Post by redsycorax on Feb 2, 2024 0:38:49 GMT
We now rejoin the heroic couple of Georg and Rosalie Ashley-Von Tregor, otherwise known as the Horned Owl and Midnight Angel. It has now been several years now since their last adventure in postwar Vienna, in which they pursued the unscrupulous and duplicitous Harry Lime and his lover Anna Schmidt after Lime was responsible for selling tainted black market penicillin to children's hospitals. Around them, the world is changing...
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LONDON: JUNE 1953:
"The poor old king. It doesn't seem fair that he passed away last year, given how he inspired and guided the country through the war years. The war only ended eight years ago. And to think his worthless brother Edward Duke of Windsor and that American harridan Wallis are still swanning about in Paris, rotten Nazi sympathiser that he was. Still, at least we probably won't see them at the Coronation in a few weeks time. It'll seem odd to have a queen again after all these years." Dressed in stylish black, Rosalie Ashley-Von Tregor still cut an imposing figure.
Her husband nodded: "From what our contacts in MI6 tell us, the Duke and Duchess take the cream off illegal currency transactions-" As if by serendipity, their telephone rang at that moment. Georg answered it:
"General. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I'm afraid something's come up, Georg. It's to do with the Coronation and... well, action heroes like you and your good lady wife are at a premium these days. Intangible's been missing for years, Sheffield Steel isn't appropriate for security reasons, Britannia went back to Themiscyra after the end of the war and the Justice Society of America across the Atlantic seems to have disbanded back in '51 and its membership mostly retired, apart from the perennial Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. And they appear to be too preoccupied dealing with crime fighting as their core mission. I'll get to the point, old friend. We think that there's to be an attempt on the lives of our new queen, her husband and little Prince Charles and Princess Anne."
Rosalie stopped brushing her hair, now showing a few faint threads of grey. She'd stepped over to her husband's side and joined their conversation:
"I know MI6 have concerns about Derek's socialist allegiances, General, but Sheffield Steel would be ideal for protection duty. Who are the assailants?"
"We believe that they may be German. Possibly unreconstructed Nazis. It may be in retaliation for our victory. You will need to liaise with two Soviet action heroes of your former acquaintance."
"Which ones, General?"
"Sonya Chuikov... "Fireball"... and Ivan Ilyich Gort..."Stalnivolk."
"Why are they here? I would have thought they'd be busy with their own security concerns after "Uncle Joe's" death back in March?" Rosalie asked
"Apparently, the KGB believes that there might be an assassination attempt on Premier Malenkov as well."
Georg nodded: "And you want us to 'ride shotgun', as our American friends would say?"
"You have the appropriate skills to provide ground and air cover during the procession and afterward, as the new Queen and Prince return to the Palace."
"Who is the alleged assassin, General?"
The words sent a chill down their respective spines:
"Baron Ernst Reiter. Otherwise known as..."
"Ach. Baron Blitzkrieg???!!"
Pouring them both a stiff whiskey, Rosalie exclaimed:
"How could it even be Ernst Reiter after all this time, Georg?"
"I don't know, leibchen. You know the history between the UBA and Reiter? It wasn't good. While Gudra, Usil, Willi and I got on well enough with Baron Blitzkrieg, there was enmity between him and Freddie- Ubermensch. Reiter treated Freddie with the contempt he deserved and later, even back in '43 when Willi was killed and I changed loyalties, he seemed to despise even Adolf Hitler himself as the war drew to a close. Reiter was always a Prussian aristocrat and he never let the rest of the Reich forget it. For the last few months of the war, he was missing in action. I assumed that he'd been killed in action, somewhere on the Eastern Front, although knowing Reiter, he wouldn't have done that without a blaze of glory."
"Oh, no. No. I've just thought of one way out of that endgame, and it's not a pleasant thought at all. Did you ever meet Annaliese Baader, the so-called "Ace of Blades?"
"By reputation only. I expect that you two would probably have crossed swords, so to speak, sometime during the war?"
"That's putting it mildly, my darling. Actually, it was several times. She had a reputation equivalent to mine on the other side. She slaughtered countless RAF and USAF boys with that infernal Silberhai... Silver Shark... specialist Messerschmitt 262 of hers. Damn it, it makes far too much sense."
"Nein, you're right, leibchen. Like Reiter, Annaliese Baader never joined the UBA, and for much the same reason. She was all too intent on burnishing her professional reputation to be a team player. However, like Reiter, she went missing in the final months of the war too. Again, like Reiter, I suspect we all assumed that she went out in a blaze of inglory somewhere in the skies above Germany or points further east."
"We need to let MI5 know about this, Georg. And our erstwhile Russian allies."
INTERLUDE: MAY 1945:
It was the end of history. Several hundred kilometres to the south, Ubermensch was making his last stand and with him, the last remnant of the UBA would perish. As for Nazi Germany's other metahumans, they were making their own rendezvous with destiny in another location. "Supersoldaten des Reiches" had been the UBA's erstwhile replacement, led by Baron Blitzkrieg after their predecessor had fallen apart and the limitations of Ubermensch's increasing addiction to Hugo Danner's metabolic enhancement "superserum" had become hideously apparent.
He privately despised the Fuhrer and is suspected to have played a well-hidden role in the attempted assassination of Hitler at the so-called "Wolf's Lair" at Ketrzyn on July 20, 1944. Ernest Reiter recognised that all hope was lost now and he didn't intend to perish in the fool's gotterdamerrung of the increasingly insane and erratic tyrant. However, one had to keep up appearances. As he watched, the Russian narodnyye garoi ("people's heroes") Stalnivolk and Proletariat finished shredding the armour and battlecraft of Red Panzer as Helmut Streicher made his final stand. Before he could be stopped however, Streicher bit down on a cyanide capsule in a hollow tooth.
However, Proletariat's moment of triumph was short-lived, as the valiant Soviet narodnyye garoi was felled by the nightmarish speed of Zyklon . Although his superspeed was limited to the speed of sound and he would be disadvantaged if the Flash intervened on the allied side, Dieter Auschbach could still control his velocity and direct the trajectory of projectiles toward his adversary. Thus, it took mere seconds to subject Boris Dhumov to an intensive bombardment that overwhelmed his limited invulnerability, despite his prowess, courage and determination to serve his country. In horror, Sonya Chuikov (Fireball) screamed:
"No! Boris! Not now! Not when we're about to end their madness forever. Boris? Speak to me, my love."
"Sonya...it's hopeless. You will have to carry on without ...me..."
As he breathed his last, and despite the hopelessness of his own situation, Zyklon foolishly laughed in defiance. He should not have done so, as Fireball looked up at him with hatred in her eyes. She stood and marshalled her power in her hands:
"I don't know how you got free from Allied custody, you Nazi filth, but you are going to pay for that. For the death of a good man and all the other people your nation of tyrants and mass murderers have enslaved or slaughtered." Then the flames shot from her hands toward the Nazi metahuman and despite his phenomenal speed, he screamed as the firestorm hit him and burnt him to a crisp.
"Sonya! Behind you!"
The firebringer pirouetted to face the snarling face of Sinestra, who was then camouflagued by a thick cloud of acrid smoke:
"Nyet!"
"Sonya Chuikovna? It is pointless trying to pursue them."
"We have to try, Ivan! Otherwise Boris will have died for nothing!"
"We are needed elsewhere, Sonya. By your actions today, you have already saved the lives of countless Red Army soldiers and resistance fighters. And Boris died a hero of the Revolution. He will be remembered and celebrated. I know how much you loved him. Take it out on the Nazis."
"With pleasure. But damn it, Ivan, what about those escapees?"
"Their whole monstrous house of cards is collapsing around them. They won't get very far."
"And what about the likes of Baron Blitzkrieg? Even if their precious Reich is doomed, they still have the power to kill countless good Russian boys!"
"Then we'll have to make sure that we knock their tottering edifice out from under them..."
With a roar of rage, Sinestra surged forward from the mist, despite imprecations not to do so from within. She snarled at the two Soviet narodnyye garoi as her hands shot forward. But Stalnivolk threw her back into the mist. There was the sound of an aircraft talking off as the minds of the two Soviet metahumans turned elsewhere.
As the Silberhai shot skyward, Anneliese Baader let out a shaky breath. She handed over control to her copilot, who nodded his assurance, promising to call her if the situation ahead of them warranted it.
"Baron Reiter! Heil Hitler!"
"Ach, Colonel Baader, that was impressive. You had admirable self-discipline to achieve that, without distraction. And don't bother with formalities. The Reich is doomed. You are no fool. We both know that. Fortunately, we managed to save a handful."
Sinestra was silently weeping in a corner:
"Far too few. Baron, how are we going to avenge our brave supersoldaten who have perished today?"
"Not by joining one of the recidivist 'neo' Nazi terrorist groups, Hanna. They are too outnumbered and I suspect that given the magnitude of our defeat, we must not give heed to their pretensions. The Reds are in Berlin's very suburbs. It will not be long now."
"So that's it? We give up?! After twelve years of service, this is how it ends?"
"Nein, Hanna. I know you are grieving for your valiant Dieter, but wait. Then, when they least expect it, re-emerge to claim one of their mystery men or women as they call them."
As Sinestra wearily turned toward her sleeping bag and a restless night, Baron Blitzkrieg waited until she was asleep before motioning to the Ace of Blades:
"I am impressed by the quality this craft, Fraulein Baader. A miracle of German aerodynamics, especially given the deadly precision with which you piloted it. Your prowess in battle is legendary."
"Ja, it was based on principles derived from the fragments of Anton Hastor's vessel that beset us all in 1942. It was a shame that our scientists could not retrieve more of that vessel and learn from its advanced science, but we learnt enough. Silbersai was built, I test piloted it, and Goering himself was so impressed with my performance he let me pilot it for the duration. As you can see, it is a high-altitude craft that can soar above the carnage below at a height sufficient to elude Allied air interception and radar surveillance. If I have one regret, Herr Baron, it is that I did not have the chance to shoot down that verdammt Englischer zauberin ause holle, Mitternachtsengel. She was responsible for the deaths of too many of our pilots. I wanted to send that flame-haired murderess down into Hades where she belongs. Especially... especially after... no. No, I must not cry like a weak little girl..."
"Weak is the last word that I would ever use to describe you, Annaliese. And I recognise the accent. You are from Dresden."
"I lost my family there, Baron. My elderly father, my grandmother, my brother, nieces and nephews. I will never forgive the Allies for that. Ever."
"We make a magnificent partnership, Annaliese. And please, call me Ernst."
"At the first available opportunity, we smuggle Sinestra out of Europe. I don't want to be encumbered by her and her strange religious beliefs. So, we wait and pursue delayed vengeance."
"Are you so dedicated to your work, then?"
"Well, no. I did want to find out what's under that armour you fill out so impressively well..."
"Do you want to find out?"
BERLIN FRIEDRICHSTRASSE STATION: JUNE 1953:
"Sonya!"
"Oh, Rosie! Tovarich, it's been so long! You haven't aged a bit!"
As the two women embraced, Georg Von Tregor and Ivan Ilyich Gort warily regarded one another. At length, Gort was the first one to step forward:
"I'm sorry for my initial hesitancy, Georg. Believe me, it is no reflection on your valour and courage in breaking with the Nazis the way you did. I am so, so sorry about young Villi."
A sad smile crossed Georg's features: "What's past is past. And I also understand you endured your own losses. Boris Duibhov was a good, honourable man. He didn't deserve to die that way in the last days of the war."
"Oh, Sonya, no. I'm so sorry."
"Nyet, it's all right, Rosie. We all lost someone we loved in that hell's cauldron. George his beloved son," a catch entered her voice, "Boris, in my case, your father, and Ivan's brother and his family."
"So, Ivan, have you been briefed on who we're being called upon to stop?"
"Baron Ernst Reiter... "Baron Blitzkrieg" and his wife, Annaliese Baader-Reiter, still known as..."
A dark expression crossed Rosalie's face:
"Ace of Blades. Responsible for countless deaths of brave RAF boys, who should be settled down and starting families now, but who never will. Wife? Well, they deserve one another. Unless either of you have any objection, she's mine. I lost too many friends to those razor-sharp diamond wings on her infernal Silberhai."
"That's right. You know her modus operandi and tactics better than any of us. Has your MI5 told you about their fugitive whereabouts these last eight years?"
"South America? Paraguay, perhaps?"
"Exactly. And then, two months ago, their villa suddenly became empty. A covert KGB mission there revealed that it had been wholly abandoned. As there was no way that they could get past Soviet security at Josef Djugashavili Stalin's funeral, they must be intending to target the forthcoming Coronation of your new Queen Elizabeth."
"Ivan, have either of you faced Reiter before?"
Sonya nodded: "Yes, Georg. I have, while I was a member of the "Young Allies" international group."
"Although he's been inactive, both he and Baader are engineers as well as combatants. They may have improved the performance of his battlesuit and her aircraft. There's something else. The KGB has shared this with MI5, but there were some worrying imports of uthorium and plutonium shipped to Paraguay last year."
Rosalie's eyes widened: "Oh my God. Ivan, you mean... they may have an operational nuclear device on Baader's wretched Silberhai?"
"Yes, Rosalie. That is exactly what we may be facing."
ASHLEY MANOR: JUNE 1953:
"Which explains this collaborative venture, I suspect. The Russians are obviously concerned for the welfare of Premier Malenkov at this time and probably also that if Reiter and Baader have access to one nuclear weapon and succeed in obliterating London, then Moscow or other Soviet cities could be next on their list. As, indeed, they probably are." Georg said as Rosalie joined him in bed, later that evening back at Ashley Hall.
"Darling, did you detect a faint undercurrent of tension between Sonya and Ivan?"
Georg nodded: "Good, so I wasn't imagining it. Ach, I wish I knew why. Ivan's no anti-Semite, so it can't be the fact that Sonya's Jewish."
"Political, then? Although we view the USSR as a monolith, I always remembered Ivan as 'true red' during the times that we fought together against the Nazi mystery men and women. He had a cloisonne pin of Uncle Joe on his lapel during his times when we interacted in civilian dress."
"That would make sense, leibchen. And we know that Djugashvili had many of the habitual Russian Orthodox anti-Semitic prejudices and never showed any inhibition when it came to expressing them. Look at that ridiculous Doctors Conspiracy he dreamed up in his dying days, for instance. Sonya doesn't say anything about it, but it's clear that she's not particularly sorry about Stalin's recent death. On the other hand, Ivan is, and not only because he's a Gold Star People's Hero due to his loyalty to the late Premier."
In the adjacent rooms, Stalnivolk and Fireball were making their own assessments. For Sonya Chuikov, it was refreshing not being somewhere that she had to watch her every word, movement and action for fear of being branded 'counter revolutionary'- and where she could freely witness Jewish worship and business in public display. Oh, old Ivan was a loyal comrade and had healthy respect for Jewish anti-Nazi resistance in the Motherland during the war years, but he was also a loyalist to the Old Regime. There was mutual respect between them, true- and she knew he'd take a bullet in the back for her without hesitation. But that wasn't the problem. As their hosts had surmised, there were political differences between the two of them and areas that didn't brook conversation.
In his room, Ivan speculated about his guests. Obviously they still held wartime loyalties and old friendships and weren't too attached to the 'Cold War' antipathy to Moscow that had arisen in the West. They both disapproved of what had happened to Derek Hammond, "Sheffield Steel," himself a British Communist and who had been denied 'security clearance' as Britain's dependency on the United States grew. He also imagined that the fate of the Justice Society when it came to Senator MacCarthy's anti-communist paranoia had also galvanised them to respect old friendships. Which was good. Georg and Rosalie could be relied upon in solidarity against the neo-Nazi threat. Rosalie, especially, when it came to Baader. The two women were bitter enemies.
INTERLUDE: JUNE 1943: ABOVE THE NETHERLANDS:
As Midnight Angel gunned her Spitfire throttle, she blinked back tears.
Terry.
Terry Wilshire had been a gentle giant of a man and she had been their maid of honour at his marriage to Eileen just two months ago. Their joy had been complete when Eileen announced her pregnancy. But now...
She felt an ache in her heart as she saw the burning wreckage of her comrade's aircraft on the ground below, the way that she felt whenever she saw the result of Luftwaffe aggression against RAF comrade pilots in arms. No. No, she had to pull herself together. She would find the treacherous bastard who'd done this to him and he would pay. He...
Then her blood ran cold. She saw the woman in the cockpit across from her, in the adapted Messerschmidt, and recognised the dark legend of the Silbershai and its ruthless, brilliant pilot, Annaliese Baader. And she was laughing, damn her black heart, as if this murder in the skies was nothing but a game to her! Right then, Rosalie thought, in grim determination, diamond wings or not, I'll make her pay for the boys she's shot down and killed today. Her face set in a grim mask, she threw her aircraft into a cartwheel and targeted her adversary's fuel tanks. As she strafed the Silbershai, Annaliese Baader spun around in her cockpit and her eyes widened as she, in turn, recognised who her assailant was.
Ach, Der Mitternachtsengel, die Englischer zauberin ause holles! Her laughter died on her lips as she realised the danger she was now in. She thought this would be a straightforward defensive mission, patrolling the western European occupied territories of the Reich. She had been foolish, she had been complacent. No matter if the Silbershai she piloted was enhanced with diamond blade wings, this was a chillingly effective adversary who had downed far too many Luftwaffe pilots. Ashley was a worthy opponent, no doubt about it. She might even find some way around the Silbershai's design enhancements. For the first time in the countless sorties that she had flown for the Third Reich, Annaliese Baader, the Ace of Blades, was facing her equal in combat and the prospect made her ...fearful, for the first time in this war. Nein, she thought, I must not let Der Mitternachtsengel gain the upper hand. And she would not kill me, either. She would make sure the Silbershai was captured and the RAF would pervert it and turn it against the Reich. I must not let that happen!
As she gunned her engines, Baader realised that her fuel tank had been hit. She cursed as she realised that with her fuel leaking from the back of her Messerschmidt, she dare not let Der Mitternachtsengel engage her. And then a chance spark ignited the back of her precious aircraft and she felt an almighty jolt from Silbershai as it started to loose altitude. Baader made some calculations and realised that she could still make it back to friendly territory, so she put her aircraft on autopilot, arranging for it to crash into a lake well inland as she set its trajectory, before affixing an oxygen mask and stabbing down on her ejector button.
In her Spitfire, Midnight Angel hit her instrument panel in frustration as she watched Baader's parachute drift down into the erstwhile safety of occupied territory, where she could not follow. Her cockpit radar showed incoming Messerschmidts and she had no accompanying pilots left on either side. Ah well, she'd put that hellspawn out of commission for a while, anyway. Even given Baader's own rumoured engineering prowess, she'd have a time getting that flying deathwing of hers back into working order. But this was only the first time the two women would encounter one another, and she didn't underestimate the calibre of her opponent, nor her fanatical determination and commitment to her monstrous regime.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: JULY 1945:
"Simon! No!!!" Penthesilea cried as the gunshots hurled the man she loved, Commander Simon Travis, back from the U-Boat hatchway where he had unexpectedly been ambushed. And for the first time in two years, Annaliese Baader and Rosalie Ashley-Von Tregor laid eyes on each other. Horned Owl looked up from the deckway where Simon was gasping for breath as tears streamed down Penthesilea's face. He shook his head: "It's no good. She severed a major artery. He'll bleed to death before we can get him to medical care. I'm so sorry, Penny."
"Von Tregor! You traitor to the Reich! You're next!!!"
"You'll have to get through me first, you murdering witch. My god, does your obscene lust for blood know no limits at all?!" And with that, the two women began to exchange fire from their pistols.
"And what about the Luftwaffe boys you shot down, Mitternachtsengel? Did you think they didn't have families or children? And what about that obscenity you participated in in Dresden? I lost my own family in that inferno, you murdering banshee!"
"Do you think I don't have nightmares about that, Baader?! That will remain a stain on my conscience forever. "Best" pilot in the Luftwaffe, with the highest kill rate? You have as much compassion and mercy as a nursing mother shark."
"At least I can still have children, Ashley!"
"It doesn't mean I love Rosalie any less. It means that I love her all the more, given she had the courage and tenacity to survive uterine cancer. Thank the Lord they caught it in time." Horned Owl said, as he laid a tarpaulin over the body of Commander Travis. Penthesilea grasped his shoulder:
"They still have that infernal power damper on, Georg. I don't know how, they must have one of the artefacts in that sub. Until you disable it, neither Derek or I can help."
"Leave that to us, Penny. I swear, I'll make that murderess pay."
"I trained at Leipzig, Ashley. I'm not afraid to take you on hand to hand. And you're... married... to that traitor?! You really are a piece of work."
"Stop being so sanctimonious, Baader. You think I haven't fought Leipzig harridans like you before? Wrong. Ask Mavis Rupprecht. I know what you're like."
"It will be a pleasure breaking your neck, Ashley!"
"What good would that do? Your hell's cauldron of a Third Reich is dead and the syphilitic madman who ruled it didn't even have the courage to face responsibility for his actions. He shot himself and the bewitched ingenue that shared his bed. We're still here. So are the Allies against the obscenity you represented. And even if you do kill me, my husband will come after you. Give up. It's over. Are you that much of a fanatical true believer?"
"I don't have time for this. Now, Ernst!!!" And for the space of a few minutes, the seascape was pure white. When their senses returned, Horned Owl, Penthesilea, Midnight Angel and Sheffield Steel were lying on the deck of their frigate, with the fugitive u-boat nowhere to be seen. Rosalie slammed her fist into a convenient canvas tarp as her husband joined her:
"Damn it, Georg. How did they do that?!"
"I suspect it probably has something to do with their wunderwaffe, or to more precise, what remains of them. We seem to have been subjected to a momentary pulse of high electrical energy, enough to incapacitate us. A 'stun gun', if you will."
"Surely we weren't out of commission long enough for them to get away altogether? What about radar?"
Penthesilea shook her head: "No, my friends, but they are in Paraguayan national waters now and we would risk an international incident if we pursued them further."
"Damn, damn, damn!" Midnight Angel exclaimed in anger, stalking off toward the vessel's bridge as her husband followed.
"Eh, that is one determined lass." Sheffield Steel observed.
"They make an excellent couple, Derek, do they not?"
"Ah, bugger. Penny, you've lost your bloke an' all. I'm so sorry."
"It is well. I was intending to return to Themiscyra in any case. Now my plans for departure have been advanced. We were a Victory Legion. Very well, but what do we do now that victory has been achieved?"
"I'm goin' back to Sheffield and see if the local lads in blue want some assistance. The war's resulted in a lot of dislocation and opportunist crime, y'know. When all's said and done, I'm a local lad."
"Will you come to Simon's funeral?"
"Wild horses couldn' keep me away, Penny."
JUNE 1953: LONDON AIRSPACE:
"There they are."
"So soon?" Sonya exclaimed.
"The velocity on that thing is unbelievable. Still, they've fallen into our trap. They must think that we're total novices at re-engineering. Right, then. Ready, all of you?"
"And willing."
And then Silbersai was on them, with an ominous dark-hued payload visible in an enlarged bomb bay. There was a blaze of light as Baron Blitzkrieg rocketed from the plane's airlock, toward the ensemble.
From the cockpit, Ace of Blades glared at her mortal adversary, whose own jawline was set in similar determination. Abruptly, she broke formation as her aircraft soared higher and higher, away from the Soviet, British and Nazi action heroes that were now intent on confronting one another:
"What's Baader doing?" Sonya said to Ivan.
"At a guess, she's heading off to sufficient altitude to drop that bomb of hers. Although Rosalie's following her close behind, to stop her. Somewhere above us, we're going to see history made. I just hope it isn't the wrong sort. Our mission is to insure that her husband doesn't have the chance to turn the tide of that conflict. It looks like Georg is already getting into the act..."
"Von Tregor. You will pay for your act of treachery and betrayal of our Reich. I swear it."
"You always were a dreamer, Ernst. If you think I will let you assist that black-clad assassin wife of yours, then you underestimate me."
"You do not get to use my first name, schwein."
"And you will not get to kill millions in the name of a dead ideology and a madman who shot himself rather than face justice for his crimes."
"Do you think your little boy would welcome the traitorous offal that his father has become now?"
"Wilhelm died an honorable death trying to save the weak and vulnerable. His sacrifice showed me that the Nazis would stop at nothing to achieve their goals and that those goals were demonic. You do not get to use his name, Ernst. He died long before his time, but as a man, not a child. For is it not childish to retain the fanatical ideals of a vanished nightmare past in a better, hopeful world?"
"Our country lies in ruins beneath the heel of Bolshevik oppression, partitioned. For that I will kill you and then go after your martinet wife..."
"You have to get past all of us, Blitzkrieg. And even if you've tuned up your battlesuit, you've made a fatal mistake. You think we haven't had time to work on our own tactics and strategies?"
"Nein. Nein, I will join her. I will see your precious adopted homeland's city die in flames. I swear it!"
And then, high overhead, Midnight Angel and the Ace of Blades resumed their mortal combat. Baader swore as high velocity fire from Midnight Angel's artillery riddled Silbersai's diamond wings. She banked and returned fire, with shining ruby lights from her turret. As they stabbed toward her, Midnight Angel flew low to avoid them and opened fire on Silbersai's bomb door. Baader tried to throw her aircraft into an evasive trajectory, but then there was the acrid smoke of fused machinery from beneath her. She dare not let the infernal Mitternachtsengel strike her there again, and tried to engage her opponent once more, hoping that Ashley-Von Tregor's fury would make her reckless, vulnerable and prone to miscalculation. But she had miscalculated herself as her own icy ambition and pride took over and she only saw the hallucinatory chiaroscuro of burning Messerschmidts, crew and pilots screaming as they plummeted toward oblivion, with that hell witch and her deadly competence triumphant, always triumphant. She would do it. She would avenge them all! She would
And then fate intervened, as a crucial circuit bank burnt out and guttered. In the bomb bay, her deadly payload started ticking as it counted down to oblivion and nuclear firestorm, minutes from now. Although it momentarily seemed that she would have the last triumph, however pyrrhic, the ramjet on her aircraft abruptly ignited and thrust her back in her pilots seat. As she started bleeding from her nose and her vision blurred, she hissed: "Goodbye, Ernst, leibchen. Fight on. We are warriors and warriors avenge their fallen. One day, you will. I have every belief in you."
"NEIN!!!" And then there was an eyeaching burst of light, visible even several thousand miles away, as the Silbersai's payload detonated and Annaliese Baader, the Ace of Blades, one of the deadliest combat pilots of the Third Reich, met her destiny, high above the Canary Islands. His mission and his spirit broken, in despair and grief, Baron Blitzkrieg activated his battlesuit's own ramjets and soared away. Their mission had been a failure and it had cost the most precious object in his universe, the woman he loved, the warrior who had fought at his side all these years. His own injuries would take time to heal, at least his physical ones. But he would make them pay. If not the accursed traitor Great Horned Owl and that iron lady who was his companion, then someone else.
He would nurse that thought for decades and take time to prepare his revenge. For he had learnt that his body was not as those of other mortals, that he would have extensive longevity. And that he would probably outlive the woman who had killed his heart's desire and the traitor who shared her life.
But what was it worth when his own life's great love was now nothing more than a handful of rapidly dispersing atoms in the stratosphere?
"I will avenge you, you noble and brave companion. I love you, Annaliese Baader." Then Baron Blitzkrieg disappeared into the night. After that moment above London, many would assume that his injuries that night had been mortal. In this assumption, sadly, they were wrong.
THE END
[4.15 PM, MARCH 8, 2024]
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LONDON: JUNE 1953:
"The poor old king. It doesn't seem fair that he passed away last year, given how he inspired and guided the country through the war years. The war only ended eight years ago. And to think his worthless brother Edward Duke of Windsor and that American harridan Wallis are still swanning about in Paris, rotten Nazi sympathiser that he was. Still, at least we probably won't see them at the Coronation in a few weeks time. It'll seem odd to have a queen again after all these years." Dressed in stylish black, Rosalie Ashley-Von Tregor still cut an imposing figure.
Her husband nodded: "From what our contacts in MI6 tell us, the Duke and Duchess take the cream off illegal currency transactions-" As if by serendipity, their telephone rang at that moment. Georg answered it:
"General. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"I'm afraid something's come up, Georg. It's to do with the Coronation and... well, action heroes like you and your good lady wife are at a premium these days. Intangible's been missing for years, Sheffield Steel isn't appropriate for security reasons, Britannia went back to Themiscyra after the end of the war and the Justice Society of America across the Atlantic seems to have disbanded back in '51 and its membership mostly retired, apart from the perennial Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. And they appear to be too preoccupied dealing with crime fighting as their core mission. I'll get to the point, old friend. We think that there's to be an attempt on the lives of our new queen, her husband and little Prince Charles and Princess Anne."
Rosalie stopped brushing her hair, now showing a few faint threads of grey. She'd stepped over to her husband's side and joined their conversation:
"I know MI6 have concerns about Derek's socialist allegiances, General, but Sheffield Steel would be ideal for protection duty. Who are the assailants?"
"We believe that they may be German. Possibly unreconstructed Nazis. It may be in retaliation for our victory. You will need to liaise with two Soviet action heroes of your former acquaintance."
"Which ones, General?"
"Sonya Chuikov... "Fireball"... and Ivan Ilyich Gort..."Stalnivolk."
"Why are they here? I would have thought they'd be busy with their own security concerns after "Uncle Joe's" death back in March?" Rosalie asked
"Apparently, the KGB believes that there might be an assassination attempt on Premier Malenkov as well."
Georg nodded: "And you want us to 'ride shotgun', as our American friends would say?"
"You have the appropriate skills to provide ground and air cover during the procession and afterward, as the new Queen and Prince return to the Palace."
"Who is the alleged assassin, General?"
The words sent a chill down their respective spines:
"Baron Ernst Reiter. Otherwise known as..."
"Ach. Baron Blitzkrieg???!!"
Pouring them both a stiff whiskey, Rosalie exclaimed:
"How could it even be Ernst Reiter after all this time, Georg?"
"I don't know, leibchen. You know the history between the UBA and Reiter? It wasn't good. While Gudra, Usil, Willi and I got on well enough with Baron Blitzkrieg, there was enmity between him and Freddie- Ubermensch. Reiter treated Freddie with the contempt he deserved and later, even back in '43 when Willi was killed and I changed loyalties, he seemed to despise even Adolf Hitler himself as the war drew to a close. Reiter was always a Prussian aristocrat and he never let the rest of the Reich forget it. For the last few months of the war, he was missing in action. I assumed that he'd been killed in action, somewhere on the Eastern Front, although knowing Reiter, he wouldn't have done that without a blaze of glory."
"Oh, no. No. I've just thought of one way out of that endgame, and it's not a pleasant thought at all. Did you ever meet Annaliese Baader, the so-called "Ace of Blades?"
"By reputation only. I expect that you two would probably have crossed swords, so to speak, sometime during the war?"
"That's putting it mildly, my darling. Actually, it was several times. She had a reputation equivalent to mine on the other side. She slaughtered countless RAF and USAF boys with that infernal Silberhai... Silver Shark... specialist Messerschmitt 262 of hers. Damn it, it makes far too much sense."
"Nein, you're right, leibchen. Like Reiter, Annaliese Baader never joined the UBA, and for much the same reason. She was all too intent on burnishing her professional reputation to be a team player. However, like Reiter, she went missing in the final months of the war too. Again, like Reiter, I suspect we all assumed that she went out in a blaze of inglory somewhere in the skies above Germany or points further east."
"We need to let MI5 know about this, Georg. And our erstwhile Russian allies."
INTERLUDE: MAY 1945:
It was the end of history. Several hundred kilometres to the south, Ubermensch was making his last stand and with him, the last remnant of the UBA would perish. As for Nazi Germany's other metahumans, they were making their own rendezvous with destiny in another location. "Supersoldaten des Reiches" had been the UBA's erstwhile replacement, led by Baron Blitzkrieg after their predecessor had fallen apart and the limitations of Ubermensch's increasing addiction to Hugo Danner's metabolic enhancement "superserum" had become hideously apparent.
He privately despised the Fuhrer and is suspected to have played a well-hidden role in the attempted assassination of Hitler at the so-called "Wolf's Lair" at Ketrzyn on July 20, 1944. Ernest Reiter recognised that all hope was lost now and he didn't intend to perish in the fool's gotterdamerrung of the increasingly insane and erratic tyrant. However, one had to keep up appearances. As he watched, the Russian narodnyye garoi ("people's heroes") Stalnivolk and Proletariat finished shredding the armour and battlecraft of Red Panzer as Helmut Streicher made his final stand. Before he could be stopped however, Streicher bit down on a cyanide capsule in a hollow tooth.
However, Proletariat's moment of triumph was short-lived, as the valiant Soviet narodnyye garoi was felled by the nightmarish speed of Zyklon . Although his superspeed was limited to the speed of sound and he would be disadvantaged if the Flash intervened on the allied side, Dieter Auschbach could still control his velocity and direct the trajectory of projectiles toward his adversary. Thus, it took mere seconds to subject Boris Dhumov to an intensive bombardment that overwhelmed his limited invulnerability, despite his prowess, courage and determination to serve his country. In horror, Sonya Chuikov (Fireball) screamed:
"No! Boris! Not now! Not when we're about to end their madness forever. Boris? Speak to me, my love."
"Sonya...it's hopeless. You will have to carry on without ...me..."
As he breathed his last, and despite the hopelessness of his own situation, Zyklon foolishly laughed in defiance. He should not have done so, as Fireball looked up at him with hatred in her eyes. She stood and marshalled her power in her hands:
"I don't know how you got free from Allied custody, you Nazi filth, but you are going to pay for that. For the death of a good man and all the other people your nation of tyrants and mass murderers have enslaved or slaughtered." Then the flames shot from her hands toward the Nazi metahuman and despite his phenomenal speed, he screamed as the firestorm hit him and burnt him to a crisp.
"Sonya! Behind you!"
The firebringer pirouetted to face the snarling face of Sinestra, who was then camouflagued by a thick cloud of acrid smoke:
"Nyet!"
"Sonya Chuikovna? It is pointless trying to pursue them."
"We have to try, Ivan! Otherwise Boris will have died for nothing!"
"We are needed elsewhere, Sonya. By your actions today, you have already saved the lives of countless Red Army soldiers and resistance fighters. And Boris died a hero of the Revolution. He will be remembered and celebrated. I know how much you loved him. Take it out on the Nazis."
"With pleasure. But damn it, Ivan, what about those escapees?"
"Their whole monstrous house of cards is collapsing around them. They won't get very far."
"And what about the likes of Baron Blitzkrieg? Even if their precious Reich is doomed, they still have the power to kill countless good Russian boys!"
"Then we'll have to make sure that we knock their tottering edifice out from under them..."
With a roar of rage, Sinestra surged forward from the mist, despite imprecations not to do so from within. She snarled at the two Soviet narodnyye garoi as her hands shot forward. But Stalnivolk threw her back into the mist. There was the sound of an aircraft talking off as the minds of the two Soviet metahumans turned elsewhere.
As the Silberhai shot skyward, Anneliese Baader let out a shaky breath. She handed over control to her copilot, who nodded his assurance, promising to call her if the situation ahead of them warranted it.
"Baron Reiter! Heil Hitler!"
"Ach, Colonel Baader, that was impressive. You had admirable self-discipline to achieve that, without distraction. And don't bother with formalities. The Reich is doomed. You are no fool. We both know that. Fortunately, we managed to save a handful."
Sinestra was silently weeping in a corner:
"Far too few. Baron, how are we going to avenge our brave supersoldaten who have perished today?"
"Not by joining one of the recidivist 'neo' Nazi terrorist groups, Hanna. They are too outnumbered and I suspect that given the magnitude of our defeat, we must not give heed to their pretensions. The Reds are in Berlin's very suburbs. It will not be long now."
"So that's it? We give up?! After twelve years of service, this is how it ends?"
"Nein, Hanna. I know you are grieving for your valiant Dieter, but wait. Then, when they least expect it, re-emerge to claim one of their mystery men or women as they call them."
As Sinestra wearily turned toward her sleeping bag and a restless night, Baron Blitzkrieg waited until she was asleep before motioning to the Ace of Blades:
"I am impressed by the quality this craft, Fraulein Baader. A miracle of German aerodynamics, especially given the deadly precision with which you piloted it. Your prowess in battle is legendary."
"Ja, it was based on principles derived from the fragments of Anton Hastor's vessel that beset us all in 1942. It was a shame that our scientists could not retrieve more of that vessel and learn from its advanced science, but we learnt enough. Silbersai was built, I test piloted it, and Goering himself was so impressed with my performance he let me pilot it for the duration. As you can see, it is a high-altitude craft that can soar above the carnage below at a height sufficient to elude Allied air interception and radar surveillance. If I have one regret, Herr Baron, it is that I did not have the chance to shoot down that verdammt Englischer zauberin ause holle, Mitternachtsengel. She was responsible for the deaths of too many of our pilots. I wanted to send that flame-haired murderess down into Hades where she belongs. Especially... especially after... no. No, I must not cry like a weak little girl..."
"Weak is the last word that I would ever use to describe you, Annaliese. And I recognise the accent. You are from Dresden."
"I lost my family there, Baron. My elderly father, my grandmother, my brother, nieces and nephews. I will never forgive the Allies for that. Ever."
"We make a magnificent partnership, Annaliese. And please, call me Ernst."
"At the first available opportunity, we smuggle Sinestra out of Europe. I don't want to be encumbered by her and her strange religious beliefs. So, we wait and pursue delayed vengeance."
"Are you so dedicated to your work, then?"
"Well, no. I did want to find out what's under that armour you fill out so impressively well..."
"Do you want to find out?"
BERLIN FRIEDRICHSTRASSE STATION: JUNE 1953:
"Sonya!"
"Oh, Rosie! Tovarich, it's been so long! You haven't aged a bit!"
As the two women embraced, Georg Von Tregor and Ivan Ilyich Gort warily regarded one another. At length, Gort was the first one to step forward:
"I'm sorry for my initial hesitancy, Georg. Believe me, it is no reflection on your valour and courage in breaking with the Nazis the way you did. I am so, so sorry about young Villi."
A sad smile crossed Georg's features: "What's past is past. And I also understand you endured your own losses. Boris Duibhov was a good, honourable man. He didn't deserve to die that way in the last days of the war."
"Oh, Sonya, no. I'm so sorry."
"Nyet, it's all right, Rosie. We all lost someone we loved in that hell's cauldron. George his beloved son," a catch entered her voice, "Boris, in my case, your father, and Ivan's brother and his family."
"So, Ivan, have you been briefed on who we're being called upon to stop?"
"Baron Ernst Reiter... "Baron Blitzkrieg" and his wife, Annaliese Baader-Reiter, still known as..."
A dark expression crossed Rosalie's face:
"Ace of Blades. Responsible for countless deaths of brave RAF boys, who should be settled down and starting families now, but who never will. Wife? Well, they deserve one another. Unless either of you have any objection, she's mine. I lost too many friends to those razor-sharp diamond wings on her infernal Silberhai."
"That's right. You know her modus operandi and tactics better than any of us. Has your MI5 told you about their fugitive whereabouts these last eight years?"
"South America? Paraguay, perhaps?"
"Exactly. And then, two months ago, their villa suddenly became empty. A covert KGB mission there revealed that it had been wholly abandoned. As there was no way that they could get past Soviet security at Josef Djugashavili Stalin's funeral, they must be intending to target the forthcoming Coronation of your new Queen Elizabeth."
"Ivan, have either of you faced Reiter before?"
Sonya nodded: "Yes, Georg. I have, while I was a member of the "Young Allies" international group."
"Although he's been inactive, both he and Baader are engineers as well as combatants. They may have improved the performance of his battlesuit and her aircraft. There's something else. The KGB has shared this with MI5, but there were some worrying imports of uthorium and plutonium shipped to Paraguay last year."
Rosalie's eyes widened: "Oh my God. Ivan, you mean... they may have an operational nuclear device on Baader's wretched Silberhai?"
"Yes, Rosalie. That is exactly what we may be facing."
ASHLEY MANOR: JUNE 1953:
"Which explains this collaborative venture, I suspect. The Russians are obviously concerned for the welfare of Premier Malenkov at this time and probably also that if Reiter and Baader have access to one nuclear weapon and succeed in obliterating London, then Moscow or other Soviet cities could be next on their list. As, indeed, they probably are." Georg said as Rosalie joined him in bed, later that evening back at Ashley Hall.
"Darling, did you detect a faint undercurrent of tension between Sonya and Ivan?"
Georg nodded: "Good, so I wasn't imagining it. Ach, I wish I knew why. Ivan's no anti-Semite, so it can't be the fact that Sonya's Jewish."
"Political, then? Although we view the USSR as a monolith, I always remembered Ivan as 'true red' during the times that we fought together against the Nazi mystery men and women. He had a cloisonne pin of Uncle Joe on his lapel during his times when we interacted in civilian dress."
"That would make sense, leibchen. And we know that Djugashvili had many of the habitual Russian Orthodox anti-Semitic prejudices and never showed any inhibition when it came to expressing them. Look at that ridiculous Doctors Conspiracy he dreamed up in his dying days, for instance. Sonya doesn't say anything about it, but it's clear that she's not particularly sorry about Stalin's recent death. On the other hand, Ivan is, and not only because he's a Gold Star People's Hero due to his loyalty to the late Premier."
In the adjacent rooms, Stalnivolk and Fireball were making their own assessments. For Sonya Chuikov, it was refreshing not being somewhere that she had to watch her every word, movement and action for fear of being branded 'counter revolutionary'- and where she could freely witness Jewish worship and business in public display. Oh, old Ivan was a loyal comrade and had healthy respect for Jewish anti-Nazi resistance in the Motherland during the war years, but he was also a loyalist to the Old Regime. There was mutual respect between them, true- and she knew he'd take a bullet in the back for her without hesitation. But that wasn't the problem. As their hosts had surmised, there were political differences between the two of them and areas that didn't brook conversation.
In his room, Ivan speculated about his guests. Obviously they still held wartime loyalties and old friendships and weren't too attached to the 'Cold War' antipathy to Moscow that had arisen in the West. They both disapproved of what had happened to Derek Hammond, "Sheffield Steel," himself a British Communist and who had been denied 'security clearance' as Britain's dependency on the United States grew. He also imagined that the fate of the Justice Society when it came to Senator MacCarthy's anti-communist paranoia had also galvanised them to respect old friendships. Which was good. Georg and Rosalie could be relied upon in solidarity against the neo-Nazi threat. Rosalie, especially, when it came to Baader. The two women were bitter enemies.
INTERLUDE: JUNE 1943: ABOVE THE NETHERLANDS:
As Midnight Angel gunned her Spitfire throttle, she blinked back tears.
Terry.
Terry Wilshire had been a gentle giant of a man and she had been their maid of honour at his marriage to Eileen just two months ago. Their joy had been complete when Eileen announced her pregnancy. But now...
She felt an ache in her heart as she saw the burning wreckage of her comrade's aircraft on the ground below, the way that she felt whenever she saw the result of Luftwaffe aggression against RAF comrade pilots in arms. No. No, she had to pull herself together. She would find the treacherous bastard who'd done this to him and he would pay. He...
Then her blood ran cold. She saw the woman in the cockpit across from her, in the adapted Messerschmidt, and recognised the dark legend of the Silbershai and its ruthless, brilliant pilot, Annaliese Baader. And she was laughing, damn her black heart, as if this murder in the skies was nothing but a game to her! Right then, Rosalie thought, in grim determination, diamond wings or not, I'll make her pay for the boys she's shot down and killed today. Her face set in a grim mask, she threw her aircraft into a cartwheel and targeted her adversary's fuel tanks. As she strafed the Silbershai, Annaliese Baader spun around in her cockpit and her eyes widened as she, in turn, recognised who her assailant was.
Ach, Der Mitternachtsengel, die Englischer zauberin ause holles! Her laughter died on her lips as she realised the danger she was now in. She thought this would be a straightforward defensive mission, patrolling the western European occupied territories of the Reich. She had been foolish, she had been complacent. No matter if the Silbershai she piloted was enhanced with diamond blade wings, this was a chillingly effective adversary who had downed far too many Luftwaffe pilots. Ashley was a worthy opponent, no doubt about it. She might even find some way around the Silbershai's design enhancements. For the first time in the countless sorties that she had flown for the Third Reich, Annaliese Baader, the Ace of Blades, was facing her equal in combat and the prospect made her ...fearful, for the first time in this war. Nein, she thought, I must not let Der Mitternachtsengel gain the upper hand. And she would not kill me, either. She would make sure the Silbershai was captured and the RAF would pervert it and turn it against the Reich. I must not let that happen!
As she gunned her engines, Baader realised that her fuel tank had been hit. She cursed as she realised that with her fuel leaking from the back of her Messerschmidt, she dare not let Der Mitternachtsengel engage her. And then a chance spark ignited the back of her precious aircraft and she felt an almighty jolt from Silbershai as it started to loose altitude. Baader made some calculations and realised that she could still make it back to friendly territory, so she put her aircraft on autopilot, arranging for it to crash into a lake well inland as she set its trajectory, before affixing an oxygen mask and stabbing down on her ejector button.
In her Spitfire, Midnight Angel hit her instrument panel in frustration as she watched Baader's parachute drift down into the erstwhile safety of occupied territory, where she could not follow. Her cockpit radar showed incoming Messerschmidts and she had no accompanying pilots left on either side. Ah well, she'd put that hellspawn out of commission for a while, anyway. Even given Baader's own rumoured engineering prowess, she'd have a time getting that flying deathwing of hers back into working order. But this was only the first time the two women would encounter one another, and she didn't underestimate the calibre of her opponent, nor her fanatical determination and commitment to her monstrous regime.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: JULY 1945:
"Simon! No!!!" Penthesilea cried as the gunshots hurled the man she loved, Commander Simon Travis, back from the U-Boat hatchway where he had unexpectedly been ambushed. And for the first time in two years, Annaliese Baader and Rosalie Ashley-Von Tregor laid eyes on each other. Horned Owl looked up from the deckway where Simon was gasping for breath as tears streamed down Penthesilea's face. He shook his head: "It's no good. She severed a major artery. He'll bleed to death before we can get him to medical care. I'm so sorry, Penny."
"Von Tregor! You traitor to the Reich! You're next!!!"
"You'll have to get through me first, you murdering witch. My god, does your obscene lust for blood know no limits at all?!" And with that, the two women began to exchange fire from their pistols.
"And what about the Luftwaffe boys you shot down, Mitternachtsengel? Did you think they didn't have families or children? And what about that obscenity you participated in in Dresden? I lost my own family in that inferno, you murdering banshee!"
"Do you think I don't have nightmares about that, Baader?! That will remain a stain on my conscience forever. "Best" pilot in the Luftwaffe, with the highest kill rate? You have as much compassion and mercy as a nursing mother shark."
"At least I can still have children, Ashley!"
"It doesn't mean I love Rosalie any less. It means that I love her all the more, given she had the courage and tenacity to survive uterine cancer. Thank the Lord they caught it in time." Horned Owl said, as he laid a tarpaulin over the body of Commander Travis. Penthesilea grasped his shoulder:
"They still have that infernal power damper on, Georg. I don't know how, they must have one of the artefacts in that sub. Until you disable it, neither Derek or I can help."
"Leave that to us, Penny. I swear, I'll make that murderess pay."
"I trained at Leipzig, Ashley. I'm not afraid to take you on hand to hand. And you're... married... to that traitor?! You really are a piece of work."
"Stop being so sanctimonious, Baader. You think I haven't fought Leipzig harridans like you before? Wrong. Ask Mavis Rupprecht. I know what you're like."
"It will be a pleasure breaking your neck, Ashley!"
"What good would that do? Your hell's cauldron of a Third Reich is dead and the syphilitic madman who ruled it didn't even have the courage to face responsibility for his actions. He shot himself and the bewitched ingenue that shared his bed. We're still here. So are the Allies against the obscenity you represented. And even if you do kill me, my husband will come after you. Give up. It's over. Are you that much of a fanatical true believer?"
"I don't have time for this. Now, Ernst!!!" And for the space of a few minutes, the seascape was pure white. When their senses returned, Horned Owl, Penthesilea, Midnight Angel and Sheffield Steel were lying on the deck of their frigate, with the fugitive u-boat nowhere to be seen. Rosalie slammed her fist into a convenient canvas tarp as her husband joined her:
"Damn it, Georg. How did they do that?!"
"I suspect it probably has something to do with their wunderwaffe, or to more precise, what remains of them. We seem to have been subjected to a momentary pulse of high electrical energy, enough to incapacitate us. A 'stun gun', if you will."
"Surely we weren't out of commission long enough for them to get away altogether? What about radar?"
Penthesilea shook her head: "No, my friends, but they are in Paraguayan national waters now and we would risk an international incident if we pursued them further."
"Damn, damn, damn!" Midnight Angel exclaimed in anger, stalking off toward the vessel's bridge as her husband followed.
"Eh, that is one determined lass." Sheffield Steel observed.
"They make an excellent couple, Derek, do they not?"
"Ah, bugger. Penny, you've lost your bloke an' all. I'm so sorry."
"It is well. I was intending to return to Themiscyra in any case. Now my plans for departure have been advanced. We were a Victory Legion. Very well, but what do we do now that victory has been achieved?"
"I'm goin' back to Sheffield and see if the local lads in blue want some assistance. The war's resulted in a lot of dislocation and opportunist crime, y'know. When all's said and done, I'm a local lad."
"Will you come to Simon's funeral?"
"Wild horses couldn' keep me away, Penny."
JUNE 1953: LONDON AIRSPACE:
"There they are."
"So soon?" Sonya exclaimed.
"The velocity on that thing is unbelievable. Still, they've fallen into our trap. They must think that we're total novices at re-engineering. Right, then. Ready, all of you?"
"And willing."
And then Silbersai was on them, with an ominous dark-hued payload visible in an enlarged bomb bay. There was a blaze of light as Baron Blitzkrieg rocketed from the plane's airlock, toward the ensemble.
From the cockpit, Ace of Blades glared at her mortal adversary, whose own jawline was set in similar determination. Abruptly, she broke formation as her aircraft soared higher and higher, away from the Soviet, British and Nazi action heroes that were now intent on confronting one another:
"What's Baader doing?" Sonya said to Ivan.
"At a guess, she's heading off to sufficient altitude to drop that bomb of hers. Although Rosalie's following her close behind, to stop her. Somewhere above us, we're going to see history made. I just hope it isn't the wrong sort. Our mission is to insure that her husband doesn't have the chance to turn the tide of that conflict. It looks like Georg is already getting into the act..."
"Von Tregor. You will pay for your act of treachery and betrayal of our Reich. I swear it."
"You always were a dreamer, Ernst. If you think I will let you assist that black-clad assassin wife of yours, then you underestimate me."
"You do not get to use my first name, schwein."
"And you will not get to kill millions in the name of a dead ideology and a madman who shot himself rather than face justice for his crimes."
"Do you think your little boy would welcome the traitorous offal that his father has become now?"
"Wilhelm died an honorable death trying to save the weak and vulnerable. His sacrifice showed me that the Nazis would stop at nothing to achieve their goals and that those goals were demonic. You do not get to use his name, Ernst. He died long before his time, but as a man, not a child. For is it not childish to retain the fanatical ideals of a vanished nightmare past in a better, hopeful world?"
"Our country lies in ruins beneath the heel of Bolshevik oppression, partitioned. For that I will kill you and then go after your martinet wife..."
"You have to get past all of us, Blitzkrieg. And even if you've tuned up your battlesuit, you've made a fatal mistake. You think we haven't had time to work on our own tactics and strategies?"
"Nein. Nein, I will join her. I will see your precious adopted homeland's city die in flames. I swear it!"
And then, high overhead, Midnight Angel and the Ace of Blades resumed their mortal combat. Baader swore as high velocity fire from Midnight Angel's artillery riddled Silbersai's diamond wings. She banked and returned fire, with shining ruby lights from her turret. As they stabbed toward her, Midnight Angel flew low to avoid them and opened fire on Silbersai's bomb door. Baader tried to throw her aircraft into an evasive trajectory, but then there was the acrid smoke of fused machinery from beneath her. She dare not let the infernal Mitternachtsengel strike her there again, and tried to engage her opponent once more, hoping that Ashley-Von Tregor's fury would make her reckless, vulnerable and prone to miscalculation. But she had miscalculated herself as her own icy ambition and pride took over and she only saw the hallucinatory chiaroscuro of burning Messerschmidts, crew and pilots screaming as they plummeted toward oblivion, with that hell witch and her deadly competence triumphant, always triumphant. She would do it. She would avenge them all! She would
And then fate intervened, as a crucial circuit bank burnt out and guttered. In the bomb bay, her deadly payload started ticking as it counted down to oblivion and nuclear firestorm, minutes from now. Although it momentarily seemed that she would have the last triumph, however pyrrhic, the ramjet on her aircraft abruptly ignited and thrust her back in her pilots seat. As she started bleeding from her nose and her vision blurred, she hissed: "Goodbye, Ernst, leibchen. Fight on. We are warriors and warriors avenge their fallen. One day, you will. I have every belief in you."
"NEIN!!!" And then there was an eyeaching burst of light, visible even several thousand miles away, as the Silbersai's payload detonated and Annaliese Baader, the Ace of Blades, one of the deadliest combat pilots of the Third Reich, met her destiny, high above the Canary Islands. His mission and his spirit broken, in despair and grief, Baron Blitzkrieg activated his battlesuit's own ramjets and soared away. Their mission had been a failure and it had cost the most precious object in his universe, the woman he loved, the warrior who had fought at his side all these years. His own injuries would take time to heal, at least his physical ones. But he would make them pay. If not the accursed traitor Great Horned Owl and that iron lady who was his companion, then someone else.
He would nurse that thought for decades and take time to prepare his revenge. For he had learnt that his body was not as those of other mortals, that he would have extensive longevity. And that he would probably outlive the woman who had killed his heart's desire and the traitor who shared her life.
But what was it worth when his own life's great love was now nothing more than a handful of rapidly dispersing atoms in the stratosphere?
"I will avenge you, you noble and brave companion. I love you, Annaliese Baader." Then Baron Blitzkrieg disappeared into the night. After that moment above London, many would assume that his injuries that night had been mortal. In this assumption, sadly, they were wrong.
THE END
[4.15 PM, MARCH 8, 2024]