62Notes: A new crossover. This story is a Shazam!/Batman/Chuck/White Collar (in later chapters) crossover.
This is the first chapter so some information might be missing. After all, was Chuck, Billy Batson (the child form of the Shazam hero) at some point? How and why? If you don't mind spoilers, feel free to ask any questions you want answered. It'll help with my writing to know where the plot holes are.
The Beginning
Alfred called the family together for a nice meal. It was Easter after all.
"Tis the season," Jason said to everyone as he tossed tinsel in their face.
Dick scolded him because that was not for Easter. Jason laughed and did it again before bolting away from his frustrated older brother.
Tim just tried to stay out of everyone's way by sitting on the couch and typing away on his computer.
Damian sipped wine, he had just turned 18 and didn't care that the legal age was 21 in this country, and read a book while glared periodically at Grayson and Todd. They were making a lot of noise.
Why couldn't they have a tense but silent gathering? Had his brothers already eaten their weight in chocolate and Alfred's cookies?
"Hey, Damian, you've worked with that kid hero before, right?" Tim suddenly said.
"Which kid hero?"
"The one who turns into an adult."
"Colin?" Even though they were adults now, Colin's other form was still a larger and more buff version of his skinny self.
"No. The other one."
Huh, Damian hadn't realised he knew more than one person who fit that description. But there was, "Billy?" He hadn't been on the scene in a while.
"That's the one. You two worked together, didn't you?"
"You're telling me he had friends?" Jason gasped in shock.
Damian thought it was a bit over the top. Damian had known a lot of people over the years. Sure, he had lost contact with most of them; except Maps, who would not leave him alone, but he was anything but a loner. That would make him too much like his father for comfort.
"We worked together. Why are you asking?"
"I went looking for him to see what he's like these days and I found him." Everyone was staring at Tim now. "He's going by the name 'Chuck' and is about to start at Stanford."
"Chuck," Damian repeated at a deadpan. Billy might not have been the best name but at least it was still in use. Chuck barely saw any use. Why would he go by that name?
"Maybe we should check it out?" Dick suggested with a snide grin at Damian.
That was only the beginning. Jason suggested Damian going to Stanford under an alias and Dick had agreed. Tim picked the name 'Bryce Larkin' and Damian argued but apparently calling himself 'Ian' was a stupid idea according to his brothers.
Welcome to Stanford
Bryce Larkin joined Stanford in order to get close to Chuck Bartowski. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to achieve that. Chuck didn't seem to be running around in a hero form like Billy did.
In fact, he met Chuck accidentally. They hit it off, talking computers instead of sport. Although Bryce was a little surprised that Chuck would choose to use Wayne Industries technology as it wasn't a familiar brand here.
"We could make our own game!" Chuck set as a goal. Make their own game and set up their own company. Damian actually liked the idea. It was beginning to be a family joke that Bruce wouldn't even give up the company on his deathbed.
Bryce looked up from his computer screen. He was grabbing the half hour between lectures to get some study done when Chuck came over and tapped him on the shoulder with a request.
"You want to what?"
Chuck grinned at him and held out two toy guns that shot suction cup darts. "Come on. It'll be fun."
"This is a library, Chuck." Bryce rolled his eyes and turned back to his screen.
Chuck seemed dejected for a moment, shoulders slumping. "Okay. I guess we won't know who's the better shot between you and me."
"We will. Because it's me."
"But how do we know? It's not like we've played 'Gotcha' before."
"Because I've shot a gun before." It wasn't his favourite weapon and, actually, was low on his list of preferred weapons but he was practised in firing and caring for a firearm.
"Maybe we should go to a shooting range then," Chuck suggested, beginning to smile.
Bryce sighed. Chuck was a klutz. He tripped over tables, chairs and books he placed on the ground and forgot about. He didn't like the idea of Chuck holding a weapon which could kill with the press of a trigger.
Plus, going to the shooting range would take up a lot of time and they had exams coming.
Chuck was still holding out the toy guns.
"Fine," Bryce said, taking the toy from Chuck's hand. "Let's do this."
Unsurprisingly, he won.
Surprisingly, Chuck put up a good fight. He seemed to have an innate ability to run and hide as well as plan. It was a skill Bryce wanted to nurture; and he had fun but he would never admit it.
The Ultimate Question
"Who would win a fight between Batman and Superman?" Bryce asked Chuck.
"Aren't you meant to be studying for tomorrow's test?" Chuck responded.
Bryce just shrugged and repeated the question. His brothers had suggested talking superheros with Chuck, in the hopes that he would slip up and mention something that the general public wouldn't know. Although Bryce had no clue how to achieve that; how did the general public talk about heroes anyway?, Tim knew of a question which started arguments between Gotham and Metropolis. Since Chuck was supposed to be from Burbank, it was a safe but engaging question.
"Who do you think would win?"
"Batman." Bryce didn't even have to think about his answer. It took him a moment to realise that Chuck had turned the question back on him.
Chuck had done it unconsciously, interested in why Bryce would ask such a question. It wasn't the kind of question he expected from the sporty track guy. Then again, Bryce was an oddity. There weren't many people who knew what Zork was.
"Why Batman?"
Bryce launched into an explanation which boiled down to two points; Batman was skilled and Batman did what he did without superpowers so he was obviously practised at dealing with them.
"But Superman is no simple opponent," Chuck countered. "And he just has to take out Batman before he can launch a counter attack. Someone as fast as Flash could do that."
Bryce was sceptical. "Are you just picking Superman because I picked Batman?"
"No!" Yes. Chuck honestly didn't have an answer for that question. "Besides, they're supposed to be foils of each other, aren't they? I don't think foils are supposed to be able to beat each other."
"We're talking about real people Chuck. There's always some kind of unpredictability-"
"Which is exactly why you can't predict an answer! Not without knowing them personally."
"Oh please~. There's plenty of information we can use to form a hypothesis."
The other fraternity brothers were not surprised to hear Chuck and Bryce debating in their room. However, the content was different to usual.
"Did one of the professors assign some kind of assignment on vigilantes or the Justice League?" Rob asked.
The room shrugged, one brave soul asking Rob why he thought that. It turned out that Chuck and Bryce were pulling references from wherever they could get them and had created a large mind map out of paper on the floor.
Bryce wasn't disappointed that his tactic hadn't worked. The discussion had been so worth it. Especially since he had recorded the whole thing and Tim had to sit through it.
His brother had not been happy with the length of the recording. He also hadn't been happy with how it had gone.
"It's hard to get Chuck to slip up when both of you are sourcing your ideas!" Tim had scolded Bryce. "In fact, your sources are more suspicious than his!"
"Oops," Bryce said without emotion. He didn't really care about that. It wasn't like Chuck could put the pieces together if he wasn't Billy anyway. "At least I convinced him that Batman would win in the end."
