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It's the first day of school at Avengers Academy; students moved in over the weekend and have settled into their dorms. The campus had been full of crying parents, some of them famous heroes, others ordinary people. The wealthy students made their way on helicopters and private jets; whereas the students without as much might've taken a bus or a car. No matter what though, campus doesn't truly feel alive until the start of the year carnival. Put on by the faculty, it's a celebration for the beginning of the school year - and meant to help ease the homesickness and nerves students might be experiencing.

Tomorrow, students will be auditioning with their powers in front of the faculty - primarily, those serving as coaches for the thirteen teams Avengers Academy will assemble to compete in the Contest of Champions. For the past two years, the Young Avengers have won the Contest of Champions and there's no real reason to assume that they won't do it again. But just in case, the Academy wants to make sure the other twelve teams are as strong as they can be. The top prize is one million dollars, but more importantly, major superhero teams like the Avengers tend to have scouts present at the matches, to determine what promising young heroes might one day join their ranks.

Because whether or not the students want to be a hero, that is the ultimate goal of Avengers Academy - to make new champions who can protect those who cannot protect themselves. They aren't trying to make well adjusted accountants or lawyers or doctors with emotionally healthy, trauma free lives.

The worst case scenario for the school wouldn't be a student going into super villainy - no, it would be to amount to nothing.

They don't put that on the brochures.





@Natsu: Your Trick or Treat prize is here! Mary Sue gets hit by a bicycle on her way to the school carnival. She'll have some bruises and a small cut on her arm.

@Kirah: Your Trick or Treat prize is here! That morning, there was a package outside of her dorm room. It was filled with her favorite snacks and candy. There's a note that says 'xoxo mommy :)' on it.

@Nallore: Your Trick or Treat prize is here! Poor Diana has a BAD acne breakout today. Yikes.

@Trainerblue192: Your Naughty or Nice prize is here! That morning when leaving the dorm room, there was a note taped onto the door addressed to Dorian. In messy handwriting, it said: 'i want to wear your skin. <3 luv ur secret admirer'

@BlueSky44: Your Naughty or Nice prize is here! The first PC Zelda interacts with, she will manifest images of the first fear on their CS.

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April had been looking forward to returning to school pretty much since the last day of school last year. Her outfit had been picked out weeks in advance, and she had texted pictures of it to both Dorian and Danny for their approval - even though they were in New Orleans and she had been in DC, she wasn't about to go without their expert styling advice. She had spent a good deal of time that summer studying past Contest of Champions challenges, creating a binder where she cataloged just about everything any team had been asked to do, and why they had succeeded or failed. She had forced her parents to critique her audition performance at least seven times, and she was already thinking about what she might wear to junior prom. She knew exactly what she wanted to achieve and how she was going to get there.

And it all started here, today, at Avengers Academy at the beginning of her junior year. She had requested to live with the same roommate she had last year, Mads Crane - a real life Sabrina the Teenage Witch. April was secretly hoping that Mads would invite her to dance naked in the woods - witches did that in the movies and it looked like SO MUCH FUN! And by some stroke of fortune, Mads' and April's room was right next door to the room of her besties, Danny and Dory.

April's hair was down and loose today, and her makeup was applied to give a natural look, just with a little more definition to her eyes. She wore her favorite pink crop-top sweater, high rise blue jeans with a belt, and tall textured black boots. Today was the first day of the year, meaning that they didn't have to wear uniforms - tomorrow, though, she'd be wearing the same clothes as just about everyone else. If she was going to land her first girlfriend, she'd have to make a good impression today.

She glanced down at her nails, noticing that the light pink nail polish was chipping slightly on her left pinky. Her eye twitched slightly in annoyance. What was the point of applying base coat, two coats of color, and then top coat if it was just going to chip off the next day?! "Okay, so after we get lunch, I vote we check out the fortune telling tent. I gotta know if we're going to be on the same team this year. And also, when I'm going to finally get a girlfriend. I can't get to my senior year without having kissed a girl - I'll kill myself first." April pouted slightly, as the line for the food truck moved forward slightly, and she looked at her besties, Danny and Dory, waiting for a response - but not before continuing. "I mean, not actually, but it would really fucking suck y'know? Ooo and then maybe after fortune telling, we go try out trivia? Or maybe that photo shoot area drama's set up? We could change into costumes or stay in our fits now, I think we look great either way."

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Percy wasn't necessarily a huge fan of carnivals - somehow, with roughly a hundred students present, there still managed to be lines for just about every activity. He hated waiting in lines. And he didn't want to make small talk with anyone - he'd rather rip out a vein with his teeth. Nor did he feel the need to go track down his sister and hang out with her and her friends - he hated the idea of just being her tagalong. No, he was perfectly content to sit underneath on a bench underneath a tree in the shade, reading a book. He had a pre-translation version of the Iliad with him today, and the ancient Greek was challenging, but he was slowly parsing his way on through it. His StarkPods were in his ears, letting the soft tones of one of Taylor Swift's masterpieces - You're On Your Own, Kid.

Of course, Percy had to look impeccable - for himself, not for anyone else. He had changed up his usual hairstyling for the first day, going with a messy, tousled look - one that showed off the natural curls that he typically hid. He had selected a white dress shirt with a blue, floral pattern on it - partnered with his black jeans and black crushed velvet jacket, the shirt drew the eye by design. And with the first few buttons of the shirt undone, his bare chest peaking out ever so slightly, the overall ensemble was chic, seductive, and classy all at once - exactly as he intended.

He would have continued happily reading and avoiding wasting his time on making 'friends' or whatever this carnival was meant to encourage, had his stomach not begun to growl at him. He sighed, lowering his book slightly as he eyed the line at the food trucks. It was only going to get longer the more he waited. He regretted that he hadn't brought any sunglasses with him - it would've helped to make him look more unapproachable. "We need a new plague," Percy muttered darkly, getting up from his spot.

More people were flocking towards the food trucks, all probably summoned by a rumbling in their stomach. Ordinarily, Percy would've just walked on over there. But he really hated lines - so, so much. They tried his patience and he wasn't particularly known for being patient. The air shimmered and there was a slight ringing as Percy thrust himself through space-time, intending on materializing at the end of the line for food -

Instead, he reappeared and slammed right into someone. Percy hit the ground hard, landing on his back. As the stars cleared from his eyes, he looked straight up into a dreamy pair of green eyes. The pierced ear caught his attention next. Percy didn't know it, but he had crashed into none other than Dorian Gray - the real life individual, not the fictional character. He was somewhat dazzled.

Percy scrambled back up to his feet, flustered and embarrassed - not that he'd allow anyone to tell. "Sorry about that."

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The closer they moved towards the start of the school year, the less Dorian could stand still. Countless times he was sitting on his bed, leg shaking up and down, Impatiently watching the clock display on his desk. Sometimes he'd simply lay upside down just so that he wouldn't have to move so much, but mostly he gamed aggressively in an attempt to bypass the time. The week leading up to the school year he'd already begun to pack his belongings. His first day drip was hanging in his closet undisturbed hoping it was good enough to catch a boy's attention. Seriously, seventeen years and not a single boyfriend? His parents were a cute couple and all but he hoped he didn't have to meet a departed soul in the Astral Plane just to find love.

Luckily for him and Danni, it wasn't a long trip back to Los Angeles. With his Dad being able to create portals directly to the school, all they needed to do was cross the threshold and unload. Of Course that morning was chaos of its own accord. Dorian had woken up early, the pre-school jitters hitting him hard as he went into a full gay panic second guessing his outfit while freaking out about whether the rouge-ing on his cheeks was cute or if he needed to cover it up somehow. He has no doubts that The Kingstons could hear his screaming from across the hall. By the end of it he was practically dragging his Dad and Appa out of bed telling them they needed to move faster because he just had to see April again. It's been a whole summer Ugh. Parents.

The time had finally come! They were at Avengers Academy once again for their Junior year and the Double D's were dorming together. That meant a full coffee bar with most any roast imaginable, multiple ways to brew it, and late nights of nothing but fun and excitement with the rest of the gang. Dorian breathed in the air, taking a long inhale before slowly exhaling through his mouth. "Ah AA 'ow I missed you, chère." he said as he wiped away an imaginary tear. Of Course he'd said his goodbyes, and he'd miss both his parents deeply, but he was seventeen he needed to live a little…away from them. He was certain they didn't mind as it gave them more…well them time!

Dorian's hair was nicely combed over, a bit of a departure from his sometimes lazier style. His soft curls peeked through just at the bangs where they'd curled right atop his nose. He'd decidedly wore a bright long yellow button up shirt, 100% cotton ofcourse, with a pure black V-neck undershirt which was tucked underneath a pair of dark wash jeans and a black belt with silver buckle to help the colors pop a bit more. The clothing was more saturated and bright than anything you'd find in The America's, though it helped to have connections. He had a silver ring placed on his left pinky finger and opted for a small silver hoop for the day. He knew the first day held a Carnival for the students, and sometimes that meant fighting rinks. If Dorian wanted to enter one, he didn't want to risk losing a dangley earring.

Dorian chuckled at April's long list of suggestions and questions. Clearly she was just as excited to see them as they were her. "Fortune Tellen iz a must. Especially since it's Agatha's last year so we won't see 'er around much. I wouldn't mind asken when I'm gonna finally goin' to get a boyfriend either. I can feel it April, dis year we find someone! Besides it'z not az if a boys just goin' to fall out of the sky and into my lap." As if right on cue, Dorian felt a hard thud against him before another sound followed, like someone hitting the ground. He looked down and before him was a student he hadn't seen before, he had the most beautiful hair that just made him want to run his hands through it, followed by an amazing set of lips.

He realized he was hovering over the poor things as he scrambled himself back to his feet before Dorian could offer a hand. He reached forth, helping to pat some of the dirt off his velvet jacket as he offered him a dimpled smile. "It'z all fine. No need to apologize. Velvet outside iz a bold choice non? But it looks nice. Here I'll buy you somet'in from de cart. You new 'ere?" Dorian tried to be friendly to any of the new students. He knew what it was like not to fit in, and how much a friendly face could help out in a new place. After all that's how he and Diana had met. So perhaps he could be that person for this clearly nervous stranger.

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Zelda wasn't too sure about this, starting off a school year at a new school, not to mention if she had to guess a lot of the older students probably know her sister in some way. Yup that was going to be fun to deal with in general. However she wasn't too sure what to think about with regards to there being a carnival of sorts right now, and she was more or less in a somewhat crowded area where she was now, and she was sort of just wandering, trying to figure out what it was that she should do, or something. April had already taken off to go find her friends, which more or less resulted in her being left alone.

There was a lot to do at the carnival, and yet none of them actually seemed to really interest her too much. It was just overly crowded to her in general, and now she was just trying to find something to do really. Actually she wished she had managed to keep up with April and follow her around at least for a little while. Though no point in trying to figure that out now of where she went. There were so many different things that she could really do. Eventually though, she ended up deciding to go over towards the trivia booth. Since that was something that she might do that could be fun. Though she wasn't entirely sure what sort of trivia that would be.

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It was the first day of school hooray! Her parents had more or less left her and Andy at the school after helping them get settled in the dorms, but she was a bit excited for the most part. Even though her roommate seemed a bit distant towards her and she couldn't understand why, or at least the full reason why, but she couldn't dwell on that too much. This was her first time going to a school of any sort, and she's excited in general. Not to mention she'd have Andy with her too this time! She was practically dragging her around to go explore the carnival that had been set up for the first day of school. This was going to be a great day that was for sure, at least in her opinion. What could possibly go wrong honestly?

"Aaaandy what do you think we should doooo? There's so much going on around here, oooh we could go get our fortunes told which would be fun, though wonder if the person they have doing the fortune telling is as good as the Norns at prophecy, but it would still be fun anyway. Or maybe we could go get some food of some sort? I don't know this food looks a little strange to me, then again never really been to a carnival or whatever before, so this is new. Wait, we need to avoid the strength thing, I hate the fact that apparently it seems like I'm not going to get the Asgardian super strength thing and really don't need to be reminded of it... Oh wait wait wait I know!" Zari was just sort of rambling as she usually did while talking to Andy and dragging her around. "Sword fighting always is fun, plus you could learn how to do that sort of thing anyway! Come on it'll be fun!"

"01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01111010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 01101111 01101110 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110111 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110010 01101001 01100111 01101000 01110100" came the beeping reply from the robot eye floating around after her.

"Oh come on, you shush, and no one asked you what your opinion on what we were doing!" she protested in response to the robot with an eye roll.

"01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110011 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101100 01100101 01110100 00100000 01000001 01101110 01100100 01111001 00100000 01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01111001 01100010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01110011 01110111 01100101 01110010"

"Once again I didn't exactly ask you!" it likely would be strange to many, as there weren't any words spoken in the one half of the conversation. She was talking to a floating robotic eye right now, and her attention turned towards Andy, "So what do you want to do Andy?"

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Times had changed. Andy was attending a school that was the antithesis of the one she had attended in Colorado. It was designed to encourage mutants. For her, it had only been a few months since she had dealt with Purifiers. That didn't seem to be an issue anymore. She had woken up early and found the package from her mom. She offered some to Mai, her roommate, after thanking her mom. She had no idea how the doll had gotten around to ordering a bunch of snacks like this. That was a little terrifying.

Now she was out in the field being dragged around by Zari. One of her favorite pastimes. She smiled as Zari rambled and got into a fight with Mr. Eyeball. "Food sounds good. I love funnel cake. You should try it." She thought about having her fortune told and didn't know what she would want to hear. "I think I want to try learning sword fighting. I definitely want to take a photo with you. We can send a copy to your parents."

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"I don't want to be here. I don't belong here." Ardere's first words upon seeing Avenger Academy upon exiting the rental car her older brother drove. 100 students before her might as well be the entire population of New York City. Hot weather and burning shame still lingered in the air around the redhead. Silently, she quickly turned around to embrace him as soon as he left the driver's seat. Tears started to form though Ardere quickly blinked them away. "I'm sorry, Peter. About-"

"I get it. I know. You said 'sorry' many times before." Peter huffed, giving his little sister a brief hug. "But it doesn't change anything. You're a student here now and unless you want to burn our house down again, you'll stay here until you graduate or something like that."

"I-" Ardere spoke up.

"Listen, I believe in you." He knelt down in front of her. "Mom and dad, they also believe in you. They just...need time and space."

"Being across the continental US and by four years at least?" the redhead smirked, though her sarcasm came from denial.

"You did burn away mom's bank statements, passwords, tax returns as well as almost 30 years of dad's art career..." Peter listed off the damages before stopping himself when he noticed Ardere was about to burst into tears and start a fire on her thin cloth turtleneck. "Anyways, go get some food, grab a drink, and play a game of two. Trust me, you'll grow to like it."

"Will you write to me?" She pleaded when he turned to leave.

"Always. Now go out there and enjoy this place. If you think this place has too many people, you should see my high school."

After saying their farewells, Ardere turned away from the departing car and simply stared at the school before looking at the carnival scenery. Still a statue carved from marble, she looked away toward anything that could catch her attention.

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The night before...

Victoria was tearing herself apart. Her last two years were spent pretty much not interacting with her roommate - A magician that recently transferred out to the Strange academy without so much as letting her observe his training once - which was something she should change. But she put it off for so long that now Hope and James were on her case, pretty much ordering her to socialize, in so many words. So, she wanted to. And of course the academy decided to make that easy by shoving her in a room with one of two people who could not just lift her VEIL, utterly smash it. It was all the worse that from what little she gleamed of Zarima Raynordattir so far, she was one of the most interesting people here! She supposed she should take solace in not being assigned with that detestable frenchwoman - That would have been a nightmare squared.

Thus she found herself wandering to her workshop rather than her bed, where she was brooding in misery for a while now, which was finally dawning on her. Don't just stand there you muppet! If you're too scared to face the music, at least do something worthwhile with your time! she berated herself, sitting down by the bench and starting to draw up some concepts for an armor upgrade. A lalse in judgement, because she got so absorbed in it that by the time she checked the clock, it was well past breakfast time.

Present day...

Victoria made her way to their room, resigning to the inevitability of it all. Countless scenarios played in her head, from getting fangirled at as a cool robot to being stabbed with a sword. But majority of the simulations resulted in a positive outcome, which gave her a reason to be carefully optimistic.

All of which was for nought, as by the time she dragged her heels there, the room was vacant. Mentally kicking herself, she sat down on her unused bed, wondering how to fix this. Maybe she should suggest some activity to bond over? And apologize! Definitely apologize.

From: Viking Vicky
To: Legend in the flesh
Subject: Carnival gettogether?

Hi, it's Victoria. I'm sorry for not even coming to introduce myself
yesterday. I... Well, I'm a socially awkward penguin and I freaked out
over a change happening in my life >.< I hope I didn't offend
too badly.

I'd like to fix this and make it up to you. Let me know if you
want to meet somewhere, otherwise I guess I'll be at the pool noodle
fencing, that sounded like fun.

Cheers,
-V

Her finger stopped just shy of tapping the send button.

WARNING: Current action in violation of VEIL risk mitigation measures.

WARNING: Ceasing current action violates user assigned objectives.

DECISION REQUEST HANDED TO PERSONALITY MATRIX

I hate my life right now! the robot in disguise cursed, before calming herself down. Very well, if fencing was too much of a risk, maybe some other activity would do? What was there to do again? Fortune telling... Is asking for trouble. Chess... I'd have to throttle myself down. Dunk tank... What'd poor Coulson do? VR Duck Season... I like Moorhuhn better. Take photo in a costume... Nope, I have dignity. No, no, nope, hell no... Oh hello there?

Her eyes lit up. Did the legit get THE hammer here? That seemed to fit the bill. Cultural interest for her fake background? Check. Something to bond over with roommate? Most likely. Getting a review of her efforts to be the best person she could be? Priceless. She went to retype the last part of the message and sent it.

Let me know if you want to meet somewhere,
otherwise I guess I'll be getting myself judged by a hammer,
If you want to find me.

Cheers,
-V

Decision made, Victoria checked herself over, wondering if she should dress for society or sport, before deciding on the latter and keeping her exercise outfit on, just in case she did decide to join any of the sportier things to do. The Archery was also alluring, if only for possibly helping her find something to exploit against Fortress Novikova.

As she walked to the field, she connected to the school net and browsed some of the recent gossip in hopes of maybe finding something to strike conversations over.

Some young avenger couple broke up? No doubt Cas' will come preach of it to me in the evening. I should start personnel files on them and mark this for exploitation.

She-taskmaster got booted? Well that doesn't scream 'villain' at all. I need to review everything on her.

New teacher being a robot sent here to infiltrate the schoo- Really? REALLY? Really. Is this someone's idea of a joke? The f*****g nerve!

She disconnected, swearing she was getting a headache despite that not being possible.

The field...

Her anger went away as quickly as it came, being replaced by more and more uncertainty as the quantity of people around her increased. Steeling herself, she made her way towards the shrine stall with the mighty hammer, hoping to get there before a queue formed up.

Once she finally reached her target, doubt immediately seeped in again, and for some reason Victoria felt the need to reason with the inannimate object. "Well... Here we are. Am I worthy? Dunno. Trying my best tho. So, hammer hammer on the floor, who's the worthiest of them all? If not me, well... I hope that if ever you're in the area and I just can't hack it, you'll help. Tis all I ask, okay?"

Then she closed her palm around the hammer's haft almost in reverence, sucked in a breath, closed her eyes and gently pulled.

In…and out.

A gentle breeze tumbled over the buzzing crowd, gracefully crossing over colorful carts and sturdy stands as it stained itself with the scent of fried batter and popcorn before heading down its final approach. Blades of grass bowed in reverence of the relentless march before the breeze suddenly lifted, vaulting over the small giant and taking flight to parts unknown. The giant remained perfectly still, a gargoyle in flamingo shorts centering himself. His eyes pressed tight together as he focused on his breathing, the lively sounds of conversation and carnival joining first in tango before slowing to a steady waltz. As his eyes flutter open, the noise is little more than a dull hum.

Before him was a hunk of metal that may have at one time been an early 20s Honda Odyssey by his estimate, but was now little more than a two and half ton metal pancake. He looked forward to this every year but...this year was different. He was different. And he unsure how this would go. The bearded giant inhaled again, holding his breath for another moment before exhaling slowly. He could feel eyes on him, some in anticipation, others in annoyance. He needed to just hurry up already, a sentiment echoed out loud by an impatient underclassman in the line behind him.

He squatted down, keeping his back straight as his large chalked-up mitts slid under the pancake. Once more in and…

Teddy Thompson lifted the crushed minivan in a steady motion first to his chest, then up above his head, holding it for a couple seconds before lowering it back to the ground. A couple murmurs of approval were shared amongst those watching. The event attendant approached Teddy, holding up two fingers and asking something Teddy hadn’t heard. He pressed his lips together before nodding in approval. The attendant waved to a pair of assistants nearby who carried over another deformed minivan together before stacking it on the first and strapping the two together.

Once they were clear, the attendant gave the thumbs up, and Teddy lifted again. Again to his chest, then again up above his head. He held roughly five tons over his head for five seconds before lowering it back to the ground. More approval was heard and the attendant approached again, holding up three fingers. Teddy frowned. Something felt…off. He was able to lift it easily enough but…

He didn’t have time to explore the thought as the third soccer mom pancake was stacked onto the pile and fastened together with straps. Teddy could feel the eyes again - more attentive than they had been before. The more he became aware of them, the more stomach-churning it was. He shook his head before squatting once more. As he lifted, it was clear that he was definitely putting in a significant amount of effort. His fingers pressed into the metal, denting them. His arms started to shake a bit as he passed his chest, the tree trunks he tried to pass off as legs rooted themselves firmly into the dirt. He stalled for a moment as he pushed past his chin, but ultimately he got the triple stack of soccer mom deluxes above his head, holding for five seconds before gently lowering them again.

The murmurs behind him turned into shouts of encouragement, bystanders trying to spur him on to continue. The attendant approached again, asking if Teddy would like to try a fourth one. He started to decline, but a few voices behind him shouted for him not to wimp out, so what choice did he really have? Teddy reluctantly nodded as the assistants set up the Minivan Barbershop Quartet before him, strapping them down extra tight. Teddy approached and squatted, but he could tell immediately that this would be a no-go. Still, he pressed on, lifting the quartet to his knees…then his waist…then his ches- no. Something was wrong - very wrong. Teddy hadn’t even passed his waist before setting the stack back down. There was a little bit of applause, but Teddy shook the attendant’s hand before picking up his bottle of water and heading out of the clearing as the next person set up to lift.

He had known that the meds would have an effect on his strength, but to this extent? The year before he could have cleared four easy- possibly even five. But now… well, it was to be expected. He had only put on two inches and a hundred pounds this year. The growth was definitely hindered - the medicine was doing its job. But at what cost? If he wanted to be a real contender for the Contest this year, that kind of strength he just displayed wasn’t going to cut it. He had to get stronger. He could maybe stop taking the meds but…

Teddy shook his head. He’d decide in the morning. Stressing over it now wouldn’t help anything. It was the annual carnival - his last carnival to boot - so he might as well enjoy it. And seeing as how he had subconsciously followed his nose to the food carts, he’d enjoy it by engaging in that most sacred of traditions - America’s TRUE favorite pastime - waiting a ridiculous amount of time in an impossibly long line for some deep fried nutritional nuke that really only vaguely resembles food. It’s what the Founding Fathers would have wanted. The American Dream.

Some commotion of sorts appeared to be happening further up the line, but Teddy didn’t look. Mama always said it was rude to rubberneck.

“Not my pig, not my farm…” he would mutter to himself as he turned his head away and waited for the line to move again.

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It took less than half a day for Mai to encounter some of that good ol’ AA Weird Shit™ - this time coming in the form of a new roommate who got a goodie box then promptly thanked her creepy fucking doll. Needless to say, Mai was in heaven. And why wouldn’t she be? Pretty girl gave her treats and a show that morning. If that was any indication of how the year was going to go, Mai was psyched. After all, her previous roommate had gotten expelled or some shit. Lame, but what can you do? The chick was kind of a nerd and like, not the cool nerd. Oh well, whatever, it wasn’t like she’d ever have to think about Jeanne Foucault again.

In any case, it was carnival day, and while the roomie was away, the goblin could play… at least, that was Mai’s original plan - spend the whole day playing video games. She had dailies to do and dammit, if she didn’t go skin those bear asses, who would? It was her sacred duty. It was also BORING when she really thought about it. After all, how many more chances would she have to put Coulson in the fish tank? Not that she had anything against him personally, the man just had a very dunkable face. When she finally decided to go out into the world and spread chaos and mischief, she needed a suitable uniform. And when that seemed like just too much of a pain in the ass, she grabbed a white tank, some comfy pants, and a pair of blue canvas shoes to wear out terrorizing the masses.

Getting from her dorm to the field? Easy. Getting from the field to Coulson? Not so much. Sure, she could have just ASKED somebody - but where was the fun in that? A hunter must stalk their prey and earn the thrill of the kill…besides, she forgot to charge her phone the night before, so she couldn’t easily get in touch with anyone. And after about ten minutes of navigating through crowds of giants, Mai lost focus and sat down to get her face painted.

She needed to be a tiger today.

Danny couldn't contain his excitement, rocking back and forth on his heels as he soaked in the First Day energy. Lookin' fly as fuck in his favorite stained glass colored jacket (even if the black turtle neck was a little meh but the contrast was just too good to pass up!) and rockin' a sweet pair of sunglasses, Danny was feeling himself 100%. Did he cry to his parents, his uncle, Maxie and Benji, and Mamie Elie over having to leave them again? Yeah, duh. He was leaving behind some of his favorite people; wouldn't anyone cry in his shoes?

Though, to be fair, he was leaving behind some failed talent show, audition, Champions whatever behind as well. The choreography was easy enough. Thank you, a decade worth of dance classes, but the fire. It was sooooo simple at first. Fun steps, lots of energy, a little fire here and there, all into a big, fireball-y finale. Papa and him were rocking it, loving it, living it and then Pops popped in and ruined it. Now, it's all about "control" and showing the coaches and teachers more "versatility." Blah. At least Pops didn't make them cut the big fire blast at the end. Did the change up make Danny nervous? Fuck yeah it did! He knew Pops wanted him to really go for it and the routine was fun, but the fire dancing was haaaaaaaaard.

Whatever, this was killing his vibe and he wanted to have fun with his besties so bye bye auditions and hello cotton candy! Danny bounced on his toes, clapping his hands together excitedly at the prospect of delicious, multi-colored strands of sugary goodness. Danny was practically drooling but April drew him away from his stomach and into her conversation. Danny pouted at the idea of her getting a girlfriend. "No, you don't need a girlfriend right now! You 'ave us. You're gunna go 'oes before bros and we'll 'ave to com' crawling to 'er and be beggen for just a measly crumb of time with youuu!" Danny whined, hanging off her arm. "But, yeah let's do fortune tell-

Danny peered over the top of his glasses at the boy who'd suddenly crash landed into Dorian. Aw, he was so adorable with his little tousled look! Danny itched to reach out his hand to tousled his hair more but he heard Pop's voice in the back of his head how he should make sure he was okay and blah blah blah. Something about light and eyes following and maybe a finger? Danny didn't really know but he was going to be Responsible! Okay, okay, okay. No panicken. I know what to do! Danny puffed up excitedly, flicking an ember from between his fingers, creating a penny sized orb of…

The jacket was on fire. Danny screamed and failed. "OMG YOU'RE ON FIRE, YOU'RE ON FIRE. OH SHIT, I SET YOU ON FIRE. OKAY, NO ONE PANIC!" Danny screamed as he struggled to get his bag opened and pulled out the can of EZ Fire Spray his Pops and Papa insisted he carry. He shook, pointed, and sprayed until the fire went out, holding it out threateningly even once the fire was out just to be safe.

"I am so, so, so, so ,so sorry. I just wanted to do the eye t'ingie!" Danny apologized profusely, voice cracking and tears already threatening to fall. "Should we take 'im to de nurse, do you need de nurse? Oh Gods, where's Mai? Uhm, uhm, uhm. I fucken killed a freshie, oh shit." He muttered as he fumbled with his phone, pulling up Mai's number and typing out a quick message.

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The clink of silverware scraped along fine china echoed through the halls of the Bassard family home. Each member sat at the table, head bent towards their plate, eyeing the chicken kiev and spring potatoes cooked up by the chef who had long since left for her own home and dinner with her family, almost as if she couldn't wait to get out of there to avoid the awkwardness.

This was how dinners went at her family's house. She refused to call it home until it felt like one. Each member sat in their respective chair. Her father, Remmy, at the head. Sat close to him on his left was her stepmother Cosette. Sabine sat to his right, though she had initially been seated at the farther end of the table (her stepmother's insistence led to her moving her chair during a rather tense breakfast). Her older stepbrother, Lyam, was close by his mother. A proud mama's boy who did very little without her approval. Hell, Sabine would hazard a guess he asked her if he could take a dump. And since mommy dearest appeared constipated at all hours of the day, Sabine assumed she has never taken one. She imagined Cosette would die if she ever did.

Sabine's younger stepsister sat close to her. Panellope, who was too good and pure for this godforsaken family, followed Sabine around constantly. She modeled herself after her older stepsister, liking the same music, and wearing similar clothes. Despite her young age, Panellope was also active on social media. Her parents didn't care.

Sabine wanted to scream. If for no other reason than to fill the tense silence with some noise as proof a family lived here.

Finally, the silence was broken. "So, mon coeur, are you ready for school to start up again?" her father had asked. Sabine froze for a second, unsure what her father was insinuating. Before she attended the school, she had used her powers to alter their memories. In their mind, she was attending a prestigious academy that young, wealthy elites attended before they were scouted by colleges and prepared to essentially run the world. She had never admitted she had powers and she preferred to keep it that way.

Before Sabine could respond, Cosette needled her way into the conversation, "I can't imagine what one learns in that type of environment. I believe it just morphs young minds to be snobby and entitled. No real work ethic." Sabine choked back a retort, eyeing her stepmother wearing an all-white ensemble that cost roughly six figures. But her stepmother often made comments and digs at her disposal. Her stepmother lauded her accomplishments, growing up in a rural area of France with no money, fighting hard to do well in school, attending a university on a full-ride scholarship where she was picked out from her class of 300 students to run her own business with the backing of a big head in French politics. That was how she met her father and quickly got married.

Now she was there to torment her.

"I am looking forward to this upcoming year, father," she said, blatantly ignoring her stepmother (much to the woman's annoyance), "I believe this year will be stimulating and will set me up for my future." Her father looked coddled and decided to leave it there. Her stepmother was another matter.

"You don't need to worry about that darling. I could easily fit you into my business. You would have to work your way up though. Can't have my other employees believe I show favoritism to my own daughter."

"Stepdaughter," Sabine enunciated. Her stepmother looked appalled. "I stepped in to raise you after your mother's tragic demise and this is the thanks I get? I deserve respect and so does your father, right mon amour?" Her father, who had been looking at his phone, glanced up. "What? Yes, of course." He hadn't heard anything said. "Well your father agrees. Honestly, I don't know where you got this attitude. Probably from your moth-"

Before she could finish that sentence, Sabine stood up and knocked over the glass of cabernet in front of her stepmother, flowing the liquid right on to her top. Her stepmother also stood up, knocking the chair back. "Comment oses-tu? Toi petit...!"

Sabine stepped around, her siblings looking at her (well Panellope was, Lyam was busy grabbing napkins to fix his mother's shirt, the little brat), her father silent. "Don't ever speak about my mother like that or I will do worse than ruin a shirt. You are not my mother, you never will be. You are a parasite that latched on to my father and continues to suck him dry. I will only be content when I eliminate you." With that, she turned to get ready for school.

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After being dropped off via helicopter, her father silent after what had occurred the following day, she made her way to her room to drop off her things. She hadn't bothered to see if Leah had arrived. She would deal with that problem later. Instead, she decided to get this stupid carnival done. This was before the showcase of her powers, which she had been planning for a few days now.

She scrambled past many other parents, ignoring the happy tears and emotional hugs. As she stepped toward the field she heard some panicked noises. In an instant, she had seen flames. On another school campus, a fire would be a bad thing. But this was not an ordinary school. Still, there was some panic from someone and she recognized the voice. She rolled her eyes playfully as she stepped towards the field. Sure enough, her eyes landed on Danny, one of the very few people here she tolerated. She had missed the lead-up but had come just in time to see the after-effects.

This was going to be more fun than she thought.

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While most people left for the summer, Leah stayed in her dorm for the last few months alone. Over the summer, she trained with her powers constantly, learning new ways to make them apply to additional use cases. And now, she'd be doing the same thing around a lot of other people. The entire building was almost always dead silent when she woke up, so it would certainly be jarring when she suddenly had roommates. Luckily for Leah, she woke up hours before she had the privilege of being reunited with Sabine fucking Bassard. While others were getting ready to hit the books again, Leah was hitting a reinforced punching bag in her room. It was reinforced because she once punched a hole clean through her last one without even trying to. Warmups like that kept her sharp, even when it was technically "breaktime," but Leah considered herself something of a superhero already. This was simply her. She found comfort in it. That, and it was easy for someone to underestimate an absurd level strength when they weren't intimately familiar with it.

She knew it was time to actually start the day like a normal person when the sun finally came up. Leah grabbed a shower and threw on her favorite Carhartt jacket, and a water bottle from her firdge before heading out. She really didn't feel like running into Sabine right now after she had just gotten herself properly awake. Time to go and eat something.

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Leah eventually made her way to the line that was quickly forming outside at a food truck. Whatever they had there didn't really matter to her, because she spotted April among the group. Leah enjoyed being around April, more than she did a lot of people. It was always nice having friends she could chill with. She also saw Dorian, who she didn't really have a problem with. He was cool. What wasn't as cool however, was that some tiny shortstack-looking kid seemed to teleport out of thin air... And then Danny appeared. Yay. Leah didn't dislike Danny Kingston, she just had a hard time dealing with that guy's energy. Still, she knew them so she may as well try to interact with people.

Leah strolled over to them, just in time to see someone was on fire. Really, Danny? Well, at least they got it under control just in time for Leah to say something.

"Nice way to welcome new people, Danny. Welcome back, guys. Who's the new kid?" The "new kid" was roughly three inches shorter than Leah, and looked absolutely tiny in both size and just general mass. This kid looked like Leah could kick him for a field goal if she really felt bored. What are they feeding people these days?

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Diana had unpacked just about everything from her home and back into the dorm just the day before as she woke up that morning she made her way towards the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. She closed her eyes and groaned seeing that her acne decided to flair up of all days it happened to be the first day of school. Luckily she had some makeup on her and quickly started to try and cover it all up as much as possible. She knew that makeup was probably the worse thing to do when you had bad acne, but she didn't really care as Diana left the bathroom after she had gotten changed. Diana decided to go with a green top, and a white t-shirt, along with a black belt, dark blue jeans and a pair of black leather boots. Then she heard a meow coming from her bed as her Tauriel perked up wanting some pets clearly, Diana smiled as she gently petted her on the head. "I'll see you later and i'll bring you some treats after the carnival." Diana said as she quickly headed out of her dorm, Zelda had gone off already to the carnival, Diana was excited to go and meet up with all of her friends she hadn't seen them really all summer.

Diana thought about what to do herself as she thought about doing a little bit of archery, she always did have a friendly rivalry going with Kate over who was the best archer in the school. As Diana's eyes wondered around she paused for a moment seeing April and some of her friends were there as well she then saw her brother teleporting himself into Dorian, she made her way over towards them, when she noticed Percy's shirt was now suddenly on fire. "Are you trying to kill my little brother on his first day, really?" Diana asked as she caught up to them.

Luckily Danny had put out the fire on Percy's shirt, she was a little bit mad at Danny trying to set him on fire, but she knew that it was just an accident Diana then turned to her brother and offered a hand to help him back up, as she turned to look at Danny. "You should treat Percy to some food now after you tried to just kill him." Diana said teasingly towards him.

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Madalyne had woken up early that morning and taken a shower, she was excited to start another year and she was really happy to be rooming with April this year again to. She enjoyed spending late nights talking and studying and of course spending the time with Danny and Dorian as well to. Madalyne knew that April had already headed out, and she decided to go out as well to, after she had gotten changed, Madalyne decided to pick a dark gray jean jacket, and matching shirt as well as a pair of blue jeans and regular old sneakers. Madalyne started to look around the carnival grounds.

She couldn't really find April at the moment or any of her other friends, it was really huge but she figured that she would run into April or some of her other friends later. Madalyne thought about getting some food first but decided to get something to eat a bit later as Madalyne started to explore the carnival grounds a bit more and decided to make her way over towards the fortune teller's tent. Madalyne noticed a line was already there as she stood in line waiting for her turn next.

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@BlueSky44: As Zelda wandered over to the trivia booth, she would see a group of students moving on from playing there. A few of them had teddy bears in their hands, dressed up as famous superheroes - there was a She-Hulk bear, its fur painted green and dressed in a smart pantsuit that would stick out in particular to Zelda. At the booth itself, there were bears in boxes sitting behind the booth, and random pieces of candy covering the table. The worker manning the booth gave Zelda a smile. "Want to try your hand at trivia? Or just take some candy, they gave us too much... If you get all ten questions right though, you get a BearVenger to bring home with you!"

@BlueSky44@Kirah: Maybe back in Washington DC in the early 2020's, Zari had been the one to turn heads - but here, her fashion was on trend and on point. Instead, it was Andy who was catching stray glances and whispers, some of them admiring her retro look, and others lamenting that she looked like someone's mother. However, no one was bothering them. The food line was getting pretty long, longer really with each passing minute, but both sword fighting and the photo station were more or less available.

@Ever Faithful@PatientBean: The two of you have both decided to (ominously?) stare out at the field, before joining the carnival proper. It's extremely likely that you'll notice each other. Of course, whether you interact is up to you. As for Ardere, she would also be able to notice the brief bit of flames going up, as someone in the line for food seemed to use their powers. Ardere might also spot an area of the carnival where there were piles of crushed cars, with students struggling to lift as many cars as they could to show off their strength. For Sabine, she's already spotted the poor fiery incident that happened in the line, and has probably also spotted the arrival of her new bestie/roommate, Leah. She would also notice what looked like a green and silver blur zipping through the crowds - probably Tommy Maximoff, one half of the break-up in today's gossip.

@Forsythe: As Victoria's hands close around the hammer, everyone in line to try their hand at Mjolnir pauses for a moment with bated breath. No one that day had been able to make the hammer budge - not even Billy Maximoff, who had tried to cast a love spell on the enchanted weapon. No one at the school had even bothered to have an attendant sitting with the hammer, they were so confident that none of their students could lift it (which, like, rude!).

The hammer didn't budge for Vicky, though. Instead, it just remained on the ground, having judged her - and found her lacking.

Ouch.

@Ogobrogo: Maybe the events happening a bit further up the line weren't Teddy's problem, but the universe had a surprise in store for him anyways. Standing at six feet tall, with green skin, elf-like ears, and blonde hair, Teddy Altman (AKA Hulkling) almost bumped right into Teddy. Hulkling stopped and then broke into a wide grin. "Hey man, how's it going? Did you get a chance to lift yet? I got to twenty before I had to slow down, didn't stretch properly beforehand," Hulkling said, his tone friendly. His arm was snaked around a somewhat shorter boy with jet-black hair, his boyfriend, possibly the biggest geek and nerd at AA, Billy Maximoff.

"Have a good summer, Teddy?" Billy asked. He then laughed. "I mean, you Teddy, not him Teddy. Urgh."

@Ogobrogo: It was Mai's turn for face paint, and the worker motioned for her to take a seat. There was an example sheet with different things people could request to have done. "Whatcha like, dear?" the worker asked, fiddling her thumbs slightly as she waited for Mai to make a choice. She'd been doing a lot of ironic battery pictures on people - the AA Battery was an unofficial school mascot. Hopefully, Mai gave her something different to do. Mai's phone would also go off with a text from Danny.

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April pouted slightly, and as Danny clung to her arm, April used her other arm to cling back on his arm. "I would never abandon my husbands!" April declared, before giggling slightly. She never had had any romantic interest in the boys, just as she knew they never had any romantic interest in her, but the three of them still felt like a natural set - a perfect trio. April could just picture it, the three of them as the stars of a queer and upbeat YA series - it was probably called Avengers Academy and it would follow their lives and hijinks, culminating in them winning the Contest of Champions and then absolutely slaying at Prom.

She was snapped out of her daydream though (thankfully, before she could consider what sort of fanfiction people might write about their hypothetical YA novel) by a thud as Dorian crashed into someone - or they crashed into him? April wasn't 1000% sure what had happened, since she wasn't completely paying attention. "Oh, hey, I know you, you're--" April began to say, before things escalated fast incredibly fast. Everything felt like a blur and she didn't even have time to fully comprehend what had happened - one second, Percy was on fire, the next, Danny had put him out, leaving a thin layer of white on the once amazing velvet jacket. It was completely ruined now.

"Hey hey hey hey hey, we're okay, everyone's okay," April said, trying to reassure Danny. She put an arm around his shoulder and pulled him in somewhat close. "You're fine, right? Everything's fine. And that jacket was last season anyways, so, I think at the end of the day, Danny and Dory did you a bit of a favor? I'm April, by the way - if you don't quite remember me, it's been a few years since I saw you - you got taller!"

April was somewhat annoyed at Leah waltzing on over and teasing Danny - when she felt it was pretty clear that now was not the time to tease Danny about this. They could tease him about it once he no longer felt mortified. Maybe at the end of the year they'd be able to go omg remember when you almost killed a freshie to keep him from cutting in line to get food? legendary shit. And not too far behind Leah was Diana, Percy's older sister. "No one is trying to kill everyone, it's fine, everyone's fine, we're all good!" April insisted. "And if we did want to kill him, we would've taken him to a secondary location - we wouldn't be doing it while waiting for funnel cake. In front of half the school. Duh."

"And the food is free! It's always free!" April then laughed somewhat nervously.

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This was probably the worst first day of school Percy had had in his entire fourteen years of life. He didn't think highly of other people, but he had assumed that at the prestigious Margaret Carter Institute, people would have a handle on their powers. Apparently he was wrong. In the span of seconds, he had gone from a cute guy offering to buy him free food (and making a comment about his jacket, Percy knew that it was bold to wear velvet outside, but he was bold) to being SET ON FIRE.

"Какого хрена ты делаешь?!" Percy swore, his words coming out in Russian unintentionally. He moved quickly to get his beautiful, destroyed velvet jacket off of him - only to then get a mouth full of a portable fire extinguisher. Percy had instinctively shut his eyes when the boy started to spray him down, but his mouth hadn't closed quickly enough, and he could taste the strange chemicals in his mouth. "Are you satisfied, now?" he snapped at Danny, opening his eyes and quickly shrugging off his jacket.

Someone he didn't know - a giant to Percy in size - then came up and asked who the new kid was. "The 'new kid' is none of your concern," Percy answered bitterly. For understandable reasons, he was pretty pissed off. And he was hungry. His sister then made an appearance as well and Percy rolled his eyes, throwing his hands up in the air in irritation. There went his chance at making a name for himself and not just living in his sister's wake.

"I do not need your protection," Percy reminded Diana, annoyed. "And yes, April, I do remember you. Congratulations. You must be very honored." He then huffed, straightening up his shirt slightly, the top few buttons still undone as to be tantalizing. "Is everyone done now? Anyone else want to make comments or destroy my clothes? No? Good."

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Rory had decided to spend an extra day with their family, even though they were supposed to move back into their dorm yesterday. But Rory didn’t think that Headmaster Coulson would mind the slight delay. After many months away from their family, Rory wanted to spend as much time as possible with their fathers and siblings.

Rory was actually still in contact with their sister Claire, messaging each other back and forth on their StarkPhones. It was mostly things like I miss you, hope you have a good year, and other fluff. But then Claire reminded her sibling that she too was planning to attend Avengers Academy next year when she became old enough to enroll. The thought of having their sister going to the same school as them was a mixed one for Rory as they would probably just worry about her the whole time she was here. But then they remembered that their roommate Diana’s younger brother was starting at the Academy this year. They figured it would be kind of weird for her.

By the time the texting petered out between Rory and their sister, they were back in their dorm room. Apparently Diana had already left it as her stuff was already put away. Rory briefly wondered where she had gone as he unpacked. They also eyed Diana’s pet Tauriel as they placed their pet frog Kermit down.

In no time Rory was done unpacking, as it seemed to be a quicker process every year they came back to the Academy. Not wanting to miss the excitement of the School Carnival, Rory departed their room at Stark Hall and took the stairwell down the building and outside. A few minutes walk from there and Rory had entered the carnival.

Looking around, Rory tried to spy anyone that they knew. However it was all a mix of people they had never seen before or at least never talked to. This was a given as the Academy seemed to be expanding its class size every year, or that’s at least how Rory felt. A lot of these unknown people were gathered around a particular booth, so Rory went over to see what was so exciting.

But once they got closer, Rory could see that it was a man with large muscles attempting to lift Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor. For a full minute the man struggled against the hammer, veins bulging in his arms. But eventually he gave up, walking away while looking drained. An announcer then asked if anyone else was ready to give it a go, looking in Rory’s direction. The shape shifter immediately shook their head, already knowing that they weren’t worthy. As Rory left they saw one of their classmates approach the hammer.

Rory then went deeper into the carnival, passing by some interesting booths. They even had face painting where you could look like your favorite Avenger. But what drew in Rory was the big area set aside for the Academy Knights, the school’s medieval club. They were letting people get into mock combat with a foam sword. This interested Rory as they had been playing a video game over the break where you play as a medieval knight.

“I’m down for this,” Rory said to the person running the booth.

“Alright, we just need an opponent,” replied the student, “Any takers?”

Rory took a seat beside the stall, waiting to see who would challenge them in foam combat. It looked like they would be getting in their combat training very early this school year.

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Everything was going perfectly. What more could anyone ask for on their first day back? Friends? Check. Free Food? Check. Amazingly fun time at a Carnival? Check check check! Hell he even got the chance to have a decent meetcute with a cute boy! Dorian was living his K-drama dreams, he could practically see the candle light dinners…wait no that was actual fire. Panic set in as his pupils shrunk down so much he may as well have an ocean for eyes. His hand went straight to his bag, rummaging to feel the can of EZ Spray he carried in case of a Dan-saster. Luckily Danni got to his first before any physical damage was done. Unluckily he also got it into the cute boy's mouth. Great. As if to make matters worse, Leah and Dianna showed up and poured gasoline onto an already panicking Danni. The feelings seemed to catch, a spark igniting in April as well as the more she began to speak the more panicked she seemed.

So many things were happening all at once, besides the fire, panicking best friends, and Spray covered cutie, there was the fact that the new guy was Dianna's brother and Dorians former crush seemed to be within eye view. The world felt as though it was swirling around him, but before he fully gave in to his feelings he knew his friends needed him more. Whenever these sorts of things happened there always needed to be at least one of them that kept their panic inwards, and it appeared that today was Dorian's turn. He could kill two birds with one stone but first, he needed some sweets. Without saying a word he quickly vanished from everyone's view, entering into his Astral Self. His plan was to bypass the line and gather some sweets, however plans rarely ever pan out.

Percy was snapping at just about everyone, which to an extent was well deserved. He was clearly having a rough day, and Dorain wanted to try and calm him down and comfort him, but as he went ghost his powers went sideways pulling him into Percy. It took Dorian a brief second, his eyes blinking slowly as he tried to gather what had happened. He patted himself before looking down and seeing a familiar shirt [i]BUT ON HIM?![/b] Holy Shit he possessed the new guy! No no no no! Panic fully set in and with a small screaming yelp he (and Percy) time-jumped. They were only gone for a moment, appearing right back into place before another yelp came out. Dorian hastened himself out of Percy's body, shooting up above his head before flying off over the crowd.

"T'is iz not 'ow you make first impressions. 'ow did today go down hill so quickly? Maybe we should'a started wit Agatha, I'm sure she would've warned us about all t'is mess. What do I even get?" Dorian spoke to himself as no one else was able to hear him within the Astral Plane, not without crossing over back to their realm. Luckily he could still affect things here. He hovered inside the stall, eyeing the selection before settling on a few items. A couple of sugared pecans in a cone, a cup of caramel popcorn, and a few candy bars to tie it off. It was all free so…technically it wasn't stealing? To any onlookers it would simply appear that the treats were floating away, but in reality Dorian was bringing them back in an attempt to calm them all down. Unfortunately when he arrived back, he couldn't shift back into his normal self. "What kind of gris-gris did I incur? Merd! Putain! Seins!" he cursed as he shoved a cup of caramel popcorn into Dannis hands.

Crash
That was how this school year would start, it seemed, with a bicycle slamming into the body of a young Mary Sue Sullivan, and throwing her to the ground. As she skidded against the pavement, her arm caught against the rough surface and split open, leaving a small bloodstain dripping through and darkening her new clothes. Taking a moment, she tried her best to stay calm, not wanting to have the ltieral first thing she did away from home be freak out and make a fool of herself. The pain sucked, a light soreness creeping through her body, but it was nothing compared to the fact that she was now doomed to make a horrible first impression with people.

Standing up and taking the proper time to brush herself off, she let out a long breath. If she were to actually stay and focus onn it, the nervous shakes that were running through her body would grow into a full blown panic attack, and she had to force her mind away from that. Trivia booth. That was where she was headed towards, and that was what would help her in this moment. She needed, more than anything to prove she could do something right. It would be fun, and hey, maybe she'd actually meet some people with the same interests as her? That would be nice, up until they saw the mess that she was and decided to hate her.

Alright, that was probably a stretch. These were supposed to be heroes, not buillies. Surely a school full of altruists and law keepers were bound to be sympathetic towards somebody having a bad day. That was at least what she hoped. Fixing herself as best she could, she found her way to the trivia booth, and a lightly dishelved and beaten up Mary Sue would soon be standing not far from Zelda, just in time to hear the worker's comments. Overeager and already stretched thin, Mary Sue shot her hand up, ready to have a go if Zelda wasn't up for it.

God, Danny felt so embarrassed he was about to burst into flames. "I jus wanted to 'elp! You know, do the eye t'ingie dey always do when you bump your 'ead 'cause you're tiny, you know? It was an accident!" Danny whined, EZ spray forgotten on the ground in favor of hiding behind April, the bestest friend as she defended him like the Queen she was. "Why you all ganging up on me? I don't want to kill 'im! He just bumped into Dee, why would I want to kill 'im?! Why would we bring 'im to a second place?! I just wanted to 'elp!!!!"

"And actually, you bumped into Dee! You should be 'appy I didn't do worse! Dee, tell hi…" Danny blinked as he looked around for Dorian, pouting when he couldn't find him. Tears actually started coming down when he realized Dee had abandoned them and he scrubbed them off his cheeks until a delicious smell floated closer, drawing his attention to the cup of Caramel popcorn. Danny continued to sniffle pitifully even as he accepted the gift, showing a handful in his face and chewing loudly. "Fanks, Dee." He mumbled around a mouthful of popcorn, having something to chew on helping him calm down.

Danny eyed the jacket, even though Percy seemed further away than he was before. Guess the kid was so freaked out he had to take some steps back. "Maxie can just make you a new one, I t'ink. 'ere, gimme." Danny said after he swallowed, reaching to snatch it from Percy.

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”Cool it, Sparky.” She halfway barked at Danny when he started yapping like dog who hadn’t gotten a treat yet. Dorian just disappeared, and then so did the new kid. Fantastic. Wait- There they were. Did Dorian just accidentally yank the kid with his powers in some kind of gay panic? Leah wouldn’t have been surprised. Not one bit. ”Get back here, Dorian.” She couldn’t see him, so he probably went- Wait a damn minute.

”You have a brother? Huh.” Leah didn’t really pay enough attention to Diana in any fashion to know much about her. ”Okay- Well. Cool. You should tell your sister to get a personality sometime. No one else has had any luck with that so far.” She told Percy in an attempt to lighten the mood. Did a mood need to be lightened after a kid almost got incinerated? Probably.

”Name’s Leah. You’re probably kind of okay if April likes you. Don’t worry, we only light people on fire to initiate them.” She was very clearly joking, but her tone wasn’t really the joking type. Maybe she was serious. Maybe she wasn’t… The world may never know. Leah walked over and threw a big, muscled arm over April’s shoulder. ”You never told me you were planning on burning a freshie alive on day one. You turning evil or something?”

This would be a weird friend group dynamic, Leah thought. April was arguably Leah’s closest friend, and she apparently knew Diana’s younger brother. If Leah and the kid got along, maybe Diana would quit being so cocky? No… Probably not, actually. Then again, the kid did seem like he had a bit of her attitude. It was almost funny seeing him bark like a chihuahua when Big Sister Novikova worried about protecting him, and when Leah just asked who he was.

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Zelda just sort of listened to how the person running the booth explained how it worked, basically answer the questions and if you get them all correct then you get a teddy bear in an Avengers costume. "Ok, I'll try it... Let's see how it goes then..." she said, before going to listen to how the questions were being worded to see about trying to figure out how this was going to work out. It was probably a good thing for her to see about trying to answer trivia questions, it was something that she was good at.

"Alright then, first question. What is the name of Thor’s hammer?"

"That's easy... Mjolnir."

"Correct, next question. Who is the current Sorcerer Supreme?"

"Doctor Strange."

"What is Dazzler's real name?"

"Allison Blaire

"Where is Captain America, specifically Steve Rogers, from?"

"Brooklyn."

"What alien species looks like a cat, but thinks you look more like a snack?"

"Flerken."

"What (somewhat) successful musical tried to rival Hamilton, based on the life of a founding Avenger?"

"Rogers the Musical, based around Captain America."

"What metal comprises the suit of the Black Panther?"

"Vibranium..." These questions were pretty easy for her. She was already halfway done with the questions, and she hadn't really even needed to try with figuring them out. Perks of being a geek apparently. It was useful for trivia contests to win a stuffed bear dressed up as a superhero. Fun right?

"What are the nine realms according to Asgardians?"

That one did give her pause, and she thought for a moment with regards to how it was worded. "Guessing that means what are the nine realms and what they are called... Well that would be then Niflheim, Muspelheim, Asgard, Midgard, Jotunheim, Vanaheim, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, and Helheim..."

"What super powered lawyer popularized the phrase “mean, green, and straight poured into these jeans?”"

"She-Hulk."

"And finally, name two Avengers who have gone by the same codename?"

"Well let's see, the mantle of Captain America is the obvious one... That would be obviously Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson... For another one? Probably Ant-Man comes to mind, that being Hank Pym and Scott Lang both having gone by that mantle..."

"Congratulations!" the worker said, before handing Zelda one of the bears. Zelda was glad that she ended up with the She-Hulk bear anyway, and took it, before she silently thanked the worker, before walking away from the booth with her new prize in hand now. Unsure of what booth or where she wanted to go now.

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"We could go soooooooooo many places. There's just so much to do we could go around and do just about anything!" Zari said happily, still more or less dragging Andy around, still trying to think about what best to do. There were so many options for what they could do. People were sort of giving the pair of them weird looks, but she didn't very much care for them. For the most part, those sort of things didn't bug her, and right now she was just wishing that the carnival could go on forever! "Maybe we should wait a little bit on the food thing, cause that line is loooooooooooong."

She was about to continue, when Mr. Eyeball started beeping at her. "01011001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101101 01100101 01110011 01110011 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001" he beeped at her.

"Someone sent me a message or something? Well spit it out what does it say. Don't be laaaaaaaaame sitting there telling me about it and then not reading it to me!"

"01001001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110010 01101111 01101111 01101101 01101101 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01010110 01101001 01100011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01101001 01100001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01100101 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110000 01101100 01100001 01100011 01100101

"Really? She seems to have kind of been avoiding me a bit. She kind of disappeared yesterday after moving in... Any ideas where she wanted to meet up?"

"01010011 01101000 01100101 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101111 01110110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100011 01101100 01100101 00100111 01110011 00100000 01101000 01100001 01101101 01101101 01100101 01110010"

"Oooooh that might be fun. I've always wondered if I was worthy or something, that might be a fun instance to test that out right now! Hey Andy, how about we go try to lift a hammer. I wanna get to know my roommate a bit more and she messaged me asking if I wanted to meet up over by the hammer. So let's gooooooooo! We can get food or something after meeting up with her, I wanna try out a hammer!" she said, before she now started dragging Andy into a different direction entirely, and going over to where the hammer currently was, since she did want to know if she was worthy of it after all, "Not to mention being worthy of Mjolnir would be so cool. But here we can just try it out real quick before doing something else, won't take long at all!"

---

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---

The stares didn't really bother her. No one was being threatening so she discounted it. Ignored them. What mattered was Zari, and that she was getting to spend time with her. And Zari was so excited and happy. Andy loved when Zari looked like that. That or when she was fighting because she looked super cool doing that.

Andy allowed herself to be dragged by Zari. She never resisted it. Besides, she always liked Zari's ideas. The food line did seem to be long and in a state of chaos. "Yeah, that sounds good." She agreed. Wondering if she could try to pick up the hammer. She did have the whole lighting thing going for her. And she'd feel like she fit more with Zari's world if she was worthy. But she had a feeling she would not be. There was a pesky doll in her room that was the reason for that. So there was no harm in trying.

"I'm surprised you've never had a chance to try before. I know Thor is dead in your universe but did something happen to Mjolnir?"

As the slow-moving disaster unfurled up ahead, Teddy did what any reasonable person would do when faced with a situation they just did not want to engage with - retreat into his phone. As he pulled out the large, outdated phone with its horribly cracked screen and comically large stylus, he carefully pressed in each number to unlock his phone. After a few minutes and a couple failed attempts, Teddy finally got access. He clicked on the little chat bubble icon, pulling up his messages. Tapping on the top message labeled ‘Micah Greene’, Teddy would compose a short message.

Hey, I wanted to double-check that you’re sure you’re good with going with Mom to chemo tomorrow. I know Aunt Mandy sort of volunteered you, but I don’t want you to miss anything important. It’s gonna be pretty boring, so if you really don’t want to go, it’s alright, I’ll take her.

After reading, re-reading, deleting, then recomposing his message over the next few minutes, Teddy finally sighed and hit send. He began to put it away when it rumbled in his palm.

shut up i got this <3

Teddy sighed, smiling fondly at his phone before tapping a quick reply and returning the device to his pocket.

You’re the best, Micah. Thank you.

It would be about that time when Teddy would notice the pair that had approached him. He met the other Teddy’s grin with one of his own. He let Green Teddy brag to his heart’s content, before turning to acknowledge the man on Green Teddy’s arm first, the minor act of pettiness helping mend the wound that his ego had taken at the mention of an utterly ridiculous yet wholly believable TWENTY minivans.

To Billy’s question, Teddy’s smile faltered for a moment as he thought of the countless doctor consultations he had sat through that summer, the three separate hospital admissions that Mom had endured, the…incident and those fucking pills…

The Kodiak chuckled warmly.

“Haha, I know that’s got to be frustrating. If it makes things easier, you can just call me Theodore or Michael or something. And it was alright, thanks for asking. I hope you guys had a nice one.” Theodore Michael answered before turning his gaze back to Teddy. ”But twenty, Teddy? C’mon that’s…” he paused, considering his words. The rivalry between the senior Teddys had burned for three whole years now, with Thompson constantly pushing himself to at least challenge the other. He probably respected Teddy Altman more than any of his other peers, so the trading of barbs, bragging, and playfully shitting on accomplishments came from a place of admiration, or Thompson would like to have thought. Regardless of where it came from, the other Teddy and by association, Billy Maximoff, got to see a side of Theodore that was a far cry from the gentle giant persona for which he was known.

And yet, despite his best efforts to source a quip, Theodore couldn’t do it. His heart just wasn’t in it that day.

He sighed before continuing. “...that’s incredible. Really. You’re something else.” he said sincerely. “I was hoping to push at least fifteen, but…” he chuckled, debating whether or not to embellish before deciding to simply confess the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, “I tapped out after three.”

The rowdy crowd up ahead began to grow noisy again, something for which Teddy Thompson would silently be thankful for as he found himself not willing to look the other Teddy in the eyes at the moment. Instead, he turned craning his neck to look over the crowd at the source. It was…easy enough, considered he stood damn well near at least foot taller than many in line.

As it turned out, the uproar was centered around none other than his new roommate. Teddy’s heart sank. He was covered in foam, and not the fun kind of foam. Part of him wanted to check on the boy, see if there was anything he could do for him, but he quickly recognized that Diana was already on the scene. If anyone would be able to help him now, it would be president of the Percy Novikov fanclub, Diana Novikova herself. The best thing that Teddy could do for the boy at the moment was give him some space. After all, it seemed like quite the entourage was forming around him - his sister obviously, but also the brick shithouse Leah Jordan herself, April Flynn who seemed probably reliable, and…oh. Danny. He couldn’t help but smile fondly again. Percy was in good hands.

Feeling a bit inspired for no reason in particular, he turned back towards the literal power couple, “Y’know, to be honest, twenty just ain’t sitting right with me, bubba.” he announces. “Here I am thinking I’d do a nice thing and just take it easy on you this year - Let you look good. But…c’mon, if you’re just gonna roll over and be satisfied with twenty, I reckon I’ll have to head back over in a bit and drop a quick thirty before they pack up for the day just to show you how it’s really done..” he finishes in an attempt to rile Teddy up, offering a subtle wink toward Billy.

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“Ooo~” Mai cooed as she hunched over the sheet, studying it as if they were ancient hieroglyphs and she a dashing, daring, roguish archeologist or whatever the fuck the grumpy dude had been in that shitty movie her brother forced her to watch. Idaho Bones or something stupid like that. As Mai struggled to continue the analogy actively derailing in her head, she felt something in her pocket move. Then came the musical gift that was the opening lines of the chorus to Summer Girls by Lyte Funkie Ones - a truly terrible treasure she had discovered while diving through the cesspool that was turn of the century boy bands.

~New Kids On The Block had a bunch of hits
Chinese food makes me sick~

Mai straightened up, shoving a hand into her pocket, fishing for her phone while she continued to look over the sheet. Finding the phone, she whipped it out and hit the power button. When it didn’t seem like it had woken from sleep, she squinted her eyes and held the phone above her, shielding it from the sun with her free hand. Two percent battery and a message from Danny.

Mai’s eyes went wide as she punched in her passcode and started tapping away a response - trying her damndest to be faster than the rapidly dying phone battery.

u no i gotchu bb <3 where am i going?

After tapping send, Mai settled back into the chair, fixing her eyes upon the artist across from her.

“I need you to tiger me. It’s a matter of life or death.” Mai calmly demands before her eyes dart off, the dusty cogs turning in her head. “I would be open to settling for cute lil kitty cat with whiskers if you tell me where Danny is though. And that’s kind of a kickass deal, let’s be real.”

Priorities, people. She's got 'em.