The next morning, Marc woke up in the body to find Steven's consciousness fast asleep in the inner world, leaving him to take the brunt of a splitting headache as it tore through his brain at an incredible speed. He looked around, eyes landing on the large, rectangular mirror plastered across the wall to his right.
"Mornin'" Jake spoke, fidgeting in the reflection. "Have a good sleep, didja?"
"Not really." Marc said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his sleeve.
"Bad dream?"
"You would know."
Jake only hummed, and Marc shuffled over to the side of the bed, sliding on a pair of slippers and making for the kitchen with coffee on his mind. Jake followed, eventually landing on a small, frameless piece of glass on the counter.
"So." he started, and Marc braced himself for what he knew was coming, feigning ignorance when Jake didn't continue.
"So what?"
"Not gonna ask me how I feel about all this? And here I thought we didn't do favoritism."
"How do you feel about all this?" Marc asked, too tired to bother with a snarky comment, but Jake frowned nevertheless.
"Can't say I have a strong opinion."
"Oh yeah, well, that's a first."
"But I do think you should be careful. You should always be careful."
Marc took a seat across the small table that made up most of the kitchen's— if you could even call it a kitchen, furniture, placing his mug on a wooden coaster.
"Yeah, well. I knew that way before I even learned about you, buddy." he said, taking a sip from his newly brewed coffee."Besides, what's the worst that can happen?"
Jake huffed, saying something in Spanish that Marc didn't understand. Likely a curse word or an unnecessarily mean comment. He only ever spoke to Marc or Steven in Spanish when he was cross.
"Watch yourself, Spector." he warned, and Marc couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his lip.
"Could say the same for you, Lockley."
Marc was halfway through his coffee when the portal appeared in the same place it had the last time, its incessant hissing convincing Marc to abandon his drink, leaving it on the counter to rot as he crossed the messy space towards the passageway, summoning the suit as he did.
"You ready?" he asked, but Jake didn't humor him with an answer, and so, Marc stepped through the barricade, not so surprised when he was immediately transported into the cushy lounge.
Marc surveyed the lounge as subtly as he could, oddly disappointed when he couldn't find Strange amongst the crowd. The room felt somehow bigger without him.
"Seems I'm a bit early." he said, taking up his seat on the bright red armchair.
There were only three people present in the vicinity so far, excluding Marc himself; Captain America, spandex kid, and the blonde, Yelena, if Marc's memory served him correctly. And they all watched him with a mixture of curiosity and caution.
"What's with the…"
Yelena spoke, gesturing to her face, then at Marc's.
"Toilet paper?"
There was a stir in the air, the chandeliers dangling from the roof rattling violently against the sudden gust of wind. Marc smirked under the mask as the crowd struggled to regain themselves, Konshu's behemoth of a voice booming angrily from behind him;
"Did she just call the ceremonial armor of the moon toilet paper?" he hissed.
"Apparently so." Marc said, just loud enough for everyone to hear though they didn't seem to think too much of it.
Before anyone could ask as to what had just happened, there was a quiet whooshing sound, and Marc turned around to find the purple sports kid standing unsteadily by the doorway.
"I will never get used to that." she said, holding a hand to her stomach as she wobbled over to her seat.
"Kate Bishop." Yelena greeted. "I was wondering when you would arrive. I was starting to feel like a bit of an outsider with all these unfamiliar faces."
"Yeah, well, honestly can't say I blame ya."
Kate smiled awkwardly at the individuals before her.
"I mean, no offense, guys. I do love the costumes by the way."
"You're Clint's trainee, right?" Captain America asked, and Kate opened her mouth as though the question caught her off guard.
"Well, more like partner." she said.
"Right…"
"Yup. We're partners. Also, it's nice to meet you, Ca- Cap."
"Please, call me Sam."
"Sam, then." Kate said, overly confident, and for a minute, only silence followed the statement, before all heads turned towards the doorway as yet again another person appeared, this time the stubbled man with a metal arm. He gave the room a once over, before wordlessly sauntering towards his seat next to Sam, and this time, Marc didn't trouble himself with not staring him down, curiosity taking over in Steven's absence. The man quickly noticed.
"What?" he asked, his voice a mixture between gentle and impatient. Marc turned to catch him in the eyes, turning his head almost mockingly.
"Nothing." he said. "Just curious."
"Yeah… Well, if I'm being honest, you're probably the biggest curiosity in this room." the man countered, then added; "Name's Bucky Barnes, and you are?"
"Moon Knight."
"Of course."
"Moon Knight?" the spandex kid spoke up, his clear white eyes staring straight at Marc's own. "What, like, N-I-G-H-T or K-N-I-G-H-T?"
"I'm not answering that."
"Sorry, it's just, the N-I-G-H-T version sounds kinda weird to me. But hey, you do you."
"Are those words actually coming out of your mouth?" Marc snapped, and the kid raised his arms in defense.
"S- Sorry. I'm Spiderman, by the way."
Spiderman. Marc had heard of the name in passing before; the vigilante from Queens. All of a sudden, the get-up made a lot more sense, though in sincerity, he had no right to judge.
"I do hope all of you are getting along."
Marc almost jumped, spinning around to find the sorcerer— Wong, standing directly behind his chair. He had switched out his deep maroon robes for a buttoned up coat of the same color and some thick baggy pants. Behind him stood the tall Asian man and the lady with the bow dressed in a scaly fightsuit. Wong raised an eyebrow expectantly.
"Couldn't be any better." Captain America teased, sarcasm dripping from his voice like venom.
"I see… Unfortunately, Strange won't be able to make it to today's debrief."
"Why not?" the Spiderkid asked.
"He has… other matters to attend to."
"Of course he does." Sam said, standing up and stretching his arms. "So, what? We're just supposed to-"
But before he could finish his question, he was interrupted by a loud booming noise, erupting from the outside of the building, followed by a chorus of screams. In a millisecond, everyone in the room was on their feet.
"What was that?" Marc was the first to ask, his heart pulsing with more and more adrenaline as the seconds ticked by.
"Follow me." Wong said, opening up a portal with a few fancy hand gestures and stepping through, not looking back to see if anyone had followed him.
