"Was that the beginning of the United Heroez?" asked Marc, making a few notes on his computer.

Knightowl paused for a long moment before shaking his head. "Not exactly," he answered, turning to face the camera. "There had been efforts to unite all of the American superheroes as far back as I can remember; during the Spanish-American War, then-Colonel, later-President Roosevelt's Rough Riders included a couple of self-styled Wild West heroes: Twin-Gun Kelly, the Gunsmoke Kid. After that War, the Kid asked me and Sparrow to team up a couple times, though never for more than a token problem. World War I had its share of heroes as well, and a Superhero Cooperative was started when they returned home. Still, it wasn't until after World War II that all the heroes started working together more formally, which is when the structure for the United Heroez was finally put in place. All thanks to those heroes who fought and died on the beaches of Normandy."

Omaha Beach, Normandy, June 6, 1944

"Why did we have to do this?"

Ducking low to avoid the machine gun fire directed over their heads toward the soldiers slowly working their way out of the surf, Knightowl glanced at Sparrow with a frown. "You mean taking out this machine gun nest?" he called, slamming his back into the small sand berm halfway up the beach and drawing a deep breath, shaking his head to refocus himself on the mission. A perilous landing, a sprint across open sand, charging into the face of gunfire and artillery... and they were still barely half way to the objective. But– "You know we're the best options for it."

"I mean the whole landing," Sparrow retorted, poking his head over the top for a fraction of a second, only to duck back below after a quick glance at the three pillboxes covering their stretch of the beach. A quick burst of fire struck the sand behind their berm, spraying sand over their cowls. "You know we would have been better coming in with the Airborne forces last night."

Knightowl pursed his lips, his jaw clenched. "Yes," he allowed. "That might have been a better use of our skills. But we aren't in charge here. General Montgomery wanted us to rally the troops on the beach, inspire them forward like those Brits have."

Sparrow quirked an eyebrow, jerking his head back toward the Channel. "Isn't that Johnny's department?"

"Come on, you Kraut bastards!" roared GI John, pounding up the beach and sending sprays of sand out to the sides with each footstep, holding his star-shaped shield up to block most of his head with the top point as machine gun fire ricocheted off of it in all directions. Resting his pistol on one of the side points and aiming wildly, he fired a trio of quick shots up at one of the machine gun nests, silencing it for a couple of seconds as the gunners dropped behind cover. Behind GI John, Boricua dropped to one knee, took careful aim, fired at a spot just to the left of the machine gun nest, reloaded, and fired again. After a momentary pause, he sprinted forward, staying behind GI John as much as he could. With another couple pistol shots, GI John hit the magazine release and smoothly reloaded from a magazine on his shield. "Come out here and fight me – if you're man enough for it!" he shouted, pounding his pistol on the front of his shield. He whooped, scanning the German line above them. "I could do this all day!"

Knightowl hummed, leaning out around the sand dune and taking a quick look up at the small bluff on which the German defenses had been placed. Machine gun fire poured down toward them, most focused on GI John and the swarm of soldiers flanking him on either side. "Our star-spangled friend is a little brash for my taste," Knightowl admitted, pulling back and raising an eyebrow at Sparrow. He smirked. "But he does have his uses. Now!"

Sparrow sprinted around the dune on one side as Knightowl did the same on the other side. The machine guns, still raking across GI John, Boricua, and the Army Rangers with them, were slow to adjust fire to account for Knightowl's sudden appearance, and he covered half the distance to the bluffs before the first rounds tore through his cape and sent a spray of sand and gravel up the backs of his legs. Lunging forward, Knightowl rolled into the shelter of the bluff below the closest machine gun nests as gunfire kicked up sand only a couple feet behind him. Panting, Sparrow dove into the shelter beside him and came up into a crouch, one of his batons already out.

Knightowl pressed a hand to the stitch in his side, scanning the beach behind them. GI John and the main body had reached the shelter of the sand dunes, where they had dropped out of sight; a pair of man-portable machine guns poked out from behind the dune and began trading rounds with the German pillboxes above. A single mortar round whistled through the air over Knightowl's head to land atop the berm. He let out a breath. "Call him in!" he instructed Sparrow, pulling out a signal mirror as Sparrow did the same. While Sparrow adjusted his mirror to catch the sunlight and reflect it back out to sea, Knightowl held his out in front of him, carefully scanning the Germans on the ridge above them.

An answering flash of light hit them from somewhere close to the horizon, and Sparrow sighed in relief. "Not too long now…"

Knightowl nodded, his brows furrowed in concentration, and glanced back toward the east, behind GI John's contingent. Was it his imagination, or had the water been disturbed, just near the edge of the beach? Still the Germans continued to gun down the Rangers still straggling up the beach toward GI John. The two machine guns that had survived the landing returned fire, silencing the Germans momentarily, before a mortar round struck the sand dune. Almost immediately, GI John surged out from behind it, shield raised, and waved the Rangers forward. Behind him, Boricua fired up toward the hill and reloaded before shouldering his rifle and throwing a wounded soldier's arm over his shoulder, half-dragging the man up the beach in GI John's wake. A bullet just barely missed the edge of GI John's shield and struck him in the arm, and he winced, letting out an enraged growl and pounding on his shield. The soldier to GI John's left was struck through the head with a bullet and fell to the ground, his head a complete mess. Knightowl's mouth set in a thin line, and he glanced back down at his mirror, watching the German pillboxes alternate firing and holding as muzzle flashes dotted the trench line along the bluff. "If he doesn't get here soon…"

A whir of engines rushed past overhead, and a single fighter plane flew above them, just above the range of anti-aircraft fire. As the fighter passed, a small dot separated from the plane, traveling parallel to it for a moment and lagging behind it before veering sharply and dropping lower. The dot enlarged rapidly as it dove toward them, leveling off about fifty feet above the ground and rocketing past at a blistering speed. Three explosions rocked the bluff above Knightowl and Sparrow in quick succession, and Red Tail wheeled higher and circled around for a second pass.

Sparrow grinned. "That never gets old."

A pair of anti-aircraft guns roared to life just behind the ridge, star shells bursting around Red Tail as he veered away behind the German fortifications and rocketed up higher into the air to evade them. Knightowl's eyes narrowed. "We have to take those guns out. Cover me."

Sparrow nodded firmly and sprinted down the bluff, angling toward a spot directly in front of one of the machine gun emplacements. Fire from two machine guns turned toward him, and Knightowl immediately jammed one of his spikes into the hillock, climbing quickly hand over hand up to the top of the bluff, pressing himself as close against the side as he could to avoid notice from above for as long as possible. The gunfire around him increased in volume and intensity, but he couldn't slow down now. Behind Knightowl, GI John put on a sudden burst of speed before hurling his shield at the machine gun nest in front of Sparrow, sending one of the pointed corners into the gunner's chest and silencing the gun. Sparrow nodded, giving GI John a thumb's up… just before a machine gun bullet from the other pillbox tore through his hand. Sparrow fell backward with a gasp, his eyes widening, and threw his cape over himself.

"Sparrow!" Knightowl paused, lying prone at the top of the hillock, torn between helping his teenaged ward and continuing onward to take out the machine guns. Burt needed him! But if he went to help him, he would be exposing himself to fire, too – and he might not even reach him in time. His stomach clenched. The mission had to come first… But–

Suddenly, the machine gun to Knightowl's right fell silent as Triton emerged out of it, breaking the gun barrel over his knee and dragging a pair of Germans behind him in his net.

"We need to finish the mission!" Triton shouted to him, releasing the two groggy Germans and whipping his net around into a swirling shield as a squad of soldiers emerged from the trench system between them and the anti-aircraft battery and opened fire. Bullets scattered in all directions against the swirling shield. A small explosion erupted behind the Germans as Red Tail swung around and swooped down even lower, below the anti-aircraft guns' firing arc. Triton strode forward, stopped in front of the Germans, and hurled his net over the first three, spinning over them and pulling them off the ground to swing into the group behind them. "You get that pillbox," he called back to Knightowl. "I'll handle these guys."

Gritting his teeth, Knightowl sprinted across the hillock, his cape swirling behind him. Below on the beach, Boricua sprinted toward Sparrow's position, bent low to the ground. A couple of soldiers looked up at Knightowl as he passed, and without slowing down Knightowl dropped a smoke grenade into their trench. Drawing and throwing an Owlet in a single motion, he sent the projectile looping around and into the pillbox in front of him, narrowly missing GI John's shield. A cry of pain came from within, and the pillbox's rear door opened. Two soldiers stumbled out, and Knightowl jumped over the seawall in front of them, dropping into a crouch with his fists raised. One soldier drew a pistol and fired a quick shot at his head, and Knightowl ducked below his aim, spinning around and knocking the man to the ground, disarming him with two moves and sending his pistol into the side of his companion's head. Behind him, the anti-aircraft guns fell silent as Triton ripped one out of its moorings and slammed it into the other with a rending crash. Glancing out to sea, Knightowl could just see the leading elements of the next wave scrambling out of their landing crafts for the long and treacherous march toward the beach. But behind him, Knightowl could already hear the German garrison scrambling in his direction.

"All good here?" shouted Red Tail from above Knightowl, spraying the trench system to Knightowl's side with his sub-gun as he flew over it. A dozen German soldiers dove for cover, shielding their heads, before springing up and firing wildly back at Red Tail, who rocketed away, rising high into the air to get away from them.

Sighing heavily, Knightowl gave Red Tail a thumb's up. "We're good for now!" he called, as GI John climbed up the seawall to join him, wrenching his shield out of the pillbox as he went. "But I'm afraid the fight isn't over yet."