Blazing! Adventures Magazine

Presents:

Dash Courageous & The MorningStar Legion

-The Rockets of Death-

Part 2-

‘When we last saw Dash Courageous & The MorningStar Legion, they were in the grips of terrifying danger over an isolated island in the Mediterranean.
Two rockets were on a deadly collision course………Dash only had seconds!'

I had a split second to do something about it!

Two deadly rockets slashed through the deep gray clouds, the flames of their exhaust trailing behind.

I gritted my teeth, grabbing the steering wheel, yelling over my shoulder to Legion, “Hold on to your socks gentlemen, this is gonna be close!”

I yanked back on the wheel, lurching the modified transport aero-plane into an upward climb that it wasn’t designed for. The engines screamed its objection but it was either us or you my friend.

The hissing loud ‘Shoosh’ of one rocket cleared the right wing, while the other made a metal-on-metal ripping sound. It’d caught the underbelly with its guidance fin, cutting a path down the center.

I yelled back to Legion, “Is everyone okay back there!”
Jammer replied, “We’re a-okay Dash, but that sure was a close shave I tell ya.”

Just then one of the gauges on the dashboard lit a bright red, then started flashing and a coughing sound came from my left.

“Well it ain’t over yet! Engine 1 just gave up the ghost from the strain!”

Then radar showed two blips. Blasted! Heat seekers! “Those damn rockets are coming back. You and Legion try to shoot them down while I find someplace to land this bucket or it’ll become our tomb!”

“Will do, Dash!” and Jammer was gone.

I’d landed bigger birds than this into the head of a pin with no problem. Difference is—there’s two heat-seekers on our tail!

Sweat poured from my forehead, trying to blur my vision, making this maneuver more of a pain than it had to be. I felt a rush of air, the shuffling of feet and the clicking of hooks.

“Fire in the hold!” Hunter’s voice let rip a yell that bounced off the interior.

A loud boom vibrated the plane’s frame. “Keep trying!” Jammer yelled.

They kept firing, the plane handled like a dead fish, I was fighting against an invisible opponent that many a pilot loses to—GRAVITY!

Then a loud chunking sound came from my right, and the propeller stopped moving.

This bird has now become a flying rock!

“Dash,” Jammer appeared. “The rockets are closing in! Hunter did all he could but the damn things are armored! What—”

First there was heat, then smoke, and the wind carried scraps of metal through the windshield.

We were going down! A rocket had hit the left wing.

I was fighting to keep us from the awaiting impact!

I could hear the cold laughter on the flames, Kali Baki’s cold, sinister laughter.

The ground was coming up—fast!

Will Dash Courageous and The MorningStar Legion survive the approaching death that awaits below?……Wait with bated breath next week’s thrilling and exciting installment!!!

DASH COURAGEOUS & THE MORNINGSTAR LEGION FLY OFF TO ADVENTURE!!!!!!!!!!

Blazing! Adventures Magazine

Presents:

When the usa is threatened by nefarious evil, they call upon one man whose fantastic powers could save them from the clutches of an unknown horror:

They call upon-

Agent G-9

The Battle for Heaven’s Gate!

Part 1-

The power flared, crackled, pulsing around my hands. If I were wearing normal clothes and gloves they’d’a been incinerated, but the science guys at Camp X HQ made a material that could survive the destructive force of the power.

That was a good thing ‘cause I don’t think a colored man in his bare skin standing at the Heaven’s Gate Fair entrance would be welcome. Even under normal circumstances. The outfit was blue/black with a leather brown utility belt for the things the tech’s figured I’d need. A pair of specially treated dark green army boots covered my feet. A full head mask covered my face, leaving my eyes to be covered by small round lens. Breathing was uncomfortable with the small filter over my mouth.

Why give you these details?

Well, it’s to ground me--because right now all I could see in front of me was an army of things my Creole grandmother would call ‘daemons’. Burning red & black colored souls pouring out of a gaping hole cut in the center of the sky above a carousel at the very center of the fair grounds.

Chaos McHenry was cackling, leading the hordes of ravenous daemons into our world.

The power reacted, growing a brighter green, growing further outward, I was ready to fight!

I charged, running headlong into the fray! Death could come for me today but momma didn’t raise no coward! I fought for my country, even if it didn’t fight for me. I believed in the rights of people to live as they believed, even if my country didn’t believe in those rights for me.

The power hit the daemons like lightening!

Manhattan burned in the background.

-July 1942

The message came over the wire: ‘Need help. Insidious creatures are flooding the Heaven’s Gate Fair, attacking people -Stop- Send help -Stop-’ The head of Camp X sent the word & I was on the first Sikorsky XR-4 copter bound for the lower east side.

The Pilot yelled over the spinning rotor, “I can’t land anywhere with all that madness going down there G-9, so you’ll have to jump off here!”

“Right.”
“Good luck G-9, you’re their only hope.”
We were 100 feet above the fair ground entrance. There was turbulence that made the copter hard to stabilize. I looked back at Mac who smiled and gave me the thumb’s up.
I gave him a nod and a thumb’s up, jumping off, feeling the wind pass around me.
I wondered if he’d’ve given me that same ‘good luck’ if he knew a colored man was under this mask.

Those were thoughts for later.

I slammed into the ground, concrete buckling underneath me, cracking and flying in all directions. I rose out of that crater like Lazarus, staring at the archway; it said, ‘Welcome to Heaven’s Gate’.

-Now-

The power moved, slashing and cutting through the daemons that screamed in writhing pain. I lanced a beam through five of the daemons trying to head for the exit, trying to unleash their hell upon the rest of Manhattan. First thing I did as I fell from the copter was to place a barrier around the fair.

Only way they could get out, was to kill me.
I was trying to prevent that.

“G-9? Is that you? Oh, how overcome with pleasure I am to see you!” his voice, a hollow void that echoed.

“I won’t let your murderous rampage continue, Chaos! Tell that to your Masters!” Chaos laughed a hard laugh. He wore a cowboy outfit & had on the face mask of a Japanese kabuki; he was insane. The perfect weapon for the Black Brigade to conquer the world.

I wasn’t going to let that happen.

The daemons pull back, circling me, “Oh, the high and mighty G-9 wants to stop me does he? No one stands in the way of the Black Brigade! You shall perish!”

The power was trying to rip itself from my hands, eager to destroy the daemons, and something else, it felt like the power wanted Chaos.

I--was welcomed to oblige.

“Then let’s go!” The daemons swarmed, engulfing me in darkness as Chaos McHenry screamed his delight.

Light faded. I continued to battle..........

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