Episode 1: The Road to El Dorado

Part 1: The King's Invitation

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The realization that my entire family was probably dead wasn't instantaneous. I had talked with Armsmaster for a few good moments before it came to me. As doctors poured inside the room, together with a handful of capes by their costumes, I realized I still felt alone. Terribly lonely, despite their extremely small chance I did have a past soul inside myself, together with a god, or whatever that thing is supposed to be.

I realized too, as the doctors and a couple of capes had me perform a series of movements and follow certain directions, that my body was frailer than I remembered. Every time I made a muscle contract and at every twist, not matter how gentle, my bones and flesh felt dull and heavy. It didn't feel like the sort of thing that a mere three day stay at a hospital should give you. This wasn't the sort of numbness staying still would provoke.

I felt extremely weak. Both my physical state, as my mental, had been clearly chipped away. Anxiety started to creep on me, and my breathing grew faster, only further hated by the fact my lungs themselves seemed unable to up their rhythm. I felt I was sweating already from the effort.

"What is wrong with me?" I asked to any of those around.

It was the short girl in a white costume who answered me. "When I got you in my hands, your body wasn't just extremely debilitated. It was dying." She said that more surprised than anything else. It intrigued her, this cape which I knew her name. Panacea. One of the few capes around whose power can be used to perform the good sort of miracles. She placed a hand on my shoulder suddenly, uncovering it slightly and touched my skin. "Sorry. I don't actually have to ask you specifically for permission."

"I would obviously have given it though. You've saved me." I told her with a slight nod of my head.

Surprisingly, she frowned at that. "That's not entirely clear. You were feeble, almost on the other side of life, but it wasn't me who brought you back. In fact, there was little I could do. It's almost as if I couldn't use my powers on you."

"Has that ever happened?" I asked her, and I noticed Armsmaster lifted his head slightly, my question catching his curiosity.

"Never. Reason why Horizon is here to help me." She told me, her head twitching to the other side of my bed. I could see her immediately, with a nurse taking my intravenous connections apart from my other arm. After she was done though, I saw who Horizon was. She wore green colored light armor, which was constituted by thin plates over a green mesh that seemed to be a bodysuit. Her mask covered only her face, with a visor that went from one extremity to the other in front of her vision of sight. "She has such an extremely developed sight, that she can gaze into a person and see the functioning of one's internal organs. It helps since you somewhat seem to interfere with my powers."

I nodded along, both for hearing her and to disguise me cheeks which threatened to twitch. My eyes too started feeling strangely moisty. The question in the back of my head needed an answer, but I, myself, didn't need it just yet. Whether my family was dead or not had to wait. It didn't make a difference right now.

But my eyes didn't listen, as I felt a sole streak of a tear running down over my face.

"Are in pain?" Panacea asked me suddenly, her hands flying over my body as she attempted to catch my problem. Was she always so touchy, or did her powers really struggled that much?

"I don't think it's physical." Horizon chipped in, and before Panacea could continue that line of thought, I interrupted her.

"What happens now?" I asked Armsmaster. The easiest way to follow through was to ignore the problem at hand. It hurt, the headache I was giving myself, but I had to continue forward. Apparently, Nilbog was out for my hide, or his puppets were in his place. It didn't matter too much, since both were terribly dangerous, and right that was enough to for me to worry about. Anything else wasn't worth the sweat.

"As I've told you before," Armsmaster started, his voice robotic. "we will take you to our HQ. A meeting will be assembled on what our next steps.

Next steps… "On what to do with Nilbog?" Panacea and Horizon visibly twitched at the mention of my newest problem. Clearly, they seemed to be in the know. Was it public knowledge? Knowledge shared between all capes? Armsmaster didn't seem to care about what I had just said, so I suppose it didn't matter.

"Precisely." He answered me curtly.

As I cracked my neck, the medical team started leaving my room, leaving me only with Armsmaster, Horizon, and Panacea, whose eyes had held an inquiring gaze throughout the whole ordeal. She seemed really put off. I suppose it did make some sense however.

"No, this really doesn't make any sense." Panacea said slowly, holding out her hand again and touching me in the arm once again. "You sure you can't see it?" She asked Horizon.

"See what?" I asked Panacea.

"Honestly, I have that same question." Horizon confessed.

Panacea had a hand running through her hair as she sighed in frustration. "Hopefully it doesn't matter."

"Better to be safe about it. Is it still about the blinking particles?" Armsmaster inquired, to which Panacea meekly nodded.

"There was never something in a body I couldn't make sense of it." She admitted reluctantly, crossing her arms as she pouted. "I guess I will have to write another report on this."

"Is he ready?" Armsmaster asked both capes, and at their nod, he gave us some simple instructions.

They left my room, giving me the privacy to dress a new set of clothes offered by the PRT. Apparently, my clothes from the battle were beyond saving, and both my phone and wallet were gone. When I left my room, it felt weird walking around without the weight and volume of a phone or wallet in my pockets.

The set of clothes were simple. Blue jeans, black buttoned shirt, black socks, and navy blue shoes. It felt quite cheap, and I was sure everything had been bought in a Ross store or something. It didn't bother me at all though. In fact, the efficiency was preferable, and the clothes suited me just fine.

What stroke me as shocking, was my escort waiting for me outside my door. Six agents, probably from the PRT, all carrying handguns on one side of the waist and tinker like guns on the other. Armsmaster followed behind us, while Panacea and Horizon were no where in view. We left the Hospital not on foot, but through the garage. Two armored cars from the PRT, one of them filled with people in military armor, with three police cars surrounding us.

This was a fucking convoy. I looked around at the people besides me as everyone took their seats. Armsmaster came last from behind, nudging me to enter the empty armored car. Well, almost empty. It had a driver and a co-pilot, as well as a woman in a suit. Looking back at this memory, I would think she was quite attractive, but I wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to bother with that at the moment.

"What is all this for? Is it against me?" I asked Armsmaster as we took our own seats. Were people afraid of me? Paranoid? Or was I the paranoid one? But what was this for anyway, then?

"No." He is answer echoed in my mind as an agent closed the back doors of the armored car, a loud metallic noise as the engine roared and the car started moving. "It's to protect you."

I raised my eyebrows. "People want to hurt me?"

Armsmaster sighed. "Your victory over Leviathan seems to have come with a price. You are not using your powers right now, are you?" he asked me with an answer already in mind. As I shook my head, he continued. "Leviathan is still inside that globe of ice, just as you left him. Thing is, you also left behind a small 'ice age' over Brockton Bay. Around ninety-five thousand people died during the battle of Leviathan, but the aftermath was also unfortunately deadly to a few."

We left the garage, and the light of the outside day invaded the car through the only windows available, the driver's front ones. Everything was covered in snow. A very thin layer of snow, but snow nevertheless. The day was clouded, shining upon the city covered in white a grey color scale that only helped making our surroundings more depressing. There was still, obviously, streets entirely covered in debris and other leftovers of the chaotic battle, and our convoy zig-zagged as best as it could in order to avoid any possible obstacles.

"Around twelve hundred people have died due to the under 32 F temperatures, and the only reason the casualties haven't risen up, is because we are receiving great amounts of relief from the outside world."

It was then that I heard the sound of jets flying low over Brockton Bay. Emphasis on multiple ones.

Armsmaster continued, but his voice now carried spite. "A small price to pay for stopping an Endbringer. Not too long ago, I would think trading lives for this sort of thing was undoable. But now… kid, you've stopped a third of the apocalypse."

My jaw bone was shaking. "I killed twelve hundred people?"

The cape sitting opposite to me nodded, and he too seemed affected. "Unfortunately."

"Unfortunately?" I asked with disbelief.

"I just told you, James. You can believe that no hero, no good cape would have wanted this, but now that it is done… tell me, who will have the courage to stop this winter, and melt away the only thing keeping Leviathan locked up?"

I didn't want this.

Armsmaster hadn't stopped talking. "—maybe for the first time since their first attack, we are on track to save human civilization."

"You can save civilizations, James."

Korra's words echoed in my mind together with a pang of pain.

I just want my family.

Another tear stroke down my cheek, but I cleaned it again before it was noticed.

At my silence, Armsmaster said nothing else. I looked a few times through the driver's windshield, absorbing the image of my cursed city. We passed a few times by some camps, garbage cans lit on fire as the poor circled around their only source of warmth.

The buildings that weren't totally destroyed were obviously overpopulated. Most windows had various pieces of cloth, rags, or outright pieces of clothing to hamper the cold air from getting inside. Every time our convoy passed by one of those occupied structures, people would come out and check, while the children sated their curiosity from the upper floors, their heads popping out between the window covers and the window balcony.

It was an eerie scene that repeated itself more than once. Were they waiting for relief? Waiting for food to fill their empty stomachs? Waiting for blankets to shield them from the old night? Energy was probably out, aand that's not even mentioning the water supply.

Hadn't I froze the entire water supply of this city? Had Korra made it localized so that it would affect the citizens of Brockton Bay? No, that would be impossible. Just to be safe, we must have blocked all sources of liquid water.

There were people out there who wanted my hide. People who, righteously, felt hurt by what we had done, be it by collaterally killing those they cared, or by the suffering we had put them through these following days. And I felt very tempted to blame Korra, to blame on her this whole mess that my life had become, from one day to the other. I hadn't chosen this, I had no way of knowing this was coming, no way to prepare. It would be so easy to say that I was mastered or at least, to pretend that I, James Flores, had been a victim of circumstance. So easy to say I was powerless.

But I couldn't make myself do it. I felt, amazingly enough even to myself, already strangely responsible. Korra told me I had made the call. She told me that it had been thanks to me that she had been able to take action, and I believed her. I didn't know why, but I did. If everyone I cared about was dead, it didn't make me feel as someone to be pitied. I didn't feel like I deserved that. I felt like I had failed them.

I had power. I, therefore, had at the same time the responsibility. I had the duty to take the right action, but things had developed exactly as I feared, exactly as I had told Korra. It didn't matter if you had all the power in the world if you can't make the right choices with it.

Our arrival to the PRT HQ (or its leftovers) was a bit bumpy. Apparently, between the morning and the afternoon, a piece of concrete from the building had fallen over the loading dock, and due to the entire mess that the city still was, we had to go around the whole complex to get in through another access. Clearly, they were adamant that I should be brought in as safely as possible.

When I commented about that, Armsmaster then thought okay to share the fact three people had tried to kill me during my little coma. In the first day, it had been a cape, Skidmark. The second, two civilians had tried the same with bombs. While Skidmark wanted some sort of revenge, and was drugged the fuck out of it, the civilians were part of a newly founded cult that believed I was an Endbringer.

Funny how the world works.

When we disembarked the armored car, I realized the woman in a suit didn't come with us. We entered the elevator, and the doors started to close. In between them, I stole one last look at the woman, but she seemed to be lost in thought as he had been during the entire trip.

"Who's she?" I asked Armsmaster.

He didn't answer immediately, the elevator going down a floor before he opened his mouth. "I'm not sure." He confessed.

We stopped at the -3 level, and after exiting, Armsmaster prodded me to enter what was clearly an interrogation room. The one-way mirror covered almost one of the entire walls.

I swallowed. "I guess we still have some trust issues around here."

Armsmaster shrugged. "It's not just that. There are civilians on the other side of the window, which has been tempered by tinkers to protect them from most parahuman powers."

As he finished speaking, a handful of capes joined us in the room. First came one of the Triumvirate, Alexandria, followed by who I thought to be Chevalier who joined the table besides Armsmaster. All of them were leaders of their own, all of them on the top scale of the most powerful parahumans, and they were in a tight room with me.

I looked at my right, at the one-way mirror, and wondered how many people were on the other side. Just for one second, for a fraction of a moment, I wondered if my family was there too. Involuntarily, I hiccupped.

"We are responsible for keeping the balance in the world."

I'm not like them. I looked at them, at all these exemplary capes, people who had gone beyond the call of duty to save the world, one good action at a time. I was just a boy, and I wanted my family. I wanted them back. I couldn't hold it.

I placed my elbows over the metal table, my face sinking into my palms as tears finally made their way out.

"James." I didn't recognize the voice there for a second, though by being feminine, it was obvious it could only belong to Alexandria. Before that reasoning had reached me, however, I first recalled her voice from my memories, the voice of the cape who had helped me against Leviathan.

"Where are they? My mom, my dad?" It hurt to speak, to know this could be the last time I ever referenced to them as if they were still alive. "And where's my sister?"

The lack of an answer was the most painful silence I had ever endured until this day, and yet, I did try to hold it in. I tried as best as I could to focus, to stop myself for continuing this shameful display.

"James, I know it's a lot to take in." I felt like Alexandria really felt for what she was saying, but that didn't bring my family back. "And I know it's hard, but we have to ask you to calm yourself. If your powers, if you have them, are exposed to intense emotions, they could leave your control."

"Well…" I said coarsely, "Then you are in bad fucking luck. It's beyond my control, It's not just about not knowing how to use them. It's beyond my reach."

Alexandria seemed to look at Armsmaster for a second before facing me straight on again. "What you mean?"

"I have to learn how to use it. I don't know how any of this works yet."

"That's not how powers usually work." Chevalier interjected.

I spat. "So, what? Now it does, and apparently, it works. Leviathan is stuck inside fucking a snow globe."

"James—" Alexandria called my name again, but I ignored her.

"Armsmaster, you seem the kind to give straight answers. Where's my family?" I asked, my voice enraged and distorted by the tightness of m throat and by my running nose.

The other capes in the room exchanged glances until everyone of us held our eyes on Armsmaster. He straightened his shoulders before answering, "Your parents are deceased. Your sister, however, we have no confirmation on her status. She could be dead, she could be missing.:

"So, she is probably dead?" That last word crushed my heart as I said. It felt abysmally wrong. I banged the metal table, the sound echoing inside the room. "Seems like we are all pretty bad at our jobs. You couldn't take down Leviathan after decades, and I do it in a day." Tears were resurfacing again. "In contrast I can't even protect my own sister. One fucking person."

I knew I was pissing them off, but I felt I had the right to piss someone off, at least just a little.

"Thousands have died fighting that monster, good men and women." Chevalier spat. "People who lost everything to them but kept fighting—"

"Telling me I shouldn't be crying over my dead family you fucking—"

"Both of you—" Armsmaster started, but Alexandria finished it.

"Enough of you all!" She yelled with strength, and suddenly, it downed on me to who I was swearing against. A couple of seconds went by, in which Alexandria seemed to be cursing to herself.

"Let's just get this moving." Chevalier spoke up, his voice heavy. "Alexandria, the letter?"

The female cape brought to the table a small envelope, which was already opened. "This," she started, her hand over that very same envelope, "Is the letter Nilbog sent through his envoy. Would you prefer to read it yourself, should I read it aloud?"

I looked again at the one-way mirror. "Wouldn't they prefer if you read the letter again?"

"You can sense them?" Chevalier spoke up, and I readily answered.

"No, but with three top capes inside this tiny ass room, it isn't a far stretch of imagination to wonder how packed that room is."

"To those which the letter matters, they already have a copy." Alexandria explained. "But I suppose it might be useful to read it to you, instead."

"TO the Most Honorable Soul, Benefactor of Men and God, Prince of Raava, The Avatar, it is of my great respect and admiration that I write to you. May my envoy deliver to your 'Great Person' this testament of my delight and esteem over your glorious existence. There is not a spirit out there, after all, who does not know of your legends.

"The entire world, for those not ignorant of the other side, have felt your awakening, and it is of my greatest pleasure to invite you over to my Kingdom of Ellisburg. I and my children can only wait to be in awe of your divine presence. Unfortunately, it occurs to me that you may be dissuaded by your government to visit my blessed realm. I offer than something in exchange, a token of trust.

The Endbringer will not be trapped for long. From what I've observed and heard, the demon will remain imprisoned for only two weeks. Depending on when you receive this letter, time may have ticked substantially. James Flores, although I treat you as an equal, as a royal man, you are yet not the Avatar in his full form. Come to my palace, and you will leave with knowledge. Come to me, His Majesty of Ellisburg, and you will be able to permanently terminate Leviathan.

I promise you, you will leave my Kingdom unscathed, but still, I allow you an escort if only to make sure you feel adequately protected and safe. Two parahumans, but two parahumans only. You may be brought by any form of transportation to 35 miles of Ellisburg by any number of personal of your choosing. Once you arrive at the 35 mile mark, the Avatar must disembark and proceed his journey on foot with his two chosen parahumans. My children will be watching as to make sure you and your men hold your word. I apologize for the scrutiny in advance, but our cease-fire is too fragile to risk the safety of my people.

Furthermore, I've sent with my envoy a spiritual physician, one of my children. Should you need proof of my promise, he can show you the truth of this broken world. I'm sure that, then and perhaps only then, you shall be made sure of your destiny, and why it lies within Ellisburg. This is fate, Lord of the Elements.

From His Majesty, The God-King of Ellisburg,

Himself, Nilbog

No one knew what to say after Alexandria finished reading it. Armsmaster had his face turned down, Chevalier had a hand over his mask and Alexandria's voice as she had read it was enough to tell us of her disbelief and absolute distrust.

"We know it's really from him?" I asked, my hands intertwined in font of me as I tried to distract myself that this serial killer wanted to meet me.

"It has his signature, both of Nilbog and of his civilian identity, Jamie Rinkie. Probably as good as we will ever get. He destroyed all communications inside Ellisburg."

I nodded. "This guy… he is really mad, isn't he?"

"The PRT has been keeping track of him ever since he showed up." Chevalier told us, "Every week, a good number of procedures are followed through to check every biocomponent Ellisburg has exchanged with the outer world. The air currents are tracked and analyzed, the water and sewage are tested, and every road that comes out or goes in is secured. Not to say, every single forest that surrounds the area is infested with cameras and other sensors. Everything that happens in that town, we make it sure it stays in that town."

"He sent an envoy who reached Brockton Bay." I observed.

"His creatures explained the situation to our PRT agents in a nearby watch station and showed a copy of the letter. It was quite horrific to know that Nilbog knew where some of our men were located, but nevertheless, no one got hurt. Reports from our men in New York say it was stressful at first, but Nilbog's creatures were adamant about their orders to not kill, maim, or hurt any human."

I still had questions. Nilbog seemed aware of the Avatar, something he had called me explicitly. A lunatic thinks I am the Avatar. I 'think' I believe I'm the Avatar. You see where I'm going? Maybe I was really going mad.

"What is this 'Avatar' thing?" Chevalier inquired, both Armsmaster and Alexandria attentive to my answer. "He calls 'Benefactor of Men and God', 'Prince of… Sasha', and 'Avatar'. What the fuck is that supposed to mean? Are they code words? Do they have a specific meaning to you?"

"What you mean code words?" I asked somewhat offended. "How the fuck am I going to trade coded words with this fucking crazy asshole?! I don't know him!"

"Then what is it?" Chevalier pressed on unscathed.

"I—" say I don't know? I knew I had to explain it, but it just felt so humiliating telling a bunch of grown ups about my latest trip to fantasy land. It didn't matter if I somewhat believed in Korra. Telling what I knew to these people was beyond embarrassing.

"I—what?" Chevalier prodded again.

I sighed, looking at Armsmaster briefly. "I've spent the last three days in a god damn hospital. Can you assure me I have no brain damage?"

"We have no reason to believe your brain has been compromised, outside of probable master effects, which are still not out of the table." Armsmaster informed me.

"So, if I sound even slightly batshit insane, I can say that's some…" I gestured widely to my side, "you know, an out there master-like powered cape's fault. Not mine."

Armsmaster nodded. "If you are mastered."

Well here we go. I looked at the three capes before me. Alexandria, Chevalier, and Armsmaster. Three of the greatest capes the United States had in its repertoire.

"You know, after telling you what I know, if any of you have objections on putting me in an asylum, I will seriously start doubting you guys have the sanity to keep your jobs."

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A/N: Yeah, took a while for this next chapter. Finals, well, you know the spin.

I can tell you right now that very few characters were changed, if that is something that bothers you. Unfortunately, Nilbog is one of them. Thing is, I have a bit of a problem with stories that simply throw two stories together and wave all the inconsistencies with just an argument of the likes 'its all in the multiverse'. Ironically, although that is part of my explanation in this story, readers will realize the Avatar is less alien to Worm than one might presume. As in, this isn't just 'throwing the Avatar' into Worm. There are in universe explanations and connections, although I'm sure there will be always people saying it's too farfetched.

I'm splitting each arc into 'Episodes'. The number of parts is undefined, but I'm pretty sure Nilbog's arc will need at least three more chapters. Probably around 12 thousand words depending on how lazy I am. Next episode, James and his two escorts will start their journey.

After this arc, for your curiosity's sake, James will do what many Avatars have done once in their lifetime, independently if they actually follow through with their duties.