Countdown (29 page)

Eclipso nodded slyly. “Think, child. You have the power to topple gods. Draw close to the Dark Lord, use your power to seduce him, vie for concubine ... and when the time is right, when he is falsely confident of his dominion over you,
then
we strike him down!” She sauntered over to Mary and insinuated her arm around the younger woman’s shoulders. She whispered into Mary’s ear, “Do you see now? I wasn’t offering you to Darkseid; I was offering all of Apokolips to you!”

Her mentor’s depraved proposal was like a splash of cold water against Mary’s face. The startled heroine couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “A concubine? A whore?” She shoved Eclipso away from her. “Is that all I am to you? A means to an end?”

“No ... wait!” Eclipso stammered, grasping that she had said the wrong thing. “That’s not what I meant... !” Mary wasn’t hearing any more of it. She kicked herself for giving Eclipso even a chance to weasel her way back into her confidence again. “Forget it!” She snatched the black diamond from Eclipso’s fingers and placed it before her eye just like she’d seen Eclipso do. “I can see the truth now, and you have nothing to do with it!”

A beam of violet energy shot from the gemstone, blasting Eclipso off the asteroid. The stunned villainess flew clear of the rock’s meager gravity. She somersaulted backward through space. Luck alone kept her from crashing into one of the neighboring asteroids.

' • “Holy Moley!” Mary exclaimed. Despite herself, she was impressed by the gem’s power. “I guess diamonds really are a girl’s best friend.”

Not yet defeated, Eclipso swiftly recovered from the attack. Halting her uncontrolled tumble through the asteroid field, she righted herself with respect to Mary. Her bisected face glared murderously at her onetime dupe, all pretense of friendship abandoned. “That’s mine!” she snarled. Her outstretched fingers opened and closed convulsively, hungry for the stolen gem. “Give it back!” Mary couldn’t resist gloating a bit. She took off from the asteroid and flew toward Eclipso. She held up the glittering black diamond, flaunting it before her foe. “You know what they say,” she taunted her erstwhile mentor. “‘Possession is nine-tenths of the law.’”

“No!” Eclipso shrieked, sounding positively crazed by her lust for the gem. She lunged at Mary with her fingers extended like claws. Her amethyst eyes were wild. “You can’t have it! It’s mine ... MINE!”

She slammed into Mary, her momentum propelling them both into a nearby asteroid. Mary grunted with pain as they crashed into the rugged surface of the rock. Pulverized chunks of ice and stone forever escaped the asteroid. The impact jarred Mary, knocking the diamond from her grip, while her stunned body cushioned Eclipso’s own collision with the rock. The frantic she-demon pounced eagerly on the gem. “Yes!”

“How ... ?” A puzzled Mary rose from the center of a freshly carved crater. She had thought that Eclipso would be powerless without her precious jewelry. “How did you manage that?”

“Foolish child!” Eclipso fondled her accursed prize. “The black diamond and I are bonded. We are one.” She floated off the asteroid so that she could sneer down at Mary. “How dare you attempt to come between us! We are Eclipso! We are one!”

A violet beam drove Mary face-first into the granite floor of the crater. The blow hurt like hell, but she found the strength to climb back onto her feet. Eclipso’s maniacal fixation on the diamond reminded Mary of a certain ring-obsessed fictional character. “That all you got, Gol-lum?” she challenged Eclipso, spitting out a mouthful of powdered silica. She hurled herself at the hovering woman like a missile. “’Cause it’s
my
turn now.”

“I think not,” Eclipso said. A second bolt of mystical energy halted Mary’s charge, flinging her backward through space. Mar}' clenched her teeth, holding back a scream, as the searing blast scalded her skin. Eclipso cackled like the witch she was. “Ungrateful whelp! We offered you the darkness—and look how you repay us!” She soared toward Mary, her feathered cloak spread out behind her like the wings of a raptor. “Very well, then. I’ll have your power for my own, long before I intended to seize it!”

Her scheming words reignited Mary’s anger at being manipulated. “You lying witch!” she exploded. “You’re just like all the others! All you ever wanted was my power!” She rocketed to meet Eclipso’s assault head-on. Lightning crackled in her eyes and fists. “Want my power, huh? Have a taste on me!”

She struck the deceitful villainess like a comet. A golden thunderbolt shredded Eclipso’s lavender aura, blasting both women clear of the asteroid field. Locked in combat, grappling for control of the black diamond, they careened through space at superhuman speed. They barely noticed Mars’s ruddy brilliance as they barreled past the Red Planet toward Earth. Mary’s fist was locked around Eclipso’s throat, while the enraged demoness clawed at Mary’s face with long purple nails. A hastily conjured force field blocked Mary’s right cross. Eclipso held tightly on to her unholy gem, “Die, Mary Marvel!” she hissed. “And in death, surrender the power I crave!”

Face-to-face with Eclipso’s naked malice and lust for power, Mary shuddered in recognition.
Is that what I looked like when I ransacked Zatanna’s library . .. just to increase my own magical might? When I terrorized mortal criminals in the name of vengeance?

' * It wasn’t a pretty picture.

I thought I was strong enough to contain Black Adam’s darkness, but really it’s been controlling me, making me dance like a puppet at the ends of Eclipso’s strings.

But not anymore.

She tore her gaze away from Eclipso’s fiendish countenance. Ahead of them, Earth shone in space with a serene blue radiance that could not have been more different from the infernal glow of the black diamond. “You almost had me, Jean,” she confessed. “I was almost just like you, corrupted beyond redemption, but now I’ve seen enough of the darkness to know that’s not me.”

“Brainless girl!” Eclipso mocked her. “Rejecting the only one who cared enough to show you how your power was truly meant to be used. Poor lost child! No friends, no family, no one to call your own.” Hate contorted her elegant features. Spittle sprayed from her lips. “And no one to blame but yourself!”

They entered Earth’s atmosphere, plunging toward the Atlantic Ocean like dueling meteors. The scorching heat of reentry tested Mary’s invulnerability; her skin felt like it was on fire. Eclipso’s feathered cloak erupted into flame, so that they left a blazing trail behind them as they descended into a clear blue sky. A cooling wind mercifully replaced the unbearable heat. The sea rushed up to meet them. Out of the comer of her eye, Mary thought she spotted a solitary island floating atop the surging waves below.

“It’s over, Eclipso!” Mary felt more like herself than she had in weeks. Her mind raced back over everything that had transpired since she had naively accepted Black Adam’s poisoned gift. “This power you crave has brought me nothing but misery. I don’t want it anymore.”

“No!” Eclipso wailed over the wind whistling past their ears. “Don’t waste it! Give it to me!”

“Take it!” Mary shouted. She wrapped her arms around Eclipso to keep her adversary from escaping. The magic word erupted from her lips. “SHAZAM!”

’ A titanic thunderbolt stmck both women. Eclipso convulsed in agony as the magical lightning charred her flesh, while Mary Marvel instantly transformed back into an ordinary teenage girl. A deafening boom drowned out Eclipso’s screams. Unable to hold on to the flailing demon, Mary Batson let go of Eclipso. Gravity seized her and Mary quickly lost sight of the other woman as they plummeted helplessly toward the waiting sea.

She hit the water seconds later.

14 AND CODNTING.

PARADISE ISLAND.

Mary
awoke upon a sandy shore. Waves lapped against her shoulders as she lay sprawled upon the shore, half in, half out of the ocean. Sand caked her face and hair. Clingy strands of wet seaweed were draped across her body. Her ragged T-shirt and jeans were soaked clean through, while her socks and sneakers had gone missing entirely. Her mouth tasted like brine. She felt sore and bruised all over. The hot sun beat down on her.

It was official. She wasn’t Mary Marvel anymore.

Coughing violently, she retched cold salt water onto the beach. She struggled to lift her aching head from the sand. “Eclipso?” Her bleary eyes glanced from side to side, but found no trace of the treacherous witch.
What happened to her? To both of us?
Mary searched her foggy memory. The last thing she remembered was plunging into the sea after she gave up her powers.
Guess I survived the fall,
she deduced.
Barely.

It seemed a miracle that she hadn’t drowned before washing ashore... where exactly? She dimly recalled spotting an island earlier. Was that where she had ended up?

She dragged herself farther onto shore, out of the water. The effort exhausted her, proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that she was just plain old Mary Batson again.
It’s gone,
she realized.
I don’t feel Black Adam's power, his darkness, anymore.

I’m free.

Water streamed from her drenched auburn hair onto her face. Mary wiped the hair and water away from her eyes. Climbing onto her knees, she crawled forward toward an uncertain future. Seabirds cawed somewhere overhead. A salty breeze chilled her trembling frame. Mary wondered if she had been marooned upon some nameless isle, or if maybe there was a beach resort just beyond the shore?

Metal clanked ominously only a few feet in front of her. A musky animal smell invaded her nostrils. A large wet nose sniffed her damp hair. A low growl froze her in

> her tracks.

Uh-oh,
she thought.
Welcome to the jungle....

Swallowing hard, she lifted her eyes from the ground— and found herself face-to-face with some sort of monstrous hound that looked like a cross between a mastiff and a pit bull. All it needed was two more heads to be the spitting image of Cerberus, the mythical three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Slobber dripped from the hound’s intimidating underbite. Massive forepaws were planted in the sand only a few inches away from her. Bloodshot red eyes seemed to regard her as a prospective chew toy. A spiked collar was clamped around the giant canine’s bull-sized neck. Tracking the dog’s leash with her eyes, Mary saw that the beast was not alone.

A pair of fearsome women warriors glared at Mary from behind their oversized watchdog. Polished bronze armor, of distinctly Grecian design, encased their trim, athletic bodies. Crested Corinthian helmets concealed their features. Their burnished helmets, breastplates, studded leather skirts, and greaves gleamed in the bright afternoon sun. Sheathed swords rested against their hips. Disk-shaped shields were strapped to their forearms.

Amazons.
Mary identified the women at once.
Wonder Woman’s sisters-in-arms.

Suddenly, she had a pretty good idea where she was.

“Identify yourself!” commanded the Amazon holding on to the great hound’s chain. The growling dog strained at its leash, eager to devour the intruder. “State your business!”

The second Amazon brandished a long metal spear. “You are trespassing on Paradise Island!”

Yeah, I kind of figured that out,
Mary' thought. The Amazons’ tone was less than welcoming.
Maybe giving up my powers wasn ’t such a good idea. . . .

APOKOLIPS.

> “What
is this place?” Jimmy asked.

After escaping from the torture chamber, Forager had led him to a secret lair deep within the bowels of the Arma-getto. Hissing steam pipes and power cables crisscrossed the stark concrete walls and ceiling. Powerful engines thrummed in the background. Vermin scuttled through the dank tunnels beyond the cramped subbasement. The spartan furnishings consisted of a crude cot, a pair of rusty metal stools, and a portable stove. A hanging lantern provided just enough light to see by. An open footlocker held batteries, ammunition, and other supplies. Forager’s bloodstained armor lay in a heap upon the floor.

“A hidden outpost for spying on Darkseid,” she called out from an adjacent shower stall. The spatter of cascading water muffled her voice somewhat. A grimy plastic curtain shielded her from his view. “I’ve used it as my base of operations on previous espionage missions here.”

“I get it,” Jimmy said. “Sort of your own private safe house.” He changed into a suit of khaki coveralls he found hanging in a closet. “You’ve planned for everything, haven’t you?” Taking a seat upon one of the stools, he heard the water shut off behind the curtain. “You know, I can’t help thinking that maybe I’m slowing you down. If I’m keeping you from finding the lost souls of the New Gods ...”

His voice trailed off as, amidst clouds of billowing steam, Forager emerged nude from the shower. Jimmy tried not to gape, but found it impossible to look away from her alien beauty. Without her chitinous carapace, the svelte insect-woman looked surprisingly human. Her lustrous pink skin was invitingly sleek and unblemished. True, her supple legs ended in three-toed claws, but Jimmy wasn’t exactly staring at her feet. His freckled face blushed crimson.

“Ah,” she buzzed, “the filth of Darkseid’s squalid dungeons is off me at last.” She seemed not at all self-conscious about her nudity. Plucking a well-worn towel from a peg, she began to diy herself off. “And please cease apologizing, Jimmy. If you were a hindrance, I would not have brought you to Apokolips in the first place.”

Jimmy swallowed hard, distracted by the lovely vision before him. “O-okay.”

“I must tell you something,” she continued. “When you pressed your mandibles to mine—”

He recalled the sweet taste of her nectar upon his lips. “We call that a ‘kiss.’”

“Yes, when you kissed me,” she clarified, “I finally realized why you possess such astounding powers.”

Jimmy jumped to his feet. “You did?”

She strolled across the basement, revealing a row of dorsal scales running down the graceful contours of her back. Jimmy realized belatedly that her wings had been artificial and merely part of the body armor she had worn before. “At that moment, I sensed within you the power of the gods.” “Whoa, there!” he protested. “I’m no god.”