#and running a gym with no monitor or someone supervising? like yeah sure you have cameras but still

[vettelcore]

i found put yesterday i can lift more than 60kg and my ego has never been bigger

[onewfantaesy]

In Shazam au, theres one point about six months after Taemin becomes part of Jinki and Luna’s family where a child magician villain splits the world into two dimensions: one that’s all children and one that’s all adults.

And it happens instantly. Taemin is walking home from school and suddenly cars disappear, people on the street disappear. He’s so confused.

He runs home, bursts inside, and shouts, “LUNA? JINKI?”

No ones home. He tries calling them. No one answers.

Kids outside are shouting and screaming and no one can find their parents. Siblings who were 18 or older were missing.

All the adults disappeared. Taemin was afraid to say Shazam, to turn into a hero: what if he disappeared too?

It’s eight long days before he gets to mount justice where the young superhero sidekicks were located and trying to centrally help bring order to the chaos that was this lord of the flies, kid-ruled world.

Taemin had seen too many weird things happen as he was on the way there. He knows it’s magic. He knows half the sidekick heroes always ignore magic as a possibility.

Taemin tries to tell them as much.

“Who are you?” Head-sidekick snarks at him.

Taemin almost loses his shit. He did not travel through all this chaos to be ignored and treated like an idiot.

“I’m Red Cyclone!” Taemin argues. “Listen to me! It’s magic, I know it is!”

“Red Cyclone is like, 22 at least,” another sidekick argues. “Go home, kid. Or to one of the shelters we set up.”

“I’ll prove it!” Taemin argues back, his voice shaking because he’s terrified of what will happen when he turns into Red Cyclone. But he needs them to believe him. “Shazam!”

Lightning strikes him - as usual - and he turns into Red Cyclone.

But instead of standing in front of all the teenage sidekicks, he’s staring at all the missing adult heroes. When he sees Jinki and Luna, his heart stops, and he rushes towards Luna.

“You’re okay!” he shouts, laughing. “What happened? How did you get back? Where are we what’s happening where did all the sidekicks go how did you get back where were you?”

His worlds all jumbled together, asking millions of questions as he hugs Luna tight.

“Where have you been?” Another hero asks. “Do you have any idea what’s been going on this last week?”

Taemin moves away from Luna, and stares at everyone. The sidekicks are noticeably missing. The monitors of all the major cities aren’t showing kid-ruled chaos, but frantic adults.

“It’s not fixed, is it?” he whispers. “They won’t believe me that it’s magic, they don’t even believe that I’m me!”

“Where have you been?” Another hero repeats, sounding angrier. Taemin isn’t making any sense to them.

“I’ve been - with the kids,” Taemin says softly.

“That’s impossible!” Another argues.

Taemin stares at Jinki and Luna for help, unsure of whether or not he’s allowed to explain.

“Are you okay?” Luna whispers to him, holding his face in her hands. “You’ve been alright? Eaten?”

“Yeah,” Taemin whispers. “I - we set up places to stay in gyms and stuff. I went and found a bunch of babies and brought them in and helped take care of them.”

“You’re such a good boy,” Luna laughs.

“I missed you,” Taemin admits, his voice cracking. “I thought - we all thought you guys just died or were abducted by aliens or something.”

The few alien superheroes scoff at the idea.

“So you’re a child?” Someone else asked. “And you two knew? You let a child join the league?”

They all start arguing, Taemin backs up until he’s standing against Jinki’s chest. Eventually they stop arguing, agreeing that they’ll settle everything once the worlds are one again, and they task Taemin with convincing the sidekicks to follow a specific plan.

“Take this,” one of the heroes says, handing him a small token he says his sidekick will know is a sign that he’s who he says he is, that he can travel between worlds.

“Go,” Jinki says softly. “Everything will be okay.”

Taemin holds the token tight and says, “Shazam!” and disappears in a lightning strike.

All the sidekicks are staring at him like he’s crazy.

“They said you’d know this meant I was telling the truth,” Taemin snaps, giving the sidekick the token.

“Well holy shit,” the sidekick whispers. “He’s forreal.”

“Yeah, so fucking listen to me, idiots!” Taemin snaps. Then he tells them the game plan.

There’s a magic crystal that’s suspended in both the child and adult realms. It has to attacked in unison in both realms to break the spell. The villain is guarding it, making it particularly difficult for the children. The fight is brutal. Taemin wishes he could help them.

The adult heroes say they think the crystal needs to be attacked simultaneously, but the kids are having way too hard of a time even getting close to the crystal.

Then he remembers the magic staff the wizard had when he turned Taemin into Shazam. He gets to the cave in a minute, thanking magic the entire time, and rushes back with it.

“I don’t know if it’s gonna work,” Taemin admits.

“Try anything,” the heroes shout, desperate.

He tells everyone stay clear of his path, then tells the children to stay clear as well.

Then he raises his staff, shoots lightning at the crystal, and shouts “Shazam!”

It’s almost like he’s suspended. It’s like both the child Taemin and the adult hero are in the same place. The children see both. The adults see both. He’s encased in cracking lightning and his eyes are sparking blue holes and the crystal cracks more and more each passing second.

The crystal breaks into pieces, and both worlds are reunited. The villain is instantly locked up by the adult heroes, but Taemin is still crackling and twitching and he keeps switching between both Taemin and Red Cyclone.

He quickly falls on the floor, twitching and switching and crying from the pain of constantly having his body expand and shrink at such a fast rate. Luna and Jinki rush to his side, as do Minho and Key.

“Mom,” Taemin cries, his face scrunched in pain. “I can’t make it stop! I can’t - I can’t-”

Luna hushes him and holds his hand, not caring at the way the lightning sends electric shocks down her arm.

He turns back into Red Cyclone and gasps, “I can’t breathe.”

“You’re okay, you’re going to be okay,” Luna says quickly.

“Can someone with magic come help him?” Jinki shouts, his hand running through Taemin’s hair and trying to keep his head from slamming on the hard floor every time he has a siezure-like transformation.

This is only the second time they’ve seen Taemin cry. It’s heartbreaking.

Another magic-using superhero comes and helps him. Says all he should have to do is say what usually makes him transform and the spasms should stop, that it was a side effect of the way he helped merge the two dimensions.

“Just say Shazam,” Jinki says softly, swiping Taemin’s hair from his forehead. “You’ll be okay.”

“Shazam,” he whispers, his voice scratchy and cracking.

And he turns from Red Cyclone into Taemin.

Jinki cradles Taemin against his chest. Taemin is still crying softly, still shaking from the the way the lightning was coursing through his body, still calling Jinki and Luna “Dad,” and “Mom.”

It’s the first time he’s called them that. They hate that it’s because he’s in pain.

They’re told to take him home, keep him in bed, make sure he stays stable.

But everyone knows that it’s Red Cyclone who saved the day. Who reunited everyone with their children and their parents and their siblings. Red Cyclone is celebrated for weeks, even though no one sees him, even though he’s been staying in bed or cuddled with Luna and Jinki on the couch. Saving the world took a lot out of him. He’s completely drained. He still spasms with random electric attacks every now and then.

But Jinki and Luna are there for him. Help him stay comfortable, safe, and happy. He doesn’t stop calling them Mom and Dad.

They do eventually bring him to Mount Justice. At that point, he’s still a bit shaky and lightning courses through his body every now and again, and he just wants to stay on Jinki’s lap and lean against his chest and feel like Jinki’s arms held around him are protecting him from the entire world.

“How did you become Red Cyclone?” He’s asked by the rest of the league. They’re sitting around the giant meeting table, but Taemin refused to move from Jinki’s lap when the meeting started.

“A magician made me hold his staff and say his name,” Taemin mumbles. “It sounds a lot grosser than it really was.”

A couple members snort and laugh at the comment.

“And just why did he give you this power?”

“Said I was his champion,” Taemin mumbles, leaning heavily against Jinki’s chest. He’s been very tired lately. “That I was pure of heart. That I would be his champion of good.”

“But why?”

“I don’t know,” Taemin whines. “He’s a crazy old wizard who comes and talks to me if I light a torch in his lair, he doesn’t make a lot of sense!”

The heroes all start arguing after that. Some say he needs to stay at mount justice, live under their supervision so he can train and be monitored.

Taemin is visibly shaken up when he hears that, and he pushes himself closer to Jinki and grips the front of his shirt.

“I want to stay with you,” Taemin pleads quietly. “Please don’t make me leave.”

“No one is going to make you leave,” Jinki says, smoothing back his hair.

“You’re not making him do anything,” Luna says firmly. “Because we’re adopting him. He’s our son and he will stay in our home where we will train him.”

Taemin’s head snaps up when he hears the word “adopting,” and he stares at them like he can’t believe it.

“We were going to tell you when it was official,” Jinki says softly, kissing the top of Taemin’s head.

“Really?” Taemin whispers.

“Really.”

Taemin’s smile is so big and he can’t believe it and he just laughs when Luna moves over to hug him.

[bestfriendforhire]

Entry 302

 Kayla came running around the corner towards us, stopping and staring at Jarod when she got close.  “Hi!  Are you Deyanira’s boooyfriend?” she asked.  Quickly turning to Deyanira, she asked “What about Brandon!?”

 “Hi there.  My name’s Jarod.  I live here, and I’m actually married to someone else.” he explained.  “Who are you?”

 “I’m Kayla.  IIII live here, and I’ve never seen you before.” she insisted.

 “I’ve been on my honeymoon for a couple weeks.” he told her.

 “Jarod lives past that gym we were in this morning.” I informed her.

 “Really!?  Emma told me there’s a pool on the roof of that section!  Is it amazing!?” she asked.

 “I enjoyed it.  There’s also an underground pool that looks like a cave.  I can see if Ai or Mai will show you sometime.” he suggested.

 “I don’t know if leaving her alone with the twins is the best idea.” I told him.  Then I said to Kayla, “Jarod’s the one who invented that flying machine you’ve been using.”

 “He is!?  Those things are awesome!!!” she exclaimed.

 “Flying machines?” asked Deyanira.

 “Yes.  They’re these small platforms you stand upon and control with a wireless device.” I explained.

 “Wow...  That sounds interesting.” replied Deyanira.  “Are they safe?”

 Jarod shrugged and said, “Relatively.  The board will auto-adjust to some extent if you seem to be trying to balance, but I didn’t want that taken too far, or you’d be dramatically limited on maneuverability.”

 “I assure you that they turned out marvelous.  No injuries as of yet.” stated Mila.

 “They’re super fun!” exclaimed Kayla.  “I can’t believe you built them!”

 “Well, Mila usually does most of the actual building.  I didn’t even fully design them myself, just the basic layout.  Aurora did all the fine-tuning, and I heard James helped out with a little modification of his own.” explained Jarod.

 I quickly said, “I really didn’t do too much.”

 Jarod’s wry smile seemed like an argument, but we couldn’t say too much in front of Deyanira.

 “Kayla, want to check out my lab?” offered Jarod.  “I’m going to check on Aurora.”

 “Awesome!” exclaimed Kayla.

 “Who is Aurora?” asked Deyanira.

 “Jarod’s lab assistant.” I informed her.

 “Can I see this lab too?” she asked.

 “Sure.  Come along.” replied Jarod.  “Hey, Brandon!  I’m stealing your girlfriend.”

 “Hey, now!  No stealing girls.  We’re not exactly dating yet.” stated Brandon.  “I mean… we’ve gone on dates, but… it’s not… well.. you know…”

 “Do I!?” exclaimed Deyanira, looking a bit perturbed.

 “Well, I mean… we didn’t exactly ever talk about making anything official, and I didn’t want to assume anything.  So… are we dating?” he asked.

 “I don’t know.  I guess we’ll need to talk.  Later.” she stated, turning to follow Jarod.

 Brandon was looking wildly between his monitor and Deyanira, obviously struggling to focus on both as he took a hit in the game that he should’ve been able to avoid.

 After a few steps down the hall, I asked “So are you two dating?”

 “We’ll see.” she stated.

 “Wasn’t that a little mean though?” I asked.

 She smiled and said, “Isn’t he adorable when he’s flustered?”

 “I can’t really say I’ve thought of him as adorable ever.” I replied.

 <Master, a moment.> signed Mila.

 <Yes?> I asked.

 <Aurora’s rather active in the lab.  This may not be the best time for Deyanira to visit.> she informed me.

 <I see.  Thank you.> I told her.

 “I’ve just been informed that Aurora is in the middle of an experiment, and we’d best not interrupt her at the moment.” I announced.

 Jarod turned to look at me curiously for a moment, but his expression changed after a moment.  <Is she using one of the suits?> he asked.

 I nodded, since Deyanira was looking at me.

 “Sorry, guys.  Next time.  I suppose I should’ve asked Mila about that first.” stated Jarod.  “Care to play around on the… hmm… I really should name those.  How about…”

 “ZOOMIES!” exclaimed Kayla.

 Grinning, Jarod said, “Sure, why not.”

 “Mila, can you spare a body for safety?” I asked.

 “Anything for you, master.” she told me.  “I’ll bring four right up.”

 “Uh… Maybe I’ll just watch.” stated Deyanira.

 “Mila, mind bringing an extra and getting Brandon out back?” I asked.

 “As you wish, master.” she told me.  “Lady Pendreigh will be joining you as well.  Oh.  Ai and Mai will be coming to yell at Jarod.  I’ll bring a couple zoomies for them.”

 Jarod laughed and nodded.  Then he said, “Kayla, I might require your help naming more things in the future.”

 “Really!?  Sure thing!” she exclaimed.  Grabbing Deyanira’s hand, she said, “Race you there!”

 I was worried for a moment, knowing Kayla was wearing her suit, but she kept her pace somewhat reasonable as Deyanira chased after her.

 “Is her brother as excitable?” asked Jarod with a grin.

 “More anxious than anything.  I’m sure he’ll relax eventually.” I replied.

 “I’m glad to be home.  As beautiful as the island was, I missed being able to tinker.  Seeing everyone is good too, of course.  This place can change so much week-to-week.  Even Brandon’s probably catching my stats on Ancient Tribes of Earth now.” he told me.

 “I somehow doubt it.  Glad to have you back.” I told him.

 He suddenly grabbed my arm.  Then he said, “You’re really not wearing a suit, are you.  Was there a problem?”

 “Oh.  My magic interferes with the enchantment I place on them.  Turns out that I don’t really need them.” I told him.

 Jarod barked a laugh and said, “I’ve noticed.”

 “Umm… really.  Turns out I can move faster than Alma when she’s wearing a suit.  Some things happened, and I found out how to control my magic a bit better.” I explained.

 “Wow.” he stated, shaking his head.  “You really get more amazing all the time.  What are you going to do next?  Realign a planet?”

 I adamantly said, “No.  Of course not.  I wouldn’t even begin to know what would be safe.  Even if I did the math and everything, there’d be no explaining it.  Besides, why would I want to do that?  I’m sure there’d be consequences, other than the entire world wondering what happened.  I suppose I could give a giant meteor a shove if one was coming toward the planet, but even then, there’d probably be a cost…”  I realized I had been rambling, lost in my thoughts about the details of doing such a thing while trying to avoid the memories I had of feeling such power.  I said too much.

 “You can really do it, can’t you…” he stated, stopping and staring at me.

 “I… sorta discovered something while you were away.” I admitted.

 He nodded and waited.

 “Remember that stone room with all of the engravings?” I asked.

 “Yeah…” he stated.

 “I know how to use it now.” I explained.

 “Use it?  What do you mean exactly?” he asked.

 “You can’t tell your wives about this, okay?” I demanded.

 He nodded, frowning.

 “I haven’t told Alma either, but that room allows me to access a powerful source of magic.  Overwhelmingly powerful.  The things I could do from there are frightening.” I insisted.

 “Such as moving a planet.” he replied with a nod.  “Wow.  Can anyone use it?”

 “No…  From what I gather, most people would die if they somehow managed to start it.” I told him.

 He nodded again and said, “You probably absorb enough energy to counter its negative effects.  I wonder if its creator could do something similar?  Even worse, someone might have figured out how to create it, tried it, and died.  Still, useful thing to have in your arsenal, isn’t it?”

 “I never want to use it again.” I stated.

 “What?  Why not?” he asked.

 “Jarod, power like that is too much for me.  I could accidentally wipe out our planet.  I don’t really want to talk about it.” I admitted.

 He looked like he was about to argue, but then he shrugged.  “Okay.  But wow… seriously.  That’s incredible.  I hope you can muster the courage to use it if there is some sort of catastrophe.  Great power, great responsibility, and all that.” he teased with a wink.

 I nodded, still feeling glum.  I wished I could convey to him how frightening the experience was.  How could I really get the point across without bringing someone else in on the secret?

 Jemal ended up joining us as well, claiming he wanted to supervise his sister.  I could tell he was having fun.  Deyanira seemed to enjoy herself as well.  I was glad we convinced her to try one, until I heard her gasp and watched her fall.

 Mila easily caught her, but my little fairy friend was plainly visible, eagerly telling me about her day.  Alma could probably take away the last couple minutes of memory from Deyanira, which would probably be the simplest solution, but would that really be the correct one?  I wasn’t sure.