With still no idea exactly what happened but clearly it meant that the Reverse-Flash was gone, Clark reorientated himself and super sped back to the camp. He arrived back noting how the camp looked like it had been through a warzone which was true but all the German and Hydra soldiers had been taken out so the elements of Dog and Fox company were helping move the prisoners over to the trains for extraction. With all the noise they made with the battle it wouldn't be long before they had visitors. In fact, Clark was surprised that they hadn't arrived all ready. He walked through the camp and saw the soldiers of the 92nd Infantry now helping the freed prisoners but they gave him salutes when he walked by while the prisoners had looks joy and hope. He smiled and greeted them when he saw Arthur organizing men to begin loading the prisoners onto the train while Diggle led the medical team who were treating those that needed immediate medical attention. The Legends were doing what they could to help and while people still looked at them in confusion they weren't exactly in a position to argue. Atom used his suit to deal with some of the rubble when he saw Sergeant John Diggle Steward tending to some injured.
"So, that's Diggle's grandfather." Sara said as she walked over and joined him. "They really do share a family resemblance."
"Yeah, kind of uncanny to be honest." Atom replied in astonishment before the two helped the next group of prisoners onto the train.
Clark walked over and saw Bishop and Psylocke move the bodies of the two Stormfronts over together so they were side by side. Klara's head and body was put next to what was left of Klaus. "Are you two ok?" Clark asked them and got nods. "Good. Sorry I couldn't help at the end."
"It's all right. If anything, I'm glad I could do it." Psylocke replied as Clark stared at their bodies before his eyes glowed red and he used his heat vision. He kept it going for about a minute and when he was done there was nothing left but ash. "Good riddance to bad rubbish."
"Hell yeah." Bishop agreed.
"Thanks again. Do you two mind helping to get the prisoners to the train?" Clark asked and they nodded. "Thank you."
Clark then super sped away to check on the others. Psylocke looked over and saw Daniel Take-Yatsu getting patched up before he went to help others. "That's your grandfather?" Bishop asked and Psylocke nodded.
"On my father's side. Quite the legend. Listening to all his stories growing up were what inspired me to join SHIELD and then when my powers manifested…well, it only made more sense with how things worked out." Psylocke admitted. "What about you?"
Bishop looked over at Arthur Kingsley and was glad to see his ancestor was alive and well. With all the possible changes to the timeline in effect there was a chance that if things went wrong then Bishop's very existence would have been jeopardized. Time traveling with the legends sure was different than his previous experience. Bishop then took out an old photography of himself when he was younger with his mother and family and considering how they were all still in the photo then things were looking good.
"We're good." Bishop told her and the two went to help whoever they could.
Logan and his team had returned to the train after their mission was complete. The hospital/lab was now a burning/smoldering wreck from the explosives Lucas left behind. There was a somber aura around Logan, Lucas, and Padma and the assault force for that mission, something that Clark picked up when he saw them.
"Logan, Lucas, Padma…are you all right?" Clark asked them out of concern. Mission be damned because his team came first.
"We're fine, sir but I'd like to formally submit myself for disciplinary action." Logan stated.
"We all would, Captain." Padma and Lucas stood next to Logan at attention.
All of them were being incredibly professional which already was a sign that something was wrong because Clark kept a fairly laxed mood with the team with professional attitude only used with the top brass or politicians. "What's wrong? What happened?"
"We failed, Captain. We were unable to accomplish the objective you gave us. Dr. Vought is dead." Lucas replied.
"Whatever punishment command will deem as sufficient for our failure we willingly submit to." Padma added and Clark looked over his team for a moment. He wasn't sure what was going on but clearly something happened that affected them all.
"His research?" Clark asked and Logan had one of the men bring over a file they took. Clark took a quick skim but what he read through was enough for him to make an educated guess on what likely happened. "Well, considering the circumstances I don't see a reason why disciplinary action is necessary."
"Captain, please don't feel the need to protect us. We know what we did, consequences and all so please don't fall on your sword for us." Logan told him.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Logan because you did nothing wrong. None of you did. Dr. Vought was clearly unhinged and the circumstances forced your hand but you handled it the best way you could. Dr. Frederick Vought, while incredibly brilliant, was unhinged and deranged from the factors pertaining to this camp and the growing stresses of the war. When you arrived to extract him, his behavior was erratic and would not listen to your orders as things in the camp began to escalate. After you finally managed to deescalate the situation, Dr. Vought's paranoia reached a fevered pitch and stole one of your sidearms from you in a desperate attempt to escape. You all tried multiple attempts to deescalate the situation but Dr. Vought would not listen and with the pistol in his hands your lives were in danger. While regrettable, you had no choice but to defend yourselves and that unfortunately meant that Dr. Vought was killed. The situation in the camp escalated and Dr. Vought and his lab could not be recovered other than his research. I believe that's what happened and I find no reason why any of your should be punished or suffer consequences for a situation that was out of your control. Besides, from what I can see…Dr. Vought's research was so heinous and monstrous that it took a toll on his mental health. Of course, we'll need to go over the entire event to make sure all details have been covered but that's really a formality." Clark told them. "Well done."
Basically, Clark told them that whatever happened was done and he was ok with it. He didn't like the mission but he saw no reason why his team should suffer for that Nazi scientist. Logan, Lucas, and Padma stood at attention and saluted him. "At ease. I trust that all relevant information Dr. Vought had was recovered." Clark said.
"Yes, Captain. The men brought down and secured his research though some of it was damaged and burned in Dr. Vought's deranged state. He was so deranged that he destroyed the serum in question." Logan answered.
"Excellent. Now fall out. Help who you can. We're leaving in ten minutes." Clark told them. Lucas and Padma left but Logan stuck around. "Something else, First Sergeant Howlett."
"Just something of interest I'd thought you'd like to see. Some of Dr. Vought's personal effects." Logan handed him some pictures of Dr. Vought with various members of the Nazi party. He kept looking through the pictures until he stopped at two in particular. One of Dr. Vought standing next to his bride at their wedding and then another of him, his bride and her brother at the same wedding. "He has a family."
"He had a family. His wife and brother-in-law were the Stormfronts that Polina mentioned." Clark told him.
"And now?"
"Joining him where they all belong. Thanks Logan." Clark said and Logan nodded before the two separated.
The train out of the camp kept filling up with passengers and it got to the point where Clark had to bring over another and attach another train car. Thankfully the train yard was spared most of the destruction in the attack so he brought over one of the empty cars.
Psylocke and Bishop helped some prisoners move when she saw Logan helping get the last of the prisoners onto the new train car Clark attached. "Holy crap, it's really Logan. He really is older than he looks."
"Told you so." Bishop chuckled in amusement before the saw the telepath giving Clark another look over.
"Superman looks the same in the future as he does now. It's insane." Psylocke said in disbelief before getting a certain look in her eyes as she smiled. "Just as handsome today as he will be decades from now, like his sons."
"I can certainly see the personality resemblance as well as the physical." Bishop remarked before he grinned. "Still bummed things didn't work out between you two in the future?"
"Psylocke frowned at him before crossing her arms. "A woman can still dream, can't she?"
Clark gave the camp one last look to make sure that no one was left behind, even the dead and any that were unfortunately killed they brought with them. Better than leaving them behind. Clark finished using his x-ray and super vision before switching to his super hearing and to his surprise there wasn't the sound of any kind of German communication regarding the camp attack and no communication about coming to investigate.
"If you're wondering about a counterattack, don't." Clark turned around and saw Captain Hunter and Sara Lance walk over. "Before we arrived we took some measures to ensure that no one would find out."
"Considering the last time you were here you mentioned how dangerous it would be if I knew too much doesn't that apply to you also messing with events?" Clark wondered. "Not that I'm complaining since you came to help but how?"
"I think it's best that we keep that to ourselves. As for our intervention…well, this team is a bit like a chainsaw and we do make a mess but it's a good kind of mess." Captain Hunter admitted, gesturing to the state of the camp and how the battle got crazy.
"I'm partially responsible for that too so I understand. I know you can't say anything but I'm guessing that the two enhanced people and this camp were part of why you were here besides Thawne." Clark said but the two kept their mouths shut on that. "Yeah, I figured."
"Speaking of Mr. Thawne, what happened to him? Did he escape again?" Captain Hunter asked.
"No. I think he's dead." Clark answered with Sara and Captain Hunter intrigued. They knew that despite how powerful Superman was the Reverse-Flash was still much faster than him so without the anti-speedster weapon a fight between the two would tend to be one sided. "I'm still not sure what happened but this…ghoul…monster…ghost thing arrived. It had red lightning like Thawne did and it killed him."
"This ghoul thing? A black suit like Thawne's with a lightning bolt and when Thawne was stabbed he crumbled into light." Sara said and Clark's look was all she needed to know that she was right on the money.
"You've seen that thing before?"
"I have and it means that Thawne is no longer a problem. Let's just say that we weren't the only ones who was after him for trying to mess with the timeline. Thankfully, if you saw him then that means Thawne is gone and our job is done here. Things should go back to normal. Well, however normal they can get." Sara assured him.
"That's good and I know that you know who I am and I don't know who you are but thank you." Clark said and Captain Hunter gave him a smile and nod before they shook hands. "All of you. You quite literally helped save my life and I can't thank you enough."
"Please, Mr. Kent. You've done more than enough for us…well, you will and that's all I'll say on the matter." Rip remarked.
"And if anyone deserves thanks its you. Thank you." Sara said to him before she shook hands with him.
"I'm guessing I'll see you all again…in the future? Hopefully?" Clark wondered.
"In time…yes." Rip promised. "But do make sure to keep what happened here between us."
"You don't have to worry about that but I'm not exactly sure how much help that's going to be considering what everyone saw. I can promise my team not to say anything but everyone else…I'm not so sure." Clark admitted.
"Don't worry. We've got that covered." Rip walked over to the train as the last freed prisoners got on. "Excuse me, everyone! I no doubt understand that you're all ready to leave this place and believe me I understand but if I could just have a moment of your time. My name is Captain Rip Hunter, former Time Master and founder of the Time Bureau. If you could all look over here please."
"You might want to turn around." Sara turned Clark around so he didn't see Captain Hunter hold out a futuristic device which he held up to everyone.
"If you'll all look over here. I understand that you all have questions and I guarantee that this little device here will have all your answers." Rip smiled at them before the device powered up.
[Flash]
A week later…
Innsbruck, Austria
Clark stood at attention with the members of his team in the command tent of the Allied base in Austria as they were currently being chewed out for disobeying direct orders from command. Once the train was loaded up, they left Dachau and made it back over the border into Austria where medical was already waiting for the freed prisoners. Things were a bit of logistical nightmare for a while but they got better. When they left, Webb contacted command and Clark gave his report that their mission was a success and the lab was destroyed but Dr. Vought and his serum could not be recovered. The result of that was a high-ranking general and Colonel Phillips himself coming personally to see them. The general was not happy because upon the reporting of the mission to his superiors and by superiors he meant politicians, they chewed him out so now he was chewing them out and had been for about five minutes straight.
"…and quite frankly if this team was unable to accomplish a simple objective despite its stellar track record then that would call everything in question, now wouldn't it, Captain Elbert?" The General spat out as he paced in front of Taskforce Vanguard which also included Polina since she was a part of the team for the mission. He stopped at Logan and gave the Canadian a death stare. "And you, Sergeant Howlett. Don't let your promotion get to your head because there are thousands of other sergeants who aren't incompetent enough to not follow through with simple orders. You let a high valued target not only take your gun but you were unable to successfully disarm him and instead you resorted to lethal force. Remind me again who you belonged to before being brought to his cesspool of ridiculousness."
"Canadian First Special Service Force, sir." Logan replied.
"Special Service Force. An exemplary force from what I understand and yet one doctor caused you to mess up and now I'm dealing with the brunt of your idiocy." The General mocked.
"Sir." Clark stepped forward. "With all due respect, Sergeant Howlett and his team did the best as they could with the circumstances, sir."
"And that is precisely my problem, Captain. I'm not an idiot nor was I born yesterday. I know a flagrant lie on an after-action report when I see one. This Taskforce has accomplished too much for this kind of screw up to occur which means that either you all are truly incompetent or you willingly disobeyed direct orders and are now covering your ass." The General said before he took a deep breath to find his center. "Look, I'm not willfully oblivious to what you and your team saw. I read the reports and took a look at what you brought back. Nightmare is a generous term but orders are orders. You all know this and insubordination, no matter the cause, justification or rank/influence of the accused is serious. That last thing Command needs to worry about is if whether their best special operations team can follow orders when we are so close to ending this war. Let me remind you that just because you are apart of the SSR does not mean you are exempt or given special treatment."
"I understand general but I stand by the report. This is my team, my mission, and my call. This is on me." Clark stated and the General sighed in exhaustion.
"Well, you've put us in a difficult spot, Captain Elbert. No sane politician will go against Superman, who has been single-handedly pushing the advance against Hitler. I hope you're comfortable with where you are because all of you can consider your careers in the military at a standstill effective immediately. That's as far as General Eisenhower is willing to go but I'd advise you to watch your backs, all of you. Others in command may not be willing to forgive and forget." The General told them before he fixed his jacket and walked out.
"Attention!" Colonel Phillips shouted and everyone stood at attention for the general. Once he was gone, Colonel Phillips looked at the team. "Officially, I am of the same mind as the General and Command. No team, no matter how important or successful cannot go unpunished for insubordination. Effectively immediately you are all put on latrine and mess hall duty until further notice."
"Yes, sir." They all replied.
"Dismissed." They all gave him a salute and excited one by one. "Captain Elbert, stay behind a second."
Clark did and stood at attention. "Yes, Colonel?"
"You heard my official stance but unofficially…well done." Colonel Phillips said as a small smile creeped up at the corner of his mouth. He sat down at his desk and glanced through a few photos taken from the hospital files. "From what I read in the report what Sergeant Howlett, Briggs, and Balan saw is tantamount to hell. How are they doing?"
"Fine, sir. Still at unease but if anything, more motivated then ever to continue the fight and I wholly agreed with their assessment, actions, and take full responsibility for them." Clark replied. "I should have been there to protect them from that."
"You know you've likely lost any chance now of being promoted any further." Colonel Phillips pointed out.
Clark gave him a small smirk. "Jokes on them then since I never really cared about being promoted so there punishment is worthless." He then got a solemn look. "Besides a man doesn't need medals and stars to serve his country, he just needs the courage and heart to fight for what's right. I was reluctantly going to comply with those orders which I was disgusted by. However my team surprised me by disobeying and doing what was right and put down a criminal whose crimes against humanity itself were evil. I don't care if this means America has lost its chance for more super soldiers. We're already winning this war and I would've felt ashamed to have allowed all those innocent people to go without the justice they deserved."
Colonel Phillips look at Clark before taking a deep breath. He reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured two glasses. "One thing you learn when you begin leading men into battle is that there are usually two options in every situation: the bad and worse. No one can prepare for all of them but you focus on your men cause that's what will get you through. And hope you never had to choose. Your attention was needed elsewhere in dealing with the super soldiers at the camp and the odds were stacked against you with the reinforcements from Hydra. You adjusted to the situation as best you could and your team handled it like you trained them to. You lead by example and I'm glad to say it's among the finest I've had the pleasure of seeing."
Clark said as he smiled a bit. "Thank you, sir."
Colonel Phillips handed him a glass and the two clinked them together. "May those who suffered there finally get peace."
"Amen." Clark drank his whiskey in one gulp and while it did nothing it was in the moment. "Sir, there was one part of the report that wasn't wrong and that Dr. Vought was indeed erratic. From what Logan, Lucas, and Padma told me when they found him he said that his serum was stolen before they even arrived."
"By whom?"
"His assistant. A woman named Nina. She must have taken it before they arrived and escaped. Once the battle was over we tried to track her down but there wasn't the sign of her or the briefcase Vought said she took. It's possible she caught got up in an explosion during her escape because we didn't see any sign of her." Clark told him.
"I'm hoping that's true but that's wishful thinking without proof and unfortunately with what we're dealing with we're going to need more. I want your team going over the files from the camp on the hospital staff to find everything you can on the assistant. If we find that information then it could allow us to figure out more. If she is alive and has the serum that Vought used on those Stormfronts then we need to find her. If it just made two of those things that gave you a challenge than we can't let it get into the wrong hands." Colonel Phillips stated. "Captain, you think this may have been a scheme by someone else?"
"You're referring to the information that we got from Dr. Vought's office?"
"I was." Colonel Phillips replied. Said information Clark was referring to were letters written between Dr. Vought and Vandal Savage regarding aid with the doctor's research. Nothing new as they figured with Savage being a power broker with his hands in a lot of pots that one of them had to be with Dr. Vought and Savage was likely how those Hydra reinforcements showed up. The correspondence show that the two were in contact as far back at 1940 but some papers showed that the two had been talking recently with one letter being confirmation that Savage was sending extra reinforcements to the camp in preparation for an attack. The date was three weeks ago so with this as well as Polina's confirmation and the picture they were able to confirm that Vandal Savage was alive. "Looks like Savage survived your incident at the Hydra factory."
"I'm still trying to wrap my head around how that was possible. From what I saw with Logan it must have been a miracle." Clark said.
"The thing about miracles is that they don't have a habit of repeating. Now that we know he survived we'll make tracking him down a priority for the SSR. It's possible that Savage's collaboration with Dr. Vought was just to fuel his research and then take it for himself. Could be that Nina was his spy. Another theory could be that Savage wasn't working alone and Schmidt was working with him to take it for themselves. I don't find Hydra's reinforcements just to be a favor from their past partnership, especially considering how much manpower and tanks Schmidt just lost. Something else has to be play here and we're not seeing it. If that serum does indeed make more super soldiers with abilities like yours then whoever has it just became a lot more dangerous." Colonel Phillips' worry was palpable. Clark won against two Compound V enhanced super soldiers but would he be successful against an army? Clark did have some concern but considering that everything with Captain Hunter was considered done then it meant that in the future Compound V wasn't as dangerous as Colonel Phillips was worried it could be. Maybe not a lot of serum was taken or that it doesn't work for everyone or whoever stole it wasn't able to escape. A lot of ifs that needed to be answered.
"I agree, sir but I think there is some good news. I don't understand all the science from the research we were able to take with us but from the numbers present I don't think Dr. Vought was able to mass produce the serum like he wanted to. Supplies and equipment at the camp were affected by the war and from what Logan said he saw the lab didn't have the material for mass production. I'd like to get a second opinion but it could be that only a small amount of serum could be made and that Dr. Vought was betting on making more when he was in Allied Custody. If there was indeed more of the serum then there would be more than the two I faced." Clark told him. It sounded good but they needed more.
"I hope your right, Captain but we can't bet on that. I'll send what we have to Stark and see what we says and I'll have every Allied spy tracking down Nina and this serum. It needs to be found before Schmidt and Hydra get it or it winds up in the hands of Hitler and this war drags on. Our best with that could be finding Savage. With what you and Sergeant Howlett learned from the Hydra factory, there's still one collaboration of his that we should eliminate. General Dever and his forces have begun pushing into Czechoslovakia and you will join them once your punishment is over." Colonel Phillips said and Clark nodded. "And speaking of housekeeping there is something we need to discuss and that's Ms. Petrova. The Soviets have been made aware that she is currently with us and officially she is AWOL."
"I'm aware sir but I'm hoping that since she was instrumental in the rescue from the camp and its destruction that the Soviets might be a bit more lenient."
"Leniency isn't exactly something they're known for but I'll get in touch with our Soviet coordinator. At the very least, perhaps we can fix this if she's willing to stay and join Taskforce Vanguard. They might be ok with that if we say we recruited her and her AWOL was just a mistake in clerical paperwork." Colonel Phillips suggested.
"I'll speak with her and something tells me that so long as she gets to kill Nazis then she'll be ok with it. She has built a good rapport with the others and her skills would complement us nicely." Clark pointed out.
"I agree but still, keep your head on a swivel." Colonel Phillips told him and Clark saluted him before he turned to leave. "One more thing, Captain. Was there anything odd occurrences at the camp that didn't make it in the official report?"
"Odd, sir?" Clark was confused as to what he could mean.
"When our medics were tending to the prisoners we've been going over their stories to try and paint a better picture of everything that happened before and during the rescue we noticed some discrepancies. Many of them had trouble recollecting much of what happened but a few of them mentioned…" Colonel Phillips took out a report and read off it. "…a tiny flying man, another man of metal, a cowboy in a duster trench coat, a blonde woman with a metal spear, a large explosion of purple, a Japanese katana, and flashes of red lightning."
"Well, sir things did get crazy down there and I wrote in my report the Stormfronts had some kind of electrical abilities that resembled lightning. I was struck many times but I'm not aware of any of those instances. Could be that with everything that was going on that their minds misinterpreted what was there. The man of metal most likely referred to the Maschinensoldaten, the large explosion was from the Hydra weapons and the tiny flying metal man could have just been a piece of debris. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary and everything I wrote in my report is how it happened."
Colonel Phillips didn't fight that explanation as even though there were memory lapses with the prisoners the doctors agreed that with what they experienced it could have left psychological scars. The reports from Clark's team backed up his report so there was no reason to doubt that. "Very good. Dismissed."
Clark gave him a final salute before walking out of the tent with a small smirk on his face. Ignorance was bliss and what would be the alternative. Tell the truth? That a team of heroes from the future arrived to help him face off against two evil Nazi super soldiers and an evil speedster from the future who was trying to kill him to change said future?
Yeah, right.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Please give your review and comments.
Also read 'Marvel : Superman' on my profile and give it your review and ratings.