Chapter Text
Season 1:
William:
William’s car pulled up outside his house. The sky was dark now. He turned the key, and the engine cut off, but William didn’t move. He sat frozen in his seat, feeling numb and small.
He couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had gone down in the last couple of hours.
He couldn’t stop thinking about Mark and Omni Man.
Despite feeling frozen, William reached for his phone. The battery was on twenty two percent. He’d been so focused on the broad cast that he barely noticed the low percentage.
Not that anyone could blame him.
He pulled up the news broadcast again.
Nothing new about Omni Man. Nothing new about Invincible. Just the Guardians, Atom Eve and several more superheroes in the last hour helping civilians in the city.
William blackened the screen.
He didn’t want to keep seeing all the casualties. It was horrible enough to know that thousands were dead or injured but on top of that it was done by a man William had known half of his childhood.
Oh god!
It was done by a man he had once considered hot.
It was done by a man who could’ve murdered him today.
William felt a shiver run through his body as he looked up at the dent in the roof of his car that had been delivered by Mr Grayson only a mere few hours ago before he’d gone on a homicidal rampage that included beating the living shit out of Mark.
William wondered for a split second what had stopped the man from making him one of the many casualties of the day, but he shook his head to rid himself of the thought.
There was no point in dwindling on the what ifs.
He was alive right now and that was more than he could say for some people.
He just prayed to God that Mark wasn’t in that category. It had been hours since the camera crews lost sight of him and Omni Man.
William was terrified.
If they weren’t flying in the skies anymore, did that mean that Mark was...... No!
William couldn’t afford to think like that. It was Mark. He was Invincible.
Sure, he’d been beaten up quite a few times, but he always bounced back.
So, what if it was his dad beating him up, who was literally the strongest being on the planet and had ripped the Immortal in half like he was a piece of paper?
What was his point again?
Mark!
The point was, Mark always got back up.
He had to believe his best friend was alive. He had to have faith.
Still, he kept looking at his phone as though if he stared at it hard enough, it would tell him the exact location of Marks whereabouts and his vital signs.
Ughh! The man didn’t even have a phone so he could call him.
He didn’t think Mrs Grayson would be at home after her husband nearly attempted to murder their son in front of the whole wide world.
Maybe he could call Eve? He was last with her before it all happened. Maybe she would know more than the news crew? Did Eve know about Mark’s secret identity? She was the one who told them about Mark getting hit by the bus which obviously wasn’t really a bus, but did that mean she knew who Mark really was? What if she didn’t and he accidently revealed Mark’s secret?
Ughhhh!
This was so frustrating. He just wanted to know if Mark was ok. He had already potentially lost Rick, he couldn’t handle losing Mark as well.
Maybe he would just chance it and call her.
Wait! He didn’t have Eve’s number.... but Amber did.
He unlocked his phone and went to his contacts finding Ambers number, but his finger hovered over the call button.
Amber didn’t know about.... wait! Yes she did. She did know about Marks identity because Mark had followed her out of the car and had and had gone up to her room and revealed it to her. Though that didn’t fix shit for Mark, but she knew and had known for weeks apparently. Which meant he could call her but that didn’t tell him if Eve knew and ex-boyfriend or not, she probably wouldn’t want his best friend calling her, to call another girl to find out if he was alive or not.
Ugh! Back at square one.
His screen dimmed and was about to go black, but a notification popped up.
His heart raced for just a second before disappointment settled in.
It was just a text from his mom.
‘Hi sweetie. You were meant to be home hours ago. Everything ok? Have you seen the news? Come home asap. Your aunt and cousins are here at the house. Thankfully they weren’t too close to the chaos in the city, but I wanted them here for a few days.’
William looked at the text and sighed.
His aunty Kathy was a nightmare as were her gremlin kids, but he was glad they were alive. It didn’t surprise him that his mother would invite them over.
He sighed again. He’d inquire about Mark tomorrow. His mother and aunt would be wired all night, and he didn’t have the energy to deal with that right now. He felt so drained. He just needed some sleep and then he could fret again.
He unfastened his seat belt and opened his car door. Both his parent's cars were in the driveway, and he saw aunty Kathys across the road. He looked at the house.
The living room lights were on. Most of the houses on the street were on in fact. The neighbourhood was eerie quiet and not a single person was on the road.
He wasn’t surprised. Everyone was probably watching the news. Regardless that the damage had been done to the main city of Chicago, he’d seen the chaos across the suburbs and outskirts of people trying to flee home.
Thats how terrified everyone was.
He closed his car door, but his attention was caught on the dent. He hadn’t seen it from the outside. In the streetlight he could see it was the shape of a handprint.
How the hell did he even fix that?
He sighed again.
William took slow steps towards his home. He didn’t want to hear more details about the city chaos which he knew that’s all his mother and aunt would be talking about. His dad would be watching the news like a hawk.
His cousins better not be going through his shit.
He was two steps away from the door when he sensed something behind him but before he could even turn there was a hand on his mouth and suddenly William was being yanked back.
He tried to struggle against his assailant as another pair of hands lifted him off his feet. William tried to kick out he really did but the hands gripping him had iron grips.
His screams were muffled.
He looked at the assailant who had his feet with wide eyes as he recognised the giant red eye.
Oh God!
William huffed and puffed. He tried to swing. He tried to bite but it was no use especially when he felt a sharp prick in the side of his neck and then a pressure and finally drowsiness as his vision went blurry.
The last thing he saw before blacking out was the eerie glow of a green circle which suspiciously looked like a portal.
Amber:
Amber was scouring the internet. She had every social media page open, looking for any sign of Mark.
It was hard though. With the amount of tags that included the name Invincible and Omni Man, actually trying to find a post with actual news and not just reactions, was hard.
The news had lost them ages ago and was reporting on the devastation of Chicago now.
Amber felt her heart cry for the people. So many innocents lost because of a man who swore to protect the planet.
How could he do this?
He was Omni Man, one of the greatest superheroes in the world.
Was he under some kind of mind control?
Surely that had to be the only reason he would kill the Immortal, kill innocent people and hurt Mark.
Mark!
Where was he? Was he ok? Was he ali.... don't finish that question.
Mark was fine. He was out there somewhere. Probably in a lot of pain but he was out there.
Oh Mark!
Only a few hours ago she’d been so mad at him and now that all felt pointless. She just wanted to see him. Make sure he was ok. Tell him that everything would be ok.
Would it?
He was fighting Omni Man. He was fighting his own dad if what some of the posts on social media were saying was true. That Omni Man was Invincibles father. Now that she fought about it. Mr Grayson did look awfully similar to Omni Man.
Oh God!
She came off Instagram and went onto Twitter.
It was roughly the same.
A bunch of tweets relaying the same stuff.
Loads of videos and photos.
Everyone was confused. So many people were shocked. Some people were spouting theories. Loads were rooting for Invincible, the odd few were rooting for Omni Man.
Amber rolled her eyes.
Official accounts were reporting the body count and damage done to the city. The president was getting ready to make an official statement in the morning. The Guardians were rescuing civilians.
No one had seen Omni Man or Invincible in hours.
Where was he?
“Come on Mark, where are you?” Amber said aloud to herself.
There was a sudden knock at her door.
“I’m busy!” Amber called out.
“Honey are you ok?” Came her mother's voice through the door.
“Yeah, I’m fine mom.” Called Amber not even sparing a glance at the door.
“Your grandfathers feeling tired so I’m gonna help him go to bed and then do the same. God knows what’s in store at work tomorrow with everything that's happened. I know you’re probably immersed in the news yourself right now, but you didn’t eat earlier so I’ve left some dinner on the stove. Make sure you have something before settling down for the night honey.” Her mother said through the door.
“I will mom. Night!” Replied Amber, her eyes locked on the screen.
She heard her mother shuffle down the hallway and Amber let out a sigh. She'd been in her room for hours watching the news and searching the internet.
Food was the last thing on her mind.
All she wanted was to find Mark but nothing substantial was coming up which was making her stressed.
She was close to throwing her laptop.
Should she try and call someone? Like whom?
Would William know where Mark was? He was the last one with him. No that was stupid he didn’t know about Marks identity, or did he?
She had no idea. It was rather obvious that he was Invincible especially with the whole Upstate incident, but Rick and William didn’t seem to make any connection. Probably because she made a big deal about Mark.
It was out of anger because he refused to stop lying.
God, to think that he had only told her the truth only hours ago.
Would things have gone different today, if she hadn’t been so angry and told him to leave? Would he still be here, away from Omni Man and safe? Would thousands have not been killed today if she had just given him one more chance?
Amber felt her head slump in her hands, and she let out a small guttural cry.
That was arguably the worst what if scenario to put on herself, but she didn’t have anyone else to blame.
She took a deep breath.
No that was stupid.
Whatever was going on with Omni Man, was his own thing. That had nothing to do with her and judging by how he was acting today, something told her that he would’ve done what he did or something akin to it regardless of if Mark had been with her.
She looked at the screen again.
#Invincible
Invincible. Why did Mark have to be Invincible?
Why couldn’t she have found a comic book geek willing to take a beating for her, who was a normal boy and could actually be there for their relationship?
No, she couldn’t have that.
Most girls only had to be worried about their boyfriend cheating or their boyfriends not being committed enough or something.
Not her though.
No, she was the ex-girlfriend of what... the second most powerful superhero in the world and she had to be worried if he had gotten his head split in or not.
Ex-girlfriend.
God, the thought made her insides curl.
She didn’t want to be the ex-girlfriend.
She wanted to be with Mark, and she wanted to know he was safe. She wanted to have a relationship with him because she liked him and because his stupid adorable face made her happy.
But if he was somewhere out there and safe, how could they even rekindle their relationship?
Six months together and he had only told her the truth because he felt forced too instead of trusting her and even if she got past those feelings of him lying to her and not being the present in their relationship, that would be nothing compared to what he was going through now.
His father made him kill people today.
His father killed people in front of him.
His father hurt him in front of millions.
Pushing all that aside, there was also the lifestyle that made him barely present for their relationship to begin with. Knowing the truth was one thing but how could they really have a relationship when she wasn’t a part of that lifestyle?
Sure, she helped people, but he actually saved lives and fought bad guys.
She wasn’t remotely mad about that, but two people had to make a relationship work and she couldn’t come first over the world.
That was out of the question.
She wouldn’t ask that of Mark but then what would be the point of them being together?
She would never fit in his world properly. He would never fit in hers and God only knew how this situation with his dad would affect him mentally and emotionally.
Rekindling their relationship may be the worst thing for him right about now or maybe it would be the best thing? A distraction.
Ughhh!
She didn’t know what to think right now.
She looked at the screen again and refreshed the page.
The trending page was up.
#Omni Man
#Invincible
#Chicago
#Omni Man Vs Invincible
#Omni Man Vs The Immortal
#Guardians of the Globe
#Pray for Chicago
#Evil Omni Man
#Where’s Invincible?
Amber gritted her teeth and slammed her laptop shut.
Why did everything have to be so complicated?
Amber lifted her arm and pulled the scrunchie from her hair, letting it fall loose at her shoulders and ran a hand through it, barely resisting the temptation to grab a chunk and rip it out.
She put her laptop on charge and flipped off her bedroom light before plopping down on the bed.
She watched her ceiling for maybe five minutes straight, annoyed she wasn’t moving to go down to the kitchen and eat like her mother requested but she couldn’t find the energy to do so.
Her thoughts were plastered on Mark and a relationship that was doomed.
Yet she still wanted to try. She wanted to find him, hold him in her arms and protect him from every single bad guy that existed.
She turned on her side and closed her eyes.
Searching hadn’t done anything for her today, so she’d try tomorrow and hopefully she’d have some answers about Mark.
She'd call William first thing and see if he knew anything.
With that thought she tried to settle herself.
She laid still for minutes and finally felt herself drifting when light suddenly penetrated her closed eye lids.
She scrunched them tighter assuming her mother had walked in her room.
She decided to stay still, so her mom didn’t try and force her to go eat but the light was disturbing her, so she peaked one eye open to see what her mother was doing.
To Ambers surprise, her one eye noted something strange, and it took her brain far too long to register that something was wrong.
Her bedroom light was still off. She was very much still in darkness yet there was a bright light inside her room that on far wall was emitting a green glow.
Amber thought for a second she had left her laptop open, but she remembered slamming it shut, so the light couldn’t be from the laptop.
Amber suddenly felt her heart racing as she felt a sudden shiver down her spine. She was not alone in her bedroom, and she got the impression her mother was not with her.
Amber pretended to shift like she was still asleep and pushed herself right to the edge of the bed, letting her arm fall limp where her baseball bat sat by her bedside desk.
Todd had once snuck into her room through her window after getting drunk last summer. Although she realised it was just him, she had kept the bat in her room since.
Amber could sense it now.
Someone or something in her room.
Maybe it was Mark?
She reached for the bat regardless and then sprung from the bed, hoping to surprise whoever was in her room enough for her escape if she needed too.
However, as Amber looked at the culprits in question the bat fell from her hands as shock and horror took over her system.
Oh God!
Amber froze for only a moment before she bolted for her door.
It was a futile effort. They were faster and stronger. She didn’t even have a chance to scream before a she felt a needle prick her and a moment later, she was passing out.
The last thought on her mind was praying Mark would rescue her.
0000000
Mark:
They were driven home by three of the GDA soldiers. No one spoke. The silence was almost unbearable, but Mark couldn’t bear to break it.
What could even be said?
‘Hey mom, sorry I didn’t kick dad's ass and thousands of people died! Sorry you know that he called you a pet! Sorry I got my powers, and he became a psychopath.’
Yeah, that conversation would go over well.
Mark rested his head against the window.
His father was a murderer, a conqueror and a liar.
He lied to him his entire life and nearly killed him.
Would he have done it?
Mark pressed his head further into the glass.
Don't think like that!
He heard the small splinter crack start to form and pulled his head back.
Shit!
He looked over at the two soldiers sitting opposite them. Neither seemed to notice it.
He looked away and leaned his head backwards instead.
The drive was a long one. Their second day of it too.
His mother had not wanted to be flown and the GDA’s teleporter was still being repaired so it was a drive from Virgina back to Chicago. They had stopped off at a motel and it was one of the most awkward experiences of his life, yet he had no energy to break it nor did his mother.
They were both too suffocated in their own worlds to really talk.
Five and a half hours later.
They were home. It sounded too still. It smelt too clean. It felt too large and empty. His mother decided she was gonna lay down.
He found out a few minutes later that was code for drown in her sorrows.
He didn’t blame her.
He wasn’t expecting company when the doorbell rang. He didn’t want it either, so when Amber came rushing in his arms, it surprised him how welcoming her touch was.
He didn’t expect to be happy to see William and Eve either.
He didn’t think it was a feeling he could ever experience again but there it was bubbling inside his chest.
Maybe he could get through whatever came next.
Season 3:
Masked Mark:
“ANGSTROMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU’RE DEADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Screamed his black and yellow variant.
Mark didn’t even look at him. He kept his eyes focused on his surroundings.
Nothing but sand, sand hills, and scrap for miles to see.
“Ughhhh! He can’t hear you idiot!” Came the reply from behind him. The distinctive high pitch voice of his Mohawk variant.
There was silence for a moment; shock he assumed but then he heard the woosh behind him.
Mark turned to see the Bumblebee variant had gone for Mohawk.
Mohawk blocked a jab to the face but went hurtling back from the force. Bumblebee propelled forward and this time Mohawk was ready for it and dodged him with an excellent show of speed and managed to punch Bumblebee in the back of his head.
“Wooooo! Let’s go!” Cried the variant without any goggles, chuckling at the chaos.
“Imbeciles even my slaves behave better than this!” Snapped the variant with the Viltrumite logo on his suit, folding his arms.
Wow!
Bumblebee pivoted grabbing onto Mohawks leg and slamming him to the sand, with alarming force. He then flew down, but Mohawk kicked out his leg straight into bumblebee's chest.
Mohawk was strong just like every other Mark here but the difference in strength was rather evident as Mohawks kick only sent Bumblebee hurtling upwards a little.
Still, the man was not willing to go down without a fight and flew up to meet Bumblebee who began to meet him in the middle. However, before they could clash, his Omni variant and his maskless variant had grabbed onto the two, Omni pulling onto Bumblebee and Maskless pulling onto Mohawk.
Maskless was not necessarily struggling but Mohawk was determined to continue this fight as was Bumblebee.
Mark decided to join in pulling Mohawk back and thankfully his Viltrum counterpart did the same with Bumblebee.
The combined pairs were enough to calm the two volatile Marks down.
“Are you both finished?” Asked the soft but authoritative voice of Omni Mark.
“Do you see his head ripped off his neck?” Answered Bumblebee in a very controlled but chilling manner as though he weren’t just acting like a rabid dog moments ago.
It made Mark severely uncomfortable. There was something altogether disturbing about Bumblebee Mark.
Mohawk who wasn’t any better, didn’t seem to care about the direct threat however and instead formed a big shit eating grin on his face.
“Awwwww! Did I make you upset with me Lemon cake? I didn’t mean too. How bout I give ya a big fat smooch and we hug it out.” He Said in that agitating voice of his.
Mark had to admit, the man was brave. Insane but brave.
Bumblebee just stared at him, his face a straight line but behind those Goggles, Mark knew darkness was lurking in those eyes.
Before any response could come from him though another Mark spoke.
This one had a blue veil on his face and had blood drenched across his suit like the maskless variant.
Mark almost jolted at the twang in this Marks voice, it surprisingly by far was the most distinctive voice amongst them.
“Well now that you losers are done with your pissing contest, does anyone wanna tell me how the fuck we’re gonna get out of this shithole dimension?” He snapped.
There was silence amongst them for a moment.
Then another Mark broke it.
“Isn’t it obvious cowboy? Angstrom doesn’t want us to get out of this shithole dimension.” Said their burnt variant, another one with a distinctive voice, though Mark got the heavy impression that it wasn’t down to his vernacular surroundings.
Burnt Mark wasn’t looking at any of them. His back was towards them all as he floated in the air looking out towards the horizon which very much like his own line of vision was nothing but sand and scrap.
He felt Mohawk shift behind him.
“Way to be a Debbie downer man. Hah! Debbie downer. Get it? Cause that's what happened to your mommy.” Said Mohawk mockingly whilst elbowing him in the ribs.
Mark felt a heat surge through his body.
As if his dead mother was anything funny to joke about.
Mark felt his fist clench.
No Goggles chuckled.
“Personally, mama’s boy, I wouldn’t have that if I were...... you .” He said stirringly with an irritating comical wink to add.
Mohawk laughed harder.
Mark felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t.”
It was Maskless with his soft almost timid voice.
“Oh come on man! You’re gonna take that? Kick his ass!” Yelled no Goggles.
“Enough!” Called out Omni Mark, who barely had to raise his voice, yet they all heard the authority in it, and it disturbingly reminded him of his father.
He hated that.
Omni Mark let out a sigh and pinched his nose.
“I get that we’re all from different universes with different rules and different attitudes.” He gave a pointed look at Mohawk and No Goggles then he continued.
“But right now we’re all in the same predicament and more importantly we’re all the same person. Which means we need to all be on the same side if we’re going to figure out a way to get out of this dimension. In fighting and provocation will do nothing to help us because Mark over there is right. Angstrom has sent us to some desert dimension and refused to uphold his end of the deals he made with us. The chances of him coming back for us are slim. Not impossible but unlikely. So, we need to work together. Now frankly I don’t like most of you. I think half of you are immature but none of us need to be best friends. We just need to not be enemies when we all have a common one. We do that and the next steps to figuring out what to do can go a lot smoother and we can all get home or anywhere else a lot quicker without some of us losing our heads.”
There was silence again before stripe boy broke it.
“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk dad ! But how exactly do we all work together if none of us have the power to dimension travel unless one of you assholes can all of a sudden shit portals?”
“Oh, you didn’t know? I do that every winter dude, shame the suns beating down right now.” Replies Mohawk in a nonchalant manner.
No Goggles snorted and stripe boy growled.
“Theres that silly provocation I was referring too. If any of you Marks would like to use your heads, you’ll notice all around us is sand. Given that we all have alien physiologies, you could try but I don’t think eating sand is gonna do us any good which means we need to find a source of food and water. Whether that’s on this planet or another one or through other means, we need to work together to ensure we don’t die here.” Replied Omni Mark, his tone never wavering.
“That sounds like a plan and all but like you said, everything is sand. How are we even gonna be able to tell anything apart to even tell where to find food. Navigation was never my strongest suit, which means I’m willing to bet it’s not several of you guy’s either.” Said Mark looking around the group.
“We’ll have to improvise. We all must have different strengths and weaknesses. Some of us are faster, some of us are stronger, some of us are smarter. We use those strengths to advantages. We can probably use all this metal scrap to help us out with navigation. Make signs and what not. No mark by himself either. We don’t know if anything is out there and strength in numbers can’t hurt. In the meantime, we should wait here for a few hours maybe a day at max. If there's a slim chance that Angstrom comes back for us, we should all stay in one spot, however I want to survey the planet off world and see what we’re dealing with. Mark, would you accompany me please.” Finished Omni Mark looking at burnt Mark who’d finally turned towards the group.
There was the slightest scrunch in his face, but he nodded his head and complied, shooting up in the air.
Omni Mark watched him for a second before looking at the rest of them.
“We’ll be back. Try not to kill each other whilst we’re gone.” He said before shooting up after Burnt Mark.
They all watched them for a moment before the silence was broken yet again.
“Ok but who the hell made him in charge?” Cried Out Mohawk.
“That goddamn suit has fried his brains into thinking he can rule over me.” Spat stripe boy.
“And you listened like a good little Mark.” Replied No Goggles mockingly.
Mohawk cackled at this.
“Choose your next words wisely.” Threatened Stripe boy, a vein at his temple popping through his mask.
“I can’t decide who’s more up their own ass. You or Omni twat up there.” Chimed veiled Mark to stripe boy.
“Ughhhh! Will guys give it a rest please. Omni Mark is right. We need to stick together if we’re going to get out of here alive.” Called out Maskless Mark from beside him.
Mark knew he was right, but as he looked over at Bumblebee and Viltrum Mark, faces, predatory and stoic and then over at Mohawk, Veil and No Goggles who barely even gave the slightest hint of caring, Mark was sure being stuck with these variants wasn’t going to pan out for their survival at tall.