Ben 10/The Avengers

Chapter 8: The Avengers Initiative

Fury gathers the remaining Avengers in the ship's meeting room.

Fury-'These were in Phil Coulson's jacket. Guess he never did get you to sign them.'

He throws Coulson's Captain America trading cards on the table towards Steve.

Fury-'We're dead in the air up here. Our communications, location of the cube, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye. Maybe I had that coming. Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the Tesseract. I never put all my chips on that number though, because I was playing something even riskier. There was an idea, Stark knows this, called The Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes. Well, it's an old fashioned notion.'

Tony gets up and walks off.

Steve was grim with his head down.

Ben was conflicted with his emotions. He managed to save lives of people this summer during his adventures. But this time he lost. He could not save Phil Coulson. It was a failure for him.

X

Clint is walking along a passage catwalk. Natasha appears behind him and he quickly turns and shoots a bow, which flies by her. She pushes his hand. He charges her and she kicks him, then rolls underneath some pipes popping up on the other side of the catwalk,kicking him in the knee.

He shoots another arrow, which she dodges by dropping across to the next passage. Clint follows her.They fight along that catwalk. The fight is very even. Clint tries hitting her with the bow and she pulls on the string. They fight some more, headbutting and punching. They both pull daggers.

Natasha grabs Clint's arm and thrusts it back. He groans as he throws the dagger to his free hand. Natasha grabs that hand too but he hoists her against a wall. Clint grabs Natasha's hair and pulls, exposing her neck to his dagger. She sinks her teeth into his arm and he lets go, trying to force her down when she spins, throwing Clint into the railing. He falls to the ground, groaning, then looks up.

She sends him a left hook.

X

Bruce now in his human form, wakes up naked in a pile of rubble in an abandoned building.

Security Guard-'You fell out of the sky.'

Bruce-'Did I hurt anybody?'

Security Guard-'There's nobody around here to get hurt. You did scare the hell out of some pigeons though.'

Bruce-'Lucky.'

Security Guard-'Or just good aim. You were awake when you fell.'

Bruce-'You saw?'

Security Guard-'The whole thing, right through the ceiling. Big and green and buck ass nude. Here... I didn't think those would fit you until you shrunk down to a regular size fella.'

He throws Bruce a pair of trousers.

Bruce-'Thank you.'

He puts on the trousers.

Security Guard-'Are you an alien?'

Bruce-'What?'

Security Guard-'From outer space, an alien?'

Bruce-'No.'

Security Guard-'Well then, son, you've got a condition.'

Bruce steps down from the pile of rubble in the warehouse, pulling on the shirt.