13 Determining the Hierachy

Ben's rocky face seemed to freeze before his eyes widened in shock and he stammered slightly. He wasn't quite used to this kind of reaction, even people who he'd just saved still looked at him with weird looks.

"A-ah, well, that's good and all, kid, but can we get the lesson underway?" his gravelly voice seemed a bit happy but mostly it seemed slightly flustered.

I instantly stopped shaking his hand and backed up a little, "Sure, take it away Mr. Grimm!" my smile never left my face and neither did my enthusiasm. I was just happy I'd get to train under a guy like Ben Grimm.

"Ahem, well okay, let's get started then..." Ben's slightly dazed behavior disappeared instantly, replaced by a serious look as he looked over behind the group, "Johnny, get over here, will ya?! You too, Logan, Cap,"

I instantly looked behind myself and saw 3 people walking over. One of them I was already familiar with. 6'2", blond-ish hair and blue eyes, it couldn't be anyone other than Cap. Next to him was a man dressed in ordinary clothes, but even still, I could see he was built like a brick sh*thouse. His hair was wild and black while his eyes were light brown but they were in a constant glare. At that to his 6'1" height and you had quite an intimidating guy. Well, that's Logan or Wolverine for ya.

Finally, I looked to see the shortest of the three. He was around 5'10" and he didn't seem very muscular compared to the other two. He had blond hair like Cap but unlike Cap's golden blond, this guy's hair was the near white kind of blond. He had a confident smile on his face and a playful look in his blue eyes. He gave off a playboy kinda vibe. Like the Thing said, this was Johnny Storm or better known by his superhero name, The Human Torch.

"Ah, calm down big guy, we're just making an entrance~" Johnny laughed before floating up with his pyrokinetic powers, turned himself into his full-flame body before doing a few loops in the air before landing right next to Ben and therefore me.

I could hear Logan sigh as he walked over and I gotta go with him on this one; Johnny is a bit much sometimes.

Soon enough Cap and Logan were standing next to Ben, looking at the group I was in. Cap had a knowing smile on his face as he nodded at me.

I nodded back, a smile on my face because I knew what they were about to have us do.

Cap took a step forward, "Okay! Listen up everybody!" everyone looked at Cap who'd seemingly entered his staff-sergeant mode, "Today, we're going to have a little tournament to see who's the strongest in this group," not only I was getting excited from the quickening heartbeats I could feel around me.

Cap looked at She-Hulk, Luke and some others before speaking again, "Some of you have already been training since last year, so you'll have the advantage but I'll tell you now...Don't get too cocky because the new kids might give you a few surprises!" Cap ended this with a shout before we all heard a click and the area behind us started to shake.

From the center of the ground came an elevated area about 15m by 15m. It seemed to be the place we were going to fight.

Everyone was looking at the stage when we heard a gruff and tired voice behind us, "Hurry up then, ya bunch of brats...Line up next to the arena, we need to get these fights outta the way..." I took a glance behind me just like many others of the group and saw the wild-looking Logan grumpily trudging over to us.

Not wanting to be unnecessarily difficult, I just went on my merry way and walked toward the arena. The others soon followed and we had lined up next to the arena.

Just my luck that I was between Gwen and Miles who were looking at me pretty hard right now. Obviously, they were trying to dig for my secrets but it'd never work. Why? Because Logan had my back, duh.

"You," Logan looked at me, pointing his finger at me. I looked at him before pointing my own finger at me, "Yes, you, now get up on the stage, bub. You seemed pretty eager to fight, so I wanna see why..." one of the other 'teachers' must have given him a look because he gave a small grunt.

I, though I knew the guy couldn't beat me in raw strength, did what he asked as his fighting experience was enough to put me under the table a few times over. If I wanted to learn anything from him, I better stay on his good...no, his 'I'll tolerate you' list.

Standing on the stage I looked at Logan, my posture asking him when he was gonna give me an opponent. Obviously in a 'respectful' way.

"Hmph...Luke! Come up and see what the new kids got, okay?" Logan looked at the tall burly kid I saw next to Jennifer earlier.

Luke instantly nodded his head before walking up onto the stage.

He seemed to take what Cap said earlier to heart and instantly got into a sort of street-fighting stance.

I casually stood there, before tilting my head, "Your power's to do with defense right? You said to..." I looked over at the green-woman, "...Jennifer, right? Yeah, any way you said your defense was your best part, so I guess it must be your power," I raised an eyebrow, looking curiously at Luke who chuckled at my question.

"Yeah, defense is my power. Bullets, knives, explosions, whatever you got, I can take it...Now let's get the fight started, newbie," he slowly moved his way over to me, his body tensing up ever so slightly.

"Well, if you want to, I'll oblige..." my voice faded off as I rushed at him. To others, I must have seemingly disappeared because Luke had wide eyes as he saw me practically appear in front of him.

Before he could react, I slammed my foot down onto his leading foot, grounding both of our feet into the arena about an inch or two and sending a myriad of cracks with us at the center of them.

I brought my arm to my side, letting my knuckles face the ground before I swung my fist upward with the necessary strength to give even Luke's defenses a hard time.

*BANG!*

My fist hit Luke's chin with enough force that a concussive blast of air shot out from the point of contact and blew everyone's hair around like some kind of turbulent storm. Some of the physically weaker people had to raise their arms as the wind was so strong it was especially hurtful to their eyes.

Luke, on the other hand, was in a much worse situation. His head shot back before letting out a dangerous crack, like a whip being cracked. His head stayed backward for a little bit before finally falling forward again.

His eyes were threatening to close and his eyes looked incredibly dazed. But the dazed look couldn't hide the pure confusion and shock floating about his eyes.

Seeing the confusion, I felt like I should enlighten him.

"Don't worry, Luke, your defense didn't fail you, in fact, it caused your downfall," I smiled at him, "See, your bones, skin, and muscles have tremendous defense but your brain, your brain doesn't have that defense. So, that punch of mine just now rattled your brain back and forth off of the inside of your skull like a ping-pong ball between two professional players, essentially stunning you or giving you a concussion, I don't know which really..." I finished with a laugh.

Luke's eyes had cleared up immensely by now and his confusion had been cleared. So, the first thing he did was throw a punch at me.

I slowly tilted my head out the way. You'd think after the strength I'd just shown him, he'd give up...Guess the answer to my earlier question is Concussion...

His fist shot past my head and I waited for his punch to fully extend before I grabbed his wrist with one hand and the back of his neck with another. To finish it off I swept his legs out from under him and proceeded to slam his head into the ground with enough force to further the cracks on the ground from earlier.

*BANG!*

I released my grip on him before standing up fully again and looking over at Logan.

The man in question was looking at me while slowly nodding his head.

"Good job, newbie. Quick, efficient, and ruthless. Seems like you've got the skills to back up your eagerness from earlier...Pick Luke up and bring him off the arena, we'll call for some medical assistance," Logan's gruff voice was filled with praise as he looked at me but still, that grumpy glare he had on his face never left.

Not paying any mind to it, I picked up my unfortunate opponent before dragging him across the floor and back over to the line.

I got a few looks, mostly of apprehension but some were of aggression. The ones of aggression came from two people.

One of them was Jennifer, which was understandable, she seemed to be friends with Luke and I did just manhandle the poor guy. But the other was from the short black-haired girl who noticed my appearance first when I first walked over to the group earlier.

I didn't quite understand her reason for glaring at me but I'd keep my eye on her for now.

I dropped Luke over by his original place, obviously next to Jennifer, before walking back over to my own spot.

Logan set up the next match which was between two guys I knew from the X-Men Comics, Robert "Bobby" Drake and Scott Summers. When I looked around some more I saw a cute redhead holding her hands to her chest while staring at Scott.

I guess that must be Jean Grey, huh? Seems like she's already in love/in a relationship with Scott. Good for those two.

Sadly I was brought out my thinking by a poke to the side of my face.

I squinted my eyes and looked to my side to see Gwen looking up at me with her icy blue eyes.

"So, let's say we weren't superpowered like you, would you have told us you had powers?" she seemed a bit miffed which I found...odd. So, I shot back instantly at her.

"Would you have told me? We met today, Gwen. And while I do admit all four of us hit it off really well, I don't think we were at the point where I'd share all my secrets with you, right?" my voice had a bit of an edge to it. I didn't mean for it to come out as sharp as it did but I guess my pesky emotions were getting in the way again.

Gwen seemed a bit taken aback by what I said but Miles' hand rested on her shoulder before he chimed in, "Michael's right, Gwen. I know it feels a bit weird that he had something he didn't tell us but we weren't gonna tell him either, so let it slide, okay?" she looked into Miles' pleading amber eyes before sighing and turning back to me.

"Yeah, he's right...Sorry, Michael, it's just I don't like it when people lie to me, so don't lie from now on, okay?!" her cute face looked really serious which only served to emphasize it.

Nonetheless, I rolled my eyes, "I can't promise that, Gwen, there are some things I'm not ready to speak about...but if it's something as simple as 'I ate the last piece of cake' or 'I split milk all over your laptop' then sure, I'm fine with that," I smiled at her and she smiled back before she lifted her hand up in a fist bump.

Haah~ She really is a tomboy...Not that that's a bad thing~

I replied to her fist bump with my own and Miles' seemed super excited for some reason. He fist-bumped Gwen before holding his hand up to me. I sighed before fist bumping him.

Though I sighed, I was glad Miles was around. He had a hyper energy around him that made me feel...relaxed, I guess?

Anyway, the fighting had ended by this point and Scott walked down from the arena ground with a slightly winded Bobby.

(A/N - I'm gonna call Iceman Bobby rather than Robert, it just fits better for me)

"Now, Rogue, get up here and..." Logan looked around before his eyes landed on a specific person, "Jennifer, get up here and gain back some of the dignity you seniors should have," Logan chuckled a little as he looked over at Luke who was now up and was holding an ice pack on his head. This seemed to piss Jennifer off as she once again glared over at me, her eyes glowing in a menacing green.

A pang of worry spread throughout my body as I thought about Anna going up against THE She-Hulk. But that worry was quickly suppressed when I remembered the nature of Anna's powers. If everything goes right, she should absorb Jennifer's powers and empower herself. Then the fight should be much fairer.

Though, I could tell that wasn't how things were gonna go.