Chapter 8: Capture the Flag! Part 2
September 20th 20XX, Ground Beta
Spectator's POV
"So, What's the plan?"
Standing in an empty, dimly lit room were Liz, Gwen, Flash, Danny, and Luke. They needed to come up with a plan to protect the 'Hostage' from the 'Heroes'.
"Alright, Luke, you're probably the strongest one physically speaking, right?" Liz asked, she was wearing an orange, yellow and black bodysuit with an orange domino mask.
"I think so, my skin is basically unbreakable." Luke nodded, he was wearing black pants, a yellow shirt, and an unzipped black hoodie with sunglasses.
"Alright, you stay with the dummy and protect it. Gwen has the most mobility so she'll patrol around the perimeter." She turned to Gwen who gave a mock salute before teleporting away.
"I'll patrol, too but I'll stay nearby. Flash, you and Danny guard the entrances." She said while turning to the two.
Flash was wearing black combat pants and a white tank top, after receiving the orders his symbiote covered him completely, forming a suit of armor around him.
Danny, who was wearing a yellow belt, green pants and a shirt, yellow boots, and hand wraps, and a yellow mask that covered the top of his face, gave a nod and walked out of the room with flash.
'Please let this work...' Liz sighed as she lit her hair ablaze and flew out the door.
While the villain team was moving out and taking their positions in the building, the hero team that consisted of Sol Hee, Robbie Reyes, Azari T'challa, Ava Ayala, and Nico Minoru was standing 30 feet from the main entrance waiting for the signal to go in.
Sol Hee, a student who entered M.A through recommendations, decided to take the lead and make a plan, but she needed to know what her teammates could do beforehand.
The heterochromatic teen looked over to her teammates and walked over to them to ask what their abilities were.
"Alright," She started, getting everyone's attention. "how about we tell each other what we can do so I can make a plan before prep time is up?"
The teens around her gave a nod, making her be the one to start.
Sol waved her hand, conjuring 3 ice spikes from the air and floating them around her.
"I can control water molecules and transform them into ice, it's as strong as regular ice but I can control it freely, changing its shape and guiding its movement."
Azari was the next one to speak, "I have the physical abilities of a Panther, and I can only conduct electricity from my body." He closed his eyes and concentrated, making the markings on his body glow blue.
Nico waved her staff around and said "I can basically make a bunch of different spells with my stuff, but I need physical contact to it and I can't do the same spell twice in a row." She conjured a small gust of fire from the staff.
"I have the physical abilities of a tiger" Ava simply said, flexing her hand, and making claws pop out of her fingers.
"I can do everything ghost rider can," Robbie said as he looked off into the distance.
Sol looked over the group for a second longer, trying to come up with different possibilities of what could happen during the exercise.
"Robbie, you go on through the front with Azari and Ava." She turned to Nico, making the girl perk up, "Nico, you're with me, I'm making an ice platform that lets us go through a second-story window."
The group either nodded or grunted, letting her know they understood.
"If anything goes wrong or you find a villain, you let everyone else know through the comms. Any qu-"
A horn blared out through the testing site, letting the heroes in training know it was time for the exercise to start.
"BATTLE TRIAL NUMBER 1, BEGIN!"
Captain America's voice rang out through the speakers of the building and their earpieces.
Without saying another word, the hero team split up and ran off towards the building, Ava leading her group and Sol leading hers.
Ava's group busted the main entrance down with a blast of fire from Robbie, and they continued moving deeper and deeper into the building, only to be met with fire and gunfire.
They quickly took cover behind a reception desk, but Robbie's left shoulder was hit with what they learned to be a rubber bullet.
"Who the hell is using rubber bullets?!" Ava yelled as she dove behind the desk.
"That'd be me!" Gwen yelled back, not letting up the suppressing fire, and only reloading when Liz provided the literal suppressing fire.
"How'd they even let you have rubber bullets? that seems like a huge safety risk," Liz commented, letting off another blast of flame.
"I got connections." The girl responded, and to this day, people in the observation room swear they heard Deadpool's howling laughter.
"Ava, I got an idea," Robbie said as he held his left shoulder, he was sure that it was very bruised.
"Hey, man, I ain't stopping you!"
Robbie conjured a wall of fire in front of their opponents, cutting off their field of view.
"Go!" He yelled, giving the signal for a counter-attack.
Azari and Ava jumped from behind the desk, with Robbie staying behind holding his wounded arm.
"Azari! Go for Gwen!" Ava yelled while running.
"Alright!" He yelled back.
The pain from his shoulder was too much, making Robbie break his concentration which made him let the fire wall fall.
"Gwen! Watch out!" Liz yelled as she took to the air, and did her best to keep Ava at bay.
"Using such primitive weapons is truly dishonorable!" Azari placed his hands on the ground, sending a line of blue electricity toward Gwen, who blinked into the air and fired off her guns.
"Not all of us have a bunch of vibranium laying around, prince!"
Azari rolled out of the way of the shots and narrowed his eyes at the girl who mocked him. He put his hands together and shot a blast of electricity, which made Gwen blink away.
Gwen proceeded to start blinking around the room rapidly, taking as many shots at Azari as she could before he turned to face her.
Quickly, she ran out of ammo and resorted to throwing her pistols at Azari, an attack that hit him straight in the nose both times.
Gwen then rushed him while she unsheathed 2 katanas she had on her back.
"Who gave you these weapons!?" He yelled.
He held his nose as he dodged Gwen's sword swipes, they weren't sharp enough to cause serious harm, but they were giving him a lot of cuts where his suit exposed his skin.
The boy grew tired of this, and as she was mid-swing he grabbed both blades of the weapon, preparing an electrical blast.
"ENOUGH!" He bellowed, his eyes glowing blue as sparks danced across his body.
'Huh, I was hoping he'd freeze' Gwen thought as she chuckled dryly, knowing it was too late to let go of the swords.
Maybe next time she'll get them made out of a material that isn't as conductive.
*BOOM!*
A blast of blue electricity exploded out of Azari, sending both him and Gwen flying into opposite walls.
Gwen tried to stand, still feeling shocks all over her body, and her suit being burned all over the place. Only to feel a chain wrap around her body, and pull her down to the floor.
She turned over to see Robbie, his good hand outstretched towards her, conjuring a second chain.
"Fuck you... I hope you never make it into the MCU..." Were the last things that come out of her mouth before she lost consciousness. People decided that what she said was due to a concussion.
"GWENDOLYN POOLE HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED!" Captain America announced.
"That's for my shoulder..." Robbie said as he slowly stood up, and looked over to Azari.
"How can she be so... annoying..." He then lost consciousness, his body not being able to handle the size of the blast he had used.
"AZARI T'CHALLA HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED!" The hero announced.
"Hey, Ava! How's it going over there?!" Robbie yelled as he walked over to the fight, leaning on a wall as support.
"Not that good!" She yelled back while flipping over another blast of fire.
Liz flew above her, sweat being visible on her forehead before it evaporated due to the heat, she couldn't keep the fight up.
She tapped her earpiece and said "Gwen's down, Robbie and Ava are both on me, but Robbie is injured. Flash, get down here since you're resistant to fire, and Danny, go back up Luke." She said between breaths.
"20 MINUTES REMAINING!" Captain America announced through the speakers.
She felt like she had a fever, and her vision was starting to blur, she had to get away and look for flash.
Liz looked over her 2 opponents and then flew into the hallway away from them.
Ava sighed as she saw Liz fly away, she barely laid a hit on her. She turned to see the unconscious body of Azari, and then to the injured form of Robbie.
She ran toward her teammate and out his arm around her shoulder and pressed her earpiece.
"Azari's down, and Robbie got hit bad. Liz flew away but she looked like she was overheating, I'll help Robbie move." And with that, she and Robbie started to walk down the hallway.
"You holding up?" She asked, smiling behind her mask.
"Can't feel my arm, but I got another I can use. I heal fast anyways." He said as he strained out a chuckle.
"If we find someone I'll set you down and you support me from a distance, alright?" She ordered with a tone that left no room for discussion, Robbie only nodded in response.
Over with Flash, he was running down the hallways looking for Liz, he had already split up with Danny after hearing Liz's orders.
He ran through the dim and colorless hallways for what hours, becoming more and more worried over the possibility that she would be cut off guard.
After turning a corner and catching his breath, he lifted his gaze and saw Liz with her fire extinguished pouring a bottle of water over her face to cool down, she has small cuts across her suit.
"Yikes, rough night?" He asked with a slight chuckle, only getting an annoyed groan from his friend.
"I should've asked Danny to come, he would've been less annoying." She said as she got up to her feet.
"You're good, right?" He asked in a worried tone.
"They can't put me out yet." She said with a determined expression.
"How about we try?" A voice called out from in front of them.
Sol Hee and Nico Minoru stood at the other end of the hallway, staring them down.
"I'll take the goth, you take the other one!" Flash yelled as he let the symbiote cover his face and ran towards the 2
Liz lit herself ablaze and took to the air, following closely behind Flash in his assault.
"Nico! Take Flash! I'll handle Liz!" Sol commanded as she made an ice slide to ride forward, with Nico running normally.
The fight started as Nico casted a gust of wind that pushed Flash back, then casting a blast of electricity that had little effect on his symbiote armor.
"Gonna have to try harder than that!" He yelled as he willed the symbiote to reach out and grab her.
Sol tried to conjure up a spiked ice wall, but it was quickly melted by the sheer heat radiating off of Liz.
"15 MINUTES REMAINING!"
'Damn it! This is a bad matchup for me!' She thought as she gritted her teeth in frustration
"Nico! Put her out!" Sol instructed her partner.
"A little busy! Help me out!" Nico called out as she dove under another tentacle of the symbiote.
The girl waved her hand in Nico's direction, sending a slab of ice towards her, cutting through the symbiote.
Nico waved her staff, a spout of water shooting out towards Liz. Much to her dismay, it turned to mist when it came feet close to her.
"What did I say?! You can't put me out!" She yelled as she put her hands together, gathering all her body's heat into her palms and letting off the biggest fire blast she'd ever done.
"FIRE OVERDRIVE!"
A spout of flame that spanned nearly the entire width of the corridor shot out of her hands, engulfing her opponents in the fire.
A second passed until Liz fell to her knees, her body completely extinguished and smoking.
When the smoke cleared out of the hallway, it revealed the unscathed form of Sol with a bubble of purple energy around her, protecting her from the flame.
At the end of the hall, Nico's unconscious body laid against the wall, her being caught in the attack since she only had time to shield Sol.
"NICO MINORU HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED!" Captain America announced from the observation room.
"Hey, Flash?" Liz said through labored breaths, fighting to stay awake.
Flash turned to her, not dropping his fighting stance.
"Kick her ass for me..." The girl dropped to the floor, passed out.
"LIZ ALLEN HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED!"
The two left standing stared each other down, waiting for someone to make a move. That was until Flash noticed something.
He could see his breath.
The temperature of the room dropped, visible frost appearing on the walls as ice spikes shot out of the floor towards him.
He rushed forward, punching through the spikes ok his way towards Sol.
But she didnt let up, sending walls of ice and spiked from all directions to try and incapacitate him. She shifted her foot, sending a wave of ice towards Flash, one too big to destroy in one punch.
The boy was shot back when the wave crashed into him, he laid on his back looking at the girl.
She was shivering.
He smirked under his mask/symbiote, Flash would win out in the long game, he was sure of it since the symbiote would counter the temperature, a privilege Sol didn't have.
"You look a bit chilly over there!" He called out as he sat up. The girl started him down through narrowed eyes, she could feel the frost around her body spreading.
'Last-ditch effort, this has to work!' She thought, clenching her fist to try and regain feeling to it.
She knelt down, placing both hands on the floor and exhaling.
"CRYSTAL PRISON!"
Spikes and spears shot out towards flash at a 360-degree angle, completely entrapping him.
He started to smash them away, only for more of them to reappear a second later.
Sol saw her a chance, creating a sledgehammer made out of ice, she ran on the frozen ground towards her entrapment enemy. Only for the sound of shattering ice and a roar to fill her ears.
Flash flexed, and tentacles came out of nearly every part of his body that swung wildly around him to break any forming ice.
Gripping the edge of the weapon, the girl gave a primitive yell that rivaled Flash's as they both charged towards the other, intending on getting the fight over with.
The blonde swung, putting all his enhanced strength into the punch to make sure he finished things, and Sol did the same, swinging her hammer towards him.
Flash ducked.
She didn't.
Falling forward due to the momentum left her open for a counter-attack, an opportunity Flash didn't pass up. Flash switched arms, shifting his footing and shooting out a left jab that hit her square in the stomach.
The hit sent her flying back, skidding across the slippery ground until coming to a stop, leaving Flash panting as the last man standing.
"SOL HEE HAS BEEN INCAPACITATED! 10 MINUTES REMAINING!"
Flash put his hands on his knees, making the symbiote uncover his face so he could catch his breath.
He thought he might be able to take a small break.
He was wrong.
"Flash! You there? Still, breathing and all?" The voice of Danny came from the comms, checking up on him.
"Yeah... Yeah, I'm fine, what's up?" He asked between breaths.
A struggle could be heard on the other side, the two people left must have found the hostage and were fighting Danny and Luke now.
"Ava and Robbie showed up! Get over here!" A blast of fire was heard before Danny hung up on his end.
"Damn it!" He cursed to himself as he started to sprint down the hallway.
Over at the observation room, the teens were watching the match with mouths agape.
"Dude, this is pretty intense."
"Is this even safe? like at all?"
"A lot of them have crazy injuries!"
Peter watched the match with slight anxiety, he was impressed at how everyone was using their abilities and all, but seeing how hurt they got in a training exercise was worrying.
While it was hypocritical of him to say that someone shouldn't get injuries doing hero work, the fact that they were training and that they were kids should be taken into account.
He saw at least 3 concussions, countless bruising, and who knows if there was anything broken. Captain America seemed worried, but not as worried as an adult should be in a situation like this.
"Hey," He felt a nudge at his side, turning his head he saw that it was his newfound teammate, Kate Bishop, looking at him through her glasses.
"This is kinda... hardcore, don't you think?" She asked with a dry chuckle.
"Yeah, for the first combat exercise we'll be doing it seems kinda weird. Cap just threw them in there and told them to beat each other up." He said, not taking his eyes off the screen.
They could see Flash sprinting down the halls towards the hostage room, panting and with a sweat-covered face.
The camera switched over to the hostage room, Luke was swinging at Ava who kept flipping out of the way of his hits, she kept trying to cut him with her claws but to no avail.
Danny was being kept at a distance by Robbie who kept letting off blasts of fire and swinging metal chains wildly, but it was easy to see that exhaustion was taking a hold of him.
Ava started yelling something to her teammate, making his eyes widen as he nodded. Everyone in the observation room saw as he wrapped a chain around the girl's waist and swung her around the room, knocking their opponents into a wall.
"Oh damn, that's actually kinda cool! it's crazy to see someone make up team moves on the fly like that, not even me and client could do that." Kate commented with a smirk on her face.
Peter raised an eyebrow at what she said, then it started to dawn on him the amount of similarities between her and Hawkeye.
'The secret love children in this school keep popping up, huh?' He thought to himself.
Ava dived towards the dummy, grabbing it and running towards the window, her plan being clear.
"Is she... gonna jump out of the window like that? they're on the second floor!" Clayton said in disbelief, he wasn't one to talk but that seemed incredibly reckless.
"That'd hurt an actual hostage like hell, it seems way too risky," Kate said.
Out of nowhere, the main door of the room burst open, revealing an exhausted Flash who quickly outstretched his arm towards the girl, shooting a tentacle toward her.
A pillar of flame appeared in the middle of the room, blocking the tentacle from reaching Ava, but Luke dashed forward and grabbed her foot, pulling her away from her escape route.
Chains appeared around the 3 boys and pulled them away from her, Robbie giving a primal yell as he overexerted his body.
Seeing her chance, his teammate ran towards the window and crashed through it, sending shards of glass across the room.
She stuck her claws into the outside wall of the building to slow her descent. Once she reached the ground, she ran towards a white line that showed the safe zone and stepped through it.
She dropped the dummy to the floor, making it flop lifelessly as it hit the ground, her hitting the ground a second later.
"THE HOSTAGE HAS BEEN RESCUED! THE HERO TEAM WINS!" The pro hero boomed, making everyone wince at the volume.
The observation room broke into cheers and yells, seeing the match had made everyone present even more excited to get to do their own.
Everyone except one.
Peter Parker was disturbed at the state the people fighting were, nearly half of them had collapsed due to exhaustion! Gwen most likely have electrical burns, Nico had regular burns, Liz was overheating, Azari was still twitching and Robbie got shot! Rubber bullets still did a decent amount of damage!
It just felt... irresponsible, how could an adult let literal children get to such states? People like Flash and Luke had enhanced durability but everyone else didn't have that luxury.
Medical bots went down to the testing site and put everyone injured into stretchers, Robbie being the only one conscious. The only people who returned to the observation room were Danny, Luke, and Flash, and they looked ready to fall over and pass out.
"Alright! I want to congratulate both teams for an incredible performance! You all fought like true heroes out there today!" Captain America said as he gave a booming laugh.
Flash raised his hand with a strained expression and asked "Hey, Cap? Are they gonna be fine? Everyone who isn't here, I mean. They looked to be in horrible condition."
"Don't worry mister Thompson! Those injuries are nothing Night Nurse can't fix! In the field of heroics, one is accustomed to injuries such as those!"
His words seemed to reassure most people, but Peter and Flash still felt as if the exercise went a bit too far.
Flash's adrenaline had started to go down, and in his clearer state of mind, he started to feel severe guilt over the exercise. He felt as if he used way more force than necessary against the other team, hed has to apologize after class was over.
"We shall analyze each match after class, could the next teams, please report down to the testing site? The same rules still apply! But please do not use more force than necessary."
Peter saw guilt on the man's face, at least he actually acknowledged that things went too far.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, a hand belonging to Pietro who looked at him with a confident smile.
"C'mon Pete! We'll do amazing out there!" He exclaimed in an attempt to hype up their team at the last minute.
Peter smiled at his friend, his mood already lifting due to him.
The brunette beamed and said, "I prefer spectacular!"