DISCLAIMER: I DONT OWN BEN 10 OR MARVEL COMICS. THIS STORY IS JUST FOR FUN.
Hey everyone. I know I have been silent for a while and many of you are probably wondering why I'm taking so long to write my latest chapter for Avenging 10. I'm sorry to make you guys wait this long. You all deserve an explanation.
Last year, I finished my University course and not long after I got a new job. I moved away from my old home, away from everything I knew to set up in a new town. So far the job was going well. Then COVID hit and I was put into Lockdown. I thought it wouldn't last long, but it ended up going for 4 months. I was stuck in a place I was unfamiliar with, away from everything and everyone I knew, no way of reaching them and I couldnt go to work.
Needless to say, my mental health took a massive hit during that time. I fell into a dark place that I havent fully escaped from, even now. Its made doing the things I usually love, so much harder to do.
Luckily, I had some people that helped me through it. They kept me sane during these hard times and I am forever grateful to them.
Writing for the main story is still a struggle for me right now. So, I've decided to shake things up. This story will now be a series of short action tales involving Ben and various heros and villains from the Marvel world. Think of these chapters like the Cold Openings from Batman: Brave and the Bold, only with Marvel characters and Ben 10.
This is my first attempt at a story like this, so let me know what you all think.
Moon Knight #1
New York at night is a place full of wonder and mystery. The city that never sleeps has a vibrant night life that many of its citizens can enjoy.
But hiding in the dark corners of the night, the criminal underbelly is sneaking about. Conducting its nefarious schemes away from prying eyes.
On a shady dock, located in Hell's Kitchen, a group of armed thugs were unloading a series of crates from a cargo boat docked in the jetty. Many of the crates were marked with fragile images and judging by the lettering on the labels and the fine layer of sand that covered the crates. They had been shipped from a country, from an Arabian country, like Egypt.
As the thugs unloaded the crates, a man stepped forth. He was a large, muscular man. With dark brown skin and wearing clothing and gear that looked like army tactical equipment. Complete with sidearms and an assault rifle clipped to his side.
But, most jarring about this man's appearance, was the pale white facial tattoo that covered his entire face, from his hairline to his chin. It almost looked like a skull, only with red markings around the eyes and mouth.
The intention behind the tattoo became clear quickly as any of the thugs at the dock, immediately steered clear of this man, intimidated by the tattoo and the reputation behind the man behind it.
The Mercenary, Bushman.
Bushman looked over his men as they unloaded the crates. A smile spread across his red lips, showing off his silver teeth as they glinted in the artificial lights of the docks.
With his presence the Men became more nervous and started to rush to unload the cargo faster. The last thing any of them wanted to do was to keep their boss waiting.
But rushing the job, quickly leads to more mistakes as one of the men, in his haste, tripped over his own foot and dropped the crate he was carrying. The wooden box crashed to the ground and broke apart, the straw that was padding the inside of the box, scattered in the wind as a small rock carving rolled out, skipping across the pavement of the docks before stopping at the foot of Bushman himself.
Everyone froze as their eyes widened in horror. The man who dropped the crate, felt his blood run cold as Bushman knelt down and picked up the carving. It was a stone scarab beetle, with hieroglyphics carved into it.
Bushman examined the stone scarab as he slowly walked towards his Henchman. Despite being outside on the docks on a windy day. The men could hear each step of Bushman's stride perfectly as he loomed over the man.
The Mercenary held up the Scarab and examined it once again.
"These artifacts are more than a thousand years old." He stated, his calm tone cutting like razor blades through the silence. "Our buyer is paying top dollar for perfectly preserved products."
He then leaned down to his man and held the Scarab close to his man's face, showing that there is now a small, but very fresh chip in the stone of the Carving.
"How do you think, he'll react if we come to him with damaged merchandise?" Bushman asked rhetorically.
The Man gulped. His cold sweat pouring from his body as his life flashed before his eyes.
Bushman then grabbed the man by his shoulder, causing him to jump as Bushman pulled him to his feet with just one arm. The motion was so fast, the Henchman stumbled as he tried to keep his balance. Fortunately, Bushman's strong arm held him up as he found his footing.
They stayed like that for what felt like hours. No one dared to breath as Bushman kept a tight hold on the Man's shoulder.
Suddenly Bushman relaxed his hand and casually brushed out the creases in the fabric of the Henchman's shirt.
"But accidents happen." Bushman said with a small grin. He then handed the Scarab to the Man, who took it gingerly in his hands.
The Man looked at Bushman, gobsmacked. The shock on the other thugs faces all indicated that this was not normal behaviour from the Mercenary.
"Let's just try to be careful, from now on. Got it?" Bushman finished as he patted the man on the shoulder.
"Y-Yes sir." The Man replied, still a bit shell shocked from what just transpired.
"That's good." Bushman chuckled. "I had you goin there, didn't I?"
The man laughed nervously in response. "You did, Sir."
Both he and Bushman shared a big laugh as it started to spread to the other men. All of them hollering as their nervous energy all turned into cries of laughter as the tension just vanished from the air.
The atmosphere changed so fast that the Man didn't reach as Bushman placed both hands on his shoulders as they continued to laugh like kids on a playground.
Right up until, Bushman launched himself forward and his silver teeth, sprang from behind his lips.
The man suddenly screamed in pain and horror as Bushman metal, razor sharp teeth, sank right into the flesh of his right ear. Easily cutting through skin and flesh, before the Mercenary thrashed his head like a dog with a chew toy and tore the ear right from the poor Henchman's head.
Howls of pain erupted from the man as he dropped to the ground, clutching the hole in his head where his ear once was.
Bushman glared down at the writhing Henchman as he spat out the ear he bit off. Blood dripped from his lips as he watched the Henchman crying on the ground. His cold eyes watched remorselessly as his lips pulled back in a sneer.
He then turned his attention to all his men, who looked on the scene in horror.
"What do you want, a picture? Get back to work!" Bushman barked as his men immediately started moving again. No one paying any attention to their injured colleague still suffering on the floor.
"Anyone drops another box. I'll bite of more than an ear!" He warned them.
As he walked over to a table. One of his Henchmen offered him a handkerchief, which he took to wipe the blood off his mouth.
He then observed the unpacked artifacts that were unloaded earlier that evening. His smile returned as he looked over the ancient artifacts. Somewhere just rocks, like the Scarab carving. Others were pure gold with diamonds and rubies decorating them.
Even with one item chipped, there was still plenty here to make him rich.
"We're gonna be rich after today, boys." Bushman said in glee as he picked up and admired a golden sceptre.
"Boss, I don't mean to argue. But are we sure the buyer will want these? Look about the same as any other stuff in the Museum?" One of the Henchmen asked.
Bushman smirked as he placed the sceptre back on the table. "I don't think those villagers would've put up that kind of a fight, if these things were worthless. And if they are, we'll then. What a pathetic thing to die for."
Bushman chuckled as he recalled the bloodshed caused for the acquisition of these artifacts. It's never a job, when you do the thing, you love.
As he walked over to another crate to inspect, a loud clang caught his attention. He looked over to see a crowbar on the ground.
Bushman snarled in annoyance. Even after his warning, these idiots are still screwing up. This time he'll bite his throat out. That'll get his message across.
But upon further inspection, there was no one around. The crowbar and crate that it was about to be used on, were just sitting there alone in this section.
Did the Moron just take off before Bushman could see him? No way, if he'd just dropped the tool, no way would he have been able to get out of sight before Bushman saw him.
So where did he disappear to?
Suddenly another clatter occurred in another section of the docks. This time it was a controller for the loading ramp for the truck. The same as before, the man operating the device, just vanished.
Tension started rising through the area as some men started to panic, wondering what was happening.
Bushman felt something was up. He'd been in combat for long enough to know when he was being watched.
Slowly reaching to his side, he grabbed his assault rifle and unclipped it. Bringing it to his front and cocking the weapon.
No sooner had he done so, a flash of pale silver, shot from the darkness and struck Bushman's weapon, knocking it out of his hands. The Assault rifle clatter to the ground. In response all the thugs, dropped their crates and tools and immediately drew their weapons, ranging from handguns, rifles and shotguns. All aiming in various directions to try and find the mysterious attacker.
But Bushman kept his attention on his rifle, for imbedded into the weapons cold metal. Was a shuriken like weapon, made of some kind of pale metal, almost white in the dime light and forged in the shape of a crescent moon.
Bushman grinned in excitement. Seems his night just took an interesting turn. His old "friend" had come to visit.
The sound of footsteps approaching drew the attention and weapons of all the thugs as they pointed into a black ally way. The shipping containers were all positioned so that no light was able to enter that area, making it completely shrouded in darkness.
But as the footsteps grew louder, a figures silhouette started to take shape. What stood out first to the colour. He was pure white, clade head to toe in white clothes, with a hooded white cloak. The way the cloak flowed, made this being look like a ghost. Further emphasised by the white glowing eyes that shone from under the hoods shadow.
As the being stepped into the light, the Men could make out more details. He was a broad man wearing white body armor with a white crescent moon symbol in the centre of his chest. Even in the light, the hood still hid his face in shadows, allowing the eyes to keep their ominous glow.
The gathered Mercenaries all looked worried as they could feel the White Hooded man's eyes piercing their very soul.
"You have plundered the sacred tombs of the Ancient." The man suddenly spoke in a calm yet threatening tone. "The blood of the Innocent is on your hands. Their cries have called out for Vengeance. I am here to answer that call. For you now face, the Moon Knight."
"Kill Him!" Bushman ordered, raising his sidearm and opening fire.
The other Henchmen quickly followed his lead. Riddling the area in a hail of bullets.
Moon Knight swiftly fled back into the darkness. But not before tossing several of his crescent shaped shuriken at his attackers.
One of the throwing weapons hit a thug's gun, knocking out of his hand. Another struck a Henchman's arm, stabbing into it, causing him to yelp in pain. The third cut one of the ropes that held up one of the crates, that was suspended by crane above the area.
The heavy box fell towards some other crates situated on the far side of the docks. The Thugs in that area quickly dove out of the way as the heavy crate crashed to the ground, splintering into fragments and littering all the artifacts within.
The Henchmen all recovered and looked back at the destroyed crate. Many of them panicking because if they get out of this, Bushman would surely blame them and literally chew them out.
As they composed themselves, one of the men noticed some bandages littered within the straw and other items. On closer examination, the cloth looked very similar to those used for Mummy's for Egyptian burials.
That stuck the thug as odd as they didn't find any mummies in the tombs they plundered. So where did this come from.
Suddenly the bandages started to move on their own. The fabric moved together and wound into each other into a single mass, like they were possessed. As they did, they took on a humanoid shape, forming arms and legs. But even more surprising, other items of clothing, like cuffs, and even a headdress joined the mass of bandages, until they took on its true form.
It was a tall lanky, Mummy-like being, seemingly composed of light brown bandages that made up its body. It wore a black and gold pharaoh's headdress on its head, black bracers and greaves on its arms and legs. The gaps between its bandages emanated a lime green light from within and on its chest, hung a grey metal disc with a green glowing hourglass symbol on it.
The Mummy glared at the thugs, with glowing green eyes as it raised its arms and let out a loud moaning sound.
"For thousands of years, I have slumbered! Who dares awaken the Ancient Mummy!" The Mummy announced in an over the top, spooky voice. Like something from a low budget monster movie.
The henchmen quickly turned their guns on the Mummy being and fired several bullets into it. But the projectiles had no effect on the Mummy as they just passed right through the creature, like it was made of mist. With no visible bullet holes in it.
The Mummy chuckled evilly. "Foolish mortals. Now you will face the eternal wrath of Snare-Oh!"
With a mighty roar, Snare-Oh lunged forward, and the Henchmen let out screams of terror as they dropped their weapons and ran for their lives. Tripping over each other and jumping over crates as they scrambled to escape the area.
Once they had left, Snare-Oh lowered his arms and let out a gut busting laugh as he held his sides.
"HAHAHa! Oh man that's priceless." Snare-Oh cackled. "Man, I wish I was recording that. Jan and Clint would love this."
The sound of gunfire refocused the Young Heroes attention as he moved to engage. Unfortunately, not all the thugs were dumb enough to fall for his, mummy's curse act and stood their ground as they attacked.
But with Snare-Oh's elastic body and regeneration abilities, he had nothing to fear from the bullets as he held out his hand and his bandages stretched out to incredible lengths. The bandages shot forth like vipers and wrapped themselves around several thugs, completely tying them up, binding their arms and legs together, causing them to fall to the ground, unable to move or escape.
With his targets tied up, Snare-Oh severed those bandages and left the Henchmen bound where they were and moved onto his next targets.
As he did, more thugs started directing their efforts to stopping the Alien threat and ended up ignoring the white clade vigilante. An action that would prove to be a mistake as the thugs noticed a shadow pass over them.
Looking up they saw Moon Knight, leap from the top of some cargo containers. His cape stretching out as he descended, the white fabric taking the perfect shape of a crescent moon with the actual moon glowing from behind him.
The Fist of Khonshu swiftly kicked one thug with his boots as he landed, knocking him out. He then swiftly disarmed another thug with impressive hand to hand combat, before taking him down with a powerful haymaker.
The third thug, proved to be quicker than his friends as he managed to raise his shotgun and took aim at the Vigilante.
Unfortunately, Moon Knight was a little faster as from within his cloak, he pulled out a white truncheon and with a click of a button, it extended into a bō staff that struck the thug in the forehead, stunning him.
Moon Knight then swept his staff and knocked the feet right out from under the thug, knocking him to the ground hard before flipping over and punching his lights out with a swift left hook.
Retracting the staff, Moon Knight then aimed his truncheon and clicked another button on the device. Suddenly the tip unfolded into a small grappling hook and fired out from the small baton with a cable attached to it.
The grapple line snagged onto the crane overhead, where it retracted, pulling Moon Knight into the air.
As he zipped into the sky, several thugs tried to shoot him down, but Moon Knight responded by tossing his crescent darts with his free hand. These ones seemed to be more like blunt instruments than sharp shuriken as the weapons collided with several of the criminal's heads and simply knocked them out, rather than impaling them.
Normally, the Fist of Khonshu would've been a little more brutal with his methods. But he promised to refrain from that behaviour in the presence of his partner.
Speaking of which, once he reached the right height, Moon Knight disabled the grapple and dropped down and landed right next to Snare-Oh.
"You're late." Moon Knight commented as he delivered a roundhouse kick to another thug.
Snare-Oh chuckled as he whipped his right arm and struck several thugs at once, sending them flying. "What can I say. I like to make an entrance."
Moon Knight's face was hidden, but Snare-Oh could practically feel his eyes roll from beneath his mask.
"These agents of evil must not escape justice, this night. It is the will of Khonshu that we punish the wicked for their crimes against the innocent."
With that Moon Knight fired his grappling line and swung to the upper levels of the docks to engage with more Henchmen.
"Yeah… Sure thing, dude." Snare-oh said awkwardly.
Moon Knight was one of those heroes that no one could get a read on. Every time Ben has worked with the guy, he's not sure if he should take his ramblings seriously or check him in to the Ravencroft loony bin.
Dude claims to be the Avatar of the Egyptian god of Vengeance and the Moon, Khonshu. But no one has been able to confirm that. Ben even asked Thor about it, but the Avengers resident god had no clue. Apparently, deities from ancient religions don't actually hang out with each other.
Even if you take out the Moon god ramblings, the question on this guy's sanity has been speculated by the Young Avenger and his social group. According to Carol and Jessica, the dude had like three secret identities and no one can tell which ones the real one as each one has like an airtight paper trail and history.
So, either the man is actually crazy or he's just mega paranoid. Either one raises a bunch of red flags in the hero community.
It's one of the reasons, Ben decided to work with the Crescent Crusader. To see if he's a hero for the right reasons or is just a lunatic who just wants an excuse to beat up people, he thinks deserves it.
After tying up another batch of mercenaries, Snare-Oh heard the sound of an engine reaving up.
He turned to see Bushman shutting the door of one of the trucks and it started to pull away, tires screeching as he floored the gas pedal.
Acting fast, Snare-Oh stretched his arms out and grabbed onto the light post and swung after the heavy vehicle. Swinging from post to post at incredible speeds.
Once he got close enough, the Alien Mummy stretched his arm out and grabbed onto the trailer of the truck and pulled himself onto the back.
He then made his way to the front and dropped down to block the windscreen, starling the driver as he did so.
"You have reached the edge of the map. Turn around if you don't want to quit the current mission." Snare-Oh quipped as Bushman tried to shake the alien teen off his truck, by violently swerving the vehicle.
But the Mummy Aliens enhanced strength and flexibility made it impossible for the Mercenary to shake him off that easily.
So, he resorted to pulling out his sidearm and trying to shoot the Alien off his vehicle. But, once again, the bullets had no effect on the Alien Teen.
"Ok, now it's just sad." Snare-Oh commented as he stretched a few of his bandages through the driver side window and wrapped them around Bushman's waist and torso. He proceeded to yank the Mercenary out of the truck and then drop to the ground in front of the vehicle.
His feet skidded across the ground as Snare-Oh extended multiple bandages from his body that snaked their way to anything sturdy nearby. From cargo containers, lampposts, fencing, buildings, to even a stop sign. Snare-Oh grunted as he felt his bandages strain to slow down the truck. But eventually the heavy vehicle came to grinding halt as Snare-Oh retracted his bandages.
He turned his attention to Bushman, a cocky expression on his cloth face.
"I think I'd call this, catch of the day." The Alien Teen joked in a cocky tone.
Bushman glared at the Alien before glancing at the bandages currently suspending him in the air. A smirk appeared on his lips as he chuckled, confusing the Teen.
"Better be careful." The Mercenary warned. "Goin fishin in these waters. You're likely to catch a shark!"
With that Bushman swiftly reached up and grabbed Snare-Oh's bandages and pulled them into his mouth. Using his razor sharp, metal teeth, Bushman chomped right through them like a pair of sheers.
Snare-Oh stared at the Mercenary with wide eyes. "Metal teeth? Dude, ever heard of brushing?"
Not wanting to give his opponent an edge, Snare-oh extended his bandages to Bushman, intending to wrap him up again.
Only for the Mercenary to pull out several road flares from his pockets. A single strike lit the flares and a bright red, potassium flame burst from them.
Bushman shoved the first flare into Snare-Oh's outstretched bandages, the thin bandages, while elastic and strong, were easily susceptible to fire as the bandages quickly caught aflame.
Snare-Oh yelped as he retracted the bandages. The young hero isn't used to feeling pain in this form, due to the aliens advanced regeneration abilities, but the feeling of his body burning from the fire was too intense for him to endure.
Unfortunately, the sudden pain distracted the young hero for too long as Bushman took this opening to toss all four of his flares at the Alien Mummy. The flaming signal flares all collided with the Snare-Oh and several patches of his body instantly caught on fire.
Snare-Oh cried out in pain as the flames consumed his bandage body.
With the Alien threat taken care of, Bushman took this as his chance to escape. If he was lucky, he might be able to secure some of the artifacts and at least get something from all of this.
But as he rounded the next corner, he stopped dead in his tracks.
Standing on the other end of his path was Moon Knight. The Lunar Legionnaire stood across from Bushman, his white eyes, glaring spears into the tattooed mercenary.
Bushman glared back, with a slight smirk, his teeth glinting in the light.
"Been a while since we last through down." Bushman said, in a taunting tone. "I still got the scar you gave me."
"Obviously it wasn't big enough." Moon Knight responded. "This time, I'll make the message clear."
Bushman chuckled as he reached to his belt and drew out a large combat knife. "Should a killed me when you had the chance. Or do you not have the balls for it?"
Moon Knight punched his fists together and cracked his knuckles. "You have a chance to turn your life around. This doesn't have to end like this."
"You seriously pulling that BS?" Bushman spat back at him. "Come on man. You know this ends one way. With one of us, six feet under."
With that Moon Knight reached into his cloak and pulled out his truncheon. "Then let's end this."
Bushman grinned as he charged. Moon Knight rushed at him, both raising their weapons as they struck forth, allowing the weapons to clash in a loud clang.
Back with Snare-Oh the Alien Teen continued to writhe in pain as the fire ate away at his bandages.
It took all his willpower to fight through the pain clouding his mind as he focused enough to reach out and tap the Ultimatrix dial on his chest.
A flash of green light and Snare-Oh transformed.
"SWAMPFIRE!"
Going from paper thin bandages, to thick, green, moisture filled, plant matter, caused the fire to quickly fizzle out.
After taking a moment to catch his breath as the pain subsided. Swampfire raised his head, anger burned in his green eyes.
"Ok. Now I'm mad." He snarled.
Glancing back to the docks, he saw a few stragglers of henchmen, loading up the remaining trucks.
Wasting no time, Swampfire charged forward. Igniting the methane in his palms as he did so, creating two large balls of fire.
Some of the thugs saw him approaching and responded by firing their weapons. A futile endeavour as the bullets just passed through the Plant Alien, much like how they did with Snare-Oh.
Ignoring the thugs, Swampfire focused on disabling the trucks first. Concentrating his flames, Swampfire crouched low and unleashed a strong torrent of flames along the ground. The fire, flowed like a river, over the cement and washed under the trucks.
A series of popping and bubbling sounds soon followed as the trucks sank slightly towards the ground, due to their tires exploding from the extreme heat from the fire.
Despite his anger at being burned alive, the Alien Teen showed great restraint as he only used enough of his power to melt the tires to prevent the trucks from escaping, instead of destroying the actual trucks. As he knew there were still a number of priceless ancient artifacts in the area, and he did not want to damage any of them.
With the vehicles disabled, Swampfire turned his attention back to the thugs. All of whom, looked very nervous. Even the dumbest among them, figured out that their bullets just had no effect on the alien.
So, one Henchmen pulled a grenade from his belt, pulled the pin and tossed it right at the Plant Alien.
Without hesitation, Swampfire snatched the grenade from the air. A series of vines grew from his wrist and completely enveloped the small explosive. Tighter and tighter the vines grew and compacted.
Suddenly a small flash of light and a tiny explosion erupted from within the vine prison. Smoke then flowed from the tiny gaps in the vines as Swampfire retracted the vines. Shards of shrapnel and chard plant matter dropped to the ground as Swampfire's hand reformed like nothing happened.
Normally Swampfire would've just let the grenade explode and regenerate the limb after. As a way to give the bad guys some false hope before he pulled the rug out from under them. Really it was more of an ego boost and a way for the young hero to show off and mess with them.
But he was in no mood to mess around. Not this time.
"Drop them! Or I drop you!" He threatened the thugs, fire burning in his hands to drive his point home.
The Henchmen quickly got the message as their weapons clunked to the ground, followed by their knees as they raised their hands in the air.
Swampfire nodded in satisfaction as he doused his flames. He then tossed several seeds from his body at the thugs and a mass of vines quickly grew from them. Under his mental command, the vines ensnared every thug in the area, ensuring that not a single one escaped.
With that done, Swampfire let out a long sigh. Feeling his rage calm down. While it did seem a little immature of himself to be this upset over being set on fire. After all, he'd suffered way worse from way stronger opponents.
What really upset him was how a normal, street level Mercenary, managed to disable him so quickly with such a simple method. Had it been any other alien, that trick would've never worked.
But, it was this alien, in this situation and because of that, the criminal got away from him.
'No. Don't go down that road, Tennyson.' The Alien Teen thought to himself. Wasting time thinking about how he could've done better does nothing. All he can do is learn from this and do better next time.
His musings were interrupted, by the sound of fighting above him.
Looking up, Swampfire saw Moon Knight and Bushman locked in a brutal conflict with each other. Parts of Moon Knights suit had been torn and damaged, while Bushman had cuts and bruises on his body as both engaged in an impressive display of martial arts.
Each kick, punch or swing of their respective weapons were so precises and skilled. It's like they were reading each other's movements and perfectly predicted where each strike was going to land and countered in expert timing.
Eventually, Moon Knight did find a brief opening in Bushman's defence and managed to knock his knife out of his hand, sending it clattering to the ground.
However, Bushman wasn't completely unarmed as he lunged at Moon Knight, his mouth open, showing off his razor sharp, metal teeth.
Instinctively, Moon Knight raised his gauntleted arm up to defend himself as Bushman chomped down on his arm. Despite the armored padding, Moon Knight could feel Bushman's teeth sinking into the padded material, the tips of those fangs just reaching his skin.
But this action left Bushman wide open as Moon Knight delivered a strong knee into the Mercenaries gut, knocking the wind out of him. The White Knight, followed with a series of punches and strikes to Bushman's body, knocking him closer to the edge of the cargo container.
Finally, the Vigilante pulled out a crescent blade, attached to a long thin cable, apparently a hand thrown grappling line and used it to bind Bushman's wrists together, before delivering a powerful kick to his chest and sent him flying to the edge of the container. Landing with a loud thud, with his head just hanging off the edge.
Before Bushman could recover, Moon Knight pounced onto him, putting his knee on his chest and held a crescent dart in his hand. This one larger than most as it fitted perfectly in Moon Knight's hand with the curved tips of each wing, on either side of his knuckles. Almost resembling a white crab claw.
Moon Knight held the weapon close to Bushman's neck, threatening to cut his throat if he moved.
Swampfire watched the scene play out. Waiting to see what Moon Knight will do, but ready to act if things turned deadly.
Bushman looked up at Moon Knight, a sadistic smile on his lips as he chuckled, before coughing due to his injuries.
"You gonna do it now? Or do you still not have the stones?" Bushman taunted. Practically begging the Crescent Crusader to finish him off.
Moon Knight said nothing as he cocked his crescent dart back, ready to drive it into Bushman's face. Swampfire felt a hitch in his breath as Moon Knight struck down. A metallic slash rang out as Swampfire and Bushman both looked stunned.
Bushman blinked as he glanced to his left, were Moon Knight stabbed the crescent blade into the metal container. He turned back to Moon Knight and let out another bout of laughter coughing.
"I knew it! You're too scared to do it! You're just a pathetic, spinless…" Bushman was suddenly cut off when Moon Knight suddenly stomped onto his legs. A loud snap pierced his ears as a rush of pain, exploded up his body as the Lunar Legionnaire broke both of his legs.
Moon Knight then kicked Bushman off the container, the cable that tied up his arms, was connected to the blade that Moon Knight had stabbed into the metal box. The cable went taught and Bushman hung on the side of the metal crate, writhing in pain as he swung from side to side.
The White Knight, dropped to the ground as Bushman's cries turned into a whimper. Moon Knight turned back to his opponent, his white eyes glaring at him with vengeful intent.
"I was given another chance. To make up for all the pain I caused in my last life." Moon Knight explained to his foe. "A chance I am willing to give all who cross my path."
"But make no mistake." He clarified, his tone turning grim. "First time was a warning. Second time a slap on the wrist. Third time… I will not hesitate."
With that, Moon Knight turned his back and walked away. The sound of sirens in the distance, alerted the heroes to the approaching Cops. Meaning it was time to go as neither wished to get stuck answering questions.
The pair quickly left the area, with Moon Knight firing his grapple line and swinging to the nearest rooftop and Swampfire rocketing after him by blasting fire from his hands.
The White Knight and Alien Avenger landed on the roof of a nearby skyscraper and watched as New York's finest, arrived on the scene and started making arrests.
As the watched, Swampfire took this opportunity to turn back to human. Finally letting the watch recharge after a long night.
The Young Hero glanced over to Moon Knight, who didn't take his eyes off the scene for a moment.
Now that the fight was over, Ben felt he understood this guy a little better. Sure, he was a little eccentric, but for all intent and purpose, this guy is a hero. He wasn't a maniac that just wanted to beat up criminals for the thrill of it. He was a man, who wanted to repent for the mistakes he made in the past.
He's taken responsibility for his past. A noble intention for any hero.
"Thank you for your help. You have been an invaluable asset to Khonshu." Moon Knight thanked Ben as he glanced at him and then to the Moon above.
Ben smirked as he flowed his gaze. He still wasn't sure if that moon god stuff was legit. But if that helped Moon Knight from turning his fists on innocent people, more power to him.
"No problem, dude." Ben replied. "Us heroes, gotta stick together."
Moon Knight grunted as he looked down at the streets below. "I am an Agent of Vengeance. Those who do not learn will face my wrath."
Ben frowned as he recalled Moon Knights threat. Apparently three strikes and you are out, is a guarantee in this guy's book.
"Has anyone ever listened to that warning?" Ben asked, a little worried about the answer. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know how many skeletons are in this guy's closet.
Moon Knight remained silent for a moment; Ben silently hoped he wasn't counting the final tally.
"Many don't. But some do walk down the right path." He eventually answered. Vague enough to satisfy the Young Hero.
Moon Knight then turned to face the Teen as he walked over to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
"But I must still try. After all, we all deserve a second chance in life."
With that Moon Knight walked past the Young Hero, straight to the edge of the building and jumped off.
He then spread his cape which caught the wind and turned into a glider. Ben watched as the vigilante glided through the city with a small smile on his face.
"Yeah. We do."
So there we have it. These wont be long chapters, just a little action and witty banter with Ben and the many heroes of the Marvel universe. These chapters can take place at any point in the Avenging 10 timeline where Ben is already familiar with the heroes and villains of Marvel.
In case any of you are not aware, I chose to draw more from the Moon Knight of the comics as opposed to the MCU version. One, cause I didn't watch the show and Two, because I just like the comic version and wanted to draw from that version.
If any of you have a favourite Marvel hero and villain you'd like to see in this little anthology, feel free the message me and I'll see if I can do it.
Until next time, CaptainRex75 out!