13

This is Algiers. Many parts of this French-Arabian city are in flames.

All over the place, like a fucking juggernaut, Rhino barrels through town, turning over coaches, horses, and street lamps as he goes along. He takes up a gas-lit lamppost, and torches a man in his groin, while Shocker holds him steady with his electro-shocking prosthetic...

Boomerang throws several boomerangs. They impale a lot of people. Many duck to avoid them...before getting hit by the very thing they flailed to avoid. Many light up in midair, and set their targets ablaze once they've acquired them.

Using water from the Mediterranean, Hydro-Man floods many politically-sensitive spots in Algiers. Many victims are crushed under the weight of tidal waves...many of which have some of the most sinister and inhumane dynamics the weather's never seen...like that scary tidal wave that washed Fievel Mousekewitz overboard off his family's America-bound ship in an American Tail...

Raging like an electric fire, Shocker waves a pan-Turkic flag in the city square. With his prosthetic, he shocks anyone who dares try to knock him down; many do.

Up the coast, several amphibious barges creep in. They lower ramps ashore, and French mercs, all armed with lever-action pistols, storm the beaches.

Under Captain France's command, they march towards Algiers. By the will of Napoleon III, and the common good, Algiers will NOT fall to the Ottoman Empire, or the Sultan's Syndicate, today...

In the city, Shocker still waves the Turkish flag, screams, and electrically defends it. Rhino still barrels through the political streets, knocking down everyone who tries to get back up...and, taking shots via the machine gun turrets in his mecha suit, whenever a situation calls for it...or excessively less than it. Boomerang can't seem to run out of boomerangs; ordinary or higher-tech. Hydro-Man can't seem to run out of cruel ways to storm an Algerian beach with a supernatural tidal wave...

Captain France's detachment appears, atop a flight of city steps. Below, Capt. France can see Shocker defending a pan-Turkic flag with his existence...and his electro-shocking prosthetic.

Beneath the tricolor mask, a feminine voice chuckles. "That Turkish son of a bitch should've known better than to entangle with our sweet Berber colony."

She raises her arm, and gives a signal. Behind her, her commandos unpack their mortars, turn them towards Shocker, and unpack the ammo the mortars require.

They only await their captain's signal. Below, Shocker isn't getting tired.

"Volley," Capt. France commands in French. "FIRE!"

From the sky, hellfire rains down on Capt. France's commandos. All the mortar rounds explode before they're dropped into the mortars' barrels.

The Sultan's Syndicate, stops, and looks around. The explosion atop the pyramid is impressive. One at a time, they all check each other's comms. Not a single one of them takes credit for Capt. France's and her commando's demises.

From the sky, an exosuit descends. It lands in the streets, as Iron Man would've in his time.

From here and there, the Sultan's Syndicate surround their savior in a semicircle. Hydro-Man emerges from a city sewer, and shapeshifts into Munis Berkes.

The exosuit is white, and covered in thin black stripes, placed very close together. Anyone with vermouth goggles on would mistake it as a grey exosuit. Its visor is thin, and runs around the helmet like a laurel wreath. The suit's gauntlets, and sabatons, are as black as a zebra's hooves.

"Teşekkür ederim," Shocker says, thanking the exosuit's wearer. "Who are you?"

"I am your ally from France," a voice from inside the suit says. The front of his helmet peels apart, revealing his face. It's Zéphyrin Grévy, an ambitious product of a Paris family of monarchists. "You can call me le Zèbre!"

Berkes seems amused. Rhino gets down on all fours, and seems to bow to his team's savior.

"I owe you for your service to me," Shocker admits. "But why have you come?"

"I ask," Grévy implores, "as an exiled French scapegoat, to join your team's ranks."

"Don't know if you've heard," Boomerang laments, "but this is a Turkish nationalist movement."

"I will do whatever you require. I will even convert to a Turkish national, if that's what you demand of me. I may be French, but I can still benefit your cause. Plus, you're a man short, from what I've heard."

Boomerang gapes. "Do we seem incapable to you?"

"I don't know. But you'd probably have better luck asking Capt. France and her commandos so," Grévy looks over his shoulder, at the smoke billowing from the flame-broiled remains of Capt. France's commando unit, and grins, "if they'd succeeded in taking down your Shocker."

Shocker is still holding the Turkish flag he was waving earlier. He tosses it to Grévy; Grévy catches it, confused.

"I owe him," Shocker insists, taking off his helmet, and revealing the face of Hersek Sunay. "I say we let him join!"

The porthole in the chest of Rhino's mecha suit opens, revealing the face of Altay Sevim. "I do," he stammers, in a deep voice, "too."

"Well of course Rhino does," Boomerang mocks. "He couldn't object to a French flag if someone told him it was a pan-Turkic one."

"Pan-what," Sevim inadvertently confirms.

"They're right," Berkes admits. "As much as I hate to admit it, we need more manpower. Speed Demon's been captured, and we've still got too many cities to attack before we'll get a chance to spring him."

Berkes creeps up to Grévy, and extends his hand. Grévy orders his gauntlet to remove itself; it sprouts thrusters, and flies away. With a bare hand, he shakes Berkes. Berkes's shaking hand morphs into a tentacle made of water, girdling Grévy's forearm, and somewhat creeping him out.

"Welcome to the Sultan's Syndicate," Berkes says, "le Zèbre."

Grévy smiles. "The name's Zéphyrin Grévy." He summons his obsidian-colored gauntlet back. "Call me Zefi, if you must."

"Zefi," Sevim repeats.

"Hope you've got more armament where that comes from," Berkes tells him. "We've still got a long way to go before the world acknowledges Turkey as Earth's superior race."

"Believe me," Grévy half-whispers, "I'm ready."

Boomerang sighs, and shakes his head. "The Sultan's going to roast us all on a rotisserie, once he finds out we replaced Speed Demon with a Frenchman."

Behind him, a lone Algerian ranger tries to sneak up on him. Still depressed, he throws one last boomerang, and slaughters the ranger; he doesn't even look over his shoulder.