Post by redsycorax on Oct 4, 2020 2:17:28 GMT
On Earth-92, the Republican side won the Spanish Civil War and Franco was defeated, Hitler and KPD leader Ernest Thalmann were executed by Chancellor Papin and the Nazis forcibly suppressed, and Mussolini fell shortly after in an Italian coup in 1936. As with many other alternate Earths in the 1940s, the United States hosted a Golden Society of Superheroes, which consisted of Antaeus, an immortal Greek demigod; Mother Hubbard, a powerful sorceress and white witch; socialite and mystery-woman Lady Satan; noctural crimefighter Nightmare and his companion Daydream; War Nurse, an anti-fascist fighting medical practitioner; and the webslinging Spiderqueen.
++
De Mona Travers woke up, screaming again. She ran a hand through her ebon hair and shakily poured herself a drink. Why could she never forget what had happened, that day in the Bay of Biscay, when Spanish Falangist fighter planes destroyed the vessel that she was travelling on with her fiancee and family? At one cruel stroke, they had obliterated the man that she had loved, as well as her beloved parents, younger sister and brother. She became aware of light pouring from the adjacent mirror, wrapped her nightgown around her and went to answer the message from her GSSH colleague, the sorceress Mother Hubbard:
"Young De Mona,
Are you well this night?
I espied turmoil in your mind
with my Second Sight.
I can provide potions and spells
which will lessen the pain from
the death of your beloved,
if you'd tell."
"Thank you, Mother, but this is my burden and mine alone. Have Nightmare, Daydream and Antaeus returned from their European mission yet?"
"The men have set foot upon our knell
And do hath many strange and ominous things
'Afore to tell. Will we see you at the Society's
meeting this Friday morn?"
"Yes, Mother. Thank you for your concern. We're so lucky to have someone as compassionate and gifted as you."
"'Afore this ends,
Is there really naught I can do
to calm your mind, young friend?"
"No thank you, Mother. You're sweet to be concerned after my safety, but I can take care of myself."
"Any word from Patricia yet?" Spiderqueen asked as she gratefully accepted a cup of coffee:
"No. I think she's on active OSS duty in Eastern Europe. Even though fascism has fallen in Germany, Italy and Spain, there are still headaches in Hungary, Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia and elsewhere. She sends her regards, but she says she's needed urgently there. As for the communists, well, the execution of Ernest Thalmann under Papin also led to some major organisational setbacks for them. They're having problems in the Ukraine and Byelorussia, which means that their invasion plans for the Baltic littoral states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been postponed, perhaps indefinitely. Stalin is reaping the costs of those continual upper echelon military purges of his and may look eastward instead of westward. Added to which, the collapse of the Nazis and Italian fascists discouraged Japan from going down the militarist route." Antaeus said, while Nightmare and Daydream shot pool elsewhere in the room:
"A penny for them, Dee?" Spiderqueen asked.
"Eh? Oh, I was wool gathering. So it looks like there won't be a Second Great War after all, is that what you're saying?"
"None of the Great Powers are in any shape to prosecute one. Are you okay, De? You seem miles away."
"Could the minor fascist parties in Eastern Europe manage to escalate a local conflict?"
"Nah. With the Ratzis gone in Germany and Musso shot and killed in Rome, none of the lesser fascists have the logistics to do so. Hey. Nicely done, Terry!"
"You just weren't watching, you big lug."
"Is that so, you young whippersnapper?" Bob (Nightmare) White closed in on his companion Terry (Daydream) and kissed him deeply.
"Boys, boys, boys. Plenty of time for that after patrol tonight. So, Shannon. What did your police friend tell you?"
Shannon (Spiderqueen) Kane blushed. Antaeus knew very well that the handsome Michael O'Bell was a lot more to the Woman of Webs than a mere 'friend' and that it was only the recent period of time that had elapsed since the death of Harry, her husband, the inventor of her spidersilk and container bracelets. Antaeus was still concerned about the apparent distraction and sombre appearance of his colleague, when Mother Hubbard beckoned to him.
"Good Antaeus
I am much afeared
the welfare of virtuous
De Mona is impaired.
In her mind I do espy
wrack and turmoil
which she doth hide.
Will you and I our
power combine,
to search what lieth
within her mind?"
"She's hardly a shrinking violet or night daisy, Ma, but I've noticed too. She's always been committed to her job, but in her case, I'm worried about the lack of rest, relaxation and down time. It's not healthy, driving oneself like that. At least I have my art to occupy me and Bob and Terry have each other. All right. I wouldn't normally do this, but I'm just as worried about her as you are." Antaeus closed his eyes as Mother Hubbard lifted up her gnarled and twisted hands to his face, closing her own:
TWO YEARS EARLIER:
The USS Carpentaria was heading sedately up the North African coast, as De Mona Travers and Ronald Charles piroutted the night away. De Mona relaxed into her fiancee's arms. She felt safe, she felt as if nothing could disturb her security and her future at the side of the man she loved. Ronald respected her for her mind just as much as her beauty, and they'd met at a book launch party in New York when she advertised her latest book, Blood on the Falange: Germany, Italy and Franco's War Crimes. She had danced with him afterward and found out his family had had long-standing concerns over maltreatment and abuse of Arabs in the "Spanish" Sahara, one of Spain's last surviving colonial possessions. In fact, Ronald had been so committed that he had assisted her with research for her next book on the European crisis, given his fluency in Spanish and Arabic. One thing led to another and intellectual solidarity blossomed into desire and love. One evening, Ronald proposed to her. She accepted.
And then, a distant whirring sound became audible. De Mona didn't know that Franco's Political-Social Brigade had apprehended some maquis outlaws and brutally tortured them for information about critics of the fascist rebellion. One treasured item involved the presence of the acerbic but highly eloquent De Mona Travers onboard the USS Carpentaria in waters just outside Spain's territorial limits. In the fastness of Salamanca, the leader made his decision. It would be a "tragic miscalculation" and a "regrettable error", but the Carpentaria was sailing too close to Spain's maritime borders. Who could blame an overzealous Falangist Air Guard squadron if they bombed what they "believed" to be an "enemy vessel?" (Antaeus and Mother Hubbard were bewildered at how De Mona knew this. Allied espionage? Surmise?)
And then: "We'll be married as soon as we land in New York. Say, what's..."
"Look! Bombers!" De Mona gasped. That was the last moment that she would ever know any peace. Abruptly, the aircraft circled over the Carpentaria and began to drop bombs on it. As fate would have it, one hit the engine room, just below the deck on which De Mona and Ronald were standing. The blast caught Ronald and shrapnel surged through his body, tearing him apart in front of De Mona's horrified eyes. Dishevelled and numb, she grabbed a lifering and dived overboard. But more horror was on its way. From the damaging, aflame vessel, she could hear the agonised screams and cries of help and pain of her relatives and those of her fiancee. She witnessed one, aflame, screaming and jumping into the water, threshing around and then sinking. Another shot herself rather than drown. And the children. Her cousins. She. (Mother Hubbard was weeping for the tragedy that had befallen her friend and comrade as she witnessed it. Antaeus thought back to battlefields past, at a time when lifespan was much shorter than it was now, within his homeland, ancient Greece).
(They supposed that DeMona didn't want to remember how her young cousins had perished, or visualise it). It must have been several hours later as the HMS Rab Butler cut across the ocean toward her, as De Mona Travers made a solemn vow, icecold in body and now in heart, mourning her murdered fiancee and relatives and also white-hot in rage and grief: "All I ever loved, destroyed by those tyrants. I swear henceforth to devote my life to their destruction. My enemies will feel the wrath of... Lady Satan."
(Was that a name chosen on the spur of the moment, or did they signify something deeper? As they watched in the theatre of her memories, De Mona dismounted a crimson steed and tethered it to a cactus, before walking to a clearing where a row of red-clad figures awaited her. At their centre was a woman in a nun's costume, with wild horns atop her coiff and an inverted crucifix. She knelt before the stern woman: "De Mona Travers. You ask for the benediction of Great Lilith. Why should it be granted?"
"For vengeance and for thwarted desire. For the life of my Ronald and my relatives and because Falangist Spain is a monstruous, murderous tyranny that practices torture and persecution against those that oppose them. Great Lilith, I ask that my desire be fulfilled and reciprocity be granted, that I may make my enemies scream and suffer as they did to me."
"This we grant- that thou, De Mona Travers, be gifted with the Knives of the Mother, proficiency and skill in combat and defensive skill, resilience and clarity of mind. Dost thou consent to the bargain that must be made to secure these?"
"Aye that I do, for vengeance is never free. I vow my soul to Lucifer, Fallen Angel of the Morning Star, at the end of my life, now and henceforth. I freely accept the contract that must be made." DeMona pricked her finger and three drops of blood dripped onto yellowed parchment as she signed her name.
"De Mona Travers, arise. Henceforth, thou art Lady Satan, bringer of vengeance and reprisal. The Fallen, Defiled and Unholy bless your ardour, focus and task. Extroit."
"Extroit" chorused the red-robed crowds.
"Extroit." Lady Satan got up, was handed a domino mask and satin long, red evening dress, as well as a purse full of sharpened knives of various precisions. She donned the mask and clothes and then remounted her horse, galloping off into the night. (Antaeus and Mother Hubbard were horrified when they saw the steps that De Mona had taken to secure her vengeance and the means to pursue it. And yet, neither could blame her, given that they had witnessed the origin of the feelings inside that consumed her.)
ONE YEAR LATER:
It was almost a year later, judging from the calendar on the wall opposite. In her Lady Satan mask and outfit, DeMona was seated at a roulette table as gunfire and mortar exchanges echoed distantly. Across from her was the Falangist "military advisor", Fritz Horkheim. She had received a message from British military intelligence that the Falangists were about to take receipt of a submarine detection unit, experimental radar, which they could abuse at Gibraltar if they dared. Horkheim was a far, vain and stupid fool and she had romanced him as he sat opposite her. Eventually, she even inviegled him into giving her a tour of the Falangist military base several miles away, near the front line. The Falangists were losing the civil war and their rebellion was now characterised by desperation and wild adventurism.
Captivated by the mysterious, enigmatic and beautiful woman (and a surreptitious capsule of aphrodisiac), Lady Satan watched carefully as a chauffeur drove Fritz and herself to the installation while a miniaturised camera imperceptibly recorded details of gun emplacements and barracks, as well as army fuel ordinance. Lulling the guards into a sense of false and deceptive 'security", she masqueraded as a scatterbrain, loitering outside headquarters as Fritz was given his instructions to take to Nazi headquarters back in Berlin, featuring a concealed Falangist submarine base. Abruptly, an overeager guard barked: "Was ist?"
Damn. The game was up. Taking a razorpin from her hair, Lady Satan deftly threw it at the throat of her betrayer, silencing him instantly. Fritz ran from the building, as Lady Satan laughed derisively at him. Enraged, Fritz groped in his holster for his pistol, but she had lifted it from him as they embraced in the car and loaded it while in the visitors hut: "You're an incompetent fool, Fritz. Goodbye and good riddance!" Lady Satan impassively shot him through the head, then grabbed the plans for the submarine base layout from him, shot Fritz' chauffeur, and gave deep throttle to the car as it accelerated away, killing the guards as the Rolls Royce broke through the wood and barbed wire. Gunning the engine, the car accelerated into desolate, alpine terrain where it would be hazardous for enemy aircraft to track her.
Another month had elapsed. This time, Lady Satan was in Berlin, capital of faltering Germany, as Nazis and Communists fought for power in the streets and buildings. This time, unmasked and disguised, she was pursuing Lieutenant Kurt Angstrom, who sought to kill Neville Chamberlain and Franklin Roosevelt at a French rendezvous convened to discuss the European crisis. Again, someone in Gestapo police intelligence recognised who she actually was, but throttling Kurt, she commandeered his civilian aircraft. Crossing into French airspace, she parachuted down and then lay in wait for the would-be assassin. He wasn't long in coming, but a throwing knife dispatched him as soon as he left the safety of his car. Showing her OSS ID, Lady Satan was congratulated by the two men, but responded, politely but in deadtone: "My best compensation is the triumph of liberty over tyranny."
And thus it was. Later that year, Papin launched his offensive against Hitler and Thalmann, smashing both the Nazis and the KPD. The two men were executed by firing squad and Germany settled down to several years of lower key interneccine strife and authoritarianism, before it deliquesced into ultimate peace. Lady Satan celebrated in Europe, but what might have escalated into a Second Great War was over. Months later, the Falangist insurgency in Spain collapsed, as did the Mussolini regime in Italy after the assassination of Il Duce.
EPILOGUE:
Lady Satan stood on the parapet of a skyscraper, looking down as Spider Queen, Nightmare and Daydream pummeled and chased down the hapless entourage of one of Nightmare's opponents, the Undertaker. Ah well. She knew that Antaeus and Mother had read her mind, but they were friends. She had no secret that she wanted to keep from them, anyway. These were her comrades and in a real sense, the only family she had. Finishing her reminiscences, she crossed to one of Spider Queen's spidersilk ropes and swept down to join the fray.
POSTSCRIPT:
As a Satanist, Lady Satan was vulnerable when President J.Edgar Hoover turned on the minority faith during his authoritarian presidency in the sixties. The "international satanist conspiracy" paranoia of that decade saw Hoover accuse Satanists of undermining the moral fabric, literacy, armed forces and national security of the United States. Many were shot and killed by the quasi-legal "US National Police" of that era, especially in the Southern United States. Lady Satan disappeared from sight during this period. To this day, it is unknown whether she is dead or alive or whether in the case of death, her contract with the devil was honoured.
THE END
++
De Mona Travers woke up, screaming again. She ran a hand through her ebon hair and shakily poured herself a drink. Why could she never forget what had happened, that day in the Bay of Biscay, when Spanish Falangist fighter planes destroyed the vessel that she was travelling on with her fiancee and family? At one cruel stroke, they had obliterated the man that she had loved, as well as her beloved parents, younger sister and brother. She became aware of light pouring from the adjacent mirror, wrapped her nightgown around her and went to answer the message from her GSSH colleague, the sorceress Mother Hubbard:
"Young De Mona,
Are you well this night?
I espied turmoil in your mind
with my Second Sight.
I can provide potions and spells
which will lessen the pain from
the death of your beloved,
if you'd tell."
"Thank you, Mother, but this is my burden and mine alone. Have Nightmare, Daydream and Antaeus returned from their European mission yet?"
"The men have set foot upon our knell
And do hath many strange and ominous things
'Afore to tell. Will we see you at the Society's
meeting this Friday morn?"
"Yes, Mother. Thank you for your concern. We're so lucky to have someone as compassionate and gifted as you."
"'Afore this ends,
Is there really naught I can do
to calm your mind, young friend?"
"No thank you, Mother. You're sweet to be concerned after my safety, but I can take care of myself."
"Any word from Patricia yet?" Spiderqueen asked as she gratefully accepted a cup of coffee:
"No. I think she's on active OSS duty in Eastern Europe. Even though fascism has fallen in Germany, Italy and Spain, there are still headaches in Hungary, Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia and elsewhere. She sends her regards, but she says she's needed urgently there. As for the communists, well, the execution of Ernest Thalmann under Papin also led to some major organisational setbacks for them. They're having problems in the Ukraine and Byelorussia, which means that their invasion plans for the Baltic littoral states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have been postponed, perhaps indefinitely. Stalin is reaping the costs of those continual upper echelon military purges of his and may look eastward instead of westward. Added to which, the collapse of the Nazis and Italian fascists discouraged Japan from going down the militarist route." Antaeus said, while Nightmare and Daydream shot pool elsewhere in the room:
"A penny for them, Dee?" Spiderqueen asked.
"Eh? Oh, I was wool gathering. So it looks like there won't be a Second Great War after all, is that what you're saying?"
"None of the Great Powers are in any shape to prosecute one. Are you okay, De? You seem miles away."
"Could the minor fascist parties in Eastern Europe manage to escalate a local conflict?"
"Nah. With the Ratzis gone in Germany and Musso shot and killed in Rome, none of the lesser fascists have the logistics to do so. Hey. Nicely done, Terry!"
"You just weren't watching, you big lug."
"Is that so, you young whippersnapper?" Bob (Nightmare) White closed in on his companion Terry (Daydream) and kissed him deeply.
"Boys, boys, boys. Plenty of time for that after patrol tonight. So, Shannon. What did your police friend tell you?"
Shannon (Spiderqueen) Kane blushed. Antaeus knew very well that the handsome Michael O'Bell was a lot more to the Woman of Webs than a mere 'friend' and that it was only the recent period of time that had elapsed since the death of Harry, her husband, the inventor of her spidersilk and container bracelets. Antaeus was still concerned about the apparent distraction and sombre appearance of his colleague, when Mother Hubbard beckoned to him.
"Good Antaeus
I am much afeared
the welfare of virtuous
De Mona is impaired.
In her mind I do espy
wrack and turmoil
which she doth hide.
Will you and I our
power combine,
to search what lieth
within her mind?"
"She's hardly a shrinking violet or night daisy, Ma, but I've noticed too. She's always been committed to her job, but in her case, I'm worried about the lack of rest, relaxation and down time. It's not healthy, driving oneself like that. At least I have my art to occupy me and Bob and Terry have each other. All right. I wouldn't normally do this, but I'm just as worried about her as you are." Antaeus closed his eyes as Mother Hubbard lifted up her gnarled and twisted hands to his face, closing her own:
TWO YEARS EARLIER:
The USS Carpentaria was heading sedately up the North African coast, as De Mona Travers and Ronald Charles piroutted the night away. De Mona relaxed into her fiancee's arms. She felt safe, she felt as if nothing could disturb her security and her future at the side of the man she loved. Ronald respected her for her mind just as much as her beauty, and they'd met at a book launch party in New York when she advertised her latest book, Blood on the Falange: Germany, Italy and Franco's War Crimes. She had danced with him afterward and found out his family had had long-standing concerns over maltreatment and abuse of Arabs in the "Spanish" Sahara, one of Spain's last surviving colonial possessions. In fact, Ronald had been so committed that he had assisted her with research for her next book on the European crisis, given his fluency in Spanish and Arabic. One thing led to another and intellectual solidarity blossomed into desire and love. One evening, Ronald proposed to her. She accepted.
And then, a distant whirring sound became audible. De Mona didn't know that Franco's Political-Social Brigade had apprehended some maquis outlaws and brutally tortured them for information about critics of the fascist rebellion. One treasured item involved the presence of the acerbic but highly eloquent De Mona Travers onboard the USS Carpentaria in waters just outside Spain's territorial limits. In the fastness of Salamanca, the leader made his decision. It would be a "tragic miscalculation" and a "regrettable error", but the Carpentaria was sailing too close to Spain's maritime borders. Who could blame an overzealous Falangist Air Guard squadron if they bombed what they "believed" to be an "enemy vessel?" (Antaeus and Mother Hubbard were bewildered at how De Mona knew this. Allied espionage? Surmise?)
And then: "We'll be married as soon as we land in New York. Say, what's..."
"Look! Bombers!" De Mona gasped. That was the last moment that she would ever know any peace. Abruptly, the aircraft circled over the Carpentaria and began to drop bombs on it. As fate would have it, one hit the engine room, just below the deck on which De Mona and Ronald were standing. The blast caught Ronald and shrapnel surged through his body, tearing him apart in front of De Mona's horrified eyes. Dishevelled and numb, she grabbed a lifering and dived overboard. But more horror was on its way. From the damaging, aflame vessel, she could hear the agonised screams and cries of help and pain of her relatives and those of her fiancee. She witnessed one, aflame, screaming and jumping into the water, threshing around and then sinking. Another shot herself rather than drown. And the children. Her cousins. She. (Mother Hubbard was weeping for the tragedy that had befallen her friend and comrade as she witnessed it. Antaeus thought back to battlefields past, at a time when lifespan was much shorter than it was now, within his homeland, ancient Greece).
(They supposed that DeMona didn't want to remember how her young cousins had perished, or visualise it). It must have been several hours later as the HMS Rab Butler cut across the ocean toward her, as De Mona Travers made a solemn vow, icecold in body and now in heart, mourning her murdered fiancee and relatives and also white-hot in rage and grief: "All I ever loved, destroyed by those tyrants. I swear henceforth to devote my life to their destruction. My enemies will feel the wrath of... Lady Satan."
(Was that a name chosen on the spur of the moment, or did they signify something deeper? As they watched in the theatre of her memories, De Mona dismounted a crimson steed and tethered it to a cactus, before walking to a clearing where a row of red-clad figures awaited her. At their centre was a woman in a nun's costume, with wild horns atop her coiff and an inverted crucifix. She knelt before the stern woman: "De Mona Travers. You ask for the benediction of Great Lilith. Why should it be granted?"
"For vengeance and for thwarted desire. For the life of my Ronald and my relatives and because Falangist Spain is a monstruous, murderous tyranny that practices torture and persecution against those that oppose them. Great Lilith, I ask that my desire be fulfilled and reciprocity be granted, that I may make my enemies scream and suffer as they did to me."
"This we grant- that thou, De Mona Travers, be gifted with the Knives of the Mother, proficiency and skill in combat and defensive skill, resilience and clarity of mind. Dost thou consent to the bargain that must be made to secure these?"
"Aye that I do, for vengeance is never free. I vow my soul to Lucifer, Fallen Angel of the Morning Star, at the end of my life, now and henceforth. I freely accept the contract that must be made." DeMona pricked her finger and three drops of blood dripped onto yellowed parchment as she signed her name.
"De Mona Travers, arise. Henceforth, thou art Lady Satan, bringer of vengeance and reprisal. The Fallen, Defiled and Unholy bless your ardour, focus and task. Extroit."
"Extroit" chorused the red-robed crowds.
"Extroit." Lady Satan got up, was handed a domino mask and satin long, red evening dress, as well as a purse full of sharpened knives of various precisions. She donned the mask and clothes and then remounted her horse, galloping off into the night. (Antaeus and Mother Hubbard were horrified when they saw the steps that De Mona had taken to secure her vengeance and the means to pursue it. And yet, neither could blame her, given that they had witnessed the origin of the feelings inside that consumed her.)
ONE YEAR LATER:
It was almost a year later, judging from the calendar on the wall opposite. In her Lady Satan mask and outfit, DeMona was seated at a roulette table as gunfire and mortar exchanges echoed distantly. Across from her was the Falangist "military advisor", Fritz Horkheim. She had received a message from British military intelligence that the Falangists were about to take receipt of a submarine detection unit, experimental radar, which they could abuse at Gibraltar if they dared. Horkheim was a far, vain and stupid fool and she had romanced him as he sat opposite her. Eventually, she even inviegled him into giving her a tour of the Falangist military base several miles away, near the front line. The Falangists were losing the civil war and their rebellion was now characterised by desperation and wild adventurism.
Captivated by the mysterious, enigmatic and beautiful woman (and a surreptitious capsule of aphrodisiac), Lady Satan watched carefully as a chauffeur drove Fritz and herself to the installation while a miniaturised camera imperceptibly recorded details of gun emplacements and barracks, as well as army fuel ordinance. Lulling the guards into a sense of false and deceptive 'security", she masqueraded as a scatterbrain, loitering outside headquarters as Fritz was given his instructions to take to Nazi headquarters back in Berlin, featuring a concealed Falangist submarine base. Abruptly, an overeager guard barked: "Was ist?"
Damn. The game was up. Taking a razorpin from her hair, Lady Satan deftly threw it at the throat of her betrayer, silencing him instantly. Fritz ran from the building, as Lady Satan laughed derisively at him. Enraged, Fritz groped in his holster for his pistol, but she had lifted it from him as they embraced in the car and loaded it while in the visitors hut: "You're an incompetent fool, Fritz. Goodbye and good riddance!" Lady Satan impassively shot him through the head, then grabbed the plans for the submarine base layout from him, shot Fritz' chauffeur, and gave deep throttle to the car as it accelerated away, killing the guards as the Rolls Royce broke through the wood and barbed wire. Gunning the engine, the car accelerated into desolate, alpine terrain where it would be hazardous for enemy aircraft to track her.
Another month had elapsed. This time, Lady Satan was in Berlin, capital of faltering Germany, as Nazis and Communists fought for power in the streets and buildings. This time, unmasked and disguised, she was pursuing Lieutenant Kurt Angstrom, who sought to kill Neville Chamberlain and Franklin Roosevelt at a French rendezvous convened to discuss the European crisis. Again, someone in Gestapo police intelligence recognised who she actually was, but throttling Kurt, she commandeered his civilian aircraft. Crossing into French airspace, she parachuted down and then lay in wait for the would-be assassin. He wasn't long in coming, but a throwing knife dispatched him as soon as he left the safety of his car. Showing her OSS ID, Lady Satan was congratulated by the two men, but responded, politely but in deadtone: "My best compensation is the triumph of liberty over tyranny."
And thus it was. Later that year, Papin launched his offensive against Hitler and Thalmann, smashing both the Nazis and the KPD. The two men were executed by firing squad and Germany settled down to several years of lower key interneccine strife and authoritarianism, before it deliquesced into ultimate peace. Lady Satan celebrated in Europe, but what might have escalated into a Second Great War was over. Months later, the Falangist insurgency in Spain collapsed, as did the Mussolini regime in Italy after the assassination of Il Duce.
EPILOGUE:
Lady Satan stood on the parapet of a skyscraper, looking down as Spider Queen, Nightmare and Daydream pummeled and chased down the hapless entourage of one of Nightmare's opponents, the Undertaker. Ah well. She knew that Antaeus and Mother had read her mind, but they were friends. She had no secret that she wanted to keep from them, anyway. These were her comrades and in a real sense, the only family she had. Finishing her reminiscences, she crossed to one of Spider Queen's spidersilk ropes and swept down to join the fray.
POSTSCRIPT:
As a Satanist, Lady Satan was vulnerable when President J.Edgar Hoover turned on the minority faith during his authoritarian presidency in the sixties. The "international satanist conspiracy" paranoia of that decade saw Hoover accuse Satanists of undermining the moral fabric, literacy, armed forces and national security of the United States. Many were shot and killed by the quasi-legal "US National Police" of that era, especially in the Southern United States. Lady Satan disappeared from sight during this period. To this day, it is unknown whether she is dead or alive or whether in the case of death, her contract with the devil was honoured.
THE END
