When does a hero become the villain? (for Nolee)

The power of words was far too often taken for granted, underestimated. Some people didn't realise just how much damage a few words could cause. They could hurt feelings and change opinions; but they could also lead to the loss of someone's power, or even their death.

Billy knew this all too well.

His main power allowed him to warp reality, however those kind of powers, or spells as he called them, required the Mage to be able to hear what he was saying in order for them to work.
That weakness led him to multiple situations where he'd been unable to stop something bad from happening, simply because he couldn't help himself. The problem was, saying the spells out loud led to knowing what he was trying to do; this was never helpful in a fight.
Billy was trying to train himself to at least say them quieter, but he still ended up panicking and saying them out loud from habit, even after all the years he'd had his powers for.

It really didn't help if you were fighting someone who knew they'd be safe from the spell if they stopped it being said.

Billy, codename Wiccan, was in the middle of fighting a bunch of Hydra soldiers and having trouble getting the words out for a spell. In the past, he'd had a team to help protect him. Now, he was alone and each hit he took broke his concentration.

"Disarmthemall.Disarmthem-" He tried, speaking quickly,, only to end up cursing when he took a hit from behind.

Soon after, he'd had enough and gave up on the spell. Instead, he left the ground, flying a few feet above the men before using his electrokinesis power to strike them with lightning instead. Not very gently either. He was angry and didn't care enough to stop and think it might hurt them.

"Serves you all right." He muttered as he watched from above.

Words had always been a friend of Jesse Custer's. He was a charismatic man and it was a part of what made him such a damn good preacher. Women hung on every word he said because he was such a handsome man with handsome words. Men hung on his ever word because he had a habit of being able to tell them just what they wanted to hear up there on the pulpit.

For the last year and a half, however, he had known just how powerful words could be. It had all started with the comet like apparition bursting into his church in Annville and killing everyone but him. He should have died, he knew that much. Instead the apparition had possessed him and had given him the power that no matter who heard his "Word of God", they had to obey. He wanted only to find God and kick his ass for all the wrong he had done.

With him, as always, was his Tulip and his new found vampire friend Cassidy. Tulip was his girl, his world. She was the one thing that he would die to protect. And Cas? Cas had slowly become a good friend of his.

The three of them had been making their way through New York City after having a problem with a 'friend' of Cas' named Si who had turned out to be a serial killer. Tulip was resting up at the hotel and Cas was with her. Jesse had gone out to get a bottle of jack when he saw the fight broken out amongst the young man and the group of thugs. He barely got out of the way when the electroshock broke out.

When the young man muttered, Jesse looked up and used his Godspeak.

"Get down from there."

Billy smirked a bit as he watched the Hydra agents go down from his lightning, only to freeze when he heard an unfamiliar voice.

Get down from there.

Though he'd never heard the voice before, Billy found himself obeying the command, too focused on doing so to even stop and question it. He slowly came down, his feet gently touching the ground as if he was weightless before he looked at the man who'd spoken from underneath his red hood.

"Who are you?" He asked after a moment, somewhat rudely when he realised the stranger had just told him what to do. Despite not being a teenager anymore, Billy still had a few issues with that.

Jesse smiled as the young man got down where he could look him in the eyes. He wasn't a member of the Grail nor was he a friend of his grandmothers, that much was damn sure. Yet, in that costume, he wasn't sure if he was one of the good ones or if he was one of the bad ones, "You damn near killed me boy. You work for the good or the bad?"

"I'm sorry..." Billy mumbled, tugging on his hood to make sure his face was hidden, unsure about the older man's intentions after what he'd done. I didn't even know you were there, I was dealing with them." He said, gesturing to the unconscious men.

"They work for an organisation that's caused a lot of trouble. I meant to stop them to find out what they were doing, but it didn't quite work out that way, obviously. Their group's name is Hydra, they've been around for years..." The young man tried to explain, rambling a bit as he did so.

"Hydra? Ain't never heard of them before. Long as you ain't a part of The Grail, we don't have a problem with each other," Jesse shrugged. He didn't care, though he had heard the names Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D before, he didn't care what they did. It wasn't that he did because he wanted to, it was because he had to. If he cared about everyone he ran across, he would give Marie the opportunity to find him and his friends.

He would never let that old woman find him.

"Your power though...you was usin' words...that's interesting. Magic or just a show?"

"They're uh...I guess an anti S.H.I.E.L.D, their agency is always against the other. But no, I can't be part of the 'Grail' I've never even heard of them." Billy said awkwardly, shrugging his shoulders.

He looked around for a moment, nervously rubbing the back of his neck as he replied to the man's question. "It's- It's magic. I can't really use it the way I want to when I cast spells, unless I say what I want out loud."

"Oh...S.H.I.E.L.D...I done hearda them after that damn battle in New York," spoke Jesse as he looked over the awkward young man. He was different looking in his costume and for a split second, Jesse debated if he himself should have his own costume, minus a mask. Only the bad men in his John Wayne movies hid behind masks. "Magic huh? Pretty cool. I guess you could call what I can do magic..in a sense..."

"Yeah...yeah, I think most people have by now; especially if they have any sort of power." Billy nodded, adjusting his red hood. "My magic would be better if it was easier to control. I've had problems with it in the past and it's especially annoying that I have to be able to hear what I'm saying for it to work..." He added bitterly. He'd learned the hard way about how he needed to hear the 'spells' for them to work.

"...'in a sense'? You don't think what you do is really magic?"

"Hey now, don't be hard on yerself or be bitter," Jesse spoke, trying to calm the young man down. From the experiences he had in life, he knew being bitter on yourself only brought you down. With a soft smile, he added, "Your power's great, hell, people would give anythin' t' be as young and viral and powerful as you are."

When asked about his power, Jesse chuckled, "Trust me kid, I'm sure you don' wanna hear all about ol' Jesse's power...specially not when you're a magic man and mines got to do with God himself."

"You know power's only useful if you can use it right." Billy frowned, crossing his arms. "I've been in too many situations where it, or my decisions have messed everything up. So I have a perfectly good reason to be bitter about it."

As Jesse explained his power, Billy just shrugged his shoulders. "That doesn't bother me at all, really. Unless you have certain views towards... sensitive topics. Just because I use magic, doesn't mean I don't believe in those things."

"Any power's like that though, kid, be it political or a power like we done got," Jesse supplied, "We gotta make the best outta this crazy world. My pops always told me, there are way to many bad people in this world to be bad. You gotta be good."

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jesse thought about how he could explain it. The kid had said that he didn't care about sensitive topics. This was definitely a sensitive one. "Then if yeh gotta know...a demon and an angel had a relationship, that relationship ended in a child, and now that child is living in my body. My sole mission in this life is to call God out for being a coward and givin' up when he heard this thing was born."

"So...technically, you're possessed." Billy replied, pulling a face , though most of the expression was lost in the shadow of the hood. Billy had dealt with a lot of things before and, surprisingly, possession was actually a new thing. There had been things that were close, like someone impersonating his mother...one of his mothers. He'd dealt with crazed scientists and even aliens, but never possession.

It made him a little nervous, but he didn't bother saying so. He'd been through what he assumed was worse.

"I try to be good; problem is that not everyone sees it that way."

"Technically I suppose so," nodded Jesse as he fixed the collar of his leather jacket with a look around the alley way. One could never be too careful, especially someone in his predicament. It was dangerous for him to be alone without Tulip and Cas, not that he didn't trust this young man. He wasn't exactly the type that the Grail would recruit.

"I have complete control. Don't worry."

"Complete control?" Billy couldn't help but be envious of that and frowned a little as he realised it. "That...that sounds great. You know, you probably won't find many people around here who can say they have that much control over their powers." After Jesse looked around, Billy found himself doing the same, but to check that the men he'd knocked out weren't waking up at all. So far they seemed to still be out and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Well, I worked hard to be able to have the control that I do have. I mean, I have a monster livin' insida me. It's...well...it's harder to explain that all that actually. I work with what I have," he shrugged. "Are you goin' anywhere yeh need an escort to? These Hydra thugs seem meaner than a rattlesnake."

"I've been trying to control mine for years. Problem is that the older heroes refused to train me and my friends..." Billy replied with a hint of bitterness. He often tried blaming some of what he'd been through on the heroes who'd turned he and his friends down, but mostly he blamed himself. "Uh...I don't know... I'm not- I'm not actually sure what I planned on doing after." He admitted, glancing down at the unconscious men. He figured they should probably leave soon, before they woke up, but he wasn't sure where to go.

"Then you know what you tell them older heroes that done refused? Fuck 'em. They ain't done nothin' to help you, you do nothin' t' help them. You keep lookin' an' searchin' til yeh find someone who wants to help you. Simple as that." Jesse shrugged his shoulders with a look over the Hydra agents. "Well...I was runnin' t' get some whiskey fer me an' mah friends. Maybe yeh wanna come with an' meet 'em. Cas would love a kid like yeh."

"They- But they're good people; mostly. They said they wanted to protect us; though actually I think it made things worse." Billy sighed. "Uh...I don't know, I mean I don't really drink..." It wasn't that he wasn't old enough, he just never really had, unsure what would happen with his powers if he ever got drunk. Although it had been suggested to him that he try new things and meeting older people who weren't Avengers probably helped too. He had a lot of trust issues when it came to older heroes. This man didn't seem like the others though.

Billy shrugged his shoulders. "Sure. I guess I could hang around for a bit."

"If they so good, why did they tell ya they wouldn't help? My paw done taught me that all we got in this world is t' help each other. Ya gotta be one of the good, cuz they'res too many of the bad." That line had been like a mantra he lived by all his life. "And if ye don't wanna drink, don't drink. Cas and Tulip an' I will only do it til we get t' sleep. Its a hell of a life for...uh....well...men and women on the run."

"They- They tried to tell us it was too dangerous to be a hero. Seems a bit selfish though to not help if you can, right...?" Billy went to add something else, but stopped and shrugged his shoulders instead.
"Well I don't really know if I do; never have to be honest. I guess it couldn't hurt to try a little could it?"

To not help if you can. That statement made Jesse rub the back of his neck. Truth be told, he didn't care about making the world a better place. He did everything he could because he wanted revenge and justice against The Grail and God himself.

"Well c'mon kid, we ain't got all day..."

"Uh, sure," Billy said after a moment, shrugging his shoulders. "Why not? I've got nothing better to do. It'll be a nice change." Or at least he hoped it would.

Jesse tossed the collar of his jacket up, walking back with him. "So whats a kid like you doin' in this parta town alone?"