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“What are you doing?”
Billy jumped at the sudden appearance of someone else at his table. He’d been so absorbed in his work that he'd almost forgotten that there were other people in the library, let alone that someone might want to talk to him. He yanked his headphones out of his ears, and spun around, instinctively covering his screen despite there not being anything incriminating on it besides his own unedited podcast.
Marcus Just quirked one eyebrow at him as he slid into the seat next to him. “Well that’s not suspicious at all.”
“Oh hey Marcus,” he said keeping his phone angled away from his friend, oddly embarrassed but happy to see him all the same. “I was just watching a news clip about the fire in the park last night.”
He shoved his phone into his pocket, trying to keep his tone casual. He didn’t want to mention that he was watching his own news coverage of the incident—that just felt kind of lame, and if not lame than conceited, even if he was doing it to make improvements to his show.
Besides, he knew Marcus didn't like talking about superheroes. Nothing put him in a bad mood faster than when conversation turned to any member of Justice League—which happened a lot in a school like this. Billy figured most high schools were the same, but especially ones that had a beloved local hero to gossip about. For Marcus there were very few exceptions to his ‘I can’t stand superheroes’ attitude, Supergirl for instance got a pass even if her cousin didn’t, though Billy suspected that was just because he had a crush on her.
He wasn’t entirely sure why Marcus hated superheroes so much—Batman especially seemed to set him off—but he’d be a pretty bad friend if he kept bringing them up. Even if he was a superhero himself.
It did makes things between them awkward sometimes. After all, between being a superhero, and interning at WHIZ radio running their podcast about superhero news, he spent the vast majority of his time outside of school focused on the world of heroes and villains. Heck, he spent a significant amount of his time in school more focused on heroes than on classwork. He was sure that his new friend would have some opinions about all of that.
He definitely did not want to know what Marcus would think of his podcast.
So because Captain Marvel was involved in this particular news story, Billy figured he should steer the conversation somewhere else–even if he he was drawing a blank at the moment as to what they could talk about instead.
But to his surprise Marcus perked up. “Oh yeah I heard about that! That Monkey Prince guy was there wasn't he? I heard he was the one that put out the fire.”
Billy couldn't stop the snort of laughter that escaped him. “Sure, but he was also the one that started the fire.”
Marcus winced. “Well…yeah. But I'm sure he had a good reason.”
It was Billy’s turn to give his friend an odd look.
“I’m just saying,” he said too quickly to be casual. “He seems like an okay guy. I don’t think he would start a fire like that on purpose.”
Billy studied him for a moment. “Since when are you a Monkey Prince fan? I thought you didn’t like superheroes.”
“He’s not a superhero,” Marcus scoffed. “He’s…just trying to help. He doesn’t make it a whole thing like some of those big league heroes with their stupid, perfect Youtuber smiles.”
Billy cracked a smile. “Youtuber smiles?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I don’t think I do,” Billy teased. He wondered if Captain Marvel was one of the heroes he was thinking of. “As far as I know, none of the big name heroes even have a Youtube channel.”
Well technically Billy did have one that he and Freddy posted to on occasion, but he didn’t think that counted. It wasn't like it was a Captain Marvel channel.
Marcus huffed and leaned back in his seat, looking just a bit embarrassed. There was a beat of silence where Billy wondered if he should apologize. Then, “So what do you think about Monkey Prince?” he asked carefully. “Like do you think he's…cool?”
Marcus kept his gaze on the table where he had set his bag.
Billy considered that for a moment. He’d been trying to sum up his thoughts on Monkey Prince ever since he showed up in Fawcett City—just the latest stop on his tour across the country, causing problems for every hero he encountered—but he could never quite pin down his feelings.
The thing was—Monkey Prince couldn't stand Captain Marvel. And honestly the feeling was mutual. Somehow the two of them just kept butting heads, even when they wanted the same thing, even when they both wanted to help people. When they weren't fighting, they were arguing and when they weren't arguing, they tried their best to avoid each other completely. Between that and his unflattering impersonation of the Captain on more than one occasion, it was easy to say that he was not a fan of the guy.
But for some reason he couldn't explain, Monkey Prince was incredibly fond of Billy Batson. About one month ago, almost to the day, he'd dropped down into an alleyway where Billy was arguing with a couple local thugs who wanted to mug him and started swinging his staff around like a baseball bat. After knocking them out cold, he’d swaggered around, acting like the two of them were old friends. He’d slung an arm over Billy’s shoulders and insisted on walking him home ‘for his own protection’, talking his ear off all the while. Billy hadn’t been in any real danger–at most he had been looking at a black eye and a wounded ego–but ever since then, Monkey Prince had taken a shine to the idea of being Billy's personal hero, swooping in whenever he had an inkling that he was in danger.
And he was very good at knowing when Billy was getting into trouble–even if he wasn't quite as good at saving him from it. He had no idea how Monkey Prince always seemed to know where to find him, but he figured he’d appreciate it a lot more if he didn’t have superpowers himself. Most of the time he just got in Billy’s way—not that he knew that of course. To him Billy was just some random kid with a knack for finding trouble and lack of self preservation instincts. He had no reason to think that Billy could fend for himself in the sorts of life and death situations he typically found him in.
He’d certainly had a few things to say about Billy’s podcast when he asked him for an interview after a run in with Sabbac last week.
“I think he gets a bad rap because he’s still figuring things out, you know?” Billy shrugged, feeling unusually self conscious about his opinion. Monkey Prince had clearly managed to snag a spot on Marcus’s ‘heroes that aren’t that bad’ list, even if Captain Marvel hadn't, so he didn’t want to sound harsh. Especially since he didn’t dislike the guy, he just found him frustrating at times. “His heart’s in the right palace, even if he constantly puts his foot in his mouth and keeps blowing things up on accident.”
Marcus leaned forward, listening intently. “You really think so?”
“Yeah, I mean he’s pretty cool—I’m a big fan of magic heroes—but I think he'd be cooler if he eased back on the flirtatious one liners. I mean he may be handsome for a monkey, but he doesn't have to announce it all the time.”
“What? He’s not—“ For some reason Marcus’s cheeks flushed and he scrambled to his feet. "I mean…I uh, gotta go…work on my English essay. But I’ll see you after school okay?”
Billy blinked in surprise. “Okay, but I’ve got to check out the park afterwards as part of my internship at WHIZ, so I won’t be able to hang out for long.”
“Yeah, sure. See you then!” Marcus called out as he rushed back out of the library.
In hindsight, Billy probably should have known that investigating the park would be a trap. After all, Sivana had escaped while he and Monkey Prince fought about whose fault it was that the fountain was in pieces and the rosebushes were on fire. It was only a matter of time before he attacked again.
“You look like you could use some help.”
Billy grunted into his gag, sending glare up at the monkey floating a few feet above his head. He should have known he’d show up. He was probably the last person Billy wanted to see at the moment. Okay, maybe not the last person, but definitely in the top five nonvillains he didn't want finding him tied up in a warehouse on a Tuesday night.
“I'll take that as a 'yes Monkey Prince I'd love your help',” he said with a laugh before leaping down to the ground. He landed with a slight bounce, his tail flicking in satisfaction. “How the heck do you always end up in these sorts of situations?” Monkey Prince gently scolded as he stood before him with that wide obnoxious grin of his, his staff slung over one of his shoulders. He circled around behind Billy and, with a flourish of his hand, he ripped the gag out of Billy's mouth.
Unfortunately Billy could only muster up a minimal amount of relief since his transformation was still off the table as long as he had an audience. The only thing worse than having Monkey Prince following him around was him finding out about him being Captain Marvel.
Billy squirmed as Monkey Prince undid the rest of his bindings, as eager to escape his savior as he was his captors. If he could just get somewhere secluded, or even just hidden, he could take care of this once and for all. He wouldn’t let Sivana get the drop on him a second time.
“I had it handled,” he grumbled as he rubbed feeling back into his now free hands. He scanned the area for danger, dismayed to find that the only exits were through the main door and the open skylight Monkey Prince had come through.
Monkey Prince cocked his head to the side. “Really? because It looked to me like you were in a pretty tight spot, what with the armed gunmen and all these freaky machines allover the place–”
“I was working on it,” Billy cut in. He could feel his face going hot with embarrassment at the teasing. It was bad enough that he needed rescuing, but he couldn't even explain what was going on without giving himself away. So instead he had to settle on looking like an idiot. “So you took care of the guards?”
“Yeah, hard to believe Sivana put so many guys on one kid. What did you do to piss him off?”
“Trust me that is a very long story.”
“I’d love to hear it sometime,” Monkey Prince shrugged throwing a wink in Billy’s direction. “Maybe we could grab some pizza, play some video games—“
The door slammed open and two people, one man and one woman, stepped into the room. They looked surprised—whether it was because Billy was free or because Monkey Prince was standing right next to him was anyone’s guess. They weren’t armed with anything more than a couple of syringes, which was odd considering Dr. Sivana rarely trusted other people to help him with his scientific experiments.
Monkey Prince went stiff beside him, his usually easy going banter dying on his lips.
Before anyone could react, Billy rushed forward, ducking under the man’s arm and making a break for the door. A series of shouts followed him as Monkey Prince and the two henchpeople caught up to what was happening. With any luck Monkey Prince could handle them without much trouble.
Billy just kept running.
He turned a corner at the end of the hall only to stumble upon roughly half a dozen guards, just as startled to see Billy as Billy was to see them. He skidded to a stop just as the man closest to him reached for his gun. Immediately several of them came charging at him. He scrambled out of the way, back the way he came, shoving a stack of boxes behind him to trip up the henchperson that was right behind him. But another reached out and grabbed him by the back of his hoodie, yanking him backwards and throwing him down to the ground with a harsh thud that left Billy temporarily breathless.
The muzzle of a gun entered his field of vision as the man above him glared down at him. A moment later the man and his gun were both knocked over by a blur of brown fur and shiny gold.
Monkey Prince jumped back to his feet, leaving the gunman dazed on the ground. He swung his staff out to trip a couple of goons coming his way that decided he was a bigger threat than Billy—even if Billy was the one they were supposed to be guarding in the first place. He doubted Sivana had told them who he was or why a teenager was captured and thrown in there in the first place so Billy really couldn’t fault them for thinking he wasn’t as dangerous as the magical staff wielding monkey.
“I thought you said you took care of the guards?” Billy shouted as he got back to his feet, looking around for something he could use as a weapon. He decided to grab a discarded two by four off the ground, holding it aloft as another henchperson charged at him.
“Okay so that may have been a bit of an exaggeration,” he said, leaping over one henchperson’s head and kicking him in the back. “I took care of the ones guarding your door. I didn’t have time for all the other ones!”
“What do you mean you didn’t have time? What was your plan here?”
“I was going to take you out through the skylight,” he huffed. “but you decided to run towards all the people with guns!”
He scowled, whacking a henchman in the gut with his two by four as he did so. “I wouldn’t have gone this way if you’d mentioned they were still here!” Billy’s weapon was knocked out of his hands as another gun was leveled at him—this one glowing an electric blue.
That was definitely not good.
Looks like he had no choice. Better to let the cat out of the bag than to get himself killed.
“SHA—“
“Billy!” Monkey Prince shoved him out of the way before he could finish the word. Billy went crashing back to the ground as Monkey Prince took the full force of the weapon’s blast. The force of the blow sent him flying across the room, his head smacking against the opposite wall with a sickening thud.
Billy crawled to his side as quickly as he could. Monkey Prince was dazed, moaning softly but still mostly conscious so Billy grabbed a fistful of his shirt and dragged him behind a pile of crates, out of the line of fire as more goons unleashed a spray of electric blue blasts.
“Come on!” he hissed lightly shaking the other hero and doing his best to ignore the smell of burnt fur. “Get up! Get up! They’ll kill us if you keep laying there!”
And then to his astonishment he realized that the fur on Monkey Prince's hands and feet was receding, growing back into his skin, until he started looking a lot less monkey and a lot more human. And the less fur there was, the more Billy recognized the face beneath.
“Marcus?”
Marcus–and it was undoubtedly him even if he was still in the Monkey Prince uniform–groaned, blinking hard as his eyes focused back on Billy's face.
“Wha–?” Marcus stared at him blearily for a second. Then he seemed to realize something, shooting up into a sitting position, his hands flying to his face. “Oh no. No no no,” he muttered. “This can’t be happening!” His breath came in quick gasps and Billy was suddenly hyperaware of the fact that his friend was prone to panic attacks.
Billy’s mind was static. Because how could Marcus of all people be the Monkey Prince? Marcus who hated heroes with a passion? Who was too embarrassed to talk to the other kids in their class? Who had trouble making friends because he traveled so much and kept to himself?
A blue blast exploded one of the crates in front of them showering down bits of burned cardboard.
Right. Focus Billy. There would be time to freak out later.
“Snap out of it Marcus!” he said shaking him roughly. “Change back.”
“Right, yeah I can do that,” he said, nodding his head vigorously. He rubbed his hands together and grunted with feeling, “Bian!” In an instant he snapped back into monkey form picking up a bit of confidence he'd been lacking.
Billy breathed a sigh of relief. He could transform too, end this whole charade a lot quicker, but he wasn’t really sure how Marcus would take that. That wasn't exactly a fight he wanted to have at the moment.
“Okay, let’s do this!”
Marcus looked at him, his monkey face unusually serious. “You're...okay with this?
“I think we've got bigger problems,” he said, peeking over the top of the crates to get a better look at the goons positions. Immediately there was another volley of blasts in their direction. he ducked back down, staying close to Marcus, to Monkey Prince. “But I'll tell you what–you get us out of here and I won't make a big deal out of you being a superhero.”
“I'm not a superhero!”
“Right, right. Whatever,” he waved away thought for a far more pressing one. “Are you bullet proof?”
“What? No,” he said, then he made a face. “Well sorta? Bullets won’t bounce off of me or anything, but I don’t think they can kill me unless I panic.”
“I can work with that.”
“Wha—?”
“We’re gonna make a break for it on the count of three, so just don’t panic, okay?”
“Wait! I don’t think that’s—“
“One.”
“Dude are you forgetting that you’re not bullet proof?”
“Two.”
“Billy don’t!”
“Three!” Billy dashed from their hiding spot, making a beeline for the bright red EXIT sign down the hall, dodging henchpeople as he went. He could hear more shots ringing out and the tell-tale thwacks of Monkey Prince’s staff smacking people behind him. When he made it to the end of the hall, he threw the door open and dashed outside, zigzagging his way through the fenced in parking lot on the other side.
Monkey Prince-Marcus-raced after him with another squawk of protest. Billy ran as fast as he could, banking on the element of surprise to get him to safety. As soon as they were out in the open Monkey Prince grabbed Billy's arm, yanking him to his chest.
“What are you–”
Before Billy could say anything else or even contemplate transforming, a cloud materialized beneath their feet and they shot into the sky. He yelped and clutched tighter to his friend’s arm. Billy wasn't scared of heights, flying was one of his favorite pastimes, but he much preferred to do it under his own power. The idea of not being able to control the direction or the speed was not exactly his idea of a good time.
Another series of shots rang out below them, but nothing came close to hitting them.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.”
“I know,” Billy said as the warehouse faded into the distance, obscured by all the other buildings they were flying over.
A few minutes of nerve wracking flight later, the two of them dropped down onto the roof of their school, safe and sound. Billy hopped off the little cloud, happy to feel solid ground beneath his feet again. Something about standing on a cloud felt less safe than flying without any support at all.
He settled on the ledge with a long drawn out sigh of relief, Marcus following suit. Already his fur was receding again, leaving just Marcus, still decked out in the Monkey Prince costume. The colors suited him, as did the crown. Tiara? Whatever it was called, it made him look more princely when he was human than when he was a monkey.
“Sooo…” Billy said bumping his shoulder against Marcus's. “Monkey Prince?”
Marcus winced rubbing the back of his neck. The crown on his head was distractingly shiny. Billy had never really noticed that before.
“I'm sorry," he mumbled.
“For what?”
Marcus threw his hands up. “I don't know. Lying to you? Following you around in my monkey form? Having a monkey form?”
Billy threw his head back and laughed. He couldn't help it, that was such an absurd thing to be sorry for. “You do know I'm not mad at you right?" he said as he calmed down enough to speak. "Like having a secret identity is superheroing 101, I'm not gonna hold that against you.”
“I'm not a superhero.”
“So you keep reminding me,” he said. “So what do you call it then? I mean you're always jumping into the fray, fighting supervillains, fighting demons. You've saved my life more than once–”
“Yeah you really need to stop putting yourself in life or death situations. It’s getting ridiculous.”
Billy rolled his eyes—Marcus didn't know the half of it. “I'm just saying, you're basically a superhero.”
Marcus groaned, but there was a small upturn to his lips to show he wasn’t as upset as he was pretending. That was one major difference between him and his Monkey Prince self—their smiles. Billy wondered if it was the same with him and Captain Marvel—though they had the excuse of being somewhat separate people. Billy wasn’t entirely sure if that was the case for Marcus though—more likely it was part of his shapeshifting powers. Though why he was a monkey of all things was a mystery.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Marcus asked, shrinking his staff down to the size of a pencil and twisting it between his fingers. “Do I have something on my face? Because I thought the fur was gone.” He glanced behind himself. “Or is it the tail? I swear I don’t usually have one.”
“I guess I was just wondering…why are you so different when you're Monkey Prince? I mean when you're him you're so…” He wanted to say cocky, obnoxious, loud, but eventually settled on, “Confident. And chatty.” And flirty. “And when you're you you’re–”
“Boring?”
“What? No! I was going to say down to earth. Nice.”
“Nice?”
“Yeah, I mean you can be a bit moody sometimes, but you don’t insult people nearly as much when you’re in your Marcus form.”
“Maybe not out loud,” Marcus shrugged. “But that’s mostly because when I’m Marcus I’m more likely to get my ass beat.”
Billy winced in sympathy. “True.”
Marcus shifted in his seat, looking anywhere but at Billy. “I don't know, it's like I just feel different. when i transform, I just suddenly feel like i can do anything. Like all my insecurities just vanish and I can just say and do all the things I was always too scared to before. That probably doesn't make any sense.”
Billy nodded along. He probably understood better than most. The courage of Achilles wasn’t so different. “I think I get it.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. I mean divine magic powers can have that effect on people.”
“How’d you know—?”
“I think we should go back.”
Marcus blinked at him in surprise. “Oh, right. I’ll take you home,” Marcus said as he climbed back to his feet. Already he was slowly morphing back into Monkey Prince. “You’re probably exhausted. I probably should have taken you straight back home. Or to the cops or something, I mean you were kidnapped today.”
“Not the first time that’s happened.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“I know,” Billy laughed. “But I didn’t mean I wanted you to take me home. I meant that we should go back to the warehouse now that we’ve had some time to regroup.”
“Hell no! Are you crazy? I’m not taking you back there, I just rescued you!”
Billy climbed to his feet too, a bit more amused than he probably should have been. “And I appreciate that,” he said. “But Sivana is still out there, and who knows what sort of evil schemes he’s got up his sleeve?”
Marcus scowled at him, using his slight height advantage to look down his nose at Billy like a particularly disapproving teacher. “Is this about your podcast? Because I swear I will knock you into next week if you think I’m gonna let you put yourself in danger for a story. You’re just an intern for crying out loud!”
Billy flushed , but didn’t back down. It was sweet that Marcus was so worried about him, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He just had to show him why it wasn’t as big a deal as he was making it out to be.
“You know how I said that I wouldn’t make a big deal about you being Monkey Prince and having a secret identity?” Billy asked wandering closer to the edge of the roof.
“Yes…” Marcus dragged out the word, clearly suspicious about the sudden change of topic.
“Well I hope you’ll extend me the same courtesy.” He climbed onto the ledge, flashing Marcus a grin.
“Hey what are you doing? Get down from there!”
“It’s fine, just watch.”
Then Billy stepped off the ledge. “Shazam!”
With a crash of lightning, Captain Marvel rose up to meet Monkey Prince’s bewildered look. “So what do you say the two of us go finish what we started?”