sayshazam | (no subject)

(no subject)

It had been about a million degrees lately, so Billy had decided it was time to brave the beach. He and his dog had gone there fairly early hoping to avoid the crowds but it seemed like everyone else had the same idea. Billy had managed to spend about twenty minutes in the water before deciding that it wasn't worth it and he and his dog left.

Going back to the apartment didn't really appeal to him either. It was summer and school was out, he wanted to spend it doing things he normally wouldn't be able to during the day. Which mostly meant eating food cart food. He'd gotten a few hot dogs for his dog and some sort of messy burrito thing for himself before heading to the park.

The burrito was almost overflowing and tricky to eat while walking, which is why he didn't see the girl until he bumped into her. Billy had to do a sort of awkward dance type thing to avoid spilling the burrito or knocking the girl over and he credited his lessons with Korra to his ability to not make a mess or hurt someone.

"Oh crap, I'm sorry," he said, turning to the girl. "I was, uh, paying attention to my burrito."

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"She's sort of under the radar, but she's awesome. A computer hacker mega-genius who will ruin a super villain's plans before he even knows someone's on to him." Not here though, instead she's younger, less grumpy, walking Barbara. Which is good! But Steph still misses knowing Oracle's up in her clock tower.

After asking for directions, Steph locates the bus station for the one that heads downtown to the zoo. "It was kind of pathetic, but sort of nice. My favorite cereal didn't have a generic equivalent, so it was always too expensive to get. So one Christmas my mom got me this big box of my favorite kind."

"That... isn't really a superhero, is it? That's just a computer hacker. A really good one, but would she really be a superhero?"

Billy didn't even know what made someone a superhero. Not powers because Batman didn't have powers but he was definitely a super hero. Maybe a costume? Yeah, you probably had to have a costume. If this Oracle wore a costume while hacking then maybe that counted.

When she mentioned not being able to afford her favorite cereal Billy was reminded that just because someone had parents it didn't mean that had much else. Still, having parents was probably nice.

"Yeah, the orphanage didn't have any of the good cereal either. Just the generic stuff where it was spelled with a 'k' instead of a 'c' and stuff like that."

"Uh, no, definitely a superhero." She gives him a look that hopefully subtly implies she will fight him if he keeps saying Oracle isn't a hero. It matters when it's someone she knows and doubly so when Barbara's ability to do the punchy hero thing was taken away from her. "Plus, she leads the Birds of Prey."

Steph nods. "The kind that comes in the big bag instead of a box? I know all about that." Then, because he brought it up, so she thought it might be safe to ask. "How long were you in the foster system?"

"How is she a superhero? I mean, I'm not saying she isn't," he quickly added, because living with Alex had given him some social skills and recognizing when someone might hurt you for dissing something they liked was one of them. "And who are the Birds of Prey?"

Billy wished that he had kept his mouth shut about the orphanage. A lot of time people started to look at you differently because of it. Even if they didn't want to, they did.

"Longer than I wasn't in it," he said, trying to make it sound like it wasn't a big deal. "Sometimes I was on my own though."

"Because she has a codename, acts outside the law, helps people, and uses her special skills to fight supervillains. Just because she's not punching them in the face personally doesn't mean she's not a superhero," she says, and sounds so logical it's a little surprising. Positively persuasive. "And the Birds of Prey are an all-woman superhero team."

Steph nods and tries not to be too nosy. Doesn't ask what happened to his parents, if he ever knew them. "I know some people who are in it at home. Not good, or at least it isn't in Gotham."

Billy takes just a moment to imagine an all female superhero group. It's not that male superheroes don't have really hot costumes too, it's just that theirs are usually displaying muscles in a way that are kind of terrifying. Female costumes... are usually different.

"I'm not saying you don't have to punch people to be a superhero, it's just... okay maybe I was saying that. But I guess she's a superhero."

Billy appreciated that she didn't ask about his parents, especially because he still wasn't even all that sure what had happened to him.

"Yeah, it's pretty bad. I got taken in by a family just before I got sent here and they were okay but... it's a pain to have people acting like they're going to help you and stuff. They never stick around."

"She totally is," Steph says cheerfully, glad that he could change his mind and not be a total jerk about it. Some guy would have just dug their heels in and just gotten mean about everything. "And is totally awesome in a nice yet sort of scary way."

She nods. "Yeah, I can see how that would be weird. Like you're supposed to just be totally cool with total strangers being part of your family."

"Okay, how do you know how nice a superhero hacker is?" Billy asked, giving her a stare. It seemed like a superhero hacker wouldn't have a lot of interaction with people, although maybe they were on Facebook or something? Maybe they had a website with forums.

"Yeah, and they don't really get how weird it is because you're supposed to be so grateful," he said, although he had to admit that the Vasquez's were different. They were just... nice.

Oops. She shrugs and tries to play it cool. "You just hear things. Maybe it's different in Gotham than in other places, you know, since there are so many heroes and crazy crime or whatever. Like how probably everyone in Metropolis has met Superman." That's how it seems from the papers, anyway. It's why she really wants to go visit there and meet him.

"Yeah, ugh, that does sound sucky." She makes a face. "I almost got put in foster care a few times but my parents always finagled their way out of it. Which was good, and I guess what I wanted, but sometimes getting a whole new family sounded nice."

"Oh, yeah, I guess in Gotham you guys have like... resident superheroes and stuff," Billy said. The bus pulled up to their stop and they got off. The zoo was a short walk from here although it seemed pretty empty, like most of the people going to the zoo were already there. "In Philadelphia we had one guy show up there day before I left. Buff guy in a red suit and white cape with a big lightning bolt on his chest."

Billy would like to have said he couldn't imagine anyone disliking their parents so much they wanted new ones, but he kind of could considering some of the foster parents he had met.

"What about now? Do you miss your parents now that they're not here?"

"Resident superheroes and resident villains," she says with a bit of a sigh. Gotham is a hard city to grow up in, even if she does love it. "That sounds...sort of familiar. I don't think I know the name though. Does he have lightning powers?"

She shrugs as they walk along. "I miss my mom. I wish I could call her and tell her I'm okay." All of a sudden a well of emotion catches in her chest and she really misses her so much it hurts. But Steph is good at pushing these things down and shrugs again. "But having my own place is nice."

"He shoots lightning. There was a guy kinda like that here too," Billy said, figuring he should probably admit that otherwise it would look suspicious. Of course, admitting there was a hero in his hometown AND here was suspicious but Billy wasn't too worried. He and Shazam looked nothing alike.

"And I'm sorry about your mom. Having your own place-"

Before Billy could finish what he was going to say, someone stepped onto the path in front of them. He was taller than either of them, although in Billy's instance that didn't mean much, and wiry. His arms jittered a bit and Billy was about to ask if he was okay when he saw the knife the guy was holding.

"Don't be a hero in front of your girlfriend, kid," the guy said. "Just hand over your wallets and your phones and no one has to get hurt."

"Sweet. Lightning powers are pretty cool." She hasn't really tried to go out and meet the local heroes or anything. Part of her wants to but the rest isn't sure she deserves to.

"So what is- "

Steph stops when their would-be-mugger steps in their path and scoffs at his threat. "Are you kidding me? It's like two in the afternoon, is this amateur hour?"

Then she just leaps into action and the would-be-mugger doesn't even have a chance to raise the knife before she kicks it out of his hand. She's acting on instinct and a clear, righteous anger that feels good. Once the knife is skittering across the sidewalk, Steph knocks him into the wall and then shakes him the way you would a misbehaving puppy. Frightened and probably tripping balls, the guy goes limp in her grip. "Knock this stuff out. Get clean, sort your life out, you're better than this."

Then she lets him go and he takes off in the opposite direction with nervous, backward glances. "Friggin jerk," she says with a sigh.

Billy's eyes went wider and wider as Steph completely kicked the guys ass. For a moment, before she had reacted, he had thought about doing just what she had done. Technically he had practiced that kick and stuff with Korra so he could have done it. Technically. But while he had been thinking about acting she had just acted.

And was awesome.

"Holy shit!" he said when she turned back to look at him. "You're like a ninja or something!"

She shrugs and pushes her hair out of her eyes, but smiles a little. Positive reinforcement is a rare thing in Steph's life, even if that guy had been a total cake-walk. "It's, you know...self-defense classes." Not that any self-defense classes had involved high kicks and tossing people around, but it's a better excuse than 'i was a teenage vigilante.' "I guess they're pretty intense considering it's Gotham. And that guy was a total amateur."

"No way, I've been training in martial arts and that was some pretty awesome stuff," Billy said. Alright, so he didn't really know what level of awesome that was other than it was probably more than he could do like this. Mostly he wanted to drop the knowledge that they had a mutual interest in martial arts.

"And yeah, I guess the professional muggers don't come out until closer to sundown. Still, that was really cool."

"Okay...it was a little awesome," Steph says and lets herself grin a bit. She's so used to being around people who are ultra-mega-super ninja detectives that it's easy to get down on her own skills, which are maybe only minorly super ninja. "But that guy was cake, I'm sure you could have taken care of him if I hadn't moved first. What are you learning?"

"Medium awesome at least," Billy said, grinning with her. Man she had a nice smile. It was kind of weird to think that she was so normal and casual a moment ago and then suddenly kicked ass at a moments notice. Korra was like that too though, she seemed so normal until you saw her fight.

"But it's... okay it's like Windy Mountain style or something and not knowing the name make it sound like I'm not taking it seriously but I do. Just not the name."

"That's cool," Steph says, and it's really ridiculous how a little positive enforcement just brightens her right up. It doesn't occur to her that Windy Mountain style or whatever could be from another world, considering there's about a million kinds of martial arts in the world and Steph is far from an expert. "You'll have to show me your moves sometime. But for now, let us not be distracted from our bat beauty quest."

"Well there's no way I'm going to prove you wrong now, you'll kick my ass," he teased, not really believing that she would do that.

People who fought off muggers and then sent them running didn't beat you up just because you were right about bats being ugly. Still, he couldn't help but give her a hard time about it.

"It's true," Steph agrees with a nod and a laugh, because it would never happen in a million years. "Find bats to be cute or you'll get punched all the way into the lion's den."

The zoo entrance was crowded with families, even for a hot summer day, but the reason soon became apparent. Fridays were free days. "Oh, awesome! Bats for free!"

"Aw man, and here I was all excited to show you I knew how to sneak into the zoo," Billy said, only slightly disappointed. It was probably best that he didn't have to, not everyone was cool with stuff like sneaking into the zoo, but some habits died hard.

"I guess free is good too."

"Does sneaking into the zoo involve climbing over fences into animal enclosures?" Steph asks as they line up to get into the zoo. "Because I am all about breaking and entering, but not so much with ending up possibly lunch."

"No, that I would have called showing you how to get eaten at the zoo," Billy said, giving a slightly frustrated huff at having to wait in line. It was going to be crazy busy with the zoo being free today.

"But there's a place around the side where the workers sneak in and out to take a smoke break."

"Damn zoologists and their nicotine habits," Steph jokes as they finally make it through the turnstiles and into the zoo itself. It's interesting that Billy already knows how to sneak in, makes him a little different than what she'd expected. "You knowing that entrance makes you the prime suspect if the elephant goes missing, you realize."