"Good, now that we're done with the names," Professor Murdock began, even though Flash hadn't decided on his name, this wasn't much of a problem at the time. He makes a big impression even without a hero name. "It's a good time to talk a bit more about the internships. They will last for a week, and you must choose from one of the offers you received. Those of you without offers will have a different list. You have a lot to think about, we have almost 40 different agencies across the state that are recruiting interns from your class. Each agency has a type of work that each hero focuses on, keep that in mind."
"Imagine Danger for example," Professor Frost refers to her colleague. "She would run an agency more focused on rescue than fighting villains. Understand?" Several of the students nod in response.
"Take it seriously and think carefully before deciding," Professor Murdock announced. Just then, the bell rings and the students start to leave while the lists are passed around to each other.
"Fighting with villains and flying, that's all you need to have..." Sam said, looking through the list as quickly as possible to see if he could find someone who met his requirements.
"PleasebeCaptainMarvelpleasebeCaptainMarvel," Kamala prayed softly before picking up the list, hoping the woman who was her inspiration had sent an offer.
"Notify your choices before the weekend..." said Matthew, opening the door for Frost as she leaves. "We only have two days!?" Pietro asked, not believing in the short time they had.
"Yeah, so it's better that you guys start getting ready, right?" The teacher retorts sarcastically and gives a slight smile to the room before heading back to his desk. "You're dismissed."
The other students began to leave for lunch, when Mr. Murdock spoke up, "Mr. Parker, a word please?" Peter stopped in his tracks, a bit confused. Wanda looks back a bit nervously at the boy as she exits. "Oooh, I think someone's in trouble!" Teased Sam, grinning on his way out the door. Gwen smacked him on the back of his head, however, in an effort to get him moving.
"That kid..." Matthew sighed, shaking his head as the last students exited. "Shut the door please," he said, and Peter complied. "As you've seen, you currently have no offers for internships. In all honesty, I've been aware of this status for a few days..."
The boy was unsure where this was going, but then the blind man perks his head up, "You can come in now. Room's clear." The door opens, and in walked Iron Man, wearing another of his older armors, "Do you always have to do that every time someone's about to knock, Hornhead?" Murdock just smirked slightly.
"Mr. Stark?" Peter questioned. "What's going on here?" "Your teacher and I have been talking it over," he replied, the visor of his helmet going up to reveal his face. "Apparently he's feeling a bit of that old Catholic guilt, and he wants to help you out."
"You didn't have to word it quite that way," Mr. Murdock said irritably. "Mr. Parker, you once mentioned that your Quirk has a sort of precognitive ability that helps you avoid danger." "My Spider Sense, yeah," the boy nodded.
"Thing is, in spite of that, you took more than your share of shots during the Festival," said Tony. "And the ones you avoided were narrowly done at that." "Yeah, I was thinking about fine tuning my reflexes during the next few training sessions," Peter scratched the back of his neck, remembering the various close calls and the hits he couldn't avoid.
"Which brings me to my offer," said Matthew. "It's an opportunity of sorts. I have a few contacts, one of them is an old mentor of mine. He's long retired from teaching, but he's willing to work with you as a favor to me. I think he can help you in mastering that aspect of your Quirk."
Peter's eyes widened, "Oh wow, really!? One of your mentors?" "Yeah, he's a cranky old bastard, but he owes me one. And I owed you, so this is me squaring us up..." Mr. Murdock elaborated.
"Oh... If this is about what happened over summer, you don't have-" Peter began, but he was interrupted by his teacher raising his hand. "No, it has nothing to do with that," the man said. "This is for the EDR. You saved my life that day, now let me do something that could help you save your own."
The boy was speechless. Having another hero, his homeroom teacher no less, say these things to him was overwhelming. He felt a sense of both pride and embarrassment come over, unsure of how to respond to this.
"Yeah, I was originally gonna offer you a spot with my own agency," Tony put in. "But then he says I can't be showing repeat favoritism to students. As if this isn't the pot calling the kettle red..." He rolled his eyes slightly, "He does have a point though. You could use a different kind of training right now, and this buddy of his might be a good way to go about it."
Peter pondered the words of his mentor. As much as he'd love to work with him again, the hero was right. Developing his Spider Sense would aid him more in the long run, and he owed it to himself to take the chance offered to him. The boy turned to Mr. Murdock, "I'll do it."
It was no wonder that during the lunch break, most students were completely at a loss as to which agency to choose Those who received offers were undecided with whom to accept, and those who had the list of agencies that were accepting 1-A students were trying to coordinate so that they weren't all in the same agency.
"Hey guys, did you think about which agency you want to intern with? Tandy asked after lunch at the cafeteria. "I already have my choice!" Kei said, proud of himself.
"Is your choice a woman; tall and wearing a sexualized uniform?" Gwen asked as she passed the boy. "Maybe..." The boy muttered, which earned an eye roll from all the girls in class.
"It's amazing how most of those who went to individual battles got offers," said Nico. "I mean, even Flash got some."
"Oof, burn!" Laura laughed, sitting at the boy's desk. "Shut up..." He replies without much energy as he saw something on his cell phone. Flash had already sent in a response to the agency he would go to and they had already gotten back to him.
"How about you, Peter? Did you choose one?" Wanda asked, approaching the group that was talking. "I think I have one picked out," Peter said. "Who'd you choose?"
The Patriot's Agency, I wanna work with Agent Carter!!" Wanda said proudly. "Oh wow!! Really?" Peter asked in astonishment. This was the agency responsible for the activities of Captain America's descents in the United States. Several professional heroes come from it; The Falcon, Winter Soldier, and U.S Agent to name a few.
"Yes, she's the one who sent me an offer!" Wanda replied excitedly. Peter was certainly happy for his friend, but something didn't fit, "Wait a second, I thought you wanted to focus on rescuing people. Isn't this Agency more focused on Combat?"
"It is, and Rescue is the ultimate goal. But ever since the Festival I've been thinking about improving my physical capacity. It'll help me open up more possibilities if I'm unable to use my Quirk," she said, doing some fighting moves.
"That makes sense," Peter nodded, happy for his friend. "Well in any case, I'm sure you'll do great!" The girl blushed slightly at the compliment and nods her thanks at him.
Across the room, somewhat oblivious everyone else, Danny poured over the list of internship requests he'd received. Over three hundred agency requests in total, some went even beyond New York State, the most recent one was from North Carolina.
But there was a name he'd underlined that would help him accomplish his goal. It was close to the site of Orson's attack, and with so much effort to catch the culprit, it was likely that the Agency would be helping with the investigation...
"What's up!? Have you picked already!?" Gwen appears out of nowhere and placed her chin on Danny's shoulder, noting that he'd underlined an agency.
"Yeah, it's a martial artist agency. I think it will be a very fruitful experience and-" Danny stops and looked to the side. He saw Gwen's pale blue eyes staring at him; those eyes full of life, energy and curiosity, but still managed to be so sweet. At that moment, Danny reflected on his thoughts. What was he intending to do about it? Would he go through with it? What would she say if she knew...
"I also decided mine, you won't believe who was offering places for our class!" Gwen starts talking nonstop and Danny just stops to listen. No, he wouldn't bother her with his problems.
- After the sports festival, the attack on Danny's dad was all over the news channels. Apparently it happened in East Harlem; by a person who had already killed 10 heroes and placed at least 20 in hard-to-recover condition. They called him "The Punisher".
What's strange about it though, was he'd also gone after various criminals. That number of victims was more than triple the amount of heroes he'd taken down. This raised all sorts of questions. If he was acting as a vigilante, why was he also targeting heroes?
Danny didn't tell us anything about what was going on with Orson. Later, I was impressed that he took an internship in East Harlem, in the same place where his master had been left for dead. But I felt like I couldn't ask him anything since he had never come to talk or ask for help; that's how we were as we approached our first day of internships... -
It was eight o'clock on Monday morning, after the weekend, which was the deadline for delivering the internship intentions. Attorney Matthew Murdock faced the twenty students at the Grand Central Terminal, where each would take a different subway or bus to their internship location.
The students were dressed in their M.A uniforms and carried with a backpack with their belongings to last the week in their respective locations. Their suitcases with the hero uniforms were secured to their wrists; they would use them during service hours.
"Has everyone checked that they have all their belongings?" The lawyer asked, receiving positive affirmations. "Remember, you're not allowed to use the costumes in public without the accompaniment of a professional hero. And please don't lose them..." He said that last bit in regards to a particular student.
"You got it, teach!" Sam replied nonchalantly to his teacher. "I also hope that you're very respectful and polite to the heroes you'll be working during the internships," the lawyer straightens his glasses and turns toward that student. "This includes lingo, Mr. Alexander. 'Sir' or 'Miss' for heroes, are we clear?
"Yes sir..." The boy spoke in a more polite, albeit downcast attitude, which gets a laugh from some students.
"Very well! You're dismissed, I don't want to hear from any of you until next week!" The teacher receives a 'Yes Sir' from his students who part ways. "Ms. Poole, I believe we have the same destination."
"Yea!" She said, turning around to give Peter, Wanda and Danny a hug, taking a little longer with the last one before following her teacher towards the subway that would take them into Hell's Kitchen. She whispered something into his ear that didn't quite seem to register, to her slight disappointment.
As soon as his friend left, Danny also turned to catch the subway that would take him to his destination. But before he can get too far away, Peter and Wanda catch his attention.
"Danny!" Peter called, making the blonde stop and turn around. "If you want to talk, you can call us. We're friends right?" He asked, with Wanda agreeing beside him. "Of course..." The boy replied with a slight smile before saying goodbye and continuing on his way.
- The hardest part was knowing how he was feeling. In the days to come, I'd regret not being there for him. -
