Theodore Altman, also known as Teddy, loved being a superhero. He had always felt out of place in the world, like a mistake. But, when he discovered his powers, he felt so happy he almost destroyed a building.
That day, he went to school, studied without being totally concentrated and went back home. On the way back, he thought about an upsetting part of his day and that made him feel weird. As a consequence, he hurried into an abandoned building and he looked at his hands in shock: they were green. So, he took out his phone and looked at his reflection. His face was completely green and he was unrecognizable. He panicked and started running towards the exit, but he hit a pillar by mistake. The whole ceiling began trembling. He stopped and hesitated. He asked himself whether he needed to stop the building from collapsing. But he did not have to think much, he knew what choice to make instinctively.
He turned around and returned to the broken pillar and held it for a few minutes. He could still see vibrations coming from over his head.
So, he looked around him and sought for a way to fix the building. He saw a metallic pipe laying on the ground and raced towards it. The ceiling made some more crazy noise. Teddy picked up the pipe easily and raced back to the pillar. He held the pipe upwards and pushed it in the pillar as if it was made of liquid. It seemed to work as the ceiling stopped moving.
Teddy sighed but he stayed alert. He waited a bit, until he regained his normal body. He looked at the time: he had spent 3 hours in there. He hurried back home, but luckily his mother had not come home yet. He relaxed and did his homework. The next day, he thought that he had hallucinated.
However, it had already happened a few more times when Iron Lad came to recruit him. He was offered a spot on a new team of superheroes. Teddy accepted immediately. He met the rest of the team a few days later and they started training. They thought they were ready when their first supervillain attacked. The team suited up and left for combat. But they had failed miserably: there was no teamwork and the villain benefited from that. Teddy felt ashamed for having lost against that beast. He had thought that his super strength would protect him in all situations but he couldn't have been more wrong.
Once the villain was finally defeated, thanks to a random archer hero, the team went back to their headquarters. They entered the abandoned building in which Hulkling had discovered his powers. He had suggested it when they were in need of a base of operations.
"We sucked so badly today. We barely could defeat that nobody of a villain" Patriot cried. "If only that archer girl had not been in the way, we would have been less ridicule. Thanks to her, we looked uncapable of defeating him on our own."
"Woah, that's not fair. She helped us win the fight and at the end of the day, that's what matters" Teddy replied
"Well, how are we supposed to establish ourselves as heroes when people come and solve our problems. We need to look strong and right now everyone saw us get our butts kicked." Patriot said.
"Who cares about everyone? The whole point of this team is to fight crime, not be stars on the television" Hulkling yelled
"Both of you calm down!" Iron Lad ordered. "We need to come together as one, not divide because of our opinions. Today, we did not look silly, because the villain was defeated, even if someone else helped us. But this is not a win either: we weren't a team, everyone worked alone. And we would have lost, had we been on our own."
"I hope that girl is okay, she seemed to have hurt her head pretty badly" Wiccan said
Teddy agreed but Iron Lad ignored Billy's concern and continued: "Right now, we need to train to try and become a team. So, let's start. First, ..."
He was interrupted by a notification coming from Wiccan's phone.
"Could you please turn off your phone and focus" he told him a bit too mean for Teddy's liking.
"Um, I just received a text that could interest you" Billy replied.
The three of them gathered around his phone and read the message in question. Teddy gasped and Iron Lad read it out loud. "You four have caused damage in the city during your fight. And we need to have a discussion about it."
It was signed "The Avengers" and to it was linked a location, Billy clicked on it. It was some kind of alleyway near Teddy's apartment.
"What should we do?" Billy asked.
"I think we need to go. If we don't, they will probably find us anyway. We need to show them we are cooperating" Iron Lad responded.
"But it's the Avengers, they won't say no to more help, especially now" Teddy pointed out.
"We never know what people are capable of doing" Iron Lad said in a voice that scared Teddy. He wondered if he had put his trust in Iron Lad too quickly, because as it turns out, their leader had secrets. He hadn't even shared his secret identity and Teddy always thought it was extremely odd. But now, he was worried.
"Don't worry, we won't let them stop us" Iron Lad continued.
"We should probably leave now, right?" Billy asked
"Yes, let's go" Iron Lad replied.
As they were exiting, Teddy decided to keep a close eye on Iron Lad.
YOU ARE READING
Young Avengers : Assembled
Action"The two individuals are engaging in hand-to-hand combat. The green one has just been thrown on the sidewalk and the grey monster prepares to give him another punch. What's happening? The monster has been thrown on the ground by a beam of energy, co...
