Chapter Text
(iv)
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS APRIL 15 2019
More Superpowered Beings in Philadelphia: Friend or Foe?
PHILADELPHIA TRIBUNE APRIL 19 2019
Super Humans Rescue University Students From Dorm Fire
THE PUBLIC RECORD APRIL 24 2019
Councilman Ford Calls for Legislation of Superheroes, Met With Resistance
PHILADELPHIA BULLETIN APRIL 24 2019
Polls Show 68% of Citizens ‘Feel Safer’ With Heroes in Town
THE PHILLY STAR APRIL 26 2019
Heroes Sent From Planet Uul To Dominate Earth
Billy and Freddy gaped as Darla held out a handful of mountain laurels, beaming at them. “I brought you some flowers!”
“Where did you get those from?” Freddy asked, doing an exaggerated spin to look around at their surroundings.
“Wissahickon,” Darla smiled. “It’s my favourite park to go to.”
“That’s like, five miles from here,” Freddy said faintly. “You weren’t even gone for a minute.”
“Is that bad?” Darla asked, looking worried.
“No!” Billy was quick to assure her. “No, being very fast is a very good thing.” Freddy nodded beside him.
“You’ll be able to help a lot of people being so fast.” Darla clapped her hands together. “We just need to get you used to stopping when you want to instead of five miles later.”
Darla nodded. “Sometimes I stop in the middle of the lake and fall in.” Billy and Freddy stared at her.
“You stop…in the middle of the lake?” Freddy asked weakly.
“You can run on water?” Billy asked.
Darla looked between the two of them. “Can’t you?”
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Freddy and Billy broke the surface of the water, gasping. They tread water and grinned at each other.
“Check!”
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“Okay, Darla,” Freddy said, dropping the end of his cape from where he’d been toweling his wet hair dry, “we’re going to set a goal for you. Billy and I will go wait for you somewhere, that’s tbd still, and your goal is to meet us there. Not ten miles past us. We need to make sure you can stop when you’re supposed to.”
“I like practicing,” Darla beamed.
“Good, because you need a lot of it,” Freddy muttered. Billy smacked the back of his head.
“All right, let’s pick the first place…”
“Wait a minute,” Billy said, frowning. “How are we going to find her if she ends up going way off course from where she’s supposed to be?” Freddy opened his mouth to speak, but faltered. Darla blinked at him.
“Find my iPhone?”
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“Wow,” Freddy said, coming in to land next to Darla. “You were only three towns off.” Darla sighed.
“I’m sorry, Freddy. I tried really hard to stop but my legs just don’t listen.” Her lower lip trembled.
“Hey, hey, don’t cry!” he rushed to comfort her. “You’re doing really good, Darla.”
Billy nodded. “He’s right, you’ve already stopped way sooner than you used to.” He glanced around. “We should probably go home soon, make sure we beat Victor and Rosa there.”
“Dude, it’s parent teacher night,” Freddy reminded him. “They’re gonna spend an hour with every single teacher and then talk to all the other parents in the cafeteria. We’ve got ages.”
“I have homework,” Darla announced. Freddy made a face.
“So do I, that doesn’t mean I’m gonna do it.” Darla gasped.
“Freddy! You have to. A good superhero would.”
Billy snorted and turned away. “All right, let’s do one more,” he spoke over Freddy’s mocking mumble. Freddy took out his phone from the fanny pack he wore to store it in. (“What?” he’d demanded at Billy’s look. “The suit doesn’t have pockets!”)
“All right, Darla, I sent the next place to your phone. We’ll meet you there.” Darla nodded brightly, checking the notification on Billy’s screen (“No phone until she’s 12,” Rosa insisted), and tucked the phone back in the top of her boot. (“A fanny pack is much more secure,” Freddy had grumbled.) She was gone in an instant, the saplings around them bent double in her wake.
“Think she’ll get it this time?” Billy asked. Freddy shrugged.
“If she doesn’t then maybe I can convince her to stay out later, away from, you know, homework.” Freddy scrolled through his phone. “Got her,” he said, seeing the red blip on the map that was Darla. “Let’s go.”
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Freddy and Billy slowed as they approached the small town and went over it, flying towards the dense forest nestled at the base of the Adirondack mountains in New York. “We’re right on top of her,” Freddy told Billy, checking his phone. He zipped it back into his fanny pack and jerked his head towards the ground. “Let’s see if we can spot her.”
They landed on the outskirts of the forest, above the town. The late afternoon sun blazed a fierce red. Freddy turned a slow circle and paused. “Well, no Darla but there’s a group of people in tents staring at us.”
“What?” Billy turned to look and exchanged a look with Freddy. “Do…do we go talk to them?”
“Uh.” Freddy was saved from answering when his phone rang, the display reading Zaptain America. He pointed at the phone. “Hey Darla,” he answered. He frowned. “Look up?” He and Billy craned their necks, searching the sky to no avail. “Here you come from wh—” he suddenly smacked Billy’s arm and pointed. Billy followed his finger and saw it: a small speck speeding down the side of the mountain, easily seen against the snow-covered mountain face.
“She went up the mountain?” Billy asked.
“Dude, she was supposed to meet us in the middle of town. She’s like, two seconds past that—” Darla stopped in front of them and Freddy grinned at her. “Nearly perfect.”
“Yay,” Darla said, bouncing once in place.
“Darla,” Billy said suddenly, “you just stopped right in front of us.”
Freddy gasped hugely. “Darla!” he cried. He dimly registered a whumph, and only barely glanced around, easily dismissing it, and grinned at Darla. “You did it!”
“Oh my gosh! I did it, I just did it! I stopped right in front of you like I wanted to!” she cheered. She pulled Freddy and Billy both towards her. A sharp crack! echoed around them. Billy leaned away, head raised warily.
“What was that?”
Freddy frowned, staring down at the town. “Was it a car accident or—”
“Oh crap,” Billy breathed next to him, and took off.
“Billy, wh—oh crap,” Freddy echoed. He watched as the top of the mountain slid off, a sheet of white falling deceptively slow. “Are you kidding me is that an avalanche?”
“Freddy,” Darla sounded scared. “Those people on the mountain—” Freddy’s eyes snapped to the scattered tents at the edge of the forest. He gulped.
“Darla, don’t hold back.”
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Freddy laughed wildly. “It worked! Oh my god it worked. Billy!” His brother gave him an exhausted look.
“How…do you have air,” he panted.
“We’re going to get on this side of it and blow it into the forest!” Billy yelled. Freddy stared at him.
“We’re going to what—”
“Darla! We need you!” Billy waved Freddy closer. “Take as deep a breath as you can, and just blow. If we can send it into the forest, the trees should slow it down.”
“Okay,” Freddy said, voice shaking, watching the racing snow heading straight for the town full of flimsy humans. “Okay, just blow an avalanche off course, no problem—” he inhaled deeply, spread out from Billy, Darla on the ground below them, and blew.
It worked.
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PHILADELPHIA BULLETIN MAY 2 2019
Terror With Inadvertent Avalanche Caused By Super
THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD MAY 2 2019
Minor Injuries Reported in Adirondack Avalanche
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS MAY 2 2019
Ford Calls for Accountability in Superpowered Avalanche
THE PHILLY STAR MAY 2 2019
Avalanche to Uul: Begin Attack! The REAL Reason They Triggered the Avalanche
“—and the reason behind the avalanche remains unknown,” Ford finished, his satisfaction evident over the airwaves. This was exactly what he’d wanted to happen, something to sway the public’s mind about the heroes in Philadelphia.
“Are you trying to suggest that the trigger of the avalanche was anything but an accident?” The show’s host, Dave Saunders, was incredulous. “There was no sinister reason behind it, it was an accident. And they managed to divert the snow from burying the town by breathing at it, I haven’t seen that kind of lung power since Freddie Mercury.”
“Yes, they saved the day, from themselves. Why don’t we just give them all the key to the city?” Ford scoffed.
“You know, I’d be interested to hear what some callers have to say about this. Hi, you’re on the air.”
“Yeah, uh, I just wanted to say that I agree with Mr. Ford completely, they caused that avalanche and almost killed all those people, they can’t be allowed to do that—”
“Interesting,” Dave said, “although I don’t think anyone allowed them to do it. Next, we have George from Philly, go ahead, George.”
“Thanks, Dave. I have to say, I think what these people are doing is incredible, but they need to learn from this accident, and be more mindful in the future.”
“Thank you, George, I think we can agree with the need for them to be careful. Hey, you’re on.”
“These f-freaks almost killed innocent people, and you want to waste time trying to defend them? My niece almost died in that avalanche, and what would we have been told, huh? ‘Sorry but someone ran up a mountain and kicked all the snow loose’?”
“How is your niece doing now, sir?” Ford asked quickly.
“She’s being treated in the hospital, Mr. Ford.”
“I hope she recovers soon and can go home.”
The man’s thanks was cut off and Dave spoke. “Very sorry to hear about your niece, yes, and to anyone who was personally affected by this, we hope that all of them have a quick recovery.” He heaved a sigh. “All right, with this last minute, Councilman, what would you like to say?”
Ford spoke right into the microphone. “I would like to urge my fellow citizens not to turn their back on their police force, the men and women who have sworn to uphold the law and order in our city. I want to tell you not to be dazzled by flashy capes and over-the-top theatrics. And I need to remind you that we have always gotten along before this ‘Shazam’ person and his flunkies. Say ‘no’ to superheroes.”
“Harsh, but not totally unwarranted,” Dave noted. “We’re out of time, thanks to Councilman Ford for coming out to talk with us, stay tuned for traffic…”
He lowered the radio’s volume and stood in contemplative silence for a minute. There was a short sigh from behind him.
“It got bad faster than I thought.”
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Freddy felt his heart sink with every newscast he skipped over that had a similar banner to the other stations.
Superhero Menace
Ford: Say No To Superheroes
Time to Say Goodbye to Shazam?
“Okay, so everyone hates us, that’s good to know,” he nodded to himself. Mary shook her head, staring at the tv.
“No, they don’t. They’re just scared right now.”
“Right. Scared of the big, murdery superheroes—” he winced when Mary punched his arm.
“How are we going to fix this?” Eugene asked, looking worried. “Even if it was an accident, it was still Darla’s fault—”
“No, it wasn’t her fault,” Billy snapped. He pushed off the bookshelf he had been leaning against and stormed from the room. They watched him go.
“Then whose fault was it?” Eugene asked again.
“Eugene,” Mary shook her head at him. “Just, let’s not worry about that right now, all right?”
Freddy rubbed his forehead. He felt queasy, like he had sucked back a triple chocolate milkshake and then rolled down a hill. He could still hear that creepy whumph of snow falling, the crack that echoed throughout the mountain. He could still see the sheet of snow tumble and fall, rolling and sliding, Darla and Billy scooping up people left and right and bringing them into town, but nowhere was far enough, because the snow kept coming—
Freddy saw a couple on a snowmobile get swept up in the rushing snow and he dove towards them. The woman reached up with one hand, the other fisted in the man’s jacket, and their fingers brushed just as a tidal wave of snow overtook them and they were buried.
“No!” Freddy flung himself into the roaring, tumbling snow, and was blind, deaf, dumb, mute. He could fight his way out but he couldn’t find them, couldn’t help them—
There! A flash of red, a pair of boots, and Freddy pushed through and reached, and he had two armfuls of people and now he just had to find his way out. The snow to his left was falling away rapidly and he was being pulled towards it, and he tightened his grip on the couple and pushed forward, hoping they weren’t about to tumble off a cliff or something stupid when a hand plunged down and grabbed Freddy by the front of the suit. He was yanked forward and broke free of the snow, hands tightening around the people in his arms. He was lifted and flown down the rest of the mountain to drop lightly to his feet in the middle of town. Billy landed right behind him and paramedics were rushing a gurney over.
Billy grabbed Freddy’s shoulder in a tight grip. “I have an idea.”
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“Freddy?” He snapped back to the present, saw his siblings staring at him, and stood up.
“I’m going to bed,” he muttered. Pedro gave him a look but said nothing. Good ol’ Pedro, keeping his mouth shut. Freddy left the living room and made for the stairs. He was headed for his room when soft voices stopped him in the hall, and he stopped. The door to Darla’s room was half open, and he could hear Billy inside, voice soothing.
“—it was a mistake, and we’re going to fix it, okay?”
“N-no,” Darla sobbed, and Freddy felt his heart clench. “I almost hurt people, I collapsed a mountain—” Freddy could see in her room when he turned his head just so, and saw Darla pressed against Billy, small arms wrapped around his waist while he stroked her head.
“It’s okay to be scared,” he heard Billy say. “But we can fix it, I promise. You can do a lot of good when you’re you and when you’re her, there’s no—”
“No!” Darla cried, pulling back. “I’m never doing it again. I don’t ever want to be her again.” Freddy sighed to himself and continued to his room. He missed the thoughtful look on Billy’s face, didn’t hear his answer.
“That might be a good idea.”
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“What.” Freddy glared at Billy who stood steadily, meeting Freddy’s gaze unflinchingly.
“I don’t want any of you using your powers anymore,” Billy repeated. The room exploded.
“That’s not fair—”
“We’ve been helping a lot of people!”
“I don’t care!” Billy yelled, fists at his sides. “You saw what happened with Darla, and now she won’t even come out of her room because of what’s being said about her. It’s only going to happen to all of you, too.”
“There are plenty of people who want us around,” Mary pointed out. “We have helped a lot of people in these last few months. I think that we should take some time and—"
“So do you still get to use them?” Freddy demanded. “Just you and not us? Why? You’re the reason people started hating us in the first pl—”
“Freddy,” Mary hissed, looking shocked. Freddy felt a wave of guilt rush over him when he saw the look on Billy’s face.
“I…I’m sorry, Billy, I didn’t mean that—” Billy shook his head. They all started when a harsh, buzzing tone sounded. Eugene pulled his phone out and his eyes went wide.
“Guys?” he said, looking up. He turned his phone and held it out to show them the shaky footage of a car being thrown across the street by what looked like—
“Is that Godzilla?” Freddy squeaked.
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“Holy shit! Dude, you almost got nailed by his tail!” Freddy yelled as Billy banked sharply to the left to avoid the thrashing spiked appendage. Billy turned himself around midflight and raised his hands, sending bolts of lightning rippling over the creature’s scaly body. The beast roared and swung clawed hands, ripping the side of a building clear off.
“We have to lead it out of the city!” Billy shouted. Pedro ran up behind the monster and broke a streetlamp over its head. It turned and growled low in its throat, red eyes flashing as it started to close in on Pedro.
“Hey ugly!” Mary swooped in front of it, landing a solid kick across its short snout. It screeched and clawed at the air, trying to grab her but Mary danced out of reach. She let it get close and then burst ahead. It started to follow her.
“Lead it to the river!” Billy shouted. The four of them got ahead of the beast and taunted it, keeping it focused on them, distracted from the city around it. Freddy cast a worried look at the bloody rip through the back of Billy’s suit, where a long claw had gotten too close. The monster was huge, twenty feet tall and as wide as a house, but it could strike with surprising speed. The tail was lethal; almost as long as the monster was tall, lined with black spikes, hard-scaled things that had knocked Pedro through the front of a shop when it caught him in the stomach.
The Schuykill river was in sight, thick forest lining the bank on either side. Billy flew close to Freddy and yelled in his ear. “If we can get it in the river, we can blast it.”
“But your lightning is barely doing anything to it!” Freddy cried. He hated feeling scared like this, uncertain. If they couldn’t stop this creature, who would? He was surprised to see the grin on Billy’s face.
“Water’s a great conductor,” he said, and split away, close to the treetops as the monster crashed through the forest. Pedro had fallen back, staying unnoticed by the creature, ready to push it to the river if it tried to turn around. Freddy flew right in front of it.
“Hey, so have you heard of Godzilla? I mean, is that where your aesthetic is coming from? Because I’m pretty sure it’s copyrighted—” he zipped out of the way of an angry swipe of an arm—“and man, do we need to talk about your dental health. Your breath smells worse than a puked-up burrito.” It roared and lunged, and suddenly Mary was grabbing Freddy by the arm and hauling him up, but he still felt the sharp claw rip down his leg. He cried out, and through the haze of pain saw Pedro throw himself at the creature’s legs, toppling it forward into the river. It crashed forward, stumbling but righting itself, its lower half completely submerged. The hair on the back of Freddy’s neck stood on end, and he looked over and saw Billy raising his arms.
He unleashed a blazing current of lightning at the creature. It enveloped the beast, and it roared, dragging its claws across its face and body, trying to pull the lightning off, thrashing in the water. Waves of charged water were lapping up onto the bank, and he saw Pedro hurry back from the water’s edge. The creature arched its back and screeched and seized up, the relentless current taking its toll. Freddy could see the strain on Billy’s face but he kept going, arms shaking until the creature staggered and fell, dropping face-first into the river. Its tail twitched, popping above the surface of the water spasmodically.
Billy lowered his arms and his shoulders sagged. He looked over at Freddy and Mary, and managed a weak grin.
“So how long ‘til its safe to go swimming again?”
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Freddy rubbed at his leg when it twinged. Victor noticed and looked at him questioningly.
“Is your leg bothering you, Freddy?” Billy’s head whipped up from across the table. Freddy shook his head quickly.
“No, I mean, no more than usual,” he told Victor but kept his eyes on Billy, to reassure him I’m all right, don’t worry. The thing about getting injured when he was his superpowered alter ego was that while the injuries didn’t disappear when he changed back to his regular self, they were felt on a much smaller scale. The gash the creature had torn open in Freddy’s leg was merely an angry scratch when he reverted back to himself. Much the same for Billy’s own clawed back; he sat gingerly, careful not to lean against his chair back, but instead of a deep wound the skin was a raw red.
“So!” Mary said to get Rosa and Victor to stop watching Freddy, “tell us more about the conference. I can’t believe they’re paying for you to go all the way to Hawaii for it.”
Victor beamed at his wife, raising his wine glass. “Yes dear, I would also like to hear again how your work has won me an all-expenses paid trip to the Big Island.”
Rosa laughed, ripping a piece of bread apart and dipping the crust in the sauce left on her plate. “You won’t just be on the beach the whole trip. You at least have to listen to my speech.”
“You think I would miss my wife’s keynote address in front of a thousand people?” Victor tapped his chin in thought. “Although it depends if it’s at the same time as the dolphin diving…”
“Freddy, would you smack him on the back of the head for me?” Rosa asked, giving Victor a mock glare. She smiled at Mary over the kid’s giggles. “Well, we leave next Thursday morning, an hour before the crack of dawn, to drive to the airport to sit on a plane for more than eight hours to be dropped in paradise, where I will immediately throw up because the next day I have to speak to one thousand workers of the foster care community…” she trailed off, and swallowed.
“You’ll do a great job, Mom,” Darla said, smiling up at her. “You’re always good at yelling for us in the playground, and there’s a ton of people there.”
Victor burst out laughing and Freddy snorted, fighting back a grin of his own. Darla had been feeling better the last few days, had stopped crying over what happened in New York, and Freddy knew it was because Billy had told her she didn’t have to use her Shazam powers ever again. An uncomfortable feeling stirred in his gut as he remembered their unfinished conversation. Billy didn’t want any of them using their powers anymore. Freddy looked down at his leg, a grimace twisting his face. It would mean not walking freely anymore, like everyone else. No more flying through the air, feeling impossibly light swooping over the city, trailing after flocks of birds, and sometimes hurrying away from them when they turned and tried to attack them.
Two days ago they faced a monster, and the city was divided on the heroes.
The host of the radio talk show ‘Less Pandering with Dave Saunders’ had praised their quick thinking and pointed out their attempt to divert the creature from the city.
“This wasn’t a criminal mastermind looking for revenge on Shazam, this was a mindless beast hellbent on destruction. It would have happened in any city it had come upon, and you can bet on that, Mr. Ford.”
PHILADELPHIA CHRONICLE MAY 7 2019
Questions Remain On Origin of Creature That Terrorized City
PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS MAY 7 2019
Supporters of Heroes Say ‘All Would Be Lost’ Without Them Re: Monster Attack
THE PHILLY STAR MAY 7 2019
Exclusive: Beast is Jilted Fiancee of Shazam, Looking for Revenge—and LOVE
“Freddy?” He looked up from his pasta. Rosa smiled at him. “You’re pretty lost in thought.” He shrugged one shoulder and gave her a half-hearted grin.
“Just…thinking about my homework.” Victor pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Well, he’s not hot,” he said, brow furrowed. Freddy rolled his eyes and leaned away.
“What? I can be studious.”
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Billy’s face was set, and Freddy knew what he was going to say. He looked around at all of them minus Darla, sitting on the couch and armchairs in the living room. “I don’t think any of us should use our powers again.”
Freddy glared at him. “You’re just saying that cause—” he cut off, and stared at Billy. “Wait. Did you say any of us?” Billy nodded. “Including you?”
“Yes, Freddy,” he huffed, looking annoyed. “Including me.”
“Billy,” Mary said quietly, “we did a good thing last week. If we hadn’t been there to help—”
“We still don’t know where that thing came from,” Billy reminded her. “But it didn’t just pop out of the ground. Everyone who was there when it started said there was a flash of light, and what they thought was an earthquake, and then it was running down the street.” He shook his head. “Someone sent it here.”
“Or it was sentient enough to build itself an inter-dimensional portal, or a realm-hopping teleportation device and sent itself here,” Freddy couldn’t help to add. “What?” he asked defensively when he saw the looks his siblings gave him. “I read a lot of comics.”
“Philadelphia can’t become the next Metropolis,” Billy said. Freddy frowned.
“Now you’re just copying what that asshole Ford says.”
“Because it’s true!” Billy snapped. He glanced out the front window to where Victor and Rosa were washing the van and lowered his voice. “Did you even read the articles, huh? Did you see how much it’s going to cost the city to fix the damage? Did you see how badly some people got hurt?”
“And it would have been worse without us!” Freddy hissed. He stood and limped over to Billy. “Why can’t you understand that maybe we can do a good job, even if it means making mistakes?”
“What about when people die,” Billy asked quietly, “or get left behind because of a mistake we made?” Freddy’s throat tightened, remembering the man in the apartment fire. “Freddy,” Billy said, looking him in the eye, “we need to stop.”
“I agree.” They both turned to face Eugene, sitting straight on the couch. “I think that we need to let the police handle things like they always have.”
“What if they can’t?” Mary asked, brow furrowed. Outside, Rosa shrieked when she was sprayed in the face with the hose, and retaliated by throwing a soap heavy sponge at Victor. Eugene shrugged.
“They call in the army. Or Superman.” He stood up, hands on his hips. “Look, I want to help people too, but we don’t know what we’re doing.” He looked at Billy. “I’m done.” Eugene left the room. Pedro stood up as well.
“I just liked the muscles,” he said, and followed Eugene. Mary threw her hands up in the air, staring after her brothers.
“I don’t believe it,” she muttered, looking forlorn. She turned to Billy. “I think this is a mistake. And if I see someone about to step in front of a bus, I’m going to save them. But,” she walked over to Billy, and put her hands on his shoulders, “if the rest of my family is going through with this, I will too.” She pulled Billy into a short hug and left, shoulders drooping.
Billy and Freddy looked at each other. “I know how much it means to you,” Billy said, looking at Freddy’s leg, “but…”
“But what?”
Billy turned from him. “I’m scared.”
Freddy frowned. “Of what?”
“Of you guys getting hurt,” he mumbled. “I feel like…it’s only going to get worse. We barely beat that monster last week, and it made me think, what’s next? What if I can’t—” he cut off and shook his head, then gave Freddy a small smile. “If my family staying safe means I give up my sparkle fingers, too, then I’ll do it.”
Freddy grinned at him. “And if keeping my handicapped parking spot means giving up my cape, I’ll do it.” Billy snorted and shoved him lightly, then suddenly pulled Freddy close, hugging him tightly.
“Thanks Freddy. You’re a good brother.”
Freddy smiled into Billy’s shoulder. “I know.”