[center][img]http://baku-panda.org/images/OU_Billy.png[/img]
[color=gold][b][sub]C H A P T E R   O N E :    T H E   L O N G   W A Y   H O M E[/sub][/b][/color][b][color=crimson][sup][h1]ARCON’S LAST GLEAMING [/h1][/sup][/color][/b][/center]
[COLOR=deepskyblue][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]T H E    P L A N E T    A R C O N[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][sup][color=SILVER]The Smartship Friday   |   [i]Earth calendar date unknown[/i]   |   The Worlds of the Kymellian Technomancy[/color][/sup][/INDENT][/INDENT]
The static energy dispersed.

As the light faded and Billy’s eyes adjusted, he found himself standing in the alien-yet-familiar surroundings of a Kymellian [b]smartship[/b], the nomenclature for intergalactic vehicles created by the technologically superior equine extraterrestrials that was operated, in part, by a self-aware artificial intelligence that gave the ships their own unique identity and personality.

This one was named [b]Friday[/b]. It was actually an Earth cultural reference to a 1940 Howard Hanks film starring Rosalind Russell as a gender-bent character adapted from the play [i]The Front Page[/i]. To hear the Wizard tell it, the name was just as good as another. Friday insisted that she’d picked out the name for herself, having acquainted herself with human television and theatrical work over the course of several visits to the planet.

Which made Billy wonder just how many times the Wizard had gone to Earth. All those tinfoil hat wearing conspiracies took on a whole new dimension when you realized that aliens were real, [i]totally[/i] experimented on humans, and, yes, alien abduction was a thing.

If it wasn’t, then Billy would need someone to explain that human settlement on Ch’Reesharaa to him.

As the pair of children materialized, the young Captain Marvel found himself dwarfed by the white-maned old man who hunched over the controls of the ship. On the screen overhead, the dire wraith infestation of the planet was being tracked. 

When they’d arrived, the problem had been in the single digits. Now, the dire wraiths occupied almost all of the available land mass.

[indent][indent][color=lightgreen][b]PROBABILITY OF KYMELLIAN SURVIVAL NOW 0.00%... COLONY FAILED.[/b][/color][/indent][/indent]
Score one for the [b]good guys[/b].

You know, this hero thing was totally cool when you were winning. And it was a [i]bitch[/i] to lose.

The tension inside the smartship seemed to echo exactly that sentiment. Turning his head, the young Batson looked over at the pair of brooding Kymellians beside him. [color=crimson]“We’ve already identified a sustainable world for re-settlement...”[/color] he posed, trying to sound as hopeful as he could muster. 

He was totally faking it right now. And he wasn’t really sure where he was going with this, so he just sort of trailed off.

Kofi gave an alien sort that might have been a strange marriage between a huff and a horse’s whinny. [color=skyblue]“Located in [b]Shi’ar[/b] territory,”[/color] the young colt offered sourly, crossing his arms and shooting another sidelong glare over at the young Marvel.

[color=silver]“The Shi’ar have planned to colonize the planet for years, but have never been willing to divert funding for it from their war budget,”[/color] the Wizard uttered, seemingly only half conscious of the conversation between the two children on either side of him. [color=silver]“They’ve agreed to work with the Kymellians refugees from Arcon to cooperatively terraform the world.”[/color]

Billy tried to smile and shrug over at Kofi, as though to say [i]See? Whaddiditellya?[/i]

The young Kymellian just gave a shake of his head, another huff-whinny indicating his utter rejection of the idea.

Billy guessed that generations of interspecies warfare wasn’t going to be un-done overnight. All right, if false hope wasn’t going to win the day, Billy could settle for some brutal pragmatism. [color=crimson]“So, [i]yeah[/i], we just got our butts kicked. And it [b]sucks[/b], but there was no loss of life and maybe we get a chance at interstellar peace out of this,”[/color] the boy remarked flatly, planting his hands on his hips as he fired back a look of his own at the pouting horse-boy, before adding, [color=crimson]“All things being equal, I’ll take that as a victory.”[/color]

The Kymellian boy turned to jab a thick digit out at the young Marvel. [color=skyblue]“I find your optimism [i]disturbing[/i], [b]human[/b].”[/color] With that, Kofi turned and walked off to the other side of the cockpit.

Billy just gave a sigh. Why was it whenever someone said the word [i]human[/i] around here, they managed to make it sound like it was a four-letter-word? With a shake his head, the boy turned and made his way over to the food synthesizer that was tucked away in one corner of the ship. [color=crimson]“Mountain Dew, two degrees centigrade.”[/color]

What appeared a moment later was decidedly not a tall, cool glass of neon green colored deliciousness.

Withdrawing the cup of what was so obviously orange juice, the boy looked up toward the ceiling as he asked a likely rhetorical, [color=crimson]“What’s this?”[/color]

[indent][indent][color=lightgreen][b]A far healthier alternative, human William Batson.[/b][/color][/indent][/indent]
Self-aware starships. Sounded cool in principle. Really bad idea in execution.

Taking a sip of the orange juice, the boy wandered over toward the dark cloud that was the Kymellian in the corner. [color=crimson]“Anyway, [b]I get it[/b]! You don’t trust the Shi’ar,”[/color] Billy remarked. He’d freely admit he didn’t know the history between the races of the galaxy, only that the Kymellians, the Shi’ar, the Kree, and the Tamarians all had some bad blood between them. [color=crimson]“If Cal an’ Vic an’ Bishop were here, I’m sure they’d agree. But we have a [i]chance[/i], and it could benefit [b]a lot[/b] of people if it works.”[/color]

It never hurt to appeal to reason with Kymellians.

The way that Kofi bristled and looked at Billy, the boy realized too late that the young sorcerer’s apprentice had already arrived at the same conclusion. He just didn’t like it. And didn’t want to admit that Billy was right. [color=skyblue]“I hate you.”[/color]

[color=crimson]“I get that a lot,”[/color] Billy answered, without even missing a beat. And he did, too. It was hard out here for a human. Most extraterrestials had no idea who or what you were, and those that did probably equated your existence to slaves.

Finishing his orange juice, the young Marvel made his way over beside where the large stallion sat brooding before a worsening situation for the doomed planet below. Staring at the monitors didn’t seem like it was going to help anything. And standing around here wasn’t really Billy’s idea of [i]hero time.[/i] [color=crimson]“So, what do we do now, Wizard?”[/color]

The old man gave a gruff, baritone huff-whinny of his own. [color=silver]“My people are dismantling the stargates to this system and placing interdimensional warnings to ward off any travelers who mistakenly find their way here.”[/color]

Something about that statement nagged at questions from earlier that were still gnawing at Billy’s subconscious. Arcon wasn’t the easiest spot in the galaxy to get to. Even the Shi’ar would need the use of a stargate and a couple of jumps to have gotten here. And the dire wraiths were far below the Shi’ar in terms of space travel. [color=crimson]“But how did the dire wraiths find their way here?”[/color] the boy asked, looking up from his own brooding.

[color=silver]“An excellent question,”[/color] the Wizard replied simply, with no further elaboration. Billy got the impression that maybe the old man had the same thought that he had about it.

[i]Not without help.[/i]

But chasing that line of thought in the blind was sure to be journey down a rabbit hole with no end. 

As though to affirm that the Wizard and the young Marvel were of one mind, the old Kymellian suddenly said, [color=silver]“But not one I expect we will answer today.”[/color] With that, the Wizard rose from the monitors and moved back to take his seat at the dais that functioned as the central control for the vessel. As the old man appeared to be inputting a new course for the ship, he noted aloud, [color=silver]“You should return to Earth. There are elements there that may become [b]emboldened[/b] by your absence.”[/color]

[color=crimson]“Aw, shucks,”[/color] Billy uttered, kicking back into one of the side chairs. Were they going back to Kymellia? Chandilar? There were so many cool places in the galaxy that Billy hadn’t even been yet. [color=crimson]“The League said they’d watch out for ol’ Fawcett City.”[/color]

Seriously, they were in [i]space[/i]. This was basically Star Wars in real life.

Only there were things out here worse than Darth Vader. And no shortage of galactic empires.

Still, if they had horse aliens and vampire cockroaches and whatever the heck the Psions were supposed to be, couldn’t they at least have lightsabers? Because that’d be super cool!

[color=silver]“Perhaps, but your world still needs you.”[/color]

The boy’s face displayed a variety of very different emotions in a surprisingly short span of time, before he let out an exaggerated, [color=crimson]“All riiiiight,”[/color] and hopped up from out of the chair.

The Wizard’s voice reached him about halfway to the airlock. [color=silver]“I will send Kofi to you shortly,”[/color] the Kymellian said, as the boy turned to look back at the pair. Extending an arm out toward the small human, the old Wizard asked, [color=silver]“Would you like me to teleport you back?”[/color]

This time, the smile actually reached up to his eyes. [color=crimson]“Nah, I like flying through space,”[/color] the child answered, bringing a hand up to wave goodbye as he opened the inner door to the airlock.  As he stepped inside, the boy brought his arms up, casually adjusting the distinctive bracers on his forearms. 

[color=crimson][sub]“[i]Speed of Mercury. Power of Zeus.[/i]”[/sub][/color]

The words, whispered, echoed within the chamber. An aura of energy enveloped his small form, crackling with sparks that arced off of Friday’s metal hull. As he stepped up to the outer door, the exterior hatch was pulled away like a curtain to reveal the naked cosmos outside. Gently, the boy's foot drifted from off the deck as he floated freely into the vacuum awaiting him.

Space could be frightening the first time. There was no concept of up or down. No compass points with which to orient the mind. Some never overcame the vertigo. But Billy? Billy felt like this was true freedom. Putting his arms by his side, the child ducked and then pushed himself out through the void like a dolphin sliding through the sea. Gliding across the emptiness, the youth sailed upward to loop under and around Friday. 

The Kymellian ship was making a turn of it’s own, lifting away from the planet below as it turned it’s course toward the center of the cosmos. And soon there vanished, leaving Billy drifting in space alone.

Veering to his right, the boy swam through an ocean of black. Closing his eyes, some internal compass oriented toward the Solar System. As he tilted his head back, the child opened his eyes and took a moment to marvel, open mouthed and in awe, at the wonder and majesty of the universe itself. He passed by planets. Massive, colossal gas giants. Worlds encircled by rings that separated into densely packed particles suspended in tight orbital paths. 

He traveled alongside a comet for a time. Passing over and under the vapor trail it left in its wake. Except gravity turned it back along its own orbital path, as the boy soon found himself in the void between the orbital disk and the outer edge of the star system.

There was another debris field. It was something of the wall that marked the gravitational bubble of the central star around which everything orbited. Through that debris disk, the child arrived at the heliopause.

And then he was nowhere. Literally in the space between space. The interstellar medium beyond the stars.

There, in the distance, Billy knew Earth lay. Too far for the young sun of the Solar System to have yet reached this part of the universe. Hundreds of years from now, light from Earth’s star system would reach this part of the galaxy. And shine there for millions of years, even after the Solar System itself no longer existed.

Stretching himself out toward that imaginary spot on the cosmic horizon, the boy braced himself as though about to set out on a sprint.

[color=crimson]“SHAZAM.”[/color]

A flash a light. A brilliant explosion in a soundless void of eternal night and he was gone.

[COLOR=deepskyblue][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]W E S T C H E S T E R[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT][sup][color=SILVER]November 12[sup]th[/sup], 2017   |   6:02p.m.   |   The Xavier Institute of Higher Learning[/color][/sup][/INDENT][/INDENT]
Heat lightning scored the heavens over New York state.

Then a loud clap of thunder, as a brilliant spark of light suddenly leapt across the dusk-colored sky.

Static electricity, gathered from the atmospheric drag as he rapidly decelerated, crackled violently up and down his body. The white, gold trimmed cap billowed in the wind behind him. Rotating himself so that he was peering down at the Earth, the red-and-blue clad Captain Marvel was disoriented for a moment as his eyes and mind tried to find points of familiarity with which to determine his approximate place in the world.

He was overlooking the eastern seaboard. The town of Salem Center was several thousand feet below. From this altitude, Billy could see commercial airliners moving in and away from the traffic patterns that controlled the airspace around New York City’s bustling airports.

He dropped like a stone, holding his arms up by his head as he plunged toward the earth far, far below. 

The red boots stopped in mid-air, just a foot off the ground. Slowly, gently, the boy controlled his descent until the crunch of grass was once more underfoot.

He was standing back on Earth.

There was a certain swell of emotion, as he looked up and found himself once more staring at a familiar sky. Familiar stars. Familiar constellations. He had been to many worlds, in many different galaxies. But none looked like this. None looked like home.

He wondered for how long that he’d been gone this time.

[color=crimson]“Costume off.”[/color]

Another flash of light, this one washing across his body. The red and blue ensemble replaced by ordinary clothes, as his costume was swapped out for what he’d been wearing before he’d gone adventuring.

It was wholly inappropriate it seemed. It had been a different time of year when he’d departed Earth.Already, there was snow falling on the ground. And Billy was standing there in shorts and a tee shirt, both second hand from a Goodwill donation center in Fawcett City's lower East side. Instead of looking like Earth's mightiest mortal, now he just looked like the homeless kid from under the George Washington Bridge overpass.

The boy stood on the shore of a lake. Behind him was the back porch of a large European style mansion. The night sky made Billy realize that he was hungry. He wondered if there was anything to eat in the X-Mansion kitchen?

The weariness of the last several weeks was starting to catch up with him, exhaustion creeping up as the boy allowed the levels of aetherial energy running through him to drop back to ambient levels. The chill from the snow gathering around his naked ankles was nipping at his senses, as his feet began to go numb. 

Even still, the boy couldn’t turn away from the view of the night’s sky overhead. He’d drag himself into the X-Mansion. But first, he just wanted to look a little while longer.