It was dark outside now as it was night time while the Vasquez couple called in concern about Billy since they hadn't seen him and the rest of their foster children were back home.

"Yes, officer, I'm aware he's run away in the past, I-" Mrs. Vasquez said on the phone before looking a bit surprised. "23 times?"

"Guy's got no social media presence," Eugene said as he checked his phone and Facebook on his laptop to get in touch with Billy, but there was no point with Mary and Darla sitting with him. "At all. The guy's a ghost."

Pedro was shown to be coming home and appeared to have a big fat F on a test paper before he crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash before taking out a notebook.

"You know guys, I'm happy to look for Billy. More than happy," Freddy rolled his eyes as he stood at the sink. "Then you gotta wash the dishes, that's what's more important. What are you gonna do, Freddy? Run after him? Ha-ha-ha! Very funny!"

Billy slammed a notebook on the window that said "DON'T SCREAM!" on the pages.

Freddy soon panicked and began to scream anyway.

"No, wait, don't scream!" Billy cried out and tried to shush his new foster brother. "Uh, Victor! Victor! Victor! It's me! It's Billy! It's Billy! You asked me, 'Flight or invisibility'?" he then reminded to help convince Freddy of who he was. "I thought that was stupid, but now I look like this and I need your help! Meet me back here after lights out?" he then requested.

Freddy's only response was looking wide-eyed and stunned, feeling very confused over what just happened.


AND SO, A LITTLE LATER...

"Oh, thank God!" Billy exclaimed as he saw Freddy outside.

"Hold it!" Freddy said. "How do I know you're not a supervillain using telepathic abilities to make me believe that you're Billy, huh?" he held up his phone, which had 911 at the ready. "All I have to do is press dial on this thing!"

"No, no, I have proof, I have proof, here!" Billy said as he took the bullet from Thor. "Look, I lied, okay? I took your bullet!" But then he accidentally dropped it, and it bounced into a sewer grate. "Oop! No, no, no! No! Stupid adult hands! But you saw it! You saw it, right? Look, I know we're not really close friends or anything, but you're the only person that I know that knows anything about this Caped Crusader stuff!"

Freddy blinked. "...That's Batman." he said.

"What?" asked Billy.

"He's not wrong." Cherry remarked as Freddy had a good point.

"Forget it," Freddy rolled his eyes and glanced at the lightning bolt on Billy's new uniform. "Can I...?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah." Billy nodded.

Freddy soon went to reach out and soon felt his fingertips tingle as lightning glittered from Billy's chest and onto his fingers.

"It's crazy, right?" Thor chuckled.

"What are your superpowers?" Freddy soon asked Billy.

"Superpowers?" Billy's eyes widened. "Dude, I don't even know how to pee in this thing!"

"You should be able to fly." Cherry said to Billy.

They soon went to get ready and came further along.

"Okay, let's do this," Billy said to the others as Cherry took out her phone to film this. "How do we do this?" he then asked.

"Ugh." Cherry face-palmed.

"Just, um, just like Superman or Saiyaman it," Freddy shrugged before he demonstrated with his arm, making rocket sounds. "Pkkwwff. Pkkwf."

Billy nodded as he tried to do that, but he didn't move.

"Obviously, you have to jump." Lionel suggested.

"Come on," Billy groaned. "How is that even obvious?"

"Okay. Try, uh, t-to believe that you can fly," Freddy suggested. "Okay, I read this deep dive in the pyramid studies of superpowers, and in 6 out of 10, belief is the key. Belief, belief, belief."

"Okay, okay. I believe I can fly," Billy nodded as he got himself ready. "I believe I... I believe I can fly. I-" he then called out as he went running and tried to jump up to fly, only to scream and suddenly crash in the middle of the road, being left in pain.

"...Did you believe?" Freddy asked with a wince.

Billy got back up and scoffed like it was obvious. "Yeah!" he then said in annoyance.

"Maybe we should try something else," Cherry suggested. "Like invisibility?"

"How do I do...?" Billy started. "You... Forget it. You know. Okay, okay, okay." So he held his breath and concentrated.

"Oh, my God! It worked!" Freddy exclaimed. "Where'd you go?"

"I'm right here," said Billy. "You can't see me?

Freddy looked around. "Where?"

Billy grinned. "I'm invisible!~" he exclaimed. "I'm right here! I'm over here! I'm invisible! I'm invisible!~"

"Hey!" yelled some guy nearby. "Nice outfit, dipshit!"

Freddy couldn't help but snicker at that.

"Hey! You wanna go?!" Cherry challenged the random guy.

Lionel and Thor soon held her back so she wouldn't try anything she would regret.

"I-I might have been testing invisibility and super-intelligence at the same time." Freddy grinned bashfully at his foster brother.

"Freeman, I'm gonna come over there and beat you!" Billy glared before a shot of lightning suddenly shot out from his hand and it hit a nearby lamppost.

The light soon crackled all of a sudden and powered down which alerted a few people not too far away, but still pretty close.

"Oh, my God! The lightning, it was staring us right in the face the whole time! Literally!" Freddy suddenly gushed in excitement.

"You and me should be buddies," Thor grinned at Billy. "Thunder and lightning."

"Thunder?" Billy asked.

"Yeah! Check it out!" Thor laughed as he got ready to display his own powers combined with his magic.

"Thor, I dunno if that's a good idea..." Cherry whispered.

"So put the brakes on it!" Lionel ordered. "I don't want you doing something crazy, especially not out in the open!"

"Aww..." Thor pouted.

"You can show him later." Cherry suggested.

"Really?" Thor grinned.

"Yeah, just later... Much, much, much later..." Cherry replied.

Thor beamed at that with two thumbs up. "I can't wait!" he then said to them.

"Great," Cherry nodded before looking at Freddy and Billy. "Now to take care of that electricity."

"Right!" Lionel declared. "We're gonna need to help you test your powers and figure them out!"

"Come on, I might have an idea." Freddy suggested as he led the way to somewhere else.


And so the group followed Freddy off. They soon came to some sort of power generator so that Billy could absorb the electricity there next.

"Okay, okay. Billy, we gotta give you a lightning-themed superhero name." Freddy beamed.

"Yeah!" Billy laughed in agreement as they watched his lightning powers in action.

The two laughed for a good while as this was so exciting and a lot of fun, but it had to stop. They soon suddenly stopped as they heard screaming from afar as someone appeared to be getting mugged.

"Never fails," Cherry commented. "A new superhero suddenly comes to town and crime just shows up on your doorstep. I've seen it a million times."

Billy looked over at them, then realized what it meant. "Oh! Right!" he exclaimed. "Hey, you, back-" he started before he zipped over in the blink of an eye. "...Off!"

"Hyperspeed! Check!" Freddy called, as Lionel wrote something down on a checklist.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," Billy said to the woman who was perfectly fine as the man was on the ground, covering his eyes in agony. "I thought you were the one who was screaming."

"I doused him with pepper spray." The woman told him.

"Smart move," Billy nodded before glaring down at the man on the ground. "Yeah, hey, get up, Mr. Mugger Guy! Give the old lady her purse back."

"Um, I'm your age. And he didn't get a chance to take it 'cuz I didn't let him take it." The woman scoffed as she showed him her purse.

"Good, yeah, good. You're really on top of this stuff," Billy nodded sheepishly before trying to sound like a brave comic book hero. "And that should teach you that old ladies, regular-aged ladies like yourself don't need your protection. Right? So get off, bro."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" The woman soon asked, unimpressed as Cherry, Lionel, Thor, and Freddy came over.

"His name is Thundercrack" Freddy grinned. "Hero to the people. With the power and speed of lightning all in one."

"Dude, that sounds like a butt thing." Billy complained about the superhero name.

"Yeeeah, we're not going with that name." Thor shook his head.

"Alright... Mr. Philadelphia!" Freddy then suggested.

"That's a cream cheese thing!" Billy retorted.

"Powerboy, 'cuz he's got all the powers!" Freddy then tried again. "'Cuz sometimes pepper spray can't protect against evil."

The woman glanced at Billy, as Lionel winced. "Powerboy, do you know these children?" she asked.

"Like, like a teeny little bit," Billy replied nervously. "I don't really know-"

Freddy then hit Billy's arm.

"Yeah, they're, like, my manager and personal assistants," Billy then said. "He's like a miniature manager."

"I'm his manager and they're assistants." Freddy added.

"Of course we're assistants." Cherry rolled her eyes.

"And uh, you know. Powerboy's not gonna work either, okay?" Billy then whispered to Freddy. "So work on something else-" he then suddenly had a jolt of electricity shoot against the mugger which sent him flying against a pile of trashcans and bags, panicking him a bit.

"Hey, hey, hey... Electricity manipulation, hyperspeed, super strength!" Freddy beamed. "Dude, you're stacked! You're as cool as Superman! Almost. You should be Superman's helper and not that phony-baloney Saiyaman."

"HEY! Watch what you say about Saiyaman." Cherry glared in defense.

"I didn't see you or what's happened here," The woman said suddenly as sehe handed Freddy some money from her purse. "I don't wanna know. Just don't hurt me!" she then added before running away like a coward.

"Oh, no, no, I'm not gonna hurt you!" Billy cried out.

"Thank you for your kind donation." Freddy smirked as he collected the money, keeping Thor away from him who wanted to give the money back because it would be the right thing to do.

"No, no, no, but if you need any more help, just look for the superhero that still can't fly!" Billy soon added bashfully.

"Forget flying, man, we just made 73 bucks!" Freddy smirked.

"73 bucks?" asked Lionel. "Come on!"

Billy grinned. "Hey, wait a minute. I just got an idea!" he replied.


SHORTLY...

"I'd like to purchase some of your finest beer, please," Billy told the girl at the counter of the gas station store.

Lionel snickered. "...This is gonna be so cool..." he whispered.

The girl pointed to the back of the store. Billy soon walked down that way with Freddy and the others following him.

"I'm not sure if this is a good idea." Cherry commented.

They soon made it up to the beer fridge, seeing the many bottles and cans.

"I think the girl's right," Freddy suddenly said. "I don't know about this. I mean, we don't have a fake ID."

"Guys, would you relax? Look at me, I am the fake ID." Billy assured them.

"Everything from the register!" A man's voice called out as the door was kicked open to show a robber. "Go! Go! Now! Come on! I don't have much time! Let's go! Move! I want it all! Hurry!"

Billy took Freddy, Cherry, Lionel, and Thor and hid behind an aisle with them, feeling nervous.

"This is your chance." Freddy whispered to his foster brother.

Billy realized he was right, and slowly made his way to the front. "Gentlemen!" he announced, standing bravely. "Why use guns when we can handle this like real men?"

The robbers looked at one another, then took out their pistols.

"Billy, look out!" Thor yelped.

Billy winced as the bullets hit him, but then he suddenly realized that they weren't hurting him!

"Incredible!" Thor gasped. "He'd be perfect in the League."

"Shh~" Cherry shushed him as she watched with amazement.

"Bullet immunity..." Thor realized. "You have bullet immunity!"

"I'm bulletproof." Billy smiled.

"Today is December 8th, and this is video proof of authenticity," Freddy soon said as he filmed Billy and faced the robbers. "Shoot him again."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here, here," Billy smiled as he took out one gun to one of the robbers. "Go, both of you, come on. Go to town."

The robbers felt confused and perplexed before they soon shot wildfire at him as he just stood there, fearless.

"W-W-W-Wait!" Freddy soon realized. "We still don't know if the suit is bulletproof or if you are. Shoot him in the face!"

"Yeah! Shoot me in the-" Billy added until he realized what was said. "In the face?"

The robbers then shrugged as they tried to do that and Billy only flinched slightly.

"It kinda tickles," Billy shrugged at the others before glaring at the robbers. "You're dead."

CRASH! The robbers were sent flying and crashing out the gas station window, landing hard on the ground, as the small group went to leave the establishment.

"Sorry about your window!" Billy called out on the way out, carrying some beer in his free hand. "Have a good night, but you're welcome for not getting robbed!"

The two robbers soon got up and ran away before two other people were shown, watching in amazement.

"Happy Holidays!" Lionel called.

"Hey," Billy told Freddy as he popped off the cap from one of the bottles and gave it to him. "To fighting bad guys."

"Yup," Freddy replied, as he, Billy, and Lionel took the bottles, and had a long swig... And then immediately spat it out.

"That tastes like actual vomit!" Billy groaned.

"WHY WOULD ANYBODY DRINK THIS?!" Lionel exclaimed, before looking at Cherry. "...THIS IS WHAT YOU WERE DRINKING LAST YEAR?! I mean, I get you were stressed out, but DEAR GOD, YOUR TASTE BUDS SHOULDN'T HAVE TO SUFFER!"

"I was drinking booze, not beer," Cherry clarified. "Bruce had some good stuff in his cabinet for parties."

Thor let out a "tsk, tsk, tsk" sound as he wagged his finger at Cherry.

"You know for a fact that I was going through some stuff!" Cherry defended.

"Tut, tut," Thor shook his head as he scolded her. "It's bad and bad for you."

"Still, it's alcoholic, and that stuff tastes like garbage water!" Lionel exclaimed. "Why anybody would actually torture their tongues with this dreck, I'll NEVER understand!"

Thor soon took a sniff and drank some of the beer before shrugging as he didn't seem to mind it.

"That beer Atticus once drank during his rebellious phase was repulsive." Cherry remarked as Thor gulped in the background.

Billy and Freddy soon got themselves some junk food after buying from the gas station again after their first experience with beer was less than satisfactory.

"You know, habanero jerky, if you eat enough of it, it could burn a hole in your stomach." Freddy commented as Cherry helped herself to some Zebra Cakes.

"Worth it." Billy remarked.

"Yeah. Probably not you though," Freddy chuckled. "Probably got stomach superpowers."

"Probably. Oh, hey, what's up?" Billy nodded before they passed a woman. "I'm a superhero."

"Yeah, his name is, uh, Captain Sparkle Fingers." Freddy informed.

"No, it's not. No, it's not!" Billy soon cried out in strong denial and embarrassment. "It's not my name! Hey, we should hang out. We're like, the same age."

The woman rolled her eyes and walked off just as a police car came to the gas station.

"Ho! po-po. I'm out." Billy panicked as he ran on ahead.

"Hey, wait up!" Freddy cried out as he tried to follow Billy, though he limped because of his crutches.

"Come on, Thor, don't drag behind," Cherry told the young warlock who downed his first official beer bottle and then wiped his mouth. "Eww... You drank it all? That stuff tasted like-"

"Don't tell me what to do." Thor slurred out, sounding a bit scary all of a sudden.

"I told you not to drink that dreck!" Lionel snapped. "Now you're gonna be sick the next day, and it'll be your fault!" He grabbed him by the hoodie and pulled him away with ease.

Thor growled viciously.

"Don't you growl at us!" Cherry told him firmly.

Thor chuckled. "Silly little mortal... I'd love to see you try to take me on..." he then held out his hands. "You're not even a tough girl... You're a mere insect... Not even an insect... A worm... A scurvy little worm~"

Cherry stepped back before shaking her head and glared as they continued after Billy and Freddy.

Lionel bopped him in the head. "You're gonna get sober and you're gonna like it!" he snapped, shoving a small blue bottle in his mouth and pouring the contents down his throat.


Later, the group sat on the stairs of the Philadelphia Public Library while Thor was coming down from his power trip.

"I mean, it's a pretty sick view," Billy commented. "I totally get why Rocky was training so hard to get up here."

"It is nice..." Cherry nodded in agreement.

"I like you like this," Freddy said to Billy. "This is so cool. I mean, no offense, but like, Like, at first, you were kinda like the opposite of how Darla is." he then tried to explain.

"A dick?" Billy guessed.

"Your words, not mine," Freddy smirked. "But yeah. All right, well, I feel like every criminal was either on drugs or asleep by now. Wanna head home?" he then asked as they relaxed in the quiet city night.

"You're gonna send him back home looking like that?" Cherry asked the boy.

"Yeah. I mean, usually, we'd have a lair to go back to, but that's long term," Freddy explained. "Right now he has a bunk bed."

"Well, you're gonna have to change back," Lionel advised. "Lord knows he can't walk in looking like that."

"I'm not sure if I remember how." Billy said bashfully.

"Seriously?" Cherry deadpanned.

Billy shrugged in response.

"Well, in that case, I wish you a lot of luck," Cherry smirked before looking around and sighing. "Okay, there's gotta be an easy solution for this."

"Say the wizard's name," Lionel suggested as Thor was done rolling around. "It turned you into Captain Thunder, so it could turn you back."

"Captain Thunder?" Cherry asked.

"I was gonna say Captain Marvel, but some lady already has the rights to that one," Lionel replied. "Name's Carol Danvers."

Cherry glanced over to no one and just shrugged at herself.

"And that'll work?" Billy asked.

"Yeah, so do it!" Thor cried out with a German accent. "DO EET NAOW!"

"...Shazam..." Billy, or Captain Thunder, replied. A bolt of lightning came down from the sky, engulfing the superbeing and changing him back into his mortal form.

"Good," Lionel nodded. "And YOU..." he glared at Thor. "We are going to have a long talk after we get Billy and Freddy home."

Thor's only response was a lone hiccup. Lionel nodded sharply at him as they hurried back to the Vasquez household.

"All right, hopefully your parents aren't too worried." Cherry said to Billy and Freddy.

"They're not my parents." Billy rolled his eyes.

Cherry just sighed as she rushed them over to the house as, no doubt, the couple was a bit worried as it was quite late. Fortunately, they managed to sneak Billy inside without much trouble, although Darla did see them sneaking inside.

"All right, guys, let's bunk in for the night." Cherry said to Lionel and Thor.

Lionel nodded as he poofed into some pajamas and got the others settled in for the night.


THE NEXT DAY...

Captain Thunder and Freddy decided to get some rightfully-deserved payback on the boys who bullied Freddy by throwing their truck into the air... Only for it to smash on the ground.

"You know, guys..." Freddy told them as he strolled over. "...I don't think that's gonna buff out."

The two bullies were just baffled over what they just saw.

"Well, that was rather intense." Cherry said as she stood with Lionel and Thor.

The two nodded as they stood with the bewildered and awestruck crowd.


Eventually, the school day went on as the three wandered the hallways, though Freddy decided to have some fun with "Captain Thunder".

"I think we're doing alright in our mission so far," Cherry said to the boys. "No villains have come for Billy yet."

"Yeah... Yet." Thor reminded.

"Don't think you're out of the woods yet," Lionel scolded Thor. "Especially after last night!"

Thor gulped with a sheepish grin.

"Can we all just agree that alcohol is poison and we're never drinking it again?" Cherry suggested. "I mean, Atticus's rebellious phase when we were finding out about his long-lost family."

"And yet you drank it last year because you were depressed." Thor reminded.

"Yeah... I was depressed," Cherry emphasized in reminder. "That was to numb the pain away."

"Yeah, that really helped numb the headache you got the next day," Lionel replied sarcastically. "That's why NONE OF US ARE DRINKING EVER AGAIN!"

They soon wandered the hallways a bit before seeing a certain boy standing outside the "Teacher's Lounge".

"Billy?" Cherry blinked.

Just then, Freddy came back inside. "Real nice; let the crippled kid do the dirty work," he remarked.

"I'm a better look-out." said Billy as he took a trenchcoat from Freddy.

"And I'm not?" asked Freddy.

"Your face gives off strong vibes of someone who's hatching schemes." Billy replied.

The trio gave Billy and Freddy a look.

"Don't look at us like that," Freddy told them. "And don't tell anyone what you saw."

The trio just shrugged and found themselves following the two boys.

"M-My face?" Freddy asked. "This face?"

"Yeah!" Billy nodded.

"Okay." Freddy then said as they were about to pass by the school's security guard.

"What're you guys doing now?" Cherry groaned.

"Minding our own business." Freddy replied.

"You boys got a hall pass?" asked the guard.

"Oh, us?" asked Billy. "Yeah. Always!"

The guard pointed at Freddy. "You... You look like you're up to somethin'." he said.

Freddy pointed at himself. "Me? Up to something?" he asked. "No! Never! I'm not up to something."

"Our dad's picking us up," Billy covered up. "He, uh, he got held up at the... The business office."

"The business office, huh?" The guard scoffed. "Sure, kid. Look. Parents or guardians must appear physically to check out students."

"Gotcha. Okay, well, uh, you hear that, Dad?" Billy nodded before calling out at the end of the hallway as he walked off with the trenchcoat.

"Oh, I know where this is going." Thor said to himself.

"Shazam!" Billy exclaimed before he came back out in his new adult form in the coat. "Oh, hey, there, son! Oh, hey, there, other son that I also have that's related to that son I just passed in the hallway. I'm so sorry I'm late, I got held up at the business office. Doing all the work stuff," he then smiled innocently. "This is th-the security guard all the kids admire so much."

The guard smiled at that, feeling touched for a few seconds.

"Oh. That's the other one," Freddy clarified. "This one sucks."

The guard then suddenly frowned as Cherry couldn't help but chuckle.

"This is... That's not funny. I gotta talk to him about that," Billy smiled bashfully as he went to escort Freddy out of school. "I apologize. Anyway, this is me appearing physically to check my sons out of school. So, thank you so much for keeping them safe, Detective Moron."

The man looked on. "...It says 'Moran'." he replied.