(Invincible) Invincible Bond: Chapter 16 - Crossing the Line

Chapter 16 - Crossing the Line

Summary: When warnings turn into explosions and truths into betrayal, two young heroes must face the fallout of a legacy they never asked for.

Eve's heart began to sink; she never received so many messages at once unless there was some terrible problem. The last time she got so many texts was during one of Teen Team's biggest missions.

She told her friends that she was with her parents in the area where she and Teen Team ended up in a big fight that made the news. It took a lot of time and lying to smooth everything over with her friends without them figuring out her secret identity.

Right now, she was getting bad flashbacks to that day; she only returned to reality when Mark's voice cut through her memories, "Eve, what's going on?"

Eve shook her head and answered with a small frown, "I was shocked to see all those messages..." She raised an eyebrow when she noticed one of them, "There are a few from Debbie."

Curious about why Debbie sent her so many texts, she opened her contact page first; the older woman was usually patient and knowing they were training, so she would send a text and wait for one of them to reply before she would bomb her with constant messages... Eve began to worry even more.

She could feel Mark leaning over her shoulder, looking at the screen himself. Her heart rate increased with every message she read.

The first one was, 'I couldn't do it. I had to tell him the truth and get rid of him. He flew through the roof and said I just need to calm down.'

The second was, 'Donald came to the house and took me into the GDA.'

The next one was already more frantic, 'Cecil said you have the day off, why isn't Mark answering?!'

The last one almost caused Eve to panic, 'Damn it, Eve! One of you pick up your damn phone!!'

She turned her head slightly to see Mark frowning at the screen, as he asked, "What's her problem today? She never had an issue with us staying out of the house before."

Eve shook her head and spoke in a worried voice, "I have no idea; we should call her."

Mark nodded, and she was about to do that when a message from Jen popped up on her screen instead. Mark, who was still looking at her screen, asked, "Jen, too?"

Jennifer was one of her group of friends from high school; after they started dating, Mark met her friends, and they liked him fine enough to be on friendly terms, while not exactly friends. But Mark was right; Jen wasn't one to send messages out of nowhere like that—she preferred video calls.

Opening the message, her eyes almost bulged out as she read, 'Girl, are you okay?! It's all over the news that the house across yours just blew up completely! Call me ASAP.'

Eve's head snapped to Mark as she asked, panicking, "Who lived there?"

Mark frowned and seemed to be in deep thought for a moment before answering, "I... I can't actually remember anyone ever entering or leaving that house."

Eve shook her head, trying to make sense of whatever was happening; full of frustration, she almost shouted, "What the hell is going on?"

She was about to try and call Debbie again but once again was interrupted, this time by a call from William. Frowning, she answered the call and immediately put it on speaker; before she could even open her mouth, William was on the other side already shouting, "Pick up! Pick up!"

"William!" Eve raised her voice to shock the teen on the phone back to reality.

William's voice was full of relief but still panicked, "Eve! Thank fuck. That idiot Mark is not picking up his damn phone!"

Mark leaned in over her shoulder so he could speak closer to her phone, "Hey, I'm on a date with my girlfriend; my phone is off. What set your ass on fire?"

William's voice was a mix of anger, fear, and worry, "Oh, I don't know, maybe it was the mustached hero who picked up my car and threatened me."

Mark frowned, and Eve began to worry even more than before—huh, she didn't think it was possible. "My dad? What did he want?"

"You!" William shouted, now with pure worry. "And he looked pissed off."

Oh no. Eve was getting a really bad feeling she knew what this was about, and she didn't like it one bit. "Does he know where we are?"

"Well..." William sounded meek and guilty all of a sudden.

"Will, what did you tell him?" Mark asked without any anger or accusation in his voice.

Still, William went on the defensive, "It was Omni-Man! I told him I didn't know where you are; he said he would crash the car with me inside, so I... I kind of told him how to track you with the phone GPS." His voice went back to guilty.

Before either of them could react, a column of light came from the sky somewhere far in the heart of the wasteland near the forest and cities. A moment later, there was a huge explosion in that spot, and the light was gone.

Eve and Mark jumped to their feet. "What the hell was that?!" William's voice shouted from the phone.

Eve ended the call without a word and put the phone away. That was when she heard Mark swearing, "Shit, forgot to turn our comms on after the fight with the monster."

Eve paled as well and immediately reached to her ear to push the button on the side of the device there.

"Fucking finally!" was the first thing they heard from Cecil once their comms were back online.

Mark didn't waste any time, "Cecil, what's going on?"

Cecil's answer was hurried and a little bit miffed, "Your dad is what's going on! You two need to intercept him now."

Mark jumped from his seat and began floating in the air, his back to Eve; his voice was dull and lifeless, "I will handle it, Cecil."

Before Cecil got a chance to respond, Eve jumped herself and used her powers to float right in front of Mark.

Her face was frowning as she tried to remind him, "You mean us."

Mark pulled his mask on before he turned to look at Eve, and even with the lenses covering his eyes, Eve could feel the conflicting emotions radiating from her boyfriend, and she couldn't blame him. His voice stayed the same void one as he spoke, "No, Eve, you need to stay here."

"And let you go against your dad on your own? Are you crazy?" Eve tried not to shout at him, but she had to make sure he saw reason.

This time, Mark's voice had an edge of desperation to it, "Please, Eve, I don't want him to hurt you; I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if he does."

Eve's face softened, and she leaned closer to press her lips briefly to his; as she pulled back, she stared right into his lenses and said softly, "And you think I will be able to if you got hurt because I wasn't there to help?"

Mark opened his mouth to retort, but Eve cut him off, "And anyway, Cecil told us just this morning our only chance to win against him is together."

It seems like Cecil lost his patience as he said in a tight voice, "She is right, kid. The only way any of us stand a fucking chance is if you work together. We don't have time for your teen drama; I already sent Hail Mary to delay Omni-Man. You both go, end of story."

While Eve wondered what this Hail Mary was that could distract Omni-Man, Mark sighed in resignation and said, "Fine." He then looked at her and said determinedly, "Together then."

Eve smiled at him and affirmed, "Together."

With that, both of them took off toward where the column of light appeared a few minutes ago.

They were still pretty far from the point they believed the light landed at, and they could already feel the air shifting unnaturally around them. The trees below them were also shaking uncontrollably.

It wasn't hard to see why; quite a distance from them stood the monster they fought just this morning. She towered over all the trees and the horizon; her angry roar caused the air to tremble miles away.

In the distance, they could see a white and red blur flying around it and hitting at her whenever possible. But the monster seemed to be different than this morning.

She was faster; her tentacles easily matching Omni-Man's speed, and each time one of them hit him, it looked a lot more forceful than this morning.

"So, her name is Hail Mary. Funny, Cecil." She could hear Mark mumble under his breath, and she had to agree. She wasn't sure if the director named the monster that way because he didn't use traditional names for weapons, or if this was his sort of sense of humor.

Both of them were shocked when the monster slammed Omni-Man to the ground, leaving him dazed before she used her tentacles to wrap Nolan tightly, pulling the rogue hero into her mouth.

"Dad!" Mark shouted in worry as he flew forward. Eve cursed under her breath and began following Mark. To be honest, she wasn't sure what the right move to do here was.

If Nolan really became a danger to the world, then right now was their best chance to end it before anyone else had to suffer. On the other side, if this monster so easily defeated Omni-Man, would Mark and Eve be able to take it down again before she went on a bloody rampage of her own?

Before either of them could get close enough, another shout, this one filled with utter rage, filled the air, "OMNI-MAN!"

Out of nowhere, Immortal appeared in the sky, flying at speeds that broke the sound barrier; the Immortal tackled Omni-Man midair. Blinded by rage, he probably didn't even notice the man was almost defeated by the massive creature the Immortal just rescued his enemy from.

Eve and Mark just floated in the air, too shocked to move. Eve raised her hand to the comm and asked hesitantly, "Umm, Cecil, I think sending the Immortal just backfired on you."

Cecil's own voice reflected surprise, which was rare, "I have no fucking idea where he came from, or how he is even alive; we couldn't bring him back, and his body went missing a couple of weeks ago."

What the hell was going on here?!

The Immortal began to punch Omni-Man without a break while screaming, "WHY?! WHY DID YOU KILL THEM?! WE WERE YOUR FRIENDS!"

Suddenly, a red glove caught Immortal's fist, and Nolan stood back up to his feet, a murderous look in his eyes as he growled, "You should have stayed dead."

What followed was rather a short fight. The only real damage Immortal managed to inflict on Omni-Man was injuring his eyesight a little, while Omni-Man finished the fight by punching the ancient hero through his heart and then flinging his body as far away as possible.

Omni-Man then turned his eyes back to the monster and, with double his original speed, charged it before punching it out with a couple of attacks.

Shit! Shit! Those two were their best chance, and now not only were they out, but they had a pissed-off Omni-Man on their hands. Their only advantage here was the chance he would hold back against his son.

Before Eve could stop him, Mark flew up to his father, trying to talk him down from whatever he was after.

Albeit reluctantly, Eve followed him into what felt like the lion's mouth.

Mark stopped just a few meters short of his father's floating form. Omni-Man turned to his son with a frown on his face. Mark's voice was filled with pain that made Eve hurt as well, "So it's true; you killed the Guardians."

Nolan's face didn't change as he said flatly, "They were weak. And they would have been an annoyance for what has to come next."

Eve felt both dread and rage boiling up in her gut. She noticed Mark's fists clenched as he asked tightly, "What's coming next?"

What came next was a horrifying explanation of the true nature of the Viltrumites. The war for control over the planet alone caused her stomach to turn, and then Nolan's purpose on the planet sent her heart racing.

Omni-Man then reached out his hand and called to Mark, "Join me, Mark; take your rightful place by my side, and we will save this world from itself."

"And what about Mom? What about Eve? Am I supposed to just let them be subjects under these alien overlords?" Mark shouted back at his dad, obviously trying to remind the man of his emotional attachments to this world.

Omni-Man just leveled Mark with a dry look and said matter-of-factly, "Do you know how long we live? Their lives are nothing more than a blink of an eye compared to our own."

Eve could hear the tears Mark was holding back in his voice, "I thought you loved Mom and Eve!"

Nolan's face softened for a moment as he spoke like how she remembered him from her time in the Grayson home, "I do. But they are more like... pets."

Eve felt as if someone stabbed her in the chest and punched her in the gut at the same time. She began to consider this man as a father figure after what she had to suffer under her own father, and that was how he saw her?

The pain in her heart was equaled by the anger in Mark's voice, "Pets! They are our family!"

Nolan pursed his lips as he spoke firmly, "I told you, Mark, both of them will disappear from this earth before you even begin your true life as a Viltrumite." Then there was a gleam in the man's eyes Eve wasn't sure she liked as he said with a small smile, "But your mother did leave me something to remember her by for the rest of my life: you. Eve can do the same for you."

Eve could feel her face warming at the implications of the older man; Mark wasn't much better than her as he breathed out, "What?!"

Nolan's smile grew a little, and he spread his arms, "Just think about it. Your son will be the most powerful Viltrumite in history. One day he will become the new emperor! Isn't this a legacy worth sacrificing for?"

It felt like a cold bucket of water was dropped on her. Was that all she was for Nolan? A genetic experiment to create the perfect being? She had to admit if their kid would actually inherit both Mark's power and her own, they truly would be unstoppable. But still, it hurt to know that was the only reason he accepted her so easily.

Mark, now full of rage, screamed at his dad, "She is more than her powers! She is my future, and I'm not going to sacrifice her for anything."

The hurt in her heart vanished, to be replaced by warmth and love for the man next to her.

Omni-Man sighed and spoke in a voice that showed how frustrated he was getting, "You know you can't defeat me, Mark; join me, or I will have to kill you too."

Eve's breath froze in her throat, her earlier conversation with Mark flooding back to her. All she could think as she watched Omni-Man was, 'They found the line.'

She turned to her boyfriend to see him scowling for a moment before he bent his body and launched himself forward at his father.

With a frown of his own, Omni-Man flew forward as well. Just before the two titans clashed, Eve heard herself saying to nobody in particular, "And the line is crossed."