of the water. I wanted to avoid being tracked by anyone especially after being as high-profile as I was tonight.

Not that I could avoid having my hero identity connected to my public identity, but I could at least delay the inevitable.

It didn't take me long until I arrived at my home. After a quick shower, I dragged my tired and aching figure into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

I was startled awake and instinctively dodged to the side as I heard the glass break before a dull thud sounded out. It was nice that my instincts were still as vigilant as I was back on Arva. Where my head was just a moment ago, I saw the tail of a deeply embedded arrow with a letter bounded to it.

I squinted slightly as I looked out of the window, but I couldn't see anything. I didn't even pick up any ki signature other than those of normal people.

"Didn't I bring down the curtain last night?" I shook my head. I was pretty tired last night. I usually ignore these small routines when I just want to go to bed.

"Great, now I will have to replace my window…" I sighed before I went to the bathroom and leaned over the sink as I snorted out the blood that had accumulated in my nose over the night.

I looked at the eye that had partially swollen and a bad cut above my eye from the elbow I had received yesterday. My body in general was covered in bruises, especially the side of my temple, but I would live and only get stronger from it. I also had already corrected my broken nose, but it would take a few days until it was fully healed.

I then headed straight for the fridge and took out a lunchbox with my prep meal and ate it while watching the news.

Unsurprisingly, the battle between me and Superman against the giant didn't make it to the news. The only thing the news had reported was a forest fire that luckily extinguished by itself.

Probably either it was covered up by the military or it was too far away for the media to properly capture anything from it.

Either way, I couldn't care less. I called up Manny the manager of the organization I fought for and announced that I would back out of the weekly fights for now.

I already had enough money for now and I already felt like I wasted my time fighting these no-names. The time was better-spent training.

"…Didn't you receive the message from Lady Shiva?" Manny asked after getting the details of when I would return at my earliest.

"Letter? Eh…? Oh right. I forgot about that." I hung up before I headed back into my bedroom. I pulled out the arrow and read the 'letter'. I turned the paper, but it revealed nothing more but an address and a time.

I burned it with my ki before I headed down to my basement and started it up. I was far too weak in my base form. I didn't want to rely on my Oozaru transformation all the time, I would rather use the Ikari State instead.

It would be a necessary boost, especially the speed boost. Regarding that, I still need to get a feel for the Ikari State.

I could get into it with the help of a full moon or the power ball and a little bit of preparation, but I wanted to be able to trigger it whenever I wanted. I knew it was possible, after all, Broly had done it. Though maybe it was his unique physique that allowed it, I felt like I should be able to do it as well.

It would give me some leverage before I could turn into a Super Saiyan, I thought as I upped the gravity chamber to 12G and started to train how I always wanted to for the last 1.5 years. A back-breaking training routine that would result in Zenkais every single time I finished a session.

12G wasn't too much. In fact, it was a bit lower than what I had trained under the Preserver's AI, but now I wouldn't be restrained from using my telekinesis. It would give me the necessary pressure while simultaneously training my usage of telekinesis.

Honestly, telekinesis might not be as destructive as ki, but it was a versatile ability. If I had to choose any ability, other than the obvious three Omnis or other reality-warping abilities, telekinesis had always been at the top of my list. The movie Chronicles might have had an influence on my perception of it.

As I was training, I recreated the fight I had against this giant. I had run into it pretty blind. If Superman didn't bring his plan to the table, it would have been a slugfest until I had ripped the giant robot into shreds, or until I dropped out of exhaustion or both. It would have been glorious, alas it wasn't meant to be.

Speaking of Superman, it felt weird to me how he fought. I could feel the scalding power that was pulsating throughout his body like a volcano just waiting to erupt and lay waste to everything in its path.

Honestly, the thought of burning myself just standing too close to him had been crossing my mind when he was fighting around me.

However, despite all this power, the amount he had wielded to battle against the giant was miserable in comparison. He should have killed the giant like teen Gohan killed the Cell juniors.

The difference in strength was probably even more exaggerated, but the fight was closer than it had any right to be.

I obviously knew that not everyone could or was willing to wield a hundred percent of their power. Superman for that matter was famous for holding back. I put that thought at the back of my mind.

…

After training until lunchtime, I laid on the floor of my gravity chamber and just rested for half an hour. As I went for the shower on the ground floor my muscles wouldn't stop spasm with every step I took.

It was a miracle I had made it out of my gravity chamber, the stairs up, and into the shower. Even though my body was already aching and begging me to go to sleep again or eat, I decided to head to the city. I changed into something more casual before I made my way out in my car.

I parked my car and directly went to an Asian fast-food chain that I hadn't visited before. The only requirement I had was that it offered an all-you-can-eat buffet. I was banned in several restaurants already. Well, at least I couldn't order the all-you-can-eat anymore.

They didn't seem to mind if I paid for everything, though some had banned me regardless…

As usual, I ignored the freaked-out stares and just ate my fill. Afterward, I ordered some food and brought it outside before I distributed it to some homeless people. It was something I used to do every time when I moved to a different big city.

The homeless usually knew where it was safe to be around, and it was helpful when several of them came to your rescue when getting robbed. Even if that hadn't happened to me the night I was arrested, befriending them now wasn't without use. I wouldn't need their help in fending off some robbers, obviously, but they had ears and eyes everywhere.

Because everyone just ignored their presence, they sometimes knew more about the criminal operations than most criminals. I certainly didn't want to investigate the underworld myself again and it only cost me a few bucks anyway.

I waved their thanks off before I headed back home to put the rest of the food and drinks into my fridge. I knew I would need to change the criminal aspect of this city. I didn't want to fly around and search for some criminals to catch them red-handed as I did now.

It was fun the first few times around but even if I knew where the crime hotspots and gangs were located, it was still a time-consuming job.

Until now I had only heard about a few meta-humans running around and apparently, they hadn't joined any gangs, preferring to work alone. I needed to find a way to lure them out and it would be best if the normal criminals were huddled in one spot, so I could just walk to them without searching for them.

Still in thought about how I would organize criminals to gather around at a specific spot where I could just go whenever to harvest them as I pleased, my ki sense suddenly picked up an increasing lifeforce.

"Eh? Again?" I muttered as I looked up to see something enter the atmosphere. It would shoot above Portland and head further inland if I let it…

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A/N: Was Prometheon someone else before I had read the comments on my last chapter on who or what the meteor was? No, of course not…

Anyway, I have to announce some sad news.

I have a deadline to uphold on the 10th, so I won't be able to write much on the next chapter and since I don't have a backlog there won't be a chapter on the 13th.

So, the next chapter will only come out on the 20th. I am deeply sorry, and it irks me as much as it does for you.

I even wanted to cut the last 1000ish words from this chapter and just upload a 2k chapter next week, but I thought you would enjoy it more if there was a "cliffhanger" that will only be resolved even later than usual. 😊

See you on the 20th. :*