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[sup][h1][color=3d6fe1]An Open Letter[/color][/h1][/sup][/center]

[indent][color=cccccc]Ever wonder what it's like to be a hero?

There's more to it, you know? More to it than looking cool, than fighting crime - being a badass isn't what it's all made up to be. Things get sticky real fast. Plans fall through. People get hurt. Innocents get thrown into the fire. Most of all? People die. It's a solid fact, these days. Someone's gonna die and who's to blame? Well, the heroes, of course.

And some people just aren't cut out for it. Being a mentally unstable soldier in a rag-tag group in all out war. That's what heroing is - it's war. Constant war. The only difference being the costumes, the flashy powers, the big guns. And that's not even half of it. These days, a world ending scenario doesn't cut it. They come a dime a dozen. That doesn't mean it isn't hell. It just means there's always something bigger around the corner and who's got to fight it? The heroes. If they die? Not many people truly care, especially when they can turn around and there's another one.

That sucks.

But it's the truth of it.

So, if they don't care, well, we have to. It's left to us to bury our brothers and sisters - what's left of them, at least. Then, we have to get up and fight again. Some of us half qualms with that, others, they're happy for the work they're given. Recognition, however, has gone out the window a long time ago. Any publicity we get is scandal, gossip, our private lives thrown by the wayside for the seagulls to eat up. What we have are each other and this universe full of beautiful things and beautiful people - even if they don't give a damn. And if anyone asks, well, like Peter Quill just loves to fucking say every goddamn day another Thanos comes into the picture: "I'm one of the idiots who lives in it!"[/color][/indent]

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[sup][h1][color=3d6fe1]Premise[/color][/h1][/sup][/center]

[indent][color=cccccc]Early on, prior to the birth of the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D had a backup plan. A group of individuals had been picked in place of the Avengers. Should the Avengers fail, Plan B would allow them reinforcements in hopes that throwing more volatile heroes at the problem would work in their favor. Of course, looking back at everything that's already happened, that plan had been put on the back burner in place of better ideas, essentially.

Now, that idea comes to the forefront of S.H.I.E.L.D's Rise Project with a new foundation, frame, and a new blueprint. Regardless of anyone's opinions, the Avengers needed a contingency plan. A plan that wouldn't end up with an entire group of enhanced individuals locked up and secluded. One that didn't mean blowing up an entire city, or possibly even the earth itself. That's where the Academy came from the ashes of a 'B-Rated Avengers' group.

The idea allowed for S.H.I.E.L.D to recruit a large number of enhanced individuals and give them a purpose: save the world and get paid. That didn't run well for a lot of people, but it gave countless potential candidates hope enough to join. Hope that they'd be seen as heroes instead of a danger to society. Obviously, S.H.I.E.L.D had a good enough reputation (Hydra event notwithstanding) within the background of society that allowed them to give that promise. Quake, Spider-man, the Avengers. Yeah, the idea that they could eventually become that? Well, those who were given the proposal couldn't refuse the call.

On land, S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy hides within plain sight, looking like an ordinary University Campus (under the name Manhattan Rise University) rather than a facility for highly trained heroes. Many of the sections contained are underground and underwater. These had once served as a potential Avengers base, though Tony scrapped the idea in its late concept as the design seemed too 'Nefarious' for his tastes. Now, however, sitting right on and underneath the Manhattan coast, S.H.I.E.L.D has repurposed it for their own use.

It's remained a hidden project for the last four years. After a year of being open and functioning, a new batch of students have been recruited and enrolled. Groups are to be established and dynamics set in stone; grades will be given individually and as a team. It's just a matter of surviving the first year, now. The light at the end of the tunnel is just a small break from the harsh realities of S.H.I.E.L.D's rigorous programs and the troubles waiting ahead. There's not even talk of their second year.

They say that's the worst.[/color][/indent]