Endgame, Chapter One

"We should have done this months ago."

Walkiria completed her sentence by knocking the red and black clad woman on her ass, shattering her goggles in the process. Half a dozen of Genocide's augmented soldiers lay unconscious at her feet and she hadn't even broken a sweat. Her Russian lover was finishing off her own opponent with equal ease only a few feet away. As her swastika-emblazoned foe slumped to the ground in a crumpled heap, the Soviet Superwoman turned to meet Maia' gaze.

"Because we were too busy battling demons and the zombies and before that it was Ultrawoman." Olga answered in her thick Russian accent.

Maia shrugged. "These bitches are lucky I decided to pull my punches. I don't get it? Why would anyone want to devote their lives to a one-testicle, failed artist who blew his brains out when his world crashed down around him. Thousand year Reich huh? More like twelve."

Olga looked at the women scattered around at their feet, arching an eyebrow. "In my reality he did not commit suicide. I had to drag him out kicking and screaming after he tried to kill me with the Spear of Destiny."

Maia placed her hands on her hips and stifled a chuckle. "Well my question still stands."

"I do not think these girls worship Hitler; they worship her. They wear her symbol."

Walkiria took a few steps around the unconscious soldiers of the Fourth Reich. In the last few days she and Olga had managed to bring down four separate cells of the organization, with over one-hundred arrests on various charges, and millions of dollars in weapons and technology confiscated. No top ranking agents had been brought to justice yet, a few lieutenants mostly, but the organization itself was hemorrhaging. Det. Angie and the AFPD had been working these girls over day and night and were closing in on at least two other major cells. They had learned a great deal about the organization, but only one question mattered to Maia and Olga: where was Genocide. If they could bring her down, the Fourth Reich would lose it's spiritual leader, it's brains and it's biggest physical threat. Without her, the group would cease to exist. None of the soldiers they had brought in seemed to know and those that might have an idea never said. It was obvious they either worshiped her, or were deathly afraid of her. Maia exhaled and folded her arms across her chest.

"She takes these girls in off the streets, mostly homeless and runaways, and genetically enhances them to be beautiful, blonde and physically powerful. Trains them in combat, like a terrorist organization and all they have to do is wear that uniform and pledge loyalty to her. It's gonna be tough to get one to roll over after all that gifting and brainwashing. I'd hate to think what she was like with the entire German nation behind her."

Olga listened and bit her lip, thinking back on her time during the war. She was looking at the ground. "Ilsa Hauppman is and always will be a monster. At the woman's camp at Auschwitz, Budy, she was sent to conduct her foul experiments in 'Aryan purity'. The story goes that she caught several of the prisoners smoking near the camp hospital. She told them to stay there and returned with a fire axe minutes later, butchering them in front of the other guards and inmates."

Maia looked away. "Son of a bitch..."

Soviet Superwoman looked up, tears at the corners of her eyes. "Can I tell you something Возлюбленный?"

"Of course Honey, what is it?"

"Ilsa Hauppman frightens me. Nothing has ever made me feel fear like her before. Not Ultrawoman, not the war...the only thing that has come close was when those fool assassins stabbed you in front of me. Her heart is black Maia. She has no compassion, no mercy, no pity. She is evil in the purest sense I have ever known...if evil could be given a physical form, more than any of those demons you and I fought. She would burn the entire world down around her without a second thinking."

Walkiria walked over to her lover and put one hand on her shoulder, the other powerful hand gently lifted her chin, so she could look her in the eyes. Olga's eyes were full of a mixture of fear and rage. They flashed with an intensity Maia had never seen before, even as tears rolled down her smooth cheeks. "What did she do to you Olga?"

Olga met her gaze and steeled herself, narrowing her eyes. Her voice quivered. "She shot the only other woman I had ever truly loved in the back and let her die in the filthy street."

Maia looked deep in her eyes for a long moment, swallowing hard. Her mouth was dry and her own voice became a whisper. "Oh Honey, I'm so sorry...I had known you were holding something back, but I didn't have any idea..."

The strong Russian rested her head on Maia's shoulder as the red-haired woman wiped away her tears. "Her name was Claire and I should have been there...I loved her so much..."

"Shhhhh. It's alright Olga. We can talk about it later, when we aren't surrounded by disconscious, bludgeoned flunkies with the police on the way." She tried making her lover chuckle but Olga was clutching her tightly and obviously too upset to notice her attempt at lightening the mood. Maia ran her hand through her partner's short, black hair.

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Late that evening Maia was still up and pacing in her communication room. Olga had long since gone to sleep, but not before finally telling her lover everything about Claire. It was all raw emotions that the poor girl had bottled up for years. Maia had listened (keeping her friend's drinking to a minimum) and made sure she was fast asleep before heading here. The disembodied head of O.D.I.N., her mysterious benefactor’s Artificial Intelligence program came online.

"Whatcha got for me O.D.I.N.?"

"Well I ran several computations with the data you provided me with. This Genocide is most certainly has her lair somewhere in the older section of the city, 99% probability it's the old abandoned subway system that used to run through there. I could not find any unusual power-spikes on the grid, so either she is off the grid or she is being extremely careful about being detected through power consumption." The A.I. responded. Maia nodded in agreement.

"That's a great deal of ground to cover though...miles of it in fact." Walkiria rubbed her chin, thinking about how long it would take to cover all that much area.

"True," the computer spoke back. "So I took the liberty of making a guess, as you say, given the information you've provided me with about this Ilsa Hauppman. I checked into the restricted archives of the German military for that time, 1939-1945. No listing for a Major Ilsa Hauppman, or anyone with that name, so I couldn't use any biographical information for this dimension to compare it to. As such I can only give you an 83% likelihood that I am correct."

Maia chuckled. "I'll take your best guess then O.D.I.N.."

"Alright. With what you've told me about her being involved in the Thule Society and having strong beliefs in Aryan legend and mythology, I cross referenced that section of the city with any possible supernatural significance and this is the what I came up with. These are a set of coordinates that correspond with the intersect of several 'ley-lines' underneath the city. Ley-lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical interest that are thought by certain adherents to have spiritual power. Now sadly, there is no section of the old subway system that was built there, but it is close enough where one could have had something constructed easily. If this woman is as much an expert on the occult as Ms. Yezhov claims she is, it may be that she would choose a location such as that for her seat of power."

Walkiria thought for a long moment, looking at the coordinates that had appeared onscreen before nodding in agreement.

"Thanks O.D.I.N.. It looks like it may be time for me to pay this bitch a personal visit."

To be continued...
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A massive thanks goes out to my good friend for this wonderful commission! it came out better than I had envisioned! He's also the creator of Det. Angie who is mentioned briefly above.

Another gigantic thanks to my partner in crime, for letting me write about her character Walkiria (and include O.D.I.N. this time as well).

Soviet Superwoman and the writing are mine, mine, mine!

This takes place in