Chapter 5

The hungry flames eat the wood that it was given. The fire in the ancient fire place hissed and cracked as it burnt the wood as it gave the old room warmth and light. A metal prod was moved into the fireplace and moved the wood about. The flames picked up as they got more of the wood in their hot hold. The metal prod was removed as the flames got to be at a good warmth and light for the large room.

Edward walked away from the fire place. He didn't like this, and he had argued with Nightshade about it. They couldn't trust the humans to help them with this plan. Leatherback was their problem as the Red Skull was the human's problem. They shouldn't be getting involved in human affairs, but telling that to Nightshade was like talking to a thick brick wall. His leader and friend always had a soft spot for the humans just like the Time Lord known as The Doctor.

Shaking his head Edward got back to his task. He was to explain to the Howling Commandos more of what it is that they do along with the mission that they had to do together to stop the destruction of earth. He didn't know the whole story behind what was going on, but all he knew was that Leatherback was back and that was all he cared about. But here he was playing babysitter for a bunch of human soldiers while Nightshade and Julian prepared Moonray for the quick hop to the base that they had set up in main land Europe.

The room that the Argentix's and the Howling Commandos were meeting was massive room within in Tower of London. A room that had been hidden from the rest of the world for many years. They had only found it because Julian had stumbled across the room when he was out on trying to prank Edward. This hidden room was soon made their base of operations during the war. This room was one of the few rooms that they had touched in the Tower of London. The rest of the fortress had been left the way that they had found it. Nightshade had made it clear that she didn't want any of their gear found when the war was over. That was if. It was 1945 with no sign that the war was going to end soon. Nightshade and Julian both had trust in the leadership of the Allies, but Edward didn't. He had seen from reports from Europe what the enemy was capable, and he had felt his stomach drop when he saw the prisoners of war that had been rescued by the allies in Poland along with the other small countries that the Nazi war machine had rolled into. Edward just hoped that Churchill didn't call their assistance more than he had been. The Argentix's had been too busy fighting their own war, the war that Churchill had dubbed The Night Wars. It had been called that for many reasons. The main reason for its name was that most of the battles that had been raged during the war that was never ending was between the Argentix's and an army that bore resemblance to Ancient Egyptian mummies and other monsters from that time period. Churchill and Nightshade had both agreed to stop panic in the general public they would keep the whole Night Wars secret. They didn't want the people to know that during the night hours the Argentix's were fighting an everlasting war with things from the Underworld. Julian was still trying to find out who wanted to destroy the earth, and many times he had heard of one name; Seth the Ancient Egyptian god of Chaos.

The other room that the Argentix's had remodelled to suit their own needs while they were based in the Tower of London was the deepest dungeon far below the surface. The dungeon had been used for many purposes through the years but they were using it to store their weapons. The dungeon was where Julian and Nightshade were as they prepared the Moonray along with what else they would need for the campaign over in Europe.

A knock from the thick wooden doors caused Edward to look up from the crackling fire place. He turned to the doors that were on the opposite side of the room from where the fireplace was. He didn't respond to the knock. Instead he waited for a member of the British Army to open it for him from the other side. The young man in his early twenties walked in before the Howling Commandos. "Sir!" he said saluting to Edward, "The Howling Commandos as ordered by Prime Minster Churchill!" he finished relaxing from his salute stance.

"Very good! Go back to whatever it was that you were doing!" Edward said turning back to face the crackling fire. Snorting he didn't see or hear the young soldier walk out of the room and close the massive wooden doors returning to his duties. Satisfied that the fire would keep the humans warm he turned around to face the humans. The humans who had meet thanks to HYDRA. They were all staring at him like they had never seen a zombie. "What? Didn't your mothers teach you not stare?" he asked taking huge strides to a massive chair. A chair that they had brought down from their original base in Ayr, Scotland that helped with the zombies bad back.

Steve and Bucky looked away while Peggy's stare only intensified. "If you are a rotting corpse? What's Nightshade?" she asked walking towards the relaxing Edward. She could tell that he didn't like this meeting as much as her.

Edward snorted as his eyeballs in his eyesockets rolled towards her. "Nightshade is a skeleton while Julian is a ghost!" he grunted sitting up and reaching for the folder that he had been given by Nightshade before she disappeared down into the dungeons with Julian behind her. "I am going to explain more of what we know on what is going on!" he did say opening the folder.

Peggy didn't stop staring at Edward. More questions were coming to her mind than answers were being given. The Argentix's were keeping as much information as they could close to their chests.

"Okay big man what is it that you have to tell us!" Dugan asked from where he was standing by the door with Gable Jones. His rifle was slung over his shoulder with its leather strap holding it in place.

Edward rose from his seat. The only seat on earth that he found comfortable especially with his vertebrae having no protection of flesh like the rest of his body. "I am getting to that!" he snapped back at Dugan. "I hope Nightshade knows what she is doing!" he said shaking his head once again. "As you know from the paper work that you read back in the War Rooms there have been sightings of creatures since the end of the Great War!" Edward started as he remembered everything that Julian had found out about Seth and his army. "You see as far as we, well when I say we I really mean Julian can gather a peace treaty was formed centuries ago that stopped your people raging war against the creatures that you saw in the report! But from what intel has gathered Seth a god of Chaos from Ancient Egypt has returned in the form of a spirt after being locked away and is hoping to take your world and have all humans bowing at his feet like you did all those centuries ago!" Edward finished retaking his seat.

He watched all the gathered human soldiers. They were all exhausted already like him and the others. It had been so long that they had been keeping the Night Wars under the cover of darkness, but with HYDRA and Leatherback working together with Seth somehow involved there had been more of the creatures that they had been fighting seen during the day hours helping HYDRA and the Red Skull gain more land that the Nazis were gaining. Edward was beginning to think that there would be another war between the humans and the other races that called earth home.

"But why now?" Steven asked from where he was standing close to the Argentix agent. "I mean there has been many wars since the fall of Ancient Egypt! Why not take the earth then?" he asked looking into the more human eye of Edward. The eye that was not as red as the other.

Edward sat back in his seat as he listened to the human's shout at each other with ideas. He heard one suggest about a prophecy while another only shrugged it off. Another suggested that he had only escaped prison recently and had teamed up with the Red Skull in hopes of taking the earth. That was the closet they got to the reason. Snorting, once again Edward questioned Nightshade motives as to why she liked humans as much as she did. Humans were so dull when it came to thinking.

"If you all shut up I'll explain in such a way that you can understand along with myself!" he said keeping his seat. "Seth for some reason was looked away in a vault that was locked deep down in the Underworld guarded by the Pharaohs bodyguards. Ever since then he has been locked away he had been trying to escape. We have reason to believe that Leatherback has helped him to escape. But not in body but in mind!" he explained looking at all the humans. He failed to notice the massive wooden doors opening and Nightshade along with Julian letting themselves in.

"Leatherback and Seth must have more installed with Skull!" Peggy said looking at Edward also unaware of the two as they made their way further into the room. "There has to be a reason on why Leatherback and Skull first allied themselves!" she finished.

"Seth will soon be looking for a body to take over! That is why Leatherback has been busy! He has been looking for a suitable form for the Chaos Bringer to take over until they could do something about his body in the Underworld!" Julian said as he walked into the light of the fire. He looked over his shoulder at the stunned looks of the ordinary people that filled the room. "Come on its so simple! Even Edward could have figured it out… over the passing of a year!" Julian said and just dodged a swipe from Edward.

"Why they have both joined Red Skull is still unknown!" Nightshade added when her two teammates were still trying to kill each other. She watched Edward and Julian from under the brim of her hat, before looking around at Steven. "We are ready to depart if you would follow me!" was all she said before turning on her heel and walked out of the room without another word. The doors were still open allowing her to make a quick getaway as she lead both the Hollowing Commandos and Edward and Julian down to the oldest part on The Tower of London. The oldest dungeon that once held the greatest criminals that England offered before she joined with Scotland and Wales.