Okay, so it's been a long time. But I finally got a new computer at my house and I'm finally going to be able to finish writing this story and the others that are still in my head. Anyway, here's my new chapter.

Chapter Seven

Clark had not even realized that Billy had spoken. One minute he had helped the younger man break free of his restraints, and the next he found himself being hurled through the air as if he were made of paper. He slammed his head hard into the invisible wall of the laboratory and slid limply to the floor. He passed out.

He had no idea how long he was out. It could have been a few seconds, or as far as he knew it could have been days. He pulled himself to a sitting position and looked around. The room was quiet. All six of the remaining Lucas clones were lying unconscious on the floor in front of him. Professor Wentworth was nowhere to be seen. And he could see that Billy was not anywhere around either.

"Clark?"

Clark jumped at the sudden sound of a voice in the quiet. He turned and saw a man standing a few feet away. He knew that he had not been there when he had hit the wall. He guessed that he could have entered through one of the portals that Wentworth had opened. He definitely looked like he could have come from another dimension. He was about the same height as himself, but his upper body was nearly double the size of his own. He had muscles on top of muscles. Clark thought that his body looked like the superheroes in the comic books that he used to read as a kid.

His clothes reinforced that idea. He was wearing a skin tight red suit from top to bottom, broken up only by a pair of black shorts. He had a yellow cape flowing from his back and a large yellow lightning bolt was emblazoned across his chest. He reached out with his right hand.

"Are you alright, Clark?" he asked.

"I think so," Clark said. He reached up and took the man's hand and pulled himself to his feet. "Where's Wentworth?"

"He got away," the man said. "He grabbed the key from the computer terminal."

"So he can make another one?" Clark asked.

"Probably," the man replied. "But it'll be tough without this equipment. Plus he's down six clones."



"Four of them are enough to cause damage," Clark said. "Which portal did he go through?"

The man pointed to the one in the middle. Clark had only just realized that it was the only one that was still open.

"That one," he said. "It leads to your world. Lionel Luthor and Professor Hamilton are there as well. The other two went down while I was fighting with the clones. I think I smashed the controls with one of their heads."

"You took down all of them by yourself?" Clark asked.

The man smiled and Clark noticed that it was a shy smile. He reached his hand out to him.

"I know that your name is Clark," he said. "Last name?"

"Kent," Clark said, taking his hand and shaking it. Either the effects of the meteor rocks had not yet worn off or this guy was as strong, if not stronger, than him. "Clark Kent."

"I think I've heard of you," the man said.

"Who are you?" Clark asked.

"Where I come from they call me Captain Marvel," he replied.

"Where did you come from?" Clark asked.

Captain Marvel laughed. "You didn't see?" he asked. Clark shook his head. "Well, I'll show you in a second. But first I think it would behoove us to destroy this unholy creation."

Clark gave the man a second glance, not sure if he heard him correctly. "Do you talk like that all of the time?"

"Talk like what?" Captain Marvel replied.

Clark shook his head. "Never mind."

"Now," Captain Marvel said, "I assume that you're still being ravaged by the green stones that Wentworth used to create this monstrosity?"

"Yeah," Clark said. "I am."

"Then you should go through the portal while I take care of this," he said.

"No," Clark said. "I think that I can…"



Clark did not finish his sentence. Captain Marvel reached out and planted his hand firmly against Clark's chest.

"No offense, Son," he said. "I just don't want to see you get hurt." With that, he gave what probably would have been considered to gentle shove, if the one being shoved happened to be a dinosaur. Clark was lifted into the air and landed in the dust in front of his own barn. He looked back at the hole in the air about five feet off the ground. He could see what he assumed to be Captain Marvel. What he actually saw was a red and yellow streak of light zipping back and forth across the invisible lab. A series of loud smashing sounds and small explosions followed. After a few moments the air was filled with a bright white light and Clark closed his eyes. Even with his eyes shut as tight as he could get them, the light still felt like it was piercing his brain. Then it was quiet.

Clark opened his eyes. The portal was gone. In its place was Captain Marvel.

"That's done," Captain Marvel said. "Now, you wanted to know where I came from. There is only one word that I can use to answer that. Shazam!"

The last word that the man said sounded like it was coming from inside Clark's mind. He felt the world explode around him. When it all settled down, Captain Marvel was gone. In the place that he had been standing was a teenage boy.

"Billy?" Clark asked.

"Billy Batson," the boy replied.

"You're Captain Marvel?"

"Sometimes," Billy said. "When I feel like he's needed."

"How does it happen?" Clark asked. "I mean, it's not like a secret identity or anything. You turned into a completely different person. You aged like twenty years."

"It's a long story, Clark," Billy said. "And I'll tell you all about it. But first, we need to find out what happened to Wentworth."

Clark nodded. "He's got four Kryptonian slaves with him. He could be anywhere."

"He went toward the mountains."

Clark and Billy turned at the sudden sound of another voice. Standing in the doorway of the barn was Lionel Luthor and Professor Hamilton. Both of them had cuts and bruises all over them and their clothes were in rags. Luthor was clutching his arm and Clark suddenly remembered that Wentworth had shot him in his shoulder.

"Are you two alright?" Clark asked.



"I believe so, Clark," Luthor said. "Thank you. I believe you saved our lives…again."

"We're not out of the woods yet," Billy said. "Wentworth took the key that started this whole thing. He can build that array all over again."

"But won't he need us to make it work?" Luthor asked.

"No," Professor Hamilton said. "He only needs a person from each of the three worlds that he's trying to merge. It doesn't have to be the three of you. I'm pretty sure that he was using you because he has some kind of a grudge against each of you."

"Well, he hates every version of me that exists," Luthor said. "And I suppose he knows that Clark or Lucas both have the ability to stop him."

"And he's from my world," Billy said. "I've been trying to catch him for months. I never realized that he had escaped from my dimension."

Clark felt that he owed Luthor and Hamilton an explanation about Billy.

"This is Billy Batson," Clark said. "He…"

"We saw the whole thing from the barn," Luthor said. "Captain Marvel is very impressive."

"Thanks," Billy said shyly.

"Okay," Clark said. "So, Billy and I will head into the mountains and try to find him before he can build another array."

"He can't just build another array, Clark," Hamilton said. "It took me years to build the projector that he used for that one. He'll most likely go to the place where he can find another one like it."

"LuthorCorp," Clark said.

"I believe that will be his ultimate destination." Hamilton said.

"So, we shouldn't follow him into the mountains?" Billy asked.

"He only went there to regroup," Luthor said. "Hamilton's double from this world has a projector at LuthorCorp. Wentworth will try to get to it as quickly as possible."

"Then he'll try to do the whole thing over again," Clark said. "We'll go in a second. Mr. Luthor, can I speak to you?" Luthor nodded and they stepped away from the other two men.

"What is it Clark?" Luthor asked.



"I just wanted to let you know that it happened again. Remember when I told you that when I Lucas was caught in the beam of the projector that we sort of merged?"

"Yes," the other man said, intrigued.

"When I was on that table," Clark said. "It happened again. I took power from him and it saved my life. Lucas is alive. I don't know where he is…but he's alive."

Luthor smiled. "Thank you, Clark. You don't know what that means to me."

Clark smiled and Luthor laid a hand on his shoulder. Then he turned and looked at Billy. "Can you run as fast as I can?"

"I can do you one better, C.K.," the younger man said. He leaped into the air and shouted "Shazam!". Instantly Clark saw Captain Marvel rising into the sky and soaring toward Metropolis.

"Oh," he said to himself. "He can fly."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Clark arrived in front of LuthorCorp about seven minutes later and found Billy sitting comfortably on a bus stop bench a block away.

"What kept you, C.K.?" he asked.

"You can fly," Clark replied.

"That I can," Billy said. "You can't?"

"I have," Clark said. "I don't know. It's a long story."

"I think we have time," Billy said. "Wentworth is nowhere to be seen."

"Well, if that's the case," Clark said. "I'd say that you owe me a story first."

Billy smiled. "You're right." Clark sat down beside him. "When I was twelve I used to spend most of my time taking the bus to the museum in the city where I live. I would spend the whole day looking at the exhibits and then ride home when the place closed. One night I got off the bus about three blocks from the apartment where I lived with my mom when I noticed some weird lights coming from an alley. I was a curious kid, so I went to check them out.

"I followed the alley for what seemed like forever. I didn't realize that along the way it had become a tunnel and that I was walking deeper and deeper into the earth. It had been so dark when I started that I never noticed that a cavern had enveloped me as I walked. I don't know how far I walked. Maybe a mile…maybe five. I don't know.



When I finally got to the end of the path, I saw and old man sitting alone by a fire. I remember that the fire was really weird. It was glowing with all sorts of different colors, and all of those colors were shooting up into the air. He looked at me. I thought that he was going to kill me.

His eyes were burning holes in me. It was like he was looking right through me. He said that I was a curious kid. I couldn't say anything back. I was so scared. He told me that he had chosen me to be his new ambassador. He said that I would gain the powers of all of these ancient heroes every time that I called his name."

"That's the magic word that you use?" Clark asked.

Billy nodded. "I say that word and Captain Marvel takes over. It's me, but at the same time it's somebody else. It's hard to explain."

"I've got a thousand questions to ask you," Clark said.

"I've got about that many for you," Billy replied.

"But we need to get this taken care of first," Clark said. The younger man nodded. "Stay here. I'm going to have a look around inside."

"Alright," Billy said. Clark got up and went into the massive LuthorCorp building. Billy closed his eyes and smiled. It was great to be able to talk to someone about his secret. He had not met many others that shared a similarity like he shared with Clark. He knew right then that he and Clark would be friends for a long time. He still had his eyes closed when he sensed Clark sit down beside him again. "You're back already?"

"Yes," Clark said. Billy looked up and saw the older boy looking off into space.

"What's up, Clark?" Billy asked. Suddenly, Clark grabbed him and held his hand over his mouth like an iron clamp. Billy realized immediately that this was not Clark, and that he could not say the only word that was going to save him.

"Don't say one damned word," a voice said from behind him. Billy knew that it was Wentworth. "Take him upstairs!"

End of chapter seven.

I know that it wasn't the best chapter, but it's a bridge to get the story together. It won't be long until Clark and Lucas are reunited.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Kal-El2k7