Mark Grayson
A far-off explosion lit up a patch of the clear blue sky. Eve jumped to her feet, heart-to-heart over his ruined love-life cut short under the distant smoke cloud.
“...What is that?”
Mark simply… watched. Usually, his body would be on fire at the thought of being able to help. Just this once, would not helping be the better choice? Ozzy was around, right? His friend would do a hell of a lot more good than he ever could. Mark had been on the job at least a few months longer, but you wouldn’t believe it if you saw them in action. That guy lived and breathed heroism. Did he even want a life outside of the few times Mark dragged him out to have fun?
…On second thought, he’d take no personal life over a screwed-up personal life in a heartbeat.
“Mark?”
“I’ll tell you what ‘that’ is, Eve. Not our problem.”
“...I dunno. We should check in with Cecil.”
Mark shrugged. “I told you, I’m done with all that. And you came out here to get away from Rex and all the superhero bullshit, didn’t you? Like I said: not our problem.”
“Hold on, that’s not why I came out here.” Eve folded her arms, finally looking down from the explosion in the sky to glare at him. “First off, I came out here for a fresh start. Not because I broke up with Rex! Besides, that doesn’t mean ignoring the world when it needs me.”
“The world’ll probably be better off without me screwing it up.”
“Mark, I get you’re feeling shitty because Amber dumped you—”
“...It’s not just that,” he muttered.
“—but you’ll feel worse if you sit here and do nothing when you could’ve saved lives.”
Mark turned his gaze away from her angry green eyes.
She was right… but living was an exercise in futility these days. He peered guiltily at the water churning far below them with a sigh. He was always fucking up monumentally when it mattered the most. If it wasn’t the absolute train wreck that was his relationship with Amber, then it was something else. Rick wouldn’t be half-machine had he just taken his head out of his ass and helped William when he’d asked. Being the second strongest hero on the planet meant squat if it meant messing up every other time someone called. The power was one thing. Mark could train to become that strong. His dad said as much a billion different times!
…He just wished he could become half as good at balancing things, too. Then again, Mark Grayson was painfully average at everything pre-powers.
He watched Eve fly away despite swearing off the crime-fighting life but going anyway to save lives. Then there was him: Invincible, son of Omni-Man, sitting around because doing the right thing didn’t make him feel good anymore.
“God, I’m a fucking mess…”
He pushed himself off the cliff and rocketed into the open air. Eve was waiting for him, as it turned out, arms crossed. Pink light buzzed out of her soles like the fire of an afterburner to keep her afloat. But the worst by far was the smug grin on her face once she saw him coming. Mark pulled his mask over his face with a laugh.
“Finally! I really thought you weren’t coming.”
“I’ve brooded enough.”
“You think?” She elbowed him. “If you get any moodier, it won’t be long till you start monologuing at passing seagulls.”
“...I can see it now. The Tragedy of Invincible.”
Eve laughed, then blasted off in a flare of pink light. Mark caught up to her easily enough. This was nowhere near his top speed and, in reality, he could go much faster. Seeing there might be people in danger and all, she’d be offended if he spared her feelings, right?
“Um… Eve? I can go a lot faster, so I’ll scout ahead and get back to you.”
She looked back. “...That’s it? Sure. Why’d you look so nervous?”
“Right. I—nevermind. See you soon!”
He ripped through the air. The howling wind blasted all vagueness from his mind. Forestry blurred into a green wash as the world hurtled past him, threaded through with clear blue water. Mark slowed as he neared the destruction. The ground itself was gouged open, trenches carved through solid rock like some gigantic claw had overturned the earth. Now and then, pillars of dust would shoot to the sky, forcing him to reroute his path, but Mark followed the explosions to their source.
A massive, four-legged creature lashed at the ground. Bone-white spikes ran along the length of its back and crested its shoulders. Its elephantine feet crushed crops and solid earth alike as it reared up. Mark frowned at the tentacles returning to its jagged maw. There was someone trapped inside, wearing a familiar red and white costume…
“DAD!”
Mark folded his arms over his face and crashed into the creature hard. The air boomed. Tentacles lashed through the air as its front legs left the ground and the kaiju fell with an earth-shaking crash.
Mark dove after the red blur plummeting from its maw. His father hit his arms hard enough to drag them both towards the ground, but Mark twisted and ploughed two trenches through the muddy gold crop field.
“Dad!”
His father sagged against him for half a second. His eyes were unfocused, blood running from his nose and down into his moustache.
“...Dad, are you okay?”
His father blinked. “Mark?”
“Y-Yeah. It’s me. But call me Invincible! You’re the one always going on about keeping my two lives separate, right?”
Light returned to his father’s eyes. He pulled away and hovered under his own power.
“What are you doing here?”
“I dunno. Saving you?”
The creature rolled back onto its feet behind them. Its roar rattled through Mark’s bones.
“By the way,” Mark yelled over the noise. “What’s with that thing? Didn’t you beat it already?”
“There’s so much you don’t know, son. It was sent by Cecil.”
Mark made a face.
“...I’ll tell you about it later. For now—move!”
They split apart in the face of the kaiju’s oncoming charge.
One of its forelegs stamped down where they’d been. Disturbed earth erupted upwards in a wave. Mark flew through the dust and drove a fist into the joint, grinning when the leg buckled beneath his punch. His father hit it from the other side and the kaiju lurched between them. Mark shot beneath its chest and punched upwards. The blow lifted the monster clean off the ground. His father met it on the way up and hammered it back down. It struck the earth belly-first and, for a moment, Mark thought that might have done it.
Then its tentacles shot out. His father caught one in each hand and tore them apart in sprays of dark blood, but three more wrapped around his waist before he could dodge. The monster twisted its head and flung him like a pebble. Mark watched him disappear through a distant ridge in horror.
“Dad!”
Mark turned, ready to blast off before the world darkened a shade. He barely got his arms up before a tentacle whipped him out of the air. He smashed through a field, bounced once, then buried himself shoulder-deep in the side of… a hill, by the feel of it, anyway. Just when he thought it was over, the ground trembled faintly, growing more insistent by the second.
“Oh, come on…”
Mark ripped himself free. The creature bore down on him. Its jaw peeled open beneath the writhing mass of tentacles where rows of teeth were grinding together. He shot straight up, spinning out of the way of the kaiju’s snapping jaw, flipped in the air, and came down with both fists. The creature lurched slightly, swinging its head to wrap a tentacle around Mark’s ankle.
“F-Fuck!”
It whipped him into the ground three times. Mark’s ears were ringing, so out of it that the pain didn’t even register. The fourth impact didn’t come, though. Green light flashed across his vision and the pressure around his leg vanished. A curved green blade sliced through a tentacle reaching after them. The severed limb hit the ground and thrashed after caving in a barn roof.
“...Looks like I’ll be spending my weekend on a farm again.”
Mark tore his eyes away from the kaiju in agony down below.
“Ozzy?”
The green, slightly see-through blade still extended from his hand. He chuckled and shook his wrist. The light blurred, parting like a hand through smoke, and returned to the general glowing outline around his friend’s body.
“Are you okay, Mark?”
He blinked. “...Yeah. Mostly anyway. But my dad—”
“Use the power lines.”
“What?”
Ozzy pointed past him at a row of steel pylons stretched across the fields. Thick electrical cables sagged between them above another row of golden wheat.
“Get it tangled, then fry it. You’ll be fine.”
Mark shook his head. “I could really use your help, dude. Wait a sec, have you seen Eve? She should be here by now. And what about my—”
Ozzy vanished in a blinding green flash of light.
“—my dad.”
The kaiju roared spittle up at him.
“...Right. Power lines.”
He took off low to the ground. The creature followed, leaving a trail of craters into the earth. Its tentacles lashed after him, snapping trees in half whenever he changed direction. Mark flew beneath the first set of cables. The kaiju ploughed through the pylon and the cables snapped free in showers of sparks. Obviously not enough current to put the thing down, but good thing there were nothing but power lines out here.
“More for you, I guess.”
He banked sharply towards the next tower. A tentacle caught his side and sent him spinning. Mark hissed out in pain, but besides a nasty welt soon, he’d be fine. So, he corrected before he struck the ground, then flew directly at the creature. It charged at him even faster than before, mouth open wide and salivating, too.
“Come on…”
The tentacles spread apart.
Mark veered to the sky at the very last second. The kaiju plunged underneath him and smashed head-first into another pylon. The tower collapsed across its back, wrapping it in another layer of live cables. This time, visible electricity crawled across its skin. The creature convulsed, but remained standing.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
Mark grabbed the nearest cable and tore straight out of the earth. He swung the entire structure across the monster’s spine before it could rise, steering clear of the wires. They draped over its body, catching its legs or looping around the spikes running along its back. He wrapped both arms around the final tower connected to the one he’d just pulverised.
“...Sorry, whoever has to fix this.”
He flew straight up, dragging the cables taut around the creature. The lines snapped against its flesh. Blue-white light erupted across the field, and while the kaiju’s roaring was louder than its sizzling flesh, Mark could still smell it cooking. He covered his face as the entire grid discharged through the monster. The tentacles surrounding its mouth curled inwards, smoke rising from their tips. The kaiju’s body hit the earth and when the dust cleared it didn’t get up.
“…Thank fuck.”
Something thundered in the distance. Mark spun around. One was obviously his father. What about the other? Ozzy, maybe? He could just about see two figures hung above the ruined ridge and immediately started flying while squinting to see who they were. Mark’s breath caught.
“No way that’s The Immortal.”
But how? The Immortal was dead, right? And why was he so angry? He rushed at his father with a roar that Mark was surprised to even hear given how far out he was. Instead of pulling away, his father cocked his fist back, ready to meet him. Something green crashed into The Immortal from the side and the two disappeared in a burst of emerald light. When Mark opened his eyes, they were gone and his father drifted alone over the ruined ridge.
“Dad? What the hell’s happening?! And why was that monster attacking you? Didn’t you already beat that thing?”
His father looked past him, towards the unconscious kaiju.
“And what was that explosion in the sky? Why is the Immortal alive? Why did he attack you? Did Ozzy tell you where he’s taking him?”
There was something strange in his father’s expression that Mark had never seen there before.
“Dad?”
He drew in a slow breath.
“…Son. We need to talk.”