AN: Wow! Just shy of 150 followers, thanks guys! Here's the next chapter, this is the last one before we get into the Avengers movie, after that we should be on track to wrap the Jump up pretty quickly.
Also my original plan was to publish a new story for each Jump, but I think I may just change the title and post it all as one. Some Jumps may only have 1 or 2 chapters. Let me know what you think.
Chapter 5: People, Places, and Things
Sean enjoyed the view of the ocean as he sped down the Pacific Coast Highway. He was making his way to Pasadena, one way or another someone in the area knew the location of one of the most dangerous items in the MCU. The Darkhold.
The timeline behind its location was very spotty and vague. Agents of Shield only revealed a concrete location for it around 2017, before that it was either buried or in use depending on the timing. The problem was solid dates were never mentioned. They only ever use descriptors like 'several years ago' to tell the backstory.
At some point the couple of Lucy and Joseph Bauer got their hands on the Darkhold after tracking down its last owner. They would go on to use it to guide scientific breakthroughs while working for Momentum Labs in Pasadena. Later, the influence of the book would result in Joseph Bauer in a hospital, Lucy stuck with three of their coworkers out of phase, and the last member of the team Eli Morrow in prison for assaulting Joseph.
Based on Sean's research Eli Morrow wasn't in jail, and the Bauers were working in the Pasadena Labs. Whether or not they had the book yet wasn't something he could find, instead he would need to go in person. If they did have it, he was going to steal it. If they didn't, he would just have to keep an eye on them until they went after it.
Either way Sean wanted to make sure to remove the Darkhold from the possession of anyone that thought it was a good idea to use it. Even Fury, who had been looking for the book for years, would likely be tempted to try and control it or use it. The book was literally made of the energy of Hell and was pure evil. It needed to be taken out of play entirely.
Since he still had a little while until he reached Pasadena Sean thought back to his time with Ava and Dr. Foster. After a lengthy discussion it was decided that they would wait to see if Sean could find a way for Ava to control her powers. He made sure to reassure them that if at any point she changed her mind he would do the procedure as soon as possible.
Once she knew that there was a way out, it seemed like the young woman was freed of a terrible burden. She actually smiled a couple times before Sean had left. Now that there wasn't a death sentence hanging over them the pair could live like a mostly normal family. Sean had left his number with both of them in case anything happened. He took several samples of blood from her in order to have material to test on, and also for his own experiments. Though he didn't tell them the last part.
Sean figured that since he would be in the Los Angeles area anyway he could take some time to visit Hollywood and do more of the tourist thing. After that nothing else down here really interested him, so he thought about hopping over to Vegas for some fun. He could take some time to gamble and catch a show or two.
The first sign pointing him to Pasadena flew by and Sean brought himself back to the present. It was time to try and find a book that was made of pure evil. It didn't take him very long to get into town and locate a payphone with a phonebook attached. The novelty of using a phone book to track someone's home address was amusing, but he did it all the same.
As luck would have it there was only one listing for a Joseph and Lucy Bauer, so he copied down the address and hopped back on his bike. Finding the house Sean saw that no one was home at the moment so he decided to drive around a bit and come back later. It would be suspicious if he just hung out in the neighborhood for what may be a few hours. He'd go get a bite to eat and come back after dark.
Late that night Sean found himself back in the neighborhood, he had parked his bike a few blocks away so as not to make a lot of noise as he approached the house. Sure enough their car was in the driveway and the lights in the house were off. He made his way around to the backdoor and listened carefully to determine if they were still awake.
Hearing nothing Sean carefully picked the lock, reveling in the spy knowledge granted by Way of the Widow once more. With careful movements he pushed the door open and slid inside, pausing once he closed the door to listen again. All he could hear was faint snoring coming from upstairs. Silently he crept through the house searching for any sign that they had the Darkhold.
For the longest time he didn't find anything and he was starting to believe he was too early, that they hadn't found it yet. But then there was a whisper on the very edge of his senses. It wasn't a sound or any of the other main senses, this was a sense that he was gifted because of Blessed by the Gods. Magic.
The sensation led him to the basement of the house. Buried under a large trunk, and a floorboard besides, he found what he was looking for. The book had a black cover and the word Darkhold written across the front so that it could be read in either direction. Sean could feel the book trying to influence him, coerce him that he could take just one look it wouldn't hurt.
With a quick movement Sean grabbed the book and tossed it through a portal to a new timelocked quarantine room in his Fortress. He sighed as the pressure from the book dissipated and began making his way out. Just as he closed the backdoor behind him he could hear movement as the Bauers practically ran downstairs. They could likely feel the loss after all their exposure to it.
It was easy to slip through backyards to his bike and ride off into the night, he wouldn't be staying in Pasadena tonight. He hadn't left any evidence but some distance couldn't hurt anything. 'And now neither can the Darkhold,' Sean grinned at a job well done.
LINE BREAK
Four months of traveling around and enjoying himself found Sean back in Boston just in time to receive a call from Fury. He wanted Sean to provide extra security at the Stark Expo since Whiplash made his appearance and Rhodes took the Mark II armor.
Sean knew that Ivan Vanko would usurp Justin Hammer's presentation in an attempt to get revenge on Stark, with the newly revamped War Machine caught up in it. He figured it would be a good chance to get his hands on some more tech, the drones that Vanko designed weren't on the level of an Iron Man suit, but they were close. He would have to find a way to disable the self-destruct though, then again a remote signal probably couldn't get through to his Fortress.
Being in the New York area would also mean that Sean wouldn't be far away when Hulk and Abomination decided to go a few rounds in Harlem. If he was careful he could get his hands on samples of both of their blood. Sounded like a win-win to him.
Unfortunately this would mean that he would be too far from New Mexico to be able to help Thor, but that should all work out fine. Thor's friends would be there as would a whole host of Shield agents, Barton and Coulson included. The people of Harlem on the other hand had General Ross, a man that seemed to want nothing more than military power.
Arriving at the Expo early in the day allowed Sean to wander around and look at the many different booths that had been set up. There wasn't anything mind blowing on display, a lot of it was just new ways to do old things. Still it was a fun few hours to browse. Finally though the announcement that Hammer's demonstration would start soon was made.
Sean slipped through the crowd headed for the backstage area, Fury had managed to get him a pass. From his vantage point he could see Hammer dancing out on stage making an ass of himself. During his speech it was blatantly obvious to anyone with ears that he was envious of Stark and trying to throw some shade on Tony's spotlight.
When Iron Man made his entrance Sean knew the fireworks were about to start and he placed a call to 911 using his Shield credentials to get them to mobilise. He warned them that there was an imminent threat to civilians and that they needed to evacuate the area immediately.
Just as the first sirens could be heard approaching the area the War Machine armor took aim at Tony. Stark launched into the air and was followed quickly by Rhodey and the Air Force drones. The other drones began moving forward towards the crowd.
Spotting Romanoff following Pepper Potts into the backstage area Sean intercepted them, "Romanoff, nice to see you again. Listen Ivan Vanko is in control of the drones, he's holed up at Hammer Industries. Head there and see if you can stop this, I'll try to split their attention and keep the civilians out of it. Take Potts with you, it's going to be dangerous here."
She looked surprised to see him there, but after a moment nodded. With a soft tug and reassuring words she led her fellow red-head out of the area. Sean turned back to the chaos unraveling around him.
The remaining three drone models Navy, Army, and Marines - eight each of them - were all making their way to the open front of the pavilion. Sean ran after them and when he got within range pulled his sidearm, instead of shooting uselessly he leapt on the back of the nearest drone.
While they had pretty decent armor, it wasn't designed for a point blank shot from a 9mm handgun. The drone dropped and Sean rolled with the landing, popping right back up to his feet. With just a thought Sean reached into a portal the size of his head and grabbed a shotgun from storage.
Several of the other drones had turned toward him while he was doing this and began to open fire. He dashed behind another one of the Navy drones and let it take the brunt of the damage. When the drone toppled Sean came out running, he slid under one drone and put a round in the back of its head.
Jumping to his feet and spinning around he shot another in the middle of its chest, right where the reactor was. It lost power immediately and fell like its friends. By this point all but the Army drones were focused on him, they were trying to get a shot on Tony as he flew past.
Five Navy drones and seven Marines moved towards him, their weapons priming. He decided the Navy were the bigger threat as their missiles could do serious damage to the civilians. Sean dropped his shotgun into another portal and charged forward.
With a leap he kicked one of the Navy drones in the head. It was at this point that something clicked for Sean. Up until now he hadn't been fighting like he could. He was still acting like he was just a normal human that had some skills, like Romanoff or Fury. He had ignored the part of him that had been trained and blessed by Asgardians, a race that was several times stronger and faster than humans. A speed and strength he himself had a portion of.
This revelation came about when the drones head flew clean off. Sean had only expected to maybe knock it aside a bit or distract its aim for a second. Instead it collapsed to the ground. Laughing at the burst of exhilaration he felt he leapt at the remaining drones.
In a flurry of kicks and punches Sean was left standing surrounded by a pile of scrap. He looked around to make sure the area was clear and then dropped all of them into a separate storage room, timelocking it to prevent them receiving the self-destruct signal.
By the time he got out front the Army drones were gone, so they were likely at the final showdown with Tony and Rhodes. Sean jogged back to the backstage area and made sure Hammer stayed put until the police arrived to take him away. Once everything had calmed down Sean's phone rang.
"O'Connor."
"Hey there, thanks for the assist. Vanko was gone, but I managed to reboot Rhodey's armor." Came the voice of the Black Widow.
"No problem, always happy to help, though I imagine you would've been fine without me." Seeing that the cops were handling everything Sean started making his way back to the hotel he was staying at.
"Probably, but it's always nice to have backup. Everything go okay on your end?"
"Yeah, I got to play with a few of the drones. Can't say I'm a fan. Also Hammer is in police custody, Fury might want to put some eyes on him."
"I'll pass it along. Nice working with you again, until next time." She signed off, he returned the farewell and hung up. That was one major crisis out of the way, now to get ready for the next.
In just a couple days Blonsky should be let loose in Harlem as the Abomination, shortly afterward the military would air drop Banner in to Hulk out. Sean would be there to get involved, hopefully with his help there won't be quite so much damage.
LINE BREAK
It was while Sean was staking out Grayburn College in Harlem that he had thought. 'What the hell am I even doing?' Here he was thinking about how people that never affected timelines were idiots, but he was just waiting around. Even with the Stark Expo he could've stopped anything from ever happening.
Instead of just sitting around Sean decided on a different, more proactive plan. He watched Dr. Samuel Sterns and marked out which lab was his. When Betty Ross and Bruce Banner showed up to talk to Sterns about the possibility of a cure Sean made his move.
He let them go through with the first attempt, mostly because it was unclear if it helped Bruce to better control Hulk later. While they were all focused on that Sean let himself into the side room and 'confiscated' all of the samples of Banner's blood that Sterns had made.
After the procedure was finished and the three scientists were talking about the results Sean made himself known.
"That was the most extraordinary thing I have seen in my entire life!" Was Sterns' exuberant declaration.
"I agree, that was something else." Sean sidled in from the other room.
Bruce was on his feet and in front of Betty before Sterns even finished turning around. "Who are you? How did you find me?" He asked, his eyes darting around to find an exit.
"Easy there big guy. My name is Sean O'Connor, I'm a consultant for Shield. I found you the same way that Ross did. The aliases you and Dr. Sterns used to talk were not as hidden as you might think." Sean had both of his hands up and kept his voice level.
"I suppose you want to take me in? Dissect me? I won't let the General use me to create weapons." Bruce was starting to get worked up, Sean could hear the faint beep of the pulse monitor he wore speeding up.
"No. I hate what Ross has planned for you. Shield isn't an organisation that works for the betterment of one nation. Ross wants to use you to make the United States strong. I don't really care about that. Honestly I think you are as valuable a scientist as Hulk is a weapon, if not more so. I mean, you have seven PhDs." Sean carefully lowered himself into a seat and continued.
"We don't have much time, Ross is surrounding this building as we speak. I can take you somewhere that you may be able to learn how to control the Hulk. It's fairly remote, and I promise you are free to leave whenever you like."
Banner looked very tempted, "How do I know this isn't a trick?"
"Because Doc, you aren't the only one that's special." Sean opened a portal into his Fortress, showing the three a fully furnished living room. "The world is full of marvels, some good and some bad. Shield monitors these, and I joined so I could help people like you. All I ask is that you trust me."
"Can you keep Betty safe? I don't want to risk her while I try to get control." Betty Ross tried to speak up in protest but even she knew that it was likely for the best.
"Shield has more than enough connections to get her placed in a nice research job in an out of the way place. I give you my word she will be as safe as possible." Sean could hear the movement outside picking up, "I'm sorry Doctor but you need to make a choice, things are going to get very complicated soon."
Banner and Betty exchanged a long look before he spoke up, "Okay, I'll do it."
Sean ushered them into his Fortress, pointing them to a guest room that had appeared a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately in the last few months Sean had finished furnishing the whole place so it wasn't quite as empty. He closed the portal and turned back to Sterns.
"And you? I can get you a job with Shield researching things you can't even imagine. All you have to do is tell the soldiers that Banner came here, stole his samples, and left. Deal?"
At this point Sterns was beyond shocked, so he just nodded. Sean faded into the shadows and waited. He was relieved when the soldiers finally arrived and Sterns told them exactly what was agreed. Once they left he showed himself to the scientist before nodding and leaving.
That had ended up with probably the best result possible, though Sean needed to have a chat with Fury. In the interest of this he sent a text to an encrypted line with a coded message that let Fury know he needed to talk. He would need to wait until after that to let Bruce and Betty out, but it shouldn't take more than a day or two and they had plenty of food.
LINE BREAK
The next day as Sean stepped into his Boston condo Fury was waiting for him.
"You wanted to talk?" The Director was reclining in an armchair looking every bit like this was his home and not Sean's.
"Yeah. I imagine you caught wind of what was happening in Harlem?" Sean made his way to his fridge and grabbed a beer, offering one to Fury which was accepted.
"Ross made a lot of people nervous moving into a populated city like that, he was already in hot water after Culver. This is only going to make it worse for him. But it sounds like there's more to this story."
"I got to Banner before the Army did and extracted him to a safe location. I'll be taking him somewhere that might help in controlling the Hulk, my hope is that after that he'll be more amenable to helping Shield since we are the ones that helped him."
Fury didn't look particularly happy about Sean doing things without running it by him first, but there wasn't anything he could really do, "So why do you need me?"
Sean took a sip before he answered, "Three things. First is Dr. Elizabeth Ross, she needs to be kept somewhere safe, a nice job in an out of the way place. Just until Banner gets himself figured out, after that I imagine they'll both join up with Shield in some capacity.
"The next is Dr. Samuel Sterns, the man is too curious for his own good and now that he knows about Banner he will probably try to replicate the experiment. I'd recommend picking him up and putting him to work under supervision, he's smart but has very little caution or common sense.
"Last is Emile Blonsky, he's British special forces on loan to SOCOM. General Ross juiced him up with an experimental super soldier serum and now he's addicted to the power. He also has a fascination with the Hulk and might try to go after Banner to trigger him. I don't really know what to do about him but I figured giving you a heads up couldn't hurt."
Fury took this all in with a calm look on his face, but Sean could see the gears turning in his head. After a long moment the Director spoke, "I'll put some eyes on Blonsky and if he gets bad then we'll scoop him up. As for Sterns, your idea sounds like the best one for the time being. I'll send someone after him soon. It'll take me a couple days to set something up for Ross, but that's possible too, where is she?"
"She's with Banner, I'll take her with me to drop him off and then bring her wherever you can set up for her." Sean stood and offered a hand, "Thanks for coming so quickly, and agreeing to my suggestions."
Fury shook hands with him and headed for the door, "At this point I'd have to be stupid to not at least hear you out on things." He threw a wave over his shoulder as he closed the door.
Once Fury was gone Sean opened a portal to his Fortress and stepped in to check on the couple stored there. He found them in the living room watching a movie on the TV, it was a nice domestic scene.
"Hey guys, how are you?" He asked.
Banner stood up and started asking questions, "We're fine. So what now?" Sean could tell the man was nervous, more so now that he'd had time to calm down.
"Now, I take you somewhere you can get some help. Nick Fury, the Director of Shield, is setting something up for Betty but first we'll get you sorted out." Sean grabbed some shawarma, it was actually pretty good.
"Where exactly is it you're taking me?" The scientist wanted to know.
"I can't tell you exactly, partly because I think it's part of the journey to find it yourself and partly because I don't actually know the exact location. It's in Nepal though, Kathmandu specifically. It's basically a monastery of sorts." After all if anyone could help Bruce come to terms with the Hulk it would probably be the Ancient One.
"You guys can stay in here, I'll get us there and then let you out."
"So this place is like a pocket dimension? How is it generated? The power requirements must be massive." The mild mannered man started getting excited about potentially new science.
"I don't really know, it's just something I've been able to do for a while now. Maybe once you take care of things I can tell you more, for now you two spend some time together. We should be there in a day or so." Sean left them to it and exited the Fortress.
Finding a flight to get him all the way to Kathmandu took a little longer than he really wanted but in the end he was boarding a plane.
LINE BREAK
It was a simple matter to drop Bruce off in Kathmandu, he told him to find Kamar-Taj and sent him on his way. Sean did make sure to leave him with a way to contact both him and Shield. The separation of Betty and Banner was tender, but Sean gave them some space.
After that he took Betty to a facility in Spain that Fury pointed him towards. They were working on some high level biology projects and Betty seemed very excited when she heard the name. Sean hadn't ever heard of them but that didn't really mean much of anything.
Now that he was on his own again Sean had a goal in mind. According to Fury, Thor was back off to Asgard so the events of Avengers could start at any time. It was hard to judge the timing of some things, because the release of the movies didn't necessarily correspond to the timing of events.
For example, the Hulk movie came out in 2008. A full two years before either Thor or the second Iron Man, but all of their climaxes took place in the span of a week. With that being the case he didn't want to operate on the assumption that Avengers would take place in mid-2012 like he originally thought. His best judge of timing would be Stark's progress on his tower.
Construction of the building had just started a day ago and projections put it at a year-long timeline for completion. In that time Sean had a couple of things that he wanted to prepare. First things first, it was time to pay A.I.M. a visit.
Advanced Idea Mechanics was a private think-tank created by Aldritch Killian, initially formed to pursue scientific advancement. Unfortunately Killian had turned to using the Extremis virus developed by Maya Hanson to create personal soldiers and assassins.
Sean couldn't be sure how far along they were in that endeavour, but he did know that he wanted the virus. It operated by rewriting a person's DNA to make use of the body's bioelectric potential. This gave them advanced healing, to the point of regrowing limbs, a level of enhanced strength and the ability to generate massive amounts of heat.
As it stands the virus is very unstable and has a tendency to make people explode, but it has a lot of potential. Sean wanted it for a couple of reasons. First off he used fire, and the ability to generate it that much easier could only help. Not to mention that increasing his base physical abilities can't hurt.
Secondly, this was one of the things that he thought might be able to help Ava. The virus' ability to interact with and change a person's DNA may be the key to helping her. At the very least, it working in conjunction with a few other things might do the trick.
Killian hadn't started using the Mandarin in order to push things in his favor yet, so no one really had any idea what he was up to. Sean knew however that if left to his own devices Killian would eventually go after Stark and the President. Stark for revenge, and the President in order to put someone easy to control in office.
Since they weren't hiding it was the work of ten minutes to locate their main labs. Sean took a couple of weeks to survey the location and gather information. He knew that most of the people that worked here didn't know what Killian was planning, but he didn't want to just leave them be either.
He finally decided on a two step plan. Step 1: Steal all of their data and samples of the Extremis virus, deleting the data on the way out. Step 2: Call Shield with an anonymous tip. Simple enough but it should get the job done. That way even if they are completely innocent Shield will be able to keep an eye on the scientists.
Step 1 was accomplished with no hassle. Their security systems were top of the line, but Sean had been playing in Shield's systems for almost a year now so they didn't slow him down much.. As for physical security they only had a few guards that patrolled in rotations, again easy to avoid.
Step 2 was as simple as a text to Fury, the man was probably getting tired of hearing from him. Within a day the labs were surrounded by Shield personnel and Killian was escorted out in cuffs. It turns out that he made very detailed plans and left them all on his work computer, such an amature move.
With that taken care of it was time to prepare for the inevitable invasion. Sean had a few ideas on how to change things, and if he played his cards right he should be able to prevent most of the issues that might rise after that. So for the time being, Sean would be working in his workshop and medbay to set everything up.
AN: Alright guys, review or PM to let me know what you think! Until next time.