✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

"IT'S ALIENS. IT HAS TO BE."

Ned announced once they were all back at the hotel, gathered up in the lobby as they listened to the news reports and the sirens of the police patrolling though the canals around the area.

"BuzzFeed says there's a sailor named Morris Bench who was exposed to an experimental underwater generator and got hydro powers," Flash said as he read out from his phone.

"Yeah, you should definitely believe everything you read on the Internet," MJ told him from her spot on the stairs.

"Spider-Man could take him," Flash protested.

"Nah. Blue Dame would definitely win against him," Betty defended. "Have you heard how she nearly took down Thanos on her own?"

(Y/N), who was leaning on the railing on the stairs, hid her grin behind the palm of her hand at the comment, though the slightest mention of the titan's name made her remember that day all over again.

"What do you think it is?" Mr. Harrington asked his colleague, looking at the screen.

"You know, being a man of science. . .witches," Mr. Dell confessed in a certain tone.

"Who is that guy?" Betty questioned out loud as all watched the mysterious man with the bowl on his head on the screen.

"He's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one," Brad said.

"He's all right. He's no Spider-Man," Flash rolled his eyes with a scoff.

"What is it with you and Spider-Man? Blue Dame is definitely better than him," MJ protested.

Flash snapped his head in her direction. "Absolutely not. He's just awesome, okay? He protects the neighborhood and he's inspiring. He inspires me to be a better man."

Peter approached the group after talking to May on the phone and joined (Y/N)'s side with crossed arms, overhearing the last part of the conversation before Flash looked at him.

"What's up, dickwad? Thought you drowned."

"So much for being a better man, Flash," (Y/N) said with sarcasm dripping on her voice.

Everyone's attention was then pulled back into the TV, where the reporter talked on the latest news about the masked man seen on the canals the same afternoon, all listening closely to what the woman had to say.

"Sounds like his name's Mysterio," Brad turned to the group.

"'L'uomo del misterio' is Italian for 'man of mystery'," MJ pointed out. "They don't actually know who he is."

"Mysterio," Ned said with a nod.

"Cool name," he and Betty mumbled at the same time, and the couple turned to look at each other with heart eyes. "Babe."

(Y/N) pushed herself up from her place at the railing and turned her attention towards Peter, who was standing still and not offering anything to the conversation. Since the two of them were in first row when the attack took place, they didn't have much to say about it.

Peter noticed that she was now facing him and straightened his posture, not before he glanced Brad from the corner of his eye to make sure he wasn't looking at her the same way as the plane.

"Guess what?" (Y/N) said in a low tone, making sure that he was the only one that could hear her. "I officially have one more fan than you do."

Peter cleared his throat to utter out an answer. "Really?"

"Mmm-hmm," she nodded. "I'm gaining popularity, bug boy. You should step up your game."

"I'll take note on that — yeah," Peter replied with a cough to cover the stutter in his voice and crossed his arms once again.

Silence filled the two when (Y/N) stared ahead towards the TV, watching more of the news that covered the attack as Peter debated inside his own head about saying something else to her.

"So, Paris tomorrow," Peter spoke up. "Go to the Eiffel Tower. Should be great."

"I know," (Y/N) looked back at him. "Remember when I was eight, and I used to have a huge obsession about the Eiffel Tower?"

"Yeah," Peter recalled the memory with a smile that he had to cover by looking at his feet.

"Well, a part of that still lives in me, so that's why I've been really looking forward to it on the trip," (Y/N) gave him a nose scrunched smile.

Peter grinned internally when he realized that he was succeeding at the entire plan he had prepared for the trip. He wanted it to go down smoothly just as he had it in mind, and it seemed to be working out for him. If (Y/N) already said she was excited for it, Peter found himself ecstatic for tomorrow.

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

AFTER DINNER, the entire class was rushed back to their respective rooms for the night, so (Y/N) joined her bedroom with MJ by her side while Peter stayed with Ned, the latter following behind the other to question about the recent attack.

"What are you gonna do about the water monster?" Ned asked.

"Nothing," Peter shrugged off with a casual look. "It's dead. Besides, that Mysterio guy's all over it."

He began walking back to the room with Ned trailing after him, all while Peter was too distracted in talking to his friend as he entered it.

"Look, I just wanna spend some time with (Y/N). We were talking about Paris, and I think I really have a chance with her."

"That's nice," Ned responded. "It reminds me of when Betty and I first fell in love. I had just finished my fruit cobbler, right, and — "

A tranquilizer dart landed on Ned's neck and his eyes rolled back instantly, falling back to the couch on his back first while Peter turned towards the direction of the flying dart, the toothbrush hanging from between his teeth.

A shadow he knew well sat in the corner with a gun in hand. "You're a very difficult person to contact, Spider-Man."

"You're Nick Fury," Peter's eyes were wide. "And you just shot Ned."

"It's a mild tranquilizer. He'll be all right," Fury said and he planned the gun on his thigh, looking at the boy. "So good to finally meet you."

"I saw you at the funeral, but I didn't think that was a good time to exchange numbers."

"No, that would've been really inappropriate," Peter stated.

"That's what I just said."

"Right."

"The important thing is, you and your friend are here. I tried to bring you here. You avoided me, and now you're here," Fury continued. "What a coincidence."

"Wait. Was this a coincidence?"

"I used to know everything. Then I come back five years later, and now I know nothing," Fury told him with an emotionless face, but the anger that filled his voice was recognizable. "No intel, no team. And two high school kids are dodging my calls."

"Here's what I do know," Fury placed a device in the table and a projection of the planet displayed on the center. "A week ago, a village in Mexico was wiped out by a cyclone. Witnesses say that cyclone had a face."

Ned's loud snore cut him off, and the two other people in the room turned to look at him peacefully snoring in the couch. His chest moving up and down as he breathed in and out.

"Three days later, a similar event in Morocco," Fury said. "A village was — "

Someone knocking on the door interrupted this time, and Mr. Harrington leaned on the door frame to check on the teens, not noticing the other presence in the room.

"Just making the rounds," he said. "See if anyone needs any counseling after today's traumatic events."

"No, we'll be okay. We're fine. Thank you."

"Great, because I'm not qualified to actually — Oh, he's passed out," Mr. Harrington looked back to see Ned sleeping loudly on the couch. "I'm not really qualified to do it anyway, so good night."

He closed the door behind him and Peter let out a breath he was holding out of nervousness, fixing his eyes on Fury that was slowly loosing his patience.

"That was my teacher. Sorry about that. You were saying?"

"A village was destroyed by what may well be another world-threatening — "

Another knock on the door echoed through the room and Betty's familiar voice could be heard from the other side of it, desperately knocking on it.

"Babe, you still awake?" she asked. "You're not answering any of my texts."

"Um. . .he's asleep, Betty," Peter informed without opening the door.

"Oh, already?"

"Mm-hm. Yeah."

"Okay."

Her footsteps grew fainter as she stepped away from the door and Fury finally saw this as an opportunity to speak once again without any interruptions, that was until someone else opened the door, catching both with surprise.

"Hey, Pete, have you — "

(Y/N) stepped into the room and she nearly missed the dart that was fired directly at her neck, grabbing it with blue mist and throwing it to the side to redirect it at the person who had fired it, preparing herself to attack until she realized who it was.

"Oh, my God," she breathed out. "Seriously?"

"Nice to see you've joined us, Blue Dame," Fury spoke up and she resisted the urge to let out an annoyed huff.

This was the last thing she wanted at the moment, and the man she least wanted to see was now standing right in front of her. (Y/N) wanted to yell out in frustration.

"You've been avoiding my calls," Fury crossed his arms at her.

"That was the point, glad you caught up," (Y/N) replied back with a sarcastic grin, being too tired to put up a nice face.

Fury exhaled a long breath to retain his anger but seemed to shake his head in disapproval at her words, like he had already put up with this kind of behavior before. All Peter could do was watch in astonishment at (Y/N)'s reply.

Fury grabbed the device from the table and stood up. "Suit up. The two of you."

✧─── ･ ｡ﾟ★: *.✦ .* :★. ───✧

ON THE QUIET night of the city, Fury drove a small boat across one of the canals that directed him towards the hideout he was guiding (Y/N) and Peter to, both already wearing their own suits as they sailed through the dark.

"Stark left these for you," Fury turned back to face the two and handed each one of them a respective box.

"Really?"

(Y/N) carefully took hers with both of her hands and opened it to see a golden bracelet decorated with small silver lines around it, a small arc reactor design in the middle of it and she found herself smiling at the gift.

In Peter's case, he opened it to see a pair of glasses with a light blue shade, a well known and familiar design he had seen when he worked with Tony all those years ago.

"'Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'," Fury quoted out. "Stark said you wouldn't get that because it's not a Star Wars reference."

"It's Shakespeare," (Y/N) mumbled out when she recognized the phrase.

"But he did mention you about knowing fully well what he meant," Fury continued, his eyes fixed on the young girl as he said it.

If (Y/N) hadn't been quiet when he said that, she would've missed the snort that came out of Fury's mouth after he said that, shaking her head as she took in the compliment.

The boat guided them over to an underground area, hidden from the civilians' view to avoid any suspicion. Fury led Peter and (Y/N) deeper into the hideout and she was able to look around her as walked into the place, the paint on the walls already washing off because of the humidity.

"You can loose the mask. Everyone here has seen you without it," Fury explained. "You'd only be feigning anonymity and breathing through leather and spandex for no good reason."

(Y/N) removed the mask out of her eyes and Peter did the same, his brown curls popping out in every direction like they always did when he took off the mask from his suit.

"Come on."

Fury guided them into the central room, where several other people along with weapons, computers and different machinery were gathered around the rooms of the hideout and on tables, an older woman leaning over one of the desks looking up at the sound of her boss's voice approaching.

"Over there, we have Maria Hill," Fury presented and the woman only flashed the two a look. "That is Dimitri."

The man, now known as Dimitri, reloaded his gun as he locked eyes with the young boy. An intimidating look was all he expressed behind his face, already used to loading back his guns without even glancing at them. All (Y/N) could do was take a deep breath and keep walking forward into the room.

"And this is Mr. Beck."

(Y/N) stopped in her tracks when she recognized the velvet red cape she had seen hours ago standing a few feet away from her. The man, who's name was Beck, looked back at the sound of his name and the rest of his suit was visible, the gold and green armor shining in the light.

"Mysterio?" both (Y/N) and Peter called out.

Mr. Beck had brown hair and a beard of the same shade of color, the cooled expression on his face completely changing into a deep frown when he heard the strange name they'd called him.

"What?" he asked.

"Doesn't matter," Peter said. "It's just what our friends have been calling you."

Mr. Beck took a step forward and extended his hand for a formal greeting. "Well, you can call me Quentin."

(Y/N) smiled politely at him but it couldn't quite reach her eyes when she swore she felt Quentin's eyes linger on her form longer than she had anticipated.

"You two handled yourselves well out there today," Quentin continued. "I saw what you did with the monster and the tower. We could use some people like you on my world."

Quentin turned on his heel and walked away, and (Y/N) only nodded at his words until she fully processed what he had said.

Peter's eyebrows furrowed at this and decided to speak up. "I'm sorry. Your world?"

"Mr. Beck is from Earth," Fury stood from his chair and joined Quentin on the table in the middle of the room. "Just not yours."

(Y/N) frowned when she heard Fury say 'yours' instead of 'ours', but decided to not overthink it any further, thinking she was just overreacting and that it would cause more conflict.

"There are multiple realities," Beck announced loudly. "This is Earth Dimension 616. I'm from Earth 833."

"Hold up," (Y/N) wanted to make sure she'd heard him right. "You're trying to say there's a multiverse?"

"It's crazy, because I thought that was just theoretical. I mean, that completely changed how we understand the initial singularity," Peter rambled after her.

"Exactly, you're talking about an eternal inflation system — "

"She's right, how does that even work with all the quantum — " Peter added. "It's insane."

(Y/N) saw how Fury and Hill were glancing at them with a look she didn't quite comprehend, but her words dried out on her throat.

"Sorry. It's really cool," Peter apologized.

"Don't ever apologize for being the smartest people in the room," Quentin offered advice.

"Anyway," Hill cleared her throat and pressed a key on the computer, and the table where they were all leaning on lightened up and showed an hologram of a black hole.

Quentin straightened his posture and pointed at the hologram in front of him. "They were born in stable orbits within black holes. Creatures formed from the primary elements: Air, water, fire, earth. The Science Division had a technical name. We just called them Elementals."

"Versions of them exist across our mythologies," Hill stated with crossed arms.

"Turns out myths are real."

"Like Thor," Peter spoke up.

"Or Loki," (Y/N) said with a shrug. "I though they were myths and now we study Thor in our physics class."

"These myths are threats," Fury moved from his spot besides Hill and sat in one of the chairs.

"They first materialized on my Earth many years ago," Quentin explained. "We mobilized and fought them; but with each battle, they grew, got stronger. I was part of the last battalion left trying to stop them. All we did was delay the inevitable."

The hologram on the table showed how a red and orange glow covered the entire globe inside itself like a dark blanket, destroying everything in its path. The sad look on Quentin's face was enough to say what had happened on that battle.

"The Elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates," Hill said. "Our satellites confirm it."

"Thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three," Fury told them. "There's only one left: Fire."

The strongest of them all. The one that destroyed my Earth," Quentin confessed with a solemn tone. "It's the one that took my family."

(Y/N) looked down and saw how he was twisting the wedding band on his finger out of instinct, and she returned her gaze back to his face to offer a quiet, "I'm sorry."

Hill continued. "And it will be in Prague in approximately 48 hours."

"We have one mission: Kill it," Fury moved on his chair to look directly at the teens. "And you're coming with us."

"No, wait," (Y/N) let out a dry laugh and looked back towards the hologram on the table to confirm if she had heard correctly.

"I'm sorry, did you say Prague?" Peter glanced between Fury and Hill. "Mr. Fury, this all seems like big time, you know, huge superhero kind of stuff."

"Yeah," (Y/N) intervened. "I'm — We're not ready for that huge step. It sounds like something for the mayor league."

"Bitch, please. You've been to space."

"I know, but that was an accident," Peter agreed, standing right beside (Y/N) to back her up, not wanting his plan on the trip to fail. "Come on, sir. There's got to be someone else you can use."

"What about Thor?" (Y/N) questioned.

Fury answered automatically. "Off-world."

"Okay, um, Doctor Strange," Peter instantly regretted it, wincing at the look on (Y/N)'s face.

"Unavailable," Hill responded this time.

(Y/N) scoffed under her breath. "News to me."

She then snapped her fingers when another thought came to her head and looked back at Fury. "What about Captain Marvel?"

"Don't invoke her name."

"Sir, look, I wanna help, I do. But if my aunt finds out I left my class trip, she's gonna kill me," Peter began. "And if I'm seen like this in Europe after the Washington Monument, my whole class will figure out who we are and. . .then the whole world will figure it out and we're done."

"Okay," Fury nodded slowly. "I understand."

(Y/N) looked at Peter with a frown and she moved back to glance at him, thinking he was playing a game with the two of them. "Excuse me?"

"Why don't you get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious," Fury flashed them a thin smile. "Dimitri."

"Take them back to the hotel, please."

"Yes," Dimitri left his spot on his chair and nodded at the order of his boss.

"I know you have something under your sleeve at the moment, but thank you nonetheless, Fury," (Y/N) pointed at him accusingly before walking away from him, missing the way Fury's lips quirked up at her words.

"And, uh, good luck," Peter replied.

The two began to follow down the path that Dimitri had disappeared into and nodded in Quentin's direction, who seemed entertained because of it.

"See you, kids."