Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a steady grinding of machinery beneath his feet; the distant thrum, thrum, thrum of the turbine at the base of the station. Up ahead, the high arched window looking out into the darkness, over the blue-green curve of the earth.

Before the window, bright and electric against the dark of space and the dark metal of the Watchtower, stood Shazam.

“Hell of a view, huh?”

Shazam whipped around to face him, his cape flapping. “Flash.”

“You expecting someone else?”

“You walk like a cat, buddy.”

“Gotta be light on my feet,” he said. “Like a dancer.”

He reached the safety rail, and letting out a breath he sat, lowering his legs over the edge of the platform into the space beyond. The window curved out into the emptiness; when you looked down, there was only the darkness of space. He got kind of a kick out of it, all that nothing beneath his feet.

He said, “What’s up?”

“Nothing,” said Shazam. “Just thinking.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I get you. I come out here to think, sometimes.” Resting his elbows on the railing he looked out over the earth. “It looks so fragile from up here, huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Weird to think we’re the only ones protecting it, sometimes,” he added. “Scares me a little.”

“Ah,” said Shazam with a chuckle. “You’re thinking much deeper thoughts than me, Flash. I’m just,” he gestured at the cosmic view before them, “I’m still like, wow. I’m in outer space.”

He laughed. “One of those days, huh?”

“Yeah.”

He put his chin upon his folded arms, and looked up at Shazam. He was so damn big. Not just tall, but wide as a goddamn truck. Even on the station with its towering proportions and the vast emptiness around it, he could fill up a whole room.

“You did good out there today,” he said.

“Thanks,” said Shazam. “You too, Flash.”

“Always do.”

He breathed out. Then, casually, as if he just wanted to feel the air on his face, he pulled back his mask. He ran his fingers through his hair, fluffing it up, aware that he was being watched; that Shazam was looking down at him, out of the corner of his eye.

He said, “It’s Wally, by the way.”

“Wally,” Shazam echoed. He didn’t go on.

“How about you?”

He looked sharply away, back out at the earth. “Shazam’ll do fine.”

“Oh, yeah?” Wally leaned back on his perch, drumming his fingers on the railing. “So is it like being called Steve or something, where you’re from?”

“Huh?”

“There a lot of Shazams running around on your homeworld?”

Shazam shot him an incredulous look – and started to laugh. “You think I’m an alien?”

“You’re not?”

He was still laughing.

“Okay – okay,” said Wally. “Other dimension?”

“Keep guessing, buddy,” said Shazam.

“Aw, shucks,” said Wally. “Those were my two best guesses.”

It smarted a little, that Shazam wasn’t more – forthcoming. He’d known not to expect anything; in their line of work there was no obligation to share more than you had to. But still, it smarted. He’d reached out a hand in the dark and it had not been taken.

There were footsteps behind them. “Good evening.”

“Oh, hey!” said Wally, swivelling on his perch.

Diana closed the gap between them. They’d been on the go all day and she was still fucking glowing, perfect, barely even a hair out of place. For half a second he wished he’d kept his mask on. He must look a state. That was the problem with working with demi-gods and Kryptonians – it wasn’t great for your self-image.

“Coffee,” she said, handing around paper cups. “Coffee – hot cocoa.”

“Thanks,” said Shazam, toasting her.

“Not a coffee guy, huh?” said Wally.

“Nah.”

“I feel you,” Wally said, popping the lid off his cup and knocking back a mouthful. “I should probably drink less of the stuff.”

“Probably,” Diana agreed.

“We were just talking names,” said Wally. “You know. Doing some proper introductions.”

“Oh?” said Diana.

“You don’t have to –” Shazam protested.

“I am Diana of Themyscira.” She offered him her hand. “You can call me Diana.”

“Yes – ma’am,” he said, tentatively returning the handshake.

“She’s Diana of Themyscira and I’m Wally of Central City,” Wally said. “C’mon, dude. Where’re you from?”

“I already told you – I’m from Philly.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Wally. “Where’d you live before Philly?”

“Wally,” said Diana in a warning tone.

A smile quirked Shazam’s lips – he might even go so far as to call it a smirk. “Pittsburgh.”

The thing was, he did trust Shazam. He wasn’t sure why he trusted him, but he did. In their line of work sometimes you just had to take a plunge on people.

When he’d first seen the videos he was sure they were fake. VFX, he’d said. Pretty good VFX, but VFX nonetheless. The handwritten title cards were a nice touch. Make it look low-budget so people wouldn’t guess how high-budget it was.

Then he’d seen Shazam on the news, doing his thing live, and thought, I guess you could fake that. You could rig up some kind of flying suit – crazy expensive, but doable. The technology was out there. The lightning, less doable but not impossible.

Seeing him in action, in person, for the first time had been – something.

There was a heat, that came off him. A faint but noticeable smell of ozone. Of lightning. A kind of – thrill, just watching him work. Some kind of deep, monkey-brain instinct had told him immediately and unhesitatingly that he was looking at something not of his world. Something ancient, and potent.

He knew Shazam was magic. He was pretty sure he wasn’t human. Beyond that, he had nothing. But he’d fought beside him three times now. Shazam was – loyal, and earnest. Real friendly. Easy to talk to. He reminded Wally of Supes, and of Diana. Talking to him you thought. Yeah. Yeah, this is one of the good guys.

“It’s getting late,” said Shazam, breaking the pensive silence they’d lapsed into. “I should be heading out.”

“Oh, yeah?” said Wally, pricking up his ears. “Back to whatever it is you do when you’re not Shazaming?”

“That’s right.”

“Don’t feel obliged to stay,” said Diana. “We can finish up here – if you need to be somewhere –”

“Yeah, if your uh, girlfriend –” said Wally.

“Nope.”

“Boyfriend?” Wally guessed.

Shazam shot him a look.

“Roommate, kid, whatever, is missing you, you know –”

“Wally,” said Diana.

“Okay!” He held up his hands. “Okay. I’ll back off.”

“I wanna be friends,” said Shazam. “I’d just prefer to keep hero stuff and other stuff – separate.”

“You don’t need to explain,” said Wally. “I get it. We all get it. We respect each other’s privacy around here. Hell,” he added. “I don’t even know what colour the Bat’s hair is.”

Shazam snorted.

“I didn’t mean to pressure you,” said Wally. “It’s just – I dunno. It’s real hard to imagine you having other stuff.”

Shazam ducked his head to the side. “Really?” he said, as if it had never occurred to him how plain weird he came off.

“It’s like with the big guy,” said Wally. “You know? Try and picture him with a job, or, or a mortgage or whatever. Try and picture him going to the bank or the grocery store. You just can’t do it, right?”

“Superman has a personal life,” put in Diana.

“If you say so,” said Wally.

“We all have personal lives,” said Diana. “As you said, we know better than to pry.”

“I’m not prying,” said Wally. “No prying here.”

“Shazam,” said a voice behind them, out of the echoing hall of the station, and Wally almost spilled his coffee.

“Jesus,” he muttered. It was the Bat. Of course it was. He had a way of springing up out of every dark corner on the station.

“Sir?” said Shazam, clearly as startled as Wally but slightly more dignified about it.

“I have something for you,” said the Batman.

“Oh yeah?” Shazam stepped away from the window to join him.

The Batman held out his hand. “This is your Justice League communicator,” he said. “Keep it safe. As of now you’re officially a member of the team.”

“Not much ceremony to it, huh?” said Wally, lounging against the railing. “Go easy on us. It’s our first time.”

“Oh,” said Shazam, shifting from foot to foot, looking between the two of them with mounting delight. “Oh, thank you – thank you, sir, this – this is such an honour.”

“The honour’s all ours,” said the Batman.

Shazam let out a squeak – a high pitched sound of giddy, almost childlike glee. “It’s really, uh, it’s not –” he babbled. Then drawing a breath, he composed himself.

Standing up to his full, impressive height, he took the communicator. “Thank you, sir,” he said. “You won’t regret this.”

The thing about having Shazam officially in the league was: he was kind of – flaky. He showed up to meetings only sporadically. He didn’t always answer his communicator and when he did more often than not it took him a solid minute. Sometimes he wouldn’t answer, and then he’d call them back later sounding kind of frazzled. When they asked him what was up he just said he had other commitments.

It wasn’t as if they could press him on it; they had a policy, after all, about pressing each other on their personal lives. It wasn’t as if they should be surprised. They’d met by way of him showing up mid-fight with a stupid grin on his face and a need a hand there? It had taken them a couple of tries to nail him down long enough to ask him if he wanted to join the team.

The other thing about having him in the League was – for all he could talk your ear off with the best of them, he was kind of quiet in meetings.

Like now. He was sitting at the far end of the table from where Cyborg was talking. His face was pensive, and he hadn’t said a word since they’d sat down. He had one elbow resting on his knee; one hand raised, and as he moved his fingers sparks danced between them, a miniature bolt of lightning darting back and forth from fingertip to fingertip. Fidgeting with electricity like it was silly putty.

Weird dude.

So he wasn’t the best at the planning side of things, Wally reflected. Big deal. He wasn’t that kind of hero; he was the kind of hero you pointed at the bad guys and said hey, fuck them up. He was a big gun – a tank. Wally could live with that.

“We still don’t know where the entities are coming from,” Cyborg was saying. “We know they aren’t extra-terrestrial. They don’t run on any human technology that we’ve been able to identity.”

As he spoke, the image he was projecting above the table shifted from a map of one of the incidents to a recording of one of the creatures. A woman, with wings and feet like a bird. He remembered seeing it up close; its claws had been razor-sharp. It had screeched like an animal. When Diana had taken it down it had crumbled to dust.

“Their remains don’t give us much to work with,” said Cyborg. “They pretty much just turn into dirt. There’s nothing special in there – just regular clay dust. Whatever powering them dies when they do.” He stood up straighter. “Our working theory is that we’re dealing with magic here.”

They were made out of baked, hardened clay, like terracotta statues come to life. They moved like they were alive. They weren’t alive. They had to be magic. It wasn’t a comforting thought; magic was alien territory for most of them. But not all of them.

“Do you have any thoughts?” said Superman.

“Hm?” said Shazam, startled to be addressed directly. Like he’d forgotten he was even in the meeting. “Oh, yeah – magic for sure.” Then straightening up in his chair he said, as if he was only realising it as he spoke the words aloud, “some kind of – construct? I think?”

The Batman said, “Do you have any idea why this is happening?”

Shazam spread his hands. “Your guess is as good as mine, buddy.”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it,” said Diana. “They attack populated areas but they don’t target anything. They lash out like animals. If someone is controlling them then to what purpose?”

“A distraction, maybe?” put in Wally. “A diversion to cover something else?”

“Could be,” said the Batman.

The hologram above the table was still flitting between images Cyborg had captured of the creatures. The giant with snakes for legs. The centaur. The hydra, with its dozens of heads – that one had been a bitch to take down.

“Wait,” said Shazam abruptly. “Go back.”

Cyborg shifted the image back to the centaur. “This one?”

“Yeah – yeah,” Shazam said. “Do they all have those symbols? I didn’t seem them before.”

It took Wally half a second to see what he meant. He hadn’t noticed when he’d seen the thing in the flesh – or the clay – whatever it was made of – but there was a symbol, between its eyes. A kind of spiral.

“I think so,” said Cyborg, turning the image back to the giant. There – Wally saw it now, not on its face but on its chest. A symbol like a stylised flower.

“Have you seen them before?” said Superman.

“I’m not sure,” said Shazam. “Something like them? Maybe.”

“Do you know what they mean?” said Diana, with sudden urgency.

“I’m just spitballing here,” said Shazam. “Something to do with summoning?”

“That sure doesn’t sound like spitballing,” Wally remarked, trying to play it cool.

“Yeah – yeah,” said Shazam. “Sorry. Yeah. I think that’s what’s bringing them here – the symbols.”

The Batman was staring at him; he hadn’t even noticed. For all the Bat was, generally, inscrutable, for once in his life Wally could guess at what he was thinking. Are you being evasive, he was thinking, or is this really all you know.

After a moment, he seemed to reach the same conclusion as Wally; Shazam really didn’t know any more. He spoke as if he was groping about blindly in the dark. As if he was trying to remember something he’d all but forgotten. It was weird as hell – like everything about him – but it wasn’t suspicious.

Though maybe Wally was just the trusting type.

The image shifted back to the hydra. “I’ve looked into the symbols,” said Cyborg. “I haven’t found anything, as yet.”

“Nor me,” said the Batman. “We’ll have to look harder.” To Shazam, he said, “If you come up with anything else, you let us know.”

Shazam threw up a mock salute. “Will do, boss.”

The hologram flicked off. “That’s all we got for now,” said Cyborg. “Until we know more the only thing we can do is stay on the ball.”

“Any idea where they’ll spring up next?” said Wally.

“So far they’ve stayed in the northeast,” said the Batman, “but we can’t assume they won’t move further afield.”

“We’re dealing with an unknown threat here,” said Superman. “Stay alert, everyone.”

The first incident had been New York. Then Toronto. Detroit. They weren’t so very destructive, but they were tenacious. People had been hurt. People had died and the League was no closer to an explanation. It was maddening.

“Right, then.” Leaning back in his chair Arthur stretched out his formidable arms in a gesture Wally him well enough to recognise as faux-casual. “That us done with the shop talk for the night?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” said the Batman.

“Cool,” said Arthur. “Anyone sticking around?”

“I’m pretty beat,” said Wally.

“Cause I, uh,” said Arthur as if he hadn’t spoken, “brought a gift to properly welcome our new friend over there.” He jerked his head at Shazam.

“What kind of gift?” said Diana, rightly suspicious.

With a grin – maybe more of a grimace – Arthur reached into his jacket and thunked a bottle of whiskey down on the table.

A stifled laugh went around the table – hushed, and breathless. After the week they’d had, they were all glad of the release of tension. Flopping back in his seat Wally tugged off his mask. “Go for it, buddy.”

“To – problem solving,” said Arthur, pouring whiskey.

“Don’t push it,” said Cyborg.

“And to new friends,” Arthur said, ignoring him. He slid a glass down the table to Shazam. “Cheers!”

“Cheers,” Wally echoed, and went to town on the whiskey. Arthur had good taste in booze, usually. Or at least he had expensive taste, which was the same thing as Wally understood it.

Across the table, Shazam took a sip – and choked. “Oh, wow,” he said softly.

“Not a whiskey person?” said Supes.

“I guess not,” said Shazam, wiping at his mouth.

“Ah, well.” Arthur reached for his glass. “More for me.”

“Careful – don’t you need to swim home?” said Wally, laughing.

“Aw, chill out, Flash,” said Shazam.

“You want something else to drink?” said the Batman. “I think there’s some soda in the breakroom.”

Shazam said, “sure. Why not.”

“So there we were,” said Arthur, “down in Florida –”

“Goddamn it,” said Wally.

“And this asshole is all, ohh, I can run on water,” Arthur went on, waving his hands around in a ham-fisted Wally impression. “Just watch me, I can run on water, I’m so fast, I don’t even break the surface tension.”

“I can run on water fine,” said Wally. “When I’m sober. You dick.”

They’d drifted out of the meeting room and now they were gathered beneath the window, looking out over the earth. It was a pretty nice spot for a party, Wally reflected. Maybe one day they’d have enough people in the League for a real one.

“So he runs out over the ocean,” Arthur said, throwing out his arm by way of demonstration. “Nyoom – gets about fifty feet before he face plants.”

“Ohh no,” said Shazam. Diana was laughing. Goddamn Wonder Woman was laughing at him now.

“So I have to go out there and keep the sucker from drowning himself,” said Arthur. “On my night off.”

“I had the situation under control,” Wally protested.

“You were drowning, you dumbass,” said Cyborg. Shazam laughed.

“Details,” said Wally.

“Anyway, my point is,” said Arthur. “Sometimes alcohol just doesn’t mix with superpowers.”

“Don’t doubt it,” said Shazam.

“Okay, first of all,” Wally jabbed his half-full whiskey glass at Arthur, “my powers mix with alcohol just fine. I sober up real fast. And second, you drink and use yours all the time.”

“Entirely different situation,” said Arthur. “Also I can hold my liquor.”

He downed the last of his whiskey.

“Probably just as well the big guy can’t get drunk,” he added contemplatively. “The poor bastard.”

“How about you?” said Cyborg.

“Who, me?” said Shazam.

“You’re pretty much invincible, right?” said Cyborg. “Can you get drunk?”

“You know, I’ve, uh.” Shazam turned his glass of coke around and around in his hand. “I’ve never actually tried.”

“Really.” Interest piqued Wally snaked an arm around Shazam’s shoulders. He had to reach up. Damn, the guy was big. “You wanna give it a shot?”

Shazam chuckled. “Not tonight.” He nodded at Diana and said, “Hey, how about you? Can you get drunk?”

“Yes,” said Diana. “But unlike some people I can hold it just fine.”

“Bet you could drink Arthur under the table,” said Wally.

“Hey!” Arthur protested.

“I have nothing to prove.” Diana sweetly tapped a nail against the rim of her glass.

“Neither do I,” said Arthur.

“Of course not,” she said, so sweet it was bordering on syrupy condescension.

“Hey, lady –”

“So, hey!” said Wally. “How about our new teammate, huh? He’s pretty cool.” He smacked Shazam’s chest. It was very solid. He wasn’t sure if it was the suit or if the guy was just made of real firm stuff.

Cyborg was giving him a look, one of those steely-eyed glares that was pumped up to another level by the red glow of his cybernetic eye, but before he could say whatever it was he was thinking Shazam said, “I am pretty cool.”

“Damn straight,” Wally said, draping himself over him still more enthusiastically. Okay, so he got drunk pretty fast. He burned it off even faster. No harm done.

Shazam shrugged him off. “Hey, what time is it?”

“A little after nine,” said Arthur. “Why?”

“I should probably be heading home,” said Shazam.

“Why, you got an early start or something?” said Wally. Technically he had work in twelve hours or so, but he was planning to be late anyway. No loss.

“Most mornings – yeah,” said Shazam.

“Aw, c’mon,” said Wally. “You can stick around a little.”

“Wish I could.” Downing the last of his coke Shazam stretched, rolling his shoulders.

“So do you live in Philly, or outside, or what?” said Wally.

“Wally,” said Cyborg in his most warningest warning tone.

“I’m just askin’!” Wally threw up his hands. “No pressure!”

He hadn’t really expected an answer, based on his previous attempts to apply – gentle, very gentle – pressure, but Shazam said, “I guess, uh – I guess I split my time between Philly and the Rock of Eternity.”

Wally blinked. “The rock of what now?”

“I really do gotta go.” Shazam handed him his empty coke glass. Wally took it, still too thrown by the whole Rock of Eternity thing to argue. “I was nice hanging with you guys.”

“You’re welcome to stay longer,” said Diana – kind of to Wally’s surprise.

“I can’t,” said Shazam.

“Listen, man, if you need to leave you leave,” said Arthur. “I’d just hate to think that we’d done something to make you feel like you’re not welcome, you know?”

Wally wasn’t sure what had given them the vibe that Shazam didn’t feel welcome. Maybe they were reading too much into things. Maybe he was too tipsy to read the room. Maybe it was just that Arthur was worried he’d made a misstep with the whiskey. Probably he had made a misstep with the whiskey, but Wally wasn’t about to start complaining.

“Oh, no – no, it’s not – I really do have somewhere to be in the morning,” said Shazam. “I have – commitments. You guys have been great. Really.”

“We really are glad to have you on board,” said Cyborg. “It was – pretty much a unanimous decision.”

“Oh, yeah?” said Shazam, his ears pricking up at pretty much.

Wally winced. And he was the one getting the ‘shut up, asshole’ looks. Oof, this wasn’t something they should be bringing up at all, let alone when most of them had been drinking. Cyborg was stone sober, as always. What was his excuse. Impeccable honesty, maybe. Or maybe it had just slipped out.

Wally could sympathise. He had that problem a lot.

“Hey, don’t worry about it,” said Arthur. “We all wanted you onboard.” He accentuated the we ever so slightly, as if to imply all of us, as in everyone currently at this impromptu party, but not necessarily everyone on board this secret space station.

“Someone voted no, huh?” said Shazam.

“I didn’t say that,” said Cyborg. “There wasn’t strictly a vote.”

“Right, right,” said Shazam, as if it was an obvious lie.

It wasn’t – strictly – a lie. They hadn’t technically voted. But they kind of had voted, and it hadn’t been quite as unanimous as they might perhaps have liked.

Then Shazam said, “Was it the big guy?”

Oof, Wally thought, bang on the money.

It had been a, uh, spirited discussion. Most of them had taken one look at Shazam out there doing his thing and gone yeah, that’s a guy we want on the team, if he wants in. Supes had been more reserved. He’d stood his ground on it for a long time, and the dirty truth was that if he hadn’t backed down they’d probably have dropped the idea.

We don’t know where he came from, Superman had said. We don’t know anything about his powers. We don’t know who he is.

He wasn’t wrong. Alright, so they didn’t all know each other’s names or life histories or hair colours, but they all had a rough idea of what the others’ deals were. Kryptonian, Amazon, Atlantean, some guy with too much money to burn, whatever. Shazam was a big ol’ question mark. They’d known that going in. Wally had figured – probably they’d all figured – that once he was on the team he’d open up a bit. Supes had been worried about just what he might be hiding.

And okay, so as yet he hadn’t opened up. It was still early days. He’d been on the team, what, three months? He didn’t always make it to meetings so they hadn’t even spent three months’ worth of League-time with him.

Maybe he was hiding something. They were all hiding things. It came with the job. It wasn’t as if he was gonna be hiding anything bad.

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Diana.

“Yeah,” Arthur agreed.

“He came around to the idea,” she added.

Which was a bit of an overstatement. He’d dropped his objections because he was outnumbered.

I don’t like his attitude, he had said. It’s not professional. It’s like he’s showing off – out for attention. Just because he’s good in a fight, doesn’t mean he’d be a good teammate.

Privately, he wondered if the big guy felt a little threatened. There weren’t a lot of people on earth who could even hope to hold their own in a fight against Superman. Now that number had gone up by one. Must be a pretty scary feeling, when you weren’t used to be around people who were on your level. It must be pretty scary looking and someone and thinking hey, they could hurt me if they wanted when you weren’t used to it.

“Sure,” said Shazam. “You know what? Forget I said anything. It’s in the past now, right?”

“Sure it is,” said Wally.

“I really do have to be going.” He clapped Wally on the shoulder – a heavy clap that he felt right down to his gut. “See you around.”

“This – rock of eternity,” said Cyborg. “We have any intel on that? I’m drawing a blank.”

They were on duty together in the Watchtower, him and Wally and Diana, and they’d made it a good few hours into their shift without bringing up the elephant in the room.

“A little,” said Diana, leaning over one of the monitor screens to make an adjustment. “It’s – a legend, to my people.”

“Oh, yeah?” said Wally.

“They say it was the ancient source of all magic in the world,” said Diana. “The entrance was lost many thousands of years ago.” She straightened up. “In all honesty, I thought it was a metaphor.”

“Lots of people thought your home was a myth,” Cyborg reminded her.

“That’s true,” she conceded.

“So do we think that’s where he’s been chilling out this whole time?” said Wally. “At the – rock.”

That was their working theory – the one they’d been mulling over for the past week or so. That Shazam was old – really old – and had been sealed away somewhere, in a magic cave or, or sleeping in a tomb – something like that. It was a solid explanation for how he’d sprung up out of nowhere, packing the kind of power he did. It was a decent explanation for his – patchy knowledge of the modern world.

“Yeah,” said Cyborg. “If the entrance was lost maybe he couldn’t get out?”

“It’s possible.” Diana sat back down.

“You don’t sound convinced,” said Wally.

She sighed. “He’s very strange.”

“You can say that again.”

They’d found out a few days back that Shazam didn’t understand how taxes worked. He was also kind of hazy on bank accounts. His geography knowledge was kind of wacky – he always seemed kind of lost when they talked politics. Wally often had the sense that he was nodding along with things he didn’t really understand.

He was a big fan of Coke, and Doritos. He knew what vaping was. He knew a surprising amount about video games. Inexplicably he knew what TikTok was. Wally as pretty sure he’d once seen him dab in a news report.

As the lady said. Weird.

“My people have a story of a – champion of magic,” said Diana. “They say he brought monsters into the world.”

Wally sat up straighter. “What kind of monsters?”

“I don’t know,” said Diana. “It was long ago, if it happened at all. Before our histories began.”

“He came from the rock of eternity?” said Cyborg.

“Maybe.”

“You don’t think,” said Wally, struggling to get his head around what she was suggesting. “You’re not saying Shazam –”

“Of course not,” she said, to his relief. “He’s harmless. He’s –” She cocked her head to the side, trying to find the right word. “– sweet.”

“He’s a puzzle,” Cyborg agreed.

“He says he was touched by Zeus,” said Diana. “If that’s true then whatever he is, he must be something special.”

“If it’s true,” said Cyborg, getting up from his chair. “I wanna take a walk. Coffee?”

“Yeah, ever since the uh – the accident, my metabolism’s just kind of crazy,” said Wally.

“Yeah?” said Shazam, though Wally didn’t think he was actually paying attention. He had both feet up on the edge of the control panel and giving himself a good push he began to spin around in his chair.

“Fastest man alive – burn more calories than any other human alive.” Wally tipped the last crumbs of his potato chips into his mouth. Shazam pushed off the control panel again and did a full three spins. “Guess you can’t have anything good without a trade-off, huh?”

“Doesn’t sound like much of a downside to me,” said Shazam, spinning idly back and forth.

“Depends on your point of view,” said Wally. “We out of pretzels?”

“Uh.” Catching himself on the edge of the control panel Shazam began rooting through empty packets. “Lemme check.”

The door slid open. “Oh, hey,” said Shazam, glancing up at Cyborg. “We’re not being too loud, are we?”

“Nah,” said Cyborg, coming fully into the monitor room. “You’re good.”

Cyborg could handle monitor duty by himself, most of the time. But cybernetic or not the guy needed a break sometimes. And anyway, they were on high alert, what with the whole unexplained magical hellbeasts attacking major cities issue they were having. So there they were, giving up their Saturday to keep an eye on things while Cyborg – actually Wally wasn’t sure what Cyborg did on his downtime. Buffed all his metal bits, maybe.

“Any news?” said Cyborg.

Probably he didn’t really need to ask, being as he was hooked into the mainframe. Maybe he wanted to check that they were doing a good job. Maybe he’d just got lonely.

“All quiet,” said Wally.

It had been quiet too long. They could expect another hit any day now.

Cyborg eyed the empty packets littering the room. “How many snacks did you guys bring?”

“Hey, hey!” Wally threw up his arms. “Enhanced metabolism, remember? I need my snacks, big guy.”

“Sure,” said Cyborg. He nodded at Shazam. “What’s your excuse?”

“I like to eat,” said Shazam, elbow-deep in a bag of Doritos.

“He likes to eat, Vic,” said Wally. “Give him a break.” Shazam tossed him another bag of pretzels.

“I guess when you’re pretty much invincible you don’t have to worry about heart disease, huh?” said Cyborg.

“Let’s hope not,” said Shazam, laughing. “Never put it to the test.”

“You’d have to play the long game on that one,” said Wally. “Wait twenty or so years. See what happens.”

Shazam laughed harder.

“You two are as bad as each other, you know that?” said Cyborg.

“Yeah, speaking of,” said Wally. “Are we gonna talk about the elephant in the room?”

“What elephant in the room?” said Shazam, his mouth full of Doritos.

“What do you mean?” said Cyborg.

“You know.” Wally gestured at Shazam. “How this guy stole my look.”

“Whoa!” Shazam held up his hands as if to say hey, back off buddy. “I did not!”

“Uh, yeah you did?” said Wally. “Red and yellow with lightning bolts, that’s been my whole brand for years. And then you show up with the exact same look and now they’re selling merch with your dumb lightning bolt. You dick.”

“Okay, first off,” said Shazam, sitting up in his chair. “I don’t have any control over the merch, so. And also, we don’t even have the same look.”

“Vic, back me up,” said Wally. “He stole my entire brand.”

“I don’t wanna be a part of this,” said Cyborg.

“C’mon, back me up!” said Wally. “Be a pal.”

“I’m not – look, okay,” said Cyborg. “You have similar things going on, visually, but it’s not like anyone’s gonna mix you two up.”

“It’s not a matter of mixing us up,” said Wally. “People are gonna see lightning bolts on red backgrounds and be like hey, which super guy is that again?”

“Why do you care?” said Cyborg. “You’re not making any money off merch. Are you?”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” said Wally.

“Look, buddy,” said Shazam, his feet fully up on the control panel. “You don’t own lightning. And if you wanna get real technical about it, it was my look first.”

“Was not.”

“Was so,” said Shazam. “The lightning bolt’s been Shazam’s symbol for thousands of years for whatever. There’s a big one on the wall in the Rock of Eternity.”

The thing with Shazam was you never knew when he was gonna drop some super weird new piece of information about his life into the conversation. Wally and Vic exchanged a look.

“So the Rock of Eternity,” said Cyborg. “Is it like a building?”

“Kinda.” Shazam offered him the Doritos. “Chip?”

Cyborg eyed the proffered bag with disdain. “That’s just rude, man.”

“Sorry.” Shazam withdrew the bag, contrite.

“You didn’t have to use it, though,” said Wally. “You could’ve picked a different symbol.”

“What makes you think I had any say in it?” Shazam rooted about in the Doritos bag.

“He does have lightning powers,” said Cyborg.

“Don’t start,” said Wally.

“I’m just saying,” said Cyborg. “He has lightning powers, dude. It’s his whole thing. You just run real good.”

“I still had it first,” said Wally.

Shazam smugly sucked Dorito dust off his fingers. “No you didn’t.”

“Yeah, I did!” Wally protested.

“Mine glows,” said Shazam. “Yours doesn’t glow.”

“I could make mine glow if I wanted,” said Wally. “Asshole.”

“Mine glows cause it’s magic,” said Shazam, smirking.

“Goddamn it!” Wally threw up his hands. “You’re such a dick.”

“Hey, buddy, you started it,” said Shazam.

“You did start it,” said Cyborg.

“I’m, I’m just passing the time,” said Wally.

“Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it.” Shazam rooted through the empty and half-full bags of snacks till he found his communicator. Wally sulkily opened the pretzels.

“Shazam,” said Cyborg. “My man. Did you put stickers on your communicator?”

Glancing up Wally saw what had caught his attention; a flash of something pink and sparkly on the flat surface of Shazam’s comm.

“Oh, no, I –” Looking at his sparkle-bedecked comm, Shazam seemed to think better of however the hell he’d been going to explain it. Plastering on a smile he said, “Well, y’know, I’m a sticker guy. I like stickers!”

“Are those unicorns?” said Wally, marvelling.

Shazam wrapped his hand protectively around his comm. “I like unicorns.”

“Yeah, whatever man,” said Cyborg. “You do you.”

Wally ate a pretzel. “So you got anything on for your day off?” he said to Cyborg. “Or nothing better to do than come down here and bother us while we’re working?”

“You’re not working,” said Cyborg.

“Are so.”

“You’re eating pretzels and potato chips.”

“We’re on a break,” Shazam protested.

“You guys realise I can see you through the security cameras, right?” said Cyborg. “You’ve been eating pretzels and potato chips all morning.”

“I’m fuelling up,” said Wally. “Gotta get my calories in. Seriously, though, what’s up? I wanna know what you do with your downtime?”

“Oh, I’m watching Breaking Bad,” said Cyborg.

“Oh, really?” Wally sat up straighter in his seat. “You know I never actually watched it? How is it?”

“Kind of overrated.”

“Aw,” said Wally.

Before he could go on, Cyborg’s gaze suddenly jerked away, towards the control panel. Shazam was scrambling out of his chair, reaching to turn up the volume. “Uh-oh.”

“Seriously?” Wally threw up his hands, not even bothering to look. “Right now? Today?”

“Yep,” said Cyborg.

“Where?”

“Metropolis,” said Shazam. “Looks like Supes is already on the scene.”

“Call in the rest of the team,” said Cyborg.

“On it,” said Shazam.

Wally shoved the rest of the bag of pretzels into his mouth and pulled on his mask. “Let’s get to work.”

His comm started buzzing just after eleven.

“Shit,” he muttered, groping desperately under his pillow. “Shit, shit, shit.” He scrambled down the bunk bed ladder – “Shit.”

Shoving open the window he hooked a leg over the sill. “Shit – Shazam.”

He jumped.

When his feet touched the ground he hit the button on his comm, just before it rang out. “Hey, there!” he said, trying to sound like he hadn’t just jumped out of his bedroom window. “How’s it going?”

“Shazam,” said the Batman, as gravelly and no-nonsense as usual. “Apologies for calling you so late in the evening.”

“It’s – fine, I wasn’t sleeping,” he lied. “I don’t, y’know, have a bedtime. Cause I’m. An adult. What’s up?”

“I have a mission for you.”

He glanced up at the open window of his bedroom. “Right now?”

“Not now,” said the Batman. “Tomorrow morning. Are you available?”

“Saturday morning?” he said. “Always. What do you need?”

“How comfortable are you with undercover work?”

The question hung in the silent air of the alley. He toyed with his comm, not sure how to answer. “How’d you mean?”

“We traced the symbols,” said the Batman.

“Ohh yeah?”

“They match an engraving on a Bronze Age Greek artefact known as the Axe of Sarpedon,” said the Batman.

“Cool,” he said, still kind of lost as to where the conversation was even going. “Cool, cool. Where is it?”

“It was in the Metropolis Central Museum, but it was stolen a few months back,” said the Batman. “Diana’s going to the museum tomorrow to see what she can find out. Wally’s going along for back up. Are you available?”

He leaned heavily against the wall and tried to think what to say. In the end he blurted out, “Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to,” said the Batman. “I just thought that since you know something about magic you might be able to assist. Do you have a problem with working undercover?”

“I don’t know if I’d be able to help,” he said. “I really – I don’t know that much about magic. I know it’s kind of my thing, but it’s just – it’s complicated.”

“Even if your knowledge wouldn’t be of use I’d appreciate if you could go along,” said the Batman. “It’d be better to have a third person on the team for security. Aquaman isn’t available. Cyborg is out. Superman can’t work undercover – he’s too recognisable.”

“My face is pretty recognisable too, y’know,” he pointed out.

“In Metropolis? You’ll pass if you’re careful.”

“Any reason you can’t go?”

There was a protracted silence on the comm line.

“I don’t do undercover.”

“Right, right,” he said.

Just say no, he told himself. He said you don’t gotta do it. You don’t have to do it. It’s a real bad idea. Just say you can’t and go back to bed.

“Well?” said the Batman.

His shoulders sagged. “What time?”

“Eleven,” said the Batman. “Outside the museum. Don’t be late.”

As he clambered back in through the window, Freddy raised his head from the pillow. He screwed up his face in the dim light and said, “Are you coming in or going out?”

“Coming in.”

Freddy blinked. “I miss something?”

“Just taking a call.” He shut the window as quietly as he could. It squeaked.

“Ohh?” Freddy pushed himself blearily up on an elbow. “What’s up?”

“I’ll tell you in the morning.”

“Is it –”

He shoved Freddy face-first into the pillow, making him yelp. “I’ll tell you in the morning,” he said. “Go back to sleep.”

“Not a bad way to start the day, huh?” said Wally. “Brisk early morning run to Metropolis.”

“I wouldn’t call eleven AM early,” said Diana.

“Give me a break,” said Wally. “It’s the weekend.”

They were in the square outside the museum. Pigeons were scratching at the ground. The LexCorp tower glittered in the distance. Diana looked, as ever, immaculately put together and simultaneously like she’d put on the first thing that fell out of the closet that morning in a cream shirt and brown slacks. Wally kind of wished he’d dressed up a little more, but it wasn’t as if the Bat had set a dress code.

He sipped his coffee and checked his phone. It was four minutes till eleven.

He didn’t need to ask about the plan. It wasn’t complicated. Diana had made an appointment to speak to one of the curators about their Bronze Age artefacts – how she’d managed it at such short notice he hadn’t asked. Connections, he assumed. He was there as her assistant, which in practice meant he was there to look pretty and provide back up in the really unlikely event that anything went wrong.

Even if something did go wrong it wasn’t likely Diana would need back up. She was pretty much a one-woman army. But it was good to have someone at your back.

If nothing else it would be nice to have a day wandering around a museum. Maybe once they were done he could talk her into going sight-seeing. He hadn’t seen much of Metropolis.

He said, “You doing anything after?”

“We don’t know how long this is going to take.”

“Right, right,” he said. “Have you been to the museum before? Do they have anything cool?”

“They have many lovely paintings,” she said. “I don’t know if any of them would be to your tastes.”

“I like paintings,” he said. “What, do you think I’m uncultured or something? I have culture. I have culture coming out of my ass.”

She laughed, mercifully. “We can go and see some paintings,” she said. “If you –”

Looking at something over his shoulder, she frowned. “Oh.”

“What?” He twisted around to look. “Uh-oh.”

Coming across the square towards them – at a gait he could only describe as shambling and furtive – was Shazam. He was wearing a beige trench coat like he was an old-time private eye or something. He had his hands shoved in its pockets and he kept glancing around to check no-one was looking at him (people were looking). Even hunched over he stood taller than the rest of the crowd. He looked like a giant, weirdo Inspector Gadget.

“Hey, guys,” he said as he reached them.

“Sh-” Wally caught himself just in time. He looked around to make sure no-one was paying too much attention to them and dropping his voice said, “What are you wearing?”

Shazam looked down at himself. He said, “A coat?”

Wally looked to Diana for help. She met his gaze and said nothing. Ugh. Not helpful.

He put his hand gently on Shazam’s shoulder and said, “You, uh. You get that we’re supposed to be – non-recognisable today, right?”

“Well, yeah,” said Shazam. “That’s why I’m wearing the coat.”

“Do you have – any idea how conspicuous you look right now?”

“Look, I did my best, alright?” said Shazam.

“This – this, this is your best?” Wally waved a hand at him, trying to take in the entire – look. “This is the best you could do?” He looked again to Diana, desperate for some support – any support. He felt like he was going crazy.

“Could you not have worn a different coat?” said Diana, as if the type of coat was the issue.

“I only got the one.”

“You only got one –” Wally glimpsed a flash of red, beneath the coat. He looked down. He blinked, hard. “Are you, uh.” He plucked at Shazam’s sleeve. “My man. My dude. Are you wearing this over your costume?”

“Yeah,” said Shazam.

“Why are you,” said Wally, struggling to find the words to convey just how hard he wanted to ask what the fuck was going on. “Why?”

“Look, buddy,” Shazam threw up his hands, “the costume doesn’t come off, okay?”

“I think the costume could have come off just for this one day?” said Wally.

“Nope,” said Shazam.

Wally waited for him to elaborate. He did not elaborate.

Turning to Diana, he said, “A little help here?”

Diana had a hand pressed to her mouth in thought. She took a deep breath in. She said, “No. This isn’t going to work. Go home, we’ll handle this by ourselves.”

“Oh thank you,” said Shazam, his whole body visibly sagging in relief. “Thank you,” he said, patting her gratefully on the shoulder. “You’re the best. Thank you. See you later.”

He patted Wally’s shoulder for good measure and muttering a goodbye shambled off the way he’d come.

They stood side by side, watching his retreating back. After a moment Diana said, “Does he have super hearing?”

“Don’t think so,” said Wally. “He’s never mentioned it.”

“Hm.” She tilted her head to the side to watch him leave the square. Turning to Wally she said, “That was weird, wasn’t it? It wasn’t just me?”

“Yeah!” Wally threw up his arms. “That was super weird! That was fantastically, unbelievably weird! What gave it away?”

“I’m never sure how to tell with men.”

“Are you – suggesting any of that was normal male behaviour?” said Wally. “Cause – no. That was not normal. He’s not normal. I don’t know what his problem is. Inspector Gadget looking motherfucker.”

“Inspector Gadget?” she said, puzzled.

“He – never mind.” Wally touched her lightly on the arm. “C’mon. Let’s just do this.”

So, the museum had been a bust. If anyone there knew anything about the axe being magic they were real good at hiding it. They sure as hell didn’t know where it was. Cyborg and the Bat were putting their heads together to trace who might have bought it. So far, no joy. The whole mission was stalling.

Unfortunately, the attacks were – not stalling.

“C’mon,” he muttered to himself as he ran through the skeleton of the building. “Come on –”

This week it was a snake as long as two buses end to end – big enough to swallow him whole. It was big, and fast. He was faster.

It had followed him into the half-built structure and already it was struggling to manoeuvre in the tight space. He sped out the other side – turned – raced back through the building, fast enough that it couldn’t catch him but not so fast it wouldn’t see him. He went past it and hissing like a screeching train it tried to follow, thrusting its blunt head through an empty doorway.

“That’s right, baby,” he said to himself, “just follow me –”

He made another pass – led it on deeper into the building, down a hall, through another doorway – its tail was still struggling to clear the first one, whipping back and forth, the rough surface of its clay scales snagging on the door frame.

One last pass – straight through the building – he dove out the window, skidding down onto the dusty ground and it lunged after him, through the empty glassless window – and jerked to a halt.

Wedged in place. Writhing, flakes of dry clay peeling off its scales as it squirmed, trying to free itself. Trying to go for the kill.

There was a rushing in the air above him – and lightning struck it once – twice. Bolts of electricity ran over its scales, crackling and fizzing as its clay body went stiff and rigid – and half a second later, with a final crash, it shattered.

Shards of dry clay and dust rained down around him. He brushed his shoulders clean and looked up.

“Teamwork!” said Shazam, floating to the ground. “Nice.” He held up his hand for a high five.

“Hell, yeah,” said Wally, returning it.

They were back in Chicago, on a construction site near the edge of the city. Weird place to send your fucked-up clay monstrosities, given that it was pretty much deserted. But he wasn’t about to start complaining about a lack of casualties.

“How many more?” he said.

“Not sure,” said Shazam. “I –”

A roaring sound overhead. Atop one of the half-constructed, empty buildings, a hulking clay creature. Like all the others it looked kind of unformed, like it hadn’t been baked all the way; its body misshapen, mottled grey and green, shedding flakes of dry clay as it moved. It had claws – teeth that looked sharp enough to rend flesh – wings like a bat.

As they watched, it threw back its head and vomited dust at the sky like smoke.

“Ooh, boy,” said Shazam.

“Is that a dragon?” said Wally.

“Oh, man that is cool!” said Shazam.

“That is not cool!”

“It’s a little cool.” Shazam caught his eye. He was grinning. “C’mon.”

“It might be cool if it wasn’t trying to kill us,” Wally conceded.

The clay dragon beat its wings once – twice – and took to the skies.

“I got this.” Shazam leapt into the air, taking flight with an ease Wally had always kind of envied.

“You want some help?” he said.

“What are you gonna do from the ground?” said Shazam, rising higher. “Don’t worry,” he said, throwing up one of his goofy salutes. “I can handle this. Trust me.”

Wally returned the salute and watched, hands upon his hips, as Shazam flew away to fight the dragon.

“Crazy son of a bitch,” he muttered to himself.

The monsters they were fighting were getting stronger. At first his lightning had blown them to bits no problem, but with each attack they got a little tougher. A little harder to kill.

The dragon was – real stubborn.

He had his arms around its neck. It was twisting in the air, snapping, hissing, beating its wings as it tried to buck him off, as he shocked it again, and again. “Why – won’t – you – die,” he said through gritted teeth.

Its only response was a screech and a blast of dust right into his stinging eyes. It wheeled in the air, the ground spinning beneath them, drawing closer.

“You’re just – making this harder for yourself,” he panted, eyes streaming, shocking it again and really giving it his all this time. Its whole body jerked, splintered, one wing cracking in two – but still it didn’t give.

Its left wing useless, crumbling into shards of clay, it began to drop, unable to keep itself in the air. Undeterred it twisted its neck, snapping at him, intent on ripping out his goddamn throat, and he grabbed for its horns, wrenching its fanged mouth away.

Its teeth were really sharp. Its eyes were cold and unfeeling. It was barely even alive, and he wanted it dead so bad. The air was rushing past them – in the confusion of the fight he’d all but lost track of what direction they were moving.

“Aw, hell with this,” he said. “Shazam.”

The lightning came, brilliant white and glittering, and the dragon exploded, bursting into muddy fragments of clay –

– a split second later it hit him, rushing through his body, and he was himself again, freefalling through the air, the wind whooshing past his ears.

It was hard to breathe. He struggled to draw in a breath. “Sha-”

The ground hit him really hard. The world went pitch black.

He ached all over. His vision was foggy; he blinked, hard, till it cleared. There was blood in his mouth. He spat it out.

He was lying on his side in the dirt. With some difficulty he rolled onto his back, gazing up at the vibrant blue sky. He breathed deep, and took stock of his situation. He felt like he’d been out for hours but fragments of the clay dragon were still settling around him like falling snow; he could only have been knocked out for a couple of seconds. The whole right side of his body felt like it was on fire. It hurt worse when he breathed in, and when he breathed out.

He’d bit his tongue pretty bad.

Okay, he thought. Okay. This was bad. He did not feel good. But he’d deal with it later. Right now he just had to say the thing and get back to work. He was pretty sure no-one had seen.

He had to say the thing, and get up off the ground. He’d just – he was just gonna catch his breath first.

He breathed in.

Somewhere nearby there was a gentle whooshing sound – the sound of something moving in the air. There was the soft tread of feet on the ground. Before he could fully process what he was hearing, a shadow loomed.

Superman stood over him. His face was – stern. His eyes were hard, as he looked down at him. He said nothing.

He didn’t need to. There wasn’t a shred of doubt in Billy’s mind, looking into those eyes, just what he was thinking.

He let his head fall back against the dirt. He said, “Aw, hell.”