Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 372 FISHING

“I’m surprised you didn’t notice,” Tabi said, licking her paw as we sat beside a fire. We were under the shade of one of the giant mushrooms as we finished our dinner. 

“Uh no, I didn’t feel a psychic calling from the giant tentacle monsters,” I reiterated. “How long have they been talking to you?”

“Since we got here,” she said. “It’s not a problem for me to combat, but I’m surprised you don’t hear it. It can get rather annoying to hear them from so far away. Your Psychic Resistance Bonus must be strong.”

“I guess,” I said. “I haven’t really noticed it. Why are the Cthulhu monsters sending out the psychic calling?”

“My guess, fishing,” she said. “They all send out this frequency. I’m sure it travels out into the cosmos, hitting other psychics. Then the psychic feels this longing to summon them or open a portal, like those COC members had.”

“Cock?” I asked. “Oh right, the Children of Cthulu.” I chuckled at my own joke. “Damn that was forever ago.”

“Only a few months,” Tabi said. 

“Well I’m sorry I ain’t a 1,000 year old cat demon,” I said. 

“You might be someday,” she teased. “You stole that Medici power, maybe you will live long like her.” 

“Maybe,” I said, tired. “So what? You think that other planets are opening portals to these guys, like mine did?”

“I know other portals are opening,” Tabi said. “I can feel a shift in the space.”

“What? Since when?” 

“Since we got here,” she said. “Not all of us are stupid blockheads that only see what’s in front of them.”

“You know, I asked for a mentor once. I was hoping for a wise old man, not some grumpy pussy cat.” 

“And yet, here we are,” she said, unbothered by my anger. “Your Haki isn’t the only skill to sense what is going on around you. If you can learn to think and listen, the world becomes quite an open book.” 

“Yeah, yeah, you wise old sage,” I said. “Then you can tell us where these portals open?”

“I can get a sense, but you should learn to look for them as well,” Tabi said.

“This place is huge though,” I said.

“Didn’t you tell me about a god character that could use his Haki to sense everything going on for miles?”

“God? Oh god Enel,” I said. “Yeah. I never understood that.” Enel on Skypiea could use his Observation Haki to know everything that was going on for miles around him. “Jeez, I fought him a long time ago.” 

“Stop reminiscing,” she ordered. “Learn to do what he could. This world has sent you on a quest here for a reason. You said that the foes in Invincible are impossibly strong. You need to get that way or you are screwed.”

“Look at you, using screwed in sentences. Next you’ll be cursing like a sailor-cat.” 

“Hush,” she said, annoyed. “Get serious and start practicing.”

I let out an annoyed groan but sat up. Closing my eyes I extended my Observation outward. Normally I could sense everything going on within about 50 feet of me. Lately I had been able to stretch that out. My particular use of Observation Haki focused on the minor details, so I was never unaware. I had to stop focusing on the trees and focus on the forest. Everywhere around me all at once, pushing my range out more I was surprised that I could feel something. Then a question hit me. 

“Why do they bother calling people here?” I asked. “The Cthulhu monsters. Why bring people at all?” 

“My guess? Their psychic powers,” Tabi said after some thought. “I believe they need or want higher lifeforms to eat. If the Cthulhu monsters are psychic, perhaps they need smarter prey so they can continue to grow their own powers.” 

“So they’ve been doing this for a long time? Is that why they focused on me, even though I’m so small?” I asked. “It was like a T-Rex focusing on me rather than bigger and more filling prey.” I never understood why a T-Rex would be interested in eating a human in Jurassic Park. 

“Probably,” she said. Our conversation died down after that. 

I extended the Haki I was observing out again. Sense of this or that animal coming to my mind I ignored everything else as I felt it all. A snake here, boulder there, I let it all become white noise as I extended my thought out. I wasn’t sure how far I could feel, but apparently it was a ways away. Ignoring small things like moss or water, I only cared about the big stuff. Mentally watching as this predator stalked this prey, my mind became serene as it all came to me. 

—

It wasn’t that easy of course. Though the Cthulhu monsters were supposedly casting psychic nets out into the cosmos. Apparently it was rare for some idiotic kid to follow whatever instructions sent out to open a portal to this world. When it did, the summoner learned quickly to shut the portal. 

I found my first instance of a portal on my second day of looking. I still trained of course, but Tabi challenged me to cast my Observation out as far as possible while I exercised. Making yet another distraction for me as I learned my powers. But I felt the shift in the air and the immense amount of Spiritual Energy felt like what had first opened to pull me through into the world. 

I was surprised one happened so quickly, but thought maybe my dad was trying to open a portal to get me back. I ran to it, but when we were half-way there the Summoner wised up and shut it. So we looked again, and again, and by the 4th portal and a full-week of looking, we finally made it to one in time. 

Tabi and I crashed the party as a thick tentacle shot into a bigger portal. It pulled people out like gum from a gumball machine. I showed up and Tabi and I began breaking tentacles. Bursting them open the Cthulhu monster reeled and released it’s prey. 

They weren’t human like I had hoped. Instead they were amphibious, green skin, wide mouths, they looked like walking frogs. The gullible frog-people screamed as they fell from the now unattached monster limbs. But Tabi grabbed them with her tails and we jumped through the portal without hesitation. 

In a brightly lit room I began to wipe up the black ink used for the summoning and the portal winked out. Tabi dropping the 2 humanoid beings on the ground she jumped over to me as I finished my quest. 

“Finally,” I said. Off that hell hole and the World Lasting Physique in my Status Screen, I was so happy to be done. Moving my hand to my face to push back my long hair I almost smacked myself. Gravity was far less strong on this planet. Every one of my movements was dangerous. My hair started to stand straight up since it was used to the higher gravity.  

“Amateur,” Tabi teased. 

“Sorry, not everyday my weight fluctuates,” I said to her. Able to become bigger or smaller at will she was probably used to it. I began to mentally force myself to move with less force. My body light as a feather I lightly jumped up but was over a foot in the air. “Gonna take a bit.”

“Excuse me,” a voice said. We turned to see one of the frogmen talking. He was slim, about 6 feet tall. His long limbs turned into long fingered hands with round green balls at the end. I guessed they were suckers or something to stick to walls. The face of the frogman was round. White at the chin, and green on the rest of the head. He was bald and wore a long white robe. Some blue Cthulhu blood staining his robe, he and the other person we saved were standing awkwardly in front of us. 

“Did you call us?” The other frogman asked. This one had more of a blue tint to the green part of his skin.

“What?” 

“We received a psychic distress some weeks ago. Were you who called us?” The other asked. I wondered if these people spoke English or if it was translated for me. I was fairly certain all aliens spoke English in Invincible for some reason. 

“No, that was those tentacle monsters,” I said. “They called people from our planet as well. We were trapped there for the last few months.”

“Oh,” the green one said sadly. I looked around to the room we were in. It looked like there had been more people there since chairs were overturned. I guessed when giant tentacles pushed their way through the portal the other frog’s hopped away. 

“I’m Weston,” I said, walking up to the duo we saved. Their big white eyes staring at me, they were a little scared but not much. I reached out to the green one. He hesitated but took it. 

“Cathrpish,” he said. His hands were damp. The round balls at the end of his finger flattened out over my hand. 

“What happened here?” I asked, looking around. The room was rather large. High ceiling, clean white walls with pillars lining the walls for aesthetics. 

“We gathered many people for the portal opening,” Cathrpish admitted. “When the tentacle came out I feared the worst, and people ran. Th-thank you for saving us.”

‘You’re welcome,” I said, walking around him. “Why did you try opening the portal anyway?” 

“Why did you?” He shot back. 

“I didn’t. I got pulled in like you. But unlike you, no one was there to save me.”

“Yes,” he said, looking down. “Again, thank you.”

“No prob,” I said with a shrug. I was really looking for more people. I didn’t find these males very…humanoid. But I hoped there were some females around that were more to my tastes. Who didn’t want to be the Shatner of the world, laying all the women of the universe. 

“We um, were desperate,” Cathrpish admitted. “Despite how it looks we were attempting this summon to help our people. Some weeks ago many of our strongest were killed in an attack.” 

“Your strongest?” I asked, confused as I turned back to him. 

“Yes, there are many bad Mians,” he said, pronouncing it as Me-ins. “We had a part of our military dedicated to fighting such people. A few weeks ago our strongest protectors were all gathered and killed. No one knows who killed them.”

I thought back. “Tell me, is there someone on this planet that looks like me?” I asked. Cathrpish looked at me confused. “Someone with my skin tone? Maybe darker, like this brown.” I pointed at a chocolate colored chair. “Hair? Same types of limbs?” 

“Yes, there is,” Cathrpish said, recalling something. “They were from another world, but they left planet a few weeks ago.” 

“Oh,” I said, knowing it wasn’t a coincidence. “You uh, catch a name?” 

“I have only met the person a few times,” he admitted, confused. “Why? Does it matter?” 

The only people that traveled the universe that looked like me were the Viltrumites. If the other person was one then this world was set for domination like my own homeworld was. I decided escaping before the Viltrumite horde got there was my best bet. Thinking on how I could escape, lay with a female Mian, and do it all as quickly as possible I began to plan. As I did I received a new quest. 

“What the fuck?” I asked, my eyes wide as I read the quest over and over. 

“What?” Cathrpish asked. 

“Uh, nothing,” I said, chewing my lip as I thought. Viltrumites were the main villains of the world. Basically Saiyans, they were sent all around the world to conquer planets. Pretending to be wise and benevolent beings. They would spend decades on a planet, trying to see if they could procreate with the local population. If they could, they would conquer the planet, if not they would likely destroy it and the people. They had no use for useless beings. 

On Earth there was a Viltrumite. His son, the protagonist of Invincible, was half-Viltrumite, and eventually became the ruler of them all. Able to fly, live in space, regenerate limbs. They were Superman himself, but way more ruthless and bloodthirsty. I would love to have their Physiology. It was like getting the Player awakening in Solo-leveling. But going up against one was like going up against a god. 

“How did I beat the last god?” I asked, thinking back to Naruto world.