"SHAZAM!"
The word didn't echo, but it resounded like a detonated blast.
Lightning ripped down from the ceiling in a blinding column of white-gold energy, with a thunder loud enough to rattle a person to their bones. The table trembled as unmounted chairs scraped violently across the floor. Papers scattered into the air like startled birds.
Even the screen at the far end of the briefing room flickered at the descent of the lightning.
Having sensed the rumbling and descent of the thunder bolt above, Thor shot halfway to his feet on instinct, his hand already outstretched, reflexively reaching to summon his hammer so he answered to power. But he paused the resulting action.
The lightning struck Shazam dead center.
For a split second, the room was nothing but white.
Then—
Nothing.
The thunder disappeared as fast as it had miraculously struck indoors and to that floor level without physical damage to the above structure in the process. As the flash of light vanished, the smell of ozone lingered thick in the air.
Smoke curled lazily toward the ceiling.
Everyone froze as some were already on their feet and battle-ready, others still seated but tense, braced for whatever came next.
Silence settled heavy over the room.
Because where a god-tier champion had been standing moments ago—
There was now a kid.
A kid in a slightly oversized red hoodie and jeans, sneakers smoking faintly against the polished floor, standing awkwardly beside the table like he'd just been caught sneaking into a meeting he definitely wasn't supposed to be in.
There was a long, heavy pause.
Tony had half-launched out of his chair with the others when the lightning struck. Now he just stood there, staring.
First at the kid.
Then at the smoking scorch mark in the ceiling.
Then back at the kid again.
His face didn't change much—but the mental math was very visible.
"You know," Tony said at last, brushing imaginary dust off his sleeve as he straightened up, "you could've told us shapeshifting was on the résumé." He gestured vaguely upward toward the mark on the ceiling.
"Incinerating private property just to make a point feels… excessive. Even for dramatic flair. And for some illogical reason there's no hole in the ceiling."
Billy blinked at him, completely thrown.
Around the table, the others exchanged glances. The unspoken question passed between them easily:
How exactly does turning into a teenage boy help explain the whole transmigration-to-another-universe situation?
"Oh—no, no," Billy said quickly, hands lifting in surrender. "As cool—and, uh, mildly disturbing—as that would be? I can't shapeshift."
This aroused even more confusion.
Clint blinked slowly, "Okay. So either we just witnessed the world's first reverse-puberty incident…" he motioned vaguely at Billy's entire existence, "…or that was a magical quick-change alter ego situation."
Billy winced like he'd been poked. "It's the second one."
"Good." Clint nodded once, satisfied. "Because the first one might've required some therapy."
Bruce adjusted his glasses as his eyes narrowed behind the lenses. He hadn't said a word yet and just continued to observe.
Doctor Strange remained unresponsive as well.
"What sorcery is this?" Thor asked as he slowly lowered himself back into his seat.
There was no suspicion in his eyes—just a furrowed brow and the faintest crease of confusion as he studied the boy now standing where a thunderous champion had been seconds ago.
"It's not sorcery!" the kid blurted. "Well—okay—it is—but not like that!"
Natasha was already on her feet, gun halfway drawn but angled toward the floor. Her eyes remained fixed on the child.
"Who are you?"
The boy swallowed.
"…Billy."
Tony shot him a look.
"Of course it is."
Thor got off his seat and stepped forward, towering over the table. "Where is the warrior who stood before us?"
Billy pointed upward weakly. "Uh. Still me?"
Thor looked personally offended on behalf of gods who commanded thunder, everywhere.
"Everyone stay calm." Steve's voice came out steady. "Explain."
Billy winced. "Okay, so… technically, I turn into him." He replied with the omission that he has to say the word for the activation of his transformation.
"You mean," Tony interrupted, gesturing broadly, "Him is you. But you are not him."
"Right. No—wait. Yes. It's complicated!"
Natasha holstered her weapon but didn't relax. "You've been fighting interdimensional threats." She referenced the story he had told about being part of a team of superheroes who protected their world from all sorts of bizarre threats.
"As the big version!" Billy said quickly. "I wouldn't just show up like this! That'd be dumb!"
Tony rubbed his temples. "You're telling me we let a teenager into classified Avengers briefings."
"Worse, we detained a minor." Steve added as Tony squinted his eyes at Billy who stood across the table.
"Great!" His remark was said with clear sarcasm.
Thor's expression shifted slowly from outrage to something else.
Recognition.
He studied Billy's face. The anxious look on his face wasn't some play at deception. It was the same fear Thor had seen in young warriors before their first battle.
But in Billy's case, he was anxious due to the uncertainty of the decision the team would make regarding his case.
"You possess the powers of different gods," Thor said quietly. "Yet you are but a child."
Billy's shoulders shrank a little.
"Yeah," he muttered.
Steve's jaw tightened—but not in anger. He decided to try and understand the kid who stood before them.
"How old are you?"
Billy hesitated.
"…Seventeen."
"Seventeen!?!" Tony remarked with not much of a reaction, knowing it could be worse but luckily for them the kid was almost at legal age.
"Eighteen in like, a few months!" Billy added defensively.
Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose.
Steve exhaled slowly.
And Thor looked deeply troubled now.
"You have faced gods."
"Kinda." He wasn't certain if he could classify other god-tier individuals without a shred of divinity that he has had to fight against, as gods.
"And you return to this form willingly?" Steve asked as Billy shrugged weakly.
"It's who I am."
Silence again.
Tony got off his seat and began pacing. "Nope. No. I refuse. We do not have a minor with Zeus DLC fighting whatever evil magic spewing those creatures from God-knows-where. That's not happening."
"A wizard, actually," Billy muttered, and Strange cocked up a brow at his response.
"That is not helping your case!" Tony replied.
Steve raised a hand for decorum. "Enough."
"How are we sure if any of this is true, and not some ploy to get us to lower our guard?" He asked, looking at the wizard at the far end of the table who was yet to say a thing.
Nor had he made a move.
Not when the lightning struck.
Not when the smoke cleared.
Not when Tony nearly had an aneurysm.
The Cloak of Levitation shifted slightly behind him, like it, too, was trying to understand what had just unfold.
Having casted a spell for astral sight, Strange's eyes glowed faintly as golden sigils flickered across his irises—scanning.
Reading. Measuring what was invisible to the naked eye.
"…Fascinating," he murmured.
"It is?" Billy blurted his remark in suprise at the words of the wizard in a red cape.
Tony whipped around. "Oh good, the wizard's intrigued. That's never a red flag."
Strange ignored him and stepped forward, with hands clasped behind his back.
He studied Billy carefully.
Not just the boy in the hoodie, but the aura.
"There are no illusions at play," Strange said calmly. "No shapeshifting spell. No possession or demonic taint."
Billy raised a hand slightly. "That last one felt targeted."
"The mystical signature is identical," Strange continued, circling slightly. "The same power source that manifested in the adult form resides in you now. It is condensed, rather dormant—but present."
Tony squinted. "Translation?"
"He's not two beings," Strange replied. "He's one. I'd say he's more like a divine conduit who's transformation makes him the embodiment of the blessings granted by the power of gods involved."
Billy blinked. "That's… actually pretty accurate."
Strange's gaze sharpened. "The entities behind your power—are ancient. Older than most pantheons this realm actively interacts with. Their
Thor stiffened slightly at that.
"So he's legit?" Clint asked.
Thor stepped forward, studying Billy again—not as a fraud.
But as something else.
"His lightning was no imitation," Thor said gravely. "It answers him."
Tony pointed at Billy. "He's seventeen." 'Such power clearly shouldn't be wielded by a friggin kid.' He inwardly remarked.
Clint nodded to his words. "That part I'm stuck on too."
Steve approached the kid, crouched slightly so he was eye-level with Billy who was at an average height. "You've been fighting like that for how long?"
Billy scratched the back of his neck. "…A while."
"How long is 'a while'?" Natasha pressed.
"Since I was… fourteen." Billy hesitated.
Clint made a face. "Who the fuck picked such a minor to be some champion for a bunch of gods?"
Tony threw his hands up. "That's worse, right? That's absolutely worse."
Strange folded his hands into his sleeves.
"You didn't tell us," he said quietly, seeming to recall the glimpses of immaturity Captain Marvel often displayed.
Billy looked down, fighting the urge to say, 'well am telling you now.'
"Would you have taken me seriously?" He looked around, addressing the entire room as no one answered immediately.
Clint shifted his weight and holstered the compact bow he held in his grip, awaiting deployment if need be.
"Kid," he said, his tone softer now, "we take alien invasions seriously. We take killer robots seriously. We'd have taken you seriously."
Tony glanced at Clint. "Speak for yourself."
Clint shot him a look. "You built a murder bot because your feelings were hurt."
"Low blow."
Strange stepped closer to Billy. "You understand the metaphysical implications of what you carry?" Strange asked.
Billy blinked. "Uh."
"You are a nexus of divinity," Strange clarified. "Your existence bridges planes and likely pantheons. You are what is called a powerhouse."
Billy slowly lowered his hand slightly, unsure if the wizard had was complimenting him or identified him as a possible threat.
"…Is that bad?"
"It is," Strange said evenly. "For your enemies."
Thor's lips twitched upward, and Clint let out a low whistle. "Okay. So the kid's a walking mythological Wi-Fi hotspot."
Tony pointed again. "Still seventeen!"
Steve who stood up straight now, spoke. "That changes things," he said.
Billy's shoulders tensed at those words.
There it was.
The moment.
The part where they are likely to bench him, or let him on the action.
Thor spoke first instead.
"In Asgard, many warriors begin their training young."
Natasha arched a brow. "Training. Not frontline combat against magical beasts."
Thor conceded that with a small nod as Tony stared at the ceiling again. "Yeah. New rule. No lightning words indoors."
Billy managed a small, nervous smile. "That one was kinda your fault."
Tony pointed at him with his squinting. "Don't you dare, kid."
Bruce Banner who had been very, very quiet since the big reveal, still had his eyes fixed on Billy.
He hadn't reacted like Tony, neither had he interrogated like others.
He'd just… watched with his arms folded loosely. His glasses slipping down his nose slightly.
Much like Tony, Bruce did not like variables he didn't understand. And a seventeen-year-old wielding god-tier energy was a walking variable.
'Could it somehow be similar to me and the Hulk?' He wondered inwardly.
Finally, he pushed off the chair and stepped forward.
"Okay," Bruce said gently, sounding a bit concerned.
"When you transform… what happens to your physiology?"
"Uh." Billy blinked, while Tony groaned. "Oh great. The science dad's here."
Bruce ignored him completely as he calmly made way towards Billy.
"I'm serious," he continued, with his eyes focused on Billy. "Is it cellular expansion? Dimensional overlay? Are you increasing mass or borrowing that avatar from another plane? Does your brain remain developmentally consistent between forms?" Even if it was magic, Bruce wanted some sort of backup science.
Billy stared at him, totally dumbfounded by everything he just asked.
"I… hit things harder?"
Bruce exhaled slowly.
"Right. Okay. That's fine. We'll circle back."
He adjusted his glasses. Just trying to make this less overwhelming.
"You're seventeen," Bruce said again, quieter this time.
Billy nodded.
Bruce's jaw tightened.
For a second—just a second—his gaze flickered green as he thought of his alter ego.
He knew exactly what it felt like to suddenly carry something catastrophic inside a body that can barely contain it.
"Does it hurt?" he asked as the room went still.
His question felt a bit personal, causing Billy to hesitate, wondering if he was talking to him or himself.
"Not entirely," he admitted.
Having heard that, Bruce straightened slowly.
"And when you're in the other form," Bruce continued carefully, "is it easier?"
Billy gave a tiny shrug. "People don't look at me like I'm breakable."
That did it.
Bruce looked away for a moment, the kid might have meant something else but he seemed to sympathize with that feeling.
He had spent years being feared, then years being monitored and pursued with the attempt to have the green guy weaponized.
Only when he was the Hulk, did they give him such a look no longer.
Bruce took a slow breath as he flipped up the top of his watch and began to move his wrist around Billy.
"The power you're channeling," he said, glancing briefly toward Strange, "it's stable. Structurally. I don't see radiation signatures or cellular decay."
"Reassuring," Tony muttered.
"But," Bruce added, eyes returning to Billy, "your brain is still seventeen."
Billy swallowed.
"That matters." He didn't ask in an accusatory or condemning tone.
But factual.
"When you make decisions in combat," Bruce continued, "you're doing it with the impulse of an adolescent, while divine power courses through you."
Tony blinked. "Oh. That's kinda disturbing."
Clint pointed at Billy. "So when he dives into a wormhole—"
"That wasn't impulsive," Billy protested weakly, and Bruce raised a brow as Billy shrank a little.
"…Okay maybe a little." He admitted. "But in my transformed state, my mind is more like that of an adult." He added.
"That explains your reasonable questions from earlier." Clint began. "Captain Marvel's logical manner of thinking when he addressed Strange earlier, caused me to hold him in high regard, only to find out he—you were just a kid." The others clearly felt the same.
Thor stepped forward. "He has shown courage."
Bruce nodded. "I'm not questioning his courage." His gaze softened again.
"I'm questioning the cost to wield such power."
Bruce folded his arms loosely again.
"I live with something inside me that tends to yank the wheel when I lose control," he said quietly. "Something powerful, and doesn't care how I feel."
Everyone remained silent and did nothing to interrupt the moment. They'd heard variations of this before.
But not like this.
"I didn't choose it," Bruce continued. "You did."
Billy looked up. "Kinda."
"Why?"
Billy didn't hesitate this time.
"I was found worthy to wield a power beyond my comprehension. In as much as it felt like an unreal experience, it felt good to be choosen—especially when nothing seemed to go my way in life." Tony cocked up a brow as he held back his remark, letting the boy speak. "I didn't understand nor did I believe much of what was said, but I accepted the offer because it felt to be a call of my destiny."
The room fell silent at that moment.
Bruce stared at him.
Then gave the smallest nod.
He understood Billy might just be a kid, but it was clear he must have been through quite a lot.
After a long moment, Bruce adjusted his glasses again.
"Alright," he said softly. "Then we approach this responsibly."
Tony perked up. "Ah. There's the lecture."
"No," Bruce corrected calmly as he looked at Billy directly.
"You don't stop being who you are," Bruce said. "You also don't have to hide either parts of yourselve from us anymore."
Billy's throat tightened slightly.
Bruce continued, shifting into scientist mode but gentler this time.
"We'll run some tests. Don't worry, they'd be non-invasive," he clarified quickly. "Maybe map the transformation process. Understand the energy transfer. If there's a risk threshold, we find it before it becomes lethal." He assumed there might be some latent risk with every transformation.
Billy blinked. "You'd… help with that?"
Bruce gave a small, tired smile.
"It's what I do."
Tony coughed. "Debatable."
Bruce ignored him again.
"And one more thing," Bruce added.
Billy looked up.
"If you ever feel like you're losing control… or like the weight's too much…"
For a brief second, green flickered faintly in Bruce's eyes.
"…you come to me first."
Not Steve.
Not Tony.
Not Strange.
Him.
Because of everyone in that room—
Bruce Banner understood what it meant to house overwhelming power with risk of becoming the very disaster he fought to protect the world from.
Billy studied him for a long moment.
Then nodded.
"Okay."
Bruce straightened up.
"Good."
"Since all this has to do with magic, feel free to confide with me when you need to. I'll be keeping tabs on you anyway, you might as well take advantage of it." Strange said to Billy who nodded in agreement and with joy in his eyes as he glanced at everyone, overwhelmed with the fuzzy feeling he felt from their acceptance.
His eyes met with Tony. "I don't do therapy, kid." He stated bluntly as a chuckle escaped Billy. "Sure."
Clint clapped his hands once. "Alright. So we've got a lightning kid, a ceiling repair bill, and now emotional bonding. Productive meeting."
Tony pointed at Billy again. "Still processing the 'seventeen' thing."
Thor rested a heavy hand on Billy's shoulder.
"He has the spirit of a warrior."
Bruce glanced at Thor, then back at Billy.
"Maybe," Bruce said gently.
"But he's still a kid."
Billy was filled with the gladness of having found a new home, and people he could at least trust in this new world. They all seemed genuine and opened with their opinions of him.
'I would have to talk them into letting me explore the city at least, and probably request an allowance. Even with the unknown danger lurking around, I feel things should be a lot fun from here on out.' He thought.
"Now that we have that out of the way, how about we get back on topic." Steve railed everyone back on topic as everyone was currently seated.
"How about a detailed walk through of how you ended up here? It might help us with our current situation." Strange addressed Billy.
With a deep exhale, Billy recounted it all in detail and without holding anything back from them.