Chapter Text
Your neighborhood blurs into rich shades of green as you run in to the woods.
With deft hands, you pull up your phone and open your contacts to call for help.
As you open your contacts, you’re greeted with missed calls completely filling up your call log. The names of the callers are highlighted in bright red: Rudy, Unknown (Cecil, most likely), Debbie, your parents, Amber, William, Mark — It’s like everyone in your life has tried to call you within the last hour.
What the hell is going on?
You try dialing everyone back, but nobody picks up. With no other option, you search up the latest news.
You click on the first video to that pops up.
The crack in your screen makes the news anchor’s face look split in half as they begin speaking.
“This— is— break-ing news—- ,” the audio comes out clipped and distorted.
Impatience tugs at your already strained nerves. You hit your phone a couple of times hoping to get it working again.
“—- at least ten super-humans resembling the hero Invincible continue to cause mass destruction in major cities internationally. Originally, these variants of Invincible were believed aforementioned hero until conflicting reports revealed otherwise. As local and federal law enforcement try to combat these variants, the public is warned to stay hidden inside their homes and away from large cities. We’ll keep broadcasting news for as long as we can.”
Your heart sinks as you start to sweat even harder.
“Major cities” — your parents work in the city. William, Amber and Rick, they all attend to the same college in the next city over.
Thoughts of your teammates think about your team: Amanda, Rudy, Rex, Zandale — there’s a good chance that they’re all out in the field fighting these variants right now. Mark and Eve are probably doing the same, too.
And unless you can find them yourself, you’re on your own.
The cold realization of your situation hits you just as a familiar voice cuts in from above.
“Juniperrr! Where’d you go, dude?”
You don’t bother looking up. Instead, you dive headfirst into the underbrush.
Leaves fall on your head and back as you shuffle deeper in the bush, hoping you were quick enough to avoid being seen by whichever variant came looking for you. You press your hand to the ground and grow the more foliage around you to hide yourself under.
You lay completely still — the side of your face presses in to the dirt, and your hands come up to rest on either side of your head. Your breath comes out in an irregular rhythm as you try to listen for the variant.
You suddenly feel a strange sense of nostalgia.
When you and Mark were younger, you and him played in these woods with other kids from your neighborhood.
You always cheated, of course. Whenever you were about to be found by one of the other kids, you would use your powers to lead them away from you. The only person you would let find was Mark.
Hiding like this almost feels like a return to those happier times.
Almost.
A shadow passes over you, making your breath hitch. Every muscle in your body freezes, forcing you to go stark still. Seconds later, you hear something heavy land not far from where you’re hiding.
You hear the variant calls out to the open air.
“I know you’re around here somewhere. Come out, I just wanna talk!”
You gasp softly as a pair of boots appear in front of you. Clutching your phone, you will yourself to say as quiet as humanly possible.
The leaves covering you obscure most of your vision, but you can recognize that cerulean color from anywhere. What you don’t recognize is whose blood now coats them.
But you could hazard guess.
He takes a step forward, crushing brittle twigs under the weight of his foot.
“Look,” the variant’s voice is disturbingly cheerful. “I know things got a little intense at your place, but everything is cool now. So, come out from wherever you’re hiding. Let’s talk!”
Your terror mixes with angry disbelief at his words.
How stupid did he think you were?
You may not know what he wanted with you, but it sure as hell isn’t a friendly chat.
The perspiration from your sweat builds up and drips onto the dirt, creating a bit of mud that begins to stick to you. You don’t move to wipe off — you don’t want to risk the movement drawing the variant’s attention.
If it were literally anyone else, you would go out there and confront them head on. But you know better than to do something so stupid.
You’ve seen what kind of damage Mark can do, and the extent of damage it would take to bring him down.
You don’t possess that kind of power or durability. If you had some kind of help, then maybe. But as you are now, alone…
You swallow your pride and stay hidden, resolving to keep a vigilant eye on the boots of the man masquerading as your best friend.
You hear the goggle-less variant sigh wistfully.
“God, being here again really brings me back...” You see his feet spin. “Back then, when we played hide-and-seek, it felt like you actually wanted me to find you.”
A silence only occasionally broken by the sounds of nature follows.
The way he speaks makes it sound like his dimension isn’t much different from yours. You can’t help but wonder what happened there to make Mark like this. There’s a part of you that wants to ask why he’s like this, why he seems to take so much joy in hunting you down.
But you keep your curiosity to yourself.
The variant’s feet suddenly turn and shuffle towards you.
Every muscle in your body freezes. You stop breathing.
The variant abruptly stops walking after a taking a handful of steps in your direction. He now stands mere inches away from you.
You hear him let out an annoyed huff above you, like a pouting child about to throw a tantrum.
Without warning, he yells, making you flinch slightly, as his patience seems to finally give out. “Stop being such a pussy and come out here!”
You don’t care what he says, whether he tries to taunt, threaten or coax you in to the open — you don’t dare move a single goddamn muscle.
“We can play hide-and-seek or whatever, but I’ll find you eventually! And when I do, you’re not gonna like what happens next.”
You see his feet move again. He turn and walks away into the woods, the sound of his footsteps become distant, but the don’t disappear.
You wait until you think he’s a good distance away to let out a shaky breath.
Your head tilts down and you press your fists against your forehead as you try to go over your options.
You can’t hide forever, and even if you can, you don’t want to. The world is under attack, and there people out there who need a hero — who need you.
You inhale and exhale, slow and deep.
You just need to use your powers to your advantage, just like in the games you and Mark used to play as kids. But this time, you need to make sure the variant stays away.
The only way you can think to make that happen is to use your power.
You sigh internally to yourself.
You didn’t want to use it on any sentient life, especially so soon after you’ve learned it, but if you were forced to choose between you and the variant, then the choice is easy.
Besides, you don’t mean to kill him — you just need to injure severely enough to stop his pursuit of you.
When you glance away and spot a clearing nearby, an idea comes to you.
With newfound resolve, you reach over to touch a patch of grass with your hand, careful not to make any noise as you do. A warm, tingling sensation flows down your arm.
The soil exposed your hand opens up, allowing small, leafy bushes to rapidly grow and spread all around you. Flexible, sturdy roots emerge alongside them, their ends branch outwards like grasping fingers.
You set a timer on your phone for three minutes, and raise the volume the highest it can go.
The variant may still be close by, but you want to make sure he hears the alarm.
You hold your phone out, directing the roots to wrap themselves around it. As soon as your phone is secured in its hold, the roots pull it out of your hand.
The vines quickly, but very quietly, lift it up and carry it away toward the clearing. Under the cover of foliage, they snake between the stalks of the bushes, barely rustling the leaves as they go.
You breathe steadily.
Nothing has gone wrong. This will work — just relax.
When the roots arrive at the center of the clearing, their grip slowly goes limp. Your phone slips out of their hold and drops to the grass floor with a muted thump.
You breathe in.
You breathe out.
Carefully, the roots withdraw themselves toward you. They shrink down, returning to their original state as a patch of grass beside you.
You scan surroundings for any sign of the variant.
When you see the coast is clear, you slowly push yourself up on to your feet into a running start position.
You stare at your phone and wait.
And wait.
And wait…
The alarm goes off.
It blares in to the open air, obnoxiously drowning out the sounds of nature.
Anxiously, you continue to wait. Your fingers twitch with anticipation.
It isn’t long before you hear a rush of air from somewhere above the clearing and see the variant slowly descend from the sky.
His attention is trained on your phone as he lands.
He stares at your phone in confusion before squatting down and to pick it up. He looks at the screen and turns it over in his hand, as if examining he’s never seen a phone before.
He huffs, and with a bored look on his face, crushes it to pieces.
A root bursts from the ground and latches around the variant’s arm as the destroyed remains of your phone falls from his hand.
“Wha—?”
More roots emerge from the ground, binding him to the spot and bringing him to his knees.
With variant caught restrained, you dart out from your hiding spot, leaves break off the stems of the bushes with the forceful movement.
His eyes widen as you leap on to him and clamp your hands on either side of his face.
He squirms in your grip, trying desperately to rip his face out of your grasp, “Get off me!”
You glare in to his eyes without responding. Instead, you squeeze your lids shut.
Numbness crawls down from your chest, to your arms, to your palms, to your fingers.
The process happens noticeably quicker than before — but you don’t bother dwelling on the reason why that is.
The pads of your fingers press in to the variant’s exposed skin as warmth replaces the numbness in your hands.
“—hha… ahH—AAAAHHHHHH!”
His scream is loud and visceral. You squeeze your eyes tighter and try to shut them out — they sound too much like Mark’s.
Your fingers press harder in to the variant’s face, hoping to that doing so will speed up the process of draining his energy. But your concentration is abruptly broken by the very distinct sound of something snapping — the noise sounding similar to rope being torn.
Your eyes snap open.
You don’t have enough time to react as the variant’s arm rips free from his restraints and seizes your wrist.
You feel yourself go weightless as the variant pulls you off of him. Air rushes past you as he flings you across the clearing like a rag doll.
You grunt in pain as your shoulder collides with the ground. You roll a few times before your back slams against the trunk of a tree.
Wincing from the dully throbbing in your back, you look up at the variant.
He’s still tangled up in the vines, but his arm is free. His cheeks are red and slightly swollen — it’s almost as if the sides of his face were sunburned.
He returns your gaze, staring back at you with an expression that seems equal parts enraged and excited.
“You… are really going to regret doing that.”
A cold shiver runs down your back, making you hastily push yourself up to your feet.
Without a second thought you bolt in to the thicket nearest to you.
“Motherfu—! Hey!”
The variant angrily yells at your back as you disappear into the trees, but you don’t stop to look at him again.
You sprint through more bushes, barreling through tall grass you know is populated with various species of insects. The vegetation in your path flinch before beginning to move.
Under your control, trees and tall shrubs bend out of your way at an unnatural angle.
A crackling sound echoes all around you as branches interlock with each other, creating a thick wall of greenery that blocks off the path behind as you run.
To throw the variant off your trail, make a hard turn into a denser collection of trees. The canopy is thicker here, which will make it much harder for the variant to see you from the skies.
If you take a shortcut that only you know about, the variant might not be able to find you in time before you reach the city.
******
Minutes drag on like hours as you run.
You not sure how long it’s been exactly, but you start to think you’ve lost the variant. He has to have gotten free by now, yet you haven’t see or heard any sign of him.
You pulled from your thoughts when you hear the rustling of leaves behind.
You turn your head to look over your shoulder.
There’s human-shaped shadow on the ground, and it’s following you.
Your heart pounds in your chest — the variant found you.
Shit!
The shadow begins to move faster you, it’s nearly on your heels now. But you refuse to give up without a fight.
You quicken your pace too, zigzagging through trees in the hopes that it’ll make targeting you harder. It feels like your heart is about to burst out of your chest with how fast it’s beating, but you ignore it.
You heave from the strain as you push your body to move faster. Your attention is strictly focused ahead, all that matters in this moment is moving forward.
The city was so close — a bit further and you’ll be at a hiking trail that leads directly to it.
It’s just a bit further, you’re almost—
A white blur breaks through the canopy. It drops in front of you, its landing creates a crater around it.
Your whole body freezes up, your heel dig in to the soft earth.
The sudden stop makes you to lurch forward, causing droplets of sweat to launch off your face. You stumble before quickly regaining your balance.
Blocking your path is the variant in the white costume — and he’s hurt.
You take in his disheveled appearance.
A nasty bruise sits on his cheek, fat and purple. His upper lip has been split in the corner, and his the bridge of his nose is swollen. You can see some traces of dried blood surrounding his nostrils.
If his injuries hurt him at all, he doesn’t let it show. His face remains perfectly neutral as he stands before you.
Just like at your place, he doesn’t speak first.
You suck in a breath, “Want do you want?”
“I want to bring you to back to my dimension,” he replies calmly, like it was an entirely normal thing to say.
“Why?” You ask tersely.
There’s a beat before the variant responds.
“As you most likely already know,” he starts slowly, “I am a Viltrumite. And the planet I come from, Viltrum, demands that every Viltrumite find a mate and breed — no exceptions. I’m unsure about your reproductive capabilities, but I would want to have you as a mate.”
You stare at him blankly, his words leaving you dumbfounded.
“… You’re destroying my world because you want to sleep with me?”
The Viltrumite variant’s eyes widen at your words. He furrows his brow and glances away awkwardly, and subtle shade of red settle on his cheeks.
If the context wasn’t so horrific you would’ve thought his reaction was a bit cute.
“That is not the reason I’m here—“
“Then why?” You angrily bite out. “What the hell do you want from me? Why are you doing this?”
The variant briefly shuts his eyes.
“… In my dimension, we grew up together on Earth. You were the only human I ever truly considered to be worth my time. You were my best friend and I… loved you.”
He pauses for a moment, glancing up at you, and then continues.
“When my father and I took over Earth, I wanted you to be my mate. You would’ve be an asset to the expansion of the empire. But when more Viltrumites came to colonize the Earth, you and other heroes resisted us.”
You scoff in disbelief. “Of course, I did. I would never join you.”
The variant quietly disregards your words as he continues to speak.
“I tried to talk you down. I told you to just surrender, that fighting would only get you killed. But you refused to listen. You and Teen Team formed a rebellion against us,” he spits the words at you like they were poison.
He casts his gaze downward and glares at the ground.
“Your resistance lasted a long time. You even managed to kill a few Viltrumites, but that came at the cost of leaving the majority of Earth’s continental landmasses uninhabitable. Eventually… as I told you would happen, you lost. And you, as well as many other surviving heroes, were captured and then summarily executed.”
He looks up again, fully meeting your eye before he takes a step closer to you. You instinctively tense up.
“I came to this dimension to conquer another Earth for the empire, to make up for the devastation caused by you and your rebellion. And to bring you back with me.”
You take a step away from him. “Why me?”
“You possessed great strength and potential. There was no one else who I cared to take for a mate but you.”
You clench your hands in to tight fists.
“And if I say no?”
The variant’s brows dip down, his face hardens.
“You can’t — I won’t let you do something so foolish again.”
You glower at the variant, the corner of your mouth twitches as you restrain yourself from hurling every kind of insult at the man in front of you.
You open your mouth to rebuff him, to tell him that you would rather die than join his genocidal alien empire, but a voice behind interrupts you.
“Dude. You’re still here?”
Your head whips around.
The variant without goggle lens hovers a few meters away. His hands rest on hips and his elbow bend outward as he chuckles.
His attention is directed at the other variant.
“I thought the beating I gave you would get the message across.”
“You caught me off guard,” you hear the Viltrumite variant hiss. “You won’t be so lucky this time.”
As the variants stare down each other, you look between them. Sensing that they’re going to fight again, you shift a foot to the side, away from both of them. An urge to run overcomes you.
The variant without goggles takes notice of your sudden movement. His narrowed eyes flit to you. As his hands leave his hips, he rolls his eyes, frowning.
He seems mildly annoyed when he returns his attention to the other variant.
“Let’s speed this up.”
The variant without goggles suddenly flies forward, striking the Viltrumite variant, but Viltrumite variant is ready this time. He manages to block the punch with his forearms just as it’s delivered.
Still, the blow sends him flying back through trees, leaving a path of destruction in his wake.
“All that bravado for what?” The variant mutters to himself, he turns his attention to you again. His lips pull themselves into an unfriendly smile.
You lower your arms to your sides as you hold his gaze. Your palms angle themselves behind you, your finger reach outwards.
You take a step back.
He glances down at your feet and laughs, his grin widening. He takes a step forward.
You take another step back — your palms tingle.
The variant slowly follows you, like a predator cornering its prey.
His voice is dangerously low when he speaks. “I told you would regret, didn’t I?“
Your back presses up against the hard trunk a tree. Your nails into the groves of its bark, its hard edges pressed in to the sensitive skin under your nails.
You can feel its energy flow under your touch. It familiar and grounding — comforting, even.
Before the variant can come closer, vines and roots shoot forward from all directions, binding the goggle-less Invincible where he stands like before.
But this time, they raise him up, tightening their hold and crushing down on him ruthlessly — squeezing him until he yells out in pain.
You need to try using your power again while you have him restrained.
Without warning, his pained groans morph into wild laughter.
It’s maniacal and distinctly lacking the warmth that you’ve grown so accustomed to hearing. It sounds so unlike Mark that it only further confirms that this person is not him.
The variant tries to shrug off his bindings, he squirms in their hold, but they stubbornly stay intact.
Then struggles even more, even harder, and each of his movements causes a root to snap in half.
You move to replace them, but the variant breaks them just as soon as they’re replaced. Time feels like it lags behind before he tears an arm free, and using it to rip the rest of the wines away from his body.
The roots that previously restrained him drops to the ground, shredded.
He cracks his neck, staring you down with something akin to aroused excitement.
“My turn.”
He cuts through the air, darting towards you. He cocks a fist back, grinning ear to ear with unconfined glee.
Time seems to slow down.
You don’t have enough time to grow anything that will stop him before he’s right on top of you.
It’s now or never.
A sensation of numbness trickles down your arm, and collects in your palm. You ready yourself to dodge his first attack and touch his side.
Sweat drips down your brow, falling onto your eyelashes.
You breathe in, readying yourself.
Please work.
The variant draws even closer, time starts to speed up again.
Please—
Your thoughts are cut off as a blur of white bursts through the some hedges nearby. It slams into the side of the variant, causing him yell in a mix of pain and surprise as it knocks him to the ground.
The variant in white glares up at you as he throttles the Invincible with no goggles. Bright red blood pours from his nose as yells at you through clenched teeth.
“GO.”
You step back, hesitant. There’s a part of you that worries about what might happen to him if you leave him alone with the other variant.
The variant with no goggles thrashes under the other variant’s grip. Dirt and grass are kicked up by his struggle as he screams in frustration.
He yells at you again, more forcefully this time.
“GO!”
You come to your senses then, making a beeline toward the city using the mental map in your head.
This specific part of the woods is more than familiar to you, so you know exactly where you’re going. You can use the terrain to aid your escape, or fight back if the variants come after you again.
Blurry shades of green rush by you as you sprint away into the forest. Wildflowers and tall grass graze your ankles as you go.
The sounds of destruction reverberates through the air from the variants’ fight. Birds burst from the leaves above you, and small animals scurry out of the underbrush to run away as the ground shakes.
You ignore it all — and you don’t stop running.