Code Avengers: Cosmic

by lyokoMARVELanime

Sequel to Code Avengers. The Lyoko Avengers are back with all of their friends and allies, and this time, they're taking on new dangers, villains, and challenges, because after saving the universe from being destroyed, how can you really expect any less? Alien invasions, tests of trust, and more will await our heroes as they soar on to new levels of adventure like never before!

11. Avengers Recruit: The Protege

AN: Greeting my fellow Lyoko Loyals and Marvelites alike! After a long overdue absence of about, uh...five months or so, give or take? Is that right?

Aelita: Yep, that's about right. Thanks for showing how much you care about us.

AN: No need to get an attitude. Point is, after such a long time, I'm back with another chapter for Code Avengers: Cosmic, and the second chapter of "The Avengers Recruitment Arc"!

[audience applause]

Yeah I had a feeling that you would all be excited for this. I know it's been a while, but it's been a little busy for me lately, and I've had to really work at it in order to update some of my other stories. Though I would like to note that most of those stories would be those that have Spider-Man in them, be it in the most recent chapter, or as a major character. Can you guess the reason as to why?

Ulrich: I'm gonna go with something along the lines of...Spider-Man: Homecoming?

AN: EXACTLY! That movie was so cool! Best. Spider-Man. MOVIE. TO DATE! WOO! Uh...ahem, anyways...Yeah, that pretty much set me in the mood for updating anything that had Spider-Man playing a major role in the story be it in an upcoming chapter of the story, or in the story as a whole, but now I'm back to give this one a quick update, and this time, we're bringing in the MCU version of the second Ant-Man: Scott Lang, or at least this story's adaptation of him.

Deadpool: What?! How's that fair?! I've got a huge, hit movie, and a sequel coming out later this year, and that loser gets to appear in this series before me?! Come on, it's not even fair that you're going to have that Savage Artillery guy...

AN: DAH! DEADPOOL! SPOILER! DEADPOOL GIVING SPOILER! [hits control]

Deadpool: [sighs] Again. [gets run over by a school bus with eyes for headlights while music starts playing]

AN: And that right there is why the driver of this bus always says...

Ms. Frizzle: Seat belts, everyone!

Deadpool: [groggy and dazed] Wait is this gonna be a normal field trip?

AN: Dude, with the Friz? No way!

Deadpool: Awwwwwww.

AN: Oh suck it up. [tosses Deadpool into the bus before he starts singing] And strap your bones into the seat~. Come on in and don't be shy. Just to make your day complete, you might get baked into a pie~! On the Magic School Bus~! Step inside, it's a wild ride~! [normal speaking] Bus do your stuff!

Magic School Bus: [changes into a rocket ship with Deadpool on the outside tied to the rocket engines]

Deadpool: [realizing where he is] Wait, shouldn't I be inside the bus instead of out...[screams in pain as the rockets ignite and the bus blasts off]

AN: [finishes singing] Ride on the Magic School Bus~! [normal voice again] Ah, childhood. Well, now that he's dealt with, let's answer a some reviews, shall we. First off, to the guest reviewer simply named, "Guest" (seriously, if you want to stand out a little come up with a name to better identify yourself with. This is going to be very confusing otherwise), I am well-aware of that particular bit of comics history, but what I'd like to know is why are you bringing that up when it had nothing to do with what had happened in the last chapter. I mean, really.

Next, to "Dragon Rider 66", no, it's not weird to hope that Luis shows up just to do one of his storytelling moments. You'll see why in a minute.

Moving on to guest reviewer "Thunder Dragon", I'd hate to burst your bubble, but Logan's nose was actually not able to tell who was a Skrull and who wasn't during the Secret Invasion event in the comics for some reason. They really just thought of bringing him in out of a hope that it could work. Besides, if that were the case, he would've picked up on Skrull-Cap long before they had even gotten back to the X-Mansion. Also, sorry to say, but Ulrich doesn't have any of Thor's powers at the moment, despite the fact he was able to lift Mjolnir. Maybe while he had the hammer, but now...Not so much. You are right though. It would be awesome if he did, but it would also make him a little overpowered too in many different ways.

Finally, to guest reviewer "Goji Fan". I am not really able to comment on your first suggestion without giving away any crucial spoilers for this story, but as far as your second one goes, I'm afraid that as well-thought-out as you've made it (and you really do seem to have put quite a bit of thought into it), I'm sorry to say that such an idea will not likely be implemented here. Though I do get the feeling that if you wanted to, you could probably do something of an idea like that yourself. Why don't you give it a shot? I bet you could easily pull it off if you could put that much thought into the idea alone.

Now then, let's get on with the show for the next chapter of this story arc, and see just what Ulrich and Hawkeye have landed themselves in. Oh, and if you all loved Aelita's little personal intro from last chapter, get a load of the one Ulrich's getting this time! Avengers, to the chapter!

I do not own anything from any of either of the Code Lyoko or MARVEL franchises or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

---

My name is Ulrich Stern. To the outside world at large, I was an average boarding school student, but secretly, with the help of my closest friends and classmates, I fought in a virtual world run by a quantum supercomputer in an effort to defend both that world and ours from a dangerous computer program. After over two years of fighting and great loss, we believed that we had succeeded in destroying the XANA Virus, never once suspecting that we may have been wrong, and that ended up costing me nearly all of my family and friends. When a final sacrifice play destroyed XANA for good, I never once suspected that I and my adopted sister, Aelita would end up being thrown into a whole new universe, where we would be able to use the powers and suits we held in the virtual world in real life, but I am extremely grateful that we did. We joined with this Earth's mightiest heroes and built ourselves a new family while avenging the wrongs that others were doing. Despite that though, there are still challenges facing us every day, and new threats coming for myself, my sister, and all that we care about, but I swore, I will never let any of the ones I care about come to harm like that again if I can help it. In order to do so, I could no longer just be the warrior I once was. I had to become someone else. I had to become, something else. I became...the Lyoko Avenger, Sprint Samurai!

---

Chapter 11: Avengers Recruit: The Protégé

"Are you sure this is the right neighborhood," Hawkeye asked from his Sky-Cycle, which was currently flying just a short distance above Ulrich as the Sprint Samurai raced across the streets on his Overbike 2.0.

"For the fifth time, yes, Hawkeye, I'm sure," Ulrich tiredly sighed in response, and he had been counting how many times Clint had asked him that since they entered this neighborhood. They had only gotten the new Ant-Man's address from Hank about an hour or so ago, and they had immediately headed out just seconds after Aelita and Captain America had departed for the X-Mansion. What they did not expect was to end up in one of the more run-down and rougher parts of town, namely in an area that was typically populated by folks who were having a hard time getting by despite being good, and honest people, or who were involved in some shady business. Knowing this, Ulrich could only assume that Hank's successor had to be the former, because there was no way that Hank would have entrusted his old alter-ego to someone who was anything but a little good in terms of character. Still, he could not blame Hawkeye for being uncertain about their destination, given the neighborhood's residents.

Ulrich was soon stirred from his thoughts when he and Clint both heard their communicators going off, and he immediately tapped his visor in order to answer the call once he saw who was on the other end. "Hey Jan. What's up?"

"Just thought you should know that Aelita and Cap hit a bit of a snag when they went to see Wolverine, so they might be a little longer than they originally thought. Something about a problem that the X-Men had gotten themselves into," Wasp informed him.

"Seriously? Can't you guys ever go over to that place without having to help clean up whatever mess the X-Men have managed to land themselves in," Clint groaned.

"Hey, that's only happened like twice, three times counting this time," Ulrich pointed out. He then gained a sly look as he added, "Besides, you and I both know that every time Cap goes out there, he's not usually getting into trouble. Assuming Wanda's not in a bad mood, and Logan's still okay with them dating."

Clint had to smirk a little in response to Ulrich's quip, and was about to comment further when Janet interrupted. "Hawkeye, I swear, if you even think of saying anything in addition to that, I will zap you both non-stop for an entire week starting the second you two get back."

That shut both of them up at once, and a second later, Ulrich glanced up to see that they had reached the address that Hank had given them, revealing their destination to be a rather old looking hotel building. Once he had pulled his bike to a stop by the curb, he turned his attention back to the current Avengers leader, and said, "Well, we're at the new Ant-Man's place, assuming he hasn't moved since Hank last talked to him, so I guess it's our turn to take a shot at a smooth recruiting interview. Let us know if anything changes for Aelita and Steve?"

"Sure thing Ulrich, but somehow, I get the feeling that they'll still be getting back before you two are finished. Good luck with your own recruiting efforts," Janet replied, and with that, the two bade her goodbye for the moment, dismounted their respective Sky-Cycles, and made their way inside.

They did not have to worry about speaking to someone at the front desk, but they did make it a point to not use the elevator, even if their potential Avenger's room was on one of the top-most floors. To be more accurate though, Hawkeye did not want to take the elevator because he was worried that it might suddenly break down while they were inside, given the building's own state of disrepair, and Ulrich did not feel like arguing with him on the point too much, so he simply agreed with the archer to take to the stairs. Either way, they did still get a chance to talk for a bit. "You have to admit, it'll be pretty great to have an Ant-Man on the team again," Ulrich told Hawkeye.

"Sure, but that's assuming he agrees," Clint pointed out, though he still had a small smile on his face, showing that he did miss having Hank out there with them. "What do you think he's like though?"

"Probably a good guy who's been dealt a few bad hands lately. I can't really see Hank giving up the Ant-Man suit to anyone else," Ulrich admitted.

"Yeah I can see that. Honestly, I just hope we're not about to meet Hank's clone. One overly pacifistic scientist is enough as it is, but two? I don't think we'd ever get anything done again."

"And you're also hoping he's not another mega-genius right," Ulrich filled in.

"A little bit actually, yeah," Clint shamelessly admitted. "I mean, I get that he was smart enough to get Pym's suit from the vault it was locked in without tripping any alarms, but I really hope he's not too high up there on the genius level. Or that he's at least not someone who goes all science nerd every other minute like Stark or Pym sometimes do."

"That would be kind of nice actually," Ulrich admitted. He did not want to have another person that he would constantly have to ask to simplify scientific babble for him and the others who were not super geniuses.

The friendly exchange eventually came to an end though when they finally reached the floor that the new Ant-Man's room was on, and they could not help but pause in concern when they saw that the door to said room looked rather damaged. Ulrich remembered Hank telling them that Luke Cage had broken the door down when he had finally tracked down where his successor was hiding out, but he had figured that it would have been fixed by now, so why was it still looking as though it had been previously beaten in like that? With a simple exchange of a looks, Ulrich and Clint both knew they were thinking the same thing, and they immediately tensed themselves for action, with Ulrich drawing one of his sabers while Clint unfolded his bow and notched an arrow. Slowly but surely, the two eased their way over to the damaged door, which easily opened up after Ulrich gave it a gentle push with his free hand. Looking about the room, they could see that, despite being as rundown as the rest of the building, it was actually in pretty good condition all things considered, save for one broken window, but that was not really something that one would consider as a sign of a struggle, especially since the rest of the room was left so neat.

Hawkeye and Ulrich both took hesitant steps into the room, glancing this way and that for any sign of an attacker of any kind, until Ulrich switched on the scanner in his visor and picked up on something in almost seconds. Zeroing in on the object in question, Ulrich was immediately able to locate what looked like a small, twelve-inch man, and considering where they were, he had a pretty good idea who said man most likely was. He then adjusted his visor to see if he could pick up on any signals that were being sent through the Ant-Man helmet, and was surprised to find himself only hearing the new Ant-Man apparently talking to himself. "Easy Lang. Deep breathes. It's okay, they can't see you," the miniaturized man whispered.

"Actually, I can see you," Ulrich announced.

"He can see me," he heard Ant-Man mutter, and Ulrich soon noticed that it looked like he was preparing to charge.

"Hey, there's no need to get worked up. Hank Pym sent us here. We want to talk to you," Ulrich quickly explained.

A minute after Ulrich said that, the small man returned to full size, and the two Avengers were a little surprised to see that there were no glowing Pym Particles accompanying the sudden size-change, or at least, not one that was as noticeable as Hank's typically was. More importantly, now that the new Ant-Man was at his normal size, they were able to get a good look at him in full hero attire, and they were easily able to see why Hank was not kidding when he said that his successor was wearing a new, different version of the Ant-Man suit. In the most simplistic of terms, the suit that this new size-changer was wearing looked a lot like a biker's suit, with the silver helmet covering their head entirely, while the eyes on the helmet were a bright red. For the most part, the suit was black with red patches on the legs, chest, and shoulders, while a pair of silver gauntlets were worn on both wrists. Looking to the black gloves of the suit, one could also see a single button on each hand, and considering that the belt was of a different design than what Ulrich or Clint remembered, they had to assume that those controls had something to do with the suit's size-changing features. Speaking of the belt, from the looks of things, it seemed that the belt was also capable of carrying other items, as evidenced by how there was what appeared to be a pistol strapped to the left side of their potential Avenger's waist. In short, this was definitely an all-new, all-different Ant-Man, no question.

"So, you're the new Ant-Man, huh? You know, I kinda like the new look, but it's still got nothing on Pym's suit from when he was in the action," Clint commented as he put away his arrow. He kept his bow out though, just in case.

"Well you know what they say, you can't beat the classics," the new Ant-Man shrugged, his tone showing how hard he was struggling to suppress his excitement. He ultimately failed though when he went on to his next sentence. "I gotta say, it's a huge honor to be meeting you guys. I mean, I saw Doctor Pym a lot while I was working at Greyburn, but meeting Hawkeye and Sprint Samurai…Just wow! My daughter would be bouncing off the walls in excitement if she were here right now."

"The pleasure's all ours, and thanks for getting my name right," Ulrich smiled in reply, stowing away his saber as he did. He did not notice Clint's face becoming a little pensive after he heard Ant-Man's voice though, but then again, they were here on important business. "Speaking of Hank, he also wanted us to see how you've been doing since becoming Ant-Man."

"Oh, I've been doing all right. Stopped a couple of heists here and there, a mugging or two, but nothing too big. I haven't really messed with any supervillains since that whole incident that led to Doctor Pym naming me the new Ant-Man. I'm actually right in the middle of an investigation right now."

"Hey, have we met somewhere before? Your voice sounds a little familiar," Hawkeye suddenly asked, cutting Ulrich off before he could ask about the investigation that Ant-Man was working on.

"I don't think so," Ant-Man shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I would remember meeting an Avenger somewhere before now."

That did not seem to ease Hawkeye's concern. From the look on his face, it seemed like the question of why this guy's voice sounded so familiar was really bothering him, but he had to put it aside for the moment, when someone suddenly knocked on the door, startling the three. When they heard the knock repeated in a specific pattern though, Ant-Man relaxed and immediately walked over to answer it, admitting a Mexican-looking man with a big grin on his face into the room. "Hey Scotty, I got what you were looking for, Bro, and…" the man started to say, only to stop when he noticed who else was in the room. "Whoa…Scotty, are those guys the Avengers, 'cause if they are that's like, seriously awesome shit right there, and I know you're tight with Doc Pym and all, but these guys are actual, on-the-team Avengers and stuff…"

"Luis! Yes, that's Sprint Samurai and Hawkeye, and you just told them my real name," Ant-Man cut his friend off.

"Oh…Sorry man, I'm just still getting used to this whole thing where my best friend is a superhero. I mean, there are still days when I wake up, I'm all thinking about whether I wanna have like cereal or waffles for breakfast, and then I stop and think to myself 'Damn! My boy Scott Lang's the new Ant-Man!', 'cause, that's a seriously big thing and all, so…" Luis apologized, but the minute he said Ant-Man's full, real name, Hawkeye's pensive look of concentration turned to a glare of recognition.

"Wait…Did he just say 'Scott Lang,'" the archer demanded.

Ant-Man just sighed in response before tapping the side of his helmet, letting the face mask slid up and reveal a scruffy face with brown hair and blue eyes. "Hi, I'm Scott," the rookie superhero sheepishly waved.

"Yeah, we heard, and we're leaving," Hawkeye scowled, and he immediately turned for the door in a huff, surprising everyone in the room.

Though he was perplexed by his teammate's sudden attitude, he was not surprised enough to not stop him from leaving, and that is exactly what Ulrich did by stepping into Clint's path with a quick burst of his super speed. "Wait, what're you doing? We haven't even given him the offer yet," Ulrich reminded his friend.

"Yeah, well I'm retracting my vote for bringing him in and saying that the offer is rescinded," Hawkeye retorted.

Ulrich glanced from side-to-side a little awkwardly, knowing that he was about to say something that Barton would not like to hear, until he finally whispered, "Uh Clint, considering your…status at the moment, I'm pretty sure that you don't have that authority right now."

Clint continued scowling, but he knew Ulrich was right. Even if the samurai and Aelita had vouched for him and said that he was not the most likely Skrull-spy suspect, he was still pretty high up on that list, so it was not very likely anyone would take his decision to suddenly deny Scott entrance into the Avengers in a good light. Still, he was not about to just sit back and not voice his concerns about having this particular rookie hero join up with the Avengers. He was about to express that concern to Ulrich until Luis interrupted them. "Wait, what offer are you guys talking about? Were you guys offering Scotty something?"

Ulrich gave Hawkeye a look that said they would talk about this later, and then turned his attention back to the person that they had originally come here to see, and said, "Yes, we are here to offer you something, Mister Lang, or to be more accurate, we're here to extend an invitation to you."

"An invitation," Scott asked.

"Yep. An invitation to join the Avengers."

"Me? You…You want me to join…" Scott can do nothing more than stutter like that for several minutes, with his friend Luis doing the same right along with him, indicating that they are both very excited about that idea, leaving Ulrich amused, while Clint just rolled his eyes.

"Well that was before we knew that the new Ant-Man was a backstabber as well as a thief," Hawkeye corrected.

"Ex-thief," Scott corrected. "I'm not proud of it, and I paid my dues for it by doing my time. But where'd you get the idea that I'm also a backstabber?"

Clint was about to respond when Ulrich cut in, throwing Hawkeye a quick look as he did. "You'll have to excuse him. He's been having a hard time lately, so he's a little judgmental about a variety of things."

Hawkeye silently glared at Ulrich for that remark, and Ulrich had no problem meeting it with one of his own, silently telling his friend to keep his mouth shut for now. Despite the suddenly tense atmosphere, Luis could only continue grinning even as he turned to Scott and asked, "So does this mean you're not going to need my info about those heists?"

"No, I'm still going to need it," Scott told his friend, drawing confused looks from both Avengers. "Look, it's nothing personal or anything, but you did catch me when I was right in the middle of something. There's been a number of reports of thefts from several major tech development companies in the past few weeks, including Hammer Industries, Oscorp, and even Roxxon at one point. Police haven't been able to find any connection, but I figured that someone was either trying to cover up the fact that something was found, or that they just missed something, so I had Luis ask around to see what it was."

"How come we didn't know about this," Ulrich asked Clint.

"Probably because we've been dealing with a house of cards that is on the brink of falling ever since you and Stark got back from that meeting with Fury and Coulson," Clint suggested. "Besides, if it was that big of a deal, we would've done something about it, so it's probably nothing as bad as Lang is making it sound."

"Would you be saying that if Stark Industries was going to be the next target," Scott asked, his glare indicating how low of an opinion he had about Iron Man's company, and how quickly he was starting to get with Hawkeye's attitude.

Ulrich could tell that this was likely going to lead to a fight in a moment, so he decided to steer them away from that route and back on track. "Just what is it that you do have, Luis," the samurai asked Scott's friend. When the two men looked at him in surprise, he quickly explained, "Hey, if this is as big as you say, then we might as well help you look into it."

"You can't be serious," Clint groaned, only to end up getting a pointed look from Ulrich in reply. "Fine, fine. We'll help Lang with his little problem, but I'm going to be keeping a close eye on him for when he eventually double-crosses us."

"Thanks…I guess," Scott nodded, a little unsure in the case of the archer between the two. He then turned to Luis and said, "All right Luis, give us what you have, but please, no extra stuff. Just keep it simple."

"No doubt. No doubt. You got it, Scotty," Luis nodded excitedly, and he immediately launched into a story. "So, I was at a wine tasting with my cousin Ignacio, which was mainly reds, and you know I don't like reds, man, but there was a rose that saved the day. It was delightful. And he tells me about this stupid fine writer chick who's actually a girl we used to kick it with. It was actually the first pair of boobs I ever touched…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! TMI, dude. TMI," Ulrich interrupted, a rather disgusted look on his face, which Clint had no trouble matching, right along with Scott. That was not something they needed to know.

"Yeah, that's the wrong details. It has nothing to do with this investigation or the story. Keep on track. Go," Scott told his friend.

"Right, sorry," Luis apologized. "Anyway, so Ignacio is telling me about this stupid fine writer chick, and she told him, 'Yo, I'm like a boss in the world of investigative journalism and I got mad connects with the peeps behind the curtains, you know I'm saying?' And Ignacio's like, 'For real?' And she's like 'Yeah. You know what, I can't tell you who my contact is, because he's like this scientist dude who works out at Oscorp, and he was there when the place got hit by the recent tech robbery.' And let me tell you, this dude sounds like wicked-kooky. Like he comes up to her and says, 'Yo, I was there that night when it went down, and I saw something like wicked nuts, not just in terms of the robbers, but also in the case of what they left behind, right? You wouldn't believe it.' And she's like, 'Well there's not a lot that's hard to believe nowadays. We got the Avengers, we got the Fantastic Four, we got Spider-man, we got that brother-sister duo, so hit me with your best shot.' And then he's like, 'These dudes who hit us, they were like crazy weird, 'cause they were like, dressed like they were in a circus or somethin', and they left behind a bunch of crazy streamers and stuff.' And I'm like: Daaamn! 'Cause it seemed to line up with what you were guessing at, Bro. So I asked Ignacio, 'Did the wicked-kooky scientist who told the stupid fine writer chick who told you that there was anything a little more out there about all this stuff that you can tell me?' And he says, 'Nah, dawg. All he said is that this was like super-legit and the cops didn't really think too much of it because they thought it was some wicked weird prank or something, but whatever it is, he's betting that this must be something related to supervillain stuff.'"

After Luis had finished the very, very lengthy story, the three heroes could do nothing more than stare at him in silence, until Ulrich tore his gaze away to glance between the other two and eventually asked, "Did either of you get enough of that to know what the main point of all that was? Because he lost me at some point."

"Which point," Hawkeye asked.

"Uh, let's start with everything after Scott's interruption and go from there," Ulrich offered, showing he barely understood that much of anything that Luis just said if at all.

"A witness to the robbery saw guys dressed like circus performers, and they left behind a few things that would suggest they work with a theme like that. Just work with that for the moment, because it definitely lines up with what I was thinking about these things," Scott simplified, and he then moved over to the rather old computer he had on the desk so he could bring up some files on there for the two Avengers to see. "The cops may not be able to make too much of a connection, but I checked it out, and each crime scene had something left behind that looked like it could be used at either a party or a circus, and after looking over the area, I saw that each robbery was within a certain distance of a circus that had recently arrived in town."

"A circus," Hawkeye softly gasped. He then made his way over to the computer, and after spotting the name of the circus in question, his gaze hardened in a different way than before. This time when he straightened up and looked to Scott and Ulrich, he had little hostility in his voice as he said, "Okay, we'll help him deal with these guys."

"Wait, what," Scott exclaimed, surprised by the sudden change in attitude.

That surprise was shared by Ulrich, and the Sprint Samurai was not going to just leave it at that simple question. "A minute ago you were eager to leave Scott on his own with this, and now you suddenly want to help him? What's going on, Hawkeye?"

"He's going to be in over his head if he goes after them alone, and…well, let's just say I've got reasons for wanting to help out," Clint dodged, turning to wait by the door for when they headed out.

"What reasons," Ulrich continued prodding.

"Look, it's none of your business. Let's just say it involves some ghosts from my past and leave it at that."

Clearly they were not going to get anything more out of Hawkeye in regards to why he was suddenly so intent on helping to stop these robberies, so the others decided to just carry on for now and come back to the topic later. With that in mind, Ulrich looked to Scott and asked, "Any ideas on where they're going to hit next?"

"I've got one idea," Scott admitted. "That circus just set up shop close to a Stark Industries research facility on the Upper East Side, and since it's the same distance away from the previous targets as it had been before, I think it's a safe bet that that's their next target."

"Then what're we waiting for," Clint asked. "We'll stake out the place from the shadows until about midnight or so, because if no one shows after that, it'll mean that you were wrong and there's another place on their list."

That strategy was sound, but it was also a rather thorough idea for something that Clint had just learned about. Add that in with the recognition that the archer had displayed earlier, and Ulrich was now sure that Clint was more than a little familiar with who was behind all of this. Ulrich was about to try and question him on the matter again, but the archer was already headed out the door and back down to his Sky-Cycle outside, so he quietly sighed to himself, turned to Scott, and asked, "Well, ready for your first, official team-up with the Avengers?"

"Hell yeah," Scott smirked, snapping his helmet's face mask closed before he shrunk down and jumped up onto Ulrich's shoulder, claiming that they would get there a lot faster and with less hassle if he rode with them like this. Ulrich just smirked a little at that idea, because he had a feeling that Scott would be changing his mind in a few minutes or so. Give or take.

---

As it turned out, the three had arrived just as the hit on the Stark facility was happening, and since Iron Man was nowhere in sight, the three took it upon themselves to jump in and get everyone out while they went in. So far, there was no sign of any possible attackers or thieves, but Hawkeye was insistent that they were going to be here. Ulrich found it odd that Clint was the one saying these things instead of Scott, since it was technically the Ant-Man's case, but he just added it to the list of oddities that Hawkeye's behavior had taken on since they found out the new size-changer's real name. Eventually, they came into the large lab that most of the scientists were running out of, and a few glances around the room made them think that there was absolutely nothing wrong. Everything seemed completely normal. Nothing was broken, there was no smoke billowing in the room, no automated warnings going off aside from the alarms, and not even one sign of someone having broken into the place in any way, or at least not one that any of them could see.

At first, Ulrich thought that Clint was going to try and say that Scott was responsible for this. After all, Scott did get the Ant-Man suit by stealing it, and then went on to use it to rob banks, not to mention that even with Tony's security systems it would have been little trouble to sneak in if one had access to shrinking tech, but the archer gave no such reaction. Instead, Hawkeye simply glanced around the room, still looking for something when Ulrich and Scott had long since stopped. Finally, Hawkeye seemed to spot what he was looking for, because he drew and notched an arrow to fire, aimed it in a seemingly random direction, and fired it. Ulrich was not entirely sure what he should have been expecting, but he knew that he was not expecting to hear a grunt of pain when Hawkeye's arrow hit its target, exploding upon impact when it did. Clint clearly was though, because he immediately dropped into a forward roll while notching a new arrow, prompting Ulrich to draw a saber while Scott just raised his fists, and they all then waited for something else to happen. When nothing else came out, Clint just narrowed his gaze and took the initiative himself.

"Ringmaster! Show yourself! I know you're there," Hawkeye shouted into the room, confusing Ulrich as to who he could have been referring to.

When nothing happened right away, the other two were about to call Hawkeye out and say he had gone nuts, until a puff of smoke erupted in the middle of the room. When the smoke cleared, they could all see a man standing before them, dressed in a green suit jacket, purple pants, green boots, white gloves that seemed similar in design to the ones that Iron Man wore with his armor, and a purple top hat that had a greenish-yellow swirl on the center of the brim. In short, he was dressed like a circus ringmaster, which seemed very appropriate given what Hawkeye had called him just before he appeared. "Well now, no one likes it when someone spoils the show, but then again, you always were one to make a mess of my show, weren't you Barton," Ringmaster huffed in faux irritation.

"What can I say? A show that puts people in danger always gets a bad review from me," Hawkeye quipped in reply, pulling back on his bowstring so he would be able to let his arrow fly at a moment's notice, just noticing how Ulrich was glancing at him warily since hearing Ringmaster refer to him by name out of the corner of his eye. "Now I suggest you surrender, because tonight's show is canceled."

"Oh I beg to differ. After all, despite whatever disruptions or unforeseen changes may come, as they say, the show must go on," Ringmaster smirked with an exaggerated flourish of his arms, typical of an actual ringmaster. "And go on, it shall, for the circus is in town. The Circus of Crime, that is!"

"Wait? Circus of Crime? That's an actual thing," Ulrich asked, feeling as though he had finally taken enough questions into his mind in one night. "And Hawkeye, you know this clown?"

"Hawkeye hasn't told you of our history? Where are your manners, archer," Ringmaster mockingly scolded. "Then again, we have entered a new age for our little carnival of carnage. High-tech acts for a modern age."

The next thing Hawkeye knew, something had slammed into him from behind, knocking him clear across the room, and forcing him to release his bowstring, letting his arrow fly off in a random direction away from its intended target. Looking over to his teammate's attacker, Ulrich was greeted with the sight of a man in a blue-green suit with an odd helmet and half-dome armor. No one needed to ask for the identity of this oddly armored villain, because Ringmaster was more than happy to introduce him with all the flair of his namesake. "The Human Cannonball! Cannot be stopped by man or beast!"

"Well how about a samurai," Ulrich offered, and he was instantly racing forward in a near-blur of motion, only to end up being tripped by a pair of spinning, flipping acrobats with some sort of pressurized armored gauntlets on their arms and legs, though they seemed to split the pairs evenly between them.

"The Great Gambonno Twins! Capable of amazing acrobatic feats," Ringmaster continued.

Ulrich soon saw firsthand just how amazing the twins' acrobatic feats were, when they spun through the air after moving the gauntlets on their arms to the other's free leg just in time to come crashing down on the floor where his head would have been had he not rolled out of the way. Unfortunately, the Lyoko samurai was not quite able to get away from the power-enhanced kicks that each twin snapped out at him, sending him spinning into the air before he crashed into a wall. Hawkeye was quick to jump up and try to run over to his friend, when he was suddenly grabbed by his quiver and lifted over the head of a large, muscular man in a red leotard, brown boots, and gold armor on his arms and shoulders.

"Bruto, the Strongman! More powerful than a Hulk," Ringmaster announced once more, showing that he was intending to do so for every member of his criminal carnies.

"Somehow I doubt that," Ulrich and Hawkeye both muttered.

Sadly for Hawkeye, Bruto heard him, and he swiftly replied, "Doubt this, backstabber."

The next thing anyone knew, Hawkeye was the one being thrown across the room and through a few lab tables as well. Ulrich was about to jump to his feet again, when in an ironic twist, he found himself held at sword-point by a man in an all-black outfit that left only his arms bear save for a pair of arm braces that were holding a pair of knives, while a pair of purple gloves and boots were adorned on his hands and feet, and a dark grey mask cover most of his head save for the lower half of his face. To make matters more insulting, it was clear that this guy was not using the sword he was carrying on his back, because Ulrich could see it still sheathed there, while the blade he had at the Sprint Samurai's throat was the same one that Ulrich already had out before. "So are you supposed to be my boy Clint's new swordsman? I'm not impressed at all. Though I will admit, this blade of yours is rather impressive," the man informed Ulrich with a smirk.

"The Swordsman! Master of any and all blades!"

Hawkeye managed to pull himself out of the remains of the lab table he was thrown into just in time to see Ulrich start staring down Swordsman's blade, but before he could race over, a pair of arrows was suddenly shot into his path, drawing his attention to the shooter, only to gasp in shock when he laid eyes on the purple and green clad archer who had fired them. From first glance, one would think that Hawkeye was just surprised to see another archer was one of their enemies, but in reality, it was something else that had given Clint pause. To him, seeing this particular archer was almost as though he were looking in a mirror that was reflecting an old memory that he would have rather forgotten, a wish that Ringmaster was not about to grant when he introduced this final member.

"And after a long absence, an old favorite, Trick Shot! I'm sure some of you were not expecting to see him, were you?"

"You've gotta be kidding me," Hawkeye whispered.

"I don't care who you guys are! No matter how you slice it, you're all toast. No one messes with Avengers and walks away unscathed, and while neither of us are the Hulk, you can bet that Hawkeye and I are going to take you down just as easily," Ulrich retorted.

"You actually think he's going to really stick with you," Tick Shot growled. "That's funny, because Clint here sure wouldn't do the same for you."

"And you seem to forget who's building this is. Iron Man's going to be here any second," Sprint Samurai retorted.

"Do you really think we would have come here without preparing for that," Ringmaster asked. "A little hypnotic suggestion was all I needed to fool everyone into thinking that we were Stark Industries board members until we had acquired what we needed, and by the time Iron Man does arrive, it will already be too late."

"Well then, I guess it's a good thing we've got a small ace in the hold," Ulrich commented, smirking the entire time as he did.

In a flash, Ant-Man suddenly sprung up to full size, clocking Swordsman hard in the face as he did, and he quickly retrieved Ulrich's saber before it had hit the ground or fell into one of the other villains' hands before landing next to the samurai in question and holding it out to him. "I believe this is yours, Sprint Samurai," Ant-Man quipped.

Ulrich just smiled in thanks as he took the saber back, and he then drew his second one while bursting forth in a flash of speed to take on the other carnival-themed villains. Hawkeye was quick to follow in his teammate's actions by rolling to the side, snapping his bow up with at the closest bad guy, and letting the arrow he had quickly notched with fluid, practiced ease fly right at said villain, who just happened to be Trick Shot. The enemy archer must have seen this coming, because he quickly ducked under the arrow and prepared to shoot back with one of his own, but he did not realize that Hawkeye had aimed his arrow in a way that would allow it to ricochet off the wall behind him, then fly straight into Ringmaster's top hat, which had been his target the entire time. Ringmaster was infuriated by Clint's attack, and he immediately commanded his carnies to attack the heroes with everything they had, but this time, the three were not going to be knocked aside so easily.

The Gambonno Twins had made a charge for Ant-Man, but Scott easily outmaneuvered them by shrinking down and then retaliating with some small-sized attacks that packed the force of a bullet behind each blow. When Scott sprang back up to full size again, it was just in time to land a hit into one twin's face, knocking him into the other one, and eliminating both from the fight. What he did not notice was that Bruto was coming up behind him until it was too late for the size-changer to avoid being grabbed. Thankfully, Ulrich had noticed Scott's predicament and slashed at Bruto's legs, getting the strongman's attention away from Scott long enough for him to shrink down once more and escape from Bruto's grasp. Ulrich would have continued going toe-to-toe with Bruto had Swordsman not jumped in his path and instantly forced him into a duel of blades, but Ulrich did not let that slow him down for a second. A quick flash of light later and three Sprint Samurais were soon racing around the room, taking on any criminal carnie that was not already engaged with the others, allowing the original to focus most of his attention on Swordsman. While that was going on, Hawkeye was faced with a battle of archers against Trick Shot, and as much as he hated to admit it, Clint could not deny that the villainous archer was very good. Almost as good as Clint himself, but he was still not just as good as Clint, at least if you were to ask Hawkeye. Still, it was clear to him that this green and purple clad carnival-themed villain had been well-trained when it came to using that bow of his, and Clint did not even need to think about where he had received that training from. He knew very well where it came from, but there was no time to think about that for long.

Somewhere amidst the chaos of the fight, Ringmaster had managed to retrieve his top hat, and immediately narrowed his gaze at the heroes. While he had been ready for unexpected interference, he had not been counting on the Avengers or this new Ant-Man, and if they were here, there was a good chance that Stark would be here sooner or later. There was no way his show could handle Iron Man, so Ringmaster decided it was time to exit stage-right and immediately raised his hands towards the heroes. Seconds later, the leader of the Circus of Crime had fired out enough pellets of smoke bombs to fill both the room they were in and the three next door, allowing the criminal carnies to have more than a decent cover for their escape while their three opponents were left coughing and waving in an attempt to clear the air before too much of the smoke entered their lungs. Eventually, Ulrich had enough of standing around in this smokescreen, and knowing that the villains were likely long gone by now, judging by the sounds of rapid retreat he had heard through his own coughs, he commanded his doubles to grab Hawkeye and Scott, and they all raced back outside, up to a rooftop adjacent to the building they were just in.

Ulrich's doubles ended up dumping Clint and Scott unceremoniously on the roof they had came to a stop on before refusing with their creator, but that could easily be forgiven since they were all still trying to get their breathes back after having to put up with such a thick smokescreen not two seconds ago. When they were finally able to breathe easy again, Hawkeye stood up straight and glared in the direction that he believed the Circus of Crime had run off in as he muttered, "That definitely went a lot better than I thought it would."

"That was better than the way you thought it could've gone?! You're kidding me, right? How could that have gone worse," Ant-Man demanded once he was able to stand upright again without coughing.

The size-changer was soon recoiling though when Hawkeye spun around and glared at him as he gave his answer. "If they had figured out who you are, we wouldn't be standing here having this conversation. Why? Because you would be dead, I would be dead, or both of us would be dead! In case you hadn't noticed, the Circus of Crime isn't exactly all that forgiving to people that they feel have betrayed them. Something I hate to admit that I still share with them."

That seemed to shut Scott up, but only partly because he must have remembered what Hawkeye was referring to when he mentioned the new Ant-Man betraying the Circus of Crime. The rest of it was due to confusion about why Hawkeye would be saying that he still shares something with that gang of criminals like it was something he deeply regretted and despised, yet could not just let go of. Ulrich on the other hand had plenty to say in response to Clint's outburst, and he was not going to just sit back and let it go this time. "All right, that's enough," Sprint Samurai snapped, stepping between the two and glaring at Hawkeye once he made sure that there was a fair distance between archer and size-changer. "Clint, you've been acting like a huge jerk ever since we learned Scott's real name, and not only that, but you then started acting incredibly strange even for you."

"'Strange even for me,'" Clint indignantly repeated, his tone asking what that was supposed to mean.

Ulrich ignored it though in favor of the main topic. "Just what is going on Hawkeye? How do you know those guys, and while we're on the subject, just what is your deal with Scott, and how would he have ever had the chance to double-cross the Circus of Crime?"

"I can answer that last one," Scott hesitantly admitted, drawing attention to him. "A few years ago, I was hired by the Circus of Crime to do some work for them. It was so that they would be better prepared for one of their next jobs, which was in my old hometown."

"And then he sabotaged them so he could take the money and run. Right after he blew up a certain cable arrow in my face," Hawkeye finished, his glare only growing stronger as he struggled to not let his gaze wander from either Scott or Ulrich.

"Okay, that part did not happen," Scott disputed. After a minute or so, he then hesitantly corrected, "Well, yeah I blew up a cable arrow in someone's face, but it wasn't yours. It was that clown, Trick Shot's."

"Hate to break it too you, but that wasn't the same Trick Shot that you sabotaged. You messed with the original one, and that guy we just saw is his replacement."

"And how would you know that?"

That sobered Clint's rage up quite a bit, and it did not go unnoticed by Ulrich, even before Hawkeye had turned away out of frustration due to both anger and, unless he was seeing things, shame. "Clint? What are you not telling us?" When Hawkeye did not answer his question, Ulrich pressed on by adding, "Dude, part of the reason why we're doing this whole Avengers Recruitment drive is because we're not entirely sure who to trust right now, and part of trusting each other involves letting others in, despite what they may think. I trusted you to help me with the problems that my past comes with, so why can't you do the same for me?"

Clint had to admit that Ulrich had him there, but it was still a few minutes before he finally sighed in defeat, pulled back his mask so that his face was visible to all, and looked to the two in both slight anger and shame as he admitted, "I know that the guy we just saw is not the original Trick Shot because…the original one is standing right here. I was the first Trick Shot."

Whatever the other two were expecting Clint to say, it was clearly not anywhere close to that, as evidenced by the astonished looks on their faces. The shock had left them speechless for a good while until Ulrich finally found himself in control of his voice again to the point where he was able to say anything at all. "You were…But how…Okay, I think you need to back up a little and start from the beginning."

Clint knew that was coming, but that did not mean he liked it. That's why he needed to take a seat on the ledge of the building before opening up with his story. "I didn't have the best childhood when I was a kid. My dad was an abusive drunk who died in a car crash after driving drunk and my foster dad was no better, so when I was finally brave enough, I ran away from home and ended up joining the Carson Carnival traveling circus, better known to most as the Circus of Crime, where I found my new family. They taught me a lot of what I know now. My acrobatics, my fighting abilities, even my skills with a bow and arrow. A good deal of it came from them. It wasn't until a few years later when Ringmaster finally decided I was trained and old enough to finally be put to the test on a small heist. It wasn't anything too big; just a couple of banks, and in my 'grand' childish wisdom figured that we were only doing it because circus life wasn't the wealthiest undertaking and we needed money. Boy did I need a wake-up call, and I got it when I graduated from banks to their usual MO: stealing high-end tech that would prove dangerous in the wrong hands. When I had finally realized the truth, I decided that I wanted out, so I made the first smart decision in my life since deciding to run away from my foster home, and tripped the alarm on purpose. When they were taking us in, I was sure that I was going to prison along with the others, until Nick Fury approached me. He offered me the choice to either serve my time in prison or join SHIELD and make a better difference in the world. I went with the latter, and no, the irony that the same organization and the same man who had offered me a second chance at life have now betrayed me and accused me of being a traitor at one point or another is not lost on me."

Hearing Hawkeye's story, Ulrich and Scott were not sure what to think, but more so in the case of the former. Not once in all the time that he had known Clint had Ulrich ever considered the idea that the archer would have been a runaway, or that the reason why he was a runaway was because he had an abusive parent. It was understandable, really, seeing as Clint never once gave off that kind of vibe in his entire life. Every time Ulrich had ever hung out with the archer, Clint was always acting like almost nothing could faze him, always having a smug smirk on his face with a sarcastic quip. There was never any kind of sign that he would have lived a life like that, but looking back, he figured that might have been some small sign that he missed every now and then simply because he did not know what to look for or just was not paying that much attention to it.

Though he was stunned by all of this, there was still something that Ulrich had to admit, and he had no problem saying so. "That does explain a couple of things," Sprint Samurai revealed. "The reason why you're so sensitive when it comes to your trustworthiness being called into question. You hate the fact that someone betrayed your trust so you try your best to show others that you can be trusted, and when they question that, you're quickly reminded about how the Circus of Crime betrayed you. Right?"

"Something like that, yeah," Clint admitted. He then furrowed his brow a little and asked, "What's the other thing, though?"

"Why you're fashion sense is so terrible that you think that outfit you wear and the color purple is actually a good look," Ulrich joked in reply.

Clint could not help it. He just had to smile in response to Ulrich's joke. He knew that it was the young Avenger's way of showing that he did not care what had happened in his past, and Clint was grateful for that. Then again, considering who he was talking about, he probably should not be surprised. After all, when it came to having a hard past that you needed to move on from, there were very few people who were more of an expert on the matter than Ulrich and Aelita. That did not mean they could just forget about their current mission though, which meant that he also could not forget about who their third teammate was at the moment, and while he still glared at Scott when his gaze fell upon the size-changer again, it was not quite as harsh as it had been before. Of course, that was probably because of how emotionally drained he was feeling after that little confession of his.

"Look, Hawkeye, what happened back then is not what you think," Scott started to say.

"Save it. We've got more important things to do right now, starting with tracking down Ringmaster and his crazy carnies," Hawkeye interrupted. He was far from interested in hearing whatever excuses that Scott had for back then.

"Well you're the resident expert on these guys. Any ideas on where they might've gone," Ulrich asked.

"Just one, and as much as I hate to admit it, it was actually one that Lang had pointed out earlier when he was telling us about this case," Hawkeye revealed. "Remember what he said was always close to each of the places that had been hit?"

Ulrich and Scott both turned to gape a little at each other and then Clint before they simultaneously said, "You can't be serious."

"These guys may be a somewhat competent gang of villains, but they did use to be just actual circus performers before Ringmaster decided they should become supervillains," Hawkeye pointed out with a smirk while he pulled his mask back on, signifying he was ready to get back into action. "Anyone up for a little fun in the Big Top?"

---

Ringmaster was not pleased with how the Stark raid had gone, but the fact that his gang had been able to beat down on Barton was a small token of good compensation for that. If there was one thing he could not stand, it was anyone who would dare to cross him like Clint had. They took the archer in, gave him a home, taught him everything he knows, and how does he repay them? By getting them all caught while he got to go off and play superhero, that's how! The little punk deserved every painful thing they could throw at him and more, and if it were an option, they would be sure to deliver that long overdue debt in full. At the moment though, they had bigger things to attend to, starting with finding a way to make up for how the Stark raid had failed. No doubt their benefactor was going to be a little upset with this.

True, the carnival crook had no idea who this person was, and the mere sound of their employer's voice gave him chills with how emotionless it was, but the fact that he was able to give his gang such an impressive amount of tech so that they could take their acts to a new level was reason enough to ignore all those warning signs. Who cared of if the guy's voice sounded so void of emotion and like a computer program? As long as he and his circus got paid and were able to take their place at the top as the greatest villains in history, that was all that mattered to Ringmaster. They just needed to pull off a few more jobs for this X.A.N.A. person, including one to compensate for the failure at Stark Industries, and they would be good. He had no idea why the guy wanted this tech, or why he seemed so concerned about the fact that Sprint Samurai had shown up at Stark, assuming "concerned" was the right word for it, but frankly, he did not see why it should matter. They pull off these jobs, keep the tech that X.A.N.A. provided, hand over some the items from their raids to the benefactor, and the only other thing that they had to do for X.A.N.A. was keep his involvement quiet. Easiest money they had ever made.

That was what Ringmaster was thinking as he sat in what counted as an office for him, thinking about his most recent call from said benefactor, until he suddenly heard a commotion coming from the big top that sounded a little too much like a fight. He had a pretty good idea what the cause was, and he was not going to take any heroes invading his carnival lying down, so he jumped out of his chair, out the door, and into the large circus tent that sat in the center of his carnival just in time to see the entire Circus of Crime facing off in a heated battle against the same three heroes that they had encountered earlier. Sprint Samurai was running circles around Swordsman and Human Cannonball, Ant-Man was tangling with Bruto and the Gambonno Twins, and to no one's surprise, Hawkeye was once again having a shoot-out with Trick Shot, and though it may have looked like both sides were at a stand-off, to Ringmaster it looked more like the heroes were making a mockery of his gang. There was no way the leader of the Circus of Crime was going to allow that, so he immediately charged in to deliver a little hypnotic suggestion to Barton and his new friends.

Too bad for Ringmaster, Hawkeye had noticed the Circus of Crime's leader coming in from the corner of his eye, and just as Ringmaster was reaching for his top hat, he pulled an arrow from his quiver, and instead of stringing it, he simply tossed it in Ringmaster's direction. The result was an explosion of light that left the gang leader blinded long enough for Sprint Samurai to race in and knock him out with the butt of his saber. A quick use of his triplicate powers then allowed Ulrich to gain a numbers advantage over Swordsman and Human Cannonball for a moment, but he quickly put that on pause when Ant-Man had a swarm of ants close in on Bruto and the Gambonno Twins for a minute and then turned to run over while calling out for his attention. "Samurai, get a free hand for a minute," the size-changer had said, and the minute that Ulrich had holstered one of his sabers, he reflexively raised the open hand to catch something that Scott had thrown to him.

When he opened his fist to see what it was that Lang had tossed over, his brow instantly scrunched up in confusion at the object. "Uh why did you just throw a toy truck to me," Ulrich asked once Scott had came to a stop next to him.

"First off, it's not a toy," Scott revealed as he pulled out a coin-sized disk that looked a bit like a shuriken with a blue light in the center of it to show Ulrich. "Second, throw it at this."

Ulrich looked between the truck in his hand and the disk for a minute before nodding, which Scott took as a signal to throw the strange object into the air while recalling the ants that were surrounding Bruto and the twins. Reacting as quickly as he could, Ulrich simply tossed the small truck towards the disk, and upon colliding with the device, the toy instantly became a full-sized truck, which came crashing down on its target, resulting in a fiery explosion seconds later, much to Ulrich's surprise. While the Gambonno Twins were knocked aside by the shockwave of the explosion, it looked like Bruto ended up taking the brunt of it, and as a result, he was knocked out cold with quite a few burns on his person. Seeing this, Ulrich could only glance at Scott and say, "Don't you think that was a little too much?"

"Yeah. I thought it was a water truck," Ant-Man admitted. "Uh…sorry."

"Make up for it by helping me and Hawkeye deal with the last three," Ulrich told him, and the two were soon jumping into action again, with Ulrich racing back into the fight against Swordsman and Human Cannonball, and Scott flying over to Barton via an ant.

When he was close enough, he immediately down onto Clint's shoulder, and then waved to him in order to get his attention. When he noticed Scott, Hawkeye immediately rolled into cover so he could avoid Trick Shot's arrows for a few minutes, and asked, "What do you want, Lang? I'm a little busy to listen to whatever story you have about our history at the moment."

"I just figured you could use an extra hand taking out Trick Shot," Ant-Man shrugged.

Clint glanced between the rookie hero for a minute and Trick Shot, who was holding his fire while trying to spot Clint, and eventually asked, "How good's your grip?"

"Uh…pretty good. Why?"

"I'm gonna shoot you."

"What?! Uh, isn't that a little too extreme for a hero's idea of payback," Scott pointed out in a panic. The next thing he knew though, he was lifted off of the archer's shoulder via one of Clint's arrows, which the archer was soon setting up to fire.

"Not what I meant," Hawkeye smirked as he raised his bow to fire. Once he had Trick Shot in his sights, he lined up the shot and asked, "You all buckled in?"

Now that he had caught onto Hawkeye's plan, Scott could only smirk in excitement as he replied, "Yeah. Let's do this."

He did not need to tell Hawkeye twice, and a second later, Clint released the bow string, and Scott was sent flying towards Trick Shot via the fired arrow. Trick Shot must have noticed the shot a short time after Hawkeye had fired, because he immediately turned to fire his own arrow at Hawkeye's. Thankfully, Scott was able to jump clear before the two arrows collided with each other, and as a result, he was able to deliver a hard cross right into Trick Shot's jaw, and since Ant-Man was still at a smaller size, his blow ended up dealing an impact that was similar to that of a bullet. When Ant-Man returned to normal size again, he could only smirk down at the unconscious Trick Shot, even as Hawkeye made sure the villainous archer was restrained, but what he found even more satisfying was that when he threw Clint a thumbs-up, Barton ended up smiling a little and returned it with one of his own.

The two then brought their attention back to the fight when they saw Ulrich was still having some trouble with Human Cannonball and Swordsman, but that was mostly due to the former, since Ulrich could match the latter easily in sword combat. Seeing this, Ant-Man immediately pulled out the pistol strapped to his belt and threw it to Hawkeye, who managed to catch it with ease. "It's a Pym Particle gun I came up with based on the one that Doctor Pym used to help me save my daughter before. I adjusted the settings so that it'll just shrink something down to a smaller-size without making it microscopic or sending it into the micro-verse," Scott quickly explained.

"I get what you're aiming for," Hawkeye replied, and he instantly fired the pistol at Human Cannonball, causing the fast-moving, heavy-hitting villain to be shrunk down just like that. Ant-Man then raced over with an empty vial like those used in chemistry sets, and caught the shrunken villain inside before sealing it shut with a cap that had a few air holes in it, much to Hawkeye's surprise. "You actually have stuff like that on hand?"

"You'd be surprised how useful it can actually be," Scott shrugged.

All that was left at that point was Swordsman, and since Sprint Samurai's duplicates were still hanging around, the blade-wielding criminal could tell that he had very little chance of winning this fight, especially since his comrades were not likely to come to his aid anytime soon. Seeing he had no other option, Swordsman just growled under his breath as he pulled a smoke pellet from one of his armbands, and tossed it at the ground, leaving the heroes disoriented for a moment as he made his escape. When the smoke cleared, the three were sure that the other carnival crooks would have been gone as well, so you could imagine how relieved they were to see that only Swordsman was missing. Ulrich immediately commanded his duplicates to make sure the other villains were secured before fusing them back into him and holstering his sabers, and he then turned to race out of the tent in an attempt to go after Swordsman. At least, that had been the plan until Hawkeye stopped him.

"Forget it, Samurai. Swordsman's long gone by now," Clint informed his friend. "Trust me. I've used that little trick myself quite a few times in my life, and Swordsman's the one who taught it to me."

"So we just let him get away," Ulrich asked.

"For now. Besides, we've got more important things to do at the moment," Clint pointed out, and he then reached for his ID card so he could contact Hank and ask him to put in a call to S.H.I.E.L.D.

---

It did not take long for Maria Hill to send down a prison transport for the captured members of the Circus of Crime, and while Ulrich took the time to talk with Maria in order to help sort out through the items that the criminals had stolen in their heists, Scott took this time to talk with Clint once again, determined to finally clear things up with the archer. Some would probably have said that Scott was either really foolish or just flat out stupid for continuing to try and explain himself to Hawkeye, given how sure the archer was about what had happened, but Scott was not about to let that stop him. He just had to get Hawkeye to see the truth, and he was going to even if it killed him. Which, knowing Clint's reputation and past, was probably a likely scenario, now that he thought about it.

He shook that idea out of his head before it made him stop from going through with this, and then looked Hawkeye as close to dead in the eye as he could, given how Clint was trying to avoid meeting his gaze. "Look Hawkeye, I didn't know you were in the Circus of Crime," Scott started to say.

"Doesn't change the fact you sabotaged us and ran off," Clint rudely argued.

"Just listen to me for a minute," Scott snapped, startling Clint enough to draw his gaze fully onto Scott. "Ringmaster told me you were a real circus when he hired me. I thought I was making tech for your show, not to steal from my town. When I found out the truth, I felt like I had to stop you, and the best way to do that was by destroying the tech I made. Not only that, but I didn't keep your stolen money. I gave it back to the guys you took it from."

"Ringmaster lied to you," Clint questioned, but he then rolled his eyes and amended, "Of course he lied to you. It's practically his specialty to deceive others into doing what he wants, with or without mind control. Still, you actually went that far to help others even before you got the ability to be a superhero?"

"Helping others is something I've always wanted to do, even before I ended up having to resort to stealing so I could pay for my daughter's surgery. That night was the first time I felt like I really had done something to help though, even if it was just my hometown. Now, I'm able to do a lot more, and I don't want to pass that chance up," Scott finally finished.

Hawkeye studied the new size-changer for a minute, looking for any clues that Scott could be lying. In the end, he found absolutely nothing of the sort. Scott was telling the truth, and the conviction he held in his words could be seen in every inch of his being. No one could be able to tell that with a simple glance as easily as Clint, but he still kept silent for a few minutes just to get Scott a little fidgety for a while. When he had finally had his fun making the new Ant-Man squirm, Clint smiled and said, "I guess Pym did make a smart choice after all when it came to his successor as Ant-Man. So I guess that just leaves one question. You plan to accept the invite to join the Avengers?"

Scott could only beam with pride when he heard that first statement. Coming from any Avenger at all, that would have been a good compliment, but hearing that from Hawkeye, someone who was clearly still upset with him over events that had happened in their past, that meant a lot more. When he heard Clint's question though, his happiness became a little more subdued, as he looked down and replied, "I would like to, but right now, I think I'm just not ready yet."

"You're kidding right," Clint asked in disbelief.

"No, really. I'm still new at all this, and I'm still figuring things out about how to handle being a superhero. Just give me a few months or so, at least, and if the invite's still good, maybe I'll consider joining up," Scott explained. He then smirked a little and jokingly added, "Besides, Luke Cage and Iron Fist kind of already offered me a job with them, so I think I might stick with the Heroes for Hire for a little while longer when it comes to teams."

Clint probably could have made a joke at that, in fact he was very tempted to, but he saw just how big a deal this was to Scott, so he ended up not having the heart to do so. Instead, he simply smiled and said, "Well in that case, here's hoping for when that day comes. See you around…Scott."

The two then exchanged a quick handshake along with a pair of smiles, and with all that said and done, Scott shrunk down to fly off for his home, ready for whatever adventure would await him next. It was actually at almost that very same moment that Ulrich walked over to Clint with a smile on his face, having heard a good deal of the last bit of the two's exchange, and he playfully punched Clint's shoulder as he joked, "I think you might be going soft, Hawkeye. Last I checked, you weren't the type to let go of old grudges so easily."

"Well, maybe I'm just learning that in some cases, it's better to just let go of the past and move on so that I can live in the present while making a better future," Clint playfully shrugged. He then got a little more serious as he added, "Besides, I had a couple of good teachers when it comes to that kind of thing. A couple of kids who've been through way too much in their lives who've somehow, despite how annoying they are, become like a brother and sister to me."

Ulrich's smile became less teasing and more sincere after hearing that, knowing that the kids Barton was referring to were him and Aelita, even as he said, "Well, we did have a little help from you and the others. After all, you're family to us too, Clint."

The two exchanged a quick fist-bump to wrap up their little bromance moment, and then parted ways from the site so that they could return home. Sure the good mood was brought down a little when they overheard one of Hill's agents reporting that some of the stolen tech was still missing, but all the same, they felt like they had accomplished a lot today, even if they were not able to recruit the new Ant-Man into the Avengers. They just had to hope that Janet would not be too upset about that particular failure.

---

"So you're telling me, that even after going through all of that, he still said no," Janet asked the two in disbelief. Hawkeye and Ulrich had just gotten back to the mansion a few hours after leaving the Circus of Crime's former carnival base, and naturally, they had to give the new leader of the Avengers the rundown on how their attempts to recruit Scott had gone. Yes, she had been fairly upset that their main objective had been a failure, but when they mentioned how they took down a major supervillain gang her anger seemed to dissipate a little bit. They left out the part about Hawkeye's history with the Circus of Crime, at Clint's request. He felt that he was still not ready to tell the others about that part of his past just yet, and Ulrich was more than happy to oblige that wish.

"Pretty much," Ulrich shrugged.

"Hey, at least he said he was willing to consider that at some point in the future. Sure, it's pretty much the same as Williams, but it's still better than a total no," Hawkeye pointed out.

Janet eventually let out a small sigh, having to admit that Clint had a point there, and still ended up smiling as she revealed, "Well, I guess that means that the first recruitment missions were both something of a bust for the most part."

"Wait, Wolverine said no too," Ulrich asked, hardly believing that.

"Afraid so, but on the bright side, we did still end up getting two new Avengers for the team," Janet revealed. "Or should I say, we recruited a new member and got back an old one. Well, not that much of an old one, seeing as she was still pretty new when she left, but it's still the same thing."

Before Ulrich or Clint could ask what Janet meant by that, the door to the lounge opened, and the two turned to see Ms. Marvel walking into the room, much to their surprise. That surprise quickly turned to relief and annoyance for Ulrich and Clint, respectively, and while Ulrich was quick to welcome Carol back in the same way that Aelita had, Clint just stood up and leveled a small look at the blonde beauty, almost as if he was daring her to try something. Apparently, Carol had been expecting that, because after she had thanked Ulrich for his greeting, she let out a small sigh of resignation and walked over to Clint so that she could confront him and the problem she knew he would have with her being back.

"Look Hawkeye…Clint, I know that we didn't exactly part on the best of terms, but I'm willing to admit I may have been a little out of line before. Especially since Aelita helped point out every flaw in my thinking at that time," Carol started to say.

"So you need help figuring out where you messed up? Well, that's good to know," Clint retorted.

"No, I just…Look, what I'm saying is I'm willing to at least give you a chance to prove your innocence before I try to haul you off to S.W.O.R.D. again. Don't get me wrong, you are still a suspect, even with Aelita and Ulrich's testimony, but mainly because there might be a chance that you are the Skrull without even knowing it. Still, I do want to give you the benefit of a doubt, so any chance we can work together and figure this out as a team," Carol finally apologized, extending a hand to Hawkeye as a sign of goodwill.

Clint looked between Carol and her extended hand for a minute, before he finally said, "You know, earlier today, I ran into a part of my past that I would rather have left buried, but I was soon reminded that sometimes…things can get better if you're willing to at least take a chance and let them try. Plus, if Aelita and Ulrich can both vouch for you, I doubt I can really argue with them. Especially in the case of Aelita. I've had one too many energy fields thrown at me for my liking due to ticking her off, so…sure, I guess I can give this a shot."

With that, the two sealed the deal when Clint grasped Ms. Marvel's hand in his own, much to her relief, and while it was a nice sight to behold, there was still one thing that had to be addressed. "So Carol's officially back, but that still doesn't tell us who the newest Avenger is if it's not Wolverine," Ulrich pointed out.

Janet was about to reply to that inquiry when Aelita walked in and beat her to the punch, an excited smile plastered on her face as she made her little announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me introduce the newest Avenger: the all-new, all-improved Scarlet Witch!"

At that moment, Wanda Maximoff came strutting into the room with a confident air unlike any that Ulrich and Clint had seen in her before, and that was not the only thing that was different about her. Wanda's heroic attire had also forgone her X-Men uniform in favor of a new heroic suit as well. Gone was the scarlet headdress she had worn before, letting her hair fall freely wherever it may, and not only that, but she now sported a pair of black pants and boots, along with a dark red top, while a scarlet red coat that reached her knees completed the ensemble. Needless to say, Aelita was not kidding when she said that Scarlet Witch was all-new and improved, because this outfit definitely made it almost seem like she was an entirely different hero altogether. In fact, if it were not for her hair, eyes, skin-tone, and posture, Ulrich was sure that he would have mistaken her for someone else.

"You boys might want to close your mouths. You'll start drooling, and besides, I'm already spoken for," Wanda teased the two men in the room, who had not realized that their jaws had dropped open until she said something.

Once he had regained his bearings, Ulrich shook his head and walked over so he could properly greet the mutant heroine. "Welcome to the team, Wanda, and I gotta say, I'm liking the new look. But I have to ask why you would change it up like this? Did you get tired of your old one or something?"

"No, not at all. I just felt like I needed a new look since I was joining a new team. I'm still keeping my old outfit, but unless it's an emergency, that's my X-Men uniform only, while this is my official Avengers suit," Wanda explained.

Aelita then took this moment to slink her way over to Ulrich and whispered, "She was also able to pick up on the fact that Cap was not himself almost instantly, mostly because of their relationship, so that made it all the more reason for her to join."

Ulrich nodded in reply to that, and then smirked a little as Hulk, Hank, and Steve all walked in to join the others in welcoming their newest teammate to the Avengers, while welcoming back Ms. Marvel. Seeing that they had managed to increase their numbers by two regardless of how things had turned out with Scott and Logan, Ulrich and Aelita could only smile in relief, feeling as though things were starting to look up a little for the Avengers. Now, they were sure that when the Skrulls did make their move, they would be more ready for them than ever.

---

AN: Okay, I'll admit, this chapter ended up being just as much about Hawkeye as it did about Scott, and yeah, it did draw some inspiration from a couple episodes of the animated series Avengers Assemble, but I really wanted to make that happen, and besides that, Hawkeye's one of the few Avengers that Ulrich and Aelita haven't really been able to really open up much of a bond with so far. Even in the first story, he was more of the comedic relief and helpful teammate kind of character, so I figured that this would be the perfect chance for at least one of the Lyoko Avengers to really connect with Barton like they had with the rest of their new family.

On another note, yeah, I included a lot of MCU elements for this iteration of Scott Lang, including the appearance of the suit, which is most like the one that Scott wore in Marvel's Ant-Man, just to be clear, along with a few of the gadgets. The Pym Particle gun is actually something that you see Ant-Man using quite a bit in Avengers Assemble, and I figured, why not throw that in too. Plus, I just had to have Luis show up so he could deliver one of his stories at least one time, but let me tell you, writing that part was kind of hard.

Ulrich: It certainly looks like it. I could barely follow one of his stories in the movie without going back and re-watching the scenes a few times over.

AN: Right? Anyways, I'm sure you'll all also notice the little reference I made to Captain America: Civil War, and I mostly added that in there because it was kinda funny, really, and also to show off more of this new Ant-Man's skills and gadgets, which do include the Pym Particle Discs.

Hawkeye: Why include the Circus of Crime in this as the bad guys? And what was with the line-up?

AN: Well to be quite frank, I wanted an enemy that could prove to be a good challenge to show-off Scott while also giving you a hard time, Hawkeye, and who better than the Circus of Crime? As for the line-up, most of it is inspired by the previously mentioned Avengers animated series, while adding in the Swordsman from the animated series Avengers: United They Stand. (An okay-ish kind of series, but it could've been a lot better in my opinion, if you ask me. Partly because they left it hanging on that cliffhanger at the end of the only season it had, kinda like what they did with Spider-Man Unlimited). Anyways, don't think this will be the last time we see those guys. That's part of the reason why Swordsman was allowed to escape, after all.

Finally, there's the matter of Wanda's new look. Before anyone asks, yes, that is her Scarlet Witch attire from the MCU, namely as we saw it in the aftermath of Avengers: Age of Ultron, and for the entirety of Captain America: Civil War. My reasoning for giving her this look: same as the one that Wanda provided. I felt like she needed to have a separate uniform for when she's working with the Avengers in addition to her X-Men uniform. I've already established that her more iconic attire is her X-Men suit, and that was partly because I wanted to have Wanda sporting her MCU attire when she joined the Avengers. It's kind of like a way of showing off how this is a new chapter in Wanda's life in this story at the same time, too.

Now, with all of that cleared up, here's a little heads-up on where we're going next chapter. We're moving out of animated and movie series of Marvel, and into the world of the Marvel Netflix series. For a better idea of where that is, let's move Onto the Preview!...

The Avengers continue on with their adventures in recruiting new teammates, as Aelita and Wasp take a turn to bring in some new blood. Their mission takes them right into the heart of one of the most dangerous parts of New York, known as Hell's Kitchen, in an attempt to recruit the vigilante that many have nicknamed the Man with no Fear. Just what sort of trouble with the two femme fatales of the Avengers find themselves in when they come face to face with this devil of a hero? And just how good are their chances of getting out of Hell's Kitchen alive, really? See just how powerful a blind fighter can really be next time in…Chapter 12: Avengers Recruit: The Devil.

Well, that all happened, so I guess that's a wrap for now. Oh, but wait! There's more! Here's a little something extra for you guys to tease your minds a little for one of my other stories!...:

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After-Thought:

It was the middle of the afternoon of the day following Ms. Marvel's return and Scarlet Witch's acceptance into the Avengers when it happened. No one would have expected something like this, but then again, the strange and unexpected was all part-and-parcel to so much as living in the Avengers' house, let alone being part of the team. One minute the room was empty, and the next, a man-sized, blue portal suddenly burst into existence. Before it vanished again, two men suddenly came racing out of it and into the room. One of these men had dark skin and long black hair, and was decked out in a black and burgundy jacket with yellow lines along the shoulders and collar, black pants, a pair of gauntlets, and fancy pair of glasses that seemed to be lit up with blue lights. The other one, who was the taller of the two, was clad in an outfit that was almost entirely red, save for the yellow boots, the yellow lightning bolts that circled his arms and waist, and the white circle with a yellow lightning bolt in the center that was clearly his emblem, and the pair of yellow lightning bolts that were on either side of his mask, which covered half of his face.

The two gazed at their surroundings for a minute, until the shorter one looked to his taller companion and said, "This better be the right place. 'Cause if this isn't the right place, someone's about to be real confused."

"This is it. I'm sure of it," the red-clad man assured his friend.

They got their final reassurance soon enough, because the minute they had appeared in the mansion, J.A.R.V.I.S.'s sensors had alerted the residents who were currently in the mansion, and that was what had drawn Aelita and Ulrich into the room, each suited up in their civilian uniforms and ready to activate their Lyoko suits at a minute's notice in case their visitors were hostile. Upon seeing the two in question, their eyes immediately widened, and after glancing at the two for a minute, Ulrich exclaimed, "Barry?!"

"Hi Ulrich, Aelita," the man in red greeted with a wave.

"Hey, it's good to see you," Aelita cheered as she rushed over and wrapped Barry in a tight hug, which Barry happily returned before exchanging a fist-bump with Ulrich.

"Yeah, but when we said you could come back any time you wanted to visit, I didn't think you'd be dropping by so soon," Ulrich joked.

"Well the feeling's actually kind of mutual," Barry revealed before remembering that he was not the only one present. "Oh, this is my friend, Cisco."

"Friend and partner-in-crime-fighting. Codename: Vibe," Cisco introduced himself, as he shook hands with both Aelita and Ulrich. "I have to say this…looks like a nice universe you've got here."

"Wait till you see the rest of the universe, as opposed to just my room at Avengers Mansion. And uh, if we've got the time, I'd kinda like to see Flash put a certain mutant speedster by the name of Quicksilver in his place," Ulrich informed him, joking a bit at the end.

Cisco just smiled at Ulrich before looking to Barry and saying, "I like this guy, and his girlfriend's really cute too."

"Sister," the two Lyoko Avengers corrected.

After Cisco had apologized for the mix-up, Barry brought them back on track by saying, "Hey do you remember the last time that the League and I were here, when we helped you out and you and your team promised to do the same for us?"

It was not hard to recall the time that Barry had mentioned, given that it was just a few weeks ago that it had happened, and neither Lyoko Avenger needed to ask why Barry was bringing that up, because they knew it most likely meant that he was calling in that favor. So while Ulrich turned to call in the rest of the team, Aelita looked at Barry and asked, "What're we up against?"

…To be continued in Justice Marvel, Chapter 13: Clash with the Conqueror.

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Yeah, you saw it here. A little teaser for the final chapter of my story-crossover between this bad boy of a series and my Justice League&Captain America crossover, Justice Marvel. I realize that the chapter I'm referencing has been posted for a few months now, but I just couldn't resist the opportunity to throw that in. Plus, for those of you who have already read that story, now you have an idea on the exact point in time when Flash and Cisco returned to the Code Avengers universe to get the Avengers' help in their big battle. For those of you who haven't read the story yet, I highly recommend doing so now if you haven't already. Especially if you're a big fan of both Marvel and DC.

Well, now that wraps up everything for the moment. So until next time...

Please read and review, and I'll see ya next time, fellow true believers!