Matt woke up lazily; the events of last night had him feeling less than 100%, so when his alarm clock roused him from his medicine-induced slumber, he sent it sailing across his room.
When it his the floor with a loud crack Matt could only hope that it hadn't broken.
Matt yawned, sat in bed, wiped his eyes, and looked out to see the rising sun shining directly into his face.
He cringed slightly before looking away and flopping back down into his bed.
Five minutes later.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
His alarm went off again.
Matt groaned rolled off his bed and onto the floor and used the pain to wake himself up.
"Ouch."
Matt sat up, wiped his eyes again, and then stood to his full height. Something that distinguished him from his baby brother besides the hair. Mark was only 5'11 right now while Matt is a full 6ft tall and much more muscular than his younger brother.
[image]
Stretching first, because a good stretch was not only a great way to start the morning but also the key to beginning a good workout Matt began his morning routine as usual.
First brushing his teeth then flossing followed by some mouthwash and a dousing of Therabreath.
Then washed his face with dope and a skin cleanser for a few minutes making sure to clean out his ears and nose as well. He also took a good long chug of some nice refreshing water prepared the night before.
Following that was an intense calisthenics workout in his room that consisted of but was not limited to crunches, sit-ups, push-ups, leg lifts, plank holds, pull-ups, squats, Russian twists, boat rows, mountain climbers, as well as a few others. All of which was done in at least three sets of ten.
Then that was followed by light weight lifting including but not limited to. Curls, floor presses, hammer curls, shoulder presses, lateral raises, and bent-over rows.
After that, he took his morning shower, did one more stretch, switched his red flannel pajama pants for a pair of grey sweat pants, and did his hair.
Once that was done he then proceeded to walk downstairs and quickly drink one of his pre-prepared protein shakes before heading back upstairs.
Then and only then, did Matt put on a blank red t-shirt.
Why red?
Because it was his favorite color and therefore the best one.
XXX
Matt sat on his family's couch eating cereal and watching TV with his brother Mark. It was just another day for the twins.
It had been about a month since that fateful night when he had taken his first life in secret. From there he had only been escalating his street fighting habits to an even higher level.
Handguns, knives, machetes, rifles, and even a man with a shotgun at damn near point blank rage. He'd faced them all over the course of the month but instead of finding even more thrill in the fight than before each incident was becoming less and less stimulating for him.
He'd learned that these random goons were apparently lackies of some villain named Machine Head and he was starting to get really annoyed by Matt but not enough to send the true heavy hitters after Matt.
For the most part, Matthew was just surprised that he hadn't gotten caught yet or anything of that matter. In fact, he assumed that there would be some sort of more major investigation into his activities but no remains were left behind.
In fact, it felt rather suspicious to him. It was almost too convenient, as if someone else had been cleaning up behind him. Still, he had other more important concerns to worry about. Plus it had honestly been a bit of a miracle that his family, particularly his father, hadn't caught on yet.
He had thought that, through all his years of training and his escalating fights, his powers would have awakened a long time ago, or at least his baseline would be much higher than Mark's, but honestly he had no current way of knowing that either.
So instead he continued by simply pretending that everything was fine.
Completely normal even.
Maybe he was just crazy or maybe he was just coping with the madness of the world around him the only way he knew how.
By sitting around on his parents' couch and eating cereal and watching TV without a care in the world. Truly the greatest and most efficient of mental health routines.
On screen, some random news anchor went over an attack by the Mauler twins at the white house again that had been wrapped up by their dad and the Guardians.
Debbie walked in complaining about how much of a bummer it was that they were probably going to miss having breakfast together now and Mark pointed out how important the white house was.
She scoffed saying how they practically rebuild it twice a year and scolded Matt for slouching. Then she turned away walking over towards the kitchen.
Matt yawned and sat up glancing over his shoulder when he heard the familiar sound of air whooshing and his father landing in their backyard.
"I'm not too late we can still make it," Nolan said walking inside and hugging Debbie. Matt ignored most of his family's shenanigans his eyes on tonight's plans.
His parents continued with their random lovey-dovey nonsense. Too tired to care this early in the morning, Matt wiped his eyes, gathered his bags, yawned again, and waited for Mark to be ready to leave.
He complained about not getting his powers or something but Matt was more focused on
Soon enough they said their goodbyes and then Mark and he were headed out the door.
Mark sighed watching their father fly away carrying their mother in his arms.
"Don't worry Mark you'll get your powers soon enough hell it might even happen today," Matt said chuckling as he turned to leave.
As the two walked to school making random small talk Matt started thinking about the future. He understood that time was running out. He wasn't particularly an Invincible fan but he watched parts of it and he'd seen spoilers all over social media like the death of the coalition guy whatever his name was.
More than that some of the more unfortunate events that would happen to Mark lingered in his head. From his near-death and disembodiment at the hands of conquest to what Anissa did to him.
Matt had faced plenty of people in the ring, amateurs sure but still well-trained and conditioned enough to be dangerous. When that failed he went to street fighters because he wanted a real fight, fewer rules, more danger, and the potential to be fatal.
Yet it wasn't enough for him but now well it's troublesome.
His teeth grit and he could feel the itch for a good fight rising but it wasn't a good time, so he just had to sit with it for now. Class passed quickly enough but the urge for a good fight kept bothering him all day.
So instead of worrying about it he just threw himself into his books. Matt had one advantage that he was fairly certain his little brother didn't have.
That is a brain.
Matt wasn't valedictorian or anything but he had done high school before so a bit of math and science wasn't much to him. Instead, he dedicated his time to thinking about his future.
Not just oncoming threats but what he wanted to do with his life. From what he'd learned he probably wouldn't have much time for his current method of making money through different forms of fighting and whatnot. Nor would he have time to actually get part-time jobs like he'd been telling his parents that he had been doing for the last few years.
Instead, he'd pivoted to entrepreneurship particularly because he wanted to make something in this world that didn't exist. That being an AI like ChatGPT.
The plan was simple he'd market it to students for a slight subscription fee and there was his fortune. Of course that was only temporary, as it was just the first of many inventions he would make.
Well, the plan wasn't for him to make them. No instead the one doing all the creating would be a particularly smart duo of blue clones.
After all, if Robot can kidnap them and use them for his own purposes, why can't Matt do the same?
So instead of spending however much time it would take to actually learn to make something like that he was thinking about studying how to market something like that instead.
Still just like in his last life, he wasn't quite sure yet what he wanted to do with his life just yet. He could maybe still fight if he could learn to control his strength correctly but he doubted that would go well.
As one class ended his series of thoughts came to an abrupt halt when he saw some stupid tall asshole whose name he had never bothered to remember laying his hands on his little brother.
The rage was white hot and blinding and by the time Matt had come too, the asshole was already on the floor and Matt was slamming his fists into the other boy's face.
"Get! Your! Hands! Of! My! Brother!"
He was about to slam another fist into the blonde boy's face when he felt a surprisingly strong pair of arms hauling him off of the other boy.
When he turned to look it was his little brother. The first thought was why he would protect someone who was trying to hurt him. His next thought was that his brother had grown stronger lately. His third was that he hadn't even remembered coming across the hallway to strike the other boy.
He liked fighting sure but this was a new experience even for him. He had been in plenty of fights but he had never blacked out like that before; no, it would be better to say he had reded out or something like that.
Soon he stood up and slower than he believed necessary Mark let him go.
"What the hell man! Why did you do that?" Matt said turning to face Mark.
"Why? The fuck you mean why? He was hitting you what was I supposed to do?" Matt replied
"I had it handled! I didn't need your help."
"Didn't need it? He folded you with one punch to the gut."
"Umm, guys maybe you should-" A dark-skinned girl whose name Matt also didn't remember but in. She looked the stubborn type to which can be fun sometimes but also super annoying other times.
Matt had yet to date anyone in this life simply because
"You stay out of this! Whatever your name is." I pointed at the dark-skinned girl. Then a sound came from behind me.
"Ahem." A rather round black man stood behind them. This man was the principal of this entire school.
XXX
Matt had gotten detention and Mark had gotten to go home and explain to their parents about how the principal had given them a lecture about how Mark wasn't invincible and that it was inevitable that Matt wouldn't always be able to solve his problems with violence.
That wasn't what was bothering Matt though. In truth, it was two things. The first was the blackout he had in the hallway and the second was when he would unlock his powers and how.
From what he remembers, they just randomly showed up for Mark on some random day. His training hadn't done anything to accelerate it so there was seemingly nothing he could do except increase his base strength.
He sighed walking home was always a little bit of a pain and he'd always planned to get a car but he didn't have the funds for it yet. The only reason he said that he hadn't walked straight there was that he had already told his parents he had to work tonight.
He didn't actually instead he stood in front of a seemingly abandoned warehouse. It wasn't though Matt had made sure of that.
Instead, it was full of a bunch of criminals. The said criminals were the ones working for whoever sent the goons the night of his final fight.
He didn't s consider himself a hero yet but when another set of armed goons had come after him the very next day from his final fight claiming to be sent by the same person, that was the main catalyst for his current course of action.
So he'd interrogated and investigated thug after thug until he finally got this. A location that was supposed to be the heart of their current operation.
The only issue?
The place looked empty.
Matt stood far enough away for nobody to probably spot him but even so, he couldn't see them either and he'd even brought a pair of binoculars just for the occasion.
His first thought was that those stupid thugs had given him the wrong location. He also guessed that the thugs were simply trying to keep a low profile but considering whatever organization this was could throw waves of useless thugs at him and run fight rings he doubted that they would have zero security forces.
So instead of continuing to dread the upcoming lecture from his parents or thinking about whether or not he was at the right place Matt decided to get a better look.
Putting on a simple black hoodie, half ski mask, black sweat pants, gloves, and black Air Force 1s Matt started sneaking his way in.
They already knew his face at least but he figured hiding his identity in case of any cameras couldn't hurt.
Making his way in was easy, too easy even. A hop of a fence and a few turns around crates and barrels and he was at the door. He couldn't help but feel like he was walking into some kind of trap but there wasn't even any evidence of that either.
Matt's suspicion that something was wrong here grew. It was empty, far too empty, even for an abandoned place. There weren't even any animals around and no plants had taken over the structure.
He frowned but decided to open the door, after all what was the worst that could happen?
Opening the door he walked into the dark room head on a swivel and ready for a fight. Checking the corners first of course because it was all too easy to get ambushed from behind.
Still nothing, so he went in further. He looked left, nothing, then right, still nothing then forward.
"What the hell is that?"
FLASH
Spotlights abruptly activated blinding Matt, then a rather strange autotuned voice came from seemingly nowhere.
"Well, holy shit it actually worked! I had no idea you would be this fucking dumb but we all have bad days am I right?"
CLANG! CLANK!
The steel doors behind him.
"Fuck."
Then a very tall and buff black man stepped into the light in front of him tearing off his shirt. The man whom Matt recognised as Titan from the show stopped about ten feet away from him.
Then the voice came again this time from a bridge one floor up to Matt right. Standing in a strange referee uniform was a man with a machine head and next to him was a weird-looking guy with green hair and a red suit. The man grinned and waved hello causing Matt to cringe slightly.
"Ew." He muttered before turning to look for another exit, but he found none.
"Welcome ladies and gentlemen! I'm your host Machine Head, and tonight we have an exciting match for your entertainment!" One
"In the red corner, we have some random mother fucker who thinks he can mess with my business!" He shouted sarcastically.
"And in the blue corner, weighing in at 6'3 and 1,450 lbs the raging rock hard warrior himself TITAAAAAAANNNNN!" He yelled in the best announcer voice impression Matt had ever heard if it weren't for the auto-tune.
The black man slammed a fist into his palm as rock armor started growing all over his body.
[Image here]
"FIGHT!" Machine Head yelled more bloodthirstily than any spectator in a Roman colosseum.
Titan marched forward silent, stoic, and looming with menace.
"Fuck."
Then he started running.
"FUCK!" Matt shouted dropping into a fighting stance.
He charges, arms swinging like sledgehammers and with even more force. Matt isn't dumb enough to think a regular punch would hurt someone like Titan, not while he's still human at least.
So he stalls.
Titan is big and surprisingly fast for someone his size and weight. So Matt can only duck and dodge blow after blow for as long as he can. Then a lucky uppercut catches him in the gut and sends him flying and that's when more than just the blow hits Matt.
Not only just how reckless he's been and is still being but just how much danger he's in. A regular man can knock out another with a single well-placed blow. A strong well-trained man could kill with one punch as well.
A trained boxer's punch can reach 2,500–5,000 N. It takes roughly 3,000–6,000 newtons (N) of force to fracture parts of the skull. That's about 675–1,350 pounds of force. Some areas like the temples can fail at lower forces, while the forehead can take significantly more.
Serious skull fractures usually happen from, high-speed car accidents, falls from height, heavy blunt objects, or machinery.
According to Matt's memory, Titan can smash through concrete easily. That's more than enough force for the skull to be fractured or maybe even crushed I hit at the right angle.
So it's not just landing hard on the cold floor that hurts Matt. More so he doesn't only get a bruise or a broken rib. A normal human taking a strong upward punch to the abdomen/chest at that level could get shattered ribs and sternum, collapse the chest cavity, cause catastrophic internal damage: Heart and lungs bruised or ruptured. The very fragile liver can tear easily. You could also see spinal damage from the sudden upward acceleration, diaphragm shock, and instant inability to breathe. The body likely fails before you see a clean launch, and Matt does launch, far.
"Ooooh, and he goes down! Round one goes toooo TITAN! Now finish it we have more important shit to do." Machine Head says his disappointment is apparent to all in the room and the others watching on live video. He wanted a match and went through the trouble only for it to end this quickly. It's rather upsetting but there's not much he can truly do about it. He shouldn't have expected a normal kid to put up a fight against a meta-human like Titan.
So when Matt flaps onto the floor like a boneless turkey spewing blood like stuffing from his mouth, it's enough to put him down and keep any other man down.
Titan slams forward not a word or blink from his statuesque face. He has one mission today and that's to kill the brat that's been causing Machine Head so much trouble and get himself one step closer to the freedom for his family and himself.
He does feel bad for the boy though, but guilt is something he stopped letting get in his way a long time ago. So he lifts a Timberland-covered boot for a stomp and goes to crush the boy's skull. He uses his real force, he wants to make it quick at least so the boy doesn't have to suffer.
The boot lowers swiftly. Killing and crushing force rushes down faster than any normal man could dodge the blow.
CRACK!
"Argh!" A yell comes but not from Matt rather it's the deep distorted voice of the mountainous man standing over him.
Titan steps back, concrete cracks, and below him a boy who is in fact NOT a normal man rises.
His body is invincible, his strength omnipotent, and his victory in this fight is assured.
Simply INEVITABLE
So Matt rises slowly, then as if touched by some unknowable force of physics he floats.
While everyone else in the room is still stunned, Matt moves as if touched by Hermes himself.
First, his fist fires into Titans chest akin to that of a small-yield rocket launcher. Rock shatters, flesh bruises, and bone cracks. It's done.
Titan flies through the wall of the warehouse faster than a bullet from an exploding barrel. Then Matt turns his gaze to Machine Head who cruises in fear as soon as they lock eyes.
All he deals with in that moment is fear and regret. But Matt? It's not fear he feels. It's not anger either. It's something else something new. It's an empty yet thrilling feeling that he has rarely experienced before.
It's a state that several athletes have referred to as the zone. Being in the Zone refers to a mental state of intense focus, peak performance, and "flow" where a person is fully immersed in an activity, making tasks feel easy, effortless, and highly productive. It is a state where distractions disappear, and one often acts automatically with extraordinary skill, commonly used in contexts of sports, creative work, or intense study.
This state all though temporary, is more than enough and it's only by the supernatural abilities granted to Machine Head's assistant, Isotope that allows him to escape moments before his mechanical skull is crushed by Matt's closing hand where he was microseconds before.
Then seeing how his prey has escaped with no way to track him for now he simply turns his attention elsewhere.
Flying through the building so swiftly he appears and nothing more or less than a black and red blur Matt appears before Titans collapsed but conscious form.
"Wait please! I have a family! I was only following-ack!" Titan pleads the moment the two of them lock eyes but before he can finish talking Matt swiftly grabs him by the neck.
His eyes sting as he stares down at the older, taller man. Is it the smoke? Or perhaps something else? His vision is slightly red and blurry like one of those panic attacks he had when he was a kid. But this isn't anxiety and there's no fear within him. There is fear in the other man though. The lesser, man.
Matt stares at him blankly and his mind begins to search for everything he knows about Titan. He doesn't recall too much but it's enough to recall that family he mentioned.
A wife and daughter if he remembers correctly. Matt doesn't particularly care about that but it would be hard for them if they lost their main breadwinner. Should they?
He's not sure. How should he answer that question? How should one answer the bundle of news that comes with it?
The thought comes that someone might become aware of this mess soon. The police, or his father perhaps. He grimaces at that.
So he narrows it down to one question.
Does Titan deserve to die?
The answer comes swiftly. More swiftly than Matt had expected it to. It wasn't the one that he was expecting either.
Has Matt killed before? Yes.
Did he enjoy doing so? No.
Did he hate doing it? Also no.
But it did make him feel strangely uncomfortable. He didn't like that, and he doesn't want to feel that now. But that won't stop him from doing what he has to do.
His grip tightens around Titan. The rocks around his neck crackle and snap as Matt's grip strengthens. Titan continues to struggle vainly clutching onto life and hope to survive to get back to his family.
And so the question comes again.
Does Titan deserve to die?
Same question. Same answer. Some speed.
Matt lets go.
Titan gasps wildly as he lands back on the floor shards of rock falling as he puts a hand up to his neck. He coughs and looks up at Matt's eyes wild yet curious. His question is obvious. So obvious that Matt doesn't even bother to answer out loud.
Why?
But why doesn't it matter. Not to Matt at least. Instead, he stares down at Titans gasping and slightly broken form.
'That blow probably cracked his ribs or something else. He'll survive a fracture though, so it's fine.'
He doesn't particularly care about what happens to the stone man but the thought of finding a decently sized seel bar or puller and bending it around Titan's arms as handcuffs crises Matt's mind briefly. He lets it go just as quickly as it came. It doesn't matter to him, not right now at least.
Matt floats up, turns to leave, and stops.
"Go see your family." He calls out to the stone man. He doesn't bother to look over his shoulder to do it.
BOOM CRACK!
With the world stuttering sound Matt flies off in a seemingly random direction.
In the air, he feels free, fresh, and more alive than he ever has in his entire seventeen years of second life.
He swirled around for a while in the air, and the strange stinging and redness in his eyes were gone. He feels lighter, warmer, and the sight of the new night sky and stars brighter than ever without the light pollution of the city is wonderful.
Then a trash bag hits him snapping him out of his daze. He sags in disgust and tiredness. Then he begins to fall.
XXX
Back in Machine Head's office.
Machine Head and Isotope teleport in swiftly. As soon as they arrive Machine Head lets out a rather embarrassing auto-tuned yelp. He turns to Isotope slowly.
"You didn't hear that." The cyborg says in a tone far more deep and deadly than before and the green-haired henchman gulps in turn as he nods.
Then Machine Head slowly and carefully makes his way to his desk and takes a seat. Then he slumps over it slowly caressing the desk of imported maple wood as if it were both his favorite pet and his lifeline.
"Holy fucking shit! What the fuck was that!" The metal man shouts still not lifting his head.
"It looks like the kid awakened his powers at near-death," Isotope says sagging onto the desk. Machine Head turns and looks up at him.
"What? It happens sometimes to meta's. Shit, it happened to me," He shrugs still slightly tense from the earlier scare.
"Well, that's bullshit! Now I have to go get back up!" He shouts again slamming his hands down on the desk like a petulant child.
"What is some kind of shitty webnovel protagonist with plot armor! Fuck me this sucks ass!" He yells sitting back up and cupping his face in his hands.
"Sorry boss that's just what it looks like to me." The green-haired man says as he crosses his arms.
"Yeah well I don't keep you around for your vision now do I? Alright Fuck! Go get me one of my backup phones I need a heavy hitter for this shit!" Machine Head yells again slamming his hands on the desk hard but not too hard. It is imported maple after all.
[image here]
XXX
Just another peaceful day in the life of Mark Grayson.
Mark Grayson was working late, it was another night shift at Burger Mart, the same as always. He was taking out the trash just like normal when he lifted the black bag to toss it in only for the bag to go flying off into space.
He stared at it. Blinked a few times and smiled.
"Well… It's about damn time."
XXX
So the love interest is still being decided but a weirdly large number of people want Battle Beast's daughter lol. We might end up going the furry route this time. I originally thought about Kate because of the clone orgy thing but hey who knows what could happen. Maybe they'll get together and break up or something else entirely could happen I haven't planned that far yet.
This chapter should have been out earlier today but I kept adding and changing things so that my bad.
Anyway finals have been kicking my ass but that will end soon so hopefully it will get better by summer. Though I do have a single summer class, I'll probably have to work more than usual.