Mark and Jack arrived in L.A. later that night, but since it was late, they decided to get a hotel room and head over to the Fischbach industries building the next morning. Morning came, and now the two buddies were heading to the human resources center. The two men entered the building and went straight up to the front desk, and since Mark's family was the founder of the company, the lady at the desk immediately knew him.

"Mark Fischbach?" she asked.

"Yes" he smiled.

"Wow, uh how are you?" she nervously asked.

"I'm really good, we'd like to speak with mister Warfstache" he kindly noted.

"Yes sir, you too just have a seat and I'll get back to you" she smiled and the two gentlemen smiled back before taking their seats while the lady picked up the phone and called the people upstairs. All they did was sit and wait patiently for either the lady to tell them which floor or have someone come down and take them. However, what they got was something completely unexpected. "Um, mister..." she nervously walked towards them.

"Oh please, all me Mark" he corrected.

"Ok Mark, I'm afraid you can't speak to him" she nervously stated, Mark and Jack furrowed their eyebrows in confusion. "I'm sorry, I don't know why, maybe they think ur dead or something, but I was told you were restricted from the building" she regrettably stated and Mark and Jack noticed the two men in suits stepping outta the hallway that held the elevators and stopped to watch them. "I'm really sorry, I wish there was-"

"No no, it's ok, really" Mark quickly assured. "We'll just figure out some other way, come on Jack" he stood to leave and motioned for Jack to follow.

"Wait, are you sure about this?" Jack whispered to Mark.

"Yea, let's just go" he nodded. "Thankyou ma'am" he nodded to lady real quick before leaving.

"Thankyou and sorry, you two stay safe" she smiled.

"We will" Mark replied and then the two made their way outta the building.

"So, now what?" Jack asked as they stepped outside. "You know this can't mean anything good, he might be up to something"

"I know, I just think we need-"

"Mark?" the two turned at the call of Mark's name. They saw a young woman with glasses approach them.

"Kathryn?" he asked in surprise, and then smiled once she came up to him, giving him a hug. "Hey, it's so great to see you"

"You too" she smiled. "I'm so glad ur ok, and is this Jack?" she turned to the Irishman that stood next to him.

"Yes, this is him" he nodddd and the two shook hands and greeted one another.

"But wait, aren't you supposed to be..." she nervously trailed off.

"Not anymore" he quickly corrected, knowing what she was referring too and would probably hafta get used to it too.

"Oh ok, congratulations then" she granted.

"Thankyou" he smiled.

"Uh, I have a free lunch if you..."

"Yea that would be great" Mark nodded.

X

Kathryn took the boys to a cafe and was even kind enough to grab their drinks for them. They sat at a round table, waiting for their friend to return with their beverages, talking to each other about how much more happy and hopeful this made them feel. Their attention was also drawn to the t.v., the news talking about a group of extremist that's been making threats against certain people and politicians. Their attention was pulled away when Kathryn returned with the drinks they ordered.

"Here you go guys" she smiled as she passed out their drinks.

"Thanx Kat" Mark smiled back.

"Thankyou" Jack added.

"I'm really sorry you two couldn't get in" she apologized. "When I heard you were there I was thrilled beyond belief and very relieved" she added.

"It's ok, not ur fault" Mark kindly assured. "Do you have any idea why they wouldn't let us, or at least me in?" he tried to make sense of it.

"I wish I did, I was surprised myself when I forwarded the call to the main office and the next thing I know, those guys were heading down to escort you out" she explained confusenly. "If I knew, I would gladly tell you both"

"Well, maybe you can help us another way" Mark shrugged suggestively and encouragingly.

"How so?" she asked.

"Well" Jack chimed in. "We don't really know ourselves on what happened at the manor, we're trying to find some answers and find our missing friends" he explained.

"Ok, but...I don't know how I can help you with that" she got nervous all of a sudden. "My job isn't exactly detective work" she added.

"I've seen ur skills, you can do great" Mark encouraged, making her blush a little with a smile.

"Well, in that case, how can I help?" now she seemed up for it.

"Well for starters, we need to know all you can tell us about ur new boss, Wilford Warfstache" he noted.

"He's.....different, but beyond that he's pretty much a usual, and very good, businessman" she nodded.

"Ok, but different how?" Jack asked.

There was a brief pause before Kathryn could answer. "I don't know really," she shrugged. "Just...the way he acts maybe or his views, I really don't know" she struggled to find the right words. "He's just an odd character I guess, but he's brilliant at what he does nonetheless"

"Do you know what his history is with the company?" Mark asked.

"I don't know if he even has a history with the company" she shook her head. "He just suddenly turned up outta nowhere and he was the new owner with a big vision" she gestured with her hands as she spoke.

"How could he have even gotten that so fast?" Jack asked.

"He must've had some connections to some big names" she shrugged again. "Is there...any particular reason, besides some obvious ones, that makes you two so interested in him?" she asked, furrowing her brow.

Mark and Jack gave each other a quick glance before responding. "We have a very strong feeling Wilford is actually William" Mark informed.

"William?" she asked in confusion.

"The Colonel" Mark added.

"The one who went missing after what happened at the manor" Jack followed.

"Wha-him?" now she was shocked. "That can't be"

"I would swear to it Kathy" Mark assured.

"How long did you know the colonel?" she asked. "Were you close?"

"Not really, I knew him for a while, but it was mostly through Damien, we weren't even really friends" he explained. "But well enough to recognize his face anywhere, I can promise you that" he confidently stated.

Kathryn let out a heavy sigh at trying to figure this all out. "It just doesn't make any sense," she stated as she dug in her purse and pulled out an iPad. "I even looked him up, there's plenty of vidoes of him all over the internet" she brought up the videos on her IPad and showed them to the boys.

They leaned in closer to see a video of the man himself as a journalist and then another of him as a circus performer, just like the news said he was. The videos dated back to at least a year and further back, so there was no throwing a "he could've recently done those" theory. That just raised even more questions about their unusual mutual friend. "This doesn't make any sense, there's no way this is possible" Mark denied arguably.

"Are sure ur not just mistaken the two?" she asked.

"No, I'm telling you that's definitely him, there's no way it couldn't be" he defiantly held his ground.

"Relax Mark, I'm sure there's more to it" Jack calmly reasoned. "How much did you know about him?"

"About him personally? Not as much as I probably should've" he answered regrettably and a little embarrassingly. "He didn't really talk about himself much, but then again it's like I said, we weren't really friends, we just knew each other through Damien" he explained.

"Didn't Damien tell you anything about him?" Jack asked.

"Just that they were good friends and he thought he was a good man, just a little troubled or beside himself sometimes" he shrugged. "I tried to get to know him better, but things just didn't work out"

"You two have a rough history?" she asked.

"You could say that, yea" Mark nodded with a frown.

There was another pause before anyone spoke again. "So what do we do now?" Jack broke the silence.

"We need to find out everything we can on Warfstache and everything we can on William, since technically their seperate people, and therefore should have seperate backgrounds" Mark stated and Jack nodded in agreement. "Kathy, I hate to ask you this, but we need a favor"

"You need me to be ur little insider" she nodded knowingly.

"You can no if you want to" Mark quickly assured. "I don't want you to lose your job over me"

"No it's fine, it's the least I can do" she sweetly accepted with a smile. "But I can't promise I'll get much"

"That's fine" Jack assured. "Just do whatchu can and we'll-holy shite" his attention was caught by something over the two, Mark and Kathryn followed his gaze to the t.v. hanging on the wall in the corner of the cafe. The same extremist group they were talking about earlier was at downtown L.A. and was attacking everybody in the public. They had automatic weapons and heavy artillery that turned all of downtown into a war zone, police and civilians pinned down and unable to escape. One thing was for sure, if something didn't happen real soon, this was gonna one of the worst catastrophes in Los Angeles. Unless, Mark and Jack turned towards each other, not having to say one word to know what the other was thinking. They knew that if somebody was gonna do something, if anybody could do something, it would hafta be them.

"Guys, do you-" Kathryn turned to see that her two friends were gone. She looked all around the cafe, but they were nowhere to be found. They just completely disappeared.

Meanwhile, back in downtown L.A., the extremist group continued their horrific assault. They were using one of the buildings as cover while wearing skee mask and black outfits and fired at whoever they could see. All around, cops and innocent people ducked behind cars, walls and many forms of barricades. There was a group of people huddled together in the building across the street, who now had the attackers with rockets pointed at them. The three men with the rockets took their aim, straight ahead and fired.

But before they hit their target, "tuump!" Mark shouted as he stopped first rocket with his foot and then caught the other two under his arm pits and holding them tight before the thrusters burned out and then he hovered down to bring himself to the ground and set down the rockets. "Sorry! But it's not the forth of July yet!" he shouted towarss the bad guys.

They continued firing at everyone in sight and even came close to gunning down some of the people that were in the streets, but some black and green blur came rushing through and snatched all of them up before bringing them outta harm's way. It was Jack, he got all of the people and cops caught in the crossfire and set them behind a wall that kept them sheltered from the shootings. "It's alright now, just stay here" he calmly assured and went rushing back to the battlefield.

The shooters caught sight of Mark and began firing at him as he hovered back up and moved closer and closer. The bullets doing nothing except ruin his nice red shirt. As he got closer, and the bad guys started to panic, two of the shooters retreated while one stupidly kept firing at Mark. That resulted in getting his gun snatched away and ripped in half before his eys. "Do you know how much this shirt cost?" he asked mockingly.

Just when the frightened attacker was about to run, he was knocked out by a running right slap from the Irishman. "There's a bunch of others, and they have hostages" Jack quickly noted.

"Ok go!" Mark shouted back and Jack ran off while Mark went around the building to make sure none of them would get away. Jack ran into a much bigger part of the building where seven other members of the vicious group held their hostages and were getting ready to move. That was until Jack came in.

"TOP OF THE MORNING TO YA LADDIES!" he shouted, getting everyone's attention. Jack ran to knock out three of the assailant's with slaps before jumping on top of a vending machine and using his septic webs to pull it up and slam it back down, the effect and force behind it taking down another two attackers before trapping the two in septic material. Then one of the gunman started shooting at Jack, only for him to dodge the bullets and run back around into a slap. He then took his gun and threw it at the final assailant to throw him off before using the septic webs to yank him towards him and kick him into the next wall.

"Everyone out, now!" he shouted and the hostages began rushing for the escape.

Meanwhile, the four remaining memebers were now entering their vehicle to escape. They all hopped in the s.u.v and started charging away. But they didn't get far though. Once they pulled around the corner, Mark crashed down in the middle of the street. The group intended to run him over, but Mark just stood there and watched as the car smacked right into him and stopped dead in it's tracks.

The impact knocked out the driver and wounded the passenger next to him to the point where he didn't wanna get out. The other two in the backseat slowly made there way outta the car, only for one to get tossed away by Mark and the other to take out a grenade and held it high in the air. "Stay back, I'll drop it!" he demanded as he backed away towards some other people huddled against the wall. Mark was worried at first, but then he just smirked at the guy before Jack came and broke the guy's arm. He screamed as he fell to the floor and dropped the grenade, Jack then kicked it in the air and used his septic webs to shoot it further and further up until it exploded.

Now the bad guys were down and everyone was safe. Jack had to knock the final guy out to make stop screaming, but after that, it was all over. "Is everyone ok?" Jack asked all the people huddled in the wall. They nodded and then the two heroes went to check on the other people who were caught in the shootout.

"Is everyone here ok?" Mark asked, the survivors all staring at him in amazement before he was approached by a police officer.

"We are now, thanx to the two of you" he panted as Jack came up behind Mark. "Who are you two?" he asked in astonisment.

Mark and Jack gave each other these proud smiles before Mark answered. "We're friends" he smiled.

"Well, thankyou" the officer shook hands with the two men, and then was followed by the rest of the people cheering, hollering and clapping for their newly discover heroes. The cheering and noises only got louder and louder, leaving the two buddies in awe. Mark and Jack smiled at each other again, feeling greatly proud and accomplished about what they've done today. Then the two superheroes raised their victorious hands in triumph, causing the cheering to get even louder.

"Let's go" Mark nodded after a moment and Jack rushed away while Mark took to the air, the audience watching as he flew away and hollered after their new glorious heroes. They had just witnessed something spectacular, something that opened their eyes to something new. And now, they looked forward to the next time they would see them.

X

Wilford Warfstache himself was in his office at the Fischbach industries, looking through all of his notes and documents when a breaking news bulletin came on the t.v.

"For as long as we can remember, one of the many questions that people have asked is 'do superheroes exist?' Well today, it seems we have found that answer" the last part caught his attention. He faced up to watch the story they were referring to. "Today, during the shootout that took place in downtown Los Angeles, these two extraordinary gentlemen appeared and put a stop to the group responsible and saved countless innocent lives"

The company owner stood in shock as he witnessed the footage being displayed in front of him. At one point, he paused the video so he could get a good look at the man with the red hair's face. He could easily tell that it was Mark Fischbach himself, the man he thought to be dead. "No! It can't be" he strained in shock and anger, not believing he was actually alive, and now needed a new plan.

A/N: stay tuned and have a nice day/night.