Jump 13: The Last Avenger - Episode 1: The Word's Already Broken

(Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWHtSsbbJbA)

I awoke with a start in a seemingly abandoned building dressed in my costume with nothing else around me of note. I took a minute to get used to the feel of my costume before really listening to my surroundings. There wasn’t anything to hear, so I took a cautious step outside. I got a good look at the building I awoke in and saw that it was a mansion in serious disrepair. There was a forest surrounding the deserted complex that had seen better days, the plant life looking hardly alive. I pondered what I should do when I suddenly heard a myriad of jets closing in on my position. I wasn’t in the most trusting mood given what this… trial is supposed to be, so I retreated into the mansion and hid near the entrance. I heard the sound of many footsteps before they all stopped by the door.

“The spatial anomaly was traced back to this exact location. Whatever is in here, M.O.D.O.K. wants us to capture it alive if possible. If the target or targets are too hostile full use of lethal force has been authorized.” I heard a gruff voice say outside. “Get the door open and begin the search!”

I wasted no time in moving deeper into the mansion to hide myself. This M.O.D.O.K. was one of the big villains I needed to defeat along with his organization A.I.M. and some smaller super villains. I spotted some of them as they began patrolling the halls and wondered what sort of technology it was they carried with them. They all were dressed in something similar to a hazmat suit, but better suited for moving around and carried guns connected to packs on their backs that I had a feeling wouldn’t feel nice to be hit by.

I remembered that I had gained an incredible ability that I had the perfect opportunity to try out. Recalling the entrance to the mansion, I teleported to a corner of the ceiling that I could hold myself up from and surveyed the room. The door was open, with two guards watching the exit and a couple scrounging through the room itself.

“This place looks like it hasn’t been used in years.”

“Well who do you think is responsible? M.O.D.O.K. didn’t waste any time taking this part of New York over after Ultron nearly laid waste to it. I’m surprised this isn’t on our records as close to headquarters as it is.”

“How long do you think it’ll be before he finds where the damn thing is hiding? Whenever I remember it exists I’m left wondering when it’ll come back to kill us all.”

“M.O.D.O.K. wouldn’t let him. If Ultron resurfaced he’d make a deal with nearly every supervillain on the planet to put him down. There’s only so long it can hide from us.”

“You two, get back to the search!”

The grunts had taken to conversing at a convenient time and left me with some valuable information to take with me during my escape. When only the grunts guarding the door were in the room I entangled them both in wind magic arrows and before they could scream, knocked them out with controlled shocks to their heads. I took a glance outside to see more of the A.I.M. grunts outside waiting and decided it’d be best to not engage them in a direct confrontation. I retreated to the inner parts of the mansion and covertly rendered the patrolling grunts unconscious.

By the time that was over, the other A.I.M. grunts had taken notice and began searching the mansion. I underestimated how many of them had come to find the “spatial anomaly” (me) and was greeted by the unfortunate sight of a still sizable force waiting outside on higher alert than before. I heard one of the grunts call for backup and knew that I had to hurry and leave before I made myself known to A.I.M.’s forces prematurely. I summoned Crush 40 and used What I’m Made Of to change the composition of the floors to an electricity conducting metal and exerting myself to spread enough through the building to knock out everyone but myself that was inside.

I felt extremely drained afterwards but luckily, the A.I.M. grunts had electric powered devices on their persons that withstood my assault, so I managed to recharge enough to continue on to phase two. I cast Flans Carcer Venti Vertentis (this spell summons a tornado to surround a target and trap them in the eye) on one of their jets to get their attention, if only briefly to teleport to the edge of the forest and make my escape inside the foliage.

I made my way through the desolate forest for a couple of hours without encountering a single soul before hearing the familiar sound of the A.I.M. jets approaching my position. They had either found me, or I had unintentionally started heading towards their base. Whatever the case, I couldn’t allow myself to be taken and picked up my pace. The jets were continually in pursuit overhead, but they eventually left the immediate air space only to replaced by A.I.M. soldiers with some sort of flying gear akin to jetpacks. They were harder to run from as they could maneuver through the trees with relative ease and started closing the distance between us.

I abruptly stopped when I reached the edge of the forest, a ruined city in front of me. I turned to face my pursuers as they drew near and took the fight to them. With some well-timed teleports I landed on them individually and knocked them out with a well shock to the skull. To be sure I wasn’t followed, I destroyed their flying equipment before making my way to the city. When I spotted a destroyed Statue of Liberty my suspicions on where I was were confirmed. Before I could wander what remained of the city

“Are you really going to keep attracting trouble to yourself, or are you going to be smart?”

I spun around to find… Alice floating behind me, holding some sort of crystal ball.

“Alice?”

Saying her name got me a wary look from her before she spoke again.

“Yes, that is my name. But how would you know that outsider?”

“Outsider? Alice you don’t…”

It finally clicked in my mind that this couldn’t be the Alice I knew. There’d be no way any of them could have broken the rules and no reason why they would in the first place.

“It appears that you’ve figured something out. Now if we could move on to more pressing matters, such as getting you to stop acting like a beacon to every super vilian in the area.”

“How am I leading anyone to me?”

“You’re giving off an absurd amount of electrical energy for anything normal. It’s how I managed to track you down. If you can’t do something about it I will.”

“Ah, my conduit powers. I’ll deactivate them then. I wondered how A.I.M. found me so quickly.”

“So you know some things about this world besides my name. This may make things easier… For now, follow me to a more secure location.”

She opened up a portal and ushered me through it before entering herself. And so began my journey as “The Last Avenger”. More surprises awaited me than I could keep track of, and the danger would only continue to escalate further.