November 17th, 2015 — Chicago — Rooftop of a Residential Building
Chicago's sky was burning in shades of orange and copper when Mark and Kai descended from the air and landed on the rooftop. The concrete still held the day's heat, while the city below began to light up, window by window, headlight by headlight.
Titan stood at the center of the roof, too large to look casual, his broad shoulders casting a shadow beneath the evening light. The wind tugged at the hem of his gray hoodie and carried the distant smoke of the city in weak waves up to them.
Mark was the first to touch the ground. Kai landed right after him, without taking his eyes off the man in front of them.
Titan pulled the hood back.
The beanie revealed a clean-shaven head, without a single strand of hair, and the face of a heavily built Black man, tall enough to look down on most people even without using any power. There was exhaustion in his features, but also a firmness that did not fit someone asking for favors.
Mark pointed at him, his mouth tilting into the crooked smile of a hero who had already decided this was probably another mess.
"Hey, you're the guy who tried to rob a bank a few months ago."
Titan did not move.
"My name is Titan."
"Ah, I get it." Mark crossed his arms, his tone sliding into that usual line between mocking and confident. "You made up this whole help thing, but what you really want is revenge. Let's do this."
He raised one finger, turning halfway toward Kai like someone closing the bill before the conversation was even over.
"I've got this one."
Titan remained still, only his eyes following the two of them.
"I didn't call you here so I could get revenge." His voice came firm, unhurried. "I really do need help."
Mark let out a skeptical breath through his nose.
"And why would we help you? You're a criminal."
Beside him, Kai looked at Titan with the same practical coldness as always.
"I don't think he'd be stupid enough to ask us for help committing a crime."
Titan did not react to the jab. He only adjusted his weight on his feet.
"You're the guys who've been catching the bad guys and keeping things in order even without the Guardians." His gaze went straight to both of them, measuring the answer before it even came. "Aren't you?"
Mark hesitated just long enough to notice the trap in the sentence. Even so, he answered with a short nod.
"We are."
Titan turned sideways and walked to the edge of the building, his hands slipping into the pockets of his hoodie.
"Then help me take down my boss." He looked at the street below. "He's the worst of them. Machine Head."
Mark frowned, glancing at his brother.
"Never heard of him."
Kai made the same expression of someone filing the name away without giving it much importance yet.
Titan let the wind hit his face before continuing.
"He runs the city." His finger pointed to the invisible map below, as if all of Chicago could fit in his palm. "If it's illegal and profitable, it's his. And when someone has to die so everything keeps running, he sends thugs like me to handle it."
Mark lightly pulled Kai by the shoulder and started moving away, still hovering above the rooftop.
"Look, no offense, but we're more big-picture guys, you know? Why don't you call Fight Force?" His tone had already shifted into the mode of someone trying to sound polite without giving up the joke. "He and I answer government calls, save the planet, stuff like that. Nothing important."
Kai hovered beside his brother, arms crossed, without interrupting.
Mark lifted his chin, dropping the mocking smile. "It doesn't seem like a great idea to help someone who was robbing a bank not that long ago. How are you even out, anyway?"
Titan did not answer right away.
Mark turned in the air, drifting farther away.
Kai watched, uncrossed his arms, and was already starting to turn his body to leave when Titan threw out the bait.
"You remember the cartels?"
Kai stopped in midair.
Higher up, already farther away, Mark looked back, catching the change in his brother, and stopped too.
Titan saw that he had hooked enough attention and continued.
"The ones that old hero squad, the Young Team, went up against." His tone hardened a little. "He wanted to put me in front of the negotiation with them. If they hadn't been wiped out..." His gaze returned to both of them. "Well. That's the kind of people I'm dealing with."
Kai landed again.
Mark scratched his head and came down right after him, still watching with suspicion, but willing to follow his brother's lead.
Titan took a step back, opening space like someone finally deciding to show the board.
"You're the heroes, so let me show you what's happening in this city behind the curtains."
A few minutes later, the air cut across their faces as the three of them flew over Chicago.
Titan was in the middle, held by the brothers, pointing with short, precise movements, each point of the city gaining a name and function in his voice.
"Machine Head owns the waste collection company." He tilted his chin toward a dark warehouse between two blocks. "Uses it to move drugs all over the city."
Mark followed the direction of his arm, his eyes shifting between the buildings and Titan's face.
"And he owns that block too." Titan extended a hand toward an entire area of cramped shops and apartments. "Pays inspectors not to fix anything, then burns the place down for insurance money." His gaze hardened. "If someone's inside... he doesn't care."
Kai observed everything in silence, his face expressionless, but his eyes working.
"If you help me beat him," Titan finished, "you'll be helping real people. Real lives. Not just the 'big picture.'"
Shortly after the tour through the hidden world of crime, they landed in a narrow alley between a closed restaurant and the side wall of a laundromat.
The smell of garbage and old rain mixed in the air.
Mark landed first, still looking at Titan like he was trying to decide whether he was buying a story or being pulled into a better-crafted trap than usual.
"So how did you end up involved with him?"
Titan held his gaze for a moment.
"Someone important to me needed money." He shrugged, but there was no lightness in the gesture. "Things got out of hand."
He turned his back and started walking toward the curb.
Before moving too far away, he looked over his shoulder.
"Think about everything I told you."
The two of them stayed in the alley, watching.
Across the street, a woman was walking hand in hand with a little girl. The girl spotted Titan before her mother did, let go of her hand, and ran.
"Daddy!"
She threw herself against him with all her strength, short arms wrapping around his leg.
Titan lowered his hand and touched the girl's head with a care that did not match the man who had just asked for help from heroes known for taking down monsters.
Mark saw the scene and looked at his brother.
"So? What do you think? As crazy as it sounds... I think we should help."
Kai watched for a moment, his face difficult to read.
"He doesn't seem to be lying." His gaze moved to the street, the building, the entire city. "This world is rotten..."
Mark answered with a tired half-smile.
Kai was already rising.
Mark followed.
And the two of them vanished above the rooftops, leaving Chicago lit beneath them and Titan's proposal echoing in the air like a problem that still had not decided whether it was a mission or a trap.
Grayson House — November 17th, 2015 — 8:05 PM
The house was warm, lit by yellow kitchen light and the low sound of cutlery meeting plates. From upstairs, there was still the distant echo of a door closing, the noise of footsteps descending the stairs, and the almost domestic familiarity of any ordinary evening.
Kai appeared first in the dining room, already in normal clothes, a dark T-shirt and simple pants. Mark came right behind him, adjusting the sleeve of his shirt and pulling the chair out with his foot before sitting down.
Debbie was already at the table, calm at the end, a glass of wine beside her plate. Nolan occupied the opposite side, with his usual posture—straight, comfortable, as if the chair had been made for him. Mark sat across from him. Kai stayed beside Mark, one leg a little farther out, his gaze running over the table, the food, the window, as if he were still half-caught in the rhythm of the day.
For a few minutes, the conversation followed that normal family flow that tried to feel light. Debbie commented on the hour, Nolan on a GDA incident, Mark on nothing in particular with the voice of someone whose head was still somewhere else. Kai gave short answers, sometimes dry, sometimes just enough not to break the mood.
Until Nolan set his cutlery down on the plate with excessive care.
The entire table noticed.
"Speaking of incidents... we need to continue our training." He rested his fingers beside the plate and looked from one brother to the other. "Even though you're developing faster than I expected..." His eyes stopped on Kai for a slightly longer moment. "Especially you. Your strength is above average for a Viltrumite. I think the two of you have been operating together for too long."
Kai slowly lifted his gaze.
Mark was the first to answer, simple, accepting where the conversation was going.
"I don't think so, but if you say so..."
Debbie twisted her mouth, looking from Nolan to the two boys.
"And what's the problem with the two of them always acting together?"
Nolan breathed through his nose, tilting his head slightly to the side. There was no irritation there, only that polite firmness of someone trying to explain something obvious.
"That's not it. There's nothing wrong with them being heroes together." He let his hands rest near the cutlery for a second. "The point is that you two are Viltrumites, and you're going out as a pair to deal with simple things."
"It's safer." Debbie set her elbow on the table, already joining the conversation with the serenity of someone willing to defend both her sons and her point of view. "This way we know they'll come home safely."
Kai tilted his head toward her, nodding at what she said, and the corner of his mouth threatened something close to a smile.
"And it's not always simple." His tone came calm, almost lazy. "Going to Mars didn't look simple. And it also made sure Mark didn't get lost looking for somewhere to charge his phone."
Mark immediately raised both hands, offended just enough to be funny.
"It was a joke. I knew there wasn't a charger on the ship."
Debbie kept her serious expression, though her eyes were less tense than before.
Nolan brought the subject back before the conversation could drift away.
"Look, I think it's good that you're always together." His fingers touched the edge of the plate. "But you need to know how to handle things alone too." His gaze moved to Debbie for a moment. "For example, spending a period in separate schools was good for your maturity."
Debbie thought about that for a second, watching the wine swirl in her glass, and the atmosphere loosened a little.
"That's where your father has a point..." She lifted her eyes toward the table. "Kai, pass me the potatoes?"
Kai extended his arm and handed her the bowl, the gesture automatic.
Nolan took advantage of the space the conversation had opened.
"So?" He looked at both of them, returning to the point like someone pulling the entire table back onto the rails. "What emergency were you answering today that made you late getting back?"
Mark straightened in his chair and began to explain. He talked about Titan, the building, the flight over the city, the name Machine Head, and the way everything seemed bigger than the first impression suggested. Kai occasionally filled in a detail with a dry observation—the tone of someone who was not trying to lead the story, but would not let a bad summary pass without correction either.
Debbie listened to everything in silence, her face slowly shifting. At some parts, she frowned; at others, her eyes dropped to the food without really seeing the plate.
Mark finished with his shoulders half-raised, as if he were still deciding whether the situation deserved trust or not.
"Well... I don't think we'd have any trouble dealing with those guys." He looked from one side to the other. "Machine Head and the other one, some guy named Isotope, who apparently can teleport. But I don't know..." His finger drummed against the table. "Do you think we should help this Titan guy?"
Nolan uncrossed his arms.
The change in his face was instant. Not open anger, but a harder seriousness, almost technical.
"If you helped him, you'd be making a huge mistake."
He lifted his fork slightly, pointing at the two of them with it as he spoke.
"He's trying to use you to climb the hierarchy he told you about."
Mark leaned forward at once, his brow tightening.
"Come on. I'm not an idiot, Dad." His voice came firmer, more personal. "He wasn't lying. We saw him hug his daughter. He wants out of this. He didn't even want to be a criminal in the first place."
Mark turned his head to the side, looking for support.
"Right?"
Kai stayed silent for a moment.
As he went over Titan's story, his mind pulled images that did not belong at the table—cartels, bodies on the ground, people too awful to deserve any empathy. Then he let the air out slowly, as if he had forced his thoughts back into place.
"Look..." He set his cutlery down more carefully than necessary. "I think there's a chance he has other intentions." His gaze moved to the table, then to Mark. "But even so, it didn't all sound like a lie."
Mark turned to his father immediately.
"See? Kai's saying it too." He pointed with his chin, almost triumphant. "The guy has a family. And I think his daughter is sick."
Nolan leaned forward, forearms resting on the edge of the table, as if he were explaining something to someone who had not yet learned how to see properly.
"Even if that's the case, you two are Viltrumites." His gaze moved over both of them, firm, unblinking. "You saved the planet from an asteroid, fought alien invasions, and went to Mars." He lifted the fork again, this time almost like a teacher pointing out what he wanted them to pay attention to. "Small things like that shouldn't be part of your routine. It's beneath you."
The final word hung in the air for a second, cold, too heavy, and in a strange way it did not seem to carry arrogance so much as the conviction of a fact.
"You two need to see things as they really are."
The entire table went silent.
Mark looked to the side.
Kai stayed quiet, only his face changing almost imperceptibly, as if he had understood the sentence in a way no one there had intended. It was not complete agreement. It was something more uncomfortable—the feeling that Nolan was speaking from a place higher than it seemed, and that height was physical.
Mark looked from Kai to Debbie.
"Mom?"
Debbie picked up her glass of wine without drinking, the corner of her expression still caught on something that did not quite fit in the conversation.
"Mark..." She slowly swirled the liquid, without looking directly at anyone. "Sometimes people aren't who they seem to be..."
Nolan nodded almost immediately.
"Exactly. Listen to your mother." His tone was lighter now. "If you help this guy, you're going to learn a very painful lesson."
Then Debbie finished, turning her eyes back to Mark with a softness that did not erase the gravity.
"But I also know that helping someone is never beneath you."
Mark thought about it for a moment.
He looked at Kai, who kept eating without offering more than the smallest reaction. In the end, he let out a breath, still undecided.
"Okay... we'll decide this later."
Nolan relaxed his shoulders almost immediately.
"Good." He picked up his cutlery again. "And if you choose to help, I want you to start thinking about whether it's really necessary for both of you to go."
His gaze moved toward Kai for a second, then returned to Mark.
"You said yourselves that you could handle it easily."
And then, as if the conversation had been filed away for now, everyone went back to eating.
The room filled with the soft sound of cutlery, wine being poured, food being pushed around plates, and a family accustomed to complex conversations as though they were something normal.
Meanwhile, Another Place, Another Family — Wilkins House — 8:20 PM
Unlike the Grayson house, the air here felt tighter.
The living room was lit by a yellowish ceiling lamp and by the turned-off television, reflecting only shadows against the wall. Eve was sitting on the sofa, arms tense at her sides, while her father, Adam, stood in front of her with one finger raised, his posture hard with the attitude of someone who was not asking for attention—he was demanding it.
Betsy stood a little behind him, her eyes going back and forth between them, clearly trying to measure the temperature of the conversation before it became something else.
"Look, I don't have to tell you whether I broke up with someone or whether I'm dating someone." Eve crossed her arms and stared at her father without looking away.
Adam did not even blink.
"The only reason I allowed you to be a superhero was because Rex was there to protect you."
Eve let out a short laugh, humorless.
"I was a hero before I met him. I think I can take care of myself."
She leaned back on the sofa, but there was no relaxation in the gesture. Only irritation.
Betsy tried to step in before everything broke completely.
"What your father means is that we liked Rex." She clasped her hands carefully in front of her body. "And it was good to know he took good care of you... and now you're not part of a group anymore..."
Eve straightened in one sudden motion, her eyes lighting with the anger that had been rising for minutes.
"Rex cheated on me, okay? And the Teen Team doesn't exist anymore." She ran a hand through her hair, impatient. "Both of them are over. That's life."
Adam tightened his jaw.
"Then forgive him."
Eve froze.
"What?"
"Every guy makes mistakes." He lowered his finger a little, but not the firmness. "Stop being like this."
Her expression wavered for an instant. Her eyes grew wet, but she did not let the first tear fall. She turned her face away, as if that would be enough to hide it.
"You can't go around playing superhero by yourself..." Adam continued, his voice lower now, but still hard. "Not even with someone else."
That was enough for Eve to turn back at once.
"First." She opened her hands, and pink energy began to rise around her fingers, then her wrists, then her entire body. "I can do whatever I want."
The air in the room began to vibrate.
The furniture trembled lightly.
Eve lifted her feet off the floor, pink light wrapping around the room like a rising tide. A glass on the side table shook, picture frames rattled against the wall, and for a second the entire living room seemed too small to contain her.
"I can rearrange atoms on a molecular level. Easily." Her voice came firm, wounded and proud at the same time. "And second..."
Adam and Betsy looked at each other and moved closer together, as if the argument itself had pushed them nearer without asking permission.
Eve saw it.
The energy around her faltered a little.
She clenched her fingers, and the glow began to dissolve around the room.
"I don't even know if I actually want to keep doing this."
Adam frowned, irritation returning like a reflex.
"Good. It's about time."
That hit deeper than he imagined.
Eve lowered a little in the air, her eyes shining with anger and hurt.
"You're taking the side of the guy who cheated on me, and you don't even know what I'm going through..." She drew a deep breath, trembling with restraint. "When I said I didn't know if I wanted to keep doing this... I meant this stupid family too."
The front door opened on its own with a sharp crack.
The cold hallway air entered the room, cutting through the space like a blade.
Eve flew out before anyone could answer, a pink streak carving through the night outside and leaving the entire house in silence behind her.
The Next Day — November 18th, 2015 — Reginald Vel Johnson High School — 2:30 PM
Lunch was halfway over when Mark and Kai found Eve sitting almost alone at a table near the window.
She had her tray in front of her, but she had barely touched the food. Her eyes were fixed on some point between the cafeteria and nothing, and the pudding spoon she had already brought to her mouth twice remained forgotten between her fingers.
The two of them approached.
"Hey." Mark pulled out a chair and sat in front of her without ceremony. "You've got that look like you're three seconds away from cursing out the universe."
Kai sat beside him.
"It's either that, or you look like someone put salt in your pudding." Kai's tone came with his usual irony.
Eve blinked, focusing on the two of them as if she had been pulled back from somewhere far away. She smiled faintly. "It's the cursing out the universe version."
Mark leaned on the table. "So?"
She took a while to answer. The noise of the cafeteria around them kept moving the same way—trays hitting tables, people talking loudly, silverware scraping plastic. But Eve seemed to exist at a different volume.
"It's just my parents being... terrible parents. And saying I should forgive Rex because they liked him."
Mark twisted his mouth in immediate understanding. "Yeah."
"Yeah..." She let out a short laugh with no energy behind it. "They know what happened, and they still somehow decided I'm the problem."
Kai's gaze moved over her with a strangely quiet seriousness.
"Families usually have that talent." He said it as if speaking from experience and observation at the same time. "They know exactly where to press to make you angry."
Eve looked at him for a slightly longer second, as if waiting for sarcasm.
It did not come.
Only an honesty too dry to hide behind a joke.
Mark leaned a little closer to her.
"They were probably just trying to protect you." He grimaced. "Not that it makes it any less stupid."
"Very stupid." Eve breathed in deeply, her shoulders loosening almost nothing, but enough. "And how has hero life been for you two these past few days?"
The subject shifted back to Titan, with Mark talking about the dilemma and what his father had said.
Eve agreed with Mark that it was worth checking. In the middle of the conversation, Kai glanced over her tray, then at Mark's face, and pushed his chair back.
"I'm gonna go grab some food. Want anything, Mark?"
Mark nodded. "The usual."
Kai disappeared among the students, crossing the cafeteria. That's when he bumped into William, and then Amber soon after.
They came back together, and within a few minutes the five of them were gathered around the table.
The table became strangely balanced.
Amber sat beside Mark, her shoulder touching his almost the entire time. William stayed beside Eve. Kai took the opposite end.
The subject slowly changed, finally drifting toward things that could be considered normal among teenagers.
When the end of the break approached, the tables around them began to empty.
William was the first to stand, tossing his tray into the return stack and waving from a distance before heading toward class.
Amber waited a little longer.
Then she stood, pulled Mark by the sleeve, and took a few steps with him to the side, far enough away that their conversation belonged only to them.
Kai, already used to this, kept eating.
Eve watched the two of them move away, then looked back at her own tray.
Amber leaned in, her voice low, almost conspiratorial.
"After that whole thing with his ex texting him..." She nudged Mark lightly with her elbow. "I heard Eve broke up too. Those two could totally get together."
Mark blinked, caught the idea in midair, and looked for a second toward the table, where Kai and Eve were still sitting, almost in silence.
His expression was not exactly immediate agreement. It looked more like a mix of surprise and a quick attempt to figure out whether that was a good idea.
He let out a sigh through his nose, hesitated for a second, "yeah... I think that could be nice."
Amber smiled, satisfied, already tugging his sleeve back.
"Let's talk about it at dinner. See you later."
She kissed his cheek lightly and started walking toward class.
Mark stood there for a second, watching her go before turning around.
At the table, Kai was still sitting on one side and Eve on the other.
There was a quiet dynamic between them— the kind that too many well-meaning people could easily ruin by trying to push in wrong direction.
Grayson House — 2:42 PM
As soon as the last class ended, Mark and Kai went straight home. The sky was clear when they came through the front door, Mark's backpack slipping off one shoulder while Kai headed to the kitchen first, knowing exactly what he was going to look for.
He opened the fridge.
He took out a container with leftover meat from the day before, opened the lid, and set it on the counter as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Mark stopped halfway through the room, staring at the scene.
"You just ate, and you're eating meat at this hour?" He grimaced. "Ah, forget it. Let me guess: 'Gains'?"
Kai did not even look at him as he pulled a fork from the drawer.
The kitchen's back door opened, interrupting them.
Nolan came in without hurry, but with that presence that made the kitchen feel smaller than it was. He looked at his two sons, one beside the counter and the other dropping his backpack, as if he had arrived at exactly the right time.
"Boys." He crossed his arms for a second before pointing his chin between them. "You want to act together, don't you? Then there's something for you to take care of that will require both your strength."
Mark blinked, straightening his posture.
Kai only lifted his eyes.
Nolan continued, turning back toward the door.
"Get ready. We leave in five minutes."
The two of them looked at each other.
Kai closed the meat container with a short motion and put it back in the fridge without arguing.
At this point they realized there would be no time for questions.
Five minutes later, the three of them were cutting through the sky.
Above Chicago — 2:50 PM Chicago Time
The south appeared beneath them first as a dark line on the horizon, then as a block of cold swallowing the rest of the world.
The world passed below them in blurs of green and blue, a trip of hours compressed into minutes by Viltrumite momentum. Chicago fell behind far too quickly for anyone to look twice, and the trio cut across the southern hemisphere like a scar in the sky.
Mark flew on the left, Kai on the right, Nolan a few yards ahead, the three of them in formation without any visible effort. The wind whispered in their ears, the sun still high behind them, but the light began losing strength as they pushed toward higher latitudes and white started to dominate the scenery below.
Kai looked over his shoulder, his face cut by the light.
"What are we doing this time?"
Nolan did not even slow down.
"The government has a problem it can't solve." His voice came calm, almost as if he were talking about something routine. "That's today's training."
Mark turned his face at once.
"What problem?"
"The GDA detected a magnetic anomaly at the bottom of Lake Vostok." Nolan pointed his chin toward the far south of the planet, as if he could see the place before they even arrived. "Something is vibrating at a frequency capable of cracking the Ross Ice Shelf. If that happens, the mass displacement could generate tsunamis on a global scale."
Mark let out a low whistle.
"That sounds bad."
Nolan glanced sideways.
"It could be bad if we weren't here."
Antarctica appeared beneath them like an infinite white desert, the ice shining beneath the weak sun, cut by blue shadows that looked like cavities opened in the planet's own surface. The air there was brutally cold, but that did not mean much for three Viltrumites in flight—only a change in texture, a drier silence, a more empty landscape.
Nolan slowed for the first time.
"You're going to dive with me at hypersonic speed." He said it like someone marking the next step in an exercise. "We break through the ice layer, reach the lake, and then we'll have to get that thing out of there."
Mark looked down.
"I just hope this is over before dinner."
Nolan shot him a brief look.
"It won't take as long as it seems."
Kai arched an eyebrow.
"It better not, or Romeo here is going to have to invent another dead relative."
Nolan gave a half-smile.
He touched the communicator and spoke toward the two of them, saying they would only wait now for GDA confirmation.
The wait for GDA contact took up most of the time.
Meanwhile, they occupied themselves with more training.
When the GDA confirmed the location, Nolan signaled to them.
And they descended together.
The initial impact with the snow was too fast to look natural—a white rupture beneath the three bodies, the ice opening like glass under extreme pressure. Then came the tunnel of descent, walls of ice and stone blurring past in pale blue streaks, the temperature falling while the pressure rose like an invisible wall.
The water of Lake Vostok came soon after.
Dark, freezing, dense enough to feel like solid matter in motion. Their three bodies pierced the surface like spears, bubbles rising in fast columns around them. The pressure down there would have crushed anything human—but not them. Even so, the weight of the environment made movement difficult, slowing every motion, forcing each one to become more focused, demanding constant strength.
Nolan advanced first, eyes alert, guiding the two of them beneath the ice toward the point where the anomaly vibrated. The object was trapped in sediment and frozen crust, partially buried in the dark lakebed.
Mark reached it, his hands closing around the irregular body of the thing.
It was incredibly heavy.
Not heavy in a human sense—heavy in the Viltrumite way of saying it. The mass resisted the first pull, then the second, and for an instant the three of them leaned together at the bottom of the lake, the object trapped between them as if the entire planet were trying to keep it there.
Kai adjusted his grip, Mark braced himself on the other side, and the two of them pulled at the same time, overcoming the rock's inertia.
The three of them shot upward, tearing through the water column, breaking through the lake's surface, and flying in a straight line toward the sky. The ice opened beneath them, the hole shrinking with every second as they gained altitude.
Above them, the darkness of space opened like a silent wound.
Nolan held the object at the center of the formation and raised his hand.
"Aim for the center of the solar mass. Don't miss the impulse."
Finally, they left the atmosphere as if the planet itself had spat the mass out.
Mark and Kai repositioned without arguing, one on each side, adjusting their arms, shoulders, and the angle of their wrists. The object began to rotate slowly between them, catching the heat of sunlight as if reacting to something inside itself.
They flew it out of the atmosphere, pushing the mass together.
When they were far enough into the void, Nolan raised his hand. 'Now.' They shoved it with everything they had.
The rock crossed the void in a perfect line, disappearing into the dark.
Nolan watched in silence for a few seconds before relaxing his posture. The exercise had gone cleanly, without hesitation, without wasted movement.
Even though they had acted together again, he was satisfied.
By the time they finally returned, hours had passed.
Earth's orbit turned slowly beneath them when Nolan flexed his shoulders and let out a breath.
"I'm hungry." He looked at the two of them as if the idea had only just occurred to him naturally, though his tone suggested it had already been decided before he said it, "If you want, we can stop at Best Wurst in Berlin."
Mark was drifting a little away from the group, his body turning in the opposite direction from Europe.
"I'd love to another time, Dad, but if training's over, I'm heading out. I've got plans."
Nolan let out a short sigh, knowing what it was about before he had even finished hearing it. Then he simply nodded.
Mark hesitated just long enough to seem polite, then shot toward Chicago with one last quick wave.
Kai stayed floating near Nolan, still in the clear emptiness of orbit, his eyes following his brother until he disappeared into the distance.
Nolan turned to him.
"And you?"
Kai looked back, real hunger weighing more than the exhaustion from training.
"I'll take it." His gaze moved toward the distant line of Europe. "But honestly, shouldn't Best Wurst be closed at this hour?"
Nolan shrugged, turning his body east, "Berlin is known for having an active nightlife."
Kai let out a breath through his nose, something between agreement and resignation.
And the two of them continued together, cutting through space toward the illuminated city, while Mark moved away toward his meeting with Amber.
Berlin — Best Wurst — 1:30 AM — 6:30 PM Chicago Time
Berlin shone beneath them in yellow, red, and white lines, a city too damp and too awake for the time on the clock.
Nolan and Kai landed in a side alley, far enough from the main street that no one would look in the wrong direction. One second they were in uniform. The next, they were just two men in dark coats stepping out of an alley as if they had rounded the corner after an ordinary walk.
The smell came before the sign.
Warm bread. Grilled meat. Onions. Mustard. Grease burning on a flat-top.
Kai slipped his hands into his pockets and followed Nolan into the neon-lit snack shop. Inside, there were only a few people: a couple talking quietly near the window, two men in jackets sharing fries without much urgency, a lost-looking tourist staring at the menu as if it were harder than it needed to be.
The attendant barely looked up when they entered.
For Berlin, at that hour, two strangers wanting food were nothing special.
For the planet, they had just prevented a global catastrophe.
The difference between one thing and the other pulled an ironic smile from Kai for half a second.
They chose a table near the window and did not look at the menu long enough to actually need it. Kai sat across from the wet street, watching the reflections of cars stretch in the dark asphalt.
When the food arrived, neither of them spoke right away.
Hungry, Kai started on the first bun like someone who saw no reason to wait. Nolan ate more slowly, his gaze fixed on the city beyond the glass.
"We spent almost an hour waiting for authorization to stop a catastrophe they could never have handled." Nolan wiped the corner of his mouth with a napkin, unhurried. "That's the problem here. They have an interesting talent for destroying themselves without any help."
Kai chewed slowly, his eyes following a taxi passing down the street.
"You say that like you're surprised."
"I'm not."
Nolan rested his forearm on the table. The neon light touched the side of his face, hiding half his expression in shadow.
"I just find it curious. War, politics, crime, hunger... there is always some ready-made explanation. Some convenient culprit. Some reason to wait until the problem becomes too large."
"Yeah. People are good at that." The corner of Kai's mouth moved, almost without humor. "I get what you mean."
Nolan looked at him, almost surprised that they had agreed, and then continued.
"They're the kind that only learns by making mistakes. And they'll keep making them until there's nothing left. It's a good thing we were here."
Kai did not answer right away. He simply went back to eating. Somehow, that conclusion fit his cynical worldview, and it was uncomfortably easy to accept.
Outside, a woman crossed the street with her hood pulled over her head, holding a bag against her chest. A cyclist passed soon after, too fast for someone who did not seem to have anywhere urgent to go. The city kept functioning, even past midnight. Even cold. Even old with scars the rest of the world liked to pretend were buried.
Kai looked at Nolan's reflection in the glass, his usual mocking tone returning.
"Not that I disagree with what you said, but you sound like you regret coming here."
Nolan followed his gaze for a moment.
"No. If I regretted it, I would have left already. Despite their inefficiency and fragility, they keep functioning." One corner of his mouth moved as his eyes passed over the people around them. "There's some use in that kind of stubbornness. They know how to cook."
Kai let out a short breath through his nose.
"That might be the warmest compliment you've ever given."
"Don't get used to it."
The answer came dry enough to almost sound like a joke.
Somehow, that made the silence afterward less heavy. It was no longer the same rigid silence from years ago, edged with sharp suspicion. Kai could sit there with his father and have it feel natural.
After a few seconds, Nolan looked at the empty chair beside Kai, where Mark probably would have thrown himself if he had been there.
"Mark turning down Best Wurst because of a girl." He let out a low sound, almost a laugh. "I expected that, if one of you drifted away first, it would be you."
"It seems you made a mistake," Kai glanced at him. "Apparently, relationships make people forget the rest of the world exists. That's not really my thing."
"Really? And that girl?" His gaze stayed far too calm. "Kiana. Your mother says you never talk about her."
Kai stabbed another piece of food with his fork. The metal scraped against the plate a little harder than before.
"Because it doesn't matter."
The answer came automatically, despite the apathetic tone, too quick to be completely convincing.
Kai brought the food to his mouth as if the conversation had already ended.
"It doesn't look like that..." Nolan's voice came low, almost practical. "But you're young. You'll understand it one day."
Kai clenched his jaw for an instant.
As if talking about a physical law, not a person, Nolan continued, "In less than a hundred years, she won't even be here anymore."
The snack shop remained the same.
The attendant wiped the counter. One of the men in jackets laughed quietly at something. The tourist gave up on the menu and pointed at some picture. The city did not change because someone had just reduced an entire life to a measure of time.
Kai did not change either.
Not on the outside.
Only his thumb slid once along the side of his glass, leaving a trail in the condensation.
The thought came.
A hundred years... how long am I going to live as a Viltrumite?
Soon after, faces took the place of the question.
Debbie, Kiana, Cassie, Henry, Becky, William... and it did not stop there.
Nolan had never actually said how long a Viltrumite would really live. Only that they lived longer than humans.
For the first time, Kai realized he would probably see what happened with Viktor and Mirage repeat with everyone he knew.
Until that made him break the silence.
"You said that about her. But that also applies to Mom."
Nolan went still.
Kai lifted his eyes.
"She won't be here in a hundred years either."
The question did not come as an accusation.
That might have made it worse.
The tone was one of resigned acceptance.
Nolan drew air through his nose and turned his face toward the window.
For an instant, he looked less like Omni-Man and more like the man who sat at the kitchen table in the mornings, reading the newspaper while Debbie complained about something Mark had forgotten in the hallway.
"I love your mother..."
Kai waited.
Nolan took another second.
"But that's it. It's complicated."
Kai looked at him long enough to make it clear he had understood the evasion. Then he went back to his plate.
The subject died there, not because it was over, but because neither of them tried to save it. The sound of cutlery, the street outside, and the low movement of the restaurant swallowed what remained of the evasive answer.
Kai finished half the food before speaking again. The conversation about being Viltrumite and living longer than humans had brought up a possibility that stayed lodged somewhere in his mind.
What else could Viltrumites do that he still didn't know about?
And then...
The connection to the Void.
Kai lifted his eyes to Nolan.
"So what's it actually like out there? You know... being an alien and all?"
The question sounded casual. But it was clearly poorly phrased, almost lazy, asked with more care than it appeared to have.
"What do you mean?" Nolan asked back, turning his face and studying him for a moment.
Kai said nothing.
So Nolan answered.
"It depends on where you go. There are worlds that have never seen night. Others that freeze before any civilization can get far enough to understand why. Empires that measure their own history in millions of years, and species that vanish before learning how to leave their own atmosphere. We find and save those places before that."
He took a drink.
"Well... you grew up here... I can say Earth is a good place, but what you see here doesn't represent even one percent of what exists out there."
Kai stayed silent. That, more than any speech, made the universe feel large. Truly large. Not like pictures in books, or the maps in games he knew. Large like something indifferent.
Kai kept his shoulders relaxed, his gaze on his plate, as if he had just grabbed the first random subject he could find, but he was trying to gain ground so that what he actually wanted to ask would come out naturally.
"And Viltrum?"
Nolan's hand stopped for an instant around the glass.
"What about Viltrum?"
Kai shrugged.
"Just thought of it now. If there are so many species, so many planets... has any Viltrumite ever been born different? Some unusual ability. Besides strength, flight, endurance." He made the question sound almost stupid on purpose. "Heat. Energy. Laser eyes. Anything like that."
He frowned, completing it mentally.
Or the Void.
Nolan held his gaze, and the answer came simply.
"No." Nolan set the glass down on the table. "Viltrumite blood is pure. Our strength comes from that. From the stability of the bloodline. Variations like that don't exist among Viltrumites."
Kai went quiet.
The fork stopped halfway between the plate and his mouth. His face revealed nothing beyond his usual control. But this time, his thoughts were no longer distant.
Maybe it was finally time to show Nolan.
Kai looked around, just enough to make sure the people there were busy with their own lives.
Then he placed his hand on the table, palm open upward.
Nolan looked at the gesture without understanding.
Staring at his own palm, Kai made the Void energy flow through his body toward his hand.
Just one thread of blue bending the air between them would be enough to show him.
For an instant...
It almost sparked.
Then Kai closed his fingers into a fist, letting the energy die.
Nolan raised an eyebrow, his gaze dropping to Kai's closed fist before returning to his face.
"Why the question? That's the first time you've brought up anything like that."
To Nolan's eyes, the gesture looked like someone thoughtful about the information he had received. Which, for any Earthling, made sense after hearing about the universe.
Kai leaned back in his chair.
"Nothing... Just curiosity."
His face returned to that bored expression that had protected more secrets than any elaborate lie. Then came the next question, meant to steer the subject completely away.
"Why didn't you bring Mom too today?"
Nolan watched him for another moment and accepted the answer with a sigh before responding.
"Your mother is mad at me because I said it was beneath you to help that criminal."
Kai let out a mocking breath.
"So coming here helped you avoid a lecture."
Nolan nodded with a half-smile.
"I'll cover for you when we get back. We'll just play the 'we saved Earth' card," Kai added.
Outside, Berlin remained alive beneath the light of early morning. And inside the snack shop, between father and son, something had changed enough to feel normal.
Even if both of them were still hiding something.
When they got home, Kai really did find a way to disarm Debbie's fury, and Nolan escaped the lecture with a complicit smile toward his son.
Later, in his room, Kai's phone lit up with a message from Cosmic: he and Elise were inviting Kai to come see them in Nairobi the next day. Kai confirmed, then locked the screen, setting the phone aside while exhaustion finally overtook him.
As silence fell over the Grayson house, adrenaline was still running wild in another part of the country.
Elsewhere — Utah, USA — Guardians Headquarters — 8:38 PM Chicago Time
The armored door of the headquarters opened with a heavy hydraulic hiss, and the group walked in all talking at once, the adrenaline from the fight still running through their veins.
Rex came in front, walking backward for a few steps as if bringing a stage performance to its grand finale, arms spread in an exaggerated gesture of victory.
"That's right, team!" He pointed at his own chest with his thumb. "And that is the last time the Lizard League turns people into snakes in my city."
Monster Girl came right behind him, far too excited for someone who had just transformed back from a massive green monster.
"Hell yeaaah!"
Frost exhaled through her nose, unable to hold back the corner of her mouth.
"If this guy handed out self-esteem, he'd cure depression worldwide."
Dupli-Kate turned her face toward him, wearing the easy smile of someone who had already accepted that Rex was Rex.
"Well, I don't disagree. But we still did great." She pointed toward the main corridor. "Who wants beer?"
Robot, walking beside them with his usual precision, lifted his face without changing pace.
"There is no alcoholic beverage in the Guardians headquarters."
Rex opened a smile that had clearly been carrying something long before they arrived.
They continued to the central area, where metal workstations surrounded the observation platform. When they arrived, Rex practically threw himself into the seat as if the structure were an apartment sofa instead of high-tech military equipment.
"Correction." He crossed his legs, relaxing his shoulders. "There wasn't any alcohol in the Guardians HQ. But I took care of that."
Dupli-Kate stopped near the edge of the platform, looked down at the space below, positioned herself, and stepped on a specific spot.
The platform opened a small compartment, from which shelves full of beer rose.
Rex spread his arms with fake theatrical astonishment.
"I only had to get rid of the computer that was in that space." He brought his hands to his face, looking toward Robot with an exaggeration that was already making Monster Girl laugh before the joke even landed. "Oh no, don't tell me that computer was your girlfriend, Robot."
Monster Girl let out a short laugh, leaning forward.
Dupli-Kate split into three copies and started handing out the bottles one by one, her copies passing the drinks in sequence to each member of the team. When she reached Monster Girl, the copy holding the beer stopped for an instant, looking at her height with a clearly measured gesture.
Monster Girl frowned immediately.
"I'm twenty-five."
Kate shrugged and handed her the bottle anyway.
Frost extended a hand before opening hers. Her fingers touched the glass, and the surface of the bottle cracked in thin lines, the liquid trembling inside.
"Better now."
Shrinking Rae ran a hand through her long hair, pulling it all back in a quick gesture before smiling at Rex and raising the bottle toward him.
Everyone opened their drinks at the same time.
The sound came together—a sharp crack, glass breaking, foam spraying in every direction.
Silence.
Then the same question, in an outraged chorus:
"What the hell is this?"
Robot was beside Black Samson. Black Samson was pressing a button on his wristband with a stern expression. The pulse emitted by the device had just shattered the bottles.
"You all think everything went well today." He looked from one to another, his voice firm, leaving no room for argument. "But we still have several civilians in the hospital. We have things to improve."
He walked to the center of the platform, the others still wiping foam off their faces.
"Robot. Show the fight."
The hologram rose into the air at full size, recreating the battle in layers of bluish light. The Guardians gathered around it, and as the images advanced, Black Samson began pointing out flaws, poor positioning, gaps in the formation, reaction time, overconfidence.
But before the explanation could end, Rex's temper made him stand up in irritation.
"Aw, come on, old man, you said yourself everything went fine. Why ruin it?" He opened his arms, indignant. "You don't even have powers."
Black Samson slowly turned his face, walking up to Rex until they were face to face.
"Say that again."
Kate stood before things could spiral out of control.
"Calm down, Rex. He's right."
Rex stood still for a second, looking at her and then at Black Samson, his jaw tightening.
Then he turned his back.
"Fuck this."
He walked out of the hall without looking back.
Monster Girl followed soon after, her steps hard, her voice loaded with irritation.
"As always, I'm the only one on this team who actually sacrificed something, and I still get complaints. Now I'm a week younger than yesterday."
Frost stood too, watching Kate stare at the corridor Rex had disappeared down while Shrinking Rae was already preparing to follow in the same direction.
"Yeah..." She let out a humorless half-smile. "Rex stormed off. Now the wave of girls in love with him goes after. I'm not part of that, but I will rest too."
Robot stayed silent, his face turned toward Monster Girl as she walked away.
The room grew smaller with the emptiness they left behind.
One Day Later, After Class — November 20th, 2015 — Friday — Reginald Vel Johnson High School — 2:30 PM
The day before, Kai had spent a few hours of Thursday in Nairobi with Cosmic and Elise.
At some point, Cosmic mentioned that he would be helping transport supplies to a nearby region the following night. Kai offered before anyone even asked. Cosmic and Elise exchanged a brief look, surprised not by the help itself, but by the initiative.
To him, apparently, crossing the world after school was only an inconvenient detail in his schedule. The time-zone difference meant that school letting out would fall after ten at night in Nairobi, shortly after the time Cosmic had mentioned.
The conversation eventually led to another subject. Since Cosmic and Elise would be in the United States the following week, maybe it would be a good opportunity to repeat Kai's exams and check the state of his brain again.
This time, there was no disaster to stop, no hidden emergency, or anything that required intervention at the last second. The mood between them was light, similar to the last time.
On Friday, when class finally ended, Kai already had an appointment waiting for him on the other side of the world.
While Eve, Mark, and Kai walked together toward the exit, the school's main hallway was already emptying.
She had been talking, but her voice was still less sharp than usual, still trying to fit all the chaos inside her somewhere and failing to find enough space.
"I don't know what I'm doing anymore." Her fingers tightened around the strap of her backpack. "After the fight with my parents, I just want to get out of the house."
Mark glanced at her as they walked, his expression softening almost immediately.
Kai followed beside him, simply letting the conversation flow while Mark talked to Eve, his eyes moving over the students around them without really paying attention to anyone.
"That sucks," Mark said, sincere. "But... you don't have to solve everything today."
Eve gave a small, tired smile, almost grateful that someone was not trying to fix her situation in thirty seconds.
"I know. Thank you for trying to help me and for always listening to me complain." She ran a hand through her hair, brushing a strand away from her forehead. "It's just that I'm starting to wonder what I'm even doing here."
Mark opened his mouth to answer, but Amber appeared out of nowhere and wrapped an arm around his neck with total naturalness, the familiarity of someone who already knew exactly where her place beside him was. Then she gave Eve a short nod in greeting.
"Hi."
Eve returned the smile. "Hi."
Amber leaned her body against Mark's for an instant before looking at him with a suspicious expression.
"You remember the thing later, right?"
"Yes." Mark nodded immediately.
Kai and Eve remained at the edge of the conversation. Amber relaxed her frown and then turned toward the two who had been left out.
"Mark offered to help me at the Beckwell Community Center," she explained without changing tone. "We serve dinner there twice a week." She turned her face back to Mark, eyes firm. "You're not bailing. I need you there today."
Eve looked at the two of them, and the smile that appeared this time was completely genuine.
"That's really nice of you."
Amber tilted her face slightly, proud, and pulled Mark one step closer.
"He owed me this."
Then, as if she had just come up with a better idea than the original one, she pulled Mark away from the two of them.
"What do you think about inviting them too?" Amber lowered her voice just enough that no one else would hear, a practical suggestion that almost sounded like a trap. "I need an extra hand today. And besides..." She made a discreet gesture with her chin toward Eve and Kai. "It seems like the perfect chance to set them up, like we talked about."
Mark blinked, the thought passed across his face before the answer—half uncertain, half already giving in to Amber's logic. He hesitated for more than ten seconds before replying.
"Yeah... maybe that's a good idea."
Amber gave him a light elbow, satisfied, as if that was exactly the answer she had wanted to pull out of him.
"That's a great idea."
She turned toward the two of them, pulling Mark as she approached them again.
"You know, I really need some extra help today. Could you two come too?"
The question came with just the right naturalness, no apparent pressure, but enough to make refusing feel almost rude. Eve was the first to answer, more because of the sincerity of the situation than anything else.
"Sure."
Kai glanced at Mark, then at Amber. The idea seemed to have been pushed into the right place before he had even finished deciding whether he wanted to be involved.
"Look, I've got something later." His answer came short, but less resistant than usual. "Can't promise anything, but I'll try to swing by if I have time."
Amber smiled with discreet triumph, as if she had seen that coming from the start.
"Great. Then it's settled."
After that, the group separated with the lightness of people who thought the day's plan had already been decided.
Amber left first, still saying something to Mark about the time. Eve followed another path shortly after, with a small wave, and the students gradually scattered across the courtyard and the sidewalk in front of the school.
The noise of dismissal fell behind them, replaced by the sound of cars passing on the street and the loose conversations of a few groups still taking their time before leaving.
Kai slipped his hands into his pockets and kept walking beside Mark, his tone too lazy to sound innocent.
"It's a shame, but I have the perfect excuse not to make it to the trap Amber's trying to set for me and Eve."
Mark looked at him without much surprise.
"You heard?"
Kai gave him a sideways look, as if the question itself were offensive.
"It's hard not to. You know we have enhanced hearing, right? And she was staring and pointing at us."
Mark opened his mouth, closed it again, and ended up laughing under his breath.
"Yeah." The laugh gradually died as he looked at the path ahead. "So you're not going? What's this thing you have?"
Kai took half a second longer than necessary to answer.
"I'm going to help a friend."
Mark raised his eyebrows.
"What friend?"
The easy answer came first.
Something vague. A simple excuse. An old contact from Oakwood. Anything Mark would probably accept without pushing too hard.
But Kai kept looking at the street ahead.
After Mars, after the conversations with Nolan, after so many things hidden for too long, that easy answer seemed smaller than before and maybe... pointless.
"Cosmic." He answered straight.
Mark blinked.
"Cosmic? The old GDA hero we met the other day?"
"Yeah." Kai shrugged. "I'm going to help him in Africa."
Mark stopped for an instant, almost tripping over his own step.
"In Africa?" He turned his whole face toward his brother. "Since when are you two close?"
The urge to dodge the question was still there, automatic, too old to disappear just because he had decided to try being honest once. But the thought came anyway.
Maybe it's time to tell him everything.
"It's a long story." He slipped one hand into his pocket and tilted his chin toward the sky, as if the idea were simple. "Why don't you come with me? I'll tell you there."
Mark went quiet.
For a second, he seemed to truly consider it. His gaze went to the path Amber had taken, then back to Kai. His mouth opened, closed, and he ran a hand through his hair with a guilty grimace.
"Dude, I kind of want to." He let out a weak laugh with no humor. "But I've been late to the last few dates because of our training with Dad, and Amber got really pissed. If I bail today too, I think she'll kill me before any villain does."
Kai stared at his brother for a moment, nodded, took a step to the side, looking for a less exposed spot among the students still leaving through the gate.
"It's fine. Just don't be late today."
Mark raised a hand in a short wave.
"Go. You can tell me the Cosmic story later."
Kai looked at him one last time.
"Later."
The next second, he shot into the sky.
Mark watched for another moment, until his brother disappeared above the buildings. Then he took a deep breath, adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, and headed home.
Grayson House — November 20th, 2015 — 5:45 PM
Three hours later, Mark was in his room, standing in front of the open closet.
His backpack had been thrown near the bed. His uniform was folded carelessly over the chair, and two regular shirts were spread across the mattress as if choosing between them were more complicated than fighting alien monsters.
He picked one up, looked at it, frowned, and threw it back.
"No."
He picked up the other.
Also no.
Beyond the door, the house remained calm. The distant sound of something in the kitchen, maybe Debbie moving plates. The TV low in the living room. Nothing exploding. Nothing falling from the sky. Nothing demanding a uniform.
Just a date.
Mark ran a hand over his face.
"Get there on time. That's it."
His phone vibrated on the desk.
He glanced over, expecting to see Amber's name and some message reminding him of the time.
But it wasn't Amber.
Titan.
Mark's expression changed before he even unlocked the screen.
The message was short.
"Tonight's the night. If you're gonna help, it has to be now."
Mark stood still for a few seconds, phone in hand, the shirt forgotten over his shoulder. Then he looked toward the window, in the direction of the sky where Kai had disappeared hours earlier.
"Damn it."
He opened the conversation with his brother.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard for a moment before they began to move.
"Titan texted. He wants to act today. I'm going to check it out."
Mark stared at the sent message.
He'll probably only look at his phone once he's done with whatever the hell he's doing.
Kai was on the other side of the world. Amber was waiting for him. And Titan had probably not chosen that timing by coincidence.
The thought came in his father's voice, too dry and direct to ignore.
You don't both need to go for small things.
Mark put the phone away, grabbed his uniform, and let out the air slowly.
"I hope I can solve this fast."
While Mark shot through the sky toward Titan, Nolan was arriving home with groceries for a planned dinner with Debbie, Kai was flying over Africa with Cosmic, and Eve had just found Amber at the Beckwell Community Center.
Just like that, the plan to arrive on time had become much more complicated.
Hallway High Up in a Commercial Building — 6:12 PM
The corridor took up almost the entire side of the floor, too empty to feel comfortable and too expensive to look ordinary.
On one side, smooth brushed-steel walls were broken up by reinforced doors, all without visible handles, only access panels and small green lights. On the other, floor-to-ceiling glass showed the city spreading out below, already taken by late afternoon, with the sun broken between buildings and avenues slowly lighting up.
Twelve men guarded the place.
They were not reception security. They had no radios clipped to their shoulders and no cheap uniforms. Rifles rested in their hands. Larger machine guns hung from thick straps, heavy enough to turn any ordinary corridor into a war zone.
One of them paced back and forth near the glass wall, the barrel of his weapon pointed down, his eyes running over the doors as if expecting trouble from inside.
Then something crossed the reflection of the city.
The man stopped.
Outside, against the orange sky, something was spinning toward the building.
Small at first.
Dark.
Fast.
His forehead tightened.
"What the—?"
The thing came closer.
It was not a rock.
It was Titan.
His entire body was curled around his own knees, spinning like a human projectile wrapped in stone. The glass exploded before anyone could finish lifting a weapon.
The impact tore through the corridor with a deafening crash.
Shards swept across the floor like cutting rain. The guard vanished beneath Titan, dragged backward into a steel door that dented under the weight of both bodies. The entire building seemed to shudder for half a second.
The other eleven reacted too late.
Shouts mixed with the sound of safeties clicking off.
Mark entered through the hole in the window right after him, cutting through the air between suspended shards and late-afternoon light. The first guard managed to lift his rifle to chest height.
Mark tore the weapon out of his hands before his finger touched the trigger.
The metal bent in the middle like paper.
The man was still staring at what was left of the rifle when Mark shoved him against the wall with enough controlled force not to kill him. His body hit, slid down, and slumped to the floor, breathless.
Two guards opened fire at the same time.
Bullets tore through the corridor in quick lines, ricocheting off Mark's uniform with metallic snaps. He did not even dodge. He simply advanced, expression closed, more irritated than threatened, and walked through the rain of gunfire until he reached them.
One strike against the barrel of the first weapon turned the rifle into scrap.
A low kick dropped the second man before he could retreat.
Titan rose from the debris with dust and glass falling from his shoulders. One guard tried to approach from behind, machine gun already raised.
Titan turned only half his body.
The stone fist struck the man's chest and launched him into the opposite wall, where he folded onto the floor, the weapon sliding away.
"Don't kill anyone," Mark called to Titan, grabbing another guard by the strap of his vest and throwing him into two of his companions.
Titan tore a dented metal door from its hinges and used it as a shield against another burst.
"Wasn't planning to."
The door took the shots in a rapid series of heavy thuds. Titan advanced behind it, shoved the sheet of metal into the shooter, and pinned him against the wall with enough force to tear a groan out of the man.
Mark slid across the corridor, dodging a rifle-butt swing, catching the guard's arm and twisting the weapon downward. The rifle fired into the floor. Before the man could understand what had happened, Mark had already lifted him by the front of his vest and hung him from a wall support like a heavy coat.
The last one tried to run to one of the side doors.
Titan extended his arm.
The rocky hand closed on the back of the man's vest and yanked him back. The guard landed flat on his back, losing his breath, and the weapon slipped from his fingers before he could even try to use it.
In less than twenty seconds, the corridor was covered in glass, broken weapons, and groaning men on the floor.
Mark looked at the reinforced door at the end of the corridor.
It was wider than the others. No identification. No handle. Just steel, internal locks, and a dark panel on the side.
Titan walked up beside him, rolling his shoulders.
"That's the one."
Mark did not even look for the panel.
His hand closed around the middle of the door.
The steel groaned.
For an instant, the structure resisted, its internal locks groaning as if trying to remind the world they had been made to prevent invasions.
Then Mark pulled.
The door came out of the frame whole.
He threw it aside with a crash that made the shards of glass jump across the floor and stepped inside.