"What am I doing here? What happened?" Billy asked, his voice still rough as he watched Steve pour him a glass of water.
"I was hoping you could answer that for us," Steve replied, offering him the glass of which Billy accepted with a grateful nod.
"Thanks."
"So," Steve continued once Billy had taken a sip, "what's the last thing you remember?"
Before Billy could answer, the lab doors slid open. Tony and Bruce stepped inside and headed straight for the medical bed, relief softening the concern etched across their faces.
"An unbearable pain," Billy finally answered, taking another small sip of water. "That's the last thing I remember."
As the words left his mouth, another familiar figure entered behind them.
Doctor Strange.
Billy's gaze instinctively shifted toward the Sorcerer Supreme before Bruce came to stand beside the bed.
"How are you feeling?" Bruce asked, already examining him for any lingering signs of distress.
Billy slowly rubbed the side of his head with a weary grimace.
"Well, for starters, it feels like someone split my head open like a watermelon." He let out a tired sigh before giving an exhausted shrug. "Other than that... I'd say peachy."
'I'd ask why I'm in Bruce's lab instead of the medical bay, but…at this point, I might as well let it go.'
Bruce was about to respond when the doors parted once more, admitting Clint and Natasha into the lab.
Clint took one look at Billy sitting upright and couldn't help but grin.
"Well, look who's finally awake." Folding his arms across his chest, he added with a smirk, "I see you decided against the full nine-month coma after getting struck by lightning."
Billy blinked, visibly thrown by the remark.
"...What?"
Clint merely shrugged with exaggerated innocence.
"You know, like those comic book speedsters. They get zapped by lightning, wake up months later with superpowers."
The joke had the exact opposite effect of what he'd intended.
Billy's expression immediately tightened.
"...Wait."
His eyes swept across the room from one face to another.
"How long have I been out?"
Before anyone else could answer, Tony spoke up.
"That's not really the important part right now," he said, folding his arms with a hint of seriousness. "Although I'm sure you'll be thrilled to know you don't have to worry about your midterms anymore."
Billy visibly relaxed, the tension draining from his shoulders.
"...Really?"
"You'll just have to repeat the entire grade."
"...Ehhn?"
Billy could only stare at Tony, completely unable to tell whether he'd just been shown sympathy or expertly insulted.
The answer came a second later when a sharp smack landed squarely on Tony's shoulder.
Natasha calmly lowered her hand before turning back to Billy, an amused smile tugging at the corners of her lips.
"Relax," she said. "It's only been a day."
From the corner of his eye, Billy noticed Clint biting down on his fist in a desperate attempt to keep from bursting into laughter at the priceless expression on his face. While Tony, looking thoroughly pleased with himself despite the smack he'd just received, casually bumped fists with the archer while Natasha continued.
"But we do need you to tell us everything you remember." The amusement gradually faded from her expression, replaced by the professionalism Billy had come to expect from her. "And Bruce wants to keep you under observation for at least another day. So, for the time being, no school..." She paused just long enough for the next part to sink in. "...and no training."
"Yeah," Tony added. "We can't exactly risk you accidentally turning your classmates into barbecue by calling down lightning in the middle of algebra."
Billy turned toward Steve with a puzzled look, silently asking what exactly Tony had meant by that remark. Before Steve could offer an explanation, Strange—who had deliberately remained quiet up until now, unwilling to seem insensitive by immediately steering the conversation toward his own concerns—decided the opportunity had finally presented itself.
"I was told the tower was struck by a bolt of lightning," Strange began, his voice came out calm and somewhat measured. "One far more powerful than the one that accompanies your transformation. When the others reached your room, they found you on the floor screaming."
Billy's expression gradually grew more thoughtful as fragments of the previous night surfaced through the lingering haze in his mind. The memory was still blurry, but he could vaguely recall the sudden agony that had erupted from within him.
Just then, Natasha's phone began to ring.
Without interrupting the conversation, she quietly excused herself and walked toward a far corner of the lab before answering the call in a low voice.
It wasn't often Natasha received phone calls, at least not the kind that came through her personal phone. The rarity of it naturally caught Clint's attention. He casually glanced in her direction, only to meet her eyes as she subtly gestured for him to come over.
Curious, Clint slipped away from the group and joined her.
With the others focused on Billy, the pair quietly disappeared from the lab without a word to anyone.
Seeing that Billy genuinely didn't seem to remember anything that had happened after he lost consciousness—or the lightning strike that had followed—Steve decided the most straightforward approach was the best one.
"Does the word Klyntar ring any bells?" he asked.
Billy looked at him blankly before raising an eyebrow. "What am I, a language major?" he replied, sounding more confused than defensive. There wasn't even a hint of recognition in his voice.
Steve watched him for a moment before answering. "You were talking in your sleep while you were unconscious. It was the only word you muttered after you passed out."
Billy's expression shifted into one of genuine bewilderment. Leaning back against the bed, he stared up at the ceiling, searching his memory for anything that resembled the strange word. There was nothing. No distant recollection, no familiar feeling—just an empty space where an answer should have been.
Taking Billy's silence as confirmation that he truly didn't remember, Tony shifted his attention toward Strange.
"You've been awfully quiet about this whole thing," he said, meeting the sorcerer's eyes. "Whatever happened to the kid, it's got to be connected to all that Solomon mumbo jumbo."
Steve glanced toward Strange as well, silently agreeing with Tony's assessment. "What do you make of it, Strange?"
Strange returned Tony's gaze without the slightest sign of offense at his less-than-scientific terminology. His expression remained composed, thoughtful even.
"As much as I'd like to have a definitive answer," he said calmly, "this isn't something I fully understand myself."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"Based on everything we've witnessed, I believe it is directly connected to the sealed spell hidden within Captain Marvel when he broke the seal. My best guess is that the spell's awakening either attracted the lightning... or caused it outright. It's also possible the lightning itself served as the catalyst that completed the spell's activation." His eyes drifted toward Billy as his voice grew more serious. "Had Billy been an ordinary human, he would almost certainly have died. No normal person could survive a lightning strike of that magnitude."
Billy swallowed involuntarily.
Hearing someone casually state that he should have died had a way of putting things into perspective.
Naturally, Tony couldn't let the moment pass.
"Well," he said with a crooked grin, "talk about a blast from the past."
The joke was met with absolute silence.
No groans or chuckles. Nothing.
Tony's smirk didn't falter in the slightest. If anything, he looked mildly disappointed that everyone else's sense of humor had apparently taken the day off.
'Honestly, I get it…' Billy thought, staring absently toward the ceiling. 'But as the guy who actually got hit by the lightning, I don't really find it funny.'
His mind wandered despite himself.
'For all I know, Solomon literally fired a bolt of lightning from thousands of years in the past, sent it racing through time, locked onto that spell like it was some magical beacon, and used it as a highway straight into me... without so much as a warning or five seconds to mentally prepare.'
The mental image was ridiculous.
...Which somehow didn't make it feel impossible anymore.
Before he could dwell on the thought any further, Strange's voice pulled him back to the present as the sorcerer resumed his explanation, clearly not yet finished with his theory.
"For now, your only concern should be getting some rest," Strange said. "Whatever this spell placed in your mind, there's no point forcing it. It'll come to you soon enough. I'll examine it again tomorrow. Hopefully, by then, your mind will have recovered from the abrupt shock it was subjected to and fully assimilated whatever was impressed upon it."
"As much as getting blasted by lightning is kind of my thing," Billy mused with self-deprecating humor, "I really hope this centuries-old spell doesn't need a reboot and decides to fry me with another bolt."
His attempt at humor earned little more than a few weary looks, but it was enough to reassure everyone that he was still himself. Taking the opportunity to bring the discussion to a close, Bruce instructed the others to give Billy the space he needed and let him rest.
There was little to be gained by crowding the lab or hovering over the makeshift area where Billy had been admitted. If the spell had truly left something behind, then sooner or later the answers would reveal themselves. Until then, all they could do was wait.
- - -
[Peter Parker's POV]
It was lunchtime at the school cafeteria, and Ned and I had only just survived another round of Flash and his gang's usual bullying routine before finally claiming a table. We'd barely started eating when MJ wandered over and casually dropped her lunch tray onto our table before taking a seat. It wasn't exactly unusual for her to join us, but it also wasn't nearly as frequent as I'd have liked.
The real surprise, however, was Gwen. As far as I could remember, she'd never actually sat down to eat with us before.
"When did..." Ned started, and I had absolutely no idea where he was going with that sentence. Whatever it was, though, I was certain he was seconds away from pulling off one of the nerdiest cock-blocking plays in recorded history. Thankfully, I managed to stop him in time by clamping a hand over his mouth before he could finish.
"Surely I'm not the only one who finds it strange that we haven't seen Billy since... you know, two days ago, when that weird wizard in a red cape opened a literal portal and took him," MJ said, breaking the silence by voicing something that had been nagging at me ever since it happened.
"We might as well assume he was kidnapped right in front of us," Ned replied after pulling my hand away from his face.
"Whatever reason caused him to be summoned out of the blue by someone like that must still have him tied up," Gwen said, absentmindedly pushing her food around with her fork before continuing. "He'll probably tell us about it when he gets back... assuming it's even something he's allowed to talk about."
Honestly, I didn't know what to make of the whole situation with Billy. The only thing I could go off was what I'd seen with my own eyes. He'd recognized the guy immediately, casually called him a wizard, and then stepped through that portal like it was just another Tuesday.
"Whatever reason made him go with that wizard could also explain why he'd already been missing school for a couple of days before that," I said, thinking back on everything that had happened. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like the only explanation that made any sense.
"As cool as it is that he gets to go off adventuring with a wizard, at this rate I doubt he'll have enough time to prepare for midterms," Ned said.
He had a point. Thanks to Gwen, we'd put together a study group with Billy at the center of it so we could help him catch up before midterms rolled around. The plan hadn't even made it past our very first session before a wizard literally showed up through a portal and whisked him away to... wherever he'd gone. Two days later, he still hadn't come back.
"Out of all of us, he's closest to you, Peter," Gwen said, turning her attention to me. "Have you heard from him at all?"
I shook my head. "No. We never exchanged contact information." As the words left my mouth, I couldn't help wondering if Billy and I were even that close. Or maybe we were? It was hard to tell.
"I was actually going to ask you," I said, looking back at Gwen.
"Me?" she replied, sounding genuinely surprised.
"Well, aside from us, you're the only person he really seems to have taken a liking to," Ned blurted out before I could say anything else.
Ned really needed to learn when to keep his mouth shut.
Gwen immediately looked away, doing her best to hide the faint blush beginning to creep across her cheeks.
"Yeah, at least that's how it looks," Ned doubled down, completely oblivious to the damage he was causing. Across the table, MJ simply continued eating her lunch, quietly nodding in agreement.
"Even after the whole dodgeball incident got other students interested in him, Billy still keeps his circle about as small as a red dot," MJ said matter-of-factly. "And you happen to be inside that red dot... along with us."
Gwen's cheeks grew a shade redder at that, and suddenly a thought crossed my mind.
'Wait... could she actually... I mean... like Billy?'
If she really did see him that way, then my self-proclaimed love coach might have to start warming up, because he'd soon have a game of his own to play.
For now, though, I just hope Billy shows up at school soon and finally tells us what had happened. Having a friend who could casually disappear through magic portals was already pretty cool. Finding out the full story behind it? That would be even cooler.
- - -
Much earlier, before making their way to Bruce's lab to check on Billy, Natasha and Clint had tracked down Officer Bautista McCall—the very officer Clint had identified from the clue hidden inside the chimney at Fury's safe house.
It seemed Fury had been investigating the man at some point before his disappearance, and now after receiving a call back from him while they were checking on Billy, the two agents were picking up from the clue Fury had left off.
"You said you were CIA?" Officer McCall asked cautiously from across the table. They had chosen a quiet restaurant parking lot for the meeting, each of them seated on opposite benches at one of the outdoor tables. Although he tried to keep his composure, the tension in his voice betrayed him.
"If you're asking to see our IDs again, I'm afraid we can't do that," the male CIA agent replied. In reality, it was Clint operating under an undercover identity. "It'd be a little discrediting if we had to prove who we are twice."
"Huh?" McCall muttered, his brow furrowing in confusion. He looked exhausted, frightened, and constantly on edge, his eyes flicking around as though expecting someone to appear at any moment.
"But since we understand your concern for your safety..." the female agent said calmly before briefly producing her identification. "Here. Have another look."
McCall barely had enough time to glance at it before she tucked it away again. His eyes lingered only long enough to catch her name and photograph before his anxious state pulled his attention elsewhere. Even if he'd managed a better look, it was doubtful he would've known whether he was looking at a genuine CIA credential or a convincing fake. The gesture wasn't so much about proving their identities as it was about giving a desperate man enough reassurance to keep talking.
Contrary to the popular image of intelligence operatives dressed in black suits and dark sunglasses, both Hawkeye and Black Widow were dressed casually, blending in with the afternoon crowd as though they were nothing more than two ordinary people meeting an acquaintance for lunch.
"Now that we're past that, McCall," Clint said, leaning forward slightly, "don't waste our time. Tell us what you've got for us... and more importantly, what's got you looking this shaken?" His eyes studied the officer for another moment before he added, "You're barely a shadow of the man we met less than forty-eight hours ago."
"It's about what you mentioned the other day," he said, the words coming out with a noticeable stutter.
"What about it?" Clint asked evenly.
"The... the black guy with the eye patch... and..." McCall faltered, his voice trailing off as uncertainty crept back into his expression.
"And?" Natasha patronized, her tone came off calm and patient, encouraging him to finish what he'd started.
"...And what really happened at the mall that night."
It took every ounce of discipline Clint and Natasha possessed not to let their reactions show. Neither exchanged a glance nor allowed even the slightest flicker of excitement to betray them. Instead, they quietly steadied their breathing and maintained their composed expressions, giving McCall their undivided attention as he finally began to reveal the information they'd been searching for.
- - -
Patrn/Da_suprememaverick