LIGHTNING ✔P.M. ₁

chapter forty

WITH THOR GONE, poptarts weren't being eaten. Anyone could've guessed this would happen. That's why, around two weeks after Asteroid's arrival, Robin, Wanda and Pietro snuck into the kitchen and took some, along with any other snacks they could get their hands on. The three of them had become closer during the past few days, and were now all about to hang out in Wanda's room. This was not by choice. In the immortal words of Tony Stark, "The adults are talking."

It was strange that he said that, seeing as the three of them were also technically adults. In Canada, they would be allowed to drink. No matter how much they pleaded to be included, they were still left out.

The three sat on the floor in Wanda's room, near the door. They were trying to listen in on the conversation, but they could only hear snippets. This was mostly because Pietro wouldn't stop eating their snacks and consequently, chewing loudly.

Robin glared at him. "Could you stop eating for two seconds?"

Pietro shrugged. "I have a high metabolism."

Robin rolled his eyes and went back to pressing his ear against the door. He could hear the older Avengers - plus Asteroid - discussing something that should've stayed top secret, but Robin couldn't make out what.

He turned to his friends. "What if we get closer?" He suggested.

"What do you have in mind?" Wanda questioned.

Robin pointed up at the vents. Soon enough they were all inside, hovering over the area where the Avengers were talking.

They were discussing a plan with Asteroid. Robin retrained himself from jumping down there and yelling at them for being stupid. You can't discuss your plan to take down the villain with the villain! Alas, they wouldn't listen. He had tried before.

"We're thinking we track down the leader of this army using a DNA sample I managed to get off of one of those monsters before it died," Tony was saying.

"They're called Jendaks," Asteroid informed. "I overheard some of them saying so."

Robin gritted his teeth. What a liar! He named them!

"FRIDAY, update the data base," Tony said to his AI after hearing this, thanking the man. "Anyway, we're going to track whoever it is down, and hopefully if we kill them, we can kill the entire army, or at least get them to leave the planet or switch sides."

"The DNA should lead us to their origin, or something that will give us a lead," Bruce said.

Robin had heard enough, and returned to Wanda's room, the Maximoff twins following.

Pietro frowned. "I don't know why we couldn't hear that."

The demigod nodded in agreement. "Yeah, that's stupid. We are part of this team, right?"

Wanda smiled at him. "Aw, you're finally admitting it."

"Not the time. And we never speak of me saying that."

The girl nodded, her fingers crossed behind her back.

The Avengers later explained their plan to the younger members, the full plan. Archie, as everyone was calling him now, explained a lot of it. Everyone seemed to trust him, and even like him. Robin hated that. If looks could kill, Asteroid would be worse off than Kronos right now.

What was even more infuriating was that Archie actually seemed nice. He treated everyone with respect, and really cared about the environment. He never complained, and took the time to talk to everyone. Even Robin, though he didn't give him the time of day. It was a ruse. He was gathering information, finding a way to eliminate them.

What could Robin do? He already tried bringing up the fact that Asteroid was a bad guy, but he was brushed aside and told he just had trust issues. Of course, he did, but this guy was actually evil! He even looked the part.

What made his mood even worse, was the fact that Archie wouldn't stop trying to spark up a conversation with him. Robin would rather chew off his own foot. Or talk to Loki, or even Gaea.

Tony and Bruce spent a lot of time in the lab trying to track down the villain, which would prove a lot easier if they just listened to Robin. Thor was still gone, Fury hadn't checked in, and Natasha and Clint were spending most of their time either training or doing tedious research. Steve was helping Sam improve his fighting skills, and Wanda and Vision were spending a lot of time together, earning themselves lots of knowing looks and winks from Robin.

That left Pietro and Robin to entertain and keep an eye on Asteroid. Pietro seemed to like the man, but it was quite the opposite for Robin. No matter what Archie did to try and earn the boy's trust, he wouldn't budge.

Around the Avengers, Robin was actually warming up and being more friendly (for the most part), but he completely changed around Asteroid. He wanted to rip his head off every time he was around him. He refrained from doing so, though, in hopes not to be arrested for manslaughter, even though Archie Willis was hardly a man. Much to Robin's dismay, the villain wasn't going anywhere.

Or so he thought. Alarms blared throughout the compound the next day. They learnt that Jendaks were attacking again, but only in one place in the entire country this time. When Robin glanced over to Archie, he saw a look of annoyance pass over his face when Tony said that it was his monsters that were attacking again.

"Archie, Robin, why don't you two go?" Steve suggested.

Robin groaned. "All right, Cap, but only if Pietro comes with us," He said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Deal. You better get there quick." At Steve's words, the three were off. Pietro picked up Robin bridal style like he usually did with his sister, and spend over to where the monsters were attacking, leaving Asteroid to catch up and Robin with a light blush coaxing his cheeks.

Once he arrived, he looked around then back at the two younger boys. "You two go that way, I'll go check out that way," Archie said, pointing at two sides of the town.

Reluctantly, Robin agreed, only to get rid of the monsters. He and Pietro killed them all very quickly.

"Let's go help Asteroid out," Pietro suggested, and without leaving any room for the shorter boy to answer, he took him and zoomed off.