Hi everyone! OK, so I thought long and hard and I hope this chapter will address some questions. Next Time: a peek into Freddy's past, inspired by the events of Whiz Comics #25: The Origin of Captain Marvel, Jr. (December 12, 1941)!. :) It looks like Freddy's origin comic came out some five days after Pearl Harbor! Wow. So cool these characters are still developing and getting new comics and movies after, like, eight decades. Talk about living history!

Stay tuned, and thanks so much for reading and for your comments! :D

And now... Meanwhile, at the Rock of Eternity, in the hall outside the throne room…


Part XIV

"Set it up here. Right here," Mr. Mind commanded from a niche in the rocky wall, sharply observing as Kru'll and Herkimer unfolded a sturdy tripod-like stand and attached a bulky, complicated device, like a giant ray gun from a 1950s sci-fi movie. The 'gun' part looked like a bundle of clear tubes enclosed by interlocking metallic coils, all twisting together into a sharp, focused point.

"Aim it at the mirror," said the spectacled worm, wriggling a bit to adjust the power cell he'd strapped around himself like a backpack. A silvery helmet completed the look, bristling all over with tiny diodes and wires no thicker than a hair, and topped by what looked like a miniature rotating satellite dish. "No – no, right at the center. There. And be careful, you fumbling fools! Don't break it!"

Kru'll snarled under his spiked helmet, and the Crocodile Man bared his impressive teeth. But, they backed off with a growling hiss when Mr. Mind's helmet began to glow.

"That's right, you muscle-bound malefactors," the worm scoffed. "You'd better mind me, or I may just turn my mind against you."

The monsters glared, muttering darkly as they slunk into the torchlight's flickering shadows to stand with Ibac.

Mister Atom released a tinny snicker. The giant robot stood at his own workstation, where he operated an elaborate computer console busy with holographic monitor screens and glowing touchpads.

"And what are you laughing at, you radioactive rust-bucket?" Mind demanded.

"You," Atom spoke in an electronic voice that seemed surprisingly high for so massive a being. "Your mental powers might scare the rest of these meat-brained lugs, but I'm a machine. Not to mention the genius who devised, not only the means to turn your maniacal scheme into mechanical reality, but also the mechanized simulacrums of Ibac and Sivana that currently inhabit their cells! In short, worm, you need me. So, get with the program, and mind how you talk."

"What the robot said goes double for me, Mind!" Dr. Sivana snarled, glaring from behind the stack of ancient leather-bound books he'd pulled from the wizard's library. "I'm not some hired henchman you can order around. I possess one of the greatest intellects the Earth has ever produced! You want my skills, my knowledge of Earth's history and cultural lore? You show me and my talents the proper respect."

"So, it's respect you want, Doctor," Mind sneered, his helmet glowing a deep red as he turned his focus on the human. Sivana winced and cringed back in his stony chair, raising his arm like a shield against the mental onslaught.

"Arrogant ape!" the worm snapped. "Don't forget where I found that great intellect of yours! Languishing in a concrete cell!" He turned to face the rest of the grumbling group, his spectacled gaze piercing them one by one.

"Still," he said. "Mr. Atom and Dr. Sivana do make a point. I did choose to recruit each of you monstrous louts because of your individual talents. Talents that, working alone, can only take you so far along the path to ultimate power. But, combine your skills, your drive, with the cunning of my guiding mind—!" He grinned, his insectoid mandibles clicking together. "The collective might of our Society of Evil will be unstoppable. Together, we are certain to achieve what none of us could accomplish alone! The ultimate destruction of the Wizard's legacy, and his hapless human heirs!"

Ibac and Kru'll cheered and clapped. Sivana, Herkimer and Atom shared a long, dark look, but joined the applause.

"Now," Mr. Mind said. "If we aim to control the thrones – to seize the powers of the so-called 'Shazam Family' and corrupt them to our purpose – we all have our tasks to perform! Tasks that could well come to nothing if you, Sivana, cannot fulfill your promise and decipher the incantation we require to fill that seventh throne! Now, get back to work. All of you!"

The worm's helmet stopped glowing and Sivana started to stand, his pale face twisted into a scowl.

"Later, Doctor," a low voice whispered, and he felt a clawed, scaly hand on his shoulder, pressing him back into his chair. "The little worm isss right about one thing," the Crocodile Man hissed, his long jaws snapping far too close to Sivana's ear. "We do need hisss mental powers. For now…"

"Mister Atom!" Mind shrilled through his tinny amplifier. "I'm ready to begin! Activate the device!"

The ray gun-looking machine powered up with a satisfying hum, its transparent tubes glowing, shifting colors from yellow to green to blue, then purple, then red.

The little worm cackled, his jaws clacking in glee.

"We've learned the loyalty binding the Shazam Family is not vulnerable to direct attack," he said musingly. "But, like the Earth worms that bore through seashells to ingest the soft creatures within, we must latch on and drill with persistence until we penetrate these children's minds! Now, where to start…where to start…"

The powerful being focused his mind on the mirror, watching as the reflected images shifted from the Rock's rough walls to the various rooms of the Vasquez home…homing in on the six children playing video games and cheering each other on. As he turned his gaze from Darla to Pedro to Eugene to Mary to Freddy, the ray gun pulsed and shifted color...purple, green, yellow, red, blue...

"Yes…that's it…!" Mind coaxed eagerly, each of the children's laughing faces appearing on one of Mister Atom's monitor screens as the worm focused in deeper, deeper... "Show me your secrets. Peel back the layers of time and turmoil, and reveal your nightmare fears…"

"Where's their ringleader? Why don't I see Batson on one of those screens!" Sivana demanded, frowning at the incomplete set. "You can't overlook that cocky cheese!"

"Patience, Doctor!" Mind admonished. "Don't confuse the bait with the main catch! The Champion's mind will be ours in time. But if he is to be made truly vulnerable to our attack, it is first up to us to break his will. Now, I require silence. Go back to your own work, and let me concentrate on mine!"


Billy and Eugene had been battling neck and neck, but a timely power-up had given Eugene just the edge he needed to win.

"Yes!" Eugene crowed, raising his controller over his head in victory. "Undefeated!"

Billy groaned theatrically and launched himself back onto the crowded sofa, taking up all the space as he sprawled his arms in a dramatic death throw. Laughing and shrieking, his squashed siblings showed no sympathy, shoving him off their laps onto the floor.

"Ow! OK, OK, you got me!" Billy snickered, climbing up to find himself a place on the sofa.

"Hey, watch the horseplay in there! I don't want to have to make a run to the emergency room!" Rosa called from the kitchen, where she and Victor were preparing their Sunday dinner.

"Sorry!" the kids called back, only laughing more.

It was the family's custom to eat their big meal in the middle of the day on Sundays, leaving the evening open for football and movies (or homework). The savory smells of roasting chicken, vegetables, and Darla's tofurky made Billy hope the food would be ready before he had to head to Las Vegas.

Speaking of… He still hadn't managed to talk with Freddy alone, or come up with an excuse good enough to keep Rosa and Victor from getting worried or suspicions…

He sighed and hung his head a little. Before Rosa and Victor, he hadn't believed grown-ups like them existed in real life. He hated having to lie to them—after all, how dope would it be to be able to tell your folks that, not only had you been picked for the Justice League, you'd spent the morning racing Superman around the frikkin' moon!

But, no. They'd only freak out. Besides, in his experience, telling important secrets to 'trusted adults' could only wreck things. Like back when he was ten, and that traitor of a social worker had forced him to abandon old Talky…

"My turn!" Darla cried, diving for the controller Billy had left on the coffee table. "I want to go next!"

"You think you have what it takes to challenge Shazam Thunder!" Eugene said in his best fake-deep voice.

"Just watch me!" Darla shot back.

"Wait, Eugene," Mary said, "I thought Freddy called next."

All eyes turned to Freddy who, up until then, had been laughing and goofing with the rest of them. Now he gave a sharp start, his expression distant and a little confused.

"Huh?" he said, bringing a hand to his forehead. "Sorry…what was the question?"

"Dude, you OK?" Billy asked.

"Yeah…" Freddy shook his head, then shook it again and reached for his crutch. "Weird. I think I might be getting a headache. You guys keep playing. I'm gonna go upstairs for a minute."

"You sure?" Eugene said. "'Cause I'll let you have the controller if you want to—"

"No, it's OK," Freddy said, already heading up the stairs. "I think my eyes just need a break from all those flashes on the screen. Call me when it's dinner!"

"Will do," Eugene said, and started to turn back to the game, only to wince and rub his forehead. "Ooh, whoa. I just felt really dizzy."

"Me too," said Mary, looking nauseous, and Pedro and Darla groaned and nodded.

"I don't feel anything," Billy said.

Mary squinted at the bright, shifting colors on the screen. "Maybe we have been playing this thing too long," she said. She reached for the remote to turn it off and, for once, Eugene didn't protest. "Sorry guys. I think I'm going to lie down too."

"I'll go too," Darla said, and Eugene and Pedro got up to follow them.

Billy stared after them in bewildered concern. "Seriously? You're all going?"

"It's probably eye strain or something," Mary said. "I just need to close my eyes for a minute."

"You want me to tell Rosa—" Billy started, but Pedro and Eugene waved him off.

"No, don't bother," they said. "It's no big deal."

But Billy wasn't convinced. As his siblings shuffled upstairs to their rooms, he stood and stared at his reflection in the darkened screen, then turned his gaze to the decorative mirror on the wall.

A strange tingle began to itch at the back of his mind…similar to the odd pulling sensation he'd felt as Shazam, up on the Watchtower, but not nearly as strong. Slowly, he moved toward the mirror, staring past his reflection deep, deep into the glass…


Mister Mind yelped and squirmed out of his blinking helmet. A pair of fierce, glaring eyes appeared in the mirror – yellow, like the eyes of a great cat. One by one, the glaring image replaced the faces of each of the Shazam kids filling Mister Atom's monitor screens. Then, the eyes faded away, leaving the screens, and the mirror, empty and dark.

"What just happened?" Sivana demanded, getting up from his research to frown at the blank screens. "What was that?"

Mind scowled. "A warning," he snarled angrily. "A mental shield of sorts, implanted long ago in the mind of that Batson brat."

"Implanted…?" Sivana repeated. "Implanted by whom? What are you talking about, you worthless worm?"

Mind turned to face him. "It would seem another being has beaten me to the Champion's mind," the worm said irritably. "Beaten the Wizard too, I'd wager. But, no matter. The shield is old and beginning to fray or else the Wizard's searching spell would never have found the foul boy. Besides, I have what I need. Atom?" he prompted.

"My drill has done its work," the giant robot confirmed in his electronic voice. "I have the patterns and frequencies I required. When we're ready, these underdeveloped human brains will be receptive to your suggestions."

Mind turned a fierce grin on Dr. Sivana.

"You see, Doctor," he said. "There's no cause for doubt or alarm. The trap is set, the bait prepared. We need but wait for our quarry to come to us. And, they will come. Magic's Champion must return to the Source."

"Yeah!" Ibac said, coming up behind the smaller man and thumping him on the back. "And, when we spring this trap, those cheeses that stuck me in jail will have no choice but to cave to our demands!"

Kru'll and Herkimer grinned wickedly, the flickering torchlight making their cruel eyes seem to glow as they and the rest of the Monster Society joined together in a long and malevolent laugh.

To Be Continued...


References include - Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil, by Jeff Smith; Shazam! (1981): Mr. Atom, The Smasher and The Incredible Sinking City; Batman The Brave and the Bold: The Malicious Mr. Mind, Menace from the Conquering Caveman!; Justice, by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger; Shazam! (movie); Shazam! Volume 1, by Geoff Johns; Shazam! #2: Shazam! and the Seven Magic Lands!, by Geoff Johns. *Note: Many boring 'worms' are really mollusks.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know what you think! :D