I'm done talking about character power levels in this story. I've already explained my best, but if some people still refuse to accept what they've read, then so be it.
However, I will accept that Meiling is portrayed a bit weak here.
I have been tormented more than enough by this. As much as I enjoy working on this story, I have to say that this is easily the worst story-writing experience I've ever had in my life, so much that I feel like wanting to give up on typing on this site forever in order to escape this torment.
Therefore, all power level-related reviews will not be responded to at all from now on.
These are my last words to those who complained about power level-related issues in this story: Get familiar with DC Comics. What the powerhouses there can do put the girls from Touhou to shame.
Chapter 26
Champions
The appearance of the man named Black Adam came as a surprise to Shazam, but to the girls from Gensokyo, they were filled with curiosity as to who he was.
Black Adam landed some feet in front of Shazam and said to him, "Thanks to you, I will soon be able to find the wizard and get my revenge on him for banishing me to the stars in the past!"
"What are you talking about?" asked Shazam. "How did I help you find the wizard?"
"It's simple!" Mr. Mind told Shazam, who turned around to face him. "The wizard managed to hide himself very well, but I've managed to come up with a way to find him! By obtaining the power he bestowed to the both of you, I can trace the source of it back to where he is using a machine Doctor Sivana and I built. When you went into the glass dome to rescue the prisoners, your power was drawn out into the platform below you!"
"Then why do I feel like I still have my power?"Shazam asked him.
"Because not all of it is taken," Mr. Mind explained to him. "I have previously taken a bit of Black Adam's, and if I were to take more, he will experience a notable loss of power, which he obviously didn't want to happen. That wasn't enough to help locate the wizard, however, so we drew a bit more from you in order for the aforementioned machine to find the wizard's location! Don't worry; you haven't lost an ounce of your power! Taking too much would cause an overload in power, even though I would love to strip you of your power!"
"It is exactly as the worm said!" Black Adam told Shazam.
"What will you gain from helping Black Adam?" Shazam asked Mr. Mind.
"To get a kick out of the wizard getting beaten up for creating you!" replied the worm.
"All for the sake of venting out your hatred against me? Then come at me instead! Leave the wizard out of this!" Shazam angrily said to him.
"All right, I think it's time we start getting to work on locating the wizard," said Mr. Mind, ignoring what he said. He then turned to Black Adam. "The machine is back at the hideout, and it may take a bit of time, so would you mind holding him back for me until it's done?"
"You go do your thing. I will ensure that he does not interfere!" replied Black Adam.
"Oh no you don't! I won't let you out of my sight!" Shazam said to Mr. Mind. However, he was caught from behind by Black Adam so that he couldn't get to the worm. "Ugh!"
"I said already you shall not interfere!" Black Adam said to him.
"Time to go, boys!" Mr. Mind said out loud to the other members of the Monster Society of Evil as he took off into the air using his jetpack. The other members got back up while groaning in pain, and then they quickly followed Mr. Mind. Mr. Atom's head was picked up and carried by King Kull.
"They're getting away!" said Minamitsu.
"Not on our watch!" said Ichirin as she and Unzan got ready to stop them.
Seeing that there were people trying to stop the villains from leaving, Black Adam threw Shazam aside and then used the swiftness of Heru to dash at Unzan and Ichirin at a blinding speed to punch them away. Unzan merely dissipated, however.
Turning to the other girls, he dashed at them and punched them all away too. Byakuren, however, was the only one who managed to remain on her feet after getting hit. Pushing her feet against the floor hard, she dashed at Black Adam and threw a punch at him, but to her surprise, he managed to catch her fist with one hand with relative ease.
By this time, the other villains had made their escape through the front door. Mr. Mind then turned around and, in just a few seconds, sealed the entrance with silk that he shot from his mouth. "That should keep them in there for some time!" he said before turning to see the other members beating up the cops to make way.
Back inside, Black Adam, after having caught Byakuren's fist, twisted her arm and then flung her away.
"He's out of your league!" Shazam said out loud to the girls. "Leave him to me! You'll get yourselves killed if you fight him!" After saying that, he dashed at Black Adam and clashed fists with him. The both of them then traded punches back and forth and occasionally fired lightning bolts at each other.
The others watched from the sidelines, and Elly said, "They're both, like, equally strong! This fight is never going to get anywhere like this!"
"No, if anything, the man in black is more likely to win," said Byakuren. "He is inputting more force into his attacks, meaning he has the intention to kill. Shazam, on the other hand, refrains from killing, so he doesn't use his power to its fullest in order to avoid killing his opponent. While having that moral is good, it is also a weakness when it comes to facing someone who does not hesitate to use his full power to take lives…"
"Then what do we do?" asked Ichirin. "He said that guy in black is out of our league! But we can't just stand around and do nothing, can we?"
"Don't worry; I will lend him a hand!" said Byakuren. Eying Black Adam carefully, she looked for the opportunity to get close to him to attack. When she saw the chance, she dashed at him at a very fast speed and managed to push him away from Shazam and into a pillar.
CRASH!
After moving back from him a little bit, Byakuren attacked with a powerful palm thrust that released a blast of energy. "Durga's Soul!" The attack caused Black Adam to fly through the pillar and through the window of a store selling golf equipments.
CRASH!
"Wow! Awesome!" Shazam commented as he floated over to Byakuren.
"Allow me to help you in this fight," the magician said to him. "I truly believe that you will need someone to assist you in order to win."
"I've won against him in our past encounters by myself," Shazam told her. "Even so, it's nice to have some help!"
Black Adam floated back out of the golf equipment store and said to Byakuren, "You have managed to surprise me with your power, woman! However, the fact that I am still standing either means it is nothing compared to the power the wizard gave me or you, too, do not have the intention to kill, like the other champion the wizard chose."
Because Byakuren didn't understand what Black Adam was saying, Shazam translated things for her and also told her that the champion the villain was referring to was him.
"We may have gotten our powers from different sources, but no matter what it is, it will always be deadly and powerful when used correctly," Byakuren said to Black Adam. "Even when one does not have a killing intent, it is still possible to prevail in a fight against one who has it! Skill is what matters the most when it comes to fighting!"
Thanks to the Wisdom of Zehuti, Black Adam was able to understand what she was saying and also reply in Japanese. "Then that would make me superior to you, for not only do I fight with the intent to kill, but I also have skills!"
"You cannot be sure of the consequence until we fight to the end," Byakuren said in a serious tone as she got into a fighting stance.
"The consequence is obvious already!" said Black Adam. After saying that, Byakuren dashed at him at a fast speed and threw a punch, but he managed to catch her fist. Byakuren pulled her fist away and then threw multiple punches at him, but he managed to block all of them with fast-moving arms.
When Byakuren performed a sweep kick, Black Adam quickly floated upwards and then dropped down at an equally fast speed, hitting the top of her head with his elbow hard to force her onto the floor so hard that the latter cracked.
Shazam threw an electric-powered punch at Black Adam, but the latter managed to catch his fist and then delivered the same kind of attack to his abdomen very hard once before hitting it several times in a row very fast with slightly weaker punches.
Byakuren got back up and tried to hit Black Adam from behind with a palm thrust, but the latter quickly spun around and flung Shazam into her before she could do that. He then pointed his hands at them and fired blasts of electricity, but Shazam quickly brought his cape in front of himself to block the attack.
While the superhero in red was doing so, Byakuren leaped into the air and threw a vajra with an energy prong like a lance at Black Adam. "Virudhaka's Sword!"
The vajra came at a speed so fast that Black Adam barely had time to avoid it. It struck him in the forehead and caused his attack to be interrupted, and so Shazam used this as the opportunity to create and throw an electric lance at his chest, zapping and blasting him backwards.
When Black Adam fell onto the floor, Byakuren dashed at him very fast and struck him in the head with a roundhouse kick that sent him tumbling to the side. The villain got back up while growling in anger and just in time to see the magician dashing at him again. When her fist was coming in contact with his face, he quickly caught her arm from below, pushed it up, carried her slightly into the air, and kneed her hard in the abdomen.
He then raised his arm into the air and shouted, "Shazam!" After doing that, he let go of Byakuren and moved away from her fast, and all of a sudden, a lightning bolt dropped through the ceiling and zapped her.
BZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
The magician screamed in agony from getting struck by high voltage electricity, and her followers were horrified at the sight of it. "MISTRESS HIJIRI!"
Byakuren was charred from head to toe when the lightning bolt disappeared. After dropping to the floor, Shazam was angry at what he saw and said to Black Adam, "How dare you?!"
The superhero in red charged at his nemesis at a fast speed and also with a force strong enough to push him back through the air. Shazam then grabbed his neck, raised his arm into the air, and shouted, "Shazam!"
This also caused a lightning bolt to drop down from the sky and through the ceiling, but Black Adam managed to free himself from Shazam's grasp and push himself away from him in the nick of time, so the lightning bolt failed to hit anybody.
"You think you can return me back to my normal form and then knock me out afterwards?" Black Adam asked him. "Such a low method for achieving victory!"
"Villains like you do not deserve a fair and honorable fight!" Shazam angrily said to him.
"Don't worry; I'm all right!" said Byakuren as she slowly got back up. "Healing magic works like a charm in situations like this!"
"Nothing I haven't seen before! One of the wizard's powers also grants this!" said Black Adam, looking unimpressed.
Suddenly, a chained anchor shot out of a puddle of water that was behind Black Adam and bounded him, much to his surprise. The puddle became Minamitsu, who pulled back the chain as hard as she could to strengthen the binding, and while Black Adam was trying to break free from it, Unzan's fist came crashing into him from the side and sent him shooting across the place.
"Shou! Now!" Minamitsu shouted at the tiger demon while holding the chain.
Shou nodded before holding up her jeweled pagoda, which glowed with yellow light. "Complete Purification!" When it was done charging, the pagoda fired a large yellow beam that struck Black Adam and pushed him even farther back, but because of the chain, he eventually reached the farthest he could go and was constantly scorched by the beam.
The beam was also very bright, so bright that everyone else had to partially cover his or her eyes to avoid getting blinded. "Whoa! Awesome!" commented Shazam while doing so.
Normal people or those without superhuman durability would've gotten vaporized by the intense beam, but not Black Adam. The "champion" was merely suffering a large amount of burning pain. As he was being burned by the beam, he mustered his strength to free himself from the chain, and with enough struggling, he eventually succeeded in breaking it.
This allowed the beam to push him back, but he quickly planted his feet against the floor and pushed his hands against the former while slowly taking steps forward. With one hand covered in electricity, he pulled it back for a few seconds before thrusting it into the yellow beam to send forth a blast of electricity that pierced through the center of it until it hit the pagoda and Shou, causing the latter to get zapped.
BZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" the tiger demon screamed in agony at the same time the pagoda stopped firing.
"SHOU!" gasped her comrades.
Shou fell back, but Byakuren quickly caught her by the back before she hit the floor. "Shou! Please be all right!" the magician said to her while using her healing magic, which involved making her hands give off white light, on her.
"Enough of this! I'm going to put an end to all of you now!" said Black Adam angrily.
"You're the one who's going to meet his end!" Shazam angrily said to him.
Black Adam and Shazam dashed at each other, but Unzan's fist suddenly swung into the former from the side and knocked him away. Black Adam came to a stop in a crouched position and saw the nyuudou flying at him, ready to punch him again. The villain attacked with his own punch, which was powerful enough to stop his.
Before they took their fists away from each other, Unzan swung his other hand at Black Adam and caught him. The former then flung him in the direction of Minamitsu, who, with a well-timed swing, knocked him in another direction with her anchor.
SMASH!
He flew in the direction of Shazam, who punched him in the face before pinning him onto the floor. "Time to end this!" Shazam said to him. He raised his arm and was about to yell out that magic word for summoning a lightning bolt when a loud crash was suddenly heard coming from outside, interrupting him.
"Uh? What was that?" asked Nazrin, looking around.
Black Adam used this opportunity to break free from Shazam's grasp and then quickly flew out of the department store. The others, not wanting him to get away, followed him outside. When they all got outside, there was another loud crash, and they've managed to find the source of it in the distance this time.
"What is that?!" Shou asked in shock.
Towering over the buildings in the distance was a gigantic worm-like monster with a pair of scythe-like arms and sharp spines running down the back of its dark green body. When it saw Shazam and the others, it spoke in a loud, echoing voice through its mandibles, "Are you all surprised? Hehehe! This is the power I've obtained from the both of you!"
Hearing this, Shazam and Black Adam were surprised. "You are the worm, are you not?" asked Black Adam. "What is the meaning of this?! Did you not use my powers to locate the wizard?!"
Suddenly, someone dropped down in front of them. It was a muscular man dressed in a yellow tight and a red cape, and his head belonged to Dr. Sivana. "Heeheehee! Behold my new powers!" he said. "I'll have to thank the both of you for this!"
"Dr. Sivana! What happened to you and Mr. Mind?!" asked Shazam.
"We've used the power we took from the both of you to make ourselves like this!" explained Dr. Sivana. "Did you seriously think we're going to use it to locate the wizard when we could use it to power up ourselves instead? Haha! You fell for it!"
"You tricked me!" said Black Adam angrily.
"It was too easy trying to make you fall for this! Looks like even the Wisdom of Zehutti couldn't help you see through our lie!" said Dr. Sivana. "We actually don't know how to locate the wizard, so everything was actually a ruse to trick the both of you into giving fractions of your powers to us! And just so you know, a modification has been made to your powers before we took it into ourselves in order so that the magic word you use for changing back to normal will not work on us! Go ahead and call down the Shazam lightning bolt and see what happens!"
"How dare you lie to me?! You people have no right to take my powers from me and use them on yourselves!" said Black Adam as his fist shook violently. He threw a punch at Dr. Sivana, who managed to catch his fist.
"Hehehe! I'm as strong as you! Maybe even stronger!" the evil scientist said to him. He headbutted Black Adam in the head, punched him in the face multiple times, and then picked him up and hurled him aside. "Haha! I'm totally enjoying this new power!"
The gigantic Mr. Mind plowed through the buildings, making his way closer and closer to Shazam and the girls. "This is the moment I've been waiting for, when everyone is at the mercy of me!" said Mr. Mind in satisfaction while looking at the terrified civilians running for their lives. "All that left to do is to get rid of you, Shazam! After that, the rest of the Justice League shall go down!"
"Like that will happen!" Shazam angrily said to worm. "As long as I'm around, I won't let that happen!"
TO BE CONTINUED
I'm not sure if Byakuren knows healing magic, but I got the idea for her to use it from Saint of the White Lotus, a One Piece/Touhou crossover made by Rolden.
Trivia:
1. Mr. Mind's "powered up" form is based on the one from an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, which in turn is based off his "Hyperfly" form in the comics.
2. Dr. Sivana stole Black Adam's powers in an episode of the same cartoon, but the difference there is that the latter was reverted to his normal form when that happened.