JLA Watchtower (Archive)

The surreal void where the floating remains of the Rock of Eternity now drift, has become a battlefield. Hordes of nightmarish monsters, called forth by the Dark Lord, wage a fierce battle atop a hill of the bodies of their fallen against the undying servant of dream, Mar’I Grayson, The Nightstar. Nearby, the sword of Ibn al’Xuffasc lies on a rock outcropping, it’s wielder fallen before the power of Mordru. In the far distance The Last Son of Krypton and the Lord of Apocalypse have come to a dangerous understanding.

Near the center of the conflict, Jade and Obsidian stand transformed in the wake of the disappearance of their father, Alan Scott the eldest of Earth’s Green Lanterns. The Atom and Zattana bear witness, having braved the power and threat of Eclipso, who is now caged within a newly forged Black Diamond of Obsidian’s making.

Close at hand the sometime villain Zard and the JSA’s leader Mister Terrific, engage in a battle of power and wit with the demonic bearer of the Seven Deadly Sins, Sabbac. Nearby, Green Lantern Travis and Sand Hawkins have combined their unique talents to vanquish a formidable foe, Johnny Sorrow. Bound in hood and chains of power ring origins, the villain now crouches helpless before the granite strength and power of Sand’s ‘gentle’ ministrations.

In the very center of this maelstrom however, is the architect of this madness, Mordru the Dark Lord. His schemes having been thwarted once more, he still retains his captives, Billy Batson, Freddie Freeman and Theo Adam. Gagged, and bound to the Rock of Eternity, these three were to be the touchstone to the Power of Shazam. A power that Mordru sought to use for his own dark ends. A power with which Doctor Fate, the champion of Nabu, has struck the Dark Lord down with. Though the mad sorcerer tried to subsume the power for himself, the Lightning of the gods was given to Fate to protect, and it is in this time and place that it’s fury has been revealed.

It was here, where victory was about to escape his grasp, that the Dark Lord played his final mad card in this deadly affair. His mind broken by the power of Fate and the fall of his pride, Mordru has uttered words that no being has heard in millennia. Those ancient intonations have unlocked barriers that are as old as time. Even now, creatures that were banished from our realm when the gods themselves where young, threaten to return to our world as their horrifying shadows can already be perceived as they push their way through the barriers of reality.

Manipulating the potent energies of the debris field that was once the Rock of Eternity was a delicate and careful process. Without Batson and the other two, it would have been impossible. Having direct control of the Power of Shazam would have simplified matters considerably, but the Wizard had outmaneuvered Mordru there. Even now, the Dark Lord could not find the resting place of the ancient power. No matter, he had Shazam's mortal intermediaries and that had proved to be connection enough.

The complicated lattice of magic needed for the final rite was coming close to completion, but something nagged at him. Mary Bromfeild. His servants had failed to acquire the girl. She was not necessary for what he had in store for creation, but he misliked loose ends. It gnawed at him. He needed to acquire her. His intuition told him that she was a danger.

Rising suddenly from his silence, the Dark Lord sweeps back his midnight blue robes and holds his hands out, palms facing up with fingers crooked like raptor claws. Intoning words that would burn the tongues of mortal men, he calls out into the darkness beyond the sunlit realms of the living and invokes the unborn shadows of Chaos to him...