MY JSA - pt. 8

"I still had a hold on one of his arms. I gave it a tug, sending his chin sprawling into the ground between us.  I pushed my other arm up through the topsoil and clutched for the headband.  I got a hold of his hair.  He grabbed me back, and tried to pin me underground.  The dirt and rock was caving in all around, and he might have had the leverage to hold me there until I drowned in dirt -- if the power of Zeus didn’t give me the ability to fly.  I took off like a rocket, holding Magnificus and about 100 pounds of packed earth with us into the air.

I flung Magnificus to the ground from about 40 feet up, counting on his great strength to protect

him.  He hit the ground hard at an angle and slid until he’d dug a ditch in the ground.  He looked bruised, but was already pulling himself up.  With the speed of Mercury I swooped down at him, caught his headband in my hands, yanked it off his head, and crushed it flat.  He suddenly looked like he was waking from a nap.

“’Capt. Marvel...?” he said, confused. ‘What’s going on?’

“’You were helping your father, and it...went to your head.’

Capt. Marvel’s smile beamed at the room like a Cheshire cat.  Batman and Hawkman groaned, while Ibis and Skyman just shook their heads.

“Cap,” the Flash said, “you’ve got the sense of humor of a little kid.”

Everyone smiled at that, though Scotty didn’t get the joke.

“Don’t you tell me you guys don’t joke and banter with your adversaries,” Capt Marvel said, still smiling.  “You have to.  It’s how you stay sane while you’re facing down so much evil in the world.”

“We know,” Superman agreed.  “But what did you do next with the Sivanas?”

“I was willing to bet that Beautia hadn’t got around to calling the police like I’d asked her to, so I wasn’t all that surprised when we went back to the secret basement and found both her and her father had flown the coop.  ‘That wasn’t very bright,’ I said outloud. ‘It shouldn’t take me long to track them down wherever they went.’  

“But Magnificus laid a hand on my shoulder. ‘Don’t make me fight you again,’ he said.’

“’You know you’d lose,’ I warned.

“’I know.  But you’d have to beat me to a pulp to stop me from stopping you.’

 “’Your father killed a man, and has killed before.’

“’And he’s still our father.  Give us some time to try and rehabilitate him, while he’s still recovering.  If his mind is still warped by the time his body heals, then my sister and I will turn him over to you.’

“I know it was wrong, and maybe I should have had my head examined, but I did let them go.  I haven’t heard from the Sivana family yet.  Of course...this was just a month ago..."

“If Captain Marvel is done with his tale,” Ibis the Invincible began, “then listen now to mine.  Or better yet, observe...” Ibis waved his hands over the table and a purple, sparkling mist sprang up from his plate.  The mist rose up, split in two, and then proceeded to float through the air in twin arcs until they had joined at the top of a large circle.  The air within the circle seemed hazy at first, but when it cleared, a scene other than the hotel room was visible through it.  It was a dark city street, and a lone man was walking past some manner of fancy municipal building with a row of statues.  When the man passed the last statue in the row, the statue’s head slowly turned to follow.  Then an evil leer crossed the statues face as it stepped off the platform and descended the wall.

The image in the circle of smoke faded, and Ibis spoke. “It was three months ago in the American city of Philadelphia that the scene you just witnessed took place.  I was there with my beloved, Talia, to see a dealer in Egyptian antiquities.  It did not take me long to sense the presence of a great evil steeped in powerful magic.  Excusing myself to Talia, I set out to search for the source of this evil.

Another image appeared in the circle of smoke.  This time, it showed Ibis levitating over the city, holding his Ibis-Stick aloft before him.  “There were concealing spells in place that would have caused the divinations of a lesser sorcerer to fail, but focusing upon the mighty powers of the

Ibis-Stick, I was able to track the source of the evil as if I were using a modern-day Geiger counter to track radiation.  Soon, I stood before the downtown art museum, bedecked in pillars and statuary like a Roman temple.  The concealing spells made pinpointing the problem difficult, so I decided to bide my time by taking a museum tour.

“My tour guide had curly blonde hair and an accent that was difficult for even me to place, though it sounded vaguely eastern European.  ‘The museum is 80 years old,’ he said, in answer to my question, ‘but many items in our exhibits are far older than that.’

“’Are any parts of the building older than the rest?’ I asked.  Though my questions taxed our guide’s memory, and the patience of my fellow tourists, I felt they were leading me in the right direction.

“’It’s true that the original building has been expanded, but the oldest parts of the museum would be the statues over the main entrance.  They came from a Sumerian temple excavated 25 years ago, but the statues date back nearly 3,000 years.’

“Having heard enough, I departed from the tour, stood outside the main entrance, and looked up at the statuary.  The old stone figures were vaguely abstract, lacking the knowledge of anatomy the Greek masters would later discern.  Still, one could tell that they were carved to appear to be holding up the roof above them, and their faces gave the impression of pain -- save one, which wore a maniacal grin.  I cast a simple levitation spell so that I might rise to the statues’ level. Once I was floating face-to-face with the grinning statue, I lifted the Ibis-Stick and intoned, ‘By the power of the Ibis-Stick I command this spirit of ancient Sumeria to reveal itself.’

“And so it did.  "The stone statue began to move, as fluidly as if it had been flesh and bone.  And then it spoke, saying, 'Ah, I began to fear there were no wizards left in this world, but at last one has been drawn to my power.  Serve me.  Serve me and live.  Serve me well, and be rewarded.'

"I was eager to put this being in its place immediately, but I needed to know more about its purposes.  So I said, 'How would I serve you?'

"'The world has changed much in the 600 years since I last awakened, and I even find myself with a different hemisphere to conquer this time.  I will need mortals to advise me in what best to ask for tribute from the kingdoms of this age.'

"'Then you will receive no help from me, beast. I am Ibis the Invincible, and there is no corner of this world where I would allow you to hold sway.'

"The statues' eyes grew wide as saucers and its mouth hung agape for a moment before its face recovered its menacing glare and wicked grin.  'I am OOM,' it said, 'and by the time I am through, you will find invincibility is an appellation best bestowed upon ME!'

“The beast gestured with a grasping hand as it whispered words both ancient and lyrical under its breath. I could then feel my own Ibis-Stick shuddering in my hand – Oom was trying to wrench it from my grip!  I countered with words of my own, and for Oom the roof beneath its feet seemed to shake and the world spun out from underneath it. Oom tumbled off the ledge and was falling towards the pavement below when it caught itself with a second spell and began floating back up towards me.

“’You play your hand too soon, mortal, for I see now that you are no novice to be bested with a single spell.  The Mind-Quake is an old-favorite of mine, which I often used to make whole towns flee from imagined earthquakes!’  Though the beast appeared to be speaking to me, I knew that this was but telepathic projection masked by a glamer to appear audible. All the while, the stone-like man-beast was speaking words of power to invoke new spells against me.

“To shake its confidence, I mimicked the same trick. ‘Are you to defeat me with smoke and mirrors?’  I appeared to say, while I weaved my own spells.

“’No – by fire and death!’  Oom raised its arms high, and giant fiery claws appeared in the air above it. As it swung its arms, so too did the flame-wreathed hands mimic the gesture, and came flying at me.  The fingers sought to snatch me between them.  As the fiery claws reached to envelop me, I countered with another spell.  From out of the bottomless well of power my Ibis-stick commands I summoned forth a sphere of breathable water that hung in the air around me. The fiery claws groped at me to no effect other than releasing a great cloud of steam and diminishing the size of the fire hands.

"With Oom invisible to me at the moment from all the steam, I took a moment to cast another spell to protect myself.  Just as I finished, I heard Oom hissing behind my ear.  I swung the Ibis-stick at him and spoke a word of power that charged my rod with the explosive power of dynamite. I smote the beast in the ribs just as it stood posed with its hands held over its head to deliver a crushing blow to me. The force of the blow sent us both hurtling away from each other. Oom was -- impressively -- nearly as quick to recover as I did.

"'I give you this one, final chance to surrender, Oom,' I told him.

"The stony man-beast glared at me hatefully and shouted, 'Now you think ME a novice, magician!  I can see the aura about you, and know it will deflect whatever spell I next cast.  But I also see your weakness, for I can read in you that you are moved by conscience to do good and protect others.'  Then it bellowed a horrible laugh as it began to grow in size.  As it continued to roar, it doubled in size and continued to grow.

"I knew the potency of the foe I faced, and I could spare no effort to remove us farther from the streets of Philadelphia, if I was to prevent destruction and loss of life as our battle continued.  As Oom drew magical energy into itself to increase its mass, I spoke words of enchantment into the air before me, and conjured a great, fiery meteor.  My meteor struck out at astonishing speed, approaching Oom from beneath him. Oom had tripled in size by the time my meteor struck, but it still had the strength to carry Oom farther up into the atmosphere before slowing.

"After quickly strengthening the wards and protections upon my person, mainly to allow me to breathe unaided in the thin upper atmosphere, the Ibis-stick whisked me skyward to re-join my death duel with Oom.  Oom had broken the meteor into fragments and was eating some of them when I arrived.

"'This body of enchanted stone can absorb any magical stone into it,' Oom proudly explained.  'I look forward to plucking the gem from your turban - which I can see is magical - upon the moment of your demise.'

"'That will not happen,' I said, as I waved the Ibis-stick, causing waves of ice to crash down on Oom.  Oom countered with a gesture that caused spears dripping with acid to appear above me and rain down.  I swung and scattered the spears heading straightest for me, but several spears tore and burned my cape and coat.  Oom followed up quickly by summoning a ball of magical energy that floated near me.  I knew the spell to be a trap, meant to explode if I cast a spell near it.  I flew straight over it, and it followed.  Oom was waiting with his fists clenched, waiting to pound me as I drew nearer.

"But just before I reached Oom, I cast a spell of intangibility over myself, and passed right through him.  The ball of energy that pursued me stayed on its course, and struck Oom's outstretched arms as he raised them to protect himself.  There was a terrible explosion that sent Oom flying.  As I pursued him, I could see him looking with shock at the long cracks in his stone arms and hands.

"Oom began to rage with horrible fury.

MY JSA - pt. 7

“I suppose I could have leapt off that edge immediately and tried to save him, but to be honest the thought didn’t cross my mind.  I had Shiera to look for, anyway.  I was frantic at first, not knowing where she had run off to.  I leaped into the air and soared up around the mouth of the volcano, finally spotting her on the outer slope below.  She had somehow scaled down the sheer top without incident, but now that she was on a less dangerous slope she had been attacked by one of Mochtar’s guards who must have fled earlier.  She was hurling rocks at him to slow his attack, but he was slowly gaining ground.  Before he cleared three more paces, though, I had pounced on him and struck him down.  On a whim, I removed his hood.

“’The man from the states!’ Shiera exclaimed, recognizing her would-be assassin.  ‘Hawk, the volcano is going to erupt soon.  Should we try to save these men?’

“’Krakatoa is claiming those men who violated her.  It’s not our place to interfere,’ I consoled her.  And with that, I scooped Shiera up into my arms, took to the air, and flew us back to safety.

“Now, do I get to eat before my steak gets colder?” Hawkman asked.  Most everyone chuckled.

“It’s going to be so hard to follow up all these great stories,” Captain Marvel said, “but I’ll do my best!  I knew from the start that, if I was going to tell about my most exciting adventure, it would come down to choosing between my run-ins with Sivana.  But there was this one time, not that long ago, that I had an encounter in which I didn’t know which member of the Sivana family was the danger!

“It was one night last summer, and I had been invited along on a Boy Scouts camping trip -- not as Captain Marvel -- but as plain ol’ Billy.  We had just made smores, and were sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories.  There was a loud crash out in the woods that scared the willies out of all the kids.  I told them to sit tight while I volunteered to go investigate.  I grabbed a flashlight, and crept off into the dark woods to see what had caused it.

“What I came across was almost too horrible to describe.  It was a giant man, at least nine feet tall, but his skin was stretched out much larger, and hung off his body like sacks.  The giant stumbled forward blindly, trampled through a bush, and then tripped and fell.  The horrible thing just lay there wriggling -- almost more like a worm than a man -- before it stopped moving all together.

“I’d only needed to see a few seconds of that before I’d said my magic word and transformed into Captain Marvel.  But there was nothing even Captain Marvel could do, because the man-monster was dead.  And as much as I wanted to investigate, the wisdom of Solomon told me to protect the Boy Scouts by getting them out of the woods as fast as possible without alarming them unduly.  I returned to the camp as I was, and was welcomed with cheers by the boys.  I told them a bit of a fib, saying that I was searching the woods for a rare and valuable owl, and that I needed them to go home so they didn’t scare it off.  After explaining that I’d already sent Billy back to Fawcett City, the kids all agreed to pack up and come back with me.

“The next day I returned to the woods to look for the body, but it was nowhere to be found. I found the spot where it had been, and the area looked swept clean.  I had certain powers at my disposal I tried to use to divine what had happened.  Calling on the power of Zeus and the wisdom of Solomon combined, I used postcognition to sweep the last few hours for clues.  Nothing. I decided to look for clues the old-fashioned way and tried to find the direction the monster had come from the previous night.  Using the speed of Mercury, it took no time at all to find the broken bush and other signs of its passing.  Since the creature had been sightless, and ignored any obstacles in its path, I was hoping that it had traveled in pretty much of a straight line.  My guess seemed to be panning out, but I had only followed the trail a mile farther away from the city when I came across my second strange encounter.  A giant rat, maybe four feet long, was scurrying towards me!  Not wanting to fisticuff with oversized vermin, I pulled a big branch off the nearest tree, waited for it to get close enough, and then swung that branch like a golf club straight into it.  That rat went flying!  And just as it did, a humungous cat nearly as tall at the shoulder as me came bounding out of the woods and chased after it.

“The cat and mouse I could follow backwards through time with postcognition.  As they walked back through time, I eventually saw them backing to an old, Victorian-style house sitting alone in the woods -- the kind that just naturally looks spooky and haunted.  I returned my sight to the present so I could examine the house.  It was old and in disrepair, but it wasn’t boarded up.

The front steps creaked under my weight as I ascended to the porch, so I floated the rest of the way to the front door in case the wood was rotted.  The door was unlocked, and creaked open for me.  The living room inside was small but well-furnished.  The curio cabinet in the corner was full of small antiques, and the vases and rugs in the room all looked expensive.

“’Is someone there?’ a familiar female voice called out.  Suddenly, a gorgeous blonde in a red housedress stepped into the room from the hallway.

“’Beautia Sivana,’ I said, recognizing her immediately.  I crossed my arms and braced myself for whatever trap her father had in store for me.

“’Captain Marvel, what a surprise!  What brings you out this way?’

“’Oh, I was just playing a little cat and mouse...’

Beautia had to think about it for a few seconds, but then she smiled and nodded.  ‘Oh yes,’ she said.  ‘Father didn’t leave us much when he...died, but he did leave us Whiskers and Ratty. Please, have a seat!’ she added, waving at the couch.

“I walked closer to the couch without sitting down.  Beautia plopped down on the couch anyway. ‘Whiskers and Ratty weren’t the only giants I saw, and one of them is dead.  Now you tell me your father is dead.  How is that possible?’

“’It was the blow to his head after our last encounter.  He couldn’t recover from it, and his condition deteriorated until he...slipped away in the night.’

“’I’m sorry for your loss,’ I said honestly, though I couldn’t bring myself to shed a tear for the old terror.  “Could someone else be using your father’s inventions?’

“’No, that’s not possible!’ she said innocently.  ‘There’s only the two of us staying here.’

“’Two...?’

“’That’s right,’ said Magnificus Sivana. The burly, brunette strongman stepped into the room, wearing an ordinary shirt and slacks in addition to his usual white headband.  ‘With Father gone, we’re only staying here long enough to plan how we can restart our lives.  But you probably don’t believe us.  Why not take a look around?’

“I accepted the generous offer of a guided tour, but asked to start with their father’s laboratory.

Magnificus nodded, went out into the hallway, and pulled the arm on a suit of armor.  A secret door slid open, revealing a staircase going down.  I followed Magnificus, with Beautia behind me.  The lab was full of what will undoubtedly pass for state-of-the-art technology 30 years from now.  I couldn’t even tell what some of it was for at just a glance.  What I could tell was that everything was turned off, but nothing was very dusty.  And, on the other side of an open doorway, I could see the glow of an electric light flickering.  Curious, I moved towards the doorway.  Magnificus tried to warn me not to bother with that room, which made me VERY curious.  But, as soon as I stepped into the doorway, electricity arced across the doorway from a dozen points and coursed through my body.  My whole body went both numb and rigid.

“’I did warn you, didn’t I?’ Magnificus said.  ‘But you never did listen, you big red cheese!’

“The room in front of me looked like a tomb, and the flickering light was placed over what looked like a glass coffin with the elder Sivana inside it.  But when Magnificus called me that, it was with the evil sneering voice that could only belong to his father.  I tried to speak, and could only sputter out, ‘Sivana, how?’

“’I suppose you’re trying hard to grasp it all, circus reject.  Let me make it easy on your limited mental capacity.  And you’re a captive audience anyway, thanks to my electro-paralysis field. Anyway, after our last encounter--’

“’...Boulder...on...your...head!’

 “’Yes, yes, after my mysterious death in our last encounter--’

“’...Crushed...your...head!’

“’Fine, fine!  Yes, it was a bit of a setback, but nothing that science couldn’t lick!  Now stop interrupting, or I’ll set the field to maximum intensity.  They’ll be picking bits of you out of their wine glasses in France after that.  Of course, I plan to do that anyway, but not until after I’ve had a proper chance to gloat.  Now, where was I?  Oh yes.  My loyal children brought me back here and used one of my inventions that makes the subconscious mind audible. I was then able to instruct them in how to construct a machine that would revive me, but I knew it would take time. And let me tell you, it’s pretty dull laying around in a coma for weeks.  So I tricked Magnificus into building me something else.  The poor sap thought he was putting circuitry in his headband that would allow us to communicate telepathically. What it did was jam his own thoughts while receiving my own, broadcast to him from my handsomely restored noggin over there.’

“’Giants.... Scheme to...take over...world?’

“’Now I’m really insulted.  If I was trying to conquer the world, it would be conquered by now. I’m just making giant monsters as a side hobby.’

“’That’s all I needed to hear, Sivana,’ I said, as I swung my hand back into Magnificus’ face.  I stepped through the field and turned around to face him with my hands on my hips.

“’What? How?’ he sputtered out of his son’s mouth.

“’Easy -- I was never affected at all.  The invulnerability of Achilles protected me from your paralysis rays.  I just wanted to know what I’d stumbled upon before I shut it down.’

“’Oh, yoouuuu...’ Sivana fumed, while I reached into the wall and tore out the ray-projecting arch he had built around the doorframe.  I looped the arch around Magnificus, and twisted it tight around him to bind his arms.

“’That ought to hold you,’ I said.  Beautia was still in the basement, but wisely standing in the far corner like a fox trying not to get spotted by the hunter.  ‘Beautia,’ I called to her, ‘will you call the police, or do I have to do the honors?’

“’The police?’ she said so naively I was prepared to believe it.  ‘But father hasn’t really done anything wrong this time.’

“’There was a man who died in the woods last night after being the victim of your father’s growth experiments.’  Turning to Magnificus, I added, ‘Do you want to tell me who he was before I take that headband apart you’re using to talk to me through, Sivana?’

“’Oh, just some idle hobo I was lucky to lure here.  You see, I was really experimenting with increasing a person’s mass and strength without affecting size.  The hobo was a failed test run. When I tried it on Magnificus here next, though, it worked just fine....’ And with that, Magnificus flexed his muscles and shredded the metal band I had wrapped around him. ‘Now, we’ll so how well the strength of Hercules fares against -- oof!’

“Just then, I’d belted him in the chops. Magnificus staggered a little, but looked unharmed.  I had to pull my punches for Magnificus’ sake, but it looked like I couldn’t pull them too much. ‘Beautia,’ I appealed to her again, ‘if you want to help your brother, see if you can figure out how to turn off this headband from your father’s end!’  I was wrestling with Magnificus now, as he tried to stop my hands from reaching the headband controlling him.  I was still stronger, a lot stronger, and that was what made it so difficult.  I had to fight back without breaking his arms! And then, while I was busy gauging my strength, he threw himself backwards, and we both tumbled head over heels through the wall of the basement.  Magnificus came out on top, above ground, while I had plowed a small crater into the earth beneath him.