I will strive beyond this cursed bloodline!

Chapter 7: [Jenna] The story behind [My Hero], [My Power] and [Me]



The memories still were as vivid as always, closing my eyes and trying to remember it always brought it back as if it had just happened yesterday. The taste and smell of blood, the pain as those that were my world laid at my feet, unmoving. Eyes closed as they still tried to crawl towards me.

The place surrounding us was destroyed beyond what one could expect to see in a site like this, this was a normal house. My parents weren’t special by any metric, my mother was a mechanic and my father was allegedly a stay-at-home father who tried to make it big by becoming an author. He wasn’t a very good one at that I was told.

And yet… their visage as they tried to crawl to me wasn’t the thing that stayed with me the longest, I was what? Five? Four? It is hard to put a timeframe, you see… It is hard for me to measure time, my [Power] makes age and even [Time] a meaningless concept.

But what stayed with me across all this time, was the image of a man who walked into the fire and destruction as if it was nothing, his visage as he punched and in some instances, merely slapped away the monsters that roamed the neighborhood was amazing. At this time I didn’t have full control over my power, so when it ran out of control it started to manifest…

[Things].

Monsters straight out of my worst nightmares, and when I didn’t allow them to manifest in me they went to the nearest thing and did it, all my plushies had turned into aberrations of mankind, [The Tinker] theorized that I wasn’t summoning monsters but tapping into alternate realities where some kind of bizarre series of unfortunate events ended with a dog plushie turning into a five-meter tall monster.

I never understood it, but what I knew was that the image of the man that stood in front of me at that moment was what a true [Hero] should be. He wasn’t wearing a fake smile, he wasn’t looking for blood or justice. He merely stood in front of me, making sure he wasn’t stepping over my dead parents.

“Everything will be okay, for [I am here].” Was all he said as he kneeled and offered me his hand.

He didn’t take me in a hug, he didn’t grab my hand trying to reassure me. No, he merely extended a helping hand and waited.

The world screamed around us as monsters manifested from my nightmares, the neighborhood was full of sounds and I could faintly hear someone speaking into this [Hero]’s ears. And yet…he stood there looking at me with his eyes focused on me. No hurrying me, but only waiting.

“...I’m sorry…” Was all I could utter as my younger mind couldn’t process what was happening and in one jump hugged the first calming presence in this personal hell I was.

The man, [The Hero] merely embraced me and carried me in his arms, he walked out of my house. That would be the last time I would see it, too dangerous for me to return. Too much risk for trauma to resurge they said, my power was [Unstable].

Too much power for such a little girl they said, the United Nations claimed that I should be incarcerated, my power stripped and my mana veins burned. The current members of [The Twelve] stood divided, Veritali’s member advocated for me to be sent to one orphanage under their vigil.

“What do you want to do Jenna?” [My Hero] asked, making the whole place turn silent as they stared at me. “We will try to help you as much as we can, but you need to take the first step.”

“Jack I know you just got your own daughter, but don’t projec-” The leader of the UN tried to say, but was silenced by a magic circle that snapped on his throat.

“Hubby is right, we could always take you in. We have a daughter around your age, she could use some friends, we are thinking about moving. So we can buy a bigger house.” [The Stardust Explorer] said, “She is around three years old.”

“I want to be like you!” My younger self said as she pointed at my [Hero], at [The American Crusader].

“Well, that…may take some effort.” He said with a smile, it was a warm smile. But I knew it, it was the same my father did when he said something and meant the opposite. “You will need to learn to control your [Power] first. And then some more.”

What followed after was a couple of years in some research labs followed by the watching eye of half the [Twelve] making sure they didn’t do…bad things. They wanted to make sure how my [Power] worked, and what were the limits.

The problems started when I turned seven years old…And Elizabeth, [My Hero]’s daughter turned five. At the moment I didn’t know what it was or what happened, but what happened still crushed my heart.

“Jenna….we will not be able to take you in.” [My Hero] said with sadness in his voice, “We will need to quarantine Elizabeth, your to-be sister…She…She is sick.”

He never explained more, and after a whole year I finally managed to meet her, the one girl that was the luckiest in the world, for she had a [True Hero] as a father, and…She was too normal.

“Why does she have black hair and yellow hair?” I asked as my eyes found Elizabeth for the first time, I had learned to better focus my power at this point, so I was able to tap into the fount of it, and bring into this world better my abilities.

“How so? What are you seeing?” Asked [My Hero], so happy to help I answered of course, “ She looks like three? Four? like many people are superimposed, she is like… A thunderstorm after a drought, but also closer to a black hole.”

Of course, my explanations weren’t the best, I was seven! Still, [My Hero] took me seriously.

“How do I look? Catherine? How do the [Twelve] look to you?” He asked instead, as if to make sure I was seeing right.

“That’s easy!” So I answered as fast as possible, “You look like a pillar that holds together the world! No matter from which angle I look”

Really, even after growing up that never changed, “Big sis used to look like a worn doll…But nowadays she looks as if she had been also sewn all over...badly. If I turn from a very specific spot I can see her as an office lady tho.” That had been a scare to see.

“[The Prophet] and [Warlock] look like they have chains on them, one going up one going down.” Those two never had too much variation. Same as the rest of the [Twelve] really. “[The Elementalist] looks like a librarian or a teacher, [The Beast Master] is always a veterinarian, [The Traveler] is dead half the time, and when not he is a messenger.”

“[The Tinkerer]...she is weird, half the time she doesn’t exist! How does that even work?!” And that still scared her to think about, to be honest. “ [The Monk]...is always a monk. [Shadow Pact] is either an insurance seller or an office worker. [The Sniper] is always working in the military…Or in a school.”

That last one still made her giggle to this day, the taciturn woman working as a teacher was such an interesting image to see from time to time, not that she was able to peek into those realities as often, not after she settled her power.

“And you?” [My Hero] asked, of course he would… I had just become a member.

“...[The Juggernaut]... is always following [The American Crusader] behind making the world a better place.” That was, of course, a lie. Most of the time she didn’t awoke a [Power] her life would be mundane, she would get a boyfriend, get her heart broken…Marry have some kids, live a plentiful life, and get divorced around her fifty anniversary because her husband cheated on her with a younger woman. Cry, and end in a nursing home later that year, then lived the rest of her life there till death came.

“...I see.” Answered not Jack Brighton, nor Jack Ashcroft. But [The American Crusader].

I continued to attend some birthdays from time to time, and also some parties, mostly to see how Elizabeth was faring, they never asked me what I saw or not again. That part of my [Powers] wasn’t disclosed to anyone else within the [Twelve], they all thought my power allowed me to summon [Heroic Spirits] and manifest them into the real world.

And I did something like that yes. Only I wasn’t summoning [Spirits] but something else, the same thing that allowed me to take in my [Juggernaut] persona.

My power, the power of [The Juggernaut], the power of [Jenna Lewis] was [Echo Manifestation]. It allowed me to tap into [The World] and pull a possible future and bring it to the real world, it toyed with realities and allowed me to do great things.

Most of the time I only used to summon servants from a reality where I had awoken a [Summoning] power instead of this. Most realities where I woke up a power had some variant of this power. In one I could summon seven different types of [Heroic spirits] so long they fell into one of seven archetypes.

In another, I had super strength, flight, heat vision, frost breath, and invulnerability. If I had powers, then I would be close if not at the S-Tier rank. If not, well, I was average. It was weird, either I had it all or nothing, but what was always also true…Is that if I had powers, my parents were dead.

Why does this matter? Well, that comes with the next part of my powers. I could peek into alternate worlds and in some cases pull parts of those realities, but…do all worlds move at the same speed?

No, they don’t. Rarely do some even move in the same direction. What this means is that to some degree I could see the future, not in the same sense that I knew 100% what would happen, but if something happens enough times in other realities…Well, chances are it would happen here if the same circumstances align.

And…well, in some realities where [My Hero] fell, died, or wasn’t born. It became my mission to do what he did, becoming his successor, so that was the main reason why my [Juggernaut] persona was what it was.

The real identity behind the armor? Well, can you guess?

[Echos from another life: The One Who holds the weight of the world on his shoulders, Jack Ashcroft.]

That is right, I was manifesting an [Echo] of [My Hero] and using that as a framework for my identity as a member of the [Twelve], of course, they let me in. One [American Crusader] was enough of a threat to world stability. But two?

No member of the [Twelve] could stop me, well, [My Hero] could of course. And perhaps [The Stardust Explorer], but neither would actually do it. I was closer to an adopted daughter by the time I was ten. Even if I didn’t live with them.

And the other member of the [Twelve] acted as such, I liked to think that in their eyes I was more of a daughter than Elizabeth, since the only times some members of the [Twelve] could see her was on her birthdays, and not all of them.

The Italians didn’t get invited often, [My Hero] always suspected their involvement in the event that happened when Elizabeth was five, but since no proof was brought and Elizabeth was mostly fine they let it go. It may also help the fact that when I was asked about their other lives…I had answered that most of the time they tried to work for the betterment of the world?

Granted, it was a world where they stood at the top, but it was still a better one. Yeah, it was my fault that they got pardoned instead of becoming a splat. But what can I say…I…wasn’t very mature till the advent.

My power is great and might, but as such it also affects me, I liked the simple life I had while younger so I usually [Manifested] a version of me that was young, most of the time when I wasn’t on duty you would find a little girl version of me running around.

It all changed after the [Advent] of course, that one time [My Hero] asked me to leave and I did. Because I didn’t notice the implications of his words, nor did I think to look at his future outcomes from parallel realities…

And that brings us toward the [Advent], the moment when two [God]’s ascended on this planet…Most people talk about it as a great moment, the time when [The System] bridged the differences between powereds and mages, the moment when [Framework] and [Odyssey] fixed one of the biggest problems this world had. The [Tainted].

But to me? It was a nightmare, it was hell, it was…the second time I lost my parents.

“WHY CAN’T I GO TOO?!?!?? I HAVE ENOUGH MANA TO ASCEND TOO! LET ME GO!” I had screamed at the apparition of [My Hero], [My Father], [Framework].

“You need to understand Jenna, we need someone to hold the reins on the material plane. After going up there we will not be able to interfere with the mortal world. I need someone I can trust…” Said [Framework], no. Said my second father, the man who raised me. And the sole light on this cursed world that still existed.

“THIS WHOLE F#CKING WORLD CAN BURN FOR ALL I CARE!” I had screamed back as I let my power go, my form shifted from the little girl I had used for so long to my real form.

The one I still was using, the one no one knew about…I was tall, almost as tall as my foster father, the only difference was that my hair was blue and long and well… That I had curves where he had muscles.

“I care not for this world, for a world that will forget what you have done for them!” I screeched back at his apparition, focusing all my mana into my eyes to try and find a future where I could go with them…and finding nothing. It was like staring at a black hole, there weren’t any alternative realities where the man known as Jack Brighton or Jack Ashcroft and [Jenna Lewis] lived together as father and daughter.

“...Please Jenna…Understand me too, we didn’t want to do this. But Ethan didn’t leave us a choice. Do you think we wanted to [Ascend]?” Jack said back. I knew this, of course, the distaste Catherine had for [Gods]. And how little my foster father thought of them, so long they left him alone he wouldn’t mind them.

“...why must I stay here?” So I asked him that instead, trying to suppress the tears from my eyes, I knew the answer already of course. It was part of the reason I rather stayed as a little girl instead of this form…It was the reason why my [Juggernaut] form didn’t think too much.

“I want you to look after Elizabeth, we don’t think [The World] will try to pull a fast on us, but it’s better to be sure.” He said.

“...did you raise me as a shield for her?” It hurt to ask. I could see the pain in his eyes as the words left my mouth, but…it hurt to me too.

“....That was the original plan yes.” Jack said after a long sigh, “We found someone with levels of powers that only [The Beast Master] could match…if you count us out that is.”

She knew that of course, that the power between [The Twelve] wasn’t on the same level. That their weakest member could be defeated by an A-Tier, while their strongest member couldn’t be defeated by normal S-Tiers.

“But that stopped being the case when we started seriously thinking about raising you. You became what we wanted for a sister to Elizabeth…If only…” Jack left the words trailing.

Of course…it was…

“If only my power wasn’t something that could risk worsening her situation.” Jenna knew it, she had peeked at other realities close to them where she grew with Elizabeth, somehow if she got close to the girl before a certain age or before she matured into her power. Then the girl would turn crazy.

In the best-case scenario, she would end up in a coma, in the worst case Elizabeth would kill herself from the visions. Somehow her power wasn’t something the blonde girl could live with, something about her made the blonde girl run out of control.

It was the reason why she only was allowed to be near her on birthdays and parties.

“So I will not order you this as the leader of [The Twelve], I will not ask you to do this as someone who raised you. Nor as a [God].” The image of [Framework] turned into his normal form, not the bulky man he presented itself, nor the idol that Catherine crafted for him. But the image of a rugged military man in his prime. “Can you look after your sister while we are out?”

He made it sound like they were going on a trip or something. It was ridiculous.

“...fine, I will try to check if her powers are stable enough, she had them for a year now, right? “ She wasn’t sure how Elizabeth was at the moment.

“Her powers should stabilize in the next months, we stripped all the [Taint] from her and made sure her [Soul] and [Body] match. I’m sorry for Eleanore’s daughter, but…My family is more important.” Jack said in a cold tone.

“Do you want me to pass her any message? I will be checking on my baby sister when all of this calms down.” Was the last thing I said to him.

“No, just keep your distance for the first months after this. She has friends that who can care for her, when she starts her third year you can go to her.” Jack said before starting to blur, “Thank you Jenna….take care….of…your….sister….”

And like that, I was once more alone in this cursed world…Well, not alone I guess…

“Reporting in, update on file. ID# JUGGERNAUT.” I called to the [Twelve]’s base of operation. “Update physical description, scan for [Mana Wave] and [Mana Blueprint], update data file with current form as default:”

“[Juggernaut]? What happened?” The voice of one of the very few people among the [Twelve] that I could count as a friend asked back.

[The Tinkerer].

“Amelia? I need a favor…Can you start a monitoring in these cellphone IDs?” [My Hero] had asked me to leave Elizabeth alone for now, but it couldn’t hurt if I made sure she was okay right?

She was, after all, my baby sister.

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