Invasion of the ----

Chapter $

2 years ago, Ben

*Incoherent Screaming*

Two boxers circle in a ring. One is wearing red. The other is wearing blue. The red one lunges. The blue one dodges, before punching them once in the gut, once in ribs, and once in the head. The red one is knocked out. The crowd screams. It is oddly dimmed as the blue one looks around. The lights are blinding. He suddenly sees someone. It's a woman. She's still amid the crowd, just smiling at him. He walks off, brushing aside the interviewer. He doesn't stop until he's right in front of her.

"Na-Natasha?" He says.

"Nice to see you, Bella." Natasha responds.

"It's actually Ben." Ben responds.

"Well that was some really good fighting, Ben. But can we talk outside? Too many people here." Natasha said.

"Of course." Ben replied.

Later, they meet behind the arena. Natasha is wearing a red dress, and Ben is wearing a t-shirt and some jeans.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Ben asks.

"I was just checking up on you, but now that I've seen you fight, would you like to help me catch someone?" Natasha said.

"So I can be an Avenger! Cool. Who are we finding?"

"I can't tell you much, but here's a general physical description: they're 5ft 3, brunette, male, and have killed at least 20 people in the last 80 days, all of which are extremely prominent members of society."

"Ok"

"Well let's go, because we need to gear up before heading on the mission."

Later they are together in a car that Natasha just stole.

"So, how'd you change to become like this?" Natasha asked.

"Well I guess since you left my parents and sister only got worse. Eventually my mom would leave the house for long periods of time. And so I spent more time inside my room with the music blasted louder than the screams. I started to text my friends a lot as a vent. The more they talked to me, I realized I was a nonbinary pan. I also really wanted to escape, and thought that the only way I could do that is become an international spy, because the only person who was able to get away from that was my sister, and she is an international spy. So I started training. One day, my mom decided to get violent. She hit me multiple times, and that's what broke the dam. I punched her and ran. There was an ad for a boxing match, so I started boxing. And I kept winning. Then I realized I didn't need to be an international spy to escape."

"Mhhmm interesting." Natasha replied.

That wasn't the truth. Well, most of it was. I had spent a lot of the time in my room working out and texting my friends. But I was actually a gay demiboy, but didn't want to be called just a girl who tries to pretend to be in the community. And I hadn't ran away, my parents had turned me out.

We arrived at this weird place that didn't look like a place to gear up at. It was a pretty normal farmhouse in the middle of nebraska. There was a shed, and an archery range.