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Thirty-five minutes ago, something hit the SS Minerva.

Thirty minutes ago, the Justice League intercepted the passenger ship’s urgent distress call.

Twenty-five minutes ago, Captain Marvel took the Slideways Teleporter to the Justice League International’s Italian branch.

Fifteen minutes ago, Captain Marvel spotted the SS Minerva limping along through the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea.

Ten minutes ago, the Captain sealed the gash in the ship’s hull with the aid of the vessel’s captain, Vincent Grace.

Four minutes ago, Captain Marvel successfully towed the SS Minerva to a nearby islet while Captain Grace contacted the Italian Coast Guard for pickup.

After checking with the ship’s passengers to ensure they were okay, Captain Marvel joined Captain Grace at the shore to wait for the Coast Guard to arrive.

Grace nodded at Marvel’s approach. “Appreciate the help, Captain Marvel. Don’t know that we would’ve made it otherwise.”

Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “It was no trouble at all, sir.”

“Still,” Captain Grace said, “you have our thanks. You know, we’re lucky there wasn’t a storm in the area—with all the water we’d taken on, we’d have made one helluva lightning rod.”

Captain Marvel laughed, but stopped when something off the coast caught his eye. “What’s going on with the ocean over there?”

Captain Grace narrowed his eyes. “Looks like a whirlpool,” he said with a frown.

“Cool!” At the look he got from the other captain, Marvel winced. “Uh, nevermind. Is it weird that there’s one here?” he asked.

Captain Grace’s frown deepened. “Shouldn’t even be possible ‘round these parts. You only get whirlpools where opposite currents meet.”

“I’ll go check it out,” Captain Marvel promised.

Captain Grace nodded. “You do that. Could mean trouble for whoever comes to pick us up.”

“You can count on me, Cap’n!” Captain Marvel answered with a salute. He took off into the air.

Within moments, he was hovering above the swirling whirlpool. He wasn’t sure how big whirlpools were supposed to get, but this one seemed kind of small. Easy enough to stop if he pulled a trick out of the Flash’s book and flew around it underwater in the opposite direction.

Before the Captain could take action, however, he was interrupted by a strange sight: the whirlpool was rising. The water inexplicably swirled upwards into the air, easily reaching thirty feet, just shy of where Captain Marvel was hovering. From there, the water spun faster and faster as it coalesced into the shape of a long-haired man dressed in a watery chiton and chlamys. The man’s body was only formed from the waist up, whatever legs he might have unseen below the ocean’s roiling surface.

Captain Marvel got a sinking feeling in his gut. This couldn’t be good. He ran through his mental list of bad guys, trying to think if any of them were made of water and also sixty feet tall. He came up blank.

He might as well figure out what this dude’s deal was, then. Floating down to the water man’s eye level, Captain Marvel waved in greeting. “Hey, mister… ocean guy! What brings you here?” He tried to smile as invitingly as he could.

The water man’s eyes didn’t have discernible pupils, but Captain Marvel could still feel his gaze turn on him. Those eyes had a weight behind them, ancient and imposing.

The water man spoke. “Are you the one responsible for saving that sinking ship?” He sounded pissed.

Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah, I am! Got everyone to shore, safe and sound. Why, did you already call dibs on saving them?”

The water composing the giant’s body swirled faster. “No, I did not. Begone from my sight, little Champion,” he demanded. “I have an unfinished task to complete.”

Crap. The Captain put on a false grin; best to try and keep things from escalating. “Hey, you know who I am! That’s cool, that’s cool,” he said. “But, well, it sounds like you have a bone to pick with the people who were on that ship, and, you know, I kinda can’t let you hurt them. If you try something, I’m gonna have to stop you, mister water giant.”

The man laughed at that. Captain Marvel could feel the sound of it vibrating in his bones, and he could swear he heard the earth shake in response, even at the bottom of the sea.

After a few minutes, the giant’s laughter finally quieted, and he spoke, all mirth bled from his voice. “You have no idea of that with which you trifle, boy.” He drew out the word, condescending and dismissive. “I am Sea-Lord and Earth-Shaker! You mortals once venerated me as Lord of the Underworld—most of your world is my domain!” He leaned in close to Captain Marvel, face mere inches away as his watery hair flowed out to surround the Captain. “And you think you can stop me from taking those ants’ lives?”

Double crap.

This guy was Poseidon.

He was talking to Poseidon.

This situation’s danger level had just gone from a 3 to a 9. But those passengers were counting on Captain Marvel. He couldn’t back down now.

“I won’t let you hurt them,” he repeated firmly.

The sea god and the world’s mightiest mortal stared each other down, neither willing to give an inch.

After what felt like an eternity, Poseidon gave a rumbling chuckle. “Very well, little Champion. Your mettle amuses me.”

Captain Marvel sighed with relief. Maybe he could actually avoid this turning into a fight.

“As such,” the sea god continued, “I will offer you a deal, with a singular condition. As Champion, you are the gods’ foremost connection to the modern mortals, our emissary to the world that once bent the knee at our feet.” Poseidon grinned, shark-like. “In exchange for my mercy on the people upon that island shore, I demand a place among your patrons, so that I shall have a guiding hand in your actions in the mortal realm.”

Triple crap. “Mr. Poseidon, I’m sorry, but… I don’t know that I can do what you’re asking.” Captain Marvel clasped his hands together. “The Wizard’s the only one who knew how to do that. But he’s dead, and he never taught me how he did it.”

Poseidon sighed. “So be it, then.” With a shrug, the sea god turned to the island and began gliding across the water’s surface towards it.

Captain Marvel darted in front of Poseidon once more, hands facing palms-out. “Wait!” he shouted. “Can’t we still settle this peacefully?”

Poseidon shook his head. “We cannot.” Without warning, he swatted Captain Marvel away, sending him sailing down into the water.

As he slowed to a stop, the Captain blinked rapidly, disoriented, then looked up. The underside of the sea’s surface, rays of light dappling the waves, greeted him.

Fine. If that was how Poseidon wanted to play this, the Captain would just have to answer in kind. Besides, how hard could fighting Poseidon be compared to Darkseid or Sabbac?

Captain Marvel surged back into the air with a splash and glared at Poseidon, who was once again approaching the shore. “Hey!” Marvel yelled. “Over here, Poseidon!”

The sea god glanced at Captain Marvel. He waved his hand over the water nonchalantly.

The ocean seemed to buckle downwards, like a crater in the ground, before exploding outwards towards Captain Marvel, shooting at him like a harpoon. The Captain just barely managed to dodge to the side, watching in what felt like slow motion as the water harpoon whizzed by, mere inches from his face, his own reflection staring back at him from its surface. After a moment, time seemed to speed up again, and the harpoon sailed off into the distance.

Captain Marvel watched its flight for a second before turning back to Poseidon with a cocky grin, adrenaline rushing through him. “That the best you’ve got, fish-briefs?!” He yelled.

That certainly got the ocean god’s attention. Poseidon turned to fully face Captain Marvel, his face contorting with rage.

The Captain grimaced. That… might not have been the best idea.

Poseidon made a grasping motion with both hands. In response, an enormous watery hand and arm erupted from the ocean below the Captain. Before he could get out of reach, the hand snatched him out of the air, pinning his arms to his sides. He struggled against the titanic grip but could find no purchase by which to break free.

A second arm emerged from the ocean, this one carrying what looked like half a sea-stack in hand like a club. The arm drew itself back, winding up for a swing.

The Captain braced himself.

When the blow came, it was like being hit by an island. The second hand swung the sea-stack, smashing straight through the first hand to hit Captain Marvel at full force, giving him no chance to dodge. The blow sent Captain Marvel careening through the air, along with a hail of rubble from the sea-stack crumbling on impact.

Within a few seconds, Captain Marvel got a handle on his momentum, slowing to a stop in midair. He glared at Poseidon.

Having learned from his mistake, Captain Marvel decided to forgo any shouting and launched himself straight at the sea god. With a spray of seawater, the Captain punched through Poseidon’s back and out his chest before the god could even notice the attack coming.

Captain Marvel felt a rush of triumph. It was short-lived, though, as he turned around to see the hole in Poseidon’s torso filling in until it appeared as though his attack never happened. Poseidon was looking at the Captain with deep contempt. “Is that the best you can do?” he rumbled, in a mocking mirror of Marvel’s earlier taunt.

Captain Marvel scowled, overcome with frustration. “Look, you fish-faced brony, I don’t care what you want with me, and I don’t care about whatever unfinished business you’ve got! God or not, I’m not letting you reach that island, so you can take your pompous, wrinkled butt back to the Mariana Trench or wherever you go to sulk when you don’t get to slaughter innocent people!”

Poseidon was quiet for a moment as the sea raged around him. Captain Marvel internally slapped himself. He just couldn’t resist bad-mouthing gods to their faces, could he? Still, he wasn’t about to take any of it back.

Without a word, Poseidon clasped his hands together and raised them above his head, almost as if in prayer, before they continued further up and behind his head. He swung them down in a double axe handle, slamming his fists into Captain Marvel.

By the time the Captain finished processing the impact, he found himself three feet under the sea floor.

It took a good few minutes to dig himself out of the silt and mud, every second of which was filled with a string of curses that would have made an aged sailor clutch their pearls, and which Whiz Radio would have absolutely refused to air. Underwater, though, it just came out as a stream of bubbles. He then spun in place at full speed, flinging the rest of the mud off his skin and costume.

He could feel the water pressure pushing against him, but thanks to the Stamina of Atlas, it was no more uncomfortable than a too-heavy blanket. The Captain took a moment to survey the sea floor around him. It was remarkably devoid of fish, likely thanks to Poseidon slamming him down here.

Captain Marvel spotted an array of sea chimneys nearby, and an idea popped into his head. Flying over to a particularly large chimney, he wrapped his arms as far around its base as he could, and squeezed. The stone cracked beneath the pressure until the chimney toppled over like a felled tree. Hoisting it by its thinnest point, Captain Marvel flew back towards the surface with the sea chimney in tow, bursting into open air.

With just a moment to get his bearings, he spotted Poseidon, who was now significantly closer to the shore.

The Captain rushed at the sea god and swung the chimney at the back of his watery head like a baseball bat, smashing it into harmless seaspray. 

But, just like his torso earlier, Poseidon’s head reformed within mere seconds, undamaged but a whole lot angrier. The sea god snatched Captain Marvel out of the air faster than he could process, forcing him to drop the sea chimney back into the water. “I tire of these theatrics, mortal!” Poseidon bellowed. “Stay out of my way.” He wound his arm back and pitched the Captain through the air like a baseball. Like before, though, he was able to correct his momentum and come to a midair stop.

This wasn’t working. How was Captain Marvel supposed to beat someone he couldn’t properly land a hit on? He could barely even slow the sea god down.

Well, he needed to think of something, and quickly: Poseidon was getting worryingly close to shore. No matter how unlikely it might be that Captain Marvel could stop Poseidon, those people had even less of a chance.

He could maybe try Flash’s cyclone trick, but given the control Poseidon had displayed over water, he doubted that would accomplish much of anything. But he desperately needed a surefire way to buy time for the Coast Guard to arrive, since outright stopping Poseidon seemed to be impossible.

With most of his villains, it was easy enough for Captain Marvel to goad them into fighting him and ignoring civilians. Sometimes because they had a huge grudge against him, but more often because they were prideful. Some scathing insults were usually enough to get their full attention, but that hadn’t worked with Poseidon.

So think, then. Don’t look at Poseidon like he’s someone from your rogues gallery—he’s no talking crocodile or mad scientist. Poseidon was a god, and gods played by their own set of rules.

So what did Captain Marvel know about gods? Pluto and the other Lords of Hell loved deals and power; Captain Marvel’s own godly patrons loved glory and worship; and every other god he’d met, whether they be ally or enemy, had an ego the size of a mountain. So he needed to appeal to that, use Poseidon’s ambition and arrogance against him. Plus, he already knew what Poseidon wanted, and even if Captain Marvel couldn’t actually give it to him, he could take advantage of that desire.

So he had a plan. The beginnings of one, at least. He could improvise the rest.

“Poseidon!” Captain Marvel shouted.

He was answered with a blast of water to the face. This time, he managed to stand his ground—stand his air? How did that work when he was flying?—and continued. “Would you stop that?! I wanna make a deal with you, dude!”

The gigantic sea god slowed to a stop, regarding Captain Marvel with a curious gaze. “You already refused my one condition for mercy, little Champion. What have you to offer that could possibly be of interest to me?” He cocked his head to the side. “Unless you’ve reconsidered my bargain, that is.”

Captain Marvel took a deep breath. “I still can’t make you one of my patrons. But!” he added quickly. “I have an idea! You guys like honor and glory and deals and all that, right? Gods, I mean.”

“For the most part, yes,” Poseidon boomed. “Although bargains are more so my brother’s preference.”

“Right, right,” Captain Marvel said. “But honor and glory, you guys love. Okay, so, basically, you want to kill the people I saved and a spot in my pantheon, and I want to stop you from killing those people. I can’t give you what you want, and I probably can’t physically stop you from reaching that shore. So instead of neither of us getting what we’re really after, how about this: we duel for it! Winner gets to decide what happens to the people on shore, and if you win, I’ll also do five tasks you give me, so long as they don’t involve hurting anyone.” He felt bad about wagering the passengers’ lives like this, but he wasn’t sure if Poseidon was above killing them out of spite if the only consequence was that the loser had to leave. And this way, the stakes were deliberately in Poseidon’s favor, so he’d be more likely to agree to them. “Also,” he added, “the loser is the first person who’s unable to continue fighting.”

Poseidon was silent for a few moments, seemingly pondering Captain Marvel’s words. At last, he spoke. “A brave proposition, if nothing else,” he said. “Very well. I will accept your terms, with two conditions.”

Oh no. “And what are those?” Captain Marvel asked, already bracing for the worst.

Poseidon gave that shark-toothed grin of his. “Firstly, I shall choose the setting of this duel. Observe.” He extended one watery hand, palm facing the water. Rumbling filled the air as the ocean began frothing even more than usual. Within moments, an enormous stone ring broke through the water’s surface, continuing to rise upward. Its progress revealed more and more detail, of columns and arches, and it dawned on Captain Marvel exactly what he was looking at: a colosseum. It was clearly incredibly old and abandoned; many of the upper tiers were in utter disarray, cluttered with collapsed arches and corroded benches and covered in barnacles and detritus.

“Why is there a colosseum in the middle of the ocean?” Captain Marvel wondered aloud.

The question wasn’t really meant for him, but Poseidon answered anyway. “It once belonged to an ancient Atlantean city, before my people moved farther out into the Atlantic. It has rested here without purpose for centuries. I felt it an appropriate venue for our engagement.”

Once the floor of the colosseum was just above the water, the structure stopped rising. Having shrunk his form to a mere eight feet tall, now complete with legs, Poseidon stood in the center of it all. Waves continued to crash against the sides of the colosseum, periodically flooding the arena through the gates. Rubble of all sizes lay strewn about its floor.

Captain Marvel flew down to meet Poseidon, touching down on the soaked stone floor. “Okay, I admit that that was pretty cool,” he said, “but you said you had two conditions. What’s the other one?”

Poseidon raised a single, imperious eyebrow. “The weapons, of course. For that, I choose… the trident.” In a flash of light that Captain Marvel had to shield his eyes against, a gleaming bronze trident appeared in Poseidon’s right hand, an intimidating nine feet in length. It glowed with a sweltering power that Captain Marvel could feel even from several feet away. That trident was clearly no watery apparition like the rest of the god; it was the real deal.

Captain Marvel gulped. Courage of Achilles, don’t fail me now. “Alright, what about me? I don’t exactly keep one of those handy.”

Poseidon scoffed. “You should not approach a duel without a weapon to call your own, little Champion.” He extended his left hand once more. “But no matter.” A short pillar of stone erupted from the floor between the two of them. Poseidon curled his hand into a fist, and in response, the pillar quaked apart into dust, leaving behind a stone trident somewhat longer than six-and-a-half feet.

Poseidon flicked his hand, and the stone trident launched itself at Captain Marvel. Thanks to the Speed of Mercury, Marvel was able to dodge out of the way and grab the trident as it sailed past him. He twirled the polearm around experimentally. He didn’t have much experience with using melee weapons, but the trident’s balance seemed alright. Props to the creator, he supposed.

Poseidon planted the butt of his trident against the ground. Captain Marvel tried not to wince at the way it cracked the stone. “Now then,” the sea god rumbled, “the stage is set, and the combatants are armed.”

He smirked. “Shall we begin?”

Captain Marvel imitated Poseidon’s pose and nodded in assent.

Captain Marvel expected the sea god to immediately go on the offensive, but instead, he simply stood there, measuring up the Captain.

This might have been a mistake. Captain Marvel still wasn’t sure how he was supposed to beat Poseidon, and he had no idea how to wield a trident. Why couldn’t the Wisdom of Solomon have come with combat knowledge?

Well, he’d made this bed. He’d just have to lie in it long enough to think of a way out.

If Poseidon wouldn’t make the first move, neither would Captain Marvel. Every second that ticked by was a small victory, after all.

Poseidon raised an eyebrow. “You asked for this duel, little Champion. Do you now refuse to see it through?”

The Wisdom of Solomon whispered to the Captain not to take the bait. That piece of advice was already glaringly obvious, but thanks, Solomon. “I don’t know about you, dude,” Captain Marvel replied, “but I’m fine with waiting.”

The sea god harrumphed. “I see.” He shifted to a more aggressive stance. “Let us be on with it, then.” Faster than a blink, Poseidon lunged forward, striking for the Captain’s abdomen.

Caught off-guard, he failed to entirely dodge Poseidon’s thrust. The burning bronze tore through the material of the Captain’s costume, carving through his side.

Captain Marvel darted back, landing a few feet away from his opponent. He watched in uncomprehending shock as blood dripped from the gash, staining the seafoam pink around his feet.

How? How could anything break his skin? He was supposed to be invulnerable! Was Poseidon’s symbol of power really so potent that it could overcome the Stamina of Atlas? And the wound wasn’t healing like it should be, either.

The sound of bronze whistling through the air snapped him out of his shock. Moving entirely on instinct, Captain Marvel just barely raised his trident in time to block a vicious swing from Poseidon at his head. Bronze rang against stone, the sound somehow both sonorous and dissonant simultaneously, ringing harshly in Marvel’s ears like he’d been smacked in the face with a tuning fork. The force of the impact forced Captain Marvel several inches sideways. He nearly slipped on the slick stone.

Seemingly unfazed, Poseidon pulled back his trident, only to instantly whip it around at the Captain in an overhead strike.

Captain Marvel, still unsteady on his feet, stumbled back, the gleaming tips of his enemy’s weapon passing mere centimeters in front of his face, the heat of the metal oppressive against his skin. Poseidon’s trident continued through its arc, hitting the stone floor and carving a divot into it that fractured outward like a miniature earthquake. Marvel looked on in shock. How the sea god’s trident could cleave stone like warm butter yet did not do the same to the Captain’s trident was beyond him, and probably not that important right now.

Finally getting his wits about him, the Captain darted to the right and jabbed at Poseidon’s left side. With inhuman speed, the sea god deftly knocked aside Marvel’s trident with the haft of his weapon before responding with a thrust of his own.

The Captain’s trident was still fully extended, and he had no room to dodge. With no other options, Captain Marvel redirected Poseidon’s jab with his forearm. The trident’s outer prong bit into his demigod flesh even as the heat of the metal instantly cauterized the wound, strangling a pained shout from the Captain. 

He flew back, out of Poseidon’s reach, clutching his wounded forearm. After a few seconds, the pain settled down, and Marvel experimentally tried bending his arm and moving his wrist. He winced at the pain and winced harder at the sight of the wound. Thankfully, though, he seemed to still have relatively full range of motion there.

He looked back at Poseidon. The sea god was just standing nonchalantly, insufferably casual as he watched the Captain. Like he couldn’t be bothered to even follow up on this opportunity to attack, content instead to simply wait for Captain Marvel to approach.

Dang it, he needed to be smarter than this. He’d been on the back foot this whole fight, for Pete’s sake. He couldn’t change that by fighting honestly, not when Poseidon had about a million times more dueling experience than him. But an open colosseum didn’t provide much room for creativity, what with its barren stone and lack of cover…

Huh. That might be worth a shot, actually.

Putting down his trident for a moment, Captain Marvel turned away from Poseidon. Not smart to put his back to the enemy, but worth it to hide what he was doing. With a series of carefully placed punches, the Captain carved out a chunk of the floor a little larger than himself. He then hooked his fingers under the lip of the chunk and mentally prepared himself.

Without giving Poseidon any warning, Marvel heaved the chunk of floor into the air and chucked it at the sea God as hard as he could. Without missing a beat, the Captain snatched his trident up off the ground and flew after the sailing chunk, staying just behind and counting on it to block him from Poseidon’s view.

As expected, upon it reaching him, the sea god smashed the chunk of floor into rubble. That left him wide open, and so Captain Marvel struck true, driving his trident into Poseidon’s chest.

The air stilled for a beat.

Poseidon looked down at the stone trident buried in his watery chest, then back up to meet Marvel’s gaze, a single eyebrow cocked in condescension. “Pathetic,” he drawled.

Not even bothering with his weapon, Poseidon decked the Captain in the face.

Captain Marvel had expected his attack to be largely ineffective, of course, but his trident buried in Poseidon’s chest gave him leverage to stay rooted against Poseidon’s punch. Poseidon seemed surprised at that, and the Captain grinned. He still couldn’t hit Poseidon, not in a way that mattered. All he could do was buy time. And the more he could keep Poseidon guessing, punish him for underestimating him, the more time he’d get. Time enough to think of a better plan, or for the Coast Guard to arrive, he didn’t know which. But either way, he couldn’t let himself be beaten yet.

The Captain wrenched his trident out of Poseidon’s chest, dragging the sea god off-balance for a moment, then went on the offensive. Poseidon recovered quickly and deflected Marvel’s next thrust with ease. Undeterred, however, he kept attacking, again and again and again.

Poseidon could block each and every strike, even responding with the occasional attack of his own, but the assault left him with no space to maneuver, no time to gather himself. Even so, Captain Marvel’s body accumulated more and more damage as the fight wore on. 

With a shout, Captain Marvel swung his trident overhead at Poseidon, fully expecting him to parry. To his shock, however, the sea god instead caught the blow on the prongs of his own trident, locking the two weapons together.

The two combatants pushed against one another, each one pitting all their divine strength against the other in a clash of wills. Neither was willing to give an inch. They strained mightily as the sound of bronze scraping against stone overtook even the heightened sound of the crashing waves around them. They locked gazes, mortal against god, burning lightning against roaring sea. The very stone cracked around their feet beneath the titanic weight of their struggle.

Seawater further flooded the arena, flowing straight towards Poseidon. It assimilated into his body, causing it to grow to two, then three times its size, his trident enlarging in kind. Captain Marvel could see the slight tint of pink in Poseidon’s body from the blood-soaked saltwater that had joined with him.

Poseidon’s increased size allowed him greater leverage by which to bear down on the Captain. Marvel’s knees began to buckle beneath the force of it, but then, drawing forth strength from reserves he didn’t know he had, he managed to match Poseidon once more. He would not give the sea god the satisfaction of driving him to his knees.

But with a flick of his wrist, Poseidon sent the water around them slamming into the Captain’s feet, sweeping his legs out from under him in a truly underhanded ploy. The Captain fell to the ground, saltwater flooding his eyes, nose, and mouth.

Sputtering, his vision bleary, the Captain instinctively rolled away. By sheer chance, he barely avoided Poseidon’s downward thrust. His enormous trident rent the arena floor asunder, breaking it into dozens of shifting pieces, held together only by the confines of the arena walls.

The shifting stone and slick water beneath him hindered the Captain’s recovery, and he was only just able to rise to his knees before the next vicious attack was bearing down on him. He’d managed to clear the salt from his eyes just in time to witness an overhead swing that could very well crush his head into paste on impact. Panicking, he hastily raised his trident in both hands to block the attack.

The sea god’s trident hit like a truck, producing a shockwave and pushing the Captain several inches down into the stone. The terrible weight of the strike was halted for only a moment by Captain Marvel’s trident before it cleaved it in two, just barely missing the reeling Captain himself.

The World’s Mightiest Mortal stared in disbelief at the two halves of his broken weapon as Poseidon shrank back to his eight-foot-tall self and walked over to him. The sea god placed the prongs of his trident just under the Captain’s chin, the heat terrible against his neck.

The Captain looked up at Poseidon’s expression of contemptuous satisfaction, letting the two halves of his now-useless weapon fall out of his hands.

“What have you to say in the face of your defeat, boy?” the sea god sneered.

Captain Marvel glared at Poseidon, clenching his fists in anger, before his gaze fell, downcast. He’d lost. He’d lost, and now everybody who was on that ship would die because of it.

He’d let Captain Grace down.

But then, in the moment of Captain Marvel’s sheer despair, something Captain Grace had said came back to him. “…with all the water we’d taken on, we’d have made one helluva lightning rod.”

…That was it.

He knew how to win.

Captain Marvel met Poseidon’s gaze once more. The sea god must have seen something of the Captain’s newfound resolve in it, for he hesitated for a moment before pressing his trident more insistently against his neck.

“Well?” he demanded. “Any last words?”

Captain Marvel smiled. “Just one.”

Without warning, the Captain grabbed hold of the prongs of Poseidon’s trident, biting back a shout of pain at the firestorm bronze tearing at his palms. With a Herculean effort, he wrested the trident over his head and shouted.

“SHAZAM!!!”

The Magic Lightning crashed down from the sky in a brilliant flash, striking Poseidon’s trident and Captain Marvel simultaneously. The energy of the collision exploded, blasting away Captain Marvel, now in the form of the boy, Billy Batson.

Dazed, with his head pounding and ears buzzing, Billy pushed himself to his hands and knees. He winced at the sting in his palms, forearm, and sides; the transformation had greatly reduced the severity of his wounds, but they still hurt quite a bit.

Billy looked in the direction he’d been knocked away from. The stone was charred and blackened where the Magic Lightning had struck. Poseidon was nowhere to be seen, though his trident lay steaming on the ground. The Lightning seemed to have completely vaporized him. 

Billy’s jaw dropped.

He’d won.

He’d won. Against Poseidon.

Billy shouted in celebration. Now all he had to do was transform back into Captain Marvel and wait with Captain Grace for the Coast Guard to arrive. Mission accomplished, and he’d be back home in time for—

The water was rising.

Poseidon was reforming. And quickly.

Billy needed to move. He scrambled to rise to his feet, but his burnt palms slipped on the water-slicked stone, and he fell flat.

By the time he managed to recover, Poseidon had almost completely reformed his watery body, cursing Zeus’ name as he did so. The water composing him was churning faster than it ever had yet. Billy’s breath caught as Poseidon turned his attention to him. That gaze, which had felt imposing even to Captain Marvel with all the Courage of Achilles, had carried so much weight behind it even when calm, was almost crushingly heavy with the pure rage that filled it.

Poseidon kicked the two halves of the stone trident over to Billy. “Pick up your weapon,” he snarled.

Billy’s body refused to move, so small and insignificant was he in the face of the raging sea god’s fury that he found himself frozen in place with fear.

“Pick. It. Up!” Poseidon demanded, voice rising as a particularly large wave crashed against the gates of the colosseum.

Billy flinched. How did he ever think he could do this, that he could win against a god on their home turf?

He was about to die, wasn’t he.

…No. 

No.

Not here and not today. Billy was still a hero, whether or not he was wearing the cape.

And Billy Batson had never needed the Courage of Achilles or the Strength of Hercules to stand up to a bully.

Billy pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the way his muscles protested the movement. He stood tall, looked Poseidon in the eye, and spoke.

“No.” A single word, and the thousand others that stood silently behind it.

The water in Poseidon’s body swirled with greater fervor. “What do you mean, ‘no’?” he growled.

Billy steeled himself. “I mean, the fight’s over. I beat you. I won.”

Poseidon snarled, his body seething with the speed of a tempest. “You have won nothing!” he shouted. Without warning, his arm shot out like a whip, snatching Billy by the neck and yanking him towards the furious god. Poseidon’s hand solidified into a stranglehold grip as he dangled Billy in the air.

Billy let out a choked gasp. Before he could try to steal another breath, some of the water making up Poseidon’s body curled along his arm and wrapped around Billy’s head in a churning bubble. The rushing saltwater burned his eyes and pressed in on his skull from every direction with the force of a monsoon. If Billy could just say the Word and transform, he could escape the sea god’s hold, but the water prevented him from speaking, and it was already taking all he had just to keep from breathing in the water as Poseidon simultaneously drowned and strangled him.

Just as Billy felt that he was on the verge of passing out, a bolt of lightning struck the arena. Billy looked up; the sky was clear, not a cloud in sight. So how…?

“Zeus!” Poseidon howled. Despite the water in Billy’s ears, the sea god’s words came through with painful clarity. “This is not your affair! My duel with the boy is not yet decided—both of us can still fight!” With Poseidon distracted, his strangling grip loosened, the bubble around Billy’s head popped, and the boy fell to the ground. He gasped for air, too weak to move.

Poseidon was still shouting at the sky. “Brother, you have no right to interfere! Your Champion challenged me, and so the fight was his to win or lose, not yours! Where is your respect for tradition!?”

Seemingly in answer, another bolt of lightning crashed to the ground. Billy absently wondered why Zeus was doing this. He almost never stepped in to help Captain Marvel, even if he was the one to throw the Magic Lightning when the Word was spoken. Was he only interfering because Poseidon was here?

Poseidon kept arguing with the sky, and Zeus kept answering with lightning. The debate raged on for what felt like forever before Poseidon finally gave in.

“Very well, Zeus,” said the sea god, the anger in his voice having simmered down to a low roar. “I yield. My quarry was not worth this frustration, regardless.” He turned to Billy, leveling his trident at the boy. “It seems the Fates were on your side this day. But do not mistake yourself, little Champion. You have not escaped me, for I was never truly hunting you. Pray that I never do so.”

With that, Poseidon’s form collapsed into ordinary seawater, and his trident burst into golden light.

The colosseum fell silent, the only sound being the continued crash of the waves. Billy lay there for several minutes as he recovered from the ordeal he had just been put through. Around him, the colosseum began crumbling into the sea, Poseidon’s presence seemingly the only thing that had been holding it together.

Eventually, Billy found the strength to rise to his feet once more. Looking towards the sky, he uttered a word of thanks to Zeus. Maybe it was just for selfish, petty reasons, but he still saved Billy’s life.

The colosseum was still crumbling, though, and the Minerva’s passengers were waiting on him, so Billy needed to get going. With a shout of “SHAZAM!”, he once again became Captain Marvel and took off towards the shore.

Man, he couldn’t wait to tell Wonder Woman about how he beat up her uncle!