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withamagicwordFlashes and pieces from a Battle, Moments in a war...thoughts in a first person sense...
Facing the Spectre, the Spirit of God's Vengeance given form... a Spirit gone mad, obsessed with destroying all Magic. A spirit I must face and stop. A spirit far more powerful than me.
I never realized how very powerful he was, or how little I had seen, experienced, until now. Suddenly, I feel like a Little Leaguer drawn into the Major League games. It's all i can do to keep on my feet, and battle the pain flooding through me.
He roars, and his voice makes my ears bleed, sound echoing in my soul. I wish I knew what to do, but all I can do is fight. He wants to destroy all magic, end it all. I am one of the last powers standing against him. I might be the last, save the Wizard.
*"GIVE UP, CAPTAIN MARVEL, AND LET ME TAKE YOU WITHOUT FURTHER STRUGGLE."
*"Never!"
*"YOUR FATE IS ALREADY WRITTEN, SO THINK OF THE INNOCENTS. THEY'RE SO FRAGILE. THE SOONER YOU YIELD, THE LESS LIKELY THAT MORE OF THEM WILL DIE AS AN INDIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF OUR BATTLE."
For a moment, I almost falter. Gods! I am so very tired. I wish I could lay it all down. But then, in my mind, images flash of Mary and Freddie, and the others who Spectre will be after next, if I fail them. And somewhere deep within me, the words form and burst out, like a fireball.
*"I cant! You need to be stopped! No matter the cost!"
*"YOU'RE FILLED WITH SO MUCH RAW, WILD MAGIC! I HAD NO IDEA! IT MAY TAKE AWHILE TO COOK IT ENTIRELY OUT OF YOU. PITY THOSE WHO MUST FALL TO US IN THE PROCESS."
***
Time passes. I'm not sure how much. Seconds? Days? Years? But the battle rages on. I feel like I am losing every second, but somehow, somehow, every second I am still standing, still fighting. Every part of me is aflame, my body feels like it is in shambles and burning and freezing all at the same time, like needles are pressing within me and hands are tearing me apart every second. I am bruised and battered, feeling like my insides will fall out any second, but I am still standing against the Spectre!
There is a small part of me that tries to feel pride at that, but I know that it is chance, and luck, and sheer stubbornness that keeps me going. The power of Shazam, of Captain Marvel, feels like it is almost exhausted, but I keep going. I only hope it is enough. The next blast catches me off-guard, and I fall backwards, flame licking at me as the Spectre's voice roars out again.
*"YOU'VE FOUGHT WELL, MARVEL, BUT THE OUTCOME HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN!"
I shiver under the impact of his words. I want to stay down, but I draw myself up again.
*"HOW MANY MORE INNOCENTS NEED TO PERISH BEFORE YOU YIELD TO YOUR FATE? LET'S END THIS."
Now that? That I cannot let go. This being has lain waste to everything around us in a mad attempt to end Evil by ending magic. And he wants to put it all on me? By all that is, I wont let that go! My voice feels like I am dragging it out over hot coals as I speak, sounding like a frog's croak that somehow echoes around us.
*"Those innocent lives are on your head, not mine! We'll end this, Spectre, when you're standing over my body, or I'm standing over yours. Or when you give up this madness!"
Brave words from me, one eye swollen completely shut, blood trying to blind the other one, barely able to stand. I cant believe the lines coming out of me, or out of Captain Marvel, and I cant feel where Cap's power and form ends and I begin right now. It feels like the whole things is tearing apart around me. I don't know if I want to laugh or cry at them.
The battle rages on...
***
Suddenly, without warning, power floods into me, power like nothing I have ever felt before, power that lifts me and raises me, filling me with magic, and life and hope. I feels thousands... no, Millions, of lives and powers connected to me suddenly, all knowing the last stand may be here, all giving of themselves for this chance, this hope against all hope, to stop the Spectre.
And I grin suddenly. No pressure there, right? Just the fate of the world in my hands... again.
But this time, I can sense it is more than one world, it is the whole of the dimensions and worlds linked to this one, all of them somehow strained taut at this event.
Gods and demons, heroes and villains send their power to me... and not just them.
*All over the world, otherwise normal people have small, almost residual traces of magical energy they never knew they had. Just enough hidden power to affect their ordinary lives in small ordinary ways. The man who never realized that the lights always turn green just as he gets to the intersection pitches in. The woman who never spills her coffee, or burns her eggs pitches in. The girl who sometimes feels as if her dolls can really talk to her pitches in. Along with so many others. All that power flowing into Me, Captain Marvel.*
I know in that instant I cannot afford to let them down. With the power burning inside me, and my size growing, surging with strength, I fly forward, slamming into Spectre like a load of super-powered bricks, and he falls back for the first time, clearly shocked.
*"I BEAT YOU! YOU WERE NEARLY DRAINED! HOW?"
I charge, attacking Spectre, and the spirit falls backward, his face showing shock and his form battered by the power of my blows.
*"I don't know, ghost! Maybe a benevolent universe has finally had enough of you!"
***
Just as suddenly as it came, I can feel the power cut off again, but am swollen with the power that has already flown into me, so many different kinds of magic that I never even knew existed! I keep at Spectre, trying hard to push him back, stop him, before this power in me gives out as well.
"You're almost gone, Spectre, Almost drained. want to give up now?"
Yeah, I know, brave words, right? But I have to hope, to believe. This Captain Marvel half of me, seems to have more faith in hope than anything I ever knew as Billy, even more faith than me... which is weird.
"NO. MINE ISN'T THE SORT OF MISSION ONE CAN SET ASIDE, NO MATTER THE DURESS. AND I AM FAR FROM DONE, CAPTAIN MARVEL. HAS IT ESCAPED YOUR NOTICE THAT YOU'RE SHRINKING TOO? RAPIDLY? YOU'RE NEARLY AS DRAINED OF MAGIC AS I AM."
I stagger, realizing he is telling the truth, but I throw myself back at him. I can't give up! I can't!
"WORSE YET, YOU ARE EXHAUSTED FROM WIELDING POWERS YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO HOLD. WHEREAS I'M LONG ACCLIMATED TO ALL IT'S BREADTH AND FORMS."
And his next blow sends me shooting through the air and into a ton of debris. Debris made up of much of what was left of downtown Budapest, I think. Inside me, I quail at how very many lives are lost, and at the cost of this defeat, if defeat it is. Outside, I am groaning and trying to get back up, trying to enter the fight once more. But he is gone.
***
After a stop at the Oblivion Bar to recover, with the aid of some really oddball would-be heroes, I head back to the Rock of Eternity. One nice thing about Captain Marvel's powers, I can split dimensions easily, cross between them and find the place I am going. There I can talk to the Wizard again, and wait for the final battle.
*text with an Asterisk indicates quotes from Day of Vengeance Mini-Series*
Facing the Spectre, the Spirit of God's Vengeance given form... a Spirit gone mad, obsessed with destroying all Magic. A spirit I must face and stop. A spirit far more powerful than me.
I never realized how very powerful he was, or how little I had seen, experienced, until now. Suddenly, I feel like a Little Leaguer drawn into the Major League games. It's all i can do to keep on my feet, and battle the pain flooding through me.
He roars, and his voice makes my ears bleed, sound echoing in my soul. I wish I knew what to do, but all I can do is fight. He wants to destroy all magic, end it all. I am one of the last powers standing against him. I might be the last, save the Wizard.
*"GIVE UP, CAPTAIN MARVEL, AND LET ME TAKE YOU WITHOUT FURTHER STRUGGLE."
*"Never!"
*"YOUR FATE IS ALREADY WRITTEN, SO THINK OF THE INNOCENTS. THEY'RE SO FRAGILE. THE SOONER YOU YIELD, THE LESS LIKELY THAT MORE OF THEM WILL DIE AS AN INDIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF OUR BATTLE."
For a moment, I almost falter. Gods! I am so very tired. I wish I could lay it all down. But then, in my mind, images flash of Mary and Freddie, and the others who Spectre will be after next, if I fail them. And somewhere deep within me, the words form and burst out, like a fireball.
*"I cant! You need to be stopped! No matter the cost!"
*"YOU'RE FILLED WITH SO MUCH RAW, WILD MAGIC! I HAD NO IDEA! IT MAY TAKE AWHILE TO COOK IT ENTIRELY OUT OF YOU. PITY THOSE WHO MUST FALL TO US IN THE PROCESS."
***
Time passes. I'm not sure how much. Seconds? Days? Years? But the battle rages on. I feel like I am losing every second, but somehow, somehow, every second I am still standing, still fighting. Every part of me is aflame, my body feels like it is in shambles and burning and freezing all at the same time, like needles are pressing within me and hands are tearing me apart every second. I am bruised and battered, feeling like my insides will fall out any second, but I am still standing against the Spectre!
There is a small part of me that tries to feel pride at that, but I know that it is chance, and luck, and sheer stubbornness that keeps me going. The power of Shazam, of Captain Marvel, feels like it is almost exhausted, but I keep going. I only hope it is enough. The next blast catches me off-guard, and I fall backwards, flame licking at me as the Spectre's voice roars out again.
*"YOU'VE FOUGHT WELL, MARVEL, BUT THE OUTCOME HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN!"
I shiver under the impact of his words. I want to stay down, but I draw myself up again.
*"HOW MANY MORE INNOCENTS NEED TO PERISH BEFORE YOU YIELD TO YOUR FATE? LET'S END THIS."
Now that? That I cannot let go. This being has lain waste to everything around us in a mad attempt to end Evil by ending magic. And he wants to put it all on me? By all that is, I wont let that go! My voice feels like I am dragging it out over hot coals as I speak, sounding like a frog's croak that somehow echoes around us.
*"Those innocent lives are on your head, not mine! We'll end this, Spectre, when you're standing over my body, or I'm standing over yours. Or when you give up this madness!"
Brave words from me, one eye swollen completely shut, blood trying to blind the other one, barely able to stand. I cant believe the lines coming out of me, or out of Captain Marvel, and I cant feel where Cap's power and form ends and I begin right now. It feels like the whole things is tearing apart around me. I don't know if I want to laugh or cry at them.
The battle rages on...
***
Suddenly, without warning, power floods into me, power like nothing I have ever felt before, power that lifts me and raises me, filling me with magic, and life and hope. I feels thousands... no, Millions, of lives and powers connected to me suddenly, all knowing the last stand may be here, all giving of themselves for this chance, this hope against all hope, to stop the Spectre.
And I grin suddenly. No pressure there, right? Just the fate of the world in my hands... again.
But this time, I can sense it is more than one world, it is the whole of the dimensions and worlds linked to this one, all of them somehow strained taut at this event.
Gods and demons, heroes and villains send their power to me... and not just them.
*All over the world, otherwise normal people have small, almost residual traces of magical energy they never knew they had. Just enough hidden power to affect their ordinary lives in small ordinary ways. The man who never realized that the lights always turn green just as he gets to the intersection pitches in. The woman who never spills her coffee, or burns her eggs pitches in. The girl who sometimes feels as if her dolls can really talk to her pitches in. Along with so many others. All that power flowing into Me, Captain Marvel.*
I know in that instant I cannot afford to let them down. With the power burning inside me, and my size growing, surging with strength, I fly forward, slamming into Spectre like a load of super-powered bricks, and he falls back for the first time, clearly shocked.
*"I BEAT YOU! YOU WERE NEARLY DRAINED! HOW?"
I charge, attacking Spectre, and the spirit falls backward, his face showing shock and his form battered by the power of my blows.
*"I don't know, ghost! Maybe a benevolent universe has finally had enough of you!"
***
Just as suddenly as it came, I can feel the power cut off again, but am swollen with the power that has already flown into me, so many different kinds of magic that I never even knew existed! I keep at Spectre, trying hard to push him back, stop him, before this power in me gives out as well.
"You're almost gone, Spectre, Almost drained. want to give up now?"
Yeah, I know, brave words, right? But I have to hope, to believe. This Captain Marvel half of me, seems to have more faith in hope than anything I ever knew as Billy, even more faith than me... which is weird.
"NO. MINE ISN'T THE SORT OF MISSION ONE CAN SET ASIDE, NO MATTER THE DURESS. AND I AM FAR FROM DONE, CAPTAIN MARVEL. HAS IT ESCAPED YOUR NOTICE THAT YOU'RE SHRINKING TOO? RAPIDLY? YOU'RE NEARLY AS DRAINED OF MAGIC AS I AM."
I stagger, realizing he is telling the truth, but I throw myself back at him. I can't give up! I can't!
"WORSE YET, YOU ARE EXHAUSTED FROM WIELDING POWERS YOU WERE NEVER MEANT TO HOLD. WHEREAS I'M LONG ACCLIMATED TO ALL IT'S BREADTH AND FORMS."
And his next blow sends me shooting through the air and into a ton of debris. Debris made up of much of what was left of downtown Budapest, I think. Inside me, I quail at how very many lives are lost, and at the cost of this defeat, if defeat it is. Outside, I am groaning and trying to get back up, trying to enter the fight once more. But he is gone.
***
After a stop at the Oblivion Bar to recover, with the aid of some really oddball would-be heroes, I head back to the Rock of Eternity. One nice thing about Captain Marvel's powers, I can split dimensions easily, cross between them and find the place I am going. There I can talk to the Wizard again, and wait for the final battle.
*text with an Asterisk indicates quotes from Day of Vengeance Mini-Series*
