The next day after the Turbine attack….
Global Defence Agency Headquarters, Pentagon
"Nolan's receiving the absolute pinnacle of care." Donald Ferguson, the right-hand man and assistant of the Director of Global Defence Agency, GDA, assured Mark and Debbie Grayson as the elevator they were in descended through multiple underground levels.
"As the global defence agency, we have access to medical technology far beyond any normal hospital." Donald assured, stepping out of the elevator. Mark had a hand on his mother's shoulder, trying to ease her worries, even though he himself was much more worried about his father.
This was not how he expected his day to turn out to be. Just as he was about to head out for school and his mother was heading out for her work, they were approached by GDA Agents who gave them vague news of Nolan Grayson, also known by the name Omni Man was gravely injured and instructed the two to accompany them.
Mark was still having a hard time believing this. In all the years he had known his father, and the hero Omni Man, there was never a case or scenario of being gravely injured. It wasn't like he didn't come home with bruises but his mom took care of it more than often.
They hadn't heard from Nolan for almost an entire day and when they finally got some news about him, it was this.
This was the first time Nolan had to be hospitalized and Mark simply wondered what kind of force of nature his father had to face that landed him in a hospital.
The teen tried to distract himself from all these thoughts. He gazed around the hallway, seeing some agents with weapons boarding a jet. "Whoa!"
"Ah! That's one of our threat response teams." Donald managed a small smile.
"We are not in the mood for a tour, Donald." Debbie's scowl deepened. Her heart was throbbing with worry with each passing step.
"My dad never mentioned you guys." Mark commented, trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.
He had never heard of the name GDA, at least not from his father's mouths. He knew that Omni Man worked with a team called Guardians of the Globe, with some of the members even having visited the Grayson house on one of his birthdays.
"That is the idea. We work with superheroes like your father to keep the world safe." Donald stopped before turning and pressing his palm on a scanner on the doorway. The door slid open and inside the room, lay Nolan in a bed, bandaged all over and a sling on his right arm.
"Oh my god, Nolan!"
"Dad!"
Both Mark and Debbie rushed inside the room and stood by the bedside of the unconscious Nolan. Donald stepped on the other side of the bed, standing opposite to the Grayson family.
"He's gonna be okay, right?" Mark asked.
"We…hope so, and our doctors are doing their best." Donald replied, unable to hide the unsurety in his voice. "But we don't get a lot of Viltrumites in here…."
"Who did this?" Mark asked, a frown taking over his features.
"We have no idea, not yet anyway." Another voice spoke up, making them all turn around to see Cecil Steadman, director of the Global Defence Agency leaning near the doorway. "But we will find out. And when we do. They are going to look a hell lot worse than your dad here."
Cecil went on and introduced himself to Mark, followed with a handshake. He then went on to reveal that all the Guardians of the Globe were murdered two nights ago, torn from limb to limb. This news shocked the mother and son. Nolan was the only survivor of the massacre and when they found him, he was in critical condition which was why Cecil thought it would be best to call his family when his conditions had stabilized a little.
"How is that even possible?" Mark asked, sparing a glance at his unconscious father.
"We don't know. We also don't know why your dad was at the Guardians HQ.." The director went on. "Now the working theory is, whoever killed the guardians lured him there, tried to wipe 'em out all at once."
"Why?"
"Why? Well that's the easy part." Cecil grumbled, walking over to his right hand's side. "There is not a single super-villain who does not want Omni Man and the Guardians six feet under."
"For now we are keeping this all hush-hush. We just wanted you and Mark to know first."
_______________________________________________________________________
Same time…
Silver slouched on a creaky chair, his hair flopping over his glasses as he glared at a tangle of wires, circuits and magnets on his desk. Near to it was a pizza box which acted as a makeshift table for his laptop where the news played. Books of Advanced Robotics and Machine Design rested on his lap.
His entire focus was on the project that he had to submit to the university as part of his curriculum. He had ditched his initial idea of making a robotic arm and instead his new innovation revolved around making a wearable arm assist exoskeleton. He was glad he did not submit his previous project idea to the professors because at that time he was still unsure and was thinking of other possible alternatives.
The fight with Turbine gave him some sort of inspiration. More than the fight, it was how the villain channeled his powers by having a power source in his hand. That gave him the idea of making a Wearable Exoskeleton. The thought that he had behind this one was that those with injured arms but no one to aid them in their day-to-day work, can put this exoskeleton into use, making their working easier and less stressful for them.
'Maybe I should add the idea of a knee assist exoskeleton as well…' Silver thought to himself while trying to sort out the mess of wires, circuit boards and magnets on his desk. The news that played on his laptop was mostly background noise, with him playing little to no attention to it.
Having submitted his latest project idea to the university professors, he was now in a time limit to submit all his workings, reports and the prototypes before the final examinations.
"Now just don't stick to the roof.." He muttered, tweaking a coil with a screwdriver. He was trying to make the joint of the exoskeleton flexible enough to cause less strain to those using it. The only problem was that making it flexible was causing him more strain than anyone would be facing in the future when they need up using this.
The bolt shot upward in the ceiling and Silver quickly grabbed the cup of cold coffee away from the table. He raised his other arm to catch the bolt before it landed on anything valuable. He knew his innovations would never betray his expectations.
Be that negative or positive expectations.
With a defeated sigh, he sipped on his cold coffee, turning to face the laptop screen to see if there was anything remotely interesting happening around the world. If not, then he would be going back to working on his project.
The news channels were mostly covering his superhero alter self, Nemesis's fight against Turbine and how the hero in purple-black suit saved the day. There were praises for him in multiple news channels and their top headlines mostly included either him or the fact that the Guardians were absent while a villain was terrorizing the city.
The Guardians were pivotal in saving the president and all those present in the White House when the Mauler Twins attacked there. Not to mention the Mauler Twins were in a different league than Turbine, and were maybe on a higher priority list than him. Or maybe the Guardians were preoccupied somewhere which was why they failed to appear while Turbine was attacking the city.
'It's not like the earth is lacking in superheroes….' Silver thought to himself, finishing his cold coffee and threw the empty cup in a nearby trash can. 'The Guardians just tend to make it to the headlines most of the time..'
"ALIEN INVASION DOWNTOWN!"
Silver's attention was drawn when one of the content creators, whom he had subscribed and followed, posted a live video in their channel. The video showed many humanoid creatures with green heads, wearing advanced combat suits and had high-grade laser guns on them. They were stepping out from a single giant portal and were firing indiscriminately at whoever or whatever was in front of them.
Closing down the laptop with a thud, he tossed it aside before grabbing his briefcase from under the bed and the visor from the cupboard on the bedside.. Without wasting a second, he went for the nearest window in his room and jumped off from there. The briefcase opened midair and his suit attached itself to Silver while he put on the visor.
Before his feet could touch the ground, he was already suited up and flew at high speeds towards the Downtown area.
__________________________________________________________________________
Smoke clouds could be seen from even a mile away from in between the builds as Invincible made his way to where the aliens were attacking. He stopped midair, seeing that it wasn't just a few aliens but an entire army of them walking out of the portals. Their numbers could easily rival any small to mid-size nation's entire armed forces.
Not to mention four big, armored tanks with multiple weapons loaded in them, were also rolling out from the portal, following the foot soldiers.
As he flew closer, he noticed a purple-black blur fly past him.
'Nemesis!' Mark thought to himself, recognizing one of the many heroes that he followed on social media, other than his father and the Teen Teams group.
Very little was known about Nemesis, other than the fact that he debuted four years ago. No one knew where he was from or who he was. But in any dangerous situation, a villain attack, a bank robbery, a hostage situation, Nemesis was always there to save the day.
People loved him and the villains hated him. Their dislike for him grew so much that it was the villains that ended up giving him the name, Nemesis.
Invincible watched as Nemesis shot out multiple grey discs from his gauntlets which attached themselves to the back of the civilians who were trying to run away from the incoming aliens. He then levitated them all in the air and safely dropped them on the far other side of the street.
Some aliens did not take the evacuation of the citizens kindly and started firing off at Nemesis's direction.
"Hey back off!"
Invincible flew in the way of the laser blasts, trying to tank them but a single big blast from the tanks sent him flying.
"What was–?" Nemesis flew in irregular patterns as the aliens continued to fire at him and the new flying guy in yellow-and-blue. 'Who is he?'
Annoyed by the constant firing, Nemesis held out his arm, and the blasters were suddenly lifted off from the hands of the aliens With a few motions of his hands, he made the blasters hit their users, either knocking them out or sending them flying.
"Hey new guy!" Nemesis called out to Invincible who had finally got his bearings together after being almost blasted away. "How about helping with the evac? And also try to get those cops away."
Several police cars had lined up around the perimeter and were firing at the incoming aliens. Not like their guns were doing any significant damage to the alien troops. Rather the police were adding more to the number of human bodies.
"Me?" Invincible pointed at himself, still unsure about all of this. This was his first time in front of real, life-threatening danger and the image of his dad still in hospital, unconscious, was fresh in his mind.
These were the kinds of situations his father faced on a daily basis.
Letting go of his control of the blasters, Nemesis brought his hands near to one another, crimson energy sparking in between his palms. He then held out his hands towards the incoming aliens, firing a massive energy blast at them. The blast reduced many of them into a bloodied mess and knocked several of them out of commission. Some of the aliens flew into nearby buildings, cars and lampposts.
Nemesis took this chance to fly beside Invincible.
"Listen I get that this is your first time in the face of danger." Nemesis spoke up, resting a hand on the goggled-superhero's shoulder. "Trust me when I say I was like you too when I started. Nervous and afraid. It is okay to be both right now."
"Fear is a good thing to have. It reveals to you many things you never knew about yourself. But you should not let it dictate your actions or inactions." The purple-clad hero added before pointing to the incoming aliens and then turned his head to the cops and citizens on the other side. "The number one priority of a hero is not to defeat the bad guys. It is saving people."
"As unfortunate as it is, we are badly outnumbered. I can't fight them off and save people at the same time. Can I trust you to have my back and protect the people? Until backup arrives?"
Mark couldn't believe his ears. One of the many heroes that he followed on the internet was asking him for help in saving the day! This was different compared to when he was with his father. He was just training him on how to be a hero and most importantly on how to use his newly awakened powers.
This was a hero he admired, asking him to watch his back. Surely he can do that. He can fly the citizens to safety and even take the injured ones to the hospitals.
"Yeah I can do it!" Invincible nodded.
"Good. I will leave it to you then." With that said, Nemesis flew off towards the aliens, levitating two lampposts from the road and swung them like baseball bats to knock off another fleet of aliens. He then charged twin red energy spheres in his hands to intercept a series of laser attacks, all aimed at him from the blasters of the foot soldiers. "I swear they have more population than China.."
The aliens that were driving the tanks, noticed that the foot soldiers were being pushed back by a single human in purple. They charged the main cannon blaster and fired in his direction.
Before the canon blast could hit him, a pinkish barrier was formed mid air, and redirected the blast to an abandoned building. Nemesis glanced upwards to see a radiant young Caucasian woman with red hair and green eyes, and having a slender, athletic build descending down on the street.
She was wearing a form fitting tight pink suit adorned with an atomic symbol in the center of her chest, accompanied by concentric rings and a matching pink cape. In her palms, pinkish energy was in a state of constant spark.
Three more figures jumped right beside her. One of them was an orange robotic drone with greenish eyes and a cylinder on the upper back of its head.
The other two were humans. One of them was a male with an excellent build, wearing a matching yellow-red jacket and trousers. He had several small, white cylinders fastened to his belt around the waist. He had a mask that covered his entire head and neck, minus the chin and mouth and a pair of yellow goggles.
The other was a slender, young Chinese woman of above average height with short, chin-length black hair in a bob-cut and monolid brown eyes. She wore a mid-sleeve dark purple and lavender-colored turtleneck bodysuit with a number emblem on her chest.
"That's Atom Eve and Teen Team…" Invincible mumbled as he flew the citizens to safety and took note of the heroes that landed just now.
"Teen Team, never on time." Nemesis commented with a dry chuckle as he flew in, while now levitating a number of aliens using his powers. A faint crimson glow surrounded the aliens that were lifted by Nemesis before he flung them towards the other extraterrestrial invaders.
"Not all of us can fly, asshole!" Rex Splode quipped back, grabbing a pair of cylinders from his waist and flung them towards the aliens. The cylinders exploded upon contact with the enemies.
The Chinese woman made multiple copies of herself and started fending off the aliens, showcasing her better melee-combat skills compared to those of the aliens who were pretty much useless without their blasters. Not to mention, they weren't well-versed in close combat.
"Well you guys take care of the foot soldiers. I will take care of the tanks…" Nemeis said with narrowed eyes as another portal opened and three more tanks rolled out from them. 'Why did the number of tanks go from three to six?'
"Yeah, we can deal with this." Atom Eve commented, making an energy spear in her hand before flinging it towards a nearby platoon of alien soldiers. The spear stabbed through them, sending them flying away with a blast.
With a flick of his fingers, Nemesis lifted up two of the tanks in the air and let them crash onto each other in midair with a big explosion. As long as they brought more tanks and weapons to the battlefield, Nemesis would make the situation more disadvantageous for them. For the other four tanks, Nemesis exerted his powers, aimed solely at the tanks. The immense force of his powers crushed and crumpled the tanks as if they were paper.
As the battle went on, suddenly the aliens stopped in their tracks, their skins drying up and they started getting wrinkles on their hands and faces. It seemed as if they were aging a lot faster than normal. Realizing what was happening, the aliens started running back into the portals, leaving behind those that aged up and collapsed on the ground, lifeless. Those that were still able to run, abandoned their weapons and dead comrades. The portal closed down once all the aliens were gone.
"I don't know what just happened but I speak for everyone here when I say I never want it to happen ever again." Rex spoke, breaking the silence that followed after the retreat of the alien invaders.
One of the aliens that was laying half-dead behind Rex, groaned and tried to get up only for him to punch it back to unconsciousness.
"Indeed." Robot agreed before looking up at Nemesis who seemed to be assessing the damage caused and also ensuring that the citizens were safe. It seemed the other hero that was here before them, had flown away earlier.
Walking up to him, Robot spoke up. "Good work Nemesis. Thanks to your and Invincible's earlier efforts, the number of casualties remained just in double-digits."
"Those double-digits are still dead people, not just reduced population data." Nemesis gritted his teeth before just flying off from there without saying another word.
Robot stared at Nemesis's flying form which soon disappeared from view. "....That is unfortunate.."