Oh, hey there. Billy Batson here.
I've been stuck in this place so long that I'm starting to seriously consider just breaking out.
With all this time on my hands and the eerie silence pressing in, my mind started wandering.
What if these guys completely forgot they've got someone locked up down here? That'd be… bad. Really bad.
Wait—what if they're not the good guys at all, and they're planning to transfer me somewhere more secure? Some prison where they stash potential threats forever?
Ugh… that'd suck even more.
Breaking out wouldn't solve anything, and it'd probably get me in serious trouble with these people—whoever they are. Better to stay put, wait for their judgment, and hope for the best.
Sure, my predicament should be my main focus right now, but I can't help feeling a little excited to see how different—or maybe how similar—this world is to mine.
I just hope seventeen counts as legal age over here. There's only so much I can do as a kid if I decide to strike out on my own in this foreign place. I don't want to end up stealing, but if worse comes to worse… well, maybe just a little swindling wouldn't hurt.
Maybe I could even snag a job—if I can find a place willing to hire an underaged kid with decent pay. Otherwise, forget covering living expenses. And that's not even touching on how I'm supposed to secure a roof over my head. That's going to be a whole other headache.
Hopefully, these guys let me stick around long enough to get my bearings in this new world. If not—or if the wizard objects—I might have to talk to Thor. Fingers crossed that god has a heart and is willing to sympathize with my situation enough to help me out.
Going back to my world isn't even on the table. I don't know exactly the deal with that portal Flash created or how I ended up here, and trying to recreate it? Forget it.
Wait, how am I so sure this was actually a different earth or world? I've been so caught up and overwhelmed by the unfathomable amount of change that it didn't cross my mind that this could as well be my home world.
Yeah…Flash was meant to travel back in time and I followed without the slightest knowledge of how to navigate through that space to my desired destination.
Who's to say I didn't whined up somewhere in the distant future, that's mean we somehow evaded the disaster in this timeline.
But if this is in fact the future, this guys should have known about the Justice League. No way our legend and achievement won't be passed down in history.
Unless…
A subtle gasp escaped me as another thought spawned, it aligned well enough to make this possible theory sound plausible.
Like with the dinosaurs and other extinct civilizations, it's quite possible that the wave of antimatter might have been a cosmic event to erase the old world for the birth of a new one.
That could explain why they have no knowledge about the Justice League.
Aghh!!!
These thought scenarios for possible theories are starting to feel like made up stories for my bored mind to entertain me.
The elevator dinged, and the wizard and the tin-man—his armor conspicuously absent, dressed plainly rather than in whatever battle suit he normally wears—stepped out and headed straight toward me.
No sign of the nerd or Captain Blondie. They're probably watching through the cameras.
"Looks like you're getting quite cozy in there, Captain Sparkles," the tin-man's smug voice called out as they stopped just short of the force field encasing my cylinder, eyes locked on me.
"Well, I've got a lot of time on my hands," I replied, rubbing my palms together until sparks sizzled around them. "Figured I might as well get comfortable."
The wizard, ever businesslike, cut straight to the chase. "If you are indeed from another Earth, how exactly did you get here?"
Would a little sympathy kill them? Apparently so. Sigh.
Last time, I'd sidestepped this exact question because trying to explain everything with the Flash might have made me sound a tinsy bit on the crazy side to them.
"How do I even explain this?" I muttered aloud, floating up off the bed and drifting to a safe distance from the glass before landing lightly on my feet. My pause made it obvious I was thinking.
"How about how you survived a wave of antimatter and ended up here?" Tin-man suggested.
As men of science, both him and the nerd with a green alter ego probably live for this kind of conversations—antimatter, parallel worlds, all that fun stuff.
Unfortunately for them, I don't actually know much about antimatter—except that it erases matter. And that's… well, not exactly a full report.
"The only plan that had any real shot," I began, "was for one of us to go back in time and warn our past selves—hoping that, with enough prep, we could figure something out before the disaster hit."
I caught tin-man's eyebrow twitch at the mention of going back in time. The sorcerer's eyes narrowed slightly too, clearly weighing my words.
"Did you mean… time travel?" Tin-man asked, with a voice edged with curiosity.
"Sure," I replied casually, keeping my tone light while knowing full well he wanted every detail of how it worked.
"You people had a time machine?" the wizard asked, leaning in a little.
"No, we weren't in possession of a time machine." I took a few slow, deliberate steps closer to the glassy field, locking eyes with them, confidence radiating.
Leverage—or at least, what I hoped could be leverage. Now to see if they'd take the bait.
"Tell us how," Tin-man pressed.
I let a pause stretch for effect. "You know, this whole ordeal has been… traumatic. Watching your world die—it's not exactly a thrilling experience."
Both of them raised eyebrows, probably wondering to guess what I was getting at.
I didn't give them the chance to speak. "It would be… rude, and frankly inconsiderate, for you to ask me to relive every single detail I'm still trying to make sense of." I let the words hang, a subtle push of emotional leverage—honesty mixed with a touch of sympathetic pressure might do the trick.
"What are you getting at?" the wizard asked, finally voicing the exact question I'd been hoping for.
"Look, I've been upfront with you from the start," I said, leaning back slightly. "You might as well return the favor and let me out of here for a bit—get some fresh air. It's not like I have anywhere to run off to. I can hang around, answer your questions little by little, and you don't have to worry about me disappearing."
I was banking on their curiosity about how my world ended to get a crack at freedom—and maybe, just maybe, secure a roof over my head while I was at it.
"Is this your way of negotiating your freedom?" Tin-man asked with his eyebrow raised.
"Even if it is," the wizard added, "what makes you think you are in a position to negotiate?"
"I don't know," I replied with a casual shrug, "I just thought… why not give it a try?" I made it clear with my tone and shrugged gesture, I wasn't scheming to outsmart them.
"I mean, for a team of heroes, you sure treat a guest like absolute crap. My cooperation so far—honest cooperation—should at least earn me a little freedom, considering there's been no evidence tying me to those monsters."
Both men listened, silently with no interruptions, no power plays. My fate, it seemed, was entirely in their hands.
Tin-man was the first to react, blinking in mild surprise before breaking into laughter. I couldn't tell if he was laughing at my words, genuinely amused, or if he was just reveling in the thought of how hard he was about to shut me down.
I glanced at the wizard, and our eyes met briefly before flicking to his teammate—the one laughing like he'd just heard the best joke of the day. Something was glowing faintly through his shirt, right at the center of his chest, catching my attention for a split second.
Our gazes didn't linger long before snapping back to each other. The wizard's eyes softened slightly, and he subtly gestured for me to pay no mind to Tin-man who had stopped laughing and now wore a faint, crooked smirk at the corner of his lips.
"Sounds like a fair deal," Tin-man said with a smooth voice, "a win-win for both sides. But you'll have to agree to our terms." He shot a quick look at the wizard, silently checking if he was on board.
The wizard closed his eyes, exhaling through his nose before giving a small, measured nod. "So long as you accept our terms and continue your honest cooperation with us."
"Certainly," I said, keeping my composure outwardly. Inside, though, my excitement was building—I felt like a bird about to be freed from its cage. Finally, some room to spread my wings… or cape, as it were.
"First condition: For the time being, no leaving the building without our say-so," the wizard said. His eyes lingered on me, like there was something he really wanted to ask but was willing to hold back… for now.
"Secondly, you'll need to wear a communication device at all times and—"
"—the coms would need to be properly insulated," I cut in. "Wouldn't want lightning frying it and you all thinking I disposed of it and flew the coup."
A sudden wave of awkwardness hit me the moment the words left my mouth. Of course—he wears a suit of armor. He knows exactly how this stuff works.
"As I said, you'll also need to respond immediately if summoned at any time. We could use your help." He didn't dwell on it, thankfully, and moved on with the rest of the terms.
"What do you say?" the wizard asked in a calm voice. There was no wind, but I could've sworn I saw his cape flutter, like a subtle flex.
"So long as my stay here is guaranteed, and I'm treated like a person—not just a walking encyclopedia for your curiosity about what am from—I'm good," I replied, pushing just a little.
"Agreed. We'll have sessions for those discussions," Tin-man said, and the wizard nodded in concurrence.
"Jarvis," Tin-man called, and in the next moment, the force field shivered and vanished, leaving the containment space open—a cylindrical platform with the walls gone.
That felt almost too easy, like he might have let me out even without my little speech about being treated properly.
I floated down slowly from the platform to the ground, standing now in front of both men.
Part of me itched to stretch my wings and fly like a bat straight out of hell, but I kept my composure. Such a sudden move could make them think I was trying to make a break for it.
Sure, giving them a little scare would've been a hilarious prank—but the elevator is the only real way out. Go too far, and they'd be in full battle mode before I even made it a floor up. Flying through each level? That would be taking it too far and would no longer be a harmless joke anymore, might even get tagged as an hostile before even leaving the building.
"He's all yours… for now," the wizard said to Tin-man, his gaze lingering on me for a moment before he turned away. "Keep an eye on him. I'll be in touch." A circular spatial rift shimmered open behind him, revealing the interior of what looked like some kind of temple.
Ironman nodded, acknowledging the words as the wizard stepped through. The edge of his cape lifted on its own, curling briefly as if it had a life of its own, before settling back into place.
I blinked, taken aback. It couldn't really… wave at me, could it? Might as well have been just my imagination.
"Call me Tony," he said, snapping me out of my daze as the portal closed behind him. He gave me a look, gesturing toward the elevator as if expecting me to reciprocate some introduction.
I held back. There was no need to give him a name—Captain Marvel had already done the job.
"Let's go meet the team," he said, and without pressing me for a response, we both stepped into the elevator that should take us to the upper levels.
The silence In the elevator was quite unsettling, awkward even, as we both stared ahead, waiting for the cart to reach the designated floor.
Until Tony broke it with a question that caught me completely off guard. "So… uh, by any chance were you assigned some kind of mission by King Solomon the Wise?"
I blinked. That wasn't the question I was expecting. I thought we'd start with time travel, or how I ended up here. Not… King Solomon.
"What do you mean?" I asked, letting the confusion show plainly on my face.
"I don't know," he said casually, as if it were no big deal. "Maybe some prophecy about you saving the world from a great evil. Something along those lines."
I fixed my eyes on him, letting my gaze linger. "No… nothing like that. I haven't heard anything about a prophecy."
"Okay," he said, shrugging it off.
"Are you aware of any such prophecy?" I asked, curiosity slipping out despite myself.
"Nah, not at all. Forget I even mentioned it," he replied.
Even if I tried to forget it, I knew I couldn't. A question like that doesn't just appear out of nowhere.
The elevator hummed to a stop, and the doors slid open to reveal a spacious floor I assumed was some kind of lounge.
Across the room, the others were seated, laughing and holding drink bottles like it was a night for team bonding over alcohol.
Their chatter froze the moment they spotted Tony and me. All eyes turned as attention fixed on us.
"Meet… the Avengers."