Avengers Arena (2013 series) #3

Arcade has kidnapped 16 teen superheroes to his latest Murder World appearing to be on an island. In the 1st day spread over the 1st 2 issues he killed Mettle of Avengers Academy and Red Raven died trying to escape.

Now it's 8 days later and Cammi (Camille Benally) is still hiding in a tree. She tells us that attacks started on the 4th night. The 1st 1 wasn't far away from her, and we see a flashback to Chase Stein telling his fellow Runaway Nico Minoru that someone was stalking him in the woods. The 2nd she missed by minutes, and a flashback shows us the Braddock Academy encampment which was firebombed and Apex (Katy Bashir) is complaining that Nara the Atlantean must have been asleep instead of keeping watch. Last night at the Av Academy camp X-23 (Laura Kinney) did keep watch and no attack happened.

Tonight Cammi is watching over the AvAc camp where Juston Seyfert is supposed to be on watch but he's spending the time as usual trying to get his Sentinel to work. And this reboot does wake it up in time for it to warn him of an approaching hostile. Juston confronts them and doesn't seem worried but Cammi can't see who it is so she leaps from tree to tree to get a better view. She only sees the Sentinel collapsing in on itself, apparently taking Juston down with it. Cammi runs away and someone follows her. She sees it's Darkhawk (Chris Powell) and attacks *him* with her gun but he's unhurt.

We get a flashback to Cammi being interrogated by Special Agent Abigail Brand in the orbiting SWORD HQ called the Peak. Brand studied a report on Cammi's DNA which proved that she was nothing more than a 13-yr old human girl named Camille Benally who disappeared from Coot's Bluff Alaska 2 years ago during an incident involving extraterrestrials. But it didn't explain how she could do the things she'd been recorded doing, including a zero G handstand in space while siphoning fuel from the power cells of a Shi'ar War Hawk, but then her pirate companions abandoned her when SWORD troops showed up. When they arrested her she shattered the forearm of 1 and almost killed another. And there are other things over the last 18 months that add up to an impressive intergalactic criminal record. But there was also footage of her helping save the universe before that in the Annihilation War alongside Drax The Destroyer, Nova and Star-Lord. At this point in the interview Cammi reacted to the sight of Drax.

Now Cammi recognises Darkhawk and reckons that he's got his weapon only set on stun. She obviously doesn't have the power to scrunch a Sentinel. They decide to trust each other. Chris says there were 3 sets of tracks out there and he happened to pick hers. He suggests they team up to follow the other 2 tracks. But 1st she asks why *he*'s been dragged into this when he's obviously much older than the others. He figures it's because he was more famous when he *was* a teen. She responds by telling him that they're standing in a field of incinerator mines and she uses the command "waldorf" to disarm them. She says they're not her mines but she did lead him here into a trap.

They split up to each follow 1 of the other tracks, and agree to meet back here at dawn. Cammi's trail takes out into snow where her tech senses a buried heat signature. Then X-23 erupts out of the snow to attack her. She disarms the girl but then recognises by scent that Cammi's not the mystery attacker, and she apologises before stalking off on the hunt.

Back in the SWORD interrogation room Brand threatened to hand Cammi over to 1 of the alien races she'd pissed off. But she could stay on Earth if she could convince her that she wouldn't be trouble. But Cammi said she'd rather take the alien punishments that go back home. She was about to explain that back home she was a nobody who got no respect ... when she got teleported to Murder World.

Now remembering that she vents a scream and fires her gun in the air. And then removes her spacesuit and starts doing press-ups. Apex and Becca (Death Locket) watch her then leave.

Meanwhile Darkhawk has found someone at the end of *his* trail. Chris readies all his armament but then his armour and amulet turn against him. The amulet leaves his body trailing a chain and winds up dangling from a tree.