"You can lose the mask, everyone that's here has seen you without it- you'd only be feigning anonymity and breathing through Spandex for no good reason." Fury told Peter as they rounded the corner of the grotto they'd parked the boat in. It couldn't have been natural- there was a wide swath of pavement to walk on, and they were entering a larger room, covered by computers and intel equipment.
"But you-" he rounded on Katya, "I told you to suit up, not accessorize."
Katya pulled the nanotech pendant from underneath her shirt and, sending an apologetic glance to Peter- she'd explain to him later, which he accepted- slapped it to her chest, where her own suit unfolded around her like a dangerous glove. Fury nodded his head to the side a bit, as if impressed, and continued leading them down the corridor once Peter had taken his mask off.
"Over there, we have Maria Hill-" he gestured towards a woman whose dark hair was in a tight bun, clacking away at one of the standing computers. She seemed to be reading some type of coordinates.
"And that-" Fury gestured towards a much burlier man, who held a machine gun in his hands that he cocked noisily for literally no reason, unless he was trying to be threatening-"Is Dmitri, and this-" He gestured towards the other side of the room that they were quickly approaching where a familiar armored figure with a cape stood with his back to them. "Is Mr. Beck."
Mr. Beck turned around upon hearing his name, and Katya could hear Peter let out, "Mysterio?"
Beck raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Nothing-" Peter waved it off, "It's just what some of our friends are calling you." He was without his glass orb head, and was just a regular man.
"Well, you can call me Quentin," he walked within handshake distance and did so, first clapping hands with Peter and then with Katya. Katya set her jaw as she noticed he'd been much more forceful with Peter's hand than with her, and made sure to keep her grip steady. .
"You handled yourself really well out there today. I saw what you did with the tower," Quentin told Peter, barely glancing in Katya's direction- though, she reasoned, that was fair, as she hadn't done anything. "We could use someone like you in my World.'
"Thanks." Peter breathed.
"I'm sorry-" Katya interrupted- she'd gotten a weird feeling from this guy from the start. "'Your' World?"
"Mr. Beck is from Earth." Fury cut her off- or it felt like he did, even though she wasn't sure if she had anything else to say- "Just not yours."
"There are multiple realities." Mr. Beck- Beck-Quentin- whatever- continued to explain for Fury, "This is Earth, dimension 616. I'm from Earth 833."
Peter and Katya looked at eachother excitedly. What?!
"Wait, you're saying there's a multiverse?!" Peter's voice was low with excitement. "Cause I thought that was just theoretical, I mean-" He glanced to Katya.
"-That completely changes how we understand initial singularity-" she still didn't like this Beck Quentin guy but this was so cool-
"We're talking about an internal inflation system-"
"-But how does that even work with all the quantum-"
"-It's insane!"
It took both Peter and Katya a beat to realize that everyone was looking at them expectantly, as if waiting for them to finish.
"Sorry," Peter said, for both their benefit, "It's just really cool."
"Don't ever apologize for being the smartest person in the room." Quentin told them, now leaning over a table that displayed a screen. Hill scoffed.
"Anyway-" She pressed a button on her computer and holograms projected from the screen on the table, of Titan-like figures made out of each of the Earth's four core elements- Water, Air, Earth, and Fire.
"They were born within unstable orbits," Quentin began to explain, "Within black holes, creatures formed from the primary elements; Air, water, fire, earth. The science division had a name for them, but we just called them 'Elementals'."
"Versions of them exist across our mythologies." Hill continued, hitting another button that displayed the same beings in different mythological depictions- Katya was blanking for the names right now, but there was the Hindu god of earth, the Navajo god of water-
"Turns out, the myths are real." Quentin said.
"Like Thor!" Peter piped up, "Thor was a myth, and now we study him in my physics class-"
"These 'Myths' are threats." Fury spoke up from behind them. The projection in front of all of them changed into one of Earth- or, an Earth, as the continents weren't exactly like the ones on their own.
"They first materialized on my Earth many years ago." Quentin continued to explain, as the holograph accentuated points on the projected earth that Katya assumed meant was where they'd materialized. "We mobilized, and fought them, but with each battle they grew, got stronger. I was part of the last battalion trying to stop them, but all we did was delay the inevitable."
"The elementals are here now, attacking the same coordinates." Hill began, as the projection of the earth they were watching was slowly consumed by fire. "Our satellites confirm it."
"So you can thank Mr. Beck for destroying the other three." Fury spoke up again, this time from a chair he'd found to sit in, surrounded by computer monitors. "There's only one left- Fire."
"The strongest of them all." Quentin muttered, as the rest of the holograph began to dematerialize. "The one who destroyed my Earth. The one who destroyed my family."
Katya noticed he was playing with a ring of some kind on his left hand- a wedding band, perhaps- but for some reason the sympathy that something like that should bring up in a person wasn't showing up for her, and she didn't know why. And she wasn't sure if that upset her, like it normally would.
"I'm sorry." Peter said quietly.
"The next one will be in Prague in approximately 48 hours-" Hill started.
"-And we have one mission: kill it. And you're coming with us." Fury finished.
Katya and Peter glanced at each other. "I'm sorry, did you say Prague?" Peter asked, letting out a nervous laugh. "Mr. Fury this all seems like big- like huge superhero kind of stuff. And we-" he gestured awkwardly between Katya and himself- " are more like neighborhood, small time fighters. I'm just a friendly neighborhood Spiderman, after all."
"And I'd prefer not to kill things." Katya added, as if it mattered.
"Bitch, please, you've been to space- and that is not what I heard about you, Missy-" Fury gave her a knowing glare.
"We know, but space was an accident- sir, c'mon, there's gotta be someone else you can use." Peter pleaded. "What about Thor?"
"Off-World."
"Okay, what about Doctor Strange?" Katya asked, still glaring back at Fury. She wasn't going to drop it first.
"Unavailable." Hill said.
"Well can we make him available?" Katya spoke to Hill but still hadn't dropped Fury's gaze.
"Captain Marvel?" Peter tried.
Fury broke his half of the glare battle first to address Peter. "Don't invoke her name".
Peter sighed heavily. "Sir, look, I- we" he glanced back to Katya, who nodded, "Really want to help, we do, but if my Aunt finds out that I left my class trip, she'll kill me. And if I'm seen like this in Europe-" he gestured towards his suit, "After the Washington Monument, the whole class will figure out who I am, and then-" He faltered, glancing at Katya as if for help.
"And then the whole world will figure out who he is."
Peter nodded. "And then I'm done."
There was a pause.
"Okay.I understand." Fury said, though his tone suggested what he was really saying was something entirely different. Peter must have picked up on this too because, after he and Katya glanced at each other, he asked, "I"m sorry, what?"
"Why don't you get back before your teachers miss you and become suspicious."
There was no way Fury was dropping this so quickly.
"Dmitri!" He called out, "get these two back to the hotel."
"Yes." It sounded like a haggard whisper.
"Thank you, Mr. Fury," Peter added as he and Katya began to walk out. "And, erm…good luck."
On their way out they crossed paths with Quentin again. "See you, kids."
Katya offered him a two fingered salute but didn't say anything, though Peter responded "Yeah, see you."
— —-
The entire hotel was asleep when they got back, including the man at the front desk. Katya and Peter slipped silently into Peter's room- Ned was audibly snoring, though whether that was due to regular Ned sleep or if the tranquilizer was still in effect, Katya had no clue. She'd smacked the nanonecklace first thing when they got back into the boat, and was now back to her sleep shorts and hoodie. Peter changed out of his suit quickly.
"I'm sorry." Katya broke the silence, sitting on Peter's bed as he pulled up his pajama pants. It hadn't been a long, or awkward silence, but Katya knew she had to say it. "I know we promised no suits-"
"Well, I brought mine, so-" Peter muttered, shoving it to the very back of his suitcase.
"No, Aunt May packed yours. That's different."
Peter joined her on the bed, sidling up next to her so he could sling an arm around her shoulders. She leant into his side. "I initially just brought it as a comfort thing, you know? It's the last thing he ever gave me- it was gonna stay in my suitcase the whole time, I swear-"
Peter squeezed her shoulders. "Katya, it's okay, I'm not mad. I get it. And now it's lucky you did."
Katya kicked at the covers near her foot. "You do?"
"Yeah- my whole suitcase, those initials? It's my uncle's."
Katya felt bad that she hadn't even questioned it when she'd noted the initials weren't his. "Oh."
"Yeah. I get it. It's fine."
Katya sat up a bit, switching gears. "So that was like…a lot."
Peter sat up straighter as well and nodded, his eyes wide. Multiverse, he mouthed.
"I know!" Katya squealed. Ned stopped snoring for the second and the pair of them looked at him, trying to gauge whether they'd accidentally woken up or not. He let out another deep snore, signaling it was still safe to talk. Katya lowered her voice. "But the whole Prague thing…" she shook her head. "I don't think he's going to let us off that easy."
Peter shrugged. "I don't know, he seemed pretty understanding- maybe all the gun waiving and eyepatch wearing is for show-"
"You think he's got two eyes?" Mirth danced in Katya's voice, and she squealed a bit when he kicked at her, both of them knowing that's not what he meant.
"But really, think about it- our skills- what use are they against pure fire?"
Katya nodded. "My suits flame retardant to a point, and so's yours I know, but I can't exactly put a giant fireman into a hold. And it's not like he's got normal human anatomy I can work off of."
"Exactly. And my webs can be flame retardant but you saw, with the water guy, they only cling to stable matter, not plasma."
"My knives won't cut through fire."
"Yeah, like, I'd really love to help but…" he trailed off, shrugging. "This just isn't one for pauchok and myshka."
Katya didn't like the idea of there ever being a situation where she would be useless, but agreed, because that's what it seemed like he was looking for.
"So we can just go to Paris, and have a blast on the rest of our trip, and…it'll all work out." Peter said, though it seemed like it was directed more as an assurance to himself than her. So she bit back how uncomfortable Quentin made her, and how weirdly theatrically he seemed to carry himself, and how skeptical she was of anything he said- and nodded.
"Yeah." She pressed a kiss to his forehead as she stood, reluctantly, to go back to her own room- " it'll all work out."