Disclaimer: All recognizable properties belong to DC/WB. No profit is made.
Continuity note: New 52 universe, and everyone except Captain Marvel is his/her New 52 iteration. Billy remains the ten-year old, pure, sweet but street-smart street rat from Return of Black Adam animated short and Superman/Shazam: First Thunder. The wizard is still dead and gone after giving Billy power a la the animated film and New 52.
AN: This story slowly emerged in my head as I was writing Sons, a story where Billy Batson turned out to be the biological son of the Dark Knight. I was writing a ten-year old kid was was also an effective and powerful superhero, and again and again it struck me Billy must have had a mentor to guide him through Hero 101. Also, Captain Marvel is a magic-powered Superman; just exactly what can he do and how did he explore his powers? I mean Superman leraning to fly in any story is pretty awesome; Captain Marvel should have some of those moments too. I will have him learn other things instead how to fly though. I feel like his magic power really is underplayed in DCU, and this story tries to fix it in part. XD
This story will eventually feature the Justice League and the Bat family as Billy's life intercept theirs.
That's enough rant to start off the story, so that's it. Hope you enjoy!
Zeus Astrapios: One
Billy thought he smelled apple crumble muffin.
He leapt out of bed and cheered; hurriedly throwing on some clothes, he rushed downstairs into the kitchen. Indeed, his father was just pulling open the oven door to reveal a tray of plump, golden, and steaming muffins.
"Holy moly, those smell even better than last time!" Billy exclaimed.
"Why, that's impossible," C. C. Batson, Egyptologist con baker extraordinaire, said in a mock serious voice, "My apple crumble muffins are perfect. It can't get better; it can only smell as perfect as those from last time."
"I want one!"
"They are still really hot right now; why don't you go open your Christmas presents?" C. C. Batson cajoled his son, "You will love what your mom got you."
"Right, Christmas presents!"
Billy dashed into the living room and started unwrapping his presents. His cries of "Wow, Harry Potter book", "Another puzzle, cool" and "Holy moly, Superman action figure!" filled the entire house. A few minutes later he dashed back into the kitchen, shouting, "Thanks dad thanks a bunch! Now can I have the muffin?"
C. C. Batson laughed and held the muffin in front of Billy's face. The boy took a humongous bite, but strangely he didn't taste anything. Eh? But this was his father's best recipe! What happened, why couldn't he taste it? Then he heard someone call, "Billy, Billy… William Joseph Batson!"
Billy's head snapped up and he found himself sitting inside the classroom, staring up at the face of his math teacher. He fell asleep in class? Ah, right, no wonder he couldn't taste the muffin; they say you can't taste anything in dreams. His parents had passed away three years ago; he will never taste dad's apple crumble muffins again, neither in reality nor in dreams.
"Billy, you are drooling," The math teacher, Ms. Glaukos said quietly.
The entire class burst into laughter, while Billy wiped his face with his dirty sleeves furiously, blushing beet red. Ms. Glaukos held his hand gently but firmly but said, "Billy, I know you generally do well in math class, but I would prefer if you do not sleep here. Go stand in the hall; I will come and speak with you."
Billy stood up from his seat and walked out the classroom shamefaced. He stood in the corridor, head bowed, and feeling extremely down. Math was his favorite subject, for it was the only subject he could do well in. English and social studies and science all required time and books that he did not have. Ms. Glaukos was also his favorite teacher. Why must he fall asleep in Ms. Glaukos's class of all classes! Not that he should fall asleep in class at all…
Just then the door swung open and Ms. Glaukos stepped out into the hallway. Billy snuck a quick look at her and then hung his head in shame.
"Hey Billy, it's alright," Ms. Glaukos said in a soft voice and knelt in front of the boy. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and gently wiped clean Billy's face, and then pushed a bottle into his hand. "Here, have some cold juice; it will wake you right up."
"Thank you so much, Ms. Glaukos!" Billy twisted open the bottle and downed the entire bottle of orange juice in two gulps. He had only eaten a slice of bread all day long and was growing light-headed, the juice was just god-sent!
"Billy, you look really tired," Ms. Glaukos continued, "When did you go to bed last night? Is everything alright at home?"
Billy blinked and raised his head slowly, finally looking at Ms. Glaukos directly. Something in her grey eyes made his heart skip. Ms. Glaukos was an extraordinarily beautiful woman; her face was like those of classical sculptures, much more awe-inspiring than even the flashiest Hollywood star. She was kind, but despite her small frame she was authoritative too. Even the ten-year old brats in her class understood the point well and were always more respectful to her than to most other teachers. Billy had always liked her, but now he seemed to register something else in her dark hair and her perfect face, something powerful, something familiar, almost like family.
"Well, Billy?" Ms. Glaukos asked again.
"Er, yeah, I was watching TV and didn't sleep until too late," Billy came up with the most plausible sounding lie hurriedly, "I am sorry, Ms. Glaukos! I will never do it again, I won't fall asleep in class anymore, I promise!"
Billy didn't like lying, but it wasn't as if he could tell the truth. How would "well I turned into a mystical champion of the gods and helped put out the humongous fire downtown" sound? Totally nutcase. Anyway, this superhero thing will get better, right? It's not like there would be huge fires every night, and maybe he would get better at it too. Captain Marvel was supposed to have the stamina of Atlas; he wasn't supposed to get tired just because he didn't sleep any last night.
Ms. Glaukos regarded him quietly for a few seconds, long enough for Billy to get nervous, before she changed the subject, saying, "Your home room teacher told me that you didn't bring the field trip permission form? Are you sure about it? If the fee is an issue, you know we have support programs at the school, so you shouldn't worry about that. Would you like me to call your uncle? Perhaps I can convince him to let you attend the field trip."
"No, don't call Uncle Ebenezer!" Billy blurted out.
The seeing Ms. Glaukos's steady questioning gaze Billy blushed again. He said with discomfort, "I mean, the money isn't the issue; Uncle Ebenezer doesn't want me to see the museum stuff for umm, religious reasons. That's right, he said it's not a good idea, being bad to God, that kind of stuff."
Hopefully that was enough to put Ms. Glaukos off his track? People generally stop asking questions altogether once he said things like "religious reasons". Billy really didn't need anyone calling Uncle Ebenezer. He was out of his uncle's house for nearly two years now, and he was doing just fine on his own. He didn't need to be stuffed back into his uncle's home, where only more misery awaited. Ms. Glaukos, however, did not stop asking questions, only asked one of a different sort, "So what do you plan to do tomorrow?"
Billy shrugged and said, "I dunno, stay home and watch TV?"
This turned out to be not so far from the truth after all.
The next morning, while Billy's classmates enjoyed their trip to the museum, Billy holed up in one of his hideouts at an abandoned subway station. He had a successful early morning run collecting bottles, enough to afford himself some nice food from McDonald, so now he enjoyed a breakfast sandwich while listening to radio. Alright, it wasn't quite a TV, but close enough. When his favorite song ended and gave way to advertisement, Billy tuned in to the news station, just in time to hear the latest villainy befallen Fawcett City.
"…the hostage situation at Fawcett Museum of Natural History made a breakthrough, though perhaps not the happy ending the city was anxious to see," The female announcer's voice floated from the radio, "Fawcett PD had finally agreed to release the mob boss Trenton McGregor and supply a helicopter as demanded. So far the fifty-seven children have all been released and accounted for, but the perps still hold a hostage: twenty-seven year old school teacher Areia Glaukos…"
Billy shot up. A second later Captain Marvel appeared at the Fawcett Natural History Museum, flying high above the grand museum building. It seemed he had arrived just in time, for a helicopter was lifting off from the roof of the museum, ready to be spirited away. Captain Marvel flew up and a quicker look proved his intuition right; the helicopter was occupied by five men in ski masks and one black-haired woman. It was Ms. Glaukos!
Before anyone could react Captain Marvel ripped the door from the helicopter. The sudden force would have sent the aircraft careening off course, but Captain Marvel steadied it with his hand. "Where do you guys think you are going?" He said in a voice both pleasant and threatening.
The men inside the helicopter were screaming at him, and one of them jammed the gun to Ms. Glaukos's head menacingly. Captain Marvel froze for a moment; seeing someone close and familiar in grave danger could put a damper even on the famed Wisdom of Solomon.
"Get the hell out of our way!" Someone screamed at him from within the helicopter, "Get out of our way or we blast this woman's brain to pieces!"
What to do? His strength and invulnerability would not help here, any attack on the helicopter or the people inside could easily startle the villain and the gun could go off. Would the speed of Mercury be fast enough to take away the offending gun before human reaction time could kick in? It wouldn't be a problem otherwise, but this time he had to get inside a helicopter that was still hovering in midair. Though if he was right at the door of the aircraft, it seemed he could reach…
And the next thing everyone knew Captain Marvel was holding half a dozen firearms in his hands. He gave the men inside the helicopter a mocking but still severe look, before tossing the guns to the roof of the museum. Even with the ski masks he could tell the criminals were staring at him with slack jaws.
"Ready to ground the helicopter and turn yourselves in?" Captain Marvel asked.
No one spoke, but someone suddenly kicked open the door on the other side of the helicopter and promptly tossed Ms. Glaukos out of the aircraft. There was a brief exclamation, and then the poor school teacher disappeared from view. Captain Marvel realized the villain's plan as soon as the other door on the helicopter popped open, but he simply could not stop it fast enough, with half a dozen bodies in a cramped helicopter between him and where Ms. Glaukos went free fall.
Captain Marvel dove after her, cursing his own stupidity all the while. He stopped fifty feet below Ms. Glaukos's falling form and was ready to catch her in his arms when she screamed at him, "Don't you dare catch me!"
Captain Marvel blinked, and in that second Ms. Glaukos fell past him again. He chased after her, now flying beside her free-falling form. "But Ms. Glaukos!..."
The dark-haired woman extended a hand and said, "Take my hand, please, but keep flying; don't stop suddenly!"
Captain Marvel took the Ms. Glaukos's hand. Her grip was strong, like a drowning man's hold omn a floating plank. She pulled himself close to him and wrapped both of her arms around his shoulder tightly. "Hold me, hero, now is not a good time to zone out," She said drily, "Slow down and stop our descend; just remember to do it slowly. We have another three hundred feet or so to go."
Once they touched down both breathed a sigh of relief. Ms. Glaukos took a small step away from Captain Marvel, took a moment to compose herself, before saying, "My most heartfelt gratitude, hero…" Here she gave him a charming smile and continued, "Sorry, I wasn't following the news lately, so I don't know your name. I am afraid I might have to continue calling you 'hero' unless you tell me your name."
"You can call me Captain Marvel."
"Right, Captain Marvel; thank you very much for everything. And I apologize for being perhaps a little difficult, but have you never caught falling people before?"
Captain Marvel blushed a little and he said, "Sorry ma'am, I am new to this. I now see my mistake; catching you when you are falling so fast would be no different from you hitting the ground. I am terribly sorry! If it weren't for your shouting I would have killed you just like the villains." Here the mighty hero hung his head, feeling rather unsure of himself. Indeed, a ten-year old should hardly be a superhero, or a champion of the gods! Even the Wisdom of Solomon could not turn him into a wise, mature adult, and his inexperience might end up hurting people instead of helping.
"Now, now, Captain Marvel," Ms. Glaukos said in that patient but firm way of hers, "If it weren't for you I would have a bullet in my head, or turned into a splat on the pavement. Do not question my sincerity in thanking you. And self-deprecation does not become a hero. You are a hero this city and even this world need; you yourself should certainly believe that first."
Captain Marvel blushed again and he scratched his head. "Umm, thanks! So are the kids all okay? I heard on the radio they are released; is everyone fine? Is there something I can help with? And should I take you to the hospital?"
"The last I heard the children are all fine, and are you sure you don't want to go after them?" Ms. Glaukos was pointing to the sky, where the helicopter was becoming a small black dot.
"Right, of course!" Captain Marvel took off into the hair, still waving at his math teacher, "I will see you again sometime, Ms. Glaukos!"
As Captain Marvel's red-clad form faded from view, an enigmatic smile lit up Ms. Glaukos's face. Her grey eyes were flashing like stars in the night sky, and her face seemed to glow with some esoteric light. If Captain Marvel were here to see it, he would certainly find this face familiar, never before seen yet always known.
"Indeed I will be seeing you, champion," Ms. Glaukos murmured.