THE APPRENTICE II

2

The sorcerer didn't even have to think for the illusion spell to cast over her body. As she set the mirror dimension around herself, her portal to the opera appeared. Hazel walked into it cautiously and hid behind a wall before letting her shield from the world fall. She bumped and squeezed through the crowd of people in the streets and braced herself for an even bigger crowd, but was underwhelmed when she entered.

"Hazel!" Peter's voice rang and she spotted him jogging up along the spacious floor. His face lit up to a smile and he opened his arms for a hug, then decided he wanted to put her hand on her shoulder. Before he could make a final decision, she walked past him. "I- thanks for coming! I thought you didn't have time for superhero things. I mean not that you're not a superhero, you're just...yeah,"

"I had time," She bluntly corrected and squinted her eyes, then lead him on to walking with her.

"What about Doctor Strange? I thought he was unavailable,"

"Sure he is." She hummed and nodded repeatedly all while fighting a smile back from her face. It took her great control to stop imagining the messages that could have transpired. "You wanna fill me in on the situation?,"

"There are these huge elemental monsters attacking different places, and Nick Fury assigned me to help out. They're pretty big and they're basically killing machines- these things were made to destroy the planet."

They arrived at a group of teenagers that were chatting and taking pictures around the building. A grown adult furrowed his eyebrows at the two and walked up to them before they could approach the students.

"Who's this?," the man with brown hair, a lanky build, and eyeglasses asked.

"Hazel Wolfe." She offered her hand and the man took it to shake. "I'm going on vacation, it's just a small stay-,"

"-tour around Europe," he tried to finish for her.

"Small staying tour around Europe," she incorporated, her posture stiffening up "I know Peter,"

"Huh, you're American!"  A tall girl with curly, brown, hair in a dress observed and eyed her from head to toe. "what a coincidence,"

"Well, Hazel, I want you to know that you're welcome with us anytime. Mr. Harrington." He introduced himself then gave her a nod and pressed his lips in an attempt to smile. "Where are you going after this?,"

"Wherever you're going." She shrugged lazily, causing the Americans looked at her questioningly. "Oh, I just...wanted to spend time with Peter, so I've decided to follow you guys around. He invited me,"

"Yeah, yeah, she's super rich and stuff." Peter added and scratched the back of his head. "Hey, I think we should get inside the opera."

The tourists nodded in agreement and they bundled up to enter the empty theatre. They marveled at the opera glasses and seats. Peter muttered incoherent mumblings into thin air and pressed on his ear.

"I've alerted Nick Fury so he knows what's up, thanks for coming by the way,"

"Yeah, anytime," She hummed "Well, actually, not anytime. This is probably a one time thing unless a threat like Thanos comes into play again- your friends are staring."

Her intuition spiked then turned to Ned and MJ who couldn't keep their gazes off of the girl. Her face became flat, eyelids fell and crossed her arms in a defensive position. Although it was expected, it was still unpleasant for her.

"Hazel Wolfe," she introduced herself to the two. They flashed her polite smiles and stared at one another, as if they were deciding on who was going to speak first.

"Oh, I'm Ned. Ned Leeds,"

"Uh, I'm, uh, MJ" she gave her a tight-lipped smile and the sorcerer returned it. MJ found herself scrambling her mind for anything  she could talk about. "So,"

"So,"

"So...were you blipped?" MJ shrugged and let out an awkward laugh. "Sorry, it was the first thing I could think of,"

"Uh...no? It's complicated,"

"What do you mean?,"

"Well..." she thought of a way to articulate her thoughts. "I'm still a 16 year old, technically, but my metaphysical state is older. Actually, in reality, everyone's metaphysical state ages at a different pace. You could be 64 but have a 2 year old's mind. Not souls, though. Souls are immortal, they don't age. I guess I'm still a teenager, I never aged. Yeah, I'm 16."

The three gazed at her, then at each other, completely dumbfounded by her explanation. She had a moment of epiphany and slowly nodded.

"Oh, you have no idea what I'm talking about,"

"She's...a non conformist." Peter cleared his throat at her explanation and she raised her eyebrows in slight indignation.

"It's okay, I am too," MJ shrugged with a smile on her face then inched closer to the two of them.

"You...um, you look pretty tonight,"

"Thanks." She did a double take on what he said and realized she wasn't in her usual clothing. Peter lead the four of them towards a bigger crowd of people as she carried on. "So how did you all feel about almost dying yesterday?"

The conversation started to include more people, they all tried their best to capture Peter and Hazel's attention. Every person in the trip was fascinated by the mysterious, American teenager that seemed to have appeared out of thin air.

"It was weird,"

"It was so scary,"

"I'm too young to die!" A boy shook his head furiously and inserted himself. "Thanks to that mystery guy, I didn't,"

"What? There's no age limit for death!" She laughed and expected the rest do so, too. "A life is a life and its value isn't measured by-,"

"-Uh, Hazel?" Peter tapped her shoulder and cleared his throat. She noticed everyone was giving her strange looks, but was trying to keep up with everything she had to say. A wave of embarrassment washed over her. "Let's just...chill,"

"We don't have to if she doesn't wanna," MJ interrupted and almost scowled at him, then tried to show the girl a friendly face.

"Yeah Parker, shut up!" The boy who inserted himself commented and turned to her. "I'm Flash,"

"Okay, well...you're from America, right?" Ned assumed and tried to cut the tension.

"I am, New York, Bleeker Street,"

"Really? I don't see you around a lot. How long have you and Peter been friends again?,"

"Not long,"

"Uh...like a while ago." The two answered the question and butted answers. The teenagers shrugged it off and gave light chuckles.

"Time's relative, right?," MJ comforted

"Oh, you don't even know." She almost scoffed and smiled at the girl. "I could tell you stories- You're a science fan?,"

"Massive. You?,"

"Basically bred by a doctor, imagine that,"

"What school do you go to?" Ned inquired

"Oh, it's...away, um, homeschooled,"

"By that doctor," Parker stated

"Cool. So you're basically like Cady Heron?" Ned laughed along with a few people but gained no reaction from her. "Mean Girls? Nothing? How have you never seen Mean Girls?!,"

"Sorry, sorry!" She smiled and showed her palms in surrender. "I don't watch those kinds of movies. I don't get to watch movies very much, actually,"

"Ah, series?,"

"No,"

"Uh...Youtube videos and Instagram or something?,"

"No," Peter was internally cringing with her and his hands grew cold out of nervousness. He placed his hands on he shoulders before she could add to her reply.

"Um, we're just gonna catch up."