Chapter 16: Priority Alpha part 1.

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AN/ Sorry about the weird line spacing Gang.

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(Billy's P.O.V)

"Shazam huh? Cool name. Sounds related to magic though."

He tilted his head, giving me an once-over.

"So are you like...a wizard or something."

Despite the small burst of glee that he liked the name, I wasn't going to tell him about my abilities.

"Or Something."

I could almost sense the frown underneath his mask.

"You're intentionally being vague to sound mysterious."

"What gave that away?"

I questioned just as the gentle roar of engines sounded out, headed straight for us.

Shield worked fast.

The minute the Quinjet landed on the edges of the destroyed area, agents rushed out with some high tech restraining devices.

They quickly and efficiently apprehended the unconscious Villains.

Seeing this, Spiderman turned to me.

"Sorry, gotta run. Now that Shield's here, my team needs me."

"Team?"

I blurted out before I could help myself. Last I checked Spiderman didn't have a team.

"Yeah, crazy, I know. Me in a team. Not to mention it's leader. Fury certainly lost his marbles."

He replied with a sigh of frustration.

That wasn't all. I caught the undercurrent of reluctant pride.

I smiled.

"Don't worry I'm sure you'll get the hang of things. There's always a first time for everything."

My words made him reevaluate me again.

"Thanks. Always good to see J.Jonah's mission to trash my name failing."

Before we could continue with the conversation, Spiderman stiffened slightly.

A particularly well guarded mind appeared in my telepathic range, walking briskly towards us.

Spiderman winced.

"Sorry. I really gotta escape...I mean run... I mean swing...away. Now. The cityneedsmebyeShazam!"

He turned flustered, shot a web onto a nearby street light and quickly swung away.

"Don't let her bite your head off!"

He added before disappearing into the concrete jungle.

Of course I knew who he was talking about. I turned around and came face to face with Maria Hill.

"You're coming with me."

She immediately ordered. The nerve.

I frowned underneath my mask.

"Sorry. But I don't take kindly to rude people."

Then without another word, I pulsed my TK aura and blasted off into the sky, heading towards my beautiful apartment.

It's not like I had anywhere else to go or anything. Not to mention, I was dead on my feet. I felt like sleeping for a whole week.

My flight speed slowed as I got closer to my lair...I mean my apartment.

I hovered in the air while looking down at the complex. Luckily the way the building was constructed ensured I could move in without being easily spotted.

As for the aforementioned apartment, it was back!

That red faced stupid alien had torn everything apart but just like the mission rewards had stated, my little abode looked as if nothing had happened to it.

Once inside, it became obvious that something had indeed changed.

Every single thing seemed to have undergone renovation.

Or rather, the Apartment looked new. As if time had reversed by a few years instead of the few hours since it had been destroyed.

It looked how I imagine it used to be when the building was first built. No leaking bathroom anymore.

Yay to the powers that be for even dealing with the wear and tear. Everything had been restored to it's prime.

A little more touring and I was even more impressed. This place looked nothing like my old apartment. Everything was clean and fresh.

The musty smell and stench of disinfectant that had always been there was missing.

I accepted and received my other reward, setting up my new and comfy bed before taking a shower.

The water was hot!

It might seem as if I was making a big deal out of the whole thing, but after showering with cold water for the last week, I almost moaned as the heat washed away my exhaustion.

I'm not ashamed to say I stayed there longer than I was supposed to.

After that, I heated up some leftovers I had in my new, albeit small fridge.

I had wanted to do something about my injuries but I was still mentally drained, so I swallowed a painkiller and promptly fell asleep.

My dreams were filled with images and scenes of a battlefield. A man wearing a lion's top half of the skull and mane as a headdress wielding a massive club.

He stood on a mountain of corpses. Alone, in opposition to the thousands of warriors before him.

Everytime he swung the club, the entire battlefield would undergo a massive upheaval.

The terrain would change.

Mighty and thunderous shockwaves would carry his enemies away, destroying army formations easily.

The earth would crack apart swallowing everything.

Then another scene would replace that, and I would see the same man battling a large lion with his bare hands. Their fight was even more shocking than the scene before.

It was brutal. The Lion left claw marks along his body that bled with golden blood.

"Ichor"

Solomon's legacy supplied.

Ichor, a god's blood.

Instantly I knew who he was. Even before the scene changed to show him battling a creature that looked like a cross between a dragon and a snake with 8 heads.

"Hydra."

Solomon's Wisdom once again supplied.

Hercules.

The most physically strongest god.

The legacy of Strength.

For the rest of my sleep, I feel into a dreamless state. Only waking up when the sun's rays started streaming through the window.

I had slept for more than 13 hours.

I lay there thinking about the dream I had.

A few minutes later, I decided to get up, groaning as my ribs protested any movement at the action.

I sank back in bed, pulling up my t-shirt to see the extent of my injuries.

There was a red welt on the left side of my chest, but it wasn't as bad as I had initially feared.

Running my palm over my forehead revealed I had been wrong about a concussion. There wasn't any pain there.

I was sure I had hit my head pretty badly though...

Still, can't look a gift horse in the mouth. This type of injury wouldn't be enough to keep me down for long.

It was a good thing too. I speculated it would only take about a week to get back to full health.

Less, if I try an idea I had.

I settled into a cross legged position, falling into a meditative trance.

Next I reached out through my telepathic range.

My eyes blinked open in surprise. My range had increased. A lot.

I could now cover the entire block which was almost half a mile all around. Close to 800 meters.

And I could peruse the minds of anyone inside this range with ease.

It was... intoxicating just how much power and control I now wielded. It seems the fight with the Cabal had done me some good.

Maybe with this increased control my idea would work.

I tentatively pulled on my psionic energy.

My body immediately glowing as a shroud of rainbow color appeared around me. It shone bright enough I was sure anyone watching from the outside would have seen it.

I decreased the amount I was pulling on and the glow around me died down. Now for the next step.

I sent a little of that energy to my ribs gently. To my utter disappointment, the energy simply dissipated into the air.

I tried again. The same thing happened.

I kept at it for a few hours not even noticing the time go by as I was focused on cracking this. Having a healing skill would be invaluable.

Without my TK aura acting as the last layer of defense I had against powerful blows, I was a glass Cannon.

Regeneration in that case would be a good skill to have.

Unfortunately, Psionic energy seemed to work under different principles. Which made sense in a way.

All the skills I'd learned under Solomon's Legacy were mental skills.

Regeneration wasn't.

That wasn't to say my efforts went to waste.

Something unexpected did eventually happen as I kept pushing Psionic Energy into my injury to heal it.

That something would be the basis of one of the most valuable skills I would ever come up with.

(General P.O.V)

(Elsewhere)

The Hulk and Black Widow had managed to get the gamma energy siphoning device and cure the Avengers.

Stark complained about the damage caused to his building but with the kind of resources he had at hand, rebuilding was only a matter of using a few suits controlled remotely.

In just a few hours, everything was back to tip top shape.

The Avengers also understood how it was living like the Hulk. Being forced to keep all that anger in check.

Suffice it to say, they sympathized and respected Banner even more.

The only thing left to do was to find the boy, Billy and cure him as well.

The boy had surprised them all. He'd dealt with the Cabal. Alone. That wasn't a simple feat.

The Cabal went up against the Avengers regularly and the latter would all unanimously agree they weren't a joke.

Tony had a program running a database search for Billy. Sooner or later they would find the boy.

In the meantime...things were underfoot.

In the Avengers tower, director Fury had called a meeting with the Avengers.

Priority Alpha.

Which meant what he wanted to talk to them about was important enough to warrant Shield's director to arrive himself.

Fury turned to Tony.

"Stark, a little privacy please."

The billionaire merely nodded without saying anything, something that was uncharacteristic of him.

"Jarvis, you heard the Pirate."

But of course he wouldn't miss the chance to throw a jab Fury's way.

Gray metal panels fell from the walls around the room, covering the windows and sealing the room shut from the outside world.

*******

The hardened spy took a deep breath.

"We lost Loki's scepter two years ago."

Fury admitted, looking as if he'd bitten on a particularly sour lemon.

The room turned cold.

"What's Loki's scepter?"

Falcon asked, looking around the room.

No one answered. They remained in stunned silence.

"2 years...that long and you only mention it now."

Stark shook his head.

"And you say I can't be trusted. How did you lose it?"

Tony asked, his tone calm but those who knew him could see the slight clench of his jaw.

Tony was angry. Anger that was universally shared by the rest of the Avengers.

"You know how."

Fury answered calmly. As if he wasn't facing some of the most dangerous individuals in the planet.

"Hydra."

Cap bit out.

"Affirmative. We never managed to find out who stole it from Shield's vault of 'things that should not be outside the vault'."

The spy informed them.

"Until now."

Hawkeye guessed.

"Right again."

The leader of Shield nodded.

"And you kept this from us why?"

Tony prodded, pouring himself a glass of bourbon that he handed to Thor.

The Asgardian gulped it down before levelling a glare at Fury.

"You gave me assurance Fury. You lied."

The air got charged. The Avengers were staring at Fury distrustfully.

"Can we all just calm down? Let him explain."

Black Widow told the team.

"Of course you would support him Natasha."

Hawkeye threw at her.

"I..."

Black Widow started only to trail off with a frown. That comment seemed to have thrown her off her game.

"Despite where Natasha's loyalties seem to lie, she's a valuable member of this time. And she's right. I'm not happy with any of this but we should listen before judging."

Cap the voice of reason, advised.

The others weren't happy but at least they looked ready to hear Fury out.

"What's there to explain?" The One-eyed spy responded.

"Though the Avengers lack oversight, Shield is under the World Council. My bosses determined the information was too sensitive for people to know."

"Even the Avengers?"

Falcon asked, one eyebrow raised.

"You know the game Sam. Orders are orders."

Natasha replied to the former soldier.

Thor slammed the glass in his hands on the table.

"Hey, use the coaster..."

Iron Man added offhandedly as the Asgardian got to his feet, calling to his hammer.

"Midgardian Politics."

The god spat out in distaste before making his way towards the entrance.

"Hold on, prince Thor. I promise you that you will want to stay back for this."

Fury told him, more serious than any of them had heard before.