Rogues Gallery #8 - BLACK ADAM Pt. 1

In a dark room in the bowels of Crowley Penitentiary is a bed where a tall man with black hair and piercing brown eyes lies dreaming. He is strapped down to the bed he is lying on. Once every five and a half hours the senior medical officer and the warden of Crowley Penitentiary make their way through the facility down to the basement where the head guard unlocks a door and the two senior men descend a flight of stairs to a long-forgotten room. A room that only the senior-most staff of the facility even know exists.

Doctor Levitz is a fifty-year-old man. He has short-cropped black hair and brown eyes, and wears wire-rimmed glasses. He is kind of geekish-looking and rather small body wise. His mustache is long and the hairs are more white, than black like his hair.

Warden DiDio contrasts with Doctor Levitz in that he is a shaved-bald man. Mr. DiDio is a thirty-six-year-old man. He also has brown eyes that have sadness to them and show how tired he is of all the stress that he has due to running a high-level penitentiary like Crowley. He is a bit chubby, but overall he has a kind and happy-looking face. Like Doctor Levitz, he also has a long mustache, but his is black and shows no inkling of grey or even white.

Doctor Levitz turns to Warden DiDio. “Sir, sometimes I wish that someone else could be the one to come down here and do this.” Dr. Levitz strokes his mustache and continues, “I don’t know about you but he scares the piss out of me; even in his drug-induced state he is still rather frightening.” They get to the top of the stairs and stare down into the darkness.

“Grow a backbone will you, Levitz. He has been kept unconscious now for the past six months ever since Captain Marvel and Kid Marvel beat his ass. He isn’t about to wake up tomorrow. I bet we could skip his next dose and he still wouldn’t wake up. Now grow some balls will you!” Mr. DiDio says as he flips on the light switch, lighting up the stairway for the two men.

Doctor Levitz shakes his head and starts down the stairs, after taking a deep breath to try and steel himself for what he is about to do. “I don’t care what you say, Dan, he still scares me,” he says as he continues down the stairs.

Warden DiDio smiles as he watches Dr. Levitz. They go through this same conversation every time they have to do this. “Yeah I know, Paul, I know,” he says as he turns back to the guard and nods. The guard nods in return and he closes the door behind them and locks it. The warden and the doctor take close to four minutes to walk the single flight of stairs; each stair is harder to take than the next one for both men. It is because the man they are going to see terrifies them.

At the bottom of the stairs there is a vault door and on each side of it are two holes which need two different keys and only the warden and senior medical officer have the keys. “Alright, Dan, you ready?” Dr. Levitz asks.

Dan looks over at Paul and shakes his head. “Not really but let’s just get this over with. The sooner we are done with this the better,” Mr. DiDio says to Dr. Levitz.

The two men pull out their keys which hang from lanyards around their necks. They insert the two keys into their respective holes. Mr. DiDio looks over at Dr. Levitz and nods. “Alright on three. One…Two…Three, turn now,” Mr. DiDio says and the two men turn their keys at the same time.

As the keys turn fully, there is a loud clicking noise as the different locks in the vault door start to unlock. Then the massive lead-lined door begins to open on its own and Warden DiDio grabs onto the door and pulls it the rest of the way open. Dr. Levitz steps through the door followed by Mr. DiDio.

The room is semi-dark with no windows or any decorations on the walls. There are a few screens displaying the vital signs for the sleeping man. One shows his respiration and heartbeat along with his blood oxygen, and another one shows his brainwave activity. There is an IV that is in the man’s arm and a catheter tube comes out of his abdomen area and drains into a Foley that is on the floor. The man has several wires attached to his chest and forehead which lead to the different monitors.

Dr. Levitz shivers as he sees the man and slowly walks over to him. He then moves to a bag that collects urine and changes it so that the body can continue to process the artificial food that is being pumped into the man. He then moves and changes the IV bag and injects a small cloudy fluid into it and then checks the automated monitor for the IV. Once he makes sure that all the electrodes are connected and that none of them need to be changed, Dr. Levitz then turns to recording the different vital signs of the man. He takes special note of the fact that the man is obviously dreaming about something; of what, he doesn’t know. He makes a note of it and then turns back to Mr. DiDio and the two leave the vault and head back up into the main part of the prison.

Teth-Adam and Queen Pharaoh Hatshepsut are sitting at dinner in the royal palace in Egypt. It is just about sunset, and the sun is bathed in all shades of reds, purples, oranges and blues. The queen is dressed in a white cotton gown with gold trimming. She wears around her neck the amulet of Isis. On her forehead is her crown embedded in jewels of all sorts. Her hair is black, straight and long down to her waist. She has a very athletic body and it shows even through the gown that she is wearing. She still looks as if she is in her early twenties. The power of Isis has helped her to live this long and has helped her to maintain her beauty.

Lying on the floor are two pure white leopards. One sits by Queen Hatshepsut and the other one lounges at Teth-Adam’s feet. The servants are standing nearby waiting to be called into service. There is a servant wafting a fan of ostrich feathers at the lovers to help keep them cool. There are lit braziers all around the room. There are also four doors in the room, one on each wall. One goes outside to a balcony where the queen and her lover may enjoy looking out at the city or watching the moon. One leads in to the royal baths, one to the royal sleeping chamber and the last leads out into the hall.

Once Queen Hatshepsut and Teth-Adam are done eating, the two stand up and, as they do so, the two leopards also stand up. They are the queen’s most personal of guards.

“Well, my love, shall we go for a walk in the garden? It is such a lovely evening and I would so like to see the moon flowers starting to bloom,” Queen Hatshepsut suggests to her lover as the two leopards stop and look up expectantly at Teth-Adam.

“If that is what you wish, my love, then let it be,” Teth-Adam says as he moves around the table and holds out his hand for his love to take. “I, too, would love to see the moon flowers blooming tonight. It is such a warm evening; I think that perhaps we might walk along the Nile once the moon comes up. It would be lovely by moonlight,” Teth-Adam says as he takes Hatshepsut’s hand.

“Oh, that is a wonderful idea, my love,” the queen says as she reaches up and kisses Adam on the lips. “Come, my friends, let us go to the gardens first, and then we can go for a walk along the Nile,” she says to the pair of leopards. The leopards nod and give a slight purring sound to signal that they too like the idea.

As the queen, with Teth-Adam at her side, and the two leopards walk down through the palace and out into the garden they come upon a few lovers also walking in the warm evening air enjoying the beauty of the garden. They bow their heads to the queen as she passes.

The people of Egypt love their queen and are more than happy to see her and be around her. She has been a kind and caring woman to her people. She has overseen her kingdom with a fairness that has helped the kingdom to grow rather prosperous. The only ones that are really wanting in the kingdom of Egypt at this time are the slaves, and even they are taken care of quite nicely.

As the queen and Teth-Adam pass under the archway that leads out into the city, the royal guards standing duty bow and offer their services as escorts. Though they all know that the queen and her lover Adam are both very capable of handling themselves, they still know it to be proper to offer their services to the queen.

As the two lovers pass into the city, they again are greeted by many citizens; some offer a wave of their hands, others bow low before their queen and protector. The two stop at a market stall and pick up some fruit, which the two decide that they are going to share when they get to the shore of the great river.

As the two approach the river, they find that they are now alone, except for the two leopards which are a short way away. They find a patch of grass that is on the bank of the river and sit down. Teth-Adam breaks the pie into two pieces. They sit there and watch the water horses as they talk to the moon. The water lilies appear to reflect the moonlight. The river itself seems to take on a silver appearance.

“Teth-Adam, isn’t this the most beautiful sight you have ever seen?” Hatshepsut asks as she looks from the river up into the sky towards the moon.

“No, my queen, it isn’t. You are the most beautiful sight I have ever seen. And you shall always be so, too,” he says as he lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it. “I have been happy these many years we have been together, my queen, and I thank you for them. I don’t know what my life would have been like without such a wonderful partner,” Teth-Adam says as he pulls Hatshepsut into his strong embrace and kisses her tenderly.

“And you, Teth-Adam, have been such a wonderful partner. I only wish that you could have been my husband,” she says as she knows that, no matter what, the law is the law, and Teth-Adam wasn’t born of royalty or of noble blood so the two could never marry. I only wish I had more time to be with you my love. My time grows near, Hatshepsut thinks to herself as she sits there in Teth-Adam’s arms kissing him tenderly. Her hands exploring his body as the two sit there bathed in the silver light from the moon.

Teth-Adam can tell something is bothering his love and, even with the wisdom of Zehuti, Teth-Adam still can’t figure out what is bothering his queen. “My queen, my love, is something bothering you?” he asks as he pulls her closer to him.

Hatshepsut looks up at Adam and shakes her head. “No, my love, there is nothing at all wrong. Why do you ask?” she asks him and she realizes that she needs to school her emotions a bit more or he will see through her pain and figure out what is truly wrong. “I am just thinking about us sitting here bathed in the light of Toth and all the years that we have been together and how I have enjoyed each and every one of them,” she says as she snuggles up to Teth-Adam a bit more. However, emotionally she feels closer to him at this moment than she has in the several years the two have spent together.

Teth-Adam shakes his head slightly and kisses the top of Hatshepsut’s head. “No reason, my love, it’s just you looked almost sad for a bit and I thought that something was wrong. ‘Tis all, my sweet one,” he says and kisses the top of her head and runs his hand up and down her arm between her bracelet and her arm band, which is of a coiled snake, wrapped mid-way between her shoulder and her elbow. The arm band is made of pure gold and the snake’s eyes are made of rubies.

“Oh, love, you know that if something was wrong I would tell you,” she says as she turns her head up to him, as he leans down, and kisses him tenderly.

Theo Adam lay unconscious on the bed that he had been strapped to for the past six months. His body occasionally twitched and jumped from muscle spasms. He continued to dream his life away unknowing that he was dreaming his life away. While, over in Egypt, the long-forgotten tomb of Queen Pharaoh Hatshepsut was being broken into for the first time in centuries. The magical seal that had protected the tomb for just as long was now being brought down. Right before the seal was brought down it sent out a pulse trying to find someone to come and protect the tomb, and that which it housed.

Teth-Adam sat in the palace, cowering in a corner of the bedroom that he had shared with Hatshepsut. The palace servants would enter the room and set a plate of food down right inside the door for him. Rumors had spread wide and fast that Teth-Adam had killed and seriously injured several people at the market in Lower Egypt. Everyone was afraid of him.

Teth-Adam’s heart had grown as cold as the ice from the mountains up north. He stood up when the servant brought in his food and he stalked towards the woman. The woman looked up at the enraged man and saw no compassion, no love of life; instead all she saw was anger and hatred. She screamed for dear life, dropping the plate of food, and then took off running and screaming down the hall.

Teth-Adam stalked down the hall like an enraged animal. The palace no longer looked vibrant and alive as it had two years prior. The tapestries that hung around the palace were faded and dirty. The paintings on the walls looked dark and dank. The stone walls themselves looked dead and dark. The people who normally occupied the palace heard the woman screaming and figured that Teth-Adam was coming for them, so they all fled.

Teth-Adam walked out into the streets and grabbing the first person he could get his hands on, broke his neck in a quick turn. He then dropped that corpse like a bad habit and looked for the next person who he thought was against his band of black justice. He saw the people running from him and the palace and through his twisted mind he saw them as guilty people running from justice. He took up chase after a group of three adolescent boys. He caught one and started to question him.

“What did you steal?” he asked the terrified teenager.

The boy looked up at Teth-Adam, shaking his head from side to side in fear he was unable to say anything. “I…I” was all he was able to stutter out to Black Adam.

Teth-Adam, looking at the boy, started to grow angry at his inability to answer. “Tell me, boy, what did you steal from the palace? What did you steal from my love?” he asked again to the boy.

The boy was now in mortal terror because he couldn’t answer. He knew that Teth-Adam would kill him for running from him and he was so terrified that there was nothing he could say. He was shaking like a leaf in the wind while Teth-Adam held him by his arm. He started to shake his head back and forth in a ‘no’ gesture frantically hoping and praying to all the gods that they would strike Teth-Adam down before he killed him. He hadn’t stolen anything; he, like his friends, was running from Teth-Adam out of sheer fear. By now the whole kingdom had heard how Adam was killing people left and right for minor things or even for just running when they saw him.

As Teth-Adam questioned the boy and, as he got no response from him, his anger grew and grew. The red in front of his eyes was growing brighter and brighter, his pulse was beating so fast that he heard it, and his veins were popping out of his neck and along the sides of his arms. His voice which was usually a deep baritone now had a desperate tone to it and started to rise in pitch.

“Why will you not tell me what it is that you have stolen from your queen?” he asked the boy in near desperation and pure anger.

The boy was so frightened by now that he ended up wetting himself and was blubbering incoherently. The only word he was able to mutter was, “PLEASE.”

Teth-Adam now grew so angry at hearing ‘Please’ that he took it to mean that the boy was trying to beg for forgiveness. In a burst of anger above what he was already feeling he yelled out, “This is your punishment.” He then flung the boy into the nearest wall watching as the blood spatter started to run down the wall.

From around the corner of the wall, watching from the shadows and around the courtyard, a mass of people came out shouting at Teth-Adam. “He was innocent,” “You killed an innocent boy,” “He did nothing wrong,” and “Murderer,” were the different yells that came from the crowd of Egyptians.

Teth-Adam turned from the lifeless body of the boy and looked up at the crowd as a platoon of soldiers came around the corner, as four of the palace mages cast a spell to restrain him. “Teth-Adam, for your crimes of murder and inciting riots we place you under arrest. Do not fight us or you will make it worse for yourself,” the captain of the guard said. He and his men had been those that were stationed at the palace and they all knew Teth-Adam.

Teth-Adam looked from the dead body of the boy to the captain of the palace guard and he nodded his head. “I will come with you,” he said as he fell in next to the captain.

Cheers went up around the mass of people as they followed the soldiers who were escorting Teth-Adam back to the palace. “Death to Teth-Adam,” and “Kill Adam, he’s a murderer,” were some of the shouts that accompanied Teth-Adam and the soldiers towards the palace.

At the gates to the palace the soldiers formed a wall and refused to allow the citizens any closer. The captain and a few of his soldiers escorted Teth-Adam into the palace. There he was taken to his rooms and placed under guard.

The next evening at sundown, Teth-Adam was brought before a council of elders and was put on trial. The father of the boy that Teth-Adam had murdered that morning was brought in to testify that his son had been innocent when Teth-Adam had killed him.

The eldest man stood up and tapped a statue of a golden cat sitting against the table that the elders were sitting at. There were seven in all. They represented the seven districts of the kingdom of Egypt. They were all dressed in white robes and each had a symbol which represented the individual districts of Egypt. They were all relatively older than most of the people within their respective kingdoms. Some actually had white hair. The elder stood to address Teth-Adam.

“Teth-Adam, you are charged with very grave crimes. You were once protector of Egypt, but have now become the vilest of villains anywhere in the kingdom of Egypt. Do you, Adam, have anything to say for yourself?” the elder asked.

Adam looked at the gathered representatives and then lowered his head.

“Very well, Adam. Let us hear an account of what happened this morning then.” The elder looked over at a man, sitting on a stool, wearing black in mourning for his killed son.

“My lords, this morning my son escorted me to the square when all of a sudden Teth-Adam burst out of the palace and then he started to chase my son and his friends. He caught my son by the arm and started to yell at him, demanding he tell him what he stole. My lords, my son didn’t steal anything. We are farmers from outside the city only here to try and sell what we could for food,” he said, and then he looked over at Adam. “He continued to question my son, then, when he cried out ‘Please’, Adam told him that this was his punishment for stealing and then threw him against a wall and blood started to pour down the wall as my son’s lifeless body fell to the ground. I fell over in shock and then the palace guards came and took him into custody,” the man said as he collapsed to the ground in agony from reliving what he had seen earlier that morning.

The elders turned to one another, mumbling and motioning towards Teth-Adam. The elder looked from one side to the other as the men around him leaned closer to him. “Teth-Adam, for your heinous crimes of murder we strip you of your title and banish you to the scarab for all eternity,” he said.

Before Teth-Adam could protest, four men wearing the robes of the royal magicians came out and surrounded Adam. They began to chant and make motions with their hands. Before everyone’s eyes a faint glow started to form around Teth-Adam. Suddenly above Teth-Adam appeared a frail old man with long white shaggy hair and beard that came down to his waist, he wore a white robe with a gold sash around his waist. The great Wizard Shazam had been summoned to banish his former champion. The wizard’s face was filled with sadness as a sickly green smoke started to envelop Teth-Adam. As it approached his head the glow became bright and then, in a sudden flash, Teth-Adam's chiseled body was sucked of his powers and his soul; on the lifeless corpse was a golden scarab. It glowed for a moment, and then the body fell to the ground with a thud.