Nobody answered, and she experienced a sudden moment of panic. Had something happened to Vic while she was out foraging for food? No, please, not again, she thought frantically. Cris Allen's lifeless body flashed across her memory. Not another partner ... .
Freaking out, she slid open a metal panel and rushed inside the container. A battery-powered halogen lamp lit up the interior of the box. To her relief, she saw Vic sitting in a lotus position upon the floor of the container. Deep in meditation, he must not have heard her knock before. His unmasked face needed a shave.
Thank God, she thought. "I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad to see you, Charlie. For a second there, I thought I'd lost you for good."
He emerged from his trance. "I'm with you to the end, Renee," he promised. "We're in this together."
Lucky us.
She glanced around at their home of the last two weeks: The inside of the container had been converted into a makeshift hideaway, complete with a pair of rickety cots. Wooden crates, shipped from Gotham by Vic's buddy, contained spare gear for Vic and even that kick-ass ray gun she had picked up off Intergang back home. Empty food wrappers and plastic bottles littered the floor. Beady red eyes watched her from the box's murkier corners.
"What about you?" he asked. "The kids and I were starting to get worried, Renee."
She eyed the lurking rodents. "The kids give me the creeps, Charlie." Opening the satchel, she took out a bottle of water and a loaf of bread wrapped in paper. She had furtively converted most of her traveler's checks into Kahndaqi currency several days ago; she still had enough cash to pay for food for the time being, but how long would it be before she was reduced to stealing their provisions? They had been in hiding for two weeks now, ever since eluding those policemen outside the trashed shipping office, and she still had no idea how they were ever going to get out of Kahndaq without being arrested. Not for the first time, she wished that there was a local U.S. Embassy she could turn to. Unfortunately, America and its allies had broken off relations with Kahndaq after Black Adam took over the country.
"They still looking for us out there?" Vic asked.
Renee split the loaf of bread with her fellow fugitive. "Everyone's attention's on the king and queen."
"Ah, right," Vic remembered. "Today's the big wedding, right? Black Adam and Isis."
Attracted by the bread, a fat gray rat watched them intently from atop a nearby wooden crate. Vic playfully tossed the hungry rodent a few crumbs. Don't encourage them, Renee thought. Too bad I didn't think to grab one of those big boxes of rat poison from the crime Scene. She remembered the heap of boxes lying on the bloody floor of the office. God knows they had plenty of the stuff,...
A lightbulb went off above her head, and she instantly lost her appetite. "Get your shoes on," she told Vic urgently, scrambling to her feet. "Hurry!"
He gave her a puzzled look. "What? Why?"
"The wedding." She grabbed the ray gun and thrust it into her satchel. It all made sense now. "Intergang is going to hit the wedding!"
"This is crazy, Adrianna!"
Mary Marvel was Captain Marvel's sister, and a super-powered heroine in her own right. She wore a feminine version of her brother's uniform, with a short red skirt instead of trousers. Even though they had only met a few days ago, Isis already thought of the young American woman as the sister she had never had.
"I love him, Mary," she insisted. They conversed in Isis' private quarters in the palace. She stepped behind a translucent screen as she disrobed. A maidservant stood by, holding onto Isis' bridal garments. Isis blushed at the realization that, after today, she would be spending her nights in a different wing of the palace.
Mary sounded unconvinced by the other woman's declaration. "You've known him for ...?"■
"Thirteen weeks," Isis supplied. "But it feels like a lifetime."
Several lifetimes, in fact. She had lost her family, been shipped to a foreign country, faced a lifetime of bondage, and been transformed into a living goddess ... all in the space of about three months. Granted, this marriage was a hasty one by conventional standards, but what about her existence was normal these days? What was one more life-changing upheaval, especially when it felt so right? This was meant to be, she thought confidently. I know it.
"But he's psychotic!" Mary protested.
"He's driven." Isis was not offended by the other woman's blunt appraisal of her intended. She understood where Mary was coming from; Isis recalled, with a twinge of regret, how she herself had once called Adam a terrorist, even spit in his face. But how far they had both come since then!
Mary paced restlessly on the other side of the screen. "He's killed a lot of people." .
"But he's saved even more. And he's letting his anger go." She tried to make Mary understand. "Underneath his pain and rage is a man who only wants peace. A man who lost everything he loved and wants no one else to suffer that loss."
Like I did.
"He's the one doing the killing...."
The maidservant helped Isis don her bridal regalia. "But you should see what he's done of late. The lives he's improved. The children that flock to him when he walks the street." Her heart warmed at the thought. "His smile. His smile is always real."
Mary still sounded dubious. "Since when does Black Adam smile?" She peeked over the top of the screen as a new thought occurred to her. "You know, maybe the wisdom of the goddess is messing with your feelings. Perhaps you should change back into your normal self and think about it some more. Just to be sure it's not the magic,"
"But that's exactly what this is, Mary Magic."
She stepped out from behind the screen, now fully clad in her wedding raiment, which resembled a more elaborate version of her usual garb as Isis. Silken white folds draped her statuesque figure. Golden bangles and jewelry glittered upon her arms and ears. A ruby sparkled in her navel. Gilded high heels temporarily replaced her sandals. A long satin train flowed behind her The maidservant diligently held the tail of the train aloft, to keep it from trailing upon the floor. The bride's dark brown hair was elegantly styled. Black streaks of kohl highlighted her eyes in the manner of her ancient Egyptian ancestors.
"I've already changed back and forth many times," she assured Mary. "And my feelings remain the same." She stood several inches taller than the American teenager; unlike her brother, Mary did not change into an adult when she assumed her powers. "But if you're so intent on questioning them, why did you agree to be my maid of honor?" Her tone was not hostile, merely curious. "Because Captain Marvel asked you to?"
As much as she was grateful to the Marvel Family, Isis couldn't help wishing that her own parents and relatives could have lived to see this day Alas, she had no family left, except for Amon, who might be dead as well. She deliberately forced such grim musings aside. Today, at least, was meant for happier tidings.
"Well, yeah," Mary admitted, somewhat sheepishly. "He thinks Adam can change. And that you're helping that happen."
"Maybe I am." She laid a reassuring hand upon Mary's shoulder. "But he wants to change. And he has changed."
_ "That's what Billy says too," Mary conceded. "I don't know ... maybe?"
Just wait and see, Isis thought.
Together, she and Adam would overcome all doubters.
Elsewhere in the palace, Black Adam posed in front of a full-length mirror. He scowled at his reflection. "My hair looks terrible."
"Your hair never moves,". Captain Marvel teased him. His mischievous tone hinted at a truth that few knew, that the mighty hero was, at heart, just a young American boy named Billy Batson. He regarded his former adversary with amusement.
"It's receding." Black Adam ran a finger along the edge of his dark widow's peak. "Somehow I hadn't noticed."
"I don't think you cared before," Marvel said. The Big Red Cheese, as the Western press had affectionately dubbed him, sat upon an upholstered seat a few feet away. He casually rested his chin upon his palm.
"Can it be fixed?"
r /> "You're over three thousand years old," Marvel pointed out. "Be thankful you still have any hair at all."
Black Adam reluctantly conceded the point. Turning away from the mirror, he lifted his cape off a nearby chair. A tiny brown spot caught his eye. "They couldn't get this bloodstain out," he complained. He vacillated, uncertain whether to wear the cape anyway.
Marvel chuckled. "I can't believe it." •
"What?" Adam asked irritably.
"You're nervous. I've never seen you nervous before."
"I am not nervous," Adam insisted. He held the cape up before his eyes. "Perhaps no one will notice...."
Captain Marvel's voice took on a more serious tone. "This means you're going to give up that coalition of yours, right? Your crusade to wipe out the world's super-villains with your own private Justice League?"
"It is under consideration," Black Adam admitted. "My time has lately been focused on other matters. Perhaps more fruitful matters." With a sigh, he fastened the blood-specked cape onto his shoulders. Now is no time, he decided, to discuss affairs of state. "Thank you for coming, Billy. And for agreeing to use your authority as the Keeper of the Rock to wed us."
Captain.Maryel rose to his feet. "I was surprised you wanted us here. Not that I couldn't use a break from the Rock of Eternity." He looked distinctly more relaxed than he had been back in Shazam's ancient throne room. "Though I do need to get back before nightfall. You wouldn't believe what the Sins did to the place last time there was a full moon."
Don't be so sure, Black Adam thought. I know rather more of sin than most.
He reflected on the irony of the situation. In times past, he and Captain Marvel had been mortal enemies. Yet here was young Billy, his replacement as Shazam's champion, officiating at his wedding. Truly, the Fates moved in mysterious ways....
"My family, all of them, are long gone," he said thoughtfully. He contemplated his boyish American counterpart. "I thought, you have made your Marvel Family. Perhaps it is not too late to make mine."
I'm such an idiot, Renee thought.
She and Vic hurried through the crowded streets toward the palace. Watchful soldiers and security forces patrolled the city, making life more difficult. Spotting an armed police officer up ahead, she grabbed onto Vic's arm and dragged him into the nearest alley. "Don't let them see you!" she whispered urgently.
"They're looking for a man with no face," he reminded her. Flis mask was tucked into the pocket of his jeans, just in case he needed it later. Thankfully, the police had no idea what his real face looked like. "Besides, if we didn't want to be seen, we should have stayed in hiding."
To her dismay, the alley turned out to be a dead end. A high stone wall blocked the way to the palace. Renee could hear a crowd of excited citizens celebrating on the Other side. Middle Eastern music played over loudspeakers.
"Dammit," she cursed. "We're going to have to go over." She started to scale the wall, digging her grimy fingers into cracks in the mortar. She glanced back at Vic, needing a boost. "Help me up."
"What's going on?" he demanded. There had been no time to explain it to him yet.
"The rat poison!" she blurted. "At the shipping place, where we found the bodies?"
He still didn't get it. "You may have noticed that Shiruta has a bit of a rat problem, Renee."
"No, that's not why it was there!" She kicked herself for not figuring it out before. "It's an anticoagulant, Charlie. Suicide bombers use it to coat their shrapnel so that the victims who aren't blown apart will bleed to death!"
She could thank a G.C.P.D. antiterrorism drill for that nasty bit of trivia.
"But Black Adam ..Vic began.
She knew where he was going. "Intergang's not after Black Adam himself. He can't be hurt." With Vic's help, she clambered onto the top of the wall, then gave him a hand up. She snatched a shapeless brown robe from a laundry line, the better to blend in with the locals. She hastily pulled the robe over her soiled clothes. "They're going to hit the audience. The bomber's in the crowd...!"
All of Kahndaq seemed to have poured into the vast courtyard in front of the royal palace. The rejoicing multitude crowded the open patios around the sparkling reflecting pool. Live music played from the domed spires of the palace. The sun god Re had blessed the day with a bright blue sky and golden rays of light.
Quite a turnout, Captain Marvel Jr. thought as he flew above the crowd. His bright blue uniform matched the sapphire sky. A gold-trimmed red cape fluttered in the breeze. The teenage hero found it hard to believe that so many people had shown up to witness the marriage of one of the Marvel Family's oldest enemies. Heck, I can't believe we actually got an invite.
Despite his name, Captain Marvel Jr. was no relation to his celebrated namesake. Freddy Freeman was simply a teenage boy whom Captain Marvel had chosen to share his powers with. Billy had done so to save Freddy's life after the innocent teen had been seriously injured by a bad guy named Captain Nazi. Now Freddy showed his gratitude by using his newfound powers to combat evil alongside Mary and Captain Marvel.
And, apparently, by assisting at a wedding.
He flew ahead of a long procession of children. War orphans, to be exact, rescued by Isis and Black Adam over the last several weeks. At the request of the royal couple, the children were to be given a front-row seat at the proceedings. "Coming through!" Freddy shouted at the milling throng in their path. Most of the men and women below stepped aside to let the orphans through, but a few stragglers weren't getting the message. Too excited to pay attention to the American hero flying overhead, they lingered in front of the procession. Looking around for assistance, Freddy spotted a familiar face waiting in line in front of a street vendor.
"I need you to help me out here, Tawny," he called out to his friend, an eight-foot-tall tiger wearing a neatly pressed white suit. The furry feline stood upright like a man, and seemed distracted by the mouth-watering odors emanating from the steaming lamb kabobs. "I told you to eat something before we left," Freddy scolded the tiger.
"I wanted to save up for the Kahndaqian cuisine," Mister Tawky Tawny explained. The sentient tiger was a longtime friend of the Marvel Family. His whiskers twitched as he licked his chops. "It will only take a minute...
No dice, Freddy thought. He figured they were already running behind schedule. "I'm in charge of crowd control, man, and you're supposed to be helping."
"But you know how I get when I'm hungry," Tawny protested, reluctant to lose his place in line. "You don't want me to eat a member of the Royal Guard, do you?"
He was bluffing and Freddy knew it. Despite his ferocious appearance, Tawny was a big pussycat at heart. Freddy shook his head. "Just help me clear a path, okay?"
Growling unhappily, Tawny stepped back ahead of the procession. "Let the kids through,"' he snarled at the slowpokes blocking the way. Not surprisingly, the stragglers were quick to retreat from the grumpy tiger. Together, Captain Marvel Jr. and his feline assistant escorted the homeless children to their place at the front of the crowd, facing the palace. Neither of them paid any attention to one particular orphan, a teenage girl in a green robe. A stuffed backpack clung to her shoulders.
Alone among the elated children, she wasn't smiling.
"Look! There they are!"
All heads were turned upward to behold Black Adam and Captain Marvel hovering in the air high above the reflecting pool. Black Adam recalled addressing his people from this very spot a mere four months ago. That speech had been a call to arms, announcing his intention to rid the world of those who would endanger it. At the time, he had never guessed that he would soon be embarking on a far more joyous new endeavor. He searched the sky impatiently for his bride.
It was almost time.
A riotous cheer rose up from the crowd as Isis and Mary Marvel flew into view, joining them above the courtyard. Adam barely noticed Mary's presence, so captivated was he by his bride's radiant appearance. Her womanly grace and loveliness took his breath away. Filmy garments rustled in
the breeze, clinging to her supple form. A satin train billowed behind her like the tail of a comet. He chose to take that as a good omen. .
"She's beautiful," Captain Marvel whispered to him.
For once, he and Billy were in total agreement.
"Hello, Adam," she greeted him with a smile. They faced each Other in the sky, while the Marvel siblings looked on benignly. Her slender fingers reached out and gently stroked his cheek.
"Good morning, Isis." They clasped their hands together. The crowd cheered once more.
Renee and Vic were the only ones not cheering. So many people, she thought anxiously, as they made their way through the packed crowd. Their slow pace frustrated her, adding to the tension. Her eyes desperately searched the vast assemblage. How were they ever going to find the would-be terrorist in this mob scene?
"You said 'bomber,'" Vic whispered. "How do you know there's only one?"
"The boxes of rat poison," she explained, shoving her way past a clump of jubilant spectators. Their insistent progress, and sloppy attire, attracted a few stink-eyes from the people around them, who were all decked out in their Sunday best. Many of the celebrants clutched bouquets of flowers, or maybe just a single red rose. An elderly woman sniffed disdainfully in their direction. Renee guessed that she and Vic didn't smell too good. "Only three of them were empty. That's about one bomb's worth."
No doubt the bombing was in retaliation for that Intergang mobster Black Adam had ripped apart in Metropolis several weeks back. The gang's leaders wanted to send the dictator a message, written in the blood of his subjects.
Gory possibilities flashed through her mind. "Take a look at this crowd, Charlie. One bomb is all you'd need. A single blast could kill two hundred people, maybe more."
"Oh, good," Vic said, struggling to keep up with her. "I was afraid this was going to be easy."
Captain Marvel glanced down at the exuberant throng. "I think we have our witnesses," he quipped. "And then some."
And none more important than those children below, Black Adam thought, who owe their newfound freedom and happiness to the boundless compassion of the beautiful maiden before me. She is truly a goddess among women.