Ava was having a very bad day today.
First she found out that her best friend Kitty had just awakened as a mutant. Not that Ava discriminated against mutants or anything like that, no, it was just that because of it Kitty suddenly no longer felt comfortable staying at their school and had decided to transfer midway through the semester. Apparently she was going to some gifted children’s school or something.
Sure, Ava was happy for her friend, but she was also sad because they probably wouldn’t get to see each other nearly as much anymore.
And then things took an even worse turn when her Aunt Angela, seeing her moping around all day, decided it was the perfect time for training.
Yes, Ava was the current White Tiger, having inherited both the title and the amulet from her aunt. According to Angela, the amulet had originally belonged to Ava’s father before eventually being passed down to her.
For Angela however, the amulet had always been more curse than blessing. No matter how hard she tried to live a normal life, she never truly could.
But for Ava, it had always been different.
She had always wanted to become a hero.
Like her father before her.
Like her aunt had once been, even if Angela herself viewed it more as a responsibility than anything else.
Still, despite all that, Angela had always been an amazing hero.
So after years of training under her aunt, Ava had finally received the Tiger Amulet herself a few months ago on her eighteenth birthday.
Due to the recent activities of the Hand, an old villain organization that Angela hated to the core, her aunt had started helping her more actively again. They had even discovered that despite no longer wearing the amulet, Angela could still partially transform into her tiger form.
And recently they had gotten news that Daredevil, an acquaintance of Angela’s, was also dealing with the Hand.
Which was why, after training for a bit, they had gone to meet him.
Only to arrive and find Daredevil already fighting against a black-haired woman who was honestly kind of terrifying. She was absurdly strong, strong enough to send concrete cracking apart with every strike.
There was also a man in a purple suit standing nearby casually barking orders.
And every single time he spoke, Daredevil would freeze for a moment.
Only for a second.
But in a fight like this, a second was already dangerous.
So naturally, Angela and Ava stepped in to help.
And that was exactly when everything went downhill.
Very quickly, they realized the purple-robed man could somehow control people through verbal commands.
The moment he spoke, the orders crawled directly into their heads.
Ava could actually feel it.
Like invisible pressure forcing itself against her mind.
But strangely enough, the White Tiger spirit inside her resisted automatically. If anything, every command only made her more aggressive.
Angela however was not nearly as fortunate.
Her aunt soon came under the purple man’s control.
She was still resisting it, Ava could tell that much, but they had no idea how much longer she could keep fighting it.
The same applied to Daredevil.
Somehow the masked vigilante was resisting through sheer willpower alone, but as time passed, even he was beginning to falter.
“You can do it Ava! Everything she knows has already been taught to you. You are the White Tiger now!” Daredevil called out despite barely holding himself together.
Because right now, she was the only one left who could actually win this fight.
Then suddenly Matt heard another heartbeat.
Someone else had entered the building.
Despite hearing the sounds of fighting, the person’s heartbeat remained completely steady. No fear. Maybe excitement, but definitely not fear.
“Oh, didn’t think I’d run into you again.”
Matt froze.
The voice was unmistakable.
Merlin.
But that made absolutely no sense.
Last night the man had possessed no heartbeat at all. No breathing either.
So how was he suddenly—
As Lex entered the building, he quickly took in the entire situation.
There was the horned guy from last night.
Then there was Purple Man and his mind-controlled super-strong goth baddie.
And nearby…
Was that a furry?
A white cat lady?
And she was fighting another woman who occasionally grew cat eyes.
Honestly, New York was getting weirder by the hour.
Deciding to ignore the extremely confusing cat-themed martial arts battle for now, Lex calmly walked toward Purple Man.
“He controls people through his voice! Be careful!” Daredevil called out from behind him.
Lex ignored the warning and continued walking anyway.
Purple Man smiled creepily.
“Go kill Daredevil and that Tiger woman.” he ordered confidently.
Lex didn’t even slow down.
As Lex kept approaching him, Purple Man’s smile slowly started fading.
Then it became panic.
“Jessica!” he snapped desperately.
But the moment had already passed.
All this time Lex had quietly been manipulating the air around Killgrave, controlling only the water molecules hidden within it.
Suddenly Killgrave felt cold.
A deep, unnatural cold.
Ice rapidly spread upward across his body before he could even react. The moment he tried looking down, he realized everything below his neck had already frozen solid.
“You like giving orders to people, right?” Lex asked calmly while continuing to approach him. “Kind of hard to do that without a tongue.”
The cold crept upward into Killgrave’s mouth.
His tongue froze instantly.
No matter how hard he tried to move it, he couldn’t.
No speech.
No commands.
Nothing.
Unfortunately, the commands he had already given were still active.
Jessica was still charging toward him at full speed, following Killgrave’s final order.
This time though, she was far easier to handle.
Lex immediately used telekinesis to slow her movements as much as possible before stepping close and forcing a small bottle of liquid into her mouth.
What was the liquid?
After encountering Purple Man previously, Lex had realized there would definitely be situations where he either couldn’t or simply wouldn’t want to reveal that his bodily fluids possessed healing properties.
So he had diluted a single drop of his blood into nearly a liter of water before storing the mixture inside multiple small bottles.
Even diluted that much, it remained absurdly effective.
Enough to heal severe illnesses or even regenerate lost limbs.
Jessica froze for a second after swallowing it.
Tears immediately appeared in her eyes.
But unlike Drew, she didn’t break down crying.
No.
She turned toward Killgrave.
And attacked him.
For a brief moment Lex thought maybe the cure hadn’t actually worked.
Then Jessica landed a brutal roundhouse kick directly into Killgrave’s frozen body hard enough to crack the surrounding ice apart.
Probably several bones too.
“Honestly, a better revenge would be ripping his tongue out,” Lex casually suggested.
“A little help here, Mister Ice!” the girl in the white cat costume shouted from nearby.
Daredevil was already helping Ava restrain Angela and the moment Lex tossed him another bottle, Matt caught it instantly before forcing the liquid into Angela’s mouth.
Thankfully Angela had still retained partial control over herself, making it much easier.
Then suddenly—
“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH—!”
A horrifying scream echoed throughout the building.
Everyone turned toward Killgrave.
Jessica had ripped his tongue clean out.
Because of the freezing, he apparently hadn’t even realized it immediately.
Not until Jessica casually dangled the bloody tongue in front of his face.
That was when the screaming started.
Honestly, Lex had briefly considered simply killing the man.
But death would have been too easy.
This way?
Killgrave stayed alive.
Just powerless.
“So you guys are like professionals, right?” Lex suddenly asked.
“Yup, professional hero White Tiger here.” Ava replied immediately, puffing her chest out proudly.
“Great, then I’ll leave this purple-and-red messed-up meatball to you guys.” Lex said while pointing toward Killgrave, who at this point had not only been beaten half to death by Jessica, but had also become the target of Angela’s personal revenge.
Just as Lex turned to leave, Daredevil called out to him.
“Actually… could you stay a few more minutes?” Matt asked.
“Sure. Need help dealing with the aftermath or something?” Lex questioned.
“No. It’s about yesterday. Those ninjas… they belonged to an organization called the Hand.” Daredevil explained.
Lex nodded for him to continue.
“They seem to be looking for you now. Or at least they are after what happened yesterday.” Angela added. “You’re Merlin, right?”
“Yup, I’m Merlin. Unless you’ve got a cooler name for me.” Lex shrugged. “I mean, look at this guy. ‘Daredevil’ goes hard.”
“Oh! I can suggest one!” Ava immediately raised her hand excitedly. “The CryoCataclysm!”
Lex stared at her for a second.
“I’m not taking naming suggestions from someone called White Tiger.”
“Hey! I didn’t choose the name,” Ava protested instantly. “It’s a mantle passed down from my father.”
“Wait… your dad was also White Tiger?” Lex blinked. “Damn it, now you’ve made me imagine some old dude running around in a furry costume.”
Meanwhile Matt and Angela exchanged a look.
Well… Angela exchanged a look.
Matt simply sensed the silence and disappointment in the room.
Who allowed these two to become heroes?
Though admittedly, at least half the responsibility belonged to Angela.
“Will you two stop quibbling for five minutes?” Angela snapped in full exhausted-mother mode. “There’s a demon-summoning, child-kidnapping, murderous ninja cult running around New York.”
Ava immediately shut up despite clearly wanting to argue further.
“We’ll stick with Merlin for now since you chose it yourself,” Matt continued. “So Merlin… do you know anything about the Hand? Why were you at one of their bases yesterday?”
“Oh, I was actually telling the truth.” Lex shrugged casually. “I’m a newly awakened mutant and was just trying to test my powers in an abandoned building.”
Matt listened carefully.
And frustratingly enough… the man was telling the truth.
At least technically.
But Matt still didn’t trust him completely.
Someone capable of suppressing their heartbeat and breathing entirely could probably fake them too. And normal people definitely didn’t pull guns and swords out of thin air.
“Well, whatever the case,” Angela continued, “the Hand is interested in you now. They probably want to capture you and use you as some sort of vessel for a summoning.”
“A summoning?” Lex repeated.
“Something demonic,” Angela replied grimly.
Lex tilted his head slightly.
“You seem to know quite a lot about them.”
Angela’s expression immediately darkened.
“Unfortunately, I have history with them.”
The tone in her voice made it very clear she did not want to elaborate further.
“So you know where their base is then?” Lex asked.
“No. The one I used to know has already been abandoned.” Angela shook her head. “Unless you mean their main headquarters, but that’s somewhere in Japan and I don’t know the exact location.”
“Well then,” Lex shrugged casually, “guess I’ll just wait for them to come to me.”
To him, the Hand honestly didn’t seem that dangerous yet.
If the average ninja was the standard, then they were basically target practice.
Though admittedly, if they had more people like the Bouncy Boob Ninja, things might become slightly more troublesome.
Actually…
“What happened to the Bouncy—” Lex paused briefly. “I mean, the ninja girl from yesterday? The one I knocked out?”
“Elektra,” Matt corrected automatically. “She’s… complicated. I think she can still be reasoned with.”
Lex immediately gave him a look.
“Listen man, I know she’s hot, but as a superhero you’re supposed to think with your brain.”
“…”
“Okay, okay,” Lex raised both hands defensively. “Go on your ‘I can fix the homicidal ninja girl’ journey and find out for yourself.”
Angela pinched the bridge of her nose.
“You do realize Daredevil is blind, right?” she suddenly asked.
Lex froze.
“…Wait, seriously?”
Everyone stared at him.
“Wow.” Lex slowly nodded to himself. “That makes two blind people I’ve met recently where I just assumed they were either weird hippies or incredibly horny.”
Matt actually snorted quietly at that.
“My sincerest apologies to the blind community,” Lex added dramatically with a small bow.
“Well,” Daredevil replied dryly, “you did help save everyone here today, so I’ll let it slide.”