The Sargasso Sea-Somewhere Northeast of Bermuda

A ship carried through the middle of a storm, disguised as a sailing ship. The Nazi flag was blowing in the breeze. The men were dressed as fishermen and hauling in nets. They were speaking in German.

"This mission...It's worse than I thought it would be, Hans."

"Just do as you're told, Tanner…"

"You'll soon learn to see this as nothing more than fishing."

Within the water floated the corpses of fish among the bodies of three dead Atlanteans.

"If it helps soothe your stomach, I overheard the science officer yesterday...this is an important job. We're doing…"

A net carrying the two corpses was lifted up.

"The study of these creatures is important to the work back in the fatherland…"

Mirella, Stacian and Rodis were their names, he would tell them after their murder.

But it would be many years before Prince Namor would allow himself to speak of those days.

The Sub-Mariner burst out of the water with a scream of rage and a massive wave.

The men on the ship screamed.

"Nein! Nein!"

"Mein Gott, Nein!"

The wave crashed against the ship, engulfing it.

The days Namor's mother prophesied had finally come to pass.

When the curiosity he'd always viewed his father's people with…

Was replaced by the Fury of the prince of a realm under attack.
Namor landed on the ship and walked towards an opening to the ship's hold. Inside were countless shriveled up bodies of Atlanteans.

The Lord of Dwindling people.

"So many…"

There were women and children among them.

"So many of mine…"

Namor turned to the men who ran the ship.

"You will pay...All of you!"

As hoped, word of the Human Torch's existence reached Germany.

"You've seen this already I hope?"

The scientist was holding up a Daily Bugle paper reading "FIRE-MAN IS ALIVE!"

"Yes and there are newsreels too."

"So what do you think Erskine?"

"I suppose the S.S. are going to be exerting more pressure on us if this is real."

"I suppose".

They two walked into a room. There were organs in jars, human skeletons suspended by wires in. On slabs were inhuman blue skeletons twisted beyond recognition.

"Rascher says there was some problem with the ship, so we shouldn't expect anymore of the sea creatures soon. We'll have to make do with the samples we already have."

"Rascher is a pig. He wants to freeze living subjects."

"Well you're supposed to be the genius Erskine...it's time for a breakthrough."

Erskine has a lot on his plate. His love, and coworker, the Italian Doctor Maria Vaselli, had already defected to the United States back in 1936, after a young boy the procedure was tested on tore off his own face. She had left Erskine at the mercy of the Reich, but he had no ill will towards her for it. He was told to fix the formula, no such luck, it still caused the infected to tear apart their own face, but in both cases the subject could recover somewhat from the ordeal.

Erskine's companion picked up a jar full of green liquid and a brain.

"I don't want Herr Himmler paying us another visit."

Erskine had to admit.

"No...No...We don't want that?"

London, England

The City was largely in ruins, German bombardment had not been kind, but the British had kept to their promise of never surrendering. Two codebreakers were hard at work. The wires filled with chatter that week. Most unable to be decoded by the agents who intercepted it. But everyone knew what they were talking about.

"X means B, then... this... means... this"

And there was one signal that came through loud and clear.

"This...No, if this is he real thing...by god…"

"What is it, Pervis?"

"I need to get back to Home Office".

He took off running to the doorway.

"They and our American friend will want to see this straight away."

Two men stood outside a pub in England.

"That's them? Those two?"

"It is."

"They look like a couple of yahoos."

"Well, they are Americans, Lieutenant."

Inside a red haired man was sitting at the bar, ogling the female bartender. His friend grabbed his arm and pulled him away.

"Oh, no you don't Red. I saw her first."

The man put his arm around the red haired man's neck.

"We're not in P.S. 109 anymore, Nick...you can't call dibs on a dame."

"I'm telling you...don't even think about it, mister."

The two men outside kept watching.

"I don't know..let's keep looking."

"I assure you they're quite good..They've been helping to train our paratroopers for months."

"Right! Enough of this nonsense."

The two walked in and both men stopped in place.

"Oh Colonel Ellis." Fury said.

"Listen up boys, I've been asked to make an introduction...and I'll thank you not to make me look like a fool for doing so. Nick Fury and Red Hargrove. Meet another of your countrymen..Lieutenant Sawyer. He's here to offer you a job."

Sawyer spoke up.

"Assuming you can stop drinking and fighting long enough to follow orders, but the Colonel here says you can."

The tow found a secluded table at the end of the pub to discuss matters.

"Look, no offense Lieutenant...but what the hell is Uncle Sam doin' over in England?" Nick asked.

"Nothing much...just trying to save the free world...and I need a few good men to help me make that happen. Men who know how to parachute, men who know how to handle themselves. Men loyal to the U.S. of A. Sound like anyone you know?"

Red spoke up.

"That sounds like us Sir..but we're not in the service."

"That's why I need you."

"We need plausible deniability if this goes belly up."

Nick asked the main question on both their minds.

"So what exactly is this job?"

"Seems there's a Nazi Scientist who wants to defect to America."