The laugh was a bit like the sound of discordant chimes. It ran up and down with a kind of ladylike decorum. But this was no lady. The woman loomed over the Captain. She smiled with a kind of cruel pleasure in the expression on his face.

“Don’t look so stunned brother.. it was bound to happen.”

“Muh-Mary?” His voice took on a hesitant pleading note. Let this be a nightmare. Let this be some awful dream that he just can’t wake up out of. Don’t let this be real. Don’t let this be real.

The woman sneered down at her brother, “Muh-Mary..muh-mary..?” She moved swiftly straddling him across the chest holding him firmly in place. Her hands wrapped about his throat. “God.. you're pathetic.”

How did she get so strong? She wasn’t even pulling on his powers anymore. What happened to his baby sister? How could they not be sharing powers? What happened to Shazam’s magic?

Her grip tightened and he tried to push back against her. She merely leaned close into him until her eyes gazed into his, blue matching blue. “Its over Billy. There will only be one Captain Marvel anymore.. and its not you….” She smirked again, her hands grasped his neck tightly unable to quite hold him right but still, she managed to cause him enough pain just by applying her strength there. “They’ll find you with your neck broken with bruises the shape of finger tips, and everybody from Fawcett City to Metropolis will wonder.. ‘Who Killed Captain Marvel? Who Could Be That Strong?’ Just think.. you’ll be able to see mommy and daddy again…won’t that be great…”

“Like Hell.”

CM3 swooped in like hawk launching against the woman in a rush of pure rage. He came out of nowhere, his speed and force enough to knock her away from the Captain while she was distracted. She landed in an inelegant heap. “Ooooh now that was naughty..”

She had to have something to do with Mary’s disappearance. He planted his feet in front of Billy while the man started to get up. Freddy kept his fists balled up tight facing down this woman.

She had to know something. Something. “Where’s Mary..”

There was a soft laugh, and she stood pushing her hair back out of her eyes. She was Mary.

“Mary?”

“What’s the matter, Junior? Seen a Ghost?” Again she laughed then there was a blur as she launched at him with a swift strike.

Bells rang in CM3’s head like those that counted the hours in Notre Dame. Her fists had collided with his jaw and knocking him backwards. This was Mary. MARY.

‘What’s wrong with her…’

He lay on the ground sprawled out in his landing. He started to push up from the ground but she was there, “Awwww… gotta booboo Freddy..” Her hands reached out and held his head almost lovingly between her hands, “Let me make it better.” With a slow move she leaned in and gently with an almost loving touch she brushed her tongue against his bottom lip, “Mmmm your blood tastes soo good…”

It caused a reaction that’s for sure. Freddy couldn’t stop himself and just backhanded her with his fist. “You can’t be Mary..”

She laughed and stepped away from him, “I can’t be Mary? I’m everything Mary ever was and so much more than that. I’m Mary alright. But I’m Mary as she’s supposed to be…” She moved lightly through the still smoky air. She gazed out towards the city as the moon was rising high, the skyline left in silhouette against the indigo dusk. “And all this will be mine.. all this in a smoldering pile of rubble..”

Junior started to stand up again. His face marred by the bruise and the blood that still remained there, “You aren’t Mary. You can’t be Mary.”

“Poor sweet delusional Freddy. I begged the Wizard to save you.. because I blamed myself for what happened… Captain Nazi breaking you.. killing your grandpa.. I felt so bad.. heh.. funny isn’t it. I gave up power to save you. But now I’m more powerful than you or the cheese.”

A hoarse voice spoke up from the side, “You aren’t Mary. You’re just some twisted doppelganger.. I won’t let you defame my sister like this..” Captain Marvel stood, his voice raspy from the injuries done to him.

“You can’t stop me, Billy.”

“I will.”

“You are so pompous.”

“Sticks and stones…”

“Enough Talk!”

The pair launched themselves at each other. Startlingly the Captain wasn’t able to do much against his woman. Her strength a force unlike anything he’d faced before. She grabbed his fists in her own hands. It was hard for him to wrap his head about the fact that his sister was trying to hurt him. Seriously.

“C’mon Mary..please… this isn’t you…”

She snarled, “Get it through your head. I’m MARY…” She leaned forward and smashed her head against his forehead knocking him backwards. Was that his nose he felt cracking? What was this?

Junior staggered upwards and reached out towards Mary wrapping his arms around her waist. “Get OFFA Him!” There was a noise that came from Mary, both one of amusement and one of fury.

“Poooor sweet Freddy..” She stretched and forced his arms open, away from her and pushed him hard onto his back. The motion was swift, landing with a rough jolt. “Poor Crippled Freddy.. remember how you used to want to be Junior all the time…” Mary laughed and stood above him. The woman reached down and grabbed at his leg, “Ahh well now you’ll just be lame all the time..” A wet crunch could be heard through the room. CM3 screamed out in agony as Mary twisted his leg shattering his femur. “That’s one…”

Her hands went to the other leg, “Now.. what about two…”

He didn’t know what else to do.. even as she twisted the second leg and he felt the bone splinter within him one thing came into his mind and it was a small hope that it could help him. Maybe distract her. Maybe buy Cap some time. Something. He mumbled the words, “Captain Marvel.”

The air was instantly filled with the scent of ozone and the rumble of thunder with the crackle of electricity mixed in, a thunderbolt launching down from above to engulf the small area.

She shrieked as the energy engulfed herself and CM3. IT was like a wall of light. As the flash faded away a teen was left on the ground and a young woman was still engulfed in fire left from the lightning. But she was unchanged.

“You’ll die for this Freeman..” The woman shrieked and took to the air in a mad dash to get away. An aura of flame and smoke trailing her as she flew away.

Freddy Freeman lay there in a crumpled heap. His crutch across his chest as if to shield himself with it. He simply held it watching the smoke fade away in her trail. “Oh Mary…”

There was a groan and Cap staggered to his feet, after some effort he was next to Freddy, “C’mon.. we’ve got to get you to the Rock. Freddy.. I’ll find a way to stop this.. I promise you..”

“I know Billy. I know..”

Captain Marvel reached down and took up the young man in his arms careful to not hurt him with his formidable strength. “I’ll fix this… I will.”

“It burned! Why did it burn! Lightning doesn’t burn me! It hasn’t before.”

“Oh poor sweet child.. you’ve changed.. you no longer receive your powers from those pitiful bolts of Shazam’s.. they hurt you yes.. but it’s a small price to pay..”

The woman was crouched on her knees in front of a high throne. Her brown hair smoldered still with the energy’s burn. Her skin bore numerous welts. “Poor little Mary.. these won’t be the only wounds you bear, again.. they are a small price to pay. Come child. I will make it all better.”

She rose slowly and approached the throne. There the shadowy figure reached forward and touched a fingertip to the girl’s face. A moment passed and energy passed over Mary. She screamed. Her body went taut as her muscles constricted rapidly over and over again. Her position locked. Each wound faded till they were nonexistent. The hand pulled back and the young woman fell back to her knees shuddering from the experience.

“Ah Mary.. even with all I’ve done to you.. your life force still tastes so sweet…”

“Freddy.. you will need to transform so you can be healed.. it would have been easier on you than transforming from your unharmed form..” The old man walked slowly towards Freddy, each step weighted by eons and knowledge.

“I know. I know.”

He took a breath and the words came out with the breath as he released it, “Captain Marvel.”

Lightening crashed downwards around the area filling the room with the scent of ozone and sounds of thunder removing Freddy Freeman and leaving Captain Marvel Junior.

He couldn’t stop himself from crying out as the transformation had happened. The pain was sharp and much like knives ripping through the muscles and skin and whatever tissue they could shred. The old wizard’s voice came smoothly rolling with soft words of power and healing, he laid his hands on to the damaged legs and kept speaking sending the young hero into a dreamless sleep while his injuries slowly began to repair themselves.

“He sleeps...”

The voice echoed across the chamber, as the wizard entered the room.

“When will he be ready?”

The man paused at the question, his fingers idly playing with his beard a moment before he answered the Captain’s question, “He will not be ready for some time. In order for the magic to heal him properly, I had to force him into a coma. Instead of the weeks it would normally take for such a wound to heal he will be unable to function at all for the next few days Its the way it has to be.”

The hero snarled angrily and slammed his fist into a wall. “I don’t want to do this alone.. “ He turned his startlingly innocent eyes towards the wizard, “I can’t. “

“Sometimes we have to do the things we cannot face alone, and sometimes we have to do them alone.” The old man’s voice came again and his chosen warrior only stared at him. The full meaning of his words was not lost upon him.

“NO.”

Billy tore out of the cave sweeping into the air with a mad rush. He was half way around the world before he realized it, somewhere over Siberia. He landed and screamed. Screamed with rage for failing to protect his sister from whatever had altered her. Screamed at the rage for the damage done to his comrade. Screamed at the futility of everything he did. Screamed at the wizard who had so much power yet could do nothing to really help. The teen in a man’s body screamed until his voice was lost.

He lay in the snow and stared up at the sky then he heard the voice again, the gentle tones almost paternal. “If you are done having your tantrum...I am using everything at my disposal to find her. I promise you Billy. I am going to find her. Take a break. You have been with out sleep since this began. I know, you do not need rest in your current form, but still. Go and see the Bromfields. They will need to see their other child, and you can tell them what you want. But rest. There is nothing you can do for now.” With that the shimmering image of the wizard faded from site leaving Captain Marvel alone.

Nora Bromfield crumpled and uncrumpled the piece of tissue she’d been using since this all had happened. It was still damp from the latest bout of tears. She sat in front of the coffee pot, just watching it brew. Each drop dribbling slowly into the carafe. Her eyes red and raw. Nick was outside smoking. It’d been 12 years since his last cigarette but he was outside just smoking one after the other. The phone rang.

Nora grabbed at it, her hands clutching it hoping beyond hope that it was some word from someone anyone. Mary or the police.

“Hello? Hello?!”

But it wasn’t. “No, I’ve not heard anything Amanda. I’ll let you know.” She gently set the phone down in its cradle. Then the woman just laid her head on her arms and started to sob again. Just when she would think there are no more tears left to be shed, they would come.

An echo of thunder rang out across the area, Nick stubbed out his cigarette as he came in. “It must be one of them...”

“Maybe Mary...” Nora queried raggedly, then answered her own question. “No.. she wouldn’t be back alone..we would have heard more than one...”

Who was answered shortly, as with swift paces Billy charged into the room. “I’m here...” The teen wrapped his arms about Nora, feeling something at a loss as to what’s happened. His head pressed against the woman’s as he glanced towards Nick, “You shouldn’t smoke.”

Nick ran a finger across his mustache, “Just tell us...I don’t think anymore waiting will help us at this point.”

Billy frowned. Then after a moment, he nodded then told his tale. He told them of the chaos in Fawcett, he told them of the argument he and Freddy had, and then he watched them flinch as he told him of Mary. Or the woman who claimed to be Mary. The injury of Freddy, and the Wizard.

Nora twisted the tissue into shreds as he finished talking, “So what you are saying is that something happened to my child..something changed the girl I raised...”

“We don’t know that it is..” Billy started. But Nick was quicker...

“No... tell us your gut instinct.. is it Mary..” Nick cut to the chase of it. His voice became every bit as clipped as it was in any of his business meetings. Everything about his appearance was tense; he was completely focused on the words his son was about to say.

Billy swallowed. He looked away and unfortunately, his first impulse the first thing that he had to say is not what he wanted to say at all. But still. It was the truth, the one thing when he looked at the root of it, “Its her.”

Nora pressed her hands to her eyes forcing back the tears that swam up again. Nick put his hands on his wife’s shoulders, “We’ll get her back. There is a good thing to this...” He whispered, “She’s alive.. we will see her again..”

Billy leaned back against the wall as he watched them. The pair was just supporting each other, each taking strength that they needed so badly from the other. He just looked at them in awe. They were his family now. Sure he cherished the dim memories of the Batsons and would always love them. But the Bromfields loved him as if they’d raised him from a child like they had with Mary. And he would not fail them. He would bring his sister back to them.

The woman turned to Billy after a time, “You must be hungry, Billy. Let me get you something..” He started to say something as his mother started to rise. However Nick was swift as always giving him a look that said ‘Let her take care of you’. The teen was soon awash in more comforting, fussing, and caring than he’d experienced in most of his life when he was alone. If it hadn’t been such a grim time in their lives, it would have been a blissful moment for him. The wizard was right. He had to come back here. They needed Billy Batson, almost as much as they needed Captain Marvel to be out there. And he was completely willing to do this as well settling on the sofa there with them; letting his eyes drift shut slowly and soon dozing with these people. Exhausted not from the feats of this day, but just the emotions.

The old Wizard put a thin hand on the brow of Captain Marvel Junior. “So much damage done to one boy, it’s hard to envision this being done by Mary.” His eyes closed and let his own magics check the healing of the boy. He couldn’t do this for the teen when he was crippled in his other body, but because he was so inundated with his magic now. It was like the reweaving of a tapestry. Except much more intricate and fragile. The shattered bone was piecing itself back together slowly, each tiny piece returning to its original place. Shazam removed his hand and nodded, “The pain would be far too much for you had I not put you under for this process.”

He walked away slowly, his hand twisting strands of his long beard about his fingers. Thoughts roamed in his head filled with the knowledge of the day’s events, each one was grimmer than the other. His steps brought him passed the seven statues of the deadly sins. Shazam was perplexed as things had swiftly caught him unaware and he didn’t like that at all.

His paces brought him into the throne room and as he moved to the stone chair that he spent lengths of time in. He noticed he had a visitor.

“Good evening, old Man. I’ve got a message for you..”

Mary had come home.

Next Issue: Things come to an apex. Fawcett City becomes a battleground for two of Earth’s most powerful beings and a shadow player is revealed. The Deadly Mary Strain continues in Issue 4!