The shrill beep of an alarm clock thundered through the house, as a swearing, cussing man slowly stumbled across the room searching for the noise. Lights flickered ominously, a dark shadow stalking its way through the series of rooms.

One hand reached out for the alarm clock, before an ominous voice broke into his concentration. "Where's Billy?"

"Batman!" The rather unfortunate squeak was brought on with an equally unfortunate knee shaking. Not because he was terrified, no way- it was because of his pounding headache… yeah, that would work.

"Where. Is. Billy?"

The man frowned, eyebrows furrowing. Billy… the ten year old… a frat house… "Oh crap."

"What did you do?" Batman was getting angry. Angry Batman equaled a lot of pain.

"I left him behind. In the frat house. Oh man my headache!" The just about naked man groaned as he clutched his head.

"I don't care how hungover you are, you go back there and get him. He is only ten." Batman vanished in a fluff of agitated cape, and Oliver Queen rubbed the back of his neck, wondering when exactly he had become Kid Flash in his ditziness.

Billy Batson casually kicked back on the couch of the frat house, chatting up Priscilla. She and he had squatted in the same areas, from before he'd gotten taken in with Uncle Dudley, and it was nice to chat with her.

"Are those guys from the Wild Xsarts gang still bothering you?"

"Nah honey, I'm doing just fine. I saw you and your friend there coming in a big old rush earlier. Wanna tell me what was the matter?"

"Well…." Billy hesitated- Miss Priscilla didn't know about the whole super-hero thing. All she knew was that a boy she knew had come into the frat house with a strange man, and the man had accidentally eaten a couple of brownies, drunken a couple of drinks, and in general touched stuff that shouldn't be touched in this kind of safe-house. Well, kind of safe house- safe from gangs at least, not from police.

Still, with a bit of careful, judicious editing, he should be able to tell her a really, really cool story.

"It began last night when the two of us met up."

Captain Marvel in his striking red suite slowly floated down to where Green Arrow stood on the top of the bridge, wind blowing and whistling across the buildings. He grinned happily at the man- the man half-glared back.

"So we're tracking down a drug smuggling ring?" Captain Marvel asked- rather uselessly. Then again, his real age was ten, so… So what? The kid ought to be able to take care of himself by now.

"Yes. You fly above, I handle the streets." Of course he was going to handle the streets. Diana would kill him if she knew Captain Marvel was among the riff-raff and street scum. The Amazonian warrior was most definitely not taking the news that one of their members was a child well.

Marvel grinned like that was the best thing he had ever heard in his life. "The signal is 'Theodore' then, and I'll be listening for you!"

Have fun with that Kiddo, because I am not going to risk Diana's wrath while we figure out what to do with you and get you hurt.

Green Arrow straightened his green shirt, mournfully feeling the loss of his bow for this undercover job, and took a deep breath. Time to start tracking down the drug dealers.

"He wanted to take a look around town, and so I followed him to make sure he stayed out of trouble, and well… we kind of rubbed shoulders with the wrong crowd…"

Billy knew the signs of a gang area. He had spent enough time scurrying from abandoned apartment to not know it. That's why as Captain Marvels sharp eyes skimmed the signs, Billy's mind attempted to make sense of them.

He wasn't well versed in what each gang was, and where they would hide- but he was well versed in how they ran their streets just from a glance, and this gang's streets were clear of homeless people- less likely to be where drugs were sold.

Judging by Green Arrows expression, he knew that as well, as he turned around and headed back. Captain Marvel lurked just out of normal human eyesight, in the gathering, darkening clouds to be mistaken for a bird, and tracked the older human towards the seedier part of town when- a member of the gang showed up.

"Oh no Billy! You didn't get hurt, did you?" Priscilla ran long, elegant, painted fingernails across his face, searching for a bruise.

Billy grinned back, blue eyes practically shining with amazement. "No, I didn't. Did you know Miss Priscilla that there's a gang that goes around with pillow cases?"

Oliver Queen ducked the pillowcase full of rocks and broken bricks, snarling out choice words. The teen sneered as he lifted the pillowcase- it would soften the blow, leave no bruises when it hit, even if it did hit hard and strong enough to shatter bones.
He could see out of the corner of his eye a hovering form slowly drifting closer, but still thankfully waiting for his signal.

The pillowcase whistled right through the air, rocks grinding together ominously. Oliver backed up a few steps, his own instincts honed to a fine-tuned point, fingers twitching slightly as he realized that someone was coming up behind him.

He ducked, one leg sweeping out to dump the person coming up behind him into a nearby trashcan. A smirk appeared on his face, and his hand curled into a fist, before smoothly connecting with a face.

Lightning flashed, and the first few drops of water came tumbling down to splatter against the triumphant snarl plastered on a usually handsome face.

"Sounds like a gang I know." Priscilla said uncomfortably, shifting her weight ever so slightly forward, eyes searching him for any injuries. "But how on Earth did you get away?"

"Oh, well, let's just say that I kinda fell from the sky…"

Thunder boomed across the sky, and Captain Marvel dodged the thunder quickly, internally panicking. If that thunder struck him, then poof- he'd be back to plain old Billy Batson. That would so not be the idea right about now.

Lightning arced across the sky, bathing everything in an eerie white glow for a split second. It faded, thunder rumbling like a lion. Captain Marvel glanced back down to where Green Arrow was still fighting the men with pillowcases. He pouted slightly- why did everyone else always get the cool stuff?

Oliver took three steps back, and Captain Marvel got hit by lightning. With a sudden, terrified shriek he found himself falling to earth-

Priscilla appropriately gasped right in the most interesting part. "Oh no! You actually jumped off a building to scare them all away?"

"Well, I had to do something!"

The fall was too short to be able to change in any timely sort of manner that didn't instantly give away his secret identity to everyone. So he just sort of screeched once, and hoped that Mister Green Arrow was willing to catch him.

Everyone below him scattered. Billy's eyes widened as he caught sight of the dumpster, and the thin, ugly mattress on top.

It would be a softer landing then what he normally got. A clothesline flashed into view, and quickly he grabbed onto it, breaking his fall just a little before it snapped.

WHUMPH!

An almost pained gasp escaped him as he landed on the mattress and a broken spring dug into his back. He could hear the pitter-patter of feet running away, dodging stronger footfalls approaching him. Slowly, a wild, crazed smile appeared on his face. "That was so AWESOME!"

He was sure that he heard the sound of a palm hitting a face, but ignored it in his excitement.

Priscilla giggled as one long fingernail flicked the end of his nose. "Only you Billy would do something like that."

Billy mock cowered back, his hand holding his nose dramatically. "But Miss Priscilla, it was really cool!"

"That doesn't explain how you got here." Priscilla reminded, "What's the rest of the story?"

"Oh, after it started really raining, we decided to find a place to stay!" After dodging a pack of wild dogs, three gang members with more pillowcases, skirting around a gang war, and getting hugged by a fat tourist. I think Mister Green Arrow was ready to stop after that.

"Anyways, I should get home to Uncle Dudley, if the guy I was here with earlier comes back in, could you tell him I've already gone home?"

"Sure thing Billy. Mind you, avoid the back streets for now. You two still live up near the Wild Scandz gang, right?"

"Yep, just outside of their territory." Billy traced out the mental map, using restaurants as his major navigational marks. It wasn't a perfect system, but best one that Miss Priscilla could easily use.

"I'll come around and check on you later Billy, or maybe even send that other guy around." She crossed her finger behind her back. If someone was going to abandon sweet little Billy in a frat house after getting high and drunk, she was going to tear them apart.

Billy nodded, and ran out, dodging sleeping bodies and trying not to breathe too deeply.

Priscilla watched him go, before her sharp eyes turned to the doorway where the blond man slowly staggered his way in, grumbling about the sleeping people.

Time to mess with the blondies head.

~fini?~

a/n: I'm just trying to get a handle on characters. Point out any major ooc'ness please.