Invincible: Finish high school, I guess.

Hey guys thanks for coming! Here's my hype for Invincible given legible form. I did a little research into Invincible comics. I'm going to use some characters that will range from probably to no way in hell for Season 2. I don't know how any of this is going to play out but I'm going to avoid using certain elements from the comics that are too easy to spoil ie: Omni-man related storylines.

The first item, I don't hate Amber… that said Eve better. That said OTP is MonsterBot because that's the best ship name ever!

Next up, I have no idea who is on fight force, so… fan characters but also Bulletproof, because he was cool in comics. Don't look him up, you might see spoilers, mark tries on his costume at Art's shop, in episode 2, he's a black male in his late teens with short black braids running front to back on his head.

1_Pizza and Therapy October 8th Wednesday

Mark-Amber's house

Mark let out a slow breath, Amber held him, humming something he couldn't place. She didn't need to say anything to make him feel better.

Mark bit into his gelato, focusing on Amber, her heartbeat, her humming, her warm presence. Mark looked down at his Calculus homework wishing it would burn up if he glared at it hard enough. Then was glad he didn't have heat vision, so he didn't have to start over.

Amber rubbed his arm, "Let's finish the worksheet and send you home. Your mom doesn't like us being unsupervised."

Robot-Guardians Headquarters

Black Samson, Immortal, Robot, Monster Girl Dupli-Kate, Rex-Splode, Shrinking Rae were gathered for training exercises. Rex let out a laugh watching Samson and Immortals' sparring match, "You guys are so OLD! Somebody! Go for the face or something!"

Rex sat down on the floor, letting out a childish groan of boredom.

Samson and Immortal knew each other too well, they hadn't worked together in years but that had not diluted each other's understanding of combat or their former teammate.

Rudy studied each swing, each dodge, each shift in foot placement, they were rapid, calculated, every time the stronger of the two, Immortal, moved forward, the other moved to the side. Every time Samson moved back to use an energy blast Immortal moved forward to guarantee that any attempt would be punished.

It was 'boring' because it was a stalemate, they knew how to defend against their opponent but not attack. Then Immortal in a burst of speed kicked Samson across the room, with a swift strike to his ribs, Samson moved with the motion to soften the blow but not enough.

"Damn it!" Shouted Samson and he punched the floor.

Immortal let out a warm laugh, "You'll get me next time, Samson." He said, offering his teammate a hand, Samson took it smiling, "Don't go back to saying that."

Robot spoke next, "You've all done very well today. I expect that-" Robot was interrupted by a flash of green light. A lanky balding man in a black business suit and red tie appeared, where the light had been.

"Hello Cecil, we were just wrapping up here."

Cecil Stedman was the sort of man who usually looked as if he had never smiled in all his life. Today was a usual day. "Robot, Rudy, whatever. I'm adding Bulletproof to your team."

"Who?" asked Monster Girl.

Inside his suit, Rudy's face wrinkled in confusion, "I don't understand, we agreed that the members of the guardians were to be selected at my digression."

"OH fuck no!" yelled Rex-splode. "You are not adding that Fight Force mother-fucker to the Guardians of the Globe."

"Oh," said Monster girl.

Cecil pointed a bony finger at Rex, "Zip it" then continued, "You chose a team with a diverse skill set, you guys have been doing pretty good, but I want better. Supervillains right now think it's open season, and Omni-man being gone has made things worse. So, I hired Fight Force, and I'm taking Bulletproof for your team. Adding him and Immortal to the roster makes you guys look good."

"Cecil" whined Rex, but a glare silenced him, "Don't. Your vendetta with Fight Force- wait a second." Cecil asked softly pausing for a moment before returning to a loud demanding tone, "Have you ever even met Bulletproof?" Rex shrugged, "I don't need to. He hangs out with Lifeguard and posts about it on the Fight Force Twitter account. Says all I need to know."

Cecil rubbed his temples. "Invincible turned me down and sparky boom boy here fucked any chance of putting Atom Eve on this team."

"That not my-" started Rex.

"SHUT UP." Cecil persisted, then sighed again.

"He's the best we got. I'm doing some legwork to find some new blood. Some kid in New York is pretending to be a cross between Darkwing and Jack Reacher. Some guy in New Mexico can breathe fire. but it's pretty bottom of the barrel."

"If Omni-man comes back anytime soon we are screwed. This is step 9 of 247 in preparing to fight if Omni-man or another Viltrumite shows up on earth."

After a moment of silence, Robot's voice broke it. "You have our training schedule why didn't you bring him at the beginning of this session?"

Cecil responded in a flat tone, "Dark Ranger and a few of my guys are giving him a final exam today. I wanted to be sure he didn't think too highly of himself when he got here."

"Understood."

Mark- school October 9th Thursday

"Hey, Mark!" "Hey, Eve what's up?" Mark pushed his lunch tray back as Eve sat down. "You look like crap, dude." Mark sighed, "Yeah, I haven't been sleeping well."

Eve had a glint in her eye and changed the subject, "Immortal is officially back on the Guardians of the Globe."

Mark smiled, "Yeah I saw that on the news, I thought you would be mad that they brought on Bulletproof."

Eve smiled, "I'd give Rex two weeks before he quits."

"Oh, that's what you're about." Mark realized. "You want Rex to get his ass kicked like at tryouts."

Eve shrugged, "I mean a little. What about you? I heard you turned down Cecil's request, and you haven't been very active."

Mark shrugged. "If I get back into it, I won't be able to go to a good college. My GPA is on life support and my attendance is only alive because of decent excuses."

William dropped down next to Mark, "Hey guys! Where's Amber?"

"She had a club thing," Mark answered.

"Mm, anyway, I got a call from Rick yesterday." "Wait, Rick from U-U?" Will smiled, "Crazy right?"

Eve asked, "Wait the college student you were crazy about?"

"What happened?" Mark demanded. Will made a calming motion, "Easy, so Eve a little catch up first. Rick got kidnapped the day we go see him-"

"I know," Eve stopped him, "Mark told me about D.A. Sinclair when he found out he got dumped."

Will nodded, "Okay, so they fixed him up with a few surgeries. He's doing really well and wanted to visit soon so I told him we were going to throw a Halloween party."

Mark nodded, "Yeah let's do it." 'I can be a good friend at least.' He thought to himself.

Eve looked a bit worried, "Isn't he still a cyborg?" William nodded, face somber, "But it's at the point it looks more like prosthetics than cybernetics, He was only abducted a few hours before we found him."

Mark didn't want to think about that night, he nearly killed Sinclair because he felt guilty for what happened, he could have been more helpful. As much as being a shitty superhero sucked, being a shitty friend was worse.

Will repeated, "Mark?" "Yeah sure." Will and Eve started laughing. "What? What did I do?"

"You zoned out then agreed to let Rick and I use your bedroom." Will clarified. "Oh, Hell No."

Eve and Will kept laughing. Mark cracked a smile. "You suck Will."

Rex- Guardians Headquarters October 10th Friday

"So, what's your problem with Fight force?" Rex looked up from his water bottle, "They suck balls. Anything else?" The girl rolled her eyes. "Dude seriously, why do you hate them?"

Rex groaned, "How about walking cliché? Dark brooding leader, check, hot redhead check, robin hood check, big guy with a heart check. Strong silent ninja stereotype that has nothing interesting about them check, the young girl that full of energy and optimism check. Oh, and the mildly sexy bastard that couldn't keep his shirt on if it was sewn onto his body."

"You forgot the moron in bright yellow."

Rex and Monster Girl turn to see (just look up a picture Bulletproof by Robert Kirkman I also made a description above in bold.) Bulletproof and Robot entering the gym.

"Monster Girl, Rex-splode, this is Bulletproof." Rex threw his empty water bottle at him setting off a small explosion.

Bulletproof didn't even flinch, "Did you get on the Guardians with that firecracker crap?" Rex stood up, "Fuck you! Asshole!" Monster Girl put up her hands backing away, "Rex nobody who gives a damn is here to step in if he starts fucking up your face."

Rex stared in bewilderment at her, "I can take warlocks human shield. He can't even pu-" Bulletproof's fist cut him off, throwing him backwards into the weight set he had been using. "You sure about that Rex?"

Rex stood up again, pulling a baton from his belt, but stopped himself, scowling, "Okay, whatever, but don't expect me to like you."

Late that night

Mark woke with a start, Sinclair's voice, 'Don't bother trying to appeal to his emotions. I removed them myself. I'm going to finish what I started.'

Mark closed his eyes. 'What will you have after five HUNDRED years?'

Mark opened his eyes again, he rolled on his side, closing them again. 'Think about Amber, her warmth, her heartbeat.' "Does watching her die, disturb you, Mark?"

Mark sat up grabbing his phone. He didn't want to freak out Amber. Will wouldn't understand. Eve might?

He called her.

Eve- her treehouse meantime

Eve was doodling some costume ideas when her phone rang. Mark… what could he want at this time of night?

Why was she still up? Might as well though. "Hey, Mark" "Hey Eve, can you talk for a bit." He sounded stressed. "I can." She said, "Why? Did something happen?"

Mark was silent for a moment. "Do you have nightmares?" "Yeah, everybody does." "No, like, about hero stuff."

"Mark, why don't you tell me what happened."

Mark sighed, "Ok, but don't freak out. It's a recurring dream. I go to sleep and my dad's attacking me. Saying stuff from the day he left, 'Come on Mark, you knew I'd be back, He said, "I am loyal to Viltrum.' He blocked my swing and asked me: Do you really want to die for this planet? Then, I shout, "I'll stop you!" he smiles at me, holding in a laugh, "Oh that worked so well last time."

Eve could practically feel Mark shudder.

"He hits me again and again, and I hear my mom begging him to stop and I can't even block a single hit. And if I'm lucky that's when I wake up, but sometimes he makes me watch him kill my mom. Then Amber, then you, then Will, then the new Guardians. 'Did watching them die, disturb you? Well, get ready for this,' then I get a replay of the subway in Chicago. And I can't do anything to stop it, and a wake up wanting to scream. But it won't help anything."

Eve sighed, "Mark, you're re-experiencing a traumatic event. Your immediate reaction will probably be to avoid situations that cause you to experience the memories. You haven't done superhero stuff or talked about your dad so it's important to nip that in the bud. What did you do with the pictures of him?"

After a moment Mark said, "My mom took down all the photos in the living room. I think they're in her room."

Eve sighed slowly, "If you avoid thinking about it, the nightmares are going to get worse. I'm not a therapist but I understand the basic principles it's been studied for longer than most other mental disorders. Again, not a therapist but exposure to things that cause stress should alleviate symptoms. Why don't we talk about it tomorrow? I can Call Ro-" she caught herself, "-Rudy and get his two cents."

Mark sighed, "Okay sure."

Mark-Home October 11th, Saturday around noon

Mark checked his phone again, Eve was on her way over, Amber was on board with the Halloween party, and thinking of costume ideas. Will was MIA due to homework, and Mark was making pizza crust. Mark had put the pictures of his dad back up, Mark shuddered remembering the funeral.

'I could be to Naples and back before the cheese stops bubbling.'

Mark tried not to push the thoughts away, Italian food was a staple in this household. Mark thought back further, looking at a picture of his parents together, "You guys are going to best-wurst? I love that place." Mark instinctively shook away the image of his father covered in blood.

"Hey, Mark?" Eve called from the front door. Mark wiped his eyes with his sleeve, to make sure he wasn't crying. "I'm in the kitchen." Eve found him dicing tomato, "Hey, Eve." "Hey, what's all this."

"It's supposed to be a pizza we didn't have sauce so I'm making my own. Does rosemary go in pizza sauce?" Eve shrugged. "All of my cooking skills were gained at the community center with Amber."

"What about your parents?" Eve changed the subject, "I thought we were going to talk about your dad?" Mark sighed slumping a little, "Yeah, so I guess we should walk through the whole thing."

He dumped the cutting board into a pot, "He lied to me about everything, I wanted to be him, to do what he did, then he killed the guardians, he was training me because he wanted me to enslave humanity for fucking Viltrum. Then he beat me within an inch of my life and left the solar system."

Eve listened carefully hands folded in front of her, "Was there anything else?"

Mark shook his head while he worked the dough into a flat even circle, "My mom was like a pet to him, human lives don't matter, uh…"

*Ding-Dong*

"Who's that?" asked Eve. "Come on in!" Mark shouted, then in a normal tone, "I invited Amber." Eve's face flashed with… something. Mark wasn't sure what.

"Hey Eve!" Amber wove hello as she entered. "I brought pepperoni."

Mark smiled, "Thanks Amber, that's great, I'd hug you, but I have olive oil all over my hands."

Eve pressed Mark, "You were saying? About your dad?" Mark was visibly less excited when she corrected the course of the conversation. "Yeah, he casually mentioned Viltrumites age slower the older we get. I'll be five hundred and look thirty or something like that."

Amber scoffed, "Seriously?" Mark nodded. "Holy shit" Eve added. Mark continued, "Mount Everest is a little hazy, but he said something like: 'You want to die for this planet? Fine, I can always start again, make another kid.'

Mark turned his attention to the sauce and started spreading it on the crust. "I'm not sure which parts he was lying about his feelings, but I know he chose not to kill me."

'Maybe there's a chance…' he banished the thought.

Both girls gave a worried look. "What?" he asked. "It's not like I'm ever going to have a happy family again. I'm not that naïve. But my dad still cares." Eve Pointed to the pile of mozzarella on the pizza, "Oh"

Amber rubbed her temple, "Hang on, back it up, so you're going to physically age a year in the next fifty?"

Mark nodded "About that, yeah, and it's only going to slow down from there."

Amber covered her mouth, "So when I'm 70 you'll look 20. Holy shit."

Mark smirked, "Yeah, I'll always look this good. Let me see the pepperoni."

Amber took a tossed him the package. "So, eventually my mom is going to find out about your powers."

Mark shrugged and put the pizza in the oven, "Yeah, three or four years from now. We could probably double that if I grew a beard."

Mark stopped, blinking at Amber's glare, "I sense I've made a mistake of some kind."

"Why are you making jokes about this?" Mark smirked again, "I'm not, if you panic and don't want to tell your mom we could put it off for five years easy."

"That's messed up Mark" Amber decided.

"Sorry," Mark said sheepishly.

After they went quiet for a few minutes, Eve spoke up, "I talked to Robot like you asked, he said there are other possibilities, but I probably guessed correctly. He offered to talk to you himself to help figure it out."

Amber looked to Mark, "What happened?"

"I told Eve about some nightmares I've been having, that's all." Mark slouched against the counter. Amber looked concerned again, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Mark waved it off, "It's minor psychological trauma from my fighting my dad," turned to Eve, "I will take Rudy up on that offer though, I want to get back to normal if I can."

Mark's phone rang, "Hey Will what's up? Me? I'm just having pizza and therapy."

I think this needs to be rated M, like by default. Should I use Vampires? I might anyway, not on Halloween, that's just childish. I won't apologize for a long chapter.