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A New Legacy Vol 1 10

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I was created in 1939. For America that was the end of what was known as the great depression, things were looking up for the people. Yet still for many people the things they were going through because of that time period was extremely harsh. In Germany, it might have been even worse. You had to be in the elite of the elite to be living well simply because of the effects of the first World War. Things like that can drive men insane. I’ve seen it first hand. But if there’s one thing I know about people it’s that they survive. You all are a resilient race. I don’t know everything that’s going on but...I’ll do my best to help you.
-- Jim Hammond

Appearing in "The Human Torch"Edit

Featured Characters:

Antagonists:

Supporting Characters:

Other Characters:

Locations:

Items:

Synopsis for "The Human Torch"Edit

The story begins 3 weeks since Issue 9 and we are in Asgard with Torunn. Torunn is in a blissful state of peace, content that for once she is able to sleep in. She deserves it at least.

Wrong. Unfortunately for Torunn her mother comes to wake her up early despite the annoyance radiating off of Torunn, Sif is insistent that early morning protocols still needed to be followed.

Torunn tries to argue with her mother that she deserves a little rest, but her mother isn't budging. Telling Torunn that her morning routine builds character. Torunn says that she does enough of that on Earth.

Sif jokingly tells Torunn that this is the result of Torunn removing her servants from the Palace. Torunn still tries to get her way, but Sif leaves the room telling Torunn to get ready to and that she had a long day ahead of her. Despite wanting to sleep a little bit longer Torunn knew it was time for the day to begin and headed to get ready to start her day.

Eventually she was ready, leaving the Palace quickly hoping to get back in time to get some food, as she had to start the day without it. The first place she heads to is the beautiful plain fields of Ida It was at the center of Asgard and it was one of Torunn’s favourite places to stay when she came to Asgard, she loved to simply take in it’s beauty and think about everything life had to offer. Today however she wasn’t there for that.

As she closed in on the fields she landed near a section of darker blue flowers that were speckled with orange flecks on the stem and the petals. The flowers were beautiful and native to Asgard. The ‘Aldrnari’ stood for nourishment. Or more specifically nourishment of life.

The flower held special properties that could be used for many things. Mostly magic, but that was very useful to Asgardians. Of course only a few people could pick them without actually getting into any trouble and Torunn was one of those people. She pocketed three of the magical little flowers and placed them on a pouch on her waist, and headed off to the Bifrost where her daily journey awaited her.

Landing at the Observatory she sees the Guardian of the Bifrost aka her Uncle doing his job as dutifully as usual. Torunn and Heimdall have a nice conversation. Heimdall tells Torunn that Sif can be very particular about things and Torunn tells Heimdall that she doesn't mind she just doesn't understand why she has to do this job in the first place.

Torunn's job is to go to all the different realms each morning and do things for each realm. Whether that's delivering the Aldrnari to Alfheim and Nornheim. or giving help to those in Muspelheim, and Nidavellir. The others realms like Svartalfheim and Niffleheim were off limits and Vanaheim had never really needed her to visit.

Heimdall explains to Torunn that the reason she is sent around the realms every time she visits Asgard is to make sure the peace is still being held by the other realms, and to basically make sure they are behaving. The gifts, or the help she gives the others is a way of being nice and offering something to them that they will actually appreciate and use. Heimdall tells her this is necessary as Asgard and the other realms haven't always been this peaceful.

Torunn admits that she never ever thought of her job like that, it was just something she did, now she understood she was making sure the others were complacent.

Heimdall tells her that, that is correct. It wouldn't be wise to turn their backs on the other realms even in this time of relative peace. The answer doesn't exactly instill Torunn with confidence and she questions Heimdall if something is coming, and if they should be worried about it.

Heimdall's answer is once again worrying simply telling Torunn that they shouldn't exactly be worried, and that he does see certain things but anything can happen. Torunn pushes once more asking him what's likely to happen, and Heimdall continues to dodge simply telling Torunn that if something does happen Asgard has it's protector.

Torunn hesitantly agrees and apologizes for taking up so much of his time and tells him to send her to Alfheim, but Heimdall isn't finished yet and asks Torunn if she's seen anything lately.

The question sounded basic in nature. Stupid even, to a normal person. Even to the average Asgardian. But for Torunn her abilities were manifested in many different ways. From her Mother she gained the ability to instantly teleport herself wherever she needed to be, though at the moment that was either Earth or Asgard.

She could also see things. Her eyes weren’t like Heimdall, who could almost dream with his eyes open, see things from the future and hear the dangers of the cosmos from hundreds of miles away. But when she slept...things happened.

Or at least things had happened once or twice. The first time she had that sort of near prophetic experience she had been twelve years old. The year was 2006 and after an intense sparring session with the team she had basically passed out afterwards, and that was when it began.

She remembered the dream like it was yesterday. A ghostlike creature was traversing the stars on his own. The creature would stop at the planets and then write something down and move to the next one. The ghost seemed very passive and stoic but every once in a while, after stopping and writing things down he’d check over his shoulder before continuing his process.

Eventually however his checking over his shoulder proved to be fruitless as a bigger ghost eventually showed up right in front of the smaller one. And despite everything the smaller ghost attempted he simply could not avoid the bigger ghost, and so it ran. It ran as fast as it could traversing through the cosmos trying to get away.

Of course the bigger ghost simply laughed and shot out his hand spawning nearly 10 or 12 ghosts the size of the runner, and they began to chase the ghost. Every Time they touched the ghost it was like a virus and he began to dissipate. The only thing that saved the ghost was crash landing on an unknown planet after escaping most of the ghosts.

When Torunn had woken up that time she was sorely confused. Later than night there had been a security breach that Tony refused to allow them to check out, as at that time they were deemed too young.

Years later however when the dream still wouldn’t get out of Torunn’s head she asked Tony what had happened that night. And according to him Vision, who had been scouting out Ultracity, Europe, and Asia had been caught by Ultron. Ultron had found a way to harm Vision even in his intangible form and sent his robots after him. Vision had done enough to destroy most of them before crashing in the Biodome where Tony had to kill the rest.

Another time she simply had a dream that had almost warned her about Pym and Azari. Of course a couple hours later she foiled a prank they attempted on her. And lastly she had known about an Ultron robot ambush in Italy despite the fact that she had been certain they dealt with all of them a couple of hours before.

From the smallest things to larger things Torunn could at times predict them. Still it had only happened at the weirdest times so far. It wasn’t something she could control, and happened as recently as a year ago. Heimdall was one of the few people who knew this. Torunn admits that she hasn't seen anything recently and wonders if that's bad.

Heimdall says no that it's not out of the ordinary and that he was just curious. After this Torunn makes her way onto her mission. Going through all the realms serving the people. The last realm she goes to is Jotunheim where she talks with her Uncle Loki.

The task she does for Loki aren't really tasks at all, really they simply talk and chat and this time Torunn questions if he knew that she was supposed to be keeping watch on him. Loki says he always knew, he simply never cared because it was clear Torunn had no clue what she was doing.

Torunn tells Loki she hopes he doesn't start any fights soon because she would hate to have to fight him. Loki questions if that's a threat, and Torunn tells him no, as they both know he'd beat her up. And Loki tells her that's why she's his favourite. Instead of going back home immediately. Torunn and Loki settle down and play a game of chess.

The next scene is in Finland with Francis, Riri, and Vision. Hawkeye is talking Ironheart through a fighting situation as she is struggling a bit with the robots coming for them. Francis is waiting for Killstick to work as is only slightly worried about a Rookie being his only cover.

It wasn't that Riri was bad, she was just slow, which could only be expected when this was her first real mission. He wants to let Riri do his thing but he also wants to live so he calls Vision and asks how far away he is, and tells him to hurry up. Riri tells them she doesn't need the help but Francis and Vision ignore it.

The arrival of the Android allowed Francis to focus on the Killstick, and only on the Killstick. Vision and Riri held the robots off long enough for the Killstick to get booted up and immediately shut down the robots all around Oulu. The robots all power down and Francis can let out a sigh of relief telling them they all did a good job

Riri however is insistent that she didn't need the help and that she could have done it herself. Francis waves it off telling Riri to relax, but to his surprise she keeps doing telling him that she had her repulsor ready, and that she had these little rockets she was going to use.

Francis cuts her off before she can continue on the tangent telling her that this is the most fired up he's ever seen her, causing her to recede a bit. Francis tells her that he should continue to be fired up like that and that one day she'd be able to do that entire process on her own, but today wasn't that day. He says he's happy that she's not there yet so he can spend time with her high flying friend.

“Heh.” Riri laughed and rubbed her neck awkwardly “Your right Francis. Thanks, the most important thing is the win.”

“Exactly.” Francis nodded, content she seemed to have gotten the point. He turned to Vision and got a little bit more serious “Ready for some cleanup.”

“I believe so.” Vision told the archer “The people seem to be coming out of their houses now.”

“Great. Heh Riri, you're gonna love this, stuff like this never gets old.”

The three heroes walked out of the small citadel into the streets of Oulu and were immediately met by the roar of a crowd.

“Wow.” Riri whispered in astonishment at the crowd that was beginning to pool up. “Remember Ri, we don’t do this for praise or big crowds, or adoration. We do things like this because we have the ability to. It’s not about the praise.” Francis explained

“Right.”

“But.” Francis started with a grin “That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it every once and a while. Now start waving to those people and let them know who the new hero in town is.”

Riri gave one little wave and the crowd’s roar was enormous. It felt like a packed stadium, and it was rather beautiful. It brought Francis’ spirits up a bit. “Alright people. Now who’s ready to get this city back in tip top shape?”

The roar was even louder this time, and for a moment, for a brief moment, Francis was able to forget about his and Torunn’s failing relationship. For a moment.

The next scene moves to Colorado with James, Daisy, and Azari they are looking at the state of the prison which is pleasantly looking better than they expected.

Daisy tells them that she thought they might have to deal with a fixer upper but with the Iron Legion she thinks that it can get done in a couple of hours. James believes it's exactly what the team needs at the moment. The prison will work just fine and the Raft was still going to be built.

Azari likes this, and notes that they are on a bit of a winning streak. Daisy tells that she's pretty confident. Valerie seems to have done a good job with getting the people to like her, she's defended the Avengers name, and she hasn't lost the love of the voters. If she keeps all that up than the MOE plan is really in shambles.

James agrees and for him it's the reason he believes there might be something more. They have to know things aren't going how they expected. Azari agrees they have to stay on guard but he also questions that maybe this is really they all have planned.

James says that if that really all they have then they get back to what's important. And that's rebuilding. Daisy tells Azari that she was telling James that it feels like they are entering a new era. And Azari says it's true, he just can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing yet.

James says that who knows what the future holds. They can only live in the present, and that meant getting rid of that outfit as soon as possible.

The other's laugh at his expense but Azari lets him know that Riri, Pym, and Amadeus had been working on an outfit for him for a couple of hours. He says that Pym had even wanted to see his shield.

The conversation is cut short by Daisy who asks if they can get back to the jet as she'd like to take off her gauntlets sooner rather than later, which causes a little bit of worry but they take off to the Jet anyways.

Daisy get's a little annoyed with all the questions James asks, but eventually the Super-Soldier manages to cheer her up telling her, that her progress was great, and Azari adds in that he and Riri could take a look at the design.

The conversation is once again cut short by James RIID scanner. The scanner for radioactivity is off the charts. Despite Daisy wanting to go to the Quinjet earlier she's all for going to figure this out so the three head off Azari in the air and James and Daisy running to the location.

The eventually get to the location and James wonders if they should even be going cause those levels of radiation are extremely dangerous, but as enhanced people he thinks they'll be fine.

The RIID detector led them near the prison but the area they were around was surrounded by wired mesh fencing that was rusted beyond belief, the area that was being hidden was nothing more than piles and piles of dirt. The RIID eventually led them to a smaller dirt pile which James ordered Daisy to get rid of.

Once all the dirt was pushed off, James knelt down to the ground, and saw an almost reddish pink piece of an arm sticking out from the ground. As he rubbed some dirt off, he noticed the number on the sleeve #234001.

“There's no decay, whoever that is doesn’t look dead.” Daisy pointed out.

“Whoever that is, doesn’t look real.” James corrected. With a little more sifting he managed to pull over half whoever’s body was in the dirt. They could now see blond hair, what seemed like more rusted skin, but other than the discoloring, Daisy was right they did look like they could wake up at any moment.

“What’s the play?” Daisy asked

“Azari, just a little juice.” James decided. Azari nodded, eyes turning white, and gave the slightest bolt of lightning that conducted through the body perfectly, but didn’t have the desired effect.

“A little more.” James demanded quickly, and so Azari hit him again, not even using 1/10 of his power and it did nothing.

“Come on Azari, 25%.” If this was some sort of...android like Vision, or Jocasta. Then James was beginning to think it was going to take more power than Azari was feeding it.

“Alright. Get back.” Azari commanded this time. His tattoos all glowed blue and he sent a concentrated blast of lightning at the robot that instantly proved to be useful.

The man instantly crunched his fist in a smoother motion than his rusted parts should have allowed, his body shook for a moment making the others stand back in anticipation. Suddenly his eyes popped open and he flipped himself up from the ground instantly going on the defensive.

And apparently the defensive for this man was bursting into flames and flying up into the air. Azari was ready for the chase if he flew away but he seemed to simply fly away and watch the three heroes interestedly, his eyes stopping when he noticed the shield James was holding.

But even though he was on fire it wasn’t hard to tell how confused the man was “Captain?” but that was all they heard as the robot’s flames suddenly diminished and he fell to the ground landing harshly on the ground.

The three heroes instantly ran over to the body. Azari and Daisy weren’t exactly sure what to do but the look in James' eye suggested that he knew exactly what had to be done.

“His body is remarkable. He’s already healing himself. His body looked rusted before, but now it’s as if he is almost as good as new.” Azari remarked “The material it’s like...as good as Vision’s.”

“I’m not surprised.” James admitted, well he was surprised about finding an Invader here, but he wasn’t surprised that he was built so well.

“James, did you know him? I know it’s far-fetched but he seemed to know you?” Daisy asked

“Not me.” James said with a shake of his head “My father.”

“Oh. and that’s how you know him. Or should I say know of him.” Daisy corrected

“Yeah” James started “When I was younger my dad used to tell me a lot of war stories, of course without the blood and gore. But mostly he’d tell me who he fought with, who he won against, and it was fun. You know bedtime stories. One of the more common ones was the stories about his team, the Invaders.”

“A team before the Avengers?”

“Yup. Maybe the first superhero team ever. There was my dad. He was the headliner Captain America. Then there was the man from the sea, who was as strong as one could be. I know now that he was talking about Namor. There was Bucky, his best friend. And then there were the men of flames. The Human Torch. Jim Hammond, and his little buddy Toro.”

“I always thought there was only one Human Torch.” Azari told them contemplatively. “If he’s from the 40s, that makes this even more incredible. Did your father ever tell you what happened to him?”

“From reading his journal I know they split up amicably in the late stages of the war as Cap and Bucky felt if they were all grouped up they might not be as effective. But what happened to Jim came after the war. According to my father’s journal he was told that he had been killed in the early 50s, no one knew what had happened, only that he disappeared.”

“Maybe whoever beat him shut him down and left him here to rot, but instead he survived.” Daisy offered

“It’s the most likely scenario.” James agreed “I don’t know how he survived but...Jim Hammond is a hero, and we have to help him.”

“Right, I’ll bring over the Quinjet.” Azari decided, he gave James a quick nod and began to fly away. With this new information James once again found him calling homebase in the middle of a mission, though both times weren’t necessarily bad.

“Tony. Yeah no everything is fine, at least with the prison. We’ve found something else. Yeah you and the other need to get the lab ready. We have an Invader ready for transport.”

The next scene is in the Biodome and all the Avengers are back, as some hours have passed.

Francis is the first to speak saying that Jim looked perfect, and the others could only nod their heads in agreement. They all watched as Jim stretched for a brief moment before flaming on and absolutely destroying the training simulation. He didn’t miss a beat, everything he did was calculated and measured and it worked.

Pym then says if Jim is who he says he is, then he years and years of experience. Francis questions if anyone has talked to him and Tony says no, everything is pretty jarring for him, so they are giving him time. James insists he will simply talk to him and the others allow it and so heads to the training room.

“You up for a spar?”

“Depends, will you break as easily as the robots?” Jim asked back with a bit of a grin.

“I’ve been told I’m a pretty tough fight. Don’t hold back.” James insisted, more than ready to enjoy a good fight.

The Torch gives him one last nod before flaming on and sending a blast of his flames at the Super-Soldier. James however was faster than that and with a simple twitch was out of the way of the blast, and waited for the attack once more, simply staying on the defensive.

Jim looked pleasantly surprised and ramped up his speed, flying around in a circle, creating a ring of fire around the Super-Soldier.

James pulled out his shield, and ran straight the fire and then threw his shield with deadly accuracy hitting the man out of the air, the shield came careening back to him and he raced to it with speed it seemed only he could muster.

He caught the shield and was ready to barge into the high tech android, but Jim rolled out of the way and hit James with a blast of fire that probably would have hurt a lot more if it weren’t for his uniform, even then a roll on the ground had the fire out quickly.

James was in front of the wall and he jumped up and used it as a springboard and threw his shield at the Torch who was a bit more prepared for the attack this time, avoiding it. Forgetting the shield entirely, James rushed the flaming man throwing the first fist that narrowly missed it’s target.

Jim retaliated with a furious roundhouse kick that James nimbly avoided before throwing a jab at the man's fiery stomach connecting with ease.

Despite getting hit the Torch dealt with the blow well dishing his own back, tagging the shoulder of James with a quick counter, the second fist couldn’t hit it’s target, as James dropped to the ground and attempted the leg sweep which tripped the man up, but couldn’t get him to the ground.

While falling Jim kicked up his foot straight into the face of James, sending flying back as well, but the soldier simply wiped his nose and got back up again. Intending to end the little spar.

He dodged, a kick, and then a close blast of heat, before stopping the Torch’s fiery punch by simply grabbing it, and then clocking him in the face with his other hand. Sending him straight to the ground.

“Okay.” Jim paused with a hand in front of his face “I think that's the best knock back to reality anyone could ask for.”

James gave him a small grin, and helped him up, and Jim honestly seemed like he was seeing ghosts but...in a good way. “I was a little skeptical about everything that was going on but...Gee Whiz you really are Steve’s son. Grabbing my fist, so easily like that. That was something only he ever did.”

“I’ve practiced what I could.” James told him modestly

“James right?”  Jim continued going “After Bucky. That really is something. I’m truly 60 years in the future...This is insane. So Cap-Your father had been alive the entire time?”

“He was trapped in the ice for 40 years. The serum allowed him to stay the same age and continue a second life.”

“And from what I see here...It was cut short.” Jim sighed, so many tragic things were always happening to them “What happened?”

“Ultron happened. An Artificial Intelligence gone rogue. What was once supposed to help the world, nearly ended it. “ James explained

“But how?”

“A stroke of luck put him in power, and honestly? A Stroke of luck ended it.” James explained as easily as it could “It’s definitely not easy to think about, or to try and understand, but all of us here? The world out there? We’re just trying to do our best to move on.”

“I was created in 1939. For America that was the end of what then known as the great depression. Things were looking up for the people. Yet still for many the things they were still going through, because of that time period was extremely harsh. In Germany, it might have been even worse. You had to be in the elite of the elite to be living well, simply because of the effects of the first World War. Things like this can drive men insane. I’ve seen it first hand. But if there’s one thing I know about people it’s that they survive. You all are a resilient race. I don’t know everything that’s going on but...I’ll do my best to help you.”

“Thank you, this means more than you know.” James told him genuinely “But from my father I can also understand how weird it might be to be thrown into something like this. So here take this,” James told him and passed the notebook.

“These pages are all the ones specifying my father’s struggle to transition into the modern world. 40 years isn’t 60, but it’s the closest you're probably going to get in terms of relations. I’m sorry you had to come back to a world like this.”

“I’m not. Some people never get a second chance. I’m sure I’m here for a reason.” Jim insisted with a smile “If you don’t mind, I’m going to head to my quarters now. If you need me for anything. I’m ready.”

From the window outside the training room James could spot all of the members with varying looks of sadness for the man, and admiration for the fact that he was able to put on a brave face despite coming back to life after 61 years.

James gave them a thumbs up and he got one in return. Like Azari had said, despite everything that had been going they were winning right now. Big time.

The next scene is in Genosha, and the X-Men are watching the news who are praising Valerie Cooper for presidential campaign.

Beast turned the TV on mute and the four older X-Men simply stared at each no one seemed to want to be the first one to talk.

To Beast he found all of this pretty curious. Honestly the Avengers were doing better than he expected. For a situation that was looking pretty bad a couple of weeks ago, things changed back into their favour rather quickly.

For Kitty all she could really think about was Valerie Cooper. A name they had known for years. Head of Mutant Affairs, a person who was genuinely willing to work with mutants, and mutantkind, to her it was beginning to seem like Laura was right, maybe they did need to fly down to America and lend a helping hand.

For Laura it was straight up vindication. The others had been hesitant, especially Emma last time around but now it felt like they were finally seeing things from her perspective. She could admit that things were looking pretty bad, but she stood by her words, and most importantly what her heart told her, and that was that they needed to go and help.

For Emma she was feeling the one thing she had felt ever since that group of Avengers had landed in Genosha. Scared. Scared for the X-Men. Scared for their kids. For Megan, for Jimmy, and Jessica, Jane, and Talia, and all the other kids, even if they thought she was simply trying to ruin their fun.

She understood how this life could be. You're there one second and gone the next. She simply didn’t want something bad to happen to the children. She knew it might have been a tad bit irrational considering the firepower they had but. Could you blame her? She never thought a little virus might kill over half the mutant populous but it managed it.

But man, she really hated feeling this way. And she could admit that yeah, things did sound good. That yeah, maybe real change was on the horizon, that yeah, maybe going out to help the Avengers could be a good choice despite all her fears, and all the things she had said to dissuade them early. And because of all that. Emma spoke first.

“I think it’s possible.” She began, and immediately all eyes turned to her “With Valerie It’s...It’s not out of the equation to get the change we're looking for.”

“I told you.” Laura told her pointedly, but the playfulness was there.

“Don’t get a big head over it.” Emma told her with a roll of her eyes, but she was mostly joking as well. “And look it doesn’t mean we don’t have to take some precautions but I do think that maybe the Avengers were right, and something is there.”

“I’m glad you think so Emma. This means we really have to start planning.” Beast offered.

“It does.” Kitty jumped in “This really is a great development. I only wish the others could have been here to see it.”

“It’s something I’m sure we are going to be thinking about until the end of time. But I’m confident that we are honouring their legacy by doing the right thing and returning home. We are the last people who can truly advocate for Xavier’s cause. It’d be a fallacy if we didn’t do our best to uphold this legacy.” Beast told them solemnly.

“That’s how I’m beginning to see it.” Emma admitted

“So how exactly are we going about this? We don’t really have a personal line to the Avengers. So we can’t exactly contact them normally.” Kitty questioned

“Cerebro is an option.” Laura offered.

“We could but I don’t think it’s the way we need to introduce ourselves to the Avengers.” Emma said honestly “Besides, moving out is going to be the most important, and telling the kids as well.”

“It’s good I’ve been thinking about some of them lately. I think it’s a good idea to tell them soon so they don’t do anything stupid.” Laura explained

“Do you actually think they might do something like that?” Emma questioned a bit annoyed “Because if so, we can have a very stern talk about discipline. I’ve had enough of kids running and doing things on their own with your group.”

For once Laura actually almost seemed embarrassed, but she still managed to keep her composure “I don’t think they will, they wouldn’t have a clue on where to go, or what to do. I also overheard them talking, it’s not going to happen.”

“Good.” Emma said, before sighing “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

“Agreed. So what are we waiting for?” Beast questioned. Nothing, they all knew. And so the four got a fresh pot of coffee brewing and began preparing for a move out of the Country. Chicago, Texas, whatever state it ended up being, they were ready to let the world know they were coming.

The next scene happens in Madripoor with the Masters of Evil.

Things were not going well. It was as simple as that. Sh*t was hitting the fan fast, and anyone with eyes could see that. And maybe what was the most annoying thing to Taskmaster was that in a way, he felt like he was the only one who cared.

Viper and Zemo were keeping quiet about whatever they were planning. And he couldn’t tell if it was irrationally high confidence, or that fact that they truly had no idea what to do.

Moonstone or whatever she was calling herself clearly only cared about the money and so she wasn’t locked in. Crossfire was probably the most charismatic for the so-called cause, and he had been the first one locked up.

He’d do anything for Viper and Zemo and to go back to the old days. The man needed a reality check, and it seemed like he was going to that from a maximum security prison cell.

Radioactive Man was fairly excited about things going back to ‘normal’ as well. About being a boss again, about the supposed takeover. He wasn’t sure they were ever going to see Chen again.

Him and Ant were in the same position. Swayed by money and nostalgia to get back into the game but were also kind of hating every moment of it. But that seemed to be a bigger problem for their employers.

It’s not like he hadn’t wanted the things the Masters of Evil were planning. No way, he had been all for it. But now, as they got to the point where this Valerie woman was still winning polls, and leads, and all the important things while they supposedly “sabotaged” her campaign. It was getting harder and harder to justify this little excursion as...worth it.

Something he could never forget was the fights with the Avengers. They were not in the slightest equally matched. That was very obvious. The Asgardian and the Giant-Boy were too much already. They didn’t have the firepower to counteract that. And of course that left the mutant prince, the Super-Soldier, and the Archer.

They could also call on people like Knockout to help out but it wasn’t the same. They were no longer the people at the absolute top of their games. The villains in their primes, the most feared. No, rather they should have feared the heroes. The ones who were just beginning to experience the wonders of youth. Physically outmatched, Mentally not as good as they expected.

It was for all these reasons that Taskmaster was more than ready to bow out, he hadn’t spent a dime of the money Zemo or Viper gave him, and he was perfectly fine with giving it back. Grady was also going to join him. This really wasn’t worth it. So they headed to the meeting with the intention of leaving this life “for good.”

And then Zemo started talking.

“Things aren’t good.” Zemo started off angrily “This isn’t panning out. Not as planned.”

“We need a switch in direction.” Viper took over from him “We haven’t managed to throw Cooper off her game enough.”

“We need to move her off the board. Completely.” Zemo insisted “Preferably as soon as possible?”

“Assassination?” Taskmaster questioned with a near scoff “Do you know how protected Cooper is in the US.”

“Precisely. That's why it’s happening at the summit.” Zemo decided, “There’s no better time.”

“You're kidding.”

“Not in the slightest Ant.” Viper told him aggressively “The summit is open and contrary to popular belief the security is not intense. At least not intense enough for an Assassin to sneak in and make the shot.”

“One Assassin? Sounds...High Risk.”

“No, not one Assassin. The plan will utilize all of our government assets, one shooter, two decoys, and it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to make it happen. We do this, it pushes our pawn in power and we continue as we please.”

As Taskmaster looked at Viper and Zemo he genuinely had to wonder if they were crazy “And I suspect that you want me to be the can’t miss shooter.”

“Yes, do you have a problem with that?” Viper questioned, it sounded like a threat, but Taskmaster knew there really wasn’t much to it, and instead asked another question.

“You believe that the world will allow Evander Worthington to become the President despite the assassination of the frontrunner, after there has already been allegations of unfair play?”

“They have no choice.” Zemo insisted “The other options are fruitless, and they know it.”

There were so many things that Taskmaster and even Black Ant wanted to say but all Taskmaster did was nod. He was realizing that Zemo and Viper were never going to change. This team was simply doomed. Karla hadn’t said a word throughout the entire thing, this team had been doomed since it’s formation.

And Taskmaster was too excited about going out the way Zemo and Viper were planning “Alright then. I want to know the plan. Every single detail.”

As they started explaining, Taskmaster wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to do yet, but he had a rough idea. This summit was going to be something for everyone involved.

NotesEdit

This is the longest "Summary" to date. It has a lot more parts taken from the legitimate chapter, as Capt10America felt that a lot of things didn't need to be summarized, sometimes they are fine as they are, and this might lead to larger Issues summaries around 5-6k words. But he hopes to cut it down in the future.


TriviaEdit

  • No trivia.


See AlsoEdit


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