Billy had never been shy about who he was. He never hid it, he didn't even know how to start to hide who he was, which was how Billy often ended up locked in lockers or shoved into janitor's closet, or dunked into a basketball hoop. Yeah. High school had been fun. But joining the Young Avengers, meeting Teddy, Kate, Tommy, and Eli, even Nate and Cassie and Jonas no matter how sad that story had ended, had helped Billy so much. Standing up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves? Fighting crime? Figuring out his magic powers? All of that made every minute crammed into school equipment worth it.
Not that this stuff wasn't scary, of course. His Bubbe Rose, Billy's great-grandmother, even to this day couldn't talk about her sister and brother she'd lost in the 'old country' because of their religion. Billy knew about discrimination and fear, and what happened when those two combined. Case in point, the destroyed Crow Haven Corner and Kaitlyn, who was missing. Billy didn't know her personally, but all of the magic users at least knew who each other were, it seemed like. Magic was something you could sense. He hadn't availed himself much of Crow Haven, because Billy's magic didn't need the items in there, but he still felt like he needed to help, to stand with his fellow magic users.
He stepped into the store, broken glass cracking under Billy's feet and he flinched at the destruction. The hate. "Hey," he called out, waving. "God, what a mess."