Jump Chain 10 - MCU

Part 7

HYDRA Base. Unknown Location.

I kept up the skilled performance for a bit longer, showing the people here a fearful attitude as I slowly glanced at the room's occupants. Of course, this was all just an act I was in no real danger here. I'd let the HYDRA agents grab me off the streets after I'd noticed a suspicious-looking van hanging around outside my casino for a few days. Now that I was in their base I could start to dismantle this organisation if I so wished, or maybe I'd see what they were offering before destroying them or not.

Truth be told I'd been expected HYDRA to try something before now, and perhaps they would have if I'd not spent so much of my recent time hidden away finishing my studies on magic, filling in the gaps left by my inability to remember all I'd seen when using the raw power of the Time Stone to see the possible futures that would have involved me spending years training rather than mere months.

In retrospect, it may have been wise to look beyond the lessons to find out what would happen to me during this Jump, but perhaps that would have overloaded even my mind, and taken all the fun out of things. Besides, it wasn't as if I didn't have other ways of seeing the future.

"What's going on? Where am I?" I asked

The man across from me was a bit full of him. I didn't need the empathetic gifts granted to me by the Force to know that. It was clear in the way he carried himself. He thought himself in charge here. How little he understood. I was the only one with any power here.

"I'll be the one answering the questions here Mister Gothic" I was told.

Hearing that made me sigh.

"It's just Gothic," I told him "I have some titles, but they won't mean anything to you".

My interrogator raised an eyebrow.

"And what titles would these be," he asked.

The bespectacled man who sat across from me wrote down all the titles I gave him before tossing the notebook aside. Clearly he'd not believed anything I'd just told him, even when I let him know where I'd gotten those titles from. To be fair not that many people would believe it despite it all being true, and this was why Jump Chan turned up to do the whole download into the head thing.

"Gothic, if that is your real name," said the chief interrogator guy "we know that you somehow got involved with S.H.I.E.L.D despite having next to know history".

Someone must have noticed that I didn't have a proper backstory for this Jump.

"So who are you?" I asked, "You're not S.H.I.E.L.D".

I put a little Force power behind the question.

"We, Mr Gothic, are something much more dangerous. We are HYDRA" he admitted.

I smiled.

"Thanks, I just needed to be sure," I said.

I transformed into my Asgardian body, and with no effort, I broke the handcuffs on my wrists an action which caused both of the guards to draw their weapons, even as the glasses-wearing interrogator guy took some steps back. When I stood up the armed men finally opened fire, but since I was currently an Asgardian so the bullets didn't hurt. The Asgardians, or the Æsir, the inhabitants of Asgard, are the beings which the gods of Norse mythology are based upon, as such human weapons weren't much of a threat.

This was because while Asgardians and humans look the same in appearance, they are very much different. Asgardians have various superhuman abilities that are superior to a normal human being. The most primary of their abilities are superhuman strength, although it varies the average Asgardian possess the strength to battle any type of being within the Nine Realms In addition to great strength is their other physical abilities included enhanced such as speed, agility, reflexes, and coordination.

However, the most important of their abilities is their durability and regenerative abilities. Although it does somewhat vary hence why I wore armour even in this form, and even though they can survive tremendous amounts of physical punishment, far more than a normal human being, they can be hurt. That is when their advanced regenerative abilities take over. It enables them to heal much faster than a normal human being.

Also, their regenerative abilities enable them to have very long lifespans. While humans would see them as immortal they are not. Asgardians age as humans do in the first years of their lives, but when they reach early adulthood, they start to age much more slowly. They can live for up to 5000 years on average.

The reason the bullets from handguns were no threat was because this body had different internal anatomy than humans, with bones, tissues, and skin is several times denser than a normal human body. Of course, getting shot isn't a pleasant experience so I switched on my kinetic barrier, which would be helpful if there were guards around with high-quality weapons. Pistol fire was one thing, assault rifles were another.

With this body's enhanced speed I made it across the room and was breaking necks before the guards could empty their clips. The third guy, the one who'd been asking questions, had no weapon so I didn't kill him, as he tried to open the door and escape he found it locked.

I smiled at him as I stepped up to the door.

"Here, let me try," I said to him.

After pushing him aside the glasses guy hit the wall so hard that he might have died, as I was not used to this to level of strength, but I didn't let that bother me. Instead, I reared back and kicked, and the door came off its hinges. Clearly they hadn't a clue what I could do, but they weren't totally unprepared as when the door hit the ground and I stepped out of the room. I found several machine guns pointed my way.

They opened fired and I used my powers to stop the bullets, much like Neo did in the second Matrix film. Once they'd stopped firing I let the bullets hit the ground, and the guys just holding the guns just stood there even as I advanced.

I wasted no time, and knowing the kind of things HYDRA got up to I didn't feel remotely merciful, sometimes just snapping necks and cashing cheques is just how I got things done, although in this case, I was mostly doing the snapping necks part.

Eventually, there wasn't a single breathing soul left in the whole facility, which was admittedly rather small to begin with, and when I could detect no one else around I began heading for the entrance which was clearly signposted.

"Leaving so soon Gothic?"

Upon hearing that electronic voice I looked around soon I saw a security camera and a small speaker under it. Someone had been watching me.

"Sorry about the mess" I joked.

Blood was hard to wash off the walls.

"They don't matter," said the voice over the speaker "What is important is your interest in SHIELD and my interest in you. If you would perhaps consider continuing this dialogue, I believe we both can be very helpful to one another".

I was willing to listen.

"And who are you, that you can be helpful to me?" I asked.

Arnim Zola was the name he gave. It didn't ring any bells, but he did have an offer for me, and while I was tempted to destroy HYDRA the organisation was slippery. It might be best to learn more about the group before taking it out so I took the offer of alliance.

(Line Break)

Donut Shop. The USA.

The Iron Man aka Tony Stark was out of his depths, not that he would ever admit to such a thing, the Palladium core of the ARC reactor in his chest was slowly killing him, and he couldn't take it out as that would kill him very quickly. Also couldn't find any other element to be a substitute for the Palladium that was killing him. To make matters worse he was running out of time to find one.

As if all that wasn't enough the military and the government were trying to take his Iron Man Suit. Then there was the case of Ivan Vanko. Tony had been taking part in the Monaco Historic Grand Prix, just to have a little fun before he died but then he was attacked by Vanko who'd somehow made an arc reactor.

Add to that Tony had made Potts the CEO of Stark Industries, and now she was unhappy due to his behaviour. He wished he could tell her about his problem but he didn't want her to worry. Then last night during his own birthday party he'd gotten extremely drunk and fought with Rhodes. Now Rhodes was away somewhere with an Iron Man suit, he could have stopped Rhodes but he hadn't wanted to.

Tony was now sitting on, well in really, big doughnut shape above someplace that sold bad food while wearing his Iron Man Suit when Nick Fury came to see him

"Stark, I'm gonna have to ask you to exit the doughnut" he called up.

With that Fury went inside, not waiting for any reply from Tony.

Tony sighed and came down and entered the empty junk food place before he sat down across Fury,

"Honestly speaking, I'm a bit hungover. I'm not sure if you're real or if I'm having..."

"Oh, believe me, Stark, I am very real" insisted Fury "I'm the realest person you're ever gonna meet".

Tony sighed as he leaned back,

"Just my luck" he muttered while looking around "Where's the staff here?"

Ignoring that Nick Fury indicated toward the poison markings on Tony's neck

"That's not looking so good," he said,

Tony shrugged, acting as it didn't matter.

"I've been worse" he replied.

Just then Natasha who has been posing as Pepper secretary Natalia Rushman came in in her black one-piece tight suit.

"Huh, You're fired," Tony said while staring at her.

She found that amusing.

"That's not up to you" Natasha replied as sat nearby Fury "We've secured the perimeter, but I don't think we should hold it for too much longer".

Fury grinned while looking at Tony's annoyed expression.

"Tony, I want you to meet Agent Romanoff" he introduced.

"I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D agent" she explained "Once we knew you were ill, I was tasked to you by Director Fury.

Fury spoke before Stark could say something about that.

"You've been very busy Stark. You made your girl your CEO, you're giving away all your stuff. You let your friend fly away with your suit. Now, if I didn't know better..."

Tony interrupted Fury there,

"You don't know better" he insisted "I didn't give it to him, he took it".

The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D acted surprised.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're saying that he took it? You're Iron Man and he just took it? Your friend walked in there, kicked your ass and took your suit? Is that even possible?" Fury asked.

Natasha decided to answer,

"Well, according to Mr Stark's database security guidelines, there are redundancies to prevent unauthorised usage," she said.

Tony sighed. Sure he could have done something about the theft, the reality was he'd hadn't wanted to.

"What do you want from me?" Iron Man asked.

"No . . . no . . . Stark, the question is what do you want from me?" Fury replied

You have become a problem, a problem I have to deal with. Contrary to your belief, you are not the centre of my universe. I have bigger fish to fry than you".

Fury turned to Natasha,

"Hit it" he ordered.

Natasha quickly stood up and injected a serum into Tony's neck with a syringe, Tony cried out, more in shock than pain. Then he started feeling a lot better suddenly,

"What was that? What did you do to me?" he demanded.

Fury smirked before he replied

"What did we just do for you Stark" he corrected "That's lithium dioxide and it's gonna take the edge off. We're trying to make you go back to work".

"Give me a couple of boxes of that thing and I'll be right as rain," Tony suggested.

Natasha spoke next.

"It's not as cure Stark" she explained "It just handles the symptoms for a while. Your problem is not gonna be an easy fix"

Tony snorted in reply,

"Trust me, I know. I'm good at this stuff. I have been searching for a viable replacement for Palladium for a long time" he explained I've tried every permutation, every commutation of all the known elements but it's all for nothing".

He was wrong about that.

"Well, I'm here to tell you, you haven't tried them all" Fury said as he got up "Let's get you home, we will talk there".

Tony too stood up with a sigh and soon followed.

(Line Break)

Stark Residence. The USA.

"The Arc Reactor in your chest, it's based on an unfinished technology," Fury said as he sat down on the chair in the destroyed balcony of Tony Stark's house.

"No, it's finished. It was never very effective until I miniaturised it and put it in my chest" Tony stated.

Fury shook his head,

"No, you are wrong" the one-eyed man corrected "I knew Howard after all he was one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D".

That shocked Tony but Fury continued, "According to Howard, the arc reactor was a stepping stone for something greater. He was on to something big, something so big that it was gonna make the nuclear reactor look like a triple-A battery".

Tony frowned upon hearing that.

"Just him or was Anton Vanko on this too?" he then asked.

Fury sighed before speaking.

"Anton Vanko is the other side of that coin. Vanko was a Russian spy who befriended your father for his own profit, he was planning to sell it and get rich but Howard found out about" the Director explained "Howard had him deported and when the Russians caught up with him they shipped his ass off to Siberia. He spent the next 20 years there in a vodka filled rage, swearing revenge on your father. Ivan Vanko, the son you had the misfortune of crossing paths in Monaco. His father made him hate the Stark name and he invaded the Monaco Grand Prix to get back at you".

Now Stark began to understand why the son of Vanko hated him so much. He couldn't avenge his father by killing Tony's father so he'd come after Tony

"You said that I haven't tried everything. What do you mean I haven't tried everything? What haven't I tried?" Iron Man asked, getting back to the important matter here.

"Howard told me that you were the only person with the means and knowledge to finish what he started" Fury was now saying "but are you that guy? Because if you are, then you can fix what's wrong with you."

Tony didn't believe what he had just heard.

"I don't know where you get your information but he wasn't my biggest fan," said Stark "most of the time we didn't see eye to eye".

Which was an understatement really.

"What do you remember about your father?" Fury wondered.

Tony answered soon enough

"He was cold, he was calculating. He never told me he loved me. He never even told me he liked me, so it's a little tough for me to digest when you're telling me he said that the whole future was riding on me and he's passing it down" said the dying man "I don't get that. You're talking about a guy whose happiest day was when he shipped me off to boarding school".

"That's not true Stark, he may not have been the best father, he always loved you," Fury said as he stood up

A few agents with Phil Coulson came in holding a trunk, one of them was dressed much more casually than the others Tony noticed.

"This belonged to your father and it's time I return it" explained Fury as the case was placed on the table "Natasha will remain at Stark Industries with her cover intact. Remember tony, I've got an eye on you".

"Wait! Wait! Just Wait, what am I suppose to do with this stuff?" Tony asked.

Fury shrugged.

"You are your father's son, I am sure you'll find something useful to do with it" he replied.

With that, he left.

"We've disabled all communications," Coulson said as he stepped forward "No contact with the outside world until you are done".

Iron Man had no intention of being restrained by anyone.

"First things first I need a few errands run," Tony told the agent "I'll put in a little time at the lab if you send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice".

Coulson wasn't having any of that.

"Mr Stark, I am not here for that" he replied "I've been authorised by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on the premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet".

(Line Break)

Tony Stark's House. The USA.

Since I'd been ordered to stay here with Agent Coulson I didn't get to spend much time with Natasha Romanoff before she and Fury left Coulson with me to babysit Tony Stark while he worked on perfecting the ARC reactor. He needed to focus on that or he'd die and that would screw up the timeline.

While standing off to the side I watched as Phil Coulson and Tony Stark chatted. I especially enjoyed the line about tasing Tony and watching Supernanny while he drooled on the carpet. Unfortunately, that didn't come to pass and soon enough Stark focused on me, he didn't know what to make of me I wasn't an agent, or at least I didn't look like one.

"And who's this Agent?" Stark asked Coulson "Doesn't have a suit like you, so I assume he's not also got the same stick up his ass as you do".

That made me smile.

"My name is Gothic," I told Iron Man "I'm a big fan of your work Mister Stark"

He feigned disinterest in that and waved a dismissive hand,

"Who isn't a fan of my work? I'm pretty amazing" he said.

With that Iron Man went to work on his ARC reactor, and I didn't doubt for a second that he'd go right to his computer and look me up. No, that there would be much to find.

Coulson and I hadn't really gotten a chance to talk since Fury assigned me to follow him around like a good little assistant. Thus, when we were finally alone he decided to speak to me.

"So, alien?" he asked.

That would normally be a very odd question, but this guy did work for S.H.I.E.L.D so maybe he'd met some human-looking aliens before, or was just guessing.

"No I'm human" I answered.

Well, I was in this body.

"I'm from another universe," I said next.

Coulson took some time to ponder that before going into the living room so he could watch Supernanny. I decided to spend time here in meditation as while I was eager to swap some ideas with Stark this part of his life was something he needed to get through on his own. As would be what followed, so I intended to simply sit back and enjoy the show.

(Line Break)

Casino. New York.

When the windows of my penthouse suite suddenly exploded I glared up at the now broken window where I saw the two figures that had so rudely invaded my home. When I saw who they were I cancelled the alarm and told Cortana to lock the elevator to the penthouse so that I could deal with this. I'd just gotten back from babysitting Tony Stark, and didn't have other plans for the weekend so I figured I'd deal with this mess myself.

"Rocket and Groot?!" I yelled, surprised when I saw who and what had come after me.

How was this possible? Why were they here? They had no reason to come after me as I'd not selected any drawbacks that included either Rocket coming after me or the Collector wanting me for his collection. Yet there they were and they'd blasted their way in.

Rocket was really bizarre-looking. Watching the movies had prepared me somewhat for a talking raccoon, but not totally.

"I am Groot"

Rocket was much more menacing in looks than Groot despite being a tiny creature. Groot just seemed like a walking tree, which he kinda was, and not at all dangerous.

"Yes, I know you're Groot" I told the walking tree "I was just rather shocked to see you".

The wood guy turned to face his partner.

"I am Groot".

The tree guy didn't think I could be the person they were after because I also looked not dangerous. Not that I blamed him for this as currently, I was in my Damien body, the one I'd gotten for the Harry Potter Jump, which made me look like a normal guy. Should I shift into either of my other two bodies it would be a different story.

"Of course he's dangerous," said the talking mammal "he took out a whole Ravager Gang".

Oh, so that was why they were here.

"Stakar Ogord must have put a bounty on me" I muttered.

Stakar Ogord was a legendary Ravager captain and the leader of the Stakar Ravager Clan, and as much of a leader as the collective Ravager gangs could have. Ogord saved Yondu Udonta, a guy I'd killed, from a life of slavery and welcomed him to the Ravagers, but he was later forced to exile Udonta for engaging in child trafficking and violating the Ravager code. I'd done some research on the group using information acquired on Xandar so I knew more about the group and how it might have been useful to me in the future. Now I didn't see much future for any of them.

"Yeah and he's willing to pay 1,000,000 units for you," said Rocket "That's a lot of money, and I'm collecting".

"I am Groot."

"Well okay, so its 500,000 units each" the mammal corrected.

"I am Groot."

At this point, I was thinking that if I let myself get captured by Rocket and Groot, then I'd be shipped off to where ever it was Stakar wanted me, and I could deal with him. If I didn't get captured and stayed here, then something worse might arrive on Earth. Also as I still had no idea how Rocket and Groot found me I didn't know how to avoid other bounty hunters in the future. Besides, I didn't really want to kill Rocket and Groot.

"I surrender," I said, "We should get going".

Before Cameron got back from where ever it was she'd gone. She would kill these two as they were a threat to me.

Rocket smirked and returned his oversized gun to his back, before slapping some space cuffs on me, and then we got shot up into some ship via a form of tractor beam. Nothing I'd not seen before and I had technology way more advanced than this stuff.

"So how did you find me," I asked Rocket.

He wasn't the weak-willed type, but nor was he outright immune to mind tricks, I couldn't have convinced him to let me go, but getting him to share some information wasn't hard.

"Oh yeah the bounty was interesting cause it didn't come with a picture or any information really" he told me "But we met this guy called Quill, and he's not a fan of yours, he had some footage of you and knew that you came from this mudball, from there it was just a matter of checking this world's records".

I'd wiped Quill's memories of our encounter, but he must have been able to piece enough together to figure out that I came from Earth. I didn't know how, but once you knew the system it wouldn't be hard for someone with advanced tech to get an image and hack into the Internet to find me. Cortana was careful to keep me out of the electronic records as much as possible, but she wasn't all-knowing. Plus I must on SHIELD's and HYDRA's databases.

"Didn't Quill want to come after me?" I asked.

Rocket locked me in some of cell before answering.

"He mentioned something about not ever coming to this dirtball" the furball answered.

I didn't think that Quill cared enough for the Ravagers to avenge them if it meant coming here to Earth, but still I needed to increase my security.

"Hey, Rocket how would you like to not only collect the bounty on me but also make some more money?" I asked.

That got his attention and soon we began to talk. All I needed from Rocket was some information.

(Line Break)

Iron Lotus. Contraxia V.

As it turned out the meeting place to drop off their bounty (me) was some sort of brothel with robot whores. Not that I was judging this as I had a cyborg sex slave. But it seemed like an odd place for Rocket and Groot to met with the Ravagers.

I knew that despite their shady line of work, Ravagers followed a strict code of honour and that those adopted into the clans had to swear to obey the Ravager Code. They were crooks however certain crimes were forbidden for the Ravagers commit, such as kidnapping and/or trafficking children. A clan which broke the code would be exiled, no matter how popular or well-loved its members. Another part of the code was that the Ravagers had to keep their word when making a deal, something I planned to make us of today, and if that didn't work out well I'd have to kill all the Ravagers across the galaxy.

The Ravagers seemed to have their own religion with their own afterlife, and if they broke the code they'd be denied this afterlife, so it was important to them. Upon death, Ravagers would be disintegrated and their remains released into space while the ships of other clans released firework-like projections called Colors. Ravagers expect to see their loved ones again "among the stars," and to hear "the Horns of Freedom" upon death.

Accounts I'd read also told me that Ravagers were often a belligerent lot. Many, though not all, members are either uneducated, dim, or both at once. These members form rowdy groups that enjoy drinking, whoring, which was most likely while we were here.

To lead such unruly crews, captains must possess strength. Strength among Ravagers means possessing combat ability, a strong temperament, and good political standing with other Ravager groups. Ravager captains are often intelligent, serving as the brain that guides their largely dim-witted crew. Captains who are seen as losing strength may face uprisings and need to employ a show of force to keep their crew in order.

All of this I went over in my head as Rocket took his money and then headed back onto the ship. As soon as they took off the leader of the Ravagers started to make some sort of speech about avenging the pirate crew I'd killed for boarding my ship. Despite them being exiled they were still worth avenging apparently.

"So can we make a deal here?" I asked.

Perhaps I could offer the Ravagers something in exchange for leaving me alone.

"String him up boys" shouted the leader.

Guess diplomacy was off the table, but I'd come prepared for that, and before anyone could grab me. I took us into the Mirror Dimension.

The Mirror Dimension was a parallel dimension that allows the user to practice their magical abilities and fight their enemies without the public's knowledge. Skilled sorcerers were even able to fold matter and distort space while here, and those who use the power of the Dark Dimension have stronger control over the Mirror Dimension to the point of being able to fold and warp space in reality. I didn't have that measure of control, but I could still shift a group of people into the Mirror Dimension.

This place could serve as a prison for those without a Sling Ring, so while everyone else was wondering what the hell was going around here I grabbed the leader and took him back to the regular universe.

"Okay, you and I are going to talk" I said.

I needed to know where to find the other gangs so I could take care of all of them in case the leader still didn't feel like talking. There were a hundred or so gangs, so that might take a while, but I had a fast battleship and a decade of time.