Marvel: Quest System

I walk back to the viewing room with hollow footsteps. When I entered the booth Peter was sitting there, saying nothing. The atmosphere was cold.

"That- that was an intense fight, wasn't it?" I stutter out, trying to lighten the mood, but it doesn't change. Even I myself knew it wouldn't. My voice was clearly shaking.

Peter looks at me with an empty look. "Y-you killed him." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. 

"Look, I had to. If I didn't- " I start, but I get interrupted.

"I don't fucking care if you had to! You killed someone! Someone with their own family! Someone with their own hopes and dreams!" Peter barks out.

"Look, Pete, this is dif-" 

"A fucking life is a life! There aren't any exceptions!"

Deep down, I know he's right.

I break. "YOU THINK I WANTED TO FUCKING KILL HIM?" My voice cracks with raw emotion. "I HAD NO CHOICE, OK?!?!" I yell at Pete, who flinched back.

He's never seen me like this before. 

"Listen to me. He was a secret agent of..." I wonder if I should tell him the truth.

"What the hell justifies killing someone, Alex?" Peter demands, his voice sharp.

I hesitate. "You don't want to know."

"Try me."

I meet his eyes. "He was Hydra."

Peter freezes. His anger shifts into confusion. "Like… Nazi Hydra? I thought Cap took them out."

"No. Not all of them." I say quietly, fearing that there might be a camera somewhere in the room. "Most of them are still alive, infiltrated into various places of power, like a parasite. The person I killed, Serpent, was an agent."

"He probably joined this competition to look over the recruit, Flash, while also looking for new recruits. Like us. If I didn't kill him, and Hydra found out about our identities, they would do anything. and I mean anything to get us to join." I started explaining my thought process to Peter, and now I am a bit calmer.

"Hydra? Like, the special weapons division of the nazis that the captain sacrificed his life to blow up? And what could they do to us to recruit us, that would warrant his death?" Peter, still dazed on why Hydra was mentioned, asked again.

"Well, Cap isn't really-" I was about to tell him that Cap was alive, but I decided against that.

"-Nevermind. Anyways, yeah that hydra. And as for your second question, I can't even list all of the things they might do, but the main ones would probably be killing our family, killing our friends, or locking us somewhere to mindwash into loyal agents."

Peter gasped. "They wouldn't-"

"Yes, they would. When have I ever been wrong? As for the serpent having dreams and a family, he's a mindwashed puppet for Hydra. I don't fucking like it, but it's better for all of us if he dies."

"W-what about his family? His friends?" Peter asked, fearing the answer.

"Most hydra grunts' first mission after being brainwashed is erasing all connections they had to their past lives. Most of them are either orphans Hydra picked up from the streets, or they killed their whole family." 

Peter looked shocked and scared.

"Look, I understand how you feel right now. I know it's fucked up, and I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't necessary. But it was for our safety. Him or us and our family and friends. I've never had a family, so my friend's safety is at the top of my priorities."

It seemed like Peter understood, and somewhat forgave me. However, it seemed like he still needed some time to think through all of the information that was just given to him. 

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The next few fights flew by. Of course, me and Peter won all of ours, even though we might have struggled from time to time. Our enemies were strong, but all of them seemed to be used to martial arts fights, and not real fights, giving me and Peter an advantage, as that was how we always practiced. Using everything we had.

For the Quarterfinals, Peter fought a massive wrestler, covered in bulging muscles and scars. He was wearing nothing but some red Speedos and had a short mohawk. He kind of looked like Hog Rider if he was white. I forgot his code name though.

He kept trying to reach for Pete with his tree trunk arms to crush Peter into submission, but Peter was too agile. He just kept jumping, ducking, and rolling out of the way, while always remembering to throw a few jabs here and there. After a few close calls, Peter eventually tired him out and knocked him out with a well-placed flurry of punches and kicks.

My next opponent, a tall, well-built Japanese fighter in a white gi and red headband, stepped forward with a confident grin. He was really strong too. His codename was DRAGON, and I can see why.

Just like I always do, I immediately rushed in face to face and started brawling with him, and he actually grinned back. He used what seemed like a special type of karate, putting all of his power into each of his blows. After trading a few blows, I realized it wasn't going to be that easy, and made some distance with him. And do you know what he fucking did? He ran up and hit me with a flying spinning sidekick! Well, shit. I guess I just have to tough it out.

We just started going at it, DRAGON kept hitting me with strong punches and kicks over and over, while I got in as close as possible to nullify the kicks, and man out the punches, a little more bearable now that they have less windup on them. I hit him with elbow after elbow, knee after knee. 

Every breath felt like fire in my ribs, and my arms were getting sluggish. I was bruised in multiple locations, and I needed to finish this. Fast.

Suddenly, DRAGON coiled his legs, building up power, said some shit in Japanese that sounded like "Shouryuken!!!", and jumped up, throwing one of the strongest uppercuts that I have ever felt disgrace my jaw.

However, since I knew that I couldn't dodge this one, I decided to counter. As my feet left the ground due to the uppercut, I brought my knee up and crashed it up straight into his chin with all my power, using all my muscles in my legs and also the momentum he gave me with that uppercut. He also went flying.

The crack of my knee against his jaw echoed through the room. He hit the ground like a sack of bricks, his limbs twitching once before going still. I panted, barely standing myself. Holy shit, that worked. I guess DRAGON wasn't ready for the counter huh.

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Next, for the semifinals, we found a duo that was the same age as us. There were two Korean teenagers, one specializing in taekwondo that I fought, and one specializing in karate that Peter fought. They were both really impressive. Whoever said that taekwondo was weak in real fights can suck my dick.

That monkey (not being racist his codename was actually "MONKEY") hit me with a 3kick combo straight into my cranium, and I swear I felt my brain shake. I would've been knocked out for sure if my skull wasn't so thick. However, his constitution wasn't that good, as he got knocked out after I hit him with like 3 punches. He got me at least 50 times during the same time as well though.

The other one that Peter fought, codenamed BULL was also really strong, being a well-rounded fighter, each of his punches sending Peter flying, almost knocking him out. However, it seemed like BULL's attacks damaged himself as much as they did Peter, putting intense strain on his body. It seemed with every strike, his muscles convulsed, his knuckles ripped open, and his breathing became more and more ragged.

As the fight dragged on, both Peter and BULL were completely winded. And like usual, Pete ended the fight by finding a weak spot and following up with a flurry of attacks.

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After our last fights, we waited in our viewing room preparing for the last fight.

Peter looks at me, still breathing hard from his last fight. There's no anger left in his eyes, just focus.

"You ready?" he asks, cracking his knuckles.

I exhale. "Not even a little."

He grins. "Good. That makes two of us."

After the quarterfinals and the semifinals, it was time for the finals. It was time for Alex vs Peter.

(a/n I condensed the fights a bit cuz I thought this arc was getting too drawn out and long, so I just shortened all of the fights into one episode. hope it still hit hard though. Can you guess who the fighters were? MONKEY and BULL are from the same anime verse, while the other two are from a video game verse.)