Boots splashed against puddles on the pavement, their owner running at speeds no ordinary human could manage. Unfortunately, his pursuers were not human. Rain pelted the shells of iron chasing him down the alleys of New York, evaporating when it would fall onto the pillars of flame emitted from the machines' hands and feet.

From his blue suit, to his shield bearing the stars and stripes, this man was unmistakable to any living in the United States. He was a young man known as Patriot, a disguise for his real name of Elijah Bradley, and he intended to keep it that way. His pursuers were two AI piloted machines known as the Iron Legion. They've been patrolling throughout New York the past several months, cleaning the streets of vigilantes like himself. Elijah was typically much better at avoiding their detection, but no one could hide forever.

Looking back behind himself, Patriot noticed one of the Iron Legionnaires was positioning its' hand to face the young hero. Without a moment's hesitation, Patriot stopped in his track and slung his shield in front of himself as an energy blast rang out from the machine's palm. The shield was strong enough to block the shot, but unfortunately the rain proved to make the terrain difficult to keep footing on, and the nudge from the blast was enough to knock the blue-clad man to the floor.

Patriot shifted his weight as he tried to stand, but the effort seemed pointless as the two armors landed before him, arms facing the young vigilante. "I… don't suppose we can talk this out?" Elijah tried to joke, mostly in an attempt to comfort himself rather than his robotic audience.

"STAND DOWN OR EXCESSIVE FORCE WILL BE REQUIRED." Rang the booming automated voice of one of the Legionnaires.

"If you want to talk excessive, we can start with that megaphone in your head. Good grief…" Patriot groaned, massaging his head. He shifted position once more, casting his shield in front of him, and began to stand back up. Energy blasts shot out in waves from the hands of the Iron Legion, but Patriot refused to buckle. He pushed harder against his shield, until he finally found enough footing to stand up once again.

In a quick motion, the young hero rolled off to the side, letting their energy blasts collide with the pavement below. Using every ounce of energy he had available, his leg muscles propelled him forth towards the Legionnaire to his left, and his arms made their best effort to drive his shield through the machine's chest. It managed to cause a clean break in the machine, but it wasn't enough, and a quick tug seemed to confirm the shield to be stuck in the armor's abdomen. The

Legionnaire to his right fired upon the young avenger with repeated blasts, thrusting him back into the puddles lining the floor and separating the man from his only defense.

Once again, Elijah attempted to stand, shifting in an unbalanced manner as his knees began to buckle under him. Falling back to the floor, he leaned his head skyward to see the two

Legionnaires hovering over him, one with the young man's own shield in tow. As one of the machines loudly Mirandized Patriot, the vigilante could do nothing but raise his hands above his head in defeat.

"What'd I even do..?" Elijah could only sigh under his breath. He hoped the others were faring better, and hoped they'd be enough to put an end to this senseless fight.

3 Days Later

Peter Parker was an absolutely ordinary teen. Normal wavy hair, normal baggy clothes, normal friends, normal life. That was of course, until four years prior, when he was bitten by a genetically enhanced spider. This event gave him extraordinary powers as you might assume, turning him into the hero Spider-Man. However, the past several months have been about as normal as they come. Due to new government legislation passed, Peter could no longer operate as a lone vigilante. Instead, he had to wait until he turned eighteen, and then register with SHIELD to become an officially licensed superhero. He'd been anxiously awaiting the day he could suit up once more, and it was finally time.

Many heroes were torn on this new law, Peter himself included. He didn't feel it right that heroes were having to be regulated so strictly, However, it was getting difficult to do his job and act as the friendly neighborhood hero he's always been when the neighborhood felt uncomfortable having him around. If it benefited the city he loved and made the citizens feel truly safe again, this was a small price to pay.

It didn't take long for him to get an alert for his first official mission as part of this legislation, either. Someone was evading pursuit of law enforcement, an easy job to handle for someone who can swing through the skies, he surmised.

It didn't take long for him to reach Fifth Avenue, where the disturbance was reported to have come from. He didn't actually know who he was searching for, but assumed he'd just speak to the local law enforcement and get brought up to speed. Working alongside the law was an odd feeling, but one that he felt was ultimately for the best.

However, what he saw wasn't normal law enforcement, but Iron Man, also known as Tony Stark, a billionaire superhero and the face of the new legislation. Working with fellow superheroes seemed like a good gameplan, though he was slightly concerned by the scale of the threat at hand due to just how A-list Iron Man was in recent times. Nevertheless, he pushed his fears aside and approached the man in the iron suit.

"Yo, Black Sabbath! What was so important you had to call me all the way out to Manhattan for? You know I'm more of a Queens guy, maybe Brooklyn but-" Spider-Man stopped his rambling, realizing Iron Man was paying him no mind and simply continued flying around, staring at the ground.

"Um, hello? I'm talking to ya! Is it because I dissed Manhattan? You know I don't mean it, man c'mo-" before he could finish his sentence, Iron Man began firing his repulsors at the sidewalk, closer and closer to himself.

Once his fire had grown close to his body, he was knocked aside and spiraled to the floor some distance away, and in his place a woman appeared from seemingly nowhere, her hair was flowing blond and the suit she was wearing was red with a black circle in the center, which branched off into lines spanning across her arms and legs. Her stance suggested she was the one who hit Iron Man, as her fist was outstretched and her body contorted. She was wearing a black mask over the length of her eyes as well.

"So what's your deal? Invisibility? Teleporting? Something infinitely more convoluted?" Spider-Man asked half-seriously as he surveyed the situation.

"Oh, Spider-Man, I'm so glad you're here! Big fan. Help me out?" The blonde said as she noticed the wall crawler.

"Sorry, I don't help people that resist arrest and knock a superhero flat on their ass like it's nothing." Peter stated as he readied himself to web the mysterious girl. "Appreciate the support though, but it'd be pretty bad for my image to associate with people like you. If you wanted to meet me this bad you really could've just hit me up on twitter or something."

"Oh, you're with them… Sorry about this." She spoke in a disappointed tone, before once again disappearing.

'How is she doing this? I can't really stop her if she's constantly blinking out on me.' Spider-Man thought. Indeed, if he was to find a way to stop her, he'd have to first figure out the nature of her power. He scanned the area around him and saw nothing, save for tiny specks of debris moving around in the wind. Only, not every piece of trash or dust was moving in the same direction. He almost blinked and missed it, but one was heading in his direction, opposite the wind.

Almost instantly after recognizing this, he was knocked flying across the sidewalk, only landing when his back collided against the nearby crosswalk signals. Once again, she returned where Spider-Man once stood. "So… That's your thing huh? Ant Man knockoff? I thought the tech he used to shrink him down was super rare or something, feels like it's a dime a dozen these days…"

"I don't want to hurt you, Spidey, but you can't just let that thing arrest me. I haven't hurt anyone, I'm trying to save people!" She pleaded, her stance softening as she approached Spider-Man.

"Wh-what are you talking about..?" Spider-Man asked the young girl, but before he could receive an answer she was blasted away by the repulsor blasts of Iron Man's armor, sending her flying into the wall of a nearby building. A booming voice rang from Iron Man as he mirandized the blonde woman.

"Holy shit, did your suit's voice projection software break or something..? It's so loud…" Spider-Man complained as he got back into a standing position.

The girl shrank once again, and Iron Man repeated firing upon her. Spider-Man tried to ensnare her small frame in his webbing as well, but she was simply too swift for either. Once she closed the distance between herself and Iron Man, she spontaneously grew to colossal size. Spider-Man Hastily lunged out of the way of her expanding frame, and Iron Man tried his best to blast her as hard as he could, but it seemed to no longer have much impact.

In one swift motion, she scooped up Iron Man and tossed him across the horizon, before reverting back to her normal stature.

"Holy- Saving people huh!? Then why on earth did you just toss Iron Man of all people an entire borough away!?" Spider-Man exclaimed, disturbed by how casually she dealt with the avenger.

"Iron-? That wasn't Iron Man, what are you talking about?" She responded, confused at Spider-Man's shock. Spider-Man looked back and forth between the direction Iron Man was thrown and the girl, confused. She sighed. "That was an Iron Legionnaire, something your friend cooked up to hunt down us heroes that oppose the registration. Have you not watched like, any news this past week?"

Admittedly, with how busy he is, Peter isn't always particularly caught up in current goings on. He had heard something of new Iron Man drones patrolling New York as a test run, though, and Tony isn't the type to remain silent as long as the supposed Iron Legionnaire did, so it explained a fair deal in his mind, but…

"Heroes that oppose the registration? Am I missing something here that's worth opposing? I thought this was just supposed to just ease the public's fear of us." Spider-Man questioned fervently, silently hoping this was just some niche protest for the sake of it and not an actual problem.

The girl began to speak, but the sounds of something flying overhead could be heard, sending her into a state of alert. "I'm really sorry, but I have to go before more of them show up. I'll explain everything if we bump into each other again, alright? Sorry our first meeting had to go like this." She politely explained before shrinking down again and running off.

Spider-Man considered giving chase, but was admittedly torn by what she said. He didn't want to arrest a superhero if she wasn't doing anything wrong except having a differing opinion, but her opinion was still conflicting with the law... Ultimately, he decided not to act until he could learn more about the registration, and about this supposed counter movement. As he was left to ponder his thoughts, Multiple Iron Man armors descended upon the scene around him, confirming her statements about the Iron Legionnaires.

"I don't suppose you'll tell me what that was all about, huh?" He asked one of the suits, but it never responded, opting instead to scan the surrounding area relentlessly.

"Yeah, I thought so…" Peter mumbled. He had a gut feeling his job was about to become a lot more complicated.

To Be Continued