New Year, New Beginnings

Split Second Occurrence

The Academic Decathlon Team walked through the front door of Grenwich High School. A woman with dark brown hair tied back in a bun stepped up and shook Mr. Harrington's hand.

"Roger."

"Anita."

Mr. Harrington gestured towards he woman. "This is Ms. Crosby. She's the coach for Grenwich's Academic Decathlon Team."

Ms. Crosby led them to a room, where they saw a bunch of other students.

"Okay, students, you can all mingle. We'll be doing a quick fun competition to improve bonding skills."

*After the bonding and contest*

The students were walking back to Midtown.

Gwen was blushing. Cindy Moon, a Korean-American girl with short black hair and deep brown eyes, was giggling.

Ned and Peter caught up to the pair and gave them a questioning glance. Gwen shielded her face with her hands, but the other girl turned to the boys.

"One of the boys on the team gave her his number," smirked Cindy.

Ned and Peter laughed. "Well, that makes the only one of us that has a love life."

The blonde shook her head. "It's not like that! He just asked if we could hang out sometime, so we swapped numbers."

Our protagonist rolled his eyes. "Surrre, Jan. What's his name?"

"Wyatt Wingfoot," Gwen said indifferently, but the tiny bit of reverence that slipped into her voice betrayed her attempt at staying nonchalant.

Ned lit up. "Dude. That's totally a superhero name?"

Cindy, Gwen, and Peter just stared at him in utter confusion.

"Bruce Banner. Sue Storm. Reed Richards. Loki Laufeyson. All their names are alliterative. They have double initials. Hey Peter, you could totally be a superhero!"

The boy in question just stared at the grass, lost in thought about his family's financial issues.

Ned snapped his fingers in front of his face. "You good bro?"

Peter blinked. "Yeah, just thinking."

Cindy frowned. "Wait. Is Loki even a superhero?"

Gwen thought, then explained. "He was brainwashed when he attacked New York. Plus, he did help stop that invasion of frost giants last year."

The blonde continued, in what could only be described as a conspiratory whisper. "But he hasn't been seen since that day. He could just be in Asgard. Or he could be living among us commoners."

Peter and Cindy burst into laughter at Gwen's last statement, while Ned just sent her a scandalized look.

They finally reached the front doors of the building, and walked inside.

*Back to homeroom class*

Mr. Harrington cleared his throat. "Ahem. I have amazing news for you all! Next week, along with Ms. Warren's class, we'll be visiting Oscorp!"

Everyone cheered loudly.

Behind Stark Industries and on par with Rand Enterprises, Oscorp was the third most advanced technological company. Peter grinned, knowing that Harry must have pulled a lot of strings in order to get his dad to approve a field trip there.

Flash Thompson huffed and kicked his feet up on the desk.

Thompson Tech was catching up to Oscorp and Rand Enterprises in terms of innovation.

Mr. Harrington just raised his eyebrow at him. "Eugene, if you'd prefer not to go on the field trip, I'm sure we can arrange for you to join a different class for the day."

Peter and Ned exchanged amused looks.

*Somewhere, later that night in a dark alley in Hell's Kitchen*

A man in black paced. "Are you sure you weren't followed?"

A second man nodded. "I got Joe to cover for me. He hasn't seen anyone out except for some old lady walking her dog and a blind guy with his girlfriend."

The first guy grunted. "We don't want anyone busting this deal. 'specially not the Devil."

He scoffed. "He goes by Daredevil now. Can you believe it?"

Unknown to both of them, a masked figure had seen their entire exchange.

"Osborn's doing the experiments. With the serum, the Hand would become invincible." said the first man.

Suddenly, the second man dropped to the pavement, unconscious.

The first man found himself being pushed up against a brick wall by a figure in red.

"Tell me everything. And don't play smart with me, because I won't hesitate to break every one of your bones and leave them in the sewers for the rats to find," hissed the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

The man swallowed nervously. "Fine, I'll talk. My boss--he wanted me to meet with him. I've never met him before. He found out that Norman Osborn was trying to recreate the Super Soldier serum."

Daredevil just glared at him. "The same kind used on Captain America way back when?"

The man nodded as best as he could when he was caught in a chokehold.

"I don't know anything else, I swear!"

The masked vigilante stared at the criminal, as if figuring out whether he was telling the truth.

The last thing the man saw before being knocked out was Daredevil's fist punching his face.

Next day, he woke up tied up in a police precinct.

Halfway across New York, in a house in Queens, a teenaged boy woke up in anticipation.

Little did Peter know that the following week would flip his life upside down, inside out, crush it, and stretch it out again.