Part XXV
The cruel, disembodied laughter echoing around the shadowed hall made Shazam feel deeply unsettled but, more than that, it sparked real anger. Standing tall, he set his jaw and cast his firmest glare at Dr. Sivana and the leering Monsters gathering between the Leaguers and the force field that sparkled around the Thrones, separating him from his kidnapped siblings.
"Enough of this, Sivana," Shazam snapped, his deep voice cutting through Mind's tinny giggles like a crack of thunder. "I want some explanations. Who the hell is 'Mister Mind'? And what have you and these creeps done to my Family!"
Sivana stepped forward, the Eye of Sin glowing icy blue in his pale, scarred face.
"Ha! You really do have no idea," he sneered, aiming his strange gun at Shazam's chest. "Some 'Champion.' The Wizard didn't tell you much, did he, boy."
"He didn't have a chance, thanks to you," Tawny retorted. "I know you were the one who attacked the Wizard, weakening him just before the end. That means you're the one responsible for setting Mind free! Where's he hiding, Sivana? That wily worm wouldn't slink too far from the seat of power!"
"Worm?" Mary wrinkled her nose. "Please tell me that's a metaphor."
"I'm afraid not," Tawny said. "His real name is impossible to pronounce, at least for non-insectoid beings, but he's what's known as a Hyperfly. A creature that feeds on spacetime, literally eating holes in the fabric of reality."
"So, like a multiverse version of those moths that got into my old costume trunk," Zatanna joked, dryly.
Batman grunted, his keen eyes fixed on the Monsters looming before them. "Sounds like the kind of threat that Wizard might have thought to mention when he chose his heir."
"Perhaps he would have. If he'd had more time. As it was…" Tawny growled, baring his teeth as his dark glare sharpened. "Mind nearly succeeded once before, you know. Long ago. With his powers of thought control and his ravenous appetite, that perfidious worm grew to become one of the most formidable, and the most diabolical, fiends the old Council ever faced. Hungering to control and consume Magic's Source, Mind gathered a Monster Society of Evil to destroy the Council, pitting them against each other so he could feed unhindered. But the Wizard set a trap, sealing that horrible Hyperfly in a pocket dimension where time ran backwards. There he was to remain, growing steadily younger until, finally, he would disappear altogether. Thoroughly erased from time and space."
"I'm sorry, but that sounds like a terrible fate," Mary said. "Even for a reality-eating Hyperfly. It's no wonder he'd want to escape. But, if time, for him, was running backwards, how did he possibly manage it?"
"Francesca told me when Sivana initially returned here to confront the Wizard and steal the Eye of Sin, the ensuing fight caused the bell jar containing Mind's pocket dimension to shatter, returning him to our reality, and our flow of time," Tawny said. "But I warn you now, his threat is not to be taken lightly. Mind's powers of thought control and manipulation can cross dimensions. You all must—"
"Enough talk," Sivana snapped, aiming his gun over their heads and firing a warning shot. The Leaguers were forced to duck as a blinding burst of energy lashed across the hall and coalesced against the rocky wall, forming a bubble that hung there like a glistening dew drop.
"Hee hee! So that's what this thing does!" the villain cackled, turning his weapon toward each Leaguer in turn. "Let's see what happens with a human trial!"
"Drop the weapon, Sivana," Batman warned, a sharpened batarang gleaming against his dark glove.
Sivana scoffed. "Cute toy, Bat-boob. Am I supposed to feel afraid?" He barked a laugh, then tilted his head, considering. "Although… Yes, perhaps the direct approach would be more fun!"
Tucking his gun behind his back, he held out his hand, sending an arc of energy flashing from his open palm toward Batman's heart at about 3,700 miles per second. Batman dove immediately, but Shazam moved faster, sweeping the older man out of harm's way while the bolt left a scorched, glassy pattern on the rock where Batman had been.
"It's OK, Batman," Shazam said. "I gotcha!"
"The hell—!" Batman snarled and glared daggers at the laughing Monsters crowding the dais. "Damn magic…"
"As you can see," Sivana gloated, shooting more bolts at Mary, Zatanna and Tawny, "when you have powers of your own, you don't need to rely on gadgets!"
"Holy moley!" Shazam gasped, rushing to grab Tawny while Mary flew Zatanna to safety.
Spreading both hands, Sivana took aim at Mary and Shazam, but the two siblings didn't hesitate to fire back. Three beams of magical lightning met and clashed, growing brighter the harder they concentrated. Working together, Shazam and Mary pushed the blinding energy arcs closer and closer to Sivana's face until the villain's focus broke and he found himself blasted against the shimmering force field.
The screaming man writhed and twitched and finally fell to his hands and knees, breathing hard as he turned his burning glare on his foes.
"You'll pay for that," he spat, climbing unsteadily to his feet. "You and that insufferable cheese tray you call a Family!"
Mary marched forward, electricity still dancing between her fingers, crackling in her fierce eyes as she demanded, "What do you want, Sivana? What's this all about?"
"Why, what else but power, girl!" Herkimer answered, his scaly tail swaying as he straightened his elegant suit. "The power of Eternity this…" he sneered toothily at Shazam, "man-child was meant to 'champion'."
"And what a fantastic job he's been doing," Ibac scorned, the muscular brute's smug glare fixed firmly on Shazam as he spoke, "leaving the Rock unguarded for weeks at a time. Hiding behind the real heroes of the Justice League instead of stepping up and facing his responsibilities like a man!" He laughed and Sivana, Kru'll and Herkimer joined in. "Admit it, kid. You're not ready to bear the burden of wielding the Champion's mantle."
"That's not true!" Mary exclaimed and started forward, but Tawny held her back, glancing sharply from Zatanna to Batman before pointedly meeting Shazam's gaze.
"This is all a distraction," he whispered darkly, gesturing to the Monsters, the force field, and the dangling hostages. "They're not out to fight, but to stall. Something else is going on here. Something deeper."
"I agree," Batman grunted under his breath. "Keep them talking. I'm going to look for the real Mind behind all this."
"Batman—" Shazam started, but the Dark Knight shot him a small smirk, four smoke bombs tucked between his fingers. A flick of his wrist, and Batman was gone, vanished in a curtain of blue-gray smoke that had the Monsters choking and coughing as they fought to bat the clouds away.
"Why don't you give it up," Tawny called to them, facing the fiends with cold, cat-green eyes. "You stand at the intersection of all Magic – the central seam where every universe meets! Not one of you can hope to control such forces. They can only consume you, as they have all the arrogant fools who've tried this coup before."
Sivana threw his head back in a cackle that seemed to fracture and split. When he spoke, it was like a chorus of voices spoke with him, through him, his features warping and smoking as the seven Sins that possessed him jostled to assert control.
"This is no coup," they hissed through Sivana's throat, the Eye crackling and glowing a brilliant white, "but a rightful transfer of power! The Wizard is dead, his Name passed to a pathetic human child, too ignorant to comprehend the importance of all he's been given."
Shazam frowned. Tawny gave his arm a supportive squeeze.
"You underestimate the Champion, and the Wizard if you think he would choose a successor unworthy of his Name," Tawny said staunchly.
"And yet, old S.H.A.Z.A.M.! banished you from his side," the Sins whispered cruelly. "A traitor. A demon of smokeless flame, like all those who inhabit the World of the Unseen! Why cling to an ancient order that died with the last of the Council? You'd do better joining us!"
"What's he talking about?" Shazam asked, but Tawny shook his head.
"Stand down," he ordered sharply. "Surrender now or face destruction."
"You heard the Doc," Ibac said, pounding his ham-sized fist into his palm. "We're takin' over. Step aside, old man, or you can get pounded too!"
Kru'll and Herkimer roared their approval, but Tawny didn't seem to be listening. Glaring at Sivana and the Sins within him, he pulled away from Shazam's protective hand, baring his teeth with a growl.
"Old man?" he repeated angrily. "Old man! I am not a man. I am not a demon, nor did I ever truly betray the Wizard's trust. I am an ifrit of the Jinn and I have free will – the same power to choose between good and ill that humans so clumsily wield. But, unlike humans, I can do this!"
In front of the startled eyes of the Monsters and the Leaguers, the skinny old man in the battered clothes and baseball cap transformed into a tiger and pounced. Sivana barely managed a shriek before he found himself knocked to the ground beneath a sleek, roaring blur of claws and teeth, his Suspendium gun flying from his belt to skitter across the rough floor.
"Holy moley!" Shazam exclaimed, completely awed by his old friend's transformation. Looking back to Mary and Zatanna, he cried, "Let's go!"
Racing forward, Shazam rammed himself at Herkimer shoulder first in a football-like body-slam. The winded monster went down with a coughing yelp and Shazam flew at Kru'll, dodging the brute's deadly, swinging ax to land a heavy knock-out punch on his rough, bearded jaw.
Ibac blinked in confusion and started to lumber toward the fight, only to find his way blocked by Mary and Zatanna. The muscular giant laughed, breaking out in a leering grin that gave both women the creeps.
"Hey, pretty lady," he said to Mary. "I remember you. But, who's your pal?" His cruel eyes roved up and down Zatanna's costume. "Love the tux. What's she supposed to be?"
"Zatanna is one of Earth's greatest magicians," Mary told him. "Zatanna, this is… I'm sorry," she said, looking up at Ibac, "what was your name again?"
"They call me IBAC!" the monster crowed, only to realize— "Oh no…!"
The moment he uttered his name, a plume of fire and brimstone billowed up around him. Less than a moment later, the burly brute stood in his true form: an awkward, gangly old crook swaying and blinking in slack-jawed disorientation behind his wire-rimmed glasses.
"Oooh," he moaned. "Better make that Stanley Printwhistle…"
"Pleased to meet you, Mr. Printwhistle," Mary said politely. "Zatanna?"
"Kaeps ton a drow!" the magician intoned, and Printwhistle coughed, suddenly unable to utter a sound, let alone transform back into Ibac.
"Whoa, great job," Shazam said, looking from the helpless Printwhistle back to the unconscious forms of Kru'll and Herkimer. "I think—"
"Captain!" Tawny roared as he struggled to keep Sivana pinned to the ground, clouds of gritty smoke whirling and pluming beneath his paws as the Sins began to manifest around him.
"Billy, quick, grab the Eye!" Mary exclaimed. "Before those demon things get out!"
"I'm on it," Shazam said, already dashing to help Tawny. "Mary, Zatanna, do what you can to secure the rest of these creeps. We need to find a way to get rid of this force field!"
To Be Continued…
References Include - Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil, by Jeff Smith; Justice League: Action; Batman: The Brave and the Bold; Shazam! (1981); The Complete Original Monster Society of Evil; The Shazam! Archives, Vol. 1-4; Shazam! The World's Mightiest Mortal, Vol. 1-2; Shazam! (movie); Shazam! Volume 1, by Geoff Johns; Shazam #1-13. I adapted and made up much of Mind's backstory with the Council and the pocket dimension prison that made him grow younger.
Sorry for taking so long with the updates, lots of stuff going on, but this fight isn't over and the next bit is coming soon. Thanks so much for reading and for your reviews! Stay tuned, and please let me know what you think! :D
