Chapter 13

° Downtown, Manhattan

The Grayson brothers soared across the skies, flying towards the disturbance they volunteered to deal with. Both nervous for the upcoming encounter after receiving the shock of their lives not a few minutes ago.

Matthew trailed beside Mark in silence, his mind entirely occupied by the strange memory he glimpsed from his father. Trying to figure out what it meant and how it could help bring whoever killed the rest of the Guardians to justice.

Mark, on the other hand, was still stuck on the fact that his dad was BEATEN UP by someone/or some group that barely anyone had any clue of.

However, both were forced to stop when the grim sight of the carnage that accompanied the sound of screaming and explosions filled the air. Loud enough that even they heard it from a few stories up from where they floated.

It was absolute mayhem.

A swirling, dark crimson portal towered over the mainstreet and blocked the entire length. From its depths, marching battalions of armed and armored beings who were clearly non-human, soldiers in high tech metallic armors and long rifles accompanied by a contingent of heavy artillery vehicles.

Their arrival hailed an almost never ending stream of red energy bolts that tore through everything it touched, organic and inorganic matter alike.

Droves of civilians ran from the marching aliens, screaming and panicking out of their minds. Many of them were torn to shreds by the energy bolts, claiming more casualties as time ticked on. Numerous cars were upturned and left unattended as they escaped, creating some semblance of cover for those fleeing.

A line of police vehicles formed just a hundred meters from the portal, with a number of officers openly firing on the alien threat. But the aliens proved difficult as they were already quickly gaining the upper hand on them, advancing further out.

Mark let out a shaky breath as he watched, "Holy shit"

Matthew clenched his teeth as he saw a family be literally turned to bits, "It's worse than I thought"

Mark agreed but couldn't express it as he was busy calming himself down, muttering a soothing chant that had little to no effect. Matthew himself was already stamping out the hesitation of possibly having to kill those aliens to save more people, he didn't need that holding him back now.

"Mark, we should think about a proper strategy for--" Matthew attempted to say, but Mark wasn't in the right mindset to listen.

"No time. We have to act, NOW!" Mark interrupted and pushed forward, shooting towards the scene.

Matthew hesitated just for a second before following, leaving his hesitation behind as he prioritized a first response.

By the time they both got within 200 meters of the scene, another portal swirled to life and opened to let another battalion of alien soldiers into the mess.

Mark had already dove down on one end so Matthew decided to take care of the latest portal and the police officers.

Landing heavily on a newly placed mechanical wall that the company of alien soldiers were taking using as cover, Matthew forcefully empowered the resulting shockwave it created. The aliens nearby were thrown to their backsides, giving Matthew ample time to speak to the human officers who had stopped weapons firing.

"I'll hold them off! Focus on getting the civilians out of the way!" he shouted and punched through the round opening of a rifle a stupidly brave alien had pointed at him.

Its entire right arm and left hand were torn off as a result, its blood spraying out wildly with bits of it landing on Matthew's face. But Matthew didn't focus on that as he continued attacking other aliens who tried to attack him. More limbs were broken or torn as he did so.

He was forcefully snapped out of his hair of punches when a large bolt struck him right on the chest, the surprising strike sent him flying back until he collided on the police vehicles arrayed behind him.

The sudden burst of heat and pain made him *groan* wearily as he rose, his eyes then met the severely and partially intact head of an middle aged woman staring at him blankly with only one of its milky dead eyes.

Matthew closed his eyes and focused on pushing down the sudden onset of shaking in his hands.

He refocused and started ahead, at an approaching alien tank that had trailed its long cannon onto him.

He growled and pushed off the car, surging up and towards the tank itself. He dodged out of the way as it fired once, picked up a stray alien rifle on the ground, then threw it straight down the mouth of the cannon just before it fired again. It quickly exploded soon after, cannon first.

Matthew got out of its range, satisfied with his work. But didn't enjoy it for long before a barrage of energy bolts struck him all over, almost knocking him out of flight.

"No!" he heard Mark shout from close by.

He could only afford a momentary glance as he shielded himself from the blasts with his arms raided defensively, seeing his brother lift up an elderly woman in his arms and using his body to shield her from the energy blasts was enough for him to know that he was doing fine.

Matthew broke away from the line of fire he was in and charged for the group of aliens shooting at Mark, destabilizing their footing with a forceful stomp of his foot on the asphalt and waving heavy around himself to provide a distraction.

It worked well, a large part of the enemy's attention focused on him and he used his flight mobility to dodge around the blasts, making sure their energy blasts hit nothing but air.

Matthew had to take a minute to take in the sudden burst of mental noise he was feeling, a momentary mistake that caused him to take another full tank blast to the chest he couldn't brace for. Blasted out of flight, he crashed back onto the street.

Matthew rose from the small human-shaped hole he landed on and caught sight of a tank aiming its cannon towards him once again. But this time, it didn't fire.

Instead, its pilot was pulled out of the cockpit by a bloody eyed alien soldier who then proceeded to take over and aim its cannon at one particular hole in the ground away from Matthew.

"Shit!" he cursed as he got on his feet, "Mark! Get out of there!"

But Mark didn't seem to hear or register much of anything as his goggled eyes looked around, seemingly in some kind of daze. Blood caked a good chunk of his mask and upper torso.

Matthew rose from the street and flew, not taking any time to think, as he dove to intercept the blast fired straight towards his brother. Not even considering how foolish it was to intercept a blow that couldn't have done any real damage to him whatsoever.

Yet there he was, standing in the path and bracing for impact...that didn't come.

A wall construct of pink energy formed in front of Matthew, cracking as it redirected the blast towards a nearby high rise.

Matthew relaxed as he watched a familiar red headed figure in a pink skin tight costume descend from the sky like a magical goddess. A magical pink goddess who was staring daggers at him for a reason only both of them knew.

The glaring stopped as Atom Eve refocused her attention to the situation, eyes staring at the approaching aliens as she fiercely told them to leave.

The rest of her team arrived a moment later with a literal bang as their signature flying hovercycle crashed into an alien tank. Dupli-Kate, Rex Splode, and the team leader Robot came onto the scene.

And they promptly dealt with the growing situation.

The momentary respite of the Teen Team's arrival allowed Matthew to fully direct his attention at Mark, who he saw was currently on his knees beside the broken and bloody body of the old woman he saw him carry earlier.

It all clicked as he realized why Mark had been so out of it. He flew down and put a comforting hand on his brother's blood stained shoulders.

"Ma--Invincible" he called, giving him a gentle shake.

Mark snapped out of it and looked to his brother, "Ma--"

"It's Superboy" Matthew interrupted.

Matthew pointed at the older woman, "And you need to get her to a hospital. Now!"

"But--"

"I'll handle things here with the Teen Team. Now go!" Matthew rose to the air and caught a pair of aliens by the neck before using them as bowling balls for the others.

He saw Mark fly away with the woman in his arms and he felt relieved. Now he can fully focus on dealing with the aliens.

"An admirable display of command, Superboy" a stiff, robotic voice spoke to him "But we could've used more help"

A slim, orange colored robotic humanoid appeared behind him, firing projectiles from its metal palms that caused the alien's movements to grow sluggish upon impact.

Matthew gave him a wry smile, "Maybe, but he's not in the right mindset at the moment so he wouldn't have been of much help anyway"

"I see. Well then, I shall call on you for now" Robot said.

"Good. What's the plan then?" Matthew asked.

"I need you to help Atom Eve deal with the tanks, reduce the overall firepower while we deal with the grunts and clean up the civilians" Robot pointed at the heroine who was currently hurling javelins of pink energy at the tanks.

"Alright" Matthew said and quickly flew towards the tanks, slamming into one with enough force to topple it over the other one beside it. He flew back just as another javelin of energy pierced through both and destroying them with ease.

He turned to her and once again met her accusing gaze.

"You..." he hesitated and then went on ahead, "You recognize me don't you?"

"What? What are you talking about? I don't know you" Atom Eve said, her tone so filled with sarcasm that not even a rock would fail to get her meaning.

Matthew held up both hands in surrender, "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to out you, had no reason to"

Before Atom Eve could retort, Robot issued another set of orders for them both.

"Atom Eve. Create a barrier wall behind the civilians so that they may flee safely. Superboy, redirect your efforts to the incoming wave of tanks in front of us" he said.

Atom Eve flew away towards the line of civilians making a break for it while Matthew leapt onto other line tanks and began to make as much of a mess as he could.

Tearing out their movement capabilities, bending their firing cannon, caving in the cockpits and just overall making himself a nuisance for the enemies around him. Even when he was being tossed around by stray energy blasts, he used the momentum to crash strategically around for maximum damage.

Yet even through all that, Matthew tried his utmost to not cause any deaths. To hold back from it or he wasn't sure he'll be over it anytime soon.

He was driving his fist through the mouth of a tank,  destroying it from the inside, when a small hand grasped his arm.

He glanced and saw the grave look Dupli-Kate was giving him that made him pause.

"Superboy, you're going to far into enemy lines. We need to regroup. The rest of the Team need-" her words were stopped when an energy blast tore through her head. Her blood splashed across Matthew's chest and arm.

The shock of her sudden death right in front of his eyes stilled the young man, his thoughts cleared completely. He was shaken to his core.

He turned and easily spotted the steaming nozzle of an energy rifle that had just fired, the soldier holding it was giving him quite a malicious looking smirk for an alien face to make.

Matthew only saw red at that moment as his body moved by itself, the anger within him forcefully driving him forward.

The alien fired at him to no effect, Matthew's hand tore the rifle in its hands apart and grabbed its neck in a death grip. His grip tightened ever so slightly with each second he stared at its face, the death of Dupli-Kate replayed in his eyes over and over as he looked. It tried to claw at his face with its four fingered hands, once again to no effect of other than further annoy.

Matthew wanted to kill it for what it did. To burst its skull open, to break its neck.

But some inner voice, some semblance of discipline he had cultivated broke through his angered haze and took control once more. His gripped loosened, intending to let the alien go.

Yet even before he could open his hands wide enough to let go, the face of the alien suddenly changed.

Its green skin tone seemingly aged in a second, from a deep green to a nearly paler version as the rest of its face wrinkled, all of its 6 antennas sagged, and its black eyes turned milky. With disgust, Matthew pushed the continually weakening alien away from him. It spoke in its odd language and pointed at him hatefully before slumping down, now a mummified corpse of what it was just moments before.

Matthew looked around and found the same thing happening to everything that came out of the portals.

All the aliens started dropping on the street, their firearms clattering noisily as they staggered and fell. The one's closest to the portals began to make a run for it as he watched, not even looking back as they disappeared into it. Save for a particularly scarred one that gave all the young heroes a withering look before turning and walking into the portal himself.

And then all the portals closed, winking out of existence.

Matthew looked at the Teen Team gathered behind him and was both surprised and glad to see Dupli-Kate standing there with them, completely intact.

"I don't know what just happened" Rex Splode stated, panting "but I think I speak for everyone here when I say I never want it to happen ever again!"

An alien behind him groaned and raised its head towards him, which he met with a punch to its face.

Robot sighed, something which perplexed Matthew when he heard it, and said, "Indeed. This was highly unexpected and fatal"

Dupli-Kate scoffed, "You could say that again"

"But, " Robot added, turning to Matthew, "We are grateful for your presence, Superboy. I am grateful that you heeded my orders"

"Don't mention it. At least you had a plan going in. I didn't" Matthew admitted, "I just reacted with the best course of action I knew and made sure Invincible did the same"

"I see. May I ask? How did you manage to respond so quickly?" Robot asked.

"Cecil Steadman sent us when we offered to help. Do you--"

"Director for the Global Defense Agency. Yes, I am well aware of who he is. That he personally sent you must mean that he trusts in your abilities greatly" Robot said.

"Maybe" Matthew said, not sharing his own doubts about the man's full intentions on allowing them to go.

"So wait a minute" Rex interrupted, "You really do call yourself SuperBOY?"

His emphasis on the word 'boy' already started to annoy Matthew for some reason.

"Yes. I am still 17. Otherwise, I'd be appropriately calling myself Superman" Matthew explained.

"...Now that's just stupid" Rex complained.

"And with that, I have to go. Family matters and such" Matthew turned and cut the conversation short, not willing to waste anymore time as he began to worry about his brother.

"Nice to meet you all, by the way. Hope we team up again someday" Matthew said as he flew away and left.