Chapter Text
Billy Batson has been Captain Marvel for for over a year at this point. He has been part of the Justice League for just over a month. He liked to think he had a basic grasp on the entire hero thing at this point—barring working with others in a group, that was still relatively knew new—but every now and then the universe decided to humble him.
Billy blinked. His three coworkers blinked back.
Superman was wearing a plain t-shirt and jeans, his shoes caked with mud which threw Billy off because Billy assumed the man grew up on Krypton and those were very much Earth clothes. Wonder Woman had a simple periwinkle dress on and sandals, her clean curly hair falling down to just past her shoulders. Batman had perfectly coifed hair, a pressed button down shirt, and pristine sneakers. It was odd to see Batman's face, young as it was. A shot of magic whizzed past them, reminding Billy that this mess happened during a battle.
"Shazam!" No lightning bolt came down. Drats, this just went from somewhat challenging to requiring reinforcements. At the very least, his identity was still probably intact—he could just act as if he was also suddenly turned into a child.
"C'mon, we gotta go take cover, even if this is weird as hell," Billy said because for some reason, Batman wasn't giving orders.
"Where am I?" Wonder Woman asked in ancient Greek and Billy felt his heart drop down to Tartarus. Oh, no. They didn't have their memories.
"Magic happened," Billy explained in ancient Greek, tugging her hand. She looked like she was the youngest out of them all—perhaps eight or seven. "It's—it made us younger which is a problem because you were all trying to help me fight that monster." As Billy and Wonder Woman ran for cover, Batman and Superman followed behind him.
"What happened?" Batman demanded. "Where are we?"
"We're in Fawcett—my home city," Billy explained. "Magic hit us. Usually we're adults, but it made us kids again." The lie slipped easily off his tongue even as he panted for breath.
"How come you you remember being an adult and we don't?" Batman scowled. Superman stayed quiet, his eyes frightfully flicking to the monster.
"I know magic," Billy said. "I was resistant to it."
"Magic isn't real," Batman huffed.
"Look, I don't want to argue with you—you'll see soon enough—we need to get to my home base where I have magic books."
"I thought you said you know magic," Batman scoffed.
"That doesn't mean I have every single spell memorized." Billy felt his eyebrow twitch at Batman's questions. "Just trust me."
"But you could be kidnapping me," Batman accused, stopping in the street once they were relatively out of danger. "I don't even know your name."
"You can call me Cap," Billy offered.
"I'm Clark K—" Superman—or Clark, Billy guessed—was about to say and Billy knew the hero wouldn't have revealed his identity if he wasn't a literal child.
"No last names," Billy snapped, mildly harsh. It wasn't helping that Bruce was starting to give him a headache. "It's—our adult selves keep our identities secret to keep ourselves safe."
"I can keep myself safe," Clark jutted out his chin defiantly and Billy didn't doubt him for a second.
"What about those you love? Are they as strong as you?" Billy challenged. Clark opened his mouth to argue, but Billy continued. "Can you protect them every single moment every single day? What about living your life and letting them live their's?" Clark closed his mouth, his cheeks heating up in embarrassment.
"What are you talking about?" Wonder Woman asked Billy, tugging on his tattered red hoodie.
"Is she your sister? She doesn't speak English," Batman shrewdly observed.
"Yes, she's with us, but she's not my sister. She grew up on an ancient Greek island, hence why she's speaking ancient Greek," Billy answered before turning to Wonder Woman. "The boy doesn't trust me and is asking a lot of questions."
Where to go? Should he bring them to the Rock of Eternity? He had a few magic books at his current hideout—it would be a mistake to not look there first on the chance the exact book they needed was there. Mind made up, Billy started to lead them through the alleys.
Clark was quiet and complacent, but he was tense as they walked. As they entered the darker alleys, Batman started to hunch in on himself and his eyes kept flicking around the alley as if a shadow might attack him. Wonder Woman's eyes were wide, drinking everything in.
"What are we like when we're older?" Clark asked in the silence. Wonder Woman's eyes flicked to him briefly before going back to their surroundings.
"You're kind," Was the first thing Billy said. "All of you are. I've only known each of you for about a month, but that's the thing that sticks out. You're all leaders, too. You came together to create a team of heroes in order to save as many people as you can and by the gods is it successful."
"What about you?" Clark asked. "Although I guess it doesn't matter since you remember being an adult."
"I'm relatively new to the hero scene compared to you guys," Billy admitted. "But I'm doing my best. I like what I do, and people keep on thanking me for what I've done, so I like to think I'm doing a good job of it." Billy suddenly stopped as they reached his current hidey-hole. Billy frowned when he saw his tent. It was under an invisibility spell when he left it; either someone stumbled into his tent by happenstance, someone counteracted the spell, or all of his magic was messed up. None of those were good options.
Billy unzipped the tent, the knot that had begun to form in his chest uncoiling at the sight of all of his stuff being untouched.
Batman stuck his head in, his brow pinched.
"This doesn't look like a base," Batman said, his voice stressed.
"It's not. My main magical base is further away—I wanted to check here first in case I had a book that was helpful." Diana's eyes brightened when she saw a book written in ancient Greek—it was mainly house keeping spells like clothes mending and keeping a fire going, so Billy found no harm in her looking through it.
"Do…do you live here?" Batman asked, for the first time sounding unsure of himself as he spotted Billy's camping air mattress and clothes strewn about.
"Does it look like a grown man lives here?" Billy scoffed, dismissing Batman's concern. Batman frowned, and he tugged Clark away from the tent, probably to try to convince the boy that Billy was not to be trusted. Billy's eyes landed on a magic book about languages. Perfect!
He started flipping through the pages, skipping through them until he saw what he was looking for. A spell that would translate ancient Greek to English and vice versa. He quickly explained his idea to Wonder Woman and she nodded eagerly. A quick whispered enchantment later and Wonder Woman frowned.
"I don't feel any different," She muttered in English.
"Well, you're speaking my language, so I'd count that as a success," Billy smiled.
"Truly? Where have your brothers gone? I want to properly introduce myself. I am Diana of Themyscira." Billy let the brothers comment slide. Wonder Woman always called the people of Themyscira her sisters even when she herself was sculpted from clay.
"I am Captain Marvel of Fawcett, although I think older you mentioned I'm called Thavma in Themyscira." Diana's grin widened.
"I am honored to meet you, Thavma."
"And I, you, princess. Now, let's hope Batman and Clark haven't gotten to far." Billy got up and exited the tent, Diana following him. Billy zipped it up, whispered a spell, and the tent flickered before remaining stubbornly visible. Hm, that's not good. Magic was being weird. Unfortunately, it wasn't like there was a lot Billy could do to fix it at the moment, so he was forced to let it be no matter how much it rankled him.
Billy spotted the pair of boys at the end of the alley, quietly bickering about something that Billy couldn't quite hear. Diana frowned and Billy took note of it. Looked like she had enhanced hearing compared to a human, probably just not as good as Superman's. The bickering boys quieted at their approach.
"Found a spell so that all of us could understand Diana," Billy said in lieu of greeting before stepping back to give Diana the floor.
"I am Diana, princess of Themyscira. I am honored to make your acquaintance," She said, inclining her head slightly. Clark's eyes widened at hearing she was a princess, but Batman—like always—was quick to recover and similarly bowed his head at Diana.
"You may call me Ghost." Diana looked at Clark and he fumbled a bit. It was odd to see a man Billy always viewed as larger than life and amazing with people falter for words as basic as an introduction.
"Uh, I'm Clark K—Kansas. Yep. I'm from Kansas." Huh. Billy, wondered why Superman decided to move to Metropolis. Maybe he had family over there or something. Must be nice. Billy was stuck with an uncle who stole his inheritance and a cousin that looks at him like the dirt under his shoe. Billy squashed the jealousy that rose up at the of Superman's family.
"Great, now that introductions are done, we really need to get a move on—I don't want that monster wrecking the city any longer than I have to." Billy started to walk, relieved when the others followed. Bruce and Diana walked further back, Bruce explaining the world of Man to Diana while Clark sidled up alongside Billy. Billy's headache was starting to get worse, but Billy ignored it—he had other problems to focus on.
"So, how old are you?" No harm in answering that question, at least.
"Twelve, it looks like. What about you?"
"Thirteen. Hey, Ghost and I were talking earlier and he had the idea of going to your parents for help. Or calling the other heroes—the ones you said are part of our superhero group."
"My parents are dead," Billy replied, voice harsher than he intended and Billy winced as soon as the words left his mouth. "It's—I don't need parents. When people grow old, their parents die. That's what happened to me. As for calling other heroes, I'm working on it. We're going to my magical home base where I have an extra communicator and then we can call the heroes."
"Why can't we borrow someone's phone?"
"It has to be a secure line. Adult B would kill me if I called the Justice League from a cell phone." Clark smiled at that.
"Ah, so he'll always be like this?"
"Yeah," Billy huffed with amusement. "He can be…intense. Still a good guy, though. How's he doing, by the way?"
"He's…worried," Clark politely said. "But all of us are scared. I mean, I was just sitting in class when suddenly I'm in a city I've barely heard of and I'm staring up at a monster that apparently made us all kids. It's…a lot."
"Yeah," Billy hummed. "Magical transportation can be really off-putting if you aren't used to it. The first time I was magically transported, I followed this guy onto an old train station and this really cool colorful train showed up. I got on it and it went so fast I thought we were going into space."
"Why would you follow a guy into an abandoned train station?"
"Uh," Billy fumbled for an answer. "He looked like a wizard." Billy blamed his headache and the slowly increasing ache in his bones for the stupid answer. In fact now that Billy thought about it, he wasn't feeling too good and he stumbled. Clark reached out a hand to steady Billy.
"Hey, are you okay?" Billy nodded only for another wave of dizziness to overcome him. Clark stopped walking. "Guys, something is wrong with Cap." B and Diana walked up, both matching frowns with Clark.
"Diana said he's called Thavma, by the way," B said. "He's supposed to be lightning incarnate and he's distinctly…not sparky."
"Thavma is only half of me," Billy automatically corrected. "It needs a host. I'm that host."
"Were you hurt by the monster? Or maybe the monster hurt Thavma?" Clark asked. He had a pinched look to his face, his hands hovering as he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.
"I'm fine," Billy insisted. He did take the direct hit meant for all of them, but he was magically resistant unlike everyone else—except for maybe Wonder Woman—but he was fine.
"When's the last time you ate?" Ghost asked, his eyes scanning Billy. "You can feel bad if you don't eat or drink enough, and it looks like you're underweight." Clark glared at Ghost, but didn't call him out for being rude.
"I had a snack a few hours ago." For once it wasn't a lie.
"What about when you were a kid? Did you eat enough when you were this age?" Ghost pressed.
"For a few years I was homeless, but I'm fine now," Billy huffed. He had the Rock of Eternity to live. "C'mon, we have to keep moving."
"We have to get you something to eat," Ghost insisted. "I have some money on me, so I can buy you something."
"I have food at the Rock of Eternity," Billy redirected. "If you're so insistent that I eat something, I'll just eat something there." Billy stood up only to clutch his stomach as pain lanced through his torso like a hot sword.
"Take off your shirt," Ghost quickly said.
"I'm not doing that," Billy said, clutching his hoodie tighter around him. Ghost just rolled his eyes.
"My dad is a surgeon. When people come in that are hurt, he has to cut the clothes off of them. It happens all the time."
"Our healers do the same if there's an accident," Diana added. With two against one, Billy had no choice but to comply. He took off his hoodie and shirt in one go, trying not to be self-conscious od the small bruises that littered his body or the Lichtenberg figure that marked him as the host for the Living Lightning.
The trinity fell silent.
"How'd you get those bruises?" Clark hesitantly asked, wincing.
"Got mugged."
"And the…tattoo?" Ghost asked, frowning. "You have to be older to get one."
"Not a tattoo," Billy huffed. "It's called a Lichtenberg figure—you get it if you're struck by lightning."
"You were struck by lightning?!" Clark shouted.
"It was magical lightning," Billy clarified. "It wasn't going to kill me and I get struck by magical lightning basically very single day since then. It's fine."
"Does Thavma hit you with lightning?" Diana asked, frowning. "The stories say he's supposed to be nice."
"Thavma is me and I'm him kind of. He's under the surface, and I call him to take up more space, but I can't do that now for some reason. Can I please put my shirt back on so that we can get moving?"
"Is it supposed to be black?" Ghost pushed. Billy froze and looked down. Sure enough, the usually pink mark was as dark as ink. That couldn't be good.
"No," Billy sighed and he moved to slip his shirt and hoodie back on. "It's usually pink. I think my connection to the gods is messed up. Just another reason to go there, so let's start moving."
"Still need to check your back," Ghost insisted. Billy huffed and turned around.
"I knew it!" Ghost crowed. "You are injured. You have this weird black mark on your back." Billy felt fingers prod it and Billy flinched away. Diana smacked Bruce's hand away from Billy.
"Don't touch it," Diana hissed. "Especially when you don't have his permission." Billy took the opportunity to put his shirt and hoodie back on.
"You should go to a hospital," Ghost said. "It looks like a heem-uh-toh-ma. You have internal bleeding."
"No hospital," Billy harshly said.
"You could die," Ghost growled. "I know what I'm talking about. My dad is—was a surgeon; I know what I'm talking about."
"Congrats, but hospitals are too expensive and we need to get going. I can heal it with magic at the Rock of Eternity." Billy stumbled forward and Diana was at his side in an instant, supporting him with ease despite her smaller stature.
"Thavma, I think this is a bad idea," Clark said hesitantly. "You should see a doctor—"
"Can't afford a doctor and even if I could, they would ask questions about me being an unattended minor. Social services would be called and I would have to run away." The group walked forward, Clark and Ghost having a silent argument of looks and gestures. A glare from Diana had them stopping.
Billy stopped when heard a familiar uneven gait echo down the street with surprising quickness. Freddy Freeman rounded the corner, a stressed look on your face. His face soured at the gaggle of kids surrounding Billy.
"What is happening?" Freddy hissed in ancient Greek. "There's a magical monster that's so bad the trinity was called in to help, all of you suddenly disappear from the fight, and when I try to go and provide back-up, I discover that I can't call forth the power." Billy winced, glancing at Diana.
"Working on it," Billy tried to assure. "We have a bit of a situation on our hands. These kids behind me, they're the trinity." Freddy's eyes widened as he took in the children. He groaned and rubbed a hand down his face, muttering curses under his breath that had Clark crinkling his nose in distaste.
"Why does everything weird happen to you? Okay, fine. We can work with this. This is fine. I think I saw Flash running around earlier, so they should have the monster subdued soon at the very least."
"Still doesn't solve the lack of a communicator—they'd have to search the entire city and people would prevent us from speaking with the heroes," Billy huffed. "I still think the best bet would be to go back to the Rock."
"But they would be searching," Freddy argued. "I can find a way to get their attention."
"That still doesn't solve the problem of me," Billy emphasized. "I said the magic word and it didn't work—something's wrong with the Rock, or at least my connection to it and I have to fix it. I'm also feeling weird, so something deeper might be going on with all of magic." Freddy's face became strained.
"Bil—Dude, I saw Sam and his gang hanging out at the entrance. They're going to cream you if you go there now." Billy gnawed on his lip, turning the situation over in his head.
"Who's this?" Ghost asked with crossed arms.
"And why do people want to beat you up?" Diana asked Billy with a frown. Freddy grimaced as he no doubt remembered Wonder Woman's affiliation with the ancient Greeks. Ghost's scowl deepened and Clark's brow pinched in the way Superman did whenever they came across a challenging problem.
"That's Junior," Billy pointed at Freddy who squawked in indignation. "And people always want to beat me up—I'm a hero and that makes a lot of people angry."
"Then you should be able to sneak past them now that you no longer look like a hero," B reasoned and Billy hated that the boy was as logical as his elder self.
"Can't. They like to mug people, especially defenseless kids."
"I'll go with you," Clark immediately offered.
"Me too!" Diana crowed. "I know how to fight, I'm being trained by the best warriors on the island."
"No," Billy sighed. "All of you need to get back to the Justice League. Junior, can you—"
"Did someone say the Justice League?" A voice called from above and there Hal Jordan was in all his green glory.