52 - The Novel

  His heart ached for her loss, remembering the deaths of his sons millennia ago. He yanked his cape from his shoulders and laid it over Amon's ravaged corpse like a shroud. There was little he could do to ease his beloved's pain, but at least he could spare her the sight of her brother's grisly remains.

  Helping her to her feet, he took Isis in his arms. She sobbed against his shoulder: "Why did he change?" she asked despairingly. Amon had been all but indestructible when in the guise of Osiris. "Why did he change back?"

  A gravelly voice answered her. "Osiris believed his powers were the cause of Kahndaq's misery." Sobek came crawling across the rooftops on all fours.

  Fresh blood was smeared across his saurian jaws and teeth. Fhs tail swished across the polished ceramic shingles behind him. "What a fool."

  "Sobek!" Isis cried out, surprised by the crocodile's presence. Adam realized that Sobek must have been hiding behind one of the nearby turrets.

  The crocodile licked her brother's blood from his chops. "For all he tried to do to sweeten his soul, his flesh tasted like rotting chicken." His callous tone mocked her grief. "He was too stringy." A reptilian tongue flicked over his incisors. "He's still stuck between my teeth."

  "It was you?" she asked, aghast at the monster's treachery. "How could you?"

  Rising to his feet, Sobek warily circled Black Adam and Isis. An elaborate suit of armor clothed his scaly body, replacing the polyester jogging suits he had always worn before. He greedily eyed the body beneath the cape. "I was hungry," he explained. "I'm always so awfully hungry, and only the flesh of a Marvel can satisfy me." He shrugged his shoulders. "That's the way they made me."

  They ? Black Adam realized that some unknown enemy had planted the perfidious reptile among them. Although eager to avenge Amon's death, he held back in hopes of learning more from the loquacious lizard. Who are "they?"

  "I told Osiris that I had no name," Sobek declared, "but I lied. I am Yurrd the Unknown. I am Famine."

  Yurrd? The name meant nothing to Adam. But, like all of Kahndaq, he had grown far too familiar with famine over the last few weeks. Could this demon truly be responsible for the empty stomachs of his countrymen? All the more reason then, that this accursed creature not live another day!

  "Osiris was your friend!" Isis accused the reptile. At her command, rustling vines snaked up the sides of the palace. A blast of angry wind nearly knocked Sobek off his feet. "He saved you from Dr. Sivana's lab!"

  The crocodile laughed harshly. "I said I'd been left there after Sivana disappeared, but that was another lie." A wicked grin stretched beneath his snout. "I was delivered to Sivana's mansion only hours before you arrived."

  Black Adam recalled Sobek's unexpected appearance during their dinner with Lady Sivana. He wondered whether the mad scientist's wife had been in on the deception. Perhaps her plea for their assistance in locating Sivana had only been a ruse?

  "You were all so desperate to help the poor and unfortunate," Sobek jeered, "so a plan was hatched to infiltrate your inner circle by posing as a confused and frightened animal. We knew that your Black Marvel Family wouldn't be able to resist having their own version of that insipid talking tiger."

  •Nature's fury flashed in Isis' dark eyes as her sorrow gave way to rage. Bristling with jagged thorns, the animated vines rose above the edge of the rooftop. "We treated you like family!" she thundered at Sobek. "We loved you!"

  "Love?" The crocodile spat out the word. "What does a reptile care of love? My blood is cold!" He glared malignantly at Black Adam. "Intergang offered you riches for safe passage through Kahndaq. They urged you to ally yourself with our puppet government in Bialya. But you refused, and now you and your family are a threat to Intergang's ever-growing religion of crime!" He stalked toward them, his clawed hands raised before him. "That's why we were brought here."

  "We?" Black Adam raised his own fists in anticipation. 1 shoidd have known that Intergang was behind this, he thought fiercely. They will pay dearly for the heartache they have caused, beginning with this loathsome creature.

  But Sobek was no longer alone. A sonic boom heralded the opening of a sudden rift in time and space. A trio of monstrous giants emerged from the rift, which instantly closed behind them. Over twenty feet tall, they dwarfed both the humans and the crocodile. Black Adam quickly took stock of these new adversaries.

  One was a mechanized monstrosity, boasting an impressive array of high-tech weaponry. Cannons served as the creature's arms. Crimson armor covered every inch of his body. The roof trembled beneath its elephantine tread.

  The second was a hideous cyclops, with but a single bloodred eye gazing out from its scarred visage. Instead of cannons, metallic valves and hoses were mounted to the monster's arms. Pipes connected the hoses to enormous steel tanks affixed to the giant's back.

  The third was like a demon out of ancient myth, with the wings of an enormous hawk, the legs of a goat, the arms and torso of a man, the tail of a jackal, and the yellowed skull and horns of a dead steer clamped over his face. He clutched an imposing steel scythe, like the Grim Reaper of Western folklore.

  'Behold my siblings," Sobek boasted. "Roggra, Zorrm, and Azraeuz. Some call us 'The Monster Society/ but we truly embody the Four Horsemen of dread Apokalips. Our influence is the true source of Kahndaq's misery over the last month." His burnished armor proclaimed his war-like intentions. "But we are through hiding!"

  Together, the fiendish quartet pounced on Black Adam and Isis. The impact drove the couple and their attackers through the roof of the palace into the royal bedchamber below. They crashed down onto their own marital bed, smashing it completely. Broken pieces of stone and plaster fell from the jagged gap in the ceiling. Feathers and wooden splinters went flying.

  Sobek sprang at Black Adam, his jaws snapping at Adam's throat. "Let me tell you how I ate Amon!" the crocodile taunted. "How his organs popped in my mouth like fresh grapes!"

  The monster's cruel words only fueled Adam's wrath. With superhuman swiftness, he grabbed hold of Sobek's jaws with his bare hands. Powerful muscles strained as he began to pull the jaws apart.

  "You are done talking, lizard."

  Sobek croaked in pain. His front claws pawed frantically at Adam's chest, but failed to penetrate the champion's impervious chest. The crocodile was not attacking a helpless cripple now, nor would he ever be eating anything again. Greasy tears leaked from his eyes.

  "Adam?" Isis said uncertainly. She seemed conflicted between her divine mercy and a very human desire for revenge.

  "These are not men," Adam stated bluntly. Unlike his wife, he had no doubts about what was to be done. "Sobek said it himself. They are monsters ... and they will be treated as such."

  Calling upon the strength he had reclaimed from Osiris, Black Adam tore Sobek's jaws apart. Cold reptilian blood sprayed against Adam as the deceitful crocodile spasmed through his death throes. Adam hurled the scaly carcass away from him in disgust.

  Yurrd the Unknown was no more.

  His fellow Horsemen howled in protest. Rising from the wreckage of the bed, their inhuman craniums scraped against the vaulted ceiling of the violated bedchamber. The armored giant, who looked more machine than flesh and blood, charged Adam.

  "I am Roggra!" he declared. "I am War!"

  Tackling Adam, his merest touch ignited an explosion that brought down the wall behind Adam. They tumbled through the breached wall into another chamber of the palace. A cloud of dust and smoke momentarily blinded Adam. He broke free from Roggra's mechanized grasp and staggered backward away from his foe. Shattered masonry crunched beneath his boots. He wiped the dust from his eyes.

  A massive cannon slammed into his face. "I have the power of all the world's soldiers and bombs," Roggra proclaimed. The muzzle of the cannon flared and a tremendous blast propelled Adam through a solid marble column into the wall beyond. "Those are my gods, and they are infinitely more deadly than the senile deities who empower you!"

  Dazed, Adam shook his head to clear
his thoughts. His hand went to his aching brow and came away stained with red. He tasted salt upon his tongue.

  'War had drawn first blood.

  Isis and the remaining Horsemen faced each other within the ruined bedchamber. The one-eyed giant stomped toward her, while his skull-faced companion looked on in silence. Toxic chemicals sloshed inside the tanks and hoses that were arrayed upon Zorrm's immense frame. He smelled of rot and gangrene. Isis sensed the Horseman's unclean nature at once.

  "Your body is made of nothing but viruses and bacteria. You are Pestilence itself." Ropy vines descended through the hole in the ceiling. More tendrils entered through the windows to defend her. "All these diseases, all these plagues afflicting Kahndaq, stem from you!"

  The fetid cyclops opened its jaws, as though to answer her charges. Isis braced herself for Zorrm's heartless retort. Her loyal vines reared up around the advancing Horseman, like serpents preparing to strike. They whipped the dusty air.

  But no words escaped the monster's lips. Instead he vomited a stream of viscous green slime onto Isis, dousing her with his foul effluvia. Isis recoiled in horror, her gorge rising at the sour-smelling mucous clinging to her face and limbs. Gagging, she frantically wiped it away from her eyes and mouth, but feared that she had already been contaminated by the infectious spew, which was literally swimming with every germ known to man. Goddess preserve me, she prayed fervently. The plague is upon me!

  In retaliation, the vines lashed out at Zorrm. Thick green tendrils coiled around his limbs and torso, squeezing as tightly as a boa constrictor. Thorns jabbed at his lividiace and flesh. The aggressive vines distracted the Horseman from his attack on Isis, forcing him to defend himself against the topiary assault. He spewed more vomit at the vines scratching his face, which were eaten away as though by acid. Dying branches hissed and sizzled as they dissolved against his leather armor.

  Isis felt the plants' pain, even as a thousand diseases invaded her own immortal form. Nausea, even worse than that which had been inflicted upon her by Count Vertigo, gripped her stomach. A sudden fever left her shaking and sweating. Painful cramps racked her entrails. Her throbbing head felt as though it was being stabbed repeatedly by a red-hot poker. Breathing became difficult as her lungs filled with fluid. Every muscle ached. Her throat was sore. She sneezed and coughed violently.

  Save me from this Pestilence, she begged the powers of Nature. Don't let him near me again!

  The surviving vines grabbed onto Zorrm and threw him far away.

  Roggra's cannon boomed again.

  The blast hurled Black Adam out of the palace into an enclosed courtyard outside. Decorative fountains and pools had dried out beneath the oppressive sun. Somehow managing to stay on his feet, he staggered unsteadily across debris-strewn tiles. Blood dripped from numerous small cuts and scrapes. His black hair was disheveled and powdered with dust. His distinctive garb was tom and scorched. His bare knuckles were raw and red.

  Whirring and clanking, War pursued Adam into the courtyard. His cannon automatically reloaded, and Black Adam threw up his arms to protect himself. A bomb-burst exploded against his upraised wristbands. The golden metal shattered into a million pieces. The earth-shaking impact jarred Adam to his bones. He teetered upon his heels, on the verge of losing his balance. He lacked even the strength to flee.

  Roggra prepared to fire again....

  Salvation arrived in the unlikely form of Zorrm, who came flying between them as though flung by a catapult. A titanic blast, meant for Black Adam, struck Pestilence instead. Dying vines were blown away from the monster's smoking frame. - .

  Isis? Adam guessed, grateful for the respite.

  His wife appeared upon the ruined terrace. To his dismay, he saw that her graceful form was liberally coated with some vile green ichor. She threw out her arms to command the elements.

  "Winds!"

  A mighty zephyr plucked the fallen debris from the ground and threw it at War and Pestilence with tremendous force. They went tumbling across the spacious courtyard.

  She stumbled over to Adam's side. He couldn't help noticing how ill she looked. Her face was ashen. Burst blood vessels reddened her eyes. "Adam," she said hoarsely. Her quaking body clung weakly to his. Her flesh was hot to the touch. "My blood rims cold. Can you feel it?" She looked back over her shoulder. "Death is here."

  He followed her gaze to where the fourth Horseman—Azraeuz—stood watching them from the ragged gap in the wall. A bovine death's-head masked his features. His ebony wings were folded against his back as he held his gleaming scythe aloft. His eerie stillness was more unnerving than his brothers' vicious attacks.

  Black Adam found it hard to gaze at Azraeuz for long. His eyes watered and stung, blurring his vision, until he was forced to look away. Isis also averted her eyes. She rubbed at them with her fists, trying to clear her sight.

  "You have been marked by the stare of Azraeuz, the Silent King," Roggra stated as the malevolent war-machine righted himself and came clanking toward Adam. Paving stones cracked and splintered beneath his ponderous tread. Mechanical arms extended from open compartments in his armor. "He has chosen you for Death and you will suffer through it."

  Steel pincers yanked Black Adam away from Isis and launched him back toward the palace. Smashing headfirst through the wall, Adam skidded across the floor of a vast, sepulchral chamber. Stunned, it took him a moment to realize that he was now within the shrine he had erected to his long-lost wife and sons. He lay sprawled at the feet of a marble replica of Shiruta and their two boys. His battered face flushed with anger. How dare Sobek's evil brethren profane this sacred place!

  Roggra stomped into the shrine. The metal pincers seized hold of Adam again and lifted him from the floor. The Horseman held Adam's face up to the sculpted images of his dead family.

  "War has always been your undoing," Roggra gloated. "Your wife and children died in a battle you were not here to fight." That much was true; Mighty Adam had been fighting evil in Egypt, on behalf of the wizard Shazam, when his homeland had been overrun by a merciless invader. "Your oldest son begged for his life. Fie was a coward."

  Lies! Adam thought vehemently. This unholy being was obviously a creation of modem science, not ancient sorcery. Roggra had no knowledge of what had truly occurred in that bygone era. He knew only the historical tidbits his creators had fed into his artificial brain. My son was no coward!

  In the vandalized courtyard, Isis rubbed at her eyes, which still smarted from looking at the Angel of Death. Half-blinded by her own tears, she heard ponderous steps behind her, along with the sloshing of toxic fluids. Pestilence! she realized, spinning around a moment too late. Poison gas sprayed from Zorrm's inexhaustible supply of biohazardous waste.

  Already feeling weak and feverish, she choked on the fumes. She fell to the ground, clutching her throat. Her wheezing lungs sucked at the air. She retched onto the cold stone tiles. Hungry insects burrowed up from the arid soil. Cockroaches and beetles scuttled over her supine body, eager to begin consuming her flesh even before she died. A swarm of buzzing flies nipped painfully at her skin.

  Azraeuz approached at a measured pace. The shaft of his scythe tapped against the broken tiles. Zorrm backed away, bowing his head to his more funereal brother. "I have spread my diseases across her and inside her," he told Death. "She is ready for you."

  The Horseman smashed Adam into the statues, shattering them. Adam grabbed onto the carved faces of his sons before they could crash to the floor with the rest of the fragments. Still holding onto Adam with his pincers, Roggra aimed all his guns and cannons at the back of his captive's skull.

  "Will you beg for your life as well?"

  Never! Adam vowed. Wrenching his body around, he plunged both his fists into the Horseman's armored chest. Torn metal shrieked, and sparks flared, as, still gripping the marble shards, his hands sank wrist-deep into the monster's torso. He found something warm and fleshy deep inside Roggra's mechanized chassis. He pushed harder, forcing his fists through
the pulpy mass. Roggra squealed in pain.

  "Will you?" Adam challenged him.

  An oily yellow fluid leaked from the corners of Roggra's hinged jaw. "S-stop...."

  "War is nothing new to me." Black Adam sneered at his foe. "A being who embodies it does not impress me."

  Clenching his jaws, he swung his arms open, ripping Roggra right down the middle.

  Azraeuz loomed over Isis' fallen form. His cloven hooves scraped against the ground. His huge black wings spread out behind him. No mercy showed in the cavernous depths of his empty eye sockets. He reeked of death and decay. His segmented tail swished across the pavement. Supporting himself upon his scythe, he bent low and reached out for Isis. She felt the icy touch of his fingers against her face.

  Throbbing black veins spread across her flesh, emanating outward from where he touched her. Agony pulsed through her body with every beat of her heart. Bleeding sores tore open her once smooth skin. Insects infested the wounds, feeding on the exposed tissue. Flies laid their eggs in the open sores. She groaned pitifully.

  Pestilence crept closer, the better to savor her demise. Isis heard a gun being cocked nearby Part of her prayed that Roggra's powerful firearms would swiftly put her out of her misery. Forgive me, Adam, for leaving you alone as you were before. She turned her head to look into the face of her executioner.

  But instead of War, she saw Black Adam standing boldly behind Zorrm. He aimed one of Roggra's severed arms at Pestilence like the cannon it was. The muzzle flared and the gun went off with a deafening boom. Zorrm's head exploded from his shoulders. His headless body toppled onto the ground.

  Bless you, my husband, Isis thought gratefully. For once, she did not question the severity of Adam's actions. The Earth is well rid of such an abomination.

  Azraeuz's wings flapped loudly as he instantly flew to avenge his brothers. The sharpened tip of his scythe sunk into Black Adam's side. Adam grimaced in pain, gritting his teeth to keep from crying out. His bloody fist slammed into the Horseman's face, cracking the Skeletal visage.