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Legal disclaimer: I tend to liberally "borrow" character profiles and art from the Earth-27 wikia created by Roy Westerman with principle art coming from digital artist Phil Cho. Other creators and artists are found there as well and I will specifically list any creations with creator citations as I utilize them. In short, this is the single most comprehensive retelling of all things DC and beyond I have encountered. It's worth your time to explore.
Cover art provided by Martina Havlikova.
Free, commercial use art by her can be found at the following URL: martinahavlikova84 | Pixabay
She is also available for private commissions. Her art can previously be seen as covers of Renfri for Evil Queen, Hellequin for Hellequin and the Paragons, Oracle for Oracle and Oracle Sees All, Enchantress for Enchantress in Peril,Ace of Blades for Blades Free, Killer Frost for Killer Frost: Blades in the Heart, Red Hood/Li Harper for Red Hood, Dorothy Gale for Wickedest Witch, Goldilocks forInjustice Reigns, Hellequin again for Marian Drews, Renfri again for Evil Delights, Dorothy Gale in Something Wicked,Patti O'Brien in Plastic Woman, Claire Connelly in Repo Men, Disco Mummyin the Disco Mummy Strikes, Oracle for Oracle Undercover, Wendy Harris for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt1: Wendy Harris, Jayna for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt2: Jayna Penny Lark for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt3: Penny, Clock Queen for Injustice for all, Dazaar for Dazaar the Arch Fiend,Priscilla Rich for Super Friends-Super Powers Continued Pt4: Cheetahand now with Nazi era Ace of Blades for Frosted Blades with more yet to come.
That having been said, the properties, and their variations belong to DC Comics through Warner Entertainment and its parent, AT&T, with notable exceptions. More on that in the footnote. I do not own DC characters or their interpretations and reimaginings. My own characters are implied Public Domain since I have not included a copyright notice as required by the 1974 revisions of the copyright statutes and regulations. While an intellectual copyright is implied without the due symbols and language, all such considerations are generally voided under CC-BY-SA, which governs this site, unless duly noted otherwise.
Open Source attributionsare listed after the story concluded to satisfy legalese requirements. And all "super" characters other than Open Source have been seen in comic books before barring any original characters coming from the Earth-27 Wiki or myself. You can look into Public Domain Superheroes Wiki and the DC Database Wiki's own vaults to verify this.
Although this is primarily set in the DCAU, I incorporate attributes of dozens of interpretations of each character, comic telling era, and medium into the telling.
The Masked Leader had invited Deathstroke to his private villa in Columbia. A holding that Baron Blitzkrieg had purchased on his behalf. The Masked Leader had properties throughout Central and South America. Thanks to the Baron's successful recruiting of Nazi-sympathizing financiers, the Fourth Reich had untold millions at their command. Baron Blitzkrieg himself being a billionaire thanks to his plantations across the Americas, North and South. His industrialized holdings were nearly as vast. The cornerstone of all this wealth was his investments in companies that were once high risk pioneers and became blue chip monoliths
Baron Blitzkrieg also parlayed the Masked Leader's gold into a stock portfolio that would've been an envy if anyone ever took the time to sift through all the shell companies to arrive at the fact beneath all, Adolf Hitler was not only alive but a nigh-immortal majestic-class meta-human. But even the Masked Leader or Baron Blitzkrieg recalled where every iota of stolen art and gold resided. One man had once held that information but he died in the fire bombing fo Dresden by the Allied forices. Degaton had left a time machine in the Fuhrer's clutches after Vandal Savage had altered time and cryogenically frozen Hitler in order to assume control of the Third Reich and its forces.
Baron Blitzkrieg had disassembled the machine and reassembled it. Discovering along the way that time could be nudged but after Rebirth it always flexed but retained its thrust. So the Fourth Reich could send as many agents into the past but time itself would recoil and the Nazis would still lose the war in 1945. The other discovery was that only certain classes of meta-humans could survive the wrenching trip to and from the past after the system was rebuilt. Baron Blitzkrieg could and Deathstroke's regenerative powers were great enough that he too could survive the insertion and extraction from the past. So their mission, should Slade Wilson concede to it, was to recover the ledger the accountant had possessed before the flames consumed both he and it. But the Fourth Reich members and their ultimate leader didn't know they had a trio of moles in their midst.
Lady Satan and her confederates, Olga and Deleste Karloff played at being the penultimate white supremacists yet each one owed the Nazis debts of blood dating back before Hitler cryo-froze his greatest human assets excluding Baron Blitzkrieg. Killer Frost and Ace of Blades had quit the Justice League and Task Force Z in quick succession. They'd set up a security specialist business under the name "Heroines for Hire".
They'd barely hoisted their shingle when ordinary citizens began flooding their offices with requests. Some had problems with entities such as Intergang or the Syndicate Underground. But most needed protection from common, every day foes. Battered wives and children headed up the request tally. Neighborhoods wanting to scare off gangs and other hoodlums were also frequent callers. As such, Louise Lincoln and Katharina Steiner had developed a sliding fee scale.
Their arrangement with Homeland Security Sec. Bones didn't allow them to cross swords with the government or law enforcement. But since Ace of Blades had been Hitler's guinea pig to test serums on, she'd literally given her life up to twice a day before the Soviet strolled into Berlin and supposedly identified Hitler's corpse. The reality was, all of the enhancement serums gave him majestic-class strengths and regenerative capacity as well as a dose from a working immortality serum that slowed the aging process to a near halt.
Ace of Blades had lived out every day since her escape from her former masters and hardly looked a day older than she had sixty-five years ago. She was one of the few, besides her confession to Killer Frost, that knew with absolute certainty that Hitler still walked the Earth and was nigh-on unkillable. The only other former Nazi injected with same combination of the injectable cocktail of the Supersoldatenserum, Regenerationsserum, Unsterblichkeitsserum, and stabilizing the Imperial Japanese equivalent to all of the above Mirakuru. Ace of Blades had received the same super soldier serum that had yielded Captain Nazi. Yet she was sentenced to Dachau for defying Hitler's orders and despite her not yet receiving the regeneration and immortality serums, the gas chamber/"showers" couldn't kill her despite repeated exposures.
So she was brought to Hitler's Berlin bunker and given trial versions of everything. Ace of Blades had died countless times and been revived by test versions of various serums. Finally they'd settled on working versions of all four serums and injected her full of them. The immediate result was she overpowered her captors and escaped into what became the Soviet zone of East Germany.
Hitler was pumped full of the successful variants of the serums and he fled Germany under his own power after sacrificing Eva Braun and a faithful Nazi steward that roughly resembled Hitler. Those were the burnt bodies the Russians found at the bunker. Hitler escaped with the female gynoid, Maschinenmensch, who served his every whim and corrupt desire.
Having defected in the Sixties after the "Prague Spring", Ace of Blades traveled the world until she was spotted and recognized by Baron Blitzkrieg. His own mental powers sustaining his aging body. It was through Baron Blitzkrieg that she learned of Hitler's survival and transformation into the Masked Leader and his unwitting pawns within the Fourth Reich.
but she escaped the Fourth Reich's grasp and eventually reached to Killer Frost Because of a shared moment. Killer Frost was horrendously co-dependent as Ace of Blades herself had become over the decades. They'd partnered up domestically if not quite professionally yet. Killer Frost was a serving member of the JLU at the time while Ace of Blades served within Homeland Security's Task Force Z. Ace of Blades had a reprieve and worked alongside the Justice League Unlimited for a duration.
Killer Frost and Ace of Blades resigned amongst severe scrutiny by the press. Sec. Bones offered them places within Task Force Z or any one of his other meta-teams. Dir. Jack Latham of the MLJ Initiative also offer them slots in his own deputized teams. But the couple wanted autonomy and worked the deal whereby they would be independent operators and the restrictions they would abide by.
So when Lady Satan and her comrades went to Bones to report their discovery of the impending time travel, Bones couldn't spare the official manpower. But he was willing to hire Ace of Blades and Killer Frost. Ace of Blades having been an active Pilotenkommando der Luftwaffe. Before her transformation, Ace of Blades had flown an experimental Messerschmidt with a curved blade extending from its forward air intake and Ace of Blades provoked terror in the Allies in the skies or on the ground.
But at the moment Dresden was carpet bombed, Ace of Blades had been in the Middle East supposedly securing the Holy Grail before Dr. Cairo Jones could beat her to it. Then there was the fact the Grail was guarded by Sir Ystin and Maid Maleen. All four women coming together and the Allied and Axis agents selecting false Grails to present to their political masters. While Ystin and Maleen secured the actual Holy Grail in a different place, Ace of Blades and Cairo Jones each presented their "finds". when it became obvious neither was the true Grail, Ace of Blades ended up in a death camp and Dr. Jones was released from US service.
Cairo Jones had a great-granddaughter that bore her name and had excelled in the field of archeology like her namesake. Ace of Blades had encountered the second Dr. Cairo Jones during her world travels and happily embarrassed the elder Jones with tales from their shared adventure. Ace of Blades broke from the Fourth Reich after the New Reichsmen and the Fourth Reich terrorized New York City. And iit took all of two seconds to sully the Shining Knight by seducing him. But afterwards, Merlin banished Sir Justin and appointed Ystin as the new Shining Knight.
That chance meeting with Killer Frost afterwards revolved around Ace of Blades mind for months to come until she felt it safe enough to contact Killer Frost and ask her out on a date. They'd been a couple ever since. So when Lady Satan arrived on their doorstep with the Karloff twins, and they had the full weight of Homeland's authority and financial resources, Ace of Blades and Killer Frost took the time to listen. Killer Frost was still on the fence about working for Bones again but Ace of Blades knew exactly who and what was being discussed. The Accountant had run every Nazi "special" agent's finances. So she readily agreed to the terms and Killer Frost, refusing to let her girlfriend face danger alone, also volunteered. But Ace of Blades had to bleach her naturally red hair back to blonde as she worn it back in the day. She fashioned her hairstyle as closely as possible as well as donned her old uniform with its prerequisite sword.
"Wow! I'm having effin' flashbacks. Talk about deja vu," Killer Frost confessed.
"And this time portal?" Ace of Blades barely seemed to register her own transformation.
"The MLJ captured one of Degaton's time travel devices whereas the Fourth Reich is employing a prototype built during the Second World War," Lady Satan informed them.
Celeste Karloff handed them a pair of orders, "These letters will gain you access into the Liberty Station."
Olga Karloff handed them visitor's badges, "You've already been cleared and selected by Sec. Bones. Dir. Latham is expecting you via the teleporter network that the Justice League has agreed to let you employ their devices to herald you to Destruction Island."
Both the Heroines for Hire knew that would be a tremendous time saver. They were in Queens while Destruction Island sat in the Puget Sound near Seattle. Lady Satan and the fraternal Karloff twins returned to the Fourth Reich fold while the couple received an exceptionally warm greeting at the Hall of Justice in Brooklyn. It seemed neither former Col. Steve Trevor nor Operations Chief Sue Dibney bore either woman a grudge. They happily caught up to speed on the couple's firm and Bones had already briefed them on Latham's willingness to facilitate the time jump, since by insuring events remained the same, the Masked Leader wouldn't be able to double or even triple his assets.
The conventional thinking went, if Ace of Blades and Killer Frost acquired the ledger/s they could repatriate the stolen properties back to their original families' possession. Both international and Stateside authorities were ramping up efforts to return assets back to their places of origin for the first time in the last twenty years. It had seemed that the goods had vanished forever but now the possibility of getting the Nazi ledger seemed to good to be true. So it was with heavy hearts that Killer Frost and Ace of Blades were teleported to Liberty Station.
Latham met the couple at the teleporter with the Shield and FBI Special Agent Carol Anne Strander in attendance.
"Our tech gurus have poured all over this time machine we captured from Chronos and Lady Chronos," Latham explained.
"And since KitCat is Jewish she has a personal stake in this venture," Strander informed them.
"We have a team of volunteers willing to back with you if you want them," the Shield explained his involvement.
"That won't be necessary," Ace of Blades promised, "To the Accountant I'm already there, He will deal with me in context of my mission to capture the Holy Grail before Dr. Jones can obtain it for the Allies."
"How will that wiork?" the Shield was curious.
"I will present myself in the capacity of needing extra capital to fund my expedition," Ace of Blades shrugged.
"There you are!" KitCat enthused as everyone arrived at the bay containing Degaton's device, "The machine registered a blip three days before the fire bombing. I have to assume that was the arrival date for whomever the Masked Leader sent into the past."
"Our infiltrators believe that Baron Blitzkrieg will be leading tbe mission since he, like you, are already there in the past and will be welcomed by the Accountant," Latham explained.
"I can't send you to their exact coordinates and temporal displacement but I can send you to the other side of the city within an hour of their arrival," KitCat informed the time travelers, "The temporal disruption from the Near Apocalypse of 2009, just six months ago, has made time travel difficult at the best of times. And the Accountant will die by the time the bombs drop. The past is pretty inflexible these days but you can work within the framework of when you're sent to."
"Understood," Killer Frost agreed.
"If the Baron is leading the opposition, he will recognize me as a fellow traveler rather than my contemporary self," Ace of Blades warned her lover, "And neither Lady Satan nor the Karloff sisters knew who would accompanying Baron Blitzkrieg. But they did know he was a hireling. Some mercenary of renown hired to deal with any pursuers."
"Got it one," Killer Frost promised as she held Ace of Blades' hands to her breasts, "You can't scare me off."
"Then we're a go," Ace of Blades vouched for them as she led Killer Frost into the machine.
"`Kay, but remember the temporal flux surrounding the end of last year could make this...painful," KitCat warned them.
"How painful?" Killer Frost winced.
"Think omigod! Omigod! Omigod! I want to die now!" KitCat advised.
"You're a comfort," Killer Frost mumbled. Ace of Blades glanced at Killer Frost again. She was met with the warmest smile Killer Friost was capable of making and Ace of Blades was the only person that was ever gifted with that look of love.
"And we're ready," Ace of Blades promised.
"Temporal coordinates are already locked and loaded. Get ready!" KitCat activated the mechanism. Both Ace of Blades and Killer Frost screamed as they were ripped apart by the temporal travel device and their constituent atoms hurled back through time to be reassembled into people sixty-five years in the past. But at least they'd stopped screaming.
Dresden's inhabitants ran from the pyrotechnic display that had revealed two women in its midst. Some knew that precisely the same thing had happened on the other side of the city. Killer Frost wretched until all she did was dry heave.
She'd grown her hair out for the last year so she struggled with it until Ace of Blades, whose super human resilience gave her a kinder time of it, held her lover's hair back and rubbed Killer Frost's back as she struggled.
"We good?" Ace of Blades had reverted to her native German. Fortunately, while Katharina was practicing her acquired English in their own time, Killer Frost had been studying German. Louise Lincoln still had an accent that a native born German would associate with Americans but American Bund leaders and saboteurs in the United States frequently employed the use of neutral countries to smuggle themselves into Germany for training.
Baron Blitzkrieg had spent half the war in the Americas organizing home grown Nazi sympathizers. So the timeline wouldn't significantly altered because he was half a world away as his younger self. Just as Ace of Blades wouldn't alter her own history because she was on the verge of defying Hitler and her subsequent imprisonments hadn't begun yet.
"We need to move," Ace of Blades warned her life partner, "Word is spreading and I don't want to give away what element of surprise we have left"
`"I'm...good," Killer Frost groaned.
"If we're at the right time and place it is only days until I get arrested on the Fuhrer's orders and the next day, the Allies will obliterate this city," Ace of Blades warned.
"Makes y'wonder who Blitzkrieg brought along," Killer Frost admitted.
"I'm hoping we'll never have to find out," Ace of Blades admitted.
"Why the hell did they fire bomb Dresden anyway?" Killer Frost was fuzzy on the details.
"Most war goods manufacturers transferred their weapons making presses and assembly lines into cave networks or built bunkers around such," Ace of Blades shared, "When Russia created East Germany I moved here just because the records were lost and I could blend in for twenty years before the Stasi began fielding reports on me and my lack of aging. The secret police weren't looking for me in particular before then but rumor had it they were standing atop of the cryo-freezers so many meta agents had been stored in until the day of the great reconciling Hitler had promised when he began his scorched earth policies. Fortunately for my people, the Allies didn't share the information with Stalin when he died, the search for them largely died as well."
"Where they standing on it?" Killer Frost asked.
"No, and Marshal Tito never realized his Yugoslavia hid the Nazis' hopes and prayers for revenge," Ace of Blades revealed, "Now we have to hurry!"
Baron Blitzkrieg puked through his helmet's face plate. Deathstroke hardly seemed fazed by the time machine's adverse effects.
"Get a grip. We need to find your target before word spreads to him. And this is a war torn section of country so they will spread rumors of our arrival faster than cockroaches can scurry out of the light," he warned Baron Blitzkrieg in German.
"It is this way," Baron Blitzkrieg had recovered after the initial physical shock, "You never told the Masked Leader that you speak our holy tongue"
"German is a common commerce language. So I learned it. Don't presume to think I'm one of yoru acolytes," Deathstroke warned him, "Or that I hold your Fuhrer uses as a great, white hope."
"You deduced his identity?" Baron Blitzkrieg was unnerved by that.
"I was born just after the war ended," Deathstroke reminded him, "Your Master was still a centerpiece villain in every history and social studies class eclipsed only Stalin and the Red Menace."
"Then it is good that we are so close already," Baron Blitzkrieg advised him.
"Despite your leader's insistence, someone will oppose us. And probably from our own era," Deathstroke warned him.
"You worry too much," Baron Blitzkrieg chuckled.
"Then why else am I here?" Deathstroke retorted.
Baron Blitzkrieg hated to have to admit Slade Wilson wasn't wrong. One too many of the Fourth Reich's missions had compromised since the Evil Queen gutted the ranks. Just as it would be her brand of humor to spare traitors and their conspirators.
"We go this way," Baron Blitzkrieg motioned.
Deathstroke drew his sidearm and openly carried it, "Just in case someone decides to be brave."
"Why are we headed to market?" Killer Frost had to wonder.
"The Accountant really is an accountant. He has commercial contracts as well Hitler's ledger," Ace of Blades explained.
"No shit," Killer Frost no longer acknowledged the subtleties of irony. The Fire Brigade came rolling by.
"Oh shit," Ace of Blades went airborne, "They have the ledger."
"The Accountant?" Killer Frost asked as she broke into a run.
"Probably dead already. The fire is in his shop," Ace of Blades reported what she saw.
"Go!" Killer Frost shouted, "I'll catch up!"
As Ace Blades surged forward, Killer Frost stopped long enough to freeze the fire before it spread. Cheers and applause followed as she took running again.
"So that's how a good guy feels," she murmured to herself, "Funny thing that."
Ace of Blades landed on one knee, crushing a crater around her as the earth shook from the violence of her landing.
"This just got interesting," Deathstroke holstered his pistol.
"What are you doing?" Baron Blitzkrieg demanded to know.
"Making it even," Slade drew his sword. Ace of Blades obliged him. Soon he'd realize how she earned her code-name, in and out of the cockpit.
"We have to make the rendezvous," Baron Blitzkrieg warned Deathstroke.
"We're not going anywhere until you light the beacon after I earn my pay," Deathstroke ignored him.
"You can't kill her!" Baron Blitzkrieg warned him, "She survives past this moment."
"Tell me where she's supposed to be. Because I doubt it's here," Deathstroke chuckled.
"She was sent to the Middle East to...find the Holy Grail," Baron Blitzkrieg finally understand, "Your reversion to form befits you."
"I'll thank you right before I snap your neck," Ace of Blades slowly began circling Slade.
"Everybody! Don't! Effin'! Move!" Killer Frost announced as she arrived.
"That's all the proof that was required," Deathstroke threw three bladed shuriken at Killer Frost. An ice wall formed to blcok them. She formed ice daggers in the air and dropped them at Baron Blitzkrieg. He smashed his way thriugh them despite keeping an iron clad grip on the ledger.
"You handle Deathstroke!" Killer Frost shouted, "This Nazi bastard is all mine."
"Be careful, m'love," Ace of Blades cautioned.
"What do I have to do to escape every woman being dyke nowadays?" Deathstroke asked dispassionately.
"You could fall on yur sword," Ace of Blades countered.
"I won't but you will," Deathstroke reverse challenged her, "I've tried to embrace Rose's lifestyle, her so-called sexual orientation. When the truth is that the girl is so horny she'd bed anything, Now she is in an effin' civil union with a woman! My oldest son is dead. My youngest son has the power to control the world and hides amongst the Young Justice weaklings. Rose...my sweet baby Rose, was supposed to give me grandchildren. And as long as she 's with that other woman, she won't sire a single whelp. So I'm taking out my frustrations on you. Consider it a compliment."
"Quite the sob story," Ace of Blades readjusted her weight as she came into a defensive shield position, establishing her inner and outer defense rings.
Deathstroke actually seemed to approve, "Maybe this will be a fight after all."
Killer Frost formed ice daggers all around Baron Blitzkrieg. He'd tried to fly over them but was almost frozen as well as he lashed out at him.
"Why are you fighting against me?" Baron Blitzkrieg asked, "I've done you no wrong."
"Maybe it's what I do. Maybe killing you is the rite of passage I've needed to wash my hands of all the death I've inflicted," Killer Frost mused.
Baron Blitzkrieg wasn't appreciative of her good humor, "I've seen your escapades and your trial footage. You have no remorse Killer Frost. Even when you stood beside the Justice League you displayed no remorse for your victimizing people. I'll just be a tally mark on your inner ledger"
"Or...you could give me that certain ledger and we call it good," Killer Frost offered.
"You'll have to kill me," Baron Blitzkrieg retorted.
"I thought that was the general idea," Killer Frost smirked at him.
Deathstroke had seriously underestimated his foe. Ace of Blades was well named. She'd trained with the sword since she was child and unenhanced. All those serums running her veins not only made her nigh invincible but her reflexes and speed easily matched his and she was far stronger than he was. Shallow wounds healed almost instantly. Deeper, threatening punctures and cuts vanished in minutes rather than months. Given how hard it was to even puncture her skin, he thought he'd have to sever her head or at least some limbs but her bones were so dense they stopped his stroke in mid-cut.
And to think that lunatic, Hitler, had all of these powers as well. Only he was so prideful he didn't want to get himself dirty doing the deeds he farmed out. Those like Baron Blitzkrieg scraped themselves before him just prior to doing the man's evil work for him. But Ace of Blades had become a point of pride and how he'd lose face if she didn't die.
"It's only right that you resume your Nazi appearance so that you can die heralded in your moment of defeat later this month," Deathstroke waged Psy Ops against his opponent to unravel her emtions.
"That is the past," Ace of Blades said as they retreated slightly to reassess one another.
"Really, because you were a fugitive for forty years and from what I was told, you're a fugitive once more in our present," Deathstroke remarked, "But if you were to return with us, I can negotiate with the so-called Masked Leader and get Hitler off of your back."
"So you know who he is and what he is yet you still work for him?" Ace of Blades thought less of Deathstroke than she already had.
"He's just another client," Deathstroke shrugged, "And you're the one who swore an oath of allegiance to him."
"Those days are gone," Ace of Blades vowed, "I am no man's slave ever again."
"Yeah, yeah, I hear that from my daughter all the time. What is it with you feminist lezzies?" Deathstroke caustically remarked, "You just want to rid the world of the male population or something?"
"That is Fury's thinking," Ace of Blades retorted, "I have no problem with men so long as they actually are men. Men who are kind, charitable and treat their women as precious enough to care for them as closely and fervently as they care for themselves"
"I tried that and it cost me an eye," Deathstroke declared.
"No, your lies to your wife cost you an eye," Ace of Blades forced him to recall the truth, "And enemies you made while pretending you were out of the military and the mercenary life cost you your son's voice. We won't even get into how your infidelity gave you a daughter that you couldn't acknowledge for years because of the other lies in your marriage."
"I know my own past!" Deathstroke raged.
"But only from your sense of not having harmed everyone," Ace of Blades accused, "You lament your fate but not that of your wife or children."
"Leave them out of this," Deathstroke grated.
"But you're the one that led them all into it," Ace of Blades wouldn't back down, "Because even when you had the chance to stand down and resume a relatively peaceful life you chose to become a mercenary. A necessarily amoral mercenary."
"I was going to kill you painlessly. Know you've earned the pain," Deathstroke warned her, "I won't be holding back anymore."
"Good. Neither will I," Ace of Blades promised.
Killer Frost recalled the JLU and Task Force Z briefings on Baron Blitzkrieg. they'd totally been wrong. He'd been exposed to some of the chemical agents that Ace of Blades had been a test subject of so they could perfect the mixtures and ratios in order to dose Hitler so he could escape the Allied onslaught pushing into Berlin. He still had his same old mental ability to push his body into extremes but now, instead of just using a power at a time, he displayed two gen factors at once.
He rarely needed to boost his bodies regenerative capacities anymore. The same serum that restored his vigor regenerated wounds. But he hadn't been given the super-soldier serum or he'd have the same physical attributes as Captain Nazi and his great-grandniece had been given as Madame Libertine. But they were dead now. So Baron Blitzkrieg could still employ super strength with flight or enhanced senses now. Any mixture he chose within his limit of two powers manifested at a time.
His own descendants randomly inherited his psychically endowed attributes. Baroness Blitzkrieg could push herself into super speedster categories. The second Baron Blitzkrieg was inhumanely strong, stronger than his own great grandsire. But they'd defected rather than have their secret lineage discovered for them. Baroness Blitzkrieg had her German blood but she was more Portuguese and Incan than Aryan philosophies would allow. The second Baron Blitzkrieg was almost completely dispossessed African from slaves taken to Caribbean islands. Yet both had been trained since birth to be good and proper Nazis. Despite National Socialism's genetic purity codes and now they, like Killer Frost's partner, were fugitives from the Fourth Reich.
Their racial inheritances revealed by the Masked Leader after they defected. He'd only been willing to overlook their racial impurities so long as they served his interests. Those days were over so he'd broken his silence. Which startled everyone, especially Baron Blitzkrieg who'd thought he'd hidden his sexual activities from Hitler. But Killer Frost was dealing with the first Nazi bastard to bear the name. Killer Frost always met a conundrum in her dealing with super villains. She'd killed rival interests to prove her worth to Luthor in the past. But she'd left the Legion of Doom to join the Justice League in the most roundabout fashion.
As her natural inclination to kill her enemies became thundered in her brain, she'd left the JLU behind to shield them from having her as a member. Ace of Blades had briefly served on a couple of missions for her sake. And for Katharina's sake she'd enlisted with Homeland Security. For both their sakes they left but under duress of signing nondisclosure agreements and clientele restrictions laid down by Sec. Bones. Killer Frost wasn't holding back any more. But her primary objective was to recover the ledger. Killing Baron Blitzkrieg was just expedient and for fun. She grew an ice lance from the street to his leg. He smashed aside and was almost healed by the time the icicle grew and dropped at him from above. He swung a backhand that shattered it. Killer Frost scowled. that attack had always worked until now.
"Poor child, to fail so completely and alone," Baron Blitzkrieg launched himself at Killer Frost. Her ice dam barely slowed him down. But it did slow him enough for her to side step his lunge. She froze him in place but the ledger was now buried in the ice with him.
"Shit effin' damn!" she kicked the frozen Nazi's outer ice sheath. It cracked and then shattered.
"Now you are mine," Baron Blitzkrieg's teeth chattered.
"No, this is mine," she plucked the ledger from his belt and darted down the street.
"Citizens! You must apprehend that woman. She's a foreign spy!" Baron Blitzkrieg shouted out. the local bar thugs, all with disabling war wounds began to surround her.
"Back the eff up offa me," Killer Frost growled. Still the crowd began to take courage and press towards her. She released a freezing wave of energy around her and froze the nearest ranks solid. She created a pillar of ice underneath and a slide to reach the street again. But Blitzkrieg flew to intercept her.
"Oh, for the luvva God. Go away. No means no!" Killer Frost shouted at him.
The comments registered with the women in the crowd and they suddenly seemed less enthusiastic about detaining her.
"Should I discuss all the racial purity laws you've broken Captain Tallywacker?" Killer Frost appealed to the informers in the crowd. Those that did the Gestapo's work for them. The Stasi would later have every citizen informing on their neighbors and loved ones in the Cold War that followed WWII. Baron Blitzkrieg stood there seething with rage.
Ace of Blades sheathed her sword, "I'll make it fair for you."
Deathstroke obliged with an overhead cutting swathe that nearly shatter its nigh unbreakable blade over her crossed wrists. He sheathed it and drew his pistol and emptied it at her. But every bullet bounced off of her superhumanly durable flesh. Deathstroke's entire body registered as a lethal weapon. So they began to fight hand to hand. He was better trained but she was nearly a Kryptonian-level everything except for a Kryptonian or Daxamite's vision, breath, and hearing enhancements. Even the blows he landed didn't split her skin. The last time a foe had lasted this long against him he'd fought Batman. But he wouldn't be plunging his sword through a heart today. Without her biophysical enhancements, Ace of Blades would've already lost the fight.
The activation of Slade's meta-gene by John Lynch while he was part of Team 7 caused his body to utilize 90% of his brain's capacity. HIVE had activated his son, Grant's, meta-gene and artificially boosted Grant's brain to an overclocked 100%. Whereas Slade had total control over his body's response to combat and injury, Grant's entire body burned itself out within days. And because his power derived from a surgical/chemical adjustment to his genetic code, Deathstroke was not unlike Baron Blitzkrieg. Even to the point where Slade didn't heal his eye after his ex-wife shot it with the muzzle flash of the pistol and round she was trying to kill him with, So too that even after receiving the fabled Nazi rengeration serum, the burn scars that ravished Baron Blitzkrieg's body never healed.
Slade had total situational awareness so he knew the Baron was barely holding his own against Killer Frost.
The Nazi possessed the only means for Deathstroke to return to his time and collect the second half of his payment for services rendered. So he broke off from Ace of Blades and went on the offensive agianst Killer Frost. A shout from Ace of Blades alerted her lover to deflect Slade as well.
Ace of Blades alighted next to her partner, "Shall we end this?"
Baron Blitzkrieg displayed an even faster super speed power than Ace of Blades. He made it to Deathstroke's side and activated his time beacon.
"Shit!" Ace of Blades angrily swore. Killer Frost activated their own beacon and they two vanished to be deposited in the summer of 2010.
As the couple reappeared in their normal space-time, the machine blew itself out.
"Well, that's a one and done," KitCat complained.
"We need to find them!" Ace of Blades unhappily shouted at Latham, "They still have the ledger."
"Fortunately for all involved, my Mighty Crusaders located the Nazi time machine. WEB Agents have secured the site. We can conventionally teleport you to it," Latham offered
"Do it!" Killer Frost growled, "But keep your team off of us until we have the ledger."
"I'll give that order, KitCat, can you deposit them?" Latham inquired.
"Sho'nuff, Boss Man," KitCat was happy to comply. They reached the teleportation macjione and KitCat focalized the target position.
"Give `em hell," she gave the twosome a thumb's up and they vanished in a blue flash.
Baron Blitzkrieg had purchased a defunct and shuttered steel mill in Detroit. This had been retrofitted into the Fourth Reich's base of operations. Of course, the Baron hadn't shouldered the cost alone. The Masked Leader's three primary financial handlers had contributed to the effort as well.
Barry Finn had been born Sarcia Zaroff but had legally changed her name and gender status to become the transmale Barry. Baron Bruno Beitz spent his hours away from his firm as Baroness Belinda Beitz. She wasn't transgender but rather a crossdresser. Erica von Kampf had a swastika branded into her forehead by her parents as a show of familial fealty to the Masked Leader.
Currently, the Scarlet Skull was on a speaking whirlwind with Neo-Nazis across the country and Europe. Milling about the Nazi HQ were the bulk of the Fourth Reich's active members. They included Captain Murder, Satan Girl, Misery, and Man of the Ages. Dr. Demon and Baron Gestapo busied with cybernetically enhancing the Baron.
Captain Murder had been pumped full of the same serums that had enhanced Ace of Blades. But her already shattered mind became clear in its chaos. Satan Girl was Kryptonian freed from the Phantom Zone. She was also demon possessed and her cellular structure adapted to the demon's needs. Her skin was a deep red and her red hair was now obsidian black, she'd grown two horns and a spade tipped tail. They were physically the most robust of the Fourth Reich. Misery was the literal anthropomorphic manifestation of that emotion A psychic vampire that fed off misery and depression. Man of the Ages was a manifestation of human evil. So long as humanity's evil existed so would he.
"Scheisse!"most of the Fourth Reich couldn't speak much German but Ace of Blades' statement was universal in its usage.
"Look who's intimidated now," Deathstroke gloated. Killer Frost wondered why the Mighty Crusaders hadn't intervened yet.
At Liberty Station, Latham was having that argument with the Attorney General. Sec. For Meta-Human Affairs Amanda Waller intervened on the AG's side, "You have no probable cause, Dir. Latham. Fortunately there are those agencies that don't require legalities. But when they finish apprehending the Fourth Reich, you will arrest everyone involved and prep them for transfer to a meta-holding facility."
"You are insane," Latham accused.
"I'd better not be for your sake," Waller signed off. The reports from the MLJ boots on the ground began coming in. The Justice League was intervening in a situation where the Mighty Crusaders and WEB Agents couldn't. Or more specifically were forbidden to. So the confrontation began. As soon Killer Frost demanded that Deathstroke be blocked from escaping and the ledger he so zealously guarded be turned in.
Ace of Blades drew her sword to counter Satan Girl's pitchfork. She knew from experience that they were near equals. But Satan Girl's advantages lay with her Hellfire Vision and her sulfur spewing Brimstone Breath. Ace of Blades had carried her sword through the last seven decades. It had been a gift from the Nazi Air Marshall Hermann Goering, forged from the hardest metal on Earth. Wonder Woman had just entered the Allied war effort and had sat in on the emerging Justice Society. No one outside fo the JSA realized that Hippolyta was also the Queen of Themiscyra. She considered her island paradise to be under the Axis threat as well. But her wrist bracelets and weapons were forged from a metal previously unknown in what she called the "Man's World"
That metal was Amazonium. Plentiful on Themiscyra but the rarest of the rare metals beyond her island domain. But it existed in trace amounts globally. And the Axis and the Allies devoted precious resources in both obtaining a sizable portion and learning to forge it into significant weapons. But the Hawks, Hawkman and Hawkwoman, also revealed the existence of naturally occuring veins of Nth metal. And of course, that fueled a second resource race.
Hawkman and Hawkwoman gathered it from the main sources of Nth metals and secured it so that only the Hawks or their reincarnated selves could access it.
Ace of Blades was held in such esteem for her flying combat missions and her experience in ground based operations that Goering wanted to enhance her to boost his own prestige with Hitler. So Ace of Blades became the second soldier to receive the Supersoldaten-Serumand both Captain Nazi and Ace of Blades became the most physically gifted soldiers in the Third Reich. Their closest rival being Captain Nippon on the Japanese theater of war. The Japanese had developed mirakuru from purely scientific sources rather than science blended with Shinto alchemy. Ace of Blades' sword had been forged into an alloy of Amazonium and Nth metal. It was purported to be unbreakable and immune to corrosion.
Ace of Blades disarmed Satan Girl but almost lost an eye to her spade shaped point of her tail. Ace of Blades backed off the tip and sheathed her sword, "Let's find out who the weapon triuly is"
"You'll die slowly, I promise you that," Satan Girl pledged.
Since the Nazis had perfected the regenerationsserum and unsterblichkeitsserumon her while desperately trying to insure the Fuhrer's grand joke, of surviving the end of the war but presumed dead, Ace of Blades had become nearly unkillable but even with nearly instantaneous healing factors, even her skin could be pierced. The secret to stabilizing the three German serums had been to administer their stockpile of the blatantly unstable mirakuru into her and then into Hitler. History would record the difficulty in positive,ly IDing the charred corpse found next to Eva Braun. along with a bunker full of a mass suicides of the Nazi hierarchy so the Masked Leader contacted Baron Blitzkrieg, who was serving his plan in North America, They created the Fourth Reich and began its hereditary based scientific experiments into recreating the various serums based on the last dregs of each that Hitler flew out of Berlin under his own powers given by the cocktail blend of serums. So it became a war of enhancements.
Satan Girl, as a full blooded Kryptonian, had been marginally more powerful that either the Masked Leader or Ace of Blades. But the possessing demon that altered her flesh so drastically was a parasitic spirit. In order make her reliant upon it, it used her own cellular strengths to recraft and adapt her flesh. Thereby robbing her of her Kryptonian legacy. Which all down to a single sentence: she was less powerful than ever before. Their exchanged blows echoed throughout the building like thunderclaps. Superman's battle against the most recent successful trial run of the serum cocktail also yielded the same response from traded blows.
So that the windows found within the converted steel mill were already shattered and the great cauldrons and mechanization still found within the building were rattling off their joints.
Ace of Blades knew she had to end this quickly to that her great love could survive but her momentary distraction earned her getting Satan Girl's prehensile tail wrapped around her throat. Satan Girl lined the struggling Ace of Blades up to her body where she began beating on Ace of Blades. Seeing that struggle wasn't rewarding her, she pulled Ace of Blades' face before her and lit up the room with her Hellfire Vision and filled the space with the sulfuric Brimstone breath. Despite herself, Ace of Blades cried out. Finally her face had melted down to the bone and her screaming ended. With a flick of her tail, Satan Girl cast off Ace of Blades' corpse into one of the cauldrons that used to contain molten iron so that it could have the proper propositions of carbon to forge whatever was needed with the strongest steel .
The old barony and inheritance title had run out of actual lineage. the man now known to the Fourth Reich as Baron Gestapo was merely a placeholder in the Masked Leader's eyes. Unlike Baron Blitzkrieg's line, the "Baron" came from pure Aryan descent through in-breeding the remaining Germans who'd escaped the Allies' capturing them before they fled to South America. This Baron Gestapo was the pride of the Argentinian Nazis' eugenics efforts and he was one of the few in his generation that wasn't marred by intellectual or physical deformities. Most of what would've been his kin had been killed as soon as an aberration was detected. And birth defects were growing exponentially as the original pure bloods had died. Leaving their descendents with the same impetus to only derive offspring from the shrinking pool of German DNA and successive generations were afflicted with higher ratios of defects from all of the inbreeding. Until now, there was only one that escaped termination so he became Baron Gestapo out of necessity due to his being the only viable offspring in his generation.
The Masked Leader had been impressed by Baron Gestapo's loyalty. He'd been reared on propaganda and rendered him a slave to his training and instilled with mindless obedience to the Masked Leader and what represented without the dead lines of German heredity that had spawned Baron Gestapo none of them ever deducing that the Masked Leader was indeed their Master. They could never know that the Masked Leader and the Fuhrer of the Third Reich were one and the same.
Killer Frost knew none of this and frankly didn't care to learn it either. Her goal was simple: disable if she could and terminate those that she couldn't. It was a binary code that yielded two responses. Capture or kill. Killer Frost herself didn't have a preference. And by the restrictions laid down by Katharina and Louise's agreement with Sec. Bones didn't specify how they dealt with foes, just who they couldn't engage. Which was completely different than Dir. Latham's licensing Catherine Montgomery's Young All Stars.
Killer Frost repelled Baron Gestapo's initial assaults. But Dr. Demon came into it to protect her own investment in Baron Gestapo. Dr. Demon herself was a cyborg and was the fourth Nazi to carry the name as well as only the second woman carrying the legacy of illegal human experiments. So it became self-evident that Baron Gestapo had also received cybernetic enhancements. Which explained how he was able to resist and recuperate from her freezing blasts. Dr. Demon delivered Baron Gestapo's preferred weapon, A sword whose blade was coated with phosphorus. Dr. Demon wielded a laser cutter.
Between the two of them, Killer Frost's ice structures delayed but didn't stop the Nazi agents. Killer Frost heard Ace of Blades scream above all else in the din of combat trapped and echoing throughout the former steel mill. At that moment Killer Frost decided that if the Fourth Reich wanted a war of attrition she'd be eager to please.
Superman had never faced Captain Murder in direct combat before. She was well named. She had a killer's frenzy but she a single objective: to kill him. He had no idea that Captain Nazi's aged brother had tested his recreation of the Nazi enhancements serums on her but without mirakuru. Her sociopathic tendencies were expanded into a living fury targeting every living creature.
All of that rage and psychosis was aimed at Superman. She was powerful enough to achjieve that singular vision. So it was tha Superman was taking a beating because he wouldn't intentionally unleash his full might against a woman. Even a woman that could kill him and was halfway to doing so.
When Matrix Supergirl bonded with Linda Danvers body she'd become a meta-human and as such, Supergirl could be killed through denying her air and water. Supergirl found, though, that since her powers were psychokinetic rather a Kryptonian's blend, she could inflict pain ansd harm against Man of the Ages. Which she was more than happy to do. The spirit-man was evil. The purest evil. The type Linda had sworn to serve and allowed herself to be sacrificed to and that part of Supergirl that derived from Linda still eagerly wanted to lay her life down in homage to Man of the Ages.
Slade Wilson had developed the persona known as Deathstroke to intimidate his prey. Even now, facing four JLers, he had the mental war won already. The Justice League expected to fail and fall before his wrath. But the four selected to face him actually stood the best chance. Trajectory was the fastest and the woman and utterly fearless. Azrael had been bred for war and assassinations. He stood the best chance in personal combat with Deathstroke. Ragman was an opportunist that would to snare him with mystical rag suit and absorb Slade for one hundred years of torment before facing final judgment. Nightshade also possessed the means to entrap Deathstroke in her mother's kingdom in the other-dimensional Land of the Nightshades. Besides Azrael, she was the next best fighter of the group as she manipulated shadows into hardened constructs.
Deathstroke knew that the battle against Azrael and Nightshade had to be concluded before Trajectory and Ragman realized that they too could be capable of harming him and retrieve the ledger he'd captured earlier at the expense of the Accountant's life. For him it was Hegelian theorem: Thesis conflicts with antithesis and yielding synthesis. He had to hurry and rush things along before the JLers began to coordinate their efforts as Nightshade was instructing them. So she became the head of the snake he had kill first.
"So you're Misery," Enchantress, once more a cooperative fusion of raven haired witch with and blonde June Moone resulting into a redheaded Enchantress. It seemed June's friendships had managed to lift her spirit enough the influence the ancient otherdimensional witch. As such he had more power available to her now that her spirit being and human host were of one mind and the wretched curse of being unable to harm living creatures had been lifted from her by the Three Graces of Wonderland. But no part of her worried about that right nowadays.
She and Silver Swan faced the spirit of Misery itself also bonded to a human host that Misery had vanquished and controlled for over seventy years now. The host having been consumed by Misery's power. So it was basically a skeleton nowadays. He'd joined with the Masked Leader in order to obtain his revenge against Airboy and Valkyrie as well as the former Nazi's Air Maidens. Enchantress and Silver Swan had just become an impediment to scheme as he dutifully unleashed his power to dismay them and then feed off of their emotional energies until he allowed them to die. But he had to reckon with the Enchantress therefore he didn't realize that he too was in peril.
Ace of Blades' "corpse" came back to life as a gasp escaped her. The muscles, tendons, and skin of her flesh had regrown. Her eyes regenerated. Even her hair grew back to its previous length but was no longer bleached blonde restored to it orginal flaming red. She tore off the shreds of her jacket and uniform blouse underneath, leaving her in a sports bra. She floated above the cauldron and spotted Satan Girl choosing her next victim.
Ace of Blades had one intent and one intent Only, She'd gamble all to kill Satan Girl's host body. Afterwards the demon would either take full possession of Satan Girl or be forced to eject the body. Ace of Blades took her from behind, using her extended knee as a fulcrum to wrap her arm around Satan Girl's neck and arch her with the knee digging in. With more pressure than Ace of Blades had ever exerted on this maneuver before, she snapped Satan Girl's neck. The demon vacated the body and flashed venomous glares at her before it retreated. Ace of Blades dumped the corpse into the same cauldron Satan Girl had deposited her in. Now, she could locate Killer Frost and insure her survival.
Baron Gestapo swung his flaming sword at Killer Frost's neck but his blade stopped by another sword blocking it from underneath. Ace of Blades had her drawn in a defensive block..
"Now I have challenge," he blustered but even Dr. Demon saw the hesitancy in his eyes.
"Activate your escape beacon," she instructed him. As Ace of Blades' sword passed through the flash of energy that zeta tubed the pair somewhere unknown.
"Verdammte Scheiße!" Ace pf Blades angrily swore.
"We'll ge them next time," Killer Frost promised, "`Cause there's always a next time. These bastards just don't know when to die."
"So be it," Ace of Blade's mood tempered itself, "I'll assist Superman. But we still need the ledger."
"So Slade is mine to toy with," Killer Frost gleefully went to work. Ace of Blades actually pitied Deathstroke for half a heartbeat. Afterwards she didn't care about his exact fate.
A sword was thrust through Captain Murder's back and through her heart. Ace of Blades swiveled her away from the semi conscious Superman.
"Just go. I know I can't kill you but I can keep stabbing you all day and night long. It's boring and so are you," Ace of Blades remarked. Captain Murder activated her exit beacon as Ace of Blades pulled her sword free of Captain Murder's chest. Superman was still alive but dazed. Ace of Blades conceded that was a good thing.
Supergirl was reeling but Man of the Ages was aware of his surroundings and the fact that the Fourth Reich was departing post haste. Was evident every corner he looked at. So he too vanished in a flash of light.
"Was it something I said or did?" Supergirl had to wonder. Because she'd been losing the fight.
Killer Frost formed an iceberg above Deathstroke and watched it fall on him. Trajectory snatched the ledger from its concealed space between Deathstroke's back and his sword's sheath.
"Hey! Gimme that!" Killer Frost demanded.
Trajectory began the hand off when Nightshade intervened, "What's so important?"
"My clients getting their heirlooms and wealth back that Hitler had stolen and hidden away for the future," Killer Frost explained.
Ace of Blades alighted next to her love, "We're properly licensed and bonded as security consultants."
She thrust her enhanced iD card and it showed her status as a legal investigator and repossession agent, "So you will hand over that ledger or we will take it from you by force."
"Don't tempt me," Nightshade unconsciously warped a nearby shadow into a sword.
"Trust me, you don't want do this," Ace of Blades warned her. Trajectory settled it by voluntarily handing the ledger over.
"Se ya `round, kiddos," Killer Frost gloated as she and Ace of Blades departed.
Misery had no chance whatever to kill or seriously harm the Enchantress. But Silver Swan's swan song tore his ethereal bits to shreds. So he too exited the field of battle.
"Found it!" Trajectory happily announced after she super sped throughout the building. Partially underground, an illegal teleporter existed.
"So we know how they fled but why they left Satan Girl's corpse behind I don't fathom," Superman revealed.
"Maybe we weren't intended to," Nightshade stated, "This thing self-destructed after the last of the Fourth Reich escaped. And our so-called friends left a trail of bodies and seriously wounds before they were given what they wanted."
Trajectory knew the caustic comments were aimed squarely at her and her decision to surrender the ledger.
"It ended the fighting," Trajectory scowled.
"And it got the MLJ to stop surrounding the building with arrest warrants filled out by the AG himself," Ragman shared.
"But Ace of Blades killed Satan Girl and Captain, Murder should be dead, I don't care who deputized them, they're fugitives on wanted charges of murder, assault, intent to kill, and Killer Frost aided and abetted so she's going down too," Superman decided.
"The WEB Agents are coming in hard," Nighthade advised them.
"Not for long," Trajectory happily activated the teleporting zeta gate. They'd vanished without any physical trait. The WEB Agents were relieved that the Justice League had escaped them. They didn't relish arresting the JLU. Especially since until certain facts about Ace of Blades and Killer Frost came to light, they'd been JLers and the Justice League had legally been deputized officers of the law by the MLJ. So it was with relief and even joy that the JLU had disappeared despite the cordon surrounding the building on foot and by air.
"I'll deliver that," Majestic told the couple.
"No, we speak to Bones himself," Ace of Blades countered.
"Sarge Steel insists that he be given the package forthwith," Majestic told them.
"So you're just Luthor's dirty deeds man," Killer Frost understood it now.
"I serve the true President of the United States. The election results were faked. The established politicians couldn't stand having an outsider in the Oval Office to the lection was rigged and President Luthor was robbed as the election was stolen from him," Majestic sneered.
"Then what a quinky-dink that he's just been named Secretary-General of the United Nations...hmm?" Killer Frost retorted.
"He is the appointed leader of the world and effectively serve both roles simultaneously," Majestic predicted.
"Tell Sarge Steel he can lick my asshole while I take a shit before I hand this ledger to anyone but Bones," Ace of Blades promised..
"You're both fools," Majestci streaked off into thre sky.
"Schweinehund," Ace of Blades snarled after he left.
"Ass hats like him make it easy to be a lesbian," Killer Frost grimaced.
"Sad but true," Ace of Blades muttered.
"Hey! Let's get out of what's left of your costume and I'll change into some comfort clothes," Killer Frost offered.
after they were in sweats, Killer Frost passionately kissed Ace of Blades.
"Not that I mind, but why so fierce?" Ace of Blades asked.
"That's for not dying today," Killer Frost knew Ace of Blades was immune to her heat vampirism
"As I have told you countless times, Kind, I cannot die so you needn't worry that you'll be left alone. That is my fate," Ace of Blades lamented.
"Then it's cool that my innards and outers won't age," Killer Frost asked, "I'm a living, breathing cryostasis unit," Killer Frost finally revealed.
"Then we won't grow old together," Ace of Blades was overjoyed, "We will always be togther as the decades grind by."
"Got in one," Killer Frost winked at her.
"Sarge Steel won't rest until he obtains the ledger," Ace of Blades predicted
"Yup. He's Luthor's personal fluffer," Killer Frost groaned.
"We have time to copy the ledger's secrets and redirect everything that will make them work hard ebnough to believe in the forgery while it actually leads them to places to be arrested at," Ace of Blades thought aloud.
"Babe, you sooo get me," Killer Frost smirked.
After tea staining the pages that would have the revised version printed on, they compiled the fake ledger which was now coded by an antique Enigma machine that Ace of Blades had kept all the long decades since she'd used it during missions as part of her service in WW II. She second errand boy was also the second Superman, Bill Nunn. After dealing with Nazis there was a certain irony that two of the most powerful people on Earth were Black men who'd come a'calling..
"Toodles," Killer Frost waved goodbye at Superman as he lifted off to report to the Hall of Doom and make his scheduled delivery to Lex Luthor.
Bones arrived in the morning. The couple greeted him informally and they looked like they'd ravished each during the relative peace after Superman lifted off, up, up, and away.
"As promised, your second half of the payment is in your accounts as requested," Bones informed them, "And you've generated \enough buzz on top of my leaking the advent of hiring you two, I'm getting calls left and right from the right people in high places with job offers for you two. I strongly suggest you get busy in your office during regular hours because I'll take several of these today only."
"We need to hire a desk jockey," Killer Frost decided.
"I have all sorts of candidates in mind if you'll ge your phone lines working and you hire one of my people as your scheduler and keep an eye on you two to make certain you honor our agreement," Bones told them.
"Then you'll pay their wages for the first six months," Ace of Blades began negotiating.
"Deal. But I choose the assistant," Bones countered.
"Done," Killer Frost smirked.
"Then for gods' sakes take some showers nad get dressed and get ready to star working as professionals. Right now this apartment reeks of sex," Bones tucked the ledger under his arm and began to leave.
"You're not going to verify it?" Killer Frost asked.
"Simple. If it's a fake I'll you both killed," Bones said nonchalantly, "Brother Eye, before it was dismantled, told us how to end both of you. So don't get all squirrelly. I could've killed you both when you resigned from Task Force Z but I liked your idea and the fact I hire you off the books to perform some straight foward tasks on occasion."
"Define 'straight forward'," Killer Frost demanded.
"Finding people or things that have been lost," Bones did as she asked.
"I'll even put you on a sizable retainer if you wrap everyuthing else that you're doing and report to me for you next contract," Bones explained, "Both a legal and technical team will be here tomorrow AM to do the actual work and installations. That is, if you agree to my terms."
"Hey! Sign me up," Killer Frost enthused.
Ace of Blades was far more cynical, "And you won't be spying on us?"
"Cinnabon, I spy on everybody. But all I'll be sending you is an app and a sat phone. Both will encrypt any messages you receive or send to me," Bones explained, "Other than that, I'll be completely unobtrusive."
Bones paused outside their long enough to light a cigar. He puffed on it twice which ordered his observation team their standing order to disperse. Then he strolled down to where an official car awaited him.
"So, retainer. Really?" Ace of Blades fretted
"We need the money," Killer Frost reminded her, "Why didn't you speak up before?"
"I support your decision even if I have personal qualms about it. We're partners for life. What kind of partner would I be if I publically challenged you every time we had to a,make a decision?" Ace of Blades asked.
"Jesus, every time I think I can't love you more you pull one these things outta your ass," Killer Frost admitted.
"I'm happy to please you so much," Ace of Blades admitted.
"I won't ,let Bones use us and then hang us out in the cold," Killer Frost promised
"Men like him build concentration camps," Ace of Blades warned Killer Frost.
"We got this, Blades," Killer Frost reassured her.
"I'm sure we do, Frost," Blades lied but using their private names for reach other. they were both more comfortable with their assumed names than their birth names. Which would've been interesting to mental health professionals. Because Louise Lincoln and Katharina Steiner weren't criminals or killers.
But Killer Frost and Ace of Blades were and both realized that Frost and Blades were their natural selves armed with a Presidential blanket pardon for all crimes they had committed and were going to commit. A side effect of being on Sec. Bones' short list of favorite people. The subversive nature of their company titled "Heroines for Hire" played well with prospective clients. But the methodologies employed by the couple were pure super villain styled. Because people that wanted heroes went to Claire Montgomery and hired the Young All Stars.
Frost and Blades were needed when people didn't care if the laws of the land were broken. Because their agents didn't care either. It was a mutually assured transaction between agent and client.
"C'mon, we have the rest of the day and all night to ourselves," Frost was feeling playful.
'Yes," Blades sighed, "Bones' people will be here promptly after sunrise."
"Then let's plan some surprises," Frost was feeling very impish now.
"I could do that," Blades shared her partner's sly smirk, "Something none of them would suspect."
"I already have a few ideas," Frost warned her.
"Tell me," Blades knew she'd like them and upon hearing them, Blades elaborated on just a with a few adjustments which would make their behaviors even more startling.
Disclaimer: None. Every character in the story is either wholly owned or licensed from Archie Comics by DC or is Public Domain. Ace of Blades herself being purchased in a blanket style buy out of Fawcett Comics. The character, listed in both of the aforementioned websites, just lay dormant for decades. The editors at DC Comics having no clear idea of what to do with her.
Historical note: just follow the stories marked with a "Blades" in the title and you'll be caught up to this outing. If you want further on the couple's JLU activities, they're laced around a few stories but those greatly impacting this story are Family in Crisis and Glorith