The Dark Archer

Chapter 28

Kylie POV

Peter and I suited up immediately and I teleported us to the street where the news had last shown the Rhino. The man in mech wasn't far away, just up the street actually, but that wasn't the scary part. The aspect of the situation that made me sharply inhale was the fact that a little boy in a Spider-Man mask was facing the criminal down.

Peter quickly swung in and took care of the boy while I shot off an electrical arrow to neutralize the mech for the time being. I dashed in just as Peter sent the boy back to his mother, who was sobbing—now with relief—as she was held back by police. The crowd cheered as I joined Peter and a cop approached us with a megaphone, which Peter gladly took. He was always the one with a flair for the dramatic between the pair of us.

"You'll fight me! You'll fight me now, yeah?" Aleksei bellowed from within his weapon.

"On behalf of the fine people of New York City and real rhinos everywhere, we ask you to put your mechanized palms in the air," Peter ordered cockily through the megaphone. I couldn't help but giggle at the slightly veiled insult.

"Never! I crush you, I kill you! I destroy you!" Rhino roared.

"Do you want us to come over there so you can kill us?" Peter asked sarcastically.

"Yes!" Grunted Aleksei. I snatched the megaphone from Peter.

"We'll be right there!" I shouted before tossing away the device.

"There's no place like home, is there Strela?" Peter sighed. 

"Nope!" I exclaimed before dodging the swing Rhino took at me.

I zipped to the left and hit him with another electrical arrow as Peter swung by and picked up a manhole cover with his web. As the crook focused on me and my vexing archery, he failed to notice the slab of metal smack into the back of his mech. The manhole cover had hit its mark, but only proved to disorient the Russian.

Angrier than before, Aleksei charged me and managed to tackle me before I could dodge again. My shocking arrows had managed to shut down his mech's weapons systems, but failed to disable the mech entirely, which meant it was still capable of movement and therefore melee attacks. I groaned at the sudden rush of pain that greeted me, but I was not long crushed by the man before Pete swung in and yanked him off with one of his webs.

My little spider proceeded to slam the man and his mech into the asphalt. He punched a hole in the glass at the front of the machine and yanked the criminal out. What Peter didn't see was the knife that Aleksei had concealed behind his back. But I saw, and I rapidly grabbed an arrow and fired, forcing the arrow to teleport and hit the knife away. 

In the tenth of a second after I released the arrow, I hoped and prayed that I was strong enough this time to control my shot. Please don't let this be another Gwen. I can't lose Peter. Not now—or ever. Then time sped up again as my arrow disappeared from sight and reappeared behind the Russian man as it knocked his knife away, disarming him. I sighed in relief.

Peter gave the guy a solid punch, which knocked him out after all the other damage we put in. He turned and looked back at me, having noticed the arrow I'd shot to save him from a possible stabbing. While the crowd was cheering our victory, he jogged back over to me. With the entire crowd watching us raptly, Peter came to a stop in front of me before pulling me to my feet from my spot on the pavement. His hand came up and brushed my cheek as he tugged down my mesh mouth mask. He lifted the bottom of his mask so his lips were free before he smashed them to mine. I didn't see that coming.

Nonetheless, I was quick to respond, moving my lips against his—chastely though. There are children watching! I could feel Peter smile through the kiss, as if he knew what I was thinking. Our antics only made the crowd cheer louder than they had previously, and as we broke away they continued to whoop while I blushed under my raccoon mask. I saw Peter's grin before he pulled his mask back over it. I also lifted up my own mouth cover as we acknowledged the screaming people behind us.

"We're back in business, baby!" Peter shouted to them. Our people hollered back excitedly in response. Suddenly I heard static in my earpiece.

"—An explosion at the UN Accords meeting. 11 have been injured, and 12 are dead, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda. The primary suspect is the Winter Soldier, or James Buchanan Barnes. If you know anything about this man or his whereabouts, contact your local authorities immediately."

I looked up at Peter in alarm, wondering if he'd gotten the same alert I had. What the hell is going on?

But he appeared none the wiser about any of it. Then who clued me in? Tony? Nat? Dad? What happened while we were gone?

I had to figure out what happened to my family and fix it. At any cost. It may have been an inefficient, dysfunctional mess of a family, but it was my family. And God help anyone who tried to mess with it. I would get to the bottom of this, and I would make the punk responsible wish they'd never been born.

Wow, that was pretty violent.

*********************************

"You know that she is going to side with her father, don't you?" Asked a man of his boss.

"Hawkeye seems content to remain uninvolved. He is still claiming that he's retired," the white-haired man replied curtly.

"The boy will go where she does, talks of war and peace will not change his mind. There is nothing we can do to make them sign," the first man argued.

"SHIELD is still yet useful. Their files should prove valuable in persuading at least one of them to the winning side," the general dismissed.

"The world is a crazy place now. Monsters and magic, gods and realms, mutants and humans, heroes and villains. Nothing is sacred. Nothing is safe," the man rambled.

"That's why we have to act now. Talk to Stark, he claims that he already has connections. We can swing this our way, if we hurry," Ross ordered.

The other man hustled to do his bidding. When it came to turning loved ones against each other, the cold general was second only to one other—his enemy. Though Ross didn't know of him then, his adversary would prove to always be a step ahead of those he wished to topple.

Dark times were ahead—for heroes on both sides of the Accords.