Richmond, Virginia
Dooley Mansion - Maymont
Lemar tried to take it all in at once. He had come to Richmond for a pleasure
trip, only to be sidetracked by the still unexplained flash of the Red Skull at
the entrance to the Confederate White House. His tracking had led him here, to
Maymont where he had literally ran into two other Nazi hunters, the mutants
calling themselves Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. Those two were at the feet of the
head Nazi himself, a man named Rathcone. As Battlestar, Lemar had begun his soon
to be ill-fated attack when another, larger, group seemingly teleported into the
fray calling themselves the Sentinels of Liberty. He just counted himself lucky
that they seemed to be on the same side. *
* A summary of the events in the past few issues of
Captain America - GD)
Rathcone had some sort of spear in his hand, a spear of great power that had apparently taken down the two mutants. He took a step forward, his eyes blazing with laughter.
"Come then" he mocked, "Let us test my mettle against you so-called
#0 - Baptism by Cold, Drowning in Fire
By Gary Dreslinski
Rick Jones had been through enough strange things to know that this was going to be right up there on his list. Being transported against his will by his temporary "roomie" Jesse Crow aka the Black Crow and taken, along with a bunch of other people to what appeared to be a battle against an honest to goodness bent on conquest Nazi certainly beat out most of the things he'd been doing with his time lately.
His experience also told him that the group was still too disorganized, too confused by what had just happened to them to stand a chance in any decent fight. To make matters worse, he recognized the spear in the Nazi's hand. At least he thought he did. There were alot of spears in the world...a few of them had power. Only one would make a man, even a crazy one, think he stood a chance against a room of superheroes, no matter how disorganized. He was about to turn his hoverchair to get into a better position when the Nazi lifted his spear in front of him and there was a flash of light.
Rick felt the light consume him. He struggled, they all did, but in the end - the light consumed them all, leaving only emptiness.
The man named Rathcone sat back down in his chair. He turned to the two mutants at his feet. Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler, looked up at him with hate and pain. Rathcone smiled and pointed his spear downward at them both. A beam of light burst forth and swallowed both of them. When the light dissipated, they were no more.
Rathcone's laughter echoed throughout the room. For exactly half a minute. The room was again filled with a flash of light. The Nazi turned world conqueror blinked and when he reopened his eyes, Nightcrawler had twin rapiers crossed against his throat. Rathcone looked passed the immediate threat, all of them were back. Back and much more confident looking.
"Drop the spear" Kurt hissed into his ear.
The spear fell from his grasp before he even made up his mind to let go.
The man called Madcap somersaulted across the room, grabbing ahold of the spear just before it touched the ground. He looked back at the group with a large grin, "I don't think anyone wants a repeat of that."
"Can anyone tell me what exactly happened?" USAgent asked as he watches the Black Cat awkwardly disentangling herself from Battlestar, who seemed to be even more shocked.
Shadowcat cast a look at the Black Crow. He shook his head. "To all things a time." he muttered, hoping that no one noticed that he was trying his best not to fly into a panic while covering the fact that he was just as in the dark as everyone else.
"I don't suppose YOU have anything to tell us?" Nightcrawler asked the prone Nazi who tried to stammer out a 'no' while hoping his sudden movement wouldn't slice his own neck.
"He never was very cooperative," a voice that emerged from a nearby room bellowed. The group turned as one, ready for a new attack. Shadowcat raised her hand to tell them to hold. They did, waiting for the signal to attack.
A man clearly in his mid 60s, wearing a red, white and blue costume followed behind his own voice. He was flanked by two large men, both of whom radiate power in their very step.
"Hi boss." Katherine Pryde smiled as she greets the man known as the Defender. "One Nazi world beater taken down, as ordered."
"I see you've made some friends along the way."
The young woman shrugged, "We're people-people...Actually it just kinda..." Before she can continue, a figure breaks off from the group and heads toward them.
John Walker, aka the USAgent didn't know much about his past. Hell, he wasn't even sure why he'd been calling himself "Jack" or was it "Jake" - he'd have to ask someone sometime. Very little of himself, very little of whatever had just happened to them on the other side of the light stayed with him. But he knew more than was on the surface. Whatever had occured had made sure of that. One of the things he knew was who Kitty...Shadowcat...was talking to.
The two other men were a mystery. They seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't put names to the faces. The main figure though, was one he knew all too well.
"USAgent I presume." The man recognized as he approached.
John felt the smile grow across his face. "Yes sir." he heard himself say as his hand went forward to shake the older man's hand. The years hadn't taken away the grip, it was still strong, still showed much of the man's character.
"Thank you sir." John heard himself saying from a million miles away, floating on a cloud of starstruck. "Thank you for everything you did in the war. The Defender has always been an inspiration for me."
"Thank you son. I have to say that I'm rather impressed that you've heard of...me" he seemed to hesitate at the last bit as if momentarily unsure of himself. He quickly regained his composure.
"But then again, being known is hardly a worthy goal. There are more than enough ways to become known for what you do, no matter what it is. The doing though...the doing is what makes it all worthwhile."
John felt himself beaming as he finally let go of the man's hand. The man had been...no, he *was* a hero. John took a good look at the other two men. Suddenly names were coming to him.... His beam increased. His doubts about what had occured vanished. They were in the presence of legends. He looked back over his shoulder at the others who were remaining at a respectful distance as if waiting for something to be decided for them.
All but the Black Crow, who was walking forward to greet them himself.
The Defender broke off from the others to meet the Native American halfway. "It is good that you came." he said.
"Her will be done."
The Defender smiled, "Yes, of course."
He looks passed to Kurt and to Madcap holding the spear. "We have a lot to deal with here still."
"More than you know." the Indian replied.
The man known as the Defender nodded solemnly, "I figured as much. We need to discuss this with the others. We need to see if we can deal with this, together."
"We all serve her will. They too will serve, no matter what they believe they are doing. Her will be done. The Sentinels of Liberty are at your disposal sir. We are yours."
The Defender turned back to his people, trying not to let a sigh show. "More
than you know" he muttered with a certain amount of regret, "More than you
know."
Author Notes
Welcome to Issue Zero of AV2000's newest and most unusual team - The Sentinels of Liberty! I apologize for the shortness of this issue, but as it's been said, 0 issues are meant to be an introduction to the larger work. Future issues will be back up to the usual size.
One of the things that will no doubt be noticed is what a hodge-podge the team seems - a very different fit from the norm. Trust me, all of these people have something in common beneath the surface. Even someone like Madcap.
What happened to them when they vanished? Who are Invaders Inc and what is their agenda? What does it mean to *be* a Sentinel of Liberty? These are things that will be explored in coming issues.
Some members *will* be moving on - at least one other person will be joining the team in the near future. Who's leaving? Who's joining? You'll have to stick around now won't you?
As always - send all comments, questions, bomb threats and candy apples to
clauderains@rocketmail.com.
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Battlestar
Black Cat
Black Crow
Defender
Jones, Rick
Madcap
Nightcrawler
ShadowCat
USAgent