6 | NICK FURY

Back at the hotel, everyone was tweeting, texting, streaming everything about the events they had just witnessed. The news was calling the hero Mysterio which meant mysterious. Valdís was intently watching the news on the tv while Peter was on the phone talking to his Aunt May, telling her that he was fine. Val was sure that the new broadcaster was simply calling the hero the mysterious superhero, but, she quite liked referring to the man as Mysterio. It had a ring to it.

Peter walked over to join Val in watching the news. "So, are we gonna try and track down Mysterio?" Val asked Peter, her adrenaline was still pumping so she seemed hyper about the whole superhero thing again.

"Who's Mysterio?" Peter bunched up his nose in distaste at the name.

"That's what the journalists are calling that other guy, mysterio. I think it means mysterious or something." Val shrugged.

"No, no, no, no. We are on vacation, Val. We aren't going to be tracking down anyone. Leave all this mess to the Avengers." Peter crosses his arms.

Val was quiet for a moment, then she opened her mouth to begin speaking again. "Um... we are the Avengers."

"You just had to say it... didn't you?" Peter grumbled, not wanting to accept the huge responsibility that came with being an Avenger. "We are not Avengers while on a school trip."

"You certainly thought you were one when you jumped out of that bus in New York five years ago to go fight aliens coming out of the sky." Val cocked her head at him, reminding him that not too long ago he, too, wanted to be a full time hero. Now, suddenly, he wanted to be a normal teenager? Peter rolled his eyes, then took a seat next to her. "So Paris tomorrow. We're going to the Eiffel Tower. Should be great." Peter let out a shaky laugh.

"Yeah, yeah." Val waved him off as she continued to watch the television— her eyes glued and unblinking. Peter took a deep breath and fumbled his thumbs in his lap. He was nervous about giving her the ring. He wasn't exactly sure if it was the right timing to give her such a commitment. Especially after everything she had lost.

* * *

"So what are you two going to do about the water monster?" Ned asked Peter and Val once everyone was heading back to their rooms for the evening. Val, of course, snuck with Ned and Peter's to walk to their room to chat some more since talking with Betty, her roommate while they were in Venice, didn't seem like so much fun.

"Nothing! It's dead. And, besides, that Mysterio guy is all over him." Peter shrugged, sticking his toothbrush in his mouth— since he was about to brush his teeth once they arrived in the room— as they walked down the hall toward their room.

"That's nice." Ned sarcastically remarked. The moment the three of them stepped foot into Peter and Ned's hotel room, a quiet dart shot through the air and into Ned's neck. It instantly knocked him out. Fortunately, when he collapsed, he fell onto the couch in the room.

Val and Peter instinctively shot their heads around, prepared to defend themselves from whoever had just shot Ned. Val spotted the face of Nick Fury in the dim lighting of the room. "You two are very hard to contact." Nick's deep voice resonated into the room, sending fearful chills down both Peter and Val's backs.

Peter's jaw dropped and he quickly pulled out his blue toothbrush from his mouth. "You're Nick Fury. Y-You just shot Ned." Peter pointed to his friend, in shock at the event that just occurred. Although he was surprised, his voice was very flat and unemotional.

"It's just a mild tranquilizer. He'll be alright... so good to finally meet you two! Spider-Man and Inferno! In the living flesh. You've got quite the legacy, Valdís. Captain America as your father, Captain Chronos as your mother. I saw you two at the funeral, but I didn't think it was a good time to exchange numbers." Nick nodded, respectfully at Val since it was the funeral of her mother and close mentor, Tony Stark, that he was mentioning.

"I've heard so much about you." Val's mouth was agape. She never thought she'd ever see Nick Fury. He was a man that found you. And in order for him to come looking for you, you had to be of the upmost importance.

"Yes, from your parents, I suppose. I tried to bring you here, but, your boyfriend avoided me and, now, you're here. What a coincidence." Nick passive aggressively jabbed Peter.

Val turned to glare at Peter. "You ghosted Nick Fury?!" She whisper-yelled at him, slapping his arm.

"I-I-" Peter tried to find the words to make up an excuse or an apology, but he couldn't. Luckily, Val had already moved on to continue her conversation with Fury. "Was this a coincidence?" She asked him.

"I used to know, everything. Then I come back five years later and now I know nothing. No intel. No team. And a high school kid is dodging my calls." Nick shot daggers at Peter. He was clearly offended by Peter's action.

"Here's what I do know," Nick pulled a miniature projector from his pocket and placed it on the side table then it began projecting images related to what he was speaking of, "a week ago, a village in Mexico was wiped out by a cyclone. Witnesses say that cyclone had a face. Three days later, a similar event in Morocco. A village was—" Nick was interrupted by a knock coming from Peter's door.

Nick, from his corner he was still sitting discretely in, pointed his dart gun toward the doorway if anyone were to enter and see him in the room. It was Peter and Val's teacher, Mr. Harrington. "Just making the roun— um, Val, I do recall informing all students that girls are not allowed in boys' bedrooms and vice versa!" The teacher patronized her.

Val slowly looked over at Nick, hoping that he'd catch her message to shoot him. But Peter stopped that from happening by throwing his arm over Val's shoulder and giving her a squeeze. "We were just talking about the events that happened today. It really scared us all. Just offering mutual support is all." Peter smiled falsely at their teacher.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Aright then, just keep the door at least 3 inches open." The teacher apologized, then closed the door, leaving it creaked open.

Val groaned once the teacher left, "you should've just let Mr. Fury shoot him." She shook her head.

Nick continued, but this time rose his voice so that they'd listen. "A village was destroyed by what may well be another world threatening force, that's why it's imperative you help me." Fury reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a rectangular box, then handed it to Peter. "Stark left these for you."

Peter cautiously opened it and saw a pair of sunglasses. "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. Stark said you wouldn't get that, because it's not a Star Wars reference." Nick snorted, laughing at Peter. "Come on, you two. We've got some things to discuss." Nick stood up to leave the hotel.

* * *

Nick took the two to a secret base underground somewhere in Venice. Peter and Val had their disguises on so that they couldn't be recognized as themselves out in public during the night. Upon arrival at the base, they were greeted by Maria Hill, Dmitri, and Mr. Beck. All very intimidating looking agents that seemed to work for or with Nick Fury. Peter and Val recognized Beck as Mysterio, as Val had named him, and unconsciously called him that, too. "Mysterio?" Peter called out as he recognized Mr. Beck.

"What?" Beck knitted his brows together.

"Doesn't matter. It's just what my friends' been calling you." Peter breathed out, taking in his elaborate costume.

"Well, you can call me Quentin," Quentin shook both Peter and Val's hands, "you two handled yourself well out there today. I saw what you did with the fire. And you with the tower. We could use someone like you on my world." Quentin sighed, somberly.

"Thanks— I'm sorry? Your world?" Peter was taken aback by his words.

"Mr. Beck is from Earth. Just not yours." Nick answered him.

"There are multiple realities, Peter. This is Earth dimension 616. I'm from Earth 833." Quentin clarified for Fury.

Peter took excited steps up to Quentin. "I'm sorry... are you saying there is a multiverse? Because I thought that was just theoretical. I mean, that completely changes how we understand the initial singularity. We're talking about an eternal inflation system and how does that even work with all the quantum— this is insane!" Peter nerded out for a bit. Maria and Nick looked at him like he was a weirdo, Quentin smiled upon him proudly for being so intelligent and Val's face was stoic. She was used to hearing him fangirling over science things, plus she understood everything that he was saying so it wasn't like she was confused or impressed by this information.

"S-sorry." Peter shrugged. "It's really cool.."

"Don't ever apologize for being the smartest one in the room." Quentin seemed like a proud father to Peter as he was smiling so genuinely at him.

"Anyway," Maria put their conversation back on track, and projected an image of the universe in the room.

"They were born in stable orbits in black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements. Air. Water. Fire. Earth. The science division had a technical name. We just called them elementals." Quentin began to explain what exactly was that water beast they had saw.

"Versions of them exists across mythologies." Maria added.

"Turns out, the myths are real." Quentin sighed.

"Like Thor. Thor was a myth. And now, I study him in my physics class." Peter made the connection between myths and real life.

"I'm sorry," Val interjected, waving her hand in the air, "I don't know if you met her or if she exists in your alternate universe, but, I know this woman named Catalina da Silva. And she's like this super badass superhero, married to T'Challa, close friend to the recently fallen Tony Stark— anyway, she basically is the keeper of one of Earth's elements. Her element is water. There are three other people that control the other elements, but we don't know who they are yet. Why don't you ask them to help fight and take down these elementals you talk about? They'd probably take care of the problem real quick."

"If we had known about Catalina sooner, we would've called her. But I'm not sure water will help fight the rest of these elements. In my universe I've defeated all of them, but one." Quentin looked sadly down at the floor. Val was quite skeptical of his reply.

"The elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates. Our satellites confirm it. Thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three. There is only one let. Fire." Nick added.

"The strongest of them all. The one that destroyed my earth. It's the one that took my family," Quentin admitted, sadly. Suddenly, Val felt for him. That hit close to home. A villain sweeping in and taking the lives of their family was something the two had in common. "That's why we've called you hear, Inferno. Most people will say you can't fight fire with fire, but in this case we think it'll help our cause."

"It'll be in Prague in approximately 48 hours." Maria announced.

"We have one mission. Kill it. And you two are coming with us." Nick stated, sternly.

"I'm sorry, did you say Prague? Mr. Fury, this all seems big time, you know, huge superhero kind of stuff. And, I'm just the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. We're both just local heroes. We stop robbers and illegal practices. Not this stuff." Peter told Fury in a shaky voice, afraid of the backlash he'd get.

"Bitch please, you've been to space." Nick scoffed.

"I know but that was an accident, sir. Come on, there's got to be someone else you can use. What about Thor?" Peter suggested.

"Off world."
"Doctor Strange?"
"Unavailable."
"Captain Marvel?"
"Don't invoke her name."

"Listen, I really wanna help, I do. But, if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she's gonna kill me. And if I'm seen like this," Peter pointed to his suit, "after the Washington monument, my whole class will figure out who I am and then the whole world will figure out who I am. And I'm done." He sighed.

"Okay, I understand." Fury seemed pissed, but he wasn't outwardly expressing it. His stoic expression and calm voice was telling enough. "Won't you get back before your teachers miss you and you become suspicious. And you, Valdís? Does his words represent how you feel, too?" Fury asked her.

Val looked over at Peter, then back at Fury. "As close as I get to becoming discovered, I don't plan on having the whole world know exactly who I am just yet. So, yes sir. I feel the same way." Val nodded at him.

"Dmitri, why don't you take these two back to their hotel?" Fury barked at his worker, who them led the two back to their hotel.