Some armed forces quickly surrounded them and began charging their blasters before the general swiftly ejected and halted them.

  “General Lyanus sir!” The troop leader exclaimed with nearly teary eyed relief seeing the man that had saved the galaxy dozens of times standing in front of him.

  “Peacekeeper Paddius, never have I been more glad to see you, how is the ground looking? Are casualties high?” The General immediately questioned.

  “So far just contained to the central districts sir! But most evacuations have been unsuccessful there sir!” The troop leader said, barely holding back tears as he shivered in panicked terror.

  Lyanus clasped the man's shoulders.

  “Ease up Paddius, you’ve done a fine job. Now, last I heard one of the few centurion prime proto-types were stored in these barracks, am I right?” The General asked in a concrete tone.

  “Y-y-yes sir! But it was one of the early ones! Extremely powerful but unstable! It ripped the test subjects very own cells apart! You couldn’t possibly be considering… putting it on could you?” The man blurted out in a huff as calamity stormed on in the city scape around them.

  “Not for me… Drunkard! Are you ready for an upgrade?” The general asked with a slight grin on his face.

  Hans looked at The General, then to the massive flying behemoth in the sky then back to the general, then nodded.

  “You’re the only one that can seem to make a dent and bounce back.” The General continued.

  “Peacekeeper! Attention!” Another Peacekeeper yelled out as a small glider came hurtling towards them with black smoke pouring out from its wing.

  It landed roughly near the group of peacekeepers and galactic warriors, skidding loudly to a halt near them, losing bits of debris as it did.

  The cockpit hood was suddenly flung off of its hinges, smoke pouring out of the damaged craft.

  Out of the miasma came Iris with Therase in tow holding Edyn in her bosom.

  “Therase! Iris! What are you doing here!” Lyanus yelled in fright as he cradled his wife and child.

  “Our home Gladius, it was raided! If it weren’t for young Iris here we would have been killed!” Therase began explaining to Gladius whilst trying to calm their baby.

  “You are safe, that's all that matters.” Gladius responded.

  Hans ran to Iris.

  “Iris! You’re safe! Did you fly that? You killed the robed bastards?” Hans said in a worried panic.

  She looked confused, not accustomed to the level of care and concern shown to her.

  “It’s fine daddy… it was nothing. They were like bugs for me… I couldn’t leave these two behind.” She explained with a slight smile on her rubble stained face.

  Hans sighed with relief, a glimpse of pride showing in his expression as he hugged his daughter.

  She was surprised and slightly frightened but relaxed into her fathers embrace.

  Explosions bursting out in the fiery, storming hellscape around them brought the focus back to the impending apocalypse that was Vol Drung.

  Gladius told his family to stay close and follow his instructions before turning to Hans.

  “This armour might kill you but it’s the only chance we’ve got.”

  Hans continued to nod and lowered his gaze to his daughters eyes. They were staring right back at him but her head was shaking.

  “But I just found you…” Iris said with a melancholy tone.

  “And I just found you darling, but I won’t let you and the universe die, you make me care, and as long as you are here, I’ll do anything to keep you safe.” He said with resolute sober clarity.

  There was a moment of silence before the general nodded in a commanding manner.

  “Alright, Peacekeeper, lead us to the armour.” He ordered.

  The man led the group into the barracks, ordering his men to stay back and stand guard.

  They made their way into the barracks vault, held underground in a silo containing many weapons and utilities of mass destruction.

  “Whoa…” Bob’s pupils widened as he perused the apparatus.

  The group eventually made their way to a cylindrical containment unit with huge cables running from its top and bottom.

  ‘PRIME ALPHA I’ was the inscription on the control monitor attached to it.

  The general tapped the open button and then presented his hand print, suddenly opening the unit.

  It opened to reveal a jagged edged, asymmetrical full body armour piece that had glowing red lines lacing over and around it sporadically.

  “The suit changed shape after it malfunctioned on Centurion Whitten sir... before it killed him sir. Its bionics morphed due to the unstable coding.” The peacekeeper said.

  Hans walked right up to the suit, its red hued visor reflecting his face back at him.

  “Well, what are we waiting for?” Hans mock stretched with a wide grin as all the others looked at him in perplexity.

  “Strap me in and load me up baby! I’ve got some antediluvian ass to kick!” He exclaimed rambunctiously as he stepped up to suit and nodded manically at the General.

  The General let out an audible chuckle.

  “You heard the lunatic, begin the procedures Paddius.” He ordered.

  The bewildered peacekeeper tapped a series of instructive code into the monitor's keyboard, causing the suit to abruptly snap open, allowing for a person to be let in.

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  The spinal infusion chord, protruding out with a sharp needle that plugged directly into the brain.

  The General stopped Hans for a second with a hand on the back of his shoulder.

  “This will hurt more than anything you have ever experienced in your life…” the general looked back at Iris.

  “Almost anything, I just thought you needed to know before stepping in.”

  Hans nodded and kissed his daughter on the forehead, still smiling before stepping into the suit.

  He winked at the peacekeeper who then pushed the activate button, causing the suit to stab into the base of Hans’ skull and wrapping itself around him violently before he had a chance to gasp.

  Hans convulsed and shook about in a possessed rage, his muffled screams could just be heard through the helmet as the suit morphed and augmented itself trying to assimilate with his biology.

  "Daddy!" Iris yelled as she ran up to the pod, pushing Gladius and the peacekeeper aside.

  Eventually the spasming and the transformations stopped.

  He fell limp back into the storage container.

  “Is he ok?” Iris asked apprehensively, looking into the visor that shielded her fathers eyes.

  The group encroached the storage container in morbid curiosity.

  “General… I don’t think he made it, I told you the suit was too unstable!” Paddius stated in dread, all hope of survival dwindling out of his person.

  The General merely huffed and looked at Iris with grief stricken eyes before already preparing his battle gear for plan b through z.

  “Shit… I’m going to kind of miss that drunken fuck.” Bob said with a hint of sadness as the hynx shrunk back down to size and flopped sadly into the bounty hunters afro.

  Jakaab began whimpering and a tear accumulated at the edge of Iris’ eye.

  "Dad no! Get up! Come on you’re stronger than this!" She yelled.

  All hope seemed to be lost for this crew of misfits.

  Until suddenly…

  Seemingly jumping back from the afterlife…

  Hans exploded into a jump that sent shockwaves through the facility as he burst through the building in a nuclear leap.

  Everyone stood in shock and awe behind the blast off.

  They were all stunned in silence as they wondered what to do next.

  Iris broke into a sprint for the glider bay.

  Bob broke off after her and everyone else followed.

  Bob caught up to her as she broke into a glider and began its activation procedures.

  "What the hell are you doing woman!" Bobby questioned in a yell of concern.

  "I’m going after him! Who knows what that suit will do to him. Besides he might need some back up and no offence but I think I’m the only one strong enough to help alright fuzzy." She said in a tone that seemed all to familiar to Bob.

  She blasted off before Bob could retort.

  Leaving him standing in silent bemusement.

  "Come hunter! Quickly! The General was running toward Bob’s glider with Jakaab and the hynx in tow."

  Meanwhile, the demon god Vol Drung was wreaking havoc upon the capital. Sending down thunderous blows with his hammer, making the earth quake with each one.

  “You shall bow to be cleansed before me, wretched infidels! Feel the burning privilege to be sent to the heavens by my hammer!” He roared as he murdered thousands each second.

  Suddenly, unexpectedly something flew at him faster than even he could register much less counter.

  Hans crashed into him like a meteor, sending the both of them in an arc, hurtling back down towards the ground.

  They landed, creating a crater in the crater that was already around them.

  Hans wasted no time, feeling the monumental increase in speed and power in his body, he began bludgeoning the demon god.

  Each hit sending tremors through the continent and cracking the ground under them.

  The suit morphed violently over him after every effort as the reeling god struggled to get his bearing.

  A second ago he was assuming his rightful place as supreme being of the universe and now he was being bashed into the ground.

  Hans pulled back to wind up for the killing blow but Vol Drung used the pause as an opportunity to kick his assailant away to gain some space before properly assessing his new threat.

  “What is this! How have you gained such power, drunkard!?” Vol Drung yelled in a bloodthirsty panic.

  Hans merely answered by lunging forward with a punch.

  The god tried to block with his hammer just for it to be flung away by the force of the blow.

  “No!” Vol Drung yelled in despair before Hans delivered another blow to his face, cracking his razor sharp teeth and snapping one of the horns off of his head.

  “Raaaaaaghhhhh!” The God roared in rage as he reeled backwards.

  “No! No! Nooooooo! How can you be this strong? No mortal should be this strong! You have defiled nature! Augmented to suit your perverted drunken transcendence!” He yelled.

  “Seems somewhat hypocritical, you calling me a defiler, considering the perversion that created your new form.” Hans said as he swaggered calmly up towards the god.

  Betraying the excruciating pain that the suit was putting him through, constantly tearing away at his cells as they healed themselves.

  He had practically gone through dozens of iterations of himself molecularly since he had put the suit on.

  “You dare!” The god sputtered out through a blood clogged mouth.

  “Oh yes, I dare, and now…” Hans chuckled as he softly clasped the god's head with both of his hands.

  Vol Drung tried to retaliate but Hans merely ripped all of his limbs clean off and flung them afar before returning his hands around the helplessly flailing demon’s head.

  he held the gods head in between the suits gauntlets and just before he was about to crush the helpless demons head, an immense and paralysing pain oozed through every cell in his body.

  He shivered and froze dropping to his knees and letting go of the god and what seemed to be a sure victory.

  "Aha! Feel the consequence of your blasphemy and defilement! Now I shall end you and any chance that your pathetic race still holds!" The enraged demon said as it opened its large bottom jaw to devour the painfully catatonic Hans.

  Just before Vol Deung was able to destroy the man, a glider shot out of the black smoke around them and out from that glider a figured jumped.

  hurtling down at the duo at tremendous speed, Iris bludgeoned the god back and continued with an onslaught of such speed, lightning would have difficulty contending with.

  she battered the demonic chimera down once more with ire in her eyes.

  Before holding him down with one arm laced with veins popping from the talos serum racing through them.

  "You! How dare! You still hold my seed and you betray me like this!" The god gurgled out through broken and bashed innards.

  Iris did not bite back and merely steeled her gaze.

  "This is my child! Now die you evil bastard!" She screamed as she began squeezing his head.

  He laughed manically through blood gurgled chokes.

  "It will rise and take his place, the blood of Vol Drung shall rule once more! You have not seen the last of me!" Was what he managed to yell before Iris crushed his skull into necrotic ooze and flesh.

  Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, all of the invading sphere ships began to fall from the sky, disintegrating into smoke before they could even crash to the cityscape below.

  out from below the the dead god, his spawn broke off and wriggled back near Hans.

  All that was left squirming below Hans was a small, wriggling pathetic form of the chimaera that Vol Drung had spawned.

  “Hmmm, goodbye wretch.” He said before squashing it violently with his boot.

  Iris slowly made her way back to her father, exhausted she and he held each other in an embrace.

  The sky suddenly cleared a little, allowing Hans and his daughter to bask in a ray of sunshine that shot through the grey smoke in the skies.

  Over the city-scape he could see a glider in the distance coming his way.

  Bobby’s glider. Hans thought with relieved glee before his vision suddenly blurred.

  He dropped to his back, feeling the suit viciously rip apart his very being from smallest scale as it rapidly tried to keep improving his physiology.

  Even his already super natural biochemical makeup could not bear it any longer.

  "No, no, no! Daddy stay with me!" Iris yelled as his vision left him.

  The crew of misfit heroes landed near him and rushed to surround him, his daughter at the forefront.

  “Well done you crazy bastards, you cut the head of the snake and now they’re all dropping like flies, you saved us!” The General exclaimed, showing the most emotion he had ever shown in a long time as he approached the two.

  The Hynx scurried excitedly around the crew, chittering away in triumphant excitement, before climbing up and nestling onto Iris’ shoulder.

  “Nice work drunker.” Said Donny nonchalantly.

  “Dad, we did it! Come on stay with us! We did it! We won!” Iris exclaimed half in worry.

  “Iris…” Hans mumbled out through exasperated, pain choked breaths.

  “I love you… ” were his last words before the world around him turned black.

  He dropped into his daughter's arms as the suit morphed and moved of its own accord becoming symbiotic with the man.

  “No! Dad! Not yet!” His daughter screamed in a panic.

  The general moved her swiftly but carefully away before picking Hans up and cradling him.

  “Quickly, Hunter, fly us back to the barracks. We have to get the suit off of him before it kills him.” The General ordered.

  Bobby nodded and they all moved with haste.