David gave a tired yawn, packing up his bag as the bell rang to signal the end of school. He felt someone elbow him in the arm, and he turned to see Tony Stark. Ever since New York, they developed a mutual respect for one another, even if they don't always agree with each other's methods.

"Long night?" he asked, "I heard about your party crashing at the docks. Seems like you prefer the stealthy approach. By the way, Pepper likes the costume change."

David gave a smirk, "Getting a little jealous are we Tony? What can I say, the chicks dig me. It's the giant hood."

Tony laughed as they exited the school, walking along the sidewalk. He looked around at the construction workers slowly rebuilding the damage from the Battle of New York.

"How is she doing?" David asked quietly, "Pepper I mean. How's she holding up?"

A shadow fell over Tony's face, "She's getting better but….the things she had do…..you don't get over it that easily."

David nodded sadly. The feeling was entirely mutual. More than once, he found himself waking up in the dead of night, covered in a cold sweat, the horrors of that event resurfacing but only ten times worse.

Their conversation was cut short as a colossal explosion, shaking the ground beneath them. David looked at Tony and the young genius nodded in agreement.

"Get to the armory; I'll see what I can do to buy some time until you arrive." David said. Tony nodded and took off at a run. David ran in the direction of the explosion, heading down a back alley, changing into his costume.

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Civilians were screaming, running away in a frenzied panic. Blasts of ice energy lanced out, catching various people in mid-dash, freezing them solid, with looks of horror permanently etched on their face. Blizzard let out a maniacal laugh, firing more blasts of cold energy into the crowd.

"Run! Run like the pathetic weaklings you are!" he yelled in glee. He stopped when he heard the faint sound of a motorcycle's engine roaring closer. Turning, he saw Obsidian racing towards him, a look of grim determination visible beneath his hood.

"Ah. Right on cue," Blizzard sighed, firing his cannon. Obsidian gasped and swerved to avoid the oncoming blast, but despite his evasive maneuvers, a small portion of the beam clipped the wheel of his bike, and the cold energy began to spread across the vehicle. Obsidian leaped from his bike, tossing a few throwing stars he borrowed from Whitney's stock of weapons. One of the perks for dating a girl who is a master of martial arts, is you get to share all the cool toys.

Blizzard ducked to avoid the weapons, distracting him enough to allow Obsidian to take cover behind a car.

"So Donny, how much did the Maggia offer you to become their new lap dog?" Obsidian called out from behind his cover. Blizzard laughed locking on to various heat signatures in order to pinpoint his location.

"Simple. A chance to take you out of existence. Soon, you frozen corpse will be an amazing decoration in my home."

Obsidian rolled his eyes, "Thanks for the mental image. That is totally not disturbing in the least."

He rolled to the side, activating his optical camo, turning him into a shimmering distortion, rendering him nearly invisible. Blizzard, however, wasn't impressed. He was able to spot the hero's heat signature easily, and fired at Obsidian.

"Oh boy!" David gasped, ducking under the beam, while tossing a handheld flare cluster at the criminal. The explosive blinded Blizzard, rendering his thermal imaging useless. He snarled in frustration, swinging his arms wildly as he vainly tried to clear the flashing lights from his eyes. Obsidian seized his chance, his metal gloves balling into fists as he raced toward him.

Blizzard swung his weapon blindly, hoping he could catch his opponent with a lucky melee strike. David ducked under his swing and landed a vicious uppercut, slamming his fist into Blizzard's helmet with a resounding clang of metal on metal. David continued to wail on his foe, ducking under Blizzard's blind strikes while slipping in a few lucky blows of his own.

"You're getting sloppy Donny." Obsidian quipped, knocking Blizzard's feet out from under him. The metal man fell to the ground with a resounding crash. Raising his fist, David smashed it into Blizzard's helmet, knocking off the face plate, exposing Donny Gill's scarred face.

"Now Donny, let's have a little chat," Obsidian whispered in a threatening tone, "What were you looking for? No offense, but this little rampage seems too demeaning for someone of your self-proclaimed "Genius". What's the Maggia got planned this time?"

Donny laughed, "Oh Obsidian. For someone so smart, you are stupidly oblivious to the truth."

"Which is….?" David growled, holding a fist up. Donny looked unabashed and smirked.

"In the end, I don't have to tell you anything. Despite all of your bold talk and your threats, you won't kill me. Sure, you might put me in a body cast for a couple of months, but that won't make me talk. You hero types are all the same. In the end, you don't have the guts to do what needs to be done."

David couldn't find the words to reply, because deep down, everything Blizzard was saying was true and he knew it. Donny smile widened as the shadow of doubt flickered across the hero's face.

"Struck a chord didn't I? Truth hurts doesn't it…hero." He hissed.

Anger flashed in Obsidian's eyes, as he slammed Blizzard into a wall with enough force to make a small crater in the brick.

"Who are you working for?!" he growled shaking him roughly.

"You're the hero," Donny said simply, "figure it out yourself."

David raised his metal fist when someone grabbed his wrist. Whirling around in anger, he turned to see Iron Man holding him back.

"Obsidian, that's enough. He's not worth it." Tony said calmly, keeping a firm grip on his wrist.

David wrenched his arm from Tony's grip, dropping Blizzard at his feet and leaving without a word. Tony watched his friend leave with a worried expression under his helmet, while police arrived, taking Blizzard into custody.

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David slammed his fists into his training dummy with ferocity he's never known before. It seemed like every blow was trying to fend off the awful truth of Blizzard's words, which still rang fresh in his mind.

"David?" Whitney asked, "Tony told me what happened with Blizzard today. You shouldn't let it bother you-"

"But he's right!" David snapped, "No matter what any of these monsters do, in the end, it's our morality that keeps us from ending their lives."

"Valuing human life is NOT a weakness. Unless you forgot, I used to be one of those so called "monsters". If anything, the fact the you won't kill them proves that you are stronger than any of them could ever hope to be."

David, overcome with exhaustion, collapsed and began to shake as tears fell, "You don't understand Whit…I-I wanted to kill him. I wanted to wrap my hand around his throat and squeeze hard. It was so tempting, that I actually thought I would kill him."

Whitney sat next to him and held his head close to her chest, as his body was wracked with despair.

"Shhhhh, it's going to be okay," she soothed, stroking his brown hair slowly, fighting her own tears. It broke her heart to see him like this. He was usually a happy guy, confident, and though he may not look strong physically, his spirit and convictions proved his true power.

The continued to sit there for the next few hours, with Whitney whispering soothing words of comfort, as much to herself as to him.

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Count Nefaria looked nervously at Ghost, while one of his Maggia lackeys broke the news to them.

"My apology for the interruption, but Blizzard has failed to kill Obsidian and has been arrested." The man said, he voice shaking with a twinge of fear.

Ghost, surprisingly seemed pleased at this development, and nodded his head.

"Good, leave us." He said dismissing the Maggia thug. Nefaria looked at Ghost in bewilderment, disbelieving of his reaction.

"You….expected Blizzard would fail?" he asked in astonishment.

"He didn't fail, well not entirely. The sole purpose for this was to plant the tiny seeds of doubt into Obsidian's mind. He will question his actions, hesitate, and make him prone to more mistakes. Mistakes that will cost him very dearly.

Ghost smiled under his mask, "You see Nefaria? The greatest weapons against these "heroes" is a mix of the truth and their own misplaced sense of self-righteousness. So in all actuality, we drew first blood in this little duel. A wound that will continue to bleed with every passing second, and when he's too weak and defeated to resist any longer…we finish him."

A/N: Please review! The reviews help keep my mind rolling! Plus any new ideas are greatly accepted! Feel free to give your input and I hope you enjoy the story.