Alright my loyal readers We have an extra long chapter for all of you. I will be going to have a knee surgery tomorrow morning so I don't know when we'll be able to update again.

Also I want to give a special shout out to my amazing friend Darkest Nightmares Dread for his amazing work. I really want you guys to check him out, he's a really good writer and easily worth checking out.

"This morning, we are going to be practicing fighting against larger and stronger opponents," Agent Coulson said to the Academy students, who currently were all standing before him.

"That just means we are going to fight Power-Man all day, right?" Spider-Man joked, which earned a similar laugh from most of the other students.

"I wouldn't mind it," Power Man quipped as he cracked his knuckles.

"That's not exactly what we had in mind," Coulson said as he checked the watch that was on his wrist, "Anytime now, a few guest instructors will arrive to help out. You guys had better be ready. This will honestly test your abilities to the max," Coulson said as he turned around and left the room.

"Like that wasn't cryptic," Predator mumbled under his breath.

While the students waited for their guest instructors to arrive, everyone seemed to be wondering who they would be fighting against. "Maybe it's Thor," White Tiger said to Iron Fist and Kid Arachnid, who nodded their approval.

"I honestly could care less," Scarlet Spider said in his usual deadpan voice, which earned a laugh from Predator.

"I couldn't agree more," Predator agreed with his teammate as the two of them began a conversation about who they wouldn't like to see show up.

"I just hope it isn't Doctor Strange," Scarlet Spider said. "Magic gives me the willies."

"Everything gives you the willies," Predator replied.

"What about a wet willie?" A voice said out of thin air.

Scarlet Spider and Predator jumped. "Where are you?" Scarlet Spider demanded. "Show yourself."

In response, the entrance to the training room opened, revealing a very familiar, hulking figure. "Okay, Rick. You can come out of hiding," the green figure said.

"Okay, Hulk," the voice said, and out of the air, right next to Scarlet Spider, a blue Hulk-like figure appeared. "Hey there, stabby. How's it going?" The blue Hulk asked cheerfully.

"Going real well," Scarlet drawled sarcastically.

"That's the spirit!" The blue figure said, ignoring the spider's sarcasm as he turned to his floating cameras. "Hey there, gamma geeks! This is A-Bomb, and guess where we are today? The Academ—Hey, what did you do that for?" A-Bomb asked Predator, who was standing over a busted camera.

"We've kinda had a few issues with pests," Predator replied.

"Good thing ya called pest control, then," a loud voice yelled as its owner, Red Hulk, walked into the room. He looked around, spotted Predator, and made his way toward him. "So, I hear you were in the Army. That right, kid?"

"That is correct, sir," Andrew replied, his military training kicking in in the presence of the general.

Red Hulk smiled, and replied, "Don't be thinking I'm gonna take easy on ya, punk, but before I pounded you into the dust, I wanted to thank you for your service. Not many join the forces these days, so I have to make do with yelling at wimps like you!" He shouted at the other heroes in the room.

"Take it easy there, Red. They're just kids," Hulk said, putting a hand on Red Hulk's shoulder.

"Aw, c'mon. Where's your sense of humor, Greenie? I was just messing with the kid," Red Hulk replied.

"So, YOU'RE our tutors?" Kid Arachnid asked, looking surprised. "Aw, man. This is gonna be awesome!"

"You got that right," She-Hulk replied, walking into the room. "Don't think I'm gonna go easy on you just because you're a guy, Kid."

"Well… I'm not gonna go easy on you just because you're a Hulk!" Kid Arachnid replied, trying to sound tough.

"Yeah… Stick to bein' a spider, Kid," Red Hulk said. "So, Jones. You gonna do the thing?" He asked.

"Aw, yeah!" A-Bomb replied, before looking confused. "Wait. What thing?"

"The thing you've been rehearsing for hours on the Jet," She-Hulk deadpanned.

"Ohh, right," A-Bomb replied as he curled up into a round, spiky blue ball. "Auto-Hulks, transform and roll out!" He said in his best Optimus Prime voice.

"You heard the ball," Andrew replied. "Let's roll out!" He said as the two groups of heroes, tutor and students, ran toward each other…


"Whoa!" Power Man yelled as he was flung into the wall.

"You're out of here, kid!" Red Hulk yelled as he relished in the victory over Power Man.

"Scarlet, Tiger, form up!" Predator yelled at the other two students who were still standing. His fellow heroes nodded and took up fighting stances alongside Predator.

"Scarlet, can you web them?" Tiger asked as they dodged another attack from A-Bomb.

"My webs are strong, but I doubt they can beat guys who can lift mountains, so I don't recommend that," Scarlet said as his claws extended from his wrists and he lunged forward in a zig-zag pattern at Skaar.

Skaar's simple response was to raise his sword and parry Scarlet's slash attacks. Scarlet was then met by a blast from one of Red's guns, effectively knocking him out of the battle. "Only one red can be the winner kid, and it ain't Scarlet!" Red boasted as he brandished his guns.

"It's up to you and me. Let's at least try and beat one of them," Predator whispered to Tiger as she landed from a quick maneuver and stood back to back with Predator as the five Hulk's circled around them.

"You got a plan?" Tiger asked as she ducked under a gun blast from Red's gun. "So far, none of my plans have worked," she said as she hoped that Predator had a plan.

"I've got a plan, but it's a high risk, high reward," Predator whispered as his HUD continued to give him battle options.

"What's the plan?" Tiger whispered as they both jumped over a blast from She Hulk's gamma gauntlets.

"Follow my lead" was Predator's response as he pressed a button on his right gauntlet and a rectangular cylinder appeared where the grappling hooks launched from. "Hey Red," Predator shouted, which instantly got the attention of Red Hulk. "Let's see which of us has the superior toys," Predator said in a mocking voice.

"You seriously think you have better firepower than my guns?!" Red yelled in a challenging tone, "You Marines have never seen firepower like these!" He challenged Predator as he made a show of twirling his guns.

"You won't be able to see them in a second," Predator yelled, which got the direct attention of all the Hulks. Before any of them could respond, Predator fired the device from his launcher and it flew to where Red was standing and blew up in his face with nine blinding blasts of light.

"Ahh!" Red yelled as he began quite literally blind firing at the spot where Predator and Tiger had been standing moments ago, but Predator had another trick up his sleeve. At the same moment he had launched his 9 Banger into Red's eyes, he had also dropped another rectangular tube into the ground, which exploded upon impact. It completely covered Predator and Tiger in a cloud of white smoke that covered them from eyesight, surprising the four Hulks who could still see.

"Keep your guard up!" Hulk ordered as he tried to figure out what the two remaining students had planned. Suddenly, he noticed a grappling hook zip up out of the smoke and snag unto the ceiling, and with a mechanical whirl, Predator was pulled upwards toward the ceiling at an amazing speed. "Skaar, jump up and slice the cord!" Hulk ordered as he wanted to take out Predator before he got the high ground.

"Skaar slash!" Skaar yelled as he jumped into the air with his sword and prepared to cut the cable. what happened next was completely unexpected as Tiger jumped from the smoke and intercepted Skaar mid jump before the hero could really get up into a position to slice the cord. The two grappled as they fell towards the training floor. However, Tiger used her superior agility and cat-like reflexes to separate herself from her grapple with Skaar, and she used his chest like a spring board as she kicked out of his grasp and tucked and rolled into a fighting stance upon hitting the ground. Skaar, however, was not so graceful with his landing as the momentum from being kicked by White Tiger made him fall into the ground and leave a small crater where he landed.

"Nice move," Hulk congratulated as he eyed Predator, who now was handing from the ceiling.

"Where are you, ya punk?!" Red yelled as his eye sight finally returned and he began to look around for the hero who had blinded him.

"Permission to strike an officer of higher ranking, sir?" Predator yelled at Red.

"Permission denied," was Red's simple response as he continued to look around for Predator.

"Good thing I'm no longer in the service, so I'm able to ignore that order." Predator replied as he released his grappling hook, fell with the speed of a bullet, and prepared to strike the unsuspecting Red Hulk from above.

However, unknown to Predator, Red had located Predator without showing it and was waiting for the right moment, there! Predator was at arm's length, and Red suddenly turned and delivered an uppercut to Predator's face that was so powerful, it launched the armored hero across the room and into the wall where all the defeated heroes were observing the fight.

"Oww…" Predator moaned as he got embedded slightly into the wall.

"I told you permission denied, you little punk. Maybe you should remember your Marine training and follow orders," Red shouted at the defeated hero, who was currently being pulled out of the wall by Spider-Man and Power Man. The fight ended a few seconds later as A-Bomb, using his invisibility, was able to sneak up behind Tiger and pin her to the ground with his knees on her back.

"That's match," Hulk said as he clapped his hands in approval. All the young heroes walked back towards the center of the room and approached the mighty hero. "You might not have won the battle, but you did show determination, and most importantly, you showed heart," Hulk lectured, to which all the heroes nodded their heads in approval. "This might sound ironic coming from me off all people," Hulk began with a small chuckle that got everyone's attention, "but strength alone does not win battles. You need brains just as much as strength," Hulk said as he crossed his arms with a gentle smile on his massive face.

"Come on, Greenie," Red said in a disapproving tone as he made his way over to the circle of heroes, who promptly parted to make room for him to pass. "We've beaten most of our foes with strength. Am I the only one who remembers Fire Lord and Super Skrull?" Red said, which caused A-Bomb to speak up.

"True, but we've had to beat plenty of foes by using our smarts. For more details, please watch past videos," A-Bomb said with a nod towards his floating cameras with were still recording everything. Some of the young heroes nodded, showing that they would indeed check out some of his videos.

"You alright, Andy? You took a pretty nasty shot," SG whispered to Predator as she put her hand on his shoulder as Red Hulk and A-Bomb were bickering with each other. In response, Predator jerked his shoulder, which made SG quickly pull her hand of Predator's shoulder. SG brought her hand back to her side with a hurt look on her normally chipper face. Since she had leaked Andrew's secrets to Spidey and White Tiger, Andrew had been really cold and distant from her. Whenever she attempted to talk to him, he would either ignore her or leave. Before she could say anything else, A-Bomb spoke up.

"Hey, would some of you guys mind doing interviews for the show?" He asked the group, to which some of them nodded immediately or held their hands up.

As some of the heroes headed out of the training room, and others headed over to a corner to be interviewed by A-Bomb, Predator felt a tapping on his shoulder, and was surprised to see who it was upon turning around. "Got a minute, Predator, is it?" Hulk asked as he stood in front of the armored hero with his arms crossed.

"Yea, it's Predator… and sure," was Predator quick response.

"Walk with me for a minute," Hulk said as he began walking towards the door to the hall. Predator quickly caught up to him. "What was with that little show back there?" Hulk asked as they walked towards the door.

"You mean me blinding Red?" Predator asked.

Hulk shook his head. "No. I meant with you shrugging off the girl with the bushy tail," Hulk said, to which Predator gave a small sigh.

"You mean me shrugging of Squirrel Girl?" Predator asked.

"Yeah. She seems friendly, delivered a nasty punch when I fought her, but why did you shrug her off?" Hulk asked.

"It's… complicated…" Predator replied.

The Hulk gave out a small snort. "Try me." Hulk said as they left the training room and started walking down the hall.

"I have some problems with people hunting me down," Predator said, to which Hulk gave a small laugh.

"Don't we all," he said with a laugh which ceased once he saw Predator's armored face staring at him. "Sorry."

"It's alright," Predator replied. "Anyway, he told me I could give her some of my burden by revealing some of my secrets to her, and..." He never got to finish his sentence due to Hulk raising a hand to cut him off.

"Let me guess. She told someone," Hulk said as he eyed the hero, "and you feel betrayed by her actions?" Hulk said to which Predator nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, we were close friends, but now, I don't know how to feel around her," Predator said, to which Hulk let out a small sigh of his own.

"Kid, how old are you?" Hulk asked as he crossed his hands.

"I'm nineteen," Predator replied with confusion evident in his voice.

"Take it from me, son. I know how it feels to have the world against you. As you know, people used to call me a monster, and some still do," Hulk said as he took a breath, "but the bottom line is that girl cares about you. I understand how you feel about her telling your secrets, but she obviously only did it because she cares about you. I could see the hurt look on her face when you shrugged her off," Hulk lectured to Predator, who stopped and pondered for a second.

"In my heart I know your right, but it's hard to let this go," Predator said to which Hulk let out a snort.

"You can choose to let this tear you up, or you can talk to her and try to figure out what to do between the two of you. You got heart kid, so please try to patch this up. Follow your heart kid." Hulk said while he gave Predator a small pat on the back, and Predator flinched upon the touch.

"Sorry. Forgot you got flung into the wall," Hulk said with a grin, which caused them both to break out laughing.

"Thanks, Hulk. You're just a big softy underneath all the muscle, you know that right?" Predator said, to which Hulk shrugged.

"Don't tell Red that, or I'll have to hear about that for the next month," Hulk said, to which Predator nodded. "Good. Now, why don't you try and patch things up with your friend? Meanwhile, why A-Bomb is busy with his interviews, I'm going to raid the cafeteria," Hulk said as he turned down a different hallway and headed towards the cafeteria. Predator chuckled under his breath and headed back towards to bunk to talk with SG.


As Predator neared the bunk rooms, he could tell something was wrong. One: his HUD just turned bright red, indicating an immediate danger, and two: he could hear moans of pain coming from the dorms, which currently were open. Picking up his pace, he quickly entered the room, and was met with a horrific sight. Several of his fellow heroes were lying on the ground unconscious, some of them bleeding, and some of them lying against the walls like they had been thrown against the wall. "What happened here?" Andrew said in a horrified whisper as he rushed over to where his friends lay and began taking vital signs. To his relief, they all were alive, just badly beaten. Suddenly, the motion tracker inside his helmet indicated a target within striking distance. Quickly activating the claws on both his gauntlets, he turned and took up a fighting stance, but quickly lowered his guard upon seeing that Dagger was the one who had triggered his motion sensor.

"Predator, what happened?" Dagger asked as she came over and began checking over the heroes Predator had yet to check.

"I don't know. I just got here, and they were like this," Predator replied.

Before Dagger could reply, a low and menacing voice entered the room. "That would be my handiwork," the voice said with a hint of venom. Predator and Dagger both turned in unison and took up a fighting stance, Predator triggering his claws and Dagger lighting up a light dagger in both hands.

The figure before them wore a whitish gray armor with a black utility belt around his waist. Two holstered guns were strapped to the man's chest armor, he had a large orange and blue shield attached to his left arm, and a he had a small white hood that went over the back of his head. The most noticeable feature of them all was the skull-like mask that hid his every facial feature, the mask reducing his eyes to little white slits. "Hello, Dagger. Long time no see." the intruder mocked as he gave a come here gesture with his fingers. Dagger gave a yell of rage and flung both her daggers at the skull-mask wearing intruder. However, the intruder easily sidestepped the attack and with lighting fast reflexes, pulled out one of his holstered guns and opened fire on Dagger. The gun shot a blast of energy at her. However, Dagger dodged with her own reflexes and took a jump kick at her attacker. The figure raised his shield to block her attack, and with one fluid motion, swept her leg out from underneath Dagger, knocking her to the ground. He then bashed her once in the face, and Dagger was out.

"Now that I've taken care of that inconvenience, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Taskmaster," he said with a mocking bow as he and Predator circled each other.

"Predator," Predator responded as he faked right, but Taskmaster didn't even move an inch.

"You have a good name," Taskmaster complimented, and it sent shivers down Predator spine. It was never a good thing when a super villain gave him compliments.

"Why do you care?" Predator asked as his HUD continued to draw up a battle plan.

"I have been watching you from a distance, Predator, and I've decided it's time," Taskmaster said as he dropped his shield and casually strode forward.

"Stay back!" Predator ordered as he raised his now loaded submachine gun at Taskmaster.

"Predator, I've already identified seventeen different ways to beat you, so if I wanted a fight, you would already be down," Taskmaster said, which caused Predator to tense up.

"If you're not here to fight, then what do you want?" Predator asked without lowering his gun.

"Let me start by saying that you're wasting your potential at S.H.I.E.L.D. I believe you could be so much more," Taskmaster lectured.

Predator lowered his gun and decided to play along. "Really, how could I be better?" he asked the villain.

"You see, I also run a school, and I believe that under my training you could be so much better than any student in this S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy," Taskmaster said, which made Predator feel sick.

"You want me to be a villain is what you're saying," Predator said as his HUD finally figured out a plan.

"You could be the best villain I would ever train. You have aggression and anger, and unlike S.H.I.E.L.D., who wants you to stomp out those emotions, I want you to use them. What do you say? Do you accept my generous offer?" Taskmaster said with sincerity in his low voice.

"Thanks, but I'd rather go back to being a vigilante before I join you, so thanks, but no thanks!" Predator yelled as he charged at Taskmaster.

The villain stepped on his shield, which caused it to come up into his waiting hand, which he then used to block Predator's claws. "Such a waste," Taskmaster whispered before he pushed Predator out the door with one strong surprise bash from his shield. Before Predator could re-enter the battle, the doors closed shut with a mechanical hiss, locking Predator on the outside of the dorms.

"When I get back inside, I'm going to rip you a new one with my claws!" Predator threatened as he began slashing the doors. When that didn't work, he tried to pry open the doors, but even his armor barely got them to budge.

"What's the problem, Predator?" A voice called out from behind Predator. The armored hero turned around and saw Hulk standing behind him. "I could hear you screaming from down the hallway."

"A super villain is inside the dorms with my teammates, and he locked me out. Can you give me a hand?" Predator moaned as he tried to pry open the door.

"Step aside," Hulk said in his serious voice as he gently pushed Predator to the side. He then stuck his hands quite literally into the locked doors and pulled them open, revealing Task Master with a needle in his hand taking blood from the unconscious Dagger. "Hey, skull face!" Hulk yelled at Taskmaster, which caused the villain to abruptly stop what he was doing. "Why don't you just surrender, and I'll only smash you a little," Hulk said as he cracked his knuckles. Without answering, Taskmaster somersaulted over Hulk and Predator's head in one fluid motion and took off running down the hallway towards the hanger, both heroes running after them. "Red, a supervillain is running towards the hanger. Try and cut him off," Hulk ordered. Without waiting for a reply, both heroes continued running after them.

"Gotcha covered, Greenie," Red Hulk said over the comm. "Shulkie's bringing in the Jet to try and cut off ol' Mr. Halloween."

"I've got a treat for him," Hulk quipped as he sprinted through the halls at high speed. Within a few moments, Hulk and Predator were only a few steps behind Taskmaster. "Give it up, skull face," Hulk growled.

"With pleasure," Taskmaster replied, throwing a suitcase at the heroes. Predator grabbed it out of thin air without a thought. "Need pickup," he said into his earpiece. As he ran outside, a small Quinjet flew over, a length of rope dangling from the rear door. Taskmaster jumped, grabbed the cord, and quickly pulled himself up.

"Dammit," Predator said as the jet quickly flew out of sight. "I didn't get a look at the driver. Did you?" He asked Hulk.

"Nope," Hulk replied. The Hulk's Quinjet flew over and landed. "Jen, did you get a lock on them?" He asked.

"Yep," She-Hulk replied. "All we have to do is go after him, right?"

"Darn right," Spiderman replied, the heroes coming up behind him. "Taskmaster's a guy for hire. If we follow him, he might lead us to his employer.," he added. "Okay. "Cloak, you're with Dagger. Scarlet, you're with Iron Spider. Kid Arachnid, you're with me…"

Predator tuned out Spiderman as he stared in the direction Taskmaster's jet had flown. (Who was that guy, and why had he tried to collect blood samples from the heroes?) Predator wondered as he opened the suitcase and saw the red-filled vials.

"…And finally, Squirrel Girl, you're with Predator," Spiderman said, distracting Predator from his thoughts.

"What?" Predator asked.

"You're with Squirrel Girl," Spiderman ordered as he walked forward. "I'll join you after I get that suitcase to the lab," he said.

Predator handed the suitcase as the other heroes began piling into S.H.I.E.L.D. jets, and the Hulks began piling into their Quinjet. Soon, only he and Doreen were standing on the landing pad. "So, we're teammates again," Predator said awkwardly.

"Kinda reminds me of that club you took me to," Doreen replied.

"You and I remember that club a lot differently," Predator replied, "but yep. We're teammates again. Come on," he said as he ran toward an unoccupied Jet. Within minutes, the group was in the air, hot on the trail of Taskmaster and his unnamed employer…

To be continued…

Edited by Darkest Nightmare's Dread