Young Writers Society

Wren blushed at the compliment. Her blush only got worse when she and the other superhero were reprimanded for not getting through the portal already—though the blush now was for completely different reasons.

She gave one last glance at the other superhero.

"I'll go through first," she said. She had a bad feeling in her gut, but she had to trust that the two remaining could handle themselves. She turned, took a deep breath, and darted through the portal.

Susan watched as the other superhero actually agreed with her and jumped through after a deep breath. She stood there staring at the portal for a second and almost ended up being hit. She'd been fully prepared for a much longer argument ending with her having to concede the point. That's how it usually went down with her sister. She decided to save the totally valid arguments she'd come up with for later use with Daphne, and jump through.

She made sure to run in a circle around the portal, in her intangible form to throw off the people attacking and hopefully disorient them enough to give the other guy time to get through. She didn't exactly trust the man, but that didn't mean she wanted him to die, especially after having offered them all a way out.

She nodded to the man one last time, and jumped towards the portal, making sure to turn solid and invisible at the same time as she entered the portal.

After a very annoying and pointless argument the shapeshifter and the, other shapeshifter finally went through the portal, after they got through though the portal started to shrink and Julius wasn't able to get through, try as he might he was already using every muscle in his body and it wasn't enough, his hands burned and the portal got smaller and smaller until it finally flickered out, along with all the body strength he had left.

he opened his eyes to find himself lying on the floor of the lab, what had happened? he got up slowly and then stopped noticing several armed personal in the room, right, the security he thought, why didn't they notice him? he was sitting in a darker part of the room but they still should have noticed him, unless, he reached up and felt his ear as it seemed t be far hotter than any ear should be, the bracelet of inconspicuousitie! that was why they hadn't noticed him, or more likely noticed him but thought he was a statue or something.

he got back to his feet wincing at the pain in his hands, and glanced at a clock, ok hed only been knocked out for a minute that was good, but he still had to get out of here, and without a slingring, he definitely could not make a portal not for a while at least, how in the world had he lost it anyway? he could understand losing something in Sakaar, but he had had it when he made the portal back to new york 1948?
he reached his hand in his pocket to check for the hundredth time if it had miraculously slipped in there, some illusion rings, a telescopic cane, the invisible glove, a piece of coal.
Wait, he thought, the invisibility glove! it wasn't a very good chance but it was a chance nonetheless, he pulled it out of his pocket and reached inside he felt something round and woodlike, with two finger holes in it, his slingring!
He happily put it on his fingers, though that happiness quickly turned to annoyance as he felt the ring on his burnt-up hand.

glancing at the guards to make sure they didn't see he made a portal back to the same area as before and walked through

When Wren went through the portal, she found herself in surprisingly familiar alleyway. The others that had gone through before here were all there. Just as she was starting to get her bearings and realize where they were, the phase-shifting hero came through, too.

Then the portal flickered.

And it went out.

Wren stared in horror at the spot where it had been just seconds before. She reached a hand out to touch the spot. Nothing happened. She took a step back and tried to look at it from a different angle, but she still saw nothing. A pit formed in her stomach. She should have stayed behind. She would have been stuck there when the portal went out, but at least she could have done something.

And at least the hero she still didn't know the name of wouldn't be facing those guards alone.

Then the portal reappeared, and the other hero walked right through.

"Oh my God," Wren managed to get out. "You're okay."

Susan wasn't particularly shocked when the portal went out. It confirmed her suspicions from earlier. The wizard had probably sent them to some random location, maybe even a pre planned one where someone could come to attack them, and he'd run off on...

Suddenly the man walked through, stopping her train of thought in its tracks. Wren, seemed to be quite relieved at the man's arrival, but Susan couldn't help but feel that was even more suspicious. What had taken him that long? Did he stop to chat with the ones who were attacking them and arrange for new orders now that they'd teleported out?

"Umm..so what do we next?" she tentatively asked, deciding that thinking about what might happen was not going to get them anywhere.

Wren hesitated.

She hadn't thought that far. Everything had been a blur—she was pretty sure she was still riding the adrenaline high from the reveals earlier. Which, when she thought about it, hadn't revealed all that much. They still didn't know each other's names. If they were going to be working together, names were a good first step.

But they couldn't share them here. Anyone could be listening.

She glanced around the alleyway.

...On second thought, didn't this alley look familiar? It was just around the street from her apartment-

Her eyes widened.

"I got it!" Wren exclaimed, a grin spreading across her face. "We should go to my apartment. It's right around the corner. We can share everything we know there."

Alissa smiled. "I'm okay with that! Let's do it."

Susan didn't know what to make of that offer. On one hand, that invite sounding like it could lead to a massive trap when they least expected it. It was practically in the superhero 101 textbook not to accept an invitation from someone you couldn't fully trust. But then if Susan had to pick out the person she most trusted out of this group, it would be this superhero. It also seemed like an opportunity to get a rest, not like she exactly needed one being dead and all, but it was good to regroup in confusing situations like this.

She managed to match the grin on the other superhero's face. "That sounds like a great idea!!"

“Alright, I’ve only half been listening so, what are you talking about? Can you give us one reason to trust you?” In fact, come to think of it, how can we trust any of them, all of these people could be behind this. he thought, but he knew better than to say this out loud.

“Also, by the way, your welcome” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall just barely wincing at the pain in his hands.

Wren faltered.

"...I'm a superhero, too?" she hesitantly said, not quite sure what else she could say to gain his trust. If she was a little less humble, she would have pointed out that she had stayed behind to protect him and that she had been worried when he hadn't immediately come through the portal.

But the thought didn't even occur to her.

"And I, uh, have an apartment?" Wren awkwardly added. "I accidentally got a job at a comic book store after I ended up here, and the owner is letting me stay in apartment right above it. We won't even have to worry about changing outfits. When he saw mine, he thought it was a costume."

Wren glanced down.

...On second thought, she could probably change hers.

A moment later, her superhero outfit had been replaced by a much more casual outfit: a black leather jacket, dark red t-shirt, jeans, and dark brown combat boots.

Susan almost went AHHHHH at the outfit change. Not only was the outfit ridiculously cool, the outfit change was also ridiculously cool. She hoped her current blush wasn't as obvious as it felt.

"Well, I can't change my outfit even if I wanted to," said Susan," so that's perfect, although I guess appear normal. Right? Or do you guys see a white dress? I can never tell cause all I ever see is the dress." She then wheeled on the other guy. "As for trust, to be perfectly honest I trust you the least, Mr. Portal Trouble considering you spent some extra time before arriving. Who's to say you weren't having a chat with your buddies? But, well that's the thing, if we stand here and accuse each other, we could go on forever. Going somewhere safe and having a chat is the only productive option here."

A short time later, after this story's heroes (some somewhat reluctantly) agree to go to The Actor's apartment...

The group made their way through the city, slipping through the backstreets and alleyways to avoid being spotted by civilians and any potential villains. Wren didn't know New York City nearly as well as she knew Ark Haven, but being stuck here for the past two weeks had given her a good idea of the blocks near her apartment.

It also made her aware of how to get to the fire escape that led to the very back of her apartment, and one that would keep the entire group of heroes out of view from comic book shop goers.

Her apartment wasn't anything fancy. She had only been here for two weeks, so she didn't have many decorations. She had a few comic book prints that the shop owner had given her as a gift, as well as the basic necessities someone would need in an apartment.

The fire escape led right into the living room, which was coincidentally right next to the kitchen. Wren knew she didn't technically need to host the group of superheroes, but she had far too many baked goods after stress-baking the past few days alone.

Once everyone was inside and the window blinds were fully closed, Wren popped into the kitchen to grab said baked goods—some bread, brownies, cinnamon rolls, and a half-eaten blueberry pie. She placed them all down on the little tiny table in the center of the room and found a spot on the wall to lean up against. There was only so many places to sit, and Wren didn't want to take one of them up.

"...I have a lot of extra food," she awkwardly said, "so...um...feel free to have some if you're hungry? And we might want to introduce ourselves now, too..."

Julius sighed, how many times had he introduced himself now? he was pretty sure he'd told everyone by now, he looked around at them and sat down in a comfortable looking chair, in all honesty, he couldn't name them all but he knew what their powers were (sort of) and would recognize them. (maybe)

"Julius d'Hondt, sorcerer, magician and-" he hesitated for a moment as a thought hit him "how have you got an apartment an unhealthy amount of baked goods already, plus assuming you've been telling the truth this whole time, tracked down the lab responsible for this mess? I've only been here five hours."
Julius sank lower in the chair and casting a skeptical look at 'The Actor' whilst grabbing all the cinnamon rolls and placing them on the small table next to his chair.

Wren blushed in embarrassment and ducked her head down.

"I stress-bake," she admitted, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. She knew she really shouldn't have been baking so much, but the act of cooking and the smell of baked goods was calming after growing up in her parents' cafe.

She raised her head as the rest of his comment registered.

"You've only been here five hours?" Wren managed to get out. "I've been here for the past two weeks. Maybe this really is like Into the Spider-Verse after all..."

She paused again, suddenly realizing she probably needed to introduce herself, too. They knew her by her superhero name, but didn't know her real one. Wren should have been giving them her fake real name, but she doubted they were from the same reality.

And the thought of being entirely truthful sounded kind of nice. Loki knew her fake identity—Adrian Black—but she hadn't ever shared her actual identity with him. She honestly wasn't sure what he would have done if she had.

"And, uh..." She took a big, deep breath of air in. "I'm The Actor. I'm Ark Haven's first and only superhero. I don't really have an origin story, but my power is being able to shapeshift. And...my, um, real name is..."

She took another deep breath, letting it settle in her chest.

Then she let her form shift, going from Adrian Black to a much smaller teenage girl with short strawberry blond hair, a pair of bright glasses, a Nightwing t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of sneakers.

"Wren Carter," she finished.

Susan was having trouble keeping track of her own emotions. The Actor or Susan supposed "Wren" as the girl had introduced herself as was proving to be more and more amazing at every turn. That ridiculously cool outfit, followed by an apartment full of delicious smells and now yet another cool reveal. That second reveal had set off an entirely different part of her brain and now she was very glad that her face couldn't actually react to embarrassment or she was sure she'd been bright red. In her slight trance, she barely heard the magician person who was apparently named Julius go on about something that didn't fully register.

Susan decided maybe she should try to introduce herself before thinking about any of the treats and before she did something really silly, like faint, well she couldn't faint, but she would definitely melt into the floor, because that was something she actually could do now with her powers.

"Uhh..wow," managed Susan, when she finally managed to form audible words. "You're re..really cool." Get yourself together girl. Say your name. Its not that hard.

"I..uhh.." began Susan, stumbling over her words. Why was it suddenly so hard to talk to this girl? She had literally argued about who would stay behind in the lab fiasco ten minutes ago and now she couldn't say her own name without stammering.

"I...umm...I'm Dan..Danvers. Susan Danvers," she finally managed, flashing the biggest smile that she could possibly muster.

She turned away towards the wonderful smells coming from the table laid there. The brownies were looking incredible and perhaps munching down on something would help deal with her current situation. She reached for the table and her hand passed right through the brownies, the plate and sank into the table. Her brain sobered up immediately as it reminded her that eating wasn't a thing she could actually do anymore.

She shrank back from the table as if it had attacked her, a bit of moisture working it way to her eyes at the realization. She had no idea why ghosts could cry despite being unable to do literally anything else that the living could, but in moments like this, she often felt like she did know.