Like a Daydream

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It is dead silent in the school library. Perfect, blissful silence, something that happens about once every century and quite possibly not even that often. For once, everybody is working, totally focused on whatever math homework or group project has befallen them. Around you, the hum of concentration scarcely dares to make a sound. It's fantastic.

Or, it is fantastic until your phone jolts to life with an alarm. You grab it within the span of about half a second, immediately silencing it, but the damage is done. You swear you get a dozen angry glares, even though your phone was only on vibrate mode. Never mess with the impeccable study schedules of high school students when they're a few hours from a deadline.

Your best friend arches a brow from where he sits across a very small table nicked by its fair share of overly aggressive pencil strokes.

"You do realize you've ruined all of us, right? No one here is going to be able to concentrate for the next day or two."

You glare at him. Peter Parker may be one of your good friends, but it's not as if he's any better. Not even ten minutes ago, he nearly caused a riot by cracking his back so loudly that he attracted the stares of a study group three tables down.

"You're the one who's talking. Shut up."

Peter just grins. "It's too late to bully me, everyone else is already talking anyway. I hate to break it to you, Y/N, but you've destroyed the entire atmosphere."

Peter isn't entirely wrong. Already, people are daring to voice their comments again, and you have no doubt that the entire library will break back out into conversation in a matter of minutes.

You roll your eyes. "My apologies for messing with the vibe. Anyways, I have to go."

Peter frowns. "So soon? I'll miss you terribly."

You smirk. "I bet you will, Parker. I hate to separate you from my presence, but I have no choice."

Peter waves a hand dismissively. "I'll mourn for hours. Are you still up for our study sesh later tonight? If you abandon me the night before our history final, I will actually lose my mind."

You grin. "Never, I need that as much as you do. See you tonight."

Peter waves goodbye as you gather up your things and go. You leave with a smile, and not just because you've been able to have another productive study session with your best friend.

No, this particular source of joy has everything to do with the alarm that just went off on your phone. You created that reminder to make sure you were ready to go when the time came. Namely, the time when all of the Avengers would travel out of their facility and thus be unprepared for an attack. You've been tracking security cameras and exit patterns as best you can, and you think you've been able to successfully map out the one time of day when New York's resident heroes are least likely to be in Avengers Tower.

To put it simply, you've got a break-in planned, and you've organized it so it'll coincide when no one is there. You've got a bone to pick with the Avengers. Technically, they only know you as Nightmare, an inhuman with the ability to put someone to sleep with the mere touch of a finger. Every good villain has a secret identity, and yours has been striking terror into the hearts of the Avengers for the past couple of months.

See, it all started about a year ago. Life isn't wonderful as an inhuman, especially not since the Avengers started racketing up their enlistment process. Basically, if you're even rumored to have gifts, you're brought in for all sorts of questioning and tests, and if they find anything on you, you can kiss your normal life goodbye.

That's what happened to a friend of yours, a girl named Alyna. She was able to bend light, and the two of you were happy practicing your abilities together until she messed up and used her powers in front of a security camera near northern Manhattan. Next thing you knew, she had 'moved to a different school,' and you never saw her again. You know the whole thing happened because of the Avengers, she was able to tell you that much before she vanished.

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