[center][img]http://baku-panda.org/images/absolute_billy_logo.png[/img][/center][COLOR=1E90FF][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]F A W C E T T    C I T Y[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][sup][color=gold]St. Joseph’s Hospital[/color][/sup][/INDENT][/INDENT]
General Sanders had arranged for Billy’s discharge from the hospital.

Muldowney had managed to find the boy’s most recent [i]Captain Marvel[/i] get-up, through the Majesdane Light Brigade armor was looking decidedly worse for wear. 

Pulling his arm through the sleeve, Billy’s arm stuck out from where the sleeve had been all but sheared away.

“The nurses told me that they had to pull and pry that off you,” Muldowney said, scrutinizing the suit as though trying to appraise the quality. “Scissors and scalpels couldn’t cut through it,” the lieutenant stated, reaching out to feel one of the strands of charred cloth hanging from off Billy’s wirey frame. “I’m sorry that its ruined.”

With a shrug, Billy gave a shake of his head as he said, [color=#00bfff]“Naw. The Elsewhere tailors will have this fixed in a jiffy.”[/color]

Muldowney looked at the boy, confused a moment. “Elsewh..?”

[color=#00bfff]“Costume off.”[/color]

A swirl of light seemed to move across the child’s body. Muldowney blinked several times, forced to turn away from the sudden intensity. When he’d turned back, the boy before him was attired in something entirely different.

He looked like he was ready for the Renaissance Fair, dressed in a soft blue tunic that fell to just above his knees. A thin, double wrap belt cinched it at the waist, while a pair of leather straps secured a simple sole against his feet like a pair of Roman caligae. As Muldowney’s mouth fell open, Billy uttered, [color=#00bfff]“Galladorian.” [/color]

Removing the belt, Billy wrestled out from the tunic and then donned the USO t-shirt and shorts that Fred had brought him. As he did, he explained, [color=#00bfff]“They’re human-[i]ish[/i], but its weird. Like if society just kinda stopped in the Medieval times, except technology kept going.”[/color]

The look on the lieutenant’s face made clear that he had [i]plenty[/i] of questions, but discretion seemed to carry the day. “Well, you ready?” Muldowney asked finally, motioning toward the door as he led the boy from out of the hospital.

Muldowney had checked a government vehicle from out of the motor pool for the trip. It wasn’t much. A Ford Fiesta. But Billy still marveled at the sight of the car, walking around it as though he was looking at some high priced concept car design at the auto show.

The travel from Fawcett toward Dayton, Ohio was a fairly straight shot. South through the state, before turning west. 

Dwarfed by the passenger side seat that he was situated in, Billy lasted only a couple of miles before his head lulled to one side and he knocked out.

[center][color=black][b]+ - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - + - +[/b][/color][/center]
He woke to find himself laid out on top of a bed, inside what looked like a hotel room.

It was set up like a suite. Beyond the bedroom was a room of equal size, with a couch on which Muldowney was seated, watching something that looked [i]kinda[/i] like what Billy remembered televisions being like. Except flat. Like totally flat.

Stumbling from out of the bedroom, the sleepy-eyed child rubbed at his face as he mumbled, [color=#00bfff]“I’m sorry.”[/color]

Holding up a television wand, Muldowney killed the sound from the television. Turning toward Billy, the man said, “You fell sixty-two [b]miles[/b] and crashed at probably a hundred or so [i]miles per hour[/i].” 

[b]Most[/b] people who went through that experience wouldn’t be in one piece, let alone alive.

“What are you apologizing for?” Muldowney deadpanned finally. 

For his part, Billy just gave a shrug. To be polite? He couldn’t have really said, so he just left it at that.

“This is the Air Force Inn on Wright-Pat Air Force Base,” Muldowney said, passing the television wand over toward Billy. As the man rose from off the couch, he added, “I’ll be by in the morning at zero-nine to get you and bring you for your meeting with General Sanders.”

Looking down at Billy, the lieutenant asked, “You’ll be okay here by yourself?”

From what he knew of the kid’s dossier, the boy had walked through some [i]serious hell[/i] during Operation Dragoon. Congress had unsealed the classified records in the late 1970s, revealing a lot about Captain Marvel that had been withheld from the public until that point. Even still, Billy Batson looked like a little kid.

It was more than unnerving.

As the child craned his head back, Billy just gave Muldowney a nod in response. [color=#00bfff]“Yes, sir.”[/color]

“You know you outrank me, right?”

Holding the remote between both hands, the boy’s head went back as he shot Muldowney an incredulous look, which only prompted the man to laugh. “Congress granted you veteran status at the same time that they did the WASP pilots,” the lieutenant explained. “The details of your battlefield commission were made public in the Eighties. I think the Smithsonian even has one of the uniforms that you wore on display.”

Billy just stood there. Shocked? Angry? Why was he angry? To be honest, he wasn’t sure. It just seemed so... different. After the War, nobody had talked about the War. They’d just gone back to their lives, like before. Then McCarthy and Korea and Vietnam... and it was like everything that he’d ever done had been used against him.

Now he was back and, what? He was just supposed to go back to being a hero again? 

Walking away from the conflicted boy, Muldowney hit the door and then turned around. “Before I go, are you hungry?” the man asked. “Do you want to get anything to eat?”

Well, that was a simpler thing to consider.

[color=#00bfff]“Do they still have Wendy’s?”[/color]