It took Jack almost twenty minutes to convince his mom that he wasn't upset with her. She admitted that she had known about his powers, about his school, about everything.

"I wanted to help but I wanted you to be safe, Jackie, so I couldn't train you the way I would have wanted to. I'm so sorry."

"Mom, it's fine. Honestly, I'm a little more worried about the fact that he was clearly teaming up with one of Steve's classmates."

"Steve?" She asked, sounding a bit confused.

Jack made introductions. Tony was nursing a broken arm, which was thankfully held in place by his armor so he wasn't worried about it being out of place. The others were taking stock and slowly righting the furniture that had been thrown in all directions.

"We need to get back to school." Natasha said. "Who was the student you saw?"

"Tyrone Johnson. Did anyone see Tandy Bowen?"

They all shook their heads.

Jack sighed. "Alright, let's go."

"Jack." His mom stopped him as the others began to head for where they had landed. "I want to show you something."

Steve frowned, but Jack waved him off. "I'll be fine. You guys get back to the school, I'll get back one way or another."

She took him into the guest room and pulled a small box out of a little compartment on top of the shelf.

"If you want this, it always has been the mark of a Taskmaster. I changed yours when I found it in his closet, so if you'd like it...."

The white cape had gold embroidery all along the edges, the pattern repeated in black inside the gold. The hood had been removed.

Jack picked it up slowly and looked at it. "How do I put it on?"

His mother helped him put it on, laying the gold chain that held it in place across the front of his shirt.

"It really does suit you... I'm not sure I like that."

Jack smiled. "Think of it like this, Mom. I'm changing the legacy."

She laughed. "Fair enough. I also thought you might like to try a new weapon, if you take after your mom."

She showed him the thin, braided whip. Jack took it and grinned when he could immediately envision repeating the moves he'd seen his mother use against Tony Masters earlier.

"Cool."

Kimberly laughed and ruffled his hair. "Let's get you over to the school so you can show your old man how it's done."

--------------

More chaos was ensuing when they returned to the school. It seemed that Tyrone had transported Masters and his group straight there and they had attacked immediately. Kimberly pulled her helmet back down and unhooked her whip from her belt.

"Ready, sweetheart?" She looked over at her son. He grinned at her.

"Man, if I'd known you were a superhero when I was six, I would have told everyone. Maybe it's a good thing we were kind of in the witness protection program."

She laughed. "Alright, smart stuff. Let's get this underway."

Jack nodded and unhooked his own whip from the belt his mom had given him.

"Masters!" Kimberly roared as she and Jack began to run across the wooden bridge.

"How lovely, a proper family reunion!" He called as he stepped up to the end of the bridge.

"You might be my father, but I will never accept you as family." Jack snapped the whip out.

"I'd just like to point out that I've made a sensible life choice. You and your mother could have had anything you wanted, I could have provided it all-"

"Means to an end, old man?" He sneered. "No thank you. I'll do the right thing."

"How disappointing." Masters sighed. "Ladies, you're up!"

He stepped back and two teenagers that Jack kind of recognized took his place.

"As much as I'd like to see how you've kept up throughout the years, Honey, and how my boy has been learning, I've got better things to do. Miss Lemke and Miss Darkhölme will deal with you."

Jack frowned. Marilyn was the girl who didn't talk to anyone, who he sat next to in class. Raven was an NPCS student in one of his other classes who had a penchant for shapeshifting.

"Okay, Mom. We have to get through this and get after him. We're the only ones who can fight him off." Jack said quietly. "The girl on the left is a shapeshifter, and the girl on the right is... quiet. I don't know much about her, other than that she's a telepath."

"Shouldn't be that hard, I've got a couple dozen years on her from the looks of it."

Jack shook his head, chuckling a little. "I was wondering where I got that from."