Chapter Eleven: Training Is Dull

He looked at me. "I'm not repeating myself. Are you joining SHIELD or not? "

You never know who SHIELD might recruit.

That included me.

Nightwatcher, not Mason Sdentato. There would be hell to pay for that idea.

I was standing in the middle of a training room in some SHIELD base, while Fury's voice announced overhead, "This exercise will gauge your efficiency against superior numbers. Disable all attackers— you have sixty seconds."

I flexed my neck from side to side, cracking it. "No sweat," I muttered to myself.

Then again, I had been at this most of the day with no break. I had been doing tests and all the shit. Part of me wanted to slap Fury so that he came to me. This was all some superhero judging test though.

"Oh, and FYI?" Fury's voice came back on over the loudspeaker. "Captain America did it in ten." Fury needed to stop reminding me of other superheroes' times and stats. I usually beat them anyway. Usually.

I rolled my eyes. "Lowest time in the team?"

"Not saying."

"You're no fun Fury!" Then a buzzer sounded and all the robots activated. He is no fun.

I narrowed my eyes and released a Shadow Bomb from my clothes, deactivating 85% of the bots. The other 15% were in the air. Masterizzare appeared and took down half and the rest fell to the ground.

I looked around. "Okay, now am I done?"

It was silent for awhile and Masterizzare jumped onto my shoulder.

Ionia will be ticked at you.

Okay, so Fyre can be taken to Xandar to see if she wants to join the Nova Corps but I'm the one Ionia will yell at for wanting to learn more? That's effed up.

Nova Corps keep the peace. SHIELD literally just screws everything up.

Right. 'Cause saving the world from ultimate bad guy threats is 'fucking everything up'.

Exactly.

Okay, am I misunderstanding the point of being the Nightwatcher or what?

Before Masterizzare could respond, the team entered.

"Nice job Shorty." Luke high-fived me. And as normal, I had to stand on my toes to actually do it. Being short sucks.

"Thanks PM."

"You are very masterful in the mystic arts."

I still hadn't gotten use to Iron Fist's 'fortune cookie' stuff (and I know this isn't fortune cookie) but I shrugged. "Thanks."

Spidey and White Tiger complimented me then I looked over at Nova. He was floating there and I raised an eyebrow. "Do I get a compliment from you too?"

"Nah, we've seen it before." He hovered a bit lower so I could see his bucketed face.

Was he always this annoying? Probably, I just tended to ignore that. Actually, he had seemed a bit off since the whole Cross incident two days ago but I had just thought it was just jealousy. Danny had told me that he wasn't like this when Spiderman joined. He just acted rude and annoyed because Spidey had come and taken his place as 'leader'. Including the quotation marks. Something was up and I was going to find out. Mason being the bitch style.

I glared at him and grabbed him by his hand, dragging him over to the corner part of the room where the others could barely hear us. "Okay Sparkplug, what's up?"

He glared at me. "Being Nightwatcher and not saying something."

I almost laughed. "That's what you're angry about? About me not telling you I was Nightwatcher?"

"Yes."

"Okay, at first I didn't know if I could trust ya'll," he cringed but I ignored it. "Then I found out you guys were superheroes and that Morgan is a certified badass so I didn't think I should tell you unless I absolutely wanted to." He still stared at me. "Cross threatened to kill you guys. She's already got my parents and you all and Anala are all I have left. And if you dare say there is anyone else I will punch you to Xandar." I paused. "I'm not thinking about ever giving her what she wants. I only joined so I could make sure she's taken down and she doesn't hurt you." I felt a blush come up when I said that, glad the mask was hiding my face. "All."

It was silent. Then I laughed a little. "You know Sam, you're probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met whose had to put up with me for so long."

"Ditto, except you're a girl. Do you mind telling the others that?"

I punch his arm lightly. "You're an idiot. But you're nice," I smile. "Let's go do some training."

After all the training and crap we did, everyone went home. I couldn't stop buzzing, so I went around Manhattan looking for anything or one to punch. It wasn't long before I had to stop to catch my breath.

And of course, I was almost right outside Avengers Tower. I had to roll my eyes at the whole concept of the tower. Now, I know they're heroes and all, but seriously? A huge ass tower? For seven people?! God! People are homeless on the streets dude! Why don't ya rebuild Avengers Mansion instead?

I sat down and looked around. Everyone was bustling with their everyday lives while I had to deal with a lot of bullshit to save them. And, I know I'm supposed to be a hero and that crap, but one simple thank you for saving me would be just so awesome. Not including JJJ's whatever he does. That's bashing with the side of those cheap 'Awesome Job!' stickers from Walmart or the dollar store that you get for little kids.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound on two feet landing. I turned lighting my hand up with shadows (instead of lighting up, I'm gonna say darkening up) and turned. Some chick was pointing a small knife at me.

She was wearing an figure flattering, short black trench coat with two cobalt blue lines on the front and both long sleeved arms. She was also wearing black jeans and black combat boots. Her mask was simple: covering her eyes only and cobalt blue. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

"Nice boots." I smirked.

"Thanks."

I stared at each other and we both dropped our weapons. Obvious trice is obvious.

"Nightwatcher."

"Dova."

"That's kind of a lame name."

She laughed. "It is. But then again, you do have to pick a bird name when your uncle is Hawkeye."

I was taken aback. Guess eight people live there. "Don't go around telling people that. Might get captured."

She winked. "Don't worry, they'll never catch me. You, maybe." She paused. "Wanna help me?"

"Be your sidekick?" I scoffed. Why would I want to help her? I guess I can't just let her run around by herself. I mean, I don't want to be killed by the legendary Hawkeye. That would be bad. So I shrugged. "Why not?"

She raised and eyebrow but laughed and started running. "Hurry up NW!"

"I outta throw you off this roof!" I yelled and followed Dova.

"That would be mean!"

"I know! That's why I outta!"

She laughed again. I ran after her, soon matching her pace. "So how'd ya get into the superhero business?"

I shrugged. "I found a necklace and chose to help people. Not much you can do when you have superpowers."

"And you're not stopping me from getting myself killed?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I have a feeling I wouldn't have stopped you."

"True. Not even the Hulk can stop me. My uncle is a pain in the butt who says I shouldn't use what I've learned."

"Oh, it must suck to have a protective family member." I said, dripping sarcasm on each word I dropped.

"It's just that he can take out bad guys every other day but I have to sit on my ass and do nothing."

"And I'm guessing you snuck out tonight."

"He's on a mission till tomorrow evening. And the only other people there are Falcon and Iron Man, both who are ignorant and would agree with me."

We continued running in silence and ended up at the docks. We stopped just outside of a meeting. "Hydra."

"Like 'Hail Hydra' Hydra or the mythological creature?" She slapped me without looking. "Hey!"

"Obviously the first one." She pulled out a pair of binoculars and handed it to me. "See the dude with the freaky scythe for his hand? That's Grim Reaper. Total psycho." She picked something out of her pocket and chucked it towards them. It landed near them, enough that no one could see it. Dova held up a finger to shush me.

"The shipments will arrive tomorrow afternoon at four, that was the agreement." Totally German accent. What number cliché is it for the antagonist to be foreign?

"Three of our top agents will be here tomorrow. You might know them, Skull. The Three Stars." Definitely Reaper. He must be talking to Red Skull or something.

"Ah yes. The famous Vega, Sirius, and Arcturus. Make sure they understand how important Project Heist is. We do not need the Avengers interference."

"Will do. Grim Reaper out."

I grabbed Dova's arm. "We need the Avengers."

She glared. "No, we need SHIELD. Meet me here tomorrow at four. We can take 'em."

"But there is going to be probably super powered freaks too that can kick our asses."

Dova smirked. "I doubt they will be any trouble."

After spending the evening bashing heads in and arguing about who we should tell with Dova, we agreed on telling SHIELD before and the Avengers after. Dova then had to go at midnight and I arrived home. Anala had almost yelled at me until I told her I was with Sam and friends. She let me go upstairs and I fell asleep. And as usual, I arrived for a Nightwatcher lesson. But now I was sitting in a room I all too recognized whenever I fuck something up majorly.

"What are you doing Mason?" Ionia said exasperated. She was sitting down across from me and had a slightly ticked off look on her face. Ionia was obviously not pleased.

"Helping humanity. You have alot of explaining to do also."

Ionia glared. "What's the purpose of the Nightwatchers?"

I thought for a second. "Definitely not what you've been telling me."

She sighed. "I have been telling you the truth ever since-"

"Only Avens can use the necklace. And I'm human. Fully." I narrowed my eyes.

She looked taken back then she cursed. "Fyre."

I crossed my arms. "Also, Fyre can be think about joining the Nova Corps but I can't learn how to improve my skills?"

"I created the Nightwatchers to protect when it is needed. Earth doesn't need to be protected." Ionia leaned back into her chair and smiled smugly. She still hadn't answered any of my questions.

"Obviously it does. You don't understand the idea of humanity, do you? We're not all super powered. And there will always be evil in the world."

Ionia pushed herself out of her chair and a pair of white wings appeared behind her. "So what if some human blood is split? The world doesn't need the Nightwatcher now."

I stood up and faced her. "It does. If you can't see that, I'm not going to be Nightwatcher anymore."

Short Chapter, sorry.

I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday. I didn't even get out of bed to 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I had to deal with children that are 5. Sorry.

So, Dova is Hawkeye's niece. Morgan is Hawkeye's niece. *wink wink* *nudge nudge* *shoves off cliff* Sorry.

I read two awesome fanfictions though. USM: The Phantom (which made me cry at the end) by Aferus and The Universal Language (which is a GotG fanfiction) by Hawki. SO if you get bored, go read those. *wink wink*

latinoheat151: I swear you're reading my mind on what I'm doing next chapter. That's scary. And thanks for reading all of the chapters to catch up.

Next Time: Jealousy and Hydra. What could go wrong there?

See you Monday! ;)

~PoetryNeedsANewName~