#sammark

Scared stiff, you stay locked in place, your survival instincts all but fleeing you in the stupidest bid for self-preservation you’ve seen yet.

You’re playing possum with your eyes wide open. You can’t believe it.

The hand moves ever closer, and you still don’t shift, staring into the Not-Invincible’s face for something to knock you from your stupor. You lock in on the controlled way his jaw flexes, at the slight furrow of his eyebrows under his mask, then the barely-there tilt of his head as he takes you in.

The pad of his thumb comes to rest on the cusp of your brow, the rest of his fingers curling around the side of your head until his palm is cupping your cheek. That great hand of his, larger than Mark’s ever was, doesn’t crush your head like you expect it to.

Instead, only his thumb moves, slowly, in the same reserved fashion you’d turn the pages of a well-loved book, the paper close to falling from the spine if you’re not careful. The digit shifts back and forth gently in a petting motion, the heat of his body bleeding through the material of his glove.

“Angstrom lied,” he mutters, voice flat and deep, edged with familiarity in the way only Mark’s could be. “What—”

“If you’re going to hide like a coward, don’t half-ass it.”

Symbol zips down the line, throwing out a leg to catch Omni upside the face with. It swings like a battle axe, displacing air as it drops where you and Omni’s faces are too close for your liking.

Out of the two of you, Omni’s the only one with enough sense to do anything about the nuke about to drop down on your heads. The man wastes a second moving you away with a controlled push before half-catching the kick with his palm, but Symbol follows it up with a second one. It hits true under Omni’s jaw and sends him smashing up through the ceiling.

You catch the way his gaze gravitates to you as he’s sent through the concrete, disappearing out of sight. What should be the time to panic about being left to fend for yourself against Symbol isn’t necessary. The man doesn’t even glance in your direction, shooting off the ground after Omni.

The wind that is generated from him taking off has you tumbling away in a mess of limbs. Laid out on your back ten feet back, blessedly alone, alive, whatever wires crossed to send you into freeze-mode right themselves.

“Wow.” You push up, stumbling over your feet as you zero in on Calvin, using your limited time wisely while the variants are occupied.

“Wow. Wow. Wow,” you chant under your breath, mind replaying those terrifying few moments over and over.