Sunlight beamed off the glass towers surrounding them, turning the skyline into a field of glittering steel. Mark adjusted his goggles, peering at the skyscraper across the block; sixty floors up, sharp-edged and quiet.
Beside him, Titan cracked his knuckles. His body shifted and armored in layers of dense granite mineral that shimmered faintly under the light.
"I want you to throw me," he said.
Mark blinked. "Wait. What?"
Titan gave him a look, as if Mark had just forgotten how legs worked. "Throw me. I can't fly, remember? Do you want me to just walk up the front door and ask nicely to be let in?"
"Oh. Yeah. Totally knew that." Mark scratched the back of his head. "Right."
Titan let out a long, slow sigh.
Kid's strong and his heart is in the right place, but he's as dumb as concrete.
"Just aim for the windows on the top floor. I'll handle the rest."
Mark shrugged. "Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
He grabbed Titan by the waist and with one smooth, absurdly powerful motion, launched him like a human cannonball. The air cracked as Titan soared through the sky, a blur of granite colored rock skin and civilian clothes hurtling toward the heavily guarded building.
___
The executive level was silent with cold floors, tinted glass, and rows of guards pacing in black suits, earpieces blinking red. One leaned against the wall sipping from a paper cup, rifle in other hand.
He looked up.
A shadow was growing closer and fast.
"What the?"
CRASH!
Titan tore through the window, glass exploding inward. The guard didn't even have time to scream before he was clotheslined into the far wall.
The others drew weapons but Mark came in right behind, slowing just enough to land gently, brushing shards from his sleeves.
"Hey," he said, before flicking one guard across the room like a toy. "Just a heads-up! This is gonna hurt a little. Well maybe a lot."
He moved quick and bodies dropped around him like bowling pins.
Titan wasn't holding back. Every swing from his stone-coated fists left dents in walls and groans on the floor. One guard tried to unload into him. The bullets didn't even tickle.
They cleared the floor in under thirty seconds.
_____
The doors to the penthouse office burst inward, splinters flying.
"Machine Head!" Titan barked.
Mark hovered above the broken threshold. "We're taking you in. Don't make this worse."
Behind the massive desk, Machine Head sat calmly, pen still gliding across paperwork. He didn't even look up.
Mark narrowed his eyes and floated forward. He brought both fists down on the desk; not hard enough to smash it, but enough to shake the entire thing and knock a few pens to the floor.
"Hey! This is over," Mark said.
"You're out of your league," he added.
Machine Head finally glanced up, his synthetic voice calm and chirpy. "Carry the two… Oh, Invincible. Titan. How exciting."
Mark stepped forward. "Don't play dumb. You've lost."
"Lost?" Machine Head tilted his head. "You're incredible. Strong. Fast. You fly all over the damn place. It's amazing. Truly."
Mark blinked. "Uh… thanks?"
Machine Head smiled wide. "I also knew exactly when you two would come in here and ruin my office. By the way, those doors? ITALIAN FUCKING MAPLE!"
Titan frowned. "There's no way you saw this coming."
"Aw," Machine Head sighed. "Is that what you think? I forget that brain of yours is literal rock."
A shimmer of light and Isotope materialized beside the desk, arms folded, smirking.
Mark's eyes went wide. "You said he was taken care of."
"I know what I said," Titan muttered.
Machine Head tapped his forehead. "This little upgrade lets me process predictive models in real-time. I see futures. Possible ones. No point explaining quantum branching to either of you, it'd be wasted."
Mark clenched his fists. "Even if you saw this coming, you can't stop us."
Machine Head leaned back, amused. "Right. I'm out of my league. You're the big names."
Then he grinned.
"But I've got money."
Flash.
Isotope blinked into existence at the center of the penthouse, shadows still flickering around him like smoke dragged from another dimension.
He wasn't alone.
The first to step through was Kursk. He was a walking lightning storm. His full yellow bodysuit gleamed under the ambient light, the jagged orange bolts over his eyes flashing like warning signs. .
Behind him was Battle Beast.
He entered with the slow, deliberate grace of a predator, each heavy step echoing through the room like the countdown to something inevitable.
His towering form was sheathed in white fur, braided mane draping down both sides of his head like ceremonial cords. Red shoulder pads and black armor clung to his leonine frame, the checkered belt around his waist the only ornament; some alien war trophy, no doubt.
A massive spiked mace rested casually against one shoulder.
Mark's breath caught.
The air changed. He felt it in his bones like pressure before a storm.
Beside him came Magmaniac, his body a barely contained eruption. Muscle and magma swirled beneath a glowing shell of molten rock, veins pulsing with energy.
His silhouette shifted subtly, never quite still, like lava cooling and cracking again in real time. Heat rolled off him in waves, warping the air around his shoulders.
And of course Tether Tyrant was here.
His outfit was simple dark pants, tactical boots, and a reinforced chestplate which contained his tethers.
He let out a whistle that sliced through the silence.
"Quite the party," he said, flashing a grin as his tendrils rippled infront of him.
Mark took a slow step back, the weight of it all crashing down at once.
"…Oh, shit."
Behind him, Machine Head chuckled.
"You have no idea, kid," he said, "Welcome to the FUCKING deep end!"
____
Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The air smelled of tomato broth and roasted chicken. Volunteers bustled across the kitchen, aprons flapping as they carried trays and stirred giant pots. The clatter of serving utensils echoed against the tile.
Amber looked up from the sink as two figures entered.
"Hey! Eve! Naruto! You made it."
Amber wiped her hands on a towel and waved them in. "Come on, I'll give you the tour. Chicken, mashed potatoes, salad bar over there. Minestrone's still on, but we'll need another pot. It's simple, but it's hot and healthy."
Naruto sniffed the air. "This smells like a dream."
"Don't mind him. His usual dinner is two packs of instant noodles and a can of orange soda," Eve added.
Amber raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
Naruto shrugged. "Can't argue with greatness."
"Is Mark here yet?" Eve asked, scanning the crowd.
Amber sighed, visibly annoyed. "That boy's got about fifteen minutes before I throw his ass out like yesterday's casserole."
She handed Eve a chopping board and a pile of onions. "You look like you're good with knives."
Eve grinned, taking the blade. "You have no idea."
Naruto's phone buzzed. He glanced down, eyes narrowing.
"I'll be right back," he said quickly, slipping outside.
The buzz of the kitchen continued as Eve turned toward the door, blade in hand, unaware that miles away, all hell was about to break loose.
___
Mark's fist crashed into Kursk, sending the electric villain hurtling backward into a priceless painting mounted on the far wall. Sparks danced along the floor where Kursk landed.
But the shock came fast.
Kursk roared as he staggered upright, sparks dancing across his fingertips. His suit glowed white-blue with built-up charge, the hum of static thickening the air.
With a furious cry, he flung a jagged bolt of lightning across the room. It snapped through the air like a whip, striking Mark dead center in the chest.
The blast exploded on impact.
Mark's body lit up in a flash of electric white. He let out a strangled gasp as the shock launched him backward. His boots scraped across polished marble, gouging twin trails into the floor as he skidded uncontrollably.
Dust followed him in a gray wave. He hit the base of a pillar hard enough to rattle it, limbs twitching violently as his nerves rebelled against the current still burning through him.
Smoke curled from his chest and his fingers spasmed.
Mark blinked through the haze. The world around him was pure chaos, a warzone wrapped in gold and steel. He could still hear the symphony of carnage: the clang of metal, the crackle of electricity, and the rhythmic boom of fists breaking bone.
Across the battlefield, Battle Beast swung his massive golden mace in a brutal arc. Wind rushed behind it. The weapon moved like an extension of his fury.
Titan ducked low just barely and charged forward. He drove his stone-plated shoulder into the alien warrior with all his strength. The impact was thunderous, cracking the floor beneath their feet like a fault line snapping open.
Battle Beast didn't move an inch.
He looked down at Titan like a disappointed father and wrapped one hand around his opponent's head mid-grapple. Massive fingers tightened around the rough granite texture of Titan's cranium.
With a grunt, he hoisted Titan effortlessly and hurled him sideways like he weighed nothing.
Titan flew like a missile, crashing through a support beam and smashing into a concrete pillar hard enough to send fractures crawling up the walls. Chunks of rubble rained down from the ceiling as the whole foundation groaned under the strain.
Battle Beast didn't give him a second to recover.
He leapt through the dust cloud, roaring, and cocked his fist back. His next punch drove straight into Titan's stomach, sinking deep with a sickening thud. Titan folded in on himself, coughing up blood as shockwaves rippled out from the impact, shaking the room like an earthquake.
Still he didn't fall.
Titan surged forward with desperate resolve. He landed two quick, tight punches; one to the gut, one snapping Battle Beast's head to the side. Both connected.
Battle Beast's head turned slowly back to face him. A grin spread across his blood-spattered face.
He was enjoying this.
He grabbed Titan again, yanked him down by the collar, and drove a brutal knee into his face. Titan staggered, reeling, barely on his feet.
Then Battle Beast spun.
Like a cyclone of muscle and armor, he twisted his body and let the momentum carry his mace in a savage arc. It slammed into Titan's ribs with a sound like stone shattering under a sledgehammer.
Titan was airborne before he knew it. His body hurtled across the room, trailing smoke and blood, and smashed into the wall just feet from where Invincible lay struggling to stand.
The concrete split around him, a crater blossoming out from his point of impact.
Mark coughed and tried to push up.
Above, the air shimmered with rising heat.
Magmaniac stood at the top of a pile of debris, his molten body glowing like lava through cracks in armor. The temperature spiked. Veins of red-orange light pulsed through his skin as the heat built in his chest like a furnace preparing to explode.
Then he fired.
A massive wave of magma surged across the battlefield, searing everything in its path. Mark, instincts flaring, rocketed upward just in time to dodge the molten tsunami.
But he wasn't fast enough.
Kursk appeared behind him in a flash of lightning, his eyes narrowed and arm already raised.
Crack.
A concentrated bolt slammed into Mark's back at point-blank range. His spine arched involuntarily, muscles locking as raw voltage surged through every nerve.
He didn't even scream.
Not at first.
He was still frozen when Magmaniac's second blast collided with his chest. The magma struck like a molten freight train, engulfing him in liquid fire. His suit burned away in chunks. Flesh blistered.
This time, he screamed.
The noise was raw. Inhuman.
Before he could fall, red tendrils lashed out from the smoke.
Tether Tyrant and his cords snaked out like vipers. They caught Mark midair, one wrapping around his throat, another around his waist, another squeezing his arm.
They yanked him down with brutal speed and flung him into a steel beam. The impact bent it inward. Mark's body snapped back like a yo-yo as the cords yanked him again, this time slamming him into the ground so hard that the tile shattered beneath him. Dust flew up in a thick cloud.
Mark groaned.
Somewhere above, concrete cracked. He looked up.
The ceiling was crumbling. Bits of plaster and stone fell around him.
Too slow.
A shadow moved through the dust. Heavy footsteps. A low growl.
Battle Beast emerged like a beast, teeth bared in a blood-stained grin. His armor shimmered with gore and dust. The mace in his hand dragged along the ground, leaving a gouge in the floor.
Mark's vision blurred.
And still Battle Beast came, ready to finish what he started.
The golden mace came down like judgment from the heavens.
It smashed into Mark's sternum with an ear-splitting crack, the blow lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing. His head snapped back. Blood sprayed from his mouth mid-flight as his body shot upward like a rocket through the shattered remains of the floor above.
The ceiling exploded in a spray of plaster, rebar, and steel. Debris rained down.
Mark soared through the opening like a ragdoll fired from a cannon, trailing smoke and blood.
High above, Nolan floated silently in the clouds, arms crossed, seemingly unmoved by the carnage his son faced.
No one noticed him.
Not yet.
Mark came crashing back down seconds later.
His limp body clipped the upper railing on the way down, bones cracking on impact. The force bent the metal backward before he tumbled off, slamming into the lower floor with a violent thud that echoed across the chamber. The stone fractured under him, spiderwebs of damage branching outward from where he landed.
He didn't move.
Tether Tyrant's cords were already on him, slithering like vipers through the dust. They snaked around his arms and legs, cinching tight, pinning him to the floor like a bug under glass.
Across the room, Battle Beast moved without urgency, dragging Titan's half-conscious body behind him. The alien warrior flung the stony brute across the room with a lazy heave.
Titan collided with Machine Head's untouched desk, knocking over a pen holder and sending high-end writing utensils scattering across the floor.
Machine Head didn't flinch. He simply swiveled his chair to face the chaos, expression unreadable beneath the blinking lights of his cybernetic jaw.
"I'm gonna grind you up," he said, voice smooth, almost amused, "and use you to pave my driveway."
Magmaniac advanced behind him, body pulsing hotter with every step. His veins glowed like cracks in volcanic rock. He raised both arms, energy condensing in his palms, and unleashed a focused beam of molten fury straight at Titan.
The magma blasted across the room in a concentrated stream, striking Titan's forearms as he raised them in defense. The heat was instant. Flesh blistered beneath his rocky exterior, the stone glowing orange from within.
Titan screamed.
Kursk stepped in beside the lava stream, eyes alive with blue sparks. He raised his arms and sent a barrage of lightning bolts directly at Mark's restrained form.
The boy's body convulsed. Every pulse sent his limbs jerking violently against the cords. The smell of burning fabric and blood filled the air.
Mark's scream tore through the room.
And then silence.
He stopped screaming.
His eyes opened.
His hands clenched.
His body began to tremble again; not with pain, but with something colder.
"You…"
The cords groaned.
"Guys…"
They strained.
"Are…"
They snapped.
"FUCKING DEAD!"
Mark tore through the bindings like they were tissue paper. He caught the cords mid-snap, spun, and whipped them around like steel snakes. Tether Tyrant barely had time to react before his own tendrils flung him across the room, crashing him spine-first into the far wall. The impact cratered the concrete, leaving a full-body imprint in the shape of his agony.
Magmaniac blinked in surprise just before Mark blitzed forward in a blur of red and gold.
The punch ripped through him.
Mark's fist pierced the molten villain's chest clean through, glowing viscera and vaporized armor splattering across the ground in sizzling gouts. The top half of Magmaniac's torso sagged, liquefying, before folding apart in a hiss of steam.
Mark stood there, shoulders rising and falling, magma blood evaporating on his skin.
Steam curled from his mouth as he spoke.
"WHO'S NEXT?"
Battle Beast answered.
He lunged fast for something his size and slammed into Mark with the force of a meteor. The alien warrior grabbed the back of Mark's head mid-charge and spiked him down, skull-first, into the ground.
The marble cratered beneath the impact. Blood splattered outward in thick droplets.
Battle Beast leaned down, lips pulled back in a grin.
"Hello… boy," he growled, voice thick with battlelust.
Mark groaned, dazed, trying to rise.
Tether Tyrant, bloodied but conscious, snagged Titan once more, his threads wrapping tight. He flung him across the chamber like a sack of concrete.
Titan hit the wall hard, groaning, barely conscious.
Battle Beast raised his mace, slow and deliberate, the golden weapon humming with power. He brought it down like a guillotine.
Mark caught it just barely.
His arms trembled, muscles screaming under the weight. The mace pressed lower. Inch by inch. His feet slid. Knees bent. His body dropped until he was forced down to one knee under the sheer pressure of it.
Battle Beast's boot collided with his face, knocking him sideways. Mark hit the ground hard, his vision blurry.
He had no time to recover.
Battle Beast seized him by the hair and hoisted him upward before slamming both fists into his chest like jackhammers. Mark's body was driven back into the floor with bone-breaking force.
The sound echoed wet and final as blood pooled beneath him.
At the center of it all, Machine Head clapped. A slow, deliberate applause.
"Wow. Ten out of ten," he said, reclining as if watching an opera. "You guys are worth every cent."
He paused, gaze shifting.
"Wait… wait. I'm getting something here."
"What?"
BOOM.
The wall in front of him exploded in a thunderous blast of smoke and shrapnel as glass and steel rained across the room.
Shrinking Rae sprinted through the smoke at full height.
Robot hovered in behind her, scanners lighting up. Monster Girl landed with a guttural roar. Rex Splode flung glowing charges into the air, igniting them mid-flip.
Black Samson's armor glinted in the firelight. Dupli-Kate split into three without a word.
They spread out, weapons raised, and eyes locked.
Robot stepped forward, unblinking.
"We'll take it from here, Invincible."
_________
AN: If you want to read 20 chapters ahead visit my patreon at patreon.com/banmido!