Eternicus goes out for a walk.

For the next three days, Eternicus explored the civilization of the underwater city of Atlantis. Unlike the rest of the denizens who swam overhead, the silver dragon in human form walked the coral encrusted streets, looking around and admiring the view like some curious tourist. Pausing only to let schools of fish swim by… OR a school of children to swim by the park he wandered through. Behind him he had a pair of royal guards keep an eye on him, both as a means of protection and to make sure he would not do anything unwanted.

Not that he would do anything that would have him cast out mind you, he respected the laws of life around him, but he also had rules of his own he followed. Here in Atlantis he would wait and learn and catch up on all he had missed all those millennia asleep under the mountains until the arrival of his children. He had already spent a night or two in the city’s libraries, learning of the city’s history… But sadly, not much else. Much to his disappointment Atlantis had become something of an isolationistic empire after it sank into the depths, he had hoped for more.

The Queen was amicable though he had to admit, despite her husband being very displeased with her intense infatuation with him since his arrival. Her sudden devotion had only grown the longer she remained in proximity with him; serving him food, going into conversations of her kingdom to impress him, she even started dressing more provocatively, well… Provocatively for a sea faring mammal. Scratching his chin, Eternicus shrugged at that. Her reaction to him was not too far off from how other civilizations reacted when he would swoop down from the skies and cause forests to bloom or rivers to run with fresh water. Some kingdoms even offered him their princesses to him in marriage in the hopes of requesting his boons, not that they needed to, he was always generous. Though a bit capricious.

Feeling a tug at his robes, Eternicus looked down to find a small child with gills and fins for hair looking up at him, a small stuffed dolphin in her arms she held tightly to herself. Raising his chin and trying to look as imposing as he could, Eternicus looked down at the Atlantiean child. “Greetings young one, do you wish to pay tribute to the dragon of light?”

“Are you strong mister?”

Nearly holding back a chuckle, Eternicus narrowed his eyes with a smirk, stroking at his chin in curiosity. “Why yes little one… How did you know?” Seeing her turn and point further down the aquatic park he followed her arm point towards an old and dead coral tree that the other children avoided. “Are you stronger than the child eating octopus that lives in the tree? My mother says it eats naughty children that don’t finish dinner or do their chores.”

Looking up at the coral tree, Eternicus narrowed his eyes fiercely, a bright glow forming in his irises as his hands formed fists. “Outrageous! A creature that brings fear to the hearts of children?! And does not give ME credit for the idea? You have terrorized your last youngling… I have returned… And I demand my title back!” Opening his mouth, everyone nearby shielded their eyes as an intense beam of light shot out and struck the coral tree, reducing it to obliterated shards of stone that rained down across the entire park. Satisfied with himself, Eternicus wiped his hands and turned away from the sight of dozens of fish children cheering and swimming in circles around the crater the tree once stood before circling him, chanting out other wishes out loud in the hopes he could grant them. “Sigh… This is why I slumbered… So many requests from the local insects.” Swimming around him like birds around a tree, he continued his stroll through the park and tried to ignore their chirps.

“Wow! That was amazing!”

“Wait until mommy hears about this.”

“Have you met our king? I bet he could have done that too!”

“Do you know Superman? He’s the strongest man in the world!”

Immediately stopping in place, Eternicus turned to look up at the lone child that spoke up, the rest of the Atlantean children stopping in the water and going silent when he caught their attention. “Super… Man?”

“Y-yeah, he’s from the surface world, in… Met-trop-polis but we’re forbidden to go there, he’s really strong!”

“Yeah, SUPER strong!”

Deep in thought and scratching his chin once more, Eternicus turned to look back at the two frightened guards that had been following him this entire time. “YOU two, tell your Queen I shall find this ‘Super Man’, I shall return when my curiosity has been satisfied.” Spreading out his hands and gesturing to the fish children to give him space, Eternicus gave the ocean park a sight to behold when he began to glow a bright white light, his presence instantly causing coral and plant life to rapidly grow and bloom as his silhouette changed and grew, sprouting a tail, wings and changing form to that of a massive silver scaled dragon. When the light ebbed away, the massive dragon gently flapped his wings, and propelled himself up and out of the deep watery depths. Clear of the under-water city, he increased his wing flaps, swimming up to the surface where he exploded out and shot into the air, flying overhead, and closing his reptilian eyes to sense the life around him.

Normally a task like this would take quite some time, the lights of tiny lives seemed all too much like each other to him to tell apart, then his attention fell to an intense aura of life so intense it shun like a second sun that rivalled his own, off the eastern shore of the continent nearby. Smiling, Eternicus flapped his wings and began to fly as fast as he could to its source.

*

Somewhere in Metropolis…

“OH… What’s that you got there Supes? You have something to say?” Chuckled the Parasite, holding Superman by his throat while he leached more and more from the man of steel. All around him laid the prone forms of the rest of the Justice League; Wonder Woman, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, Batman, Green Lantern, Shazam. One by one they had all fallen and been drained by the now hulking purple skinned monster smiling down at the weakening Superman like a shark while HE grew taller and stronger.

“You… Wont… Get away… With this…”

Chuckling as he grew over 8 feet tall and continued to grow larger and stronger holding onto Superman’s wrists, the Parasite shook his head. “Right, sure… And next time if this happens again, remind Wonder Bimbo over there to wear gloves next time she punches me.” Releasing Superman and letting him fall to his knees, Parasite looked down at his massive form and down at his own hands, his sharp toothy grin spreading ear to ear… If he still had any. Raising his fists in the air, Parasite cried out triumphantly, firing heat vision from his eyes into the air and causing lightning to fly from his fingers.

“I’M THE MOST POWERFUL BEING ON EARTH BABY! NO ONE’S STRONGER THAN ME NOW!”

Then the sky broke open, a shining light filled the battered streets as a massive white light flooded the area. Out of sight, grass and moss began to bloom and grow through the cracks in the streets from exposure from the light alone, growing just as rapidly as its intensity. Then he noticed something else. One by one everyone he drained; everyone he stole life energy from began to get up. Even the regular humans he fed off leading up to him facing the Justice League slowly stirred and got up from the ground, people he drained completely and killed just picked themselves up and looked around confused and shielded their eyes to the light overhead. Covering his eyes, he thought he saw wings spread out from the column of light before it finally died and standing right in front of him was a man in silver and gold etched robes of white silk. Completely confused, Parasite stood and watched as the man looked around and checked on those just getting up, a mix of curiosity and amusement on his face as he helped the confused Wonder Woman up to her feet before approaching him.

“I have been looking for you, I take it YOU are the one they call superman?” He asked, addressing Parasite just as Clark got up from the ground and readied himself for a fight, not understanding how his strength had been restored.

“What are you? Dumb?! HE’s superman!” The purple skinned monster scoffed, pointing back at the red caped hero stepping back to join the League. Raising an eyebrow, Eternicus gave Superman a look over and shrugged. “Strange, he’s not as powerful as YOU, and I was told he was the strongest on Earth.”

“I’m Kal’el of Krypton, the Earth calls me Superman, that creature there is Rudy Jones, the Parasite... Who are you?” Asked Clark as he and the League gathered, ready to fight more cautiously now that they regained their strength.

“A parasite? How unsightly, so your strength is not your own my handsome friend?” Asked Eternicus as he approached the smirking purple creature.

“Anything I touch, I take what’s theirs pal, so unless you want to be on the menu too, buzz off!”

“DO you now?” Smirked Eternicus, his arms crossed behind him as he eyed up the tall, hulking monster looming over him. “What if I were to tell you… I am the most powerful thing you will ever meet. Ever!”

Smiling with a cruel smirk, Parasite took a step forward and brought his clawed hands out to grab the man. “Then MAYBE you’re next on the menu!”

“Very well…” Bringing out his hand, Eternicus gestured as if to shake the hand of the creature in front of him. “Take what you can, you’ll find me VERY generous.”

“No! he’ll KILL you!” Cried out Diana, held back by the others just as Parasite grabbed the man’s hand and shook it savagely. The moment he did, his eyes glowed white.

“YEEEEEESSSSSSS! POWER! POWER!!! POOOOOWAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!” It felt like someone had hooked him up directly to the sun to feed off, thousands of Supermen all at once being drained by his touch. His eyes rolled back from the sensation as his body swelled larger and bulkier. The rows of teeth around his lamprey mouth grew longer, his face becoming less human and more amphibious, taking on an arrow-head shape while his neck grew. His feet began to splay apart and sprout clawed toes while his fingers too became clawed. Hunching over, the Parasite was now 12 feet tall and still growing, mutating as he absorbed more and more from the tiny robed man he held in his grasp. “MOAR! MOAAAAAR!!!” By now a tail had formed behind him, growing longer and heavier as the Parasite slowly took on the form of some bloated purple lizard 30 feet long and still growing. Looking down at the man, he looked completely unaffected by it all, even yawning in his free hand while his other was clasped in Parasite’s claw.

By now Parasite had fallen to all fours, the ecstasy of his meal wearing off and became a dull numbness as he realised a sensation he never felt in so long. Satisfaction. But soon his elation turned to discomfort as he just kept on feeding, pulling in more and more energy and growing larger still. By now he had absorbed so much energy it was eating away at what Rudy Jones was, his sense of self was slipping, devoured by the raw power he was sapping, and he realised it.

“GNOOOOGH…. TUUUUUUUU MUUUUUUSHHHHHH…..TAYK ID BAKKK!!! TAYK ID BAKKKKKK!!!!!!!!” He cried out with an inhuman mouth, trying to pull away and finding to his horror he had literally become too heavy and muscular to move, and that he was no longer holding the man’s hand so much as Eternicus was simply resting his hand on Parasite’s paw. Panting and whimpering, Parasite sprouted additional eyes in his reptilian skull and new tongues joined the long one lolling out of his leech-like mouth. Swelling larger and larger it looked as if Parasite was inflating like a balloon.

“Do you know what the different is between a true parasite and YOU my handsome friend?” Asked Eternicus, just as the creature’s many eyes stared down at the smirking robed man in horror. “They know when to stop before they explode!”

His eyes going wide with horror, Parasite squirmed and struggled uselessly, until to everyone’s surprise… Eternicus plucked away his hand, giving it a wave in the air and wiping it against his pristine robes. Bloated and mutated beyond recognition, Parasite looked more like some massive purple salamander stuck out in the pavement when the robed man turned and smiled back at the Justice League, too stunned to even comment on what they had just seen. Wiping his hands, the man bowed regally and introduced himself.

“I am Eternicus, the silver dragon of the light of life and guardian of the cosmos, who might YOU be?”