LXXVII
The Final Round
Teth Adam held the false god in the air, revealing to the world the pathetic challenger who had dared to face him. This would end now. The champion of lightning drew back his fist - readying it for the killing blow - and smiling viciously, slammed it into face of Scott Free in a blur of speed.
A blow that should have removed the new god's head from his neck… which only served to jolt him. That cursed magic suit! Adam seized the black spot upon Mister Miracle's shoulder where the lightning had struck and tore. Scott Free's eyes popped open while his hands latched onto Adam's head and squeezed. The new god was still alive.
Scott thanked the Highfather that mother box still had enough left in her to absorb that last blow. By force of will alone, he had metabolized the last remnants of sarin from his system as Black Adam had hit him with a fist-sized locomotive. The reverse kinetic field was dangerously close to malfunction… His mother box circuitry couldn't take much more.
Adam was attempting to rip the suit from Scott, and had managed to tear a swatch from his shoulder and chest. Scott was attempting to push his thumbs into the champion's black eyes with no success. This had devolved into primal mortal combat. Instead, the new god screamed as he felt Adam's fingers pushing into the flesh below his left shoulder, scraping against his rib. His will sought to push those fingers out.
"Shall I present the Lady Barda with your heart, false god? Your parting gift?" Adam was no longer the calm, cocky man he had been. There was an madness to him now.
"Say it." Scott knew he had one chance left to live. Everything he had, he focused on one word.
"Say what, coward?"
"Say the word, Adam… Shazam!"
The desert sands whipped into winds around the two combatants, swirling like a hurricane sounding a hush… SSSHHHH… pleading with Adam to join the chaotic chorus of the maelstrom. Thunder suddenly crashed across the black skies, the sound of KKKZZZMMM echoed throughout the heavens.
"Not…before…I rip out….your…heart!"
Scott felt one of his ribs break as Adam jammed his fingers deeper into him. The pain did not matter any more as his mind broke into calculations he swore he would never use...
"SAY IT!"
"…Never!" The strain was now heavy in his voice.
Above the two champions, gods mankind had long forgotten gazed in wonder and terror at the red stranger who stood at the gate of the world. The soul barrier was opening to this demon and his army of monsters. The gods stood transfixed, knowing the great disaster foretold from the beginning of time was upon the mortals who had deserted them. It was too late for intervention now.
A dimension below, a being they acknowledged as the god of freedom was locked in mortal combat with their corrupted champion. Teth Adam had rebelled against their ways. An old man in white robes suddenly appeared before them. His beard was long and white, a being as old as mankind. The jackal-headed god gazed at the wizard as he spoke to them.
"Weigh the weary heart of Shazam, ancient one. There was once a time when it was as heavy as Teth Adam's evil heart, but age has lightened it. As I seek to right the wrongs I have done, grant Adam the boon once granted me by the first wizard. Let Adam choose the path of Shazam if he is willing."
Anubis held the old wizard in his gaze and nodded. The path of the champion need not end on his scale. Wizards created champions and champions could succeed wizards, but only if the old wizard was willing to traverse the path of the dead. The sacrifice need only be made to allow Adam to carry on the old man's role.
The wizard Shazam and the gods of Egypt turned their gaze once more down the sands of battle. Their stare filtering through the souls of the dead in the skies above Kahndaq, each whispering the word… Shazam. Past a blue bolt who hurtled back to earth, who also said the word, not understanding what had compelled him to do so, only knowing that he must say it.
As the god of freedom and free will, Scott was also cursed with its antithesis… the anti-life equation1. All components ran through his mind, calculating the destruction of the free will of sentient beings. Gods of free will were also gods of subservience.
Adams crushed the remaining ribs over his heart, invading fingers forced their way past his lung to the beating organ below. In an epiphany of pain, the equation finally completed in Scott's mind. With all his remaining breath, he screamed one last time…
"SAY IT!"
"…Shazam."
It was only a whisper. Eyes of black venom cursed the new god with their glare.
A massive bolt of lightning flashed alongside a streaking Clark, thunder rattled his descent. He had caught sight of Scott and Adam as he soared through the storm clouds crowding the skies above the two titans. A mere second away, the man of steel watched as the lightning struck Black Adam, with Scott Free held too close to escape its charge.
A blinding light and they were gone.. and then Mister Miracle lay on the burnt sand fifteen feet away, thrown from the lightning strike. Where they had stood only a second ago, an ancient pile of bones remained. Clark landed beside the fallen god.
"Scott?! Are you OK?" Clark felt ridiculous asking this. Mister Miracle's costume was shred to tatters, steam rising from his body. Through a gaping wound in his chest, he could see the new god's still-beating heart.
"…Barda?" It was almost an inaudible whisper.
"I'll get her."
Like a bolt of blue, he took to the skies again. He wasn't even sure how Scott was alive, let alone able to talk. Within seconds, he snatched the fabled warrior woman of Apokolips, and reversed direction, taking her back to the Earth to her gravely injured husband.
"Where is Adam?! I will tear him apart for this!"
"Those are his bones, Barda. Scott beat him… I arrived one second after the battle."
"Scott Free… you stupid fool. You stupid fool…" Barda fell to her knees beside the only man she had ever loved. The tears flowed freely now as the warrior's hand gently brushed his cheek. "Don't you dare die. I swear I'll kill you if you do."
With reverence, Barda took her mother box and placed it upon the mangled flesh and bone of her husband's chest. It began to heal him, but how could it heal that? She saw that his own mother box was dead… His bright costume disintegrating into pieces of fabric that blew across the desert sands, leaving the remnants of the man it had given its life to.
"Will it heal him?" Clark stood behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't know… He's barely alive."
"What can I do? Does your mother box need power?"
"It will… Scott built an electrical outlet into it, but I don't think there's an extension cord long enough… We can't move him."
"I'll get one. Stay with him, Barda"
The last son of Krypton flew towards the camp sites near the temple of Hadrha when he suddenly noticed something. It was quiet. There were no voices, no movement of men, even a lack of breathing from the encampment. Had they fled?
As he approached, he saw the true reason. Everyone was dead. Judging from the state of their bodies, it had happened very recently. Had Adam done something? Had Scott? Clark would have to solve the mystery later.
He spotted what he had been searching for… a portable generator which was still running. Picking up the generator and cord, he carefully flew back to where Barda remained with her husband. Following Barda's direction, he plugged in the mother box.
"I should have stayed with him... I'm so sorry, Scott… I should have been here with you…" The tall woman wiped the tears from her eyes.
"He's the toughest guy I've ever met... He'll pull through, Barda. I'll carry an entire hospital to this spot if I have to…"
"…Raven Wayne." Something clicked in Barda. She stared intensely at Clark.
"I'm sorry, I don't know that hospital…"
"Bruce Wayne's wife, Raven. She can transport people across space and dimensions as easily as you would walk to the other side of the room. That's what he said. She can bring him to a hospital, to anywhere... You have to find her!"
"Where?"
"Gotham Towers… There was a funeral… Go!"
For half a mile, Barda watched as grains of sand fell back to the desert floor along Clark's flight path, a sonic boom dissipating in the distance. She hadn't even seen him leave.
1. Created by Jack Kirby, the Anti-Life Equation is a formula to subvert the will of all sentient beings. It is called the Anti-Life Equation because "if someone possesses absolute control over you - you're not really alive."
Author's Note:
You've caught up to me. I won't be able to maintain this once a day posting schedule but I will aim for twice per week