Jason Fuller & The Elementals: The Stones Of Olympus (Book 1)

by Andarion The Storyteller

This story is about the adventures of a young mutant named Jason Fuller and his friends as they embark on a journey to save the world from Doctor Doom and the Masters of Evil. Lives will be changed, destinies will be fought, ancient magic will resurface, and for Jason, a question that has plagued him since his parents death, about what it truly means to be a hero, will be answered.

7. Chapter 7: We Have To Find Magic Rocks?

Chapter 7: We Have To Find Magic Rocks?

At first I was scared that Fury was gonna put us through another simulation, but this room wasn't meant for fights (like anyone cares what things are for.). This room was small, about the size of and average high school classroom. Except for the one light shining down on the meeting table, everywhere else in the room was pitch black. The meeting table was made of glass, so it was see through, it also had the S.H.I.E.L.D emblem on it. Sitting at the table were six people. Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, some lady with brown hair wearing a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform, a Chinese guy with glasses, wearing a white dress shirt and a tie, a muscular white guy wearing a red polo shirt and some sort of high school cap, and…. my English teacher, Mrs. Kennedy. At first I did a double take, because there was no way that my 1st period English teacher was actually here right now; it didn't make sense. But after blinking my eyes several times, I came to terms that she actually was. She looked the same as she always did, brown power suit, with a white dress shirt, and blue tie, brown hair tied back in a bun, and blue rimmed glasses over her eyes. I didn't have anything against my English teacher, but I never liked the way she looked at me. Even though I was one of her best students, she always glared at me like I was a time bomb waiting to go off. She always sat me at the front of the class, called on me all the time to answer questions, and made sure to call me out every time I had gum in my mouth. However, today her look was much much worse. Her face wasn't glowering, but had a look of disappointing expectation, like she knew I would blast a kid with lightning, get the attention of a super spy agency, and become the leader of some teenage task force. To be honest, it made me a little angry. I glanced over at Grant, and saw that his expression was also surprised, plus, he was staring daggers at the guy in the red polo shirt; I had a vague suspicion that Allyson also had a hometown teacher that was present in the room. I glanced at Fury, who also caught my gaze. He flashed his (snigger, never gets old) eye at the three seats that were free directly in front of him, and the teacher group and nodded his head. I tapped Grant on the arm and pointed at the seats; he got the memo, passed the message on to Allyson and we all took our seats. We sat in awkward silence, staring down the adults for like 5 seconds before Fury finally broke the silence.

"Congratulations you three," he said. "You have officially passed you're training with flying colors, please contain your enthusiasm."

Grant and Allyson remained silent and I could tell we were all thinking the same thing.

"Ok, elephant in the room, i'm just gonna say it," I blurted out. "Fury, why am I seeing my, and possibly Grant and Allyson's, high school teachers?"

Everyone, including Fury looked stunned (probably because I didn't say "Colonel" first). It was even more shocking when Mrs. Kennedy started to chuckle. She looked over at the other teachers, and I swear her face said something like: What did I tell you, no manners whatsoever. She looked straight at me and smiled all creepy like, as if she spent the last few days thinking of new ways to embarrass me in front of my new friends.

"Hello Jason," she said. "How's my favorite student?"

"I'm fine," I said. "Thanks for asking, but seriously, why are you here?"

"Let Colonel Fury explain that."

She looked expectantly at Fury, and he heaved a big sigh.

"Grant, Allyson," he started. "I assume these two men look familiar to you as well.

"Yeah," said Allyson pointing to the Chinese guy. "That's my history teacher, Mr. Lee."

"Hello Ally," said the Chinese guy, who was smiling so genuine like, I could tell he actually liked Allyson. "For what it's worth, you made an A on your last history test.

Allyson smirked and looked at Grant, who was starring viciously at the guy wearing the red polo shirt. Now that I think of it, the guy was wearing a blue cap with a mascot on it and…...oh crap.

"What's up, coach?" said Grant in a deadly calm voice. "How's the team doing?"

The coach remained silent for a few seconds before responding.

"They're doing ok," he said. "Scott Carlson took up you're position, he's not as good as you, but he'll do."

"Cool, that's cool."

I couldn't bear to watch this train wreck continue, so I intervened due to the fact that Grant looked like he was on the verge of rampaging.

"Ok," I started. "So is anyone gonna-"

"Going to," Mrs. Kennedy corrected me.

"Is anyone going to explain what's going on here?"

Fury reached into his trench coat and pulled out some kind of clicker. He pressed a button, and a holographic screen popped up over the middle of the table. Flashing on the screen were images of Grant, Allyson, and, myself. The scary thing was that these images were at least 3 years old. I saw a few pictures of me in my freshman year, the time Doris and I went to Las Vegas together, even me at my first middle school dance (no I didn't have a date). I saw a bunch of other images of Grant and Allyson too. I didn't know Allyson was a cheerleader, or that Grant was also on his high school step team. Anyway, Fury clicked another button, and turned off the projection leaving me more confused than before.

"Because you're confused, i'll talk slowly," he said. "First of all, your teachers here are really S.H.I.E.L.D agents who have been working undercover for 2 years, monitoring you three. Second, we've known that the three of you were mutants, since you were 8th graders."

"How?" I asked. "Allyson didn't get her powers until last year, me and Grant got our powers two days ago, how on earth could you have tracking us for so long?"

Fury pressed another button on his clicker thing and another hologram popped up. This time the hologram was showing a picture of the United States. On New York was a blinking blue dot, a green one was on Nebraska, and on Alabama was a yellow one.

"Three years ago," said Fury. "Our ethereal matrix sensor went nuts, picking up three dormant but very powerful sources of energy. At first we thought that the sources of the power had to be artifacts or weapons, but when we sent agents in to investigate, we ended up at your individual addresses. Needless to say, my cohorts were less than thrilled to discover that the sources of three nearly unlimited powers were dormant in the bodies of three 8th graders. Some of em' wanted to kill you on the spot, make it look like an accident and be done with it. Others wanted to bring you in right away,and train you as weapons for the government; however, me being the compassionate guy I am, decided to leave you be and wait til' you were older.

"And then what?" asked Grant.

"Then, I was going to see how'd you turn out, if you were good, i'd let you live your lives while I watched from a distance."

"And if we were bad?" asked Allyson.

"Let's not go there," said Fury. "Let's just assume you were gonna turn out good either way."

"So what's up with this whole change of plan?" I asked Fury.

"Well for starters, you super charged your childhood bully with 1000 volts of electricity," said Fury.

"You're never gonna let me live that down will you?"

"Not in this lifetime. Anyway, we changed our plans up, because just last week, our ethereal matrix sensor went absolutely insane, multiple impossibly high power energies quite literally rained down from the sky, and landed in random places all over America. We knew they were artifacts simply because, unless they were Asgardians, people don't rain down from the sky."

"So why didn't you look for them?" asked Allyson.

"We couldn't Miss Grace. Like I said, our EM sensor went insane, the mass multitude of power was too much for it to read."

He pressed another button on his clicker and the hologram switched to a map of the whole world. On this map was a bunch of multicolored sonar waves traveling in every direction across every continent, if this map was supposed to actually help me find something specific, i'd never get anywhere.

"This was the way the map looked last week," said Fury. "Believe me Ms. Grace, if we were able to efficiently track these artifacts, we would; but for a while, we couldn't track an egg."

"But that still doesn't explain why you brought us here all of a sudden," said Allyson.

"I'm coming to that Ms. Grace, please be patient."

Allyson looked slightly abashed even though she shouldn't. Fury was going way too slow, I could run 1000 laps around him, before he actually got to the point.

"I assume you all know about the five attacks on St. Mark Industries that happened a few nights ago?" Fury asked us.

We all nodded our heads, it's kinda hard to miss when a bunch of super villains decide to ransack five major business headquarters, slaughter hundreds of innocents, and steal truckloads of presents meant for the homeless and the orphaned.

"Well," Fury continued. "When we arrived on the scene-

"You mean after you showed up too late," I interrupted.

Everyone held their breath, even Mrs. Kennedy looked stun. I didn't care; S.H.I.E.L.D. and their heroes failed to show up when they were actually needed, and I wasn't gonna play good boy while they patted themselves on the back for nothing. If Fury had a problem with that, he could take it up with my thunderbolts.

"When we arrived on the scene," he continued. "We scanned the areas, and found residual traces of the energy levels that showed up on the EM sensor. We knew something like this would probably happen, it was only a matter of time before people like Doom started to get involved; unfortunately, we just weren't fast enough."

I held back the intense desire to say, "got that right".

"So exactly how many of those things are there?" asked Grant.

"In total," said Fury. "Seven of them."

"So that means that the others are at the remaining St. Mark buildings, why haven't you sent any heroes to bust some heads?"

"Because the remaining artifacts, are no longer in the St. Mark buildings, or in Doom's possession either."

"What, how?"

"As soon as we realized that we were dealing with magic, by the way the artifacts are indeed magic, we called in the greatest sorcerer known to mankind, Dr. Strange."

"Dr. Strange? Dude, that guy is so awesome, do we get to meet him too?"

"Maybe somewhere down the line, but not right now. Anyway, although the Doc wasn't able to identify what it is we were dealing with, he did manage to buy us some time to figure it out."

Fury pressed another button on the clicker and a video played. Dr. Strange was in the middle of some forest chanting some magical stuff, while purple energy, and weird symbols spun around him like a tornado. After he finished whatever it is he was doing, the energy burst in a massive wave, way bigger than anything i've ever created (then again, since i'm new at this, I probably shouldn't compare so soon). The hologram switched to a view of the entire planet, which had a massive wave of magic energy resonating across it, I wondered how people wouldn't notice that, but then again, I didn't.

"What you've just seen, was a recording of what happened on December 11th at 12 A.M.," said Fury. "While you were sleeping you're pretty little heads off, we took action to make sure Dr. Doom didn't get a foothold on those artifacts."

"What did he do?" I asked.

"That magic wave was meant to locate and scatter any and all of those artifacts randomly over the world, even we don't know exactly where they all are."

"Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to find them?"

"You'd think so, but the thing is, that magic wave helped stabilize our EM sensor, it will take a while, and it won't happen all at once but we will be able to get accurate readings on all of the artifacts."

"Ok, this is all very fascinating and stuff, but you still won't answer the one question that we wanna know: Why. Are. We. Here?"

Fury put his face in his palm and shook his head, hey it's not my fault i'm a little curious as to why S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to abduct and train three random mutant teenagers; you'd react the same way.

"Trust me, I'm getting close to that part, it'll be worth the wait, just let me finish speaking words."

Fury pressed the clicker again, and the holographic screen went away.

"At first, our original plan was to deploy The Avengers to find and collect these artifacts, but they're all on various solo missions, we can't recall them. Also, on the exact morning that you and Grant got your powers, I received some kind of message from three strange….let's call them ladies. They gave me a vision so to speak, saying that you three would play a part in getting these artifacts, and keeping them out of the wrong hands."

"And you believed them?" I asked.

"When you've been in this business as long as I have, you learn to heed the warnings of mystical beings, no matter how much you don't want to."

"So, did these ladies tell you anything else?"

"As a matter of fact they did. They told me that in 10 seconds precisely, they will speak to you directly, and tell you everything else we need to know about these artifacts, so have fun with that."

Fury pressed another button on the clicker, and everyone except for Grant, Allyson, and I, were warped out of the room in a flash of light. At first I thought Fury was giving us another test or something, I mean there was no way some old ladies were gonna just show up from nowhere and give us visions right? Yeah…...let's just say I learned not to doubt anything else Fury said. Seven seconds later, the lights in the room went out and the room started to fill with a thick purple haze. How did I know that the haze was purple even though the lights were out? Well simply put, I could see it. For some reason even though it was pitch black in the room, I could see the table, my friends, and the purple haze clear as daylight. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. You know that feeling you get when you go into an abandoned building, but feel like something creepy might pop out and attack you at any second? Now imagine that feeling multiplied by twenty, but actually KNOWING that something dangerous is in the room with you. As soon as the purple mist filled the room, I felt multiple presences; ancient, powerful, unnatural presences. I knew from the moment I felt them, that they were unnatural beings, things that should not have existed in the first place. Their presence felt like a snake slithering and shuffling through the air, and under the ground. I could feel them watching me with a sort of gleeful anticipation, as if I were a fascinating new species that they couldn't wait to study. After a few seconds of being royally spooked out, I felt the three presences move behind me, then under the chairs and table. A few seconds later, an arm slammed on the table, and started to pull whatever it was connected to upwards.

Let me tell you something. If you are a fan of zombie movies, you wouldn't be after you saw this sight. The arm was dark gray with spidery fingers, that also happened to be razor sharp, I know that because her fingers scraped against the table, and the sound was only slightly less painful as a nail on a chalkboard. Other arms also made their way on to the table and pulled themselves upward until I got to see the….. let's go with 'ladies'. The first thing that had me scared stiff was their hair. It was definitely hair but, their hair seemed sentient, as if each thread had a life of it's own. Even more scary was the fact that their hair seemed to be angry and agitated, as if it knew that it was connected to an abomination freak of the universe. Their hair constantly shifted from snakes, to dragon heads, lion heads, even demon figured shapes. The next thing was their physique. It was strange, because I could tell that these three 'ladies were once very beautiful, but had given it up to become whatever this is. Their bodies weren't hideously deformed or anything, but their skin was grey, covered in blisters and callouses, plus I could see their veins. By the way, their veins glowed with some type of intense purple energy that I could only guess had to be magic; made me wonder what their blood type would have identified as. Finally, the heart stopping, most terrible thing about the three ladies, were their eyes. They were black, soulless, and empty of life. No, their eyes weren't empty sockets, but basically black holes, like the ones in space. I couldn't help but look into those eyes, and instead of seeing emptiness I got a different but more terrible feeling. It was if I was looking into the eyes of time itself. When I looked into those eyes I saw what must have been the beginning and the end of entire universes; it was as if eternity had rolled itself into balls and placed itself into the sockets of these (no offense) hideous, soulless, emotionless, hags.

The trio moved toward me and my friends the way a stereotypical zombie does, in slow, grasping, ungraceful shuffling. I wanted to run, I wanted to blast them to dust, I wanted to hide under my covers and stay there for the rest of my life; unfortunately I couldn't move. Was it because of fear? Yeah, you could say that. Was it because they were working some type of magic that kept me from moving or reacting in the face of certain death? For the sake of my manhood, I will also allow that as a possibility. Either way, I was glued to my chair, and I wasn't going anywhere. The three ladies continued to shuffle forward across the table, moaning and hissing, exposing their black fangs, that dripped purple liquid. At first I thought that might have been saliva or something but as the liquid made contact with the table, it started to hiss and burn right through the glass. Acid spit, why not? Once the three ladies were a few feet away from me and my friends, they stopped moving, straightened up into an all fours position, and just stared at us. I tried not to look into the eyes of the one that was focused on me (three ladies, three teens, one for each of us; keep up people, it's not that hard) but I couldn't turn my head away. Now that she was up close, I could see that the infinite darkness that was her eyes, seemed to be swirling and churning. More than that, I felt myself, my identity, my memories, being sucked out of me and into those eyes. For a moment, I forgot who I was, where I came from, my real parents, my favorite things to do, getting my powers, the final exam, everything. Then, just as I started to panic on the inside, the woman's eyes swirled in reverse and I felt everything return to me just as quickly as it left. If you haven't had your memories forcibly taken away from you, then you my friend are a lucky person. My head felt fuzzy, disoriented, and a little painful, I imagine this is how a hangover would feel. It was if my head was trying to reprocess everything that it knew, but didn't know that it knew (yeah I know, it's confusing). I don't know why the woman decided to take my memories away, but I knew that she had studied them. In less than a second, the old hag had downloaded and processed 17 years of my memories and experiences, she probably knew me better than I knew myself. Finally, after about 10 seconds of awkward, scary, and painful silence, the ladies finally spoke.

They didn't move their mouths (they were still dripping acid spit all over the table, it was starting to melt through the metal floors) but I heard their voices in my head louder than a stadium full of fans.

"Jason Fuller," they said in unison. "Champion of Zeus, Chosen of Poseidon, Heir of Hermes, Lord of the Storms. We are the Norn-Fates. "We are neither the Norns of Asgard, nor the Fates of Olympus; we are the result of an unholy, but necessary union, for both kingdoms are in grave peril, and will be greatly affected in the events to come."

Ok, remember how I said the scariest things about these Norn-Fates was their eyes? Yeah…..not anymore. To say that their voices were ancient, powerful, and forbearing, would be the king of all understatements. In truth, their voices gave me the same feel that their eyes did; as if I was hearing the beginning, as well as the end. It was as if their voice had the power to create, reshape, and bend reality with a single word. Simultaneously, it was like their voices were a compilation of graveyards, like they could speak death or destruction on anything in the universe, and it would have no choice but to stop existing. Yet, whenever they stopped talking, I forgot what their voice sounded like; this would probably be better for my sanity in the long run. After speaking, the Norn-Fates went silent again and of course didn't move a muscle for another 5 seconds. Then, in a quick heart stopping action the Norn-Fates reached out, grabbed each of us by our faces, and quickly pulled them closer, until our foreheads were touching theirs. I had no choice but to gaze into the eyes of Norn-Fate that grabbed me, and felt my soul being pulled away from my body, and into those eyes. Everything went dark for a moment, and when the lights came on again, I was on some bridge, looking at the outline of an amazing city.

The city was made of white marble, and from what I could see, was a mix of ancient Greek and Roman architecture, mixed with modern day building styles. I felt my soul self take flight (not of my own will) and was flown over a large portion of the city. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew that this place was Olympus, home of the Greek gods, and yes, I was totally geeking out. I mean can you really blame me? I'm a PJO (Percy Jackson & The Olympians) fan, this was my greatest fantasy come to life, I was literally flying above the home of Zeus and the other gods. As I passed through the air, I noticed that the city had a amphitheater, as well as a Coliseum. There were buildings shaped like ancient temples, I saw a smoke billowing in the distance that had to have come from some sort of forge, plus it seemed that nobody lived in anything except for a mansion in this place. Also, there were a lot of cool looking buildings in Olympus. One temple had grape vines growing all around it's structure, so it had to be related to Dionysus. There was this awesome golden tower that glowed like the sun, so it had to be for Apollo. Plus, there was this ginormous temple made completely out of storm clouds, with lightning flashing in the pillars; obviously for the big man himself. One more thing, in Olympus, everyone either traveled by flying pegasi, or golden chariots pulled through the streets by huge lions. I could go on all day about this place, but unfortunately I can't; I'm on a time limit.

I felt myself being flown up to some mountain that was dotted with mansions, temples, and other types of Greek architecture, except these buildings were made of solid gold. At the top of the mountain was this huge palace that shined so bright, it was almost hard to look at. The walls were engraved with pictures of gods, Greek heroes, and people riding chariots. I knew this had to be the palace of the gods. I was flown through the giant golden doors, and was whisked through a bunch of other walls, until I found myself in the throne room of the gods. To be honest, the throne room was really big and elaborate (the floors had waves of light travel throughout the perimeter every 10 seconds), but the actual thrones were kind of underwhelming. Yeah I know, just because it didn't live up to my PJO expectations, that shouldn't make it bad; but still, I expected more. I wanted the thrones to be super personalized for each individual god and goddess, but all I got were a dozen fancy looking solid gold thrones, with precious gems embedded in the seats, and armrests. In fact, the only way I could tell whose throne was whose, was the gem embedded symbols on the chair backs. For example, Zeus' throne had a thunder bolt engraved in diamonds, Ares had a skull made of rubies on his throne (go figure), Aphrodite had a dove made of amethysts on her's, and yeah you get the picture. Anyway, I was floating in the throne room of the gods, and suddenly, I felt time shift backwards. It was as if the room was being sucked by a vacuum. Images of past meetings, celebrations, even weddings, were being sucked into it. Finally, time settled, and I found myself in the company of seven of the Olympians. They were all sitting on their personal thrones, looking all grumpy and powerful, well except for Apollo and Hermes. Oh yeah that reminds me, I have to list the gods who were there. Well plain and simple: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades (who was sitting on a throne made of shadows), Hercules, Apollo, Ares, and Demeter. Zeus was this tall, muscular guy with all white eyes, and long flowing orange hair and beard. He was wearing a green loincloth and a golden breastplate. Poseidon on the other hand, was this old looking, but still very muscular guy with blue skin, long grey hair, and a long grey beard. He was wearing a long blue and purple loincloth with seashell patterns, a long purple cloak, golden arm and leg bands, and was holding this sick looking golden trident that glowed with blue energy. Hades, well Hades was this white guy who was dressed in a black robe, and had his hood over his head. I didn't know what his face looked like, but his eyes glowed with a dark purplish fire, that made me very very glad I was only looking at a memory, and wasn't really here. Hercules was a super muscular dude with brown hair, wearing a green loincloth, and a golden belt with a lion head as the buckle. He was also wearing classical sandals, that had straps reaching up to his thighs. He was easily the most laid back guy in the room; I mean he literally reclining on a throne made of clouds. Apollo (yes I know this is getting redundant) was muscular, extremely handsome, and had long flowing blonde hair. He was wearing a white tunic with a giant gold belt that had some type of star symbol on it. He was also wearing a flowing yellow cape, and boots made of solid gold. Ares, scared the living crap out of me. He was wearing a black breastplate with a picture of a skull on it. He had a traditional Greek battle skirt on, and was rocking some boots that were either made of iron, or steel. His arms were huge. Not as big as Zeus' or Hercules', but big enough to know that the guy could strangle a great white shark with little to no problem. His face was covered in a black Greek war helmet with white plumage. His physique wasn't the scary part, I was pretty sure I could take him on (yeah right). No the scary thing about him, was his aura. This guy radiated aggression naturally. He seemed like the kind of guy who would pick a fight, start a war, and slaughter millions just for the fun of it. If I ever met any of the Olympians, I hoped Ares was not one of them. Finally, Demeter was a woman with long brown hair, wearing a green dress with leaf patterns in them. Her arms were adorned in golden bracelets and she was absently growing different types of plants out of her hands. All seven Olympians sat silently, until Zeus finally broke the ice.

"Brothers, sister, my sons," he started. "You are all aware of why I called for this assembly to take place."

"Of course father," said Hercules. "Thou wouldst not cease with such talk for the past two moons."

"I know right?" said Ares. "Seriously, he was all like: we must meet urgently, that fate of Olympus is at stake, listen to me as my incredibly loud voice destroys your eardrums."

"Brother, why dost thou continue to speak in such foreign tongue?" asked Hercules.

"3000 years from now, people will start talking like this, and it's way better than the crap people talk these days, so I'll stick with it."

"Enough!" Zeus boomed. "We do not have time for this prattle, let us focus on the task at hand."

"Fine," said Ares. "Let's get this over with, i'm working on this new thing called a gun; should have a prototype for it in around 2000 years."

"Humph," scoffed Demeter. "You men and your toys."

"As you all know," said Zeus. "Our enemy's forces are rising once again, and are attempting to overthrow Olympus. I have bartered with Odin of Asgard, and have successfully gained his allegiance. But even so, we face perilous times, and are odds of victory are grim."

"Who are we fighting again?" Apollo asked out of nowhere.

"The Titans, the Giants, 12,000 wild Centaurs, 9,000 Minotaurs, 10,000 snake woman led by Medusa, The Nemean Lion, 5,000 Hydras, The Chimera, and Typhoon." said Ares with a scary smile on his face.

Apollo's face was so priceless, even I laughed; which was strange considering the fact that my voice didn't work. Ares and Hercules were bellowing and doubling over and just having a good laugh.

"Worry not brother," said Hercules. "Our battle will be glorious and worthwhile, even if I do have to fight alongside the Odinson."

"Yeah, don't look so scared twinkle boy," said Ares. "Even I agree with Hercules, and you gotta believe it's something serious when I actually agree with this bastard son of a mortal whore."

I expected Hercules to attack or something, but he smiled, laughed, and continued to recline on his cloud.

"Yes," said Zeus. "We have a great challenge ahead, but together we will succeed. However, we must take certain precautions, this war will challenge our strength more than they have ever been challenged before, our powers will greatly diminish over the course of these many battles, and if we are not careful, we will soon be overthrown."

"What do you suggest we do then, brother?" asked Demeter.

Zeus snapped his fingers and a giant ball of dark purple magic, that was spinning at like 1000 mph, appeared in the center of the throne room.

"I have struck a deal with Hecate, the goddess of magic," he said. "In return for her allowing to learn forms of magic from other pantheons, she has given me the magic necessary for us to fight in this war, without fretting about the toll it will take on our powers."

"How so?" asked Apollo.

"Once we thrust our hands into this small pocket of the Infinity Vortex, all of our godly powers will be siphoned away from us, and will take the form of stones, they shall be called the Stones of Olympus."

"You want us to put our hands in some stupid magic ball, that'll take away all of our powers?" asked Ares. "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of trying to hold on to them, pops?"

"Firstly my son," said Zeus. "Never refer to me as pops. Second, this process will allow us to have access to an emergency, and nearly unlimited source of power, should this war prove to be too taxing, we can access these stones to replenish our power, it is the only way we can hope to fight this war, without endangering Olympus in the process."

"Wait a minute, if this is so important, why are the other Olympians not here to perform this ritual with us?" asked Demeter.

"Because my sister," said Zeus. "The elements of: thunder, water, sun, plant life, war, strength, and death, are necessary to keep the world in balance. Without such elements, this world would dissolve into chaos, the other Olympians are not here, simply because they are not needed."

"Well I can understand that, but if war keeps the world in balance, why is Ares here, shouldn't Athena be here instead."

Ares started to get off of his throne, conjuring a war axe, that I could only guess was not meant for gardening. But before he could completely stand up, Zeus' eyes flashed with thunder, and a bolt of lightning struck the floor missing Ares by a foot. Ares sat down in a hurry, but still stared Demeter down with intense hatred.

"The reason for that Demeter," Zeus started. "Is because Ares is war unrestricted, unbound, and raw. Athena represents war that is hindered by strategy and rules; war that has been safely bottled. Mortals, and even gods do not naturally battle with a plan of attack. Instead, they focus only on hurting their opponent until they are unable to move. This is why Ares is here, he represents war in it's natural state."

"You say that as if it is a good thing Zeus," said Demeter.

Zeus pretended not to hear this, and continued with the council meeting.

"All in favor for creating the stones of Olympus?" he asked.

Everyone raised their hands, and thunder shook the room.

"It is agreed," said Zeus.

"Brother," said Poseidon." "When the process is done, are we to carry these stones in our possession always?"

"No Poseidon," said Zeus. "We will be able to call upon the power of the stones whenever we see fit, regardless of distance; besides if the power of the all of the stones were to be used in once place, the massive ethereal energy being used, could have dire consequences for the the earth. I suggest that each of us enchant our individual stones, and conceal them in sacred places, to protect them from those who would misuse this power."

"Also, you still have not addressed the matter about why we are giving up all of our power to create these stones, when the battle is yet to come."

Zeus snapped his fingers, and 7 vials filled with some kind of diamond-like liquid, appeared in his right hand. He flicked his wrist, and the vials flew away, and placed themselves in the hand of each Olympian.

"Upon completing the ritual, all you must do is drink from these vials," said Zeus. "These vials are special potions made by Hecate herself, they will immediately replenish our powers; so the threat of losing your powers is no longer an issue. Before we begin, does everyone have a specific place they have in mind to be the safe haven for their stone?"

"I shall enchant my stone to inhabit places where plant life is at it's strongest." said Demeter. "Considering the fact that humans have a nasty habit of cultivating land, I suspect it's options will run scarce in a few thousand years."

"I'll enchant my stone to inhabit the skies, where the presence of the sun is present," said Apollo. That'll make it hard for those nasty heathens to track it down."

"I'll stick mine in places where the bloodiest battles take place," said Ares. "By the way, as soon as we win this war, my stone will stay put on the battlefield, at least for a while."

"I shall command my stone to forever reside in the cave of the Nemean Lion," said Hercules. "That is where my greatest act of strength took place."

"I'll keep my stone with me in the Underworld," said Hades in a dark, brooding, and gravel like voice that was only slightly less frightening than the voices of the Norn-Fates. "Nobody ever comes there, unless they are, or want to be dead."

Hercules looked like he wanted to say something about that, but thought better of it, and kept his mouth shut.

"I shall place my stone in the care of the Atlanteans," said Poseidon. "They have always been my chosen people; I trust they will keep my stone safe."

"As for me," said Zeus. "I shall enchant my stone to inhabit only the most violent of storms or thunderclouds. Now let the creation of the Stones of Olympus begin."

Demeter stepped up first, and thrust her hand into the magic orb without any hesitation whatsoever. The orb started to shake violently, and the color changed from purple to green. Energy spewed everywhere like crazy, and because it was Demeter's energy, the waves transformed into gusts of leaves, crops, and other nature stuff. Demeter screamed, and after 10 seconds, the orb settled down and spat out a green stone, about the size of a pinky finger. The stone was shaped like a tree, or maybe broccoli. Demeter grabbed it, drank her potion, and went back to her throne, where she started to enchant the stone.

Apollo was up next. He slowly inched his hand into the orb like a little baby pee pants, and of course screamed like a little girl. The orb's color changed into a really bright yellow, and started spewing waves of light everywhere; it kind of reminded me of one of Allyson's mini suns. After his ordeal, the orb spit out a golden stone shaped like a sun. Apollo went back to his throne, whining like a little $I% *, and started to enchant his stone.

Ares stepped up next, and put his hand in the orb. Either because he was way tougher than I thought, or because he didn't wanna be a little baby pee pants like his brother, Ares did not scream; he barely even grunted. When he made contact with the orb, it violently erupted into a dark red blaze, spreading fire, blood, and energy weapon constructs everywhere. After the weapon spree died down, the orb spit out a red stone, that was the shape of a deformed bullet. Ares grabbed it, walked back to his throne, and began to enchant his stone. I swear I heard him call Apollo a wimp before he sat down.

Hercules stepped up to create his stone next. He laughed like a madman when his hand made contact with the orb, which made me wonder whether or not he had a pain fetish. The orb's energy changed into a dark orange color, and literally roared like a lion, until it spat out Hercules' stone. The guy must have seriously had a thing for lions, because his stone was shaped like a lion's head. He walked back over to his throne, and sat down. He didn't enchant the stone, but I doubt he could have anyway.

After Hercules, Hades stepped up. He floated a few feet off the ground on a cloud of shadows to the orb, and put his hand inside. He didn't make a single sound as the orb drained his power, but he didn't have to. The energy waves off of the orb were a really dark purple and black. The sounds of horrified screams, monster growls, and horrible crying filled the air. His stone couldn't have been spat out too soon. It was dark purple, and shaped like a skull. Hades floated back to his throne and plopped on it, not even bothering to enchant it.

Poseidon stepped up next, and put his hand on the orb. He strained a little, but he gritted his teeth, and toughed it out. The orb turned blue, and lightning flashed everywhere, followed by multiple waves of seawater. Luckily for me, I wasn't really here. The other Olympians however, got very salty baths. Finally, right before the gods decided to clobber him, the orb spit out a blue stone, shaped like a sea urchin. Poseidon walked back to his throne and sat down, ignoring the murderous glances of all the other Olympians.

Finally, the big guy himself got up and walked to the orb. If Zeus did scream, I wouldn't be able to tell, because as soon as he put his hand in the orb, the loudest, most nerve racking thunder clap filled every area of the throne room. The orb changed not to another color, but took the form of a swirling thundercloud ball. Lightning flashed inside, first as little sparks, then bigger sparks. Three seconds later, everything went completely insane. Lightning bolts, way more intense than i've ever seen in my life, crashed everywhere in the room. The ceiling, the walls, the floors, nothing was safe. As loud as the thunder was, Apollo gave it a run for it's money. His scream was so loud, I couldn't tell if it was him or the thunder. At least he was smart though. As soon as the insane lightning storm started, he created a sun barrier around himself. In fact, Poseidon put a barrier made of water to protect himself, Demeter created and oak tree out of nothing to shield her, and Hades was shrouded in a barrier of dark shadowy energy. Ares and Hercules on the other hand were not so lucky. Either because they couldn't, or were too stupid not to, they were left barrierless. Ares paid the price first, by receiving a lightning bolt to the head. Luckily, he had a helmet on, because it took most of the damage, although it did shatter like glass. Hercules got blasted square in the chest ,and even he couldn't laugh at a million volts of electricity. Finally, after 10 seconds of being in an electric field, the orb spit out Zeus' stone. His stone was hard to describe, because it kept shifting. One second it was a mini thunderbolt, another second, it was an eagle; it even turned into a bull one time. Zeus took the stone, enchanted it, and walked back to his throne.

"It is done," he said, right before some guy wearing a red kilt, a white cape, and winged sandals burst into the room (yeah I knew that he was Hermes).

"Lord Zeus," he started. " The Asgardians have entered our dimension to negotiate battle strategy, shall I send them here.?"

"Yes, Hermes," said Zeus. "Assemble the rest of the council as well."

Hermes nodded, bowed, and took off in a blur, even I had trouble seeing him. Everything went dark and hazy again, and at first I thought my vision was over, but when my sight righted itself, I was in New York City.

I was on the top of some random skyscraper, fighting Dr. Doom himself. We were going at it like beasts, blasting lightning, clashing swords, even battling in Speed Mode. Suddenly, Dr. Doom blasted me with some type of red energy, and as soon as I hit the ground, tree roots as thick as Anacondas, wrapped around my arms and legs, trapping me to the ground, or roof I guess. Suddenly I felt, and I do mean ACTUALLY felt, giant thorns pierce my thighs, biceps, hands, calves, and feet. Furthermore, I felt some type of energy, that felt like it was burning and shocking me at the same time, surge through the thorns that had pierced me. The pain was so intense, so mind blowingly awful, that I couldn't help but scream an awful, bone chilling, super agonizing scream. In the midst of my pain, I saw the blurry image of Dr. Doom create a black sword with red highlighted edges, and stomp his foot on my chest. He looked like he was saying something, but I couldn't hear it. Finally, he raised his sword, and brought it down in a stabbing motion. Right before the blade ended my life, my vision dispersed into black haze, and I found myself head down on the meeting room glass table.

(Grant's vision)

Hey guys, it's me again. Just so you know, Jason, Allyson, and I had the exact same vision, concerning the whole gods and Olympus thing, so i'll just skip to my personal vision, you know, the one we all had after seeing the creation of those magic rocks. By the way, listen to what those creepy hags said to me before they grabbed my face.

Grant Jackson, Champion of Gaea, Titan of the Earth, Chosen of Hercules. We are the Norn-Fates. We are neither the Norns of Asgard, nor the Fates of Olympus; we are the result of an unholy but necessary union, for both kingdoms are in grave peril and will be greatly affected in the events to come.

I was in some type of giant basement. Broken and bended pipes were strewn all over the room, and Jason was lying unconscious next to a severely bent pipe. I wanted to see if he was okay, but as it turned out, I was a little busy at the moment. Allyson and I were fighting against the legendary X-Men villain, Magneto; guess that explains all the bent pipes. Allyson was wearing some type of black body armor, and now that I think about it, so was Jason. Allyson and I were fighting against Magneto with all that we had, but the guy was way too good. Anytime I tried to fly into him and pound him into the floor, he either blasted me with some kind of purple lightning or threw lobs of metal at me from every direction. Allyson tried blasting him with her sun powers, but she wasn't making any progress either. Flame streams, sun balls, everything she threw at the guy was either blocked by a purple lightning barrier, or sheets of metal. Magneto blasted the two of us with an intense lightning blast that actually hurt me, and after a brief blank in my vision, I found that he had wrapped us and Jason in a bunch of metal pipes, that covered us from the neck down to our feet, and were engulfed in that purple lightning. I tried to bust free, but for some reason I couldn't. No matter how hard I bucked and struggled, the pipes stayed shut around my body; I was completely defenseless. Magneto raised his hands, and I felt myself being forced into the air. Magneto raised his hands again, and a bunch of metal pipes floated into the air, and sharpened themselves to a point. That didn't scare me, but Allyson and Jason weren't invulnerable like I was; Magneto was gonna kill them, while I was helpless to watch. Something caught my eye in the middle of the floating metal barrage, a double bladed war axe that gleamed with a silvery purple glint. For some reason I was afraid of that axe, I don't know why or how, but I knew that axe could hurt me, kill me even, and it just happened to be hovering right in my general direction. Magneto thrust his hands out, and the metal barrage flew straight at me and my friends. Right before we all died, everything went black, and when my vision came back, I was face down on the table.

(Allyson's vision)

Hello again readers, wow never a dull moment in this place huh? So, because Jason basically covered all the basic stuff, I'll skip to the part where me, my friends, and everyone on the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier die; oops! Spoiler alert. Oh, but first here's what those creepy ladies said to me.

Allyson Grace, Avatar of the Sun, Singer of Life, Chosen of Apollo, Blessed of the Angels, we are the Norn-Fates. We are neither the Norns of Asgard, nor the Fates of Olympus; we are the result of an unholy but necessary union, for both kingdoms are in grave peril and will be greatly affected in the events to come.

I was high in the air. I was level with the clouds, the ground was like 30,000 feet below me, and I was in the middle of a fight with an enemy that could manipulate dark matter; don't know how I knew that, but I did. She was wearing a purple T-shirt, black leggings, and a mask that covered her face. She didn't look much older than I did, but I could tell she was on the side of evil; that made me really, really sad. We were blasting away at each other. Me with sun power, her with some kind of black shadowy energy. Whenever our blasts collided, they made some kind of white dot that intensified gravity. I wasn't affected much, but it was enough to keep me off balance. Me and this other girl fought each other for a while, blasting away, and even creating construct swords to duel with from time to time. After like three minutes of fighting, our blades clashed together, and we held them in that position, struggling for dominance. The gravity output was so intense, that we were both flung backwards several feet before I regained my balance. Suddenly the sky went dark. Thunder sounded, and lightning flashed for miles. On another ship similar to the Helicarrier but more sinister looking, and made completely of metal, some guy in a green robe raised his fist and shouted really loud. A second later, a huge, powerful bolt of lightning, bigger than any lightning strike I had ever seen, struck the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, and blasted off two of it's turbines. I probably shouted or something, but my voice didn't work. I didn't know what to do; Grant and Jason were inside the Helicarrier, I knew that for sure. If it crashed to the ground, they, and everyone in the Helicarrier would die. Before I could do anything, the girl I was fighting grabbed me by my throat, and opened her mouth. She didn't kiss me or anything, but I doubt she could have anyway; because coming out of her mouth, was a black hole. I tried to get free, but her grip was way too strong, and on top of that, the black hole in her mouth was draining all of my Sun Energy. I felt myself getting weaker, and weaker; I struggled to remain conscious, to keep fighting, but it was no good. As all of my energy left my body, all I could think about was how Jason and Grant were gonna die in a Helicarrier crash, and how I was completely useless to save them. My vision blacked out, and when I came to, I was lying on a glass table.

(Jason's perspective)

I groggily got up, but man did I have the world's biggest headache. It was as if those Norn-Fates had opened my head, and shoved a whole library in there; thank God that they weren't here anymore, I wouldn't be able to handle the sight of those three hags again. I looked over at Grant and Allyson, who were also recovering from their visions. I wondered if they saw the same things I did. I hoped they didn't see the part about me dying, that was something I wanted to keep to myself. A second later, Fury and the rest of the teacher club flashed back into the room, their faces were so calm and balanced, it made me hate them a little bit. I mean seriously, wouldn't you be totally pissed if you got mentally screwed over while someone else watched all carefree?

"Well that was interesting." said Fury.

I wanted to retort, but since I was recovering from my mental hangover, I decided to play nice with Fury for a little while.

"Yeah," said Grant. "Getting a mental short film jammed into my head was always on the top of my bucket list."

"Speaking of which," said Fury. "What did you see, what are the artifacts, what do they have to-"

"The Stones of Olympus" I blurted out.

"What?" asked Fury.

"Those artifacts are called the stones of Olympus. Basically, they're magic rocks created by seven of the Olympians: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Demeter, Ares, and Hercules. They're meant to be some kind of energy reserve for them, just in case they need it."

"Is that all you saw?" asked Fury. "Is there anything else that you were shown?"

Naturally I lied, and said no in a calm and casual demeanor. Grant and Allyson on the other hand, were not so good at keeping things undercover. Grant's eyes darted left and right, plus he was really slow on saying no. Allyson looked straight at the table and shook her head. I don't know if they saw the same vision of me dying, but they did see something else, and by the looks of it, there visions weren't much better than mine's. Fury probably could have pushed us for answers, but seeing as he already got the info he initially wanted, he let it slide, and moved the conversation forward.

"Ok then," he said. "So, on to the million dollar question of why I brought three high school teens to the headquarters of the highest government agency in the world. Long story short, you three are going to be a temporary strike team we will use to obtain these stones, and keep them out of Doom's filthy mitts; whenever the EM sensor locates a stone, you three will drop down and pick it up for us."

He said it as if we didn't have a choice, that made me kind of mad.

"Wait a minute," I said. "You're gonna send three high schoolers, with little training, to go on a death match scavenger hunt against the world's worst villains?

"Basically," Fury. "Why is that a problem?"

"It might be for us, we could get hurt or something!"

"So far you've faced and army of robots, towers armed with laser cannons, and you've fought against at least three other metahumans. If it wasn't already clear enough, safety is not our first priority."

"Still, why didn't you send other heroes like Luke Cage, or Ms. Marvel, or anyone really?"

"You really think you three were my first choice?"

He pressed another button on his clicker, and the holographic TV reappeared. On screen were two diagrams of human body shapes. The one on the right had multicolored waves bouncing off it's insides, the other had some type of glowing aura around it.

"Believe me Mr. Fuller, three high school teens were not my first choice when choosing strike team members, but you are here for two reasons. Number one: the creepy psychic ladies told me that you were needed. Number two: according to this diagram, the stones have so much ethereal energy coursing through them, that if anyone who does not have proper immunity gets within 10 feet of them, the radiation will quickly infect their physical and psychological health in ways we do not know entirely."

"What do you mean by that?" Allyson asked Fury.

"Either something really good or really bad might happen to people who are exposed to the radiation." said Fury. "When Strange checked it out, he said that the magic was temperamental and fickle, as if it had a life of it's own. The magic could chose to grant the recipient eternal life, severe cancer, death by fire, superpowers, and the list goes on and on."

"So I assume the three of us have some sort of immunity or something?"

"You guessed it. In addition to your fantastic powers, each of you have an amazing level immunity to magic. Other than Dr. Strange himself, nobody can get as close to these stones as you can."

"So why not ask Dr. Strange to collect the stones?"

"He's busy at the moment, something about stopping an army of mystical demon warriors and dark mages from destroying the sun."

Allyson gulped heavily and sat back in her seat. Compared to losing the sun, I bet being used to collect magical radioactive rocks sounded pretty good to her.

Fury pressed a button on his clicker, and the TV went away.

"So are we all in agreement about the necessity for this task force?" he asked us.

We all nodded our heads and shrugged, it wasn't like we really had much of a choice anyway.

"Ok then," said Fury. "Before you can be officially named a team, I must first give you your individual evaluation scores, and I have to hear a psychological evaluation statement from your teachers/watchers."

"Uhh, psychological evaluation?" I asked Fury.

"Yeah, these people have carefully watched you three for the past three years. From personal daily behavior, interaction with other people, even things you did that you think nobody knew about; if you've done it, they know about it."

"What's the matter Jason?" Mrs. Kennedy asked me. "Afraid of the dirty little things that might come into light?"

I shrugged and tried to play it off, but in truth, that was exactly what I was afraid of. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't do drugs or anything illegal; except download free music, and even that's pretty much legal these days. No, what I was more concerned about, were the fights. On average, I got into about three fights per month, five if you really push me. If Fury was right, and Mrs. Kennedy knew everything i've done, I didn't stand the slightest chance of passing the psycho test.

"Alright then," said Fury. "We'll start with your individual examination scores, as well as total scores. Be mindful each of you need a B+ or higher to be cleared to be a part of this team. Allyson, based off of your performance yesterday, as well as the A you got on today's exam, you are qualified to join this team."

Allyson politely said thank you and kept quiet, although she couldn't hide that huge gleam in her eyes, as well as that enormous grin.

"Grant," Fury continued. "Based on your performance yesterday, plus the A you received on today's exam, your total grade is an A-, you are also qualified to join this team."

Grant breathed a sigh of relief, to be honest even I didn't know if he was gonna make the cut either; but I was super excited for him, it almost made this whole rock hunt thing worth it.

"Jason, based on your performance yesterday, plus the A you received on today's exam, your total grade is an A+, you are qualified to join the team."

Grant whooped really loud and clapped me on the shoulder. Normally, I would kick his head off, but considering the fact that he was just really excited, plus I couldn't kick his head off even if I wanted too, I dapped him up and smiled. Grant gave Allyson a big high five too.

"WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, WHOA, HAVE YOU ALL LOST YOUR BRAINS!?" Fury shouted.

"But I thought you said-" Grant stuttered.

"I said, that you had to get a B+ to be QUALIFIED to be on the team, you still have to get your psychological behavior report before you are officially on the team."

"Ohhhhhh…... well ok, then let's get that done."

"Mr. Lee, will you please give us Allyson's report?"

The Chinese guy straightened up, folded his hands together, and began to talk.

"Allyson is the most level headed, smart, sweet, and compassionate student I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. She respects her elders, peers, and authority figures, without question or sarcasm. Even off campus, she shows compassion for others by volunteering for community service events, helping out at the animal shelter, and babysitting for busy parents, asking for nothing at all. As if she isn't already a shoe in, Allyson has never been suspended, expelled, or fought anyone on or off school grounds. The fact that she knows multiple martial arts styles, shows that she understands that violence is a tool to be used only for self-defense, but never out of vengeance. I strongly recommend that you recruit her for this task force Colonel Fury; it also wouldn't hurt to put her in charge."

I was already staring daggers at this guy, so my face didn't change much when he recommended that Allyson be leader of Delta Force (the name's catchy, just go with it for now). Don't get me wrong, being leader wasn't on the top of my priority list, but still, Allyson and Grant had elected me leader last night (I know, I sound like a major hypocrite considering the fact that I objected that decision), this Mr. Lee guy should watch himself.

"Thank you, Mr. Lee," said Fury. "Allyson, you are officially cleared to join this task force, welcome to Operation Triple X."

"Actually," said Grant. "We're calling it Delta Force, the name's way more catchy, although we're still on the fence about our official name."

Fury put his face in his palm, and shook his head. His expression was all too clear: I just can't even right now with this guy.

"Ok then," he sighed. "Delta Force it is. Coach Dawson, Grant's report if you will, and please don't leave anything out, I need a thorough read on this guy."

The coach straightened up and unfolded his arms.

"Grant is one of the most dedicated, and most trustworthy students I have ever known in my time as a high school coach. As a person, he likes to laugh and joke around a lot, but that's only a front that he puts on for other people. In truth, whenever it's time to get serious, Grant is the one that you'd want to watch your back. For the most part, he's pretty level-headed and calm. He's gotten into a few fights at school, but only when he was defending those who were getting bullied. On the team, he was always the anchor that kept the team grounded yet at the same time, he was the one that was always boosting everyone's morale. Even after he was publicly kicked off of the team, Grant took it like a man, and left with dignity, even though he could have gone out of control. I think that Grant would make a great addition to this team. His natural desire to do the very best that he can, plus his desire to defend his friends, or those that are weaker than him, will be a very big part in the team's success."

Fury thought on that for a while, and when I say a while, I mean he didn't speak for like thirty seconds.

"Grant," he finally said. "You are clear to join the task force, welcome to Opera-, I mean, welcome to Delta Force."

Grant pumped his fist and I gave him a fist bump on the shoulder.

"Now," said Fury. "Last, but not least, Mrs. Kennedy, will you please present Jason's report?"

Mrs. Kennedy sat up straight, took off her glasses and folded her hands. We were gonna be here for a while.

"For the two years that I have studied Jason, he has shown a vast amount of maturity, courtesy, and tolerance for his peers, as well as his teachers. But then again so does the upper 60 students of his graduating class. Much like Grant, Jason, has qualities underneath his social front that he tries to keep inside. Unfortunately, where Grant has positive aspects buried deep within, Jason is the opposite. He has an increased ego, and shows content for those who are less intelligent, or not as athletically gifted as he is. Jason shows courtesy towards his superiors, but that is not the same thing as showing respect. He has a smug attitude in all his classes, and feels that because he does better than most of his peers, he is vastly superior to them. On top of that Jason has inadequacy issues. I believe he tries so hard to look good in front of everyone, because he is trying to cope for the inner doubt and insecurities he holds inside. Up until yesterday, Jason has made almost no contact with other people in fact many at the school were afraid of him before his powers activated, imagine what they must be feeling now? Also, Jason is pretty much a thug in his own right. He has never been caught doing anything against school rules, and granted he has never broken a lot of school rules, except for the one that involves fighting. Jason more often than not reacts to confrontation with force, even when there are many other alternative options. Off and on campus, Jason has left a trail of blood so to speak. In fact-"

She pressed a button on her watch and the holographic TV popped up again. On the screen, were clips of me beating the living crap out of anyone that ever tried to mess with me. Bobby, Earl, Cody, Colton, John, Ethan, Devon, Ricardo, Cory, Jackson, yeah you get the point, I am a very violent kid.

"-In the past two years, Jason has got into twenty fights, broken twelve noses, given five people concussions, and has broken ten wooden chairs over people's heads. Due to the death of his parents at an early age, Jason has developed mental imbalances, and therefore is questionable as a person in general. As a team player, Jason is somewhat capable, but until yesterday, I had no idea that he could actually participate and cooperate with others. Whenever he has been on teams for recreational sports, he has only relied on himself, rarely trusting on others. This implies that he has trust issues, as well as hubris. He displays prowess in fighting, improvisation, and leadership, but I do not feel that it is enough to allow him to be a part of this task force. Colonel Fury, I would not recommend recruiting Jason for your strike team."

Everyone held their breath (told you she has a mouth on her) as Fury contemplated that mega lecture on my downfalls.

"Well, Jason," said Fury, who could probably hear the marching band that was my heart pounding away. "Do you have anything to say in your defense, before I make my final call?"

I didn't know why I was so nervous; this was a good thing. If I wasn't qualified to be on the team, then I could go home, I could be with my mom again. On the other hand, I'd have to leave Grant and Allyson, the only two friends I had ever had in a long time. I was definitely going to be expelled from school, so it's not like i'd be doing anything when I went home. Plus, I had this intense desire to see this thing through. I didn't want to be a hero, but I did want to help my friends; I had to get on this team. I didn't know why I wanted it so bad, but I knew in my heart that if I wasn't a part of this, it would haunt me forever.

"Well," I started. "Mrs. Kennedy is right about me always wanting to prove myself, but that's only because i'm really competitive, and I wanna be the best in everything I do. Yes I did get into a lot of fights over the years, but i've never started any of them, people just won't leave me alone no matter how hard I try not to get noticed."

"Yes, but that still doesn't change the fact that you always use force at the first chance you get, Jason," said Mrs. Kennedy.

"Oh, like they would really just let me walk away?"

"That's not the point, you could have at least tried to walk away."

"I still would have had to fight anyway, it was best to get it over with then."

"Why were you always assaulted Jason? Was it because you're a freak reject kid, with no parents and an old bat of a foster mother."

Everyone glanced nervously at one another, clearly this was not a part of the script. Allyson was looking over at me as if I were gonna explode, and to be honest she wasn't far off.

"Don't bring my mom into this, Mrs. Kennedy," I said struggling to keep my composure intact.

"Your FOSTER mother Jason, meaning fake, artificial, not genuine.

"Please stop it," I said now on the verge of losing it. "You're-"

"Telling everyone the truth; you will always be an outsider, not one single person will ever love you-"

Thunder boomed, and just under the ceiling, lightning flashed in a thunder cloud. I didn't mean to create it, but my powers did respond to emotion and right now I was seriously pissed off. I saw Fury's hand inch towards his holster, I wasn't concerned about that, if I wanted too, I could take it from him before he even knew it was gone.

"Go ahead," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Strike me with your lightning, prove to everyone just how unstable you are. It won't change anything, you'll always be a psychopath, never worth anything, completely-"

"ENOUGH!" Grant shouted as he bashed his fist on the table, shattering the glass completely.

I didn't know who was more surprised, me, Allyson, Fury, or the teacher's lounge.

"Just stop it," he continued. "He was just fine up until the moment when you started getting in his head. So what he has anger issues, in case you haven't realized, people get angry when they get picked on, which is probably not a good thing for you considering, we're all super powered stressed out teens, who are all capable of kicking your ass. You call him unstable because he lost his parents, but the truth is he handled it just the way anyone else would. I know i'd be devastated and angry if I lost my mom and dad, and especially at such a young age, but what have you done to help? By the sounds of it, all you've ever done is poke him with a stick, seeing how far you could push him; but when you push people, they push back. Yeah, he hasn't had friends until now, I can see that, but he is a good person at heart, and he needs to be on this team to help him grow as a person, just like me and Allyson. I tell you what Fury, you may not think he's ready, but this guy pulled this team together, and because of him, we were able to take down an army of robots big and small. Also, no disrespect to you Mr. Lee, but we already have a leader and it's this guy right here with the dreads; if he's not on this team, then I quit. Oh but wait a minute, you can't keep him off the team can you Fury? The Norn-Fates chose ALL of us, he's got an iron clad contract whether you like it or not. Your move bro."

At this point the silence in the room took a voice of it's own and it was saying: Holy $#!* dude. In that moment I realized just how awesome of a friend Grant really was. He saw all of the evidence pointing to the fact that I was a juvenile delinquent, and still here he was defending me, risking his spot on the team so that I could get the shot he thought I deserved. The guy was an absolute idiot for taking the risk, but I made a mental note to thank him tenfold for what he just did for me.

"Ms. Grace?" asked Fury. "Is it true that you voted Jason as leader of your team?"

"Yeah that's true," she quickly said, but something was off about her voice. She said it matter-of-factly, as if she was simply acknowledging her decision, not standing by it.

Fury thought on that for a moment; clearly this could go either way.

"Well Jason," said Fury. "You've put me in a very difficult position here. Your results from your training sessions say one thing, your track record says another, and at the same time, you've still somehow managed to win over your fellow peers; by the way, nice speech, Grant, if you don't make it as a pro football player, you'll make one hell of a lawyer. Tell you what, Jason, i'll put you on a leash, not literally, and let you out for a test run. When we locate a stone you'll be able to participate on the team, and based on your performance, we'll see whether or not your membership will be permanent."

That sly silver tongue devil. Fury somehow gave everybody what they wanted. The teachers got the doubtful response they so desperately wanted. Grant and Allyson got me as a teammate, and as for me, this was a bittersweet thing. Yeah, I was stoked to be on the team, but now this meant it'd be way longer before I could go home. I hoped we were gonna find these stones fast.

As if on cue, a holographic image popped up, showing a red blinking sonar deep in the middle of the South American Amazon. Fury tried to hide it but I saw the lump of fear he swallowed down. So much for the vote of confidence, if this was our first mission, Fury was just as doubtful as we all were.

"Time to put Delta Force to the test," he said. "The EM sensor has just picked up a huge arcane energy signature in the Amazons, and guess who's going to go get it?"

Nobody answered that question, it was pretty rhetorical.

"Alright then, let's get you all suited up,"

He pressed a button on his clicker (I was starting to get sick of that thing), and we were all teleported into another room. This room had another identical glass table in the center of the room; if Grant didn't get mad again, it just might survive. In the background were three tubes that had light bulbs in them. Inside the tubes, were these awesome looking black battle suits, that looked like a mix between Kevlar and metal armor. Each suit had a S.H.I.E.L.D. symbol on the shoulders. One had green, another was, blue, and the one that was shaped for a girl, had a yellow on it. We all sat down across the table, and a holographic tube popped up in the middle of the table.

"So," Fury started. "Because we actually do realize that you are nothing more than mutant teens with not much formal training, and because we actually would like it if you came back to this Helicarrier in one piece, we have taken it upon ourselves to equip you with some gear; consider it an early Christmas present."

Yeah, because a government battlesuit was on the tippy top of my wish list.

"Mrs. Kennedy, would you please quickly explain how each battlesuit works for our three young heroes."

"It'd be my pleasure Colonel," she said as she pulled out her clicker, and pushed a button.

On the holographic tube, the three battle suits popped up and slowly spun around as Mrs. Kennedy talked.

"Each of your battle suits have an under layer of special Kevlar that can easily protect you from buck shots. The outer, more armored parts are a mixture of tempered iron, steel, and titanium. The metals were mixed together with unstable molecules, so they will be able to protect you from basic forms of damage such as knives, gunfire, and brute force. However, the metal offers little protection against other metals such as: Adamantium, Vibranium, Uru, and enchanted metals."

She pressed another button and the two male suits were shunted off to the side, leaving Allyson's one (who else would it belong too?) as the main focus.

"Ms. Grace," Mrs. Kennedy continued. "Your Kevlar under armor is also engineered to increase the amount of solar energy you absorb by 70%, while you're wearing it, you can put more energy into your attacks without fear of losing energy."

"Well actually," said Allyson. "My body naturally absorbs enough energy per day that potentially could wipe out New York City. Assuming I ever used my powers for one hour straight without stopping, it would only take me another two hours to get the energy back. So, considering the fact that I haven't really used my powers a lot until I came here, I have and almost unlimited source of energy, plus if I ever ran low, I could just will my body to absorb more solar energy, so while the thought is appreciated and gratefully accepted, it's highly unnecessary."

Mrs. Kennedy, who was secretly miffed, pressed another button, and the arms of the suit suddenly had some type of golden metal arm covering that had ends shaped like taser points.

"These are your solar shields," she said. "These are made of pure gold mixed with mirror amplifier technology. Besides, being great for blocking melee attacks, these shields will amplify your energy blasts by ten and allow for better accuracy on tighter shots and targets; before you say that you don't need them, just please don't you never know."

She pressed another button on her clicker and some type of black liquid covered Allyson's hands. Before any of us had time to freak out, the liquid hardened into gloves, and two wicked sharp knives suddenly into Allyson's hands. She twirled them with ease, and I got the feeling that she had handled weapons before.

"Whoa," she said. "They feel like they're vibrating."

"That's the residual feedback from the gloves interacting with the knives," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Based off of your martial arts background, we felt that knives would be good, basic weapons for you to use. However, if you think it, the knives can convert to full length swords; go ahead try it out."

Allyson looked at her knives with a quizzical look and they immediately elongated into three foot long blades. I didn't know if they were supposed to do this but her swords flashed with a wave of golden light as they transformed. Again, Allyson easily twirled the blades through her hands and even stabbed at open air a few times. Call me crazy, but she seemed like she could beat me in a duel. Assuming we got back alive with all of our limbs intact, i'd have to put that to the test.

"One more thing, Allyson," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Your blades can also convert into a double edged spear, connect them at the ends, and imagine them growing into a spear."

Allyson connected the blades at their ends, which gave off some type of power discharge when they interacted. Her face morphed for a second in concentration, and a 6 foot long double edged spear burst out. The only bad thing was that Allyson had her blade pointed horizontally when she busted out her spear, meaning Grant and I were gonna get to know Allyson's spear in a way we really didn't want to. Luckily for me, my Speed Mode kicked in the way it always does when i'm in point blank danger. I saw the spear burst, out which was fast even by my standards. I quickly, backed up against my chair, dodging the blade by a few inches; Grant wasn't as quick. The blade swept across his chest tearing his workout shirt, but that wasn't the worst thing. Grant screamed: YEOWCH!, something I never thought would come out of his mouth. More so, a thick line of blood was streaming down his chest. My eyes went wide, I should do something, I should help him, but I was way too stunned to do anything; yesterday I saw Grant take a pounding from an army of robots, go toe-to-toe with Ms. Marvel, and not get so much as a bruise, Yet here he was, bleeding out like a stuck pig. Allyson started panicking immediately, and Grant kept saying: Oh God, Oh, God, Oh, God!

"Wait," he finally said. "You're sun powers, do a jingle, sing something, anything."

Allyson cupped her hands over her mouth, sung a few notes, and her hands started to glow. She wiped her hands across the length of Grant's cut and it healed in no time; looked like a fleshy version of a zipper to be honest. After the hysteria of Mr. Invincible being vincible, Grant asked the question we all wanted to know.

"What in the heck is that thing made of?" he asked Mrs. Kennedy.

"Well," she started. "It's alloy metal, made of both Vibranium and Adamantium, fused with unstable molecules and Pym Particles, so that it is able to change shape and form."

"Adamantium." said Grant. "That's what Wolverine's claws are made of.

"Yeah," I said. "And Vibranium is what Captain America's shield is made of, guess we know what can hurt you now huh buddy?"

Grant's face went distant for a moment, like he was having a flashback or something, but quick as it came, it left, and Grant put on his brave face.

"Well, you can't win em' all man, besides not too many people have access to that stuff right? I should be fine for a while, although I will have to practice with my sword skills more, just to be safe huh?"

Leave it to this guy to be able to completely bounce back after being opened up like a dissection animal. I could tell he was pretty racked by that experience, but he still put on a brave face for the sake of the team; what an idiot. I gave him a fist bump, promised to give him a few pointers, and then let Mrs. Kennedy finish explaining the gear that would most likely save us from being killed.

"Moving on," she said. "Oh, and for future reference, please point your weapons away from each other when they transform, I really don't want to deal with the paperwork that's involved with work related deaths."

Grant and I lightly chuckled, but Allyson was still as stiff as a board.

"Hey, Sunbird?" Grant asked in a concerned voice. "You alright?"

"I could have killed you," she barely whispered the way she does when she's recovering from something.

"It's ok Allyson," Grant responded. "You didn't mean it, you didn't know, i'm fine, Jason's fine, it was just a freak thing, don't beat yourself up for it."

Allyson looked straight at Mrs. Kennedy.

"We're gonna have to kill people, aren't we?" she asked her, nearly on the verge of tears.

Breaking News everyone: Mrs. Kennedy actually has a heart that can feel emotions and stuff. Her cold hearted teacher demeanor broke for a moment, before she recomposed herself and responded to Allyson."

"To be honest, Ms. Grace," she said. "I really don't know. You're dealing with mystical objects, so you may encounter things such as monsters, and mystical evil beings, but if the time comes, you have to be ready to defend yourself; and before you condemn yourself for it, remember that your enemy won't feel remorse for your death."

By the looks of it, that didn't make Allyson feel any better but in truth, Mrs. Kennedy was right. Personally, I wasn't too stoked on the idea of gutting someone with a spear, but I did understand survival, and sometimes you have to do things that you'll lose a bit of sleep over, to ensure that you live to see the next day. Basically, if the time came, I would do what I had to do to protect me and my friends.

Mrs. Kennedy pressed another button on her clicker, and the suit with the green S.H.I.E.L.D. logos on the shoulders became the focus of the projection.

"This suit belongs to you, Grant," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Your Kevlar under layer is lined with X-Gene hormone growth, it will double your current strength, speed, and stamina."

"Wait a minute," said Grant. "You rigged my suit with mutant steroids? Isn't that illegal, and more importantly, unhealthy."

"Well as far as illegal goes, technically no, as for unhealthy, no. The hormone growth only slightly enhances your abilities, without expanding them to the point to where it will cause any damage to your body; don't worry, you'll be perfectly safe."

"Oh, well that's ok then; please continue explaining the awesomeness of my battle suit."

"Well sorry to say kid, but that's it, your outer armor is the same as Allyson's and Jason's, but you do get a nice shiny battle axe to go with it."

She pressed another button on her clicker, and the same liquid black stuff covered Grant's hands, solidified into gloves, and a brand new wicked sharp double-bladed axe flashed into his hands. It was about 5 feet long and medieval looking, the thing had to weigh at least 100 pounds, yet Grant was twisting and turning it like it was lighter than a feather. Something seemed off about him though, he was looking at the axe like he had seen it before, like it was a something pulled out of a bad memory.

"Ummm, just for the record," he said. "Is this axe, you know-"

"Made of Adamantium and Vibranium? Yes it is Grant. If you're not careful, this axe could potentially kill you, so I suggest you practice with it as often as you can. Speaking of which, you're axe has a boomerang function to it, if you throw it, it will come back, and the handle will land exactly right in your hand. You don't have to worry about getting skewered with your own axe when it rebounds; go ahead and try it out."

I could tell Grant wasn't too confident about the thought of an axe-erang that could lob his head off, but he bravely gave it a go. He threw the axe straight up, I got out of my seat and moved a little more to the right, and when the axe came down, Grant reached for it, and it landed perfectly in his hand. He tried it out a few more times, throwing it farther and in different directions, and the axe still landed perfectly in his hand every time. Pretty soon, Grant forgot all about the danger of it, and started to have fun with it.

"Your axe can also be controlled remotely by your hand movements," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Your gloves and the axe handle share a unique frequency, that allows it to return home after it is thrown. While in the air, your axe switches to remote control mode."

She pressed another button on her clicker and three holographic targets popped up high in the air, one in a far corner, another directly above the table, and another directly to the right side of the table; thankfully, not near me.

"Whenever you're ready," Mrs. Kennedy told Grant.

Grant threw his axe as hard as he could at the target on the far corner. Once it was hit, Grant thrusted his arm at the one directly above the table. Although he did hit the target, the axe almost broke the table. Luckily, at the last second, Grant pushed his palm upward, like he was playing volleyball and the axe just barely avoided crash landing. Finally Grant shot his arm to the right, almost taking my head off, and the axe flew towards the last target, taking it out. Grant then, held out his hand and the axe flew back into his palm.

"Dude that was totally sweet!" he nearly shouted. "Can I fling it around the way Thor does, can I summon lightning with it?"

That question was so bad, even I had to facepalm him.

"Grant," said Mrs. Kennedy the way she does when she's talking to idiots. "No, you cannot swing it around the way Thor does and no, you cannot summon lightning with it. Your axe can convert into a spear though, go ahead and try it out."

Grant did the smart thing for once, and lifted the axe horizontally over his head before thinking about the spear. Immediately, the axe elongated. It was still roughly in the shape of an axe, but it was attached to a six foot tall pole that had a shoe sized blade for the butt of the spear. Grant rotated it around a bit, got up out of his seat, and swung it around at a safe distance. He then walked back to the table and sat down, obviously, impressed with his new weapon.

"Your spear also has the throwing/returning function, no not in here, now switch it back to axe mode and let's move on."

Grant looked a little bummed out, but switched the spear back to an axe. Mrs. Kennedy pressed another button on the clicker and the suit with the blue S.H.I.E.L.D. logos on the shoulders popped up (guess which one this one belonged to?).

"And now," said Mrs. Kennedy. ""It is with my deepest regret that I explain how your suit works, Jason."

"Aww," I sarcastically said. "Mrs. Kennedy, you're gonna make me blush."

"Humph, cute. Your Kevlar suit is designed to absorb and amplify personal static electricity. On average you'll have about 1000 volts traveling through your body per second, you won't have to worry about energy availability while wearing the suit. Your Kevlar is also specially synchronized with your outer armor; your armor will be able to effectively protect you in combat and at the same time, is lighter than anything you've ever worn in your life. Your battle suit is also designed to be friction resistant, you'll be able to run much faster without regular clothing holding you back."

"Ok I am really not getting the whole, 'let's give Grant the worst suit business', said Grant. Poor guy, as whiny as he was, he did have a point; compared to the other suits, his was pretty basic and plain.

"Get over yourself kid," said Mrs. Kennedy. "You can fly, you have super strength, and now you have a battle axe, try and be a little more appreciative. Moving on, Jason, your suit has special lightning enhancers."

She pressed another button and the same type of arm shield that were on Allyson's suit popped up on mine too except mine's were silver.

"Like Allyson's these shields will amplify and focus your lightning bolts, making them a lot more powerful and accurate."

She pressed another button and my hands were covered in black liquid that hardened into gloves. Just in case you're wondering, it felt like cool play dough covering my hands and when they hardened, the gloves seemed to be giving off powerful electricity, I could feel the voltage powering me up, and I could only imagine how much power the entire suit was gonna give me. A second later, a 3 foot long sword with a curved hilt, just like the one I had always practiced with in my duels with Nightcrawler, appeared in my hand. Allyson was right, the blade was vibrating ever so lightly, it was as if the gloves turned it's hidden features on and without them, the blade would just be that, an ordinary blade.

"Of course, your blade is made of Adamantium and Vibranium," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Your blade can also transform into a spear as well, no not now, we don't have time right now, we have to move on. Oh and I almost forgot, you're suit has a shield, as in like a Captain America type one that springs out of your left arm on your battle suit. Nightcrawler said he will train you in sword and shield combat in your free time, now let's move on to your battle suit activators."

She pressed another button on her clicker and our gloves and weapons flashed away. A second later, our watches started blinking and when I looked at it, the screen said: Download Complete. The suits in the tubes suddenly flashed and disappeared; I got the feeling that they were closer than I thought.

"You're battle suits have been transformed into digital data that, upon activation will rematerialize and be equipped to your bodies." said Mrs. Kennedy. "In order to activate your battle suit all you have to do is press the red button on your watch, and speak two voice recognition protocol security measures; let's set them now.

Allyson, Grant, and I pressed the red button on our watches.

"Your first voice recognition security measure is your activation code. I suggest something like, battle suit activate, battle suit power up or-,"

"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!" Grant screamed into his watch.

Apparently, the first code was standard issue for all of our watches because all three watches bleeped and in a voice similar to Siri, they said: "Voice Recognition Code, It's morphin time, accepted." Everyone went silent for a moment, and then Grant and I busted out laughing hysterically. Fury, Mrs. Kennedy, even Allyson, hit us with a face palm; but it was still funny, I mean seriously, how great was it's morphin time?

"Well, that'll work too" said Mrs. Kennedy in a voice that clearly said we were beyond understanding. "Now, the second voice recognition code will be your code names, we've chosen some for you, but by the sounds of it, you've already done that, so go nuts."

"Um, one question," said Grant. "Can we change activation codes if we feel like it?"

"Of course," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Just press the green button, enter previous codes, and you can choose a new one, why do you ask? Morphin time, not sounding so good anymore?"

"No, it's not that, it's just that Jason and I have temporary code names for now, but when we do find our true name, I wanna be able to change it to my morpher."

"It's not a morpher you idiot, it's voice activated battle suit materializer."

"So it's not a morpher, it's just….. a morpher."

"He's got a point," I said. "Not much difference between what you said, and what he did."

Mrs. Kennedy shook her head and looked at Allyson. I don't know when this happened, but apparently Allyson was pretty much votes as the voice of reason on this team. She was, but still, not cool.

"Don't look at me," said Allyson. "I've given up on them too. Although they are technically right, it basically is a morpher."

Mrs. Kennedy didn't even bother to face palm, she had no support anymore.

"Just enter your code names," she said. "Press the red button again, and just say whatever they are."

Allyson pressed the button on her morpher first.

"Sunbird." she said.

Grant went next.

"Super-G."

"Super-G?" asked Fury, who I almost forgot was there.

"Yeah," said Grant. I know it's not the best name but it's a work in progress."

"Got that right, keep working on it, Super-G is ok, but you can do better."

I went last

"Thunder Man,"

"Also needs work," said Fury.

"Now that all of that is taken care of," said Mrs. Kennedy. "Time for you to go. You'll be escorted to a sonic jet on the top deck, and will be flown to the Amazon, good luck, don't die, and hopefully, i'll see you later."

We all stood up, and moved a few feet away from the table.

"Ready for this you guys?" asked Grant.

"Let's find out," I said.

"Wanna call it, leader has to call the first morph."

I chuckled and said yes.

"READY?!" I shouted.

"READY!" Grant and Allyson shouted back.

We all pressed our red buttons

"IT'S MORPHIN TIME!" we all shouted.

"SUNBIRD!"

"SUPER-G!"

"THUNDER MAN! "

My body was engulfed in a flash of light, and I felt the cool black liquid surround my entire body. I felt an intense surge of electricity, and when I looked down, I was wearing an awesome battle suit. Mrs. Kennedy was right, I could feel the voltage traveling from the suit to my body; with this much power flowing through me, I felt unstoppable. I looked over at Grant and Allyson who were also looking great. Grant was flexing his arms, and Allyson was doing that thing you do when your hands feel weird, and you keep looking at them.

"Whoa!" said Grant. "I feel good, and you guys look great!"

"You too bro," I said. "Allyson, how you feeling?"

"Pretty awesome," she said, but there was still something off about her, something that had to do with me.

After we morphed, my friends and I were flashed to the top deck of the Helicarrier. The sudden change from darkness to light was so intense, that I was temporarily blinded. Once I got my bearings again, I saw that we were really outside, on a flying Helicarrier, at least 30,000 feet in the air. This was a little frightening, but compared to what i'd been through in the last two days, I quickly recovered. Some guy in an orange traffic vest, named Bob, was waiting for us and instructed us to follow him. We walked until we reached the last ship at the edge of the Helicarrier, which also made me nervous, considering I was the only member of the team that couldn't fly. The plane was dark black, big enough to transport probably six people, and had huge thrusters on the back; I could tell it wouldn't be too long until we got to the Amazon. Bob pressed a button on his wristwatch, the plane opened up, and a stairwell shot down. Grant immediately called shotgun and ran all super fast to the front of the ship, leaving Allyson and I to sit in the back. We strapped our seat belts on, and the pilot drove the jet down the runway, and prepared for take off.

"You okay?" I asked Allyson.

"Mm hmm," she nodded.

"You ready for this?"

She shrugged her shoulders. At this point, I knew there was a really big elephant in the room, so I decided to go out on a limb and acknowledge it.

"Ok," I said to her. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked me coldly, not even bothering to look at me.

"I mean today, we were cool, but all of a sudden you're acting like I slapped your grandmother, what's up?"

She turned her head and looked at me, her piercing brown eyes, filled with a quiet anger and disappointment. It was almost hard to look her in the eye.

"Honestly, Jason," she started. "You are just unbelievable."

"Meaning?"

"You're way too violent, and to be honest, you have way too much rage in your heart for me to actually trust you."

I couldn't believe it, last night Allyson was raving on about how much of a hero I was, and now here she was saying that I was an uncontrollable rageaholic.

"Is this about all the fights?" I asked her. "Look, if it's about that you gotta understand that-"

"I UNDERSTAND," she interrupted. "That all you ever do is fight, that's all you know, that's the only thing you revert to when you meet confrontation; fight,fight,fight."

"Look, I know what I did in the past was pretty bad, but I am trying to be a better person. I'm not really the violent person you've seen, that was all survival, I did that stuff so it wouldn't happen to me."

"For survival?! Do you…I mean…. do you know what you did to Quicksilver?"

So that was his name; kinda cool.

"Ok yes, I know I blasted him with a lot more power than needed, but I was just so-

"Angry? Jason, you blasted him through more than ten walls. I don't know how he ended up on the floor again but I saw the sky through all the wreckage; you blasted him out of the Helicarrier. When I screamed it wasn't because you hurt me or anything, although that could have happened, no it was because Quicksilver's skin was burnt and blistered beyond normal repair. His heart rate was so slow; you almost killed him Jason, in a training fight. I barely managed to bring him back, and he still needs a few days in the infirmary."

"I'm sorry Allyson, I didn't mean to hurt him so bad, I just didn't know how strong that thunderbolt was, how much energy I actually put into it."

"Exactly, I know it was an accident, but as strong as you are, you can't afford accidents, you've nearly killed three people already, I don't know if I can trust you anymore. I'll follow you into battle, and I won't question your orders or your ability to lead this team, but you and I...whatever we…..I just can't with you Jason."

Quick question how many of you have been Friend Zoned (all of should be saying yes, don't lie, it happens to the best of us.)? Well believe it or not, this was my first time. I haven't really pursued anyone, so I didn't have the opportunity to be Friend Zoned, which sucked even more considering the fact that I wasn't even pursuing Allyson, or at least not consciously.

"Fine," I said. "I'll just leave you to your thoughts then, Sunbird."

She nodded, and leaned her head against the widow. A minute later, the jet took off; after we got a considerable ways away from the Helicarrier, the pilot ordered us to brace ourselves, and a second later, the jet hit speeds so high, even I was impressed.