University and a growing friendship.

"Okay, class. Although I know it's not the norm now that you're in college, I'd like you to come to the front of the room one by one and introduce yourself. As long as you say your full name and chosen major, you can add whatever you want."

This was the message our new teacher greeted us with shortly after starting class.

Everyone seemed a little surprised, and I don't blame them. There are almost 50 students in this classroom, it will take at least half the class to finish the introductions.

"I'll start with myself as an example. My name is Yamada Jessie, my name is Jessie, by the way. I was born and raised in Japan, but I went to high school, college, and now my job here in the United States. I'll be your psychology 101 teacher. I hope we get along."

She ended her performance with a small bow that matched her appearance very well.

Her being Japanese is honestly no surprise to anyone. She fits all the stereotypes you'd expect from a Japanese girl in her twenties, though she's quite a bit younger than you'd expect from a college teacher, which I hope is a reflection of her competence.

Although her appearance is the last thing I focused on, considering her name was two letters away from a multiversal copyright claim or something.

"Well, who's up for it?"

The few whispers in the classroom that had begun after the teacher's introduction came to an abrupt end with those words.

Nobody wanted to take the first step.

Hah...you know what they say, all it takes is for good men to do nothing for evil to triumph.

And even though I knew this wasn't the proper context for that sentence (not even close) I am a good man (woman) and as a superhero it is my job to never let evil win!

With that thought, I quickly stood up from my seat. The sound of my chair scraping across the floor immediately caught everyone's attention, but I didn't stop my pace towards the front of the room.

There I was, in front of dozens of people, ready to make my first impression as the world's next best heroine…just without that context.

Take a deep breath… You got this!

"Hello everyone, I am Anne Marie, born and raised in Mississippi, in Jackson. I recently moved to New York to study here at this university thanks to a sports scholarship. My chosen major is Criminal Psychology. I like sweets, cats, and martial arts. It is a pleasure to meet you all."

Shortly after I finished my presentation, Professor Yamada began to applaud, which started a wave of applause from the other students, which I received with a big smile.

As expected from Rogue, a brilliant performance, I thought with no small amount of smugness, as I walked to my seat.

"Well done, Mrs. Marie, a splendid introduction. Anyone else?"

Once I broke the ice a bit and a flurry of introductions began here and there, I kind of zoned out as I listened to it all as background noise.

I've been thinking about what I'll do next. Sure, fighting crime one thug at a time sounds pretty cool, but I want more than that, you know? A goal.

Something more aspired to than "Be the world's greatest heroine" or "Stop MCU things from going wrong." Both of those goals take time, and I honestly don't know if I can do as much as I'd like with the second one.

For starters, I can't be so sure that everything that happens in the MCU will actually happen. Shortly after I was reborn, I wrote down all of my MCU knowledge that I had before I died in a journal, so I remember the timeline well.

It's 2010 so now I know Iron Man, Hulk and Iron Man 2 have happened as they should have, but that won't always be the case, I'm sure of it.

For starters, there aren't supposed to be any mutants in the MCU, but here they're public knowledge. Sure, it's a bit of a niche thing that people avoid talking about as some sort of taboo, but if they did exist you'd think they'd be mentioned at least once in the movies, right? It would also explain the existence of the Maximoff siblings in Avengers 2 instead of "Experiments done with the Mind Stone" or something like that.

Next on the list would be Thor, in Mexico. Again something I have no real way of supporting right now, but next up…

The Avengers, Alien Invasion here in New York.

My inner fangirl aside, this is one of the main reasons I came to New York. An alien invasion is about to attack one of the most populated cities in the world, and I will do everything in my power to stop it.

I know it doesn't seem like I'm doing much towards it so far, but my idea is to build up some credibility first, you know? I can't just go to SHIELD and say, "Hey, that magic cube that no one's supposed to know you have is about to be stolen by a magic god who's actually an alien."

So I'm back to the waiting game. Honestly, the smartest thing to do would be to just stay home and wait for more powers, pray to God that everything goes like the movies, and when I have enough combination of powers, turn into Super Man and clean up any mess.

But I don't want to. If there was something I could do to save even one person and I didn't wait until I had the "right powers" I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror, not in this life or in any other.

I would regret it forever.

So yeah, going back to the MCU, a few key moments aside, there really isn't much danger compared to the comics, at least where it can help in some way, Dormamu is so out of my league it's not even funny.

There's the alien invasion, Hydra, some minor villains, Ultron and Civil War... Did I miss anything? I know there are shows with other characters, but I haven't seen any so that will be a surprise, but still, they are shows with minor characters, I doubt they have anything very dangerous.

I also know Thanos appeared in a post-credits scene, but it looks like it'll be a job for the Guardians of the Galaxy and/or Thor and until I get some broken power, I'm 0 help on that front.

Oh well, I guess I have my medium term goal. I'll talk to Mandy about something more short terms later.

With my plans done I tuned back into class, only to be frozen with the last person who decided to show up today.

"Hello, my name is Peter Parker. Umm… I'm studying Genetics. It's a pleasure to meet you," he said in a slightly nervous voice, before sitting back down.

What…

"Alright everyone, it seems like Mr. Parker was last and who would have thought! It's the end of classes today too, it seems like time flies when you're having fun."

The class responded with a few laughs to the teacher's words as everyone gathered their things to head to campus or their next class. However, my mind wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening outside as I was caught up in a whirlwind of thoughts.

Peter Parker, Peter Benjamin Parker, Spider-Man is in my college psychology class. Spider-Man who should be about 10 years old is an adult.

So that's where the "everything is more or less the same" thing ends, huh?

As if sensing my gaze, Peter, who was gathering his things, suddenly looked in my direction. When he saw me watching him, he quickly looked away with a small blush before leaving class a little more hurriedly than usual.

Was that the spider sense? Cool.

Although Peter being an adult was a surprise it was still far from a negative thing when a simple more important fact took over.

Spider-Man is in my class! So cool!

I love Spider-Man. He's my favorite superhero of all time (No offense Weaver, you're awesome too, but you're kinda a bitch). His whole style, his heroism, his sense of responsibility, it's amazing!

I know my inner fangirl is coming out, but come on, it's Spider-Man!

And he is definitely Spider-Man right now. He's not wearing glasses and those baggy clothes might fool the uninitiated, but not me, no sir. Those shoulders, arms, that stance, none of it belongs to someone who can't throw a punch.

Still… How come I haven't heard of him before? Is he just starting out? It would make sense, maybe he's only mildly known in Queens, and he's not even national news in New York yet, forget about nationwide.

I have to find him again. There's something I've always wanted to try.

I quickly left the classroom in search of my favorite wall-crawler, and saw him walking more calmly towards the science faculty. Honestly, he seemed a little lonely.

Normally I'd avoid messing with Peter considering his shitty luck, but if he's so lonely... Maybe he's friendless right now? As a hero I can't just leave him alone if he feels left out.

Okay! Just salute the greatest hero of all time, how hard can it be?

As I was about to walk a little faster to catch up with him, a blonde girl with glasses and a short red-haired boy walked past me. With their arrival, Peter seemed more relaxed, and they started chatting quietly about something I couldn't hear.

Huh, that was anticlimactic. I guess he doesn't need me at all then. Still…

I took a piece of paper and wrote a note for Peter, I folded it like a paper airplane and using all the strength and aim I had I threw it at Peter at full speed, straight at his head.

Yeah, this is exactly what I wanted to do. I want to see the spider sense in action. It's always so cool in the movies how it turns around suddenly and grabs stuff out of nowhere, but I also don't want to be a bully or look suspicious, so I'll disguise it with a little note, plus it won't hurt him at all so it's just one more little experiment, for the sake of science!

I watched in anticipation as the plane flew straight to its target, but to my surprise, it hit it right in the head!

Peter looked as shocked as I did once he registered the impact. He looked at the plane as if it were an alien and then turned his gaze directly at me with a strange mix of emotions. First a blush, which quickly disappeared to give way to a hint of surprise, followed by a quick disappointment and defeated acceptance.

That surprised me a little. Did I think I was bullying him? I mean, considering his possible school experience I don't blame him, but it still bothers me that he was so quick to assume the worst about me.

The blonde girl who I think is Gwen Stacy glared at me and looked like she was about to charge at me. The redhead who I think is either Harry Osborn or Ned Leeds raised his eyebrows in a strange attempt at flirting.

Ignoring the latter, I quickly decided to resolve this misunderstanding. This girl would never be a bully! No sir, the craziest people are born from there.

I pointed at the plane and made some gestures to get my message across, I suck at charades, but Peter somehow understood what I meant.

He took the paper airplane and unfolded it to see my note.

Somehow he managed to look even redder than before, if that was even possible. Also, every aspect of his previous negativity disappeared as if it had never been there.

Gwen (?) quickly took the letter and when she read it, she somehow looked at me again with even more anger than before.

What? What did I do this time? I just asked him if he wanted to do some spar sometime, why is she even more angry?

Harry (?) also wanted to see, but Gwen (?) quickly gave the letter to Peter and started walking faster after giving me one last look before turning her back and continuing on her way.

Peter gave me a small apologetic look and a blushing nod before chasing after her, saying a bunch of quick phrases that I couldn't hear.

Harry (?) just followed them, still confused.

Me? Equally or even more confused.

I don't understand anything that just happened.

Still, I managed to invite Peter over for some Spar and gave him my phone number, I hope he calls me soon, fist bumping someone who can dodge bullets must be pretty cool.

At that moment…

another star joined my galaxy. This time it is a bronze-colored star. Stronger than gray, weaker than blue. And as it seems that it will be usual, another name that I now know are cape names entered my head.

Moonsong.

I honestly have no idea who they are, and I don't know if Worm has so many characters that I don't recognize even half of them or Ward just happened to be that long.

I don't feel stronger or anything, and the feeling that this power gives me... A Shaker? Another one? Where are the Mover and Brute when you need them? It's kind of embarrassing to walk around instead of jumping on roofs or something, you know?

Although the feeling of this one reminds me of gravity, so maybe I can fly?

Another power to try with Mandy lat-

At that moment, my phone rang due to a message notification.

"I already found the place and I have some equipment, see you later."

Just in time.

The rest of the classes weren't interesting at all compared to the first one. This is my first semester and the first day, so they were mostly just introductory classes, explaining the class material and some other introductions.

I was heading back to the dorm in the afternoon, ready to meet up with Mandy. Honestly, going back to college classes just brings back unpleasant memories of my previous life. I hate studying, I eventually managed to graduate in Business Administration from a decent university, but I hated it every step of the way.

This time I'm not exactly here to study a degree, I'm here to have a more normal college life. I only have classes three days a week not counting tournaments and competitions, I have a beautiful roommate and if Spider-Man is any indication, interesting classmates.

I'm on my way to my own personal success, it's time to take another step.

I opened the bedroom door with a look of determination that turned into a look of surprise and then a look of hypnotization at the view ahead.

Mandy was sitting cross-legged on our couch while she seemed to be answering some emails from her laptop. But that wasn't what surprised me, no sir.

It was Mandy's beautiful toned legs covered by only a pair of thin black leggings. A light blue sports bra showed off her toned (but not too toned) stomach and her slender, but clearly fit enough shoulders and arms to not be flabby in any way.

Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail which made her look livelier than usual, but her gaze was still as sharp as ever, this time focused on the screen in front of her, though not for long as she turned to look at me the moment I entered the living room.

She doesn't have her glasses on this time.

She stared at me for a moment, until I realized I had been ogling her for a good 10 seconds without saying a single word.

Get a grip, girl! Today is an important day!

With a Herculean effort, worthy of one of the twelve labors of Heracles, I stopped focusing completely on how beautiful my roommate is and went back to acting like a human being.

"Hey Mandy! I'm back! Give me a second, I'm going to change and then we'll go out! Bye!" Before Mandy could say a word, I had already run down the hall straight to my room to get ready for the shower and change into something more comfortable for the occasion.

Yes, I ran away. Can I be blame? I definitely don't blame myself.

After a nice cold shower and changing into my own sports clothes - a yellow shirt, a short-sleeved black sports coat, and tight black sports pants (but not even close to Mandy's tights).

I also put my hair in a ponytail and my usual bandana, this time yellow. A good pair of Nike sneakers, some wristbands and a bag where I kept my military gloves, my phone, a stopwatch, water and hygiene products.

I was ready, and this time mentally too.

I turned to Mandy with a confident smile.

"I'm ready, shall we go?"

Mandy looked at me for a second before saying with a tone as cold as her usual expression.

"Oh? You want my answer? You're not going to run off to do whatever before I can even say good afternoon?"

"Hehe… Oops? You just looked so pretty and smart, I felt a little inadequate, so I had to go get ready as quickly as possible. I'm sorry if I offended you, Maddy."

She took a moment to ponder what I just said before giving me a full look up and down, a moment later she nodded.

I was relieved for a second that she bought my excuse, but shortly after nodding she said,

"…Maddy?"

"Do you like it? It's my new best friend nickname for you."

"We are not best friends yet"

"C'mooon!" I said with a disappointed tone, although I was still in a good mood and I think Mandy noticed it because she simply ignored me as she closed her laptop and started walking towards the door.

After leaving the place, while I followed her on the way to the parking lot I said:

"B-but, we know practically everything about the other Mandy or well, almost everything, but we lived together and, and we had that bonding moment, you know, the enlightening heart-to-heart talk and the jokes." Although if I'm honest it was less of a heart-to-heart talk and more of a heart-to-a-wall-of-steel-reinforced-with-small-cracks talk, but that's semantics.

Unaware of my slightly rude little thought (thank goodness) Mandy continued.

"I wouldn't call it a heart-to-heart talk"

I call it.

She continued:

"While it was definitely enlightening, living together is not a big factor either. I have lived together with my brother and my father for a long time, and we don't get along particularly well."

"You have a brother! See how we're getting to know each other?!"

"You are too loud. Yes, I have a brother, an older brother to be more specific. We don't get along very well. My brother likes to follow my father, I don't like my father."

"And your mother?"

"We're okay, I guess. She's the reason I was able to come here in the first place."

"Seriously, how is that?"

As if in answer to my question, we pulled up in front of a shiny silver Porsche that was clearly worth more than all the hypothetical money I would make in 10 years on my previous life's salary.

I watched with my mouth agape as Mandy pulled out her keys and entered through the driver's side of the luxury car that clearly belongs to her.

I quickly snapped out of my daze and carefully entered the passenger side, looked at Mandy and said the first thing that came to mind.

"I don't know how I didn't notice until now, but you have really deep pockets, don't you?"

Clearly it was the wrong thing to say because Mandy just huffed before speeding out of the parking lot on the way to our destination.

"If by deep pockets you mean that my father has huge amounts of money, then yes, I am."

"That's good! ...I think so? That's good, right?"

Maddy snorted again, but this time she seemed to be in a good mood and not the bitter snort from before.

"Yes, it is. Although none of that money is actually mine, it belongs to my father. Still, it's not all perks. The number of people who approach you once they know you have money or connections is not small. The weight of responsibility can also be suffocating."

I felt like the walls of her heart were a little lower, so I decided to let her talk for now.

"Honestly, when I found out I was going to have a roommate, I thought you were going to be my dad's bootlicker, maybe a spy or a bodyguard. I wasn't happy, after all I came to college to get away from all that for a while."

"Oh? And what made you think otherwise? My beautiful appearance? My charming personality?" I replied with a smug smile.

"No spy, bodyguard or bootlicker is that stupid."

"Maaaandy, you are a meanie girl, did you know that?"

"I always try to impress," she replied with another of her little smiles.

A smile also made its way across my face, as I realized that we have grown closer once again. Until.

"Maddy"

"Eh?"

"You can call me Maddy if you want"

With those words my smile turned into a full-blown laugh with teeth and all.

"Yes!" I raised my fist towards the hood of the car as I shouted my happiness to the world (or just to Maddy in this case).

"I knew we would be best friends!"

"We are not best friends"

"Whaaat! But we call each other by nicknames and everything! You can call me Rogue!"

"Isn't that your superhero name? You'll be telling everyone who you are, Gorilla."

"What?! Who is Gorilla?! I want you to know that I am a lady!"

At that moment a thought came into my head.

"Hey Maddy"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have any other friends besides me right?" A small vein appeared on her forehead and she replied through gritted teeth.

"I don't like where this is going, but it's true, you are my first friend, a real one at least." She said looking at me angrily daring me to continue with this line of questioning, but I wanted revenge.

I brought a hand to my mouth to try and cover the Cheshire grin that mysteriously made its way onto my face and.

"Wouldn't that make me your best friend by default, then?" I said as I turned my head and looked at her face and with the most innocent tone I could manage while holding back the laughter that threatened to escape my throat.

"You…!"

Maddy and I continued to joke around (or at least I hoped we did, it's hard to tell with Maddy sometimes) all the way until…

"We arrived"

With those words, I finally paid attention to where we were. We arrived at what looked like an abandoned factory surrounded by shipping containers on an old dock in Manhattan. It looked like the typical place that would normally be the hideout of a C-class team of super villains, but something was different.

"The place seems oddly… clean," I decided to voice my thoughts out loud to see if Maddy knew anything about it.

"That's because it is," Maddy replied quickly as she continued walking toward the entrance.

"I hired a cleaning and maintenance team, as well as some workers to install some equipment on site."

When we walked into the place, I could only gape at the "something of equipment" in the place.

The entire factory had been converted into the private equivalent of a high-end private gym, with free weights, treadmills, mats, punching bags of numerous sizes, sparring equipment, hell there was even a boxing ring back there and that's…

"A damn hydraulic press!"

"Language, and yes, it is. You mentioned that you gain superpowers all the time, so I decided that a hydraulic press would be ideal for testing whatever level of Super Strength you have or will have in the future."

Yes, on the left side there was a full-blown giant hydraulic press, capable of applying I don't know how many tons of pressure on whatever poor bastard (probably me) was underneath.

"Holy Scion, this is amazing! And you did it in one afternoon! How?!"

"With the best superpower of all, a black credit card."

Ah yes, money, there is definitely no better superpower than that.

As if responding to my pagan thoughts, a new star decided that this was the best time to join my growing galaxy.

Another gray star, another unknown name, enters my head.

Lionwing.

Mmn another name I don't know from Worm. Classic. Also, this power... again, I know it's nothing physical, but it feels too concentrated to be a Shaker. A Blaster? Yeah, that seems about right.

Maddy stared at me for a second before sighing.

"You really need to learn to hide those reactions every time you have a new power, giving information to your enemies can never be good."

"Hey! I'm perfectly capable of hiding my reactions in front of an enemy, thank you very much!"

"And how do you explain that I know it every time it happens?"

"That's because I trust you, of course," I replied without a shred of doubt.

Maddy paused before looking away, though her ears were a little red for some reason.

She muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like Gorilla, before shaking her head and asking me in a curious tone.

"So? What's their name this time? Do you know them?"

"Lionwing, and nope, I have no idea what that is, just like the one this morning. While the one this morning was another Shaker, this one is a Blaster."

She looked at me for a second, considering what I just said, before closing her mouth and shrugging slightly. I feel like she's becoming more and more relaxed around me, I don't think Maddy normally makes those kinds of gestures in front of others.

"You can tell me about it today while we do the test, for now it's better that we get started. We don't have all day."

"Yes! It's time for an old classic power test!"

It's time to find out what's going on once and for all.