Chapter 6.

JUNGLE PATROL HEADQUARTERS,

ISLAND OF BENGALLA, INDIAN OCEAN

(DECEMBER 1, 1943)

"I first crossed swords with them, ten years ago," said Lt. Donald Winslow of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence. ". . .when I helped the FBI smash an L.A. spy ring that had been transmitting intel to the German embassy in Moscow via a colony of White Russian refugees near Ryojun.* But, that was a comparatively small operation. I've since learned that the Scorpion League has other spy rings, up to all kinds of mischief, throughout the rest of the world! Each one taking its orders from their home base on Scorpia. Which also currently harbors your old playmates; the Tseng Brotherhood."

The Phantom's posture suddenly became somewhat more rigid. His facial expression (almost-but-not quite) imperceptibly changing from mild curiosity to frowning grimness.

"How can I be of service?"

"Uncle Sam wants to ensure the success of the Marshall Islands campaign by eliminating Scorpia from the competition, once and for all! But, to do that, I'll have to smuggle myself and two others there aboard a Tseng pirate ship from Madripoor. Which we'll need your help in 'commandeerng'! "

The grim frown became an almost-chilling smile.

"It will be my pleasure."

JAPANESE TEA GARDEN, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

(APPROXIMATELY FORTY-FOUR YEARS LATER)

"The ship we wound up hijacking had dropped anchor off Vietnam's Mekong Delta in order to pick up some kind of archaeological artifact that had been looted, just a week or two earlier, from the once-lost city of Maengpong in Thailand. What that artifact was we didn't stick around to find out. We were on too tight a schedule! All we knew for certain was that the ship's captain was under written orders to hand-deliver it to some visiting VIP on Scorpia. The rest is history.

Diana Prince did some short hand scribbling before asking her next question.

"Yet, among all those Scorpion League files you confiscated, prior to calling in the bombers, you found not one mention of Scorpio, himself? Nor of what happened to Squadron G-8 back in 1918?"

Joe Tanaka" (formerly known as 'Wakai Tora') shook his head and shrugged. "If he was involved in their disappearance, it was never put down on paper!"

Frowning, Diana nevertheless managed to courteously thank him for the information he had brought her. She then caught a cab to the Mark Hopkins Hotel, intending to order lunch at the Top of the Mark before changing back into Wonder Woman and gliding back to where she had parked her invisible jet. In that regard, however, she was only half-successful. For no sooner had her waitress left, to give the kitchen staff her order, than Diana suddenly found herself being joined by a rather presumptuous blonde woman!

"Is this other seat taken?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I'll take that as a 'no'."

And, so, the blonde sat down.

"Now, wait a minute..." Diana started to protest. But the blonde woman cut her off.

"Let's not stand on ceremony, Your Highness," the latter said in a harsh whisper. "My name is Rose Psychic which is how I know you're really Wonder Woman from Paradise Island in the Bermuda Triangle. It's how I also know that Joe Tanaka lied to you!"

No sooner had the oddly named woman said this than Diana suddenly started getting a flood of images in her mind's eye.

WASHINGTON, DC (NOV. 16, 1943)

Baron Winters opened the door of his Georgetown mansion and evinced no surprise at beholding the trench-coated, fedora-wearing figure of Dr. Richard Occult.

"The Heart of Oom has been stolen from Maengpong."

With that brusque opening statement, the baron stood aside to let his visitor enter.

"I thought the giant crystal scorpion effigy guarding it was supposed to prevent that sort of thing," he remarked as he closed the door.

"It was no ordinary thief who stole it," replied the good doctor. "Are you familiar with Antoine Lamont?"

Winters shook his head.

"He's a French lunatic from Vichy who fancies himself the reincarnation of Count Cagliostro. Towards that end, he became a student of alchemy... with the Corsican branch of L'Ordine Della Luna Rosso Sangue."

"Oh, dear. That means he's probably already in bed with You-Know-Who. Figuratively, if not otherwise."

Dr, Occult grunted. "He must have been better-than-expected at the otherwise. Because she gave him a shadow cloak! One that he subsequently used to materialize the Sword of Kamuu, itself, to destroy the effigy."

"Oh, dear, dear, dear!" exclaimed his host. "That's definitely going to annoy the Atlanteans once they learn of it."

Dr. Occult smirked. "They already have. Who do you think notified me of her plans to smuggle him to Scorpia via the Tseng Brotherhood?"

TOP OF THE MARK RESTAURANT,

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

(JUNE 19, 1987)

"So, two weeks later, Lt. Winslow (aided by the Phantom, Judomaster, and Young Tiger) boarded and seized control of the Tseng pirate ship captained by one Singapore Sal. Ten days after that, they were on the island of Scorpia. With Winslow guiding in three squadrons of Allied bombers by radio. While the others grabbed up all the intelligence documentation they could carry following their failure to capture that visiting VIP. It was in one such file that Young Tiger briefly read (yet quickly memorized) the provenance of the Heart of Oom."

"And what, in Hera's name, might that be?" Diana grumbled as she massaged both sides of her now-aching forehead.

"That, according to legend, it was a large red moonstone that originally served as the centerpiece of an orichalcum breast plate originally worn by Varnae Thulsad Oom. The Egyptian wizard-king of ancient Thinis who was ultimately overthrown by the pre-Dynastic Pharaoh... Rama-Tut! Using something called the Scorpio Key.

The adrenaline rush from Diana's startled reaction made her headache instantly disappear.

"As in, Scorpio the Martian?"

Rose Psychic smiled. "Sort of."

Whereupon, Diana's mind was once more flooded with images.

SOMEWHERE IN CORSICA

(NOVEMBER 1, 1943)

"Once upon a time, there were two planets named Vruun and Krypton. The first was overrun by my former masters... which naturally compelled a large number of its surviving native inhabitants to flee into uncharted space. The second had a region called the Juru Valley whose own inhabitants fled to Earth as politico-religious refugees. They each came to Earth upon the now-legendary continent your people call Atlantis! And, eventually, the two groups began to intermarry. With some of their mixed-blood descendants becoming capable of extraordinary feats, both physically... and metaphysically."

"Among the latter was a wizard named Thulsa Doom. Very powerful, of course! But, like most of his ilk, his powers ultimately proved to be nowhere near as boundless as his ambitions. Consequently, he was forced to enact a contingency plan he had secretly hoped he would never need. The transference of his disembodied essence into a red moonstone which, in turn, was mounted upon a breast plate of magically augmented gold worn by his ape-like vampiric servant, Varnae. Thus, quasi-immortalized, Varnae outlived both the sinking of Atlantis and the so-called Hyborian Age that followed it. Eventually becoming the tyrannical ruler of ancient Thinis... whose Egyptian inhabitants mispronounced his name as 'Varnae Thulsad Oom'! Yet, once more, his overconfidence proved his undoing when he tried to prevent being overthrown by a superhuman being calling himself Rama-Tut."

"The latter used an ankh-shaped weapon of great cosmic power, inscribed with multiple hieroglyphs for the goddess Serqet, to shatter that red moonstone into six separate shards! While simultaneously disintegrating Varnae's physical form for what was initially hoped to be the rest of all time. Rama-Tut became the new king of Thinis. Following which, he ordered the priests of Serqet to hide the shards in the six most distant corners of the world they could find. The heart-shaped piece was taken to Siam via Dilmun and Ceylon. And it is that piece that my current associates wish you to obtain for us."

The greenish-colored dwarf called Scorpio pointed to the self-proclaimed Queen of Blood formerly known as Mary Seward. And it was to her, alone, that Antoine Lamont got down on knee to address his reply.

"It shall be done, Your Majesty."

Scorpio's bodyguard - -a member of the Death's Head Commandos personally assigned to this task by Baron Von Strucker, himself- -remained as impassive as possible during this awkward scene. So that no one would catch on that he was secretly American double-agent Jericho Jackson, Junior!

tbc

*Ryojun: post-WWI name for what was originally the Russian naval base of Port Arthur on the Liaotung Peninsula of China.