Post by DocQuantum on Jul 27, 2020 23:27:22 GMT
Sometime later, just as the pale afternoon skies began to darken into a dusky gray haze, the Blackhawk jet had settled on a long, flat stretch of field not far from where the cave explosion had left rocky debris in a v-pattern over the ground, something Uncle Sam was easily able to spot from the air. Now the two were moving cautiously toward the cavern opening, where they could hear something large moving about from within, accompanied by strange noises that sounded like guttural groans.
"Any ideas on what might be in there?" asked a frowning Uncle Sam, one hand on a hip as his other scratched his head under his flag-colored top hat.
"I haff no idea, my American friend," replied Dmitri. "I--"
BLAM!
A trained soldier, Dmitri ducked as he heard the shot from behind him, which had put a hole in his pilot's hat. Already his own pistol in hand, he swung around and took a shot at an obviously wounded blond man dressed in a disheveled dark business suit.
Nazi agent Albrecht Krieger had come to when the Blackhawk jet passed by and had taken cover until he could get a shot off at the Russian flyer. Unfortunately, he'd missed and would likely never get as easy a shot again.
The huge Russian, built like a bear, began running toward the Nazi, but when Krieger was about to take a shot point-blank at the Blackhawk, a red-white-and-blue figure leaped in front of him, and the shot bounced from his invulnerable chest.
"Now, now, son," cautioned the Spirit of America, looking much like his old self again. "No shootin' at our Russian allies while Uncle Sam is around."
A moment later, a huge fist swung around Sam and struck Krieger in the jaw. Already injured from the explosion, the Nazi captain was knocked out immediately.
"I could haff taken him myself, Comrade," complained Dmitri. "Vhatever. Now let's find out vhat's in dis cave!"
But the two heroes had only taken a few steps toward the opening when a horrific mess of tentacles emerged, and a blood-curdling, unearthly scream followed.
"Bozhe moi!" cried Dmitri, stumbling to the ground. "Vhat is that thing?!"
"Whatever it is, it sure ain't friendly," said Uncle Sam, setting his top hat upright and marching forward.
The horrific monster used its tentacles to pull itself out of the cave, and the rest of it could be seen, but for the life of them, neither Uncle Sam nor Dmitri of the Blackhawks knew what to make of it. It didn't resemble any kind of creature known to exist on Earth, having numerous tentacles much like an octopus, along with mean-looking, dark beady eyes and a face full of smaller tentacles. No other recognizable features could be discerned.
Uncle Sam ran toward it and delivered a haymaker that could have flattened an entire platoon of Nazi soldiers, but it barely fazed the monster, who just became angrier. Dmitri emptied a full clip of bullets into it, but it seemed to do nothing but sting the creature, which continued to stalk forward.
Suddenly, two huge, ropy tentacles shot forward and grabbed each of the men, wrapping around them in a tight grip. Dmitri was rendered helpless almost immediately, while Sam used all his strength but was still unable to disentangle himself. The horrible creature uttered another unearthly scream, and lifted the two men into the air.
Then an explosive blast could be heard, and the creature nearly toppled forward. Sam and Dmitri were immediately released as the creature turned to face its attacker, who shot at it again and again.
While Dmitri was heaving his guts out a few feet away, Uncle Sam picked up his fallen hat and looked up to see a tall, thin man glowing like a yellow candle. With one arm raised, this strange-looking figure shot blast after blast of light at the creature, who tried but failed to wrap its tentacles around him. The yellow figure just seemed to be glowing with incandescent light and heat, glaring at the monster with pupil-less white eyes.
"Who is that?" said Dmitri, who'd begun to feel like he was just a supporting character in someone else's story.
"Whoever he is, he's on our side," said Uncle Sam. "Or leastwise he's not on the side o' that horror!"
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Three shots rang out again, as Hauptmann Albrecht Krieger fired at the glowing figure. Although the bullets didn't seem to drop the shining man, melting before they struck his skin, were apparently painful enough to stop him from firing at the creature. Instead, he started to shoot blasts back at the Nazi.
Dmitri realized with chagrin that he'd been too distracted by the monster that he'd forgotten to disarm the Nazi agent he'd knocked out. "Hokey smokes, this guy again!"
Uncle Sam leapt forward to try to knock the creature out with another powerful haymaker, but one massive tentacle instead backhanded him, knocking him over fifty feet in the air to land painfully against a pile of rocks. By the time Sam made his way back, he found Dmitri nursing a wound after being shot in the arm, while the glowing figure was shooting into the deep shadows of Valley Ridge. The monster was gone, along with the Nazi agent.
Although Dmitri took to the air to search for the huge monster, and Uncle Sam searched on foot, no traces could be found of either the monster or the Nazi. However, the mysterious glowing man had remained behind, and the H-Dial was discovered within the cavern. Unfortunately, its dial mechanism had seized up because of the damage to its delicate machinery, and it was no longer able to rotate. Whatever power it once may have had no longer appeared to work. Uncle Sam hoped Roy Lincoln and Darrel Dane might be able to repair it.
Reporters from the local newspaper and TV news had begun to congregate at the Armour Chemical Company close to the field facing Valley Ridge, and when they asked the glowing figure what his name was, the man could only respond, "Unknown."
And the Unknown is what the glowing man would be called from that day forward. The Unknown had no memory from before the moment he began to exist in that Valley Ridge cavern, and knew only enough to answer simple questions. He did not respond to the name Bob Reed, or Robby as his wife sometimes called him, and recalled neither Susan Shoemaker Reed nor their children, Christopher and Victoria. Uncle Sam thought it best that she was told only that her husband was still missing, as it was deemed he was too dangerous and unpredictable to leave at his own home while still an amnesiac.
The Unknown didn't even know the full extent of his powers, and had only operated on instinct with the light trick. When asked to perform the same feats, he responded that he didn't know how. In fact, the Unknown was a complete blank in every way, but appeared to possess the potential for many other super-powers that could be activated as needed. It was only a sheer coincidence, a sharp-eyed news editor later added, that there was once an unrelated mystery-man called the Unknown who had fought the Nazis in Europe during World War II, and as far as they knew there was no connection to that figure. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See The Unknown, National Comics #23 (June, 1942).]
Uncle Sam and the Allies would have their hands full trying to figure out if the Unknown could ever be restored to his former humanity.
***
In Nazi Germany, Albrecht Krieger presented the captured monster to Doktor Thirteen. "We may not have gained the H-Dial as planned, but we can add this monstrosity to our arsenal against the verdammt Allies," said Krieger, who had used another piece of technology to herd the creature onto a waiting stealth transport nearby, which took them out of the country at top speed. "That idiot Dagan proved useful after all."
Doktor Thirteen nodded and replied, "You've done well, Hauptmann Krieger. I will keep you in mind for future projects. Now go. I would like to examine this creature more thoroughly in my laboratory."
"Ja, Herr Doktor," replied Krieger.
The tentacled monster, which would soon become known as the Horror, recoiled in the underground cell it had been placed in. In the short life since its creation, it had known only pain, anger, and betrayal. But in the dark hours of the night, tears would fall from the dark eyes of the monster as unbidden memories of a loving wife and two beautiful children bubbled to the top of its jumbled mind.
"Any ideas on what might be in there?" asked a frowning Uncle Sam, one hand on a hip as his other scratched his head under his flag-colored top hat.
"I haff no idea, my American friend," replied Dmitri. "I--"
BLAM!
A trained soldier, Dmitri ducked as he heard the shot from behind him, which had put a hole in his pilot's hat. Already his own pistol in hand, he swung around and took a shot at an obviously wounded blond man dressed in a disheveled dark business suit.
Nazi agent Albrecht Krieger had come to when the Blackhawk jet passed by and had taken cover until he could get a shot off at the Russian flyer. Unfortunately, he'd missed and would likely never get as easy a shot again.
The huge Russian, built like a bear, began running toward the Nazi, but when Krieger was about to take a shot point-blank at the Blackhawk, a red-white-and-blue figure leaped in front of him, and the shot bounced from his invulnerable chest.
"Now, now, son," cautioned the Spirit of America, looking much like his old self again. "No shootin' at our Russian allies while Uncle Sam is around."
A moment later, a huge fist swung around Sam and struck Krieger in the jaw. Already injured from the explosion, the Nazi captain was knocked out immediately.
"I could haff taken him myself, Comrade," complained Dmitri. "Vhatever. Now let's find out vhat's in dis cave!"
But the two heroes had only taken a few steps toward the opening when a horrific mess of tentacles emerged, and a blood-curdling, unearthly scream followed.
"Bozhe moi!" cried Dmitri, stumbling to the ground. "Vhat is that thing?!"
"Whatever it is, it sure ain't friendly," said Uncle Sam, setting his top hat upright and marching forward.
The horrific monster used its tentacles to pull itself out of the cave, and the rest of it could be seen, but for the life of them, neither Uncle Sam nor Dmitri of the Blackhawks knew what to make of it. It didn't resemble any kind of creature known to exist on Earth, having numerous tentacles much like an octopus, along with mean-looking, dark beady eyes and a face full of smaller tentacles. No other recognizable features could be discerned.
Uncle Sam ran toward it and delivered a haymaker that could have flattened an entire platoon of Nazi soldiers, but it barely fazed the monster, who just became angrier. Dmitri emptied a full clip of bullets into it, but it seemed to do nothing but sting the creature, which continued to stalk forward.
Suddenly, two huge, ropy tentacles shot forward and grabbed each of the men, wrapping around them in a tight grip. Dmitri was rendered helpless almost immediately, while Sam used all his strength but was still unable to disentangle himself. The horrible creature uttered another unearthly scream, and lifted the two men into the air.
Then an explosive blast could be heard, and the creature nearly toppled forward. Sam and Dmitri were immediately released as the creature turned to face its attacker, who shot at it again and again.
While Dmitri was heaving his guts out a few feet away, Uncle Sam picked up his fallen hat and looked up to see a tall, thin man glowing like a yellow candle. With one arm raised, this strange-looking figure shot blast after blast of light at the creature, who tried but failed to wrap its tentacles around him. The yellow figure just seemed to be glowing with incandescent light and heat, glaring at the monster with pupil-less white eyes.
"Who is that?" said Dmitri, who'd begun to feel like he was just a supporting character in someone else's story.
"Whoever he is, he's on our side," said Uncle Sam. "Or leastwise he's not on the side o' that horror!"
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Three shots rang out again, as Hauptmann Albrecht Krieger fired at the glowing figure. Although the bullets didn't seem to drop the shining man, melting before they struck his skin, were apparently painful enough to stop him from firing at the creature. Instead, he started to shoot blasts back at the Nazi.
Dmitri realized with chagrin that he'd been too distracted by the monster that he'd forgotten to disarm the Nazi agent he'd knocked out. "Hokey smokes, this guy again!"
Uncle Sam leapt forward to try to knock the creature out with another powerful haymaker, but one massive tentacle instead backhanded him, knocking him over fifty feet in the air to land painfully against a pile of rocks. By the time Sam made his way back, he found Dmitri nursing a wound after being shot in the arm, while the glowing figure was shooting into the deep shadows of Valley Ridge. The monster was gone, along with the Nazi agent.
Although Dmitri took to the air to search for the huge monster, and Uncle Sam searched on foot, no traces could be found of either the monster or the Nazi. However, the mysterious glowing man had remained behind, and the H-Dial was discovered within the cavern. Unfortunately, its dial mechanism had seized up because of the damage to its delicate machinery, and it was no longer able to rotate. Whatever power it once may have had no longer appeared to work. Uncle Sam hoped Roy Lincoln and Darrel Dane might be able to repair it.
Reporters from the local newspaper and TV news had begun to congregate at the Armour Chemical Company close to the field facing Valley Ridge, and when they asked the glowing figure what his name was, the man could only respond, "Unknown."
And the Unknown is what the glowing man would be called from that day forward. The Unknown had no memory from before the moment he began to exist in that Valley Ridge cavern, and knew only enough to answer simple questions. He did not respond to the name Bob Reed, or Robby as his wife sometimes called him, and recalled neither Susan Shoemaker Reed nor their children, Christopher and Victoria. Uncle Sam thought it best that she was told only that her husband was still missing, as it was deemed he was too dangerous and unpredictable to leave at his own home while still an amnesiac.
The Unknown didn't even know the full extent of his powers, and had only operated on instinct with the light trick. When asked to perform the same feats, he responded that he didn't know how. In fact, the Unknown was a complete blank in every way, but appeared to possess the potential for many other super-powers that could be activated as needed. It was only a sheer coincidence, a sharp-eyed news editor later added, that there was once an unrelated mystery-man called the Unknown who had fought the Nazis in Europe during World War II, and as far as they knew there was no connection to that figure. (*)
[(*) Editor's note: See The Unknown, National Comics #23 (June, 1942).]
Uncle Sam and the Allies would have their hands full trying to figure out if the Unknown could ever be restored to his former humanity.
***
In Nazi Germany, Albrecht Krieger presented the captured monster to Doktor Thirteen. "We may not have gained the H-Dial as planned, but we can add this monstrosity to our arsenal against the verdammt Allies," said Krieger, who had used another piece of technology to herd the creature onto a waiting stealth transport nearby, which took them out of the country at top speed. "That idiot Dagan proved useful after all."
Doktor Thirteen nodded and replied, "You've done well, Hauptmann Krieger. I will keep you in mind for future projects. Now go. I would like to examine this creature more thoroughly in my laboratory."
"Ja, Herr Doktor," replied Krieger.
The tentacled monster, which would soon become known as the Horror, recoiled in the underground cell it had been placed in. In the short life since its creation, it had known only pain, anger, and betrayal. But in the dark hours of the night, tears would fall from the dark eyes of the monster as unbidden memories of a loving wife and two beautiful children bubbled to the top of its jumbled mind.