"A spaceship might be landing in New York!"
"?"
Again?!
Oh for fuck's sake!
Can't you just leave New York alone? What did New York ever do wrong?!
"Issue an immediate alert! Evacuate New York!" Nick Fury's face darkened as he gave the order.
In the heart of the city, sirens blared. The ever-present Sentinel robots instantly began helping civilians evacuate. No one would be trampled to death after a fall, and no one would get separated in the chaos.
A piercing shriek ripped through the sky. A red meteor streaked past the clouds, dyeing the heavens crimson. Then, a searing point of white light plummeted down and slammed into the ground with a thunderous boom, blasting out a crater.
Even New Yorkers far from the impact, who didn't see it, knew the moment they heard that roar that something had happened to their city again. Probably some freak. Those who did witness it ran even faster.
The shockwave from the crash howled outward, shattering windows on buildings and cars alike. Vehicles rattled, flipped over, and a cacophony of car alarms split the air.
"No! The car I just financed!"
"Aaaah! My Rolls-Royce Phantom!"
"My Bugatti Veyron! I picked it up today!"
A group of people wailed as if their hearts were being torn out, only to be swiftly carried away by Sentinel robots. Normally, such a stimulus would have made them sprint like mad, and later their descendants might have evolved to run even faster.
On television screens in countless homes, live footage of the crater played. The entire world was watching this sudden, uninvited guest.
Hssss…
White smoke cleared!
Inside the crater, a spherical craft slowly opened. A man clad in battle armor, with a tail wrapped around his waist, flew out.
"So this is Earth. Not a bad place. It'll fetch a good price."
Raditz sneered as he surveyed his surroundings.
His cold words reached every household. Everyone immediately sensed the malicious intent, though many were deeply puzzled: why do all aliens speak English?
Raditz's scouter locked onto a police officer holding a pistol.
"Hmph. A weakling with a power level of only five. Trash."
"Wow, an alien monkey. A new species. Maybe I'll get naming rights."
The one running his mouth was, of course, Stark. He never missed a chance to banter with an enemy.
Raditz turned to look at him. A number popped up on the scouter.
"Trash with a power level of one hundred."
Raditz scoffed.
"Sorry, but I'm pretty sure you didn't go through customs. According to international immigration law, you'll be spending some time in a cozy little cell until I contact your home planet, have them pay the fine, and then extradite you back to outer space. Now, pack your things. Remember to bring soap, body wash works too, or it's going to hurt."
Tony Stark spoke with a face full of annoyance. He had no clue what this "power level" business meant, but the contempt in Raditz's scoff and the sheer disdain in his attitude came through loud and clear.
"Shut up, trash!"
Raditz fired an energy bullet that blasted Tony Stark flying.
Luckily, Tony had already suited up in his Iron Man armor beforehand, or he would have been killed on the spot. Even so, Raditz's energy bullet was not easy to swallow; his nanotech Mark 90 suit lost over half its nanobots in an instant.
"Damn it!"
Tony was absolutely stunned by the terrifying force of the attack. Raditz, on his part, found it strange that the man survived. That shot had been a casual one, but even someone with a power level of 500 should have died.
"Earlier you asked who I am. I'm in a good mood, so I'll let you die with full understanding, instead of dying confused."
Raditz planted his hands on his hips. Though Tony Stark wasn't dead, in his eyes the man was still pathetically weak.
Hulk and the others had arrived by now but held back. Hearing the enemy's information could only help.
"You wastes of space, clean out your ears and listen up! I am a Saiyan from Planet Vegeta! A low-level civilization like yours that can't even leave its own home planet probably doesn't know what a Saiyan means, so I'll put it simply."
Raditz swept his arrogant gaze over the superheroes and declared loudly,
"We Saiyans are the strongest warrior race in the entire universe!"
"!!!"
The superheroes all sucked in a collective breath. They only knew about the strongest warrior races on Earth; this was the first time they'd heard of one in the universe. They didn't quite grasp the full implications, but damn, it sounded incredibly impressive.
Raditz ignored the stunned silence, a vicious grin spreading across his face as he looked at the green Hulk.
"So you bunch are the mightiest warriors on this planet! How convenient, all gathered together. You've saved me a lot of time. Once I slaughter you all, I can put this planet up for sale!"
"Hiyah!"
Raditz brought his hands together, then thrust them apart violently. Surging streams of air erupted from him in all directions, and the atmospheric pressure spiked sharply. A terrifying aura swept forth, whipping up dust like a desert storm and blasting it outward in every direction.
As Raditz kept releasing his power, the ground rumbled. Small stones, caught in the grip of his energy, broke free from gravity and began to float up around him.
"What the hell? An earthquake?!"
"He's so powerful… it's like facing a typhoon!"
The superheroes retreated again and again, hands held in front of their faces as they desperately tried to keep their balance. The enemy was far too strong, beyond anything they had imagined.
BOOM!
Raditz stomped the ground, his explosive leg muscles carving a deep crater. His body shot forward like a cannonball toward the group.
The largest figures, Ben Grimm, the Thing, and the green Hulk, became his first targets.
Ben didn't even have time to react before taking Raditz's punch head-on. He felt as if his face had been scraped by a blade; massive chunks of stone splintered off and he was sent flying.
The green Hulk reacted much faster. Having been tempered in countless battles now and having received combat training from Zod, Hulk was no longer the big, dumb brute who only relied on raw monstrous strength.
Raditz and the Hulk threw their fists at the same time. The oversized fist and the smaller one collided, a forceful impact that, after a moment of deadlock, exploded outward and hurled everyone else away.
Tony Stark tumbled across the ground, his nanotech suit mostly wrecked. Left with no other choice, he called for support from the Veronica system. Veronica immediately deployed fresh nanobot components to replenish his armor.
Raditz's swinging fists tore through the air like artillery shells. The crushing force and speed of his punches reached levels unimaginable to ordinary humans. They could even detonate the air itself, creating vacuums through sonic booms.
The Hulk took a blow head-on and was driven back more than a dozen meters, but rage made him grow stronger.
"He can actually raise his power level…"
Raditz looked genuinely surprised.
/-\
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