In Elseworlds, super-heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange times and places - some that have existed, and others that can't, couldn't or shouldn't exist. The result is stories that make characters who are as familiar as yesterday seem as fresh as tomorrow.
She came onto the scene like a flash of thunder and a bolt of lightning: loud, destructive, unmatched in strength and completely out of nowhere. Whenever she appeared, there wasn't a single soul that went lost. Whenever she appeared, there wasn't a single criminal that went unpunished. Whenever she appeared, there wasn't a single heart that didn't skip a beat. No one knew who she was or what she wanted, but there was one thing that was certain: she was a Hero.
That's what they all thought of her, anyway.
After an entire night of stopping injustice, the girl with the giant horn was hungry beyond all reason. A shame that dealing out justice did nothing to fill an empty stomach.
"Welcome," the cashier at the convenience store said as she walked in. He was a teenager too engrossed in his Weekly Deluxe Manga to pay her any mind. Probably reading the manga about that Quirkless genius named Yamikumo. She'd heard good things about it.
"-which is why the only thing King Kull will be king of for a while is his own jail cell," came a voice from a TV hanging on the wall. She recognized it as Daikaku Miyagi, the newscaster who caused a lot of controversy when he cut off one of his horns so it'd be easier to work. "In other news, police have now entered week three of their search for the missing Eri Hasigawa."
The girl with the giant horn felt a chill pass through her body.
"For those who don't know, two weeks ago, the six-year old heiress to the Hasigawa family mysteriously vanished from the Hasigawa estate. Police and Heroes alike have searched Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures for her, but they have yet to find any sign of her. Joining us live now is the manager of the estate, Kai Chisaki."
"It's-never mind." In the top left corner of the TV, a smaller square appeared showing a man in a plague mask. Back in the convenience store, the girl with the giant horn dropped a shopping cart full of candy.
"Chisaki-san, I understand that this might be hard for you, but could you provide us with an update on the current state of the Hasigawa family?"
"It's no trouble at all," Chisaki said. "The loss of our pride and joy was-still is-rather devastating, but we haven't slowed down the business; a lot of people all around the country rely on us, after all."
Not the right people. Not enough of the right people, the girl with the giant horn said to herself.
"I wish the same could be said about Tatsuo-sama. For years, his health had been in a steady decline, but the shock of his granddaughter's disappearance sent him spiraling into a coma. The doctors don't know when he'll-if he'll-"
Is he crying? Why is someone like him crying?
"I'm sorry for that. Tatsuo-sama, he took me into his home when I had nothing left in the world. I never said it enough, but he's been like a father to me. He appointed me as Eri's guardian after the tragic passing of her father and abandonment of her mother. We only got to know each other for half a year before her disappearance, but just like Tatsuo-sama had become a father to me, I felt as if I had become a father to Eri."
The air around the girl with the giant horn became electric.
"Losing Eri when we were just getting to know each other, when there was still so much that I wanted to do with her, it breaks my heart, you know? Whoever's responsible for this, I won't rest until I find them and they're made to suffer for everything they've done."
The electric air around her flitted about towards the TV, throwing a field of static onto the screen. The cashier, still acting unattentive, grabbed a broom and started hitting the screen. This let the girl with the giant horn return to her shopping, albeit with far more trepidation.
How dare he talk like that. How dare he make people think he's the victim. Make people think he's the one who's suffered. Make people think he's the one who needs help! I should just fly over there and-no, no, that-that wouldn't be right. That's not what I'm supposed to use my powers for.
"It's robbing time!" In came what she was supposed to use her powers for. It came in the form of four gun-wielding men: a fat man with a pointed nose and leather mask, a man with pointy ears and a headband that said "METER", a man who had the back of his head covered in stone pillars, and a man whose face was covered in one of those strange masks that turned your eyes completely white.
"Whoa, what the hell?!" the cashier shouted, finally taking notice of something.
"We're Team 'Reservoir Dogs', and we're here to rob the hell out of you!" said the one with the white eyes as he jammed his gun in the cashier's face. "Yellow, grab the cash! And don't take the whole counter this time!"
"I'll try!" the fat man, Yellow, said as he started ripping the counter out of the floor. That was as far as they were going to go.
"That's as far as you're gonna go!" The girl with the giant horn said. The Reservoir Dogs turned around, looked at her for a few seconds, then all started smirking the same devilish smirk.
"Well well well, looks like we've got ourselves a Hero," the one with the "METER" headband said. "Let me show you what we do to Heroes around here!"
In an instant, he had fired his gun at her, a shot perfectly aligned with the center of her forehead.
In another instant, she had caught the bullet between her fingers and thrown it to the ground.
"Huh?!"
"Care to try that again? You'd probably have more luck with all four of you," the girl with the giant horn said.
"Thanks for the advice!" the one with the stone pillars shouted. Per her advice, the four of them all started firing at her. A storm of bullets flew her way, but not a single one hit her. Just like with the first bullet, she caught all of them between her fingers and threw them to the ground, doing so with enough speed to have plenty of time to repeat the process for the next bullet. She kept at this until the Reservoir Dogs each fired their final bullets. When she caught those ones, rather than throw them to the ground, she threw them right back into their guns with enough force to make the weapons explode in their hands.
Of all of her powers, the Skill of Ariadne was definitely one of her favorites.
"My turn," the girl with the giant horn said with a smile. Before anyone could offer up any sort of protest, she had already jumped over-shopping cart still in hand-and kicked Yellow in the side of the head with enough force to send him flying into the other three and for all four of them to be sent hurtling out the door before landing in front of a conveniently nearby police car.
Of all of her powers, the Strength of Hippolyta wasn't that bad, either.
"I'd like to purchase these, please," she said, setting the cart down on the counter.
"Hey, I know you! You're that Vigilante Shazam!"
"That's right!"
"Wow! They said you were super tough, but you're even stronger than I thought! Sexier, too!"
"Wha-" The girl with the giant horn went red in the face. She started stuttering random nonsense, She pulled her hood over her head-a useless accessory when it was too small to cover her horn-and turned away from the cashier.
"What are you doing?"
"I don't know!"
"It was just a compliment. Maybe a little rude in hindsight, but still, you're reacting like a five-year old kid."
"I'm six!"
"Come on, you're definitely a ten-wait, what?"
"I, um, I have precious puberty?"
"You mean precocious puberty?"
"That, too!" Before the dialogue could get even more uncomfortable, she put all of her candy and soda and mini apple pies through the scanner, dropped all the money for them on the counter, and ran out a split second before the police showed up to ask about what happened, just as the newscaster started talking about how the local museum was going to house an ancient Christian artifact.
Eri Hasigawa could only handle so much.
Normally, the rules of society wouldn't allow a six-year old child to rent out an apartment by themselves. Thanks to her newfound powers, Eri managed to circumvent that pesky restriction. As far as the landlord knew, Eri-once she magically transformed her costume into normal clothing-was just an adult woman who gave him three months rent in cash. It also helped that he seemed to be infatuated with Eri, something that never made her feel very comfortable.
Of all of her powers, the Beauty of Aurora was the one she enjoyed the least.
Let's stop thinking about all that, Eri told herself. She pulled out a key attached to a Beebo keychain and opened the door to her apartment. It was clean and spacious, but not highly furnished. There was a small fridge that stored the apples and sugary food she ate on a daily basis, a small table with half of it covered in newspaper clippings that talked about her, a pile of manga that she now had the ability to read, a Beebo futon rolled up in the corner of the room, and a small TV sitting on the floor next to a police scanner.
It was a far cry from the luxurious palace of a room she slept in at the Hasigawa estate, but there was one thing this den of squalor had over her old home: she didn't have to deal with Chisaki and his goons.
The only thing I want to deal with right now is dinner, Eri said to herself as her microwave carried on and on. It carried on and on for another minute before her dinner was fully cooked: a half-eaten Mini Might burger from Big Belly Burger, some sausage patties from Kamino Jitters, and some macaroni and cheese with bacon bits a little girl gave her after getting her cat out of a tree. It smelled delicious.
"Eri Hasigawa!" It wasn't her voice shouting her name. It wasn't an unfamiliar voice either, nor was it one that she hated hearing. Nonetheless, the suddenness of it all caused her to yelp out loud and drop her plate towards the ground. Fortunately, she was able catch the plate on her big toe in a perfectly balanced manner and toss it onto the table, not a single crumb falling to the floor.
Of all of her powers, the Grace of Selene was one that was surprisingly handy.
"Eri Hasigawa!" the voice shouted again. Eri looked around for the source of the voice, and she quickly found it-the face of an old, bearded man-next to her reflection in the window.
"Master Wizard? Is something wrong?" Eri asked.
"Terribly wrong. We need to discuss your behavior as of late."
"What do you mean? I've been fighting evil and protecting people like you told me to. I stopped a bank robbery, I saved a bunch of babies from a burning building, I fought a caveman with a bunch of super tech-"
"I know of your feats of heroism, my child. I see everything you do from the Rock of Eternity, which is why I'm disappointed that for the past two weeks, you haven't exited your current form even once."
"Is that it?" Eri looked at him like there were three heads in the reflection. "If that's it, then I'm going to start eating."
"Don't act like this is a trifle matter!" The Wizard shouted as Eri fished a fork out of a drawer. "You can't just stay in this form all the time!"
"Why not? Doing that doesn't drain my stamina like a Quirk does, so I don't have to worry about feeling weak. I'm way more powerful in this form, so there really isn't any benefit to leaving it."
"It is that exact line of thinking that led to the downfall of my previous champion!"
Eri tried to give a rebuttal, but she couldn't make one appear. She remembered The Wizard talking about that man-whatever his name was. How he never used the magic word to deactivate his powers because he hated the weakness of his true self. How his power corrupted him and turned him into a bloodthirsty tyrant who ruled over a Middle Eastern country with an iron fist. How his attempt at global conquest was only stopped when The Wizard himself fought him for forty days and forty nights until the champion's soul was sealed in a scarab and buried with his withered corpse in a hidden tomb, said tomb still undisturbed after thousands of years.
"I'm not going to take over the world. You can't think I'd try and do something like that, Master."
"I don't, child. You have more purity than my previous champion, that is certain, but that doesn't mean you can't fall to the same temptations. Is there not a human saying along the lines of 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely'?"
"I know," Eri said, downtrodden.
"That is the reason why you were not blessed with a permanent transformation. As my champion, you are Earth's Mightiest Mortal, and as such, you must take the time to live as one so you do not forget what you are fighting for."
"I didn't forget! I know what I agreed to do when you helped me get away from that man, and I don't have a problem with that! I'm perfectly fine with that, but why do I have to go back to the old me for that?! The old me is just a weak little girl no one cares about! The new me, the me I like, is an invincible Goddess who can't be pushed around! Who's strong enough to stand up for herself! This is the only version of me who's worth anything!"
The Wizard's eyes fell down to the floor as he exhaled a heavy sigh. An entire dimension separated the two of them, yet Eri felt like she could actually touch his disappointment.
"I won't force you to do anything-not at this stage-but I still ask that you think about what I've said, child. Believe me when I tell you that there's a difference between having power and being powerful."
The Wizard's image faded from the window. Good. Eri was done talking to him, anyway. Now she could eat her dinner in peace, without anyone bothering her with things she didn't want to be bothered about.
She was supposed to be at peace, so she didn't understand why she felt so miserable.
A day had passed since Eri's fight with The Wizard, and she wasn't feeling any better. Unstoppable power coursing through her veins, yet she was having trouble bearing the weight of a few harsh words on her shoulders. A part of her was saying that that was a sign of how young she actually was, but another part of her was saying that it had nothing to do with age and was simply frustration towards The Wizard's attitude. She decided to go with the latter.
At the moment of her decision making, Eri was on her afternoon patrol through the city, the patrol currently taking her to the Tokyo National Museum; something about it was stuck in her head. In the time that she had been there, she had taken down six purse snatchers, apprehended a drug dealer trying to sell Trigger to someone, and stopped a couple of kids from accidentally walking under a ladder. The typical kind of typical day she needed to get her mind off of things.
"Almost got you… and… there!" Continuing that was her current good deed: the classic act of getting a cat out of a tree. Once it was completed, she floated down back to the ground with the orange cat safely in her arms.
"Here's your kitty, all safe and sound," Eri said to the small child who directed her towards it.
"Huh? I never said it was my cat. I was just telling you it was stuck up there," the small child said.
"What?" Giving the cat a second glance, Eri saw that there was, in fact, no collar around its neck. "Oh, you're right. Do you think you could-" The small child was already gone. "Oh. Okay, I guess."
As Eri looked down the street in confusion, the cat wormed its way out of her arms and jumped down onto the sidewalk. Eri looked down at it at the same time it looked up at her, and their eyes became locked in place with one another.
"Must be hard being all by yourself." The cat gave what she assumed to be a nod of confirmation. "I'm not doing so good, either." The cat rubbed its paw against her leg.
He was a good, good kitty.
Then there was an explosion across the street.
"That's not good," Eri said as she watched people running around in terror and heard random shouts of German. "Go somewhere safe, kitty."
The cat nodded its head as Eri ran to the scene of the crime: the Tokyo National Museum.
When Eri snuck into the museum, the scene was as terrible as she thought it would be. A security guard was lying down in a pool of blood; still breathing, but he wouldn't be walking anytime soon. Patrons were tied up in ropes in the lobby as a dozen or so people dressed as both Imperialists and Nazis surrounded them with guns.
Leading the pack seemed to be two people dressed more like typical Villains. One was a muscular woman wearing green gloves and a green and yellow outfit that left her left arm and right leg exposed. Eri saw her barking at someone who wouldn't stop crying, an appropriate action for someone who had the head of a dachshund. The other one was a balding man with a thick mustache who wielded a red and white katana with an air of pride and arrogance.
Perched up in the rafters, Eri wanted nothing more than to jump down and take them out, but she bottled up the urge. This was her first hostage situation, so she needed to be careful about how she acted.
"Of all the weeks for Endeavor to be in Muspelheim and All Might to be on Dinosaur Island!" cried one of the hostages.
"Heh! Even if those two were here, they wouldn't be able to stand up against me and my true Yamato-damashii," the man with the katana sneered.
"It's a shame that they're so afraid of us, mein kamerad," the woman with the dachshund head said. "It wasn't that long ago that our two countries were brothers in arms, two peas in a pod, et cetera, et cetera. Seeing my former allies look at me with such disdain almost brings a tear to my eyes… though that's not to say I don't enjoy it."
"Madame Libertine! Lord Nippo! We found it!"
Several more Imperialists and Nazis ran into the lobby, these ones carrying a large wooden crate. The two Villains-Madame Libertine and Nippo-smiled and laughed as their minions set the crate down. Wasting no time at all, Madame Libertine ripped the lid off of the crate and revealed its contents: a stone spear covered in dried blood that seemed to be broken at the butt.
In an instant, Eri understood what she was looking at. She had never seen the object before that moment, but she immediately knew that it was a fragment of the Spear of Destiny. It was the legendary magic spear that pierced the side of Jesus Christ and, in more recent history, was used by Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich during World War II. Thanks to the efforts of the Justice Society, the Spear of Destiny was destroyed and its fragments scattered across the globe until, apparently, today.
Of all of her powers, the Wisdom of Minerva was one that was always reliable.
"Yes! Our source was correct: a fragment of the Spear of Destiny really was recovered by these monkeys!" Madame Libertine said. "No offense, Nippo."
"Hey, they're not my people," Nippo said. "They'll regain their senses soon enough, though. Once we find the remaining pieces of the Spear of Destiny, we can use its magic to find the fragments of the Holy Grail!"
"And after both artifacts are reassembled, we can rebuild the Spheres of Influence over our countries and bend everyone to the will of the New Axis Powers!" The two Villains released a dual maniacal laugh.
"Not today!" Eri shouted, jumping down from the rafters onto the floor. If there was ever a time to act, it was now.
The minions all turned their attention towards Eri and fired their guns at her. The bullets that hit her simply bounced off of her body, and the ones that didn't connect were caught between fingers and thrown directly into their thighs. The ones who didn't fall to the ground to clutch their legs quickly found their own path to the floor, one that involved Eri punching them, repeatedly.
"Scheisse. That's what we get for hiring bargain brand minions," Madame Libertine said. "Oh well, if you want something done right-"
"The only thing you'll be doing that's right is letting all these people go and surrendering yourselves!" Eri shouted.
"So loud! And rude! This country's youth is in even more dire straits than I thought!" Nippo cried. "Yes! It's clear that I will be doing this country a true service by silencing you here and now!"
"Hey, I recognize her. That's Shazam!" one of the hostages said.
"Isn't she just a Vigilante, though? Isn't this above her level?" a second hostage asked.
"Can she hold out until a Hero shows up?" a third hostage asked.
"How are we supposed to trust this rookie?!" a fourth person shouted. It went on like that for a small amount of time.
"Sounds like these people don't have any faith in you, fräulein," Madame Libertine said. "It's always sad when the citizens of a country don't respect their superiors. Fear isn't terrible, though, so long as you know how to turn that fear into power!"
Before Eri could figure out what she was talking about, sparks of electricity started flying around Madame Libertine's mouth. She opened her mouth and out came a bolt of lightning that hit Eri square in the chest and knocked her into a nearby wall.
Madame Libertine! Quirk: Blitzkrieg! Madame Libertine can shoot powerful blasts of lightning from her body, each bolt getting stronger and stronger as onlookers grow more and more afraid! It's the perfect Quirk for a fear mongering Nazi!
That was the first time Eri had gotten hurt as Shazam. She thought it would feel worse, but it was surprisingly manageable. Dealing with Chisaki so often was surprisingly beneficial to Hero work.
"It's going to take more than that to defeat me!" Eri said, doing everything in her power to stop thinking about that previous thought.
"Just what I was hoping for!" Madame Libertine shouted, firing off a blast of lightning from her hands. With the attack no longer coming as a surprise, Eri was able to dodge with flawless timing. She fired off more and more blasts, but Eri was more than fast enough to dodge every one of them, more than fast enough fly in close and deliver a powerful blow to her opponent's stomach.
Of all of her powers, the Fleetness of Zephyrus was one that always got her where she needed to go.
"Naive little fräulein!" Madame Libertine shouted. The second after the hit connected, she grabbed Eri's arm and zapped her with another shot of electricity. The audience's newly discovered calm faded away in an instant as a recoiling Eri was tossed aside. "Whenever you're ready, Nippo!"
"I'm always ready!" Nippo shouted.
Just as Eri was regaining her bearings, Nippo charged her with breakneck speed and swung at her with his katana. She dodged in the knick of time, but then Madame Libertine fired another blast of lightning, an attack that she was only able to just barely dodge.
The three of them fell into that sort of pattern. Nippo would swing his blade, Eri would dodge it, Madame Libertine would shoot lightning at her, Eri would barely dodge that, rinse and repeat. It was here that Eri's inexperience was truly shining. Running through her head had to be countless thoughts about how right the crowd was to not have faith in her.
"Speaking of our captive audience," Madame Libertine said, "I think we should make our performance a little more interactive!"
The pattern was broken. Madame Libertine fired another blast of lightning, but this time it was directed at the roof. The roof was blown apart in an instant, and its fragments were sent into a freefall towards the screaming hostages below. There wasn't even a question of what Eri would do. She immediately jumped away from Nippo and flew above the hostages, blocking every piece of rubble and shielding them from harm with her body.
"Now you're mine!" That's exactly what they wanted, it seemed. Nippo took advantage of Eri's position and gave a swing of his blade she had no chance of dodging. Eri raised an arm to block, hoping that her body would be strong enough to make any damage negligible.
Imagine her surprise when the katana cut through her arm like butter. Imagine her surprise when she let out a scream and nearly fell over from the pain.
"It-It cut me! Even though it's just a sword-"
"Just a sword?! Hah! Foolish girl! This katana is made from glorious Nth Metal steel, folded over a thousand times and made to sever anything in its path! Your body must be pretty strong for your arm to still be attached, but I was still able to cut you. Now, little girl, your time is at an end!"
Nippo tossed his katana into the air towards the ceiling. At the halfway point, it became bathed in a yellow glow, turned horizontal, and flew straight for Eri's head. She flew up with immense speed to avoid the attack, but much to her surprise, the katana turned in her direction and kept following her. She kept flying around and turning her body at the drop of a hat, but no matter what happened, the katana wouldn't let up.
"Don't even think about trying to escape. My blade will follow you to the ends of the Earth!"
Nippo the Nipponese! Quirk: Yellow Peril! When Nippo cuts someone with a bladed weapon, the weapon becomes bathed in a yellow glow and flies over towards the previous victim for further dismemberment! It'll keep going until either Nippo deactivates it or the target is dead! Talk about "cutting edge"!
Having a katana made out of cosmic metal following you through the air was one thing, but now Eri had to go back to dodging Madame Libertine's lightning bolts. It was bad enough when she only had to group them with Nippo's regular sword strokes, but the new method of attack he was employing was a completely different story.
At this rate, I'm not going to be able to do a thing! I've got to think of something fast! Eri told herself. As soon as the thought ended, a seemingly flawless idea came to mind. It would take a great deal of cunning and precision, but if it worked, she just might be able to pull through.
After dodging another one of Madame Libertine's attacks, Eri flew down to the ground and sprinted over to Nippo. She got right in front of his sneering face before stopping on a dime. She could tell that the katana was right behind her, less than a meter away from her back, but she didn't run. Just as she started to feel the tip of her blade on her back, she ducked down, leaving Nippo the only thing in its path and the only thing the blade would end up skewering. It was truly a foolproof plan.
Foolproof except for how it wasn't, the how showcased by the katana immediately turning again and stabbing Eri through her side.
Huh? What? Huh? Eri thought to herself. She fell to her knees, too confused to even scream out in pain.
"Did you really think I was susceptible to that played out trick?" Nippo asked. "Foolish little girl. If you are so naive as to try something like that, then it's no wonder these people don't have any faith in you!"
Nippo grabbed the hilt of his katana and kicked Eri in the chest to make it come loose. Nippo held a sword drenched in Eri's blood, and the rest of it was spilling out into a puddle by her knees. Even with that, she still didn't scream.
"She's done for!" one person shouted.
"I knew we couldn't count on a Vigilante!" a second person shouted.
"We're all gonna die!" a third person shouted.
"Yes, yes, yes! Feed me with your fear and desperation, citizens!" Madame Libertine shouted as electricity crackled in the air around her. "And you, fräulein, now you can feel the crushing weight of not having a single person believing in you!"
Madame Libertine fired a blast of lightning from her mouth, one far larger than any other attack she had used before. Eri didn't even attempt to try and dodge it. Her recent stab wound was a significant factor in that, but what was truly weighing her down was a crushing realization: she was scared. She was Shazam, she wasn't a weak little girl anymore, yet she was still scared.
It was when her tears started flowing that the lightning finally hit her.
After Eri awoke, she noticed four things about her situation. First, she was in an incredible amount of pain, as one often would be from after being stabbed and zapped with billions of joules of electricity.
Second, she was no longer in the museum. She had gotten up from atop a pile of rubble that she assumed was once part of a building, and she could see the sky and sun above her without any obstruction. The attack must have sent her flying clear out of the museum into some other part of town.
Third, Nippo's katana was no longer chasing her. When Nippo pulled it out of her body, the yellow glow was still there, meaning he hadn't deactivated his Quirk. It would have made sense for him to send it after her to make her death a certainty, so it begged the question of why that hadn't happened. It was in the midst of asking that question when Eri caught a glimpse of her reflection and noticed the fourth thing, which was also the answer to said question.
Nippo was using his Quirk to make his weapon always hit Shazam, but the only person in the reflection was Eri Hasigawa.
"I'm-I'm not Shazam, anymore?" Eri asked. She put her hands all across her body. Gone was the massive horn on her forehead, back was the small one she always had. Gone was the voluptuous body people gave uncomfortable stares at, back was the tiny body of a child. Gone was the pristine red costume that had become her trademark, back were the dirty rags Chisaki had always forced her to wear.
Gone was the Hero Shazam, back was the Weakling Eri.
"No no no no no no no no no! I don't want this! I don't want to be Eri again! I don't-that's right! If I say the magic word again, I won't have to be-w-wait, I-I can't. If Nippo's Quirk really did stop because I'm not Shazam anymore, then the second I transform…"
Eri took another look at herself. Her body was covered in dirt from the building, and blood was still dripping out of her at a steady rate. She was a complete disaster.
"This isn't good," Eri said as she stumbled down the sidewalk. "I-I need to find someone who can help me."
"I might be able to help."
Five words. Five innocent words that anyone would be glad to hear on any given day. To Eri, hearing them felt like nails on a chalkboard. She knew who was talking. She knew the person who made her freeze in place. She knew the owner of the cold, ghastly hand that had made its way to her shoulder.
"Hello, Eri. It's been a while, hasn't it?" Chisaki asked.
"Wh-What are you doing here? H-H-How did you find me?" Eri stammered out.
"Funny story. Over at the estate, I had the TV on for Tatsuo-sama to try and communicate with him-did you know that he fell into a coma after you ran away?-when the program is interrupted by a news bulletin. Apparently, two Villains started to rob the TNM. The police are in a shootout with them and their goons, and the few Heroes who have managed to come to the scene are nothing but B-listers who can't do anything."
"T-There were hostages inside. A-Are they-"
Before Eri could finish, Chisaki backhanded her into the side of a metal trash can.
"I'm sorry, Eri, I really am. I didn't mean to lose my temper, but you know how much I hate. Being. Interrupted. Anyway, a weird thing happened during the broadcast. Out of nowhere, what looked like a small child came flying out of the museum and into town. Everyone seemed to ignore it, but something about it seemed familiar. So what did I do? I had one of my computer guys digitally enhance the image to give me a clearer picture. Turns out that I was completely right about what I thought I saw: an annoying little brat who can't even begin to understand how much trouble she's in."
Eri couldn't do anything. The ego and confidence she had built for herself had been shattered by Madame Libertine and Nippo the Nipponese, and Chisaki's reappearance was only twisting the knife. There was nothing she could think of in terms of defense, so the only thing she could think of doing was submission.
"I'm sorry…" Eri said.
"We'll see. I mean, really, just look at yourself, Eri. You're covered in dirt, your breathing is erratic, and that blood. All that blood! You tried to go out on your own, and all it did was put you in a truly disgusting state of being."
"I know…"
"Let this be a lesson to you, young lady. Now to show that there aren't any hard feelings between us, allow me to clean you up," Chisaki said while removing a glove.
"Oka-what?"
A second later, Eri Hasigawa was dead. Her body was torn asunder, pieces of blood and organs and bone scattered across the wind.
Another second later, Eri Hasigawa was brought back to life. Her body was in perfect shape, not a single injury to be found. She was in perfect health physically, but mentally, she had to deal with the feeling and memory of being blown to smithereens.
"There. Nice and clean. Doesn't that feel better?" Chisaki asked. Eri vomited on his shoes. "...You know what? I'm going to let that slide. This is a good day, so let's just ignore that and head back home, shall we?"
"H-Home?" With her newfound confidence shattered, Eri's past came back to mind, full force. All the times Chisaki had done what he'd just done a moment ago, all the times he blew off a limb and let it stay like that for a while to punish her for misbehaving, all the times he forced drugs and sharp medical tools into her body while talking about how her Quirk was going to "cleanse society of its filth". Every terrible thing Chisaki had done to her, everything she had done her best to not think about for the past two weeks, it all became the only thing she could think about.
So when Chisaki tried to grab her shoulder again, Eri kicked him in the shin with all of her might and started running as he fell to the ground.
"Insolent little brat!" Chisaki shouted. Eri didn't care. It didn't take him long to get up, but she didn't care. She just needed to keep running. It was all that she was good at.
"Come back here, Eri. You're making me really mad, right now!" Chisaki shouted. Both of his gloves were tossed to the ground, and his hands quickly fell there, as well. The ground beneath Eri's feet started shaking until everything exploded into dust.
H-He's using his Quirk! Eri shouted in her head. The old Eri would only be able to stand there and take everything, but two weeks of being Shazam had given her an inkling of a battle sense. Putting that inkling to work, Eri jumped away from the rubble and into an alleyway, a split second before it reformed into a giant concrete hand that was meant to trap her.
"You stupid little brat! Do you have any idea what you're costing me?!" Eri didn't answer as she hid herself inside of a dumpster. "Don't you understand what I'm trying to do, Eri? I'm trying to fix this filthy world of ours, but I can't do that without your Quirk."
Eri heard footsteps. He was running from where she left him.
"You're the key to all of this, so I need you to work with me. I'm not the bad guy here, so it shouldn't be too much to ask for you to put up with a little pain."
Eri wanted to vomit again. The running got louder and louder before coming to a complete stop. Then there was walking. Slow walking. He was in the alleyway.
"This kind of petty resistance will only make things harder for you. Yes, I need your body, but no one said I have to keep it as it is now. I could disassemble you and fuse you to a rock if I wanted to. Worse yet, I could have your body mashed up into a disgusting monstrosity of flesh. Is that what you want for Tatsuo-sama? Do you want him to wake up from his coma and see that his granddaughter's become a fleshy blob monster because she didn't do what she was told?!"
Eri didn't need the Wisdom of Minerva to know that Chisaki could do all of that and more if he wanted to. That was the kind of terrible person he was. The kind of terrible person who would go down easily in a fight with Shazam.
I-I can't do that, though! Eri told herself. I-If I turn back into Shazam, Nippo will be able to keep attacking me. But if I don't transform, h-he'll make me go back with him, a-and all the hostages will die!
Damned if she did, damned if she didn't.
"Please come out, Eri, wherever you are," Chisaki said. His footsteps were getting closer to the dumpster.
I'm a coward. I'm nothing but a coward. A weak, weak, weak little coward. That's who I am as Eri, that's who I am as Shazam! No matter who I try to be, I can't do a single thing!
Eri shut her eyes and grit her teeth. She knew what was coming, knew that trying to stop it wouldn't do anything. There was nothing left to do but accept her rotten luck of a lot in life.
"Who the hell do you think you're growling at?"
Eri didn't remember growling at anyone. Giving the scene a listen, she could hear growling that definitely wasn't from her.
"Go back to the filthy gutter you crawled out of, you stupid cat. Or don't. Just get out of my way."
There was a cat. He was talking to a cat. Eri didn't want to believe the thought that had just crossed her mind, didn't want to add anything to it, but she couldn't stop herself from opening Schrodinger's Box. Once it was open just a crack, her suspicions were given definitive form: the cat Chisaki was talking to was the same cat she rescued from the tree.
"I am not in the mood for this," Chisaki said as the cat kept growling. The cat's stance was large and defensive, perfectly catered for intimidation. Almost as if it was protecting something other than itself.
Me? Does-Does it know that I'm in here? Eri asked herself.
"Get out of my way before things get-" Chisaki didn't finish his sentence. Not the way he wanted to, at least. Eri had only known Chisaki for half a year, so she could have been wrong, but he probably wasn't the kind of person to punctuate a sentence with a pained scream. That had to be from the cat biting down on and scratching his leg.
"You-You filthy little worm!" Chisaki shouted, slamming his leg against the dumpster with the cat still attached to it. The cat didn't let go, so he did it again. He did it a third time, and at the fourth time, the cat was finally damaged enough to loosen its grip and fall to the ground, limp.
"How dare you touch me with your disease-ridden body! You think I want to be covered in all of your germs and fleas?!"
He was going to kill the cat. Eri had no doubts about that. She didn't want that, but she didn't know what to do. Even if she tried something like agreeing to go with him if he spared the cat, in Chisaki's current state, it was doubtful that he'd listen to her. He might even kill her for a bit for trying to boss him around.
It all seemed hopeless, Eri thought. After all, if she couldn't keep the cat safe as Shazam, with all of the powers she possessed then, how was she supposed to keep the cat safe as Eri Hasigawa? How wrong The Wizard was to choose her. What was the last thing he said to her?
"Believe me when I tell you that there's a difference between having power and being powerful." Yes, that was it.
"'There's a difference between having power and being powerful,'" Eri repeated in a whisper as something swelled inside of her. "'There's a difference between having power and being powerful,'" Eri whispered as her grip on the edge of the dumpster tightened.
"I'll teach you to treat people with more respect than this-"
"There's a difference!" Eri shouted, throwing the lid of the dumpster open and lifting her body up to the top. "Between having power!"
"Eri?! You're making yourself filthy again-"
"And being powerful!" Eri shouted, jumping off of the dumpster right towards Chisaki. The action was performed in the midst of his surprised state of being, so he had no way of preparing any sort of counter measurers for her. Because of that, he wasn't able to do anything when Eri's horn found itself jammed straight into his eye.
Chisaki kept screaming and screaming, his screams far more guttural than they were before.
In the midst of all of that, he somehow managed to dislodge Eri from his skull and knock her down next to the cat. Much to Eri's relief, his eye wasn't pulled out his socket.
"You little bitch! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Chisaki shouted, a hand over a heavily bleeding eye.
"Nothing! You're the only one who has something wrong with them, and I'm sick of putting up with it!" Eri shouted as she stood up from the ground.
"Ignorant little brat! You think you can survive on your own?! You think you can accomplish anything on your own?! You're nothing! Nothing but a weak, pathetic little microbe!"
"I know! And that's fine!"
"It's-It's what?" Chisaki asked as Eri picked the cat up and carried it in her arms.
"I know that I'm weak, but everyone is weak in some way. People like me, people who try to be Heroes, even you, Chisaki! Even you have things that make you weak, but you can't get strong by running away from it! The only way you can get strong is by taking on everything that happens to you-good or bad-and using it to get better! I want to do that, what about you, Chisaki!?"
"You… How many times have I told you not to call me that?! My name isn't Chisaki! It's Overhaul!" Chisaki shouted, stretching his bloodied hands out towards Eri's neck.
"If we're using code names, then I'm not just Eri anymore. I'm… I'm… SHAZAM!"
Despite the clear day, a bolt of lightning was still able to be fired out of the sky. It hit the earth at the exact spot Eri stood at, and with Chisaki's proximity to her, he was zapped with enough electricity to be blown back into the wall, losing consciousness as he fell apart into a smoking mess.
Eri, once again back to being Shazam, merely gave him a stern look.
"I'll finish everything with you one day, Chisaki, that's a promise," Eri said, "but right now, I need to take care of something and wow, you got really heavy all of a sudden, kitty." In response, the cat released an enormous growl.
Cats weren't supposed to have enormous growls.
"Cats aren't supposed to have enormous growls." It was here that Eri fully took notice of the cat, or at least what she assumed to be the cat. The fur was the same shade of orange, the eyes had the same wise and innocent shine to them, yet as best as she could remember, the cat she had bonded with was just a cat, and not a liger.
"Y-You're not going to eat me now that you're a big cat, are you?" The liger licked her face. "Okay, good."
Eri dropped the liger from her arms. It landed on all fours and rubbed its head against her leg.
"Hey, did the lightning make you magic, just like it did me?" The liger growled as electricity crackled in the air around it. "I'll take that as a yes. Want to help me take care of things?"
The liger roared to the heavens. Eri gave his head a pat. It was all rather nice.
With new confidence and a new steed, Eri charged back to the museum. Just like Chisaki said, the police and whichever Heroes could make it to the scene were in a middle of a shootout with the Nazis and the Imperials, neither side giving an inch.
"I started this, and now I'm going to finish it," Eri said. The liger dashed at tremendous before jumping clear over the police and Heroes. Given the surprising nature of a fair lady soaring through the air on the back of a liger, everyone's attention was drawn towards them, resulting in a sudden ceasefire between the two groups. Eri didn't benefit from the Heroes stopping dead in their tracks, but the Nazis and Imperials doing so was much to her benefit. Taking advantage of their confusion, Eri had the liger charge through the outer wall of the museum and slam down in the middle of their group with enough force to create a shockwave that sent them flying all across the lobby.
"Sorry for leaving before, but I don't plan on doing it again," Eri said.
"Not you, again!" one of the hostages shouted.
"Haven't you screwed up enough, today?!" a second hostage asked.
"Just let a real Hero handle this!" a third hostage cried.
The liger roared at the crowd, forcing them into a panic.
"No, don't do that!" Eri cried. "You're only going to make things wor-"
Before Eri could finish her sentence, a bolt of lighting shot off in her direction. Eri jumped up into the air to dodge, allowing the attack to fly harmlessly above the liger before exploding against the wall. Suspended in the air, Eri could see Madame Libertine and Nippo the Nipponese marching onto the scene.
"Of all the flies we'd have to kill to conquer the world, I never imagined that you'd be one of them, fräulein," Madame Libertine barked. "Oh well, a fly is always just a fly. Nippo."
"Yosha!" Nippo shouted as his katana became bathed in yellow light. "I don't know how you managed to trick my blade before, but whatever you did is clearly no longer in effect. Time for you to face my steel, once more!"
The katana flew out of Nippo's hands and towards Eri. If Eri was being honest, she hadn't actually gotten around to coming up with a plan for dealing with his Quirk; regaining her sense of self-worth had taken up too much of her time. Still, some of the best Heroes came up with plans on the fly, so maybe she could do the same.
Two seconds later, she still hadn't come up with anything.
One second after that, the choice was taken out of her hands when the liger jumped into the air between her and the katana and grabbed the blade with its paws.
"No, don't!"
"Again with this foolishness!" Nippo shouted. "My Quirk cannot be stopped by such basic tricks. It will simply slip through your pet's claws and go back to skewering you where you stand. Do not try to fight the inevita-"
Before Nippo could finish his tirade, the liger's paws sank into the sides of the blade, silencing him immediately. The rest of his body became a glowing vortex of energy that flew into the blade until there was nothing left. A second later, orange fur sprouted across the katana, four stubby legs grew across the body of it, a tail sprouted out of the hilt, and a snarling face became spread out across the top half of the blade.
"You have a Quirk!" Eri shouted.
"What in the world?!" Nippo shouted. "N-No matter. All this means is that this beast will be the one to kill you. An even more fitting end-"
The liger roared and cut him off. Then the katana did an about-face so the blade was facing Nippo's direction and flew off towards the ground.
"W-Wait, hold on. J-Just hold on a second, that's my-you can't just-get away from me-help!"
"Fine!" Madame Libertine shouted as lightning formed in her mouth. "Making me do everything-"
"Not this time!" Eri shouted, finally constructing her plan. Seconds before Madame Libertine fired off her Quirk, Eri harnessed all of her fleetness and flew down with a kick straight into the top of her head. The impact forced her mouth closed right when the lightning was supposed to come out, resulting in an explosion of energy that left smoke billowing out of her body and teeth thrown around the floor.
"Madame Libertine!" Nippo shouted. Thanks to that, there was no one to stop the katana from stabbing him in the stomach, the liger from jumping out of the katana and destroying it with one strike of the paw, and the same liger from chomping down on his arm and slamming him against the ground, repeatedly.
"Wow, you're amazing! You're really amazing, Tawky Tawny!" Eri said, addressing the liger by the name she came up with on the spot.
"You two… ignorant fools… will pay for this!" the apparently still conscious Madame Libertine shouted. She grabbed Eri's leg and attempted to throw her down to the ground, but Eri moved faster and punched her in the face. Madame Libertine was left in a daze, a daze Eri took advantage of by copying her opponent and grabbing her leg, then proceeding to swing her around in a circle before tossing her into a wall.
"H-Hey, she's actually winning!" one of the hostages said.
"I thought she was just a loser before, but maybe she actually can save us!" a second hostage shouted.
"You can beat her! Go for it, Shazam!" a third hostage cheered. The rest of the hostages started joining in. Some asking for help, most offering words of encouragement, all chanting "Shazam" as loud as they could.
"Be quiet!" Madame Libertine shouted, firing off another blast of lightning. For a second, Eri thought that she would have to dodge again, but then she realized that there wasn't any point. The blast was small, far smaller than anything else that had been made today, almost like static electricity. If it hit her, she probably wouldn't even feel a thing.
"What do you know? Don't even feel a thing," Eri said when the blast connected with her.
"Gott in himmel, just die, already!" The blast intensified, but it was still hardly anything to take note of. The increased noise couldn't even try to drown out the cheering of the hostages and the roaring of Tawky Tawny.
"This is what happens when you try and make fear the core of your power," Eri said, walking forward right through the beam. "Fear only goes so far. All it takes is one act of bravery to hurt it."
Eri was standing right in front of Madame Libertine, the woman having exhausted all of her strength and no longer able to fire any lightning.
"One spark of courage to set it aflame." Wind blew in from seemingly nowhere, dancing around Eri's body until it all became centered in her right hand. Her right fist, rather. "One strike of true grit to send it tumbling down!"
In the midst of more German cursing, Eri sent her fist straight into Madame Libertine's face, an explosion of lightning enveloping her body and sending her flying outside through the wall straight into a police van.
The police were silent, but the people and animals inside the museum were all still chanting one single, magical word.
"So while the part about him being invincible is still up in the air, it's safe to say that Ibis showed everyone how tough he truly is. More on the story when the story continues to develop. This is Ringo Raiku, signing off."
"And cut!" Eri breathed a sigh of relief as she took off her headphones.
"Was that okay, Hoshiwa-san? I think I was a little too slow at the end there."
"You did great, Ringo," said Hoshiwa, a man with silver skin and a moustache patterned like a star map. "RWND Radio's been at the top of the charts ever since you came along. Just keep doing what you're doing; don't even worry about it. Just go play with your friends."
"Okay, thank you!"
Eri bowed to Hoshiwa and exited the studio. Standing right outside the door were the two people she expected to see there, but it was still surprising to have nice people waiting for her, at all.
"Ringo-chan! Today's broadcast was even more beautiful than yesterday's! It has to be criminal for someone to be so perfect so many times in a row!" said a blonde girl with figurative sparkles in her eyes and literal sparkles floating around her face.
"Knock it off, already; you're giving me a headache," said a scowling boy wearing a red hat. "...I liked it, too, Raiku."
Eri smiled wide.
"I-It's just a compliment. Don't make a big deal out of it! Let's just go to the park, already!"
"I call riding down the slide with Ringo-chan!" the girl shouted as more sparkles appeared around her face.
"I said knock it off with that crap!"
It was good having friends, Eri mused.
Two months had passed since the defeat of Madame Libertine and Nippo the Nipponese. The two Villains were swiftly carted off to prison, and the Spear of Destiny was moved to a more secure location. As for Eri, she had come to the realization that The Wizard was right to warn her about the dangers of living permanently as Shazam, so she decided to go along with his request of balancing the two worlds.
Of course, with the Hasigawa family still looking for her, it was too dangerous to go out into the world without a disguise, especially after Chisaki was able to find her, but with a bottle of red hair dye and a pair of fake glasses-Beebo blue, naturally-she was able to craft a new persona of Ringo Raiku, ordinary school girl at Jaguchi City Elementary, and youngest reporter for the city's news station, RWND Radio.
The radio gig was something The Wizard suggested and was seconded by Tawky Tawny (good thing she was allowed to keep pets in her apartment). Not only would it give her extra income in case the money she stole from the estate ever ran out, but it would also allow her to always be in the know of what's happening in the city, allowing her to always get the jump on any injustice being carried out.
Eri didn't have a problem with any of that, but what she loved the most about her job was how her apparent natural talent resulted in her gaining two friends who were fans of her broadcasts. First was Kouta Izumi, a boy who was always mad about something, but turned out to be a big softie after some prodding and poking. It was actually a lot of prodding and poking, but they still had fun together. Then there was Biyou Sivana, a girl who was always enthusiastic about how beautiful she thought Eri's broadcasts were. Her enthusiasm sometimes reminded her of the people who were enchanted by the Beauty of Aurora, but it didn't feel as weird as it did when she was just starting out.
Between them, Tawky Tawny, The Wizard, and that old man she met on patrol who was always punching people in the face, Eri had more friends than she ever thought was possible. A dream come true.
"Attention students and faculty! This is an emergency Villain broadcast!" shouted Hoshiwa's voice over the loudspeaker. "A humanoid crocodile in a business suit has started attacking the farmer's market! I repeat: a humanoid crocodile in a business suit has started attacking the farmer's market!"
"Oh, golly gosh darnit, guys! I just remembered that my mom wanted me home right after I was done with work, so I think we'll have to play some other time," Eri said in a quick pace as she ran past the two of them.
"Okay? See you tomorrow," Kouta said with a small wave.
"Bye Ringo-chan! Take care of your beautiful personage!" Biyou shouted as she enthusiastically waved both arms while even more sparkles appeared around her face. Eri heard Kouta yell at her again as the door to the school closed behind her. She couldn't help but smile.
Once she was outside, she took a quick survey of her surroundings. No one seemed to be around. Just what she was hoping for.
"Alright. Time to be a crocodile hunter. SHAZAM!"
Earth 2014.05/Earth 2014-E
The Power of ERI
Meanwhile, at the Hasigawa estate, a man tore through a library of books in a mad frenzy, just as he had done every day for the past two months. Barely any food, barely any rest, only reading.
"This really isn't good for you. You need to rest, Kai," said a man with hair that appeared to be styled in the form of multiple arrows.
"I don't need rest, Chrono. If I keel over, I'll just revive myself," Kai said, not bothering to turn around.
"You have to remember to actually do that, though. You sure as hell forgot to fix your eye."
A book dropped to the floor.
"Is that what you think? You think I forgot about this? You think I'm just ignoring this?!" His voice oozing with rage, Kai Chisaki, also known as Overhaul, turned around to face Chrono. His face became illuminated by the candlelights of the library, revealing a jagged lightning bolt scar running through his right eye.
"I didn't forget! I know I can fix this anytime I want, but I won't! It stays to serve as a reminder of how much I've suffered because of that brat, and I will only get rid of it when I've made her feel this same pain a thousand times over! Do you understand?!"
"Understood," Chrono said, gulping while Overhaul's hand was mere centimeters away from his face.
"Good, good. That's more like it. Now then…"
Overhaul walked back to the book he had dropped a moment ago. He opened it up to a seemingly random page, stared at it for a few seconds, then released a torrential wave of laughter.
"Found what you were looking for?" Chrono asked.
"Indeed I did, Chrono. As you may recall, before Eri came into our lives, I had been researching countless possible methods of doing away with society's infestation of superpowers. All of it seemed like a dead end, but then there was that word, Chrono. That word she said to me: 'SHAZAM'! I knew it seemed familiar; it was something I came across in my research! A word tied to a being of unimaginable, one who's existed far longer than that ungrateful brat!"
Overhaul flipped the book around to show Chrono the contents of the page: a dark-skinned man with pointed ears being struck by lightning as sat atop a throne of skulls.
"He's the answer, Chrono! The answer to how we can take back society from Heroes and Villains! The answer to how I can get my revenge on that brat! The answer to the problems that have haunted me my entire life!
"Black Adam!"
It might have just been a trick of the light, but sparks seemed to be flying out of Overhaul's scar.
To be continued on XX/XX/20XX