chapter 17 : Kidnapping

[Kid, you need to hurry up, I don't know what they're up to but it's definitely not something good.]

 Mark: I'm on my way Cecil. This man, the one who freed the Mauler brothers, do you have any idea of ​​his identity?

 [No, from their cell camera we just know that a space or dimensional portal appeared on the cell wall for them to get out. We don't know if it's a machine or just their accomplice's own power.]

 Mark: (Sighs) All right, I'm here and I'll sort it out quickly.

 In a large room, a man was seated on an armchair merged with a gigantic machine where dozens of people were installed on seats who looked exactly like this man.

 Angstrom Levy was a brilliant man from a dimension in which Invincible had accepted Omni-man's plan for domination of the entire earth and reigned supreme with his father over all humans for the Viltrum Empire.

 Surviving a rebellion on his own, he decided to come up with a plan to avoid all of this. First, he went to a peaceful dimension where things seemed calm and it seemed like Invincible and his father hadn't made any moves yet.

 Then, he freed the Mauler brothers to help him set up a project aimed at manufacturing a psychic fusion machine before bringing together and convincing his replicas from other dimensions like his to merge their knowledge in his mind thanks to the machine.

 Finally, he would gather all their knowledge into himself, becoming the man with the most knowledge in the world in order to stop Omni-man and his son in this dimension and even in the others if possible.

 Levy was just a desperate man who had seen horrors committed by the father-son duo and wanted to stop them without shedding blood if possible.

 However, when his plan was in the final stages, Invincible entered the room to interrupt everything.

 Invincible: You two, I'm going to send you back to prison, the state in which you return there will depend on you so make the right choices and don't try to annoy me.

 Mauler 1: Damn, not him! This guy, according to rumors, has become too brutal!

 Mauler 2: What are we going to do? He is far too powerful.

 "YOU MUST NOT LET IT INTERRUPT THE PROCESS, WORLDS DEPEND ON US. HOLD HIM, I'LL HELP YOU." Angstrom Levy shouted as the fusion process continued.

He created several dimensional portals from which dozens of Mauler duos from other dimensions emerged.

 "This is more balanced!" 

 "Now we can have fun, Invincible"

 "We are going to take revenge for what he did to us in our dimension"

 " REVENGE !!"

 "This guy almost killed me a year ago in my dimension"

 Invincible saw the number of enemies increase and no trace of worry or panic was seen on his face. He is used to facing excess enemies in holographic simulations or with Sinclair's reanimen.

 The Maulers, no matter how numerous they were, had neither the speed of holograms nor the toughness and programmed combat skills of Cyborgs, they were nothing at all.

 They charged at him and Mark didn't even try to play with them, these guys wanted pain so he was going to pleasure them.

He dodged the attack of the first Mauler and it was the one from this dimension, grabbing his arm he used his body as a weapon to strike at the other Maulers again and again before throwing him through the wall.

 The Mauler flew far, far away from the premises and when he fell, several of his bones were broken, he no longer even had the strength to move.

 Certainly, he had superhuman strength and resistance but this was also the case for the others on whom Invincible forced him to collide again and again, he had a very painful expression before losing consciousness.

 Invincible in the room fought off the Maulers without much difficulty as although individually they had strength and stamina beyond that of a normal human, none of them could keep up with Mark's speed who put on a frightening display of his close combat skills.

 With Agility and finesse, he dodged the Maulers' attacks, responding with incredible brutality.

There was a lot of blood in the room from the injuries of the criminals, many of whom had open fractures.

 While he had just physically ruined almost half of the Mauler army, Mark lightly massaged his jaw because a few had managed to hit him with their fists but did not do him any real damage.

 The Maulers still standing looked in horror at their multi-dimensional replicas on the ground in atrocious physical conditions and seriously began to fear.

 Levy: Attack him together, we can't afford to-*Huargh*

 He interrupted his own sentence to scream in fear as Invincible flew at high speed to hang in the void in front of A. Levy who out of surprise and fear stood up from his seat and interrupted the fusion process .

 One of the Maulers saw this and his face fell in panic, all of them used these machines in their universes to transfer their minds into their clones and knew the consequence of interrupting the transfer process on the machine.

 Mauler no.??? : NO, DON'T INTERRUPT THE PROCESS, OTHERWISE WE WILL ALL-(Interrupted)

 *BRAOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUM*

 A huge explosion took place and the entire building was blown away by the explosion. The blast had been powerful, powerful enough to char everyone in the building instantly and even Invincible who had been shaken by it had blood dripping lightly from every orifice of his head.

 " What a tragedy ! These guys, their own bullshit backfired and literally blew up in their face." he said desolately before calling Cecil and leaving there because the explosion had attracted a good number of civilians and press envoys.

 After Mark left, someone emerged from the rubble and it was Angstrom Levy, the man saw the destruction around him and the dozens of charred corpses before vomiting.

 His experiment had almost succeeded and he felt the effects in his memory, his knowledge was extremely great but his main joy was still being alive.

 Yet as he felt his body for a missing part, he realized to his horror that his physical appearance had changed.

 His brain mass was enlarged, too enlarged and overflowed from his head to merge with the top of his brain, forming a solid but rather repulsive organic mass.

 "NO, NO NOOOO!" I HAVE BECOME A MONSTER…IT…IT'S HIS FAULT! IT'S HIS FAULT ! HE EXPLODED THE MACHINE, HE DID THAT. I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER AAAAAAAAAAARGH." he yelled in great bad faith, blaming Mark while forgetting that it was he who interrupted the machine's process, thus causing the explosion.

 By an unexplained fact, the seat where he was was the safest place from the explosion (Yes, it's easy) and in his anger, he designated Invincible as a scapegoat for his monstrous appearance. Hate still filled his being when he opened a portal to leave there.

 Mark had changed to go straight to Art's house since his suit had been torn to shreds from the explosion.

When he arrived, he found Saeko in the laboratory working on her new project, nanotechnology.

 She finally accomplished what she had promised her mother a few months ago by giving her the capsule, catching up with Art and he was so impressed that he gave her the management of his workshop in order to take a little rest.

 Secretly, he and Debra were very close and spent time together talking and having a few drinks.

 "Saeko! Where is Art?!" Mark asked taking her in his arms to tease her, this little one despite all her abilities was still a child.

 Saeko: Ah, Onii-chan you smell like burnt meat, let me go!

 Mark: Hahahaha! (Leaves Saeko) So? Where is the old man?

 Saeko: Art took some time to rest, now I'm the one running the workshop!

 "My God, I'm screwed! Who will take care of my costume?" Mark said pretending to make a big deal out of it.

 Saeko: HEY!! I'm here, I can take care of it.

 Mark: You?

 Saeko: Yes me.

 Mark: who ?

 Saeko: STOP ONII-CHAN!

 Mark: Ahahahah, it's okay, I'll stop. Art told me that you were very strong and above all very talented in the workshop, he could even trust you 100% for the work in his words so I'm going to do the same. (puts the suit back on) Look, it was damaged by a big explosion. Can you repair it?

 Saeko: pfff, I can even improve it!

 Mark: Yeah, we'll see. Approximately how long will it take?

 Saeko: Five days if I start now.

 Mark: So let's say 6 days since I'm taking you and Eve to have fun. We're going to the funfair.

 Saeko: YES! Lucas Onii-chan took me there once…I…

 Mark: I know princess, say no more.

 Saeko: Can we go lay some flowers on his grave before we leave?

 Mark: Of course little sister.

 [Somewhere in town]

 In a rather special gymnasium, a pretty, busty blonde woman was standing there watching two girls fighting fiercely, one of whom had tanned skin and the other who was a beautiful brunette.

 You could see that the brunette had a slight advantage over the afro, she was hitting faster and putting more force on the other on the defensive when something happened.

 The pretty African-American girl managed to intercept her opponent's punch before sending him a high-kick which surprised everyone because of the position she was in and which was supposed to make the gesture difficult before followed up with a Spin Elbow on the jaw of the still dazed brunette but before her elbow hit its target, the hand of the blonde who was watching the fight effortlessly stopped the elbow strike.

 "That's enough, you win the fight." the blonde woman said giving a smile to the girl who relaxed before greeting her opponent.

 A moment later, the blonde and the young afro were sitting on a public bench enjoying a hot dog while talking.

 The blonde: It's incredible Amber, you've only been here a few months but you've already beaten my best student! It's surreal how much talent you have to fight and especially your hard work. Your body has changed terribly, your buttocks and abdominal muscles give you a terribly sexy silhouette.

 Amber: Stop Britney, I'll be embarrassed.

 Britney: Wow, you feel more and more comfortable calling me by my first name, I like it better. Being called "Professor Brit" all the time is starting to tire me out, it's making me look old.

 Amber: So is it good? Can I return to fight in the underground arenas?

 Britney: If you want, that's where I spotted you anyway. But if you're so thirsty for a fight then why don't you fight for something more rewarding. I've never had an assistant with your talent you know.

 Amber: No thanks, you know I hate superheroes Britney. On the other hand, I want to continue training with you if you don't mind.

 Britney: (sighs) Of course you do kid, it's just a shame you're only interested in this filthy place. Well, it's a good show and the fights are interesting but it's still a filthy place. Besides, why are you so keen to return to the underground?

 Amber: It's just that I often went there with someone special and knowing that he fought there, it makes me feel good to do it too. It's a bit like he's still there.

 Britney: Oh, can I know who it is?! I knew a lot of fighters there so maybe I know him. Did he have a nickname?

 Amber: People there called him "King."

 Britney: KING?! WERE YOU CLOSELY CONNECTED WITH King ?! This guy is the best fighter I have seen in my life, a true prodigy, a god even. Have you heard from him?! His number ?! I'm a fan you know.

 Amber: He died months ago already.

 Britney: Damn...!

 (For those who have not yet understood who this blonde is or simply for those who know nothing about the heroes of Image Comics, this pretty blonde woman is Britney a heroine with the nickname Brit, she is an expert in close combat and her main power is invulnerability, she was completely invulnerable to any type of external damage, disease or even aging which found itself extremely slowed down in her. On top of that, her physical prowess was superhuman and she equaled Spiderman in Marvel in Strength and Agility if you want a reference)

 Amber was not the only one to get involved in physical activities, in Lucas' villa, Deborah was in the middle of a bench press session in the gym that her son had installed.

 She had been working on her physique for months and her figure had changed a lot and her curves were more visible.

 Deborah had become passionate about physical exertion only to work out and feel relaxed afterwards.

 She was also learning self-defense and felt strangely freer and younger since Nolan's departure, unlike in the comics where she spent her time complaining about this asshole and even falling into drunkenness.

 She looked at her watch and hurried to dry off her sweat, shower, get dressed to go out because she was supposed to find Art in a tea room in the city.

 Before, she stopped by the Grayson house to look for something and that's where, without her knowing, she was spotted in the distance by strangers in a van who were spying on the house.

 As she got back into her car to head towards the city center, the van that had been following her for a while violently hit her car, knocking out Deborah who lost consciousness.

 The people in the van got out, took the unconscious Debbie with them and restarted the van to leave with her.

 Cecil in a secret GDA location was submerged in a vat filled with a strange liquid with his head out when he heard his communicator signaling a call.

 He wore the headset and after a few seconds of listening, his expression turned furious.

 " WHAT ?!! KIDNAPPED ?! CAN I KNOW WHY WE PAY AGENTS AS MINDFUL AS YOU?! WAS MONITORING AND PROTECTING HER THAT COMPLICATED?! FIND HIS TRACE AND GIVE ME THE KID'S POSITION!" he yelled while he himself was exasperated by the incompetence of his agents but he felt the crisis coming if Debra was not found before Mark was informed, he had a bad feeling about this what the young hero could do.