Chapter 42 Shazam

Gotham City was a place where you learn to expect the unexpected to survive.

What happened here every night for all of its residents was nothing more than the average weekday. Tonight, certainly, wouldn't be any different.

BOOM!

With a loud bang, the roof of the dilapidated warehouse explodes. Dust and debris flying every which way, alongside several figures rushing out of the building that was already on the verge of collapse before this.

The least eye catching was a grappling line that shot towards the high ledge of a taller building. The dark figure of Batman swooshed through the window and out of the building just before the whole place caved in on itself.

With incredible reflexes, superb skills and his grappling gun, he swung from one ledge to another before landing on the damaged road.

The streets in these parts of the slum were exactly as how you would expect it. Like an abandoned construction site urgently in need of repairs.

Bruce couldn't care less. He had barely regained his footing when something green burst out of the collapsing building at remarkable speeds.

"Ugh!" The green silhouette hit the caped crusader head on, knocking him back like a bowling pin, several meters away.

"Thud!" Bruce crashed to the ground with a thud.

Hal, who was thrown out on the other hand, bounced off the ground many times before slamming into a wall.

Cracks similar to spiderwebs appeared on the point of impact.

The Green Lantern let out a low groan.

"Well, I didn't see that coming". He meant it literally. The speed of the attack was too fast for him to react to.

Thinking of this, Hal gritted his teeth in frustration. This wasn't the first time he had faced him and just like back then, he was having his ass handed to him.

Hal slowly lifted himself off the crash point. The small rubble that had fallen on his glowing uniform slid off as he returned his gaze to the hole he had made when he was blasted out.

The Warehouse was on the verge of collapse. Numerous cracks had appeared on the walls and debris fell with every passing second.

"I didn't expect you to". A nonchalant voice fell into Hal's ears. A figure leisurely stepped out of the hole that was formed due to the Lantern's exit.

Amari stood at a distance, his facial expression as flat as his voice tone. His right hand held a man dressed in formal attire which consisted of a white shirt with a red bow-tie attached, over which there is a yellow vest, topped by a black blazer.

Giovanni Zatara.

Unfortunately, he was now unconscious.

Hal's eyes widened when he saw this. Especially when he noticed that wisps of florescent lights were being drawn out of the magician.

"By the way, you should let him know if he wakes up..." As the last florescent energy was drawn from Giovanni, Amari casually tossed the Italian on the floor like discarded garbage.

"..... That magic doesn't work on me".

Seeing Zatara unmoving, Hal burst into a flood of rage.

"Agghhhhh!" Bursts of dazzling green willpower emerged from all over him. He stretched his right hand forward and supported it with his left hand.

A beam of terrifying energy condensed on his ring.

"I'll kill you". His expression looked hideous as he fired with full force. The Green energy beam travelled at an astonishing speed, locating Amari, who didn't even bother to dodge and firmly slammed into his chest.

There was a giant explosion in the area Amari stood. However, it quickly receded as fast as it appeared, all into the body of The Deviant.

"Kill me? That's funny". Amari let out small chuckles.

"If only you could". Hal stood there slightly dumbfounded.

His clothes didn't have a dent, his hair wasn't ruffled. There wasn't even a drop of sweat on his forehead.

"Unfortunately, you can't". As soon as his words fell, his figure disappeared.

Hal's pupils shrank and a barrier appeared, shielding him on instinct. Too bad, Amari appeared beside him and swung his fist at supersonic speed.

Coated with a terrifying energy of destruction, the will powered barrier which was strong enough to withstand Superman's slightly stronger attacks was effortlessly broken.

Same attack, same place, same result. With a blow to the chest, Hal Jordan was sent flying through three buildings, blood bursting out of his mouth.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The sound of destruction was loud enough to alert the Gotham citizens. In the abandoned slum district where crime was the most prevalent, the quality of buildings were particularly trashy. A superhero flying through three buildings was already equal to a demolition order.

Houses collapsed one by one. Amari watched it with an indifferent look in his eyes.

Totally aware of Batman's sneak attack with three Batarangs he had taken from his utility belt.

The three bat shaped weapons cut through the air and landed on his back, followed by multiple explosions. Still, a similar situation to Hal's energy blast occurred. All of it was absorbed the moment it came into contact with him.

"You do know that you're really getting on my nerves, right?" He said with a questioning look.

Batman didn't reply. With a cold face, he leapt upward and shot his grappling gun. As his body ascended, various explosive gadgets were thrown towards Amari one after another.

Tonight's Gotham nightlife had an explosive rhythm to it. The weapons all exploded one after another.

Batarangs, explosives, bombs. The place where Amari stood turned into an explosive pit.

Dust and debris flew everywhere, and the flames and smoke billowed for a moment.

The attack was textbook, the results were less than ideal. The flames and smoke receded like a retreating tide. Amari still stood in the same place, without a change in expression.

He didn't look like someone who had just been bombarded with numerous explosives.

"Enough!" A voice shouted. The figure of a giant sea serpent emerged from the ground, behind Amari and quickly entangled him.

The serpent head changed to the upper body form of Martian Manhunter.

"Something's wrong. Things have gone out of hand. We did not want matters to come to this".

"Hehe". Amari chuckled lightly.

"The fight has already started, and now you notice that something's wrong?"

At that moment, a silhouette dressed in red tights and a white cape flew down with extreme force.

"Lights out dude". Shazam yelled as he dropped in front of Amari's wrapped figure and threw a punch with his fist completely submerged in golden lightning.

BAM!

Amari's head tilted to the right as the blow landed.

Then his face straightened again as he looked at Shazam with a raised eyebrow.

"You done?" Billy's eyes widened in surprise. That punch carried his full force. Even Superman wouldn't be able to withstand it so casually.

"Don't worry, you can have it back". With a mere thought, golden lightning that was absorbed covered his entire body.

"Arghh!" Martian Manhunter who was restricting him, bore the brunt of it as the absorbed energy was expelled in all directions.

He was blasted backwards, the attack causing him to release his shapeshifting form on the spot.

The floor under Amari caved in from the sheer destructive power released

Shazam was also knocked back several meters.

"I've had enough". The words fell into the ears of Shazam, who had barely regained his composure and a figured appeared in front of him, followed by an uppercut which connected straight to his face.

Kaboom! .

Shazam flew backwards at an alarming pace. His body destroyed numerous obstructions in his way before crash landing on the ground. Even then, he continued to slide away, leaving a deep gully on the already terribly road.

The force was so powerful that a regular person would be ripped to shreds if he happened to get in the way of that speeding figure.

Billy's mind was blank. The blow was so powerful that it made him dizzy. Since the day he became Shazam, this was the first blow he received that truly made his teeth ache.

His body that had dug an ugly trench bounced off the ground several times, leaving deep pits, and then bounced into the air after a ricochet from a dumpster.

Right now, he couldn't even stop his movement. His eyes had barely opened for a split second when he saw a fist land straight on his face again without giving him the luxury of reaction time.

Kaboom! !

Billy's body sped up again in the opposite direction, but Amari was far from done. He teleported straight above the dazed Billy Batson and punched downwards.

From the air back to the earth. Shazam crashed towards the ground with a loud BOOM! The impact caused the whole of Gotham city to shake for a second.

Crashing on the floor, a giant crater was formed beneath Shazam's body.

"Ugh!" He groaned painfully as the superhero lifted his body from the crater sluggishly.

On a close building, the space distorted and Amari's figure stepped out of the void. His blank gaze stared at the man in red tights.

"Not down yet?" He asked himself with a raised eyebrow. As for if he was referring to Shazam or Martian Manhunter who was....

Before he could finish his thoughts, a humongous telekinetic force slammed into the building he stood on.

The building itself was reduced to rubble in one attack. Amari appeared on the ground completely unscathed. However, what greeted his sight was the rain of building parts shooting towards his figure.

BOOM!

In less than two seconds, the place he stood was submerged with heavy to rocks.

J'onn who was floating in the air stared at that point with a serious expression on his face. He knew that his opponent wasn't easy to deal with.

Sure enough, a dark red glow could be seen from within the rocks. And then.... It burst out in a directions. Everything that came in contact with the dark energy crumbled with rapid speed and turned to dust.

All the obstacles were cleared. Amari's figured emerged, bathed in dark red energy.

His eyes didn't give off the distinctive purple glow anymore but had turned dark red with special patterns.

"So this is the true power of the Martian Manhunter. I always thought you were often underestimated". His tone was flat, carrying no hint of praise or appreciation whatsoever.

"This has gone on for long enough. Please stop". J'onn said gravely. The destruction that their short battle had caused was tremendous. J'onn couldn't continue to let the matter escalate, especially when he finally discovered that something was up.

"You were the ones who started this. Why should I end it when you want to". Amari tilted his head with a look of amusement.

"Something is wrong. I believe the league members may have been affected". He said solemnly.

However, what responded to him was a dry chuckle.

"I don't know how many times I have to say it...." He shook his head repeatedly before fixing his gaze on the levitating Martian.

"That that......". The energy of destruction around him receded, and his eyes returned to the standard purple color. Only this time, the patterns were spinning rapidly.

"... Is Not My Problem". Kamui was activated at that moment.

The space around Martian Manhunter's arm suddenly distorted to the extreme.

Squelch!

The sound of ripping flesh could be heard, followed by J'onns miserable scream.

Blood flowed down from the arms of the Green Martian as what was previously present from the elbows downward had been twisted off and transported into another space.

With a flash, he appeared behind J'onn in the air. A powerful kick landed on his back, propelling the Martian back towards gravity's call.

The Martian crashed back to the ground, with a loud thud.

"Arghh!" The impact wasn't enough to knock him unconscious.

The pain of losing both arms was reflected in his hideous expression. Amari appeared several meters away from him and watched.

Suddenly, several circular balls were thrown in his direction, simultaneously exploding at the same time.

"This is Batman, calling in all available Leaguers to Gotham city. We have a severe situation...."

The flames dissipated quickly, absorbed into Amari's body. Before he could make a move to solve the broody bat, Shazam appeared in his line of vision again.

There was a bloody line running from his nostrils and two cuts on his face, but he didn't care.

The latter channeled his energy towards his hands and shot a massive burst of lightning towards Amari.

The attack landed, but not on Amari, as the lightning strike passed through his body without obstruction. Instead, it hit Martian Manhunter who was now missing two arms and had no time to react.

Hit by Zeus's lightning, J'onn was blasted into the distance, slamming into a building.

Seeing that the attack hit, but not on the person he intended, Billy froze for a moment.

Amari appeared before the Greek Champion in the blink of an eye. Shazam quickly swung his fist, but it was firmly clamped by the opponent's palm. He did the same with the other, but the result was no different.

He wanted to attack again, but the severe pain that hit him the next second made him scream and fall to his knees.

Destructive energy surged from Amari's palms into the fists of Shazam.

"To be honest, this was quite underwhelming. Your performance isn't as strong as I expected it to be". Amari locked his gaze on Shazam's eyes and activated the hypnotic ability of the Mangekyo Sharingan.

A strong mental force invaded Billy's mind one second and his vision darkened. In Amari's line of sight, Shazam's eyes grew dull.

"Well, you've all performed, so let me show you a trick of my own. All you have to do is say the magic words".

Amari said nonchalantly. The will that belonged to Shazam's subconscious resisted desperately, but eventually, a single word left Billy's lips under deep resistance.

"Sha....zam!" A bolt of lightning appeared from the clouds, landing on the figures of both men. A second later, the lightning was gone and what remained wasn't two men but a man and a boy who suddenly fell unconscious.

Shazam had returned to his original form of Billy Batson and fell to the ground with a thud. However, both of his arms were charred black.

Amari, on the other hand, stood firmly with a ball of energy in his palm. The Energy of six Greek Gods that fused to form the powers of Shazam.