James Stillwell walked towards the lab at a brisk pace.
He had just received the news.
As he walked through the door, he was immediately greeted by Dr. Simmons.
"Simmons, what's the situation?" James asked, getting right to the point.
"Project Icon is resisting the injections and the gasses with ease. He's already started twitching within the tube, and it's resulted in many of the needles being removed."
"What's the projected time of awakening?" Stillwell asked as he moved towards the tube holding Project Icon.
Simmons wasn't exaggerating. Icon was twitching, many of the needles being removed in the process. His hands had already torn the flimsy restraints that had kept him in place and he was already showing signs of consciousness.
"20 minutes." Dr. Simmons answered. "Unfortunately, artificial aging has accelerated it's body's resistance. We've ceased all aging, he's currently 1500 years old,but our only choice is to prepare for an early awakening."
James nodded. "How long until you finish Phase 2 preparations?" He asked, looking at Dr. Simmons.
"It's only been three days, Mr. Stillwell. Even with the increased focus, we are still at least a day away from finishing preparations." Dr. Simmons informed. "The best we can hope for is to keep him appeased until we can complete preparations."
"Understood. If we can't stop the process, then accelerate it." James instructed, turning back towards the tube. "We want him to think we're helping him."
Dr. Simmons nodded, and turned to face the scientists in the room. "Drain the tube! Stop the injections, and cut off the gas transfer!"
Following the head scientist's orders, the team immediately moved to their stations to fulfill their duties.
James watched the fluid begin to drain from the tube, the only thing keeping the form of Project Icon suspended being the straining rubber straps around his chest and legs.
The white fumes of the toxic gasses were sucked up into the tube connected to the mask, and the needles still left in the skin were finally pulled away, the wounds healing in seconds.
And then James was staring into a pair of glowing red eyes.
James immediately turned to Dr. Simmons. "Open the door."
Nodding, Dr. Simmons pressed the button he was standing next to.
A hiss of releasing pressure could be heard as the locks to the door of the tube disengaged. Without hesitating, James gripped the door and pulled it open.
"Welcome to the land of the living, friend."
Sluggishly, the man inside the tube pulled against his restraints, snapping them with ease as he collapsed to the bottom of the tube, nearly tumbling out onto the floor if not for the quick hands of James Stillwell.
"Easy, friend. Your body's not used to any physical activity yet."
"W-Where am I?" Were the first words the hybrid in his arms spoke.
"A lab, deep below Vought Tower." James answered, turning towards Dr. Simmons. "Help me get him up."
Nodding, Simmons moved quickly, moving to the opposite side of the hybrid as he gripped his arm, helping to pull him up.
"Vought Tower? Where's that?"
"You're in Manhattan, Icon." Simmons clarified.
"Icon?" The man asked, glancing at the scientist with confusion as he took in his first breaths in pants.
"Yes." James answered. "That's what we call you, Project Icon."
"Why?"
"You don't remember?" James asked, glancing towards Simmons, a silent message to follow his lead.
"Remember what?"
"You were a volunteer subject." James explained. "You volunteered for Project Icon. We injected Compound V into your blood, and mixed it with Viltrumite DNA."
"Compound… V? Viltrumite… DNA? What are you talking about?"
To the dismay of both men, they could feel the hybrid between them growing more and more tense.
"You really don't remember?"
"No."
Both men looked at each other. This was going well.
"Well, friend, let's get you up."
It had been about a week since Soldier Boy's PTSD attack. He had taken therapy, and it seemed to have helped him somewhat. Now he can at least hear the song without going into an attack.
Currently, he was staying with Stormfront, who had a penthouse in Harlem, but if he was honest, most of his time was spent at the Butcher household.
Ever since finding out that Ryan wasn't scared of him, Ben had taken advantage of it. He wanted to spend as much time with his grandson as he could, since he'd been robbed of most of his life already.
Understandably, both Billy and Becca had been hesitant at first to let Ben around Ryan again, let alone near their house.
Unfortunately for them, Ryan was more than eager to spend time with his grandpa.
He had given their address to the man at the first opportunity.
And while Ben didn't want to be rude, he'd be damned if he wasn't going to spend time with his grandson.
After some debate, an agreement had been reached amongst Ben, Nolan, and the Butchers.
Nolan would teach Ryan how to use most of his abilities, and in turn, Ben would teach him control.
Although, there was one ability that both Nolan and Ben had difficulty teaching Ryan.
Flight.
At first, everyone had assumed, including Nolan, that Ryan's flight would be similar to Nolan's in that he would create his own leverage, and push off the air around him.
But they had discovered it wasn't like that at all.
Rather, Ryan's was more of telekinesis. It was as if he were moving where he wanted to go, rather than pushing off the air around him.
Funnily enough, it wasn't Nolan or Ben that had helped them solve that hurdle, but it was Silver Kincaid.
While she rarely ever used it, since it strained her abilities and she couldn't move as fast as Ryan would likely be able to, Silver Kincaid could in fact use her abilities to fly.
Once he'd been taught how to get in the air, though, Nolan had to step up once more.
Like his own son, Ryan's problem wasn't gaining speed.
It was losing it.
"Slow down, Ryan. Just concentrate on stopping. Remember Kincaid's lessons."
"I can't!"
Which leads to their current predicament.
Ryan had fun flying around at quick speeds (At the moment, he was a little faster than Supersonic, moving at about 800 kilometers an hour), But the time had come when Ryan had to learn to land.
As expected, unfortunately, Ryan failed miserably.
Admittedly, Nolan had expected him to divert his movement to avoid crashing into the ground.
Instead, Ryan face planted.
"Ryan!"
Becca was moving towards her son in an instant as he groaned and climbed to his feet, Billy and Ben hot on her heels.
"Ryan, are you okay?!" Becca asked as she slid the last little bit of distance, pulling Ryan up off the ground as she checked him over in worry.
Ryan shook his head vigorously, trying to snap himself back to attention as he looked at his mom with a blank look.
"Mom?"
"Ryan, sweetie, are you okay?"
Ryan didn't say anything for a moment.
The a wide smile crossed his face.
"I wanna go again!"
Becca's eyes widened, her jaw dropping in shock at Ryan's uncaring attitude towards what happened.
Nolan landed close by, and immediately walked up to the two. "Ryan, are you okay?"
"I wanna go again, Nolan!" Ryan exclaimed, jumping to his feet in excitement as the other three watched in surprise.
Nolan chuckled, and glanced towards Becca and Billy. "If it's alright with your parents, sure."
Ryan immediatey turned towards Becca. "Please, Mom?!"
Becca shook her head vigorously. "No! No, no, no! You just scared me to death young man!"
"Aww, please?!" Ryan begged, turning to look at Billy. "Can you convince her, Butcher?"
"Not happening, sorry." Billy said, shaking his head. "I'm with your mum on this one. You nearly gave all of us a bloody heart attack with that stunt."
"Maybe…" Ben spoke up, glancing between the parents and his grandson. "Maybe let's just give everyone some time to calm down, relax, kiddo. The we'll see."
Ryan was a little disheartened, but he nodded all the same. "Yes, Grandpa."
Nolan smiled, and walked up to Ryan, resting his hand on his shoulder. "Tell you what, we'll stop for today, and I'll go pick up some genuine italian pizza."
Ryan's eyes lit up at the prospect. "Okay!"
Nolan watched the child walk off with his parents, though Ben hung back.
"You know, a part of me wishes I could do more when it comes to training him." Ben remarked, glancing towards Nolan as they watched the family disappear into their home.
"Ben, I think you being here makes him happy enough. It's that encouragement he needs." Nolan remarked.
Ben nodded. "I know that, but… I guess I would like to bond with him a little more."
"What do you mean?"
Ben sighed. "He's my only biological family, Nolan. And like me, he has superpowers." He explained, turning to the Viltrumite. "I guess it just hurts, because despite that, it's a random guy he met who can teach him to use his abilities better."
"Don't forget that your closer to his level, Ben." Nolan said, resting a hand on the veteran's shoulder. "I can teach him to use most of his abilities, but he needs someone closer to his level to teach him how to control his abilities. Plus…"
Noticing that Nolan had trailed off, Ben turned to look at him. "Plus?"
Nolan paused for a moment, before sighing. "Plus, your better suited to teach him combat."
Ben's eyes widened. "Combat?"
"Yes. We all want him to make his own choices," Nolan started, seeing the alarm in Ben's eyes. "The thing is, people will come after him, Ben. And while I can defend him, I won't always be there."
"What about me?" Ben asked.
"Ben, think for a second. Do you really think we'll always be around him?" Nolan asked. "On the chance that neither of us are here, Ryan knowing how to defend himself is our best bet."
Ben had to concede his point. "But why me? You hold thousands of years of experience over me."
"Because my fighting style is different from yours." Nolan explained. "In all of my fights, my flight abilities allow me to create my own leverage. Ryan's don't work like that."
"He actually would need leverage to lift something heavy." Ben reasoned, following Nolan's logic. "Which means that despite his powers, if a supe comes after him by chance, his best bet is to fight-"
"-on the ground." Nolan finished. "Where he can use his strength to it's full potential."
Ben sighed, but he nodded. "Okay, I see what you mean." He looked at Nolan seriously. "But I'm still unsure."
"Why?"
"Nolan, my teaching methods are not the nicest." Ben said. "Outside of training, I'm just fine being his lovable grandpa, but if I'm teaching him combat, I'm not one to go easy."
Nolan turned to look back towards the house, where he could hear the family inside celebrating Ryan's latest stop motion film, one of 'King Kong.' "Ben… in this world? That may be the best."
"Do you think he'll hate me for pushing him?"
Nolan chuckled. "If just now was any indication, I think he'll want to push himself." He glanced towards Ben with a smile. "He's not nearly as tough as my son, and he just face planted from the stratosphere."
Ben's eyes widened. "What?!"
"Yeah. If that didn't hurt, he definitely felt it." Nolan said with a nod. "I think he'll push himself as far as he can. One thing I have noticed is he is protective of his mom."
"Yeah… You know, Stormfront keeps trying to convince me that it would be best if he were with us?"
Nolan's eyes widened. "What?"
Ben nodded. "Yeah. She thinks that he'd be better off with us, since we can both teach him to use his powers better, to be the best he can be."
"But we're doing that now, and he's still with his parents. What's her reasoning?"
"Butcher's too mean and Becca's too soft." Ben said, glancing towards Nolan. "Her words, not mine."
Nolan shook his head. "Well, Ryan loves his parents. Hell he looks up to Butcher, and I don't think taking him away from them is a good idea."
Ben nodded. "I agree. She just has Ryan's best interest at heart, but still…"
Nolan wasn't too sure about that.
After all, he'd tried the same thing with Mark.
Mark grunted as he took another hit.
Turned out, his dad hadn't wiped out the Flaxans like they had originally thought.
And clearly, they were very angry over what he had done the last time they were there.
"These guys just don't know when to quit, do they?!" He heard Rex Splode remark from somewhere in the battlefield.
"It seems their tech is even more advanced now." Robot's voice spoke, and heard the telltale blast of Robot's laser activating.
Mark just barely dodged another hit from the big Flaxan in front of, and he was quick to follow it up with a punch of his own, landing a solid blow square to the alien's chest.
The Flaxan general's eyes went wide from the hit, and he dropped to the ground, holding his chest.
Mark grinned. "Thanks Dad." He whispered.
"Invincible!"
Dupli-Kate's voice caught his attention, and he turned to find her fifth duplicate running towards him.
"There's a bunch of people trapped over there!" She said, pointing towards a small building where he could see a bunch of people hiding, trying to avoid getting shot by an energy blast from a Flaxan gun.
"I'm on it!" He said, shooting off at quick speeds, blasting through most of the Flaxans pinning down the people.
Loathe as he was to admit it, Mark had learned that if he wanted to focus on saving innocents, he couldn't focus on holding back.
So as much as he hated it, he didn't try to slow down, instead fragmenting all of the Flaxans in his path.
"Hey kid!"
Black Samson's voice echoed through a communicator in his ear, and Mark was at full attention.
"I read you, Samson. What's up?"
"Leader's coming through the portal. A real big guy, even bigger than the one Omni-Man took out during the last attack." He explained. "I hate to ask, but do you think you can-"
"Take him down? On it!"
Invincible rocketed off towards the portals where the Flaxans were pouring out of, and true to Samson's words, there was a Flaxan in a large battle suit, even bigger than the one that nearly beat him to death during their last invasion.
But this wasn't last time, and he'd grown stronger since then.
"Hey! Tin Can!"
The Flaxan leader turned towards Mark, and only had a moment to process the fist coming towards his face, before Mark had slammed into him.
"Time Out."
"Time In."
Suddenly, Mark was no longer in the middle of Time Square.
"What the shit?!"
And he apparently wasn't alone, either.
Turning around, he found all of the Guardians of the Globe standing with him, Rex having been the one to swear.
He recognized where they were.
Clockwork's domain.
He could see Shrinking-Rae return to normal size as all of them began scanning the area.
"Where are we?" Monster Girl asked, staying in her monster form as she looked around, examining all the different portals to be seen.
"You are in my domain, Amanda Sefton."
The familiar voice of Clockwork had Mark turning in the direction of the being with a smile, though the rest of the Guardians were understandably on edge.
"Who are you?" Robot asked, noticably on edge, even in his robot suit.
"I am Clockwork, Rudolph Connors. I am the master of time."
"Why have you brought us here?" Samson questioned, eyes narrowing.
"Because a critical time is approaching in another world, and they will soon need your presence."
"Another world?" Shrinking Rae asked, curious. "What do you mean?"
Clockwork smiled. "As the master of time, Raven, I see all timelines, in all universes, within all multiverses." He gestured to his domain around them. "All of the portals you see show you moments that are happening," He smirked. "Or have happened, in other universes."
Mark had a pretty good idea of where this was going, and considering the Guardians opinion of his dad right now, he was not about to bring up the possibility.
"So why the hell are we here, man?" Rex asked, raising an eyebrow.
"This world is about to face a powerful enemy, and it needs all of the protection it can get." Clockwork explained. "And at the moment, it's woefully underprepared."
"Are you forcing us?" Dupli-Kate questioned, raising an eyebrow.
Clockwork shook his head. "No. Should you refuse, you will be returned back to the moment you left. Anyone who accepts will be returned to the same time once their mission is complete."
"Well, I don't know about the rest of you," Mark spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "But if there's people that need my help, then I'm gonna help them." He turned his gaze to Clockwork. "I'm in."
"Me too." Robot said, stepping forward. "When we became the Guardians, we promised to protect all innocents. Not just our own world."
"Agreed." Black Samson said with a nod, looking at Clockwork. "Count me in."
Gradually, murmurs of agreement rang among the Guardians, all of them in agreement.
Clockwork smiled. "Then, if everyone is in agreement, then brace yourselves."
Suddenly, the very air seemed to shift around them as Clockwork's domain warped and shifted.
And suddenly, they weren't in Clockwork's domain anymore.
They were standing on the roof of a tall building, staring down an even taller one that had a large '7' running along the entire building.
"Welcome to Manhattan, New York." Clockwork said as the Guardians looked out over the city. "I suggest you familiarize yourself with this world, and brace yourselves."
"For the incoming enemy?" Robot questioned. Clockwork nodded.
"That, but also a familiar face."
Most of them had looks of confusion on their faces as Clockwork said this.
Suddenly, the howl of an engine caught their attention.
Looking up to the sky, they saw a decent sized aircraft flying overhead at quick speeds, quickly disappearing from view.
A second later, a sonic boom echoed through the air.
And then everyone saw a very familiar red and white blur.
A/N: Dun dun dun! So yeah, the second iteration of Guardians is now in the Boys world, and they already know Omni-Man is there with them.
As you can expect, outside of Mark who already had warning, most of the Guardians are not gonna react too well.
Also, Stormfront is already trying to pull Ryan away from his family, and she's trying to get Ben on board.
And finally, Project Icon has awakened.
For anyone who wants to participate, I'm running a poll to decide what his superhero name should be, or if we should just call him Icon. Admittedly, most of you in the reviews call him Icon, but when I thought up the idea, I had never intended on his name being the same as the project title.
So, I figured I'd let most of you decide what his name should be since I failed to myself.
Here are the options so far.
Icon (Stays the Same)
Savior.
Apex.
Alpha.
The poll is up on my profile page on FanFiction, and I encourage all of my readers to vote. Depending on the reception, I might run more polls in the future for this.
Anyway, that's the end of the chapter, I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to review, and vote in the poll if you like, and I will see you all in the next chapter.