G.D.A Prison. Location unknown.
Inside the G.D.A. Facility, the cold hum of fluorescent lights echoed through the sterile chamber. Nolan stood restrained—arms spread wide, legs shackled to the reinforced floor. He was silent, his eyes fixed on nothing, yet filled with everything. Regret, shame… and pride.
He closed his eyes.
The memory hit him like a storm.
Sand whipped across the Sahara as fists collided like thunderclaps. Nolan remembered each blow exchanged with Robert—his adopted son, his enemy that day. Every strike had been calculated, brutal. But with each passing moment, Robert endured. Adapted. Grew stronger.
"He was never going to stop," Nolan muttered under his breath. "Even if it meant dying."
Robert had been outmatched in strength, technique, and experience—but his will had never faltered. That's what broke Nolan. Not physically. Emotionally.
He saw the image of Robert bloodied, exhausted, eyes burning with defiance. Refusing to give up on him.
'Why did I almost kill him?' Nolan's fists trembled in their bindings.
He had told himself it was for the Viltrumite Empire. For duty. For conquest. Earth was weak, temporary—its people destined to fade. He had convinced himself that it was necessary to break ties. Even with Debbie. Even with Marie. And yes… even Robert.
'But how could I forget…?'
He had raised Robert. Held him when he had nightmares. Laughed with him over dinners. Taught him to fly. And Robert… he had called him dad.
Nolan gritted his teeth. A wave of shame washed over him as he recalled how close he came to ending that bond with his own hands.
And for what? For the empire? His homeworld?
He thought briefly of Marie—how she would've looked at him if he'd fought her instead. At one point, he believed she could've been convinced. That if he explained the grand purpose, she would understand. Abandon the humans. Abandon her mother.
But now…
"I was wrong," Nolan whispered. "I would've destroyed everything I loved."
He lifted his head. The bindings held firm, but something inside him had shifted.
Robert wasn't his blood. But that didn't matter.
He was his son.
And he had been right.
During the fight, the Sahara sun bore down mercilessly, heat rising in waves across the golden dunes. A gust of hot wind swept through the desert as two figures floated opposite each other in the sky.
Robert—Sentry—hovered in his black and gold suit, fists clenched and blood trickling from his mouth. His cape fluttered behind him, torn and scorched. Across from him, Nolan—Omni-Man—stood with arms at his sides, breathing calmly despite the fresh bruise forming under his eye.
"You don't understand what you're doing, Robert," Nolan warned, his voice laced with frustration.
Robert's eyes narrowed. "No… I do. That's why I won't let you destroy this world."
Without another word, Nolan shot forward. The desert exploded beneath him from the force of his acceleration. Their fists collided midair with a thunderous BOOM, creating a shockwave that split dunes apart in every direction. Sand spiraled high into the sky as the ground cratered beneath their feet.
Robert skidded back, stopping himself with a kinetic pulse. Nolan didn't relent. He charged again, slamming his fist into Robert's ribs, sending him flying through a sandstone ridge. The rock shattered around him.
Robert burst free from the debris, his eyes glowing with telekinetic power. He raised both hands and unleashed a concussive wave that blasted Nolan back into the sky.
They ascended like rockets, breaking through the sound barrier as they fought through the clouds. Robert ducked a kick, twisted Nolan's arm midair, and slammed his fist into his father's side. Blood sprayed into the air.
"You think you can stop the Viltrumite Empire with speeches and ideals?!" Nolan roared, snarling in frustration.
"Think, Robert! Think!"
Robert floated higher, defiant. "Maybe I can't. But I can damn well try—and I won't let you break this planet like the others!"
Their bodies blurred once again as they crashed back to the earth, falling like meteors. Robert's power flared—he took control of the fall, guiding them deliberately toward a location… and neither of them noticed it yet.
As they hit the ground, the impact shook the region, flattening dunes for miles. A massive crater formed where Robert now stood, panting, while Nolan struggled to get up.
"I don't want to kill you," Nolan said quietly, regret seeping into his voice.
Robert, his eyes still glowing, stared back. "Then don't. Prove you're better than what they made you."
That moment of hesitation was all he needed.
Robert lifted his hand, unleashing a telekinetic blast that knocked Nolan off balance. He followed it with a sonic clap that rattled the sky, launching them both into the air again—higher this time. Up into the clouds. There, they clashed once more, punches blurring, roars echoing through the atmosphere.
The air crackled with raw energy. Every punch, every block, every dodge was a thunderclap. The Sahara Desert had become a battlefield unlike any other, shaped and scarred by the fury of a Viltrumite and the heart of a rising hero.
Robert's breathing was shallow but steady, his body aching from the brutal exchanges. Nolan hovered above him, bruised and bleeding from his lip. Neither was willing to back down.
"You're holding back," Nolan growled, launching toward Robert with terrifying speed.
Robert caught his father's punch with both hands but still skidded backward through the sand, carving a trench in the earth. "And you're still underestimating me!"
Robert's telekinetic aura flared—he twisted his body and hurled a chunk of compacted sandstone like a cannonball at Nolan's head. Nolan dodged, but Robert was already behind him. A fist to the spine. A jab to the throat. A rising uppercut that knocked the Viltrumite skyward.
But Nolan recovered fast.
"Enough!" Nolan yelled, fists flashing forward in a blinding combo. He struck Robert's chest, gut, and jaw in rapid succession. The final blow slammed Robert into the dunes below, creating a massive crater.
Robert coughed blood. He barely had time to shield himself with a kinetic barrier before Nolan came crashing down like a missile. The impact exploded in a mushroom cloud of sand and smoke, sending shockwaves that reached nearby mountain ranges.
From within the dust, Robert surged forward, his body covered in grit, eyes blazing. "You want to see power? Fine!"
He released a telekinetic shockwave in all directions, blowing back the clouds and lifting the desert floor. Debris floated around them—chunks of earth, shattered rock, fractured pillars of glassed sand. Robert manipulated them all.
He thrust his hands forward, and the entire barrage of debris hurtled at Nolan.
Nolan barrel-rolled and weaved through most of it, but a jagged slab caught his shoulder, slicing deep. He grunted in pain—then retaliated by diving straight through the rest of the storm and tackling Robert mid-air.
They spun violently through the sky, trading punches mid-flight like two gods in a storm.
Nolan smashed Robert through a rock plateau, then through another. "You're not Viltrumite!" he bellowed. "You're human! Weak!"
"I'm more than that!" Robert yelled back, grabbing Nolan's arm and flipping him. He spun mid-air and drove both feet into Nolan's chest, launching him into the sand hard enough to leave a crater a mile wide.
Nolan staggered to his feet, bleeding and dazed. Robert landed nearby, his knees buckling for just a second. His knuckles were raw, his body nearly spent.
"Mom taught me to fight. To protect. To stand for something," Robert said, his voice thick with emotion. "So I will. Even if it's against you."
Nolan looked at him, breathing hard. "Why fight for a planet that will die? Why throw your life away?"
"Because my life means something to them," Robert said. "And they mean something to me."
They launched at each other one more time—final blows ringing like thunderclaps.
Nolan roared. Robert screamed.
Their fists met—and time felt like it stopped.
Shockwaves tore through the earth, forming deep canyons across the dunes. The sky itself seemed to ripple.
Both men collapsed to the ground—broken, panting, staring at each other.
Blood from both stained the sand.
Nolan looked up at the blazing sun and finally whispered, "You're… stronger than I thought."
Robert coughed and replied, "No. I'm just not afraid anymore."
The sands no longer shifted—they exploded.
Nolan drove Robert through a rock formation, the impact carving a crater as wide as a city block. Robert's body bounced and skidded across the ground before he caught himself mid-air, panting, cracked goggles hanging off his face.
"You're still holding back," Nolan growled, landing like a meteor with enough force to rupture the desert floor.
"I'm not…" Robert gasped, clutching his ribs, "trying to kill you."
"Then you've already lost!"
Nolan blitzed him, faster than sight. Robert barely raised his guard before Nolan's knee smashed into his stomach, sending him spiraling. Mid-spin, Robert extended his arms, releasing a telekinetic shockwave that hurled Nolan backward.
He barely touched the ground before rocketing forward again. Nolan's fist collided with Robert's, a concussive boom tearing open the clouds above. The desert's temperature dropped, as if the planet itself held its breath.
Robert's arms trembled as he blocked another barrage, each punch shaking his bones, shattering the very air between them.
'I can't match him blow for blow. I have to outthink him.'
Robert twisted his body, letting Nolan's next punch glide past him, and struck him with a kinetic burst to the side of the head. Nolan staggered—but only for a second. Then his fist came around like a wrecking ball and knocked Robert into the mountains.
Boulders cracked, dust filled the air.
Robert didn't move.
Nolan approached, bloodied but unshaken. "You were supposed to be stronger."
Robert, coughing blood, pushed himself up again. "I am stronger. Not in the way you think."
"You're still speaking in ideals. That's not strength. That's weakness."
Robert's eyes lit up.
"Then I'll show you weakness," he growled, raising both hands. The air warped and twisted as he lifted an entire ridge of stone and launched it at his father.
Nolan tore through it, fists blazing.
They collided mid-air, trading blows in a blur—speed, strength, fury. Nolan slammed Robert into the ground again and again, forming impact craters like bullet holes across the desert.
Robert struck back, unleashing focused telekinetic blasts that turned sand to glass. He kicked Nolan through a dune and caught him on the rebound with a two-handed hammer blow to the chest that shook the atmosphere.
But even that wasn't enough.
Nolan countered with a savage elbow to the jaw, grabbed Robert by the face, and plummeted toward the earth—dragging him like a missile.
They hit. A shockwave flattened everything for miles.
Robert's vision blurred. His breathing came ragged.
"I could end this now," Nolan whispered, pinning him.
Returning to the present, Nolan's eyes snapped open as the heavy metal door creaked open. He looked up, and his breath hitched at the sight.
It was Marie.
She stood just beyond the threshold of the cell, arms wrapped tightly around herself. Her usually bright expression was dulled by sorrow and fear. Her lips quivered, and her eyes shimmered with barely-contained tears.
"Marie…?" Nolan's voice was low, careful, as if afraid the sound would break her.
She stepped closer, her gaze avoiding his at first. Then, she looked him in the eye.
"He's gone," she whispered.
Nolan's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"
Marie's voice cracked. "Robert… he went through a portal of another dimension. He—he said he'd come back, but I tried to stop him. He was too fast."
The words struck Nolan like a punch to the gut.
"He went into the another dimension?"
She nodded, swallowing hard. "He said they'd come back again… and that he had to stop them. That we weren't ready." Her voice broke.
"He didn't even give me a real goodbye…"
Nolan's shoulders sagged, the weight of this new pain compounding the guilt he already carried.
"That fool…" he whispered, his voice trembling—not with anger, but grief. "He did it for all of you. For this planet."
Marie clenched her fists. "Why does he have to carry everything alone?"
Nolan looked at her, eyes soft. "Because that's who he is. Even when I turned my back on everything I loved and cared….he never stopped trying to save me."
Marie stepped up to the glass that separated them.
"He did save you."
Nolan closed his eyes.
"Then I owe him everything. And when the time comes… I'll repay that debt."
Silence encompassed the room, only broken by the soft hum of the containment field. Nolan let out a quiet breath and then looked at Marie with a rare, confident gleam in his eyes.
"He'll be back," he said.
"I know Robert. He's already searching for a way… and he will find it."
Marie managed a small smile and nodded, wiping her eyes.
"Time flows differently there. He might already be close to coming home."
The words hung in the air like a quiet prayer.
Meanwhile…
In a dimension bathed in a copper-orange sky, towers of alien design rose across a massive city built with war and technology. Inside a grand futuristic castle atop the highest peak, Flaxan banners fluttered in the warm wind.
On a throne of alien metal, flanked by kneeling soldiers, sat a lone figure in a suit of deep black and gold.
His visor glowed faintly. His cape draped into the floor.
It was Robert.
Silent. Watching. Commanding.
The man… the myth… the legend.
The Emperor of the Flaxan Dimension.