Chapter 22- First Day at Work

POV- Kate Bishop

'That fucking bastard. He left me here with Jessica, Pete and the two newbies while we hunt down a group of international smugglers in Thailand. I don't even speak their language.' The four of us were dropped at a hotel, and given a list of names as well as a likely shipping location, where they transport their illegal goods elsewhere. The mission looked pretty easy, but I knew shit could hit the fan quickly, especially without Nathan with us to pick up the slack. As irresponsible as he could be at times, he was dangerous and there was no one, I would rather have with me on a job.

"We didn't get much of a chance to talk before," I say, offering my hand to the Wakandan princess. "I'm Kate, or Robin when I'm on a job. An archer like Hawkeye." She took the hand in her body-suited grip, her hands smaller even than Jessie's.

"Shuri, but I guess Pantheress will do until I pick an official name. I'm wearing a suit that provides me with kinetic force absorption and dispersion, as well as vibranium claws and the ability to redirect stored energy into my strikes, making up for my small frame." To be honest, I could only guess what she meant, not really understanding how the suit could do all that.

"I'm next," Jessica beamed, hugging the smaller girl rather than shaking her hand. "I'm Jessica, or Firestar."

"The emerald arsonist," Shuri notes, causing Jessie to look to the ground embarrassed.

"I sometimes get…distracted," she explained, as if that was a good enough reason for burning several buildings during a gas explosion. No one was injured but Captain America was DEFINITELY not pleased. "I'm a mutant, nice to meet you." Her fear of being rejected for being a mutant was lessened after spending so much time with Nate, but it still lingered around new people. Luckily, Shuri was more intrigued than disgusted.

"Fascinating. We don't have many mutations in Wakanda." 'Well duh, you've got generations of isolation and a small genetic pool.'

"I'm Peter, or Spiderman. Super strong, fast, tough and I have a suit that holds my web shooters and provides a heads-up display."

"Yours too? Maybe we can compare to see which is better?" Finally, Wong introduced himself as a sorcerer, earning the interest of Shuri, whose country ran on technology so advanced it seemed like magic. Even Nathan joked that vibranium was some kind of bullshit magic metal from space, and having seen it in action throughout Wakanda, I couldn't argue with him. It was magic, and it was bullshit.

Wong cast a spell that provided translation for both spoken and written languages, and Shuri and Peter teamed up to identify potential targets and survey the location. I didn't have the speed or agility they held despite my training, and Jessica and Wong had very bright powers, making them useless for scouting.

An hour later, now mid-afternoon due to time zones, the two scouts returned stony-faced and ready to hunt. They showed them a place on a map, describing the guard detail, number of armed people, and escape routes should things go tits up, Wong shortening the trip with another portal. Jessica moved with the melee fighters, while I lingered back and took aim at the guards on watch.

"One," I call, releasing a regular broadhead into a man's head. "Two and Three" A swift release of one arrow followed by another immediate arrow collapses another two to the floor of their second-storey vantage point.

The four fighters slipped in through the opened gap in their defence, wrapping around the outside and incapacitating three guards in an instant, leaving their ground floor back entrance unguarded, and thoroughly blocked for escape. I'd seen how strong Peter's webbing was in sparring, and there was no way someone was getting through that door without a bulldozer. I continue removing potential threats, starting high and working my way down, even taking out some I can spot through the windows.

POV- Shuri

I was told by my father that I would be accompanying a team of younger heroes for a mission, and while upset I was being sectioned off with the majority of those my age, I was willing to accept it as a chance to prove myself. 'Not to mention make friends my own age.' I'd heard about the young leader from T' Challa, and the rumours were worse than some of the folktales I'd heard of monsters feasting on children and stalking by night. He was a nice guy, according to my brother, yet I saw the same apprehension in his eyes when discussing his powers.

Two girls, one with powers and one with skill, accompanied by another superhuman wearing a suit, though its quality had much to work on, and a mature shaman, or sorcerer as he preferred. 'Definitely a well-rounded team all-in-all.'

Volunteering to scout along with Spider-Pete, we find the smugglers/traffickers. I'd heard about Ulysses Klaue and the damage he had done to our country. And to others through his participation in stealing, smuggling and trading in weaponry of all natures. Biological, nuclear, orbital. This group was obviously of a lower calibre than Klaue, however, branched in their trade goods, as through the enhanced vision our helmets provided us we could see caged children and exotic animals locked in shipping crates, ready to be moved anywhere in the world. 'I want them gone. I want to live up to the suit I wear, and the mantle I might one day inherit.' Peter was kind-hearted, that much was clear. His anger visible even through his mask, as he seethed at the sight of wounded animals and crying children. He didn't seem shocked, which meant he'd seen similar before, but still, he cared for the innocent, as any great warrior should.

After returning and beginning our raid, I was a little surprised by the ease the carefree girl, Kate, or Robin, as she was on- duty, had as she fired arrows into the guards. There was no hesitation, only calm, practised motions providing clean, efficient kills. The four-floored warehouse was now under fire, yet they didn't have any idea…yet.

Making our way to the back door, Peter slams into the first guard with a double-footed kick, catching himself on his hands and springing back, his victim a crumpled body unconscious on the floor. I, lacking his enhanced strength, covered the closest man's mouth with my hand, jumping to wrap my legs around his neck as he collapses from a lack of blood to the brain, slumped next to his comrade. The sorcerer effectively mutes the last with a strange golden glow, and another geometric array of light drops him to sleep as well. Peter bound the three with web fluid, also lining the door with the interesting compound, picking up a concrete barricade from a few meters away they would have used for cover and gently placing it against the door for good measure. Climbing in through a window on the second floor, the four of us move quietly into the smaller room Peter had spotted earlier. Peter and I would be the stealthy infiltrators, while Jessica and Wong were more useful once the mission was done, or in Firestar's case, when the stealth failed. He moved to the upper floors, while I worked my way up, my feet silent in the sneaker prototypes. I could run silently and had knocked out two men with charged blows to the jaw, dragging them away from the light.

'I missed this. Feeling like Batman as I move along, taking out assholes.' I wasn't averse to killing people, my culture venerates warriors after all. But where possible, I tried to limit the kill count. If only for myself. By the time I cleared half the floor, a shout sounded from outside, where the back doors were. Obviously, someone had spotted the obstruction and unconscious idiots tied to the barrier.

"Shit." Now aware and cautious, every single person was now armed and ready, and my approach for the next two was not as silent.

"There!" a burst of fire came from the barrel of a gun, and another pumped a shotgun shell into my chest. Without the suit, I would have been dead, but absorbing the force, I move forward with a leap, kicking the guy with a shotgun through the outer wall, crashing to the concrete below, and ducking under another spray, cutting the gun in half with my claws and grabbing his skull, driving my knee to meet his nose. Heavy footsteps came up the stairs from the ground floor, while Wong communicated he was moving the animals and caged people to a secure location. Standing next to the stairwell, I stab my claws into the vanguard's chest, using him as a battering ram to push the few that followed him up, also shielding me from gunfire, not that I needed it. Jumping off the wall, I propel into another, knocking away his gun and roundhouse kicking him in the head with my left leg, slamming the last man behind him into the concrete wall with a kinetically charged punch that cracked the wall of the stairwell.

"Everyone good," I hear, a small hint of a foreign accent indicating it was Firestar.

"I'm fine," I confirm, and Spiderman follows after.

"12 down and captured."

"Excellent," Kate finishes. "The animals and kidnapped children have been sent to the US embassy. Firestar, torch the rest." Removing any possible DNA evidence was almost as important as securing one's physical safety, especially for these young teens.

Pulling the captured and binding them properly, Jessica engulfs the building in a blaze of green. It was as beautiful as it was terrifying, and the gleam in her eyes as the building exploded and collapsed was fairly terrifying. "Wong and I are taking the weapons depot," the arsonist called out. The other facility they had in the area was a storage facility filled with a wide range of weapons.

"Sure, but only after we remove anything radioactive, or biochemical in nature," Peter affirmed, more than happy to let the green pyro burn things. "We can keep a watch of it with a drone, because we should wait for them to all hide back in their storage facility in an attempt to restock. That's when you can burn it down." The plan was solid, and considering the application of magic and my tech, there was no way anyone was stopping us from scouting.

It took two days for people to stop making their way to the facility, and over 300 armed guards, probably hired to protect it, as well as a few individuals named on the list, including James Francho who moved here years ago with a large amount of money and a small team of thieves. Wong spent a short few minutes temporarily making us invisible, his magic more and more attractive by the day, and both me and Peter broke in, tracking for dangerous signatures. It took less than ten minutes to rid the whole complex of storage rooms of dangerous materials, knocking out guards positioned near the containers or rooms we needed and simply taking it with Peter's super strength. We didn't have to take the whole device after all, just the biochemicals and sealed radioactive materials, which Peter wrapped in thick balls of webbing.

"Okay. Wong, have you done your thing yet?" Peter asked.

"I'll do it now." With a push of his hand, both he, Jessica and the entire storage facility vanished.

"That's a serious party trick," I hear Peter say, and I can't help but agree. The two return, leaving a pile of fragmented ruins where the complex had once been, stacked neatly next to whatever remains of the original hosts. '300 people dead, and she brushes it off like nothing. A true weapon of warfare.'

"So now that's done can we go home, I've got some school stuff I put off for too long." The girl with a black and green bodysuit and ash in her hair asked pulling out her phone.

"Nathan said he'd be another few days," she says, putting away her phone. "So we may as well just go home and Wong can pick him up right?" Kate nods in agreeance, and I'm taken to the Avenger's Tower where they train, and where most of the Avengers live.

"Oh yeah, Shuri? Nate got a room arranged for you in our section." She explained that the original Avengers lived in the Eastern side of the accommodation levels, while the youth teams took the West, with both Clint's and Nathan's labelled with their position in case we needed them for anything. The rooms weren't entirely soundproof, in case of teleporting attackers, so that screams could be heard by Jarvis the relatively advanced AI that operated all the building's functions including cleaning. Rogers had left a notice in the hallway we all shared informing us of a new training schedule, and a reminder that Jessica, Nate, Kate and Peter still had school to focus on. 'Which I will be sure to tease them about mercilessly for.'