Part XXXII
Voices, harsh and cruel…
Imposter…
Fraud…
They came in whispers, worming into his brain…
Liar…
Fake…
…distant sounds, growing steadily nearer, clearer…
…we're coming back from the break…
…live in twenty seconds and—
"Batson!"
Billy came to himself with a jolt, raising an arm against the blinding glare of studio lights. Straight ahead, camera lenses glinted like unblinking eyes while, behind a glass wall, shadowy figures darted and gestured against a backdrop of glowing panels and screens.
"…the hell is he staring at?" an irascible voice sounded in his ear. "Batson, wake up! You're on in five…four…three…two…"
A young woman with a headset and glowing tablet dashed into the studio and waved her free hand pointedly at a slowly scrolling teleprompter. It took a few blank blinks, but the message finally penetrated the dreamlike disorientation clouding Billy's mind.
I'm in a news station, he realized with some wonder. These people think I'm the news anchor. And the cameras are live right now!
"Oh, uh," he hemmed, startled to hear, not the adolescent voice in his head, but a man's deep tones – to see his own adult hands as he adjusted his business suit's sleeves and tie and turned his eyes to the teleprompter. "Um, yeah… Welcome back," he read. "If you're just joining us, tonight's top story involves another successful LexCorp merger. And here with me to discuss the political implications: LexCorp's founder and head of LexNews, Lex Luthor himself."
Billy's nose scrunched and he read that line again. Noting the reflection in his polished desk, he turned to face the glowing logo emblazoned on the wall behind him. "'LexNews'? For real? I thought that creep was still in supermax after he—"
A tall man broke from the shadows beyond the cameras, the bright lights shining against his smooth head. Striding to the desk, he took a seat and proffered a businesslike hand.
"Holy moley, it is Lex Luthor…" Billy swallowed and reached for the Justice League communicator tucked into his ear.
It wasn't there – just a rubbery earbud and the news producer's tinny voice screaming for him to get it together, to greet the man already…
"Bill." Superman's nemesis spoke through a well-practiced smile, his calculating eyes seeming to peer deep into Billy's soul. Feeling oddly displaced, Billy slowly took the older man's hand, his own eyes darting to the teleprompter - which had gone horrifyingly blank.
"Wait—" He twitched in alarm. "Am I seriously expected to wing this interview or—?
"I find these things go much smoother without a script, don't you?" Luthor gripped Billy's hand and pulled him closer, his thin lips twisting into something eerily like triumph. "It's more real that way – just two old friends sharing a frank conversation with the American public. Let me start by saying how nice it is be back on the show. Now, Bill, what was it you wanted to ask me?"
"What the hell happened out there, Batson!"
The livid news producer slammed her office door – Billy just managed to read her name, Kate Flores, before it closed – and marched to stand behind her desk, her ice-gray eyes crackling.
"I thought you understood," she said accusingly. "I thought I could rely on you! But you were like a green kid out there!"
"The guy kept deflecting my questions with those stupid non-answers," Billy protested, pacing the producer's office carpet from end to end. "I did my best to get him to actually say something meaningful, but I had no notes, no research, no anything! How was I supposed to—"
"What are you, a man or a child?" Flores yelled, waving her arms before slamming her fists down on her desk. Billy flinched reflexively – not from the slam, but her words. Words that set off a shiver down deep in his mind…a chorus of secrets and doubts he couldn't quite recall… "You don't question Lex Luthor on the LexNewsNework!" she shouted. "You certainly don't grill the man!"
Billy blinked and stepped back. "I thought I was supposed to be a reporter—"
"You!" Flores scoffed, throwing her hands in the air as she fell back into her chair. "You're a personality, pal. A talking-point pundit. Just tell me, Batson: what in all creation caused you to pull a career-killer stunt like that?"
Billy frowned. "Lex Luthor is a criminal," he said, moving closer to the desk. "And that 'merger' deal thing he was talking about with that overseas tech company—? Seriously, even I could tell that wasn't about 'creating jobs' like he said. It's him getting to create his own private arsenal without any sort of oversight. Am I supposed to just sit there and let him lie to my face – to the people out there watching – about something that big without even trying to—"
"Good god, you are a child!" The producer buried her face in her palms, then glared up at him. "Listen to me, Batson. A professional – a real, grown-up professional – understands that LNN is Luthor's platform, bought and paid for. He understands that when he signed his multimillion-dollar contract with this platform, he agreed to certain…shall we say unwritten terms."
She leaned in, her frustration evident in every tense muscle. "The hell is going on with you, Batson? If this job is too much for you—"
"No," Billy said, standing straight. "It's just—"
"Then prove it," the producer said coldly. "Show me you can hold up your end out there."
"I will," Billy assured her. "But—"
"'But' is for kids, Batson," she said without looking up from her busy computer screen. "Adults take responsibility. You messed up tonight. Big time. If it were anyone else, you'd already be sacked. As it is, you're walking a knife's edge. It's on you to choose where you stand, before you fall. I have my own problems to deal with." She glared at him. "That's a dismissal, by the way."
The halls outside Flores's office were a blocky maze of glass walls, industrial lighting, and carpeted floors. Framed posters of the network's top rated news shows marked the spaces between the double-rows of offices, their hosts' perfect smiles glinting as he strode past, their airbrushed features blending until—
"Holy moley…"
Billy stopped and stared at a massive, larger-than-life-sized print advertising "The Breakdown, with Bill Batson. #1 in Newsertainment!"
He traced a hand over the face of the man on the poster, then touched his fingers, chilled by the glass frame, to his own cheek, his own square jaw…
"That can't be…me…?"
He peered closer, focusing on the man's eyes. There was something off there. Something chilling. An air of conceit. Even…cruelty…
"No."
Billy stumbled back, his broad shoulder hitting the wall. His reflection in the glass mirrored the monster on the poster and he pushed away, his heart pounding like a fist inside his chest.
There was no mistake. Somehow, some when, he'd become the banal, grinning face of LNN's 'newsertainment' lineup. Worse still…that man – the face on the poster—
He'd known what he was doing when he signed on to Luthor's platform. Taking millions to serve as a friendly front for Lex Luthor and his lies…! Just the thought made Billy's hands clench, his brain seethe…
"This isn't real," he choked out. "I wouldn't… Why would I ever—"
Billy closed his eyes and took a steadying breath, trying to cast his mind back, to recall his life before waking up in the studio.
"This could be a dream," he told himself. "Or an alternate universe, like in the old Star Trek episode where Spock had that stick-on beard! If I could just remember…"
His eyes still closed, he pressed his palms flat against the glass wall, straining to reach through the void where his past should have been, searching for a face, a name…
A sinewy hand grabbed his wrist. Reflexively, Billy pulled back, his eyes flying open to see the glass wall warping, rippling like a pond in a windstorm. He yelped in alarm and pulled harder, but the harder he struggled, the stronger the drag against him became. His big, polished shoes slid against the carpet and he stumbled, the fingers gripping his wrist only tightening as he tumbled head-and-shoulders through the rippling glass into a light too bright for his eyelids to block.
"Wha— Where?"
His adolescent voice cracked and he pressed his free hand to his chest, his face. "I…I'm me again… But…"
He squinted through the blinding light, past the hand on his wrist to a figure shadowed against the light.
"It's you," he realized. "But… But, you died! I saw you! You crumbled to dust right in front of me!"
The Wizard S.H.A.Z.A.M.! released Billy's arm. The light around him faded to a golden glow, but revealed nothing of their surroundings.
"My son." The powerful being spoke with thunderous resonance, looking far younger and stronger than Billy remembered. "I regret I had to leave your mortal plane so abruptly. But you have not been totally alone. Come." He gestured toward a broad flight of stairs and began to climb, the haze of light fading a little more with each step. "We have much to discuss."
To Be Continued...
References Include - Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross; Shazam! (movie); Star Trek:TOS - Mirror, Mirror; Shazam! Vol.1, by Geoff Johns; Shazam! #1-15.
There's more to come, so be sure to stay tuned for updates. Until next time, thanks so much for reading! Please Review! :D
