Recovering

The team sits dejectedly around the table in the meeting room. They had gotten Tyresian into the infirmary just in time, but they were still burdened by the matter that they had lost the princess.

Nightlock twirls a knife in between his fingers: "Well, that went well."

Assimilate scoffed: "The last thing any of us need is sarcasm."

Star Knight stood up: "Ok, look I know this looks bad, but we can still do this."

"And how do you suggest we do that?!" Nightlock snapped, "We had ONE chance and we blew it all because of an electrical shock that new girl here still can't control!" he yells, pointing at Karmi.

Karmi hangs her head in guilt while Jake, in human form, puts an arm in front of her protectively, "Hey, back off! She's working on it!"

"That doesn't excuse her for what happened!"

"Well, you're not quite off the hook yourself, wise-ass!" Liz Ock said, glaring at Nightlock as she stood up: "We all had a part in this and if you could get that through your thick skull instead of trying to go solo like you did back there…!"

"He was getting away, how was I to know our flying tanks would start dropping bombs on my ass!?"

"Hey, we were trying to do our job!" Artillery snapped.

Nightlock wasn't done: "Oh, and how bout Mr. Two-in-One over here" he said, pointing at Assimilate, "He knew the weaknesses, but did he try to exploit them? No."

"We were in no position to do so!" Assimilate argued.

The group continued to fight amongst each other. Star Knight, however, managed to sneak out and find a place to collect his thoughts alone.

Star Knight put his head in his hands and shook his head.

"What are we doing wrong?" he asked himself.

"Well, you look pretty down." Said a woman's voice. Star Knight looked up to see Captain Marvel standing next to him.

"Oh, hi." Was all Star Knight said.

"I heard what happened" Captain Marvel said, "I'm guessing you guys aren't taking it very well."

Star Knight shook his head: "I'm not sure how to get them to stop; Nightlock in particular. The guy won't stop blaming everyone else for messing up."

Captain Marvel stroked her chin: "Figures. I'm familiar with his type; darker vigilantes like him were always the more unruly ones."

"He did start the whole argument." Star Knight agreed, then he sighs: "I'm just not sure how to fix it. Frankly, I'm not sure if I even can."

"Well," Captain Marvel said, "Think back to your father, Star Lord."

"You knew my father?" Star Knight asked.

Captain Marvel nodded: "I've worked with the Guardians of the Galaxy many times in the past. Now, think back to a time when they failed; what happens?"

Star Knight thought to the few times such a thing happened when he was with the Guardians and finally replied to Captain Marvel: "Well, we do yell at each other briefly."

"And then?"

"Well…then we changed things up a bit. Improvised."

"And did that work?"

"Not always, but most times it did; it all depended on how well we utilized our teamwork. Are you suggesting I do the same thing here?"

Captain Marvel shrugged: "That's entirely up to you. He's your father, after all; isn't it only right that we learn from our parents?"

Star Knight nodded: "I suppose you're right. It's Nightlock that's the problem; I'm not sure how well he'll respond."

"Trust me" Captain Marvel reassured, "If you can get his attention and keep it, he'll listen."

"Yeah, IF" Star Knight said, "Well, I'll certainly try. Thanks for helping."

Captain Marvel nodded: "My pleasure."

Star Knight then headed back for the meeting room and ran into Artillery. Turns out he was also trying to get away from the argument.

"It's getting bad in there" he told Star Knight.

"Relax, I got an idea" Star Knight reassured, and he walked in, seeing that he others were still arguing; Assimilate and Ock even looked like they were about to double team up on Nightlock. Taking a ball-like gadget from his belt, Star Knight threw it right at the table, where it landed and sent out a small pulse that briefly stunned everyone. As they stumbled around, regaining their senses, Star Knight walked to the front of the table and waited until the others had recovered.

"What the hell, dude!" Nightlock demanded.

"Sorry," Star Knight said, "but you all need to listen."

"Anything aside from accusations would be welcome right now" Crusader said.

Star Knight nodded and looked at everyone: "I get it; failure sucks. But we can still pull ourselves out of this."

"How?" Nightlock demanded: "Tallia is gone, Tyserian's in the infirmary, and we all just got our asses kicked!"

"You think it's something I'm not familiar with?" Star Knight said, "Before I came here, I was with the Guardians of the Galaxy."

"Woah, really?" Artillery asked.

"It would certainly explain the outfit and weapons." Ock observed.

Star Knight nodded: "We faced failures like this a lot, but we still won in the end."

Jake raised an eyebrow: "How?"

"Simple, we worked as a team and improvised. No one of us is perfect, and no one plan is perfect, but when we work together as a team, I have a feeling we'll be able to pull off the impossible. If we want to rescue the princess and stop Shade, we need to put our differences aside and stand as one. That's how we did it back with the Guardians, and it's been working wonders so far."

He then turned to Nightlock: "I get that team working isn't exactly your thing, but we were all brought here for a reason; let's not waste that. If Shade harnesses that jewel, there's no telling what he and the Trisectoids will do. The world is counting on us, and we can't let it down now. But we're not going to save it by sitting in here and yelling at each other."

There was silence in the room for a few moments before Nightlock sighed and spoke: "I never thought I would say this…but you're right."

"Yeah" Liz Ock said as she looked down dejectedly, "I guess we did kinda lose ourselves fighting with each other."

"But we need to move fast." Assimlate said: "There's no telling how fast Shade will be able to make it off of Earth."

"We may have more time than you think" Star Knight said, "I know how Trisectoids work; they have to call in for another transport to pick them up from a mission. Assuming Shade has already sent the call out, I'd say we have at least a day and a half. Even then, he needs to send a continuous pulse for the ship to zero in on him. I say we use this to our advantage."

"We should figure out a new plan" Artillery agreed, "We know how to neutralize the symbiote, so let's figure out to do that."

"Agreed" Crimson Crusader said.

Assimilate stroked his chin: "I might know someone who can help us with that."

Liz Ock also spoke up: "I also know someone who can help conceal this new trap. Assuming Shade has learned anything from our last encounters, he'll be expecting us to use such weapons; we'll need to hide it until we're ready."

Star Knight nodded: "Alright then, We'll split into two groups. Assimilate, Artillery, Nightlock, and I will go to find Assimilate's friend. Ock, you can take the rest to find your friend."

Liz nodded.

Star Knight continued: "A lot of people are counting on us, guys, let's not let them down."

The rest of the team stood up as they got ready to leave.

Assimilate pumped his fist: "Let's roll!"

…

A few minutes later, two jets flew off the Helicarrier in different directions. One of them descended into New York City, depositing Ock and her team in an open area outside of the main city.

"So where is this friend of yours?" Karmi asked Liz.

"Well, if I remember correctly" Liz responded, "He's hidden out in one of the more abandoned districts of the city."

"Do you know where that is?" Crimson Crusader asked.

"I do from here" Liz replied, then she gestured with her arm for the others to follow her as she said: "Come on. This way."

…

Meanwhile, the second jet soon arrived overseas at the UA, landing at one of the pads outside of the school.

Assimilate led the others out. Looking around, Artillery whistled in admiration.

"You actually go to this school?" he asked.

Assimilate nodded as only Chris spoke (he made sure to retract the symbiote mask): "I came to this school as an exchange student. It's actually a really nice place; you guys would love it. It was also here that I bonded with the symbiote. We might run into a few of my classmates on the way to where we need to go, but it shouldn't be too big of a deal."

"Well, lead the way" Star Knight said.

The continued into the school, Assimilate leading them through a series of hallways. Artillery looked around, amazed at how diverse the students were in terms of their powers; some had bizarre physical features, like tails or oddly shaped limbs. He even swore he saw someone with different colored skin.

"Almost there" Assimilate said after a few minutes. Finally, they turned one last corner and came to a door with a sign above it that read "Development Studio". The team wasn't alone; a girl with earphone jacks dangling from her earlobes and a girl that was completely pink were waiting at the door. The two noticed the team's approach and smiled.

"Chris! You're back!" the pink girl exclaimed.

"Not exactly, Mina" Chris said, "We just need some help from Hatsume. How's it going, Jirou?"

The other girl nodded: "Nothing really too exciting as of now. Mina and I are just here to get some adjustments for our support items. So, I take it these are your teammates?"

Assimilate nodded as he introduced them: "This is Artillery, Star Knight, and Nightlock. Fellas, this is Mina Ashido and Kyoka Jirou, two of my classmates."

Nightlock simply nodded to the two girls while Artillery and Star Knight were more polite and shook the girls' hands.

"Nice meeting you." Artillery said.

"Likewise" Jirou replied.

"So, how long have you two been waiting here?" Chris asked.

"Not long" Jirou replied, "Maybe five minutes."

"So, what are you guys here for?" Mina asked.

"We need Mei to help us build a certain sonic based weapon" Chris replied, "We need it to trap the villain we're going after. I would have asked you to help, Kyoka, but I didn't want to distract you from your studies."

Jirou nodded: "Interesting. Well, thanks for your consideration. Feel free to wait here with us."

'Uhhh, Chris' the symbiote said in Chris's head, 'She's about to do it again.'

Chris straightened up as the symbiote's senses went off, then he instinctively tackled Jirou to the ground and yelled: "HIT THE DECK!"

The others jumped back just in time as the door to the studio was blown right off its hinges from and explosion inside. The ones outside coughed from the smoke.

"The heck was that!?" Nightlock demanded.

"Dammit, Hatsume!" came a voice from inside, "You need to stop blowing the door off the studio!"

Chris looked down at Jirou: "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine now." She replied. There was a comical moment between the two as they then realized they were still on top of each other and both quickly moved apart, fiercely blushing as they did.

'That was smooth' the symbiote joked.

'Shut up!' Chris shot back.

The smoke eventually cleared, and the team noticed a girl with pink hair and slightly wild looking eyes stand up, brushing herself off.

"Sorry about that" she said. Then, she noticed Chris: "Hey, you're back!"

"Not quite actually," Chris replied, "I'm still on the mission, but I need your help. We need you to build something."

"This is your friend who can help us?" Nightlock asked, slightly skeptical.

"Fellas, meet Mei Hatsume." Chris replied. Mei seemingly took no notice and lit up like a Christmas Tree: "You need one of my babies?! I'M IN!"

Just then, Power Loader walked out, it turns out he had overheard this.

"You need something from Mei, Maverick?" he asked.

Chris nodded: "She's the only one who can build what we need. However, Jirou and Mina here need some adjustments to their gear if you guys can take care of that first."

The two girls smiled; leave it to Chris to be the gentleman type.

"I can handle the adjustments" Power Loader said, "Mei, you help these guys with whatever they need."

Mei gave a playful salute, then waved for the team to follow her inside, which they promptly did.

"I got a bad feeling about this." Nightlock said as they entered. Mei got a excited light in her eyes as she turned to Chris and the team and asked, "So, what can I make for ya?"

…

Back in New York, Liz Ock had led her team to a seemingly abandoned warehouse.

"Your friend lives here?" Karmi asked.

"Eh, not really lives so much as hides out." Ock replied, "He's actually a friends of my dad's, but he'll listen to us…hopefully."

"And who exactly is he?" Jake asked.

Liz opened the door to the warehouse and waved for everyone to come inside: "You won't like it if I tell you."

Karmi gulped: "That doesn't make me feel any better."

The group walked into the warehouse. It was rather dark, with the only light source being what came in through the windows.

"I don't see anyone." Crimson Crusader observed.

"That's what he wants you to think" Ock replied, "They don't call him the Master of Illusions for a reason."

The nickname immediately clicked in Jake's head, and he widened his eyes in surprise: "Wait, you don't mean…?"

Suddenly, a green flash erupted around them as they quickly found themselves floating in the air. They rose, screaming, for a bit, only to suddenly stop a considerable distance off the ground.

Karmi flailed her arms as she floated, shouting, "What's happening!?"

"He knows we're here." Ock replied.

"Who knows?" Crusader asked.

"Me, obviously" said a new voice. The team looked to see a figure in a green outfit with a purple cape, gold armor, and a helmet that looked like a pure white fishbowl floated up to them.

"Octavius" the figure said, "Never thought I would see you around here again."

Liz crossed her arms: "Mysterio, we need to talk."