No, you didn't misread, this is a Magic School Bus crossover, and yes I am I am a huge nerd.

Thanks to Commissar Carnifex for betaing.

Enjoy!

First Day

Missy Biron wasn't sure what to expect from her new school. The eight-year-old knew that it was supposed to a better school than one she had been going to, but that wasn't much of an achievement. It certainly looked nice as she walked up the steps as a breeze blew a cluster of autumn leaves towards the assembled school busses, having already dropped off their passengers. The school's sign was painted a rather obnoxiously bright color, with the words Walkerville Elementary School plastered on.

It is kinda nice, Miss thought as she trotted through the seemingly abandoned parking lot. There was none of the litter that you saw walking the streets, and everything seemed to be working. The flag posts were still standing and didn't have anyone's underwear tied to the top. The grass was actually a nice shade of green compared to her old school's lifeless brown. Even the busses looked in pretty good condition, especially that one that was blinking at her.

Wait, what?

Missy paused, hand hovering over the door's handles as she tried to process that last thought. That couldn't have been what she had seen, could it? Missy bit her lip as she tried to keep herself from fidgeting on the spot. She slowly began to turn around, fearful of what she might find. The elder heroes had pounded it into her head that she needed to be on alert at all times for any parahuman attacks since she now had a responsibility to report and or fight them. While getting attacked on the way to school was certainly outside of what she thought might happen, she was more than ready to throw down with anyone that thought she was some weak, helpless little girl.

"Ha!" Missy screamed, forming up into a fighting stance as she prepared to unleash her power on...

…A brightly colored school bus.

For a long moment, Missy did nothing but stare at the bus, refusing to move from her position. Her eyes narrowed in concentration towards the suspicious vehicle, searching for any sign of foul play.

BRING!

The sound of the school bell warning everyone that hadn't already to head to class echoed through the parking lot, starting Missy out of her concentration. So much so that her front foot slipped forwards and little and fell off the top stone step.

"Gah!" Missy howled as she fell back on her but. She winced at the stinging sensation as her rear made contact with the cold, hard surface. She scanned the parking lot, checking to make sure that nobody had seen her little mishap. Seeing none she let out a short sigh of relief and turned a brief glare towards the offending vehicle.

The bright yellow bus that had caught her attention was sitting there innocently, but she knew what she had seen. She was tempted to use the PRT phone she had been given, but part of her was afraid of what she would tell them. That she had seen a suspicious looking bus blink at her? She could already imagine their reactions now, howling in laughter at the little preteen who was jumping at shadows.

"I'm not a kid," Miss growled as she pushed her way through the double doors as she tried to ignore the bus. She already had enough of a problem trying to convince everyone to treat her with some respect, but whenever they saw her all they saw was a cutesy little kid who needed to be shielded from the world.

Grumbling to herself, Missy pulled out the crumpled slip of paper that had her teacher's name and classroom number written down on it. As she tried to decipher the messy scrawl of her case worker, she belatedly realized that she had no idea where the classroom actually was in this maze of hallways. And as far as she could tell, there was no map that she could use.

"Some first day," she muttered under her breath. Her eyes swung to the side as a restroom door swung open to reveal another girl around her age. The dark-skinned girl had her curly hair tied up in a rather tasteful bun, but Missy wasn't so sure she liked the purple and blue sweater dress she was wearing. Green was a so much better color.

"Excuse me," Missy said, drawing the girl's attention. "You wouldn't happen to know where Room 8 is, do you?"

At the mention of the classroom's number, the girl's questioning look curled into a slight smile, as if she knew something that she didn't. "Oh, you're the new student we're getting? The whole class has been talking about you."

A cold pit of dread welled up in Missy stomach. She hadn't even started her first day of class and there were already people talking about her. "Have they?" she asked as neutrally as she could. It wouldn't do to justify any rumors that might have already spread about her by chewing out a potential classmate.

The girl waved her concerns off. "Don't worry about, we've just all been really excited. The last new student we got was Phoebe, and that was a while ago." The girl held out her hand for a friendly handshake, "I'm Keesha."

"Missy," she replied, taking the girl's hand. Keesha's apparently explanation of why everyone was talking about her eased her somewhat, but it still didn't stop her mind from racing. What if the reason that people didn't transfer that often was because the teacher was a cranky old bad like the ones back at her old school? "You're in Miss Frizzle's class too, then?

"Yeah, come on, I can lead you there," Keesha said, her face lighting up at the mention of her teacher. Missy felt somewhat dizzy as she was navigated through the hallways as she tried to keep track of their path through the maze of a school.

"So, if Miss Frizzle a good teacher?" Missy asked somewhat nervously as she adjusted her backpack straps.

"Oh yeah, she's the best teacher ever," Keesha said in a tone that Missy usually heard when describing heroes rather than an elementary grade school teacher. "She might seem a little…strange at first, but she takes us on some the best field trips ever."

Well, the transfer packet did note that she would probably be taking a lot of educational field trips over the year. Missy wanted to believe the girl's hype, but nine times out of ten most school sanction field trips were quite boring. They barely went anywhere interesting, her old school insisting on exposing young minds to some "fine culture"

As if staring at a blur of colors was supposed to be fun.

"What kind of field trips?" Missy asked as the numbers on the door windows started to count down towards their destination. She could feel the pit in her stomach churning as she steeled herself in preparation for meeting the people she would probably be taking class with for the rest of elementary school.

"Well, just the other day she took us to the Artic to learn about heat," Keesha said with the same tone that someone might use to comment on the weather. The sheer ridiculousness of the statement and the utterly pedestrian tone she used shorted out Missy's brain for a moment.

What?

After a few seconds of opening and closing her mouth is stupefaction she managed to articulate a proper response.

"What?"

"Yeah, it was pretty fun. Well, the Bus froze over and Phoebe, Ralphie, and Liz got stuck on an ice flow so we had to save them and then use an igloo to heat up the Bus, but it was still pretty fun," Keesha said, apparently not finding anything wrong with her statement.

"Ha-ha," Missy said somewhat blandly, realizing that this was probably some sort of hazing for the "new kid". "Right, but seriously, what are they like?"

This time, Keesha was the one to turn around and act like she had grown a second head. As if her not accepting the sheer absurdity of her statement was odd in it of itself rather than the other way around. How dumb did this girl think she was? Seriously, taking a bus to the Artic?

"Ooohhhh," Keesha said, apparently realizing something was wrong. "Right, sorry. I forgot that you're new here. Our field trips…they can get out of this world," she said, a smirk in her voice and a smile on her lips.

Missy gave her new classmate an odd look as they came to stop in front of Room 8. She certainly didn't look like she was crazy or a prankster, but she had to be joking about that field trip thing. As the door swung open Missy took a look at her new classroom.

The first thing to come to mind was bright and busy.

There wasn't a single part of the room that didn't have something stored away in it. From a skeleton replica standing in the corner to a poster about butterflies on the wall it seemed like every available space had been taken up. And oddly enough there weren't any desks for her to sit at. The floor was strangely empty of such things, with only a few odd tables covered in educational materials. Her new classmates didn't seem to be concerned that class was about to start, and instead where chatting with each other freely.

It was a stark contrast to the rigid discipline of her old school where students could be yelled at for simply sitting the wrong way.

Uncertain as to where she should go among the chatting students, she followed Keesha's lead as she walked over to a trio of girls. She couldn't tell what they were talking about, but the blonde with pigtails was pointing to something in her book.

"Keesha, who's this?" the dark haired one of the trio asked as she crossed her arms, eyes narrowed. Missy straightened up a bit under the girl's challenging gaze, giving her own right back.

"Wanda this is Missy, she's the new transfer that they've been talking about. Missy, this is Wanda, Dorothy Anne, and Phoebe," she said, gesturing to each girl as she listed off their names. The brown-haired girl that she had called Phoebe tucked a stand of hair behind her head with a somewhat nervous look as Dorothy Anne held out her hand.

"A pleasure to meet you, Missy," she said as Missy took her head, breaking her staring contest with Wanda. She didn't lose, she just decided that she didn't want to play anymore. "But you can call me D.A. if you want."

"Nice to meet you…D.A.," Missy said as she took the girl's hand with a smile she didn't quite feel. None of the students at her old school would have been this friendly, preferring to keep to themselves or just ignore her. They certainly wouldn't have invited her to use a nickname.

"It is nice to meet you, Missy. I only transferred here this year too," Phoebe said in a clear attempt to break the ice between them and establish a connection. Missy appreciated the effort, but she couldn't help but feel tingles travel up her spine. Experiencing this level of friendliness from what amounted to complete strangers was jarring, to say the least. Even elementary school students knew better than to accept friendliness from strangers.

"Soooo, Keesha was just telling me about the field trips you guys do," Missy said casually as she tried to draw out some real answers.

"Oh yes, just the other day M. Frizzle took us to explore a desert," Phoebe said with a smile. The nervousness that had apparently plagued the girl was gone, replaced by a starry look in her eyes. But as Missy pondered the girl's claim she realized something.

"There aren't any deserts near here," she protested. The thought of a place as cold and rainy as Brockton Bay being near a desert was too strange to comprehend.

"Yeah, she had to take us to California for that one," Wanda butted in with a completely nonchalant shrug.

"She took you all the way to the other side of the country, right," Missy muttered, rolling her eyes somewhat at the clear story they were putting on for her. At the very least they could try and make their stories sound believable. Phoebe frowned, a somewhat hurt look crossing her face.

"But she did," she protested as if denying the absurdity of the statement would somehow make it true.

"Yes, that was an exciting one, but I rather like the time she took us out into space," Dorothy Anne commented as she flicked through her book, clearly looking for something. If she seemed to find something odd about that statement she didn't show it. As if claiming she had been to space was somehow believable.

"You might say it was out of this world," a new voice butted it.

"Carlos," The four girls muttered with varying expressions of exasperation. Missy turned around to face speaker, a boy wearing a bright blue hoodie and a huge grin on his face as if he had just told the funniest joke in the world.

Maybe they're all crazy, Missy wondered as she took a step back from the crackling teen.

"Don't worry, his puns are worse than his personality," Keesha said with a slight grin on her face as Carlos sputtered. Before he could utter a comeback, the classroom doors shot open and everyone turned their gaze towards the red-headed adult stepping through. And if this was their teacher, Missy had to wonder where she got her clothes and why she thought that they looked good. Because from where she was standing it was easily one of the busiest dresses that she had ever seen.

Cartoonish fish and sea stars covered the bright blue dress as she practically twirled through the room with a smile on her face. Her bight orange hair was tied up in a bun, and Missy couldn't help but notice the green lizard draped around her shoulders.

"Good morning, class," she said with a bright and cheery smile.

"Good morning, Miss Frizzle," everyone intoned back with an equal amount of cheer.

"And I see we have a new student," the possibly crazy teacher said, turning the entire class' attention towards her. Missy had never been the center of attention prior to her trigger event, and seeing everyone staring at her brought up some old anxieties.

"Hi, I-I'm Missy," she said, silently cursing her stutter. If anyone noticed her slipup they didn't deign to comment on it.

"Welcome aboard, Missy," Miss Frizzle said with a smile that Missy figured was either the most perfect fake smile that she had ever seen, or it was a genuine article. It was all that Missy could do to not blink in surprise. Her old teachers had always been mean-spirited and strict, seeking to enforce rules with punishment whenever they had the opportunity. Seeing such a cheerful smile on a teacher's face was an unusual experience for her.

She tried to not stare as the lizard on her new teacher's shoulders waved at her. It was such an odd moment that she couldn't help but wave back out of sheer automatic reflex, not quite processing what she was going before she forced her hand to stop.

Maybe she was going crazy too.

"Uh, Miss Frizzle?" Phoebe asked with a raised hand and a somewhat tentative expression as their teacher's smiling gaze turned towards her. "We were just talking about the fish that live down on the ocean bottom and we were wondering how they do that."

"According to my research no sunlight ever reaches the ocean floor and it's too cold and dark for most life to live," D.A. said with a factual tone as flipped through the book she had been reading. The entire class seemed to stare at Miss Frizzle with hopeful looks, except for maybe that red-haired boy in the back who looked rather panicked at D.A.'s words.

"Hm, an underwater mystery? Perhaps we can shed some light on the matter," Miss Frizzle said with a smile and a wink. She then gestured to the door and cried, "To the Bus!"

With the expectation of the red-haired boy in the back the entire cheered as they made their way out the door. The floor seemed to shake with excitement as they practically ran to the bus, and it was all that Missy could do to keep up with them. She wasn't a stranger to the excitement a field trip could make, even though they often turned out disappointing, but this seemed like a lot for a field trip.

Of course, Missy thought as they filed into the very bus that had thought had been staring at her. Even though she kept telling herself that buses weren't alive she couldn't help but shake the feeling that the bus was observing her with curious orbs in the place of where its headlights should be.

It was a rather nice bus considering the last one she had been on had lost about half of its seat padding while the other half had been covered in used chewing gum. The inside of this bug might as well have been spotless, and each seat was like sitting on a cloud. It didn't even have that funky smell that most buses seemed to have.

"Seat belts everyone!" Miss Frizzle said as the doors to the bus slammed shut. Missy blinked at the novelty of having seatbelts on a bus as she clicked hers into place. Looking to her side she found that she had chosen a seat next to the same curly haired boy who had looked rather scared of the idea of a field trip. Even now he looked a little pale as he clicked his own seatbelt in.

As the bus drove down the street and the chattering of her new classmates behind her faded into background noise she turned back to the red-head. He seemed to be mumbling something under his breath along the lines of 'please make this a normal field trip'.

Missy gulped as a realization crept up on her. It was one thing to prank the new student, but this seemed to go far beyond what any prank would be worth. Which meant one of two things, either this was all some joke at her expense, or perhaps the more worrying option, maybe all those storied weren't just stories.

Missy tried to keep herself calm as the bus made its way through the streets of the city on the path that she recognized as to the beach. Were they going to stand by the ocean while the teacher taught? Because if so that seemed like a bit of a letdown in comparison to what she had been told. That was really the only thing that she could comprehend as being their destination because the other option was somehow worse.

Missy startled as the bus rolled off the paved street and made a bee-line for the cliff to their left. The blond girl felt her heart skip a beat as the bus drove off the edge without a moment of hesitation, hurdling them all towards the ocean below. Missy joined in the panicked screams of her classmates as the realization that they were all going to die hit her.

"Come on Bus, do your stuff!" Miss Frizzle cried out in a completely unphased tone as she pulled down on a lever. Then things got weird.

Missy's powers weren't so great against living things, but she still had a pretty good sense of the environment around her. Not quite a sixth sense, but an awareness of the general layout of her surroundings. Her mental impression of the buss stretched and twisted as if it was made of toffee. Just as the bus was about to slam into the ocean waved and drown them all the shifting stopped, and Missy blinked at her new surroundings.

Instead of the plain clothes that she had been wearing not mere seconds ago, she was now adorned with a bright green diving suit and helmet to match. The windows changed into a more circular form and a periscope descended from the ceiling. But what was perhaps the biggest clue that something was wrong was that they weren't drowning in freezing ocean water, and in fact seemed to be descending with relative ease.

What?

"I knew I should have stayed home today," the boy next to her cried as they traveled further and further in the ocean depths. Missy could only stare as a school of fish swam past them and the sunlight above started to fade as the traveled deeper and deeper into the dark ocean. Missy settled into her seat, staring ahead with a blank look on her face as she considered her situation.

She was on a bus that was now a submarine that was going to the bottom of the ocean for a field trip. And judging by the lack of screaming and sounds of amazement, this was a regular thing, which meant those stories they told her weren't just stories, they were real.

As she contemplated that, she could only think of one word that could arcuately sum up her feelings on this revelation.

"Cool."

Hannah was worried about Missy. The girl had only just started to show signs of progress with her therapy and they already wanted to throw her back into school. She understood their reasoning in wanting the girl to have a normal life, but normal wasn't a word that could be applied to parahumans, especially young ones. She would have to live with part of her life a secret, forever keeping people at arm's reach as to hide her identity.

You're getting worried over nothing, she told herself, stopping down on her desire to go check on the girl. She had heard nothing but praise about Walkerville, a far contrast to the lackluster school Missy had been in before. She had never been to the school herself, but it had a sterling reputation, and in Brockton Bay, that wasn't something that you could earn easily.

Hannah perked up as the young parahuman pushed her way through the doors in the Ward rec room, backpack already being tossed to the side as she made a dash towards the snacks.

"So how was your first day of school? Was if fun?" Hannah asked as the young girl reached in a pulled out a chocolate chip. The Protectorate Blaster blinked as Missy whirled around, a carefully neutral expression on her face. The girl's ability to hide her true emotions might have been impressive if it wasn't so concerning. She knew that her home life was still a wreck, but to know that it had gotten so far that she was afraid of expressing herself was maddening. T.

"It wasn't fun," Missy said blankly, and Hannah felt a pang of unease. Had they been mistaken and the school wasn't what Missy needed? Her musings were cut short as a megawatt smile spread across the girl's lips so large that for a moment she thought she might have been using her powers on it.

"It was awesome!"

Hannah could only blink as Missy started to go on about how cool her new teacher was, but as her surprise at the normally reserved child's exuberant behavior faded away a small smile passed over her lips. Apparently, the school was a good choice for Missy. The girl already looked livelier than she had in weeks. The story she seemed to have made up with her new classmates about visiting the bottom of the ocean was amusing as well as relieving. How long had it been since the girl had the chance to act like a normal third grader?

"That sounds nice, Missy," Hannah said as the young blonde paused her rapid-fire speech for a breath. Missy grinned back up at her and shook her head in vigorous agreement.

"I can't wait for the next field trip! Maybe we'll visit a volcano, or go into the clouds, or…" Missy kept on listing off very unlikely destinations for field trips as she wandered back over to her corner of the rec room, leaving Hannah to shake her head in amusement as she took her leave.

Perhaps she would have to meet this Miss Frizzle sometime, it sounded like she and her class had a pretty good imagination.

The Magic School Bus was part of my childhood, and after seeing the trailer for the Netflix reboot I had heard about I felt...disapointed.

The animation looks subpar compared to what it was before and even more so given what animators are capable of now, as if they didn't think that they had to put much effort into it and that nostalgia would take them the rest of the way.

Perhaps it will.

Perhaps the reboot will be fantastic and make me eat my words, which I really hope it does, but it doesn't feel like they're giving the Magic School Bus the attention it deserves.

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