Avengers Academy (2010 series) #36

Avengers Academy is closed due to the Avengers Vs X-Men event. Jeremy Briggs (Alchemist) invited some of the students to his Company's HQ because he had invented a 'cure' for superpowers in an aerosol he called Clean Slate. Veil had already taken it because her power to turn into gas was gradually making her fade away. Hazmat and Mettle now took it in order to have a normal relationship with each other, the radioactive & toxic girl Jenny Takeda could get rid of her protective suit and the boy with the skull face and red metal skin Ken Mack became flesh and blood.

But when Briggs revealed his true plan to saturate the world with Clean Slate to remove most superpowers he faced a rebellion. He had to transfer the consciousness of his robot ally Jocasta to another of her bodies. And he revealed that the other students had also been breathing the gas so they were depowered also, except Reptil and White Tiger who had their magic amulets taken away. Striker seemed OK with it but the other 5 (Finesse, Lightspeed, Reptil, White Tiger and X-23) had to fight Jeremy's minions (Big Zero, Coat Of Arms and Enchantress, all ex-members of the Young Masters Of Evil) until Finesse caused an explosion which dropped the 5 through a big hole in the floor to a subbasement.

The 5, some injured, some with skills unaffected by CS, found their way to where Coat-Of Arms was studying the amulets. Meanwhile Striker tricked Enchantress into giving him a vial of an antidote to CS, which *permanently* restores powers, and drank some of it. Briggs saw this and used his Alchemist power to turn Striker's electricity power against himself. But Veil (Maddy Berry) took the vial which still contained 2 doses to Jenny and Ken and told them what was happening. She offered to take 1 herself but begged 1 of the other 2 to drink the other. After much soul-searching Ken drank 1, and then Jenny drank the other rather than let Maddy condemn herself to death. Last issue ended with radioactive/toxic Jenny, still without her Hazmat suit, stalking off to get revenge on Briggs.

Now read on:-

Striker (Brandon Sharpe) is still suffering from being ravaged by his own electricity, and Enchantress (Sylvie Lushton, not the Asgardian 1) has enclosed him in a magic forcefield. Jenny Takeda arrives and blasts her and Jeremy Briggs with a bolt of radioactivity. Sylvie shields them from that and they escape. Jenny sees that Brandon's face has radiating scars (rather like Molecule Man). Ken and Maddy join them, and Ken hasn't changed his appearance. Sylvie's forcefield fades and Jenny urges the other 3 to run away before her radiation/toxicity hurts them. Brandon and Maddy obey but Ken moves closer. He says he believes for his power to manifest his skin needs to be flayed off like Norman Osborn did to him. Jenny begs him to stay away and remain normal but he comes close and holds her saying she'll need his power and *he* needs *her*. They share 1 last kiss as his skin burns away. Brandon and Maddy return with Jenny's Hazmat suit and they all prepare to stop Jeremy's Clean Slate plan.

Meanwhile the depowered 5 are fighting Coat Of Arms (Lisa Molinari). Her Coat gives her magic powers and 4 extra arms. 2 of her arms are wielding Reptil's prehistoric stone and White Tiger's amulets of the Tiger God. She can withdraw many other things from the Coat's pockets, ans he's currently waving 3 bladed weapons and a shield which she uses to ward off the adamantium-coated claws of X-23 (Laura Kinney). Without her healing factor Laura is slowly dying of adamantium poisoning. Lightspeed's assumed the leadership role (being the most experienced because she was a superheroine (in Power Pack) as a pre-teen). She tells Reptil (Humberto Lopez) and WT (Ava Ayala) to grab their amulets but COA claims that the artefacts prefer to be with *her*. And she proves it by getting the fossilised stone to generate a dinosaur head to bite 'Berto, and the Tiger amulets to blast Ava.

While X-23 and Finesse (Jeanne Foucault) keep Molinari busy Julie gives Ava and 'Berto a pep talk, but they have their own reasons for not wanting the artefacts. Ava believes her amulets are addictive and she's suffering withdrawal symptoms, but she doesn't want to get as addicted as COA is to magic. Humberto has been told that he's a 'chosen 1' with a destiny, but he's not sure he wants it. And also their artefacts have turned them both feral in the past. Julie's answer is that they won't be incontrol of their lives until they own what they are. If they don't want their powers then fight some other way. Following her own advice she picks up a blowtorch and burns the foe with it. But COA just buries a dagger in her shoulder. Lightspeed falls back hurt but says that at least she's now got a dagger. However White Tiger takes it off her and and she and Reptil leap to the attack. They grab hold of their talismans and heave in opposite directions.

Ava Ayala finds herself in a white space facing the Tiger God, the power behind her amulets. She says she wants the power back but it points out that she said it was a curse when she lost control, ie when *it* was allowed to run free. It says that its power comes with a price. It asks for 1 day of freedom each cycle of the Moon, and she agrees. But it also wants to know why *she* should have its power. It dismisses her reasons until she gets angry and says it's her *legacy*, she *is* the White Tiger. And *now* it's happy.

Humberto Lopez finds himself in a world of dinosaurs and he's greeted by an old hair-covered humanoid woman who he recognises from his visions. She names herself the Hag Of The Pits, calls him the chosen 1 and claims she created his amulet for the chanpion who will save dinosaur world but might die in the process. She offers him the power back but only if he accepts the consequences. He accepts.

Coat Of Arms has been knocked down and when she recovers she sees White Tiger with her glowing amulets round her neck and a dagger in her hand, and Reptil as a triceratops. Lisa Molinari pulls 6 stabbing weapons out of her coat but Ava and X-23 chop her extra (magic) arms off and the dinosaur barrels into her. And the fight's over.

Hazmat, Mettle, Striker and Veil join them. Julie is shocked to see Brandon's scarred face but he dismisses it and says they've got to stop Briggs. Jeanne gives priority to restoring Laura's power because she's dying without it. Brandon says the antidote is under heavy security and it will need them all to get to it (why exactly?), but Jenny points out that Jeremy's releasing Clean Slate now! So they have a choice to make.

It seems they prioritise  Laura because the next thing we see is Mettle and triceratops-Reptil smashing through the vault door into the room full of vials. Lightspeed tells Striker to disable the rest of the security with an electromagnetic pulse. Then X-23 and others drink the antidote. Finesse points out that there's not enough antidote here to repower all the superchars in the world, and Veil suggests that Briggs probably didn't intend to do much repowering. Reptil worries that the world will be wide open for an alien invasion or a cosmic crisis (as occur with increasing frequency on Marvel Earth), so the re-energised X-23 says they'd better make sure it doesn't come to that.

They rush up to the roof where they see Briggs and Enchantress with a missile launching facility. And the missiles are already in the air.