A/N: Hello, everyone! I just wanted to say thank you all so much for getting me up to and even a little bit beyond 100 subscribers!
Well, you held up your end of the bargain, so now I'll do my best to get out the promised two chapters a month.
With that being said, here's the first one! I hope you all enjoy!
Pyrrha and Spider-Man separated for the night, planning to head to their respective locations to rest and recuperate, that being MJ's and Peter's apartments respectively, when suddenly, Pyrrha began picking up a strange signal on her HUD. "What? Where did this come from so suddenly? And why that location of all places?" Pyrrha asked as she followed the signal, soon arriving at the Avenger's tower. Peter had informed her of this location and how it was the location of, supposedly, Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Although, based on the videos she'd seen between Pyrrha and MJ showing her, they more than earned that title.
She would soon arrive at the tower and land on the helicopter pad, standing across from a man with a skull-like mask, standing next to some kind of trunk about the size of their rocket lockers back at Beacon. "I see you got my signal." The man said.
"Who are you?" Pyrrha questioned, readying her weapons in preparation. He wasn't one of the Avengers, based on everything she'd seen, so that more than likely meant he didn't belong here. Not to mention, he wasn't giving off the friendliest vibe she'd ever felt. That honor belonged, without equal, to Ruby Rose.
"I'm the one who's been leaving you and the spider those challenges on the rooftops." He explained.
"I see. Then you need to stop. The bombs you're leaving and the mercenaries no doubt working for you are dangerous. We've stopped them so far, but they are going to end up hurting people. And I promise you, you will answer for it if and when they do." She told him.
"I need to see your abilities and test exactly what you're capable of. Although, I suppose I could do away with all of my challenges if you would come with me." The man offered.
"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked.
"I work for an organization that is always in the market for new talent. And you and the spider both have talent. They want him, but I'm more interested in you. I'd take a bit of flak for it, but if you were to come back with me, I'd be willing to get rid of all the bombs, all the mercenaries. All my challenges. And I'll leave the city alone. But that's up to you." The man said.
Pyrrha narrowed her eyes at him. "No. You're just another criminal, using force and intimidation to get what you want, not caring about the innocent people that you hurt along the way. And something tells me this organization you work for uses the same methods. If so, it's an organization I want nothing to do with." Pyrrha said, readying herself.
"Very well. Then I have another test for you." The man said, pulling out a backpack from behind him.
Pyrrha looked up one of the rises of the towers and gasped in shock, seeing that the backpack Spider-Man told her about there, that they'd be leaving alone, contained a devastatingly powerful villain known as Sandman, who was a criminal Flint Marko, who escaped from prison and, while escaping from the cops, ran into a nuclear testing facility and dropped into a testing area, where he was accidentally combined on an atomic level with the sand in the testing zone. Now combined with this sand and able to manipulate it into any form he desires at will, it took everything Spider-Man had to put him down. "If you know what's in that... you know you can't release it." Pyrrha said in horror.
"You know what you have to say then. Do we have a deal?" The man asked.
Pyrrha hesitated. She didn't want to go with the man, but if Sandman was as dangerous as Spider-Man said, she couldn't allow him to be released. But then, she remembered something she heard from, surprisingly, Nora of all people. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. The only way to stop evil is to look it in the face and say "no more". "No. I won't give in to your demands. Sandman is a threat that needed to be stopped. And so are you." Pyrrha said, rushing forward, not wanting to resort to her semblance right away.
"Very well." The man said, kicking open the container, filled about halfway with sand, then opening the backpack and grabbing the vial. He then dodged Pyrrha's attacks with astonishing grace and skill, before jumping back. "Then it's time for a true test. The Spider just barely managed to defeat him. Let's see how you do." He said, throwing the vial to the ground and shattering it, jumping off the roof.
"No!" Pyrrha shouted, but then turned her attention back to the immediate threat at hand as the small amount of sand in that vial moved towards the trunk and mix in with the rest of that sand, which began to transform and grow, shifting and altering itself into a humanoid shape, changing until it took the form of a six foot tall muscular man with dark brown shoes, tan pants and a dark and light green striped shirt.
"Finally! I'm free again! I'm gonna make that spider pay!" Sandman declared.
"Wait!" Pyrrha told him.
Sandman turned his attention towards this new voice, narrowing his eyes. "Who are you?" He asked.
"You can call me Arkos. I understand Spider-Man trapped you in that vial, but you were causing mayhem and committing crimes. Your actions have consequences. But you have a second chance now. Spider-Man told me you aren't truly a bad person. You're just trying to help your family. Well do it now. The right way." She tried to tell him.
Sandman considered her words for a minute, before shaking his head. "No. There's only one way to help my family and that's with money. And with my powers, nothing's stopping me from getting it. And nothing's gonna stop me from getting payback on that spider!" He declared.
"No! I'm sorry for what happened to you. And that Spider-Man had no other choice than to trap you in that vial, but if you insist on seeking revenge, than I'll stop you!" Pyrrha told him, taking her stance once again.
"Look, kid, I don't wanna hurt you. Just stay out of my way." Sandman warned her, turning to walk off the roof and fly away, but Pyrrha flung her shield and decapitated him, stabbing into the column thing where the backpack was once webbed much higher to. His head fell to the ground and broke apart into a pile of sand, which dragged itself towards his body and slowly reformed back into place. "Watch it, kid. Last warning: back off." He snapped. However, Pyrrha used her semblance to pull her shield back, this time bisecting Sandman, causing him to have to reform himself once again. "Fine. But don't forget, I warned you!" He snapped.
Background Music: "Blood Red Sandman" by Lordi
Sandman shot his arm out at Pyrrha, ending in a fist the size of her entire torso, but she blocked it with her shield and sliced the hand off, causing it to fall to the ground. He pulled back that hand and shot the other one forward, but Pyrrha slashed through the other hand, turning it into another pile of sand at Pyrrha's feet. Sandman repeated this several times while Pyrrha continued to cut away at the oncoming fists, sand beginning to pile up at Pyrrha's feet. Suddenly, the sand began to build itself around Pyrrha's feet, encasing them in sand up to her ankles. Pyrrha looked down and struggled to free her feet as Sandman smirked, pulling back and growing both fists in preparation to deal a devastating blow.
However, Pyrrha reached into one of the pouches that, in her old outfit, was normally hidden under the red sash around her waist, pulling out and loading blue cartridges into her rifle, aiming and firing a Sandman's head, then several other spots on his torso and one in his hip. Water then burst out as each round impacted him, drenching the sand on his body and turning it to mud, causing his body to start becoming heavier and less flexible, his arms falling to his side as his form fell apart a bit. Pyrrha then loaded an ice cartridge into her weapon and blasted it at her feet, freezing the sand trapping her feet and using her considerable strength to shatter the ice with an impressive backflip maneuver.
Pyrrha faced her opponent as he began to recover from the shots, thinking about the situation. (Let's see. Peter told me about him. No matter how much physical damage I do or how many times I break him apart, he'll never get knocked unconscious or simply get tired and be unable to reform. And if he can manage to get any more sand, there's no possible way I can stand against him. I can turn him to mud with water dust to destabilize him or into glass with fire dust, but he can turn back to sand either way. My only option is trying to contain him again.) She thought, looking to the trunk the man had brought to supply Sandman with enough sand to become the way he is now. (That container could work if I fused it shut, but how to get him back in? There's no way to ensure I get all of him as sand or even as mud. I'll have to use fire dust to turn him to glass, then put all of it in the trunk and fuse it before he can turn back to sand and escape. Good thing Peter said he isn't very smart.) She came up with her plan in her head.
Sandman managed to recover now and sank into a puddle of sand and rushed towards Pyrrha rising up and preparing to crash down on her like a tidal wave of sand. Pyrrha quickly dove to the side, rolling and getting into a crouched position as Sandman slid along the ground, trying to take her down as a wave one last time, but she jumped and back-flipped into the air, firing down her normal rounds on the wave of sand, blasting it apart, forcing Sandman to focus more on recollecting his sand, rather than attacking. She landed and loaded her weapon with fire rounds, but while he wasn't the smartest villain out there, once he realized her bullets could contain things that could hurt him, he was smart enough to get out of the way.
He made gaps in his body as he moved forward, causing Pyrrha's shots to narrowly miss their target. He closed the distance and once again tried to come down on her as a tidal wave. Pyrrha tried to move, but found her feet pinned down. Looking down, she noticed a small pile of sand around her feet, once again holding her feet in place up to her ankles. The tidal wave finally crashed down on her and Sandman attempted to smother and crush Pyrrha inside her armor. Pyrrha struggled for a moment, before remembering Ren's story of how he dealt with a King Taijitu during their initiation.
Pyrrha held out her hands as much as she could, releasing a burst of aura that exploded the sand away from her, allowing her to free herself. She then sprinted a good distance from the sand pile as it reformed into Sandman one more time, the criminal readying a massive fist once again, but Pyrrha began to fire on him, the fire rounds she used instantly turning the parts of him it hit into glass. Soon enough, she had completely turned the monster into a glass statue, which she quickly flung her shield at and shattered. She then gathered up all the shards of glass and dumped them into the trunk, ironically a means to make Sandman whole and free again, it would now be his new prison as she slammed it shut, fusing it closed with a few more fire and lightning rounds.
End Music
Pyrrha panted heavily at this. "Spider-Man wasn't exaggerating. The Sandman was quite the formidable opponent. And could only be about 100 pounds of sand at most. If he had amassed the several tons he had when he fought Peter, there's no way I could've handled him alone." Pyrrha said.
Suddenly, she got a call, answering it to hear a most unwanted voice. "Well done, Pyrrha. Sandman is a difficult opponent, but you managed to soundly subdue him." The man who'd released the criminal praised.
Pyrrha growled at this. "You HAVE to STOP. Sandman is dangerous. People could've gotten hurt if he was allowed to run free. And your challenges throughout the city are going to get someone killed. Are you really willing to let that happen?" Pyrrha asked.
"I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to get what I want and complete my mission. When I have a task, it ALWAYS gets accomplished. You can call me Taskmaster. And we WILL be speaking again. Prepare yourself." The now named Taskmaster warned her, before hanging up.
"Hopefully, we won't be speaking again any time soon. But he is right. I need to prepare. Perhaps I can convince Peter to make a few gadgets for me as well." Pyrrha said, before pondering something. "Come to think of it, where is he right now. Whatever he was doing, it must have been important." She said, unaware that the whole time she was fighting for her life, the heroic Spider-Man was in fact chasing down garbage trucks.
A/N: So, there you have it! While Spider-Man was rooting around through the garbage, Pyrrha was taking on one of Spider-Man's most dangerous opponents! Sure, he wasn't at his most powerful, but he still proved a challenge to our beloved champion.
So, what do you guys think? Any ideas for gadgets Pyrrha should carry for extra support? Please let me know!