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Shazam: The Captain and the Lady

Chapter 4: The Power of Zeus

Eight months after the night that changed everything, Billy Batson, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, is in Philadelphia battling evil robots.

Okay, maybe not "evil" robots. Robots aren't evil, they're just programmed. Still, these robots have been programmed by Lex Luthor. Lex Luthor's evil (or insane, but in Billy's experience the two go hand in hand). Lex Luthor has a grudge against superheroes, and he's set his sights on taking out Captain Marvel. Why him, out of all the heroes in the world, Billy's not sure, but whatever. They're here. They're tearing up the city for him. Lex Luthor's a fugitive from justice, but still has access to enough money to buy and deploy evil robots. So all Billy can do is take out these evil robots and do so while causing as little damage as possible.

It isn't that easy. Once, in what feels like a separate lifetime, he was told that only magic can harm those imbued with magic. Apparently dear Thaddeus Sivanna didn't get the memo that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Because these robots are shooting lightning at him, and it hurts.

Everything hurts these days.

Billy hasn't kept up on social media, but if he had, he might have been able to see a change in "Lightning Man." No, it isn't just how he's going by the name of Captain Marvel now, it's that people have noticed that he's smiling less. Talking less. When he fights, it's with nary a twinkle in his eye, but rather a cold fury. The world's colder (climate change aside). He's colder. It's the last month of summer, but it feels like winter has come. And it's done so without Game of Thrones re-runs. Eight months ago, he was fighting aliens and having the time of his life. Now, staring at the automatons below, it is without word or cheer, his features etched into a cold frown.

It's with that frown that he snaps one of the last remaining robots in two. He used to care about that stuff. Make jokes about that stuff. He can remember a time where he was a teenager – in that brief period of time between finding his mother, and that night a year later with Mary. The woman who-

The last robot hits him, bringing its fist smashing against his body. Even with such a physical attack, it still hurts. So when he smashes down into the pavement and makes a Captain Marvel-sized crater, when he looks back up at the robot, he's ready to believe he has laser eye powers. He's staring at it with such hatred that he could swear that the robot looks surprised behind its red visor and lack of…any other facial features. Either way, it gets ready to zap him.

"Piss off," Billy grunts.

He zaps it with lightning. The power of Zeus courses through him. Lightning of the gods, now in the hands of a twenty year –old who feels as alone as he did from the ages of four to fourteen. He hits it, and the robot recoils. Billy rises to his feet and walks forward in silence, sending a constant stream of electricity into the abomination. The air is humming with static electricity. The ground trembles at the feet of the world's mightiest mortal. It is as if the gods have returned to Earth, and the planet is terrified at their coming.

He hates this thing. He hates himself. At some point, a movie that he no longer cares about said something about giving into hate, and dominating one's destiny. Right now, Billy doesn't care about his destiny. He doesn't care about much at all. He just wants to destroy this machine. This abomination. This construct that's destroyed so much already. He's going to destroy it, because destroying things, destroying lives…that's all he does. He's destroyed his own life. And worse, he's destroyed someone else's life. Giving into that hate, the lightning flows ever faster, ever brighter, but its light only casts further shadows upon him.

The robot detonates. Debris goes flying everywhere. Luckily, the crowds are far enough away that they aren't hurt. He can't say the same about the buildings. Or the cars. Or the streets. Or himself, as a piece of debris comes flying right at him.

He could dodge it. He could zap it. He could smash it. He could do any number of things to avoid being hit by this piece of metal. But instead, he takes it. Partly because he knows it'll do no damage. Partly because he wants it to. He stretches out his arms – he's ready. Ready to be cleansed of his sins, if not forgiven. Ready to just let it end.

It doesn't. It just hits him, and hits him hard, sending him smashing into a car with enough force to sound its alarm. He takes most of the blow.

It's not enough.

He leans back against the car. He can't be bothered. He's ready to just lie here, between these two pieces of metal, waiting for the crows to pick his body to pieces. He knows he could whisper but a word, and instantly have his mortal form crushed. He could just let it end. He could just…walk away.

"Wow," says a voice, breaking through Billy's thoughts, and the dark clouds that roll within them. "I mean, I thought I was bad with collateral damage, but I think you've taken it to a new level."

Billy winces as the caped figure descends from the sky, hovering before him like some kind of angel that's been dragged out of bed to save someone's soul, and not looking the least bit happy about it. "Go away," he moans.

"Why? Philadelphia's my turf."

"I'm on a global outreach program. I go where the work takes me."

Angel-guy drags the robot off Billy. He still lies against the car though, hoping beyond hope that the man in front of him will disappear.

"Batman's arse, you're in a state," the would-be angel says.

Billy grunts, closing his eyes, wishing the darkness could take him. "Go away Freddy."

"I'm not going anywhere. Like I said, this is my turf."

Billy opens his eyes. Freddy's still hovering there, his cape billowing in the wind. Behind him, he can see people taking snapshots. Lots of snapshots. Freddy looks over his shoulder and sees them too.

"Come on," his foster brother says. "We need to talk."

"You need to piss-"

Freddy grabs him by the scruff of his cape and yanks Billy through the sky.

"…off."

He could fight back. He's got the power of Zeus. He's the first of the Shazam Family, and still the best (least he tells himself that, though not as much as he used to). If his heart was in it, he could break free of Freddy's grip, and make him a cripple in his immortal form. He could do a lot of things. But he won't. He knows this, because there's something he has to do, and he still hasn't done it.

Freddy drops him on top of a rooftop, Captain Marvel hitting it with a thud. Billy groans as Freddy Freeman. descends from the sky.

"Nice," Billy murmurs, looking up at his foster-brother. "You've got the whole descending from on high thing down. Could work on the cape though. It needs to flap more."

Freddy remains silent.

"What? Like, isn't this your thing? Isn't your day job specializing as a psychologist for meta-humans? Helping them cope with their powers?"

"Yeah, it is actually," Freddy says. "Though technically it's an internship right now while I do my degree, but hey, thanks for noticing."

"Well, don't know if I'm noticing exactly, but-"

"Yeah, I don't either." He reaches the top of the building. In their immortal forms, they're round about the same height, but Billy feels dwarfed. Freddy's always had a strength to him that he suspects Freddy himself doesn't even appreciate. Even in his immortal form, it comes through – the strength of adversity manifesting in ways other than just brute strength.

"So…" Freddy says.

"So? Like, what, you want me to say la? Because I can do that. And ti, and-"

"How's Mary?" Freddy asks bluntly.

Billy groans, all thoughts of music leaving his head. "Come on Freddy-"

With a scowl that would give Batman a run for his money, Freddy says "don't say it isn't my business. We're family. She's family. You're still family, even if you're being a dick about it."

"You know I could just blast you off this building right now?"

"And thanks to you, our family's getting an extra member," Freddy continues. "Well, don't know if 'thanks' is the word, but…" He trails off. Billy can see that he had a speech planned, but he's either forgotten it, or he's started to realize that it isn't cutting it.

"It was consensual you know," Billy blurts out.

Freddy says nothing.

"Nothing untoward." I mean, it wasn't, was it?

"Believe it or not, I believe you," Freddy says. "Still…"

"What?" Billy asks. "This going to be a lecture about not having a crush on your foster-sister?"

"No, more like don't leave your foster-sister alone. Or any of us alone."

Billy gestures down towards the robots, and the police cars that are coming towards them. "Been a bit busy, in case you haven't noticed."

"We're all busy," Freddy says. I'm busy. Parents are busy. Darla's busy, Eugene's busy, Pedro's busy, Mary's busy. She's about to get a lot busier very soon. So…" Freddy walks over and gives Billy a shove. "How come you're not more busy?"

"Freddy, come on…"

He gives him a shove again. "Well?"

"Don't do that Freddy."

"What? Too much for you?" He takes a step back. "Want me to go easy on you?"

"Freddy, what are you-"

"Shazam!"

A lightning bolt comes down from the sky. It hits Freddy, it hits the rooftop, and it nearly hits Billy off his feet.

He can feel it. The power from the heavens, the power that hit Freddy, the power that nearly hit him. It's power that he has inside him, somewhere. Power that he can't bring himself to call on anymore. If he wields the power of Zeus, it's forever tainted by Hera's ire.

"This better?" Freddy asks.

Billy doesn't say anything. Freddy's the same age as he is. He's still got his crutch. He walks back over and pokes Billy's red-covered, oh so muscular chest with it. "This better?"

"Come on Freddy…"

"Y'know, when you first turned up at the Den, I thought you were an okay guy," Freddy says. "Then I thought you were a shit. Then I thought you were a hero. Then I thought you were a shit again, but then I thought hey, Billy grew up – shared his power, even turned up to school with Superman." He sighs, and looks to the side, faint beams of sunlight dancing in his eyes. "Now though?" He looks back at Billy. "Now I'm back to thinking you're a shit."

Billy shrugs, trying to convey indifference that he doesn't actually possess. "I'm a complicated guy."

"No. Not really. You're just a coward."

That hurts. It hurts more than anything else the robots did to him. More than anything in the last seven months. And the look on Freddy's face…he can tell that he's hurt his best friend. That pain without and within tries to compel him to say something, but no words come out.

"I knew it," Freddy says. "You are a coward."

Because he knows it, he's going to keep pushing.

"Come on Freddy…"

"No," he says. "You know what to do, what needs to be done, and spoilers, it isn't punching robots that are more interested in Superman than anything else."

"You're just jealous that they aren't interested in you."

Freddy whacks him with the crutch. It hurts. It actually hurts. Even in the form of Captain Marvel, Billy doubles over in pain.

What the hell is happening to me?

"We're a family," Freddy says. "You broke it. You fix it."

"Freddy…"

"Fix it," he says. "Do that, or God damn it, I'm never talking to you again."

"Freddy, I don't even-"

Freddy pulls something out of his pocket and hands it over.

"What's this?" Billy asks.

"You know what it is."

"Um, no, I don't actually."

Freddy hands it even closer. "Read it dumbass."

Billy takes it and does so. It's an address in San Francisco.

"Who lives…" He trails off. He's hurting, but he can still put two and two together. He can guess who lives there.

"I know you spent years looking for your mum," Freddy says. "Figure I can help speed up the whole looking for Mary thing."

"But I'm not looking for-"

"I know. That's why you're a shit." Freddy gestures with his head towards the west. "Go on. Long flight, but you should make it by dark."

And with that, he walks past Billy down to the door that'll take him back down through the building.

"Um, shouldn't you…" Billy trails off and Freddy looks at him. "Like…lightning? Flying?"

Freddy gestured to an indentation on the roof – the concrete's been damaged, and is still hissing from the lightning.

"Damaged the building once," he says. "Don't want to damage it again."

He puts his hand on the door handle before looking back at Billy. "Oh, and Captain Marvel? Seriously?"

"Well, I can't say the S-word without transforming, and people keep asking me what my name is, so…"

"But Captain Marvel?"

"Better than Captain Sparklefingers."

Billy smirks, and with that, he exits through the door. Not to the Rock of Eternity (which Billy hasn't used in eight months – the empty thrones and whispers of the Sins were too much, Lust especially), but just down into the building. Out of sight, but not out of mind.

Which doesn't make processing things any easier. Because right now, Billy's looking at the paper Freddy gave him. Looking at it, processing it, feeling his heart beat against his chest, and pain course through his muscles…

…And never having felt so powerless.