DATE: APRIL 26, 2015, WATCHER'S MEETING ROOM, NEW YORK, 06H17M

Although it was one of the smallest rooms in the helicarrier, the meeting room was impressive. The red table was triangular with a black triangle in the middle, creating a large letter 'A' in the middle of the small room. There was a projector in the middle of the triangle, projecting the symbol of the team on a screen on the wall. At the back of the room was a small table with a coffee maker, a soda machine, a basket with breads and a box full of donuts.

All four young Avengers were sitting around the red table, all dressed in their uniforms and clearly sleepy. Leni was still thinking she was dreaming, while Lynn's accelerated metabolism was still starting to make her brain work. Lincoln and Ronnie looked a little more attentive, watching the room they had never been in before, and Lincoln was actually thoughtful, trying to figure out what was going on.

Yesterday they would make their first team patrol, but their leader canceled the patrol, saying that something urgent required his attention. They not only could not patrol the city, nor could they even stay on Watcher, and now they were summoned early in the morning.

Before the boy could continue his reasoning, the door to the room opened and their leader entered, drinking a large cup of coffee. He was wearing his Ant-Man suit, this time without his coat, and soon followed by Larry, who closed the door.

"Good morning, Avengers. I'm sorry to wake you up so soon, but we have an urgent situation."

"What's up Doc?" Ronnie asked, a little mocking. "Do not tell me we're going to have to fix the danger room again?"

"Actually, Miss Santiago, what I am about to say will make your father furious."

The four looked at him in confusion.

"Okay, better act than talk. Larry?"

The robot projected a smiling face, and the projector on the table began to show pictures of a devastated place. From the white walls, they could imagine it was a hospital or some kind of laboratory.

"These are images of an incident that occurred almost two days ago in a secret government facility and five scientists were kidnapped. We can not know exactly what happened, because the security system was destroyed and no one from the security team survived. The SHIELD and the Pentagon believe they were abducted to create some kind of nuclear technology. Or something even worse."

"Wait, why are you showing us this?" Lynn stared at the images, still trying to understand. "You said yourself that we did not work for the government."

At that moment, the cogs in Lincoln's mind began to move at full speed. He was startled by euphoria and stood, a broad smile forming on his face.

"No way!"

"That's right, Marvel Boy." The leader smiled, seeing that his pupils understood. "This will be your first field mission."

For a moment the four young heroes stood perfectly still.

It was as if a deadly silence had taken over the room.

Then, suddenly...

"YEAH!"

Filled with joy, the teens began to celebrate. They screamed, jumped and ran from side to side. Pym stared at them with a lively smile, pleased to see them so excited.

"Ok, ok, stay calm. It is not a walk in the park, but a secret mission." He scratched his chin, looking at the ceiling thoughtfully. "Though, technically, we're in a race against time."

"What do you mean? I thought it was a mission." Marvel Boy asked, sitting down in his chair.

"Before calling Dr. Pym, President Ross called this situation not only a secret but also a priority issue."

"Wow, is the president involved?" Leni felt herself in the clouds. She recalled some of the movies she had seen, and considered that the president's involvement involved a medal ceremony. "I can not wait to save him."

"(Sigh) That's not what he meant, Iron Lady. The president considers this a priority issue, and if we can resolve this soon, then he may decide to pass on to us missions that would designed to the Ultimates."

"So I think we should better understand our mission." Lynn got a little more serious, trying to show professionalism to impress Marvel Boy. "What do we have, coach?"

"That's the best part, Quicksilver. So far, I think I'm the only one who has figured out who was responsible for the attack." Pym nodded, and Larry went on with the slides. On the screen now there were footprints in bloodstains, which shocked the young heroes a little. "As you may have realized from past experiences and training sessions, bad guys are not usually kind. Yet these were so cruel that they stepped on the blood of their victims."

"So our only clues are blood footprints?" Ronnie was a little annoyed, thinking the job would be easier. "Does not look very promising."

"Do not be so discouraged, Miss Marvel. Although it is a difficult task, Larry was able to recover some images of the security system, while I analyzed the footprints, and we discovered something fascinating."

New slides appeared, revealing blurry images of men they immediately recognized: Hellfire Club.

"Are you serious!? These guys again!? "Marvel Boy and Miss Marvel exclaimed, leaving the newer members of the group confused.

"What is the problem? Were not they on our side last time?" Leni asked, more confused than ever.

"They're not exactly bad guys, Iron Lady. The Hellfire Club is a mercenary group that employs its services to anyone who pays the price." Pym picked up a laser pointer and pointed to new images on the screen. Some men dressed in black stood beside the mercenaries, wearing ski masks and night vision goggles. "Yet we can clearly see that these other men do not wear the Hellfire Club uniform. So..."

The teens tried to understand where he wanted to go, but they seemed a bit confused. Even so, Marvel Boy soon understood what he meant.

"These guys are not part of the Hellfire Club."

"Exactly, Marvel Boy."

"Then why were they there?" Lynn asked.

"Well, I also wondered that, but the answer came only when I went deeper into my investigation." Pym nodded at Larry once more, and several footprints appeared. "The blood-footprints are not compatible with the Hellfire Club's boots, so they could only be their companions. I discovered that these boots are special and were custom made a few years ago, for a very peculiar person."

The screen was filled with multiple photos from the same individual. The pictures showed a redheaded man in his late thirties, wearing a purple outfit with an 'A!' on the shoulders. The girls stared in amazement at the man in the pictures, while Marvel Boy stood perfectly still.

Before the boy were images of Hunter Spector, the so-called Spectre Hunter. For years he faithfully watched this tv show, 'ARGGH!', until one day it was revealed that the show was a scam. He was devastated for weeks, feeling betrayed by one of his idols.

The Ant-Man realized the reactions of his pupils, being immediately intrigued.

"Shall I suppose you already know Mr. Spector?"

"If we know this loser?" Lynn slammed her fists on the table, making the table shake. "He made Lincoln totally disappointed after spending years watching his fake show! Until today he still gets weird when someone talks about it. I do not even know what I'm capable of if I find this asshole."

While Lynn expressed her anger, Leni and Ronnie Anne looked at Marvel Boy. They knew he did not want Lynn to discover her secret identity, but both were concerned about his reaction. Almost a year had passed since ARGGH! was revealed as a farce, but that still seemed to bother the boy. He spent years idolizing Hunter Spector and his TV show, then he had his dreams shattered to discover that everything was false. As much as he had superhuman strength, he was still a boy, capable of hurting like any other kid.

Surprisingly, he looked fine. Putting his arms behind his head, he looked at the others in a relaxed way, as if he did not care.

"Can be worse." He looked at Lynn trying to look relaxed as he tried to make fun. "I mean, so the show was fake? At least, it was not something like they discovered that Captain America was a Nazi or something."

Everyone looked at him. The girls looked at him quizzically, trying to figure out whether or not he was joking, while the leader let out a slight laugh.

"Haha! I do not think that would happen even in other universe." He took a more serious pose and sat down next to Marvel Boy. "But let's get back to the main subject. After the cancellation of his TV show, Mr. Spector disappeared almost completely, as did most of the studio staff. I had to stay up all night, but I found out where they went. Larry?"

Larry once more controlled the projector, showing satellite images of an island.

"Dr. Pym has discovered that Spector and his accomplices are on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, along with some of the Hellfire Club's mercenaries, who are probably still under contract for a while longer." Larry showed pictures of what looked like a dam on the side of a mountain. "We still do not know what they're doing there, but the SHIELD satellite we've been using has detected a structure on the side of the volcano in the center of the island. The plan consists of six simple steps: Infiltrating the island; Ensure the safety of scientists; Neutralize the Hellfire Club mercenaries and Spector's henchmen; Disable any means of escape; Call the SHIELD; Return to Watcher to celebrate."

The young heroes looked a little skeptical at the wall, thinking Larry was joking.

"It can not be that simple. Right?" Ronnie asked, looking for support in her companions.

"Actually, it's a good plan considering we do not know much." Marvel Boy scratched his chin, scrutinizing his options. "We can not prepare an elaborate plan without information."

"Thank you for understanding, Marvel Boy. Now we must prepare to invade an island." Pym began to rise from his chair, followed soon by the young heroes.

"I'll get to the teleporter first!" Lynn got excited, preparing to leave the room.

"That will not be possible, Quicksilver. The teleporter can only send us within a radius of up to 1,000 miles. At most 1,500, if we use the entire charge of the system."

"So how are we going to get to this island?" Leni asked, confused.

"Do not worry, Iron Lady. We have another means of transportation." The hero gave a brief smile and a wink before leaving the room, followed soon by the young heroes.

Soon, on the runway...

"Where did that come from?" Marvel Boy cried out in disbelief.

The four teens were shocked to see a black plane a little over thirty meters long. The wings were short and pointing forward, while its jet turbines gave an impression of speed.

They continued to watch the plane, until the back door opened.

"Impressive, is not it?" The Ant-Man took them out of the trance, entering the vehicle. "This is my baby, Skystalker. Made by me following the model of a Blackbird, this bad boy is incredibly fast, as well as undetectable."

The young heroes followed him into the plane, immediately surprised by the interior. Not only was there ample cargo space at the back, but there were also some equipment and cabinets with first aid. In front of the aircraft had seats for two pilots and twenty passengers, divided in two rows. Each seat was highly padded and had seatbelts that closed on the passenger's chest, and comfortable rests for the arms. All together it looked like a vehicle designed especially for comfort at high speed.

"How come we've never seen this before?" Ronnie asked, looking intently at the seats.

"Well, we do not use the runway often, and we do not need him until now. Until yesterday, he was miniaturized in my room, serving as paperweight."

"You used a plane as paperweight?" Marvel Boy was astounded. "That sounds extremely irresponsible and dangerous."

"Hey, at least I left him in my room, not the living room." Pym crossed his arms and looked at the boy in an offended way. "That would be irresponsible."

The teens just smiled. They had doubts about the state of mind of this adult, but it was still fun to be with him. The leader smiled too, but he remembered their mission and headed for the pilot's seat.

"Now, seriously, I'm asking everyone to sit down. We're about to take off."

The teens looked at each other, then sat down in the seats nearest the pilot's seat. They put on their seat belts and prepared to take off, absorbed in their thoughts.

Lynn sulked in her seat, feeling rejected. She tried to sit next to Marvel Boy, but he chose to sit next to Leni. She sat down next to Ronnie Anne, trying to be content with the fact that even if she could not sit beside her crush, at least she would take a trip alongside one of her best friends. Deep down, she was not focused on saving the scientists, but on impressing Marvel Boy. She was determined, certain that if she could not win his heart, she could at least make him trust her.

Unlike her passionate friend, Ronnie Anne stared at every inch of the Skystlker. She was eager to fly on a plane built by the group leader, since she herself did not travel by plane often. Even if this mission had just begun, she could hardly wait for the next mission.

Glancing absently at the window at her side, Leni was lively, smiling happily. Okay, she was still processing what was happening, but still she had a general notion. They would go to an island to save some nerds from bad guys who worked on television, and if they succeeded, they would be as important as the Ultimates. The girl already imagined meeting the heartthrob of her dreams after this mission.

Although the girls were motivated by their personal reasons, Lincoln was a little worried. He was trying to forget the issue with ARGGH! for months, and when he finally managed to put the subject aside, Spector came back to disappoint him even more. As much as it had been revealed that his show was fake, the boy never thought Hunter was capable of becoming a supervillain who kills people and kidnaps scientists. The more he thought about it, the worse he felt.

Pym on the other hand seemed optimism in person. Even though his brother already had an active group of villains, he now had a chance to test his champions in real combat. If all went well, he would just have to keep the world spinning until the day of the Tournament arrives.

After a check of all systems and a brief run down the runway, Skystalker set off with its passengers, ready for their first official adventure as 'Avengers'.

Or at least, that's what they expected.

TO BE CONTINUED ...

If you're wondering, Skystalker was inspired by the X-men jet.

I know it sounds a little weird for the Avengers using the classic vehicle of the X-men, but I think the Blackbird is a lot cooler than the Quinjet.

For those who watched 'ARGGH You For Real?', I imagined the situation could end in a very different way if the show lost all credibility, leading the star to choose a career in the field of villainy.