Roll CallThe Enigmatic
Doctor Fate!
Flash, the Fastest Man Alive!
Green Lantern, Beacon of Justice! The Winged Warrior,
Hawkman! The Sixty-Minute Cyclone,
Hourman!
Guest-StarringThe Amazing Amazon,
Wonder Woman and the Patriotic
Mister America!
The dreaded Nazi mastermind Baron Blitzkrieg is in possession of a mystical artifact, one that could further tilt the balance of power towards the Axis cause! What dread secret lurks within the Obsidian Casket, and can it help the Bloody Baron overcome even the…
Justice Society of America?“Fire and Light!” part two
Somewhere in Libyan SaharaThe azure and scarlet costume of Baron Blitzkrieg stood in stark contrast to the endless beige and yellow of the surrounding desert. He stood over the newly-liberated coffin of deepest black hues. He reverently ran his fingers lightly over the glittering sigils carved across the surface of the object. His face was a mystery to all observers, closed away under the golden faceplate he wore, but those soldiers close enough to catch his eyes behind the slits could shudder at the undisguised glee they held.
{“The Obsidian Casket,”} he muttered, his voice made hollow from the metallic covering. {“At long last. Zwerg! Open it!”} he commanded sharply.
A dwarf stepped forward on his stubby legs, thick and squat arms reaching out towards the latch. He was rough-looking with stringy gray hair and beady yellow eyes that reflected the brilliant desert sunlight. His fingers hovered over the silver ibis-headed latch and muttered words beneath his breath, eyes rolling up into his head.
Suddenly, cries of pain and gunfire broke the moment as Wonder Woman streaked down the dune, kicking up sand in a wake behind her. The blade of her glittering sword sliced around her, causing German soldiers to collapse in sprays of blood or dive for their lives. Behind her, Mister America bounded along, pistol in one hand firing away as the battle was engaged.
“Fiend! There is no way I will permit you to access the horrors of that casket!” Wonder Woman cried out as she charged directly for Baron Blitzkrieg, leaving her team-mate to guard her rear, scything through the German troops as quickly as he could with punches, kicks and flips.
“Wonder Woman!” Baron Blitzkrieg snarled in return as he turned to face the charging heroine. “You should not have come here! It will only be your death! And the Nazi cause is always willing to kill more symbols of American decadence!” He focused his gaze on her and searing red beams of heat lanced forward.
Having had to abandon her shield for the cross-country trek, Hippolyta instead used her speed to duck the attack, the energy melting the sand where she had stood as she leaped forward to strike at him with her sword. “You may not have the Casket! You and your foul regime face death this day, Baron!” she cried as she lunged again with her blade, both attempts slicing deep into his mail tunic.
“Amerikanische Dirne! I will not allow you to stop me!” His eyes stared into the warrior woman’s own fierce gaze, as he struck a mental switch in his brain. Suddenly, the energy that flowed from his eyes powered his muscles, and with surprising speed, a backhanded punch landed a telling blow on the side of Hippolyta’s face. She staggered backwards and growled.
“Your strength does you credit, but your twisted brain can only grant you so many abilities at once,” she replied as she danced around him at greater speed. “If you wish to keep up with me, you’ll have to forego that strength!” She kept back from his reach, and used the length of her sword to strike several times against his chest and shoulders.
Zwerg continued his chants, trying to ignore the battle being waged just feet away from him, or the gunfire and shouts and thuds from further away. At last, he finished the Spell of Unbinding, and his fingernails generated a deep indigo glow. He touched the ibis-shaped latch and tried to lift it, only to cry out in terrible pain, energy raking over his misshapen squat body. He flew backwards several feet, smoking flesh and twitching arms indicating the severity of the damage.
Mister America continued to cut a swath through the soldiers, the heat and exhaustion getting to him. He knew he had to keep moving; there were too many Nazis to even contemplate slowing down. His pistol was out of shots, and he used the handgrip for a club as he felt arms gripping his knees to bear him down. He continued the battle, but with the edge and momentum gone, it was only time before stars burst before his eyes, pain wracked the back of his head and the world went dark.
Baron Blitzkrieg muttered something in German as he switched the energy to his speed and reflexes to keep up with Wonder Woman. “You are such a worthy female! The children you could bear for me, if you’d just foreswear that Jew president of yours!” he said to her as the two combatants moved in toe-to-toe, blows being fired at each other faster than the soldiers could follow.
“You’ll never touch me like that!” Hippolyta snarled as she jumped up and let her knee jam into his chest, staggering him back. Her blade arced toward him now, his defenses down. “You’ll never foul another woman, in fact!”
Staggered physically, Blitzkrieg was still mentally aware, and his thoughts were faster than her Mercury-derived speed. His energy moved out around his body, providing defense from the telling cut, the sword sparking off of his defensive field.
“I tire of this!” Blitzkrieg declared. “I need to take the casket back to be examined by more skilled sorcerers clearly. You and Mister America will be added trophies of my skill!” Suddenly, the switch in his head clicked again as the energy propelled him through the air and into Wonder Woman’s stomach. She gave a whoosh as her breath was knocked from her, but she regained her composure enough to bring the pommel of the sword down into the middle of his back with both hands.
The blow staggered him again, but he merely focused through the pain and diverted his flight towards the ground. Suddenly, the coarse, brutally hot desert sand smashed into Hippolyta’s back like an unmoving wall while Blitzkrieg shifted back to his defensive field.
An explosion of sand obscured the battlefield as the Baron’s men looked and tried to see what the results were. Finally, the sand fell to the ground and Baron Blitzkrieg, rattled by the collision, dragged himself out of the crater, dragging Wonder Woman behind him by her hair. He fell to his knees as he ordered his men. {“Load the plane. Get the God damned Americans aboard as well. We depart as soon as possible.”} He grew dizzy and rested in place as his men scurried in response.
Boston, MassachusettsThe hotel room was dark, the moonlight low on the horizon and casting a scant alabaster glow in through the room, revealing a scattered array of clothing surrounding the bed in the middle. In that bed were two figures, Kent Nelson asleep on his back and holding an equally asleep Inza Kramer wrapped up in his arms. Both people had pleased looks on their faces, and they slept soundly as the night silence shrouded them like the blankets covering their bodies.
Into this quietude was thrust an alarm that screamed through Kent Nelson’s mind. His eyes flew open, and stared straight up to the ceiling above. His body grew tense as if he listened to further alarming news, the change in his body making Inza murmur and shift slowly.
“Wuz wrong, luv?” she muttered softly, her eyes barely opening as Kent sat up straight in the bed.
“A terrible force has been uncovered,” Kent said in answer as he looked around the room, trying to orient himself. “This isn’t the tower.”
“No, it’s not, love,” Inza replied. “Remember, you wanted to save all that energy of yours to find out what ‘charity girl’ means?” she traced a mischievous finger over his flat stomach while leaning on one arm.
“Right. Hotel. We’re in Boston then,” Kent reminded himself as he held his hand out, palm up. A golden globe formed several inches above his hand and it slowly grew and shifted in shape until it coalesced into the Helmet of Nabu.
Inza nodded as she watched him summon his helmet, and then called forth his Amulet of Anubis. She watched it float from the ether and around his neck. “Guess the date’s over?”
“This is deadly serious, Inza,” he replied as he slipped out of the bed and placed the helmet over his head. A sheath of energy slipped over his body and formed the costume of Doctor Fate.
“I would love to stay, Inza. But this is very bad. Will you be alright?”“Go, Doctor,” she said with a smile. “I’ll take care of things here. The world needs you, I’m sure. I’ll wait for you back at the tower?” she asked hopefully.
For long, tense moments, Kent stared at her from beneath the golden helm. The tower was his sanctuary, his refuge from the world, where he could renew his body and spirit and mind after these brutal battles. Slowly, he smiled and nodded.
“Make yourself at home, beloved.” With that, he lifted off the floor and swiftly flew out of the window, leaving Inza Kramer behind in the bed, with a large smile of her own.
JSA Headquarters, Gotham CityWith a start, Carter Hall, Rex Tyler, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott found themselves seated at their conference table, garbed in their identities as mystery men, as Doctor Fate stood on the opposite end from the chairman’s seat.
A brief surge of indignant and shocked voices assaulted the once-silent room until Doctor Fate held his hand up and quelled the noise with a soft orange light from his outstretched hand.
“I will explain,” Doctor Fate told the assembled heroes.
“The Justice Society is needed, and I had to bring you all here quickly. We must move out, and fast, and couldn’t risk sparing the time to use modern means, like the telephone, or wait for you to respond. Talking one at a time to each of you, explaining that you were needed and why, it would all waste very precious time.”Alan drummed his fingers, the glowing green ring of energy around his finger showing in the half-light. “You had no right to just drag us away. We all have private lives, Fate. How can we explain this sudden disappearance away?”
Hawkman stood up and leaned forward on his fists against the table. “This is completely unacceptable, Fate, and if you ever try it again, then so help me…”
His voice trailed off as Fate again held his hand up, though without a glow this time.
“True. I apologize. I only thought of the threat. I do not feel sorry for summoning you, and interrupting your lives for this mission, but you are correct. We shall have to find a better way of dealing with this.”These words from the typically aloof sorcerer seemed to mollify the assembled mystery men, as Hourman spoke up now.
“Where’s Atom, Sandman and Johnny Thunder?”
“For what we need to do, Atom and Sandman would add little to the battle, in comparison with the energy I would need to use to transport them. We’ll have substitutes at the scene. Johnny Thunder’s Thunderbolt makes him resistant to my summons.” He sounded frustrated over that last fact.
“What is this threat?” Flash asked now. “You’ve mentioned it enough times that I think we’ve got the idea. This is bad. What’s up then?”
“Someone has tried to open the Obsidian Casket,” Fate answered.
“I’ll explain more as we head into battle. Suffice it to say, if someone is attempting to open it, they are either very foolish, or a grave threat. Either is too dangerous to be ignored.”“If it’s this bad, we’d better get going,” Hawkman said as he stood up again, the rest of the JSA getting up as well. “Where are we going?”
“As we speak, the casket is flying over the Mediterranean Sea,” Fate explained.
“We will need to retrieve our aircraft from Gotham Airfield, and I will use apportation to bring us into the area. Speed is of the greatest essence.” “Then let’s go,” Alan said as he encased everyone but Jay in green energy. “I’ll ring us all there at top speed, and Flash, you go get the airplane ready for take off.”
With a tremendous rush of wind, Flash vanished from sight, leaving the wooden door open for Green Lantern to follow as the heroes raced off into the night.
The sky over TunisiaThe cargo plane sped into the mid-morning sky as Baron Blitzkrieg observed his three trophies. The casket sat in the middle of the hold, while the bound Mister America and Wonder Woman lay against one wall.
Zwerg limped over next to Blitzkrieg, rubbing his temples with hands bound up in bandages.
“How did your spell fail, Herr Zwerg?” the Baron asked as he refused to turn and look at the stunted man, instead keeping his gaze on the casket.
“The backlash told me what had happened,” Zwerg answered. “It requires the blood from one of the guardians of darkness.”
“Explain better than that!” Blitzkrieg snapped as he paced around the casket.
“There are some sects of humanity who’ve been charged with guarding various places of power,” Zwerg answered patiently, not willing to anger the powerful Nazi. “Supposedly to defend from the evil or corruptive nature of these places or what they hold.” Zwerg looked towards Hippolyta, who was even now struggling to regain consciousness. “For example, the Amazons are alleged by some scholars to have been bound to guard the doorway to Hades in punishment for falling to Heracles.”
Blitzkrieg looked up and stared hard at Zwerg, his fingers drumming over the casket’s surface. “So where do we find one of these guardians to bleed?” he snapped again, angry at the uselessness of the midget he’d been stuck with by the Thulegesselschaft. Then he paid closer attention to the wizard and let his own glance follow Zwerg’s and take in the half-awake Wonder Woman.
“You mean?” He let a slow smile start to creep across his face beneath the metallic mask. When he saw the dwarf nod, he started to chuckle. “I get to bleed my old foe to death and gain my super-weapon. This is indeed a good day for the Nazi cause!”
