Mark and Nolan are in the sky above their house. Nolan wants to see how far his son has progressed in the days he wasn't present. He motions for Mark to hit him, which Mark gladly does. He shoots forward, punching out and almost hitting his father. Nolan is surprised at the speed at which his son managed to progress. He isn't using his full speed, of course; that would not help his current situation, but he is still surprised to see his son reach this speed already. Nolan is happy about it.
He heard about what happened during the first and second Flaxxan Invasion, and Mark told him what happened in detail. You don't know how to fight off an invasion with your new powers if you just received them. Mark had to experiment and get used to the new situation. He had never fought so many enemies at once as a Viltrumite. He had trained for years in martial arts, and that was visible. But he adapted and grew, which is why he fought differently during the second Flaxxan Invasion. Less martial arts focused and more savage, or primal. Using his body like a projectile or a battering ram. He would eventually find the perfect fighting style in the future, but he also understood that each enemy would require a different way of dealing with them.
"Well done. You have grown faster, I see. But just like in martial arts on the ground, try to hit where I will be and not where I am right now. In the air, this is harde-"
*BOOM*
Mark's fist impacts his father's face, making him fly back. Mark doesn't stop, though, and flies forward again. Nolan retreats a bit and looks at Mark with a glint in his eyes.
"You know, you need to be able to take a hit too."
*WOOOOSH*
*BOOOM*
His fist hits Mark's face as he uses more of his speed and strength than he did during their earlier sparrings. He wants to push his son. He sees Mark's nose start to bleed and stops attacking. They aren't wearing their costumes, so blood would be a bother right now, especially with Debbie calling them.
"Nolan!"
Debbie looks up at the two. Cecil has arrived and is watching them as well.
"Oh, great."
"What does the spy want?"
"Information and to bother us."
"Heh, nice."
They get inside and sit on the couch.
"So, Cecil, what's this about?"
"We picked this up near Mars an hour ago. Moving fast. He's back."
He projects an image of a blurred figure flying through space.
"15 minutes till he's breathing our air. I wouldn't ask Nolan, but with the Guardians gone..."
"I'll stop him."
"And who is he?"
"Nolan's been home for a week, and you want to send him to space? No. No way. He doesn't work for you."
"Sweetie." Nolan tries to coo his wife.
"There's no one else, Debbie."
"I'll go," Mark said, interrupting their talk.
"Okay."
"What?!"
"Why not? He's not that tough. Mark can take him."
"Oh, wonderful. That's your solution?"
"Could you define 'not that tough', cause it may be a deal-breaker for me."
"Of course, you would want him to be tough. But this time, it's a bit different. Just knock some sense into the guy and throw him back where he came from. Easy."
"Ugh, and here I was thinking this might be a bit more challenging of a thing to do. Oh, well. You can't always get what you want. Soooo... hold my breath?"
"Hold your breath."
"12 minutes," Cecil says.
.
Mark dons his suit and flies to space. He takes one deep breath and then flies higher. He hasn't thought about this yet. But this is another thing he can train. To hold his breath in order to fly through space seems like an essential skill to have as a Viltrumite. He waits for this 'him' to arrive and looks around. He had never been this high up before, and the Earth did look nice from up there. His senses warn him about an attack, and he moves out of the way.
An alien was just trying to hit him and pass by.
'Hey. You're early! And you shaved your mustache,' the alien says telepathically.
'You can communicate telepathically? That's neat.' Invincible says something and flashes forward, punching the alien away. His body flies through space and almost hits a satellite. He smiles.
'Impressive. Top strength right off the bat?'
The alien grabs the satellite and throws it towards Mark, who raises an eyebrow at the blatant destruction of their equipment. But he doesn't move out of the way, catching the satellite with his hands. The force of the satellite is too strong, though, and he rips off pieces of it. Invincible doesn't care and simply throws both pieces back at the alien. The situation he is in feels strange. He moves forward, dodging the attacks of the alien easily and then punches him in the gut.
'Kuhh... I felt that one. Did you get stronger?'
Invincible doesn't answer and shoots forward, tackling the alien and shooting towards the moon. It makes no sense. If his father had been fighting this alien, then he should be used to far higher strength than this. So his father held back when fighting him.
'Huh?'
*BOOOOM*
'Ha! You did get stronger. That was impressive. Come on!'
The alien attacks Invincible again, but he just dodges and delivers several powerful punches to the alien's face and stomach. But the alien does not give up and attacks again, tackling him to the ground and hitting him over and over. Invincible lets it happen and rolls his eyes. He pushes the alien off of him.
'Alright, stop.'
'Are you using your time-out?'
'Huh? Why would I get a time-out? What is this? I don't feel the slightest intent to harm or hurt me from you. You aren't really trying to achieve anything here except to brawl a bit. So what is going on?'
'You talk like you don't even remember me.'
'I don't know who you are. Why would I remember you? Does your head also come with just one lobe?'
'Huh? You don't know me? ... What are you talking about? Didn't they explain it all to you?'
'No.'
'Jeez, they didn't prepare you at all. They had the schedule well in advance. I don't even know where to begin...'
The alien arranges two stones for them to sit on while they talk.
'I'm an evaluation officer for the Coalition of Planets. I drop by little dirtballs like yours to make sure someone capable of defending them against, you know, planet-coquering monsters, things of that nature.'
'So there is a coalition of multiple planets that have you fly around the galaxy looking for planets and making sure that these planets have someone strong enough to protect it? That's some bullshit, right there. Why would you do that? Are you recruiting or something?'
'Well, I don't know what to say to you, man. Your planet signed up for the program. No one has to join if he doesn't want to, but since you signed up for the program, I come by here. See? Request from Urath, for evaluation.'
'Urath? What the fuck is Urath? You're either talking shit or you have the wrong planet, dude. This is Earth.'
'...Earth?'
'Mh-hmm.'
'Not Urath?'
'Nope.'
'Is that with an "E" or a "U"?'
'E'
'Oh, I'm in so much trouble.'
'Hahahaha, that's hilarious.'
'No, it's not. I've wasted almost fifteen years on this planet!'
'Hahahaha.'
'The Urathians must be pissed! Oh, man... and I've got an evaluation coming up in twenty years! Well, thanks for letting me know. I'm Allen, by the way.'
'Invincible.'
'Huhu, oh, yeah? A little optimistic, isn't it?'
'I'm a realist by nature. Hold up, why are you talking shit, when you just got beaten quite badly. Although I originally wanted to go by Savage, my designer didn't like it.'
'Hoho, I agree. Doesn't sound quite as heroic.'
'Well, this was fun. So what are you going to do now?'
'Well, as long as I don't get fired, I'll see you around.'
'See you around, Allen.'
.
"Before I go..." Cecil says just as he is about to walk out of the house.
"I already told you everything I remember," Nolan says.
"Right. Right, just go over it for me one more time."
"I got a distress call from the Guardians, but when I arrived, everything seemed fine. Then the lights went out, and someone attacked me. I fought with them until I passed out. Woke up in your hospital. That's it."
"That's it? Hmm, must have been a pretty tough bastard to take you down. I've never seen you lose like that before."
"Yeah."
Cecil walks out of the house.
"Do you have any leads yet?" Debbie asks.
"Someone thinks they're too clever for us. They all think that at first."
After that, Cecil leaves, and Debbie starts to prepare dinner. As they are almost finished, Mark arrives from his 'mission' in space. He flies through his window, undresses his suit, and gets downstairs to eat with his parents.
"It's so nice to have you home this early," Debbie says.
"I had a little help today..."
"How'd that go, anyway?" Nolan asks.
"Actually, not that bad at all. It was hilarious."
"Really? Was he stronger than you anticipated?"
"No, he was not. He won't be back, though. Turns out he's been coming to the wrong planet this whole time. Every three years for nearly fifteen years... I'm glad I took the time to talk to him. I had a blast."
"..."
"Damn, son... I'm impressed; I wish you had been around the first time I fought him. But why did you even talk to him?"
"There was not real anger in his attacks, no fight, as if his head wasn't in the game. He wasn't trying to win or anything; he was just testing me, and that felt weird, so I asked him."
"That's ... impressive, Mark. I'm proud of you."
"Thanks, Mom. Well, I've got that cursed institution used to manipulate the young minds of the sheep they call school tomorrow. I'm going to bed."
"No exercise today?"
"I might do some push-ups, sit-ups and squats before I sleep. Not many... a couple of thousand."
"At least make sure you rinse your plate," Debbie says.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Mark makes his way upstairs, leaving his parents at the table on their own. Debbie looks at her husband with a slight smirk on her face.
"What?"
"Sounds to me like someone sitting at this table should start using his brains a little more often than his brawn."
"Oh, come on... how was I supposed to--?"
"Our son did."
"Beginner's luck."
"Whatever makes you sleep better at night, dear. But I think we both know where he gets his logical side from. And here I was, thinking he might lose that after his powers set in. I'm glad to find out that he didn't."
"He loves to fight and even said the fight was boring. If that's not more like me, I don't know."
"Oh, he might enjoy a good fight, but he always liked that. But he is levelheaded and can keep the bigger picture in mind and not lose himself to his desires. That's impressive."
"...I suppose."
.
Mark reaches his room and makes light. His mood drops as he sees the physics and history books on the ground, where he left them earlier in the day.
"Cursed, social norms. There must be a way to do this faster..."
Mark undresses down to his underpants and opens the history book. He places it on the ground and starts doing pushups. He reads while doing his exercises to at least make it somewhat bearable. His mind wanders to a different place. He wasn't kidding; there had to be a better way to study than what he was doing now. He tries to think about people who may be able to help him in that regard. There are two he thinks of right now who would be useful in that regard. The Mauler twins. They know about cloning technology and, as such, how to create copies of their minds and transfer that to another body. So what stops them from creating a copy of their knowledge and loading it into his mind? That might be a solution which would allow him to speed through high school and later college while he focuses on other things.
Food for thought.