Heroic Cognizance | Shazam

Chapter 9

Lantern plopped down on the floor, rubbing at his temples. "We gotta find a way out of here..." he muttered, shaking his head. The group nodded in agreement.

- - -

Billy appeared in the middle of them, sitting alone in the station manager's office the kids had converted into their own makeshift home, staring at a yellow paper in his hands. It had thick black letters at the top that read "FORECLOSURE" making the small kid shake.

The mattress he sat on was bare, save for an old plush tiger slumped in Billy's arms and Billy's faded green backpack. The raven sighed, crumbling the paper in his hand into a ball and throwing it angrily at a wall. 

"I'm an idiot, Tawny," he said, tears beading in the corners of his eyes. He hugged the stuffed animal tightly, staring at the crumpled paper angrily. "They'll never forgive me for this..."

"I should have warned them- I should have gone against this, this Solomon guy in my- Cap's- our head and warned Freddy and Darla that the CPS was coming to check the place out..." he muttered, looking away from the paper. 

"I should've gone with my gut..."

The ten-year-old's eyes widened. "What if they're separated?!" he said in a panic, squeezing his tiger plush tighter. He slumped over onto his side, clutching the animal tightly aas teaars escaped his eyes and trailed down his cheeks.

"What if they hate me for this..."

He glanced down at the tiger, bringing a palm up to his eye to rub at it. "I- I know it could be better for them but..." He glanced towards an abandoned crutch lying in the corner of the room. "I'm gonna miss them."

Billy gave the plush an incredulous look, despite the silence in the room. "What? No- no I can't just...that's crazy, Tawny. What kind of Foster home would take in three kids at once..."

"Besides," he said, sitting up and slumping against the wall. The kid set the tiger down across from him and brought his knees up to his chest, holding them loosely. 

"I can't go into a foster home. If I'm gonna be Captain Marvel, I gotta be able to help people at any time, I can't have a mom and dad worrying about me or trying to stop me."

Billy shook his head. "No- no I can't go into a place where people are gonna worry about me just cause I'm a kid. The Wizard said this was my destiny, that I was born for this. I can't let him down."

"Besides, that's why heroes have secret identities, right? To protect their families and stuff. I'd have to keep it from wherever we ended up, and I couldn't do that for forever."