chapter 15 : Death and Destruction

In the operating room, Cecil, Deborah and the others saw the immortal getting one shot and remained in cold silence.

 Deborah :...

 Cecil:…

 Donald:…

 Others :…

 "We are all dead" Cecil murmured, massaging his temple.

 …

 The whole world saw these images, including other superheroes. The new guardians of the globe and Eve were deeply shocked by what they saw because even if the resurrection of the immortal surprised them, they didn't imagine that he would be killed so easily. A sense of crisis began to overwhelm everyone.

 …

 " Oh my God !" Amber had just completed a set of 50 sit-ups when she saw images of the events on her television. She got up as a bad feeling came over her.

 …

 Saeko still hadn't returned home and passed near a television store where she saw a crowd of people watching the images of Omni-man with fear, she got closer and was able to see with a shock how few images the cameras could capture.

 …

 (Now listen to the Star Wars soundtrack [kerosene - Crystal Castles (slowed) ], now it's going to get a little trashy)

 "Let me show you how futile your fight for these creatures is stupid, son." Nolan said before rushing towards the falling Mark and started punching him sending him flying further and further.

 In New York, a few moments later, people in front of their screens were wondering where Invincible and Nolan had gone when a few buildings were demolished by Nolan who was holding the barely conscious Mark by his neck, determined to show him how much the Humans were fragile and ephemeral under the cries of civilians while the buildings collapsed.

 He grabbed Mark's leg and threw him towards an elementary school like a meteor, destroying the premises and taking the lives of several children.

 He wasted no time and caught up with Mark who wanted to fly and drag him away from the city but Nolan was fast, much too fast for him and grabbed him to destroy several other buildings using Mark's body as a projectile.

 The New York heroes were trying to help save people but Omni-man was destroying faster than they reacted, it was a disaster.

 In a hospital delivery room, a woman had just given birth to the cries of the baby and the joy of the staff when the building began to collapse, killing almost everyone in the hospital. The woman, the newborn and the medical staff were all killed. 

 Mark was aware of all this and tearfully begged his father to stop but to no avail. Omni-man continued his destruction to the city's subway where he only destroyed one train, using Mark this time.

 "Look and learn how useless and vain what you want to defend is my son" Nolan spoke while under the rubble a crying little girl tried to grab the hand of her mother crushed under stones. Nolan placed his foot on top of the rubble which fell on the kid to crush her too before Mark's helpless eyes.

 He came and grabbed Mark's head who didn't even react because he was so destroyed inside but as Nolan was about to use him as a cannonball again, Mark grabbed his arm and even Nolan had to notice that her son's grip was strong.

 Before Nolan could even make any comments, Mark threw a punch that caused Nolan's nose to bleed, the blow was hard enough to even make him release his grip on Mark's head.

 " STOP THAT !" Mark screamed as his body released a slight Shockwave before throwing a rapid series of punches at Nolan who only took them with growing surprise.

 Mark had become even stronger but suddenly, Omni-man grabbed his fist while on his face marked by Mark's fists, a vicious smile was drawn on his lips.

 "That's good, my son, very good, but it's not enough. It seems like you're still resisting but maybe that's because the right people weren't involved, right?!" he said as Mark immediately guessed what he was going with but as he wanted to answer his father, Nolan broke his arm before kicking him which sent him flying towards their city.

 They left New York in crisis amid the screams and tears of its residents.

 The whole world was terrified by the images of New York City, fear gripped people in big cities and a feeling of insecurity reigned everywhere.

 The heroes and the New York police couldn't do nothing to stop Omni-man because even apart from his monstrous strength he was so terrifyingly fast that locating him was difficult and each time he was too late to intervene.

 …

 Nolan dragged Mark back to their city while making sure to destroy the fighter jets and combat drones sent by the GDA without any problem.

 Mark, despite himself, was dragged by his father's strength towards Arlington where he already had both his arms and one leg broken as he crashed into a crater downtown.

 Nolan: You have a heroine girlfriend right ?Let's see if we can get her out of her hole, my son. You must understand now what you will have to understand in eighty years or less when she dies of old age or disease under your helpless gaze.

 "Stop...please...dad she has nothing to do with this..." Mark said weakly so his eyes were having trouble even staying open because he was so disfigured.

 Nolan started his act of destruction again with him until the new guardians of the globe were deployed to rescue them and when Nolan saw them he flew towards Eve holding Mark by the leg with completely red eyes.

 None of the guardians were quick enough to see it coming but just as they were about to reach it, a small, fairly fast shadow rushed towards Eve before touching her and making her disappear with it.

 An angry Nolan crashed where Eve was supposed to be and looked around to see who had taken her from there and where she was.

 The other guards noticed with horror that Nolan was there but as he went to kill them one by one, gunshots were heard and two bullets crashed into Omni-man's temple before being deflected by his skin almost impenetrable.

 Angry, Nolan looked in the direction of the shooter to see a person about 5 feet tall in a black jumpsuit with a human skull mask covering the lower part of his face.

 Looking at the eyes, this person was Asian and had a female body shape, it was Saeko.

 She continued shooting this time as both bullets hit Nolan's eyes who closed his eyelids in time.

 Angry, he let go of Mark to rush at her like a cannonball but the kid disappeared from there teleporting to continue shooting at Nolan in another location, she continued to harass Nolan like that and it lasted for a while time to give others time to move away.

 Until Nolan grabbed an iron pipe and as Saeko appeared in another place, at the same moment, Nolan threw the pipe which lodged itself in Saeko's shoulder who immediately screamed in pain as she was impaled on the wall behind her.

 As Nolan wanted to move towards her, Mark's body came crashing down on him. He might no longer be able to walk, but he could still fly.

 Nolan grabbed him by the neck and rushed to crash with him into the city's social center where several people were killed by the rubble and rubble or simply exposed by Nolan passing by them.

 Omni-man saw his son resisting again and once again lost his temper to start beating him up again and again.

 Nolan: You want to die for these people?! Good, I'll help you (punch). I would have tried to get you on my side but you are definitely not a real Viltrumite (punch), you want to live as a human so you will die like them (punch). As for this land (punch), it's not a big deal because I could always start over what I did and with other children more worthy than you (punch, punch, punch). Do you wanna know something? I was there when your brother was killed and I didn't even think about intervening because I knew he could have been troublesome (punch), much more troublesome than you so I let him die as he should have doing it since birth (punch). Your mother, your girlfriend and your friends do you think you can cherish them for a long time Mark? Think Mark think! You'll live a long, very long time and long enough to see them all disappear one after the other (punch). What will you have left after 5000 years, huh?!

 Nolan was about to hit Mark again when an energy blast slammed into his head, thinking it was Cecil, he turned around to see Deborah looking at him with deep hatred while pointing an energy weapon at him, she had asked getting teleported there with Donald's bracelet that she borrowed.

 Deborah : I'm not going to let you kill my son, you monster.

 Nolan stood up with all the blood of the innocents and Mark's on him looking at Deborah who he started walking towards calmly.

 "Go ahead, come and kill me like you did with all these humans that you judged inferior, in any case even by killing me you won't do me any more harm than you have already done to me but I warn you, I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU KILL MY SON. " Deborah said with no fear in her eyes before this monster of power, a simple weak human standing fearlessly in the face of the embodiment of destruction itself.

She was a mother who wanted to defend her son and the concept of fear did not exist for a woman in this circumstance.

 Nolan stopped and looked at his hands, at all the blood he had on him and when his rage subsided, he realized everything he had done and the monster he was.

 " Kih be...u can Kih be bu veth theth pepoh e peth (Kill me... you can kill me but leave these people in peace)" Mark tried to speak weakly where he was, his condition was so bad that he could no longer speak properly. 

 "Mark..." Nolan saw his son's state and just as he wanted to touch him, Debra shot him again.

 "I forbid you from touching my son, I never want you to go near him again. » she said aiming again. Nolan clenched his fist and teeth before quickly taking off from the ground and flying off the planet as tears fell from his eyes for the very first time in his life.

 On Earth , Debra, Eve and the emergency services immediately took care of Mark, Saeko and the other injured people.

 The whole world saw almost everything that happened and social media was ablaze for the next few days in fear of whether Omni-man would return.

 Many people have investigated Invincible's true identity because he was the son of the Destroyer and even though he fought to defend humanity, many wanted to blame him for his father's mistakes.

 Mark was in a coma for a few weeks where Saeko, Debra and Eve came to care for him from time to time.

 William for his part because of the trauma in his spine became completely paralyzed and no longer wanted to see anyone, he cried from time to time and even had bad nightmares at night.

 As for Amber, she was in deep sorrow because not only were many people dead and they knew the protagonists of the case, but also many of her acquaintances from the social center died, including one person in particular who made sure may his heart be completely broken.

 A little over three weeks after this disaster, Mark wore sunglasses with a hooded sweatshirt in front of Lucas's grave and told him about the recent events.

 "…this is what finally happened since you left Lucas. I decided not to continue studying after my diploma because I won't have time to waste and I have to become stronger, much stronger so that all this never happens again.

 (tears fall from his eyes) I would have preferred that day to have died in your place, maybe if you were there (sniffles) ...maybe if you were there you could have stopped it so nothing none of this happened. I failed brother and so many people died because of it.

 Do you remember William, my best friend?! Dad has completely paralyzed him and I can't even look him in the eyes anymore and the worst part is that he doesn't even blame me for that, I hurts Lucas.

 Cecil has offered his assistance to help him, the GDA certainly has the means to succeed and that is all I hope for.

 I miss you Lucas and I would love for everything to go back to the way it was before. See you later little brother, I love you. » he placed a bouquet of flowers on Lucas' grave before leaving there.

 In the cemetery, several other tombstones have been added since the Nolan disaster and not far from Lucas's, there was a very beautiful tombstone with the photo of a pretty little African-American girl where it was marked " Sally Stone 2065-2070."

 It was Sally, the little girl for whom Lucas had financed the heart operation and since her father was the new Crime boss in the city, they had enough money for her to come and help the others at the Social Center like Lucas did it.

 Unfortunately, she and her mother found themselves in the wrong place and at the wrong time that day, the mother, despite serious injuries, survived but not young Sally.

 Later, Mark went to find Art at his store for a brand new suit since the old one had been destroyed in his fight against his father.

 "There you go son, your costume is ready but do you really feel ready to resume activities? Is the world ready to see you again after all this ?" Art asked as he showed off Mark's brand new costume.

 It was pretty much the same costume as Nightwing's but in red and black with an "I" on the chest and a mask to hide the top of his face, still like Nightwing but thicker and without the ridiculous glasses of his old costume, the mask hid his eyes in total white just like Robin or Nightwing's mask does, it was strange but Art managed to create this mask effect.

 Mark: I don't care if the world wants to see me or not, I have to carry my cross and try to redeem myself for always being weak when I should have been strong and for that I have to change, be harder on myself and be even harder on those who act as my father did.

 Art: Your look is the same as your brother's. Besides, have you heard about this new vigilante ?! She goes by the pseudonym "BLINK" and she mercilessly kills criminals, a bit like FEAR. 

 Mark: You made her costume and we know it's my little sister, Saeko.

 Art: Ahahahah, this little one carries your brother's will very well.

 "And she's not the only one anymore" Mark said as a dark smile played on his lips.

 That night, in the cemetery or precisely below in Lucas' coffin, he was still in a deep sleep, the scars on his body had not moved or disappeared, his body had become thinner, his nails more as long as his hair and the coffin was almost filled with this black and foul-smelling paste caused by his dead cells.

 Now Lucas' heart rate was 60 beats every 5 minutes. As total, dull silence reigned in the box, a slow, very slow, extremely faint exhale from Lucas' mouth was heard before the macabre, dark silence reigned once again.

***I don't know why, but I feel like I've written a great chapter for the first time. I hope you enjoyed 🙏🏾***