--- Ten years ago ---
Eek! Eek!
A tiny mouse was caught in Uncle Eben's mouse trap, reaching for a tiny morsel of cheese.
Little Billy Batson knew how that felt. Since his parents had died and left him in Uncle Eben's care, all he had to eat each day after all his chores were done was one slice of bread. Asking for more earned him a beating.
Gently, he released the mouse and gave it that tiny portion of cheese, earning him yet another beating, before getting thrown out of his late parents' house.
It was his seventh birthday.
On hindsight, it was worth it. The best birthday present he could ask for was to save a life.
That tiny mouse was Silvia's great great great (he'd lost track of how many greats) grandmother. He had many generations of mice friends since.
--- Today ---
"The entire city of Fairfield is vanishing before our very eyes!" Billy Batson announced the breaking news even as the live feed showed the horrifying event.
Mary's adopted family, the Bromfields, live there!
His broadcast ended.
The door flung open. Mary, her face ghostly white, eyes red and moist, pounced on him with a crushing hug.
Courtney and Freddy were not far behind.
"They're gone. I was talking to Daddy on the phone when it happened. The line went dead," she sobbed.
"We'll find them," Billy rubbed his sister's back to comfort her.
"We searched the entire site where Fairfield used to be. There's nothing but a barren wasteland," Freddy explained. "We couldn't find any clues."
"Sounds like a job for the Mouse Detectives," concluded Billy.
-------
'Ho Ly Mo Lee, meet the Marvels and Stargirl," grinned Joey as he, Sylvia and their four newest pups walked into Billy's room.
"Holy Moley!" Billy stared at the four tiny pups dressed in shrunken versions of old armour he made for Sylvia and Joey.
The original Mouse Detectives were wearing the latest versions of armour he developed with tasers and projectable force fields.
Knowing Sylvia, he flatly refused to add potentially lethal weapons to the upgrades.
"Sylvia and I are retiring. This is going to be our last case," Joey announced. "Ho Ly Mo Lee will take over from us as the new mouse detectives."
"They are prodigies. They've cracked cases that stumped Scotland Yard," Sylvia grinned, her chest puffed up with pride. "They got Joey's brilliance."
"Please to meet you," grinned Billy as he shook their tiny paws. "I'll develop new armour specially for each of you going forward."
Ho Ly Mo Lee squeaked their approval in unison.
"Let's go to the crime site. We'll find out what really happened," frowned Joey.
-------
Captain Marvel landed on what used to be Fairfield with Joey and Sylvia perched on one shoulder, Ho Ly Mo Lee perched on the other shoulder.
It was flat brown earth void of buildings or vegetation far as his eyes could see. Mary Marvel, Stargirl and Captain Marvel Junior landed behind him.
Joey's nose twitched. "There's something here that we can't see. I smell it."
"Courtney and I will cover the entire Fairfield site at ground level. Mary and Freddy fly through clouds to see if you bump into anything," said the Captain.
"We mice will cover the underground," said Sylvia as she prepared to mobilize her armies.
-------
"Mary, we'll find them," Captain Marvel Junior held Mary Marvel's hand to comfort her as they flew through the clouds.
He felt something bounce off his head as he flew through the cirrus clouds. He let go of her hand and grasped in the direction of that object.
"Found something?" Mary perked up.
Yes. Small and round over there.
Peering through the clouds, he saw a transparent bubble holding a tiny worm wearing glasses.
"Hee ha ho hee," it laughed. Then the bubble with the worm blinked out of existence.
Blinking once, blinking twice, Freddy stared in the direction of the bubble. "Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"A talking worm in a bubble?"
Mary felt Junior's head. "Are you ok? You sound feverish. Maybe the power's affecting you," she frowned.
"I'm ok. I know what I saw.. I think." He wasn't sure. Then he saw it from the corner of his eye. The bubble containing the worm, just before it slipped into his ear.
Captain Marvel Junior was no longer in control of his own actions.
-------
"An entire city doesn't just vanish like that," Stargirl crinkled her cute little nose. "Maybe, like Joey said, we just can't see it."
"If that's the case, we'd bump into buildings, walls or people if they are here but invisible." Captain Marvel replied. "So far, nothing. Not in this dimension anyway," he frowned.
"I can travel between dimensions, you know," Captain Marvel rubbed the back of his neck.
"Go for it," she grinned, sunlight glinting in her cute braces.
"Okay." He took off faster than the speed of light throwing himself into the crossroads between dimensions, universes, multiverses and time - The Rock of Eternity.
He found Fairfield's trail. His heart leaped with hope.
Flying past the speed of light, he landed in a parallel dimension, smack in the center of the city of Fairfield.
Activating his communicator, he contacted Joey.
"Fairfield's in another dimension. Sending location now."
"Captain Marvel!" Policemen, passerbys, men, women and children flocked towards him.
"So good to see you," said an officer. "We've been trapped here for ages. Are you here to get us out?"
An impossibly powerful, enormous metallic fist slammed into his face, sending him flying like a bullet through several buildings.
Mr. Atom!
-------
"You're all alone now," a large blonde man with a crew cut smirked at Stargirl. He was wearing a Nazi uniform with the rank of a Captain. He lunged at her
"Get away from me you creep, I'm warning you," Stargirl blasted him with her cosmic rod.
Her blasts had no effect on him. He was invulnerable.
Grabbing her by the waist, he taunted. "Let's you and me tango."
The big man didn't flinch when she jabbed his stomach with her elbow. A sharp pain shot through her elbow. That man's stomach was hard as steel.
"I'm Captain Nazi. I need a bride to build a glorious future with," his grip was unbreakable.
Squirming, she threw her shooting stars at her captor's eyes.
-------
The mice burrowed deep in the ground. Under thirty feet of soil, they found an enormous underground cavern. It was filled with futuristic looking machines.
In it was a caveman wearing a horned helmet operating massive machinery.
"That's King Kull," whispered Joey to his pups whose tiny eyes flew wide.
"Ho Ly Mo Lee, Find the teleporter, reverse it's polarity and inform me once it's done. We'll run interference."
"What have we got here?" Came a nasally voice. A short, bald bespectacled man picked Sylvia by her cuff. Sivana? Another of Cap's bad guys?
"Let her go!" Joey flew towards Sivana, diving as he tasered Sylvia's captor.
"Got you rodent!" The caveman caught Joey as Sivana toppled over.
The caveman's grip was unbreakable. Joey could barely breathe as the caveman tightened his grip, squeezing the breath out of the tiny mouse.