The world came back to Thragg in blinding waves of color and sound.
His body lay half-buried under collapsed stone pillars, jagged slabs of red rock crumbling off his shoulders as he rose to his feet. Pain and heat throbbed behind his eyes, but it was nothing compared to what hit him next.
Everything was loud.
He heard the crackling hum of machines from Mark's base. He could hear his own heartbeat pounding like a drum against his eardrums. Worse, his eyes refused to focus properly. The world bent at strange angles. He could see through things. Through the stone. Through his own hands.
He blinked rapidly, clutching his ears and growling through clenched teeth. "What… is this?"
His instincts screamed, but centuries of control kicked in. Breathing deeply, he fought to steady himself, reeling his senses back in. It took time, but he did it. His vision stabilized, and the auditory overload dimmed into a background hum like construction noise, irritating but tolerable.
Then he saw him.
Mark Grayson was standing at the edge of the canyon with a maddeningly calm expression on his face.
"You," Thragg spat. "Mark Grayson. Four years. It's been nearly four years since you vanished."
Mark's eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing. He thinks that Thragg must have been confusing him with the Mark from his dimension. Thinking about it now, that Mark must have been in his time skip era. He'll have to stop by and maybe help that Mark out.
Thragg squinted. "You're different." His tone was suspicious. "What did you do to me? When you injected me… what the hell was that?"
Mark's voice was cool, even casual. "I just gave you an upgrade and made you stronger, faster, and more durable."
Thragg's face twisted in fury. "You didn't answer the question. What did you give me?"
"And I don't plan to," Mark replied flatly. "You don't need to know what you've been given."
Thragg's hands clenched into fists. His instincts screamed danger as he looked at Mark, but there was something else, a creeping awareness of newfound strength pulsing in his muscles. He indeed did feel stronger, like Mark said.
But also… weird.
"Why?" he demanded. "Why me more strength?"
Mark gave a faint shrug, brushing dust off his shoulder. "I needed a test subject, and you're tough. I didn't want to potentially waste the serum on a weak Viltrumite."
He didn't mention that he could've picked any random soldier. No, he wanted Thragg—at least an evil version of his Thragg, that was still at the peak of his pride and confidence. Someone who could actually push him, and he wouldn't have any problem killing.
Mark smiled faintly at that thought. His life had become… boring. Too easy. His powers eclipsed everything. Things that would usually get a human's heart pumping didn't even get him to breathe quicker than normal. But fighting? Fighting still gave him that spark. That high. That sense of excitement. Maybe it was the Viltrumite in him.
Hell, maybe he reincarnated as a Saiyan instead of a Viltrumite-Kryptonian.
Thragg's sharp eyes scanned Mark from head to toe, and locked onto the familiar outfit trimmed with regal crimson. The Viltrumite Empire's imperial garb. His garb.
His expression turned even angrier. "Why are you wearing that?!"
Mark blinked, then looked down at himself. "Oh, right." He chuckled. "Well to put it simply this is a different universe and here I took over the throne after handing you your ass."
Thragg stared. He looked like he couldn't decide whether to attack or laugh. "You expect me to believe—"
"You don't have to," Mark interrupted. "Let's just start fighting already. Or should I just kill you now?"
That was the last straw.
With a roar, Thragg launched himself forward, throwing a punch that shattered the sound barrier. Mark raised his arm and blocked it with a grunt. Their limbs collided like meteors. Mark responded with a punch of his own, aimed straight at Thragg's head. Thragg twisted, blocking with his forearm, and for a second they hovered there, locked in midair, the force of their clash shaking the canyon walls.
Then the sky exploded.
They moved too fast for the naked eye, trading blows across the air like titans in a storm. Every punch split the air. Every dodge sent ripples through the clouds. The mountain range cracked and splintered beneath them, the sheer force of their movements displacing thousands of tons of rock.
Mark felt the strain.
Thragg was maybe 80% of his current strength, but he was experienced, and brutally so. Every move was precise, refined by centuries of war. For every blow Mark landed, Thragg countered with a smarter one. It was exhilarating.
They separated midair, both landing on the broken ground below.
Mark touched his side, seeing that it was bruised. He may have even had cracked ribs. He tasted blood. Thragg didn't look much better; he had one eye swollen, and his shoulder was slightly dislocated.
"Where have you been?" Thragg growled. "All this time. And what was in that injection? Is that what gave you this power?"
Mark sighed. "I already told you I'm not your Mark. I'm from another universe."
Thragg didn't believe him at all. But he was too furious to care.
Mark cracked his neck and stepped forward. "Enough talk."
He launched forward and drove a punch into Thragg's jaw.
Thragg snarled and countered, slamming a fist into Mark's ribs. Something gave way. Mark gasped, but he returned the favor with a brutal elbow to Thragg's collarbone. Bone cracked. Thragg screamed.
The fight descended into savagery.
Grace gave way to fury. They headbutted each other like beasts, broke bones, tore flesh. Blood coated their hands. At some point, the noble battle turned into a brawl between two beasts. Mark's grin never faded. This—this—was the thrill he'd missed. The feeling of his blood pumping was exhilarating.
He understands Battle Beast more now. He should set up sparring matches with Battle Beast, but should remove Battle Beast's curse as well.
Thragg was no longer thinking about capturing Mark. He was fighting to live.
And losing.
Mark stepped back, breathing heavily, wiping blood from his lips.
He stared across at Thragg, who was hunched over, breathing heavily as well.
"I've been fighting like a Viltrumite," Mark said, voice low.
Thragg frowned.
Mark's eyes glowed red. "Time to fight like a Kryptonian."
He fired his heat vision.
The twin beams smashed into Thragg's chest, searing through his suit and torching his skin. Thragg cried out, flipping through the air and crashing into the rock.
"What… was that?!" he shouted, smoking and stunned.
Mark didn't answer. He appeared in front of Thragg in an instant, driving a fist into his face and following up with another blast of heat vision straight to the eyes. Thragg screamed, flailing. He swung wildly, but Mark ducked and landed a brutal headbutt that caved in Thragg's nose.
The battle dragged into a lava-filled cavern deep beneath the mountain. The heat licked at their skin, but it wasn't hot enough to damage them. Mark landed, catching his breath, when he suddenly took a direct hit to the chest.
Thragg's eyes glowed. He had heat vision now, too.
"I see, you gave me the same thing that made you so strong," he sneered. "Well now, I'll use that strength to make sure you stay dead."
Mark throws a fireball directly into Thragg's chest. The magical flames engulfed him. He screamed as his skin blistered.
Magic. While Mark's serum provided those who received it his resistances to certain weaknesses that he's developed since he got his powers, but they weren't as strong as his own resistances. Especially, since he didn't incorporate the Kryptonian-magi gene in the serum.
Rage-filled and scorched, Thragg charged again. They collided in a blur of red and white. Thragg, using his heat vision, aimed for Mark's heart. Mark dodged, but the heat vision tore through his shoulder. He gritted his teeth, raised his arm, hardened his fist with his Earth-magi abilities, and with a roar, delivered a single punch towards Thragg's face.
The effect was devastating. Thragg's skull exploded.
Silence.
The body dropped into the lava with a hiss.
Mark floated there, bloodied, breathing hard, staring down at the molten pool. Then he grabbed Thragg's headless corpse by the leg and started flying home. He didn't need Thragg or Sinclair alive to study the serum.
XXXX
Thragg's decapitated body dangled from Mark's hand, blood dripping in slow, syrupy globs onto the polished alloy floors. He dropped it unceremoniously beside the hole in the wall Thragg made earlier. The thud echoed. The room's lighting flickered as his Invinci-bots, who had been engaged in a chaotic scuffle, continued their assault.
Their opponent was still up.
Bald, snarling, and twitching erratically, the alternate D.A. Sinclair lashed out at the surrounding bots with flailing arms. The sonic emitters they had equipped were working—Sinclair grunted and screamed every time a different frequency was fired, but he kept trying his best to destroy the robots, though. The Kryptonian physiology given to him by Compound HK was quickly helping him combat the pain.
Mark hovered into the room, battered, his cloak slightly damaged and fluttering with each step. His gaze locked on Sinclair. "Enough."
Sinclair looked up, eyes bloodshot. "You did this to me! I'll perfect you too!" he screamed, voice cracking under stress. "I'll reshape you into the ultimate being—!"
In a blur, Mark was in front of him.
He didn't waste words.
The famous Viltrumite hand chop swung clean through Sinclair's neck.
His eyes widened in frozen shock before his body crumpled to the floor, his severed head rolling to a stop at Mark's feet.
No ceremony. No victory monologue. Just cold indifference.
Mark stared at the corpse. He didn't feel guilt. This Sinclair wasn't someone who'd ever change. And more importantly, Mark had no time to babysit a maniac who could now potentially threaten an entire world.
Mark turned to his Invinci-bots, blood still drying on his face. "Recover the bodies. Every single piece and analyze everything—DNA composition, neural structure, muscle growth, radiation absorption, magical resilience, and body decomposition rate. Everything. I want full data sheets on the effects of Compound HK and VK before I give them to anyone I care about. Also, clean up all the damage Sinclair and Thragg caused."
The bots moved immediately, silent and precise.
He watched for a moment, then took a breath. The adrenaline was starting to wear off. Pain crept back in—his fractured arm, the ragged hole in his shoulder, the burns and bruises lining his ribs.
Mark winced and walked to the med-pod near the back of the lab. He glanced longingly at the distant red sky through the viewport. "Sunbath would've been nice…" He would have just used one of the solar pods in his lab, but they were currently being repaired by his Invinci-bots after getting damaged in their fight with Sinclair.
But he wasn't going back through a portal to Invincible Inc. Not like this. Not with Amber, Eve, his mom, and Anissa potentially stumbling upon his injured state.
He didn't want to scare them. His father wouldn't be too worried and would probably just wonder who could give his son a beating like this.
He looked down at himself. His once-regal emperor's outfit was now shredded and stained beyond repair. "Damn it," he muttered.
He'd really grown attached to this outfit. He liked his invincible costume, but thought the emperor fit was cooler. He'll just use his Fluid Fabric to simulate the outfit.
Mark took off the damaged clothing and placed himself inside a medical pod. The pod hissed closed, a soft green glow illuminating the room as it filled with the viscous regenerative solution he'd customized himself. Pain faded slowly as the liquid began repairing his injuries.
Two hours passed in silence.
When he emerged, fully healed, he felt like he'd been reborn. He was definitely stronger than he was before, and when he eventually receives yellow sunlight, he'll be even stronger.
Reaching into a desk, Mark pulled out a wristband and put it on. Mark used the morphing feature of his fluid fabric, letting a red and white weave spread over his body. The new version copied his emperor suit design exactly. Even simulating the long white cloak around his shoulder.
Whenever Mark looked at it, he had to remind himself, 'This is not a cape. It's a cloak. And cloaks are fine, while capes just suck. Plus, this acts like a blanket and Amber and Eve love it'.
He dried himself with a flick of fire-magi energy, steam hissing off his body. As he walked to the command console, one of the Invinci-bots pinged him. The autopsies were complete.
Mark reviewed the data.
It was everything he'd hoped for.
Compound HK had successfully transformed Sinclair into a full Kryptonian-adjacent human. His strength, bone density, and bioelectric aura mimicked that of a yellow-sun-enhanced Kryptonian. And more importantly, there were no negative side effects whatsoever. Mark's developed resistances to red sun and magic was present, but weaker than his own resistance. Though with more exposure, it seems Sinclair could also build more resistance towards these weaknesses as well. Meaning the serum worked flawlessly.
Compound VK, administered to Thragg, was equally successful. Despite his Viltrumite smart atoms, the serum had adapted. His body accepted the Kryptonian DNA and even began producing the bio-electric field naturally. The serum had truly worked, even with an elite, old Viltrumite warrior like Thragg.
"Perfect," Mark mutters.
Now it was time for the next step.
He walked to the secure storage vault and removed two vials. One held a sample of Compound HK. The other was the preserved blood sample he'd taken from Jennifer Walters, Earth-616's She-Hulk.
Carefully, Mark combined them into a custom hybrid serum. The green hue shimmered in the light, pulsating.
XXXX
Now, back at Invincible Inc., Amanda floated in her medical pod in the medical area. Her vitals were stable. Her body was already completely healthy, but her mind had yet to awaken.
Mark tested that her coma would end when she is injected with the serum, but... there will be some complications.
Mark opened the pod, bringing Amanda's body to a cushioned bed in the room. She remained still, eyes gently shut. Her hair splayed across the pillow in a mess.
"Here goes everything," he muttered.
He injected the serum into her arm.
And waited for the serum to take effect.
For a couple of minutes, nothing happened.
Then… her fingers twitched. Her lips parted.
Her eyes slowly opened, blue irises scanning the ceiling before shifting toward him. There was a flicker of confusion, then a soft, warm smile.
"Mark…"
Mark's chest loosened with relief. "Hey. You're safe."
She tried to sit up. "Where… where are we? Last I remember, we were fighting Omnipotus and—"
She stopped.
Her breath hitched.
An unfamiliar heat ignited in her chest. A pulse of energy that wasn't there before. Her heart rate spiked. Her muscles tensed.
And then… rage.
Unfiltered, irrational, overwhelming anger.
Her hands clenched at her scalp, trying to contain the noise. Her body began to swell, with her muscles expanding, veins glowing green beneath her skin. Her eyes burned bright with fury.
"Mark... what's.... what's happeningto me?!"
She screamed.
Her bathing suit stretched as her body grew taller, bulkier, way taller than Mark. Her skin turned a deep, jade green. Her hair while retaining the same structure she had, grew longer and wilder. Her chest was heaving, taking in lots of air.
Amanda was Hulking out.
Mark stepped back. "Ah shit... well I knew it would happen…"
He had anticipated this. The first transformation was going to be the worst. With She-Hulk's DNA, she'd eventually gain instant control after the initial transformation.
But for now?
Amanda, Monster-girl, or maybe she should be called She-Hulk, let out a roar that shook the walls.
"RRROOOAARRRRR!"
Mark flew up to her. "Amanda! It's me! You're okay, just breathe—"
Her hand moved faster than he expected.
CRACK!
A backhanded blow sent him flying through the reinforced glass of the room, out the side of Invincible Inc., and careening across the city skyline. He tumbled, recovered midair, skidding across the sky like a stone across water.
Hovering, rubbing his jaw, he exhaled.
"I don't know why I thought that would work."
He couldn't bring himself to hit her full force, not like he did with Thragg. But he had to stop her from going on a rampage, so he'll have to suck it up and put hands on his friend with benefits (He realized she technically still wasn't his girlfriend).
"I gave her the DNA of a Kryptonian... but she hasn't absorbed sunlight yet. So, she won't have any Kryptonian abilities yet, which is good."
He narrowed his eyes toward the tower, where Amanda's huge form burst through a wall and landed in the streets below, growling and confused, looking for something—anything—to smash.
"That's not good…" he said with a sigh.
"I wanted to keep her contained in the tower... since I really don't want to be one of those heroes who constantly break buildings during big fights. It's so cliche."
He clenched his fists and rocketed toward her. Prepared to drag her out of the city.