Chapter 2: Invasion
The next few days were a bit of a blur for Johnathan. The moment he got back home, he immediately got to work changing his appearance.
Cecil was right about that. If his image got out, recognizing him wouldn't be a very hard thing for most people to accomplish.
But as he stood in the mirror, staring at the visage before him, Johnathan felt reluctant to cut his hair. It had been so long, and even he wasn't sure what he'd want.
Did it matter? Probably not. After all, his days of trying to attract anyone, regardless of the reason, were behind him.
So, instead of going for something specific, he just started cutting. He hacked away at his long stringy black hair, until finally, the visage of the man beneath was clear. He looked into the mirror and noticed that the sides of his head were full of grey. More than before. And he sighed.
" Guess, I'm getting old now." He muttered. He shaved the grey sides of his head completely off, fading it down to his skin, leaving the black of his head sitting right at the top of his head. " That'll work for now. At least it's different. Now, the beard."
The beard was the next thing to go. It took some time, considering how thick it was. But eventually, John managed to get a good long look at the young man, hiding underneath all that rough and scruff. " Well.... I'll be." John looked in the mirror and for the first time in a long time, he smirked. He ran his hand down his face. He hadn't looked like he aged much at all in ten years.
It wasn't much of an improvement. But he'll be damned if he didn't feel at least a little better with himself. Perhaps a fresh shave was what he needed right now.
He cleaned himself up, and quickly dressed himself. The first thing he did when he got out of the bathroom was place himself down on his coach and turn on the news and as quickly as he cheered up, he immediately found himself back in self-loathing.
The news that the guardians were dead quickly found its way back front and center of his mind.
" Damn...."
" On to the story of the night, the invasion of New York. It has been forty-two hours since the alien creatures, still unidentified, invaded the downtown area of Manhattan. The casualties were heavy, numbering well over three hundred men, women, and children. However, the alien forces were quickly repelled thanks to the astonishing efforts of the Teen Team, its members include the likes of young heroes such as Robot, Rexsplode, Dupli-kate, and atom eve. Some sources even say that the hero Invincible was there as well as an, as of this moment, unidentified super. Needless to say, whoever you are, you are a hero sir, and we the citizens of New York thank you for risking your life for us. Stay tuned for more coverage of the invasion on-"
Before the newscaster could finish her sentence, Johnathan changed the channel.
" Why do people keep saying that? I'm no hero." Johnathan grumbled. He rubbed his face with exhaustion, and then he looked over at his table or more specifically, what was on it.
It was a picture of himself in his old suit. A blue and red suit with a blue headcap and a red visor. And beside him were his old teammates along with Omni-man and the guardians.
" What the hell, man? What are you thinking? You were out. You were done with the life." He complained.
But they were his friends. His mentors. Can he really pretend none of that ever mattered.
Johnathan was in deep thought, when all of a sudden, the channel he was on changed and an emergency news broadcast showed up.
" Breaking news! We have an emergency announcement; the aliens have returned. I repeat, Manhattan is under attack once more. Our news chopper is bringing us live footage of the invasion. Over to you Jason."
"The screen switched to a choppy live showing on the aliens overrunning New York once more.
" Yes, amber, we're live over downtown Manhattan as another swarm of these... Aliens have begun running amok. Thankfully, it looks as though The Teen Team and the young hero Invincible are already on the scene and combating the alien threat." Jason spoke. " However, it looks like the numbers are massively against them as- WHOA!"
As Jason was reporting back to the station a stray blast from one of the Aliens blasters, hit the chopper, sending it spiraling out of control.
" Building! Building! Break left! Break left!" Jason shouted.
The news chopped spun straight towards one of the many skyscrapers in the city, with no sign of stopping.
However, in a blink of an eye, the chopper was snatched out of the air and suddenly the pilot and everyone inside found themselves planted on the ground, away from the invasion site.
" Whoa, what was that?" Jason asked.
He looked at the crew for any kind of confirmation, and they all just shrugged their shoulders and slumped in their seats. The stress of nearly crashing still coursing through their veins.
" Jason! Is everyone alright? What happened?" Amber, concerned for the safety of her team tried contacting them over the mic.
" Sorry, Amber. Everyone appears alright, some slight bruises maybe. But thankfully no one was injured badly." Jason stated.
" What happened?"
" We were unfortunately, blasted out of the sky. Thankfully, however, something or someone managed to catch us and placed us, quite a distance from the battle. Unfortunately, America, we won't be able to continue rolling on the invasion."
" No, that's fine. Just make sure to get yourselves to safety, Jason." Amber told the man.
" Yes ma'am. This has been channel ten, signing off."
Standing on a building above the chopper, Johnathan was looking down at the crew, making sure they were safe. He was a little winded, but not too bad.
" It's been some time since I moved that fast. I didn't think I still had it." Johnathan mumbled. He then quickly turned his head and focused on watching the teen team fight, but more specifically Invincible. And needless to say, he wasn't impressed. " The kid isn't paying attention."
Johnathan watched as the teen team and invincible were being outmaneuvered.
Dupli-Kate's clones were being blown to pieces almost faster than she could make them. Rexsplode's energy bombs were being bounced back at him. Robot was suffering from what looked like an electrical shortage. Atom eve was being held captive. And Invincible was trapped in some kind of grey fluid.
In other words, it was a shit show.
" Come on, kids." Johnathan muttered.
The invasion had started off on a bad note. But things were quickly going from bad to worse, as the Alien in charge of leading the invasion force, grabbed Eve and raised his gun to her head.
It seemed he derived some form of joy from watching Invincible struggle.
" No! I SAID NO!"
Just as John was beginning to step in, Invincible suddenly exploded into a rage. He effortlessly tore himself free of his trappings and sent a small shockwave crashing into the aliens around him.
Johnathan was surprised by the sudden explosion of power from Invincible.
Invincible tackled the Alien holding eve into a nearby pile of rubble.
Invincible grabbed the Alien's chest plate and ripped it off, and repeatedly started punching him in his face over and over again brutalizing the creature.
That is, until robot called out to the man, as Eve was still struggling to free her face of the metal shell wrapped around it.
" Eve!" Invincible turned around and dashed frantically to the struggling woman, grabbed the metal shell and quickly tore it from her face finally allowing her to breathe again.
As soon as she was freed, Eve took a large gasp of air.
" Are you okay?" Invincible asked the girl.
Eve sat up, and started getting her breath back, while the rest of the Team gathered around her and Invincible.
The Alien leader stumbled back to his feet and found that the small bracelet he was wearing on his left hand was short circuiting and suddenly, as if years had passed, he began to age in an instant.
This new discovery was immediately noticed by the team's leader and scientific genius, Robot.
" The wristbands protect them from our timestream." Robot exclaimed. He put out the fire in his system and got back to his feet. " Destroy their wristbands." Robot exclaimed.
" What? All of them?!" Rex shouted.
The Teen Team seemed to have a plan.
They reengaged the Alien's and to their credit, they were doing better than they were earlier.
Rexsplode was using his small explosive golf balls to blow up the alien's and their wristbands, Dupli-Kate's clones continued doing what they were doing before, splitting up and attacking the aliens in groups. Eve fired off plasma bolts, and Invincible continued flying around like a brute.
But it still wasn't enough.
Robot, knowing they were still at a disadvantage, ran up to one of the downed alien's and grabbed his wristband and started analyzing. His hopes were to try and find a way to counteract the effects on a broader scale.
" Forty-Nine thousand kilohertz." Robot muttered. A port on the side of his neck opened up and Robot inserted what appeared to be a part of the device into it, before being tackled by a group of the Alien's. " Keep them off of Meeeeeeee!" Robots voice sounded loud, like a video stuck on loop.
His voice emitted a radio wave that flowed through each and every one of the Alien's devices, causing them all to short circuit on a much grander scale.
In a matter of moments, every single member of the invading army was once again forced to retreat, due to them aging at an accelerated rate.
The Teen team breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the aliens retreating once more, having narrowly survived the experience. To them this was a sign of victory.
However, as Johnathan watched from above, he couldn't help but take notice of how underly prepared the team was for this confrontation.
" Well, what do you think?" A sudden voice from behind, caused Johnathan to turn around violently. However, upon seeing who it was, Johnathan quickly settled down.
" You were watching?" He asked.
" I'm always watching, John. You know that." Cecil stated boldly.
That's right, John had forgotten how pretentious Cecil could be at times. " Right. I forgot who I was talking to for just a moment."
" Heh, funny. Now how about you lose the attitude and answer my question? Huh?"
Johnathan crossed his arms and sighed. " They're pretty bad, Cecil. Robot's smart. Rexsplode is arrogant and careless, Dupli-Kate manages her clones poorly, and Eve is powerful, but they're all sloppy. They have a long way to go before they're ready to handle problems of this magnitude."
" You're right. But unfortunately, we're a little dry on heroes at the moment. And they're the only ones based close enough to be able to get to the problem within a manageable timeframe." Cecil explained. " Honestly, I didn't expect much of them myself. But they've got potential. What about Invincible?"
Johnathan looked at Cecil and narrowed his eyes.
" What? I figured he was the reason you were out here in the first place, right? What do you think of the kid?"
" Can't put anything past your eyes." Johnathan sighed. " The kid is soft. Too soft. He's too soft when he needs to be strong, and he get angry too fast. He loses his cool and explodes. A dangerous combination. He's nothing like his father. Not yet. But I would be a fool not to say the kid didn't have potential. He's.... Well, I don't think he's ready yet." Johnathan told the man.
" I see."
" They need training, Cecil. They all do."
" Then perhaps, you should give it to them." Cecil stated.
Johnathan looked at Cecil in contempt.
" What? You don't like my idea? You said it yourself. They need proper training. Real training. From someone who knows what they're doing and is good at it. That someone is you."
" I told you I wanted nothing to do with being a hero."
" I know. But you do care about the kids. I'm not asking for much. You won't have to go into the field. Just help them with training, teamwork, things like that. It'll give you a chance to help them learn, and I'll even pay you." Cecil explained. " I haven't made the Guardians deaths public yet, but when I do, I'm going to hold tryouts for replacements for the Guardians of the Globe. I want you to be there to at least, see these kids in action and decide if they can make it. Or at the very least, talk to them. Tell them the dangers of the job. Maybe you'll be able to get them to pull their heads out of their own assess." Cecil spoke. " Sound fair enough to you?"
Johnathan listened to Cecil's proposal and mewled over it for a hot minute.
" It'll give you a chance to speak with the kid." Cecil stated. He pointed out Mark from the rooftop, and Johnathan stared at the boy.
Johnathan rubbed his face with his hand and exhaled a deep breath. " Okay. I'll be there. I... Need to talk to these kids. Maybe, they will listen." Johnathan muttered.
He hated the idea of being drug back into the life of a hero. But at the same time, he couldn't just stand by and watch as kids as young as they were put their lives on the line. Not without properly understanding what it meant to be a hero. Maybe what he had to say would get some of them to give it up entirely, or maybe it would make them take it more seriously. Both were favorable for John. And another thing, it gave him a chance to meet this Invincible face to face. See where the kid's heart was, and maybe just maybe he could save him a lot of trouble by getting him to put his head on straight.
It was, at the very least, worth the shot.
" Glad to hear it. I'll be in touch when I find a good time to have the Guardian's funeral. Until then, take care of yourself, John." Cecil said those last words to John before being teleported back to Guardians HQ.
" From one shit show to another." Cecil muttered. " Alright, Donald, give me some good news."
" Well, sir, whoever did this cut the power and the backup. They killed the cameras and the security systems. And quite frankly, forensics are stumped." Donald explained. " I told them to start over and try harder."
" That's not good news. That's not good news at all. I asked you for good news, Donald!"
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