The bright sun sneaking through the cracks of my window shade woke me up with a groan. Squinting wearily, I reached over to grab my phone from my bedside table, accidentally knocking it onto the floor.

"Shit!" I flopped over the side of my bed, scrambling to grab my phone. Cracks now littered the top of the screen. That was just my luck. Clicking the button on the side of the phone, the screen lit up showing the time to be 8 AM. One hour before my alarm was set to go off.

I also noticed a message from Emma, my classmate from my physics course. I hadn't heard from her since we finished our last group project. I quickly opened up the message.

'Did you see the news from last night? These super hero fights seem to be happening a lot lately. Do you think we'll get out of classes this week?'

Oh god, not again. The last time a fight happened around our school, my entire project for the semester was destroyed. I sent her a message back asking what was damaged before quickly getting changed and rushing out to the kitchen. It was a mess as usual. Dishes were strewn about haphazardly with food still being left in a few pots on the stove. Deciding to skip breakfast, I left the mess for when I got home.

The drive to Midtown High was surprisingly calm, at least compared to the usual New York traffic. I only was screamed at once. The expletives were nothing new.

I arrived at the school to see police officers surrounding the entrance. The left side of the school was caved in, large chunks of brick and concrete were scattered across the school grounds and charred edges of the building indicated an explosion had been the likely cause of damage.

I parked off to the side and walked up to the closest officer. Getting closer I recognized him as George Stacy, Gwen Stacy's father. I liked him. He really seemed to care about others, which was becoming rare in the city.

"Hi Captain Stacy!" I called out. He turned away from the officers he was speaking to in order to greet me.

"Hi son, school has been cancelled for the day. Did you not receive the message?"

I had not, my parents were sent updates related to school, and I can't remember the last time they shared them with me.

"Oh yeah," I lied, "I just wanted to see the extent of the damage. Make sure my school projects aren't destroyed and all that."

He chuckled, "Sure, It's incredible how studious the students have become now that the school is in pieces. Well I can't let you come any closer. This is still an active crime scene."

I glanced over at the school again. Now that I was closer, the damage looked even more severe with long gashes across the building becoming visible.

"Do you know who caused it?" I asked, "Was it Spider Man again?"

He shook his head, "I can't share any information at this point. Once the information is made public, I'm sure your school will pass it along."

Then a voice came up on his radio, "Sir, we have a disturbance downtown. It appears as if a portal has opened up above the Avengers tower."

"We're on our way" He said, and began running towards the other officers. "Get home quickly!" He called back to me. I was already running back to my car. I didn't want to become another casualty in the fight between monsters.

I made it one street over before getting caught up in the traffic. I began to see others running past my car screaming. I was confused at first before looking up and seeing a monstrosity flying through the sky. It was easily the size of a skyscraper itself. Every move it made destroyed a chunk of a building causing glass and other materials to shower down on those running away.

'Slam'!

A man's bloody handprint was now on my driver's side window. "Help me!" I then saw him, multiple shards of glass stuck out of his body at odd angles, with blood dripping from each cut. The worst was a fist sized shard sticking out of his left eye.

"Help!" He screamed again.

I don't know what drove me to do it. I couldn't think straight. I really couldn't think much at all. I just wanted to get away from the man at my window. I hopped out of the passenger side of my car and joined everyone else in their mad dash to safety. Leaving the man slumped against my car door.

"This way! Everyone in here!" An authoritative voice called out. I looked over to see the gaudy red, white, and blue outfit of Captain America. He herded all of us into the subway station entrance before running off to continue his fight.

All that was left was the distant sounds of fighting and the screams of those injured. I was broken from my daze by a man addressing me.

"Hey kid, get off your ass and come help!" I looked up to see a gruff looking man in his thirties or forties

"Help with what?" I asked shakily, looking around at the defeated crowd around us.

"There's too many injured here. We need anyone capable to help. Do you know CPR and first aid?"

I just nodded, I had learned the basics for the few years I was a lifeguard.

"Good, come on." He roughly pulled me to my feet and I followed him deeper into the station. The closer we got, the louder the screams became.

"The name's Jack, I was a combat medic in the Army." He said, without looking back at me.

"Oliver," I responded. "You know, I'm not sure how much help I will be. I've never had to use my training before."

"Just follow my instructions. We need to do the best we can."

It was then we reached the source of the screams. Dozens of injured were laying across the floor of the Subway. So much blood had been spilt, that it was difficult to find a spot without it. Others were already scrambling around, helping as best they could.

I was frozen in fear. Staring at the atrocities in front of me.

"Oliver! CPR now! He's in cardiac arrest." Jack was hovering over a man missing an arm. A makeshift tourniquet was tied around his stump to stop the blood flow.

I snapped out of my daze and rushed over to begin giving the man CPR. There was so much blood already covering his chest, causing my hands to slip but I kept going.

"One, Two, Three" I whispered, keeping count under my breath. It was then I felt and heard a crack from the man's chest. His ribs had fractured. I ignored it and kept going.

"One, Two, Three" Now blood was coming out of his mouth after every push, making it more difficult to keep my hands from slipping. I carried on.

"One, Two, Three" Blood was now continuously leaking from the man's mouth. He looked deathly pale.

"Oliver, he's dead! Get over here." Jack's voice cut in, causing me to stop. I shakily looked down at the man and then my blood-soaked hands. It was my first experience with death. I knew I needed to go join Jack, but my body wasn't responding. I could only stare at the dead man in front of me.

"Oliver!" Jack's voice got me moving. I rushed over to him and we continued to help those injured for the next thirty minutes. Too many were beyond saving. So many died. The screams from within the station were what finally stopped us. They were coming from the entrance. I could recognize those screams now. They were the screams of others dying.

Jack and I rushed towards the screaming to find three humanoid creatures firing guns into the crowd. They were huge and the armor they wore looked impossible to break through.

Jack put his hand on my shoulder as I was about to turn and run away.

"It's better to go out fighting." He then pulled out a pistol he had concealed in his waistband and charged towards the creatures, firing shots as he went.

He took down one with a well placed headshot before the other two noticed his approach. They began to return fire, causing Jack to duck behind a pillar.

Once again, I was put in an impossible situation. I never imagined I would be the one to choose to fight in a fight or flight situation, but I was already running towards the creature on the left. I didn't have any weapons, and I didn't stop to pick one up. I just attempted to tackle the creature. It was much heavier than it looked. I only pushed it back a foot or two.

I then felt a sharp pain from my stomach. Looking down, the creature's blade was stuck into my lower abdomen.

I glanced over in time to see Jack get shot by the other creature before collapsing to the ground. The world began fading from view and all I could focus on was how I had failed. If only I was a better fighter. If only I had powers like so many others do.