(Invincible) Invincible Bond: Chapter 18 - What's Next

Chapter 18 - What's Next

Summary: A quiet moment reveals that the battle may be over, but the real questions are just beginning.

Mark could just stare at the broken form of his dad, lying unconscious in the center of the crater. His suit torn, and his face bloody.

He was still in shock that he and Eve could actually manage to defeat Omni-Man. After seeing his dad easily disposing of the Immortal, Mark knew his chances against his dad alone were very bad.

Still, he had to hold him back for long enough; as long as it would save someone's life, it would be worth any pain he had to endure.

He didn't believe his dad would actually kill him; that was until he tried to crash his head through Chicago city. That was the moment Mark realized that if he wouldn't join his father or defeat him, then he would die.

When he saw his father's guard drop for a moment, Mark hoped they would be able to actually end it on relatively peaceful terms, but that hope was crushed quickly as his father attacked them.

Mark was still surprised their tactics worked so well. Yes, his eye was stinging, one of his ribs was probably broken, and his right fist was bleeding from repeatedly punching Omni-Man with his full force.

He felt Eve's hand catching his own, and it forced his gaze from his father's form to hers. Those green pools were filled with sympathy and pride, and it went a long way to ease Mark's aching heart.

She gave him a small smile and opened her mouth to say something when the familiar sound of an approaching helicopter filled the air.

They turned to see a slick black helicopter slowly descending behind them. Just before it touched the ground, its door slid open, and Cecil stepped out, landing carefully on the ground.

Cecil walked right past them. He carefully slid down the wall of the crater until he stood above the figure of the former hero. He crouched right next to his head and said with a small, smug smile, "Not so high and mighty now, are you, bigshot?"

The GDA director attached a bracelet to Omni-Man's wrist before standing back up and taking a step backward. He raised his arm and pushed a button on his watch. A moment and a blue flash of light later, Omni-Man was gone, only leaving the imprint of his curled-up form on the ground.

Cecil looked up from the crater straight at them and said calmly, "A little help here, please."

Eve rolled her eyes at the old man and stretched out her arm, creating a pink platform underneath him and slowly raising him back to their level.

Once his feet were back on the ground, he gave her a nod of gratitude. Eve just sighed and accepted it. It's not like she expected much more, knowing this man as well as she did.

Cecil took a moment to look around the mountain range they were standing in before turning to them with a smile that surprised Mark, as he never saw a smile of this kind on the director's face, and his voice was a little odd too, "Well, you can both color me impressed."

Huh, so this is what he looks like when he is impressed by something. Mark didn't believe he would ever see the day Cecil's face would make that expression, far less that it would be because of him.

Eve raised an eyebrow at him and asked dryly, "I thought you said you believed we could take him on."

Cecil shrugged, "There is a difference between believing in something and actually facing the odds. And well, I can't say they were on your side. And still, you turned the tables and brought him in."

Those words turned Mark's stomach, and his face twisted as he asked himself, "Should I have killed him?"

He realized he said it out loud when Eve turned to him with wide, sad eyes, and Cecil raised an eyebrow at him, "Why are you asking?"

Mark looked down and clenched his fists, "Da... Omni-Man told me to kill him after he knew he was beaten."

Mark's eyes shot up when he felt Cecil's hand landing on his shoulder. The older man looked at him with an understanding stare, and he said calmly, "If you ask me, I'm glad you didn't."

Mark had to blink twice to make sure he heard right; he would expect if anyone would want to pick up his father's corpse, it would be Cecil. It's not like the man was a stranger to ruthlessness when necessary, and Omni-Man wanted to commit a manslaughter of an entire city.

"Don't look at me like that," Cecil said. "First of all, it might be a little old-fashioned, but I don't think someone can call himself a hero if he is just willing to kill his enemy even when he is on his knees and powerless. And second, Nolan is much more valuable to us alive; he has a lot of information on the Viltrumites, and I doubt they are going to leave us alone just because we stopped the first agent they sent."

Mark supposed Cecil was right. No, he was sure about it. If everyone in this empire is as duty-bound as his dad was, they won't like their plans being foiled, and there will be other Viltrumites coming around sooner or later.

Mark took a deep breath; he felt the fire returning to his chest, and he stood straight again, saying confidently, "So we have to keep training so we can kick all of their asses."

Eve gave him a proud and determined smile of her own. Cecil got that odd smile again and said, "Like I said, I'm impressed, kid."

Cecil then put a hand on the shoulders of Mark and Eve and said, "With the two of you around, our planet might just stand a chance. So how about it: I trust both of you, you trust me, and we help each other out when needed. Deal?"

Eve and Mark exchanged a look; both of them smiled and said almost simultaneously, "Deal."

Cecil smiled widely, not something that happens all that often. "Then I'll see you in training in two days." He turned his back to them and began walking toward his helicopter while calling over his shoulder, "Now you kids get out of here; after all of that, you earned your couple of days off. We'll take care of the mess."

Taking his suggestion, the two of them took to the air and began flying back home.

The moment they stepped into the living room, the first thing they saw was their mom sitting in front of the TV and watching the news.

Mark was just about to call out to her, but he and Eve both froze when the image of Omni-Man filled the screen with the anchor speaking, "We just received confirmation that it was Omni-Man who killed the previous Guardians of the Globe, and according to a source in the Pentagon, it was discovered Omni-Man was controlled by an alien variable that took hold of his mind again earlier today just outside Chicago city." The image changed to Omni-Man flying at top speed through the air; all that was really visible was a red and white blur heading toward a city in the horizon.

"Many methods have been deployed by the government in an attempt to put a stop to Omni-Man's planned massacre; all failed." Mark would give the anchor that; he sure as hell could be dramatic. The image then changed again, this time it was Invincible and Atom Eve flying in the air during one of their patrols. The anchor then went on, "It was our own Invincible and Atom Eve that single-handedly put a stop to Omni-Man's rampage and defeated him. We have two witness accounts that reported how Invincible held Omni-Man back while Atom Eve rescued them from his reach, before the two heroes teamed up to knock the most powerful hero on the planet out cold."

Mark could only think about two people who could answer that description, and he wondered when the hell those pilots even had the time to talk with the news after Cecil took them away.

The anchor then went on to say, "Omni-Man will be held in a government facility until it can be determined he will no longer be a danger to the people of this planet. Meanwhile, the White House has already begun considering how to reward the two heroes that put an end to what could have been an unimaginable disaster. We here at First Channel News wish to extend our own thanks to the hero duo..."

Eve, who had already reached for the remote, turned off the TV, and at the same time drew his mom's attention to their presence.

She looked at both of them with a smile and said, "I'm so happy the both of you are okay. I'm so proud of you."

There was something odd in his mom's voice that Mark never heard before and couldn't place. "Mom?"

But his mom just kept smiling at the both of them and kept talking with what began to sound like forced enthusiasm, "I didn't know you got so powerful; kids these days grow far too quick..."

"Debbie," Eve cut his mom off with a soft voice. His girlfriend sat next to his mother on the couch and asked softly, "You heard, didn't you? Everything that we said during the fight."

His mom's smile became even more strained, and her voice shook a little, "O-Of course, and I'm so proud of you two, choosing to be true heroes rather than... than..."

That was when he realized what it was he heard in his mother's voice. It was choked sadness.

And Mark also knew what part of his dad's speech affected his mom the worst; it was the same part that lit a fire in Mark that almost made him wish he could kill his dad. He took a seat on his mom's other side and spoke as softly as Eve did, "He was wrong, Mom. He was always wrong. There is nothing more important to me than the people in this room."

A little of the tension left her face, but her smile was still strained as she tried to reply calmly, "Oh Mark, I know it. You don't have to worry about me."

"No, Debbie!" Eve spoke out firmly, drawing both my mom's and my attention to her; her face was soft, but her tone was firm. "You don't have to deal with it alone; if we want to get past this, we all need to lean on each other. I know how it feels to be betrayed by your family; I know how it feels to have to deal with it alone. Thanks to the two of you, I don't have to go through that anymore, and I won't let you do it either."

His mom looked like she was trying to fight to keep the smile on her face, but soon enough, the dam broke. Her smile faded, and tears began streaming down her face; those tears quickly turned into full-out sobs.

Eve didn't waste a moment to pull her into a tight hug; Mark moved himself, he kneeled on the floor in front of the hugging women and hugged both of them himself. As all three of them held each other, Mark said quietly, "Everything will be okay; things will get better from now on. We all have each other."

A day later, Eve and Mark were sitting on the roof of his house again. His mom had calmed down after they let her cry for a while, and then she went to sleep for a while. He knew she would be okay; his mom was a strong woman, and she would have both of them to take care of her when she needed it.

The sky was clear with only one cloud blocking most of the sun's light, allowing Mark and Eve to lay back and stare at the sky with smiles on their faces.

He heard Eve chuckling, and he turned his head to look at her. Eve turned her own head, her bright green eyes locked with his as she spoke, "I just think how funny it is that things could be a lot different if we didn't have our chat that night. It feels like a lot of things changed thanks to it, and all of this started here."

Mark considered it for a moment. If he did call Amber and was busy trying to date her, he would miss his chance to help Eve when she needed him the most; he would be too busy balancing his relationship with her, school, and his dad's training to think, far less ask Cecil for training. And without that training and Eve, who knows what his dad could have done?

Mark shook these thoughts off; he'd rather never consider this possibility again.

He smiled at his girlfriend and said from the bottom of his heart, "There could be no better reality than this one, because here I have the greatest heroine in the world with me, and she loves me."

Eve chuckled, her eyes warming further as she said dramatically, "What can I do? The heart wants what it wants, even if this is some occasionally dense idiot, who is the new strongest hero in the world."

The two of them leaned forward for a kiss. Their lips just touched each other, and Mark was about to go deeper when their comms activated all of a sudden.

The two sighed before Eve reached for her ear and asked, "Cecil?"

The director's voice came through a moment later, "Sorry to call you in when I gave you a day off, but there's someone approaching Earth; I need Mark to fly up there and deal with it."

Mark stood up and began stretching a little while responding to Cecil, "We're on it."

Eve's smile grew even larger, and she jumped to her own feet. She snapped her fingers, and in a flash of pink light, the both of them wore their super-suits.

Another pink flash and Eve was covered by the same pink space suit she used for the Mars trip. With that, the two of them headed to the outer atmosphere.

The moment they reached outer space, both noticed an orange blur heading toward them. Mark prepared a punch, and Eve was ready to send a couple of energy blasts.

That was until the alien stopped just in front of them, his head raised in a way that showed he had no intention of fighting. Wait a second, Mark knew this one!

A familiar voice echoed in Mark's mind, "Invincible... Oh, thank goodness, I was afraid I would be too late."

Mark noticed the confused stare Eve kept giving the two of them and sighed mentally before he tried to broadcast his thoughts to the both of them, "If I talk with you, can she hear me too?"

Allen shook his head, so Mark pointed at the moon behind him and said, "Let's sit down and talk like normal people then."

The orange alien just shrugged and followed Mark to the surface of the moon. Mark used the stones around to prepare the three of them seats like he remembered Allen doing last time.

When all three of them were sitting down, Eve waved her hand, and suddenly there was a pink sphere around them with air filling it.

Allen's eyes widened, and he asked, with his voice rather than his mind, "Okay, I know Invincible, but who are you?" He pointed at Eve.

Eve gave him a friendly smile and replied, "Atom Eve."

The alien shook his head before he went on a rant, "When I told my superiors I have been going to Earth instead of Uarth, they were pissed; apparently, Earth is off-limits because there is a Viltrumite here."

Mark relaxed and chuckled, "Oh, so that's what you are so stressed about. You don't have to worry." Allen frowned and looked at Eve, who nodded in confirmation.

What followed was a long explanation of who he was, who his dad was, what happened a couple of months ago, and what happened yesterday.

Allen was looking at the ground with the same frown, and he spoke, mostly to himself, "It's never happened before. No one has ever defeated a Viltrumite like you did; this could be the first hope we have in this war." He then raised his head to look at Mark with determination in his eyes as he said, "I want to report this to my superiors; they need to know it."

Knowing nothing he would say would actually stop Allen from doing it, Mark just nodded. Allen smiled, and then his voice softened as he asked, "What are you planning to do now anyway?"

Mark's mind went through a lot of different things at once. First was the image Cecil let Mark see this morning, of his dad locked in an enforced room, his arms and everything under his waist bound by machines that had his full strength in mind. He was still debating if he should visit him or not.

Cecil himself was Mark's next thought; he still had a lot of training to do, he had to get stronger.

And then his mind flashed over the people he cared about. William. His mom. Eve.

Mark took Eve's hand and looked into her eyes as he spoke confidently, "I have a family, friends, and an amazing girlfriend. So I will live my life to the fullest."