A/N
Another part, another.. something. I really need to think of some cool way of making these notes some kind of trademark thing.
Episode XII: Man Vs Child, Part I
The journey into the magically sealed country of Khandaq was interestingly tough even for Justice League standards. The magic preventing outsiders from entering the country is old and powerful, taking Shazam and the other members of the group a great deal of time to finally force their way through, even when the magic is at it's weakest.
Despite all the magical protection surrounding the country, the Flash wonders whether it's even worth protecting as this point from a strategic standpoint.
The buildings are quite frankly ancient and the way they are beginning to crumble and crack casts no illusion as to the age of the country. Being hidden from the world for thousands of years, it should come as no surprise Khandaq has fallen into disrepair, especially since the only one who lives here is Black Adam himself.
From time to time, the Justice League has heard that Adam was allowing people into the country, but as with all those who believe themselves to be above humanity, the enthusiasm most of them entering the magical country with slowly degrades over time as they came to the realisation not all magic is good.
Black Adam is the iron ruler of a country which no inhabitants, which remarkably makes Barry feel somewhat sorry for the villain. There's nothing worse for a pretend God than having no-one to worship them, especially one as arrogant and stubborn as Adam.
For him, it seems as though resurrecting his long-lost love Isis will be the solution to all his problems. He'd no longer have to concern himself with the affairs of lesser beings as his full attention can be brought to his love, which would be an ideal situation for both the League and the Earth if Isis was much more passive. Instead, Isis prefers to bring her home wherever she goes, taking her frustration out on the world who no longer worships her.
Must be rough for someone bestowed with the powers of demi-gods and powerful beings to accept his replacement is simply a child, and to be fair to Adam, when the Flash discovered Billy Batson's true identity, he was just as sceptical as Adam would have been.
Then, the fastest man alive came to the conclusion sometimes having a much younger perspective of the world can be a benefit to the League. Billy is pretty much invulnerable and can duke it out with the best of them, so he's not under much threat of serious injury.
Although, as some members of the League have pointed out, perhaps the founding members were a little too hasty to sweep the truth under the carpet without even investigating fully as to who Billy Batson is. Then again, sometimes decisions are made and it's up to the hero to prove themselves as one, and it's certainly what Shazam has done since joining the League.
"Khandaq is strangely beautiful," Hawkwoman interrupts the Flash's train of thought, stretching out her wings beside him as they observe the palace down below. "It's weird to have something so serene to be corrupted by Adam and his endless obsession with Isis."
"He's Immortal. Certainly has a lot of time to keep on trying," Barry responds, shrugging.
"In the same circumstances, I wouldn't hesitate to attempt the same with Queen Mera," Aquaman inputs his opinion, nodding over to the palace. "Although we cannot allow that foul beast Isis to rise again, it is commendable Adam is determined to be with his love again."
"Time apart makes the love grow stronger - and he's had thousands of years apart from her," Barry agrees somewhat, rubbing his forehead and waiting for Wonder Woman to give the small group their signal to move into the palace.
"He will know we are there the moment we step into the Palace," Hawkwoman states.
"He will," Aquaman replies, continuing to sharpen the trident which is laid across his leg. "It doesn't matter in any case, we must ensure Black Adam is arrested today. No mistakes can be afforded, lest Adam's wrath escape and wreak terror on the world once more."
"Thanks for that," Barry sighs.
"Pressure makes diamonds, Barry, pressure makes diamonds," Aquaman reassures the speedster with his trademark royal charisma. "Although it also breaks things, but at least you heal quick," he adds on, earning him a few chuckles from the two.
"Could've used Hal here," Barry comments, thinking about how the lantern left with Kyle on whatever journey they have planned out. If the tables were turned and it was Wally which had died and came back to life, Barry doesn't believe he would be wrong in saying he would take his nephew back to Earth straight away, but as always there's something else going on with Hal.
The Green Lantern Corp doesn't show its secrets with the Justice League, so whatever Hal keeps quiet about, no-one can really find out. Even Batman has stopped trying to uncover what Hal Jordan does when he goes on official Green Lantern business, so it must mean Barry's best friend has a tricks up his sleeve he hasn't used yet.
"We could have used Superman too, but that's not an option Flash. We have to make do with what we have, and I'm pretty confident we have enough to take one villain down," Hawkwoman answers the Flash, making a point to show him her Nth Metal mace, slapping it a few times on her hand.
On paper it seems as though Black Adam has no chance to resist his arrest with the likes of Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Aquaman facing him down, but as the past has shown, Teth Adam has much more intelligence and cunning than he initially lets on. Having the wisdom of a God tends to turn situations which are certain into uncertain ones.
When the magical flare finally screams into the night sky, it takes the small group a moment to realise it's the signal. However, when they finally do, they all exchange a ready nod and make their way down towards the Royal Palace. For Barry, he's forced to slow down so the others can keep up; after all, nobody wants to run into the palace and face Adam by themselves.
Meeting up with the others at the entrance to the palace, Shazam greets them with, "There should be some more defences inside, Adam is as paranoid as he is arrogant."
"What kind of defences?" Wonder Woman questions, though Billy simply shrugs, presumably not knowing what kinds of magical barriers they are going to face.
"Improvisation it is then," Aquaman states, kicking open the doors to the palace with a single foot. The doors themselves fly off their hinges, crashing to the ground with a crazily loud thump. "Adam certainly knows we are here now," the Atlantean King adds on as he inspects the doors on the floor.
Entering the palace and taking a quick moment to appreciate the solemn beauty of the halls, the Flash ponders on the way these halls would likely have been filled with servants and courtiers, making their way around and enjoying their day in the presence of such ornate grace. Instead, the only sounds resonating through the halls are the heavy boots most of them are wearing.
"Would have been beautiful back in the day," the Flash says, bringing his thoughts to the attention of the group. "Adam just have to ruin everything."
"Not surprising," Shazam answers, "the wizard told me that Adam used to be a slave back in the day. When he got his powers, you took out his frustration on anyone who got in his way - mostly the royal family at the time."
"The slave becomes the enslaver," Wonder Woman quietly comments.
With the swift exchange of words over, the group silently make their way into the palace, keeping a close eye out for anything which could be a trap. However, this proves to be more difficult than first anticipated for the Flash, as he quickly remembers the common rules of ambushes and traps don't apply to magic. Where it's easy to know when something is designed to be a trap, where magic is involved even the most inconspicuous of things could be deadly.
More than once Shazam uses his super-speed to stop some of the members of the group from walking into a magical trap, earning him a few extra brownie points for the journey back home - Green Arrow literally gave Billy a promise that he would receive a brownie for each point he got, which is definitely something Oliver found amusing.
"Here we are folks," Shazam finally states after what seemed as though they had been traversing the dangerous halls for weeks. "Took long didn't it? That's the magic, cool way of discouraging people is to make the halls seem endless. If I wasn't here, you guys would have been walking around for an eternity."
"And you only just told us this now?!" Green Arrow exclaims, astounded.
"I didn't think it was ne.. he's waiting for us guys," Shazam interrupts himself as he points at the door to the palace. "Guess he heard us knocking."
"Let's make sure he heard," Hawkwoman smirks, smashing open the door in front of them with his mace, paving the way for the group to finally enter Adam's inner sanctum. Unsurprisingly, Black Adam is seated calmly on his throne watching over them as they enter the palace, however the group are curious to find Parasite stood patiently next to the villain.
Certainly a pairing which hadn't been analysed in their briefing, but most missions tend to fall into improvisation no matter who is doing all the planning. If the Flash has made one thing clear to himself over the years, it's to always expect villains to cunning and ruin the plans laid out.
"Welcome to Khandaq," Adam graciously greets the group, standing from his throne. "take a moment to splendour in its beauty.. for it will be the last place you see on this Earth," the villain evilly smirks at them, nodding to Parasite. "Khandaq has found new friends."
"There is no Khandaq Adam, just you and your own arrogance," Wonder Woman retorts back, drawing her sword and preparing for combat.
"A lecture in arrogance from an Amazon?" Adam says, shaking his head mockingly.
"Here's another lesson for you," Wonder Woman smiles, "pain."
With that, the Amazon leaps at Adam and the match begins. Although the probabilities of the bout going their way has decreased further, Barry still predicts they have a chance at beating the two together, however the chances will rapidly dwindle if Parasite manages to feed off their powers too much.
Focusing most of his attention on Parasite and letting Wonder Woman, Shazam and Aquaman deal with Adam, the Flash takes the remaining members of the group and begins to run circles around Parasite, looking to buy himself some time to think and some time for other two to act. Green Arrow looses some arrows into Parasite, but even without absorbing some powers the villain takes them as though they were nothing, snapping off the arrows on contact with his skin.
Producing some specially made paper and pen from his suit, Barry quickly jots down some pointers to Hawkwoman and Green Arrow before sticking them onto Hawkwoman's mace and on one of Oliver's arrows.
The battle is mostly a case of avoiding Parasite's grasp for as long as needed to defeat Adam for Hawkwoman, Flash and Green Arrow, each of them coming within millimetres of having their powers - or lack thereof- absorbed and used against them. Wherever Parasite comes close to Barry, just the small sliver of air between them is enough for Barry to feel some of his powers being sucked into Parasite.
It's a horrible feeling, and one Barry promised himself to avoid for as long as possible.
Quite similar to most of other parasites known on Earth, the supervillains does have a limit to how much he can absorb before it becomes too much and quite frankly, Barry wishes to avoid the situation where the villain absorbed a large amount of his powers from him. It took Superman and plenty of other Leaguers to put the villain down then, and they don't have that kind of reinforcements at the moment.
Running as fast as his legs can carry him, Barry zooms past Parasite and attempts to kick the villain in the leg. However, his attempted attacks fails miserably and Parasite finally got the chance he had been waiting for, grabbing the Flash's ankle and consuming a large amount of his powers before Hawkwoman interrupts, smashing his mace into the villain.
She also tries to follow up the attack with another one, but now invigorated with a speedsters powers, the villain casually moves out of the way and smashes into the Thanagarian after building up some speed. Hawkwoman is sent into the ornate walls of the palace and the entire building shakes slightly, gaining them some attention from the heroes battling Adam at the other end of the palace.
Breaking away from their battle, Shazam smashes into Parasite, wrapping his arms around the villain.
"How can I refuse this gift?" Parasite smiles, breaking free from Shazam's grip and wrapping his own arms around the superhero. "Wow! Magic certainly is a specialty of mine," the villain groans, absorbing Shazam's powers.
Unlike Barry when he had some of his powers stolen from Parasite, Shazam appears to only be in slight discomfort from the encounter, wincing at the pain. Barry quickly formulates a plan for taking down Parasite, which kind of relies upon Parasite not knowing.
Taking a gamble, Barry goes as quick as he can and runs up next to Parasite and Shazam.
"He has a limit Billy, so use it," Barry quickly suggests, making sure to try and speak as ridiculously fast as necessary so only Billy's superbrain can comprehend it.
Looking back from Barry to Parasite, a sprinkle of understanding is conveyed on the heroes expression as he realises what Flash wants him to do. Placing his hands onto the arms of Parasite, Shazam begins to funnel as much magically energy into Parasite as he can.
Electricity consumes the two as Parasite begins to laugh. "What a rush!" the villain manages to get through as his eyes fill with greed and hunger.
Soon, the look of ecstasy turns to one of anguish as the effects of the overload come crashing down on Parasite. Struggling to break free from the forced consumption, Shazam grabs a hold of him and prevents him from escaping.
It doesn't take long before Parasite drops to the ground unconscious, allowing Shazam some brief respite before he charges back in to help the others face down Adam.
"I'll be back in a sec," Shazam throws up a peace sign to the Flash as he soars away.
Children playing an adults game, Adam inwardly chuckles to himself as Aquaman and Wonder Woman throw themselves at him time after time with the same result. The combined powers of the Amazon and Atlantean proving no match for Adam's own power and plentiful experience, the villain slowly wears down the two with no effort given on his part.
Endless stamina is certainly one of the traits he inherits from the Gods which has been most helpful over the years and if only he had the patience to go along with it.
The Amazon proves to once more be much more of a threat than anticipated, her sword threatening to break even his invulnerable skin every time it falls down upon him. Still, he must be careful and defensive with the two, lest he ends up further damaging his palace. Still, what was built can be repaired.
When the Light came to him and stated the young team of heroes would likely target him next, he resisted the urge to laugh in their faces. No teenager with superpowers or not would dare come to Khandaq and challenge him, which is more than he can say for the disrespect shown to him by these particular heroes.
No Superman, no Martian Manhunter, and yet they believe then can defeat someone with the powers of the Gods themselves. The only one they have which can even come close to matching him in might is but a young boy who has yet to learn his place.
Speaking of the boy, Adam moves just as he comes smashing into the ground where Adam was fending off the two other heroes, allowing the boy the honour of touching the hallowed ground of the palace around him.
"Did the wizard not teach you of respect?" Adam ask the boy.
"He didn't teach me anything Adam, just to say the word and do what's right."
"I said the word.. and I did what's right," Adam dismissively responds, "and the wizard cast me out for it."
"And now, we are going to cast you out from Khandaq," the boy returns, opening his arms up to show the group who had invaded the palace. "The wizard had high hopes for you Adam and you chose yourself, it that really the good traits of a ruler?"
"Strong, righteous and wise - these are the traits by which I rule Khandaq. You cannot take that which the wizard couldn't boy."
"We'll revisit that statement when after this beating you are about to get."
A/N
Thanks for reading again guys, hope you are enjoying. I will see you in the next one!