sayshazam | (no subject)

(no subject)

Billy wasn't really a "terror that lurks in the night" sort of superhero. He was more a "friendly neighborhood" kind of guy. The fact that his costume was bright red, white, and gold with a glowing lightning bolt kind of made any lurking that much more difficult even if he wanted to. But he didn't really want to. Sure there was a time and place for that but he liked being a hope and symbol. Heroes didn't just have to scare bad people, they could inspire good people.

But sometimes they definitely needed to scare bad people. Like vampires. It wasn't like the city was overrun with them or anything and sometimes they were good people. But tonight he was after some that definitely didn't fit the "good vampire" category.

The vampire (or something that acted a lot like a vampire) in question was currently leading a handsome, blond young man with a dazed look on his face down an alley. The creature glanced nervously around- but never looking up- before whistling and two more of his friends came out for snack time. It was like toddlers all rushing to get a juice box.

"Hey guys!" Billy-as-Shazam called out as he floated down to the mouth of the alley closest to the group. "You definitely shouldn't do that! Technically I don't know exactly what you were going to do but it doesn't look good."

"Oh shit," the original vampire said, stepping away from the human.

"Who the fuck are you?" another asked, furrowing her brow at Billy. He kind of liked it when they didn't recognize him. Then they didn't run.

"He's 'get-the-fuck-out-of-here!'" the first vampire said, grabbing the other two and yanking them toward the other end of the alley.

"You don't want to go that way!" he called out after them. "Trust me! That's the scarier way! Like... way scary! I'm the friendly option!"

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If it had been up to Valkyrie, none of those vampires would have even been given the chance to run. Even now, when she heard the footsteps of one of them approaching, she was ever so tempted to just unleash a blast of her magic and take its torso off - but she also knew that Billy would really chew her out for taking the lethal option.

At least he'd given her the perfect opportunity to have a little fun.

"Stay where you are!" she yelled from around the side, and then stepped out, hands and eyes glowing and crackling with energy. "You have two choices here, neckbiters. You either go back the way you came, swear to do no harm to anyone else, and the friendly option will escort you home to make sure you don't have any accidents involving innocent bystanders."

She waited a moment, giving one of them time to ask, "What's the second option?"

At that, she grinned wider, shaped the energy around her left hand into a long lance, and pointed it straight at the one who'd spoken up.

"Choice number two is, you take your chances with me. And if you're lucky, my pal will make sure I leave enough of you left to identify."

It wasn't that Billy was completely against destroying enemies. He'd done it himself on more than one occasion. He tried to give them a chance though or at least hear them out. Especially in a place like Darrow where you could be forced to be different. What if he killed a vampire that was only that way because the city had done something to them? When you had phenomenal power you had to be very careful about how you used it.

"She'll do it too," Billy said, secretly hoping that they'd take the less violent way out even if he didn't think that they would. But he had to hope. But first, he needed to take care of the handsome snack they'd all been about to feed on. "But I'll be right back. I'm going to drop this guy off safely."

Billy knew that Valkyrie could handle herself. The vampires might think that with him gone for just a bit they stood a chance but they were completely wrong. Billy stepped forward and took the man by the hand and in a flash of light teleported away to a police station.

"Well, with the big red cheese taking our snack then I guess we'll have to find another," the lead vampire said, giving Valkyrie a feral grin as his fangs became longer. "I bet you taste really nice."

Trust Billy to actually leave her alone with a bunch of vampires. He must have known what would happen, and he must have known that she'd be pleased as punch to oblige what must surely follow.

"I taste amazing. Pity you'll never find out," she said, not even waiting for the attack that was surely coming and instead snapping out her hand with fingers spread apart. An old habit, from the Elemental days, but she'd given it a different trick these days: a burst of magic lightning at point-blank range.

"You piece of shit!" was all he managed to get out before a fist slammed into his midriff, followed by an elbow to the jaw. The final touch was sending the energy-spear she held right into one of the knees, and as the vampire buckled, suddenly losing the tendons and other connecting tissues in one leg, she slammed her knee upward into his falling face. It had taken all of four, maybe five seconds, and he was out of the fight.

Of course, those seconds gave the other two enough time to see what they were up against. They immediately took more cautious stances, watching her carefully from two sides. Which one was going to go first? The one on her left was more twitchy, and the one on the right seemed more cocky, so it was an even bet. But maybe she could change the odds a little bit...

"You there," she said, pointing at the left one, her hand once again surrounded by a nimbus. "Come and have a go, then. If you think you're hard enough."

Tanith surely wouldn't mind having her little catchphrase stolen for this. Probably be proud, come to think of it. It had the desired effect, too, making that one hesitate and back away a little further. It was the other one who decided to make a move, scrambling up the wall and launching himself at Valkyrie.

The one she taunted bared her fangs even as she stepped back. She wasn't so confident after seeing her companion taken down so easily. She would let her other partner take that risk.

He launched himself off of the wall, claws out at the girl with every intention to rip her throat out. He wanted to feed on her, to suck her blood out of her veins and chew the marrow out of her bones. This girl had taken away their snack and he was going to feed off of her instead.

She did say she tasted sweet.

It was a very different kind of attack - none of the cocky swagger, no taunts, nothing other than pure hunger and animal rage. This, she felt no reason to hold back for.

She did, however, feel one thing: the impact as the vampire moved faster than expected and she had to raise a protective arm to prevent being bitten or bowled over. Not good. Getting the drop on a vamp, or taking them at range, was where the advantage lay. The moment they got too close, it was all about strength and speed, which they normally had in abundance.

And what did Valkyrie have? Well, okay, a specially-tailored cloak that could deflect almost any damage. That was a good thing. Years of training, that was also good. Oh, and the magic. That came in handy for things like this.

She allowed it to build up, like she would do for the kind of magical explosion that she'd done a few times, only this time, she really focused it and rather than just releasing it all around, directed it all towards the vampire who was trying to tear through her left sleeve.

The effect was quite profound, with the vampire flying almost instantly at the wall, though much to Val's regret, he rebounded off it instead of leaving a comically-shaped hole.

This one was already far too feral, though, so she stepped forward, preparing to obliterate the head. Billy probably wouldn't be happy, but sometimes, that's just how it was.

Billy returned just in time to see Valkyrie preparing to blow the head off of one of the vampires. He'd taken the victim to the hospital just in case there were going to be any lingering effects of any hypnotism that the vampires had used on the guy.

He knew that Valkyrie wasn't going to kill indiscriminately, even if he also knew that she was less hesitant to do so without him around. It wasn't like he'd never killed anyone but he liked to try and avoid it when possible.

"Aw man, did one of them go all crazy on you?" Billy asked, frowning at disappointment at the vampire. He understood it had to eat but could it just try not to murder people or something?

She had a foot planted on its chest, a hand around the throat, and the other hand was raised, ready to deliver the massive surge of power with which she'd intended to end the miserable thing's life. Of course he came back in that moment. It was far too poetic for that not to happen, and remind her that she had a conscience. Recent years had softened her temper somewhat in a general sense, but when it came to vampires, a whole other side emerged.

"Feral is the word I would use. Yes. And I'm going to take care of that, unless you have a better solution," she said calmly, unsure of whether she actually wanted a different solution or not.

"I haven't been able to find one," Billy admitted, a sad look in his eyes. He had tried. He would have thought that with all his magic and his wisdom that he could have found a cure for vampires. There probably was one but the problem was that not all vampires were the same. If some of them were cursed he could probably cure that. But for the ones that were dead? He couldn't do anything for them.

"Just make it fast, okay? And painless? We can't let them go on hurting people but we don't know if they chose to become a vampire or not," Billy reminded her. Not that he thought Valkyrie would forget something like that but he felt like it was important to be said.

The look that Billy had when he answered almost made her stop. There was something rather soul-crushing about seeing someone who was usually so chipper and upbeat being defeated by circumstances. Still, the gnashing of teeth reminded her of the reason behind it all, and with a defeated sigh of her own, she let loose. The face of the creature was consumed with rage and hunger, and Valkyrie told herself that the person behind it was lost to the beast already. She hoped it was true, because an instant later, everything upwards of the clavicle was vaporised.

"I'm sorry," she said, and though she was talking in the direction of the corpse, she knew that Billy would hear just fine. "But that's how it needs to be done."

"And you're a good person for doing it," Billy said, reaching out to squeeze Valkyrie's shoulder. It was true, even though killing vampires might seem "super fun" to some people and there was a part of it that was he knew that Valkyrie didn't do it for the rush or the thrill. She did it because it was necessary to protect people.

"Thanks for taking care of them while I got the guy to the hospital. Hopefully they didn't do anything that will leave any permanent damage. You know... other than mental scars or whatever."

He moved so gently when he needed to. It was still hard to reconcile that this sweet-hearted guy was the same one who just casually pushed her and Victra aside in the midst of a heated fight. Technically he wasn't, she knew that much, but...technicalities were stupid.

"Well, don't get too kind to me all at once. I still hate them, and the main part of what's stopping me from really going full-bore with it is that I'm trying to be better than that." She stepped away, suddenly feeling a lot more tired than she physically was. "Because I can be, and I should be. For you as much as me."

"How do you not realize that's one of the most amazing things about you?" Billy asked, smiling at her. Normally Valkyrie was all confidence and wit and it was kind of weird to see her like this. But he didn't want to discourage this sort of introspection in her easy. She was trying and he knew that it was probably difficult just for her to admit that she needed to try better.

"You should definitely be rewarded for your heroic efforts and self growth though. Positive reinforcement and all that."

"Because, Billy," she said and took hold of him a little less gently than usual, "the list of amazing things about me is way too long for me to keep track of."

That was maybe laying it on a little too thick. There was only so far she could push things before it became obnoxious again, but she wasn't in the mood for properly coming to terms with deep-seated issues right now.

"Reward me then, won't you?" she purred in his ear and gave a gentle bite on the neck just to be clear.

"I know. That's why I'm constantly zoning out. Going through the super huge list of how great you are in my head," he said, grinning at her. While she might have been joking (only possibly not because it was Valkyrie) he wasn't. He totally zoned out think about her and she was amazing in a lot of ways.

He was startled out of that train of thought though as she nibbled at his neck, goosebumps prickling on his arms.

"Oh. Oh! Yeah. Someone- someone should do that," he said, taking a moment for his brain to start working again before he turned his head to catch her lips in a kiss.

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