Jump 13: The Last Avenger - Episode 3: The Word's Already Broken - Part 3

We learned that Leo was the son of Johnathan Storm, one of the Fantastic 4 and the former Human Torch. Genetics are a strange thing, and he inherited the same abilities his father had. Unfortunately all of the Fantastic 4 were killed before Leo could meet his father, and his mother was taken from him by people he thought he could trust. He doesn’t know the limits of his powers, but assumes that with training he could be like his father or even better. He called us crazy for trying to take on A.I.M. with just the three of us, but stuck around because he figured someone had to stop me from getting killed. Allowing myself to succumb to the A.I.M. soldiers may have prompted him to action, but I may have seemed a little too helpless.

Regardless, we got to know each other and formulated a plan to attack A.I.M. headquarters. It was a fairly straight forward plan. Alice would provide me support in her astral form, while Leo would distract their forces with a frontal assault. In the confusion, I would sneak in and take down whatever I could from the inside before escaping.

With the plan set and the day upon us, Alice opened a portal for Leo and I and wished us good luck. Leo activated his powers and flew off to cause the necessary mayhem while I hid and waited for my chance to slip in. It wasn’t long before I heard the explosions and screams for troops to mobilize against the threat. Alice appeared in front of me in her astral form and led me to a place I could sneak in undetected. Once I entered, it was race against time, and a battle of luck that awaited me.

While I was to destroy things indiscriminately, I wondered what we could do with the technology here if we appropriated it for ourselves. The base was in chaos, and I had to hide from scientist, robots, soldiers and a few of those energy men. Alice’s astral form was able to warn me of any potential threats coming my way, and kept the operation going smoothly. I asked her to lead me to one of the bases super computers and I managed to get there without incident. I told her to go check on Leo before I entered the A.I.M. network in my NetNavi form.

I used the chance to scour A.I.M.’s database and found something extremely useful. There were quite a large number of people being held captive across their facilities to be used as test subjects, and some that already had. With access to the armory, they could be a formidable fighting force. With a new plan in mind, I got my image to display on the screen to find Alice waiting with an annoyed expression on her face.

“I don’t want to know how you’re doing this, but some warning would have been appreciated. Leo was almost out of energy when I got to him, but he says he can pull out more if he has too. Did you find something that can help?”

“There’s tons of prisoners being held captive that had been a resistance against A.I.M. and I want them to help us take over this base.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m going to unlock their cells, and the locks on the weapon stores. You lead the capable to them and get them armed while I distract their main forces. With the amount of people they’ve imprisoned and the one’s experimented on we’ve got a chance at completely undermining their hold on the base.”

“What makes you think they’ll listen?”

“Hope. Someone has to avenge what’s been lost, and those people have tried before. Given the right push, they’ll do it again. We don’t have much time, here’s where the main holding cells are, and this is where the closest storehouse is. Leave the people that have been experimented on to me.”

I stopped the projection before she could argue and forced my way into accessing the facilities locks. It was a strange thing, being considered a virus when I normally fought them off in this form, but even A.I.M.’s advanced protections weren’t prepared for what I could do inside cyberspace. When the locks were unlocked, I set off and alarm and broadcasted a message about an intruder to the personnel in charge of watching the prisoners and that they were all needed at once. It did the trick, as I soon saw them leaving the cells from the camera feed.

I left the network in an area with dozens of offline combat androids and had an idea. After messing around with the programs that ran them I took my new robotic allies and started doing what I had initially planned, destroying things. It wasn’t long before we were found and a fight ensued. Holding back far less than I had before, I took to attacking the enemies before me with little regard for how badly I injured them. The androids were ordered not to kill, so I was unconcerned with how they decided to go about things.

Eventually, I raised the alert enough to warrant more than just the waves of grunts to be sent at me. I was almost worried, but then I heard a cry of rebellion and retribution. The prisoners had joined the fray. Alice returned to me, looking hopeful that things could actually go well. I set off to free the prisoners that had been experimented on through A.I.M.’s network, arriving via a control panel by the specialized holding cells.

Before anything could happen, I was hit hard by an ionic blast and knocked into a wall.

“M.O.D.O.K. figured you’d show up to free them next. And now it’s time for me to do my job.”

“Simon Williams, I presume? Not a cheap imitation made using some other poor soul’s body?”

“What’s it to you? You’re not getting out of here until A.I.M. is through dissecting you.”

“I needed to know because there may still be some hope for you to stop doing things you know are wrong.”

“What are you talking about? I’m one of A.I.M.’s best weapons, why would I have any qualms about what I do?”

“I read the files Simon. I know you were tricked, and I know that without A.I.M. you’ll die from your energy dispersing.”

“So then I don’t have to apologize for doing this!”

He fired another blast at me that I countered with electricity fired from my fingertips.

“You don’t want to be a tool Simon! You don’t want to send any more people to suffer the same fate as you, only worse!”

I started walking towards him, keeping our energy blasts at an even distance.

“Help me Simon! If we take over this base you won’t have to risk death for doing the right thing! M.O.D.O.K.’s grip on you will be no more!”

“I… I can’t! There’s no guarantee that you can stop A.I.M.! I don’t want to die like all the heroes did.”

We were only a few feet away from each other at this point, and I could see the anguish on his face clearly.

“Nothing in life is ever guaranteed Simon! A.I.M. can just as easily let you die once you’ve outlived your usefulness! Why else haven’t they cured you yet!?”

His blast weakened slightly and I took the chance to overwhelm him and knock him back. I walked over to him and reached out a hand.

“Join us Simon. The world needs heroes again. Make Wonder Man a name people feel hope when they hear it, not fear.”

He was silent for a moment before he grabbed my hand and let me help him up.

“You’d better make sure we win. I still don’t want to die.”

He sent a blast of energy at the cells to break them open forcefully. The prisoners that had been subjects for experimentation looked at us with bewilderment.

“You heard the man didn’t you? We’re taking control of A.I.M. and getting our freedom back!”

“Can you handle the other Wonder Men?”

“While they’re all loyal to A.I.M., they’re also weaker so that they stay stabilized. I’ve got plenty of energy left to deal with them with some help. Just don’t take too long to take out M.O.D.O.K., he’s probably already expecting you by now.

I nodded my head before Simon lead the freed prisoners to help with the assault on A.I.M. Not wanting to waste any more time, I returned to the network to get directly to M.O.D.O.K.’s command room.

“I’ve been expecting you, spatial anomaly. While I’d love to see more of what you’re capable of, I’d rather not lose control of A.I.M. again.”

M.O.D.O.K. said this with his back turned to me, as he motioned for four figures to step forward.

“The Wrecking Crew have already taken care of your little distraction from outside. If you value his life, I suggest you stand down.”

The one I assumed to be the leader threw Leo down hard in front of him, and put his foot to Leo’s head.

“I thought…I could take em.”

“Resorting to hostages already? Then you’ve already accepted that you’ve lost M.O.D.O.K.!”

“Nonsense! This has all well been within my calculations. Even Simon’s betrayal was no surprise to me. I’ve already sent a message to Hydra asking for reinforcements.”

“You mean the message I changed to say you’d severed ties with them?”

“What?! With the number of encryptions I placed on that message there’s no way you could have altered it!”

“When you can become a program, a lot of things open up to you on a network.”

“Grr. No matter! I grew tired of serving them anyway. We still have you’re friend’s life in our hands.”

“And if you kill him, what’s stopping me from returning the favor then? With such a big target, I don’t think I could miss a headshot.”

“Bulldozer, take him down!”

The one called Bulldozer charged at me with the intention of ramming into me. When he was nearly in front of me, the wind magic arrows I had silently cast bound him, his teammates and M.O.D.O.K. with no chance of escaping (I allocated 277 to each to be sure). I teleported to Leo and back to get him away from the Wrecking Crew and looked M.O.D.O.K. in the eyes.

“Care to admit defeat now? I’m taking over A.I.M. and putting an end to the destruction you cause.”

“Inconceivable! I am M.O.D.O.K.! I cannot be beaten so easily by an unknown entity!”

“I don’t think talking is going to get us anywhere. Let’s put the conversation on ice for right now. Gelidus Capulus (Frezing Ice Coffin)!”

Taking a page out of (my) Alice’s book, I encased them all in pillars of ice, trapping them. I found a microphone that broadcast throughout the A.I.M. strongholds and sent a message.

“M.O.D.O.K. and the Wrecking Crew are finished! A.I.M. is now officially under new management. All employees that would like to stay with the company must lay down their arms and surrender. Pulling up a security feed, I found a majority of the A.I.M. scientist and soldiers laying down their weapons and being led into the prison cells. Leo rose unsteadily to his feet and walked over to me. I offered him an arm for support.

“I don’t know how… but we did it.”

“This is just the beginning. There’s an entire world waiting to be avenged.”

“And we’re going to be the ones to do it?”

“Who else?”

“Hah. Avengers. There was going to be a team of super heroes called that before things went downhill.”

“I guess that makes us the New Avengers then.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“I can’t believe what you just did! You have to show me how to cast that type of magic.”

I looked back to see Alice standing in front of a closing portal.

“When we have some free time I’ll show you the basics. We need to properly take over A.I.M. before we do anything else… Where did the Wrecking Crew go?”

When I took a good look at the room again, only M.O.D.O.K. remained trapped in his ice pillar.

“I sense another type of magic besides yours at work here but… the foreign nature of the spells you cast are overshadowing the magic native to this universe.”

“We’ll worry about it later then. As long as M.O.D.O.K. is still here, A.I.M. won’t fall from our hands. We’ll move him to a special cell once things get cleaned up here. I have a feeling the Wrecking Crew won’t be an issue for now.”

With goals in mind, we met up with the rebels that we freed and begun repurposing A.I.M. for our own uses.