I'm back and almost to full strength after my knee surgery. I want to give a shout out to my good friend Darkest Nightmare's Dread for his amazing work in this chapter. Also I recomend checking out his amazing story "Redemption" it's easily worth checking out

Andrew sat at the controls of the Quinjet as he and Squirrel Girl zoomed over the seemingly endless blue mass that was the ocean. This was no pleasure cruise. They currently were in pursuit of Taskmaster, who had broken into the Academy, beaten multiple students, had attempted to steal blood samples from the students, and had escaped with the help of his mysterious employer. "Are we there yet?" Doreen said with a slight giggle in her voice.

Andrew looked away from the controls to face his teammate. "Really? You're going to use that joke?" Andrew dead panned in a disapproving tone as he turned his eyes back to the controls.

"I was just trying to make you laugh," Doreen said with a sigh as her smile was replaced with a rare serious expression.

"We are in pursuit of a super villain who attacked the Academy. I'm not in the joking mood." Andrew said in a disapproving tone.

"I'm sorry," Doreen apologized. Andrew's simple response was to nod his head in agreement. Doreen sighed. "It's not like I wanted to give your secrets up, Andrew," she said.

"Then why did you do it?" Andrew asked bluntly.

"Because… because I had been wondering about things, myself," Doreen confessed. "I've been wondering about that Chill guy, and whoever that Omeran girl is."

"Still, I trusted you," Andrew rebutted, "and you gave my secrets away to other people. How would you feel if I did that to you?"

"I'd be surprised that you found dirt on me," Squirrel Girl replied.

Andrew smiled slightly. "Really?" He asked. "Cuz I seem to remember a certain Pistachio Ice Cream incident…"

Doreen's face turned a little red as she remembered the incident. "How was I supposed to know that it wasn't ice cream?" She protested.

"Next time, don't listen to your squirrels," Andrew replied as he turned to face forward, "and try listening to me. I told you I didn't want other people knowing my secrets."

"I told you, I didn't want to do it," Doreen replied, sounding exasperated. "I knew something like this would happen. I knew our friendship would be ruined," she added gloomily as her tail drooped and she looked at her hands in her lap.

Andrew frowned. True, he was less than pleased about the fact that Doreen had told Spiderman and White Tiger secrets he'd wanted to stay hidden, but he could tell that it was eating her up. "It's not ruined," he said, causing Doreen to look up in surprise.

"I thought you hated me," the squirrel hero said.

"You know me," Andrew replied. "If I hated you, you would've known, and I wouldn't have traveled all this way with you. In a way, our friendship is just like me. I'm battered and a bit bruised, but I haven't fallen apart just yet, and neither has our friendship. Besides, Spiderman once told me, 'a good friend will get you out of trouble, but a great friend will be right there in the thick of it with you.'"

Doreen smiled and chuckled. "We've certainly been in our fair share of trouble, haven't we?" She asked.

Andrew nodded. "We have, and in a couple hours, we'll either be in trouble, or about to be," he replied. He turned around, and he could tell that Doreen was thinking of asking him something, but was debating between asking and not asking. "What's the question?" He asked.

Doreen sighed. "Do you know anything about the pasts of your former friends?" She asked.

Andrew thought about it for a moment. "Chill never said much about his past," he said, "and Omeran was even less talkative. She's not one for conversation."

"Yeah, I noticed," Doreen remarked wryly. "Chill's got cold powers, and Omeran's got a cold personality."

Andrew nodded. "She's not good at making friends," he replied. "Something to do with her childhood, I'd imagine. Something about it being rather rough…"

"Yeah…" Doreen replied, trailing off. "She sure knows how to get under peoples' skin. Ava's still upset that she wasn't cooperating, and apparently, Omeran said something about you two being a couple… Is that true?" She asked, genuinely curious.

Andrew opened his mouth to say something, but paused, his face coloring a little. "We're … not a couple," he said eventually.

Doreen shrugged her shoulders. "Just remember, you did NOT hear it from me," she said.

Andrew nodded. "Yeah. Spider-Man's mouth could outrun Quicksilver," he joked.

"We're just about there," Red Hulk said over the radio. "Lock and load, kids. Marine boy, try not to get shot."

"Don't worry, hothead," Andrew replied back. "I can take it. I'll show you just how much tougher a Marine is than an Army guy."

"OOH! Shots fired!" A-Bomb said over the radio.

"Whoever finds Skull-face's employer first is the tough guy," Red Hulk said.

"Challenge accepted," Andrew said as the jet flew closer to its destination. "Nothing like a little competition to make things interesting…" The Quinjets touched down, and the heroes ran into the base in groups of two. "This place is creepy." Predator said as he and SG walked through a pitch black hallway that was in the mountain facility that Taskmaster had fled to. Predator was in the lead, using the night vision in his helmet to look ahead, SG stood behind him, using a flashlight since she could not see in the dark.

"Didn't think you where one to be scared so easily," SG whispered as she covered their six.

"I'm not scared," Predator said quickly as he continued to look ahead, his night vision giving everything a green tint. "I just don't like how Spidey split us up, I mean yea we are able to cover more ground by us splitting into groups of two, but that also makes us vulnerable to attack. Taskmaster took out almost the entire Academy by himself, and I don't like our chances of beating him with just the two of us," Andrew whispered as the two arrived at a crossroads in the hall.

"I agree," Doreen said as she stepped forward and shined her light down the left hall way, while Andrew using his night vision looked down the right, "but Spidey has lead us to victory multiple times, I think we should trust his judgement." Doreen said as she tried looking into the darkness that was beyond the light of her flashlight.

"Doreen, you got anything?" Predator said as he continued to look down his hall.

"I can't see the whole hallway," Doreen replied. "Wait," she said as a figure appeared some ways down the hallway. Before she could say anything, a knife flew through the air, missing the two heroes. "Yep. It's Taskmaster," Doreen said. Another knife flew toward them, causing Squirrel Girl to jump backward. A floor panel, triggered by the heroine's landing, flipped her into a closet, which closed and locked itself.

"Come at me," Taskmaster said in a taunting voice as he made a taunting 'come here' gesture with his hands.

"I'm fine where I am. Thanks for the offer, though," Predator replied as he fired his submachine gun as the villain.

Taskmaster simply blocked by raising his shield. "I've watched you long enough to know you can do better than that," Taskmaster taunted as he threw his shield at Predator. The hero somersaulted over the attack and threw a right hook at the villain, which the villain countered by catching his fist with his open hand with surprising strength. "I could see that attack coming a mile away. Please try to attack less predictably," Taskmaster said as he delivered a powerful uppercut to the heroes armored jaw, which sent Predator sailing back into the wall and crashing into the shield, whose edge was pointing out of the wall.

"This I why I wanted to teach you," Taskmaster lectured as he causally walked towards the injured hero, "If you had trained under me you could have saw that attack coming and countered it." the villain lectured with a small chuckle in his low and menacing voice. What happened next caught the villain off guard as a blue plasma beam from Predator's shoulder plasma cannon struck the villain in his skull-masked face, knocking the villain backwards. "Impressive. You managed to catch me off guard. You might actually prove to be a challenge," the villain complimented the injured hero. Suddenly, a second shot was fired, but this one went right over the villain's shoulder. "If that was your best shot, then I stand corrected on my previous statement," Taskmaster said in a disapproving tone as he picked up the injured hero by his throat, dragged him into a side room, and pulled him to his feet. "Did you really think that second shot would hit me?" The villain asked as he curled his right hand into a fist and prepared to knock the already injured hero into unconsciousness with one strong punch.

"Wasn't trying to…" The hero said in a barely audible whisper due to the villain crushing his throat with his left hand.

Taskmaster seemed confused for a split second as he slightly loosened his grasp on the hero's throat as he wondered what Predator meant. His answer came a few seconds later as he was hit in the back with such force that it sent him flying. It caused him to lose his grasp on Predator and drop him to the ground, where the armored hero was gasping for breath. Taskmaster quickly got his feet under him and looked around as to what hat hit him. His answer was a kick to the face from a heroine he thought he had subdued. It seemed that Predator's second shot was aimed at the control panel to the lock of the room he had locked Squirrel Girl in after ambushing the two heroes. The plasma blast had destroyed the panel, thus unlocking the door, and releasing the new very angry heroine. "How's this for not being much of a threat?!" SG raged as she delivered a right hook to the villain's jaw, following it up delivering a drop kick to the villain's gut, which caused the villain to stumble backwards. SG then finished with a diving jump kick that sent the villain flying backwards out of the room they were in, into the hallway they had come from. The villain quickly rose from his injured state and tried to rush back into the room, but SG quickly pressed a button on a door control and closed the door in the villain's face.

The villain tried punching to door a few times, but it was obvious that the door would easily take all of his punishment, and the villain quickly realized that and stopped trying to break in. "You cut me off," Taskmaster said through the closed door to the heroes on the other side, "but I will find another way to find you," the villain added in a dark laugh as he walked away to try and find another way into the room.

Once it was clear that Taskmaster wouldn't be able to enter their room, SG quickly rushed over to Predator who was currently lying on the floor. "Predator, are you alright?" SG asked as she frantically looked over her armored friend.

"I'm-." he began to say before he choked on his words. Using a great deal of strength, he was able to sit up and press the hidden button that retracted his armor, letting the cool air hit his face. What SG saw made her both gasp and cringe. Her friend's face was badly bruised and his jaw seemed to have swollen, but what happened next made her let out a small cry. Her friend leaned forward and spat out blood. "It's nothing," Predator said as he shakily got to his feet, only to fall immediately back to the cold hard ground.

"Warning, multiple fractures detected," his suit's AI informed him as his HUD began showing vital signs.

"Doreen, I need you to look at my back," Andrew said before he spat out more blood.

Doreen immediately hurried over to her injured friend to inspect his injuries. "Andrew," she said as she looked over his injuries, "I'm not going to lie, it's not good..." she said as she continued to look it over.

"How bad is it?" He asked her in a very pain-filled whisper.

"Your armor has been pierced," Doreen began before needing to look away from the mess for a second in order to not vomit. "Your back is also bleeding heavily. I don't think you can continue the mission in this state. I'll send out an emergency signal and get you a medical evacuation." SG said as she brought up her wrist communicator and turned it on.

"No," Andrew said as he pulled her wrist down. "I can go on," Andrew said as he slowly got to his feet. "My nanobots should heal this in less than an hour. We need to keep moving," Predator said as he started slowly walking towards the closed door that had sealed out Taskmaster.

"We don't know if he's still out there," SG said as she got in front of him and tried to keep him from moving forward.

Predator's response was to pull up a seemingly blank holographic display from his right wrist gauntlet. "He's not there," Predator said as he deactivated the display and pressed the button that opened the door.

"How are you so sure?" SG asked as she tugged on his arm to prevent her injured friend from leaving.

"What you just saw on my gauntlet was a heartbeat sensor, and it did not detect anything in the nearby area, so it's safe to move on. Come on, SG. We've got to move before he comes back," Predator said as he slightly lost his balance and began to fall, before being caught mid-fall by Squirrel Girl.

"Andrew, you are not going anywhere in this injured state," SG said with a firm yet concerned voice, "Would you let me fight if I was as injured as you?" She asked, trying to reason with her armored friend.

Predator stopped and pondered for a second what she had just asked him. "You got a point, Doreen," he admitted in a defeated tone.

"I'm glad you realize what the best thing to do is," Doreen said in an approving tone with a nod of her head. What happened next caught the heroine off guard as Predator turned towards her with surprising speed and fired both his Taser cables at his stunned friend. SG was too caught off guard to move as both his Tasers struck the unprepared hero in her stomach. The high voltage caused her to scream and then pass out from the intense electricity coursing through her body.

"I'm sorry, Doreen," Predator whispered as he deactivated the Tasers and retracted them from his unconscious friend, "but it's better if Taskmaster captures me since I can barely fight, as long as he does not get both of his mission will not be completed." The injured hero put his helmet back on and looked out into the hallway. Taskmaster didn't appear to be nearby, but Andrew knew the villain was the sneaky type. Suddenly, he had the sense that someone was above his head. "What the-" He managed to get out before a fist smashed into his back, knocking him out from the pain.


Some time later…

"I told you, I disabled his comm," an irritable Taskmaster said as Andrew came back to consciousness.

"I know that," a rather snooty voice replied, "and if I recall, I told you that the heroes, although hardly erudite beings, always manage to find ways to bypass this … complication." The voice paused, noting Andrew's being conscious. "Well, well. You certainly have a short recovery period from pain."

"Where… where am I?" Andrew asked.

"Where else? In my inner sanctum," the voice replied.

Predator looked up to try and look at his captor, but his vision was blurred. "I know who you are," he said, not bothering to try and get free. The metal cuffs were more than enough to hold him in place.

"Do you really?" The figure asked.

Andrew nodded. He didn't actually know who it was, but he was trying to bide for time while his vision cleared. "I also know that it's only a matter of time before my friends find me," he claimed.

"Don't get your hopes up," Taskmaster rebutted. "This place is protected by 6-inch titanium walls. No one's getting into here unless we want them to."

"Oh, really?" Andrew asked as his vision cleared. He recognized the villain before him: a tall green head with short black hair, balanced out by a short, thin stature. "I know four big guys, and a big girl, who know how to get into places, Leader."

The green villain arched a long eyebrow. "Really?" He asked. "You will have to forgive me if I do not believe you, Predator," he said. "I've taken precautions to ensure those lumbering giants do not interfere with my plans," he said, turning back to what appeared to be a lab table. "You did well retrieving those samples," he said to Taskmaster.

"What?" Andrew asked, confused. "You…you dropped those samples," he said.

"I always get a spare," Taskmaster replied. There was a dull thud outside the door. "What was that?" He asked.

Andrew smiled widely under his helmet. "They're coming," he said in an ominous tone.

Before Leader could say anything, the door buckled inward, punched by two sets of fists. "We're coming in, so get out of the way!" Power Man shouted.

"SMASH!" Hulk shouted as the door crumpled inward under the onslaught of the two strongmen. The third punch caused the door to fly inward, destroying the lab bench and what was on it. "Well, well," Hulk said as he walked into the room. "I guess I'm not surprised. Nice to see you again, Leader."

"Yes. Nice to see you too," Leader replied, frowning deeply.

Power Man walked forward and cuffed the telepathic villain. Taskmaster had disappeared when the door had imploded, and Andrew wasn't looking too steady. "Are you okay?" Power Man asked.

"Gee, what do you think?" Andrew said. He sighed, and collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

"Yeah, he's not okay," Spider-Man said as Red Hulk picked Predator up.

"Kid's tough," Red Hulk admitted as he looked at Andrew's back. "He's got a lot of shrapnel in his back. We better get him back to the Academy."

"Let's go, then," Squirrel Girl said as the heroes went back to their Quinjets and set off for the Academy.

Edited by Darkest Nightmare's Dread