Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Billy’s first thought upon having a portal spontaneously open up under him was how he was going to miss dinner at the House of Mystery tonight. That was a shame, because Chas was going to cook tonight. Chas absolutely hated cooking, but he was the best chef in the semi-sentient house. In fact he was the only one who could really cook, after the fifth time John summoned something with his cooking it was decided that he couldn’t be trusted to make anything more complicated than grilled cheese, and even then anything he made somehow ended up unrecognizable, even cereal, and Chas refuses to let Billy cook for them, so they ended up eating reheated take-out most nights.

Billy’s second thought, however, was FUCK-THERE’S-A-PORTAL-OPENING-UP-UNDER-ME. Unfortunately this amazing observation did not fully register in time for him to do something smart. Like transform so he could float above it, or use that levitating spell he had been practicing in his regular form, but alas, he did none of these things. What Billy did do was fall straight through the portal with a surprised, echoing yell. Solomon audibly face-palmed. How he did so without a corporeal body is a mystery, like how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop.
“William, now is not the time.”

Billy had no idea how long he spent falling but what he did know was that something about how long he was falling was the type of just slightly not right™ that always came with magic. So, at least he knew that this most likely wasn’t a portal caused by tech, and also probably not caused by a non-magical-meta. And the portal had the distinct not quite sulfur™ smell of the demonic. Look at his detective skills! Mr. Batman-Sir would be proud, and Dadstantine and Dadler John and Chas would definitely be proud, though they’d definitely be more expressive about it than Mr. Batman-Sir would be.
“Great job, William, you truly are learning fast. I’m proud of you.”

Billy’s train of thought was rudely interrupted in what had to be the second rudest form of thought-interruption this week, only beaten by John summoning something in an accident involving frying bacon a few days ago, as he face-planted onto an unfairly and unrealistically hard surface with an obnoxiously loud groan. Surfaces this hard should be a health code violation. He should sue. And with that final intelligent, intellectual, rational thought Billy promptly blacked out (“BILLY!!!”).

“William…. You have to wake up.”

Waking up in a hospital bed isn’t exactly common for Billy, but waking up in a hospital bed as Billy and not Shazam almost never happened. Suddenly the memory of how he got here came back to him and he shot up, eyes wide, remembering belatedly that that is the exact opposite of what Mr. Batman-Sir told them to do in situations like these. Sue him, he was panicking. Where was Solomon? He would usually start trying to calm him down about now, or at least judge his life decisions. Come to think of it, he felt more than just Solomon missing. The comforting presence of his other patrons -Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury- were gone, as was the familiar tug of the Rock of Eternity. Without the Rock, he couldn’t transform into Shazam. Every magic user in the Universe can feel the Rock’s presence, to an extent, though only Champions truly felt its pull. If he couldn’t even feel the Rock’s presence and fell through a mysterious demon portal, he must be in another Universe. Look at him and his detective skills! Watch out Nancy Drew.

Taking a deep breath and trying his damnedest to not panic, Billy took a look at the room he was in. The room looked just like the rooms in the medical wings of the Watchtower and Mount Justice, though instead of an observing window, one of the walls was made of glass. Outside of said glass wall a group of people talking to each other. Said group of people contained a man with something glowing on his chest, a depressed looking man in a lab coat, a guy with a bow, a lady who reminded him of Black Canary, an overly patriotic man, a guy with fake bird wings, and a guy with a metal arm. These people seemed like they could either be superheroes or supervillains, and honestly with the suspicious amount of stars and stripes patriotic guy was wearing and the glares being given out by scary lady and metal arm was making him lean a bit towards supervillain.

Billy hadn’t been particularly subtle in his return to the waking world, which could explain why all of their gazes were focused on him. They seemed to talk amongst themselves quickly before Mr. Patriotism was seemingly chosen to go into his room.
“Hey there champ, how are you feeling? Can you tell me your name.”
Suspicious.
“Confused. Who the hell are you and where the hell am I?”
“We’re the Avengers, kid, and you’re in the Avengers Tower in New York. You took quite a fall there, can you tell me your name?”
“Clever naming,” Billy deadpanned, “but that’s not particularly helpful when I don’t know who the Avengers are, and yes, I remember my name.”

At this point, glow chest guy barged in, arms gesturing through the air like a maniac. Suspicious.
“How can you not know who the Avengers are!? We’ve saved the world enough, and I don’t pay Janice in PR to do nothing!”
“Tony.” Mr. Patriotic said in a warning tone, his voice sounded so much like Superman when he was upset with Billy and treated him like a child instead of a colleague that he actually winced.
“Steve.” the newly dubbed Tony said, mockingly, to the newly dubbed Steve, in a voice way too petulant to have come from the fully grown man in front of him. He sounded like John when he was trying to annoy Chas.
...slightly less suspicious.
Steve sighed, “He does have a point though, how do you not know about the Avengers?”

Billy outwardly smirked, the perfect disguise for how his stupid brain was still panicking, the loser.
“Well, I don’t know who you guys are because I am 80% sure that I’m not in my Universe. Also, my name’s Billy.”

Chapter Text

Billy was surprised at how shocked these Avengers were about him being from another Universe. Was he just jaded? The other Avengers had joined them in his hospital room and had yet to pull their jaws off of the floor.
“What are you talking about? Not your Universe!?” Bow Guy said
Billy gave him a deadpan stare.
“What I was talking about was that I’m not from this Universe.”

Tony and the Depressed Guy looked at each other with such manic grins that Billy was mildly concerned that they were possessed.
“This means-”
“Does this mean-”
“-that the Multiverse Theory is true!” They finished at the same time with a manic amount of glee in their voices and a glint in their eyes.
“Oh thank the gods that you guys have at least got a Multiverse Theory, leaves a lot less for me to have to explain.”
“Wait wait wait, the Multiverse Theory?” Bird Wings looked thoroughly confused.
“It's pretty self explanatory, it’s a hypothesis that our universe isn’t the only one out there, and the other universes are all different.” Tony explained “Wait, that is actually how it works, right?”
“Pretty much, but more extreme. For every choice you make, for every event that happens, it went slightly differently in at least one other universe. The difference can be as big as the rules of science and magic being completely different to Greg from accounting’s third goldfish swimming in a different direction five years ago at midnight.”

Turns out learning that the Multiverse not only exists but that it is much bigger than you could ever imagine and that your life is largely insignificant from a 13 year old that had just fallen out of another universe takes a bit of time to process. Billy was learning something new every day.
“Sooo, are any of you going to introduce yourselves? I’ve only learned who Tony and Steve are and even that’s only from whatever weird lovers’ thing they had going on back there.”, Billy said with a smirk.
Tony laughed, “Of course, where are my manners? I’m Iron Man, the strongest Avenger, and Tony Stark, billionaire and philanthropist-”
Steve smiled, “I’m Captain America.”
Tony gestured to Bow Guy, “-and Legolas over there is called Hawkeye and he’s Cl-”
Billy was horrified, “Wait, are you going to tell me his secret identity? What the hell man, that’s a dick move. His identity is his to tell if he wants me to know!”
Hawkeye blinked a few times before smiling, “Billy, it’s alright, he can tell you my identity. I’m Clint Barton. Also, none of us here really have secret identities, but I know some other heroes and vigilantes do.”

It was Billy's turn to blink. What. The thought of not having a secret identity scared him to no end. Everyone knowing that Billy Batson was Shazam, Captain Marvel, the Champion of Magic would not only paint a target on his back but on the back of everyone he loves. He’d seen the amount of enemies John had made and how they used the knowledge of who he is to attack his family. Often. Hell, John’s enemies knowing who his family is is probably what landed Billy in this situation right now. Which, in his defense, John didn’t think he’d be too overly involved in magic when he started out. Also, if Billy’s identity got out to the world, so would his age. If the world knew that the Champion of Magic was a 13 year old kid, he would never be taken seriously again. He’d probably lose support from the Justice League in some attempt to stop him from continuing his path, and he’d probably lose a lot of his intimidation factor.
“Way to go, Clint, you broke him.” Sarcasm dripped from Metal Arm’s voice.
Bird Wings spoke up, “I guess secret identities are big where you’re from?”
“Obviously! Secret identities are needed in hero-ing and vigilantism! How do you guys stop your enemies from targeting the people you love? How do you protect your family?” Billy’s voice was only borderline manic, he’s probably fine.
“You seem awfully hung up on secret identities for a regular 10 year old.” Tony observed.

Billy leveled his most blank look at her, “First of all, I’m 13. Second of all, I fell through Universes through a portal probably made of hellfire, immediately knew I was in the wrong Universe, and have intimate knowledge of how the Multiverse functions. What part of that gave you any impression that I am a normal child.”

The Avengers took a collective breath and Steve squinted at him, “What are you saying, kid? Do you have family in the hero-world?”
“You’re a hero, aren’t you?” The Scary Lady crossed her arms and the rest of the team looked between Billy and her.

Billy took a deep breath, “Well, you’re both right, though my adoptive dad -John- will swear up and down that he isn’t a hero, he even has a whole dramatic, emo speech about it, but he acts more like a begrudging hero than anything else anymore.”
Billy put his hands up placatingly, “And before you guys freak out about it, I’m my Universe’s Champion of Magic, which means my job is to keep the magical world in line and to generally be a hero. Which, yeah, I see now why it’s not particularly poggers that I’m the Champion of Magic at my age, and that I became it three years ago, but there’s nothing that anyone can do about it. And even if there was, I wouldn’t stop. I help people, I save lives, and I’ve helped to save my Earth and even my Universe from destruction several times. And I’m not on my own, I have John and Aunt Zatanna to teach me how to use magic, and a team to have my back.”

Tony had a weird look on his face, “And is everyone on your team your age?”
“Uh, no, none of them are. And if they knew my age they’d probably do everything they could to stop me and never would have asked me to join. When I’m in my champion form, I look like I’m an adult, though I’m kinda cut off from the source of most of my powers right now, so I’m stuck to my regular form and limited magical ability.”

With that, the Avengers fell silent for a few moments, before Tony awkwardly introduced the other Avengers present and told Billy of the other team members not present.
Well, that could’ve gone worse.

Chapter Text

John was halfway through a pack and pacing a hole in the floor of the dilapidated church, his fingers shaking in anger as he took another drag. His mind was on fire in his panic, thoughts racing through his head about what could have happened to Billy, each possibility being worse than the last. It had been hours since Billy should have come back from the Rock, hours since the voice had echoed through the halls of the House of Mystery. Hours since they were told to go to the abandoned church and wait if they ever wanted to see their son again. John exhaled and took another shaky drag.

John could tell Chas wasn’t fairing much better, but trying to be strong enough for the both of them. John pretended not to notice the wet tracks on his boyfriend’s face.

John knew that his… career choice would lead to making dangerous enemies. He had also known that said enemies would go through anyone they could to get to him. This was why he shoved everyone out of his life, people in his life always got hurt. He killed his mother before he took his first breath, his actions making himself an enemy of Rosacarnis got Cheryl killed that time, not to mention his failure at Newcastle. (He would forever hear Astra’s screams.) He had let himself let others into his life, he should have known how badly that would end. He let himself get attached to Zatanna and Nick because they were much more powerful than he is, and he still went and fucked over Zat’s life and killed Nick. He hadn’t so much let Chas in as Chas elbowed his way in whenever his old friend had withdrawn himself, and John went and cursed him in his selfishness, not to mention the innumerable messes he’s gotten him involved in. It’s nothing less than a miracle that he stuck around. He let himself slowly open back up to Cheryl and his niece and nephew after they all proved that they would get themselves into his messes whether he pushed them away or not, with Cheryl’s escapade with The Resurrection Crusade, that time Gemma got mixed up in a magical gang, and Finn getting framed for serial murder like a true Constantine.

Despite this, John couldn’t imagine pushing Billy away for any reason. John loves his kid, and he knows Billy can take care of himself, but he will never not feel guilty whenever his son gets mixed up in the occult. John would like nothing more than to strangle the Wizard for daring to make his son the Champion of Magic at 10 years old. His boy had been robbed of his childhood, even more than he had been before. Was it not bad enough that his son had to go through losing his parents, being separated from his sister, living with his abusive uncle, then having to live on the streets? Did he have to have the weight of the world on his shoulders as well?

John was pulled out of his thoughts by the long-familiar stench of not quite sulfur™. The stench of the demonic. The dust off of the long-neglected pews flew to the altar, twisting into a vortex, signaling the arrival of the latest bastard who decided to make his son’s life worse. John instinctively stepped in between Chas and said bastard, whose inhuman silhouette he could just barely make out through the dust-screen.

“John Constantine…” the grin could be heard in the being’s voice

John knew who the demon was before he let the dust drop, that voice was the cause of so many of his greatest failures. That laugh was what he always heard in his nightmares as Astra screamed and begged.

“Nergal.”

The demon grinned, barring inhumanly long, pointed teeth, eyes gleaming with malice. Nergal had been making John’s life miserable for nearly as long as John’s had a life to be miserable in. He had given John his first cigarette when he was just a child, introducing him to the joys of lung cancer, he had dragged Astra into hell at the Newcastle Incident, and had given him his first demonic taint. He should have known that, one day, Nergal would pull something like this. He should have known that the monster before him would attack his family, just like his daughter had done.

“What have you done!? Where’s Billy!?” Chas yelled, stepping out from behind John, his anger at the demon overriding common sense.

“Skipping straight to the point, are we?” Nergal chuckled, “Now that’s the best part of this, I have no idea of where the boy is.”

John really wished that he could strangle this bastard. He gritted out, “Then why did you call us here?”

“Well, I came to propose a game to you, Constantine. I would have done a simple poker game but you are so quick to cheat at those, so instead: this. I’ve sent your poor William somewhere outside of this Universe. If you find him before I do, he’s yours, don’t play the game or don’t find him and- Well it's in William’s best interest that you find him.”

John wanted to do more than strangle Nergal, he wanted to tear him apart molecule by molecule, he wanted to so terribly dismember him that there was nothing left for him to regenerate from. He wanted to dump the demon's remains into acid so every time he tried to pull himself together he was torn apart again. From the concerning shade of puce covering Chas’ face, the man must be coming up with far more creative ways of destroying the pathetic excuse of a god that stood before them.

Nergal laughed at the sight, “Well, the boy is counting on you. Tick tock.”

The dust of the old church stirred, once again, to life. With one final, supernaturally punchable smirk, the demon Nergal disappeared into the shifting gray mass. When his silhouette was no longer visible, the dust dispersed with more ferocity than before, covering the faces and torsos of the worried fathers.

Rubbing the dust from his eyes, Chas looked at John.
“What are we going to do?”

John stomped out the forgotten cigarette that had fallen out of his hand and took a deep breath, ignoring the way the dust coated his throat.

“We’re gonna find Billy first.”

The “We have to.” was left unspoken.

Chapter Text

Billy laid awake on the ridiculously soft bed in the room the Avengers had shown him to. His thoughts were racing. How did he get here? He knew it had something to do with a demon, but in his life that didn’t really narrow it down much. Did John and Chas know he was missing? He has definitely missed dinner, or did he? Did time work the same in this universe as in theirs? Would they even question when he didn’t show up? Would they just assume that he was off on a League mission? Would they just assume that he ran away? He was a runner, afterall, but they had to know that he was happy at the House of Mysteries?

…right?

As he finally felt sleep creeping up on him, he couldn’t help the doubt ringing around in his head.

“William! Thank God!”
“Solomon! You’re here! Wait, where’s here?”

Billy looked around. All he could see around him were blank textures and an invisible spotlight shining down on him standing alone with his wisest patron back in his head.

“We are in your head, William. You’re asleep.”

A tumbleweed rolled in out of nowhere as the Windows start-up noise suddenly rang out.

“Huh. Yeah, that tracks.”
“What happened, William? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m alright but you won’t believe where I ended up…”

As Billy finished his tale, he could practically hear Solomon staring incredulously at him.

“Only you, William, only you…”

A loud crash of thunder pulled Billy out of his dream and back to consciousness with a start. He looked around his room wildly before remembering the events of yesterday. What was it about this tower that made him constantly wake up confused and terrified? This was becoming a very not fun trend.

A loud voice boomed through the tower, though the voice was muffled enough that Billy could not make out what was said. What he could make out, though, was that there was something… other about the voice. He could feel the sparks and charge of an unfamiliar, magical lightning. Infact, that was not the only strange, magical energy he could feel. This other magic felt chilly, even as far away as these… beings were. It writhed like a barely contained animal, yet as it’s head swiveled towards Billy, it sharpened a long-disciplined thing.

Billy, having long abandoned his survival instincts (much to the chagrin of John, who will readily rant about how Billy was going to give him a heart attack like a preacher on a street corner), left the relative safety of the room. Slipping out of his door and definitely, 100% not sneaking through the halls, the voices grew more intelligible.

“Point Break! You took your time getting back! How’ve you been?”
“Stark! I have been marvelous! My time spent on Asgard was amazing, and look! My brother has come back with me!”
“Stark.”
“Loki.”

As Billy rounded the corner, the sight he was met with was confusing to say the least. There was a man in a strange looking black, green, and gold leather trench coat (who needed to be introduced to the concept of shampoo), glaring at Tony even as his magic energy seemed to be boring into his soul. Standing next to Loki was a man in norse armor, practically giving off sparks. He was buff enough to give Superman a run for his money,and he had a large smile on his face, seemingly unable to see his brother and friend glaring at each other. Billy swore Loki was palming knives as Tony was practically twitching to call up his suit.

Loki’s head snapped in Billy’s direction. He squinted.

“Stark… what is that?”

The rest of the room’s attention was directed at Billy. Or, at Billy’s head poking around the corner.

“That is a child. Hey, Billy, what are you doin’ up? It’s 2:39 in the morning.”

Billy yawned, “Big magic sparky boom boom.”

“Friend Stark! You never told me you had a young one!” Thor knelt down to get on his level, apparently not noticing that Billy was not too short, “Hello little warrior, I am Thor, Son of Odin.”
“‘M Billy Batson.”

Loki got that look on his face that Aunt Zatanna got when she was just done with everyone’s bullshit, “Thor, back away from the child.” a sharp inhale and exhale, “Stark, that is six gods in a trench coat.”

Billy blinked up at Loki, his mouth running far faster than his last brain cell, “Five gods and an ancient Isrealite King. Oh, and me. So seven people in a trench coat. Well, in pajamas not in a trench coat but…”

Now it was everyone else’s turn to blink at him, see how everything comes full circle?

“...kid, what?”
“Ya know the whole ‘Champion of Magic’ thing? Yeah. I have, like, six patrons who lend me some of their power and they’re kinda voices in my head. Well, Solomon’s the one who usually talks to me. But I can’t feel them here, and the Solomon in my dreams right now may or may not be real.”

Loki raised an eyebrow at this, “Champion of Magic?”
“Yeah, the title’s pretty shitty. I didn’t make it and it’s been around too long for me to change.”
“I’ve never heard of that title, and I have heard many titles.”
“Oh yeah, that’s probably because I’m from a different Universe.”

Thor and Loki looked thoroughly confused.

“What do you mean, a different Universe? I thought those were myth.” Thor boomed. Billy guessed that was just his default voice.
“Well, I’d hope they aren’t myth because that’s a level of existential bullshit I’m not prepared to deal with.”

Loki tilted his head slightly, “I thought Universal Travel was impossible.”
“Not necessarily, obviously. It’s happened a lot, honestly, though it is really difficult. Usually, people from other Universes just end up coming to our’s and fucking everything up.”

Surprisingly enough, this didn’t reassure anyone.