CITY OF ASGARD, ASGARD, MAY 28, TIME UNKNOWN
Torunn had reached a blissful state of sleep. She was under the large cover of her Asgardian bed. Being the Princess of an entire realm certainly had its perks. And right now, Torunn was going to use it to sleep in.
"Torunn come on."
It was just three words but it was like nails against a chalkboard to Torunn's ears. She knew it had to be extremely early as it always was when she was woken up on Asgard, but she was not trying to deal with that.
"Torunn dear," Her mother's voice started off so sweet "I'm afraid I do not have the patience to deal with your laziness everyday. If you do not get up now the rest of your time in Asgard will not be very pleasant."
"Ergghhh," Torunn shot up from her bed angrily "Mother the sun hasn't even risen yet! Must I do this everyday?"
"Yes." Sif responded with a small smile, "I believe it builds character."
"Don't I do enough of that on Earth?" Torunn questioned, annoyed
"Yes but I do remember a certain 14 year old insisting the removal of some of her handmaidens. This is the result."
"Mother."
"Get a move on Torunn, We have a long day ahead of us." Her mother called as she exited the room. As she left Torunn fell back on her bed wishing she could rest a little longer, but if there was one thing she understood was that her parents were very serious when they gave instructions.
It didn't really matter anyway as now that her sleep had been disturbed she certainly wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.
"Time to start the day I guess." Torunn hopped in the shower, not even able to enjoy the time spent knowing that she was in for a long day.
She threw on her armour straight out of the shower not even bothering to waste any time, and soon she was flying through the Asgardian palace. She stopped and stared longingly at the kitchen taking wafts of the smell of delicious foods being made.
Still she quickly moved on. She knew that if she stayed any longer, she was gonna be tempted to eat at the food there, but instead she had a task to do, and even if it was annoying she planned on doing it right.
Torunn flew out of the castle waving to the few people awake below as she headed for her destination. The beautiful plain fields of Ida. It was at the center of Asgard and it was one of Torunn's favourite places to stay when she came to Asgard, she loved to simply take in it's beauty and think about everything life had to offer. Today however she wasn't there for that.
As she closed in on the fields she landed near a section of darker blue flowers that were speckled with orange flecks on the stem and the petals. The flowers were beautiful and native to Asgard. The 'Aldrnari' stood for nourishment. Or more specifically nourishment of life.
The flower held special properties that could be used for many things. Mostly magic, but that was very useful to Asgardians. Of course only a few people could pick them without actually getting into any trouble and Torunn was one of those people.
She pocketed three of the magical little flowers and placed them on a pouch on her waist, and headed off to the Bifrost where her daily journey awaited her. From the air Toruun could spot the observatory where the Guardian of the Bifrost did his job effervescently despite how draining everything that came with the job was.
Still she flew down to the little observatory and was happy to see her Uncle's familiar face. He was standing as still as could be holding his sword in the Bifrost mechanism and staring out towards the cosmos.
"Heimdall!" Torunn called gladly with a wave, he didn't turn around but it didn't deter her from being happy to see her stoic Uncle in the slightest.
"Uncle Heimdall, You seem more focused than ever today." Torunn called and stood in front of the towering man. This time her bright smile was able to get a little bit of reaction from Heimdall who gave her just the barest hints of a smile.
"How are you doing Torunn?" Heimdall questioned softly.
"As good as one can be when they are forcefully woken up from sleep." Torunn muttered annoyedly "But I should have known Mother wasn't going to let up on the 'training.'"
"Sif can be very particular about things."
"My father is insistent about me doing these things as well. I don't understand it." Torunn told Heimdall, frustrated.
"Truthfully Torunn your training does have more meaning that you assign it." Heimdall began explaining to her "It is not simply an exercise."
"Well what is it then?" Torunn questioned, confused, this had been a thing she had always done since she had first returned to Asgard, but she hadn't ever put much thought into it. Deliver things to the other realms, train with her mother afterwards and then report to her parents what she did.
"Sometimes I think we forget that you are young and didn't grow up on Asgard." Heimdall began, it caused Torunn to frown; she didn't like being reminded about her age or the fact that she was more Earth girl than Asgardian princess.
"Asgard and the other realms haven't always been this...peaceful. From Bor, to Odin, and the beginnings of your father's reign things were far from perfect. Things over the past years have gotten better as the All-Father has managed things throughout the nine realms. The lives slain have been at a minimum. However it would be foolish to assume nothing else will happen."
"And that is why you guard the Bifrost."
"Yes, exactly. My eyes scan the cosmos and allow me to alert Asgard if any attacks are coming for our Realm. The All-Father has always preferred a hands-on approach and for that reason you go around to the realms making sure things are to our King's liking."
"But I...I haven't ever thought of it like that." Torunn confessed "It does make sense...And the items are simply things to keep the realms complacent and not make any more messes around the realms."
"Precisely. It would not be wise to keep our eyes turned from the other realms even in this time of relative peace."
"Is something coming Heimdall? Something we should be worried about?" Torunn asked, just a little worried, Earth had a lot of problems she wasn't sure what she was supposed to do if Asgard would be in trouble soon as well.
It took a little longer for Heimdall to respond, and it was worrying but the Guardian was normally very truthful "Not quite. I see things, but anything can happen."
"But what's most likely to happen? Uncle?" Torunn called once more trying to get attention after his non-response.
"The future is not set in stone." Is what Heimdall chose to stay "Regardless if something does happen Asgard has it's protector."
"Right." Torunn agreed hesitantly "I guess you are right Uncle. Sorry for taking up so much of your time. I'm ready to go to Alfheim now."
However, Heimdall was not finished with the conversation "Have you seen anything recently?"
The question sounded basic in nature. Stupid even, to a normal person. Even to the average Asgardian. But for Torunn her abilities were manifested in many different ways. From her Mother she gained the ability to instantly teleport herself wherever she needed to be, though at the moment that was either Earth or Asgard.
She could also see things. Her eyes weren't like Heimdall, who could almost dream with his eyes open, see things from the future and hear the dangers of the cosmos from hundreds of miles away. But when she slept...things happened.
Or at least things had happened once or twice. The first time she had that sort of near prophetic experience she had been twelve years old. The year was 2006 and after an intense sparring session with the team she had basically passed out afterwards, and that was when it began.
She remembered the dream like it was yesterday. A ghostlike creature was traversing the stars on his own. The creature would stop at the planets and then write something down and move to the next one. The ghost seemed very passive and stoic but every once in a while, after stopping and writing things down he'd check over his shoulder before continuing his process.
Eventually however his checking over his shoulder proved to be fruitless as a bigger ghost eventually showed up right in front of the smaller one. And despite everything the smaller ghost attempted he simply could not avoid the bigger ghost, and so it ran. It ran as fast as it could traversing through the cosmos trying to get away.
Of course the bigger ghost simply laughed and shot out his hand spawning nearly 10 or 12 ghosts the size of the runner, and they began to chase the ghost. Every Time they touched the ghost it was like a virus and he began to dissipate. The only thing that saved the ghost was crash landing on an unknown planet after escaping most of the ghosts.
When Torunn had woken up that time she was sorely confused. Later that night there had been a security breach that Tony refused to allow them to check out, as at that time they were deemed too young.
Years later however when the dream still wouldn't get out of Torunn's head she asked Tony what had happened that night. And according to him Vision, who had been scouting out Ultracity, Europe, and Asia had been caught by Ultron. Ultron had found a way to harm Vision even in his intangible form and sent his robots after him. Vision had done enough to destroy most of them before crashing in the Biodome where Tony had to kill the rest.
Another time she simply had a dream that had almost warned her about Pym and Azari. Of course a couple hours later she foiled a prank they attempted on her. And lastly she had known about an Ultron robot ambush in Italy despite the fact that she had been certain they dealt with all of them a couple of hours before.
From the smallest things to larger things Torunn could at times predict them. Still it had only happened at the weirdest times so far. It wasn't something she could control, and happened as recently as a year ago.
"No, I haven't seen anything recently...Is that bad?"
"No. It is not out of the ordinary. I was just...curious." Heimdall insisted "I believe you need to begin on your journey if you are to make it back at the appointed time."
"You are right Uncle. Talk to you soon." Torunn nodded and raised her sword in the air. After waiting a moment a blast of rainbow colored energy hit her and she was off on her morning mission.
As she left she couldn't stop thinking: Was something going to happen?
Regardless she needed to focus on her job and so she started in Alfheim making small talk with the light elves like she always did and giving them two of the flowers. She had a bit of a longer conversation with Queen Aelsa as now that she understood why she did these things she wanted to make sure things were good before heading to the next realm.
She went to the realms of Nidavellir helping the dwarves with a little manual labour before heading to Muspelheim and helping out the fire demons with their issues. Next was Nornheim and giving the last flower to Karnilla who accepted the gift as she always did.
Svartalfheim, and Niffleheim were off limits and Vanaheim had never needed Torunn to talk to them so that really just left one last realm before training with her mother. Jotunheim.
The realm of the Frost Giants had been a controversial one for a long time, as many around the King believed it unwise to send the Princess to the realm of their arguable biggest enemy, however Thor wasn't hearing it. Believing that they would be stupid to try anything with Torunn, as he would destroy their world if they did.
They all hesitantly agreed and that was why Torunn was able to call on Heimdall and get him to send him to Jotun where the Frost Giants lay, and of course their King sat on his frosty throne. The God of Mischief himself. Her other Uncle Loki.
This was usually the most interesting part of her visits because Loki was different from the others. Aside from being family, he didn't actually require Torunn to bring anything other than herself. He didn't want special flowers or manual labours. He only socialized with her for a few minutes before sending her off.
She had heard all about the God of Mischief so she was wary at first but for now it was abundantly clear he wasn't going to do anything, or if he had, it had already been done.
So slightly annoyed that she wasn't gorging on an amazing breakfast yet Torunn flew as fast as she could to Loki's castle and made her way through the halls of the Jotun palace avoiding the looks from the Giants who inhabited the place, and went straight to the throne room.
"Uncle Loki." Torunn greeted immediately with a sigh, "How are you?"
"Torunn." Loki acknowledged with a nod "I'm doing quite well thank you. I had not expected to see you so soon. Trouble in Midgard?"
"No. Well nothing other than the usual. But we seem to be doing just fine."
"Ah. Well isn't that just great news." Loki said with a shrewd smile, and Torunn couldn't help but shake her head, not even willing to laugh at one of Loki's crueler jokes.
"Uncle, did you know that when I'm here I'm supposed to keep an eye on you? That I'm supposed to make sure everyone is happy and not up to no good."
"Of course, I always assumed so." Loki said with a light shrug "But of course it became clear that you did not quite understand your duties. I can only assume my brother failed at explaining the actual reason for your excursions."
"Yeah well. That is the gist of it." Torunn agreed with his explanation "I don't know why it never occurred to me that I'm some sort of peacemaker."
"Well you seem to be doing a decent job. I haven't had any urges to dismantle Asgard just yet." Loki jested, and for Torunn it was always hard to tell if the man was joking.
"You aren't actually planning to attack anywhere are you Uncle?"
"Not at the moment my dear." Loki assured
"Good, I'd hate to have to fight you."
"Is that a threat?"
"I don't think so. We both know you would beat me up." Torunn admitted with a grin.
"And this is why you are my favourite. Spare a moment for a game of chess?" Loki questioned, Torunn shrugged and took a seat across from the Jotun King.
"I can spare a few minutes." Torunn boasted cockily, quickly making her first move starting off the game taking her mind off of all things happening.
OULU, FINLAND, MAY 28, 9:00 UTC
"Ironheart you have to hold the line." Francis demanded through gritted teeth, He was currently in the tower waiting for the Killstick to do it's usual thing, the room was large and robots were coming at them from all different sides as they attempted to complete this mission.
"I got it, I got it!" Riri insisted quickly, blasting a repulsor at the robot taking it's head off. It wasn't that she was bad, she was just slow. She needed to be doing the things she was pulling off now but at 3x speed. But that was just something that came with time. Time they did not have.
"Vision, what's the situation down in the city?"
"Nothing extraordinary at the moment. It seems I have things under control, and civilians are safe."
"Good, I need you up here and fast. Ironheart is having a bit of trouble." Francis called as he shot one arrow hitting three targets. That was the type of efficiency Riri simply didn't have at the moment.
"I'm not!"
"On my way Hawkeye." Vision ignored Riri's protests, the arrival of the Android allowed Francis to focus on the killstick, and only the killstick. Vision and Riri held the robots off long enough for the Killstick to get booted up and immediately shut down the robots all around Oulu.
The familiar sound of all the robots in the city powering down at once was like music to Francis' ears. Another job well done, and hopefully they could go home soon.
"Good job Viz." Francis said with a sigh as he stepped on a robot and crushed it "You too Riri, first real mission, not bad at all."
"I didn't need the help Hawkeye. I promise I could have done it!" Riri insisted angrily.
"Relax, it's not that serious." Francis waved her off.
"I could have taken out the robots, I had my repulsors at the ready. There were these mini rockets I was gonna use and they could have taken a lot of them, they had these little sensors and-
"You know Ri, I think this is the most I've ever seen you fired up." Francis interrupted her with a smirk, and the inventor immediately receded back into her shell after that.
"Chill." Francis insisted "Ri, you were great for your first mission, genuinely. But remember the goal isn't to do things on your own. The goal is to complete the mission. To save lives. For them." he pointed towards the streets of Finland.
"Someday you're going to be able to do something like this all by yourself not needing me or Vision. But today isn't that day, And I'm glad it's not, or else I'm not sure I'd be able to spend any time with my high flying friend."
"Heh." Riri laughed and rubbed her neck awkwardly "Your right Francis. Thanks, the most important thing is the win."
"Exactly." Francis nodded, content she seemed to have gotten the point. He turned to Vision and got a little bit more serious "Ready for some cleanup."
"I believe so." Vision told the archer "The people seem to be coming out of their houses now."
"Great. Heh Riri, you're gonna love this, stuff like this never gets old."
The three heroes walked out of the small citadel into the streets of Oulu and were immediately met by the roar of a crowd.
"Wow." Riri whispered in astonishment at the crowd that was beginning to pool up. "Remember Ri, we don't do this for praise or big crowds, or adoration. We do things like this because we have the ability to. It's not about the praise." Francis explained
"Right."
"But." Francis started with a grin "That doesn't mean we can't enjoy it every once and a while. Now start waving to those people and let them know who the new hero in town is."
Riri gave one little wave and the crowd's roar was enormous. It felt like a packed stadium, and it was rather beautiful. It brought Francis' spirits up a bit. "Alright people. Now who's ready to get this city back in tip top shape?"
The roar was even louder this time, and for a moment, for a brief moment, Francis was able to forget about his and Torunn's failing relationship. For a moment.
THE VAULT, COLORADO, MAY 28, 12:00 UTC
"It's actually not bad at all." Azari commented in surprise.
"I know right? I thought we might be dealing with a real fixer upper, but with the Iron Legion this is a job that can honestly get done in a couple of hours." Daisy agreed
"And it's just what we need at this moment." James agreed as well. "It's perfect, and I hear the Raft is gonna get everything it needs to begin construction, so this will be temporary."
"We're on a bit of a winning streak." Azari told them with a grin "It feels nice."
"It does. We are on the right track. Francis, Vision, and Riri are out helping in Finland, and aside from it benefitting the people there, we've heard some noise about some activity by the Masters of Evil in that location. So maybe they can snuff that out also."
"I don't know about you guys but I'm feeling pretty confident. Valerie seems to have done a good job with getting the people to like her, she defended the Avengers name, and hasn't lost the love of the voters. If she keeps moving like this, the Masters of Evil's plan is really in shambles." Daisy pointed out, and things were looking pretty good.
"Yeah. It's why I feel like there has to be something more. They know that things aren't going how they expected." James decided
"Yeah we have to stay on guard but...what if this really is all they have planned?" Azari questioned.
"Then we go back to what's important. Rebuilding."
"I was telling James the other day that things feel a bit different now don't they? Like we're finally entering a new era."
"It does feel...different. I haven't decided if that's good or bad just yet." Azari admitted
"Who knows what the future holds. We can really only live in the present. And that means getting rid of this outfit as soon as possible." James tugged at his collar again.
Just like in Costa Rica it was very hot. Not as hot as the South American country, but hot enough to make James a bit annoyed.
"Heh relax, I've heard Riri, Pym, and Amadeus have been spending hours on your new gear. Pym even wants to take a look at your shield." Azari explained
"Yeah well, hopefully they're done soon."
"I think that we are done right now." Daisy told them suddenly "Can we get back to the jet, I'd like to take these off sooner rather than later."
The mention of Daisy's wrist gauntlets made the experienced heroes worry, even if it was just a little bit. And so they began the walk back towards the Quinjet.
"How are you feeling?" James couldn't help but question, and he saw the frown on Daisy's face but these were questions she was going to have to deal with, no matter how annoying they seemed.
"I'm fine. Mostly. I feel like I can manage my powers without my gauntlets. Will I be effective and be able to attack without them? Probably not, but I'm not going to go berserk...I don't want to wear them 24/7."
"I get that but-
"It's for my safety." Daisy sighed "I know, but it's still annoying. I'm fine, I promise you I'm fine." Daisy insisted
"I've seen your progress firsthand Daisy, so I know you're getting better. A little longer and I bet the gauntlets will be gone in no time." James tried to cheer her up.
"Yeah, and in the meantime I'm sure Riri and I can look at a revamped design, maybe make them retractable so they don't get in the way so much."
"That would be-
Klik! Klik!
"-Great." Daisy finished off slowly. Daisy and Azari both looked to James who pulled the noisy device off of his belt and began to look at the readings before showing the other two.
"You see the radiation numbers on this thing?"
"It's pushing extreme toxic numbers." Azari whispered in astonishment "I didn't exactly feel it before but...yeah, left, maybe a mile out...I'd say that's our spot."
"How did you-
"Azari has a bit of a connection with nature. He's just feeling things out." James explained to Daisy "We're gonna check this out, are you coming?"
"You don't even have to ask." Daisy insisted seriously, "What are we waiting for?"
And with that it brought a new side mission for the three heroes. Azari took to the air and Daisy and James began to run together in tandem, Daisy's new developed system allowed her to keep running with at full speed no problem, and because of that they made it to the area no problem.
The area they were around was surrounded by wired mesh fencing that had rusted beyond belief, it was an easy hop around to get over it.
However the area that the fencing was supposedly "hiding" or keeping safe, was nothing more than piles and piles of dirt. Heaps of it.
It was around the prison so James theorized that maybe at a time there were things here like materials and things of that nature, but it must have been ransacked. It was nothing but clumps of dirt.
But his RIID device was still going on the fritz, so they continued moving. It probably was dangerous but he was hoping that their enhanced bodies would protect them from anything.
Their walking led them to a smaller dirt pile, but still over 8ft tall, and the RIID was going so crazy James thought that it might explode. "This is it, Daisy, I think you're our best best. You think you can manage this?"
"I've got it." Daisy nodded. She took a deep breath and they watched as Daisy's vibrations came out softly just like they practiced and the vibrations slowly pushed the dirt over and they began to get to the bottom of whatever they were looking for.
Once all the dirt was pushed off, James knelt down to the ground, and saw an almost reddish pink piece of an arm sticking out from the ground. As he rubbed some dirt off, he noticed the number on the sleeve #234001.
"There's no decay, whoever that is doesn't look dead." Daisy pointed out.
"Whoever that is, doesn't look real." James corrected. With a little more sifting he managed to pull over half whoever's body was in the dirt. They could now see blond hair, what seemed like more rusted skin, but other than the discoloring, Daisy was right they did look like they could wake up at any moment.
"What's the play?" Daisy asked
"Azari, just a little juice." James decided. Azari nodded, eyes turning white, and gave the slightest bolt of lightning that conducted through the body perfectly, but didn't have the desired effect.
"A little more." James demanded quickly, and so Azari hit him again, not even using 1/10 of his power and it did nothing.
"Come on Azari, 25%." If this was some sort of...android like Vision, or Jocasta. Then James was beginning to think it was going to take more power than Azari was feeding it.
"Alright. Get back." Azari commanded this time. His tattoos all glowed blue and he sent a concentrated blast of lightning at the robot that instantly proved to be useful.
The man instantly crunched his fist in a smoother motion than his rusted parts should have allowed, his body shook for a moment making the others stand back in anticipation. Suddenly his eyes popped open and he flipped himself up from the ground instantly going on the defensive.
And apparently the defensive for this man was bursting into flames and flying up into the air. Azari was ready for the chase if he flew away but he seemed to simply fly away and watch the three heroes interestedly, his eyes stopping when he noticed the shield James was holding.
But even though he was on fire it wasn't hard to tell how confused the man was "Captain?" but that was all they heard as the robot's flames suddenly diminished and he fell to the ground landing harshly on the ground.
The three heroes instantly ran over to the body. Azari and Daisy weren't exactly sure what to do but the look in James' eye suggested that he knew exactly what had to be done.
"His body is remarkable. He's already healing himself. His body looked rusted before, but now it's as if he is almost as good as new." Azari remarked "The material it's like...as good as Vision's."
"I'm not surprised." James admitted, well he was surprised about finding an Invader here, but he wasn't surprised that he was built so well.
"James, did you know him? I know it's far-fetched but he seemed to know you?" Daisy asked
"Not me." James said with a shake of his head "My father."
"Oh. and that's how you know him. Or should I say know of him." Daisy corrected
"Yeah" James started "When I was younger my dad used to tell me a lot of war stories, of course without the blood and gore. But mostly he'd tell me who he fought with, who he won against, and it was fun. You know bedtime stories. One of the more common ones was the stories about his team, the Invaders."
"A team before the Avengers?"
"Yup. Maybe the first superhero team ever. There was my dad. He was the headliner Captain America. Then there was the man from the sea, who was as strong as one could be. I know now that he was talking about Namor. There was Bucky, his best friend. And then there were the men of flames. The Human Torch. Jim Hammond, and his little buddy Toro."
"I always thought there was only one Human Torch." Azari told them contemplatively. "If he's from the 40s, that makes this even more incredible. Did your father ever tell you what happened to him?"
"From reading his journal I know they split up amicably in the late stages of the war as Cap and Bucky felt if they were all grouped up they might not be as effective. But what happened to Jim came after the war. According to my father's journal he was told that he had been killed in the early 50s, no one knew what had happened, only that he disappeared."
"Maybe whoever beat him shut him down and left him here to rot, but instead he survived." Daisy offered
"It's the most likely scenario." James agreed "I don't know how he survived but...Jim Hammond is a hero, and we have to help him."
"Right, I'll bring over the Quinjet." Azari decided, he gave James a quick nod and began to fly away. With this new information James once again found him calling homebase in the middle of a mission, though both times weren't necessarily bad.
"Tony. Yeah no everything is fine, at least with the prison. We've found something else. Yeah you and the other need to get the lab ready. We have an Invader ready for transport."
ARCTIC CIRCLE, BIODOME, MAY 28, 13:30 UTC
"He looks...perfect." Francis was the first to comment. And the others could only nod their heads in agreement. They all watched as Jim stretched for a brief moment before flaming on and absolutely destroying the training simulation. He didn't miss a beat, everything he did was calculated and measured and it worked.
"If he is who James says he is then he has years of experience." Pym added
"It really is something." Azari marvelled.
"Has anyone talked to him yet? Like I mean really talk to him other than give him the basics?' Francis questioned.
"No." Tony said with a shake of his head, "Everything is pretty jarring for him, so we are giving him time."
"I'll just talk to him." James volunteered "He probably wants to know exactly what's going on and how he's skipped three generations of life only to find the world worse off than he left it."
"You sure?"
"If I need backup, you guys are a screen door away." James told them confidently. And with that he headed to the training room.
Right when he opened the door Jim turned in what looked like embarrassment "I hope I didn't break your training simulator."
"Heh don't worry about it. The technology is very advanced." James assured, still it didn't seem to do much to soothe, instead he had a bit of a sad look on his face.
"Yeah, way advanced." It was obvious the Torch was having an hard time adjusting to his new surroundings so James gave him something he was familiar with
"You up for a spar?"
"Depends, will you break as easily as the robots?" Jim asked back with a bit of a grin.
"I've been told I'm a pretty tough fight. Don't hold back." James insisted, more than ready to enjoy a good fight.
The Torch gives him one last nod before flaming on and sending a blast of his flames at the Super-Soldier. James however was faster than that and with a simple twitch was out of the way of the blast, and waited for the attack once more, simply staying on the defensive.
Jim looked pleasantly surprised and ramped up his speed, flying around in a circle, creating a ring of fire around the Super-Soldier.
James pulled out his shield, and ran straight the fire and then threw his shield with deadly accuracy hitting the man out of the air, the shield came careening back to him and he raced to it with speed it seemed only he could muster.
He caught the shield and was ready to barge into the high tech android, but Jim rolled out of the way and hit James with a blast of fire that probably would have hurt a lot more if it weren't for his uniform, even then a roll on the ground had the fire out quickly.
James was in front of the wall and he jumped up and used it as a springboard and threw his shield at the Torch who was a bit more prepared for the attack this time, avoiding it. Forgetting the shield entirely, James rushed the flaming man throwing the first fist that narrowly missed it's target.
Jim retaliated with a furious roundhouse kick that James nimbly avoided before throwing a jab at the man's fiery stomach connecting with ease.
Despite getting hit the Torch dealt with the blow well dishing his own back, tagging the shoulder of James with a quick counter, the second fist couldn't hit it's target, as James dropped to the ground and attempted the leg sweep which tripped the man up, but couldn't get him to the ground.
While falling Jim kicked up his foot straight into the face of James, sending flying back as well, but the soldier simply wiped his nose and got back up again. Intending to end the little spar.
He dodged, a kick, and then a close blast of heat, before stopping the Torch's fiery punch by simply grabbing it, and then clocking him in the face with his other hand. Sending him straight to the ground.
"Okay." Jim paused with a hand in front of his face "I think that's the best knock back to reality anyone could ask for."
James gave him a small grin, and helped him up, and Jim honestly seemed like he was seeing ghosts but...in a good way. "I was a little skeptical about everything that was going on but...Gee Whiz you really are Steve's son. Grabbing my fist, so easily like that. That was something only he ever did."
"I've practiced what I could." James told him modestly
"James right?" Jim continued going "After Bucky. That really is something. I'm truly 60 years in the future...This is insane. So Cap-Your father had been alive the entire time?"
"He was trapped in the ice for 40 years. The serum allowed him to stay the same age and continue a second life."
"And from what I see here...It was cut short." Jim sighed, so many tragic things were always happening to them "What happened?"
"Ultron happened. An Artificial Intelligence gone rogue. What was once supposed to help the world, nearly ended it. " James explained
"But how?"
"A stroke of luck put him in power, and honestly? A Stroke of luck ended it." James explained as easily as it could "It's definitely not easy to think about, or to try and understand, but all of us here? The world out there? We're just trying to do our best to move on."
"I was created in 1939. For America that was the end of what then known as the great depression. Things were looking up for the people. Yet still for many the things they were still going through, because of that time period was extremely harsh. In Germany, it might have been even worse. You had to be in the elite of the elite to be living well, simply because of the effects of the first World War. Things like this can drive men insane. I've seen it first hand. But if there's one thing I know about people it's that they survive. You all are a resilient race. I don't know everything that's going on but...I'll do my best to help you."
"Thank you, this means more than you know." James told him genuinely "But from my father I can also understand how weird it might be to be thrown into something like this. So here take this," James told him and passed the notebook.
"These pages are all the ones specifying my father's struggle to transition into the modern world. 40 years isn't 60, but it's the closest you're probably going to get in terms of relations. I'm sorry you had to come back to a world like this."
"I'm not. Some people never get a second chance. I'm sure I'm here for a reason." Jim insisted with a smile "If you don't mind, I'm going to head to my quarters now. If you need me for anything. I'm ready."
From the window outside the training room James could spot all of the members with varying looks of sadness for the man, and admiration for the fact that he was able to put on a brave face despite coming back to life after 61 years.
James gave them a thumbs up and he got one in return. Like Azari had said, despite everything that had been going they were winning right now. Big time.
GENOSHA, XAVIER'S SCHOOL, MAY 28, 16:40 UTC
"And so as it stands, Valerie Cooper would be leading polls if the election started today. Isn't that something?"
"It certainly is Barbara. It seems her passionate defense of the Avengers has earned her favour with the people, Worthington staying quiet on the situation hasn't helped his cause."
"Not at all Jim, Not at all. After this quick break we will be taking, we are going to answer the tough questions. Was the UN right? Next on FOX."
Beast turned the TV on mute and the four older X-Men simply stared at each no one seemed to want to be the first one to talk.
To Beat he found all of this pretty curious. Honestly the Avengers were doing better than he expected. For a situation that was looking pretty bad a couple of weeks ago, things changed back into their favour rather quickly.
For Kitty all she could really think about was Valerie Cooper. A name they had known for years. Head of Mutant Affairs, a person who was genuinely willing to work with mutants, and mutantkind, to her it was beginning to seem like Laura was right, maybe they did need to fly down to America and lend a helping hand.
For Laura it was straight up vindication. The others had been hesitant, especially Emma last time around but now it felt like they were finally seeing things from her perspective. She could admit that things were looking pretty bad, but she stood by her words, and most importantly what her heart told her, and that was that they needed to go and help.
For Emma she was feeling the one thing she had felt ever since that group of Avengers had landed in Genosha. Scared. Scared for the X-Men. Scared for their kids. For Megan, for Jimmy, and Jessica, Jane, and Talia, and all the other kids, even if they thought she was simply trying to ruin their fun.
She understood how this life could be. You're there one second and gone the next. She simply didn't want something bad to happen to the children. She knew it might have been a tad bit irrational considering the firepower they had but. Could you blame her? She never thought a little virus might kill over half the mutant populous but it managed it.
But man, she really hated feeling this way. And she could admit that yeah, things did sound good. That yeah, maybe real change was on the horizon, that yeah, maybe going out to help the Avengers could be a good choice despite all her fears, and all the things she had said to dissuade them early. And because of all that. Emma spoke first.
"I think it's possible." She began, and immediately all eyes turned to her "With Valerie It's...It's not out of the equation to get the change we're looking for."
"I told you." Laura told her pointedly, but the playfulness was there.
"Don't get a big head over it." Emma told her with a roll of her eyes, but she was mostly joking as well. "And look it doesn't mean we don't have to take some precautions but I do think that maybe the Avengers were right, and something is there."
"I'm glad you think so Emma. This means we really have to start planning." Beast offered.
"It does." Kitty jumped in "This really is a great development. I only wish the others could have been here to see it."
"It's something I'm sure we are going to be thinking about until the end of time. But I'm confident that we are honouring their legacy by doing the right thing and returning home. We are the last people who can truly advocate for Xavier's cause. It'd be a fallacy if we didn't do our best to uphold this legacy." Beast told them solemnly.
"That's how I'm beginning to see it." Emma admitted
"So how exactly are we going about this? We don't really have a personal line to the Avengers. So we can't exactly contact them normally." Kitty questioned
"Cerebro is an option." Laura offered.
"We could but I don't think it's the way we need to introduce ourselves to the Avengers." Emma said honestly "Besides, moving out is going to be the most important, and telling the kids as well."
"It's good I've been thinking about some of them lately. I think it's a good idea to tell them soon so they don't do anything stupid." Laura explained
"Do you actually think they might do something like that?" Emma questioned a bit annoyed "Because if so, we can have a very stern talk about discipline. I've had enough of kids running and doing things on their own with your group."
For once Laura actually almost seemed embarrassed, but she still managed to keep her composure "I don't think they will, they wouldn't have a clue on where to go, or what to do. I also overheard them talking, it's not going to happen."
"Good." Emma said, before sighing "We've got a lot of work to do."
"Agreed. So what are we waiting for?" Beast questioned. Nothing, they all knew. And so the four got a fresh pot of coffee brewing and began preparing for a move out of the Country. Chicago, Texas, whatever state it ended up being, they were ready to let the world know they were coming.
PRINCIPALITY OF MADRIPOOR, TARGO CORPORATION, MAY 28, 20:15 UTC
Things were not going well. It was as simple as that. Shit was hitting the fan fast, and anyone with eyes could see that. And maybe what was the most annoying thing to Taskmaster was that in a way, he felt like he was the only one who cared.
Viper and Zemo were keeping quiet about whatever they were planning. And he couldn't tell if it was irrationally high confidence, or that fact that they truly had no idea what to do.
Moonstone or whatever she was calling herself clearly only cared about the money and so she wasn't locked in. Crossfire was probably the most charismatic for the so-called cause, and he had been the first one locked up.
He'd do anything for Viper and Zemo and to go back to the old days. The man needed a reality check, and it seemed like he was going to that from a maximum security prison cell.
Radioactive Man was fairly excited about things going back to 'normal' as well. About being a boss again, about the supposed takeover. He wasn't sure they were ever going to see Chen again.
Him and Ant were in the same position. Swayed by money and nostalgia to get back into the game but were also kind of hating every moment of it. But that seemed to be a bigger problem for their employers.
It's not like he hadn't wanted the things the Masters of Evil were planning. No way, he had been all for it. But now, as they got to the point where this Valerie woman was still winning polls, and leads, and all the important things while they supposedly "sabotaged" her campaign. It was getting harder and harder to justify this little excursion as...worth it.
Something he could never forget was the fights with the Avengers. They were not in the slightest equally matched. That was very obvious. The Asgardian and the Giant-Boy were too much already. They didn't have the firepower to counteract that. And of course that left the mutant prince, the Super-Soldier, and the Archer.
They could also call on people like Knockout to help out but it wasn't the same. They were no longer the people at the absolute top of their games. The villains in their primes, the most feared. No, rather they should have feared the heroes. The ones who were just beginning to experience the wonders of youth. Physically outmatched, Mentally not as good as they expected.
It was for all these reasons that Taskmaster was more than ready to bow out, he hadn't spent a dime of the money Zemo or Viper gave him, and he was perfectly fine with giving it back. Grady was also going to join him. This really wasn't worth it. So they headed to the meeting with the intention of leaving this life "for good."
And then Zemo started talking.
"Things aren't good." Zemo started off angrily "This isn't panning out. Not as planned."
"We need a switch in direction." Viper took over from him "We haven't managed to throw Cooper off her game enough."
"We need to move her off the board. Completely." Zemo insisted "Preferably as soon as possible?"
"Assassination?" Taskmaster questioned with a near scoff "Do you know how protected Cooper is in the US."
"Precisely. That's why it's happening at the summit." Zemo decided, "There's no better time."
"You're kidding."
"Not in the slightest Ant." Viper told him aggressively "The summit is open and contrary to popular belief the security is not intense. At least not intense enough for an Assassin to sneak in and make the shot."
"One Assassin? Sounds...High Risk."
"No, not one Assassin. The plan will utilize all of our government assets, one shooter, two decoys, and it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes to make it happen. We do this, it pushes our pawn in power and we continue as we please."
As Taskmaster looked at Viper and Zemo he genuinely had to wonder if they were crazy "And I suspect that you want me to be the can't miss shooter."
"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" Viper questioned, it sounded like a threat, but Taskmaster knew there really wasn't much to it, and instead asked another question.
"You believe that the world will allow Evander Worthington to become the President despite the assassination of the frontrunner, after there has already been allegations of unfair play?"
"They have no choice." Zemo insisted "The other options are fruitless, and they know it."
There were so many things that Taskmaster and even Black Ant wanted to say but all Taskmaster did was nod. He was realizing that Zemo and Viper were never going to change. This team was simply doomed. Karla hadn't said a word throughout the entire thing, this team had been doomed since it's formation.
And Taskmaster was too excited about going out the way Zemo and Viper were planning "Alright then. I want to know the plan. Every single detail."
As they started explaining, Taskmaster wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do yet, but he had a rough idea. This summit was going to be something for everyone involved.