Days after all these events, with the care of Art and Saeko, Debbie was able to heal faster from her injuries and fractures.
Everyone was surprised by how quickly her wounds healed and that's when she gave them explanations about the powers she gained and how she got rid of her captors.
No one except Saeko knew about these pills and it stirred up emotions when Saeko recalled that it was something Lucas had left for his mother just in case.
Art sighed in relief, Amber had very complicated emotions and Eve sighed thinking of Lucas' foresight, it was him in a way that saved his mother.
Mark: (Sighs) Lucas was really special, even in death he manages to succeed where I still fail.
Deborah: You didn't fail at anything Mark, you just couldn't have known. It's the same for all of you, nothing is your fault.
Saeko: So? What is your secondary power?
Deborah : Actually...I don't really feel like it's secondary. It's...it's weird...
Mark: Would you like to show us?
They all went to the field behind the villa where Debbie sent Saeko to get some metal objects and she came back with several kitchen knives which made Debbie sigh but it was also good.
There were exactly seven kitchen knives and Deborah asked everyone to step back before concentrating a little. There, the seven knives began to spin while circling around Debra and she sent them crashing into a nearby tree.
Eve: Telekinesis!!
Deborah : I don't know what it's called but I can only do it with metals.
Saeko: You can control métal ? That's great mom.
Amber: COOL!
Eve: It's nice to see someone else with control ability here! I can help you whenever you want Ms. Grayson.
Art: It's true that it's impressive.
Mark: It can be very useful! Have you thought about what purpose to use this power for? Is this the only one you have?
Deborah : No I haven't decided yet but one thing is for sure, I don't want to be a heroine. Then I think I have something else in me besides this ability that I can't really bring out.
Saeko: What do you mean ? What exactly are you feeling ? Usually it's just a physical upgrade and a random power.
Deborah: I feel like there's another one inside me, it's like a long shiver that's asking to be released.
Mark: Have you ever tried to free it?
Deborah: No, I'm afraid it's dangerous.
While they were all still talking with Deborah about her abilities, something landed on the ground near them in a cloud of dust and at that very second, Saeko already had a knife in her hand while she was in the position of fight and Mark had a boxing guard.
Debbie was somewhat late but was able to unhook the knives stuck in the olive tree and hang them in the air.
"The rest of you, stay behind Saeko and me!" Mark said while floating almost two meters above the ground.
When the dust cloud cleared, they saw the stranger's appearance and it surprised everyone, especially Mark. The stranger looked like a mix between a human and a dog, he wore clothes and a jet-pack on his back.
It was Science Dog, a comic book hero that Marc read a lot, it was a fictional character and even a Cartoon, he had no place there and that made Mark frown.
Mark: You have exactly five seconds to tell me who you are and what you're doing here. Start by showing your true colors before I crush you.
Saeko: There are some villains who can shapeshift, maybe this is one of them.
Seeing that these two were perhaps going to attack, the stranger started to get stressed and tried to calm them down.
"Wait...wait, this is just a disguise to look like it will arouse less hostility. I have observed your world a lot and especially you, Mark Grayson, I know that humans are sometimes hostile towards those from elsewhere so I took on this appearance."
Saeko: You say you know that humans are xenophobic with other unusual life forms and it is by taking the appearance of a dog-man that you will be less suspicious?
Unknown: It was to approach Mark in a friendly manner because by observing him, I saw that he really liked this fictional character. I came to ask Mark for help.
Mark: First, you should take off that disguise if you want to be trusted. Then, why me?!
The stranger pressed a button on his wrist and the entire outer layer of his appearance melted like liquid to reveal a humanoid insect with the head of a praying mantis.
Surprised but nothing more, they looked at him without saying anything for a few moments.
The unknown:…not surprised ?
Saeko: WHY ?! We are used to seeing unusual life forms in this world with giant monsters and I have even seen videos of Omni-man fighting ancient gods, an alien is just another fruit in the basket.
Amber: Not wrong.
Eve: You still haven't said why you need Mark so much.
The mantis: My people are technologically advanced but do not have the means to defend themselves against a cataclysm brought by invaders whose arrival is very soon. We have observed Mark Grayson and know that his abilities are above those of other individuals on this earth, only he can help us repel the invaders. Please, women and children will be killed by the millions.
Mark: Who tells me that's the truth?! And why should I help you since I don't even know your world?!
The Mantis: My sovereign knows you and said he wished your brother was here but unfortunately he died. By the way, my sincere condolences.
Eve: He also knows Lucas?! There is only one alien who knew Lucas.
Mark: It's definitely Allen but he's a cyclops and not a mantis.
Saeko: They're Onii-san aliens, we can't know.
Deborah : Wait, who is this Allen?!
Mark: An alien that Lucas, Eve and I met on a mission. We thought he was an enemy so Lucas gave him a beating but he was a nice guy and we met again after Lucas died, he seemed very sad because he found Lucas interesting and friendly.
Deborah : If it's a friend of your late brother who needs help then you need to go help him, he said lives are at risk.
Mark: Yes but who will watch over-(interrupted)
Deborah : Go ahead, I can defend myself now I think.
Saeko: I stay to protect her, what happened will never happen again, I'm not the GDA.
Amber: Your mother is safe here, I'm not as strong as you but I know how to get into trouble. No one will hurt her.
Eve: I'll be there too, you don't have to worry.
"Don't worry kid, with us she's in no danger anymore. I may not have superpowers but I will be there for her, you can count on me." Art said putting his hand on her shoulder.
Mark: Thanks everyone, I can go quietly then. (Looks at the mantis) You have a ship I assume, how long will the trip take?!
The mantis: Around 6 Earth days, the duration of the mission will depend on you.
Mark: Give me time to grab a few things and I'll see you right away.
He went to get the essentials which he put in a large bag before returning to take his mother and Saeko in his arms then kissing Eve deeply and greeting Amber as well as Art before leaving with the mantis.
Once in the fairly medium sized ship, Mark asked the mantis if there was a wide enough space in the ship and he was taken to the goods warehouse but which was empty.
After seeing the ship's toilets and showers, Mark left the mantis at the helm before leaving for the empty cargo room where he removed his clothes and remained shirtless with shorts.
There he placed a projector the size of a stereo on the floor before stretching and doing advanced flexibility exercises with music to his ears, it was the sound [I will not bow - Breaking Benjamin] .
Mark did these exercises for about two full hours to start sweating, then he turned on the projector so that a hologram of a person appeared. The hologram looked like Mark. It was a gift from the GDA for him to practice everywhere before the incident with Debra.
This hologram was quite special because its system had recorded each movement and speed rhythm of Mark to transfer it to The hologram and each time it represented Mark's current combat level so that he could face The hologram to surpass himself. in combat capability.
However, Mark's goal this time was not to surpass himself in speed or strength but in the finesse of his techniques.
He was in a ship far too fragile and small to support his training pace so he was going to work on finesse little by little.
There, in front of his hologram, Mark took his fighting stance and like a reflection in a mirror, The hologram took the exact same pose and they began to clash.
In Arlington Cemetery inside Lucas' coffin, he was lying when his fist clenched. Since Lucas had fallen to Battle Beast, his consciousness was off but not really, he was in a pretty special mental state.
For all these months, he had been seeing strange images, images of a life that he felt like he had lived but which was not his.
The images he saw were in fact fragments of memories from the long life of Clarion, the second soul in his body.
Clarion was born on a planet called Xenora, it was a super-planet that was 6 times the size of our sun in a different, distant and unknown universe.
On this planet of insane proportions, the population made up of every human or humanoid race possible or imaginable devoted an absolute cult to war.
Out of tens of hundreds of billions of inhabitants of Xenora, some children managed to be born with exceptional abilities and Clarion was one of them, he was gifted with an extraordinary speed of learning and a combat talent never seen before .
There were over 7000 nations on the planet and Clarion was born in a middle class nation, Xaria.
Son of a Xarian captain, Clarion was properly educated to learn the arts of combat and war from childhood and very quickly, his talent was noticed.
In just 200 years, Clarion was undefeated, had learned 37 different Xenoran martial arts in which he excelled, and was elevated to the level of captain of a division of the Xarian army.
It was a terrifying feat to achieve this rank at only 200 years old in this world where the previous record was 620 years for the most talented.
The planet was in a constant war and the nearly 7000 countries were constantly warring with each other for dominance, the war there was completely a religion affiliated with several ancient gods worshiped by all Xenorans without exception.
Thanks to the martial arts practiced on the planet, the Xenorans were able to live for millennia through certain arts which allowed them to develop their vital force and improve their physical prowess.
It was similar to cultivation but much weaker because the strongest Xenoran in all of this world's history had about the same powers and abilities as Mark when he first awakened his powers at the fast food restaurant.
On a technological level, they were more advanced than the human civilizations of the earth but on armament, firearms were prohibited and considered unworthy of a true Xenoran warrior on a planet venerating war and where all inhabitants had a immense sense of honor.
With all this constant fighting, Clarion was able to perfect his martial arts and take over the leadership of Xaria his country after 1958 years of his life and it was a feat that this time had shocked all of Xenora, he was by far the youngest king in the history of all nations on the planet thanks to the sheer force of his fists.
After only 5000 years, Clarion had defeated all the low and middle class nations and was revered by all the warriors of his homeland Xaria who considered him the incarnation of a god because he made his country rich.
When a nation defeated one or several other nations in Xenora, the vanquished were not necessarily subjugated or conquered but had to share their resources and martial arts with the victor(s) and because they all worshiped war, the vanquished nations could challenge others again at any time.
Clarion had fought millions of masters in their martial arts many times during wars or travels. He had accumulated a huge amount of combat experience, so much experience that he himself became an absolute master in 18 different martial arts out of the 47 martial arts he practiced in 5000 years.
And once again, this was a terrible feat because masters usually had mastery of 6 martial arts at most because these arts were all horribly complex.
As if Humanoids adversaries weren't enough, Xenora was also populated by ferocious beasts and creatures that were both mysterious and powerful.
He had killed nearly 200 dragons until he was 5000 years old, knowing that to face just one, you needed a very high level of life force and to have around 60% of the physical prowess of Invincible at the start of the comics.
Lucas in one year had seen a good part of the memories of the first 5000 years of Clarion over 18,000 years of battle life in Xenora and there, lying in this coffin, his coma stopped to give way to a sleep of fatigue.
He had been buried alive for a year, without food or water, and it was partly due to his exceptional metabolism even for a Viltrumite that he had survived until now even though he had become horribly thin and completely unrecognizable. with her long hair and her overgrown nails.
…
6 days after Mark's departure, the ship finally arrived at its destination on the planet of the mantises, a pretty pink planet where life was good and where the mantises seemed happy to see him.
Mark was led into the great city by his guide who told him that they should first go directly to their monarch who really wanted to meet Mark personally.
He took Mark to the palace and the guards let them access the great hall where when Mark entered, what he saw left him motionless for a few seconds.
There, right in front of him in royal clothes instead of Allen he expected to see, it was actually Nolan waiting for him and if Mark had been paralyzed it was because of all the negative emotions which went up inside him in one go.
Nolan: Hello son, it's been a long time. You seem to be doing well, my boy.
Mark:…