The elevator doors hissed open, revealing the massive, underground training bunker several levels beneath Invincible Inc. The cavernous room was lined end-to-end with shock-absorbent hyper-polymers and invisible energy-dampening fields, specifically designed to withstand high-tier superhuman brawls.
I hovered out to the far end of the training field, testing the weight distribution of the suit. The repulsor thrusters hummed quietly, keeping me suspended a few inches off the reinforced floor.
"Alright, you two," I called out, my voice booming through the suit's external speakers. "Remember that this is just a test run to check the suit's systems, so you shouldn't—"
I didn't even get to finish the sentence.
A massive, solid construct of glowing pink energy—shaped suspiciously like a freight train—slammed into my chest. The force sent me skidding backward across the floor.
Holy shit! I yelled internally.
Before I could even stabilize, Anissa blurred into existence directly above me. She descended like a meteor, delivering a precise, bone-shattering axe kick aimed right at my helmet.
My HUD flared red. I threw my arms up, instinctively triggering the suit's defensive countermeasures. A kinetic-absorption shield flared to life, glowing a bright, translucent blue around my forearms just as Anissa's heel struck.
BOOM!
The floor beneath me spider-webbed from the sheer impact. The alloy plating held perfectly, completely unbothered by the strike—but the kinetic shockwave still transferred through the suit. My teeth violently rattled together, and my brain slammed against the inside of my skull.
The suit works, but that feedback's a bitch! I groaned inwardly, my vision swimming for a split second. Need to tell them to add an additional impact stabilizer.
"Is that all this primitive shell can manage?" Anissa taunted, floating effortlessly out of range before I could counter.
"Wait till I get a handle on this, and I'll show y'all something," I responded.
"Don't get cocky!" Eve yelled from across the room. Another massive barrage of dense pink energy spikes came raining down on my position.
I fired the repulsor thrusters, jerking erratically to the left to evade the spikes. I quickly tapped into the suit's offensive systems, locking onto Anissa and Eve's positions. Compartments on my shoulders slid open, firing a volley of concussive micro-missiles. They weren't meant to hurt them, but they detonated mid-air, filling the room with a thick, disorienting smokescreen.
For a brief, terrifying second, the room was quiet.
Aye yo, we might die today, my libido suddenly whispered from the darkest corner of my mind. But you've gotta admit... getting jumped like this is kinda hot.
Go back to sleep! I roared at it mentally, dodging a blind energy blast that cut through the smoke.
As the smoke cleared, I started figuring out how to maneuver the heavy suit more fluidly. The servos whined as I successfully evaded a coordinated pincer attack, dodging Anissa's sweeping punch at the exact same moment I ducked under Eve's energy ram.
I slid to a halt on the other side of the room, panting heavily. I looked up and saw Anissa and Eve exchanging a brief glance. They both settled into aggressive stances, their eyes locking onto me with a synchronized, terrifying look that promised absolute pain.
They might be done holding back, my libido commented, making a reappearance. You better figure something out quick, or things might get fatal.
Ya think? I replied sarcastically, bracing myself for another potential attack.
The two finally flew in, flanking me from two different positions with their fists extended outward.
You've gotta do something! my libido exclaimed. They're coming in fast! THEY'RE COMING IN FAST!
Before an impact was made, my HUD suddenly blared with a blinding red warning light.
[INCOMING PRIORITY TRANSMISSION]
Oh, thank goodness! I thought in relief.
"Wait, wait, wait!" I yelled, throwing both of my armored hands up in a 'time out' gesture.
They halted just a few inches away from my face.
"I've got a joint channel incoming from Zoe and Titan," I said, tapping the side of my helmet and patching them through.
"Mark? Are you there?" Zoe's voice crackled into my ear. "I'm up on my dad's space station. We just finished scanning the Earth's perimeter like you asked. We found a massive thermal blind spot—something is actively cloaking a huge heat signature right in the middle of Wyoming."
Wyoming?! What the fuck?! I thought, my brows furrowing. Why are villains always hiding in bum-fuck ass places like Wyoming?!
"We've got something too," Titan said. "My underworld contacts just got back to me. They were terrified of you being back, so they sang like birds. A few months ago, massive shipments of restricted tectonic-drilling equipment and highly unstable isotopes were purchased through a dozen shell companies. The delivery route ends at those exact same coordinates."
Eve's pink aura instantly dropped as the geographical pieces clicked together in her mind.
"Mark..." she breathed, her voice suddenly laced with genuine horror. "The coordinates. He might be in a hollowed out base directly underneath the Yellowstone Caldera."
"The supervolcano?!" I asked, my blood running cold.
"Yes," Eve said, quickly walking over to me. "Think about it. Dinosaurus is an extreme eco-terrorist. If he uses tectonic drills and unstable isotopes to set off a chain reaction in that magma chamber, the resulting eruption wouldn't just destroy the region."
"It would plunge the entire Earth into a volcanic winter," I finished, the horrifying realization dawning on me.
"Exactly," Eve nodded grimly. "Enough ash clouds would block out the sun for years. Global temperatures would plummet. He's trying to 'cure' global warming by hitting the reset button on the climate... by wiping out billions of people."
HOLY FUCKING SHIT! my libido rang out. THAT T-REX IS WILDIN' THE FUCK OUT!
The training room fell silent at the news of Dinosaurus creating an extinction-level event.
My eyes widened behind the visor, and I immediately started giving out orders.
"You two," I said, refocusing on Anissa and Eve. "We've got to get out there. Right now."
Anissa raised an eyebrow. "'We'? Do you really expect me to allow you to go out there in that overgrown scrap metal? You need to be evacuated off this planet immediately before those devices activate."
"What?!" I balked, briskly making my way towards her and wagging an armored finger. "Now look here—"
"No… she's right," Eve interrupted reluctantly, glaring at Anissa from the corner of her eye. "If his plans go off, then you'll need to be in as safe of a place as possible."
I frowned behind the helmet. "That psychopath's plans are already moving accordingly. If Yellowstone blows and the rest of the world is affected, then what would be the point of evacuating me? Waking up with my powers on a dead planet would just be a massive slap in the face. We need all hands on deck."
Anissa crossed her arms and shook her head, thoroughly unamused. "Getting anxious over a pathetic lizard," she said, then sighed. "If you're so worried about this creature, then all we have to do is contact the other Viltrumites. Taking care of this creature would be as simple as breathing. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to—"
"No," I cut her off sharply. "We need this operation to be as low-key as possible. If a squad of Viltrumites suddenly mobilizes and descends on his location, then he'll definitely get paranoid and he might get trigger-happy. We need this to be as quick and quiet as possible. A discreet and surgical strike."
Eve sighed. "I'm all for distancing ourselves from these assholes, but this guy's plans are a threat to the stability of Earth, so we need all the help we can get."
Anissa smirked, looking down at Eve. "Funny, I didn't think your simple human mind was capable of devising an actual reasonable thought."
Eve turned and glared at her. "You conceited little bit—"
This is gonna be a long day. I can feel it, I thought, internally facepalming.
"Alright, alright, let's refocus!" I yelled, clapping my armored hands together. "Time is ticking!"
"You are not going anywhere," Anissa stated firmly. "A matter like this from this lowly creature should not be handled by your hands. It would be beneath you."
"Mark, I think you should sit this one out," Eve added in a sincere, pleading tone. "It'd be for the best."
I shook my head stubbornly. "And leave who to do it? You two? You both can't even go a couple of seconds without trying to rip each other's heads off. I'm going. I'll be fine. This suit is more than capable of handling itself. It did just hold you two off, didn't it?"
Anissa scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Hardly."
Despite their protests, I didn't leave room for argument. Once the logistics team relayed the exact coordinates to my HUD, the three of us deployed immediately.
I blasted out of the Invincible Inc. launch bay, flying through the atmosphere using the suit's thrusters, flanked by Eve riding on her pink energy fields and Anissa soaring effortlessly beside me.
During the flight, the tension between Eve and Anissa was still thick enough to cut with a knife. I could see them glaring at each other across the peripherals of my HUD.
"Aye, knock it off, you two," I barked into my speakers. "I need you two to lock in. The possible fate of the world is at stake. Put whatever personal beef you have to the side right now."
The two women begrudgingly listened, straightening up their flight paths.
I looked over at Eve. "That means you have to go along with certain tactical calls she makes. She has the combat experience."
Eve glared at me, her jaw tight, but she gave a stiff nod.
I turned my helmet toward Anissa. "And you can't accidentally have her decommissioned in the crossfire."
Anissa smiled beautifully, though it completely betrayed her words. "Me? The thought never even crossed my mind."
Yea, right, I muttered inwardly.
Within minutes, we reached the coordinates over the vast, rugged wilderness of Wyoming. According to my suit's scanners, we were directly over the plateau. At first glance, it looked like a normal, untouched cliffside. But as I switched my visor to thermal-optic imaging, the illusion shattered.
"It's a hologram," I relayed, pointing down. "A massive camouflage projector."
We descended through the fake cliffside, immediately dropping into a gaping, acid-melted sinkhole that plummeted straight down into the Earth's crust. I used the suit's floodlights to lead the way down the massive, perfectly smooth tunnels.
The heat inside the tunnel spiked drastically. We finally broke through into the main cavern, and the sheer scale of it was breathtaking.
It was a massive, highly advanced geothermal facility built directly into the rock. Below us, a terrifyingly vast lake of bubbling magma illuminated the cavern in a hellish orange glow. Suspended directly over the primary magma vent was a colossal piece of seismic technology—a series of giant, vibrating tectonic disruptors shaped like massive tuning forks, humming with raw, unstable isotopic energy.
We touched down on the reinforced steel grating of the facility's main platform.
"Fascinating, isn't it?"
A deep, highly articulate voice echoed through the cavern. From the shadows of the control machinery, a massive, red-scaled figure stepped out. He clapped his massive, clawed hands together in a slow, polite rhythm.
Dinosaurus greeted us, completely unbothered by our arrival. His reptilian eyes locked onto me, taking in the armor and the two women standing at my sides.
"I see you survived your coma, Invincible," he noted, his tone sounding more like a cultured professor than an apex predator. "And bringing a heavily militarized exoskeleton alongside two vastly overpowered bodyguards... it proves your intuition is just as sharp as ever."
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched both women bristle instantly.
"I'm not his damn bodyguard," Eve snapped, her fists aggressively igniting with pink energy.
Anissa's eyes narrowed into terrifying, blue slits. "And to group a warrior of the Viltrum Empire in the same breath as this fragile Earthling is a severe miscalculation, beast."
He stopped clapping, a terrifying, toothy grin spreading across his elongated snout. "I suppose that means the real test begins now."