Shards of Invincibility 2 (Patreon)

<<New York, 1989>>

Under my mask, I bit back a sigh as I used a hydrokinesis power to bundle up and secure the latest villain. Some sort of wacko made of water giving a monologue about sinking Manhattan to the bottom of the Atlantic and making it the capital of his kingdom. I honestly stopped listening when the hydrokinesis power slotted in.

You would think that being a superhero wouldn’t get old, but after two years of easily being the most powerful person on the planet… I was aching for a good fight. No denying it, I’d gotten bored. Sure, I was happy to keep people safe, but all the same, it felt like I was going through life on Easy Mode.

What I really needed was someone or something that took longer 30 seconds for me to fight, what I needed was worthy opp-

Almost as soon as the water lunatic was on his way to a GDA holding cell, I felt a strange tug. I knew the power making it, it was one I had to direct me to the biggest threat in an area around me. It wasn’t perfect, but it was still a useful power to keep up. More than that, I’d never felt it give a reading this strong before. Briefly, I closed my eyes to try to get a better read on where it was coming from…

Snapping open my eyes, I turned to face the rapidly approaching threat, tossing the hydrokinesis power for a flight power and the threat detection power for a forcefield generating power. As I rose up into the air, my eyes narrowed as I saw the figure, a man clad in a white jumpsuit, come racing in from higher up in the atmosphere.

I summoned a force field in front of him, still a good half mile out. Based on past experience when I’d sparred with Immortal, this will probably be more than eno-

My thought was instantly proven wrong as whoever this was instantly blew through the barrier. Eyes widening, I generated another, thicker one, angled to deflect him away from the city proper. Again, he slammed into the forcefield, though the additional strength and physics of it kept him from completely destroying it. Even with that, as I let that barrier fade, I could tell that it had been badly fractured.

As he adjusted his flight path, I chucked the forcefield power, slotting in one that had long proven useful against fliers. Pointing my hand at him, I took a moment to enjoy the look of surprise on his face as he suddenly dropped fifty feet. That made me feel a bit of nervousness, even the Immortal would have been embedded into the ground by this point.

Despite myself, I felt myself smiling under my mask. Even as he charged at me, powering through the altered gravity I’d inflicted on him with enough speed that I had to swap my flight for an invulnerability power, it took all I had to keep from laughing in joy. This was the longest fight I’d had in over a year and a half!

I felt my back slam into the roof of the North Tower, and dropped gravity manipulation for super strength. As he lifted a hand to punch me, my knee came up with all the force my power could muster. To my surprise, he remained above me instead of flying into the distance, but his eyes did cross as he bent over to cradle where I hit. I got my feet between us and pushed him off me, hopping to my feet as he recovered with amazing speed.

Faster than I could track, he was in front of me, his fist slamming into my cheek. Without a slotted power to control my positioning with, I was sent flying. I dropped the invulnerability power for my earlier flight power, then swapped strength for a paralysis one, racing back to the Twin Towers where he was lifting off the North Tower roof, rubbing at the hand that he’d punched me with.

“This world’s enemies are tougher than I expected,” he growled, making me blink.

“Enemy? I’m its protector,” I shot back, making him pause.

He looked me up and down, turning to look with one eye down to where the GDA helicopters and other transports were approaching. Even without a power dedicated to enhanced senses or anything like that, I could tell that every gun pointing in our direction wasn’t aimed at me. He gave a huffed chuckle, running a hand through his hair.

“That’s what I get for going in recklessly,” I heard him mutter, before turning his attention to me. “I apologize, I didn’t take the time to analyze the situation like I should have. I don’t suppose we can start over?”

<<Present Day>>

I had a small smile on my face as I walked up the drive to Nolan’s house, a covered platter of appetizers in hand. Was it “a grievous misuse of power” to have one of my slots in use to keep them at the perfect temperature? Some would say so. To those people I say fuck off.

I rang the doorbell, and after a minute or two, the door opened to reveal Marcella, who immediately grinned and wrapped me in a hug. One that I returned with a laugh, squeezing my arm across her back. Her hug was a lot stronger than I remembered, which gave me a strong suspicion.

“Powers finally come in?” I asked quietly, just before she pulled back.

“Earlier this evening,” she said with a nod, her grin still firmly in place. Before freezing, “Ah, I kind of forgot, in the excitement of realizing my powers came in, but I...kinda...threw a garbage bag over the horizon.”

I chuckled in amusement. It certainly wasn’t the worst incident to come about from someone getting powers that I’d heard, but it was definitely one of the more amusing ones. Still, she was visibly nervous, so I patted her on the shoulder and, conspiratorially, told her, “Remind me to tell you about the time that your dad got spooked by some fireworks and knocked over an oak tree that had been planted during the Revolutionary War.”

Her eyes practically bugged out, making me laugh as I entered the house, deciding to save the reveal that it had been planted by the Immortal for when I told her the full story. Marcella took the plate of appetizers from me as Nolan and Debbie came out of the kitchen.

“John, good to see you,” Debbie said with a smile. There was a friendly hug, much shorter than her daughter’s, before Nolan and I shook hands.

“You too, Debbie,” I told her. “How’s the real estate business?”

“Same as always,” she said with a shrug. “Any luck finding a girl? Or guy?”

I chuckled, amused as always by the old question. Debbie had always gotten on my case about my status as a single man. Seeing Marcella walking past us, I felt a surge of mischievous amusement as I said, much louder than strictly necessary, “Not since a certain ten year old declared that she was going to marry me from the top of the jungle gym.”

Marcella let out an embarrassed noise, prompting amused chuckles from the three adults in the room. Forcing the chuckles down, I said in a more normal voice, “You know me, Debbie: I’m married to my work.”

And there was the disappointed maternal look from her. Really, you’d think I was one of her own sometimes, despite the fact that I was four years older than her. Things moved on from there, my offering for the meal was happily accepted (jalapenos stuffed with a cream cheese, a garlic rosemary herb blend, and a piece of wagyu brisket, all wrapped in hickory smoked peppercorn bacon) and in a few minutes the four of us were seated around the Greyson dinner table.

Conversation was light, before Marcella took a breath to calm her nerves, drawing both Nolan and Debbie’s attention. I hid my smile behind my mug as she said, “Guess who’s finally getting her powers!?”

“...are you sure?” Nolan asked, his voice slow and hesitant, for lack of a better word.

I glanced his way, suppressing the urge to raise an eyebrow at him. It took me a moment, as I listened to Marcella’s response with one ear, but from what I could tell, I had the impression that Nolan was hoping that she didn’t get powers. But just the other week, after our last sparring session, he’d confided that he was worried about how long it was taking her powers to come in.

Debbie gave Nolan a kick under the table, but I paid only half a mind to the rest of the conversation. Was it because of the job? Marcella was the kind of girl that wouldn’t be able to stay at home and ignore trouble in the world now that she had powers. Honestly, with the three of us as her role models growing up, she was doomed from the start.

But that was probably it, Nolan was probably worried for her safety. He’d told me shortly after she was born that a Viltrumite’s powers were at their weakest in the first few years. Marcella would be tough, strong, and fast, but only slightly above average for the flying brick type of superhuman. From what he’d told me, assuming a standard rate of growth, she wouldn’t be on the Immortal’s level for five years.

I briefly considered offering to provide her with some training, but decided against it. If someone at some point somehow asked me why, I’d say that because while my powers were insanely versatile, Nolan would be the better instructor, having had decades to master the same suite of powers that she’d be growing into. The real reason: I wasn’t going to take that from the two of them.

The rest of dinner went well, even with Nolan being a bit distant. I went home around eight, and decided to think more on what Black Samson had suggested to me, about finding something I could do other than being a superhero. There was something that I’d been thinking about, earlier today when I was making my addition to dinner. I enjoyed cooking, so it was possible that I’d be able to do something tied to that.

I went to bed, with a list of possible cooking related hobbies. I woke up the next morning to the most shocking thing I’d heard ever since I realized I had powers.

[hr][/hr]

“John, thank goodness,” Debbie said in relief as I walked into Nolan’s room. I caught both her and Marcella in a quick hug, keeping an eye on Nolan’s sleeping and badly injured form.

“How is he?” I asked quietly as the two pulled away.

“The doctors think he’ll be conscious in a day or two,” Debbie said, and I turned to look at her. She was staring at Nolan, worry in her eyes. “I’ve never seen him hurt like this, can you think of anyone who could do that and kill the Guardians?”

I narrowed my eyes, thinking over all the various villains I’d faced in the last thirty plus years. A few of them might stand a chance against the Guardians, but they would not have walked away from it. With the Guardians and Nolan?

“None come to mind,” I said quietly. “But I sure as hell intend to find out.”

Cecil arrived soon after, had a talk with Marcella, then left, probably to the Guardian HQ. There was something about this that was bothering me, some part of the equation that wasn’t adding up. After a few minutes, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to figure it out in Nolan’s hospital room, so I stood up.

“I’m going to go hunt down some leads,” I told Debbie and Marcella. As I was slotting in a teleportation power, I turned my attention to Marcella and told her, “I was going to let Nolan do it, but given this, I think it would be a good idea for me to give you some basic training, now that you have your powers.”

There was enthusiastic agreement, of course, but it was muted, unsurprising, given the state Nolan was in. Still, the short conversation was enough that the power finished charging, and I teleported away. I sat against a random mountain side, the clean air helping me think.

“Someone was either strong enough to take on the Guardians of the Globe and Omni-Man at the same time, or was a powerful enough mind controller to get them to fight each other,” I muttered, standing up and pacing. “Even setting that aside, there wasn’t a scheduled meeting, and neither Nolan nor I are official members. Why was Nolan even there? He and I are on the list of automatic contacts if there’s a big enough emergency, but if there was an automatic message sent out to all of the Guardians, one that would have them arrive as quickly as possible, would also have contacted me.”

My mind was racing by now, my pace picking up as I continued to follow the mental rabbit hole. The only reason I wouldn’t have been contacted, if it was a call for an immediate meeting, would be if someone on the approved list overrode it prior to sending it. But of that list, there were only three people on it still alive: me, Cecil, and…

I froze, “…Nolan?”