The next morning, every television in New York seemed to be playing the same thing.
The intro music for The Daily Bugle Now blasted across apartment living rooms, electronics stores, diners, and phone screens as the camera slammed dramatically onto the furious face of J. Jonah Jameson.
Behind him, giant red letters flashed:
QUEENS UNDER ATTACK.
SPIDER-MAN, RED MONSTER, AND "LIGHTNING MAN" LEVEL CITY BLOCKS.
Jameson immediately pointed at the camera like he was personally accusing every viewer at home.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to begin tonight's broadcast by asking one very simple question…"
The screen behind him exploded into shaky footage of Spider-Man crashing through the front window of a convenience store in a shower of broken glass.
"…HOW MANY super-powered lunatics are we expected to tolerate before someone in this city does their JOB?!"
The footage replayed in slow motion.
Spider-Man slammed into a parked taxi hard enough to dent the hood.
A second later, Carnage dropped into frame.
Eight feet tall.
Covered in writhing red-black tendrils.
Its mouth split open into a jagged grin as civilians screamed and scattered behind police barricades.
Jameson dramatically turned toward the screen.
"Would somebody PLEASE explain to me what THAT THING is?!"
The footage changed again.
Carnage sprinted up the side of a skyscraper on all fours while tendrils stabbed into the concrete like spears.
A cameraman could be heard hyperventilating.
"Oh good! Fantastic! Because New York apparently wasn't chaotic enough already! We had one wall-crawling menace swinging around the city, and now we've got a homicidal strawberry-colored nightmare climbing buildings like the devil himself!"
A headline flashed beneath the footage:
UNCONFIRMED: ALIEN LIFEFORM?
Jameson leaned forward instantly.
"Alien? Mutant? Science experiment? Escaped military bio-weapon? WHO KNOWS?! But I'll tell you one thing—"
He jabbed a finger toward footage of Spider-Man webbing up civilians while dodging Carnage's tendrils.
"—every disaster in this city somehow circles back to Spider-Man!"
The footage abruptly shifted.
Spider-Man hurled a car.
The audience watching the broadcast audibly gasped as Carnage's arm stretched outward, twisting into a massive crimson scythe.
With horrifying ease—
SHRRRK.
The vehicle split clean in half midair.
Red tendrils burst from Carnage's body, wrapped around both burning halves, and launched them back toward Spider-Man like missiles.
Jameson threw both hands into the air.
"LOOK AT THIS!"
The footage paused dramatically on the flaming wreckage.
"THIS is what happens when masked vigilantes treat Manhattan like a wrestling ring!"
Another clip played.
Spider-Man barely managed to web two civilians out of the way before an explosion tore through the street behind him.
Cars flipped.
Windows shattered.
Smoke filled the avenue.
Then—
The lightning hit.
A golden bolt crashed from the sky so violently the camera glitched from the brightness.
When the footage stabilized, a new figure hovered in the smoke.
Red suit, white cape, golden lightning symbol glowing across his chest.
The newsroom went quieter.
Even Jameson paused for half a second.
Then outrage returned with renewed force.
"Oh, COME ON!"
He pointed furiously at the screen.
"And WHO is THIS supposed to be now?!"
The footage showed Shazam's combo against thw red creature and how he abruptly stopped it from crashing into a building that as yet to be evacuated.
The surrounding crowd erupted into cheers.
Jameson ignored them completely.
"A flying strongman in a circus cape dropping LIGHTNING in the middle of Queens?! Since when are superhumans MULTIPLYING?!" He asked as if forgetting New York was an hot bed for mutants.
Another clip showed Shazam slamming into Carnage hard enough to crater part of the street.
Electricity exploded across nearby vehicles.
Streetlights burst.
Power flickered across several buildings.
Jameson immediately seized on it.
"Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful! Because the solution to one monster destroying city blocks…"
He pointed at Shazam.
"…was apparently ANOTHER superhuman!"
"We all know who suffers when two elephants clash. The surroundings, or in our case, this ordinary folks and our city." The footage behind him betrayed his argument almost instantly as it relayed the lightning blast that burnt the creature which let out a loud agonizing shriek before disappearing in the cloud of smoke as though turned to ashes.
Several people could be heard cheering, but Jameson folded his arms stubbornly.
"He could have done that all this time? Then why not mitigate the destruction all this while?"
The screen zoomed closer onto Shazam's face.
Smiling.
Completely unmasked.
Jameson suddenly squinted.
"…Wait a second."
The camera slowly zoomed tighter on Jameson as realization hit him.
"He's not even WEARING a mask."
Silence.
Then—
"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME this man flew into New York airspace dressed like a Christmas ornament, throwing lightning bolts around, and DIDN'T think maybe he should identify himself to federal authorities?! After all they would be the one paying for the destruction caused by these menace." Which was quite a ridiculous thing to say. But then again, the government did make quite a fuss during Thor's first appearances.
Recorded footage from bystanders showed when Shazam had saved Spider-Man from a vehicle meant to squash the neighborhood hero, and with a smile on the thunder guy's face.
That was apparently the worst thing Jameson had seen throughout.
"Oh, look at that! They're joking around now!"
He slapped the desk.
"People are evacuating buildings while Captain Thunderclap and the Wall-Crawling Menace are having a TEAM-UP episode!" Coincidentally, Shazam does go by captain.
The camera replayed footage of Shazam doing what he could to try and contain the battle from escalation or causing more destruction than it already had. Even recording footage showed Spider-Man tackling the monster to get it out of the mall during the initial stages, saving many lives in the process.
But Jameson spoke over all of it.
"No accountability! No oversight! Property destruction! These people answer to NOBODY!"
The footage changed one final time, the screen now displaying side-by-side images of Spider-Man and Carnage for comparison.
Jameson immediately pointed at the screen like he'd just uncovered the conspiracy of the century.
"COME ON, PEOPLE! Don't tell me I'm the only one seeing this!"
The camera zoomed slightly closer to the images as he continued ranting.
"Same creepy crawling aesthetic, same bug-eyed look, same freakishly agile movement—these two look like they belong at the same family reunion!"
He threw his hands up dramatically.
"For all we know, they could be distant cousins having some kind of superpowered family feud right in the middle of Manhattan!"
Then his tone dropped lower, sounding more dramatic and dangerous, like a real showman using his words to stir the emotions of his audience.
"And mark my words…"
The screen behind him displayed a still image of Carnage roaring directly at Spider-Man.
"…if that red creature came to New York because of Spider-Man…"
Jameson leaned directly into the camera.
"…then every destroyed street… every shattered building… every terrified child tonight…"
A beat.
"…is on HIS head."
- - -
Regardless of how insane the previous day had been, Peter still dragged himself to school the next morning. Considering everything he'd gone through, he honestly should've been laid up in bed recovering. Bruises had covered almost every part of his body, and his ribs had been fractured from the hits he hadn't managed to dodge during the fight.
Luckily for him, his healing factor had already done its job overnight. By the time he stepped onto school grounds, the bruises were gone, the pain had faded, and his ribs felt completely normal again, as if the brutal beating had never happened at all.
Peter moved calmly through the crowded hallway while students carried on with their usual routines around him. Conversations overlapped from every direction, lockers slammed shut, and laughter echoed through the corridor. Some students stood around gossiping with friends while others shamelessly made out near the lockers without caring who saw them. Cliques practically organized the hallway into territories of their own, and like every other high school, it was painfully easy to tell who belonged where.
As Peter reached halfway down the hall, his spider-sense suddenly tingled as instinct kicked in before thought could even catch up, causing him to lift his foot slightly higher during his next step. Flash Thompson's leg swept through the exact spot Peter's ankle would've been a second earlier.
"Careful, Parker. You almost tripped."
Flash smirked confidently, one arm wrapped around a blonde cheerleader who looked at Peter like he barely qualified as background scenery. The two of them clearly found the failed prank amusing, but Peter simply kept walking without giving Flash the reaction he wanted.
Not long after, Peter entered his classroom and slid into his seat while the usual morning chatter filled the room. Voices bounced from desk to desk as students talked over one another about homework, gossip, sports, and whatever drama had happened online overnight.
"You heard what happened at the mall yesterday?" one student asked from nearby, immediately catching the attention of the people around him.
"I was actually there," another replied quickly. "Spider-Man literally came crashing into the mall out of nowhere while fighting that creepy monster. Honestly, if he hadn't forced the fight outside so fast, a lot of people could've could have gotten hurt, or worse. I might not even be here right now."
The moment Spider-Man got mentioned, Peter found himself quietly paying closer attention to the conversation without making it obvious.
"Don't worry, if you had died during that incident, we probably would've put flowers by your locker with a framed picture of you. We'd mourn you for, like… a day." One of them joked casually.
"Hey, don't joke about that," the former immediately replied before pausing for a second. "Wait… seriously? Just a day? Damn."
Before Peter could respond to the back-and-forth, a familiar voice called out from beside him, followed by a light tap against his shoulder. Turning his head, Peter instinctively went through a practiced custom handshake with the newcomer before the boy dropped into the seat on his right. It was none other than his best friend, Ned.
"What's up, dude? You didn't reply to any of my texts." Ned said, leaning back in his chair.
"Sorry about that. After dinner, I passed out like a log. Woke up this morning feeling like I got hit by a truck," Peter answered. The moment the words left his mouth, he suddenly remembered that he'd completely forgotten to wash his suit after yesterday because of how exhausted he'd been.
"Sounds like you had it rough yesterday," Ned said sympathetically, watching Peter let out an exasperated sigh.
"Even with your…" Ned lowered his voice into a near whisper as he leaned closer. "Speed healing?"
"I'm all healed up, but for some reason it still feels that way," Peter replied quietly. As he spoke, his eyes drifted across the classroom and landed on Mary Jane just as she walked through the door with a couple of books in her hands. She casually made her way toward her usual seat near the far corner of the room, a noticeable distance away from his own.
"Oh. I see." Ned nodded slowly, though it was obvious he didn't fully understand. Still, thinking too deeply about it would only lead to wild guesses, so he quickly moved on.
"Who was that guy with the cape and the lightning bolt on his chest? Dude, he looked so cool." Ned finally asked the question he'd apparently spent the entire night flooding Peter's phone with.
Peter had barely opened his mouth to answer when the classroom door swung open again and the teacher stepped inside, immediately calling for everyone to settle down. The noise around the room gradually died off as students returned to their seats.
"Later," Peter said, glancing at Ned. "During lunch."
"Keep it down, everyone." Gwen Stacy called out from the front of the classroom, carrying out her duties as class captain while trying to bring some order to the noisy room. A few students listened while others barely paid attention, the usual restless energy of the morning still hanging around as their teacher prepared to begin the first lesson of the day. Before he could start, however, another teacher appeared by the classroom door and quietly got his attention.
Excusing himself for a moment, the teacher walked over to the doorway where the two exchanged a brief conversation. It lasted less than a minute before he stepped back into the classroom, this time accompanied by a student none of them had seen before.
"A new student is joining us today," the teacher announced as the room's attention gradually shifted toward the newcomer. He gestured toward the boy standing beside him, dressed casually in a red hoodie, blue jeans, and white sneakers. "Join me in welcoming…"
"Billy Batson," the boy introduced himself simply.
The response from the class was mixed almost immediately. Some students stared with open curiosity, others barely looked up from what they were doing, while a few silently sized him up out of habit. There were even those who clearly couldn't care less about another transfer student showing up midway through the term.
Already moving efficiently, Gwen directed two classmates toward the small storeroom at the back of the class to grab an extra chair. Within moments, they carried one over and placed it near the back corner beside a window.
"Thank you, Gwen," the teacher said before turning his attention back to the rest of the class. "Make sure to help him feel welcome."
"Fresh meat, boys," Flash muttered from his seat near the far back of the room, speaking just loudly enough for his friends around him to hear. A grin spread across his face as he leaned back in his chair. "Let's make sure we do what teach said and give the new kid a proper welcome." The sarcasm in his voice was impossible to miss, earning a few quiet chuckles from the group around him.
The teacher either ignored it or chose not to acknowledge it as he looked back toward Billy. "Go ahead and get seated. Class is starting."
With that, Billy started toward the empty chair at the back of the classroom. As he walked past the rows of desks, his eyes briefly landed on Gwen Stacy, who greeted him with a small but polite smile. Billy returned one of his own just as casually, but the moment his gaze shifted again, it stopped on a familiar face seated elsewhere in the room.
One he had seen the day before.
He locked eyes with the familiar face for only a brief second. Billy didn't let his stare linger though, casually pulling his attention away as he swept a glance across the rest of the classroom before finally making his way toward his seat. Still, that short moment had already been enough for recognition to click into place as his thoughts stirred.
The guy sitting a few rows away was Spider-Man. Or more specifically, the person behind the mask of the bug-themed hero swinging around New York.
'Shoot, I'm classmates with the bug hero?' Billy thought as he dropped into his chair and reached into his backpack, pulling out a notebook and pen. As the realization quickly settled in, it was followed almost immediately by suspicion. 'Coincidence? Yeah, I seriously doubt that.'
Billy exhaled quietly through his nose as the pieces started connecting in his head one after another. This had Tony written all over it. There was no way the man had randomly enrolled him into the exact same school—and even the same class—as Peter Parker by accident. Especially when Billy was technically supposed to be a grade above this one.
'He definitely knew Spider-Man went here,' Billy concluded internally, already picturing Tony acting smug about it somewhere. 'And he probably shoved me into this class on purpose too.'
The more he thought about it, the more it actually made sense. For all of Tony's sarcasm and constant teasing, this was probably his way of giving Billy a push toward making an actual friend outside the masks, and one who understands the burden that comes along with superhero chaos.
How things went from here, though, was entirely up to him.
- - -
[A few hours earlier]
Earlier that morning, during the Avengers' briefing, Tony had specifically told Billy to sit in with the team inside the large meeting room. The massive screen mounted along the wall displayed live news coverage, though the moment Tony switched channels, the room was immediately greeted by the loud, dramatic voice of J. Jonah Jameson throwing around accusations, slander, and increasingly ridiculous conspiracy theories.
"Look, Bill," Clint said with an amused grin as he leaned back in his chair, gesturing toward the screen. "You're quite the celebrity on both the news and social media today."
Onscreen, Jameson was in the middle of passionately ranting about "unchecked superhumans."
"Pay no mind to whatever that jester of a reporter says about you," Thor spoke up from Billy's side in a reassuring tone. The god of thunder looked like he wanted to give him one of his overly enthusiastic congratulatory slaps on the back, but thankfully seemed to reconsider after resting his hand against the arm of his chair instead. "The people have recognized the heroism you displayed."
"Way to make your debut, Bill," Natasha added from across the table, the faintly satisfied expression on her face making it seem like she was genuinely proud of him.
"That's right," Bruce chimed in supportively. "Keep at it."
Billy stared at all of them for a moment, already feeling the familiar urge to bury his face in his hands with face palm. Sometimes the way they treated him made him feel way younger than he actually was.
"You guys do know I already have experience with this whole hero thing, right?" Billy said as he looked around the room. "I've literally been doing this for a couple years now."
That only earned him a chuckle from Clint.
"Relax, Bill. We're teasing you."
"That's true," Bruce added with a small smile before his expression turned more thoughtful. "Besides, Tony said if you hadn't made that decisive move to end the fight, there's no telling what could've happened… or what else that thing was capable of."
"In short," Tony finally cut in from the head of the table, "this is the team patting you on the back for a job well done."
Billy gestured toward the television where Jameson was still passionately yelling at the camera.
"He definitely doesn't think so."
Clint snorted at that. "That guy has a personal vendetta against Spider-Man. Seriously, the second Spider-Man gets involved, he completely ignores every other superpowered individual in the situation just to push conspiracy theories about him. You only got dragged into the mess because you showed up next to the neighborhood web-head."
"He's actually a pretty good reporter when Spider-Man isn't involved," Clint continued. "But the moment he appears, all logic goes out the window. So don't take any of it personally."
Bruce folded his arms as his attention shifted back toward the footage playing onscreen. Carnage's distorted form paused mid-frame, tendrils writhing across its body.
"From what we've seen so far, that doesn't match any known creature or enhanced individual on record," Bruce said thoughtfully. "It could be some kind of alien organism."
"Or perhaps a demon," Thor added matter-of-factly.
Billy honestly couldn't even tell if Thor was joking anymore.
"Well," Tony spoke again as he tapped a few controls on the table, minimizing the news broadcast, "while we do have a few more things to discuss…"
His gaze shifted directly toward Billy.
"Billy, there's somewhere you need to be today."
Billy blinked in confusion, immediately looking suspicious.
"What? Where?"
"Don't worry, you'll find out when you get there. Happy's already waiting for you down at the parking lot, so go change into something normal and head downstairs."
Billy frowned immediately. "What?"
"There's no time to explain," Tony continued, completely ignoring the question in favor of waving him off. "Now get your ass downstairs, and take your backpack with you. You might need it."
Billy stared at him flatly. "With everything you just said, I'd argue there's more than enough time for you to explain where I'm going."
Tony only smirked at that. "Then it wouldn't really be a surprise anymore, would it?"
Billy let out a slow exhale as he pushed himself out of his chair, already feeling suspicious. His eyes swept across the briefing room to see if anyone else was going to give him an actual answer, but nobody seemed interested in helping him. When his gaze landed on Natasha, she simply shook her head slightly, silently telling him she was just as confused about whatever Tony was planning.
That honestly wasn't reassuring.
In the end, Billy did what he was told and headed downstairs where Happy was already waiting beside one of Stark's cars. The ride through the city was mostly quiet, leaving Billy with way too much time to speculate about what exactly Tony had dragged him into this time. Knowing the billionaire, the possibilities ranged anywhere from "slightly annoying" to "life-threateningly ridiculous."
Eventually, the car slowed to a stop along the curb.
"We're here," Happy said as he reached toward the back seat.
Billy glanced out the window, confused, trying to figure out where exactly he had been taken. His eyes moved across the street before finally landing on the large sign positioned near the front entrance.
MIDTOWN HIGH SCHOOL.
Billy froze, then blinked.
"A school?"
The words had barely left his mouth before Happy dropped several notebooks and textbooks directly onto his lap.
"You'll be needing those," he said casually.
Billy looked down at the stack in his arms, then slowly back toward the school building outside the window, not entirely sure what he was supposed to think about any of this anymore.