Marvel: Tomorrow Knights (Chapter 7)
Title: Marvel: Tomorrow Knights
Chapter 7: Avenging Knights and Warriors
Author: V5_Vendetta
Fandom: Marvel Universe
Disclaimer: Marvel's, not mine.
Significant Characters: Knights (OCs), CSA Avengers (OCs), New Warriors (OCs)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Arachne and Fearless's secret is uncovered, just in time for the tenuous alliance between the Knights and the New Warriors to really kick off.
“All right, Arachne clearly recognizes you four, at least on the basis of the identities you’ve appropriated . . .” Fearless said. She turned to the other three. “And who are you supposed to be?”
“Slipstream,” the lightning-trimmed young man replied.
“Incendiary,” the fire-goggled young man offered.
“Themis,” the black-and-silver-clad young woman introduced.
“Themis . . . like the goddess of justice in ancient myth,” Artemis remarked.
“Yeah,” Themis admitted. “Like you’re named after the divine huntress of Greek myth.”
“Ok, so you’re both mythology buffs,” Iron Cage grumbled. “What’s the point of this?”
“You’re the ones who summoned us, why don’t you tell us what the point of this is?” Prowler retorted.
“I get it!” Arachne exclaimed, looking at Incendiary and Themis. “You two are like reverse-gendered versions of Firestar and Justice!”
“Something like that,” Incendiary murmured amusedly.
“Excitable, isn’t she?” Themis remarked.
“Not usually . . .” Arachne answered with a heavy blush underneath her mask.
“What inspired you guys?” Nightshade asked.
“What inspired you?” Slipstream inquired.
“Ok, I figure we have pretty much the same motives in doing what we do, but why did you choose to call yourselves New Warriors?” Tsukikishi asked.
“To redeem their name,” Night Thrasher replied simply. “And by extension, to redeem the name of superheroes.”
“I think we can work together,” Fearless suggested. “Pool our resources . . .”
“Sounds good,” Night Thrasher replied. He narrowed his eyes beneath his mask as he looked at Arachne.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Arachne asked.
“Where did you get that costume?” Night Thrasher asked.
“From an ally who wishes to remain anonymous,” Fearless cut in.
“She can speak for herself,” Night Thrasher snarled. “Now . . . where’d the costume come from?”
“Why do you want to know?” Arachne asked.
“My suit’s analytical systems cross-referenced that costume with the schematics of other high-tech costumes,” Night Thrasher replied. “Do the initials ‘T.S.’ ring a bell?”
“Stark!?!” Winter Soldier exploded. “He made that costume for you? You’re working with him?” He drew a semiautomatic energy pistol from one of the holsters on his person and pointed it at Arachne. “Traitor.”
“Winter, stop!” Nightshade exclaimed. “There has to be a reasonable explanation for this!”
“What reason is there?!” Winter Soldier yelled. “She sold us out! She’s working with the bastard who set this nightmare into motion!”
“He’s not the same person he was fifty years ago!” Arachne insisted. “He realizes what he’s done and he wants to help stop it!”
“And you believed him?” Winter Soldier asked coldly, still pointing the pistol at Arachne. “Naïve little spider.”
“I got that costume for her,” Fearless admitted. “I requested Stark to build it for her.”
Winter Soldier switched targets in a blink, pointing the pistol at Fearless. Arachne lunged at Winter Soldier in a blur, grabbing his gun arm and twisting it behind his back. Unfortunately, the gun went off in his hand while she was twisting his arm. Everyone around them gasped in shock when they saw who had been hit by the blast.
Iron Cage didn’t much look worse for wear, having nigh-unbreakable skin, but that didn’t mean the blast didn’t hurt. He glared at Winter Soldier. “Mother#$%&, you went too far.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” Winter Soldier snarled lowly. “They betrayed us. They took Stark’s blood money.”
“Winter, stop it,” Nightshade pleaded. “You don’t think Arachne and Fearless would know if Stark can’t be trusted?”
“I won’t forgive him!” Winter Soldier snarled. “He’s the reason I don’t have a grandfather!”
“What . . .” Artemis uttered, stunned.
“The original Winter Soldier is my adoptive grandfather,” Winter Soldier spat. “The child he adopted as his own is the daughter of Sharon Carter and Steven Rogers, and that daughter gave birth to me.”
“No wonder you hate Tony Stark so much . . .” Iron Fist mused. “To never know the man your mother would have called father . . . it must be a pain unlike any other.”
“I don’t give a damn about his pain,” Iron Cage snarled. “The boy’s a loose cannon. We can’t take the chance that he’s gonna go ape-slag and try to kill us.”
“You pointed a gun at me,” Arachne hissed at Winter Soldier. “Then you pointed a gun at Fearless. Is that how much you hate Tony Stark, that you’re going to kill everyone you think is associated with him? Newsflash: Do you think your grandfather would be proud of what you’ve done?”
“Are you guys always like this?” Archaeida asked.
“Not exactly,” Tsukikishi replied. “Nobody knew about the Stark connection until Night Thrasher blew it.”
Night Thrasher would have said something, only Archaeida raised her hand to cut him off. “I feel something moving toward us,” she said. “Moving fast.”
“What is it?” Night Thrasher asked.
Arachne’s spider-sense went off, her perceptual time flow slowing down. She activated the visual enhancements of her costume, seeing a hovercraft slicing through the air with phenomenal speed. Beside it were three flying figures moving at about the same speed as the hovercraft. With her technologically magnified vision, she recognized those figures as Iron Man, Warbird, and Thor.
“It’s the Avengers!” Arachne shouted.
“Avengers?!” Archaeida asked.
“Did you lead them here?!” Prowler asked the Knights.
“No, did you?!” Iron Cage retorted, not in the mood after being accidentally shot by his own teammate.
“It doesn’t matter,” Night Thrasher said. “Scatter. All of you. They can’t follow all of us at once.”
Arachne brutally threw Winter Soldier aside and jumped off the bridge, firing a web-line and swinging away. Archaeida materialized a tight web-like line and swung on it in the opposite direction. Fearless detached her batons and extended energy grapnels, using them to swing away in another direction. Nightshade teleported away with Winter Soldier, while the Black Cat swung away on a cable line. Incendiary and Themis used their pyrokinetic and telekinetic abilities, respectively, to fly as fast and as far as they could. Slipstream bolted at super-speed and the others made their escape the best way they possibly could.
Inside the hovercraft, Captain America watched the scattering unlicensed heroes. “They’re smarter than one would think.” He looked to his teammates that were still inside the hovercraft. “Spider-Man, go after the Spider-Women. Blitzkrieg, follow the speedster. Iron Man, Warbird, and Thor will follow the swingers and flyers. Arcane, stay here and see if you can make things go our way. Hulk, Sting, you two are our weapons of last resort.”
“Oh, goody,” Sting remarked sarcastically.
Spider-Man threw himself out of the hovercraft and shot a web-line from the back of his wrist, swinging on it. “Now . . . which one do I go after first?” he wondered to himself. “The one called Arachne, or the other one?” He thought for a moment and then . . . “Forget it.” He turned in one direction and swung there.
Blitzkrieg ran after Slipstream, the two racing across the river so fleet of foot they were. They made it onto dry land, continuing their race so quickly that they were invisible to the un-enhanced eye. Their presence could be felt, though, in the form of intense wind pressure in their wake.
“You really ought to stop, you know?” Blitzkrieg called out.
“You think you’re faster than me?” Slipstream asked. “Bring it on!” He performed a tight U-turn and sped toward Blitzkrieg, who charged at him at super-speed. The two punched each other, the force of their respective blows enhanced by the momentum they had gained from their race. The sonic boom resulting from the connecting blows shattered every window within a three-block radius.
However, it wasn’t like either speedster was done. They raced around the city, exchanging vicious blows at each pass. They were moving so fast that they were almost ripping up the asphalt on which they ran. Not only were they racing on the city streets, they were running up and across the metropolitan spires and fighting each other there as well.
“You’re good,” Blitzkrieg admitted.
“Thanks, so are you,” Slipstream answered.
“But I’m better!” both speedsters simultaneously averred.
“We’ll see,” Blitzkrieg vowed.
“Oh, yeah, we’ll see,” Slipstream retorted. “Rather, I’ll see you in the dust!”
As the speedsters battled, Winter Soldier and Nightshade teleported all over the city, trying to throw the Avengers off their scent. Unfortunately, it seemed that no matter where it was they teleported, they couldn’t get away from Iron Man, Warbird, and Thor. Winter Soldier was honestly getting fed up, and to be really honest he didn’t even want to run. He wanted to fight.
The next time Nightshade teleported herself and Winter Soldier, Iron Man locked onto them and fired. Nightshade teleported, while Winter Soldier dodged to his left and withdrew a laser rifle. He locked in an energy pack and set the rifle’s lethality to maximum level. Once that was over with, which only took a mere two seconds, he pointed his rifle up at Iron Man and fired.
Iron Man almost didn’t dodge in time, but his reflexes were comparable to a speedster’s, ensuring his survival. He fired his repulsors at Winter Soldier, who dodged with inhuman alacrity. “Samuel James Carter, you are under arrest for the following reasons: battery of federal super-agents, unlicensed vigilantism, destruction of federal property, and possession of illegal Phalanx implants. If you surrender without incident, you may be pardoned and not forced to have your paranormal abilities suppressed. Resistance will net you a sentence to the Raft.”
Winter Soldier looked up at Iron Man. “Two words. Screw you.” He cocked the rifle and opened automatic fire, peppering Iron Man with a fusillade of energy bursts. Iron Man crossed his arms in front of his face and generated an energy shield to block the barrage. Once it was over, he plunged into a high-speed dive, hoping to take Winter Soldier by surprise. Winter Soldier deliberately overloaded the energy pack in his rifle and threw it at Iron Man just as the armored Avenger was approaching the ground.
Winter Soldier threw himself out of the way just as the energy rifle exploded upon contact with Iron Man, who barely had time to generate another shield. Of course, since Iron Man hadn’t had time to create a full shield, the blast still knocked him for a loop. The force of the explosion rattled the sensors in his armor and Winter Soldier viciously took advantage of that, grabbing Iron Man’s arm and viciously tossing him to the ground. He then drew a sidearm and pointed it at Iron Man’s head.
“Time to go,” he snarled.
“Winter, stop!” Nightshade called out.
“Why?” He energized the pistol.
“Because he’s not the one you really want to kill. It’s Stark.”
“One Iron Man’s just as good as another. They’re all traitors and sellouts, anyway.”
“It doesn’t work that way!” Nightshade teleported to Winter Soldier’s side and made a grab for his weapon. Winter Soldier yanked his arm away to prevent her from grabbing it, which also prevented him from being able to shoot Iron Man.
“Why not?” Winter Soldier was even grimmer than usual, as he resumed pointing his sidearm at Iron Man. Fortunately, both Iron Man’s body and armor systems recovered very quickly, thus enabling him to point a repulsor at Winter Soldier.
“If that’s what you want,” the armored Avenger said. “Count of ten. If neither of us backs down, we both go straight to our Maker. That fine with you?”
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
“Four.”
“Five.”
“Six.”
“Seven.”
“Stop it!” Nightshade cried out. “Both of you stop it!”
“Eight.”
Winter Soldier’s trigger finger tightened. “Nine.”
Iron Man and Winter Soldier glared at each other. “Stop!” Nightshade cried out. “Gott in Himmel, stop!”
Winter Soldier looked back at Nightshade with something resembling sadness in his eyes. “Good-bye . . . Mina.” He turned to Iron Man and both said, at the same time . . .
“Ten.”
Both Iron Man and Winter Soldier fired their weapons simultaneously. Winter Soldier was downed by a repulsor blast, but his reflexes were fast enough to enable him to put an energy burst through Iron Man’s helmet. The two young men lay still, unmoving . . . and then Winter Soldier’s body quivered, as though he were holding in laughter.
“Winter . . . ?” Nightshade asked.
“I’m alive,” Winter Soldier murmured. “Healing factors . . . gotta love them.”
Just then, the Avengers hovercraft landed in front of them, Captain America jumping out to confront Winter Soldier and Nightshade when he spotted the injured Iron Man. Without a second thought, he moved to Iron Man’s side. “Iron Man? Are you . . . ?”
“Hell . . . can’t focus . . . can’t concentrate . . . can barely . . . make words . . .”
Captain America looked up at Winter Soldier. “What did you do to him?”
“It’s a neural stunner,” Winter Soldier replied. “Set high enough, it can render the target brain-dead. In this case, his nanotech regeneration protected him from the worst of it, but he’s going to have a hard time forming sentences for a while.”
Sting came out of the hovercraft and looked at the grim tableau in front of her. “Captain . . . ?”
“Take Iron Man and get him out of here,” Captain America replied without taking his eyes off Winter Soldier.
“What about you?” Sting asked.
“The so-called Soldier is mine.”
“The last time, you got . . .”
“It’ll be different this time. Now go.”
Sting nodded, although Captain America couldn’t see her, and picked up Iron Man’s armored frame. Fortunately, her armor enhanced her strength enough that she could carry him into the hovercraft. Once inside, she laid him down on the seats in the back cabin and got into the cockpit. “Let’s go, Hulk.”
“Yeah,” Hulk rumbled. “I should help Cap.”
“Cap can take care of himself,” Sting answered. “Iron Man’s our priority now.”
Elsewhere, Arachne was web-slinging through the simultaneously bright and shadowy cityscape when her spider-sense activated again. Instinctively dropping the web-line, she fired another one and swung after the one that had been coming after her. Her pursuer wore metallic black and crimson, the crimson parts mainly consisting of a giant spider symbol on the black background of his torso. Red “askew teardrop”-style lenses were the only color on his otherwise black mask. Not to mention, he looked like he meant business.
“Who are you supposed to be?” Arachne asked.
“Spider-Man,” the spider-styled man replied.
“No, you’re not.” Arachne was livid. “I knew Spider-Man. He and I were almost friends. And you, bastard, are no Spider-Man.”
“Oh, I’m so hurt, but what should I care about the opinion of someone who isn’t even old enough to figure out how the world really works?” His tone was one of subtle derision.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” The spider-styled girl was incensed.
“It means that you don’t get it. This world is run on compromise. You don’t get without giving. Sometimes, you get more than what you give and sometimes you get less than what you give. But that’s the way it works, the way it has to work, or everyone’s just warring against each other and we get anarchy.”
“Nice sentiments, but what if the compromise means you give your soul? What sort of boon do you get in exchange for that?”
“I didn’t sell my soul!” Spider-Man lunged at Arachne, who dodged the attack and grabbed his forearm, twisting him around and turning his momentum against him to slam him into a skyscraper façade. As they were both clinging to the façade in their own ways, neither would fall off. Spider-Man took a swing at Arachne, who flipped backwards on the façade. Spider-Man stood on the façade and extended the waldoes hidden in the back of his costume to ensnare her, but she grabbed the top pair and used them as leverage to flip into a flying kick directed at the Avengers web-slinger.
Spider-Man twisted to avoid the kick, but Arachne’s foot impacted his shoulder harshly. She bounced off him and onto the section of skyscraper façade above his head, before ricocheting off for another kick. This time, Spider-Man grabbed her ankle with inhuman reflexes and threw her down. Arachne shot a web at the façade and used it to rappel upward at inhuman speed. Fortunately for him, Spider-Man’s sight was acute enough to catch her movements and allow him to prepare for her.
He jumped down, aiming to kick her off her web-line. However, she simply let go of the web, flipped backward on the façade, and sprang up to punch him. Spider-Man caught her wrist and plunged the talons on his fingers into the flesh and muscle. Arachne gritted her teeth under her mask in pain, but set her jaw determinedly and let off a taser pulse from her suit, shocking Spider-Man into letting her go. The nanobots that made up her costume leaked into and covered the wounds Spider-Man’s talons had made in her wrist, but she didn’t think she’d be able to use that hand for a while, the talons having possibly severed some tendons and ligaments in the wrist.
Fortunately, I still have one good hand, she thought.
Arachne fired impact webbing at Spider-Man, who flipped out of the way and let the pellets splatter webbing on that segment of skyscraper. “How come I didn’t get that trick?” Spider-Man mused.
“You haven’t seen all of my tricks yet,” Arachne retorted tartly.
“Really?” Spider-Man’s tone was taunting. “Bring ’em, then.”
“Bringing them now!” Arachne answered. She fired the stinger darts at Spider-Man, who somersaulted out of the way and came down with a hard kick. Arachne, echoing what he had done before with her, grabbed his ankle and threw him, only for him to fire a web from his forearm and come back up after her. She ran down to meet him, using her good hand and both feet to fight him with preternatural speed and agility. He matched her perfectly in speed and agility, but his blows suggested that he was slightly stronger than her. Plus, his motions were those of an experienced close-quarters fighter.
She wasn’t a slouch at fighting, either. After all, she’d had the real Spider-Man, plus X-23 and Fearless, schooling her in hand to hand. She could take care of herself. She could handle this poser who dared to infringe on the name and legacy of the wall-crawler whom she had so worshipped at one point in her life.
Elsewhere, the Black Cat had been caught by Warbird, or so it seemed. “You can stop struggling,” Warbird said almost remorsefully. “It won’t hurt so much if you stop.”
“#$%& you!” Black Cat snarled and elbowed Warbird as hard as she possibly could. It didn’t make that much of a dent, but it loosened her grip enough to allow the Black Cat to wiggle loose and drop. She fired another cable line and swung away, Warbird on her tail.
“You do realize it’s against the law to graft foreign DNA to your own without federal sanction, don’t you?!” Warbird shouted.
“So what? It’s not like the law was always just, or are you one of those people who would have been a happy Meta-Crusader?!” Such was the Black Cat’s retort.
Warbird doubled her speed, forcing Black Cat to drop her cable and flip onto a nearby energy generator pole. She flipped off it and shot another cable line, swinging up onto the top of a city spire. Warbird landed before her, glaring furiously at her with nearly glowing eyes. Black Cat glared back, a hardness settling into her vaguely catlike eyes.
Warbird made the first move, shooting a photonic energy blast at Black Cat, who dodged with catlike alacrity and agility. The Black Cat extended her nails into claws through her gloves and slashed Warbird with them. Despite the sharpness of the claws, Warbird’s suit held fast and Warbird herself grabbed Black Cat’s wrist, holding it tightly. In response, the catlike femme simply set off a gas trigger in her glove, causing Warbird to choke and gasp.
“As strong as you are, you still need to breathe,” Black Cat mocked as she slipped her wrist out of Warbird’s weakening grip. “Fortunately for you, it’s non-lethal. But it still sears the hell out of your respiratory system. Nothing you won’t heal from.”
As the feline girl launched herself off the spire, she thought, I better catch up with Archaeida, Thrash, and the others.
Speaking of the other New Warriors, they were either scattering for the hills or fighting the Avengers. Incendiary and Themis were both taking on Thor, using their firepower and telekinetic power to battle Thor’s lightning and thunder. Themis’s telekinetic shields protected her from Thor’s lightning, while Incendiary used his fires to scorch Thor’s seemingly invulnerable flesh and armor.
After a while, Themis grew tired of playing defense and projected her telekinetic force as a wave that crashed down on Thor, who withstood it the best he could. He flew at her with great speed, while Themis propelled herself at him with similarly high speeds. The two god-avatars - one of lightning and one of justice - clashed against each other, Thor’s pure lightning confronting Themis’s pure mental force. Themis gritted her teeth, pushing as hard as she could against Thor, even though her nose was starting to bleed. Thor strained as well, finding the telekinetic stronger than he’d expected.
With a final cry of determination, Themis’s telekinetic power burst outward and Thor was forcibly repelled. Themis breathed heavily, her nose bleeding and her power nearly exhausted. Incendiary drifted beside her, his hands gently placed on her shoulders. “You all right?” he wondered.
“Yeah . . .” Themis replied. “Just not sure I got enough in me to do that again if he gets up from it.”
“Then leave it to me.” Incendiary’s tone was hard with determination. “Fire versus lightning. It’ll be an interesting fight.”
Elsewhere, Spider-Man and Arachne were still dueling, bouncing all around the skyscraper façade as they battled. Both had a great deal of stamina and were almost evenly matched in overall ability and skill. They could be at this for hours, maybe for days, and not have a winner until one of them just dropped dead from exhaustion. Flipping, jumping, somersaulting, punching, kicking, chopping, dodging, blocking . . . it was all a blur to the two of them.
“I don’t think you’re a bad person,” Spider-Man offered as they dueled. “Just a little naïve and misguided.”
“Funny, I could say the same about you,” Arachne retorted acidly.
Just as Arachne got in close for the kill, her spider-sense went off and she started to dodge, only for Spider-Man to grab her and pull her in close. She felt something attempt to penetrate her neck, but the nanosheath hardened there, learning from the previous time it had been pierced. Arachne grabbed Spider-Man’s head and pushed back, seeing that his mask was raised up to the bridge of his nose and that he had fangs bared.
“What the -?” she wondered, only to be cut off by another attack from Spider-Man, who had lowered his mask so that it once again covered his whole face. The battle seemed like it would never end . . . and then, salvation came, on a psychically generated web-line and in web-patterned skintight black.
Archaeida kicked Spider-Man hard, sending him plummeting. The Avengers wall-crawler fired a web to anchor himself and pulled himself back up. Archaeida jumped onto the web-line and climbed down after him as he climbed up.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“Kicking your sorry ass,” Archaeida replied simply, knocking him off his web-line. As they fell, she telekinetically bound the free-flowing air molecules beneath them into a web strong enough to hold many times their weight. Both Spiders fell on the web and Archaeida flipped off, while telekinetically binding Spider-Man via the psychic web and manipulating the web to entrap him.
Arachne dropped beside Archaeida. “Thanks.”
Archaeida looked at Arachne. “You’re not bad for a fangirl.”
“Should I take that as a compliment?” Arachne wondered.
“Maybe” was Archaeida’s only answer.