10 Chapter 10

[3rd POV]

Omni Man floated a few feet above his house, looking down on the roof in silence as his mind whirled at the choice he was about to make.

Below, his entire family lay asleep. His sons were in their rooms and his wife softly lay by herself in their bed.

The thought made him smile, but his expression turned back to neutral. The discipline of a few hundred years as a Viltrumite forward agent instilled the reflex of emotional suppression still fresh in his mind as if it was yesterday.

Yet, for all it allowed him to accomplish, he couldn't help but blankly stare as he pondered the consequences of his choice.

_It changes everything_

The words he had said not too long ago now rang loudly in his mind. But his hesitation only lasted a good minute or so as he looked at the dark horizon. It was time, it was either now or never.

And he already made his choice.

With a click, the Guardian's emergency alert beacon blinked in a continuous loop and began to signal its other counterparts that each member had possessed. While he was not technically a Guardian himself, he did manage to sneak this one away from one off of War Woman in their previous team-ups.

He cracked his knuckles, purging all the previous emotion and hesitation from his mind as he centered himself as all warriors did before a fight.

A fight they know will be difficult and fatal if they hesitate for even a moment.

He began to surge forward and then almost instantly shot through the air so fast that he was an inconceivable blip in the midnight sky as he flew towards his destination at speeds that his sons couldn't even catch up to yet.

Arriving in a secret location near the Himalayas, where the Guardians of the Globe situated their main base.

It was easy enough for him to enter the premises and proceeded to wait near the areas where the base's lights won't reveal his location immediately. He wanted to hold the element of surprise, to deal with things quickly and before it all got out of hand.

There, he waited.

****

It didn't take long for the first one to arrive.

Unsurprisingly, Red Rush came last. The speedster blurred into view.

"First as always" he sighed, as he waited for the others to arrive.

Greenghost came second, followed by the Immortal and then War Woman.

"Hey, guys" Greenghost greeted, "What's the emergency?".

"I was just about to ask that as well, but it seems you weren't the one to call us here," War Woman said, cocking her head.

"It was not me either" the Immortal perked an eyebrow in confusion.

All three turned their questioning gazes to Red Rush, whose immediate response was an all too quick shrug and a shake of his head.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I was spending time with my wife, we were having a small picnic by the park and--" Red Rush spoke, his words seemed to mix as he spoke very quickly.

War Woman held up a hand to stop the man, which he quickly complied with.

"Let us wait for the others then. Hopefully, we can end this night soon, I have several meetings I led behind for this" she said.

"Agreed" the Immortal nodded, but his eyes slowly turned cautious.

The others nodded as well and they all waited.

2 more followed, both of whom swore that neither had caused the alert at all. By the time the last one arrived, every one of the Guardians began to feel the tension slowly build.

Darkwing made his entry and landed not far from the group, and was surprised when all their gazes came to him all of a sudden.

"Darkwing" the Immortal called out, "why did you call us here?".

"Me?" Darkwing answered with a question of his own, the look of surprise and confusion on his face answered for him.

Tension rose within all of them as the implication became clear.

"So none of us signaled the alert?" War Woman said, her eyes darting over the room. Looking for any signs of ambush.

"Oh god, what is going on?" Greenghost asked out loud, the fear in her voice was plain for all of them to hear.

While the rest of the team each adopted their defense modes and looked around, it was Red Rush who reacted quicker with his accelerated thought process than the others when he noticed Omni Man flying towards the Immortal from behind.

His mind operated quickly, analyzing the situation and realizing what was happening before a fraction of a second went by. He ran towards the Immortal and pushed him out of the way, merely inches from being mutilated by Omni Man's punch.

Failing his attack, Omni Man now stood in the middle of the group. Turning a cold eye towards them and didn't speak a word.

Every one of the Guardians gasped in shock when they saw him, they all saw what had almost happened and were stunned.

"Omni-man?!" the Immortal called out in disbelief.

Omni-man just stayed quiet and regarded them all with an eerie stillness as he considered his next move.

War Woman, who managed to shake off her stunned expression earlier than the others, let out a loud battle cry as she led the attack on Omni-man. She swung her mace at him, delivering what would be a devastating blow if Omni-man hadn't been able to dodge easily.

He attempted to end her with a punch to the head but Red Rush came in and pushed the blow to the side before it could land, allowing War Woman to back away and regroup.

Omni-man turned and focused his eyes on Red Rush, trying to find a way to catch the speedster.

Seeing him pause, the other Guardians finally shook off their shock and began their attack.

Darkwing threw several explosives towards Omni-man, sending him back a step while he was still distracted. Following up on the attack, Aquarus sent a powerful stream of water that nearly knocked Omni-man off his feet. Torrents of water gushing out from aquatic hands.

But the powerful hero was not that easy to deal with. He pushed back the powerful stream with his hand and leaped towards the fishman, intending to ground pound him to a pile of fish guts.

But, once again, Red Rush intervened. A red blur passed by Omni-man's eyes and they were gone, his fist connecting to nothing but empty air and the floor beneath him as it broke from the impact.

His eyes darted towards the red blur as it moved once again, losing sight of it a moment later with Red Rush opting to make his trajectory random and unpredictable. Red Rush rushed up to his blindside and delivered a strong punch that Omni-man simply let land on his face, eyes turning and failing to catch sight of the speedster once again.

He was going faster than before. A few more attacks landed on him, each one delivered to his blindside and face.

A pattern Omni-man easily recognized and immediately exploited, leaving himself open intentionally.

When Red Rush came for another punch, his hand quickly shot up after it landed and caught the speedster by the arm. He turned and pulled him close, grabbing his head with both hands and held him high up to prevent any foot purchase whatsoever.

Then, with his vice-like grip, he began to squeeze.

Red Rush grunted as the pain began to worsen and, with his accelerated perception, each millisecond was a second in a growing hell that would eventually lead to his certain death at the hands of someone he had considered to be a friend.

Seeing the impending doom and already coming to terms with it, he still resisted. He began pummeling Omni-man's chest, each punch landing every 10 milliseconds and thrown with such all the force he could muster without a proper foothold. Each speedy punch accumulated enough heat through friction to damage the reinforced super suit, tearing through the extremely tough fabric bit by bit until he reached the skin. The accumulated heat and energy was so great that it even managed to significantly damage Omni-man's vilturmite skin, though it did little to make him loosen his grip.

Another few dozen milliseconds passed and the punches became even faster, as Red Rush made a last-ditch effort to weaken Omni-man as much as possible. His nose and skull felt like they were gonna pop any moment now, the pain was near indescribable.

Not even a full second passed in all that time.

The Guardians saw this death grip and all of them rushed as fast as they could to reach him and stop him from killing their friend.

But they were too slow, and too late.

All Red Rush could see now was the look of intense and brutal look on Omni-man's face, blood spouted out of his mouth as the damage to his chest finally registered. But the man was still squeezing.

With a loud *SQUELCH*, Red Rush's head popped like a zip. Blood, viscera, and brain matter flew in all directions as the first of the Guardians fell.

The guardians all fell into a state of utter shock as the headless corpse of their friend slid to the floor. Their pained cries echoed in the silence of the foyer.

Omni-man took a breath and went to seek his next kill, but before he could do so the Martian had closed the distance and wrapped himself around him. Preventing Omni-man from moving as he constricted as tightly around the man as he could.

The opportunity was taken advantage of and both the Immortal and War Woman moved in, quickly going to pummel the bound Omniman. Each only managed to strike at him once before the Viltrumite hero forced the binding away from himself.

Now free, he dashed towards War Woman who was going in for another attack on him. Omniman sidestepped out of the blow, grabbed War Woman's helmet, and slammed her face-first into the floor.

He grabbed her hair, held her up, and prepared to kill her right then before he noticed a trio of explosive projectiles coming at him.

Darkwing was nowhere in sight, but Omniman knew he was behind it.

He let go of War Woman and stepped out of the way of the projectiles as they sailed past him, exploding not a second later. Looking around, he still couldn't find him but he did hear the flapping of a thick cape from above.

He turned, realizing Darkwing's choice of attack. He easily grabbed the falling Guardian's ankle and promptly slammed his whole body flat on the floor.

Blood oozed out from Darkwing's mouth and nose, splashing the cold metal floor on impact. He let out a pained groan as he was lifted back up by his ankles once more, the last thing the dark hero saw was the sight of carnage and the look of horror in his friends' eyes as it all went black.

Darkwing's head exploded as Omniman slammed his body to the ground, killing another Guardian completely. Without missing a beat, Omniman spun and threw the corpse over to the intangible and panicking Greenghost. Knowing her tendency to make terror, he exploited it and made her tangible as she caught the corpse in her hands.

"Oh no," she gasped, the last words she uttered as Omniman pierced his entire right hand like a spear through her face. He crushed whatever crystal was responsible for her powers inside her before turning to his next target, Aquarus.

The fish man roared in anger and raised both hands towards him, sending out two very powerful pillars of water towards him. Omniman raised his hand and used the Greenghost's body as a shield, standing firm as the weight and force of the water grounded him to a halt.

But everyone, everyone alive that is, knew it wouldn't last. Aquarus couldn't maintain it for long.

The Immortal, Warwoman, Martian Man, and Aquarus regrouped. Using the momentary pause to catch their breath.

"Are you alright?" Aquarus asked Martian Man, his voice audibly strained.

"I'll live" Martian Man grimly answered.

The Immortal helped War Woman stand, "Someone must be controlling him. He would never do this"

"Regardless" War Woman replied, her breathing ragged and heavy, "it's him or us"

They shared a short moment of silence as an unspoken agreement passed between them.

"I choose us" The Immortal said firmly.

He nodded to the rest and they all slowly closed in on Omniman, with War Woman leading the charge. She leaped up in the air, her warmace held high as she came down on him. Aquarus promptly stopped the water torrent just in time, distracting Omniman enough for War Woman to get a clear strike to the forehead.

A loud *CLANG* rang out from the impact as enhanced metal met a thick skull, disorienting Omniman and sending him stumbling to the side. His eyes swam before he managed to refocus it.

Just in time to barely avoid another blow to his face despite his shaky vision and delivered a punch that sent War Woman flying backward, her war mace spinning out of her grasp and in the air.

Omniman caught the mace and spun around, slamming the weapon into Aquarus's head with enough force to cause it to cave in on one side. The look of utter shock was the last thing that remained in the fish man as he fell limply.

One more dead Guardian.

Watching the body fall, something in Martian Man snapped. He let out a horrible *ROAR*, something guttural and primal as he leaped over and once again bounded Omniman, much more tightly this time.

Once again, War Woman and the Immortal closed in and took the chance.

Blow after blow, Omniman's head rocked back and forth. Blood seeped from freshly open gashes and bruises as punches backed by a significant level of super strength came in a string of blows.

But Omniman merely took it all, his mind entirely focused on searching for the Martian Man's weakness.

He found it a second later, a small mass that poked out of the outstretched Martian skin. The Martian Man's brain.

It was a simple matter for him to reach out and tear it off entirely, even with the blows to his head and face. Martian Man's stretched fell slack and slid lifelessly to the floor.

Another Guardian, dead.

He attacked quickly afterwards, punching a hole through the Immortal's chest.

The Immortal was in a state of shock and disbelief as he fell to his knees, coughing out blood and clutching at the whole.

War Woman screamed as she attacked from above and behind him, but was subsequently dealt with as Omniman simply grabbed her head and twisted it a full 180°. She landed on her knees and stayed there, her twisted head blankly staring at nowhere with glassy and dead eyes.

Omniman let out a few short breaths before turning back to the downed Immortal, who was watching him intently. Shock, confusion, and disbelief still fresh in his eyes.

He gasped deeply and asked with a slow breath, "Why?"

Omniman wordlessly approached and swiped his hand over the Immortal's neck like a knife, parting head from shoulder as the very last of the Guardians fell to his hands.

Finally, Omniman let out a very heavy breath as he slowly grumbled to his knees. His eyes starting back at the wide-eyed head of the Immortal which seemed to coincidentally stare back at him.

Omniman's eyes were unfocused as his breathing turned more ragged and forced, his mind blank.

Then, he too fell to the floor. Bruised, injured, bleeding, and exhausted.