A Taste of Vengeance

I was sweating, hot, and exhausted. Those were the three words that came to my mind first, when I decided to describe how I felt. I ran and skidded in the dirt, hiding behind a car as another bomb when off, sending tendrils of flame and heat licking at my heels. I was so over this damned robot already. All it ever did was blow things to oblivion and create explosions that nearly took out half of my students.

Three of my students hid behind a car, clearly arguing with one another on a plan. I scowled at them. That was the problem with these kinds of situations: you get a room full of people with extraordinary gifts, and all they can do is argue about who should flank what side, who should do the suicide mission, and who should be in charge. It was moments like these where they could be picking out the weakness on the killing robot, which I had already spot underneath the armpits
.
You should not be arguing, I snapped at them in a telepathic message, causing them to all look up. You should be working as a team, not bickering. A team that cannot unite, is a dead team. I spotted the weakness fifteen minutes ago, as you all should have. Now come up with a plan of attack. You have ten minutes before it self-destructs and we’re all toast.

I watched as the three students began talking rapidly. The small group was made up of a girl and two boys, all three extraordinary, which is exactly why I let them do this with me. But at the moment, I was getting severely agitated, and was beginning to doubt my judgment of character. The girls name was Rae, and her mutation allowed her to create and control water. The one boy Bran could create force fields and the boy Daniel could create and control endless currents of fire.

I watched as Daniel darted out from behind the car, running full speed at the robot. I began to shake my head, knowing it would blow him to pieces when Bran took off behind him, throwing up a force field as thick as a brick wall. The robot fired at the two over and over, and I watched as both unhindered, approached quick and smooth. Daniel began sending torrents of water at the piece of metal, turning the metal plates white hot from the heat of the flames licking at it’s body. I smiled as Rae began to move from behind the car, crawling over the pile of ruble, getting height on the creature.

The robot began bellowing and exploding things left and right. The ground rumbled under me, and the air was getting hotter by the second, blinding me with sweat running from my brow. I wiped it away and watched as Rae steadied herself on the pile of rubble before taking her stance, ready to shoot freezing cold water at the robot that was now glowing white and molten from Daniel’s blaze.

Suddenly the area around me went white and everything disappeared, sending Rae to the floor with a hard smack and a yowl of pain. I bolted towards her, casting my eyes around the bright, ultraviolent-white room, infuriated. Rae was clutching her elbow and gritting her teeth in pain, and waves of confusion was emitting from her mind.

I scooped the girl off of the floor easily, carrying her bridal style. The two boys looked at me, confused as to why the simulation had stopped so suddenly. The door in front of me opened, and I saw an old and tired Storm standing there, her face worried. “Who gave you authorization to stop mid-simulation?” I demanded, not carrying how rude I sounded.

It had been three years since I had taken charge of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters. It had also been 6 years since Charle’s Xavier, my uncle had passed. After 3 long years of serving as the Headmaster, Storm handed the reigns to me when I came of age 19, just like my uncle had intended. Storm was retired and a mentor now at the school, an old friend and motherly figure, but I could not help but be furious as the danger she had just created.

“There is someone here for you,” Was all she said, voice revealing nothing else. I handed Rae off to her and told her to take her to the clinic, and turned to see whom my guest was standing in the control room.
“Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?” I snapped at my employer from S.H.I.E.L.D, Agent Coulson. “I understand I have duties to you guys, but you cannot just interrupt my curriculum, especially when I’m in the middle of simulation, do I make myself clear?”

Phil Coulson looked mildly amused at my outbreak, but I also noticed the underlying worry and seriousness in his eyes. Agent Coulson worked for Nick Fury, and often was the one who gave me assignments from time to time. Inside of school, I was Professor Ash, and I trained kids in combat, teamwork, and acceptence of their mutations. Outside of the school, I was the night stalking, assassin, The Black Bane. I had earned the nick name by killing a teleporting mutant that had a knack for stealing files from S.H.I.E.L.D.

“You make yourself crystal clear, Agent Bane. But let me make myself clear. You agreed to this contract, no matter how dire your situation was and no matter what you were doing, we were allowed to call upon you for this.”

I freeze then, my muscles tensing like a predator about to pounce, and my heart stops beating for a moment, I can feel it. My mind flashes back to a very heated, very intricate argument I had with Nick Fury, the head of S.H.E.I.L.D. He had made me promise- had me even sign a paper- that I would be a part of the Avengers Initiative. The curiosity and the urgency of the situation almost drove me to dive into Coulson’s mind, but I knew that I couldn’t do that. I had made him a promise that I never would.
“What do you mean, Agent Coulson?” I asked in a very quiet, very leveled voice.
“I think you already know, Agent Bane. Pack what you need. I will brief you on the ride to the jet.”
“Jet?” I furrowed my brows. “Why can’t we just fly out from here?”
He smiled then. “We’re in need of your services before we start the initiative.”

I took a deep breath in, and tried to slow my heart rate as I followed Agent Coulson out of the control room. I didn’t know what to do besides murmur directions quietly and quickly to storm before hurrying to my room. I didn’t know what to pack, so I began with the weapons. I didn’t know a lot of things, but there was one thing I knew for sure: The Avengers Initiative had started.