Arakko – The Escalation
The alarms of Arakko did not sound like those of Earth.
They were war horns, deep, ancient, vibrating through the red plains of Mars like the roar of a primordial beast awakening.
Across the mutant capital of Arakko, warriors stopped mid-task. Blades were lifted. Powers flared instinctively.
This was not panic.
This was readiness.
At the central terrace, Storm held Bei's collapsing body while lightning crawled softly across her fingertips, probing the anomaly.
The diagnosis came quickly.
Her eyes narrowed.
"This is not an attack on the body."
She looked at the others.
"It is an attack on the concept of the body."
Nearby, the living island-mutant Xilo extended rootlike tendrils into the stone. Their voice emerged from multiple mouths in the ground.
"Something is rewriting her existence."
The tremor in the ground spread outward.
Across the training fields, two more warriors staggered.
Then another.
And another.
One collapsed mid-swing, their gravity-manipulating aura flickering uncontrollably before vanishing.
Storm's gaze snapped upward.
The sky was calm.
Orbit Above Mars
Hidden within a carefully folded gravity well, Derrick floated silently.
His human form hovered cross-legged in the vacuum, expression thoughtful.
Beneath him, Mars turned slowly.
Inside the atmosphere, billions of microscopic spores drifted invisibly through the wind currents.
Each spore carried fragments of the Blacklight Virus.
But this was no longer the virus from its original world.
Derrick had fed it.
Mutants.
Demons.
Super soldiers.
The virus had evolved.
Now it learned faster than most minds.
And the Arakko mutants…
…were a treasure trove.
Derrick closed his eyes briefly.
His senses expanded.
Hundreds of minds.
Thousands.
Every mutation screamed information into the viral network.
Reality bending.
Energy conversion.
Biological weaponization.
Dimensional interaction.
He smiled slightly.
"This world is generous and I won't waste my chances here."
Then he escalated.
The ground beneath a fallen warrior split open.
Black tendrils erupted upward.
The tendrils wrapped around the mutant's body like vines.
The warrior tried to fight.
Their mutation ignited, superheated plasma bursting from their skin.
For half a second the infection recoiled.
Then it adapted.
The plasma was absorbed.
Studied.
Copied.
Within seconds the warrior's body dissolved into biomass.
The tendrils retracted.
In their place stood something new.
A humanoid figure formed from shifting black and red organic armor.
Its eyes glowed faintly.
It tilted its head.
Testing.
The copied plasma mutation ignited along its arms.
Stable.
Perfect.
Across the plains of Arakko, more bodies began to fall.
More assimilation nodes formed.
And with every new creature…
Derrick's awareness expanded.
Inside the citadel, members of the Great Ring of Arakko gathered rapidly.
Storm stood at the center.
Beside her were warriors who had survived wars older than most civilizations.
Among them:
Isca the Unbeaten – power: she cannot lose.
Sobunar of the Depths – ocean-dimension physiology.
Lactuca the Knower – perception of all space..
It was Lactuca who spoke first.
Her voice was calm.
"I have found him."
Every warrior looked at her.
Her eyes glowed faintly as she pointed toward the sky.
"He is not on Mars."
.
They went silent..
Then Storm realized.
"…he's in orbit."
Lactuca nodded.
"He hides inside gravity distortions."
Isca grinned slightly.
"Then we bring him down."
Storm shook her head.
"No not yet."
She looked around the chamber.
"We do not fully understand the enemy yet, on earth he was difficult to deal with and he... He killed Scott."
The room went silent again...
Outside, another tremor shook the city.
Screams echoed from distant training grounds.
The infection rate had just doubled.
Orbit – Derrick Notices
Derrick's eyes opened again.
He felt it.
Someone had seen through the concealment.
Interesting.
His gaze drifted toward the citadel below.
One mind stood out.
Bright.
Sharp.
Perceiving space itself.
He smiled slightly.
"Ah."
"A sensor of space and she's noticed me..... Well it's something I should've expected ."
Instead of hiding again…
He stopped suppressing his presence.
The gravity field around him collapsed.
His body floated openly in Martian orbit.
To the mutants below, he appeared as a small silhouette against the stars.
Human shaped.
Calm and watching.
Back on Mars.. Storm looked upward.
Lightning crackled around her instantly.
"There."
Across the city, thousands of Arakko warriors followed her gaze.
High above Mars…
A single man floated in silence.
Not attacking.
Not moving.
Just observing them and the chaos.
Like a scientist watching an experiment.
Storm's voice hardened.
"That is the invader, Derrick ."
Inside orbit, Derrick spoke quietly to himself.
"Now, attack …"
Below him, the first assimilated Arakko mutants rose from the ground.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
Each one wielding copied powers.
Each one connected to him.
He extended a hand toward Mars.
"Let's test the upper limits."
And the real invasion began.
The red plains of Arakko trembled beneath thousands of charging warriors.
This was not the peaceful mutant refuge Earth imagined.
Arakko was a planet of war.
Every citizen had been forged in the endless conflict of Amenth. Every child was raised knowing battle. Every leader was a conqueror.
Now an enemy had come.
And Arakko would answer.
Inside the war chamber, Storm stood before the assembled Great Ring and the strongest warriors of the planet.
Lightning flickered across her eyes.
She spoke quickly.
"The being attacking us calls himself Derrick."
The chamber remained silent.
Storm continued.
"He consumes biological organisms and integrates their powers into himself. On Earth he has already assimilated mutants, demons, and enhanced humans."
A low growl spread across the warriors.
Storm continued.
"His abilities include.. "
She began listing them.
°Super speed beyond Quicksilver
°Extreme regeneration
°Flight
°Gravity manipulation
°Viral infection and assimilation
°Energy projection
°Momentum amplification
°Teleportation
The room grew darker as Storm finished.
"He grows stronger with every fight."
A heavy silence followed.
Then one voice spoke.
Calm.
Certain.
It belonged to Isca the Unbeaten.
"Then he has already lost."
Many warriors turned toward her.
Storm narrowed her eyes slightly.
"Explain."
Isca leaned forward.
Her mutation was simple.
And terrifying.
She could never lose.
Reality itself adjusted to ensure her victory.
"If he is here to conquer Arakko," Isca said calmly, "then he will fail."
She smiled faintly.
"Because I will be involved."
Across the plains outside the capital city…
Hundreds of infected mutants stood silently.
Black-red biomass coated their bodies like living armor.
Each one pulsed with stolen powers.
Some radiated plasma.
Some manipulated gravity.
Some emitted sonic waves.
All of them were connected to one mind.
High above Mars, Derrick hovered in orbit.
His eyes glowed faintly.
Through the viral network he experienced hundreds of viewpoints simultaneously.
The infected warriors moved as one.
His voice echoed inside them.
"Begin."
They charged.
The warriors of Arakko met them head on.
No hesitation.
No fear.
This was what they were born for.
Explosions of mutant power filled the battlefield.
Stone manipulation.
Reality distortion.
Plasma beams.
Gravity spikes.
Arakko mutants ripped through the infected soldiers with brutal efficiency.
One warrior split a dozen infected bodies apart with a single kinetic shockwave.
Another created blades of living crystal and carved through a swarm.
But something quickly became clear.
The infected soldiers adapted.
Every time a power killed one…
The virus learned.
Within minutes the infected army began replicating techniques.
Plasma blasts were redirected.
Gravity fields resisted.
Stone constructs dissolved under corrosive biomass.
Storm watched the battlefield from above.
Lightning crackled across the sky.
"He is learning."
The sky split open.
A massive storm formed instantly.
Storm raised her hand.
Lightning the size of skyscrapers crashed into the infected army.
Hundreds of infected mutants vaporized instantly.
The battlefield became a burning crater.
But even as the smoke cleared…
New infected bodies began regenerating.
Storm frowned.
"His virus retains biological data even after destruction."
Then a new voice spoke.
Soft.
Calm.
It belonged to Lactuca the Knower.
Her power allowed her to perceive all space simultaneously.
"He is watching from orbit."
Every warrior looked upward.
High above Mars…
Derrick floated.
Observing everything.
Inside orbit Derrick watched the battlefield with growing interest.
Arakko mutants were far stronger than most Earth mutants.
And the Omega-level mutants were particularly fascinating.
Storm's planetary weather manipulation.
Lactuca's spatial awareness.
Sobunar's dimensional ocean physiology.
But one mutant confused him.
Isca.
Through the viral network Derrick had already attempted to infect her twice.
Both attempts had failed.
The virus simply… stopped working.
It refused to adapt.
He frowned slightly.
"That's new."
The battlefield suddenly went silent.
The infected army froze momentarily.
Because someone had stepped forward.
Isca the Unbeaten.
She walked calmly toward the infected horde.
One infected mutant lunged toward her with plasma claws.
Before it reached her…
The creature tripped.
Its own legs tangled.
Another infected soldier fired an energy blast.
The beam curved slightly…
…and struck another infected mutant instead.
Within seconds chaos spread through the infected army.
Their attacks misfired.
Their powers malfunctioned.
Their coordination collapsed.
High above Mars Derrick watched this carefully.
His eyes narrowed.
"Probability distortion huh?"
Then he realized something worse.
The virus itself began refusing to attack her.
The infection pathways simply stopped forming.
Even the viral hive mind hesitated.
Like reality itself was preventing the action.
Then Derrick accessed the memories of a recently assimilated mutant.
And learned her ability.
His eyebrows raised slightly.
"She cannot lose."
Derrick immediately understood the problem.
If he fought Isca directly…
Reality would ensure she won.
Which meant the virus might sabotage him.
Or worse.
The infection might turn on him to ensure the outcome.
For the first time since arriving in this universe…
Derrick encountered something that directly interfered with his evolutionary adaptation.
He smiled slowly.
"That's interesting."
Storm raised both arms.
The sky turned black.
Planet-wide storms formed instantly.
Lightning storms, hurricane winds, and electromagnetic chaos crashed into Derrick's infected army.
Meanwhile Sobunar summoned interdimensional ocean currents that flooded the battlefield with crushing pressure.
Lactuca opened spatial folds allowing warriors to teleport across the battlefield instantly.
Arakko was no longer defending.
They were hunting.
The infected army began collapsing.
Thousands of infected bodies were destroyed every minute.
High above Mars Derrick watched quietly.
Analyzing.
Calculating.
Then he made a decision.
"Time to intervene personally."
The gravity around him distorted violently.
Mars' atmosphere ignited with friction.
Derrick accelerated downward.
At hypersonic speed.
Toward the battlefield.
Storm looked up and immediately felt the shift.
Her eyes widened.
"He's coming down."
The ground shook as Derrick descended like a meteor.
Across the battlefield every mutant felt it.
A pressure.
A gravity distortion.
A predator entering the arena.
And even Isca the Unbeaten turned her head toward the sky.
Because the real fight…
Was about to begin.