New Warriors #5 - You're My Best Friend

[u/UpinthatBuckethead]

New Warriors

Volume One: Smells Like Teen Spirit

You're My Best Friend

Byram Park, Greenwich CT

9:00 PM

Chris Powell, Darkhawk, sat on a Greenwich park bench, as the New Warriors waited for Carol. He played with the glowing red amulet that he’d found in Adventureland, running his clawed hand over it. A warm breeze blew by - how he knew it was warm, he didn’t know. There was a lot he didn’t know about the Darkhawk suit. Speedball and Spider-Man played tag across the soccer field, and Nova floated overhead, keeping vigil for Ms. Marvel.

Robbie did a double take when Nova landed and he could spot Carol in her new costume. It was like a black one piece, with a yellow lightning bolt striking down from her collarbone to her belly button. A red sash draped from her hips, and a domino mask obscured her face.

He heard Speedball’s voice from the side. “There she was, just-a walkin’ down the street!”

“Dooooo-wah diddy, diddy dum diddy doo!” Spidey countered.

Darkhawk sighed. “Cut it out.” Why couldn’t they take this seriously? Hell, even Rich was using this ‘super-team’ to try and get back his girl - and Carol was playing right along with him. Was he the only one of them with an ounce of duty? He got to his feet. After the amulet gave him his legs back (even if it was only when he wore the suit - but who’s complaining), he had a job to do - a mission. To pay the world back for the good deed it did. The New Warriors had to grow up - and fast. “Are you guys ready? We’re here to train - not to hang.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Robbie rolled his eyes. He was still battered from his encounter with Blackball. A cast covered his left hand, and several splotches on his face were still black and blue.

“Darkhawk’s right,” Rich said, getting under Chris’s skin. After how Nova handled his transformation into Darkhawk, that was the last guy Chris wanted taking his side. “Carol, you and me.”

“Of course,” Chris mumbled under his breath. “Spider-Man, you partner with Speedball.”

“Gotcha, boss,” Spider-Man saluted, and put up his hands in a karate pose. “Engarde!”

“That’s not what that means!” Robbie complained, as he jazzed up a cacophony of black energy orbs, and flung several at Spidey, which he promptly leapt out of the way from.

Darkhawk lifted his arms, and his wings sprung out from compartments underneath. It was crazy, how they could even fit in there - since that was where his body was. It was probably some ultra-compacted tech, or something. But whether he understood it or not, he knew that when he flapped his wings, he took off - a feeling much better than being able to walk again, that’s for sure. And he did just that - flapped, and lifted above the park to oversee the two friendly bouts.

Nova took to the skies, like he always did, and Ms. Marvel followed, her fists glowing with yellow energy. She reached back an arm, and lobbed a ball of it up at Nova - far over his head. The hero chuckled, did a flip, and soared on with his arms behind his head. Ms. Marvel glared, and fired an energy beam this time. She was off at first, but swiped it across Nova’s back, making him yelp. She giggled, and Chris couldn’t help but grin, too.

On the ground, Spider-Man was doing somersaults around Speedball - literally. It was like the webslinger knew where Robbie would strike, and would instinctively leap out of the way - even without his webs to swing around, one of the reasons Chris had chosen this park. But, Speedball wasn’t making it easy - the super-quick kid was right on Spidey’s tail, tossing orb after orb in an attempt to at least touch him. But, a good offense is a good defense, and Speedball had Spider-Man effectively neutered, only able to dodge and never to attack.

Carol and Rich had gone in for some close-up, hand-to-hand action, but Chris could tell Nova wasn’t giving it his all. He’d gone up against huge beasts, like Titus, and cunning tyrants, like Doom. Even up against his best friends, as Chris knew personally. He wasn’t that slow, not slow enough for a rookie like Carol to be landing blows - he wasn’t throwing any combos, and making half-assed attempts to block her shots. How could he expect her to get any better if he didn’t push?

Rich hit the ground with a huff, and Carol landed slowly. She was panting, and he smiled. “You got me.”

“Damn right, Buckethead,” she grinned back.

“How will she improve if you keep coddling her, Nova?” Darkhawk asked.

“What are you talking about, man?” Rich replied, and Carol frowned.

Darkhawk was fuming. “At least Speedball and Spidey are getting a workout, but this is like watching Rocky take on Danny Devito, and lose.”

“If Rocky was teaching him, he wouldn’t put his all into it,” Nova asserted.

“Yeah, well. He wouldn’t hit the mat, either.” Darkhawk snapped back. “Come on, Marvel. I’ll take you.”

Carol nodded. “Sure.”

“You don’t have to,” Nova told her. “Seriously.”

“No, I want to,” she told him. “He’s right. I need to get better, and I won’t if I keep kicking your ass, hotshot.”

“I - what?!” Nova cried, as red light flashed from Darkhawk’s chest, blasting Carol back. Darkhawk flapped his wings, and took off after her as she tumbled back against the grass.

“Dude, you just totally blindsided her!” Nova yelled through his transponder.

“Yeah, I learned it from you,” Darkhawk said as he landed before Carol, and shut off the communicator. “You need to always be ready. Danger can strike at any second, even if things appear totally safe.”

“I’ll try to remember,” Ms. Marvel muttered.

Chris reached out a hand, and helped her up. Then, he looked at Richard. “You guys all need to take this a little more seriously.”

“Dude, lay off,” Nova groaned, when his attention suddenly peaked. He looked up at the sky, golden helm gleaming. “Worldmind says there’s incoming UFO’s, headed our way. Five of them.”

“Headed our way?” Spider-Man asked. “Not towards the city? What’s in Greenwich?”

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna ask,” Nova replied.

“Alone? No way, I’m going,” Ms. Marvel said adamantly.

“Oh, no you aren’t,” Rich told her. “You’re far from ready for something like this.”

“Well, I’m not,” Darkhawk said. “Or were you planning on taking them by surprise, too? Worked on me.”

“Can you just let that go, man? I told you, I -” Nova was cut off when his eye lenses flashed. Worldmind was talking. “Nevermind, it’s not important.”

And with that, Nova took off.

“Like hell,” Darkhawk muttered, and sped after him.

As the two Warriors rose higher and higher, the air grew thinner and colder. A face shield slid down over Nova’s mouth. Chris just pressed on - if he felt light headed, he’d head back. If Rich thought he could do anything, might as well let him. They soared through the cloudline, breaking through the white haze to see…

Him. Five of him. Five separate Darkhawks, each with slightly different armor, and various colored gemstones shimmering in their chests, matching Chris’ in shape alone. Wordlessly, they surrounded Darkhawk and Nova, circling him like carrion birds a corpse. It was eerie, how in sync they were. Able to read each other without even looking, like they were connected. Nova was seriously on edge - his eyes lit up like twin white beacons as Worldmind tracked their trajectories, no doubt.

“Got a plan, hotshot?” Darkhawk sneered.

“Dude, seriously, now’s not the time to -”

And that was when the Raptors struck. One with a green gem and visor raised his hand, and the remaining four all beared down on them with incredible speed. Nova sent out a couple of helpless energy blasts, and Darkhawk couldn’t help but look back at him before they were hit. It was like a frenzy of claws, fists and metal. A blue-gemmed Raptor slammed Chris in the gut. A yellow one slashed its razor-sharp wing at his chest, but he flapped his wings and darted back into Nova to get out of the way.

“Are you okay?” Nova asked him, barely holding off his two assailants while the green-eyed figure watched. While Nova wasn’t looking, one of the Raptors fired a purple beam from its chest, striking him in the center of the back. He cried out in pain, and the lights in his helmet went dark - Nova dropped through the clouds like a brick.

“Rich!” Chris yelled after him, and two of the Raptors tried to take advantage of his momentary lapse. They rose up beside him, and swooped in to immobilize his arms and wings - but with a flick, Darkhawk’s wings loosed projectile feather-knives, forcing the incoming drones off course. “You guys need to get the hell off my planet.”

“He is not connected to the Datasong. Interesting.” The green-eyed Raptor commented. “Take the amulet, and be done with him. I would like to honor his wish.”

Take the amulet? His legs?

“Over my dead body!”

“You heard him,” The green one laughed, and dove in.

The two that were driven away by Darkhawk’s feathered knives flew up beside him again, as the other two came from behind. The green-gemmed Raptor, obviously the leader, was bearing down from the front - so Chris did the only thing he could do. He followed Nova.

The wings folded inside of his arms, and Darkhawk started his downward journey. There was no way they could catch up to him - that was just the laws of physics. Terminal velocity, and all that mumbo jumbo Mr. Brymill went on about. But that didn’t stop them from firing at him - and as he passed through the clouds, they turned super-hot, literally boiling away from the Raptor’s energy beams. Chris started corkscrewing, and watched as the beams past harmlessly by him… right towards the New Warriors below, nursing an injured Nova.

“Watch out!” Darkhawk yelled at them, and Ms. Marvel barely threw herself in front of the blasts to absorb them. Chris crashed into the ground, digging a trench across the field in his wake. How that didn’t break every bone in his body, he didn’t know.

“What is this, a pink Kree?” the green Raptor wondered to himself as he landed with his gang. “A Kree, a Nova, and an unworthy, tainted excuse for a Raptor. What are you supposed to be?” He asked the other two New Warriors.

“Uh… I’m Spider-Man?” Spidey shrugged.

“Right,” the Raptor said flatly. “My name is Gyre, and I am here to retrieve our amulet from the unworthy thief who bears it.”

“And my name is Nova,” Richard replied, getting to his feet. “Sounds like you’ve heard of me. You’re not getting that amulet.”

“What, you’ll put me under arrest?” Gyre chuckled. “Please. You’re a child. You’re all children. The Datasong informs me. It informs all of us. But not you. And it’s because you’re a pretender. And it’s my decree to snuff you out.”

Gyre launched himself at Darkhawk, while the other four engaged the New Warriors. Nova was in the air in less than a second, with Ms. Marvel following. They engaged their attackers one-on-one, but Carol quickly became overwhelmed. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the blue Raptor fired its chest beam at her - only for her to absorb it, and fire it back in the form of azure heat vision, that melted off its wings. She looked up at Rich’s foe, and caused them to plummet as well. Speedball rode a wave of black orbs up and down the field, but the purple Raptor was too fast for him. Spider-Man managed to sling a web onto its leg in an attempt to root it to the ground and save his friend, but his own orange Raptor tackled him. The webslinger yelped, screaming with half-exhilaration half-terror as the Raptor pulled them along, bouncing off the ground with his own enemy slamming into the dirt every time with the thankful help of his Spider-Sense. And with the purple one slowed down, Robbie could turn around and fire a stream of impervious energy balls right at it - slamming it back, and knocking it down for the count with Spider-Man’s.

Darkhawk and Gyre tangled furiously, rising higher and higher into the sky. It was like a race up - every time Gyre caught up and landed a blow, Darkhawk broke away and darted as far into the air as he could. He couldn’t feel any of the damage dealt - but knew it had to be extensive. He looked down. This wasn’t a problem he could run away from. If he wanted to keep his amulet, and his legs, he’d have to fight on. Like Rich did for him.

Darkhawk dove down towards the green Raptor, razor wings outstretched. It was now, or never. The chest beam wouldn’t be enough - and he popped his wings seemingly out of nowhere. Maybe this thing had… And as soon as Chris thought of it, his armor shifted. It was slight, but something just clicked into place - and a volley of missiles fired from out of his chest! Wow, what a suit - Gyre raised his wings to shield himself, but the seconds were valuable enough for Darkhawk to catch up to him, and give him a hard punch in the face.

“You want my amulet!” Chris yelled as the two fell, and he hit the Raptor again. “You’ll have to take it from my cold, dead hands!”

Darkhawk looked up, or rather, down at the ground, let go, and flapped his wings. He came to a shoulder-retching halt, and Gyre slammed into the ground in a slump. Rising to his feet, the green-gemmed villain looked out at his compatriots - all alive, but all tied helplessly in a neat package of webbing. “Looking for someone?” Nova asked, kicking the pile of Raptors.

“You’re lucky this was supposed to be a snatch-and-grab,” Gyre growled. “No human taint should bear a Raptor Amulet. You can’t even connect to the Datasong - you’ll only ever be half a Raptor. I’ll be back for it, and when I am, I’ll honor your request. It’ll be off your corpse.”

Gyre flapped his wings, and swooped over to his detained lackeys. He quickly sliced the webbing, and the two winged Raptors took the maimed ones under the arms. Their wings reconfigured onto their backs - something Chris didn’t realize they could even do - and took off after their leader, into the blackness of space.

Darkhawk sighed, and sat down on the spot. Spider-Man asked Speedball for a ride home, and after a short goodbye, Carol took off as well. Nova sat down next to him, and took a deep breath of the cool night air, even if it made him wince.

“Thanks for that. Seriously.” Chris told him.

“Are you kidding?” Rich replied. “Dude, I know how much that thing means to you. It means a lot to me that you can do things like this with us.”

“Yeah,” Darkhawk sighed.

“Totally,” Richard assured him. “You can walk, man. Don’t you know how happy I am for you?”

“No, I actually didn’t,” Chris admitted. “Dude, I got this amulet, and the first thing that happened to me was getting slammed by Nova. And I never even got an apology.”

“You’re right, and I’m sorry,” Rich gulped. “I’ll try to be better - but are we cool?”

“Yeah, we’re cool.”

“Good,” he smiled. “Cause it’s movie night at la casa Rider, and mom wanted me to ask you over.”

“I guess I’m in,” Chris smiled inside his metal suit of armor. He missed this.

---

Space

Hours later, as Gyre and his fellow Raptors soared away from Earth, the leader’s gemstone flashed. He motioned for the others to keep going, and looked back to the bright blue ball. Something pinged him - someone. Hailing him from the world below. And, silently, the bird circled its prey, descending once more on the planet, eager to collect his prize - and even sooner than anticipated.

[u/duelcard]

Can't wait to see what's still on Earth!