Invaders create Avengers [An MCU Quest]
- Thread starter K1ng
- Start date
- Sci-Fi Modern
- Location
- Tarn-Vedra
[X]Alien Tech
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
Vote tally:
SpaceBattles
Alien Tech: 17
Support: 3
Sufficient Velocity
Alien Tech: 9
Support: 0 (1 vote from a person who already voted for support on SB)
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
Total
Alien Tech: 26
Support: 3
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
SpaceBattles
Alien Tech: 17
Support: 3
Sufficient Velocity
Alien Tech: 9
Support: 0 (1 vote from a person who already voted for support on SB)
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
Total
Alien Tech: 26
Support: 3
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
K1ng
Reader of The Book of Vile Darkness
- Location
- Australia
Okay, a day later, we are at:
Winner is Alien Tech, which unlocks the Synthesize action in turned arcs. For those of you who don't know, Synthesize will let you convert Earth Mats into any unlocked Alien mats.
I'll be writing another 1-2 chapters of For a Love of the Game [A Yu-Gi-Oh GX Quest] then onto the next chapter of this!
See you all soon.
Alien Tech: 27
Support: 3
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
Support: 3
Basic Magnetokinesis: 1
Winner is Alien Tech, which unlocks the Synthesize action in turned arcs. For those of you who don't know, Synthesize will let you convert Earth Mats into any unlocked Alien mats.
I'll be writing another 1-2 chapters of For a Love of the Game [A Yu-Gi-Oh GX Quest] then onto the next chapter of this!
See you all soon.
Iron Man 3 - 9
K1ng
Reader of The Book of Vile Darkness
- Location
- Australia
24.7 Hours until misfire
Your fist broke through the glass of the chamber. The mask of the Traveller reflecting off the shattered pieces.
The lab was a wreck. Your laptop was gone. All the equipment destroyed, and most importantly, there was no Maya. Only a dead security guard with a broken neck stuffed into the closet.
Someone else had gotten here first.
You pulled the Extremis vial out from its pedestal. The chambers holding the modified samples were the only parts of the lab not ransacked. You couldn't help but wonder if that was intentional. Along with this.
The vial in your hand bubbled. The gold liquid inside shone while green strands floated freely, pulsing in tune with your heartbeat. You didn't know what the fuck the thing you were holding was, but it wasn't Extremis anymore. It felt… alien, and you didn't mean Chitauri. New alien, old and powerful, something you hadn't encountered before. Whatever it was, your power wanted it.
You put it away, along with the Extremis vial you'd stuffed with Extra nanites. You didn't care what your power wanted. It didn't control you. You had at least another day until Extremis went too hot. You'd deal with it then. There were more important things – Traveller things – that needed doing.
First you needed to find Maya.
And you knew exactly where to start.
The camera ripped itself out of the wall and floated into your hands.
Your irises burnt gold as you saw past the lens into the room from where the connection originated. Parts floated out from broken machines and re-joined, combining into three new machines. Beams of light shined above you, streaming the camera feed into a reconstructed hologram. The recording played back, minutes ticking by over a couple of seconds until two familiar faces showed. Maya… and Jackson.
You played it.
There was no sound, but as Jackson pistol-whipped Maya the crack played across your mind anyway as she crumpled like a marionette without strings. It took all your willpower to not sprint after them right away, but you couldn't. Not until you'd checked to ensure he hadn't done anything else.
Jackson spent the next few minutes destroying the rest of the room. After he finished, he threw Maya over his shoulder and picked the laptop of your desk.
"Jackson." You clenched your fists and the hologram broke. "JACKSON!" Your voice spread beyond these walls, echoing through every device with a speaker in the entire compound. He'd taken Maya. You warned him and he'd done it anyway. You needed to find him, quickly. You had a promise to keep. But you couldn't flail blindly. With a breath you pushed away the anger. It wasn't gone, not even close, but you could put it into that little box that you had put everything else into. You could unpack it later. Later. Now, you had a job to do.
There were too many ways Jackson could leave the compound from here. You had to narrow the field. Good thing you had the perfect tool to do so in your hands. The broken device in your grip steamed as you poured power into it. Images appeared in your mind's eye, snapshots of rooms and hallways. You cycled through, the picture you had of the compound was nowhere near as good as yesterday. Cameras were offline. Entire sections of the building dark, not only in the area that you'd come from to get here. Jackson had been busy.
One more strike against him. You should have knocked him out. Or killed him. It would have been so easy. One slash and it would've been over, exactly like the courtyard.
You clutched your head with your free hand, trying to squeeze the thoughts away. But all you could feel was the weight of the mask.
The mask of the Traveller.
The mask of a hero.
You were a hero, and heroes saved people. You pushed your doubts into the box, it was starting to get cluttered in there. You could do this.
You needed to keep going.
More hallways and rooms flickered by. Empty. Empty. Single guard. Empty- wait no, There! On a camera in the courtyard, you saw short hair and a pressed dress shirt. Jackson. And there, slung over his shoulder, unconscious, was Maya. He stood among the burnt remains of vegetation and other things, seemingly without a care in the world.
Before you knew it, you were already moving and the broken lab gave way to new halls. You'd been stealthy, coming here, avoiding cameras and patrols. You skipped that now. There was nobody left to stop you. And if there was, you take them down.
You were running the straightest path you could towards the courtyard. If you didn't have to stop, you'd get there in five minutes.
You couldn't wait.
24.6 Hours until misfire
Jackson had more than one helicopter.
In the time it had taken you to get to the courtyard, three helicopters had come over the horizon. One already on the ground while the other two circled overhead. All for little old you.
You suppose you should be flattered, but you'd rather blow them out of the sky.
Someone from inside the helicopter pulled the door open and jumped out. Stepping aside, he saluted Jackson with his rifle and gestured towards the open door. Either telling Jackson to get inside or to dump Maya. Not going to happen.
Heat flushed against your skin as your armour adjusted and settled. Time to move.
As you moved across ground that used to be green, the cannon on your shoulder uncurled and energy began to emit from the barrel.
As you crept closer, the one that came out from the helicopter pointed his rifle and moved to intercept.
That was all the cause you needed.
With a twitch of your finger's, a fiery beam of plasma shot from your shoulders at the rifle before he could raise it. The cannon's blast strength was the lowest you could make them. Any less and the blasts would fizzle out inside the barrel. That didn't mean much for something you designed to pierce through armoured vehicles. The beam obliterated the rifle and then kept on going. Through the rifleman's stomach, past the helicopter and dissipating after wrecking a pillar on the other side of the courtyard.
"Ah, Traveller." Jackson said. He adjusted his footing so he was facing you. He looked the same as he did this morning. The only difference was a laptop bag slung over his shoulder. "Not another step. Or do you prefer Jack? You have so many names, it's hard to keep track."
"Jackson." The fact that he knew your name was only another thing you couldn't afford to focus on right now. There was something different about him. You were close enough to sense him but you couldn't. You needed to figure out why. "I've been looking for you."
He slightly inclined his head. "So you have." He glanced at the twitching body a few metres away. "More… ruthless then what I expected from you." He didn't even try to hide to hint of approval that crept into his voice.
You resisted the urge to kill him where he stood. Unlike before, Jackson, the helicopter and you were almost in a straight line. If you fired at Jackson, the beam would go through the helicopter. The resulting explosion would kill Maya along with him. No, if you wanted to get Maya out of his hands, you needed to get closer.
"I'll try not to throw up." You glanced Maya, still slung over Jackson's shoulder like a bag of potatoes. "Maya, are you alright?" At her lack of response, you took a step forward. She was still unconscious. How long had it been now, twenty minutes? Fuck that wasn't good. You needed to get her to a hospital.
Jackson unholstered a pistol and pressed it flush against Maya's head. "Stay where you are."
"You pull that trigger, and it'll take you days to die."
Jackson hummed. "You know what, I believe you. There's only one problem with that…" He clicked the safety off. "What do you do when your threats have no effect?"
Run, or figure out another way to stall. In this case the latter, so keep him talking.
"I'm not sure, but since you seem to be the general expert on murder and mayhem why don't you tell me?"
He laughed. "Well, you escalate of course." He gestured at the burnt out remains of what used to be a garden. "Exactly like you've already done."
You were starting to get a picture. Not a good one, Jackson was fuzzy, like looking through an opaque window through a mirror's side view. A reflection of a reflection. You needed more time.
"Is this the part where you say we're not so different, you and I? Because if you're trying to get into my head, can you try something that isn't a cliché?"
"Are we that different? We're both killers-" Despite yourself, you flinched. "-you're quite an excellent one, in fact. The proof is all around us," he kicked a blackened arm. "I didn't kill these people." He looked around speculatively. "How many deaths are you responsible for? Ten, twenty? There's so many body parts missing it's hard to tell."
You glanced at the arm and swallowed the nausea building in your throat. "This was different. I gave them every chance to surrender, but they wouldn't take it. I only killed them when I exhausted all the other options I had. I saw the recording of you in the lab, that guard, you had him at your mercy. You could've knocked him out, but you killed him, because it was expedient."
"You can try and justify it to yourself all you want Traveller," Jackson said. "But it doesn't change what you are, or what you're turning into."
"You're right," you admitted, ignoring the last thing he said. You didn't care what the crazy cultist meant. "But the difference between us is that I wasn't a killer until today Jackson. And you know what, when this is all over, I'm probably going to curl into a ball somewhere and cry while hating myself. But you… I think you're going to sleep like a baby tonight." Not that he was getting out of here alive, but telling him that would be a spoiler. "And the only thought you'll have on the people you killed is to congratulate yourself on a job well done."
The picture was getting better. Whatever was blocking you wasn't doing it actively, a couple more minutes and you should be able to pierce through the veil enough to shut it down. You had to stall him for a bit longer and then you could shock him with whatever phone or radio he was undoubtedly carrying.
Then Jackson stopped making sense.
"That was a good speech Traveller, it almost makes you sound almost human. But when your body count is in the billions, your condemnations lose all meaning."
"What?" No, seriously. What? Billions? He's off by about eight digits, seven if you count the Chitauri husks that weren't really alive.
"You can lie to yourself all you want Shaper." He said that name like its supposed to mean something to you. "But my master knows what you are and what you'll do if you're left alive."
"So that was your end goal? To kill me?" You asked. "Then why go through that whole song and dance in my cell?"
"It was a test, to see if any fragment of your humanity remained." Somehow, the bastard sounded sad. But if Jackson thought that you'd follow him after he admitted he wasn't a SHIELD agent then you had a lovely timeshare opportunity in Antarctica you'd like to sell him. "If you had come genuinely then my Master would have done everything in his power to help you. But now that you have shown your true colours, my Master will enjoy ending the threat you pose himself."
"Oh? Is he one of those 'fine, I'll do it myself' kind of people?" You loved those guys, they never expected you to run away.
Jackson laughed. "My Master is our General, he understands the concept of delegation."
Oh great, a pragmatic villain. That's exactly what you needed.
"Speaking off which…" Jackson adjusted the arm holding Maya so it was up against his mouth. You raised your hand to cut off the signal but the interference was still up. Shit! "Target acquired, fire when ready." He raised his eyebrow at you. "What? Did you think you were the only one stalling?"
A golden dome flickered into existence around you. "You motherfucker-" was all you had time to say before the first high-calibre round impacted against your shield. Soon, a thick cloud of dust surrounded you as waves of high-calibre bullets broke against your shield. Through the constant explosions you faintly heard a door slamming shut and helicopter blades winding up.
You looked up at the sky at the two separate helicopters currently unloading their entire stock of bullets at you. You sighed as a spiderweb of cracks begun to spread from multiple impact points along the top of the dome. "So, I guess we're doing this now."
You staggered as a particularly large calibre bullet broke against your shield. Oh good, they have anti-tank rifles up there.
From your chest, wisps of energy rolled of in physical waves as you cycled damaged shield emitters for fresh ones. With a twitch of your fingers, both cannons unfurled and highlighted a different target on your display. More cracks spread along the top of the dome and you pushed more power in to seal them back up. As tempting as it was to pull off the same move you did… wow, less than an hour ago, you couldn't. These bullets weren't small arms, it was closer to artillery fire. You weren't sure if your old armour could hold up against stuff this heavy. This collection of mismatched – very lethal admittedly – but still mismatched gear? Not a chance. If one of those bullets got through the shield then you'd end up as swiss cheese at best, a bloody paste at worst. You didn't feel like testing out exactly how good Extremis regeneration was. You'd save that for Savin if you ever got your hands on him.
The safest option was to wait for them to run out of bullets, but who knew how long that could take? And if you did that then there was a good chance of Jackson getting far enough away that you couldn't track him.
No, you needed to think this through. How were they tracking you? If they came ready to take on a bunch of Extremis users then probably some form of thermal. You knew from experience how easy that made it to pick an Extremis signature out of the crowd. But after all the bullets they'd sent down here the entire area would be lit up like fireworks. Most likely they were shooting at your last known location. If that was the case, then all you needed to do was break away and shoot them before their radar could readjust. But you were screwed if they had any other kind of targeting software. Which was very likely, so you shouldn't do that.
You could compress your shield, overlay the emitters. You'd lose some efficiency, but not enough to matter. The problem with that was the compressed shielding would be about ten centimetres off your skin. And since your design didn't include a kinetic absorber you would feel the impact of every fucking bullet. But it would buy enough time for you to fly up to Jackson's helicopter.
Maybe there was a better you could do this, but you couldn't think of any. And since Jackson was getting away with Maya, serviceable would have to be good enough.
This was going to hurt.
At least they would hesitate to fire on their own ship, right?
From one moment to the next, a pale golden dome flickered out of existence and a solid golden shroud replaced it.
It was only when your shield projected that you noticed something was different. There had been a distinct lack of bullet impacts over the last few seconds. They weren't shooting at you anymore. Why weren't they shooting at you? Looking at the sky, you saw both helicopters turning and firing off into the distance.
What were they firing at?
It didn't take long to find out at what as a couple of seconds later, something red and gold burst through the clouds. Swerving away from a hail of bullets, you watched the Iron Man suit bank hard and head straight for one of the two helicopters.
Tony.
How is he here? It should've taken him hours to fly here from his house, assuming he got your message straight away. But it had only been twenty minutes. You shook your head. Never mind, you'll find out later. Right now, you shouldn't waste the opportunity he'd just given you.
The cannons were already charged, you just needed to acquire targets. "Target bogies one and two." Extra arms dug into the ground for stability. "Notify when ready." A few seconds later, your display flashed green.
The shield flickered away. You didn't want to break it this close to your skin, the impact might kill you and you don't feel like testing. "Fire!"
Twin beams of ruinous energy pierced the sky. You grunted as pressure dug into your shoulders. The resulting recoil almost enough to fracture your shoulders. If not for the extra arms plunged into the ground for stability the kick most likely would have. As it was you were still going to have a wicked bruise. Tendrils of Extremis spread from your chest to your shoulders in a stream of smoothing heat.
… or not.
You felt a spark of glee as the first beam raked through the side of the helicopter and one of the rotor blades. The resulting explosion gave you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. That'll teach them for shooting at you. Unfortunately, the second blast missed. The bolt continuing into the atmosphere as the other helicopter swerved out of the way just in time. But since that was the one Tony was currently on a beeline for, you weren't that concerned.
No, your concern was currently on the third helicopter gaining altitude. You needed to warm Tony so he wouldn't blow it up like the one he was about to any second now.
Your senses pinged back at you. That guard had a phone. With a gesture, a small rectangular object ripped out from under the guards Kevlar vest and flew straight towards you. As it got closer the phone began to separate, breaking down to its component parts. It was those parts that sunk into your mask and reassembled into a much more efficient shape. After waiting a few seconds to integrate, a little phone icon appeared in the corner of your display. Along with a network connection.
You made the call.
"Hello?"
You laughed in relief. "Took you long enough Tony. I thought I was going to have all the fun."
"Jack?" Tony said. "Was that you? You've been holding out on me. Where are you? What happened?"
There were so many things you wanted to say, the top three all involved Skye in some way, but you had a promise to keep first. "Yes. I'm just below and It's a long story, I'll tell you after." You said, answering each of his questions in turn. "Listen, that chopper going up has a friend of mine on it. Can you keep the other one off my back?"
Tony laughed. "Who do you take me for? I've got this."
"Thanks Tones." Your shield flickered back to life around you as the wake of your ascent left behind a dust cloud. The rocket boots were fast, trading away the control your other methods gave you for pure speed. You couldn't keep them active for long, but damn they let you move while you could bear the cost. You hadn't felt any give from Extremis so far, but who knew how long it could sustain your powers before running dry.
As you travelled in a couple of seconds what took a helicopter a couple of minutes, you hoped Jackson was cursing, or praying for his master's favour. Not that you could hear it, on account of your rocket boots. But the thought of him doing so made you smile.
Tony was as good as his word. You took no fire for the brief time you were in the open.
Armoured boots touched down on landing skids while extra arms gripped the sides of the helicopter for extra stability. The shield flickered off, you couldn't keep it active in such a tight space. This close you could disable the engine, but you'd save that for when you got Maya out. You tugged on the door and it stayed shut. Locked from the other side. Guess you needed to make your own entrance.
Claws lashed out, leaving deep gorges in metal and plastic, shredding apart the lock. Before you could pull the door open, a thought occurred. Jackson had a gun. One of your extra arms shrunk down and reassembled as overlaid strips of metal on the front exposed parts of your arms, torso and legs. There, that'll do. It wasn't perfect protection, but it should be enough to stop a bullet.
A gust of pressured air buffeted against you as you pulled the door open. There was also a couple of bullets, but who cared about that?" Spoiler: you cared. You cared a lot.
You pulled yourself inside.
You had never been inside a military helicopter before, but you hadn't expected to be so cramped. Between the armour plating, sensors and boxes of medical supplies there was almost no free space left on the sides. An extra thick door blocked the cockpit. What little floor space was bare apart from the seats bolted in to both sides. On the right seat was Maya, shackled, kept in place by a seatbelt and some extra harnesses. A strip of tape covered her mouth. And to the left, standing with a gun pointed at you was…
"Jackson!" You backhanded the well-dressed cultist as hard as you could. "Oh no, don't get up on my account." You kicked him to make sure he would stay down. Then you did it again, just for the satisfaction.
Seeing that the kidnapping piece of shit was down for the moment, you moved to free Maya from her restraints. Though you took the time to grab the laptop bag away from Jackson. A quick touch confirmed it was the same laptop from the lab. Using your claw to cut through the layers of straps, you positioned yourself so your back wasn't to him.
There was a clean bandage around Maya's head since you saw her last a few minutes ago. But there was a distinct lack of awareness in her gaze. Did she have a concussion? You needed to get her to a hospital. Claws retracting, you gently ripped the tape covering her mouth off. Blinking, she gave you this look like she wasn't sure if you were even here. "T-Traveller? Y-You came."
Underneath the mask, you smiled. "Of course. I promised, didn't I?" God that was corny as fuck, but that was what heroes did.
They saved people.
Her gaze looked past you. "Behind you!"
Adjusting you footing, you looked back and saw Jackson pushing himself to his feet. Blood dribbled down his chin but he looked no worse for wear otherwise. Oh, for fucks sake! You hit him hard enough that he should have brain damage, not getting up and walking it off less than a minute later. Did everyone have superhuman durability now? You swear, if Jackson was somehow an Extremis user then you were going to freak the fuck out.
"Jackson, I thought I told you not to get up." You made your way towards him and unsheathed the claws. "You cannot run away from this Shaper. He will come for you."
Something was still blocking you, but it had weakened enough for you to sense to phone, radio and detonator Jackson still had on him. Feeling vindictive, you modified the first two to shock Jackson when the received a signal from the detonator. At the same time, you severed the original connection between the detonator and whatever its payload was. You weren't going to fuck with something that controlled explosives. "You know Jackson, you keep saying Shaper like its supposed to mean something to me."
"You have a choice to make," Jackson continued, not looking at you. Instead he drew a series of interlocking circles with his finger over and over again. "To see if whether your humanity can be saved."
You blinked. "Okay I'll bite. What the fuck are you talking about?" You doubted anything that came out of Jackson's mouth would make sense now, but you could figure it later.
"Jack Dreyer can still be saved, if you let yourself die." Jackson spoke with the certainty of someone coming off a religious experience. It creeped you out a little bit to be honest. "You must decide. You can accept what has been done to you, or let your precursors curse you with their false cure."
"Enough." You holstered Jackson up by the collar. You were sick of all this preaching. You'd make sure to knock him out properly this time. Then after you'd gotten Maya to a hospital, you could pump him for information on this master of his.
He gripped your arm, it was damn cold. It was the first time you'd felt coldness in two days. You shook it off and tightened your own grip.
Jackson choked out mist. Your senses screamed in warning as the thing blocking you revealed itself.
All technology had a presence.
Normally this presence was nothing. A faint impression of its origins, just enough for you to know if the tech was of this world or not. In some cases, you got a little more. When the tech was something of significance. Not to you, but significant to someone. Like the impression of pride you got from Tony's suits. Or from those Tinkerer guns you'd destroyed for spare parts, to a lesser extent. Anyway, the stronger the presence, the harder it was for you to influence the tech. The Arc Reactor stuffed in Tony's chest was the only thing you'd encountered that resisted your powers. As far as your power was concerned, the Arc Reactor was Tony. The only thing you couldn't influence.
Until now.
That ring on his finger, it was alien. It was cold, it was harsh, but there was something more than that. When you stared at that ring, the presence inside stared back. Spikes of ice crawled up your arms and you pushed Jackson back before it spread further. There was something inside that ring, something that could think.
Ice evaporated off your arms as you stepped towards Jackson. You couldn't play around, if that ice spread to the engines the helicopter would fall out of the sky.
Rolling onto all fours, Jackson slammed his hand on the ground and more spikes of ice erupted. You grabbed Maya and dodged, the spike impaled the seat Maya used to occupy a second after. Well, it seemed killing you was a higher priority then taking Maya alive.
Jackson breathed out more mist and sheets of dense hoarfrost spread from his feet. A couple of minutes and the entire aircraft would turn into an ice sculpture.
Or he could just be pissed off.
"You cannot stop us Shaper," Jackson said. "My Master has blessed me with his powers for this sacred mission." The gem within the ring reflected off the spreading ice.
You ignored him. Okay, new plan. The source of that ice was the ring on Jackson's hand. You cut it off and boom, no more ice. Then you can get Maya out of here. But you had to be quick, your limbs were getting heavier. You didn't want to test just how well Extremis reacted to a hyper-advanced alien intellect flash ice.
You pulled the remaining extra limb from outside and broke it down. Converting it into overlays for the overlays. Not as armour however, this time you went for something more aggressive. If Extremis couldn't handle the cold, you needed to turn up the heat.
All the while, the ice thickened.
"Whatever happens, you stay behind me alright?" You waited long enough to see Maya's nod before you ran forward.
You don't remember the exact temperature required to melt ice, though you knew it was low. But as the ice you stepped over remained solid despite your Extremis boosted temperature, you knew this ice was anything but normal. That was okay, neither was your fire.
"A question Jackson, what happens when superheated fire comes into contact with ice?" Embers erupted from the overlays you had constructed until an aura of fire surrounded you. As far as modifying your tech goes, turning an advanced omni configurable arm into a glorified mobile heater was probably committing a sin to professional engineers everywhere. You knew Tony at least would roll his eyes, before he made smores off them to fuck with you.
Jackson didn't answer. So, you answered for him by pouring more power into your armour. In no time at all, the first layer of frost had melted into several puddles of water. No, not good enough. Your temperature climbed further and what pools there were evaporated into hissing clouds of steam. You wanted this side of the ship to be hot, sticky and the difficult to breathe in. It would slow Jackson down, and because Extremis you would remain largely unaffected.
Jackson's hand clawed through the air and more ice sprung from the walls to replace what was lost.
Again, ice became steam… until it was replaced with newer, thicker ice. Soon, your vision was nothing but mist as ice shifted into steam and then back again. The cycle going on and on as Jackson drew more power from the ring.
You took another step the side and swung, breaking through another layer of rapidly melting frost. Thanks to that ring on Jackson's hand, you knew exactly where he was.
You heard a faint cracking and ducked just in time to avoid a massive spike coming from the side. Oh good, there was the wall. In line with it you could sense the ring another couple of steps ahead.
You made a guess of the distance and punched through the wall. And the one behind it. You grunted in annoyance as chunks of ice broke away, revealing your fist imbedded into the wall. That punch should have taken Jackson's head clean from his shoulders. As it was, you barely missed. No matter, a few more seconds for the ice to melt and you could do it again-
A great tremor shook the aircraft and you stumbled. Ah, there goes the engines.
Before you could recover, a hand grabbed your arm and froze it. Jackson didn't waste time gloating, instead he breathed mist and frost covered your mask. You burned away the first layer, but a second and third layer had already replaced it. Enough to snuff out the fire fuelling your armour. And then Jackson kept on going, layers upon layers of ice, each colder then the last. You couldn't see Jackson anymore. You couldn't see anything except frost.
He was trying to freeze you solid!
You could feel the fire rising within you, trying to purge away the cold but it wasn't working. With ordinary ice it would be more then enough, but as you'd discovered before this wasn't ordinary ice. With this much you needed to reach a temperature in the high hundreds, if not thousands. And only someone in Stage 2 could do that.
Your temperature spiked for a moment as your nanites contained another heat surge. Ever since this morning the surges had started happening so often that you had learned to tune them out. But with how cold everything was you could feel every minuscule change in temperature.
If only you could move your arm! You could inject the modified Extremis sample tucked away inside your suit. The resulting temperature spike would be more then enough to melt the ice away. Hell, even an uncontrolled heat surge would be enough, theoretically. Ohhh you just got an idea.
No, no. There's got to be a better way. If you let the heat surge pass through and didn't suppress it in time then you'd end up just like Taggart. There were a lot easier ways to kill yourself. But what else could you do? You had a minute, maybe two before the ice completely suppressed Extremis. And then you were dead, period. There was no time to think of something better.
This was really going to hurt.
At once, you connected to every nanite and switched them off. Now, you just had to wait. It didn't take long; the next surge came within a few seconds. Heat spread from you core. Small, but growing rapidly, becoming a raging inferno. With nothing else for your nanites to do, you set them to track your bodies internal temperature. By the time you had done so, you had already passed a two hundred degrees Celsius with change in the ice.
Five hundred.
Strength flowed back into your limbs.
Six hundred.
You could feel the ice starting to melt.
Eight hundred.
You could wiggle your finger.
One thousand.
You buckled and struggled as cracks spread.
One thousand two hundred.
You tasted water on your lips before it evaporated into steam.
One thousand five hundred.
Bare feet touched metal and you reactivated all your nanites.
Your skin seared and cracked. One thousand six hundred. Six thousand nanites wasn't enough. Your cannons sunk underneath your shoulders and disassembled for a new purpose.
But still your temperature climbed.
More of your equipment receded underneath your skin. Your gloves. The shield vest. Everything. One by one, until the only the mask remained.
Your body screamed in agony as your temperature stabilized. It was the first time you'd been injected with Extremis all over again. Except now you didn't have the luxury of falling unconscious to escape the pain.
At some point – it could have been hours for all you knew, but most likely it was only a couple of seconds – the helicopter stopped spinning and the steam cleared.
Jackson had snuck over to the other side of the ship, and had an arm wrapped around Maya's throat.
You tasted sparks in the back of your own.
"Maya, are you alright?" At her nod you focused back on Jackson. He didn't look so good. Blue veins stood out against pale skin ae held up his hand. There were random shards of ice burrowed under his skin. Concentrated around his ring arm and going all the way back up to his shoulder. And yet the ring itself was untouched. With all your nanites internal you couldn't sense the presence anymore but you knew it was there. Watching. And it seemed there was a price for its power. Jackson was paying it, just as you were.
"Jackson, you look cold." Oh wow, you voice came out smooth. So, this is what it was like to be so pissed that you circled back around. "You could use some warming up. How about you let Maya go and I'll give you a nice friendly hug." And by friendly, you meant incinerating.
Jackson coughed out shards of ice. "I get the feeling that isn't going to end well for me. So, here's my counteroffer-" Jackson grunted as the ice spread a little further, hints of jagged ice now poking out from under his shirt. "-You jump off the edge, or I blow us all to hell." His ice-covered hand fished the detonator from out of his pocket.
Oh, this was perfect. "Maya, do you still trust me?" You wouldn't blame her if she didn't. You had fucked up already by letting things get this far. But you were going to make up for that, right now.
She lightly inclined her head. The best that she could do considering how tight of a grip Jackson had around her.
The mask sunk underneath your skin. "Then close your eyes, and this will all be over soon."
Jackson's grip on the detonator tightened. There was fear in his eyes, not at you, but at failing his precious master. Either way, it made you smile.
"I'm not bluffing."
You spat to the side. Smoke rose off burning metal. "Neither am I." No more stalling. No more games. Jackson Norriss died, right now.
His finger started to press down.
You pushed your legs forward.
Maya closed her eyes.
Jackson's muscles spasmed as electricity jolted from his watch and phone.
"Now fucking die already!" It was an easy hit. The electricity ruining his nerves locked him in place and shot his reflexes. Your punch went clean through his head.
Except his head wasn't there anymore.
Before your punch could connect, a white aura spread from the ring, covering Jackson and Maya. It let out a brief flash and instead of punching through Jackson's skull, your fist ended up embedded in the wall… again.
What the fuck. No, seriously, what the fuck! Where the fuck did they go? Where's Maya? "Maya!" No. no, no. Where did they go? You couldn't sense the ring. You couldn't sense anything. Your skin cracked further as the mask pushed back out over your face.
"Tony! Get this helicopter onto the ground, now!"
24 Hours until misfire Error: 1 Hour until misfire. WARNING DETONATION IMMINENT!
A fucking teleporter. On top of everything else, that ring came with a fucking teleporter.
You sat outside on a nice rock with nothing flammable around you, watching Tony give the parked helicopter a once over with his scanners. It took some harsh words that may have involved you threatening to tear the pilots heart out and feeding it to him, but you convinced him to land the helicopter, cuff himself and sit in a closet somewhere to think about what he'd done.
That you were slowly warping the helicopter apart from the inside may also have been a factor. But you'd rather chalk it up to your fiery personality.
"So, you get kidnapped, injected with a knock-off super-soldier serum, fix it, armour yourself by stealing your kidnappers shit and blowing it all to hell on your way out." The faceplate lifted and Tony gave you a cocky grin. "You trying to copy me?"
You smiled and tried to ignore the way your skin pulled. "It's good to see you too Tony."
"Nice to see you alive Jack." Tony looked around at the remains of the courtyard. "Hell of a couple of days huh?"
"You don't know the half of it." Extremis. Project Ascendency. Jackson and that ring. There was a lot of blood to go around, you were the cause of most of it. You needed to make it worth it. "Did you pick up anything?"
"The energy signal in there is off the charts. Whatever made it is powerful. You sure its alien?" You nodded and he hummed. "Well, it's not Chitauri tech, or based off the Tesseract so it can't be traced the way they can."
"So, you can't track it?" This couldn't all be for nothing.
Tony gave you a look that screamed who do you take me for. "Of course I can track it. The signature is powerful, but its also unique. I've sent the results to JARVIS and he'll run it through Stark Industries satellites. It may take a few hours, but if they're anyone on the planet then I'll find them."
You let out a long breath. "Thank you, Tony."
"Don't thank me yet. If this is anywhere near as powerful as the Tesseract then they could be anywhere in the world by now."
"It's a start. I won't stop until Maya's safe."
Tony held up his hand. "Hold on. I'm missing some context here, how about you clue me in? Starting with why you look like you're about to die. I've got a fire-suppressor in the suit. I can douse you if you need it."
"That would probably kill me." The laptop was gone, but you remembered enough of the information on it to know that would be a spectacularly bad idea. "But you're right. I'll fill in the blanks the best I can. It all started after I told Happy to get away from Savin – Killian's delivery boy. There was another Extremis subject there, an unstable one named Taggart…"
So you told Tony everything you could remember. Thanks to your message he knew most of the later details, you only into the first day. The explosion. Getting Injected with Extremis. The frantic working to build a cure and weapon of freedom under Killian's nose.
"Damn Jack. You have somehow the best and worst luck I've ever seen." He let out a bark of laughter. "Guess it comes with being an Avenger."
You snorted.
In turn Tony told you about a couple of days spent chasing leads. which after a short trip to Tennessee lead to Killian. Which is where Skye came in.
"She's good," Tony said. "She found connections that not even JARVIS could. From there it was easy to put it together on how deep Killian had his fingers in all this. We were hopeful you were alive, after that footage she found, but we didn't know where he'd taken you so we had to narrow it down. Meanwhile I called Banner in to play mad scientist on the side to do something about Extremis. Last I checked he was making decent progress on a nullifier, but not soon enough to matter." Tony shook his head, disgusted. "Project Ascendency… fuck, if I knew Killian was this much of a maniac…"
You shrugged. "We pushed him into a corner Tony. Whatever his grand plans are, they're in tatters. This is desperate play to regain control." A dark chuckle escaped you. "Too bad his ego is going to get a couple of hundred people killed."
"You sure?"
"Killian removed every safety measure to cut the incubation period down. If he started yesterday, the first batch is almost done, if not finished already. The washout rate is going to be insane. Fifty percent, at least."
"Well, shit."
"Indeed." And as callus as it was, you hoped you were right. A hundred Extremis users was a nightmare. Two hundred was unstoppable. It didn't matter that Extremis was a budget super-soldier serum, it was still a super-soldier serum. Extremis without the bugs was worth going to war over, if recent history was any judge.
And now Jackson's mysterious master had it. You took back the laptop, but all that accomplished was slowing them down. They had Maya, they didn't need the laptop. If she hadn't memorized the code behind your modified cure then you'd eat shit. It didn't matter your power was needed to make it. There's always another way. And if they had more tech like that ring then they'd make one.
"We need to get you out of here." Tony said, snapping you out of your reverie. "We can get to Banner before Killian makes his move-"
"I can't stop Tony."
"Jack, you skin is on fire."
"I'm stable." Your temperature was ticking down. You don't know how long it would take, but after everything you had almost burnt Extremis out of you entirely. The nanites you had would keep you alive until then. There were also two different serums burning a whole in your pocket. Either one could fix your problem right now, but they would take you out of commission for hours. "I can finish this. I have to finish this."
"Then finish it with me." Tony asked. "We can take Killian down and go after this guy together. Splitting the team now is a bad idea."
"The team is already split Tony." You said. "Rhodey is somewhere in Afghanistan, Bruce is back at the lab with Skye and we're out here. Call in everyone else you can but I need to go after Maya. They were going to kill her already and Killian will take days to chase down. She doesn't have that kind of time."
Tony shook his head. You knew he would offer to come along if he could but it wasn't an option. Jackson and his master were a threat to you. If Killian wasn't dealt with soon he'd be a threat to everyone.
"Killian's plans were always about you Tony. Your contribution to Extremis, the fake Mandarin, it was always to draw you out. It seems only fair that you're the one to tear it all down."
"A fake Mandarin?" Tony said.
You shrugged. "That piece of shit Jackson said it, so who knows if its true. But he's in the compound apparently, assuming he hasn't been evacuated already."
"And you believe that?"
"He was very convincing." The memory of the fanaticism in Jackson's eyes still made you shudder.
"Where did he find that out?"
"From SHIELD I assume. Jackson and Killian knew my name, I don't know where else they both could've gotten that from."
"SHIELD doesn't know who the Mandarin is."
"What?"
"Jack, I spent years hunting the Ten Rings. I'm the reason they're still hiding in their caves after I haven't gone after one of their bases in almost two years. If SHIELD had any evidence on the leader of the Ten Rings, I would know." Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That there's a leak in SHIELD doesn't surprise me, but the real Mandarin? He's fucking with you."
"And what if he isn't?" Jackson was loyal to someone. And fanatics like that love explaining why their cult leader is the best cult leader.
"Then… I don't know. It took me a year to find out the Mandarin existed. Apparently, he's a warrior-king that has led the Ten Rings for generations."
"And also a collector of alien artifacts."
"Right. But I know nothing about him. Even the grunts in the Ten Rings were fanatically loyal. And anyone I found higher up the chain kept ending up dead, most of the time they did it to themselves. They're not a joke Jack, you don't want to mess with these people."
You didn't have a choice Tony, but you appreciated the warning all the same.
You ran your hand through your hair and tried to ignore the ash that clung to your hand afterwards. "Look Tony, we're going around in circles. How about you go meet this fake Mandarin yourself. You can grab anything in the databases here about Extremis on the way. This was a central database, assuming they haven't purged it already."
Tony nodded. "Alright." He rubbed his hands together. "Maybe I can find those nanite designs you mentioned. Oh, I've got so many ideas."
"Me too. We can compare notes after." Meanwhile, you could get to work on giving that helicopter some upgrades. Wherever Jackson ended up, you doubted it was on this continent.
After Tony left you cracked your knuckles. Time to get to work.
2 Hour until misfire. ERROR: CONSULT WITH YOUR LOCAL MAD SCIENTIST FOR ASSESSMENT
You ended up clearing out the Chitauri room.
Exhausted, you sat back and slid down the wall, staring up at the results of your work.
You'd taken the helicopter frame, stripped it down, and replaced the insides with whatever Chitauri tech you could cram into it. The ship was fast, silent and shielded. Whatever you could fit on rounding out the rest of the space, with a big plasma core to power the whole thing.
It was faster than any commercial aircraft you'd ever been on. Though the damn thing would fall apart if you got too far away from it. You'd just have to keep that in mind. Anyway, it would do for now.
Tony had come back from talking with the so-called fake Mandarin a few minutes ago. A very interesting guy. Not the real Mandarin through, so at least Jackson was telling the truth there. He gave Tony a new lead on Killian, so as soon as JARVIS finished, Tony would be heading off to hopefully deal with Killian once and for all.
"You know Skye has been asking if you're okay." Tony said, coming up next to you. "You want me to put her through?"
You shook your head. "I'll call her on the ship."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Bullshit. You're avoiding her."
You looked away.
Tony grabbed your shoulders and forced you to face him. You had cooled down enough that touching you didn't set his armour on fire. "Listen Jack, you're an adult and can make your decisions but are you fucking stupid? That girl is one of the most loyal people I've ever seen. She's spent the past few days running on nothing but coffee, two-hour naps and the hope that you're still alive. I don't know what trust issues you have but she's proven herself a thousand times over."
"I know that." You whispered.
"Then talk to her."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because the only thing that kept me going through most of this was the thought of keeping her safe! They threatened to torture her if I stepped out of line. And I know its fake now but..." You looked at the ground. "It's… I know that she's okay, but if I hear that directly from her then… I dunno, I'll be able to stop, and I can't."
"You're an idiot."
Your temperature spiked. "Yes, I fucking know that Tony. But I killed people today. I didn't have to do it for Skye but I would've been willing to. If I see that she's okay I'll stop. I'll think about what I've done. I can't afford that. Maya can't afford that."
Tony raised his hands. "Fine Jack, I get it. I still think you're an idiot but I get it." He tapped his chin with his finger. "You know she's going to slap you the next time she sees you right?"
A smile broke across your face. "No, she'll punch me in the face. Repeatedly."
After a few seconds of silence, you both broke down into much needed laughter. If yours had a slightly more hysterical edge? Well Tony wasn't likely to tell.
"Sir, I have located a signal."
You froze as the helmet snapped back over Tony's head. "Well don't leave us in suspense J."
"The signature's endpoint is in Inner Mongolia, China."
The other side of the world, fantastic. But now you had a location. The mask of Traveller regrew on your face. "Pass that signal onto my ship."
"Already have." Tony gave you one last look of concern. "I'll see if I can get Rhodey to meet you halfway."
You shook your head. "No. You're going to need him more then I will." Besides, if you were caught that was one thing, but Rhdoey was a whole other story. You needed to get in, find Maya and get out, like you should've done here. "I'll be fine. Good hunting Tony."
"You too Jack."
You gave Tony one last pat on the shoulder and moved towards your ship, the side door opening as you got closer. Its existence was so intertwined with yours that your range limits didn't apply. Taking a seat in the cockpit, you went through the pre-flight check list. "Okay, everything looks green." With a thought the ship came to life around you.
You grabbed hold of the joysticks. You didn't know how to fly but your power let you skip a lot of steps. You hoped it would let you skip a couple more.
As you rose higher in the air, you saw Tony wave.
You waved back. And then you were gone.
Giving the systems one last check and seeing no problems, you activated the autopilot. Standing up, you stretched and left the cockpit, heading back into the body of the ship. It was even more cramped then the original, considering you'd added a medical bed. But you still had enough room for this. With a wave of your hand a small table grew out of the floor.
Silently, you put both of your serums down onto the table. A single injector layer between them.
You weren't sure you could beat Jackson as you are. But his mysterious Master, the real Mandarin? If he had anymore rings then like the one he gave Jackson then not a chance. Each of these serums would make you stronger, in their own way.
And to rescue Maya, you needed that strength. The flight would take hours, long enough to acclimate to whatever choice you made would do to you.
Time to decide. But whatever you chose, you had to save Maya.
That's all that mattered.
What do you take?
[] Perfected Extremis Serum: Better the devil you know. This serum comes from Killian's vision, you'll make it your own. Take this tainted legacy, and use it to do some good for a change. Prove to Maya that she wasn't wrong to save you. Become A Fully Realized Extremis User. Fire is your core. Expunge the nanites and reforge them into an upgraded Extremis variant of your original armour.
This option has the following effects:
+Upgrades Extremis Influence [Basic] to [Advanced], increasing the effectiveness of fire-based tech by 300% [This influence can merge with some other influences]
+Upgrade all passive effects of Extremis and gain Extremis Body perk.
-Retain vulnerability to [Cold] Attacks.
-No nanites (temporary)
[] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
This option has the following effects:
+Adds ???? Influence: Increases effectiveness of All Alien Tech by 50%. [This influence can be upgraded and merged with other influences]
+Nanite armour set and attached equipment don't add to equipment total
+Gain Upgradable perk Body of the Shaper.
-Removes Extremis Influence
-Lose all benefits of Extremis, barring Regeneration (can be regained later – part of Body of the Shaper).
[] Neither: Power has a price. Not one you're so readily to pay. "I'm sorry Maya, I'll have to be enough." While the serum's may be too valuable to destroy, but you can still take the nanites inside. Finish supressing Extremis. Reject your powers advances. Your will is your own. Reject Everything. Return to what you were. In a combination of the old and the new, reforge your old armour – upgraded – but still what you were.
This option has the following effects:
+Gain 25,000 Nanites to use
+Gain Forged by the Crucible Perk
-Lose Extremis Influence and all passive benefits
Well, it took a while, but here it is – the longest chapter I've ever written. I hope you all enjoy it. Now, as for your choices…
This is a big choice. This is the equivalent your prestige class you get before the final boss battle. It will have implications beyond this arc, but in the immediate term It will affect choices, dialogue, responses and motivations for what is soon to come. Yours and others.
You get this now because without it, you would lose.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Choose wisely.
2 Hour Moratorium.
Your fist broke through the glass of the chamber. The mask of the Traveller reflecting off the shattered pieces.
The lab was a wreck. Your laptop was gone. All the equipment destroyed, and most importantly, there was no Maya. Only a dead security guard with a broken neck stuffed into the closet.
Someone else had gotten here first.
You pulled the Extremis vial out from its pedestal. The chambers holding the modified samples were the only parts of the lab not ransacked. You couldn't help but wonder if that was intentional. Along with this.
The vial in your hand bubbled. The gold liquid inside shone while green strands floated freely, pulsing in tune with your heartbeat. You didn't know what the fuck the thing you were holding was, but it wasn't Extremis anymore. It felt… alien, and you didn't mean Chitauri. New alien, old and powerful, something you hadn't encountered before. Whatever it was, your power wanted it.
You put it away, along with the Extremis vial you'd stuffed with Extra nanites. You didn't care what your power wanted. It didn't control you. You had at least another day until Extremis went too hot. You'd deal with it then. There were more important things – Traveller things – that needed doing.
First you needed to find Maya.
And you knew exactly where to start.
The camera ripped itself out of the wall and floated into your hands.
Your irises burnt gold as you saw past the lens into the room from where the connection originated. Parts floated out from broken machines and re-joined, combining into three new machines. Beams of light shined above you, streaming the camera feed into a reconstructed hologram. The recording played back, minutes ticking by over a couple of seconds until two familiar faces showed. Maya… and Jackson.
You played it.
There was no sound, but as Jackson pistol-whipped Maya the crack played across your mind anyway as she crumpled like a marionette without strings. It took all your willpower to not sprint after them right away, but you couldn't. Not until you'd checked to ensure he hadn't done anything else.
Jackson spent the next few minutes destroying the rest of the room. After he finished, he threw Maya over his shoulder and picked the laptop of your desk.
"Jackson." You clenched your fists and the hologram broke. "JACKSON!" Your voice spread beyond these walls, echoing through every device with a speaker in the entire compound. He'd taken Maya. You warned him and he'd done it anyway. You needed to find him, quickly. You had a promise to keep. But you couldn't flail blindly. With a breath you pushed away the anger. It wasn't gone, not even close, but you could put it into that little box that you had put everything else into. You could unpack it later. Later. Now, you had a job to do.
There were too many ways Jackson could leave the compound from here. You had to narrow the field. Good thing you had the perfect tool to do so in your hands. The broken device in your grip steamed as you poured power into it. Images appeared in your mind's eye, snapshots of rooms and hallways. You cycled through, the picture you had of the compound was nowhere near as good as yesterday. Cameras were offline. Entire sections of the building dark, not only in the area that you'd come from to get here. Jackson had been busy.
One more strike against him. You should have knocked him out. Or killed him. It would have been so easy. One slash and it would've been over, exactly like the courtyard.
You clutched your head with your free hand, trying to squeeze the thoughts away. But all you could feel was the weight of the mask.
The mask of the Traveller.
The mask of a hero.
You were a hero, and heroes saved people. You pushed your doubts into the box, it was starting to get cluttered in there. You could do this.
You needed to keep going.
More hallways and rooms flickered by. Empty. Empty. Single guard. Empty- wait no, There! On a camera in the courtyard, you saw short hair and a pressed dress shirt. Jackson. And there, slung over his shoulder, unconscious, was Maya. He stood among the burnt remains of vegetation and other things, seemingly without a care in the world.
Before you knew it, you were already moving and the broken lab gave way to new halls. You'd been stealthy, coming here, avoiding cameras and patrols. You skipped that now. There was nobody left to stop you. And if there was, you take them down.
You were running the straightest path you could towards the courtyard. If you didn't have to stop, you'd get there in five minutes.
You couldn't wait.
24.6 Hours until misfire
Jackson had more than one helicopter.
In the time it had taken you to get to the courtyard, three helicopters had come over the horizon. One already on the ground while the other two circled overhead. All for little old you.
You suppose you should be flattered, but you'd rather blow them out of the sky.
Someone from inside the helicopter pulled the door open and jumped out. Stepping aside, he saluted Jackson with his rifle and gestured towards the open door. Either telling Jackson to get inside or to dump Maya. Not going to happen.
Heat flushed against your skin as your armour adjusted and settled. Time to move.
As you moved across ground that used to be green, the cannon on your shoulder uncurled and energy began to emit from the barrel.
As you crept closer, the one that came out from the helicopter pointed his rifle and moved to intercept.
That was all the cause you needed.
With a twitch of your finger's, a fiery beam of plasma shot from your shoulders at the rifle before he could raise it. The cannon's blast strength was the lowest you could make them. Any less and the blasts would fizzle out inside the barrel. That didn't mean much for something you designed to pierce through armoured vehicles. The beam obliterated the rifle and then kept on going. Through the rifleman's stomach, past the helicopter and dissipating after wrecking a pillar on the other side of the courtyard.
"Ah, Traveller." Jackson said. He adjusted his footing so he was facing you. He looked the same as he did this morning. The only difference was a laptop bag slung over his shoulder. "Not another step. Or do you prefer Jack? You have so many names, it's hard to keep track."
"Jackson." The fact that he knew your name was only another thing you couldn't afford to focus on right now. There was something different about him. You were close enough to sense him but you couldn't. You needed to figure out why. "I've been looking for you."
He slightly inclined his head. "So you have." He glanced at the twitching body a few metres away. "More… ruthless then what I expected from you." He didn't even try to hide to hint of approval that crept into his voice.
You resisted the urge to kill him where he stood. Unlike before, Jackson, the helicopter and you were almost in a straight line. If you fired at Jackson, the beam would go through the helicopter. The resulting explosion would kill Maya along with him. No, if you wanted to get Maya out of his hands, you needed to get closer.
"I'll try not to throw up." You glanced Maya, still slung over Jackson's shoulder like a bag of potatoes. "Maya, are you alright?" At her lack of response, you took a step forward. She was still unconscious. How long had it been now, twenty minutes? Fuck that wasn't good. You needed to get her to a hospital.
Jackson unholstered a pistol and pressed it flush against Maya's head. "Stay where you are."
"You pull that trigger, and it'll take you days to die."
Jackson hummed. "You know what, I believe you. There's only one problem with that…" He clicked the safety off. "What do you do when your threats have no effect?"
Run, or figure out another way to stall. In this case the latter, so keep him talking.
"I'm not sure, but since you seem to be the general expert on murder and mayhem why don't you tell me?"
He laughed. "Well, you escalate of course." He gestured at the burnt out remains of what used to be a garden. "Exactly like you've already done."
You were starting to get a picture. Not a good one, Jackson was fuzzy, like looking through an opaque window through a mirror's side view. A reflection of a reflection. You needed more time.
"Is this the part where you say we're not so different, you and I? Because if you're trying to get into my head, can you try something that isn't a cliché?"
"Are we that different? We're both killers-" Despite yourself, you flinched. "-you're quite an excellent one, in fact. The proof is all around us," he kicked a blackened arm. "I didn't kill these people." He looked around speculatively. "How many deaths are you responsible for? Ten, twenty? There's so many body parts missing it's hard to tell."
You glanced at the arm and swallowed the nausea building in your throat. "This was different. I gave them every chance to surrender, but they wouldn't take it. I only killed them when I exhausted all the other options I had. I saw the recording of you in the lab, that guard, you had him at your mercy. You could've knocked him out, but you killed him, because it was expedient."
"You can try and justify it to yourself all you want Traveller," Jackson said. "But it doesn't change what you are, or what you're turning into."
"You're right," you admitted, ignoring the last thing he said. You didn't care what the crazy cultist meant. "But the difference between us is that I wasn't a killer until today Jackson. And you know what, when this is all over, I'm probably going to curl into a ball somewhere and cry while hating myself. But you… I think you're going to sleep like a baby tonight." Not that he was getting out of here alive, but telling him that would be a spoiler. "And the only thought you'll have on the people you killed is to congratulate yourself on a job well done."
The picture was getting better. Whatever was blocking you wasn't doing it actively, a couple more minutes and you should be able to pierce through the veil enough to shut it down. You had to stall him for a bit longer and then you could shock him with whatever phone or radio he was undoubtedly carrying.
Then Jackson stopped making sense.
"That was a good speech Traveller, it almost makes you sound almost human. But when your body count is in the billions, your condemnations lose all meaning."
"What?" No, seriously. What? Billions? He's off by about eight digits, seven if you count the Chitauri husks that weren't really alive.
"You can lie to yourself all you want Shaper." He said that name like its supposed to mean something to you. "But my master knows what you are and what you'll do if you're left alive."
"So that was your end goal? To kill me?" You asked. "Then why go through that whole song and dance in my cell?"
"It was a test, to see if any fragment of your humanity remained." Somehow, the bastard sounded sad. But if Jackson thought that you'd follow him after he admitted he wasn't a SHIELD agent then you had a lovely timeshare opportunity in Antarctica you'd like to sell him. "If you had come genuinely then my Master would have done everything in his power to help you. But now that you have shown your true colours, my Master will enjoy ending the threat you pose himself."
"Oh? Is he one of those 'fine, I'll do it myself' kind of people?" You loved those guys, they never expected you to run away.
Jackson laughed. "My Master is our General, he understands the concept of delegation."
Oh great, a pragmatic villain. That's exactly what you needed.
"Speaking off which…" Jackson adjusted the arm holding Maya so it was up against his mouth. You raised your hand to cut off the signal but the interference was still up. Shit! "Target acquired, fire when ready." He raised his eyebrow at you. "What? Did you think you were the only one stalling?"
A golden dome flickered into existence around you. "You motherfucker-" was all you had time to say before the first high-calibre round impacted against your shield. Soon, a thick cloud of dust surrounded you as waves of high-calibre bullets broke against your shield. Through the constant explosions you faintly heard a door slamming shut and helicopter blades winding up.
You looked up at the sky at the two separate helicopters currently unloading their entire stock of bullets at you. You sighed as a spiderweb of cracks begun to spread from multiple impact points along the top of the dome. "So, I guess we're doing this now."
You staggered as a particularly large calibre bullet broke against your shield. Oh good, they have anti-tank rifles up there.
From your chest, wisps of energy rolled of in physical waves as you cycled damaged shield emitters for fresh ones. With a twitch of your fingers, both cannons unfurled and highlighted a different target on your display. More cracks spread along the top of the dome and you pushed more power in to seal them back up. As tempting as it was to pull off the same move you did… wow, less than an hour ago, you couldn't. These bullets weren't small arms, it was closer to artillery fire. You weren't sure if your old armour could hold up against stuff this heavy. This collection of mismatched – very lethal admittedly – but still mismatched gear? Not a chance. If one of those bullets got through the shield then you'd end up as swiss cheese at best, a bloody paste at worst. You didn't feel like testing out exactly how good Extremis regeneration was. You'd save that for Savin if you ever got your hands on him.
The safest option was to wait for them to run out of bullets, but who knew how long that could take? And if you did that then there was a good chance of Jackson getting far enough away that you couldn't track him.
No, you needed to think this through. How were they tracking you? If they came ready to take on a bunch of Extremis users then probably some form of thermal. You knew from experience how easy that made it to pick an Extremis signature out of the crowd. But after all the bullets they'd sent down here the entire area would be lit up like fireworks. Most likely they were shooting at your last known location. If that was the case, then all you needed to do was break away and shoot them before their radar could readjust. But you were screwed if they had any other kind of targeting software. Which was very likely, so you shouldn't do that.
You could compress your shield, overlay the emitters. You'd lose some efficiency, but not enough to matter. The problem with that was the compressed shielding would be about ten centimetres off your skin. And since your design didn't include a kinetic absorber you would feel the impact of every fucking bullet. But it would buy enough time for you to fly up to Jackson's helicopter.
Maybe there was a better you could do this, but you couldn't think of any. And since Jackson was getting away with Maya, serviceable would have to be good enough.
This was going to hurt.
At least they would hesitate to fire on their own ship, right?
From one moment to the next, a pale golden dome flickered out of existence and a solid golden shroud replaced it.
It was only when your shield projected that you noticed something was different. There had been a distinct lack of bullet impacts over the last few seconds. They weren't shooting at you anymore. Why weren't they shooting at you? Looking at the sky, you saw both helicopters turning and firing off into the distance.
What were they firing at?
It didn't take long to find out at what as a couple of seconds later, something red and gold burst through the clouds. Swerving away from a hail of bullets, you watched the Iron Man suit bank hard and head straight for one of the two helicopters.
Tony.
How is he here? It should've taken him hours to fly here from his house, assuming he got your message straight away. But it had only been twenty minutes. You shook your head. Never mind, you'll find out later. Right now, you shouldn't waste the opportunity he'd just given you.
The cannons were already charged, you just needed to acquire targets. "Target bogies one and two." Extra arms dug into the ground for stability. "Notify when ready." A few seconds later, your display flashed green.
The shield flickered away. You didn't want to break it this close to your skin, the impact might kill you and you don't feel like testing. "Fire!"
Twin beams of ruinous energy pierced the sky. You grunted as pressure dug into your shoulders. The resulting recoil almost enough to fracture your shoulders. If not for the extra arms plunged into the ground for stability the kick most likely would have. As it was you were still going to have a wicked bruise. Tendrils of Extremis spread from your chest to your shoulders in a stream of smoothing heat.
… or not.
You felt a spark of glee as the first beam raked through the side of the helicopter and one of the rotor blades. The resulting explosion gave you a warm fuzzy feeling inside. That'll teach them for shooting at you. Unfortunately, the second blast missed. The bolt continuing into the atmosphere as the other helicopter swerved out of the way just in time. But since that was the one Tony was currently on a beeline for, you weren't that concerned.
No, your concern was currently on the third helicopter gaining altitude. You needed to warm Tony so he wouldn't blow it up like the one he was about to any second now.
Your senses pinged back at you. That guard had a phone. With a gesture, a small rectangular object ripped out from under the guards Kevlar vest and flew straight towards you. As it got closer the phone began to separate, breaking down to its component parts. It was those parts that sunk into your mask and reassembled into a much more efficient shape. After waiting a few seconds to integrate, a little phone icon appeared in the corner of your display. Along with a network connection.
You made the call.
"Hello?"
You laughed in relief. "Took you long enough Tony. I thought I was going to have all the fun."
"Jack?" Tony said. "Was that you? You've been holding out on me. Where are you? What happened?"
There were so many things you wanted to say, the top three all involved Skye in some way, but you had a promise to keep first. "Yes. I'm just below and It's a long story, I'll tell you after." You said, answering each of his questions in turn. "Listen, that chopper going up has a friend of mine on it. Can you keep the other one off my back?"
Tony laughed. "Who do you take me for? I've got this."
"Thanks Tones." Your shield flickered back to life around you as the wake of your ascent left behind a dust cloud. The rocket boots were fast, trading away the control your other methods gave you for pure speed. You couldn't keep them active for long, but damn they let you move while you could bear the cost. You hadn't felt any give from Extremis so far, but who knew how long it could sustain your powers before running dry.
As you travelled in a couple of seconds what took a helicopter a couple of minutes, you hoped Jackson was cursing, or praying for his master's favour. Not that you could hear it, on account of your rocket boots. But the thought of him doing so made you smile.
Tony was as good as his word. You took no fire for the brief time you were in the open.
Armoured boots touched down on landing skids while extra arms gripped the sides of the helicopter for extra stability. The shield flickered off, you couldn't keep it active in such a tight space. This close you could disable the engine, but you'd save that for when you got Maya out. You tugged on the door and it stayed shut. Locked from the other side. Guess you needed to make your own entrance.
Claws lashed out, leaving deep gorges in metal and plastic, shredding apart the lock. Before you could pull the door open, a thought occurred. Jackson had a gun. One of your extra arms shrunk down and reassembled as overlaid strips of metal on the front exposed parts of your arms, torso and legs. There, that'll do. It wasn't perfect protection, but it should be enough to stop a bullet.
A gust of pressured air buffeted against you as you pulled the door open. There was also a couple of bullets, but who cared about that?" Spoiler: you cared. You cared a lot.
You pulled yourself inside.
You had never been inside a military helicopter before, but you hadn't expected to be so cramped. Between the armour plating, sensors and boxes of medical supplies there was almost no free space left on the sides. An extra thick door blocked the cockpit. What little floor space was bare apart from the seats bolted in to both sides. On the right seat was Maya, shackled, kept in place by a seatbelt and some extra harnesses. A strip of tape covered her mouth. And to the left, standing with a gun pointed at you was…
"Jackson!" You backhanded the well-dressed cultist as hard as you could. "Oh no, don't get up on my account." You kicked him to make sure he would stay down. Then you did it again, just for the satisfaction.
Seeing that the kidnapping piece of shit was down for the moment, you moved to free Maya from her restraints. Though you took the time to grab the laptop bag away from Jackson. A quick touch confirmed it was the same laptop from the lab. Using your claw to cut through the layers of straps, you positioned yourself so your back wasn't to him.
There was a clean bandage around Maya's head since you saw her last a few minutes ago. But there was a distinct lack of awareness in her gaze. Did she have a concussion? You needed to get her to a hospital. Claws retracting, you gently ripped the tape covering her mouth off. Blinking, she gave you this look like she wasn't sure if you were even here. "T-Traveller? Y-You came."
Underneath the mask, you smiled. "Of course. I promised, didn't I?" God that was corny as fuck, but that was what heroes did.
They saved people.
Her gaze looked past you. "Behind you!"
Adjusting you footing, you looked back and saw Jackson pushing himself to his feet. Blood dribbled down his chin but he looked no worse for wear otherwise. Oh, for fucks sake! You hit him hard enough that he should have brain damage, not getting up and walking it off less than a minute later. Did everyone have superhuman durability now? You swear, if Jackson was somehow an Extremis user then you were going to freak the fuck out.
"Jackson, I thought I told you not to get up." You made your way towards him and unsheathed the claws. "You cannot run away from this Shaper. He will come for you."
Something was still blocking you, but it had weakened enough for you to sense to phone, radio and detonator Jackson still had on him. Feeling vindictive, you modified the first two to shock Jackson when the received a signal from the detonator. At the same time, you severed the original connection between the detonator and whatever its payload was. You weren't going to fuck with something that controlled explosives. "You know Jackson, you keep saying Shaper like its supposed to mean something to me."
"You have a choice to make," Jackson continued, not looking at you. Instead he drew a series of interlocking circles with his finger over and over again. "To see if whether your humanity can be saved."
You blinked. "Okay I'll bite. What the fuck are you talking about?" You doubted anything that came out of Jackson's mouth would make sense now, but you could figure it later.
"Jack Dreyer can still be saved, if you let yourself die." Jackson spoke with the certainty of someone coming off a religious experience. It creeped you out a little bit to be honest. "You must decide. You can accept what has been done to you, or let your precursors curse you with their false cure."
"Enough." You holstered Jackson up by the collar. You were sick of all this preaching. You'd make sure to knock him out properly this time. Then after you'd gotten Maya to a hospital, you could pump him for information on this master of his.
He gripped your arm, it was damn cold. It was the first time you'd felt coldness in two days. You shook it off and tightened your own grip.
Jackson choked out mist. Your senses screamed in warning as the thing blocking you revealed itself.
All technology had a presence.
Normally this presence was nothing. A faint impression of its origins, just enough for you to know if the tech was of this world or not. In some cases, you got a little more. When the tech was something of significance. Not to you, but significant to someone. Like the impression of pride you got from Tony's suits. Or from those Tinkerer guns you'd destroyed for spare parts, to a lesser extent. Anyway, the stronger the presence, the harder it was for you to influence the tech. The Arc Reactor stuffed in Tony's chest was the only thing you'd encountered that resisted your powers. As far as your power was concerned, the Arc Reactor was Tony. The only thing you couldn't influence.
Until now.
That ring on his finger, it was alien. It was cold, it was harsh, but there was something more than that. When you stared at that ring, the presence inside stared back. Spikes of ice crawled up your arms and you pushed Jackson back before it spread further. There was something inside that ring, something that could think.
Ice evaporated off your arms as you stepped towards Jackson. You couldn't play around, if that ice spread to the engines the helicopter would fall out of the sky.
Rolling onto all fours, Jackson slammed his hand on the ground and more spikes of ice erupted. You grabbed Maya and dodged, the spike impaled the seat Maya used to occupy a second after. Well, it seemed killing you was a higher priority then taking Maya alive.
Jackson breathed out more mist and sheets of dense hoarfrost spread from his feet. A couple of minutes and the entire aircraft would turn into an ice sculpture.
Or he could just be pissed off.
"You cannot stop us Shaper," Jackson said. "My Master has blessed me with his powers for this sacred mission." The gem within the ring reflected off the spreading ice.
You ignored him. Okay, new plan. The source of that ice was the ring on Jackson's hand. You cut it off and boom, no more ice. Then you can get Maya out of here. But you had to be quick, your limbs were getting heavier. You didn't want to test just how well Extremis reacted to a hyper-advanced alien intellect flash ice.
You pulled the remaining extra limb from outside and broke it down. Converting it into overlays for the overlays. Not as armour however, this time you went for something more aggressive. If Extremis couldn't handle the cold, you needed to turn up the heat.
All the while, the ice thickened.
"Whatever happens, you stay behind me alright?" You waited long enough to see Maya's nod before you ran forward.
You don't remember the exact temperature required to melt ice, though you knew it was low. But as the ice you stepped over remained solid despite your Extremis boosted temperature, you knew this ice was anything but normal. That was okay, neither was your fire.
"A question Jackson, what happens when superheated fire comes into contact with ice?" Embers erupted from the overlays you had constructed until an aura of fire surrounded you. As far as modifying your tech goes, turning an advanced omni configurable arm into a glorified mobile heater was probably committing a sin to professional engineers everywhere. You knew Tony at least would roll his eyes, before he made smores off them to fuck with you.
Jackson didn't answer. So, you answered for him by pouring more power into your armour. In no time at all, the first layer of frost had melted into several puddles of water. No, not good enough. Your temperature climbed further and what pools there were evaporated into hissing clouds of steam. You wanted this side of the ship to be hot, sticky and the difficult to breathe in. It would slow Jackson down, and because Extremis you would remain largely unaffected.
Jackson's hand clawed through the air and more ice sprung from the walls to replace what was lost.
Again, ice became steam… until it was replaced with newer, thicker ice. Soon, your vision was nothing but mist as ice shifted into steam and then back again. The cycle going on and on as Jackson drew more power from the ring.
You took another step the side and swung, breaking through another layer of rapidly melting frost. Thanks to that ring on Jackson's hand, you knew exactly where he was.
You heard a faint cracking and ducked just in time to avoid a massive spike coming from the side. Oh good, there was the wall. In line with it you could sense the ring another couple of steps ahead.
You made a guess of the distance and punched through the wall. And the one behind it. You grunted in annoyance as chunks of ice broke away, revealing your fist imbedded into the wall. That punch should have taken Jackson's head clean from his shoulders. As it was, you barely missed. No matter, a few more seconds for the ice to melt and you could do it again-
A great tremor shook the aircraft and you stumbled. Ah, there goes the engines.
Before you could recover, a hand grabbed your arm and froze it. Jackson didn't waste time gloating, instead he breathed mist and frost covered your mask. You burned away the first layer, but a second and third layer had already replaced it. Enough to snuff out the fire fuelling your armour. And then Jackson kept on going, layers upon layers of ice, each colder then the last. You couldn't see Jackson anymore. You couldn't see anything except frost.
He was trying to freeze you solid!
You could feel the fire rising within you, trying to purge away the cold but it wasn't working. With ordinary ice it would be more then enough, but as you'd discovered before this wasn't ordinary ice. With this much you needed to reach a temperature in the high hundreds, if not thousands. And only someone in Stage 2 could do that.
Your temperature spiked for a moment as your nanites contained another heat surge. Ever since this morning the surges had started happening so often that you had learned to tune them out. But with how cold everything was you could feel every minuscule change in temperature.
If only you could move your arm! You could inject the modified Extremis sample tucked away inside your suit. The resulting temperature spike would be more then enough to melt the ice away. Hell, even an uncontrolled heat surge would be enough, theoretically. Ohhh you just got an idea.
No, no. There's got to be a better way. If you let the heat surge pass through and didn't suppress it in time then you'd end up just like Taggart. There were a lot easier ways to kill yourself. But what else could you do? You had a minute, maybe two before the ice completely suppressed Extremis. And then you were dead, period. There was no time to think of something better.
This was really going to hurt.
At once, you connected to every nanite and switched them off. Now, you just had to wait. It didn't take long; the next surge came within a few seconds. Heat spread from you core. Small, but growing rapidly, becoming a raging inferno. With nothing else for your nanites to do, you set them to track your bodies internal temperature. By the time you had done so, you had already passed a two hundred degrees Celsius with change in the ice.
Five hundred.
Strength flowed back into your limbs.
Six hundred.
You could feel the ice starting to melt.
Eight hundred.
You could wiggle your finger.
One thousand.
You buckled and struggled as cracks spread.
One thousand two hundred.
You tasted water on your lips before it evaporated into steam.
One thousand five hundred.
Bare feet touched metal and you reactivated all your nanites.
Your skin seared and cracked. One thousand six hundred. Six thousand nanites wasn't enough. Your cannons sunk underneath your shoulders and disassembled for a new purpose.
But still your temperature climbed.
More of your equipment receded underneath your skin. Your gloves. The shield vest. Everything. One by one, until the only the mask remained.
Your body screamed in agony as your temperature stabilized. It was the first time you'd been injected with Extremis all over again. Except now you didn't have the luxury of falling unconscious to escape the pain.
At some point – it could have been hours for all you knew, but most likely it was only a couple of seconds – the helicopter stopped spinning and the steam cleared.
Jackson had snuck over to the other side of the ship, and had an arm wrapped around Maya's throat.
You tasted sparks in the back of your own.
"Maya, are you alright?" At her nod you focused back on Jackson. He didn't look so good. Blue veins stood out against pale skin ae held up his hand. There were random shards of ice burrowed under his skin. Concentrated around his ring arm and going all the way back up to his shoulder. And yet the ring itself was untouched. With all your nanites internal you couldn't sense the presence anymore but you knew it was there. Watching. And it seemed there was a price for its power. Jackson was paying it, just as you were.
"Jackson, you look cold." Oh wow, you voice came out smooth. So, this is what it was like to be so pissed that you circled back around. "You could use some warming up. How about you let Maya go and I'll give you a nice friendly hug." And by friendly, you meant incinerating.
Jackson coughed out shards of ice. "I get the feeling that isn't going to end well for me. So, here's my counteroffer-" Jackson grunted as the ice spread a little further, hints of jagged ice now poking out from under his shirt. "-You jump off the edge, or I blow us all to hell." His ice-covered hand fished the detonator from out of his pocket.
Oh, this was perfect. "Maya, do you still trust me?" You wouldn't blame her if she didn't. You had fucked up already by letting things get this far. But you were going to make up for that, right now.
She lightly inclined her head. The best that she could do considering how tight of a grip Jackson had around her.
The mask sunk underneath your skin. "Then close your eyes, and this will all be over soon."
Jackson's grip on the detonator tightened. There was fear in his eyes, not at you, but at failing his precious master. Either way, it made you smile.
"I'm not bluffing."
You spat to the side. Smoke rose off burning metal. "Neither am I." No more stalling. No more games. Jackson Norriss died, right now.
His finger started to press down.
You pushed your legs forward.
Maya closed her eyes.
Jackson's muscles spasmed as electricity jolted from his watch and phone.
"Now fucking die already!" It was an easy hit. The electricity ruining his nerves locked him in place and shot his reflexes. Your punch went clean through his head.
Except his head wasn't there anymore.
Before your punch could connect, a white aura spread from the ring, covering Jackson and Maya. It let out a brief flash and instead of punching through Jackson's skull, your fist ended up embedded in the wall… again.
What the fuck. No, seriously, what the fuck! Where the fuck did they go? Where's Maya? "Maya!" No. no, no. Where did they go? You couldn't sense the ring. You couldn't sense anything. Your skin cracked further as the mask pushed back out over your face.
"Tony! Get this helicopter onto the ground, now!"
A fucking teleporter. On top of everything else, that ring came with a fucking teleporter.
You sat outside on a nice rock with nothing flammable around you, watching Tony give the parked helicopter a once over with his scanners. It took some harsh words that may have involved you threatening to tear the pilots heart out and feeding it to him, but you convinced him to land the helicopter, cuff himself and sit in a closet somewhere to think about what he'd done.
That you were slowly warping the helicopter apart from the inside may also have been a factor. But you'd rather chalk it up to your fiery personality.
"So, you get kidnapped, injected with a knock-off super-soldier serum, fix it, armour yourself by stealing your kidnappers shit and blowing it all to hell on your way out." The faceplate lifted and Tony gave you a cocky grin. "You trying to copy me?"
You smiled and tried to ignore the way your skin pulled. "It's good to see you too Tony."
"Nice to see you alive Jack." Tony looked around at the remains of the courtyard. "Hell of a couple of days huh?"
"You don't know the half of it." Extremis. Project Ascendency. Jackson and that ring. There was a lot of blood to go around, you were the cause of most of it. You needed to make it worth it. "Did you pick up anything?"
"The energy signal in there is off the charts. Whatever made it is powerful. You sure its alien?" You nodded and he hummed. "Well, it's not Chitauri tech, or based off the Tesseract so it can't be traced the way they can."
"So, you can't track it?" This couldn't all be for nothing.
Tony gave you a look that screamed who do you take me for. "Of course I can track it. The signature is powerful, but its also unique. I've sent the results to JARVIS and he'll run it through Stark Industries satellites. It may take a few hours, but if they're anyone on the planet then I'll find them."
You let out a long breath. "Thank you, Tony."
"Don't thank me yet. If this is anywhere near as powerful as the Tesseract then they could be anywhere in the world by now."
"It's a start. I won't stop until Maya's safe."
Tony held up his hand. "Hold on. I'm missing some context here, how about you clue me in? Starting with why you look like you're about to die. I've got a fire-suppressor in the suit. I can douse you if you need it."
"That would probably kill me." The laptop was gone, but you remembered enough of the information on it to know that would be a spectacularly bad idea. "But you're right. I'll fill in the blanks the best I can. It all started after I told Happy to get away from Savin – Killian's delivery boy. There was another Extremis subject there, an unstable one named Taggart…"
So you told Tony everything you could remember. Thanks to your message he knew most of the later details, you only into the first day. The explosion. Getting Injected with Extremis. The frantic working to build a cure and weapon of freedom under Killian's nose.
"Damn Jack. You have somehow the best and worst luck I've ever seen." He let out a bark of laughter. "Guess it comes with being an Avenger."
You snorted.
In turn Tony told you about a couple of days spent chasing leads. which after a short trip to Tennessee lead to Killian. Which is where Skye came in.
"She's good," Tony said. "She found connections that not even JARVIS could. From there it was easy to put it together on how deep Killian had his fingers in all this. We were hopeful you were alive, after that footage she found, but we didn't know where he'd taken you so we had to narrow it down. Meanwhile I called Banner in to play mad scientist on the side to do something about Extremis. Last I checked he was making decent progress on a nullifier, but not soon enough to matter." Tony shook his head, disgusted. "Project Ascendency… fuck, if I knew Killian was this much of a maniac…"
You shrugged. "We pushed him into a corner Tony. Whatever his grand plans are, they're in tatters. This is desperate play to regain control." A dark chuckle escaped you. "Too bad his ego is going to get a couple of hundred people killed."
"You sure?"
"Killian removed every safety measure to cut the incubation period down. If he started yesterday, the first batch is almost done, if not finished already. The washout rate is going to be insane. Fifty percent, at least."
"Well, shit."
"Indeed." And as callus as it was, you hoped you were right. A hundred Extremis users was a nightmare. Two hundred was unstoppable. It didn't matter that Extremis was a budget super-soldier serum, it was still a super-soldier serum. Extremis without the bugs was worth going to war over, if recent history was any judge.
And now Jackson's mysterious master had it. You took back the laptop, but all that accomplished was slowing them down. They had Maya, they didn't need the laptop. If she hadn't memorized the code behind your modified cure then you'd eat shit. It didn't matter your power was needed to make it. There's always another way. And if they had more tech like that ring then they'd make one.
"We need to get you out of here." Tony said, snapping you out of your reverie. "We can get to Banner before Killian makes his move-"
"I can't stop Tony."
"Jack, you skin is on fire."
"I'm stable." Your temperature was ticking down. You don't know how long it would take, but after everything you had almost burnt Extremis out of you entirely. The nanites you had would keep you alive until then. There were also two different serums burning a whole in your pocket. Either one could fix your problem right now, but they would take you out of commission for hours. "I can finish this. I have to finish this."
"Then finish it with me." Tony asked. "We can take Killian down and go after this guy together. Splitting the team now is a bad idea."
"The team is already split Tony." You said. "Rhodey is somewhere in Afghanistan, Bruce is back at the lab with Skye and we're out here. Call in everyone else you can but I need to go after Maya. They were going to kill her already and Killian will take days to chase down. She doesn't have that kind of time."
Tony shook his head. You knew he would offer to come along if he could but it wasn't an option. Jackson and his master were a threat to you. If Killian wasn't dealt with soon he'd be a threat to everyone.
"Killian's plans were always about you Tony. Your contribution to Extremis, the fake Mandarin, it was always to draw you out. It seems only fair that you're the one to tear it all down."
"A fake Mandarin?" Tony said.
You shrugged. "That piece of shit Jackson said it, so who knows if its true. But he's in the compound apparently, assuming he hasn't been evacuated already."
"And you believe that?"
"He was very convincing." The memory of the fanaticism in Jackson's eyes still made you shudder.
"Where did he find that out?"
"From SHIELD I assume. Jackson and Killian knew my name, I don't know where else they both could've gotten that from."
"SHIELD doesn't know who the Mandarin is."
"What?"
"Jack, I spent years hunting the Ten Rings. I'm the reason they're still hiding in their caves after I haven't gone after one of their bases in almost two years. If SHIELD had any evidence on the leader of the Ten Rings, I would know." Tony rubbed the bridge of his nose. "That there's a leak in SHIELD doesn't surprise me, but the real Mandarin? He's fucking with you."
"And what if he isn't?" Jackson was loyal to someone. And fanatics like that love explaining why their cult leader is the best cult leader.
"Then… I don't know. It took me a year to find out the Mandarin existed. Apparently, he's a warrior-king that has led the Ten Rings for generations."
"And also a collector of alien artifacts."
"Right. But I know nothing about him. Even the grunts in the Ten Rings were fanatically loyal. And anyone I found higher up the chain kept ending up dead, most of the time they did it to themselves. They're not a joke Jack, you don't want to mess with these people."
You didn't have a choice Tony, but you appreciated the warning all the same.
You ran your hand through your hair and tried to ignore the ash that clung to your hand afterwards. "Look Tony, we're going around in circles. How about you go meet this fake Mandarin yourself. You can grab anything in the databases here about Extremis on the way. This was a central database, assuming they haven't purged it already."
Tony nodded. "Alright." He rubbed his hands together. "Maybe I can find those nanite designs you mentioned. Oh, I've got so many ideas."
"Me too. We can compare notes after." Meanwhile, you could get to work on giving that helicopter some upgrades. Wherever Jackson ended up, you doubted it was on this continent.
After Tony left you cracked your knuckles. Time to get to work.
2 Hour until misfire. ERROR: CONSULT WITH YOUR LOCAL MAD SCIENTIST FOR ASSESSMENT
You ended up clearing out the Chitauri room.
Exhausted, you sat back and slid down the wall, staring up at the results of your work.
You'd taken the helicopter frame, stripped it down, and replaced the insides with whatever Chitauri tech you could cram into it. The ship was fast, silent and shielded. Whatever you could fit on rounding out the rest of the space, with a big plasma core to power the whole thing.
It won't be added to inventory yet because depending on your actions over the next few chapters it may end up destroyed / deconstructed. Though for reference, here are its stats.
Ship Stats
+20 Fly Speed
+10 Stealth
+15 Durability (10 Base + 5 Energy Shields Armament)
+10 Long Range Combat
Attachments
2 Chitauri Light Plasma Cannons (+5 Long Range Combat each)
1 Surface Energy Shield (+5 Durability)
1 Stealth Generator
1 Oversized Chitauri Plasma Core
+20 Fly Speed
+10 Stealth
+15 Durability (10 Base + 5 Energy Shields Armament)
+10 Long Range Combat
Attachments
2 Chitauri Light Plasma Cannons (+5 Long Range Combat each)
1 Surface Energy Shield (+5 Durability)
1 Stealth Generator
1 Oversized Chitauri Plasma Core
It was faster than any commercial aircraft you'd ever been on. Though the damn thing would fall apart if you got too far away from it. You'd just have to keep that in mind. Anyway, it would do for now.
Tony had come back from talking with the so-called fake Mandarin a few minutes ago. A very interesting guy. Not the real Mandarin through, so at least Jackson was telling the truth there. He gave Tony a new lead on Killian, so as soon as JARVIS finished, Tony would be heading off to hopefully deal with Killian once and for all.
"You know Skye has been asking if you're okay." Tony said, coming up next to you. "You want me to put her through?"
You shook your head. "I'll call her on the ship."
Tony narrowed his eyes. "Bullshit. You're avoiding her."
You looked away.
Tony grabbed your shoulders and forced you to face him. You had cooled down enough that touching you didn't set his armour on fire. "Listen Jack, you're an adult and can make your decisions but are you fucking stupid? That girl is one of the most loyal people I've ever seen. She's spent the past few days running on nothing but coffee, two-hour naps and the hope that you're still alive. I don't know what trust issues you have but she's proven herself a thousand times over."
"I know that." You whispered.
"Then talk to her."
"I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because the only thing that kept me going through most of this was the thought of keeping her safe! They threatened to torture her if I stepped out of line. And I know its fake now but..." You looked at the ground. "It's… I know that she's okay, but if I hear that directly from her then… I dunno, I'll be able to stop, and I can't."
"You're an idiot."
Your temperature spiked. "Yes, I fucking know that Tony. But I killed people today. I didn't have to do it for Skye but I would've been willing to. If I see that she's okay I'll stop. I'll think about what I've done. I can't afford that. Maya can't afford that."
Tony raised his hands. "Fine Jack, I get it. I still think you're an idiot but I get it." He tapped his chin with his finger. "You know she's going to slap you the next time she sees you right?"
A smile broke across your face. "No, she'll punch me in the face. Repeatedly."
After a few seconds of silence, you both broke down into much needed laughter. If yours had a slightly more hysterical edge? Well Tony wasn't likely to tell.
"Sir, I have located a signal."
You froze as the helmet snapped back over Tony's head. "Well don't leave us in suspense J."
"The signature's endpoint is in Inner Mongolia, China."
The other side of the world, fantastic. But now you had a location. The mask of Traveller regrew on your face. "Pass that signal onto my ship."
"Already have." Tony gave you one last look of concern. "I'll see if I can get Rhodey to meet you halfway."
You shook your head. "No. You're going to need him more then I will." Besides, if you were caught that was one thing, but Rhdoey was a whole other story. You needed to get in, find Maya and get out, like you should've done here. "I'll be fine. Good hunting Tony."
"You too Jack."
You gave Tony one last pat on the shoulder and moved towards your ship, the side door opening as you got closer. Its existence was so intertwined with yours that your range limits didn't apply. Taking a seat in the cockpit, you went through the pre-flight check list. "Okay, everything looks green." With a thought the ship came to life around you.
You grabbed hold of the joysticks. You didn't know how to fly but your power let you skip a lot of steps. You hoped it would let you skip a couple more.
As you rose higher in the air, you saw Tony wave.
You waved back. And then you were gone.
Giving the systems one last check and seeing no problems, you activated the autopilot. Standing up, you stretched and left the cockpit, heading back into the body of the ship. It was even more cramped then the original, considering you'd added a medical bed. But you still had enough room for this. With a wave of your hand a small table grew out of the floor.
Silently, you put both of your serums down onto the table. A single injector layer between them.
You weren't sure you could beat Jackson as you are. But his mysterious Master, the real Mandarin? If he had anymore rings then like the one he gave Jackson then not a chance. Each of these serums would make you stronger, in their own way.
And to rescue Maya, you needed that strength. The flight would take hours, long enough to acclimate to whatever choice you made would do to you.
Time to decide. But whatever you chose, you had to save Maya.
That's all that mattered.
What do you take?
[] Perfected Extremis Serum: Better the devil you know. This serum comes from Killian's vision, you'll make it your own. Take this tainted legacy, and use it to do some good for a change. Prove to Maya that she wasn't wrong to save you. Become A Fully Realized Extremis User. Fire is your core. Expunge the nanites and reforge them into an upgraded Extremis variant of your original armour.
This option has the following effects:
+Upgrades Extremis Influence [Basic] to [Advanced], increasing the effectiveness of fire-based tech by 300% [This influence can merge with some other influences]
+Upgrade all passive effects of Extremis and gain Extremis Body perk.
-Retain vulnerability to [Cold] Attacks.
-No nanites (temporary)
[] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
This option has the following effects:
+Adds ???? Influence: Increases effectiveness of All Alien Tech by 50%. [This influence can be upgraded and merged with other influences]
+Nanite armour set and attached equipment don't add to equipment total
+Gain Upgradable perk Body of the Shaper.
-Removes Extremis Influence
-Lose all benefits of Extremis, barring Regeneration (can be regained later – part of Body of the Shaper).
[] Neither: Power has a price. Not one you're so readily to pay. "I'm sorry Maya, I'll have to be enough." While the serum's may be too valuable to destroy, but you can still take the nanites inside. Finish supressing Extremis. Reject your powers advances. Your will is your own. Reject Everything. Return to what you were. In a combination of the old and the new, reforge your old armour – upgraded – but still what you were.
This option has the following effects:
+Gain 25,000 Nanites to use
+Gain Forged by the Crucible Perk
-Lose Extremis Influence and all passive benefits
Well, it took a while, but here it is – the longest chapter I've ever written. I hope you all enjoy it. Now, as for your choices…
This is a big choice. This is the equivalent your prestige class you get before the final boss battle. It will have implications beyond this arc, but in the immediate term It will affect choices, dialogue, responses and motivations for what is soon to come. Yours and others.
You get this now because without it, you would lose.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Choose wisely.
2 Hour Moratorium.
- Location
- Florida
Perfected Extremis is sounding mighty tempting. Putting aside the Maya trust thing (which I absolutely love), I'd really like having a ton of fire if we're gonna be dealing with a lot of ice.
Shaper Serum is also suuuper tempting, but wow that ???? influence is pretty sketchy. I think Jackson was full of shit, but it's still mildly concerning.
Shaper Serum is also suuuper tempting, but wow that ???? influence is pretty sketchy. I think Jackson was full of shit, but it's still mildly concerning.
K1ng
Reader of The Book of Vile Darkness
- Location
- Australia
Yeah, eventually. But you'll be stuck with it at least until another influence opportunity comes along, which won't be until next arc at the earliest.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
I think we should go with Neither. We don't know enough about our power to be sure that the second option wouldn't have hidden side effects.
- Location
- Florida
Another reason I want Perfected Extremis is that it's one more way to differentiate from Tony as a tech guy. Going heavy into fire tech feels especially differentiating. But do we still get to do the usual technopathy stuff or is that getting altered as well?
K1ng
Reader of The Book of Vile Darkness
- Location
- Australia
Technopathy stays the same, you're just really predisposed towards fire tech.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
Red Bovine pointed this out on Spacebattles: In this context, the Mandarin probably believes we are the destroyer depicted in this vote option at the start of the game. Given this, I think going with shaper is a good idea, as this makes me less worried about the second option having hidden side effects.
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
- Location
- Florida
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
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[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
- Location
- okc
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
Their might be plenty of other extremis users coming up but lets keep ourselves unique. Shaper Serum all the way.
Their might be plenty of other extremis users coming up but lets keep ourselves unique. Shaper Serum all the way.
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
Vote Tally:
- Spacebattles
Extremis: 1
Shaper Serum: 8
Neither: 9
- Sufficent Velocity
Extremis: 0
Shaper Serum: 5
Neither: 0
-Total
Extremis: 1
Shaper Serum: 13
Neither: 9
- Spacebattles
Extremis: 1
Shaper Serum: 8
Neither: 9
- Sufficent Velocity
Extremis: 0
Shaper Serum: 5
Neither: 0
-Total
Extremis: 1
Shaper Serum: 13
Neither: 9
- Location
- The Internet
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!
- Location
- India
[X] Shaper Serum – Technopathy Aligned: You'd rather die than be a part of Killian's legacy any longer. Your power made this. This serum is for no one else. Turn Extremis into something more, and take your first step into a new world. Become Something New, Something Exciting. Drink deep from the well of your power, and let it forge armour using technology that this world has never seen!