War on the Russian Front

Namor's ship came in for a landing at a small runway outside of a town in Russia. The heroes flew to the hospital to find out what had happened to the soldiers.

Torch wondered why the soldiers were not taken to a hospital closer to the front, but kept his mouth shut. One of the nurses showed them the men who had survived and told them that they were still in no condition to tell the whole story.

Toro kept complaining about how hungry he was, but Torch kept telling him that he'd just have to wait until later. Dickson walked around in circles trying to figure out what could do this to people. Some were in comas, others dead. And some couldn't remember what they'd said two seconds ago. Namor stood in a corner and complained about how much he thought Cap should have come.

Then Dickson suggested that they leave right away to Germany. But, Toro had a question, "Can we get something to eat first?" So they decided to let Torch take Toro to get something to eat. Namor said he'd take a swim and Dickson wet to look around, this being his second time to Russia. He had went there with the Liberty Legion before and knew partly where to go, not that Russia was the best place to be during a war.

An hour later they met up back at the airport where they left the flagship. "We gotta hurry, more people could be -"

"Yeah, yeah, we know. So, we going or not?"

"Zooooommm!" They were on their way to Germany.

"Great, the one place no American would ever want to go during war." Torch didn't seem to really wanted to go.

"Hey, at least we're not going directly into Nazi Germany. We're just going to see one of our contacts. It's far enough away that there won't be any nazi soldiers."

"Maybe, maybe not. Ether way, be on your toes, Subby," Torch was also trying to calm himself. Nobody really liked the idea of going there, but they had to find out what was happening.

"Then we'll just have to go to the front and check it out from the air, no big deal."

"Easy for you to say, Dickson. You're gonna be in a really fast moving jet, we'll be outside drawing fire," even though the Torch knew that bullets couldn't hurt anyone he still got steamed.

"Well, who we gonna go see?" Toro wondered.

"A guy named Smich. He doesn't like the way the Nazis run things so he feeds info to the Allies. Not all Germans like the Nazi's way of life, you know. He's more or less a spy," Dickson explained.

"Yeah, most Germans only fight to protect their families. Man, I really wish this dumb war would end, I'm get'n tire of running myself silly half way across the world," Torch added.

"Torch, I wasn't finished yet."

"Opps, sorry."

"Anyways, Smich doesn't know a lot of English, so he needs a translator with him. This guy's named Uri, he's Russian. Don't know how, but he learned German. We're gonna go by there and see what they know. I'm hoping that they know at least something about what's going on."

"We're going to have to stay low, radar might detect us," Namor nosed the ship down a little. Actually, a lot.

"Woooaaahhh! Hey! Do you mind? We're getting our brains rattled back here!"

"Opps, sorry, Torchie. Not! Heh, heh."

"Look, if you don't want me to turn you into extra crispy fish sticks-"

"Calm down, both of you!" Dickson yelled.

"Eepp! all right, all right, I'll shut up, no biggie."

"Okay, Namor, how low exactly do we have to be to be out of radar range?"

"Well, we could go below the surface of the water, but that'd slow us down. Human radar is so crude, if only you had Atlantian technology..."

"Oh, shut up," Torch said in a low voice.

"Hey guys, um, aren't those Bf-109s over there?" Toro asked.

"Uh-oh, Namor, think quick! Um, wait, is that even possible?"

Namor shot a glance at Dickson, "Oh sure, no threats. So those aren't German planes coming for us?"

"We're gonna go and shoot some down," Toro said to Dickson and Namor as he flew out the window. Torch followed. Namor considered whether to test out the water jets on Torch or not, he decided against it.

Toro chased after a couple of planes in a tight formation, they were easiest to get then because they were so close together. Two fire balls took care of them.

Namor asked Dickson to fly while he chased the planes from the outside. He flew up right alongside Torch, "Hi'ya, Torchie." Then he flew up behind a fighter and grabbed its tail. "Screech, crunch!" The tail broke in two, part still connected to the plane, the other half in Namor's hands. "Don't need this anymore." So, he threw the tail into the ocean.

Dickson was having a hard time steering the ship, he had flown countless types of planes, trainers, bombers, fighters, even a mail plane once, but never an Atlantian ship. Not to say he wasn't a good pilot, but he just could not fly this thing. He could barely aim up to fire the guns. "Badda, badda, badda!" Just then he saw some of the metal off the ship go fling past the cockpit. He knew how to handle this, just steer out of gun range, don't panic. But, there was always that little voice in the back of his head that, for some reason, had chosen this moment to yell out, Panic! Panic! He's shooting you to pieces! Panic! Then there was his voice, Listen to him, he's right. PANIC! And, he didn't do what he should have done, what he would of done if his brain had been working right, he took the plane into a loop. This was stupid, because right behind him were ten or fifteen fighters with very, very big guns. "Badda, badda, badda!" The ship was riddled with holes, the bullets didn't hurt Dickson because they literally bounced off. So, he got out of the mess of planes fairly quickly. If you were getting shot, you'd want to run, too. The jet was still flying, but there was some holes in the wing. He decided it best to stay out of the battle for the moment.

Toro was chasing a Bf-109 when the group of planes that had been shooting up Namor's jet flew by. He let the guy he'd been chasing off the hook for the moment to go shoot down the other fighters. "Boom!" A fireball hit and the lead plane exploded. It crashed into another plane and it was two birds with one fireball.

"Yeee-haaaww!" Torch had gathered some of the planes Toro had been chasing into a fenced in area, so to say. He put a flame wall up around them and on top, all they could do was fly around in circles or risk having their plane melted. Torch started slowly lowering the fire box to the water. Then he took the bottom of the box off and... Most of the planes that had been in there went nose first into the water. The rest somehow crashed.

"Come on, we better be on our way!" Namor called out.

Everyone gathered back in the flagship and they were on their way to Germany.

"I have a question, won't the Germans know the planes never made it to where ever they were supposed to go?"

"I doubt it, Toro. They'll just think they were shot down," Dickson answered.

"All those planes? I think they might," Torch added.

"That is something to consider. But, I have a better question, how're we going to get into Germany in this ship? Any German knows what an Atlantian ship looks like. Even if they don't, they're going to get a little suspicious," Namor said.

"Well, we do have to get into the city without being seen. What if we pose as soldiers?"

"Dickson, that is the number one stupidest thing I've ever heard!" Torch laughed.

"Hmmm, he might have a good idea," Namor considered.

"Oh great, whenever Namor agrees with something it's gotta be dumb," Torch leaned back in his seat. "But, if that's the only way in, I say we go for it."

"Then again, maybe I shouldn't have opened my big mouth," Dickson debated if he should tell them not to go or stay safe, and alive. He didn't say a word.

"Hey, what about me?" Toro jumped up from his seat and leaned down over by Dickson.

"Well, we never considered that. Let me see..." Dickson thought for a moment," any ideas?"

"Not one. This is harder than I thought. What if...no. If...that'd never work. Hmmm....."

"Torch, you're supposed to think inside your head," Torch gave Namor a puzzled look, then laughed. "Besides, Toro can come along, if he hides." Everyone looked at Toro.

"What?"
 

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