THE APPRENTICE II

5

When Hazel woke up, the first thing she saw was the heads of Peter and Quentin poking from their necks, investigating her state. A groan escaped her lips when her head pounded and throbbed, so she sat up.

"Woah, there!" Peter jerked away and covered his face. She realized her tunics were undone and they replenished themselves instantly. "Before you say anything, you um, fell like that and we left it that way cause Karen said it'd be good for you since you fell! But we didn't look or anything, I promise!"

Hazel forced herself to stand up and realized that there were black cars and two specific SHIELD agents waiting outside the mirror dimension.

"We've also been trapped in here since,"

"How long was I out?" She inquired and undid the spell. Multiple officers and agents secured the area with tape and Fury immediately approached Quentin Beck.

"Not long, about 2 minutes." He confessed and she sighed at his narrative. He gave a small laugh at her reaction and she returned it. "So it's over, huh?,"

"That was the last of them, but not the last threat
we'll ever face. We need to stay vigilant. There's a void in this world for someone like you." The two teenagers overheard Fury say to Mysterio. They positioned themselves beside the two to listen in. "Hill and I are going to Europol headquarters in Berlin tomorrow. You should join us,"

"Thank you, I just might take you up on that!" He chided and a large smile plastered on his face. His expression made the girl twist her lip.

"Wait wait, this guys a fraud!" She stepped in front of Fury to get his attention. "He's lying to all of you,"

"I'm not a fraud!,"

"It's either that, or you're an idiot,"

"Look: maybe it'll help if you knew that I'm from earth 616." He sighed and squeezed himself between her and Fury.

"Wait, what?! 616 what, now?! You've got to be kidding me." She turned to Peter and Fury questioningly. "Did you just hire the first junkie you could find off the street?!,"

"I don't think you know what the multiverse has in store for mankind, Hazel- for you." Quentin has a mystifying and dramatic tone in his voice.

"Oh, I know it- I travel around and protect it every day of my life,"

"Now, Miss Wolfe, there's no need to get aggressive. He's an ally to this mission and to this planet- an asset, more than what you and Strange can offer,"

"Probably because we're too busy doing our jobs!" She ran her hand through her hair in frustration. "He doesn't know the basics of sorcery and yet managed to expose it to the world! And-and what is that pattern?! That's...it looks like something you can get from a gift shop!"

She recreated his sorcery pattern: a green shield with an eye on it and almost laughed. Peter roughly put her hand down and slid between them.

"Hazel, just stop it, it's done,"

"It's just begun,"

"Look, kid: maybe you just need to accept my world's differences from yours. What if you just...didn't know? Missed a page from your book?" He asked "if you're just...not trained yet?"

He put his hand on her shoulder in an almost mocking way. Her skin boiled and she grabbed his hand, twisted it, then pushed his Astro form out of his body.

"Again?" She raised a brow and almost smirked.

"All of you here, you've got gifts! There's a place for everyone in this world!" Fury tried to diffuse the situation then turned to Peter. "You got gifts, Parker, but you didn't wanna be here. We'd love to have you in Berlin, too. But you've got to decide whether you're going to step up or not. Stark chose you; he made you an avenger. I need that, the world needs that- Maybe Stark was wrong. The choice is yours,"

"Woah, what? No, don't say that. Don't act like he didn't do anything and stop trying to recruit him into your...following." She articulated and comforted him. "Peter, you did great. You did everything you could do and it was a tremendous help-,"

"-you should go." He muttered and avoided her gaze. Hazel squinted her eyes and disappeared within a heartbeat and left the four alone.