Clairaudience, that is the ability to hear things that are not supposed to be heard. With this, the user can hear the thoughts of the people around them or even the dead. It sounds like quite the interesting power, especially if it could help you cheat on tests, but in reality it wasn't what most would probably make it out to be.
For Victoria, it was both a blessing and a curse, one that she didn't ask for. In her case, she wasn't able to hear anything like the dead, but whenever she made eye contact with someone and was focused...or unfocused enough, she was able to hear their inner thoughts. It was probably some messed up version of the saying "The eyes are the windows to the soul" or something like that. It had absolutely nothing to do with the abilities her parents had, but after digging into her family's history it looked like her grandfather on her mother's side of the family had a power similar to her own.
It all started when she was a child. The people around her thought she was crazy because of how she would sometimes answer their thoughts before they would even be able to voice them. She would cringe a bit if someone joked about her being a psychic. She wasn't one, but she wasn't normal either.
As her powers began to grow, the need to learn to control them grew as well. For a while, her parents considered bringing her to the academy run by Professor Xavior, but the more villains attacked, the less appealing the option became. It was then that her parents decided to find out how her powers worked themselves.
After some well thought "experiments", which in itself took a few years, they finally realized that her powers were unleashed whenever she was focused on a single person. If she focused enough on one person, looking them in the eyes, then she was able to read their thoughts and their thoughts alone. For a while they thought that was the only case for her abilities, but after some extended experiments, the whole family figured out that whenever Victoria was anxious or unfocused, her power wasn't under control at all, allowing her to hear multiple people's thoughts at the same time. At the skill level she's at right now, Victoria is unable to control who's thoughts she's able to hear whenever it goes on to more than one person.
To control this, Victoria is forced to think about more than one thing whenever she speaks to someone, specifically her friends and family. If she was engaging in a conversation with a stranger, she'd be more than happy to hear what their true thoughts were, that way she'd know if they had alternative intentions than what they let people think. For family and friends though, she allowed herself to respect their privacy, so when she spoke to them, she did her best to divide her attention. That could extend to thinking about another event or simply telling herself to think about something different...like what she had done with Peter earlier.
It was surprisingly easy to reduce concentration on a person when in a conversation. Kids did it all the time when they were on their phone at the same time they were having a conversation with someone. Yes, it may seem rude to the person she was talking to, but it was all for a good reason.
"Psst, Vic. Hey!"
MJ tapped the girl on the shoulder multiple times, doing her best to keep her voice low so that the teacher wouldn't bother looking their way. In this class, MJ sat behind the girl, both a good and bad thing. The bad part being that she would rather have her best friend next to her instead of behind. Instead of MJ being next to her like she wished, there was Noelle Straightener, one of the most popular girls in school.
"Ugh, will you two be quiet? I'm trying to learn."
The raven haired girl rolled her eyes, resting her head on the palm of her hand as though she were annoyed. Despite her act, she was really just trying to be 'cool', or so Victoria had realized after getting a glimpse of her thoughts. Before finding out who the girl was even trying to impress, Victoria broke her concentration, returning it to the blank whiteboard that lay in the front of the classroom.
Before completely keeping her focus on the front, the brunette turned around to face Mary Jane, a small yet amused grin crawling onto the lips of them both.
"Alright class," the teacher in front began, laying a sizable stack of papers onto his desk, "I hope all of you have prepared for presentations today, I will not allow any second chances for this. If your project is not finished, I will simply give it a zero."
With that said, multiple groans could be heard from different corners of the room. Victoria herself couldn't help but grimace at his stern and to the point attitude about the whole thing. Over all her classes were pretty laid back, history was the only exception to that.
"Alright everyone, I would like you to now pull out your projects as well as a notebook and pencil. I want all of you to take notes on every presentation given. I will collect this after everyone has finished and it will be graded."
Victoria's eye twitched in annoyance. Yes, History was a strict class, but this was a bit much. He didn't even greet his class, just went straight to business. Did something happen this morning?
Of course there was no use in questioning the teacher or their methods so, despite not being happy with any of this, she did as she was told and got out all necessary supplies. After taking them out, the girl rested her head on the table top, waiting for everyone else to finish with their preparations.
As Victoria waited for the others, she allowed her gaze to wonder around the room, looking for something that might catch her interest. It was a drag that phones weren't allowed in class. Passing the time while scrolling on your phone made it less likely to accidentally read someone's thoughts. It got real annoying after a while, especially if you didn't want to hear them.
After some more aimless staring, the girl's gaze finally landed on Peter and Harry who sat on the opposite side of the room. Unlike MJ and herself, those two actually sat next to each other. They both chatted amongst each other, laughing and smiling at the words that were exchanged.
"Hah, look at those two. Not even a care in the world."
MJ's voice was heard from behind Victoria, her tone of voice nothing but playful. If there was anything that was obvious about the red head, it was that he enjoyed seeing her friends getting along.
As of recently, Peter and Harry have just been getting along. Peter had been off to some...science school. For some unknown reason, he's returned, but MJ and Harry don't seem to care much about the details. They're just happy to have their friend back.
Victoria on the other hand has no idea what to think about the guy. He's cool, but he's hiding something...something that he doesn't want others to know. She could figure that out even without reading his mind. He's always excusing himself from class at the most random times and whenever certain topics are discussed...like Spider-Man, he begins acting differently. For now, all she concludes is that he's about as big a fan of him as are MJ and Flash Thompson.
Speaking of Flash...he's returned to Midtown as well. Not only that, but he and Peter were actually starting to get along. If someone had just met the two, they probably wouldn't have been able to guess that there was a time when Flash would literally shove Peter into a locker and steal his lunch money. It hasn't even been a full year and those two...are total buds.
All the girl could do was nod her head and stare back at the two boys who were chatting away. It took the teacher calling them out to finally have the room completely silent. Along with that, the mood of the room had dropped as well, the once cheerful students now sitting in a room full of dread and anticipation. It was obvious who wasn't going to take any of this seriously. How? They were the ones sitting in their seats, preparing spit wads to shoot at their unsuspecting victims.
The next hour of class was rather uneventful as it was nothing but filled with nonsense, and by nonsense, the projects. Victoria knew most of what was being told. Her notes would probably hold more information than what was presented...or at least that's what she told herself. She was pretty smart on her own...but she was no Peter Parker.
When he presented, she was always focused...or at least as focused as she could possibly be without invading his rightful privacy. If there was anything she respected about him more than anything, it was his intellect. She wouldn't be surprised if he was one of the smartest guys in all of New York...though maybe she was over glorifying it with that last bit. There were plenty of world renowned geniuses in the Big Apple. Some of the many were heroes like Buce Banner and Tony Stark. Of course the villains had a few in their ranks as well, some of those being MODOK, Dr. Octavious, and Arnim Zola. New York seemed to be a magnet for trouble...unfortunately.
"Ms. Adams, you're next."
An audible groan was then heard, coming from Victoria herself as that was the last thing she wanted to be doing at the moment.
"Yes sir." She answered, although reluctantly.
As she began to grab her project and walk up to the class, Victoria barely heard MJ whisper to her, "Good Luck."
As soon as she reached the front, her gaze immediately landed on the red head for some comfort. It wasn't much...but some and some was always better than none. Her gaze was met with supportive, green irises. It was at that moment that Mary Jane's thoughts slowly became audible to the one that stood in the front, her eyes widening before she immediately looked off to the side, breaking her concentration.
"Ahem...I am Victoria Adams, and I will be explaining the events that came after World War I."
'Control your breathing Victoria, don't look anyone in the eye, don't stare.' These thoughts continued to flood her head as she continued to present, her eyes landing on anything but her classmates.
As more time passed, the more anxious Victoria became. Her heart was now beating in her ears, her ability to speak properly, slowly fading.
'This has to end…Now.' She thought, her state one that was becoming panicked. If everyone's thoughts flooded her mind, it was more than likely that she would be overwhelmed. It was different than simply being in a room full of loud people. That was because your mind needed room to temporarily store those thoughts. Unlike voices which were concrete...thoughts were abstract. It took time to create one thought, let alone thoughts that weren't your own. Because of this overuse of Victoria's brain, the flood of thoughts could eventually cause her to pass out if not at least give her a major headache.
It soon seemed like someone had read her thoughts...that or the world finally decided to give her a break.
That was before she was able to say another word, there was something...or someone that had crashed through the roof of the classroom, landing a mere few feet away from Victoria who stood next to the chalkboard.
Initially, the smoke coming from the debris made it hard for her to see who it was, but as the smoke began to dissipate, onyx irises eyes widened. The same man standing in front of her was the same one that has been seen battling it out with Spider-Man on the news...constantly. From the sight that met her… she concluded that time has not been kind to him ...because now, he seemed uglier than he was before. Dr. Octopus…
"Alright you little brats, tell me…"
Victoria couldn't help but wince slightly at the man's almost robotic voice. It was unsettling how threatening he seemed. Everything considered...he was almost sinister.
"Where is Spider-Man?" he droned, his eyes brushing over everyone in the room, slowly analyzing everyone as a hunter, hunting its prey. Soon enough his gaze landed on Victoria, his eyebrows narrowing almost as soon as he caught sight of her.
"Ahh, hello there." A menacing smile crawled onto his lips, causing the one under his gaze to shiver in fear.
That's Chapter 2 of this fic! I hope all of you are enjoying the story so far! I know the pace the story's going is a bit weird and it may be that way for a while, but things should fall into place as the story goes on! Please feel free to leave a comment and tell me what you think! Until next time!