Mightiest Mortals #7

Freddy Freeman was bitterly unhappy with the day. It was bright and sunny out, a few puffy white clouds to dot the bright blue of the late morning, and a warm breeze floated over the rolling hill. This left Freddy feeling fouler than he should have, as he stared at the casket being lowered into the ground. Inside was his cousin Christopher Freeman, and across the way from the grave was his step-brother, Timothy Karnes, and this just added to the fury. It was too nice a day out for the darkness Freddy found himself in, and the impotent rage in his chest drowned out the words of comfort from the priest.

As the funeral came to an end, Freddy stood stock still, his hands jammed into his pockets, and struggled to breathe through the emotions flooding him. He watched Tim Karnes walk up towards him, dressed in a nice black suit, looking for all the world like some young executive instead of the thug he’d always been, or the super-powered monster Freddy now knew he was.

“Freddy, Freddy, Freddy,” Tim said as he put an arm around Freddy’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry to see you standing here, all alone in the world. It’s not right, bro. Not even that little runt of a friend of yours, Willy, around with ya. That’s just not right. But I’m here, bro. I’m here for you, like you’ve always been there for me. Come on. Let’s go, I’ll take care of ya, things will be better now. You and me against the world again, like when we were younger.”

Freddy looked at him, met the dark eyes of Tim Karnes, and stared at him angrily. “Younger? I’m thirteen, and you’re sixteen. There’s no younger yet, you ass. And as for letting you take care of me, you’re insane. I know who you are, and I’m going to bring you down.”

Tim shook his head sadly and let go of Freddy. “Kit’s in the ground because of thoughts like that, bro. You want to play angry with me, fine, but don’t get in my way. You’re way out of your league there, Freddy. Way out. Don’t mess with me.” He turned and started to walk off, another thug stepping in line behind him, and then he turned and looked at Freddy. “Listen, kid, my door’s always open. We’re family. That’s not gonna change.” He stepped into his luxury sedan, and soon pulled away.

Freddy stared at the now empty road, and shook with fury. “I’m out of my league, but Billy’s not, you bastard,” he muttered to himself.

Meanwhile…
…the reason Billy Batson wasn’t at the funeral involved his currently being hurled through the side of a building as Captain Marvel. The brick and mortar let go as the powerful body smashed through to disappear in a cloud of rubble. The sounds of gunfire continued to rage across the streets. The crack of pistols and revolvers mixed with the whine of energy beams, as the police struggled to contain the ever-growing, if bizarre, army that stepped from the warehouse of Dr. Sivana.

Chief Kitchens had arrived, and though safely to the rear of the perimeter his men had established, he refused to hide, he continued to direct his men against the attackers.

“How many more of those…things are there? What the hell are they?” he demanded to know, his round face turning red with anger and frustration.

“Don’t know, sir, but they even put the kibosh on Captain Marvel,” said an officer near him. “What can we do?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Captain Marvel said with a reassuring smile as he landed near the police chief. He gave a friendly wink to the uniformed officer and then turned his attention back to Kitchens. “You know, as if seeing his ugly mug once wasn’t bad enough. An army of Sivanas? There has to be a law of nature being broken.”

The two men looked towards the front door of the warehouse, where the fifteenth Sivana was now stepping out. The various Sivanas were all identical, all in the white labcoat, all with the same thick circular glasses and shiny bald misshapen head. And they all tittered or taunted or claimed their intellectual superiority over anyone near them. They differed in only one respect: each of them utilized some advanced weapon, nearly all seemingly attached to or embedded in, the Sivana in question. Electrical bolts, rail gun flechettes, gouts of flame, beams of light, all and more were ravaging the neighborhood.

“How did this all start, Chief?” Captain Marvel asked.

“Beats me,” the police chief answered. “We came with technicians under court order to dismantle the computer inside, and take it to the university. When we opened the front door, something started pumping out those…those Sivanas. Whatever they are.”

“The computer? Beautia? You can’t mean that?” Captain Marvel looked at Kitchens with alarm. “That’s not just a computer, it might be the last remnants of a young woman. Dismantling her could kill her!”

An explosion tore up a police car and some of the nearby street, scattering officers in its wake as Sivana 16 stepped out with a rocket launcher built into its shoulders.

“It’s a court order, son,” Kitchens said as he ducked behind the super-hero. “It’s DA Barr. She’s the one who’s insistent that this…’Beautia’ did you call her? That this Beautia is just a machine with the information needed to convict Sivana for life.”

“You need to get your men to investigate and collect any and all information on Beautia Sivana immediately, Chief,” Captain Marvel said as he stood with arms akimbo, acting as shield for the police near him. “We have to show Mrs. Barr the truth.”

”I’d love to, but we’re stretched thin what with Boss Ibac and his men,” Kitchens replied. “And while we’re here talking, those things are tearing things up. Are you going to handle them?”

“Right, Ibac is taking advantage of my breaking up Sabbac’s little take over bid last week,” Marvel replied with a grim look. “I can’t shake the feeling that this Miss Minerva is using me in some way.” He took a deep breath, and said, “I’ll take care of this situation, Chief. If your men just hold the perimeter and make sure none get loose, I’ll get to the bottom of this. In exchange, you’ll have to get your men down to the Brick Town Precinct, and put down the Ibac move.”

“What do you mean?” Kitchens glared at Marvel. “Why the precinct house?”

“Because that’s who he has for men down there,” Marvel replied as he started to lift off. “Turns out the captain is in Ibac’s pocket, and if you check out his brother’s back accounts, you’ll get all the paper trail you need.” With that, Captain Marvel zipped down the street.

“Damn!” Kitchens muttered as he slipped into his car and began to radio orders to his men. “Double damn! I hate bad cops!” He then began to bark more orders.

Captain Marvel crashed into several of the Sivanas, and saw his fists as they struck the bizarre army. The surface flexed and caved like clay, and Marvel’s confident smile returned. “Don’t have to be gentle with you, then,” he said as he started to unleash his full strength with gleeful abandon, tearing Sivanas into pieces.

“You Big Red Cheese! You’ll never defeat my brilliance!” “I am the most dangerous intellect in the world! Die!” “You dumb, stupid jerk! Don’t you dare endanger my daughter!” “I’ll see you pay for everything you’ve done to my family, you over-sized gumdrop!” The cacophony of curses was beginning to irritate Captain Marvel as his great wisdom started to run through everything in his mind.

“I have to admit, it’s like having a stress ball,” he said as he crushed another Sivana into a flattened putty man. “Have to figure out what Minerva’s game is. She must be a gang boss figure herself, maybe making a move on the Fawcett underworld. That must be it.” A powerful blast of sonic energy sent Captain Marvel tumbling through the air, and smashing through the front door in time to destroy Sivana 18.

“Beautia!” Captain Marvel cried out. “What are you doing?” He shook his head and stood up, unsure if he should return to the battle outside, or try to confront the artificial intelligence. “I need a sidekick,” he commented to himself as Sivana 19 walked up behind him and crashed a thin right arm laden with a massive ball of crackling purple energy that sent the hero smashing through a side wall. He pulled himself back in through the hole he’d just left and sped around #19, tearing it into small pieces of clay-like material. “A whole family of them would be nice even.”

“Beautia, we have to talk!” Marvel shouted as he sped into the laboratory of the mad scientist. He glanced at the large banks of Beautia’s central processors and waved. “I just need to borrow some stuff, then I’ll be right back!” He zoomed through the lab, and snatched up a number of tall metal poles and coils of wire.

Captain Marvel then sped outside, trailing cable behind him and jamming the metal stakes hard into the cement pavement. The cables were strung along the stakes and then Captain Marvel streaked back into the warehouse and attached the cables to the powerful generator in the lab. The cables crackled with power, and the makeshift electrical fence caused the Sivanas to stop their advance, at least temporarily.

“Okay, now it’s you and me, Beautia,” Captain Marvel said as he stood before the feminine computer. “What’s going on?”

“A defense mechanism programmed into my circuitry, Captain,” Beautia explained. “This is Sivanaplasm, an artificial, yet organic, material developed by my father. It mimics life, but they aren’t alive. It can be used to make copies of anything, and provide it with a semblance of sentient behavior with special coding.” As she explained, a metal door to one side of the computer opened, revealing Sivana 20, which Captain Marvel quickly dismantled. “When these men came to take me apart, my father’s defense program started up, and I have been creating these duplicates ever since. I am sorry. I want to stop, but am unable to do so.”

“You’re very advanced, though,” Captain Marvel said as he mused. “There can’t be a lot of this…’Sivanaplasm’ left? I assume you can do more at one time than just make Sivanas?”

“Yes, Captain, I can perform other functions,” Beautia replied, with what almost sounded like interest and hope in her electronic voice. “What are you thinking?”

“Too many Sivanas for me to handle alone,” Captain Marvel replied. “The defense program is over here, right?” He said, as he ran his hands over the cabinet which was now releasing Sivana 21. “So if I destroy this, you won’t be able to pump out more Sivanas?”

“I have a second extruder on the other side, Captain,” Beautia said sadly.

”But that one will be busy,” Captain Marvel said with a smile. “You’ll be obeying your programming if you are unable to extrude through this cabinet, but the other is occupied, right?”

“Yes, I believe so,” Beautia said with that curious voice again. “You are a mischievous one, Captain.”

Outside…
“The fence is down!” Cried out one sergeant as the police were slowly forced to retreat from the wave of Sivanas. “Now what, Chief? Where’s Captain Marvel?”

Kitchens was watching the destruction, and scowling as he tried to figure out how to contain the situation. Without the Captain’s help, his men were of little use against such advanced weaponry and the seeming invulnerability to the police firearms.

“Fall back, and find new ground, I’ll try to reach the governor, see about getting in the National Guard,” Kitchens finally ordered as he began to reach for his radio again. Just then, Captain Marvel flew out of the doorway, though his lightning bolt symbol was actually a large, golden “1”.

“Don’t worry, fellows, I’m on the job!” he said with a grin as he flew into a Sivana and began to break it up. Shortly afterwards, a second Marvel, with a golden “2”, joined the battle, with a third, and then a fourth appearing. Soon, the Sivanas were nothing more than dozens of pieces of disintegrating grayish clay.

“Well, that worked out well,” Captain Marvel said with a smile as he wiped his hands. This one had the lightning bolt on his chest as he moved up to his duplicates. “Sorry about this, pals. But you’re not needed anymore, and we can’t have too many of me running around.” With that, Captain Marvel proceeded to dismantle his duplicates.

“What the hell?” Kitchens said as Captain Marvel approached him. “Do I even want to know?”

“I’ll give a full report later on, Chief,” Captain Marvel said. “But for now, the situation’s under control. Beautia is unable to make anymore duplicates, and we’ve removed the programming that forced her to make them anyway. Sivana didn’t like the idea of her being dismantled.”

“Well isn’t that just too bad for him?” came a shrill, female voice. Susan Barr stormed up to Kitchens and Captain Marvel, her face looking quite determined. “If the situation is under control, then we can proceed to deactivate and dismantle this machine.”

”Mrs. Barr, I can only insist in repeating what a bad idea that is,” Captain Marvel said to her, as he actually stepped back a bit from her steely gaze. “We have no idea how to put her back together.”

“It, Captain,” Mrs. Barr corrected him. “It’s a computer. Don’t try making me think it’s alive. It’s a computer. And we’ll dismantle it, and if we can’t put it back together, then we’ll at least be able to figure out what we need from its circuit boards and wires. Now stand aside, Mr. Bigshot Super-hero. Despite your high-handed title, you have no authority here.”

Her phone started to ring and Captain Marvel grinned. “I’d answer that before you go any further with this, Mrs. Barr. I have a feeling you’ll want to take that.”

She snapped open her phone and lifted it to her ear. “Yes, this is DA Barr.” She paused and listened. “Yes, I’m at the scene. No, we haven’t yet. What do you mean don’t?” She turned and glared at Captain Marvel. “Oh really? Did he now? When did this happen? I see. Very well. I’ll be back in the office shortly.” She folded up the phone and slipped it back in her purse.

Captain Marvel just gave that wonderfully friendly, almost goofy grin, and struggled not to chuckle.

“Apparently, I was mistaken. Chief, your men are to station watches, and make sure the computer stays safe where it is. Captain Marvel here has some important friends. Mr. Sterling Morris had his lawyers win an injunction against the dismantling until definite proof can be presented that the computer is only a computer, or really the dead girl of a master criminal.”

Chief Kitchens grinned now, and hid it under his beefy hand stroking his jaw. “Very good, Mrs. Barr. I’ll see to it right away.” He walked off alone and left the two people alone.

“You used this computer to contact Mr. Morris, I assume? You managed to stop a rampaging horde of little monstrosities, disable a super-computer and win it a stay of execution, all in only thirty minutes? I’m impressed. I’ll be sure not to underestimate you again. You’re little station owner won’t save you from my next court order, I assure you, Captain. I’ll see you shut down.” She turned on her heel and stormed off to her car and drove away.

After she had left, Captain Marvel let out a deep sigh of relief. “Powers of the Wizard or not, that woman scares me,” he muttered to himself and then he lifted off into the sky.

Inside
Beautia’s scanners focused on Captain Marvel as he lifted off and away. The electronic voice sighed softly, and her processors ran only one equation over and over.

Marvel and Beautia forever.