Part 4

"Come on kid, where are you?"

For the last five minutes, a man dressed in full combat gear wielding a sophisticated high-tech bow had been quietly stalking about the rubble of a ruined city. Each step was as quiet as possible to avoid giving his position away with his eyes carefully scanning any shadowed areas and high ledges but his patience was wearing thin.

"Enough of this sneaking around stuff, come out and fight!"

The soldier was known as Hawkeye and was the most accurate of the super soldiers known as the Ultimates. His target was elusive and fast, able to dodge his arrows with ease and was hard to locate as his costume made it to where he could easily blend into his environment. The destroyed and darkened cityscape only made it that much more difficult to do so.

Ducking behind a nearby car, Hawkeye surveyed his surroundings at the sound of rubble falling. He knew he was being hunted from up high but could still see nothing. With his bow midway drawn he kept it at the ready should his quarry make an appearance.

From high atop a building the lone soldier could be seen far below ducking behind a burned-out car just as predicted. Spider-Man silently crawled along an adjacent rooftop and leapt between the broken girders of another until he was directly above the lone soldier. His trick of webbing some loose rubble to make it fall had served its purpose and now was the time to have some fun.

As Hawkeye surveyed the area, Spider-Man lowered himself on a single strand of web. Unknown to the grounded soldier he stopped right behind him, just a foot away from the back of his head. With Hawkeye oblivious to his close presence, Spider-Man began to make mocking gestures behind his back.

Placing a thumb on his nose, the teenager fluttered his fingers for a few seconds before raising himself up quickly. Hawkeye looked behind him and not seeing anything, turned back around. Once again Spider-Man slid down and this time placed both hands on the sides of his head and fluttered his fingers. With Hawkeye not able to shake the feeling of having someone behind him, he once again quickly turned and caught his quarry red handed. Spider-Man stopped his teasing long enough to wave before he was attacked with an arrow.

Whizzing past its target's head, the arrow hit the building behind Spider-Man and deployed a brownish paste that instantly solidified, obviously a way to immobilize him.

"Miss me, miss me, now you got a... never mind that's just gross." Swinging away swiftly, Spider-Man dodged arrow after arrow that was being shot at him.

There were arrows that deployed nets, arrows that turned into bolas and of course more paste arrows. Several came dangerously close while others simply sailed by. It occurred to their target that Hawkeye seemed to have a never ending supply of them

"Oh come on, you can do better than that!" Spider-Man looked as if he were defying gravity as he dodged what came his way. Every arrow that was on target to hit him failed to do so as he quickly got out of its way, in midair no less

"Trust me kid, I will."

Hawkeye reached into his quiver and pulled three arrows out. He loaded and fired them in one motion pass his agile prey. These however were different from the others as the exploded before the red and blue teen. Bright lights blinded him and the accompanying shockwave knocked him down to the street with a hard thud.

"Oy vey," Spider-Man said while rubbing his head. "Now, I know how a... Crap, I don't even have a response for this."

"Got you now bug boy." Hawkeye drew back an arrow and aimed it at the down Spider-Man.

"But can you keep me?"

The moment Hawkeye's arrow hit the ground Spider-Man was already high above him. Two more arrows flew pass on either side of him as he fired several web lines around Hawkeye. Before he could load another arrow, Spider-Man flipped over a low hanging streetlight and snared the archery soldier in a hidden trap.

"What the... Parker!" Hawkeye struggled to free himself but the webbing was too strong for him to break. His bow fell out of reach and his quiver of arrows were covered in a glob of web.

"Well, well, well, looks like the spider caught the hawk or eye or something."

"Shut up and let me down."

Slowly, the destroyed cityscape began to dissolve around them as several Shield agents led by Carol Danvers approached them. Where once the dilapidated cars, rubble, trash, and weathered buildings were was now a large empty blue room with a grid like pattern on the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Nice job Clint." Carol typed in a few notes on a handheld computer pad. "Maybe next time you won't get caught."

"Uh, excuse me," Spider-Man said. "What about me? I won the simulation."

"You treated this like a game. Should you have been in the field your antics would have gotten you killed, again."

"It's called a distraction."

"It's stupidity. Don't do it again."

"Hey," Clint interrupted. "Let me down!"

Spider-Man let go of the web line that looped over a remaining streetlight, which faded away once it was no longer in use just like the other holograms had done. Clint or Hawkeye, hit the ground with a thud as Spider-Man pulled his mask off and walked away in a huff.

"Were you think you're going Parker?" Carol didn't bother to face him as her computer pad had her full attention.

"Where do you think? It's not like I can leave the damn building."

"You still got one more sparring session to go through."

"I was just in one."

"That was field training. This is sparring. Bring her out!"

"Her?"

At Carol's orders a large metal door opened and out stepped a young woman around the same age as him Black hair hid her face but he could see her eyes clearly. She wore a shield operations uniform and heavy duty combat boots.

"I'm supposed to spar with her?" Peter asked.

"Yes. Full contact."

"Can she fight? Does she have any powers?"

"You can say that. Peter, I would like you to meet X-23."

"X-23? What kind of name is..." Before he could finish asking his question, the young girl unsheathed a pair of metallic claws from each hand.

"She's Wolverine's clone."

"You don't say." Peter's voice cracked nervously as he saw the claws and the wicked look on X-23's face.

To Be Continued