All-Stars #1: The Time Has Come part 1

Fawcett City, today
The red and white blur came to a sudden stop in the familiar rocky chamber beneath Fawcett City. Captain Marvel stepped up and lit the brazier. The flickering bluish flames released the spirit of the ancient wizard in response.

“Greetings, Captain Marvel. You have received and answered my summons with great speed.” The wizard smiled

“It’s a good thing for you it’s summer vacation, Wizard,” Captain Marvel answered with his own friendly grin. “Otherwise, nagging dreams or no, you’d be waiting. School comes first, or so I’ve been told often enough by certain influential people.” He winked.

“Normally you are correct. Billy Batson’s education is important,” Shazam answered. He turned and headed towards the deep, dark recesses of the chamber, and waved his hand. “Come with me, Captain Marvel. The time has come to show you one final gift.”

“Final gift?” The Captain asked as a brow rose quizzically as he followed the flickering image of the Wizard down the still darkness. “I’ve been at this for the better part of three years now, and you’re just getting around to telling me about another one of my powers? What have you been holding out on me?”

“I needed to see you prove yourself, to uphold the trust bestowed on you,” Shazam explained as the darkness opened up to a large domed room filled with scrolls, globes and maps. A small circular access pierced near the top of the dome. “After Black Adam, I needed to know I had made the right choice. You have not only proven to me that you are an excellent champion, but your charges Mary and Freddy have shown me that you will make a worthy successor.”

Captain Marvel’s eyes widened at the sight of the room. “Holy Moley!” Then he looked at Shazam in further amazement, heart swelled with pride. “Really? Thanks. From you, Wizard, that really means a lot.”

“Now is not the time to dwell on sentimentality though, Captain Marvel. Now pay close heed to this last gift,” Shazam explained. The hero nodded, and he continued, “This gift is potentially the most powerful and dangerous, which is why I’ve held it back until now, when I could be sure.”

Captain Marvel paced the room as he listened, picked up a scroll here and gazed at an orrery there. His Wisdom explained to him the functions and information to be gleaned from each.

“This is not beneath your city,” the Wizard continued to explain. “That was just a convenient portal to this place to start. From now on, you will be able to fly directly here to this place.” He waved his arms in sweeping arcs over his head and the dome revealed images of space whirling around a jutting spire of rock like a buoy at the center of everything. “This is the Rock of Eternity.”

Captain Marvel let out a low whistle. “Holy Moley! The Rock of Eternity? This is the Rock of Eternity?” He turned in a slow circle to take in the vast panorama. “Wow! The Rock of Eternity.” He stopped and faced the Wizard, who had lowered his arms by this time and the images were returned to the rock dome. “What’s a Rock of Eternity?”

Shazam’s face brightened with mirth as he chuckled. “From here, your Speed of Mercury and Wisdom of Solomon can use the science of Sacred Geometry to reach any point in space…and time.”

“Sacred Geometry,” Captain Marvel murmured as his Wisdom displayed to his mind’s eye the concepts of basic mystic angles and curves that underlie the foundations of the universe. “Neat. So…I can fly really fast, in a particular shape, here, and get anywhere?”

The Wizard nodded. “But time travel is a dangerous tool. Use it sparingly and wise. And now, as to why I have chosen now to show you this gift.” He walked to a globe of the Earth and spun it, sparks caroming from his fingertips and striking the sphere to reveal new images. Images of a blood-red flag emblazoned with a black shield, flapping across the world and not a sign of a costumed hero to be seen.

“The Justice Society of America has been removed from time,” Shazam explained. “Without this august body, there will be none others. This man,” the image shifted to a red-headed man in a black stormtrooper uniform, “this cipher Degaton, has stolen them from the past, then conquered the world.”

“How am I here?” Captain Marvel looked confused. “How do I remember the JSA? That makes no sense.”

“Here in the Rock, the rushing water of time holds no sway. When you return to the past, your Wisdom and Stamina will guard your memories.”

“That’s impressive,” The Captain admitted. “So I need to stop this Degaton and save the JSA? Should be easy enough.”

“Not quite. There is more to do, but you’ll understand when you get there, Captain Marvel,” Shazam said. “Degaton’s abilities may be more than they seem, but they can not be discerned here. Understand this though: the legacy of the Justice Society is imperative to the stability of Earth. Moreover, the JSA as it stands lacks resonance enough to withstand these temporal assaults.”

“So I need to instill resonance? Like what?”

“The Power of Three, Captain Marvel,” Shazam defined. “Pillars of courage and bravery that form the bedrock of each age of heroism. Optimism, Equality and Determination. Strength, Power and Justice. You’ll understand, but watch for it. Form it.” He pointed to the access in the roof. “Now go, Captain Marvel!”

With a nod, the crimson hero lifted off through the aperture and then arced around the Rock with increasing speed and sharper angles until he vanished from view.



Mount Thunder, 1940
The black-clad man tossed the sheriff’s badge from one hand to another and grinned. He looked at the surrounding countryside and grinned. “No more genies. That’s the last of the vaunted Justice Society. Now back to my people and the world.” He chuckled as he stepped into a simple plain cylinder of dull steel color, eight feet in height and four feet in diameter.

And then it slowly vanished from sight and memory with a quiet wheeze.



Gotham City, 1941
Wonder Woman approached the Gotham City brownstone cautiously. Queen Hippolyta had just returned from Europe with her mind seized in trying to resolve the mystery that had driven her back to America. Gaps were starting to form in her memory, and it drove her to seek out people she could no longer locate. She could find no source for these attacks, and no enemy presented itself. But the ambush on her mind was clear, and she worried that it threatened her sanity. Too long on Man's World perhaps, she wondered. She put that distressing thought aside though, as she stood before the main doors. The stiff breeze tugged at her blue, leather skirt.

She approached what she knew was the headquarters of the Justice Society of America, instincts on full alert. The main doors were coated in chipped, drab paint, the heraldry of the JSA missing. The whole building, she regarded, looked unused for months.

She drew her silvery sword and hefted the round, glittering shield into position. Then she lashed out with a powerful kick that sent the doors flying open. In response, several beams of light lanced out, but bounced and slid from the polished shield, burning holes in the walls.

“What have you villains done to the Justice Society?” Hippolyta demanded of the oddly-garbed attackers. There were four, in blood-red helmets and black visors that hid the concerns on their faces. Again, the laser weapons fired, but were unable to pierce the mirrored shield.

“It’s Wonder Woman!” cried out the leader, and he flicked the communicator on his helmet. “She remembers, sir! She remembers the JSA! Wonder Woman re—urk!” The flat of her blade shattered the helm to pieces and cracked his temple as he dropped. All four were unconscious as she quickly took stock of her position. She could hear the footsteps from the floor above.

“Red Morgue units four and seven, converge on Wonder Woman and eliminate her!” Hippolyta heard the command over one of the other helmet radios and grinned wickedly. She positioned herself at the foot of the stairs as five more men appeared and began to fire their brilliant beams. She blocked the shots as she bolted up the stairs in a blur. As she collided with her foes, she failed to notice the five that drifted down to the front door and enter the hall behind her.

As the silver blade and gleaming shield mowed through the first five soldiers, five laser sites lined up on Hippolyta’s back. But the triggers were never pulled.

When Wonder Woman turned to look at the five new attackers, she found them all unconscious, laying at the golden boots of Captain Marvel, who was wiping his hands with a big grin.

She took a step in his direction and before she could blink an eye, she stood face to face with the Captain.

“Hera!” she exclaimed as she looked down at the red leather strap sandals she wore. “I’ve never moved that fast! The Sandals of Hermes take getting used to, but still, I’m trained.”

“Sandals of Hermes? That explains it,” the hero said as he put a hand out to shake. “I’m Captain Marvel, and I channel the Speed of Mercury himself as one of my powers. It must make the sandals…resonate in my presence.” He looked thoughtful at the word.

She looked up at him with quiet respect, a first for a man in centuries. “A champion of the gods? Here and now? Then your appearance is either very fortuitous or in response to the mystery now afoot,” she said as she shook his hand uncertainly.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Wonder Woman,” the Captain said with his grin unwavering, and his eyes staring into hers. “I’m here because of the JSA. An invader from time, called Degaton, is behind all this.”

“Then we must find where he holds the Society, free them and dispatch this man and his…’Red Morgue’,” she said with a determined voice.

“Easier said then done,” Captain Marvel replied. “The JSA isn’t just captured, but removed from history. Degaton probably didn’t think to go back far enough in time to stop you. He might not even believe your history if he’s a scientist. We have to stop him and his plan, whatever it is. And that’s probably why this will be so tough. The JSA is just the first step, we have to figure out what his real scheme is.”

She nodded, and replied, a sneer dripping off the last word of her question. “But who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?”

As if in answer, a dark shape stepped from the corner of the hall, as an icy laugh spread across the scene. A splash of red beneath the long, hooked nose broke up the black and hid the newcomer’s lower face.

“The Shadow knows.”

And then there were Three.

TO BE CONTINUED!