As if a starting pistol went off to begin a race, Sergeant Speed shot towards Red Blitzkrieg like a crimson comet. Blitzkrieg's entire body fizzled with red lightning as he started running away from him. Two blurs chased each other around the castle, only perceptible in brief moments of trading punches. Anytime else, they were moving too fast to comprehend what they were doing.
Diana and the others took a defensive position around the computer. They couldn't let the Hydras access it to launch the missiles. She looked around at all their opponents, she knew Degaton and Wizard would be their biggest threats due to their understanding of the futuristic technology. But as advanced as they were, she knew she could rely on some old classics in this fight. For example: Hitting them with a rock.
The Wonder slammed her crystalized fist against the castle's stone floor, using her mastery over earth to send chunks of the floor shooting upward. The first to rise were the pieces of floor directly below Kang and Wizard. The pillars Diana summoned pinned them against the ceiling. It would keep them occupied for now, but she knew that wouldn't hold them long. The rest of the stone rose up to form a wall around them, creating a mini castle within a castle.
"Where the hell are Lantern and the others? None of us have the chops to handle those guys," the Spirit of 60 Minutes asked as he clutched the hourglass around his neck. 39 minutes were left on his powers.
"Still disarming the bombs.. They'll make it, I trust the kid," Logan answered firmly. "Real question is who's taking who?"
"I'll…take the Baroness," Diana said through a strained grunt. She was pushing herself hard to keep the pieces of the floor pushed up against the two heavy hitters. Kang was fighting back hard against her power.
"What about Kang? Sounds like he's still kicking," Ororo challenged.
"I'll take them both, at least until the Centurion gets here. He's always right on time." Diana asserted. She was the strongest one here, so she felt the need to take the extra burden. "Spirit, take Bonechiller. Hawks, take the Masters. That was Sarge and I's strategy."
Everyone seemed to trust that Sarge and Diana's tactics were sound. After that little exchange, part of the stone wall Diana summoned started to ice over and then shattered apart from one powerful punch. Bonechiller had stepped in through the hole created. Brock wore an all white winter ensemble with a skull and crossbones motif to it. He wore metal gauntlets in which one could freeze things, while the other could destroy what was frozen.
"Knock knock," Bonechiller said in a hoarse, sadistic whisper.
The Spirit of 60 Minutes quickly sprung into action and did a flying lunge towards the frigid fighter, "Sorry, we don't take solicitors!" He then nailed the Nazi square in the chest.
The two got into a fierce boxing match. The two slugged each other with heavy handed haymakers with their own enhanced strengths. The Spirit took every blow on the chin and had no signs of slowing down. His miracle pills made him nigh invulnerable.
Not even Bonechiller's icy blasts could stop the clockwork juggernaut. The frosty felon would try to encase the man of the hour in an instant glacier, but the Spirit's heart was hot with the American Spirit, and his strength allowed him to bust through any icy trap. At least for now, it was all a matter of Brock Mahkent being able to keep this cycle going long enough for Rex's power to run dry. Although, he would have to keep doing this for another 35 minutes.
Instead of appearing through the same hole that Bonechiller had made, the other assailants made their own. Another portion of the walls came crashing down from a barrage of small explosions. On the other side of the wall stood the Master Olympian. He was the spitting image of the German's ideal man. Blonde, blue eyes, and a rippling physique. Conversely, he was dressed in a tacky menagerie of Olympic sports equipment and wielding a hockey stick. It seemed the explosives were hockey pucks made of plastique.
"You know Julia, ve don't often get to do zhings vizh ozher couples," Lawrence commented jovially to his partner.
The Olympian was partnered by the Apex Warrior. She was a blonde woman dressed in a black leather costume similar to that of a dominatrix with yellow accents harkening to a tiger's stripes. While Diana was intended to represent what America viewed as the ideal female specimen, the Apex Warrior was Germany's. The two of them were created to represent the future of Hydra's reign.
"Agreed, my love. Let us relish in such a rare opportunity," the Apex Warrior replied with a snide laugh and a crack of her whip.
Stormbird pulled out her Adth-Metal mace hanging from her belt loop. She held its head to the tips of her fingers and sent a jolt of electricity into it. The ancient weapon flared to life as it conducted its power to become even more lethal.
"Julia, it's been far too long since we last clashed! Still a heartless Nazi bitch?" Ororo teased as she twirled the mace in her hands. Sparks flew around them as she did.
"Of course, are you still a worthless savage parading as a queen?" the Warrior taunted back as she readied a crossbow.
Stormbird didn't even dignify that with a response. She flapped her wings and leapt into the air, only to crash back down against the Apex with a slam of her mace to the gut. The Warrior would fire a bolt from her crossbow, but it would bounce off Ororo's wings like it was a softball. She slammed down the crossbow, shattering it.
The Warrior woman resorted to grabbing a whip from her hip and tried lashing away at Ororo. The whip slashed against her, tearing through her costume and leaving a mark on her side. This only filled Stormbird with even more rage. The next time Julia lashed her whip, Ororo let it coil around her mace, and she sent a current straight through the whip and right into its user. This briefly stunned her for a moment, allowing the winged woman to crack her mace across the Apex Warrior's jaw.
At that point, the battle devolved into the Apex Warrior trying to use a series of underhanded fighting techniques to stifle Stormbird's attacks. Meanwhile, Stormbird would either use her mace to power through them, or her grab-bag of weather attacks to shock, freeze, or blow over with a stiff breeze. And Ororo did it all with great pleasure. She took great pride in her work, and believed her violence was a necessity to effectively enact justice.
Logan was having similar success with the Master Olympian. Lawrence Masters was a decent combatant on paper, containing the injected DNA of all of Germany's Olympic winners, but he simply couldn't keep up with Wolfhawk's strength, rapid healing, and centuries of combat experience.
Throughout the whole fight, which lasted around ten minutes, Masters was far outmatched. Logan had destroyed pretty much all of the equipment he brought. When brought down to his fists, the Olympian threw a punch at Logan, only for it to be blocked by his Adth Metal wings. Lawrence was strong, but hitting the unbreakable alloy that hard caused pain to split right through his hand.
"Yaargh! Zhose vings, zhey give you a terribly unfair advantage. If it were a true hand to hand, I vould reign as Master!" the Olympian boasted, even though he was losing.
Logan scoffed, "Since when did fair play ever matter to you, bub?" He then slashed his arm down against the Master Olympian's injured hand, and sliced it clean off.
Lawrence howled in pain as he clutched his severed arm, but he didn't break eye contact with Logan. "Vell, I am a sportsman." He stared his imminent death in the face, and he was still making jokes.
Logan chuckled, "Cute last words. Tell Anubis 'Khufu says hello'." He raised his claws ready to strike him down, before being hit with a blast of fire that burned like an inferno.
Baroness von Strucker fired her Warmaster Claw at Wolfhawk, giving the Master Olympian a window to escape. He pulled a folding bicycle out of seemingly nowhere and pedaled away like a coward. The Apex Warrior, bloody and beaten, had lashed her whip to catch the fleeing bicycle, the bike dragged her off, and the two of them barely escaped into one of the many castle corridors.
Meanwhile, Thawne and Garrick continued to race around the castle. Through the corridors, Red Blitzkrieg would effortlessly pluck bricks from the walls and hurl them towards the Sergeant, only for him to block the projectiles using his helmet as a shield. Sarge would try to retaliate by hurling his helmet at the skull-faced speedster, but Thawne was far too fast to let himself get hit by it. But it always bounced around and eventually back onto Sarge's head.
They'd loop around back to certain parts of the castle at certain intervals. Sarge watched closely to see how he ran. He kept close track of the patterns Thawne took to evade his strikes. Over the course of a minute, they'd lap the whole castle interior and then some. He just needed to time his next helmet throw absolutely perfectly.
Sarge and Blitz would dash through a room lined with suits of knights' armor and tapestries regaling the exploits of one of Von Strucker's ancestors. Esteban removed his helmet, spent a split second to determine the path of flight, and let loose.
Johann Thawne thought he saw the throw coming a lightyear away. He sidestepped it with ease, slowing down just to taunt Esteban. He turned around and ran backwards to heckle, "Und here I zhought zhe great Lightning American could see faster! But he can't even see vhat's in front of him!"
Sarge was confused by the name Thawne called him, but he didn't have time to react as the helmet whizzed past Thawne, but clashed against a stone pillar beyond them. It ricocheted back towards a wall, then to one of the suits of armor. This proceeded to knock over the suits of armor lined in a row like dominos. This then knocked over a vase, and the helmet bounced off the vase mid-fall. It then careened back towards the Sergeant, missing Thawne again. But instead of catching it, Sarge ducked beneath the flying saucer of a headpiece, leading it to hit the wall behind them. It bounced straight for the Red Blitzkrieg, slamming him right in the diaphragm, knocking the wind right out of him.
While he was reeling from the lost breath, Sarge dashed to throw Blitz against the wall. His neck now in Sarge's clutches this time. "You come from the future, right? Of all times to reach back to, why now? If your future is so advanced, ruling a time like this can't be very interesting."
Blitzkrieg wheezed as he slowly regained his breath, "Oh Sergeant, do you really think I care about conquering? That's Degaton's dream."
"Then why do any of this? Why cause the slaughter of millions with your weapons? Why cause so much pain to so many innocent people?" the Sergeant asked with visceral hatred in his eyes.
"Vhy, to make you suffer, of course. It's vhat I've done for my whole life," Thawne answered with a laugh and a cough.
"Me? What's so special about me? And who's the Lightning American?"
"You? You're the first, zhe first of a long lineage of speedsters, Sergeant. Or at least, you vere."
"What did you do, Thawne?"
"Barry Frank, the Whizz: dead in 1985. His successor Speed Demon, James West, disappeared in 2005. Max Bradley, Colonel Mercury: I framed for treason and he was imprisoned for life until he died in 1969. Johnathan Burnside, Director Quick: dead in 1964. All of them vere inspired by your exploits here in zhis var. You were a friend, even a mentor to half of them. The symbol you became which zhey tried to carry on, I made sure zhey all died for it. I have rendered your legacy to a slew of dead bodies. Und now, I come all zhe vay back to vhere it all began. Your legacy starts und ends vizh you, now."
That knowledge shook Sarge to his very core, and even a fraction of a moment of hesitation was all Thawne needed to regain his composure, vibrate his molecules, and phase right through Sarge's grip. Just like that, he bolted away, leaving Sarge back on the chase.
As Sarge briefly passed through the main hall, he saw that things had taken a turn for the worse. The Masters couple was gone, but the rest of the Hydras were still on the attack. The Spirit of 60 Minutes was currently encased in an even stronger block of ice from Bonechiller, struggling to bust free. His strength was beginning to peter out, only having 20 minutes left on his powers.
Stormbird and Wolfhawk clashing against the Wizard in the air. The mechanically-inclined mystic flew around, standing on anti-gravity discs and fired concussive blasts of energy from a wand. With every blast, Logan and Ororo's wings seemed to fail them. It'd seemed the Wizard's mastery over technology included even the power which allowed their equipment to fly.
"Degaton and Thawne showed me the future of science and technology, and it is more than I could ever have hoped for! I once loved the simple charms of stage magic, the beauty of a simple hoodwink, but knowing the secrets behind every trick has become so much more fun," the Wizard gloated as he cast down more blasts against the Halls' wings.
The next hit that connected to Logan's wings sent him plummeting to the ground, sending his claws stuck into the stone floor, and he struggled immensely to get up. "What'd you do to me, bub?"
"Another trick up my sleeve! Your wings are loaded with complex mechanisms of Thani'Ar technology! Your wings are made of stuff able to nullify real magic, which would be useful if I still used that stuff, but not now!" the Wizard continued to boast. He continued to monolog about how great his technology was.
"Are you alright, Logan?" Ororo asked as she tried to assist her husband by tugging up at his wings, but to no avail.
Without the anti-gravitational properties of the Adth Metal, it was extremely heavy to carry. And with Logan being covered head to toe in the stuff, he was severely handicapped. His wings were all but literally clipped. "I'm fine. Just keep him talking and throw him around a bit. We can't let him remember what his actual job is."
"Understood," Ororo did her best to disrupt Wizard's concentration with gusts of wind and lightning strikes so that he couldn't operate the computer remotely with his tech. He'd continue to fly around and taunt the hawks about how amazing he was, buying the MSA precious time.
With the Wizard free, it was easy to infer that Diana had since been compromised in restraining him. She was holding her own against Baroness von Strucker. Her Warmaster Claw was giving Wonder Crystal's pyrokinesis a run for her money. She was currently literally fighting fire with fire, holding out her hands to try and absorb the Baroness's blasts into herself to minimize surrounding damage. But utilizing this and maintaining her crystalline form to help take the heat, she was straining herself.
The Baroness let out a sadistic cackle as she charged forward against Wonder Crystal. She had joined the Hydras out of eagerness to get a sample of the terrigen crystals Diana was subdermally composed of. She was a scientist at heart, and her mind raced with excitement for what she could do with her body.
Meanwhile, Diana still wanted to give her a chance to surrender peacefully. "Baroness, I know that you have children. Do you really want them to grow up in a world governed by fear?"
At the time of her saying this, Rex had since broken out of his icicle and threw another haymaker against Bonechiller, "Crystal, we can't be doing this right now! Wrap this up! I got 15 minutes left!"
Diana had lived for a very long time, she was in her 4920's at this point. She had spent most of her life amongst the privilege of the Inhuman Amazon Royal Family. She was trained to be the perfect warrior, but only as a means to further the mission of peace. It sounded hypocritical, but she fully believed in it, "Don't raise a sword until you first try to extend a branch," she asserted to herself. She believed in the best for everyone, even those who definitely did not deserve it. Some would call it naive, others would see it as admirable.
Paula von Strucker ignored her words and continued to turn up the heat of the gauntlet, "I chose this life because my kids deserve to live in a world which they rule with an iron fist!"
Diana walked through the Warmaster's endless fire and continued to absorb the fire, though it was unclear where the fire was going. "I can respect a mother's love, but this is not the way." She got closer and closer, her crystalline form shimmered as the light from the fire reflected off of her body.
The Baroness stared at her like she was a statue of a Greek muse. She was in awe. She stopped blasting her flames. "I'm too far gone at this point. My penchant for goodwill died long ago, I've accepted that. Also what's that over there?" She spoke in the same solemn tone for every sentence.
Diana was briefly thrown off, and looked behind her, only for von Strucker to slam the Warmaster Claw straight into the side of her face. As a result, a small piece of her crystalline body chipped off where her cheek bone would be. Wonder Crystal just stood there for a second, stunned in a combination of incredulousness that Paula not only dared to try that, but the fact that she also fell for that. It was as if a small bit of her faith in humanity chipped away just like her face.
Baroness von Strucker stood there, realizing how little her strike actually did, and also realizing how badly of a mistake she had just made. Diana turned back around to face her. She extended her closed hand out to Paula, and opened it. Briefly, she thought it was another peace offering, but those thoughts were dashed as all of the absorbed fire quickly manifested into the hand, and it all exploded right in Paula's face, sending her flying and crashing against the castle wall. Her entire body was singed, and broken. It was unclear whether she was dead or alive, but what mattered was that she and the claw were out of commission.
Diana stared at her adversary's remains on the other side of the room, "Well, I gave her a chance."
Rex had also just finished off Bonechiller, "How about you put some ice on that, Brock?" he joked before looking over at Diana. "Crystal, are you alright?"
Before Wonder Crystal could answer, a high pitched ringing could be heard. She felt a strange tingling sensation throughout her whole body. She stared at her hands, her entire crystalline form was vibrating rapidly, it was terribly painful. It was so bad that she couldn't concentrate long enough to revert back to her organic form. She couldn't move, could barely speak, and started to feel as if she was cracking apart.
The culprit revealed himself to be Kang Degaton, hovering above them while cloaked until now. He was dressed in a black military uniform reminiscent of a typical Nazi officer, but with a large purple "D" on his left lapel. In his black gloved hands was the Spear of Destiny, a glowing gold staff with a sharp tip on the end. He was brandishing it towards Diana, the weapon creating a high frequency noise capable of shattering certain crystals. He found the right one to compromise Terrigen.
"It took me a while to find the right level of hertz to shatter you, Diana Amaquelin," Kang spoke in a low, almost robotic voice. "In my time, you are a myth, just like your family. You are a cautionary tale to teach children what happens when ideals blind you from reality."
Diana couldn't even hear him, she was in so much pain. Her hands were covered in fractures, but the rest of her arms were fine. It'd seemed her bracers were the only thing holding her together for now.
"Why you no good son of a-" Rex charged and leapt at Kang. He still had ten minutes left on his pill to work with. Or so he thought. Kang merely redirected the Spear to barrage Spirit with tachyon particles, accelerating his time by not ten minutes, but ten years. Rex had become a 52 year-old man with no powers. The middle-aged man collapsed to the ground in defeat.
"The Spirit of 60 Minutes is a footnote in history, but the mind of Rex Nasland remained a deep thorn in my side. Perhaps with less time to live, your legacy will not have time to vex me." Kang said as he approached the computer. All the while, the Spear continued torturing Diana.
Wizard had since descended to the ground after taking out Stormbird, "Sorry I didn't set these things off earlier. I was a tad preoccupied, sir."
"It matters not in the grand scheme of things. All that matters is the inevitable conquest. Their interference shall mean nothing in the long run. General Thawne is handling the speedster, correct?" Kang asked as the Wizard began finalizing the data into the computer with Kang's assistance.
"Yeah. I got the birds, he's got the runner, you got the clock and the should be fine as long as Arnim took care of Lantern, Centurion, and that weird kid in the missile bay," Wizard assured.
Kang's face went white, "Wizard, he's been up there this whole time."
"What? So we just left the lynchpin of our assault unguarded?!" The Wizard assumed, "Doc, what the hell?!"
Bio-Wave looked down from his perch. He was a little man of Swiss descent. He was bald and snivelly, with large round glasses, and wrapped in an orange robe. "Don't worry, I sent some of my genetic experiments to guard the place. I'm just because I wanted to watch!"
"What's more important, Arnim?! Your own entertainment, or protecting the damn missiles?!" The Wizard shouted up at the little man.
"My Doughboys are unmatched in terms of security! I have full confidence that the missile bay is completely protected from the others!" He answered with seemingly unfounded confidence.
Kang let out a pained groan, "Bio-Wave, if you are wrong, I am going to take my Spear and introduce you to Jesus'-"
Right through the side wall of the main room, a portal shaped in the ankh of Fate opened up, and the three remaining members of the MSA arrived from it. Erik and the Centurion were covered in a weird dough like substance which were the remains of Bio-Waves security creatures. Alan remained clean, hovering as a floating ray of emerald light.
The Star Centurion stared down Kang with vitriolic fury, "DEGATON! It's time to finish what you started!" He then shot towards the time traveler like a shooting star and carried him off to fight elsewhere.
Human Lantern looked at the Wizard with bright piercing eyes, "Bentley Zarick, I would like to make you disappear, the same way you did to my creator, Professor Horton." It didn't show, but he was very angry. Alan raised his hand to create a construct of a magician's cape to form around his glowing body, and then that of boxes and a large saw. It seemed he intended to cut the Wizard in half. As the two heavy hitting heroes took their opponents, Bio-Wave slinked off into the shadows behind his perch.
With the ringing gone from earshot, Diana's agony began to cease, but slowly. Erik quickly flew to Diana's side, using a spell to revert her back to her natural state more quickly. "I could sense your anguish, Diana. We got here as soon as we could." He reached out his hand, and Diana accepted it so she could stand up.
Diana steadied her breathing and looked around, "Thank you Fate. Are the missiles shut down?"
"We could not disarm them, no. They were enchanted by the Spear to repel our magic. But we destroyed the propulsion mechanics to keep them inert here," the Fatal Compass answered. "Where is the Sergeant?"
"He's somewhere around here fighting Red Blitzkrieg, why? How is all of this going to go?" Diana asked, hoping to learn the fate of this battle.
"I cannot give you details, but Order shall be restored by end of day. The elements of chaos, the time travelers will be rectified, but at a deep cost," Fate answered vaguely. When he spoke, it sounded like a combination of Erik's own voice and his patron, Nabu. This happened when the Lord of Order was taking greater control over Erik than usual.
Diana was anxious at the response. Any augury that the Fatal Compass provided was cryptic at best, and depressingly foreboding at worst. "Can you give me anything to work with?" She asked with a hint of aggression.
She never liked Nabu; an Ancient God who cared little for the people besides what suited his mission. She resented him and the Lords of Order for co-opting an innocent child into this war, for weaponizing Erik's grief to make him their puppet, and forcing his mind within. Diana could never trust a being so callous and without compassion, but for now, she tolerated him for the sake of the mission.
Fate and Diana then began to feel a great rumbling coming from beneath them, "Something very powerful is upon us."
Thawne had eventually led Sergeant Garrick into the missile launch bay. The slimy remains of Bio-Wave's creatures coated the room with the pungent smell of yeast. Anything that wasn't covered in dough was covered in green fire. Scattered missile parts lay around the area, but the warheads remained in pristine condition. Red Blitzkrieg scowled at the remains of what would have been the piece de resistance of his master scheme. "Shiza!"
Sarge looked around as he caught his breath. He had to exert a lot more energy to keep up with the Nazi speedster. "You won't be destroying any cities tonight, Blitz!"
"I must know, how did you even know how to navigate zhis castle, let alone know where to find zhe missiles?" Thawne asked, trying to figure out what to do next.
"We've had a double agent on your team feeding us info since Normandy. Let's just say that I have friends in dark places." Sarge answered, referring to Susan Swift, the false head of Hydra, a.k.a. Mother Shade.
Thawne let out a dry sigh of regret, "Ugh, Shade, never trust an Englishwoman. To zhink, I vas going to take her as mein lover."
He smiled and admired his friends' handiwork, "It seems unlike your team, Blitz, I can rely on my eses to pull through," he said proudly. "The MSA has likely dispatched your whole team by now, and with the missiles inoperable, you've lost."
Thawne chuckled at Sarge's remark, "Eses? Oh how quaint. It's truly entertaining to see how much one small change can degrade you so much."
Sarge's expression darkened, "There's nothing small about anything you've done, Thawne. The millions dead because of Hydra, the lives you've ruined by meddling with time, destroying a legacy I've yet to leave, what was this all for? What filled you with all this hate?"
"To tell you zhe truzh, Lieutenant, I don't remember anymore. Manipulating time zhe vay I have altered mein memories so much, zhat I don't know how much of zhe original me is left. But what I know is left is deep-seated hatred for your kind." Thawne spoke candidly as he looked down at the piles of sticky biomass on the ground. "Zhat hatred is all I am, now." That last remark sounded almost pathetic coming from him.
"I'm a Sergeant, not a Lieutenant. And by my kind, do you mean speedsters or Mexicans?" Sarge asked.
"Bozh, but mainly zhe first vone!" Thawne vibrated his hand rapidly and slammed it down against the ground next to the piles of slime, sending a shock wave which sent a large glob of dough flying towards Sarge. Sarge reacted quickly and tried to grab and throw his helmet to slice through the glob. But to no avail, he was trapped against the wall before he could get it off.
Esteban tried to use his speed to run through the dough or vibrate enough to generate heat to melt it, but nothing was working. Bio-Wave engineered his monsters to be perfect at restraining and containing physical fighters like him. They would have been fairly effective had they not been set to defend against the three heroes who specialized in ranged combat.
Red Blitzkrieg bolted straight up to Sergeant Speed and taunted him by vibrating his hand right in front of his face. "I can't believe zhat vorked, I vas expecting more from zhe Lightning American. If I can't use zhe missiles to detonate zhe populace, zhen I'll just run zhem over zhere myself!" Thawne mocked as he had Sarge right where he wanted him.
Sarge struggled to try and escape from his organically composed confines, "You'll never get away with this, Thawne. My team will stop you. And who is the Lightning American?!"
Thawne could barely contain his excitement, "Oops, I must have let it slip again. Sorry, it's just so hard to keep track of everyzhing I have done to you. But I really should remember mein greatest achievement."
Sarge started to actually get a little worried, "What did you do to me, Thawne?"
Thawne began cackling maniacally as he finally explained everything. "I spoke so much of your legacy as just zhose zhat vanted to follow in your blurred footsteps. But you vere so much more zhan zhat, Sergeant. Before I got mein hands on your timeline, you veren't just a soldier or a title. You vere a symbol, a symbol of a dream, zhe American Dream!"
Sarge scoffed, "I get it, an immigrant from Mexico whose family comes to America in search of a better life, finds purpose in using the gifts his country gives him to serve his countrymen. It's a good story for anyone wh-" Esteban was interrupted by a punch to the jaw by Thawne.
"Schweigen, Herr Sergeant," Thawne ordered, "Nein, you vere even more vonce. You vere zhe child of immigrants, ja. But you vere born zhere, und you vere beautiful. Your name vas Steven Jason Garrick, and you vere zhe Aryan ideal, but you still fought to protect zhose zhat should have been beneath you! To destroy the credibility of what you represent, I had to put you on zheir level."
"Tell me what you did, Thawne!" Sarge demanded of him.
"I couldn't change Joseph Garrick, ozhervise, your sperm vould never come to be. But I could change vhere it vent. In 1908, I transported your father from Dublin to Mexico City. He was panicked at first, but in time, he adapted, und fell in love vizh a local frau named Sara Rogelios. In 1916, she became your new mozher! Remember every time you faced a dirty look from a vhite man? Remember every struggle you faced in America, growing up in a vorld zhat you did not fit into? Remember every time you looked into a mirror and you knew somezhing vas wrong vizh zhe face zhat stared back at you? IT VAS ME GARRICK, I MADE YOU MEXICAN!" Thawne burst out in insane maniacal laughter, feeling as if he revealed the most shocking, devastating reveal one could ever tell a person.
Esteban was in stunned silence. This was the most insane piece of information you could ever tell a person. He briefly wanted to doubt Thawne and question all of what he just, but it was so insane to explain in detail how he did it, that there was no way he could make that up on the spot.
How does one process the thought of a time traveling Nazi who has an extreme hatred of you for no real reason, and then have their magnum opus be that they traveled back in time to take away your whiteness? He was completely at this lunatic's mercy, and that's what he ended up doing? I suppose to a Nazi, that would be the absolute worst thing you could do to a man. But the whole time, Sarge was more bothered by the idea that he had no control over something like that happening to him. If someone as powerful as Thawne existed in his life, could he really have any agency over his existence? He was absolutely befuddled.
"You vere America's Perfect Son, und you used your influence to guide zhe people of zhe vorld to be better. Zhe Lightning American symbolized vhat zhe country had zhe potential to become if zhey abandoned zheir hatred for vone another, und embraced your ideals of honor, bravery und all zhat shiza."
"I can still be that for the future. No change of my skin is going to impact the content of my character." Esteban asserted. He was doing what he could to take some agency back over his life.
"How naive, Sergeant. You vere an optimist before as vell, but you could back it up vizh results zhen too," Thawne added. "Zhe vorld has alvays hated und feared anyzhing even slightly different from zhem. Despite all your gifts, despite all your service, zhere vill alvays be somevone who looks down upon you. The only true symbols are zhose zhat are understood and respected by all. You are nozhing now but a speedy little soldat."
He reached inside his suit and retrieved a photograph. He presented it to Sarge to reveal a hero in a very similar costume to his. The military uniform base, a large lightning bolt across the chest, even wings on the helmet. But the most striking difference was that the man beneath the helmet was a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. This was the Lightning American, the man Sergeant Speed used to be. "Look upon your former self und despair!"
Sarge looked upon his old face. It made him resentful, thinking of the life he used to have. He didn't resent the life he had now, but rather that someone had the gall to change it to this. His shock and awe had evolved into anger and a thirst for vengeance.
Thawne laughed, satisfied in believing he broke Esteban's resolve. "Anyvay, I'm going to blow up millions of people now. Auf wiedersehen!"
Sarge had begun vibrating his whole body rapidly, generating a large amount of air pressure underneath the Doughboy remains trapping him. And suddenly, without warning, sent a powerful thrust of force straight towards Thawne. He was so caught up in his own gloating, that when the glob of the dough flung off the mass trapping Sarge, it struck Red Blitzkrieg and glommed its way onto him. He then fell backward into another pile of the remains. Thawne was trapped in the pile of high-carb goo.
With a portion of the slime restraining Sarge gone, he was able to grab his helmet from his head. He began spinning it very fast on his finger, and used the thin brim as a makeshift saw blade to cut himself out from the remains. He looked down at the dumbstruck Thawne after he fell victim to such a blunder. To be cautious, he then threw even more of the stuff on top of Red Blitzkrieg to make sure he definitely couldn't get out of there. "We still have a lot to discuss, Blitz. But I have more to do. Whether I be a Sergeant or Lieutenant, I still do my duty. Adios" Just like, Esteban had left the room to return to the main hall to check on the rest of the MSA.
Thawne looked back at the warheads and grinned, "Ah, you did good, Johann. I am so close to breaking him." He then began to vibrate his body to phase through the dough. Given the material's density and plasticity, it wouldn't be as easy as phasing through concrete. He'd snap back into place like a rubber band if he didn't pass all the way through. So, he needed to be very focused and persistent for a while. Luckily, with Hydra's trump card, he had more than enough time.