Next Avengers: Secret of the Spider

Part 18

Nova and James faced off in the clearing, both barely touched from the previous battle. It was time to see if the new challenger was really ready to take on the undisputed leader of the team. The rest of the team stood in the sidelines, watching excitedly.
"I bet Nova," Hawkeye said to Azari, looking over at him.
"I'm sticking with James," Azari replied.
"James," Penny agreed.
"Nova," Pym argued.
"I say Nova," Peter said. "This is a hard one, but Nova's got more experience."
"James will win," Torin replied. "I'm sure of it."
"You ready?" Nova asked, his hands blazing with blue energy as he hovered.
"Oh yeah," James replied, getting into a fight stance.
"Well, in that case," Nova said, flying down in a streak of blue and jamming James into the ground. Everyone jumped a little, Torin even flinching. James grunted as he pulled himself out, fighting to ignore his throbbing, sore chest. Nova had his hands in fists at his sides, hovering nearby.
"I'm not done," James grunted, throwing his shield. Nova easily dodged it and shot at James, knocking him over. He landed and walked over, arms crossed.
"You know, this doesn't seem like a fair fight to me," he said. "Let's even the playing field. I don't use my energy blasts or fly more than a foot above the ground. Deal?" He held his hand out. James took it and used it as leverage to punch Nova in the face and then follow through with his shield, sending him staggering back.
"Deal," James replied, running towards him. Nova recovered quickly, throwing up his forearms in a block.
"Now this is a fight!" Nova crowed, shoving James off and kicking him in the stomach. James took a couple steps back, not really fazed. He ran up and jump-kicked Nova, sending them both to the ground. James got up first, rearing his arm back and shield-punching Nova in the jaw. Nova didn't react for a couple seconds, kicking James off in the gut, knocking him on his back. Nova grunted and stood up, one hand on his head. James got up quick, throwing his shield. Nova fell back, his legs bent back as far as they go.
"Yikes," he said, standing up. James was already there, foot ready. He kicked Nova in the chin, knocking him over. Nova's head throbbed angrily, his vision unfocused. He groaned, sitting up and holding his head with one hand.
"Give up?" James asked.
"Never," Nova replied, standing up and hovering barely a foot off the ground, fly-tackling James and slamming him through multiple trees.
"Holy sh-" Hawkeye started, backing up and getting his mouth covered by Penny.
"Whoa," Azari exclaimed, jumping out of his way as well.
"I didn't know anyone could go that fast," Torin said.
"That's Nova for you," Peter said. "His nickname is the human rocket." The two finally came to a stop a couple dozen trees later, both unmoving.
"What happened?" Pym asked, growing to his normal size nearby.
"I have no idea," Azari replied, the second one there. Torin flew over to James and tried to get him to wake up, while Peter did the same for Nova.
"How are we gonna call the winner for this one?" Hawkeye asked.
"I dunno," Penny replied with a shrug. "Vote or rematch?" James woke up first, his whole torso burning.
"He won," was the first thing he said.
"Really?" Pym asked skeptically.
"Yeah," James replied with a nod. "He won." Peter pulled Nova's helmet off, still trying to wake him up.
"Think you have him a concussion," Peter eventually said, sitting back. "He's sort of prone to those."
"I think I can wake him up," Hawkeye said, drawing an arrow and shooting it before anyone could protest. The arrowhead, which was a large cylinder, opened up and splashed Nova with more water than what seemed to fit in the arrow.
"Whoa," Azari said. "You made that?"
"It actually worked!" Hawkeye exclaimed. "And yeah, made it myself. I borrowed a couple of Tony's things, though, so don't tell him." Nova coughed and spluttered, sitting up instantly to get the water out of his eyes and mouth.
"What the heck?" he asked, wiping his eyes.
"Splash arrow," Hawkeye said, hanging upside down from the branch he was on. "You're welcome."
"You okay?" James asked, sitting up with a grunt.
"Yeah," Nova replied, smiling over at him. "Good job, Cap." James smiled back, honored.
"Thanks." Something rustled in the woods, but only Hawkeye heard it. Everyone else was talking to James and Nova. He swung up back onto his branch, grabbing an arrow and drawing it. He slid off the branch and walked towards the sound, pulling his arrow to his chin. Another rustle and he shot, the arrow knocking something out of the tree. He walked over, pulling away the branches to reveal Kier's unmoving form, wrapped in cords and barely conscious. The boy opened his eyes a little bit when Hawkeye walked up, but then closed them with a sigh.
"Whatever you want to do," he mumbled, his voice hoarse and quiet. "Do it quickly."
"What are you doing here, you weasel?" Hawkeye hissed, drawing an arrow with an electric tip and aiming it at Kier's chest.
"Dying in agony," Kier replied, not even bothering to look this time. "What does it look like?"
"You know what I meant," Hawkeye snapped. "Now answer me and I might not shoot you."
"I came because I saw a vision of your new ally," Kier mumbled. "I wanted to investigate who he was. My powers haven't exactly been prime lately, though, so I couldn't get back out." Hawkeye sighed, relaxing his bowstring.
"If this is one of your illusions, you're dead," he snapped.
"It wouldn't hurt this much if it was," Kier replied. Hawkeye scoffed and picked Kier up, throwing him over his shoulder.
"Don't make me tell the others about you, bird," he snapped.
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"We're here," Raptor said, landing the ancient Quinjet outside the Biodome.
"It's cold," the boy with flaming hair said, shivering.
"It's fine," the girl said.
"We have to go," Program said, standing up.
"Yep," Thunderbird added, walking out the back. "We just gotta climb up."
"Or get rides," Bonfire said.
"Find a partner, groundies," Raptor said, growing pterodactyl wings. Program jumped on his back, Thunderbird jumped on Bonfire, the flame boy's, and Icestorm, the girl, pulled out a surfboard. They all took off at once in a burst of wind, fire and frost, flying towards the open panel. They all dropped in without a sound, landing and setting their partners down.
"Where's the bird?" Bonfire asked. Program closed his eyes, thinking and focusing.
"I can't tell," he said. "I'm getting screwed up by the Iron Man technology."
"Well, time to do it the forceful way," Raptor growled, turning his arms and legs into muscular talons.
"Yes!" Bonfire crowed, his hair blazing up and his hands clenching into fists, also igniting.
"Lets go," Thunderbird said, running towards the woods. "We'll catch 'em by surprise."
"Let's do this," Icestorm said, freezing her whole body. The group charged into the woods, catching the group by surprise.
"Give us back our brother," Program commanded.
"Or its gonna get ugly," Raptor growled. Hawkeye grabbed Kier's mouth, making sure he didn't call out.
"We don't got the bird," Nova snapped, getting up and staring them down. Thunderbird walked up and glared at him, matching him for height.
"Yes you do," he growled. A storm started brewing above them, thunder crackling. Azari walked up beside him, eyes narrowed. The two groups faced each other down, glaring as intently as they could.
"I'm giving you to them," Hawkeye mumbled, lowering Kier to the ground.
"Hold it," Kier mumbled. "I wanna see the fight."
"Nope," Hawkeye said, dragging him out into the clearing. "Hey, freaks! I got your birdie!"
"Hand him over," Raptor snarled. Hawkeye looked over at Kier, smiled and looked back up at them.
"I think I'll keep him as a pet," he said.
"That's it!" Raptor yelled, lunging at him.
"Hey!" James yelled back, throwing up his shield and deflecting the blow. "We are not fighting."
"I am," Bonfire said, shooting at Pym. A fight broke out then and there, everyone attacking everyone else. It was pandemonium.
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"Torin?" Torin opened her eyes, looking up into Nova's face. The first thing she saw was that his nose was covered in blood, old and new.
"What happened?" she asked, sitting up.
"I have no idea," Nova replied, wiping his nose on his arm. "You okay?"
"Yes," Torin replied, crossing her legs. "Are we the only ones awake?"
"Yeah," Nova replied, sounding exhausted. "I've tried everyone else, and Peter just isn't here." He grunted as he lay down, setting his hands on his chest. "Ow."
"Are you okay?" Torin asked, looking down at him.
"No," he groaned. "I can't breathe through my nose."
"It'll help if you sit up," she said.
"I know," he mumbles. "It's just hard to stay awake." Torin grabbed his hands and pulled him into a sitting position without much effort.
"At least try," she said. "I don't want to be left alone."
"M'kay," Nova replied, rubbing his nose and sniffing. "Ugh."
"Should we try to wake the others?" Torin asked.
"Probably," Nova mumbled, standing up. "Okay." Torin stood up as well, looking around at the destroyed clearing.
"This must have been some battle," she said.
"I bet it was too," Nova replied, sitting down beside Hawkeye. "Wow. This kid's got some nasty burns on his arms."
"Maybe it's best we don't wake him up," Torin said, kneeling beside James.
"Yeah," Nova said, getting up and walking over to Azari. "'Zari. Get your a** moving, bro." He nudged Azari, making him grunt and grimace. Nova scoffed. "Azari," he said, shoving his arm. "Hey. Panther-storm."
"Shut up," Azari grumbled, lazily hitting Nova on the arm with a fist.
"No," Nova growled in a deep voice unlike him, shaking Azari. "Get up or be destroyed." That got Azari moving.
"Dude," he laughed. "I didn't expect that from you!" Nova shrugged.
"It just sorta comes." Torin bent over and kissed James until he woke up, which didn't take long.
"Welcome back," Torin whispered, as she pulled away.
"I need to pass out more often," James said, sitting up. Torin smiled and blushed, kissing on the cheek once more before flying towards Pym. Between Nova, Torin, and the ever growing conscious cast of characters, everyone was awake pretty fast. Now it was time to determine who needed medical attention. Hawkeye was pretty obvious. Dragon, after being shot with an electro arrow, had attacked him. He had ignited his hands and grabbed Hawkeye's wrists, twisting them. It didn't end well. Everyone else was relatively fine. Nova's nose was broken really badly, but that was helped quickly. Peter had run off to find Tony, who had administered medical help. Everything ended overall well, although Hawkeye was NOT happy being unable to shoot his bow.
"There's just one question left," Tony said to Peter and Sam, in his lab where the kids could hear them having a meeting. "How is there an organized mutant army living just outside our door?"
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Sorry for the long wait, guys! PARCC testing and musical rehearsals and concerts... Oh my.
(Don't worry, only one person'll die in the next three or so chapters.)
-Runs