Marvelous Future #1
Written by Cody MacArthur Fett
Edited by Bob Regent and Cyclone
In the year 2000, the world was changed forever, and the Age of Heroes ended. Millions of children that had grown up with heroes and heroines to inspire them were forced to confront the realization that there would be no more last minute rescues, no promise of a bright tomorrow, and no ray of hope in the dark abyss that had become the Earth. All was lost, it seemed, until a bright blue streak of light had swooped out of the sky to save a falling plane, just as her predecessor had done at the start of the first Age of Heroes.
And so, for the first time in a decade and a half, children could look up to the sky and know that there were heroes and heroines that would save the day. Such was the case with one Suzuhara Sakura, a ten year old girl waiting at that very moment on the side of the mountain at the center of her home city of Tokyo-3 for a chance to catch a glimpse of her hero. Her big, strong, manly hero.
Yes, manly, for her hero was not the inspiring Supergirl that had so captured the hopes of the city's citizens, but rather a young man by the name of Ikari Shinji. For you see, Ikari Shinji was not just a handsome and dependable young man with enchanting blue eyes and an adorable mop of brown hair, but he was also an Evangelion pilot. The Evangelions were the ultimate triumph of mankind, humanoid cyborgs 80 meters tall that were able to use their absolute territory fields to neutralize the defenses of the Angels, giant monsters that sought to lay siege to their homes and city, and Shinji was the designated pilot of Evangelion Unit-01, replacing the daring and courageous Ayanami Rei who had so efficiently done battle with the first Angel to fall against her city like a wave against a cliff. The young Sakura had learned all this from the Japanese edition of the Daily Planet, many of whose issues now decorated the walls of her room.
She had thought that that she would have to make do with just that, but to her great excitement, the next Angel attacked while she was at school, and she had been shuttled with the rest of the school children into one of the Central Mountain shelters near the school. It was from there that she made her escape. Nothing serious, mind you! She just snuck out of the shelter for a little bit to watch the battle between her darling Shinji and the horrific Angel.
And what a horror it was! The pink monstrosity had wiggly energy whip things and insect-like grabby bits that looked like bone on a body that looked like a fishing lure. She couldn't wait to see it get punched in the face!
Just as Shinji began firing a gun - a MM-99 pallet rifle, if she remembered the article right - at it, though, something strange happened. The sound of the gun firing and hitting the Angel lasted for all of a second, and then, it stopped. The battle was still raging, but she couldn't hear any of it. She could still hear the wind and her hand moving through the grass that she was sitting on, but everything in the city had gone eerily quiet. There was just . . . nothing.
All of a sudden, a loud voice cut through the quiet and was heard everywhere; even Unit-01 turned and seemed to take notice it.
"NERV! . . . You laughed at me! You said my inventions were useless! Intergang said that they didn't measure up after they squandered them against Supergirl! But I'll show them. I'll show you. I'll show you all! I will use my inventions to kill the Angel! Not the Eva! Me! Walter Shreeve!"
It was then that Sakura saw the impossible. A figure, tiny and almost unnoticeable next to the titans fighting in front of it, stood atop a building and projected a pair of beams towards the giants. They were silent, like everything else, but the young girl could see them. She could see them push the colossi back.
Then a blue and red streak flashed above her and towards the figure, and then the beams stopped. All seemed quiet, and then the world shook. The figure and Supergirl started fighting, and around them, the titans resumed their clash. Sound returned to normal, and the air was drowned in the din of battle. Sakura couldn't be happier.
Suddenly, over the din of battle, she heard someone coming up behind her.
"Sakura!" shouted her big brother Toji as he came bounding over the hill. "Sakura! What are you doing out here?!"
"Oh, hi there, big brother! I just came out to watch the Evas, and then that loud man came out here and started screaming something about 'showing them all', and then . . ." Sakura was cut off by her big brother's arms wrapping around her.
"Don't you ever do that again!" Tōji sobbed. "Do you have any idea how much I . . . don't ever, ever, ever go out of the shelter again! Do you hear me?!"
"Big brother, it's okay. We're okay," Sakura said softly into her brother's shoulder.
She was a dummy, Sakura realized. A big fat dummy. She had completely ignored her brother's feeling and the feelings of everyone else. She was a selfish . . .
"Run!" Kensuke shouted, and as he did, everyone looked to see a giant block of ferrocrete flying towards them.
Sakura's mind went blank, believing herself to soon be dead. It would never come to pass, however, for the Girl of Tomorrow, none other than Supergirl, had caught the piece of rubble. Unfortunately, the wonder of the situation was ruined by Mr. Shreeve hitting the ground with a large bang and making a crater. The young girl did take that moment to be glad that she wasn't nearly as big a dummy as him.
"Run to the sewers!" Supergirl ordered, her angelic voice, both firm and comforting, driving them to act.
Her big brother took her in his arms and ran. The group practically flew down the path, but along the way, Hikari slipped and fell down the hill.
"Hikari!" Sakura screamed with the rest of the group even as her heart collapsed.
She survived, and yelled back at them to continue on to the catacombs. Sakura wasn't listening clearly though, she was . . . She was paralyzed with guilt. She liked Hikari, she was kind to her, always willing to help her with problems at school or with homework, and her big brother really liked her, even if the big dummy wouldn't admit it. She might lose a mentor, and her brother might lose the only chance he would ever get at finding true love, and it was all her fault.
Her guilt-ridden haze was broken by her brother setting her down on the street, and then grabbing her hand very strongly.
"Ken! You know where the nearest entrance is?!" Toji asked over the din and noise.
"Not really!" Kensuke yelled back before raising his camera to his face and snapping a few more photographs.
Sakura blinked some of the tears out of her eyes just in time for the world to turn brown and grey as they were hit by a massive dust cloud. As they were coughing and hacking, the young girl looked up to see a dark man in a trench coat moving down the street.
"Hey!" Sakura called. "There's a man over there, maybe he knows where to go!"
Toji looked up and saw the man turn a corner up ahead. "I see him. Let's go, Ken!"
The trio followed, running as fast as they could with their shirts held up to their noses, but by the time they got to the corner, he was gone. Sakura scanned around, searching for him again, and found the dark shape descending down a flight of stairs not far from them.
"Over there!" she called out.
The trio once again ran towards where they had seen the man, and when they got there, they found an underground subway station entrance. They had found shelter. Unfortunately, the entrance was sealed off with heavy steel doors that opened Western-style.
"Come on! He made it through, so can we!" Toji declared.
And with that, both he and Kensuke grabbed hold of the bar on the side of the door, and as soon as Toji pulled the handle, they pulled the bar with all their might. Sakura too, though she was weak, also contributed to the pulling. Guilt still flowed through her, and she was compelled to help in any way she could.
Still, with all of them pulling together, they managed to get the door open. Then, without wasting a second, they scurried inside. Then came closing the door again. Thanks to the pressure difference, though, it was far easier than opening it.
"Come on," Toji said softly in between heavy breaths, "let's get down to the shelter."
They descended down into the depths, their footfalls echoing while the sounds of the people huddling in the station up ahead wafted through the tunnel. They reached the entrance, and were struck by the huddled masses of people crammed together on the station, practically falling onto the tracks. It was into this pit that they moved, Sakura shuffling closer to her brother as they moved.
Soon, they were approached by an older gentleman and what looked like his wife.
"Hey, you two lads and the lass come in from outside?" he asked in a confused tone of English.
"Yeah, we were following some man in a trenchcoat after we were forced to leave our shelter. He should have been just ahead of us," Toji explained, letting go of Sakura's hand briefly.
"Man in trenchcoat? You sure about that, laddie? You kids are the first ones to show up since the battle started," the man's wife put in.
"That's impossible."
"I don't know, man. You and your sister were the only ones to see a man in a trenchcoat. I never saw him."
"That's because you have your head in your . . ."
Sakura tuned the voices out, and suddenly, everything got very dull, like she was wearing a veil and earmuffs. It was almost like when the loud man had shown up outside, but not quite. Something wasn't dull though, and it was beneath the train. She wasn't sure how she knew it was there, but she knew that something was there, something important. Was anyone else moving?
When she reached the subway docked at the station, she crouched down and weaved her small hand in between the gap between the platform and the car. She was practically laying on the cool concrete by that point, and her hand was pawing around the bottom of the car, moving over dirty tubes and wires, looking for something. Suddenly, her hand came upon a smooth stone between one of the springs and the bottom of the car, and she picked it up.
Sakura's world was filled with light, and incredibly, fantastically, and beyond all shadow of imagination, she found herself in a brightly lit cave. Behind her was smooth and solid stone, to her sides were murals depicting some of the greatest heroes and villains the world had ever known, and in front of her was a throne, a throne with an old man with a giant white beard upon it. The ten year old felt humbled and humiliated standing there, knowing that she didn't deserve to be in their presence.
"Come closer, child. You have nothing to be ashamed of," the old man said gently.
Sakura slowly and silently walked towards him, but she did not say silent. "You're wrong. I do have something to be ashamed of."
"Do you now? What is it then? If you do not confess your sins, they will only be your downfall," the old man consoled kindly.
"I . . . I was selfish," Sakura choked out, tears in her eyes. "I snuck out of the shelter because I wanted to see Shinji and Unit-01 fight the Angel. They were so cool, and I so wanted to . . . and . . . and . . . and we were almost killed, and Hikari might be hurt or worse, and my big brother might lose everything, and it's all my fault, and . . ."
By now she was close enough that the old man was able to reach out and wipe away the tears on her cheeks with a handkerchief, and then follow it up with a hug.
"Do not despair, Suzuhara Sakura. You are not the villain you think you are," the old man assured her.
"How could you know that?" Sakura sobbed.
"Because you are here," he explained. The young girl stood back at this, her eyes puffy and confused. "This room, and I, are not real. It is all a projection, set to appear should someone ever activate the artifact of power made by the wizard Shazam, in whose image I am made. 'All in your head,' in other words."
"Shazam . . . from the Marvel family?! Like Captain Marvel?!" Sakura realized, her eyes growing wide.
The projection of Shazam nodded. "The artifact was made in the event of something terrible happening to Shazam and the world, a great calamity or death. So that the power of the Marvel family should not be lost, the artifacts were forged to survive anything and built with special qualifiers whose terms are written upon them to prevent the power from falling into the wrong hands. Upon the stone you picked up is written that 'whosoever shall hold this stone, be they worthy, shall possess the power of Mary Marvel'!"
"I . . . I don't understand," Sakura got out.
"You have been found worthy of possessing the grace of Selena, the strength of Hippolyta, the cunning of Ariadne, the fleetness of Zephyrus, the stamina of Atalanta, and wisdom of Minerva, and you will be granted those powers whenever you say the world SHAZAM!"
There was a huge peal of thunder, and lightning struck a wall to spell out all these powers. It was in language that Sakura didn't know, but somehow, she understood it all the same. She couldn't help but back away on instinct.
"I don't think that I'm worthy. I've done a terrible thing, I . . ."
". . . Will make amends," the projection finished for her. "You must do so, and be responsible and honorable in all your dealings from this point forward. For the power is yours, now that you have found the artifact, and whether by destiny or choice, you must now become Earth's Mightiest Mortal to defend good and decent people everywhere, and shine light into the dark places."
"I don't think that I can . . ."
"You can, you must, and you will."
"I-I-I . . ." Sakura stammered. "SHAZAM!"
A bolt of lightning reached down from nothingness and struck Sakura. There was a tremendous crack and a bang, and the room was flooded with light. There was smoke everywhere from the blast, such that one could not see.
Then it began to clear, and out of the mist stepped a woman, tall and strong. She was dressed in a loose red t-shirt and skirt, both with a gold outline. A gold sash was tied around her waist, and around her collar was a braided rope that secured a white cloak with gold edge and four stylized gold fleur-de-lis' on the left edge that now lay across her shoulders. A pair of gold boots completed the outfit, and the high collar of her cloak framed the confident face of a woman in the prime of her life with beautiful short brown hair.
The woman looked down, and flexed her hands. She closed her eyes, and her lips trembled.
"I don't know if good enough for this, but I want to be," she said softly.
"Virtue isn't something that simply happens. It is a constant struggle, but you are up for the challenge," the projection said proudly. "Now go Suzuhara Sakura, and prove yourself worthy of the legacy of Mary Marvel!"
"That's because you have your head in your camera," Toji said to Kensuke.
Sakura blinked away the disorientation from her eyes and looked around. She was back in the shelter by her brother's side, like nothing had happened. Still, she felt an odd weight in the custom pocket that Hikari had helped her sew into her school jumper. Reaching into it, she felt a strange stone with words etched into it that she somehow instinctively knew what it meant.
It wasn't a dream, she realized. It meant that she still had work to do.
". . . I'm sorry, but that's just the way I feel," Toji said before feeling a strong squeeze in his hand. He looked down to find his sister smiling up at him. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now."
"Excuse me for interrupting, but were you three caught in the dust cloud of a collapsing building?" the man suddenly asked.
"Uh, yes?" Kensuke admitted.
"Then you're going to want to see a doctor we have down here so your lungs don't explode," the man clarified.
"Explode?!" the trio exclaimed as one.
A little over an hour later, Sakura was walking along the city streets with her brother while rubbing her throat. She was grateful for the doctor helping them out, she really was, but boy-o-boy did it ever smart. It was nothing less than extraordinary that a subway infirmary would have the equipment necessary to clean out their lungs, but still, it smarted!
There was a ringing on her brother's smartphone, and he picked it up quick as a whip and answered. "Moshi-moshi. . . . Hikari?! You're alive! Where are you? Are you all right?"
Sakura's heart soared. Hikari was alive! She was alive! Alive! Alive! Alive!
"They're both doing great. Ken ran off to continue reporting as soon as the all-clear came through, and Sakura's right here with me," Tōji replied something Hikari had said with a sigh. "Are you sure you're all right, class rep?"
Please be all right. Please be all right. Please be all right, Sakura chanted to herself.
"OK then, rest up, Hikari. We'll see you soon," her brother said with a hopeful tone. "Good night."
He ended the call, and then turned to find his sister staring up at him with wide eyes.
"Is Hikari going to be OK?" Sakura asked desperately.
"I think so," Toji replied. "She sounded pretty roughed up though, but she says that she just needs to get cleaned up. . . . I hope she's right."
"We should go and check on her," Sakura threw out.
"Yeah, we should . . ." Toji was interrupted by more ringing on his smartphone, and naturally, he answered it. "Moshi-moshi. . . . Oh, hello, dad!"
Sakura wondered if Toji would let her have the phone this time, but that desire waned as she saw her brother's expression do the same. Soon, he covered the phone with his hand and turned to face her. She somehow knew that she wouldn't like what he was going to say.
"He got a call from the school. He is peeved," Toji whispered.
Sakura sighed as she laid down in her futon latter that night. She had reason to sigh too; she had been grounded for weeks. She deserved it, she knew that, but it still whomped.
She took the stone out of its nearby storage space and examined it in the dim light of her room.
"Whosoever holds this stone, be they worthy, shall possess the powers of Mary Marvel," Sakura read aloud in a language she did not know.
"I hope I am," she said softly before putting the stone away.
The stone was dead, she could feel it, but at the same time, she could feel that it might still be needed. It was the same feeling that had led her to it in the first place, so she thought it wise to follow it. Somehow she just knew that it would lead to something... magical.
Cody's A/N: If this series was meant as a test from God on expanding my writing horizons then I can find no better example of that than this story. A ten year old girl who is only talked about in canon takes on the powers of a character that the author hasn't studied nearly as much as other heroes. Luckily, Linkara's secret origins special was quick to finally give me ideas for this, and general research has filled in the gaps. Indeed, once I actually started writing this fic it was surprisingly easily, which is good.
General A/N: This week marks the last time simultaneous updates will be given. At least one update a week will still be given out, or we'll try to at least, but our team needs to have time to do other things. Four (soon to be five, and then six, and then seven) updates a week is just crazy as far as a schedule goes.