Project ROWDY 31C

Flaming fingers curled and snapped out, palms open, as Brick’s chest burned the way it did when he took a punch from Butch. Power kicked up his throat, instincts screaming at him to breathe the flames out like always, but he let it fly from his palms instead, all the heat he’d been gathering since they landed. 

Fury Flames poured out in a searing torrent that turned the sky orange, the whole block below feeling the heat as the world lit up around them. At his side, Boomer screamed out something wordless and pissed as blue lightning tore from his fingers, crackling like every power line in Townsville going off at once.

“BUTCH BARRAGE!” Butch’s scream was half battle cry, half twelve-year-old tantrum as he pumped his arms in green blurs, jade energy blasts launching from Brick’s other side and exploding in the middle of all their chaos.

Mark dove wide left, staying clear of the energy crossfire, yellow blur cutting around the tri-chromatic mess they were making of downtown Atlanta.

Brick held it steady, pumping more heat in a tight arc, rage feeding the furnace hotter, hotter, lungs burning and chest aching from the sustained draw of a power he’d only figured out a couple months ago. The whole block was already leveled, nothing left to torch, but he kept his aim high and locked on Omni-Man; whole clouds boiling red above a gutted Atlanta.

Then everything folded and Brick knew force. 

A pure wall of it. 

It him square in the chest, air crushing out of twelve-year-old lungs, and suddenly Brick was flying, head whipping back, vision jerking sideways as he caught sight of Boomer spinning beside him. They crashed through one building, Butch twisting head over heels through debris clouds, Mark’s yellow blur disappearing into the street below. Fuuuuuuck!

Fire was dead in his veins before he hit the third building. Glass screaming in his ears, debris spinning like confetti, couldn’t breathe. NOI

He caught himself hard, ribs screaming complaints as his flight wobbled like one of Boomer’s broken toys. Ears ringing as he snapped back into formation with Mark, Boomer and Butch doing the same at his sides, all of them looking like they’d been put through a blender.

“Brick!” Boomer’s voice was high and panicked, the way it got when he thought someone was actually hurt.

“Where’s Mark?” Brick shot back, blood in his mouth tasting like pennies and failure.

“Still alive?” Mark’s voice answered from somewhere in the smoke, sounding about as confident as Brick felt.

“FUCK!” There was Butch, because of course that was his contribution.

Brick blinked up through dust and haze and saw him.

Tall, broad, standing completely unburnt. Not even his hair? 

The three of them had been hammering him with everything they had, and the only thing damaged was his costume;  his hands pressed together, fingers tight, palms flat.

The first real spike of fear stabbed through Brick’s chest, sharp and cold. They’d given him everything. Everything. Triple coordinated energy barrage that could have leveled a chunk of Townsville back in the day. 

And he looked bored.

The sound caught up late; a low-end pressure boom shredding what was left of the broken towers, echoing like a mountain cracking open.

Omni-Man didn’t budge.

No, he sighed. “Pride. Always pride with the young ones.”

“Fuck you!” Butch’s defiance was pure adrenaline and stupidity. “I don’t care what it takes, that mustache is mine!”

Omni-Man’s expression hardened, shifting from disappointed teacher to something that made Brick’s stomach drop. “Very well.”

Red moved in a blur, and it wasn’t Brick.

His brain screamed move move MOVE only to realize Omni-Man wasn’t coming for him. “NO!”

The word shot from both his and Boomer’s mouths too late as the punch struck Butch square in the chest, air rippling outward like someone had dropped a boulder in a still pond. Mark dove in, tackle aimed at Omni-Man’s knees, yellow streak cutting through smoke and debris, and Brick was already moving, fire blasts launching from his fists.

It was too late; Brick watched his brother’s eyes as they went wide, body folding around Omni-Man’s fist for half an instant that felt like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Blood exploded from Butch’s mouth in a red spray, and then he shot down toward the street; a green meteor of force. 

Brick’s fire blasts hit empty air as Omni-Man sidestepped without even looking, Mark’s rescue charge missing by inches. 

“BUTCH!” Boomer’s scream cut through the air like broken glass as he dove after his brother.

He wasn’t fast enough.

Asphalt, cars and streetlights launched into the air like massive shrapnel as Butch’s body touched down. The impact crater spread outward in perfect concentric circles, the street buckling and folding like paper around the point where his brother had hit. The sound was wrong. Too loud, too final, the kind of noise that meant something had broken that wasn’t supposed to break.

“He’s… he’s not even trying yet.” The words slipped out before Brick could stop them, tactical assessment overriding the part of his brain that was screaming about Butch.

“I told you.” Mark’s voice was grim, no satisfaction in being right. “He’s been holding back with me too.”

Omni-Man deflected Brick’s follow-up fire blast with a single raised hand, the flames washing around his palm like water around a rock. “You children don’t understand what you’re facing.”

Boomer descended rapidly to check on Butch, his brother still conscious but struggling to rise from the crater. Steam was rising from the broken asphalt, heat radiating from where Butch’s body had impacted.

“What… what hit me?” Butch was coughing blood, struggling to catch his breath, his uniform torn open across the chest to show skin that was already turning purple.

“Omni-Man.” Boomer helped him up, voice smaller than usual. “Once.”

Butch’s eyes went wide as he pushed Boomer off and began to float, looking up at Omni-Man with something that might have been respect if it wasn’t coming from Butch. “One punch…”

Above them, Brick and Mark maintained position, both of them reassessing everything they thought they knew about how fights worked. The tactical calculations running through Brick’s head kept coming up with the same answer, and he didn’t like it.

“So, we’re dead or dying?” Brick asked through gritted teeth, voice aimed at Mark. “Any suggestions?”

Mark’s smile was the kind you wore to your own execution. “Hit him when he’s distracted?”

Brick closed his eyes, a headache building behind his forehead. “Mark, I never say this to anyone but my brothers, but…”

“Yeah?”

“I hate you.“

Omni-Man floated casually above the crater where Butch had made friends with the pavement, cape billowing around him the way it did in all those stupid hero posters. “Whenever you’re ready for round two.”

Round two. Like this was a game. Like they were sparring partners instead of three kids getting their asses handed to them by someone who could probably bench press North America

Boomer and Butch shot back up to meet them, Butch’s uniform torn across the chest, blood seeping through fabric that was supposed to be impact-resistant. His breathing was labored but determined, the way it got when he was too pissed to quit. Good. Brick needed that anger.

Boomer’s expression showed something Brick rarely saw on his brother’s face; actual seriousness. Electricity crackled around his hands, blue arcs jumping between his fingers like trapped lightning.

Brick’s mind raced through permutations, running calculations that kept coming up red. “He’s faster than we expected. Much faster. As fast as he is strong.” He shot a look at Boomer, already knowing this was going to suck. “Boomer, shock and awe. Stay out of his reach and try to scramble his nervous system. Butch…” Brick gave his green brother a once-over, taking in the blood and the way he was favoring his left side. “I’m gonna need another Vegeta out of you.”

“Already got my ass kicked,” Butch coughed, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. “So I’m halfway there.”

“What about me?” Mark’s voice cracked on the question, and Brick caught the fear underneath.

“Hit and fade. Keep moving. Never stay still.” Brick kept his voice level, professional. Like he had any idea what he was doing.

“I can do that.”

“Easy for you to say.” Butch winced as his broken ribs shifted, hand pressed against his side. “You’ve been training with him.”

Mark’s smile was bitter. “And he was holding back even more then.”

Just stick to the plan. Brick didn’t say it out loud because plans had a tendency to fall apart the second Butch got involved, but he was thinking it hard enough that maybe telepathy would kick in.

“On it!” Boomer nodded, inhaling deeply the way he did before one of his bigger shows.

“It’s encouraging to see you finally embrace strategy, Mark.” Omni-Man’s voice carried that almost paternal patience that made Brick’s skin crawl. “Pointless, but encouraging.”

The words were still hanging in the air when Omni-Man moved. 

Not fast. Instant. 

One second he was floating fifty feet away, the next his hand was wrapped around Mark’s ankle, stopping the seventeen-year-old’s retreat before it started.

Using his son like a baseball bat, Omni-Man swung him directly into a wide-eyed Brick. The impact felt like getting hit by a freight train that was also screaming apologies, Mark’s elbow catching Brick square in the ribs just as Butch charged from the side. It was a three-body collision, a force that could have caused earthquakes.

In the air, it still caused ripples as it sent them all crashing through the nearest skyscraper; Brick first, then Butch, then Mark, the building already coming apart after three consecutive hits from flying teenagers.

Concrete and steel rained down around them as they fought their way through falling debris, Butch almost feral as he punched everything around him in a blind green-eyed furty. Brick shot out first, flight wobbling as blood poured from his mouth. His chest felt like Butch had been using it for target practice, every breath a sharp reminder… I need to train more.

“Brick! Mark! Butch!” Boomer screamed at the top of his lungs, voice high pitched with fear and then relief as they all shot out one by one.

“You’re dead, mustache!” Butch launched himself at Omni-Man from the rubble, trailing dust and rage in equal measure.

Red eyes went wide. “BUTCH, NO!” 

He didn’t listen.

Omni-Man caught the green boy’s punch in his open palm, completely halting momentum that should have carried Butch through three more buildings.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Boomer threw everything he had, lightning flying fast and free as Brick roared and let his heat vision pour out in twin scarlet beams. The air tasted like ozone and burning as they both unloaded on the alien, but Omni-Man just moved between their attacks, avoiding Boomer’s electricity and Brick’s lasers while slowly squeezing Butch’s fist. The sound of bones cracking was audible even over the thunder.

Butch’s face contorted with pain, struggling against strength that made their own powers look like party tricks. His voice climbed toward a scream, and Brick felt something cold settle in his stomach. 

Butch didn’t scream. Butch laughed when things hurt.

“Let him go!” Brick and Boomer shouted over each other, voices cracking in the middle. “You’re hurting him!”

“I’m tough.. asshole…” Butch forced the words out through gritted teeth, defiant even with his hand being slowly crushed.

“Yes. You are,” Omni-Man’s voice was thoughtful, almost curious. “Even for hellspawn, still tough.”

“Let him go!” Boomer charged toward his brother, electricity dancing around and between his hands like angry snakes.

He threw everything. A massive lance of lightning wider and taller than he was, enough power to blackout a small town, blue-white energy that lit up the smoke-filled air and made Brick’s eyes water.

Omni-Man blinked as the electricity cascaded around him, not even moving to dodge. “Tickles.”

The casual backhand that sent Boomer spiraling through the air looked lazy, effortless. 

“Now, about your manners…” Omni-Man turned his attention back to Butch, grip tightening.

The blast of fire that struck him from behind came before he could finish whatever he was planning to do to Butch’s hand. Brick flew closer, uniform torn and hanging in strips, face and chest bloodied but stance determined. His lungs burned from the sustained heat output, but he’d torch himself from the inside out before he let this bastard break his little brother.

Mark appeared beside him, one eye swollen shut and arm hanging wrong, but still flying. Still fighting.

“Let. Go. Of. My. Little. Brother.” Each word came out separately, cold and precise, the way Brick’s voice got when he was choosing between violence and murder.

“Persistent.” Omni-Man regarded them with mild interest, the way a scientist might look at lab rats that had learned a particularly clever trick.

He released Butch with a casual flick, sending him tumbling through the air toward a building that would definitely hurt if he hit it at that angle.

Boomer caught his brother before impact, both of them spinning in a tangle of limbs before stabilizing in mid-air. Butch’s hand was already swelling, fingers bent at angles that weren’t supposed to exist.

“Perhaps I need to demonstrate the futility of this resistance more clearly.” Omni-Man turned his full attention to Brick and Mark, and Brick felt his tactical assessment shift from ‘bad’ to ‘we’re all going to die.’

“Mark, your father’s playing with us.” The observation slipped out, voice showing strain Brick was trying to hide.

“I told you that.”

“No.” Brick’s eyes narrowed as he growled. “Why is he playing with us?”

Mark’s expression went grim as he roared back. “I don’t KNOW!”

“Perceptive.” The smile on Omni-Man’s face was worse than anything else. “A loyal Viltrumite is no mad dog; it’s my duty to prevent damage to potential assets.”

Assets. Brick felt his eyes flare red again. “We’re not assets.”

“Everything on this planet belongs to the Viltrumite Empire now.” Omni-Man shrugged, the gesture carrying more threat than any punch. “Including you three… curiosities.”

He vanished.

Not fast. Gone. One second standing there explaining galactic conquest, the next just empty air where he’d been.

“Where did he—” Boomer’s question cut short as Omni-Man appeared directly behind him, hand closing around his throat like a collar. Red, green, and brown eyes went wide with shock, fury, and fear, breath caught in three chests. 

Boomer struggled, feet kicking at nothing and no one as Omni-Man lifted him in one hand. The sounds pouring out his mouth; small, scared, panicked.

“Boomer!” Brick and Butch tore through the air, one word shared between them, panic overriding everything else.

They arrived at empty air. Omni-Man had blurred away while they were moving, reappearing back where he’d started with Boomer still dangling from his grip.

“Watch carefully, Mark.” Omni-Man’s voice was calm, educational. “This is what happens to those who resist Viltrumite rule.”

“Hel-heeelphelpmehelpmehel-!”

Brick and Butch rushed forward again, air burning behind them as their eyes saw Boomer’s tears.

They weren’t fast enough. 

Would never be fast enough.

Fingers still tight around Boomer’s neck, Omni-Man pulled back his other fist and drove it hard into the boy’s unprotected back. THOOOM!

The impact created a sonic boom that shattered every remaining window in a three-block radius, and Boomer’s body convulsed in ways that made Brick’s stomach turn over. His brother’s eyes went blank, blood erupting from his mouth in a spray that caught the light.

Omni-Man casually tossed Boomer’s broken form aside, the motion lazy and dismissive.

Butch caught his brother before he could crash into the ground, screaming Boomer’s name with a sound Brick had never heard him make. Raw terror. Desperation. The kind of noise that meant something important was breaking.

Brick froze in the air, watching Boomer’s body go limp in Butch’s arms. No jokes. No chatter. No electricity dancing between his fingers. 

Just stillness.

“DAD! STOP THIS!”

Omni-Man turned to Mark, shaking his head the way adults did when they thought you were being stupid on purpose. “This is necessary, Mark. You need to understand what we are compared to them.”

Butch was cradling Boomer on the broken street, checking his pulse with fingers that should have been steady but weren’t. Blood was still seeping from Boomer’s mouth, staining his blue uniform dark.

“He’s still breathing!” Butch looked up, and his expression was something Brick had never seen before. Not rage. Not the usual psycho glee. Pure fury, the kind that meant someone was going to get murdered.

Butch set Boomer down on a chunk of collapsed building, gentle as he’d ever been with anything, then shot back into the air like a green comet aimed at Omni-Man’s face.

“Fascinating. The blue one is clearly the weakest.” Omni-Man watched Butch’s approach with the kind of interest a scientist might show a particularly aggressive lab rat. “And yet you’re surprised to see him hurt?”

Butch and Brick tore after him, both screaming wordlessly as they threw haymaker after haymaker. Mark was right behind them, half-Viltrumite voice cracking as he swung for all he was worth. Three different flavors of pissed off, all focused on the same target.

Omni-Man moved with blinding speed, dodging most of their attacks without even seeming to try. Occasional hits landed when his attention got divided three ways, but each impact barely registered. Brick connected a solid punch to his jaw, and Omni-Man’s head barely moved. Butch’s kick landed on his kidney, and the bastard didn’t even flinch. Mark landed a blow to his father’s sternum and achieved exactly nothing.

It was like punching a mountain and expecting it to apologize.

“Enough of this.” Omni-Man sighed, almost bored.

He rushed at all three of them.

Brick saw the attack coming and couldn’t do anything about it. An open palm strike to his chest sent him crashing through another office building, glass and steel folding around him. A casual backhand to Butch’s face broke his nose with an explosive spray of blood., while an elbow strike to Mark’s already injured arm made a sound like a tree branch snapping.

Three bodies tumbling through air from different directions, each trailing blood and regret.

Omni-Man hovered alone in the center, completely uninjured, not even breathing hard. “Do you understand now, Mark? This is the difference between Viltrumites and everyone else.”

Mark struggled to rise from his impact crater in the street, cradling his shattered arm against his chest. “You’re… you’re wrong, Dad.”

“You know, I love your mother.” Omni-Man’s expression showed genuine disappointment, the way Brick’s dad used to look when he caught them stealing cookies. “But this… this… sentiment… it’s disgusting. You know, son, when she told you to use your words against bullies, I approved, but I didn’t realize she meant only use words.”

Butch managed to stay airborne despite his injuries, blood streaming from his shattered nose and one eye as red as Brick’s from a split blood vessel. “G-god, d’you ever shuuuuuuut up?”

“Impressive durability, boy.” Omni-Man regarded Butch with mild surprise. “You’re clearly the strongest.”

Strongest. Brick felt something cold settle in his stomach. In their family, being the strongest just meant you were the first one someone tried to break.

“Butch, keep your fucking distance!” The words tore out of his throat, but it was already too late.

Omni-Man vanished again, reappearing directly in front of Butch. “Good advice. If you can deliver on it.”

Butch never saw the second punch to his chest but Brick did.

He saw the visible shockwave, the buildings around shatter, Butch’s eyes going wide and then blankingas he plummeted toward the street.

Brick dove to catch his brother, barely managing to slow their descent before they both crashed into the pavement. The crater they made was perfectly round, asphalt cracked in a spider web pattern that stretched for twenty feet in every direction.

He pushed debris off himself, looking around the devastated streetscape. Destruction was visible in all directions. Fires spreading unchecked, electrical shorts sparking in broken power lines, buildings groaning as they just gave up. Boomer unconscious on a distant rooftop, not moving. Butch beside him in the crater, breathing labored, multiple fractures evident from the way his chest rose and fell. Mark struggled to stand too, his arm clearly as broken as his ribs. 

Omni-Man descended slowly, cape billowing behind as he touched down on the cracked pavement with a gentle step that barely made a sound. For a split second, Brick wondered if that was how careful he was still being with them.

“Your continued resistance disappoints me, son.” The words were directed at Mark, but Brick could feel Omni-Man’s attention cataloging all of them. 

“Murdering the Guardians disappointed me, Dad,” Mark shot back, voice thick with blood.

Brick forced himself to stand despite the way his ribs screamed complaints, taking a protective position between Omni-Man and Butch’s broken form. It was stupid. Pointless. 

The alien could go through him like cardbaord, and they both knew it. But Butch was his little brother, and some things mattered more than tactical sense.

“Your loyalty to your brothers is admirable.” Omni-Man’s attention turned to Brick, and for a second, there was something almost like respect in his expression. “But it’s time to end this charade.”

The punch came in a blur of motion, directly to Brick’s face. He had a fraction of a second to register the impact, the feeling of his nose breaking, before momentum sent him crashing backward through multiple buildings. Glass, steel, concrete, all of it folding around him as he carved a Brick-shaped hole through downtown Atlanta. His momentum finally halted by what felt like a reinforced bank vault, the kind of wall that was supposed to stop explosions.

His vision went gray around the edges, blood filling his mouth as everything hurt. Everything was broken. But he could still hear Mark screaming somewhere in the distance.

“STOP!”

Through the ringing in his ears, Brick heard the sound of Mark charging his father in one last desperate attack. The sound of Omni-Man catching his son’s fist mid-strike. The almost sad tone in the alien’s voice as he spoke.

“This determination. This defiance. It’s so… human.”

The scream that followed was Mark’s, high and agonized as Omni-Man twisted his already broken arm. Bone grinding against bone, ligaments snapping like rubber bands.

“Perhaps I’ve been too soft. Too patient.” Omni-Man’s voice was still thoughtful, conversational almost. “Too forgiving.“

Another impact. Another scream cut short. The sound of Mark’s body flying across downtown, crashing through something large and expensive.

The blackness pushed in at the edges of Brick’s vision as he struggled to stay awake. His brothers. I have… had to… had to…

Omni-Man’s voice was already moving away, growing distant as he flew off after Mark.

“Time to finish this lesson.”