The Observer Effect

by MeepMeep7913

Viltrumites had believed in strength for so long that the few scientists among them were respected just for that. Vigil is on Earth for why events took such a turn - why Nolan had departed, the contradictions of Mark Grayson and why Earth was proving to be anomalous. Before Thragg burnt it all away, but in his observation of Mark Grayson, he was no longer sure it would be Thragg.

8. Ch8: Collateral Resolve in Philadelphia

DORM ROOM

Mark sat in silence; the semi-darkness of the room held back from fully manifesting by the small lamp on his desk. The window to the room was cracked open, allowing the sounds of the city nearby the university campus to drift in with the occasional roars of buses and cars. It was in the very early hours of the morning, past three AM and already four hours since the fight at the airport terminal.

At this point, despite the slight exhaustion in his body, it felt like his eyes and mind were just not up for laying down and pretending to do nothing. The buzz of thoughts would not have allowed it, and so there he stayed cross-legged on the edge looking to his desk with only the light of the lamp. Mark was staring at the chess board he'd recently bought, on a whim as the board itself was cheap and the plastic pieces were tacky. Pieces were mismatched across the board, having been moved around in the first hour according to the strategies coming to mind, but that had soon stopped. Now, he'd been staring at it for over two hours without making a move, or feeling any more mentally tired.

The flash of blue was what caused his head to turn a bit then, eyes darting to the corner of their periphery as the stiff, scraping feeling in his neck protested being moved so from hours of little movement. Rolling his eyes at the man who stepped out from the blue burst and the slight high-pitched whine of a teleportation, Mark just turned his head back to the board and deliberately moved a piece then. "Next time, use the door, Cecil." He announced softly. "I don't want to have to tell you again. This is my room."

Cecil's sharp eyes just seemed to scan him, before giving a stiff neck movement of his own in a nod. "Noted." Was all he said in that moment.

Moving another piece, Mark's interest suddenly spiked in re-engaging with the board in front of him than engaging with the man stood on his right. He knew though, that the GDA director could stand there all night if it wasn't for the fact that another crisis would inevitably occur at some point that Tuesday - but he didn't know when that was; nor was he that patient. "What do you want, Cecil?" He questioned, throwing the bare minimum out there.

Proving Mark's inner thoughts right, Cecil didn't get straight to the point. "You've been on a streak, kid, I'll give you that." He acknowledged, casually spoken as if just speaking his thoughts aloud whilst watching Mark play against himself on the chessboard. "You handled that terminal decisively. But I'm afraid I didn't come here to hand out performance metrics. More the fallout."

Giving a grunt, Mark still didn't turn his head. "You mean killing Multi-Paul." He responded.

Nodding slowly, Cecil took note of the normal way it was spoken, not even a slight wavering inflection of troubled thoughts. "Yeah, among other things." Cecil replied, just watching the way Mark seemed totally relaxed despite having been fighting for the lives of hundreds of hostages earlier and even killing. "Look, I'm not going to pretend this job doesn't get bloody. Sometimes there isn't a clean option. But I've been doing this long enough to know when someone starts seeing blood as an answer - not a last resort." He noticed as Mark's jaw clenched, still not looking at him. "I want you to see someone. Dr Rivas. GDA affiliated, completely confidential."

That got Mark's attention as he visibly blinked in surprise, not having expected that. Before then turning fully to Cecil, eyes narrowing slightly as his mouth turned downward in a manner of warning. "You think I need to be fixed?" He questioned coldly.

"No." Came Cecil's instant response, levelling his best impassive gaze on the young adult to give off as much of a non-judgemental impression as he could. Which came naturally to the GDA director given his profession, considering the tired calm his body gave off instead of its usual stern demeanour helped looking like he was simply delivering a prognosis. "I think you're heading for a place where no one can reach you. And when you get there... you'll stop listening. To me, or your mother. To anyone."

Silence sustained itself for a short pause, before Mark just titled his head. "I don't work for you." He stated. "Maybe that's the idea, not so different from what it is now."

"Really? 'Cos it sounds very different to me, kid." Cecil spoke lowly to him, as if calling out to him at a much quieter volume. "I spoke with Debbie. Apparently, you see enough of yourself in your father to be afraid." Mark paused visibly, his expression stilling. "That's good. That means there's still time to stop it, to snap out of it."

In just as quiet a tone as Cecil had managed, Mark just responded with a level voice. "Then she should have informed you not toevermention him around me again." He spoke as if merely informing the man, then turning back to the chessboard with a deliberate motion. "I'm not afraid."

Cecil just shook his head. "You should be, kid." He spoke in a firm tone.

Another pause, before Mark just raised his voice without looking round again. "Get out." He spat at the director.

Exhaling, Cecil just disappeared in another flash of blue a second later to reappear in the GDA control centre. Seeing Donald nod to him, confirming he'd heard everything spoken and subsequently recorded by the monitoring equipment set up in Mark's dorm room. "Rivas won't be enough." Was all he muttered to his assistant, before striding off to exit through the doors of the control centre.

ONE MONTH LATER

Cecil had stopped giving Mark the harder missions, and the GDA director didn't know what to make of him not saying a word about it. Invincible had strode into the Pentagon demanding a mission from the director, had accepted being part of the mission at the New York airport terminal; and yet now over thirty days had gone by without any of the such happening again after the excitement he had been experiencing for months. For a superhero of Mark's calibre, sticking to patrolling several cities and stopping petty crime for such a length of time should have been a downgrade.

Nothing indicated in Mark's mental state that he should've wanted the break, but it hadn't exactly reassured them of his mental state either. He hadn't visited his mother once since Debbie had been reduced to tears by him, his appearance round the university was sparse and his friend's list had officially withered to one person in William Clockwell. That was more because of the efforts of William too, with Mark's efforts being put more into solo visits to places when he wasn't being Invincible.

Which so far had included trips to Europe, a couple of other destinations and frequent visits to some corner café to play chess with a man who should've been entirely unremarkable. A certain Mr Morton who had been working his entire life at the same public library, been paying taxes his entire life and had even had his only broken bone as a child in 1999. If it wasn't for the fact that their analysts had recognised the library's CCTV footage dating back the past three years had been evidently digitally altered, then perhaps he would've been recognised as an American citizen. Not some kind of plant who had missed only the smallest details.

As if he didn't have enough to worry about, Cecil had to contend with the fact that he had another Viltrumite bomb to deal with atop the existing Viltrumite on the planet. Between a Viltrumite belonging to the Viltrum empire, a mentally unstable person in the form of a person who could wipe out cities and now a spy, Cecil was getting fed up. The problem was, he couldn't move in on the first two, and the third could have consequences if they moved in too. One and three could even be one and the same, even if their analysis so far had put it at unlikely given what they knew on the Viltrum empire - which was also weak.

There were too many unknowns. And Mark acting as a hermit in his bedroom when he should be making friends, turning around his crap grades or doinganythingelse than taking to his flights of fancy was not helping Cecil's mood. He didn't have the resources or expertise to play spy catcher, being a bit beneath their prerogative - so that had been handed over to the FBI who would go slow so long as nothing big happened. Mark was still refusing all help and he couldn't force a Viltrumite into therapy. And the mystery Viltrumite was still nowhere to be found.

Viltrumites were officially top of their threat list, and top of his shit list.

Which is why he groaned when an alarm disturbed his ruminating on what Mark was thinking on, the notification going off from one of the technician's consoles drawing his eyes to it. Just rubbing the bridge of his nose with a simultaneous small exhalation from it, the GDA director just banished his thoughts and instead assumed his business persona. Ultimately, far too easily from the years of doing it.

"Report." Cecil curtly ordered to the technician sat at the console.

Fingers flew across the keyboard of the computer set before the GDA worker, their brow furrowing as they speedily summoned up all the relevant information before whirling round. "Sir, we've got a disturbance downtown in Philadelphia. First reports of a superpowered being attacking civilians at random, no pictures yet but description puts it at a robot able to burst through walls." They summarised in a professional voice, that was more pushed through by protocol and training than willpower given the slight wobble of hurriedly scanning through information. "First call to the police received forty-two seconds ago, system flagged it when repeated descriptions matched."

Giving a short nod, Cecil knew that was the best he was going to get for a first description and that it was time for action. "Alright people, give me camera footage of whatever is in the area, somebody monitor the police response and calls to 911; and deploy a couple of drones from the nearest unit. Scramble a GDA team to the area, preliminary focus will be on evacuation and intelligence." The GDA director snapped out to the whole room, hands going into pockets in a reflexive action as his mind became a list of protocols. Darting his eyes round to his assistant, Cecil then threw a question to him. "Donald, is anyone nearby?"

Instantly tapping the tablet he held ever-present in his hands, Donald forcibly swiped across the screen a couple of times before raising his head and shaking it. "No sir." He responded to confirm his gesture.

Exhaling again at the situation having returned full circle, Cecil just spoke his next order. "Call Invincible." He ordered lowly, his tone being somewhat uptight. "I know he's not busy."

PHILADELPHIA

Smoke curled into the air from the havoc currently occurring, fires licking at a couple buildings from the evident damage inflicted upon them with holes and crumbling walls. The industrial district that was currently being trampled through by a now-confirmed humanoid quasi-robot was becoming ever more ruined, with a warehouse rendered completely in half with a clean cut. Flames spawned violently from one factory where they'd touched down, orange tendrils lashing out with a fiery glow even against the clear backdrop of the bright day; smoke spewing in volatile and frothing amounts to turn the bright blue a background of choking black. It stood out amongst an area of damaged buildings and carved destruction.

Invincible slowed his descent to a stop, hovering a hundred metres above the ground to take in the scene below him. It was obvious, with Mark no longer having to be directed by his earpiece towards Philadelphia as the curling smoke wafted like a beacon that had drawn his attention so; the burning factory the centrepiece of a display of ruined infrastructure. He could fully well see why he had been kept on course now instead of the sole local hero native to Philadelphia. A C-rank hero would not be capable of dealing with a being tearing apart an entire city district in under a literal three minutes.

A slam of steel rang out from a storage depot to his right, snapping his goggled gaze to the cluster of warehouses as he then disappeared in a flicker. Disengaging the super-speed to linger two stories above the ground from the source of the noise, Invincible then tilted his head as the wall his sight was locked onto crumbled away to reveal the source of the commotion. Bursting forth in a small cloud of mortar dust and ringing, collapsing brick, Mark then just folded his arms as the robot humanoid before him halted in its path; both of them surveying the other. Mark in particular frowned as he saw it wasn't just a robot.

Seven foot in height, it was clearly an athletic and eerily humanoid figure, but the shape was clearlyoffif you weren't too running away so you could look at it. The proportions were slightly exaggerated with its arms a bit too long, its spine too flexible in the otherwise rigid-looking housing of a plated armour layer displaying each curve and crevice in the bone joints of it. The skin was a pale synthetic flesh, Mark's eyes roaming over the biological tissue stretched over alloyed bone-weave and armoured plating which retracted or reshaped itself.

Embedded in its sternum was a core of some kind, a softly humming orb to Mark's ears that evidently held its power source. A potential weakness, if not for the rearranging bone-armour and plating that shifted across it; pulsing and humming in sync with the single red vertical slit in its face where eyes should be. An otherwise blank and angular face, like a featureless ceramic mask to match the tone of its taut flesh, it was a mechanical fusion of metal and flesh that was surveying Mark as if it could see every weakness of his in far greater detail than his enhanced senses.

"Target confirmed."A voice almost literally slithered from within the concoction of hardened alloys and reshaping tissue, a rough intonation of robotic speech which was seemingly generated from a grating of chords somewhere inside it."Invincible."

Only raising an eyebrow out of sight behind the darkened goggles of his mask, Invincible then ignored the part of being targeted as that had happened numerous times at this point. He instead focused on his upcoming opponent. "What the fuck are you?" He questioned bluntly to the figure beneath him.

A step forth was taken by the robotic mess that clearly didn't know if it were biological or synthetic, crunching down upon a brick that snapped easily to join the littered remnants of debris coated around the entire area. A district filled with steel skeletons and broken warehouses, glass teeth everywhere amongst the ripped-up asphalt and concrete from the creature's efforts. The death toll could only be guessed at right now."Bio-mech version three point two, programmed to capture attention of the GDA and kill the deployed hero response."Its voice slithered out again."Your elevated heartbeat suggests readiness. Begin."

The air that had previously been charged with static, and the pulsing of the bio-mech's power core transitioned. Its entire biology seemed to shift then, flesh and tissue writhing to its back to form two tubes pointed downward from which quickly erupted two gouts of flame forced back in a scorching trail. Propelling the creature forth in a blaze of fire, it charged toward Invincible as it leapt up the couple of stories where the superhero hovered with a fist reared back.

It ultimately failed, as the attack sailed slowly past Mark's face as he had merely dodged to the side in a display of speed he knew the creature could never hope to match. Raising his own fist up, he slammed it into the crook of the creature's neck just as a burst of electricity erupted from the bio-mech's pores. As the creature was sent slamming downward to carve up another bunch of concrete in a crater several inches deep and cracked, Mark actually let out a groan of pain as the yellow voltage of arcing electricity rolled over him. Whilst Viltrumites could heal from wounds sometimes instantly and held super-enhanced resistance, electricity was a natural bypass to all things biological as it lit up his pain centres.

Sure enough, Mark forced back control of his limbs where he hovered from the erratic twitching and movement they'd broken out in from the voltage, snarling then with bared teeth as the scorch marks on his skin healed over in a second. His moment of weakness meant he felt the tingle of heat from super-heated plasma slamming into him, the purple mass of energy impacting him and sending him back a metre in the air before Invincible seized control back of his body again. Slapping aside another shot of plasma sent his way to force it to dissipate before it impacted his suit again and burned the durable material somewhat, another snarl ripped from his throat then as he dived.

They clashed properly for the first time, as Mark's fist hurled into the bio-mech who had just enough time to reform its limb from a tube resembling a smoking cannon back into clawed digits to fully meet his charge. Evidently an alloy of metal far stronger than regular steel, it held for the momentary impact when the two throws of kinetic momentum met, but inevitably won out as the creature's arm was forced back. But the higher strength of the Viltrumite was accounted for, as rather than the arm snapping off or becoming disfigured, as it instead deliberatelydislocatedto forcibly equalise the pressure against it.

Bone-weave snapped back together in an instant as the bio-mech took advantage of Mark's shock from the sickening snap having rung out from the creature, dislocating its own limb using its own shifting plates and flesh. Clawed fist met Mark's face as another bout of flame erupted from its elbow to give it all the more chance at actually reacting faster than Invincible who was noted to move beyond Mach speeds; succeeding as surprise weighed Mark down. Having committed to a punch which was deflected against and sent surging back, his cheek was ripped open as metal-tipped claws backed by a surge of raw kinetic power managed to breach his natural defence.

Blood flew through the air in an arc from the Viltrumite hybrid, as the three claw marks raked down his cheek to actually tear apart past the hardened layer to reach the soft flesh beneath. The jolt of surging pain that lit up his neurons in a searing of agonised emotion snapped Mark out of his shocked state, reacting enough that the claws only scoured a few centimetres of his cheek as his arm changed trajectory. A burst of super-speed sent his limb impacting into the creature's head, getting a squeal to erupt from it to match his own shout of agony as he sent it flying off to his right like a hurtling rag-doll.

His fingers swept up to his cheek to touch the three grooves gouged into it, blood streaming from the wounds as his surprise once more looked upon the first injury he'd had in months. Nobody had managed to properly touch him except Battle Beast and his father, being entities of renowned spatial combat, and yet some robotic amalgamation had just done it. The hardened defensive layer of his Viltrumite skin had prevented the wound from getting too deep, flesh knitting together under his fingers to staunch the tide of streaming crimson; but it was a shock. Evidently, the bio-mech was to be taken seriously as it had been designed with supers like him in mind.

An actual chuckle arose from him as his head turned to look toward the bio-mech now on its feet again on the ground, both regarding each other again after the initial opening trade of several blows. Instead of the earlier snarl, a smirk started to slip into its place as he realised he was facing one of his strongest opponents yet - gifted with a metal that could actually touch him. Mark actually found himself getting somewhat excited.

Let its creators see more. If they had thought the speed he'd displayed so far was what the robot was designed to overcome, then he would just keep one-upping it. He could stop holding back so much.

Fist met fist once more as Mark sped downward to greet it again, the AI driven computer piloting the robotic creature analysing Mark's approach at the speed of light as its physical limitations could only match the Viltrumite's speed by sending forth a punch. Dislocating again, Mark was prepared this time as his other fist was driven forward into the bio-mech's torso with the intent of shattering open its armour. However, it wasn't metal his fist met, but the organic-synthetic hybrid muscle that coated the plates of bone-weave making up the creature, which expanded under the pressure. It didn't break, but re-distributed the kinetic force into alloys far stronger than steel anyway.

Further hits were sent thrusting at the robotic amalgamation far faster than it could physically react, even as its crimson eye could take it in as it was only pushed back slightly with the dampened blows sent at it. The re-distribution of force was not the only creature's defence, as its structure allowed it to twist and bend in unnatural ways. Even as Mark punched faster than its slowly-moving limb to the Viltrumite's senses could act to block, it was innate in that its spine rotated around its joints somewhat to deflect against the surging blows. It was entirely unorthodox, as if the creator of the bio-mech knew nothing could actually withstand the blows or dodge the punches of Invincible; and instead met each hit with a reversal of some kind.

A fact that the creature took full advantage of, as it raised both its fists up in the air and slammed it down on Mark's head, the only previous five seconds of a barrage of punches interrupted with a strike downward. No amount of force generated by the biological machine would rupture Mark's skin as the claws that had assisted it in doing so were tucked out the way in this strike, but it was enough to send Invincible's head down to meet an upper-cutting knee. Thoroughly dis-contorting Mark's world viewpoint with a double strike to his head in simultaneous directions, he was then screaming in agony this time as further electricity erupted from the creature.

Surging out in massive amounts of crackling voltage pouring from the pores of the bio-mech as it unleashed the storm of energy from within itself, to a high potential of thousands of bolts in an attack that Kursk could not utilise. Purple channels of energy from its plasma core spread across the body of the creature as it sustained its barrage of electricity upon Invincible, simultaneously sustaining Mark's screams as his neurons were set alight. Bombarded with energy that far overtook the tolerance of energy it was supposed to carry; his nervous system was energised in such a way that the searing heat of agony was transferred across his body.

Keeping up the attack for the longest time that its computer mind calculated to be within acceptable parameters before Mark wrested back control and responded, the bio-mech then moved. Seizing hold of Invincible's head and driving it into the concrete beneath it, the damage was evidently negligible to the Viltrumite except to reopen his cheek wound in another cascade of blood, before then doing it again. Tilting the head it tightly gripped to the left, Mark's head was slammed into the concrete as fast as the creature could manage in order to exacerbate his wound further. Six times his head was battered into the floor in the span of two seconds, before the robotic amalgamation registered Mark's fingers close round its wrist with only a slight spasm before then tightening.

Only a creek was let out from the armoured plate Mark tried to crush as the bio-mech reacted faster, another surge of high voltage unleashed upon him with another groan which successfully slackened his grip. Flipping over the entire body of Invincible, he was sent ploughing straight through a brick wall to impact it with his whole body before it crumbled around him to be sent tumbling inside the broken apart warehouse. The bio-mech followed only a moment later, appearing in a leap assisted by a propulsion of flame, claws held out in a manner to descend upon Mark Grayson with; in an attack that had been the actual only proven method to have damaged him beyond a temporary period.

Swipes of claws came down upon Mark as his spasming body refused to cooperate after only three seconds of having been blasted with thousands of volts, strengthened metal trying to render his body apart and kill him. Even then, each strike had to be somewhat slowed as it had to be aligned with an exact angle for maximum damage per the computer's calculations, sent surging forward with a blast of flame to propel it to rake upon Mark's flesh with a powerful gouge of metal against Viltrumite flesh. There just wouldn't be enough power otherwise.

Blood erupted from Invincible's body as he rolled out the way of another strike, letting out another shout of agony as the robotic amalgamation instead realigned its strike to his heart with a strike down his thigh. Clawed wounds littered his body with a succession of strikes sent surging at him in the span of seconds, time that he yelled aloud from the mounting damage before his brain once more overloaded as the bio-mech lit up with electricity once more. It was now a repetitive dance as it booted Mark's body back through the wall with another propelled kick, but undeniably effective as he was sent though it again.

Arcing through the air with twitching limbs, Mark smashed into the chimney of a neighbouring factory which crumbled as he did; masonry and brick debris cascading down as he began to fall from the force of the blow. The creature did not allow him to go far, as another pummelling blow to his back sent him crashing straight through the roof of the factory and successfully caving in the structure from both entities which could so level buildings. Diving down in another eruption of flame from its back, Mark was sent impacting into another wall that he cleaved right though from the blow it gave him again. This time smashing right into an abandoned delivery truck in a render of squealing steel which folded beneath him, the factory behind him collapsed upon itself in a cloud of choking dust and debris.

The bio-mech's plan was laid bare to all who watched. Constant blasts of electricity kept Mark disorientated, his limbs flailing and pain ever-fresh in such large amounts that he had forgotten over months of easier opponents. The constant smacking around of his body through walls and debris to ensure his head was further concussed, impacts rocking his body even if it failed to damage his biology was still felt. It was lasting damage with the ultimate clawed attack which had been proven to bypass his defence, which if Mark did not find a counter too would ultimately kill him.

He found it in the form of willpower. The computer had been learning at an evolving pace throughout the battle, consistently now utilising what had been proven to work and keeping a stronger (and faster) enemy off-keel to prevent them from retaliating. Its mistake was in not realising that just as it too could adapt, so could Mark's mind from the constant electrical barrages and impacts - finally getting just used to it enough to seize an opportunity.

No human could ever hope to have recovered quickly enough to take advantage of the singular second of the creature leaping at Mark where he lay in the crumpled truck, but Invincible did just enough. As the bio-mech descended down with a two-foot kick sent propelling right at the torso as the largest target, Mark's hand lashed out to seize hold of its ankle and throw it backwards with his full strength. The still-spasming hand wrapped round the diving limb just before it could impact him and just jerked back to hurl it away in more instinct than proper thought from his still-reeling mind, but it was enough.

Mark had thrown them with all the strength he could bring to bear in that moment. It was no-where near close to his full strength, but it was enough that the bio-mech was sent hurtling forth the six miles in a literal four-fifths of a second away from him. Sent rocketing forth in a high arc that ended sharply within the central business district of Philadelphia.

GDA HEADQUARTERS

"Give me something, Donald, what the fuck is happening?" Cecil cursed out as he barged right through the double doors leading into the GDA control centre, his staff having to hastily move around their director as he strode on through.

"We're still gathering intelligence sir, but it appears Invincible is actually being damaged." Donald stated with a hurried tone as he looked from his tablet to the director several times, following in the wake of the man who carved a path to the middle of the control centre. "The entity in Philadelphia is using large amounts of electricity which is actually hurting Mark to the extent he can't fight back. Whilst damage looks minimal from the electricity, we're worried of the continuous head trauma which may put him out of commission enough to kill him."

Cecil only gave off a hurried hum as he gazed to the large screen in the control centre, as one of the mobile drones the GDA had been able to deploy was watching Mark now being thrown into a factory chimney. Pointing to it, he just asked his question aloud. "What are we doing, people?" He raised his voice to the whole room, projecting his demand for an answer. "Strongest hero on the planet is being taken out by some electricity and we've got nothing else to deploy to let him pull his shit together?"

"Sir, please." Donald interrupted then, drawing the director's attention back to him as his assistant looked squarely at him. "We already halted sending in squads as it can shrug off Invincible's blows, and the Guardians are still within five minutes of arriving as they're dealing with another incident to the West. We could send in the Immortal, but..."

More would have been said if it hadn't been for the screen showing the entire building collapsing, not from a sustained fight but from Invincible merely being thrown into it with such force. "Well, shit-" Cecil let out as his surprise didn't extend to the property damage, but from seeing his best fighter being pummelled. "Have the Immortal be put on standby, if this needs a diversion then-" He was interrupted then again as the fight transitioned to Mark being sent outside, and then him sending the robotic amalgamation soaring into the air.

It would have been something Cecil would have paused briefly then for, to see if Mark had managed to pull it back together and turn the fight around. Unfortunately for him, he didn't get that chance as in the blink of an eye and under a second, a skyscraper was already exploding in front of him as the creature had been hurled into it. The lens of the drone's camera was audibly scurrying as it zoomed in on the figure that had travelled miles of distance in under a second, now completely gone from sight in a spewing cloud of dust and a crumbling building section with its top portion collapsing to the road beneath.

"Shit, we've got civilians in danger." Cecil spoke then as his mind turned over itself, taking only a moment to analyse the situation before he whirled around to the nearest technician. Raising his hand to point at Donald, he addressed both his assistant and the technician at once. "Belay that order to Immortal, Donald, the last thing we need is more property damage right now. Instead, what we need is to get Invincible to get the fight out of the city. Get in his ear, get him out the city." He snapped out, before then clicking his fingers to the technician. "And get more squads in, ASAP. Focus on evacuation with what resources we have on scene."

Another skyscraper groaned under an impact, crumbling loose as Cecil's fingers tightened round the back of the chair he gripped. The yellow blur that had sped in was distinct in who was up now, and his reservations of Mark Grayson increased as he also had the distinct feeling that the young adult wouldn't listen.

PHILADELPHIA

Invincible shot up out of the wreckage he'd lain in, hovering only for a brief moment over the ruined industrial district to shake his whole body and limbs loose in an attempt from its still twitching state. A sonic boom then occurred as he was gone before the distortion of air had even cavitated properly, blurring into position of Philadelphia's central business district in front of where he'd detected his opponent. Differing towers of buildings and skyscrapers surrounded him in arrays of supported structures of steel and twinkling glass reflecting the sun, reaching into the sky and still standing taller than he did from where he hovered.

Not the one he currently lingered outside of, the dark-yellow cape he wore around his shoulder becoming increasingly restless and buffeting in the winds that howled and gained strength around him; displaced by the collapsing building heading toward him. The gaping hole of twisted steel and shattered glass that still fell had cracked the building in half at its thirtieth floor, now sending the smaller top portion plunging straight at him. Shrieks of metal and cracks of glass and other material crashed around him in continuous symphony, already having to bat aside a piece of steel as the five floors worth of building hurtled toward him in a collapsing heap of tonnes of material.

Such a thing would not have harmed him, but he didn't move aside for that reason - blurring back to the edge of the falling debris as it turned ninety degrees down to plunge to the road below. But it never made it, as Mark let out a snarl and just lashed out with his foot - and didn't hold back so much. The sheer force that the boot of his suit generated fractured the air itself with multiple cavitations erupting milliseconds apart with visible shockwaves, in the excess energy alone wasted as the rest was transferred to the portion of collapsing building which felt his fury.

His anger at having been bested for a period of time was transferred fully into the kick he launched at the collapsing section of the skyscraper, generating a large screech as his foot even just touched it. The rooftop that took the brunt of his blow shattered apart instantly, crumbling apart as the kinetic energy charged rampant through it, sending smaller chunks of debris and building scattering everywhere around instead of straight downward. Further cascades of glass cracked and split apart from the three skyscrapers around which were then pelted with the shockwave of debris, as the five floors Invincible had kicked was sent on an instant course change back into the foundation it had fallen from.

As some of the building had blown up like an explosion from the side of the kick and the rest caved in the remainder of the skyscraper, Mark's enhanced eyesight spotted the flare of flame instantly. Leaping up out of the hailstorm of collapsing rubble and debris with continuous shatters of exploding noise and rendering metal, the bio-mech was clawing its way out of the shitstorm as it knocked aside a falling wall that must have weighed tonnes alone. It never got the chance, as Invincible exploded into position right beside it and punched it right through the wall of reinforced steel and structural support.

Shrieked into the wind was a loud, pained roar of grating, deep agony as Mark's punch this time completely overpowered the unconventional defence of the robotic amalgamation this time; its vibrating, robotic intonations mixing with the screech of splitting steel as both disappeared. The force Mark had punched it with sent it straight through the next skyscraper; carving a hole straight through the innards of the building with an implosion of smaller debris and rubble emerging out the other side with the creature. And Invincible blew straight through the skyscraper with it too, shattering glass on both sides and slicing another several-metre high hole in the building as he appeared beside the bio-mech.

Grabbing straight hold of its face, its armoured head was saved only from being crushed inward by the strength of the grip on it by the consistently rearranging armoured plates and alloys around its synthetic flesh to try and equalise against the pressure. It was slowly failing, but it needn't have mattered then as it was only a second later that Mark's wrist flicked downward as he flipped them both over; and plunged downward.

Another burst of electricity slammed into him as the robotic screech filled his ears, drawing a pained grimace to the snarl he wore, but the narrowing of his eyes said it all.Not this time.Mark held on despite the pain that slammed into him from the electricity that time.

The air howled for only a moment despite them being over a hundred metres above the ground, completely drowning out the voice in the earpiece Mark wore as he sent them crashing full force to the ground below. It was as if a tide broke apart then from a forceful impact with the shore, except it was the tougher material of tarmac that still yielded just as easily against the hardened shore that moved to it. The surface of the road disintegrated on impact, cratering metres-deep beneath both beings that slammed into it as Invincible had accelerated into it at Mach speeds, sending chips of road and surface flying up and out of it - but he wasn't done yet.

The tip of Mark's boot became stained crimson as he shifted it forwards until it touched the superpowered creature that was a fusion of metal and flesh, beforepushing.A sonic boom occurred as he thrust the leg forward with actual power, cavitating the air itself and splattering the wide area around with gore and blood as the section of torso he'd kicked was obliterated. The sheer force put into the kick had forced all matter that had collided with it, whether it be biological flesh or air molecules, to shift aside so violently that an imperfect vacuum had been formed momentarily; before other matter in the next microsecond had equally as violently race back in to fill it. The result was a loud thunderclap of deafening noise and power that had cratered the road beneath them down to the rock below, destroying the debris that had begun to settle around them from the previous strike to finer matter.

Cars flipped over as the creature carved a trench right through the concrete and asphalt, loud squeals of car alarms sounding out as the mid-afternoon traffic that soon would've become rush hour was now caught up in the fight. Occupants of vehicles, and the pedestrians lining the pavements were reduced to crimson mist if directly impacted, or torn asunder by the violent winds generated by Mark's kick which propelled his opponent down the street. A couple of hundred metres of road was torn up and tossed aside, everything else sitting atop it now mere debris in its wake as the bio-mech then slammed into another building.

The brick front and stone pillars holding up an older building was cascaded into rubble which collapsed atop the bio-mech as it smashed into the front of it, damaging it however minutely more as it roared out again in agony. But this time, it hurtled itself to its feet as its turn as being used as a rag-doll ended, and it changed its tactics once more. Blasting the rubble aside with a purple glow of shrieking plasma, it wasted no time as it engaged Invincible as soon as its computer sensors still detected him hundreds of metres down the road.

Scorching plasma raced forth in the condensed form of a highly energetic, lilac purple laser beam that carved right through the small piles of rubble it barely touched, smouldering right through concrete and metal as if it were no hindrance at all before impacting Mark. Rushing forth at close to the speed of light, it hit him dead-on in the torso before he could much react to it in his frustrated state; only sensing it. That had been enough to shake him somewhat from his angered stupor, blood that rushed to his head to demand the creature's head now cooling as he was pushed back a couple of metres by the power of the beam.

Kilowatts of energy must have been dumped into the scorching beam sent bursting forth across the entire street, lighting up the entire block with both a purple glow and fresh screams from evacuating, fearful civilians. It still did nothing to Mark, merely causing him to grunt as the energy in the beam did not break through his Viltrumite natural defence but instead just pushed him back slightly, as he shifted it out its path. Instinctive flight blurred his position out of the beam and several metres left, before he then surged forward again to meet his opponent once more.

The bio-mech met him halfway.

Electricity now coated the robotic amalgamation, crackling from its pores to dance all around its body in a clear display of defensive power and a boost in speed that overclocked its physical abilities. It would never match Mark's full speed, but as he could not utilise his full speed in such a smaller area and not overshoot his opponent, they actually met. They collided with a sonic boom that shattered windows for blocks all around them, panes of glass cracking and cascading down from buildings and skyscrapers from the force as they fought properly once more.

Fist met fist for a second round of this time proper close combat, no one opponent getting the edge this time as blow met for blow. The electrical shield coating the bio-mech zapped Mark continuously to somewhat throw off his aim and weaken his blows by making his nerves more erratic, as its innate defence helped to absorb the blows - but an armoured plate still cracked clean in half as his fist thundered into it. The simple truth was that he had stopped holding back as much in order to not split the street in half again, but it was enough to begin overtaking his opponent.

It was shown when he poured a bit more strength into his kick, completely overpowering the creature to send it spinning through the air, flying fast and crashing right through the glass façade of a high-rise office building. Invincible was right there with a steely goggled gaze and fluttering cape buffeted by the winds of his supersonic flight after his opponent, grabbing hold of it and flinging it through a support beam of the building. But the bio-mech still recovered quickly, as it twisted and rolled against whatever it could grab and then launching back at him with surprising ability.

Desks, plasterboard, papers and office supplies, and bodies flew.Collateral.

Mark didn't pause as he caught the bio-mech's outreached punch, letting out a cross between a snarl and a yelp of pain as the creature had obviously predicted that - letting loose another barrage of crackling electricity. But just as it adapted, making it one of the most dangerous opponents he'd faced thus far, so too could he. Gritting his teeth against the pain and focusing control of his limbs against the sizzling fluctuations he felt racing down his arms and legs, he engaged the speed of flight and drove them both out the other side of the building into a new street.

Falling the few stories back to the ground, both opponents crashed back into the road and leapt back up. Electricity arced and crackled around them both, which allowed the creature to keep up so as Mark sent his fist surging forth in a blow that should have destroyed the creature but as had happened so far, failed to as it applied technique after agility to deflect his blows. They continued to trade blows, Mark dealing small amounts of damage each time as the creature now failed to completely bypass his defence, claws or not this time.

It was obvious who was now beginning to win in the fight now that it was more level, or as level as Mark allowed without destroying the city.

Cars still screeched around them as they had fallen back into the midst of traffic, the booms that echoed around the city from their blows not being enough warning as it moved so quickly. Civilians screamed and ran as another car was overturned, sent spinning towards the creature as Mark had sent the abandoned vehicle flying at it who slapped it aside into a building. A GDA containment squad had arrived on the scene then, the black armoured troops shouting aloud as a few of their number opened fire on the creature. Ultimately resulting in nothing as the bullets did null to it compared to Mark who was now tearing off its armoured plates; the GDA soldiers being ignored by both fighters as they hurriedly switched to herding and evacuating civilians from the street.

Which was fair, as the ground cracked apart from the force of their fists colliding and Mark even stamping into the ground to throw the creature off-balance with the torn apart surface and kick it into an abandoned truck. Tearing right through the metal cabin of it, the bio-mech once more showed off its unnatural agility as it grabbed hold of the metal beneath it and used it as leverage to spin round in the air and land back on its feet. The voltage of its electrical output cackled higher with an audible surge of deafening static tearing through the air, flames erupting from its back once more to propel itself back to Mark.

Directly meeting it with deadly intent, Mark had a plan of his own as they clashed again, a few fists flying forth again as he then sacrificed the momentum to allow the bio-mech's claws to lash out against his skin. Blood was drawn in a small shower of crimson arching from his chest where the creature's claws had raked along it and broken apart his suit again, but he was already moving. Ignoring the electricity inputted to his nerves again from the strike, Invincible engaged his super-speed for but a brief moment as he twisted behind the creature, arms locking under its arm-pits and lifted. Rocketing upwards, he carried them both upwards into another tower of a building which he then slammed it against.

Glass rained down as steel groaned, yet another building cracking under their pressure of their fight as Mark pummelled the bio-mech - once, twice, again. The creature let out a pained, robotic screech vibrating with its grating mechanical voice box, forced to absorb the hits that landed on it to the extent that its armour was now all gone from the course of the battle. Cracks rendered across the bone-weave of its flesh, no plating to be seen as its flesh ripped open in several areas to spew forth crimson blood and other manners of mechanical fluid. Seemingly recognising its inevitable defeat, the bio-mech took matters into its hands as it damaged itself.

Tearing its spine round at an angle the joints were clearly not designed for despite its unnatural agility, its torso turned almost a full 180 degrees as it sent every scrap of electrical energy it had left directly into Invincible. Burning and scorching hotter than it had done before, crackling forth with an intensity that Mark had never felt before, the yellow volts arcing out to lash against and conduct through the entirety of the steel structure of the building was enough to make him pause just long enough. Despite the tolerance he'd quickly managed to build up thanks to his Viltrumite physiology (that allowed him to move despite having no innate defence to the voltage), the intensity this time round was too much.

Twin hits from the creature's limbs thundered into Mark's ribs, directly channelling every drop of strength it could muster directly to the area around his heart. Assisted by a fierce, contained implosion of flame that propelled both its arms forward, the creature succeeded in damaging Mark's innards for the first time that battle. Mark's eyes widened in shock and pain from behind the cracked lenses of his goggles, the unwilling huff of air forced from his lungs becoming coated crimson as he coughed blood. Whatever damage had just occurred, he couldn't think of as a sharp, searing heat bloomed all across his torso.

Pain he'd felt before. But what began to run through his mind then was the building insecurity in his mind - he was meant to bebetterthan this. Mark Grayson was the strongest being on the planet, something he took great pride in, yet he was beinghumiliated. Hurt.It was as if he were back at that chess table, the current of voltage running through his mind not from the bio-mech's generation but from his own fears, insecurity that had been ever-present beneath the surface. Always swimming nearby to surface at any point in his day, and the course of the battle had it jumping from the waters of his mind with a vengeance.

Mark's mental state snapped, and heroared.

Rage exploded out from him, an absolute bellow of humiliated frustration at having been actuallyhurtby someone he should've snapped like a twig by now as he took action to right the perceived wrong. The sudden transference of kinetic energy to the steel beam he'd kicked off from snapped, from the act of being faster than his own afterimage as he had seemed to teleport from the sheer speed he'd moved at. Rippling outward along the structure to implode every single remaining glass pane in the building and send further tonnes of steel and material plummeting to the ground below, Mark's only focus was on the now retreating creature. Narrowed focus that blinded him to everything else around him, he moved faster than he had yet that battle to take out his anger on the target he now hated with a burning vehemence in that moment.

Climbing the steel structure like a gorilla, grabbing and swinging from each hand and foot-hold to fully utilise its agility to flee, mission failed spectacularly now as its computer did not see a chance to win using its powers. But Mark didn't let it, as he dove under it and slammed his fist into the exposed circuitry of its cracked open torso. Sparks flew from the air as he returned the earlier blow ten-fold with much more damage to the bio-mech's insides, fluids of varying colours spraying outward as it was irreparably damaged. The robotic amalgamation shrieked with a sound that was half-human and half-algorithm, screaming aloud with the warbling vibrations in its intonations worsened by the damage done to it.

Grabbing its leg then, Mark shot off down the side of the building in a deliberate burst of speed that was ultimately controlled in his vengeance - close enough that the thrashing figure in his grip was smashed against every steel beam of a floor on the way down. Over twenty stories were collided through by the bio-mech, dragged down the length of the structure before Mark halted himself suddenly at the last floor only a few metres from the ground. The creature in hand was allowed to still fall from his grasp with all its built-up momentum, smashing headfirst into the concrete pavement.

Cratering an impact point into the surface that was deeper than it was wide, it did enough damage that it cracked open a flammable gas line beneath the city infrastructure to blow up right in the creature's face. A low rumble of an explosion and sustained fire belched out from the crater, powerful enough and fed by the volatile natural gas in the pipeline that it consumed half the width of the street. Between the vividly dancing orange glow that licked at the surrounding buildings to set them alight too and the cackling roar of the ongoing explosion of gas, Mark momentarily lost detection of the bio-mech with his senses. But that was of no consequence, as the flames shone in the darkened reflection of his goggled visage before he moved again.

A resounding kick echoed across the street just like in the previous street, but with ultimately more power behind it as it caved up the whole section of road for dozens of metres around - despite not being aimed at it this time. Instead, the charred and smoked figure of the bio-mech erupted out of its crater with more power behind it than the gas fire could ever give it, propelled right through another building to smash out through the other side and continue on like there had been no obstacle. All debris, flame and carnage were left behind by the both of them as Mark rocketed off from the ground then too, blurring away in high-speed flight after his opponent who moved quicker from his kick than they could have physically done themselves.

Air buffeted over Mark in a much more sustained fashion than his opponent, cape flapping out behind him in the streamline of the path of the air as the gentle smoke rising from his shoulders was snuffed out; despite the strength of the acidic hydraulic fluid that had sprayed onto him from the bio-mech. The heart of Philadelphia blurred past underneath them both as they travelled several miles back across the city again, as Mark then engaged his super-speed again as his target location came into view. Appearing right above the sparking figure that could only subtly twitch and heave against the air slamming into it from its uncontrolled flight; propelling tubes that channelled the power of its inner core evidently broken from the damage. Invincible did not care though, as he rolled mid-flight and kicked the bio-mech again.

Another cavitation of air erupted around them as the trajectory of flight was forcibly swung ninety degrees straight down, toward the Delaware river beneath them. The snaking body of water, gentle in its course and flow, was interrupted massively as the bio-mech ploughed into it in an uncontrolled descent. Large enough was the force of water that erupted out from the robotic amalgamation impacting with volatile force against the water-tension, that it flooded across the whole width of the river. Several tourist boats gently going a few knots of speed capsized immediately in the deluge of water racing outward, quickly becoming a two-metre-high wall of water that would break upon the urban shores to flood several streets of Philadelphia.

With a thunderclap of noise from the rendered air that bowed to his power, Mark appeared in another sonic boom from continuously breaking the sound barrier over the past few seconds besides the New Jersey Battleship. A monolith of American pride from its heyday in the Second World War, fifty-eight thousand tonnes of American steel floated in the Delaware River as a monument to its service and long history. Yet, the frontal section of the ship still lifted clear of the water from the force generated by the tidal wave that slammed against; loud shrieks of steel contorting its angled hull in a way it was never designed for. It gave way somewhat, as a visibly large crack splintered across the side of the ship to consume several decks and allow water to undoubtedly gush in as it slammed back into the frothing and churning river.

The battleship was lost not to battle, but superpowered beings just fighting near it as Mark did not care to save an American cultural icon. Merely ripping off one of its frontal turrets to serve his purpose, the many tonnes of three large barrels metres-long in their own right extended out from the turret housing that the Viltrumite had cleanly ripped off with one hand. Taking but a moment to survey the churning water and not the sinking ship behind him, a small smirk gripped a corner of his mouth as he raised his hand and threw the turret in a sweeping arc.

Impacting dead-on in the central wake of the tidal surge, it probably dragged the bio-mech further down into the water from the metres and tonnes of steel that slammed into the area of the river. One of the barrels contorted upward and almost snapped off from the force of unyielding water tension meeting the kinetic momentum it was thrown with, before the surface broke and it was dragged under in seconds. Creating a wake of downward plunge from the tonnes of steel sinking into it that created a temporary tornado, sucking all into it in a downward spiral that did exactly as Mark had hoped. Exposed electronics did not do well in water.

But his hope that his opponent was dead was dashed then as a brief glow of orange and purple erupted in the water to pulse through it, before breaking through the surface of the water was the creature. Hacking noises were all that came from it, a completely splintered and cracked open figure that was charred black with a leg entirely missing. An entire section of its right torso had been gouged out from the earlier kick, and it evidently wanted to flee as it saw him; before then sending another expulsion of plasma from its arm to send it away from Mark.

Invincible had no more time for the now cowardly abomination.

Fracturing the air once more with Mach speed, the creature could only hiss audibly in pain as its damaged voice box could not sustain higher levels of speech then from being punched once more. Mark just swatted the figure downward once more, this time into a fortunately more isolated area as in a visible arc of displaced, streaming air; the bio-mech slammed into Petty Island between the two halves of Philadelphia. The smallthudthat occurred from Mark's movements showed he had been just milliseconds behind his opponent, touching down gently on undisturbed soil before it broke apart only a metre from the impact zone. Cascading outwards and pelting Invincible with the muddy debris kicked up from the bio-mech hurtling right into the ground of the forested area to the South of the island.

Trees had been forcibly knocked aside in the small trench carved by the touchdown of the robotic amalgamation, now more synthetic given its flesh had largely been stripped from it by the continuous impacts it had suffered. Now just a twitching heap of a metal endoskeleton that sparked and hissed, the computer within it that seemed to be on the verge of shutdown seemed to be utilising its last remnant of human biology in its instinct for survival. But when that failed, as Mark tilted his head with the smirk now covering his mouth in all that could be seen by the computer's sensors in an otherwise masked face, it activated its last attempt.

Lips downturned in an instant as Mark saw the bio-mech writhe more hurriedly then, an audible pulse that would be unheard by a human softly coming to his enhanced ears, but what anyone could see was the glow emanating from its chest area. It started to whine and hum louder; the purple colour that shone from it and had even glowed from the remaining wiring and pipes it could channel plasma to across its battered and broken body changing colour. Instead, it changed quickly to a white-hot glow, sparkling with the concentrated power within that burned just as hot as it glowed. The vibrations and erratic shakes given off by the barely controlled process began to shake the ground itself.

Mark did not flinch, as instead displeasure arose in his thoughts and even onto his face. He didn't take flight at the explosive yield undoubtedly contained in the orb of the thing's torso, as all he thought of was how it did not get to win on its own terms. Simply taking a step closer, Mark swooped down into a crouch as the orb changed to the white-hot glow, and just drove his fist through the mess of alloys, sparks, synthetic organs and building heat to close his hand round the core. He did not wait as his eyes never left that of the bio-mech's, the solid, unblinking gaze in them conveying of how it had lost as he crushed the core barehanded.

It detonated.

The explosion was uncontrolled, fierce in its intensity and massive in its width as it raced outward like a surge which could not stand tall but rather cascaded down itself. Fiery, white flame rolled outward with only a small actual pressure wave battering Mark who didn't move in the face of the intense heat, as the explosion made mainly of liquid flame subsumed half the island. Forest burnt to cinders, charring the ground black and leaving only ashes to disguise all that was lost in an uneven last battleground of their fight, even as the rolling heat wave reached the water did it not stop. Massive gouts of steam erupted from the Delaware river, writhing and contorting the liquid as it met the heat to be transformed instantly into gas. Only as there was so much water to surge toward the flame and become steam, was it ever contained at all to spread across ten metres of water instead of several blocks of Philadelphia which would have burned.

Roaming brown eyes only took all that in, as the minor scorch marks on his body from the otherwise high temperature disappeared in seconds thanks to his innate healing ability granted by his genetics. Mark just stood then from where he'd previously crouched, hand still outstretched to grasp an orb that had disintegrated in his fingers, as his head just slowly tilted round. Heavier breathing acknowledged the end of the battle, both from the exertion of it and the smoke tinging the air to deprive his lungs of a full amount of oxygen. His suit was torn open in many places, showing off red angered scar-lines that had only healed against the bleeding; his mask too damaged as his goggle lenses were cracked.

Only when did mind catch back up to him, did a sonic boom sound out for the last time as he flew off.

Just as he was flying away from the city in a blur of yellow and black from his scorched and torn suit, did he see the extent of the damage. A couple of skyscrapers had been completely caved in, material debris that had imploded and fell to cover entire street blocks beneath them. Tonnes of steel and structural supports blocked roads; glass ever-present in huge amounts to act as a greater danger than barbed wire in its ground-up state from so many buildings losing their windows from stories high. Civilians watched from rooftops and balconies; their expressions unclear as they observed - awed, terrified? Emergency services swarmed the streets now the battle was over, flashing blue lights joined by the honk of sirens in a calmer display than the earlier frenzy of carnage.

The clean-up efforts would take weeks, versus the twenty minutes of battle that had just occurred. Mark could not even begin to guess the death toll that had probably arisen, the lives destroyed by simply being in the wrong place, families that would have to grieve worse than his mother did when his father left-

He didn't care.

Mark had been too slow at points, taken too much damage. He had not been able to react at several points in the battle from the changing tactics of the bio-mech, electricity which flared and slammed into him to make him lose control of the fight. Fists tightened subconsciously in flight as he sped far past Philadelphia, banishing the view of it in turn for berating himself on what had happened. He could have ended it faster, should have. And something deeper within him whispered back:

You will.

GDA HEADQUARTERS

Despite the LED lighting shining brightly in a clean fashion as they had done for a while now, Cecil still swore it flickered in the corridor camera view he was staring at. The control centre was still a hive of activity, fully staffed with the noise of several conversations going on at once in spite of the battle in Philadelphia having ended. But the director was not focused on the data streams and drone surveillance footage showing across the monitors or larger screens, as one screen looped the impact of Mark and the bio-mech crashing into the 47th floor of a skyscraper. Nor the zoomed in view of the flaming wreckage of the bio-mech's remains, as he gazed firmly to the camera footage of Invincible coming to them.

The fact that he was beingescortedby armed field agents showed perfectly the tension of the situation and its consequences. Tension that would soon spill directly into the control centre and all his staff, as he watched silently with folded arms, mouth held in a grim line. No where in protocol did it state that a superhero was to be escorted by armed guards, but in this case, he allowed it. If it even minutely eased other people's states of mind, then that was for the better, even if everybody around was trained well enough to understand that they might as well have done nothing.

Donald approached from behind him, merely waiting a second for the director's eyes to lift from the screen and dart to him before speaking. "Sir, we've got a preliminary report from those on the scene. Over three thousand rescued in the initial after-efforts, on top of the estimated twenty-thousand evacuated during the battle. Close to two hundred thousand civilians could have been impacted in the direct path of the battle, with an unknown number impacted in total. The current injured and dead is of course unknown at this early stage, but the computer analysis puts it at a total fifty thousand rough casualties." Donald listed off to inform his boss, looking up to convey his seriousness. "Over five blocks of serious damage reported, with three buildings totally destroyed and over ten ruined. Fire and debris have hampered rescue efforts and will likely claim more buildings."

Exhaling softly, Cecil reflexively rubbed the bridge of his nose. "This is far too much like Chicago." He lowly reminisced.

Hesitation seized Donald for a moment, before he added to his earlier report. "But the thing is dead, sir. We're unsure if it would have allowed Invincible to leave the city given its earlier rampage before he arrived, and he killed it far quicker than any other hero." He spoke, but the doubtful tone that crept into it showed his second thoughts. "Perhaps no one else could have done it that quickly."

"Stop covering for the kid, Donald." Cecil responded as he turned back to the screen. "No one else would havedoneit like that."

BRIEFING ROOM

Leaning against the far wall of the small briefing room, Mark could hear the humming of the overhead lights as the only source of audible noise in the room against the backdrop of footsteps in the corridor. He still wore the suit the remnants of his suit, scorch marks lining it as his body showed the wear of battle - dried blood from the wound on his cheek and in the corner of his mouth from where he'd coughed it up. Torn clothing showed the red scars that were slowly healing at a far faster pace than any human could have managed, to the extent the scars would disappear by the next day. Invincible merely awaited the inevitable with folded arms across his chest.

Swinging open, the door opened as if summoned by his thoughts as Cecil walked in with his trademark suit and red tie, the grimace on his face only exacerbating the scarred tissue to the right of his mouth. Standing behind the metal table, he put his hands flat against its metal surface and regarded Mark with a careful gaze. Neither spoke at first.

Until Cecil did. "You dragged that thing through five blocks of downtown Philadelphia." The GDA director almost spat at the superpowered being before him, the anger evident in his tone despite the rigid body posture. "Five."

The lack of a response only served to frustrate the man further.

"Goddammit, kid, do you even care?" Cecil questioned with a sharper tone, eyes narrowing to become a piercing stare. "Do you evencarewhat that looked like from the ground?"

Lifting his head, Mark's eyes hardened too. "I care that it's not breathing anymore." He responded in an apathetic tone that still had a sliver of his own frustration injected into it.

No preamble was given as Cecil fired back. "It was excessive!" He almost shouted with his voice raised. "And that's a word I've used veryrarelyin our line of business. You could've redirected the fight before it reached the city centre - hell, it was your kick that did so! Even then, you blatantly ignored the voice in your ear begging you to do so!" Standing straighter and finally admitting to himself that the steely gaze in Mark's eyes that showed his lack of remorse for the thousands of lives impacted was getting to him, Cecil adjusted his tie as he lowered his voice. "You didn't eventryto avoid civilian infrastructure."

Mark's eyes narrowed at that. "That thing would've slaughtered its way to the heart of the city whether I brought it there or not." He snapped out, the edge of conviction in his voice hardening the entire statement. "I ended it. It's dead."

"At what cost?" Cecil snapped back, refusing to stand down even if he knew Mark ultimately could not be made to stand down either. "You've totalled entire sections of the city, ruined over a quarter if the financial district. Flattened the SEPTA terminal, and it'll take a long time to return the power grid to normal, never mind all the underground infrastructure that's been torn up." he paused, before delivering a sharp exhale from his nose as he really did spit out his next words with a small spray of spittle and a colder tone. "But what you had norightto do was put thousands of lives at risk. Pictures are already circling online of the kids being dug up from the rubble."

Silence did settle for a moment as Mark obviously stewed over those words, before his jaw clenched - voice deliberately kept level. "Collateral. Not ideal." He responded. "But I stopped a monster that none of your agents could even scratch. Just look at what it did tome.And I'm supposed to look you in the eye, and tell you that I could just keep it contained?"

Cecil's expression retracted a bit then, smoothing over somewhat from its earlier anger. "You didn't even try to contain it in the industrial district." He stated with a cooler tone.

"I tried. It moved. I adapted, and had to kick it off me." Was the response he got from Invincible, with Mark pushing off the wall then and standing straighter himself to show his seriousness. "That's what you wanted, right? Quick, decisive, lethal if I have to be."

"There's a line between decisive and reckless." Cecil spoke lowly, his eyes staying level as he refused to be cowed then. "You crossed it. You're not just some loose missile we launch and pray it hits the target - not just someone who wins fights. Not someone who forgetswhyhe's fighting."

Mark too stepped closer then, his own voice dropping to match Cecil's. "There it is again. That line." He remarked lowly, eyebrow lifting behind the cracked lens shielding them. "Don't pretend you're surprised. You brought me into this world ashisreplacement, pointed me at the threats instead." A slight tilt of his head happened then as he thought, before shaking it. "You wanted the job done."

Wasting no time, Cecil's response was instantaneous, with no need to think on what his point was. His problem was that Mark refused to see it. "I didn't ask you to lose yourself in it." He stated, his jaw tight in the mixture of frustration, hints of anger and even regret. Even if his point was his priority, that did not mean that Mark's previous response wasn't any less correct. "I want a protector, not a tyrant in training. We can't afford this sort of logic from you, you're not some kind of wrecking ball, Mark. You're supposed to be someone who protects, a deterrent, someone who defends the city than holding an 'all means necessary' attitude." Cecil then let out another exhalation, breaking eye contact for the first time that conversation as he reflexively rubbed his nose again. "You're not supposed to be some goddamn walking disaster we have to spin for the press every time. This shit has consequences, Mark."

In turn, Mark just folded his arms as he leant back on his heel from where he stood, posed like he was considering those words. Nonetheless, it didn't look like the GDA director's words had broken through. "Then maybe you should've picked someone else." Mark responded to that, his tone spoken dryly. As if the sarcasm that should've been there had withered away, leaving it as a completely serious point.

True silence descended once more as the GDA director's professionalism prevented him from yelling, but the shift in his jaw showed the frustration mounting. It was expressed in a different form. "You're sounding more like Nolan every time you talk, kid." He let out quietly.

If the silence had not been breached by the quiet tone utilised by Cecil, then it was now heavily reinforced by the smothering tension that settled as the director had stepped over a line established by Mark this time. As if the hesitance to speak was augmented by the fact that Mark's proverbial hand had closed round his throat where he'd have to choke his words out, and from the twitch in his hand and the way his eyes seemed to flare despite the darkened goggles for just a second; it was something he wanted to do in that moment. "Say that - again." Mark questioned as a statement, the soft way it was spoken assisting the commanding tone within it.

"Maybe I should." Cecil's voice cracked out to shatter the smothering atmosphere at his throat, having to subconsciously swallow the rise in his throat as if it was responding to a hand beginning to clasp round it. "Because he thought Earth was beneath him too. Disposable, an obstacle instead of a responsibility."

Evidently, the words hit harder than Cecil intended. An answer was not forthcoming for a few moments, as the Viltrumite hybrid just stared back with unblinking cracked lenses, an unreadable expression to the tightly narrowed lips. Then, the mouth quivered. "I'm not him." Mark just whispered then, but the words carried to the GDA director all the same. "You-" His voice cracked as he stumbled in his words, before a bit of a higher pitch entered his tone as he showed his upset feelings. "You said I wasn't him. YoubelievedI wasn't him."

"No." Cecil responded, his voice kept level as his expression remained neutral. This was the turning point to finally getting through. "You're not.Yet."

The slackened expression of Mark's face was as if a bullet had finally managed to hurt him, and Cecil could only imagine what his eyes showed before the Viltrumite then turned. Pacing a step, Mark's arms shook once as he then held them deliberately at his side, fists tightening in a groan of rubberised material that was undoubtedly discolouring the skin beneath the glove.

"You think this is easy?" Mark's voice was bitter, biting out with a small tone of hostility as if he resented all that had been said to him. "Every time I hold back, someone dies. Every time I try to fight the way you'd like me to fight, something slips through." His voice had been slow in its delivery, almost indecisive before that cleared up and become firmer as Mark looked back fully to Cecil. "Yet you stand there and judge me, making those comparisons, as if I hadn't had been kicked around for the first round of the fight and could just lead it out. That creature could've wiped out half the city if I hadn't ended it fast."

Glaring to Mark with a piercing gaze as the young adult fell back upon himself and his twisted logic that still somehow made sense, undoubtedly all the more clearer to Mark Grayson who didn't see the missed point, Cecil's tone was sharper. "And how long before ending things fast means flattening entire city blocks on purpose?" He bit back.

Looking to the GDA director for a long moment, Mark then just shook his head again but with an evident element of solemness. "There it is, the real Cecil Stedman." Mark just stated, almost to himself as he looked away again to face the wall again. "So eager to make your own point that you disregard mine, judging how I talk as if you haven't just said the worst thing out of everyone yet to my very face. So focused on your way of doing things that you have to be in control, the biggest manipulator of them all. You offered me friendship over a month ago, yet here you are with a knife to my back with these comparisons and continuous judgements. Where was the acknowledgement that I alone stopped it, Cecil? Where was my due for having once more cleaned up a threat that could've ended the whole city rather than just thousands?" The heave in breath at the end showed Mark had been spewing his thoughts as he spoke, only breathing when he had ended.

Cecil did not need to see the facial expression of the mouth, nor beyond the cracked lenses of the goggles to see the mental instability he was hearing in Mark's words, feeling from his posture. Mark Grayson was unravelling before them all, and his eyes widened minutely as he realised how he'd possibly made a mistake. In trying to bring him back to the straight path with what they'd been saying, he must have felt as if no one was truly listening - as if they were all pushing him away. Of course the only person who'd successfully got through to him was William Clockwell, where even Samantha Wilkins had failed because all his best friend did was appeal with friendship. "Kid-" He began.

Halted before the words could even fully form in his mind to speak as Mark blurred across the distance between them, stopping only a metre from the GDA director. Having plucked his earpiece from his head whilst doing so, Mark just then surveyed the scarred visage of Cecil who looked back with a steadfast expression, he then held out the black plastic device in his hand. It was swiftly crushed into shards of plastic and minute electrical components which cascaded to the floor as Mark just shook his hand once, before the Viltrumite then spat on top of the heap in a gestural display. "I'm done with your shit." He muttered aloud, resolution dripping from his words with no room for hesitance or regret. "Fuck you, Cecil."

The Viltrumite ignored everything else then as he swept through the door which was wrenched open despite having been locked behind Cecil, and disappearing.

GRAYSON RESIDENCE

Flickering light was cast over the living room from the television, as Debbie stood frozen watching from the kitchenette in the house. She stared at the footage replaying from all major news networks even now hours after the battle, depicting the battle itself and the aftermath between Invincible and the still unknown opponent that had torn apart the city. Smoke curled between the collapsed and ruined skyscrapers in the centre of Philadelphia, as emergency crews worked like ants among the wreckage.

The reporter's voice cut through the hum. "-thousands of confirmed casualties have been released in the first casualty report given by the relief efforts undergoing in Philadelphia, even hours later. Major infrastructure damage is visible with economic expense required in an estimated figure upwards of $400 million so far, and expected to climb as more is uncovered. It has also been confirmed that the assailant was neutralised by Invincible alone, although speculation continues to mount over his increasingly aggressive methods-"

Debbie muted the television with a sharp press of the remote, before bowing her head. "This isn't who you were supposed to be..." She whispered quietly to herself, as her hands trembled slightly against the edge of the counter which she gripped. The shadows on her face deepened with guilt, and something approaching fear. Raising her head, she stared ahead - past the news, and the smoking city shown on it - into the picture of Mark and Nolan on the far wall; taken years before everything fell apart.

She didn't cry.

She was past tears.

UPSTATE UNIVERSITY - WILLIAM'S DORM ROOM

Sitting on the edge of a bed with a leg over it that should have been freely swinging but instead remained resolutely still, the sound of sirens outside his dorm window made him jump slightly given the amount of footage he'd just watched containing it. Philadelphia was still evidently reeling from the battle, the laptop balanced on his knee displaying phone footage of the fight - Invincible punching the robotic creature with a force that sent it slamming into a building; cutting to it then blasting into a crater on the other side. Screams rang out from the perspective of the civilians as they then ran for their lives.

Pausing the video, William exhaled as he ran a hand through his hair in concerned thought. "Jesus, Mark..." He let out under his breath, as he then pulled up the news browser again. 'Invincible under fresh international scrutiny. Is fresh litigation to pass to curb vigilantism?' The headlines read, and it was at that point William shut the laptop. "You're saving the world, but at what cost?"

He leaned back, staring at the ceiling with his eyes wide open. The thought that his best friend was likely back on the campus right there and then wasn't as comforting as it had once been.

VIGIL'S APARTMENT

An apartment was bigger than a hotel room and provided more room for his research and material now that the mission to Earth was solidified in being months long. Tonight, that came in exquisitely useful as the installed monitors were awash in the news of the battle just fought, the glow of multiple screens bathing the small apartment in a flickering blue haze as he stood before it. Footage from drone cameras, news choppers and shaky civilian phones played simultaneously on different monitors, all showcasing the same thing - the brutal confrontation that had torn through the heart of Philadelphia.

CNN was playing on the left-most monitor, the title of 'Invincible Unleashed: Hero or Threat?' encapsulated in a bold ribbon beneath the rambling presenters. Just like every other news station, it was feasting on the latest global panic and had been talking of nothing else since. "After flattening blocks of Philadelphia's central district to stop a biomechanical monster of sorts, Invincible's methods have reignited public debate. American officials have yet to comment on what is happening-" The reporter was quickly drowned out as Vigil's eyes darted away from that screen.

What the news could not encapsulate was the sheer phenomena of social media, with Vigil still looking over all the posted statements to several platforms as he indulged his satiation for the ability to see what an entire planet thought. It was something he'd never quite seen before, with not even the coalition of planets having such a free pass to a civilisation-spanning network, and he relished in seeing it in action. There was always something new when everyone had a say.

Several of the patterns were becoming popular, with the text-based platforms gathering several trends people were flocking to repeat in order to slide in their opinion on the wave of popularity. It included the obvious, mostly:

#InvincibleFight
#PhiladelphiaIncident
#IsHeStillAHero

HeroWathdog - "This is third time in recent months that Invincible's 'victory' has left a crater in a major city. I understand some people are grateful, but I'm starting to be terrified..."

Dupli-Mate89 - "You'd rather he didn't stop the seven-foot-tall monster from ripping people in half? Yeah, there was a lot of damage, but I'd rather the monster was stopped! #TeamInvincible"

Urbanhawk9 - "You call that saving the day? We lost more buildings than in the last earthquake. That wasn't a hero - it was a force of nature."

Anonymous411 - "You all see strength. I see unchecked power. Who's holding HIM accountable?"

/r/SuperWatch, top Reddit comment - "I rewatched the fight five times. He barely even tried to limit collateral damage, fighting like he doesn't care. Like he's testing something. That scares me."

Random YouTube comment from a fresh upload of 'Invincible Philadelphia footage compilation' - "The fuck was the guy meant to do? Stand there and take the hits before politely asking the monster to fuck off?"

Other random YouTube comment - "Watch at 2:14 - he lets the building collapse before literally kicking it right into the other half of it. He made it collapse instead of catching it. That's not how the others used to fight..."

Vigil stood still before it all, leaning slightly forward with arms crossed in the standard Viltrumite pose of attentiveness. Watching the monitors, having made his notes already and now was the time to observe once more. The freeze-frame on one of the feeds showed the bio-mech monstrosity mid-collapse, its form seemingly almost ripped apart as it had been sent crashing through a glass laced skyscraper as smoke poured skyward. Another screen showed Invincible floating above wreckage, silent and unmoving like a storm cloud that hadn't yet finished.

Parting his mouth as a curious chuckle emanated from him, Vigil's interest was now officially at an all-time high. Speaking aloud, though no one else was there to hear, he said it for himself. "So, you're finally beginning to stop holding back." The Viltrumite scientist muttered, a passionate tone coiled round his words as he continued to observe.

He didn't flinch as Mark hadn't flinched, the footage replaying to a section where a building caved in - no attempt made by Invincible to stabilise it or shield the falling debris. Just raw pursuit of his victim, the precision of violence in ensuring each hit landed as each blow became more effective. Vigil didn't need audio to hear the weight of every impact.

Stepping forth and putting his hands on the keyboard, he tapped a key, slowing the footage. Vigil focused on Invincible's posture, the way he moved. The seeming full clarity of purpose in his decisions.

"You're changing faster than I thought." He muttered again.

Vigil could see it before him - how Mark Grayson no longer hesitated, the restraint that once marked heroic combat was eroding. There had been no pause to account for civilian fallout as was the normal custom of the planet he'd observed and Mark certainly would have grown up with, no adjustment to minimise the destruction beyond keeping his strength at a level that itself wouldn't fell a whole block. There was really, only a ruthless execution of the threat.

But what caught Vigil's attention the most was on the last monitor, was not the violence. It had been the emotion, the snarling in the fight, to the pain and most curiously thecalm. The eerie stillness in how the victor hovered once the bio-mech fell was the best example. There had been no celebration, not much emotion, no acknowledgement in the dying embers of battle or ruined skyline before him. Only his own thoughts.

Narrowing his eyes, Vigil's gaze flicked to the chessboard resting by the window. The pieces had been arranged by his hand of how their last game had ended, still set in place as if it were the exact board from the café, untouched since their last encounter. Standing straighter, he turned the monitor he was in front of off, and then another. One by one, the battle faded into darkness.

His voice was steady, quiet in that moment. "You're almost ready to ask the real questions." Vigil whispered to himself, and the tone of anticipation was not buried or coiled within the words this time, but rather at the forefront. "When you come to me next, you'll know what you want. And I know it won't be forgiveness."

There he sat down at the board, adjusting the white bishop ever so slightly, and waited.