the gates of Hell
General Happy Sam Sawyer books passage to Paris from London. The party arrives and sets up shop in the Hotel Le Relais Saint Germain, which was only a few blocks distance from both Notre Dame and Catacombes de Paris. Sam has contacts within the French Resistance movement, and sets up a meeting at a local cafè with some members of the group.
Fury, Secord, and Jones meet with the French Resistance members and are surprised to see Peggy Carter as their "Point Man". Margaret "Peggy" Carter was an American intelligence agent ordered to protect a secret laboratory, posing as an old curio shop, but was actually housing the U.S. Super-Soldier Project. She was disguised as an old shopkeeper and was near the site where Steve Rogers became Captain America after the injection of the Super-Soldier serum. She was codenamed Agent 13 during that mission. Her talents as a soldier and spy could however not prevent a Nazi spy from entering the facility, whom had joined the ranks of U.S. military officers as an American alter ego Frederick Clemson. There he killed the inventor of the serum and nearly sabotaged the project. After the shock of the death of the man who had created Captain America, Peggy became even more competent as a spy and detective and garnered even more determent to stop the Nazis from world domination. She and two members of the Resistance, Jacques Drenier Napoleon Sack are seated at a large table in the back room at the cafè big enough to accommodate their encounter.
Peggy and the Resistance know the catacombs well and have been using the area beneath Notre Dame as a base of operations. They explain that the catacombs are vast, however, and are filled with twists and turns that even they have never explored. At the mention of the Knights Templar having hid the item they are after, Jacques perks up a bit. His family held intricate ties to the Knights Templar. Jacques' great-grandfather was involved with the construction of the tunnels and was rumored to have been a secret Templar Knight carrying on the secret after it's disbandment in the 14th century. He has detailed maps of the catacombs in the Resistance's underground base and says his great-grandfather scrawled all over the plans in a secret code. "Perhaps there might be some information helpful to finding the Amulet of Pazuzu." Jacques offers in a thick accent.
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When the Midnight Sons arrive at the catacombs, they are met by Captain America and his sidekick Bucky, to enter at a spot called "portes de l'enfer" or "The Gates of Hell".
The trek to the underground base was long and arduously winding. The walls of the catacombs are underground ossuaries containing the visible remains of more than six million people. Skulls and bones are intricately placed in aesthetic formations along the walls of the catacombs, giving an unearthly and eerie feeling as the group pass through the hallways.
The catacombs were built from the ancient stone mines in an effort to remedy the problem of the city's overflowing cemeteries towards the end of the 18th century.
Upon entrance into the Resistance's chamber, it is immediately apparent that they were arriving shortly after a devastating sneak attack on those unfortunately present in the catacombs working for the Resistance. Bodies lie strewn across the floor in various stages of mutilation. Several individuals have been cut to ribbons while others faces and hands have been seared from their bones laying in a pool of their own gore. Several have been beheaded or their necks snapped and twisted into obscure angles as others showed signs of electrocution. A quick survey revealed that all weapons have been stolen, all communications devices broken, and most importantly Jacques' maps missing.
Leading from the chamber are three passages. With time being of the essence, Agent 13 suggests that the team split up to search the corridors. Captain America, Bucky, and Sgt. Fury were going down one tunnel. Agent Carter and the Resistance fighters Sacks and Jacques, headed down another. While The Rocketeer and Indiana Jones were paired for the 3rd tunnel.
As all three groups continued down their own respective chamber, Peggy Carter's group eventually came across 'Das Vernichtungs-Kommandos', "The Killing Squad".
Das Vernichtungs-Kommandos consisted of Blitzkrieg, Säurespritze, and Zahnmörder. 3 Nazi operatives equipped with high-tech battlesuits engineered by the most sadistic German scientists, and designed to mercilessly slaughter allied forces. Blitzkrieg's all black leather battle-suit provided remarkable protection from even long-range bullet fire. Using an electrically-charged battery woven into the fibers of his suit, Blitzkrieg could fire razor sharp harpoon cables up to 20 feet away. Säurspritze's patented battle-suit was a full-body uniform that consisted of a gas mask, helmet, gloves, trenchcoat, and an insidious backpack that housed tubes that ran to gauntlet nozzles emitting amazingly strong acid spray or toxic gas. Zahnmörder's battle-suit had been designed for brutal interrogation and misanthropy. The gloves of his jet black armor housed myriad torture devices from surgical blades to dental forceps, and could even dispense truth serums or poisonous drugs from needles housed within the gloves.
Captain America immediately recognized the members of Das Vernichtungs-Kommandos. This trio was the first set of costumed super-villains he faced after entering the war and after receiving the Super-Soldier Serum. None of the villains had made it out of that encounter alive, and they had all died here on French soil. That being said, they behave and appear differently than Cap remembers. Those that have flesh bared appear ashen with sunken in eyes. When they speak, they speak only in German and in broken sentences. Even their movements are more than slightly uncoordinated.
Spelunking through the French catacombs with the Killing Squad we're three other Nazi operatives. Their leader was the dreaded Master Man, Wilhelm Lohmer. A high ranking member of HYDRA, Master Man had the supernatural ability of flight, as well as intense resistance to both heat and cold.
Beside him was a monstrously muscular woman, and wife of Master Man, Julia Frieda Koenig Lohmer, or aptly named "Warrior Woman". Although she did not have any meta-human powers, she was in peak athletic form and incredibly strong. She carries a thick whip on her side.
There was a third member amongst their leaders, whom none of the Midnight Sons or their allies had encountered before. He was a slight Asian man in an entirely crimson red Ninja Tong uniform. He was visibly armed with a katana and many shuriken. This was Kirigi of The Hand Ninja. Kirigi of The Hand was the one responsible for the resurrection of Das Vernichtungs-Kommandos at the request of The Red Skull. With the assistance of a Hand magician, a ritual was conducted to bring the Nazi soldiers back to life. Due to the fact that they had been dead for some time, their brain functions have not fully returned to normal, so their appearance and actions were still somewhat clunky.
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Captain America brutalizes the Killing Squad single-handedly, even going as far as to destroy Zahnmörder's acid sprayer and insert the hose into the man's anus and spraying acid.
Master Man is a bit dense and attempts to fly within the catacombs and crashes spectacularly multiple times before being defeated by Nick Fury.
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Once the battle is over, and The Midnight Sons have emerged victorious, Master Man, oaf that he is boasts to the heroes:
"Fools! This victory is fleeting! The Nazi regime will stand tall and proud! You may have won this day, but we have already attained Lemarchand's box!"
In German, Warrior Woman retorted "Shut up, you fool! You and your beaggart's mouth! Don't you realize you're giving them what they want?"
After that statement, Nick Fury restores to torture to obtain more information. Master Man eventually slips up. Both master Man and Warrior Woman had been present when Lemarchand's box was handed over to their master, The Red Skull. The Red Skull tasked Baron Heinrich Zemo with cracking the combination. Where Zemo took the box, neither Master Man nor Warrior Woman know.
Jacques discovered his stolen maps secreted away on one of the German agents' person. The map, as Jacques described, is covered in ink and secret coded messages. Once cracked, the codes led them all to the passage that held the Amulet of Pazuzu.
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General Sam Sawyer has a lockbox in which he will place the amulet for safekeeping. Fortunately, Peggy Carter and her surviving resistance fighters discover over the next few days, Intel that Baron Zemo has set up shop at a Concentration camp in Poland known as Szara Gòra. The Grey Mountain. General Sam Sawyer and Peggy then continued to strategize the next stage of the plan, while The Midnight Sons decompressed. Eventually, they come to the heroes with a formulated plan to get them into Poland behind enemy lines.
"Peggy and the Resistance have become aware of an assassination plot by the Russians of a high ranking German SS officer by the name of Heinrich Bruhl. Bruhl is set to travel tonight from Paris by train into Poland." Sawyer exclaimed.
"In actuality, Bruhl is an agent of MI6. He will be traveling with other members of the SS, so his cover cannot be blown, and he is unaware of the plot against his life." Agent 13 explained.
Sam and Peggy had falsified documents drawn up faking the men as German citizens to put them in a position to accompany and protect the SIS spy. "It is imperative that Bruhl remains undercover and that he reaches Poland in one piece. There may be multiple Russian spies aboard the train, or there may be an unexpected ambush. You really need to be prepared for any eventuality here." Sam advised.
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