Project Rowdy II - Interlude 1

Static hissed across the screen, white noise and digital snow before the signal finally locked onto a new channel. Channel 7 Action News flashes across a screen as the eagle logo spins, all chrome and blue and red and everything else to the point of overdone patriotism. The anchor’s tie was crooked, TV makeup melting under studio lights that had been running for days straight.

"—sources inside the Pentagon are remaining tight-lipped, but the question on everyone's mind remains the same: where is Omni-Man? And what happens now that we know the truth?"

Click.

BBC World Service, the panel sitting up straight, each one of them an expert beamed in from six different continents. Chyron scrolling in English, Arabic, Mandarin, building a tower of anxiety in three languages.

A Chinese woman leaned forward, her dark hair tied back in a tight bun, the name ‘Sarah Chen’ and her title of ‘xenobiology specialist’ right beneath that on the chyron. "It's not just a betrayal. It's a complete paradigm shift. The word 'Viltrumite' has entered the global lexicon overnight, and it's a word that means, quite simply, that we are not alone, and we are not safe."

Click.

Shaky vertical footage appeared on the screen, someone’s iPhone held sideways because nobody taught them how to ever film properly. The audio was a mess of wind, panic and groaning concrete.

"—they were just kids! The Trinity kids, they were right there! He... he just went through them! Oh my God, he just went through them—"

The video cut to a buffering wheel. Swipe.

@ReaITalk_News: BREAKING: NYC Hero Bulletproof spotted with Robot, Rex Splode and Dupli-Kate New Guardian lineup confirmed? Thread 1/47

@superhero_stans: bulletproof is literally just Invincible-lite… or I guess, dark.

@LongLive99: you people jokey-joking while my city looks like a fucking crater. real funny.

@ReaITalk_News: 2/47 Sources telling me the Guardians personally recruited Bulletproof. This isn't random. They're building something.

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The New York Clarion loaded, paywall immediately blocking half the content somehow bypassed without a single click

New Guardians Get New Blood: Bulletproof Joins the World's Protectors

Click.

Fox News appeared on the screen, the chyron below it reading GUARDIAN CRISIS: ARE WE SAFE? while Tucker Carlson's face stared with his perpetually confused look.

"Now I'm not saying Bulletproof isn't qualified, but when did we start recruiting our planetary defense team based on diversity quotas instead of—"

Click.

Local Atlanta affiliate, WAGA-TV showed helicopter footage of the crater where downtown used to be as buildings leaned at angles that really shouldn’t, twisted into sculptures of failure.

"—estimated reconstruction costs have now exceeded two hundred billion dollars, making this the most expensive superhuman incident in recorded history. Meanwhile, residents continue to ask: where is Invincible? Where is the Trinity team? And why haven't they been seen since—"

Click.

Robot's voice cut through all the sound on the video feed: The Guardians of the Globe are entering a new era. We will honor the legacy of our fallen friends by building a stronger, more prepared team. Bulletproof is the first step. He will not be the last.

The feed cut to dead air.

The page scrolled down, past banner ads hawking home security systems and something called "Viltrumite Invasion Insurance" with a cartoon alien getting punched by a cartoon superhero. 

Another headline caught the screen's glare, this one from Metahuman Monthly: EXCLUSIVE: The Immortal Returns

The photo showed a man with eyes that looked like they'd seen too much and a jawline carved from something harder than granite.

"Death is... a recurring inconvenience," he stated, tone weary as concrete. "But it is not an end. My place is here, on the front line. The Guardians need to be a shield. I intend to be the heart of it."

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@Trust_Verify: Okay but are we not gonna talk about how the #Trinity kids were literal children. Saw a clip of the green one getting his ribs broken. This is sick. Where are they now? Are they okay? #WhereIsTrinity #ChildSoldiers

@RealisDic replying to @Trust_Verify: They were the only ones who could even make Omni-Man bleed. I don't care if they're toddlers or teens, if they can fight, let 'em fight. Better them than us.

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A video clip autoplayed, audio crackling through phone speakers. A news anchor live on scene in Atlanta, the feed distorted like someone recorded it off their TV screen.

"...fragments of what has been described as an alien conqueror's speech have been leaked online. In it, Omni-Man claims Earth will become part of a 'Viltrumite Empire.' We are showing you the only government-verified audio now..."

Static hissed. Then Omni-Man's voice cut through, cold and clear as winter morning, words that made the phone's tiny speakers vibrate.

"...everything on this planet belongs to the Viltrumite Empire now. Including you three... curiosities."

The screen fractured into a grid, dozens and dozens of anchors and talking heads doing absolutely nothing but speaking over each other because taking turns was for kids.

A silver-haired anchor pointed his pen at the camera, expression serious and bags heavy under her eyes even past the professionally layered makeup. "—the geopolitical ramifications are staggering. For twenty years, the world's defense strategy predicated on one, simple fact: Omni-Man. Now, that fact has become a liability. Every nation scrambling, defense budgets skyrocketing, and old tensions are flaring—"

He got cut off by a younger, sharper-faced pundit, banner reading "THE VILTRUMITE QUESTION" flashing below her face in red letters that screamed emergency. "—and let's talk about the real scandal here, which is the complete lack of oversight. We had child soldiers fighting a war on our soil, and no one is answering for it! Where are they now? Are they in custody? Are they being protected? Or are they being prepped for the next meat grinder—"

Local Atlanta anchor stood in front of the still-devastated downtown, her voice trembling but steady in that way reporters learned to fake. "—but for the people here, the questions are less about geopolitics and more about their lives. Over seven thousand confirmed dead. Tens of thousands displaced. The city is healing, but the psychological wound remained. They talk about Invincible, about the young heroes of Trinity, who stood against a god and bought this city, and this world, precious time. They call them the 'Atlanta 4,' heroes who vanished in the aftermath, leaving a city to wonder if they are recovering, or if they too were casualties of—"

"...one month since the devastation in Atlanta, and the questions remain. Where is Omni-Man? And what is the international community doing to prepare for his potential return?"

"... leaked audio… Omni-Man’s words…that’s the key! 'Everything on this planet belongs to the Viltrumite Empire now.' That wasn't a threat, that was a declaration of ownership! The government's silence is complicity!"

The third pundit stood in front of a half-rebuilt skyscraper that leaned wrong: "...the city is healing, but the scars ran deep. Memorials continued to grow for the hundreds lost. Meanwhile, the world asks: where are the heroes who fought alongside Invincible? Where is Team Trinity?"

The screen flashed with shaky cell phone footage of the fight; blur of red, blue, and green light moving too fast for human eyes to really track.

The screen flickered with a child's rough drawing of Brick, Boomer, and Butch taped to a boarded-up window with crayon that looked like it had been pressed too hard.

"—the psychological impact on Invincible—" "—conspiracy theories running rampant—" "—ARE WE SAFE?!"

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –​

UPN Breaking News flashed across the screen in red letters that screamed emergency. The logo sat in the corner, crooked for some reason.

Baltimore Inner Harbor looked like a war zone. Water sprayed everywhere, harbor foam mixing with chunks of concrete that used to be pier supports.

"—can see, Invincible is locked in a desperate battle with what experts were calling a 'Crystalline Kaiju,' designated 'Skitter-max'!" The anchor's hair was plastered to her face by sea spray, shouting into her microphone over the roar of something that sounded like a building getting torn apart. "The creature emerged from the harbor less than ten minutes ago and has already caused significant structural damage!"

Click.

Back to UPN. The camera shook violently as a blue-and-yellow streak slammed the crystalline creature into warehouse walls that buckled on impact. Invincible moved different now; confidence that wasn't there a month ago, posture that said he'd stopped second-guessing himself.

He grabbed one of the creature's crystal legs, used its own limb to flip the entire beast over his shoulder. Physics screamed as tons of crystalline mass crashed into pier supports that splintered and collapsed.

"An incredible display of strength from Invincible, who has been working tirelessly in the weeks since his father's shocking betrayal!" Anchor's voice mixed terror and awe in equal measure. "He has truly stepped up, a beacon of hope in these uncertain times, proving that one man's evil does not define his son's legacy!"

The monster swung a massive pincer claw. Invincible ducked under it, grabbed the arm, and with a roar of fury that shook the air, he ripped it clean off at the shoulder.

Click.

@HeroWatch_Live: BALTIMORE HARBOR - Invincible vs some kind of crystal spider thing. Kid looks DIFFERENT. More confident? Suit's cleaner too. #InvincibleWatch #BaltimoreKaiju

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@NewsJunkie47: Anyone else notice how Invincible's not hesitating anymore? Month ago he was getting ragdolled by his dad. Now he's ripping kaiju limbs off. 

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The room is a familiar landscape of adolescent chaos: clothes are strewn over a chair, a half-eaten bag of chips sits on the nightstand, and posters for bands with aggressive logos are taped to the walls. The faint smell of stale pizza and unwashed laundry hangs in the air.

A boy of about fifteen with light brown hair in a short so cut it was downright military-standard sat slumped  in a gaming chair, a controller untouched in his lap. His face was dotted with the kind of acne that only plagues the truly unfortunate, a constellation of red across his forehead and cheeks and a pair of prescription glasses with mirrored lenses covering his eyes.

“Donny!” A female voice yelled from downstairs, the boy sitting up for a second.

A second after that, he threw his head back and sighed. 

Finally, he yelled back. “Yes, ma!”

“Your dad’s on his way over for a visit!” 

Donny Ferguson pulled a face. “...okay?” 

“Don’t okay me, Mister! Make sure you’re showered!”

Rolling his eyes, Donny flicked his finger at the TV, the world-shaking fight on the television changed to a video game as he stared at the screen. A few seconds later, his RPG character somehow started to move, controller still in his lap.