Sunnyville, California

[planetaryguide]

  It's a gorgeous Southern California day in Sunnyville: the sun is shining, music's blaring from cars and open windows, young people are dressed for the beach, seemingly if they're just going to school.

Whitney Winters has come to hate the sun. She sees it as just a big lie glitzing over the horror that lies beneath the world's surface. And she's seen horror.  Horror that's cost her friends, family, her very innocence, 

"Yeah, yeah," she says to herself. "Pity party, table for one." She shakes it off and shuffles to class. That annoying Valentina Cazador is playing in the hallways. "That girl is the devil," she thinks, now realizing that she's late, and doesn't even have her chemistry textbook. She sighs, and doubles back to her locker. 

No sooner has she pulled the book from the locker, though, then she realizes that the hallways has been blocked by a wall of ice. 

"Miss Winters," says a pale white man with a sort of Jack Frost motif costume, "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm afraid I need you to come with us."

Comments

[first_shazam]

Adam returns from over the Pacific and hovers in front of Icicle.

"Which way did the girl go, Mahkent." Adam says, simply, yet menacingly.

[jakita_wagner]

"Adam, I think we can just follow the trail of creepy crawlies and find where she went to. But you..." A finger stabs towards Icicle, and Jakita moves towards him.

"Take that wall down or I'm going to punch it down, and then punch you until you can taste time. Then you're going to come with us and help fix your damned mess."

[planetaryguide]

Icicle doesn't even hesitate.

"No need to lean on me, Wonder Woman in Leather. Tigress is in their with the cast of 'The Walking Dead.'"

With a gesture, the ice wall melts. On the other side of it, a full-blown panic has broken out, as children and faculty members run and scream and basically try not to get their brains eaten.

"I knew the money was too good for a job that sounded this simple," says Icicle, firing his ice ray to freeze a zombie that was closing in on a gaggle of cheerleaders.

[first_shazam]

"Jakita, please find Ms. Winters. Mahkent, please try to stay out of my way"

With that, using the speed, power and strength that were the gifts from his gods, Black Adam starts cutting a swath through the horde of zombies ripping them in half dozens at a five second clip. The wisdom of Zehuti allows him to discern the zombies from the humans as he makes his haste.

[planetaryguide]

On the other side of the school, the zombies have formed what looks like a protective circle around Whitney, who seems ... remarkably calm. She's glassy-eyed, as though she's not really there. Artemis Crock is partway down the hall, having toppled some lockers as a barricade, from which she's firing crossbow arrows.

[first_shazam]

Unlike Grundy, who teenagers might refer to as a "zombie on steroids", the masses appear to be of normal human level strength and endurance. Additionally, they will find his brains very hard to reach under unbreakable skin.

Adam powers forward to the area where Whitney is standing, and is seemingly allowing the zombies protecting her to swarm him.

"Make a hole" Adam shouts out to Jakita. Time to take this outside.

[jakita_wagner]

"C'mon, Frost. You're with me." Despite the chance that he might slip away in the melee, Jakita will not turn away someone who might be an ally even for a short time.

It doesn't take long for the undead to figure out that there was more than one target, and soon Jakita is throwing punches, even taking one of the creatures and using it as a battering ram to clear a path to what appears to be a large pristine picture window overlooking a wide green lawn.

CRASH
First the zombie, followed by Jakita in a shower of glass.

"Adam, the way's open."

[first_shazam]

Adam pushes through the zombies, swiftly scooping the girl into his arms, despite the groaning protests of the zombie horde that surrounds them.

"Awaken, girl. Your classmates are in danger."

With barely a glance at Tigress - and a slight narrowing of his eyes in warning - Adam launches himself towards the exit Jakita has provided, barreling through a legion of the dead.

[planetaryguide]

No sooner has Adam picked up Whitney than he can hear the distant whisper of voices ... his wife, Shiruta, and his sons Gon and Hurut, all gone centuries. And a louder voice: Adrianna Tomaz ... Isis ... They seem to come from everywhere and nowhere, distant, asking nothing ... but present.

But the Wisdom of Zehuti makes one thing clear: Something is wrong with the girl. There's no way Elijah Snow would have allowed her to live relatively undisturbed if he didn't feel she had control over her powers. No, someone is doing this to her.

[first_shazam]

Adam bursts forth from the school building, out onto the clear - his eyes closed for a moment as those voices of his past assail him.

Teeth clenched, his eyes re-open and search the area - seeking the puppetmaster of this scenario, so he might have an outlet for the anger burning inside him.

[planetaryguide]

The Winters girl remains in her trance,a s the zombies continue to run amuck.

Icicle sees Huntress and breaks for her, creating an ice shield to protect them from the coming onslaught.

"Did you know would be zombies," said Huntress? "Because no one said anything about zombies. is this why the Gentleman Ghost wasn't sent with us?"

"I'm thinking so," said Icicle. "This is going all pear shaped. I'm pushing the panic button."

Icicle pushes an unseen button on his glove, and there's a crack of lightning across the sky ... it sounds a lot like the Wizard Shazam's lightning, but it couldn't be ... and then, there's a figure standing among the smoke ...

A tall, humanoid figure ... muscular, with horns and red skin, a pentagram carved into his chest.

Sabbac.

"Finally," he says, looking at Adam. "An actual challenge. I was afraid my time in the Injustice society would be boring."

[first_shazam]

A sneer of contempt crosses Adam's features. Invoking the swiftness granted to him by Heru, he sets Whitney safely on the ground and turns to face his ersatz replacement in the Injustice Society.

"It appears they have lowered their standards since I worked with them, Sabbac. Prepare to be broken."

[jakita_wagner]

Jakita's hip-deep in zombies, fighting her way towards Whitney and calling out to her.

"C'mon Whitney, we've got this in hand, time to tell your friends to get their dead butts back to sleep. Plus it's going to be a bitch to clean up..." The arm of the closest zombie comes loose in her grip and she tosses it over her shoulder with a grunt. "We'll never match these limbs back up at this rate."

The flash of lightning catches her attention for a brief second, but she's back to zombie punching almost immediately. Adam will handle that, and when he can't, she'll step in.

[planetaryguide]

Sabbac smiles wildly as he barrels toward Adam, fists flying savagely, and without restraint.

"Truly, Adam," he says. "It is you and I are who are meant to be rivals, not Shazam's weak children. Only you and I are true warriors!"

Whitney Winters stirs a bit, shaking off whatever drug Tigress paralyzed her with. Her eyes flutter and she looks up at the zombie hoard.

"Not again," she says, staggering to her feet. The zombies all turn and regard her, as if waiting for her instructions.

"Ok, you guys are up WAY past your dead time," she quips. "You are totally grounded."

And at her pun, the zombies seem to recede into the ground, disappearing as if they were never there, except for all the damage they've caused.

[first_shazam]

Adam braces himself for the impact of Sabbac's fist, absorbing a savage body blow to allow him to position himself for a brutal double-handed swing at the demon's jaw.

"You are no warrior - a warrior has honor. You are a brute, and nothing more."

[jakita_wagner]

Jakita moves to Whitney's side, keeping an eye on Icicle and Tigress for their inevitable move to go for the girl again.

"Hi there, Whitney, I'm Jakita Wagner with the Planetary organization. There's some things we're gonna need to chat about, but I think we might want to go to a starbucks or something. Something with a high probability of coffee and low probability of kidnap and mayhem."

[planetaryguide]

"Planetary ..." she says, absently. "There was an old guy a few years ago. He interviewed my parents. Something about 'my aptitudes.' He was surrounded by ghosts.

Whitney looks at Jakita in the eyes, as if evaluating her.

"You've got a few ghosts surrounding you, too, don't you?"

Jakita was right to be wary of Icicle and Tigress, though ... the zombies gone, they've resumed their mission ... Tigress fires a crossbow bolt at Jakita, which Icicle follows up with a freeze ray ...

Meanwhile, Sabbac launches himself into Adam with abandon, looking to pummel him into submission quickly.

[first_shazam]

Submission is not an option - Adam endures blow after blow, teeth gritted, choosing his moments to strike for greatest effectiveness.

Such as shutting Sabbac's infernal mouth with an upward knee to his jaw.

[planetaryguide]

Sabbac laughs hysterically as Adam's blows pound into him, and he returns the favor. There is a sound like bones cracking underneath his impervious skin, but he seems to be relishing the pain.

Whitney looks toward Jakita, and there's something in her eyes that says she wants to stay and fight, but she knows that's a bad idea.

"OK," she says. "We need to motor. What about your friend?"

Then, the pair are hit by a nauseating wave of disorientation, and suddenly it seems as though the world were turned inside out.

At the end of the hallway stands an older man with a goatee, leaning on a cane.

"Wizard," shouts Icicle! "Glad you're here, this was way crazier than advertised.

"Indeed," says the Wizard. "But worry not, dear boy, re-enforcements are here. Artemis, if you'd be so kind ..."

At the Wizard's commands, she shoots darts at Jakita and Whitney. One hits Whitney, and she collapses again.

"Our employer wants the girl," says the Wizard, "and he has uses for Adam. Subdue him and bring him along."