(Invincible) Invincible Bond: Chapter 5 - Testing

Chapter 5 - Testing

Summary: The Guardians of the Globe are chosen, and Rex's attitude affects Eve's decisions.

The meal was surprisingly comfortable and easy. His parents kept asking Eve questions to get to know her better and fortunately, none of them went to any dangerous or upsetting area.

Though Mark noticed that his dad was eyeing both of them with a strange look in his eyes. Mark guessed it was something to wonder about and maybe ask his dad later.

After finishing the meal, his mom told both Mark and Eve to get outside and talk while she and his dad cleaned the kitchen.

Mark barely had the time to turn around after closing the entrance door before he was engulfed in a tight hug. Without even thinking, he brought his arms up and returned the hug.

Mark looked down just as Eve looked up, her chin rested on his chest and a gentle smile on her face. With the darkness of the sky outside, only the porch light enabled him to see the beautiful face of the woman in his arms.

Eve broke the peaceful moment of silence and beauty by speaking softly, "Thank you Mark."

Mark kept the smile on his face as he raised an eyebrow and asked, "What for?"

Eve let out a deep sigh, though there was still a smile on her face, before she replied, "This day should have been one of the worst in my life, with only hard times ahead. But thanks to you, I feel relaxed now and I don't worry about what will happen next."

Mark's smile widened even further. He moved one hand from the small of her back to her cheek as he said softly, "I will always be here for you Eve, no matter what you choose happens between us."

Eve didn't make any further comment, just kept hugging Mark for a while longer. Eventually Mark gathered the courage to ask a question he wasn't sure he should, but felt like it would be for the best, "Are you sure you're okay going back to your parents'? I can always talk with my parents to let you stay here."

Eve pulled back from the hug, put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow, with a smirk on her face she said, "So all this talk about waiting for as long as it takes and now here you are already trying to get me into your bed. Mark Grayson, who would have thought." She finished with a headshake.

Mark could feel his entire face burning and he immediately started to deny, "Wait... That's not what I... What I was trying to..."

Eve allowed him to keep this up for another minute before she started laughing. Between laughs she managed to say, "You are too easy to tease Mark."

Mark rubbed the back of his neck and looked away as he said a little bashfully, "Yeah, I guess I'm kind of dense sometimes."

Eve patted his chest in sympathy as she said, "Not when it matters, if it makes you feel any better."

Mark shot her a smile before frowning again, "I was serious about what I asked Eve. If your parents..."

Eve cut him off with a reassuring smile, "Don't worry Mark. I know how to deal with them, and anyway I thought about flying around to clear my head until the Guardians test tomorrow."

Mark looked at her for a long moment before sighing and with a small smile he asked, "So I will see you tomorrow at the tests?"

Eve kissed his cheek before leaning back saying, "You sure will." And with that she took off, a path of pink energy behind her.

IB IB IB IB IB

Mark landed softly next to Eve who was waiting for him at the entrance of the Pentagon. Mark was still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he could visit one of the most secure places on earth so casually.

During the flight over here, Mark's mind kept going back to the conversation his dad pulled him into this morning. Mark already told Robot he had no intention of joining the Guardians beforehand, but his dad's insistence on it made Mark uneasy again.

Though all those thoughts escaped his mind once he came close enough to Eve to see her gorgeous smile.

He froze for a moment, not sure how to greet her. Was a kiss too much? Was a wave too little? Was a hug good enough or should he risk it with a small kiss to her cheek?

Eve seemed to notice his internal struggle; she gave him a small smile and stepped forward to hug him.

Mark knew why she was feeling guilty. If it was up to him, they would already be dating, he would call her his girlfriend and he would have kissed her by now. But after what she went through recently, Mark didn't blame her for needing some time to figure her feelings out.

If there was one thing that his father taught him, it was patience.

After she stepped back from the hug, Mark smiled at her and asked, "How was your night flight?"

Eve smiled back at him, "Pretty good actually, figured a few things out."

Mark felt his eyebrows jumping up and his heart beat jumped with them as he asked quickly, "Wait, so does this mean that we..."

Eve chuckled a little sadly before replying gently, "Sorry Mark, I still haven't figured that much out. When I do, you will be the first one to know, promise."

Mark couldn't help the wave of disappointment that washed over him, but he still put on a smile and responded, "Seems fair."

Mark took that moment to eye Eve from head to toe while she was in her super-suit. He always thought she looked good in her costume, but damn...

Eve cleared her throat. His eyes went to meet hers. She had an arched eyebrow as she asked teasingly, "Seeing something you like there, Invincible?"

Mark could feel himself blush under his mask, but he tried to mask it with his nonchalant reply, "Sure do, Atom Eve."

With that, both of them went inside to the training room where they were told to meet Robot.

Robot greeted both of them with his usual monotone digital voice, "Invincible, Atom Eve, welcome."

Eve smiled at her old teammate, "Hi Robot, how are things going with your new promotion?"

Robot, as you would expect from one, missed the compliment and answered in a matter-of-fact tone, "Too soon to draw conclusions."

Mark and Eve exchanged an amused glance at Robot's antics. Robot, of course, missed it and instead said to both of them, "We should join the rest of the group; I was about to explain the selection process."

Well, Mark wanted to see it so he and Eve followed him. The moment Mark noticed all the heroes, he immediately began to geek out, "Oh my God, look how many heroes there are here, is that Black Samson?! He was an original member and lost his powers during a mission; is that why he is wearing that suit? Are there any other hero veterans here?"

Suddenly he was hit in the back of his head. Mark turned around, only to find himself glaring at Eve who chuckled at him before saying, "I know geek is the new cool and all Mark, but you need to chill it."

Mark grumbled to himself until a certain group of people caught his eyes and he couldn't stop himself from asking aloud, "Fight Force is here? Why the hell are they here?"

Eve followed his sightline to see the same thing. Her lips twitched upward and all she said was, "Ah."

She was obviously holding back laughter as was Mark.

Their moment was broken by Robot's voice, "Invincible, is there no way for me to make you reconsider your decision regarding joining the Guardians?"

Mark gave him a sheepish smile and thought to himself that he might as well throw his old man under the bus, "I talked with my dad about it, and he doesn't think a team is what I need for my training right now."

Robot's voice didn't change with his reply, "Very well. Might I ask what you are doing here then?"

Mark shot a quick glance toward Eve before plastering a smile on his face and almost screamed, "Did you really think I would miss something like this?"

Robot nodded once and said, "Very well. Eve, if you please join the rest, I will be able to begin."

Eve nodded and Robot walked away. Eve was about to leave too, so Mark reached out and caught her wrist. When she turned to him with a confused look, Mark smiled and said confidently, "Not that you need it, but good luck."

Eve returned his smile and walked away to stand the furthest she could from her old teammates.

Robot stood in front of the group of heroes while Mark watched from the side and began speaking, "Hello everybody, today all of you are here to become part of something bigger, to be one of the greatest heroes on the planet."

Many heroes began to mumble between themselves in excitement, and Mark had to admit Robot managed to deliver the speech with a lot more drama than he would have thought would be possible from a computer code.

Everyone shut their mouth when Robot spoke again, "You will be tested in a tournament of battles one on one. In those battles we will test your power, resolve, creativity and, of course, sportsmanship."

Mark thought about that for a moment; it did look like a good way to choose new members, but he felt like there were other factors this test wouldn't allow for, but then again there was a good reason Mark was no leader so it wasn't his place to say anything.

Mark was happy to see Eve was in the first battle, that was until he saw who she was facing.

He knew this hero was part of the Fight Force team but couldn't remember his name. He was a mountain of muscles with long blond hair and blue eyes. Mark found his choice of costume to be odd, as the only thing the man wore were a pair of shorts and shoes.

As they stood across from each other, the muscle head seemed to notice how gorgeous Eve is, and decided the way to impress her was to flex his pecs one after the other before giving her what he probably thought was a sly smile, but wasn't, and a wink. Or maybe that was a strategy to get Eve off her game.

No matter which of them was right, because the result was an annoyed Eve, which is never good. The moment the battle started, the blonde launched himself at Eve with a punch already on its way toward her.

Eve seemed unimpressed and simply stepped out of the way of the punch. The moment the feet of the oaf touched the ground, she pulled a punch of her own, pink energy traveling from her shoulder along her arm.

Just as the hit reached his face, the pink energy engulfed her fist, sending her blonde opponent flying toward the wall of the training room, before the oaf landed on the floor, out of the fight.

That was very impressive; Mark didn't know Eve could use her power to enhance her punches. He would need to talk with her later.

Speaking of the redhead, she just crossed her arms and walked away. Okay, she was obviously not as fine as she told him earlier.

Mark suddenly heard someone gulping loudly and turned to see Rex looking with wide eyes at the result of the fight.

Deciding to test the teen and see if for once he would own up for his fuck-ups, Mark put on an innocent act and said with a surprised tone, "Who pissed in her cereal this morning? Have any idea what her problem is?"

Rex's entire frame stiffened before he screamed out, "How should I know?!" and left.

A couple of minutes later, Mark was watching the battle between a Gorilla and a girl who could shrink at will, which is an awesome power. That was when Eve appeared next to him.

Mark didn't look away from the fight as he asked quietly so just Eve could hear, "Are you sure you are fine? You were a little... aggressive down there."

Eve was silent for a long moment, only speaking when Robot announced the victory of Shrinking Ray, "I guess you're right, that guy was super annoying though."

Mark chuckled, "Oh, I completely agree."

After that, the two of them settled to watch the rest of the matches. Eve was annoyed when both Rex and Kate won their matches, but kept quiet.

The only other battle that interested Mark was the one Black Samson was in. The veteran hero seemed to work well with his suit.

Mark stood next to Eve when Robot stood across from them again and announced, "I want to thank everyone who took part in the testing; after a long set of calculations, the new members of the team are... Dupli-Kate, Rex Splode, Shrinking Ray, Monster Girl..."

And that was when Rex decided to open his big mouth by shouting, "Wait, isn't there like a height requirement or something?"

Mark rolled his eyes at the foolishness of the man; he had to bite his cheek so he wouldn't laugh when Monster Girl returned fire with her small rod joke. What neither Mark nor Rex expected was for a large green fist to smash Rex through the viewing glass and down into the training arena.

Mark won't lie, at least not to himself, by saying he didn't get some satisfaction from watching Monster Girl kicking the shit out of Rex, and he could see even Eve was trying to hold back a smile, which was a little worrying.

He tried to reason with her and asked hesitantly, "Umm, should we help?"

Eve kept a straight face as she shrugged, "He asked for it."

Mark sighed; he wanted to make Eve happy, but not like that. A moment later he was catching the next green fist that was headed toward Rex's face. He tried to ask Monster Girl to stand down nicely; when she didn't, he was left with no choice but punching the monster into the wall.

It's only when the others pointed out that he realized how it looked and tried to apologize. Fortunately for him, Amanda was reasonable and took the fault.

Rex, as annoying as ever, waved away the apology from the girl and moved on to scream at him that he didn't need any help.

Mark just rolled his eyes behind his goggles and flew back up toward Eve who seemed a little annoyed with him, but come on, he couldn't let Rex be killed like that, and while he gets why Eve and none of the other heroes said anything, he doesn't understand.

After everyone calmed down, Robot tried again, "As I was saying, welcome Monster Girl. As well as Black Samson and finally Atom Eve."