Part XXXIII
"Holy moley…!" Billy breathed, staring up and around at the maze of intricate arches that surrounded them. Each arch interlocked with the next to create a towering ceiling, the shapes and patterns they formed appearing to morph as he walked past like a vast, dancing kaleidoscope. "This place… It's like if the Rock of Eternity had a shadow, only it's made of light!"
He turned his gaze to the Wizard, his awe cooling to a wary chill as he asked, "So, is this where you've been since…? I mean, are you, uh… Are we both—?
S.H.A.Z.A.M.! let loose with a startlingly robust laugh. "This is not the afterlife!" he chortled. "Or rather, not your concept of it. Merely another plane – albeit far closer to the Source than your own mortal realm."
"And…that other place? The LexNewsNetwork…?" Billy cringed as he recalled the nightmarish world the Wizard had pulled him from. "I always dreamed of becoming a TV news reporter when I grew up. But seeing myself in that studio…getting paid to polish Lex Luthor's image instead of exposing his crimes, the danger he poses to…everything…! Was that another plane too? Like…like an alternate reality, or some warped future? Or…or was it...?"
Billy choked on the awful thought, unable to finish his question. The Wizard paused his stride, noting the teen's deep discomfort.
"That was not Hell, just as this is not Heaven," the Wizard promised him. "It was Mind's influence you experienced. The malevolent miscreant created a scenario to make you question yourself. To distrust your very core. And, though you may have felt shaken, you did not cave to Mind's will. You battled his hallucination, denied him access to your truest self. And, more."
Billy scrunched his forehead. "More?"
"You called on me," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! said, drawing himself up. "At the Rock of Eternity, when your enemies were closing in, you put your trust in my name, even though you had no cause to believe I could come to your aid. It was your belief, son, that brought me to you."
Placing a strong hand on Billy's shoulder, S.H.A.Z.A.M.! regarded the boy with a fondness that softened his stern, bearded features in such a fatherly way, Billy felt the childlike impulse to slam into the Wizard's ribs and squeeze him tight. So he did…his eyes filling with unexpected tears when the Wizard returned the hug.
"I'm sorry, son," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! spoke with raw sincerity. "I placed this burden on your shoulders with no warning…no time to prepare you for the threats you were to face…"
"I can handle it," Billy said, pulling back enough to wipe his face on the sleeve of his hoodie.
"That, I do not doubt," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! assured him, his dark eyes warm with pride. "You have achieved precisely what I hoped you would: establishing a strong team of Guardians founded in Family and grounded by a child's uncorrupted sense of Justice."
Billy winced a little. "I don't know about that 'uncorrupted' stuff… And, I'm not a child. Really. I'm almost fifteen."
The ancient Wizard laughed again, guiding Billy further up the glowing stairway and into a vast, gleaming Hall. "You will be a fine man, my son. In good time. At this moment, there is a more immediate challenge to overcome."
Taking an energetic lead, the Wizard strode through the grand Hall toward what looked to Billy like a crystal pier, jutting into a sea of golden mist. The pier ended in a circular deck surrounded by evenly spaced pillars, their tops (if they had any) obscured by the glowing haze.
S.H.A.Z.A.M.! stopped short at the center of the deck and began to turn full circle, his long robes swirling dramatically as he raised his arm. The mist between the pillars cleared, each space seeming to open to a different landscape.
"Behold!" the Wizard invited, gesturing for Billy to stand by his side. "Here, we may observe the Monster Society's mayhem as it unfolds across a multiverse of worlds! First, your own solar system."
He guided Billy closer to what looked like a view of deep space. Placing his hand against a smooth crystal pillar, Billy leaned in, straining to figure out what in that vast starscape the Wizard wanted him to see…
A vibrant green glow, at first barely visible against the starlight, was rocketing rapidly nearer. Outlined by the glow, Billy could make out two figures: the tense, determined forms of Green Lantern and Superman. Behind them, tethered by the green light, Green Lantern hauled a large, bubble-like sphere. A sphere that contained—
"Holy moley – is that me!"
"Your mortal form," The Wizard confirmed somberly.
"My—!" Billy gasped, his heart seeming to hitch in his chest as he stared from Superman's grim face to his own motionless teenage shape. "Then Superman knows I'm… No, no!" He spun accusingly on the Wizard. "But you said—! You told me I'm not dead!"
"You are not. Only your thoughts are here with me. We are conversing mind-to-mind. A form of magical telepathy, if you will," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! explained, his somber calm a striking contrast to Billy's growing agitation. "The wicked Sivana encased your physical body in unbreakable Suspendium. Your noble friends have devised a plan to free you, but at a daunting and terrible risk."
He stepped closer, expanding the view to reveal the anxious heroes' fiery destination.
"I assure you," the Wizard said, his voice rumbling low in his throat. "What you are seeing is very real."
"Just what a hallucination would say…" Billy grumbled, only to realize: "Wait… Is that the sun!" he exclaimed. "They're flying me into the sun?"
"Suspendium is impervious to magic and all but indestructible to earthly means. The heat of a star, however, may be enough to melt it."
"May be?" Billy frowned. "You don't know?"
"I know it is possible your earthly body may not survive the extraction," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! grimly admitted. "Should that be the case, I can make it so your conscious spirit remains safely here, with me. If you are successfully freed, however, you will be returned to your mortal form to continue your important work as Guardian of the Earthlands."
Billy gawped. "So, either they melt me out, or I fry and spend eternity here as what? A ghost?"
"Be calm and follow me." The Wizard pulled Billy away from the pillar, cutting off his protests with gentle, yet insistent, firmness. "Your friends have quite a distance to go yet, and you have much to see. Look here."
"Wait! You seriously expect me to— Mary?" Billy stopped struggling against the Wizard's grip and leaned against the next pillar, staring wide-eyed at the fantastical landscape beyond. Everything - the rocks, the trees and grasses, even the sky - was tinted red, making Mary's emerald green coach stand out like a Christmas tree in the desert. She sat in the deceptively delicate-looking coach with two other girls and a little black dog Billy could almost swear he recognized - especially when he realized it wasn't a real horse, but a wooden sawhorse pulling the coach across the rocky terrain at a startling speed, wobbling from side to side on its stiff wooden legs like a puppet without any strings.
"Where is that?" Billy demanded, his head swimming at the impossibility of what he was seeing. "Where is she?"
"It's known as the Wozenderlands," the Wizard informed him, the strange word sending Billy's mind back to Vegas, and the bizarre Oz/Wonderland hybrid game that had captivated Mary's attention. "Your sister is traveling through Quadling Country, in search of the good witch Glinda."
"Sure, OK." Billy shook his head. "Superman and Green Lantern are about to toss me into the sun, Mary's in Oz with Dorothy and Toto, and somehow, that's not even close to the weirdest thing that's happened today." He glanced up at the Wizard. "Can you tell me why my sister's in the Wozenderlands? And why the place looks like it's been ripped apart by a laser gun?"
"It was your sister herself who caused the damage you see," the Wizard told him. "That, and much more. But, she is not entirely to blame."
"Mr. Mind," Billy realized, clenching his fists as he watched the emerald carriage creak and judder past deep, scorched ditches and piles of ruined rock that may once have been Quadling homes. "He got to her through that game, didn't he? Back in Vegas. He got to us all."
He ground his teeth, leaning back against the smooth pillar with a frustrated sigh.
"What'll happen when those Oz people discover Mary caused all that damage?" he demanded.
The Wizard stroked his beard, ruffled by the breeze off the Quadling cliffs. "That is for your sister to sort out," he said, striding to the next pillar before Billy could react. "It is for each Guardian to prove themselves to the world they've been assigned to guard. You have made a good start with your Earth. Now that the Magic Lands have been unsealed, your siblings have been called upon to do the same."
"I don't understand," Billy said. "Mary and the others only became superheroes because I shared your powers with them. We never heard of these Magic Lands until—"
"Listen to me, my boy," the Wizard said, drawing back to the center of the pier so Billy could get a full view of the various landscapes and scenes playing out between the pillars: Freddy riding a roller coaster in what seemed to be a giant amusement park, a taller kid with a crown and a mad gleam in his eyes grinning dangerously in the seat beside him; Eugene ducking and dodging his way through a cityscape that looked like something out of the ultimate immersive video game; Pedro chasing a zombie horde through a midnight cemetery; Darla crouched high in a tree, hugging a koala joey close while an anthropomorphic wolf prowled the verdant ground below…
"The Magic Lands must be protected," S.H.A.Z.A.M.! declared, his arms wide. "To achieve this, each Guardian must forge a bond – a bond of trust and belief with those they are called to protect. Without trust, there is no belief, and without belief, Magic has no hold."
The Wizard stepped closer to Billy, his dark eyes cracking with power.
"Just as you, as protector of the Earthlands, are supported by a pantheon of gods, kings and heroes," he said, "so each of your siblings has been given the chance to attract a pantheon of their own. If they prove successful defending the lands to which they have been assigned, your siblings will no longer draw their powers from you. Rather, each Guardian will have charge of their own world and their own set of powers. And we shall have a Council again!"
"Council?" Billy furrowed his brow, staring from Mary to Freddy, Pedro to Eugene, his eyes finally landing on Darla. The terror on their faces was palpable, but so was something deeper. Some protective drive feeding a determination Billy had watched grow and develop in each of them over the months since he'd gained his powers. Even so…
"You do know Darla's, like, seven," he said warily, remembering Tawky Tawny and all the ifrit had risked to shield him when he was young. "Do you really think she and Eugene should—"
"Enough time has been wasted!" the Wizard roared, the golden mist above them roiling with the sudden threat of thunder. "If Mind and his monstrous minions are not stopped, nothing of your reality will be left to protect! Now go, my Captain!"
A gust of wind slammed Billy backwards and he stumbled despite himself, resisting the force dragging him toward his own mortal plane with everything he had.
"Promise me," he managed to shout, straining against the swelling tempest. "Promise you'll protect my team!"
"I promise I shall watch them, as I have watched you," the Wizard spoke over the wind. "But I cannot directly interfere. The dangers they face are as real as yours. And if your siblings do prevail, they will not be the same when they return."
Billy tried to protest, but the swirling gale stole his breath, carrying him off the gleaming pier.
He came to with a heaving gasp, encompassed by a bright green glow. Reaching a hand toward the staticky light, he shouted, "SHAZAM!"
Blinding lightning streaked and flashed, the surge of electricity filling his body with the power, strength and stamina of the gods.
"Bill?" Superman's wary voice sounded in his ear.
"Cap! Hey, he's alive!" Green Lantern's voice followed, sounding far more jubilant. "Melting him out with the heat of the sun itself... Man, I still can't believe that worked!"
Shazam opened his eyes to see Green Lantern and Superman share a victorious fist-bump in outer space, their colorful uniforms limned by the nearly overpowering light of the sun.
Tapping his earpiece to activate it, he said, "Thanks for the rescue, guys. For a moment, there, I really thought I was a goner."
"Can you tell us what happened?" Superman asked, his expression unsettlingly suspicious.
"It was Mind," Shazam hedged, not quite ready to question whether his experience had been real or imagined, or discuss the confused, angry muddle of emotions his meeting with the Wizard had provoked in him. "He trapped me in one of his malicious nightmares. But that's not the real problem. Mind and his Monsters are after the Magic Lands. If we don't get to him, fast, he'll latch onto the fabric of reality like a tick, and it'll be all but impossible to pry him off!"
"Any suggestions?" Green Lantern asked.
"Let's head back to the Watchtower," Shazam said, swiftly leading the way. "I think I have an idea!"
To Be Continued...
References Include: Shazam! (movie); Shazam! Volume 1 and Shazam! and the Seven Magic Lands by Geoff Johns; Shazam: Power of Hope by Paul Dini; Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam; Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith.
Happy New Year, everyone! There's more to come, so please stay tuned. Thanks so much for reading and for your continued patience with me and my stories. Your thoughts, comments and reviews are always welcome! :)
P.S. If you'd like to sneak a peak at some of the original stories, comics, and a few of the recent/pending publications keeping me from regularly updating my fanfics, feel free to check out my website! Until next time, thanks again for reading! :D
