Mary Marvel
Times Past, 1980
Prelude to Odyssey
by Libbylawrence
Chapter 1
In Washington, DC, the crowds cheered as a beautiful girl rode on a float and waved to her admiring audience. Her auburn hair was flowing in the breeze, as was her red and gold mini-skirted outfit.
“Gosh, Mary Marvel is a dream!” said a lovesick boy.
“She is at that, but she is also busy rescuing the whole world from nuts like Sivana, so don’t count on meeting her anytime too soon!” said a smiling older man.
He was blond and handsome, and yet boyish in his demeanor. He ruffled his nephew’s hair and said, “C’mon, squirt, let’s get an ice cream sundae. The base makes them like sawdust, so this old pilot has a real craving!’
The two departed as Mary Marvel’s float passed them by. She had not really noticed them except in the same way she had glanced at others in the sea of faces.
Golly, this is fun. It could really go to a girl’s head having all those folks cheering! she mused.
As she enjoyed this rare time of peace and celebration, the World’s Mightiest Girl little realized that she and the handsome airman would soon risk much for America!
Chapter 2
Mary was the World’s Mightiest Girl, but she was not the only teen with a title all her own. The World’s Wickedest Girl — Georgia Sivana — had her own claim to fame or infamy! She wore a white lab coat and black horn-rimmed glassed above a mouth that brimmed with bucktoothed malice.
“Heh! heh! heh!” she cackled.
“Must you do that?” whined a gray haired man who stood idly by as the girl laughed over smoking chemicals.
“You wouldn’t rob a girl of her pleasure, would you? In fact, you have little to say about it since you are my mindless slave! For a mindless slave you have a most annoying personality!” she snapped.
General Blankenship sighed again. He was her slave. He knew it. She knew it. Everybody in her lab knew it. Ever since she had slipped her mind-altering brew into the office coffee pot at Moulton Air Force base, all of the General’s staff had danced to Georgia’s weird tune!
“Yes! I have you where I want you. You do what I say when I say it and you can’t tell a soul! Nah nah nah-nah nah!” she taunted!
Blankenship wished he had been able to quit his coffee habit years ago like his wife Betsy had demanded. Now look at him! That foul brew had made him a slave to an insane teenybopper!
“When I give you your next order, you’ll deliver me the ETTA Flyer fighter plane and I’ll use its nuclear payload to blackmail all of the USA. Why, Daddy will be soooo proud of me! I’ll be his favorite! I’ll be famous! I’ll even outshine Mary ‘Insipid’ Marvel! Why…” she paused with dramatic fervor. “I could be bigger than… Debbie Gibson!” she cackled.
Chapter 3
Mary Batson hurried into her pink sweater and a long white skirt. She slipped on her high heels and ran for the car.
“Bye, Mom! See you later, Daddy!” she called to the Bromfields — her adoptive folks — as she hurried to school.
I wish Billy was back from that trip out west in the van. Bet he’s having a swell time with Uncle Dudley! she thought.
She smiled and enjoyed her memories of her brother and “uncle” from their last visit. They had dropped by while they were seeing Wyoming. “When you’re secretly Captain Marvel and Uncle Marvel, it doesn’t take long to whip across country for a visit!” they had said.
She reached school and hummed to herself. “Shake your love!” Nice tune. I could get to like modern music.”
She sat through class and excelled as always. A girl glanced at her pretty face and stylish if a bit old fashioned clothes.
“That Mary sure is a teacher’s pet!” she fumed.
“Ah! She’s sweet! Give her a break. She can’t help it if her folks are rich and she is smart and pretty!” said another.
“Class! We have a sudden news bulletin! The importance of it is such that we are showing it on the in-classroom TV’s!” said Miss Rich, the teacher.
They only do that for things like elections or worse! thought Mary.
She saw and heard the tale foretold by Georgia Sivania. The ETTA fighter plane was stolen by its high ranking project head — General Blankenship himself! A mysterious person now claimed to be behind the theft!
“Heh! heh! heh! I, Georgia Sivana, have broken in to your soap opera and game show world, to say that unless I receive 50 million dollars and… am crowned Miss Teen America by midnight tonight, I shall unlease the nuclear weaponry of the stolen ETTA plane! Oh, and I’d like to take this time while I hold the airwaves hostage to say a big hello to Daddy and Thaddy in jail!”
Mary said, “Miss Rich! I need to be excused!”
She rushed past the blonde teacher in the leopard print blouse and when alone spoke one magic word!
“Shazam!”
Chapter 4
The blond air man who had enjoyed the parade with his nephew was not a coffee drinker. Thus, he proved to be the only staff member working out of Blankenship’s department who did not fall under Georgia’s evil sway. He detected the odd conduct of his peers and followed his mentally dominated boss to where the poor man was driven to steal the ETTA fighter. The younger officer took his chances and slipped into the craft as well. As it took off and Blankenship’s new mistress radioed her mad commands, the blond man realized the enormity of his plight. He grappled with the maddened Blankenship and at that point, Mary came racing into view.
She started to stop them when Blankenship frantically launched the nuclear bomb! She abandoned the plane with its fighting occupants to chase the deadly projectile! She matched her speed exactly with the falling bomb and slowly clutched it in hands that were far stronger than the dainty impression they gave to observers.
Got to steer this thing up and back into space before it detonates! she thought grimly.
Slowly, she succeeded in hurling the bomb into space. It harmlessly entered the sun and was eliminated.
Mary spun back down to see Blankenship’s parachute carry him safely down while his staffer fought to manually override the programmed flight path of the fighter plane.
The desperate emotional rush had cleared Blankenship’s mind. “Please! I was out of control! Couldn’t resist! Now, save Steve!” he cried.
Mary gave him a reassuring smile and hurried to do just that.
As she neared the experimental plane and the heroic man who fought to save it from pre-planned destruction, it suddenly accelerated and – before her amazed eyes — the plane and pilot vanished!
“Goodness! It was just swallowed up!” she gasped.
***
Mary found the answers she sought later at the Rock of Eternity from wise old Shazam.
He spoke as follows: .”Young Mary, that plane and its brave pilot were plucked from this world into another parallel Earth where his destiny awaits. Fear not and do not worry, for on that Earth, Major Steve Trevor will walk with legends!”
Mary felt better and yet she wondered what exactly her patron had meant.
***
Author’s Notes: This story leads directly into Wonder Woman 221 or so in which Steve Trevor returns seemingly from the dead. In Wonder Woman 326 we learn that in fact Steve was actually plucked from a parallel earth by Aphrodite and his memories of a different life on that Earth were altered. Thus, he forgot ever knowing an earth where Captain Marvel and Mary Marvel were its champions. He came only to think of himself as the Steve Trevor of Earth 1. He would learn of his true origin and marry his beloved Diana before Crisis raged through the multiverse. His fate continues after Crisis on other story sites!
