Contest of Champions

52

Veers and I stop by a fallen log by the riverside to eat our last meal in the arena, for good or ill. Birds sing in the trees as I swing the pack down from my back, pulling out the sandwiches and handing one to Veers.

"Thanks," she says, unwrapping it and taking a bite. "Mm, this is good."

"Best sandwiches in Queens," I tell her, gesturing to the wrapping, then fall silent when I think of Peter. I take a bite of the sandwich and resolve again to leave this arena, to fulfill my promise to him and Gamora and Cassie. With Pietro dead, I need to win this for Cassie as well, now.

"Just Clint and Natasha now," Veers says, taking a swig of water from the canteen. "They're still allies, you say?"

I nod. "They appeared to be working in tandem when I was at the Gauntlet, yes. I doubt they've split up since then." I remember when they had been drawn at the reaping, standing together mentioning something about Budapest. They seem to have a history and so will most likely remain allies, at least until the end. We will see what happens when we meet later. Unless they have some sort of plan like we do....

"They know there are only four contenders left, including them," Veers observes, munching on her sandwich. I take a bite of mine and feel a twinge of sadness thinking about Peter getting one of these every day before that fateful Reaping. Truly, these are good sandwiches. "Which of us died, however, they don't know."

"That's to our advantage," I say, holding out my hand for the water canteen. Veers hands it to me and I take a sip from it, closing my eyes briefly as the cool water runs down my throat. It is refreshing, especially after our fight with Wong. "They don't know which combination of Kree, Asgardian, or DimJump they still have to face."

"Or if they're facing us separately or in an alliance," Veers finishes. "We have the advantage here, as you said." She doesn't mention that we had the advantage in other ways: we are Kree and Asgardian, and they are only human.

We finish eating our sandwiches and drinking our water in silence, contemplating the approaching fight. I run everything I know about Clint and Natasha through my head.

Clint Barton, Hawkeye, of District Two, HYDRA's district. A father and an archer, an expert with the bow. A man with heart. But I'm sure that, once I get within close range of him, it will be easy to kill him, no matter my grudging respect for him.

Natasha Romanoff, on the other hand, will probably be a harder target to eliminate. The Black Widow, also of District Two, has shown marvelous skill in hand-to-hand combat and is quite good with her pistols and batons. She is one to take out from farther away, with a dagger, perhaps, or with my spear. We'll see how it plays out.

Both Natasha and Clint have a history together, judging by their camaraderie, and they will most likely be used to fighting together as allies. Veers and I will not have the same level of understanding in an alliance that they will, but we will make up for it by not being mere mortals like the HYDRA contenders.

Between my magic and skill with a spear and Veers' own hand-to-hand combat expertise mixed in with her photon blasts, I am hopeful in our chances to win this. Besides, we fought well together against Drax and Mantis, against Carnage, and just several minutes ago against Wong. It will just come down to the battle itself, hoping we can get in a killing shot before they do. Because neither Kree nor Asgardian are truly immortal, as so many Contests have demonstrated.

"I'll do some more recon," Veers volunteers as we finish with our sandwiches, taking a final drink of water and brushing the crumbs from her hands. "I'll pin down their location so we can go confront them.

I nod, standing and crumpling the sandwich paper up in my hands. For a moment I try to figure out what to do with it before tossing it on the ground beside the log. It's not really littering; we are in the arena, after all, not out in the actual woods. Besides, why place garbage in my pack when I don't have to? "All right. Meet you back here shortly."