(1)The Avengers: The Lost Goddess

7

The next two days I sat out of the battle to watch. I picked up fighting styles and weaknesses. Thor's weakness was his pride, the raccoon's was the adorable tree, Tony's was Peter, Dr. Strange's was his little portals. That guy relied on them one hundred percent. I mean, he could pick up a knife or something sometimes. But I had to admit they were pretty wicked when they worked.

Through all of this, I found my biggest weakness was keeping it all from Ariel. I tried using the cabin excuse but she wanted to come with, I tried using work but I couldn't be at work all the time, so eventually I told her I was with a guy.

The story was I'd been seeing him for a few days and was staying at his place. Leave it to her to not worry about my safety and worry more about if this guy was hot. So I sat there for another hour explaining a nonexistent guy to her. Not my proudest moment, but I keep telling myself I'll tell her eventually. When the time is right.

After the third day of watching training, I was definitely prepared to join in. Tomorrow is the day. I sat around all day reading and being lazy. Steve came into the living room and sat down with his own book.

"I didn't peg you as a reader," he said.

"Vice versa, Cap."

"What are you reading?"

"The Great Gatsby. Only my favorite book of all time."

"I love that book."

I set it down so I could turn and look at him. "I would go to a Jay Gatsby party."

"I'm glad you said that because I have a question for you."

"Okay?"

"The Avengers have been invited to the mayoral ball and I was wondering if you would like to go with me?"

All I could do was stare. Finally I found my voice. "Of course. Like, a date?"

He shrugged and turned red. "I guess. I figured we could both have our dance. And it's kind of like a Jay Gatsby party. We have to dress nice at least."

I put my hand over his. "I would love to go."

"Great. It's this weekend. We'll have you fully trained in case anything happens."

"You know me and my apparent attraction to trouble."

We spent an hour or so talking about anything that came up, then we just read. I've never felt more calm and at peace than I did then.

The day flew by and before I knew it, I was waking up and it was time for the battle. Like the past few days, I was the first one in the training room. I was so excited and I had the possibility to get hurt, which really goes to show that I've changed.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Clint asked me as he sharpened a knife.

"I was born ready."

We took our places and waited in tense silence until Fury gave us the okay. My palms were sweating and I could barely hold onto the bow I was holding. So I shifted and put it over my back, choosing to use a sword instead. Clint taught me how to wield all the weapons, how to conceal some on my body, and how to strike to hurt, not kill.

My heart pounded and I could feel the adrenaline coursing through my veins. When Fury finally gave the call, everything erupted into pandemonium. And unfortunately, everyone seemed to come after me.

Remember weaknesses...weakness.

I blocked a sword hit from Gamora and immediately gave her a nasty flesh wound that sent her to the ground. It was then that I realized something weird was happening. My conscience seemed to be alerting me to everything happening before it happened.

I deflected one of Nebula's knives with no problem, ducked underneath one of Clint's arrows, and managed to roll and nock an arrow all in one fluid motion to take down the tree.

There went Quill and the raccoon as their weaknesses fell. The other Avengers backed down as they realized I wasn't going to be such an easier opponent after all. So they teamed up and outed Quill and the raccoon, leaving me alone for a minute.

They were right back on me in a matter of seconds, though, but I was ready for them. Dr. Strange was about to use his portals, how did I know that? I have no idea. All I know is I felt something, saw him making the circle, so I took a step to the side not a second too late as a portal opened right under where I stood.

Dr. Strange looked at me incredulously and tried again. Much to his surprise, he received the same outcome. I found it was easy to multitask, I could sidestep Strange's portals and fight everyone else at the same time. Natasha received a pretty deep flesh wound from one of my throwing knives and that's when I found out Clint's weakness.

He wavered for maybe a second, but it was enough for me to know. She was his weakness. I smiled.

For some reason, that put a whole new spring in my step. Still sidestepping Strange's portals, I advanced towards Natasha who looked a tiny bit green. But then I felt something that made me stop dead in my tracks and the hair on my arms stood straight up. The crackle of lightning. Thor was going to use lightning on me.

The lightning hit so fast I couldn't even do anything to stop it. I lit up like a Christmas tree, but it didn't hurt, which definitely surprised the hell out of me.

"Thor..." Tony warned, and that pissed me off more than ever.

Something broke. Suddenly the lightning seemed to be...afraid of me. I could feel it bending to my will and I was just in control of it.

So I pulled the move I pulled in Times Square. I kneeled down and sucker punched the ground. A shockwave went through the training room knocking the remaining Avengers to the ground.

Slowly, I stopped glowing and I lost control of the lightning. It fizzled out around me and I was left crouching on the ground, breathing heavily. Everyone stared at me warily and my smile faded.

"You just...harnessed Thor's power," Quill said, stating the blindingly obvious truth.

"Okay, that's it for training today. Go wash up," Fury's voice echoed through the thick silence.

My bow hung over my shoulder and my sword hung limply at my side as I watched everyone step wide around me. I left after everyone else. What have I done?