Chapter 5

by Carycomic

SOMEWHERE NEAR GRENOBLE, FRANCE

(OCTOBER 20, 1918)

Captain James Rufus Albright and the rest of the Midnight Squadron listened attentively to the briefing being given by Pere Francois Martier (also known as Colonel Martier of Le Deuxieme Bureau*). The latter aiming a wooden pointer at a projected daguerreotype of an ankh-shaped object.

"This artifact, known as the Scorpio Key, was first mentioned in the writings of Al Daayirat Alharam (the original Circle of Red). A Spanish-based sub-sect of the heretical Yezidi faith that was supposedly wiped out, in 1491, by Moorish Assassins from Granada. All those writings were then put to the torch immediately afterward! Or so it was initially believed. For, during the Hapsburg Hegemony, a surviving cache of scrolls was unearthed by this man. . ."

A second daguerreotype was now projected. This one featuring the portrait of a man in some kind of clerical garb.

". . .Felix Faust. A sixteenth century comparative religion scholar and closet alchemist, who smuggled them back to Austria, where he spent the rest of his life transcribing them into German. It is these transcriptions that were used by Dr. Krueger's Red Circle to create a modern-day version of the artifact!"

"Created where, sir?" Capt. Albright now inquired.

Colonel Martier nodded to the slide projectionist who, in turn, switched to the third and final daguerreotype.

"This Austrian castle: Schloss Mondstein. Once, the ancestral home of Faust's family. Now, one of the Red Circle's premiere manufacturers of chemical weaponry. We have reason to believe that the Scorpio Key will be smuggled from there to the Argonne Forest to repulse the American army's current offensive. Hence, this special bombing mission! One that I would normally have assigned to Escadrille G-8. But, of course, after this past summer. . ."

The French army officer sorrowfully paused.

"Say no more, sir," replied Capt. Albright. "Nous comprenons tout a fait."

Colonel Martier gratefully smiled and nodded.

BLACKHAWK ISLAND

(69 YEARS LATER)

Zinda Blake made the introductions as soon as she and her passengers had deplaned.

"Cap? Spidey? J.J.? Meet Clive Arno. More affectionately known as 'Captain Action'!"

The latter, clad in a somewhat purplish variant of the WWII-era Blackhawk uniform, smirked in half-serious annoyance.

"Don't listen to her. The only reason the other Blackhawks ever called me that is because I never saw _any_ action! I just compiled and transcribed the after-action reports. Sort of the unit's military historian!"

"Well, those serve also who sit and type," quipped the webslinger.

His three comrades grimaced at the pun. But, Arno chuckled, appreciatively, adding how it had not been all bad.

"In fact, you might say it inspired my post-war career as the data-collating research assistant of Professor Carter Hall, the archaeologist."

"Then, could you show us the Blackhawks' trophy room?" asked Captain America. "I'd like a closer look at this Scorpio Key."

"Right this way."

Five minutes later, they stood before the reason for their visit. The artifact, in question, surrounded by four glowing rods.

"Hard to believe, isn't it?" Clive Arno semi-rhetorically asked. "That this thing might have allowed one man to prevent the successful landing of the Allies at Normandy back in 1944."

"I'm the first to admit I'm no expert," replied Captain America. "But, in all the other photos I've seen of Egyptian ankhs, their left and right arms extend straight across. Why are these partially curved downward?"

"Well, in mythological terms, the partial curvature is supposed to represent the pincers of a scorpion, as depicted in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs of the goddess Serket. But, in practical terms? They helped the Scorpio Key to focus and project concussive blasts of cosmic energy in one direction! That's why it's kept surrounded, at all times, by. . ."

"Cosmotronic capacitors," Spider-man instinctively finished for him. "Variants of the original cosmic rod invented by Prof. Ted Knight, aka Star Man of the JSA."

The other four stared at him as if he had just grown a second head. Yet Spidey's mild amusement, at their dumbfounded reaction, disappeared a moment later when he uttered that most dreaded of trademark phrases.

"Uh-oh! My spider-sense just started tingling!"

Before either Zinda or Arno could ask what that meant, however, a klaxon alarm began blaring. At which point Arno led his four guests to the museum's security control room. There, he used a hand-held remote control to activate a massive bank of closed-circuit TV monitors. He went to the nearest section of them, featuring outdoor shots, and looked them over with well-practiced speed.

"There!" he exclaimed, pointing to his left. "The shallows at the northeastern end of the island."

The monitor he indicated showed the submersible version of an LST deploying a small platoon of uniformed men. The uniforms in question. . . bearing red stars.

Krellik had been loaned an elite unit of Soviet Naval Infantry commandos for this mission. Code-named 'The Sea Scorpions', they were led by Lydra 'Fury Shark' Sharkov. Daughter of the very submarine captain who had transported them here! And, as expected, the man who took care of the Blackhawks' ex-wartime base was not alone. The Justice Leaguers known as Spider-man and Captain America came running out of the main facility. Not stopping until only a hundred yards separated the two of them from the Soviet task force! The former then assumed a defiant stance before Captain America cupped his right hand and raised it to his face.

"Attention! You are intruding on sovereign French territory. Per NATO regulations, you are ordered to return to your landing craft and leave, at once. This is your only warning."

Krellik merely grinned.

"It is you and your kamerad who are trespassing, Herr Hauptmann! The Soviet Union has laid claimed to this island according to a still-valid clause of the 1892 Rapprochement. Surrender yourselves peaceably and unconditionally or we will open fire."

Cap looked at Spidey, who simply nodded. Upon which the two men resumed their charge! That, in turn, led Krellik to look at the pair of Sea Scorpions armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

"Offenes feuer!"

The RPG's immediately headed toward their respective targets. But, seconds before reaching those targets, Spidey had leapt ahead of Cap like a red-and-blue grasshopper. Bounding three times before coming to a stop. Following which, he 'thwipped' out two strands of webline simultaneously! Each strand landing on the nose of an RPG; thereby allowing him to start twirling them around and around over his head. Until, finally, he had built up enough additional momentum to release them in the general direction of the island's western shoreline.

Which was promptly followed by a pair of explosions in near unison.

Krellik now looked at the rest of the Sea Scorpions. "Feuer frei!"

Whereupon they began spraying their AK-47's on full automatic in the direction of the two Justice Leaguers. Spidey, however, stayed ahead of the fusillade by using his superhuman agility in tandem with his spider-sense. Cap, on the other hand, used his martial arts training, in conjunction with his famed shield, which was made of a unique alloy, to deflect the bullets the same way a Japanese yamabushi might deflect arrows fired by a zen archer! In that manner, when the latter got within range of the nearest Sea Scorpions, he went on the counter-offensive. Throwing his shield like a combination discus and boomerang. . .

. . .and thereby knocking out at least three of the riflemen in almost as many seconds.

When the rest of the Sea Scorpions turned as one, their shift of focus allowed Spidey to 'thwip' up a web the size of a fishing trawler's net. Following which, he threw it over the Soviet commandos, like he was putting a blanket on a bed, and thereby ensnared them in its sticky strands. That, in turn, allowed the American superheroes to knock each of their opponents out with completely non-lethal (though not entirely painless) force.

Only then did Cap notice something.

"Where are Krellik and the girl?"

tbc

GLOSSARY

*Le Deuxieme Bureau: somewhat obsolete name for French army intelligence.

Hapsburg Hegemony: my own term of convenience for the brief period during which Spain and Austria were jointly ruled by the Hapsburg Dynasty. I just like the alliteration!

Mondstein: German for 'moonstone' (a kind of feldspar).

"Nous comprenons tout a fait" ("We understand completely").

Clive 'Capt. Action' Arno: civilian identity that DC assigned to their short-lived Silver Age adaptation of Ideal Toys' answer to the original G.I. Joe.

LST: Landing Ship, Tank.

Fury Shark: canonically, the daughter of Capt. Midnight's archenemy, Ivan Shark. Think Golden Age versions of Batman, Talia, and Ra's Al Ghul.

"Offenes feuer" ("Open fire").

"Feuer frei" ("Fire at will").