by Libbylawrence
The composite being called Doctor Fate was actually Kent and Inza Nelson. Kent had become a doctor of medicine in the 1940s. The man of healing within the mage was troubled by what he saw at Missouri. An entire town had died, apparently from heart attacks.
He gazed down on bodies with an apparently clinical demeanor, but behind the gleaming helm he felt sorrow and a desire to bring order to the chaos before him. “They almost all had healthy hearts, and suddenly — I’d say at the exact same moment — they all suffered heart attacks… heart failure,” he announced.
“Was some artificial stimulant introduced into their bloodstreams?” asked Red Robin.
Doctor Fate admired the man’s keen analysis. “Not quite, Robin,” he said. “The deaths were due to a sudden, rapid increase in the production of adrenaline — they were stimulated naturally to the point of death. I assume some outside ray or energy induced the increase in the production by the adrenal glands.”
“That sounds almost like Miraclo!” said Hourman.
“True, but not precisely,” said Fate. “In this instance, the criminal element was not the adrenal rush itself, but what induced it.”
“An old Nazi foe of ours did it,” said the Flash. “Remember — Baron Blitzkrieg is back. I’d wager that Blitzkrieg did this to these poor people as a test. Remember how he could free himself from the mental limits of how his body used the energy within it? I’d say he somehow forced the bodies of these victims to surge with adrenal energy at a fatal level.”
“Then we’d best find him before he kills again,” said Red Robin. “Can you track him via the unique metabolism he possesses?”
Doctor Fate held out his Ring of Fate, seldom seen in recent years. “I can track evil with the ring, and this is assuredly evil at its worst. If it is not shielded mystically, then I shall trace it easily.” After a few moments he said, “No magic aids our foes. Perhaps the ring which leads us to evil may also lead us to our captive friend!”
They departed at top speed.
***
Doctor Mid-Nite bided his time, then when Baron Blitzkrieg had departed, he burst free from his frayed ropes and kicked the masked Armageddon in the face, before rolling across the ground to spring up behind Fausta Grables and slam both fists down at a spot at the base of her skull. She grunted and fell forward. He knew even a woman of her Amazonian proportions would be vulnerable there, since even true Amazons like Wonder Woman were. He hurled a blackout bomb in the path of the charging Red Panzer.
The Nazi scowled and said, “The man controls the very forces of shadow!”
Helmut Streicher, his elderly self, gasped and screamed, “Guards! Get him!”
Doctor Mid-Nite had studied his whereabouts, and he knew his time was limited unless he make perfect use of his abilities. He slapped a tranquilizer patch on the struggling Streicher, and the old man dozed quickly. He flipped aside as Armageddon tackled the spot he had just occupied. He jumped high and kicked off of the fallen Fausta to reach an air vent. Slicing through the metal with his laser scalpel, he slipped inside. He raced through the narrow passage halfway, then silently slipped back the way he had entered. As he had hoped, his foes had hurried to the end of the shaft, and for a few seconds he was alone.
He leaped through a glass window at the top of the complex and crawled out on a dirty field that seemed totally barren from above. The opening he had used blended against the stark ground. He ran to a wooden area and caught his breath. They would be after him, and he knew the Baron could fly, but he now had time to think, and he did that extremely well.
***
Baron Blitzkrieg had departed the main chamber of the New Bunker for a lone wing where he operated a device of his own devising. It allowed him to draw upon his own unique abilities to create the same adrenal surge that he had used to wipe out the small town. It had been a successful test, and now he prepared to do the same for all of Washington, D.C. He had failed to kill two presidents before, and now he vowed to make up for his failures.
“Bah! The American president and Congress shall feel my power this evening!” he boasted. He shook his metal-clad fist in the air as he recalled his many defeats at the hands of Wonder Woman, Liberty Belle, and Mister Terrific, among others. “This time I shall triumph!” he said.
He frowned as alarms echoed across the New Bunker. “Curse these incompetents!” he shouted and flew forward, away from his precious device. He was met by several running troops and the JSA.
Liberty Belle faced Fausta Grables as she grimaced at the all-American girl. “Your Veronica Lake beauty shall fade after my iron fists finish with you!” she said.
Belle rubbed her belt buckle and slid between Fausta’s spread legs. “My beautician and I would prefer to avoid that little eventuality!” she teased as she rolled forward and kicked the black leather-clad warrior flat. She generated a blast sonic power that slowed the angry blonde Nazi very little.
Johnny Quick scattered a squad of brown-shirted troops and said, “I thought we’d seen the last of you guys years ago. Guess evil never goes out of style!”
Belle flipped acrobatically across the chamber, keeping ahead of Fausta. She knew the platinum blonde with the ponytail could rip her apart if she caught her agile body.
Hawkgirl smiled as she dodged Nazi gunfire. “You boys don’t shoot any better than your kind did forty years ago,” she laughed. Swooping low, she kicked a soldier across the room. “The next show will be at noon!” she bantered.
Hawkman smashed his heavy mace down into a bank of machinery as Green Lantern bludgeoned away with a huge energy fist and the Flash shattered equipment with vibrating hands. “Junk is hauled away from bunkers on Tuesdays, I believe!” he joked.
The normal troops had fallen to a high-kicking Liberty Belle, the super-fleet Johnny Quick, and Hawkgirl’s aerial asault.
Meanwhile, Red Robin slipped through the base in the shadows and came upon the wizened Helmut Streicher. The old man is in bad shape, he mused.
Then he gasped as the Red Panzer ran forward and fired his mauser into his future self. “Better earlier death than such feeble helplessness!” he shouted.
Red Robin tossed a batarang and sliced the gun out of his hand, but it was too late. “You murdering devil! You killed yourself?” he muttered as Panzer ran for his time-scanner.
“I shall return to fight in a brighter tomorrow!” he vowed.
“Not likely — I disassembled that thing when I first got here,” said a grinning Red Robin as the Nazi struggled with his now-useless device.
Red Robin kicked the Red Panzer flat and tied him quickly with a rope. He noticed that around him other Nazi troopers were swiftly being defeated by his fellow JSAers.
Green Lantern groaned as a bullet from Baron Blitzkrieg slammed into him from behind. “Guten tag, Herr Lantern!” said Blitzkrieg as he pounded on Alan Scott. “My power dwarves your own now, due to the improvements I’ve made.”
As green shields formed between them, only to shatter under the red-hot blasts from Baron Blitzkrieg’s eyes, the Flash raced in to land dozens of blows on the same exact spot. The Baron’s armor cracked slightly before he swatted Jay Garrick aside and said, “I will break you all!”
Doctor Fate stepped forward. “No, murderer, it is Fate who shall bring you down!” Golden energies crackled around the Baron, only to fade as he matched it with his own surging power.
“Fools! Just as I can induce heart failure with extra adrenal energy in others, so may I now absorb it into myself from those around me!” he laughed. True enough, the three JSAers weakened and slowed down as he relentlessly pounded them.
“Fate, can you get some help?” muttered a white-faced Green Lantern.
“I believe the nature of his crime has assured us of help,” said Doctor Fate.
At that moment the Spectre loomed into sight. “Baron Blitzkrieg, I shall avenge those poor lost lives from Missouri!” he roared vengefully. “I shall drain you dry of every last energy resource your foul form contains!”
The Baron drew back and rushed toward his machines. “I may yet slay the dogs in D.C.!” he shouted. He noticed Belle standing over a defeated Fausta. The sultry blonde’s costume was ripped, but she had tricked the Aryan blonde into grabbing for her directly in front of Baron’s now-ruined machine. “You witch! You ruined my device!” he gasped.
“That is the least I could do, you Nazi rat!” she said defiantly.
He turned to face her, only to be grabbed by a gigantic hand. The Spectre closed the massive fist over the gleaming form of the Baron, and he was seen no more. “Justice is served!” announced the Spectre as he opened his hand to reveal — nothing.
Hourman smiled as he swung down with a returned Doctor Mid-Nite. “Doc, here, spotted me from those woods and surprised me. He had escaped before we even arived!” said a grinning Hourman.
“The Baron’s machines — did you shut them down?” cried Mid-Nite. “He was working on something dangerous in the left wing!” Red Robin, Hawkman, and the others joined them, and Red Robin gave Mid-Nite a thumbs-up sign.
“So much for the Fourth Reich!” laughed Johnny Quick.
“Not so fast, if you’ll forgive the expression,” said Doctor Mid-Nite. “Armageddon slipped out!”
“Not to worry,” said Johnny. “We can find that skunk later.”
The Spectre smiled. “There is more to celebrate. I was able to restore the dead of Missouri by using the time-scanner to retroactively save them.”
“You can do that? I mean, won’t that cause some time paradox?” asked Green Lantern.
“Alan, think who you’re talking to!” laughed the Flash.
The End