THE APPRENTICE III

3

Uploading another chapter later this week since I've missed the last one :)

Stephen kept his head straight and his gaze on the window in his bedroom. He felt his pride get bruised each time Hazel ran that blade across his skin. She held up a goatee template, her eyebrows stressed and a crease on her forehead in focus.

"I told you this wasn't necessary." He sighed as she rinsed the blade off in a bowl of water.

"You say that now." She muttered, and a smirk began to grow on her face. She swiped the blade under his chin one more time. "But just in case you don't make it, you'll regret looking unkept at your own funeral."

A snort sounded from his mouth as she wiped his face with a towel. He let out a wheeze and a laugh, and so did she.

"Asshole." He shook his head and rolled his eyes. She simpered and exhaled roughly through her nose.

"What do you think?" She held up a mirror and he investigated himself. He frowned at her work, impressed.

"You should do this for a living." He teased and she took the mirror from his hands with a slight pride.

"Hazel." Wong knocked on the door and swayed his head to the outside. "Someone's calling for you."

There was an urgency in his eyes and she gave him a knowing look. She knew Heskit was about to visit Strange since he asked for him.

"It's not Heskit." He revealed, and she got up from her seat, overtaken by curiosity.

A black horse made out of shadowy material galloped around the room. She huffed as her eyes followed it. She placed her hands on her hips.

"Not now, Balthazar." She warned the horse that gave a disappointed neigh, then disappeared into thin air. A blue, fairy-like creature popped out of the floor. She looked down.

The two men's eyes followed her direction, but weren't seeing anything. What was she doing? Was she pulling some sort of prank?

"You too." She shook her head at it, and it dissipated. Wong and Stephen looked at one another, freaked out, but mostly concerned. She took note of their reactions and relaxed a bit. "Oh, sorry about that,"

"About what?," Wong shook his head. "Who were you talking to?,"

"No one." She shrugged and approached the door. She briefly turned to Stephen then gestured to the lower third of her face with a glint in her eye. "That wasn't for free, by the way. You owe me."

Before Wong could even ask her about what just happened, she sighed loudly. She couldn't help but flatten her expression at the sight of Nick Fury.

"Hazel Wolfe." Nick fury lifted his hand for a half wave and gave her a nod.

"What is it?,"

"No tea, this time?" He voiced out with humor but she simply ignored his comment. "We need your help. There's been an attack— some kind of clone magic-,"

"That's not my job." She cut him off and shook his head firmly.

"-did you not hear me say magic?," he raised a brow, his tone getting heated.

"It's still more of a physical threat. It's something Spider-Man or whatever can fix." She waved her hand lazily, not making an effort to conceal the annoyance on her face.

"Spider-Man's...a little tangled in his webs right now and the rest are unavailable or more difficult to contact. You're already in New York,"

"Well, we don't do clean-up duty. If we were here to fix every idiot's mistake in the world, reality would crash." She dismissively turned away from him and headed for the sink to get a glass of water. She could hear him follow her.