by Libbylawrence
Meanwhile, Captain Marvel had restored the climate of Saturn and secured all of the Dragon Men. As he departed from the planet, he spotted a weird energy pattern. Concentric circles of color began to pulsate in his path as he left the planet.
Those things must be the rainbow-colored pattern Commander Venture told us about during our trip here, he thought. She said that she was fleeing from the changing colorful energy display when she activated her quantum drive and ended up in our era!
Despite changing his course, the pattern shifted to intercept him. Those things are sentient! he realized. I recall Captain Midnight mentioned encountering something like them once! (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “Beyond the Sun,” Captain Midnight #64 (June, 1948).]
Charging directly at the swirling colors, Captain Marvel began to spin around like a human top. As he built up increasing amounts of speed and momentum, the colors were caught in his path and dispersed across the universe.
That takes care of them! he thought. I believe they were gaseous beings, and this dispersal will render them helpless until they can reform their scattered molecules. He hesitated for a moment, then smiled broadly. I think I know how to put a quick end to Magnifica’s reign, but I’ll need to make a quick stop back home to do it. Of course, Mary knows how to take care of herself, so that won’t be a problem.
***
Little did Captain Marvel realize that, at that very moment, his sister was about to be carried directly inside the Universal Engine, where a powerful cosmic being of a type they once called Infinity creatures was about to absorb her. She could not speak due to the gel that numbed her vocal cords.
I can’t say Shazam! I’ve got to try! Shazam! she thought desperately.
To her relief, the magic word suddenly came out of her mouth just as she tumbled into the Universal Engine, and the magic lightning flashed. Ursula (Ms. Mind) had picked up on her frantic thoughts and had rushed to her just in time to use her mental powers to control Mary’s motor skills and take forcible control of her vocal chords in time to help her say the magic word.
That chemical substance was too much for Mary to overcome on her own, but we were able to force speech out of her in time! thought Ms. Mind.
Magnifica had heard the thunder, but she also saw the girl tumble inside the massive Universal Engine, so she was unconcerned. She flounced away with the intention of activating the mysterious machine.
But before she could turn the dial, Magnifica was confronted by an auburn-haired slave girl who looked anything but docile.
“Get away from the machine!” said a determined Commander Erin Venture.
Magnifica hesitated for a second, unused to defiance from her slaves. “You dare speak to your ruler like that?” she said haughtily. “Don’t you see I’m trying to help improve your life and the lives of sentient beings everywhere? My Universal Engine will send vibrational forces across the cosmos and break down all hyperspace barriers until all planets become one! Where we have had multiple versions of worlds like Saturn and Mars and Venus, we will soon only have one of each! I have always been the most beautiful woman in this universe, but those poor, ignorant beings from other dimensions have had to live without my radiant appeal to light their benighted lives! With this machine I will make the universe a coherent whole, and I will shine my beauty over all of creation!”
Commander Venture stared at her in disbelief. “Are you serious?” she cried. “All of your effort to rule the universe has been directed with the shallow goal of being crowned Miss Universe? I can’t believe my ears! You’re delusional!”
Magnifica’s blue eyes glazed over with rage as she stood taller and more defiantly. “And how will you stop me, slave girl?” she shouted.
“Like this!” cried Commander Venture, who then punched Magnifica in the nose, followed by a spinning heel kick that brought her to the floor.
As the blonde collapsed, she shrieked in dismay. “My personal force-field should have stopped you!” she cried. She gasped disbelievingly as Commander Venture grabbed her by her hair and struck her again and again.
“I guess you forgot to pay your power bill!” Erin Venture quipped.
Nearby, Atom-13 watched in silence. I deactivated her personal defense system, he thought. It had to be done! She has gone mad. No logical being would risk the destruction of so many worlds to satisfy her own vanity!
He casually opened his chest plate to reveal a globe containing a miniature planet and its artificial environment. The tiny inhabitants of the dimension I came from have been my friends since I was perfected, he thought. They deserve a world of their own. Perhaps, with the defeat of Magnifica, they may live here in peace.
The Universal Engine suddenly erupted in a nimbus of fiery energy as Mary Marvel erupted from its portal. I was trapped in one of those flame beings from Infinity years ago, and the experience has not become any more comfortable over the years! she thought.
She was free from the gel that had burned away while she was within the energy being, but as in the past, her powers had made her invulnerable to the creature’s strange power. We trapped those things in a metal of our own creation last time we met them, she recalled. I can whip up another containment unit easily enough! I hate to imagine what any machine powered by that kind of being could do!
Ms. Mind waved to her as she flew out of the device. “Wait! It means no harm!” she said telepathically. “We can read its thoughts since your communion with it. It has formed an attachment to you. It has what your kind calls a crush on you! It will obey your orders!”
Indeed, the glowing ball of energy emerged from the Universal Engine without emitting any dangerous level of radiation, but merely followed Mary around like a docile pet.
“‘Mary Marvel had a little ball of infinite energy’ will never become a popular nursery rhyme!” she joked.
As the Universal Engine shut down due to lack of power, Mary spotted her brother swooping in with a familiar figure in his arms. Magnifica? thought Mary. Wait! She was wearing a different dress a minute ago! Or is that Beautia?
The lovely blonde stood confidently before the slaves and the huddled masses of carnivorous frogs. “I am your rightful ruler!” she cried. “It is my wish that you all return to your quarters. This factory of death will be destroyed. Venus will be a world of peace once more!”
Captain Marvel smiled eagerly as he watched and listened to his friend as she held the adoration of the crowd. Beautia’s superhuman charisma has worked a real spell over them! he thought. They think she is Magnifica, and they are already conditioned to obey her. I figured by bringing Beautia here from our time, I could bring a peaceful end to the conflict, or at least stop the frogs from fighting us.
Commander Venture stood over a badly bruised Magnifica, who cowered at her feet in shock. “My face! What have you done to me?” she sobbed as she saw her now puffy and bleeding features displayed from countless prisms on each wall.
She just shut down like a machine, thought Commander Venture as she led the defeated woman to a secure room. She can’t cope having what Dad would have called a couple of shiners!
***
A few days later, after the two members of the Marvel Family had dismantled the Universal Engine, and Beautia had successfully calmed all the Venusians, Commander Erin Venture surveyed the area.
“With the Saturnians defeated, the Venusians subdued, and the so-called Rightful Ruler of the Universe huddled in a fetal position because her mascara smeared, I think Earth has a real chance to enjoy security!” she said.
“My friends and I will help the people of this world find free will,” said Atom-13. “My scientific skills and the many talents of the occupants of the miniature world I brought with me when Magnifica plucked me from exile will combine to restore all that was lost on this planet when she assumed her cruel rule.”
Ms. Mind offered, “We would like to stay here and experience life on a new world!”
“That’s great,” said Captain Marvel. “Beautia was willing to stay long enough to make sure the frogs won’t create any problem. She viewed the ones from our time as childhood pets, so she doesn’t like to see them manipulated into a warlike state!” An odd humanoid figure in an armored suit watched in silence.
“Infinity seems happy here, too, or at least he likes being here while your sister is near!” said Commander Venture. “That containment suit you made him of out of your metallic creation really makes the energy being seem almost human… if a bit spooky!”
Mary approached at that moment and said, “Beautia tried to reach out to Magnifica, but she won’t speak. She’s totally out of it. Maybe, when her bruises heal, she’ll pop out of it!”
“I can’t help but feel sorry for her, even though she brought it all on herself,” said Captain Marvel.
“You’ve saved Earth,” said Commander Venture. “How can we thank you?”
Captain Marvel grinned as he replied, “No thanks are needed. We were glad to help. Your Dad was a swell fellow, and it’s good to know the future — or at least a possible future — is in such good hands! He’d be proud of you!”
As the heroes and a carefully protected Beautia Sivana made the trip home via the Rock of Eternity, Captain Marvel said, “This whole concept of multiple planets and alternate timelines is really food for thought!”
Mary nodded. “It all makes me wonder if that trip to 1960 might not have taken us through some warp in the wake of the Sivana’s time machine to an alternate Earth? That might explain why we didn’t encounter people who were shocked to see us when we had been missing for years due to the Suspendium trap!” (*)
[(*) Editor’s note: See “The World’s Wickedest Plan,” Shazam! #1 (February, 1973).]
Captain Marvel agreed readily. “I suppose it doesn’t matter how many Earths there are. I’m just glad to be heading home to the one we know and love!”
The End