Jump 13: The Last Avenger - Episode 9: The Way Back My Be Lost - Part 2

As I expected, it took us about a week to get the logistics together and agree on a method of attack, but we eventually had everything figured out. Blink would open a portal to the Savage Land and a strike team would move in to take out whatever it is keeping the Sentinels hidden. Allied forces would be in the surrounding skies, far away enough to avoid detection, but close enough for extraction is things got too dicey. If all were to go well, an immediate offensive would be launched via our allies in the sky. Mutants would be dropped off along with soldiers to fight on the ground alongside the strike team while aerial forces would keep applying pressure from the sky. Overwhelming their forces was the key point of the plan, and relied on the strike team drawing as little attention to themselves as possible.

“Is everyone ready? Once we’re in the Savage Land, there will be no turning back.”

“Save the speech for when we go fight the Kree.”

“I’m with Alice on this one. We don’t need the pep talk for this one.”

“Geez. You guys could have humored him a little.”

“I can’t speak for Alice, but I know Sora wouldn’t hold herself back even if she tried.”

“If we’re skipping the speech, can we just go then?”

“I don’t know how we even function as a team sometimes.”

“I believe this is exactly why we can fight together so well.”

“How do you figure? Are you reading something in our minds or something?”

“Nothing like that. Call it a hunch, Simon.”

“Since we don’t seem to need any sort of mission briefing, we’re heading out. Blink, open the portal.”

Nobody seemed nervous on the outside with that display, so I hoped that any fears they may have had were being dealt with appropriately. The eight of us were the strike team, and I believed we could handle anything the Sentinels judging by the data we had on them. But something was nagging at me. What did the Sentinels know about me? Why was I labeled the “anomalous mutant” and what did that even entail? There wasn’t much I could do to figure that out, so I let the questions remain floating in my mind, awaiting answers that I may never receive.

Once we were through the portal and in the Savage Land, Shock and I went to work on making sure we were undetectable. I had him make something to camouflage the energies emitted from our collective powers and our readings as humans. If we showed up as something like a dinosaur on their scanners, the Sentinels wouldn’t be looking for us. With everything working I wasn’t expecting to be hit with a curveball so early in the operation.

“I’m detecting brain waves other than our own around here.”

“That’s crazy. Who would be dumb enough to try and come here?”

“Well there’s us.”

“But we’ve got a plan though.”

“This is… One of the brain waves is coming from over there, close the shore. They’re faint, so the person may be injured.”

Everyone looked to me to make a decision, but I knew that we all wanted to do the same thing.

“We’ll check it out. If the Sentinels left them to die then we might have a chance at saving them.”

Maneuvering through the jungle was a bit tricky for some of us, but we eventually made it to our destination.

“A little ways out towards the sea. That’s where the person is.”

“Help me find them with the Eye of Agamoto.”

The two of them closed their eyes and concentrated on locating the person. The rest of us gazed into the orb waiting for an image to appear and when it did, another surprise hit us. There was a man, dressed in an outfit that brought to mind the American flag with a shield encased in ice.

“Is that Captain America?”

“Captain who?”

“Captain America. Most ell known American soldier from WWII and one of Hydra’s former most detested enemies. The Barons and Red Skull would go on about how he used to foil their plans from time to time. Everyone thought he died after stopping a missile from striking an integral position during the war.”

“Well he’s certainly not dead. This is like suspended animation. He’s not even dreaming.”

“We have to save him then. He’s the legendary super soldier, and a paragon of justice. Once we catch him up to speed, he’d join us to save the Earth for sure.”

“I’ll take your word for it Shock. Karen, get us across the water. Leo, keep us from freezing to death. Psyche, think you can lift the ice he’s frozen in?”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

With a hastily made plan, the four of us trekked over the calm waters into the freezing ones to locate Captain America. When we found him, Psyche lifted the ice he was connected to and we made our way back to the shore.

“Alice, get him back to base and explain the situation. The rest of us will continue the mission.”

“Alright. You know I won’t be able to come back.”

“I’m aware, but we can’t risk losing him. The scientists at A.I.M. can safely thaw him out. Psyche, lead us two the other people you detected.”

We watched Alice work her magic to send herself and the captain back to the base before setting off. We strangely didn’t encounter any sort of patrols, something none of us failed to notice of. Stumbling across many remains of whatever tribe used to call these lands home, and an abundance of wildlife, we eventually found a very out of place building. Psyche concentrated for a bit to confirm something, then couldn’t hide the horror on her face. Leo burned a hole for us to look through and we saw rows of mutants, hooked up to all kinds of apparatuses and devices. They seemed to be in a perpetual state of pain as something was being drawn from each of them. In the center, was a man (or what was left of him) in a clear container filled with what must have been acid because all that was present was his skeleton. He had been chained who knows how long ago and the only flesh left on him were his hands that were bound above him.

“Logan…”

With still no Sentinels in sight, I had Shock analyze the building to see what it was being used for.  Through some twist of fate, this one the building they were using to block satellite signals. They must have been using the captured mutants as some sort of perpetual energy source. With our target location found, I absorbed the energy from the facility faster than the mutants could produce it and shut it down. I felt like I was going to implode from the excess energy and shot it to the sky, unintentionally causing storm clouds to begin to form.

“Well that’s one way to make a signal. What happened to not making a scene?”

“Don’t worry about it. We can handle a few giant robots easily.”

“I need some time to calm these mutants down. Keep any Sentinels from trying to kill them.”

It didn’t take long for us to be surrounded by the robots, but we hadn’t expected any less. Leo burst into flames, Sora flew on the winds, Simon fired ionic energy, Karen turned water into her weapons, Shock used Pymm Particles to increase his size and I did whatever I needed to. While the others seemed to have no problems destroying Sentinels, it seemed anything besides brute force was prone to fail. My magic was deflected and electricity absorbed without any effort on the part of the Sentinels. I served as little more than a distraction when I wasn’t tapping into the strength I had to just punch on of them. Something was clearly wrong here, but we were able to hold our position until out allies arrived to help.

The Sentinels put up less of a fight than we expected, and while it took a while, all of the strike team sans Psyche and Alice eventually made it to Master Mold. The Sentinel factory was fairly unguarded, and barely put up a fight against us. Once he was destroyed, the other Sentinels went offline, and mutant kind was safe from the genocidal machines…

The man that had been left in the acid was one Logan, a mutant that was part of the old X-Men. Once we removed his skeleton from the container, his skin and organs started to regrow. Over the course of a few days his entire body was back to normal, but he was barely hanging on to life at that point. Psyche tried scanning his mind, but there was barely anything left of who he once was. Forced to watch mutants being used as living batteries and in constant pain for years on end left him with nothing. It was a tough choice to make, but we couldn’t let him continue on like this and… Psyche ended the last functions of his brain.

We held a small funeral for him near where the Xavier Institute used to stand. His tombstone would be the first to honor those X-Men that had fallen one way or another during the chaos that had enveloped the world. Karen and Sora had known him personally, and they took it pretty hard. Psyche hadn’t known this Logan, but she had watched the one from her timeline die, and seeing him in this state hurt her too.

But time is a cruel mistress, and the time we set aside for this passed all too quickly for proper mourning. There was a stray energy signal from the Savage Land that was picked up that we were tracing, which meant that some part of the Sentinel network could still be around. I don’t know how long it’ll take to track, but planning for the Kree is going to have to wait.

Once Captain America, or Steve Rogers as we learned, was released from his prison of ice, Psyche took to calming his time displaced mind. It wasn't the easiest thing, but he was eventually brought up to speed. He was clearly saddened by the state the world was in, but appreciated our efforts against Hydra. I think that was the biggest factor in his deciding to join us to be honest. He was placed in charge of leading the normal humans we had on our side and helping form training regimes. His skills in combat were just as sharp as they were in his time, and everyone was able to learn something from him. Steve seemed to adapt quickly, but I knew he was still extremely confused and the fact that we were in a kind of war was the only constant this time displaced soldier had to keep himself sane. We've got some work to do before the next major operation it seems.