"How is it out there?"

"The aliens are declaring martial law, putting the news media under their control to spread propaganda or shutting down those that refuse to cooperate. My station was one that refuses to cooperate so I'm off until this is over. The vehicles are already beginning to break up, I'm going to go back out and scout for parts."

"I'll go with you." Rick and Kara say automatically.

"Eat first." Pietr orders, pulling the bowl from the icebox, handing it over to Billy and pushing him onto a crate that doubles as a seat.

Twenty minutes later Billy finishes his bowl of stew, changing into his oldest clothes as Pietr takes the bowl, going over to the washbowl that passes as a sink and cleans it before putting it away in the box that passes as a cupboard as Billy runs across the bridge, returning with three large canvas bags.

The others follow him down the tracks to another stairway, heading up on another street and looking around. They're in a street of small shops that closed a couple of hours ago. He ducks around the back, opening boxes behind the buildings.

"I have an agreement with the shopowners, I take everything recyclable, in return they save money on their garbage." Billy sorts the recyclables out between all three of their bags as they walk down the street. Rick looks up as small items begin falling from the sky, Billy picking them up and stuffing them in his bag before they head back to the station.

"Do you do the same street every night?" Kara asks as they walk over to the other platform, putting their finds with the other recyclables.

"No, I do a different street every night." Billy looks at his piles of recyclables. "I'd better take some of this in tomorrow, make more room in case I pick up something big. A lot of the homeless are going to be scrounging alien debris, trying to make a quick buck. I'll put my stuff away until after the glut is over, that way I can get more money for it."

"Billy, how long have you been. . .how long ago did your parents die?" Jay asks after a couple of false starts as he tries to find the right words to say. It's not everyday you find out the young man you were worried about paying attention to a young girl in your charge is actually a young orphan boy living on the streets.

"My parents died when I was eight, I lived with a great uncle for a couple of years until he died of a stroke, I was on the streets when I was ten. I found this place when I was eleven, that's when the old wizard picked me to be Captain Marvel, I got my job at WHIZ when I was twelve, I'll be fourteen in a few weeks." Billy says.