Inside the Pentagon, Cecil Stedman was examining what little footage could be salvaged from an incident that happened in the port a couple of hours ago, he had watched the few pieces of footage that was captured on CCTV at the port multiple times, at the few angles he had.
Unfortunately, most of the cameras were destroyed during the incident, leaving him and his analysts with very few good footage to go on in order to determine what happened.
Despite this, from what Cecil could make out there was a lot in the footage that had piqued his interests. However, out of all the things he had watched happen during the footage, three things had taken his interest.
The first two things that took his interest were the two superhumans who had arrived to combat the robots, upon seeing the appearance of the first person he had an idea of who the kid could be but was not one hundred percent certain, especially with the lack of footage he had.
The second figure however, was the one that really caught his attention, his arrival had turned the tide of the whole fight, and had it not been for his intervention, the fight could have ended very badly for the other new hero.
However this new superhuman merely turning the tide of the battle was not what had caught Cecil's eye but rather it was how the figure did so. he had moved very fast in short bursts, moving in a blur of speed that Cecil had only seen from the likes of Red Rush, and he did this not by running, but by flying.
Of course he had seen people with abilities similar to his move as fast as he did, both Nolan and the Immortal could be quick fliers, but he had never seen either of them move this quickly in the air as effortlessly as this newcomer did.
Not only had this figure moved like a blur with little effort with the cameras having a hard time even catching glimpses of the figure but he had shown to be pretty strong as well, withstanding a great deal of punishment from the droids.
But that wasn't all that had caught Cecil's eye, during the fight one of the robots had gone after a civilian who was present at the port during the fight, apparently the civilian had managed to figure out how to shut the robots down, which caused the robot to pursue the civilian.
This caused the superhuman to gain some sort of energy boost before moving at a speed that made it seem as if he teleported in front of the robot before promptly punching the robot out of the port and across Lake Michigan where it would go on to land in Detroit Michigan almost three hundred miles away, and in under two minutes no less.
The robot itself had landed on the car of a family in Detroit, the G.D.A. Would be sure to provide the family with a new car, given the circumstance of how the car was destroyed, he doubted that the insurance would cover such a thing considering that most insurances didn't have policies for shit like robots falling out of the sky.
And that led to the third thing that had piqued the head of the G.D.A. 's interest, the robots themselves, or better known to those in various government positions as 0MAC droids.
The 0MAC droids were property of the United States government and were top secret weapons that had never been deployed.
The droids were made from the same ones that had arrived in the Zero Day attack, remade and refurbished for government use should they ever need it, the G.D.A. was one of two government organizations that had 0MAC droids, and Cecil was one hundred percent certain that none of the 0MAC droids present at that port were his, which left only one other organization who the robots could belong to and who was most likely responsible for them being out in the first place.
Task force X.
Task Force X was a name few people knew about, even within the government it was not very known and most dismissed the group as a myth or urban legend.
But Task Force X was far from legend, Task force X was very real, and did indeed exist.
Task Force X was a small group within the government that had formed following the Zero Day invasion, with the goal of the organization being to combat any extraterrestrial threats.
While this was already one of the many goals of the G.D.A. The Bush administration and Checkmate believed it would be beneficial to have more than one organization dedicated to such tasks.
The Global Defense agency was established with the primary goal of strengthening America's relations with other nations while simultaneously making those nations more reliant on the United States for protection against the increasing number of supervillain and or extraterrestrial threats.
It allowed for America to further its world hegemony under the guise of an umbrella that would shield the world from harm.
However, there were many in the government who believed the Global Defense Agency should be used for the interests of America and America only, the G.D.A. While an American agency, had refused to share its technology or inventions with other agencies of both military and the intelligence community.
This decision to not aid other American agencies, especially after 9/11 had put a bitter taste in the mouths of a lot of people in Washington.
And thus Checkmate and the Bush administration had allowed the formation of task force X, with Lane and Waller taking over the organization not longer after its creation and had been a major pain in Cecil's ass ever since.
Task Force X had conducted several experiments and operations over the years, many on behalf of other agencies such as the C.I.A. or various military branches that had requested their aid.
This had gathered them favorability in both the military and intelligence community and had made it ten times harder to handle them when they did things such as this less Cecil wanted to risk stepping on the toes of half of Washington.
Normally in situations like this where the G.D.A. and another government agency found themselves at odds diplomacy was the usual go to in order to settle these things out, unfortunately for Cecil, General Lane and Amanda Waller were not one for diplomacy, not with him anyway.
The two did not like Cecil, they had been present on Zero Day, having been a part of the response team that was sent to form a perimeter around the unidentified flying object that had arrived in the United States, and had only survived the attack thanks to the intervention of the Guardians.
The two had blamed Cecil for the deaths of the many soldiers in the unit and also criticized his handling of Omniman's arrival. The two were aware that Omniman had lied regarding his reasoning for being on earth and suspected that he had been sent by whoever had tried to invade on Zero day.
Cecil actually didn't believe their theory was completely unfounded and it could have very well been true. After all, their scans had detected many similarities between the figure leading the invasion on Zero Day and Nolan's physiology and skillset, the one outlier being that Nolan didn't seem to have the power to fire lasers from his face, then again the G.D.A. Theorized that those may come from the armor the figure wore and wasn't actually an ability of his.
The problem was that those two didn't see the potential Nolan had as a tool to keep the planet safe, he had stopped threats that threatened the Earth on many occasions and had proven himself a useful asset. Even if he was here to invade they did not have the means of stopping him, not yet anyway.
And of course there was a chance that they had been wrong, that Nolan wasn't here with any ulterior motives and genuinely just came here to help on behalf of his people like he claimed and that they were all wrong.
Thankfully, Lane and Waller had never made a move against Nolan directly, even they weren't foolish enough to try such a thing, rather they liked it or not, Cecil had brought them time, and he believed he was buying himself time.
But as the years went on Task Force X had begun making more drastic moves, such as their raid on Cadmus and the subsequent dismantling of the organization.
Cecil had wanted to put a stop to them then but knew he'd make many enemies in attempting to do so, and that would create a giant political shit show for him that he'd much rather avoid.
A dark part of Cecil wished the Guardians had arrived just thirty seconds later during the Zero Day invasion so that he wouldn't have to put up with those two pains in his ass.
Cecil sighed in frustration as he pinched the bridge of his nose. Cecil would have to deal with this situation delicately if he wanted to handle this correctly, he would like to say that this incident was a one off but given the boldness and nature of it Cecil felt that whatever Lane and Waller were planning, this was only the beginning.
As Cecil continued to think on his next course of action, his assistant and trusted right hand, Donald Ferguson, entered the large room.
"Tell me you got something for me Donald, because from where I'm standing this looks like the start of a giant shitshow." Cecil commented not even taking his eyes off the large screen present in the control room.
"Well sir, due to the destruction of a lot of the cameras, and the fact that the figure had his face concealed we did not have much luck identifying who he is. However, we did find something regarding the civilians present during the fight" Donald explained before he pulled out a tablet and tapped a button on it making the main screen in the room change to a different video feed.
The feed showed the two civilians running from the 0MAC droid before zooming in on the face of the female with short black hair.
The feed switched and the screen now showed a picture of the girl along with her date of birth and various other forms of information about her. "This is Lois Lane, she's an intern for the Daily Planet." Donald said.
"And daughter of General Sam Lane." Cecil finished, his eyes narrowed on the young woman's image on screen.
As he read through the girls file, he could see that she was currently an intern at the daily planet, and according to her social media profiles, was an aspiring reporter who idolized Vicky Vale, an infamous reporter from the Gotham Gazette.
"Lane's stunt almost cost him his daughter and he likely doesn't even know it.." Cecil remarked.
"Yes sir, apparently during the confrontation at the docks, she along with a second individual ended up in a confrontation with two of the smugglers, which ended in one of them knocked out with his gun stolen and the other shot in the head." Donald explained as the screen showed the camera footage.
"Jesus, poor girl is probably traumatized from this, she clearly has some level of training but I'm guessing she never thought she'd have to put that training to use, let alone like this." Cecil commented as he frowned slightly.
With the revelation that Lane put his own daughters life at risk it gave him leverage against the general, he would be able to play this card should Task Force X fly too close to the sun, but for now he needed to get a better idea of just what the organization was up to
In the first place.
"Alright listen up." Cecil said, gaining the attention of all who were present in the room. "We don't know what game Task Force X is planning here but we need to stay on top of it less they do something we all end up paying the price for. I want all their activities monitored and an eye on every single one of their operatives and all their communications networks monitored as well." Cecil said with an authority that left no room for further discussion as everyone in the room began working on fulfilling Cecil's orders.
"And what will you do sir?" Donald asked his boss.
"I think I'll go pay Nolan a visit and verify whether or not his son was one of the ones who fought those robots at the port." Cecil replied.
Lois had returned to the planet with Clark and Jimmy following the incident at the port.
Perry was livid at the three of them at first, however, once he learned of just what had happened and what Lois had to do in order to save herself and Jimmy he ended up letting them off with a warning and gave them the next day off to recover both physically and mentally.
Lois had urged Clark to go to the doctor, considering he was pretty bruised and banged up, she literally watched him get batted through a shipping container, she was rightfully concerned about Clark's health.
Despite that though Clark assured her that he would be fine and just needed time to rest, she reluctantly took his word on it and would make her way back to her own apartment.
Lois had made her way into her apartment and sat down on her bed, replaying the events of that entire day in her head.
It dawned on her just how much she had gone through over the course of a single day, meeting Clark and Jimmy, chasing this story, and witnessing the apparent debut of a new hero against some concrete villain.
She then thought about her fight with Clark and how mad he was for not telling her, something which made her feel bad, not only had she put the careers of people who despite barely knowing for a day had already grown calling friends in jeopardy, she also made Clark upset.
'Your always fucking up arent you Lane.' Lois thought bashfully to herself as she shook her head, disappointed in her own selfish behavior.
She then began to replay the events that transpired that day before her mind eventually landed on the moment she killed that smuggler.
Lois' hands began to shake as her eyes began to become blurry with tears falling down her face.
Even though the man had intended to hurt her, and would have killed Jimmy had she not intervened, the fact that she had taken a man's life still shook her to the bone.
She could still see it, the moment she pulled the trigger, the moment the bullet went through the man's skull and his blood and brain matter painted the container behind him.
Lois sat on her bed and hugged her knees as the tears fell down her eyes.
Lois reached in her pocket and grabbed her phone, flipping through her context until she reached the one she was looking for.
"Dad…" she muttered, wiping the tears from her eyes as she looked at the contact on her phone.
Lois contemplated whether or not she should call her dad and tell her what happened, she knew that if there was anyone who could help her get through this, it was him.
At the same time, she was not so sure she wanted his help, after all, her dad was not the most supportive, or the most gentle person, and she just didn't know if he would make her current situation better or worse.
With a sigh, she cut off her phone and laid down on her bed. She would get through this without him, like she had gotten through other tragedies in her life without him.
Just like she had gotten over losing her mother without him, she would make through her current situation without him.
Mark woke up to the sound of knocking on his door. Opening his eyes, he could see that the sun was shining through his window so he knew it was most likely the early morning.
As Mark sat up on his bed the door to his room opened and his father walked in, looking at his son with an unreadable expression.
"Oh, morning dad." Mark greeted.
"Good morning Mark, you seem pretty bruised this morning, those robots you faced must've been pretty tough." Nolan said casually.
"Yeah they wer- wait! How did you-"
"I learned about it yesterday while in the city, saw you fighting some guy made out of concrete, then I later found out that you had a big fight at the docks." Nolan said, answering his son's question, leaning against the wall as Mark got out of bed.
"Wait, you saw me?" Mark asked.
"Yep, originally I was gonna stop you but I decided to let you go out on your own for today, figured it may help you learn to use your powers better." Nolan replied.
"Granted, you still have a lot to learn, I know it may not seem like it but you caused way more property damage than you needed to, not only that fight against that bank robber but also your fight at the port. You've definitely made progress, but I'm not not certain you're ready."
Mark frowned and crossed his arms at his fathers words. "I did fine, I handled the bank robbery and I handled those robots. it wasn't perfect, I admit that, but I got it done, and I know I'm more than capable."
"Not on your own, not with the robots anyway, you had help, and had it not been for your mystery helper it may have not gone so well for you." Nolan shot back, a slight frown growing on his features.
Mark's frown turned a scowl as he glared at his father. "Hit me."
Nolan seemed taken aback by his son's sudden change in demeanor and his request. "What?"
"Hit me. Hit me right now, do it! I wasn't ready before, but now I am, I can take it! Come on!"
"I'm not going to hit you Mark." Nolan told his son.
"Look you've never hit me before ok! It scared me and I wasn't ready back then but I am now, I'm strong!"
"Mark I know you're-" Nolan tried to say but was cut off by his son.
"No you don't!" Mark shouted. "I know you don't think I can do this! Hit me and let me prove you wrong! Just hit me dad!"
"Oh son…" Nolan said with a solemn expression growing on his face.
"I'm strong enough! And I know I can do this! It's all I've wanted to do since I can remember." Mark said as his face became less angry and more sad.
"I want to do what you do dad, I want to be just like you."
Nolan walked up to his son and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You will be son, you will." Nolan reassured as he pulled his son in for a hug.
Mark hugged his father back, feeling reassured by his words before the two pulled away from each other.
"I'll make this up to you, we'll eat breakfast with your mother and then after that I have somewhere I want to show you, you should get changed though." Nolan told his son to which he nodded.
Nolan left Mark's room as Mark made to get changed before making his way downstairs and towards the kitchen where his dad was already seated at the table as well as his mother, Debbie Grayson. Debbie Grayson was a Korean woman with black hair tied in a bun and brown eyes.
Currently, Debbie was putting breakfast on the table as Mark sat down at the table.
"Oh good morning Mark." His mother greeted with a smile.
"Morning mom." Mark greeted back with a smile of his own as he began to eat.
The three ate in a comfortable silence until Debbie spoke.
"Mark, your father told me what happened yesterday, I understand wanting to do the right thing and use your powers to help people, just promise me that if you decide to follow in your fathers footsteps that you'll be careful." Debbie said, placing her hand over her sons as she gave him a serious yet worried expression.
"I'll be careful mom, I promise." Mark said, reassuring his mother.
Debbie smiled at her son and nodded. "Good, that's all I wanted to hear."
The family continued to eat their breakfast as they discussed various topics until the breakfast was finished and Nolan stood up from his seat.
"Alright come on Mark, I have someone I want you to meet."
"Who is it?" Mark asked.
"You'll see." Nolan replied as he made his way out the door, his son following behind.
Debbie smiled as she watched her husband and son leave, well aware of where Nolan was taking Mark. She was both happy and worried that her son was following in his fathers footsteps, but she knew that as long as he had his father watching out for him he would be ok.
Mark said goodbye to his mother before he and his father flew off and began following his dad.
As the two flew, Nolan asked his son a question.
"I've been meaning to ask you Mark, just what were those robots you fought anyway? You're pretty new to the whole hero thing but I didn't expect robots of all things to rough you up that much, you are a Viltrumite after all."
"Well, the robots were pretty strong… they moved pretty fast for their size, and they hit pretty hard too, also had these lasers they could shoot out of their hands, those were pretty powerful too, I never thought lasers of all things would hurt so much." Mark explained as he thought back to the prior fight.
"They roughed up that other guy pretty good too from what I could see, the good thing about it though was they had a pretty noticeable weakness, giant red core or something on their chest, it was kinda durable but I managed." Mark added.
Unbeknownst to Mark, Nolan furrowed his brow at the description his son gave at the robots appearance and abilities.
"What color were the robots, and did it look like they had a single red eye?" Nolan asked abruptly which threw Mark off a bit.
"Huh? Well uhh, they were a dark grey, and they did have one large red eye but-"
"Could they fly? And were there any symbols of any kind on them?" Nolan pried further, making his son a bit confused yet nervous as to his fathers sudden investment in the robots.
"I don't think they could fly but they did have these weird numbers or codes on what I think was supposed to be their shoulders, I can't quite remember though." Mark replied, his tone conveying his confusion and concern.
"Dad? Do you know what these robots are? Have you fought them before or something?" Mark asked, trying to figure out why his dad was so invested in the robots he fought at the port.
Nolan remained silent for a moment before he spoke, his tone calm yet careful. "You could say that, or at least something similar."
"So you know about those things? Just who built them anyway?"
Nolan once again remained silent for a moment before speaking once again. "Old enemies of mine son… old enemies that have been gone for a long time. Then again, these robots might not even be the same ones I'm thinking of, so I wouldn't worry too much about it, Mark."
"You sure? This seems like a pretty big deal for you dad, I don't see you get like that over things often."
Nolan turned his head back to look at his son with a reassuring smile. "Everything's fine Mark, there's nothing to be worried about, besides, we're here."
Mark looked down to see a shopping plaza as his dad flew down to one of the smaller stores in the plaza.
"Wait? Your taking me shopping?" Mark asked, a bit taken aback that they were in a shopping plaza of all places.
"I am." Nolan replied as the two flew to the back of the store which was a tailor shop. Nolan entered a pass code before entering the back door, his son following behind him as he then entered another code into another door that led the two to the basement.
As the two walked down, Mark could make out an older man who seemed to be sewing something, he could also make out what looked to be several peculiar outfits.
As the two made their way down the stairs the older man was quick to notice their presence and went to greet Nolan while Mark observed all the various outfits in the room.
"Were you seen?" The old man asked Nolan with a smile.
"You forget who you're talking to?" Nolan asked, a smile of his own on his face as he greeted his old friend
"Woah." Mark said as he marveled at the various outfits.
"Prom dresses by day, indestructible super suits by night, names Art Rosenbaum kid, and you must be Mark, pleasure to finally meet you, I've heard lots of good things about you." The old man now known as art greeted as he shook his hand.
"I've heard a lot about you too." Mark said, though Art could tell by the expression on his face and the tone of his voice that he probably hadn't.
"Your old man's never mentioned me has he?" Art asked with a chuckle.
"He's a teenager Art, he can hardly remember anything he doesn't see in the mirror every morning." Nolan quipped.
"Wait." Mark blurted out, realization coming over him as his face lit up in excitement "does this mean I'm getting a costume? Are you the one who makes dads costumes?"
"Can't have you running around in pajamas all the time." Nolan commented.
"Is there already a costume ready for me? Did you guys make this a surprise?"
"Usually we discuss what exactly you're looking for with your costume, but I do have a couple you can try out." Art replied which made Mark beam at his statement.
Mark would go on to try on several different outfits, while the outfits were nice, none of them were quite what he was looking for.
Currently Mark wore an orange and yellow super suit with yellow goggles.
"What do you think of this one?" Art asked.
"Not sure how I feel about the orange and yellow, it's pretty loud." Mark admitted as he stretched in the outfit.
"Yeah, not your best work Art." Nolan added as he looked at the suit.
"Can't blame a guy for trying to move unsold merchandise." Art replied.
"I like the goggles though, they'd keep the wind out of my eyes when I fly, but I'm really looking for something a little more iconic." Mark Said as he looked at Art.
"Ah, of course you were, that's what everyone's looking for, Iconic, a symbol. Something kids will draw in their notebooks while they daydream about being as cool as you." Art said as Mark's smile grew with each word spoken.
"It's also tough as hell to pull off." Art continued. "But since me and your old man go way back, I'm willing to put a lot of elbow grease into this one, but I'm gonna need your help to pull it off. Have you decided on a name yet?"
"Well not quite, I did have a guy recommend Ultraman as a name but ehh I'm not really sure about that one to be honest, I mean it's not bad but something about it just doesn't feel right."
"Really? That actually wouldn't be a bad name choice Mark, Omniman, Ultraman, it fits." Nolan commented.
"I know and I thought about it but it just doesn't feel right, just a gut feeling ya know." Mark replied.
"Well a name really helps, Red Rush is a Red Rush when he runs by you, Darkwing has Darkwings." Art commented.
"But anyway, put some thought into what name you want and get back to me, then we can get to work."
Mark smiled and nodded. "The moment I get an idea, I'll head straight here." Mark replied with a smile.
After leaving Art's shop and returning home, Nolan decided it would be fun to play a game of catch with his son.
Currently the father and son duo were floating in the air above their house as the two both had catching mitts on their hands as Nolan caught the ball that came his direction.
The father and son weren't just playing an ordinary game of catch, but instead were throwing the ball all the way around the world before it would come back for one of them to catch it and throw it the other way.
"Everything alright Mark? You've had that look on your face since we left Art's."
"I'm fine, just got a lot on my mind." Mark replied as his father threw the ball.
"Well? What is it?"
"Well if I don't tell you you'll just keep prying until I tell you so…" Mark paused momentarily before he continued. "I'm scared dad, I'm not sure if I can do this like you can, I mean yeah I managed to beat those robots but only because I had help, if that guy hadn't shown up who knows what would've happened."
The sound of something ripping through the air at rapid speed could be heard coming at Mark's direction.
"Do you hear it?" Nolan asked.
Mark nodded as he replied. "I hear it."
"Get ready." Nolan warned as Mark heard it getting closer before he caught it, the ball, which had traveled all the way around the world, had gone from his fathers hands to his own.
"Were you nervous?" Nolan asked, glancing in his son's direction.
"A little." Mark admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.
"But you still caught it, being a superhero is no different Mark, this is the beginning of a long journey for the both of us, and along the way you'll need to do things you don't want to do, or don't think you can do, and I, nor anyone else for that matter, will always be there to help you. It's ok to be scared, but you and I have a duty as Viltrumites to do what's best for humanity, I know it's a lot Mark but I know this is a responsibility you can take on."
Mark looked at his dad as he smiled. "Thanks dad, I think I really needed to hear that." Mark said as he threw the ball.
Nolan took a glance at his son. "Kids your age think they're invincible and it makes them careless, causes them to make stupid decisions, but you're different, you actually are Invincible."
Nolan watched as the expression on his son's face slowly began to change, as if he had come to some sort of realization.
"That's it! Dad, you're a genius!" Mark said which made his father raise an eyebrow.
Before Nolan could say anything already his son began to fly away as he spoke "I gotta go see Art! I'll be back in a bit!"
And with that, Mark was gone, leaving Nolan to ponder on what exactly he had said that made Mark react like that, before another thought crossed his mind.
"That ball should've arrived right now." Nolan thought aloud as he looked around and didn't see nor hear any signs of the ball.
Nolan's thoughts drifted away from the ball as a scowl began to develop on his face, he was now certain that at the bare minimum, humanity had gotten ahold of Kryptonian technology, a fact he was aware of for years, having seen some dismantled kryptonian droids in some government lab a long time ago, but he never believed that humans would actually be capable of actually rebuilding technology that was thousands of years ahead of their own, even if their versions weren't as strong as the originals.
While this posed further questions Nolan knew he probably would not get his answers anytime soon, Krypton was gone, and with it a long time threat of Viltrums rule over the cosmos was extinguished.
Now his son had finally unlocked his abilities, which meant it was finally time to prepare Earth for the arrival of the Viltrum Empire.
With that, he went back inside to suit up, knowing exactly what his first course of action would be, Debbie was already off to work, and even if she wasn't, the likelihood of her questioning him is unlikely.
Part of Nolan couldn't help but scoff internally at that, the thought of a human questioning a Viltrumite was laughable, these animals would soon learn that there is a hierarchy in the universe, and that they'd do well to fall in line, or suffer the consequences.
Clark was currently making his way back home to Kansas. Following the incident at the port yesterday he along with Lois and Jimmy had been given the day off, which meant he had the day to himself.
As Clark was halfway to his home he heard the sound of something approaching him at a high rate of speed.
Swiftly turning around he reached his hand out and caught…a baseball? Well that certainly wasn't something he expected to see flying through the air at a speed that made it hard to see even for Clark's level of perception, even more surprising was the fact that he managed to catch the ball.
Clark looked around, looking for any sign of the baseball's origin but found nothing.
The whole situation was just odd to Clark, he put the ball in his pocket and continued flying until he eventually found himself back at his childhood home.
He took a moment to take in the atmosphere, he would never get over the sight of the childhood home and the many memories he had of this place.
In the house, Martha Kent was currently preparing to make one of her infamous pies, as she was doing so however she heard an unexpected knock on the door.
Martha quickly made her way to the door and opened it only to see Clark standing at the door with his usual smile.
"Hey Ma." Clark greeted as his mother hugged him.
"Clark! Oh I'm so glad you're back, you couldn't have come at a better time, I'm making pie, and your pa has just been fretting about leftovers, but now that you're home that won't be a problem." She said with a chuckle before she realized something.
"Wait? Your home? What's wrong? Did something happen?" Martha Kent asked worriedly as she gave her son an equally nervous look.
"I'm fine Ma but I ended up using my powers, and not just in a minor way like flying at high speed to get somewhere quickly, I used them in a fight, to help people, my friends, and I was seen, not just by them, but by another hero, at least I'm pretty sure he's a hero." Clark explained, which made his mothers eyes widen in shock and surprise.
"I need to know Ma, I need to know more about me, what I am, where I come from." Clark added.
"Clark, what are you trying to say dear?" His mother asked, her expression and tone growing more worried.
"I need to find out who I am Ma, I need to go back to the ship, I have to know." Clark replied, which made Martha gasp and cover her mouth. She had never forgotten the day when they went to the ship for the first time and what had happened then, and naturally she was highly concerned about this whole ordeal.
Clark stood in a hole he had dug at super speed as both his parents stood on the surface above in shock and a little bit of horror.
"I don't like this Jon, what if something happens, what if it's like last time, or worse." Martha said worriedly.
"He needs to do this Martha, he's not a little kid anymore, he wasn't ready back then, none of us were, but now he's ready, and we need to be too, for Clark." Jon replied as he gave his wife a reassuring look.
Martha hesitated briefly before nodding. "I guess you're right, I'm just worried about it."
"And so am I. We're the boy's parents, so it's natural that both of us would feel worried about our son digging up his childhood spaceship." Jonathan replied.
"Uhh is it me or did this get bigger." Clark said as he looked at the massive metal platform he was standing on, which appeared to be larger compared to the last time it was dug up.
"But how is that even possible?" Jon asked in a mix of confusion and concern.
"It grew…" Martha realized before sighing, this was becoming more and more troubling than she would like. "You don't have to do this Clark, what if this thing tries to change you, or hurt you."
Clark floated up to his mother and put his hand on her shoulder. "I know you're worried Ma, but I need to figure out who I am Ma." Clark said before he embraced his mother for a brief moment before making his way back down to the ship.
Clark stood in the center as the intricate lines on the platform began to glow blue before several pillars came from within the platform and floated to Clark.
In an instant, Clark was consumed by a flash of blue light, as was his parents. When Jon and Martha blinked and their vision cleared, they could see that Clark was now gone from the spot he once stood, which did nothing to ease the concerns of either parent.
Clark opened his eyes to find himself in what was seemingly a black void of nothing, however, not even a second later there was a white flash of light.
Clark had to blink a couple times to clear his vision before he looked around to find himself in completely different surroundings.
There were white structures all around him of various sizes, they looked a little like buildings, but he couldn't tell for sure.
Before Clark could do or say anything he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he whirled around only to see a face he had not seen since the last time he had tried to figure out who he was and where he had come from.
Floating before him was a man with long brown hair that appeared to be greying in certain parts, the man also bore a beard.
Like Clark, his eye was blue, with the other eye being covered by some sort of diamond shaped eye patch, Clark could also now see that the outfit the man wore was mostly white, with the diamond shaped symbol on his chest being grey and some black around the outfit as well.
The man began to speak to Clark, but Clark was unable to understand him, as he spoke in the same language he did when Clark had last seen the mysterious man.
Clark managed to only make one word that he kept saying, Kal El.
"I… I can't understand you." Clark said with a frown. Clark really wished he knew what the man was trying to say, the language barrier certainly not making learning about his past any easier.
The man continued to try and speak but Clark unfortunately was still unable to understand him.
"Look I'm trying, I really am, but I can't understand you." Clark told the man.
The man proceeded to float up and continued to speak, his tone seeming to grow more aggressive as he spoke, but Clark still couldn't get what he was trying to tell him.
"What do you want me to do!?" Clark asked in a mix of frustration and desperation before sighing and turning around. "I don't know why I decided to do this, I don't even know who you are, and you obviously can't help me."
The man seemed to grow a somber expression at that, seemingly understanding Clark's words before he said something in a somber expression.
Clark watched as the atmosphere around him changed and it looked like he was in outer space now.
"What...? What is this?" Clark asked.
In an instant, the mysterious man appeared in front of Clark and touched his head and in an instant Clark began to see visions.
He could see a bright yellow sun, with some sort of object or weapon flying right into it that turned the sun from yellow to red. It then showed a planet that looked to be rather war torn with parts of it appearing to be covered in lava of some sort before the scene changed again to show another planet that had large land masses covered in Lava, with both of the planets appearing to be in a state of conflict before switching to show a third planet that looked a bit similar to Earth but appeared to be bigger, with large clusters of ships with blue lights mobilizing from the planet.
The vision then changed to show a fair skinned woman with grey hair that was done in a braided ponytail and blue eyes holding a baby, wearing the same outfit the mysterious man with the eyepatch had been wearing.
"Who is that?" Clark asked as he continued to watch as a hand was placed on the woman's shoulder.
The woman turned and handed the baby to a man who turned out to be the same mysterious man who had begun showing him these visions in the first place.
Clark watched as the man took the baby from the women, and put it in some type of pod, he also quickly noticed that this was no ordinary baby, but was in fact Clark as a baby.
"If this is.. that means you're my…" Clark muttered, the gears in his head turning as he quickly began to realize exactly who they were.
"Your my parents…" Clark muttered in shock
Clark watches as the pod launches into space and the man and woman hug one another, a giant explosion engulfing the entire planet and rapidly expanding towards the two before the vision cuts to white.
Clark blinks and finds himself right back at the same location he was in when he first arrived in whatever the inside of this ship was supposed to be, as who he now knew to be his father stared down at him with a sympathetic look.
"If… if this is my past then that means-" Clark was about to start to say but stopped as the apparition of his father vanished and he began to feel a similar power surging through him that he felt when he punched that robot into Lake Michigan.
A bright blue light surged from his eyes and a bright blue symbol shined on his chest, the same one that had been on his uniform as he felt his clothing begin to energize from what it was to something different, something that was hard for him to describe but yet somehow felt natural.
Outside of the ship, Martha and Jonathan waited anxiously for Clark's return when suddenly the ship began to open up, a bright blue glow emerging from the ship along with Clark himself, who was now wearing a completely different outfit and looked almost like a different person entirely.
Clark now sported a mostly blue bodysuit with parts of the suit being a slightly darker shade of blue, on his chest was a red and yellow diamond shaped crest with the same alien like symbol on the chest, along with the symbol he also had red boots and a long flowing red cape.
"Clark!" Martha called out as he floated toward her and Jonathan and embraced the both of them in a hug, with both Jonathan and Martha just relieved to see that their son was ok.
Martha and Jonathan looked up at their son with a mixture of both worry and relief, before the two of them pulled back and began to take in Clark's new outfit.
"Clark, you look… different." Martha commented as she touched the symbol on his chest.
"It's ok Ma, I'm still me." Clark reassured her with a smile.
Martha and Jonathan smile in relief, glad to know that their son had come out ok.
"I must say, this is an interesting outfit, it's definitely missing something though, it needs something more, a belt, shorts maybe." Martha says as she put her hand to her chin in thought before Jonathan asked a question that caused both her and Clark's focus to shift to him.
"Clark, what exactly happened in there?" Jonathan asked, while there was still a tinge of concern in his voice, Clark could recognize that his father was more curious than anything.
Clark went on to explain everything he had seen and learned from them the best he could, when the two learned that the man in the hologram that they had seen all those years ago was actually his father, they were shocked to say the lease, however, that paled in comparison to when they learned that the planet he had come from may have been destroyed or conquered in a war of some kind.
Both Martha and Jonathan were left speechless, both struggling to find words to say, however, that was until the silence was finally broken by Martha. "Clark, I am so sorry dear, I am so so sorry." She said before promptly hugging her son, wanting to comfort him the best she could before Jonathan spoke.
"Clark, from what you told us, I can only imagine what happened on your home world, but I do know that you were sent here for a reason. When your mother told me that you had used your powers to help people, I was worried at first, worried that if someone saw you, and what you could do, that you'd be taken, It's practically an open secret that the government often takes young children with abilities and gifts and turn them into weapons for their own benefit and that wasn't a fate me, nor your mother wanted for you."
"But times have changed since then, you're not a little boy anymore, and you have the chance to use these gifts in a big way, a chance to change the world for the better."
"Your Pa is right Clark, your Pa and I were always so worried about you using your abilities, worried about what type of attention they might draw, not to mention Omniman's arrival shortly after yours, truth be told, we thought that man may have been your biological father and came here searching for you." Martha admitted which surprised Clark.
"Wait? You thought Omniman was my dad?" Clark asked in surprise.
"We thought it was a possibility, he was your favorite hero growing up, both of you have black hair and blue eyes, and then when your powers kicked in it only furthered our suspicions, though that doesn't seem to be the case, so you think Omniman could be some kind of relative?"
"I don't know but if he is my…dad certainly didn't mention him." Clark said. He had never considered the idea that he was related to Omniman, or that at the very least he and Omniman came from the same place.
"But that's besides the point dear, you have always wanted to help people, and I know you being here is no accident, and now you have a chance to use these gifts to truly begin helping people." Martha added, giving a warm smile to her son before a look of realization spread across her face.
"Oh, that reminds me, come here for a second Clark." Martha says as she walks to a different room with a sewing machine, Clark curiously follows behind her along with Jonathan who had a smile as he already knew what his wife was planning.
"The new getup is nice, definitely has an outer space look, especially the symbol on your chest, but it needs something human too, that way you'll have something from both this home and the home you arrived from." Martha said with a smile.
Mark Grayson sat atop a crane as he looked on at the Chicago skyline, instead of sporting his usual clothing however, he now sported a skin tight bodysuit with a mask that made the hair stick out the top of his head and goggles covering his eyes, his suit was yellow down the middle all the way to his waist with the shoulders of his suit being blue along with blue boots that start from his knees, he also had yellow gloves and apart from that the rest of his suit was black.
Mark stood up on the crane before he jumped off and began to take flight, soaring between buildings before shooting up into the clouds, almost reaching space before he dove back down to the city and began soaring between buildings again, doing it all with a smile on his face.
However, as Mark was flying around, he could hear a series of explosions that originated from around the corner, Mark quickly banked in the direction of the explosions and made his way to the scene.
In the streets, the Chicago police appeared to be in a shootout with a man who appeared to have a giant laser for an arm with some sort of special armor over his chest and a helmet that had a red visor.
The man had blown a hole through one of the Police SUVs causing it to explode and send a handful of officers flying and causing the remaining officers present to return fire on the figure.
However, the bullets merely bounced off the figure's special armor, causing a smirk to cross the man's features as he spoke in a southern accent. "You boys might have bit off more than you can chew, now one of your cars has a big ass hole in it."
This figure was none other than Killcannon, a somewhat known criminal in the city of Chicago, and currently, he was preparing to once again fire his laser arm at the officers.
However, before he could do so, he felt a figure punch him at blinding speed, causing him to be sent flying through a building, his back going through several walls before he ended up on the other side.
As Killcannon got his bearings, he looked up to see none other than Invincible fly through the hole in the building.
"Who the fuck are y-" Killcannon started to ask but was unable to finish as Invincible blitzed towards him and punched him across the jaw, sending him flying once again further down the street.
Killcannon skid down the street and managed to briefly regain his footing while skidding and fired multiple shots at Invincible, who managed to dodge all of them and fly into Killcanon hitting him in the chest with both his fists before uppercutting him and sending him high into the air.
He then grabbed him by the back and did a swing before sending him flying through the air, causing him to skid across one of the buildings before falling back to the ground again, and this time he didn't get back up.
Mark smiled at his work as he floated over the now seemingly incapacitated Killcannon before turning to look at the damage, causing his smile to be replaced with a frown, realizing that he may have caused more damage than he needed to.
"Ah crap." Was all he could say as he examined the damage, particularly the small chunk that was taken out of a building.
As he was observing the damage, he failed to notice Killcannon stand up and aim his laser arm at Invincible.
As Invincible began to turn around and see he was about to be shot his eyes widened as he prepared to move to stop Killcannon.
However, before he managed to do anything something unexpected happened.
Within an instant, a red and blue blur swooped down and grabbed Killcannon by his laser arm and forced it to point upward, making the blast shoot into the sky.
Invincible looked at Killcannon and then at the figure who had saved him from being shot.
The guys get up in of itself was eye grabbing as is, with a blue bodysuit that had an unforgettable symbol on his chest, and a flowing red cape to go with it, and was that… red underwear?
Despite all those things however, what had garnered Mark's attention the most was the man's face, his eyes squinting under his goggles as he was positive he had seen this face somewhere before.
The black hair, the blue eyes, he knew for a fact he had seen this face recently and was trying to pinpoint where he had seen this face before, however, before he managed to do so, the figure spoke.
"Hey, are you ok? I heard the commotion and flew over to check it out and noticed this guy was about to shoot you in the back, I hope it's no problem." Clark said, as he still had Killcannon by his laser arm.
After Clark spoke, everything clicked in Mark's head. "Wait, aren't you the guy from the port?" Mark asked, making Clark's eyes widen a bit in surprise.
"Wait, it's you." Clark said in recognition as he looked at Invincible. "You and I fought those robots together."
Invincible stared at the guy for a few seconds before a smile crossed his features. "Yeah, I never got a chance to thank you for that save by the way, for some robots they actually packed a punch."
"Oh it's no problem, really, I just needed to help my fr- I mean I just was happy to help is all." Clark said, managing to correct his near slip up.
Mark picked up on the minor slip up but felt it best not to pry into the man's private life, he assumed the man most likely worked at the port, given the uniform he was wearing during the fight.
"Yeah you saved my ass back there man, had you not shown up I would've been in some deep shit." Mark said honestly.
"Like I said, it's no problem at all, I was just happy to help." Clark said before he looked down at Killcannon who had spent the entire duration of the two heroes' conversation trying to break free of Clark's iron grip. "So what exactly are we going to do with this guy?" Clark asked the question that had been on his mind since he first grabbed ahold of the man's prosthetic weapon.
"Uhhh." Invincible looked around as he could hear the sounds of sirens coming in their direction. "I think they'll take it from here."
"You think they can stop me! I'm nowhere near done! you hear me! I'm nowhere near-" Killcannon began to say, however, the last thing he saw before he could finish was Invincible's fist closing the distance between it and his face.
Clark let go of Killcannon as his body fell to the floor, knocked unconscious by Invincibles punch, the visor on helmet being cracked as well as his nose being bloody as a result of the punch.
Clark wondered if that was the best idea, given that from what he had seen the two of them were very similar in the strength department.
Mark quickly took note of the look on Clark's face and assured him that it was nothing to worry about. "Don't worry, I only used enough force to knock him out…I think."
"You think? Because I'm pretty sure you broke his nose…" Clark said, looking at the now knocked out Killcannon whose nose was all bloody from the punch.
"I…I'm sure he'll be fine." Mark said, but by the tone of his words Mark was unsure of it himself. "I only got my powers a few days ago so I'm still kinda figuring this whole super strength thing out." Mark admitted rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.
"I can see that." Clark said, looking over at all the damage that his fight with Killcannon had caused before chuckling. "I guess I'm not much better though, this whole hero thing is pretty new to me myself, and while I've had my powers for a long time I haven't exactly used them all that frequently, especially the strength part, had to learn to be very gentle with things or else I'd accidentally break something." Clark admitted as he looked away sheepishly.
"Hey, that reminds me, I never got your name." Invincible said, now curious as to who exactly this guy was.
"Oh well uhh, that's a bit of a tricky question." Clark said as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I haven't exactly come up with a name yet."
"Oh really? Well I guess I can't fault you for that, I basically did the same thing." Invincible remarked before chuckling.
"Have you decided on a name yet?" Clark asked to which Invincible nodded and pointed a thumb at himself. "I'm Invincible." He proudly declared with a grin on his face.
Clark would be lying if he said it wasn't a unique name choice, he thought for a moment that he may actually had taken up Jimmy on his suggestion to go with the name Ultraman but Invincible was a good name. "Well invincible, it's nice to meet you again."
"So hey, if you don't mind me asking, do you-" Clark was about to ask a question but heard the sound of an alarm going off a block or two away, turning to Invincible to be sure he wasn't hearing things, the two looked at each other before nodding and both taking off to the scene, leaving Killcannon for the arriving officers to detain him.
Both Clark and Invincible made their way to where the sound was coming from and both immediately came across a jewelry store being robbed, a group of thieves armed with guns breaking the glass casings that held various assortments of jewelry before stuffing them inside duffle bags.
The two look at each other as Invincible grins at Clark. "These guys pick a bad time to pull this off or what?"
"That they did." Clark replied, a small grin of his own growing on his face as well.
Inside the jewelry store, the group of five men acted quickly in their smash and grab attempt, getting as much jewelry as they possibly could, the boss had some low tier supervillain cause havoc and distract the police so they could get this job done and in exchange he'd get a bit of the cut from the score.
The robbers had been a part of the crew that was at the Port when everything went to shit, luckily, the boss had chosen not to kill them and gave them this chance to make it up to him. Unfortunately Leslie however wasn't so lucky, she had been in charge of the whole thing and she knew she wouldn't have gotten as lucky, thus she took some of the weapons they were smuggling apart from the robots and fled. Despite that though, she likely wouldn't last long, it didn't matter if she left the state or the entire country, the boss would find her eventually.
The place they were robbing was not only a jewelry place but was also a front to one of the rival gangs in the city, they had made a move against the boss during their robot smuggling operation and it backfired in a big way for them, and now they were paying the price for it, wouldn't be long before that gang ceased to exist entirely.
Unfortunately for the robbers, this job would not go as planned for robbers for as they began to make their way out of the store they saw the shadows of two figures looming above them.
Looking up, they could see both Invincible and Clark floating above them, the two of them grinning, the former far more than the latter as the thieves became startled at the unexpected appearance of these two new heroes.
"Who the fuck are you!?" One of them shouted, making Invincibles grin only widen.
"Who me? I'm Invincible. My friend here hasn't come up with a name yet, but we are taking suggestions so if you have any we'd really appreciate it." Invincible commented.
"It's over, I'm politely asking all of you to lay down your weapons and surrender peacefully, this does not have to escalate any further." Clark added, his face becoming serious as he looks down on the group of thieves.
"Never seen or heard of either of you bozos before, you're gonna regret interfering with the boss's operations!" Another thug shouted before he and his fellow thugs aimed their guns at the two heroes, about to fire upon the two of them.
However, Invincible could react and before the thugs could even open fire, Clark moved in a blur and snatched all the guns out the hands of all the thugs before snapping them in half without breaking a sweat.
The thugs stared at Clark in wide eyed disbelief l, even Invincible was surprised by how fast he had moved to disarm the thugs.
"Woah, I knew you were pretty fast but that was impressive." Invincible complimented.
"What the fuck man! Where the hell is Killcannon?!" One of the thugs shouted in a panic.
"Oh shit! It's those freaks that were at the port!" Another one of the thugs shouted which garnered both Clark and Invincibles attention.
"Wait? These guys were at the port?" Invincible asked, a bit surprised to see the same thugs from the port here, he thought he had gotten them all when he saved those two civilians, then again, he probably hadn't gotten them all, that girl with the white hair had escaped after all.
"Your boss? Who is he? And where did he get those robots?" Clark asked with a stern expression, attempting to get any information out of the thug.
In response to this the thug merely chuckled. "I ain't telling you nothing, Boy Scout."
Invincible floated toward the man with a scowl on his face. "Those robots are dangerous, and if your boss used them to hurt anyone you're gonna have a lot more than the cops to deal with, so if it were you, I'd talk." Invincible said, his voice adopting a dangerous low tone toward the end, making the Thug gulp, clearly intimidated by the young hero.
"Alright alright! All I know is that the boss was really upset when you two showed up and ruined the operation. Those robots were by far his most valued assets, but they weren't all he had. The boss has more equipment than just those robots."
The thugs' revelation worried Clark, the thought that they had more weapons beside the robots painted a very bad picture.
"Do you know where the weapons are being kept?" Clark asked to which the thug shook his head.
"No, and even if I did, telling you that would just get me killed, hell, simply telling you what I have is already enough to get me killed, I'm already in enough shit as it is after you two assholes ruined the operation at the port." The thug replied.
"You still haven't answered the question, just who the hell is your boss?" Invincible asked.
"Machine Head." The thug answered.
"That's not a real name." Invincible replied with an unamused look.
"It is a real name you fucking prick! Every crook in the goddamn city knows who Machine Head is!"
Both Superman and Invincible looked at each other, neither of whom having ever heard of this Machine Head before.
"You assholes are probably from Naperville or some shit to have never heard of Machine head." The second thug spoke up.
Invincible was about to say something in response, but was cut off by the sound of sirens rapidly approaching their location.
"Anything else you want to tell us before the cops arrive?" Clark asked, hoping to get whatever information he could out of the two thugs.
"Go fuck yourself." Was the Thugs response.
"I would make a joke about prison but I'm pretty sure both of you know what's likely to happen to you in there." Invincible said with a chuckle before he began to float up.
Superman had also begun to float up, but not before finding a conveniently placed piece of rope on top of a dumpster in the alley next to the jewelry store and tying the thugs together to ensure they wouldn't try to run from the police.
The two heroes then flew off, finding a nearby building to land on top of to discuss what they had just learned.
"Ok that was… a lot more than I had been expecting when we went to stop a robbery at a jewelry store." Invincible admitted.
Clark on the other hand was thinking back on everything and began to piece it all together in his head, he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts before turning to face Invincible.
"Ok, so we know that this Machine Head is the one who is responsible for smuggling the robots, and not only that, he has other technologies at his disposal, that could be just as if not more dangerous than those robots, and if those robots were enough to hurt us I can't imagine what the other weapons he has can do."
Invincible took all this in, the gravity of the situation slowly sinking in, this was becoming bigger and more complicated than he originally expected, first with the odd conversation he had with his dad and how weird he had been about the topic, and now they were seemingly in the hands of this Machine Head. Perhaps he was the old enemy dad had mentioned, if so he'd definitely need to bring this up with him, an enemy that could make his dad have the reaction he did definitely was nothing to take lightly.
"Well his name is Machine Head, it's possible that he was the one who built the robots and these other weapons in the first place, would explain why he has his goons robbing jewelry stores, needs money for parts and equipment or whatever." Invincible remarked, thinking it could be a genuine possibility.
Clark took in what Invincible had said and thought it made sense, it would explain his name, and why he'd need to have goons conduct robberies on his behalf, building robots like that couldn't have been cheap.
"I definitely think it's possible, it would explain the name and why he'd need money from a jewelry store heist." Clark said. He'd definitely need to bring this up with Lois and Jimmy tomorrow at the planet, of course not the part where he swooped down and stopped four robbers with the same guy he saved them from the robots with at the port, but they may be able to find a lead on this Machine Head person and try to figure out his next moves.
"Look Invincible, I know we haven't known each other very long but I'd like us to work together on this, if we're right and Machine Head has these weapons a lot of innocent people could get hurt, and frankly, I just simply don't know if I can handle this on my own." Clark said, his face morphing into a small frown. It was true, he had never used his powers like this, and wasn't sure if he was strong enough or had what it took to handle something of this magnitude on his own.
Invincible looked at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah, I'll definitely help out." He replied.
"Ok, I'll try and work on things on my end and see if I can learn anything about Machine Head and his operation." Clark informed him to which he nodded.
"Alright, I got someone I know who may know a bit about this as well, I may be able to get some useful information." Mark commented, leaving out the fact that the someone in question was actually his father, who just so happened to be Omniman.
He would need to bring this up with his dad as soon as he saw him. This whole robot debacle was really starting to concern Mark all together, but he was confident he and his apparent new friend could put a stop to whoever this Machine Head was.
"Ok, meet me on the top of the daily planet building around this time tomorrow, we can share what we learned and try to devise some sort of plan." Clark said to which Invincible nodded.
"Sounds good." Invincible said before he started to float up, however, as he began to fly off, Clark called out to him.
"Invincible!" Clark called out, making Invincible turn back to face him. "Thank you." He said, his tone genuine and sincere.
Invincible looked back at him before giving a small smile. "Anytime." He said, before flying off into the Chicago skyline.
AN: Alright before I talk about the chapter or anything else I first want shout out Mtle232 and his new series the MDCCU, a crossover between marvel and DC and to me personally one of the best ones out there so far. it's divided into several stories, those being, Superman: Man of Steel, Batman: Shadow of Gotham, Green Lantern: First Flight, and his most recent story Captain America & Wonder Woman: The First Avengers.
If you love this story, and your a fan of Marvel or DC or just comics in general I promise you you'll love this series, Mtle232 has put a lot of time and effort into these stories and they are so amazing so please I get you to check them out, Superman: Man of Steel is already finished and the other three are still being regularly updated. You can easily find them by going to my favorites and follows. Once you finish this story and you want something else to read I implore you to give these stories a shot, they are amazing and my personal favorite out of all of them so far is Shadow of Gotham, I don't want to spoil anything but I promise you won't regret reading that story. Trust me, I would not go out of my way to recommend a story unless I thought it was amazing and it absolutely is, so please, if you have the time and are looking for a new story to read, go check out any of the MDCCU stories.
With that out the way, it's first like to thank everyone for getting this story to 100 favorites and 109 follows, when I started writing a little over a year ago, I never imagined one of my stories would grow this large, and yet this story managed to exceed my expectations, I am so thankful that over 100 people find my story enjoyable and I hope to continue to please all of you as this story progresses.
Now let's talk about this story, man this chapter was fun to write, especially the ending.
In this chapter we get to see Clark learn a little bit more about his past, and we get to see him finally get his costume, we also get to see Mark talk with his dad and learn a bit about his dads past, all be it vaguely, before he too gets his costume as well as his name. Clark still doesn't have his hero name yet, but that will change very soon.
I also noticed while watching MAWS fights that Clark is actually a pretty defensive fighter. In a lot of the fights I watch from his fight against Task Force X to his fight against Kara, he's more prone to dodging or blocking and then counter attacking then going directly on the offensive, only time he really goes on the offensive seems to be when he has his power surges, and even then he still fights somewhat defensively.
On the other hand Mark, who is a very offensive fighter, he's more prone to throwing punches and doing directly on the attack and it really does show the difference between Mark and Clark.
I was thinking about it and this may not be the best comparison but it reminded me of Anakin and Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan uses form three which is a very defensive form of lightsaber combat while Anakin uses form five which is a very offensive and aggressive style of combat, and the two in a way kind of remind me of Anakin and Obiwan, hell you could even argue their personalities are vaguely similar, epically Anakin and Invincible.
Now I wanna talk a bit about the ending. Originally the ending was going to be a lot more boring with Clark and Mark simply eating at burger mart and talking for a bit, I was ready to upload the chapter then, but thought about it and said nah that'd be too boring, so instead I went for the jewelry store scene and the more I wrote the more ideas I got and it all just sort of clicked.
Originally this chapter was going to see the Flaxan invasion take place and see Clark and Mark meet the Teen Team. Speaking of Teen Team, if you guys have any suggestions on any DC characters you'd like to see on Teen Team let me know, a few crossed my mind but I hadn't made a decision and may keep the team as it is in Cannon but if anyone has any suggestions feel free to tell me.
Another thing I wanted to bring up was my plans with Batman, as I told all of you a few chapters ago, I decided that I would include other DC characters into this story and that of course includes the Justice league, originally, I intended to use Terry McGinnis aka Batman Beyond for the Batman of this story, with Bruce being more Akin to his Dark Knight returns counter part rather than how he was in the Batman Beyond series, however, upon thinking about it, and asking a couple people, I have decided not to do this.
My main reason for this decision is that it just didn't fit, the more I thought about it, the more it just didn't make sense to me, especially since the rest of the JL cast is relatively the same.
The second reason was that Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are the big three of DC. I feel like not having Bruce Wayne as Batman in this big three just doesn't make it the same.
The reason I was gonna go with Terry was because I initially felt he would better fit with the direction I was going for with a younger Justice League cast and thought he would be a good fit, what I'll probably do instead is go with a younger Batman who is probably in year one or year two, and will probably be about 22-24 years of age maybe 25 depending because fundamentally I just feel like Bruce Wayne as Batman is a better overall fit than Batman Beyond.
Now, with all that out of the way, I will go ahead to the reviews, specifically the ones for chapter four.
The mysterious Mr.E:oh I have more in store for them than you can imagine, just you wait and see.
Necros The Saiyan knight:oh there absolutely will be tension between the green lanterns and the coalition of the planets, and while the lanterns probably wouldn't risk all out war with the coalition there's definitely some tension between the two, the only thing stopping more direct confrontation is the fact that the Guardians probably view the Viltrum Empire and other groups such as the Kresh or Apokolips as much bigger and more pressing threats, though the Green Lanterns won't be introduced in this story until My Adventures with Green Lantern drops. And for your other questions I can't speak much on Mongul, I'm hoping that MAWS introduces him at some point though. The Viltrumites unlike the Kryptonians steered clear from the Path of Darkseid and Apokolips, especially following Kryptons destruction, as they believe it was Apokolips who destroyed krypton, and do not believe they could take on Apokolips head on especially with their current numbers. The JL lineup hasn't officially been decided as there are still DC characters who I'm deciding rather or not will be on the JL, keep in mind not every DC hero who shows up end up on the JL, though the JL probably won't form until season two or three anyway, so I have time to think on it more.
: it will be quite interesting to see, as stated earlier in the AN, Superman has a very defensive approach to fighting while Invincible is more aggressive in his approach.
OMAC001: I was happy with how I handled Clark and Marks first encounter and their fight against the robots, Lois having to defend herself and Jimmy against Livewires henchmen was just something that came to me on the fly, she had been trained by her dad in case she found herself in situations like this but she never thought she'd have to use that training, let alone to kill a man, so it's shaken her up a bit. I actually haven't decided on how Cyborg becomes the way he is, the Reanimen would actually make more sense because we don't know when Darksied will show up in MAWS or anything about Motherboxes so it's kind of up in the air, they reference Vic briefly in season 2 but apparently in the MAWS timeline he's about 9-10 years old, so I aged him up a bit and he will definitely get his abilities sooner than they intend to give them to him in Cannon.
Billdean19:thank you, I'm glad people think the fight scenes are good. I never considered myself the best when it came to fight scenes so it's reassuring to see that people enjoy them.
Spencermalley935:Oh yes, you'll definitely start to see a lot more team ups with Mark and Clark as the story progresses.
Guest:thank you for the many suggestions, I'll definitely take them into consideration, especially the last two.
Guest:thank you for the suggestions, actually one of the things you suggested is what I have planned to happen, but I won't spoil which one.
Brandon Vortex:yeah, didn't like how those two were portrayed, so I just said, ok, that's how it was done in MAWS, now how would they be portrayed in Invincible? And through that line of thinking we got this version of the Brain and the formation of the brotherhood of evil. And you are absolutely correct that the Kryptonian Empire and Viltrum Empire are enemies in this series, this will be explained in more detail as the story progresses, but will turn into a whole new level when Zod and Thragg arrive on the scene. As for the Metallo suggestion it's definitely possible for him to come out like that, though this version of Metallo will be a bit bulkier than he was in TAS, Sinclair will definitely be involved in some way shape or form though.
Guest:poor Lois indeed, she's certainly shaken up after such an incident, with the dark and brutal shit that's gonna happen as the series progresses it's not going to get much better from here, fortunately she won't be the one suffering, not as much as some others at least. Mark is definitely lucky to have an ally like Clark on his side will definitely help the both of them get through the bullshit they'll soon have to endure.
Dante Redgrave1: I'm glad you're liking it so far.
Guest:this is a great analysis and great suggestions on your part, it will definitely be an amazing fight when Battle Beast shows up, considering he's arguably one of the strongest characters in the verse. I'm really hoping that MAWS introduces Lobo simply for the fact that I want to make an interaction between him and Battle Beast. Also the only reason I didn't kill the Guardians in the last chapter was because Invincible still needed to get his costume, with that out of the way however the Guardians time has run out.
HIKike:thank you, I intend to continue with it.
Guest:my Batman will likely be a mix of several variations of Batman, but I do like the tomorrow verse Batman, long Halloween was a good movie.
And that's all the reviews we have for now, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, be sure to favorite, follow, and leave a review, it could be about what you liked, what you didn't like, suggestions you have, things you'd like to see, things your looking forward to in this fic I want to see it all.
Until next time everybody.