by D.S. Wynne and Doc Quantum
When Princess Celia awoke one morning some weeks later on New Aretias Isle, she should have realized that her day wasn’t going to go as easily as she’d hoped it would. First, she ended up sleeping in too long. Next, she nearly got yelled at by Promethea for being late for that morning’s sparring. Celia was grateful that her sister was making a full recovery after the demoness Blaze’s assault, of course, but she’d obviously gotten up on the wrong side of the bed that morning.
Frustrated, Celia said the magic word, “Shazam!” Transformed once more, she took to the air. Using the speed of Zephyra, Celia increased her speed and altitude. Luckily, the stamina of Atalanta and the power of Selene allowed her to survey the rigors of near-space.
“Celia!” Queen Lysippe called via a digital two-way radio.
“Yes, Mother?” Celia responded likewise.
“Get down here before you get hurt!”
“O-ka-ay!” the girl replied, annoyed that even her mother was giving her a hard time today.
Celia used the wisdom of Selene to figure out the best trajectory to get back down to Earth. As she descended, Celia could feel the pressure building up around her. She definitely did not want to burn while going back down. Still, being up at this altitude allowed her to view the whole Earth. It was so wonderful a view.
As Celia passed over the North American Eastern Seaboard on the Atlantic Coast on her way back toward home far away to the east, she began to suspect that the Fates had decided to make her day especially challenging. She spotted a yacht below being attacked by a giant sea monster.
The creature easily towered over the nearby Brooklyn Bridge and possessed many tentacles, like a monstrous octopus. Celia couldn’t help but feel intimidated by such a creature, and wondered if she was truly strong enough to do anything about it.
There was no one else around to help, so Celia rushed over and simply punched the creature — which didn’t seem to have much of an effect at all. In fact, it only served to make the monster even angrier than before. It didn’t take the wisdom of Minerva for her to to figure out that she was going to have a hard time dealing with another stupid crisis.
“Ahh!” she cried as the creature quickly grabbed her with a giant tentacle. “I really should have stayed in bed today.”
If any other person were in its grasp, it would have spelled doom for the victim. Unfortunately for it, Celia used the strength of Hippolyta to free herself after a few moments of struggling.
Completely fed up now that it had left slime all over her costume, Celia went to retrieve an oar from one of the lifeboats, broke off the rudder from the oar, took aim (using the skill of Artemis) and threw it. The makeshift spear went straight into its brain, killing it in the process. She smiled, satisfied that she’d finally done something right this day.
Celia asked the yacht’s occupants if everyone was all right. Once she was given an affirmative in that regard, Celia took off. She realized that her bad day was starting to become a good one, since she was able to use her powers to not only defeat a monster, but saves lives in the meantime. Perhaps the Fates had drawn her there to perform these mighty feats all along.
***
“What is this?”
The wizard viewed his Historama with a discerning eye. Displayed before him was the view of a young girl — a girl resembling Mary Marvel — who was displaying the use of the power of Shazam, even though he’d had nothing to do with this development.
From what he saw, the wizard was suitably impressed. The girl was the adopted daughter of the queen of the Amazons and was being trained as one herself. So far, the girl had used more techniques from her own sextet than his own champions had done in their early days. A very interesting development, and one that he would have to ponder.
Shazam shut down the Historama and silently contemplated on the idea of that wielder of the power of Shazam meeting the Marvel Family. He hoped that this girl would become a secret ally to the Marvel Family, especially since he had heard rumblings of the formation of a new Monster Society of Evil. Only time would tell.
***
The mayor of New York City looked at the scene of devastation that was before him. It wasn’t every day that the city was attacked by a sea monster; it wasn’t every day that a teenager defeated a sea monster, either, especially since Captain Marvel Junior and Mary Marvel hadn’t been very active lately.
“Well, Mr. Mayor, what do you think?”
“Well,” the mayor began as he turned toward the reporter, “that girl certainly had thunder.”
“Is that a quote?”
“Sure, why not?”
As the WHIZ-TV reporter wrote down her notes, Trish Kang was glad that she had been given this great assignment. Who would have thought that by covering such a boring assignment as an ordinary civic event would result in such an exciting story?
“Thunder Girl,” she said to herself. “It does have a nice ring to it.”
***
Later that night, Celia was reading her book before going to bed. Her mother, Queen Lysippe, came in to tuck her in, so to speak. She also talked about how excited she was that Celia would go to Europe for the first time since she was an infant. While Celia was glad to go to Europe with Promethea, who would thus go on her own first sojourn to the outer world, she wished that Athena Dare had also recovered enough to come with her, since she had spent so much time traveling around the world. Hopefully, she would get a chance to do so soon.
***
Meanwhile, from across the expanse of time, space, and beyond, an ebony-skinned woman casually surveyed the damage that had been made in the Library. Damn those harpies! the woman thought to herself. And damn myself for being too short-sighted.
The Library was in ruins. Pages upon pages were everywhere, and it would take nearly forever to fix this mess. She did dispatch those responsible for this mess, at least. As she went through the piles of torn books, she noticed one that did not appeared to be damaged. The woman picked it up and opened it; she was shocked to see that words and whole passages had been edited within the text.
Oh, boy, she thought to herself. The woman knew the consequences that could occur when a book from the Library was corrupted. She knew that she couldn’t reverse what was about to take place, but at the very least she could contain the damage that was about to occur.
The End