Tawny wandered through the streets of Fawcett City, trying his hardest to look like he was on a lazy, aimless amble, as feral cats have a tendency to do. In truth, nothing could be farther from the truth. He was on an important mission, and one he had been carrying out for decades.

When Tawny had been first ordered by the Wizard Shazam to stay in Fawcett City to recruit and keep an eye on the new champion, he had wondered why he was being tasked as such. After all, he was a fae tiger, and there weren't many tigers in cities period, none the less cities in Wisconsin. It was a nice change of pace, true enough, but it still required him to keep to his form as a cat, which he was not particularly fond of.

Then he met the new champion. Billy had been eight years old at the time, and a tiny, malnourished eight on top of it. For a human kitten to be alone by himself so young was unthought-of. The only times he had ever heard of such practice was in ancient times, when some cultures wished to kill those kits. Tawny found the practice barbaric and was horrified to find evidence of it still occurring.

He supposed Shazam felt similarly, and that must have been the reason Billy was given the powers of the champion at such a young age. As Captain Marvel, no one would be able to cause him physical harm. He could defend himself from attack and none could match his might.

Tawny, however, was still distressed by the cub's insistence of living on his own. Even when he achieved a paying job (an amazing feat, even back then), he was not making enough to properly support him. Billy was still horrible malnourished and lived in squalor, though he used props to disguise his poverty from anyone who might be able to aid him. He also insisted at every opportunity that he was self-sufficient.

Thus, even back in the past, Tawny had kept his eye out for families that might be willing to open their homes to the child. Back then, it had been more difficult for him to search them out. Filing for such homes were done on paper and physically stored in filing cabinets. Not many people were too keen allowing even cats near those drawers, though Tawny snuck glances whenever was possible. Still, he searched for four years, and nothing appeared that was opportune for the boy.

Then Billy started his sleep. Shazam had sensed it right away. The champion was lost, but in a temporary manner. All that needed to happen was for whatever spell had bound him to wear off, and he would return. The wizard had even sensed that the spell had a natural limit, and thus the champion would be set to return.

As such, Tawny kept his watch for any who might be willing to take in an older cub. With the advent of the computer, that made things easier. He had set up connections that would allow him to search servers to look at lists of families who had applied for adoptions, along with preferences of age, gender, situation, and such.

Admittedly, Billy's age had narrowed the field down significantly, to the point where Tawny had been worried that an ideal family could not be found (and it must be ideal, if he was to keep any ideas of running away at bay). However, not too long before Billy had awoken, he found them.

Tawny ran across the neighborhood street and strode over to the house. It was in a more residential area, one of the few in the city that still had yards and lawns. It was a larger house, which was needed for the larger family.

It was the residence of Victor and Rosa Vasquez, a Peruvian-American couple who were natives to Fawcett City. They were relatively young, at least compared to the other families Tawny had been considering. Upon discovering their inability to have kittens of their own, they had opened their home to other cubs. The two had proven their capabilities of caring for the kits brought to them. They were already caring for five other cubs (all the better, in Tawny's opinion, as Billy had not had much opportunity to spend time with his peers), and recently the parents had decided to take in a sixth child. Tawny just needed to make sure that they had finished up the paperwork and were sending it off. Once they had, he would make certain to arrange events so that Billy would be the lucky recipient.

He came in now because earlier that day he had seen their other kits out running errands. Tawny had kept close watch on the family, and he knew that Victor and Rosa didn't let the kids know about newcomers until things were finalized. There was no need to get their hopes up for a lost cause, after all. Of course, the first set of files were applied online, but the adoption agency they worked with required hard copies of forms along with the electronic ones. It would take a separate trip to make sure all the paperwork was in place. Once he saw the five kits on their way by themselves, the tiger could only assume that meant it was time to send the print work off.

Sure enough, Rosa was leaving the house just as he came up. Seeing that she was already outside, he came up with his usual act, rubbing up against her legs and letting out a friendly purr.

Rosa smiled when she noticed him. "Hello, there. I suppose you're hoping for scraps, aren't you?"

Tawny had not, at this time, though he knew well this was a good house for such ventures. It had not determined his selection for the Champion's guardians, but it had been a nice fringe benefit.

"I'm afraid I don't have any today." Rosa leaned down and stroked the cat on the head. "Now, I've got to get going little guy. I need to turn these in before the kids get back."

Tawny meowed, knowing humans loved that sound for some reason he had yet to figure out. Using this close position, he glanced up at the papers Rosa had gripped in one hand. Sure enough, they were exactly what he was hoping they were.

His check in now complete, he rushed off, hurrying away down a sidewalk street and behind some garbage cans. Rosa would no doubt spend a moment watching him leave before finishing her errand. That was fine by Tawny, as he now finished his.

He intended to go back to the entrance of the Rock of Eternity to see how the repairs were going and to give Shazam the update that he'd finally found the right family. However, before he could make his move, he realized he was being followed.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a mass of feathers hopping around behind him. Crows were not alien to Fawcett City, so he had ignored it for the most part. Now, however, he realized that the bird was following him.

Still, he pretended not to notice. He had no intention of letting the bird know he was on to him, but he had no intention of leading the bird to the Rock of Eternity's new entrance, either. He needed to lure him to an area of seclusion before they could properly confront each other without being seen by any humans.

As such, he moved towards the edge of the city. No one would take notice of a cat and a bird moving along the busy city streets, so there wouldn't need to keep any more watch then to make sure his opponent followed him.

Then he made it out to the old subway stations. As this was the area where the Rock used to have its entrance, this would be especially useful in tricking the bird into thinking he was being led there. Once inside, Tawny would have all the advantage.

He slunk into the shadows of the tunnels and waited to see if the bird was truly following him. A real crow would have little reason to come into old tunnels like this, but sure enough, the one he had spotted flew it. He fluttered around, apparently looking for something.

"Are you lost?" Tawny asked. As he spoke, he changed, shifting from cat to tiger to his true form, a massive fae tiger with long sabered fangs.

The crow seemed to respond in shock, fluttering around and attempting to fleet the tunnel. It took a simple bat from Tawny's paw to knock him back. "Don't play dumb, Bird. I know what you are."

The bird paused for a moment before responding. "Alright, I appears you weren't fooled," he commented, shifting a to massive fae raven.

Tawny raised his hackles. "You know no one who is not under orders can be in the mortal realm. Why are you here?"

"Food is plentiful here." The crow gave a smirk. "Especially when you take the true form. Whole meals just abandoned…"

Tawny let out a roar that silenced the raven. "By the fang! If you have harmed any humans to fill your gullet, I swear I'll tear out your miserable eyes!"

The raven seemed to realize who was in charge here. "I didn't hurt them, I promise! I just scared a couple, that's all! They'll all live!"

Tawny backed down. "Get back to your proper realm now. If I hear anything of the like…" He didn't have to finish, as the bird was already gone.

Once the bird had left, Tawny turned, all the more determined to make it to the Rock. If this one fae bird had made it through, what others had?