Blizz

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

Dr. Maeve Whitehall took a sip of her coffee as she read over the new file she picked up before the next session. Leah Jordan. Geokinesis and Enhanced Strength. Relationship wise she was a part of a polycule with April Flynn and Sabine Bassard, two other students with files on her desk.

Tough. Headstrong. Refused authority, though it was hardly surprising why. She-Hulk had made a note for her given their recent involvement. ‘Handle with care’. Maeve chuckled inwardly. She trusted that woman’s opinion.

Maeve closed the file and stood up. Preparation was key before sessions but a good therapist was one who was quick to roll with the punches and adjust as needed. She had a feeling Leah would not be pulling punches.

__________________________________________________

As Leah walked into the office she would see a serene waterfall falling into a fountain with koi fish swimming in it and flowers sparingly floating along the top, moving slightly with the ripples. There was a long couch that could comfortably seat 5 people in a light orange color. On the light wooden table in front of the couch there was a stone statuette of what appeared to be a man holding a child in his arms. There was a book on the table with the title “Therapy Is Awkward”. The walls were a light cream color and the carpet was white. There were multiple windows showing a hot, sunny day outside with a sandy beach and waves gently rolling in.

Maeve sat in an orange armchair close to the table but directly across from the couch. “Hello Leah. My name is Dr. Maeve Whitehall but you can call me Maeve or Dr. Whitehall, whichever you prefer. Please, take a seat where you feel most comfortable. I can adjust the seating arrangements as needed.”

There were no words to describe the sheer level of cosmic intervention required to somehow convince Leah to walk in here. So no words would be said.

When she stepped through the door, there was something awfully unsettling about how mellow this space looked. It wasn’t the sort of environment she had any place in, too serene and sterile. Even in an environment that wasn’t dangerous, there was usually sand or rocks or something natural keeping her company; Something that wasn’t this.

With a resting bitch face, she sat down on the couch staring at the woman.

”You have sixty seconds to stop me from leaving. Start talking.”

Maeve smiled. Just as she imagined. ”Well normally I would begin by outlining what we would be doing here and talking about confidentiality and my role in that, but if I have only sixty seconds I better get right into it. First, let me know if this environment is too much or not enough for you. I admit I only had your file to go off of and adjusted what I could but I can always change it up if you feel more relaxed elsewhere. Hell, we don’t even have to be in this room if you want. We can go outside if that’s preferable. Second, I recognize I am an unknown figure and you feel some obligation to fight me and I do not blame you. You are not here under force or duress, even if you feel otherwise. I only want to talk and help, if you’ll let me.”

Maeve pulled out her phone. ”Just under sixty seconds. How’d I do?”

”Funny, that’s not what Coulson said,” Leah wasn’t smiling. ”So yeah, I’m not here willingly. And I don’t plan on doing this regularly. So why should I?”

”Well Coulson isn’t here and over here I am in charge. Or rather, you are. But since we are on that topic let me say that what is said in here, stays in here. Yes, Coulson might have suggested going and have stated it’s mandatory, but I am under no obligation to tell him anything you tell me. There are some stipulations though that, if they come up, I may have to break confidentiality. Such as if you want to seriously hurt yourself or someone else, if there is any child or vulnerable adult abuse, or if you give me permission. But outside of those parameters it’s just me and you in here.”

“So to answer your question on ‘why should you’, because very few people get a space to be themselves in whatever capacity they choose. You can sit there and lie to me and I would have no way of verifying because I can’t ask. I have a file on you with basic information but there’s a blank slate. You can also not stick around and leave at any point and I won’t stop you. All I ask is that you meet me in the middle. And really, not even in the middle, I can meet you closer to where your at.”

“So what is it going to be right now Leah? In here, out there? What would make you more comfortable, even just a little bit?”

It wasn’t hard to clock the fact that Leah didn’t trust this woman. And at the mention of hurting someone else, and a kid being abused, a metaphorical fire was started in her. That feeling of anxiousness and lack of trust bumped up a few notches.

Why hasn’t she walked out already? She was telling herself that it was that people would push their luck if she walked out and played hardball about this. Coulson would keep pretending he was part of any of this, She-Hulk would never let Leah live it down.

Fuck.

She stared the woman down, her face unreadable like stone

”Fine. It’s no one’s business, I’m staying here.”

”I’m happy you are staying. I noticed when I brought up the rules for confidentiality that there was some tension, particularly surrounding child abuse or wanting to hurt someone else. Do you mind if I ask why that impacted you?” Maeve could read emotions very well and it didn’t take her powers to know Leah was feeling a lot. Maeve could appreciate a client who had their emotions on point. It made her job easier, even if they didn’t want to talk.

Leah might have leaned backwards, but then the couch she was sitting on would be shredded and that would take forever to wash out. So she didn’t.

What could she say to this woman that wouldn’t open up absolute chaos?

”Back before I found this school, I tried to kill my dad. Wasn’t until a month or two ago that I found out he survived,” Leah said. ”And that’s not a good thing.”

”Your dad is not the most upstanding of people, I take it? Would it be as bad as you hinted if he found you here?” Maeve clocked in to the emotions again. Happy Leah had opened up, even a crack.

”Oh and don’t worry about the furniture. Break it if you want, if it helps.” This was not, necessarily, a challenge, though it would be interesting to see how it was responded with.

”He’s known I’m here for a while now. Probably a month, probably three years,” Leah explained. ”So no, he’s not. Once he’s done with whatever Avengers are in the way, then he’s coming after me. And when that happens, I’m making sure he doesn’t walk away twice.”

”What was your upbringing like? I can hazard a guess if your next interaction with him ends with his death. I can’t imagine he made it easy for you growing up. Also you said you found the school. Were you searching for something like it or did you stumble into it?”

Leah sighed and launched into an explanation.

”My dad’s a supervillain, the kind who only hurts people for money. You could pay him to go and kill every last superhero in America and he’d just send you a bill after he buries them all two days later. He wouldn’t think twice. He wanted me to be his legacy, someone who’d do what he did long after he was gone. After I thought I killed him for good, I jumped on a rock and flew far, far away and the school just happened to be the first place where I could be sure I wouldn’t starve.”

”It’s lucky the school was there then and willing to let you in. It sounds like a lot was put on you from an early age. That can’t have been an easy thing to shoulder. As tough as it is to do in this moment, let’s forget dad for a second. If there was no threat of him coming and finding you, what would you want to do? What do you want for yourself?

”To just go back to the way it was before I found out I didn’t kill him. I was completely fine before then.”

”What was that like. Paint me a picture. What is the world like for Leah without her father in the picture?”

”No one walking into things they have no right to disturb, people hunting me down for reasons that aren’t unusual, if at all,” she said. ”Working up to some contest that has no real meaning for anything, just the way things were a year ago, or a year and a half ago, or two years. That was the world, because I thought I actually pulled it off.” And of course, she hadn’t. He’d crawled out of the not-so-shallow grave like a ghoul under the moon, and let her believe that she’d succeeded in killing a man who’s name was feared by more people than she’d ever been able to count.

”I know your father is dangerous Leah. I don’t need your words to tell me when I can sense the raw emotion emanating within you. A fear like that can consume a person. However, I also do not get a sense it is fully consuming you. If your father does come looking for you, do you have protections in place? People to help? A support system to manage things in the meantime? You do attend a school training the next generation of heroes and there are connections to those who are currently out there doing just that.”

Leah shook her head. ”When he shows up, getting in the way is just going to get someone killed. I wouldn’t count on any of those heroes to last a minute in a fight with him. When I see him at the front door, one of two things is gonna happen: Everyone gets out of the way of us, or people start to die because they tried to stand between us. It’s not their responsibility, it’s mine.”

”Do you think it is the responsibility of the person who’s home is burning to put it out themselves? Do you think it is the responsibility of the victim of a robbery to search for their robber and get their belongings back? I know those are poor comparisons compared to facing a man who could seriously harm people, but there are fire fighters, police officers, heroes that take up that call to help others. Do we fault them for wanting to put themselves in danger to ensure another is unharmed? And do we fault them if they do not live up to that promise? Something to consider. Because despite the fear I sense, I also get love. There’s people in your life you care for and who care for you. Lean on them when you need it. Even the toughest hero needs to be able to take a breath now and then.”]

”It’s not about them. It’s about him. We’re talking about a guy who could be confronted by all the Avengers at once and not break a sweat. I- I can remember being ten years old and him showing me entire books worth of strategies for how to win a fight against just one of them,” she said. ”He’s not a fire or a robbery, he’s a fucking invasion, an atomic bomb falling right on your head. You don’t send cops or firefighters after him, you get out of the way and let someone who knows how he does things sort it out.”

”Then what is keeping you here Leah? If he knows where you are and no amount of help from others will stop him and if you know it’s on your shoulders, what is the point of staying? Your friends will surely not let you face it alone. The school, for what its worth, will not let it slide that you are a target. The Avengers and anyone else will try to stop him too. If the best thing to stop an atomic bomb is to get as many people away as you can, what are you doing to get that started?”

”I know how he fights, and he doesn’t just run up and jump you. He’s a predator, he trips you up and lets you make mistakes before he shows his face at all. If you see him, it’s too late. But I know the warnings, I used to sneak into his lab a lot back when I lived with him, I’ve watched him fight other people. When it gets worse, I’ll know. And then I’m gonna leave.”

She hadn’t told anyone that part. Not April, not Sabine, not Vicky. They didn’t need to worry about it, they would just be in more danger if they did.

”Dealing with him, no matter what it is, it’s like you’re playing chess. You don’t just go from A to B, you get in each other’s heads and make sure you constantly update your plan. Every little thing changes how it goes.”

”Does anyone know about your plan? Your emotional state shifted when you mentioned leaving. And how many times do you think you’ll need to run before he stops, if he stops at all? Isn’t that exhausting?”

”No. They don’t have to, I’ll be back. I’m running off one more time, and when I come back, it’s done. I’m going to make sure he’s dead for good this time.”

”Leah, I encourage you to tell someone about all of this. I acknowledge your father is powerful, dangerous, deadly, but by that logic you are in danger too. And you do not need to face it alone. At least think about it.”

“I think that’s a good place to stop unless you have other questions or concerns. I am happy to answer anything else you might have. And I would very much like to continue working with you, if you want. Otherwise my door is always open. I would also like to send you home with some resources. Read them, shred them, doesn’t matter. Would that be okay?”

Leah sighed. ”What are they?”

”One is a workbook about using mindfulness to help mitigate intense emotions. It’s fairly easy. And then I have a weekly support group that I think you may like that involves opening up and advocating for oneself. Boundaries, relationship dynamics. It’s also anonymous so you can go and not share your name or anything else. It has some other teens. You don’t even have to go weekly, it’s more of a ‘come when you want’ type deal.”

“So, is this a ‘see you next time’ or ‘have a nice day’ end to things?

”No, it’s not. I’m not coming back. The only reason I told you what I did is because I don’t want someone to get on my ass about leaving too soon. I don’t need this. But, sure, give me the things.”

She stood up.

Maeve stood up as well and walked over to the desk, picking up a folder with the papers she had said. She returned and handed them off to Leah. ”Then I hope you have a nice rest of your day Leah. I included my card in here if you need anything in the future. As I said, my door is open.” Once the folder was taken, Maeve would return to her desk, waiting for Leah to leave before she wrote up a note about the session.

”Yeah.”

Leah unceremoniously opened the door and walked out. And she was already regretting telling anybody anything about this. It sucked more than having to actually face him.

✨ Under Black Stars ✨

”These two-“ Jack sidestepped a small golden projectile that Salem tossed his way. ”Are criminals. Let them be caught assaulting two innocents on the streets.” It was hardly Jack’s intent to interrupt his enemies when they made a mistake. He liked to let his enemies be their own downfall from time to time, like the trickster he was.

Serena’s eyes went black, and wings sprouted from her shoulders, forming out of thin air like they were always there, only invisible. It wasn’t quite a full animal transformation, and it was anyone’s guess what the point was. Her blood slicked down to the pavement.

”You always were a smug motherfucker, Hawthorne-“

Salem’s shadow stretched around him and he fell through it. A portal above Serena’s head split open, causing Salem to crash down onto his daughter like a rock.

”When will you learn that I am the one person in the cosmos that you should not consider stealing from?” Jack taunted. ”Annika, I apologize for this. If I had any idea these two would be here, we might’ve end to Boston instead… I suppose now is a good chance to practice your magic.”

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

---

Location: Yes
Skills:

"Yeah, we're right here." Leah didn't raise her hand. Sabine and April went off already. The fire was already put out, there wasn't really any need to do this. She didn't even know who this guy really was, honestly. He looked like he'd been getting ready for a costume party, and got interrupted for this halfway through. It was honestly kind of an ugly superhero look. Today was fucking awful, and she really wanted to just take up refuge in the damn gym already, or take a walk through town, or do nothing while April and Sabine were around her. That would've been nice, just sitting in the same room and not worrying about anything.

"The fire's already been put out. It didn't get a chance to spread, the hallways are fine." She was wondering if she could pull something like that off again. Leah didn't actively think about it, she just did it. Was it a thing like boxing where you just got better with time? From what she could figure out over the break, people had a tendency to just be born for magic, and not everyone could learn to cast spells. And yet, over the break, she got nothing to work, and she did something cool twice today.

Wasn't there supposed to be seven of them? No, six. Or was it five?

SPIRITUM

---

"I knew it."

His connection to his magic was severed. And a flashbang had been dropped in, and a soldier was thrown over it. This must've been a coup by the Empire. Where the others had sprung into action immediately, Morden was the picture of stillness. Calm, collected, waiting for an opening before jumping in. When he squad got ready, that was when the giant WARDEN among them stepped in.

His left foot pushed downwards, sending him spiraling upwards, and his right foot went into the air to snap the neck of a Spook that hadn't been paying attention to him. Morden didn't need the Astral Mist to beat the living shit out of people, a byproduct of his particularly brutal training with it meant he was taller and sturdier than most before filling his lungs with that power. When he landed, he grabbed the submachine gun that the poor bastard had been carrying.

Safety off. It was fully loaded.

"Stay behind me," He warned, walking up to the door and bringing the full might of his kick down on the doorknob. It was a common tactic for kicking down doors. He flung it open, and stepped to the side without walking through. That was rudimentary cover on nine, and the angle he held was cover from twelve. He aimed and fired a few quick shots at the first Spook he saw.

"On my signal, move," Morden rumbled, planting one foot on the guy who was sitting face-first on the ground, with a flashbang underneath him.

✨ Under Black Stars ✨

The girl that had just crashed into Annika tumbled over and growled at her. She used animal magic to take on the traits of some feline predator, and though she was more ferocious than Annika was right now, Annika had tricks of her own. And Jack knew this so he turned his attention to Salem.

The man whipped his hands around and flicked a golden sword into existence. Jack made a motion with both hands, and a scythe appeared, black as night and sharp as a razor. The lower end of its haft met the blade, and Jack curved it over, bringing it down low in a circular motion that flung Salem off balance. This made the blade move between them, and Jack moved thrust it upwards like a spear. The dull side of the blade smacked Salem across the face, knocking him back.

"Annika, use your advantages against her," He said, cryptically. Annika knew what he meant.

Salem rolled over and onto his feet. His hands started to glow gold, as a chain launched towards Jack, which had a blade at the end. He sidestepped it, and threw his scythe at the chain. The scythe fell inwards and became a shadowy hand that yanked Salem towards Jack.

And he teleported, seeing that coming.

A flash of yellow light, and Salem was behind Jack, swinging a fist. Jack stumbled and spun around, lashing out at the man with his shadowy arm that spooled out like an anchor chain. It swept the man's feet out from under him.

And people were pointing phones at the four of them, from across the street.

Recollections: Primal Sinister

Raven's Rest

---

The Manse went down, that thing went tumbling, and shots started whispering out. Not just ringing out, whispering. Hollywood-quiet.

Time often got fuzzy in the Manse, but an important thing when using chronomancy was to trust that others outside your influence could be counted on. So Varnan ducked down and slipped away from the line of fire. He noticed, before switching places with the others, that the monster wasn't totally stuck in place and inched closer by millimeters, but seemed to be building up a tolerance to his time magic. On one hand, that was dreadful to think about on top of the sheer sturdiness it had demonstrated. On the other... Varnan wondered if it could work up an immunity to good old fashioned brass and steel. If he had brought a gun...

Another time, maybe.

In a small town like this, there wasn't much stopping the police or the local news from catching this. He'd been deployed to places like this before, where it was easier for word to spread. Varnan didn't want to stick around and make this worse by being a stranger when that happen. But then, he couldn't just flee. He came here for answers, and Bill had been turned into this or kill by this.

So he shifted around, keeping out of the way of the shots being fired. Varnan knew what he could do after they took that thing down.

"If you can kill or seal that thing... I'll deal with the police," Varnan offered. "It'll buy everyone time to get away from here, and I'll take a look at what happened before we arrived- I have magic for that." It looked like they were about to wrap this up, so Varnan opened up his watch, and a circular screen of coral energy started to form above the face.

This was going to be a long night.

Young Justice

”Maybe after. Thanks,” She told Pei, before Will started yapping.

Cora looked at Will, then lazily looked over at the others. Then back at Will.

On any other day, she might have been putting up with this shit for longer. But if she were being completely honest with herself, she wanted nothing more than to curl up under a blanket and cram half a bottle of ibuprofen into her mouth. Will was testing her patience saying this shit.

Kassy was right, and Cora had this weird, knee-jerk feeling someone was going to give her shit for what she’d just said.

”…Oooookay… Lemme fuckin’ tell you somethin’…”

Cora took in a deep, shaky breath and started floating again. Her skin and flesh were too devoid of red blood cells for her to feel the sting on top of the pain she was already in. Veins under her skin started to glow the same neon blue that her eyes always has going on, something that Cora hadn’t ever seen her powers cause thus far. She drifted closer until she was right in front of Will and used her powers to levitate her shaky, jittery hand. She pointed a finger at him.

”Metamorph might be fucked up, traumatized or just plain mentally ill. Maybe. Maybe all of the above, or maybe somethin’ else.” Deep breath out. Deep breath in. ”But he is not a fuckin’ villain. Apparently you-“ Cough ”Left. Cool. You missed everything the others did before I came here. This team’s like a family for them. Viktor. Kassy. Kila and Ja and Daphne. They all fucking love each other.”

Breathe out. Breathe in.

”What happened? Yeah. That’s fucked. But you’re shittier about it than he was- Then. By a lot. I talked to him after- After everyone left, I talked to him. You weren’t-“ Cough ”There when I asked if he’d ate the day after that, and he said he didn’t. It fucking hurt him, okay?”

The lights in the room were starting to flicker. ”You… Can be an ass for longer. Or you can do something about it. What. Are. You. Doing. About. It?”

She took a bigger breath and then looked away from him.

”Bad things happen. Don’t… Don’t make it worse for anyone.”

Young Justice

"Godddd... Shut uuuupppppp." Listening to everyone bitch and moan, much as Cora didn't like to think of it that way, without being able to properly voice how she felt was starting to get on her nerves. Her left leg has at least three different muscle spasms in it, her lungs felt like they were on fucking fire, and you make matters worse, she felt ice cold. Not just cold in the sense that she'd stayed outside during the winter for too long, but cold in the sense that someone had hogtied her and flung her into the ocean of the coast of a beach in fucking Alaska. And now Quiver was getting mad.

"If Deathstroke's so-" Cough "Bad, no wonder the League fucked up, okay? This isn't he- Just stop. Metamorph's not stupid, he can take careofhimself-" Cora lurched forward in her wheelchair and hacked up static. She was feeling slightly less shit after waking up and getting her surroundings figured out. But every single muscle in her body was running on fumes at the moment. If she didn't speak up now, she wasn't going to later. "Bad- Bad things happen. It's done. It's... You're not secretly a time traveler, are you, Will?" She asked. "Everyone got fooled. Even you. Fuckin' sucks, yeah but- Do better. Like Pei said..."

Though, there was something Cora didn't get.

"How... How'd he even get there?" Cora asked Batman specifically. "Long way from here to there. No one noticed, huh?" Either they had a spare jet, which Cora didn't think was the case, or he'd taken a zeta tube there, but how? "Not you? Black Canary? Did-" Cough "Nobody checked on him? At all? Just let him go? After last time?"

Avengers Academy: Junior Year 💥

---

Location: Hallways
Skills:

By the time Leah had noticed that Danni accidentally set another fucking fire, the room was already getting flooded. Honestly, that was infinitely better than arson. April damn near drowned them, soaking everyone to the bone and that was a lot better than Leah having to socialize. April was really damn cool when she did stuff like that.

"Holy shit, April. That was fast as fuck, good." She was saying that mostly because she knew April was likely about to explode into a ball of apologies for getting everyone wet... Which would probably have Sabine saying something about how it was the perfect excuse to start shedding some layers. April was getting good at using those powers of hers. And now-

Oh, Danni was running off.

"Danni?! Where are you going?! HEY!" THIS WAS YOUR FUCKING IDEA! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE YOU FUCKING TWINK!

Great. Now she had to talk to people without the yappy little redhead egging her on. "Ughhhhh, fuck. Good save, April. Shit, now I gotta go and- Wait. Hang on. Nobody move, I have an idea."

Leah reached into her pocket and pulled out a marker. She didn't want to fish in her pocket for the runes since her clothes were soaked and that would probably rip them. _{Maybe next time, Sabine.} She uncapped the marker and drew a straight line on the palm of her hand. She then drew a slash going upwards, starting from the bottom end of it. An inverted rune, which apparently meant the opposite of the normal rune.

"I was looking this stuff up over the break, you can do the opposite of a rune by just turning it upside down. This one means water, so..." Leah pressed her hand against the wall of the hallway, and felt something weird pulsing through her bones. She didn't feel that earlier, when Danni had watched her magically fertilize a sunflower. It was like someone had sat her skeleton next to an electric space heater and then shook it like a rattle. The wall was the first to be affected, and then the surroundings.

Everyone who had just been soaked by the sprinklers and April's powers started to steam, like a boiling pot of water, only the temperature didn't rise. All that water first evaporated, and then right as the hallway started to feel, humid, the water in the air just vanished. The entire hallway and the people in it were bone dry in seconds. Leah's hair and clothes felt lighter by the second, and whatever water damage to phones, earbuds or paper that had been caused suddenly wasn't a thing. It was almost like Leah had reversed time in a way, completely undoing the mess.

She was surprised to see that it worked at all.

"Fuck me... I couldn't do shit with these a week ago."

2100 ☢️ BADLAND REPUBLIC

”Ah, shit.”

Johnny blinked sand out of his eyes, kicked up as the Striders swerved off Highway Three and into the dunes on the horizon. There was a hill between here and there, it was about as far as the Striders would reasonably take him. He sure as shit wasn’t walking that far, so it was worth the cash. He checked his compass and took off.

Traveling through the desert on foot was a dangerous thing. Back in the old days, they had these things called “firefighters.” They ran into burning places and saved people, rarely ever dying because they were so good at it. Johnny walking through a desert on an area full of bandits and the occasional mutant-hating shithead was like one of those firefighters of days past. He liked danger. That shit didn’t scare him.

The sun beat down and cast wavy mirages across the houses. Sully’s Rest was a trading post, the sort of place people didn’t shoot up because then it would be on people like Johnny to clean up the culprits. The old man reached into his satchel and rearranged a few things. There was a badge he’d knicked off his latest target, a man who’d been a Republic guard but went off the deep end for reasons Johnny really didn’t give much of a shit about. They wanted the guy dead, not alive.

He made sure that was at the very bottom of his things.

And then the old mutant strolled through Sully’s Rest like he’d bought the place and named it Johnny’s Coffin. He’d been through here more times than he could count, and every time he walked in, there was always some punk who sneered at his green skin and the fact that he looked like he crawled out of the ground. The occasional techie stopping in to strike out for the ruined out east, a few Striders brave enough to be this close to civilization, maybe even that Pete kid would shoot him.

He got a few of those looks today, just like any other day.

”Ain’t got nothin’ for none’a you,” Johnny rasped at a shopkeeper who didn’t like him. ”Wheel that ass’a yours indoors, boy.”

He got a middle finger in return, and took a left for the Dine-Out, where the food was actually worth a damn. There really were a lot of people out this way today. The Highway must’ve been backed up, he figured.

The door swung open, and he reached for his chips. Lots of people didn’t like mutants, but money was still money, and he was a fair tipper when someone didn’t poison a plate of food. Good food was always something to take seriously out in these parts.

”Mornin’ sunshine,” he croaked, grabbing a seat up front. Johnny sat down a generous stack of Republic chips. ”Lemme have a sand worm stew, keep the change.”