Disclaimer: I own nothing here you recognise (and depending on what fandom drew your interest to this fic, I may not own some things you don't recognise); you know how it goes.

Feedback: Always appreciated

AN: Apologies that the 'info-dump' portion of this continues, but obviously it's important that they all know their capabilities before they go into action.

AN 2: On a real-world note, I wish to take this opportunity to pay respects to the memory of Jason David Frank, the man who defined the Power Rangers franchise for so many years; his death is a great loss to the series, and I'm sure all fans of that team of multi-coloured guardians will mourn his loss.

The Guardians of Magic

"So… that happened," Kenzi spoke up at last. "Uh… sorry?"

"It… was a fair question," the Vision nodded at the young woman.

"He was the only one who could tell us anything-!" Emma began with a frustrated glare.

"And Strange told us that he could only provide us with so much information, remember?" Tommy said, as he triggered something on his belt and his green costume vanished, leaving him back in his civilian clothes. "He was just… some kind of program with limited information, right? He could have just run out of anything he could tell us right now…"

"Good point," Nick said, looking at the young man in approval of his assessment.

"Well," Merlin shook his head and shrugged, "we're not going to deal with these… Empirikuul… by complaining about things."

"Right…" Emma said, talking a deep breath to calm herself before she looked around the room. "So… now that we're clear on what we're dealing with, what do we have? I mean, obviously Billy's the strong guy when he's like that… actually, do you have any specific idea how strong you are?"

"Well… if you're asking me for a sense of my limits, I did once hold up a single-decker bus when it fell off a bridge and didn't have a problem," the young man in red observed with a smile.

"A whole bus?" Willow looked at Billy in awe. "Wow."

"To be fair, I was the reason it crashed in the first place, but that wasn't on purpose; I was just showing off with my lightning and hit its tire by accident, and I'm doing a lot better now…"

"Hey, I'm sure we all did stupid things when we were starting out," Harry put in with a smile. "I released a snake from its enclosure during a visit to the zoo once and it terrified my cousin and his parents."

"…Didn't… they deserve it?" Ginny put in, looking cautiously at Harry.

"It wasn't exactly unprovoked," Harry acknowledged, before he noticed the others staring uncertainly at him. "Well, would you be charitable towards people who couldn't even be bothered giving you a proper bedroom for years?"

"Uh… sorry in advance if this is a personal question, but… if you didn't get a 'proper bedroom', where did you sleep instead?" Dave asked.

"The cupboard under the stairs."

"They made you sleep there?" Willow looked at the young boy in shock. "For how long?"

"…As long as I can remember until I started at Hogwarts," Harry said.

"They kept you in a cupboard for years?" Kenzi looked at Harry in an assessing manner, before she gave him a firm nod. "…Yeah, the least people like that deserve is giving them a scare with a big snake."

"Getting back to our abilities," Nick looked around the room before he settled on Angel. "Even if Billy's stronger, I take it as a vampire you have a few… physical enhancements yourself?"

"I do," Angel nodded. "From what he's told us, Billy's definitely stronger then me when he's Shazam, but I'm stronger than most standard vampires and demons back home."

"And sunlight's an issue for you?" Paige looked at him with a cautious smile. "I mean, that's why you were going around with your coat over your head, right? I thought you were just trying to avoid being recognised by someone…"

"I can go out during the day if I'm careful; I just can't let sunlight hit my skin."

"Good to know," Nick nodded at the vampire.

"My own physical abilities are significantly above the human norm," Vision added. "I cannot speak for my exact strength level compared to Shazam, but as well as the ability to launch attacks from the Mind Stone, I can also adjust my density."

"What does that mean?" Mildred looked curiously at the android.

"I can make my body stronger to withstand assault or intangible so that I may pass through solid objects."

"You mean you can just… walk through stuff?" Dave grinned. "OK, I've found a few cool spells, and I never found one that could do that."

"The Mind Stone and my vibranium construction offer me a few interesting abilities," the Vision observed with a brief smile.

"At least you've got variety," Bo shrugged. "I'm just a succubus; all I can really do is drain peoples' life-energies whenever I kiss them unless I'm focusing on it."

"Kiss?" Dave looked at her with an uncertain expression. "Uh… look, no offence, but I thought succubi was… don't you kill people by having sex with them?"

"Any kind of romantic contact lets me feed, and it doesn't have to be fatal," Bo corrected grimly. "I get enhanced strength and healing if I feed on other fae back home, and they're generally safe to feed on, but it takes more effort to be sure I don't do anything to humans…"

"But you need to feed like that on some kind of regular basis no matter what kind of boost you get from them?" Angel finished for her.

"I guess you'd be familiar with that, huh?" Bo looked grimly at the vampire.

"I generally get by on pig's blood from the butcher's back home, but I'm guessing that you don't have… an equivalent option?"

"Human or nothing," Bo confirmed grimly. "I've learnt how to control myself so I don't kill my partners so long as I'm not starving, even if they're human, but…"

She shrugged as she looked apologetically around the room. "I mean, I can also use my powers to make people follow my orders for at least a few moments if I'm careful, but given the way things are here, I can't exactly rely on one-night stands to keep me topped up…"

"One-night stands?" Ginny asked uncertainly.

"We'll… talk about that later," Emma said, after a glance around the room confirmed that at least Harry, Billy and Mildred seemed to know what the term meant along with the other adults (she got a sense that Willow was at least approaching the cut-off between 'child' and 'adult'). "As far as I know, I don't have any abilities beyond what everyone else can do or what someone could do with training, but considering that I just found out about this whole magic thing back home, I'm prepared for the idea that I may be capable of something I never knew before."

"If it's any consolation, I'm not sure if I have any obvious 'talents' myself," Nick observed with a smile. "I'm good with weapons, and obviously I can see wesen in their true form, but I've never really noticed myself do anything outright superhuman…"

"At least you know what you can do to belong here," Willow put in with a dejected expression. "I mean, I've only really done one big spell when everything was riding on it, I spent months not even knowing if it had worked, and since then I haven't even really done more than a few blessings, and even then I haven't done anything in the field…"

"That's still more than I can do on purpose," Mildred said with a sullen edge, reaching down to stroke Tabby with a sullen expression. "I've been at Cackles for a year and I still don't know how I managed to pass my exams in the end…"

"Even after you saved your school?" Wanda asked.

"Most of that was just because I stepped in at the right moment; it's not like I did anything that impressive…"

"Don't dismiss what you're capable of," Harry smiled encouragingly at Mildred. "Seriously, if Crabbe and Goyle can get through exams, it should be easy enough for you when you're actually trying."

"Crabbe and Goyle?" Paige asked.

"Draco Malfoy's 'friends'," Harry said. "Well, that's the best way to describe their relationship; I'm not sure if he thinks of them as anything more than people he can brag to about stuff. They basically seem to be more muscle then any kind of brain; a few months back I literally heard Malfoy say that he wasn't even sure if Goyle could read."

"When you're in second year of your magic school?" Paige looked sceptically at Harry. "He has that low an opinion of this guy when they're meant to be friends?"

"Like I said, Malfoy's an arrogant idiot who seems to operate on the idea that he's better than everyone else because he's rich. I wouldn't be surprised if Crabbe and Goyle are more like unofficial bodyguards rather than friends; he never seems to go anywhere without them as back-up." Harry shrugged and turned back to Mildred. "The point is that if you know what you need to do to get better, you're already above Crabbe and Goyle in my book; I'm not sure how they've avoided being failed for everything."

"Let's just take it as read that you three have potential," Dave pointed out as he looked uncertainly around the group. "I mean, if you're starting at actual magic school, you probably just need some time; heck, I only got any lessons a few weeks ago, and I'm not even sure if you could call what I'm doing 'magic'…"

"What do you mean?" Harry looked at Dave in surprise.

"I mean… OK, I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but when Balthazar was teaching me he described it as me being able to manipulate matter because I'm using the full potential of my brain…"

"That… sounds different," Harry conceded as he looked over at Ginny. "I mean, I've never really thought about how we do this, but that seems like the kind of thing Hermione would have mentioned at some point…"

"Strange did say that we're all using different types of magic," Shazam observed. "There's no reason to assume that you couldn't come from a world where magic is basically a weird form of science where the rest of us have… well, more obvious magic magic."

"Maybe we just take it as read that we all have different ways of using magic and it all works in different ways in our various worlds and don't over-analyse it if we don't have to?" Willow put in, smiling hopefully as the conversation turned to more academic matters. "I mean, I definitely never needed a wand or anything like that, and I'm fairly sure the rest of us never heard of a spell that can do… well, that to someone…"

"I was chosen by an ancient wizard; it's not like I found this in a book-" Shazam cut in in response to Willow's observation.

"But the point still stands," Emma nodded at the transformed young man before she looked back at Dave. "So if your magic involves manipulating matter, what can you do?"

"Generate plasma balls as attacks, move things with my mind, move into mirror dimensions, transform things into other things, stuff like that," Dave explained. "I saw other sorcerers in my world do stuff like transform one of those Chinese parade dragons into a real dragon, disguise themselves as other people, turn rugs into quicksand, or teleport, but there's probably rules against doing some of those if I'm going be a Merlinian…"

"A Mer-what?" Merlin looked sharply at Dave.

"Merlinian," Dave repeated with an awkward shrug. "That's… well, in my world, your counterpart pretty much defined the whole idea of using magic to protect people, so these days anyone on that side defines themselves as Merlinians."

"That… I…" Merlin said, looking as though he wasn't sure if he should feel proud or embarrassed at this news.

"That… OK, your magic sounds complicated, but that could be worth keeping in mind," Emma nodded thoughtfully at Dave before she looked back at Shazam. "To check, obviously you're powerful when you're like this, but can you… do anything as Billy?"

"Just turn into this, really," Shazam shrugged. "And speaking of which; shazam!"

The lightning filled the room for a moment, and when it had faded Billy was standing before them again, smiling awkwardly around. "Sorry; I just figured… well, it just feels weird to be standing around like that when I don't have to be the other guy."

"Right," Emma responded. "My point is that the only thing you can do when you're like this is turn into the other guy?"

"That's it," Billy nodded. "I don't even have the wisdom of Solomon; every ability I have is in the other body."

"That pretty much sums me up too," Tommy added, holding his morpher out in front of him as he spoke. "I need my power coin and my morpher if I'm going to become the Green Ranger, but without it… I mean, I'm a pretty good fighter, but it's not like someone else couldn't do what I can do with the right training."

"That is not a bad thing," the Vision put in. "While Doctor Strange's words suggest that this location is shielded from external detection, my access of the Empirikuul network suggests that they can detect magic when it is present in this city."

"Which is why there was a patrol of some kind trying to capture us as soon as we arrived, right?" Nick said, looking thoughtfully at the others. "I mean, I managed to avoid them when I got off the main street where I arrived, but that might be because I don't have much magic of my own…"

"Same here," Emma observed. "I got into an alley close to where I arrived and went on the run until I found Harry and Ginny, helped get them to safety, and… well, here we are."

"OK, I think we're getting a pattern here," Paige looked around the room. "Sounds like we were all attacked as soon as we got here because these Empirikul guys detected our arrival, unless we could get away fast enough or knock out the first wave on our own…"

"Not me."

"What?" Wanda looked at Dave.

"I mean, they showed up where I arrived, but I'd already moved away from that spot before anyone else showed up, and nobody seemed to know I was there…" the physics student clarified.

"Which supports the idea that what you do is a different kind of magic to what most of us can do," Nick said with a cautious smile. "At least that gives us something to work with…"

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked.

"First, we need to assess what we've got in the way of weapons right now," Nick said, as he indicated the weapons rack near the trailer's original door. "I recognise all these from my trailer, Paige has her family's book, Tommy has his… power coin… and Harry has his sword, broom, cloak and wand; does anyone else have anything interesting equipment-wise?"

"Uh… we have some of Giles's books here," Willow put in, picking up a particular leather-bound volume from another selection of shelves close to its own weapons rack. "I've been reading them to learn some magic myself; I can probably find a few more things I can do here…"

"And this seems to have a few copies of things I recognise from the Hogwarts library," Ginny put in, waving cautiously from another corner of the room.

"This sword's pretty much it for me," Emma put in, holding up the weapon in question. "I mean, I've also got a gun, but there's nothing distinctive about it."

"I have a few of my things here," Mildred put in from another corner, holding up a book and a broomstick with thick tape in the middle.

"And Bo and I have some of our stuff here as well, if anyone's interested," Kenzi called out from another part of the enlarged room, holding up a blade.

"OK," Nick began, looking around the room for a moment before his gaze settled on Willow, Harry, Ginny and Mildred. "No offence to you four, but given your age, if you're still learning what you can do… Paige, would you be willing to act as their teacher for a while?"

"Me?" Paige looked at Nick in surprise. "Uh, not that I'm not flattered by the faith, but Strange did say our worlds wouldn't have the same kind of magic-"

"And I understand that, but you're the most experienced witch on our team right now."

"And you'd like to keep Merlin in play given his reputation?"

"That- I mean, he can help you too-"

"I get it," Paige assured the Portland cop with a smile. "Hey, I'm not sure about some of my abilities; like I said, most of my big victories were when I was working with my sisters, so I can't be sure how I'd do on my own."

"Another reason for you to work with the kids right now," Tommy observed with a smile. "When you're learning something yourself, it can be helpful to be in a group."

"I don't get lessons?" Dave put in. "I mean, I'm pretty much still learning too-"

"From what you told us, your style of magic is really different from ours," Harry pointed out.

"Besides, from what you've described, since your abilities are different from what they're looking for it might be worth keeping you available for the first part of this," Nick explained. "If we're going to be fighting this world, we need to know what we're up against, which means getting some first-hand knowledge of our enemies."

"I can still access their networks-" Vision began.

"And I'm not saying I don't believe you, but I'd still like to see what we're dealing with for myself," Nick cut the synthezoid off.

"That makes sense to me," Merlin nodded. "Arthur's always stressed the importance of being prepared for anything in any kind of fight…"

"I agree," Tommy nodded at Merlin before he looked around the room. "So, if we're going to find out more about what we're up against, we can't risk setting off any of those magic detectors, but we also need to have some way to get to safety if something happens…"