Studying And Testing

(Omni Man POV)

Something was wrong.

I felt it in my bones years upon years of battle, and death has taught me continually to trust my instincts. 

I was raised to fight and conquer for an empire I truly believed could provide security to this chaotic universe. 

But then the scourge happened, and the culling.  I survived, and I thrived. Little on this planet could hope to threaten me, but even now, knowing how much they trust me almost brings a smile to my face. 

Waving back at a pedestrian, I had just saved from being mugged. I almost had to keep myself from looking down on him. These weak beings could not even lift anything larger than their own body weight. The only benefit they brought was their compatibility with my race.

But then my mind turns to my sons and Debbie, and I almost think that this planet is worth it, that everything I've learned and done has truly meant something as long as I can see them grow up to become strong warriors and even stronger men.

Yet I couldn't escape the feeling of unease, even when I was with the two of them, as if I was being studied.

I shake my head and try to throw off the feelings I had as I made my way toward the guardians of the globe's facility. I need to ensure that everything will be in place now that my sons have gained their powers. The time is coming.

However, a small part of me feels hesitant to do this, even more so knowing that my sons may not agree with what I wish for them and this planet. Yet every day, I see that this world is dying due to its own ineffectual governments and its rampant threats that almost seem to appear every other week.

Even after years on some worlds, the worst threat I would have to face was pirates, but on this one, I've actually been tested more than I thought I would be. 

Landing near the facility, I put in my code to deactivate the security on the secret door. After it does a retinol and DNA scan, I am allowed in. Soon after, I hurry to the security room to implant the virus that will shut down the facility's CCTV and various other security measures.

Thankfully, the global defense agency doesn't keep too large a presence here, as my "friends" aren't too much of a fan of Cecil's methods, which may or may not have come to light due to my influence.

I couldn't have anyone getting involved. This was my mission, my duty.

As I input the passcode for the security room, I slow down inside and insert the chip into the computer like any normal Earth technology. This will simply be a normal data chip, but for me, it is advanced malware that will give me remote control over nearly every part of this facility.

I replaced the chip in the computer and deleted the footage of me entering and placing the chip in the computer. I had to go to the meeting place as the immortal had called for a status report.

It almost sickens me that I have to report to these people. I respect their strength and teamwork; any less skilled Viltrumite would die trying to fight all of them at once, but not me.

But still, I cannot escape the feeling that something is amiss. Who knows, it may just be failing instincts from old age, to which I laugh at the thought, as my race shall exist longer than most of these planets will.

Honestly, it's going to be the hardest thing to explain to them how fleeting most life is in this universe compared to even one of us.

But they will learn, and I shall make them understand.

As I relax my posture, I enter the meeting room and greet all of the guardians of the globe.

So much wasted potential.

(Carter POV)

Sitting at the terminal, I await the upload from my nanobot, which is accessing their systems. Even now, I can see my father's virus, almost eating away their systems and essentially blinding nearly every possible recording device in the base.

I am almost impressed. I wouldn't be able to replicate the same thing within a couple of seconds.

Soon enough, I received the date I was looking for. It mostly concerns the powers and abilities of various criminals, which means that I may or may not collect the DNA, and I should feel bad about possibly breaching multiple layers of privacy. I find that I don't.

Study material is study material, after all, nothing more and nothing less. 

Typing away at the terminal, I make sure to program the security systems to record the battle. I want to study it, maybe out of curiosity, to see if anything has changed or for some other reason.

Worst case scenario, I shall have a copy of the entire battle to use against my father in the case that they aren't able to solve the upcoming murders.

For now, though, I need to test the limits of my regeneration, so as I activated my tech jacket, I mentally ordered it to form the shortest blade. It could create what turns out to be some variant of a monomolecular blade.

So, as I take a deep breath and hold the blade over my left arm, I swing it, and within milliseconds, I hear a fleshy splat on the floor; as I look at my arm or what's left of it, I see it beginning to heal within seconds.

Muscle, bone, and skin cells rapidly form and die within nanoseconds, and in under half a minute, my arm was almost completely healed. So I tried again, but the strange thing was that as I went to cut it, I could feel resistance this time, but soon enough, again, my arm fell to the floor.

Thankfully, I'm able to use my telekinesis to keep the pain signals from registering in my brain, or else I'd be screaming in agony right now and again for half a minute; my arm is fully healed.

I could almost see the regeneration improving as I took more damage. However, since I'm not a fan of self-mutilation, at least maybe not yet, with this line of thought, I took both arms and threw them into storage within my warehouse, as I'd rather the outside world not have a perfect source of my DNA.

Checking the time, I realized that I should return to my room. Opening a portal back to my house, I step through and head to bed, thinking about the various ways I could break this setting over my knee.

It's almost exciting thinking about the battles I could get into in the future, although I am wary of Battle Beast as my involvement may lead him to kill the teen team. Or maybe I could use them as my personal sparring partner.

But that's for future Carter to worry about. For now, let's try to increase the size of those portals and watch more footage from my father's previous battles. After all, there's always so much more to learn.

(Fun fact, I actually considered sending Carter to the eminence in shadow and making him the brother of Cid Kagenou before sending him to Invincible.)