Paris, taken by the Nazis. Uncanny, Nazi Oberst Eikert marvels. You seem not to have aged in years. It is no wonder I did not recognize you… Herr Logan.
Only ‘cause Eikert was too busy hoistin’ this big soiree for his Nazi buddies, Logan, dressed in a smoking and calmly smoking a cigar, replies nonchalantly. He didn’t take the snub personally or nothin’.
As arrogant as ever, Eikert fumes and orders his Hauptmann to show his old friend here how much Eikert would appreciate it if he’d turn over the property he attempted to steal. The Hauptmann obeys and fires a round of bullets into Logan who doesn’t even move and disinterestedly remarks he hopes Eikert isn’t paying this guy by the bullet.
Did he actually think he could get away with this? Eikert demands as he takes the old scroll Logan was holding. Which this? comes the reply. The sneaking into the party right under the Nazis’ noses this or the fact he could steal this piece of scrap paper out from under them this? Yeah, well, it sounded like a good idea at the time.
Eikert holds the scroll in his gloved hand an announces this may well be the most powerful artifact in all the Fuehrer’s arcane arsenal. It must be pretty powerful; it already has him sounding like a low-grade funny book villain, Logan states.
Eikert turns to another underling named Tungston and tells him he knows what to do. Quietly? Tungston asks as he rolls up his sleeves. Not necessarily, comes the reply. He thinks the guests might like to hear what they do with enemies of the Third Reich. He leaves. Great, Logan mutters. He’s gonna die as a party game.
Is this gonna come out of his salary? he asks the tall German who is nonplussed until Logan grabs the antique Louis XVI chair and hits him in the face with it. Does it taste as expensive as it looks? Logan asks.
“So here we are,” he tells the two guards. Just the thee of them. The men draw their guns Suddenly, the lightbulbs are shot out. He’s responsible! one of the soldiers shouts. He wishes, Logan mutters. The Nazis fire at him.
Enough, one finally decides. He could not possibly have survived that. With flashlights, they find him. However, a closer look tells them the corpse is Tungston. He must have used the man’s body as a shield, the Nazi realizes and turns around to ask his companion Kristopher’s opinion. Kristopher is unavailable on account of being dead, Logan explains and finishes him off as well with a saber that hung from the wall.
From another room, Eikert asks the Hauptmann if he heard it. The third body to hit the ground in as many moments. Take the most heavily armed soldiers to investigate. One of the guests asks if there is a problem, only to be told that nothing is wrong and to enjoy themselves. The he orders the Hauptfeldwebel to have the car brought around.
Outside, a striking woman with short white hair breaks the guard’s neck and carefully makes her way inside.
Soon, soldiers inform Eikert that the others are dead and the American can not be found. Still calm, the Oberst orders the Hauptfeldwebel to see to the safe departure of their guests. Is that wise? he protests and another soldier points out that they have reconnoitered this party. There is nothing to fear. A moment later, there is an explosion.
Hiding behind a pillar, gun drawn, Logan mutters if he didn’t know better he’d think he had back-up there. Ceptin’ the high muck-a-mucks in Canuck intel said this was a solo mission.
Nearby the white-haired woman points her gun at the Oberst, demanding the scroll. A popular item, it seems, he remarks, still calm. Especially considering the world is not supposed to know of its existence. He will tell her as he has told her friend…
Friend? she asks confused.
…the answer is no!
Two soldiers shoot at Logan who find his own gun empty. Running away, he complains why is it the bad guys always have the heaviest artillery. He hates that!
Nearby, the woman is fired at by the Hauptfeldwebel, who orders her to drop her weapon. And if she refuses? Then she’ll die! Oberst Eikert replies. After him, she vows, then too runs. By Hecate! she swears. This is not over!
Both of them jump out of windows, she from the first floor, Logan from the second, and land close to each other.
They are everywhere! Logan shouts when he sees her while she offers him he may surrender and live. Hitting her, he promises he plans to live a long time, calling her Nazi. How dare he associate her with this filth, she shouts and kicks him. She has killed many for much less. Now tell her where his commandant has left to or taste her blade!
She reaches for her sword. Logan realizes that they might both be making a grade-A mistake. Let’s not complicate it further by getting killed, he suggests and shoves her aside to get them out of the way of Eikert’s car (of course he’s leaving with the scroll).
Looks like this is where they part company, Logan tells her. Unlike her, he planned ahead. Unfortunately, his escape route, a motorbike, already has someone at the controls. Her. She ignores his order to get off and remarks that securing the scroll is of paramount concern to insure the continued existence of what passes for civilization. Would he rather she leave him behind?
With gnashed teeth, Logan accepts to ride next to her. If they weren’t in such a rush, he threatens, he’d kill her. Calmly she retorts, if they weren’t in such a rush, he’d be welcome to try. As it is, while an obstacle up until now, he may yet prove of some value. As a back-up? Logan asks. As a target.
They reach the car and Logan fires at it, remarking he hopes her driving is better than her comedy. Coldly she retorts, she has found in the past that it is better if one actually aims something. There is no shame in surrendering his firearm to her. Yeah, that’ll happen, he snorts. He’s just trying to lull them into a false sense of security.
He manages to shatter the car’s rear window and Eikert orders his men to dispose of them. The Nazis fire back. The woman gets close to the car and Logan jumps onto the roof. One of the Nazi observes he is like a wolverine. Once he has sunk his teeth into something he doesn’t let up. Logan decks him. In the back of the car, Eikert, suddenly not looking human any longer, orders the driver to lose them or die!
Atop the car, one Nazi still fights Logan while the woman almost shoots the driver. He speeds up, but there’s a bend up ahead. Logan dodges a knee and throws off the Nazi. He gets into he car and tries to turn the car but is held up by a tentacle.
Looking inside the car and seeing the tentacle, the woman realizes it is as she suspected. Eikert is one of them. Which means either the Daemonites have infiltrated the Nazis or they are somehow… allies?
What are you? Logan shouts at the thing that was Eikert. Does it matter… human? comes the reply.
The woman jumps off the bike onto the car.
He is the last thing he will ever see, Eikert promises Logan, when the woman on the car roof slices at Eikert with her sword. She’s had some experience with his kind. She’s sure if the situation had been reversed, Logan would have made a strong, albeit unsuccessful attempt to accomplish the same. She suggests they get off as the car is heading for the abyss. She jumps off. Logan grabs the scroll and does the same an instant before the car falls and explodes.
Ha, he laughs. You okay lady, he asks. Lady? She sneaks up behind him and takes him out. The name is Zannah, she remarks as she bags the scroll. And thank you, human.
The next day:
Logan is meeting with an American sergeant and is not in the mood to bail out their sorry American butts on account of a say-so from his Canadian bosses. I love you too, furball, comes the other man’s reply. But Logan takes his assignments same as he. Blah blah blah, comes the witty reply.
And so, cleaned up, he finds himself at Vienna train station, only to see his mysterious blonde friend currently in trouble with a Nazi officer who states her papers are out of order. She is certain she filled out the proper forms, Zannah insists. Not quite, the Nazi replies and adds an insult in German, but if she’d like to step into his office, he would be more than happy to arrange safe transport. She sees, she replies icily. And what if she merely disembowels him right here? Before the Nazi can react Logan interferes and asks in German whether there is a problem. The Nazi says no and leaves cowed.
For someone who claims to be on the side of the Allies, he spends an awful lot of time acting like a Nazi, Zannah states. For someone who was trained by the Coda, she spends a lot of time putting herself in bad situations, he retorts. She expresses her surprise that he knows the Coda. He points out that she isn’t clumsy enough to be the Hand and not vicious enough to be Si-Fan. So, yeah, that narrowed it down. She did not require his assistance. Right, he snorts. What was she gonna do, mind control him? If need be. She’s kidding, right?
Logan joins her in her compartment. They don’t notice an androgynous well-dressed man with a fedora passing them. A Nazi plane closes in on the train.
Way he sees it, Logan states, sitting comfortably with his feet propped on the opposite seat, she owes him. Oh? Zannah asks shortly. For helping him at Eikert’s? Or eviscerating the villain? Or… Yeah, yeah, yeah, he interrupts. Look, his bosses ain’t telling him anything he doesn’t need to know, only what they think and he thinks aren’t the same thing.
The plane fires a missile-shaped capsule at the train.
Why is that piece of paper so important to everyone? Logan asks. That paper is the Lazarus Scroll. Zannah hesitates, then explains it belongs to a race of aliens who have sought dominion over the earth for centuries. Great, he scoffs. Next thing ya know she’s gonna tell him there are a bunch of mutating humans trying to star a genetic civil war. She’s heard that prediction as well, Zannah admits, but it’s not supposed to occur for another few decades.
From the capsule, a daemonic being emerges.
Assuming he believes her, Logan states, how do ya take these critters out? One at a time, comes the reply. Bad news, Logan states as his senses pick up the Daemonite’s scent. Another one of her thingies is here. He’s got a… thing for aromas, he’s picking up a scent. The smell of death… just waiting!
A family has hard a noise. The father checks the compartment and soon, in the entire train, one can hear a scream.
They gotta help those people, Logan decides. Zannah has changed into more practical combat wear and reminds him their primary concern is the Lazarus Scroll. It must be protected at all costs from the Daemonites and the Reich. The safety of the passengers is secondary.
He calls her a heartless witch. She doesn’t care about anything other except that scroll, does she? At the moment? No, she admits and draws a gun. And as far as she is concerned, he is as expendable as the other people aboard this train. He simply does not realize what is at stake here. Then why doesn’t she try to explain it to him? he suggests. Otherwise she’s just gonna have to fight those thingies all by her lonesome.
Very well, Zannah begins. He thinks her heartless. Heartlessness is a people that allows the Nazi menace to swallow half of Europe. Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, France. Before anyone takes a stand. Now multiply that same apathy across an entire galaxy and he will have the slightest inkling of how that unrelenting unstoppable evil that the Daemonties bring forth went unchecked. Planets scorched. Children slaughtered. Any hope vanquished. Only a handful of them have drawn a line in the sand. Foregoing their families. Their personal desires. And if the cost to stop such a foe is the wants of a few, so be it. For the alternative is more horrible than they can imagine. So he sees, she is familiar with sacrifice.
Good, he replies. Then she understands that sometimes you gotta help the little guy, even when it seems like the rest of the world is afraid of ya… like they hate ya… just for bein’ different.
Well put, Zannah replies and hands him a carved box. He will need a weapon. She shouldn’t have, he replies wryly and opens the case. Nice work. A set of three claws which he can attach to his lower arm. She suspected he’d like it, Zannah states. They exit the compartment.
Greetings Zealot, the Daemonite greets her. Zealot? Logan asks. It’s not a term of endearment, she states. Got it. Actually, he is quite pleased to see her again, it leers.
Ah, children, someone behind them sighs dramatically. They turn around to see the thin, androgynous, well-dressed man standing there, holding a long sword. How pleasant it is to see everyone getting along.
Kenyan! both Logan and Zannah shout, finding they both have a history with the mystery man. Kenyan is hers, Zannah states as she draws her own blade. Suits him, Logan replies.
She cannot defeat him, Kenyan prophesies. Destiny rides at his side. The Daemonite hisses. Not too late to change dance partners, Logan suggests.
Elsewhere, a clock ticks, a bomb attached to the pillar of a bridge and the train is closing in.
The battle between the two pairs begins. In the swordfight, Kenyan quickly has the upper hand. She disappoints him, he states. Mixing outside her own kind has made her soft. She thinks she has it in her to do what is necessary. His sword pierces her gut. While he never had any doubt. He takes away the scroll.
“Blondie!” Logan cries. Dead, the Daemonite who has him by the throat announces. Join her! Bub, Logan tells him and stabs him, don’t be counting your chickens and all that. He turns again to Zannah but finds she is gone.
She has joined Kenyan on the train’s roof, just as they are approaching the bridge. She warns him that that which he seeks will destroy him first. He’ll take that chance, Kenyan announces. He can’t control her, Zannah states. No one can.
Logan joins her on the roof. The bomb ticks closer to the explosion. She lives in the past, Kenyan tells her. The future is his!
A Nazi fighter plane throws down a stepladder and he grabs it. He left in a hurry, Logan remarks. Can he swim? she asks. Does it matter? he retorts as they jump. The fall will probably kill them.
And the train explodes. The two of them land in the water and wash to the shore. Exhausted, they fall asleep. They awake to the sound of Nazi cars. Got a scent he tells Zannah. Them “friends” of hers…
Soon they are taken prisoner. In the back of the, transport Zannah thanks him. Save it, he tells her. “What’s the wants of a few…?” he quotes. The trucks stop moving in a hangar-like building. Peering out of the truck, Logan ventures this ain’t no beer hall in Munich.
A Nazi officer tells Kenyan they are ready. Wearing a robe and a helmet, Kenyan nods. Indeed. He begins to read alien words from the scroll. The vault opens. He continues: Ebron! You who fell to Earth with the First Ones. You who even the other Daemonite Lords feared. I have come for you.
The Nazis get nervous. This is bad right? Logan whispers. He has no idea, Zannah replies.
Command me, Kenyan continues and a bald beautiful woman with bat-like wings arises. She needs her power, is the first thing she says. And she shall have it, Kenyan replies, pointing at a crystal shard. No, Zannah states and fires her gun at the shard and the Nazis.
She wants for a sacrifice, Ebron continues. He guesses that means Kenyan, Logan states as he lunges at him. This stops now! Zannah shouts as she runs towards the shard. She is hit by an energy beam courtesy of Ebron. She hasn’t even begun, she threatens. Once she is reunited with her lifesource, the oceans themselves will run red to sate her appetite!
Kenyan beats back Logan. Has he pleased her? he asks. She promises that they are but on the threshold of pleasures yet to come. The secret of the Lazarus scroll will… will have to remain just that. Secret, Zannah states and hurls the shard which embeds itself in Ebron’s forehead. There is an explosion.
Logan works himself out of the rubble. Hey, blondie, we did real good back there. He sniffs around, finding no trace of her, just a broken sword. He sits down. Wild… he mutters.
