Nate woke up. He looked around himself and saw that he was lying on a couch. He suddenly remembered what had happened before he lost his consciousness. He could still feel the squeeze on his neck that almost made him suffocate. The mere thought of what the stranger had revealed to him gave him chills.
"The council sent me to retrieve you. You are not supposed to be here Nathaniel."
"How do you even know my name?"
"Haven't you figured it out by now. God, I thought we were smart. Maybe you're the ugly duckling of the bunch."
"You mean you're me? But you don't look like you did last time."
"That wasn't me you idiot. I mean it was an alternate me. Still, we are not exactly the same person."
"How many of us are there?"
"An infinite number of course. Although each Nathaniel Richards is different, we all want the same thing : to correct or rectify all the universes. Imperfection, that just does not sit well with us.
"Why do you want me. It seems like you have enough of us as it is."
"You have power Nathaniel. More than most of us maybe even all of us. We believe that with the right tutelage we can morph you into our champion. We do not want you to become who you are bound to become otherwise. We're just not interested in another destroyer of universes."
"No! I fled that! I'll never become like him."
"Oh but you see, things rarely turn out as we want them to. If you don't come with us, you will become a Conqueror, someone whose sole goal is to destroy entire universes"
"I don't want to help you. I just want to help people. You have to let me go."
"You have no choice! You have to accomplish your destiny. So, stop resisting!"
"I'll never be like you. Like all of you."
He had lost consciousness soon after that. Why was he so special to them? Unlike what they said, he had no powers.
Nate found himself dreading of that psychopath finding him. He would do anything to avoid meeting him again but he also knew that it was necessary to take him down.
Suddenly, the door opened.
"Good you're awake." Billy told him with a smile.
"Where are the others?" Nate asked.
"They're all downstairs waiting for Elijah to wake up."
"Ok, great. Can you tell me what happened after I passed out?"
"Sure thing!"
After Billy had explained everything, they exited the room. Nate found himself in a hallway, that led to a flight of stairs. He was on the second floor of a building that looked old timey.
Billy told him that Patriot was sleeping on a bed located in a room on the ground floor.
"Oh, good you're awake. Elijah is still out." Teddy told him as he went down the stairs.
"It looks like he's having pretty agitated dreams" an unknown girl said.
Nate looked more closely and recognized the archer girl.
"So, you guys are the ones who saved us. Well, thank you very much, we are forever in your debt."
"Are you okay?" A second girl asked. "It looked like you had it pretty rough with that robot guy."
"Yes, I'm fine don't worry. Ok, we need to..."
He stopped as he heard Elijah waking up.
**********************************************
"Ok, so you guys really were helpful. Excuse me for doubting it but last time you fought someone you ended up in the hospital." Elijah said
"Wow, the nerves! Didn't you just pass out? You really are mental you know" the archer girl replied.
"What are they even doing here. Shouldn't they go home. By the way, where are we?"
"We're in the Sanctum Santorum." The third girl replied. "It belongs to Doctor Strange. It's the first place I thought of."
Iron Lad recognized her. She was the girl that helped the Avengers with the multiverse.
"Ok, so then we should go back to our headquarters." Elijah suggested.
"Wait! I think these girls can help us. Plus, they seem very nice." Billy said.
"Patriot is not wrong. We have to stay within ourselves. As grateful as we are to you, we can deal with this problem on our own." Iron Lad didn't really trust these people. He thought it would be best not to alter the dynamic of the group.
"Really? Well, good luck trying." The second girl told them.
They left fo their HQ. On the way there, Billy walked next to him. Nate saw that he wanted to ask a question.
"Go ahead."
"What?" Billy replied
"Ask your question."
"Oh well... Ok. So, how did you end up with an Iron man suit? I mean, you told us that you tole the suit from your past self or something. But it didn't look like an Iron Man suit, did it?"
"Well, after I arrived here, I wanted to recreate the old Avengers team. Of course, I didn't know that the Avengers were slowly reforming, but still, I think people need us. I thought that it would be best to choose symbols people already know. That's why I chose you three. And that's why I refashioned my suit into something people would recognize."
"I guess it makes sense. Wait, when you said you chose us, were there like other people?"
"I should not tell you, but there was one other guy that the algorithm selected. He's in prison, so I did not pick him."
"Okay interesting. Don't worry, I'll keep your secret."
"I don't doubt it" Nate said while smiling.
They finally arrived at the warehouse that served as HQ.
"So, what's our next move?" Elijah asked.
"For now, we rest. I think we're all extremely tired. We'll think of something in the morning."
"Okay, good night." Billy said.
"Good night everyone" Teddy replied.
"But,..." Elijah stopped as he crossed Nate's eyes. "Ok see you in the morning".
Nate was not at all tired. He just wanted some peace and quiet to devise a plan. He had an idea but needed to work out all the details in his head. It was time to take himself down. Or in this case, himselves.
YOU ARE READING
Young Avengers : Assembled
Action"The two individuals are engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The green one has just been thrown on the sidewalk and the grey monster prepares to give him another punch. What's happening? The monster has been thrown on the ground by a beam of energy, co...
