chapter 9: The Mission

Superman's visit was... quiet, for lack of a better word. We simply spoke about me and what I was doing there in Mars, what would I do, and the thing with Aquaman.

First, rather than tell you the entire converstation I had with the three, I'll sum it up. I told them certain things, basically actual truths twisted a bit:

-That I was a super soldier from another, more advanced alternate Earth, one that had been attacked by interdimensional invaders that wanted Sol's resources. We won, but I was sent here to make sure the invaders wouldn't try it again, only I ended up in their dimension.

-The Fortress of Doom looked liked that because originally it was a 13th-century keep that had been hastily upgraded. As for the name, one technician jokingly called it that and the nickaname stuck.

-I landed the Fortress on Mars because, frankly, it wasn't like Earth had yet to claim it (yet), and it was the perfect not-hiding place since only Superman had the means to get to it without a portal.

And I did NOT tell them certain other things, partly because they would have freaked out, partly because given how outlandish it seems, they might have not believed me, or might have not like it one bit:

-The 'interdimensional invaders' were demons from biblical Hell that wanted souls.

-The Fortress was neither from Earth, nor powered by technology alone. It was also armed to the teeth, but I had hidden the weapons before the arrived to not make them feel uneasy about me and my intentions.

-That the Fortress was protected by enough weaponry to turn New York to either glass or a crater in less than a minute. Fortunately, I had the foresight to hide them all, and neither kryptonian could see through the walls. I did tell them the constructions outside were defenses, which in fact they weren't, but when they complained about it I retorted I had every right to protect my house.

And then the three asked me what, exactly, I wanted to do. I think it's finally time I told you what I decided to do, which I hadn't complately told Superman.

My objective, the one not even you had an idea of? Protect Earth and its inhabitants from any and all threats that people like Superman couldn't, AND help them advance in the fields they had yet to progress. For the former statement, since I had yet to meet the native demons, and DOOM's hadn't appeared, this meant things like aliens, natural disasters, supervillains, and the rest. Why? Several reasons, the chiefest of them all me not wanting to spend the rest of my life here just stopping bank robberies and trains instead of doing something more impactful.

As for the advancement of mankind, I was just sick tired of Earth being invaded by significantly more advanced alien civilizations, enough that their military couldn't do anything to stop them and had to rely on Superman, and eventually the Justice League to repel them. True, it had only happened only once before I arrived, and given the nature of the invaders it was technically a demon invasion too, but the point remaine. No, if anyone dared to invade my planet, they would be greeted with the barrels of railguns, plasma cannons and lasers, weapons they already had, placed on armored, shielded spaceships. They would have to be mine, but still, you get the point.

Besides, even if Earth couldn't make a space navy before anything happened, with my intervention, they would still be able to defend themselves in some way. Like making orbital defense stations aimed towards space.

And yes, I did think of the possiblity of Earth's countries using anything new they made against each other, which was why instead of weapons, I would merely give them things that could not be weaponized... or were already weapons but had not yet 'civilianized', like nuclear fusion.

One of the things VEGA had built outside? A fusion reactor. Not for us of course, but to test something. What something, you will see soon, but it was also related to one of the projects I was inmersed in: human colonization of the solar system, Mars included. Not to get there since they already had the technology, but to live there: an already built reactor would smooth things out when they did. First, though, we had to see if engineers back on Earth had the capacity to build something similar, and they did; they just needed the right push.

You might be wondering, why bother if you can just stop any possible invasion by yourself if needed? Why not? They have the right to be able to defend themselves. Aside from that, as powerful as I am and despite the teleporting, I cannot be everywhere at once. Besides, it would also better their lives, not just their capacity to fight.

First, however, I had to fully convince the world that I was a good person, which, naturally, would be hard.

And it would end up becoming harder.

After the three went back to Earth, I had nothing else to do that did not involve stopping crimes and saving lives around the world, which for three days straight I did. At that point, the public had begun getting used to me, still calling me Green Soldier and otherwise still wondering what I wanted.

Look, I have to be honest with you, at that moment I was also growing a bit tired. Of what, you might be wondering? Of doing nothing but heroics for several weeks? Of being as cryptic as possible even when no one was here on Mars?

Nope, of being unable to kill anything without the public making it seem like I'm a monster.

I mean, I'm motherfucking DOOMGUY, and a soldier to boot. What was the point of having an entire arsenal of BFGs, enough strength to support an apartment block', and a wrist-blade the length of my arm, if I couldn't unleash such firepower on the wicked? I didn't even think of doing that to your common mugger, and not just for the public reaction, but if did kill, say, a serial killer by either ripping his head off or popping it with the assault cannon, people would still label me as a murderer, or at least a madman obsessed with the law or something like that.

So would Batman and Superman. I did not fear either of them, but as sure as Hell didn't want them against me in any way, ever. Interestingly, they only cared if I might kill someone or not, not if criminals I bagged died by either the chair or the shiv. That... didn't amount to much, but at least served to prove they weren't your cliché 'killing is wrong' parodies starring in many fics.

On the other hand, Joker was still alive despite having a killcount in the double digits. Oh, right, I forgot: he was 'insane' and required treatment that only Arkham could provide. Incidentally, Harley Quinn had yet to appear in scene, but doctor Harleen Quinzel was seemingly 'interested' in him. Yeah, interested. Don't worry, I had plans to get to Krusty the Killer Klown and make sure he wouldn't pose a threat to anyone permanently, but first I had to solve other problems before taking care of him.

Okay, let's get back to my problem. I did try to satiate my anger by asking VEGA to create a robot for me to fight and train with. No ripatorium to give demons to, well, rip and tear, so I had to do with what I had. Besides, I wanted to see if I could find some martial art that would befit someone like me, since as strong as I was, I knew that sooner or later I would end up facing as strong as me, and just brute forcing my way wouldn't cut it.

Long story short, I did find one: pankration.

I'm not going to explain you everything about it, so to keep it short is basically greek mixed wrestling where everything is allowed, up to actually killing the oponent, as long as you didn't step out of bounds, bite your opponent, or gouged their eyes out (sans in Sparta, because they were spartans). I even believe a maybe historical, maybe fictional match ended with one of the fighers gutted, and obviously killed, but victorious anyway because his killer put a foot outside of the circle. If you think that pankration doesn't seem to be an actual martial art, it still requires some skill to pull off, putting on stances and all that.

Or, to sum it up, brutal wrestling. VERY brutal wrestling.

Still, that only solved the physical fighting, not the dakka one. I had only used a weapon three times, and even then it was only the plasma rifle. I know, I know, I told you I didn't want to leave empty cases or used bullets for either secret agencies or Batman to find, but when you have that many guns displayed on your bedroom, and only holograms to train, you start having the need to shoot them at something that could die, and something that needed tungsten to be properly killed.

I really, REALLY needed targets that people wouldn't mind if they died... or how.

You may already guess where I'm getting at.

..........

Well, a completely dialogue-free chapter, and very possibly of lower quality than the previous ones. I'll try my best in the future, but expect more like this.

Question: how strong would someone with the strength of sixty vikings? Not related to the story, but I watched Beowulf and then read he has the strength of thirty men in each arm somewhere (well, hand, but the point's the same), and that made me wonder...