The Protagonist System
351 The Thick Of Things

I felt myself assuming my new identity as my mind and body settled into the hospital bed. The memories that usually slammed into my head just flittered by without any rush or pain. It was humbling to have the memories of 17 years of life go through the front of my brain, which in some respects was a boring normal life. My name was Markus Sebastian Grayson and my friends called me Mark.

However, there was one exception to that so-called boring life. I was the son of the most powerful hero on the planet, Omni-man. I had been let in on the secret years ago and had been hoping for a long time for my powers to kick in. Why did it have to take so long to inherit even a fraction of my father's power?

Because I could have been born completely human and there was no way to tell until my powers activated. Then, for no particular reason, I was working at my part-time job at Burger Mart and suddenly gained super strength. Yep, it was just an arbitrary moment with no catalyst or explanation.

Then I started slowly gaining more abilities. My toughness shot through the roof, I learned how to fly, which was pretty awkward, and gained enhanced hearing. It was a bit overwhelming at first, because going from a normal everyday life to having powers was both a rush and a huge worry.

Being an idiot and a teenager, I confessed all of that to my parents. Neither of them looked happy that it was finally happening and I wouldn't find out until later that it was for much different reasons. Mom because she had wanted a normal life for me and my dad... well... that was how I ended up in the hospital.

I know what you're thinking. You let the powers go to your head. Yeah, I really did. But, that wasn't why I was in the hospital. You see, I had fully embraced the hero life, calling myself Invincible. I even had my dad taking some time out of his own busy schedule to teach me a few things. He even bought me my first real costume. Those were some of the greatest bonding moments we had together since I was a kid.

The problems started when something he did in secret before came to light. We had all thought it had been a great battle against some unknown foe, which Omni-man fought against, alongside the Guardians of the Globe, who were a bunch of superheroes that came together under government oversight to handle the things normal people couldn't.

The truth was, it was Omni-man himself that the Guardians of the Globe had fought against and they were all decimated, with most of them dying and Omni-man barely surviving. He grew stronger and more powerful because of it, too. That was his thing.

Oh, and he was an alien from an advanced civilization bent on conquering the universe. The Vultrimite Empire sent scouts out to various planets to prepare them to join the Empire, whether they wanted to or not. Yeah, that didn't go over well with me when he tried to recruit me to his cause.

Being the idiot teenager I was, I chose to fight him. Yeah, yeah, I know. He trained me, knew all my moves, and was a whole lot stronger, faster, and smarter than I was. He devastated me. He used me like a battering ram and killed thousands of people, destroyed most of downtown Chicago using my body like a weapon, and beat me into a pulp halfway around the world on the side of Mount Everest.

We had been talking the whole time as my dad pummelled me and did his best to convince me that human lives were meaningless. We would live for thousands of years, barely growing older as time passed, and that a human's lifespan was barely a blink of an eye to our race. He also told me how he saw my mother as little more than a pet.

He mangled most of my body, and my face was ruined to the point that I could only see shadows, with my eyes mostly swollen shut. I had lost several teeth, both cheeks and my nose were broken, and my breathing was so laboured that I was sure both of my lungs were full of blood. He ranted at me about starting over and wasting another 17 years to have another kid to replace me, too.

I had to admit to myself that it really hurt to hear him say those things about me and my mom. Then he asked me a question. A very important question. Since all of humanity was worthless, and their lives meant nothing, what was I going to have left in my life after 50 years? I answered with the truth and ignored the chance he gave me to defend humanity.

“I'd still have you, dad.” I whispered and saw the instant conflict on his face.

Thankfully, it was enough to stop him from punching my head in completely, which I was grateful for. As I lost consciousness, I saw him flying away up into the air and felt sad at the sight, then felt nothing until I woke up here. I still must have died, though. I wouldn't have been able to slip in if there wasn't a spot for me to fit in.

Now, here I was on a hospital bed, wrapped up in bandages and casts and looked like an Egyptian mummy, with my legs up in traction. I had to hold back my body's natural powers and regeneration, to keep up the ruse that I needed time to heal, because I wasn't alone in the room and there were several cameras and recording devices.

I slowly opened my eyes to look at the fairly pretty older woman with dark hair sitting beside the bed. “H-h-hey, mom.”

“Don't try to talk. You're going to be okay.” Debbie Grayson said as she stood, then her hand reached for me and gently caressed the side of my face. “You're safe now, Mark. It's all over.” She turned away slightly and paused, sighed as she picked up a cup of water with a straw in it, and turned back to me. “Here, drink.”

I sucked up a small amount and swallowed. It tasted funny, so I was sure it was dosed with something, probably to keep me relaxed. A touch of Panacea's power told me it was full of muscle relaxers and pain medication. The IV drip had something similar and was also a saline solution full of nutrients.

“I'm so proud of you.” Debbie said and put the cup down before her hand went back on my face.

“Th-thanks.” I whispered and she smiled at me.

“You didn't have to stand up to him like that.” She said and ran her fingers though my short black hair.

“Yes, I did.” I responded and her smile grew.

“You could have run... or pretended to agree...” She continued.

I shook my head and hissed in fake pain.

Debbie put her other hand on my face and held my head still. “I said don't move, Mark. You were severely hurt and... and he... he...” She broke down crying and almost laid on top of me to hug me as she cried her eyes out.

I had a cast on one arm that covered my hand and a cast on my other forearm, which meant I only had the one hand free to hug her and hold her. I patted her back and didn't complain or tried to push her off, even though she was technically making my injuries worse. That didn't matter to me as much as comforting my mother.

“Shh. It's okay.” I whispered and rubbed her back a little. “Like you said, it's over now.”

Debbie cried for quite some time, right up until she realized she was draped over me and was hugging a severely injured person. She gasped and tried to let me go and push herself off.

I held onto her. “I said it's okay.” I whispered and eased my hold on her slightly, so she could move back without having to stop hugging me.

Debbie moved back just enough to look at my face and her own face was tear streaked with a worried expression on it. “Mark...”

“I'll be fine.” I reassured her. “You know I will.”

Debbie nodded and used a hand to wipe at the tears.

“Allow me to do that.” I said and intentionally used my cast covered hand as I very lightly bopped her on the nose. “Oops. Wrong hand.”

Debbie looked surprised for a second and then laughed. It didn't stop the tears, it just changed the source. I used my other hand to cup the side of her face and my thumb caught a few of them. She looked grateful for both attempts to help her wipe off her face.

“Don't worry. Things are going to be better now.” I promised and she nodded.

“I should go and let you rest.” Debbie said and stepped back from the bed, gave me a sad smile, and picked up her purse.

“I'll be out of here before you know it.” I said to her as she walked to the door. It hissed open for her and she gave me a glance, seemed to steel herself, and stepped out into the hallway.

I pretended not to hear what she and Cecil Stedman, the head of the Global Defense Agency, talked about. It also let me know that this wasn't just any hospital, it was run by the Global Defense Agency and was top of the line.

After a few minutes, mom thanked him for his kind words, for his support, and walked away. I was sure she would be heading home, now that I was awake and she could stop worrying about if I would ever wake up after the beating I took. Either that or she was going out for a drink. Actually, I could use a drink, too.

Cecil stepped into the room and the door hissed closed behind him. “That was a hell of thing you did there.”

I heard the respect in his calm voice. “Thanks.”

“You've been out of it for about three days.” Cecil said and paused, which gave me a minute to look at him. He wore a normal suit and he was pretty old, had a scarred face, was half-bald, and the remains of his scraggly white hair was almost like a mullet. “My guys got you patched up good; but, it was hit and miss for a while. They thought they lost you a few times before they managed to stabilize you.”

I sighed at him confirming it. “I figured as much. Dad didn't really hold back at all.”

“No, he didn't.” Cecil said and then chuckled. “Until he did. That was a nice verbal shot you gave him at the end. It made him pause. Made him think.”

“Yeah.” I said and felt a little proud of that, then I tried to take a deep breath and felt the pressure from the bandages around my chest and pretended to take a small coughing fit. I wasn't going to give away that I wasn't as hurt as they thought I was. Not yet, anyway.

“Get some rest, kid. We'll talk later when you're healed up a bit.” Cecil said and turned around to leave.

“Wait.” I said and he paused. “Will you really tell me what's going on?”

“That depends on if you still want to be a hero or not.” Cecil said and turned back to look at me.

“A hero? After what just happened?” I asked and his mouth firmed up into a line.

“Yeah, that was rough kid. Plenty rough.” Cecil said and then seemed to make a decision. “Just so you know, your mom was there in the monitoring room with me when that went down. She heard it. All of it.”

“She heard... everything dad said?” I asked, tentatively. “About her? About... me?”

Cecil nodded and didn't say anything.

I let out a soft sigh. “No wonder she broke down after telling me it was over.”

Cecil nodded again and stayed quiet.

“I suppose it's better that she knows the truth.” I commented.

Cecil gave me a searching look. “She knew Omni-Man was the one that killed the Guardians of the Globe. She didn't say anything to you about it, mostly because she was holding out hope that there was a good reason for it.” He huffed. “We all were, actually.” He turned away from me again. “How unfortunate for us that the good reason was because it was to make it easier to be conquered.”

It was my turn to stay quiet this time, because I knew he had a lot more to say about that.

Instead of continuing, Cecil went to the door and it opened for him. “When you're better, I'll ask you that hero question again. Maybe if you have a better answer for me, there's more I can tell you.” He stepped out of the room and gave me a little wave. “There's definitely a lot more to show you. When you're ready.”

The door closed after those cryptic words and I closed my eyes. I knew there was someone watching me, so I stayed silent and didn't try to do anything, like sitting up or seeing how far I could actually move my limbs. Staying right where I was and figuring things out was the best course of action I could take right now.

How was I supposed to have fun in this world with a start like this? I asked myself and then chuckled out loud. It's definitely an interesting way to kick off my next adventure, that was for sure.

I laid back and let myself wallow in Mark's more recent memories, essentially reliving the last few months for myself, and I winced in metaphorical pain at a lot of them and the people watching the live feed should be reassured that I was still severely hurt and needed to recover more.

How could I have been so stupid with how things went with my ex-girlfriend Amber? I should have called her out on her hypocrisy about honesty and coming clean when she broke up with me. All I was trying to do was keep her and my family safe by maintaining my secret identity while keeping my hero and civilian lives separate.

Even with that, I had still confessed to her because I wanted to include her in my life, and the bitch had the gall to admit she had known I was a hero for weeks and didn't tell me, while she also treated me like shit, because I had to go save the world and lied to her about it, as if that was the wrong thing to do and I didn't spend the time with her.

I actually felt relief as I thought about it, because who needed that toxic shit in their lives? Not me, that's who. I no longer had to worry about her discovering my secret, either by accident or by her seeing all the signs I had accidentally left for her to discover. I also didn't have to keep lying to her.

Then again, she could tell anyone my secret identity, or worse, let it slip in public and all the local villains could get their revenge on my friends and family. I mean, it wasn't like I could swear her to secrecy, not after how she told me off and claimed I made her feel stupid and unimportant because I hadn't trusted her, except I had trusted her and she totally blew me off for it.

My friend William also knew my secret and he made almost no effort at all to keep it. He let it slip a bunch of times, and in public no less, and that was annoying and made me angry. How could he be so stupid to risk both his life and mine like that? It boggles the mind. He also reamed me out for being insensitive and said I deserved it when Amber broke up with me. Really, dude? Fuck you, too.

Last up in my most recent memories was Samantha Eve Wilkins, or better known as her superhero name Atom Eve. She didn't wear a mask or bothered trying to hide her identity; and yet, she would get upset if anyone talked about her being a superhero when she was out of costume. She also berated me for how I handled things with Amber and that she understood where my ex was coming from.

I had been smart for once during that argument and hadn't brought up her own ex cheating on her with Dupli-Kate, an Asian woman with the power to split herself into three bodies, which Rex Sloan was enjoying in the shower at the time when Eve walked in on them. Unlike me, he was a total asshole about the whole thing and acted like he did nothing wrong, because it hadn't been the first time he had cheated on her.

If I had done something like that, everyone and their dog would have been yelling their heads off at me for it. Rex-Splode? He barely received a talking to by the junior team leader named Robot about ruining the trust of his teammates, then it was forgotten as if it didn't matter. Eve did quit the team over it, so at least she didn't have to look at his face every day during team meetings.

Now, here I was, after getting my ass thoroughly beaten by my father, and I was wondering why the hell I was such a pussy in my civilian life while at the same time I kicked ass and took names in my hero life.

Also, I caused more than my fair share of collateral damage, both personal and professional, and that was not good. At all. I realized then that I needed to change my behavior, both in my civilian and my hero lifestyles, and my stay in the hospital would give me the chance to do so without anyone questioning it. Using the trauma to fix myself was the perfect excuse and I was going to abuse it as much as I could.

First up? Remembering how long my injuries healed in the past. It didn't take me long to discover my missing teeth usually grew back, which explained why my dad always had a perfect smile. I also usually took a week or so to heal a single major injury and I currently had 4 mostly immobilized limbs. So, two weeks should be a good timeline to heal myself up completely, taking into account Mark's normal regeneration rate and then adding in my abilities, which included my divine body and my Kryptonian heritage. It would also let my recovery explain why I was much more powerful than I used to be.

Yes, this was the best way to fundamentally change who Invincible was and to save myself a lot of future headaches. Should I keep the name, though? I kind of preferred Atlas, since I used it in a few worlds now and this was just the latest one.

It made me chuckle again as I thought about retiring my current hero persona, which was a slim and short muscular build with dark hair, and replace it with the tall, blond, blue-eyed and bulging muscle build that was Atlas. Could I use this recovery time to adjust myself to that? Maybe say it was dye to explain the hair change when I'm out being a hero?

It was something to think about for the next two weeks as I recovered. That was plenty of time to make a decision about how I was going to live my life from now on.