Blizz

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

Leah Jordan

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Location: New Orleans
Gear:
Skills:

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These questions weren’t really anything Leah cared too much about. The only one that gave her pause was the one about her name, which she just had to stop and think about for a second. She Hulk did use that name on whatever she filed. So she filled it out and just waited… And then Agatha just manifested out of thin air like a hologram. Leah stared her down for a moment, wondering if the old lady was
going to turn around and look back, maybe say something like, “Oh I see you turned into a weird monster already, that happened sooner than I thought.” She saw the future, after all. But she already started doing shit, and there would probably be time to talk with her after she found Victoria. And after she talked to Vision.

She wasn’t looking forward to that. Oh well.

And she wasn’t looking forward to this, either. Leah got in line somewhere and waited. The time she spent waiting was enough to wrangle her thoughts into something coherent. She never liked doctors or examinations. They made her want to tear her damn skin off and hit someone with whatever was underneath. She’d been under Imperator’s knife enough, and that was pretty damn fresh in her mind right now, given the situation.

A physical was no problem for her. Physical stuff was half of Leah’s entire thing as a superhero. It felt weird being observed doing it, but whatever...

The first question had her pretty damn confused. They waved an amulet over her head when she bent down low enough for them too, and it glowed a warm golden color. That didn't seem right to her.

"Hmm. Interesting. Dear, are you aware that someone has enchanted you?”

"...What? Enchanted me with what?" She had no idea what that could be. Her dad's doing, probably.

“I’m afraid our testing does not give the specifics, merely the class and rough skill level associated. If you’d like someone to take a deeper look, we can arrange for an additional appointment - perhaps with a member of faculty here?”

"No. I have things to do today." And she really didn't want to be in here longer than she had to. Leah was not fucking with this today.

Then, they pulled the book out and she answered the questions.

"What is your name?"

"Leah Jordan." Technically, it was true. Legally true, now.

"Who are you?"

Leah would've just repeated her answer to the first question, but there was probably some mystic reason for this. Who or what was she deep down? On a deeper level, down to what she stood for and believed in?

"I don't know," She answered. "I'm a monster with rocks for skin, when I was normal last month. I'm either a superhero or an impostor, depending on who you ask. Or I'm neither. I just am."

"Do you want to compete in the Contest of Champions?"

"I do. But not for myself."

It seemed to be good enough for the book, or if it wasn't, it didn't say. That was all, so Leah got up and quickly left the room. Vision would find them eventually. She pulled her phone out and sent a much more coherent message to both April and Sabine, now that she was thinking clearly again.

@April+Sabine

earthbender: sorry for using this chat. i guess it was ignored for a reason. sorry if i scared you too april. its dad. hes here. either i finish this shit with the contest or the school is gone. i was worried he got to you and sabine before me. glad he didnt.

earthbender: im going to find vision.

✨ Under Black Stars ✨

He was never truly "there" when Annika made some progress forward. The goal here wasn't so much to go to specific places, but to find an instinctual way by which she could evade. Jack made sure to follow her, taking some odd roads through methods he had yet to even mention to his daughter, while ensuring that this controlled mad dash of hers was controlled. That was the important part. It was fine if she flagged and tanked, it was fine if she just couldn't go further. One who practiced sorcery had to find the points where they could go no further, so they could improve. Jack and Annika had to do this because it meant they had more options for escaping dangerous situations, he was by no means the sort of wizard who could fight world-ending threats on his own. He was doing this to impart those same lessons on her.

"Already, you have reached a point where a choice must be made." It didn't surprise him that it took Annika so little to hit her limit. She was young, inexperienced, and had to practice. "Rest, and find other areas to improve on. Or, continue knowing you will break down, and feel the temptation to sleep for days when you awake tomorrow. Decide where you wish to go, literally and metaphorically, Annika. Will you press on? Or... Have you reached your limit?"

She was a perfectionist, so Jack was taunting her. In that sense, they really were like a family. The best way to make Jack do something was to say he couldn't. He knew exactly how someone else could think in that situaton.

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

Sabine Bassard // Leah Jordan

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”Yeah- yeah, we need to find her now. But- Fuck, if he wanted to hurt you, he would have,” Leah noted. ”You saw, he probably knows I’d just chase him down or leave and he doesn’t want me to leave.” Sabine looked fine, about as fine as she usually did (😏) on a given day. Still, Leah did just mouth off in the chat about something dangerous happening. And maybe Vision really did see those texts.

”We still need to get to her. She needs to know what’s happening, and not be confused. She’ll go mad doing that.”

Leah took in a deep breath and tried to calm the rattling in her chest. ”I have a plan.”

Sabine’s mind went back to the memory she saw. How calculated the man was. His demeanor that suggested he could do whatever he wanted. A small chill went up her spine.

”If he knows about me he knows about her though. What if it was a plan to have you protect me and leave her vulnerable?” Sabine didn’t know if April was still in the bathroom or if she was now surrounded by their classmates and teachers.

The competition. Fuck. They needed to get going there too. How was she expected to manage that knowing a real threat would be watching?

”We have to get going to the competition also. It’s about time for the pre-check-in. April is, hopefully, there with everyone else.”

”Yeah. I know. But she’s got enough shit to deal with lately, so… Here’s what we’re going to do.”

Leah turned and started walking back down the hallway. ”We’re gonna find her, make sure she’s fine, and if she is fine, we just pretend everything else is fine. We get there in time for the medical thing that I really want to be late for, and we act like this shit never happened.”

An international supervillain right under their noses would send everything into a downward spiral. It’d raise too many questions that Leah wasn’t willing to answer, it’d make all this effort for a contest she didn’t even give a damn about mean nothing.

”And if April’s hurt, we hurt somebody. Badly.”

Sabine followed, but uncertainly bubbled up in her stomach and made her feel nauseous. She could see Leah’s point and it would not serve April good to go into a competition worrying someone is out to get her. But that felt like a betrayal. After all, what happened if he attacked April while she went to the bathroom? Shouldn’t she be on some sort of guard?

”If we aren’t telling April we need to tell someone, at least. Vision or one of the other staff. They need to keep a lookout. Everyone else is in danger too.”

”We are telling her. But-“ She thought for a second. ”If she’s hurt, we’re making a big deal out of this, right? If she’s fine, then there’s no need to. We’ll just talk to her and not tell Vision or someone else who can stop the contest over this. Am I making sense?” She didn’t feel like she was.

”Leah, take your head out of your ass for one moment. I get the “don’t trust every adult you meet” to a degree, but we are in dangerous territory here. A man who has you scared enough is out there and knows where we are and who we are. So we are either telling April so she can be prepared or we are telling at least one trusted adult so they can keep an eye out. I would rather the contest be disbanded if it means people are safe.”

”You saw what he was going for, Sabine,” Leah said. ”Either that dumb contest happens, or the school and probably everyone inside it is dead. He’s- Fuck…” She had a point, though.

It didn’t kill her to admit she had a shitty dad when She-Hulk was around. That creepy therapist didn’t bite her head off, either.

”You’re right. Fine. We’ll do that. If we find Vision.”

Sabine’s anxiety dropped a bit. ”If it helps, we can explain the importance of the competition continuing to keep up appearances. Now that I know he’s out there I’ll be more prepared. And so will you.” As she walked she reached for Leah’s hand, a reassuring gesture. She couldn’t imagine how Leah was feeling at this moment.

”Yeah…”

She stopped walking, and turned. Leah wasn’t terribly willing to hold hands in case she accidentally crushed Sabine’s hand by accident, by she tried.

”Listen. I know I’m probably the least trusting person either of us know, and that I can be a real bitch about opening up. But you saw what happened way before I got here, met people and shit. And you heard everything he said. If you need to show Vision what you pulled out of my head, then do that. It’s fine. I trust you.”

Sabine paused, a moment of vulnerability. Leah had opened up to let Sabine into her mind; which was a sort of intimacy. A fear Sabine long had was that people in her life would not trust her because how easily it would be for her to shift their memory. A fight forgotten. A transgression buried. Make them like her more with a few tweaks. Dorian had hit her, albeit she could see where he was coming from.

So a simple gesture like allowing her to see inside their head and to share it was more than Sabine could express.

”If you’re sure. Who knew your hard-headedness could be so malleable?” she joked before resting her forehead on Leah’s. For a brief moment everything else vanished and it was just the two of them.

But reality settled back in. ”Ok, let’s hurry. Wouldn’t do us well to get disqualified on top of everything else.”

Right.

”Yeah. Let’s go.”

Thankfully, the hallways weren’t fucked up anymore. So they were able to get to the lobby just fine. And Vision was there waiting, probably waiting for them. Leah felt like she’d rather go live under a volcano than say this shit to him. So she didn’t, at least not all of it right away. April was on the other end of the portal, at least.

”Something happened. It’s not good,” She told him. Then she walked through. She’d tell him after, knowing Sabine would kick her ass if she didn’t. ”Give me a minute to sort this out.”

She walked through the portal.

Sabine followed as Leah spoke to Vision. It was something, at least. As she passed she also paused in front of Vision. ”If you want, I can share what I know, but let us get checked in first?”

Sabine didn’t wait for a response, knowing Vision will grab them when he wants. Sabine made it through the portal to the other side, where she saw some of her classmates as well as others. She glanced at Leah and nodded before she went off to find an examination room. Once she found one available she stepped in and responded to their questions.

Contest of Champions Questionnaire

Legal Name: Sabine Bassard
School: Margaret Carter Institute
Qualifying Team: Excelsior
Date of Birth: February 24, 2022
Physical Age: 16
Emergency Contact: Remmy Bassard
Notable Abilities or Powers: Memory Manipulation, Psychometry, Mental Enhancement
Declared Item: Guinivere (Sword with Force Field Power)
Pertinent Medical History: Panic Attacks
Signature Certifying that You Agree to Follow All Contest of Champions Rules: Sabine Bassard

Contest of Champions Questionnaire

Legal Name: Leah Jordan
School: Margaret Carter Institute
Qualifying Team: Uncanny Avengers
Date of Birth: October 7th 2021
Physical Age: 17
Emergency Contact: She-Hulk
Notable Abilities or Powers: Geokinesis. Super strength. Magic.
Declared Item: Runes
Pertinent Medical History: none
Signature Certifying that You Agree to Follow All Contest of Champions Rules: Leah Jordan

Young Justice

Cora didn’t really know where exactly she’d find Daphne. Not like Black Canary, who was usually somewhere predictable like a therapist’s office. So her first bet was that she might be doing damn near nothing and so she went to Daphne’s room. She knocked on the door, making sure not to walk too fast in case she could accidentally make her legs just fall off.

”Hey. It’s me. You in there?”

”Hi, yes I’m here, one sec.”. Daphne’s voice became louder the closer she got to the door. She opened the door with one half of her hair curled and the other half was still up in clips and rollers. The dyson air wrap dupe was still blowing out air. Daphne gestured for Cora to take a seat someplace. Either on her bed or in the reading corner.

”I’m almost done, just give me a few more minutes.”
She smiled at Cora through her mirror and continued to curl her hair and put on some light makeup.

Damn. Any time Cora tried doing anything with her hair, it just started crumbling like it was made of ash. She took a seat in the corner, eyes glancing around the room.

”I’ve been stuck in bed for two days,” She started. ”So I want to see if everyone’s okay after the Deathstroke thing happened. What’s up?”

”I’m still a bit shaken up. I mean I’ve been through worse, but you never really get used to it. At least I don’t. I’m glad we got some downtime to get back on our feet.”

She finished with her beauty routine and turned around to look at Cora directly instead of through her mirror. Daphne smiled.

”I could try and do yours if you want.” Daphne gestured to Cora’s hair. There was a chance Cora’s interference would screw with her tools, but she was willing to try anyway.

”You want to try, I won’t say no. But….” She ran her fingers through the ends, it frizzed up like someone had shocked her. ”Pretty sure the only thing keeping it from turning to dust is sheer luck at this point.”

”Don’t worry I’ll be careful. Trust me with your hair color it’s going to look really nice.” Daphne changed the heat setting to the lowest it would go, agreeing with Cora in not wanting to fry her hair even more. Daphne patted on the chair in front of the neatly organized vanity. After Cora took place there she started with brushing out her hair.

”I see you’re back on your feet already.”

Even without actively using her powers, Cora’s hair was naturally very frizzy when messed with. It clung to the hairbrush and Daphne’s hand as if someone had rubbed a balloon against it.

”Yeah… Two days in a bed with nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and fall asleep usually helps that.”

”You definitely needed that. Between the two of us you had it much worse.”

She tried a couple of hair ties and pins before deciding on an electric blue scrunchie. Daphne bundled up Cora’s still static but now also lightly curled hair into a neat high ponytail. The brunette teen admired her work in the mirror. She wasn’t sure if Cora liked it but she did.

”What do you think?”

It looked cool, and it wasn't even frizzing up at the ends like it usually did.

”Woah. I like that. I’m hot, suddenly,” She joked. ”Anyway- Yeah, I got messed up pretty bad but… You did nearly get set on fire. And that could’ve killed you. You wanna talk about it?”

”Yes it looks cute”. She fluffed Cora’s hair some more, not that it needed any more fluffing. She really needed to get some different hair products for Cora, in case she decided she wanted to look hot again in the future.

[color=Lightgreen]”You know I think I’m collecting being killed by natural disasters. I almost froze to death on my first mission, drowned in Atlantis. Fire in the swamp. All I need now is a tornado.”

Daphne said jokingly.

”I mean… We do have a robot around here that could throw you into a tornado,” Cora suggested. ”Go petal mode and get flung really far by him.”

”I don’t think I can afford many more mistakes if I want to stay on the Team. Daphne replied. It was a more serious answer than she would have liked, as Cora was clearly joking.

”What do you mean? Everyone makes mistakes, it happens,” Cora turned around. ”I literally fried myself, I think you’re fine.”

”Yes I’m glad you’re doing better now. That was scary to see.”

And as far as the Team goes, I think it really helped us when you Pei and Vincent joined and stayed on. We’ve had recruits join in the past with whom we barely had time to find common ground before they left. I feel like everyone has a place now and taking just one of us from the equation would be detrimental to the Team..

Daphne moved around some things on the vanity table, tidying up while she talked.
”Some of our toughest fights yet have been with you Pei and Vincent by our side.”

”Man. I hope that’s the toughest it gets.” Cora smirked. ”Not sure how many more times I can fry myself and live.”

”Let’s not find out okay?”

Daphne contemplated on what to do next. Before Cora’s surprise visit she didn’t have any plans. Getting ready was just part of her routine, even though she wasn’t going anywhere.

”Did you have lunch already?”

”Nope.” She shook her head. ”First thing I did was talk to Black Canary, then I came here.”

”In that case we should definitely grab some lunch. Get your energy up after the Canary talk. Although….”

Considering Cora’s condition it would be better to stay inside. Cora was one of the few people she wouldn’t mind having to drive around. Daphne was notorious for trying to avoid driving, always finding some excuse not to get behind the wheel.

”We should just stay in though. I saw there were some crab dumplings left. Vincent made them yesterday. Maybe we can have those.”

”Crab…” Cora slowly stood up and felt her bones protest the movement. ”That sounds great. Let’s do that.”

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

Leah Jordan

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Location: New Orleans
Gear:
Skills:

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Her teeth clenched together tight enough to snap a man's leg. She noticed him doing that thing shitty parents did where they wanted one thing, then pulled back to guilt trip a kid when the kid refused. Fine, I'll do it myself, and other sniveling little gaslights. Or was he actually doing that at all? Imperator- She refused to think of him as dad- He might've worded things that way just to instill the thought in Leah, and it worked. But Leah wasn't the same person she was four years ago. She didn't even have the same face anymore. Leah was different now, she wasn't scared of him. No, not at all. She was just scared of what he could do. The things he did to people just for looking at him funny, the world leaders he could assassinate at any moment.

He’s not a fire or a robbery, he’s a fucking invasion, an atomic bomb falling right on your head. She told the therapist that, the day she went there. It was true, as far as she was concerned. And he didn't seem to care that she was stronger. Imperator was always cocky like that, and seeing it again not made Leah's blood boil up until it was ready to burst from her veins. He mocked her.

Back when Agatha had first told her that he'd survived the collapse, a feeling had been nagging at her. The feeling that she was right, that he hadn't once taken his eyes off of her. That there wasn't a single lapse in his intel on where Leah had gone. He was showing that to be the case, and he had his reasons. He always did.

She found herself straining to stand still and not tear his fucking throat out. A person could only handle themselves so much. There was a breaking point for every sapient creature to ever exist, Leah considered herself to have one that was so far into the metaphorical weeds that she didn't know it even existed. But that breaking point wasn't always someone snapping, having a breakdown and going to CAGE for self-harm. That breaking point was sometimes a person's patience. People could only handle so much bullshit. Leah was nearly out of patience with him.

"You want to try and fucking stop me?" She growled. And it was an honest-to-god growl. A snarl as much as it was human speech. "You might be fast than me, but I only need to hit you once." Leah was speaking unusually quick. She was on edge even if she thought she could take him out in one swing. Of course, it was never that easy, but she REFUSED to be in his shadow again.

But, of course, there was his millionth trick up his sleeve. The school.

The one she tried her best for so long to not be attached to. The one she thought she'd just coast through and walk away from not remember the name in a month. The one April and Sabine called home.

Andy. Vicky. She didn't consider Dorian and Danni friends, but they were good to April.

He'd consign it all to oblivion if he got bored, he chose not to. Because she was there. Did he think the place could actually teach her something important, that he couldn't? That couldn't be, he was the closest thing to fucking omnipotent a mutant could usually reach. It was a callous, idiotic mistake to let a building mean something to her. Leah's heart skipped a beat, and then it banged against her ribs like a hammer.

All he had to do was snap his fingers, press a button, or email some dictator in another country. Doing that, he rain holy hell from the sky in the form of nuclear bombs, or maybe he'd just set the place on fire. Leah could never tell which he'd be more likely to choose.

"You know what happens when people I care about die." And he likely learned a lesson in the last time it happened: Do it from further away.

Imperator wanted her to come home. Back to the old life. Back to Arizona, that fucking hole in the ground.

And in hearing that, the weeds were parted, scythed away and burnt to ash. Leah's fist went out faster than a bolt of lightning. She might've hit Andy square in the nose with that, or cracked Thor's jaw, but all she hit was empty air. He fucking vanished. Of course he knew she'd try that, before she knew she would. Her hand stayed there where his skull should've been, taking stock of reality.

He was there. He was right in front of me. I missed him.

Leah felt the white noise of the hotel go mute. It was just her and her thoughts. And those thoughts were like water from the North Pole, because they made her feel numb. He was in her reach...

Her chest started to do that thing it did when she didn't feel right. It jittered, like she was cold or like she'd been electrocuted. It made her breath shorten, and come and go quicker than was normal. That was strange, and not just because she felt like she could breath in entire clouds after the Andy situation.

He didn't say anything about what she'd turned into. He didn't even have to fight her.

"No. Come back here, you- You fucking piece of shit... We're- We're not done- _No...

She teetered towards a wall, and for the first time since she was eight, tears fell down her face.

My Worst Enemy

Leah slumped down, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. She clawed at her face as if that would stop the waterworks. It didn’t, but it just smeared it all over her hands and face. She looked like a madwoman, gasping for air and sobbing like a toddler, with her hands trying to tear out whatever part of her eyes were responsible for this.

Leah was a fighter. She was a mountain in form a teenager, inscrutable and unmovable. There was pride in being the last one standing, the one who endures the worst the world had to offer and says No, you move. That was Leah’s way of reckoning with the universe.

Right now, she felt pretty damn fragile.

It was happening again, history not quite repeating by echoing all the same. Family that she confided in, murdered without a second thought by a walking nightmare. What was she thinking?

Mayra had died when she flew into the air. Leah came back down to Earth in another state, but no matter how far she went, no matter how high she built herself up, that scared girl was still there. It wasn’t something she could just tear out with her bare hands, strong as they were. It wasn’t enough to stick it behind bravery and a new name, behind walls of stone and sheer willpower to carry on.

Nothing felt like enough.

There were bugs crawling underneath Leah’s skin. The tears wouldn’t stop, they were streaming down her shirt. Her hair was getting wet at the ends, but she didn’t feel like parting it from her face.

Someone could’ve walked by and saw her like this. But Imperator did something to her by appearing and disappearing. He won a battle Leah couldn’t fight, and left her this way. The most dangerous thing she’d ever had to deal with was her own fucking thick skull. He knew that. She was his daughter, after all.

Precious moments went by, where Leah sat there on the floor blubbering like a newborn. Her eyes were bloodshot, orange where a normal human’s would’ve been red. Her face felt like she wakes through a sauna.

Leah didn’t feel like standing.

She felt like screaming. Burying this entire hotel, and there city around it, a mile beneath the planet’s surface just to tell herself that there was no possible way that devil of a man could find her again. It wouldn’t even be that hard, she could just snap the bedrock a stomp of her foot.

She wanted peace. She needed it, and she could only have it if the walls were intact. Walls that Leah needed in the same way April needed her brothers. The same way Andy needed someone’s soul. This wasn’t her.

For a moment, Leah wondered if she could’ve just stayed at the hotel while her team went to the contest. She would be disqualified, but that wasn’t a concern. Besides, Leah dreaded having to fight Sabine. Not just because they were dating, but because Sabine was scary in her own ways. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, if she’d just gave in to that voice in the back of her skull that told her to tap out. It felt so damn tiring at times, the thought of not bothering for once was enticing.

That thought passed when her phone went off.

It was a message from Vision. They had to do the medical thing soon. Leah hated stuff like that, but she was distracted by this. It didn’t sit right with her that Vision could just hack her phone. It was probably nothing to fuss over. Still, it felt weird when some guy who was maybe 40 in human years could just do that.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

The mountain was very much moved by the wind this time. But Leah had to go back out there and put her stern face back on again. The thought of being seen feeling sorry for herself would’ve made her sick. April and Sabine would’ve-

”…Sabine.”

Leah clutched her phone in both hands, completely ignoring the fact that she’d just put a crack in the screen with that movement alone. Her hands were bigger now, flying across the screen with enough force that someone on the other end of the hall might have heard the sound of her typing messages.

She pulled up the old group chat they had made.

@April+Sabine

earthbender: where are you

earthbender: imhere

earthbender: are you hutr

earthbender: where is he

earthbender: i k oe you can see this vicosn

It wasn’t a rational course of action but it was was the sort of thing that Leah’s current mindset made possible. She wasn’t the young superhero Jotunn right now, and when the numerous messages she fired off in less than ten seconds, to a group chat no one used anymore, Leah scrambled to her feet and bolted.

Her feet were like blows of a hammer, it was hard to miss the sound of Leah storming down the hallways in a half-senseless frenzy. Wherever she had ended up, there hadn’t been people to stop and ask for directions. She didn’t pass anyone on the way back and she didn’t know if this even was the way back. She didn’t know if Vision could secretly read the messages on her phone, she didn’t even know if Sabine was alive.

April could’ve been in that position too. There were starving predators that ran slower than she was running. He might’ve killed her just to remind Leah that she’d always lose.

It was a maze, Leah had to wonder if Imperator stole a fucking spellbook and put her in some Lotus Eater shit. Thankfully, it was just the way this damn building was constructed. She rounded a corner like a bat out of Limbo, and locked eyes with Sabine.

She was alive. There was some other girl there holding her hand- A detail that Leah paid little mind to. She ran so fast that she was still short on breath. Leah towered over both of them, making absolute zero effort to conceal the murderous, outright desperate madness on her face.

One of them was okay.

Good.

”Did he hurt you?”

✨ Under Black Stars ✨

It was a simple task, in theory. She only had to open portals non-stop, and hope to whatever higher power there was to hear that she didn’t pass out from exhaustion. Perhaps it was the fact that Jack was a wizened, old wizard by comparison, but he didn’t think it was that hard.

”You have the power within you, Annika.” He held the shadows away from a recess in reality, like drawing open curtains. And he had taught her similar techniques before while leaving enough room for her to discover her own. ”Think without thinking. Walk without knowing what lurks around the corner. Doing so is critical in this lesson, child. I have set foot in countless universes, and it is a rare grace to know what lies beyond the thresholds.”

She was only a kid. She had to learn from his mistakes when Jack was her she, or she’d only repeat them herself. He’d been mortally wounded once, lacking the power to do what he could do now. Never again.

”Disregard the strain it puts on you, think only of moving forward. If you stumble, I will be there in your shadow.”

X-Men: GenetiX

The body of Andrew Becker trudged forward. It mimicked ambulation, craned its head at odd angles, and knew which points in space it should move between to arrive at a further distance. The mind of Andrew Becker was consigned to oblivion, to its undoing. And for such reasons, there was only the dark abscess that had taken root to control it like the brain still functioned, like the heart still beat. It was merely flesh, now. Vacuous, empty, devoid of its former personality that gave the flesh meaning and a reason to be.

Xavier didn't find a consciousness that was structured like any human or mutant. It was untethered, a ghost lacking a corporeal form to claim and yet still existed in spite of lacking causality. Umbra chose to exist, because he could. And he could choose, because he existed. Unlike an ordinary being of flesh and blood, which had to sustain itself and could not simply carry on via its thought alone.

That consciousness existed in margins, now. It shacked itself to flesh, as it had always wanted, but now it had to exist as flesh. It could not simply reach out and unmake the mind of Charles Xavier with a whim, as Umbra had thought to do. No, he could only perceive its presence. And in that moment, as it came forward, all that beheld the old man was a yawning abyss where a mind should have been. The black expanse of outer space, but the stars and the nanoscopic debris between lightyears were absent.

It was nothing.

There wasn't even push-back to trying to get inside that head. Like it was made of wet paper, with nothing behind it.

---

"There's only so much he's capable of like that." Ryder felt out for what he'd shut off. He could still distort reality, but Umbra effectively blindfolded and crippled himself stepping into a body. "He thinks I don't know, but he just fucked himself over doing that, and now, at best, he's just some shitty little toddler throwing a tantrum. He might as well be fucking drunk." A drunk person could still do irreparable damage to those around them, to be sure, but the advantage was that the X-Men had a sharpness to their actions that he lacked.

And, notably, Ryder wasn't fussing with them.

"Jump him. Do NOT let him make a move. Don't wait to see what his plan is, don't fucking ask me to read him- You see someone walk through, you fucking atomize them. Got it?"

SPIRITUM

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They were moving, and the Mist was slowly coming back. It was gradual, and like Gerard had noted, there was only so much to go around. The others would, no doubt, do their own thing with it, and that was why Morden didn't use his magic. They advanced out the door, and Morden swung a left around the door, unloading a quick burst of rounds into a guy who'd crept up with the intent to drop another flashbang in. Center mass, he dropped. It wasn't a terribly devastating caliber, he'd likely be fine. Morden wheeled around and kept himself between the defectors and his squad, in true Vanguard fashion. Though, today was a day where he was only Vanguard, not Battlemage.

CLEAR.

Morden's singular method of casting a spell was to make himself stronger. To wield the Astral Mist was to drink from an ocean, and Morden was a whale among sharks. The Mist was thin here, too sparse to supply them all with what they needed for anything big. But compared to him, their spells were microscopic. If he took in Mist, he wouldn't leave enough for them to cast anything that could get them through this. Their channel would cut, and there likely wasn't even enough for Morden's spell to activate. It'd just cripple them all.

This rang of the situation with Ivan. Betrayers, all of them. What right did soldiers have to cast judgment?

Unlike before, the answer was clear enough now. It was life or death, same as usual for a soldier.

He stepped free of the doorway, and now they had a foothold. Morden pointed his submachine gun at the stairwell, inching closer to it with the squad behind him. More spooks could come up and join the fight, while they cleared this floor and hunted down Dirk. I HAVE THE STAIRS, ESCALATION HALTED. PROCEED AT WILL. It was psychic communication, but the rage in Morden's mind was as clear as any rage in his voice. Like screaming over a loud thunderstorm and being heard plainly as can be. There was a corruption snaking through the upper ranks, something that could have dismantled Rassvet from within.

And Morden wouldn't take it lying down.

Château de La Lune

lmao

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

Leah Jordan

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Location: New Orleans
Gear:
Skills:

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It really shouldn't have been this difficult to navigate a building.

Leah found herself struggling to figure out the right direction to go in. It didn't seem this hard looking for April, how did she find her way around? It was just a straight walk away, then she'd gone up the stairs... Weren't there supposed to be doors up here? It was just hallway after hallway, sign after sign, in a language she probably should have started learning a while ago given it was one Sabine spoke. It wasn't that far off from Spanish, all things considered, but she just never got around to it. And this annoying building was mocking her for that, it seemed. Did they not have people coming in from all over the country to witness the Contest? Leah doubted every person who checked into a hotel from out of town spoke French. Honestly, how the hell did anyone even navigate this at all? This sucked.

It took her mind off of the pit forming in her stomach, from the way April seemed to be drawing inwards. The way she'd run off to Dorian and fucking Danni. She didn't have anything meaningful against either of them, but Leah had been feeling like shit for being worse for April than them. Unable to think about it, she just kept walking. All she wanted was to find a damn room and get her fucking room sorted. And then she could sit down and stare at a wall for the next half hour while she worked on packing away the feeling of what amounted to a rusty knife dragging across her skull that she was feeling right now. She felt fucking awful and nothing was going right. These hallways were giving Leah a bad vibe. She'd been aching everywhere since the Andy situation, she and April weren't okay.

Sabine was probably going to make her choose between one of them. The people she gave a damn about were mourning a guy who couldn't possibly have died.

Her skin itched, which was weird to process when Leah had stopped thinking of it as skin the other day. More like rocks or a million tiny geodes all up and down the places where her skin should be, but wasn't. She couldn't scratch it away, there was something weird about it. Like something was following her.

Leah turned a corner, and she almost didn't recognize the man who was there at the other end of the hallway. She almost didn't think twice about his presence, given the way he was dressed. But then, he was always good at that sort of thing. The same dark brown curls that she got from him, that grin, none of it would have even registered with Leah's brain given how casual he'd been about appearing there. He might've been entirely invisible if it wasn't for one simple word.

Mayra. No one called her that.

It was him. Her dad. Imperator. The ghost she couldn't get rid of. The egotistical, irredeemable piece of fucking SHIT. He was just standing there, and it made Leah's veins turn to ice, her feet became blocks of lead in the ocean.

"...You."

She became painfully aware of every single breath moving about her lungs. Aware of how each one got a little quicker and that she needed to keep them quiet. Leah's hands jittered until they were fists, she almost brought the place down on his head. It would have been so easy to bury him again, she'd gotten stronger since last time. She was stronger now thanks to whatever had happened with Andy, probably. If Leah could close the gap and grab him by the throat, it'd be over.

And he knew that. He had to.

The expression on Leah's face twisted into something dangerous. Something feral. Something Wild.

He knew she could kill him. That was why he'd brought up Sabine just now. This- No. He didn't bluff these things. There was no guarantee she hadn't been shot the second Leah walked away. She knew that, and Imperator, no doubt, knew she knew that. It could have been one of his mind games. The hotel's vents could've been loaded with modified M-Pox or Terrigen mist days in advance, set to only release into the air if he didn't stop it. Or maybe he'd planted a nano-bomb in their room and had the detonator in his pocket. For all Leah knew, Sabine could've been perfectly fine and this was just Leah getting stuck in her own head. That was why he had the GALL to stand in front of her. Alone, without his wings, without even a fucking weapon by the looks of it.

He already knew she would've tried it. So he made himself tactically bulletproof. But she so desperately want to try it. The world would be safer. She would be safe at last, and it'd be done.

You knew this day would come. Don't be weak. Even if he knows you are, don't show it.

Leah managed to dig her voice up out of the abyss it'd sunk into. And she snarled at him. "That is not my name, you fucking monster."