Story: "Magic Words" (22 Pages)

Credits:

Mark Waid and Brian Augustyn (plot, scripts)
Paul Pelletier (pencils)
Doug Hazlewood (inks)
Gaspar Saladino (letters)
Tom McCraw (colors)
Joey Cavalieri (edits)

Feature Character:

Flash III

Guest Stars:

Captain Marvel

Supporting Characters:

Linda Park

Villains:

Felix Faust (last in JLA Annual #2; next in JLA: Black Baptism #1)

Other Characters:

Buck Braddock
Ken Blackwell

Synopsis:

Linda Park meets up with WHIZ reporter Billy Batson and heads off for a speech on Bias and the Press. After the speech, the reporters make their way home, but when they hear the time '6:57' they start spouting gibberish and the airport terminal begins to revert to a medieval structure. An incoming plane loses contact with the Air Traffic Control people and is about to crash. Flash and Captain Marvel (handily on the scene in his Billy Batson alter ego) avert disaster, and then set about finding out what's going on. They discover that this is the doing of sorcerer Felix Faust, and the two heroes go after him. He plans to revert the entire world to the dark ages by using a simultaneous broadcast in just a few minutes.

The only chance the heroes have is to take the new network that Faust is using offline for a short time, meaning that the arcane 'gibberish' does not get broadcast. They do this by running/flying towards it at sympathetic supersonic speeds which send pulse waves through the network, shutting it off for just enough time to foil the sorcerer's plan.