reality is in trouble

There was always something about the stars in the night sky that always drew Billy’s attention. The were gorgeous for exploding balls of gases. A part of him felt that his connection to the stars, to the galaxy, was his destiny to become the Demiurge. That same part of him admired the one night in a completely different reality, his likeness was drawn onto the dark sky with stars. 

His legs were pulled to his chest but his eyes stared off into the distance. He heard the door to the rooftop open but his attention remained with the sky. “Getting some fresh air?” He asked the figure without turning his head. “It’s a beautiful night tonight.” 

“Yes it was undone, but at what cost?” Carol says referring to the mess they have to deal with now. There were still so many people with no place to go. She smiles a little. “I’m sure she’s going to live up to the hype. She was one of the greatest talk show people ever. You’re going to have to find her on the world wide web.”

“Are you trying to insinuate that maybe they should have left it how it was? Half of the universe’s population gone?” Billy teased with an arched brow. He knew from personal experience that trying to alter reality was a bad thing but, what happened with the Infinity Gauntlet was the worst thing that could happen in any reality. Maybe that’s why he partially understood why it was undone the way it was. “Oh she shouldn’t be too hard to find on the internet. You can find anything on there easily now. Videos of cats thinking they’re dogs, the top 10 hottest superheros, and even a video of you, I’m sure.”

Jane pours them both a glass of orange juice and hands one over to Billy. “You’re welcome and nice to meet you Billy.” She says and sits down, taking another bite of her sandwich and she almost chokes at the mention of Thor. “Uh..yea. I do know Thor. Why?” She asks, clearing her throat and taking a swig of her juice. 

“Uh, nothing. I’m a big Thor fan-- actually I’m a big geek for superheroes, super villains, and anyone in between.” Billy chuckled with a nervous smile. He took a sip of the glass and pressed his lips together. “So that must make you Jane Foster right?” Also known as Valkyrie or Thor in the timeline he was from. He tried to keep the knowledge from timeline hidden, unsure of the repercussions it might bring by telling them their fate in his reality. “

first day back, he should have been used to unexpected surprises by now but yet this place always seemed to find a way to catch him off guard somehow. he was a little out of practice, not used to being around people like wanda who had their own distinctive powers. his of course was just a metal suit. 

he practically jumped at the sight of the lightning bolt thankfully headed in the opposite direction, but his presence didn’t go unnoticed. with his hands in his pockets he slowly approached and stopped in his path. he just wanted to get some coffee really.  “ damn, getting some practice in, huh? ”  he raised a brow.   “ that was impressive. i was just passing actually, mostly - but now i’m curious. what else can you do? ”

“I would hate to sound cocky but truthfully, I can do too much.” And too much power was something Billy disliked about himself at times, if not always. He knew about the omnipotent power source he was tied to and it didn’t help he didn’t know how to access it without suffering consequences. He let out a long sigh before explaining further to Mr. Stark. “My main thing used to be electrokinesis, just like you saw.” He smiled at the simple thought. “Now, it’s spell casting or reality warping with help from my boyfriend’s mom’s self-help book.”

“What I really was trying to do to the target was this--” The blue wisps of energy began to dance around his hand as he concentrated on a target. “Break the target.” He repeated three times, watching as the wisps surrounded the target and forcing the object into itself as if crushing it. He smirked then sighed. “But I can’t do it without hearing myself back.”

Thor smiled in amusement when the other realized the weight, he forgot Midgardians were different because they looked the same as Asgardians just… tinier. “Careful there, it can be heavy for some people… it is also very sharp and don’t lift it up cause you might activate the bifrost and end up in another place… or planet,” Thor warned. “Yes…” he teplied sighing heavily at the memory of Mjolnir crumpling in his sisterhood hands like paper. “Am my friend Rabbit, he’s a guardian if the Galaxy, gave me this eye on our way to Nidavelir,” Thor explained. “Would you like to hear the tale of how it happened? Ragnarok? Or another tale? Perhaps the one about how I almost married a giant, his name was Thrym, who had stolen Mjolnir?”

Billy was visibly struggling to carry the heavy weapon on his shoulder but he was determined to see how long he could last. “You let a lanky kid like me carry Stormbreaker so we’re going to see how this goes.” He nervously chuckled. “But I think I’m doing fine. I promise I won’t activate the bifrost.” A huge part of him kind of wanted to activate the bifrost so he could experience it but, he knew it would be a bad idea if he tried.

“A rabbit gave you an eye?” He asked aloud and to be quite honest, he was surprised he wasn’t weirded out by that sentence. Gosh, Billy felt like a kid in a candy shop right now. “Maybe the one about you marrying a giant? I’ve never heard of that.”

“You would think, but this happened last time.” Though that wasn’t a great example, because last time was a little too late. So maybe this kid had a point and now the urge to go out and fight is rising inside of her. It takes a bit of effort to reign it back in.

“You don’t know who Ricki Lake is?” Carol asks astonished and a little bit hurt. “No, she’s not a basketball player. She’s a talk show host and she had some crazy wild segments.”

“Yeah, what happened last time was terrible.” He assumed they were both thinking of The Blip that altered reality in one of the worst ways possible. “But at least it’s fixed now, the damage was undone.” He said with a shrug, trying to end that topic on a good note. There was nothing they could do to change the past. Billy knew that from experience. 

The young man shook his head to her question. “Maybe I’ll watch her sometime. I’ll be holding you accountable if she doesn’t live up to this hype.” 

“I’m sure. I think I’ve had enough pizza and wings in college to last me a lifetime.” She says with an easy smile as she goes back toward the fridge to grab the orange that was in there. Giving it a shake she shows it to the young boy. “Do you want some?” Jane asks, then grabbing two glasses. “I’m Jane by the way.”

Ah, college. Before Billy was recruited to be a Young Avenger, he had his eyes locked on some ivy league colleges and while he didn’t regret his decision, he still wondered what his life could have been like if he was normal. “Yeah, I’ll take a glass. Thanks, I’m Billy.” He said with a small smile before the realization set in. “Do you happen to know Thor personally by any chance? I’m asking for a friend.” He shrugged nonchalantly. The knowledge he knew from his timeline always made him eager when meeting them in this one.

Erik hums softly at the young boy’s greeting, taking another sip of his drink. “You know one of these days you’re going to be my age.” He pauses for a second. “Well hopefully. I don’t understand your generations urge to die so young. It’s rather confusing, some think they’re invincible and some think dying at 20, when you’ve barely scratched the surface of living, is ideal.” He glances over him. “What about? What side of the spectrum are you on?”

“That day isn’t going to happen for a long time.” Billy found youth to have its ups and downs, never taken serious enough to have a real say but old enough to make stupid mistakes that won’t matter in the long run. “My generation is full of adrenaline junkies, narcissists, and Tiktokers. We like to use the phrase: I’m here for a good time, not a long time.” He said half-jokingly. with a chuckle. Billy was content with having his superhero alter ego for the adrenaline rush and having downtime to just cuddle with his boyfriend. “Personally, I have no desire to die anytime soon but I do like saving the world and helping where I can.”

Thor smiled and shrugged, “It feels like that at first just ask The man of Spiders, Peter,” he nodded and picked up Stormbreaker “It is, want to hold it?” He asked offering the ax to the other one, unlike Mjolnir, Stormbreaker didn’t give any powers to whoever lifted it, and it wasn’t enchanted for only Thor or those worthy to lift, maybe he should ask the beer wizard if he could do something like that, he stopped at the mention of Mjolnir and looked down with a frown. “My sister, goddess of death destroyed it when she was trying to kill me.” He looked up with a pained smile. “The lightning was always inside me and Stormbreaker is just as great… Its magical properties allow me to create a Bifrost and go wherever I want to… I lost my eye too.” He rushed to add before the other could add.

Billy chuckled and nodded along to Thor’s words. Billy was guilty of wording it wrong but, he had been doing this superhero business for quite some time. He was never deemed an official Avenger and he was completely content with being a Young Avenger. His eyes lit up when Thor offered to let Billy hold his weapon. Excitement spiked in the young man and it was hard to hide. “Yes, please!” He exclaimed and took the weapon into his hands, almost dropping it at the sudden weight. He swung it over his shoulder to distribute the weight while he walked alongside the other. “Hela broke your hammer?!” His voice filled with astonishment. “And you lost your eye?!” He groaned in sympathy to the god. He shifted to get a better look and arched his eyebrow in confusion. “You’ve got two eyes though...”

Training was something Billy always found as a chore mostly because he was nagged into doing. Now, there was the subtle guilt of getting the team stuck in an alternate earth pressuring him to expand his powers. He stood in the center of the Avengers HQ training facility with noise-cancelling earbuds on to stop hearing himself back-- his biggest weakness which was easily exploitable. 

Blue wisps of energy danced around his finger tips as he focused on the target in front of him. I want to break the target. He repeated aloud but nothing happened. After several attempts and feeling frustrated, he yelled and sent a blue lightning bolt his hand and shot down the target. He felt eyes staring at him from behind so he turned to find Tony Stark watching him. He removed the earbuds and gave the other a small smile. “Iron Man. How can I help you?”

Charles was sitting in the kitchen having some alone time and dinner. He enjoyed the company of the older and younger mutants, but sometimes he still needed time to have his thoughts to himself. He wasn’t sure that the humans were going to be willing towards the offer that he made. He had a lot on his mind, so having a peaceful moment alone where he didn’t have other’s thoughts running through his own mind was a blessing at the moment. 

He could sense someone coming in and smiled when he saw Billy. Many joked that he was his grandson in law, do to them making jokes of him and Erik being an item - which was another thing that plagued his mind. “Billy, how are you, lad?” He asked the other with a bright smile - not at all startled by the young man.

Billy scanned his environment as he gathered himself. The kitchen. Huh, it was definitely not what Billy was aiming for but, it was better than landing in a stranger’s bedroom. “I think I’m doing pretty good. Always going to be a little homesick but, it’ll go away.” He said with a genuine smile. With Teddy by his side, he would always be at home with him regardless of what part of the multiverse they were in.

“How about you? How are you doing, Professor?” He asked curiously. With the current situation of the world, Billy hoped all was well with the older man. He couldn’t picture himself in the same position that Charles was in right now.

Jane notices they young boy as he strolls in with a box of pizza and another box filled with wings. The nervous chuckle lets her know that he’s probably the culprit or know who the culprit is. She hums softly, finishing her sandwich off with mustard instead. “Extremely rude. Whoever could have at least thrown it away.” She says and tosses it into the trash. “No thank you.” Jane replies taking a bite of her sandwich.

Billy watched her finish building her sandwich with a nervous grin. “Yeah, they were extremely rude.” He replied nervously. Damn, she was trying to bury Billy in guilt over a jar of mayonnaise. He mentally noted it down as the first thing he needed to grab the next time he went on a grocery run to replace the jar he finished. “Are you sure you don’t want a slice?” He asked as he opened up both boxes and devoured a wing in almost an instant. “I hear pizza and wings are good for the brain.” 

Carol gives a shrug glancing over at the boy that comes next to her. “I’m used to it. They usually call for me when everything is at ground zero and that’s okay. By the time I get here when they call I’m tired from traveling and dealing with other things. So it’s a nice break for me.” Though she did specify to only call her for emergencies, not to call and then put her on hold. “I’m pretty sure it is. But Ricki Lake doesn’t air anymore, so I’m not sure the television is for me.”

“You would hope that they call you before everything is at ground zero. You know, to prevent that from happening, not showing up when things are already at its worst,” Billy said followed by a chuckle. He spoke before realizing he technically pulled the same thing: showing up too late to actually make a difference. “But that’s a good break for you,” he said with a small smile.

He blinked a couple times, his eyebrows furrowing as he tried to figure out the name mentioned. “Who is Ricki Lake?” He asked aloud. “He sounds like a cool basketball player. You’re into basketball?” He asked ignorantly. There was definitely a generational gap difference between the two of them.

Thor was at the Avengers HQs he had missed his old team but he was trying to find Banner, he figured that he was huge and green so it wouldn’t be that hard but he was mistaken cause he hadn’t seen him since he arrived to Earth.

He was enjoying being back to Midgard but he wanted to help so they could go back, he was still a little worried about the guardians being on Earth as well and so when he wasn’t out patrolling, and how Odin would be scoffing at his son stopping petty crimes… he was either at SHIELD or HQ or babysitting his new team.

He had just returned and changed out of his outfit to some sweatpants, a hoodie and his Thor crocs, Stormbreaker resting on his shoulders (people got mad if he just left it around and it broke things when it was summoned) when someone called him.

He didn’t recognize him, but he was used to by now, that there would be new Avengers every time he went back so he just nodded his head in reply. “Hello! And thank you my tiny friend.” He smiled, “Are you an avenger too?” He asked as he approached him and patted him in the back. “Come join me, I asked FRIDAY to order me a pizza.”

Billy felt stupid. He just told the God of Thunder that his outfit completed by self-promotional crocs that his outfit was ‘cool’. Also Thor just called Billy tiny-- which he undoubtedly was compared to most people-- but he also called him his friend. That was already a win in Billy’s books.  “Yeah, I’m an Avengers... of sorts...” He nervously chuckled. It was nice to know he wasn’t treating him like he was some child like most of the original Avengers he met did in his timeline. 

“I will definitely join you for some pizza,” he said eagerly. He fumbled with his phone in his pocket pondering a few conversation topics. Was showing Thor a picture of his original costume too much? Right now, maybe it would come off as a tad too much. It’s something he’ll save to show him later. “That’s Stormbreaker right? Where’s Mjolnir?”