"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude," Maya Angelou
MARK'S CAR - Morning
The red Corvette hummed smoothly along the highway, the city lights beginning to flicker on as the sun rose. Mark drove with one hand on the wheel, the other resting casually on the center console.
"That was intense," Amber said from the back seat. "I mean, a cyborg attack on campus? That's not normal, right?"
"Nothing about yesterday was normal," William agreed. He was still shaken, his hands occasionally touching his throat where the Reanimen had grabbed him.
"At least Invincible showed up," Eve said from the passenger seat, giving Mark a quick glance. "Could have been a lot worse."
"Yeah," William said quietly. "He saved my life. I thought I was going to die."
Mark caught his eye in the rearview mirror. "You're safe now. That's what matters."
They drove in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Amber spoke again. "So, have you guys decided? About schools?"
"I think I'm leaning toward Upstate," Eve said. "Despite the cyborg attack. The programs are good, and it's close enough to home but far enough to feel independent."
"Same," Amber said. "Plus, we'd all be together."
"I'm definitely going," William said. "Rick's there, and the athletic programs are amazing."
"I'll be moving into my second year soon," Mark said. "Been taking extra classes, accelerated track. Should be graduating early."
"Of course you are," Amber laughed. "Overachiever."
Mark dropped William off first, then Amber, and finally pulled up to Eve's house.
"Thanks for driving," Eve said. "And for... you know."
"Anytime," Mark replied.
Eve got out, then leaned back in through the window. "Be careful, okay? Something feels off."
"Always am," Mark said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
He drove back toward campus, his mind already working through problems one of them being his healing factor, Mark knew that the pain dampening serum should not have affected him due to his smart atoms which would have fought against it.
Something happened to his body, way before he got his powers. Something that the original mark did not have
And then there was the bigger issue—his father. The tension at home was reaching a breaking point. Mark could feel it. Something was going to give, and soon.
I need to run some experiments, Mark thought. And probably buy a house.
He'd been putting off buying a house with the money Cecil had been paying him—substantial amounts for his work with the Guardians and various GDA operations. Maybe it was time to pull the trigger on that. Having his own space, away from school, might be necessary soon.
GRAYSON HOUSEHOLD - MORNING
Debbie woke with a headache and the taste of wine still in her mouth. She'd cried herself to sleep again. It was becoming a pattern.
She went downstairs to find Nolan sitting at the kitchen table. His Omni-Man suit—the real one, the bloodstained one—was laid out on the table between them like evidence at a trial.
Debbie's breath caught. "Why did you keep it?"
Nolan looked at the suit, then at her. "I….. don't know, But maybe part of me wanted you to find it, too."
Debbie sat down across from him, her hands shaking. "After twenty years together, I deserve to know the truth."
Nolan sighed, a long, weary sound. "I wanted to tell you months ago."
"But you didn't." Debbie's voice was steady despite the tears forming in her eyes. "Was someone controlling you? Were you... were you blackmailed? Did they threaten me or Mark?"
"No."
"Then why?"
"You need to trust me," Nolan said, leaning forward. "If you can do that, we'll be okay. Mark too. Everything will be fine."
"Trust you?" Debbie's voice rose. "How could I possibly trust you now?"
"Because you know me."
"There's a lot of things I thought I knew about you." Debbie stood up, her chair scraping against the floor. "The Guardians were our friends. They were good people. They saved lives. They had families. You killed them."
"I had no choice."
"I don't believe that." Debbie's voice broke. "You said you wanted to tell me months ago, but you're still not telling me now. No, I don't trust you. Not anymore. You broke that."
She grabbed the bloodstained suit and threw it at him.
"If you don't have anything else to say, you need to leave."
"Debbie—"
"Get out of my house!"
Nolan caught the suit, his expression hardening. "You don't mean that."
"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"
Nolan stood, holding the suit. "We'll talk later."
He rose into the air, and with a deafening crash, smashed straight through the roof of their home. Debris rained down around Debbie as she watched him disappear into the sky.
She stood there, shaking, surrounded by broken ceiling tiles and insulation. Then she pulled out her phone with trembling hands and called Mark.
It rang. And rang.
"Hey, it's Mark. I'm not around. You could leave a message, but wouldn't you rather text me instead?"
Beep.
"Mark, it's Mom. Come home. Please..."
She heard footsteps behind her. Multiple footsteps.
Debbie gasped as GDA agents materialized—their cloaking technology deactivating as they secured the house. Donald Ferguson stepped forward, his expression apologetic.
"Debbie, I'm sorry, but you have to come with us. There's no time."
GDA HEADQUARTERS - COMMAND ROOM
Debbie was escorted into a massive room that looked like something out of a spy thriller. Dozens of workstations, each with multiple monitors. Analysts typing frantically. Large screens on the walls showing satellite feeds, tactical maps, and real-time data streams.
Cecil stood at the center of it all, coordinating the chaos like a conductor leading an orchestra.
"Track him!" Cecil barked. "I want eyes on Omni-Man at all times. And get me updates on Invincible's location every thirty seconds."
"Sir, we've lost Invincible's signal again—"
"Then find it!"
Cecil turned as Debbie was brought to him. His expression softened slightly.
"Debbie, I know this is overwhelming—"
"Why did you keep Nolan's secret from me?" Debbie demanded. "You knew. You knew what he did, and you didn't tell me."
"We couldn't risk Omni-Man finding out that we knew," Cecil said. "Not until we understood what he was doing and how we could stop him."
"Stop him how?"
Cecil leaned closer, his voice dropping. "There might be only one person who could fight Omni-Man. Where's Mark?"
"No." Debbie's eyes widened. "Absolutely not. You're not putting my son in danger like that."
"Debbie, if Omni-Man has gone rogue—"
"I said no!" Debbie's voice carried across the command room, making several analysts turn. "Find another way. Mark is not fighting his father."
Cecil's expression didn't change. "It might not be our choice to make."
MOUNT EVEREST - SUMMIT
Omni-Man floated above the peak where he and Mark had trained now in his red and white suit, the wind whipping around him but not touching him. The air was too thin for most humans to breathe, but not him.
"Mark," he said to the empty air. "I need to tell you something. About the Guardians. It was my responsibility. I had to do it. You'll understand. You're Viltrumite. You'll understand why it was necessary."
He paused, imagining Mark's response.
"No, that's not right." He tried again. "Mark, what I'm about to tell you will change everything. But you need to know the truth. About me. About Viltrum. About why I'm really here."
He shook his head, frustrated. "What am I doing?"
He shot into the sky, leaving the mountain behind, flying aimlessly as he tried to figure out how to explain the unexplainable to his son.
MAULER TWINS' WAREHOUSE - SAME TIME
The delivery truck pulled up outside the warehouse, but when the Mauler Twins approached it, they saw something unexpected.
A hologram. The truck was being driven by a holographic projection.
"You!"
"Get out of the truck!" one twin shouted, firing his weapon. The hologram flickered but didn't disappear.
The back of the truck opened with a hiss of hydraulics.
"Step back, please," a familiar mechanical voice said.
Robot emerged from the truck—but not the Robot they knew. This was different. A mechanical chassis on wheels, with multiple arms and sensors. Tubes and wires connected to a central pod.
The pod opened with a release of pressurized air.
Inside was something that made both twins recoil in disgust.
A severely deformed human body—barely larger than a child, twisted and crumpled, covered in sores and mechanical components integrated into the flesh. A mechanical clamp where the nose should be. Tubes delivering nutrients. And one eye of its eyes—yellow-green and disturbingly intelligent—staring at them.
"What is that?" one twin said, gagging.
"Ugh," the other agreed.
"Come, now," the voice from the body said—Robot's voice, but without the mechanical filter. "I believe you can answer that question on your own."
"It's the real Robot," one twin said slowly.
"Well done," Rudy Connors said, his one working eye focusing on them. "Perhaps you're the original, then?"
"We've been growing you a new body."
"And now introductions are complete, show me your work."
The mechanical chassis carried Rudy's pod toward the back of the warehouse, where a cloning tank stood. Inside floated a perfect and younger copy of Rex Splode's body—muscular, healthy, young.
"It's perfect," Rudy said.
"We are professionals," one twin replied proudly.
"Except for the timed-release mycotoxin sacs, the embedded cortical override, and the seven... oh, sorry, eight, synaptic transceivers." Rudy's voice carried disappointment. "Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I prefer to be the only person in control of my body."
The twins looked at each other.
"Please," Rudy continued. "I would have been disappointed if you hadn't tried. Remove all of that, add in this small upgrade of my own design, and we can discuss your payment."
"Let's discuss our payment and we'll do all of that," one twin said.
Rudy's mechanical arms moved, revealing something he'd been carrying—a GDA control collar. "A Global Defense Agency control collar placates the strongest of wills. A highly-restricted technology. It's encrypted."
He held it up, then deliberately placed it on his own mechanical chassis.
"Besides, a little trust goes a long way. Actions go further."
The collar activated. Cutting tools emerged and began dismantling Robot's mechanical body. Within seconds, it crumbled to dust, leaving only Rudy's organic pod sitting on the warehouse floor.
"There. I am alone and helpless."
"Sheesh," one twin said. "Alone, yes. Helpless, I doubt it."
"Do what he wants," the other twin said.
They approached the cloning tank and began working, removing the hidden kill switches and fail-safes they'd installed. Then they carefully extracted the new body and prepared it for the transfer.
"Before we start," one twin said, "you need to understand something. We're not transferring your memories. We're creating two separate beings with the same mind. You and the new body will both exist, both be conscious."
"I understand," Rudy said from his pod as he handed a device to one of the twins.
"It needs to be placed on the upper brainstem," Rudy instructed.
"I recognize a neural-link when I see one," one twin replied, attaching the device carefully.
"Proceed."
The process began.
Lights flickered. Machines hummed. The process was delicate—copying not just memories but the entire structure of consciousness from one substrate to another.
Then something went wrong.
Alarms blared. Sparks flew from the equipment.
"His brain structure is different from normal humans!" one twin shouted. "The process can't map correctly!"
"Compensate!" the other yelled back. "Reroute through the secondary pathways!"
The machines exploded in showers of sparks and smoke.
Then, silence.
The new body's eyes opened.
Rudy—the new Rudy—sat up, gasping. His hands went to his face, feeling smooth skin. A nose. Two eyes. He looked at his hands—strong, healthy, young hands.
"I don't..." He paused, his voice—his actual voice, not filtered through a speaker—strange in his own ears. "I don't recognize if I'm the clone or the original."
"That's part of the process," one twin explained. "The subjective experience of continuity can't distinguish between—"
"But I do feel continuity," Rudy interrupted. "I remember being in the pod. I remember the transfer. I am him. But I'm also... new."
He looked over at his old body—still in the pod, the one working eye staring at him.
The old Rudy spoke, his voice crackling: "I'm sorry it wasn't me who made it. But you did. You're free now."
"Don't worry," the new Rudy said, tears streaming down his face. "I'll change the world. I'll do everything we dreamed of."
"Be happy," the old Rudy whispered.
The pod's life support began shutting down. The old body had served its purpose. There could only be one Rudy Connors now.
The new Rudy cried as he watched himself die.
"Our payment," one twin said, breaking the moment.
Rudy wiped his eyes and handed them a flash drive. "The schematics you wanted. Advanced robotics, AI protocols, everything we agreed on."
The twins examined the drive suspiciously. "This seems too easy."
"But, It is time for you to return to prison," Rudy said calmly.
Both twins laughed. "You're joking. You're a teenager. What are you going to do?"
"I'm a thirty-year-old genius in a teenager's body," Rudy corrected. "With a neural-link chip that you installed that allows me to control any machine I've programmed."
The warehouse doors burst open. Dozens of Robot's standard drones—the orange mechanical bodies the Guardians knew—poured in.
"Shit!" one twin shouted.
"Handle them!" the other replied, grabbing a heavy wrench.
The first wave of drones rushed forward, their mechanical limbs extending toward the twins. One Mauler twin swung his wrench like a baseball bat, connecting with a drone's head unit. The metal crumpled, sparks flying as the drone collapsed.
"He is using a weaker model!" the first twin called out, crushing another drone's torso with his bare hands.
"Idiots!" the second twin agreed, ripping the arm off a drone and using it as a club to batter two more. "If you intend to capture us, you'll need to do better!"
The drones kept coming, attempting to swarm them through sheer numbers. One leaped onto a twin's back. He reached over his shoulder, grabbed it, and slammed it into the concrete floor hard enough to shatter its chassis.
Another drone fired a taser at the second twin. He caught the electrodes mid-air and yanked, pulling the drone toward him. His fist went through its chest cavity, circuits and wiring exploding outward.
"Is this the best Robot can do?" one twin laughed, kicking a drone so hard it flew across the warehouse and crashed into a support beam.
"Pathetic!" the other agreed, grabbing two drones by their heads and smashing them together. Metal crunched. Both units went dark.
They fought back-to-back now, a whirlwind of destruction. Enhanced strength and scientific brilliance made them devastating in close combat. Drones lunged. The twins dodged, countered, destroyed.
One twin grabbed a drone mid-leap and used it as a battering ram, sweeping it in a wide arc that knocked down five more drones like bowling pins.
The other twin ripped a metal shelf from the wall and swung it like a giant flyswatter, crushing three drones simultaneously.
Oil and hydraulic fluid sprayed across the concrete. Sparking components littered the floor. The twins were winning easily.
"How many did Robot send?" one twin panted, stomping on a drone's processor core.
"Doesn't matter," the other replied, tearing the legs off a drone and tossing them aside. "They're all—"
The west wall exploded.
Concrete and rebar blasted inward. Dust filled the air. Through the settling debris, something massive moved.
A Robot stepped through the hole—but not the small weak units they'd been fighting.
This one was twenty feet tall.
Heavily armored plating covered every inch of its body. Its limbs were thick as tree trunks, reinforced with additional plating at the joints. Weapon systems bristled from its shoulders, arms, and torso—missile pods, energy cannons, rotary guns. Its optical sensors glowed with cold blue light, tracking systems locking onto both twins simultaneously.
The remaining standard drones retreated, forming a perimeter around the warehouse as the massive unit moved forward. Each footstep shook the ground, leaving cracks in the concrete.
"Oh shit," both twins said in unison.
GRAYSON HOUSEHOLD
Omni-Man returned to his house to find it empty. The hole in the roof let in sunlight that illuminated dust motes floating through the air.
"Debbie?" he called. "Debbie, we need to talk. I can explain—"
Something felt wrong. The air wasn't quite right. A distortion, barely perceptible.
Omni-Man's hand shot out and grabbed empty space—yanking a cloaked GDA agent into view.
"Cecil, You spying on me?" Omni-Man growled.
The agent tried to activate something, but Omni-Man slammed him into the ground. The kitchen counter shattered. The agent's body broke, his intestines spilling out across the floor.
Gunfire erupted from multiple directions. More agents decloaking, opening fire with advanced weaponry.
Omni-Man moved through them like a hurricane.
He grabbed one agent by the head and crushed it like an egg. Blood and brain matter splattered across the wall.
Another agent tried to run. Omni-Man flew through her, his fist emerging from her chest cavity. He dropped her body and moved to the next.
An agent fired a plasma weapon—reverse-engineered by the GDA from Flaxan technology Mark brought back—striking Omni-Man in the chest and causing him to stumble.
Omni-Man looked down at the scorch mark on his suit, then at the agent.
"That hurt," he said.
He grabbed the agent's arms and pulled them off. The agent screamed until Omni-Man crushed his throat.
Within seconds, every agent was dead or dying. Blood covered the walls, the floor, the ceiling. Body parts were scattered across what had been his home.
One agent—a woman with her legs mangled beyond use—tried crawling away, leaving a trail of blood. She was reaching for something, trying to get to the house across the street where the real operation was.
But she died before she could reach it, her hand outstretched toward her destination.
Omni-Man's eyes followed where she'd been trying to go.
The house across the street. Ordinary looking. Except it wasn't.
He flew through the wall.
Inside was a complete surveillance setup—monitors showing his house from multiple angles, recording equipment, tactical stations. And agents.
Donald Ferguson stood in the center, his hand moving toward a panic button.
"Everyone out! Now!" Donald shouted to his team.
They scrambled for the exits, but Omni-Man was faster.
He grabbed the first agent and threw her through three walls. The second agent managed to draw a weapon before Omni-Man punched through his chest. The third tried to teleport away but Omni-Man caught him mid-transport, tearing him in half.
Within ten seconds, every agent except Donald was dead.
Donald stood his ground, knowing he couldn't run. "You don't have to do this, Nolan. We can talk—"
Omni-Man grabbed him and lifted him off the ground. His hand wrapped around Donald's spine, squeezing.
Donald screamed as his vertebrae compressed, bone cracking.
"It's been an honor... sir," Donald said, looking not at Omni-Man but at a camera on the wall.
Donald gasped through the pain.
"Who are you talking to?" Omni-Man's eyes narrowed.
Donald's other hand pressed a button on his belt.
The house exploded.
The blast was enormous—flaxen-grade explosives designed to bring down the entire structures. It consumed everything, a fireball that lit up the neighborhood.
GDA HEADQUARTERS - COMMAND ROOM
Debbie and Cecil watched the explosion on the monitors. The feed came from a satellite overhead, showing both houses—the Grayson residence and the surveillance house—consumed by flames.
"Donald..." Cecil's voice was quiet, controlled, but Debbie could see the grief in his eyes.
The satellite feed adjusted, zooming in on the crater where the surveillance house had been.
Movement.
Omni-Man rose from the flames. His suit was completely unscratched, as if nothing had happened. There wasn't even ash on it.
He looked up at the sky—looked directly at them—then flew away at impossible speed.
"Oh God," Debbie whispered. "He's going to find Mark."
Cecil didn't answer. He was already barking orders: "Get the orbital weapon systems online! Track Omni-Man's trajectory! And someone find me Invincible's location!"
"Don't you have a tracker on him?" Debbie asked desperately.
Cecil's expression was grim. "We tried. Multiple times. Mark is very effective at finding and disabling surveillance equipment. We have no idea where he is."
DOWNTOWN - MARK'S LOCATION
Mark stood in front of a house—a nice two-story in a quiet neighborhood. The realtor shook his hand, smiling.
"Congratulations, Mr. Grayson. You're officially a homeowner."
Mark signed the final papers and accepted the keys. The money from Cecil had been substantial—enough to buy the house outright, no mortgage needed.
"Thanks," Mark said, looking up at the building. His own space. His own sanctuary.
As he watched the realtor pull away, He pulled out his phone to call Eve, see if she wanted to help him decorate.
"Hey, Eve. Just closed on the house. Want to come over and help me decorate?"
An alarm went off in his pocket. The proximity monitor for his neighborhood. The one that would alert him if something happened near his parents' house.
Mark pulled out the device and stared at the readout.
EXPLOSION DETECTED. MULTIPLE CASUALTIES. HOUSE NEAR GRAYSON RESIDENCE DESTROYED.
"Mark?" Eve's voice came through the phone. "What's wrong?"
"I have to go," Mark said, his voice hollow. "Rain check on the decorating. Get to the Guardians' HQ. Now."
"Mark, what—"
He ended the call and pressed the emergency beacon he'd given to all the Guardians. The signal that meant: Drop everything and assemble. Now.
Then he flew toward the direction his home.
MAULER TWINS' WAREHOUSE
The giant Robot had the Mauler Twins pinned down. They'd destroyed the smaller drones, but this one was different—heavily armored, learning from their attacks, adapting.
Then Rudy's communicator went off.
Cecil's voice came through, urgent: "Robot, we have a priority level Apocalypse situation. Get the Guardians to HQ now."
Immediately after, another alert—Invincible's emergency beacon.
The giant Robot's eyes went dark. Its arms went limp.
Then it launched into the air with Rudy inside its chest cavity, smashing through the warehouse roof and flying toward Guardians headquarters at maximum speed.
The Mauler Twins looked at each other in the sudden silence.
"Did we win?"
"I don't think so."
GDA HEADQUARTERS - COMMAND ROOM
Cecil turned to one of his senior officers. "Bring the hammer down. Now."
"Sir?" The officer looked uncertain.
"Orbital weapons. Full power. Target Omni-Man's current position."
Orders flew across the command room. Keyboards clicked. Screens lit up with targeting data.
Debbie watched in horror. "What are you doing?"
"Buying time," Cecil said grimly.
REMOTE FOREST - NOLAN'S LOCATION
Omni-Man flew over a secluded forest, miles from any civilization. He needed to think. Needed to plan.
How to explain to Mark. How to make him understand.
Then he noticed something. The air around him was shimmering, filled with falling particles of light.
He looked to his left, his eyes narrowing at empty space where he knew the GDA was watching. "You wouldn't dare."
An enormous beam of white energy struck him from above.
The orbital weapon—one of the GDA's most powerful defensive systems—fired at full power. The blue beam was so focused, concentrated, carrying enough energy to vaporize a city.
It hit Omni-Man and drove him into the ground.
The forest exploded. Trees vaporized instantly. Animals died before they could even feel pain. The ground turned to glass from the heat. A crater formed, hundreds of feet deep, kilometers wide.
The beam continued for ten seconds. Fifteen. Twenty.
Then it stopped.
Smoke rose from the crater. Nothing moved.
"Did we get him?" someone at the GDA asked.
The smoke cleared.
Omni-Man rose from the crater. His suit was slightly smoking, small wisps rising from the fabric. Blood ran from his nose—the only visible injury. Otherwise, he looked completely unharmed.
"Fire another shot!" Cecil ordered.
But Omni-Man was already moving. He flew straight up, accelerating, heading directly for the satellite.
The satellite rotated, its weapon systems coming online again. It fired.
Another massive beam of energy lanced down toward Omni-Man.
He flew directly into it.
The beam pushed against him, the energy trying to force him back down. But Omni-Man kept flying, resisting the impossible force through sheer power.
He reached the satellite.
The beam kept firing, and he kept on pushing against it.
Omni-Man grabbed the satellite's main power core and crushed it. The satellite exploded, debris scattering across low Earth orbit.
"Four hundred billion dollars," Cecil said quietly, watching the destruction on screen as Omni man threw a broken piece of the satellite at the camera drone watching. "For the world's most expensive nosebleed."
GUARDIANS OF THE GLOBE HEADQUARTERS
The team assembled in the common room, confused and worried. Blue rush paced back and forth.
"Where's Invincible? He called the emergency meeting."
Cecil appeared on the main screen, his face grim. "Guardians, sit tight. We'll brief you when—"
"We need to know what's happening!" Rex interrupted. "You can't just—"
"He's right," Powerplex said, standing up. The newest member looked around at his teammates. "We got an emergency beacon from Invincible. Priority level Omega. That means something serious is happening."
"We deserve to know," Throwbolt added, electricity crackling around her fingers nervously.
Shrinking Rae flew up to eye level with the screen, her tiny voice somehow carrying authority. "Cecil, we're the Guardians of the Globe. We can't guard anything if you keep us in the dark."
"The situation is evolving rapidly," Cecil said. "I need you all to trust me and stay put until—"
"Until what?" Rex demanded. "Until whatever this is shows up here? Until we're dead because we didn't know what we were facing?"
Black Samson stepped forward, his restored powers making him more confident. "Cecil. We need to know."
Cecil looked at them for a moment knowing that the new guardians were capable but changed his mind "Just sit tight"
The door burst open.
A young teenage man walked in around the same age as Amanda—handsome, athletic, looking exactly like Rex Splode but somehow way younger. He carried what looked like a belt in his hands.
"Who the fuck are you and why do you look like me?" Rex demanded.
"My name is Rudolph Connors," the young man said. " I am also known as Robot well Robot was simply a drone I controlled remotely."
The room exploded with questions.
"Prove it," Kate said, her duplicates surrounding him defensively.
"You can ask me anything," Rudy said calmly.
"Why do you look like me?" Rex asked again, his face red with anger.
"That. I'll explain everything," Rudy said. "But first—"
He turned to Monster Girl and held out the belt.
"Amanda, this might be bad timing, but I managed to fix your problem. When you transform, you won't age backward anymore."
Monster Girl stared at the belt, then at Rudy, her eyes wide. "You... you fixed it?"
"The temporal displacement was a quantum issue," Rudy explained. "I used Flaxan technology as a reference point, combined with—"
"You actually did it?" Amanda interrupted, tears forming in her eyes.
Blue Rush zoomed over and examined the belt at super-speed. "Is legit! Russian engineering very good, but this is better!"
Amanda took the belt with shaking hands.
Rex looked between Rudy and Amanda, realization dawning. "You did this for her."
"Yes," Rudy said simply.
"You should have asked me first!"
"Would you have said yes?"
Rex opened his mouth, then closed it.
For the next several minutes, Rudy explained everything. His condition. His years trapped in that broken body. His decision to clone Rex's form.
The team listened in stunned silence.
"This is insane," Kate said when he finished.
"This is romantic," Shrinking Rae countered. "Weird and creepy, but romantic."
"I don't know what to feel," Amanda said quietly, still holding the belt.
"You don't have to feel anything right now," Rudy said. "I just wanted you to know the truth. And to give you that." He gestured to the belt. "Use it. Don't use it. That's your choice. But you deserve to have the option."
Black Samson's who was looking at a screen went pale.
"Guys," he said. "You need to see this."
He pulled up footage on the main screen.
Satellite footage showed Omni-Man—tearing through a satellite. He ripped it apart with his bare hands, the pieces tumbling back to Earth in flames.
The room went silent.
"What the hell?" Powerplex whispered.
"Is that...?" Throwbolt couldn't finish the question.
Eve burst through the door, now in her superhero costume, breathing hard like she'd run all the way. "Where's Mark? What's happening?"
Cecil's voice came through the speakers, addressing all of them now. "Guardians, stay at HQ. If all goes wrong—if we can't contain this situation—you're Earth's last hope against Omni-Man."
"Against Omni-Man?" Rex's voice cracked. "You mean Mark's dad? What the fuck is going on?"
"You heard him," Black Samson said quietly. "Omni-Man has gone rogue."
"But he's the strongest hero on Earth," Kate said. "How are we supposed to—"
She stopped, her eyes drifting to the wall where a dark stain remained. Everyone followed her gaze.
The bloodstain from when the previous Guardians had died in this very room.
The last team that had tried to stop Omni-Man.
"Oh no," Eve whispered, her hand covering her mouth. "Oh no, no, no."
"Mark," Shrinking Rae said. "Where's Invincible?"
DOWNTOWN - MARK'S LOCATION
Mark floated in front of the crater that was the house in front of his home, his red and black suit gleaming under the rain that started to poor in the area. Emergency vehicles surrounded the area, but GDA agents had cordoned off access.
He'd seen the bodies. The blood. The destruction in his old home.
Then he'd walked across the street to the crater—the surveillance house.
This ends now., Mark thought.
He activated his communicator. "Cecil. Where is he?"
"Mark, wait, there's something you should—"
"Where is my father?" Mark's voice was cold, controlled.
"Mark, let us handle—"
"WHERE IS NOLAN?"
A pause. Then Debbie's voice: "Mark? Mark, honey, are you okay?"
"Mom." Mark's voice cracked. "Where are you?"
"I'm at the GDA. I'm safe. Mark, your father—"
"I know," Mark interrupted. "I know what he did. To the Guardians. To everything. I've known."
Silence on the other end.
"How long?" Debbie asked, her voice breaking. "How long have you known?"
Mark closed his eyes. I've always known, he thought. From the day I woke up in this timeline with all my memories intact.
"After I got back from the Flaxan dimension," Mark said, the lie coming easily. "I did my own investigation. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."
"Mark—"
"But now's not the time." Mark's eyes opened, hard and determined. "Cecil, I need Dad's location. I'm taking care of this myself."
"We can't allow that," Cecil said. "For your mother's sake, for everyone's sake, we need to try to get Omni-Man to explain why—"
Mark cut the call.
"Milano," he said to his ship, which was cloaked nearby. "Track Omni-Man. Find him. Now."
The ship's AI responded immediately. "Tracking. Location acquired. Current trajectory suggests he is searching."
"Searching for what?"
"Based on movement patterns: searching for you."
Mark's jaw set. "Good. Send me the coordinates. I'm going to meet him."
He flew into the sky, accelerating to maximum speed.