Chapter Text
Billy Batson was tired.
No, he was exhausted .
It had been a bad few weeks in Fawcett, with a particularly bad flu season sweeping through the city, especially afflicting the more vulnerable homeless population that Billy was part of. On top of that, Fawcett had seen one of its worst winters in recorded history, with three feet of snow on the ground at any given time and temperatures dipping past -10℉ for most of the past two weeks. Pipes had frozen and burst, there were multiple pile-ups from drivers slipping on black ice, and many had died from hypothermia.
Billy had spent most of this time as Captain Marvel, because not only did the people of Fawcett need his assistance now more than ever, Cap was also much healthier than he was, and was able to keep much warmer. He picked up medications for those who couldn't maneuver in this weather, delivered groceries, directed people to shelters before they all filled up, helped plow the roads, and much more.
The only good thing that seemed to be happening was that his villains were staying in and laying low due to the weather as well. At least he didn’t have to deal with them on top of everything else. Small mercies. And anyways, Billy had bigger things to deal with. Namely, the fact that the condemned building he was currently squatting in was extremely drafty, and that he seemed to have picked up the flu somewhere in the past week, and he’d been feeling worse and worse every day. He didn’t have the funds to get sufficient soup, let alone medicine. So he had no other choice than to let it run its course. That didn’t mean he had to like it, however.
Billy shivered, feeling awful, and the cold was definitely not helping any.
‘Damn. ’ Billy thought to himself, ‘I really should’ve asked Solomon to learn some warming spells. ’
To put it frankly, the 12 year old felt like shit. He was achy all over his body, feverish, nauseous, constantly coughing wetly, tired, his lungs were rattly, breathing suspiciously wet sounding as well, and his throat felt like someone had very enthusiastically rubbed it with sandpaper.
He looked up at the rotting ceiling from his position on his makeshift cot, and pulled his threadbare blanket closer to his chest. He would be okay, he always was in the end. It’s far from his first time being sick on the streets anyways. He could and would manage. He’d been taking care of himself since he was six, and he was still alive so obviously he was doing something right.
The boy yawned. He’d been helping Fawcett all day, and he hadn’t slept in 36 hours. They’d be alright long enough for him to take a quick nap, right? He yawned again, his eyelids weighing heavily on his face. It didn’t seem like he’d have much of a choice in this after all. Billy let himself finally, truly relax and fall into a peaceful sleep.
Which apparently was not to be.
As soon as he closed his eyes and slipped off to dreamland to get some well deserved rest, his Justice League communicator rang.
“What is it now?” Billy wondered aloud tiredly. “Whatever I guess, time to become Cap. SHAZAM!”
He turned into Captain Marvel and then finally picked up the call.
“Captain.” Superman’s voice came through the communicator clearly. “Black Adam has teamed up with Luthor in Metropolis, and the two of them blended science and magic to create robots that are incredibly difficult to destroy, and they’re wreaking havoc in Metropolis. I know we have given you a bit of a reprieve from League duties while Fawcett is in a blizzard, but we need your help. It's an all hands on deck situation that’s escalating quickly.”
Billy nodded, before sheepishly remembering that Clark couldn’t actually see him. “I’m on my way. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”
“Thank you Captain.” Superman said before cutting the call off.
Billy had already begun flying over when he heard ‘Black Adam teamed up with Lex Luthor’, and couldn’t help but mentally use some choice words for the man. He’d thought that they finally had a truce, and if he really had to break it, he had to choose now?
Black Adam didn’t know who Billy was, which was a relief. Even when Billy thought they had a truce, Adam only knew that he wasn’t trying to take anything from him and was very new to magic. It was safest that way. Billy might not have any family to protect, but he kept his identity secret for a reason. He knew he was much more vulnerable as Billy, that any number of awful things could happen to him if the wrong person found out who he truly was. Plus, he didn’t want anyone to baby or pity him. He may be young, but he was not naive or innocent, and if he was at one point, the streets snatched that from him a long time before Cap ever came into the picture.
He knew his fellow leaguers and friends, he knew that they would, in the best case scenario, go into foster care and much lessened league duties, and in the worst case, kick him out of the league entirely because they don’t want a kid getting hurt on their conscience.
He refused to let that happen, he’d put in too much work the last two years to let that happen. He won't let his identity compromise the friendships he’s made. No way.
When he heard the sound of screams and metallic clanking, he realized that he was close to Metropolis, and pulled himself roughly out of his thoughts. He couldn’t afford to be distracted, not when lives were at stake.
Flying even faster than before, he reached the city and immediately saw Luthor in a metal suit duking it out with Superman, the rest of the leaguers spread out and trying to take down the robots. Though, he couldn’t find Black Adam, putting him on edge.
Billy flew around for a minute, trying to spot any weaknesses on the bots tearing up the city. He ended up joining his fellow leaguers on the ground, discussing how best to attack while still fighting off the robots.
“Captain, the robots are most vulnerable to spell damage and electricity!” Diana shouted as she ran past.
“They’re powered by the gems in the middle of each bot. Get the gem, and the bot shuts down completely.” Hal added as he flew by, three robots on his tail.
Billy nodded, and set to work. He began by hitting them with constant blasts of lightning, and conjuring up some chains so he could twist between their legs and take them down, a la the Empire Strikes Back. (Don’t knock it, if it works it works, alright?)
From there, he was able to get the gem from the center of the bot, though not without some difficulty. The bots were booby-trapped, and the slightest touch to the top of the bot would set off a hidden flamethrower. It took a bit of finagling, but he managed it.
He took a look around the city for a moment. It had been 20 minutes since he arrived and he’d been able to take down six bots in that time. There had only been 20, and only a handful were left, and it seemed like his teammates were on top of those.
He wiped the sweat off his brow. He realized pretty quickly during the flight to Metropolis that this illness had carried over into Captain Marvel as well, and true to form he kept feeling worse and worse, every fight sapping more and more energy from him, and he didn’t know how much longer he could last.
What worried him the most about this was that Black Adam was still nowhere to be seen. Clark had defeated Lex a few minutes ago, and unless their information was wrong, Adam was around here somewhere.
“Captain Marvel, how very surprising to see you here.” a voice directly behind him drawled.
He groaned internally and turned around. ‘Well, speak of the devil and he shall appear I guess. ’
Fuck it. He was so tired and done with this bullshit. He had no idea what set Adam off, but he wanted none of it. Not today damn it. He just wanted to fucking sleep .
“Hi Adam, is there any way we can maybe put this off for another day? I’m really not vibing with this today.” Billy asked, semi-desperately.
Of course, the only response he got was a “typical, you make it so easy to show that the old wizard made a mistake choosing you, Champions are not cowards”, and then a bolt of lightning was thrown directly at his chest.
‘ Well, at least I tried. It might mean fuckall in this situation but fuck it, I tried. Welp, in for a penny, in for a pound I guess. ’ Billy thought to himself as he was dodging the bolts. ‘Just ignore the fact that your entire body feels like shit and you’ll get through just fine.’
This kept up for ten minutes, the pair high in the sky and both shooting lightning blasts at each other, though Adam was definitely aiming to be lethal while Billy was just trying to incapacitate the man.
Billy chanced a look down while Adam was recovering from one of the bolts singing him, and saw that the very last bot was being taken down that moment. It filled him with hope that this battle would be over soon and he’d be able to sleep soon. Using his powers so much had sapped the remaining amount of strength he had in him, and he felt himself slowly slipping. He needed to finish this fight, ASAP.
Unfortunately, Adam didn’t have the same qualms. The man recovered quickly, and continued his assault of lightning.
Billy didn’t have the energy to create blasts of his own now, and was forced to just keep dodging the bolts while Adam taunted him. The taunts fell on deaf ears though, as Billy could barely hear himself now, let alone Adam 20 feet away.
After another five minutes of fighting, Billy’s body finally gave out, his vision going black and he dropped like a stone from 300 feet in the air, losing his last vestiges of magic and his godly form on the way down.
Everyone, regardless of if they were on the ground or high in the sky, completely froze . For a few moments, you could hear a pin drop. Well, you could before Billy crashed to the ground like a stone, completely unconscious. That broke everyone out of their momentary daze, a million questions in their heads but those could be asked later.
The leaguers were in shock, but quickly jumped to action to save their teammate. They only hoped they weren’t too late.
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