Janet Van Dyne sat with her legs crossed, her bright, yellow book bag carefully tucked face down in her lap as she held on to her seat; the bus bouncing and jerking as it made its way down the various potholes littering the streets just outside of New York. Looking out the window, she could see the beautiful skyline of the place she had once called home...it's awe-inspiring towers, full of people bustling to and fro...the rush as city life sprinted towards one task to the next, always hurried in its never ending struggle to keep up...she missed it already. The boy sitting next to her hadn't helped at all, she thought with a twinge of sarcasm, as she watched his dirty-blonde head flail around as he snored, having pretty much instantly passed out the moment he boarded the strange, red-colored bus. She was tempted to say something, or at least wake him up. Deep down, she needed someone to confess to; someone to share her feelings of doubt and frustration with as she made this next step in her chosen path of life. However, she hadn't even spoken a word to the boy. Would it come off as odd or bizarre for her to talk now? She knew she did tend to be too open to people she didn't know. It was a habit she had picked up from her mother, she figured...
No, what she needed to do for now was remind herself of why she was here: she had a new home now. A new home with new friends, a new extended family and a new life ahead of her. Janet tried to reassure herself of this by going through the brightly-colored paper folder spread across her lap; the aesthetically pleasing brochures promising fun, learning and experience to try and secure her decision to stay with her new school.
It was...odd, to say the least. Only a year ago, Janet would have never even dreamed of living such a life as the one she was going through now. Superheroes really hadn't been a "thing" until last July, when the first attacks on New York city had begun. Sure, there had always been the occasional superhero drama, comic book or movie, boldly posted in her Instagram feed, but real life superheroes where considered to be those who simply put others before themselves. However, big hearts and dumb luck didn't cut it anymore; not after the first attack on the pentagon from the mysterious, otherworldly entities. Originally, When the US Government had been given solid evidence that aliens existed, and were indeed a threat, the heads of the military department hadn't even thought twice before deploying their best weapons. It had seemed quite reasonable at the time to react in such a manner. This was the United States, after all. If you were in danger, and you had the weapons, you used them. It was simple. Understood. Predictable...
Unfortunately, those weapons had included nucleur warefare...
Unable to possibly evacuate all of the people in time, the decision had been made unanimously to sacrifice a few for the better of many. Maybe it had been wrong, yes. Even downright unconstitutional; illegal and despicable. Fortunately, that's when the heroes had come in.
To this day, no one knew who they were. Out of nowhere, a band of unlikely brave souls had arisen to defeat the world's new enemy through courage, teamwork and self-sacrifice. The battle had been hard, but after many stressful days of being glued to their television sets, the American people and the world finally breathed a collective sigh of relief as the alien threat was pushed back into outer space, never to return. The actions of those heroes that day had saved millions, if not billions of innocent men, women and children. Without their help, who knows where the world would be as of now?
And that's where Janet, also known as the "Wasp" came in. As superheroes had become more and more popular, more heroes had begun to show up across the world, including Janet. Inspired by the awesome works of the mysterious saviors of planet Earth, hope had brung together the most talented, most cunning and powerful individuals in the world together, all fighting in one, unanimous goal: to protect the innocent, serve justice, and provide peace and safety. Janet was one of these heroes. She had fought bad guys, saved helpless babies from housefires, and had even been given a public award after saving the life of New York city's mayor. However, as all good things in this life tend to go, this new age of safety and responsibility didn't last long.
After several superhuman robberies, terrorist attacks and other violent crimes began to sweep the nation, the US Government again realized they had a problem. Not only were these "superhumans" unaccountable for due to their "secret identies," many political activists were beginning to voice their concerns on the danger of having unrestrained vigilantes running loose in society.
So, after many court battles, man and supermankind finally came to a compromise. American superhuman children were given the option to register themselves at partake in a school of their own - a place where they could be the heroes they wanted to be; free from discrimination, prejudice and hatred. Of course, many had declined, instead attending normal school like everyone else. However, many did. And Janet Van Dyne was one of those students.
As the bus came to a stop, she woke up from her swirling thoughts, turning off her phone with a click! of a button. It was time...it was now or never. Gathering her belongings, she stopped to hesitate in front of the door. Was it really a good idea for her to show off her powers just yet? Would it give her an impression she actually wanted?
She halted, reaching into her black-and-yellow striped purse one last time to double check her appearance in her pocket-sized, fold-up mirror. After a few adjustments to her bangs and a careful repositioning of her yellow headband, she carefully slid out the frame of her giant, metalic wings over her spine like a backpack. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, reassuring herself one last time before stepping down of the bus and into a whole new world - a world called AVENGERS ACADEMY.
◇To Be Continued...◇