Chapter 3: #3
The sound of screams filled the air. Explosions rocked the city, filling the sky with bright blue light as miniature dark stars exploded. The power of quantum energy collided into a single point like a collapsing star, and the unfortunate citizens of Big city found themselves locked dead in the middle of a deadly clash between three powerful forces.
" Aaron, please! Don't do this!"
" Can't you see, Sarah? This is the only way for things to be. To return us all to the darkness. That is the only natural way to end it."
" Let her go!"
" You can't stop me, John!"
" John! HELP ME!"
" NO!!!!"
...
" H'AHHHHHHHHHH!" Johnathan's eyes jolted open, and his entire body jerked upright, his chiseled body glistened in the bright moonlight with sweat and tears. His hands were clenched onto two pieces of wood, ripped fresh from the bed's frame.
Johnathan struggled to catch his breath for a moment, still reeling from his dream.
The screams still echoed like fresh wounds in his mind, the smell of blood and smoke still freshly plagued his nostrils, and the feeling of his body being burned seared with the pain of a million icy cold suns.
Johnathan breathed in deep and slow like, to help calm his nerves.
" Just... A dream." Reminding himself that it was all just a dream was a way for Johnathan to cope with the trauma. The memory plagued his mind like an itch or a burn that would never go away. " Hmmmm! His growl was low and almost animal like. Fighting back the urge to shout took everything he had. " Almost like a phantom pain." He muttered. He raised his hand to the giant burn mark on the left side of his chest, where he had appeared to have been run through with something hot. The way the burn mark branched out, made it look like a sun had been etched onto his chest. His back looked just as bad.
Johnathan sat there, quietly gathering his breath, for a few more minutes.
Soon enough the sun started peeking through the blinds, landing right on his face.
" Okay." He muttered. He slid back the blanket and swung his legs over the side of the bed, scrapping them against the broken wood of the bed frame. " Damn.... I'm gonna need a new bed... again!"
Johnathan quickly took to the shower, cleaning the sweat and fear from his body. He watched as it both figuratively and very literally flushed down the drain... For the moment.
Once he was dressed and fully clothed, Johnathan made his way to the kitchen where he ate breakfast.
" With the help of fight force and many other heroes like the Teen Team and capes inc, Manhattan is once again on its way to flourishing. We'll continue to bring you live-
Johnathan turned the tv off and stretched his arms. He grabbed the spare key to his home from a small drawer by the sink.
John walked out of the house wearing a white t and blue jeans with another pair of boots, unfortunately his old ones were blown up with his truck.
He then walked out of his home and, after taking a moment to make sure no one was in sight, he jetted off into the sky, unaware that from a distance, a pair of invisible eyes were watching him closely.
Donald was watching the screen carefully, as where a couple others. They were tracking John from the very moment he left his home. " He's out of there, sir."
" Good. Send a team in. See if they find anything." Cecil told the man.
" Uh, sir, why are we watching Astro Force?" Donald asked the man.
" Because Donald, there is only a handful of people on this planet capable of overpowering Omni-man. Johns one of them. If he is responsible, then we need to keep an eye on him. If he's not, then we'll need him. Either way, I want tabs on him. And let me know if you find anything else about Omni-man. He just got out of the hospital yesterday and the nurse said he was extremely aggravated about his suit. Sounds to me like he's hiding something." Cecil explained. " Find out what."
Donald nodded and turned back to the two surveillance systems, continuing his observation of John and Nolan's family.
...................
Johnathan was walking out of a mattress store with a receipt in his hand. He had just purchased a new bed frame after having ripped the wood off of his own the night before.
" Jesus, the price of everything is going up these days." Johnathan muttered. " Seven hundred dollars just for the fucking frame. That's highway robbery."
Johnathan was walking down the street, filled with hundreds of people. It was relatively normal considering all that had happened within a span of three days.
That's when he spotted a large gathering of people in the middle of downtown Manhattan. It was appeared to be a ceremony being held by the people who lost someone in the recent invasions.
" Damn. So, many people." John muttered. There was a feeling of dread welling in his stomach. It was sad to see so many people dying, but he just had a feeling that it wasn't over. Aliens with that much drive to come back after being defeated once, most likely weren't going to give up.
" I hope you get your shit together soon, Cecil." He stopped and stared at them all with a look of pity on his face. " They'll be back. I just know it."
* Blink
As a crowd of people gathered around the small vigil, a red portal suddenly opened up right on top of them, and once again.
" No...."
Without word or warning multiple rounds of laser beams came shooting out of the portals and following quickly behind were the alien's themselves, sporting more advanced gear than ever before.
Panic quickly broke out in the streets. The people ran and screamed in terror as the aliens started advancing on them, firing their lasers and turning them into charred ash.
One of the aliens turned their blasters towards Johnathan and the people on the sidewalk and started firing on them all.
' Shit! They're targeting the people!' " Get down!" Johnathan threw himself in-between the barrage of fire and the people, tanking the lasers for them.
The people were surprised, confused, shocked, and scared.
" Move! Hurry!"
The men and women, though frightened, nodded their heads and started running as fast as they could away from the lasers.
" Brax Moy!"
Stepping out of the portal, flanked by a legion of tanks, wearing an entirely new exosuit, was the alien's general, now aged beyond his younger years.
Johnathan took one look around at the carnage around him, as he continued to be bombarded by tank fire and lasers.
His eyes glowed red with anger.
.....................
Having been alerted by one of his many devices, Robot called together the Teen Team, and as they soared over the city, towards the invasion zone, Robot took the time to examine the gear the aliens were using.
" I have bad news." He spoke.
" OH! Robot's got bad news everybody, did ya hear that?" Rex's sarcasm was quite obvious to everyone. Everyone except Robot of course. " Hey Robot! What's the bad news?!"
" There are too many of them, their technology has advanced too far, and they have become immune to our time stream. We should consider this city lost. I will contact Cecil and suggest a nuclear response." Robot spoke.
This seemed to incite quite a reaction out of the others.
" What? No way!" Invincible exclaimed.
The idea of nuking the city was something none of them approved of, other than Robot.
" We aren't nuking anyone, and we aren't giving up." Eve told the machine. Eve quickened her pace and, along with Invincible, flew directly into the combat zone.
However, as the team closed in, a long surge of red energy blasted right through the horde of Aliens' sending many of them flying into the air as if they were paper being scattered in the wind.
" Whoa! What was that?" Rex asked. He peered over Robot's shoulder and looked down at the streets below.
There the team all saw a single man in ripped blue jeans, firing energy from his eyes in almost a straight line around the perimeter of the aliens.
" Hey, isn't that, that guy from before? The one who helped the first time they came around? What's he doing?" Invincible asked
Robot looked closely and watched as the man continued firing on the aliens, and moving in a way, that at first seemed odd. But as Robot analyzed the situation, he could clearly see that in-between the man's swift movements, he was giving the civilians that were still trapped, time to get out.
" He's making himself a moving target to get the remaining citizens to safety." Robot stated.
" We need to help. Let's go!" Eve shouted. She and Invincible rocketed down towards the city and immediately started attacking the aliens in an attempt to help the man in blue out.
Eve created large waves of pink energy and started pushing them back in waves, drawing the surrounding alien's attention right towards her.
Normally, one would be happy to have some kind of backup in a situation like this. However, the Teen team's intervention turned things even more chaotic than they had been beforehand.
" No, no, no!" John shouted. ' These stupid kids are messing everything up!'
John watched as the teen team tried their best to fight the invaders, however, they were quickly being overwhelmed by the sheer number of them.
Invincible especially was in trouble. The young hero took to taking out the Alien's artillery. However, as he destroyed one of the tanks, he found himself being caught in the strong arms of the alien leader.
" Damn it!" He cursed. John needed to act quickly. With the alien's no longer focusing directly on him, the people in the area were once again in danger of being targeted.
" Ugh! I'm... I need a little help over here!" Kate yelled out. She was being swarmed by aliens on all sides. Even with her ability to multiply, she just couldn't muster the forces necessary to survive the onslaught coming her way.
That is until John crashed through the swarm like a wrecking ball, clearing the area around her with ease.
Kate was understandably stunned. Afterall, just a moment ago she had been surrounded on all sides by aliens with blades and blasters, and then out of nowhere a man suddenly explodes through them like butter. It was quite intense. " Thanks. You really-"
Kate was in the middle of trying to show her appreciation to the stranger, who had just saved her, but before she could even finish her sentence, the man turned around with a look, that could only be described as pure rage, on his face.
" What the hell is wrong with you?!" He asked.
" What?" Kate was confused. What did he mean by that? " What are you talking about, we're here to-"
"I had it all under control. Urgh, I don't have time for this." John moved past Kate and speed off, to try and help the others.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the block, Invincible found himself in quite the predicament.
After destroying one of the tanks and being caught off guard by the alien general, he was quickly overpowered by the man.
" Ugh!" Invincible groaned from the sudden and brutal pounding the alien general had laid on him. His vision blurred. He bled from his mouth. For him, it was a first. Maybe it was an awakening. Not since he got his powers had he been hurt by anything.
The alien general stood directly over Invincible with a sinister smile on his face. He leaned down and with one hand picked him up by his throat. " Heheheheh!" He chuckled. " Die."
The Alien pulled his hand back, ready to kill him, and just before he could deal the death blow, a hand reached down and plucked the alien up into the air.
It took a moment for his vision to clear, mostly because of the pounding he received. But when Invincible saw who it was that had saved him, a sudden wave of relief washed over him like a warm blanket.
" You okay, Mark?"
The newest to arrive, was none other than Omni-man, Mark's father, himself. Mark groaned, as his face was still hurting, but he was able to move enough to nod his head.
" H'agh!" Omni-Man threw the alien General down to the ground as hard as he could, making the man skid along the ground until he finally came to a stop in the middle of the road.
Omni-man was immediately swarmed with a squadron of aliens.
They all opened fired on Omni-man, firing multiple rounds at the man until there was a small smoke cloud.
One of the aliens raised his hand, commanding the others to stop, as they couldn't see Omni-man anymore.
However, the dust quickly cleared, and Omni-man emerged looking like he hadn't been hit at all.
Johnathan, in the midst of saving Robot from another attack by the alien's stopped for just a moment to see Omni-man emerge out of the corner of his eyes.
It was quiet for just a moment and then. " My turn." That's what Omni-man said just moments before he threw himself into the crowd of aliens. He smashed his fist down into the ground knocking some of the aliens into the air, before quickly punching another one away with ease. He then proceeded to literally tear through the aliens. Flying around at speeds that teen team couldn't even follow, leaving behind a trail of bodies flying in his wake.
Seeing no other reason to fight, Johnathan stood back and watched as Omni-man made quick and easy work of the invaders.
" Guess, it's all over now." Johnathan muttered.
And sure enough, it was over. The aliens, upon realizing they were grossly outclassed by Omni-man's raw power, began hurrying back to their home like rats. All except one. The General.
He stopped one of his soldiers dead in his tracks and picked up by his throat and started screaming at him. " Laji Uric!" He tossed the man down and them screamed at the rest. " BRAX MOY!" When none of his soldiers listened, he turned and faced Omni-man with a look of anger on his face.
John watched as Omni-man rocketed towards the alien and slammed him straight into the portal, before it closed on the both of them.
" DAD!" Invincible, who had finally managed to get back to his own feet, called out for his dad as the portal closed, shocking the rest of the teen team in the process.
" Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Omni-man's your dad?!"
Invincibles eyes widened, realizing he messed up by yelling something so important like that out loud.
" Yeah." Invincible muttered lowly.
" Dude, that is so awesome!" Rex yelled.
" Yeah, I know. But..." Invincibles' tone of voice was sad and low. Rex didn't realize it, or maybe didn't care, but Invincible wasn't in the mood to talk about his dad, considering he had just gone through a portal and could possibly be trapped on the other side.
" Don't worry, Invincible." Robot stated. " I will contact Cecil, and we will begin getting to work on a way to bring him back immediately. With a little time and some investigating I should be able to reverse engineer their teleportation technology."
" Thanks Robot."
" You don't need to worry about him. He'll be alright. You all need to worry about yourselves." John told the group.
The others all turned towards him, with a look of slight confusion and disbelief on their faces.
" Dude, what?" Rex asked.
John walked over to the group with a fire in his stomach. He got up in their faces and immediately started berating them. " What the hell is wrong with all of you?! Huh?!"
" Dude, what are you talking about? We just saved the day, if you hadn't noticed." Rex told the man.
" Saved it? How many people died today?" John asked.
" I don't know."
" Okay, how many more people died from your little stunts?!"
" We were trying to help you."
" I didn't need help. In fact, if you paid attention, you would have known, I had everything in control." John exclaimed. " I had the Aliens sectioned off. I was using my energy blasts to knock down rubble, keeping the aliens from advancing forward and spreading out. Then I drew their attention. They were focusing their fire on me, THAT gave the people who were still within the area a chance to get away. Then, once everyone was to safety, I could move in and take them out, that was the plan. Nice, quick, and efficient. But that's not what happened. No, you all had to be idiots and jumped straight into the fire and started drawing their attention all over the damn place. So, guess what? In their attempts to kill you all, the people behind you got hit trying to get away. And more people died all because you had an ego to hold up." Johnathan shouted. His rage was undeniable and rightfully so.
His voice was so loud even Rex, the loudmouth of the group, found himself shrinking along with the others as Johnathan berated them.
" Listened old man, I don't know who you are. But I sure as hell don't take orders from you."
" Heh! You're no hero. You don't care about these people. You're just a selfish, arrogant, obnoxious little shit. And if you keep it up. You're gonna get yourself killed. Like you almost did today." Johnathan told the boy.
" Oh yeah?"
" Yeah! I saved your assess. A couple of times actually. And if Omni-man hadn't shown up, you would be dead." John turned his attention to Invincible and shoved him. " What's wrong with you, kid? Do you know who your father is? Did he teach you nothing? You have the strength, you have the speed, but you don't have the heart. Stop being afraid to get hit. Stop buckling, kid. Fight back!"
" Whoa! Wait, what?" Invincible muttered. " I didn't-"
" Exactly, you didn't. You didn't do anything. You just flew in without using your head and it nearly got you killed. STOP and pay attention. Look at your surroundings. Don't just go crashing first into something. And never, EVER, lay on your back. You hit and keep it moving, you get hit you keep it moving and fast." Johnathan exclaimed.
" Excuse me? But who are you to tell us how to do our job?" Eve asked the man. She took a deep offense in Johnathan's criticism and quickly rushed to help her two friends out.
John stood there silent for just a moment. Then his look changed from anger to sadness and regret. " No one. I'm no one." He turned his back to the young heroes and started walking away. " Make sure to do a double check of the area, there could still be survivors around. I'm sure Cecil would appreciate it." He spoke. He then leaped into the sky and vanished within moments.
" Man... What was that guys problem?" Rex asked.
" I don't.... Think he had a problem." Invincible muttered. " He actually... He looks kind of familiar." He said.
" Well, let's not worry about it right now. We need to check for survivors and get them some help. Come on." Eve stated.
Invincible nodded and started walking with the others to help sift through the rubble, but something about that man just left a strange feeling in his mind.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone