Avengers Academy

Chapter 10: It's Not Real

It is now the fourth week in their journey to becoming great heroes. For starters, it didn't really go that fast. For poor Peter, Laura ignored him the rest of the week. He was worried that he pushed to far. After school he would Spider-Man it up and when he'd get home she'd be asleep. In the morning she would get up, not say anything. Not even make eye contact. It broke his heart. All he wanted to do was be her friend and he screwed it up already. New record for Peter screwing things up: four weeks. Truth was, he didn't screw anything up in fact. Once Laura opens up, she immediately shuts down.

She locks everyone and thing out. Laura realizing she trusts Peter makes her push away from him. She sees his potential along with being a happy go lucky teen. This is what you could say as her way of caring about him. This was her way of caring about everyone. She's willing to sacrifice friendships for their safety, not hers. She already has too much blood on her hands. Today's training is handling things you've chosen to ignore for the sake of your sanity. Two people go in at a time. This time they can pick partners for support. Everyone was picking their partners the night before. Peter was hesitant on asking Laura so he let it go.

It was like having your brain checked at a neurologist's office. Wires glued to your scalp, machines to check heart rate and a screen to show what is playing inside each person's head. It will be a very grueling process. Maybe mentally damaging. Laura actually had hope that Peter would ask her but pushed those feelings aside. Now everyone except them were standing with their partners. Peter walked over to Laura slowly, unsure of what might happen.

"Hey" He said shyly. She gave a weak smile in return.

"Looks like everyone has a partner except us." He stated as if that was him asking.

They both knew that they wouldn't have a choice of who to go in with considering everyone was taken. So they left words unspoken and partnered up. When the training began, each pair had an hour time slot. This built up the suspension. For some, they worried. A lot have still been dealing with the tramas of Thanos. They were afraid that this would trigger something. Some were excited because of weird scientific reasons. What exactly was this? An interrogation? No one knows until they get in there. Three pairs have gone. Group one and two came out terrified like they had just seen a ghost. Group three had an issue. Big, muscular men came in.

They opened the door. About a minute later only one partner came out. They were in tears as if not only to face their biggest fear but someone died. What they didn't know is that someone almost did just died. What the hell is going on in there? The rest of them are terrified now. When it was Peter and Laura's turn, they looked at each other terrified. They went in only to be greeted by Tony and a doctor.

"So you're testing if we have a fear of needles?" Laura asked sarcastically and a little confused.

"No Miss Kinney. It's what I call the dream sequences. We put a brain monitor and heart monitor on. It's to track your body's heart rate and brain waves in a situation where you're under extreme stress. The screen here, shows us what you can see and what you're experiencing. The needle is the serum that triggers the brain activity to bring the dreams." Tony states.

This puts the two at ease. So they're going to be dreaming. Free nap. They lie down on the gurney style beds and relax as they get hooked up. There's a slight pinch on their necks, indicating the needle is there. Within a minute they're asleep. Laura wakes up in an extremely familiar forest, but she and others around her are being attacked by Hydra. Her only instinct: fight. Peter wakes up on the sidewalk, near a small convenience store a few blocks from his apartment. Thinking nothing of it, he walks in. It's not Delmar's but it's something. Laura watches, almost as if it were slow motion, as the crazy man takes down her father. Tony began to worry about what is about to happen. He's already had three people have near death experiences. He doesn't need more.

Laura hurries to find something to take him out. Something, anything... Ahha! A gun! She grabs it and checks. Amo? Check! She turns but it was already too late. She shoots blowing the man's brains to bits. She sees her father lying there, impaled. Her heart drop and she feels her blood run cold. She goes over. Peter stands there undecided of what he should buy. Should he get the pringles or the cream cakes? He never decided because a masked man comes in demanding money. Terrified, he ducks. Does he expose himself? Or does he just let it happen? What if he fails? He's a dead man at that point. He hasn't even figured out his web shooters that he just built.

The man is almost out the door before he could get a coherent thought process. He runs out to stop him but instead his uncle is there trying to stop the burglar. Everything begins to play in slow motion and his heart feels like it is about to stop. He's too late. Laura runs over to her father kneeling down. Tears began to form in her eyes as she brushes the hair out of his eyes and tries to wipe away a bit of blood. He's barely audible. All he keeps saying is her name. Only to have his next words be, "So this is what it feels like?" And continuing her name. She begged for her daddy to stay alive but it was no use. He was already dying before the fight and now he was too weak to continue. Now she's screaming, crying, angry mess. This can't be happening to her.

Peter watched as the guy pulled out a gun. His mind went blank from fear, just like it did the first time. He watched as the guy pulled the trigger, the bullet piercing his uncle's skin, the burglar running. His only instinct is to drop to his knees. Peter's entire body began to shake from the pain. He's now holding his Uncle's head in his lap.

"Peter?" He says weakly.

"Ye... yeah?" Peter through whimpers.

"Remember son, the one thing I've always told you." He says.

"With g... gr... great power comes great res... response.. sibility." Peter finishes the line the best he can.

"I love you." He said with his last breath.

"I love you to... Ben? Uncle Ben? No, no, no, no! Stay with us. Stay with me! Uncle Ben!" He starts screaming, holding his uncles lifeless body in his arms.

Laura covers her ears and begins screaming from watching all of this over again. Ton watches in horror. What has he created. At first he thought this was a genius plan. A way for the young heroes to be strong but also compassionate. Learning how to keep emotions in check in a tough situation. But that wasn't how all of this was working. It was becoming a total disaster.

"This can't be happening. No this can't be real. Can't be real!" She screams and it echoes as if her voice is a robot.

She was coming to a realization. It's not real. The same thing happened to Peter when he screamed. But his machine made the police officers surrounding him glitch.

"Tony, let me out." He said calmly.

Tony obeyed and had the doctor inject them with another serum that wakes them. Withing 30 seconds, they jolted awake. Without another word, Laura ripped the equipment off her and runs out of the room. Tony had huge regrets about this project now. Will the students ever trust him again?