"And let that be a lesson to you for picking on innocent..." Billy had been in the middle of saying, his loot for the evening's Fortnite session tucked under his arms and the crushed gun in his hand, with his attention fixed ahead at the burglars, only to blink and suddenly find himself standing in the middle of... a lawn?
"...cashiers."
His hand lowered, the gun going to his hip, as his eyes whipped around the space around him. It looked vaguely like some of the campuses they'd seen when they'd gone on facility tours with Mary during the spring. "Did I teleport to Harvard?" He asked no one in particular. As he was pivoting, rather animatedly like, eyes focusing in on each building, he didn't notice the paper airplane that came flying from behind to hit in the back of the head. "What the..." he muttered, hand coming up to rub the spot where the airplane had hit and turning to look at it.
He shifted his doritos and soda into the crook of the same arm, letting his thumb slip through the trigger guard of the gun, so he could scooped up the airplane easily before proceeding to unfold it and begin reading. Without much thought, he began walking ahead, with his eyes fixed down at the paper.
"What?"
Lifting his eyes from the paper, he glanced up at the horizon and that was when he saw it. A castle in the distance. He blinked. "Holy shit! HOLY SHIT!" He let out a loud laugh. Was that what he thought it was.
It had to be.
He rushed forward, zigging and zagging around fountains and bushes and trees, when finally he spotted someone in the distance. "Excuse me! Excuse me, Sir!" He didn't intend to but wanting desperately to have answers, he burst forward, a vibrant red blur that reached the man in milliseconds before coming to a skidding halt. He shuffled the unfolded airplane to the hand that was holding the gun, looking far too loaded up by this point with junk, before pointing off towards the Castle. "Hello, hi, yes. Tell me...is this Walt Disney World!?"
Ever since the housing situation got an upgrade, Tony had been crashing in his room instead of the couch in the lab. When he made it home from the hedgewitches’ pool party after dawn, he found a scale model of the Stark Expo from when he was a kid taking up the entirety of his bed. Instead of going to sleep, he had spent the next several hours studying the thing and pouring over the contents of his father’s old storage container. It was no coincidence that the box, the family butler, and now the model had turned up in this place. Derleth was always testing them. Now he just needed to figure out what the answer was.
The coffee in the cafeteria wasn’t cutting it, so Tony had taken a breather to recaffeinate and get a bite to eat. Physically exhausted and mentally preoccupied, Tony squinted at the red blur that was now a person standing in front of him. “Fandral?” he asked, slightly confused by the Asgardian’s apparent confusion. And new duds. Man, this guy apparently loved spandex. Wait, wasn’t he a blond?
"Fandral?" Billy blinked. Was that the name of a place in Disney World? He didn't think it was but he hadn't exactly been lucky enough to visit before. Though, now that the thought was in his head, he bet he could have definitely teleported there if he wanted to. He'd need to table that idea to discuss with Freddy when he got home. They could ration some of the lair money and go with the whole family.
He bet Darla would love Space Mountain. He bet he'd love Space Mountain.
"Sorry, I don't know what Fandral is. Is that a town near Orlando? Or...is this not Orlando?" He supposed this could be Disney Land. That would be exciting too.
Tony was taking a better look at the guy when he noticed the paper airplane from the magical welcome wagon, as well as the crushed gun, which didn’t phase him in the slightest. He was more curious about the snacks and the outfit. Derleth apparently enjoyed pulling in people with gear. And similar faces. “Forget about it,” he replied dismissively. “You’re in Orlando, for all intents and purposes. Where were you before?”
"Right." Billy wasn't exactly intending to forget about it. He put the word away for processing later. His grin widened when the other man confirmed his suspicions. "Yes!" Right, so, he definitely wasn't responsible for teleporting himself here, which made sense given he'd not been thinking about Mickey Mouse during the robbery, but that seemed like a win to him. The letter and its contents were, temporarily at least, forgotten. But the question posed to him drew his attention back, "Oh. Right! Philadelphia." He gave a firm nod. "Do you...recognize me?" He didn't know how far his fame extended. He wasn't exactly on the level of Superman just yet.
Tony had needed a break, and this was proving to be a diverting coffee run. As costumed figures went, this guy seemed to be as antsy as Loki was melodramatic. “Should I?” Tony’s eyes looked tired, but the corners of his mouth were turned up in the hint of a smile.
"I reckon if you aren't local than probably not." No big deal. Billy didn't need the recognition. He shuffled his belongings just enough to quickly extend a hand towards the other man. "Mr. Philadelphia or Red Cyclone. Those are the common ones."
Tony made a face, but he still shook the other man’s hand. “Please tell me you’re still workshopping those.” Not that his own name was highly original. But it did have that heavy metal bent to it. And at least it was better than Captain America.
"It's what Channel 5 leans towards," he shrugged. He and Freddy had been trying to find something that felt right for over a year but there still wasn't anything quite settled. The news outlets had latched onto those two and most people knew what it meant by now.
Retracting his hand, he glanced over to the paper from the airplane for a second, then back to the other man. "And you? What was your name?"
“Tony Stark,” he replied. “Different universe.” Everything pointed to that conclusion anyway. He motioned toward the paper airplane. “You read that yet?” Tony wasn’t exactly the best candidate for welcoming newcomers, but he’d done alright with Jarvis. At least there wouldn’t be the culture shock to contend with.
Billy didn't recognize the name but his immediate thought wasn't that Tony was indicating they were from different universes. He took it to mean that they were in a different universe and that lined up with what the paper airplane had said. Pocket dimension, wasn't it? "Yeah. No one really knows what is going on? Don't be a dick. Replace what you take." He hesitated for a moment before lifting it to skim over again before he looked back to Tony, "White void or new world. That means this..." He gestured around them and off towards the Castle in the distance, "...is going to change?"
Tony nodded, “You’ve got four days to get your Disney on. Then it’s back to the void.” His eyes landed on the mangled gun again. “So what’s your deal? Glorified crime stopper?” For coming from a time in his world without caped crusaders, Tony had adjusted to the idea relatively easily. The world had gotten weird. He was rolling with it.
"Four days. I can work with four days." It was more than he'd ever dreamed of having before. The only disappointment was not being able to experience it with the others. He pushed this thought aside, his brows coming together in confusion to Tony's statement, before he remembered his loot of snacks and the handgun. "Yeah. More or less." He gave a shrug of his shoulders.
“Well, Mr. Philadelphia, you might wanna lose the gun.” Tony gave him another once-over. “But keep the suit, you’ll fit right in.” If it sounded like he was trying to get rid of Billy, he was. Hot, hungry, and tired, he wanted to finish his snack run and get back to his lab.
"Oh, right!" He didn't seem to take any offense to the statement about his costume. He bent down for a moment, setting everything but the gun down on the ground, before proceeding to place the gun between both of his palms. With a few twists, he proceeded to make what had been once recognizable as a firearm become something more akin to a metal ball. He glanced around for a second, as if looking for a trash can, before looking back to Tony. "Know where I can toss this?"
Tony’s sunglasses slipped down along the bridge of his nose as he watched Billy make quick work of the gun like it was made out of paper. Well okay then. He tapped his fist into his left hand as if he were wearing a baseball glove. “Right here, big guy.” He held up his hands to catch the metal ball.
Billy gave him a look as if that wasn't the best idea. Thankfully, he'd gotten a better handle on his strength as Shazam over the past year. Very carefully, he tossed it underhand to Tony and really hoped it didn't collide into him with too much force.
His hand stung a little, but not so much that Tony couldn’t brush it off. He tossed the ball into the air and caught it again. “Neat trick.” The stunt had impressed him, and he was tempted to stick around to see what else the guy could do. Maybe some other time. “Thanks for the paperweight.”
"Any time. Just didn't want it falling into the wrong hands, you know?" Of course, for all he knew, maybe Tony could put it back into proper shape. He doubted it though. He lifted his hand, waving off to the side, "Thanks for your help!" He called off after him before looking down at his snacks. He quickly scooped them up and then in a flash of a red blur, rushed off towards the castle, figuring he'd get a locker for his stuff.