The Soldier of Summer: Book 1

Chapter 16

It took Peter forever to come back with clothes. He eventually ended up coming back with some jeans and a t-shirt with Captain America's shield. He also brought me a pair of flip flops.
"Thanks," I said, gratefully taking the clothes from him.
"You're welcome. And hey, maybe when you're done changing, we can take a walk. You're probably stiff from being in bed all week." Peter was obviously not a very social kid. He was really awkward and goofy, but it was nice to have a change of pace from all the big, strong, brooding people that I was used to being with.
Peter left the room while I changed. I went out to join him when I finished, and we walked over to the elevator. And this time I could actually appreciate the glass.
"I've always loved glass elevators."
Peter smiled and looked out at the skyline. "Because you can see the view?"
"No, because when I'm fighting in one, I can throw the people out it, and watch them plummet to their deaths through the windows."
I didn't mean for that to trouble him that much.
"I'm kidding. Apparently I'm not very good at the funny stuff." I gave a nervous little haha, and he laughed too.
"No, it's cool. I have a weird sense of humor, so you could be funny, I just wouldn't know it."
We made it to the ground floor, and the door opened to the lobby. We walked out, and all everyone there stopped and stared at us.
Well, they were staring at my arm. They all watched us warily as we walked out the front doors. So I guess the arm still was menacing to normal people.
"So what do you want to do?" Peter asked me. I looked around.
"I don't know, what do you want to do?"
"Well Mr.Stark said that you're not supposed to go more than a couple miles from the tower, so really all we can do is like eat, or shop or something. So you pick."
I looked around again.
"I don't know, let's go eat. I am hungry again."
Peter scoffed. "Sure. You're hungry again."
I rolled my eyes and let him pick a restaurant. He led me over to this restaurant called KFC.
"What's does KFC stand for?"
"It stands for Kentucky Fried Chicken."
"But aren't we in New York?"
Peter laughed so loud, it actually turned some heads. When he noticed everyone else noticing my arm, he switched to my right side and walked in front of me a bit, so the people in front of us couldn't really see it. But it didn't really work, and I started getting really uncomfortable.
"Hey maybe we should go back. I don't think the world is ready to see a metal arm casually yet," I said, shrinking behind him more.
"Are you sure? If you want, I can give you my sweater."
I really wanted to stay out because I was really stiff from being in bed all week. So I said that was cool, and he took off his dark bike sweater so that was wearing only his light blue polo shirt. He gave it to me, and I put it over my head.
He held the door open for me like a gentlemen, and we walked over to the counter. There was no line, so we could order right away. Peter ordered some kind of tender basket, and since I had never really been here before, I just ordered the same thing.
We got our food and sat at a random table. The chicken was really good, the fries were pretty okay, but that biscuit was amazing. It was buttery and crumbly and delicious. I had eaten my whole basket within a couple of minutes.
"Wow, you still hungry, I can get you more,"Peter said.
"No, I don't want to spend all your money. I know you bought all these clothes."
"No, no nononono. Mr. Stark gave me some money to buy you food and clothes and stuff."
"Oh, so that's why the shirt you gave me still had the tag on it."
Peter's eyes opened wide. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that."
I waved it off. "Nah, it's okay. Is it okay if we go back? I feel really self conscious of my arm. I normally wear gloves, right now, I'm not."
He nodded, and we left. He led me back to the tower, through the lobby, and to the elevator.
"So where are the people that took me here?" I asked as the door closed. "I'd really like to see them."
"Oh yeah. I think they're in the gym. I can take you to them if you want." He pressed a button on the panel.
"Peter Parker: Spider-Man"
We waited for the door to ding again, and it opened. We walked through another door and into a big gym. It had windows all around, so people can look outside as they worked out.
It had all this fancy equipment, and weights, and sports balls. It also had a bunch of avengers in it. All the people that brought me here were working out on the equipment. Steve was punching a bag, Sam and Bucky were sparring, and Natasha was working on footwork.
There were also a couple other people there too. There was a woman flailing her arms around, and there was red smoke coming out of them. And next to her, there was a weird looking man with red skin with blue stripes and a yellow cape that fluttered even though there was no wind.
Winter stopped sparring with Sam when he noticed me, but Sam didn't, and he took advantage of the hesitation and put him in a headlock.
"Ow, come on man! Let me go!"
"Haha! I win Weiner Soldier," Sam laughed. Winter rolled his eyes and shook him off. He walked over to me and Peter.
"Hey Auriana, you're awake. That's great! How are you doing?" He asked me with a sympathetic head tilt.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Have I really been out for a week?" I looked around again. I could see big clouds rolling in from the west.
"Yeah, but the good news is, we haven't heard anything from HYDRA, so your plan worked," Winter said, trying to console me. He rubbed the back of his neck with his flesh hand.
"Hey Steve!" He yelled over his shoulder. "Auriana's awake!"
This made everyone in the room stop what they were doing. Even the woman with the smoke and the red man came over to see what was going on.
"Are you alright?" Steve asked. I was getting pretty done with everyone asking me this.
"Can people please stop asking me that?" I yelled. "It's getting uncomfortable."
Everyone stayed silent and awkwardly looked around. It was the smoke lady who finally broke it.
"I'm Wanda Maximoff. This is Vision," She said, introducing herself and the red man. She had a sokovian accent. Vision had a weird voice, as if it was computer generated.
"It's a pleasure to meet you miss Auriana. How was you stay in the hospital wing?"
We shook hands, and he pulled up mine to his lips. It was my metal hand.
"It was okay, I guess." I pulled my hand away shyly, and looked down at the ground. "We were just walking so I could stretch my legs. But you know I can go back now."
"No no," Winter said. "You can stay here if you want. If you want, you can spar with one of us."
"Really? I don't want to intrude-"
"No, you can stay," Steve cut in from behind Winter.
"Okay, I'll stay."
The rest of the Avengers spread out leaving me and Peter alone.
"So do you want to spar?" Peter asked. "I can prove to you that I can block your punches." He smiled.
"Yeah okay, but I still think you can't." I took off my flip flops and his sweater. "But just so you know, jeans are restrictive so if you beat me, it's because of the jeans."
"Oh, there's some clothes in that closet over there, I was planning on changing too," Peter gestured over to a door. We walked over to the door and I walked inside to basically a closet full of workout clothes.
I pulled a tank top off a hangar, and grabbed a pair of spandex shorts. When I came out, Peter was in some basketball shorts and a tight blue athletic shirt. He also had some weird bracelets on, but I didn't think much of them.
The clouds moved in closer from the west as we strutted over to the ring. We were both trying to intimidate the other with fierce looks and showing off our muscles.
"You ready?" I asked him, getting into a fighting stance.
"You kidding? I was born ready," he said, doing the same.
I lunged at him, but he leaped out of the way. I rolled over and jumped up. We circled around the ring.
"That all you got?" Peter asked, taunting me. He knew that would make me mad, and laughed. I threw myself at him, and this time, he caught me. We struggled and rolled on the ground until he threw me off with a grunt.
I landed on my feet a little ways away from him. Man, this guy is strong. He jumped at me and I dodged him. We circled again.
I threw a metal punch at him and I felt really good until-
He.
Blocked.
My.
Punch.
With one hand.
"Haha! I told you I could block it! I am the-"
Before he could finish, I grabbed his throat with my other hand and threw him out of the ring and across the room. He landed on the window, but instead of sliding down, he stuck to the window.
I don't know why I was surprised, because I had seen Spider-Man in action before, but fighting against him was really confusing. He started crawling up the wall and into the ceiling.
"Oh, come down and fight me, you freak!" I screamed. At this point everyone was watching us, but I didn't care.
"Who are you calling a freak, cyborg?" He yelled back.
"Ugh!"
Peter dropped from the ceiling aimed for me on the way down. He expected me to move out of the way, but I didn't. Instead, I actually punched him in the face, and he flew backwards and into Steve.
"You okay, Queens?" Steve asked him as he helped him up.
Peter shook his head, trying to focus. "Yeah I'm okay!" He jumped up and ran back towards me. He aimed his fist at my head, and I ducked.
Picking him up by his legs, I swung him around and threw him at Sam. I chose to throw him at Sam because I thought it would be funny.
It was.
Winter laughed the most, and I think he actually snorted. I charged at them while they were still tangled together. Sam scrambled to get free, while Peter quickly tried to run. I grabbed his neck and held him in a headlock.
I was two seconds away from making him tap out, before he held out his arm and made some kind of weird hand sign. I thought it was his way of tapping out or something, before some white stringy thing shot out of his bracelet and jolted us forward.
I screamed and let go of his head so he would just be flying alone. "What the hell? There's no webs allowed!"
"You get to use your metal arm." He landed on the window again and pushed himself off. He swung right over to me. He let go of the web and dropped down next to me.
I grabbed his arms and pulled him to the ground. I positioned my hands on his so that he couldn't shoot his webs, and I planted my knee on his chest.
"Give up!"
"No!"
"Give UP!"
"NO!"
I sat on him for a few minutes and he tried to kick me off until he got tired. He gave one last effort before he finally gave in.
"Fine," he gasped, out of breath. "You win, get off."
I smiled and jumped up. "I guess I won the bet." I held out my hand to help him up. He accepted and I helped him up.
"No, you didn't." Peter scrunched up his nose. "The bet was that I could block your punch, and I'm pretty sure I did."
I rolled my eyes and grabbed a towel to wipe off my sweat. "I think I hate you."
Vision floated over (yes, floated) to us. "Very impressive miss Auriana. You are very skilled in combat."
"Yeah, thanks. I have been fighting for a long time."
"How long?" Wanda cut in.
I looked around at everyone else looking at me. "About my whole life."
Before people could start saying "Aww I'm so sorry." Peter turned to me.
"Hey, you're probably tired. Do you want to go back to your room and rest?"
I was a little tired, and I really didn't want sympathy from these guys yet. So I nodded, and Peter and I walked out of the gym and into the elevator.

I do not own KFC😂