Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

If you've ever wanted something different to happen in a story you've heard before, rest assured that such a version of it exists. That is the general consensus about the multiverse. Sometimes the differences in universes are so mind-bendingly different they inspire, while others are so similar, you could spend a lifetime looking for the difference.

And as one Angstrom Levy would tell you, there are many versions of Mark Grayson, aka the superhero

Born to a superhero alien father and a human mother, Mark would go on to become one of, if not the greatest hero of all time, but not always. No, for every good Mark, there were at least eight who gave in to temptation, became violent thugs…

Luckily, this story is not about such a universe. For you see, this is a story of an Invincible with a sibling and more allies in his corner from the get-go.

Right now, we turn to a humble little housing of education called Kirkman Academy. Sitting in a classroom is a young 10-year-old girl with short light brown hair done in a pixie cut with a pink cap that had kitty ears on it, a pair of neon-styled headphones, a baby blue hoodie, black shorts, and red and white sneakers.

This was Hope Grayson, a free-spirited little girl with a strong admiration for heroes. Which made sense since her father was one of the greatest heroes in the world.

"And I just want to remind you all that you need to study for the big test on Friday," The teacher concluded her lesson as the students all nodded, either bored or eager to get out of class to spend the coming weekend of freedom.

The bell soon rang as the students excitedly began leaving for class, except for Hope, who was busy writing in her notebook while listening to music. The teacher spotted this and smiled amusedly as she got up from her chair and walked over to her student, who took a bit to notice her as Hope glanced up at her curiously and took off her earphones.

"Miss Grayson, class is over. You can go home now."

"Oh, okay."

Hope took off her headphones and pulled up her hoodie as she left the class, soon being joined by two other kids her age: a girl with auburn hair, a pink top, and blue jeans, and a boy with fluffy light blonde hair and a retainer.

"Hey, Hope, you heading over to our house later?" Sarah asked.

Hope smiled. "I'm just ready for the most amazing and awesome weekend ever!"

Jimmy giggled. "Oh, that's right, you're going with your big brother camping this weekend."

"And William and Hilda too!" Hope added. "It's going to be so cool hanging out with my big siblings!"

"Uh...Mark's your only sibling." Sarah dryly pointed out. "Hilda's your cousin, and Will is Mark's best friend."

"Hey, William and Hilda are pretty much my brother and sister in all but blood!" Hope pointed out. "Besides, I'm not fully related to Mark, and yet I'm his little sister!"

"Don't…don't fight it, Sarah." Jimmy sighed. "You know how Hope gets."

Indeed, Hope was an adopted but still very beloved member of the Grayson clan. Her father was unknown and presumed a one-night stand deadbeat, but her mother, Jenny, had done as well as anyone could. And whenever things were tough, the GDF medic had her best friend, Debbie Grayson, there to help.

It was through Debbie that Hope had met her son, Mark. He was a few years older than her, but a very kind and patient boy who looked out for Hope whenever their mothers had tea and or drinks together. Heck, even Nolan, Debbie's husband and Mark's father, also the superhero Omni-Man, who was at times distant, had a soft spot for Hope.

Then came Hail Mary. A giant monster unlike any other. The Guardians had been dealing with another threat at the time, leaving the GDF to delay the beast. Jenny had been crushed after making sure Hope got to safety before she went to help evacuate more civilians.

With no one else in her family, Hope would've wound up in foster care if Debbie hadn't adopted Hope. It had taken some time, two whole years in fact, but Hope quickly became accustomed to being the stepdaughter of Omni-Man and little sister to Mark Grayson.

Speaking of which...

"Hey, Hope!"

The young girl beamed as she recognized the voice belonging to her big brother; a 17-year-old young man with dark brown eyes, short slick black hair, a slim somewhat muscular build, and wearing a long-sleeved dark blue vest with light blue stripes, a long-sleeved high-collard orange shirt underneath, a black belt with a silver belt buckle, long light brown jeans, and a pair of black/white shoes.

"Mark!" Hope cheered as she ran over to give her big brother a hug.

"How was school today?" Mark asked as he picked up his little sister.

"It was boring, but what else is new, huh?"

"Hey! How's it going, squirt?"

Hope squealed and laughed as a pair of flabby yet firm arms wrapped around her, belonging to a very...large and rotund young woman the same age as Mark. She had long, dark brown hair in a ponytail and blue eyes, over which was a hat that was white and pink with a picture of a pink Poké Ball on it. She wore a white tank shirt that rode up to expose her big, round, soft belly, underneath a black waistcoat, and a pair of denim shorts with white tear details on them. She wore black wristbands with a small pink stripe on both of them, matching black ankle boots with pink laces and soles, and a pair of black socks underneath.

This was Hilda Whitelane, Mark and Hope's cousin on their father's side who was the only daughter of their uncle, Theo, who was also a superhero by the name of Ultra V. Despite her overweight body frame, she was actually a very active and fit girl with a strong metabolism, which usually required her to eat a whole lot, hence her shape.

"Hey, come on, we're burning daylight!"

Mark, Hope, and Hilda smiled as they turned to a large rented-out blue, white, and orange RV. In the driver's seat was Mark's best friend and Hope's honorary big brother, William Francis Clockwell, or just Will for short.

"Coming, William!" Mark said. "Ready for a super-fun adventure, little sis?"

Hope beamed. "You bet, big bro!"

As Mark, Hilda, and Hope got into the RV and drove off, Sarah and Jimmy watched them go with admiration in their eyes.

"I wish I had a brother like Mark," Jimmy said.

Sarah grumped. "I wish the brother I have wasn't such an idiot."

"Hehehe, I'm so excited!" Hope excitedly said while running around in their campsite, gleefully.

Making their way to the forest park, Hope and her three big siblings had the RV parked near a picnic table with Will setting up the tents, Hilda cooking burgers and hot dogs, and Mark unloading the supplies while Hope just horsed around.

"Yes, we could tell, sis," Mark said with bemusement as his little sister practically couldn't sit still throughout the whole trip due to her excitement.

"Hey, guys, tents are all set up," Will called out while wiping away the sweat from his forehead as he grinned at the others cockily. "Told you that I can do this without your help."

As soon as he said that, the tents broke down as Mark gave his best friend a deadpan look while Hope and Hilda giggled at Will's embarrassment.

"Yeah, just as I expected. Come on, let me help you." Mark said as Will groaned and lowered his head in defeat.

"Chow time, come and get your burgers while they're hot off the grill!" Hilda called out.

Soon, night fell as the four were roasting marshmallows by the fire for s'mores. Hope was sitting on Mark's lap as he helped her with her marshmallow. Will then smirked as he looked between everyone.

"Hey, you know what I'm really in the mood for?" He then turned on a flashlight and held it under him. "Scary stories! Wooooo!"

Mark frowned. "Scary stories? Come on, man, you know that Hope can't handle that."

"She could barely sleep after she accidentally read about Slenderman," Hilda said.

Hope pouted and was about to speak up, but then noticed a butterfly flying nearby. She beamed and stood up to chase after it.

"Come on, she's a big enough girl now," Will argued.

"Will, Uncle Nolan almost bit your head off when he learned that you showed her Slender!" Hilda pointed out. "And he did it almost literally, too!"

"Hey, Hope!" Mark called out when he noticed his little sister running off. "Don't stray away from the campsite!"

"Okay!" Hope said as she continued chasing the butterfly.

"Someone's gotta keep an eye on her..." Hilda sighed.

As Hope began to jump and grab for the butterfly, she was distracted by a new sensation; a strange green vortex opened up in the sky before spitting out some kind of emerald-colored shooting star.

"Whoa! A shooting star!" Hope beamed before closing her eyes. "I wish to have superpowers like Daddy to help him fight crime...oh, and give my big brother superpowers too."

Hope then opened her eyes to see the shooting star sailing right over her head, making her gasp in shock as it impacted nearby, kicking up dust as she shielded herself as best she could.

What she saw was a large crater that she could slide into as she headed toward the impact site and saw what looked like some kind of grey alien space pod. Suddenly, green electronic lines glowed as the pod opened itself up to reveal what appeared to be a digital wristwatch with a square faceplate and a white, green, and black color scheme. The faceplate was black with two green stripes forming an outline shaped like an hourglass.

"Whoa...a magic space watch!" Hope awwed as she reached out to touch the watch, which seemed to open up for her to slip on. "Huh, this is cool!"

The watch then fastened itself snugly onto her wrist as she admired the details before tapping the faceplate, which opened up to reveal a glowing green core that had a black humanoid silhouette marked on it.

Ever the curious little girl, and because she loved pressing buttons, Hope pressed the core down and was suddenly engulfed in a brilliant flash of emerald light...

"You think Hope is okay?" Hilda asked worriedly as she, Mark, and Will looked around the forest.

"I'm sure she didn't go too far. She's always been a good listener." Mark said.

"But man, did you see that shooting star? Or was it a meteor?" Will asked.

"I just hope it's not some prelude to an alien invasion. I don't know if I can call Dad or Uncle Theo on my phone with this reception." Mark said as he checked his phone.

Suddenly, the trio heard a loud scream of terror, followed by a brilliant flash of what looked like flames.

"AHHHHHH! I'M ON FIRE! I'M ON FIRE!"

That got their minds into overdrive as they rushed to see the source of the screaming to see a humanoid figure whose body appeared to be composed of magma rock surrounded by fire running around in circles, flailing their arms around like a maniac before they got on the floor and began rolling around in an effort to put the flames out.

"Oh crap, it is an alien!" Will exclaimed as he hid behind Mark and Hilda. "Mark! Hilda! You guys have superpowers, right?!"

"Hey, they haven't come in yet!" Hilda argued.

"Wait..." Mark said, sensing a familiar tone in the creature's voice. "Hope, is that you?"

The creature got up and looked to see Mark, Hilda, and Will, a look of relief on its face.

"Big Bros! Big Sis! You're here! I found this cool alien watch, and then I touched it and now I'm on fire!"

"Hope?!" Will gawked in surprise.

"Yeah, you're on fire, but...you don't seem to be in pain," Hilda noted.

The transformed Hope then paused to realize that the big, beautiful girl was right and that she wasn't in any pain. She felt herself and then relaxed in relief before noticing that her mad flailing had left behind some small fires that would no doubt spread if left untouched.

"Oh crud! Uh!" Hope tried stamping out the fires with her foot, only for them to spread.

"Hold on! I think I have a fire extinguisher in the RV!" Will said as he ran back to get it.

Fortunately, Will was able to make it back before the fires got too bad, much to everyone's relief.

"Phew! For a second there, I was worried we'd offend Smokey Bear." Hilda said in relief.

"So, let me get this straight...you found a watch that turned you into this?" Mark asked his little sister.

"Yeah, it came from that shooting star. Did you guys see it?"

"Yeah, we saw it...just didn't expect it to lead to this," Hilda said. "Can you... Can you change back?"

"I...I dunno." Hope said as she tried to concentrate, only to form fire out of her hands out of some form of instinct. "Ack! No! Bad fire! Fire bad!"

"Calm down!" Mark said in a quick but gentle tone as Hope relaxed, causing the fires to dim out.

"Hey, is that the watch?" Will pointed out, as everyone saw, a core that resembled the watch's faceplate on Hope's chest.

"I...think so? How did it get there?"

As Hope touched the faceplate, she was suddenly engulfed in a flash of green light before it subsided, revealing the young girl had returned back to normal.

"Yay! I'm back to normal!"

"That's one weird watch," Will commented. "Who even made it?"

"I dunno. It came out of some wormhole in the sky that disappeared as soon as it opened." Hope explained.

"Well, let's get back to the campsite. Heaven knows we don't want you out of our sight again after this." Hilda said.

Hope was now sitting on the bumper of the rented RV while fiddling around with her new watch.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked as he sat down beside his sister.

"Just trying to figure out how this weird alien watch works." Hope explained. "I mean, come on, don't tell me you aren't the least bit curious about what else this thing can do, right?"

Mark frowned. "I just don't want you getting hurt, okay?"

"Well, Hope said that it came out of a wormhole in a shooting star, right?" Will asked as he and Hilda came over. "Maybe it came from...ANOTHER DIMENSION!"

Hilda rolled her eyes. "You watch way too much Twilight Zone."

"Hey, its better than most of the crap on TV these days."

Suddenly, the watch began beeping as Hope's eyes widened in surprise before the faceplate opened up and the core began projecting some kind of hologram of a young man with short brown hair and wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt, blue jeans, and a green jacket with white stripes on his left sleeve and the number 10 on the right, white socks, and black and white Converse-style shoes.

"Whoa, Star Wars much?" Will muttered in surprise.

"Hey, my name is Benjamin Kirby Tennyson, and if you're watching this...I'm dead." The young man began, revealing it was a pre-recorded message. "I'm sure you're very confused about this watch and why it can turn whoever wears it into aliens...but let me start from the beginning, first. I came across this watch when I was 10, while camping with my grandpa and cousin Gwen."

"Huh. What a coincidence." Hilda mused, only to be shushed by Mark.

"It took some trial and error, and I made more than a few mistakes, but by the time I was 15, I was pretty much a superhero: my only real 'competition' or rivals being Zack Saturday or Generator Rex. Oh, and before you ask? There are more than 10 Aliens on that watch; the name was just catchy."

The teens chuckled.

"But as you've probably guessed, this watch attracted some very, very bad people." Ben's face hardened. "And one in particular was the worst."

An image of a humanoid alien with a green squid for a head overtook the screen.

"Vilgax. My arch-enemy and whose threat  WILL end after this message, one way or another. And in the…"  He paused.  "In the likely event I don't come back from this fight? I've trusted Professor Paradox to send the Omnitrix to a universe where it doesn't exist, but will do some good. He's promised to stick around in case you need help. And don't worry, you won't need to find him; he'll find you. He usually dresses like a Doctor Who clone, if that helps."

Ben's face then softened.

"I can only hope that whoever finds this uses it for the right reason. I have the utmost faith in you. And Kenny? If you see this? Know that I love you and you're an even better hero than I ever was."

With that, the hologram of Ben fizzled out of existence, leaving Hope, Mark, Hilda, and Will in stunned silence before they all looked at each other.

"So...does this mean Hope can be a superhero now?" Will asked awkwardly.

Mark bit his lip. On one hand, he was peeved that his little sister managed to essentially get superpowers before he did, but on the other hand, he was also immensely worried about the potential danger she could be getting into.

"Guys...you heard what that Ben guy said?" Hope said. "With this watch, I can help people. I mean, really help them. Not just, you know, make things worse. I can be a superhero like Daddy, Uncle Theo, and one day, Big Brother and Big Sis."

Mark and Hilda nodded. It was true that the Grayson and Whitelane families were quite different. Nolan and Theo weren't ordinary superheroes; they were from an alien race known as Viltrumites who had superhuman strength, speed, endurance, the ability to fly at supersonic speeds, and extended longevity that could let them live for hundreds if not thousands of years.

Mark and Hilda were Part-Viltrumite on both their fathers' sides of the family, but had yet to awaken their inherent powers. However, their dads did say they would eventually come in when their bodies were ready for the change.

"Wow, that's...really cool, Hope," Will said in admiration. "Anyway, what did it feel like transforming and being an alien and all that?"

"I dunno, it didn't really hurt. It was scary being in a different body, but I was still me...but also someone else, if that makes sense." Hope said.

"Wow, that's crazy," Hilda said. "So...what should we call that alien you turned into earlier?"

"Hmmm..." Hope put a finger to her chin. "How about...Heatblast, because I was on fire and I could blast out heat!"

Mark shrugged. "I've heard worse superhero names before."

"Do you think that Ben guy left any instructions on how to work that watch?" Hilda asked.

Suddenly, the core popped out of the faceplate and projected a holographic book that opened up to reveal "Omnitrix 101". Initially, it was read out in some kind of alien language, but then changed to ordinary English after a moment.

"Huh, how convenient," Mark said.

And so, the four spent the light looking up how the Omnitrix worked and just what Hope could do with it.

Chapter Text

It was a bright, sunny day in Washington DC, and eager and smiling tourists were crowding around the fence that kept them from going into the White House. Right now, two security guards named Morty Collings and Steve Travis were standing by the entrance, keeping a watchful eye out for any suspicious activity.

"Coffee?"

Steve smiled as he accepted a cup of coffee from his partner, taking a sip before sighing in content.

"That hits the spot, thanks, man."

"You're welcome."

The two took a moment to screen a white car as it drove past them before giving them permission to drive inside.

"Anyway, you ready for next week?" Morty asked as Steve looked confused.

"What's happening next week?"

"Super-Human Evasion Training, they have to get me certified. I'm definitely not looking forward to going through that." Morty grumbled before sighing heavily as he shook his head. "Look, I get the deal. I understand why they're making us go through an evaluation process. When I was in the force, they made us go through hand-to-hand combat all the time. When a guy comes at you with a knife, you have to be prepared and stuff, but t-this is something else. I'm supposed to learn to duck and roll from a guy who can shoot lasers from out of his eyes or control minds or kick a goddamn school bus to the freaking moon!"

Steve shrugged. "It's part of the job, I guess."

"You're awfully calm about it. Hell, the last time you sprained your back you..." Morty began to say before trailing off as he saw that Steve had a smug look on his face and immediately figured out why his friend appeared to be so calm. "Ah, shit, wait, you're not even going to be here, are you?"

"Sucks to be you, my friend!" Steve exclaimed with a chuckle as Morty fumed at him angrily. "I will be living it up in London, seeing the sights, eating some Indian food, so enjoy getting laser burned back in the States."

"Oh, you're going to be gone the whole time? All freaking week?" Morty asked in annoyance as Steve shook his head and held up two fingers.

"Two, I'm going to be gone for Spring Break. The boy is obsessed with the Beatles. He wants to go to Abbey Road, he wants to visit Apple Records, and hell, if there's some free time left, I might be able to see stuff that I actually want to see."

"And it's just going to be the two of you?" Morty asked worriedly as Steve nodded eagerly. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Steve, because I thought you said that you two HATED each other with the burning fury of a thousand suns?"

"That's a bit of an exaggeration...maybe a burning fury of a hundred suns," Steve said jokingly as Morty chuckled before noticing that a somber expression appeared on his friend's face. "Matt just had it...rough, you know? But lately he has been putting himself together."

Morty frowned. "Hmmm, I don't know about this, Steve. I mean, by the number of things that you have told me on what that kid has been doing these last couple of years, like stealing, doing drugs, etc, how did you turn that around?"

"Well, I can safely say that it hasn't been easy. The thing is, when Molly and I first got together, Matt was still living with his Dad, and he was just...running wild. To be blunt, the kid was a real asshole. You remember the shiner he gave me when we first met? That's all behind us now. H-He stared down his demons and he conquered them...I've never done anything so hard before in my entire life, and yet, Matt was able to beat the odds and become a somewhat good person. We're so damn proud of the guy-No, of the man that he has become, so if he wants to go to London for two weeks, Molly and I had scraped enough cash to make it happen. We wanted to show him how proud we were of him for all of his hard work."

Steve took another sip of his coffee, and Morty simply listened with an understanding expression.

"I-I've never had a kid of my own. I wasn't there when Matt was born, I wasn't there when I taught him how to ride a bike, nor was I there to teach him how to throw a ball, but in a few months when he walks across that stage and accepts that diploma, I can safely say...that's MY son." Steve continued, choking up a bit as Morty put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"H-Hey, man, relax, take all of the time you need. Why don't I make some hot cocoa for my sweet boy?"

Steve couldn't help but give an amused smirk at his friend as he picked up on the joke at the end.

"Heh, don't pretend like you don't cry on my shoulder whenever you don't get a second date."

Morty took the jab in stride as the two were about to return to their work when a sudden earthquake rang out across the city block. The tourists crowding around the White House panicked as the earthquake caused them to fall onto the ground, just as huge cracks appeared in the earth that led straight towards the gates of the White House.

"LOOK OUT!" Morty yelled at Steve as he tackled him over to safety just as a couple of unknown hostiles burst up through the ground.

After getting their bearings, the two security guards looked up in shock at two huge figures climbing out of the hole that had been made in the ground. They were muscular with blue skin and armed to the teeth. These were the Mauler Twins.

"You idiot! We were supposed to be INSIDE the White House, not OUTSIDE!" Mauler #1 scolded his twin before shaking his head in annoyance as he began making his way to the White House. "Ugh, I knew that I shouldn't have trusted the flawed calculations of a clone."

"A CLONE!? HEY! I'M NOT A-" Mauler #2 yelled as he walked up to his twin and was planning to start an argument with him, but was then interrupted by the White House's security system kicking in as multiple mounted machine guns popped out of the roof and, without mercy, opened fire on the Mauler Twins.

Unfortunately, the Mauler Twins were incredibly durable, so the bullets just harmlessly bounced right off them.

Look, there's no need to worry. This was all part of the plan. The President of the United States is targeting us, so we shatter the illusion of his safety. It's not enough to kill him, it has to be a spectacle." Mauler #2 said, just as the citizens around them started to flee in terror.. "See? You would know this if you were the original."

"Oh, god, oh god, oh god, oh god," Steve panicked while tucked into a ball in the corner, desperately trying to avoid the hail of bullets heading his way.

"Refreshing. Kind of tickles." Mauler #1 said to his twin casually as they continued to shrug off the bullets.

"Hmm, I prefer a higher caliber," Mauler #2 stated with a shrug as Mauler #1 nodded in agreement and both of them proceeded to raise their guns as they fired multiple shots at the mounted machine guns placed on the roof of the White House and immediately several small explosions rang out as a large hole was made on the walls.

Mauler #2 laughed as Mauler #1 grinned and nodded before raising an eyebrow as he felt someone shoot him from the back of his head. Confused, he turned around to see a trembling Steve on the floor with his gun raised.

"I-I order you to...I-I order you to...to..." Steve stuttered, trying to find his courage as Mauler #1 walked over to squat in front of him and looked down at him in cruel amusement.

"You wanna what?"

Whether it was bravery or sheer stupidity, Steve shot Mauler #1 point-blank right in the eye, causing the villain to cry out in pain as he clutched his injured optic.

"Heh, that's what you get for standing right in front of a scared civilian with his gun aiming right at your face. You have no idea what they can do with their trembling fingers." Mauler #2 taunted. "Now, quit your crying and hurry up and kill him already. Your eye is as replaceable as you are."

"I AM THE ORIGINAL!" Mauler #1 screamed angrily as he turned towards a scared Steve and raised his hands up high into the air.

"STEVE! LOOK OUT!" Morty screamed in fear for his friend.

Steve screamed and closed his eyes, bracing himself for the killing blow, only for it not to come as a pink blast of energy collided against Mauler #1, sending him stumbling back as he cried out in pain, clutching his smoking face in agony.

Mauler #2 turned his head in shock to see a surprising sight; a tall humanoid female alien with her entire upper body being covered with 20 big bright pink eyes placed symmetrically across her whole body, although she ironically has no eyes on her face as she has a pair of very large elastic bat-like ears and small mouth filled with crooked white teeth and pink lips, shoulder-length spiky black hair in a pixie cut hairstyle, no nose, a sharp chin, a big bright pink closed eye placed on the center of her chest, a pair of dark tan five-fingered arms with light tan undersides and has two small bright pink eyes on the palm of her hands, dark tan skin with a light tan color on her chest and the underside of her limbs, a tall slender build, and wearing an outfit consisting of a pair of pink cuffs on her arms/legs, and a sleeveless pink/blue jumpsuit with a white belt.

"Who the hell are you?!" Mauler #1 demanded angrily.

"The name's EYE GAL! Nice to meet ya!" The alien hero introduced herself cheerfully.

"Eye Gal? Seriously?" Mauler #2 dryly asked.

Eye Gal pouted and crossed her arms. "No need to be rude, guys. It's my alien, and I pick what I want to name her."

"I don't know if you're some newbie hero trying to make a name for yourself, but since you're getting in our way, be prepared to suffer the consequences!" Mauler #1 snapped as he charged forward.

Eye Gal just smirked and merged two of her many eyes together to fire a pink energy beam that caused the ground to become covered in ice, causing Mauler #1 to slip and slide as he struggled to regain his balance.

With a grin, Eye Gal merged two more eyes together to cover her right fist with pink electricity as she delivered a strong electrified punch to Mauler #1's face as he slid over to her, unable to stop, as he was sent flying and crashing into the ground.

"EYE totally saw that one coming!" Eye Gal quipped.

Mauler #2 rushed over to try and attack Eye Gal, only for the eyes on her shoulders to quickly spot him and allow her to react accordingly, stretching out five eyes as all of them glowed a bright pink before firing multiple electricity blasts that collided with Mauler #2, covering him in ice.

"How about you fight with someone who can see EYE to EYE with you?"

Quickly picking up Steve, Eye Gal quickly jumped over to Morty before setting Steve down and making sure the two security guards were safe.

"Good work, boys, but how about you two let me deal with Dumb and Dumber?"

Meanwhile, back with the Mauler Twins, they were able to recover from Eye Gal's attacks, grumbling in annoyance at being caught off-guard by what they believed was some new rookie hero.

"Come on, there's no time to rest. The mission is still at play, and the wannabe hero is still out there, so we need to keep our wits with us." Mauler #1 said as his twin nodded.

Suddenly, several tanks began rolling onto the scene and drove up to them as they aimed their cannons. Mauler #2 growled in annoyance as he lifted up his gun and was about to blast them apart, only for him and his twin to yelp in pain as dual bright pink energy blasts appeared into the air and collided against their arms, forcing them to drop their weapon as an airborne Eye Gal flew over to land in front of them with a smug grin on her face.

"Didn't your parents ever tell you that you'll shoot your EYE out with those things?"

The Mauler Twins growled as they were about to attack, only for several new individuals to join in the fray, causing the two villains' eyes to widen in shock as they recognized them: the Guardians of the Globe, consisting of The Immortal, Darkwing, War Woman, Red Rush, Martian Man, Aquarius, and Green Ghost.

"Whoa! The Guardians of the Globe!" Eye Gal gasped in amazement. "This is EYE-mazing!"

Red Rush couldn't help but snort at the joke while War Woman rolled her eyes. Immortal just gave a good-natured chuckle as he stood beside the alien hero.

"Thanks for your help, but we can take it from here. Help Red Rush with evac, the rest of us will deal with the Mauler Twins."

"You got it!" Red Rush saluted as he turned to Eye Gal. "Try to keep up, da?"

Using his superhuman speed, Red Rush began evacuating the civilians while Eye Gal moved to help with the evacuation as well. With civilians taken care of, Immortal flew forward to strike Mauler #1 while War Woman confronted Mauler #2, who groaned in annoyance.

"Please, you couldn't just sit this one out and let us kill the President? Do you and your band of costumed dorks ever take a day off?!"

"Not our style, sorry." War Woman smirked. 

"This isn't a spectator sport! Move!" Darkwing shouted to a group of civilians as he flew over to them on his glider and leaped down onto the ground to guide them away from the fighting.

Suddenly, a large explosion appeared on the back part of the White House, and immediately, large cracks started forming all across the building, and several pieces of debris started falling just as a small tourist family began running out of the White House as they were moments away from being crushed to death.

Green Ghost quickly rushed over to save the family, managing to grab each member of the family and using his intangibility to make the debris phase through them, sighing in relief at the narrow rescue as Eye Gal fired beams of pink energy that telekinetically levitated the debris off of them.

"Don't worry! EYE got your back!"

Green Ghost chuckled. "Might wanna dial back on the puns, kid. It might get stale quickly."

Red Rush suddenly zipped in with an urgent look on his face.

"Green Ghost, get into the building! You're on President Duty!"

"On it!" Green Ghost shouted while making his way into the White House as Red Rush ran off to evacuate more civilians.

"You! Eye Gal, was it?" Immortal asked as he came over. "We could use your help dealing with the Mauler Twins!"

"You got it! EYE am on the job!"

Immortal rolled his eyes dryly before grabbing the young hero by her armpits and flying away with her.

As it turns out, the explosion from the back of the White House was from Mauler #1 as he tried to break in with his fists before successfully punching a massive hole that he walked through with a smirk...only to be hit by a barrage of bright pink energy blasts raining down on him courtesy of Immortal flying Eye Gal through the air.

Growling angrily, Mauler #1's attention was then forced on Martian Man and Aquarius, the former stretching out his hands and grabbing a discarded tank as he used his Martian strength to fling it towards Mauler #1, Aquarius helping his friend by firing streams of pressurized water from his hands to propel the tank forward and slam into the villain before he could react.

"He really should be keeping an EYE out!" Eye Gal quipped as Immortal laughed and placed her down on the ground.

Mauler #1 growled as he lifted the tank off of him before wincing as several shurikens hit him in the head and exploded, making him lose balance before catching himself as he glared and saw Darkwing flying in on his glider, the dark-cowled hero throwing more exploding shurikens. Mauler #1 quickly used the tank in his hands as a makeshift shield to block the projectiles before tossing the tank over at Eye Gal and Immortal.

Eye Gal, acting quickly, held out her arms and fired fifteen bright pink energy beams that sliced the tank into fifteen pieces. Mauler #1 growled angrily before spotting a scared woman lying nearby and smirked as an evil plan began brewing.

Back with Darkwing, the caped hero lifted his arms to show off ten more explosive shurikens in his hands as he was about to throw them over at Mauler #1, but then his and the others' eyes widened in shock as the trio spotted Mauler #1 rushing over to grab the terrified civilian by her head and proceeds to throw her into the air like a baseball as Darkwing cursed under his breath and hid away his dangerous weapons as he swiftly turned around to try and save her, pulling out his grappling hook and using it to pull her toward him, only for Mauler #1 to toss a destroyed tank that he was able to find nearby at the duo.

"No!" Immortal yelled angrily as he flew over and tackled Mauler #1 to the ground while a panicking Eye Gal rushed forward to try and help.

Darkwing set the woman down gently on the ground as she was about to thank him, only to scream as the tank fell on top of them. Darkwing quickly grabbed the civilian and dropped to the floor as the tank pinned them to the ground, just narrowly avoiding getting crushed.

Darkwing summoned clamps from his cape's shoulders to keep the giant tank held up, but it wasn't enough as the machines began sparking under the sheer weight and pressure. Darkwing grunted before seeing the terrified and crying woman, knowing what he needed to do next.

"Don't worry, it's okay, we'll get out of this safe and sound."

Pulling out his grappling hook, he fired it at a nearby lamp post before retracting it and trying to pull himself and the woman out from under the tank, but the grappling hook wasn't strong enough to pull them both out. Biting back a curse, Darkwing saw the terrified woman and quickly attached the grappling hook to her so she would be pulled out to safety.

"No, wait! What about you?"

"Forget about me! Just get to safety already!" Darkwing commanded firmly as he pressed a button on his grappling hook and forced it to retract as the yelping civilian was forcefully dragged out from under the tank and to safety.

The woman cried out in horror while standing up, as she could only watch in shock at the tank sinking further and further into the ground, slowly crushing Darkwing.

"Miss, are you alright? Where's Darkwing?" Eye Gal asked, running over while using X-Ray Vision to check for any injuries.

"Darkwing! You have to save him!"

Eye Gal turned to look at the tank and narrowed her eyes as she nodded, running over to help lift the tank off the Midnight City hero, only for it to be lifted up with ease.

"Hey, this is lighter than I thought!"

However, it turned out that it wasn't her lifting it but someone else, a very familiar superhero holding the tank casually in one hand.

"DA-!" Eye Gal quickly covered her mouth. "…mn it's Omni-Man! That's what I was gonna say!"

"You're welcome." Nolan Grayson, Hope's stepfather and the legendary Omni-Man, smirked.

"Sorry that we couldn't come sooner!" Another voice spoke up as a man with similar proportions to Nolan flew in.

There were some key differences between Nolan and the other man; while his costume was mostly the same as Omni-Man's, it was in an inverted style, primarily red with white secondary colors. He also had a cowboy mustache and more pronounced shoulder pauldrons, like those of an honorable knight.

This was Theo Whitelane AKA Ultra-V, Nolan's younger brother, the father of Hilda, and the paternal uncle of Mark and Hope.

"Look out!" Eye Gal suddenly cried before merging six eyes into two as she fired dual bursts of bright pink lightning.

The lightning passed the two Viltrumite Heroes and collided against some debris that had been thrown at them, vaporizing it completely.

"You know, we could have handled that, right?" Ultra-V quipped.

"Sorry, I just got worried..." Eye Gal apologized sheepishly.

With Darkwing safe, the two Viltrumites and one alien hero rushed off to help stop the Mauler Twins, who were duking it out with War Woman and Immortal.

"We can take it from here! It's too dangerous for any of you to be here right now!" Immortal yelled as he promptly tossed the soldiers, allowing Omni-Man and Ultra-V to fly in and catch them.

"When we crush the Guardians of the Globe and kill the President, no one will be left to stop us!" Mauler #1 shouted as he threw a punch at Immortal, only to miss as he not only dodged with ease but managed to deliver his own uppercut that sent the villain flying into the air. He and the rest of the Guardians of the Globe went to join up with War Woman as she knocked Mauler #2 away with her mace.

"All clear." Red Rush says to his team as Martian Man and Aquarus nod in agreement.

"Yes, we had cleared out the civilians from the area."

"And there's no one in the White House, so the Secret Service must've taken the President to safety," Green Ghost said.

"Well, that's great! With evacuation now complete, we can focus on taking these brutes down!" War Woman exclaimed with warrior-like excitement coursing through her veins as the Mauler Twins grouped up and glared at the heroes as they charged at them, as Eye-Gal, Omni-Man, and Ultra-V joined up.

"Come on, guys! IT'S HERO TIME!" Eye Gal called out.

Roaring loudly, the Mauler Twins rushed towards the heroes to attack them, only to be stopped by Eye Gal as she raised her arms and let out a huge flash of bright pink light from out of her eye hands, blinding them long enough for War Woman to run forward and twirl her weapon around before smacking Mauler #2 across the face as she sent him flying towards Ultra-V, who flew over to deliver a strong punch down at him that sendt Mauler #2 sprawling.

Mauler #1 ran towards a seemingly calm Immortal as he raised his fist to punch him, only for Red Rush to appear as he zipped by multiple times before whirling around Mauler #1 at high speeds before running off, leaving behind a dizzy Mauler #1 as he shook his head and managed to regain his bearings just as Immortal charged at him, punching his face a few times before delivering a fierce uppercut that sent Mauler #1 flying.

Grunting, Aquarus ran up and lifted up his arms to fire dual streams of water across the air as it collided against Mauler #1 and sent him flying away as Martian Man flew in and shape-shifted himself into a volleyball net as he hooked himself against two trees to trampoline the villain straight to Green Ghost, who phased up from the ground to deliver a brutal dropkick.

Meanwhile Mauler #2 skipped across the grounds of the White House like a pebble on a lake as Ultra-V appeared and zoomed towards him as he began to deliver an onslaught of swift punches and kicks at him, causing him to groan in pain each time as Eye Lady suddenly jumped up onto the scene and twirled around as she merged six eyes into two again and fired dual beams of bright pink energy that collided against Mauler #2's body, shocking him violently and covering him in ice as he was sent flying over to War Woman and Omni-Man.

Sharing a smirk, War Woman lifted her mace up into the air and proceeded to smack Mauler #2 across his face as she sent her flying back to Eye Lady, who raised her arms and fired six streams of green flames that collided against him as he was sent flying over to Omni-Man, who flew up into the air to give him a brutal punch that sent him crashing down into the ground.

"Okay, I'm starting to think that we're both horribly outnumbered and outmatched. I'm out of here." Mauler #1 said as he stood up and tried to make a break for it...only for Martian Man to swiftly fly over and use his flexible body to wrap around him.

Immortal flew in and grabbed his teammate's legs before twirling Mauler #1 around and tossing him, screaming, into the air. Aquarus wasted no time in raising his hands as he fired a mega-sized stream of water that propelled Mauler #1 over to his twin and crashing next to him.

"You didn't keep your EYE on the ball!" Eye Lady shouted before firing two beams of bright pink energy from the eyes on her shoulder.

The beams hit the Mauler Twins, encasing them in a big block of ice as Green Ghost flew in and landed behind the villains, placing his hands on their shoulders and turning them intangible as he phased half of their bodies down into the ground.

Grunting in effort, Martian Man stretched out as he wrapped himself onto the Mauler Twins' bodies and restrained them long enough for Red Rush to zoom onto the scene as he ran around them so fast that he resembled a large red tornado as he began delivering multiple punches to the Mauler Twins' faces before speeding off as Martian Man let go of them, revealing that their faces were bleeding and covered with fist-shaped bruises as Aquarus ran towards the Mauler Twins and leaped up high into the air as he then slammed his hands into the ground and gallons of water raced across the ground before popping up below the shocked Mauler Twins that uprooted the alien supervillains off from the ground as it propelled them up into the air before falling down onto the ground as they crash-landed onto the ground so hard that their ice prison broke apart upon impact.

Flying in on his glider, Darkwing pulled out five more explosive shurikens and chucked them at the Mauler Twins, which stuck to Mauler #2's back as Darkwing flew off to safety as Omni-Man suddenly rushed toward him and launched him into the air with an uppercut.

Mauler #1 shakily stood up from the floor, only to scream in pain as Eye Gal raised her arms and closed all nineteen eyes as she opened up her chest eye and further brings it out on a stalk to point it forward to fire a powerfully huge bright pink energy beam that collided against Mauler #1 and sent him flying up into the air to collide against his twin just as Darkwing's explosive shurikens went off as a large explosion rang out and the heroes spotted a huge ball of fire crash landing into the ground, forming a big crater.

Eye Gal and the others ran over to glance down to see the Mauler Twins lying down in the crater, unconscious and defeated.

"Nice work, team! We did awesome!"

Eye Gal shared high-fives with the Guardians of the Globe, including a smiling Ultra-V, while Omni-Man just stoically stood to the side with his arms crossed.

"Thank you for your help, Eye Gal." Immortal smiled. "Names a little on the nose, but with what you showed today? I'm not complaining."

"Yeah, but…this is only one of my forms."

This caught the attention of the Guardians.

"Forms?" Martian Man asked.

"I can turn into different aliens." The newcomer explained. "So, for now? You can just call me…Omni-Girl!"

Suddenly, a loud beeping killed her mood. She glanced down. The Omni Symbol was flashing red.

"Aaand that's the sign I gotta go, talk, and hopefully work with you all again soon! Okay, bye!"

Eye-Gal blasted herself into the sky and away just as a bright green light overtook the sky, blinding all the Guardians. When it cleared, she was long gone.

"Heh, she must be a huge fan of you, Nolan." Theo joked to his brother, only to notice the calculating glare on his face. "Nolan? Is something wrong?"

"It's nothing, Theo..." Nolan assured his brother on the outside as they readied for the press, but inside, his mind was racing.

A black and blue blur raced to the Nolan family household, stopping to reveal it was a dinosaur-like creature with wheels in place of feet and crab-like claws for hands. A visor lifted, revealing a blue, noseless face.

After a quick glance, the creature tapped the symbol on its chest, returning to the form of a young human girl who let herself in.

"So glad…" Hope managed as she wiped the sweat off her brow and downed some orange juice. "I used Grey Matter to hack into the watch and get rid of the cooldown time."

"And that you're in AP classes, so cutting isn't an issue?"

Hope nearly dropped the juice as she spied her brother and cousin, sitting to the News report of the attack on the White House.

"You did good, Eye-Gal," Hilda smirked. "Little pun heavy, but…"

"I couldn't help it. Pun not intended." Hope smiled. "Besides, no one else knows, so it's all good."

Understandably, what with being there when the whole thing happened, Mark, Hilda, and Will were the only ones in the know at the moment; the camping trip having been spent experimenting with the aliens in Hope's Omnitrix. Now, unlike her predecessor, Hope did NOT start a full-on forest fire or have to deal with an intergalactic warlord sending robots after her, so she made a lot of progress.

Whenever asked about the watch at school by her friends, Hope explained that it was a gift from Hilda, who was, truthfully, quite skilled in metalwork and the arts. The silhouettes of her aliens were described as 'confronting fears'; meant to showcase how Hope really had nothing to fear but fear itself.

Now, Hope knew she couldn't keep the charade up forever. Nor did she have any plans to do such. She just needed the right moment; she didn't want her mom worrying about her, nor her father babying her. Never mind ruining her social life by coming up with excuses for why she kept running off from her friends.

"How long have you guys been home?" Hope asked. "Thought you had shifts."

"Not anymore!" Marc beamed happily.

"And you're happy for your lack of non-allowance because...?" Hope asked.

Her brother and cousin looked at each other, cleared their throats, and then announced:

"Our powers finally kicked in!"

You could hear a pin drop; it got so quiet before Hope's face moved from shock to an ecstatic beam,

"Really?!"

"Well, either that or gravity decided to stop applying itself to things we toss…" Mark began

"Or punch." Hilda cut in.

The quiet returned as concern overtook the siblings.

"Hilda, what did you do?"

"I…May or may not have…destroyed the front of a hooter's car and then sent the whole thing underground," Hilda confessed. "And by underground I DO mean underground."

"When you say 'hooter', do you mean the restaurant or…?" Mark started.

"The other kind."

"Well, at least they're smart enough to see supermodels aren't all that great," Hope said. "I just wish it were a nicer chubby chaser."

"Chubby?" Hilda asked, reaching for her stomach and pulling some of her blubber forward. "Hope. Sweetie THIS. IS. FAT."

Hope grimaced slightly, but Mark chuckled, just as Debbie Grayson entered.

"I'm home! Dinner is on route!"

Chapter Text

"Man, could today go by any slower?!"

These were the words spoken by one of Mark's schoolmates in high school. He was small for his age, but what he lacked in height, he made up for with wits. He had short, black hair, with three large strands that stuck out on top, and a yellow shirt that had a red stripe going up the side and a purple collar on top. His light blue jeans were baggy and had a chain on the right side, and a pair of red Chuck Taylors adorned his feet. This was Eddy O'Brian, and he was the leader of a group of boys dubbed "The Eds".

"You seem eager to get home from school today." Mark chuckled.

"New stuff arrived, and wealth waits for no one!" Eddy smirked.

"By 'wealth' you mean scams," Mark noted.

"To-may-to, to-mah-to. Pot-ay-to, pot-ah-to." Eddy waved off, then smirked. "So…how did your balls drop and how did scaring that chump feel?"

He was referring to Mark standing up to a bully earlier that day, even daring him to hit him when he didn't cower at first.

"You know, and not going to lie, felt pretty good," Mark smirked.

"And how about that babe of a cousin of yours?" Eddy grinned lecherously.

Mark's mood instantly shifted, and he glared at his friend in a way that said, "try me, bitch".

"Hey, hey! Just asking! Just asking!" Eddy chuckled weakly.

He HATED when Mark did this: Yeah, he understood the 'protect family' and all, but they were friends! Mark could trust him with Hilda. And heck, if he couldn't? Hilda would crush him without a second thought.

"Man, that'd be a way to go…"

Mark sighed, inwardly wondering why he was friends with this schemer before remembering: They played baseball as kids and never really cared who his dad was.

"Still, it's a surprise you managed to awaken the same powers as your father, Mark."

The next one who spoke was a young boy who wore a black sock-like hat and golden blonde hair that reached his neck. He had on a baggy orange shirt and a pair of purple shorts, with long red socks on his legs, and a pair of blue sneakers.

His name was Eddward "Edd" Mardon, and he was the brains of the group. His friends tended to call him "Double-D' do to the two Ds in his name.

"I like holding stuff, Double D!"

"That's nice, Ed."

Ed Mason was the tallest boy in the trio and the dumbest of the bunch, but what he lacked in brain, he made up for in strength and heart. He wore a baggy green jacket, a red and white striped t-shirt, and very baggy light purple jeans. He had two giant black shoes on his feet, and both were untied. His auburn hair was feathery and unkempt, and he had a very distinguished unibrow.

"And look! New superhero comic!" Ed beamed, showcasing 'Eye-Gal #1'.

"Wow, first appearance a few days ago and already Hope's got a comic?" Mark thought, kind of jealous, but then made a mental note to buy a copy for his little sister, even if only for teasing purposes.

"I'm not certain if a comic series like that is even legal, Ed." Double D mused. "She's only appeared once…"

"Yeah, and she did it with the cream of the crop!" Eddy recounted.

"Regardless, she DID also say Eye-Gal is just one of her forms. Does the publisher just expect to make a new series when a new form shows? Not a very sound marketing plan."

"He's not wrong: that's just lazy and setting up fanbase disappointment." Mark realized.

Just then, the bell finally rang

"THERE IS A GOD! HALLELUJAH!" Eddy beamed.

"Well, I gotta head home. Dad promised he'd train me today." Mark said.

"Have a good rest of your day, Mark." Double-D smiled as the trio waved their friend goodbye and headed home.

Vought Multinational had a very odd history. In a way, they fit in just fine with this world of heroes, villains, and monsters. In another universe or twenty, they'd have been kings, nay, titans of industry.

Fredrick Vought, the founder, was a brilliant geneticist who was hired by the Nazis during WWII and allowed to run all sorts of inhuman experiments on the victims of concentration camps. For a while, the man had prospered….then he sensed the winds change and snuck to America.

While Oppenheimer was working on the atomic bomb, Vought created Soldier Boy to repel the Axis powers as a show of good faith. A show that was rewarded by a pardon from Theodore Rossvelt, fame and fortune…all thanks to his Compound V.

Sure, there were the Immortal, War Woman, and others, but the idea of home-grown superheroes, or the potential to gain superpowers? Who wouldn't want to get in on that?

This is not such a universe.

Here, once the GDF and Guardians came along, the company wisely decided to shift, becoming one of the largest pharmaceutical companies on earth. They still maintained a few heroes, but aside from maybe Black Noir, none of them were anything special. Certainly not that try-hard brat Homelander and his poor man's version of the Guardians, The Seven…

But that wasn't what the problem was; No, what mattered now was that Vought had lost a very important shipment: An ancient orb that was uncovered during an archaeological expedition; you can look to the past to find the future, some would say.

Stan Edgar, the head of the company, was, to put it simply? Less than pleased. His granddaughter could've handled this better, for crying out loud.

"This does not bode well..."

As Ed made his way back home, he saw something strange on the table; it was some kind of sphere that was perfectly smooth, with no bumps or ridges to be found. It was yellow on one side, purple on the other, with a dividing line running down the middle.

The orb had actually been mixed up in the mail, being sent to the Mason residence instead of its intended destination at Vought's main HQ. Of course, Ed was a boy of very little brain and saw the orb as something else:

"FREE JAWBREAKER!"

With a mighty chomp, Ed put the whole thing in his mouth, forming a massive bulge in his cheek before he swallowed the whole thing down with a cartoonish BOINK sound as it landed in his gullet.

"Yummy!" He said happily before heading downstairs to his bedroom to enjoy some comics and monster movies.

Later that night, Ed tossed and turned in his sleep, dreaming of epic battles with mutant mole-men from Babylon 4; he was completely unsuspecting of the fantastic changes that were happening to his body at that moment. His body started shimmering and shaking, quivering like a bowl full of jello. His skin was puffing up, then deflating; his body elongated, and then returned to normal. The red hair on Ed's head grew out into curly locks, only to evaporate into a mist above his head. The most bizarre part had not even begun.

His body shook with one final tremor, and then collapsed onto the bed, still and motionless, save for his breathing and noises he was making as he combated his dream enemies. Suddenly, the skin on Ed's face began to change as a purple pigment started to spread onto the left side of his body, and gold spread to the other side. The colors completely covered his head and neck, and made their way down his arms to the fingertips. Even his legs underwent the metamorphosis, the color scheme remaining the same. Finally, it stopped, and Ed was left in his colored state, sprawled on his bed in only his underwear and a dingy tank top.

A younger girl with orange hair opened the door to her house upon hearing a collective knocking, where she saw three familiar faces; two of which she ignored.

"Hope!"

"Hi Sarah." Hope smiled back, giving her friend a hug. "Jimmy here yet?"

"Yeah, he's making a snack tray." Sarah mused as she brought Hope in, then finally saw Mark and Hope. "Oh, hey, you two. Here to see Ed?"

She spoke with boredom clear in her tone, which neither teen missed.

"And Eddy and Double-D," Mark said as the house suddenly shook.

"GEEZ!" Eddy, now arriving with Double-D, barely managed to hold onto a wall. When he saw Hilda, he recomposed himself and smirked. "Hello, gorgeous."

"Hey, Eddy." Hilda waved goodheartedly before doing the same for Double D. "You okay, Eddward?"

"Ya know, I feel weak…" Eddy feigned. "If only there was a marshmallowy god…"

Mark AND Hope glared at Eddy while Double-D just rolled his eyes. Hilda missed the whole thing.

"You think we'd be used to this, having known Ed for years…" Double-D mused. "Are we certain he doesn't have superpowers?"

"He must still be napping," Hilda noted as she made her way to Ed's room and pulled the covers off. "Rise and shine, sleeping beauty!"

However, it was then that the group saw Ed's new skin condition. Eddy arched an eyebrow curiously while Sarah furrowed her brow.

"That dummy must've painted himself in his sleep again."

Double-D gasped. "Oh dear! Ed, wake up!"

Ed groggily rose up, rubbed the sleep from his eyes, and, upon seeing his two bestest friends in the whole world as well as his beloved baby sister, broke out into his usual wide, silly grin.

"EDDY! DOUBLE-D!" He reached out with his big arms and pulled them into a hug. "I am happy as a clam to see my bestest chums here to visit!"

Eddy struggled against the hug. "Yeah, yeah, we get it, Lumpy! Now let us go before ya choke us!"

As he pushed away from Ed's body, he suddenly felt sand all over his back. Eddy turned his head to the left to find that Ed's arm had turned into sand! Naturally, the leader of the Eds freaked out as he pulled himself free, the others staring in shock.

"Double-D, what's going on?!" Eddy asked his smart friend.

It was then that everyone noticed the sock-hatted boy was being held by an arm made of brick; he also looked like he couldn't breathe.

"ED! PUT HIM DOWN!" Hope panicked.

"Sorry, Baby Sister #2!" Ed said as he let Double-D go.

"Ed...what the heck happened to you?!" Hilda asked in shock.

"Huh?"

"You turned your arms into sand and brick, idiot!" Eddy snapped.

Ed looked at his arms and promptly screamed as his brain mustered up the power to process everything. The lovable oaf then started running around the room in blind terror, his body going through changes as he ran. First, his leg turned into pure iron, which left dents wherever he stepped. Then, his head burst into flames, scaring him even more.

"SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!" Jimmy cried in terror.

"ED, STOP!" Double-D cried, and Ed did just that.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME, GUYS?! I LOOK LIKE MATTER-MAKER MAN FROM 'FINAL SECRET INVASION CRISIS: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT'!"

"Ed, it's okay, just breathe!" Mark said, trying to placate his friend. "Did anything weird happen after we all split up when school was finished yesterday?"

Ed, having calmed down somewhat, put a finger to his chin as he did his best to remember the other day. His eyes then lit up when he remembered the "Jawbreaker" he had eaten.

"The Super Ultra Rare Jawbreaker that came in the mail today!"

"What Jawbreaker?" Eddy asked. "And why didn't you think to let me have a taste?!"

"That's what you're concerned about?" Hilda asked incredulously.

Double-D coughed into his fist. "Ed, could you describe this alleged 'Super Ultra Rare Jawbreaker'?"

"Sure thing, Double-D! It was so sweet and delicious, with its two different sides, I thought it had to be the crystal ball of the Dragon from the Planet Keman, but then why would it be in my kitchen? So, wanting to taste the flavor of the ultimate jawbreaker, Ed swooped in with his mouth of justice and devoured the sweet and delicious morsel. Before I knew it, I had swallowed the whole thing. And that's all I have to say about that!"

"And what were the colors?"

"It was gold like Rolf's corn and purple like a sack of potatoes."

Double-D rubbed his chin before turning to the rest of his friends.

"Everyone, we need to head over to my house. I think I can uncover what's going on."

After making their way to Double-D's house and making sure Ed wasn't seen by anybody, the five teens and three young pre-teens were in Double-D's basement laboratory, which he had set up with his inventions for studying since his parents were well-established scientists and members of the Global Defense Agency.

"Now, Ed, this will only hurt for a second…" Double-D gently said as he wiped a spot on Ed's arm off, and inserted the needle, extracting a small amount of blood. The young genius then stared at the syringe. "Oh my…how peculiar!"

"Wowzers..." Sarah whispered.

"Gee willikers!" Jimmy exclaimed.

"Coool! It is like the mutant apple cider the heroes had to drink in 'I Was A Teenage Hillbilly, The Miniseries!'" Ed said.

'Mutant' was a good way to describe the blood, which was changing its color every second. First it was brown, then light blue, and now it was teal green. It didn't get much more mutant than that!

"Hmm…I'll have to run this under the microscope before we can conclude anything," Double-D said. "Ed, would you go wait in that containment chamber over there?"

"Okey-dokey, Double D!" Ed shouted as he ran into the chamber.

Double-D took the blood sample, placed the blood on a small sheet of glass, and stuck it under the powerful lens of his microscope.

"With my high-power microscope, we should be able to see any anomalies in Ed's body!"

"Ooh, lemme see!" Hope excitedly said as she peeked at the microscope.

Mark had to hold his little sister back so Double-D could conduct his research without any interruption. As soon as he could look down to the molecules and atoms, the sock-hatted boy gasped.

"Everyone, come look at this!"

Everyone gathered around to see, taking turns looking through the microscope at the very same thing Double-D had seen; there were all kinds of strange shapes in Ed's body, and lots of them were different colored than regular blood cells.

"Woah, that's in Ed's blood?! That doesn't look a thing like blood!" Eddy said, confused and more than a little frightened.

"What's happening to my stupid brother?!" Sarah asked, genuinely worried for her older sibling.

"I think I have something..." Double-D said, running over to a nearby bookshelf where he kept all his books neatly organized, and looking for what he needed. "Ah, here it is! The World of Molecules and You, by John Osterman"

Double-D then opened the book and flipped through the pages before lighting up as he saw what he was looking for and gestured for everyone to see it.

"Mercury molecules?" Mark asked. "Double-D, we already read about this in Chemistry Class, remember?"

"Yes, but see? These were the exact same shapes in Ed's blood!" Double-D pointed out.

"So what the heck does this mean, Double D? Is Ed, like, a living period table now?"

"Period-IC, Eddy." Hilda corrected. "But how did a Jawbreaker do this to Ed?"

"I'm starting to think it wasn't a jawbreaker...one second, everyone!" Double-D said as he went to get another book, quickly looking through it before finding a picture and showing it to Ed. "Ed, did the jawbreaker you ate look like this?"

"That's the one, Double-D!" Ed smiled from his place in the chamber.

"Well, Ed, it wasn't a jawbreaker...it was an ancient artifact known as the Orb of Ra!" Double-D revealed. "But why would a historic treasure be delivered to your house?"

"So Ed actually ate a magic rock?" Sarah asked. "And now, what, he has superpowers too?!"

Hearing the word "Superpower" got Ed excited as he flailed his right arm about, and the entire arm became a tentacle of fire; he did the same thing to the left, and it became a swirling tentacle of wind. Laughing hysterically, Ed bounced into the air, and his legs joined together and changed into a metal spring; the dim-witted boy continued bouncing until he hit his head, which changed into water as it smacked the ceiling.

Eddy laughed. "Good one, Lumpy! You won the Superpower Lottery!"

"Now I can be a superhero like Mark and Hilda!" Ed beamed as he was let out of the chamber, only for Mark and Hilda to blitz and hold him back.

"Whoa, whoa, buddy!" Mark assured his pal. "We're sure you will."

"But you know you can't go running off willy-nilly." Hilda mused. "Remember what happened in 'Prebuscent Powers?'"

Ed frowned. "Hate that movie. So mean."

The other teens all nodded.

"First, we need to make sure you can control those powers," Hope said. "And I think I may have to do something about it..."

"Hope?" Jimmy asked in concern as Sarah's eyes widened.

"No…way…"

She then lifted her watch, gave it a few twists, and then slammed it, a green light overtaking her form.

In Hope's place now stood a tall, crab like creature with long, mechanical looking claws and a pronounced head.

"BRAINSTORM!" The newcomer declared. "Yes, I am aware the name is rather on the nose, but nothing else was simple enough for common folks to recall. Also, be aware that my pride does grow in this form; I am already mentally telling myself to keep it in check but it is a long pro…"

She then spied the shocked looks.

"Oh, come now, don't give me those shocked looks. You all had to have…"

Jimmy and Sarah beamed and cheered.

"MY BEST FRIEND IS A SUPERHERO!"

They then hugged Brainstorm, who nearly stumbled but then returned the hug, showing Hope was indeed still in there.

"HA! I KNEW IT!" Ed beamed. "Crashing meteor at camp; classic!"

"I am less surprised than I should be..." Double-D admitted.

"So, does this make us your guys and gals in the chair?" Eddy asked Mark and Hope. "Do they get the right to merchandise? Any money to be made?"

Mark and Hilda sighed but smiled all the while.

"And don't worry about us blabbing," Eddy promised, a rare bit of sincerity in his voice. "We don't want our friends getting in trouble, right?"

"Ed will protect secret with his life!" Ed promised. "Just like he will his Baby Sister."

"ED!" Sarah whined.

Unbeknownst to the young hopeful heroes-to-be, they were being spied on by a man in a full black combat bodysuit.

This was Black Noir, a man who started out as a vigilante before being hired by Vought to act as their black ops guy, taking care of any dangerous individuals who might try to use the company's products for evil.

Black Noir put away the pair of binoculars he was using before tapping two fingers to the side of his head, activating a hidden comm to contact Stan Edgar.

"Did you find the Orb of Ra?"

Black Noir said nothing, simply tapping the comm with his fingers in Morse Code, sending a message that only Stan Edgar could read.

"I see...this is most troubling. Contact Cecil; he'll want to talk with this boy in the future. Keep vigilant and watch the boy for any future developments."

Black Noir nodded, ending the call to his boss before turning and walking away.

Chapter Text

In the coming days, Omni-Man and Ultra-V's training with their children began in earnest.

Nolan's training with Mark was blunt and to the point. After fighting Elephant a couple of times (so that Mark could learn the right amount of force), he began teaching his son 'Batman style' interrogation tactics and to focus on the bigger picture: Just because there was trouble didn't mean you HAD to leap into action; for every minor crime you ignored, you had attention and time to stop world ending threats. Mark didn't like that last one, but saw the reasoning behind it.

Theo took a different approach with training Hilda; they flew to the Sahara or desolate mountain tops for sparring matches, then visited war zones to deliver supplies and pish back bandits and or rogue soldiers. Theo also prioritized bigger picture thinking, but also assured his daughter that she should trust her gut, pun not intended.

And throughout all of this, neither of the great heroes knew Hope was a budding hero in her own right.

"And with the weather, here's Jim Halpert. Jim?"

"Thanks, Pam. Well, folks, as many of you may know, meteorologists around the world are trying to study this bizarre storm that seems to have come out of nowhere. Oh, wait, hold on one second…I have just received notice from the National Weather Service urging all civilians in the following counties to take precautions, should this storm go on the move. Glascow, Mecklenburg, Chicago, Springfield, and Union. All citizens in those counties should prepare for the worst. And now, let's take a look at the weather for the weeke-"

Double-D hit the power button on the remote control, as he had seen all he needed to see. The cosmic storm was going to be somewhere over Chicago, and Peach Creek just so happened to be in Chicago territory!

"Oh, how wonderful! This storm will give me the chance to try out my new weather station! Oh, I should go over a couple of things before the storm arrives, so many things to do, ooh so busybusybusybusy!"

"What the heck are you nerding on about, Double-D?" Eddy asked as he and Ed had just arrived.

Ed was distracted and laughing as his hand shifted between elements. One might expect him to have been having trouble mastering his powers, since he was…less academically gifted than others. But as it turns out? Reading comics and manga more than textbooks CAN be useful!

"Sorry, fellows, I have so much to do before the storm hits!"

Double-D had been making preparations for this for over a week, ever since the cosmic storm had been discovered: building the weather station, studying the movement of the storm, analyzing every single factor, down to the last millisecond. He WOULD see this storm in action.

"What's so important about this storm anyway, Sockhead?" Eddy asked.

"Well, Eddy, this storm is something that supposedly does NOT come from Earth!" Double-D explained excitedly. "Everyone is wondering what it is exactly, and I intend to find out tonight, when it passes over Peach Creek."

"What's the big deal? Mark and Hilda's dads are not from Earth. Martian Man isn't from Earth. It's just the weather!" Eddy complained. "It'll probably just turn out to be some sorta big thunderstorm or something."

"Be that as it may, Eddy, I still want to study this phenomenon. Think about it: this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, something that might never occur again!" Double-D said. "Why, I know there are a few shops in town trying to make a buck or two off of this cosmic storm."

Suddenly, Eddy's head perked up; whenever there was money involved, he would be there.

"Double-D, you said that people are tryin' to make a buck off this thing?!"

"That's right, Eddy. T-shirts, hats, and even novelty raincoats! It's crazy!"

The greedy boy began rubbing his hands together as dollar signs filled his eyes.

"Double-D, you got any old t-shirts around here?!"

"Why, yes, we do! Mother and Father were just about to donate some of their old clothes to Goodwill, and are keeping them in the garage; why do you-"

Double-D paused, as he knew what Eddy was thinking right now: how to scam their friends and neighbors of the cul-de-sac.

"Don't even think about it, mister!"

That did little to stop Eddy as he sped off to the garage in search of the t-shirts.

If there was one thing anybody who was close to the Eds would remember, it's that they would try nearly every DAY to scam them out of their allowance money. Each time it was a new trick: once, they had tried to make the ultimate energy drink; the next day, they made tacos out of paper plates, orange crayons, and grass; they even made a small city out of cardboard boxes, where they had tattoo parlors, magazine stands, and shopping malls.

Yes, when it came to making money, the Eds always seemed to have a trick up their sleeve. Of course, these scams never worked out in the end; many a time have the Eds been severely beaten for their deeds. They have been hung in a giant cage, put in cement, and had fruit thrown at them. Each and every failure leaves them penniless and without jawbreakers, but the boys never give up in their quest for that succulent candy.

Maybe that was why Mark and Hilda gave them the time of day. Minus that one scam where Eddy tried to market their relationship to their fathers, which even Eddy himself was ashamed of that one and never talked about it, Mark and Hilda usually indulged the schemes and left them alone. Mark even repelled Kevin and some of the other bullies whenever he could, and Hilda was probably Ed's best friend aside from Double D and Eddy, with their strength and love of comics being a key factor.

Double-D ran after his greedy friend, and found him in the garage with all of the clothes that his parents had been planning on donating to charity, writing on the t-shirts with a black marker.

"EDDY! What in the name of Pete are you DOING?!"

Eddy grinned. "I'm gettin' started on our best scam ever: NOVELTY CLOTHING! I'm tellin' ya, Double-D, it'll be a gold mine! People are gonna want cheap clothing to remember this day by, and it's something they can show off to people, like, 'Yeah, I was there when the storm hit Peach Creek. It's a niche market, I tell ya! A NICH MARKET!"

Eddy went back to writing on the clothes, chuckling at his latest display of genius; this time, he had even outdone himself. This scam was sure to rake in the dough, he just knew it!

"Why do I even bother?" Double-D sighed.

"ED! GET IN HERE!" Eddy shouted out.

A fireball flew through the air from the kitchen and slammed down, morphing back into the lovable oaf known as Ed.

"Hiya, Eddy!"

Eddy responded by throwing a hammer at Ed's head.

"Get to work, Lumpy! I need you to make a stand for me ASAP! Sockhead, you need to paint a sign for me! Now, let's get to impressin'!"

Double-D sighed in defeat. Once Eddy had a scam in mind, it was impossible to stop him from carrying through with it.

"I'll get right on it, Eddy…"

When Mark, Hilda, and Hope swung by to see the Eds' latest scam in action, they went in mentally prepping for anything. Well, Hope did. Mark and Hilda, after training with their dads, were looking forward to some mindless slapstick to take their minds off hero work.

And yet, they were STILL not prepared for when they opened the door.

Ed came bouncing into the garage wearing a pair of short-shorts that had the words 'Cosmic Storm' printed on the back, a blouse that had 'I Heart Storms' written on the front, and a bra that he wore over the blouse that had 'Cosmic Storm' printed on the cups.

"I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY! I FEEL PRETTY AND WITTY AND-"

"ED! Stop dancing around, get over here, and POSE!" Eddy barked.

"Okay, Eddy!"

As Ed posed, Hilda and Hope giggled while Mark rolled his eyes with a smile.

"Another of your 'brilliant' scams, Eddy?"

"You guessed it, buster!" Eddy smirked. "Double D, you're up!"

"Oh, Eddy, do I have t-"

"Quit yer bellyaching, Sockhead! These clothes are gonna sell, I know it, but they ain't gonna sell if those pigeons don't think they look good! Now, get out here and show me whatcha got!"

The brilliant Edd let out a sigh of despair, and groaned as he proceeded to walk out in front of Eddy, wearing a trench coat that said 'Cosmic Storm' on the back, carpenter pants that were painted with lightning bolts going up the sides, and a long-sleeved shirt that had a lightning bolt in the center, with a message that said, "Can you smell what the UNIVERSE is cookin'? COSMIC STORM" around it.

"Looks okay, but you need to put a little more life into it, Sockhead!" Eddy commented. "Seriously, you look like a mandarin!"

"Mannequin, Eddy, and what do you mean by 'put some life into it'?"

"You know…some life: strike a Superman pose, go King of the World, just do something!"

Double-D sighed in defeat, stretched his arms out to the sides, opened his palms, and imagined that he was in the middle of a tornado; floating freely, he flew anywhere he wanted. He could see outside the whirlwind, and saw a freak blizzard in front of him, a hailstorm to his right, a deluge of rain at his left, and he could feel the rays of a brilliant sun behind him. Just as Double-D was about to glide towards the blizzard, a familiar voice shook him back to reality.

"DOUBLE-D, WAKE UP!"

With a shock, Double-D woke from his daydream. That was a wonderful dream; all that power swirling around him felt…calming. Assuring in some way. But that was just a dream, nothing more.

"Are you okay, Sockhead? Can't have one of my models being sick now."

"No, I'm fine, Eddy; I must have just drifted off for a second."

"Well, help Ed set up the stand." Eddy began to rub his hands together as he cackled, and said, "Soon, those suckers will be coming here and getting hand-me-down clothes for a low, low price, and we'll be swimming in JAWBREAKERS!"

"Hey, think I can try some of those clothes?" Mark asked.

"HA! Only if you're willing to pay for Jawbreakers!"

Much to Mark and Hilda's surprise, the scam actually managed to sell really well. Eddy was cackling like a lunatic as he hugged the jar full of quarters and dollars.

"Yes, we certainly procured a large amount of quarters from the children this time," Double-D admitted.

"Thanks for paying for me, Big Brother!" Hope said, showing off her new clothes.

Okay, gang, it's time to get some jawbreakers! Let's hurry, before the store closes!"

"Sorry, Eddy: I can't go with you," Double-D said as he pushed himself off the stand, "I have to finish setting up my weather station before the storm hits."

Eddy just waved his hand. "Whatever, Sockhead; we'll pick up a few jawbreakers for you anyway!"

"Thank you, Eddy. I should be finished by the time you all get back; try not to eat them all!"

"Yeah, yeah, have fun with your weather thingy, Double-D!"

"I AM READY FOR JAWBREAKERS!" Ed shouted as his legs conjoined into a jet turbine that shot him forward.

"He's really been getting used to his powers..." Mark noted as he picked up Eddy and flew him after the lovable oaf, Hilda did the same with Hope.

"Hey, Sockhead! We got ya your favorites!" Eddy said as he, Ed, Mark, Hope, and Hilda came back. "The store was closing early because of the storm."

"Whoa!" Hope exclaimed.

The others followed the young girl's gaze to see a giant antenna on the roof of Double-D's house, which was surrounded by a dozen other small pieces of equipment. Looking around, the group saw that it had been rigged with numerous cables and wires, covering the house like a vine of ivy.

"Well, Double-D always knew how to build big." Hilda quipped.

"Oh, you're back! Come in, come in!"

Hearing Double-D's voice, the group headed inside to see him wearing a white lab coat, a pair of gloves on his hands, and yellow goggles over his eyes.

"What the heck is all this, Double-D?!" Eddy asked.

"I've rigged the house with numerous detectors, so as to catch any changes in the weather at all. My computer downstairs is linked to the weather rod on the roof, and it will give me exact readings on what happens outside."

"Weather rod?" Mark asked. "You made a fully functioning weather rod in under an hour?"

Hilda giggled. "Are you sure building stuff really fast isn't your superpower?"

"Har-Har," Double-D said with playful sarcasm. "Now, if you all could just make your way to the basement, I'd be ever so grateful. AND DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING! That means YOU, Ed!"

"But I like to press the pretty buttons, Double-D!"

Eddy grabbed his dim-witted friend by the ear and dragged him to the basement door.

"Just listen to Sockhead, okay?"

A few minutes later, Double-D joined his friends in the basement.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen! All the detectors are in place, the rod is set, and the storm is nigh; flip the switch on the computer, Hope, and we'll be ready to go!"

"Aye-Aye, Captain!" Hope saluted cutly as she flipped the computer on.

Double-D excitedly got into his seat and looked with vapid attention.

"Sheesh, you're really obsessed over this," Eddy noted.

"Sorry, Eddy, I'm just so excited about what will soon occur! We are about to behold something not of this world, and with my machines, we won't miss a nanosecond!"

Double-D turned to the screen and stared intently at the image before him. The rod had a camera of sorts built into it, and right now the rod was recording what was going on outside. So far, everything seemed to be fairly uneventful: the sky had become much darker, while the wind had picked up and could be heard through the speakers installed in the rod.

A few minutes later, a few drops of water fell onto the camera, and soon the rain was coming down harder and faster. Now, a full-blown storm was occurring outside, and Double-D had every second recorded on camera.

"Don't you think this is incredible?!

"I don't see what the big deal is, Double-D; it's just another storm!" Eddy said. "It'll probably blow over in a few minutes."

"Au contraire, Eddy, this storm could last for any amount of time. It could end now, or it could end in a few hours. One thing is for certain, though: this is a storm unlike any storm before it!"

Ed smiled and pointed at the computer screen with a hand that had changed into a pool stick.

"I like how the weather is all crackly and gray now! It's just like the Monster World of Herculoid, the Mini-series."

"Oh boy, Double-D, you might wanna see this!" Mark said worriedly, realizing what this actually meant.

Double-D gasped as he saw that, sure enough, the camera was projecting nothing but static.

"Ohdearohdearohdear, this is not good!"

"What's the big deal, Sockhead?" Eddy asked.

"The camera's out, Eddy! It's not recording anything right now!" Hilda explained.

That means one of us has to go up there and see what the problem is!" Double-D said before taking a deep breath. "I'll go..."

"Double-D, are you sure?" Hope asked.

"Positive. I'm the one who built it, so I should be the one to fix it." Double-D said as he slipped on a poncho.

"You need us to do anything?" Eddy asked.

Double-D nodded and handed a walkie-talkie to Eddy.

"I want you all to let me know the instant you see an image on the screen. Understand?"

"Are you sure you want to go out now?" Hilda asked. "It sounds like it's gettin' worse out!"

At that moment, a large clap of thunder erupted near the house, causing the group to lose their balance for a brief moment. Hope fearfully hugged onto Mark as he held her gently.

"I may not want to, but I have to," Double-D said.

"You are so brave, Double-D!" Ed sobbed as he wrapped his arms around his friend, squeezing him in a bear hug.

"Erk! Uh, thank you, Ed, but I must be going; that camera won't fix itself, y'know!"

With help from Eddy, Mark, and Hilda, Double-D was released from Ed's grip, and he ran up the stairs of the basement and ran outside, where he was immediately knocked off his feet by a strong gust of wind.

He struggled to rise, and when he did, the brilliant boy saw something that shocked him to the core: the sky had turned an ungodly red, as if the universe was bleeding onto the Earth. Shivering, the young boy braced himself against the wind as he made his way to the side wall of his house. He had prepared a ladder of sorts on the wall, in case he needed to climb up and repair something on the roof; gripping the wall as tightly as he could, Double-D began to climb as the rain beat down on him and the wind threatened to blow him down.

Finally reaching the top, Double-D gasped for air and began to crawl across the roof, using another set of riggings to cling to. He made his way to the weather rod, where he grabbed hold of the side and hoisted himself up, clinging for dear life to the machine. He pressed a few buttons, flipped some switches, and then spoke into the walkie-talkie.

"Eddy, do you see anything?"

"Yeah, it's working, Double-D! Hey, I can see you!"

"Ooh, ooh, is it Double-D?! HI DOUBLE-D!" Ed excitedly spoke in.

"Get back inside, you're making Hope worried!" Mark said.

Double-D smiled. "Okay, fellows, I'm coming down."

Just as he ended the transmission, a huge bolt of red lightning came from the sky and, without any warning, struck the weather rod and Double-D.

That moment was easily the most painful thing the boy had ever felt in his life, as it felt like his body was being torn to shreds from the inside out. He let out a ghastly scream, but the pain refused to end.

All the kids of the cul-de-sac stopped what they were doing and felt their blood run cold at the sound of the bone-chilling scream. Nazz turned from her TV, Kevin stopped adjusting his bike, and Rolf looked up from his pile of peeled potatoes; Johnny shivered in his bed as he hugged Plank, Sarah trembled from under her covers, and Jimmy gave a shriek of his own.

"D-Double D? Are you okay?" Eddy asked fearfully after hearing the scream, only to get no response. "H-Hey, Sockhead, talk to me…"

Still no answer. A dreadful feeling began forming in the pit of everyone's stomachs.

"DOUBLE-D! ANSWER ME!" Eddy screamed, but still no answer.

"Oh god..." Mark whispered.

"Poor Double-D! Why did it have to be him?!" Ed sobbed. "CURSE YOU, HERCULOIDIANS!"

"We gotta get him!" Hilda urgently said.

Hope activated her Omnitrix and transformed into an alien with a black body with one green eye in the middle of its head, two antennae, a tail with round plugs on their tips, four-fingered hands, and feet with only two front toes.

"FEEDBACK!"

The five leaped up the stairs of the basement and ran as fast as they could outside. Back up on the roof, the lightning finally ran its course through Double-D, but it had done its damage; he had lost consciousness long ago and now had collapsed. The boy's body began to slide down the rooftop with nothing to stop it, just as his friends came from within his house.

"Double-D!" Mark cried as he flew up and caught his friend, gently laying him down on the ground.

"I-Is he...?" Hilda asked fearfully.

Suddenly, Double-D's eyes shot open, surrounded by blue flames, as lightning shot out of his body out of control. Feedback quickly sprang into action and began absorbing the lightning.

"What's going on?!" Eddy cried.

"The bolt of cosmic lightning must have altered him at a molecular level, making it so that he has become able to change the weather with his very mind. Given that his mind must have been shut down by the electricity, it probably is acting on basic instinct." Ed said.

Everyone looked at Ed in confusion, but then again, there had been many times when the lovable doofus had shown a surprisingly insightful and intelligent side.

As if to prove Ed's theory, winds began picking up around Double-D, the same blue flames from his eyes now surrounding his hands. Suddenly, the air around everyone turned cold, as snow began to fall in great amounts, while hail the size of golf balls fell from the sky.

"Ouch! Easy with the hail!" Feedback cried.

"Double-D! WAKE UP!" Hilda cried.

The winds around Double-D became even more aggressive, tearing up the ground. Mark and Hilda used their newly-awakened Viltrumite strength to root themselves to the ground as Eddy clung to Hilda for dear life...and also as an excuse to squeeze her big marshmallow boulder of a gut as well.

Hope switched from Feedback to Four Arms, a four-armed red-skinned alien, as she held on with all her might.

Ed had also rooted himself to the ground by turning his feet into titanium rambolts.

"DOUBLE-D!"

As suddenly as the storm began, it ended then and there. The winds died down, snow ceased to fall, the hail vanished, and the rainfall ended.

Double-D's eyes shut, then opened again. They had returned to their normal appearance: pale green with specks of gray. The fire in his hands was slowly extinguished, and the young boy was left floating in the air in a gentle breeze.

"G-Guys...?"

Mark, Hope, Hilda, Ed, and Eddy stared at their friend as a single ray of light burst through the clouds and landed on the boy. They cautiously approached him, and once they thought everything was safe, they picked his body up and carried him inside.

Double-D had been unconscious for a whole day, and all his friends were getting worried. His breathing was normal; he just wasn't waking up.

"Come on, Double-D...wake up..." Hope sadly said, having visited the Mardon residence with the rest of her family.

Unbeknownst to everyone, Double-D was drifting aimlessly through a void in his mind. As he floated without direction, he was surrounded by all different sorts of weather conditions: blinding sunlight, ripping hail, freezing snow, and powerful rain. Trapped in an all-consuming tornado, the boy had nowhere to retreat to.

Ever since that night of the storm, the smartest Ed had been locked in this dream, perpetually frozen in the center of the cyclone. The most unsettling thing was the voices that spoke to him.

What will you do, child of Adam?

Do you have the strength to wield this enormous power?

Or will you choose to abandon yourself to this realm for all eternity?

The choice is yours…

Edd tried to speak, but found himself unable to; for some reason, he could only watch.

For all your life, you have taken the easy way out…

Never taken the initiative…

What shall you choose, Eddward Mardon?

The choice is yours…

The boy curled himself up into a ball and tried his best to block out the voices that were tearing him apart with their words.

Mardon, you've been given a great power…

A power that can change the world, if you let it…

This great energy has chosen you as its carrier…

The choice is yours…

"Choice..." Double-D's eyes opened wide. "I should not let this power control me...I WILL CONTROL IT!"

As soon as he made that declaration, the winds died down, the rain, snow, and hail ceased to fall, and the sunlight grew to fully encompass Eddward. The boy found himself lost in the blinding white light, but knew that he was heading home…

"I'll be there soon, pals…I'm coming…"

And just like that, his eyes shot open in the waking world as he let out a loud gasp. The Graysons and Whitelanes were surprised but overjoyed. Eddy and Ed, who had come over to check up on their pal, were in similar emotions.

"DOUBLE-D! YOU'RE ALIVE!"

Ed crashed into his friend and grabbed him with arms made of vines; to be squeezed by them was not unlike being strangled by an anaconda. Double-D tried to speak, but found the breath being forced out of him, Ed's hug overpowering him.

"Stop it, kid!" Nolan snapped as he tore the vines off Double-D. "Are you trying to kill him all over again?!"

"So, how was the power coma?" Eddy asked before wincing. "Sorry about that, just trying to lighten the mood after...everything."

Double-D smiled. "Thank you, Eddy. I'm grateful to know you're all okay."

"You should be more worried about yourself." Hilda's Mom, Helga, said. "That lightning storm could've killed you...and then what the others told us."

"So, who wants some buttered toast and gravy to celebrate this moment?" Ed asked as he began to change one arm into a stream of gravy and his torso into a slice of buttered toast.

"ED, NO!"

Chapter Text

While to the public it was run by the mayor and city council, in reality? Chicago was ruled by the infamous cybernetic, auto-tuned mob boss known as Machine Head. The name was really self-explanatory, and with such high technology replacing his brain, Machine-Head ran an intricate and extremely profitable empire with his fingers in every sort of pie.

Today, he was meeting with someone called 'Predator', a rising star in the 'costumed mercenary for hire' industry.

"There's a chemical plant a few miles away from Peach Creek; the scientists there have been working on something for us for the past few months. It's a serum that will give our men greater powers than before, and we need you to secure it. However, the local law enforcement has somehow discovered the operation and is zeroing in on the base. Your objective: get in, get the serum, and get out. Simple as that. Can you handle that?"

The figure nodded.

"Absolutely. I just hope the pay is good."

"Oh, it'll be good, pal. I'm paying ya enough money to set you for life here!"

"Eh, I'm mostly a high-risk, high-reward guy."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say." Machine Head said, having heard that before. "I'll upload the schematics of the building, the location of the serum, and the address to your comm., so you'll be good to go."

Machine Head took out a chip from his head and handed it to Predator, who inserted it into a device that projected a holographic map. With it, he studied every aspect of the designs, making sure to capture every single detail in his memory. Once that was taken care of, he put the device away and headed out.

"So, how have you been feeling lately?" Hilda asked Double-D.

After the storm incident, Double-D had to stay home from school until he fully recovered. While he was upset at losing valuable study time, he did understand the reasoning. His friends always made sure to check up on him until then. Debbie and Hilda's Mom, Helga, had also come by to bring him some snacks they baked.

"I've been feeling alright, for the most part," Double-D said. "I have been feeling this odd tingling in my body for the past few days, but it isn't anything unpleasant. In fact, it's kind of exciting."

"Well, that's interesting to know," Mark noted. "Ed has been going on about you getting superpowers from the lightning bolt that hit ya."

"We were all there, Mark." Eddy pointed out. "If it were just Monobrow, we'd pass it off as him reading too many comics again. But we all saw Double-D creating golfball-sized hail and Level 3 hurricanes with his hands!"

Double-D frowned, recalling the dream he had and the vow he had made before he woke up from his coma.

"Do you think you can use your powers, Double-D?" Ed asked excitedly. "Maybe this time, you can control them!"

"Yeah!" Hope said. "First Ed, now you! This is gonna be so cool!"

Double-D stared at his hands for the longest time, closing his eyes and trying to find that energy inside himself. Suddenly, he found it and unconsciously thrust his hand out, generating a miniature cyclone from his palm.

Unfortunately, Ed happened to be in the way of the cyclone, and it spun him around, making him holler and laugh before Double-D pulled his hand back, dispelling the cyclone and letting his friend flop hard on his face.

"Oh my goodness! Ed, are you okay?!"

"You're a handshum man, and so's your twin brother!" Ed slurred dizzily.

"Yeah, he's fine..." Eddy said dryly. "But this is awesome! You and Ed can join Mark and Hilda in being superheroes!"

"Hey!" Hope pouted.

"And Hope, too!"

"I don't know, guys..." Mark said. "My first time trying to be a hero...didn't go so well."

"Yeah, Dad and Uncle Nolan are still drilling the basics into our heads." Hilda pointed out.

"Come on, fellas! There's gotta be some crimes we can stop! Nobody even has to know!"

Mark sighed. "Alright, Eddy. We'll wander around the city, and if there's any trouble going on, we can deal with it. But we have to remain inconspicuous!"

"Aye-Aye!" Ed said. "I shall be known as Elemento! And Double-D shall be the Weather Magician! And Hope shall be our sidekick...Hope!"

"And where does that leave Mark and Hilda?" Eddy asked.

"Well, Art made costumes for us already," Mark said. "And I've decided to name myself...INVINCIBLE."

"Cue title card!" Ed declared before noticing everyone staring at him. "Oops, sorry, this is a fanfiction, not a cartoon."

"And I'm going by the name of Virtuna!" Hilda said. "Because my dad's Ultra V, and I figured the V worked for my style."

Mark and Hilda had suited up in their costumes, showing them off to their friends and little sister/cousin.

Mark wore a yellow mask with goggles. The rest of his suit was yellow down the middle, stopping at his waist in an upside-down triangle shape; it also bore blue on the shoulders, blending into the yellow in somewhat of an M shape. The rest of his costume was black, aside from the yellow gloves and blue boots that started from his knees down.

As for Hilda, she wore a comfy-looking pink, white, and black suit that hugged her large, wide, rotund figure. She also had a black vest added with a short white cape that had a black and pink 'V' on it. She had white gloves with pink spots on the knuckles and black boots with pink streaks.

Hope had simply transformed herself into the alien known as Jetray, which made her look like a red, humanoid manta ray-like alien with green eyes, black outlines on her face, yellow horns extending from her nose, gills underneath her arms, yellow patagia, and two black lightning bolt-like stripes coming down from her shoulders to the Omnitrix symbol on her chest.

Ed had turned his legs into jets of flames to fly with Double-D, after much practice, creating a small tornado around his waist to help him fly after his friends.

Eddy had hitched a ride on Mark's shoulders, the latter pacing his flying so his friend wasn't hurt by the speed. The group looked around while admiring the city they called home from the height they were at.

"Man, people look like ants from up here!" Hope said. "Flying is awesome!"

"Yeah! Wish I could be flying with ya, but I ain't got no powers!" Eddy said before frowning self-deprecatingly. "As much as I wish I did..."

"Ah, chin up, Eddy!" Ed said. "You are our eyes in the sky!"

"Yeah, but back then, the three of us were gonna be the guys in the chair for Hope, Mark, and Hilda when they made it big!" Eddy complained. "Now you and Sockhead got cool powers, and I'm... I'm just me."

"We don't ask you to be anything but yourself, Eddy." Hilda smiled warmly. "Even if you drive us nuts with your scams."

"Yeah, so don't beat yourself up!" Jetray said before noticing something. "Hmmm...that's weird."

The others followed her gaze to see a shadowy figure heading into the local chemical plant.

"The Goldenbloom Chemical Factory?" Double-D noted. "What is that suspicious individual doing?"

"Obviously, he is looking to either steal super important documents from the CEO, or there is a new chemical being made that he will use to commit dastardly plans against the planet!" Ed suggested in his dramatic comic book nerd talk.

"This is our chance, gang!" Eddy said, his spirits lifted. "Let's bust that clown!"

The group discreetly flew down, keeping an eye on the figure as it made its way inside the plant. The six slowly flew after the suspicious-acting man, making sure that he didn't do anything 'devious', as Ed put it.

He stopped at the entrance, where he moved toward the security guard's office. The figure then grabbed the guard in a chokehold and knocked him unconscious before moving his body carefully into a supply closet to hide it.

"Well, at least he's considerate enough to spare the lives of the humble security guard..." Double-D quietly noted.

"We can take him, guys!" Ed said in a hushed whisper.

"Already on it, Big Ed!" Jetray said as she flew down.

"Hope! We need a plan of attack!" Hilda called out.

"I have a plan; ATTACK!"

And with that, she flew right in, ready to kick butt and chew bubblegum…even if she didn't have any gum on her.

"Should've never let her watch the MCU…" Hilda sighed, massaging her forehead in exasperation.

"Hey! The first three phases are peak cinema!" Mark snapped.

"As are most of the TV shows!" Ed added. "Plus, the greatest Spider-Man movie of all time!"

"Isn't 'Spider-Verse' Sony?" Hilda asked.

"Was talking about 'No Way Home.'" Ed clarified.

"Ooooooh!"

"LADY AND GENTLEMEN!" Double-D called out. "FOCUS!"

While all that had been going on, the cloaked figure had noticed Jetray coming as soon as she said those words and jumped out of the way in the nick of time. He narrowed his eyes behind the visor he wore that concealed his face before taking out a gun-like device and then attaching something to it, which unfolded into a large barrel with a targeting reticle that he fired, which caused Jetray to be tangled in a net and plummet hard to the ground.

"HOPE!" Mark cried in concern for his sister before rushing in and punching the thief in the stomach just hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

The figure fell over, hunched in pain before looking up and then glaring in annoyance.

"A Viltrumite...but you haven't fully mastered your powers yet..."

"And he's not the only one!"

Hilda flew in with a belly bash to try and knock the figure down, but he backflipped over her and made her crash into Mark, the two young Demi-Viltrumites tumbling over each other as they struggled to get out of the tangled mess they were in.

"PREPARE TO MEET YOUR MAKER, VILE VILLAIN!" Ed declared.

"Not happenin' kid."

Suddenly, the figure vanished and reappeared behind Ed. He pulled a weapon that resembled a cattle prod from his jacket and hit the shapeshifting boy with it, sending waves of pain through his entire body.

Ed cried in pain as his entire body broke down into a gold and purple puddle of goo. The occasional twitch was the only indication he was still alive.

"ED!" Double-D and Eddy cried before they glared angrily at the figure.

"You're gonna pay for that!"

"Eddy, call the police!" Double-D said. "I'll try to stall this slimeball!"

Eddy frowned but nodded as he took out his phone and dialed 911. As for Double-D, he flew up into the air with a tornado around his body before holding his palm out in the thief's direction, and a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the heavens towards the villain.

The thief evaded the blast in the nick of time before grumbling in annoyance.

"This is a problem..."

He then took out another device from his arsenal and pressed it, releasing a devastating soundwave that hit Double-D from up high and made him scream in pain as he clutched his ears, losing control of his powers and plummeting back to the ground.

"DOUBLE-D!" Eddy cried, having finished alerting the authorities and realized he was the only one currently still standing.

"Stay out of the way, kid. I've got a job to do." The thief warned as he put away his weapons.

"No way!" Eddy snapped. "I may not have powers, but I'll stop you if I have to!"

"Eddy, no!" Hilda cried as she and Mark finished recovering.

The thief turned and bolted into the plant, with Eddy in hot pursuit. Mark and Hilda looked at each other before quickly flying after the two. Hope had also cut herself free from the net and transformed into Echo Echo as she flipped up and headed off after her siblings.

Double-D and Ed were also slowly recovering as they got up and hurried after the others.

Eddy chased the thief straight to a giant hall with vats of chemicals placed throughout the room. Finally, as the two raced along a narrow bridge above a vat of teal-colored liquid, the villain tripped and fell on his face.

"Dammit! Why does this always happen in my high-speed pursuits?!"

The thief flipped himself up and started to move again, but his blunder had given Eddy enough time to leap onto him, tackling him to the ground.

"I'm not letting you get away! Not after you hurt my pals!"

"Get outta my way, PIPSQUEAK!"

Eddy paused. There was only one person who called him that, a person he didn't have the fondest memories of...

"BRO?!"

The thief then punched Eddy in the face, which was hard enough to send him flying off the bridge and down into the vat.

"EDDY!" Mark, Hilda, Ed, Double-D, and Echo Echo all cried together.

Eddy flew down into the vat, his body submerging into the strange mix of chemicals. He came up, coughing and gasping for air.

"HELP!"

The thief got up and quickly bolted. Ed quickly moved over the bridge and turned his arm into a thick metal rope that he lashed out to pull Eddy up. Eddy had passed out from the shock of it all, but his friends were all horrified to see what was becoming of his body.

His body looked to be half-sagging and melting, like plastic put through fire. Double-D covered his mouth in grief as Hope looked lost and confused as she turned back to normal.

"W-What do we do? I-Is Eddy gonna die?"

Suddenly, the group all felt a presence behind them and nervously turned to see Omni-Man and Ultra-V floating there, both of their arms crossed.

"You kids have a lot of explaining to do..."

Eddy had been brought to a special hospital backed by the Global Defense Agency. His body had been stabilized, and he was back to normal, but the thief had gotten away, and right now, Nolan and Theo were having a stern talk with the rest of the kids.

At least, that had been the plan.

"Seriously? That's what you start with?" Theo glared at his brother. "'You look ridiculous?'"

"He does look ridiculous." Nolan retorted.

"Well, it's not like they can go to Norm." Theo retorted.

This brotherly tirade gave the kids hope they'd get off easily. They even inched away to relax, before their fathers glared at them.

"You were sloppy. Reckless." Nolan pointed out, his face then softening. "And what's worse!"

He focused on Hope, now back to normal.

"You kept this from me!? Your mother?!"

The youngest girl looked down at her feet. Nolan instantly regretted that tone of voice; his face became somber and worried.

"I…Hope…I'm sorry, sweetheart, I just…with your brother and cousin, it's one thing; their powers are ones I'm used to, and they're at the right age. But you? You're…You're still my baby girl."

"I'm sorry, Dad," Hope said, her father taking her into a hug before he turned his attention to Mark and Hilda, glaring at them in a way that promised a minimum of a year's grounding if they so much as fibbed.

Nolan then glared at Mark in particular.

"How long?"

"Since the camping trip." Mark and Hilda remarked together.

"And you never mentioned this to us…why?" Nolan asked. "By the way, regardless of what happens, your mother learns this tonight."

"Yes, Dad." Marc and Hope said together.

"Well, we wanted to maybe try and figure out the whole thing?" Hilda said weakly.

Neither her father nor her uncle was amused by that logic.

"But!" Theo cut in. "You did the right thing. And we're proud of you...even if a certain grouch can't admit it."

"Theo, there is a right way to go about this." Nolan retorted.

"Oh, like you're not proud of how Mark trounced Mammoth yesterday." Theo teased.

"Wait, you fought Mammoth?!" Hilda gawked. "I wanna fight Mammoth!"

"And you will…in two months," Theo assured his daughter, adding in before she complained. "Oh, you want to make it two?!"

Hilda promptly shut up.

"Sorry, we acted rashly, Dad." Mark, Hope, and Hilda said together.

Omni Man and Ultra-V's faces softened.

"It's not just that you were reckless." Theo started

"But you settled for such a minor act." Nolan finished.

"Still, those kids of yours have guts."

Everyone turned to see a middle-aged man of lean build and shoulder-length silver hair that was balding at the top. His most prominent feature is a long scar stretching over his left jaw.

"Cecil." Nolan greeted in a professional, curt manner.

"This your boss, Dad?" Hilda asked.

Theo shrugged. "More like a colleague."

"Cecil Stedman, director of the Global Defense Agency." The man introduced himself. "I understand you kids have been in a few incidents lately?"

"How do you know that?" Double-D asked.

"We have our sources. The disappearance of the Orb of Ra, which was SUPPOSED to be delivered to Vought Enterprises, the cosmic storm last week, and now this."

"Will Eddy live?" Ed helplessly asked.

"He'll be right as rain with the proper rest," Cecil assured. "However, there's something you should see."

He brought up a holographic projection that showed the statistics of Eddy's body. Double-D, being the science nerd he was, was stunned as he saw how different it all was.

"W-What did those chemicals do to him?"

"Mr. O'Brian's body now exists in a fluid state, neither solid nor liquid. The capabilities this gives him are currently unknown, but-"

Ed gasped. "It is just like Mr. Stupendous of the Stupendous Seven! He can stretch any part of his body to superhuman lengths and sizes, which also lets him shapeshift into anything he wants!"

Ed pulled out a comic that featured the character in question, who was able to stretch, contort, shrink, grow, alter his density and mass, and so much more.

"Weird way to say it, but those abilities are possible," Cecil noted.

"Excuse me." A nurse said. "Eddy O'Brian is well enough to receive visitors now."

Ed, Double-D, Mark, Hope, and Hilda immediately went into the room to see Eddy, who still looked a bit out of it from the looks of things.

"Geez, what was that crazy dream I just had...?"

"EDDY!" Ed happily said as he pounced and hugged his friend. "YOU ARE WELL AND YOU HAVE-"

"GET OFF ME, LUMMOX!"

Eddy shoved Ed off of him, only to get a major shock when his entire arm expanded and stretched, his palm growing large enough to slam Ed into the wall behind him.

"Okay, Eddy, don't freak out...!" Hilda said.

"W-What the heck is going on?!" Eddy cried.

"Just relax, kid," Nolan said in an authoritative voice. "Just concentrate on your body."

Hearing the intimidating and stern voice of Omni-Man made Eddy obey without question as he relaxed his mind, his arm shrinking until the entire limb was back to normal.

"Whoa..." The boy muttered before focusing again. Right before his eyes, his arm changed, growing to the point where it stretched all the way outside the room.

The leader of The Eds marveled at the sight and then imagined his arm returning to a normal length. Sure enough, his arm snapped back like coiled springs, throwing Eddy back into his bed in the process.

"You have superpowers too, Eddy!" Ed happily pointed out.

"Congratulations, kiddo," Theo said playfully.

Eddy was stunned...before he broke into the biggest, goofiest grin imaginable.

"Guys, do you know what this means?!" He asked his friends. "I'M INVINCIBLE!"

"Actually, I'M Invincible, Eddy." Mark chuckled.

"No, I ain't stealing your trademark, buddy. I meant that my body is invincible!" Eddy clarified. "I'm rubber, so most anything will bounce off of me, and not hurt me at all! It's just like Ed's comic books!"

"Nobody is truly invincible." Theo pointed out. "And you still need to rest up and get better. After that...maybe Cecil can pull some strings to get you used to your new abilities."

Cecil sighed. "This is gonna be a long day, for sure..."

"Dammit, Pipsqueak..." Predator grumbled after he had delivered the serum to Machine Head. "You just had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time..."

Taking off his mask, Predator revealed himself as Eddy's older brother, Matthew, who sighed as he took a drag from a cigarette.

"Boss better pay me double time for this..."

Chapter Text

"I just mean, he is a fish person. I think you should maybe be nicer to him. It must be hard for him to make friends."

Red Rush, currently in his civilian identity as Josef, was on a picnic date with his wife, Olga.

"He's got a whole ocean of friends and is friends with Omni-Girl," Josef pointed out. "But you're right, I'll..."

He suddenly trailed off as he spotted blue lights in a nearby building and quickly slowed down time as he ran off while suiting up into his Red Rush costume, zipping over to the building and spotting his arch-nemesis, Kursk.

"Run! I want to see fear in your eyes! The same fear-" The villain began before suddenly being wrapped up in electric-proof cables against a pillar as Josef rushed back to his wife.

"...I do my best to make friends with the guy," He finished his sentence to aelieved and smiling Olga, only for her to frown in disapproval when she saw him in costume.

"Josef, you promised!"

Josef quickly caught on and zipped away, switching out his costume for his civilian clothes as Olga continued to give him a stern glare.

"How is this going to work if I can't hold your interest through one conversation?"

"Hold my interest? Olga, please. You can't see things how I do." Josef said as he looked away somberly. "My perception is just as fast as I am. The briefest conversation with anyone seems like hours to me. It's agony...but with you, it's a gift."

He gently cupped his wife's face with a loving look in his eyes.

"Your voice is like music. You're a thoughtful, compassionate, beautiful woman. I hang on to every word."

"You mean that?" A tearful Olga asked as Josef nodded with a sincere look on his face.

"I do," Josef says while leaning over to share a kiss with his wife, only to receive an alert from his Guardian Watch.

Looking apologetically at his wife, Olga just gave an understanding smile. Josef smiled gratefully before running off...only to come back and give her a quick, loving kiss as he rushed off.

Immortal was currently busy fighting Bi-Plane, the two engaging in aerial combat.

"Denver is toast, Immortal!" The villain declared. "I'm going out, and I'm taking the whole city with me! I've lined my suit with plutonium-!"

However, his monologue was stopped when Immortal flew over to grab him and spin him around rapidly before using his superhuman strength to toss him up into the air and out of Earth's atmosphere.

"When in doubt, throw them into space," Immortal said with a smug grin just as his Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red as he narrowed his eyes and turned around to fly away.

A bored Aquarius was residing inside his Castle in Atlantis, resting on his throne as he sighed heavily, having nothing better to do due to his wife going on a girls' night out and his children were off hanging out with their friends.

Thankfully, he wouldn't have to be bored for long as his Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red.

"Yes! Finally, some action!"

With that, he began swimming upward at high speeds.

War Woman, currently in her civilian identity as Holly, was walking out of a building when her business partner and wife, Connie Prince, followed out after her.

"Holly, wait up!"

"Please, Connie, don't waste any more of my time," Holly begged.

"This is good news, babe. With our third-quarter rollout of Haven Storm 4.0, our market share should rise by a minimum of 10%. We have a spectacular year ahead of us."

"The new rollout of Haven Storm was supposed to be free. I'm not worried about the shareholders' year. I want a spectacular year for the world." Holly said, just as her Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red.

"Don't you do enough for the world?" Connie asked with a frown.

"None of us do," Holly said with a serious glare while reaching up to tap her necklace as a huge flash of mystic blue light rang out. When it settled, she was now clad in her War Woman attire as she flew off.

"You're amazing..." Connie softly said to herself.

"Come on! Come on, you're almost there! You got this!"

In an abandoned building in Bellwood, Martian Man was busy training his stretching power using a chalk outline provided by his best friend, Nikki, a little homeless girl he had taken to seeing as a daughter-figure.

"You did it! You did it!" Nikki cheered while glancing down at Martian Man, who hadn't morphed back as he struggled to remain still in his new location. "Oh, crap, sorry!"

Sheepishly, Nikki drew another white chalk line as she pocketed the chalk. Martian Man sighed in relief and morphed back into his normal form, sweating profusely.

"Are you okay?" Nikki asked worriedly.

"I am fine. We did it." Martian Man assured her. "I'd never expanded myself to that extent. That was...intense."

"Cool, so, uh, want to buy me some burgers, Marvin?" Nikki asked with a sly grin as Martian Man smiled amusedly and nodded, but then his Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red as the homeless girl perked up. "Ooh, that's better! Take me with you like last time! Come on, I can help!"

"No, Nikki." A stern Martian Man says as he shakes his head. "Last time, it wasn't an emergency. This is serious. You know Guardians' business is too dangerous for human children, but don't worry, when I come back, I will make sure to bring some burgers." Martian Man says while going over to go through the window, and began flying up into the air as Nikki pouted.

"Oh, man..."

"So are you sure that this new pill isn't dangerous, boss?" A teenage girl asked while standing behind Green Ghost in his civilian identity as Jacob Lucason, who was experimenting with some kind of chemical to make a dark green pill in an underground laboratory.

Jacob turned to smile at his apprentice, Alana Miller, who was his apprentice and eventual successor for the mantle of Green Ghost.

"Trust me, Alana, once you ingest my new experimental Green Ghost Amulet, you will be able to do much more than what I could," Jacob said with a smug tone while holding up a small dark green stone as he tossed it over to Alana, who caught it and eyed it curiously.

"What could it do?"

"Heh, I think it will be funny if you find it out by yourself, but I will say that you will still have your old powers," Jacob says as he then points over at a duplicating machine. "Just go over and make sure to mass-produce it just in case."

Alana nodded and went over to place the New Green Ghost Amulet into the duplicating machine as she reached over to press a button on it, the machine doing its work.

"Man, I can't wait to show off my new powers to Eve and Kate. They are so going to be jealous." The girl beamed.

Jacob chuckled playfully before his Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red as his apprentice perked up. Alana perked up when she realized what this meant.

"Ooh, can I-"

"No, you can't. This is official Guardian Business." Jacob told her sternly. "Maybe you can join one day after I retire."

Alana pouted and crossed her arms, but nodded in understanding as her mentor reached over to grab a small jade stone and ingest it as he swiftly transformed into Green Ghost with a flash of green light before turning intangible and flying up to phase through the roof of the lair.

Alana just shook her head playfully and went back to stare at her new Green Ghost Amulet curiously.

In Midnight City, a pair of criminals were trying to break into a building, only for one of them to gasp when he noticed a shadow behind him and his partner.

"Uh...Sam?"

"What, Greg?"

"D-Darkwing."

"Don't worry about him. He can't be everywhere." Sam said dismissively.

"Luckily, I don't have to be everywhere. Only where I'm needed."

Sam gasped when he realized Greg had actually seen Darkwing, who was perched on top of a water tower as he placed some anti-gravity discs on the wall. He then tossed some projectiles forward as they flew over to collide against the two crooks' arms, morphing into a pair of anti-gravity cuffs as they yelped in surprise and flew over to attach themselves against the anti-gravity discs Darkwing set up beforehand.

"I know what's in this building, and I know who wants it. Tell me about your boss." Darkwing demanded.

"We look like rats to you?" Greg asked with a glare as Darkwing was about to say something, but stopped as his Guardian Watch began flashing and beeping red.

"I'll check back with you tomorrow," Darkwing says curtly while turning around to run over and leap off the roof of the building to land inside his Wingjet as he then took off into the air at high speeds.

"If that cyborg-headed bastard didn't pay so well…"

"Shut up! He might be tracking and listening in!"

"Come on, that head of his can't do all of that."

"Oh, actually, it can. And so much more."

The two thugs turned to see Predator, now with a sniper rifle swung over his shoulder.

"Now, normally I'm sure Machine Head would want me to punish the backtalker…."

Greg feared for his life and began to whimper.

"But! Considering you guys have put Darkwing in a position where I can try and off him?"

He took out a small device and pressed a button on it.

"There, the message he sent to the cops got scrambled, freeing you two for a bit."

Predator then pressed another button, which freed Sam and Greg. He then pulled out two takeout bags and tossed them to the two.

"Enjoy the grub, but stick around in the area; I'll be back in a couple of hours to put you back in place."

He then vanished without a trace, leaving the two thugs confused for a moment before they settled down to eat.

"I take back everything I ever said about the guy."

"Machine Head or Predator?"

"Yup."

Most of the Guardians of the Globe had already arrived at their headquarters in the Himalayan Mountains. Darkwing soon arrived, being the last one to show up.

"Darkwing, why did you call us here?" Immortal asked sternly.

"Me?" Darkwing asked in confusion. "I didn't call us here."

"So none of us signaled the alert?" War Woman asked with a scowl as Aquarius looked around warily.

"Maybe this is one of Ultra-V's weird birthday bashes?"

"No one is celebrating their birthday today, Aquarius." Martian Man pointed out. "Besides, Nikki told me that she spotted Ultra-V on the news, dealing with a world-ending threat. I highly doubt that he would've been able to call us here."

Green Ghost's eyes suddenly widened in horrified realization.

"IT'S A TRAP!"

Everyone immediately got into their battle poses, and Red Rush looked around before his eyes widened slightly, zooming forward to push off a surprised Immortal just as Omni-Man suddenly flew onto the scene, having aimed to decapitate Immortal while his guard was down.

The rest of the Guardians all looked shocked as Omni-Man stood up and turned to look at them with a cold, unfeeling glare.

"Omni-Man?!" Immortal asked in stunned disbelief, confusion, and anger.

War Woman noticed that Omni-Man tensed his muscles in an attempt to flash step forward and was quick to stop him by running forward with a loud battle cry as she began swinging her mace at him, who stopped mid-sprint to avoid her attacks and tried to throw a devastating punch at her, only for Red Rush to zip by and knock his outstretched fist away with a super-fast palm strike.

Narrowing his eyes angrily, Darkwing reached into his utility belt to pull out a handful of explosive projectiles and tossed it over to collide against Omni-Man's body, disorienting him long enough for a glaring Aquarius to raise his hands and fire dual streams of high-pressurized water that flew over to collide against a surprised Nolan and send him flying over to collide against the wall.

Growling angrily, Omni-Man was slowly able to push back against the stream of water and flew over to try and throw down a punch at Aquarus, who was thankfully saved by a still intangible Green Ghost phasing himself up from the floor and reached over to grab his friend's feet, turning him intangible and allowing Omni-Man to phase through his body as he landed down on the ground with a small grunt.

The Guardians continued to attack Nolan from all sides as he tried to strike them down, only for Red Rush and Green Ghost to save them and each other in the nick of time. However, Red Rush eventually made the mistake of taking Omni-Man head-on, blitzing him from all over the place with a flurry of blows.

Annoyed, Nolan used his superhuman reflexes to catch Josef's outstretched fist before grabbing his head and beginning to squeeze.

Realizing what Omni-Man was trying to do, Red Rush began furiously punching his chest at lightning-fast speeds, continuing to do so even when his hands became broken from striking against the Viltrumite's ironclad body. Red Rush screamed as Nolan eventually crushed his head into a gory pulp, forced to experience the agonizing and painful death for hours due to his enhanced perception.

"NO!" Immortal and War Woman screamed.

"JOSEF!" Aquarius cried.

Omni-Man coldly tossed Red Rush's now headless corpse to the side as Martian Man furiously charged him.

"YOU MONSTER!"

Using his elastic body, Martian Man wraps around himself around Omni-Man to restrain him as a pissed-off Immortal flew over to deliver a strong punch across his face that broke his nose.

"WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS?!"

Omni-Man didn't have time to answer when War Woman rushed over to bash her weapon against his head harshly, breaking apart a few of his teeth and nearly breaking his neck as she then zoomed over to attack him again, only for a glaring Nolan to be able to break out of Martian Man's hold and zoomed over to grab Holly by the back of her head and slam her down into the ground, hard enough that it cracked violently.

He then raised her head and was about to try and decapitate her with a swift chop, only for several explosive projectiles to appear onto the scene as Omni-Man instinctively sped away to avoid them.

Looking around stoically, Omni-Man then heard some wind rustling behind him and whirled around to see Darkwing leaping over him to attack his foe head-on. Silently scoffing at the idiotic move, Nolan simply flew up to grab Darkwing by his leg and proceeded to fly down to slam him into the ground, hard enough that half of his body was blown off by the force of the attack.

Nolan then proceeded to throw the mangled remains of Darkwing at an intangible Green Ghost, who reached up to grab the corpse of his comrade by turning himself tangible, only for his eyes to widen in shock and horror at the grave mistake that he made.

"I'm sorry, Alana..." Green Ghost thought with tearful eyes, realizing there was no escaping what came next.

Omni-Man zoomed over to punch Green Ghost through his face before he could turn intangible, instantly killing him.

"MY FRIENDS!" Aquarius furiously screamed as he once more fired huge streams of highly pressurized water that flew over to Omni-Man, who held up Green Ghost's body to use it as a shield to protect himself from the attack.

Nolan noticed that the attack was more powerful than before, and it would've vaporized his arms if he hadn't been quick to think on the fly and protect himself.

"Are you alright?!" Aquarius asked Martian Man.

"I'll live."

"Someone must be controlling him. He would never do this." Immortal said as he helped War Woman up.

"Regardless, it's him or us." War Woman said with a stone-cold look on her face.

Immortal frowned solemnly but knew there was no other choice as he nodded his head.

"I choose us."

Aquarius and Martian Man nodded in agreement grimly as the former stopped this attack, causing Omni-Man to lower Green Ghost's body as an enraged War Woman leaped over with a battle cry to slam her mace down on him, cracking his head open and leaving him stunned enough for Holly to swung her mace over to collide against his body and even slammed her weapon down on his arm, breaking it.

Nolan roared in pain and proceeded to kick War Woman away as he swiftly used his remaining arm to reach up and grab her weapon before using it to slam into a shocked Aquarius' head, crushing his skull and leaving his corpse to flop at Martian Man's feet.

Martian Man stared helplessly at Aquarius's remains before glaring furiously at Omni-Man and letting out a Martian war cry.

"You killed...ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS!"

Flying over, he wrapped his body completely around Nolan, restraining his arms and legs, but left his head free. This gave Immortal and War Woman the opening to rush in and beat Omni-Man rapidly, leaving his face black and blue, breaking more of his teeth, cracking his skull even more, and heavily damaging one of his eyes.

Despite the heavy injuries he was sustaining, Omni-Man looked around for Martian Man's heart, only to realize that it was on his back as he thought quickly and flew backwards as the duo realized what he was planning as well as Martian Man, who closed his eyes in mournful acceptance.

"I'm sorry, Nikki..."

Omni-Man slammed his back against the wall, rupturing Martian Man's heart and killing him as his dead body returned to normal and went slack. Immortal furiously moved to continue attacking, only for Omni-Man to zoom forward to deliver a powerful punch across his stomach, blowing out his organs from his body, and causing him to crash down into the ground.

War Woman tried to jump over to throw a punch at him, only for Omni-Man to reach over to grab her head and use his superhuman strength to twist her head around rapidly, breaking her neck as a shockwave rang out and War Woman's dead body crashed down into the ground.

Heavily injured and near-death, Nolan walked over to Immortal, lying down on his knees while holding the open wound of his stomach while staring up at him with an angry and betrayed glare.

"Why...? WHY?!"

Omni-Man said nothing and raised his hand to proceed to chop across his neck, decapitating his head and sending it flying off of his headless body with a stream of blood flying out of it as it crashed down into the ground.

Nolan panted heavily, his accumulated injuries all catching up to him as his one good eye widened weakly, not because of the injuries and pain.

Nolan remembered his years on the team: Martian Man had been the first to welcome him, and Darkwing earned his respect for doing all he did with little more than grit and gadgets; he'd have made a wonderful liaison if he weren't so stubborn.

He'd planned on introducing Hope to Nikki; from what Martian Man told him, they'd be the best of friends

Nolan then remembered how he and Theo sparred with Immortal and War Woman, each grateful for having someone on their level. Josef gave Nolan relationship advice when he started courting Debbie…And all the weddings had been some of the happiest and grandest times of his years on earth.

There was how everyone had cooed when he and Theo had been forced to take baby Mark and Hilda with them to a meeting…

The memories finally faded, replaced with shame and regret; they had been his friends; they had families, loved ones. They'd saved him and Theo more than once. They were proof that this world was capable of being so much more…

But they never would've agreed. Not one of them. And if the Viltrum Empire was going to seamlessly add Earth, it needed to be ready; only Nolan, Theo, Mark, and Hilda…

Hope.

Had he forgotten her, too? Or was that the blood loss and dopamine finally kicking in?

"If there really is a God... Please... Don't let Hope learn about this..."

With that, Nolan collapsed completely unconscious in a pool of his own blood as the hatch was opened and Theo flew in while carrying around the decapitated head of the villain that he was fighting with earlier, hoping to find out what the emergency was.

He froze in horror when he saw the massacre that had happened, the sight of his comrades' mutilated corpses sprawled across the floor, before he turned to see his unconscious and barely breathing brother lying nearby. It was in that moment that Theo realized what had happened.

"Nolan, what have you done...?"

Falling to his knees in anguish, Theo hung his head in solemn defeat...before letting out a furious scream as he punched the ground hard enough to crack it right as a horrified Cecil and several GDA agents rushed in.

Chapter Text

A solemn Ultra-V floating around while allowing the GDA Agents to inspect the Guardians of the Globe's dead bodies and doing their usual medical work on them.

Theo spotted three GDA Agents carrying away a heavily injured and unconscious Omni-Man. Seeing his brother, Theo glared at him venomously and almost considered doing something, but delayed acting as Cecil came over along with his assistant, Donald Ferguson.

"Do you have any idea who did this?" Donald asked worriedly.

"I just got here." Theo lied reluctantly as Cecil took a deep breath and walked over to aggressively kick over a random crate.

"GODDAMMIT!"

Despite it all, Theo joined Donald in wincing; Cecil rarely raised his voice, and whenever he did? Someone was going to suffer.

At the Grayson House, Hope was humming happily, eating breakfast with her big brother as their mother stood near them, washing the dishes with a somber frown on her face.

"What's wrong, Mama?" Hope asked as Debbie turned to give her a reassuring, weak smile.

"Nothing, sweetie. Just missing your dad. He didn't come home last night."

"Mom, stop worrying. He probably got buried under a mountain again or something." Mark said.

Now, in any other circumstances, such a reply would've been in bad taste or seen as cruel. But then again, most cases aren't in connection to the strongest Superhero on the planet, so a little laugh was shared among the trio.

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time," Debbie said in amusement.

"Yeah, remember when he took me to Alaska, so that I could see snow for the first time in my life, and accidentally yelled so loud that he caused an avalanche to fall on top of him? He looked so funny as a snowman." Hope said with a giggle, getting Mark and Debbie to laugh. "Anyway, Mommy, since Daddy hasn't shown up yet, does that mean that Nazz will be able to take care of me tonight?"

Nazz Van Bartonschmeer was the unattainable pretty girl of Peach Creek. The Eds all had crushes on her, as well as most of the other boys in town, sans Mark. She was also a great babysitter and had sat for Hope many times before.

"Sure, sweetie, I will call her right now," Debbie said as she was about to go over and grab her phone, only to be stopped by someone knocking on the door.

Curious, Debbie left the kitchen and opened the front door to see two men in suits standing in front of her.

The news they brought her and the kids was not pleasant.

"Nolan's receiving the absolute pinnacle of care," Donald said with a firm and reassuring tone, leading the deeply worried Grayson family through the GDA Headquarters. "As the Global Defense Agency, we have access to medical technology far beyond any normal hospital."

Mark and Hope glanced around as they spotted the hangar and a bunch of GDA Ships parked around. Despite the situation, Hope couldn't help but look excited.

"Ah, that's one of our threat-response teams," Donald said when he noticed the little girl's excitement. "They're able to get anywhere-"

"We're not in the mood for the tour, Donald." A glaring and frazzled Debbie said as Donald coughed awkwardly.

"Sorry, Debbie."

"Daddy and Uncle Theo told us about you guys. You guys work with superheroes, right?" Hope asked curiously as Donald nodded while turning to smile down at the little girl.

"That's the idea, sweetheart. We work with superheroes like your Dad and Uncle to keep the world safe."

They soon arrived in the room where Nolan was being treated and gasped when they saw the state he was in.

"Oh, my god, Nolan!" Debbie gasped.

"Dad!" Mark exclaimed worriedly.

"Daddy!" Hope cried, already starting to cry. "H-He's gonna be okay, right?

"We hope so." Donald sighed. "Our doctors are doing their best, but we don't get a lot of Viltrumites in here."

"Who did this?" Mark demanded, barely keeping his anger in check.

"We have no idea. Not yet, anyway,"

The Graysons turned to see Cecil there, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. He then calmly approached the family.

"But we'll find out soon. Theo is currently talking with our best men about what happened and telling them what he knows so far, so when we find out what happened, they're gonna look a hell of a lot worse than your dad over there."

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Cecil!" Hope smiled.

"Good to see you too, kiddo," Cecil said with a small smile before turning over to Debbie with a solemn look. "Deborah, I'm so sorry."

"Cecil, you've got a lot of nerve-" Debbie began angrily, only for Cecil to firmly cut her off.

"Someone murdered the Guardians of the Globe last night."

The room went silent. A pin dropping would've been deafening.

"W-What?"

"They were murdered in their base last night."

Hope fell to her knees

The Guardians? Dead?

No. No, no, no; that wasn't right! They were the freaking Guardians of the flipping Globe! Her father's equals and friends! They'd just saved Washington together a few weeks ago!

She burst into tears that had been welling up at the sight of Nolan in his bedridden state, feeling her brother take her into an embrace and try to comfort her.

"A-All of them?" Debbie asked, praying that maybe Red Rush was in a coma; she and Illyana were something akin to friends, after all.

"All of them. Torn limb from limb. We tried like hell to bring 'em back, but Nolan was the only survivor." Cecil explained. "Judging by what Theo said, he arrived shortly after the Guardians were killed, and Nolan went unconscious."

"How is that even possible?" Mark asked, stunned as he did his best to comfort his little sister.

"We don't know yet. We also don't know why your dad and uncle were at Guardians' HQ, but thanks to what Theo told us, we do know someone sent a distress signal to them and they thought that the Guardians needed their help back at base, so now we have a working theory that whoever killed the Guardians lured them there, tried to wipe 'em all out at once."

"Why?" Mark asked.

"Why? Well, that's the easy part. There isn't a supervillain alive who doesn't want Omni-Man, Ultra-V, and the Guardians six feet under," Cecil said as he then turned to Debbie. "Now, we're keeping this all hush-hush for now, but news will break. I wanted you, Mark, and Hope to know first."

Debbie teared up and took a deep, shaky breath as she wiped away her tears and gave him a serious glare.

"Cold towels, and ice water, and have a cot brought in here for me."

"Deborah, we've got the best-trained…."

"I've patched Nolan up for years, Cecil. I am NOT leaving." Debbie said with a furious growl, leaving no room for debate.

Cecil, to his credit, was not intimidated, but he did respect the sheer grit Debbie showed and turned to Donald, who nodded as he led her out of the room.

"Mark, Hope? I think it's best you let your cousin and aunt know about this." Cecil told the two Grayson kids, who solemnly nodded.

The Eds were in school, making sure to keep their newly-gained superpowers under wraps by orders of the GDA. They had been granted permission to train with their powers when they had free time, but it was still important to get an education.

"Hey, guys!" Nazz called as she came over. "Have you heard from Mark and Hilda lately?"

"Afraid not, Nazz," Double-D said. "Mark gave us a call saying that his father had been hospitalized, so he took the day off to take care of Hope."

"Oh, that sucks!" Nazz said. "I hope Hope is okay..."

"What?!" Kevin West, the Eds' arch-nemesis, spoke up, having been eavesdropping. "You…you dorks are kidding, right? Who the hell could put freaking Omni-Man in the hospital?!"

"Like we know any more than you do, Shovel Chin." Eddy snarked.

"Is it okay if I come with you guys to see Hope? Poor girl probably needs a friend." Nazz said worriedly.

"Of course, Nazz. After all, you are her favorite babysitter!" Double-D said.

"It's a good thing Mr. Steadman had the GDA set up this plot of land for us to train our powers," Double-D noted as he, Ed, and Eddy were in a privately closed-off junkyard that was secretly one of the GDA's many testing sites.

"Come on, Double-D! We need to work hard and play hard if we want to be SUPER EDS!" Ed said excitedly.

"All right, fellas; let's GO!" Eddy hollered as he stretched his arm back and shot it forward at high speed, blowing a pile of garbage apart in the process.

Double-D turned to ask Ed a question, but saw that he was currently smashing through the junkyard with arms made of steel.

"Oh well..." The Brains of the Eds sighed as he focused his power on making a tornado around his body.

However, THIS time, Double-D wanted to test something out: he shrank the cyclone around him, making it no wider than his feet; after this, he changed the location of the winds, so that they remained underneath his body. From a distance, Double-D looked like he was standing in the air, with nothing supporting him.

He tried walking, and found it just as easy to do in the air as it was on the ground; taking it even further, Double-D changed the shape of the wind so that he was riding it like a surfboard.

"Steady…steady…" The sock-hatted boy told himself as he kept himself from falling by creating an air pocket around his body.

As he flew through the air, Double-D began to smile and laugh, performing all sorts of tricks and stunts on his board made of wind.

Down on the ground, Ed was having a blast as he shifted his body into anything he could think of, from a comet to an icicle and vines to wind. The lovable oaf was laughing his head off as he smashed through an old car with arms made of solid gold, and soon he was imagining everything was like one of his superhero flicks.

Eddy was focusing his attention on another mound of garbage and smirked as he looked at his hands before concentrating until they molded into hammers. He then whipped his arms back in an arc and began to spin, creating a dangerous whirlwind of violence as he knocked away everything within 20 feet of his body with his hammer hands.

"BRAVO! BRAVO, BRAVISSIMO!" Ed cheered as he witnessed the spectacle.

"Thank you, you're too kind!" Eddy smirked as he bowed before looking around. "Where's Double-D?"

His question was answered by a large clap of thunder, as a bolt of lightning came down from the sky at a certain spot in the landfill.

"I'm guessin' he's over that-a-way," Ed said as he changed his legs into jets of fire. "COME ON, EDDY!"

"Hold yer horses, Ed!"

Eddy morphed his legs together into a spring, bouncing a couple of times to test the strength before shooting himself into the air as he leapt into the sky after Ed.

The two of them made their way to the spot where the lightning had appeared and found a slightly charred Double-D, still hovering in the air, as he held a ball of lightning in the palm of his right hand.

"Ed, Eddy! Look at what I can DO!"

The smart boy held his hand up and released the stored lightning. The bolt burst from his palm and obliterated a large hill of garbage. The two other Eds could only gape in awe as they stared at the area where the garbage once was; now, there was absolutely nothing, not a thing left.

"Wwwwwwoooooooooowwwww." Eddy said as he gazed at the destruction his friend had caused.

"And that's not all!" Double-D continued as he waved his arms. "I can do so much more; look!"

He pointed a finger at another pile of trash, and a stream of water fell from the sky with enough intensity to blow it apart.

"Aquarius is gonna be jealous!" Ed said.

"And just wait until you get a load of THIS!"

Double-D held his hands close together, as though he was holding a baseball, and the blue fire began to sparkle as it glistened off the snowball that formed in his hand. Giggling mischievously, the boy threw the snowball at Eddy, knocking him off the mountain of garbage he was sitting on.

"WOW, Double-D! That was so cool!"

Double-D looked down at his hands and nodded with a modest smile.

"Yes, they are pretty cool, aren't they?"

Eventually, the trio decided to take a break and headed over for a burger. That's where they saw Mark for the first time all day; he'd been there for a while, judging by the pile of burgers he was scarfing down.

"You okay, Mark?" Eddy asked, getting Mark out of his thoughts.

Ed had already helped himself to some of the burgers, much to Double-D's chagrin, the sight of which made Mark smile for the first time since breakfast.

"We heard your father's in the hospital." Double-D tried to gently urge the subject.

"Yeah," Mark said quickly, his voice quiet.

"So you played hooky for that?" Eddy guessed teasingly, then tensed at Mark's angered look before he calmed himself down. "Sorry, man, that was low."

Ed finally stopped eating and spied Mark's forlorn face.

"Something happened." He said, not asked.

Mark nodded, took a deep breath, and answered:

"The Guardians are dead. All of them."

The room went silent.

With Nazz, she was with Hope and Hilda at the Grayson house and had been told the exact same thing.

"That's...that's messed up." The blonde gasped. "Oh my god..."

"Yeah, whoever it was was strong enough to obliterate all of them," Hilda said as she and Nazz comforted the still heartbroken Hope. "Uncle Nolan just barely survived, and Dad was too late since he was dealing with some psychotic villain with nuclear powers who was threatening to blow up the city."

Nazz was heartbroken. She had always idolized War Woman the most, being a strong, confident, and fierce warrior with a heart of gold who always protected the innocent while striving to make the world a better place.

"I got to know them...I helped them save Washington..." Hope whimpered. "They were alive and now they're..."

Hilda and Nazz frowned. Even though Hope had gotten an amazing watch that could let her turn into various alien superheroes, she was still a ten-year-old girl.

Yes, Nazz knew the secret of the Omnitrix, and that was because she was basically Hilda's best friend: The two first met when Hilda had offered to watch Hope one night, and Debbie forgot to let Nazz know. With little more to do in the times that Hope was awake, they'd gotten to talking and got to know each other:

Nazz was more than a pretty face, much as she prided herself on her looks; she wanted to be a mom someday and maybe a teacher. She found her effect on lovesick boys humorous…and had been interested in Mark, who seemed to be the only one not enthralled with her beyond friendship. Plus, she respected the heck out of Hilda for her skills in a brawl and for being just as kind as her father.

Hilda had initially not thought much of Nazz, but seeing how kind she was and sharing the same level of confidence on top of being a bit of both a tomboy and girly girl? They started hanging around more, chatting on the phone and being each other's backup on dates they were pretty sure, and usually did, would not end well.

The two of them had even been Chubby Buddies when circumstances led to Nazz putting on some weight.

It was summer and everyone had gathered at the lake to cool off, minus the Eds, who were plotting up yet another scam. Somehow or another, they'd decided to make a contest out of who could land the most impressive dive from the nearby swing.

"This one's called the Guitar Solo!"

The kids made noises of approval until Kevin completed the dive, creating a big wave as he rose up and flipped his hair.

"My turn!"

Nazz swam for shore, leaving a large wake behind her due to her large body. As she came out, the water level dropped so much that it was now below the kids' waists.

"I just remembered something! BRB!" Mark said, suddenly hurriedly leaving to join Hilda, working on her tan.

"Good call, cous," Hilda smirked. "SHOW EM HOW IT'S DONE, BESTIE!"

"You got it!" Nazz smiled. "This one's called the Cookie-Dough Chimichanga Dip!"

She jumped in, the rest of the kids wading out of the way as she landed squarely on Kevin, blowing all the water out of the pond.

"Dude! Like, that was so much fun!"

"Righteous." Kevin weakly said.

That ended up causing the whole gang to burst out laughing.

Nazz was pretty sure Kevin would've died happy if she'd landed on him, which always got a laugh out of her and Hilda.

Suddenly, the blonde teen groaned as she put a hand to her forehead, feeling a sudden spell of dizziness overtake her.

"Nazz?" Hope asked in worry.

"You okay, girlfriend?" Hilda asked.

"Yeah, just a headache that's been coming and going these past couple of days." The blonde said, shooting her best friend and favorite kid to babysit a smile. "Sorry, you mind if I take a nap for a little while?"

Hilda smiled. "Of course. I'll order pizza, and then we can watch some Disney movies."

That cheered up Hope somewhat while Nazz smiled gratefully and leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes and eventually drifting off to sleep...

She saw a powerfully built blonde woman in a white outfit, sort of like a regal gi, flying through the stars when she came across a planet that was a technological paradise; something straight out of Dune or Avatar with dragon steeds. The woman did a superhero landing and tried to get attention, being met by a man who carried himself like a soldier. They threw punches and kicks for a bit….

Before they stole a kiss from each other and their faces became loving, as the scene shifted to what looked like a castle with a lake view, the two in a loving embrace as the woman patted her belly.

Then the scene changed to the woman in front of a council of similarly robed and powerfully built people, who gave a thumbs down before her lover fired a blaster and snatched her away.

Then a final scene; Nazz saw the two play out a scene straight out of Superman comics and movies; placing a baby in a pod and pressing buttons on a screen that eventually displayed Earth, then the pod shooting away just as more white clad humanoids ripped where they were hiding apart.

"Nazz-ira El-roj...our beautiful angel...become a guardian of this planet...do not let it fall into the hands of the Viltrumites' barbaric ways."

Nazz gasped as her eyes shot open and she sprang up straight from her spot on the couch. Hilda and Hope came over, slightly worried.

"Bad dream?"

"Yeah..." Nazz said, rubbing her scalp. "Crazy...I-I dreamed about me as a baby...there were these people who I think were my parents, and they knew Mr. Grayson and Mr. Whitelane's people...but I've lived here my whole life, haven't I?"

"Weird..." Hilda muttered.

"Well, the pizza's here!" Hope said happily. "Let's watch Beauty & The Beast first!"

Nazz smiled, but had a feeling in her gut that she needed to talk with her parents about this.

Later that night, after Hilda assured Nazz she could look after Hope since Mark would be home soon, the blonde had headed back to her house and hoped her parents were there. Thankfully, they were.

"Mom, Dad, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, sweetie. What is it?" Her mom asked.

"Well, I've been getting these headaches lately and..." Nazz winced. "I had this weird dream of me as a baby with these people who claimed to be my parents on this planet where everyone was killing each other."

The Van Bartonschmeers both were shocked before looking at each other solemnly, as if they realized that it was time to tell Nazz something they really hoped they wouldn't have to.

"Nazz, honey, come with us."

Curious, Nazz followed her parents to the backyard shed. Her father took out a key that was hidden away before pulling off a sheet that had blended with the floor, revealing a hidden door that he carefully unlocked, revealing some kind of space pod that looked like it could fit an infant.

"W-What is that?"

"This...is where we found you." Her mother softly said. "It crashed in the river years ago, with you inside."

"There was a message that played." Her father continued solemnly. "Told us your name, though we only really kept Nazz…explained that your parents were gone…and begged us to raise you. Since no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't have kids? We took it as a sign, and I called in a favor to your friend Eddy's grandfather."

"You mean... I-I'm not your daughter?" Nazz asked helplessly.

"No, don't you dare say that!" Her father said as he and her mother hugged her. "You ARE our daughter, don't ever think otherwise..."

"But Mr. Grayson, Mr. Whitelane...they seemed to know where you came from." Her mother said. "We asked them to keep it a secret, and they agreed. If you want to know more about where you came from...I think it's best you talk with them."

Nazz said nothing, but she returned the hug her parents gave her, glad to know that they were still her family, in spite of what she had just learned.

"Dammit, Nolan...! Why are you even still following them?!" Ultra-V cursed as he downed half a bottle of bourbon. "These people...they've given us love, kindness, acceptance...why would you want to still subjugate them?!"

He'd been at home for a few hours, having broken the bad news to his wife and daughter over the phone…or at least, what the public would know come the next morning. Hilda had stayed home at her mother's insistence until it was time to watch Hope. Then she'd taken Theo to his favorite café in an attempt to cheer him up

Theo loved her for it. The food and drink helped, as did the love they made when they returned and saw Hilda had left.

But now that his wife was asleep, and as much as he wanted to drink in her beautiful smile and naked form? Theo knew he had to do something: The Guardians being dead told him his worst fear had come to pass:

Despite it all? Nolan was still loyal to the empire and was planning to subjugate Earth.

A knock on the door was heard as Theo quickly calmed himself down before heading over to answer it, surprised to see his daughter's best friend, Nazz, there.

"Um, Mr. Whitelane... I need to talk about something important with you."

Chapter Text

High in the skies above Chicago, Nazz bobbed and weaved between Mark and Hilda's blows, managing to land punches and kicks every now and then. However, it was clear she needed more training.

"I feel kind of bad about this," Mark admitted.

"Me too." Nazz sighed; she'd never had a problem with Mark or Hilda…but for some reason, the latter was particularly eager to spar.

"Keep up, Nazzie!" Hilda said as she swung her fists, linked together, down and sent Nazz falling back to the ground before she managed to correct herself and race back upwards, only to gasp for air before she raced forward.

"Enough."

The three teens turned to see Theo and Hope, now in the form of Stinkfly, an insect-like alien, fly toward them.

Hilda and Mark flew back a bit, concerned for what he thought.

"Sweetie, you got battle hungry again," Theo noted. "Nothing wrong with Nazz and Mark, but remember, not everyone can endure."

"Sorry, Dad." Hilda grimaced, but her dad just patted her on the head.

"Mark." Theo turned to his nephew. "You did decent all around, considering this was a sparring match. But remember, spars only end when one yields or gets knocked out. Don't slack off and chat too much."

"Sorry, Uncle Theo."

The hero then turned to Nazz, his apprentice of three weeks now.

"While I applaud you wanting to continue in spite of your exhaustion, Nazz, if you don't know your limits, you'll be a hindrance," Theo said as he let Nazz catch her breath, only to smile. "Still, the fact you're willing to 'go beyond' proves you're taking this seriously."

"Dad, were you re-reading 'My Hero Academia' again?" Hilda asked with a teasing tone.

"Believe it or not, I used to be like Izuku." Theo retorted, delighted at the shocked looks on the kids' faces. "It's true!"

As her uncle started going down memory lane, Hope handed Nazz a Slurpee.

"It might be kind of icy, sorry." The transformed girl admitted. "Forgot how the atmosphere affects drinks."

"Hey, if it's cold and goes down my throat? I'm happy." Nazz assured the little girl.

Upon learning she knew her heritage, Theo confirmed Nazz's story and what he knew about her parents. Nazz was worried about the Viltirimites, but respected Theo's wishes NOT to tell that aspect of her story to her friends just yet; Theo wanted to believe he had time to get Nolan to his side…

He, of course, allowed her to tell his daughter, nephew, and niece about what had brought this change. After some shock, the three were elated to have another friend join the hero ranks, especially one who could take hits from them.

"We Viltrumites are naturally stronger and can hold our breath in space for months at a time; Kryptonians were geniuses among geniuses. But, under the light of a yellow sun? They gained powers very similar to ours…among others."

Theo said nothing else on the matter, but the smirk on his face made it clear he knew what to expect.

Meanwhile, Kevin was riding his bike home from school, his heart heavy with concern for his best friend, Nazz. She had left school early, along with the Eds, which confused the heck out of the jock because normally the Eds were the losers nobody but Mark and Hilda bothered hanging out with.

"There's something weird going on, and I'm gonna find out what's up!"

In gym class, he sought out Nazz's help in this matter; she was closest to the Eds, maybe she could help. When he told her his theory about the three dorks having superpowers, she had laughed it off, although she seemed a little…fake about it, like she was trying to hide something.

"What secret are Nazz and those dorks hiding?" Kevin asked himself before shaking his head furiously. "Nazz wouldn't hide something from me; we're friends!"

Kevin peddled his bike home, going much faster than usual. Along the way, he passed by the junkyard, which looked like a bomb had gone off in the center of it.

"What the heck happened there?"

"KEVIN!"

Kevin winced as his mother came running up to him. Linda West was a lot like her son: hot-headed, impulsive, and strong; the only thing that separated the two of them was the fact that Linda was more compassionate. The older woman was in charge of the junkyard, which was usually a boring job, although today was an exception.

"Mom? Don't you work in town? Why are you at the junkyard?"

"Just working on clean up, son. You know how people tend to cause a ruckus."

Kevin sighed. His mother was taking this very well, considering she took care of the junkyard as if her life depended on it. Why was she being so calm about this?

"Mom, how can you be so calm about this?"

His mother just chuckled a little before she brushed a lock of red hair from her eyes.

"Kevin, let me tell you a little secret: just as the good Lord giveth, the good Lord taketh away." When she looked at her son, she saw that the boy was confused by the passage. "It means that you should be happy with what you have in life and never be too proud of what you are given, for it can only be swept away in an instant."

"Whatever," Kevin mumbled under his breath and turned his head down.

Noticing her son's attitude, Linda ruffled his hat.

"Head on home. I'll be there in an hour or so; I left a little treat for you on the counter, okay?"

She bent down and kissed her son on the cheek before he sped off, complaining about how it wasn't cool to kiss him in front of the junkyard guys.

She just took it in stride; her son was determined to be mature and cool. Maybe that was her fault for working such odd hours...and not telling him what she did:

You see, Kevin's mom was actually a secret agent of the GDA. A very dangerous job that had made her see death more times than she could count, even with the aid of superheroes. But she didn't want Kevin to worry about her; she was the parent after all.

Kevin peddled as fast as he could, wanting to avoid any further embarrassment at the hands of his mother. Once he reached his house, he punched in the code for the garage, opening the door. The boy put his bicycle where it belonged on the bike rack and walked into the house, shutting the door behind him.

On the kitchen table was a plate of fresh-baked cookies, with a note from his mother that read: "Hope you had a great day, Kevin! These are for you and Dad. ENJOY!" Kevin grumbled when he finished the note; his mother, for all her toughness, was too freaking jolly when it came to her own family. Grabbing a couple of cookies for himself, the boy made his way up to his room and threw off his shirt and baseball cap before plopping down in front of his computer.

After a few minutes of surfing the Internet, Kevin decided to call up Nazz and see how she was doing. Reaching into his pocket for his cell phone, Kevin pulled it out and looked up Nazz's house phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Bartonschmeer, it's Kevin! Can I speak to Nazz?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear; Nazz isn't here! She went down to the swimming hole with Ed, Eddward, and Eddy. Kevin?"

Kevin wasn't listening anymore, as the phone had fallen from his hands. Nazz was OUT? With the EDS!?

"No. No, no, no, this can't be happening!"

Fuming, Kevin put his hat and a tank top on before he stomped down the stairs and out the door.

"I'm gonna MURDER those dorks!"

"Check it out, you guys! I'm FLYING!" Nazz shouted at the top of her lungs, flying through the air with such grace and dexterity as a bird.

Down on the ground, Ed and Eddy clapped uproariously, while Double-D hovered in the air, lacking any words, for once.

"Nazz, that was so COOL!" Ed told the blonde girl. "You're like Supergirl!"

"For once, Lumpy's right; that was freakin' AWESOME!" Eddy called out.

"Aww, thanks, guys!" Nazz blushed, waving them off before turning to Double-D. "What'd you think, Double-D?"

Double-D was speechless, his brain fried from the sight he was just a spectator to. Slowly, he came out of his trance.

"B-B-Beautiful…"

"What was that, Double D?" Nazz asked, flying up close to him. "I couldn't hear you."

"Oh!" Double-D gasped as he was shaken from his daydream. "Th-That was absolutely wonderful, Nazz! You've got everything down pat: your control, flawless; your grace and maneuverability, perfect; you've even managed to perform tricks in mid-air! It's unbelievable that in only a short amount of time, you could-"

"Ease up, Sockhead. She only wanted your opinion, not the Magna Carta!" Eddy interrupted.

Double-D blushed when he realized what he had done, and he tucked his head under his hat in slight shame.

"That's not nice, Eddy!" Nazz scolded him as she flew over to her instructor's side. "Besides, I want to hear everything that Double-D has to tell me!"

"Hey, Nazz!" Hilda said as she, Mark, and Hope came by. "Looks like you've been learning fast from Dad!"

"Oh! Oh! BOING! I've got an idea!" Ed cheered.

"Yes, Ed?"

"If Nazz is like Supergirl, maybe she has other powers!"

"What'chu talkin' 'bout, Ed?" Eddy asked.

"Yeah, Ed," Nazz looked to the boy for an answer, "What ARE you talking about?"

"Well, Supergirl can fly and has super strength, but she's also invincible; she can even shoot lasers from her eyes, and ice breath from her lungs!" Ed shouted excitedly. "Maybe Nazz can do all this stuff too!"

"I doubt Viltrumites have heat vision, Ed." Mark pointed out.

"Mark's right, Ed; I don't have laser vi- BZZZZZZZZT!"

Nazz's statement was interrupted by a blast of intense heat that shot from her eyes, taking out a tree behind Ed and Eddy. Luckily, the boys had ducked out of the way before they could come to harm; the tree, on the other hand, was not so fortunate.

Hesitantly, the two raised their heads and turned to see the damage done to the tree. It wasn't burnt to a crisp, nor was it disintegrated; it was actually aflame, with smoke billowing from it.

"Oh dear!" Double-D flew over to the tree and summoned a stream of rain to douse out the tree and a strong wind to dissipate the smoke.

"Holu moly, Dad wasn't kidding… Maybe we should try this at a different location…" Hilda suggested awkwardly.

"Let's go back to my basement; it should be safe there," Double-D suggested.

"Good idea, Sockhead." Eddy lazily smiled and put his hands behind his head. "We'll just destroy your basement instead!"

"BASEMENT PARTY!" Ed cheered.

"Don't touch anything, Ed!" Double-D hollered to Ed, though his warning went unheard by Ed and Eddy, who set out to tear the basement apart. "Oh, what's the use? They don't listen to me."

"Relax: they're just excited about this whole thing," Nazz reassured him. "To be honest, I'd like to see what else I can do!"

"I'm kind of jealous. You have the added addition of shooting lasers from your eyes. Where does that leave me and Mark?" Hilda said.

"I don't think my lasers are gonna penetrate that big fat belly of yours, bestie." Nazz teased, slapping her best friend's gargantuan gut as it wobbled.

Hilda laughed as the rest of the teens followed after Ed and Eddy to Double-D's house. None of them had noticed a slight rustling in the bushes, caused by something rather large…

Kevin was, for lack of a better word, completely freaked out by what he had just been witness to. Not only could Double-D fly, but he could also make rain fall! That wasn't even supposed to be possible!

And Nazz, what the heck was that!? How was she able to fly and shoot lasers from her eyes?! Was she somehow related to Mark and Hilda, and nobody knew until now? Was she a secret lovechild of Omni-Man or Ultra-V or something?!

Grabbing his bike, Kevin fixed his eyes into a stony glare as he rode through the woods and back into the cul-de-sac.

"Why would Nazz lie to me? Is it because those Eds are keeping her from talking?! I'll murder 'em!"

He peddled quickly and took a shortcut through the forest to get to Double-D's house. All he could see was red; thoughts of dismemberment and laceration were springing into his mind. Those dorks have superpowers, and now they've dragged NAZZ into it?! Never before had Kevin been so furious. He was so enraged, he didn't notice the UPS van barreling down the road until it was too late…

He had jumped off the bike in the last second, but now he was without a ride. This day just kept getting better and better. Kevin made his way back to the cul-de-sac, where he proceeded to Double Dweeb's house, where he would wait for Nazz and the dorks to show up.

When he spotted them coming back, Kevin hid in the bushes again, in order to avoid detection; as he lay in waiting, he ground his teeth against each other, and continued to dream up elaborate plans to obliterate the Eds.

"Okay, Nazz, I want to test something here."

"What is it, Double-D?"

"Considering the nature of Ed's comics, it's possible you have more powers than just the typical Viltrumite abilities that Mark and Hilda also possess. So, I would like to test these other powers out. Do you mind?"

"Not at all, Double-D!" Nazz giggled. "What's first?"

"Ice Breath!" Ed spoke up, waving his hands excitedly.

Hope filled a glass with water from the sink in the basement and handed it to Nazz.

"Whenever you're ready."

Nazz took a deep breath and felt a cooling sensation in her lungs. She blew out and exhaled cold air, which froze the water and the glass. When Ed went to get a drink from it, the glass shattered in his hand.

"She is KILLER FROST! WE WILL ALL DIE!"

"Shut up, Ed," Eddy said, slapping Ed with his hand stretched and flattened into the shape of a paddle. "Well, we know that she's got ice breath, heat vision, and super-strength. She can fly, and she must be pretty fast. What's next, MEAT vision?!"

"Oooh, I could really go for some sausages right about now," Hilda commented.

"Ed, what other abilities does Supergirl possess?" Double-D asked his comic book-loving friend.

"Heat vision…ice breath…flight…super-strength…super-speed…" Ed muttered as he counted on his fingers before perking up. "Ooh! There's still X-ray vision and super-hearing!"

"Well, we already know Nazz has a super tough body too," Hilda said. "After all, that's per the norm for Viltrumites, as Dad and Uncle Nolan said."

"How about we focus on your heat vision?" Hope suggested.

"I dunno, that seems kinda risky."

"Not to worry. I'm going to test just how powerful that laser is by countering it with my lightning." Double-D said. "Does that sound okay?"

"But I don't want to hurt you." Nazz worriedly said.

"Believe me, I can endure more pain than you might think."

"Considering he survived getting hit by a cosmic lightning bolt and came out with the powers of the weather, that's not hyperbole..." Mark muttered.

"Now, I'll be giving it my all, so don't hold back, okay?"

"Okay…" Nazz said hesitantly, and her eyes filled with red. A second later, two lasers were fired, while a bolt of lightning sprang forth from Double-D's hands. The beams of energy clashed in the center of the basement and immediately began to tear up a portion of the floor.

"Holy cow!" Eddy cried as he ducked behind Ed, who quickly transformed into an all-encompassing ball of concrete.

"Stand back, Hope!" Hilda said as her little cousin hid behind her and Mark.

"This…is…AWESOME!" Ed howled amid the noise of the experiment.

Kevin, who had managed to sneak into the basement and see everything that was going on, suddenly made himself known.

"NAAAAAZZ!"

He jumped down all the stairs, landing swiftly and running directly into the lightning and lasers. Nazz gasped in surprise, but it was already too late.

"KEVIN, NOOOOOO!"

Double-D cut off the lightning and flew over to the boy's side.

"Good LORD! Kevin, are you okay?!"

There was no response as Ed uncurled from his ball form.

"Why is Kevin here?!" Eddy asked angrily as he stretched over.

"He must have followed us in!" Double-D cried as he tried to revive the boy on the ground. "Oh, this is all my fault; I never should have suggested we try something so dangerous!"

"No, it's mine. I should have told him what was going on." Nazz sobbed. "He probably got jealous and tried to figure out what was going on with me. Argh, I'm such an AIRHEAD!"

The boys did not reply, as Ed was too busy chewing his fingernails in panic, Eddy was wondering whether he should be happy his rival was almost incinerated or not, and Double-D was currently searching for a sign of life.

Suddenly, a hand shot up and grabbed the sock-hatted boy by the throat. That hand belonged to Kevin West, who, at the moment, was more furious than ever before.

"K-Kevin?!"

"Double D, you son of a bi-"

Mark quickly grabbed Kevin and pulled him off of Double-D, holding him in a firm restraining clutch.

"Use your words, not your hands!"

"What did you do to me!?"

"The hell were you trying to do, Shovel Chin?!" Eddy snapped. "You could have killed him!"

"Don't talk to me like you know what dying is like, Dorky. I will gladly make you experience my pain."

"Go crazy, you stupid monkey; I'm invincible!"

"Like that's gonna stop me from punching you."

Before the two of them could get into a fight, Hilda grabbed both their heads and slammed them together.

"Eddy, stop egging Kevin on. Kevin, we can help you, but we need you to tell us what happened to you in the instant that energy hit you."

Kevin shut his eyes for a moment as he tried to describe what he went through.

"When that stuff hit me, it hurt; it hurt a LOT. I blacked out from the pain, but once I was out, I felt like I was surrounded by this red, sorta yellow energy. Kinda like lightning and lasers combined."

Double-D took notes on a piece of notebook paper as he nervously glanced at Kevin.

"Kevin, I need a blood sample from you, if that's okay."

Begrudgingly, Kevin followed Double-D over to the lab table, where the young genius proceeded to take the blood sample and place it under his microscope. He hummed to himself for a second, until he saw something that made his eyes widen.

"Oh my…"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kevin demanded.

"W-Well, your blood cells are vibrating rapidly, as if they had chugged some of Eddy's energy drink. They're fast, almost…super-fast, as it were!"

Ed jumped up and down, clapping his hands.

"Ooh! Ooh! Kevin, you're like The Flash!"

"The who?"

"The Flash: Fastest Man Alive! He can run at the speed of sound, outrun bullets and missiles, and run over the oceans and up buildings! He can do it 'cause he's super-fast!"

"Or Red Rush..." Hope sadly said, looking down as Mark placed a comforting hand on her.

"So what, you think I can run fast like Red Rush now?" Kevin asked.

"It's worth a try." Nazz placed a calming hand on her friend's shoulder.

Kevin looked into her eyes and smiled. Having Nazz place her faith in him gave him the strength to try this out.

"Okay, here I go."

First, he got into a runner's start; then, with a burst of flame, he ran in a circle around the basement. Something wasn't right. His body felt no different; it was as if he hadn't been hit by freakish energy. He stopped, right back at his starting point, and shook his head.

"Well, Dork, you were wrong. I'm not super-fast." Then, Kevin noticed that the three Eds, Nazz, Mark, Hilda, and Hope, were staring at him, their jaws having dropped to the floor. "…what're you guys looking at?"

"Kevin, you just ran around my basement in the fraction of a second!" Double-D said. "You were so fast, I couldn't even blink!"

The angry boy looked down at his feet again before returning his gaze to the sock-hatted boy.

"So, I really was running at high speeds like Red Rush?" Kevin asked hopefully.

Now, one might think it odd for an American boy to idolize a Russian superhero. Especially given their complicated past. And while Kevin didn't broadcast his idolization of the speedster, he made sure to follow his exploits. Not only was Red Rush cool for his Super-Speed, but the fact that he helped EVERYONE, regardless of race, country, orientation, or belief. And he did all because it was the right thing to do.

"Pretty much!" Mark beamed. "Maybe even a little faster…"

"We can test that later." Double D assured the group.

"You were AWESOME!" Ed shouted as he jumped in front of Kevin. "You were like a blur! The Flash is YOU!"

"All right, relax, you dork!"

Despite his best efforts, Kevin couldn't help but smile. Here he was, the fastest kid alive; so fast, he could run circles around the earth in a few minutes! Today might not be so bad after all…

Hope then walked over and offered Kevin a handshake.

"Welcome to the world of superheroes…ya dork."

Kevin smirked at that; he'd always kind of liked Hope; she was certainly nicer than Sarah most of the time and her dad being Omni-Man alone told him to NEVER mess with her and Mark. This was later continued when they turned out to be pretty nice, upstanding people.

"Thanks….Um…what do I call you? Hope 10? Alien Angel?"

"I'm...still figuring out a name." Hope admitted while Hilda made a call:

"Dad? We got another one."

"AGAIN?!"

Chapter Text

"I'm sorry to inform you, sir, but there's some kind of attack happening downtown, it seems. Numerous contacts. Heavy weaponry. Multiple casualties."

That was not what Cecil wanted to hear; he'd been on his way to check in on Nolan, who'd begun to stir. Call it harsh or unprofessional, but when someone wipes out the strongest superhero team and leaves its strongest member in a coma? You want answers and/or clues of ANY kind as soon as you can get them.

"There's an attack now?" Cecil snapped, making sure that was what he was hearing. "We're a little understaffed in the hero department."

"TODAY IS THE END OF ALL AGES!" Rolf shouted, his dark hair filled with cold sweat, his eyes full of terror.

Upon reaching Double-D's house, Rolf banged on the front door in a desperate attempt to get the brainy boy's attention.

"Hurry, Sock-Hat-Edd-Boy, there is not much time!"

Inside the house, Double-D was busy making sandwiches for his friends, who were down in the basement helping Kevin practice using his powers. After running around his cellar/laboratory at 200 mph for twenty minutes, Kevin had worked up quite an appetite. So far, Double-D had made five sandwiches for him ALONE, not to mention Hope, Mark, Hilda, Ed, Eddy, and Nazz were getting hungry.

As he carefully spread mayonnaise onto a slice of white bread, the meek boy was alerted to a banging at his front door.

"Who could that be?" He wondered as he wiped his hands off. "Coming!"

When he opened the door, Double-D was about to ask what was up when he was interrupted by Rolf, who grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him fiercely.

"Double-D-Ed-Boy! It is a calamity! A disaster! We shall all PERISH!"

"R-R-R-o-o-o-l-l-l-f-f-f, c-c-c-o-o-o-n-n-n-t-t-t-r-r-r-o-o-o-l-l-l y-y-y-o-o-o-u-u-u-r-r-r-s-s-s-e-e-e-l-l-l-f-f-f!"

The older boy's shaking ceased, but he still had a firm grip on Double-D's shoulders.

"There is a disaster in the city! Beings from beyond our realm are wreaking havoc! It is the end of ages! The Son-of-a-Shepherd has come to warn everyone in the cul-de-sac of their imminent death! Tell the other Ed-Boys!"

Double D raced back into the house, where he found his best friends, Nazz, Kevin, and Hope listening to Mark as he was on a phone call with Cecil

"Much as I hate to say it…We need every hand we have on deck. Get your asses downtown and focus on keeping civilians out of harm's way. Engage the invaders ONLY if necessary."

"YAY! We get to be SUPERHEROES!" Ed cheered.

"Wait, Mark and Hilda have their superhero costumes, but we're kinda bare." Nazz pointed out.

"Leave that to me!" Ed exclaimed as he turned to Kevin. "Kid Flash: There are some Halloween masks in my basement; I need you to get them!"

"Don't call me Kid Flash," Kevin grumbled, but he did as ordered, vanished for a second before reappearing with an orange and black bag draped over his shoulders. The bag carried enough masks and costumes to dress the whole cul-de-sac.

"This what you were looking for?"

"Yep!" Ed tore open the bag and began to select various disguises for the super children. "Okay, Kevin can have this biker helmet; Nazz, this black wig and sunglasses would be perfect for you; Double D, I think you'll like this Einstein wig and domino mask; Eddy, hmm…"

Eddy reached into the bag and pulled out a fake afro and a pair of sunglasses. He flipped the sunglasses open and placed them on his face.

"This is all I need, baby."

"Give us a moment to get suited up," Mark said as he and Hilda flew off to their house.

After fifteen minutes of flying, the group was able to arrive at downtown Bellwood. They were stunned to see a huge army of interdimensional green-skinned aliens, no doubt the Flaxans, coming out of a huge dimensional portal while wearing high-tech armor, carrying around high-tech weapons, and riding around in advanced armored vehicles as they walked forward stoically and opened red laser fire on a bunch of innocent and screaming civilians

Most of the people were able to escape, but a lot of them were blasted apart by the lasers as Hope and Double-D went pale-faced and gasped worriedly, while Ed and Kevin narrowed their eyes concernedly as Mark, Hilda, Eddy, and Nazz's eyes widened in pure shock and horror.

"Okay, here's the plan, guys, we divide and conquer. Metamorpho, Weather Wizard, and I will handle the big guns. Plastic Man, Flash? You handle the grunts. Invincible, Virtuna, Power Girl? Focus on civilians." Hope strategized as the others nodded.

"Those our hero names?" Nazz asked. "I think DC might sue us..."

"Does it really matter?!" Hilda pointed out. "These people still need our help."

"Bro, throw me!" Hope said.

"H-Huh? Oh, yeah!"

Invincible raised his little sister into the air and then tossed her forward, the Omnitrix Wielder zooming through the air at high speeds as the Flaxans noticed her and narrowed their eyes suspiciously before aimed their blasters up at the airborne heroine, who glanced down at her Omnitrix as she pressed the two buttons on the sides at the same time, causing the core to pop out and the hourglass symbol joined together to form a diamond shape as Hope began twisting the dial rapidly as all of the Flaxans began firing multiple red laser blasts up at her.

"Alright, Omnitrix, give me something good!"

Slamming her hand down on the core, Hope was engulfed in green light before, in her place was a creature with a magnetically floating skull-shaped silver metal head that was surrounded by a glowing pink aura and levitated in an arch between her shoulders as she had pupilless pink eyes, dark blue eyebrow-like crest planted on her forehead, no ears/nose, a permanently closed up mouth with lines placed beneath it, a sharp chin, a pair of black/dark blue long slim crab-like arms, dark blue/black colored living metallic skin, a tall humanoid slim build with high pointy shoulders, a pair of black/dark blue long slim crab-like legs, and the Omnitrix symbol planted on her chest.

"Huh, you want to try out one of the New Girls, Omni? Okay, I can work with this."

She then yelped in surprise when a volley of red energy blasts appeared on the scene and were able to blast through her body, causing a bunch of holes to appear, only for her to regenerate herself using some kind of magnetism.

"Oooh, regenerative powers. Nice."

Flying downwards and landing in front of the Flaxans, Hope raised her hands reflexively as, much to her surprise, she projected big pink magnetic fields that washed over the small group of Flaxan Soldiers, and the Omnitrix Wielder was able to grab all of the weapons as she raised them up into the air.

"Hope is Magneto!" Ed called out.

"Whoa, ho, ho, ho! Cool! Well, metal, meet magnetism!" Hope exclaimed while raising her arms and projecting dual big pink magnetic fields, as well as a third one from her Omnitrix Symbol.

The magnetic fields washed over the Flaxans, who had their metal armors get magnetized against several nearby trucks and stuck them there against their will as a few other Flaxans had their weapons flung away from them, and the remaining Flaxans grunted in pain as their metal armor proceeded to restrict themselves against their bodies tightly, trapping them in place.

"Earth is NOT accepting any new evil alien newcomers, so go back home!" Hilda screamed while flying through the air at high speeds.

Despite her girth, she easily avoided all of the incoming red energy blasts and made her way over to begin punching and kicking all of the incoming Flaxans. She then landed on the ground and reached near a large Flaxan tank as she raised her arms and latched onto it, raising it into the air and began swinging it across various Flaxans in sight.

"You go, girl!" Nazz cheered as she unleashed her heat vision, shredding through various Flaxans. Just then, she heard a scream and stopped her lasers to investigate, finding a small group of Flaxans surrounding a little girl in an abandoned building.

Angered, Nazz blitzed forward and punched the aliens into the mesosphere before turning to see the girl.

"Are you okay?"

It was Nikki, who was still hiding out in her and Martian's hangout. She didn't have anywhere else to go, after all. The little girl managed to nod and smile weakly before her stomach grumbled.

"Give me your hand, sweetie." Nazz cooed, offering a gentle hand for the homeless girl. "I'll take you to some friends who'll help."

"Promise?" Nikki asked.

"I swear."

Without a second thought, Nikki leaped into Nazz's arms. With a gentle hug, the Viltrumite-Kryptonian hybrid zipped away to GDA HQ to drop off Nikki, finding Cecil waiting.

"Thanks; can't believe it took us this long to get to her."

Nazz gave a salute and patted Nikki's head before racing back to the fight.

Meanwhile, Mark was looking around in horror as several Flaxans were still gunning down civilians. He then quickly steadied himself and flew down to guide some civilians running toward him.

"Hey! Come with me! I will take you to-!"

Unfortunately, several Flaxans opened fire on the civilians, but a blur of orange lightning zoomed around and grabbed all of them, carrying them away as Mark shielded himself, taking the brunt of the laser blasts.

"Mark!" Double-D cried before summoning a massive storm cloud and sending torrents of lightning on the attacking Flaxans. "Are you okay?!"

"Y-Yeah, I'm good..." Mark stuttered.

Kevin zoomed over, giving Mark a pat on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, I was able to get all those folks as far away from here as possible."

Mark felt relief wash over him before gasping when he saw a single Flaxan walking up to an injured old lady, aiming his blaster at her.

"NO!"

Acting purely on instinct, Mark flew forward at high speeds as he reached over to grab a nearby slab of concrete and zoomed over to whack it across the Flaxan's face, sending him flying and crashing down into the ground several feet away.

Nazz saw what was going on and flew over to check on the old lady, seeing Mark panicking as he picked her up.

"It's okay! It's okay, I'm here! Are you hurt?!"

"Mark! Calm down!" Nazz said with a gentle but firm tone.

"Uh, I think that guy you whacked is getting back up, dude!" Kevin warned.

Sure enough, the Flaxan that Mark attacked earlier raised his head, revealing to have a big scar on it as he turned to face the other Flaxans and ordered them to attack the heroes as they all began opening fire.

Thankfully, Hilda and Ed appeared on the scene and flew over to bulldoze through them with a roar. Ed had transformed himself into a giant spiked metal ball to bowl over the Flaxans like pins.

"Fly, Invincible, fly!" Hilda ordered as Invincible flinched in surprise and nodded as he held the old lady in a bridal-style position and took off into the air as he tried to fly out of the battlefield.

"YEE-HAW!" Eddy shouted as he turned his hands into various blunt objects, from hammers to spiked maces to even ram heads. "I love being made of plastic!"

Unfortunately, several Flaxans began ganging up on Eddy and were about to gun him down when Hope flew onto the scene and generated a big pink magnetic force field around them to protect him.

"Thanks for the save, Hope!" Eddy thanked.

"Guys, look! He's got a TANK!" Ed called out.

Hope and Eddy looked to see the Flaxan that Mark had whacked earlier to save the old lady and gotten into one of the tanks and aimed its laser cannon at the group as he grinned evilly and was about to open fire, only for a big pink energy lasso to appear out of nowhere and wrapped around the tank's nozzle as it tied up into a big pink energy bow, preventing it from firing.

Everyone looked up to see that the source was a girl with green eyes, very long red linear hair that reached down to her waist, thin red eyebrows, a sharp chin, E-Cup Breasts, Caucasian Skin, and a tall, slender hourglass build. She wore a long-sleeved hot pink skintight jumpsuit with the atom molecule logo and rings covering it planted on her chest, a short light pink cape, a pair of light pink elbow-length gloves, and a pair of thigh-high light pink boots.

"Hey, that's Atom Eve of the Teen Team!" Hope excitedly noted.

"We are saved!" Ed cheered.

"I don't know who you are, but it's time to go, and I highly suggest that you do it before my friend gets impatient." Atom Eve said with a sly grin as she then crossed her arms and glanced up at the sky. "Oh, too late."

The Flaxans were heavily confused before the sound of thunder and fire was heard. Looking up, they barely had time to react before a figure slammed down, creating a massive shockwave that seemed to generate purple gravitational forces that lifted the Flaxans up in the air briefly before slamming them down hard.

Hilda noticed that the source was a muscular humanoid male wearing a white and black costume with a hooded cape that had a moon symbol on it. His chest had the insignia of a dragon eating a crescent moon, and he wore a pure white mask that covered his face, sans his glowing eyes.

"Lunadrake on the scene!"

"You sure know how to make an entrance, Hilbert!"

The one who spoke was none other than Alana, Green Ghost's apprentice, now in her own Green Ghost form, which consisted of her being a faceless, bald, green-skinned, somewhat naked entity.

"The Green Ghost lives!" Ed said.

Also joining in were a few other young heroes. The first was Rex Splode, a young man clad in a red mask that covered his entire head and neck except for his chin and mouth as well as a pair of yellow goggles, a tight-fitting jacket with red shoulders/collar/sides/handcuffs, and a yellow front/arm/neck, a pair of brown gloves with hook-and-loop fasteners, a brown belt with several white cylinders hanging from his waist, tight-fitting red/yellow trousers, and a pair of brown boots with hook-and-loop fasteners.

The next was Dupli-Kate, a girl with black eyes, shoulder-length straight black hair, thin black eyebrows, a sharp chin, and a short, slender build wearing a gray and black skintight jumpsuit with a number 1 emblem placed on her chest, as all of her clones have a number on their suit displaying their age relative to all other clones.

After that was an orange robot with segmented limbs, a robust chest cavity, and a slender pelvic region. The robot's limbs were connected and fastened together with the rest of its body by a series of round interlocks. Its most notable feature was its human skull-shaped head with glowing green pupilless eyes and a cylinder on the upper back of its head.

Next was a large fat girl with black hair, a black domino mask, green eyes, and clad in a deep blue trenchcoat with white buttons aligned together like a lightning bolt. She had black gloves, a black skirt, fishnet leggings, and black boots with cuts on the front in the shape of lightning bolts. This was Miss Thunder.

(Art by CodeNameBull)

Alongside her was another fat but beautiful girl, this one with brown hair tied in a ponytail, a blue domino mask, a blue cape, a red t-shirt with yellow outlines and a blue 'T' on the center, a blue and yellow striped skirt, and blue gloves and boots with yellow outlines. This was Tidal.

(Art by Satsurou)

Next was a young man clad in black scarab-like alien armor with glowing red eyes and the ability to change his suit into anything he could imagine. This was Black Beetle.

After that was a girl with blue skin, red eyes, long black hair, and clad in a black jacket with DARK written in red letters on her right sleeve. She also wore a black skirt, black pants, black biker gloves, and red boots. This was Luna Payne.

Finally, the last to fly in was another fat girl, this one with very long dark brown hair tied in two large sock buns above her ears, with two long locks hanging loose to her waist, and shorter locks on either side of her face, pale peach skin, and dark blue eyes. She was clad in a white and ice blue supersuit that snuggly hugged her big, round, but deceptively muscular body.

"Rosa?!" Hilda gawked, recognizing the girl as one of her friends.

"Hilda?!" Rosa gasped. "Wow! Didn't know you were a superhero now, too!"

"Eve, two and a half seconds after this sentence, three enemy tanks will align fifty degrees to your right," The robot, known simply as Robot, said as Atom Eve turned her head and spotted three Flaxan Tanks heading towards her.

"I got it!"

Raising her glowing pink arm, she swiped it to send out a big wave of pink energy that easily sliced through the Flaxan Tanks and caused them to blow up.

"Rex, Beetle, civilians in danger to your left."

"Uh, yeah, we got eyes, too, Robot."

Rex Splode jumped up high into the air and twirled around as he grabbed several white cylinders from his belt and covered them with yellow explosive energy, which he then tossed downwards towards a group of Flaxans that were nearing a mother and a son as Rex's projectiles collided against the alien beings and blow them up into a billion pieces with the help of several big explosions.

Some of the Flaxans were still alive but were then sliced and diced by Black Beetle, who transformed his arms into sharp swords reminiscent of scarab beetle legs.

"Green Ghost, Tidal, disarm as many of those aliens as you can."

"On it, boss."

Green Ghost turned herself intangible as she flew forward and went through several Flaxans' bodies. She turned their armor and weapons intangible as well, allowing them to crash down into the ground as Robot went over to deliver several strong and fast punches and kicks across their bodies to knock them out.

Tidal raised her fist and, with a shout, punched the ground, causing gravity in front of her to distort and make several other Flaxans fall to their knees, unable to move or escape, as the fat superheroine then flew forward and knocked them over like bowling pins.

"Dupli-Kate, Miss Thunder, divide and conquer! Evacuate civilians!"

The two girls nodded as Dupli-Kate replicated herself up to twenty as a few of her clones went over to engage the Flaxans, while the others went over to help take civilians back to safety along with Miss Thunder.

"Dark Berry? Lunadrake?" Robot spoke up, getting the aforementioned two's attention. "SMASH."

Luna rolled her eyes while Lunadrake chuckled before roaring as the winds picked up around him, followed by his fists billowing with flames as he zoomed around at lightning speeds, smashing through the Flaxan tanks.

As for Luna, her belly suddenly rumbled with what sounded like bubbling juice before she swelled up into a giant sphere with her head, hands, and feet still attached as she began rolling and bouncing around, crushing any Flaxans in her way.

"Oompa Loompa! Doopti do!" Eddy sang as he repelled several Flaxans by shapeshifting into various tools. "That blueberry's got a crushing belly for you!"

"…6/10." Rosa said as she joined Eddy. "Good reference, fits the general line and timing of the original song, the blueberry bit's been done though."

"Everyone's a critic," Eddy grumbled, then smirked. "Got a name, cutie?"

"Ivory." Rosa replied as she sent more invaders flying.

"Did Invincible make it to safety with that old woman?" Double-D asked Kevin.

"Yeah, it was touch and go for a while, but I was able to clear a path for them." The speedster retorted.

Atom Eve, after using subatomic telekinesis to throw various Flaxans away, turned to Hilda and Hope.

"Well, at least now we'll be able to hang AS heroes." Eve mused, happy that her gal-pals were now in BOTH lives with her: No more 'keeping secret BS!'

"Later, we're all still new to invasions." Hilda said, shooting a smile.

"Right," Eve noted. "For now, you guys stay behind and help us out with evac."

"We've been doing a good job so far!" Hope smirked.

"Admirable intention, Eve, but I am not positive we can handle this. Even with the increased numbers." Robot stated bluntly while standing back to back with Atom Eve and raised his arms to fire multiple orange energy blasts to drive back the Flaxan Army.

"Don't worry, Team Teen, we got this," Hope said while creating another pink magnetic force field around herself to protect herself from the incoming energy blasts.

With a grin, she then raised her arms and used her magnetism powers to latch onto the sewer pipes below them, ripping them out of the ground, and whirled them around a small group of Flaxans, and tied them around their bodies to restrain them.

"An alien being with the power of magnetism? Fascinating." Robot said while eyeing an airborne Hope carefully as he beeped. "What do you call this one? You always give your aliens their own superhero names for some kind of odd reason."

"Well, first off, Robot, naming my aliens is half the fun. Second, I haven't really tested this alien out yet until now, so I'm not sure what to name her." Hope says with a small shrug as Robot beeped a bit.

"Understood. Well, since your alien form has magnetic powers, how about calling it 'Magnetron'?"

"Errrrrrr, no, sounds too villainous."

"Polaris?" Dupli-Kate asked while splitting herself into ten and grouping on a Flaxan to begin beating him down.

"Good choice, but doesn't really roll off the tongue."

"Magneto?" Atom Eve suggested while raising her glowing pink hands to create multiple small pink spheres around several incoming Flaxan's heads to cut off their oxygen as they slowly grew unconscious and crashed down into the ground.

"Great name, but it's already taken."

"Oh, like the names we're using aren't already taken?!" Eddy snarked as he molded his entire body into a hammer for Rosa to use.

"Ooh, wait, I got it...LODESTAR!" Rex Splode exclaimed with a grin while flinging more and more white cylinders that were covered with yellow explosive energy as they collided against several Flaxan's heads and blew them up as their headless bodies crashed down into the ground.

"Huh... Lodestar." Hope said it aloud. "I love it!"

"Little help here, guys!" Luna called out as she rolled through, being shot at by multiple Flaxans.

"Hold on, Lulu!" Green Ghost said.

"I thought I told you not to call me that!"

Green Ghost flew onto the scene and went through the Flaxans' bodies, disarming them as she then floated in front of them and turned herself tangible as she then raised her arms with a glare on her face as, much to her surprise, multiple green ectoplasmic energy blasts flew out of her hands and collided against the shocked Flaxans as they were blasted apart.

"Oh, wow, this must've been one of the new powers my Mentor told me about."

Upon saying that, Green Ghost became somber, remembering the grim news she got from Cecil in private that the previous Green Ghost had been killed along with the rest of the Guardians of the Globe.

"Ooh, cool! Good job, Green Ghost!" Miss Thunder praised while raising her hand to give her a high five, only to accidentally smack a flying Ed, sending him crashing down into the ground. "Oh, sorry, I didn't see you coming."

Ed, having splattered into a comical pile of sludge, simply reformed himself to normal and laughed.

"That tickled!"

"Uh, guys?! I'm down to pocket change here!" A worried Rex Splode said while running out of his white cylinders from his belt and proceeded to reach into his pockets to pull out some coins, covering them with yellow explosive energy, and tossing them over to collide against a group of Flaxans, blowing them up as more and more Flaxans kept coming.

"They're killing me faster than I can keep up!" Dupli-Kate yelled with a worried tone while duplicating herself repeatedly as the Flaxans kept blasting apart her clones, which shattered like glass when killed.

"We gave people time to escape! That's what matters!" Atom Eve screamed with a glare while flying over to appear beside a flying Double-D and Nazz, creating a big pink energy shield around herself and them to protect them from the incoming alien fire.

"Uh, no! Me living is what matters!" Rex Splode yelled with a concerned tone while standing back to back with Green Ghost and a deflated Luna.

"And you wonder why Eve broke up with you." Luna snarked.

Green Ghost covered her hands with green ectoplasmic energy and fired more bolts of energy at the Flaxans to drive them back as the army was about to continue on with their assault, only for all of them to suddenly begin aging rapidly until they were old and grey, as the majority of them were dying as a result.

"Uh, what the hell is going on?" A bewildered Lodestar asked as Hilda hummed thoughtfully with a glare and turned to her.

"It doesn't matter what's happening to them! I think it's time to end this! Omni-Girl! Gather up all of the Flaxans into the air!"

Lodestar grinned slyly and nodded while holding out her arms and legs as she projected a huge wave of pink magnetic field that collided against all of the Flaxan Army and raised them all up into the air magnetically, as Hope then grouped them all into a big ball. Robot spotted this as he got an idea.

"Miss Thunder! Atom Eve! Give the Flaxans a Home Run!" Robot ordered as the girls smirked mischievously, and Atom Eve raised her glowing pink hands as she created a large pink energy bat that Miss Thunder leaped into the air to catch before swinging it with all her might, whacking the Flaxans away and sending them flying over through the dimensional portal as it closed up shortly.

"Nice work, team!" Lodestar congratulated with a smile as the others nodded.

"But seriously, though, what the hell happened back there?" A bewildered Green Ghost asked as Rex Splode scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I don't know, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say I never want it to happen ever again."

"Agreed." Everyone said in unison with a sharp nod.

"Still though?" Nazz noted. "I think we did pretty well for our first superhero team thing."

"PLUS ULTRA!" Ed beamed.

"We could've gotten here sooner…" Double D noted sadly. The old lady's near-death was still on his mind, but then he messed with Hope's hair. "But at least we got a new candidate for MVA for Hope."

"MV-what?" Rex asked.

"Most Valuable Alien." The Cul-De-Sac crew said.

"Come on, Rex. That's obvious." Luna noted.

"And no worries," Robot said. "I'm certain Cecil shares your thoughts and will get around to getting you all properly equipped to deal with being better informed of crisis."

"But…you could use some better duds, though." Black Beetle said.

"Yeah, you could." Green Ghost added; almost embarrassed for the newbies.

"Hey, we LITERALLY threw these together at the last minute!" The Cul-De-Sac Kids all snapped together. "Well, except for Mark, Hilda, Nazz, and Hope..."

With Mark, he had managed to make it to the medical wing of the GDA HQ, holding the old woman he had rescued close with a panicked look on his face.

"Help! Anyone! I need help!" Startled, several agents aimed their guns at him, but he remained steadfast. "Please! She needs a doctor!"

A bunch of medics quickly appeared and grabbed the old lady as they loaded her onto a gurney and wheeled her away. After realizing that Mark wasn't a threat, all of the GDA Soldiers turned themselves invisible again. Mark then trudged his way to the hospital room where Nolan was, collapsing beside his bed while taking off his mask just as Debbie came in.

"Mark!"

"I tried my best...I tried to be like Dad..." A somber and teary-eyed Invincible says as a tearful Debbie goes over to give her son a comforting hug.

"It's okay. It's okay."

Chapter Text

"Come on, Mark, talk to us, man."

The following day after the Flaxan Invasion, Mark was making their way through the halls of Reginald Vel Johnson High School with the Eds following him, brushing past various people, seeming lost in thought, and sweating nervously. Will showed up and was about to greet his friends casually, but stopped when he noticed how terrible Mark looked.

"Hey, guys. Uh, Mark? Are you okay?"

"My dad, um...he got attacked," Mark said.

The Eds caught onto this change; Cecil must have decided enough time had passed to allow Mark to grieve publicly, even if there was still no clue who had killed the Guardians and put him in a coma. After not thinking about so long, either due to time as Invincible, training Nazz with Hilda, or just helping Debbie and Hope in any way he could? The poor Demi-Viltrumite was clearly crashing out.

"What? You're kidding." Will said in disbelief, but the sight of Mark shaking his head squashed those hopes. "Oh, god, you're not kidding. Is-Is he okay? What happened?"

"Mr. Grayson is in the hospital. Mrs. Grayson and Mr. Whitelane are looking after him." Double-D explained. "The doctors are doing their best to help him out, but he's in pretty bad shape."

"He's really hurt, Will," Mark said.

"Jesus, guys. I'm so sorry. Did they catch who did it?" Will asked hopefully.

"Nope. Whoever managed to beat the crap out of Omni-Man is one elusive bastard." Eddy said.

"Well, speaking as someone who's been attacked in this stupid city, I'm here for you. Whatever you need. You wanna talk, I'll listen. You, Hope, and Debbie need a lasagna. I make a good one. Actually, I make a great one."

"I am Garfield! Give me your lasagna!" Ed said excitedly.

This got a good laugh out of the guys, but Mark's attention was on a surprising group of girls. Nazz and Hilda were there, but she was also accompanied by none other than Eve, Alana, Rosa, Luna, and two very familiar fat girls.

"Well, hello, ladies~" Eddy smirked as he slicked his hair back. "Stand back, Will. Ol' Eddy has got to show the charm to some big, beautiful ladies."

"But Nazz, Eve, and Alana aren't fat, Eddy." Ed pointed out.

"Uh, Eve Wilkins? Alana Morse? Rosa DeWitte? Penelope Abbott? Luna Payne? Bridgette Wynn?" Mark asked awkwardly as the girls turned to the boys.

"Yeah, that's us," Eve greeted with a small smile.

"Sup," Alana said casually.

"Hey Mark, Ed, Double-D, Eddy. Good to see you again. How's Hope?" Rosa asked cheerfully.

"More or less, good, yeah," Mark says with a soft tone as he rubs the back of his head awkwardly. "Anyway, we wanted to say thanks for saving our butts back there. Y-Yesterday, I mean."

"Oh yeah, Nazz and Hilda were talking with us about all that," Penelope said. "You're, uh...Invincible, right?

"Yup, that's me, Invincible... God, that sounds dumb when I say it like that."

"I think it's a very nice name, Mark," Double-D said reassuringly.

"It sounds a little optimistic, maybe." A bemused Eve said as she and the girls shared a giggle. "Anyway, I'm Atom Eve, but the rest of the team and my friends just call me Eve. So does everyone else."

"Right, since it's kind of a normal name and not something like..."

"Invincible?" A grinning Eve asked with a raised eyebrow as Mark blushed a bit and nodded.

"I'm Miss Thunder!" Penelope said, slapping her belly proudly. "I inherited the mantle from my grandma."

"I'm Tidal." Bridgette giggled, currently wearing glasses as she adjusted them.

"Yeah, you know me already. I'm Dark Berry." Luna said in a bored tone.

"I'm Ivory! Kind of a plain name, but my dad says it's beautiful, just like me and mom when we smile." Rosa beamed.

"And I'm Green Ghost...the teenage girl one, obviously," Alana says sheepishly before sighing heavily. "God, this is why I wanted to get my own superhero name, but my mentor was too stubborn to break traditions.

"And you guys already know my name. I'm Power Girl." Nazz smirked.

"Well, since Mark shared his name and you girls shared your names, it's only polite we do so as well." Double-D smiled. "I'm the Weather Wizard."

"The name's Plastic Man. I can be anything you...KNEAD." Eddy smirked.

"God, that was lame..." Luna said bluntly.

"And I am Metamorpho! Or Elemento! Or Element E!" Ed said as he began going on a tangent of different superhero names, counting on his fingers as he did so.

"Is it okay if we talk during lunch?" Mark asked as the girls shared a look and smiled as they nodded at the boys.

"How are you holding up?" Sarah asked Hope worriedly as she, Jimmy, Johnny Teubifor, and Hope were walking through the hallways to head to lunch.

"That alien invasion must've been really scary!" Johnny said. "Plank said you guys really kicked butt though!"

Hope giggled. Johnny's best friend was a piece of wood with a smiley face on it that he named "Plank". Despite seemingly being an inanimate object, there had been many times were Plank displayed some unexplained level of sentience.

"We heard about what happened to Omni-Man," Jimmy said sadly. "D-Did a villain attack him?

"We think so. Daddy got really banged up, and...I'm scared that he won't recover." Hope said.

"Aww, Omni-Man is tough. He'll make it through." Sarah assured her friend.

"Yeah, Plank says he's the toughest of the tough!" Johnny chimed in.

Her friends' confidence in her father made Hope smile. Then, an idea came to her.

"Say, weird question, but… Would you guys ever want to be superheroes?"

That took the other three for a spin.

"Whattya talking about? I AM a superhero!" Johnny boasted, striking a pose. "CAPTAIN MEL…!"

"Johnny, Captain Melonhead was more of a playground identity." Hope gently chided.

"What about the Gourd?"

That just confused the younger kids.

"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me, Plank!" Johnny noted. "After the whole 'Eddy's brother' thing…"

"Wedon'ttalkaboutEddy'sbrother." Sarah and Jimmy hurriedly said, Hope nodding in agreement.

"Well, after that and before I knew what happened, I plotted revenge before Plank suggested I ask why everyone was defending the Eds," Johnny explained as they entered the cafeteria. "So, to answer your question? I'd love to be a hero!"

"Not for me," Sarah admitted, then quickly went to assure her BFFF. "Don't get it twisted! What you and the others do is great, and I know how to handle myself, but after being mean to Ed for so long? I don't trust myself."

Hope felt shame hearing that, but understood; Ed and Sarah's mother was a…unique woman who'd given Sarah ideas the young girl was slowly coming to see were not all that good to live your life by.

"I wouldn't mind being a superhero," Jimmy admitted. "They're all so cool, brave, and strong…things I'm no…"

"Hey! Hey!" Hope and Sarah said together. "No talking like that! You're awesome as you are, Jimmy."

Hope then felt her phone buzz and answered it to see it was a message on the group chat shared between her, Mark, and Hilda.

"Hey guys, I gotta meet up with Mark and Hilda for lunch. See you guys in Chemistry Class!"

The trio waved goodbye, Sarah then adding:

"Another reason being a superhero ain't for me; no control of when you're called away."

"Wow, so an alien wristwatch from another dimension just found itself on your wrist?" Bridgette asked. "That's...pretty crazy."

"Man, it's crazy to think that you were that alien shapeshifting hero this whole time," Alana said. "How does that watch even work, anyway?"

Eve, Nazz, and the Teen Team girls had invited Mark, the Eds, Kevin, and Hope to join them outside for lunch that day. It was an odd sight, sure, but when you learn of schoolmates who are fellow superheroes, you want to connect.

"So…you use your sis to meet hotties all the time?" Kevin teased Mark, who simply swung a fist that Kevin dodged and hit Eddy instead. Now, it did no damage, what with Eddy being plastic and all, but a fella likes to be in control of when his face is warped!

"Have I mentioned that I hate how you, of all of us, got Super-Speed?" the greedy young man grumbled.

Hope smiled and reached over to press the two pink buttons on the sides of her Omnitrix at the same time as the core popped out and the hourglass symbol joined together to form a diamond shape as the silhouette of Lodestar appeared.

"When the core pops out, you just twist the dial until you get the alien that you want to be, and then slam your hand down on the core and boom. You're one of many super cool alien girls."

"Whoa, seriously? Damn, that sounds OP as heck." Penelope chuckled.

"Well, to be fair, Hope has a time limit; she can't switch from alien to alien when she is transformed, and sometimes the Omnitrix gives her the wrong alien just cause," Eddy said as Hope pouted.

"Man, I never recognized you before," Mark said to Eve, who shrugged.

"No one does. It's a psychology thing. If you don't expect to see a superhero in your school, you don't see a superhero in your school."

"Really? So I don't have to wear my Omni-Girl Suit anymore and simply fight in my civilian form, and no one will figure out who I am?" Hope asked curiously as Mark turned to her with a serious look.

"No, you need that suit to protect your body if you time out in battle."

"Plus, I don't think the psychology will work with you, sweetie, as that watch is too recognizable," Eve added with an apologetic look.

"Anyway, I follow Teen Team on Instagram," Mark said as Hope perked up.

"Same, I love you guys."

"Yeah, Rosa loves showing off." Hilda joked. "That's how I already knew she was Ivory while we were fighting those aliens the other day."

"I don't really do social media, but I do watch videos of you all on YouTube. You've done a lot of remarkable feats of heroism." Double-D said.

"You guys are super cool!" Ed said.

"Yeah, Teen Team is pretty famous." Alana chuckled. "We're everyone's fourth favorite superhero team."

"Really? The fourth? Who's the second and third?" Kevin asked curiously as Eve turned to them.

"Second is the Galactic Enforcers, and the third is the Fight Force."

"Ugh, the Fight Force? They are so lame." Hope said in annoyance.

"Yep, they are," Luna smirked.

"Oh, definitely. They got their asses kicked by the Lizard League last year." Eve said.

"Oh, I remember seeing that on TV," Mark noted.

"Well, we know now that Hope has been active for three months, but what about the rest of you guys?" Eve asked.

"Well, I just got my powers a couple of weeks ago. That was my first big fight." Mark admitted.

"We all got our powers a few weeks ago," Eddy added. "Ed ate a magic crystal orb, Double-D got hit by space lightning, I fell into a vat of chemicals, Nazz is an alien from the same family as Mark, and Kevin got hit by energy from Sockhead and Nazz while they were practicing."

"Ah, okay. That explains a lot. Still, not bad for a bunch of rookies." Eve said.

"Are you kidding? I froze out there. People got hurt." Mark argued.

"Mark, come on, dude. People escaped because of you, and everyone freezes their first time." Kevin said.

"Yeah, right..." Mark muttered.

"Hey, don't kick yourself. Us girls' first time heroing was...interesting." Alana said. "Eve used to throw up before every fight."

"Wait, for real?" Hilda asked in amusement as the rest of the girls nodded with a laugh while Eve blushed in embarrassment.

"Yeah, she barfed her guts out a lot. Like a fire hydrant." Luna smirked.

"Oh, yeah? You peed your pants when someone aimed a gun at you, and you forgot how to turn yourself intangible." Eve said to Alana with a smirk as it was now her turn to blush in embarrassment.

"And I used to accidentally destroy property all of the time," Luna admitted.

"Come on, Mark. We'll become super awesome pros in no time!" Eddy assured his friend. "You just need to get used to it."

"Yeah, I know. I just figured I'd punch some aliens, and they'd go home." Mark sighed.

"Oh, Mark, I used to think the same thing. I thought that superhero fights were like how they looked on TV, but it isn't, sadly enough." Rosa said sympathetically.

"Must've been rough for you..." Hilda admitted to her friend. "Say, how are things between you and Nate?"

"Oh, Nate is just the sweetest!" Rosa gushed. "He took me out for a date at the amusement park last month! It was the best!"

"Isn't Nate Black Beetle?" Mark asked.

"Yeah, he got it from this alien scarab thing that attached itself to his back." Rosa smiled.

"What about Lunadrake?" Hilda asked.

"Oh, Hilly?" Alana asked.

"Hilbert." Eve clarified amidst the whispering. "He REALLY hates that nickname."

"He says he got his powers from some kind of Moon Dragon Wizard." Alana finished.

"Anyway, lunch is almost over, so it's time for us to head to class..." Eve said as she and her friends stood up. "Hey, I have an idea, why don't you guys come by and meet the rest of the team after school?"

"Teen Team? I dunno...I heard they were only everyone's fourth favorite." Mark said with a playful tone, making Eve blush but also smile.

"Yes, please! I want to meet Teen Team so bad!" Hope beamed.

"Teen Team! Teen Team!" Ed cheered.

"I'm willing to do a meet-up," Nazz said with a smile as Eve then raised her glowing pink hands and created a set of pink energy staircases that led down to the ground.

"Meet us out front after class."

Meanwhile, over at Downtown Bellwood, Cecil was glancing down at his phone as it showed various articles about Teen Team, Omni-Girl, Virtuna, Metamorpho, Weather Wizard, Plastic Man, Power Girl, and Flash's success against the alien invasion as Robot followed after him while the GDA Agents were cleaning up after the Flaxan Invasion around them.

"You kids did good, Robot."

"Thank you, Cecil. It's an honor to assist the Global Defense Agency. Though your use of the term 'kids' might be considered condescending."

"But a victory? No. Do you know how many people died here yesterday? 220. 220, and it only stopped there because whoever the hell those assholes were, ran away."

"The Flaxans."

"What?" A bewildered Cecil asked as he put away his phone and turned to Robot.

"They call themselves the Flaxans. I reverse-engineered their language using recordings from the battle." Robot explained.

"Any idea why they left just when they were kicking our asses?" Cecil asked.

Robot hummed thoughtfully before inspecting one of the Flaxan Tanks as he reached over to yank off a piece of it and used his sensors to scan it.

"Oxidized and corroded. For an alloy like this, that should take years."

"Time runs faster wherever they come from," Cecil says with a look of realization on his face as he looks away with a small glare. "They ran off because they-"

"Were dying of old age." Robot finished as Cecil nodded in understanding.

"Well, if they come back, maybe I'll just evacuate the area and wait till they get cancer. Anyway, how did the new kids do?"

"Well, Omni-Girl showed a new alien form that Rex poorly named, 'Lodestar'. Frankly, I believe that my superhero alien name suggestion was way better, but regardless, this alien gives her the ability to control metal, and since the Flaxan Army was either wearing metal armor or their weapons and tanks were made out of metal, she was able to fight them all off easily. For Virtuna, she fought well and knocked out the majority of them by herself with aid from Metamorpho, Weather Wizard, Plastic Man, Power Girl, and the Flash. As for the last one, his superhero name is 'Invincible'. A bit optimistic, I know. Anyway, he has promise, but he seems unprepared for the more realistic aspects of super-herodom."

Honestly, Cecil had heard worse. And in the back of his head, he wondered, of those 220 innocent people who died, how many could've been saved if he'd let the kids now sooner? He understandably didn't want rookies on such a grand scale, but these were desperate times, and what mistakes they did make were easily fixed.

Like Robot said, Invinicible, Hope, and all of them showed great promise, Mark especially, being the son of the stronger of the two Viltrumite brothers; Theo had been repelling a two-way assault in Africa and had been uncharacteristically ruthless…

"Well, Invinicble and them had better toughen up. We're gonna need their help." Cecil said.

"Why?" Robot asked curiously.

Cecil said nothing and turned around to walk away before teleporting right back to Guardian HQ, where he spotted Donald supervising the investigation on the murder of the Guardians of the Globe as a bunch of GDA Agents.

"From one giant shitshow to another. Give me some good news, Donald."

"Well, whoever did this cut the power and the backup. They killed the cameras and the security systems." Donald explained. "Forensics are frankly stumped. I told them to start over and try harder."

"That's not good news. That's not good news at all; I asked you for some good news, Donald!" Cecil said angrily before taking a deep breath to calm down…and saw that he could see his breath. "Get the hell out. Everyone."

"Come on, you heard the director. Move it." Donald ordered, as all of the GDA Agents were quick to turn around to walk away.

Once they were gone, Cecil sighed heavily as he scowled.

"Come on out. I know you're there."

Suddenly, a demonic figure appeared before them as Donald instinctively pulled out his blaster and aimed it at him, but Cecil merely raised his arm to stand down.

"Wasn't hiding."

Standing before them was a demon with a pair of eyes that have yellow scleras and white irises, grey hair with a white geometric-patterned shaved region, pointy large ears, thin black eyebrows, a broad nose, a thick chin with two horn-like protrusions on the sides, a pair of slim muscular four-fingered arms, red skin, a tall potbellied stout build, a mildly long thick red tail, and his outfit consists of a russet fedora hat with a grey strap, a long-sleeved high-collared worn cream-colored opened raincoat, a skintight long-sleeved two-toned grey undershirt with an abstract geometric pattern on the chest, and wears no shoes.

"Uh, sir, who is he?" Donald asked skeptically.

"Damien Darkblood. Demon Detective." Cecil explained. "Seeks out justice for the dead to save his soul from damnation or something."

Damien went over to bend down and place his hand on some dry blood as he used psychometry to gain an impression of the mysterious crime and gained a vision of a mysterious, tall figure slamming an airborne Darkwing into the ground, hard enough that half of his body was blown off by the force of the attack.

Damien then stretched his arm over to place it on some dry blood with some green shards lying on the ground as he used psychometry again to gain an impression of the mysterious crime and gained a vision of a mysterious tall figure slamming Darkwing up and down on the ground rapidly like a ragdoll before stopping to stare at the half-dead body curiously before the mysterious figure casually tossed him over to an intangible Green Ghost, who reached up to grab the corpse of his comrade by turning himself tangible as his eyes widened in shock and horror at the grave mistake that he made as the mysterious figure then zoomed over to punch through his face before he can turn intangible again, instantly killing him.

"Huh...seven superheroes murdered. Strongest man on the planet almost dead. The second strongest man on the planet showed up shortly after, saying that he came late due to being in the middle of a battle. Mighty suspicious, might make him a suspect, but not totally sure yet. Need further investigating."

"How does he-"

"I don't know. Demon magic or something." Cecil cut Donald off. "If you're asking if we need your help-"

"Wasn't asking," Damien stated bluntly while teleporting over to another dry blood on the ground and reached over to grab a tongue as he used his psychometry to gain an impression of the mysterious crime and gained a vision of a mysterious tall figure killing Red Rush by crushing his head like a grape with nothing but his superhuman strength, splattering the ground with his blood, eyeballs, and brain matter.

"Fine. Knock yourself out. Help us solve the case, oh, Great-horned Holmes." Cecil said in annoyance as he walked away.

"Sir...are you sure?" Donald asked worriedly.

"You got a problem with the Demon? I thought you were an atheist, Donald." Cecil said in a joking tone as he left the room.

"Th-Theoretically," Donald nervously said as he hurried after his boss.

Chapter Text

School was ending for the day as Mark was putting away his books in his locker. He then headed out to find his little sister and their friends were waiting for him.

"Ready?" Eve asked with a sly grin as Mark beamed and nodded as they ran off.

Mark, Eve, Hilda, Rosa, Alana, Penelope, Bridgette, and Luna all quickly dressed up in their superhero costumes as Hope slammed her hand on the Omnitrix, transforming into a humanoid grasshopper alien.

"Crashhopper!"

"Yes! My favorite one!" Alana cheered.

"Wait, why did you transform into that instead of Jetray? Can this alien even keep up?" Atom Eve asked with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms as Crashhopper grinned slyly.

"Oh, I don't know, you tell me!"

She then bent down and jumped up high into the air, leaving behind dual sonic booms and cracking the ground underneath her as the others watched on.

"Oh come on!" Eddy complained.

"Ooh, you're on, kiddo!" Luna called out as she bloated up into her Blueberry Form and rolled after her.

"Hey, no fair!" Mark laughed while he, Hilda, Rosa, Nazz, Atom Eve, Tidal, and Green Ghost flew after them.

"Try to keep up, Dorks!" Kevin smirked as he zoomed off in a blur.

"Screw you guys!" Eddy growled as he molded his legs into a conjoined spring and bounced after them.

"POWERLINE!" Ed shouted as he turned into a bolt of pure lightning and raced across the powerlines.

"Good heavens..." Double-D sighed as he formed a tornado around himself and flew after everyone.

"Yeah, they get like that." Miss Thunder said as she leaped high into the air.

Eventually, the group all arrived at the outskirts of the city. Kevin had already beaten everyone there and was currently eating a hot dog.

"Had time to snag a hot dog on the way over here."

"Super speed bullcrap..." Eddy grumbled.

"So, now what?" Invincible asked.

Suddenly, the floor underneath everyone opened up, and they fell in as Green Ghost flew over to grab Miss Thunder, and the rest of the girls flew down to land on the ground safely. Mark quickly took flight to stop his descent while Double-D created a cushion of wind to slow his fall. Eddy and Ed just comically splatted on the ground, Eddy flattening like a cartoon character while Ed turned into a puddle of ooze before reshaping himself.

"Just once, I'd like something to go right..." Eddy muttered as he peeled himself off the floor.

"Gangway!"

Luna, still in her Blueberry Form, flattened Eddy once more into the ground, her body wobbling and jiggling as she winced.

"Hello!"

"Sorry about that..." The blueberry goth girl sighed as she shrank down.

Crasshopper front-flipped over to land on the ground before looking around in awe, realizing they were all standing in an underground superhero lair.

The rest of the Teen Team were there already. Robot was studying about the Flaxans on his computer, Rex Splode was playing a game of ping pong with Dupli-Kate, and two boys with brown hair were lying on the couch, watching TV.

"Rosa!" One of the two boys said as he got off the couch and ran up to the rubenesque girl, who beamed as she scooped him in a hug.

"Nate!"

Rex Splode turned to greet everyone, only to freak out when he saw Crasshopper, which allowed the ping pong ball to hit him upside the head when Dupli-Kate returned it.

"What the hell kind of monster is that?!"

"It's me, Omni-Girl, bozo," Crasshopper said with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh, right..."

"Welcome, everyone," Robot said as he approached the group. "My name is Robot. Apologies for Rex Splode. He's...incorrigible."

"I'm Dupli-Kate."

"I'm Hilbert." The other brown-haired boy greeted. "But you probably know me as Lunadrake."

"Name's Nate, but call me Black Beetle when I'm going hero," Nate smirked.

"Hi, I'm Invincible." Mark introduced himself as Hilda raised her hand.

"And I'm Ultra-V."

"I am Metamorpho: Element E!" Ed proudly declared.

"Simply call me the Weather Wizard," Double-D said.

"Plastic Man, the guy who can be anything you KNEAD," Eddy smirked.

"Stop," Luna begged.

"Power Girl, on the scene!" Nazz smiled.

"And I'm the Flash," Kevin smirked.

"And I'm Crashhopper, but you can call me Omni-Girl," Crashhopper said just as her Omnitrix symbol began beeping red as she transformed back into her Human Form with a flash of red light. "Huh, I guess the fifteen minutes are up."

"Oh, wow, you are way shorter than I thought," Rex noted.

"And you are more annoying than I thought." Hope shot back sassily.

"Hey, Robot, find anything at the site?" Eve asked.

"The Flaxans come from a dimension with a faster temporal rate. As a result, the tachyons they emit spin more rapidly than our own."

"Which means that they age faster in our dimension than they do in their own dimension. That also means that there is an easy way for us to track them if they were ever teleported back into our dimension by tracking their temporal after-trails." Hope said as Robot beeped in surprise.

"Huh... That is entirely correct. You are smarter than you look, Omni-Girl. Anyway, I was able to create this detector to warn us if they return."

Robot gestured toward his computer as Rex scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Ah, because we almost missed all the explosions and the screaming and the chaos."

"Oh, so you want the Flaxans to be able to attack and kill innocent people before we show up?" Hilda asked with a glare as Rex winced.

"Anyway, our detector should give us a few minutes of early warning if the Flaxans ever show up again. Cecil and the GDA have also requested to call on us for any possible emergencies." Robot said. "Since the Guardians are apparently...indisposed, may we count on you three in the future?"

"Absolutely!" Hope and Ed both said excitedly.

"Well, helping people is a core fundamental of being a hero," Double-D said.

"Heck yeah! We're gonna kick those aliens' butts all the way back to where they came!" Eddy cheered.

The next day, Mark, Hope, and Hilda visited the still comatose Nolan in the GDA Medical Ward.

"I know you don't like teams much, Uncle Nolan, but they were all pretty cool," Hilda said.

"Except for Rex Splode. I do not know what that guy's problem is." Mark added.

"Hey, I think Luna mentioned he and Eve recently broke up. You might have a shot with her." Hilda playfully said.

"S-Shut up," Mark muttered in embarrassment.

"Who's Eve?" Debbie asked as she walked in.

"Uh...no one, Mom. Just-Just a friend." Mark said awkwardly.

"Mm-hmm," Debbie smirked as she rolled her eyes playfully. "Did you find the dinners in the freezer?"

"Thanks, Mama." Hope sadly said, which made Debbie kneel down to hug her.

"Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry. I've been so focused on your dad that I've forgotten about you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah..."

Debbie then stood up and turned to Mark.

"Donald said you, Hilda, and your friends saved a lot of lives."

"Yeah. It was just, um...harder than I thought." Mark somberly admitted. "Dad didn't talk about this part of being a superhero."

"And I just miss Daddy." Hope sadly added.

"Your dad's good at a lot of things. Talking about his feelings isn't one of them...but we can talk. I'm always here for you, kids." Debbie said while hugging both her kids tighter.

Mark decided to excuse himself to get a soda when he noticed the civilian medical wing and saw the old lady he had rescued from the Flaxans the other day.

"Is, uh...is she okay?" He asked one of the doctors.

"Her name's Maya."

"Doesn't she have any family?"

"We've contacted them, yes, but this is a secure facility. She's not strong enough for us to transfer her to a normal hospital."

"But she'll be okay?" Mark asked hopefully as the Doctor sighed somberly.

"Well, it's too soon to tell, but I hope so."

The next day, Hope was hanging out with Sarah, Jimmy, and Johnny at school, talking about TV, homework, and guesses for what the next day's lunch special would be, before Hope got an alert on her phone.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Sarah asked in concern as Hope turned to them.

"Mark texted me and told me that he and the others were alerted by Robot that the Flaxans are back, and have an even bigger army this time."

"Oh dear!" Jimmy cried.

"Well, go and kick their butts!" Sarah said.

Hope nodded as she got up from her chair and ran off. Johnny frowned as he watched her leave before turning to Plank and nodding.

"I agree, buddy. If those aliens are back, then they might be better prepared."

He then got up and took out a makeshift remote as he snuck off as well.

"Looks like it's time for Captain Melonhead and Splinter the Wonderwood to return to action!"

Invincible, Ultra-V, Metamorpho, Weather Wizard, Plastic Man, Power Girl, Flash, Atom Eve, Green Ghost, Tidal, Luna, Miss Thunder, and Ivory had flown to a random building where Rex Splode, Robot, Dupli-Kate, Black Beetle, and Lunadrake were already there waiting.

"Uh, where are you guys coming from?" Rex asked in annoyance.

"Um, we go to the same high school, Rex," Eve said flatly.

"Oh, you do, do you?"

"Um, yeah, we do," Invincible said with a raised eyebrow as he crossed his arms.

"Must be nice. You know who never got to go to high school? Me." Rex said.

"Yeah, it shows." Kevin quipped.

This caused everyone, except Rex, obviously, to burst into laughter before Hope, in the form of Jetray, flew in.

"Sorry, I'm late, guys!"

"Glad to know that everyone is here," Robot said. "However, I'd appreciate your attention on the matter at hand now."

"Guess who's back?" Dupli-Kate said with a glare while pointing down as the gang was surprised to see the Flaxan Army emerging out of the dimensional portal and were once again shooting at various civilians while rolling out into their high-tech tanks, as everyone noticed that none of them seemed to be aging rapidly like before.

"They're not getting old, Robot. Why aren't they getting old?" Rex asked as Robot swiftly analyzed the area before him.

"They seem to have discovered a way to resist our time stream. Not only that, but I have also scanned their weapons and tanks, and it seems that they remade them to be non-magnetic. Meaning that if Omni-Girl uses her Lodestar Form, she will be completely useless against them."

"Whoa, what?! They did all of that bullshit in three days?!" A shocked Green Ghost asked as Double-D shook his head.

"Three days for us. Decades for them."

"Who cares? I bet their bones still break." Dupli-Kate said with a cocky smirk.

"Let's go!" Black Beetle cheered.

Robot called up his hovercraft, and he, Dupli-Kate, Rex, Rosa, Tidal, Black Beetle, and Lundrake flew off.

"Alright, better change into a different form for this!" Hope said as she slapped her Omnitrix symbol and transformed into a different alien, this one having the appearance of a jellyfish.

"AMPFIBIAN!"

And she flew forward with her tentacles at the ready; she was noticed.

"KILL THE SHAPESHIFTER FIRST! THEN THE VILTRUMITES!" A commander cried out as a squad surrounded Hope…who didn't seem concerned,

"Um, ain't that your kid sis?" Rex asked Invincible. "She looks in…"

"You missed her in action last time, didn't you?" Invincible smirked.

As if hearing her brother, Hope's tentacles hit the squad and unleashed megavolts of electricity into their systems.

"Gee, do I feel a bit of electricity between us, or is it just me?"

Another soldier tried a physical attack from behind, but the blow phased through.

"Can't touch this!"

As the fight raged on, the heroes felt secure but needed a change. So when a Flaxian tank suddenly crashed onto shoulders and a new voice called out:

"Your time or reckoning has come, vile invaders!" A new voice cried out.

The cul-de-sac kids all tensed,

"Wait…" Mark asked. "Is that?"

"No way." Hilda gasped.

"He wouldn't…!" Nazz worried.

"After what happened after Eddy's Bro?!" Kevin asked.

"Wedon'ttalkaboutEddy'sbro." The cul-de-sac kids all hurriedly mumbled as a new figure entered the fray, standing atop a Flanxian tank.

Suddenly Johnny, now in a green costume and using a camera stick to hold Plank, who wore a bandana mask while Johnny wore a watermelon on his head, stepped forward.

"IT'S MELON TIME!"

"JOHNNY?!" Mark, Hilda, Hope, the Eds, Nazz, and Kevin screamed in shock as their friend sent several soldiers flying.

"Not anymore, friends and fellow heroes!" The imaginative boy smirked. "Call me...CAPTAIN MELONHEAD!"

A Flaxian soldier readied to fire a blaster, but Captain Melonhead leapt upwards and slammed Plank with enough force to send the soldier flying into a horde of his fellows and into an evacuated building, which crumbled as everyone stared with their jaws dropped.

"I think he's got this," Ed noted with a smirk overtaking his face.

"I DONE TOLD Y'ALL THERE WAS SOMETHING OFF WITH JOHNNY!" Eddy screamed before the battle recommenced.

On the battlefield, Robot flew the gang over to the Flaxan Army as they jumped off from his hovercraft. Luna swiftly swelled up into her Blueberry Form as she slammed herself on top of a group of Flaxans, instantly killing them as Rex reached down to grab his white cylinders and covered them with yellow explosive energy, and then tossed them forward. They collided with another group of Flaxans, blowing them to pieces as Dupli-Kate duplicated herself up to 20 times, the clones all landing on the ground to go over and punch and kick various Flaxans away as Robot helped them out from the air by blasting apart several Flaxans with his energy cannons.

Flying onto the scene, Hope unleashed electric blasts with Johnny riding on her as he threw out acorns that exploded into vines that wrapped around the Flaxans as Green Ghost flew down and fired several ectoplasmic energy bolts to blast apart multiple Flaxans.

Sharing a serious nod, Mark and Hilda flew downwards into the air, colliding against various Flaxans and either sending them flying away or cutting through them in half with the help of their superhuman speed and durability as Eve's eyes glowed pink and raised her glowing pink energy hands as she transmuted the Flaxans' blasters into steel rope and wrapped them around their bodies, restraining them.

Slash, the Flaxan that Mark had scarred previously, grinned as he nodded over to his men, who carried out three large energy cannons that fired continuous beams of red energy, which vaporized Dupli-Kate's clones as she quickly ran for cover.

Rex tried to help by throwing more of his exploding cylinders, only for two Flaxans to hold up their blasters and fire an invisible shockwave that seemingly took control of his explosive projectiles and returned them to the sender as they exploded near the ground that he was standing on, sending him flying away with a painful scream.

Looking around in shock, Green Ghost then yelped in surprise when a lone Flaxan held up a giant blaster and fired a big red energy blast that collided against her body, causing her to scream in pain and lose control of her powers as she turned intangible and tangible repeatedly while firing out continuous beams of ectoplasmic energy as she lost control of her flight and crashed down into the ground.

Eve flew over to land in front of a group of innocent civilians and raised her hands to create a giant pink energy wall that resembled giant gates of a castle and used it to protect them from the incoming red energy blasts as, unknown to her, five white drones flew onto the scene and collided against her face, arms, and legs, causing her to yelp in surprise and crash down into the ground while losing focus on her powers as she struggled to breath.

"A laser cannon that can spew out a big laser continuously with no stopping, explosive particle retractor cannons, an ectoplasmic energy disrupter, and energy-absorbing orbs. They have created weapons designed to take us all out, specifically. They seem to have spent their time wisely." Robot noted.

Several Flaxans suddenly tossed several triangle-shaped mechanical pieces of technology, and they flew over to attach themselves to Robot's back and hovercraft, sending out multiple volts of electricity that disabled them and caused him to crash down into the ground, damaging his hovercraft.

"Get dunked on!" Hilda screamed while he and Mark flew over to slam their fists into the ground, creating a big shockwave that blew away a lot of Flaxans as several Flaxan Tanks turned to them and fired out multiple big red energy blasts that collided against the two Half-Viltrumites' bodies.

"Ultra-V! Invincible!" Rosa called out, only for Slash to fire a bunch of dark gray goo from his blaster that collided against her and stuck her to a nearby truck.

"Babe!" Black Beetle called out as he flew over to try to pry her free

"Beetle, look out!" Lunadrake called out as several Flaxans opened fire on his friend, making him quickly fly down to erect a solid barrier of stone.

"OH HELP ME!" Ed cried as the Flaxans seemed to be hitting him with some kind of destabilizer ray, preventing him from shapeshifting.

The only ones still in the fight right now were Hope, Johnny, Double-D, Eddy, Nazz, Kevin, Luna, Tidal, and Miss Thunder, but even they would be overwhelmed by the Flaxans soon enough.

Slash then looked around and spotted Eve squirming on the ground while struggling to remove the probe from her face. He grinned sinisterly and walked over to aim his blaster at her, planning to kill her. Mark noticed this and grew furious.

"NO!"

With a roar of rage, Mark pushed through the lasers and smashed all the Flaxans around him, giving him and Hilda space to move again as they both flew into the air and began slamming into every Flaxan tank nearby,

"Invincible! Ultra-V" An immobilized Robot cried as Mark whirled around and noticed that Eve was in trouble as he flew over to rip apart the probes on her body, allowing her to finally breathe as she took deep breaths.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, thanks..."

Johnny was dropped off by Ampfibian to make his way to the exhausted Dupli-Kate, handing her a special kind of leaf.

"Here, eat this!"

Doing so, Kate suddenly felt her energy return in full force as Johnny noticed the tanks opening fire with their sweeping lasers again, only to plant what looked like a plant pot, only for it to grow into a giant tree in seconds that seemed to somehow absorb the lasers.

"How did you do THAT?!" Nazz asked.

"Plank knows people!" Johnny smirked.

Rex was desperately throwing more of his exploding cylinders in hopes of hitting the Flaxans, but they kept reflecting them. Thankfully, Miss Thunder leaped in and stomped down hard enough to create a shockwave that sent the Flaxans flying.

"You know beating a dead horse is stupid, right?"

"Screw you! I was panicking!"

Ampfibian flew over to Robot and used her bio-electric powers to short out the machines, freeing him as he stood up.

"Thanks for the help...wait, what do you call this alien again?" Robot asked as Marcy shrugged sheepishly.

"Ampfibian!"

"Hmmm, it seems your powers are bio-electric based."

"Yeah, and I look like a jellyfish. Hence why I'm Ampfibian!"

"But aren't jellyfish invertebrates?" Robot noted.

"Hey, I just call 'em as I see 'em!"

Slash, having been knocked back by Mark earlier, got up only to see a wristband on his left arm sparking loudly, causing him to age rapidly.

"The wristbands protect them from our timestream!" Robot realized. "Destroy their wristbands!"

"What?! All of them?!" Rex Splode asked in disbelief as Ampfibian hummed thoughtfully and came up with an idea.

"Stand back, everyone!"

Charging up all of her bio-electrical power, Ampfibian let out a mighty roar as she released a massive stream of electricity. She then turned to Lunadrake.

"Lunadrake! Can you give me a boost!"

Lunadrake, realizing what was being implied, nodded as he flew over and charged up massive amounts of electricity himself, joining in as the combined lightning created a massive stream that blasted the Flaxans, short-circuiting and destroying their wristbands as they all began to age rapidly, forcing them to retrat. Slash glared at the superheroes angrily as he then went through the portal and it closed up.

"Yee-haw!" Johnny cheered. "We did it!"

"Thanks for helping us out there," Robot said gratefully to Hope.

"And thanks for saving us from those Flaxans," Luna added.

"Ditto." Green Ghost said.

"You did great, Invincible." Eve praised as Mark blushed and nodded.

"Thanks, I don't know what happened back there. I got mad, and I guess I got a power boost."

"Same, must be thanks to our Human Halves boosting our Viltrumite Powers temporarily," Hilda said.

"Okay, I officially take back everything I said about you guys." Rex smiled.

"You've said things?" Hope asked, a brow raised.

Suddenly, Mark got a buzz on his phone and checked it, only for his eyes to widen in shock as he turned to Hope and Hilda.

"Uh, sorry, but we gotta go."

Hope and Hilda were confused but they both flew after Mark.

"Oh, no, that's fine! We'll handle the clean-up, assholes!" Rex complained.

Mark, Hope, and Hilda arrived at Nolan's medical room to find him fully healed with Theo and Debbie sitting beside him.

"Oh, hey, kids."

"DAD!/DADDY!/UNCLE NOLAN!"

Mark zoomed over to hug his father, and Hope rushed over, leapt into the air, and landed on his lap to hug him, causing Nolan to yelp in pain at his children's combined hug.

"Ow! Ribs!"

"Careful! You're going to put him in a coma again!" An amused Debbie warned as Mark and Hope separated from him.

"You're okay."

"No, he's not, but he is okay enough to come home," Debbie says with a soft smile as Hope cheered and hugs her father again.

"Yay! Daddy's Back! Ooh, wait, I have something prepared for you when you wake up! Be right back!"

Hope crawled out of the bed and landed on the ground before running off.

"So, uh, Mom says you and Hilda have been keeping the planet safe for me and Theo," Nolan said to Mark.

"She's exaggerating a bit." Mark chuckled.

"Tell me everything," Nolan said with a warm smile.

"Me as well," Theo said, a cold glare on his face.

Nolan tensed briefly before glaring back at his brother. Mark, Debbie, and Hilda all looked worried at what was going on between the two of them before Hope ran back in with her jacket wrapped around her head and held a drum via a strap around her neck and two drumsticks as she began drumming it loudly.

"Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back! Dad's back!"