The Magician's Apprentice

Nerds...

My meeting with Thor—the freaking God of Thunder—intrigued me. I expected a similar version of Loki but more, I dunno, lightning-y. But he was pretty much a childish attention-seeker who pulled stunts for glory. I was beginning to think that The Avengers members might not be like what they seem.

So when Stephen asked me whom I wanted to meet next, I was apprehensive. "I heard there was a new member," I said. "What about him?"

"You mean Peter Parker?" Stephen asked. "Sure. I'm still surprised he became an honorary member, considering he's only fifteen."

My jaw dropped. "He's fifteen?" I exclaimed. "What is he, a relative to Capital-G God or something?"

"Actually, no," Stephen said. "He's pretty much an average freshman with skills. I don't know much about him, but Tony Stark speaks high of him. Apparently, even without his special customized suit, he managed to take down a huge threat."

I'm not going to lie, that was actually really impressive. "Maybe he's someone worth meeting," I mused. "So his name is Peter Parker?"

"Yep."

"Gotcha." I resumed my position and closed my eyes, casting out my mind in search of a High School freshman with supposedly amazing skills. I was hoping it would have taken around the same time with my encounter with Thor, but I was struggling to focus. Finally, after around fifteen minutes, I could feel myself drifting away.

When things came into focus, I was in a cluttered bedroom. Not cluttered as in candy bar wrappers and dirty pairs of underwear were everywhere, but cluttered as in it looked like someone was taking apart a computer and left half the pieces scattered around the room.

Sitting at a fully assembled and functioning computer was a pudgy Latino-looking teenage boy who was typing excitedly. "Yo, Peter," he said. "Being your Guy in a Chair is probably the best thing that happened to me."

Bewildered, I turned and saw another teenage boy, this one scrawny and paler, lying on his bed and was on his phone. So far, neither boy had noticed me.

The boy at the computer turned around to speak to the boy on the bed, but he froze when he spotted me. His brown eyes widened and he gaped at me in silence. When he spoke, his voice was high-pitched and slightly strained. "P-Peter?"

"Yeah?" asked the boy from the bed, whom I decided must be Peter Parker.

"There's a girl in your room."

"What?"

"There's a girl in your room."

Peter finally looked up from his phone and his eyes practically popped out of his skull. "Whoa," he breathed.

"Whoa," his friend echoed in awe.

These two are definitely fifteen-year-old boys, I thought, torn between annoyance and amusement. I cleared my throat and gave them a little wave. "Hi."

Peter's friend slowly waved a hand through my body, making it shimmer as if he plunged his hand into a pool of water. "Whoa," he said again. "Are you, like, some form of Astral Projection or something?"

The fact that he was spot-on surprised me so much that I almost didn't answer. "I actually am, yeah," I said, impressed. I turned to Peter, who looked like he was about to fall off his bed in sheer amazement. "I'm guessing you're Peter Parker?"

He blinked several times before coughing awkwardly and stammering, "Y-Yeah, I am. And—"

"—you are?" his friend finished, giving me a flirtatious grin that made me resist a shudder.

"Evie," I said. "And I'm—"

"I'm Ned!" Peter's friend said, sticking out a hand, forgetting in his excitement that I wasn't solid.

"Hi Ned," I said distractedly. Turning back to Peter I said, "Anyway, so I'm—"

"Did Mr. Stark send you?" Peter breathed, probably not realizing that he interrupted me.

"No," I said, getting increasingly annoyed with the two boys. "I'm—"

"Then what are you doing here?" Peter asked, beginning to look increasingly smug that he was getting a personal message from a ghostly entity.

Was this how Thor felt like when I continued to interrupt him? I asked myself. I suddenly understood why he was so indignant with my conversation. Mentally reminding myself to apologize to him later, I regained my composure and said, "I was sent by a man named Doctor Strange. He's—"

"Oh! Oh! Oh!" Ned blurted out excitedly. "I think I've heard of him! Didn't he, like, save Hong Kong or something?"

"Yeah, he did," I said, giving up on hoping to not get interrupted. "Well, more like the world, actually. Anyway, he's my teacher, and—"

"So he's your sensei," Ned breathed, his eyes bulging in awe.

"I...guess?" I said, uncomfortable with the picture of Stephen suddenly being a 300-year-old Asian man with a 5 foot-long beard. "Anyway, that's not the point."

"What is the point?" Ned asked.

Distracted by the fact that I wasn't interrupted this time, I blinked and said, "Erm, the point is that there are chances that we might meet soon. Steph—I mean Doctor Strange told me that at one point in time all of the Superheroes in the world will have to unite—or something like that."

I think the only reason why Ned and Peter didn't interrupt me was because they were so amazed by this concept on global heroes would unite that they had no words.

Finally, Ned spoke up. "Please tell me this is something like a hard-core ComicCon and they're not uniting because of an imminent threat that could destroy the world as we know it?"

I gave him a dry smile. "Try every universe and dimension in existence."

Color drained from the faces of both boys. Ned ran his hands through his hair, his expression pure panic. "Dude," he said to Peter. "Dude, dude, dude. I dunno, man...I mean, what about your Aunt May? And school?"

Peter cringed. "Well, the threat of Aunt May figuring out that I'm Spiderman is pretty much gone."

Ned goggled at him. "Are you saying she figured out your secret identity?"

Peter nodded and Ned gasped aloud. "Then can I tell her that I helped you? I can totally tell her that I'm your Guy in the Chair—"

His voice cut off when I cleared my throat meaningfully. "I've heard good things about you, Peter," I said, turning to Peter. "I trust that Tony Stark and the other Avengers will explain everything. In the mean time, I have to go."

Both boys looked so disappointed and crestfallen that I almost felt sorry for them. But Ned perked up and asked, "Right, uh, before you go, can I ask you something?"

I narrowed my eyes, having a suspicion on what it was going to be about. "Let me guess: how did I get my scars?"

Ned nodded, looking sheepish. "I mean, I have other questions about it, too. They look like chemical burns, and due to the opaqueness of your eyes, I would assume they were damaged, but you act like you can see us—"

"Dude," Peter interrupted him. "I think you're right on the burns, but she can obviously see us because she's not in her physical body. But I'm wondering why this form of her still has—"

"It's been a pleasure," I snapped and rushed back to my body. I was tempted to call them "nerds," but I remembered that that term was pretty much a compliment in today's standards, and the thought of complimenting those two would (if possible) make them more insufferable.