The other was titled Releasing Your Inner Animal: A Guide to Becoming An Animagus. It was something that he'd found in a small out-of-the-way bookstore in Holland near the very beginning of his travels. At the time, he'd picked it up simply for the nostalgia – both his father and godfather had been animagi. He'd read through it, more than once to be honest and he'd even made it through the first third of the book in terms of learning the process. But then other things had gotten in the way and he'd put it aside.
Now, though, now could be a very good time to reread it – turning into an animal could be a great ace to have up his sleeve.
ooo00ooo
Oscorp was unlike anything that Gwen Stacy had ever imagined. Everything was incredibly high-tech. Computers embedded into glass panes were everywhere one looked and each employee had access to a state-of-the-art tablet while they were at work.
At first, her work was fairly basic, even if it was incredibly exciting (although she was aware that a lot of that probably had to do with the fact that she was an intern at Oscorp!) But after only three weeks, she'd come to the attention of Doctor Connors himself.
The brilliant scientist had caught her tweaking one of the experiments. At first, he'd been angry, but when she'd had a chance to explain her reasoning and he'd double checked her figures, he'd been astounded. Instead of firing her, he'd promoted her. Senior Intern wasn't exactly a big jump up and it was next to nothing in terms of pay, but it was going to look great on any resume that she put together.
Really, Gwen's big stress in life at the moment was how she was going to juggle everything once the area of New York that had been devastated by the alien invasion had been cleaned up. By then, the Marauder's Den would be reopened for business. She loved that job. There wasn't a great deal to think about and she could almost do it on autopilot. And Harry trusted her, giving her management duties every now and again, which also meant some extra pay, which was nice.
But juggling her internship, her job and school had the potential to be too much. She knew that she may just have to give one up. And there really was only one choice that made any sort of sense. Hopefully, though, she wouldn't have to think about that for a while yet – it was almost school holidays, so that would free up some of her time.
No, it was September when things were looking like they could really become really hectic. Until then, she'd continue as she was and deal with the craziness when she had to.
ooo00ooo
Not for the first time, nor even the hundredth, Doreen switched on her computer and pulled up the file with her all time favourite video in it. It was a compilation of videos really, some much longer than others, that she'd created within the last week.
The instant that she'd hit play, Doreen scrambled back onto her bed, her three-foot fluffy tail wrapping around her. Then, with a bowlful of nuts beside her, she settled in to watch.
Hearing a chittering from her open window, she glanced across, a wide smile on her face.
"In here, Monkey Joe," she called. "I've got nuts!"
She emphasised this last part by rattling the bowl, an action that caused her dearest friend in the whole world to poke his head in her window before he bounded in across her desk, scampered down the curtain, across the floor and jumped up to the bed beside her.
Doreen pushed the bowl between her and Monkey Joe.
ʆ"What are you doing 'Reen?"ʆ Monkey Joe chittered, as his front paws grasped a nut.
ʆ"Watching Iron Man and the others again,"ʆ Doreen replied in squirrelese.
Then, as she idly munched on a handful of nuts, Doreen focussed on the events of a week ago in New York.
The Avengers, they were called. Superheroes. All of them with wonderful powers and abilities. They were the friends of Iron Man, her hero for the last couple of years.
Iron Man, Tony Stark, wasn't like ordinary people. He was a genius and could build anything. He didn't allow his limitations to stop him, he used what he had to do the extraordinary. Already he was up to seven Iron Man suits.
She watched as the red and gold metal man zipped between buildings, shooting down any alien that he came across, all in the name of protecting the planet. A massive alien thing, that the news reporters had taken to calling leviathans, came flying around the corner of a building, intent on eating Iron Man.
Doreen, of course, knew what was going to happen next and it was one of her favourite bits. The Hulk was about to emerge from some small unidentified guy. She identified so much with him. A person who had to hide what he was so that he could be accepted, only letting his other self out when it was safe or it was needed.
And that, in a nutshell, was Doreen's life.
She'd been cursed, blessed, gifted – the correct word changed daily, sometime multiple times in a single day – as a human mutate with squirrel-like qualities. Whenever she went out in public, whether it was to school or just for a walk around the neighbourhood, she had to hide her true self. Her tail had to be tucked away out of sight, giving her a butt that girls envied and boys couldn't take their eyes off of.
But when she was in the forest … then she could relax and let herself run free.
The video shifted to Captain America fighting alongside Black Widow. Both of them fought relentlessly against the aliens, doing everything they could to beat them back. Once again it shifted, this time showing the Mage, using his magical powers to protect people from harm.
"We could have helped," Doreeen said to Monkey Joe, not the first time such a statement had been made.
She knew that she was strong, much stronger than anyone she knew. And she was fast and had amazing reflexes. Not to mention that she could jump from the ground to the roof of her two-storied house if she wanted to. Yes, she could have done a lot to help.
As she watched the Hulk scale a building, she held one hand in front of her face and extended and retracted the small claws on the end of each finger a number of times. These were great, especially for climbing trees, but she wasn't sure how helpful they'd be with climbing a building.
But even if she couldn't climb a building, she could jump up it, taking it in smaller stages, a couple of stories at a time.
There was absolutely no doubt in her fifteen-year-old mind that she could have helped the Avengers. Obviously, they hadn't needed her, but what's to say that the next time they wouldn't.
Her fantasies were broken by a quick rap on her door before it was thrust open.
"Doreen, you're not watching that again are you?' her mother asked, the exasperation clear in her voice.
Monkey Joe chittered and Doreen smiled at the squirrel's comments.
"And I better not find one single piece of shell in your room, I'm getting sick of having to clean up after you," her mother continued. "Now, turn that off and fix yourself up. We're expecting visitors soon and I don't want them seeing you like … like that."
"Yes, mum," Doreen replied.
Her hands ran through her bushy tail before she sighed and shifted to her knees so that she could hide away her tail in her pants.
"If only I was a proper mutant instead of just a mutate," she grumbled, "then I could have gone to Xavier's and not had to hide myself. The Avengers don't have to hide, well, the Hulk sort of does, but the rest of them don't. If only I lived in New York instead of L.A.
She paused for a moment, her eyes glued to the screen in front of her as the wildest of ideas flashed through her mind.
"What if …," she wondered.
.
.
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