Finally a new chapter ^.^

I'm really, really sorry for the delay. In addition to my written final exams there
were a few complications when releasing it.

The good news is that I've finally finished those exams and am now hopefully able
to update more frequently and write longer chapters ;-)

Enjoy this chapter and feel free to write a review :3

Chapter 10

"We have a problem."

The man in black's gaze left the desk in front of him and focused on his entering underling instead.

"What is it?" His voice was hoarse as always and dangerously calm. He had been planning this undertaking almost two years and he didn't feel like dealing with problems right now, so shortly before it was finished.

"One of our subjects, the one who was positioned in a bank has already been activated. Apparently there was a robbery and it triggered the reaction…"

The man in black sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Idiots. He was surrounded by idiots.

"What is he doing now?"

"He's fighting with a masked man – "

"One of the robbers?"

"No, Sir, it is a man in red and blue, a local vigilante called Spider-man."

A vigilante. Oh great.

"What about the Avengers?"

"They haven't shown up yet, I believe they will behave as predicted, Sir, and follow the orders of S.H.I.E.L.D. They are soldiers after all."

"Good. Activate the others. They can join the fight now as well, it has already begun anyways." the man in black sighed. "Let's hope that no other vigilante shows up. If it doesn't go according to plan…"

The other man nodded, gulping nervously. Then he saluted and left the room. The man in black stared at the door after his subordinate had left and thought about how great it would be to accomplish what he had been planning for so long.

They were all assembled on the top floor of Stark Tower. The air was thick with tenseness and a certain nervousness lingered in every face. Bruce wiped his forehead, nearly surprised that it wasn't already drenched with sweat.

"How long will we have to wait? Can't we just suit up and kick those terrorists' asses?"

Bruce rolled his eyes. Of course Tony was impatient.

"You heard Director Fury. It's too risky to act without knowing what they are actually planning. We have our orders and we will obey them!"

And of course the good Captain would respond to Tony's complaints. He yet had to learn how to ignore them.

"Well last time I checked I was not one of Director Sea Pirate's underlings!" Tony glared at Steve.

"We are a team Stark, we have to work together, or else those bastards could win!"

"I already took out a whole circle of terrorists all by myself once; do you really think I need your panty ass for that one?"

Steve opened his mouth to reply, but Bruce beat him to that.

"Stop fighting, there are more important things right now. Like thinking about what we could do against those bad guys. What do we know about them, Steve?"

The soldier glared at Tony one last time. Then he turned to Bruce.

"They have tried to blow up insignificant buildings in fifteen different cities so far. They don't seem to have any kind of political motivation or they would have gone after important places. They always placed self-made explosive somewhere in a basement of a suburban house and some of them stayed around that house but we never managed to catch one alive…"

"Yeah," Clint frowned. "The explosives were made rather sluggishly, but they were good and fierce fighters. No match for us though." He grinned.

"And you have no idea what they're objective is?" Even Tony seemed to be interested by now.

"Not the slightest." Natasha's face was emotionless, as always, but Bruce could tell by the way she grasped at her gun that she was nervous as well.

"So we do not know what they seek to achieve by their actions." Thor concluded. He stood near the door and seemed nearly as impatient as Tony. Clearly he didn't appreciate the fact that he had to leave his brother's side.

"No we don't." Steve answered, something like resignation in his voice.

"So why don't we just go out there and beat them up?" Tony asked. Bruce sighed. They were back to the beginning of the conversation.

"Tony -" he started but then was cut off by something crashing through the window.

There are not many places in New York where you could bring a crazy laser-or-whatever-shooting maniac to. In fact Peter knew only one.

When he crashed through the top floor window of Stark Tower he was completely and utterly exhausted. The way from the bank to the Tower hadn't been long, but his pursuer kept shooting his weird green beams at him so that he had to draw aside every thirty seconds.

However he didn't manage to avoid all of them. One hit him in the leg – why always his leg?! – and the burns throbbed painfully when he finally arrived at Stark Tower.

After his crash landing he remained lying on the floor for a few seconds until the worst pain was over. Great. Now his whole body was covered in cuts. And he had probably sprained his wrist trying to brace himself against the fall.

He propped himself up on one arm – and was greeted by the whole Avengers team staring at him.

"Um… well hi," he said awkwardly. "I'm really sorry to burst in here like this. I mean literally burst in. But do you think you could help me out a little with – "

A green beam shot through the window at Peter who managed to roll to one side in time, ignoring the pain it caused his leg. Captain America was the first to snap out of his surprise.

"Tony, you take care of whoever is shooting those lasers. Clint and Thor, go on the roof and look out for possible other threats and eliminate them. Natasha and I will go down in the streets and precautionary evacuate the civilians. And Bruce you take care of our friend here. He doesn't seem to be in any condition to go on fighting. Let's go!"

Everyone nodded and got moving immediately. Peter was still marveling at the Captain's natural authority and – at least for him – irresistible charisma when he felt a hand gently settling on his arm. He jerked around only to see Dr. Banner crouch down next to him.

"Hey," the dark haired man said, smiling gently. "Nice to see you again. Let's get you over there," he pointed to one of the sofas, "so that I can take a look at you."

Peter nodded, feeling light-headed all of the sudden. He then found it a rather difficult task to stand up using only one arm and one leg. Luckily Bruce was there for support, or else he wouldn't have been able to get up at all.

Why did his body feel so heavy all of the sudden?

He barely managed to suppress a sigh of relieve when he settled down on the couch and leaned back. Bruce sat beside him and started treating his wounds.

The doctor frowned when examining his leg. Until now Peter hadn't dared to really look at it himself. When he did now he gasped in shock: his femoral was partially burned, no, rather melted, black and disgusting. He had to look away, although he knew that thanks to his extraordinary healing abilities his leg would soon be well again.

He couldn't keep himself from wincing when Bruce gingerly touched his leg, which made the doctor's frown deepen.

Peter tried to divert himself from his aching body and looked out of the window where Tony fought the maniac. Tony seemed to have a hard time against the beam shooter, although he wore his iron armour (when did he put it on?) and Peter felt guilt form inside of his stomach.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought him here…" he whispered, not quite conscious of himself.

Bruce looked up from Peter's leg.

"What are you talking about? Tony will be fine, but you are already injured. I think he has far better chances than you, to say the truth. And it's our job to help after all." Bruce smiled again and Peter couldn't help but smile back. Those guys were really nice.

Tony cursed and avoided another green beam. What was the guy shooting anyway? Was it laser? No, his armour was laser proof and it had already melted in several places.

The scientist in him wondered where the fuel for those beams came from. Apparently they were emitting from his body. Would he run out of beams when he only shot enough of them? Maybe, but Tony couldn't bet on that.

He drew aside just in time to see a beam hit his beautiful tower behind him. He sighed. They had just finished repairing it after Loki's invasion. And if he didn't stop this new villain soon he would have to renovate yet again.

So where were the weak points of that man? Tony narrowed his helmet covered eyes.

The other could fly by emitting beams from his feet and hands, just like himself. But his movements seemed rather untrained. That man had probably never used his flying abilities before today. And he was unprotected. No suit, no armour, only a man.

Tony grinned. Maybe he could out fly his opponent.

"JARVIS, put 20% power on the jet-nozzles."

"Yes, Sir."

Tony felt himself being catapulted higher up. He looked down and saw the green glowing man looking around in confusion then gazing up and following him.

He was slower though and Tony smiled. He had been right. Maybe he could use the same trick on that one that he used on Obadiah. He ignored the painful memories that threatened to arise inside of him and rose higher up.

Looking down he made sure that the other was following him. He was. God, why were most people so stupid?

It took a few minutes to reach the necessary height. When he finally saw the needed temperature on his display he stopped and waited. He didn't have to wait long. The green glowing man reached him and grinned maniacally.

Then he froze, literally, and started falling down. Tony followed him and saw him crash rather violently on the ground. Yep, that one wouldn't get up anytime soon. Or any other time.

Tony rose above the city, smiling in self-satisfaction. Then he noticed green glows. All over the city. Oh fantastic.