Issue #7: "Goddess Found, Part One: Unearthed"

One Tuesday morning, the students at Fawcett City High were in their second class for the day, and the bell was about to ring for them to switch to the third class.

Billy Batson was currently in social science and in the seat next to him was Freddy Freeman, his best friend. The teacher, Mark Krieger, was lecturing on the Civil War. Billy Batson was, on the outside, the typical sixteen-year-old boy - he loved football, cars and girls. Freddy Freeman also, outwardly, appeared to be a typical sixteen-year-old boy, however, unlike his best friend Billy, he was an orphan and was more into girls and finding a home than football and cars. The two were watching the clock waiting for the bell to ring.

Mark Krieger was a middle-aged man who kept his head shaved and seemed to have a fascination with Europe and the two World Wars. Mark, much like Billy and Freddy, had a secret to hide, but, unlike the two boys that were his star pupils, his secret was of a more devious type. It was one that even to this day Mark tried to hide from everyone, for he knew that if his secret ever got out he would be in trouble. Mark’s secret was tattooed on his left bicep. There the tattoo was of an eagle and it was holding a hammer in one claw and a shield in the other. In the great bird’s beak was held a flagpole with a red flag. In the center of it was a black Swastika.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the school, Mary Bromfield was working on her announcements for the events that she would be reporting on, such as the results of the previous night’s varsity baseball game, and how the girls’ volleyball team had won. She would also announce the students who wanted to run for class president. Mary Bromfield was the typical seventeen-year-old girl. She liked boys and horses and dressing pretty and make-up. She also had one secret that she kept from the world and that was that she cared about both Billy and Freddy, however she was desperately in love with Freddy.

The Fawcett City High School bell rang, signaling the end of the second class for the day. Once the bell fell silent, Mary Bromfield’s voice came forth from the speakers throughout the school. She began to praise the whole baseball team for shutting out the Janesville High baseball team. She also congratulated the women’s volleyball team for a very narrow win over the Edgerton High volleyball team. She then started to list the different candidates who were running for class president.

Billy and Freddy were outside on the football field with the rest of their classmates for P.E. Both of them saw several of Fawcett City’s police cruisers racing past the school’s football field. Billy and Freddy looked at each other, each one knowing what the other one was thinking. Freddy asked the gym teacher if he could go to the nurse’s office because he wasn’t feeling good. Billy stated that he would help Freddy get to the nurse’s office. The gym teacher just waved them off as he attempted to regain his students’ attention from the police cruisers driving by the field.

Billy and Freddy went behind the bleachers and spoke their respective magical words that would transform these young boys into Captain Marvel and Kid Marvel. With a loud boom, two of the Wizard Shazam’s champions flew into the blue sky of Fawcett City.

One of the most expensive suites in this fine hotel had been the home to an upcoming magician named Caesar. Several weeks ago, this young mage started to expand his audience from Las Vegas’s famous Starfish Hotel and Casino. He started a small four-city tour and that had ended in Metropolis. But prior to his arrival in Superman’s city, tragedy had struck the young magician…struck him twice. But Caesar would not let his guard down for anyone to see his pain.

Since he wrapped up his magical tour, he had been an occult consultant to Metropolis’s Special Crime Unit. He had worked with Metropolis’s finest, which included the beautiful Captain Maggie Sawyer and the legendary Guardian. And life in the big city wasn’t boring either. The experience had left Caesar with a broken left forearm for six to eight weeks. Caesar could’ve casted a spell to heal his broken bone, but he chose to let it heal naturally, as a way of reminding him of his own humanity and vulnerability. Plus it also gave him the chance to get a few more numbers from the nursing staff at the hospital.

Caesar looked around his hotel room, and the bed where his sister had once lay, and he remembered the time he had attempted to awaken his little sister from her mystical coma only to let loose a demon on the city of Metropolis. One thought entered his mind as he exited his hotel room, I’ll get you out of that coma, sis, I swear I will.

A few minutes later, Caesar walked up to the counter to check out, and saw the familiar face behind the counter. He smiled at the beautiful receptionist and snapped his fingers. A pink rose magically appeared in his right hand. He handed the rose to the receptionist and said, “Well it’s time for me to move on to other things, sweetie…I just wanted to say goodbye and I’ll give you a call next time I’m in the big city…and by the way, I just wanted to make sure that the Special Crime Unit has picked up the tab for my room from a few weeks back.”

The receptionist smiled and said, “Yes, the Metropolis Police Department has paid your bill and I hope you DO come back to Metropolis sooner than later. And by the way you have a message.” She handed Caesar a note that had a handwritten message on it.

Caesar smiled at the receptionist and walked towards the entrance of the hotel. He read the note. ‘Please contact Dr. Thomas, at your earliest convenience. Call Fawcett City Museum and ask for Dr. Thomas in the Egyptian History Department.’

Caesar walked over to his expensive exotic sports car and thought to himself, I guess I could see what the deal is with this Doc Thomas. With a broken arm, I won’t be driving my Lambo anywhere.

Caesar snapped his fingers and his wand magically appeared in his right hand. He pointed the wand at his car and recited a spell, “To prevent my car from being stripped on the block, I’ll just shrink it down to the size of a combination lock.” And with the casting of the spell and a flash of crimson red energy, the exotic sports car was shrunk down. He placed the car inside his jacket pocket.

His wand disappeared and a cell phone appeared in his right hand. He first called information and got the phone number for the museum. Caesar was surprised when he found out that Dr. Thomas was in fact Dr. Adrianna Thomas…a woman. She had asked if he had time to meet with her:

‘So, Mr. Caesar, I would like to schedule a meeting with you for the end of the week to further discuss this business proposal.’

“Well if you’ve got some free time this evening I could meet you tonight at your museum? That is if it is okay with your boyfriend or husband?” Caesar replied while flirting to see if she was single or not.

‘Tonight??? Well, I’m not married and don’t have a boyfriend to consult with, but I thought you were still in Metropolis?’

“Distance matters not to one such as I,” Caesar said with great confidence in his voice.

‘I guess tonight will be fine. Six o’clock at the museum.’

“Then it’s a date then… See you at six,” Caesar said, ending his cell phone call with Dr. Thomas.

Freddy Freeman and Billy Batson returned to their mortal states once more. Billy looked at his wristwatch and realized that they had just missed their P.E. class. Freddy realized this and clapped his hands together. “Great, we didn’t miss lunch.”

Billy just shook his head as they ran into the locker room to change out of their gym clothes. Just as they finished getting dressed, the bell rang for their lunch period. Freddy ran to get into the lunch line. Billy just grabbed Freddy’s backpack along with his own and walked towards Jeremy Brown and Mary Bromfield, who had just sat down at one of the lunch tables. Jeremy was dressed in a green collared polo shirt with tan khaki pants. His normally afro hair was braided in corn rolls. He took off his round wire-framed glasses and wiped some dust off the lenses, before he placed them back on his face. Jeremy was one of the smartest in their class and possibly in the whole school. A few months ago, he and his parents had moved from Opal City; from the Nutmeg State to Fawcett City.

Mary was dressed in her new style - that of a preppy academy girl. She wore a white button-down collared shirt with a reddish brown sweater vest with a matching skirt. She had a smile that would make the strictest teacher soften their own rules. For so long Billy and Freddy had both had crushes on her. Slowly Billy’s crush was fading as Freddy was really gaining courage as if he was Achilles to one day ask her out.

Jeremy handed some papers to Billy. “Here are the notes that you didn’t take for Mr. Lieberman’s Algebra class.”

“Thanks.”

“So Mary, I can count on your vote for Class President?” Jeremy asked Mary.

“I don’t know if you are going to flip-flop on the issues that need to be addressed…such as where are we having our Seasonal Formal.”

“Well, Preppy, that depends on who will be your date?” Jeremy asked with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“Fortunately for you, I don’t date politicians.”

Jeremy just shook his head and smiled at Mary’s reply. “Plus you’re just mad that my GPA is higher than yours.”

“Hey, your parents are…” Mary started to state.

Freddy arrived with his lunch tray and sat next to Mary.

The police captain was standing behind the two-way mirror as his two detectives came out of the interrogation room. “Who the hell is this Mister Longshadow??? I wonder what the hell he was really trying to find in that research facility,” he said.

The first detective looked up at his captain. “Well, soon we’ll have a catalog of what was stolen. Sir, I don’t think that this Mr. Longshadow was the boss behind this theft and break in,” he said and the captain and other detective looked at him.

“What? What do you mean that you don’t think that he was the boss behind this? Who do you think was behind it then?” the captain said as he looked from the second detective to the first one and then back into the room where the man was still cuffed to the table.

“Well, sir, I don’t think it was Longshadow because if it was him then why would those men be wearing reptilian masks? I think there might be significance to the fact that the masks were reptilian,” he said and he too looked back into the room.

“Hmm, that is a good point. But we obviously can’t get that information from him. He claims that he doesn’t know,” the captain said and then he looked at his second detective. “Did you pull his rap sheet?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, he’s clean. This is his first offense for anything so he’s telling the truth. I even called up his personal information and he was laid off from his last job. It appears that there was some sort of downsizing and he was one of the unlucky ones,” the second detective said.