Anchorage City.
This was a city, not the mecha base built along the harbor.
Average temperature: −5°C.
Anchorage Avenue No. 2 was cold and deserted, without a soul in sight.
He-El wore white laboratory shorts and a short-sleeved shirt that left his long, powerful limbs bare. Beneath his glossy black hair, his features were strong and striking. He walked unhurriedly through the empty city, using his Biological Magnetic Field to absorb sunlight at full power. His entire body glowed.
He looked like a flawless god of classical legend stepping out of myth. The difference in the very nature of his life made him seem to belong in a different world from ordinary humans.
A little behind him came Ciri, wearing a filthy white lab coat, a gray sweater, and a classic red leather skirt. Black stockings covered her long legs, and the thick soles had been knocked off her high heels.
She had woken with a start after only a few hours of sleep. Without even changing clothes, she had followed He-El to Anchorage City.
Like a little girl, she held her head high and hummed a tune He-El did not recognize. Behind him, she occasionally spread her arms like airplane wings and swooped from side to side.
"Are you really that happy?"
He-El could not understand it. Ciri was a little unpredictable and had willingly become his loyal hound, but he still could not fathom her choice.
Still, Ciri was an outstanding doctor of biological genetics, arguably the finest biologist on Earth. He could just about accept having her under his command.
He needed subordinates to conduct research and handle other matters. A man who intended to build New Krypton and rule a superpower could hardly do every killing himself. It would be beneath him.
As long as he turned down his vision enough not to see mites crawling through the crevices of her skin, he could tolerate keeping her around as a biologist to study life for him.
"Of course I'm happy. I've never felt so relaxed or free. I don't have to choose between humanity and the Precursors. You're my choice." Ciri spoke in a singsong voice. Under the warm winter sun, she grinned so broadly that her gums showed and her eyes curved into crescents.
By the Precursors, she meant the race beyond the wormhole in the Abyssal Trench, the one that regularly sent monsters to invade Earth.
He-El gave a wry laugh.
"That's still just running away. Hand all the guilt and responsibility to someone else, and you feel better? Because you no longer have to choose between humanity and the Precursors?"
"Yes! It's wonderful that you're so strong, He-El. I don't have to choose. I'm just a tool in your hands. You can destroy humanity or the Precursors; either is fine. All I have to do is follow someone as powerful as you."
The moment Ciri admitted how weak she was, she felt invincible.
If she could not choose and could only struggle in a sea of anguish, then she would hand every decision to a powerful, terrifying supreme being and let him bear the sins for her.
No need to think or choose. She could happily be a tool.
A life that had only existed in her dreams had truly come to her. She was so moved she could have cried.
He-El shook his head with a laugh. Never had he heard such a... such a... such an unusual choice.
What sort of life had given Ciri a personality like that?
"Would you mind telling me about your past? I'm curious."
Ciri clasped her hands behind her head and walked with a jaunty step. Her filthy gray sweater outlined her bouncing breasts as she answered without a care.
"There isn't much to tell."
"My father was some kind of bishop in the Coexistence Faction of the Precursor Race. He adjusted his genes, came to Earth long ago, and used my mother to make me."
"My father taught me everything I know about genetics. I even suspect he engineered my intelligence and my inborn talent for biology."
"He went on all day about life coexisting, life flourishing, the universe's biosphere, and whatever else. I can't deny he influenced me."
"Later, my mother found out he was an alien. She went mad with terror and was sent to a psychiatric hospital."
"My father constantly told me to remember his dream of coexistence and prosperity for all life. He wanted me to return to the Precursors, succeed him as bishop, and carry on his unfinished work. The future of two planets depended on me, he said. He dumped it all on me, then his body gave out on Earth and he died."
"I was desperate too. What was I supposed to do?"
"Pin the hope of two planets coexisting in peace on a four-year-old girl?"
"What could I do? I could only crack open my father's skull and see what kind of brain could come up with something so absurd."
"Then I grew up and saw plenty of disgusting things. Humans really are ugly."
"But on the other side of the wormhole, they're ugly in body as well as spirit."
"How was I supposed to choose? They're both rotten. Earth might as well explode and wipe them all out."
"I'm so glad you appeared, He-El!!!"
"Now you can make the choice for me."
As Ciri spoke, her smile grew brighter. Behind He-El, she reached toward him as though yearning to touch a light of hope, to touch the future.
She stopped before her hand reached him, then went back to humming through her nose.
"Sure. I'll bear all your sins."
He-El smiled, not taking it seriously at all.
He went straight to a boutique clothing store with decent fabrics and a rather classical interior. He sent his Biological Magnetic Field into the lock, opened the door, and went inside to choose something to wear.
After all, he was still dressed in clothes from the laboratory.
"Hehehe!"
Ciri followed him in happily. Her gaze left He-El and moved to the women's clothes. She tilted her head, then sniffed the unpleasant smell on herself. She had not bathed in over ten hours, had sweated since, and had been soaked in Blue Poison. It was remarkable that He-El could stand being near her.
Ciri grabbed a women's outfit, underwear and all, found a washroom, and went in to shower.
Neither of them stood on ceremony.
He-El picked out a suit fit for a formal occasion and threw on a long overcoat with a comfortable fur-lined collar. Its hem reached his heels, lending him a commanding, imperious air.
"He-El, do you have any plans for Earth? Are you going to destroy it?" Ciri shouted from the washroom.
"No. In fact, I'm only passing through."
With Ciri in the washroom, He-El settled expansively onto a sofa. He spread his arms along the backrest, tilted his head, and answered her.
"But I still need to kill a few people. Then... I'll conquer Earth in a year and test the planetary system I plan to establish in the future. I'll grant humans superpowers and collect data. Most importantly, I'll spend a few years getting energy for my ship."
"Conquer Earth in a year? That's impossible, isn't it?" Ciri rubbed body wash over herself. No matter how strong he was, surely he could not conquer Earth in a year.
"It doesn't matter. If this world isn't running the way I want in a year, I'll smash the planet's core and blow Earth apart." He-El sounded indifferent. He did not consider himself bloodthirsty, provided people put his ideas into practice. Otherwise, he saw little use in keeping them around.
He was certain to create a power unlike anything the universe had ever seen.
Earth would be a convenient place to test a few systems.
He would also spread superpowers among humans and let their collective intelligence research how to use them.
"You really are terrifying, He-El." Ciri worked shampoo into her hair until it foamed, running her slender fingers through it and scratching her scalp with her nails. Then she asked, "When the time comes, you'll take me with you, right?"
"Of course. You're my subordinate now. Be ready to wander among the stars. You might go mad from being cooped up."
He-El chatted easily with Ciri, trading answers for questions.
He was not cold or heartless. On the contrary, he was remarkably easygoing and calm. Few people knew that about him. Even his father, Jor-El, never had.
Unexpectedly, Ciri understood him best, here on this Earth.
"That's great."
Ciri was satisfied with his answer.
Before long, Ciri emerged from the washroom in a new outfit: a thick white velvet blazer, a black leather skirt, red knee-high leather boots, and an oversized green coat. Her fashion sense was questionable; she was still striding toward a fashion disaster.
"So we came here just to wash up and change clothes?" she asked, spreading her hands.
"I'm waiting for a nuclear bomb."
He-El answered with a smile.
The military had already evacuated Anchorage City. They had prepared for the worst long ago and were ready to deploy humanity's ultimate weapon.
"Why?" Ciri looked as though question marks were popping out of her head.
He-El considered it for a moment before answering. "If a Kryptonian hasn't taken a nuclear bomb, he doesn't quite feel like a Kryptonian."
In truth, He-El wanted to take a nuclear strike to show this world that not even a nuclear bomb could kill him. Then people would accept his rule without a fight. He did not want to kill any more humans than necessary over the coming year.
Any resistance Earth mounted against him would be futile.
This was his final mercy to humanity.
"Is your planet that terrifying? You even have a tradition of taking nuclear bombs!" Ciri sucked in a sharp breath.
What kind of planet had a twisted tradition like that?
He-El let her believe it.
What kind of Kryptonian hadn't taken a nuclear bomb?
Besides, if taking a nuke could prevent ninety percent of future trouble, why wouldn't He-El do it? With his strength, it would be no problem.
"Now?"
"Looks like they don't think the time is right. We'll have to return to Anchorage Base and start taking over Earth."
Before you continue