Invincible.
Volume 1: Origins, Secrets and Lies.
Disclaimer: I do not own Robert Kirkman's, Cory Walker's and Ryan Ottley's Invincible, one of the few non-Marvel and non-DC comic book series that I love. Also, I do not own Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's Avatar: the Last AirBender… No infringement is intended.
Characters:
Prince Zuko: Mark Grayson/ Invincible.
Aang: Allen the Alien.
General Iroh: Nolan Grayson/ Omni-Man.
Ursa: Debbie Grayson.
Princess Yue: Samantha Eve Wilkins/ Atom Eve.
Jin: Amber Justine Bennett.
Shoji: William Francis Clockwell.
Pakku: Cecil Stedman.
Piandao: Art Rosenbaum
Katara: Dupli-Kate.
And so on and so forth…
Not-so-distant-future…
'Have you ever had your ass whooped? Really, really kicked in the knickers? I mean… (How do you explain this in words?) … I mean one of those old-fashioned sorts of smackdowns where your fucking opponent just lashed all his angers out on you… don't bother to stop hitting you, just because you're laying on the ground.'
'Have you been clobbered in the face so hard… so HARD that your eyes went shut… making you temporarily blind? Ever accidentally swallowed your own teeth? Ever tried to catch your breath with just one working lung while all your body screamed in agony although you have lied down to rest?' 'Have you…?'
'If the answer is yes… then maybe we're on the same page here.'
When I suddenly realised that I was talking to myself, more like saying my mind out loud/ monologuing… while I lay down there staring up at the sky… watching the now-microscopic-size Dad… a fearful thought occurred in my (broken) head… have I gone crazy after all those brutal beatings? Then after I pondered about it, I sighed again…; no crazy persons will think themselves crazy… or so what I've been taught. I didn't know how long I had been laying there before I lost consciousness, before peaceful death took me away… but all I could remember before I blacked out was… well… my life; I was having a life review due to a near-death experience… a flash before my very eyes…
'Nice, just nice… I had to experience my pain again…' And then…
Now…
"Hey! Zuko, wait up!" It was the end of the school day; I was walking home when my 'best friend' was calling me from behind. I turned around, smiled and greeted him warmly. "Oh, hey Shoji. What's up?" While what I was REALLY asking him in my mind was: Can you please leave me alone? Not all of us love to hang out and have an orgy…
"A few of us are gonna go hang out tonight. You wanna tag along?"
My immediate reaction was too made up an excuse, but then I realised that I had something… "Sorry, man, I've got to be at Burger Mart in about twenty minutes, so…"
"Oh, yeah!" Shoji groaned, slapping his forehead. "Forgot about you having a job… sucks to be you."
"Gee, thanks." I snorted. "Well, see ya." "See ya!"
Who am I?
You sure you wanna know?
The story of my life… is meant for everyone… whether they're having a faint of heart or whatever… (Well, at least until I got… whoops! Can't spoil ya!)
If somebody said that this story was a happy tale… if somebody said that this story was just another superhero stuff where the protagonist was the son of a superhero trying to live up his daddy/ mummy's good name… somebody lied.
My name is Zuko; I am a nobody.
At least, that's what I thought… until that fateful day… at the Burger Mart.
"Grayson! Throw the garbage!" Dan, one of the senior workers barked; I hate subordination… what is this?! Army?! "Right away…!" I replied nonetheless. "…Sir." I added quickly.
I took the big pile of junks full of junk foods and other wastes and went outside through the exit door; I took my time to the dust bin, pulling the garbage while singing Green Day song titled Basket Case out loud. (One of my odd habit.)
'Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me'
I opened the huge, green dust bin, lifted the light, (waitaminnit, light?) big garbage and threw it to the bin… but I put too much strength on it; I didn't notice… my mind was somewhere else… I was thinking of this cute girl Jin Justine… and still singing…
'It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid? Am I just stoned?'
Then, when I didn't hear the loud noise 'THUD!' from the bin, I stopped singing, looked up bewilderingly and stopped breathing for… I dunno… as long as I saw the thing that would change my life…
The garbage that I threw was flying… literally shooting high to the sky until it was nowhere to be seen… My whole body went numb… my eyes wide open, my jaws slack… eventually gasping for breath, I grinned and answered the question of the song.
"I am just stoned."
'Bout fucking time!
…
"Let's go ahead and start." My mum, Ursula 'Ursa' Grayson, said after she prepared the dinner in the dining room; I'd sit down, unusually quiet, obviously still stoked about the discovery. "It doesn't look like he's going to be home anytime soon so…" Mum continued.
"I had a pretty interesting day," I began, when suddenly… "WHOOSH!" a gush of wind blew past through me and my Dad, Iroh Grayson… otherwise publicly known as Omni-Man, already sat on his chair. Unlike the Iroh you know in the series, this Iroh is more… (How do I put this?) Well-built…; he sports a notable large moustache and has a short, black hair with white temple.
"Sorry, I'm late. There was a flood in Egypt," Dad explained casually.
"Egypt?" Mum said, raising her eyebrow
"It was enchanted; once I've taken care of who was controlling it, (a mummy, by the way; funny story… we'll talk more about that in another story) it was quickly died away."
Then, the three of us were having a 'normal' dinner without a 'special' conversation… my Mum and Dad were chatting about something… possibly gossiping about their neighbours or stuffs… we folks didn't really care about world crisis or economy problem because when your husband/ father is Omni-Man, the greatest super-hero of the Earth, your life is surely luxurious (although my Mum insisted that we live in suburb house).
Then, the revelation had come when Mum asked the question, "So, how was your day, Zuzu?"
"Fine, fine…" I hated it when she called me that… "By the way, I think I'm finally getting my superpowers!"
"That's great." Mum smiled. "Can you pass me the bacon, sweetie?"
Ooookay… not the kind of reaction I'm expecting.
…
That night… I went up to the roof; I couldn't sleep. I mean, when you think you have inherited superpowers like super-strength, speed, invulnerability and flight, you would get FRICKING ecstatic for the next 24-7 straight, wouldn't you? So, that night, I stood at the edge of the roof… trying to prove… trying to find a closure… whether I REALLY gain my superpowers. "So, this afternoon I think I finally have my super-strength… so NOW I'm gonna find out whether I can fly," I took a deep breath. "Okay, okay, okay. Iroh says it's a reflex; so if I can fly… it should just happen when I jump off." I looked down and suddenly having a second thought… but I chastised myself that I wouldn't get killed from this height even though I'm still a fragile normal person… (Only it will SO gonna hurt) "… As long as I have Iroh's invulnerability, this shouldn't even hurt when I hit the ground…; but if I can't fly yet… then it's possible that I'm not invulnerable yet…" I winced, thinking of the horrible consequences… but ultimately my courage (Or is it stupidity?) overwhelmed my cowardice and I jumped. "GREEN DAY ROCKS!" (Geronimo is so outdated.)
I tried to spread my legs and hands, but my body kept falling and falling; so I reflexively closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and covered my face with my fore-arms. I was expecting of a huge noise of 'THUD!' due to the impact and then excruciating pain and then shrieking and then wailing and then moaning and then…
But it was nothing; I was still in my (petrified and horrified) position… as if the time itself stopped. Then I slowly uncovered my face and opened my eyes… The green grass of the ground was literally in front of me… while I could feel my feet were touching nothing but thin air! I was floating! That means…
"I can fly…" I whispered in a trembled voice, overwhelmed with a strong mix of feelings words could not describe. Then I shouted at the top of my lungs. "I CAN FLY! I CAN FLY!"
As soon as I shouted that, my body seemed to move forward, causing my face to hit ground… hard. 'THUD!' I was expecting my nose to bleed, but I barely felt the pain… does that mean I gained invulnerability too? I landed on the ground safely and then eagerly trying to fly again… only this time doing it by jumping high. "YES!" I could leap as high as Incredible Hulk! And then, when I reached the apogee of the jump, I closed my eyes, winced, and voila! I floated! I tried to practise how to fly from here… how to move forward, how to turn and how to stop… It was fun! This was the only practice that I totally dig! I didn't realise that I've been doing this until the next morning…
"How does it feel like, Hotshot?" Dad was leaning on a tree; a huge grin was on his face.
"Hey, Iroh!" I landed right in front of him hardly… causing the floor to crack… "Man, gotta work on the landing…; Anyhoo, it feels… I dunno… it feels I've been REBORN! And that's just an understatement! Is flying always this fun?"
"Well, you won't say that when you get used to it. But I know EXACTLY what you're saying; I felt the same thing when my two feet were not on its ground for hours for the first time… now that you have obviously gained all my powers, you'll need a uniform." (Iroh prefers to name costume uniform.)
"After we have our breakfast, I'll introduce you to a tailor... a friend of mine."
…
Later, Dad and I were going to Tailor Shoppe, where I was introduced to a man in 40s or 50s: Art Piandao. He was physically fit and well-built, looking just like Dad, albeit he had no superhuman abilities.
"Prom dresses by day, nuclear powered suits of armor by night…" Art's voice was deep like Laurence Fishburne. "… with your standard spandex number thrown in every now and then for measure… Damn, I've had this secret workshop here till I'm dead!" The two adults softly chuckled; "Well, Son? How does it feel?"
I stood there in front of the two pops like a sore thumb. My costume… well… sucked. I mean, okay, it didn't suck that much; the golden-orange colour mixture was okay and the mask… the yellow ray-ban was quite cool. But…
"I don't make this look good. It's not the tune I'm looking for, besides… what's with all these weird disc things?"
"They're solar batteries; I designed that uniform back when I was under the impression that you and your Dad's powers were solar-power based." Art explained.
"Common mistake, Artie. Don't worry about it." Dad said. Then, a beeping noise came from Dad's cell-phone. When Dad answered it, he cursed. "Blast it! A behemoth, with a size of a mountain! It is tearing up the East Side Bridge! Zuko. Piandao. If you'll excuse me…" With a flash, he changed his normal attire to his Omni-Man costume. His costume's design is a combination of Captain America's and Superman's; it has a big O on the chest, a USA-flag-like them throughout the whole body, thus the blending colour of red, white and blue. "Use the north exit…" Piandao told Dad… but apparently he didn't listen, as he had conveniently zoomed 'to the rescue'. "Sorry about that." I apologised on Dad's behalf, though I couldn't manage to hold my chuckle. "You'll get used to that."
"Don't be. I've been with him for years, remember? So, I've gotten used to it too. So, what do you think of the design of the costume? Be honest. Criticism is what I need."
"Well… Uh… It just doesn't seem… iconic, do you know what I mean?" I said hesitantly.
"Ah… yes. I hear that all the time; everyone wants iconic costumes but nobody truly knows what that means. Iconic is a little tricky to do… but I can't make an iconic costume if I don't even know your name." "Pardon?"
"Your super name, I mean." Art laughed at my confused eyes.
"Oh… OH! Right, sorry… Forgotten all about it. Honestly, I don't know… with all those names around, I couldn't find any good, memorable, iconic name for me and especially one that hasn't been used…"
"Well, see if you can come up with at least a few good ones before you come back here. Then we'll see if I can't whip up something more iconic based on the name."
…
Next week, first day of the school: Monday Blues. Bad start of the day as my mind couldn't focus classes but instead fighting crimes and making up super-names. But what really made it a bad start of the week was that sonofabitch (Hide), who I didn't even remember his name. He was doing somebody wedgies. I was ticked off because 1) The victim was the kid who had the locker next to me and 2) the bastard was trying to do me as well. Angrily I shoved him to my locker; but the result was worse (better) than I'd expected. My locker door was smashed (bad news) and the jerk's head had a swelling lump now (good news). This, of course, made a teacher to gives me detention and to see the principal. Good news: the Principal was a good friend of mine (unlike the Headmaster who appeared in the Headband.) "Just tell me what happened, Mr Grayson."
"He was picking on Lee… the kid who has the locker next to me, sir. I asked him to leave him alone, but then he started to pick on me. So I retaliated in self-defense (This was a half-lie). I didn't mean to hurt him, sir, honest (This was a pure, undiluted lie.) I just hate it just to watch kids getting bullied."
The principal sighed, but he understood. "To be quite honest… I condone it; but you should have gotten a teacher, or one of the security guards. That boy was almost twice your size. It's not your responsibility to protect the other kids here, Mr Grayson. You are not invincible, you know."
That last sentence was the only sentence that struck me profoundly… of course, the Principle still got something more to say, and all I gotta reply is 'Yes, sir." But that line he uttered: You are not invincible." He just did me a favour: He had driven me to be otherwise.
…
It was a bank robbery in the middle of daylight. Probably a regular basis for these John Dillinger-like gangsters… but for me? This was heart-pumping! This is my debut… to save the day!
I saw them running towards their large car in the corner of the streets from the sky.
"C'mon, Lee, start the engine, we gotta hit the road before…"
But the robber couldn't finish his order, because he saw his car being lifted by me, who's wearing a new costume, with an I insignia and a red and blue colour (resembling that Optimus Prime in the Transformers movie.)
"Too late, homeys."
"Drop it!" One of the robbers pointed his gun at me.
"I wouldn't try that." I threw the car to the sky and dropped right behind them, now they had no way out.
"I'm Invincible."
To Be Continued.