Warning for violence at the end of this chapter
"Okay, so we can't turn invisible, use telepathy, or walk through walls."
"Don't forget," Freddy said, counting off on his fingers, "we also can't warp reality, time travel, or create force fields. Also, we still need to see if we can breathe underwater, survive extreme cold and heat, and withstand fire and bullets."
"Oh no way, you are not setting me on fire!" Billy shuddered. "Besides, where would we get a gun?"
"Doesn't your dad have one?"
Billy shook his head. "Not that I know of."
"Can't we check his bedroom? I know that's where Rosa keeps hers."
"Jesus, I never should have brought you to my place. What if we get shot and die?"
"We'll deal with that when we get there. Besides, if I can throw you against a rock wall and you don't even get a scratch, what's the big deal about a little bullet?" As far as Freddy was concerned, what they didn't know could hurt them. Real superheroes got shot at all the time. They might as well bite the bullet now before some bank robber tried to put ten rounds through their chests.
But that just circled back to the main problem, didn't it? No matter how much he goaded Billy, his friend was adamant that they not be superheroes just yet.
"It's not like we're ready. This isn't something that we should be rushing into, right?"
This would have been a very reasonable statement if Billy also wasn't trying to keep them from further preparing themselves. So far, they'd about ripped the lair apart fighting each other and testing their powers. Though they'd searched every inch of it, they'd found no physical entrance or exit within its walls. Opening the rows of doors didn't help either, unless one of them wanted to one day step through and enter an unending abyss of darkness.
"You live in California, man. Can't we at least go find an empty beach tonight and see if we can breathe underwater?"
Billy groaned. "I didn't come back here to drown myself, Freddy." He stood up from his bed, stretching out his arms. "I'm headed to the kitchen. You want anything?"
"That depends on what you have." Freddy stood with shaking legs from the bean bag chair he'd been sprawled in.
"Well, my dad may be captain of the health police, but even he doesn't eat tofu."
"That's all I needed to hear!"
Billy had always struck Freddy as the messy type, but his bedroom, like the rest of the apartment, was incredibly clean. Other than the photos covering the top of his bookshelf (and the assorted titles filling it), there were few decorations besides the large plush tiger on his bed and the Magic Eight ball on his desk. The living room, he saw, was just as bare. The refrigerator in the kitchen had no notes or drawings tacked to it.
Freddy dug through a cabinet before eventually pulling out a box of Oreos. He opened it, popping one into his mouth. Billy began to prepare himself a sunflower seed butter and jelly sandwich.
"Can we at least try a minor threat? Maybe there are some purse snatchers around here."
Billy rolled his eyes. "I think we're more likely to find a cat stuck in a tree." He leaned over and took a cookie from him.
"Come on, you can't just give me superpowers and not expect me to use them. Didn't you ever hear that saying about great power and responsibility?"
"Great responsibility is not getting ourselves killed or plastered all over the news."
"Can't we at least fly around a little?"
"No!" Billy slammed his knife back down on his plate. "What if some plane full of people sees us? Or a drone?"
"Does it really matter? It's not like anyone would think that we were those guys."
"How do you know that? The last thing I need is the Justice League or the feds kidnapping my dad."
Freddy held back a sigh. He'd been holding back his secret from his family for days. Usually, he was eager to tell them (or at least Darla, who always had a shoulder to lean on and an open ear) just about everything that happened in his life. What if someone did something to them because of him? Super villains didn't have that pesky moral clause holding them back like he and Billy did.
"I get what you're saying." Freddy carried the cookies to a nearby table and collapsed in a chair, his shoulders slumping. "But I just can't help but feel that we should be doing more. Why have these powers if all we're going to do with them is fight each other and crush rocks?"
"Well, we'd have to consider what we'd do. Do we just stick to bank robbers or go after costumed criminals? Are natural disasters our issue? How does school factor into our lives?"
"Don't remind me." Freddy went back in four days and had nothing but pre-calculus to look forward to.
"It's not like we aren't going to do anything. The wizard said that I have to defeat The Seven Deadly Sins."
"What even are those?"
"I think they're these weird gargoyle-looking monsters. I haven't seen any yet in person though."
"Well hurry up and find them or I really will start rescuing cats from trees."
Billy sat down and took a large bite of his sandwich. "Okay, I'm still not into this whole setting myself on fire thing, but it would be cool to see if we can breathe underwater. How about tonight at eleven my time?"
"That'll be," Freddy responded, wrinkling his forehead, "two a.m. my time, I think." He wrinkled his nose.
"Hey, I can't control time."
Though for a moment, Freddy thought he could. They'd teleported from his room in Philadelphia to their lair at three-thirty that afternoon and spent what felt like hours there. Yet when they poofed back to Billy's place, it had only been twelve thirty-five (it had taken him a minute to remember time zones were a thing).
"Just drink some coffee. It always helps my dad."
"No way! That stuff tastes like shit."
Billy laughed, but the sound suddenly died in his throat. His face paled.
From the nearby hallway came the clicking of keys. Before Freddy could so much as mouth a quick question to his friend, the front hallway's door swung open and in walked the man from Freddy's creepy magic-induced vision.
"William, I thought you said you were going out with your friends this afternoon. Did something happen?"
That was when Billy's father saw him. Their eyes locked together from across the room. Dr. Sivana pushed his glasses up his nose, taking Freddy in. He looked from one boy to another wordlessly.
"Hi, Dr. Sivana!" Freddy hurriedly pushed himself up and walked towards him, his hand outstretched. "My name's Freddy! Has Billy mentioned me to you?"
"Yeah, I think I have!" Billy stood as well. "Dad, Freddy, uh, goes to Palisades."
Freddy slapped on a smile. "Uh, yeah."
"Yes, I think William mentioned you." He took Freddy's hand and gave it a firm, quick shake. "I apologize, but I just went to the doctor today and I've been a bit out of it since I left her office."
Freddy's eyes widened. "Did she say that your eye was going to have to be amputated?"
"Dude!" Billy cried.
"Excuse me, young man?"
Freddy turned to Billy. "You were the one who said his eye problem was getting worse."
"I never said you had to mention that!"
Dr. Sivana blinked, running one hand over the bandage that covered his left eye. "William, I don't even want to begin to know where you got that idea from. I'll have you know that while I did get a new round of antibiotics today, she never once so much as mentioned the word 'surgery.'"
"That's a relief." Billy responded. "I wouldn't want you stuck looking like a pirate for the rest of your life."
"He could always get a glass eye."
Dr. Sivana shook his head. "It was nice to meet you, Frederick, but I have a headache. Now if you boys would please excuse me…" He hurried down the hallway.
Freddy turned. "Frederick?"
Billy shrugged. "My dad's weird with names. He's kind of weird with everything, actually. But he's a nice guy when he wants to be."
Thaddeus' jaw about hit the floor when he arrived back at the Rock of Eternity. He'd been too busy these last few days to go. Now, though, he could only run his eyes across the stones, frantically searching for some clue as to what had happened while he'd been gone.
The circle of thrones at its center had been turned to a pile of rubble. The various objects in its other room were burnt and smashed. Even the hall of doors looked as though they'd been scratched and scorched one too many times.
Only the staff remained unharmed. He held it up, running his fingers along it. His confused face reflected back at him from the gems decorating its tip.
Wordlessly, the sins appeared before him without prompting. He held the staff up, looking between them.
"What happened?"
The champion lives.
That was Pride, who stood closer to Sivana than the others sins.
You were too late.
"The wizard's dead at least, isn't he?"
His champion is stronger than he himself has been in ages.
We told you to come back sooner.
Do you not value your own life? The champion will squash you like a bug!
"Who is he?"
The only response Thaddeus got was one of Wrath's arms against his stomach. The force was strong enough to send him flying across the room, stones digging through his back and his head cracking when it hit rock. He gasped, tasting blood in his mouth.
The sins walked towards him, standing over him in a circle. More than half of them had their tongues extended.
He will imprison us once again!
Find him now!
Kill him while there's time left!
Sloth brought its heavy leg down onto his foot. Thaddeus would have screamed, but the sound died in his throat when another bit into his arm. His vision was shaking, beginning to go dark around the edges. He barely had the strength to stand, let alone find Shazam's new champion.
A face flashed before his mind, but he shook it away. No, it couldn't truly be him!
Just as quickly as they appeared, the sins returned to him. His vision cleared, the pain and bruises covering his body evaporating away like smoke into the air. All the same, it took him a few moments to finally pull himself back to his feet. He surveyed the piles of rubbles one last time. Then, he picked up the staff and hurriedly began to draw symbols into the dirt.
