Issue #25

Author's Note: For those of you who mentioned it: Yes, the Hulk is a mutate. But does that not make him a human? The challenge didn't say 'base humans', it just said 'humans'. Which meant that mutates, mutants, Inhumans, or even Atlanteans could have been part of the challenge.

"Talon and Kid Omega, distract the Hulk. Cylobel, shut down Wasp's mind. Cat and Kraven, you need to take out the spider, hawk, and captain. I'll take out Ant-Man before supporting you. Split!" Aero ordered

The group followed her orders without hesitation. Cylobel was the first to act as she made sure to stop Wasp from using her powers while also trying to send out a static signal to both the minds of the other Avengers.

Kraven summoned a spiritual rhino around her body before absorbing it and charging forward. Black Cat was right on her tail while using her allies for cover from the bullets and arrows being fired at them.

Talon and Kid Omega also began to move. The latter fired psionic bullets as they ran towards the east in order to not attract the Hulk towards their allies. They knew that their main task was to distract him at the moment.

That left Aero and Cylobel to deal with Wasp and Ant-Man before helping out the others.

The first half of the battle went smoothly and according to Aero's plan. While Aero took out Any-Man and Wasp in a few blows, Black Cat and Kraven managed to bring down Hawkeye while making sure to keep Captain America and Black Widow on their toes.

Once Aero was done on her side, she went over to support the other two girls while Cylobel began to help out Talon and Kid Omega against the rampaging Hulk.

With Aero backing them up, the trio was able to swiftly take out Black Widow and Captain America.

Aero turned her head to look at the timer above them.

'4:27. We have 10 minutes to take down the Hulk to beat the Hellions' time and level challenge.'

But the Hulk was the entire reason that this challenge was Level 5. Level 5 was a threat that the students were supposed to be unable to beat in order to show them that they were not the best and the strongest. At least not yet.

But sadly for Ororo and Scott who organized it like this, they were underestimating Jack's team. He had been given the problem children and turned them into monsters that could crush all that stood in their way.

Take their battle with the Hulk for example.

Talon was the tank against the creature. As the battle progressed, it got angrier and angrier, meaning stronger and stronger. It was only Talon that could stand to be fighting against the Hulk without dying from injuries.

Aero, Black Cat, and Kraven worked as the support. Or at least that is what they normally did. Because the Hulk was very resistant to injury, their roles were closer to being distractions and crowd control.

Cylobel and Kid Omega who were usually the crowd control had turned into the main support for Laura since they were capable of dealing mental damage to Hulk. The pair were slowly, but surely, wearing him down in order to return the Hulk to his Bruce Banner self. Talon's claws allowed her to dig into his skin and injure him though which kept the main attention on her though.

What Aero was hoping to accomplish in 10 minutes, took the entire team 2 hours to complete. But at the end of the day, they were able to bring down the Hulk. More accurately, Quentin did.

Instead of fighting the Hulk and trying to wear him down, he realized that there was someone better for that. So he reached past the Hulk and into the mind of Bruce Banner. He made Bruce feel calm and steady. And since the two minds were connected, it transferred over to the Hulk. And with this tactic, was the Inquisitors' victory.

"Congratulations to the Inquisitors. They have completed the Level 5 Human challenge in 2 hours, 17 minutes, and 13 seconds."

The team left the stage feeling frustrated. Although they beat the most difficult level, they weren't sure how the time would play into their victory.

After the Inquisitors left the field, the next to come up were the New Mutants. This group also chose Level 4 Mutants like the Hellions but had to face the 4 Horsemen of Apocalypse.

The team did slightly worse than the Hellions, finishing their round at 18 minutes but they also 'lost' one of their members in the crossfire. It was obvious that the Hellions outperformed them by a good amount when this was taken into consideration.

The other training squads went after them but none performed as high as the Inquisitors or as fast as the Hellions. The closest was the Paladins who were slightly slower than the New Mutants but did not lose any of their members. It was obvious that the final outcome would be between the pair though.

Once all the matches were over, Ororo flew above all the students while holding a microphone in her hands.

"In third place, we have the Paladins, advised by Satellizer L Frost whose field leader is Armor!"

"In second place, we have the Hellions, advised by Emma Frost whose field leader is Hellion!"

"Which means that our winner of the team even for field day is the Inquisitors! Advised by Jack Frost and whose field leader is Aero!"