#50

"Race Across Time!"

Date: 11/29/88

Campaign Date: 11/08/88


As our heroes perch precariously on the slippery slate of the island, the waters of Lake Washington begin to creep toward them. Phantashia takes the downed villains to the still-dry inviso-island. Dr. Jackal helps her.

Mist and Phantasm decide to go down the shaft. After Dr. Jackal has forced the doors, Phantasm climbs and Mist dee-sos down the shaft, which narrows and springs razor-sharp blades. Luckily, Phantashia is levitating Phantasm downward and the light from her staff catches off the razors. Next, a ring of pipes with deadly sea-wasp stingers on the end must be overcome, then a trap door that leads to a kind of time distortion barrier.

In the room below, there is a great circular Hydra emblem in the center, and four of those funny disks with pictures of Asia, Europe, North and South America. Recognizing them as teleportation devices, the heroes manage to send one cosmic cannon blast through the Asia disk as they circumvent the deadly guns. Then it’s off to the races!

Forte chooses Europe, and suddenly appear in the ruins of a castle. A great castle about a mile away is fully occupied. It looks real enough. The heroes borrow some clothes and head for the castle. They are greeted by the disguised Speed Demon, who does not recognize them. He’s some bigwig around here. By asking around, the heroes hear that people resembling Brenda, Cavalier, Cheetah, Weeper and Turtle were seen here recently, and the Earl of Batroc is a great local favorite. While Dr. Jackal and Phantasm deal with Sir Myron and Cecil (who will eventually become Sir Galahad’s squire), Phantashia sleeps, trying to recoup her powers. But Mist tries to spy on Batroc, he recognizes her, and flirts with her. Jackal and Phantasm show up but only question Batroc, who says Brenda’s gone with Jeanette in tow. On the way out our heroes trounce Speed Demon and teleport back to the present.

From the underwater base they leave for the Great Wall of China, under threat from Mongol hordes. Borrowing clothes a bit more aggressively this time, our heroes enter a magnificent pagoda – startling the hell out of a reclining Smart Alec. After turning Alec to Contandina Tomato Puree and beating up on some Japanese guards, the heroes fight the Scorpion, who goes down after a lengthy fight. Gasping, Smart Alec tells the heroes that a series of bombs will soon level the Great Wall. The Mongols will overrun China, and all of history will be changed. The heroes find and destroy the detonater.

Mist wraps up Smart Alec as much as possible, then the heroes take their leave of ancient China. From the present, they next end up in a log cabin overlooking a ragged Colonial army at Valley Forge. As the heroes scout around they see an army of battle-armored Hydra troops led by Dr. Shocker, marching toward the outgunned Americans. Mist makes it rain on Dr. Shocker, which shorts him out. Phantashia, Mist and Dr. Jackal bring down two mountains of snow into the valley, crashing on top of the rather surprised and totally helpless Hydra agents. The heroes take all the equipment from Hydra and dump it so no one will find it in this era.

The last disk untried is South America, and instantly the heroes are transported to a 1940s-era concrete building. Evidently it’s been used by ex-Nazis (the Nazi banner is a dead giveaway). There are diamond-shaped, glowing blue crystals in a 1940s-era dream machine, and notes on the desktop mentioning Dr. Emil Gargunza, aka Benfield, aka Baron Zemo. Dr. Jackal checks the calendar: July 5, 1947, just one day before the Avenger, Spy Smasher and Captain Midnight were due to wipe out the Nazis and disappear in a tremendous firestorm.

Phantasm stops to pick up and reassemble an art-deco ray gun powered by those funny blue diamonds – the same ray runs Nazi agents had used to free Zemo/Benfield/Gargunza from captivity in Arizona in 1946.

As the heroes mop up the Nazis, they “persuade” the scientists to tell them where Jeanette is. They say she is in a ruined Aztec temple across the courtyard. There are some Nazi troops out there, but they are busy now that the three American agents are starting to attack.

Silly Nazis forgot to change the date on their calendar. It starts today!

Inside the temple, Brenda has an unconscious Jeanette strapped to a sacrificial alter. Strange machinery is everywhere. Brenda raises the sacrificial knife and cackles about how this soul will bring forth Kronos, the Time Monster, that feeds on time itself. Soon time will have no meaning as every era merges, resulting in destruction and chaos. Then the knife plunges down.

Phantasm plugs her with the half-assembled weapon and vaporizes her with a 6d6 killing attack. Bat-smear!

Phantasm rescues Jeanette as the gun starts a fire, the temple is getting bombed, and all hell breaks loose. The heroes know they have to let the Nazi scientists escape, or history will be…uh, history.

So, a few days later, Phantasm (John Clayton) and Bluejay (Jeanette McDonald) are married. UNCLE supplies a flying car for the honeymoon to Japan. Gary Williams has married his sweetheart the day before, and now they head off for Disneyland.

As Phantasm and Bluejay fly off into the sunset, Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, comes on the view-phone. He says Canada is trying to form their own branch of SHIELD, like UNCLE, and ask them to head it up. The Prime Minister and the President have given their okay.

Phantasm replies they’ll think it over. For now, it’s nice to finally catch up with some time for Jeanette.