Avengers Academy

Chapter 7

"No way." Kat said, shaking her head and walking away. "No way in hell."

Teddy gave a shrug and made a "don't look at me" gesture. Nate walked after her, embarrassed. "Kat, please."

Katrina growled. "Where do I even begin with you? First off, you lied!"

"Withheld information, it's not the same-"

"You lied about your parents. Second-", she continued, pretending not to hear him. "You drag us on a mission we were not prepared for and nearly botched. Those people could have died! We weren't familiar with each other's powers, we could have accidentally killed someone ourselves!"

"I told you, I had a plan, but Teddy-!"

"Then you start blaming others for your incompetence and now, we are in the public spotlight."

"As I recall, you all wanted to come."

That did it. That was the last straw. Nate braced himself for an explosion, but it didn't come. Instead, she spoke in a soft, dark and calm voice.

"Well, of course we did. What did you expect? We've had to hide who we are and what we can do for years on end. Our foster parents freak out about the possibility of the neighbors calling the cops on us or on the possibility of us being bullied even more than we already are. Then you come along with your plan for a get-together where we could all be ourselves. Be superheroes, even. This was like a dream come true for the boys. I only tagged along because I'm their sister and it's my job to keep them out of trouble. But you threw us into a freaking hostage situation with trained mercenaries or terrorist or whatever the hell they were. The screw-up of that mission should've told you that we're not ready to fight this evil overlord from the future. I'm sorry, Nate, but you can just forget it. I'm going to be focusing on finishing high school and hopefully getting the scholarship I need to go on to a prestiguous school like Oxford or Xavier's."

Nate could tell from Billy and Tommy's faces that they'd never seen her this angry. Worse, the look on her face wasn't just one of anger but betrayal.

Billy spoke up, sounding tired and annoyed at the whole thing.

"What even was the point of us going to that church? Of all places we could've gone, why there?"

"Because I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet our seventh member, Katherine Bishop. From what little remained of the Avengers' files in the future, I learned that she will be an important factor in Kang's defeat. All of you will be."

"What, all 20+ of us on that list?" Tommy asked, cocking a brow.

"No." Nate replied. "But the eight of us."

"There's six of us." Kat countered.

"Plus Lang and Bishop. That makes eight." Nate said, smirking, to which Teddy spoke up.

"You're adding yourself to the equation? Won't that damage the timeline or something?"

"More like follows it. According to the files, I play some part in it as well."

"Of course you do. Otherwise, it wouldn't be your show, would it?" Kat said mockingly, frowning. She still looked sour over everything. "Why us? Of all the mutants and superheroes on the planet, why us specifically?"

"Because each of you has a legacy to uphold. Eli, his great-grandfather was the proto-Captain America, the first Patriot. And you guys..." He shook his head and smiled. "We're going to have to go to Avengers Tower. You'll find all the answers you need there." He looked at Katrina. "Trust me, just for an hour. Please? You really need to see this."

-

"So let me get this straight. You actually saved that Patriot kid's ass?" Cassie asked incredulously, almost choking on the piece of meat she'd been chewing because she couldn't contain her laughter.

"Damn right. Those guys were the most incompetent heroes I've ever seen. I mean, sure, they got the job done, but they were completely disorganized and had no idea what they were doing." Kate said as she kept a straight face, focusing on cutting her steak. "I mean, come on, why would you turn your back to an armed guy standing six feet from you?"

"Was he cute, though?"

"Cassie, he wore a mask. I didn't see his face. Sounded like a real dork, though."

Both girls laughed and Kate took another sip of her soda. She hadn't actually laughed like that in a while. Not since the incident happened. But Cassie was actually getting through to her and Kate could tell that the opposite was also true. She supposed Cassie must have been going through hell for the past few days since her father's death and funeral, so she was glad to see Cassie could actually enjoy herself.

"Did you see the muscles on that Hulkling guy, though? I can tell why they call him that." Cassie said as she swallowed her last bite.

"Eh, not my type." Kate said and finished her meal as well before glancing at her phone. It said 9:48 PM.

"I should probably be getting home anyway. If I stay out too long, my dad will send out a squad of security guards from his company out to search for me."

Cassie flashed her a friendly grin.

"Who did you say your father was again?"

"Derek Bishop."

Cassie's face fell. She'd clearly heard that name before.

"Norman Osborn's replacement as the CEO of OsCorp?"

"Yep." Kate confirmed, causing Cassie to look even more nervous. Kate noticed and asked "Are you alright?"

"It's just that... one of the last cases my dad worked on was exposing corruption within OsCorp." Cassie said hesitantly. Kate's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Are you suggesting my father was involved? Because I can promise you, he had nothing to do with it. He's not the best dad, but he's not corrupt."

"I never said he did. But OsCorp is a big company and not all of its business partners are particularly clean. When Osborn was in charge, he did business with the likes of Lonnie Lincoln and Wilson Fisk."

Kate was confused. Where was she going with this?

"And Lincoln and Fisk both turned out to be dirty, but that was Norman Osborn's deal. My dad is totally legit."

"But is everyone in your company? You said that the men who crashed the wedding were after your dad."

Kate thought about it. True enough, they had been strangely well co-ordinated and had singled out her father. And according to police reports, they'd all killed themselves in custody rather than be interrogated.

A sudden loud blast shattered the windows and then the wall next to them crumbled, snapping her completely out of it. Avengers Tower was under attack!